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.

Tax Strategies You Simply MUST Know Before April 15 02/05/2026

Tax Strategies You Simply MUST Know Before April 15 Kiera is joined by Alexis Gallati, founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors, to talk about tax strategy not just for 2025 success, but 2026 and beyond. They discuss asking your CPA the right questions, shifting income from your higher tax bracket down, the Augusta rule, and a ton more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am super jazzed. I have an incredible guest joining us on the podcast today ⁓ to talk about last minute tax strategies before April 15th. Like why not? I mean, hey, maybe you were like, you're not the early bird. You were like, shoot, I forgot. Like what things can I do? And so I'm super excited. Alexis Gallati, she reached out to us. ⁓ She is founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors. Ansari Real Wealth Academy. And I was so excited about this topic because I know you guys know I love to geek out about this and I have it on my vision board of tax expert ahead. Like I hate taxes. I love taxes. I believe that taxes are such a beautiful way for us to pay to be in this incredible country. But you better believe I don't want to pay a penny more than I need to. So really figuring that out just a little bit about her is she is got a dual master's degree in business administration and taxation, which is super rad because Let's be real, she gets the business side of it. She gets the taxation and we were chatting before and she was like, what people make like their top line revenue versus their take home pay are two different things. And I was like, amen sister, preach on. She's enrolled agent, NTPI fellow and certified tax strategist. She also is the author of advanced tax planning for medical professionals. She specializes in high level strategic tax planning and multi-state tax preparation for healthcare professionals and business owners. She's raised in a family of physicians and married to one. She empathizes with the financial challenges medical professionals face. This personal connection inspired her to create accessible, unbiased tax solutions tailored to their busy lives. Driven by passion and guided by cerebral thinking, Alexis forms Cerebral to help professionals keep more of their hard earned money. Amen sister. That's what we want. That's why you're here. Their approach breaks the mold of traditional financial advice, offering a unique perspective for medical professionals and business owners. So while yes, she's not 1000 % dental guys were in the healthcare world and she's so brilliant. So Alexis, welcome to the show today. How are you? Alexis Gallati (01:54) Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing very well. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season. The Dental A Team (01:58) Yes, likewise. And I was so excited when I heard that you would be a guest on our podcast. I geek out about this, Alexis, I know it's like our first day meeting, but ⁓ I just think the world of tax is such the game of monopoly. And I'm like, if you would have just told me that rule, I could have played and won the game better. But I feel like it's always as ever changing, ever evolving. And I know there were some big things that happened in 2025 that are impacting like our our taxes. And so, yeah, definitely a timely and exciting podcast to throw out there. So Alexis, I know I gave you a very welcomed ⁓ bio and intro, but yeah, tell us a little bit about who is Alexis. You're married to a physician. You're in this world of tag. How does one become obsessive about CPA? I'm truly just curious. How do you like, how does this happen? How did you become this? Alexis Gallati (02:49) Yeah, so I love law and I love money. And so when I was in undergrad, I took a tax and accounting class and loved more the tax side than the accounting side, I do admit. And so after meeting my husband in college and us starting to go through that full medical journey, was about a year and a half out from him. The Dental A Team (02:54) you Alexis Gallati (03:18) from him finishing his residency. And I really saw the writing on the wall. Even at that time, with him being in residency, about four months of his salary was going towards taxes. And I was like, that's not right. That's not right. With The Dental A Team (03:36) No. Alexis Gallati (03:38) hard he works and how hard medical community works in general. ⁓ my gosh, that's not right. So that's when I really dedicated myself to finding out, why do the Warren Buffets and the Bill Gates of the world have this really low to sometimes non-existent tax bracket? And I really dove into that tax planning. ⁓ And so, you know, what's very unique about, ⁓ you know, the way that I work and my business is that my husband and I are in the same exact position as majority of our clients. And so, yes, I'm looking for strategies for my clients, but I'm also looking for those strategies for myself. The Dental A Team (04:19) You're like, hey, it's me. I'm going to help myself out. I'm very motivated to do this. Alexis Gallati (04:25) Very motivated. And I love it. I love it. It's like you said, it's ⁓ Congress keeps us on our toes, changing the laws consistently year after year. ⁓ it's like a puzzle. Like, hey, how can I just keep more of what I'm earning? The Dental A Team (04:43) Yeah, and I, this is what I get obsessed about. what I learned, gosh, it's like, I was so naive when I started the company. was like, marketing is marketing. I just need to hire a marketer they can do everything. And then I was like, oh, there's a content marketer. There's a copywriter marketer. There's a strategist. There's a growth marketer. There's like an AEO marketer now. There's an SEO. Like you guys, this thing is like a web. They're a content marketer. And then I started realizing it's similar to CPAs and financial planners that like, I thought you hire a CPA, Alexis. Like I'm so naive to business. I'm shocked that I've made it this far. Like truly I'm proud of like the journey we've been on, but like not all CPAs are created equal. And then I realized like CPAs play by different rules. Like it's the same rule, but there's shades of gray. They're how comfortable are you with this and how uncomfortable are you with it? Like there's one CPA that told me like, here, you can totally go skiing in Tahoe. Just like put your logo on your skis and you can totally ride it off and like put your logo on your boat and you can ride it off. And then there's like the Alexis of the world was like, oh, hard pass. No, you're going to like totally get flagged. But I'm like, what rule is right? And so I realized that there are, like you said, tax strategy and for higher wealth earners. I do believe that there's a game, like you said, how did the Warren Buffett's, how did the Bill Gates, like they're not paying this. And then you get into the real estate game and you get into all these other things. You're like, how can we do this? And so Alexis, I'm just jazz. This is me being nerdy. And I'm going to ask you a bajillion questions and I can't wait. to learn. So let's kind of talk about most of your clients, what's the size of take home net pay that they do. So that way we know like what brackets were in. So that way right clients come to you. I also learned not all financial advisors take all people. I was like, I make 30 grand. They're like, great. So we're going to help you out just a little bit. And then like, when you get to this level, we'll chat with you. ⁓ tell us kind of that. And then let's dig into how do we keep more money, Alexis, legally. Alexis Gallati (06:10) I love it. The Dental A Team (06:39) I'm here for legal advice. I'm willing to go gray, but not go to jail. So that's my line. So as long as we're on the same page, I think we are, I'm here for it. Alexis Gallati (06:40) Yes. Definitely, yeah. I am more than happy to play in the gray areas. We just have to feel comfortable defending it in an audit. And so that's our line in the sand. ⁓ But yeah. The Dental A Team (06:55) Mm-hmm. She's like, this is why I went to law guys. This is why I like the law side and the CPA. I like it. I like your style. It's so unique and I just am excited. So, okay, I'm ready. Alexis Gallati (07:07) Yeah. Yeah. at Cerebral, we work with those that earn at minimum $400,000 per year in taxable income. So we have lots of businesses, which by the way, 99.9 % of our clients are medical professionals. I think we have like maybe two clients that have zero ties to the medical industry. And so the practices we work with, you know, generally range from anywhere from maybe about $700,000 in gross revenue all the way up to eight figures. So we tend to not work with those that are larger practices, that usually over 50 employees. And that's just because once you get above 50 employees, yeah, it changes quite a bit. So we're definitely in there with those smaller to medium sized practices. The Dental A Team (07:56) Tax co-changes. Yep. Amazing. No, that's super helpful. And I know we were talking before, like the average of your clients, about 700,000 like net pay is typical where you guys are at. You have some that are higher, but that minimum of 400,000, which is great because I do think that there are thresholds. ⁓ And I did learn through going through business that who Kiera needed as a tax support and advisor when I was in that 30,000 range compare and as a business owner, I thought it was so funny. Gosh, taxes, like they hurt so bad sometimes. Like, whoa, easy come, easy go. Like I've never, I've always been a W-2. So that was such a fascinating world for me. But yeah, let's dig into some of the things you've seen for the medical world. Cause I know I have friends that were physicians and they're really big on real estate. And like I took the real estate Kool-Aid and I'm just like, is this really real? There's gotta be easier ways than doing this. And so I'm just jazzed to kind of go through what are some of the things we can do now before April 15th. What are things that we can do even past April 15th to set us up for great success for 2026? So Alexis, this is your show. I'm just excited, kind of riffed us through it. Of course, I'm gonna geek out and ask probably about way more questions than you care to even be asked, but I'm really excited to learn more today. Alexis Gallati (09:20) Yeah, great. Well, yeah, I hate to be a little bit of a Debbie Downer in the beginning and that when your past December 31st, ⁓ the number of tax strategies that are available to you are before you actually go to file your tax return are limited. It's just the nature of the code. The Dental A Team (09:37) I agree. was super, when you were like, what are the tech? I was like, I want to know because most of the times like when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, it's like game over and we start again. But yes, which is why I want to know what are like the small ones, but then also Alexis like, let's set our listeners up for like, what things can they do this year to be better prepared for it in conjunction? So yes, before April 15th, but selfishly I want to know what else can I do this year that maybe I haven't thought of. Alexis Gallati (09:52) Yeah. you The Dental A Team (10:06) because the clock hasn't struck midnight in 2026. So like we've got time. So yeah, for 2025 filing, but also for 2026 as well. Alexis Gallati (10:09) Yeah. Yeah, so let's talk about 2025 filing first. Especially if you're a business owner, there are actually a number of things that you could still put together for yourself that can impact your 2025 financials. ⁓ So even basic things like if you haven't been taking advantage of your home office deduction or ⁓ vehicle expenses ⁓ and unreimbursed business expenses. So those are expenses that you paid personally, but our business expenses. So all of those items, you can still go and report on your 2025 return. So if you haven't taken the time to sit down and say, how much should I pay in my home utilities or insurance, repairs, et cetera, and take the percentage. So let's say your home office is 7%. of your total square footage of your home. Well, then you can write off 7 % of your home expenses on your taxes. the treatment's a little bit different depending upon if you're a sole proprietorship or an S corporation. But in general, you still have that time to take advantage of that. And a lot of you might be like, oh, Alexis, it's such a little amount. I don't even know if it's worth it. Believe me. All these little things can really add up together. And easily, I usually see between $10,000 to $20,000 of really ⁓ easy to grab savings for yourself if you just take even a few hours to gather all the information. ⁓ And you can even use ⁓ personal financial apps like Monarch Money or You Need a Budget, things like that to help. organize that information for you throughout the year so it's a little more automated. The Dental A Team (12:10) Yeah, that's amazing. I do love the YNAB. You're throwing me back to like pharmacy school days of you need a budget. I was like, oh my gosh, got to answer this every time. They have updated so much, but I love that you said like 10 to 20 grand, I think is worthwhile, but more than it being pennies or dollars, I think it's the discipline of having it prepared for next year too. So that way we don't, I think it's like, well, it might not be enough this year, but I'm like, you take that this year and we compound over the next year and the next year and the next year. I think these little things to me at least, Alexis Gallati (12:15) Ha ha ha. The Dental A Team (12:41) Like I said, it's their game of monopoly. And I'm like, okay, maybe I didn't get it that time, but I'm going to take that rule and I'm going to apply it this year and the next year and the next year. So I'm even taking notes over here, guys. So Alexis, if you see me, I'm writing it like, okay, I'm going to check in on that, check in on that. So make sure, make sure that they're being taken into consideration because I don't prep my own taxes. I don't even know half the stuff. Like they just tell me. So I also think being a good steward as well and always double checking your CPA to make sure like, are we maximizing every deduction we can? Alexis Gallati (12:53) Good, I like it. Of course. Yeah. And being proactive is like you said, the number one thing because the IRS can deny deduction if you don't have that itemized receipt or you don't have the proper documentation. And 99 % of any fight with the IRS is that documentation. And I did a three year fellowship in IRS representation. So I'm obviously very focused on that tax savings, but also very focused on making sure that everything's set up properly. So if the IRS were to challenge it or even the state, you're in good hands. then that way, you can just give them the stuff and say, go away. The Dental A Team (13:51) Exactly. And I heard somebody once tell me, they're like, Kiera, it's not a matter of if I'll be audited, it's when. Like every business will most likely be audited at some point. I hope and pray like we're not. I think about that a lot of like cross my T's, dot my I's, make sure that I'm constantly trying to be compliant with things. But your wealth of knowledge on that Alexis of what things and how to become, I mean, shoot three years of IRS. Girl, you got my vote. That's impressive. And like love the love the authority piece that you're bringing to our podcast today. Alexis Gallati (14:20) Thank you. Thank you. So some other things that you're able to do before you file that tax return, and this is a big one, is retirement. So you actually have until the filing of a tax return, and that includes extensions. So for example, if you're an S corporation or a partnership, have the original due date, which is March 15th, or the extended due date, which is September 15th, to go and open and fund that retirement plan. So if you have employees, it can get obviously a little bit more complicated, but you still are able to do it and ⁓ do that employer contribution. And that's obviously really one of the lower hanging fruits when it comes to not only tax savings, but also wealth generation. The Dental A Team (15:12) Yeah, no, I love that. That's a great idea. And I think a lot of people miss that. And again, CPAs, tax strategists, wealth advisors, they're all playing in their own lanes, but how can we make sure all of them are maximizing together? Because you as a human are trying to build that wealth. So I love that. Alexis Gallati (15:30) Yeah. And don't forget as well, you know, kind of in the same vein as retirement is that health savings account. So if you had a high deductible plan throughout the year, but maybe your employer didn't actually provide a ⁓ health savings account, like so if you're a W-2, for example, or even if you're self-employed, you can still go open up your own Health Savings account through, I think Fidelity has some, ⁓ Optum Bank, HSA Bank. So there's a whole bunch of different providers out there. can just Google and find the provider that works best for you. The Dental A Team (16:07) Interesting. And I know like I just wrote that down because a lot of dentists don't have HSA. Like we are the providers for it. But hearing that that might even be a resource to attract people into your business if you were able to like, don't necessarily provide it, but these are some companies that we could help our employees get if they wanted to have an HSA because I know that that's something that my husband works at a hospital. So there's an HSA there, but as sole proprietors and S-Corps, a lot of times they aren't provided. That's actually really like, I think just a great tool and resource to possibly provide to our employees, depending upon what it looks like for your business. Alexis Gallati (16:40) Yeah, definitely. And then one other thing that you ⁓ may be able to do, depending upon your state, ⁓ to help with state taxes, is go and contribute to a 529 plan, which is for education for yourself or other dependent. And some states like Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, there's a number of them. They allow you to make that contribution all the way up to the filing of the tax return. The Dental A Team (17:13) Interesting. I did not know that I wrote that down. That's fascinating. I love this. This is like so fun. Keep going. Alexis Gallati (17:20) Yeah. Yeah. So that, you know, is, a good, especially for, you know, higher earners. ⁓ that's kind of a good summary of what you can be doing before this, ⁓ April 15th or even the extended due date as well. ⁓ but when you start looking into 2026, who, that book, that book opens up, there is. The Dental A Team (17:39) It does, right? It's like the monopoly Bible. Like it's so big. Like how do I play the game of taxes? So I truly, and I think like for all the listeners, like the home office, the HSA, ⁓ retirement, the 529 plan, like there's still time. So go look at those things. And even if you can't contribute or do those things now, having that set up for next year, like, Alexis, truly, I'm like, I'm getting the popcorn. I'm getting my notepad. Like, I am so excited because half these things I haven't heard of. And so it's very fun to just hear different perspectives. And I do love that you've got a legal background too. I love that you're in IRS. I love that you're in medicine and healthcare... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39972495

Fast Track through the Pharmacy: What to Know for Easier Clearances 02/04/2026

Fast Track through the Pharmacy: What to Know for Easier Clearances Kiera is joined by the tooth-healer himself, Jason Dent! Jason has an extensive background in pharmacy, and shares with Kiera where his pharmaceutical experience has bled over into dentistry. This includes the difference between anti-quag and anti-platelet and which medications are probably safe, what to do to shorten the drag time in the pharmacy, how to write prescriptions most efficiently, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a really awesome and unique day. It is, think the second time I've had somebody in the podcast studio with me live for a podcast and it's the one and only Jason Dent. Jason, how are you? I'm doing well. Good morning. Thanks for having me. It is crazy. I I watch Instagram real like this all the time where people are like in the podcast and they're hanging out on two chairs and couches and now look at us. We're doing it. Cheers. Cheers. That was a mic cheer for those of you who are only listening, but yeah, Jace, how does this feel to be on the podcast? It's weird. Like I was not nervous at all talking about it. I got really nervous as soon as you hit play. So if I stumble over my words, please forgive me ahead of time. Well, Jason, I appreciate you being on the podcast because marketing had asked me to do a topic about teledentistry and I was like, oh shoot, that's like not my forte at all. so You and I were actually chatting in the hot tub. call it Think Tank session and you and I, we have a lot of good ideas that come from that Think Tank. A lot of business. no phones. That's why. We do leave our phones out. But I was talking to Jason and this is actually a podcast we had talked about quite a while ago. Jason has a lot of information on pharmacy. And if you don't know, Jason isn't really, we were going through all of it last night. It's kind of a mock in the tub. And I think it's going to be great because I feel like this is an area, I'm working at Midwestern and knowing about how dentists, pharmacology was surely not your favorite one. Jason actually helps a lot of dentists with their clearances. And so we were talking about it and I like it will just be a really awesome podcast for you guys to brush up on pharmacology, different things from a pharmacist's side. So Jason, welcome. Thank you. Yeah, no, we were talking about it and here's like, what should I talk about on the podcast next? I have all these different topics and she's like, what do you know? And the only real interaction I have with dentists is doing clearances for procedures. We get them all the time, which makes sense. Lots of people are on blood thinner, I've always told Kiera, like, hey, I could talk about that. Like, that's kind of a passion of mine. I'm not a dentist. Or my name is Jason Dent. So in Hebrew, Jason means tooth. No, no, no, sorry. Nerves are getting to me. Jason means healer and Dent means tooth. So my name means tooth healer. So, here's a little set. Hold on, on, hold Can we just talk about? I brought that up before you could talk about it more. So. My name means tooth healer but I did not become a dentist. I know you wanted me to become a dentist. did. I don't know why. I enjoy medicine. I know what you're going to get to already. The things you're going to ask me. There's been years of this. But nevertheless, that's my name. We'll get that out of the way. But you did give me a great last name. So I mean, it's OK. You're All is fair and love here. SEO's up for that. But yeah, Jason, I'm going to get you right into the show. And I'm going to be the host. And we're going to welcome to the podcast show. Jace, how are you? Good, good, good. Good, good, good. So by getting into clearances, right? This is what you're kinda talking about with you know, before we get to clearances, I actually wanted Jason, for the listeners who don't know you, who haven't talked to you, who don't know, let's kinda just give them like, how did you go from, Kiera wanted you to be a dentist, to now Jason, you are on the podcast talking as our expert on pharmacy. fantastic. I've always really loved medicine, a ton. As a kid getting headaches and taking Excedrin, like you just feel like a miserable pile of crap. and then you take two pills and all of a sudden you feel better. Like that's amazing, like how does that happen? Also getting ear aches as a kid, just being in so much pain and then taking some medicine and you start feeling a lot better. I always had a lot of appreciation for that. I've always been mechanically inclined. I went to, started doing my undergrad and took biology and learned about ATP synthase, which is a spinning enzyme that's inside the mitochondria, like a turbine engine. I used to work on small engines on my dirt bike and thought that is so cool. So I really got wrapped up into chemistry. All the mechanics of chemistry really pulled me in. I'm not getting goosebumps. checking. I usually get goosebumps when I think about chemistry. But it's so cool. You think an engine's awesome, like pistons and camshafts and pressures, the cell is the same thing. It's not as loud, so it's not as cool. But it's fascinating. that's why we're like. ⁓ chemistry and really got into coagulation. So I did my residency after pharmacy school. we went to Arizona for three years. ⁓ You did and your main focus, you were never wanting to be the guy behind the counter. No, I haven't done that. Yeah. No, I love them though. I've always really want to go clinical. ⁓ But I love my retail ⁓ pharmacists. They're amazing resources. And ⁓ I use the retail pharmacist every day still to this day, but I went more the clinical route, really love the chemistry aspect of it. did my doctorate degree and then I did my residency in Reno. Reno's kind That's how we got here everybody. Welcome to Reno. Strategically placed because I was really interested in critical medicine and where we're located we cover a huge area. So we pull in to almost clear, we go clear to Utah, clear to California, all of Northern Nevada. We get cases from all over. So we actually are kind like the first hub of care for lot of areas. So we really get an eclectic mixture of patients that come in that need- all kinds of different cases that are coming to them. So it's what I really wanted. So I did my residency in critical care there. And then for the next 10 years, I worked in vascular medicine with my final five years being the supervisor of the clinic. Ran all the ins and outs of that. So my providers, two doctors were on our view. So when we talk about dentistry, talk about production, those kinds of things, totally get it. My doctors were the exact same way, my vascular providers. ⁓ There's some pains there, right? You wanna be seeing patients as much as possible, being able to help as many people, keeping the billing up. And had other nurse practitioners, four practitioners, a fleet of MAs, eight pharmacists. We also had that one location we had, going off the top of my head, I think we had eight locations running as well. And we took care of all the different kinds of vascular cases that came to us. Most common was blood clots, ⁓ which is just a... which is an easier way of saying VTE. There's so many different ways to say a blood clot. Like you might hear patients say, I've had a PE or a DVT or a venous thromboembolism or a clot in my leg, right? They're all clots, but in different locations. Same with an MI, and MI can be a clot as well. ⁓ there's a lot of, everybody's kind of saying the same thing, but sometimes the nomenclature can make it sound hard, but it really is actually pretty simple. No. And Jason, I love that you went through, you've been in like, and even in your, ⁓ when you were getting your doctorate, you were in the ER. You also worked in retail pharmacy. remember you having a little sticker on your hand. And retail pharmacy, I have a lot of respect for those guys. They have a lot of pressure on them. and then you also, ⁓ what was that test that you had to take that? I don't know. You were like studying forever for it. ⁓ board certification for, ⁓ NABP. Yeah. So I did that board certification as well. And now you've moved out of the hospital side onto another section in your career. Now in the insurance, right? So it's really, really interesting. So now I'm on the other side reading notes and evaluating clinical appropriateness and trying to help patients with getting coverage and making those kinds of determinations. So yeah, I've really jumped all over. Really love my clinical days. I know. don't I don't I do miss them. But yeah, kind of had a good exposure to a lot of. pharmacy a lot a lot of dentists actually with all the places that come through which Jason I really appreciate that and honestly I know you are my spouse and so it's fun to have you on but when I go into conversations like this I don't know any of this information and so finding experts and Jason I think here's me talk more about dentistry and my business than I do hear about him on pharmacy so as we were chatting about this I really realized you are a wealth of knowledge because you've been on the clinical side so you've done a lot of patient care and you've seen how medications interact and I know you've had a few scares in your career and ⁓ you've known some physicians that have had a few scares and ⁓ you've seen plenty of patients pass away working in the ER and gosh in Arizona drownings were such a big deal. I remember when you were in the ER on your rotations I'd be like who died today? Like tell me the stories and you've really seen and now going on to the insurance side I felt like you could just be such a good wealth of knowledge because I know dentists are sometimes so I would say like maybe just a little more anxious when it comes to medications. I know that dental students from Midwestern were like here was like four months and we had to like pass it, learn it. And Jason, you've done four years plus clinical residency, plus you've been in it. And something I really love about Nevada Medicine is they've been so collaborative with you. like your heart, your cardiologist, they diagnose and then they send to you to treat with medicine and... Yeah, I've been really lucky being here in Reno too. The cardiology team has been amazing to work with. We started a CHF program, sorry, congestive heart failure program for patients. So we would collaborate with cardiologists. They'd see the cardiologists and then they send them to the pharmacist to really manage all the medications. So there's pillars of therapy ⁓ called guideline directed medical therapy and the pharmacist would take care of all that. So that's gonna be your... your beta blockers, your ACEs, your ARBs, your Entresto, which would be a little bit better, spironolactone. So just making sure that all these things are dosed appropriately, really monitoring the heart, and make sure that patients are getting better. we've had real positive outcomes when the, sorry, this is totally off topic. do, talk about that study. When we looked at when patients were coming to see our pharmacists in our clinic that we started up, the patients were half as likely to be readmitted. And this was in 2018, and our pharmacists, We're thinking about all the medications. We're usually adjusting diabetes medications too at the same time. Just kind of naturally just taking care of all the medications because we kind of got a go ahead from the providers, a collaborative practice agreement that we could make adjustments to certain medications within certain parameters. So we weren't going rogue or maverick, but we were definitely trying to optimize our medications as much as possible. And then years later, some studies came out with, I'm sure you've seen Jardins and Farseegh. not trying to, I'm not. I don't get any kickback from them. I have no conflicts to share. But because our pharmacists were really optimizing that medication, those medications were later shown to reduce hospitalizations and heart failure, even though they're diabetes medications. Fascinating. So it wasn't really the pharmacists. It was just the pharmacists doing as much as they can with all the tools that were in front of them. And then we found out that the patients were going back to the hospital. half as much as regular patients. So, yeah, being here, it's been so amazing to work with providers here. the providers here want help, want to help patients, don't have an ego. I mean, I just, it's awesome. I love it. I do love how much I think Jason sees me geek out about dentistry and I watching Jay's geek about his pharmacy and how much he loves helping patients. And ⁓ really that was the whole idea of, all right. Dentistry has pharmacy as a part of it. And I know a lot of dentists are sending in clearances and I know working in a chair side, it would be like, oh no, if they're on warfarin or on their own blood clot, you guys, honestly don't even know half of what I'm talking about because this is not my jam, which is why Jason's here. But I do know that there was always like, well, we got to talk with their provider. And so having Jason come in and just kind of explain being the pharmacist that is approving or denying or saying yes or no to take them off the blood thinners in different parts, because you have seen several dental I don't know what they're called. What is it? Clarence's? that what comes to you? don't even know. All day my mind, it's like, here is the piece of paper that gets mailed to you to the pharmacist and then you mail it back. So whatever that is. But Chase, let's talk about it because I think you can give the dentist a lot of confidence coming from a pharmacist. What you guys see on that side. When do you actually need to approve or disapprove? Let's kind of dig into that. Yeah. Well, first of all, I think I'm not a replacement for any kind of clinical judgment whatsoever. Every patient's different. But the American Diabetes Association, you I work with diabetes a lot. American Dental Association has some really great guidelines on blood thinners and I would always reference them. I actually looked at their website today. Make sure I'm up to speed before I get back on this again. They have resources all around making decisions for blood thinners. And I think the one real important thing in putting myself in the shoes of a dentist or any kind of staff that's around a patient that's in a chair, if they say I'm on a blood thinner, right, a flag goes up. At least in my mind, that's what goes up. Like, okay, how do we get across this bridge? And I think the important thing to really distinct right then when they say they're on a blood thinner is that is kind of a slang word for a lot of different medications, right? Like it's the overarching word that everybody pulls up saying, I'm on a blood thinner. It's like, okay, but I don't know what say. It's like, I have a car. You're like, okay, do you have a Mazda? Do you have? Toyota, Honda, what do you have? or even worse it'd be like saying I have a vehicle, right? So when somebody says they're on a blood thinner, it opens up a whole box of possibilities of what they're Blood thinners are also, doesn't, when they're taking these types of medications that are quote unquote a blood thinner, it doesn't actually thin the blood, like adding water to the blood, if that makes sense, or like thinning paint, or like thinning out a gravy, right? It doesn't do the same thing. Blood thinners, really what they're doing is they're working on the blood, which. which is really cool, try not to tangent on that. ⁓ When they're working on the blood, it's not thinning it per se, but it's making it so that the proteins or platelets that are in it can't stick together and make a cloth quite as easy. So whenever somebody's on a blood thinner, I usually ask, what's the name of the blood thinner that you're on? It's not bad that they use that slang, that's okay, on the same page, but it's really broken into two different classes. There's anticoagulant and antiplatelet. And a way to kind of remember which is which, when residents would come through our clinics, the way that I teach them is a clot is like a brick wall. You know, it's not always a brick wall. Usually the blood is a liquid going through. But once they receive some kind of chemical message, it starts making a brick wall with the mortar, which is the concrete between the and the bricks, the two parts. When it's an anti-quagent, it's working on that mortar part. When it's an anti-platelet, it's working on the bricks part, right? You need both to make a strong clot or strong brick wall. But if you can make one of them not work, obviously like if your mortar is just water, it's not working, right? You're not gonna make a strong brick wall. So that's kind of the two deviants right there. So that's what I do in my mind real quickly to find out because antiplatelets are usually, so that's gonna be like your Plavix, Ticagrelor, Brilinta. And hold on, antiplatelets are bricks? Good job, bricks. They're the bricks. And so the reason I was thinking you could remember this because I'm, antiplatelets, it's a plate and a plate is more like a brick. And anti coagulant, I don't know why quag feels like mortar to me, like quag, like, know, it's like slushy in the blood, like it's coagulating. It's a little bit of that, like, honestly, I'm just thinking like coagulated blood is a little bit more mortar-ish. And so platelet is your plate, like a brick, and anti-quag is like. the gilly between the bricks. Okay, okay, I got it. Yeah, so there's an exception to every rule, but when they're on that Don't worry, this is Kiera, just like very basic. You guys are way smarter listening to this, and that's why Jason's here. No, no, you helped me pass pharmacy school. When we were doing all the top 200, you helped me memorize all know what flexorill is, all right? That's a muscle relaxant. Cyclo? I don't know that part. It's a cyclo, because you guys are cycling and flexing. I don't actually know. just know it's a muscle relaxant, so that's about as far as I got. When we're looking at antitick platelets, so that's the brick part, so that's going to be your, you know, Hecagrelor, Breitlingta, Clopidogrel is the most common one. It's the cheapest one, so probably see that one the most. Those, I mean, there's an exception to every rule, but that's generally being used after like a stent's placed in the heart. It can be used for VTE, there's some out there, but that's pretty rare. But also for some valves that are placed in the hearts, it can be used for that as well. So antiplatelet, really thinking more like a cardiac event, right? Like I said, there's always an exception to every rule, but that's kind of where my mind goes real quickly, because we're gathering information from the patient. They're on anticoagulant. Those are like going to be the new ones that you see commercials for all the time. So Xeralto, Alequis, those are the two big ones right now. They're replacing the older one. And also we were supposed to do a disclaimer of this is current as of today because the ADA guidelines do change. this will be current as of today. And Jason, as a pharmacist, is always looking up on that. I had no clue that you are that up to speed on dental knowledge. so just throwing it out there that if you happen to catch his podcast, a few years back that obviously check those guidelines for sure. But the new ones are the Xarelto and Eloquist. They're replacing the older ones of warfarin. Warfarin's been around for a really long time. We've seen that... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39972440

