Dental A Team with Kiera Dent
This isn’t just another podcast for dentists, it’s your playbook for building a practice that THRIVES rather than just survives! If you’re ready to scale, streamline, or simply want to lead like a CEO, this podcast is here to support you. You’ll gain real strategies to increase case acceptance, optimize your schedule, build systems that stick, and empower a team that takes true ownership. Each episode is packed with the same tools and insights we use inside thriving practices across the country, because success shouldn’t mean being stuck in ops forever. Whether you want to boost profitability, reduce chaos, or confidently step into your next level of leadership, this podcast is your next move. New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
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The Guiding Principle of a Successful Practice Is _________
09/23/2025
The Guiding Principle of a Successful Practice Is _________
Kiera shares with listeners how to run quarterly meetings to get clarity, alignment, and accountability. She touches on the creation of 90-day plans, creating a definition of done, and why instilling a traction cadence is so helpful and practical. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the podcast today. I hope you're having an amazing day. I hope today's a great day for you. And today we're going to dig into quarterly meetings, ⁓ traction style. So this is based on the framework by Gina Wickman in traction. I've talked about them before. I used to talk about them a lot more and I feel like it's been a hot minute since we brought this up. There's tons of episodes on quarterly meetings. Quarterly meetings are one of my favorite things in the annual planning. and how to do this because practices who run like this, who operate like this, they truly do so great. Like honest to goodness, so great. And I'm so excited for you to learn how to do these quarterly meetings. ⁓ To me, they're like the guiding principles of a freaking successful practice. So I hope you're excited about it. ⁓ A lot of practices skip these or they run them very loosely. And I want to help you learn how to run these. very effectively, very efficiently, what they should look like, what you can have. I've been running these for, gosh, I don't know, seven years plus. I've learned a lot through the ways. I have somebody who helps coach our meetings, because I used to self-implement myself, and it's been so beneficial to have somebody help and how much my perspective has changed by having somebody help run them who knows how to do them so well. I love doing this. Yes, we've been trained by traction. We are not traction ourselves. We do portions of it, but we do Dental A Team's version of it. ⁓ And what I've heard from offices that work with us on them ⁓ is they love that we have the dental background too. So we're able to help solve a lot of their issues, a lot of their problems, but to give the clarity, to give the confidence in these. So I'm excited. We're going to kind of go through how to run a quarterly meeting to get clarity, alignment, and accountability. And that's what it's ultimately for. And two, I feel like give simplicity too. Because once you know like what you're supposed to work on for the quarter, ⁓ Everybody's now aligned, everybody's rowing together. So for that, ⁓ I just want you guys to, I'll kind of walk you through a whole journey of how to do this. So number one, I want you just to go back on last quarter and how did last quarter go for you? What worked, what didn't work, what got done? I think right now you don't even know what happened. Well, it might be time for you to start looking into adding quarterly meetings to your plate. If you do know, rock on, how did you know that? Does your whole team know how you did? Does the whole leadership team behind it? And then what is like, what are you working on this quarter? Do you know, is there a focus? Is there a plan? ⁓ And so what we're supposed to do is, and I do this with lots of offices and honestly, offices that get this, the leadership team gets more ⁓ honest conversations, more accountability, more peer to peer accountability, more ownership, and the whole organization goes. So the way I break it down is your annual goal is like a mountain. So it's this huge mountain that we're trying to climb and each quarter are the big boulders. to build up that mountain, so the rocks, and then we have little pebbles and to-dos of the day in, day out. And so every quarter we need to dedicate a full day, yes, a full day, where we actually break away, the leadership team does, and then the leadership team builds what they feel the next quarter needs to be, and then they take it and break it down per departments. So that's kind of like my favorite way to do this. So what we do is we have our mountain, our annual goals, where we're going, we know where we're headed, and then from there we're gonna break it down and build those smaller rocks. When we're going into a quarterly, we look at where we are based on where we want to be for the year. How did last quarter go? What were the wins? What were the losses? We started having people grade the quarter in the leadership team and that's been real fun. And that's just to see if everybody's aligned. So how do we do on an ABCD? Did we accomplish the things that we set out to do? Are we on track for the year of where we wanted to be? What are we seeing from all that? And what lessons did we learn that we should either do again or not do? I think that's so paramount when I'm going into leadership departments and working on them with these quarterlies is to see like, what did we do really well and what did we not do and what should we do again and what should we not do again? And when you break it down like that, it's so incredible. And then you go into building your next 90 day plan, if you will, is what these quarterly meetings are. What are the most important three to five things that have to get that in this next quarter that are going to take us three months that are big boulders to help us reach the top mountain point that we've all agreed to is where we want to get to by the end of this year. So if our goal this year is to produce 3 million. We've to break that down by quarters. We've got to have projections. Obviously, not every quarter is going to be the same based on the ups and downs within a practice. That's something very common. ⁓ Usually, December is not as high. September is not as high. So let's make sure that we're on track for that. Then we're looking at our overhead. We're looking at big initiatives. So maybe it's an operations manual. Maybe it's hiring an associate. Maybe it's getting all of our assistance CPR certified. Maybe it's getting all of our assistance to where they can do oral surgery, whatever it is, there's big initiatives. Maybe we need to bring billing in house. Maybe we need to outsource billing. Maybe we need to figure out medical billing. Those are big initiatives that are going to move an organization forward exponentially, depending upon your practices needs. So then we break it down. And what I love to do is when we build these 90 day plans, not just have people like what I used to do, and this is something I've learned that I think can really help you out a quarterly is I don't just set up a like, we need to get an operations manual done in 90 days. No, no, no, no. What is, and this comes from the book Come Up for Air, what is the definition of done? So that means that every department needs to have a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly skeleton. We need to have 20 protocols done per person for all the different departments. That's what the definition of done of getting this operations manual done in 90 days looks like. What does onboarding an associate look like or onboarding a front office team member? It means that they know our company core values, they know our company mission, and that they're able to independently do X, and Z. Well, what's awesome is when we have a definition of done, now everybody knows what that goal is. Is that realistic to get done in 90 days and what the focus is? Now, when I started working with teams and depending upon the size of it, a lot of times rocks are individual and they're individual department focused. But as organizations get larger and larger, sometimes we do what's called like a rallying cry or like a centralized focus. So maybe it's that this whole quarter, the focus is getting everybody up on par for operations manual. And that's what we're all gonna focus on. If we just got that thing done amongst all departments, the whole organization would move faster. So there's no right or wrong way to do it. I've just found that depending upon the size of the organization and where they're located and what they're focused on, sometimes that whole collective initiative is the right thing to do. Other times the departments need individual focuses. So once we get those rocks or these big boulders with a 90 day plan with a definition of done, who's doing what, is this realistic? Do we have the capacity to do it? Then from there you move into like solving issues and resolving. And if you set really, really good rocks and quarterly 90 day plans, what I found is a lot of times the issues actually break apart and there's not as many issues and we solve a lot of the issues because they're fixed in our 90 day plan. And it's so incredible. And so like really having solid, solid ways to solve issues. to set this up and then we work through the issues. That's one thing I love about being a consultant running these is because we have so many resources. So it's like, oh, we're struggling with scheduling. Great. We have scheduling templates. We're struggling with hiring this person. Great. We already have that. We're struggling with this 30, 90, this 30, 60, 90 onboarding. Great. We already have that for you. We're scheduling with hygiene capacity. Great. We have solutions for that. So helping offices then learn how to solve issues independently is also really beautiful. what the process is for that and how can we do this in different ways that we can make this even better for the offices is something so good. So when you walk out of your quarterly 90 day plan, you should have one, how did we do last quarter? Two, where are we at for the entire year? What does that look like? Are we on track? Are we off track? And if we're off track, do we have a plan to get back on track with our 90 day plan? what every person and every department is doing for these next 90 days and their specific, measurable, attainable, realistic with a timeframe with a definition of done on all of them. And they're truly the most important things. We've solved issues, we have massive clarity and all of us agree to have healthy debates. And then what we do is we track it every single week. So it becomes so clearing, so clarifying, and especially for practices that are, I think more obsessive with. ⁓ trying to get so many things done, what this forces you to do is to prioritize, to focus. Now, owners, lot of times, like myself included, I have so many great ideas. And I always think like, this is so great and I want to do X, Y, Z and all these different things. Well, what I found is that actually is really hard for my team to ever feel like they're making progress, they're making traction, there's nothing for them to really do. And so with the quarterly plan, all my great ideas get like pinned for next time because the 90 day plans rolled out. Now, sometimes things happen. Like we might lose a team member unexpectedly. We might have other things that come up. But if I do this really, really well and my quarterly plan is really set up right, then we shouldn't stray even when things happen. And the goal is that 80 % of your boulders or your 90 day plans are accomplished every single quarter. And your office manager, your regional is responsible and accountable for making sure those like get across the goal line. And so I love working with offices on this. love setting up. It takes eight hours. So you start out, you start out with some fun like trust building or leadership growth things are how you start. We review the quarter. We look to see how that goes for everybody. We give it a rating of how we did it. Then after that, we go through our vision of where the company is going, our core values. Are those all in alignment? We check to see if our team's all in alignment. Do we have any people we need to? ⁓ rise up or rise out. We review that. We look to make sure our accountability or org chart is correct and that we've got right players, things are clear for all of it. So to me, it's just a good like housekeeping every single quarter. Then we build our 90 day plan. We overcome obstacles, we solve issues, and then we go to work that next quarter and we check it every single week. And saying that seems so simple. And that's actually why I love traction. That's why I love this model. It's why I love ⁓ the cadence of it. But what's really amazing is if you pair it with Patrick Lanzioni's five dysfunctions of a team and you really start working on that trust and vulnerability and then healthy debate. But what's really amazing is when you build the clarity with the quarterly, with the plan, ⁓ and you're working on those healthy debates, the peer-to-peer, the ownership, that's when you really start to win. That's when you start to win as an organization. That's when you start to build trust amongst your leaders. That's when you start to make sure that you're really focused on where you wanna go. And so I'm just so obsessive about it. This is what people do in large organizations and... When I go to conferences and I talk to really brilliant businesses, they're all running on this. And so I'm like, if this is what the best of the best are doing, and I do think it's the easiest, the most consistent, the easiest to follow. But when I said at the beginning, I used to self-implement and I used to run these meetings and having somebody come in and run them, who's not me, has allowed me to sit in the owner seat, to sit in the CEO seat where I don't have to sit here and think about running it. But I can actually sit back and I can look and watch my leadership team evolve. I can watch the different pieces. I can ⁓ really truly observe. can think I'm not having to sit here and make sure we're putting things together and I'm pushing my own initiatives. But I have somebody who's there that can see my team from a perspective I can't see them from. And it's such an amazing experience. And so I just strongly recommend if you haven't done it, start, start implementing it. If you need help, reach out [email protected]. We do this for so many offices and it's something just really magical to be able to help you get the clarity and offices that have implemented have told me like, we just feel alignment. We feel traction. We feel clarity. ⁓ Quarters are not as hard. It's easier to hit goals and expectations. All of that becomes easier. And so I just encourage you to try it, to commit to putting it into place. And this is something where if we can help you guys set it up and to run in for you. something that we do. So reach out hello at thedeadlyteam.com but truly, this is something that I think you, your organization and every team member deserves. And then you go break it down in departments and we make sure that it's clear, it's tracked, it's measured, and it's focused. And you're actually able to like move the company forward so much. So all those big to do projects that you've always wanted to get done, this is how you get them done. So don't hesitate. Don't wait. Be sure to commit to your practice. Start with the quarterlies. This is how to like a quick overview of how to run them. There's more in depth. You can reach out, ask questions, but truly you, your practice and your whole leadership team and your whole team deserve to have this. Now, if your team's small, that's okay. You can actually start with your whole team. We can get alignment that way. If your team's larger, you can move it into leadership meetings. So there's a certain spot where I actually move it that's recommended, but other times a lot of it is actually like open to the whole team and there's strategy in both ways to do it. So reach out. [email protected]. Commit to running amazing quarterlies and just get it done guys. That's what this is about. Thank you guys for listening and as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team podcast.
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Reduce Stress, Lead With More Confidence & Stop Micromanaging
09/18/2025
Reduce Stress, Lead With More Confidence & Stop Micromanaging
It’s book club time! Kiera talks about by Mel Robbins and how the method can propel leaders into the best versions of themselves. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is book club time. It's been a hot minute since we've done a book club and there's a book club that I feel like is just a really good one. It's a popular book right now. If you've read it, great. If you haven't, well, welcome. I'm excited to share with you and it's from Mel Robbins and it's the Let Them Theory. I was very fascinated by this. I'm still fascinated by it and I think it's something of like when Mel Robbins said that you do not need to control everything. and that peace might come from letting go, not holding tighter. I thought, hmm, I might know a couple of dentists, CEOs, business owners, AKA myself, which means that there's probably several of you that might be struggling with some of these pieces. So whether you wanna read the book or not, just giving some highlights of how you can truly reduce your stress, lead with more confidence and stop micromanaging team and patient behavior, like that might be something worthwhile today. So I wanted to just. Bring that on today, share with you some quick tips and tricks on how you can even apply this principle in your practice that I've been seeing. As always, Dental A Team is here to grow leaders that are not just successful, but truly like having sanity and happiness in life. ⁓ Today, our podcast is going to be giving you tactical practical tips. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. I am not. Shy to admit that I think Dental A Team is probably one of the top-notch consulting companies out there where we don't just understand you But we are you that we don't just sit here and tell you doctors what to do But we actually actively work with your team to help them We have grown practices 10 20 30 percent within their first 90 days of working with us. We've added multiple millions We've added hundreds of thousands to offices and we've done it with ease simplicity fun teams actually love to work with us they enjoy working with us and that's something I'm really really proud of as a company of We don't just come in and like dictate to your team and force them to become robots. We literally help them, ⁓ give them some tools and then elevate them to be their best selves. And doctors, we teach you how to be successful owners for your path, for what makes you happy. And we do it in such an easy way. People are always shocked at the gains and the growth that we're able to do in such an easy, non-confrontational, non-stressful way. So that's what we're about. And I'm super, super excited about the let them theory. ⁓ Because the let them theory I think works so well for leaders. So anybody listening today this is really is leaders and I remember in the book she talks about how like She just has to let them like let people be who they are and it's actually helped me with my family So today I don't think it's necessary just solely for your practice But also pieces for you within your personal life and that's something Dental A Team were really big on is growing you as a person not just as a practice I just got a a voice memo from a doctor I worked with a couple of years ago. And this doctor said to me, they said, Kiera, ⁓ the year working with you was actually one of the most impactful years in all of my dentistry career. ⁓ This doctor is doing incredible things. And the doctor told me like just the mindset shifts that we were able to help them have ⁓ of helping them become more efficient of, they said, you pushed me to do certain things like hire an assistant and to Be accountable to you. And this doctor was really, really, really, really brilliant doctor. And to hear that compliment that ⁓ their time working with us was something that was the most impactful in their growth of their business. I just took as such a huge compliment to what we do because we're not just shaping you as a business owner, we're shaping you as a human. My background is marriage and family therapy. My passion is dentistry and my love of all things is life. Dentistry just happens to be the platform that I get to talk about it on. And so for this within the let them theory, it's let people be who they are. Truly we can't control other people's actions, but we can control how we are responding. And I know that sounds so simple, but ⁓ in there, like if we let team members show up late, it tells you who they're going to be. We let a patient cancel last minute. It's information for better boundaries in the future. Letting an OCA ignore feedback, it reveals growth readiness. And so like for that, I'm not here for you just to like... allow people to walk all over you. do believe that there is a standard within a practice that you should maintain and that is perfectly acceptable. However, you can allow people to be who they want to be and that doesn't mean that they need to be on your ship. It's allow them to have the opportunities outside of your location that are perfect for them, but you don't need to try to control every person's actions. ⁓ With my mom, my mom and I view the world so differently and when I read this book, I realized what my mom wants. Now she's not an employee. Employees for me, there is a code of conduct and there is a way that we show up. That's the standard of Dental A Team. And if you choose an elect not to be there, rock on, we're going to coach you through it. And then we're going to coach you out of it. Like it's one or the other where they're going to coach up or coach out. Both are amazing because I want you ultimately in your dream space. ⁓ and there is a, there is a code of conduct that Dental A Team will operate by. And so with that, with my mom, I realized in my personal life, my mom just wants to be loved for who she is. She doesn't want to be coached. She doesn't want to be corrected. She just wants to be loved for who she is. And so for me to let my mom do things that make me absolutely crazy, there actually is this whole relief. And when you realize like, can allow team members to be who they want to be in, that just means that there's isn't a place for them. Like that's okay. I can allow patients who don't want to follow our processes, like allow them to find another practice and to have that. Now there's ways that we can coach them through this. There's ways that we can do this. But I've had practices when they finally decide to stop having patients just show up, cancel last minute, and they're like, no more, this is how it's going to be. Here's the rules of the game. And patients who do like not to, they get to leave the practice. Their production actually exponentially increases. Their patients exponentially become better patients. Like all of it rises up. The ones who decide that they're going to allow team members to be who they are, this is how we're going to operate. And if you choose not to, that's okay. Their practices actually start to thrive. And so The question is, who are you trying to force right now to change? And what if you let them and focus on our... The word boundaries is so obnoxious to me, because I feel like people put boundaries up of like, this is what I will or won't do, which is great. And for me, it's more like, what are the standards? What are the standard processes? What's the culture of our company or our patient base? That's I'm going to enforce. That's what we're going to focus on instead. And then I'm going to allow people to be who they are. And I'm going to attract the people that I want in here. Like what would be, who am I trying to force to change right now? And what if I let them and just change my focus to the standards and the processes in our company? Question number one. Okay, number two, stop micromanaging and start leading. So micromanagement's rooted in fear, not in leadership. And so what they did is they said like, let them miss the mark once, they'll learn faster. Let your office manager handle the upset patient, it builds ownership. Let your hygienist structure their day ⁓ that's within, again, the parameters of our company culture. That way they'll be happier. so like ⁓ micromanaging, do feel there needs to be a foundation first in place. And then once we have that, we don't have to micromanage everything. And for me, something I found, there's the founder's theory too, and something I've been learning is as a founder, as someone who started a business, you tend to hold onto so many things because you've had to. Like you've been in the day to day. And so being able to let people and stop being obsessed with every single detail because we've got the foundations in place. Now, if you don't have the foundations in place, it becomes a lot harder and a lot scarier. But if you have those things in place, what we can do is we actually see a team rise up and what we're telling our team is they're empowered. Like here's the rules of the game within our practice. Now go create our consultants. Here's how we consult. I want you to go be the most autonomous humans and I want you to figure out how to help these practices. And it's crazy because the consultants rise up, they take ownership, they love to be able to do that. anything within your team being able to see that as well is really something beautiful for them. looking at the call to action on this would be look at your life, look at your practice and where are you holding on so tight? And let's figure out what protocols or processes need to be put into place so our company standards and expectations can be met. And then can we put into practice the let them this week and observe what shifts. Two questions for you to consider. And don't worry for those type A's who are just like gritting. They're like knuckles right now. Don't worry, that's me too. So I'm not here to say that I'm perfect at this. I just think it's a good perspective shift to help us have more space, more happiness, more peace, and also to figure out where we can like set up the parameters within our company. Number three is let go to grow. ⁓ And so when we hold on tight, just like I talking about, like the white knuckling. Like even my body, there's stress, there's resistance, there's burnout. Like this is what causes it, because we're trying to hold all the balls in the air. We're trying to do all the pieces and literary practice will outgrow you. ⁓ I watched it happen time and time and time again, and doctors will either learn to let them and like build the processes, build the structure, allow the team members to grow, or they're going to hold on and they're going to shrink. It's one of the two and it happens every single time. There's no right path. It's your path. ⁓ But like let your leadership team run the meetings. Let your team opt in and out of culture. Don't force it. If they choose not to rock on, they can go find another dream job. That's okay. Let other opinions be theirs. It doesn't define our worth. Like what can we allow like letting go of that? So when we, ⁓ when we stop obsessing about this, like, for example, we stopped trying to hold onto a toxic team member. watched this constantly in offices where it's like, no, I have to keep them and I need to have them like, let them not be great and let them leave because they're not fitting the culture. And what's crazy is like even that, like my whole body releases, like let them. And I know we're so afraid of like, yeah, but then I won't have team members. Or could it be like, yes, and I've created space for the ideal team member. I will tell you when I have done this every single time. There's not been a single time when I've been like, and we release it, we let them. Someone just as good, if not better has shown up every single time. And so looking at this of... Where are you maybe holding on too tight that you could allow team members to rise up that you could allow them to take ownership that you could allow them to start to put into place the things you've done. And what's wild is like, tell doctors all the time, like you have to go on vacation. Like that's it. That's a necessity to see where are things broken in your practice? Where do things need to shift and change? ⁓ where can you let your team rise? And if they choose not to rise, that's okay. You know, you don't have the right leaders in place. Like all of it's just data back for you. There's nothing wrong. There's nothing broken. There's nothing that you need to be mad about. It's just truly data and information to help you then set better foundations, put better protocols into place and to hire team members that more align. ⁓ You will outgrow your team and your team will outgrow you or you will grow together. It'll be one of those three things. And so looking at that and all of that's okay. So I think for this, as we look at it of let people be who they are and stop micromanaging and release what's weighing us down. This isn't a passive theory. It's very powerful. Letting go is leadership. Letting go is ⁓ truly putting the parameters in place and allowing team members to grow and to thrive within. And again, me coming on here, I feel a little like imposter syndrome because I don't feel like I am always here. I feel like I'm holding on so many times and I'm having the control. But when I like, I make lists, you guys, I feel like a crazy person. Like it's a beautiful mind. That's my office. I have... papers everywhere and I'm looking at different things. And when I look at what causes me the most amount of stress, it's because I'm trying to do it all. And I'm trying to hold on to everything rather than saying, okay, what's the protocol I need in place? What are the things that truly I need to care for? And as a founder, again, I think that this is, this is a stripping of identity. It's a stripping of things you've always done, but it's also freeing and it's also creating and it's also allowing you to flourish versus just survive. And so for this, ⁓ think like, Let it looking to see where can I let go and where should I let go? What parameters do I need to put in place? And how can I allow my team to flourish and thrive? I promise you autonomous people and great team members want you to let go. They want to know the rules of the game. They want to know how can I excel? And then once I know the rules of the game, let me like get out of my way and let me show you, let me do more than you ever imagined I could do. ⁓ let me, let me blow your mind with the ideas that I have. Those are great team members. That's what we want all of our team to be. And so I think for this of possibly, if you haven't read the book, go read the book. If you've read it, maybe read it again and look at yourself to see where am I holding on that's holding us back? Where could I let team members or patients be different and maybe create space for people that I want that have a different code of conduct, not right or wrong, just different. ⁓ And where can I be a stronger leader where I can truly lead and not manage? Leading versus managing, they're two, they feel so interchangeable and they're so separated. And so where can I show up differently? And again, this isn't letting go of standards. This isn't letting go of your standard of excellence. This isn't saying that we're just going to allow chaos because we're just gonna let people be themselves. It's saying, here's the code of conduct. This is what we do. And then we allow people to show up as that. rise up or rise out, both are great options. ⁓ And so looking at that. really something powerful on the podcast is not just giving you tactical pieces within your practice, but helping you show up as a better leader because leadership is ultimately going to impact the success of your business. I can always tell if a practices as a consulting client will be successful and it's due to the leader. Truly a hundred percent. Who's on my leadership team? How are their behaviors? What are they willing to do? That is the number one indicator of success in consulting and in your practice. And so for this, I feel it's very relevant that we have to give leadership tips for you, that we have to help you evolve into the next version of leadership that you can be. This is for me, this is for you, this is for all of us. And remembering leadership's not a destination, it's a journey, it's an evolution of soul. Someone once told me having kids will strip you down to the bare ⁓ bones of who you thought you were and ultimately helps evolve you into who you want to be. And I would say, I think business is very much... a similar and different process. ⁓ It strips you down to nothing. It rips away all the things that you thought you were. We build these businesses to create these different cultures and we end up creating very similar cultures and we have to work so hard to become these different versions of ourselves, to show up differently for our teams, to show up differently for ourselves, ⁓ to evolve. The person that you were is not the person that you need to be to take you to where you want to go. I hope you heard that. The person that you need to be is not who you were. to take you to where you want to be. And so you have to evolve, you have to grow. And so I would also say, let you become that person. Let you evolve into a different version. Let you become the person that you were meant to be. Leadership is a growth. This is something that I love helping offices do. This is what our consultants obsess about. So if we can help you in any way, reach out, ⁓ figure out how you can lead with clarity, calm and confidence. See how you can be like that practice I told you about where. your best year of your life or the best year practices lives or the years that you're with Dental A Team because you became a better person. You became a higher version of yourself and we did that for you and your team. That's what we're about. That's what we're obsessed about. And that's what I'd love to help you with. So reach out if that's, if that's what you want, let's chat. [email protected] or click on our website, TheDentalATeam.com and book a call. I'd love to help you. I'd love to evolve who you are meant to be for the practice that you deserve to have. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team podcast.
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Dental CEOs 101
09/17/2025
Dental CEOs 101
Is running a dental practice the most stressful part of your life? Does hiring and retaining the right people seem impossible? Do you question whether dentistry was the right choice for you? Kiera reflects on DAT’s recent CEO Dentist Webinar, including what dental leadership ideally looks like — from an individual and team perspective. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so giddy to be recording this podcast. If you missed it, you missed out. We did our CEO dentist webinar workshop and it was so rad. We did it in August and just kudos to all the doctors that were there. If you missed it, you're in luck. I'm going to give you the highlight reel. But I really hope that you plan to join us. It was a three day, ⁓ full playful out workshop that I just thoroughly loved. had doctors. joining us every single night and really just having that mindset shift of how do I go from being this day in day out operator to a CEO owner of my business? Like what are the things that I really should be doing as a CEO versus what should I be doing as a founder? Like how do we shift that mindset? And we did it based on our proven model, the yes model. You guys have heard me chat about that. The focusing on you and your vision, earnings and profitability, and then systems and team development. So it was just really, really fun. This really was something to help. Honestly, like afterwards, had so many calls with so many people that were there. And it was just joyful because they said, Kiera, I really want to learn how to be the CEO. Like as you talked about it, I finally understood like what my role should look like and how I should be evolving. And so just really fun. So just want to say thanks for our entire team. Thanks to everybody who joined. And for all of you, if you didn't ⁓ get to be there, you missed out. It was like full blown. And I did a little surprise. I wasn't expecting it, but I actually ended up ⁓ like doing an after party and it was really fun to just have real conversations. So ⁓ really, truly just a highlight. And today I'm going to kind of like break this down into what we did. I'll give a couple of highlights from each day of just for you to kind of get the highlight reel of it. And then, Hey, if you ever want to chat about how to become the CEO dentist of your practice, this is what we're doing for a lot of offices. I've kind of been shifting our model to help dentists and teams really elevate to have practices that run with team. leadership to have dentists to truly run in their realm of being that healthcare provider that you love and or exiting and going out of the chair. No, there's no set path. It's your path and really helping dentists ⁓ just elevate to that level of like, do I own this business and not have it own me? So just super jazz. That's what we're working on. Just really, really, really fun and exciting things and getting your team bought into this as well. So with that, I'm just excited. Welcome. If you're new to the podcast, I'm Kiera. It's super nice to meet you. ⁓ I love all things dentistry, including my last name is Dent. ⁓ I came from self-made, ⁓ being able to help practices grow to the level, the growth, the fulfillment, the joy that they want, helping doctors and teams align. And this is coming from real life, all of my experiences, all of our collective experience of our consulting team, bringing you tactical practical tips to make your life and your business work for you and not against you. So with that, ⁓ was just a jazz. Like it was so fun. So the first day we really talked about, ⁓ just some topics of like who can relate. So if you can relate to this great, this podcast is for you. number one is running a dental practice is the most stressful part of your life. hiring and retaining the right people seems almost impossible. Some months so great. Others feel like you're drowning. Your patients are canceling last minute, leaving your team and you helpless. know how to be a dentist, but you have no clue how to run a business. You're alone with your problems. You question if dentistry was the right choice for you. You feel like everyone has it together, but you don't. ⁓ and I hope if you answered yes to any of those questions, you realize that truly, truly, truly, you're not alone. And every single dentist feels this at some point and some survive and others thrive. And so the whole goal of the CEO Dennis workshop was to help you thrive. And so on the first day we really went through like, what exactly is a CEO? I remember there was this aha moment in my career where I'm like, what does a CEO actually do? I'm not joking, I Googled this and I was like, what is a CEO? Like, what do they do? And it was a good, I would say a good, ⁓ probably identity shift for me. To realize like a CEO is your chief executive officer. So like, this is the person who executes. So you oversee the execution of day to day, but you don't do it all. So your job is to lead the vision, plan for the future. Create and protect the culture and do big opportunities, but stay out of the weeds. Like that's genuinely what you're supposed to do. And a lot of dentists, we'll add one more Asherick. A lot of times you do the dentistry. Sometimes you do it full time and other times you hire associate dentists to do it with you. So like, that's what it means. It means you oversee. You think about a CEO of Amazon, they are not packing the boxes and shipping it out. They are not calling on all the customer service things. They are not creating the bots and the software. Their job is to look over the vision. Their job is to keep people accountable. Their job is to plan for the future, look for the big opportunities, ⁓ really truly protect the culture and stay out of the weeds. So I think when I looked at that, I'm like, how many dentists actually live like this? Probably not a lot. So what we did is we like went through an audit and then we worked on like the key foundation and this might feel a little fluffy and I'm sure some participants might have thought this, but if we don't get the you portion of the yes model correct, we can't say yes to things. The number one, and I purposely built the yes model in the pillars in the exact formula of you first earning second systems third. And if you will follow this model, you really truly can get there. And so what we talked about is how like how you show up as a leader directly impacts the success, the relationships, your financial and personal freedom and the overall happiness and fulfillment you have in your practice. So when I look at this, like, okay, great. You have to take care of you and We talked about like actually how to shift your identity. And so a lot of times people identify themselves today. But if you knew like Tony Robbins said, the strongest force in the human personality is the need to stay consistent with how we define ourselves, not who we actually are, but how we define ourselves. So what we actually had ⁓ everybody doing the workshop on day one was to create this new identity of being the CEO dentist. Like what would the CEO dentist do or not do? ⁓ you're still checking charts at night. What a CEO handle end of day task like that. Yes or no. No one's held accountable. What does CEO allow chaos to become culture? Your team's just clocking in. How would a CEO reignite motivation? You're bleeding cancellations. How would a CEO oversee the systems to prevent that? Your schedule's full, but your profits don't show it. How would a CEO fix that? Cashflow is unpredictable. How would a CEO create stability? You're doing busy work and have no time to look at the big picture. How would a CEO solve it? So just again, it's like when we shift our identity, not from who you are, but to a CEO. So I now am, I'm not Kiera, I'm not dentist Kiera. I am now, you guys, I was never dentist Kiera. I was dental assistant Kiera, I'm consulting Kiera. But for you, like you're dentist John, you go in, you do the fillings, you are this practice owner. But what would CEO John or CEO Kiera or CEO Sarah or CEO Marsha or CEO Tom or CEO Tony or CEO Kevin, what would they do or not do? And when you can shift this identity, you can actually start to see, and you can look at the delegation ladder. And we talked about the delegation ladder of what tasks, because when you're a small business versus when you expand and become a larger business, you actually have different, like it's literally in a tier of what you're going to delegate and when, because as a founder is a new startup, as a CEO, you're doing a lot of the work. You don't have the cashflow. You can't afford it. You're going to do all the work. So at that point, that CEO is doing that. But as the practice builds and evolves, a lot of CEOs stay there and they don't actually evolve into delegating the tasks that they should be. And so when we go through the entire delegation ladder from like administrative tasks, a patient experience, treatment coordinator, and selling cases to marketing, to leadership, these are all the zones of where is your name out on that delegation ladder and where should it be based on the current size of your practice. And then what, even if you're small, what's your next hire? Well, first hires administrative tasks. So it's either a front office team member, it's a personal assistant, or it's an office manager. that's going to immediately delegate all of those front office tasks for you, but they're going to do all of that. And then you move into, you're doing the patient experience, you're doing the closing of the cases, you're doing the marketing, you're doing the leadership, like, but you, you offload that first and then you offload the next and the next and the next. And so really looking at this of like, we, it was really cute. We had this fairy godmother and it's like, you are now the CEO. It's time to be the CEO. And I think for us on day one of people just being highlighted of you now have this new identity. And so looking at it of when I look at this, what's standing in my way of being the CEO? What does my dream business look like? What does that vision timeline look like for me? And what must change now to become the CEO? So as you go through that, that was a quick recap of day one. And then we rolled right into day two, which day two is a lot more tactical. Day one's a bit more of you, you becoming and taking on this new identity. And I will tell you, when I got on calls afterwards, because it was actually real fun. We had a lot of calls, really excited to welcome the new offices to our company and to our group. And they're already shifting and changing. had some people text me after that of saying, I'm now committing to being the CEO dentist. And when you take and embody a new identity, like, because I thought through this and we were brainstorming as we were prepping this webinar or this workshop. And I thought, how am going to get people to recognize that the you portion is the most pivotal pillar of this whole success model? And how do get them to do it quickly? And I realized change identity is the fastest way to change. But like changing identity can feel hard. But if I tell you like, it's like putting on a t-shirt and I say, all right, today you're wearing CEO t-shirt. How are you going to act? Just like I can be Kiera, the executor. I can be Kiera, the consultant. I can be Kiera, the sales. I can be Kiera, the customer service. Those are just t-shirts and hats. But if I'm going to put on my main t-shirt, my main hat, I change my identity and I walk into that office every day. And I'm now the CEO dentist. you will start to act quicker and faster. It's just like the person who wants to get healthy read Atomic Habits. say what they do is they don't ask them to like become healthy. They say, what would a healthy person do? Well, they would walk to their car instead of driving and get the closest parking spot. They would eat snacks like celery sticks for snacks rather than other things. They would have their tennis shoes by the side of their bed. They would go walking every day. you don't, and that's how you'd be able to like, what would a CEO dentist do? What would a CEO dentist not do? That's how you can start to shift this identity and become that. So that was just a quick, like I said, quick recap of day one and then day two is just fun. It's about numbers. ⁓ Numbers are one of my favorite things because you've got to really understand numbers because numbers are your superpower. Not knowing your numbers, believe it or not, causes more stress than knowing them. Even if they're bad, even if they're good, not knowing because you're getting this constant fear of like, are they good? Do we have money? I don't know. It's also helping you make confident decisions. develops the steps of where you need to go. And it also helps you track progress to take action before it's too late. So really numbers to me are the proactive approach in a business rather than the reactive. And it's okay, it does not matter where we start. It always helps us then become more proactive as we're going through. So we went through KPI. So a key performance indicator, which one should you be looking at? What are some common ones? We went through stats and KPI spreadsheets, how we look at these, like what we need to do on the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. So like daily we're looking at month. Today production collections, we only have that 98%. We also want to look at our end of day sheet, making sure we've got all of those procedures built out weekly. We're looking at our KPIs to review during doctor and OM weekly meetings. So looking at trends, creating action items before things get too late, like literally our entire team and our clients, they track stats every single week. Cause we're looking for trends. The offices that do this are always my profitable offices. The offices that don't are the not profitable. Like it is science though, like what you track and measure improves. So track. Monthly, you do your month and number review, like all the KPIs, what were the trends and what are we going to do better next month? Where are we at? I just talked to an office the other day. We realized we're a hundred thousand behind where we want to be for end of year. We have four months left or two months left or one mother, wherever you are. But if you plan and you look ahead. Four months, trying to make up a hundred grand is way easier to do than two months, trying to make up a hundred grand. So when we look at that and you just change the game, you change how we schedule, we change how we're going to do our block schedules. All of it is really easy, but if you don't look at this and you don't measure it. Huh, you're in stress. This is stress. ⁓ We look at our overhead, we look at our PNL, and then quarterly we look at our year to date, where are we at? What are the gaps? We're gonna set reach goals or quarterly goals, and then we track weekly and make sure we're on track for that. So we went through a monthly cost spreadsheet too. This is honestly my most favorite spreadsheet of all time. So legit, I love it, and it's here, and it's something that I have of what is our monthly BAM, our bare ACE minimum? What does it cost us to run the practice? on a high end, low end and where we currently are. So if I've got to scale and add more people, if I need to reduce in times of chaos or hard times, I at least know those numbers and that will give you so much confidence because now you've got a piece of the puzzle to then know what do we need to produce? What do we need to collect? We went through an overhead calculator and what are the benchmarks? What should my payroll be? What should my supplies be? Labs, advertising, all of that. What's my overhead? What's my doctor salary and where can I cut? Because the way to fix your numbers are three things. One, decrease what we're spending. That's one, two, increase production and three, increase collections. If our collections, cause you can be producing and if you're not collecting, guess what your overhead sky high strip, like that's a stressful zone. Just go collect the money. You've already done it. Collect the money. If we're not producing enough to cover our bills, well, we need to increase our production and build block schedules and different pieces like that to make sure what we need to produce for our practice is actually there. And then like looking at our costs, what can we cut? What things could be more efficient in? do we maybe need to delay a hire or do we need to make the hire? whatever it is, but knowing those areas, like that's where math becomes very fun. Numbers become fun. It's just a simple math equation. It's not hard. We're not going into algebra and geometry and calculus and all of that trig. No, it's literally simple, basic math where we can say, okay, this is what I'm making. This is what I'm spending. And this is what we're collecting. Which of those levers do I need to turn? And so showing offices how like collections matter and different pieces like going through an overhead calculator, had actual spreadsheets for KPIs, for a monthly cost spreadsheet, for our overhead calculator. All of that was actually really, really lovely. And then showing offices like we're aiming for you to be 20 % profitable after doctors paid, after all expenses are paid, 20 % profit is what we aim for with our practices. And so when you look at your profit, and if right now you're like, I don't even know profit, hey, let's chat. Let's talk about it because you gotta make the money and keep the money. We're gonna make sure we're not spending more money than we're making. And then we're prepping and preparing and we're working towards that profit margin. having cash flow, having profit at the end of the month will lower your stress radically. So we went through all that. We also had like a whole KPI checklist to have, and it was really fun because when we look at these numbers, this is where the stress stops. And we actually went through like a real life example with the people that were participating with us and they could quickly see, you don't even know this practice. Look at this KPI scorecard. What do you see and what should this practice take immediate action on? Again, a CEO hat, a CEO shirt. That person's going to look at the trends. They're not going to go dig into the weeds. Most of the time, they're going to look at this and say, okay, well, if my production's 160 and my collections are a hundred right now, even you listening on the podcast, you can tell that's my gap. We're producing 160, but we're collecting a hundred now that one succeed because we're putting in our numbers in gross, not net production. That's a problem. Fix that. Maybe our collections are good, but if we're producing that in net and we're only collecting a hundred thousand, that's a huge gap. What do we need to do to fix our collections? Our year to date collection presented 62%. You know right there. And when this office had an overhead of 85%, well, to me looking at that without even knowing this practice, they have a collections problem right there. They increase the collections, their overhead goes down, money instantly becomes available. So many offers like, here, we don't have the money. And I look and I'm like, you got 500,000 in AR, you've got the money. We just need to collect the money. You're producing well, your expenses are in line. Or other times like our expenses are high. Let's reduce that. Let's figure out how we can get it. So giving some...
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Your Collections Will Skyrocket With This Advice
09/16/2025
Your Collections Will Skyrocket With This Advice
Tiff and Dana take a close look at a practice that wanted to get a handle on its growth. They discuss knowing numbers inside and out, forming a growth plan, keeping your team involved in any expansion. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am just so excited. It is Friday today. I don't know what day you're listening to this or what day it will drop, but you know, these are prerecorded. are not live. So that is not a shock to you. This Friday is almost ending. I think we've got a couple hours left under our belts for both of us, but I get to end it with Ms. Dana and I have missed you, Dana. I was on vacation last week and I feel like I barely saw you the week prior. And then this week has been crazy for both of us and I love our time together. think I scheduled this extra time just to chat next week because I miss you so much. So, Dana, you're rocking this outfit today. I told you that this morning on our morning huddle. Yes, we do morning huddles. And this cut you've got on your hair, I've told you already, but I freaking love it. You look stellar today. So welcome to Friday, Dana. How are you? Dana (00:51) Doing good. I'm excited to end, well, almost end my day with you two. I'm excited. I know we probably don't want to get into it on this podcast, but I can't wait to hear about your trip. And, you know, I'll take as much tip time as I can get. So I'm super excited to be here and to be able to chat with you and to maybe help some people too while we're at it. The Dental A Team (01:13) ⁓ thank you. Thank you. know I did. I scheduled our time next week and I was like, that's our catch up time. But I can say I did figure out I know you recently went on a cruise. ⁓ I am not a cruiser. It's not my jam. So I figured that out. But it was a great sampler platter and I fell in love with Italy. So we'll say that and I've got a lot of stories. I literally yesterday I was like, I need to like, type these out or write them in a journal or something because you know, in 10 years, I'm gonna forget half of them and there are just so many stories out of the nine days that I was gone. So I'm excited to chat with you. And we can share our cruise stories, I guess, right? They're wild. Cruises are wild. Cruise people are a little wild. If you're out there listening, like you're a little wild. I don't know about these 11 PM, like bingo nights and stuff. I'm like, guys, it's wild. But here we are. Dana (01:59) Yeah. I left mine feeling like you. not necessarily, I don't think that like I put it at the top of my list. Would I do another one maybe? But I don't think that it's at the top of my preferred methods for traveling. The Dental A Team (02:15) Same, same, same. But you know, Vegas isn't on my top list either. And it kind of felt like Vegas on water. So maybe it's me. I said 10, 15 years ago, you know, in my young years, I would have been all about it, you know, and I would have stayed up all night and gone to Rome the next morning. But at the age that I'm at now, not so much, not so much. I'm tired. My kid puts me to bed every night at like 8.15. He's like, all right, mom, we're part and ways. I'm like, you're right. I'm falling asleep on the couch. Let's go. So. Dana (02:43) you The Dental A Team (02:44) Anyways, anyways today, ⁓ Dana, I'm here to pick your brain. You've had, you've had monster success. think all of our consultants have had a lot of success, but you've had some pretty monster success with a few practices that you've got a load of practices under your belt, ⁓ over the years and currently working with quite a few rock stars and some that have come back around because they miss Dana so much. So, you know, if you're out there and you're missing Dana, you guys, she's still here. We love her and we're keeping her. She's not going anywhere. But you have actually worked with, ⁓ a few of us have worked with clients out of the country too. And you specifically, you've worked with a handful. I think you've probably worked with more than any of us have out of the country. So today's conversation is kind of fun because it is chatting a little bit about somebody who's out of the country, like their successes that they've had. not in the United States, but. for one, kind of notifying everybody out there, especially our Canadian listeners here. We do work with clients in Canada all the time. And Dana is actually a super stellar. She's trained a lot of us on a lot of things she's learned. And we've all been able to really kind of figure out how to manipulate some of our US standards and our ideas and our protocols and really translate them towards Canadian. And I think the biggest pieces in the Canadian world there are the billing. and the way the claims go out and the things that you're able to build and collections processes, things like that. But we've kind of got that down. Dana did a ton of work with this practice in regards to that. So today's actually super fun because it's also really cool to see, I think Dana, I think it's awesome to see that like business is business. I say that all the time, like I don't care what your company is. We've worked with CPAs, we've worked with ⁓ podiatrists, we've had... you know, chiropractors that we've consulted because business is business protocols or protocols. So it's really cool to see that even dentistry outside of the country, so many of the systems and the protocols that we use every single day that I would say some of us take for granted are totally transferable. So today's conversation, I really wanted to dive in and kind of pick your brain, on how this client was able to see so much success. They were really, they're really a fantastic client. And I know that they implement really well. ⁓ And that's a huge piece of the success, you guys. If you come and we give you the tools and you don't implement them, I can't do it for you, right? So Dana, I know this client does really well in that aspect, but I mean, you took them, I mean, I'll let you tell the story, but their production, their collections kind of skyrocketed once you started really cleaning up some of those systems. Where do you feel like was the best starting point? Like I know you had like Keaton on, on some things we always do, what was our journey like? Dana (05:32) ⁓ The first thing is this office came in and they were they were doing well, right? They weren't sure how well they were doing though. So we really really started with numbers. ⁓ Knowing numbers inside and out, knowing expenses inside and out, knowing what goals should be. ⁓ you know, even knowing where payroll expenses were sitting and things like that. So it first first started with number review. So that we basically knew how well they were doing to be able to kind of put projections in place and look at growth trajectory and talk about like what growth should be or could look like. But it started really with honing in on those foundations and getting the doctor to understand. their numbers and what they were telling them as far as ⁓ growth and opportunity that there were for the practice. So we really, really started in with that. We did create a scorecard so that they could look at numbers every ⁓ month. We looked at trends together and really, really got them comfortable in what the numbers told them. then it was like, okay, I'm ready for the growth, right? I can see, I think some doctors come in and it's like, well, I feel like I'm doing okay. And I feel like I want to grow, but I actually don't know if I can grow. because I don't know like what my foundation is. So that was really, really eye opening. The other thing was this doctor was working a ton of time and didn't necessarily have any time to work on the business, right? It was always working in the business. So then it was taking the numbers and creating a plan to work them out of the business at least one day a week ⁓ and to also then create some admin time. within the rest of the week. getting them to have those pieces really allowed for them to have discussions on what a growth plan. looks like and it kind of helped us take off from there. So looking at the numbers, we realized, you know, the number of patients that they had, he really couldn't serve on, you know, solo. So then we started looking at associates and bringing in associates to the practice. And then when associate schedules started to get full, was like, what's next? And so then it was adding surgery services and sedation and getting hospital days. And so it was really, really fun. And then we got to a certain point of growth and it was like, this is so much for me to manage. And then we built a leadership team. So there was just a lot, a lot of pieces that happened. ⁓ But honestly, and truly practice came in at about 3.2 million and was projected to end that year at five. Right. So it was a ton of growth, but it honestly and truly started with knowing the numbers and knowing where the potential was and what we needed to do, what levers we needed to do to pull to make growth really happen. The Dental A Team (08:02) Well. Mm-hmm. That makes sense. makes so much sense. So the projections and that growth plan that you did with them, how did you project that? So to know that you could take them from that 3.2 that they probably didn't even know they were accomplishing. It sounds like they were successful, but like you said, they didn't know their numbers. They didn't know how successful, which happens, think, a lot for our clients. We attract clients who are doing well and just don't know the space that is left to target. So how did you help them find that within that growth plan? Dana (08:47) Yeah, we first started just looking at like patient number because it was feeling like yes, they were doing well, but you know being like schedules were jam-packed. So looking at active patients and actually saying hey you do need to actually grow your hygiene department. right? So to be able to serve the patients you already have within the practice. So then we really honed in on how many, how much hygiene time do we actually need, right? For this practice. And then looking at, and this is one thing that like where Canada does differ in their billing, especially for hygiene, they, can bill for time, right? We bill for services in the U S they can bill for time. And it does still illustrate a point though, that when we're billing for what we're doing time or not time, right? It's important. So making sure that there are standard billing. and for the US, right, it's not necessarily billing, it's actually like perio and what we recommend in the time that we have with the patient, but really getting them calibrated on that and really getting them all moving in the same direction. And then I was expanding the hygiene department. Once we've expanded the hygiene department, then we needed the providers. We needed the providers to do the restorative dentistry since we expanded the hygiene department. So we really started with hygiene and started with adding hours there, really making sure that we fine-tuned the billing process so that, know, hygienists were producing really what they should be producing for their time. And then adding, again, the doctors in there for the restorative that came out of hygiene was just kind where we started. started. The Dental A Team (10:16) Awesome. And it sounds like they were at a space then where I think a lot of doctors get to, or a lot of practices get to where it's either I'm good and I'm going to like steady eddy this and I'm just going to, I'm going to stay where I'm at, or I want to continue growing. And I think a lot of doctors get to that space and they think I'm supposed to continue growing. And that's not a hundred percent always the case. It's not necessary. You should continue to grow to keep up with inflation. obviously, but I think ⁓ something that needs to be said is you don't have to add more hygiene. You don't have to add more doctors. You don't have to do all of those things. But if you want to continue to grow, you want to continue to see those ⁓ numbers increase the way this practice is did, that's a great step to take. And being able to first see all of the patients that you have currently, ⁓ not even including, it sounds like any new patients, we're just trying to handle the current load, I think is fantastic. And then like you said, it sounds like you did a decent job really honing in, not just the billing, because we want to bill for time, right? I get that. But also honing in their peri-o protocols. while you're increasing, well, we added, you know, added associates. But while you guys were increasing the value on the doctor's side over there, you made sure, it sounds like that. hygiene was able to keep up with the increased production on the doctor side. And I think that gets missed a lot, Dana, where it's like skyrocketing doctors and we're like, why is hygiene at 12 % of our production now? Well, because we forgot to focus on them. And I think that's something you guys did really well. And I'm sure your hygiene background helped you see that this is an important space. those perio protocols really, really helped, I'm sure. And how did their team do? Dana (12:05) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (12:07) A big scare I think doctors have is getting hygienists on board. Our hygienists have a scare of maybe changing their thought process on a lot of those pieces. How did this practice do with implementing those changes in their period department? Dana (12:22) They did a really, really good job, but I will say when we decided to kind of tackle that, we really booked out a set of meetings where they really were able to work through it, to look at each other's patients, to look at what each other built, to look at what each other did for those patients, to pull x-rays and FMPs and all of those things and really work through it together and really calibrate. ⁓ They had a series of, I think, monthly meeting for four months and really really work through it together as well as at that point we had a leadership team and so having the lead hygienist really double check those things and have conversations with you know, some hygienists initially took it on really strong and they did really well. Other hygienists didn't do quite as well, quite as fast. And so just having individual conversations, using some of the other hygienists as examples, and really letting those that were really strong give verbiage tips, give billing tips, give all sorts of tips to the hygienists who weren't as strong. And they really, really leveled up and learned from each other, which I was super proud of them for. The Dental A Team (13:28) That's awesome. That's awesome. So the planning and the prepping, I think, is key and having those initial conversations, but then also having follow up. Because I'm sure some of those conversations were, like you said, seeing the other patients and being able to see those spaces. But I'm sure some of those conversations were like, how did this go for you? And what was your case acceptance? Or how many times have you talked about it? And how did that conversation go? And really kind of batting ideas back and forth. And I would venture to say you probably also had those meetings set up for the doctors too, where they're calibrating. You've got your owner doctor and your two associates who are calibrating, especially as you brought on more dental surgeries and, you know, it looks like you guys worked on hospital privileges and all kinds of things for them. But I assume based on what I know is that those doctors had to calibrate as well. So he's not only training doctors, training hygiene, but they're all kind of training each other. Is that what you saw? Dana (14:27) Yeah, it was. And that's why we really put leadership meetings in place. ⁓ And the cool thing about this growth, like you said, you get to a point where you kind of have to choose, right? Do you want to stay where you are? Do you want and he didn't want growth, right? But he didn't want to necessarily take on more dentistry. And I think that was a key thing to really talk about is what does that long term picture for you look like so that as we build it, gets you to those points. And so we knew it meant bringing on other doctors, we knew it meant expanding services in some ways to get them massive amount of growth that was wanted, but without it being him, right? Because, like, young kiddos family, like wanting to just prioritize that and have days away and, you know, totally understand that but how can we still have growth and have that happen? The Dental A Team (15:03) him. Yeah. Mm-hmm, that's awesome. That's awesome. Now within that growth trajectory, and I know we have a lot of team members that listen, not only is this helping the doctor and the practice and the associate dentist and all of these different pieces, but it's also helping the team because I think when you have, that kind of a growth trajectory for a practice and you've got a growth plan set, you've got the goals set, this also trickles down into the growth of the team. Right. And so I think something you mentioned, right, was the leadership team. so one, you don't always have to have a leadership team in place before you have the growth. First of all, because I think a lot of people are wondering like, what's the chicken? What's the egg? Which comes first. And it doesn't, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't, you can have one, but you don't have to wait for the growth. You don't have to until you have one. Right. But part of that growth trajectory and the growth planning was that leadership team. Right? And so did you kind of help them timeline that and kind of figure out, well, when you get to this many patients, when you get to this many people, when you get to this, like this is where we need to bring somebody up. Did you help them timeline it and kind of org chart that and like job descriptions? How did you guys work that? Dana (16:26) Yeah, OrgChart played a big piece in it because we knew like with this kind of growth you're going to need additional team members. I knew Leadership Team was a big piece because it just didn't want everything to fall on owner doctor, right? So yeah, we did. We looked at org chart, we timelines, like when we were going to add new seats to it, what we might need for the future to get there. And that was really fun. Because I think when we build an org chart, we tend to just have it be like, well, what do I have? Right? Who do I have? And what do they do? And I build it based on that versus like, no, actually, what do you mean? Right? And, and what will you need in the near future? It's okay to build an org chart for now and an org chart for the future. And then The Dental A Team (16:56) Yeah. Yeah. Dana (17:08) map out how you get there. And so that is definitely something that came into play here and was super impactful ⁓ in the journey. The Dental A Team (17:17) Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. I agree. That's amazing. So if we were to peel this back a couple layers for our listeners today who might be in a space where they're like, gosh, I don't know if I can grow. I have the capability and the capacity to grow? What would you say, Dana, is a first step for someone who's really in that space or even trying to figure out if they want it or not? How did you, like what's that first step look like with your practices that you've worked with or this one...