The Life-Changing Magic of Accountability (and How it Reduces Stress) 02/03/2026

The Life-Changing Magic of Accountability (and How it Reduces Stress) No matter what position, no matter how many years someone’s been in their position, every team member likes to know that they’re doing a good job. Tiff and Kristy talk about why defining duties and responsibilities—and then measuring metrics against those duties and responsibilities—is so critical to “winning” at your job. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today I know I see that every single time but I hope you guys know how much I truly love podcasting it is a time away from like we'll call it work I feel like podcasting just isn't work for us and we love Speaking to you guys. love getting all this information out there for you and we love our time together So you guys afford us that and today I have an all-time fave I actually I know this is gonna make you blush but I get some pretty incredible feedback. Kristy, I have Kristy here with us today. I get some pretty incredible feedback from a lot of our clients and a lot of listeners on the podcasts that we do together. So Kristy, I am here today in your presence and it just makes me feel so good. And I'm here to pick that brilliant brain. So thank you for showing up, bringing it and giving me, we've got an ample amount of time this afternoon together. So thank you, Kristy. The Dental A Team (00:54) Yeah. I always have fun when I'm here with you. You know that. It's just so natural that we can rip off each other. And ⁓ I don't know, you do a good job at picking my brain and pulling it out. So it's always fun. look forward to our time together. The Dental A Team (01:09) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kristy. You guys should know something about Kristy. She is an incredible consultant and I know that this is our time that I get to kind of share and spread some light and joy on our consulting team. And Kristy, I think it's imperative for the world to know that, gosh, you have just an amazing list of clients who are really seeing some impressive results recently. We're into the new year. We're like, Now when this releases two months into the new year, which is freaking wild, but that's fine. But so many of your clients saw so many successes last year and in those successes we're seeing systems development and within those systems development, really seeing goals being pushed, being reached, being surpassed. You've got some clients that I know you were looking at the goals that they were setting for themselves and you were like, yes, and that's one of my favorite Kristy-isms. Yes, and, yes, and. I think you can do more. So you like are pushing them outside of their comfort zones and really projecting for them things that I don't think that a lot of your clients even see possible. I just think it's really cool. And today we're talking really about how accountability is gonna help reduce stress within the practice. And I say all of these things that you're doing really well for your clients right now, Kristy, because it takes so much accountability to be able to perform those pieces without an overload of stress. You can grow and not have accountability. You can spin your wheels and cycle in the negative or however you want to say it. But when that accountability piece is also attached to the things that you're implementing, I think that's really where you see the true results. And that's where we've gotten some incredible feedback that Kristy is amazing. And ⁓ you've taught them so many skills that they can then take them themselves. and carry it on. And I think it's really cool. It's just really valuable what you've been able to implement for practices. So my question, my first question to you, my first brain pick is why do you find it so important to uphold the accountability levels that you hold for your clients and that you train them to hold for their teams by proxy? Why is that so important to you and so valuable in the coaching that you do? The Dental A Team (03:31) Yeah, I love that question because even us in what we do, we want to know if we're winning or not. Right. And so every team member, doesn't matter what job you're doing. You want to know if you're doing a good job and if you're winning. And if we don't have KPIs to measure or clarity in our roles, we're just, we're going day by day by default, you know, and we could have a success, but like you said, it's How do we repeat it if we don't even know what we're looking for? So number one is defining those duties and understanding what am I responsible for and how do I know if I'm winning or The Dental A Team (04:15) Yeah, I love that. you said a couple of things there that I keyed in on, but you said duplicate. So making it repeatable and making it so that that system can be driven by anyone. like anyone can do it, it can be duplicated and you can take a same or similar system and copy and paste it into a different department or a different goal. And I totally agree. Now, when you have something that's duplicatable, it's just kind of I don't want to say on autopilot, but it feels more on autopilot because you're not having to put quite so much like thought process on everything, you know? It is kind of on autopilot. When you're able to do that, how does that, what level of accountability does that require? I guess is the question. Like we've got to, we can have all the systems in the world and the clarity and the job roles, we think we have the clarity and we hand it to them and then we walk away. what's the next step? We've got the clarity, we've got the job descriptions. What does the accountability look like for those things and why is it so important to the overall stress of the team? The Dental A Team (05:23) Yeah, again, in everything we do, it's either by default or by intention, right? And I'd rather be intentional. So using those duties and then following up. I'm a firm believer of performance reviews outside of wage reviews. Can they tie together? 100 % they can tie together. But I also feel as leaders in the practice, we have a responsibility to grow our people, not just grow our practice, but grow our people, right? And so having those conversations to measure against their duties and the KPIs, not a feeling, I feel like I did a good job, right? ⁓ Having those to measure against, lets them know, they know before they even come in that they're winning or not. And it also gives us the opportunity to coach them up, right? If they're not winning or, you know, what's getting in the way of it, or really it could be an opportunity to coach them and train them. And it doesn't necessarily mean us as leaders have to be the one to do it, but we can provide resources and we can get commitments around it so that we can measure, again, we don't have to hit perfection, but are we trending in a growth pattern? And the more that we grow our people, the more that our practice grows, you know? The Dental A Team (06:43) Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So you're tying that accountability measurement, that accountability piece is less micromanaging and oversight and like, are you doing the thing but it's tied into the results being driven. So if we're tracking the KPIs, we're tracking the results that we're desiring and we're seeing, are we on track, off track? Are we growing? Are we declining? That's the accountability measurement and then inspiring our team to want to win within that. that provides that feedback system, I guess, that loop back where they're like, hey, I'm seeing a downtrend. Maybe they're at a point now where they're inclined to speak up and ask for help or they see something that needs to be adjusted or switched and so they're doing it on their own rather than that micromanaged ⁓ over the shoulder accountability. Because I do think, Kristy, that a lot of times the definition of the word accountability can be It's like ASAP, like when can you come ASAP? That could mean anything. Your ASAP versus my ASAP is who knows what that means. So that accountability piece, I think we all have our own definition or our own variation of defining it, but your version here is really looking at the results driving it and then constantly coming back to it. So I love that. are you having your doctors and your practices? look at those results and talk about them because there's the one piece to assume that we're all adults and we're all going to look at them, we're all going to fill them in, we're all going to come to our leadership when we need help. But then that's where I get the phone calls from the doctors that's like, I thought I employed adults and they're not doing the thing. And they're well, we get busy too. So it doesn't always happen that way. So when are you suggesting or having your doctors and your practices really look at those results to bring that fold of accountability measurement into it? At the one-on-ones for sure, is there anything else that you're adding in there? The Dental A Team (08:42) Yeah, for sure. think that truly there's daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly metrics, and they can be broken out. ⁓ Yes, one-on-ones are specific to them, but it's also a team sport, right? And so, again, I think I encourage everybody to be doing meetings. If in a perfect world, I'd love them weekly and they're strategic to work on the business, not just in the business and in the ones that are doing it with intention and having those meetings and dialing in on those metrics. And, you know, they can tell if they're winning or not. It gives you the strategy to be able to course correct sooner than later. And it lets everybody know where they are and we can be support to each other. So to your question, I don't think it's cut and dry, but I do think there's daily, weekly, monthly numbers that we should be having a pulse on. I don't want to wait till November to know I'm $100,000 behind for the year. It gets a little harder to chunk down. So ⁓ the other thing that you said, Tiff, too, is when you were saying accountability, I think that word in and of itself tends to have a negative connotation. The Dental A Team (09:48) Yeah. Yeah. The Dental A Team (10:01) I want to challenge our members and people listening to see it as a positive thing. Like literally it's your time to invest in your people. I literally just got off the phone with one that, and it's funny because our admin team, it's usually where it falls. It's like, hey, I need you to credential this doctor. Okay, I don't even know how to do that. whose doctors don't even know how to do it. So how is that team member going to know how to do it? Right? Where do I start? And in fact, the doctor doesn't know how to do it. So sometimes it's, we can't just leave them out on an island and expect them to win. And if we check in early, we can provide resources. Again, I don't, a doctor, maybe they don't need to know how to do it, but can they guide them? and give them the resource. And in doing that, look how much more valuable they've just made that team member. The Dental A Team (10:55) I think you're spot on there. just that statement there of the team member, like I can picture is we want to talk about how accountability reduces the stress. And that's that scenario you just gave. I can picture the office manager being like, yeah, okay, I'll figure it out. And then all that does is add this underlying unknown stress in the back of her mind or his mind. They're thinking, I got to figure this out. I got to make this work. I got to I gotta do it, but I've got all these other things first. And then dot comes in and is like, hey, did you do that? And they're like, no, like, right? And now we're stressed and we're freaking out. And it's like, there's that unknown space that we don't always know what we don't know. So we don't always know the questions to ask, but just really having that feedback system of accountability within the results, I think is the key there. The Dental A Team (11:45) you one of the things we fail at as leaders is painting that clarity. Again, even if I asked you to do that, did you give me a timeframe? Because you might've wanted it done yesterday. I'm thinking, I could do it in the next month, you know? The Dental A Team (12:00) Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is what I do, right? I'm like, yep, got it, it's on my list. But I've got 60 other things that are also on my list that if I'm not given a prioritization, I'm gonna prioritize it myself, right? And that's, it's gonna fall where it falls. And then you come back and you say, where's that thing? I'm like, well, it's on the back end of my list, because what does it trump? So what does it go above that I can replace? it with, know, whatever. So you're spot on there. I love that, that it all loops together because in the beginning you said, then you just said to you like painting that clarity. And I always tell practices, and I know you do too, when you're building out the job descriptions and the org charts, you need one to three key metrics of results. What are the one to three things that this position is after? We want, you know, a schedule full to daily production goal. That's our schedulers goal. So all of those little pieces that get us there, we don't tackle those until we're not reaching goal. So if we're not reaching that big overarching metric, that's when we say, okay, what system is broken? But I think, Kristy, what tends to happen is that people are like, no, accountability causes stress. Like Tiff, Kristy, you're crazy. The accountability causes stress because we're micromanaging the systems. that get us to the result rather than holding the accountability lever to the result. The Dental A Team (13:31) I agree with you 100 % and truly looking at the person as a human and how can I develop this within them, right? I don't think anybody walks in on any given day thinking how can I make this day horrible, right? They want to please their leaders and it's just sometimes they don't understand how. They don't really have the clarity on how and more so they don't know what The Dental A Team (13:39) Yeah. bright. The Dental A Team (14:00) what winning looks like. The Dental A Team (14:02) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. No, I think you're spot on there and you're making me think that clarity piece, clarity piece and knowing how to make someone happy, right? How do I thrive in this position and make my doctor or my manager, whomever my lead, happy also ties back to when accountability is only held in the negative. It's very easy to start to feel like you're not, you can't win. There's no positive being brought to light. So it's it's celebrating when cause for celebrating and it's tackling system when cause for tackling systems and never tackling the person. Unless it's a personality, personnel issue that's separate, but when it comes to accountability results and driving the practice, it's more about celebrating and tackling as you need to and not only tackling, which in the dental industry, The Dental A Team (14:43) You got The Dental A Team (14:58) Our jobs, I tell practices all the time, patients come here so we can tell them what's wrong with their teeth. They don't come here so we can say, my gosh, that's the best smile I've seen all day. Like we want to say that, right? But when we see that good smell, we're like, you're all good, nothing here, right? That's not a celebration. We're just like, no problems. See you later. And we tend to do that in our KPI meetings too, where it's like, cool, you're good, you're good, you're good. you're not good, let's focus on you today. And it's like, well, shoot, when do I win? I think you keyed on something really big there. I think deducting all of those pieces that you mentioned today, Kristy, it feels like the stress is typically going to be seen in more of an emotional capacity than in a physical can-do capacity. So it's in a mental capacity that turns into an emotional capacity that brings on the stress of the world and really just keying in on how to remove the emotion. from it, bring in the black and white and celebrate those pieces. The Dental A Team (16:02) I agree with you 100%. And I think it's why we always are speaking to right people, right seat, right? And I always joke when I tell my clients this, I almost think it should be right seat, right people instead of, you know what I mean? Yeah. yeah, spot on. The Dental A Team (16:14) Yeah. Yeah, no, that's fair. I love it. If you were to pick two or three things that a practice could do today that might be not like, I don't wanna say surface level, because I don't think it's surface level, but maybe not digging deep and uprooting a whole system. But what are some things that they could implement today or they could take a look at flushing out if they were to try to reduce stress today in their practice? The Dental A Team (16:44) Yeah, I truly, I think the first thing would be, there one or two metrics that aren't where you want them? Let's pull out that system or identify what duties or what things do we do every day that contribute to that number and then pull out those systems and figure out it. It can be process or it can be people, meaning Maybe as a person, I change the recipe, right? I always tell people, you change the chocolate chip recipe for a cup of salt, when it called for cup of sugar, you don't get to say the recipe doesn't work, right? So pull it back out. Let's look at it. Is the recipe, we tailored it and it's not working? Let's just get back to it. know, recommit, recommit as a team or an individual and then remeasure. Is it working? Right? So, The Dental A Team (17:22) That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. The Dental A Team (17:38) That would be my thing and get energized behind it. The Dental A Team (17:42) I love it. Well, thank you. It amazed me. actually just last night I altered I altered a recipe. I make these biscuit things for Brody and I was like, I'll do a gluten free flour because then I can have some too. And I really like bell peppers. So I'm gonna take the bell peppers out. But I didn't change the amount of flour. So they are real dry, you know, and Brody this morning was like, maybe you need a new recipe. And I was like, well, no, it was. because I didn't have enough wet ingredients because I didn't put the bell peppers in there and to it I didn't reduce the flour so it's just funny that you said that because Brody was ready to throw out the recipe and find a whole new recipe but it wasn't the recipe it was me so I appreciate that you say that at home today. ⁓ The Dental A Team (18:22) You I think the with that though, you know, the ironic-ness that you just said that my son has celiac. So in the very beginning, we were learning to cook different. It's funny how you have to transition. I would encourage you to use applesauce in your... It puts it back to nobody's trying to make the day difficult. We're all trying to do our best and, you know, celebrate your people. Try to recognize the wins. The Dental A Team (18:28) Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ smart! Yes, I do forget about that. The Dental A Team (18:55) and the areas that aren't improving, address them as needed. The Dental A Team (19:00) Yeah, I love that. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for the tip. Everybody has a gluten-free flour tip now as well. We're here for all of the things. Awesome, Kristy, thank you. And I hope you guys can see some spaces in your practice where you can dial in the accountability. I don't wanna say ramp up the... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39972415

Stop Thinking Turnover Makes You a Failure 01/29/2026

Stop Thinking Turnover Makes You a Failure Kiera is joined by Dr. Paul Etchison to talk about changing the mindset of turnover = failure. This transition is part of the evolution of leadership. Both Kiera and Dr. Etchison share their own experiences in remaining true to core values, and keeping their definitions of success separate from whether a team member stuck around or not. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is an extra special day. I have one of my faves and every time we podcast, people say, you two just seem like you love each other so much. And I really do. I've been to this man's practice. We've been friends in the industry for I don't even know how many years pre-COVID. That's a long time. And we've been on each other's podcasts a lot. He has an incredible podcast. He's an incredible human, incredible friend, incredible mentor. I got the one and only Paul Etchison on the podcast today. Welcome. How are you today, Paul? Paul Etchison (00:28) Hey, I'm good. And I was just thinking about how you mentioned like the pre-COVID thing. You texted me a picture of when you came into my practice for two days. And it was like before COVID. And what was funny about it, and I don't know if it's funny or not, but like I looked at it and half of my team has turned over. They're all new people. So I know. ⁓ Kiera Dent (00:36) cute. Mm-hmm. It's real life, Paul. That's real life. It is funny and isn't because I go back and I used to be embarrassed about that. So let's just kind of highlight on that. I used to actually be very embarrassed of like, my gosh, I don't have senior team members. And like, I hate the question. There was a hot minute. The Dental A Team felt like I was Johnny Depp in the middle of the ocean and my boat was full blown on fire. And I was like, I just hope another one shows up soon. Like I hope something comes. ⁓ And then I realized that's business ownership. Like that's real life. And yes, we built these great cultures, but you outgrow team members and team members outgrow you in life circumstances. And I'd rather be honest and real rather than perfect. And so the fact that like teams shift in a lot, mean, shoot, I used to have this vision board, Paul, you want to hear how ridiculous this was? And I took the team and I put them in the one year, the three year, the 10, and I just had this like same team follow with me. That lasted me for like six months. And I was like, rip this thing up. Paul Etchison (01:31) Yes. You Kiera Dent (01:40) It's gotten better, it's stabilized, but I think that that's real life. So thanks for talking about it. Paul Etchison (01:44) It's hard, yeah, I mean, we look at it and I think like the beginning of my practice career, I had very little turnover, but it was, I had to put so much into keeping that. Like it was such a hard thing to keep going. there was a lot of team members that I kept and I was able to make them happy and I was able to have it be a productive relationship and they were good at the practice. But sometimes I look back on it I'm like, man, it was just, that was a lot of energy I put into one person. I should have just moved on. So that's how I practice now. It's different. There's a little bit more turnover and I think that's normal and that's part of business ownership. So we're okay. Kiera Dent (02:16) What changed in your mindset for that? I have so many questions for you today. You guys, Paul and I, when we get on the podcast, it really is just like a free for all. And Paul has no clue. I have a full plan of what I'm asking you today, ⁓ but it's going to be a free for all rift of business ownership of teams. How did you change that perspective? Because I think so many people chalk that up to, I'm a failure of a boss if I've got turnover. Like I had a doctor the other day on a coaching call and she's like, Kiera, Paul Etchison (02:19) Yeah. Kiera Dent (02:42) What am I going to do for PR? Like I've got people turning over and how do I PR this? So anything is twofold. One, how did you get like mentally change that mindset? Cause I think it's a big mental game. Paul Etchison (02:54) Yeah, for me, was everything that I've done in my career as far as like leadership growth and stuff, I think has always stemmed from some period of just struggle and burnout to some extent. It was like, I got to the point where I was taking everything that happened at the practice personally, every upset person at upset employees, they're bothered about something. They're they always, I mean, they're telling you how you should be doing things that not realizing that there's very complicated solutions. And sometimes there's not perfect solutions. A lot of times there's perfect solutions. So I think what changed for me is I started looking at it from a point of my mental sanity saying I can't attribute my feelings on the happiness of all these team members anymore. And all I need to do is just be very clear on what I want, be very consistent with the way that I treat them and hold them to that standard. But ultimately, I'm putting the ball in their court. It's up to them. And if they want to play ball, cool. If they don't, that's cool too. We can still be friends and you can go to some other office where it's more to your liking. But the biggest change for me was just realizing I can't be everything to everybody. And I did it for a long time and it was really exhausting. And I worked through that and I feel a lot better it. I think my team is better for it. Kiera Dent (04:08) Yeah, no, I don't disagree. And I'm glad you talked about that. It's been fun. think Paul, you felt like, I don't know, a big brother to me when we met and I came out to your practice and the fun things we've been able to do together and just the differences. ⁓ I think as we've grown up in the industry together, but I, I admired that because I always thought you had this amazing team. And I think to hear your version and then my version at the same time was very similar. I just realized like, We got a killer team. Like this is an amazing company. And I think when I evolved to you're so lucky to work here, you're so like not in an egotistical way, but I think in a confidence way of like, this is a great place and we're going to attract people. I started realizing like I had confidence to make offers of what we actually wanted to pay versus what I felt like I had to chase to get people to be here. ⁓ we pivoted and I used to like chase all the time and try to be everything for everybody. And then I'm like, Why am I doing this? Kiera, like you have built a company and a culture and a space that people love. And yes, there are changes and I will continue on forever evolve. I don't think that we're a perfectly set company, but I think that we're a pretty great, awesome place to work. And I think when I became centered, confident in me and what I was providing in the culture without having to be everything, I noticed I actually attracted a way different type of employee. I attracted somebody who wanted that same style. They, it, It was like no more like games. think in like compensation and all this, it was more just centered. It was like, this is what we do and this is who we are and I want great people. And I also think it was very much attributed to like, got dialed in on core values. And I was like, I'm sticking to these. These are like rock solid. do not deviate from that. And if you don't fit. Fantastic. There is another opportunity, like go find your dream place and we're going to find our dream team member. And I say that in a very like confident, hopefully not egotistical. And I think you, sounds like you did a similar thing, but I. I will say, I think you go through a space of realizing you're not a failure. It's an evolution. I think of, of leadership. It's almost like going from, I don't want to say immature. It's more like children and how's they grow. Like, I don't think a little baby is a failure for having that knowledge and that mindset. And I think some of us, are toddler baby owners. Like we've never done this before. We don't know. So we're going to have a different mindset. And then you just start to morph and evolve just like Children grow up and they morph and evolve into these teenagers, into these college students, into like the prime of their life. To me, that also feels like a maturity of leadership as well to being confident with that. Paul Etchison (06:42) Yeah, I love that you point that out too, because we do, we hear a lot of complaints from our team members and then we start to, it starts to add up and then we start to really doubt. Did we really create a great work environment? I mean, we just had an all day meeting maybe about two months ago, maybe six weeks ago, like that. And one of the questions I asked, we use this thing called Slido. It's just in real time, you put on a PowerPoint slide and everybody can vote on their phone. There's a million like programs that do this. But I asked the whole team anonymously on a scale of one to 10, how fun is it to work at Nelson Ridge Family Dental? And I was terrified to throw that Kiera Dent (07:03) Thank Paul Etchison (07:19) there. I had no idea what people were going to say. Kiera Dent (07:20) I don't blame you. Paul Etchison (07:22) It was everybody was like eight, nine. There was like three or four sixes. Now I have 30 something team members. So the Kiera Dent (07:29) Yeah. Paul Etchison (07:30) of it was very good, but it was, it was scary. if you would have asked me what I thought it was going to Kiera Dent (07:35) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Paul Etchison (07:37) I did not think it was going to be that good because the squeaky wheel gets the grease. This, you know, that's what we hear. That's what we focus on. And it reminds me of this one coaching client I had, cause I coached dentists as well. had a coach coaching client named Isaac and he did very similar to you. choir practice, he really got deep into the foundational core values of this is what the practice is. And turned over his entire team and he said, I feel like such a failure. I feel like everybody's leaving. I feel like I'm just turning everybody off. Patients are coming in and asking where everybody is. I just don't think my leadership's good. And I told him, just hang through, Hang, you'll find your people. And then six months later, he was like, I cannot tell you how much I love my team. And so I think the message of what you and I are saying, Kiera, is that no matter Kiera Dent (08:12) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Paul Etchison (08:22) what you want to do with what kind of vision you have for your practice, your team's out there. They are there. They are waiting for someone to take charge and just make it a big deal that that's the type of people we have at this practice. Kiera Dent (08:26) Mm-hmm. Paul Etchison (08:33) So if anyone's listening thinking like, have this issue at my office, get those core values out, talk to the team about it. Don't just like leave it on a document, bring it up with ⁓ a meeting and say, guys, this is what I truly want. And sometimes apologize. I'm I haven't been holding everyone to the highest regard or the highest standard, but I'm ready to do it and I need your help. So I love that you brought up those two points. Those are amazing things and I think everybody struggles with that. Kiera Dent (08:55) Yeah. I think, and I think that that's something that I feel you and I both strive to do is tell people feel like they're not alone. I think so many doctors feel like I'm the only one out there. I'm the only one who can't keep my team there. I'm the only one who has team turnover. And like, this is not the path that we were even on my radar to head, but I think it's obviously the most important path for people to hear. ⁓ I think Paul, it's the no judgment. It's the hang through it. It's, ⁓ having a guide, a mentor who's been there, done that, done that successfully. I mean, you and I can both like, Gosh, you like grit through that and it's painful. But I also believe that while yes, painful, I feel it's an evolution of soul that you actually internally are craving. I don't believe that we rise to the call until we're ready. Like Kieran 2020, when I'm sitting on Johnny Depp like boat in the ocean, it was on fire. I was not ready for the call and the evolution that came in 2024 for me. Like I just, wasn't ready for it, but come 2024. And I think it's a, it's a shedding, it's a shifting. It's a, like, I call it like the skin sloughing. Like it's like a snake, like you're leaving it behind. It's, I watched penguins when I was in Antarctica, like small flex there, Paul. Like the Antarctica trip was pretty rad. And we watched it. Right? We went to Antarctica. Penguins are so cute and they smell terrible. Like they're like little ketchup bottles that just squirt poop all day long. And it's disgusting. Paul Etchison (10:11) I was just going to follow up on that. Whoa. Kiera Dent (10:25) but they were molting when we were there and they just looked absolutely miserable. Like they sat there and they told us like, please don't touch the penguins. like, these look just, they're like, it's very painful for them. They're having to completely molt off all of these feathers. And I think that that's how I feel a lot of business owners are like, are you going through that molting process? But again, just like those penguins, just like us, I really do believe that when we're ready to be called to that higher level, one, you're not alone, two, you don't have to go through it alone. Three, it's normal and it's part of growth, but like, there's also, you don't have to grow until you actually want to. Like, it sounds like Isaac was just ready. Like, I'm ready, I'm done. Like, I've hit my limit. I was ready, I was done. I was like, we are having a complete culture shift. Like, we're done and like, it needs to evolve. Sounds like you had it. But I also feel, and I don't know how you feel, Kieran 2020, Kieran 2024, even into 2025, leadership culture company. keeps evolving. don't feel like I have as many of those like huge molting in 2020, huge molting in 2024, 2025. It's more of a shift in a refinement rather than a full molt. But that's, think how, at least for me, that's how I think I view leadership is. Paul Etchison (11:37) Yeah, totally agree. It's like we go through these stages of leadership growth. And I remember for me, like leadership all the way up to COVID was like system, system, systems, consistency with team. And my team grew to like 35, 40 people and it got really unmanageable. And then when we came back from COVID from being shut down, I really wanted to try to do something different. And I wanted to keep that. ⁓ I just loved when we were shut down for COVID. I loved how it felt. It felt easy. And I said, I want that, but I don't want that craziness when we open up again. And when I did, I started to feel that same craziness. And I was going to therapy at the time. And like the therapist will tell you, just change your expectations. Don't take everything personally. And what I learned through that is there's no amount of therapy that can broken leadership Is that I had systems, I had consistency, but my team had outgrown those systems. We needed more systems of leadership. So the next stage in my leadership was learning how to lead leaders and truly delegate and truly give them the autonomy to do everything. And when we did that, everything got so much better. there was parts of me that was like, I'm not the right person for this level of organization. not the right person for this size of a dental office. I'm just too anxious. I take Kiera Dent (12:41) Mm-hmm. Paul Etchison (12:59) too personally. And ultimately, I think it was just I Kiera Dent (12:59) you Paul Etchison (13:02) set up, I didn't set up my organization the proper way. So that was the next level up for me. And I think that's me shedding my skin finally once and for all to learn how to lead leaders. And who knows what's Kiera Dent (13:14) Paul, I think that you are actually a really good example of letting go of control. How do you do that? Like, I remember talking to you one day, this is offline, hopefully I'm not oversharing. And you're like, a lot of people say, like, what are you going to do if you retire? And I know you sold your practice to a DSO and you're like, I've never looked back. Like it was great. Um, you're like, I'm actually the person who's okay to just like sleep in and do nothing. Like I really am okay with that. Like, how did you let go of that control with your team? Um, knowing that they weren't going to do it exactly like you, like, I think people have this in theory. They try to do it, but. Paul Etchison (13:23) No, of course not. Kiera Dent (13:49) Like that's another molting. That's another really hard gap to go from full control. You're in charge of everything to I'm stressed out. Now I'm going to let team members take over and maybe you're, maybe you're an anomaly, maybe you're a unicorn, but how did you do it? Paul Etchison (13:59) Yeah. I think it's like we talked about the growth, but I think where we screw up as practice owners when we do this is we get upset that the team members are not doing exactly the way that we would do it. And there needs to be some wiggle room. There needs to be a lot of forgiveness. But ultimately, there's got to be clarity. And not enough practice owners are having the conversations with their team members. Like I always say, like, I'm coaching dentists all the time, and they're telling me about these issues they're having at their practice. And I'm saying, well, why do you think that is? And the answer is like, well, it might be this. kind of think it's this and it's like, well, get curious, ask, ask your team. So for me, it was about telling my team what's expected and when Kiera Dent (14:36) Mm-hmm. Paul Etchison (14:42) didn't meet expectations, instead of like dancing around it, just going right at the getting curious, what is going on with this? What is, why is this not happening? And then always like, you know, if you ask the right questions, the next step for any leadership, any leader is to validate their perspective. no matter what it is and that will go so far. If you take one thing out of this podcast, do that. When your team members share something with you or if you're getting curious, asking them why things are happening, how they're feeling about something, validate their experience and watch how much they open up and they're. open to behavior change and other options. And then that allows you the opportunity to then ask and invite participation in the solutions. What do you think we should do? I noticed our cancellations are getting up there. Like, what are we doing about this? What do you see happening? Getting curious. And they're saying, well, I don't know. Like, I got to ask some more OK. And then validate their experience. I totally see how maybe you got busy with your other things and you haven't been asking your team. But we've got to ask the team and find out just so many little things. For me, was getting out of the way, being clear with expectations. But then instead of trying to go around my leads and my leaders, my practice and go around them and deal with the other other... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39874600

3 Costly Pitfalls + How To Course-Correct 01/28/2026

3 Costly Pitfalls + How To Course-Correct Kiera is here with a gift to make your practice even better: The three most common mistakes dental practices make, and guidance on how to get out of them. Is your practice making one of these mistakes? Delegating tasks without ownership Avoiding hard conversations Flying blind on your numbers Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and today is one of my favorite topics of all time. It's how to avoid the pitfalls because I feel like these are costly mistakes that dental practice owners make. We make these costly pitfalls. We go into them. We don't know about them. And you guys, if you know me, I have a mantra and I say, don't lose money. I hate losing money. It's one of my biggest pet peeves and I don't want you to lose money. So I'm excited to talk about it. I hope you guys are excited because... The reality is like so many people talk about like, success leaves clues and it does, but so does failure. And I I talk about this a lot when I present and when I speak and I say like success and failure are truly not radically different. They're not, they're like small little things. It's like successful practices are consistent. Successful practices put systems in, successful practices look at their KPIs, successful practices have team meetings that are effective. Successful practices have CEO time. Successful practices have delegation and ownership. Successful practices ⁓ follow through. They look at their case acceptance. They make their re-care calls. They do their reactivation. They do different verbiage. Like that's what they do. Failure practices don't stay consistent. They always have an excuse. They're always blaming. ⁓ They don't check their case acceptance. They don't track their KPIs. They don't look at their numbers. They don't take CEO time. Like these are just little steps. And like with my fingers, if you're just listening, I'm like, almost like scallops, like if we've got a middle point, success is I checked my KPIs, failure is I didn't check my KPIs. And while that's not like a huge move, it is moving you points away to where you end up either closer to success or closer to failure. And so I think when we realize this, these are the ones, like, how can I help you guys avoid these costs and mistakes? How can I like motivate and inspire you and like, not just motivate, but genuinely change you? So that way it's not this I like, well, shoot, we're on failure row. Shoot, like, I don't really know about this. Like, I just want to talk about three of the most common mistakes that people make and how do you correct course because you're going to make mistakes. But like if I'm doing the scallops again, successful offices realize like we didn't do the KPIs. So we're going to start doing the KPIs and we don't miss those. We're going to hold the meetings and we don't miss those. they course correct before they end up in the failure or the success bucket. They're course correcting constantly. And so this is just like where I'm at coaching hundreds and thousands of offices, team members galore, our team, like literally, I feel so blessed that we get to serve so many offices. I just saw like this really awesome highlight reel of all these doctors that came in person and I was watching it with Jason and I look over and Jason's just the sweetest thing. He's tearing up and he said, Kiera. I knew when you started Dental A Team, it was going to be like, he's like, I never imagined it being what it is today. He said, but all those people's lives, including all of you listening to the podcasts, all of those lives that we've been able to change because of Dental A Team Gosh, that is just such a blessing. It's such a beautiful thing. And I just want to say thank you. Like, thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of the offices. Thank you for being a part of my Dental A Team podcast family. Thank you for just showing up. Thank you for changing lives through dentistry. Thank you for giving people a gift of confidence. Like, And for me to be able to give you a gift to make your practice even better, that's what I'm here for. That's what Dental A Team's about. So like we're here to help you recognize patterns. We're here to help you avoid burnout. We're here to help you make small changes before they become giant snowballs. And I think like my thought process has always been I'm here to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. We're here to share this podcast message with every single office out there. We're here to help offices realize like running a successful practice. does not have to be hard. It can actually be easy. And let's give you the tools, the tips, the resources, all of that to make your life a grand success. So if that sounds great to you, we'll rock on. So step number one, mistake number one that's very costly is delegating tasks without ownership. So like so many offices, hear them like, Kiera, I listened to the podcast and we implemented it, but like it just didn't work out. And I'm like, yeah, cause you delegated it and you didn't have the structure, didn't have the ownership, you didn't have the accountability, you didn't have the metrics. Like, okay. One of the doctors called this doctor out and they said, this doctor is a walking cheat, like cheat code. Go talk to him, go ask him what he does because he's been able to take his practice for massive success, which is true. When I met them, were doing about 1.5. Now we're clearing five. We're going to be crushing six to seven. And I just like, gosh, the giddiness in me for this office. Like they deserve the sun, the moon, the stars. Like you name it. They're just such good humans. And so when I think about this, like we're talking, this is a practice that went from like 1.5, 2 million up to this six, $7 million practice now, something I've noticed. And like I said, this doctor is a walking cheat code. They, when we go in and we're like, okay, we're going to roll out this new process. So we're going to do a new process on how we do case acceptance, or we're going do new process on how we do cancellations. They don't just go to the team and be like, all right guys, we're going to do cancellations. They are like, we're going to build an SOP. we're gonna have a team training, we're gonna have a metric, we're gonna do it for these four weeks. And they don't take a long time to execute on that. So it's like, perfect, we're gonna have this done in the next three weeks. But they execute, it's rolled out, it's like, it's very, very thorough. And this is a practice of a very large team and they all do it consistently. And when something gets off, they just go right back to the SOP, they update the SOP, where was it missed? What do we need to do? Let's do a team training on it. But I will say I've coached hundreds of offices and this is one office that I watch constantly that is able to delegate, have ownership and be able to have a full team move and stay hyper accountable. So this is just like, you've got to have ownership. You've got to have SOPs. You've got to roll it out to the team, make sure everybody's aware. And then we've got to have the metrics and the check-ins to make sure something's not off. And if it is off, we follow through on it. So people know that when we roll out new processes, they're here to stick. They're not just like a flash in the pan of like, I heard it on a podcast. Let's try it out. No, it's very, very, very thorough. So a quick check for you is like, go back and look at the last three things that you delegated. Did you assign them? Did you own them? And did you have follow up on it? crickets. Yeah, yeah, because you did it. Darn it. But you're going to do it in the future. Or maybe you did. And I'm high fiving you. But most of the time, people don't. And this is so costly because then you can't ever be free. You think you're moving. You're taking one step forward, but you're actually taking like 500 steps backwards because nothing's actually getting delegated. Nothing's actually moving forward. And you're only relying on your A plus star players that are building all these ownership accountability pieces. And people are like, but I want everybody to be that way. And I'm like, human nature is not. Tell me how you're doing on your New Year's. resolutions, probably not great because human nature by default doesn't stay accountable. Why do think I'm in business? because people, they know what they need to do. People are like, Kiera, I pay you to tell me like what to do that you do on the podcast. And it's like, yeah, because human nature is not follow through. Why do I pay a gym trainer? I've got all the resources, I got all the tools. I need somebody to literally hold me accountable to make me show up to work out. So look at the last three tasks. Did you delegate them? Was their ownership? Did you follow up on them? Did they have a metric? If not, it up, fix that and start to delegate with ownership and accountability. So mistake number two, are you guys ready for this? It's avoiding hard conversations. ⁓ man, that's a crowd drop off. This is so real though, because we don't have like Patrick Lanziani has the five dysfunctions of a team. And if you and your team have not read this, I highly recommend it's a very easy fable. Have it as like some like, evening reading. It's so fast, it's so easy and it's very, very great. And I think it's a reread. So if you've listened to it in the past or you read it, maybe do a reread. ⁓ But when we don't have trust and vulnerability and then we don't have healthy debate, AKA hard conversations, what happens is like little small issues become cracks and cracks aren't bad. But if cracks stay there, they actually break and then it becomes toxic and then it arose the entire team. So in leadership, we've got to have, let's like, I coached his office. guys might know him. He's incredible. ⁓ They've got a lot of offices. think I did seven office visits ⁓ in three days. We were hauling booty. And I love this doctor because he pays for me to come in to coach his teams, to teach them how to have uncomfortable conversations, to remind them like this is why we're here. And the more we have just a few of these and we get away from the fear of discomfort. and wanting to keep the peace, which is actually artificial harmony, we like care, we align and we move forward. And we use the sports analogy on this of, can you just imagine like pick your favorite sports team, basketball, baseball, soccer, I don't care what it is. Can you imagine for one second, like we'll just use basketball for instance, or football. Like if the quarterback or the point guard goes in, like let's do football, because they get thrashed. Like if that quarterback gets thrashed because his defensive line is not protecting for him. or no one's open because they didn't follow the play, can you just imagine if that quarterback runs off the field and is like, hey coach, could you tell the defensive line to cover for me next time? Like absolutely not. Or if that quarterback is just like, I'm just so angry with my defensive line. Like they didn't block for me. Like, no, can you imagine? Like, no, they call it out. Like you got a freaking block for me. Like we need to win this game. I need this to happen. And they do it in real time because everybody on the team, is committed to winning and they call each other in real time of their blind spots. Like my brother said, I'll play basketball. I played tennis. You got to call it in the moment. Like my dad is like, you got to call it in real time. You got to say, Hey, I need you to block. I need you to box out for me. I need you to like throw the ball. Like I'm here. Like I need you guys to get open, whatever it is. But like, if we can get a little bit better, that that's our culture rather than a, we sit here pretending to be perfect, but ultimately hating each other. and hate's probably a strong word, but creating gaps. And so what I encourage is we normalize uncomfortable conversations. We normalize and encourage it. We push on peer to peer accountability. We have each other instead of it being up to the coach, AKA office manager or doctor, to each other, peer to peer, to where we talk about it. We wanna get the W, we wanna win. And so helping your team realize that this is going to be the best way for us to win is to have these hard conversations. And it's not, I say it's not confrontation. It's just a conversation. Like let's take that hard out of there, but let's say what needs to happen. And so I would say, doctors, one of the worst things you can do to your great players is to tolerate the poor performance of a lower player. ⁓ Because they're watching you. They're watching to see standards are not what you say. They're what you tolerate. And so when you're A plus players are watching, like, well, doctor is going to do this constantly or doctors are not going to care about that. Now team members, can rise up and you can take care of things too. Doctors, we've also got to make sure that we're encouraging and we're having the hard conversations too. I don't think you know how much I do not enjoy hard conversations, but I know as a leader, as a boss, as a CEO, as a consultant, I have got to have the hard conversations and I'm going to keep having them. They're not easy, but they are my responsibility and I'm going to show up as a good team member because actually that's better than living in artificial harmony. It's so much better. So there's a great quote. If you want it, your success and happiness, that's my add on your success and happiness are directly proportional to the number of uncomfortable conversations you're willing to have. So if you want to grow, if you want to rise, how many of you look at your KPIs or your numbers like, gosh, freaking schedule is not full. Like, oh, like our profitability, like, but I go to my team meetings and I'm like, great job guys, you're doing great. Why don't we call it out? Hey, profitability is not where it needs to be. What are our solutions to get it to where it needs to be? I'm not being a jerk. I'm not sitting here sizzling. Hey, our schedule is not up to goal. What are we doing to get that fixed? Let's have a conversation. Let's fix it. Let's normalize that. That's calling out in real time. Hey, our schedule is not to goal. Like what's our solution? How are we going to get there? It's like it's a huddle. It's a genuine huddle. Think about sports players. Like they get together. Like you need to block. I need you to call that person. I need you to do this. You guys need to call that all the hygienists. If you've got downtime, call seven patients, whatever it is. That's how we get the W. something rude, let's normalize that we are a team. We call each other out. We celebrate when we win. Also like on the flip, like let's go to basketball, let's go to football. When they score a touchdown, the whole team that was just calling each other out of like, I need you to block, I need you to do this. They also go to the end zone and they freaking celebrate. They lift each other up, they're high-fiving. It's both. So let's make sure that we're calling each other out and normalizing that. And we're also celebrating and normalizing that as well. So this is something of, I would just encourage you to have one honest conversation, and also I'd recommend in your next team meeting, let's have this if that's a standard, put it up in the break room. We normalize hard conversations. We encourage hard conversations. We are a company that does not sit in artificial harmony. Whatever it is, plaster that, build that into your culture. This is something you've got to like, if you guys could see, I'm like boxing out, like I'm pushing the defense. Like you've got to push this through all the way for you guys to get this to be that and to avoid that costly mistake. All right, mistake number three. This one should come as a no brainer. You guys know I love numbers and numbers love me. It's flying blind on your numbers. So I think that production feeds the ego, profit feeds the family. So when I look at this, so many doctors are like, well, Kiera, I know you say that the numbers are there, but I don't have any money. And I'm like, yes, but making haphazard, crazy decisions because you're not looking at your numbers and you're not using them as a roadmap, you're just flying by the seat your pants. And so when you look at this, you've got to know like, here's just a, guess, I guess to help you see like, am I flying blind on my numbers or do I maybe know my numbers? Question number one, what's your breakeven number? Now that's twofold. What's the breakeven number on the practice and what's the breakeven number paying you? Two questions, okay? My question is, what is your overhead on your supplies? What percent, what is your current overhead? What is your debt services taken out of your overhead? What is your EBITDA? What is your net profit? AKA cashflow. Of that profit, are you saving your taxes? Hmm, something to think about. Fascinating, right? That's how you know. And if you can't answer those questions right now. I know you're probably flying a little blind. Maybe you even just have like a eye patch on. That's okay. Maybe you're only half blind, not all the way blind. Or maybe you're like, Kiera, I'm walking in the dark. I don't even know any of that. don't even know where to find the PNL. It's fine. Wherever you are, you've got to get this dialed. Like I am a sticky broken record. haven't talked to her. Oh man, I'm so excited. She's going to get on podcast with me. And last year we were chatting and she was like, Kiera, like we were debating. Is she going to join consulting? Is she not going to join consulting? And she's like, I have got to get profitable. And I said, all right, rock on, challenge accepted. We are going to get you profitable. I have been a broken record with this poor doctor for an entire year. It's production, profit, production, profit, production, profit, production, profit. Head down, produce, make sure your team's collecting and make sure we're profitable. That is what we've done all year long. And guess what? Come the end of the year, she's like, Kiera, I have so much money, I got to pay taxes on it. Like we did it. and she did it in 11 months. So production, profit, production, profit. If you're producing, but you're not collecting and you're not looking at your numbers, you're not going to be profitable. If you're not planning for taxes and you're not saving for taxes, you're not gonna be profitable. If you don't know what your breakeven is on the practice and then what the breakeven is and what it needs to produce with you in there, you can't project this out and you can't forecast it and we can't figure out what your daily goal needs to be. And then you're just producing for the sake of producing for your ego. Who was that a rank? Could you tell us there? If you like that email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I might rap it. You guys, I used to have a rapper name Skittlez with a Z so I could wrap with Eminem. Tell Eminem I'd love to wrap with him. I've never gotten that far, but you know, Skittlez, Skittlez and Eminem. I don't know why I just told you that. Email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. If you think I should be Skittlez and rap it out. I'd love to hear from you. I genuinely love a good pen pal. So write me. But you've got to know your numbers. You have to. non-negotiable. And this is, think, where accountability as a coach comes into play. I force our clients with our consultants to know... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39874620