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Is Your Practice Healthy?
09/11/2025
Is Your Practice Healthy?
Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite! Kiera is all about key performance indicators in this episode, and why they’re important. When framing KPIs as the vitals of your practice, it makes a lot more sense! Some of Kiera’s favorite KPIs are … Production (net, not gross) Collection (at least 98%) How many new patients you’re getting Average diagnosis Acceptance rate Overhead There are a lot more indicators she talks about in this episode, so whether you’re a beginner with KPIs or elite status, there’s something you can learn. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:05) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, pillar, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A-Teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, how's your day today? You guys loving it? Are you crushing it? I hope you are, wherever you are. I am actually sitting in my bedroom. I ⁓ rarely ever podcast here, because usually my husband's home. But tonight, I have some friends over there in the front room, and I definitely needed to get some podcasts done. Sissy was asking me, I just love having team members that are great at what they do. And I hope you guys take time to acknowledge the team members that make you great. The team members that are just awesome at what they do. guys, Sissy keeps me so on the ball and I love her for it. Shelby does, Tiffany does, Brittany, Dana, Kylie, they are just an incredible bunch of people. And guys, if you ever get the opportunity to meet any of them, you are one lucky person. So I hope you're having a great day. I hope you're loving it. So podcasting today from the bedroom. I hope the audio is great. I hope you're loving it. Sun's just going down and today I just wanted to dive into a topic that I think is really awesome and it's KPIs. So what the heck is a KPI? A KPI is Key Performance Indicator. I'll be completely honest. You guys, know I'm like authentic Kiera Dent. People when they call me and they chat with us, like interested in working with us, the number one thing I get told is, Kiera, you sound just like you do on the podcast. And I'm like, this is really great because it is me. I don't shake it up, I don't change it. The only thing I do differently is I talk in a microphone so my voice sounds a little bit like smoother, if you will, on the podcast than in real life. But beyond that, same cadence, same tones. This is Kiera real life. So you guys know I am always, I try really hard to just be authentic Kiera. So if you ever come meet me in person, you peel back the Wizard of Oz current, I would be the exact same person as I am on the podcast as I am in real life. So when I first started as an office manager, I did not know what a KPI was. I did not know why they were important. I didn't know that I should be tracking these things. I literally had no idea. So guys, if you're in my boat, hey, welcome, welcome to the CureDent No KPI Boat. If you know what they are, welcome, welcome to the Elite Boat. And if you are using them, welcome to the Rockstar Amazing Boat. Let's make you even better. So KPIs, I call them, the way I describe a KPI is they are the vitals of your practice. So just like when you go to the doctor and they take your blood pressure, your temperature, they listen to your heart rate, all those things, those are the vitals. They take your weight. ⁓ I just went to the doctor the other day and it's super cool, like, right? You sit on the chair and they say they'll take your weight. And it was funny, the gal asked me, she said, do you wanna know your weight today? I was like, wow, thank you. Like, thank you for not making me have a bad day if I don't want to or thank you for giving me the opportunity. It just made me giggle. But bottom line is the vitals, we go to the doctor and they take those vitals first because if any of those are out of alignment, that's the first sign that we have trouble. So that's what I think of with KPIs in a practice. These are the core pieces that are going to show you, is your practice healthy or is it not healthy? So yes, it's tracking and there's lots of different KPIs you can track. That's why it's called a key performance indicator. I am a firm believer that you should be able to change these up. I think there are certain things that you should be tracking consistently. But I also think as human beings, we get stagnant and bored. So give yourself a decent amount of time to track and then shake it up. That way you're growing constantly and we don't get bored with KPIs. So for me, some of my favorite KPIs, this is a question every consultant who comes to Dental A team to work with us, we ask them, what is your favorite KPI to measure? One, I'm checking to see if they know what a KPI is. Guys, I probably would have flunked the consulting test if I would have come on. We're a more elite company, guys. I have to keep these consultants on their top notch. They can't be lower than us now. So I ask what your favorite KPI is to track and why. Most of the time I get production and collection. Production is a great KPI to track. It's something, and again, be careful on production. Make sure you're tracking it on net, not gross. A lot of people wanna tell me that they have. These huge successful practices, but guess what guys, if you can't collect it, don't even tell me that number. I don't care. It does not impress me because guess what? That high gross number feeds your ego. Your net number feeds your family. So I don't care about it. So report that number in net. Next up is your collection percentage. I want to know how you're collecting. So if you're a $1 million practice and you're only collecting 700,000, that's stressful. That means you're at a 70 % collection rate. I am aiming for a 98 % collection rate. Now, There are lots of other KPIs and I will say there are some great softwares out there. Practice by numbers, dental intel, divergent. Those are my top three favorites. I'd probably put them in the order of dental intel, divergent, practice by numbers. I think all three of them are great. I love them all for different reasons. The reason I'm pro-ing for dental intel is because they just merged with Medento and guess what? They are kicking it. So I love that. I love what they do and I love Medento as a company. So any company with Medento, that's going to be my favorite company right now. But bottom line is a lot of these track KPIs. What I found that gets tricky and what a lot of offices do is we often track too many things that we don't actually move the needle on anything. I'm guilty of this. So in our company, was having Cissy track how many Instagram followers we were getting every single week. At first, I thought it was a great marketing metric. I thought it was great to see how our marketing was doing. Guess what? It was actually just feeding my ego. So guys, if you want to feed my ego, please just go follow us on Instagram. I would love it. Get your friends, get your family, get your siblings, get your kids. I don't care who. You can boost that number just to feed my ego. At the end of the day, do the Instagram followers actually matter? No, they don't. They don't move our company forward. What matters, just like you guys, how many new patients we're getting. So don't actually care about social media followers. Yes, it's a fun number to track, but what I care is how many new patients are we getting? Then after that, I actually care about if I'm going to the elite boat or to our rock star boat on how many new patients you're getting. Do you know how much each patient's value is? Do you also know what our average diagnosis is on each patient? And do we know what our acceptance rate is on each patient? If you don't know that and you're already tracking some of these numbers, that might be a fun zone for you to go to, to be 2.0 or 3.0 of KPI tracking. If you're just starting out, don't go there. Let's just get you tracking new patients and where they're coming from. Bottom line is these are the vitals. So first steps first, I want you with your KPIs to make sure that you have the vitals of your practice. Production, collection, new patients. case acceptance, reappointment percentages. Those are like your main shebangs that are really gonna tell you where you're going. If you wanna add in your overhead, I also love that because that's gonna pull in the business side of it to make sure that we're actually profitable as a business and we're not just running around trying to serve, but not even being profitable as a practice. We need our practice to be profitable. Otherwise we can't serve more in our community. Those are my main things I love to focus on. So if you're just starting out, start tracking those. I prefer you track them at a minimum every week at best. I actually like these ones to be tracked on your morning huddle. It's great. Everybody has it, have it on a whiteboard. Everybody can see it. That is the vital heartbeat of your practice. I would love you to do it. Just like on my Apple watch, I'm watching the rings on my Apple watch. That's honestly the only thing on my watch face guys, because it'd be really fun. But I decided I don't want to get distracted by other things. I need to master these items before I move on. So that's why I love it to be front and center. Get these KPIs front and center. Get a whiteboard, guys, they're real cheap. Put it up, track these items. Production, we talked about it. Net, not gross. Collections, we wanna make sure we're collecting at least 98 % if not higher. And then I want you to know how many new patients you're getting out of goal, what your case acceptance is. A healthy practice, if we're talking dollar for dollar, I'd like you to be anywhere from 35 to 65%. Now there's a wide range on that because I actually, if you don't... diagnose a lot of ortho and you're not diagnosing a lot of implants in larger cases, your dollar for dollar should be way up higher. If you're diagnosing these huge treatment plans constantly, you actually should be hanging out lower because we're presenting so much treatment that I'm okay with a lower case acceptance. If we're one for one, meaning one thing accepted off of our treatment plan, no matter how large it is, I want you actually to be sitting at at least a 90 % case acceptance. If you're not, we got to talk. That's right, you and me, we're going to have a date, we're going to chat. We need to get that case acceptance up because what we're doing is we're dis-serving our patients. We're not helping them find a way to get this treatment done. You as a treatment coordinator, your job is to be a solution creator with the patient. So do your job, find the solution, get those patients accepted. That way we can help them have healthy mouths and a better life, right? That's what it's all about. Hey, Dental A Team listeners, how was your 2021? Have you reflected back? Where did you really win? Where did you really not win? If 2021 was a year of years, congratulations. I am celebrating with you and I would love to invite you to take it to the next level. If 2021 wasn't quite your year, hey, it's all right. I'm there for you. And I would love to invite you to make 2022 the year for you. That's right, guys. If you're ready to take massive action, if you're ready to take your practice and your team to the next level, increase your profitability. Yeah, guys, through an easy way. Get your entire team aligned and you're ready to just have your life be different. That's right. Team development, top to bottom system development, top to bottom, changing and shifting your culture, improving your team morale. If that sounds like what you're interested in guys, I'd love to invite you to join us in our Dental A Team platinum group. It's the exclusive group where we physically fly to your practice. We give you insider tips. We share with you. have a quarterly newsletter that goes to that shares all the updates we're coming up with and we share it with our platinum group. We'd love to have you and I would like to invite you because guys remember you're always one decision away from a completely different life. So reach out guys. I'd love to chat with you. I'd love to see if you're a great platinum client or what works best for you. Email me [email protected] and I can't wait to welcome you as our newest platinum client. Take massive action. This is your year. Let's make sure 2022 is your year. [email protected]. Can't wait to welcome you. So those are my main KPIs that I love to track. Once you get those dialed in and you're consistent on those and you know, then we're going to start diving into even more data. I want to know how well our hygiene department's doing. They should be producing at least three times their pay. So if I'm a hygienist making $10 an hour, wouldn't that be a dream guys? Welcome to 2022. Hygienist $10 an hour. Yeah, right. You guys are like a hundred and a billion dollars an hour. Like it's crazy how much hygienists are at right now, but let's say for the sake of this podcast, it's $10 an hour. Okay. I should be producing at least $30 per hour as a healthy hygienist. That's on a PPO. If I'm fee for service, I like you producing at least four times your pay. So if I'm in a fee for service practice, I'm producing $40 an hour, okay? So that would be another great KPI to track. You can also break it down per department. So we might have our doctors. Great KPI to track on our doctors is what are they producing per hour? Most doctors should be producing at least $500 per hour at a minimum, okay? So if we're working in an eight hour day, that's a $4,000 day per doctor, again on net, not gross. So that's a great metric to put in there. What are our doctors producing per hour? What's our doctor case acceptance? What's our doctor diagnosis? Great KPIs for you to start tracking. If we move on to our hygiene department, you can track fluoride, you can track perio. Perio is a great set to track. We can track ⁓ how many night guards they're doing. We can track how many orthostarts they're doing. Great KPIs to track, again, if you're in the elite rockstar status. ⁓ Dental assistants, I like to track how many same day conversions you get. Also, how many times you leave the room is a great KPI to track. Also, how many Google reviews do dental assistants get? Those are all really, really great ones that you can do. For front office, scheduling. How often are we scheduling our hygiene and doctors to goal? So I usually like between 80 and 90 % that they're scheduled to go. Schedulers can be how many openings they have in hygiene. It can also be how many new patients you're scheduling. For our treatment coordinators, case acceptance, right? We want to make sure that we're getting those cases up there. For office managers, what's our collection percentage that can also go to our billers? Billers, I love you to be tracking your AR. Also outstanding claims. ⁓ How long it's taking us to get our claims paid. It's a fan-freaking-tastic KPI to be tracking. because we want to be paid quicker. Guess what? If I'm tracking that, I can see, are we not sending our claims clean and are we having errors? Could we fix that? Could we enter data better so we don't have these issues happening? Could also track how long our patients are waiting in the waiting room. If we're working on VIP new patient experience. As I just listed, there are a myriad of KPIs you could do. What happens is we often try to track too many things that were actually focused on nothing. So I suggest you usually have at least one primary KPI per person in the practice. It's their primary. That's the one that no matter what, they're going to hit that. And we make sure it moves our needle forward. So what's going to move our doctors forward? What's going to move our hygienist forward? It's going to move our dental assistants, our scheduler, our biller, our office manager. What is the one thing if we could only focus on one thing, what's going to move each of those people forward the most and move our practice forward the most? Focus on that. Master that. Set a goal of what you should be hitting and report either weekly or daily. on those. I'll be honest, if you report it daily, just like working out daily, you will probably see greater results than if you do it weekly or just monthly. So I also have with KPIs that you should really, really, really, really be ramping those up and making sure you're reporting consistently and that people know the goals. If we miss it, let's find out why. What's going on? Let's diagnose the problem. Let's find out what can we do to improve that. Again, I want you to think of these as vitals. KPIs are vitals of a practice. If you don't track these, if you don't check them, you will die. Okay? If you think about it that way, well, instantly I'm like, maybe I don't need to track that. Maybe I don't need to focus on that. If you're already tracking it and you're breathing imperfect, guess what? What happened to the doctor? They start checking other things. They run blood tests on us and they check a thousand different things in that. Okay? So there are lots of KPIs you can do, but I would say keep it simple. Do the kiss method. Keep your KPIs simple. Then add to it. Maybe each quarter we add something. Maybe each month we add something. It's also fun if you have your team help create these KPIs with you. What do they think is going to the practice board? What did they get excited about? Maybe they want to make social media posts. Maybe they care about how many followers we actually have. Maybe you guys want to do that. Maybe they do it on how many new patients they can get. I just had an office, super fun. The team decided that they were going to try and get more family members scheduled. So on average, this practice was averaging about 35 new patients. Guess what? Guess what? Just by focusing on asking for referrals from patients and getting more family members scheduled, they use the phrase, what other family members can we get scheduled for you today? They have increased their new patients with no marketing to 50 new patients a month. Is that not rad? That's because they focus on a vital that the practice needed to do. They focus on where they were weak and they're able to move their practice forward. So guys, I would encourage each of you. Look at these KPIs, get them set. If you don't have a regular KPI tracking, let's start there. If you do, I want to bump it up. Are those KPIs being reported weekly by all team members? And does the doctor and office manager review this? I will tell you at our company, Shelby, she's a rock star. Our whole team reports on a Google drive. We call our leadership scorecard. Those are where our KPIs hang out. Every person has a number that they're tracking. We review these, we make sure that they're the vitals of our company and they're moving us forward. Every person reports on this every single Friday. We...
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Are You Misunderstanding Work-Life Balance?
09/10/2025
Are You Misunderstanding Work-Life Balance?
Tiff and Kristy break down the concept of work-life balance, and why so many people can’t seem to acquire it. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am back today and you know, this is me Spiffy Tiffy I never say my name and I just assume everyone knows me. I actually this is a funny story. I actually had ⁓ Someone the other day it was a child was like, ⁓ you record podcasts you you're on a podcast Are you famous and I said well maybe in the dental world like for ⁓ small, tiny percentage, people might know who I am. So, it's Spiffy Tiffy, Tiffanie, I'm here, I've been here for a while, and I'm just super excited to bring so much fun and joy, and one of our core values is fun, and it has been Kiera and I's core value since the day we met, and that is one that I have refused to get rid of, even though every year we update our core values and they shift and change a little bit, fun has stayed there. The definition of fun has evolved and been tailored down to what we want it to be, but it has remained and I think we have some fun. So I hope you guys have fun on this podcast. I hope you enjoy it. I have Kristy here with me today and she is ready to rock out some fun, you guys. And I, you know, we've already recorded one this morning and Kristy, you said it perfectly. I was going deep and I don't know. It's a feeling today. We got a lot of leadership stuff we're chatting about and I feel like goodness gracious, Kristy, you're my gal. You keep me centered. You keep me calm. DAT Kristy (01:07) Thank The Dental A Team (01:21) and you allow me the space to go deep. So thank you for being here. Thank you for recording so many podcasts with me and just for being you, Kristy. How are you? DAT Kristy (01:30) Good, thank you. I'm excited to be here. It's always a good time when we can get together and help with anything ⁓ with our doctors, hopefully up and coming doctors, new to dental aging doctors. Yeah. The Dental A Team (01:42) Yeah. Yes. Right? Yes. I agree. I totally agree. And I love that you said that because there are so many listeners here. I think sometimes I forget, we get a lot of clients that have listened to our podcast in the past and that's how they found us. And it's just such an incredible resource to be able to get information to people and a tool to be able to reach so many new dentists. And then Kristy, I think I forget when they come, from the podcast, right? Or they've listened to the podcast in the past and came from, I don't know, Zenist advisors. They maybe said, hey, talk to these ladies, they're great. Whomever, wherever, however they found us, I forget that they still listen. And then I'll have a client that's like, I get texts sometimes that's like, Tiff, I'm listening to this one, and you just said this, or Kristy said this, Trish, and I get these texts from clients that I've had for years. And I'm like, my gosh, that's funny. I didn't even consider the fact that you You were still here. So repeat offenders. Thank you so much for being here. We love you guys. So like Kristy said, clients who are here. Hello. Um, those of you who are listeners and maybe you're just like, no, Tiff, I am a listener. I'm a diehard listener and I will be here for that. Hello. And if you're a listener who's like, gosh, I just keep thinking about it. I keep considering and this information is great. And these ladies sound amazing, but today's not about it's and, and, and. DAT Kristy (02:43) you The Dental A Team (03:10) I'm gonna call them because whether you say yes to success and you're our newest client or you say this is incredible information, I'm gonna implement some of these tools that you just gave me and we'll talk again soon. We're here for it. I want you guys to understand that we are not the company that you call and it's like, if you don't say yes, we never talk to you again. No, you say yes and, right? Yes, this was great information. and I'm ready to start. Yes, this is great information and I'm gonna go implement it I'll talk to you soon. Okay, pressure's off. So just call us. That was great, Kristy. I think that was a wonderful reminder to everyone. There's literally no pressure. Gosh, Kristy, I love you for so many things and today I am just loving on you for leadership communication, conversations and just like effective balance, right? We have a fun topic here, and I told you I have some tangents on it, and I think you do too, and I think we align pretty well on this topic. We really wanted to chat, and there's a newsletter. If you're subscribed to our newsletters, you should be getting a newsletter as well that will have similar, probably very different conversations in it, but make sure you're signed up for our newsletters that you're getting that as well. So today's topic, this moment's topic, is work-life balance. And I... get asked this by a multitude of professionals, whether they are team members, leaders, managers, owners, doctors, dentists, I don't know, and financial advisors, like anyone under the sun who does a job, I have heard, I want work-life balance, TIF, how do I have work-life balance? And I think it's a really tricky statement, and I think it's overused and misunderstood. And I think you just need balance. My opinion is by separating, Kristy, tell me if I'm crazy. By separating and saying I want work-life balance. It's like saying I have a life and I have work. For me, I have a life and I work within that life. I don't have my work-life that is like, in your brain, it just creates these two separate entities that then you're trying to smash together. It's like saying I'm a dentist. and I'm a chiropractor and I want to do both out of my office. So I want to, while I'm drilling and doing this crown, I also want to be cracking their neck. You can't do that. It's literally impossible. So I think saying I want balance in my life is more clear and more understood than I want work life balance, which confuses it and makes it feel impossible. It feels literally difficult when I say I want work life balance. it in my body feels difficult. It feels hard. But when I say I want balance, that feels achievable. That is like graspable. can see it. I know what it feels like to have balance. So I can emanate it. I can mimic the feeling in my body and I can find it. And I just think people just misunderstand that. But Kristy. What are your thoughts on it? How do you feel about the term work-life balance? And then we'll get into, I promise you we'll get into how to achieve some of this balance. But Kristy, first, think definitions are always most important. So tell me your thoughts. DAT Kristy (06:39) I know we never want to go like political or anything like that in that realm, but listening to you takes me back to growing up and hearing how moms entering the workforce and how can they work and be a mom. And so it just, kind of makes me laugh. And honestly, what you said is spot on. I don't, I don't know how you can do both at the same time, but The Dental A Team (06:52) Yeah. DAT Kristy (07:06) but I do think you can be wear many hats. It's just how do we devote our time to it? So identifying, honestly going back to the results, what are we looking for in the first place? So when you say work-life balance, tell me more about that. What does that mean? What does that mean to you? Because it may mean something different to somebody else. I for one get, a lot of gratification from my work and purpose from it. So it brings a lot to my life. So to separate, yeah, I can't. But to devote certain amount of time to certain things, I can grasp that 100%. The Dental A Team (07:51) Yeah, I love that clarity that you brought even to maybe like potentially realizing where the term comes from, because I agree with you. think that that is a huge space and a huge learning curve for everyone. And we're still kind of in it. think we're, I think we're still so much in that world. It's 2025, but we are still so much in that world of moms and not even just moms, but primary caretakers coming into the workforce or primary caretakers also working. And it's like that, I think you're right. I think that is a confusing factor. And I love what you said that work gives you, it provides something positive to your life. So to keep those separate feels wrong. And I think so many of our leaders and our dentists feel that same way, which also confuses it. And you said, tell me more, tell me what that looks like. And I know I've asked the question before and I've had a doctor be like, that means I'm home before 5.30 so that I can cook dinner for my family. I'm like, that's easy. Like, what's keeping you at the office? Like, why are you there? Right? Like, let's remove some obstacles. And I've had doctors that are like, well, I have a doctor that was like, Tiff, I wanna work three and a half days a week and I wanna make a million dollars in collections a year. Cool. He's like, then I can be home. I be with my kids. I can do all the things. And he does, he does that. That's his work life balance. And, and that's his balance, right? His balance is being able to target and hit all of this areas of his life that are important. And Kristy, it makes me think of, ⁓ in March, we did our in-person event with so many of our amazing platinum doctors came out to visit us and their office managers. And we did a blocked scheduling, ⁓ exercise for. personal life and like for our ourselves and for crowns, root canals, etc. So by personal life, mean like ourselves and what we did it was super cool of really looking at the like six areas of our lives six to eight areas of our lives that are truly valuable and important that we want to contribute to so, you know your relationships your marriage your work ⁓ DAT Kristy (09:52) Hahaha! The Dental A Team (10:13) Right? Remember in Summit, I forgot to add work in there. ⁓ If you were there for Summit, you guys are laughing. But all those different areas that make us who we are and where we want to show up in life, and then time blocking and saying, this is how much time, like you said, time, this is how much time I want to dedicate to this area for it to feel valuable and balanced, because it's not all going to be equal. I'm not gonna spend as much time maybe going on dates with my boyfriend and having one-on-one time as I am recording podcasts and showing up for my clients. That doesn't mean it's imbalanced. That would be wild. He would go crazy if I were spending that much time like, we're going on a date or we're going on a river cruise. I don't even know what we would do with that amount of time. Couple times a year for our long vacations, we do that and it balances. When we say work-life balance, it almost sounds and feels like we're looking for equality between the time spent. And that's just, it's just not realistic. There are a lot of people who have more time outside of work that they're doing other things with their life. And then there are other people who are like, no, I'm passionate about my job and I want to pour into it. That's their balance. And I think you nailed it, Kristy, by really keying in on that time and saying how valuable it is to consider that there's even more than just work and quote unquote life. Like there are attributes to your life that need that value and that time consideration. DAT Kristy (11:53) I almost wonder Tiff, like listening to you talk, we almost have to identify, like the first question should be what's missing, right? Because really why is that even a term, work-life balance? Wouldn't you agree it's likely there's something missing in that equation, so how can we do more of it? And the other part that... The Dental A Team (12:03) Yeah. Yeah. Totally agree. DAT Kristy (12:22) Again, you know me, queen of analogies, but it's like people come in to the office and they go into hygiene and they're like, are you flossing your teeth? No, I hate flossing my teeth. Well, you need to be flossing every day. Why do we go from zero to a hundred? Like, can we maybe start with, how about flossing Monday, Wednesday, Friday instead of all or nothing, right? So I almost feel like that question, work-life balance needs to start with what's missing that I need more of. The Dental A Team (12:35) Yeah. Yes. I love that because there's a gap we're not seeing and we feel out of alignment and we're not taking the time to step back and see it. And I think you're spot on because there's an area of life, the six to eight components, how many ever there are, there's an area that's out of alignment with the definition of balance for you. Kristy, I think what you're really good at and what you said even earlier was, well, what does that mean? Right? You're really good at speaking to your clients in a clear and kind way and asking questions that evoke thought and results. So when you ask those kinds of questions to your clients, I've seen them, I've watched them, I join all of our consultants' calls at some point or another. So I've seen this happen live. They are able to give themselves the space to find it because you interrupted their thought pattern with something different so that they could think of it from a different point of view. And I think it's just really, really something that is missed in a lot of consulting that's just systems focused, right? Like we are systems focused, we do provide systems, but we're people focused first because without this, without these kinds of definitions, your systems aren't, they're not gonna stick. I promise you, they're just not gonna stick, okay? We've seen it. So Kristy, something you do really well with your clients is, DAT Kristy (14:09) Thank The Dental A Team (14:16) keying into those definitions and then asking the thought provoking questions, you might even already have the answer, right? You are like, I know exactly, but if you tell the person, right, they're like, maybe, but if you evoke the thought process, interrupt those thought patterns and get them shifted onto a different, it's kind of, makes me think of when you're driving along, driving along and you're like, shoot, there's a detour. And then you like scooch over to the next road. It's detouring you on and you're like, wow, these are beautiful houses. Like I've never been down this road and I've lived on this street for 20 years, right? But your pattern was disrupted and you were able to see something new and beautiful and fresh. And, or sometimes you're like, wow, this is ugly. I can't believe I live this close to this street or this, like sometimes you go down and you're like, what is this building? Like this looks horrible. DAT Kristy (14:58) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (15:11) Right, so sometimes you open a door and you're like, wow, that is really ugly and I have got to spend some attention there. Doesn't mean every time we open a door, it's gonna be like rainbows and butterflies, right? But sometimes we open a door that's like, I need to sprinkle some magic fairy dust in here because this is a space that needs some attention. And Kristy, I think you truly do open those doors for clients. And my question in that, ⁓ What do you think that opens up for them? So you open those doors, you get their thinking differently, but then how does that process change their business ownership and their, literally their profitability? Like these pieces that we work on with our clients, how do you see it totally improve the reasons that they come to us, right? They say systems, profitability, we want to pay our team more, we want a more engaged team. that system change, that thought process change, how do you see that positively affecting those things that they've come to us for? DAT Kristy (16:15) Yeah, well, to back up one notch, Tiff, even finding out like their why, once we get there, I think it's also asking one more question of, okay, wonderful, that's what you want, right? We've identified that. ⁓ What will it give you? And it's usually something emotional, right? So then when we're doing the hard work, we can remind them back to that this is what you were looking for. And again, it's if we're off track, did your vision of what we want change or are we still going for this? Okay, great, we're still going for this and that helps them get the momentum back for getting there. will ⁓ you repeat your question for me, sorry. The Dental A Team (17:00) Yeah. No, I talked a lot. Thank you. ⁓ My question was, when we do get these definitions in place and figure out what does balance mean? Why are we doing this? And I think you're right. When we know that why, then the balance is easier to find because we know what's going to support the why. So once that's discovered, which you do very quickly for your clients, I again have watched it happen. What do you see the positive impacts on the business, the leadership? Because they come to us, right? And they say, I want systems, I want profitability, want a happy team. Like, how do you see those things improve by defining these and really improving their personal selves and finding that balance? DAT Kristy (17:41) Yeah, so I believe that when we identify it and we start working toward it, they do start to feel a sense of balance. And so when they are back in the rut of things or in the weeds of things, they approach it more refreshed. They have a different outlook. It's not a drain on them. And so literally, it's the same thing as like when we start coaching, all ask clients, know, how much time are you spending working on your business? How many team meetings are you having? Well, we used to, but we don't. And I'm just a firm believer that the time we spend working on the business, you will achieve outcome because you're in a sense creating that balance to then when you are in the business, you're a lot more effective. I've seen it time and time again, you know, even to the point where... ⁓ I have one client that literally she takes off two more weeks a year, but she's producing the same this year on trajectory to make more. literally the first year she took those extra two weeks off, she's making just as much as she did the year prior, but she gained time, right? So when she achieved that balance of the goal to be able to take time to do X, Y, Z, she identified it. Then when she's there, The Dental A Team (18:47) Yeah. them. Yeah. DAT Kristy (19:05) She's way more productive and focused on what she's doing. Yeah. The Dental A Team (19:10) I agree. And I've seen that with your clients, I've seen that with mine, I've seen it with Monica's, Trish's, Dana's, everybody's clients. I've seen that exact thing happen where you're just, when you have that balance, you have a better sense of ease in life. I think when you're misbalanced, when you're out of alignment, I know I have a doctor that we've worked with that, this doctor is an amazing human being and showed up. and was just like, I have to work, I have to do this, I have to grind, I'm the only one that can. And I think we hear that a lot. And so then they almost get to the point where they don't know how to not do that and feel successful, first of all. And then they don't know how to, then they don't know how, they start resenting their work. And when you resent your work, you're slower, you're less detailed, you really care less, so your diagnosis goes down. acceptance goes down, your schedule starts falling apart, because the universe is like, oh, you don't really like this, let me take...
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Have You Googled Your Practice?
09/09/2025
Have You Googled Your Practice?
Dr. Len Tau, aka the Reviews Doctor, is on the podcast. With Kiera, he goes into the most critical nuts and bolts of making sure your practice stands out (or at least keeps pace with) online reviews amid AI. He explains jargon terms like ranking power and factors and velocity of reviews, whether or not you should actually be responding to reviews of your practice, and a ton more. Visit and enter the code RAVING to save $100 on registration for Dr. Tau’s annual conference. About Dr. Tau Dr. Len Tau thrives on helping practices maximize their online reputation, marketing, and social media strategies. As a speaker, Len is known for his lively and engaging presentations packed with ready-to-use strategies. He regularly travels the country sharing his marketing brilliance and passion for practice growth with audiences. As a consultant, he offers practice leaders with real-world solutions tailored to fit their specific challenges and opportunities. Len loves to help doctors and their teams understand and implement successful online systems to build their practice. He currently serves as general manager of the Dental for Birdeye Reputation Marketing Software. Selected as one of Philadelphia’s Top Dentists by Philadelphia Magazine, he continues to experience growth year after year in his fee-for-service practice focusing on general, cosmetic, reconstructive and implant dentistry. Following his father into the dental profession, Len graduated from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and continues to pursue ongoing continuing education opportunities. He has had the privilege of serving patients for two decades. He is an active member of numerous professional organizations including the American Dental Association, the Pennsylvania Dental Association, the Academy of General Dentistry, the Eastern Dental Society, the Northeast Philadelphia Dental Implant Study Club, and the American Academy of Clear Aligners. Episode resources: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so excited. This is one of my dear friends. We've known each other for several years in the industry. I'm super freaking pumped. I'm going actually be at his event next year in September. Little teaser. Stay tuned. He's got an amazing event he does every year in September. I have Dr. Len Tau. He is one of my faves. He is better known ⁓ as an authority in the dental consulting world, reputation marketing, and a practice growth. He's recognized by dentistry today as a top dental consultant for eight straight years. He is the author of Raving Patients and 100 plus tips to 105 star reviews in a hundred days. Like this man knows how to do it. He's one of my faves. We really do collaborate on so many fun things. After 20 plus years in clinical practice, he now helps dentists nationwide, increase revenue, case acceptance and visibility. He leads the dental vision at BirdEye, hosts the Raving Patients podcast and runs the Supercharger Dental Practice Conference, which is the one I was alluding to that we're gonna be at next year in September, empowering practices to thrive in today's competitive landscape. He's truly one of my faves. And today we're gonna dig into like, how do you get online reviews? But Len, welcome. I'm so happy to have you on the podcast. How are you today? Dr. Len Tau (01:06) I'm good, thanks for having me, I'm excited to be here. Kiera Dent (01:08) Of course. And this just came about because Len like, let's just do a little teaser. You're prepping full like steam ahead right now for your event that's coming up in September in Florida. ⁓ I love like the last time you and I were on the podcast, we talked about you in clinical dentistry. And then we reconnected after some time and you've left the chair, you're living your best life and you full blown gone into the event space. So just like, I know we're gonna get into like online reviews and how AI is changing that it's going to be just a really, really fun episode today. But tell us a little bit like How is it going from like full blown dentist in the chair to now full blown events, like running these awesome events that we're super excited to be a part. Just kind of give me a little insight to that. Dr. Len Tau (01:46) Well, it's been, it's been a lot of, a lot of fun. It's been very different, obviously, you know, for 23 years, I practiced dentistry, um, for about 12 of those, 13 of those who was full time. And then I went part time in 2017 until I sold and retired in 2022. Um, but one of the things I've grew up on in dentistry was going to dental events and, the big, the ones, the small ones, you know, all over the country and as a dentist first, and then as a vendor. Kiera Dent (02:08) Mm-hmm. Dr. Len Tau (02:15) Um, since 2013 or 14, so a long time in the space. know, one of the things that really hit me was that the events are not really put on very well. They're not, um, you know, whether you, if you're a dentist, there's issues when you're a vendor, there's issues. And I said, you know what? I want to change the game. And, um, one of my goals when I retired from dentistry was to start putting on events. So in 2023, um, in, in September, we did an event in Delray had 208. Kiera Dent (02:25) Right. Dr. Len Tau (02:44) Dennis there, 33 sponsors. was, first day was business, second day was marketing. Excuse me. First day was marketing. Second day was business. Had a 13, 14 speakers. It went off better than I could ever imagined. I then moved to the last year in 2024 to Scottsdale. And we were at the Scott Resort and Spa, which is a beautiful hotel and the event was good. It wasn't great. Definitely moving to different coasts. I felt there was not as much, know, engagement, excitement about the event. So I, my family and my wife and I decided, Hey, we're going to do this. Let's have people come down to me. I live in beautiful, you know, part of Florida. we're having this year's event and the next three of them at super at, ⁓ at pure 66, a brand new hotel, ⁓ in Fort Lauderdale. It's literally half hour from my house, five miles from the airport, easy to get to. So this year event is September 26th and 27th. Kiera Dent (03:32) Bye. you No. Mm-hmm. Dr. Len Tau (03:45) We've got 14 speakers, ⁓ mixture of business and marketing. So we've got people talking about social media, about content. We have people talking about saving money on taxes. We're talking about how to become a fee-for-service practice. ⁓ So a lot of different great content and top speakers, Steve Rasner, Paul Goodman, ⁓ Jeff Buski, ⁓ Richard, Rich Maddow. So some real, real heavy hitters. And then some people who people haven't really heard of, Melanie Diesel, who's new in the dental industry. So, but I like to do it differently and my events are very high end. You come, you're going to see things you probably have never seen before. I give a ton of time to the vendors so the vendors love me because they make sure that they get integration or interaction with the attendees. So you're going to be speaking in 2026, same weekend at September 25th and 26th in 2026, same hotel, pure 66. Kiera Dent (04:28) Sure. Yeah. Dr. Len Tau (04:40) We're ramping things up right now. We're literally a month out from the events. still have people signing up. I still have people wanting to reach out as sponsors. And it's, it's, it's, is the fun time for me. Cause when I'm done, I'm, you know, I get a couple of months of break and then I start promoting 2027 again. So ⁓ it's been a good time. I really enjoy it. And I find that I've kind of ⁓ created something that's very different and the attendees really enjoy it and the vendors really enjoy it. So if I can make everybody happy, Kiera Dent (04:45) No. Dr. Len Tau (05:09) That's all I'm looking to do here. Kiera Dent (05:11) ⁓ and Len, I hope the audience, if they can't see it, they can hear it. I think it's so fun because I mean, I've seen you in different spaces in your career, in your life. And there is just this like giddy, like younger version of Len that I feel is emerging of like, it's like giddy boyhood, like excitement of I'm excited to put these on. I'm excited to do these events. And it just makes me so happy for you. And what I think I'm hearing is yes, attendees are happy. Vendors are happy. But I also hear that Len is very happy and to do something in dentistry is just very, very fun. It's very exciting. And so we're jazzed. I'm really excited. I love good events. I love great time. I love to help. love business marketing. Everybody can take that. That's not Kiera's jam. Like I, that's why I wanted to bring you on. You guys are very good at marketing. You're very good at that space. but to talk about how to help people have their best lives to grow the practices that they want to grow. I think you and I are so synergistic in that. So we're super excited and I love, I mean, I'm not going to highlight the fact that there were a couple of sixes in that is September 26 at Pier 66. You guys hopefully like, I like the alliteration. Don't put anything weird on it guys, but I do appreciate that you made it easier. September six and nines flipped upside down are a six. Like hopefully everybody can remember September 26, Pier 66. It'll be a good time in 2026. I mean, we got four lines, so we're okay. We've at least got four sixes, not we didn't end on three, but I really hope an exciting step. We'll make sure we put some info for people. For this year and for next year, I think it'll be a fun time. Dental A Team will be there, so come hang out with us. ⁓ Len, I'm super excited. I will not spoil secrets, but a lot of the things he told me for the events, I will say he does put his heart and soul into it. So Len, excited about that. Thank you for sharing. Good luck for this year. We're gonna be rooting you on this year and next year. And now let's pivot. Let's go into like your jam. You're in BirdEye, you're in marketing, you're on online reviews. AI has come into the scene. Practices are changing. I also will say, I hope everybody listens to you of their like succession story. You hung up the hand piece, but you are still full steam ahead in dentistry. And so I hope people see that like there is no path to dentistry. Like you just, it's a, it's a beautiful world that you're in. So let's talk though, online reviews, AI, how is this working? How do we make sure that practices are still being visible? Chat GPT is on, on the prowl. There are clients signing up with us now that have found us on chat. GPT, which is so random. It's changing how people have been doing things. Walk me through. What are you seeing with these online reviews? The importance, how to bring AI in? Like, let's just kind of go in a rift on how practices can still be visible with AIs. Like just showing up to the scene. Dr. Len Tau (07:43) So I wanna talk about chat CPT for a second. ⁓ I refer to it as my best friend. ⁓ It helps me edit. No, I haven't named it yet. No, I haven't named it. ⁓ you have? Kiera Dent (07:50) Have you named it? I've got to just ask Len. Have you named? I have! Me and Chet, I had a name and now her name is Wanda. I don't know why, I don't even know where Wanda came, but people are like, here, are you hanging out with Wanda again? Cause I agree. Like they're our best friends. So go on Len. I can't wait to hear what you name your Chet GPT cause mine is currently Wanda. Dr. Len Tau (08:06) I'll have to, I have to name it now that I have to think of something. ⁓ but no, I started using it. I'm like, this is really helpful and it's only gotten better. And, just to give you an idea is, ⁓ my wife and I, and my son, my son just graduated high school. He's literally just started his freshman year at, university of Florida on a free ride. ⁓ smart, smart ass kid. I'm very proud of him. But, you know, and I travel a ton, but I travel a ton for business and I made a commitment. I think I told you that, Kiera Dent (08:25) Boo? Yeah. Dr. Len Tau (08:35) during the summer when he was going away for school, I was not going to travel. So from March to literally next week, beginning of September, I haven't traveled at all for business. we did plan some really great travel for our personal lives. And one of the things we did was we had a cruise, a 17 day cruise to Europe. ⁓ And when I decided I did not want to do the excursions to the cruise, cause they're really expensive and you're with all these people. I prefer to kind of just go and tour myself. Kiera Dent (08:44) It's awesome. Dr. Len Tau (09:05) So I use ChatGPT in every city. And I said, I'm going to the city. This is what I'm going to get in. This is the cruise I'm going on. It got the cruise itinerary. And I said, I want to set up private tours in every city with different people. And it helped me pick the best tour guides. They referred me to a website called Tours by Local, which is an amazing website that you can meet people who are local that will take you around. show you the city and it was amazing. It was amazing. So I thank Chachi PT for doing that because I wouldn't have known about half these things if I didn't do it. And in fact, one of the women, and actually the very first place you went to, which was in Split, Croatia, which was beautiful. I told her that literally that's kind of how I went down this road was I asked Chachi PT, what should I do in Split? And they said, you need to use this tour guide. She's the highest rated tour guide and has the best reviews on tours by local. like, What's towards by local? And that started this whole thing. So she was, she was amazed to hear that. So, ⁓ I have been using Chad GPT for a long time, like I said, and even now it is people I know type in, know, get me to the best dentists in the area. And it's very much based on reviews. So you have to be a highly rated practice. you may not believe in reviews and if you do, think you're not smart, but you know, if, if you want to be at the forefront of where people are looking, Kiera Dent (09:58) Yeah. Yes. Dr. Len Tau (10:25) You have to generate reviews in a significant amount. Velocity now, which is how often you're getting them, is one of the biggest ranking factors on Google, whether you want to believe chat GPT or not. ⁓ But you have to get reviews. You can't, you know, rest on your laurels and say, well, I have enough because you never have enough. Okay. And, ⁓ and you've got to let Google rank you high. And there's been a big discrepancy in the industry, a big, I don't want to say a misunderstanding. Kiera Dent (10:43) read. Dr. Len Tau (10:52) But I've been in the review space now since 2013, so 12 years. And in the past, dentists thought that if they get reviews, they're going to rank. And that's not the way it is anymore. If you have reviews, but don't pay attention to the other ranking factors, you actually don't rank well. And that's a problem. So, chat GPT AI is so important, but you still got to dominate Google. You still got to get to the top of the pages. And that's really where the direction is going. and if you aren't there now and you are ignoring it, you're never going to get there. So I would love to talk to you about our list in instruct or educate the listeners and viewers of these ranking factors that they need, need to pay attention to, or they're going to be left behind when it comes to ranking on Google. Kiera Dent (11:27) Yeah. absolutely. And I'm excited for this too, because, I did notice that you've got to like, AI is just crawling the web. That's where it's getting, it's being taught. It's crawls it. It looks through all of it. And so agreed with you. have a lot of clients and like, we want the secret pill of marketing. And I might get your reviews up. Like it is constant and consistent that if you get those reviews up and you bring pieces to the table, that people literally like that's what's going to rank you higher. So I'm excited, Len to, to dig in deeper because it is like how getting more reviews, but to hear that there's more beyond just the reviews really can help these offices like get the best bang for their buck, help more practices. And I'm like, it used to be when I first started consulting when I used to tell offices get to like 100 Google reviews. It is now I'm pushing people like five, six, 700 reviews that you need to be getting ranked into. And I don't know if you're seeing like a cutoff line or if it matters on that. So I'm really excited to dive into like, what are the rankings? What are the pieces? Is there a difference? But I'm like now 100 reviews, when I look at somebody I'm like, hmm, like if there's another dental practice that has maybe 400, 500 new clients come on, the first thing I do is I go look them up to see how many reviews do you have? And I'm shocked at how many dental practices actually are not showing up when I Google their names and they're like, no, no, care, we're here. And I'm like, but if I'm a prospective new client that doesn't work in your practice and I don't see you all the time and I just tried to find you and I'm looking for you. How many patients who are not looking for you are not finding you as well. So yeah, take us away, and I'm super curious, very intrigued by this. It's fascinating. And I'll also say, because AI is new, feel like people got like a reset slate. Like, hey, you can actually get back into the game if you haven't been into the game, if you just start playing now. If you don't, I agree with you. I do think that you will unfortunately get obliterated without trying if you don't get into the game now. Dr. Len Tau (13:28) 100 % so and I couldn't agree with you more. So the best thing to do here is if you're listening to this, I want you to go to a Google search and I want you to type your practice name in. Okay, so that's the first thing to do. Right. Kiera Dent (13:39) and not in your office. Don't do it in your office. Go somewhere else. Like try it somewhere else. Dr. Len Tau (13:44) Right, well, and 100%, that's another thing is that if you're gonna look up your ranking specifically, you do not wanna do that from your office location, okay? Because you're not gonna get real results. You also wanna go into incognito mode or private browsing mode on your phone or your computer if you're doing that to check ranking. But this is not specifically about ranking. This is more about how you appear online. So go to Google and type in your practice name. Not your name unless it's the name of the practice, but your business name, okay? Kiera Dent (13:52) Yes. Mm-hmm. Dr. Len Tau (14:13) and it doesn't have to be what's registered with the state board. It's how you, when you answer the phone, what you say, okay? Pennsylvania Center for Dental Excellence was my practice name, okay? So you wanna look yourself up. So these are some of the ranking factors that Google looks at. Obviously one of them is your total number of reviews you have. Definitely a ranking factor, but the total number has not been as important as some other factors as well. So. Kiera Dent (14:20) Mm-hmm. Dr. Len Tau (14:40) Average number of reviews in the industry right now is about 350. It used to be like 100 was the golden number. Now 350 is the average in the industry. So are you average? Are you below average or are above average? Okay, that's something to look at. The second ranking factor, which is even more important is the velocity of reviews. So how many reviews, how often you're getting them. Okay, so...