The Ad That Will Hire Your Unicorn 01/27/2026

The Ad That Will Hire Your Unicorn Tiff and Monica provide exclusive, step-by-step insight into creating hiring ads that both grasp your specific practice’s strengths and needs, and attract those rockstar team members you’ve been looking for. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back today. I think we used to call it Consultant Takeover and now it's just literally a podcast, but it's my consulting team. And gosh, I love these days. You guys get to hear me just brag about the consultant team and the Dental A Team in general. And I have one of my faves. All these women are some of my favorite human beings in life. we got to recently, we were able to spend some really good quality time together and really just. Honestly, it was just fun. Like it wasn't even one-on-one, like getting to know each other. It was just really getting to know each other by proxy of having fun together. And if no one here listening knows, fun is one of our core values. And that is one of the core values. I don't even know. You may know this, but it was one of the core values that Kiera and I have had literally since day one. That was one that has never changed. Fun has always been there. We did have it really high. used to be our number one core value. And then we realized like, it was setting a weird precedent. So it's not quite as high anymore, but fun is massive for us. And we really, truly believe if you're not having fun, what are you even doing? I think there's oftentimes in life that things are not necessarily quote unquote fun, but there should be some air of sprinkles on top that can make life a little bit more fun in the end. So Monica, you make podcasting fun, your way of thinking. I like following. Monica (00:59) Yeah. The Dental A Team (01:22) your thought process. really, it is really fun for me to follow the thought process, especially because I tend to think I'm pretty good at knowing where someone's going or what they're doing, what their intent is. Like I'm usually pretty good at keying into it, but sometimes you catch me and I'm like, dang, I love how your brain works. So I love it because you make me think a little bit harder, like a little... more intentional, I like the word intentional. You make me think a little more intentional than I do on my day to day. So thank you for being here today, Monica, and shedding your brilliance on the Dental A Team, listeners and team. How are you this morning? It's a Monday morning for us and we're just at it bright and early. How are you? Monica (02:09) I'm doing great, Tiff. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me. You know, I think one of the things that attracted me and I was really curious about the Dental A Team was that core value of having fun because, you know, we just kind of get a little serious and boring as we become adults. And I'm like, gosh, I don't ever remember thinking like, my gosh, this work should be fun. Sometimes it is fun, but should it be fun? And I was so curious about that. to be honest, I think I shared this. I struggled a little bit with adding the fun factor in, you know, when I think about work and in my day. And I'm so glad that I decided to join the Dental A Team because that is my core value. Every day that I wake up, I'm like, I'm going to make this so fun today. What's going to be fun about my day? And I think fun is just a mindset. Right? Because you can do hard things. You can have hard conversations. You can have a hard day and still look for the fun and still make it fun. ⁓ So thank you. Thanks for inviting me today. This is one of my, I guess, new hobbies, newfound passions is podcasting, unscripted podcasting, ⁓ going with it. Right. And just seeing what our brains kind of like come up with. So. The Dental A Team (03:31) Yep. Monica (03:35) just so you all know, this is unscripted. This is ⁓ just real time and I love it. I love the authenticity of it, right? Because this is where great ideas are born with no agenda. it's, you you and I have like this really great kind of cadence and engagement. One thought leads to another. And sometimes I have to stop myself because I can see myself going down and, you know, a rabbit hole and just, you know, and so we'll... We'll keep it short and sweet and impactful. The Dental A Team (04:07) Awesome. I love that. Thank you. And I'm glad that you, I'm actually glad that you mentioned that I do. I do think it's important for listeners to know, like this is literally off the cuff. Uh, 99.9 % of it, have a topic and we like brainstorm for a quick minute, but really we have no idea what's going to come out of these podcasts until it's done. So it is a really magical experience. And I like it that way because I think that, like you said, there's, there's more ideas that are born in that kind of a mindset and it does, it keeps it fun. Monica (04:12) Thank Yeah. Yeah. The Dental A Team (04:36) Monica, been actually, it's been really fun. From my seat, I get to see the evolution of consulting and the evolution of ⁓ your position at the, at the company. And it's, was, it was been really cool. And I think for the listeners to know the Monica that you see today has always been here, but she was more reserved. And I think that comes from, it's fair. It's fair. comes from just, like you said, the older we get, more. we lose that like the Santa Claus effect. Like we lose that magic and the sparkles and reality sets in and we get, my boyfriend likes to call himself a realist. He's a pessimist a lot of times, but he calls himself a realist, which is fair. But we do become this like realist mindset when we're just like factual and we're like checking off the lists and we're so diligent and we tend not to laugh as much as we wanted to before. for us fun just means that We enjoy what we're doing. We bring an element of fun to our consulting. So when we work with you guys, like we're having fun. We're enjoying what we're doing. We're laughing. We're making light of the situations that we can. And we're making massive changes with easy implementations that totally just change the game for you guys. And that to us is so much fun for us to sit back and see. We can make a millimeter tweak on something that feels so massive in your world. and then it all falls into place. And it's just really cool. think of like the implants, know, they're tweaking, tweaking, tweaking and torquing. And you can go a millimeter too far or be a millimeter too short or be like spot on. And that's what I think of like that, that implant torque. We're not making massive adjustments, but we're making massive impacts and implant changes someone's life, but it's minimal adjustments. Monica (06:25) Yeah. Yeah, I think ⁓ just to add to what you said, it's really important to take some time to see through the childlike eyes, right? With awe and wonder. ⁓ think it's also important not to confuse fun with playtime, right? Because work is serious stuff, what we do, right? We can have fun and get the job done and have those really impactful days ⁓ because it is a serious The Dental A Team (06:45) Yes. Yes. Monica (06:58) business, right? ⁓ And fun doesn't equal playtime. And I remember a client of mine saying, well, you know, it's all you guys sound to like fun. And I'm like, yeah, because work should be fun. What you're doing is amazing. You are helping people achieve their goals, their wellness goals, the smiles that they've wanted, maybe relieving someone out of pain and, you know, shame and everything that goes around, you know, dentistry. The Dental A Team (07:23) Yeah. Monica (07:28) And you're impacting, you know, your team's lives and your community's lives and your own life. And it should be fun. You should see the beauty of that, right? ⁓ So it's not all fun and games, guys. It is serious stuff. When we say fun, that means live life, you know, with joy and wonder and childlike lenses. So ⁓ if you, I think if you approach, you know, the day with that mindset, everything is lighter, everything is ⁓ easier, right? There's a place to things and there's just, you you're operating from a heart space versus your mental space, you know? The Dental A Team (08:08) I agree. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I understand that everybody's going to have a core value of fun and that's okay, too. You don't have to. You truly don't have to. And you don't have to come in in the same mindset as we do. Just know that's how we operate. And when you work with us, that's what you're getting. You're getting that fun mindset of how can we make small changes that make massive impacts. And one of those spaces, I've actually watched you, make some pretty massive impacts with a client of yours. So this is Monica (08:17) Yeah. The Dental A Team (08:36) This is a good topic that came up for us. We get our topics from our list and I thought this was a great one for Monica actually because you have been working with a client recently. This is on hiring and building hiring ads and I know you've got at least one and you've got multiple that are hiring, but you've got one that you've worked like literally hand in hand as though you're part of their, you are part of their team, but if your boots on the ground, part of their team because of their capacity and the type of hiring that they're doing. We've done this with a lot of clients, especially when they're hiring like office managers, because the office manager would do the hiring, right? So when they don't, which is the situation you're in now where they don't technically have like a dedicated office manager ⁓ with enough space in their world to do the hiring, even down to writing the ads and let's face it, the dentist CEOs, it's not your forte, first of all, most of the time, and you don't have time for it either. So building that out and Monica, have... the reason that it's applicable is you have had fun doing this with them. And there's been challenges too, but I think you've made some massive strides with them in this aspect. And the first space that you started was really learning the team, learning the practice, and writing ads that attracted the right type of people. And now you guys are in the interview process, but Monica. From the lens of consultant working with this practice or other practices you've done as well, how do you advise them and how do you help craft those ads to speak to their needs? And everyone's so different, right? So how do you do that and what suggestions do you think people could take away from today to do that on their own as well? Monica (10:18) Yeah, that's a great question, Tiff. And you're right, I've had a fun time ⁓ kind of wrapping my arms around this one client that does need it. I think one really important factor is like, remember who you are. Why are you great? When we are in a space of lack, whether we're lacking appropriate team members or we're not, you know, doing what we want to do. We're not doing the dentistry that we want. We're not where we should be. ⁓ I think we go down this rabbit hole of like, and almost inertia kicks in, you know? So let's reframe that mindset. Why are you great? Why did you start this? You know, how do you measure success? So I always say great leaders at ask great questions. ⁓ Ask yourself those questions. Why am I great? What's different about me? Do I want to be different? And if so, what makes me different? What do I do differently than my colleagues in the area? And identify who you are. What's your persona? What do patients say about you? Go to your reviews, pull up your Google reviews, do a little kind of investigative work, a self-discovery. about your practice. What are your Google reviews? What are patients saying about you? What do you want to be known for? The Dental A Team (11:52) Yeah, I love that. actually, Simon Sinek, I listen him a lot and he speaks about your why, right? Finding your why. And he says often, if you're trying to figure out what is your special gift, like what is your talent? What is it that you're here? What is your purpose? He says, ask your friends. Ask your friends why they are friends with you. What is it about you that your friends... Monica (12:16) I love that. The Dental A Team (12:19) stick around for or that they lean on you for. And I think Monica, that makes me think of the Google reviews. Like ask your patients, like why do your patients come back? Why does your team who you have currently, why are they your team? What are they speaking about you? And I think that can go twofold, right? Cause you're gonna find out some things that you may not have, that might not be super fun. It might not feel really good to hear some of the things, but those are areas that fantastic. Let's pull that into a KPI. How can we improve that? But you're gonna hear so many things as to why people love you, why they love your practice, why you. so I love that self-discovery start. I think it's really, really massive. Monica (12:55) Yes. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You're gonna hear some things that you may not want to hear, but I would say approach this exercise with the mindset of gratitude. Be grateful for the feedback. Be grateful for the positive feedback and be grateful for the not so positive feedback. That's a little harder to swallow, you know? ⁓ Don't attach yourself to the outcome. Attach yourself to the process of, right? And so even when you don't have a good The Dental A Team (13:03) Yeah. Monica (13:29) ⁓ you know, less than favorable outcome or response or feedback. would say, thank you. Thank you for sharing that because this is how I'm going to get better. That's not how I want to be perceived. Right. Would you mind sharing more? Would you mind if I asked further questions? Right. Get curious and be grateful, grateful that people are willing to step out and be honest. Right. ⁓ it takes courage. It takes courage for that. so I always say don't. attach yourself to the outcome, but the process of. You can learn a lot about yourself in that process and your practice. I think Google reviews are really important because it's your patient's perception of their experience, not of you per se. And it may not be your reality, but it's their reality, right? So it allows us an opportunity to dig deeper and learn more, right? Opportunity, gratitude, what's your story? I would say start with those things, those three things, right? One of the other things that I like to do is I like to see what's out there. What are other ads that are posted in my area? What are the competitors looking for? What are they saying about their practice, right? And I put on my hat of I'm looking for a job and I am a rock star. ⁓ whatever it is, office manager, treatment coordinator. I'm a Rockstar treatment coordinator and I am looking for my next home. What ad calls my attention? Which one am I going to click on? What ads am I scrolling through? Right? Because if you want Rockstar employees, you have to have a Rockstar ad. Right? And so if your ad is ⁓ The Dental A Team (15:17) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Monica (15:24) the same as the other ads, ⁓ it's gonna be about the money. So who are you? Why should a Rockstar treatment coordinator come work for you? Start with your story. What are the qualities that you're looking for? What are the qualities that you have as a practice ⁓ to offer this Rockstar candidate? So start there, who are you? The Dental A Team (15:49) I love that. Monica (15:54) Why should I come work for you versus come work for me, right? Flip the framework of how you're posting your ad and how you're crafting your ad. The Dental A Team (16:02) Yeah, yeah, I love that because it makes me think of, you know, back in the day when I was in office and writing ads, it was like, I'm putting up like, five, six, seven sentences that's like, this is what we're hiring for. I need a treatment coordinator. Like, this is what you're going to get paid and people apply and we'd get thousands of applications, you know, and it's just, it's different now because I think people are looking for a place they want to have fun. They want to enjoy their job. They want to really work for a place that they feel Monica (16:13) Yes. The Dental A Team (16:30) seen valued heard and they want to know what that place is before they walk in and so rather than the old model of This is what we're you know, these are all of the things we're looking for ⁓ As far as the job. I think the new model is this is who we are. This is our vision These are our core values We're looking for somebody who aligns with that and this is the job that they're gonna do and I think it's flipped so much in the last five years Realistically almost six years now, right? that we just have to think differently and we have to speak differently. Monica (17:01) Yeah, and social media has also changed the game, right? mean, people can get an insight of your culture and who you are just by following your page, your Instagram page or your Facebook page or going on your website. But I truly believe social media and like those quick clicks, Instagram, Facebook are the persona of your practice, right? And so you gotta make sure that that's aligned with The Dental A Team (17:06) Absolutely. Monica (17:29) with the ad that you're posting and the reality of a day-to-day in your practice, right? And so social media can be so impactful, like Google reviews, whatever social media you use, a lot of people have TikToks, they have other things that I don't participate in because it can get overwhelming, you know? But social media is powerful. mean, you use that as your platform, your patience. The Dental A Team (17:51) I can. Monica (17:57) You best believe that people are going and checking your reviews and your space, your social media space, because they want to know. They want to know, is this truly who they say they are? Because we have choices, right? And let's be honest, our phone is glued to our fingertips 24 seven, even if we don't want to, it is. And there's power in that, right? So those platforms give a visual. The Dental A Team (18:19) Yeah. Monica (18:27) ⁓ to anyone basically. I mean, it's a world of referral nowadays, right? So I think use that to your advantage. The Dental A Team (18:35) Mm-hmm. Yeah, I do. I do too. I think earlier, I don't remember if it was this one or a different recording that we did, but you were speaking about, I think it was this one, being authentic. We're off the cuff here. And so being authentic in your ad and being authentic in your social presence. So what are people on the outside seeing of you is really, really huge because if you're saying you're someone and it Monica (18:48) Yeah. The Dental A Team (19:08) doesn't line up for you, first and foremost, the powers that you believe in are not gonna send you the people. They're not gonna come if it's not in alignment with who you are. But also, those who do come are gonna see that really easily, very quickly, and honestly, the ads usually, if we were to write an ad, if Monica wrote an ad, just blanket, wrote an ad, said, hey, five practices, you guys all use this ad. It might work for one of them because it may align closely for one of them, but I think something you did, Monica, with this specific practice and the ones that you've worked with is you learned the practice. You actually, like you said, you put that hat on and you learned the demographics of the area and the demographics of... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39874650

4 Steps to 98% Collections 01/22/2026

4 Steps to 98% Collections Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite! The Dental A-Team is Team Online Statements over Team Paper Statements! This podcast episode is a sign your practice needs to get on the online statement train. Lots of practices struggle getting collections up because they’re doing it the old-fashioned way. Listen in for the four steps you should take to make it as easy as possible to collect payments from your patients. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we are bringing you something so special. I am so excited because this is one of our most popular episodes from the archives. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or catching it again, I am so excited because it's jam packed with a ton of takeaways that you can start using right now in your practice. We have released thousands, literally thousands of episodes. And I wanted to start bringing a few of these amazing episodes back for you. So I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time. on the Dental A Team podcast. The Dental A Team (00:32) You guys, happy day to you. I hope you're doing fantastic wherever you are. And I hope you are just enjoying life. I think I need this podcast more than you guys might need this podcast. I've got the COVID crank, guys. I feel like I've just gotten angry and sick of not being able to hire people and frustrated with just feeling like I'm trapped. Maybe any of you are feeling that way. Hey, just shoot me an email, say me too, you can text me. ⁓ But I hope we can all remember today, for me, when I'm in those modes, I have to literally go to my journal and do gratitude. And I also listen to, I've got a podcast that I listen to over and over and over again. Yes, you guys know I'm obsessed with Tony Robbins. ⁓ And this one is when it says change your life in 2021. And I will literally listen to that podcast over and over and over again and remind myself of how many great things there are in my life. ⁓ I don't think it's important to say like my life could be so much worse because while it can, that just negates your feelings of feeling yuck. And right now for me, I feel like I'm feeling very stagnant. But last night I had to remind myself that ⁓ just like... The world has seasons, our life has seasons. And right now, instead of maybe being in massive growth and full bloom, it's not quite spring yet. So maybe being okay to hibernate, to slow down a little bit more, to get ready for that hustle and bustle of bloom seasons. I didn't feel like I really slowed down through the winter hibernation seasons. And so maybe just also allowing yourself and your practice to go through the seasons as well. That way you can have vibrant springs. You can have very flowing summers, you can have more harvest in the fall and then have that hibernation quiet time as well. But definitely give yourself that space and not mitigate the reality of what you're facing. So today guys, ⁓ with that said, I'm here for you. If you wanna be here for me, I'll take it. So just email me guys. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'd love to hear from you. I truly do, I enjoy hearing from you guys. So thanks for being my pen pals. I never really had a great pen pal growing up. Did any of you guys have a good pen pal? Because if you did, also tell me that. Like you guys, you don't understand. Your emails that are just like a, Kiera, I'm a massive fan, I love the podcast, yeah, I had a pen pal. Those ones are some of my favorite emails of the day. You guys, I average hundreds of emails every single day. And so to get those little sprinklings of fun ones, they just make my day. So thank you for those of you who have done that. And if you're thinking about it, do it. Also, I do love ⁓ in the I travel a lot guys and I get bored a lot. I'm a very busy human. I appreciate when you guys leave us ⁓ reviews on the podcast. You guys are helping shout out to this podcast family guys. Our downloads are cranking. So whatever you're doing, keep doing it. If you're sharing this, if you're leaving reviews, do it, do it again. Have somebody else that you know do it as well because guys we are on track to break that millionth download this year and you guys are the only way that we can do this. So. Keep it up, we skyrocketed in the month of January. February is on track as well. So guys, keep moving, keep moving. And the way you can help us out, I'll give you specifics. Number one, if you have not done so, go leave a five star review on the podcast. Whatever platform you're listening, that helps us, because it helps them rank us higher so other people can find us. Number two, download the podcast. I know it sounds so dumb, but actually, Download it not just listen that helps it as well because then more people will find us because they're ranking us as a higher podcast and number three shared on social platforms So when you guys are listening, please guys have a story about us tag us in it post if there's a great topic that you're loving post that podcast because I know a lot of you guys are listening you can even just take a quick selfie while you're in the car and tag Dental A Team podcast you don't even have to list the episode those are three great ways you guys can help us radically increase our downloads and break that millionth download. Why do we care about one million downloads? I'll tell you, because we're on a mission to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. Well, guess what? If you guys don't help us share the word, we can do the work all day long and create great content. But if you guys don't share, we're only going to be able to impact as many people as we have, which is thousands, guys. I can't believe how many people listen to this podcast. It's almost three years old, guys. And guess what? you're helping to grow this into a legacy of helping other practices. So thank you guys. Kudos to you giving you a massive hug of appreciation. And with that, let's segue into a really great topic and that is on paper statements versus online payments. Ooh, sexy, fun, everything more. Just shut the podcast off right now. I hate billing. I'm just kidding. I'm going to make it fun for you. So if your practice is sending out paper statements, rock on. I'm happy for you. If you have online payments, even better rock on. If you don't have online payments, get it done because online payments are the way of the future. Let me just ask you guys, how many things do you pay online? Let's just quickly like think of everything we pay online. I buy airline tickets online, hotels online, Amazon. I promise you everybody here shops on Amazon. ⁓ Amazon, I order Christmas presents online, birthday presents, gift cards to favorite restaurants. 99 % of everything we do is online. There's very few things that we actually still physically have to go to a location to do. So a lot of practices struggle getting their collections up because they're doing it a bit old fashioned. That's okay. It's worked in the past. There's still a great thing for it. But paper statements, you guys really, I think are becoming a way of the past. And we need to make sure we have an easy way for our patients to do it, to make payments. I thought about this, if I were to say, could you please pay me, but I'm only available via check, which, or you can call me during the hours that I'm available. I probably wouldn't get many people paying their payments because odds are the hours that I'm available are the hours that they're actually at work making money to be able to pay those bills. Doesn't that feel a little backwards? Like if we really stop and think about what we've done, we're like, you need to call us between the hours of eight and five. Like I have a company that's trying to get me to do a scheduling appointment. Oh, I want to poke my eyes out. I'm not kidding. I'm going on five months of trying to get this thing scheduled. Five, count them up. One, two, three, four, five. The reason that it's a pain in the booty is because they are asking us to go to this place from the hours of 10 to three. I don't know if he has, no, but from the hours of 10 to three. I don't take a lunch, my coaching calls go straight through. My husband is a pharmacist and actually is a clinical pharmacist, so sees patients all day long in heart and vascular. So for us to get time to go to this appointment, what do we have to do? We have to take time off or do it on our lunch hours. But guess what? My husband's in leadership and I run a company, so lunch hours really don't and it's an appointment I don't really have a burning desire to go do. Hashtag paying payments is something people don't really want to do. So how hard is it for them to actually get in your schedule and pay your bills? The answer is we've made it very hard for them. I don't like to make it hard for people to pay me money. So how can you make it easier? Number one, the first and foremost easiest way to do it is you can actually contact your credit card processor and see if they could actually put that button on your website. Believe it or not, Dental A Team are pages for payments that clients, so if it's like gold or silver or platinum, those are actually made by my credit card processing company. They made the web pages for my payment portal. So your credit card processing companies can do that. If you need a great credit card processor, give me a call. ⁓ Email us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We've got some great ones that have great rates. Make sure you're, that's actually a like fun, like just saving money for your practices, checking your credit card rates. but you can have them literally put a button on your website for you. So that's like a great easy way to do it. Then you can update your software that says make a payment online. How many of you when you're paying bills, just go online to pay your bills? I will tell you I do it. The only time I call somebody is if my bill is different online than what it was on my paper statement. So there is a benefit of paper statements to let me know to pay it, but guess what? If we could go one step further and do a text to pay our statements, we're way more likely to actually text than to respond to paper. So for me, when it comes to online payments, first and foremost, you gotta get it there. Secondly, Modento, and I do think, don't quote me on this, I do think Dental Intel either has or is coming up with online payments. Those are probably my top two. Flex also does it for Open Dental. They only work with Open Dental. Modento works with all the major softwares. ⁓ I know, ⁓ gosh, Care Stack, they also have a built-in for online payments. but find a way to get online payments into your statements. I personally love to just text people their statement first. You can also email statements first. Think about how much money you're saving just on stamps and paper alone and printing by not mailing out these statements. Also, they've proven you're much more likely to get a text message open rate than you are to have people actually respond to emails or mail. So that would be how I would suggest you set this up. Then if we... are still mailing paper statements, totally fine. ⁓ At the Dental A Team, we actually love to send two statements, so that's 60 days worth of statements, if they haven't paid via a phone call or a text message, okay? This is super important. A lot of people hear, Kiera said I can still send two statements. That is true if you have already called them and texted them to try and get payment before we mail a statement. Okay, did you catch that? Only do you mail a paper statement if you've already called and texted to try and collect payment over the phone before we mail the statement. And that's both times we mail the statement. So for the 30 day statement and the 60 day statement. Then after that on the 90 day statement, we're going to send our third statement on red paper. Again, this is assuming they have not responded to two phone calls, two text messages, and two already normal letters. That means I've contacted them how many times? Two phone calls, two text messages, and two letters. That was two four, six times I reached out to this person, okay? Then I'm gonna call them again, text them again. Now I'm up to eight times, I'm going to mail them a red letter. The red letter is going to be like final statement, okay? So you can see that red letter actually, Tiffany did it in a practice, drastically increase the collections because guess what? They saw this red piece of paper through the little window. That's going to probably tell them that they need to fix this quickly. So that's going to drastically help you guys out a ton. So make sure that third one you sent on red paper. So those are some of the easiest ways, guys, to be able to get your AR down, get money into your practice faster and easier, and make it more convenient for your patients to pay you. But let's not forget the number one most proactive thing you can do, and that is make sure that we're collecting over the counter with correct estimates. I really can't tell you how much people are just like, we'll bill you or we'll send you a statement. Guys, you can estimate a lot closer and more accurately. It's okay if there's a balance on the account, get smarter and adjust that for next time. So you get more and more accurate, but please, please, please, please, please collect over the counter first rather than just sending statements. Cause that's actually going to cut down the need for online payments. The goal should be that we actually can reduce that exponentially. So just wanted to give you guys a quick like. Couple of ideas, I hope if nothing else, number one, get a way to make payments online. I don't care if you use a software, I don't care if you call your credit card processor, but this quarter, make it your goal that you will absolutely 100 % have a way for your patients to pay online. Number two, call and text those patients, utilize those services. Again, like I said, my dental's great, dental intel's great, ⁓ Flexa's great, find a way, that way you can text and email statements to your patients. Your software probably can do it, so check that first. Then the third thing is make sure we're calling and texting before we send those statements out. This way we can make sure that we're maximizing our time and helping our patients do it. Let's think of how is the easiest way for these patients to pay their bills? Well, number one, not to give them a bill, right? Number two, to have it convenient because most people are going to pay bills after working hours when you're not in the practice. That's great. We want to be collecting money when we're not working. And number three, How can we make sure that we have a solid follow-up process with them that makes it very easy and convenient? Send out two white letters and send the third one out on red paper if they haven't paid. The goal is you should be sending out maybe one or two, maybe at the most 10 red letters a month because we should have already been able to collect. So guys, I hope that was helpful for you. If you need help getting this set up, if you need us to help coach your billing team ⁓ or your practice, just kind of helping review that. Let us know this is what we love to do. So email me. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. This is literally my passion, my legacy, what I live to do. Yep, it's to geek out over dentistry. So call us guys. There's nothing like having somebody coach you, guide you, mentor you, save you hours of time and make your life easier. Kiera Dent (14:09) I hope you all loved today's episode as much as I did. It is crazy to think that this many episodes have been released since we started the Dental A Team Podcast. And I started looking to say, my goodness, our listeners need to be reminded of some of the things they may have learned a year ago or two years ago or five years ago, because so many things in our practices weren't relevant back then when we heard them, but they are relevant today. And I would be doing you a huge disservice if I didn't re-release some of these episodes for you to remember, to refine. to optimize and really truly if you ever need a topic or you're like, my gosh, I wonder if the Dental A Team has anything like this, go onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com, click on our podcast tab and you can literally search any topic. So whether it's overhead or hiring or firing or team morale or engagement or case acceptance or hygiene onboarding or whatever it is, we have so many episodes for you. And so I am going to intentionally be re-releasing some of the top best episodes for you, pulling back some of the ones that I needed to remember, some of the things that I feel for you to really, really relearn right now and to re-remember, or if it's the first time, welcome. I'm so happy you're listening to it, but I hope you truly enjoyed today's episode. I hope that you share this with somebody. I hope that you go and implement today because we only have one day. We only get today. And so making today the best that it possibly can be. If we can help you in any way, shape or form, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Podcast. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39776145