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The Right DNA For Success
09/04/2025
The Right DNA For Success
Kiera shares some motivation everyone could use a bit of right now, especially if you’re facing significant challenges. Her episode reading recommendation: Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just want to give you a quick tactical, amazing, miracle morning recap. I have a friend in my life right now who is just struggling and I struggled last year and like I realized, my gosh, like maybe it's time for me to give you guys a quick boost on how we can create a little bit more momentum, a little bit more magnetism in our lives with a lot of ease. So if that's what you're here for, I'm here. Today's more about a life rather than a tactical tip. but I believe that this tactical tip is going to set your DNA up to be the successful practice, the successful office manager, the successful hygienist, successful team member, giving you the DNA and the blueprint for it. So my name is Kiera. We love helping dental offices, their teams and their doctors and their patients truly live life at a higher level to be happier, to be more fulfilled, to be more profitable, to say yes to more things in your life. We call the yes model. You as a person being fulfilled, happy, vibrant. E stands for earnings and profitability and S stands for systems and team development. Like let's put the systems in place. Let's teach you the tacticals, but let's make sure we get the DNA right. ⁓ Miracle Morning was a book that came into my life by Hal Elrod at such a vibrant time. I was at my lowest of my lows and I just needed almost like ⁓ a roadmap out. And I feel like this book was so magical and so powerful for me. And I just really, really, really appreciate it. So ⁓ I'm going to give you guys like kind of a rift on it. But like helping you just get this into your life. Because like I said, my friend is just struggling, high anxiety, burnout, feeling like, can't I be, like, why can't I do this? A new mom, feeling just truly burdened and down. And I remember I was talking to them and they said, Kiera, I just don't understand. Like, I feel like I should be able to do this and I feel like I can't and I don't understand why. And I thought, gosh, how many people feel this day in and day out? Like all of us. And that's the lie is we all think that everyone else can figure this out and I'm just the schmuck and I just don't know how to do it when it's all just a stupid lie. And I'm so irritated about it because the life experiences that we're having right now are truly gifts to us to help us evolve into the person we ultimately want to become. if you could realize that the challenges we're facing right now are truly the gift of your soul to propel you into the version of yourself that you need to be. is something so hard to comprehend when you're going through it, but so easy when you're on the other side, like, wow, that was the greatest gift life ever gave me. And remember life is always happening for you and not to you. So how Elrod, like it just helped me have like a routine, like a routine of pieces. So like I said, I'm just going to break it down for you. He goes through what he calls are the lifesavers. And the lifesavers on there are S stands for silence, A stands for affirmations, V stands for visualization, E stands for exercise, R stands for reading. and S stands for scribing. So on the silence, the way he describes it, it's like, be quiet in your mind and block out the chatter through meditation, prayer, or focused breathing. Okay, so I do it, I do meditation in the morning. I love Joe Dispenza, that's the one who's come in for me for a long time, I didn't. I've done calm, I've done lots of different things, prayer, whatever it is, but the goal is to quiet our mind. And I believe that our mind is like a muscle and we need to strengthen it. And so this is a great way to almost do like bodybuilding for the mind is to every day. just have a moment and like a time of silence. And I usually do this before I start my day. So it's kind of like setting myself up, building that foundation, creating this affirmations, tell yourself encouraging words to achieve goals, overcome fears and feel happy. And what they've proven is like one thing that I love about Joe dispense is he talks about like the future causes anxiety and the past causes depression. And how can we be in this future moment in this present moment? And then how can we create our future and actually break the pattern and the habit of things that are known and create an unknown? of what we actually want to become. So when we do these affirmations of like X, Y, Z, and then we go followed up with the visualization, a visualization, imagine yourself doing things you need to for the day in your future life and imagine what it feels like to succeed. So for me, it's like, what is that? Like, don't have to say that he's always like, what is that future life? Like I hear him in my head because I listen to him every single day, but it's like visualizing, like, what do you want to be? How do you want your life to be? Who do you want to be? And I was like, what things? you're You're basically creating this future that's pulling you, that's compelling, that's something you don't know. And you're able to like literally bring this into your world. Now, I'm not gonna lie to you, this is not an overnight sensation. It's something that you build up over time. But it's really beautiful when we're giving ourselves affirmations, which I have like a ton of I am statements. And then we go into E stands for exercise. So doing something of movement. It can be a one minute movement, but like just go for a walk or a jog. Getting moving allows the blood and oxygen to flow to your brain. like my morning walk, like the shower for my brain, clear out all those cobwebs before I take off, doing something to honor my body which is this beautiful billion dollar asset that I have that I promise and committed to treating her with so much respect and love. R stands for reading. Fill your brain with positive thoughts and ideas to improve yourself. So any type of reading, anything, even if it's like two minutes like you could grab, but it's not scrolling, it's something of positive. Like you'd be shocked at how many books you get through if you'll just read like a page of morning. ⁓ to just fill your mind with something positive. And then S stands for scribing, write a journal to process thoughts and reflect on what you've achieved. So they have the short and condensed version of the savers, because I was like, wow, that feels like a lot. But again, it gave me a roadmap. So like, cool, I do meditation. Then I visualize within my meditation. Then I have affirmations. My husband says his affirmations in the shower. Like, truly, that's not a joke. Or he says that on his drive to work. And then we have our exercise. We have our reading. And we have our scribing. I have cut a few of these things down. That's like the quick down dirty formula for it. And so for me, what I try to do in my journal is every morning I do what I'm grateful for, accomplishments I had from the day before, because I want to build that momentum. I do my improvements. And sometimes I just do one. I don't give myself any more than three. So my improvement was live in gratitude more. That was my improvement. I just want to see where life is more abundant and beautiful for me. That was my improvement. So it's nothing hard. It's nothing berating. It's truly just that. I always do a portion of joy, like what was my greatest joy from yesterday? What's my self love? That one was really hard for me. I put that in and I had to write three things that I loved about myself, whether it was physically, mentally. So the one I wrote in here is that I love my brilliant mind. What's wild is like, why are we not our best friend? Like, why do I not look in the mirror every day and be like, gosh, girl, I just love you I'm so grateful for you. Like, why not be the biggest cheerleader for ourselves? So that was a big thing for me. I write down my goals of what I want to achieve. And then what are my results for that day that I want to accomplish? So that's my scribing. Journaling for some reason makes me feel weird. It's been a few years block for me that I haven't been able to journal. So that's kind of my quick formula. And then just so you guys know, I have my like just a couple IM statements of like four year affirmations. I say, I am creative. I have growth and expansion. I am love. I have divine connection and collaboration. I have self love and compassion. I am honest. I have an abundant mindset. I'm fun and playful. I have trust and flow, I have queen strength. So those are just a few. And then some of my affirmations are like, my success is inevitable. This is one that I always have like, hold on, I'll read you my favorite one. I'm 100 % committed to being so dang good people can't ignore me. Kierda is a name that is known across the world for good and for changing those she touches through word, deed and presence. And that's who I wanna be. That's how I wanna show up in this world. I also love this one. I am committed. Let me read this one to you. ⁓ I think this one's just funny. ⁓ I am committed and choose to be happy each day by laughing so hard, doing super fun things weekly. So just some like really fun things for you. I have another one. This was at a time in my life where I did not have great relationships in my life. So it's been on here for almost nine years. It says I am 100 % committed to only having healthy, positive relationships in my life. I immediately cut out toxicity from my life. ⁓ I am 100 % committed to being grateful for the amazing life that is already mine and continue to watch success, joy, money, grace, friendships, employees. Yes, I added employees. Don't worry, that was for surely added. And happiness flowed to me with ease, acceleration, and continuity. So for you, I hope whatever it is, whatever your version of Savers is, whatever your version of Miracle Morning is, that you remember that you are the greatest asset, that you're choosing you, that you are showing up for other people. This is the dumb analogy that I hate, but it's true. Put the oxygen mask on you first to give to other people. This is your breath of oxygen. This is your, whoosh, is the way to have a simple foundation for you every morning to prime your mind. For me, I feel like, why don't I prime my mind for what I want to see rather than priming my mind for whatever comes in my way? I truly believe that I am a creator of my life, not a manager of my circumstances. And I want to be creating this beautiful, abundant, radiant version of me. And I hope that you want that for you too. I will tell you when I first started this, 90 % of what I just read to you, I didn't believe and I didn't feel and I didn't think was mine. And over time, after doing it day in and day out, and it's not lying to myself, it's just again, like Jodis Benz says, it's not looking forward and causing anxiety and it's not looking in the past and causing depression, but being present and then co-creating my future life of what I want, what I believe, what I can create, and then allowing that to come to me. with ease, grace, continuity. So if you need help with this, not only do we coach on dentistry, but we also help people become the best versions of themselves. And I hope that you just take this because life's too short. We are going to have bumps, we're going to have bruises, we're going to have pieces come through. But what I hope is that you're able to find hopefully something in this miracle morning to give yourself the foundation, the ritual, the routine, the system for your life to give you the extraordinary life that you deserve. If we can help you reach out, [email protected]. I hope you choose you. I hope you choose to love you the most. I hope you realize that giving yourself 10 minutes, 15 minutes a day is the greatest gift you can give yourself for everything that your body and soul does for you day in and day out. Commit, love yourself, and if we can help, like I said, reach out. I'm betting on you and I hope you are too. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
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The Secret Sauce to Hiring
09/03/2025
The Secret Sauce to Hiring
Kiera and Kristy talk listeners through the patience of the hiring process, with specific attention to understanding training capacity, establishing onboarding expectations, utilizing available resources — and what to do when you do all this already, and it still doesn’t seem to work. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera and today's an awesome day. I'm so excited. We have the one and only Trouble Hunting Kristy on the podcast today. I call her the truffle hunter because she finds all the money in the practices. Like Kristy, I don't know if you've looked at the stats, but you are rivaling me on the amount of production you're bringing into practices, which I think is a huge shout out to you. Kristy's one of our incredible consultants. So Kristy, with that intro, how are you today? Kristy (00:27) doing wonderful. Thank you. Kiera Dent (00:29) Good. Yeah, of course. I feel like I need to get like a good nickname for you. So I've been like, clicking Kristy, but it's like, that's not what I'm going for. I'm going for like hunting Kristy, but I need like something. So if anybody out there can think of it, like in my mind, Kristy sits there. I don't know. It's a really funny image I have of you, Kristy. I see you like with your little shovel. You're like digging for the gold and the practices. You're like, I'm going to find it. It's like sleuth status Kristy. So if anybody has a great nickname, send it on over. [email protected]. I'm always here for good nicknames. So, Kristy will find one for you. You know, here we go. But Kristy, we've been working on some practices together and ⁓ just like in general consulting, I think there's some fun things. And right now I think it's like, what do you do when you can't hire team members? I think hiring like hygienists for an office, the hiring climate is really tricky. And I think we've been coming up with some good ideas. Kristy (01:01) Yeah. Kiera Dent (01:23) that might be really fun to dig into if you're down with that today. Kristy (01:26) Love it, absolutely. Kiera Dent (01:29) Awesome. All right, Kristy. So with practices, I were pretend I'm your office and I'm like, hey, Kristy, I need to hire, but I can't hire. Like what's step one, two, three? Where do we even start to find these people? Because I think this happens in almost every single practice. I've said it before in our company. Like how do we break beyond that to help offices really find some people? Because you had an office that like could not find anybody. And now they're onboarding three people in one moment. Like it's pretty incredible how we went like the swing and the shift. So how do we get to that other than just having patience through the process? Kristy (02:03) Yeah, well, I think there's multi steps to it. But first, I think we have to take a look at ourselves and figure out, are we the type of person that likes to train people or not? Right? Because if I truly am not a person that likes even training people, our avenue may look a little bit different than ⁓ if I really enjoy developing and coaching them up, if you will. So first there's that step, if you will. And then I think the next step Kiera is, I get my doctors and teams brainstorming. What attributes are you trying to find within this person? What do they need to possess as a person, personality wise? And what skills are you looking for them to possess? Kiera Dent (02:31) Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because I love that you actually brought up do I want to train and develop somebody and then who are we looking for because I think Sometimes people like know thyself and be free I think is the best way to phrase that I am someone who we used to try and hire consultants and train them up and honestly we did a dang good job, but I got to a level as the company grew where I'm like We just need people who are already expert consultants that can come in at the level that we need. And so even though I might love to develop people, I think also looking at the size of your practice to see, is this a position that we have the space to grow them? Like if I'm a brand new practice owner, trying to grow and develop an office manager, probably not a great idea. Like that's hard. And that person also, you have to look at too, the ROI of this position that, well, I might not feel like I can afford it. they're actually going to bring money like a very experienced office manager who knows how to bill and knows how to close cases. Even though they're very expensive with air quotes around it because you're brand new will pay undue dividends. Just like when I hire, I remember hiring my first treatment coordinator. I looked at her in the interview and I was like, listen, her name was Kristen. I still remember this. And I'm like, Kristen, I begged our doctor to like stamp off and let me hire you, but you have three months to prove yourself. Otherwise I have to fire you. Like literally can't afford you for three months beyond this. So, but you should. I mean a treatment coordinator should be putting money on our books. Kristen was amazing. She paid for herself ten times over but it's that like risk too. So, when you look at this of do we have the time to train them? Do I have the skill set to train them? And is our business like for us? Training consultants right now does not make sense. I can't teach a consultant. how to run a $6 million business that sells to a DSO and get them trained up to that level of expertise. That's something we've outgrown the training space. So now we need to bring in expert consultants that have been there, done that, done that successfully rather than trying to convince them. So I think it was a really solid point you had on that. But Kristy, what happens when you as a consultant know that this doctor could train someone? So for example, like a dental assistant, like we could train them. but the doctor maybe just doesn't want to, but they don't really have the funds to pay for the higher level. especially like a dental assistant. I'm like, dental assistant is not necessarily gonna put money on my books. They might make me move faster if I have a highly trained one. Like that is, it's nice to have, but what do you do on that type of a practice that like you as a consultant are looking at the numbers and like, maybe we should try to train this person up. What are your thoughts on that? Kristy (05:34) Yeah, well, to back up, think speaking to what you were talking about is what's the end result we're looking for and within what timeframe, right? Because again, realistically, if we need, if we're a startup and we need butts in the chair, we've got to be producing. We don't have time to train someone up, right? And if a doctor isn't really that great at it, we've got to find different solutions for acquiring that person. And I think reaching out to your team members to find ⁓ their resources, who do they know? Who can we tap in that maybe they know and worked with and has been successful, right? And bring them on. But also I do believe we have to have a good onboarding process with expectations. You know, what by when and set them out. not just for the person coming on, but for team members to enroll them in helping them too. Kiera Dent (06:38) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kristy, brilliant point on that of like onboarding expectations. What results do we want by when? And I think that also is probably like the pivotal piece when we're looking at this of what is our result? When do we need it by? That way we can see like who should I really hire of all my candidates? And then I loved how you said like, let's figure it out. You and I were in a practice together and we were like, okay, what sets us apart? Why should people want to work with us? And then who do we want to hire? and this office, they like run on roller skates. So I'm like, put that in the ad, say like, we run fast and hard. We don't want people that like, if you don't love spinning around like 50 plates going in the air, this is not the place for you. And it's been crazy, because like, that really does speak to, now the person who wants that is going to come rather than just hoping and praying. ⁓ But Kristy, what do you do like this office? The one I'm thinking of this doctor, it would, it just like the cards were falling left and right. Like every time we'd get on a call, was another team member was gone. And just so you know, this is not just isolated to this doctor. Kristy and I have seen this over our careers. Like this happens. It just comes in waves. And then we're like, we sit here and giggle empathetically. It's like, gosh, like this is just so frustrating. And it's like a giggle of like, I don't know what else to do. I'm either going to cry or I'm going to laugh with you. So like, let's choose the laugh and figure it out. What do you say to those offices? Like when it feels like, Okay, I'm putting the ads out. I know who I want. I've got my onboarding expectations. Like I literally can't find anybody. What do you do in that spot? Or like where should they even go? So first of all, I guess question A is where should we be posting these ads? What can we be doing to hire? So all of our fishing rods are out there. And then part B will be like, what do we do when all fishing rods are out there, but we're just not getting bites? So where do you recommend fishing rods should go to find people? Kristy (08:08) Yeah. Yeah, well first off with your team, who do they know? Who can they reach out to? What are the resources they have? Also schools in your area, know, they may have contacts, not necessarily new grads, because this doctor didn't need a new grad for sure, but they might have relationships still with part of their ⁓ alumni, if you will. and or lists of their names that they could reach out, you could solicit, you just never know. And I don't mean solicit in a bad way, because there could be people that are out there working, but aren't happy where they're at and are looking for something a little bit different. Or they're happy but want growth opportunities, you know? So again, pull your resources, look at your teammates, and don't think just my assistants. It could be an admin team member, it could be a hygienist that worked great people before. ⁓ The other areas, obviously, if I wasn't looking for somebody that was hugely experienced and I had the ability to train, I like looking at restaurant servers or you find people that have great customer service and are willing to go the extra mile. I love dangling a carrot out there and not only dangling the carrot, like promoting them as well. Like, hey, you are a fantastic server. If you know any friends that are just like you, have those qualities and are looking for a career, I would love, you know, to have you give them my card. And sometimes you'll do that and they'll look at you and go, well, why not me? You know, and you just found someone. So. Kiera Dent (10:17) Exactly. Kristy (10:20) Those are a couple avenues. know you have some as well. ⁓ Kiera Dent (10:24) Yeah, Kristy, I love that you talk about that. And I love that you're scrappy like this. And if you're hearing Kristy's voice, Kristy loves where she's at. She loves, like, I just feel the love and compassion and just like helping team members feel that. And I think when you can convey that, it really is an easier path to get people to want to work with you. ⁓ dentistry is so small and I feel like we're a nice patchwork quilt where we're all somehow connected. Like we have the oddest family tree where every single person, I mean, Kristy and I, Kristy's like, hey, I met you a few years ago. And I was like, this is really funny. I literally have an email from you in my inbox, but yet our worlds came back around a few years later. So just remembering like we all, and once you start brainstorming with your team, people are usually like, my gosh, I know this person or hey, I live next door to a hygienist. Let me ask them or hey, what about this person? And so I agree, Kristy, like the power of networking. And like, I remember we went to, I was in a drive-through and there was this girl who was like, amazing at customer service. It was at a fast food restaurant drive through and I just handed my business card to her and was like, girl, you're incredible. Like if you're ever looking for something or know someone who's just like you, have them call us. And this girl did call me like it's wild Shelby, who if you've met her in our company, literally my next door neighbor, she wanted my plants and knocked on our door. So look and hunt for good people all the time and always, always, always be on the hunt. I think let's not get ourselves into these pickles where we meet people. but let's always be recruiting, always be looking for great people. And then of course I'm here for like writing really awesome ads. So we love using a company called Ava HR. We have a promotional code through Dental A Team. I've negotiated down to get you the best pricing, but you can post one ad and it will like, you can post how many ads you want and it's just one monthly fee. So I'm really big also though of like, this is where I put my fishing bait. I'm out there putting like a bunch of different titles to see who's applying to my different ads. based on the title because just like podcast episodes, it's interesting. Shelby and I went and pulled like the most downloaded ones and it does not matter the content, it matters the title. And so same thing with your ads, like yes, that's going to attract somebody. So put really awesome titles and see like we have tried different ones to pull in consultants and the one that works best is usually like a regional manager or a consultant, like looking for something different. That one tends to pull me my best candidates, but I've tried office manager. I've tried treatment coordinator. I've tried like. but until you know a bait works in your area, you've got to try them out. So that's why I really love that. Talk to your reps. Reps are connected. Doctors talk to people on the golf course. Like it's shocking how many dentists have come from golf course conversations that I've seen looking in your area. And just like you said, service industry, some of my absolute best office managers are bankers. So they're coming from banking and some of our best schedulers actually came from like tanning salons or hair salons that were super busy. Lots of high-end customer service moving really quickly. ⁓ but those are some of the best places. So I think like, get your fishing poles out there, start looking and then like, don't stop. Don't just like throw the fishing pole out there and hope and pray that the bait stays. Watch it, constantly update it, stay top of mind with people because just because you had a conversation with your team today doesn't mean they remember in a week from now. So making sure it's like top of mind, this is who we're looking for. If you know anybody, you see anybody and it's crazy because all of a sudden. like little bubbles just show up in your world and people show up. So I think brilliant ideas on that, Kristy. So then part two of that question was what happens? Like, I honestly think it's just patience. So it's okay to just say patience. Like people want immediate results. And so what do we do in that interim when it feels like we're getting no bites, we're doing everything, we're talking to people. Well, A, it's cause your pipeline wasn't built. So. Just once you hire people, they'll stop doing all these things you were doing to find people. So like, we'll just put that plug in there. But what do you do? What do you tell clients when they just feel like they cannot find anybody? So they're getting desperate. They're getting snootier. Like, sorry, doctors, you do get grumpy when you don't have team members. I do too. So it's not just you. I do too. What do you do to keep their mindset or what can they do to bridge that gap that you've seen work really well for your practices? Kristy (14:36) Yeah, two things and I had a tie in to the last thing we were talking about one other Avenue that has worked really well for us. Doctors also kind of dig their heels in and resist but make a video. Doctor make a video, right? And if you guys have local Facebook groups that are for dental, post the videos on there. Have the doctor speaking with you know, hey, if you like this, come work with me. Kiera Dent (14:44) yeah. my god, yes. Kristy (15:05) My team, we want you, you know? We've seen it work. Kiera Dent (15:08) Hmm. We have seen her and Kristy, great job on that. And doctors like, but I'm not like out there. Like, I don't like to myself out there. I'm like, good, post just that. Like who you are is going to attract the person that you want. And notice this, even Kristy and I on this roof, like we podcasting right now. We work together with the offices. Even right here, we're spurring different ideas, talking to each other. And this is what happens in your team. It's like popcorn. So it's like, what idea could we have here? my gosh, that's going to lead to this idea. wait, what about this? my gosh, what if we did this like hygienist? I have an office and they literally do CE for hygienist in their area. You could do CE for doctors in your area. And then at the end, you just say like, Hey, we're always looking for hygienist. If you know anyone that like would love to be a part of what we're doing, we'd love to meet them. That office literally gets like three or four hygienist resumes at the end of every one of their CE conferences because people want to be with them. So it's again, like where are these people? How can we attract them? But right here, Kristy and I were like, cool, we got that. And they're like, wait, this is another idea. wait, what about this? I just realized like once you start brainstorming, more ideas come from you. And I think let's not look like, let's ask better questions. Questions of like, where do these people hang out? Where does my avatar hang out? Where's like another cabbage patch I could go find that maybe we haven't thought of that might be like out of the box thinking. Where is this profile, like personality type, not profiling, but personality type. Where does this person hang out? Where do they like to be? where can we go for this? That's what I'm gonna start to like think about. That's where the brainstorming happens. And this is where I feel like you are able to win when other people are just posting an Indeed ad and walking away. You're literally got like 10 fishing lines out there. Other ways you can do it that way too. So kudos on the brainstorm session, Kristy. I love it. Kristy (16:52) Yeah. Sounds good. And to your point, if they're not finding who they want, I like to redirect them and focus on what can we do right now while we're looking for this person. And like you say, continuously looking. think about the tools you have within your practice. Like, could we use Mr. Thirsty and maybe not have to have the extra set of hands right now or, you know. I mean, there's just so many different solutions. Is there a hygienist maybe that would be willing to come work as an assistant or, you know, we've got to be creative. Kiera Dent (17:25) And I think, yeah, and Kristy, when you said that, like, I think it's important not to say no, right? It's very easy to give that pushback, like, no, I don't want to do this. I understand, and Kristy understands that you...
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Marketing Advice Your Practice Can’t Do Without
09/02/2025
Marketing Advice Your Practice Can’t Do Without
Dental A-Team’s marketing mastermind Eve joins Tiff on the pod to discuss the top marketing strategies that can be easily implemented in your practice. They touch on social media, offline marketing, retention, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am in the studio air quotes there because you know, we're in two different places I say that all the time, but I am in the studio with someone very very special today and I'm so excited I just I adore this human being more than I think she will ever know I think she thinks she knows how much I adore her but she has no freaking idea And I'm so excited to bring her here with you guys today. And I always bring my consultants and they are by far and away the A team and they make the Dental A Team who we are. And I'm always just so happy to bring them to you. But today you guys, I have the most amazing human being. I have Eve with us. And some of you may know Eve's name. ⁓ All of you likely see her handiwork every single week in your inboxes, in your email. ⁓ invitations, if you're part of our doctors groups, you are seeing her sprinkles of fairy dust and everything that the Dental A Team puts out, our logos, everything that we do. Eve is our marketing genius behind the scenes and she hates that term, but she really is our marketing genius. I have. Eve, I'm just so happy to have you here. Like I could sit here and talk about you for the whole podcast and the amazing things that you've been able to do with us and for us. But first and foremost, massive welcome, massive thank you for taking this on. This is not, you love to be behind the scenes, but being in the face of everything is not your favorite space. And I somehow convinced you to do this. And Eve, thank you so much. And how are you today? How excited are you to be here with all of us? Eve (01:37) I am equally excited and nervous to be here. This is definitely one of the things that I had to challenge myself to do. you know what? It scares me and it's something new that I've never done before. So ⁓ let's do it. The Dental A Team (01:52) I'm so excited. for all of our listeners, if you've ever attended one of our monthly webinars, we do free webinars so everybody knows every single month. It's the third Thursday every month. Eve actually, that's her. She is responsible for those. She puts them on. You've probably heard her amazing voice on there and maybe even seen her face a time or two, but that is the handiwork of Eve. And I know most of the content and most of the stuff, the engagement that you're seeing is put on by the consultants, but I want you guys to know Eve is freaking brilliant. She is a mastermind and she has so many tools in her tool belt. And honestly, she, and I are constantly just in awe. Eve of the, we've told you this before, where we'll create content now, you guys. we, Kiera and I create the content. We're like, yep, let's rock and roll. And we send it over to Eve and I'm like, my God, I didn't even think of that. Like she's thinking of like dental things for us now too, because. You've just done so much of it with us and you pour your heart and your soul into everything that you do. And I think when it comes to a great marketer, that is a massive piece of what really makes you shine and makes the company that you're working with or for truly shine as well is that you pour your heart and soul in there and you become who you're working with and you become that piece of content and you just embody it and you literally, like, ⁓ it makes me think of like Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey does really, really well studying everything that he's going to his characters, right? So he does all the studying and he literally becomes them. And I've watched documentaries about him where he's like this different human. And that's what I imagine you doing Eve, when you go in and you do all of our content and all of our slideshows, our decks, all of that. You just become that content and you make everything just shine a little bit brighter. So massive kudos to you. Huge thank you and. Again, thank you for doing this podcast with me, you guys. This is gonna be huge. Obviously we're doing it about marketing. I get so many questions about marketing and if you know I love marketing, it just lights up my soul, I don't know why. I love changing something a little bit to get a different result and to see what happens and use different words, use different tools, and it really, really lights my soul on fire. I get asked a lot of marketing questions and something that even just what you talked about right now when we're prepping for this, I'm like, gosh, I actually get asked these questions constantly and I get asked for marketing companies. We have a ton we can recommend. We have time we work really closely with, but Eve, I really, really wanted you to come in today and really help us narrow down some effective marketing strategies that you've seen that you think can translate very easily to dental practices. We are a dental consulting company. So our marketing might be a little bit like a smidgen different than an actual dental practice, but I think that a lot of it translates and marketing is marketing in my opinion. So there's a million things. And I think there's two that you just talked with me about that I want those to be like, this is the meat of it. But one question I get asked a lot that I wanna pick your brain on and I want just like, put this out there. And first off, before we even get started, everyone know Eve is like, She told you she is equally as excited as she is nervous. And she is really, really fantastic at making sure that anything that goes out is as accurate as possible. So just know this is coming from ⁓ her marketing brain, The learning, the training, everything that she's got behind her and also opinions. Like these are things that we've... tested, these are things that we've done, things that she's done, whether it's with our company or not, and opinions that we have on things that could or could not work. So with that said, one of the biggest questions I get asked is social freaking media. do I, dental practices on social media. And there's a whole bunch of different avenues for that and a whole bunch of different genres of dental practices. think I see like cosmetic practices or these smile design practices, obviously, they're gonna get a good foothold and it's going to be more important for them to be on social media. But something Eve that I've always thought or been told is that for a general dental practice, your social media is really there to help boost SEO and it's really there to like get in front of your patients. It's not necessarily going to be something great to get in front of people who don't know you. And I think of that because I think of like the stretch within the country. of how many people are randomly coming across social media accounts, what's your opinion on social media and dentistry? Eve (06:29) ⁓ Well, think first and foremost, think social media is very important. And no, first and foremost, thank you so much for all the kind words. Thank you. Is this episode about me? That's great. Glad I came. Now, I do think that social media is very... And I think that more and more dentists are realizing now that social media is super important, is one of the main pillars of marketing. Because if people don't know that you exist, they're never going to come to your door. ⁓ The Dental A Team (06:36) Of course, of course. Yes. Eve (06:59) One mistake that I think many ⁓ business owners in general do is they treat social media purely as a sales tool. ⁓ Social media can be that if you play it right, but it's more about awareness. It's more about building that trust with your community. It's about ⁓ showing like how you show up for your community. actually, my dentist, ⁓ I love their social media. They really just, their social media makes me feel like we are best friends. ⁓ Like even seeing the familiar faces, ⁓ just seeing everything that they do kind of on a day to day or them taking me behind the scenes and stuff. It's really, something that really does build that trust with the audience. The Dental A Team (07:40) Yeah, what is it for for dental practices? like you said, like sales, they're using it for sales. Are they going to gain new patients from it? What should it be used for? Eve (07:51) You definitely can get new patients from it, but ⁓ for, if we're talking about acquisition, I would definitely recommend running ads. So your feed is not just basically covered with, I don't know, promo on whitening. And then the next post is ⁓ kids are going back to school, book your checkup and stuff like that. ⁓ Social media is to build that trust with the community, to kind of show who you are to them enough that they are going to like you and they're going to trust you and they're going to come to you. After all, feel like dentistry is a very, and I don't think people really think about it this way, but it's a very kind of like intimate service really. ⁓ So I think that trust is just very, ⁓ very important. The Dental A Team (08:36) Thank you. Yeah. And what I'm gathering there is that it should be a reflection of who you are. So who your practice is. And I think that kind of flows into a lot of podcasts that we've done on really knowing who you are, how you want to show up in the world. So what your core values are, what your mission and your vision are. And I feel like then if your social media is speaking to that, it's kind of as just putting yourself on display rather than saying, please come schedule. hate, I hate, like I always think of like the Easter bunny, right? And the like Easter bunny picture that everybody posts. It's like happy Easter. And it's like everybody posted that or happy St. Patrick's Day and it's the little leprechaun. And it's like, huh, just be different. Like do a picture of your team with little leprechaun hats on and say happy St. Patrick's Day. Like do bunny ears on the doctor and not this like stock photo that everyone's using and then following it up with, by the way we've got a whitening special for wedding season. Like everybody's doing that. So I love the way you said that. Eve (09:40) Yeah. And I would challenge anyone that's listening to it to kind of try to be themselves for a minute and try to actually present themselves the way they are. Not what, not in the way that everybody else expects them to be. Like you're saying, it's, don't know, Christmas is coming. Everybody's posting happy Christmas from X, Y, and Z. ⁓ dental try to be different, try to, try to do what you as a person would do because that there is a massive chance that whatever you do or whoever you are will actually. really make someone relate to you ⁓ even more. The Dental A Team (10:12) Yeah. And you're trying to attract that patient avatar of the patients that you want, not everyone you're trying to, you're trying to narrow down your niche. So thank you. Perfect. ⁓ massive piece that I wanted to chat about B and I actually just got off a call this morning, ⁓ with a client and she had asked me for ideas on this and, ⁓ really just like boots on the ground marketing is what I like to call it and community outreach. And I love that style of marketing, especially for practices that are in a really community based town. like LA, maybe not like as many things to do, but there's still some, think boots on the ground style marketing you can do, but especially for those rural cities or rural communities within a big city that can do that kind of community outreach. What do you feel, how relevant do you feel? that is or earlier you called it like offline marketing. How relevant do you feel that is? Because I do feel like a lot of marketing companies even are pushing so much online, so many Google ads, so much SEO and everything is like this online presence. And I do believe in Google ads and I do believe in Google reviews to boost all of that, but there's still gotta be something else that can go in. Eve (11:05) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (11:28) line with it, but what are you seeing that works really well or experiencing yourself? Eve (11:33) 100%. And I think, and that's something that I mentioned to you earlier, that I feel like so many dental practices move online so much that there was so much room in offline marketing. There was this whole pool that is basically uncovered. And I brought an example of myself where I really, I do love my dentist and if he's listening, I love you, but I have moved. I have moved. now it means that it's like a 45 minute trip for me to go and visit my dentist. The Dental A Team (11:55) Yeah. Eve (12:02) I'm on a lookout for a new dentist. And what I've noticed is ever since I moved, I've been getting flyers from literally everyone with my name on it. So obviously they have access to my name, my address and everything. I've got flyers from the pest control guys, from people that are offering to fix my roof. People that are doing landscaping, driveways, everything else. I have not received a single one from a dentist. And this is someone that I actually genuinely need. So I know my job now is to go on Google. The Dental A Team (12:31) Yeah. Eve (12:32) run all those reviews and pick a new dentist ⁓ that I hope that I can trust. But that kind of shows that there is that massive gap, really. Because if you were in my area, so if you're in South Ogden, Utah, look. Yeah. The Dental A Team (12:48) I have a dentist for you. I didn't know that's where you moved. I have a dentist for you, but go on, go on. Eve (12:55) Perfect. So if you're in this area anyway, just know that there is zero offline ⁓ competition for you. So you can for sure attack this area. ⁓ But seriously though, I feel like he has that everything is moving online so much that there was more room again for offline marketing or even when it comes to like community ⁓ inspired initiatives. ⁓ The Dental A Team (13:16) Yeah. Eve (13:21) You know, and you can be as creative as creative as you want. I've seen one dental practice around dropping like toothbrushes. think their slogan was smile more or something like that. And they were dropping toothbrushes and they were hanging them in, in a little bags on door handles of the houses. ⁓ so even doing things like that as well, even though obviously it might be a little, you know, it might be time consuming. It might need a lot of planning, but those things do, they might not get you up. The Dental A Team (13:36) ⁓ smart. Eve (13:48) They might not get you a new patient right away, but they slowly build up that kind of trust or it slowly shows people that, hey, we are in your community. We're serving your neighbors. The Dental A Team (13:57) Mm-hmm. I could see that. Yeah, I think a lot of dental practices pulled back from the flyers and they became, I don't know, think that, I think in the, I know when I was in practice, when we were in, we did thousands, we would do drops of thousands of these. flyers and they would come back. would get the fly with the patients would bring them in. They would get them. But it takes so many times for those to get in front of someone before they're ready to call. And they would say, you know, I've had this here for six months and it's been hanging on my fridge and I finally decided to call or I was finally due for my cleaning that I think people just got they shied away. They got scared of it and felt that the ROI might not have been there, especially when maybe like the marketing marketing budget, there's so much of the marketing budget going to Google Ads and going to website revamps and a lot of marketing companies just to host the website. It's a huge chunk of the marketing budget anymore that I think they stopped doing so many of those styles of marketing. But I can think of actually a handful of clients right now that could probably benefit from that. And especially Eve, like you're saying now in a saturated market in Utah, is a very saturated dental market. If you're not receiving those and you're kind of looking out for them, that is a huge untapped area that those dentists could probably get. Yeah. Yeah. Just waiting. Eve (15:23) I would be a very easy patient to just tip over. I'm literally, I'm here right now. Just come. I'm literally just waiting. Yeah. But also what you mentioned, I think is really important when, when you said that, they might get a flyer and then they might get something else. Those are called touch points. And right now it's, it's proven that it takes seven to 12 touch points to actually convert a lead, which is like the patient to be, if you will. So now imagine how many. The Dental A Team (15:32) Yeah. Yeah. Eve (15:52) how many in how many different areas you need to do those touch points to get in front of those people. ⁓ For example, you I'll give I'll give you my example. Let's say I got that flyer a week later when I see the same practice on social media, I'm going to probably pay a little bit more attention. Right. I'm going to go on Google and check their Google reviews, check out their websites, see what they do, see, look at the doctors, see if I think that I will actually gel with any of the doctors. ⁓ The Dental A Team (16:09) Yeah. Eve (16:21) And so all of that are little touch points that actually lead to me picking up that phone and scheduling my first appointment with them. So it's not, you know, like, obviously sometimes it might happen, but usually it's not just one thing. It's a combination of a lot of, a lot of things. And that's obviously that's, that's work. And that's, you know, that's going to take up a chunk of your ⁓ marketing budget. ⁓ But it's definitely something that, something that works. The Dental A Team (16:48) Yeah, yeah, I love that you said that I talked to practices about that constantly that it takes seven up to I think you said 12 and I've heard 13 times. And that's I talked to them about that for treatment planning. So if a patient needs treatment, like we're telling them multiple times, or speaking in or around it, we're not saying you need a crown seven times, we're saying like, there's something going on here, because of that same reason. And I tell them I use the example of social media and you're scrolling on social, you're on Instagram, right? And you're like, ⁓ you like slow down because you're like, that's a cute pair of leggings. Like, and then you're like, gosh, it's an ad. So you scroll faster, right? But then the leggings come up again. And then it's like a different picture of the leggings. It's a different girl wearing the leggings, but it's the same leggings. And then all of sudden you're like so many times over, you're like, this is a sign I'm supposed to have these leggings. And now you're clicking on the boutique and you're like, am I buying these leggings? And next thing you know, the leggings are on their way, right? You had no inclination, you did not go on social media to find leggings, but the leggings found you. And that's what that marketing is. It's like so many touch points, right? Yes, that's how they get you. And that's kind of, that's also what we're working against, right? Because that $30 pair of leggings that I just bought off Instagram that I have no idea if they're good or not, could have been a copay for a dental appointment too. So if we're not getting in front of...
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The Tool to Making Those Difficult Conversations Easy
08/28/2025
The Tool to Making Those Difficult Conversations Easy
Kiera talks about the concept “going into the storm,” aka how to approach those difficult conversations with team members, and how this builds trust as a practice. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I think is gonna be a really, really, really beneficial conversation. This is something that I've worked with tons of offices on. It's something that I feel is such a good just reminder of the type of practice, the type of leader that we wanna be. So, and it's called going into the storm, how to have hard conversations with your team and actually making them easy. So with that, ⁓ this is like, it's just random. So Buffalo, ⁓ I I'm going straight into a story for you. Why not? Happy dental day. Happy everything for you. But when Buffalo, there's a storm coming. So they watch this, basically like Yellowstone area over like the Rocky Mountains. When a storm comes, they've watched Buffalo behavior. What Buffalo do is they actually, the storm's coming at them, like these big, we're talking like a big, snowy, scary, terrifying storm, blinding. They can't see. I've been in some of these storms. Buffalo actually turn. face the storm and walk through the storm. Like they literally go into the storm, whereas cows, what they do when the storm's coming, they see it and they actually pivot and they run away from the storm. And what's interesting is the buffalo, when they go and they hit it head on, they're actually able to get through the storm and be able to come out on the other side faster and with less like heartache and burn on them versus the cows that are actually in the storm so much longer because they avoided it. And then they actually, the storm just like goes with them for much, much longer rather than hitting it head on and taking it on. So when we talk about this in teams and kudos to an awesome doctor up in New York, he's the one who introduced me to this. We talk about it in all of his practices. His practices are thriving. We've taken this to other offices. We do it within our company, but it's where can we go into the storm in our practices? Where are we avoiding conversations where if we would just have them head on, we'd actually be able to move it so much faster and further ahead. And I think about this a lot of like those storms, if you realize, are actually the things that are the building blocks of gaining greater trust and vulnerability with each other. So we go to Patrick Lincione's five dysfunctions of a team. The bottom layer is trust and vulnerability. Then the next layer is healthy debate. Then the next layer is commitment. Then it's peer to peer accountability. And then it's results in winning. So if we look at all that, we break it down. People who go into the storm that's building trust and vulnerability and it's having a healthy debate. versus those who avoid it or are avoided. Like it actually just makes it last longer. And I my little sister said, she's like, here, it's like 10 seconds of courage to overcome these things. And when you look at other opportunities and other stories and other scenarios, when people go into the storm, they walk out on the other side and they're like, gosh, I'm so glad I had that conversation. Even though it was a hard conversation, it ends rather than being avoided on it. And so having those... All it does is it's going to build resentment when we are like the cattle and you're in it so much longer and it's more exhausting for you and it's more draining on you rather than turning it and going into the storm. So in your practice, I have some offices who have literally made like hats, t-shirts, swag, and they say go into the storm. And I think it's a really good reminder. And I'm even tempted to do it in our company. So like, Hey team listening, ⁓ I really think it's an awesome idea to just wear shirts, to make bracelets, to have it on a hat of go into the storm. So you're reminding yourself that you're always going into the storm. I want to have this ⁓ conversation because true leaders go into the storm. Those who are followers avoid. And I just want you to realize like, who am I and what am I doing and what's my behavior? And so this healthy debate or healthy conversation actually allows for more direct conversation and builds trust and it builds a stronger practice. And it's wild because I had an office, we talked about this and we talked about their quarterly meeting. And then three months later, I asked them how they're doing in their life. We've been going into the storm so much more. And when I talked to this office manager, she's like, Kiera, it's crazy how many times I need to go into the storm and how many times I was avoiding it in the past. But now that it's on the forefront of my mind, I'm thinking about it more. I'm doing it more. And I'm actually making it to where it's just better experience for me. So the dentistry team, our job is to like make your life easier. Our job is to make you more profitable, less stress, better patient experience. But when we make changes or when we do things in offices, We've got lots of different behaviors in the practice. So we're going to have lots of different people there, which in that case, we're bound to have conversations that don't match. We're bound to have conflict. We're bound to have people that like, there's just going to be a misalignment, which is going to have the opportunity for frustration, confusion, chaos. And so when we have these conversations, when we teach you and your teams how to do this, your team actually flows. This is how we get flow in a practice. This is how we get ease. And actually, instead of having artificial harmony, we actually have true harmony in our practice. And this will actually apply to your personal life. ⁓ Me, I have two sisters, so hello, welcome to three. There's always an odd man out or odd woman, if you will. And one of my little sisters, we realized that there was some pretty awesome opportunities for some healthy debate. My family is really solid on people pleasing. We think that that's the right way to go. Seven kids don't make a big mess, like it's fine. And I've noticed the more I coach and the more my company and the more I work with teams, the less and less tolerant I am to people pleasing and not having conversations when they need to happen. And I remember my little sister and I was for my birthday. ⁓ She's 15 years younger than me. So life lessons, like I've clearly had a lot more life than she has. And ⁓ we went into the storm and my little sister felt like maybe I didn't like her and We talked about it and I remember telling her, I waited about a week and I said, hey, Leticia, are you open to a conversation? And she said, yeah. I said, let's talk about what happened. And I helped her realize that like me having that kind of a conversation with her, like, let me know how it landed because in no way, or form, do I want to be rude or aggressive or anything like that. Cause I know I can have a bit more bold of personality site if you couldn't guess. I'm sure all of you can guess that. And I told her, said, like, Me coming to you and having that conversation actually is me wanting to build more trust with you. So that way we can have conversations. You can tell me what you're feeling. I can tell you what I'm feeling and we don't have to sit here wondering and guessing or talking through other people. And I was actually like really, really proud of my little sister who's 23. Actually she just turned 24. But at 24 to learn these life lessons. and to be open to it and to see that like going into the storm is not a bad thing, but it is uncomfortable because I think a lot of our lives and a lot of society has taught us to avoid to make sure people like us. But the real way for people to like us is to know that they trust us and that they can be real with us. So on that, this is something of like, Hey, if you're avoiding conversations or you're nervous about your leadership, this episode is your permission and your playbook to have these conversations and to truly go into the storm, to hit things head on and to not have the the problems last for so long. So step one is like, let's get the facts in the right intention. So I'm really big on like, when we're highly charged and we come in and we are berating people or we're being rude, that actually can damage a relationship. So like you can go into the storm, but the way we go into the storm, let's have finessing grace rather than like attack mode. So what are the facts of the situation? What happened? What was said, what was done and what's needed to resolve it. And then, excuse me, I'm really big on like say what needs to be said. So let's not just like go into it like, all right, facts are that you were a jerk, did this. Those are actually like someone being a jerk is not a fact. A fact is you said X, and Z on this date. This is how it landed. And these are the clear examples and we stay grounded. So this is where also metrics and KPIs are really great. So if your hygiene team is not hitting it, it's like the facts are that we're actually not hitting our three times our pay like we need to. We looked at all the open time in the schedule. So there's a scheduling issue. We also looked at what our dollar per procedure has been for each hygienist. And we know this hygienist is hitting it, this hygienist is not. We also looked at like what's going on within those and what are the procedure makeups? Do you see how many facts I just brought to the table? So instead of being the hygienist is like, well, you don't give us the time. We can't hit three times. It's like, okay, here's the facts. Here's the data to back it up. Now let's figure out a solution together to make sure that we're able to hit three times our pay. Cause we need to take care of our patients and we need to make sure like this is something other offices can do. So let's make sure we do it. And then what we're going to do is now that's like, we've got the right intention. And what I say is we spend like two minutes on talking about what the issue is very clearly clear as kind. And then we spend the rest of our conversation resolving it and finding solutions to it. So really the goal is to improve, it's not to shame or to blame or to nitpick that person's like, you did this. Like, no, that never is going to land well. That is one way to go into the storm, but that is not the best way to go into the storm. Like kudos, you actually have the combo. but it didn't land in a way that somebody felt respected, heard, and that they're able to accomplish it. So the next step is we have that, prepared our facts and our intention. Next step is going to be like to communicate clearly and directly. Like I said, clear is kind. So we can use words like I've noticed or help me understand, or I'd like to understand your perspective on this. And we speak with empathy and firmness. So it's like we address the behavior, not the person. So it's never like, well, Sarah, you're not hitting your three times a pay. It's like, hey, We've noticed this is happening. These are some of the facts. Help me understand what's going on so we can create a solution together to get to three times our pay. Notice on that, I did not tell them like this is open for negotiation, but I'm also not blaming you and telling you that you're wrong. It's like, hey, this is what's going on. Here are the facts. Help me understand your side. And then let's create a solution together that we both agree to that's going to be able to resolve this once and for all. ⁓ So when doctors and office managers come into it, I had a coach and she told me, always come from curiosity. So when we're going into these, from curiosity, that's going into the storm in a way that's going to yield a positive result. It's like, hey, help me understand, or like, I'd love to understand more about this, ⁓ or hey, help me see your side on this. I'd really love to understand where you're coming from. So a lot of it's like, help me understand, help me understand. I'd love to know more. ⁓ Help me see your perspective on this. I'd love to understand your side. And truly, we're now listening to understand. We're not listening to respond. And I hope you heard that you're listening to understand you're not listening to respond. And then from there, like honestly, I had a doctor, I giggle, I had a doctor who had to practice this with me. Like they literally had to sit there and have an uncomfortable conversation with me and they had to send me the video. So was like, how are you going to come into this? How are you going to approach it? How are you going to say like, help me understand this? How are you going to address the issue with facts? Help me understand more, Kiera. I remember the doctor said it to me and. I watched it I was like, my gosh, we have to this conversation again. Like I swear we just had this and I called the doctor and I said, hey, I got your message. Thank you for it. Like help me understand like what we need to resolve with this conversation. The doctor like, no, we don't resolve anything. You just told me I had to practice. So had to send you another video of this, but we are resolved. like, but notice how you even came into that. Like I'm annoyed. Like, my gosh, I have to freaking have this conversation again. But my ultimate intention is I want to get this resolved so it doesn't come up and I want to resolve it forever. And I really do want to understand what you're hearing, how this is landing so we can be on the same page. When we communicate, going to the storm for me is we are on the same page, we've made a resolve and we're committed to solving this forever. Notice, trust and vulnerability, then we go into healthy debate, then we go into commitment and then it's peer to peer so we can win. So on this, I'm like, my ultimate resolve is like, what do we need to commit to? What do we need to do to resolve this? Like what do need to hear? What do I need to understand? So that way you and I are on the exact same page. So then after that, we then are able to have a follow up and accountability. So once we have that, like I just said, like we had the conversation, we have the intention, we had the healthy debate, whatever it is we commit, we commit 100 % and what we're going to follow through on. So we have a culture of follow through accountability. So it's like amazing. This is what we agreed to. This is when we're going to get it done and this is what you need and this is what I need. And this is when we're going to... touch base and make sure it's good to go again. What I love is when these emails are like, you send this in a recap email form. So both of us, like there's no misunderstanding because what they've actually studied is people's memories are not actually real. We actually don't remember and we fabricate and we change. So like when you have eyewitnesses, actually not great witnesses because everybody's memories change all the time. So when we have black and white of a recap of, this is what we agreed to. This is what we said. These are the dates. Now there's no room for miscommunication. And also what I like to do is on this follow-up accountability, I like to ask them, like, hey, also, I just want to make sure that what I was trying to communicate is what you heard. ⁓ Help me understand, like, what did you hear and how did this land for you? So you say this with Vanessa, because someone might say, like, Kiera, I heard that you think I'm a terrible hygienist and I'm actually doing an awful job. At that point, it's like, thank you for telling me. ⁓ Once again. Help me understand what I said that made you feel that way, because that's not my intention at all. And I want to make sure we're on the same page. I appreciate you so much. So then they'll be like, well, when you said that I wasn't doing blah, blah, great. Well, now we can resolve it. We can fix it. Like, thank you. This is what I was trying to say. Is that more clear? Does that work? Are we on the same page? Then we have the follow up, the support. We follow through. We make sure it's going to be resolved forever. Now, this can be really awkward at first. This is not something that I feel people are naturally born with most of the time. And I think that this is something to practice. So what we've got to do is the three steps for these going into the storm is we prepare with facts. We communicate with clarity. We're like, it's very clear. Like, hey, here's it. We have the facts in our intention. We communicate clear as kind. This is the issue. This is the resolve. Let's work together to find a solution. And then we're having accountability follow-up to make sure that we're on the exact same page with that email recap. And like, perfect. Help me understand. We're coming from curiosity. This will help you have courageous, strong leader conversations. This will help you go into the storm more. And what's interesting is if you even want to take this podcast to your leadership team and help your whole leadership team hear this, like, we're going to go into the storm more this quarter. We're going to start practicing these conversations. We're going to start asking each other how it lands. What's amazing is within your office, it's like a little breeding group of everybody knows what's going on so I can practice on them. So then when I go to my family, it's not as awkward and I can start to have it. And what's interesting is you will actually start to have less and less tolerance for artificial harmony and more and more craving to be on the same page, to have this conversation, to make sure we're communicating on the same page that we're actually communicating. And we're not just trying to talk through a window, right? Like at the stoplight, when you see a car over there and you're like, hey, your music's great. And they're like, what? That's how oftentimes communication is versus like, let's roll down the windows. Let's truly communicate. Let's go into the storm. Let's hit these issues head on. hit the issues, not the person. Let's do it with poise, with finesse and grace. And you can even tell people like, hey, I'm practicing this. I heard it on a podcast. I'm not a hundred percent like great at this, but I'm going to do my best. And I want you to just give me feedback of how it landed for you so I can get better and better and better. This is where it's going to be where you can truly become an incredible leader. And I promise you, if you'll go into the storm, your life will be so much better. Let's get through it. Let's see that these are opportunities for you to grow all these storms, if you will. are opportunities of your soul to grow, to evolve, and to become the person you were meant to be. So see it as the opportunity, see these as great blessings, see them as worthy opponents, see it as like, my gosh, I get an opportunity to grow and become a better version of myself. Thank you for showing up, thank you for this opportunity, and become the leader that you were meant to be. So if you're avoiding a conversation right now, this is your sign to go into the storm, and I'm sure all of us have it. What is the storm that you need to go into? And honestly, you can DM us, like, difficult conversation guide. We have a whole recipe of how to have a hard conversation. ⁓ And we're happy to share that with you. So just message us or email us. [email protected] ⁓ This is where I want you guys like the podcast is here for leadership tools. It's for tactical practical pieces. And honestly, maybe send this episode to a...
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Which Is Better: Paying Employees Based Off Production or Collections?
08/27/2025
Which Is Better: Paying Employees Based Off Production or Collections?
Tiff and Kristy discuss the ongoing challenges of hiring, including how incentives and mentalities have shifted over the past five years — and what you, as someone hiring, can do about it. Part of the discussion includes the pros and cons of how to pay team members. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back today. I have Ms. Kristy again with me and we are just having a good old time over here recording ⁓ Love and Life and getting our time in together. I think you guys have heard us say it before. This is like, and I know Dana says the same thing, this is some of the only one-on-one time that we get in our lives. I don't know if you guys know this or not, but we are a completely virtual company, meaning we are all at our homes. We don't have like a workspace that we come to and then if you're a client of ours, you know, we're on calls or in offices quite a bit as consultants or our consulting team. We really just don't get a ton of time together. So these couple of hours that we bust out some podcasts are near and dear to our hearts and I just adore you Kristy and I appreciate you blocking out the time when your schedule always for it and for always just putting so much value into everything that you do. with your clients, with your podcasting, everything that you do. So Kristy, thank you so much. Thank you for being a part of the Dental A Team. Thank you for being here today. How are you? How are things going over there? DAT Kristy (01:09) Good, thank you for having me. It's wonderful. I love what I do serving people and it just brings great joy. So happy to be here with you. The Dental A Team (01:18) Amazing. Good. Thank you. And I have a question that I haven't asked you yet. How are, how's your family adjusting to the heat to being here and your puppy who's not necessarily a puppy anymore, but he'll always be a puppy. All your dogs, I guess, both your dogs, but how's everybody, how's everybody doing kind of getting settled into Arizona? DAT Kristy (01:40) Yeah, everybody's loving it. Thank goodness there's pools around so we can get cooled off. the dogs, they're definitely staying indoors right now. It's especially the little Frenchie, you know, that you have to be careful because they will overheat really easy. He's I can tell he's missing his walks right now, but they'll swim. The Dental A Team (01:46) Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, good, good. I had a black lab that hated water, like couldn't be anywhere near water, which is so not allowed. And summers were rough. He would get hot, but he wanted to be out there, but he was an Arizona born dog, so he was fine. But I was just thinking about earpups this morning, like, gosh, they're not used to not being able to just go outside and chill in the backyard for a couple hours. Well, I'm glad that they swim. I'm glad that they're enjoying that. DAT Kristy (02:25) So true. The Dental A Team (02:31) ⁓ and yeah, we're just, we're excited to bring you some information this, this day. We've got, gosh, what four podcasts for recording. So I'm super excited for them all to release and you guys, we always want you to know that these podcasts are for you. So if there's ever anything that you have hopes, wishes, desires, things you want us to talk about things that you want us to dive in deeper on, please just always reach out. [email protected]. We are always taking suggestions and we're always here to help. And also if there's anything that we say on these podcasts that we're like, we'll get you that. We really do mean that as well. have clients that write in all the time and say, Tiff said, and I'm like, sometimes my marketing team is like, what were you talking about? I don't know, but we figure it out. Whatever it is that we say that you can have, we want you to have it. We are here to deliver massive amounts of information to the dental community in the best ways possible and that. comes with a ton of free resources. That's our podcast, that's our sheets, our documents, our website. We have all kinds of stuff everywhere, our ⁓ social media, we're on Instagram and Facebook, like wherever you can find us, you're gonna find a slew of information. So we're here for you and when you're ready for one-on-one consulting and not just getting all the information on your own via the web, please reach out, [email protected]. We are so excited to serve all of you guys in whatever way fits you the best today. Kristy. I wanted to chat this podcast today. I've had, well, number one, I've had a lot of hiring in all of my practices. So I actually chatted with a doctor yesterday, a very successful doctor in Colorado, and he was like, Tiff, what the heck? Like, we lost another one. We just filled our hygiene spots and now we're in front office. And like, what is it? What's going on? He's like, just as soon as I feel like I'm making progress, someone leaves. And I said, you know what? And he's like, it's hard to not take it personally. That's what he said. And I said, you know what? I understand that. And I, and I feel that. And on the level of, you know, being a lead on a team, I don't own this company, but I have a lot of vested interest in this company and its success. And it's hard. And I said, we come from, we come from a time of, of being employees, right? When we were employees and we were working and, and our work ethic. Not even ethic, I don't even think it's ethic. Just like our tendency to stick around one place longer, is, it was there longer than it is now. So we just, we didn't leave. We stayed where we were. We became part of the family. We allowed work to become a bigger piece of our lives than it does for a lot of people in this day and age, in my opinion. I think that we, made work our, like we tied our identity to work. And so leaving was a bigger ⁓ undertaking than it is when you're not so tied to what your job is, your title is, or the place is. And it's much easier to say, you know what, I can, I want to grow into something different. I want to be someone different. I want to change. And so they do, they leave more easily. And I think from our point of view, it makes it really hard because we tied so many emotions to our job and our identity to our job that we're like, gosh, do they not like us? Do they not like where they work? Am I not doing good enough as an employer? But the reality is we've actually created an environment and ⁓ a social standing that people identify with who they are as a human outside of work better. than we ever have in our lives. So it's like a catch-22, no matter what, there's a pro and a con to everything. And the pro is that they're not so identity attached to their jobs or their titles. The con is that it's easy for them to jump ship and try something new. We're much more apt to dip our toes in and try that new thing. And so I think the hiring has just over the last, realistically five years, has had a lot more turnover and we spent a lot more time hiring. than we ever have in the past. And I could be making all of that up. That's my opinion. That's not like scientifically proven, but it's just something that I've noticed by studying people and studying myself as well. Like how am I transitioning? How am I changing my identity tools and all of those pieces as I watch the climates change so much. Kristy, what are your thoughts on that? I know we both have a lot of clients. I have experienced a lot of hiring this year. What are you seeing? DAT Kristy (07:11) 100 % exactly what you said Tiff and it is hard. It's a hard reality. I think ⁓ Back in college. I took sociology not that I really liked it But now I'm like man I wish I would have dug into it more because I think there is something with the new generation and ⁓ Not to go woo-woo, but I think there is something with those personalities. You know what I mean and It's kind of funny and listening to you talk about it because our generation is always like speaking to work-life balance, work-life balance, and I think the new generation actually has it figured out better. But we're angry at it. We want it and they're doing it. And I get it. And I also get it because of being in a, in a practice administration role. Like it's hard hiring and training and retraining and hiring. And so I think ⁓ we've got to find a way to maneuver around that easier versus ⁓ taking it so personal and choosing to see it as a good thing. Maybe not necessarily a thing, but yeah. The Dental A Team (07:50) Mm-hmm. agree. Yeah, that was beautifully said. You're totally right. I love that you said you pointed out the work life balance because I agree and I whenever I hear the words work life balance now I think of that like yeah, I'm like it's like that live laugh love that we had all over our houses like every room had a live laugh love sign somewhere and it's like so outdated and overplayed when I hear the words work life balance. I'm like, my gosh, like stop saying that just have balance. just have balance balance balance. If you continue separating work and life. and not understanding that it's one, you're one person, you're gonna continue to be out of balance. So just have balance. And I think you're right. think they've, lot of people have found that balance where neither tips the scale and they just understand their boundaries and their priorities a little better than maybe we did when we were their ages. So there's our spiel on that. But one of the... DAT Kristy (09:10) I was gonna tell you, it's kind of ironic, I'm spilling the beans and being vulnerable now, but my daughter's in dentistry, you I roped her into it. And so I hear it from her often, mom, it's not my life, like it is yours. And I was like, ⁓ stab me, right? Like, it's so true. So I'm living it. The Dental A Team (09:32) Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah, so you're seeing it firsthand. You're seeing it with your practices and just watching, but then also within your own home. So I totally get that. And I have a actually happy practice out in Rhode Island near and dear to my heart. The office manager's daughter is their billing rep. And I see the same kind of conversations, the office manager and like stop taking work home, like just do it at work. And then her daughter is like, why are you working at home? Like put it away. And so I do, I see that same dynamic there. And I think, I actually think the ages are about the same, like you guys are both in the same spaces there. ⁓ So it's interesting, but I think with that conversation, doctors oftentimes and office managers are like, what can we do more of? What can we do better? How can we offer things differently? And the hygiene market is wild still, okay? It's 2025, I don't know when you're listening to this, but I hope if it's years from now, things are better. Because the hygiene market is still a little wild. It's just still hard to find hygienists So if you're listening to this now like go apply to hygiene school because the demand is high Go get your degree go do your thing and come out a hygienist, but we oftentimes get asked for provider information on pay, right? And so we have a couple of different scenarios a couple different options. I Mean dollar per hour still near and dear to my heart when it comes to employees. I think that it just I just, for me, it's an ease of life. It's just easier. And so I love dollar per hour, but I do like the stipulation that a provider should be making three to 3.5 times their rate of pay in order to pay for themselves so that the overhead doesn't get out of control. So dollar per hour, three to 3.5 times their rate of pay. You've got to do the digging on what your area. is hiring at or what they're paying their hygienist or their dental assistants, whomever, because it does change, it does differ by area. More rural is going to be maybe a little less, city life is probably going to be a little more, Indianapolis compared to Phoenix, compared to San Francisco, compared to, I don't know, New Mexico, right? They're all going to be very different rates of pay. So I can always, you know, we can always spew out some numbers to you, but Google is a really fantastic tool and Salary.com gets it right every single So go check those for sure dollar per hour and then I really wanted to chat a little bit and we talked about this a little bit ahead of time me and Kristy did on paying based off of production or collections and in my opinion I've seen this I've seen this and in my opinion it's kind of the same structure that you would give to an associate so Don't over complicate it a lot of practice owners a lot of office managers like to over complicate it so just don't do that and pay like you would an associate? What would that look like? What would those stipulations be? What would the percentage of production or collections look like? ⁓ And pay based off of that. There are pros and cons, right, to everything. And I think there are pros and cons to paying off of production or collections. And Kristy, I think I'd love to hear from you on that production-based pay, because I know that you've seen that and worked with some clients that have done that. What are some things that you've seen that work well? Why? Some clients, like I've had clients recently ask, should I move to a percentage structure rather than a salary or a dollar per hour? What do you see work well within that percentage structure on production or collections? Like you said earlier, I do think collections is a little bit more difficult for providers, especially for hygienists that don't have a lot of say in that, but production-based maybe as well. Kristy, what are your thoughts? DAT Kristy (13:08) Yeah. To be honest with you, this is something a little near and dear to my heart. And I think we will probably see ⁓ a little more of it just with, ⁓ I don't want to get in the political things, but we know that there are some states looking at assistance getting into hygiene. so with that being said, we all know that hygienists come out of school and they take their boards and they're all expecting to come in at that same level. Right. And just like associates, we know they all do their testing as well, come out with their doctorate and get their license. But we know they likely aren't going to produce at the same level, right? So hygienists are no different. Usually your seasoned hygienist can carry conversations different than, you know, somebody brand new. And their skill set is likely a little bit different, whether they've gone through more CE or not. So to be honest with you, I do I'm a huge proponent of paid for performance ⁓ Yet I also feel in hygiene ⁓ Paying them a good going rate like you said, you know know what they're in your area and Give them that good going rate but just like you mentioned tiff with associates if somebody's performing and when I say performing I'm not just talking like production numbers or monetary That's just a side effect, but I'm talking like moving your patients to health, getting them healthy, calling perio perio and having those different, you know, difficult conversations with patients. If they're willing to do that, why wouldn't we compensate them for that? The Dental A Team (14:52) Yeah, I think that's fantastic. That is a very good point too. And that is something I think that comes up a lot for practices is that perio space. And if I've got one hygienist who's just rocking it out and having those difficult conversations and diagnosing correctly for our patient's health and not just for the production or just for the accolades, but really, really doing due diligence for our patients, how do I repay them? And I think that is a great point that that production-based pay is. an effect of that. think that's fantastic. I also see practices that will do dollar per hour and bonuses. So if you go above and beyond that 3.5%, they can get, you know, a one or 2 % or whatever you decide you want your bonus to be of what's above that. So one mistake I do see practices make with this, I'm going to give you a caveat, is that they'll do it the bonus based off of the total. And I typically would do the bonus based off of what was above and beyond the threshold. So we don't total it, we say this was our threshold, anything above that is what you get the bonus off of. So any bonus programs is that's typically how I'm gonna run it because that's your excess. This is your overhead, this is your excess. So we're only bonusing off of excess and then also a small caveat, I did talk to an office the other day that was, they're making some transitions and they're like, do we change the structure? And I'm looking at it and I'm like, well. they wanted to lower the threshold. And I said, well, no. Number one, no, never do that. ⁓ Number two. You also didn't add in my overhead caveat and you're at 66 % I think overhead for the year, but the team's been bonusing. And so we're digging in trying to figure out like what's going on. I have a couple offices going through this right now. This one kind of East Coast stern was like a little topsy turvy upside down. So I think no matter what you do, you've got to make sure that it's going to work the best for your practice for your overhead. So if dollar per hour right now is the best bet and you're able to manage and control your overhead with that, do that. If you've got a team that you're like, want to, I want to make this more production based and Kristy, like you were saying, like really give that energy to what we're pushing for and kind of pay them back right for the work that they're putting in. You have that flexibility and that level with the percentage on production collections and or bonuses. I love the, if you're asking me either or I would say in my opinion, production-based over-bonusing. ⁓ It just is easier. Again, I want easier, and it's easier, and it's like tailored for this position, this person. It doesn't have to be across the board for the full practice if we're not to a point that we're ready for that yet. So cons. ⁓ I think there's cons to everything. There's cons to dollar per hour because often times, especially in the ⁓ temperature that we're in right now with the dollar per hour, it is hard to do three to three to point five times their rate of pay. I tell hygienists and I tell doctors all the time, I'll pay you whatever you're asking for. I'll pay you whatever you want. If you can make it work with the numbers. If you can do three to three point five times that rate of pay in production per hour, you've earned it. That's the point is that the overhead has to match. and for our team members that are listening, I just need you guys to really hear me when I say doctors can't pay you from nothing. So if we're upside down in our overhead, we're not making profit on the company, the business is not profiting. It's not just for the doctor to profit. It's not just for the doctor to go buy a house or whatever you think is actually happening behind the scenes. It's to ensure that things are paid for. And so if we're upside down in payroll, it's got to come from somewhere else. So then we got to pull it from supplies or from labs or from somewhere. And so the pay always just has to make sense. So if you can make it make sense, I don't care what it looks like. So there's pros and cons to all of it. So there's the dollar per hour making sure that you're staying in line. There's you know, collections production based and then there's...