CEO Habits for That Next Level 01/21/2026

CEO Habits for That Next Level Kiera takes listeners through specific actions the most successful dentistry minds have incorporated into their day-to-day to stay elevated. She touches on: Planning out an ideal week Reviewing these numbers weekly Fostering problem-solvers And more! Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and I hope that you guys are having an amazing day today. I hope you're loving dentistry. I hope you're loving your opportunities. I hope that you are remembering that we have one life and I hope that you're making it the absolute best life you can. There's a song that I recently heard called Time's a Ticken and it's like, so call your mom, love your babies, talk to your friends and... I just think about it and another thing I saw were like, if your mom and dad are still able to call you, how blessed are we? And I know some people have strained relationships, but I think as much love that we can give and as much as we can foster great relationships in our lives and realize how much goodness we have, I think that's an amazing space for us. just hopefully you know how much I love and appreciate you and how much I'm rooting for you, whether I know you personally or whether... you are someone in our Dental A Team family, or if you are in our podcast family, or if you're new to this, just know I'm rooting for you. Even if I don't know you personally, ⁓ you're doing better than you think you are today. Guys, it's going to be fun. I want to talk about CEO habits for next level, like what top practice leaders are doing and just some tips for you. As we're rolling into a 2026, I love looking at habits and not necessarily fads, but habits. And so what do things do? And I believe that habits, not just hustle, are going to help you with success. ⁓ So many times it's like, well, what made the success successful? And it's like really consistency on doing the best things and the highest priority things consistently. And so giving a couple of three core habits that I think growth-minded leaders, practice owners have versus overwhelmed operators. And so really being able to give you that guidance and at Dental A Team we're obsessed with helping dentists become CEOs of their practices and having amazing teams thrive around them and. ⁓ Giving you guys all of that today is really what it is and we want you guys to feel clarity, confidence and consistency. And I know sometimes when you're in the whirlwind of the day-to-day business, it can feel very hard to have this. But I will say, if you can build these as a building blocks, the noise can lessen. I'm not gonna promise it will go away, but it can definitely lessen and doing it over time. Just like with front office team members were like, I just don't have time, Kiera. And we're like, great, let's put in a power hour. And they're like, it's never enough time. You're right. Today is not enough time, but if you do one hour a week blocked with no interruptions and you work on the highest level things, I've watched teams over and over and over again, be like, I actually don't need this hour anymore. And we get our recare calls done and we get our unscheduled treatment calls done and we block that and we do it. And office managers, they block that time and billers block the time to do insurance verification. It does not need to be a lot of time, but it does need to be consistent. So with that, you guys, this is going to be something that's a a habit, ⁓ daily and weekly habits that you can create that you can really just put into your life now. So number one is, this sounds so silly and I do this often, it's creating and committing to an ideal week. ⁓ And so that's being able to have a rhythm and not reaction. so what I noticed and it's crazy because as my company evolves, my life and my business and my schedule needs to evolve as well. When the business was smaller, I used to be able to run back to back to back to back meetings. There wasn't as much strategy that I needed to think about. There weren't as many hard decisions. There weren't as many like complex decisions that I used to be able to run a week like back to back to back. And then I realized like, I can't run like that anymore. I need to have like on time and off time, on time, off time. And then there's presenting like podcasts. Like you try to put meetings on a podcast day. You guys, am in podcast is creative land and I'm on presenting mode. And I'm like here hanging out with you guys and having a good time. don't put meetings where I'm trying to like figure out a budget that is such a different mind than a creative mind. And so really being able to block this where we have it and color coding your calendar. What I really do believe is as a CEO of a practice, you're going to have clinician time, right? You're going to have being a dentist. Then you're going to have leader time where you're developing your leaders. And then you're going to have visionary CEO time. And if you can block this in there and you don't have to have it perfect. So do I have leader time where I'm like developing my leaders and I'm spending time figuring out leadership pieces for them and investing in my leaders and coaching my leaders. Do I have that blocked in there? And then do I have this deep work visionary CEO time where I'm reviewing the financials and I'm answering questions from my office manager and doctors sometimes they even recommend you have another block of am I getting like all the busy work like the labs and the clin checks and the cases and looking at all the scheduling coming up. Do I have time to work on that? And blocking this and it sounds like, gosh, there's so much and there is, this is why you feel overwhelmed and you feel radical. So having my doctor dentists in time, my leadership development time, my CEO time, and then if you need any other time, great. I also put in my personal time. So am I working out and taking care of my body? And we did this with our mastermind group where I learned a thing called rapid planning method from Tony Robbins and I really enjoyed it. And then I took it of course, ended Kiera spin to it. But what I really loved is Tony actually had us rename our categories. So instead of saying workout time, it's my honoring my body time. And that was so much more fulfilling for me. And I also have buckets in there that are color coded of date time. Like I call it mine and Jason's forever love story. And what do I put into my calendar that's blocked specifically for that? And what's lovely is when you have colors around it, ⁓ you can actually make it to where you then are working on those specific areas. and you're able to see them very, very easily. So when we look at this, I think about my colors and my favorite color is pink. So I always have my Kiera section where I'm honoring myself. It's in pink in my calendar. When I'm working on Dental A Team and I used to like call it just Dental A Team. Now it's my passion project and it's blue. Honoring my body is orange. I needed that like vibrant orange, like getting excited about it. And I have that in there. my leadership visionary time, that's going to be a different color. For me, that's more of this like blue turquoise color. It's more serene, it's calm. So whatever that is for you, just having those color coordinated things and like I popped into my RPM planner. So I have my ⁓ ROASIS ⁓ is our home. And so working on my home, wealth, genius, fun, that's curious thing. And I always make sure I have fun built into my calendar. But I think like you can make it as complex or as simple as you want, but I would really recommend we've got our dentist time. our leader time, so maybe that's like our give back time or our development time or our like my first team time and then my visionary, my exciting time. What does that look like and really blocking that in your calendar? And so then we audit our week at the end of the week and I remember I was taught like many times like the most productive thing is to go back and look where did I win my week? Where did I like lose the week and what do need to change for this? And Even me going into a new year, actually have a new EA joining me pretty soon. So that's thrill. If any of you had a personal assistant EA that's been with you for a long time and you're getting a new one, let's ⁓ just say it's a thrill. And I'm really excited for Marissa to join as Shelbi's getting ready to have some life changes. And I'm so, so, so excited for her. ⁓ And going through that and being able to experience it, I realized I needed a different calendar. What I've been doing is not going to get me to where I need to go. And so we've been working on it and I like built it. You guys, I like to like really mass and like if I'm in podcast mode, I'm in podcast mode. And if I'm in coaching call mode, I'm in coaching call mode. And if I'm in business mode, I'm in business mode. ⁓ but I realized what I was doing is I was business mode. I was coaching call AKA dentists thing that I was in heavy meetings and then I was in podcasting. And I think sometimes when we run that heavy, it's very hard to have like downtime. And so for you looking, you're working as a dentist all four days. So could we block maybe Wednesday mornings where you have a catch up time or do we have a CEO day where it's a Friday and you actually have that block for four hours and you work on that. I have a dentist, he works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays are always off and he works Friday. And I'm like, that is the weirdest schedule. He's like, Keira, I love it. I get all my admin stuff done when people are still there. I have time to think that's when I'm gonna work on my decisions. And then I go in and have a great Friday where I've got nothing on me and I produce my highest amount. And this doctor is a very high producing doctor but he's very regimented in how he does it. And that's how he's been operating for the last like 30 years. So when you implement this and you commit, so I'm like, okay, let's break it down. guys know I like to make it easy. I like to make it tactical for you. You got to block these areas. What am I done to seeing? When am I leading? And when am I thinking about the greater big like CEOing of the company? And if I'm only going to do one, I'm going to block a two hour block every single week to work on high level of the business. Just like I recommended for our leaders blocking one hour minimum per week of deep work time. and doing it at your prime optimal time. For me, it's early mornings. I operate so good from like 6 a.m. lately, it's been like 3 a.m. until about 11 and then like I'm out. I don't want to be thinking heavy. I don't like hard things. That's my operating. Just like I run on protein, Jason runs on carbs. Like it's just operating in how we function, but really making sure you do that. Again, this is a habit. It's a discipline. It's reviewing it. And I had a doctor who was really high level. We coached together for about a year and he said, Kiera, coaching with you was one of the most impactful years of my life. because you taught me to prioritize my calendar, to review my calendar, to work on my family relationships, to work on my leadership, to delegate, to see what things were in my calendar that I could delegate. And this person has grown and added multi-multi-practices and I'm so proud of him. But truly, this is going to be your best thing. So action on this of getting this habit into place is block two hours as your CEO time, no operations, no calls. You are just fully focused on the business and commit to doing that. for the next four months. Whoa, four months, can you imagine? Just try it. Test it out, tell me, Kiera, I'm trying the experiment. Email me, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'm committed to it and I want you to not break that promise to yourself. You hold it strong. I had a doctor who did this. She put a like sign on her door and she said, do not interrupt me at all. Now you have to hold this strong because if someone's like, hey doc, I just have a quick question. Nope, right now is my time and I need you to respect my time. I'll be available at this time. You call that one or two times and your team will not interrupt you again because they know you are dead serious on this. So review it. Now you're already doing that. I want you to take it one level further and I want you to add in your date time, your workout time, something that you are also adding in that needs to be blocked. And I want you to ramp it up one more. Okay, that's number one habit. Number two habit is reviewing your KPIs and your financials every single week. And you're making decisions based on data, not on feeling. So we all know that what we measure improves, right? All of that is there. So what it is is KPIs, you gotta be looking at those, whether you're using dental Intel, we recommend Addit. Practice by numbers, I don't care. All of our clients do get Addit. So if you're like, hey, I'm thinking about consulting, but I'm not sure about cost or guess what, we cover that cost for you and it's free for you and we also have other perks for you. So ⁓ definitely cost savings that way. And we help you build a scorecard and a dashboard and we teach your team to look at this. But you as a CEO of your practice, this is how you become a CEO. CEOs make decisions based on numbers and metrics, not on feeling and gut. but you have to take time to review the data to sift through the data. We have an amazing CRO on our team that's a chief revenue officer. didn't even know that was a position. And I have been begging our marketing team to go through our podcast data to figure out what did the listeners want? have, guys, oh my gosh, we're moving into, think our, we started in 2019. So this year, seven years on the pod, guys. I cannot believe that. Lucky seven over here. But thinking about it, I was like, go look at the data. want to, not just what Kiera feels and what I think you guys, are 1,100 episodes in by now. Like we should be able to have great data of what you guys want. And you're gonna hear a change this year because we actually went through Paul kudos to him. He went through and he looked at all the data and he said, all right, Kiera, here are the episodes doing well here. The episodes not doing well. Here are the things that listeners want. Here's how we need to revamp it. And I was so proud of him and so grateful because now we're building content based on what the data is telling us. But you know how long that took him? It took him like three months to go through it all, sift through it all. And for you, You've got data, you've got case acceptance data, you've got new patient call conversion data, you've got our billing, our AR data, you've got diagnosis of doctors, we've got hygiene period data. That is the stuff you need to be looking at to see how are we doing? You've got how long is it to our next appointment? We see how far out are we booking our new patients? We see how far out are we booking our six month appointments? Are we staying at six months? How much money are we losing? A doctor had me come in and I looked and saw it, you're booking your patients eight months out. It was about a million dollars worth of revenue that they were leaving on the table. just by not having enough hygiene available. That is gold if you will take the time. So this is another step that we're gonna add in. So you've already got your CEO block. You can add this into it where we commit to reviewing our KPIs and our PNLs every single week and making adjustments to that. Now work in tandem with your office manager. Office managers, should be doing this as well. Every single week, where are we off and what do we need to do next? Every week. And we train our teams to use numbers, not feelings. And this is how we're going to lead. So team members should be looking at the numbers. They should know their department. Are we on track? Are we off track? We have scorecards every single week. All of our departments are reporting. Where are we on? Where are we off of? Where do we need to pivot? We need lead measures and we need lag measures. We need to make sure we're looking at both of those. And you literally start looking at this. And I just told you like people who do this, I have an office and she was like, Garo, we need to increase. I want to increase it. And I was like, we are profit and production. That's all we're looking at, period. I cut out all the noise. Profit production, what are the levers that are hitting that? How are we diagnosing? How are we block scheduling? How is our case acceptance? How are our new patients and how are we filling the schedule? Profit production, that's all we're hitting. And guess what? That doctor is the most profitable they have ever been. But it was because we had them laser focus. We focus on these numbers every single week. And this doctor was doing it, but they weren't optimizing and making decisions on where they really needed to go and focus on the most important thing. And I think even though you might look at the KPIs and data, are you focusing on the most important things that are gonna drive and move your practice forward? So I want you profit and production are the number two that I go after. One and two, you've got to look at those two always. And then you use the other ones to boost those two up. And if you're struggling with that, hi, I'm Kiera. We work at Dental A Team. We're a consulting company committed to making you financially free, blissfully happy in your practice and getting the best life you want. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com Okay, so let's have it number two. Habit number three is developing your people to solve problems instead of you always solving them. So. This is something where it's like, what's leadership versus what's firefighting. And you guys, I'm not perfect at this. I do a lot of firefighting. I do a lot of problem solving for teams. And I'm like, my gosh, I'll just give you the answer. But the goal is we need to fix it. And we need to start asking the question. So I'm like, hey, here's a problem. Instead of being like, here's the answer. Then we train them that we're the person that they come to. Hey, what do you think is a solution? You can roll it out. It's a three solution company. If you've got a problem, you bring me three solutions, one of which does not cost money. We have one-on-ones that focus on development, not just updates. I need to develop you as a leader. I need to work with you. I need to grow you. Where are we at? This is the things we need. Like, let's work through this. Is this really the best use of our time? Is this really the best KPI for us to be tracking? Is this really how we're gonna lead? You focusing and developing your leaders and coaching them, you don't wait for things to break. So like, let's look at the KPIs. All these, you can tell build upon each other. Let's look at the KPIs. Let's look at what you guys are needing. And then let's coach to that. But truly, If you will coach your team, there's a practice that I have known for gosh, seven years. The doctors are working in there one day a week and their office manager is running the organization and they have leaders. They have people that are following up on issues. They have the team solving their own problems. They're a solution oriented organization rather than a problem like centric like, Hey, here's your problem. Go fix it. If you need a good book, ⁓ gosh, it's the monkey book. The one minute manager meets the monkey. It's like a good little fable of don't let people put the... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39776120

How This Doctor Reached His 5-Year Goal in Just 16 Months 01/20/2026

How This Doctor Reached His 5-Year Goal in Just 16 Months DAT consultant Kristy breaks down what exactly took place for a practice that didn’t have a solid admin team, struggled to find team members, and other challenges to hit its goal of $3 million in revenue. She touches on what core systems were implemented, how delegation worked, case acceptances successes, and more that got this office meeting its five-year goal 44 months early. Episode resources: Transcript: speaker-0 (00:00) Good morning, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here. You guys know that the consultants and I love recording these podcasts and I get to be here. This is our Monday morning mix up here for Kristy and I. have switched on some of our podcast recording and honestly starting my day. with these beautiful, beautiful minds has been something that's really, really turned a corner for me. I love starting the week and starting the day with podcasting. Kristy, thank you so much for being here today. ⁓ Gosh, how are you? How's life? How's Kristy's world? speaker-1 (00:35) Absolutely. I love being here and starting the day and the week with you as well and going well. mean, hitting the ground running end of year and really pushing planning for next year. It's been fun. Fun celebrating with clients and looking toward new goals for the new year. speaker-0 (00:55) Amazing. I love it. And you guys know we record these in ⁓ succession. We record these in advance and we get these prepped and ready for you. And something we're really excited to bring you today is something Kristy's found within her digging. So every year we help all of our clients prep for the next year. We look at what did we do this year? What was your growth this year? And it gives us an opportunity to see everything that has been done and what's worked really, really well. With all of our clients, we do this obviously monthly. And then we do a really big quarterly report and get all those information over there and make sure that we're on track for our yearly goal. But at the end of the year, it's this big push to say, realistically, realistically, where are we? And then where can we take you next year to really prep and plan? So this I am really excited for. like to, you know, I like to pick the brains of the consultants. And towards the end of the year now, as Kristy is getting all of these things ready and this recording, you know, comes out early January that or early new year, I should say at least. ⁓ We're just really excited to be able to see these numbers, share them with you, and then share some tactical pieces that Kristy's been able to develop and implement with this specific practice we picked today. So I am so excited, Kristy. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for allowing me to pick your brain on your clients. I know you have a handful of platinum and gold clients that you work with constantly. are a... ⁓ you are a digger. Like I feel like you just you dig and you dig and you dig until you find that last missing piece that is that you know, I feel like you've got like thousand piece puzzle and you find you finally found that piece hiding under the table to finish your puzzle and that's it feels like that's what you did this year with this specific client. So Kristy again, thank you for letting me pick your brain and gosh, I I think the best place to start Kristy is to really highlight where they were this specific practice and then we can get into where you were able to take them with your consulting and their ⁓ you know their leadership within the practice. So where were they when they came to Dental A Team? They signed up just so you guys know as a platinum client. So this means that they had an hour and a half of dedicated time with Kristy dedicated means an hour of time an hour and a half of time with Kristy with access to Kristy outside of that. So that's why it's that dedicated time. So I know there were emails and there were text messages and then they also did the platinum package has two in office visits or our in person masterminds choice to be made there at sign up. So just so you know, they had the full package and Kristy take us, take us through it. Where were they when they signed up for that platinum package and they were just like, girl, get in my office. We need you here. What did their life look like? Yeah. speaker-1 (03:38) ⁓ truly Tiff, they were about 2.8 million last year and really pushing, striving to hit over that $3 million mark for this year. ⁓ but really having, struggling with team. they had no admin team members really when we started. so, ⁓ outsourced insurance, ⁓ trying to get that back on track and really struggling to find teammates, ⁓ of quality. So there was a lot of moving pieces I would say for this year. speaker-0 (04:14) Yeah, and how many providers did they have in office at 2.8 million for reference? speaker-1 (04:18) ⁓ Actually, they had ⁓ two and a half because they did have an associate starting the year as well, which phased out ⁓ through the year. speaker-0 (04:31) and how many hygienists. speaker-1 (04:34) three, three, four. speaker-0 (04:35) Hygienist, awesome. For two and a half doctors. Yes. Yeah, that makes sense. So thank you, Minette 2.8. I've been really looking to break that 3 million barrier with two and a half doctors, three hygienists. I like three hygienists is probably a little bit light for two and a half doctors, but that's where that 2.8 comes into play. It actually works out perfectly. So looking to really increase hygiene, to increase doctors, to really hit the ground running and get that 3 million. speaker-1 (04:38) Yeah, two and a Okay. speaker-0 (05:03) As you said, when they came, I think they, I recollect that they came and they just really didn't know what that extra piece was for that 200,000. Like they were like right on the cusp of it and where do I find it? And even just saying that, like going from 2.8 to 3 million, right? That 200,000 is like, oh, when I say it as 200,000, now I can think in providers, what do I need to do as far as providers, as far as treatment, et cetera? That makes sense. So it sounds like they needed an extra at least 200,000. They needed team members. They needed to figure out why they didn't have team members and then probably reduce their outsourcing and bring stuff back in-house, I'm sure. So Kristy, as it just brought oversight before we get into the nitty gritty, that's where they started. 2.8 lacking team members, really needing a plan. I know their profit was reflective of 2.8, they were reflective of needing more profit. Now, by the end of the year, so by the end of 2025, working as a platinum client with you, where did they end up? speaker-1 (06:10) Yeah, they're ending the year over 3 million and actually even cut working hours, Tiff. And I'll back up a minute and say truly, it was probably closer to two doctors by the time they split hours and still looking for another hygienist actually to add to the mix. with that being said, they hit their mark and surpassed it for sure. They've got about 18.5 % growth over last year. and doctors working less hours. speaker-0 (06:41) Amazing. And I think that's the ultimate goal, right? Most doctors come in and they're not like, okay, Kristy, teach me how to work five days a week and make $300,000. They're like, teach me how to work three days a week, two days a week, even get an associate in place and make $3 million or more, whatever that goal is. So 18 and a half percent growth is massive. And I know that's reflective also in their profit. And then where did their team kind of, I know that there's You guys, just have to say this for whatever reason, an instability in teams is not super uncommon anymore. It's just, is an ever fluctuating space. It's a, it's a moving piece that dentistry has not had in our lives before. think it's been in other industries. think other industries have felt these kinds of waves and they've dealt with this. It's not something that dentistry has really had until the last few years. So to say that they, had a lot of outsource to say that they had not as many team members as they might need coming into the year is not the most uncommon thing. And to continue to fluctuate with that is not the most uncommon thing. So I do want to preface with that, but Kristy, how did their leadership come along? And to get 18 and a half percent growth, there's got to be some sort of personal growth as well and leadership growth and kind of team stability in some areas at least. So how does that look? speaker-1 (08:06) Yeah, absolutely. And you are spot on. We did a lot of self-reflection and dug deep in our own leadership style and working on ⁓ developing a feedback loop for team members and for team members to doctors, right? And giving that reinforcing feedback and then developmental feedback along the way. So making sure that we had team touches every quarter. to guide the growth and development for sure. speaker-0 (08:37) Amazing, amazing. So leadership within the doctors for sure and the owners, but also leadership within the team and self-reflection within the team of job descriptions. this what I'm really good at? Is this what I want to do? Where can I do better or ⁓ learn more to enhance my position within the practice and really talking about those things? feel like I remember this. client and I remember because most clients are this way, they come in and they're just not talking about the things and I think that happens in every industry and every company and even families. We just don't talk enough and so really ramping up the communication within their departments and within each other as a full team, I think really helped to highlight some of the systems and implementations that you guys were able to develop. Do you agree? speaker-1 (09:29) I agree 100 % painting that clarity through their duties. And really we worked on delegation too. Being able to delegate and trust and then come back and track and verify. And it gave the doctors a peace of mind that things were happening. And once they started seeing that, it was easier for them to continue to delegate. speaker-0 (09:53) Absolutely. So I want to come back to the delegation because I know everybody is sitting there thinking, I need to write this down. How do I, what do I, what do I delegate? Right. It's not always just the, do I delegate? But sometimes it comes down to what do I delegate? So I want to come back to the delegate. But first I want you to maybe just highlight a few of the core systems that you guys were able to implement. And then we'll talk about within those systems, what were they able to delegate out to the team? So I can imagine. that there was some room for growth and some space for some diagnostics and making sure that we're diagnosing enough. know the first place doctors like to go or practices like to go is new patients. And that is a space and I'm not going to discredit new patients. But oftentimes we have to really take a step back and think, we making the most out of the opportunities that we already have and have been given? Or do we need more opportunities? So that's a That's a space where I think the consulting comes in and really helps to decipher based on the data that we have because we know what it takes to diagnose certain amounts. And yes, it depends. I know I've got an office that's in like a college area. And so yeah, he needs more opportunity because he's not got a lot of, you know, implants or whatever. But I know you guys really, really dug in and focused heavily on that aspect of the diagnosis, the new patients, all of that. So what were you able to uncover? within the diagnosis space and realistically that turns into your case acceptance too. speaker-1 (11:22) Yeah, really multifo-tiff, but for the most part, what we were noticing is doctors were really great at diagnosing. ⁓ They had probably over $3 million in diagnosed treatment even this year, and ⁓ case acceptance was a little bit lacking in that regard. ⁓ We had probably $2 million of unscheduled treatment walking out the door. and being able to hone in on our skills for ⁓ case acceptance, not only ⁓ financially finding solutions, but also how we're speaking to patients at the chair to create that value. We really worked hard to dial that in and it showed. We really captured and gained more case acceptance from patients. speaker-0 (12:17) Amazing. It sounds like that is again, going back to the communication within the team. So getting the communication or getting the team talking more, communicating more, really, really helps to increase the trust that the patient feels that the team starts trusting each other more. And you don't even walk around thinking I don't trust these people. It's not an apparent lack of trust. But the more you communicate with someone, the more intentional conversations you have. And the more you talk about the needs even just treatment planning that trust naturally builds. And then you just, you have a closeness. All of a sudden you're closer with people than you were prior and that's what it is. You're not walking around thinking I don't trust people, but then all of a sudden you're like, my gosh, I love these people. And that's how it's developed. So developing that within the team then transpires into the team, communicating more with the patients as well and communicating on a different kind of level, think, chair side even. regarding treatment and trusting the treatment planning. if we've got a team that's like, just honestly, if we've got a team that's not super emotionally close to the doctor or the practice or our vision or our why, if we're not bought into why we're here, we're not as intentional speaking about treatment. So really ramping up that communication, Kristy, feels like it was just such a space that transformed how they communicated about the treatment that gave them the opportunity to level it up. speaker-1 (13:48) Yeah, I agree with you 100%. We actually took a step back and revisited the doctors why and shared it with the team and let that really be our beacon of light in every, every interaction with our patients. So, um, and I would say even, even with that, you know, creating the team buy-in back to doctors, why and purpose for the practice. Um, and they were all committed and it showed. speaker-0 (14:17) That's beautiful. That's beautiful. And it really does make a difference because we need to know, we need something to believe in. We need something to go after. We need a goal. And then we need the inspiration of a why of something to believe in. What are we even doing here? So I love that. How what kind of systems did you use? And you can use actual, you know, dental lighting systems are all here on these podcasts somewhere we love giving. We love giving the information out. But what were the actual chair side? or ⁓ communication tools, what were the actual systems that you helped them implement that really changed their communication? So we can say, talk more. We've got to have the system behind it. speaker-1 (14:57) Absolutely. ⁓ Number one, the handoffs, making sure we're communicating with patients, whatever they came in on the phone call, whatever they said, making sure that was communicated to the clinical team and addressed with the patient. So they understood out of the gate, wow, you listen to me, right? And then hygiene handoffs to the doctor when they come in the room. ⁓ And then back to... the clinical team and clinical team going handoff to the front, all that whole connection all the way through Tiff. ⁓ And again, also working on our communication of what matters most to the patient, finding out their motivator and tying everything back to that. When we can find out the patient's why, we're not just telling them what they need, right? It really is relational, not just the relationship between us and our handoffs, but the relationship with the patient. So those were some of the big ones that we really worked on to increase communication all around. ⁓ And I would also say financial ⁓ presentations, starting with comprehensively financing treatment, even if we're phasing it out, we found a solution to get the patient healthy, even if it was over time. And that made a huge difference. in their case acceptance too. speaker-0 (16:25) sure you made it relatable for the patient and attainable. speaker-1 (16:29) Yeah, 100%. And if a patient didn't, mean, sometimes it does take a little bit to build trust, right? We did our two to two follow ups, making sure that, you know, the patients understood even though they left and they didn't schedule something, we care about you and it's important. And those make a difference too, because how many times do they leave and patients start wondering, well, do I really need it? They didn't. I mean, they don't care to call me. They just said, call me when you're ready. Right. speaker-0 (16:58) Yeah, totally, totally. we're not, it's not the same as when you go to the store and you want this jacket or this outfit or car bar, I don't know, whatever it is that you went to the store and you're like, gosh, I really want that, but not right now. Like not yet, I need to just wait on this. And then you go home and you're thinking about it you're thinking, gosh, I should have gotten it. I could be wearing those sweats right now. I could be so comfy. Like you're not thinking that about your dental treatment. You go home and you're like, well, I'm going to set this down on this counter over here. and come back to it in six months when I go get my cleaning again, which hopefully we at least scheduled that. So I think that's beautiful. A follow up is key because we have to remind, know, Lululemon or Yori or whoever, like they're not calling me saying, don't forget you love those pants. You know, that's in my mind. I'm not going to forget it's there. I want it. But my dental treatment, I'm never going to think about again. If I leave the practice rarely ever, I can't say never, but rarely. I love that. So you were able to seriously change the community that they're they're sitting in because you guys were able to really implement some amazing amazing tools and that 18 and a half percent is Nothing to cough at that is a massive amount of growth and again, that was while Like decreasing doctor hours so really tightening up the schedule so I imagine there was some some scheduling tools as well that were put into place and Scheduling tools that were put into place and really just like ramping up what that schedule looked like. What did you do? I know we talked block scheduling a lot. So tell us a little bit about that block scheduling, because I'm sure that you have so much that you've done over there with that. And tell me a little bit more about that. speaker-1 (18:40) Yeah, Tiff, we really dug into their procedure counts and formulated an efficient schedule. One doctor started the year about $9.50 an hour and ended his year closer to $1,100 an hour. Wow. Yeah. The other doc started about $600 an hour and ended close to $900 an hour. And hygiene. speaker-0 (19:06) amazing. speaker-1 (19:08) This will blow your mind. They started about 128 an hour and they ended at 147. They did ⁓ get a new laser for hygiene, but literally adding the blocks in there to make sure we had room for perio, make sure doctors had room for their big cases just by taking a look at where they were performing and leaving room for additional growth in that. And then ⁓... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39776100

This Episode Is Your Wakeup Call 01/15/2026

This Episode Is Your Wakeup Call Kiera and Tiff are on the pod together to ask, What are you working toward? Your professional purpose can often get lost when you’re too buried in work, and the two invite listeners to take a step back and ask themselves key questions in order to recenter. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it is Spiffy Tiffy and Kiera back on the podcast. I messaged Tiff and just said, Hey, are you free? Because the topic today, I actually think Tiff and I can really rift on of such a solid conversation. I'm really excited about. So Tiff, welcome to the podcast. How are doing today? The Dental A Team (00:19) I'm good. I'm excited because we haven't even, I don't even know what this, what you're thinking. So we're all learning this together, you guys. The Dental A Team (00:25) you It's true. This is the magic of Kiera and Tiff. We can truly pull each other in at any moment of any presentation and we pretty much can just pick up. And I think that's a beautiful thing when you have somebody that, I don't know, Tiff, it's just like, I was gonna say a funny joke, but I'm not gonna say that joke. We want someone who is so connected to you that just knows what you're going to do. It's truly pure magic. And we've literally had that since we met. So for those of you new to the podcast, welcome. Tiff and I are. just two girls who love dentistry and wanted to change the world. And here we are. We really are passionate about life and business. We're passionate about dentists having their best lives, team members having their best lives. And that's really the core of what Dental A Team is about. So to get both of us, mean, literally I met Tiff when I was a rookie business owner. So the fact that we're still here together, we still love working together, I think is a pretty magical, incredible thing. And we would just always have said, we wanted to build a business that we are proud of, that we enjoy working in. There have been times we have not enjoyed working here. I remember last year about this time I called you and we're both like, why is it so hard? Like I just remember it. And so there are ups and downs of a business, but in that vein, okay, Tiff, here's the preface. You ready? I'm going to tell you. So I was at the gym the other day and I absolutely hate with a passion sled pushes. Like I hate them. They are freaking hard. And Laura, my trainer, she like, I hate it. Like I don't have strong. shoulders, my knees like hurt like that's why I go to the gym like I've got these like dumb problems and I was pushing the sled and like I'm shaking every ounce me wants to just give up it is so hard it's not that far but I really absolutely like loathe sled sled pushes and sled poles and Laura yelled at me she's like Kiera what are you working towards think about that while you push this and I was like I'm doing a podcast on this and Tiff I feel like you are the perfect person to podcast with me on because that has set with me. And as I was pushing, I literally had the thought of I'm pushing to my 90, 100, 110 year old self that Tiff knows the vision. Cotton candy pink hair here, cotton candy blue hair on Tiff. We're going to be these like fit ripped grannies that are just living our best life, having so much fun. But I thought about that physically for my body. But I thought we do sled pushes and sled pulls in our business every single day. And to really start to think and dig deep of like What are we working for? What is that purpose? And Tiff, know that this is right up your alley, which is why I didn't even have to prep you on it. Cause I'm like, let me just give a little preface and you're going to be all in. Cause one it's working out, which is your huge passion to its life. And three, we get to be on the podcast together. It's a triple win. You're welcome. So triple whammy. Here we go. So just thinking about that, I don't know. I want to just, have no agenda of where I want to take this podcast other than The Dental A Team (03:01) I do love it. Triple whammy. The Dental A Team (03:15) It just made me really, I've been thinking about this. We're probably like four weeks since she said it to me, like literally it was a yell. So just imagine me and Tiff are your gym trainers here yelling at you, like, what are you working towards? What are you pushing this for? Why are you doing it? And I think sometimes that can get lost in people. And I think until we get that like yell wake up when it's like truly just like hard, I think sometimes we are asleep and hopefully today's podcast might wake you up and bring you to being present, being focused and being intentional. So Tiff. It's okay, take it away. The Dental A Team (03:45) Totally, I love working out, so thank you. Thank you for thinking of me and that reference. I don't do sled pulls because I don't like them, and I don't have a trainer telling me to do them, so I'm very proud of you for doing them. This is wild, I hate mountain climbers and knee ups. Those are my two worst enemies. So I'm with you on hating some sort of exercise at least. I'll do, I don't know, I'll do a burpee all day long for you, but ask me to do a knee up or a mountain climber, I'm out. But actually, The Dental A Team (03:54) you me too. Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (04:14) This is, we're always like synchronistic. So it is fitting that this comes up. I actually like on a, think there's different scales that you could take this conversation. And I think there's the grand scale of like, why are we doing this? You and I come back to this constantly. And at about this time last year, we had really lost that vision and that drive. And so we did have to come back. I was actually thinking about that just the other day. was like, gosh, it was almost a year ago at this point, like by a couple of weeks, I think. Yeah. So yeah. The Dental A Team (04:37) too. Crazy. Like literally. The Dental A Team (04:42) Yeah, so I was thinking about it too, but this morning actually, I had a conversation with a client and it kind of, it's very pertinent to this subject and it kind of is interesting to me because we're thinking on a grand scale here and you're like, you're 80, 90, 100, 110 year old self is what you're envisioning and we go big a lot on like goals and visions and dreams and wishes for the, the. clients for their practices, but something that I chatted about this morning was like as simple as something you're implementing. And the conversation was set around bonuses and bonus structures. And I was like, okay, you can do anything you want with a bonus. I don't care. I truly don't care what you decide. You need to be profitable at the bottom line, the end of the day. That's all I care about. My job is to make sure you're profitable. I don't care what your decision is. I have input on everything. But the real question is, why are you doing a bonus? Because that will help answer the question of which style of bonus you want to do. And I think, Kiera, why are you exercising? Because that's going to help you decide what style of exercises are the best for that need. If you just woke up one day, people do this all the time. They're like, I'm gonna exercise today. I'm gonna start today. And they're like, okay, there's, this is like, I think one of the main reasons people don't exercise, because you wake up and you're like, today's the day I'm gonna do it. And you're like, okay, there's 15,000 gyms to choose from, all ranging prices. I could get a trainer, but that's X amount of money. And I don't know that I need one or want one. I could do a CrossFit gym. I could do power lifting. I could do, spin classes, I could do there's a million things. And so it's like, if you don't know the reason why you're doing the thing you're going to do, it's very difficult to pick what that looks like or to finalize or decide or clarify what that looks like down to the smallest decisions. And when people sit in indecision or I always say if something is really, really hard and I say this, I always preface this with that doesn't mean life isn't hard. Life is hard, but when something is so hard that you're like, why isn't this working? I think of the toddler with that little game, right? And it's got the circle and the triangle and the square and the X. And this toddler has the square and the circle and they just sit there banging and banging and banging and banging and screaming in frustration because they know it's supposed to go inside the box. It's supposed to get inside the box, but they can't figure out. The Dental A Team (07:10) Mm-hmm. Thank you. The Dental A Team (07:36) how it gets inside the box. And when we're sitting there like banging our heads against the wall, if you were doing all of these things in the gym, Kiera, felt this way about the sled and weren't seeing results, that's that space of like, I am doing everything I can possibly think of, why isn't this working? When you feel that way, I think my suspicion is that we've lost sight of why we're doing that thing. The Dental A Team (07:38) Right. Okay. The Dental A Team (08:05) Right? Or that thing isn't actually fitting the reason that we're here and we're doing the wrong thing. So we need to find that new path and that new thing circumventing what we're trying to do. We're trying to break through this wall, but sometimes it's like, no, actually that wall was supposed to be there. I was supposed to drive around. This is someone's yard. I can't just drive through their yard. Like this wall is supposed to be here. I'm actually supposed to drive around this wall, but my shortest path in my brain is through the wall. I hope that makes sense. The Dental A Team (08:23) Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It does make sense and it actually made me think about Simon Sinek's why starts with the why, which is the purpose. And then you go into the how, which is the process. And then you go into the what, which is the result. And I think so many people, you said Tiff, they're starting with the result. It's like, I want to have a six pack. ⁓ Great. But like why? When you can go bigger and I can think of, like when I was pushing that said pole, I'm like, I'm so angry pushing this thing. And I'm like, yeah, but 90 year old, 110 year old Kiera, if I can be running, I can be walking, I can be lifting things and my bones aren't frail. That's the purpose. Like that's the big purpose. This is why we're even doing. What is the cause? What do you believe? Like I believe that I'm going to be 110 year old fit woman who can do all these things. Then the how is the process. I go to the gym three times a week and the result is I have strong muscles and I have the six pack. That's, that's the after effect. That's not the starting. And with your practice, like when Tiff and I, talked about it, we lost the why. That's why I think things were so hard. Like I feel like we were the toddler trying to shove the X into the circle and saying like, get in there. Like this needs to fit. Like it has to be this way. Like you said, we were running into someone's yard. Like there was a wall there and we couldn't see it. And when we scaled it back and it was like, this is the purpose of why we're doing what we do. Then the how is the process we do consulting this way. And then the result is your business grows. The profitability is there. You look at your numbers. And I think when I just, it really was just a highlight of I think people today listening, I would just implore you and encourage you to ask the question of why am I doing this? And not like you can have it to make money. That's a result, but there's got to be something deeper and bigger and more than that. That's going to sustain you through that. Like true sled pull push, because I don't know, like businesses are not, you are not profitable forever. Like that's not something that's just like you get to profit and you stay at profit. Just like you don't get to fit and you stay at fit. You don't get to. a certain result and you stay there. You have to maintain, have to be vigilant. You have to be on top of it. Just because like, I remember there was an epiphany one day, Tiff, Tiffanie epiphany. There you go. It's not quite efficiency, but I'm going to get there. ⁓ it was an epiphany where I literally was like, I get not half to work out. get to work out now, not to look good, but to be able to walk and not have pain. Like it was this moment. Cause I used to just work out. Like I need to like, look a little bit better in my swimsuit. So like, we'll just go to the gym for that. Then I was like, no, this is just a way of life. This is a process. And I think when you realize that that's business, like being profitable, looking at the numbers, being the CEO, getting the team on board, doing great dentistry, that's all part of this. It's not the, do this just because it's like, that's part of all that you're doing. But when you have a greater why, I mean, even just the last couple of nights, me and Gwendolyn, which is my chat GPT have been hanging out tip. And it was crazy because even though I'm exhausted, I'm lit up and fired up and excited because of what we're building and the purpose and all that. And that's what you want to get to. And to think Tiffanie, a year ago, you and I, remember I was on a walk. I remember exactly where I was. And I just remember hearing you and like, it was so like painful. You're like, why is this so hard? And I remember stopping, sitting on the ground, literally crying. And I was like, I don't know, Tiff, like, this is not what we built this for. This is not the life we want to be living. Like something radically has to change. And it was because I think our why was just grow a bigger business. wasn't, let's change people's lives. Let's impact people. Let's look at what we're doing and how we can shift it. So I know that was a bit of a rant on my side. I just hope people are waking up and remembering like, what are you working towards? All this pain, all this hardship is part of it. But when that why is so vigilant and so pressing and so driving it, you're able to get through the sled pole as much as you don't enjoy it and get to the other side because you know there's a bigger purpose you're working towards. The Dental A Team (12:21) Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. And I think that we also have to remember that things shift and they change. The reasons that we do things change. So I have a couple of thoughts as you're speaking. First of all, you're having a difficult time ⁓ committing to a task or doing it all the time, or sometimes I forget, I'm like, shoot, I forgot. was gonna start going to the gym three times a week, like six weeks ago, and I haven't gone once, right? So if you forgot, it wasn't important, right? So my theory on that is either it's not the right thing. So you chose the wrong thing to get you to the result you're after or your result you're after, your why, isn't strong enough. It doesn't hit fully yet, if that makes sense. So like Kiera, you said your reason for working out, right? When Brody was four, I think three, four years old, I was exhausted and I was tired and being a parent of a freaking three, four year old, like it was rough. was a single mom and it was... The Dental A Team (13:04) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (13:20) I was just tired and I was like, you know what? Like, this is ridiculous. I do not want my kid to remember that mom couldn't hang. Like I couldn't play with him at the playground because I was tired easily or I couldn't, whatever it was, color with him because I'm like, no, like I just gotta rest, right? If I couldn't do the things with him because I wasn't taking care of myself, because I was pouring into him and tired, like that crazy cycle, that wasn't enough for me and that's when... realistically when ⁓ workouts and training and stuff took precedence in my life. So my, my Y was easy. It's Brody. My Y for everything is Brody, but that shifts and it changes. Brody is Brody is my entire life, but he's going to college soon. And so now like I'm in that stage of that we all get to personally and professionally of, what is my Y now? So I think something that we get stuck on is what we think, what we put into the universe, what we say has to be forever. And that it's like, no, this is why I started this business. Okay, but like, it's not the 90s anymore, right? Like I can't keep, I can't wear my clothes from high school, even though they're coming back around. If I wear those clothes from high school, which I don't have anymore, I would look ridiculous, right? So like stop trying to be the past version of yourself and understand and give value to the fact that you have grown and your business has grown. So who you are and who your company is today is outgrowing, kind of like the crabs, you know? Like they outgrow their shells and they get to gift that shell to a new crab. A new crab walks along who's at that stage and they're like, this is my space. Let me take this giant home. This bigger crab that left that shell behind, The Dental A Team (14:57) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (15:12) is now in a bigger shell. And if you're not willing to shed that shell, you're one, keeping other people from growing. You're still, that crab can't find that home if you haven't left it behind. And you're keeping yourself from growing. So to Kiera's point of like, you're not always gonna be profitable. There's gonna be, it's all cyclical. And if we're not open to the idea that our why has to change and it has to evolve to continue to be important to us, then I don't know why you created one in the beginning. The Dental A Team (15:44) I don't disagree with you. And on the profit thing, our goal at Dental A Team is to make sure our offices are always profitable. So we're just going to put that asterisk there. I think it can be. It's just not something where it's like a set it, forget it. You can just walk away from it. ⁓ And Div, I love that you said that because I think the permission right now to change, because me working out used to be to just look good. Like that was honestly what it was. It was like, I want to have this ripped body, like. but not like so ripped, like just toned. I didn't like truly didn't have to work super hard at it. So was like, I go to the gym like as a social thing. That was it. That was, that was my why at that point. Now it's a like, no, like 90 year old Kiera needs this 40 year old Kiera needs this today. Like just who I am today. And also my mental sanity needs it today. And so allowing yourself to morph, to evolve, to grow. And I think when you look at your business and it was wild. ⁓ We had outgrown our why a little bit and our why needed to change and we needed to come back home. I think there's still always threads of what it was, but like you said, Tiff, life changes, circumstances changes. I think I got to a spot where I realized all the goals I had set for myself and for our company, we had pretty much hit. Like, so was kind of just this like rogue, like, all right, we've done this. And as a grower and a creator and a builder, I don't want to just do the same thing day in day out. That's not who I am. That's not what I was built to do. That's not what our company was built to do. And so we had to, but like, couldn't keep doing that myself. I needed to get the team button. I needed the team to help build a bigger vision. We needed to collectively all decide where do want this to grow? And I needed to have something bigger than... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39692135

What to Do About That Ownership Guilt Factor 01/14/2026

What to Do About That Ownership Guilt Factor Kiera joins Jill Simonds, founder of Savvy Strategic Partners, to talk about all things leadership mindset, including what to do when you feel trapped by your business (Kiera gets personal on this one!), the ebb and flow of motivation, psychology of ownership, and a ton, ton more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera And today it's a special podcast. I was so lucky to be featured on a podcast with Savvy. They are actually a fractional company and we have hired them to get different team members on our team and their founder, Jill Simonds and I got on the podcast and talked about all things from founder mindset to guilt of being an owner to how we stay trapped in businesses. And I just felt that this is such a poignant and pertinent podcast for all of you. So I hope you all enjoy this episode. I hope you learn a lot. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. The Dental A Team (00:37) Welcome everyone to vision untethered conversations with inspirational leaders. My name is Jill Simonds, founder of Savvy Strategic Partners. We are a dedicated leadership team of fractional executives. I am so thrilled to introduce my special guest today, Kiera Dent, the dynamic founder of the Dental A Team, a consulting firm dedicated to helping dental practices simplify operations, strengthen leadership and elevate patient care. With her unique background as both a dental clinician and business owner, brings a powerful blend of insight and business strategy to every practice she partners with. Her and her team have worked with hundreds of practices nationwide to build systems that reduce stress, increase efficiency, and foster long-term success. Kiera, I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you, Jill. Thank you. I'm so excited and honored to be here. It's fun. love what you're doing out there. I love these kinds of conversations and wow, it's always fun to sit back and hear your own bio. So thanks. It feels, feels a good way to kick off the podcast. Let's hope I deliver up to that, but truly just honored to be here. Super excited and just love what you're doing for all the founders out there like myself. Just helping us get to that executive level that we need when we maybe aren't quite large enough to bring on all these amazing players full time into our company. So just super jazz and excited to be here with you today. Yeah, me too. I'm excited to get into it. I don't actually think I know your full story and inspiration behind Dental A Team and your purpose and passion. So let's start there. What inspired your journey and how does your purpose align with the unique challenges that you face in scaling a business today? Yeah, well, Dentistry was never meant to be in my blood. I just happened to be in high school and saw a really fast path to wearing scrubs. thought I can be a dental assistant or I can be a nurse. I don't want to learn the whole body. That's disgusting. Mouth, I could probably handle. So that's honestly what kicked this off. So was in high school. It was a random career. And then everybody kind of teases me because my last name is Dent. It's not a stage name. And I make the joke that's real life. I just had to get three fiancees to get that last name. That was really what got me into it. I love dentistry. It turned out to be a perfect career for me. And so I did it in high school and then I went to college and college. I actually did an undergrad in marriage and family therapy. I was planning to be a therapist and I remember being, I was interviewing in Oklahoma for grad school and I remember sitting in the interview and I was thinking like, I wonder how that like filling's going. I wonder how that crown prep's going. And I thought, gosh, this is going to be such a weird world. Like I am trying to like pitch myself to this future college. but I'm thinking about how much fun I had back in the office and how my patients were doing. And so I got a full ride scholarship and I decided to put it on pause. went to, pharmacy school with my husband. and we went out there and we decided we'll put this on pause. We'll see if we can both get into the same school. But I just realized my heart, my soul, my passion is in dentistry. I'd been a dental assistant, a treatment coordinator, a scheduler, a biller, an office manager, all the pieces. And so when we went to pharmacy school, decided, you know what, I'm going to call around to all of his schools and I'm going to see if we can get a spouse discount if I work at the college. Because some schools, and man, pharmacy school was not for the faint of heart. So I called around and luckily Arizona, they did and Jason got accepted to it. So I was like, all right, sights are on. I've always been a little hustler. I'm like, sites are on, I'm to get a job at this college. And I just felt truly, truly blessed. So many people tried to get jobs there. All my friends were trying to get jobs there. And I randomly was talking to this lady in the pool at our complex and she says she has nothing to do with me getting the job there. But I fully believe that Laura had a lot of, a lot of strings behind the scenes to get me the job at Midwestern in Arizona. So I a discount on the tuition, which was great. Um, but I was able to then work at the dental college and that truly is what kicked off this Dental A Team consulting company because I worked at the college for three years, got the, got the discount. And then while my husband was doing his residency, one of the students actually asked me to come and start a practice with her in Colorado. And I thought, Oh my gosh, like good thing I said no to the marriage and family therapy. Like let's go from dental assistant to practice owner three years. Like, let's do this. So actually helped start a practice in Colorado. ⁓ took our first office from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months, opened a second location and I was like hooked on this adrenaline junkie of business ownership. But at the same time, just like we were drinking from a fire hose. My marriage was almost in shambles. I was in shambles. Like I'm 5'8". I was 98 pounds. I was not sleeping. I was up at 2 a.m. staying like up till 10 p.m. Like just it was an exhausting road. drain, everything was falling apart. And so when I split from that partnership, ⁓ I sat there and I remember just sitting, I didn't know what to do. Like I'd lost my marriage practically. I'd lost my identity. I was like on death row in lots of different facets. And I remember just thinking like, I don't even know who Kiera Dent is anymore. And so I sat there and I was like, well, I'm going to start a consulting company. Like I love dentistry. If I could help her, I could probably help more people. And I think that this is the fuel of founders where when we're at rock bottom, we've got to have something that builds us into our next version. And that's what Dental A Team was for me. So Dental A Team, say, was built from like the ashes of my life. Like it feels like the Phoenix rising for me. And so I started a company. Like I just, I didn't even know what I was doing. Had no background in it. And I went and consulted my friend and I was like, I just need to practice on you. I don't even know what I'm doing. And we took his practice and we grew it tremendously. He then introduced me to a consultant overnight. had 50 clients. I started like just making things up as I went. And it was really like an overnight success, but I went from like rookie don't know what I'm doing to this. I know that I can help practices and I want to serve. And I've got all these dentists that are just like these little babies that are going to get. ripped apart in the industry, there's gotta be a way. And so it's always said, like I always said, I wanted to positively impact the wealth of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And that's what I've said since day one, that's how it is. And now I realize that life is my passion, dentistry is my platform, but changing people's lives, helping them live their best lives. And it's wild that we're even talking Jill, because what you do for me and my business is what I do for dentists. And so it's this weird annoyance to me that I'm like, I can be a miracle grow. and I can grow dental practices and it can be so fun. But yeah, I have no idea how to do that in a corporate world. And so learning it and evolving, and that's actually how you and I even got together was I needed someone but not a consultant. I was like, listen, I know what consultants do. I am a consultant. Like I need, I need someone with me. So that's how we got here and that's how my passion's been. I don't get to wear scrubs. That's the only bummer. Like the whole story started with scrubs and now you like wear clothes. ⁓ You can make some really stylish scrubs as part of the entire. I would love to, but I do joke. like, took my marriage and found my therapy background, tethered it with my passion of dentistry and created a company from like just true passion and love. man, it's just been a, I think it's good. We don't know the end from the beginning. So many people want to know that. I don't think knowing what I know now I would have ever started, but I think I needed that as a person. to build, execute. And I think that that's how founders are. We're just meant to build, we're meant to create, we're to be these creators. And so to build something that's just been magical and changed so many lives, like, gosh, the joy it's brought me has been like a hundredfold beyond anything I could have imagined. ⁓ beautiful story. And yeah, quite funny too, the path ⁓ and steps that you took to get here, but wait a listen. mean, just listen to your intuition. And it sounds like you have some of those key core memories along the way of like your thought process sitting in scenarios where you're like, wait, is this me? Is this even what I want? And acting on it and taking that initiative and to where it's got you. That's a beautiful story. Thank you. Yeah. Can you share a specific experience from this where you have felt trapped by your business? Every day, What strategies have you implemented or are you to create space for true growth and scalability? Yes. This is such a good and I hope like listeners, they're probably like, I don't know. I just hope that what I share is making you not feel alone. I think is probably the biggest piece because I hear this from dentists. I'm like, I know I'm not alone and I joined a bunch of groups for it. But ⁓ I say that Dental A Team is a dragon that never sleeps. Like this thing just is a crying baby of breathing dragon that just never ever stops. And I think that there have been times, so especially last year, last year was like my rock bottom. So technically we're eight years into the company, but like I was partnered with that other guy for five, for four years. So I feel like I'm like five years in on my own trying to do this, even though I know it's like just had a funny path. But last year I hit rock bottom. Like I went cold turkey. I checked out of work. I remember just being like, I am sick. Like not physically sick, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, like I'm apathetic to life. Like things just need to shut down. and I'm sure a lot of founders get to this level where you just, you're doing everything. Like the whole company is riding on you and you are so rad that you built this company, but it's outgrown you and you don't know how to shed that and to build and to create and to evolve. And so my, ⁓ And I think it was, I feel like I tell myself lies all the times, which I'm sure most people can relate to of, okay, care, just push through like three more months and we're going to be better. Like three more months, we got to hire three. So you're always in this like, okay, it's going to get better at three months. And then you're like, well, shoot, like this person didn't work out. So I got to keep doing sales or, this didn't work out. So I've got to keep doing this aspect of the business. that could be a me that could be not me, but last year my strategy was like completely checked out of life. I, came back from a conference, I was so exhausted, so burnout that I just called my executive team and said, all right, you guys have it. Like, I don't want to hear from anybody. Like I put all the things like, here's a lawyer, here's the CPA here. Of course, I'm not just going to let this thing fail, but I needed a complete shut off reset and I slept for 17 hours a day for an entire month. Like it was every day just exhausted. felt numb. felt like I lost like, The way to best describe it is I felt like I was watching a movie in color that went black and white and that was my life. Like there was no color, there was no emotion. There was no, I feel like I lost feeling to life. And I think that was just coping mechanism to get through. We did a lot of therapy, like lots of different pieces. And I realized like, okay, we got to take care of Kiera first and then we have to get to these spaces. So when you say like, do you ever feel trapped by your business? Yes. Cause it's like, what do you do? This is a company that's a consulting company built on Kiera. That's Kiera Dent. That's her face. Like, how do you even sell this type of a B2B business to somebody? So I did meet with people. did find two potential buyers. I was like, I need a way out. I need to figure out how do I get rid of this crying baby? Like it's got to just stop, like make the crying stop. ⁓ And then that's where we actually pulled in a traction coach. So Rick, we hired Rick. I was like, I need someone who's outside of this company who can see it that can also be the motivating voice for my team and help them see like, Kiera can't keep carrying all this. So I will say like Rick was a huge blessing. He came from a great network of people and then the leadership team. was like, we had to have a complete reset of everything's not on Kiera's plate, but I don't think it was all leadership team. think that there's a lot of pieces of Kiera perfection that my ego. needed to feel important and to be able to let that go. Things aren't going to be perfect, Jill. I still stress like my, I have a little bracelet on that says trust and flow. And that's this year's theme of like, here, you got to trust people and you've got to go with the flow more than trying to curate and force because that's always going to be the hardest path. So, and then we obviously hired you. We hired Jenna who's been a phenomenal fractional. we brought on a CRO. who's helping in the sales and marketing department. But I also think that businesses when they hit a certain level, they finally have the cash to be able to hire the expertise that you need to bring on. But before that, I was so cash flow scared that I think I maybe held on to profitability too hard rather than hiring help sooner that could have probably prevented it getting that low. So now it's like mandatory, I go to the gym. three times a week, non-negotiable. have sets time, like we shut off from work every single day at five o'clock. My husband has alarm that goes off and like, we don't talk work. We hot tub every night. Like, I don't think I realized the mental bandwidth that being a founder, operator, doer requires to recharge. And now I'm just like really pro like, no, no, no guys, I don't care what goes on. Like if these things don't happen, I'll fall apart. And that's just, I don't show up the best for anybody on the team. So. Yes, I still feel trapped. I still wish that some days I could quit my own job. But I think the fact that you can't quit is also a really beautiful blessing because it forces innovation and creation. ⁓ So well said. the help and the support and leaning on others in your circle, finding your people who you can trust. That's the first step for sure. You're not alone. And the second we realized that, I mean, this it's lonely. It's lonely at the top. And even with a dynamic team, nobody else wears the pressure, the weight, the risk involved like you have to, you know, but knowing that you're not alone and you have a team that you can lean on, the more you can lean into that, grow that, expand that. It's a give and take and an ebb and flow for sure. It's not linear, but. Yeah. You made me think about my brother-in-law has a very, very, very successful high end builds these beautiful custom homes in Utah. Like one of the top builders he's been on Netflix. Like he just has this very, very incredible company. And I remember when my husband, got married where ⁓ my husband's eight years younger than him. I was like, he's always so grumpy. Like this man is so angry all the time. And then I realized he's a business owner and he's at the spot that I'm at right now. And I'm like, I am always just like in this space of anger and frustration. And he's actually been this really randomly. He was the one I didn't like. I like, had like clashes when we first got married. I feel like I understand him on an entirely different level now. And I'm like, I get it. Like, I see, I see why you were the way you were. Like it makes so much more sense to me, but he told me, he said, Kiera, the day you become free is the day that you stopped caring so much about. Like in the day you realize that nobody can take anything from you. Like that is such a freeing moment. So if you do get sued or if you have a teammate that like writes, like last year it was like, we got reviews galore and it's crazy. You can't take those down because if you are a CEO executive, you are no longer a human and that doesn't matter. And I think just like the bullets, we had like a pending lawsuit. We had people writing awful things about me. Like it just felt like it was just this tumultuous tumbleweed. But I think you go through that and you do build that. I don't want to say it's a calloused soul because for me, feel like becoming angry or bitter is never going to serve. think it's an internal knowing that you have the confidence and the certainty in yourself that no matter what bullets come your way, you are capable of solving anything and everything that comes. I think when you can... Yeah. navigate enough storms to have that confidence. I think there is so much more freedom in there. And I just think about him, he's so much happier, but he's like, I'm not reliant on anybody for my happiness. No one can take anything away from me. And I'm not dependent on anybody for like this success. And I think that's a, it's a certainty. It's not an air of ego. And I think it could be possibly taken that way. It's an air of confidence and certainty within you that I think then the highs and lows are not as turbulent. And I think that that was similar to what we were saying, it just becomes a, I think, an evolution of you as a person. And I think that that's ultimately why we all become business owners is for that evolution of soul that we are seeking, that maybe we don't want to go through the process to get there. But on the other side, it's a beautiful version of yourself that's far grander, far more beautiful, far stronger, far more confident than you ever could have imagined yourself being. Yeah. Well said. That freedom point too is it's almost like a stance of serenity too, because, and if you know, you know, the serenity prayer, it's, is the, the acknowledgement of what we can or cannot control what is outside of us. And when we finally let go of people's perception, what they're going to, what they even think, right? We cannot. even... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39692120