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Office Autopsy: How to Know If You’re Producing Enough
08/26/2025
Office Autopsy: How to Know If You’re Producing Enough
Kiera and Kristy break down a few reasons why your practice might not seem (or might not be, period) to have any money. They touch on how to find your profit point, knowing your debt, staying on top of collections and AR, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I have Kristy with me and I'm super excited because today is one of my favorite things to do as consultants and I call it office autopsy. ⁓ Don't worry offices, this is a mix of a few offices because believe it or not, offices think that they're on individual islands and believe it or not, you're not. ⁓ Multi-practices actually struggle, they actually do the same things that you struggle with. And so we just wanna make sure that we bring, we're not going to ever disclose who this office is. We will mix a few offices together, but I think for people to see what the office's pain point was and then what as consultants were able to do. Kristy, we have some really fun ones. so Kristy and I decided we wanted to podcast today about some office autopsies of what, hopes to help more offices. So Kristy, welcome to the show today. How are you? DAT Kristy (00:48) Good, thank you. Pleasure to be here. The Dental A Team (00:50) Of course. Well, I'm super happy because I think the one that we run into a lot ⁓ is we call it cash flow row or cash flow woes, like whatever you want to talk about. But it's really when an office comes to us and they seem to not be able to figure out what's going on. ⁓ They feel like they're producing. Sometimes they're producing, sometimes they're not. So we'll kind of discuss like how to know if you're producing enough or not. But then they feel like they just like have no cash. And so giving some background. Like I said, I'm going to blend a couple of practices together, but we have kind of going to do like two simultaneous ones. One practice was producing really, really well, but literally the owner felt like they had no money. We're talking like flat broke, felt like they were completely going to go under, had no money, but yet their production numbers were really good and their P &L looked really good. And we're just like, it showed on the P &L. I think, Kristy, you'll find this too, offices get so frustrated. I got so frustrated and angry with my CPA when they said, well, Kiera, like according to the numbers, you have money. And I'm like, great, high five, jerk. I have no money in my bank account. Like it's the most infuriating feeling in the world of my CPA tells me I should have money, but there's no money. Flip that too on the other side when a practice isn't quite producing what they need to be producing to pay for their expenses. And they feel like they have no money and they are flat broke, which in reality that practice is flat broke because they need to produce more or they need to cut. So we're gonna kind of dig on both sides of these with office autopsies of what we see, what we've been able to do. And let's start, Kristy, on the side of what do we do? Like, okay, first step, how do we find like the profit point? Like, how do we figure out what should an office be producing? Because I think that's also infuriating when doctors are like, but I'm just producing. I feel like I'm trying to out-produce my problems. Like, I don't know how to produce more. ⁓ how do you, Kristy, as a consultant, come in and help offices just gain that clarity? Because I think sometimes when we know the North Star and we know what we should be targeting, it actually becomes a lot easier to then build block schedules and then figure out what our overhead should be. But how do you help offices even dig into that? As point one to figure out, let's autopsy both of these practices, I think this is step one to really getting clarity. DAT Kristy (03:00) Absolutely. I agree with you, Kiera. ⁓ The first step is to understand how much we're paying for things. What is the cost to keep the doors open? You know, we talk about overhead, right? But what is overhead? It's everything that we have to pay within a month. Rent, utilities, staffing, right? The other thing that I want to point out is many doctors don't include themselves in that. And I definitely want to pay them The Dental A Team (03:16) you DAT Kristy (03:30) Just like if they were an associate in the practice and so we want to include that in that overhead cost if you will and find that What I like to call profit point so we know where we're what's our? BAM right The Dental A Team (03:48) bam, that bare ace minimum, like what do we have to do? It's kind of like in real life. I mean, I think all of us have a bam in real life. You know what your mortgage or your rent is. You know how much it costs you to like do your groceries. You know how much daycare is, you know how much it costs you for like your Amazon spending. And some of those are fixed costs. So fixed are like your mortgage or your rent. You can't really change those. Those are fixed for you. Yes, like I get it. The semantics, we're not CPAs here. We're not like, that's not our world. The semantics are can you change your rent? Potentially you could go find somewhere else. That is an option you could do. But most of the time those are pretty fixed. Just like our utilities are pretty fixed. You can be like my husband where literally our AC goes off at 6 p.m. at night. He freaking freezes us until 6 o'clock to save on these utilities until 9 o'clock. It drives me wild. I'm like in a hoodie freezing, shivering. And then the AC goes off and I'm like roasting. It's really entertaining because he wants to save the $3. But genuinely speaking, like you're not really going to be saving on those fixed costs. are some fixed ones. Staffing is usually pretty fixed. However, we could add team members or take team members away. So therefore it's not as fixed. But like you said, Kristy, I think it's figuring out in a practice and agreed, doctors should be paid. Like nobody, think that that actually causes more stress for owners. If you don't even know what your paycheck is or you're just taking draws, because then how do you budget your life on a up and down volatile paycheck? I think that creates a lot of stress versus like, okay, great. Let's just put you at a hundred grand or let's put you at whatever is a reasonable salary. Talk to your CPA. They'll be able to give you that. ⁓ And that can be agreed with Kristy. I like to pay you as an associate, but if right now the practice can't support that minimum should be a reasonable salary of say a hundred grand. So that way you can at least bank on that of getting that paycheck in your practice. Sometimes you have to adjust that, but generally speaking, if we at least give you some type of certainty and clarity, that's going to help you then be able to budget your life around that too, in addition to budgeting your practice. DAT Kristy (05:49) Absolutely. In fact, Kiera, sometimes even with startup doctors, I like them to even keep a spreadsheet of their production as if they were paying them as an associate. And then when they start to get profitable, we can back pay those wages. But definitely they have to take care of themselves first. ⁓ I've even seen where they get a little bit of animosity if not, right? Like, staff's driving these cars and they're getting their nails done and they're doing The Dental A Team (06:00) Agreed. Mm-hmm. DAT Kristy (06:19) and I can't even pay myself. So I think it's very important that we understand what that is and work toward that, number one, if we're not there. And then if we are there, adding additional ⁓ percentage to that, which us as consultants can help guide that depending on your goals. If it's paying down debt, paying you as an owner doctor. ⁓ And you know, we follow the EOS system, so adding those buckets for taxes and those sort of things that come up and we can be prepared for. The Dental A Team (06:55) Yeah, no, I think it's brilliant, Kristy. And when you said that, I agree. You don't want to not be paid in your practice, because that gets, A, it's stressful, and B, it's annoying, and C, you've got all this debt on you. ⁓ But I also think when we're looking at our practices, there are pieces, so when doctors are like, I'm not getting paid, I just want to remind that sometimes we're being paid through things running through our practices. And so we've got to be careful, because that is, Like if you didn't have your practice, you'd be paying for that out of pocket. And so that is technically part of your salary, doctors. And I don't want to be the like balloon pop girl over here. I do want to be realistic because a lot of times doctors are like, I'm not making money. And I'm like, but you forgot that these things are running through your practice. So you are being paid for those or those things are no longer coming to you, which is totally fine and legal. Talk to your CPA. Like we want you to do that. There's nothing wrong with it. But when we're looking and we're like stomping our foot saying we're not being paid, sometimes I even have to remind myself of like, yes, but Kiera, if you didn't have the business, all those costs would be coming out of your W2 paycheck, not your business right off. So agreed with Kristy, when we're looking at this, step one is let's find that BAM, let's find that profit point, let's find out what you have to produce. And then from there, what we need to find out is also in addition to that, how much is our debt? Because a practice should not have to be covering your debt, but you as a human needs to be covering your debt. So if your student loans, your practice loans, things like that, the practice isn't necessarily a poor performing practice. You just have all this excess of like, my gosh, I have to pay this off, which that's real life for you. And I think that's the difference of a CPA's bookkeeping for you versus your real life living through it. And I can tell you from personal experience, like this is very hard. Sometimes practice loans do go through your your practice profitability. Again, this is pending on your CPA and how they recommend you do it. But most of the time your student loans and different things like that don't run through the practice. So, but you as a human need to have enough money to be able to pay for all those things. So I think it's finding out the practices, BAM, like Kristy said, finding out your personal BAM, because that might be different. And then from there, let's tack on 10 to 20 % beyond that. So let's say you know you've got to produce 50,000. Well, awesome. 10 % of that would be 55, adding 20 % excuse me, so 10 % of that is going to be an additional $5,000. To do 20 % of that's going to be an extra $10,000. So if I know I've got to do 50, I've either got to produce 55 or 60. Now that becomes much easier and I know beyond that I'm going to have 10 to 20 % leftover of the practice after everything's spent. Our ideal is to get it to where your 50,000 is 50 % of your practice and there's 50 % quote unquote profit beyond that. Now again, that profit is a little bit funny because if we're doing a 50 % overhead and 50 % profit, doctor salaries usually are not included in that. If doctor salaries are included in that, then usually it's a 20 % profit at the end of that. So I know those two numbers feel a little like disjointed. They've been very disjointed for me. So if you're doing true overhead, we want it at 50%, 30 % doctor pay, 20 % profit. If you want to combine it all together, then it would be 80 % quote unquote overhead, 20 % profit. Now that 20 % profit though, does technically pay for debt services. So watch that. You might need to scale down our 50 % down a little bit more or 80 % to then be able to offset that. So hopefully that wasn't too confusing for everybody. This is why we're consultants. This is why we help you. But I think when you understand like either need a 50 or an 80 % ultimate goals, we're trying to get 20 % cashflow at the end of the month. think for me, that's like the easiest thing. Like, okay, if I'm producing a hundred grand a month, I want 20 % of that, so that's 20 grand. So like I'm trying to do easy numbers for all of you. I want 20 grand after everything's paid to still be remaining. Now, one other kicker as a business owner is that 20 % is also taxed. So don't forget that that gets taxed. So if you're at a 30 % tax bracket, well, you gotta take 30 % of 20 grand and then the rest of that you can spend. And this is why I think owners get so frustrated, because it's like, oh my gosh. Like just tell me how much money I can have. And when I talked to a CPA and Kristy, I think you come across this, like our whole lives up until owning businesses, we've been paid at the W-2. So everything we got paid, we were able to use. Well, now as business owners, everything we're paid, we don't get to use. That's not the way the game works. ⁓ And it's due to write-offs and different pieces like that. So I think just knowing the rules of the game, I remember being so fresh with my CPA and I said, I like you're playing Monopoly with me. Like just tell me the dang rules. So, and like, don't tell me like, no, you can't pass go, but you can pass go if you do X, Y, Z, but then like, no. So it's really, you've got to have a profitable practice of overhead. That's what we as consultants are really obsessed with. You also as an owner need to be responsible of how you spend. That's not to say you can't spend, but you do need to spend responsibly and you do need to set aside your taxes. And I think when you have all those pieces set up, then you can have guilt free spending because you're paying yourself. Plus, you know what your true profit is. You've saved for taxes, you've saved for a rainy day, like Kristy was saying. We can put buckets into place to pay down more debt. You can put buckets in place for emergencies in your practice. You can put buckets in place for ⁓ vacations. I have a doctor I was just talking to on Alaska cruise and I was like, how's that bucket working out for you? And he's like, I love it, Kiera, you set it up for me. And I know how much I can spend on vacations. I know how much of my paycheck goes into that portion. He also used to spend an absurd amount on CE. So we set a true budget of how much CE money he could use. But that's kind of where you then as owners aren't just trying to waffle through this and actually can figure out those profit points. And I do think, Kristy, like as much as we've belabored this so much at the beginning of this podcast, I feel this foundational piece is what makes owners crazy because they don't know the rules of the game. So they start spending all the money. Then you get this huge tax bill. Then you feel mad. Then you feel like you have no money when it's like, no, you did have money. just we accidentally spent it. So now we got to make up for it later because we didn't put these rules of the game into play. Kristy, you might have a simpler way to do that. What are your thoughts around that? DAT Kristy (12:49) No, I agree with you 100%. Otherwise, what I find is, you know, business owners, doctors, they just come up with this arbitrary number that they want to hit. But again, just because we're producing something doesn't mean we're profitable. And so they go together, but we have to understand the difference. The Dental A Team (13:12) I agree. And I love that you said that because production feeds the ego and profit feeds the family. And so it does not matter what you're producing. And I agree with Kristy. It's like, I want to produce a hundred grand. I want to produce 200 grand. Well, high five. Let's help you do that. But on the flip side, let's make sure your expenses are there. And there's another practice I'm thinking of right now where they're like, we have no money. And I'm like, all right, if we have no money, truly it's let's do the checklist. Number one. Like, do you see me even scratch my head? I'm like, if you're not watching the video, Just know when I hear people say, don't have money. I'm like, all right, it's either a production issue or a spending issue. It's one of the two. So just know those are the only two levers for when you're saying, I don't have money. It's either actually there's a third. There's technically a third. And that is a collection issue too, because we're either not producing enough. And if we are producing enough, we might not be collecting enough. And if we're doing both of those two things, then it's a spending issue. So let's break it down to this office autopsy. Kristy, let's go for a practice that is producing enough. they don't have money, how did you fix or how did you find out that this practice had a collections issue? DAT Kristy (14:14) Yeah, well number one we would look at. How much was their net production and how much are they currently collecting? My minimum benchmark is always to be at 98 % or higher. Obviously, if we can get reservation fees to pre-collect on things, we may see that up a little bit higher. But if they're not at that 98%, what can we do to get them there? What's getting in the way? Is it patient? Is it insurance? Are we not submitting clean claims and getting them back in a timely fashion? The Dental A Team (14:26) Agreed. DAT Kristy (14:47) ⁓ But definitely that would be the first place to look. The Dental A Team (14:51) Yeah. And so Kristy just said the benchmark. If you're not at 98 % collections, then there's a problem. Second piece is look at your AR and if you have more than one month's worth of production in your AR, we also know it's a collection problem. So when we diagnose on this practice, I remember we talked to a doctor and they're like, Kiera, I have no money. Kristy, I have no money. And I remember we're like, so actually you do have money. Believe it or not, the money is there. It's just sitting in uncollected amounts. So Kristy, you even went with another office and like they didn't have money and you just straight up called. You like went with the office manager and you guys just picked up the phone and started calling on balances to get the money. And I really want doctors to know, and Kristy, I think this is the infuriating part as a consultant where I'm like, no, like you're producing well, you just have to collect the money that you're producing and don't like, don't even feel bad about it. So what do you do for teams that don't want to collect, that have these big ARs? Like what are a few simple steps? Like if that's my practice, I'm- Hi, Kristy. I'm the doctor today. My team, this does not want to collect money and I feel like I can't pay any bills. What do you do in that scenario as a consultant, Kristy? DAT Kristy (15:53) Yeah, well, I think we have to dig deeper into their own, like the team members own biases and what's getting in the way and get them comfortable to realize that we're not doing good by our practice and or patients if we're not collecting those balances. So, you know, really seeing what's the roadblock and let's work through it to overcome it because people deserve the care. Patients deserve to be healthy and And part of that is also paying for the treatment, right? So just digging deeper, figure out what's getting in the way and helping them to overcome, create some verbiage for them to feel confident in being able to collect. The Dental A Team (16:39) Yeah. And Kristy, I think you do an amazing job as a consultant. think this is where I love being consultants is...
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Raises + How to Give Them Correctly
08/21/2025
Raises + How to Give Them Correctly
Kiera walks listeners through the science of giving raises without breaking the bank or falling into the feel-good trap. She gives three steps to implement around the topic of raises: Know your numbers Raises are earned; they’re not automatic Communicate with clarity and boundaries Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am excited to talk about something of, can you give out a raise and can you actually afford it? Like, how do even know there's got to be like some better model than just like a hope, a wish, a prayer? Like how often do I do this? And I thought it just be an awesome podcast to connect with you, to share some valuable tips and to really just empower you to make these decisions confidently, competently, and with ease. So welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm Kiera. I love dentistry. I love helping you have a better life. a better quality of life, more happiness in your life, more ease, more joy, more flow, truly doing life and business on purpose. We're here about the yes model. So you can say more yes to more things in your life. So that's about you as a human being, making sure that you are fulfilled, that you are flourishing. stands for earnings and profitability and S is for systems and team development. Truly, truly, truly growing you, evolving you, making sure that you have all these pieces in place so that when you're able to live life on purpose, have your business on purpose and truly just magnify all of this. So today, raises aren't just something that are feel good move. Like this isn't something of like, ⁓ hey, like I feel good. Let's just give you a raise or I do it out of desperation. They're honestly a financial decision that truly can impact your bottom line. It can impact your practice. can, and like with hygienists coming through and dental assistants and the economy, it's like, how do we do this? And so I wanted you guys to just see kind of like three steps to know, can I give these raises out? How do I do this confidently? And what's kind of the flow? without risking cash flow. So this is something that we're about. love doing this. Races don't, when they're done right, they increase retention, they boost morale and they elevate their culture. Like that's really what it's about. They're super helpful and they have to be timed and strategic as well. So it's not something of like, let's just willy nilly this, which I used to do. used to say, I don't have a set plan. Like it's just whenever now I'm like, wow, let's actually have a plan for this. Let's go through this. And I want to break this down into three simple steps for you. So first steps before we ever give out the raises are we need to know our numbers. So payroll should be 30% of your collection. So if you're collecting $100,000 payroll, and that includes all fringe benefits, our 401k, everything, should be 30% or less of your total collections. Now that's across the board, it does not matter geographically. Some specialties are a little bit higher, a little bit lower, but the goal is we want it around 30%, or in some offices, they're around 27%. So again, I'm here for like great cases, great... We want to take care of our team members, but we want to know how that's going to be there. So that's what we're looking for. And we want to make sure that we're profitable. So our goal is to have a 50% overhead of that 30% is payroll. So team members, are you hearing? The bulk of our monthly costs should be paying you. That's what it is. After that, our 50 % overhead, 30% doctor pay, 20% profit. That's what we're aiming for. That's what we strive for. That's what we try to get our offices to. So this way, we're not just giving raises haphazardly because There's practices out there that like, let me just give them a raise, but their collections are not there. They don't have the money to do it. They backslide, their profitability is not there. And the reality is we've got to know where we're at right now on payroll. So the only ways to have that is we either decrease costs. So like maybe we can cut labor expenses that we don't need, or we need to increase our production or our collections. So it's really our levers that we have to deal with in this scenario. So when you look at it, before we go in like, oh, we need to get everybody raises, you've got to run the numbers to see where are we at now and where would we be? So I love to have, when I'm running numbers with offices, I love to have a conservative. It's like, hey, this is my bare bones. This is what I can have running my practice. Then I have my like middle tier, like this is where we basically are at right now. And then I love to have on the higher end, what do I have if I'm giving raises out and hiring new people? What does that look on the high end? because then I can look at my total costs and I can see how much do I need to actually add in? What do we need to produce to be able to afford this of a practice? And I look at these three areas on my spreadsheet constantly. I call it my monthly costs. I have my conservative, my middle of the road and my advanced. This way it helps me see. Now, after that, we're going to have our raises based on performance and value. So we don't want, so this is step number two, raises are earned, they're not automatic. I understand that. There are things with inflation, there are different pieces, but the reality is, long as what I do is I look around every year, we have it set up to make sure that what we're paying out for payroll is in the higher end of what is within our area. So you can actually go look on Indeed, you can look on Glassdoor, you can look on other areas to see what is the average pay for dental assistants in our area? What's the average pay for hygienists in our area? What's the average pay for billers, office managers, schedulers, treatment coordinators? And our goal and our practices is to be in the top percent of those. We're not maybe going to be the highest, but we are going to be hopefully in the top 90 % of that. So that way you know, are we in line? Are we not in line? What do we need to do? And then what we're going to do from there is we're actually going to build out job descriptions. So we have an entire thing of dental assistants and all the pieces where it's tiers. So like a basic assistant. So let's say our range for assistants is 18 to $25. Well, at the 18, here's the range of what the assistant needs to do. At the 20, this is what the assistant needs to do. At the 22, this is what they need to do. And at the 25, that's a lead assistant. So it scales it up so you're able to see like, okay, if I want a raise, this is how I'm going to grow in the company to then know what I need to do to be able to get a higher pay. I think this is so valuable for offices and it's also valuable for team members because now team members can look to say, if I want a raise, this is what I need to take on. This is what I need to learn. It's not just like, well, I've been here for two years. Give me my raise. it's no take on more responsibilities because we are going to pay you but it's based on the experience that you bring to the practice as well. So with that, these are going to be performance based raises. And it doesn't mean that like just because someone hit that 22 that I have to give it to them right now. What it can mean is like annually you can look at it, see where your assistants and your team are at front office every position and see who qualifies for raises and who doesn't. Now when I'm running my projections and I'm looking at my costs, A lot of times I will run my assistance on the high end or if I know they're like on my high end of those monthly costs, I'm going to look to see, all right, what do I have today? Now, if they went up one bracket or two brackets and I wanted to pay them this amount because they're doing it, what does that impact my overhead and what do we need to do? Because hopefully as people are expanding on those tiers, they're actually able to take on more, they're able to produce more, they're able to do more within the practice to make the practice more profitable or to grow. So that way it's linked. So it's the tier raises are based on performance and value, making sure they're adding more value to the practice. And this way we can have it. And we have all these broken out for every single position. We call them tiers in it. And it's really beautiful because now for me, I know the high end of my assistants will be this amount. The high end of my hygienists will be this amount. And I'm not sitting here vacillating on these decisions. And then every year we just go through and assess and adjust as needed. But we run the numbers to make sure it makes sense. And then we do an end of year potential review of all of our people. to see who gets raises and I can then put that into my projections for the next year when I'm building out our block schedule, building out the projections on the practice. All of that can make it really, really ⁓ special and also accurate to know what are we going to do and what do we need to hit in order to keep our overhead and our metrics in line. Hopefully that made sense because I feel like it's really like one, know your numbers, two, have your raises tied to performance and value, but based in the projections that you need to have within the practice. And then after that, step three is to communicate raises with clarity and boundaries. So raises do impact your morale. Like, so you've got to make sure communication is key and you don't want it to be where we're giving one raise to an assistant, but then we don't give it to someone else. And then people talk and they get really angry. We also don't want to raise up all of our hygienists just because someone got a raise when they're not qualifying for it. So I like to have reviews with our teams. I like to review where they're at, where their compensation is at, what they're doing. This is all where team leads can also put it into play to see how is this team member doing? How are they going? What's the next level? And then being transparent in what's needed to move from tier to tier. So having those one-on-ones, showing people, hey, what are your goals? And I like to find out team members when I'm having my one-on-ones, what's their personal goal? What are their life goals? And how can they move up to the next level? Now, if you're newer to business ownership, you might not know how you can do these raises. So that's really where I love my conservative. my middle and my high end, so then I can look to see what do I need to produce? What do we need to collect to be able to make sure that we can actually afford this? So when we have offices, I have a lot of offices, like don't make decisions about this on emotional decisions. This is not a zone where we want to like, my gosh, well, Sarah came and talked to me and she's going to quit unless I give her a raise. Well, what that does is it sets a standard across the board for all the rest of your team members to see that. And they're watching, your team's watching to see what are you going to do? And I would rather, like have a hard conversation and let them know like, I'd love to give you a raise. The reality is we know the process, we know the tiers. I know that there was another opportunity that came for you. I'd love to keep you. I'd love to find a solution. I also need to be fair with the rest of our team and I can't adjust policy just for one team member. So this way you can have like truly structured review time. You can not have off the cuff, like someone comes in like, I want a raise. And I'm well, what am I supposed to do? The team now knows how they can get raises and everything's very transparent. very clear. And this way it's very clear for all team members. It's clear for you. It's clear is kind. So ⁓ practices, we have this for dental offices, I'll be honest in dental team. This is something Britt and I have been working through. We have a lot of positions in our company that we have never, ever, ever worked with. So we're very naive of like, okay, well, how much should this person get and how like, what should we have them do to qualify for raises? But for you, you're really lucky. We've worked in the dental office. We know all the tiers. We know what they should be adding in. So you don't need to be like I am in our company where I'm like, how do I give these raises? What should people be getting? What does it qualify? We literally have it broken down for you, easy for you. You can adjust it. And then we just check in your area of what you should be doing for your raises in different areas to make sure you're paying in that top 90 % of your area. So hopefully that helps you with like know your numbers, tie your raises to values and have it tiered and then have set times where we actually review it and communicate with clarity. I will not be doing raises throughout the entire year. We have it, we assess it, we know when we're going to roll out our raises. We talk to team members, we let them know, so it's very clear, it's very transparent, it's very open with them. And this way, you guys don't have to have struggles. And I will tell you, offices that do this honestly use their numbers, their alignment and their structure for raises. It's not based on emotion, it's not based on willy-nilly. They literally can walk in confident, like no, yes, yes, no. Team knows. And that just makes it a lot easier. Then team members aren't like me where I was always like, okay, so it's my one year. Are they going to give me a raise? Are they not going to give me? I don't really know. It was always awkward. And unless we went and asked the doctor, we didn't get a raise and I hated it. So don't make it that way. Like make this where it's something easy for your team, easy for you. You make it something where everybody wins. Everybody knows it makes it easier for your office managers. They're not in question. They can hold the line for you. Everybody wins through this. So this is truly where we want you guys to look at your Like action items are look at your raise process and see do you actually have a process and what can you do to make this where it's clear, confident? For me, I review all numbers in September and October and I build my budget for the next year. That's when all raises go through. I do it really much like corporate, so I know who's getting raises, who's not. We have a lot that are production based within our company, so the more they produce, the better off they're going to be. I don't wanna have to worry about those, but I still need to assess and just make sure are our bases accurate, are the pieces there? Britt and I worked through this for a good solid chunk of time where we're reviewing it, we're looking at it, we're making sure it fits within our numbers of what we need, and then we know what we're able to do. So review it, see if you have it, and if you need help, email us, [email protected]. These are tricky numbers, these are tricky pieces, these are like, how do I know? The tiers are amazing, I'm happy to help you with that. So email in [email protected]. Truly, this is where you can elevate in your leadership. This is where you can be more clear. This is where you have hopefully a little bit more clarity of how do I give raises? How do I know if I can afford it? Giving you the numbers as your guide, giving you the tiers, giving you the parameters within your area, and then having set times where you look at it, you project it out, having your monthly costs. So again, we're looking at multiple different lenses to see yes or no. So we're not emotional, but we're truly directed. This is something I love. I love giving owners ⁓ clarity. I love being a fairy godmother for you where we literally can answer all these questions. You can call us. We'll pick up the phone. We'll help you out. This is what it's like to be part of our consulting. If we can help you reach out, this is what we love to do. And if you're ready to reward and retain your team the right way, reach out. Let's help you out. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
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Branding Your Practice with Intention and Impact
08/20/2025
Branding Your Practice with Intention and Impact
Kiera is joined by Zaneta Hamlin, owner and founder of Cusp Dental Boutique. Zaneta, who built her practice from the ground up, shares with Kiera her journey, reflecting on what got her to this point and what she would’ve changed and focused more on if she were to start over again. Plus, Zaneta talks about how she’s turned even the smallest items and exchanges into branding opportunities for her practice. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so giddy. I have one of my favorite humans in the entire world. Like that is not an exaggeration. She's got a million dollar smile. She's one of the funniest people I've ever met. She makes me laugh all the time. She really does. Like Zaneta when you smile, is the world just makes like it's just a happier place. Zaneta Hamlin, one of my favorite doctors. This woman can brand like nobody's business. Surprise fact, I even have her all of her branding sitting here. I have her stickers. I love the business card. That was my favorite thing that you added in for me was a business card for me. But Zaneta Hamlin, one of our clients, one of my faves, welcome to the podcast today. How's your day today? Zaneta Hamlin (00:39) Great, how are you? I'm happy to be here in the chat. Kiera Dent (00:43) I'm so happy to have you. My day has been amazing. It's been podcast day and by far my favorite podcast is you today. So I'm really, really excited because I have wanted this podcast to come out for so long. So Zaneta I don't want to like do you a disservice. I just said a few things as to why I wanted you to come on the podcast. Like I said, being a part of our community, I just watch you and something I've noticed about you since literally the day one is you dress incredibly well and you're always branded. Like you're a walking machine of branding every event I've seen you at you have Cusp Dental I know where you are I know your colors you have everything branded you think so intentionally but you're just an amazing human so Zaneta kind of tell us and honestly I want to go with you and do ⁓ dentistry in other countries that's something that you and I are gonna do outside of that so to fill our listeners in a little bit Zaneta kind of walk them through who is Zaneta Hamlin how did you get to be into Cusp Dental just kind of give us a little background on who you are the dentistry you do Zaneta Hamlin (01:29) Absolutely. Kiera Dent (01:40) Whatever you feel like sharing, this is Zaneta's time. And I want everybody to get to know you because you're just an amazing human. So walk us through, how did you get from where you were to where you are today? Zaneta Hamlin (01:46) Bye. So am a second generation dentist. ⁓ I started off as an associate. I went to my dad's alma mater, went to Howard University College of Dentistry around this area in the Virginia Beach Hampton Roads area. I would say Howard is the real HU, so that's going to probably offend some people great. Yes, yes. Kiera Dent (02:01) Amazing. That's okay. She's here for it. There's no shame. Zenita, this is your podcast. You get to say whatever you want today. No filtered. Zaneta Hamlin (02:19) yeah. So second gen dentist, ⁓ I started off as an associate. So I associated for about nine years, ⁓ until I, ⁓ birthed the idea for Cusp Dental Boutique. It was initially going to be an acquisition. That was the plan I was with, ⁓ coaching prior, but it was more, it was geared more towards, ⁓ acquisitions and That didn't work out for me. ⁓ just, everything just didn't work out. And the type of practice that I was looking to create ⁓ just didn't fit in the other practices. So ⁓ my husband actually found the space that we are in ⁓ and we just built it from scratch. It was a shell. ⁓ And then we have Cusp Dental Boutique. Now, ⁓ yeah, I do like to brand. So. Kiera Dent (03:12) That's amazing. Zaneta Hamlin (03:17) you Kiera Dent (03:17) Please do, I want you to, because I also hope people hear, like I said, I brought you on for a reason, Zaneta. This is where I want you to brag. I want you to share about who you are, because I think so often we don't, and so many times dentists feel they're doing it all alone. So trying to bring different dentists, different perspectives. So brag, Zaneta, I'm gonna brag about you too. So this is your show, brag as you should. Zaneta Hamlin (03:38) I do love my practice. I love how we do things differently. There's a lot of technology. mean, lately I've had a few temps in my office. And so just having the temps has shown me how much my office does that others don't. And so, the expectations are bit higher with what they should do. ⁓ But everyone comes in and like, my gosh, this doesn't feel like a dental office. doesn't smell like a dental office. ⁓ even the swag they get is different. Now, yeah, I'll give the Cusp Dental Boutique chapstick or things like that, but the koozies, the ⁓ wine tumblers, because you can have wine. ⁓ I think one of the things that you might be referring to is ⁓ my luggage ⁓ cover. Kiera Dent (04:18) Why not? Why not? Yes. Yes. Zaneta Hamlin (04:30) I do have that because look, your bags, when you check a bag, even if you are rolling, like it's carry on, people see it as you're dragging it wherever. So it's advertising, you know, they might be in a different state. You might come visit Virginia Beach. You what? I was on a flight to Detroit and I saw, you know, this Cusp Dental Boutique. I want to see where that is. Maybe they have an emergency. Top of mind. Kiera Dent (04:37) Mm-hmm. don't disagree with you. This is why I brought you on the podcast because the way you think about branding and advertising, like I remember meeting you first at this conference and like you're repping it. Like you've got your Cusp Dental Boutique and it makes me so happy because that's also, think why you do so well in your practice. Like you love what you've built. You can see the love and the passion and the pieces. Yeah. The luggage. just wrote it down. Dental A Team needs to freaking put those on because we travel everywhere. Think of how many dentists are traveling to conferences and we are not branding. So Zaneta Hamlin (05:22) All the time, yes. Kiera Dent (05:27) Dental A Team, if you're listening, which most of them do, ⁓ surprise, maybe it'll be your holiday present. Shelbi, we need to get these. So, you know, there we go. Yeah, it's brilliant. Zaneta Hamlin (05:33) There we go. They are great. Nobody's gonna rep your brand better than you. So if you aren't proud of it, you know, so you gotta rep it. And yeah, I put it on anything. We went, ⁓ our family went on a Disney cruise, our first ever Disney cruise. And I just randomly saw, cause ⁓ a sorority sister of mine told me we need those ⁓ clips for your beach chair to put your towel on so it doesn't fly away. Kiera Dent (05:45) Mm-hmm. I love it. ⁓ right. Of course. Of course you can. Zaneta Hamlin (06:03) Well, I happen to find there are stretchy versions, like ⁓ elastic versions, and you can customize them. So of course, mine, one side says Cusp Dental Boutique, the other side says Cusp Untethered. So either way, you're getting something. And it went on. So on the Disney Cruise, you could see four chairs. Cusp Dental Boutique, Cusp Untethered. You know. Kiera Dent (06:19) Something. Amazing. It's incredible. So, okay. So I think Zaneta, something that you do so well is you built this practice. And I mean, even, I think people seeing the clips of this online, I mean, you doesn't even look like you're sitting in a dental practice. Like you're in this very different vibe, different feel. So walk me through how has it been being an owner? And then I want to go through like what have been the struggles, what have been the good things? Like you have this amazing space, people you've got raving fans. Like you have built this boutique dental practice, which I think is so great to stand out when I think dentistry has been a little bit tricky. And I think you're doing a great job of that. And then we're going to pivot to like some of your favorite brand. I mean, she's already listed her luggage covers. can like literally Zaneta. feel like if there's something she can put a logo on, she will like, it is like, Oh, I could put this here. I could have a bracelet. I mean, your jacket, I guarantee you there's a Cusp Dental pin. I guarantee. Yep. Zaneta Hamlin (07:15) Really. yeah, I mean the back of my jean jacket says untethered on it. Kiera Dent (07:26) It's all there. She's constantly, it's constant. Like Zaneta, I think you are one of the few people that thinks in their branding so much that it is a part of you. It's what you do. It's who you are. It's not like I'm Zaneta and here's work and here's Zaneta. It's I am these pieces. So walk me through, you started this scratch start. How's it been going? Zaneta Hamlin (07:27) The symbol is right there. you Kiera Dent (07:50) The wins, the stresses, the struggles, like where are you at on the business ownership path? Zaneta Hamlin (07:56) I mean, there have been ups and downs. I will be very honest and frank about that. I've never been a business owner. So this is my first kick at it. ⁓ But I'm very frank with my team, like, hey, guys, I'm learning too. And I rely on them to also give me their feedback. Now, I always take it into consideration. It doesn't always mean like, hey, we're going to do what you recommended this time around. But I do like to listen to them and see what they think, because they have great ideas. But you won't know unless you actually listen to them. It's been up and down. Like when people opt to leave the practice to go somewhere for whatever reason, ⁓ I've taken it personally in the past. Now, ⁓ my gosh, I mean, hopefully Dana has seen how much I've grown in that department. Kiera Dent (08:38) I was, I would agree. Dana's been coaching you for quite a while and Zenita, I will even say not being in the day to day with you all the time, you have grown exponentially. It used to be this, I remember being in the Dr. Masterminds, different places. It was just this like complete stress. And I feel like you have definitely grown as a business owner, as a leader, and I'm really proud of you. And you seem happier, but you still haven't lost your flair of like loving your practice. Like it didn't jade you even though it stressed you out. And agree, Dana, Dana will for sure be watching this and she will be so proud of you. She already is, but you have definitely grown in the time that we have known you. And I'm really proud of you because I don't think everybody does grow. Some people just stay stagnant, but you have wanted to grow. You've wanted to evolve. You listen to what people say. You've made friends in our community. You and Christie have become BFFs. Christie Moore, she's been on the podcast too. Super excited to hang out in person, but you do a good job of executing and implementing Zenita. You're very humble. You're very coachable. And you're also just a ton of fun. Like you keep the Zenita piece of you while also growing and evolving too. Zaneta Hamlin (09:38) Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's there's no way you can't change stuff if you don't accept it. Because if it was working the way you were doing it, then why are you coaching? So no, it's it's been up and down. I've learned to delegate. I wasn't doing that before. And I'm still learning to ⁓ give deadlines because sometimes I will suggest that something needs to be done and not say when I need it done by and in my mind, that means you've done it already. Kiera Dent (09:45) Right. Zaneta Hamlin (10:04) ⁓ so working on that, but I am doing better with letting others, ⁓ do things for me and that I don't have to do all of it. And I have a great team that understands that I will do it all if not, if they don't step in and they will be like, no, no, no, I got it. You go do something else or maybe go eat. about that? so, ⁓ I think it's who you surround yourself with that. ⁓ Kiera Dent (10:18) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Zaneta Hamlin (10:33) helps and like you mentioned like Christie, for example, I was talking to another doctor when I went to a master class a couple of weeks ago for the AGD and he was telling me like, hey, when you are looking to move your practice into different levels, like moving up, like for example, me, you know, trying to add an associate and grow, he was like, talk to people who have done it or people who ⁓ Kiera Dent (10:54) Mm-hmm. Zaneta Hamlin (11:02) have been in that seat before, or coaches that can help you. And I was like, well, definitely my coach can help me with that. And to like, you know, talking to somebody like Kristy, who's been there, done that, probably even read a book about it, you know. So ⁓ it's who you surround yourself with too, that can help you. Kiera Dent (11:20) Yeah, no, I think you've done an amazing job and it's just fun. It's fun to watch you evolve as a leader. It's fun to watch you. I mean, I remember some of our first emails were I'm staying here so late. Everything's on my plate. I don't know how to do this to now hearing you of I delegate and I built this culture of a team that knows who I am. They give it had to change yourself as Anita. That's something I love about you is I don't feel you. There's been a huge change of Anita. I think there's been like Zenita 2.0 is Anita 3.0. where you just keep like, keep the core of who you are, but you evolve as your business evolves and like letting the team know, yes, this is who I am and this is what I'm expecting. And I'm very honest and very frank. I think it's really helped you tremendously. And like, let's give some snaps. You are bringing in an associate. You are evolving your practice. You are growing into these things. And so if you were talking to somebody, say in your shoes, they just found this space, they found the shell. They're super excited. There's Anita, who you were at the beginning. Zenita today, what would you maybe tell that practice owner of some things of like, hey, as the wiser version of me, this is what I would maybe do or I would execute on XYZ or I would do this again of something that I did. What would you say are some of those tips you would give maybe a Zenita coming in doing a similar path? Zaneta Hamlin (12:36) probably would have learned to delegate earlier. I think, yeah. Yeah. Kiera Dent (12:40) I agree. Yeah, I remember some long emails and some hard nights on NotDelegate and a lot of hours at the practice unnecessarily. Zaneta Hamlin (12:48) Yeah I was quick focusing it. Don't do quick, you can, but why? know, like, I can't believe I did that and how much time I put, but it's interesting though, like some, the things that I have delegated, I'm still busy. I still have to do things. it's like, now I'm like, how did I have time to do that? Like, no wonder why I was stressed. No wonder why I wasn't sleeping, you know, like, so I would have definitely, ⁓ Kiera Dent (12:57) I agree. I agree. Yes. Zaneta Hamlin (13:20) delegated sooner. I would have gotten an aura ring earlier. That's something she knows talking to her about. I would have gotten that earlier. ⁓ But I also would have trusted my intuition more a earlier. I mean, I did, but not at the level in which I do now. Like, for example, if I extend an offer or like, Kiera Dent (13:24) Right? ⁓ It works great. Yes, agreed. Okay. Zaneta Hamlin (13:49) you know, I make a decision, because I like to make decisions pretty quickly. Like it's this and we're going with it, right? I don't go back and like ponder it like, oh, did I really make this mistake? Like, was this a mistake? Should I have done this? Should I have done that? I've had those thoughts before, but then I quickly am like, no, no, no, it's, this is the way we should go if an offer was made and it wasn't accepted. Kiera Dent (13:53) Mm-hmm. Zaneta Hamlin (14:17) It's because that wasn't for me and it probably would have been a headache. You know, I've gone down that route with like negotiations and stuff like that. And I thought to myself, hey, had that actually worked, it would have been a disaster. So I'm glad it didn't. So definitely ⁓ intuition, like leaning into that and just going with the flow. Kiera Dent (14:35) Yeah. Mm hmm. No, and I do. I do think that there's so many times that we feel like there's all these other experts, which I do agree like great job. Kudos to you. You you jumped into consulting and you hired coaches and you talk to mentors and talking about Sheena and Christie like you use your doctor community around you and you work with other mentors. But I do believe that there's an internal knowing that I think we often lose by thinking I've never done this before. So how am I supposed to know? But I do think that there's a core knowing that I really love that you brought that up, that people really do need to trust themselves. They need to execute on that more. ⁓ So many people are like, well, someone told me I shouldn't do this. And I'm like, but you know, like you know what you need to do and you're gonna, you'll figure it out and it will work. So, okay, I love your story and I love what you've done. And I'm so happy that you're sharing with other people. And now I wanna pivot to, let's talk about your branding. Talk me through, you said everything is branding opportunities. Every single possible thing that you do. Zaneta Hamlin (15:18) It doesn't feel right. Kiera Dent (15:36) Like has this always been a part of you? Did it just come with buying the practice? And then I want you to walk through some of the specifics that you do of branding intentionally, maybe even like who you use or where you get these things. Like, I don't think people realize like marketing is a lot easier than they think it is. You did a scratch start. So you have had to figure out how to market yourself with no money. So kind of walk us through like, how have you done this? How has the marketing been for you? How has it been finding more new patients like? Zaneta Hamlin (15:54) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (16:02) I don't know, whatever you want to take on this branding, because honestly, you are one of my queens of branding that I've met as a dentist. You do it so well. So walk me through just whatever, however you want to take this branding, marketing side of the business. Zaneta Hamlin (16:15) No judgment. Okay. Ready? Okay. One of the cheapest things you can get and y'all don't, well, let's just go through it. So ⁓ pens. Okay. So I would go to Pens.com. They always run promos and stuff like that. Get some pens, get your favorite pen. ⁓ they send you, they'll send you something. See exactly. Yeah. Kiera Dent (16:17) No judgment. I'm ready. No judgment, we already put it there. You do. I have it. It's literally right there. Zaneta Hamlin (16:42) What I, how I started was, mean, of course, Studio 88 did my logo, my colors and all that stuff. That was a process to get to what it is now, right? Because there were different versions of it, right? And then I started putting it on pens. So here's what I would do. would, when I go to a restaurant, family, friends, myself, whatever, you know, they give you a pen, a Bic pen or some...