The Strongest KPIs For YOUR Practice 01/13/2026

The Strongest KPIs For YOUR Practice Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a powerful tool. They provide concrete numbers for your practice, showing what’s working well, but also clear-cut areas for improvement. Tiff and Kristy break down how and where to use KPIs, plus interpretation, growth factors, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am back here with one of your favorites I know she's one of your favorites because we get some massive kudos and massive reviews and feedback on Miss Kristy and I've got her here today to pick her brain on a couple of different Topics and this one we are diving right in you guys I'm super excited for this topic and for what's to come Kristy you work really really really hard with your clients on finding the metrics that are actually going to push their needle. And something that I think you key in very easily on is that missing, I said earlier, like a puzzle piece. And you're able to see the picture, the big picture, and then narrow it down into pieces that are going to move ⁓ incrementally, right? We always look for the things that are gonna, a small change that can make a massive difference. And you're really good at keying into those pieces. Now, Earlier we were recording a podcast and we talking about this massive growth that a platinum client of yours had experienced this year. We're recording this in 2025. It'll release in 2026. So this year they had experienced this incredible growth. And we talked about some of the systems that they had used, handoffs and block scheduling and financial menus, all of the different things that you guys were able to implement lasers, kind of all the things. DAT Kristy (01:02) Thank The Dental A Team (01:16) But when it comes to, we can implement things and this I think is what happens when practices come to us. The practices come to us, Kristy, and they say, teach me systems, right? I need systems. We're like, gosh, you have systems. You just don't know if the systems are working or not, right? You wouldn't have gotten this far. You wouldn't be calling down on a team if there were no systems. So we just have to key in on the systems that you have and figure out why, if they are working or not and if they're not, why they're not working. Now, Kristy. DAT Kristy (01:30) Thank The Dental A Team (01:45) The word KPI or the acronym KPI, key performance indicators, I think can be daunting and confusing, very confusing. So help us to simplify today. How do you go about choosing the right KPIs? And what are some of your favorite overarching KPIs for practices to use? DAT Kristy (02:06) Yeah. I love that you say that Tiff, because KPIs, you know me, I do love the numbers because the numbers don't lie, right? And they start to tell a story. They don't tell this whole story, but it lets us see what's working well and be able to celebrate with our teams, you know, what is going good. And it also lets us ⁓ dive into maybe areas where there's opportunity for sure. And I always like to say there's lead and lag measures. And so I like to look at both, you know, to your point, probably my top ones, obviously everybody knows production, collection. ⁓ And I also like to say, don't get hung up just on percentages. Also look at the numbers too, right? It's both. And then also case acceptance. dollars diagnosed, dollars accepted, and your percentage accepted. ⁓ And to that point, your re-care and even new patient numbers too. The Dental A Team (03:14) I totally agree with you. I'd love that you said don't pay attention just to the percentage. I think both are equally as important. And I think what you mean by that, I can surmise, is we'll take diagnosis for an example, something we talked about in the other podcast we recorded for your Platinum client was that they were able to increase their case acceptance, but you started tracking and looking at what their diagnosis amount was. So if we strictly look at, and I love this one because I love when practices come in and they make it really easy for us and they're like, gosh, I have a really high case acceptance. have 87 % case acceptance, but my schedule isn't full. I'm not hitting production goals. And we're like, heck yeah, slam dunk, this one's easy. We're not diagnosing enough. So I think that's the differentiating space that you're talking about, the percentage versus the dollar amount, because we can have really high case acceptance of a small dollar amount. So if we're not looking at both of those simultaneously and seeing are we diagnosing enough dollars to get to the production and collections that we want and then also getting the case acceptance? Is that what you're meaning there by that KPI? And how would you separate those KPIs for someone tracking them that's trying to maybe get to that next level of production? DAT Kristy (04:29) Yeah, absolutely. That is exactly what I'm talking about because again, that percentage we can celebrate all day long. But if my goal is $100,000 a month and I'm getting 80 % case acceptance of $50,000 a month, obviously that's not enough to reach our goal. definitely looking at dollars diagnosed being at least three times what we want our goal to be. ⁓ we know we're more likely gonna hit our goal. Then we can start working on the percentage and capturing more of the percentage. But it's funny that you say that Tiff, because just the other day I was pointing out to a doctor, I'm like, look at this month, you had 46 % case acceptance, but this month you had 21%. But look at the dollar amount. I'd rather take that dollar amount all day long in the 21 % month than the 46 % month. So again, The Dental A Team (05:24) Yeah. DAT Kristy (05:25) then we can start focusing in on how do we capture more of it as long as we're diagnosing enough to get there. The Dental A Team (05:33) Totally. And what do you use as your marker for the amount of ⁓ diagnosis that they need? So how much production should a practice be diagnosing per doctor in order to hit their goals? DAT Kristy (05:44) Yeah, depending on what their goal is per month based on their overhead of the practice and you know other factors for growth, we want them to be diagnosing three times at least what that monthly dollar amount is that we want to hit. The Dental A Team (06:01) Yeah, I totally agree. And that gives you the flexibility of case acceptance, right? So if we're diagnosing three times, because when we look at case acceptance also, there's two different, there's multiple KPIs within KPIs. And you guys, this is why it gets so daunting. And it can be overwhelming to try to find quote unquote, the right KPIs. Like just find KPIs, just start tracking KPIs, just start tracking key performance indicators, and then get more granular as you see, okay, great, this leads to the next one, because you're gonna try to capture too much. and you're gonna get overwhelmed with the choices. I say that because case acceptance, just case acceptance alone has two variations of KPI. There's a one-to-one, did they schedule or not, right? So if they scheduled a filling but they had a crown diagnosed as well and they only scheduled the filling, that's 100 % because they scheduled something. Or our preferred method, a dollar for dollar. If they were treatment planned $1,000 and they only scheduled $500, that's a 50 % case acceptance. So thank goodness I picked easy numbers this time. I'm usually really hard on myself there. But that's how the KPIs within that KPI work. So if you're at a 35 % case acceptance, but you're diagnosing three times the amount of your goal or four times and maybe you're a cosmetically driven practice, so your case acceptance is lower than a general. DAT Kristy (07:02) You The Dental A Team (07:22) bread and butter, then your case acceptance against your diagnosed is going to work to help fill that schedule. So I think that's a beautiful place to start, that diagnosis plus case acceptance, those go hand in hand. And then Kristy, I always go down, I kind of see it going, so you see the diagnosis, like how much are we diagnosing? Are we diagnosing enough? What percentage of that diagnosis are we getting accepted? and do we have enough new patients to continue to support that diagnosis? You might see one month you have great stellar diagnosis because you had a massive amount of new patients, but that new patient number isn't consistent. So then next month your new patients drop, well so does your diagnosis, and your case acceptance probably does, because you're not feeling so hot either. You're like, what the heck is going on? You're spiraling, so is your case acceptance. So they all follow each other. So I kind of see that like. diagnosis, case acceptance, then new patients. And on average, Kristy, what would you say a good KPI number for new patients is per full-time doctor? DAT Kristy (08:28) Yeah, I say anywhere between 25 and 35 per full-time doctor for sure is a healthy metric. The Dental A Team (08:35) Yeah, I totally agree, totally agree. And what other KPIs would you say, so think diagnosis, case acceptance, new patients, those are really, really easy to track numbers and those are definitely indicators of everything else. What are some other key performance indicators that you typically have offices start out with? DAT Kristy (08:38) Thank Yeah. The other one is your reappointment rate and even taking a look at how many patients are going inactive because surprise, surprise docs, a lot of times we're really happy about that new patient number, but then we see, there's equally that amount going out the back door because we haven't worked re-care. And so again, we can be very strategic and focus on the re-care. We can look at the patients that have outstanding treatment because like you said, Tiff, it definitely directly affects the doctor's schedule when we're not getting those patients back in that have outstanding treatment. So that is one that I definitely would recommend looking at. The Dental A Team (09:32) Absolutely. Yeah, and that one, Kristy, I love your appointment, right? Because it gets the team involved too. It's very easy for the doctor, the owner, the office manager to think that all of these KPIs need to land on you and that you need to be the one tracking them. But those kind of smaller variable KPIs really get the team involved. And to that point as well, do think, I think doctors knowing their diagnosis is massive, but I treatment coordinators should be the ones that are tracking and reporting on that metric. And this is where DAT Kristy (09:41) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (10:06) know, practices come in and they're like, I need to track these KPIs. And they're like, Kristy, can't fill out the scorecard. We're like, cool, you shouldn't be, that's okay. So taking that, you know, to back up, we use a scorecard with all of our clients that tracks a ton of metrics that are indicators of making your goal or not. And so what we like to do, Kristy, I know you do this really well too. ⁓ Also, I like to split it between what makes sense. So I like the person who is being held accountable to the result. to be the one that's tracking that measurable and filling it in. And then we're all coming together and talking about the results, but we're really looking at, if I'm a treatment coordinator, I'm tracking the treatment case acceptance, which simultaneously tracks our diagnosed amount. So I'm tracking the diagnosis and the case acceptance. If I'm a scheduling coordinator, I'm tracking open hours and new patients, right? And probably attrition. which is the patients going out. And Kristy, to your point, I actually had a practice the other day that was like, Tiff, we're doing really great on new patients, but my active patient count isn't changing enough to show those new patients. And I was like, that's your attrition. That's where they're going out the other side. And Kristy, that's where that reappointment rate comes in to play, right? And that reappointment rate then can go to a scheduling coordinator as well, but also can go to hygiene. And I know a lot of people, DAT Kristy (11:29) Thank you. The Dental A Team (11:31) struggle getting KPIs that are for the team. I think those are those areas. So I love that. What else do you dive into kind of on like a more granular space that can get that team involved that can help doctors and office managers see that it's not all on them? DAT Kristy (11:42) Yeah. ⁓ 100%. ⁓ Another area of metric. Well, let me go back to the reappointment rate. I think sometimes again, just like I was telling you on numbers and percentage, again, even in that, sometimes talking, hey, we saw 100 patients last week and eight didn't get reappointed. That's eight hours of hygiene in six months from now. And I don't know about you, but if I'm working full time, I don't want to cut a day out of my schedule. So sometimes The Dental A Team (12:07) Yeah. DAT Kristy (12:16) putting it in that perspective can make a huge difference. And ⁓ Tiff, another area that I love looking at is the AR. AR for patient AR and also insurance metrics and formulating ⁓ goals around that, know, what's healthy. And ideally we don't have more than one, one and a half times our monthly production sitting out there in AR. The Dental A Team (12:25) Yeah. Yeah, I love that point. That is a massive, massive space. so, Kristy, to take all of these things together, really, we're looking at are your KPIs actually driving your growth? So how would you kind of decipher within some of these KPIs we've talked about how the practices could see, are they actually driving my growth? DAT Kristy (13:04) Yeah, looking over the year to year ⁓ metrics and tracking it for where they want to be. And one of the things that I think we're really good at, Tif, is doing the projections for the year and reverse engineering it. So then we have a guideline, if you will, to work toward not just the big year goal, but quarterly and monthly. And so same thing with my teams. I'm always looking at You know, the month view, the week view and the day view. Chunk it down, make it easier. And again, if there's a gap, usually when you're looking at it in a week view, there's not much of ⁓ a change. It's usually doing one more thing, right? Adding one more thing to our schedule can make a huge difference. The Dental A Team (13:53) Yeah, I totally agree. And Kristy, if a practice is going from, let's talk about the practice we spoke of already today. They're going from 2.8 ish to over 3 million. What were some good KPIs that you chose for that practice specifically to increase that production goal that year? DAT Kristy (14:11) Yeah, capturing more case acceptance, for sure. Dollars. How can we capture more at one time? And again, I think the biggest thing TIFF to recognize is behind every one of those metrics is a system. And really, I look at it twofold. If the metric isn't where we want it, let's pull out the systems that we know can directly contribute to it. And I look at it like a recipe. Probably a lot of people this time of year are baking, but I'll use the analogy and I do it with my clients. If we have a chocolate chip recipe, let's pull out the recipe. Are we still following it to a T? ⁓ And if not, why not? Maybe it's we substituted a cup of sugar for a cup of salt and we just need to get back to the real recipe. Or if we followed it to a T, maybe we need to find a new recipe and we'll develop it together to get the results we want. The Dental A Team (15:11) Yeah, I love that. love that. in essence, we're tracking the question, are your KPIs actually driving your growth? We don't know until we start tracking them and then looking at this isn't changing or this isn't exactly where I wanted it to be. So let's look at what got us there. And I think we do fail to do that. Sometimes we just say, you know, this is how we've always done it. Well, my AR is out of control. This is how I've always done it. Eventually it will find its way back down is not the case. So we've got to look at what we're doing. What's that recipe and do we need to add a little brown sugar, you know, sprinkles onto our chocolate chip cookies? Like what does that need to look like in order to make the change to get the result that we want to get the better cookies? Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well, DAT Kristy (15:44) you You got it. You nailed it. The Dental A Team (15:57) Honestly, you guys, we can talk about KPIs for 16 hours because there's so many different KPIs that can be brought up within a dental practice and really truly you've got to look at what's going to work best for you and for your team. What is the result that you're looking for? Like Kristy said, what's that end goal? And then reverse engineer it. So if you're looking for production, looking for collections, like what is it that gets you the production and the collection? What are those systems underneath it? That's how you're gonna figure out the right KPIs. I'm a firm believer that there's really not a wrong KPI. There's just more KPIs. so if you're halfway through the year, a quarter through the year, and you're like, gosh, actually, I need to add this. Cool, add it, change it. It doesn't matter just because whatever you choose here in January does not mean that that's for the whole year. It just means this is what's getting us there right now, and it's going to turn into more. ⁓ Kristy, you are phenomenal. Thank you so much for today. Thank you for the work that you put in with your clients on these types of things and everything else that you do. And I love these nuggets. Thank you. Just thank you so much, Kristy. I know that the listeners are really appreciating this today. DAT Kristy (17:05) Absolutely, my pleasure. The Dental A Team (17:08) Amazing. And guys, go listen again. Reach out. If you are a client of ours, ask your consultant if you guys aren't talking about KPIs, if we're not using that word specifically, and you're like, hey, what are we tracking here? We're tracking and we're probably just not using that word specifically. So ask your consultant. Ask where you're at. Ask if you need to shift anything. And if you're not a client yet, then reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are happy to give you some ideas to take a look at what you've got going on and really let you know what we could do for you or what you can do even without us to increase from where you're at now to where you want to go. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and we will catch you guys next time. Thank you. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39708495