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The Only Checklist You Need For 2026
08/19/2025
The Only Checklist You Need For 2026
2026 might still seem like a ways off, but now is the time to start chipping away at preparation. Tiff and Kristy walk practices through what to do to be ready for a fresh start come January 1. They talk about lag and lead measures, what to put on your calendar now, fee schedules, and a ton more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am back at you today, Miss Tiffanie, Spiffy Tiffy. No one's called me that in a while. I have not recorded with Kiera in a hot minute. That's how I know I have not recorded with Kiera, because I haven't been called Spiffy Tiffy in a minute. ⁓ We're here today. I have Miss Kristy with me today. She has just done a slew of recordings with me. We blocked out two hours today, and we said, you know what? We're just going to bust out a bunch, and we are doing it. Summertime gets a little wild. and it gets hard to schedule these suckers in there. So Kristy, thank you for being here with me today. Thank you for scheduling this in your schedule and making sure that we could get this done. How are you? DAT Kristy (00:39) It's always fun spending time with you. We don't get to do this all the time. The Dental A Team (00:44) I agree. We really don't. And I started doing ⁓ for you specifically because I'm like, gosh, we really don't. I still get like so much time with Trish, Monica is in, you know, we're doing so much onboarding. ⁓ And so I was like, no, we need, I need Kristy, like just touch base, check in one on one time. Like I need that outside of our monthly one on one. So I agree. And I'm excited to be here today. I think we both have animals at home and it's funny. We like go a certain amount of time and then they've hit their limits. And I don't know, I've got a cat that's running around just screaming right now. I don't think you guys can hear it, I hope. But I think what happens is she's just like, okay, I'm tired of hearing your voice. Even when I'm on coaching calls, like maybe my inflection is different or I don't know. There's something about podcasting that she hits her limit at about an hour in, hour and a half. She's like, I'm done. I'm either podcasting with you or you're being forced to turn it off. Yeah, anyways, animals are wild. ⁓ They are. my gosh, they are like kids. They're exhausting. Yeah, they are like, because I think they're worse than kids. You know, when I was little, they used to say, I don't know if people still say this or not, but they used to say, when you think you're ready for kids, get a dog. And I used to be like, that's easy, right? And I'm like, actually, I find that my animals are way more work than my son is. they just require so much of me at DAT Kristy (01:43) I like kids. The Dental A Team (02:10) their own discretion. Like it's just, it's when they want it. And I have, I have two cats and a dog and the dog is much chiller, but even puppies, I'm like, puppies are hard. Puppies are not like a newborn. I does not, in my opinion, the same apples to apples, but maybe that's why they say that because you get exhausted by the puppy and you're like, I can't, I can't do this right now. So who knows, but we're not here to talk about dogs or cats. We are here. We're here today because we are rounding out the year you guys. August is always like such a weird time ⁓ for me because it's like the beginning and the end. It's the beginning, like we're not even too fall yet for Arizona. It feels like fall. We don't really get a fall so we start in August. ⁓ But it feels like we're coming up on the end, but we just started. We get to August so quickly and so. With that, a lot of times we can kind of forget to prep for the upcoming year until it gets to the last minute because we're like, gosh, it's so early, Tiff. Like, Kristy, we've still got so much of our goal left. We're still working on these things. How am I supposed to think past that? But we really truly do have to prepare in a lot of different ways to ensure that we're ready when January hits. I don't know about you, Kristy, but I know in my practice, I think the before I was office manager, my office manager and my doctor probably sat down and like did some goals, right? They knew what they were doing. But we didn't know until the end of January when we had our team meeting what those new year's goals were. And that was really hard because I'm like, well, shoot, we're already behind because like, what are we doing here? We had no idea that we had increased our goals because we're still working off of old goals. And I think that that likely happens more often than not. Because we want a fresh start. We want our January kickoff and it's like if we're not doing January kickoff on January 2nd It's not a kickoff anymore. I guess now we're playing catch-up So a lot of practices really need to start doing this in December November even but December really talking about what next year is going to look like with your teams ⁓ Kristy do you feel that that kind of we talked about this a lot today? Like what was it like back went back in the day when we were in office But did you feel like you kind of ran that same? trajectory that same calendar year advice. DAT Kristy (04:31) Yeah, 100%. I think ⁓ in dentistry, we get so focused on lag measures. And I don't know that we ever intentionally focused. It's just the way it's always been. And so you and I talked about this before. We just do it because that's how somebody else did it. And we think it's the way to do it. But I think, again, when you know better, you do better. And we always need to look at the lag measures. looking at lead measures and starting literally now, The Dental A Team (04:38) Yeah. Bye. DAT Kristy (05:01) is a great practice and and to be honest the ones that I see hitting goals for my teams ⁓ we look at them early and we set the tone early. Yeah. The Dental A Team (05:11) Yeah, yeah, it does a great point. You hit the nail on the head. We really do focus so much on lag measures, which are a lot of my lag measures will feed into our lead measures. So totally. But I do think that dentistry as a whole misses the mark on lead measures. Even like I had a client the other day that said, Oh, I died, because he died. She's DAT Kristy (05:35) you The Dental A Team (05:36) She said, yeah, my CPA, I'm just not too sure about them. They said that not to get too crazy about it, but that I would get my PNLs by the 28th every month. And I about fell out of my chair, because I was like, what the heck? That is a two-month lag measure at this point, because by the time we're reviewing them, we're into two months later from those statistics, those overhead stats. And how are we supposed to make adjustments and change? So you're telling me, that we are gonna have potentially two bad months because we didn't know it was a bad month until we're at the third month. And I was just like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If that's the case, if that's their standard, it doesn't fit our standards. This is not going to work. We have to have better, quicker lag measures so that we can change the lead measures. And I think what you just said plays right into that. Because to them, that CPA, it was like totally natural and normal. It was like, yeah, fine, we'll get them to you. You can see them, but they're not using them to tell you how to change your business. Some CPAs are, work one-on-one with a couple of different CPAs for my clients and with my clients that are doing that. They're fantastic, they're giving them information and advice every month based off of what they're seeing. That's massive. It's very uncommon also. CPAs at the end of the year would be like, well, this year you overspent in this category, so drop this. ⁓ for the love, could I not have seen that earlier and made adjustments so that I didn't overspend for an entire year and then could have changed this entire P &L? That's what we do. We look at the P &L with you and we dive into it. And like I said, I do have a couple of CPAs that dive into that with me with clients or sometimes I'll have questions and I'm like, hey, I'll shoot over an email and like, what is this? What are you seeing? And they'll give me the answer. And I'm like, fantastic. Thank you. Those are freaking phenomenal. Those are clients that I can really dive into numbers and be like, let's change this. Let's turn the dial on this. Because at the end of the year when they're like, next year you can't. I don't want to ever tell you that. Next year you can't. No, next year you can because we adjusted things on the lead measures, meaning what's to come because we were able to see your lag measures. So Kristy, that was brilliant. That was a massive tangent, but that was brilliant. And I think it really flows into all of those because if you're year to date at August and you don't know those numbers, you haven't looked at them with someone with a CPA, a coach, a consultant, get on that. Do that because what's gonna happen is November, your CPA is gonna be like, let me tell you all the things you shouldn't have done this year. I don't want that to happen. Get on it today. [email protected] if you want advice, if you need help, if you want to one-on-one coach with us, we can help you dive through it. We are here for it. We have had plenty of clients that have seen incredible profit year over year because of the consulting that they've received, because of the directions that we've been able to push them that they weren't able to see. Again, focusing on the the log measures to push the lead measures. Now, other things, I really wanted this to be like a let's prep for the next year, which I don't know when you're listening to this, but right now it's August, 2025. So we are prepping for... 2026, which is crazy to me. I told, actually I told Kira this morning, my son, started senior year today as I took his little picture and I'm just like, my gosh, and he graduates, you know, 2026. And I'm like, I knew this day would come, but it always felt so far. Like this is, I think when I was a kid, I thought we'd be flying around in cars by now, which I think we're actually really close, which is crazy. But. To me, like 2026 felt so far away when I was a kid, I thought we're gonna be the Jetsons by then. So again, I think we're actually really close. But it's crazy to think we're prepping for 2026. You guys, we gotta round out 2025 and really be able to project into 2026. And there's some simple things, you guys, we have checklists for this too. So reach out, [email protected]. We can pop you over some checklists, but there are some really simple things. Kristy, like. I want you to go through, like you were talking earlier on another podcast we recorded about really scheduling some things out. So what are some things that can be done next year that should be in the schedule? And then we'll kind of dive into the goals and stuff that they're going to have to do before we get to the 2026. DAT Kristy (10:11) Well again, we're all about projecting forward right because you touched on not saying no and part of saying no Maybe adding things so we can say yes, right? So looking at the schedule putting in your HIPAA your OSHA any training CPR, right? ⁓ Is there CE we're planning on let's research it. Let's figure out how much it's gonna cost Are we taking team not taking team? What's the what's the average? cost because all of that can be factored into our lead measures right and and what is what do we have to make in order to have that happen is it a year for raises have we done fee valuations for the upcoming year a lot of offices don't look at that yearly and I encourage my offices to because here's the thing especially if you're a high PPO you never get to go to the insurance companies and say hey, I haven't raised my fees in five years, so now I'm gonna make this big jump. They don't let you. So doing those incremental jumps every year, ⁓ another area where people fail to ⁓ evaluate is if you're selling products. Have you looked at the invoices to see what you're paying? And nowadays, that's a big thing, right? Adding in the tariffs and different things that are affecting what we're paying for. Have you adjusted it? Because a lot of my practices charge just what they're paying for it, and then The Dental A Team (11:15) Yeah. DAT Kristy (11:40) we look at it and go, my gosh, we're in the hole because we've never adjusted the fees. ⁓ getting your new fee schedules, right? If there's any negotiations that need to happen, I would add that to the list too. The Dental A Team (11:45) Yeah. Yeah, and now is the time to do that to start negotiating it so that you can have it for that new year. That was massive because that hits both making sure it's scheduled out to update your fees, but then also right now sending in the request for increased fees to be updated. So that was a twofer right there in my opinion. So good job. Yeah. I also remember earlier you said the PCI compliance. So making sure all of those PCI OSHA HIPAA all of those training CPR, everybody's up to date and checking all of those. Like when was the last time anyone, that any one individual did those pieces and are there people that need them updated? I know there's a lot of, gosh, specialty practices that will offer for GP practices, the CPR training. We used to do that through the orthodontist we worked hand in hand with. He would just, I mean, it was a referral, a referral mechanism for them, right? It's marketing for them, but they would hire the CPR trainer and then they would invite dental offices to come get the CPR training for their team. So it's free for us and that orthodontist paid for it. So check with those things as well, but making sure those things are scheduled out. And that's something doctors that your office manager should have that kind of a yearly checklist to make sure that they're going through those. Another thing that you kind of touched on there was like maintenance of different. ⁓ everything right you've got all of your everything needs maintenance so what does your practice look like what are your compressors looking like do they need to be maintenance your ultrasonics like really just diving in and every year it should be that fresh start and looking at what are we going to do now Kristy you mentioned which i love because it goes hand in hand with that too of really budgeting that so budgeting your ce's i had a practice this year they're like help me our cash flow, what is going on? When we delve into it, there were a ton of ⁓ auxiliary necessary purchases and updates that were made to the practice, to the ⁓ exterior of the practice. So these things were necessary, but they were unplanned for that. I think you can look at and probably project towards the end of the year to really build out a budget and a percentage and a bucket within your 2026 goals because you guys, it's really easy. If you know it's going to be X amount of money, divide it out over the 12 months and say, great, how am I going to make that up in production and collections to get that money so it's not costing you? It's coming out of the profit for that year, which is what happened with this other practice. We just thought there'd be more profit, but that profit then went towards, you know, the renovations, excuse me, that needed to be done, but we could have built it in a little bit better had we known they were coming. So that leads into our goals and really looking at what would a 7 to 10 % increase. Those are the numbers I typically go with increasing from this year 7 to 10 % next year, 7 % for inflation you guys, 10 % because why not be profitable on top of inflation? So you can do 7 % and kind of call it status quo. 10 % is gonna be that growth space that you hopefully and probably are desiring. And really when you look at it 10 % over the course of the year, is really a drop in the bucket. Kristy, have you found that same thing where that 10 % is like a couple hundred thousand over the course of the year split up over the month is realistically not that much? Kristy, do you see that same thing? DAT Kristy (15:27) 100 % TIF, I think the problem we get into is we wait till the last minute and then we're trying to crunch it in that short amount of time. But when we look forward and we have the whole year, guys, it can be as simple as one more crown a week, you know, or one more crown a month, depending on where you're lying. and when we break it down like that for teams, it makes it so digestible and and it helps fire us up when we make it that simple. Nine times out of 10. The Dental A Team (15:41) Yep. DAT Kristy (15:57) I see them even going further because it's like wow it was so easy right and it never I mean Think about it in our field and we all know this to be true I don't none of my doctors are immune from this but November and December are crazy months. Why do we do it to ourselves? Let's start now The Dental A Team (16:11) Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I agree. And that makes me think of a practice I went into one time, and we did their goals. And I said, Okay, well, in order to finish the year where we want to, we need to ⁓ increase your daily goal by $2,000 across for hygiene to doctors, right? $2,000. They were like, you're crazy. And I'm like, No, I'm not. This is how much it is per provider. And they were like, Tiff, we love you. We love your training. And we think you're crazy. going to put it on there. We're going to try our hardest. And we're going let you know. The next day, they went above and beyond that $11,000 goal by almost $2,000. The next day, they hit the goal consistently. After setting that goal, they hit it. and they were like, Tiff, I was getting texts from the team members for days. Like, I can't believe we're doing this. We didn't think it was possible, but actually it was right there, because it was all within the scheduling, right? How are we scheduling things? What are we prioritizing? How are we looking at the structure of our schedule and still serving our patients? So I totally agree. The increase is easy. as long as it's broken down in a digestible amount. The full yearly amount, you're like, all right, guys, we did 1 million, we're gonna do 1.2 this year. And they're like, my gosh, like, when is it enough? But if you're like, 1.2 is X amount per month, X amount per day. They're like, okay, we can hit that. We can figure that out. And you're like 30 % from hygiene, 70 % from doctor or 25 % from hygiene, 75 % from doctor. Like figure out the numbers and then figure out daily goals for everyone so that it is digestible, because that's much easier to work with. ⁓ Another thing to be really, really prepped for is, ⁓ what did we say? We said, updating the paperwork, you said, Kristy. So making sure we know what next year needs to look like. We just did a podcast on OSHA and HIPAA compliance, so making sure you're scheduling that out, but then also making sure that your HIPAA paperwork is updated, is gonna be massive, your health history. If you are taking CEs, does that need to be updated on your health history? Do you need to ask sleep apnea questions or Botox questions or implant questions? Like, do you need to update that at the beginning of the year and making sure you have all of your patients' data? Kristy, I know you talked about too, you have some clients that just don't have everyone's emails. This day and age, most of our communication is going out by emails. I know most of my...
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Avoid These Delegation Pitfalls
08/14/2025
Avoid These Delegation Pitfalls
Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite! The Dental A-Team is seeing a lot of burnout across practices we visit, so Kiera’s here to offer tips about delegating. Just because you can do a bunch of tasks doesn’t mean you should. Kiera provides DAT insight on the best/easiest way to delegate, how to fill the time you’ve delegated out, and what the delegator and delegatee should absolutely not do. Episode resources: Transcript Kiera Dent (00:05) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, pillar, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A-Teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and you guys I hope today is a great day for you. I am car casting today I am headed down to see my parents for a little bit today and Decided you guys know me when I drive between that Nevada, California state line I love to podcast if you have not heard about the time I was headed to my little sister's graduation and I was Car casting with a microphone. They have an agriculture check point and go take a listen to that one. If you don't know which one that is, email us [email protected] guys. just want to say a massive, massive, massive thank you to all of you who have been stepping up, taken on our review challenge and honestly leaving us reviews. I've seen you guys posting on our Google reviews to help deadly team. Get the word out. You've also been posting on Apple, Spotify, YouTube. I have been seeing those and I just want to say thank you. Shout out today. I saw Annie. had posted and gave us a massive five star review and Annie, thank you. There's so many of you that have been listening in. Brooke Birdie saw your review as well on iTunes. And I just want to say guys, number one, it feeds my ego. So thank you. I am a words of affirmation girl. So that definitely is the best way to give back to me and make me feel like a million bucks. That's number one. So if you really want to make my day, please leave us a review and just tell us how great we are. I would love that. And number two, Thank you guys for helping us help more practices. We have actually been seeing an upward trend on our podcast downloads. That is kudos to you guys. ⁓ Massive, massive, massive boosts on our downloads. And I just want to say thank you to all of you for doing that, because this is helping us help more practices. You know, when I started working at the dental college, the dean asked me why I wanted to take on this position. And I said, you know, I want to find a way to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. That's honestly why we I did my job at the college and then that's also why I decided to ⁓ take on and work with the consulting company. And then that's why we started the podcast. So you guys, the only way for us to reach every dentist in the world is by you guys helping spread this. I think that that's the way we'll be able to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So guys, keep hitting those downloads, keep leaving us review, keep sharing these. When I see you guys on social media platforms where you're sharing our podcasts with people, it's been so helpful. So thank you guys for taking that on. So today's topic is how to delegate. I know I've chatted about this a few other times, but it's just been coming up more and more. And I know a lot of offices are struggling. I'm seeing more and more burnout amongst team members and owners. And so I thought that this would be a very applicable topic for you guys today. So basically number one, when it comes to delegating, We've got to look to see what is the reason for delegating? Are we trying to find more time for ourselves so that way we can be more balanced? Are we trying to grow team members into another position? Or are we just trying to ensure that all team members are being utilized throughout the day? Maybe you have another reason you want to delegate, but oftentimes I find that the number one reason we don't delegate is because we're concerned about losing our place in our job. and the value that we're bringing to the practice. When in actuality, I think it's let's get people into their zone of geniuses so we can work more effectively and consistently together. So for me, I think one of the best and easiest ways to delegate is for everybody just to do a brain dump on the tasks that they're doing day in and day out. Now the reason I like a brain dump rather than a time journaling is because oftentimes those things that we put on a brain dump are going to be the things that we can actually think about. that are for for for front of our mind. So those things tend to be the ones that are consuming the most of our time. There might be other things on there that we don't think about, so you can always add back to this list. But what I really love to do is I love to brain dump all the information and then after I brain dump, I go back through, you guys know if you don't know, my favorite color is pink, and I go back through with a pink highlighter and I literally look at all the tasks that only Kiera can do. A lot of times the tasks that I'm doing are not things that only I can do. Or if they are only things I can do, I might need to train. So for example, I used to be the only person who could podcast on our team. So we decided, Hey, the consultants actually have a lot of great information that they could be sharing. And it doesn't necessarily have to just be Kiera. So we decided to start training the consultants to see could the consultants ever podcast if something were to ever happen to me. And the answer is yes, I trained them about the microphones. I taught them how to podcast. taught them how to do cadences, but I realized. That was something that only Kyra could do before, but you guys, I am looking to try and have a baby. We've been talking about this forever, but guys, don't worry. I'm a walking bag of, I feel, lethal hormones right now. We are starting the process of IVF and ⁓ if you haven't done it, that's great. Congratulations. If you have gone through it, please send me help because I literally feel like a lethal bag of walking hormones and don't even know how to control myself right now. It's like one minute I'll be fine. The next minute I'm bawling my eyes out. And I heard even after you have babies, this doesn't go away. I don't, I don't quite know what to do. But the bottom line is our team had to be able to start delegating things to our other team members that they could do just as well, if not better than me. But that also came up with, I had to realize I needed to start training. So delegating, we've got to look at like, what's our ultimate goal. So for me, my ultimate goal was I wanted to ensure that Dental A Team could continue to grow, bless people's lives, positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And for me, to also be able to be a mom. So in order for those two things to happen, I had to start delegating and utilizing it. I realized I don't delegate that much. I like to swoop in and save the day because I think I can do it faster and better. Well, the answer is yes, I theoretically can, but that doesn't mean I should. Okay, I'm going to say that again. Well, yes, I theoretically can do everything potentially faster and better. That doesn't mean I should because what that does is that actually means that I'm a one man team. rather than a multiple person team. So I want to have all of the people on my team working super well. And I want to ensure that they're all able to do the task. And it's not just me. So I would say that you guys are going to be able to start looking for your why of why you want to delegate. So once you have figured out your why as to why you want to delegate and the plan, Then we go through, like I said, and you highlight all the tasks that are actually tasks that only you can do. Like I said, some of those tasks that only you could do, maybe if you trained, you could actually get those tasks passed off your plate. But I really like you guys to ensure that you know exactly why you want these tasks to be completed, why you want to delegate. I think having a strong why helps you realize that that's what you're actually going to do rather than it just being a wish that you're hoping one day will come true. Like I said, I'm not a great delegator and I realized that because I like to swoop in, save the day, make everything better and theoretically I can do it better, faster. However, I can't ever grow the company. I can only grow as big as I can grow. So realizing that sometimes delegation also will be an avenue for growth for your practice is one of the best pieces of advice I could ever give any of you. So realizing that when you delegate, you allow other people to blossom and shine, you allow yourself to blossom and shine and grow to a larger scale. Now I will say some people I watch them delegate and then they get lazy. They will pass all their tasks to other people. They'll grow everybody else, but then they forget to grow themselves. So when you delegate off of your tasks, say if you're an office manager and you get a front office lead and then you get a clinical lead, well, sometimes you as an office manager, no longer know what you should do. This is where you start diving deep in the areas. Maybe you don't know. Let's talk about the business aspect. What are the financials of your practice? What about overhead? Do you know how to adjust that? You're going to start thinking like a business owner. Also go to your dentist and figure out what's on their plate. Have them brain dump and look to see what tasks you can take off immediately and what tasks you need to learn and grow into. So making sure as you delegate, you don't get lazy. You don't pass too many things there. Also before you delegate, I want to make sure that you've built an admin time into your schedule. So doctor time, you can have that as CEO time. You can have it as admin time. You can have it as golden time. I don't care what the heck you call this time, but it's set block time every single week in your schedule. Oftentimes the practices all notice that they'll want to hire somebody else before they put in this admin time. I chatting with a front office team. Typically we like to have one front office team member per doctor, unless it's a solo doctor, then I for sure want two front office people just so we avoid any temptation of embezzlement or fraud or anything of that nature. So what happens is a lot of times people feel like they need to get more people upfront, but they don't realize you can delegate tasks that would actually make the patient experience better. For example, chairside treatment plans on an iPad, taking fluoride payments in the hygiene operatories that make it so much faster and easier for every single person in the practice. What about tasks like insurance verification? That might take a long time and it might actually be cheaper to outsource that. So looking at that, but also before we even consider that, I want to see, you actually doing ⁓ that admin time every single week? And if you're not, that might be a critical place to start before we even start delegating. Because a lot of times, a lot of those projects that we want to delegate, if we just had one or two hours in a week where it was dedicated, not interrupted time, we could actually crank a lot of those things out and be super hyper productive. So for me, I have a business focused time. I have a three hour block every Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. My team knows, do not even think about scheduling something there. Don't do it. It's not good for you or for the business. So that is my blocked golden time and I work on big project items. So for me specifically, I work on, I'm looking to bring in a different position in our company and I'm mapping that out, talking to mentors, figuring it out, writing job descriptions for it. Other things like I'm not going to use that time to podcast. As much as I love to podcast, I have that built into my schedule in another place. I'm not going to use that time to answer my emails. Instead, I'm going to use that time to work on high level. most productive projects. For some dentists, that's where you might be designing cases. So getting all that ortho completed or designing those cosmetic cases that you know you need to get completed. That's where we're going to be able to have a much more successful and productive schedule if you actually block that time. For office managers, this time might be where you actually go through your one-on-one employee check-ins. It also might be where you work on maybe sign development or looking at all the KPIs. and figuring out what KPIs need to be adjusted, doing a deep dive on the numbers. For billers, this is the time where you call on those collection calls. You work on your AR, that's the deeper projects, the ones that have to have a ton of time dedicated to solving them and figuring them out to get them paid. That's where we utilize this time. For our scheduling team, this is the time when you call all those unscheduled re-care calls. Same thing for treatment coordinators. We call those unscheduled treatment lists. Just think of every person did this. ⁓ I forgot the clinical team. Let me give the clinical teams some ideas. Don't want to let you guys feel left out. So for our clinical team, we might want to give them some block time to maybe get those crowns or those ortho cases done. This might be the time that our team actually orders for the practice. It could be the time ⁓ for a lead hygienist. This might be the time that you create like the perio protocols or review the numbers on your hygiene, on your hygienist and see. How is their fluoride ratio? How are their perio numbers? This is the time when you'll deep dive in there. It's not the time we dedicate for sharpening scalars. This is the time where we literally are maximizing and doing those high level projects that will move the practice forward. Hey, Dental A Team listeners. You guys have heard the early bird gets the worm, right? What does that even mean? Well, it means that the early bird is the person who maximizes on benefits. optimizes their practice and they take advantage of great deals. So guys, right now, this week, last chance to save on Dental A Team's virtual team summit. It's all about optimization and execution with an emphasis on full team. And then Saturday is all about leadership. So guys, don't miss out. You know, you're going to come. So you might as well pop on over to TheDentalATeam.com snag those early bird tickets, because once they're gone, they're gone and you'll be paying more for the same event. So head on over to TheDentalATeam.com. Snag your early bird virtual summit for April 22nd and 23rd, and I'll see you there. So again, before we ever delegate, I want you to make sure you have that time built in. After that, I want you to figure out why you want to delegate. What's the bigger purpose as to why you want to delegate these tasks. Then what we do is we come up with a game plan of, fantastic. This is what we are going to delegate. This is how we're going to delegate. This is why we're going to delegate. then we actually have to delegate. Okay? So we have to delegate guys. That's part of the game. That's what we have to do. Now people get really nervous to delegate because why? We don't want to what? Dump on somebody else and make their life stressful. Well guess what? They might already be doing half of what you're doing and if it just was their project, you might make their life a lot less stressful. Let's just pivot that a little bit. Also, we might be able to do things like, ⁓ we might be able to find efficiencies. I will tell you if I give Shelby a project that I've been working on for quite a while, Shelby is way more efficient and organized and structured than I am. And so she usually can come up with a better way of doing it than I can. That's going to create ease and efficiency for our entire team. So when we go to delegate, we can check in with people, ask how much time and say, hey, here's the list of items. First and foremost, you can have a team meeting and be like, here are all the items up for grabs. Who wants to own this section? Now. I say to team members who are being delegated to one of the number one ways for you to lose confidence in your practice, the person who's delegating to you is by not following through. If you say, yeah, I'll take that on, but then you never actually do it, I do not want to delegate to you again. I lost trust. So when people do this, I'm going to say you've got to own it with integrity. So if I say, yes, I'm going to take this on, I don't care how I've got to remember it. I don't care how I need to figure it out. my job because I committed, I'm going to own this process. I'm going to own the fact that I need to do this because I committed to it and I own my word. It's not accountability. You don't your office manager following up like, okay, Kara, I know you said you take on ordering. Did you get it done? The answer is yes, the office manager should still do that. But me as a person who took this on, I need to have an attitude of ownership in my practice where I don't need somebody to come follow up with me. check in because I know when I say I'm going to do something, I will fall through a hundred percent. So team members, leaders, everybody listening, check yourself. Are you a person who actually owns your word, takes ownership of the things that you commit to doing with your job, with your personal life, all those areas. Do you actually take ownership of it? Do you take ownership of your health? Do you take ownership of your happiness? Do you take ownership of your financial wellbeing? Do you take ownership of the schedule if you're a scheduler? Do take ownership of making sure every doctor hits goal every single freaking day if you're a treatment coordinator? Do you take ownership as an office manager that you will continually hit a minimum of a 10 % growth rate every single year and make sure that your team is super happy and content? As a doctor, do you take ownership that you are going to produce and increase your clinical skills so you can be the best provider that there ever was? As a hygienist, do you own that you should be producing 3.3 times or 3.5 times your pay or 3.0, I don't care guys, choose your number and stick with it. There's a million of them. Minimum three, maximum 3.5 and less your fee for service. Then I for sure, for sure, for sure, for sure want you to be producing at least 4.5 times your pay. Okay? Do you take ownership that it's your job, not the scheduler's job to ensure you're hitting your production every single day, that you're mixing your schedule, that you're maximizing, that you're getting a 98 % reappointment percentage? Assistance, do you own the fact that you should not be getting up in a procedure to go get something because you...
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Adding New Treatments? Know This!
08/13/2025
Adding New Treatments? Know This!
Kristy and Tiff discuss the new treatments they’re seeing practices adopt these days and how to successfully start the process (if you want to). They touch on the best ways to gauge interest, training and implementation tips to start off, how to track results, and more. Episode resources: Transcript The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so happy to be back here with you. We are recording today from the comfort of our own homes with the ACs blasting. I am about to bust out my fan. is on the charger right now. I don't know if you know this or not, but Kristy and I come to you from the sweltering desert of Phoenix, Arizona. And I have to say, I'm crazy. My boyfriend is like, it is hot. We're getting out of here. We're moving to Prescott. And one day I'm sure we will, but. I love where I live and every time I go travel to an office and I'm gone for like a week, I'll see two, three offices at a time. I come back in and just coming into Tempe on that plane over in the mountains, you can see the Buttes, you can see South Mountain, you can see the city and just like the buzz of it all makes me so incredibly happy every single time. I love where I live. I cannot at this point in my life imagine living anywhere else. So when I say that out loud, People think I'm crazy. And I'm like, listen, it's beautiful here. My best friend, bless her heart, she's like, Tiff, it's brown. It's all desert. And I'm like, it's not. Do you see these colors, like the saguaros and the pink flowers that bloom and the yellows? And like, I don't know, Kristy, am I crazy? Or what are your thoughts? You came back to Arizona. So obviously, there's something to be told about that. DAT Kristy (01:25) It's too funny that you say that because it's so true. I'm you know when I moved to Idaho everybody's like Arizona it's a desert and I'm like but there's desert here. I have to agree the Arizona desert is much prettier. ⁓ Southwestern Idaho is very deserty and we're talking brown. There's where the brown is but Arizona desert is very beautiful. Even this time of year like come on Palo Verde's aren't brown they're green. The Dental A Team (01:35) Yeah. Yeah. Bye. Right? Literally in their name, right? Palo Verde. My boyfriend always says, yeah, Arizona is like so inventive, the green stick. And I'm like, well, it's green. It is green, okay? That's our state tree and it's green. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I just think it's beautiful. And there's nothing like a desert rain. I know that sounds so cliche. Everyone says it, everyone hears it, but I swear to you, the smell in the desert after a good rain or even a light sprinkling is magical. There is something about it that just changes the composition of your body and you become a much happier individual. just, can't be, you can't be angry in the desert rain. So. DAT Kristy (02:33) agree with you Tiff and if you and I can figure out a way to bottle that stuff I've always said we'd be millionaires. The Dental A Team (02:39) Yeah, well, you know, I just, my friend just told me this a couple months ago. There's actually a bush out there. I need to just take a picture of it and figure out what it is. We were hiking one day. There's a bush out there that you, when you pick the leaf and you like put it between your fingers, it smells like the desert rain. I'll find it. Yeah, I'll find it and take a picture. I don't know what the bush is, but I'll find it and take a picture and Google it so that we can, we could bottle it. My point there. Yeah. I actually had a friend in town. DAT Kristy (03:02) Yeah. The Dental A Team (03:06) Um, he lives in North Carolina and he was visiting and he was like, I'm taking some of this home so that other people can smell it. Cause it is incredible. And I'm like, yep, that's what Arizona desert rain smells like. So anyways, everybody who wants to come visit, we are here for it. We aren't taking any new visitors like to stay. I'm just kidding. You can move here. It's just, it's just getting crowded, you know, but visitors are welcome. Come. share in the heat. I know most people come in the month of February for the Waste Management Open and you just let us know when we're here and Kristy and I will pop over and say a little hello to you. So Kristy, getting on to business, I love talking about Arizona and I would do it forever, ⁓ but we're kind of rounding out the year right now. We're heading into quarter four. This is the time of year I'm like, well, we can still make massive movements, we can still make massive changes and hit those goals, but really we need to start thinking about what are we doing ⁓ after these goals are hit. So lot of people don't think about the next year, which is 2026 until December, but I'd like to start talking about it here in August. So one of those pieces, Kristy, I really wanted to chat today about offices that we've seen implement new treatment. And I know right now, ⁓ fillers, Botox, I've seen a ton of practices doing like facial aesthetics and the lasers and I don't even know what they're called the ones and like all of these amazing things and takes me back to when I was ⁓ working in office gosh when I first started I was like 19 and my doctor's like where are those paraffin wax things can we get those and I was like you're crazy we are not a spa like we're not doing paraffin wax for our patients I have enough to do chair side, have enough to clean up, we're not doing this, right? But he really wanted it and so we did at least, we did warm towels. So it's like, I can handle warm towels, it's all you got. But now, there is really like this spa aesthetic feel to a lot of dental practices. And I know there's plenty of us out there that are like, no, not doing that. I am a dig my heels in kind of girl. So I dig my heels in until the very end. But I'm kind of getting on board with it. I kind of like it. And it's adding a different sense and a different value. And honestly, I love marketing and it's adding a different marketing avenue because it's a different demographic of people who can come for the aesthetic side and see, I love these people. Let me switch my dental as well. They may not, that's okay. They may love their dentist. But if you can come to one place and get multiple things, that's kind of cool. So, Kristy, I just wanted to chat a little bit about some of the things that we've seen. We've worked, you guys, just so you know, we worked with a ton of practices on adding aesthetics. Botox fillers, ⁓ implants, just like simple single tooth implants, multi-tooth implants, all on fours. Gosh, what else? Orthodontics, making sure that the marketing is there, making sure that the treatment coordinating aspect is there, making sure that case acceptance is working, the schedule is working, the block scheduling. We have helped implement this in so many practices. So as we're talking today, just know we're speaking from that implementation experience and what we've seen really work for practices. from our experience working one-on-one with doctors. If you're someone who's looking to implement new products or new services in your practice and you're not really sure on the how-to, please reach out. We would love to help you on a one-on-one basis. [email protected]. Again, we have a ton of experience in this. have five experienced consultants ready to work one-on-one with you. ⁓ Kristy, Monica, and Trish are... freaking incredible you guys. I have just seen them move mountains for clients in very short amount of time. if you are ready to take that step, let us know. [email protected]. But Kristy, I know you've had a lot of clients. You've actually had, you've had some fun clients that I can think of off the top of my head that are kind of fresh and new and starting out. And I know one in particular I can think. probably is this like go-getter wants to add everything, wants to take all the CE, wants to implement everything and wants to just run with it. And then you've got some others that are like, I'm going to like take my time. I'm going to buy it my time. I'm to take the CE. Maybe in a couple of years, we'll be able to implement it. Like there's like such drastic differences there, but what kind of ⁓ procedures have you seen implemented recently? And what do you feel like your clients are doing really well? to implement them within their practice with your support. DAT Kristy (07:45) Well. like you, the med spa thing has really taken off in dentistry. So adding in the Botox, the laser ⁓ and sleep, even for little kiddos, the tongue ties has been an area of exploration. with that being said, Tiff, think first and foremost, yes, you're right. I have one client that's kind of a go getter and and honestly him bringing the energy has worked really well for him because his excitement is driving it, right? But one thing that I would say in the very beginning, if you're exploring this and you aren't that go getter, energetic, I'm going to do this attitude and you're kind of thinking about it, start to take a pulse with your patients. know, explore, hey, if we offered this service, is this something you'd be interested in? See if people are interested in it because you may be leaving room on the table, right? And maybe you'll find out they're not interested and it will drive you in a different direction But with that being said, like I said take a pulse of your own patients, but I also doctors recommend that you ⁓ Get your admin team ⁓ Keeping a list of things that patients are calling in and asking for and they have to say no we don't do that because that's an area of opportunity that perhaps if you have a hundred people calling and asking The Dental A Team (09:10) That's a great idea. Yeah. That's a great idea. I have never in my life thought of that. That's beautiful. I love that you said to ask the patients themselves as well. If I started offering this, is this something you'd be interested in? And that one's kind of an easy one when it comes to like Botox and things like that, because you can tell when someone has utilized that procedure before. So I've even had doctors say, where are you going for your Botox? Like, do you like where you go? Are you happy there? What are they doing well that keeps you coming back? even as far is to ask what they're paying because it really helps them to figure out. how they can generate that within their own practice based on a scale of like, know, chatting with a couple of different patients, because you really can tell fillers as well. And all of that stuff, you guys, to be redone at some point. So I think that's a great idea. apnea is huge. I think the kiddo stuff is massive. I have a couple of doctors, couple of doctors, but then also I have a GP doctor that does a ton within the lip tie, the sleep apnea, all of those pieces for the toddlers and children. She's so passionate about it that her team is behind her as well on it. So I think that's a really good point. And I think, Kristy, something you touched on was that passion and how excited that specific doctor we're thinking of is about everything he does, everything he does he's excited for. And so I just feel like walking into his practice, you're just amped up. Like the energy's got to be so high. But for... everyone no matter what anytime you go take a CE, anytime you have an idea, anytime you're like I want to implement this and you go get trained on it, I think the biggest missing piece that I've always seen myself as a consultant and then myself even as a dental assistant or for an office is that information lapse between you taking the course and coming back with the information and that ⁓ I get from a business standpoint and a doctor's standpoint, it's hard to take your team to the CE with you. And sometimes it's not even offered to bring your team. So I get that, but that's where training comes into play. And I think that's where having someone on your side, a coach and a consultant, someone who's working hand in hand with the team who really can help create protocols, who can help with the verbiage because you're over there implementing. And I don't know, Kristy, if you've ever experienced this, I remember my doctor, he would get so deflated. because he'd go do this thing, he'd be rammed up sleep. He wanted to sleep so badly and I hope to this day that he's doing it, but it was so difficult and we didn't get the training, we didn't get the courses, he was training us which was great, but it was like also we are doing everything we were doing before you took this course. So the space for me to learn how to add this, for me to take the time out of my day, to implement this just isn't always there. And so the space to do the training is sometimes lacking if you can't take your team with you. So I know I've got a practice that I've helped a ton with sleep just in general at their practice because they needed the protocols put in place, but they didn't have the time to even sit down and type them. So it was like, We're going to do this together real quick. Our tips got these ideas. We've got templates that we utilize with our clients that we're like, hey, these are my ideas. And we go back and forth. And we figure out what's working, what's not working. And Kristy, I know you've done that too. What have you seen work really well with practices for that training and implementation? DAT Kristy (12:57) It's kind of funny because the ways you're talking I'm thinking of a client right now that literally just went she did take her team to Vegas for clear liner course and Thank goodness. were blessed to go right because you're you're right getting the whole team behind them and the energy coming back in is huge the energy really does propel the momentum as you're Trying to ramp up and to your point not everybody can take the whole team So so I get that yet if you can get one or two chances to go and help you wonderful. If not, would definitely recommend coming back and having the conversation and have doctors speak to their why. You know, why do they want to implement this? What is their vision for it? And then create benchmarks. Like how will we implement this and what can we do? So if we want to do more clear aligners, what is The Dental A Team (13:37) Yeah. video. DAT Kristy (13:56) something we can do every day to help that outcome, right? Is it add one more scan to a patient? You know, get those commitments from team and buy in and then have fun with it. We're always talking about the sprinkles and adding the fun. So find a way to gamify it. And if I do this action every day, it's going to create a better chance of my outcome, right? The Dental A Team (14:00) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, and to that point, you're then tracking your results, right? Which is something that we have all of our practices tracking their results consistently for that reason, because we want to see the things that you're doing every day. Are they creating the result that you wanted? Are we moving closer to the goal that you were set after? Or are we moving further away from it? Because then we can see what we want to tweak or change or what needs to be added. And then again, to your point as well, what's one thing that we can add? A lot of times we come in with all of the things and it's like, that's too much and we can't process it all. So if you do that, like one thing, so for sleep apnea or Botox or any of those spaces or though it's like, what's one thing you would change aesthetically if you had the opportunity? Like what's one question? You can start asking every patient that walks through your door. Do you find yourself waking up a lot at night? Do you find yourself, know, do your partner say that you're snoring? Do you have a hard time falling asleep? Do you have a hard time waking up? What are the key factors? What's one question, two questions you add onto it? How can we layer this and stack to get things done? And like you said, maybe we're taking one more scan today than we took yesterday. We're gamifying it, we're tracking the results, and we're making sure that it's fitting. And that's something that I think as consultants, we've been able to really help teams get excited about. and really be able to help them break it down because for doctors, for our visionaries, it's sometimes difficult for a visionary to see the path. They see the end result. They see what it is that they're after. They see the dream and the finality. We have to take it layers backwards and say, how do we get there? The visionaries have a hard time figuring out how we're going to get there. And when they're the only ones who are trying to figure that out or there's no one on the team that's like, okay, I got it. I will figure it out from here. That's where the consultants come into play or training office managers to see that space to say, okay, what are the steps it's going to take to get there? And how do we incrementally layer and add onto those steps to ensure that we do? So, Kristy, I think you're hitting some massive spaces there. with the tracking the results, the just one thing and making sure that we are training the team as we can. I also think don't wait too long. If you've gone to a course and you've learned something, you need to start practicing it because you learned it. And then if you're waiting a year to implement it, you're going to need to go back for a refresher course because you haven't been doing it. And I've seen that happen. I don't know if you have. I've seen that happen, especially with like Botox, where they go get the training, but they're just like dragging their feet, probably out of fear and actually implementing it. And then they're like, well, shoot, I need to go get a refresher course because I haven't done it since I did it at my training. Have you seen that too, Kristy? DAT Kristy (17:27) Absolutely. I love that you mentioned that because I think one realm where we're really good at this if you think about it is ⁓ Milling same-day crowns because they force you to find patients, right? They're like, okay have your patients lined up because we're gonna do it in those other realms We don't necessarily do that. So a component that I think we miss a lot is we plan the CE we schedule it we go the course But we didn't block out time to meet with team coming back, right? The Dental A Team (17:36) Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. DAT Kristy (17:57) So make sure that time dedicate the time to make sure it happens and Hey, let's line up the patients. Let's get them in the chair and start because you're right Otherwise, we just get back into routine and it's gone to the wayside and you know See is wonderful and it's all knowledge. But unless we're interpreting it into something It's just money spent right? Yeah The Dental A Team (18:22) Agreed. Yeah, agreed. And it makes me think of two of ⁓ Like you said, they tell you to have patients ready for the crowns, but same thing for implants, right? Same thing for Botox, same thing for any of those, but implants especially. I always tell doctors, before you go to the course, I say take inventory, look at how many outgoing referrals you had to oral surgeons. How much revenue did you feed oral surgeons in your area of that thing that you're going for? Because they have had practices in areas of their city that it was like it didn't make sense financially to implement the thing because they weren't getting it in their doors, right? They...
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How Dentists Can Capitalize on the Big, Beautiful Bill
08/12/2025
How Dentists Can Capitalize on the Big, Beautiful Bill
Derick Van Ness of Big Life Financial returns to the podcast to discuss with Kiera the new realities of the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill — and how dentists can capitalize on the impacts. They discuss bonus depreciation, research and development credits, and more. Further, there’s an opportunity for DAT listeners at , where you can learn if you’re overpaying on your taxes and what new opportunities exist. Episode resources: Transcript Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I'm excited to welcome back a popular guest. He and I have chatted multiple times. We've gone around and around on different topics of how to help dentists build more wealth. So Derick, ⁓ with Big Life Financial, we talked about our research and development credits. Today we're going to be talking about this big, beautiful tax bill, how it's going to impact dentists, how it's going to impact building wealth. I do think it also impacts team members. So Derick, welcome back to the show. How are you today? Derick Van Ness (00:29) I'm great, Kiera. I really appreciate you bringing me on the show again. It's always fun to talk. Kiera Dent (00:34) Of course, we all know that I love wealth strategies. love ⁓ it takes time like you and I were talking about pre show. ⁓ I think it's something to educate ourselves on and to be around really smart people and to constantly be looking at different things like I know hot in the real estate world right now and with buying businesses and buying practices, the big beautiful tax bill is actually great for the bonus depreciation coming in. So just like educating ourselves and that's what I wanted today to be. not getting high into politics. These are bills that are into place ⁓ and how to take advantage of them, how to maximize them. Derick, you work with a ton of dentists. So Derick, for those who don't know, you kind of give a little bit background on how you and I even got connected, how you got into dentistry, ⁓ how does Big Life Financial play into this. We have a lot of mutual clients together. So just kind of give people a background on who you are and how you got to the dental space. Derick Van Ness (01:26) Absolutely, you know, I started out back in like 2010 2009 2010 helping small business owners with taxes and financial strategy I was working for another firm at the time and I had been a house flipper and if for those of you who remember 2008 wasn't so good if you're a house flipper, right and When that whole thing fell apart kind of fell in my head I took a lot of the skills that I had and a friend of mine hired me to help Kiera Dent (01:46) It is not. Derick Van Ness (01:55) small business owners with taxes and financial and business strategy. ⁓ Working with them, I had a chance to work with about 1,500 business owners over seven years. And then eventually went out and started doing my own thing because there were some different things that I wanted to do that they didn't offer. ⁓ essentially, in that time, I worked with a lot of dentists and a lot of doctors. ⁓ And so I kind of stayed in that arena, which led me to ⁓ meeting you, Kiera. through Mark over at DSI and all the stuff that I'd done with him and then found you guys and just love what you guys do with helping people to build their teams. Cause I'm such a huge advocate of how important that is to have the right team to run your practice, right? Especially if you're going to have multiple practices, it just can't be about you. And so it was just kind of a natural fit. And like you said, you, you definitely love financial strategies. So. We got into it, we talked about a bunch of different things, had a chance to work together. Like you said, have shared a lot of clients along the way, but it just seems like dentists have a lot of the problems that we solve, which is they pay a of taxes, they make good money, and most of them didn't get an MBA in college to understand how business and finances work. They've had to learn along the way. And so we see ourselves as part of that process of helping dentists become. better business owners, better entrepreneurs, and honestly create freedom in their life instead of just having a business that runs them, because it's easy to have that happen in dentistry. So that's sort of how we got connected. I don't know, over the last, since whatever 2008, 2009 was, last 15 plus years, I've probably worked with somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 business owners. I would say a good chunk of those have been dentists. So that's how we ended up together. Kiera Dent (03:48) Yeah. I love the journey. love hearing what you've done. I also agree on like building wealth. And I think going through dental school, working at the dental college, dentists are coming out with, you know, upwards of 500, 600, 700, $800,000 in debt somewhere up towards that upper million. Midwestern was a very expensive school. looking at that and then watching offices and I remember the first dentist that I worked with and we were partners. We, called her 2.5 because we were 2.5 million debt. Derick Van Ness (04:03) Cheers. Kiera Dent (04:18) was like, you better straighten that spine 2.5. Like we need that spine for a long time. But it was something where I realized like, that's a substantial amount of debt. One to walk out of school with two you buy a practice on top of that and then you want to try and like even remotely live your own personal life. It just felt like the odds are possibly stacked not in a dentist favor. I've had several dentists where this is the case where they're multimillion in debt, trying to get these practices off the ground. And so really coming up with Derick Van Ness (04:43) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (04:47) like yes, long-term, if they make it, awesome. Hopefully it will pay off for them. But what are maybe some strategies and tips that they can do now? I think like so many of us look at real estate and wish that we would have gotten in at the 2008 because now you're selling them out or even in 2020. And so it's like, what can people do now, even if they didn't maximize or we didn't buy practices back in the day when they were so cheap, they were pennies on the dollar. What things can we do now to maximize? I was even talking to this girl the other day. And she's like, yeah, my baby was born on New Year's Eve. And I was like, wow, talk about a great tax write-off. And she's like, I didn't even know that that was a tax write-off. I didn't even know the benefits of things. And so I feel like just so many little pieces that could make us smarter business owners to, I'm here, I love living in the United States. I love paying taxes for the country that we get to live in. I love the opportunity that we have to be business owners. With that said, I also think it's smart for us to be very wise stewards over our money to figure out different strategies. And no, it's not sexy. No, it's not fun. A lot of it is just like save, like invest, do the things you're supposed to do. And it's going to be part of what is it? Like the eighth wonder of the world of compound interest. Like there are other pieces, but Derick, like, let's talk about this big, beautiful tax bill. How does this work? How does this impact business owners? What are some of the benefits we can take care of? Now we're talking in 2025, things will change and shift as the landscape shifts, but knowing that's in place, what are some of the things dentists owners can do now? to maximize that coming out. Derick Van Ness (06:18) Yeah, you bring up a good point, Kiera. You know, it's not that this stuff happens overnight, but it is, it's systemic, right? You're doing it day in and day out. And tax is one of those things, whether you like it or not, you have to file them every year. And I'm not going to lie to you, that's part of what I like about being in the tax world is people have to do it every year. It's a pretty good business model that way, right? Kiera Dent (06:30) Right. I was gonna say you've got the reoccurring opportunities because it has to happen every year just like dentists have profis every six months. I mean it's a great built-in business. mean kudos to you. I don't enjoy it but it is a necessary evil to be done. Derick Van Ness (06:52) I totally get that. If you would have told me you're going to work in taxes even 15 years ago when I first got into it, I would have said absolutely not not interested. But what I can tell you is every dollar you make in taxes is the same as a new dollar you make in your business. Right. But you don't have to have employees and risk and additional insurance and additional equipment and all this other stuff. So it really is pure profit when you can reduce your taxes. So even a small amount of tax strategy can go a very long way in increasing what you get in the bottom line, right? And if you could just take a lot of dentists across the country, they're in the 40 % tax bracket, maybe a little higher or lower depending on your state, but somewhere in that range, if you could even lower that by 10%, that's keeping an additional 10 % of your income. That's a lot of extra money for people to be able to save and put to work without having to go do more risk and... buy a bigger building and do a build out and deal with more personalities in the office because all of those things are variables, right? So I see it as a pure profit machine if you get it right. And so I've chosen to think it that way because I spend so much time in it, but it really does come down to just keeping a lot more of the money you make. And it's a very potent way to do it because honestly, with 10 to 15 hours a year, so think of that as like one hour a month. you can really add a lot to the bottom line of what you get to keep. In some cases, we can cut taxes almost in half for high, high income earners. So it's a pretty big deal. Kiera Dent (08:25) Well, and as you said that I think it's a big deal for today because yes to have that back to you is great. But like we talked about compounding, compounding until you've experienced compounding seems like not real. Just like I think when like you have bought your first house and it's like, how am I ever supposed to do this and make money on it until you bought your first practice? A lot of those things I think feel ⁓ arbitrary, they feel false. And then once you get into the compounding world and you're like, my gosh, like we're making money without having to do anything. It's like, yeah, I could save on my taxes in a legal, ethical way, have more money at the end of the year that I could then put towards this, like you said, make it work for me. Well, now that it's just duplicating, it's multiplying, it's replicating, those things to me are things I get excited about. Those are things that I look for, because I don't think there's a lot of money. I call it the money making machine. What things can we put into your money making machine to where it's working for you day in, day out without you having to do any extra work? I think all of us check yes, let's say yes to that. So Derick, let's talk about how we can create more of these money making machines, putting our money to work for us rather than constantly trying to chase the money dream to where at the end of our careers and even during our careers, we're living the lives that we wanted to get to when we first started out into these careers. Derick Van Ness (09:29) Yep. Yeah. And I can tell you guys this, if you only walk away with one thing, it's the idea if you want to build wealth, you need to create systematic savings, right? Systematize putting money aside, whether that's actually savings account or investing or however, but just getting money out of the spending cycle and into the building cycle. And it's like watching your child, right? Like in the beginning, kids grow and it's like day to day, you don't see it, but year to year, it starts to make a bigger and bigger and bigger difference. And then, you know, when they're teenagers, you're just like, what's happening, right? So it's the same kind of thing with your money. In the beginning, if you're just watching a day to day, you don't really see the growth. You have to trust the process, right? But the biggest thing you can do is put that on autopilot, because if you have to automatically go into your bank account every month and move money over or every year, move money over, it's much harder. And like writing, Kiera Dent (10:28) Mm-hmm. Derick Van Ness (10:42) 25, 50, 100, $200,000 checks feels hard. Setting aside 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, $10,000 a month, and then you cut that in half per pay period, and all of a sudden it gets a lot easier. It's like, oh yeah, $1,000 a pay period, not that big a deal. Much easier than writing a $25,000 check, right? Or two or $3,000 per pay period. It really does add up. And that's where the tax piece comes in is, in many cases, it's like found money. I try to teach our clients to... Kiera Dent (10:46) Mm-hmm. Derick Van Ness (11:11) save like you're going to pay full blast on taxes. And then when we do the tax strategy, all this money is left over. And so it feels like extra money, and then you can put it to work, right? And that's where you do get to play with some bigger chunks. ⁓ But really, it's that habit of automating, setting money aside. If you can just only take one thing from this, it's that. And taxes can create a huge amount of that for you along the way. So let's talk about the tax bill, right? Kiera Dent (11:24) Mm-hmm. Yeah, let's talk about it. And I just want to highlight on that, Derick, of I was talking to a CPA the other day on the podcast and he talked about how like there's a different psychology of business owners. ⁓ We go from getting a W-2 paycheck that we're used to being able to spend all of it because taxes have already been taken out to them becoming business owners and not having taxes automatically taken from that and needing to be super disciplined on saving. And so I agree with you. And when I realized like, I got so annoyed when I'm like, great, so now I never get a refund check ever again in taxes. I was like, no, actually it's actually so much better now than it ever was. Because if I just set it aside, I'm like, taxes are pretty simple. I guess there's some nuances to them, but it's pretty much like whatever tax bracket you are, take your profit at the end of the month, set that aside. And lo and behold, if you do the tax planning strategy, like you said, usually I'm ending up with a pretty good substantial chunk at the end of the year that I count as my like quote unquote, like the refund check or whatever. It's been so long since I've gotten one that I don't even know what it is. But it's awesome because then you have this huge lump of money because you've been saving it. You weren't expecting it. All your expenses in your life is taken care of to where now, like you said, it is really fun. Is that an investment? Is that buying something that I've always wanted to get? Is that real estate money? Because the amount of cash, if you are strategic in how you do it, is exponentially substantial. It is truly life-changing. So I'm excited, Derick. Let's talk about the tax bill, but I will second you and ditto you and just say, yes, there's discipline to it, but that discipline equals so much freedom on the other side that just try it. Trust us on this. Save, learn to save on it and ⁓ be blown away at how much you're able to have at the end of the year if you do it really well. Derick Van Ness (13:25) Yeah, I 100 % agree and I love your approach, Kiera. That's exactly what we try to teach with people. So let's talk about the tax bill, right? There's a ton of stuff that's in there that we're not going to touch on because like the child tax credit go up $200 a year. Yes. Is that going to move the needle for you as a business owner? Not really, right? Is there a little bit for senior tax relief in there where there's $6,000 of income that they don't pay taxes on? Yes. Does that really matter for you? Probably not, right? So we're going to... Kiera Dent (13:33) Okay, let's talk. Derick Van Ness (13:55) we're going to talk a little bit about a couple of key things that can really move the needle. One of them you alluded to, Kiera, that I think is really important is the idea of bonus depreciation, right? People who don't know what bonus depreciation is, it's when you buy certain types of equipment or real estate, you can take all the depreciation in the first year, right? And that can be ⁓ a huge chunk, especially when you combine it with something like cost segregation. For those of you who don't know what cost segregation is, the two really Kiera Dent (14:04) Mm-hmm. Derick Van Ness (14:24) work well together. So I think it's worth taking just a sec, even though it's not new, it really enhances this strategy. ⁓ Cost segregation is when you have a piece of real estate, you bring in an engineer, and there are companies that do this, right? So you don't have to know all this stuff. ⁓ But they come in, they reclassify as much of your building as they can as equipment. And so what you get to do is depreciate a portion of the building, the stuff that's equipment much more rapidly. So a lot of times five, seven or 15 years. versus either 27 or 39 and a half years. So you get a lot more depreciation on the front end. It's not like you get more overall, but money today is worth a whole lot more than money 20 or 30 years from now. You can invest it and use it to grow your business, et cetera. But then when you add bonus depreciation to that, you can get a lot more of it in the first year. what this really means is if you're Kiera Dent (15:06) Mm-hmm. Derick Van Ness (15:21) buying the right kind of equipment or you're buying a building or you're doing big improvements, you can get a lot more depreciation and that depreciation can save you in taxes, right? And this is one that I feel like most CPAs kind of get bonus depreciation, but a lot of them don't bring in the cost segregation piece. So if you own a piece of real estate, especially if you bought it in the last few years and you haven't done a cost segregation study, this is something that you would have to know about because someone has to physically come to your building. If you haven't done one, Kiera Dent (15:39) Mm-hmm. Derick Van Ness (15:51) should talk to your CPA about it or talk to someone about it. I'm sure Kiera knows people, we know people, there are plenty of people out there who do it. But that's something worth looking at, especially if your building's worth, I would say, $250,000, $300,000, and you've had it less than five years and you haven't done this, yeah, it's totally worth looking at. It could be a real nice windfall. So that's a big one. It had been in place, then it started phasing out from 100 % to 80 % to 60%. Kiera Dent (16:04) I Derick Van Ness (16:20) but now we're back at 100%. So this is a big one, especially if you own your building or you're buying a lot of equipment. ⁓ Another really big one is the SALT tax. Now, people hear SALT tax and they're like, what? They're thinking of like the SPICE, right? SALT stands for state and local tax. And really to simplify this, and there's kind of a workaround in almost every state where you can do it as a pass-through setup. And essentially what that means is, Kiera Dent (16:27) Mm-hmm. Bye. Derick Van Ness (16:49) If you pay all your state taxes...
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3 Systems Every Productive Practice Has in Place
08/07/2025
3 Systems Every Productive Practice Has in Place
High-performing practices don’t happen by accident, and in this episode, Kiera shares the steps that the most successful practices put in place to get there. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today is just an incredible day for you. I hope you guys are ready to be on the podcast, whether you're driving, listening to us as a team meeting, going to work, going for a run, going on a hike, driving in the car, whatever it is. I hope today is just an incredible day and I hope you remember dentistry really is the greatest place for us to be. I'm so excited to podcast. I'm your host Kiera Dett and truly I'm excited to help you make dentistry more fun, to make your day more fun. because we have done over a thousand episodes. So if there's ever anything you're struggling with in your practice, be sure to head on over to TheDentalATeam.com click on our podcast tab and make sure that you download whatever podcast it is. Like you can type in case acceptance or overhead or PNL or staffing or hiring or hygiene. And every single episode we have ever done in the archive of the thousands, literally of episodes we have done, they're there for you. And I just want to say thanks. Thanks for hanging out with us. Thanks for being part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If this podcast is serving you, if it's helped you, if this made you laugh, if it made your practice better, be sure to leave us a review and share this in groups. Honestly, our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible and get this podcast into the hands of every single dental office out there. So share and hey, let's have a great day today because I wanted to go through three systems that every productive practice has in place. And honestly, a lot of practices don't have them. This is something where like these high-performing practices, they don't just happen by accident. They run on systems and most practices are missing these top three. Like truly I've walked into hundreds and thousands of offices and I'm shocked that they don't have these three simple easy ones in place for them. ⁓ These right systems are going to help drive consistency, reduce your stress, increase your profitability and they're very, very easy for practices to implement. Now, just because something's easy doesn't mean that practices... actually do it. So I want you to be part of the elite. You're part of Dental A Team. Why not tell you the best of the best of the best? I mean, why not? Like you're here, you're listening. Let's make your time effort energies worth it. I'm on board. Are you on board? Cause I think it'd be great. guys Dental A Team was truly created for you. We are obsessed with building smart, scalable practices and systems to help you have the life that you want to live. We want to make teams and practices happier. We want to make patient experience happier. And this is something where we don't want you working harder. One of our top core values in the Dental A Team is ease. We want everything to be easy. As team members ourselves, we don't want to put hard things into place for teams. We don't want doctors to be working late nights and not spending time with their families. We want you to be profitable, happy, successful with ease. So the first system that I found that we've talked about many times, and I'll just go to a high level today because there are deeper podcasts on it, but to kind of break this down into the three simple, sexy systems that are not so sexy, but they really truly will help you drive. profit, efficiency, happiness. And the number one, da-da-da-da, I hope you're ready for it, is block scheduling. Like yes, block scheduling, it's crazy. ⁓ Literate people reach out to us just to help them with block scheduling. And I am shocked because block scheduling is something where you literally can put it together in such high value ease. ⁓ I'm obsessed, we do have a block schedule template that we work with our practices. And it's one of those things where we keep making it like, more and more and more and more and more because we realize there's easier things to do on it. But just as a quick sample, I really, really, really love helping offices make this so fun. Like, let's make it easy for you. Let's make this exciting for you. So I'm actually going to do a share screen. So if you guys are watching, amazing, hey, welcome, I'm super happy. And if you're not, that's okay. What we're going to do is I'll walk you through it as well. So if you're listening, driving the car, but I will also try to share this with you. So on here, what I've done is we have actually created these boxes for you to fill in, okay? So we fill in all the green boxes and on the left-hand side, what I have is basically all of your procedures in the practice, what they are, how much time it's going to take you and how much it's going to cost you on average. Now we want time, if crown prep and buildup, how much time is that going to take you? Well, fantastic, it's gonna be an hour and a half. Awesome, put that in. How much is the cost approximately? Don't go for your highest fee and don't go for your lowest fee. We wanna go right in that like sweet spot, middle spot. And then what about what providers? Cause some providers do procedures and others don't. So put that in there. We also wanna look for our new patients, our SRPs, how many perio maintenance as we have active patients over the last 18 months and 12 months to make sure we have enough blocks for that. We wanna go through our current hygiene spaces and our weekly availability. I want to look back at last year and see how many pro fees we did, how many SRPs, how many periomaintenances would be needed based on that. And then any specialty procedures we've got, then we look at how many hygiene hours we're going to need for new patients, how many SRPs, how many hour pro fees, how many periomaintenances, and then our goals if we want any of those specialties. So that's like master sheet number one. Then we move into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. This is awesome. You actually start to look, you know, every single week I need X number of new patient spots, X number of SRP spots. X number of procedures. And what I love to do is at the top of this ⁓ Excel spreadsheet that I'll show you, I actually put dollar amounts for how much each hygiene group be producing, how much our assistant only columns are, and how much our doctor columns are. So when we look at that, it will actually give us a total production based on how much that procedure should cost us. Now, of course I could have an endo here, but I also could have a couple crowns there. So it's just a dollar amount approximately what I'm trying to do. And then what was really amazing is we'll get to a grand total page. tab that will tell us what does our weekly total equal. Then we do a monthly total based on four weeks, it's gonna break it down. So in this practice example, their weekly total is about 94,000. That means their monthly total is about 379, giving them an annual total of 4.5. What's wild on this is this is a real practice. These are real offices doing this. And what's insane is this practices are usually doing like three or four million and we're able to then add 500,000 or like 300,000 or an extra million. just through great block scheduling. It's wild. It truly is something where they get out on time, they have less stress. We guide patients to the appointments. And this is where I obsess about showing all of you how to do block scheduling. It is literally a super easy, sexy, simple system that takes a little bit of planning, a little bit of prep work, but then you execute on it. And if you don't have one in place, this is something where you have got to get it in place. You've got to guide your patients where you want them to go. And like I said, this is one of the top three systems that the productive practices are using, whereas the not so productive practices are not using it. People are like, it's too hard, Kara. Well, if it's too hard, reach out. [email protected]. We literally work with offices. We put these into place. We bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars. So when people are curious about consulting ROI, I'm like, listen, I can easily go into your schedule. We can add hundreds of thousands of dollars with no extra effort on your part, just utilizing your schedule better. It's kind of like people when it's like, gosh, like that person can just get so much done in their day. Well, it's the same thing with your schedule at your office. You can get so much more done in a day when you're just more effective, more efficient with your scheduling. So this is the framework that protects production in your practice. So audit your schedule, get block schedules in place. And if you are struggling with or heard this a million times, reach out, [email protected], book a complimentary practice assessment. We'll show you blind spots. We'll give you free tips. We will literally help you whether you work with us or not. So there's really no cost to you, no effort other than you swallowing your you know and booking the call and saying like, hey, I've tried, I need help. And even if you can do it, what's your time worth to you? Doctors, you're producing five, six, $700 an hour. Well, think about it. If you can outsource that to a consultant, hashtag the Dental A Team, think of the ROI of your time. And I actually think it's a better use of your time to go produce. and let us help your team put this into place. All right, system number two is my favorite thing, excellent handoffs. Excellent handoffs that are going to boost and increase your case acceptance. And we call that our sexy NDTR handoff. This is wild. I tell offices about it. They hear it on the podcast and they still don't use it. And I'm like, why? This is our 50 % to 100 % case acceptance. It literally does not need to be hard. It's how you're able to add same day treatment. It's how you're able to have better scheduling. It's how you're able to perfect your handoff. from every single team member and that's to literally at the end of every exam, every appointment, tell them next visit, date to return, time needed for that appointment and is there re-care scheduled? NDTR, it's the magic formula. It literally boosts your case acceptance. It is not hard, it is simple to do. The only thing that's annoying about it is you have to remember to say it at the end of your procedure. But we've even made that easier and we throw it on your route slips. We put it on your computer, we put it in your exam notes. So you should not be forgetting and every team member should be prompting you for it. I promise you, if you will just put this one system into place, you will see massive growth all the time when people are interviewing us to see if they want to work with us and we're interviewing them to see if they'd be a great client. I literally am never afraid when people are like, Kiera, can you cover your ROI? Like what's the ROI? And I'm like, well, on average we have it, started it out. Most of our practices within their first three months are seeing a 30 % increase in production just across the board. Okay. So now there's some that are 10%. There's some that are 50%. all across, like on average of hundreds of offices, they're seeing a boost of 30%. Well, let's just say you are a million dollar practice today. That's an extra $300,000. We are not even like, are barely, you're like a 10X of what you're paying us versus what you're getting. And that to me is something that's so insanely valuable is you need to make sure that you're adding your consultant in who can add these results for you. And we do it through non-sexy ways. Like, hey, let me give you an awesome handoff to say at the end of the procedure that's going to and eliminate the excuses a patient's going to bring to you, but it's going to help teep all of your treatment. It's going to make your handoffs perfect. It's going to make it to where patients want to say yes to you. I've literally watched them leave the operatory and they don't get operatory like hallway amnesia. They literally like our little robots and they walk right up front and they're like, hey, Dr. Smith wants to see me back for that crown in two weeks for an hour and I need to get my cleaning scheduled. And they just smile. And you're like, where did you come from? And why did not all of my patients do this? is because you don't have this in and it's something that's so easy to do and yet most practices don't do it. So I would recommend every one of you, doctors, add it in. I want you to look at that exam room when you walk into it, every hygiene room, every time you walk through the door, you are just going to say it every single time and you will be shocked at how great your case acceptance goes, but not even just your case exceptions, your patient's happiness. They're not confused. Where do start? Why is dentistry so confusing? Why do I not want to do this? You've literally given them the roadmap. eliminated half of their excuses that they're going to go up and have objections. Treatment coordinator like, here teach me how to get over objections. I'm like, hey, just have a better exam. And 50 % of those objections are already gone. They're not confused. They don't have amnesia. They know exactly where to go. And then we ask them, what questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid moving forward. You told them we're moving forward. It's not a question of are we doing dentistry or not. It's, hey, we're doing dentistry. Next step is going to be, you can talk about how you want to finance it. But what questions do you have for me? I want you rock solid moving forward. This is how the elite practices do it. You guys wanna know? I've been in hundreds of offices and I'm here to show these are the three sexy systems that your practice needs to have in place. All right, get it done, get that in place. And if you're struggling, this is something we teach to teams. We get the whole team on board, because sometimes you listening, trying to get your team bought in, sometimes that's hard. So fly in an expert, we'll come and train your team. There we go. That was a little bit of a tongue twister. We will train your team to do this. to have great case acceptance. And this is how we're able to add in one practice, we added $25,000 in one day just by doing this. All right, system number three, this is going to sound so silly, but a morning huddle that's truly a huddle that drives performance and alignment. Like literally this is what we do in office. We cut our morning huddle and I'm like, rock on, you cut out your secret treasure trove. Like this is something that can take five minutes, 10 minutes, and our job is to look for what did we do great yesterday? what's on our docket today and are we going to win the day? I do not need to hear about every patient. do not need to hear about Mrs. Jones has high blood pressure. Fantastic, that's something hygienists you need to know. The whole team does not need to know it. We need to look at the scoreboard just like football players, basketball players, baseball players, whatever it is. We look at our scoreboard, AKA how we did yesterday, where we are on track for our month and we say is today schedule two goal? And if not, what are we going to do to truly win our day? Now I understand that numbers can sometimes not feel like patient care. I want to reverse that mindset for you. And I want you to know that when we hit our numbers, that is our benchmark, our measuring stick to show that we served our patients at the highest level. And we did not let little gaps fall into place like missing fluoride opportunities, missing x-ray opportunities, missing same day treatment opportunities, missing diagnosis opportunities. These little simple things are what we're trying not to do. So that's why we set our goal. We have our block schedule. We know the treatment we want to do. We know the hygiene patients that we need to be seeing. We know the open schedule time that we need to make sure that we've eliminated. And when we morning huddle it out, we can literally strategize how we're going to win our day. So we have more consistent days, more consistent treatment, more consistent patient care, more consistent happy teams. This is where we look for bottlenecks. Where are we going to get jammed up? Could we move a patient by 15 minutes today and make our schedule a lot easier? What does hygiene mean? Hygiene, are you scheduled to goal? And if not, what are you going to do to make sure that you get your patient base scheduled to goal? It's wild when every player on the team takes ownership of their position over their column, over their goals that we've all committed to, to ensure that we're not missing any patient care. Now you might not get to your exact goal on hygiene side, but I promise you, if we're looking for every single thing those patients should be getting, you will always hit goal. I promise you, we don't set goals to make it to where it's like impossible or you have to do extra dentistry. We set them so we don't miss little things. And I think like, if you just have it that way where we remember, we do it, we chart prep. Every person's chart prepping the night before, they're looking for their opportunities and we come to Morning Huddle to strategize how we're going to win. We can identify VIP patients to ask them for reviews and referrals. We can do challenges within our team of who's gonna get the most reviews in a day. There's so many little things that Morning Huddle can do and it's also a combination where we connect, we have a game plan and then we go and execute and go to work. So this is really something where it's like, let's use metrics in our Morning Huddle. Let's figure out how we're going to truly strategize and win. and let's look for same day opportunities that we could use to, it's crazy, it's wild when you will use morning huddles like this of the strategy, the huddle to win the game, you will be insanely shocked at how much is there that you might be missing here and there. So these are the three non-sexy systems that every single productive practice has in place and they're incredibly good at it. And that is our block scheduling, our NDTR handoffs and our morning huddles that are setting us up to win. This is something that will significantly improve your productivity and team alignment. Like they get everybody on the same page. We're rowing in the same boat. People are like, Carrie, I got to put all these systems in place. And I'm like, no, you don't. You just need to put the systems in place that are going to help you win. And that means winning on the number side for sure, but winning on team alignment, happier patients, getting out on time, more time with your family. Let's put those systems into place. Let's not be spending a lot of time wasted time on things that don't truly move the needle forward. why we put systems into place. This is why we're obsessed with it. Because the reality is one small change. Any of these changes is going to radically improve your life. It's going to improve your practice and it's going to improve your happiness. So why not do it? And if you are struggling with this, you're like, gosh, Kara, I hear your podcast. I listened to you. I've heard you tell me this a hundred times. Book the call. [email protected]. Book the call. Let's stop living in mayhem. Let's stop living in madness. Let's have expert consultants literally look at...
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Kiera Dent: The Empty Millionaire
08/06/2025
Kiera Dent: The Empty Millionaire
Kiera shares a personal experience of reaching an incredible milestone but feeling depleted — and how she changed what being fulfilled meant. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and I feel like today's podcast is going to be, I don't know, we're about to find out how it lands. So I hope it lands incredible. It's a space of a little bit of vulnerability for me. And ⁓ it's going to be something where I'm probably going to read it more than I just riffed podcasts. I was asked by our marketing team to write some of my stories, some of the founder's stories, some of the pieces of my life journey. And as I wrote it, the first one, ⁓ the bulk of our team members said, Kiera, you should actually make that into a podcast. And I have thought about it and I decided, you know, I think I'm going to do it, but I don't know that I can rift it. Every single podcast I've ever done has been a nice rift for you. It's all knowledge, it's experience. I want to make it engaging. So I'm super curious how me reading one is going to land versus me telling you. And I might add some few embellishments because let's be real, I didn't write all the pieces of the story. And so I hope that it inspires you. ⁓ It's called the empty millionaire. And I feel like it's hopefully very relevant for a lot of you and maybe just walking you through the journey because as I've talked to a lot of different people about the millionaire journey, so many of us want to hit a million dollars. And so that's why I titled this one the empty millionaire. And so we'll see. Like I said, I have no clue how this is going to land. It's my first one. feel like very really vulnerable. If you're even like watching this, my team's probably going to clip this part. Like my shoulders are hunched, like my arms are, my hands are in my pocket. Like my hands are a little sweaty. I hate when this happens. Like I don't really get sweaty hands thankfully, but like they're, they're a little more clammy than usual. ⁓ but I think it's because it's my story. It's my life. And, ⁓ I think on Dental A Team, one of the biggest things I've really always committed to is that no matter what I share on the podcast, you should always be able to peel back the curtain of Dental A Team and see exactly what we're doing, exactly who we are. never wanted to make up stories because I feel like then you're trying to chase a false reality. And so this is my story, the empty millionaire. So hopefully you love it. And if not, then I'll never read a story again. So give us some feedback and we'll hear if you loved it, send it an email. [email protected]. If you didn't also send it an email. Don't worry. Our team fills that so you can be honest. They feel that they tell me so you won't hurt my heart. You won't break my feelings. But at end of the day, this podcast is for you more than it is for me. But thank you for allowing me to have a space to share. So The Empty Millionaire by Cara Depp. So I had always envisioned what it would be like to hit $1 million. You live on the yacht or the beach house or the incredible mansion overlooking the ocean while drinking the fanciest drinks with your head back laughing and truly living life with zero stress. Happiness exploding on every level and feeling like you're on top of the world. This, in my opinion, was living. This, in my opinion, was the mountain that I was destined to climb and hit. This was my future. I literally imagined I could see myself like, ha ha ha, like sitting back there laughing like, what you see, driving these fancy cars, looking at these exotic views, that's the million dollar ⁓ mission that I was destined to climb. And then I hit a million dollars in my bank account. I remember the day, it was in September, and where was I at? I was sitting in my apartment on my futon alone, like literally alone. My husband and I were talking about this story last night, and he's like, Kiera, tell me more about it. And I was like, Jace, you were actually at your niece's wedding. There was a mariachi band, so when I tried to call and tell you, like, here, I can't hear you. There's this huge band playing in the background. Can I call you later? I had just finished an event with my team. My whole team had flown out. I was exhausted. I remember sitting on this futon. I saw our blinds swaying. And I was like, I hit it. I hit it. And I'm in an apartment, sitting on a futon alone, completely and utterly alone. My family wasn't there. I wasn't laughing. I felt empty. I felt spent. I felt overwhelmed. I felt the weight of what I had created crushing the air out of me. Like I was so exhausted. I literally remember sitting there on my futon. Like I said, like I was laying on my futon. The reason the futon was there is because we'd had people come visit and our house was like so small that we had to like move our futon around to have it there. So I wasn't even sitting on our couch. I was sitting on this futon and I remember just laying down and I thought, hmm, I truly did not think that this is what this moment would feel like. I didn't think I'd be sitting here feeling like it took every ounce of energy to smile. to show up for work, I was depleted, exhausted, overwhelmed, crushed, and empty. And the best word I think I have to describe was just hollow. Like I just felt hollow. And I'm like, yeah, I climbed this freaking huge mountain. Like I did it. Where was the yacht? Where was the laughter? Where was exploding happiness? Where was my fancy drink where I was sitting there overlooking the ocean, like laughing and being so just in pure euphoric bliss? And this was the moment I realized one million wasn't the destination. Instead, it was all those feelings of exploding happiness and joy and carefree and totally living, like living, not just living, but living that I was chasing. ⁓ and I had been grinding away at an empty hollow dollar amount that was met with unhappiness, met with like sadness, met with loneliness. And it was this number and I'd been grinding away at it. And then I had this freaking lightning bolt moment. So it probably was such a blessing that I was sitting there. My husband's off to a wedding. Like, I was like, gosh, like I couldn't even go and be there because I'm grinding for this number. But that wasn't actually true. These were just rules that I was pretending to tell myself that weren't true. And I had this lightning bolt moment. I call these lightning bolt moments because I feel like they hit you in an instant, they rock your soul, and they change the trajectory of your life. And I said, living is having your family and friends, relationships, being fulfilled, laughing so hard that your sides hurt, or whatever your variation of being utterly fulfilled and happy looks like. That's the million dollar life. And so a few things that I wanted you to consider as I wrote this out is, What does your million dollar life look like? Create it, imagine it, really feel it. What does it look like? For me, it was sitting on this ocean balcony laughing so hard. ⁓ But what are the emotions that you really wanna feel? And if I look back and we listen back to what I said about the, it's being carefree, it's having a ton of fun, it's laughing so hard, it's being with family and friends, it's traveling the world, that to me, those are the emotions. I wanna feel free, I wanna feel fun, I wanna feel fulfilled. I want to feel loved. I want to feel care, kindness, like expansion. Those are all the feelings that I wanted. And then the question is, what are you already doing that is your million dollar life today? Like, what is it? Even if you've hit a million and now this is your two million or your five million dollar life, like what are you already doing today that's a million dollar? Are you laughing? Are you happy? Are you having a good time? Like, I want you to see how much closer to this reality you are than you thought you were. ⁓ And then my question is how can you create more of the million dollar life emotions today? So looking at my life I'm like, okay, if it's me sitting on this yacht, like I don't even know where I get this stuff. This is rifting. This is not reading anymore, just so you know. But I'm like, where do I even get these thoughts? Like, is it from the movies? But I'm like, no, what it is is it's fun. Like fun is one of my number one core values. I want to just have fun. And so I'm like, how can I create more fun in my life? How can I create more love and laughter? How can I create more deeper connection? How can I create more travel and experiences of experiencing the world? And I'm like, wow, well, an easy way to experience is to like just experience around me in my own community. Like I have like Tahoe literally 20, 30 minutes away from my house. Why don't I go experience that and enjoy it? I have a lake just like not far away that I could go boating all the time on. That's something like instead of a yacht, like it's not quite the yacht. Cause honestly I don't want to yacht it. I just want to be on a boat on water. So how can I get more boat and water time in my life? Well, great, we go to Hawaii all the time. It's so fun. We go surfing over there. Like that's what I was wanting to do. What if I, what can I do for more fun? Every single week there is fun put in my calendar. So when I talk about like what we do in our masterminds with our consulting, I tell people like figure out your life categories that are super important for you to feel fulfilled and like a balanced human, not equal, but balanced. Like where you're just, you feel an equilibrium, I think is a better way to put that. And for me, fun is a huge portion of it. So every single week I make sure there is something freaking fun. It's written in pink in my journal because I know it's going to be like the fun and the highlight of my life. Those are the million dollar emotions that we're truly seeking when we're looking after that $1 million mark. Yes, there's financial gain to it, but the reality is like, I don't like to sit on a futon by myself. I don't like to be alone. I don't like to feel depleted. I don't like to feel exhausted. I don't care like the number of money. I want to feel happy. I want to fulfill, be fulfilled. And what's wild is those emotions, the more you feel the emotions of that million dollar life, it actually is the momentum to create the million dollar life. You don't create the million dollar life through grinding it. Like clearly you can, but when you reach that summit, you reach that peak, it's actually not freaking fun. You actually want to feel those emotions and those emotions will fuel you because that's your soul. That's what you're looking for. That's the intention. Those are the moments that you're actually seeking. It's not that top summit peak. So then my last question on this for you to consider is what are you going to do when you become a millionaire? And I want you to create the fire and excitement today and make the reality for you today. So like, what are you going to do for me? I'm like, I wish I would have done that. I was like, I just wanted it. Like I wanted to see it so hard. And then I got it. I'm like, sweet, my husband's gone. I didn't even attend the wedding. I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I'm sitting on my freaking futon, which by the way, I still have the futon and I still love this futon. It was just like, I think it's so funny that like of all the places, of all the things. That's where I was the day I did it. And I closed my phone and I'm like, huh. So it's like, why do you want to become a millionaire? I had never thought it was like for me, honestly, if I look back, was because I wanted to prove to people that I was worth it. That was it. That was literally why. Like when I look back at it, it's because someone told me once that I would never be anything more than a insert F word dental assistant. So they told me that I would be and it set me on this path to prove, to prove my worth. to prove who I was. So for you, what is it for you? Is it, why do you wanna be a millionaire? Like truly, don't lie to me. I just told you my honest, ⁓ it was to prove myself. It was to prove my worth. And I realized, screw that. The person who said that's not even in my life anymore and yet I'm like chasing this summit versus like, why do I wanna, what do I wanna do with that? Well, gosh, Dental A Team's live to give is one of the greatest. blessings in my life and it helps me see how I can give back for the beautiful life I have. Creating a space at work for all of my incredible teammates, like to give them their dream lives. my gosh, like that is so fulfilling for me to have that, to be able to ⁓ give my family like things that they never experienced and opportunities like, wow, like that's so much more like screw the yacht. Like let's be doing that. Like let me create experiences that just create magic moments for other people in my life that are going to just be so special for them. To be able to do that, like that's the fire and excitement for me, but what is it for you? And I want you to start creating this million dollar life now. Million dollar lives are not something you stumble into when your bank account finally hits that million. Instead of being like so many millionaires, commit to truly living and loving that million dollar life today. There's no need to scale the million dollar mountain and hit the summit and feel unfulfilled, hollow and empty when you reach the top. Like truly that is so sad. And Tony Robbins has an incredible quote where it says, success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. And I had it. literally had it. And I feel like there's no need for that. Instead, you can feel the emotions that you're seeking today. And all those emotions will fill you, fuel you to reach that million dollar summit and hit that summit and have it where instead of being like Kiera sitting on the futon where my family's like nowhere around and I'm just like, wow, this is it. You actually can have the insane happiness, fulfillment, growth, whatever those emotions are. You can hit that and you can commit to that. That like when you pop the confetti, when you celebrate, you are doing the million dollar life because you've already been living it. Now it's just like another milestone that you've achieved in your life. I want you to have like truly cheers to that million dollar life today. Start living, like living this today. Why wait? Why hold off on this happiness and all these emotions? Like why not just live it today? So I want you to commit to being happy, fulfilled and the joyous millionaire today. And just so you know, this is like truly very vulnerable of me. I'm on a mission. to create a hundred happy fulfilled millionaires in the next decade of my life. I've really been thinking of what do I want in the next decade? What do want my 40 decade to be? And it hit me that I'm like, I used to say I wanted to help create a hundred millionaires, but I actually had a friend and she's like, here, I actually don't want the million dollar life that you've talked about so many times. Like you're stressed out on your mind all the time. You like never have time to work out. You're exhausted. She's like, I actually don't want that. And I was like, yeah, me neither. She's like, but I want to be the happy fulfilled millionaire. And so I decided I'm on a mission to create a hundred happy fulfilled millionaires in the next decade of my life. And I'd honestly love for you to be one of them. like join us and like truly, if you want to be a part of this, join me, join us, join our company. Dentistry is our platform. Life is my passion. And truly I want you to start feeling all the happiness today on your journey to the million dollar summit ⁓ together. Like why not do it together? Why not have somebody who celebrates you? I'm like, what the heck? Like I sat there. by myself. What? Like, no, there should be people that are celebrating, they're rocking it, that are like celebrating all these pieces. And so for you, if that sounds fun for you, you wanna be a part of it, join us. I'd to have you be a part of it because there's no reason for you to reach that. And even if a million dollars is not your goal, maybe it's 200,000, maybe it's 500,000, whatever your goal is, whatever that summit is, again, why do you want it? Let's create it. Let's figure out those emotions that you're chasing. Let's create more of that. Let's give you that fuel and that fire to create more of that in your life because life is our gift. Like truly I think about, get this one life to live. And when I think about when I'm 90 or 100 or 150, what do I hope the feelings and emotions are that I feel? And I want to start creating that because to me, that's living. The million dollar mark is not living. The life and the person you become is living. So let's create that. Join us if you want, like I said. Tell me if you loved this, tell me if you didn't. But this is my story. This is where I was. This is what I felt. And this is what I decided, forget that. I want to help people become happy, fulfilled millionaires in the next decade of my life because I believe that it can be so fulfilling because I know the person who does that is going to give back to this world, is going to have great impact, is going to serve their community, serve their patients, serve their team. Like now I'm on a mission. Like how can I help all my team members become this? How can I help the people that are around me become this? Like let's give it because there's no limit at the top. Like it's not a summit, a peak where only like 10 people can be there. No, this thing is a freaking next level euphoria that we can create and we can change this world. There's no limit to the amount of money in this world. There's no limit to the growth and the goodness that we can create. And I want people who want to give back to create, to build this incredible world together ⁓ because that's where fulfillment is. That's where life is. So join us. And as always, I hope you think about this. I hope you reflect on it. Team members, dentists aligned. ⁓ Let's figure out how we can have those million dollar lives. There was a survivor, I'm a big fan of survivor, and there was a guy on there, I think his name was Keith, and he always said, he had like a tattoo on his booty, like I'm not even joking, and it said, livin', L-I-V-I-N. And I've thought about that so much, and what am I doing today to be livin'? Like this is livin', and looking at all the magic moments in my life right now that are my million dollar livin' life. Again, million dollar I think is a societal piece. The reality is we want the rich, fulfilled, happy, living life today, no matter what our bank account is, no matter what our financial state is, because that is going to create more of that. I'm not here to say that striving for the million dollars is not a great goal, ⁓ but it's something where I really want you to see why do you want it. So when you reach that summit, AKA the euphoria space, that you are so fulfilled, that you are so happy. that you are vibrant rather than hollow, bleak and unsatisfied. There's no point to grind your life away. We get one life, it's our gift, it's our special opportunity. So let's make it the most magical version of you. Join us, I'd love to help you. It's truly a huge passion of mine and something so special to be able to share, share everything I learned, share all the pieces. So that way, instead of your story of being the empty millionaire, your story is the fulfilled, the vibrant, the exuberant,...
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Stop Avoiding Talking About Compliance
08/05/2025
Stop Avoiding Talking About Compliance
Tiff and Kristy take a look at patient privacy and the regulatory compliance associated with that privacy, including HIPAA and OSHA. They touch on their own experiences with compliance, how to better educate your practice, what not to do, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have Kristy on crew with me. We have a slew of podcasts we're recording and just some really, really exciting information. We're gonna make it as exciting as we can, at least, that we wanna get out to you. We are more than halfway through the year, which is pretty massive. And so we're gonna be talking about... a ton about how to end the year, things and pieces to look forward to, things you should be doing now to wrap up for the end of the year, and realistically things to look forward to for the upcoming year, which at this point of recording is 2026. So no matter what year you're listening to us, a lot of this should still be incredibly valuable. Kristy, I am so excited you're here with me today. Thank you so much for clearing your schedule, being here. being open to this and just always coming with some really invaluable information for our listeners. How are you today, Kristy? DAT Kristy (01:00) It's a good summer day and a good day to be with you as well. So happy to do it. The Dental A Team (01:04) Thank you, thank you. And for those of you who may not know, Kristy, Kristy lived in Arizona a long time ago. she originally, like her formative years were here, but then she left Arizona for quite a little while and she's recently relocated back to the desert. And she decided to come right at the beginning of summer, which I used to tell people like, don't move here in the summer, like come in different months. But then I started realizing, I'm like, well, if you move here in the summer, you get the worst of the worst. And then the rest of the year is like icing on top of the cake. So Kristy, I actually think you did it in the right direction. And I keep telling you, I think you brought some awesome weather with you this year because we have not broken record heat this year for like the first time ever. Honestly, we keep breaking records every year and I'm like, these are records we don't need to break. And this year, I think the record has been that it's been so nice. Like it truly, truly has been really light summer. So Kristy, thanks for bringing your weather with you and giving us a little reprieve here in Arizona. So I told you we're going to make these as fun as we possibly can. You guys, we always aim for that fun is actually one of our core values. So it's something we work really, really hard for. I say that today because I really wanted to talk to you guys about some regulatory compliances, which just even in those words sounds like womp womp, right? Like we're just, how do you make that exciting? Well, with the Dental A Team, Dental A Team can make anything exciting. We can have fun with whatever we want in everything. We truly believe that if we're not having fun, why are we even doing it? So it doesn't mean that things aren't hard, things aren't difficult, that you won't have to push through hard things. It just means that there should be fun on the other side. and it shouldn't be, you know, tears of pain the whole way through. So here we are, regulatory compliance. You guys know that this is actually really important in the dental industry. You guys have all heard of OSHA. So we'll dive into a little bit on the OSHA, but you guys have also heard of HIPAA. And I have to say, and Kristy, you can tell me what your thoughts are as well, I have to say that when I was in practice, like physically working in an office, we never talked about HIPAA. We talked about OSHA constantly, like OSHA is going to come in and you've got to have everything six inches from the ceiling and off these certain walls. And you've got to have so many fire extinguishers and the fire escape plans and like all of these, you know, barriers and masks and gloves and don't wear gloves outside the door. All of these pieces for OSHA safety compliance, but I never heard about HIPAA. I knew as a front office team member that patients had to sign the HIPAA forms and that they had to update them every so often, but I didn't actually know what it was. And when patients would ask me like, oh, what am I signing? I'm like, ah, it just says we're not going to give away your information. Right. And I'm like, I don't know if that's what it says or not, but like, that's what I heard someone say. And so I'm just repeating it. Right. So Kristy, I don't know if you had a different experience in office, but I really truly felt like until I had to train people on it until I had to be like, no, you have to do HIPAA in the office. And until as a company, we had to start taking our own HIPAA courses every year. I had no idea exactly what it meant for a dental office. And Kristy, you may have had a different experience, but tell me what was your experience when it came to HIPAA in your dental practices that you've worked in? DAT Kristy (04:36) Yeah, my experience was actually you made me laugh. It was very similar to yours. I think it was what around 2013 that those forms came out and it was pretty funny because when it first started even patients were funny about it. Like I remember this big long form and you'd hand it to patients and say the same thing. ⁓ it just means we're not going to sell your information or give it to anybody and patients would start reading it and they're crossing things out. And then I'm asking my doctor like how The Dental A Team (04:50) Yeah. Yeah. DAT Kristy (05:06) can they just rewrite it?" And he's like, it doesn't matter. It is what it is. It's just a form. And yeah, so really I started the same place you did. And then later years, ⁓ we ended up doing more formal training on HIPAA. But yeah, started in the same place. The Dental A Team (05:23) Yeah, I remember those sheets. They were like longer than it was. It was like a car contract. where was like you had to fold it a certain way, like they were longer than the rest of the sheets and my patients did the same thing. They're like, well, I don't really agree with this. Like, and they just cross it off and then initial it. And I'm like, all right, like whatever, I just need to scan it into your document center. Like that's all I've got here, right? And if it's like in the paper folder, I had to like fold it so that it would fit. yeah, it was around 2013 and it was like so odd. And then every year they had updates to it. And I was like, I don't know what any of this means, except I did know at the bottom. them it said, if we were to release your information, who would you want it released to? So my point of that is it's 2025 right now, I don't know what year you're gonna listen to this. 2013 we started this and it took many years for any of us to really learn and understand what it meant, let alone our patience even know and understand what it means. But it is incredibly invaluable and I'm not here to teach you HIPAA by all means, that is never my gig ⁓ or OSHA, but I do know that there are plenty of courses and even just like online forums or... whatever that will go through it. There are two sides to it and they're incredibly important, especially for business owners. So doctors and owners out there, my doctor too, I was like, what is this? Just like Kristy, what you said, can they do this? He's like, I don't know. Just like, it's just a new form that they told us we need to do. So just do it. And I'm like, okay. He had no idea what it meant either. He just knew it was really important. So. Doctors go get versed in it. We actually have to take a compliance course every year. All of us do for HIPAA compliance on the medical side, but then also on the business side. And that comes down, it boils down to really privacy, right? And what that looks like. And it actually will take you through what it looks like as far as electronic privacy, verbal privacy, ⁓ patient charts, like how long do you have to keep things? Where should they be kept? Like certain certain things that honestly and truly your front office is looking up all the time. I don't know how many times I asked like wait a second how long do we have to keep these x-rays for? Wait how long do we have to keep these boxes of files for? Like we're going digital which crazily enough there's still plenty plenty of practices out there that are not digital. ⁓ I know some near and to my heart that are not digital. So like, I remember, but it's just these, these file boxes that you get from Staples and you put them together and we're putting the files in there and we're marking the year that we put them in there so that we could wait the right amount of time. But still in the back of my head, I'm like, is this even right? Like, am I waiting enough time? We would put the date that we boxed it and then the date that it could be destroyed, like, you know, destroy date. But still I was like... ⁓ this is still kind of scary. Like, am I doing this right? So my suggestion is to always make sure that you take those courses and that you're well versed in it, especially as a business owner. And I'm saying this after you're three of having to take the HIPAA course online for business compliance for our company, because it's really hard, you guys. I'm not gonna lie. When I go through it, it's like, Karen, I have this game that we play on who's going to get the better score. And to truth be told, like, it's like a barely passing score and we're like how did how am I still not getting this we read through the stuff we tell we watch the videos and we get to the end and we're like what the heck I still didn't understand it so go take those courses it's just online it's super easy I'm sure we can throw you over a link if you want it so HIPAA I actually wanted to spend some time instilling in you the importance because I think the only thing we hear in dentistry is OSHA and we know so much of the OSHA stuff But with that said, you also need to focus in on the OSHA. And Kristy, I don't know if you guys had this one too. I had that big red OSHA book that always went in the same spot up above the dental assistance computer so that we always knew where it was. We had the OSHA one, we had the MSDS sheets, and it was like, you did not mess with these books. They were always updated, the, you know, needle stick protocol. But still, you'd go in there and you're like somebody, somebody stuck themselves and you're just like, frazzle and you're like I don't know what to do even though we've got this OSHA book that tells us what to do it was still a lot so Kristy how did how did you guys do HIPAA and OSHA within your practices like how did you make sure that we you guys had everything that you needed and then how do you train offices to do that now? DAT Kristy (10:06) Yeah, that's It's a good thing that you're touching on it because it's one of those things that I think even offices tend to not do because it's so complex. I will say ⁓ we just made it part of our yearly routine. And this is perfect timing because we're coming to the end of the year. And as we're future planning for next year, even setting our goals for the practice and all of that, looking at the calendar and making sure those days are marked out, just like you would your CPI. The Dental A Team (10:14) Yeah. DAT Kristy (10:37) are, you know, make sure your OSHA is booked every year in your ⁓ HIPAA training because they are serious, right? And they're one of those things, especially like OSHA, it could shut you down if you weren't compliant. So it is very necessary, but I would say do it as part of your yearly planning and just make sure it's booked on your schedule every year. The Dental A Team (11:02) I totally agree with you. And I think one piece with that is to make sure you guys understand it too. I know that for us, in my practice, we always stressed about the OSHA because we were like, if they ever come in. And that's like one space of it, right? For sure, you want to be compliant. You want to have the right spaces. If they were to come in, you want to have everything you were supposed to have for sure. But on the flip side of that, like the reason that they do that isn't because they want to come in and like give you a bad grade or get you in trouble, right? They do it because they actually want you utilizing the information. They want you knowing it and they want it to be helpful in keeping your business safe. And so not only making sure that you're compliant for the passing grade, but that you're compliant in the fact that you understand it and you're able to use it because it really is truly beneficial for your practice. And there are actually some really valuable pieces in there, just like CPR. Like we have to take CPR to be compliant, but the day that you have to use it is the day you're like, thank God that they made me do that. Right. Like, gosh, this could have been really bad. Right. The day that my son bless his freaking four-year-old heart at the time, decided to put gummy worms in his frozen yogurt and they turn into rocks and he's choking on it in the middle of the frozen yogurt store and I, thank God, knew what to do to... pull it out of his mouth and make sure he doesn't have to resuscitate him, all of these pieces, right? We undervalue things because we think we have to do it because someone's telling us to. And if we don't, we're gonna get a bad grade or we're gonna get a slap on the wrist or whatever. Yes and. Like, Kristy, I love when you say yes and. This is a yes and situation. Yes, get the good letter grade, don't get a slap on the wrist, don't get a fine and. save lives with this information too. HIPAA, you're not going to save a life, but guess what? It's better to be super safe because, I mean, honestly, cybersecurity is wild. And I have had many practices while consulting that have been hacked. And I don't know if you all remember a couple of years ago now, was it last year maybe? Yeah, all of the insurances got hacked and we were without insurance payments for three or four months. We couldn't even submit claims. Like it was wild. these things do happen and if you're not HIPAA compliant, if you don't know what it means, things aren't stored correctly, you just you have a lot of patients that could be in a lot of trouble. So not only are you going to get in trouble from a business standpoint with you know the regulatory compliance people, but you're putting your patient's information and your own information at risk. You've got payroll documents on there. You've got your team's information on there. There's a lot of very sensitive information that's stored on there. So OSHA is incredibly valuable. Know it, train on it. I know we used to do quarterly training for OSHA. We'd add it into our monthly team meeting. We'd do a two hour monthly team meeting and at least 30 minutes of that once a quarter would be OSHA training. And so it would be training on a certain subject from the OSHA book. They literally give it all to you ⁓ and then what I would do now is actually add in some of that HIPAA training with it like quarterly, monthly, however you guys want to do it and yearly, especially making sure that we're all reviewing it, that we're all up to date, that we all understand it and we understand any changes because they change them at the drop of a dime and Kristy, I don't know if you've ever received a letter from OSHA saying, hey, these are the updates but I have not. I've never seen anything that was just like, guess what? We've updated and changed. So you guys have to go out and look for that information on your own. Kristy, how did you handle, I know in my practice we had two people. We had one that was responsible for OSHA and then one that was responsible for HIPAA, which at that point, you know, just made sure that we did the sheets. Now we know there's much more involved to it, but how did you handle that in your practice as far as someone like the accountability piece to it? And I never wanted the accountability myself, my doctor. He's a very busy man. Personally, professionally very busy. I ran his schedule ragged. He was constantly on the move. There's no way on this earth. that he was ever going to be able to hold anything accountable, especially Osher or HIPAA. So I never made him the owner of that. And then as the office manager, I tried to stay out of that lane as well because I didn't want it to get mixed up in other pieces. But Kristy, how did you handle it in your practice and how do you see practices now handling that kind of responsibility and accountability piece? DAT Kristy (15:46) Yeah. ⁓ Honestly going back to what you said, it's it's having a champion, right? It doesn't mean that they're the only one responsible but somebody that is the point person that ⁓ Is checking on those things and reporting back? You know how it kind of makes me think of when you go into a restroom at a chain store one of those and they have those Checklists about they check the bathroom at a certain time using something like that to know The Dental A Team (16:15) Yeah. DAT Kristy (16:18) ⁓ Because even your fire drills guys we're supposed to have fire drills and make sure team right on Boarding did we teach them where the I wash station is did we show them our? Meetup area if something happens, so It's important and like I said have that point person that can report back The Dental A Team (16:22) Yeah. DAT Kristy (16:38) Potentially in one of your team meetings just check on it. Just make sure it's like we do our checklist and chart audits ⁓ I was gonna circle back to you too because I won't name names But we all heard of the corporate entity that also got hacked, right? It's maybe been a couple years now, but you know Think of that they they're a big nationwide chain lots of money, right? And so even if they it happened to them like us as little The Dental A Team (16:40) Yeah. Yeah. DAT Kristy (17:08) guys that don't have that kind of money to spend, we have to be very diligent. I would also do like chart audit type thing. Maybe not necessarily chart, but listen, listen to your admin people. Are they breaching HIPAA in conversations? You know, are they checking IDs? Are we even getting photo IDs from patients? The Dental A Team (17:18) Yeah. No, most places are not getting photo IDs. DAT Kristy (17:34) Yeah. And a lot of people, you know, they look, well, we want to know who's coming in. So we want to get your photo. No, don't share your secrets. But on the same token, like it is part of compliance. And if, if you guys have ever heard of red flag rule, if you're accepting insurance, you have a due diligence to make sure that that person is who they say they are. And I have experienced where somebody came in portraying they're somebody else. So ⁓ they're little things, but they can be. big things and just like that corporate entity it was flashed all over the news and so it's also about saving our reputation those things are hard to come back from. The Dental A Team (18:16) I totally agree. That's a really great point. And I don't think I know many practices, maybe a handful, that really truly understand the value of the ID portion of it. And I do hear that too, like, we want to know who's coming in. Yeah,...
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What Elite Dentists Are Doing That You’re Not
07/31/2025
What Elite Dentists Are Doing That You’re Not
Kiera takes listeners behind the scenes of Dental A-Team, sharing what exactly happens in Doctor Mastermind conversations. This includes unfiltered Kiera and consultants sharing top-level expertise, elite doctors sharing secrets of the trade, wealth diversification conversations, and so much more. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and I hope today's just a great day. I really do hope that you're thriving and not just surviving right now. I hope that you're fulfilled and you're not just living there, going along and really disliking your life because I believe we get one life. So let's make it the most fun that we possibly can. You guys today, I wanna take you behind the scenes of Dental A Team. Like let's take you behind the curtain and just kinda let you see what goes on behind the scenes. There's some really awesome things that Dental A Team is doing and I feel like it's really fun to just know like, okay, what does consulting look like behind the scenes? What things do you have in place? And I wanted you to see like what happens behind the scenes. We have Dr. Masterminds, ⁓ what happens in there, what happens with your team meetings? What does it look like? And so if you've ever been curious of what's behind the scenes in consulting, well, welcome. I wanted to take you behind the scenes. So just so you know, Dental A Team was created to help doctors and practice owners ⁓ not just survive, but thrive. to help teams not just survive but thrive, to be able to say yes to more things in your life by being focused on what you as a person want to achieve, improving your leadership, improving your life and like truly your personal life, making sure your business is working for you and not the other way around. We also do it on profitability, making sure you're profitable, that the cash flow is there, that it's predictable, that you understand where your numbers are at and then having systems and team development. We call that the yes model so you can say yes to more in your life. So you, earnings, system and team development. And that's really what our. the whole thing about consulting is. So what we do is we literally take you and we have an introductory call and we look to see what your practice is like, where your gaps are, and basically build a game plan with you of what is this gonna look like over the next 12 months together. And we decide, hey, where are you at? you a practice where we're gonna fly into your practice? Is this a practice where we're going to just do virtual calls with you? What's going to be the best option? And I will say our most popular and what most people want is someone to fly to the practice. ⁓ And so behind the scenes, what happens from there is once we decide what... what type of consulting is going to be best for you and your practice. From there, then you get paired with a consultant. You're like, how do you know the consultants? I'm like, well, my background needs to be marriage and family therapy. Like literally, I'm really good at reading people and 90 % of the time we get a perfect match. And what we're looking for is your practice needs the consultant skills and what they've done because all of our consultants have a clinical and front office experience and they've all had to grow multiple practices. So some come from DSO. All of them have had to come from private practice. They literally have been there, done that, done it successfully. And we're looking for personality types. Are you going to jive? Some consultants are very high energy and some are a little more lower energy, more calm. ⁓ What's going to pair well with your team? What's going to be like, I remember there was one office and they said, Kiera, my team. There I was like, wow, Kiera comes in with a lot of energy. We get. along better with no BS Brit, which is true. Brit doesn't come in looking like she's a hummingbird on Monster. She walks in a calm, cool, collected. She's chill. Some offices need a hummingbird on Monster. Others need a Brit who's more calm, cool, collected. So we're looking at experience, personality fit, and then also what's going to truly drive and get the results you're looking for. So that's really how we match you with your consultant. Then after that, your consultant, you and them, get on calls. We get on calls every other week. So we're really working with you to make sure that there's accountability, but it's not too often and you're not depending on us, but you have time to actually make some headway in between those. So it's set calls. So you always know perfect. I've got my set calls. They're also really good accountability check-ins. So I have a personal trainer and we used to do only virtual and I had a call with her all the time and I actually did better on my workouts than I do when I see her in person because I knew we had a set call and I had to show up with my results because she was going to ask me about them. And that's actually why we have these set calls. So you always follow through on the accountability because we're really big on making sure that what we commit to, what we put into place, we're truly driving results forward. You do not need to be perfect. We just need to make sure that we're getting the results we want. We're tracking our numbers. We're looking at the P &Ls. We're looking at your KPIs. We're looking at your team. And we're also talking about the issues and the growth of where you want to go in your practice. So we've got those two calls. And then in between those two calls, you literally get to texts, calls, emails, whatever you need. At any time you have a consultant in your pocket, any moment. So whatever comes up, because business does not happen on set cadences. at the most random times. So you always have a consultant at your fingertips. And then I think the part that I really wanted to show you behind the scenes is every single month we have a doctor mastermind. It's the first Tuesday of the month and we call it think tank Tuesday. And this is where I ⁓ tell all of our doctors, this is where you're basically hanging out in Kiera's living room, virtually. Right? Like I want you to just like let your hair down. I don't care if you're making dinner. I don't care if your kids are there. I want you as a human. I don't care if you're driving home. I don't care if you're at the swim meet. We have doctors. all over the place because this is your real life. And I want you to just pretend like we're hanging out in a living room, let your hair down. There are no team members allowed at these think tanks because I want doctors to fill a safe space where they can talk about it they can talk about with other doctors of what's going on. What do they suggest? On here we have guest speakers that come in. We also, a lot of times this is my mastermind. This is my billion dollar club group where I just want to hang out and I want to talk about things that aren't talked about all the time. So for example, last month we went through and we did one on a P &L deep dive. And these are things that I do not share on the podcast. These are things that are not shared publicly. These are things that I reserved specifically. So it's the 10 % that's reserved for only our Dr. Mastermind. And I'm really digging deep with them and I'm showing them things that we specifically do in our company. So things that I'm not going to necessarily publicly announce on the podcast. I share a lot of our life here, but we actually went through an entire P &L deep dive and we showed them exactly what we do in our company and how we do it how you can get your office managers there. and how you're able to look for the profitability, how we set up projections, how we're able to grow and scale, how we're able to get right people, right seats. We did another one with org charts and we broke it down. We brought in ⁓ Prosperity and Brian Harris talking about embezzlement, things that we will never share publicly, but specifically for our doctors. We bring in different guest speakers. ⁓ bring in, we have them like work on different business models. I did one where we worked on a lemonade stand to show them how they can in crisis mode on their business, pivot, shift and adjust. We often will do like an issues list of what's going on, what are the hot topics people are dealing with, and then let's collectively work on it. So we have a doctor who's going through some interesting things with legal within their practice and using the whole team. We have another practice that's struggling with their finances and using collectively the whole team will sometimes hot seat our offices and let them work together. So really it's, I would say it's my most high level material that ever comes forward. And I think when you see behind behind the curtain of what's happening in the Stockroom Master Room. Like I said, you get to attend, parts of it are recorded, but then I always do what's called the after party. The after party is where I feel like it's ⁓ Kiera unfiltered. ⁓ There are no cameras going, there's nothing being recorded, there's no AI bots allowed to be in there. It is literally Kiera unfiltered. And we will talk about where we think the world's going, what we think we need to be prepared for, what we think about political pieces. These are things that honestly I will not publicly ever speak about and I only reserve them for our doctor mastermind. And the rules of it are there is no recording. And if I ever find out that people are recording, they will be immediately dismissed because we need a space in this world as business owners and as colleagues and as entrepreneurs to be able to speak freely, to be able to speak safely, to be able to share what's on our hearts, to be able to talk about team members without our team members being there. Team members don't worry, it's not in a negative way. It's truly like, hey, I'm struggling. I don't know what to do with this and I need help. Because what I found is in business ownership, it can be so lonely. can be so just ⁓ sad, if you will. It can be like, gosh, I feel like I just need help. And so what we wanted is to create this space. Like I said, you're hanging out in my living room. We're having these ⁓ dinner conversations, if you will, of whatever's on your mind. And it's just, it's really fun. And I feel like it's, people have told me that they absolutely love being a part of Think Tank, because it's a space where people come and they, They just, I feel like it's something where they just are able to be themselves. It's the first time you're not expected to be a doctor. You're not expected to be the one who knows everything. You're not expected to do X, Y, or Z. None of those things are an expectation. You're able to just show up and be. You're able to show up and feel safe. You're able to show up and just hang out. And so a lot of the pieces that we've been doing are, we also have like doctors. We have some of our elite doctors share secrets that they do in their practice. So. people on how they do branding, other people on DSO conversations. We literally had a very ⁓ controversial think tank where we brought in and we talked to pros and cons of DSOs and should I sell to DSOs and what do people think and what are people navigating because it's so hard. It's hard to find out ⁓ like, what are we going to do and how are we going to do this? And like, what are the different pieces and what should I do and how do I navigate through this of people that truly are like-minded? that are just like you. And so other things that we have are like wealth diversification. We're talking a lot about wealth and where we're going to go with wealth and how we're going to be able to do these things and multi practices. Should we do it or should we not do it? Should we, ⁓ how do we create one through 10 year plans? ⁓ Team conversations. Tiffany does an amazing job of talking leadership and hard conversations and ⁓ strategies like billing strategies again that we're not sharing on the podcast. And so really just showing you like behind the scenes we bring in. We had a really awesome guest come in and talk to us about how to use resources and tools to hire better and get right people right seats. Talking about like, we have some authors that come and speak to us. We have some clinical dentistry. We have offices talk about how they're able to scale and grow and real talk. Like, what are we really afraid of? Like, what's really going on in our world? Let's talk about identity loss. Like, what happens when you stop having your practice? Like, what are you going to do there? And just different zones, different areas. ⁓ Doctors who are really smart, we had a doctor come and chat with us about associate onboarding and how they're able to get their associates producing over a hundred grand like six to eight months into practice, like to hiring them. Like that's a huge feat that most aren't able to do. And this is straight out of school. And so sharing those tips, sharing those resources, ⁓ I think is one of the most valuable pieces of our consulting because... ⁓ business owner. attend Tony Robbins. I'm in Tony Robbins elite coaching where I literally have been to his house. There's about 40, 50 of us that go and I put myself in those circles to be able to bring back information to our group of things that like I'm working with multi-million billionaires across the board, rubbing shoulders with them, asking them of things, getting resources, figuring out like what are their VA companies that they're using for virtual assistants? How are they growing? How are they scaling? There's people in medical, there's people in real estate learning from Ray Dalio speaking to us on wealth diversification, talking to really brilliant people to find out to make sure that I am living my best, highest self to then also bring back to our doctors. Our teams are bringing back things that they're hearing from offices to be able to bring their best pieces to help them create org charts and clarity and whatever it is, those are the pieces that we're bringing into our think tank. And like I said, being an owner. Seeing this, I wanted people to truly figure out how can I do this? Like, can I, how can we create this? How can we build this? How can we sustain this? And so having that as a space every single month for our doctors. And some months I think we have better topics than others, but always the after party is a place where I feel like people really truly come to unite, to help each other, to grow. And I think it's just a really special place. So we have our, your specific practice consulting, then we have where we'll fly to your practice. And in that day and a half, had a really awesome testimonial from a client. said, Kiera, Tiff, Britt, Dental A Team, what you guys are able to accomplish in a day and a half visit is what it usually takes me six to 12 months to accomplish. And I feel like that is something of just huge appreciation and gratitude because our consultants really do drive value. This is not an office that I consult, it's another consultant on our team. And I feel like just knowing that that's the value of us coming into your practice, like that's the ROI that I can't explain to you until you've experienced it. It is. getting your whole team aligned, it's getting things in place, it's fixing little things that you didn't even know were a problem that we see in other offices that we can come execute and implement for you. And really getting your whole team aligned in such a fun, easy way. So we're working on doctor, we're working on leadership, we're working on case acceptance, we're working on getting team alignment, we're listening to hygiene exams, we're looking at your numbers and metrics. ⁓ And then what we're really doing is every single month we're assessing you as a person, your earnings and profitability and the systems and team development. What do we need to do based on those numbers? And then in addition to that, we have one other fun thing behind the scenes curtain of our consulting where we actually come in person for these in-person doctor and office manager or leadership masterminds. And they are so special. These are really like being in a very intimate setting. So we cap it right now. It's around 50 people that we bring in and we we do life and business on purpose. And so we teach you how to do like the last time we taught people how to life map and how to look at their entire life, because we were like, how do I have time to do it all? And it's like, let's actually teach you how to do it in a very strategic way. We did leadership hard conversations and how to make hard conversations easy. And we actually practiced with each other. So we actually lined up office managers and doctors from other offices and had them actually ask the questions and role play with someone who's not your person to give them feedback on how they could actually land these conversations better with their teammates and to have both doctor and office manager they're learning. We did almost like speed dating where we had people go with other offices and ask their questions and give value. So it's always a give and receive within our community. We hot seated offices, so like your biggest pressing issues and had a group of people help you out on it. We had everybody like list off all the issues that they're dealing with in the practice and made this giant list of issues and actually started collectively as a group, solving it, sharing resources. And it was probably one of my favorite pieces of the entire event where we all worked together to solve. We did a deep dive on the P &L and chart of accounts and teaching people how to look at them and saving for taxes and saving for their buckets and creating the fun in life and helping team members understand this as well. And just doing it in a really positive life on purpose, business on purpose. Like we had people tell us that those in-person masterminds were worth their entire year of consulting by the value that they got, the energy that they got, the... And then we do it a day and a half. Like we have five people in Thursday night, if they want to hang out, they do not need to. We're there all day Friday and it's half day Saturday so you can fly home. We try to make it really awesome, really easy, really intentional, ⁓ but where it's high value. And then everybody hangs out Friday night together. We wanted it to be a networking opportunity and something really awesome that we did that I don't think a lot of other people do is we built it to where we had people's strengths. And so if I'm struggling with ⁓ office management leadership, we've literally listed off the office managers or the doctors that were there. And if they were really good at it. who you should go talk to and made it really easy for people to network, to connect, to share ideas. We had AI innovation. Just again, things that are not shared publicly because I wanted, there's a zone where I want to give as much value to this world. There's also a zone of there's 10 % that I will never speak publicly about. It's a space where I want to hold it back for our clients, not because I don't want to share it, but because. It's stuff of, it's maybe a little highly charged, ⁓ sharing opinions and doing it in a safe way where you know that you're not judged and that people want to hear the ideas and it's safe and it's a space for us to have deeper conversations, more in depth, working on your practice for you and really ensuring that we're driving your results....
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Dentistry Innovations You Need To Be Aware Of
07/30/2025
Dentistry Innovations You Need To Be Aware Of
Tiff and Dana discuss how dental practices are being innovative in 2025, including A.I., apps, and other technologies that will streamline the busy work and help teams focus on being human. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Dana and I are back here today. We are really excited. We just did actually a really fun podcast. think that was probably, I think Dana, I don't know. I think that was one of my favorite podcasts we probably ever recorded. I love that stuff. So Dana, thanks for being here. How are you today? Dana (00:22) doing good excited to get you know I always I know I say this a lot but I truly am just excited to have some time. The Dental A Team (00:29) Thank you. Thank you. I know I actually I still have it on my mind. I need to put it in my click up click up organizer. You guys shout out to that. I need to get the soft skills training on there. So I was thinking about that a lot. So you make you make my day Dana. Thank you. I appreciate that. ⁓ You guys virtual teams are weird and they were like It's just weird. But I think the weirdest part to me or the oddest part is how sincerely close I feel to everyone. Like Dana, I feel like we're best friends and we never get time together. Like the last time we had time together, truly the last time we had time together, I guess, was when we did the December, we did the shopping for the kids in December, the give back. Prior to that was like, Disneyland last, that was two years ago, right? Two years ago, I think he's time flies, time freaking flies. So, but I feel like we were just together last weekend. Like it's weird. It's a weird thing that has come really far. So on that note, anyone who's considering a virtual team member, it can work really well. I mean, we've got Josh who's in the Philippines and I feel like I know that man. Like we've hung out together. Dana (01:45) Thank The Dental A Team (01:47) That's so weird. He's in the Philippines you guys it's nighttime when he's working for us And I'm like groggy just starting my day And he's already lived an entire day and his family sleeping like wild and I feel like I know Dana (02:01) We know things about his baby girl. We know things about his wife, his band. And it's like he's not even in the country on the same time zone. It's just virtually over the computer. It's crazy. Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:12) Yeah, it is really crazy. It's insane to me how far things have come. I think it's really cool. think 2020, we're going to call it 2020, not the other word we could call it, did a lot for us in a lot of ways. There is a lot of bad, I will never just credit that, but I think it forced innovation. 2020 forced human innovation. I think it was things that were already like in the works in the background or whatever, but it just pushed it to the forefront. And the innovation that has come in the last five years has been insane to me and the amount and what we've been able to handle and what we've been able to consume as humans is wild to me and working remotely and working on a virtual team is definitely something that came out of that. I remember, I remember Karen and I when everything first started happening. We were like, shoot, okay, it is time to innovate or die, quite literally, innovate or die as a company, because things are drastically changing. Dana, we were in offices constantly, constantly. And then all of a sudden we were like, guess what? You're not allowed to leave the state. Actually, you can't even leave your house. Like don't breathe on anyone. Don't look at anyone. Like it was wild. And that was when, Dana (03:22) Yes. The Dental A Team (03:30) Kiera and I got on a call and we were like, what the heck? How do we continue to help offices? And that was when we switched and started doing so much virtual. And it really spun, like it worked really well. We had so many offices that during shutdown, we're doing a ton of training with us. We were building operations manuals and really prepping for reopening. But it also brought a space of like, holy cow, Tiff and Kiera cannot do this alone. Like it brought on so much. And I think it just like speaks to the spiral of innovation that we've had in the last five years in our company and just in the country as a whole in the world realistically. But Dana, I'm so excited. You came not too far after our 2020 whirlwind of guess what? We're going to do everything by video now. And I was like, ⁓ crikey, here we go. This is going to be fun. And you came on board with us. So thank you for being here. You have changed the game for us. And I know changed the game for so many of your clients. ⁓ And Dana continues to help us innovate constantly. It is something that she is really, really good at. is brilliant and just constantly thinking of another way, like, and then the, the, and then theory, like, yes, you can do that, but then also you could do this. I'm like, dang it. Thank you. So Dana, thank you for being here. ⁓ I don't know if you guys know this or not, a lot of our topics, we choose our topics, a lot of them, or we decide like, what are we gonna talk about today or what practice do we wanna highlight or chat about? then there are topics that are given to us that I can't really say that I don't have a lot of control on that because they're given to me at the beginning of the year, well, the end of the year for the beginning of the year. And I go through them and I'm like, yes, these are fantastic topics. These are going to be great newsletters. Doctors are going to find a ton of value in this. And then as discussed about 15 minutes ago with Dana, I need to layer on top of that. This is the and then and say, how are we going to make a podcast about this? Because we have, we have run into that today. ⁓ but I'm really actually excited. We did our research, we did our due diligence and we've chatted about this a few times and Speaking of innovations, there's been so many innovations everywhere that have helped dentistry just really take a new foothold in the scene of medical. And I think that you guys can all agree with that. Dentistry is one of the top survivors of 2020. And we're really thriving in this world. It's just never, never going away. So tons of innovations. We've talked about the tech. We talk about the tech a lot. actually did one, um, Dana, I did a podcast. not too long ago with Christy about really getting dental assistants involved in the tech and the innovations there. And that was fun. And this one kind of, guess, is dental assistants too, but we really wanted to highlight some infection control innovations and not just like look at, oh, this is so cool. And, know, I don't know, when I started in 2003, we were doing this and now we're doing this. Like, I don't want to just dive into those, but I really want to talk about some things that are up and coming on the scene. But with that said Dana thinking of my past and aging aging us both here. You're welcome Do you remember? Do you remember go walking into the room? No masks sometimes I had gloves like it was like whatever and dirty tray in one spot and just like spraying everything Everywhere to where you could barely breathe in that room. I remember I remember gosh This must have been like 2006, 2007. I don't remember what happened, but something changed, right? With infection control. Do you remember stocking up on the Lysol cans? And like your whole office was like a cloud of Lysol. You couldn't even breathe. And now I'm, you know, curious to see what my lungs are gonna look like in the future and what Lysol really does to your lungs. But like, it's just so fun to look at. Dana (07:30) Yep. The Dental A Team (07:42) These are the things we used to do. I used to walk into an operatory with what was it called? What is it? It starts with a B. It's a Birex. I can see the bottle, the clear bottle with the green writing, yellow, you know, squirt, and just like squirting every surface I could possibly see. And then aerosoling with Lysol, walking away, coming back. Dana (07:43) Hmm. Pyrex, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is... Yep. Everything. Yeah. The Dental A Team (08:11) wiping it down with calvicide wipes, spraying it again, and then walking away and then walking in with a patient and being like, oh, let me dry that. And I'm drying the chair because there's still byracks on the chair or Lysol in the air and the patient's coughing. Dana, do you remember those days? I hope some of us do. Dana (08:15) Yeah. I do and honestly too because I grew up like I was a child in a dental office a lot and I actually even remember when like gloves were optional. The Dental A Team (08:35) That's right. Yeah, I was like, I know what you're gonna say. I know what you're gonna say. Yeah. Dana (08:45) Yep, yeah, we're even gloves. We're just kind of like an option for something. The Dental A Team (08:50) Yeah. Do you remember when they would say, well, this is more to protect me than it is to protect you. So that's why I don't wear them. I remember that too. I'm like, Dana (08:56) Yeah. ⁓ I wash my hands. we're gonna like, I just think about it now all the time. I'm like, ⁓ my like, the places we have come. The Dental A Team (09:05) ⁓ what we did. places we have come, the things we have done not knowing. hope there are so many of you out there laughing. I know that there are a lot of you out there that are like, what are they even talking about? Because you may not have even been born yet. So welcome to Jenna String. We're glad you're here. Just be happier. Be happier coming out of the scene now. ⁓ Anyways, some of the things that I have Well, we looked up some things today, Dana, and some of the things that one thing I was really excited about something that you mentioned when we were chatting earlier. I want you to kind of talk about what you think, how you think ⁓ practices could really utilize this was one there's like up and coming on the scene. I don't think that there's anything really out there yet that's solid, but up and coming on the scene like automated ⁓ knowing automatically if a sterilizer needs to be ran or what. write the sterilization pieces. So that's, that's looking really cool, the AI side of automating those types of things to keep a good schedule. But Dana, one thing that was on there that we were looking at was really like tracking those things and making it so that it is digitized. And I think that's massive, because these checklists that we create with practices, right, I have so many dentists that are like, well, cool, we've got like an end to day sheet, but like, what about their monthly? What about their weekly? What about the stereo? strips. And as a dental assistant, I never remember to do those dang things. And when I did, I never looked at them, right? And I'm like, just having shine, take it, take it away. Tell me if it's good or not. Like, but these automated tools, I think will be super helpful. So Dana, what do you think? How do you think that innovation is really going to benefit practices? And how can they implement something like that right away, that they could truly automate some of these things? Dana (10:53) Yeah, and I think it's really just doing some research and finding things that are definitely our companies out there who that have started and even in the AI platform where they're just automatically tracking your sterilization. They're automatically making sure that all of your sterilization batches that come out are. are good and it's logging it for you with dates and paths and fail and, and all those pieces, which I think is just really, really super cool. I know that oftentimes when I get new offices, you know, they're like, well, how do I get my OSHA pieces in place? And how do I and having things like this that are just automated that like, what, what a cool tool and what cool things that I think we're seeing coming for dentistry in that area. The Dental A Team (11:34) Yeah. Where do you feel like practices could ⁓ ramp up what they're doing now to automate it? Like, I feel like I'm thinking we use ClickUp for everything, which I mean, we have spent, I'm not going to lie. We spent a couple of years getting really good at ClickUp and we have a whole team working on it behind us, but something like that even, right? Where it's like sending these automated email reminders or there's apps out there. Dana (11:45) Mm-hmm. No. The Dental A Team (12:01) with the Remind apps. I know the schools use a Remind app even, but there's like those ⁓ family calendar apps that text you when things are coming up. Like how can we be innovative without waiting for AI to get better or waiting for, you know, Elon Musk or someone to think of something incredibly crazy that no one's ever thought of, but how can we be innovative with the tools that we already have? that maybe we're seeing people are just aren't really doing these things and they easily could. Dana (12:31) Yeah, and think some of it comes down to like that saying, know, know thyself and be free, right? Well, if you're somebody that needs automated reminders, find a way to do it. There's boomerang on your email that you can, you can simply just email yourself and say, sterilization test strip, right? And then you boomerang it to yourself every 10 days or every number of days that it's required for you in your area. And so I think just like finding ways things that are hard don't typically have to be hard. You just have to find a way to make it easier. And there are so many. things out there, software, resources, and oftentimes too, like they're even cost effective or there's no cost, right, for some of these too. And so I think it is finding the pieces that are hard for you to keep track of, and then find something, whether it is a management tool or whether it is just a reminder system or whether it is one of these AI ⁓ pieces that are coming or are here. I think it really just is looking and figuring out how you can pivot. and how you can use the technology that is around you because man, just, the things that are at our fingertips to make things easy and to help with the things that we kind of like just hit our heads on the wall against every single day, they're here and even more is coming and it's really cool. The Dental A Team (13:54) I couldn't agree more. I have so many systems set up. I tell my practices constantly. Like I my memory, I my memory has never been super fantastic. I remember the things I want to remember, I suppose. Right. But I have so many like I have it down to like, in my calendar, it'll say like, don't forget to leave for your hair appointment. Last Friday, like you've got to drive, right? You got so many pop ups and reminders, then I'll set. I'll just set simple alarms with a label on my phone sometimes that we'll make sure that I remember to do that off the wall thing. I think you're right, Dana, that we, I think we tend to overcomplicate things. And we try, we try to tell ourselves that we don't, we're not smart enough, or we don't know the thing, or that's not my space, right? I'm not a tech person. I'm not a techie person, but I can tell you, there are plenty of techie people out there that have created systems that I can use. as a template to create it to be and work however I need it to work for me so that no, they saw me true. You're 100 % spot on with that. I know that I need these reminders. And so I look for the tools that will help me do that. I think making sure doctors, practice owners, leaders, making sure you guys remember you don't have to be the ones that think of this for everyone else. had... a call yesterday, Dana, with a group of managers that are near and dear to my heart. I've been working with these ladies for years, gosh, like, I think since 2018. And I love them. They're so fantastic. But one of the questions yesterday was like, what do I do when they just keep forgetting to do the thing I asked them to do? And I'm like, well, one, right, Dana, make sure that you've got a date set. And like you said, like a reporting back system, you said that earlier on a different podcast. But also, Dana, don't You believe I know you teach this to like, I don't need to be the one that creates the system for you to make sure you get it done. If I take that autonomy and that creativity from you, you're likely going to forget, right? Yeah. Dana (15:55) Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think team members know themselves. Hands down better than you do as leaders or or we do as your coach and so sometimes I'm like just sit down and ask them like what can we put into place? What do you think will help you? What do you think we can do to support or what system do you think that we can build in? That's because not everybody is a checklist person Sometimes people need reminders on their phones. Sometimes people need reminders on the schedule. Sometimes people need Something that comes to them via email whatever it is, but oftentimes team members because they know themselves better than anyone can come up with something that will actually truly work versus the 30 things we throw at them trying to solve it. The Dental A Team (16:37) I totally agree with you. Totally agree with you. And that's, that's been helpful in my life for me to be able to have that autonomy and, be empowered to create what's going to work for me. And one of the biggest spaces there is, and then this comes to like the infection control things too, like what's the result we're after. If we know the result we're after, we are, we are very smart beings. We are insanely intellectual. If we know the result we're after, likely we can come up with a plan to get us there. We just, we have to be given that space and the availability to be able to do that. So I think it's huge. think, gosh, Dana, like this little, I mean, we both have these notes up here that we're like, gosh, there are some really cool things coming down the pipeline. Like they sound awesome. Automated waterline disinfection system. Like, holy cow, that's so cool. If you have this, please write it and tell us more about it. Like, I know there's so many things that have come out of the last five years and just watching these startup companies or companies that are just starting to do this new thing, watching them do this and jump onto the scene has just been really, really cool. I think do some research, you guys. There's some cool things in here that we don't know enough about to. go on tangents with, but it is really amazing. And staying on top of that, staying in the forums, I know we've got our doctor forum that's constantly asking questions around things like this and constantly innovating and thinking of new things, but realistically, bottom line, make sure that it's getting done. Make sure that you know what the standards are that you're supposed to keep when it comes to infection control. Those standards, those are your goals. Give them to your team. Your team's really smart. And guess what? Most of us. Right? Have teams that are way younger than us today. Shelby, shout out to Shelby. Shelby taught these old dogs a trick. That's not a new trick. It's a trick that we forgot about because we didn't have a reminder system for it. But Shelby, Shelby innovates like crazy. She is a solution master. She is a problem solver. And I think it's just that generation's way of being they...
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How to Know Your Practice Is Ready for the Next Level
07/29/2025
How to Know Your Practice Is Ready for the Next Level
Growing your practice can be incredibly exciting, but incredibly intimidating. Kiera tells listeners how they can scale with confidence by giving specific questions to ask yourself. These include: Are your systems running smoothly? Are your teams aligned and accountable? Do you have a clear data back-growth plan? And more! Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I'm super jazzed because I feel like this is such a great question that so many offices ask me of like, okay, Kiera, how do I know that my practice is ready for the next level? How do know I'm ready to add in more team members? How do I know I'm ready to add an associate? How do know if I'm ready to add another location? And I feel like so many of these things sit in our brains and we're always wondering like, how do you know? It's like, how do you know when you're ready for the next baby? but instead of like babies, which like really, how do you really know? There are certain things to know or how do you know if you're ready to get married? Well, there are certain things actually. So let's take some of that guesswork out, make this a little bit more fun and have a great time on today's podcast. I'm excited and I hope you're excited. The Dental A Team was built for doctors. It's built for team members. That's why it's called Dental A Team. It's consulting for dentists and teams. I hate as a business owner where people just teach me and I have go try and take it back to my team. but I love being taught, I love being focused and I love having high level and then I love having implementable things for my team, but from someone who's been there, done that and done that successfully. So that's what we've created. We have a space for doctors and CEOs and entrepreneurs to come and get together like-minded where we're talking high level. This is where I come into play. We have fun, we have business freaking tactics. We call it Think Tank Tuesday and we literally get all together and have a great time. And then we have our in-person mastermind where we're doing the same thing as business and life on purpose. And then we have our consultants, including myself, our consultants then work with your team. We're going to be teaching your team members how to make your vision a reality, how to scale, how to have the conversations. I say we're like little fairy godmothers for your team members, where we literally are hanging out with them to help them know the resources and the easiest path to get the results they're looking for. That's what we're obsessed about. That's what we do for offices. And I hope that we're a part of your office. And if not, I hope we're apart really, really soon. All right, you guys, let's dig into how do we scale with confidence? Because growth is super freaking exciting. Like, oh my gosh, we're growing. But back to me, when I first started, we were 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months in my first location. We bought our second location and you better believe it was fire. And fire is exciting, but it burns hot. And it got hotter and hotter and hotter. And it was because I didn't have a plan. We just were like, sweet, we're at this amount. So let's buy our second location. And it became mayhem and it became crazy. And so it's one of those things of like fires can be beautiful and we can sit there and roast s'mores. But fires can also be very, very volatile. They can destroy, they can burn fast and they can burn hot. And so this is a zone where if we have a plan, we're going to do really well. If not, we get burnout, we get turnover, we get stalled progress. We actually get sloppy. We actually could fall into really scary things. Like for us, it was full blown burnout. I was on burnout or my owner was on burnout. We were working from 2 a.m. till 10 p.m. every single day. ⁓ Our marriages were falling apart. Like everything was bad. Everything. It was not good. and we would show up to work just to feel like we were like barely, like nose barely above water, but you better believe there's water getting into that. And so this is something where I really wanted to come on today of how do you know and how can we scale with strategy? How can we scale and know that we're ready for the next level? Because if I would have known this, I would not have bought my second practice. I would have optimized my first practice. I would have put a few more things into place and then bought the second location. But you know, I was young, dumb, I was reckless. We were just like. We can do this. did the first one, but the first one wasn't like barely hanging on. We had two pending lawsuits on us. Like there were wild things going on, but yet shoot. I think that sometimes it's good to have a little bit of naive, ⁓ but I think it's more important to have a good plan and a good process. So this is the goal. It's not about adding ops and team members. It's truly about making sure our foundation's awesome, making sure that we know what we're doing, making sure we've got a good plan and then executing it. And that does not mean it needs to take a long time. You can scale very quickly, just making sure you have a few key places. And I like to tell people our goal is to get flagship practice number one solid. We stamp it out and then we just stamp it out, map it out. We have a few nuances that we change based on location and demographics, but generally speaking, it's about the same thing. ⁓ $1 million, one practices versus multi millions, multi practices, multi ops, two very different models of business. So on that, this is what we love to do today. This episode is really for owners and offices asking the question of what's next, but scaling smart. not fast and also looking at like the DSO landscape of where we headed. Do I DSO? Do I grow? I have a practice and what they were thinking about doing is they're thinking of selling out to a DSO. And I said, cool, but like, what's your plan? I'm like, I still want to keep doing dentistry. And I said, all right, let's look at the numbers. And what was wild is a DSO is going to pay this practice 5 million. And right now you might be like, dude, that's so much. Like I'd sell in a second, like one more bad day and like give me the DSO's number. calling them. But we looked at and I said, all right, let's expand out a couple more ops, which you've already been thinking about doing. And realistically in the next one to two years, like that's what the DSO is going to do. They're going to come in, they're going to expand this out. So either you can sell to them and live here and do it with them, or you can do it before that. And literally we did that. And this practice in two years is making 5 million net profit. And I think about that because it seems so tempting to sell to the DSO and how it's like, but you're giving up all of this. And if we just had a quick plan. This doctor now is working about two days a week. They have associate doctors in place. They have this beautiful building and they're looking for the next expansion piece. Beyond Happy, this is their plan. And they're literally making more than they would have with the DSO. And so just be careful, because I think sometimes DSOs can seem so sexy and alluring when we're having bad days. You better believe it. There have been days when I'm like, someone walks by and offers me a buck for Dental A Team. They get it, right? We all have those days as business owners. That's not a joke. It's real life. But I think this is where we can like, not make reactive decisions, but actually figure out how we wanna scale. And what I will always say is when we scale and what's next, I want you to always ask the question of what do I want in my life and what do I want my life to look like? Because we can scale. You can have 10 practices and say, only wanna work one day a week. That's totally allowed. It's just a different strategy. Or you can say, wanna be a clinician. I love doing the dentistry. Again, different strategy. I was on an on-call yesterday with a potential client and they were like, Garrett, we need systems. We need to have help with our finances. our financials and we also need help training our team. And I was like, rock on, that's right up our alley. And at the very end of the call, I said, Hey, is there anything else you feel like I should, I need to know? they're like, well, yeah, we're considering selling in a year. And I was like, wow, that changes the entire plan of what I would do because I would not be building all the systems if we're planning to sell in a year. I'm going to be cranking your EBITDA. We're going to be working on case acceptance, adding production to this practice to make sure we're getting top dollar for the sale while also making it easy and enjoyable to live there at the same time. So one of those things of where you want to go and what your North Star is, radically changes your question of what's next. It's what's next based on what you want to do. So when we look at this, I really want you to think about and look at these pieces of what's next. And again, some of these things might change depending upon what your next is. If we're selling to a DSO, it looks very different than if we're building a legacy practice. So just know a lot of these pieces might be dependent upon where you want to go. So number one, I think this is a great thing. If you want to grow, you want to add another practice, you want to add more ops, you want to add more team members, you want to grow to the next level financially, is make sure your systems are truly running without you. So you don't need to be there in every single decision. Doctor, you don't have to be answering, signing off on what are we ordering? We don't want to be signing off on payroll. We literally have built this delegation ladder. We have team leads in place. The systems are running where the team can execute daily. We have end of day checklists. We're not having to look over every single thing. We have checklists of what people need to be doing. It's very clean. People are in the right seats. They know what they're doing. We have clear operations manual built out for scheduling, billing, case acceptance, hygiene, all these different areas of our practice. It's clear. We have it mapped. We have documented systems that are followed by all. So not just documented, but truly followed by all. ⁓ And honestly, it's something where doctors, would recommend, a fun thing. You're welcome. I'm giving you a vacation. You leave for two weeks. I want you to leave the practice for two weeks. And when you're gone, I want you to see that practice thrive while you were gone. Did it barely survive? Was the team able to make decisions without you? What systems fell apart and let's fix that. This is something where doctors are always a little nervous to take time off for production. Yes. But I say it is absolutely essential and crucial doctors that you take time, you leave the practice so you can actually find out what's breaking down. Same thing with office managers and leads. We need them to leave. We need you out. And what's wild is when offices, I see them. So for example, I have a doctor. They usually take about two to three weeks up in the summer. They usually take two to three weeks off in the early spring. And it's awesome. And what happens is on those months, production doesn't The practice doesn't fall apart. The office manager is able to execute the way the doctor would execute. Team culture runs the exact same, whether the doctor's there or not. And that to me is a sign of your systems are not dependent upon you. So if you want to do a stress test, rock on. Prep your team. don't just like spring it on them. That doesn't usually go well. but stress test and go for two weeks and see what happens to your practice. And then also look to see when you go around and you're doing your CEO time, let's rate every single department in our practice on a one to 10 of how are they doing? Could they run this without you? Do they know what they need to do? Are we hitting the KPIs that we need to hit? And if not, do we need to put some systems into place that can run independent of you? So that would really be a good stress test of go on vacation and also rate your departments and see where maybe our system is lacking. Now. I will also put a word of caution because a lot of times doctors, are very meticulous. That's why you're dentists. That's why you're working on that little box on the MO and you do so well with your very, very, very, very fine skills because that's what you do day in and day out. A lot of offices are actually ready to scale with their systems. Being systematized where it runs without you does not mean perfect. And I really want you to hear me loud and clear. It is not about being perfect. It's about being scalable and that this can run without you and that you're really able to move things forward. So. A lot of people get stuck and they don't grow because like, don't have every system in place. No, we're talking that like the bulk of your KPIs are able to be hit. The bulk of our systems are able to follow. The culture doesn't dip when you're gone. Production doesn't dip when you're gone. ⁓ But you might be more ready than you think you are. So be careful. There's a second side to it. Make sure that we're good on that rather than just being like, ⁓ my systems will never be perfect. Cause honestly, systems will never be done. Your practice will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be done. But that doesn't mean it's not time to scale. So that's your system's text. Number two. Teams aligned and super accountable. So this is different than the top one because it's about systems running. But when the teams align, this is us hitting our KPIs. So we have leads in place. They own their area. They own their numbers. They hit their metrics consistently. We literally have a weekly leadership meeting. Even if that's just your whole team, we're hitting our metrics. We're reviewing our wins and we're all staying accountable to it. So this is what we're looking for is team high level accountability. If we say we're going to do it, we follow through. If we say we're going to get this KPI, we do it. If we say we set this goal, we hit this goal. And honestly, a big piece of that is we're not having a ton of turnover. So that's helping me know that your practice is stable. Your team is stable. We're hitting these KPIs. So if you're not tracking your data, you're not tracking your numbers, you have no clue. I would strongly advise not growing and adding more ops because all it does is it just makes the chaos even bigger. Trust me, I did it. I had no numbers. I had no KPIs. I had no accountability. I had no team members reporting up. And then all of sudden my problems doubled because now I had a second location and none of this was in place. I will tell you, it is a train wreck. You can get through it. but it is not fun and I almost didn't get through it. So for this is just make sure that we have our leads, make sure that they're reporting. And I have a practice who started doing this and they were around like 3 million ish and they grew to 5 million, but just been putting their numbers in every single week, their leadership teams looking at their numbers, they're making adjustments every quarter. We're setting goals for them and we follow and that's just happening in one year. So exponential growth can happen and be careful because you can actually squeeze more juice out of your lemon. in your current practice by even following these steps. So this can be growth internally. It's kind of like a house, right? Like we can go buy a new house or we can just make our house even more awesome. There was an office that I knew and they literally were like, we can go buy another house, but why don't we just invest the money here? And they've made their house this incredible oasis, made it even better. They have even more fun. That's something that you can do in your practice too. So don't, don't worry. It doesn't mean have to sell. doesn't mean you have to scale. It doesn't mean you have to have multi-practices. It doesn't mean you have to expand. It means you could even do this within your practice, looking at these pieces will exponentially help you grow to the next level with ease. Number three that you're ready for is you have a clear data back growth plan. So we're looking at this and we're making sure that like, our KPIs are tracking and that we are profitable and we have the right patient flow to be able to grow. We have the right team members. We have a pipeline in place to bring on another doctor. We have a pipeline in place to have more hygienists coming in. Like we are not going to get stuck in that area. We have an office manager or regional manager that has the bandwidth to be able to go. Our billing team is very consistent. Our collections sit at 98%. ⁓ And then what we have from here is we're going to have a scaling growth plan. So when I work with offices, we had a doctor reach out. They were at a four ops practice and they're going to an eight, they thought, and we pushed them to a 10. I asked them, are you so glad we went to a 10? And they said, Kiera, the answer is yes. I thought you were crazy. And I was like, nope, you will never regret having more ops. But they started with us. So we're talking four ops to 10 ops. And what we did before is we literally started with this practice. about 12 months before they expand and we started putting together the plan of, all right, we're gonna start saving money. This is how much it's gonna cost. This is how many team members we're going to need. So let's start building the pipeline for it. We're going to need a doctor at this point in time. So you're gonna need to start working on that. We're gonna be meeting with the contractors. We're going to be expanding this out. And honestly, this doctor is so happy because they have the cash. So when they built it out, they weren't cashflow stressed. They had a new patient plan to grow. They had a plan for a new doctor. We had associate onboarding documents in place for them. We had a hygiene pipeline. We had the new patient plan. We had the doctor's plan of what procedures this doctor was going to do. And literally this doctor was like, well, another building just came up. Do you think that I'm ready for it? They had just opened the 10 ops. And I said, well, the answer is I actually think you are pretty well ready for it because we had the KPIs. We were tracking the pieces. We had a plan and we did this for almost 12 months. There's another office that was bringing in a partner. And for 12 months, we figured out how much is their true pay of true compensation. We worked through all those different pieces for them. So that way when the partner bought in, it wasn't this chaos for them. And I think this data-backed growth plan of knowing what the reality is of how much your expenses will be, having things in place, having your reserves, your financial reserves, that's going to make it to where you are not stressed out of your mind when you take this on. Because cashflow, resources, not having enough money. That's going to cause chaos. That's going to cause frustration. This is going to cause like, oh my gosh, I don't think I can do this. Then on top of it, you have systems. Then on top of that, you have team members that aren't accountable. And you're like, oh my gosh, I now have like 25 team members and it's so stressful. And like, I wish I never would have bought the second practice or I wish I never would have expanded. And I'm like, it's not that...
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The 1% Rule for Practice Owners
07/24/2025
The 1% Rule for Practice Owners
Kiera and Tiff discuss chipping away at your goals and problems in small pieces, and how this can stack habits in a way that’s not completely overwhelming. This can be applied to your personal life or your practice life! Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it's a special day. Spiffy, Tiffy and I are back together on the podcast. You know Tiff, you love Tiff, you hear her with or without me, but today's a special day. You get both of us, one podcast. Tiff, how you doing today? The Dental A Team (00:15) No, I'm so good. I just love when we podcast together, first of all, and I love that we really well. We roll with the punches well, and this morning has proven that. And this whole week has been a pivot and roll with the punches, and I'm excited for everyone to hear all of the wonderful words we have to say today. Kiera Dent (00:25) you Me too. And it is fun because it's funny when Tiffanie started the company, I feel like we talked to each other all the time. And this morning I was getting ready at 530 a.m. because I was like, sweet, I got a lot of podcasts. We're going to start at 6 a.m. today. It's going to be a great day. And I'm like, you know, I used to call Tiff during this time and we just like chat and talk shop. And now it's like, hey, let's catch up on the podcast. OK, it's like, how's life? How you doing over there? Even though we work together all the time, but. The Dental A Team (00:58) Yeah Kiera Dent (01:04) I think that that just shows the growth that we've been able to have. And it's interesting, something I will say is as you grow and evolve, make sure that you still stay connected to your key players. think Tiff and I have to now be very intentional. Like we call each other or we'll FaceTime each other or like I'll just randomly FaceTime Tiff while I'm driving with Jason, just so we stay as friends in a relationship because work I think can sometimes accidentally, we're so busy ships in the night, even though we're in the same company. So Tiff, good time to reconnect on the podcast. Hi. The Dental A Team (01:17) Thank Good Kiera Dent (01:33) It's been a hot minute, great to see you. I think I haven't seen you all The Dental A Team (01:35) to see you. Kiera Dent (01:36) week, so it's great to see you. The Dental A Team (01:37) That is so true, we haven't, not since our leadership meeting on Monday. Kiera Dent (01:41) and we had like one client call together, which I'm like, hey, it's real fun to be with you here. I'm like, see you later. ⁓ But no, it's truly so fun. And today, and I wanted to just, I think we're seeing it, it's actually one thing that I will say Tiff and I are doing really well that we haven't done is we actually are coaching mutual clients together. We only have a couple and it's been really fun. think Tiff, I feel like it's like our shake and bake, like stocked into Malo, like Tiff to Kiera, like let's just have a good time on it because it's not often other than events that we get to do this. But I think in, The Dental A Team (01:44) yeah, straight. Thank you. Kiera Dent (02:11) coaching clients more together. I think you and I are starting to see this like really awesome pattern that you brought up of a topic of like this 1%. And I know you're obsessed in it and working out, which thank you because every day I think about you and I'm like, yeah, Kieran, just go move your body 1 % more today, like just 1 % today. And so I think in life, but let's also take it to practices and billing. Tiff kind of riffed us on the topic I did and we're just gonna riff for you guys today. Kieran, Tiff, stocked into Malone. If you don't know the jazz, well, you missed out, but. The Dental A Team (02:25) Thank you. Kiera Dent (02:38) Basically we're the glory days. That's what this is. It's a glory. It's a dream team back together doing our shake and bake, rattle and roll, talking all things dentistry. So Tiff, take it away. The Dental A Team (02:48) Yeah, I actually, I think we all know the 1 % rule and we know the compound effect and we know like, we know arbitrarily that these things and these ideas are something we're supposed to do and that they work. And last year, I found myself in this space where I was like, trying to octopus arms a lot of different things in my life that I wanted improvement on. And I had like three, four or five, whatever it was things that I'm like, okay, I'll do a little bit here, I'll do a little bit here, I'll do a little bit here. And it's kind of like, I was just talking to Erin the other day about like paying down debt, right? So like you're paying down debt and you're like, okay, I'll put a little extra on this card, a little extra on this card, a little extra on this card. And that little bit of extra actually isn't making any progress because the percentages, right? The interest on it is actually eating it alive. And you just get to the spot where you're like, my God, I'm not making any progress in anything. And I'm spreading myself so thin, I'm exhausted. And I found myself there with debt and, but with these areas of my life that I was like, I just want to feel 50%, 100 % better in these areas. And I was giving a little bit to all these spaces and Aaron and I had a conversation. I was just like, I'm so exhausted. Something's got to give, something's got to change. And he's like, let's pick one. And so I was thinking, and then we did. Kiera Dent (04:03) I think about your plate overfilling. From the day I met you, had this image of like, you know how people say like their plate's really full? Tiff's like, no, my plate's full and I have like food. I don't know why it is, but it's like cauliflower, broccoli, carrots is what I've envisioned for you. Just sitting on the side of her plate. So it's like there, then she's got like her sweet potato and it's like on the place map, but it's off the plate. And I think that that's like a really good visual of who Tiff's been since I've met you and how I think. All of us live our life. This isn't just a Tiffanie, but like whether it's the octopus arms or the plate over like literally, if it's been like cauliflower broccoli, like I just see like a big like hunk of broccoli on the side of your plate. I don't come with it all. The Dental A Team (04:35) Yeah. Yes, and I actually had somebody in my life, I had a friend years ago, gosh, this was like, I remember the stop sign we were sitting at and I remember being like crying, like, gosh dang it, one more thing and I'm like, I can do it, it's fine, because I'm the person that's like, yeah, I can totally do it, I know I can do it, but what cost is it at is not something I always think of and he looked at me he said, You are like the person at Thanksgiving, that you're just so excited to have some of everything, that you have your plate and you filled it with everything. So you've got your turkey, your mashed potatoes and gravy, and your roll and your sweet potatoes. And then you sat down and you're like, oh, shoot, I forgot. Like this plate, he's like, it's a mounds of food because it's Thanksgiving, right? Which is fair. We all do that at Thanksgiving. He goes, but then you forgot. about like the pie and somebody else put other rolls out. And so then you like started shoving it under your plate. And he's like, that's your one, you just took a piece of apple pie when you already had pumpkin pie. And you said yes to this, which means you said no to the pumpkin pie because you can't eat both. And I was like, holy cow, I love Thanksgiving, that works. Like I get it. And so yes, that was me. And so again, I don't know how long ago was that? Seven, eight years later, nine years. Kiera Dent (05:53) No. Five, six, seven, years later. The Dental A Team (05:56) Like, Holly, are you kidding me? It came up again. And then somebody else just said it in different terms. And he said, you know, like, if you could do 1 % better every single day in one area, that's your compound effect. If you do 1 % better in five areas, but you only had 1 % to give, you're trying to give 5%, you're going to go backwards in areas. Like, you can't, it just doesn't work. The math isn't there. He does math. Math is his jam. So he's like, the math doesn't, it's not math-ing. So if you choose one area that is going to bring the most like happiness and joy out of all the other areas that you could easily give 1 % improvement, it's gonna snowball. And what happened, what I found, right, is that that 1 % in my health and my fitness, which is what I chose to focus on, did snowball. And so all of a sudden the habit stacking that I had going on in my health and fitness snowballed. into those other areas that I was trying to octopus arms into. So I saw slight improvements in those other areas and I was like, okay, everyone, they're both right. It's fine. Thank you. But I started thinking about it today. It popped up today for me actually really strong. I don't remember this morning why it popped up, but it did. And so then when, know, Kara, you and I got on here and like, my gosh, like this is what practices do. This is what owners, business owners do this constantly. Right? We go into something and we're like, gosh, I've got to be best at marketing. I've got to make money and have great profitability. I've got to be a great leader and I have to have an awesome team and I've got to train people to be leaders. And then we're octopus arms and like Thanksgiving plates say yes to everything, which in turn makes us say no to something else. And so I thought the most you've got octopus arms, you've got your plate. Like what's the most important thing you've got your, you've got your dinner plate overflowing and you look at it and you're like, I'm probably not gonna eat all of this, right? I would love to be able to eat all of this and not like get the calories from it and not like feel like I'm gonna throw up. Like I want it all, but if I have to go by what's most important and start there, I'm gonna start with the protein and the vegetables. So when you look at your business, right? The protein and the vegetables are going to help my health. It's going to promote. my muscle build, it's going to like positively impact the goals that I'm working for. If I start with the pumpkin pie, which is where I want to start because I want room for the pumpkin pie, it's a negative. I want it, right? I want the sugar, but like, I know that I feel like crap after eating the sugar. So if I am a business owner and I'm focusing solely on, I don't know, new patients, I only want new patients, but I haven't focused on making sure my team knows how to collect. I'm over here crying to my consultant that Kiera Dent (08:21) Me Me too. The Dental A Team (08:43) I don't have any money in the bank and I can't afford my consultant, but my, even my new patients, I've got 62 new patients who also aren't scheduling treatment. Right? So that's like the pumpkin pie. Whereas the protein is making sure we're making sure we're like focusing on the money. Right. And not to the point that we lose the patient experience. That's not my point. My point is what, how can we be 1 % better in our collections? Like, what are we missing? And I had a revelation finally with a practice this week and I love her to death and I'm just like, yay, we got there because I'm like something's not happening. Something that should be happening is not happening because your insurance AR is beautiful. But over here, we still have almost $200,000 in AR. ⁓ How is it possible when your insurance AR is showing up as like $44,000? Right. And so like getting there, getting there, getting there. But the 1 % is what's something that we can do today to collect part of what we're missing, right? What's one phone call, one extra phone call we can make? What's one person coming in the door that has a past due balance that we can collect today? Like how can we take that theory of that 1 % better that is so easy to implement when it comes to health, fitness and nutrition? We get it. Our brains are like, yeah, that makes total sense. Eat the protein before the sugar. I get it. I don't want to, but I can do that. But we have such a hard time implementing that in like the other structures of our lives because it's just not, it doesn't feel as clean and as clear. And I think, Kiera, it doesn't feel as fun, right? Like eating the pumpkin pie is more fun. Marketing is way more fun than billing. ⁓ Hands down, I don't want to do billing. I want to do marketing. Kiera Dent (10:18) Yeah. Exactly what I was thinking. What are you saying? was like, the reason we don't go for the turkey is because turkey is freaking dry and pumpkin pie is sweet and fun, which is why people don't like to look at their numbers because numbers are like protein and it's not as fun. And I'm sitting here like shoveling down this nasty turkey that I know is like super lean, no fat in it. And I'm able to get my protein in. And yet when you talked about a tip of like, I think those business owners, this is where you cut out the noise and the elite business owners are able to cut out the noise, not go over the sexy and go for the things that are actually going to build the foundation. And when you can figure that out, because like Tiff, you and I, it makes me wild when clients come through and they're like, I can't afford this. And I'm like, what do you mean you can't afford this? You have like 300,000 sitting in AR, like bada bing, bada boom, it's right there. And if we just collect before they leave, ⁓ my gosh, a revelation, you actually get paid for the work you did. And we're not like, hey Tiff, you want to pay me like six months later? Like, no, I did the work, let's get this paid. Why are we living in the 1900s? Like we don't have tabs, get rid of it. The Dental A Team (11:02) you Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (11:23) but it's something so interesting that you're like, we're right. Like I want to do new patients. Like there's so much more fun and also it's a flex. Like when you go to a conference, like, here's my production, here's my new patient number. And I'm like, cool, here's my profit. Like it's not as fun and it's awkward. And you're like, cause also I don't want to tell people my profit. Cause I don't like, is that good? Is that bad? I don't know. So it's this weird zone of it's not safe to share publicly. It's a weird thing to talk about, but at the end of the day, it's the number one thing you're stressing about all day long. And so I think like you said, Tiff, The Dental A Team (11:36) Yeah. Kiera Dent (11:53) When you were talking, also thought like every team member could have their 1 % better. So doctors, if you want octopus arms, amazing. You can actually have it through your team members. Like right now, Tiff actually has her one thing in her department that she's focused on. has her one thing in her department she's focused on. Shelby has her one thing. Like they have other things, but it's like, if we can't get anything, these are the top three things that have to get done. And honestly, we went after profitability and like hiring consultants were like, all right, these are the two things. And it's wild when we focus on it, we laser focused. The Dental A Team (11:57) Okay. Kiera Dent (12:23) We cut the pumpkin pie, and it was for us, we didn't cut marketing. We were like, all right, this is going to move the needle forward. It's crazy how much more calm life feels. It's crazy how less stressed you feel. And then you're able to move things forward even faster. So I think it's a, and you said it doesn't have to be hard. Like this morning, I honestly thought about your tips, so kudos. This is probably why we were hanging out. Like I need a 1 % better. The Dental A Team (12:27) Yeah. So. Kiera Dent (12:47) I was getting ready for the podcast and I'm like, it's gonna be all day long I'm podcasting today. I'm probably not gonna work out. And I was like, I thought about you in the back of my head and I was like, I could do five minutes of stretching right now. That would make me feel way better going on to this podcast. It shows me that I honor my body. That's my 1 % for today. And yet my body already has felt better today. And I was in a better mindset on a, it was eight minutes that I did like yoga, stretching, making sure I took care of my body. Did some like quick like lifts for my shoulder. It was very simple, it took no time at all. And it's the same thing of like your biller could collect on the patients. Like every patient who comes in, if we just collected those balances, you would feel like you're the richest person in the world. If we just called the high balances, just those people alone, that's probably like 50 % of what you need to collect right there. And that's very easy, but it's not sexy. And I think Tim, like, what is the psychology behind, like it's easy, but it's not fun, so we don't do it. Like eating protein dry turkey is such a great example of this. The Dental A Team (13:26) Okay. Kiera Dent (13:44) Because it's like, it's needed, it's necessary, and it's super great for you. But I'd rather do the pumpkin pie. Like, how do you discipline that? Or is it just a trained behavior? Like, I think about my sign in the kitchen of discipline equals freedom. I think about this all the time. The Dental A Team (13:45) Yeah. I'm It's true. I think I want to think you have to get no matter what you have to get to the point that you've hit like rock bottom, right? Like it has to hurt badly enough for people to change something for beings to change something like a dog's not going to change its routine until it hurts badly enough going the same direction. Right. So I think no matter what, it has to hurt badly enough. So you have to get into that spot. But psychology behind it, like there's so much that it gets stacked up behind the the things that we do every single day. And I know I had a conversation with my sister. If my practice is now, always call her out on stuff. But she said to me, she's yeah, she's my Craig. She said to me one day, this is like two weeks ago. Yeah, she doesn't listen. Craig might. So hello, Craig. We love you. We've talked about you for many years and you are a staple of our company. ⁓ But she said to me, Kiera Dent (14:35) She's your Craig. Okay. Bye. The Dental A Team (14:51) one, it was so simple. was like, there was this yogurt in the fridge that she had gotten. I'm like, Hey, don't forget you had this yogurt in the fridge. She goes, Oh my gosh, I couldn't remember if that was yours or it was mine. And I was like, heck no, girl, did you know you can get the same yogurt in this brand? And it's like, instead of 120 calories, it's 60 calories. Cause I'm like, I'm watching my freaking calories because I've seen that change, right? I've seen that difference. And she was like, Oh my gosh, whatever. Right. She gets tired of hearing me say it. I'm like, well, stop talking about food with me. Right. But then we get like, ice cream and I chose actually like I chose this amazing dairy free. so good. I create that right. It's like whipped cream right coconut whipped cream and you freeze it and you put fruit in it. I need a sprinkle delivery system is what I call it. That's my sprinkle delivery system. It's literally frozen whipped cream and I pour sprinkles on top of it right. Well my sister tells me I don't want to have to say no to something if I want something I...
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What Dentists REALLY Need to Hear About Mental Health
07/23/2025
What Dentists REALLY Need to Hear About Mental Health
Tiff and Dana discuss the impacts mental health has on the dental industry, including how to take a step back and re-center yourself, maintaining a positive mindset, setting up a team of delegation and accountability, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here today with Miss Dana. She is a favorite on the team. Gosh, she is a favorite of so many of our clients. I know so many of you listening have personally worked with Dana and you've gotten to experience the amazing human that she is. We get to hear from you guys constantly. I just, I have to say kudos Dana. You have the biggest raving fans of our company. I just, gosh, I couldn't agree with them more. You seriously changed lives. So I'm excited to be here with you today, Dana. And I'm excited to do this subject with you that we're talking about today, because I just think it's so perfect for where you come into play with your clients. So how are you today, Miss Dana? Dana (00:44) Doing good, thank you for all that Tiff. As you know, my clients mean the world to me. And so the fact that they give love back is always appreciated. The Dental A Team (00:49) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they do. You guys, if you are one of her prized clients or you are about to be and you're a future client, you are in the right hands and she really does have so much, so much love for all of you. So Dana and I are coming off of a whirlwind right now. Like we just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get in here to record podcasts. You'd think it was our first day on the job, but luckily we have. a non-millennial on our team who knows how to use technology and clear out all the pieces that we needed. So Dana, I feel like it's also appropriate. mean, it leads right into what we're talking about today. I'm like, I've got a little headache like right here now and like, does this happen? And I think Eve calls it difficulties, but I mean, gosh dang it, technology and the world, there's so much going on. constantly, there's so much chaos and it literally led into this subject so well today. Dana (01:55) Yeah, I always say technology is great when it works. It's super frustrating when it doesn't. The Dental A Team (01:58) Yes. my gosh. It's so, it's so crazy. So just FYI, know that there's a lot of love and chaos sometimes that goes into recording these podcasts. And we do love what we do. We do love recording them. love seeing them on Instagram when they pop up and listening to what everybody has to say. And I love listening to them on my own. We know there's some huge, huge raving fans out there. So thank you. But it led into today so well. I wanted to take time today to talk about mental health and dentistry. I think it's definitely, I think it's talked about more now than it ever has been because I do think mental health and suicide and all of those, all of those different avenues and pieces are more widely like accepted to be talked about. and more widely known. So I do think that it is talked about more in dentistry and the awareness, you know, they say awareness is key. The awareness is there, but I really, you guys know we get tactical. We get super tactical no matter what we do. And I think that there are some really tactical ways that we can go about mental health and dentistry. And I wanted to take some time with Dana today to really chat through some of that and really look at what can we do? every day to make sure that we are considering our mental health within the career choice, whether you're dentistry or not, whatever career choice you've taken that has led you here to us today. I think this is going to be super beneficial. And I have personally experienced mental health issues in my personal life, in childhood and with my mother and suicide. And it's still here. It's still relevant. It's still It's everywhere. think everyone I know and everyone I come in contact with has had some sort of mental health disturbance touch their lives in some way, whether it's them personally or someone near them, family or friend. And I just, I reach out to all of you guys and I wrap you up in a huge hug because whether it's super personal or gosh, it was, you know, three times removed, but you still heard about it. It still impacts us and it still becomes a part of who we are. sending massive amounts of love out to everyone today and Dana, you are a master at coordinating chaos is what I will call it today. You are a stress and chaos coordinator extraordinaire. And I think that many, many of the spaces of stress that a lot of people deal with, and I think a lot of our clients that we talk to really actually deal with is the stress of Dana (04:22) you The Dental A Team (04:38) personal life and work life, the stresses of both sides trying not to take one into the other and trying to create this like ever seeked after work life balance and not understanding that compartmentalizing all of those pieces actually harms us in the end when they really just need to be addressed and they really just need to be, I don't know, divvied out, figured out. But Dana, you have you have a very active personal life and you have a very active work life. You have a lot of clients and a lot of responsibilities and you help me a ton constantly. And how do you, how do you feel on the day to day? Actually, we're going to, we're going to go emotional first and then we'll go super tactical, but how do you feel in your life? Like some days, do you just have days where you're just like, I can't do it anymore. And then other days you're like, dang, I'm totally killing it. Like, what does that look like in your life? Dana (05:34) Yeah, I mean, I am super blessed in the fact that I feel like I am a person that thrives a little bit more in chaos. I like to stay busy. I like to keep myself talk full. I know that isn't everyone. So for sure, that is a blessing, like just with my personality type and everything that I have going on. But definitely there are days where at the end of the day, I have to take a few minutes and just breathe. I have to prioritize myself and I have to do it very intentionally. I can't just expect it to kind of fall that way. It has to be organized that way for me to be able to keep it consistent. And so just realizing that like years ago as my family continued to grow and I wanted to still have a professional life, I had to be super intentional about... setting aside time for those things, making myself aware when I am starting to feel like I just need a breather and be super intentional on how I build my schedule and how I build out the pieces that are truly important to me. The Dental A Team (06:33) Yeah, yeah. And you used a really special word to me, intentional. That is something that is drastically more and more important the older I get in life. And intentionality, I think, is huge. Personal intentionality on, like you said, the way that you're spending your time, the things that you're doing, the attention you're giving yourself, the attention you're giving other people, and then the intentionality behind the things that you're doing, I think plays a massive role as well. So thank you for sharing that. I do think One of the reasons that you and I are drawn together in life is the fact that we are both insanely intentional and intentional in reaching out intentional and everything that we do. So that piece for us definitely makes us stick and keeps us sticky to one another. So I appreciate and value that about you. I think within that statement, that intentionality is something that you can pull out tactically. You guys from what Dana is saying is number one, she checks in with herself. Right? You've got to check in with yourself. And I have been listening to this new book and it's amazing, right? We'll talk about it at another time. But something that really struck me there was the idea of upsets in life coming out of a space of lack of control. So us being angry, frustrated, exhausted, tired, upset with how work is flowing into personal life. Like if we really take a step back and we look at it from that bird's eye perspective, we probably can find something within our day or our work life or whatever it is that's quote unquote upsetting us that actually it's something that we feel like we have no control over. within the dental industry and within your guys's positions as owners and doctors and leaders and mentors and all of the hats that you're wearing, a lot of that could really feel like everything's happening to you and like I have to do this and this is, you know, this happened to me today and I can't believe that this happened. But looking at it from a space of how did I allow this not to guilt ourselves, right? Cause that's the opposite of what we want to do here. But to be able to say, okay, could I have said or done something differently that would have led to more control over the out. come up the situation. So for Dana, what you said was the end of the day, sometimes you just need a breather and you're just like, I need to take a step back. That's really, really looking at how can I regain control over my emotions before I step into life with my family so that we're quote unquote, not carrying work with us, but really saying, you know what, I'm going to complete this day. I'm going to complete this workday. I'm going to center myself. and I'm gonna move on with the rest of my day. So you're not, it's almost like you're not carrying things with you because you finished it. And when we carry things, it's because things feel incomplete, or we're still trying to figure out where it is that we're lacking that control. So you take a step back and you say, okay, this is what today looks like. Great, it's done, that's over. It's behind me and I can no longer change anything about it. But what I can do is reset myself. be present and go be with my family or go do my workout by myself, go read a book, go take a bath, go jump through the shower to reset my mind. Like whatever it is that next step you're taking forward, Danim, you've closed the book, finished that chapter on the rest of the day that's behind you, closed that book, and now you're reopening your journal. to like go start the rest of your day. And I think that's really, really cool and actually like super tactical to really almost like now we're positively compartmentalizing, but we're not compartmentalizing to forget about it or not feel the feelings or not finish it. You're compartmentalizing as in like this piece is done. I can no longer change what's happened. All I can do is take the next step forward and then tomorrow. reset myself again and not let it happen to me again, but be like, how can I make life happen instead of letting life happen? Dana (10:42) Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. And I think that takes so many different shapes in my day. even I know, you know, yes, I have a lot of clients who I absolutely love, but I have a lot of other responsibilities within the late team, like project time and podcasting and writing newsletters and you know, all sorts of client projects too. And so I have learned that I really have to kind of chunk and compartment my day too, because it's really hard to go from like content pieces into calls then back into content. then into calls again. So I've had to really design my schedule to Even make it more so that like my day can flow and I don't have to flip Mindsets all the time and you know, I've worked with doctors who knew doctors right who started they come in they're doing all the re-cares and they're doing all the restorative and they're and I'm like, hey Let's just make sure right when you can it's it's really hard to jump back and forth into those things So just even even taking compartments of your day in dentistry or your day as a consultant and really looking at how can I keep my mindset with everything that I have to do, how can I keep my mindset and how can I shift in my responsibilities even within work life to be able to have a little bit more control or a little bit more focus. The Dental A Team (11:56) No, I think that was beautifully beautifully stated and so tactical because there's so many different spaces that you can apply that to. I apply it to my personal life as well. But I think about a doctor going from like a second molar root canal, you're gonna do a second molar root canal first of all, you're nuts, right? Don't do those. anyway, second molar root canal. And then you go from that second molar root canal into a cosmetic consultation. my gosh, one you're exhausted. it's like, when we're done podcasting, I don't know about you, but my brain's exhausted. so knowing that like, we try to schedule these today was not super ideal, but in many facets, but we'll get through it. But we try to schedule them on days when we know it's like where this is just like a content creation day. This is a meeting day. This isn't like a full heavy client day, which I don't think either one of us have super heavy client days today. So it worked out well in that capacity, but you're exactly right. It's really about how can I make the best of what I have for me first? Because if I struggle, I have so many people that struggle with this, and I think this comes down to a mental health space as well. If you're not your best self, if you're not creating a life that works the best for you, It's impossible to create a life that works the best for everyone around you because you can't give anything else. You have to be full, I go crazy on this one. You have to be full in order to be able to give people a piece of you. Otherwise, they're only getting a piece of what's left. so it's so like counterintuitive because we think I'm a people pleaser and I want to give to other people and I want to do for other people. And if I do for me, it's selfish. But realistically, your cup is getting drained constantly. And if you're not refilling that cup, you're only able to give them a piece of what's left of your cup. So if you gave 50 % of your cup today, you do not reset. don't give back to yourself in any way. You wake up tomorrow, maybe a little bit more refreshed, and you've got 60%, we'll say. You left with 50, and you gave yourself 10 % while you slept. So now you come into tomorrow, 60 % full and then you give again 50%. You've only got 30 % left and you go to bed, you wake up the next day, maybe not as refreshed, 35 % rather than giving back to yourself and getting yourself up to that like 80 to 100 % refreshed and refueled. Now I can give more to the people around me because I am whole. And so the reality is if you're not ensuring that your whole, that your mental health is a priority for you, you're doing a disservice not only to yourself, but to the people around you. So in turn, you being the people pleaser, you trying to give everything you can to other people and thinking it's selfish to give back to yourself is actually hurting the entire goal. So taking that moment and being like, okay, how can I? take that control, because realistically, that's what it all, it comes down to. And I believe it's okay to be selfish. And I believe it's okay to like control. We all do, it's human nature. Both of those things are human nature. And us trying to battle against that is hurting us as an individual and as a community socially. economically, politically, we are being hurt every day by trying to go against the natural grain of who we are. And so give back to yourself and look at spaces that you can control. You can't control everything. Right, Dana? Like, I can't control where someone schedules something. But what I can control is how I handle that and the system that got us there. to the incorrect scheduling. I can handle that. cannot control and guarantee that everything's gonna be scheduled perfectly every day. What I can control is how I handle it after the fact. And like you said, building that schedule is massive. And then Dana too, I think something you do really well with your clients and newsletters you write and everything is really that delegation tool. So, and you delegate. I know you delegate. delegated some dishes the other day to Senor Brody over there and he rocked it. He killed it and he was in the best mood all day because he got to help. But I know you delegate things at home too. speak to that a little bit too because scheduling is one thing, but I can still say yes to everything and in turn be saying no to a lot of things in the background I didn't realize. But how do you go about delegating and training doctors and teams to delegate to? I think that's a super. another super tactical way that you really help doctors focus on that within their mental health. Dana (16:52) Yeah, yeah. And I think the key to delegating, which I've had to use even in my personal life, is that very clear expectations of anything that I want someone else to handle. And that is like, what does it look like? When do I want it? How do they do it? And then on the other side of that is you have to train them on those things, and then you have to trust that they can do it and then build an accountability. So how do you know that it is being done? And the easiest way is to have them report up to you. So delegation, you know, becoming a master at that truly is setting clear expectations, training on the things that you expect, and then really trusting and building an accountability with team members. And it's not always the easiest thing. But I think the more we do it, the more we practice it, the more we get feedback from our team. on it the more that we build in systems for ourselves so that things don't fall through the cracks. So anytime we're delegating something, even just popping it on your calendar so that you know when to expect that report up, there are easy pieces that you can put into place that make it super simple to be able to delegate really well. The Dental A Team (17:59) Yeah, and I think one of the spaces to know what to delegate, right, would be looking at looking at your list of things that you've got your duties. I do this sometimes with my home life, right? I'm like, these are all the things I got to get done. And then I look at it I'm like, what is on here that only I can do? What is on here that someone else could do? Because we've got vacations and trips and we've got all these things we're prepping for, right? So who Who can pack for me? mean, anyone can pack for me, but I'm probably gonna pack my own stuff, right? But when I've got dishes or dinner or laundry that needs to be done or cats that need to be cleaned up after, like what are the pieces even in my personal life that I can delegate out to someone else because maybe I don't have enough time to do all of it, but I can pack and do my own laundry, right? So someone else can help with those other pieces and that's the same thing. We tend to get into this cycle. We tend to get into this cycle, honestly, of thinking that our work life and our personal lives are so drastically different and that relationships are so drastically different. They're not. They just take on a little bit different form. Like a romantic relationship compared to my relationship with Dana. Like I'm communicating with Dana very similarly to how I communicate with Erin, right? But it's going to take on a little bit different of a form. But if I show up for Dana as a different version of myself, I just put on this mask and I'm Dental A Team Tiff. And then I go home and I show up as a different...
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The Secret(s) to Maximizing Tax Savings
07/22/2025
The Secret(s) to Maximizing Tax Savings
In this part 2 of his conversation with Kiera, Morgan Hamon, co-founder and president of EAG Dental Advisors, talks about the action items doctors must commit to to stay financially savvy. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and this is part two with me and Morgan Hamon as part of EAG Dentist Advisors, where we're actually gonna talk into the tax psychology and the tax strategies and the tax tips. And I really just feel like this episode is so powerful. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. Morgan Hamon (00:22) But no, you got to do the stuff. So if your accountant tells you, look, take a board meeting, document it properly, there's a proper way to do it, you got to do it. That's how we say the proper legal avoidance. your account comes to you and says, look, it's time to be an S-Corp, Kiera Dent (00:30) Mm-hmm. Morgan Hamon (00:39) because the profit is appropriate, you gotta follow the instruction. There's a procedure there and it's gonna save a lot of money on self-employment payroll tax if it's done correctly. You gotta listen, but you gotta engage. There's action items. And so we, ⁓ every September, I made a checklist. You know, again, Navy guy, right? I got a checklist. Log in, do the checklist. I call it our business tax savings maximizer. That's the flashiest, catchiest name I could think of. But like, log in and do it. That's the secret. Kiera Dent (00:58) I love it. you Morgan Hamon (01:08) So, you know, for those listeners that waiting for the secret, that's it, right? We got to capture expenses as business deductions and there is action items for the doctor. It requires that engagement. And to circle back to where what you said earlier, like you can't come into the office and just fix it for them. They've got responsibilities on things to do too and that's the same with tax policy. Kiera Dent (01:31) I thought that was such a beautiful way. And as you were going through the phases of grief, I'm like, oh yeah, I definitely lived all of those. And I think it does feel like a kick in the gut. like, this is worse than finding out like coal in your stocking Christmas morning. Like it's way worse. Like it feels awful. And you're in total denial that like, how is this even real? Like I live in America. Like, how is this real? I didn't know. And I mean, then you put on your state tax on there. And I'm like, for people who are in California, Morgan Hamon (01:39) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (02:00) Like more than 50 % of your income could be going to tax pending upon your tax bracket. But I think Morgan is one of those things of also seeing, I know people don't want to hear, I'm going to be very unpopular right here and it's okay. It will like, you'll be in denial, you'll hate it. And then you'll be like, yeah, that's actually a really good point. Cause that's how I did it. Like taxes are a blessing though. Like we, we are so blessed to live in the country we are to be able to set the pricing that we want, to be able to do the work that we want to do that. like, I don't want to pay more taxes. Morgan Hamon (02:12) you Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (02:28) but I can see me paying taxes as like my opportunity to be here and to be a business owner. And I think that's an amazing thing that we do get to have access to. But like you said, shoot guys, this is where the discipline comes in. This is where the engagement comes in. This is where the ownership comes in. I remember where I should like, I'll send you a picture. My husband and made this like vision board together, cause every December I would cry over taxes. And one of my goals, literally has like, it's a sign that says tax expert ahead. Morgan Hamon (02:33) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (02:57) And I put that on my vision board because I'm I'm sick of this stupid stuff. I'm sick of Morgan telling me I owe this much money when I'm like, how is it even possible? I was like, I'm going to freaking figure this out. And I realized like, it's actually not that hard of a math equation. It's like, what is my profit that I get that month? What's my tax bracket? And let me go save that. Morgan Hamon (03:00) Thank you. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (03:16) pay your quarterly tax payments. And then what I love is when, cause I put myself in the highest tax bracket, some years I'm going to be a little bit higher, some years I'm going be a little bit lower, like it's going to flush out. But if I'm saving my max amount that I would be having to pay in taxes every single month, I'm like, it's not that hard. Like you literally just take it, put it in a savings account, I put it in a high yield, so I'm even making money on it there. What's amazing is at the end of the year, I get my W2, Morgan Hamon (03:32) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (03:41) like refund, if you will, because we realize I have over-saved throughout the year. I also put in there like buckets, because I realized for me, Morgan, it wasn't just the tax that was hitting me. It was the SEP IRA that I had to pay. It was charitable contributions I was paying. It was end of year bonuses. And all of that, it's not taxes. I think you get hit with all of those at the end of the year. It's like you're trying to put these, then you've got your Roth IRA that you're trying to like put those in. And it's like all these things are money and it's all accumulating at one time. Morgan Hamon (03:43) Mm-hmm. Okay. Kiera Dent (04:11) versus figuring out how much you really are gonna pay, breaking it down into buckets, saving for it, and then I love it. My money at the end of the year, whatever I don't pay in taxes, because yeah, it's a big number, whatever, you're just going to pay it. That's part of having an amazing, thriving business. But then my slush because I over-saved, that becomes my refund, that becomes Keira's money of like, sweet, what are we gonna do on this because I've already paid tax. Now I can take that. Morgan Hamon (04:14) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (04:37) Now I can go buy the things I want to buy. can put it in retire. I can put it wherever I want it to go. ⁓ but I have it to our peace of mind. When I get my, like this year, my CPA can be like, wow, Kara, you like, you have this. And I was like, rock on. Like you're not stressed about it, but that takes discipline every month. I'm literally like, Hey, how much do we have put that profit over in our savings every quarter? You're making those quarterly payments. ⁓ it is being strategic. is like. Morgan Hamon (04:52) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (05:06) You were on a call the other day with some of our doctors and like, so Kiera, how like there are you when you do your meetings at your house? And I'm like, I crossed my T's down my eyes. I don't like this game. Like I do Airbnb. I look at all my rental comps around me. I saved that every year. It's in a folder. All the things are in the calendar with me and the other people. I have an agenda. I send that over to my CPA. I just don't like to play in the game of gray. But I think those are the pieces that help you. And then you just maximize. Morgan Hamon (05:16) Thank you. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (05:34) But Morgan, I don't know. think I've just learned that's also part of the success tax of being successful. Like this is what it is. And I think that being a business owner, the discipline of saving your money and not spending it all because we think like, should get this cause I'm a high earner. No, like there's still tax games that we play. There's different ways to minimize it. But realizing like I need to be disciplined here. I think if you can be disciplined there, it also stems to your team. It stems to your leadership. It stems to your physical health. Morgan Hamon (05:39) It is. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (06:04) It stems through so many other areas in your life that I think like talk about a blessing of taxes that we actually get this benefit. Morgan Hamon (06:07) Yes. It, I agree. And you do have to be, you do have to be disciplined. I know. I know. I also, I'll share a personal, I'll share a personal experience and kind of how I view tax because I very happily write those checks. You know, I write the same ones as our doctors do, but so back when I got out of the Navy, my family and I, so my parents, my brother and myself, we all chipped in and bought a real estate company. Kiera Dent (06:13) Even though I hate it, Morgan, don't take me wrong. I still hate taxes. Morgan, tell me the secrets. Morgan Hamon (06:36) back in 2005, real estate was happening. It was all in, all chips on the table. Well, guess what? 2009, everyone remember what happened in 2009? So, I mean, it was bad. It was horrific. 2009, my tax bill was zero. Zero. But do you think I was coming home saying, honey, look at this, zero, woohoo, check this out. I got no tax. Kiera Dent (07:04) day. Morgan Hamon (07:05) No, I'm sitting in a room and looking at the wall like how am going to face my kids telling them dad can't keep a roof over their head? How did my life get this screwed up? I paid no income tax, but those are not good times. That's not a period. And so right after that is when my dad and I started HD Accounting Group. But those days were like not my fondest memories even though I had zero tax liability. Fast forward a bunch of years, I've enjoyed a lot of success and I write some big checks to the government and I don't care. My life is so much better. got kids college paid for, no debt. My life is good. And yeah, they are some big checks. I mean, let's face it, they're not my favorite things to write. Nobody likes it. But my life is just exponentially better. So when you're paying tax, you're making good money. I don't know, maybe boil it down to that. Kiera Dent (07:55) I would agree with you. which thank you for sharing because I think we, I agree. I don't want to have a year where I'm paying $0 to taxes. Cause that means that when you said zero and I'm like, we had a bad year. That's like a real bad year. Like as a business owner, you start to realize like that actually is not a good year. ⁓ But I think for that, ⁓ it's the discipline. And I found for me what's cut the stress out as an employer and as a business owner, not CPA, that's Morgan the world. That's not my world is when I have Morgan Hamon (08:09) That's... ⁓ And now... Kiera Dent (08:28) money and I'm disciplined and I save it because you still have profit afterwards. So it's not like you're not taking anything home every month. You're just being disciplined that that money for tax you save then I have the money and I'm like the pain I think comes from not having the money and the fear of where am I going to come up with the six figures when I've already spent it. I think that's more of why people hate taxes just like people hate root canals. They don't actually hate the root canal. They hate the pain leading up to it. We hate the pain of not having the money set aside. Morgan Hamon (08:33) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes Well. Exactly. And let's tie this real specifically to the world you and I serve, our dentists. What really creates a lot of confusion and adds to the emotion is that, most of our clients have a practice note, a big one. And they don't always realize, look, when you make your loan payment, that is not a tax deduction, right? Kiera Dent (09:22) not just Morgan Hamon (09:22) When you borrow the money, we deduct everything you're going to buy, but then over time when you pay that back, you don't get it deducted again. So if your debt service on your practice loan is $100,000 a year, which we see often, you're paying income tax on it. So if you made $500,000 and $100,000 went back to the bank, you're living on $400,000 but paying tax on $500,000. And that is That can be shocking and that's why you'll hear, and that applies to just both financial accounting and tax, that question of, my accountant said I made this much money. That can't possibly be the case. I just logged into the bank. What are they talking about? It's that debt service. That money's gone, but it's not a deduction. The other thing that makes it, any tax planning for dentist challenging is just the volatility in the month to month profit. And I think there's a misperception out there, hey, look, my accountant is keeping my books up to date every month, right? And so if we get to the end of, let's say the end of September, and we can, hey, September 30, this is the exact profit, that does not equate to a granular, precise tax calculation because we have to, all your tax rate is dependent on total annual household income. If there's four months in the year that haven't happened yet, we gotta, Kiera Dent (10:16) Amen. Morgan Hamon (10:46) We got to estimate and it's subject to change. Maybe they were struggling in May and they said, you know, I'm calling Kiera, fine, I'm going to do it. We're going to get this thing figured out. And so then by November, they're killing it and everything's up 30%, 40%. Well, guess what's also going to be up? Your estimated payments are going to be higher, right? And so it's volatile. and it's not an exact science. with any tax planning, those quarter estimated payments are trying to keep you in the hunt. And you alluded to that by having your buckets. Just realize there will be a settle up at the end of the year when it all fleshes out, because all we can do is estimate along the way. Try to keep it as close as we can. But I'm with you. I make those payments quarterly. I don't put my head in the sand because it'll just get bigger. Kiera Dent (11:33) Well, I'm curious, Morgan, this is like Kara's nerdy side of me that I don't understand. So help me. And I hope this comes across respectful of the CPA world. To me, I feel like why don't CPAs at the end of every month, you know my profit, you know what I did that month. So yes, there's the estimated, but why not just give me like, the only thing I've thought of is maybe my tax bracket could change, but I'm like, why not estimate every month approximately what I need to save for taxes? Morgan Hamon (11:43) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (12:03) So I can at least put that away monthly. Help me understand the psychology of that, because I don't. Morgan Hamon (12:06) So, oh, trust me, we've thought about this every which way. And I'm never done. I tweak our tax planning process every year. So to your point, like you could look at last year's tax return. So there's two figures to look at. There's your marginal tax rate, which is your whatever bracket, your highest, so the highest of 37. But then there's what's called an effective, and that's just the average, right? If you look at total income and total tax, what's the average? So you could look at your last year's tax return and maybe your combined federal and state income tax was, call it 30%. So you could say, whatever my profit is times 0.3 is what I had to put away. So you could do that, but that's inherently going to be inaccurate. because you will not have the same effective tax rate this year unless you have like a carbon copy and it'll be different. A lot of volatility. The other thing, it's a very equipment heavy industry as you know, and people do go buy equipment. And so if we, if say an accountant says, put whatever your profit is times 0.3, put that away, but then they get in and maybe they really do. Maybe their practice was... ⁓ Kiera Dent (13:20) Mm-hmm. Morgan Hamon (13:31) you know, plum for eight ops, but they're equipped for five and it's time to fit those other three. Well, that's some really nice tax deductions there, like dollar for dollar. Well, that's really going to come down. And so that estimate's going to be out the window, like really quickly. You know, we've had times where I think of this story, something you don't tell stories. We had a client, this was a few years back, where they sent us an invoice. I can't remember what they bought. Kiera Dent (13:38) and Morgan Hamon (14:00) It was big, right? It was $120,000. They sent an invoice, not an email like I'm thinking about this. They sent an invoice. So we booked it. 120K deduction, did the tax plan, the works. Well, it comes time to do the tax return. And we're saying, hey, we keep asking for the loan paperwork on this claim. We don't get it. So finally, hey, look, we really want to get this tax return done. Can you send us that loan paperwork? And he's like, oh, I changed my mind. I didn't buy that. And we're like, oh, let's put 120K of income back on top. You owe, I think it was like 40,000. And they're like, how can this be? I'm like, you sent us an invoice. Think how mad you'd be if we hadn't booked it. And I just tell that kind of story. Like equipment purchases in Q4, it's all out the window at that Kiera Dent (14:37) Bye. Yeah. Yeah! Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Morgan Hamon (14:58) So it's very volatile. So to kind of circle all way back to the beginning, just for some basic tax planning, I knew for me, like federal and effective, it's like 35%. And I just planned for that. And then there's a settle up. And if I owe a bit, it's because we killed it. And I need to actually celebrate that and not be cranky about it. And if I get some money back, maybe, Kiera Dent (15:13) Mm-hmm. you Morgan Hamon (15:27) Maybe it just didn't end up as good as I thought or whatever. We're accountants. We don't have like, Xerox machines to write off. I got like a laptop. So, I mean, we're kind of limited on that. So, ⁓ those are some limitations inherent in tax planning for specific for the dental industry, the volatility and month-to-month profit and the high amount of equipment that's involved, which involves some instantaneous significant tax deductions. Kiera Dent (15:32) Right. and Sure, no, that makes sense. And I think for me, it's always like, okay, there's profit, there's expenses. ⁓ If I'm gonna go use that money for expenses, then I'm going to take my tax amount. So obviously it's going to reduce my tax bill by that dollar amount. I can actually pull portions out of that money I've saved to pay for my equipment potentially if I need to. But just curious on that, because I've always, I'm like, it's a simple equation. Here's my profit. This is how much my tax bracket probably is. But also maybe you guys don't want them saving more than they need to because then people get angry. Morgan Hamon (16:01) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The truth. Yeah. Well, people, it can get emotional either way, right? If they get a big refund, they're like, wait a minute, I could have had this in my high yield savings account. So we really do try to keep it as close as we can given the constraints of this kind three-dimensional moving target. What I have told doctors in the past, if we think about, let's say they've got an S-Corp, so on a reasonable W2, we got some holding through that W2, but they should still be taking the majority of the money home via profit distribution, okay? Kiera Dent (16:26) that Exactly. Morgan Hamon (16:53) Have a look at last year's tax return. If you don't know how to find it, let us know. Keep it...
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The Surprising But Critical Key To Profitability
07/17/2025
The Surprising But Critical Key To Profitability
Morgan Hamon, co-founder and president of EAG Dental Advisors, returns to the podcast to talk about dentistry financials. As a CPA, Morgan pulls from his experience to talk with Kiera about what it takes to be profitable (beyond revenue and expenses). Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so jazzed. I have one of my absolute favorite guests back on the podcast, Morgan Hamon. He used to be with HDA. They have now upgraded their name to EAG Dental Advisors. Super excited. He's an incredible CPA, does all things dental, loves airplanes. He's been on the podcast so many times. We've had some good chats. Dear friend to me, Morgan, welcome back to the show. How are you? Morgan Hamon (00:20) Ha ha. Kiera, I'm doing good. It is so great to be with you and looking forward to our conversation today. Kiera Dent (00:31) to you and me both. So I have to know since you love airplanes and it's in your background, are you a fan or not a fan of Top Gun? I just need to know. Morgan Hamon (00:35) Mm-hmm. You know, I have a soft spot for that movie because when it came out in 1986, I was 15. And I, you know, I sort of set my sight. That definitely influenced me. said, that's what I want to do. So I went out and did it. And so. Kiera Dent (00:46) Mmm. So then how did you like Top Gun Maverick? was the second? Tell me, are you fan? Morgan Hamon (00:56) That one, the purpose of that movie was entertainment and it was entertaining, but it was a little, you gotta suspend disbelief a little bit. It was a little nostalgic because that was set in Naval Air Station, Lamar, which is where I was for eight years. So it was pretty cool seeing that and the flying scenes were real. And so they were all filmed out. It's called restricted area 2508, which is where we always used to fly. So it was pretty nostalgic seeing some of the flying scenes back where we used to go fly. Kiera Dent (01:17) Mm-hmm. Morgan Hamon (01:26) But technically, there's a little, like any movie, there's a little Hollywood going on there. But it was entertaining. Kiera Dent (01:26) No. can't How cool though that they like made a spot for Iceman with him having throat cancer. I thought that was incredible. Like way to go Tom Hanks. So I know you guys didn't come to the podcast to hear Morgan and I talk about top men, but we're going to segue now because Morgan does all things. We love to talk profit. We love to talk taxes. We love to talk all things nerding out on CPA land, which I have really truly fallen in love with like understanding my numbers. So this is a soft spot for me, but Morgan Hamon (01:39) Yes Yep. Hahaha Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (02:01) Morgan said he won the topic today, which I think is a sexy topic and I cannot wait where he said leadership relates to profitability. And I said, Morgan, sign me up. Here we go. So Morgan, this is our time. This is our topic because I absolutely agree with you that leadership does relate to profitability, but take it away. And then we're to dig into tax savings. We're going to dig into all this stuff and who knows where else we're going to go, but ⁓ it'll be a great one. It always is. Morgan Hamon (02:16) Mm-hmm. Yes. Well, think this topic has evolved with me a little bit, because we've been doing this 15 years and going now. And so a lot of conversations over the years. And I've always thought about profitability, which let's face it, that's why we own businesses. We don't own businesses to pay tax. We own businesses to make a nice living and have some control over our lives. So you've to have profit, and it's hard owning a business. So if we don't have adequate profit, why bother? ⁓ Our mission has always been to really focus on profit, give our doctors feedback on what that profit is, and diagnose if things are, you know, if there's something that could put more money in their pocket. Now, with my CPA hat on, right, there's two parts of that profit equation. There's the expense side of the equation and the revenue side of the equation. And so for a lot of years, I mean, that's where our focus has been. But I've recently, last year or two, I've really come to the conclusion, look, there's a third component there, right? And it's not math, I can't point to the P &L. But where this comes from is I get asked all the time about, and it's from the clients either considering a startup or purchasing a practice, and they'll say, okay, Morgan, you got clients all 50 states, like where's the great area? Where should I go where folks are doing well? Kiera Dent (03:27) Ooh, I can't wait. Morgan Hamon (03:47) I that question. I get asked, hey, do you have a special report for pediatric dentists? Because I'm going to be pediatric, so I'm going to be making more money kind of thing. Or I'll hear a report. Or I'll get a question that, do you have a report just for your clients in California? Because it's like way different out here. And I say, look, the answer is no. We have one report. In geography and specialty, I think they may influence profitability, but that's not the deal breaker. We have plenty of clients who are specialists. The struggle, we have plenty of clients, like one of our longest term clients is in Nob Hill, San Francisco. She recently moved across the bay, but it's like the most expensive city on the planet. She killed a 55 % profit margin for like 10 years. So geography isn't, that's not how we connect the dots. I think we connect the dots with leadership. Kiera Dent (04:33) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Morgan Hamon (04:43) You know, we have a lot of clients I've known for a long time. I've been with them along with their journey as I've been on my journey, which has been very rewarding. And I've come to the opinion that if we quantify success for a doctor and let's, and we'll talk a little bit more about this when we get to tax, but you know, is it money? Is it time? Is it all the above? If we look at, who's crossed the finish line? Who has the full deal? ⁓ It's the doctor that runs a tight. Plain and simple. Like you can tell in me talking with them, I know them real well. You can tell by their numbers. Look, they're an amazing clinician, but they're also an amazing business leader. They know how to inspire their team. Their patients feel comfortable. They lead from the front. They just, they do it all. Those are the doctors that have the high profit margin and the high quality of life. It's not geography. It's not specialty, although that can have an influence. That's the full package. So it is, yes, revenue, expenses, and how well do you lead your practice, in my opinion. Kiera Dent (05:50) Morgan, I was so happy when I read that and when we were talking about what to bring on because I see it as well. I tell everybody, I can tell walking into a practice even before I walk into the practice, if I've met the leader of the practice, I usually can tell if this practice will be successful or not, truly based on the leader at the helm. And it's interesting because we did, I recently did this at our summit. So people were there, awesome. Morgan Hamon (05:52) you Kiera Dent (06:16) If they weren't, that's okay too. But we actually broke down and me and the consultants, we went through all of our clients. Like we looked at the clients, we looked at past clients, we looked at future clients, we looked at different pieces, what were our best clients, what were our worst clients. And I actually broke down, I'm trying to pull it up here, of like common themes of great practices and like great leadership and common themes of the not so good. And so some of the things I've seen in... Morgan, I'm super curious to hear like what you'd add to our list. Cause I, you see it from a different perspective than we see it. So on my not so good list, these are the ones that like really they always are floundering is they don't trust their office manager. They're sometimes poor clinicians. Like they need to hire somebody else or get some training for that. ⁓ Poor leaders, they have team turnover constantly. They don't implement strategies. They're highly driven by emotion. They don't look at their numbers or their results. Morgan Hamon (06:45) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. you you Kiera Dent (07:11) They do a lot of CE, but they never like implement. They have lots of coaches, but they don't trust and execute. They're half in on everything. So they're not like solid on anything. They want to pay to fix the problem with no self-realization identification that maybe they are the issue. They have ego fear with no accountability. And there's a lot of blame. Like everybody else is the problem. Are some of the things that I've seen and I don't know, like I know I'm putting you on the spot. didn't, I have my nice list over here, but is there anything else you see of patterns? I'm, you and I can both like, Morgan Hamon (07:30) Mm-hmm. ⁓ Kiera Dent (07:41) in our Rolodex of humans we know are not so good leaders or the practices who aren't as profitable, are there any other things you've noticed in their leadership that maybe isn't as strong? Morgan Hamon (07:41) No. Right. Well, that was a very comprehensive list. Once we're done, I'm going to write all those down because I that's very good. If I were to summarize that, if we talk about leadership, it's really about ownership and engagement. You have to own it. Everything's your problem when you're the owner. There's another podcast I like. Kiera Dent (07:58) Yeah, of course. I'll happily share. I will happily share. And if you get anything else, share back our way too. Morgan Hamon (08:20) and it's nothing to do with dental, it's all about leadership. And there's a saying, and it's really stuck with me, and I swear I think about this every day, Kiera, when I think about my business and how do we keep doing a good job, is that if there's a problem in your organization, it's a leadership problem. You can trace it all the way back, go any direction you want, it's going to tie back to a leadership problem. So, if something is going sideways, it ultimately comes back to your leadership as a business owner. So, maybe the staff, maybe there was a bad patient experience, something went sideways with the patient. Was that staff trained? Maybe they were trained, maybe they were not held accountable. Do you have a bad procedure? Maybe the procedure needs adapted. mean, we think about that all the time, constantly adapting, constantly tweaking, and I think you have to do that in any business. If, like you said, in your list there if people don't want that accountability, there's always making excuses or they don't want to engage. They say, you know, and maybe they are a good clinician. They say, I'd rather just be in the operatory but my staff's a mess. Kiera, come on in here and whip them into shape and let me know when it's all good. You know, that's not how it works. That's not how it works. Kiera Dent (09:32) Exactly. No, not only they're part time. I'm not your manager. I'm not your leader. I'm not your boss. Morgan Hamon (09:38) Right, or you know what, I'm going to have an hour meeting with my accountant and that should solve it. Like, no, we're going to come up with some action items and then you need to execute those. So you have to own it. Everything's your problem when you own a business. ⁓ And if you own it and you engage, then I think we're on the right path to not be on that extensive list that you gave, which I just love. Kiera Dent (10:03) right? Yeah, no, and I love it. And it just made me actually think of something I heard a financial conference and they said EBITDA equals engagement. And I've thought about that a lot because the more engaged your team is, the more engaged you are, honestly, a lot of higher EBITDA there is, I won't leave our audience hanging. I do have the good list and maybe you can add to this to see. So the ones that I found like, that truly just knock it out of the park, these are our most successful right? I'm like, what is their DNA makeup that makes them this great leader? Morgan Hamon (10:22) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (10:32) and it's their great implementers. They allow the teams to be free, like within the parameters. So they've got a great team culture. They're great at decision-making. They execute, they're consistent. They roll with the punches. They have long-term teams. They make their decisions based on numbers. They're great visionaries. And they know what they're working towards. They don't get distracted. So there's this laser focus that they have. ⁓ And on here, I would also say that they have massive ownership. And they also are not afraid to have the uncomfortable conversations with their team. Morgan Hamon (10:52) Mm-hmm. Thank Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (11:02) So like they truly do, they're excellent at it. They might not be excellent communicators, but they're excellent at like tidying it up, driving their team for success. Those are some of the things I see, but I'm curious if there's anything else you'd want to add to that list because I think you're right. But I think that's a DNA makeup, right? It's people who are disciplined. If I go into the gym, they probably have like strong work ethic. They are laser focused. It's just like, it's who they are in all the aspects of our life, but I don't think they're necessarily born that way. Morgan Hamon (11:10) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (11:30) I think a lot of them can be, but I think a lot of them create that over time as well. Like it's an evolution of them, not necessarily like, if I'm just born a great leader, like, no, they're constantly working on it, but I'm curious your thoughts. Morgan Hamon (11:34) Mm-hmm. Thanks Yeah, no, I think that's a good list. If I were to try to tie that together, I would say it's you lead from the front. you know, like all just a personal example for me, like responsiveness is a huge part of our culture. Like, you know, if clients reach out to us, they need to hear back like in a few hours, like today. Lead from the front. is not do what I say. It is do what I do and keep up. Keep up with me. Kiera Dent (12:03) Yeah. Morgan Hamon (12:12) Let me show you what I expect. You follow my example and let's go where I'm leading us. I think is when you own a dental practice, you have to do the same thing, whether that's in the daily huddle. You lead by example. If there's a certain patient experience you want your office to have, you have to lead that. They have to be emulating you and say, I sure hope I can do this as well as the doctor. ⁓ Lead from the front. I think you also have to make sure your team understands why their work is important. Kiera Dent (12:42) cream. Morgan Hamon (12:42) And I do that all the time. Why is our work important as well? Because our clients are these dentists. They're drowning in debt. They don't necessarily learn how to run a dental practice in dental school. They're trying to put it all together to make a nice living. And they have probably eight or 10 employees that are accounting on them for their jobs. So our work matters. We're working with people's lives here. So you really have to... ⁓ I think articulate why the work's important and maybe that's not as challenging and don't practice because everybody knows. It's care. They're there to get care. They're in the chair. They're scared. They want to be comfortable and everything's going to be okay. I think you got to lead from the front. You got to say, look, let's do what I do and make sure you keep up with me. Kiera Dent (13:32) Yeah, no, I love that. I just, think something that I love that you brought this up is I love when I have things internal, as much as it's annoying, that could actually help me become more profitable. It's like, hey, let me go to the gym and work out to be more disciplined. Let me read leadership books to learn how to lead. Let me practice uncomfortable conversations. Let me practice my decision-making. And the reality is like you becoming this person and leadership. Morgan Hamon (13:34) you Hehe. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (14:00) will equate to higher profitability. It's wild. Like I look back at maybe not so strong of leadership days and my business and profitability, I think definitely mirrored and matched where I was. And so also for us to say like, Hey, how do I maybe get to the next level? How can you evolve as a leader as well and be a bit stronger of that good version rather than the not so good version I think is really powerful. Morgan Hamon (14:10) Mm-hmm. Hehehe. Yeah, I think you really have to recognize whatever industry you're in that your technical skill and your leadership skill are completely different. You have to invest in those skills to acquire those and to maintain them. And just because you could be the most amazing CPA, just brilliant practitioner, that doesn't mean you're a good leader. You could be the most amazing clinician. Kiera Dent (14:35) 100. Morgan Hamon (14:51) and just do the most amazing work. That doesn't mean you're gonna be running a ⁓ great tunnel practice. You have to invest in those skills. Just being a smart person with some big degrees, that doesn't do it. You have to acquire those skills. And I didn't realize, I mean, when I was a younger guy in the Navy, I I learned all this. back then, I was just trying to do a good job and... get killed and and make it all happen. I didn't realize all these amazing lessons and training I was learning because they, mean leadership is, I mean that's first and foremost what we're there to do and so I was very fortunate in that regard but I don't, you you can't, no matter what business you're in, can't rest on your laurels. You got to always be thinking about leadership. Am I being a good leader? Okay, this is going sideways. I need to lead the team back, you know. I can't just, you know, write a memo. Kiera Dent (15:17) Yeah Morgan Hamon (15:44) Hey everybody, this is where we need to be. Follow me. Keep up with me. Kiera Dent (15:49) Yeah, no Morgan, that was such a brilliant piece and I really loved how you just highlighted it and so fun to see that what we see on the team side and the success of the growth and the production and the collections also now correlates with your financial PNL, ⁓ which I think is just magic and it all just ties together. But as you listen to this list and Morgan I talking about it, I also want to just say like if this does not light you up and you're like, ⁓ gosh. Morgan Hamon (16:05) Mm-hmm Kiera Dent (16:17) That's okay. You actually can just be an amazing clinician and have somebody actually be the great leader. Just because you opened the practice and you do the dentistry does not mean you need to be the leader of the practice. So I've seen some doctors actually be great implementers. Like they actually would rather execute, implement, do all the ideas and have somebody else be the visionary. That's okay too. And I think like my best thing is know thyself and be free. But if you want to be more profitable, look at this. And I want to take like a sharp Morgan Hamon (16:18) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. Kiera Dent (16:46) right turn Morgan and talk taxes. It's like, didn't know how to awkwardly like transition. So I'm...
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THIS is the 2025 Difference-Maker For Practices
07/16/2025
THIS is the 2025 Difference-Maker For Practices
Tiff and Dana perform a practice autopsy of sorts — one of Dana’s star students, and what’s been put in place to help them thrive. The two discuss key systems, metrics, leadership, and how to stay committed to all of it. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are back live today it feels like you know it's so weird Dana to still be like on video it still weirds me out but whatever we don't do as many as Miss Cara Dutt does. So we are here today to chat with you guys we are so excited I've got Dana here and I have just like shocked her with reality today that I actually I want to hear about one of her incredible offices that she's been working with. And before we dive in, I want you guys to just know that we love what we do. We love helping you guys. We love consulting. We love helping you guys when you're not actually clients yet. And we want you to know that we're always here for you guys. Reach out. [email protected]. always here. Our social medias. Dana, she does this incredible video, live video. I think it's live. I don't even know anymore. On Mondays, it used to be Fridays, it used to be Donuts with Dana. Now it's Motivational Monday or something to that effect. you guys, legitimately Dana is there, just like ready to answer questions. She takes ideas. So if there's things you guys are working on or... things you guys are trying to work through, send them in to us. Dana's always looking for more ideas on hot topics. We take them from things that we're talking to practices about and then what we're implementing so that you guys always have the best, most useful information, but we love suggestions. Same as topics for these suckers. We're always looking for suggestions for these and if you're not a part of our newsletter crew yet, you better go subscribe because we've got a ton of newsletters that come out as well. all the ways that you guys can reach out to us. If you're clients, guys, gosh, I don't, Dana, I don't even. I don't even get suggestions from my clients on things they want to hear from us. And my clients, and I know yours do too, they listen to all of these suckers. So all of my clients out there, all Dana's clients out there, thank you for listening. But hey guys, we're here for the suggestions. We're just always thinking of everything. Dana, do you ever get suggestions? Dana (01:54) No, no, ⁓ no, I get asked about what we're going to talk about today The Dental A Team (01:58) Yeah, I was like, as I'm sitting here like asking a whole slew of people for suggestions, I'm like, hey, I've got a handful of people out there that aren't even suggesting. So I need to be, I need to be more open about that. But today, I'm really excited to hear about this. Dana has been working her tail off with all of her practices. She works really, really hard. Dana, you are the grit to the fullest in so many ways and solution oriented. For those of you who don't know, those are two of our seven core values. And honestly, you embody all of them. But today is really about grit, solution-oriented, passion for excellence, and results-focused. These are some of the key pieces of what I think you did really, really well, with these results that this client has exceeded. And I'm just excited to hear about them. I threw Dana for a loop today, reminding her that today is her practice I wanted to hear about and that I'm gonna let her kind of take the floor for for a lot of today I have a lot of questions to ask and and kind of chime in but Dina I really just am so excited to hear about them, but Really, how are you doing? And how are how are your clients doing overall? Like how are you doing in the world of consulting? We're about halfway through the year now, which is well a little over I guess which is wild to me It's crazy that 2025 is almost gone, but how are you doing over there and how are your clients doing? Dana (03:24) I'm doing pretty good. Thanks for asking. feel like 2025 has been like a wild year, a little bit different for some practices, but I feel like they're all digging in. Everybody is willing to like do the things, work really hard, talk to their team, build in leadership. I'm super proud of my clients and their perseverance throughout this year and their ability to just kind of like pivot and push where is needed. And I think a lot of that is getting clients to look a little bit more at their numbers, to look a little bit more at what they tell them. I think it's really made a huge difference for a lot of practices this year. And so I'm just, yeah, always super proud of my clients. They're just really blessed to be able to be a part of their lives, a part of their practice and their journeys. The Dental A Team (04:06) Yeah, I agree. think coming off of December of 2024 was a wild ride for a lot of practices, November and December rolling into January. And I feel like it's just been this kind of like ebbs and flows, ups and downs, the whole, you know, almost seven months now for a lot of practices. But I know on our, on our doctor only mastermind for our clients, our internal, you know, clients are non-shared when Last night, there were just so many questions around that as well. And I remember somebody asked like, it normal to have had bad months? And is everybody experiencing last month, bad months or last couple? And I remember a couple of the consultants were like, well, actually, like, haven't really seen that the last couple of months. But when I sat back and I thought about it, I'm like, it has ebbed and flow, you know, flowed quite a bit for practices in general. But I think what we're starting to see is that I'll use the word again, the grit. that a lot of our clients really persevered through January through March. They started reaping those benefits April to current. And so when the question was asked, was a newer client of ours who had asked like, this, are you guys seeing this across the country? really, most of us consultants were like, no, actually not really. We're seeing some of the highest months we've ever seen in our clients. But I think that had something to do with it was really that they had the accountability. of their systems and of their numbers. Like you said, we really dug in deep and forced our clients to really truly learn their numbers better than we ever have this year. And really always looking back at them and always applying the information to the next steps. And I think it made a massive difference within our client base because I think overall we've seen a massive increase from end of year last year to mid year so far this year. Dana (05:56) Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I feel like even clients who maybe they escaped the like November, December, January, then they had like the February, March, right. And but I do feel like April, it's like everybody kind of really dug in and kind of climbed out of that little bit of that. The Dental A Team (06:05) Totally. Dana (06:14) dip that we had there for the beginning of the year or the end of last year. And so yeah, I am just really, it was interesting to hear on the doctor mastermind and just that like clients really did dig in and they've had so much grit because there was a little bit of a rocky end of start of 2024, 25. The Dental A Team (06:30) Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. ⁓ I love it. And I have so much fun on those meetings and hearing all the doctors and I think we had Moola on recently and we get to have, you know, just so many really cool things for them. So it was just awesome. That was something though that kind of reminded me of what you're going to talk about today with your client. And I wanted you guys to... not just here, like we're not just here to brag, like, of course, I want to brag on our clients and how great they're doing and what they're able to accomplish with the tools that they're given, but also to talk about the tools that they're given. So Dana, like really take us through, I want to hear how this practice is doing. What are their accomplishments? What are their, you know, increases in revenue and everything? then on the flip side of that, really, what did they dig in and implement really well this year that has gotten gotten them there these these changes and actually might not even be just this year like you've been working with this specific client for a little bit now so let me all the things I want to hear about it I'm excited Dana (07:30) Yeah. Yeah, this plan is really near and dear to my heart because they were one of my very first solo clients. And so it's just been fun over the years to really see them dig in grit like no other. I know on their end, it hasn't always been easy. We've had to some tough conversations. We've had to look at some tough numbers. We've had to set some really tight budgets that maybe they didn't love, but they did it and have just been massively successful ⁓ because of it. ⁓ And so I am just really, really proud of them. They've brought in a ton of leadership, a lot of team accountability. so, you know, starting out as just kind of a baby practice really with not a ton of systems. ⁓ So first year we spent heavy, heavy building systems, really getting them to talk as a team, to work as a team, to be accountable to each other. You know, so things like morning huddles and actually setting goals that they actually talked about and starting to look at numbers. And I remember know that first conversation of like, I can't really talk about numbers, right? That's just profit. They look at that as like take home and like, now to the point of where like, not necessarily obsess over numbers, but a little bit right there, the tracking tons of things and even department metrics and the team is really involved in setting goals and setting quarterly focuses and she's, you know, brought in an office manager and just grown even the leadership in the practice we're talking about here soon. ⁓ building more of a leadership team. And so it's just really, really cool to see someone come in and evolve from systems to just like massive growth ⁓ and a lot of change. And so, yeah, we focus on systems very heavily. Then we started to focus on leadership. Then we started to focus on growth. So we've got, you know, went from a part-time associate to now a full-time associate to now like ⁓ a buying of a space. The Dental A Team (09:13) Yeah. Dana (09:31) And a build out. it's just been really, really fun to see that when we focus in on the things that are really important, that like the push and the magic that happens from it. ⁓ And so this has just been a practice. It's just been so fun to be a part of. ⁓ And we've had to do a lot of, because of the amount of growth that they came in wanting, right? We always talk about vision with clients and like, do you want to be three years and where do you want to be five years from The Dental A Team (09:33) Mm-hmm. Dana (10:01) now so like hearing that hey I want to be an owner of a building and I want to pretty much double the size of my practice in that time frame and and I also want to do a little bit less dentistry that takes a lot of intentional movement, a lot of projections, a lot of even, you know, I know we've even talked about where you want to go knowing when you have to hire people and when you have to bring people on and when is the right time to add an associate. And then on the flip side of that, like, how do we keep expenses in line so that we can make this dream happen? How do we keep expenses so that we've got the profit to be able to expand and to be able to purchase a property? And sometimes those conversations are uncomfortable, right? Because like we want all the this is this is a doctor who really appreciates team whose love language a little bit is like giving and showing appreciation and you know having to like home that in and be like hey I want you to celebrate your team when they go above and beyond and they crush these milestones we can't do that just for doing jobs though because again remember this vision right we want this we want this building we want this expanded team we want to be able to like be a part of more people's lives in the community so it's just been so fun but I will say the biggest thing that like having to push on my end especially is just the intentionality that like the things that we put into place are to truly get them to where they ultimately want to be and and I feel like sometimes that's why we're brought in is because like they know what the vision is they know where they want to be but like they have no idea the path The Dental A Team (11:25) Yeah. Dana (11:43) to get them there. And so this has just been like a uniquely fun ⁓ client to be a part of. The Dental A Team (11:50) That's awesome. So it's been about, I want to say like two years, little two years ish, or is it three now? my gosh, I'm a year behind you guys, it's fine. Time evades me, so three years. So when this specific client came on, I'm just gonna summarize a little bit. So it sounds like this client came on and they had one and a half doctors including themselves. They probably had what, three hygiene? Dana (11:57) It's three going on four. At the time it was just her, single doctor. Just her, single doctor, two hygiene, you know, two assistants, one front office. Yeah. The Dental A Team (12:17) Trust her. Single doctor. Perfect. So we have a very small team ⁓ from the outside looking in and a vision of owning their own building, ⁓ like literally the building. And what would you say their yearly production collections was? Probably right under a million. Dana (12:39) At the time around, I'd say between $7,5800. The Dental A Team (12:43) Yeah, 7, 5800. So you guys, you can imagine owning a building on that, right, that's a stretch that's going to take a little bit of time. then fast forward, you know, now three years going on board, we've got a full-time associate in place. And how many hygienists? Four hygienists. Two dentists would mean at least probably four assistants, if not five. Dana (13:00) There's four. The Dental A Team (13:08) Four assistants, so three, four front office, probably including an office manager. So we've more than doubled, right? Or right at doubled our entire team, which means also, right? That we've doubled cost. So I think, Dana, what you did really, really well is that you were able to take from the beginning this client's initial goals. She said, this is my dream. And you said, How are we gonna get there? So what you've been able to do with her is really take the financial aspect of this client and say, okay, this is where we're at, but this is what we need. And so everyone listening, something that I really want you to understand is that when you have a goal in mind, right, I talk about vision boards a lot and I talk about vision boards because I think that they're really cool. If you don't know what a vision board is, dang it, you're too young, go Google it, it's fine. If you're a millennial, you know what a vision board is, go get your magazines. But I always say like, we do these vision boards and we're like, you know, we're gonna put an airplane on there and a picture of Mickey Mouse and I'm gonna take my kid to Disneyland. And we just put it on there and we put it on the wall and eventually we forget about it and we stop doing it and we get to the end of the year and we're like, shoot, I never got to Disneyland, right? But what we could do is say, I'm gonna go to Disneyland. And then we say, okay, well, what is it going to entail to get to Disneyland? Right? I live in Arizona. We're both in Arizona here. I can drive to Disneyland for sure. Right. So what's the gas going to be? ⁓ it's about seven hours for me. It's probably far more for Dana. So we're probably going to fly. I'm not, I'm not trying to make that drive, right? I can, but I'd rather fly. So what are the flights going to cost for how many people? What's a car when I get there? What's a hotel going to cost? What does Disney access cost? Because that's a feat in itself, right? And then how are we going to eat, right? We got souvenirs. We've got food in Disney. We've got dinners, okay? So with that, can price it all out. And it's so much easier, I think, for us to visualize doing this in our personal lives, because it's like, well, why would you ever say, like, we're going to Disneyland on July 17, but you have no idea how much it's going to cost. Believe me, I've done it before. You'll make it if you have credit card, Dana can talk to you about how to get out of credit card debt. ⁓ But you can do it, but it would be crazy, right? It's dumb. So you're going to project and you're going to say, this is how much money I need to have in my travel fund in order to get my family to Disneyland. These are the dates I need to have it by because I can't buy tickets the day before, right? Flights. You can't buy Disney tickets the day before anymore because you got to block the date out. So you've got to have all of this projected with a buy-win date. So if you're trying to get to Disneyland, you're going to price point it all out, and then you're going to work backwards. You're going to say, when do I have to have all of these things done? By what date do I have to have how much money? Then you're going to set those mile markers. So with clients, this is the same thing that we do with your goals, and it's the same thing Dana did for this specific practice. This practice owner said, I want to own the building, I want to have this size of a practice. want to, I know I've had multiple clients say, I want to make this much money. I know I had a client who was in similar size situation when they first started and the biggest goal was to make a million dollars. I said, great, well we're at 550 now, let's see. He's like, my five year goal is to make a million dollars. Well guess what, we did it in three. Because we. we projected it. And so what you've been able to do with this client is really project out. think the most fun piece, and I've done this with clients too, so I know, tell me if you think there's more fun. I always felt like the most fun part of it was being able to see what, if we got to this level of financial growth. So if we got to this level of production and collections and this close to ⁓ practice ownership, like building ownership, This is how many people you're gonna need to support that dollar amount. So when you look at production, you say, okay, well, how much can one doctor support in production? How many team members does it take to support that doctor, to support the production, and then ramp it from there? So then it doesn't become such a pie in the sky dream of a number, it becomes a reality. And then you can say, okay, well, just like I said, Disneyland, it's a buy win date. Right? So by this date, we need to have an associate hired because we need at least 90 days onboarding with an associate before they're really going to be producing anything, really. So if we need that associate to stay on track, we need that associate producing $90,000 by December. We've got to have someone in place by June at the latest. Right? So we've got to start looking for an associate. probably February to give ourselves a really good lead time. And Dana, I think that's something that you've done really well for all of your clients, but for specifically this one we're talking about today, I think you did really...
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