How to Merge Patients (and Culture) Successfully 01/08/2026

How to Merge Patients (and Culture) Successfully Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite! The Dental A-Team is joined by Dr. Nate Tilman! Fascinating history aside (read his bio below), Dr. Tilman talks with Kiera about his unique dental practice situation, how he’s managed to merge five different practices into his own, and a strategy for doing so. He also speaks to the shifting of culture in his practice, what it took for him to recognize, and the success it’s brought. More on Dr. Tilman: Originally from Salisbury, Maryland, Dr. Tilman attended Wake Forest University for his undergraduate degree. He was awarded his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Maryland where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2001. Dr. Tilman served in the U.S. Navy Dental Corps for four years, including two years forward deployed aboard USS Ashland (LSD 48). Following his military service, Dr. Tilman moved to Newport, Rhode Island, in 2007 and opened Newport Family and Cosmetic Dentistry. He has had the pleasure to work with an amazing team and amazing patients in creating a state-of-the art, caring, and comfortable dental practice. His commitment to incorporating advanced technologies and techniques allows Dr. Tilman and his team to provide dental treatment in fewer visits and more comfortably than with traditional techniques. Episode resources: Transcript: speaker-0 (00:05) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I have 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, filler, 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. I love podcasts where I get to bring on offices that I just think are fantastic. So this is an office that we have worked with in the Dental A Team. Also fun fact, he is in the smallest state in the entire United States. So you all know me and my state traveling. His state is one of my hardest states to get to every year, because it's so tiny and it's so far away from me. But he's just one of the best people I've ever met. He's an incredible leader, incredible dentist, incredible just good human. So I'm so glad and so excited to welcome Dr. Nate Tilman to the show. How are you today, Nate? speaker-1 (01:27) I am great. Thank you. Thank you. I'm super excited to be here. ⁓ as you know, I've been a fan of the podcast for, know, pretty much since you started. And it's kind of like, it's kind of surreal being, you know, being on, being on the podcast. So I appreciate, appreciate the offer. speaker-0 (01:44) Well, I love it. love to one it's fun. Thank you for being a podcast fan I mean it's almost coming up on three years of the podcast since we created it and I never would have thought that the podcast could connect me with such cool people so one thank you for being a podcast listener and two things are just being a rad person I I liked the podcast has become a fun passion project for me to meet people to hear their stories So I kind of alluded to it. You're also doing something similar to Dr. Dave Mogadon, who was on the podcast about those chart ⁓ mergers and buyouts that's kind of helped with your growth, but kind of just tell the listeners like how you even got into dentistry and kind of what your growth trajectory has been, just so they kind of know as a background to today's podcast. speaker-1 (02:28) Yeah, I'll try not to ramble too much about it. yeah, I went to always wanted to do something in healthcare. My grandfather was a public health physician is a big inspiration for me. So kind of I think it's midway through college decided dentistry is gonna be a really good fit, you know, for a number of reasons. Went to University of Maryland for dental school, loved it decided to stay in general dentistry for you know, all the variety of what we do. was on a Navy scholarship, so I was able to spend the first four years as a practicing dentist in the Navy. ⁓ Two years I was on a ship as the only dentist. So it was a really good, didn't realize like how helpful an experience that was for like running us an organization, even though it was an organization of three. speaker-0 (03:14) Yeah, but I also feel like let's just talk about the Navy real fast because I didn't know this about you and my husband and I were literally talking probably two days ago and he said I don't think I ever could do the Navy like put me on a ship with these people for so long and dump me in the middle of the ocean like nowhere to go no hiking like what do you even do? How how was that? feel like more than anything it would teach you mental stamina is what I think I would learn from being on the Navy. But how was it for you? Maybe maybe you guys go swimming every day. I don't know like what do you do all day? speaker-1 (03:43) Definitely not at all. it was, the two years on the ship was very, it's a super unique experience. And we were a small ship, 400 sailors. We transported Marines. So I was responsible for pretty much 400 patients. had, it was me, I had an administrative assistant and I had two dental technicians that could do some basic hygiene, not a hygienist, but it was me. ⁓ So having to learn like managing supplies and, know, managing appointments and all of that stuff. But the unique thing as a, as a dentist, and mean, this is one year out of a, you know, my GPR. still I was safe, but didn't really know necessarily all what I was doing, but I love to get myself out of jams because middle of the ocean, like. Mid procedure. I'm not going to be the guy calling a helicopter, you know, you got to work through it. So. speaker-0 (04:40) They're like awesome because it's gonna push your limits and you've got to just figure it out Which I think so many dentists when they do own they don't learn that stamina that stress like hey, it's you figure it out But you're like the odds are even stacked more you're in the middle of the ocean and I mean it would been a pretty cool story for me maybe not for you to hear like a helicopter to come get a patient because you botched a root canal or something like you'd have to figure that out, but that that doesn't definitely up your odds of intensity for sure being out there and nobody else is there to help you. You're the man. You got to figure it all out. speaker-1 (05:13) Yeah. And I think it's, while it would have been nice to, you know, if I'd had a situation like, know, where I had a mentor, another dentist I was working with, you know, to be able to bail out, like it have been helpful, but it really, it did, it gave me a lot of, a lot of confidence, um, you know, early on for like, can work my way through this. And then also like what things I don't want to do. Cause I don't want to get stuck in that position again. Yeah. And it was, and yeah, while I didn't have to helicopter anybody out, one of the things I did do, and I don't think at the time, nobody had ever really. speaker-0 (05:34) True. speaker-1 (05:42) done it from a small ship or the even smaller ships around us that there were two times where people had some dental emergencies that I was able to fly out to their ship and take care of them. speaker-0 (05:52) No way. Well, you do have like built in planes. You travel anywhere. So it's like quick, like fly you in, but that's crazy. Cause you ma I can't even imagine the stress that those poor other dentists were feeling of like we're in the middle of here. Like what am I supposed to do? ⁓ I guess call someone else. So, I mean, we talk about dentistry and I've said this so many times, like, feel like dental practices are like these solo islands out there. All y'all just kind of hang in your own area. You literally were in the middle of the ocean flying solo. speaker-1 (06:22) Yeah. That's crazy. It was fun. There wasn't a ton of dentistry to do. I, know, cool thing with the Navy, they give you other jobs. So I became an air traffic controller. So I was in charge of, you know, all of the flight operations on the ship. so between that and dentistry, it me pretty busy. And then I played a of video games, you know, speaker-0 (06:41) I'm like, I would be pulling pranks. mean, just throughout COVID, my husband, he makes fun of me. I feel like a roaming tiger in these four walls of our house. Like sometimes I'm like, just let me out of here. Like I can't even handle it. I'm like, I gotta go for a run. I gotta go for a hike that I can't even imagine being on a ship. would be like, I know I'd be pulling pranks on every single person on that ship and just like running for my life. Cause I probably would torment everybody, but air traffic control that like you really went for all the things, Nate, dentistry and air traffic controller. What don't they say those are the top two suicide jobs? Like you really went for the whole extreme there. Nice job. speaker-1 (07:15) Well, that's that's like when they selected me to go to the school for our traffic control. What are you guys trying to tell me? You already know I'm a dentist. speaker-0 (07:23) Gosh, that's crazy. So you were in the Navy and then you went, got out of the Navy. Did you go straight to private practice? Did you go in and be an associate? speaker-1 (07:32) So I was an associate for a year, still in the Virginia Beach area and then moved to Rhode Island. My wife is, we met in college, I'm two years older, so she was awesome for following me around. then, ⁓ so when she was done with her residency, she's from New England, so we kinda, that's where we looked up here. And I'll tell you, Virginia Beach area, super easy to get a job as an associate, tons of positions around, I figured it'd be the same thing coming up here and there was nothing. speaker-0 (08:00) mean, Rhode Island is like the size of a dot on a map. I mean, it's itty bitty, which I makes you a celebrity just because you live there. Like, not many people even live there, so. speaker-1 (08:11) Yeah, it's in and it's there's there's a number of dentists, but it's it's all solo guys and it's tough like restricted covenants. You know you get a two mile radius. That's the whole state. speaker-0 (08:21) Exactly exactly that is you definitely have to look at your associate ships of their contracts really closely Otherwise, you might be booting out of that state just because like you said two mile radius is not far in Rhode Island speaker-1 (08:34) Not at all. So I ended up having an opportunity to a it's like a four operatory practice, like three, I think two and a half, three days a week. The guy was definitely like on the decline of practice. So jumped into that, had no idea what I was doing. And then six months later, was approached by another dentist who was moving from the area. I think it was a family thing too. And he was having trouble getting somebody to buy his practice Rhode Island. It's not many dentists moved to the state for a number of reasons. So again, I was still trying to figure out how I was paying my initial loan and how I was running this practice or whatever. the opportunity to buy, to merge this, the patient base. So I did that and it was definitely the best thing I did because it brought in a whole new group of patients. I was able to go from like two and a half days a week to four days a week. I was able to add another hygienist at the time. so it wasn't super intentional, but the growth was happening. just kind of fell in my lap. I'm like, I'll do this. And looking back, it is where I realized what a good thing it was. speaker-0 (09:48) For sure. And I hope people listening, ⁓ I am a firm believer that opportunity doesn't always knock on the door and say, I'm opportunity. Sometimes it looks like pure chaos. Sometimes it's stretching you beyond. Sometimes it's really just showing up. I remember the day that I was asked to work with DSI as a consultant. Guys, I had one consulting client before Mark asked me to be a consultant. And overnight, I had 45 clients in my lab. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. But I people listening realize like, For you, you're struggling. just bought your practice. Don't know what you're doing. Yes, you've had quite a bit of experience, but at the same time, running a practice is very different than being an associate or I'm sure even in the Navy. And so now, and then, hey, by the way, there's all this other patient base wanting to come in. And I love that you just, jumped, you took that opportunity. And I think again, so many times in life, opportunities show up. It's just a matter of, we willing to take them and figure it out or are we too scared and just let them pass by? ⁓ You brought those patients in and you were mentioning pre record that adding in patients from other practices has really been a great way for you to get new patients. ⁓ which people are constantly looking for new patients. was just talking to, there's a guy out here. He's a pathiatrist guys. I'm like, I don't know. I just can't help myself, but help business owners. Like I love it. Podiatry is not that much different than dentistry. Y'all see patients like dentistry, we work on the mouth, but I treat work on the foot. Like Basically, it's kind of like pediatric. You go to your surgery centers, they come in, you see these patients for their adjustments. But I was talking to him and he's a solo podiatrist and there are two podiatry offices around him that have just shut down doors. So he's like, yeah, it's just great. Like people are finding us and I'm like, did you call those people and ask them for their charts, buy those charts? that is two practices worth of patients that you're just hoping maybe one day will Google you when they're seriously sitting right in front of you. So I'm super curious. I love this topic. know Dave's talked about it as well, but Nate, how do you buy charts successfully? How do you make that transition? Like Dave was talking about buying so many charts, but kind of from your experience, how do you buy these charts? How do you merge these patients in successfully? And other than just good luck and being in the right place at the right time, finding more of these opportunities. I'm super curious. speaker-1 (12:04) Yeah, yeah. So for this one, know, having no idea what I was doing, I did have some, think, good advice from a transition attorney that I worked with. initially, the guy that was selling his charts, wanted X number of dollars for his, I think he said, 1,000 active records. speaker-0 (12:26) And what's like X number of dollars like just give me a ballpark you don't have to say the exact amount but I'm like is it five dollars a chart ten dollars a chart thirty dollars a chart like what speaker-1 (12:35) If I remember, this was probably 10 years ago, so I believe it was 60 a chart is what he wanted. So I think he wanted 60 million, right? And, you know, I, again, not knowing too much, I definitely knew that those 1,000 people were not gonna come over, right? So I was worried about like, what's the risk? Like, are 10 people gonna come or are 800 gonna come? I have no idea. Yeah. So the attorney I was talking to, he said, he'd never done it this way. said, but maybe what you want to do is offer a little bit more per record, but only for like a small percentage at first. And then keep track of it over time. And that's what I think I did. It was either a hundred or 120 a chart. And I prepaid for like 300. But then for the next year, I kept track of all the, like once I got above that 300, I kept track of it. So the nice thing is it limited my, it limited my risk. It put more, I guess, importance or motivation on the seller to really like push his patients to come. Cause the more you make more, the more people that came to see me. So it was a win-win that way. And it also, it let me kind of control that the influx too, because I think if all of sudden I was getting, you know, 800 patients calling all at once, it'd be a little bit trickier to merge this all in. So that worked out really well. speaker-0 (14:00) And I'm just curious on that, because this is something else I've been really wondering. After talking to Dave, now meeting this podiatrist, guys, I just love this type of stuff. This is cool business stuff that I feel a lot of people don't talk about. I'm curious, how long was the arrangement? Was it for a year that you would pay him? Was it for five years you'd pay the selling doctor? Because I'm curious, how is the motivation? for me as a business owner, I wouldn't want this to go on forever. I'd want an end date of when I don't have to pay you $120 per patient. So how is that kind of arrangement set up? speaker-1 (14:32) It actually, was nine months is what we had set. And I think it could work either, but I certainly wouldn't go more than a year, because it is, it becomes a major pain. And then, honestly for me, as I got close to that nine months, we sort of started slowing down. We strategically scheduled those last few patients in the nine months, but I still had all the records. speaker-0 (14:54) That's what curious. So did you get all the records? So like you paid this, all the charts come to you, and then the other dentist has good faith that you're going to be honest? Or do they get access to it? Was that what it was? speaker-1 (15:04) He could have like, had it written. If you wanted to send somebody to audit it, like absolutely. He had access to do that. He just never did. and yeah, we had an initial wave of a lot of people and then it slowed down a bit. And you know, it's, um, I think, I think it ended up, maybe we got 450 out of that thousand. Um, and it and it was close and it was close to that nine months. You know, we were getting close to like 400 and again, I just. We slowed down a little bit, ⁓ just whatever. But as soon as that nine months hit, then we started re-marketing to the people we hadn't seen. speaker-0 (15:43) 100 % because then it's like you've got basically 400 patients on recall that haven't been in and so did you guys win it happened and of course you might say things you'd do differently or whatnot but did you have that selling doctor send a letter to all of his patients like hey I'm no longer seeing it come see Nate like he's fantastic or did you guys just pick up the phone and start calling these people what was kind of the strategy of the how-to for you? speaker-1 (16:07) So he, so he wrote, we both wrote a joint letter, which was good. And then I was able, I actually brought on his, he didn't have an office manager, but it was like his lead front desk and scheduler. So we brought her on. She wasn't a, she wasn't a great, perfect culture fit, but she knew the patients. So that worked. I think she was with us for probably about the nine months. speaker-0 (16:26) Exactly. Cause in my mind I was thinking like, that's genius. Maybe you can do like a little like sweetheart deal where it's like, Hey, I'm buying your charts and also your scheduler upfront. Can I just have them like help me call these patients? I'll pay them for a couple of months or whatnot. I don't know.... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39621915

Design Your Practice Vision Like a CEO 01/07/2026

Design Your Practice Vision Like a CEO Tiff and Monica break down what it takes to operate your practice like a CEO in 2026, including mindset (especially if you don’t exactly feel like a CEO), leadership team delegation, dialing in goals, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team I am so excited to be here. You guys know I love podcasting. It's one of my favorite things that we do throughout the month. I usually get at least two podcasting sessions in with my ladies. And today I have Monica back here with us again. Monica, how are you? I'm so excited you're here. How was this? This is a Monday. So like, how was your weekend? Did you get to rest, relax your grandbaby? What did you do? What was your, what was your weekend like? Monica (00:25) Yeah, hi Tiff, happy Monday. Happy Monday, everyone. I'm so excited to start off my week with podcasting. ⁓ I think I just have like this new found joy and like interest and passion around podcasting and just showing up authentically and having this conversation. So thank you for inviting me. ⁓ My weekend, I had such a magical weekend. First of all, guys, December is such a magical time for me. The Dental A Team (00:28) Thank you. Of course. Monica (00:56) You know, it's just tapping into all the unseen, right? The hope, the faith, the love that is never ending is all expansive. And December goes by really fast. So I made it a point to be super present in all the little things that I do and the mundane things. And I had such a magical weekend with my grandson. ⁓ The Dental A Team (01:09) It does. Monica (01:21) I've got two grandkids, ⁓ Elijah who's 12 years old and my granddaughter Sophia who is three months old and I'm just enamored obviously with both of them but Sophia takes the stage right now. ⁓ But my grandson, know, he came over and he, you know, he's earning money to buy an electrical bike and I said, hey, you gotta earn it buddy so. You know, ⁓ Mimi, I'm Mimi for him. I gave him a little weekend project to come and redo, re-sand, refinish my patio furniture. And we did that. We did that over the weekend and he did an amazing job. And then it turned into like this, Mimi, can I sleep over? Let's have a sleepover. You know, let's sleep right in front of the fireplace. When's the last time you did something fun like that? So. The Dental A Team (02:03) Yeah. my gosh. Monica (02:11) ⁓ it was, it was amazing. The Christmas tree lights were on, the fireplace was on and Charlie and I and Elijah were having sleepover on the couch. So that was fun. And, ⁓ we got to make breakfast the next morning and we had, you know, the magical dance in the kitchen. Yeah, that happened too. So it was just so special. And, ⁓ those are just memories that I want to hold on to forever. Those are those forever memories, you know? Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:29) Mm-hmm. They are, they are. Those are the memories, those are the things that make life, life and make life enjoyable. So I'm really glad you got that time and ⁓ thank you for sharing. Thank you. You always, share your family with us. You share Charlie, who is her adorable dog. You share just all of them with us. So thank you. Thank you. On that note though, I think Monica, that's like the perfect lead in, into what we're talking about today because Monica (02:44) Yes. Yes. Thank you. Monica (02:57) Yeah, yeah, thank you. The Dental A Team (03:06) what I really wanted to chat about and just get some information out for our listeners and for those of you who are here with us today, make sure that you either go back and listen to some of these pieces. We're gonna have some really good nuggets for you or you're taking notes now if you're in a place that can take notes. I always caveat that if you are driving, I drive and listen to podcasts a lot and I have to go back and listen to them. So please don't take notes while you're driving. But on that note of December and ⁓ we're recording this in December, it'll... populate in January, which is kind of perfect because this time of year is great because we're winding down and we are enjoying the magic, like you said, and enjoying all of the love and the faith and all of those pieces. But then it turns into January, which is like a fresh new beginning and a magic of its own. And moving into January and being in January, something that I really want CEOs to start thinking about is how to think like a CEO. Dental practice owners, doctors, don't often think of themselves, I think, as a CEO. Monica, often just, they're a practice owner, they're a business owner. But I think that CEO mindset is something that's very different. And really just looking at 2026, how can 2026 be your CEO year? And how can you start thinking like a CEO? What does it take to move and operate like a CEO? And this is something that we work on with our dental practice owners a lot. So our clients, We're constantly bringing them back into that CEO mindset. We're really, really lucky in the fact that we have Kiera here on our team that we get to watch ⁓ move through the CEO mindset. And I've had the privilege of side by side walking with her and watching her build the business and building it with her and seeing those trials and tribulations. So being able to impact the world of dentistry with those pieces is something that's huge for us. We're in January, it's beautiful. I feel like when I think of January, I think of like white and it's just clean and it's this beautiful, sparkly, clean slate that we can just create anything with. So as we're creating this, question that I have is really as we're building like a scalable vision, right? So we're looking forward, what's something that you like to encourage your CEO mindset doctors to really start with? Like where do you, how do we say this is where Monica (05:24) Yeah. The Dental A Team (05:24) This is where I want to go. know, we've got especially a visionary mindset who just is in the clouds a lot. But how do you help them narrow that down into really thinking like a CEO and kind of time-lining that out, measurable? Like, what are all the pieces that you're looking for? Monica (05:38) Yeah, that's a great question, Tiff. Thanks for asking. Well, first, before we dive into that, I want to say, doctors, it's you. You are the leader, right? You are the CEO and you've got to think like one. And I think ⁓ most of the time we're looking outward for the answers, but the answers are already in you. You've got to take some time to have some introspection time and say, okay, What does the CEO do? Like, let me put my CEO hat on and bring that mindset in. what is my philosophy as a CEO? You've got to start with your philosophy, right? What does that mean to you? How am I going to achieve that, that one vision? And you got to make sure that your vision and your philosophy is inspiring enough to fire you up, to want to create a change. right, because ⁓ it starts with you. We've got to be, we've got to be and show up as a person that we expect our leaders, our leadership team to show up as, right? So if you want your leadership team to come in and prepared and be on topic and be on the KPIs and know your numbers, guess what? You got to know the numbers. You've got to show up with that strong leadership, that inspiring, that motivating. you know, knowing which KPIs you're going to look at, which in my mind, I think there's like the really high value KPIs and then the lower value KPIs, right? Everything is important, but we can't focus on all things at once. So what are the top KPIs that you as a CEO are going to focus on that drive, that philosophy that gave you that drive and that passion to wake up every single day fired up to, you know, tackle the day. So if you don't have a philosophy, get one, right? Just start writing it down. I think we all have it here in our mind. You gotta put it on paper. Because if it's not on paper, you can't create it. Part of the creation process is thinking it, materializing it, and then sharing it. sharing it with your team, your leadership team. ⁓ And then seeing it, right? Like what is the process of creating that philosophy and executing that philosophy? Doctors, it starts with you. Be the leader that you expect your leadership team to show up as. That's what a CEO does, right? Like what, who's, who's carrying the torch? The difficult part about being a CEO is that you've got the visionary and then you also have an operational piece, right? And we often say there's, there's two great leaders in any successful business, the visionary and the operational one, right? The one that carries a torch every single day. But you have to be both. before you can delegate it. You've got to know what that feels like. You've got to know how to drive that. You've got to know how to become it before we expect our team to become it. So it starts with you doctors. Start with your philosophy. I would love to know for, you know, anyone that wants to just comment or just share, what is your philosophy? What do you wake up, you know, every single morning, what do you wake up with? What are you going to take to the office? I think that's where we start, right? And then there's three things that I think are crucial for any CEO. You've got to be obsessed with this. Your clinical excellence, your patient experience, your culture, your team, and growth and profitability. Those are three things you've got to be obsessed about. Those are three things that you've got to be curious about every single day. Every time that you meet with your team, We recommend that you have a weekly meeting with your leadership team. Make sure that you're touching on those three things. Those, I think, are the driver to everything. Your clinical experience and your patient experience is everything that builds trust, that builds efficiency, ⁓ that builds retention, patient retention, team retention. Yeah. What are your thoughts, Tiff? The Dental A Team (10:00) Yeah, I love that. Thank you, thank you. And I know you have some really fantastic nuggets. So I hope you guys, if you are driving, you go back and listen and write them down. And I agree. think the philosophy, right, or translated, you can call it your mission, your vision. Like, why are you here? What is it that you believe in? We talk a lot about your, ⁓ like your patient philosophy or your clinical philosophy. So it's really just, what do you believe in? What are you trying to accomplish with what you're doing? And I love that because If you can see what you're trying to accomplish, if you can, like she said, get it out on paper and Monica, I think that's brilliant. I do so much better when I'm like handwriting. I even got one of those journals, you know, the little, the notepads that are erasable because I think you just, you can take a picture and it uploads because I just do better with handwriting it. And when you can get it out and you can say, this is where I'm trying to get to, you can start to like build that house. It's like when you're, when you're going to, you're looking at model homes, the model home is already done. And so it gives you a vision of what you could create if you were to build a home within that development. And so you need that model home. need something that models. you might not be, you might build your home and you might not do the same kitchen. You might have a different tile. You might have different countertops than what was shown in the model, but you're able to at least get a vision for something to start. And then you work backwards from that. And Monica, think that's... the key there and what you said with the KPIs and the metrics and knowing your numbers and knowing your stats, watching those KPIs and really seeing if this is where I'm going, what are the top three goals that I can get to? And then scaling those backwards. And that's how a CEO works, right? We've got big goals that we scale backwards and say, okay, what are the steps? What is the plan? What's it actually going to take to get to this goal? And how can I recruit then my team to help support Monica (11:36) Yep. The Dental A Team (11:55) that and I think Monica, that's a huge word for me and my coaching is the support team. Like how can the team support these goals and I don't know Monica. This might be a side tangent, but something that I've experienced for sure is doctors or leaders or practice owners getting in the mindset of like worker bees like I've got worker bees under me and they are they are the ones that are going to get this instead of that mindset of really like they're here to support me to get to these goals. How can I support them to get there? And I have to then think a clear vision. If I'm not clear on where we're going, how are they gonna support me to get there? And Monica, do you think in that transition? Because I do think that's a big switch from practice owner to CEO mindset is that really that supportive reaching the goals together, that support rather than. I gave them tasks and they're gonna get me there. We're really kind of building this house together. Monica (12:58) Yeah, no, that's a great point. think there's two parts to a successful practice. You've got to be able to work on the business and in the business. And you've got to really protect that time. When you're working on the business, be about that. Show up and be present. ⁓ I think, you We're so used to multitasking and that that's our culture, right? That's the culture of dentistry is like, you've got to be able to like do a million things at once and your brain is going a million miles an hour. ⁓ you're seeing multiple patients, you're, know, you're constantly shifting and wearing various hats during the day. But to work on your business, you've got to, you've got to be present. No interruptions. Like don't. get to the office before you get to the office, right? When you're in the office, don't get home, don't work on your personal stuff when you're in the office, work on the things that really matter. And it's difficult to kind of change gears and focus, but I think it's crucial. Working on the business really means, what's my philosophy, right? And reverse engineering that. Here's where I want to be. Where am I now? What are the steps that I need to do next before I get there? I think having presence of mind is super important because we can't focus on all things, right? If we do, nothing gets done. And so write them down, write all the steps that you need to get there, then prioritize them. What do I need to do first before I move on to the next? And so I like to think about it as layered. The Dental A Team (14:34) Yeah. Yeah. Monica (14:48) Right? When you layer it, when it's written down, like create a visual for yourself. And then when it's written down, you can, it's easier to digest and you can journey that, that map per se in a much easier way. you're visual and you can go in and, and, know, add steps to it along the way. But if it's all up here, this is, this is where chaos happens. Right? This is where you get stressed out. This is where, ⁓ unease. comes in, right, because it's all here and you can't see it. And I think most of us are visual when it comes to, you know, our practice and success and our teams. I mean, we've got to be able to see it, right, to believe it. ⁓ So I think working on the business and then working in the business, guys, that's really important. We can't expect our team to give, you know, above and beyond. The Dental A Team (15:32) Mm-hmm. Monica (15:44) and expect them to stay and work after hours on their own time when we're working two days a week in in tearside, right? And leading the team. No one's going to care more than you, right? Your team is there to support you, right? And your vision. So they're not the they may be the drivers, but they're not the principal. You are right. And I think we we tend to forget. We tend to forget that we are the ultimate authority and we are the leaders. We're the go-to people, right? And ⁓ becoming a dentist and opening your practice, you automatically become a CEO whether you like it or not, right? And we're business owners, we're leaders. The team is looking to us to establish our philosophy, our vision, ⁓ the map. Where are we going, right? You've got to be the captain of your ship. The Dental A Team (16:12) Okay. Mm-hmm. Monica (16:40) And if you don't take on that role, people are just waiting. They're doing the best that they can, but it's, you know, they're in uncharted waters. I think that's when we lose, you know, the, ⁓ the passion and that fire, because we don't know where we're headed. Right. And everyone's just trying to work in their own little Island and they're, they're working in silos. And then, you know, instead of locking arms and saying, Hey, here's our vision. We're all rowing in this direction and let's go after it. Right. And we've got to be able to row in the same direction. The Dental A Team (17:21) Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think that's where, to your point, the KPIs come into play, right? So you had mentioned earlier, like those measurables and those KPIs, because those are our oars. That's how we're getting there. So it's very easy, I think, for a visionary to have the vision. They know it. They're like, I can see the house. But then you've got to put that, you said, put that implementer hat on for a second, that worker hat on for a second, and say, cool, that's the vision. Now what goes in first? Monica (17:29) Totally. The Dental A Team (17:53) Like do we put the countertops in before we put the cupboards in? No, like how do we get there? So those are, I think Monica, to your point, those are the KPIs that are there so that the team can support that vision. So if you want increased new patients, what is the team gonna do to help support that? We've got a marketing company probably, but what can the team do asking for reviews, asking for referrals, like counting those pieces? And Monica, do you feel like that's where, I think personally, That's where the CEO mindset really takes hold from that visionary kind of practice owner, I just wanna have a business mindset. That's that CEO tactical piece. And I think for practices I've worked with, structures I've worked with, that's the space that's like, we've gotta get over that hurdle and is sometimes the more difficult space for them to be able to see the applicable KPIs that will get us to those goals. Monica (18:32) Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you. think inaction equals no action, right? And so most of the time we know what needs to be done, but again, it's up here, right? And we choose for whatever the reason is, we're choosing not to get behind it. ⁓ And so, you know, Also, sometimes we have to unpack what our limiting beliefs are. What is the story I'm telling myself about myself? That self-talk. Self-talk is super impactful, whether it's positive or negative. So what is your self-talk? What is your little voice saying? Right? Can I do this? Let's do this. Or, ⁓ nobody cares. Nobody cares as much as I do. You know, ⁓ I think self-talk is powerful. The Dental A Team (19:50) I think a lot of times it comes down to as well if I can see the vision but I'm not willing to share the vision, ⁓ what is keeping me from sharing that vision? Like why am I afraid to vocalize or put it on paper? What about this scares me? And that's what we're running away from, And we just replace it with the... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39621895

Get Patients To Say YES To High-Dollar Cases 01/06/2026

Get Patients To Say YES To High-Dollar Cases If you want high-dollar procedures done more often in your practice, this is the episode for you. Kiera specifies what needs to be in place, including skillset, morale, and language. This kind of case acceptance goes beyond the everyday appointments, and Kiera explains the difference. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I feel like this is my bread and butter. I feel like this is what Kiera Dent was made to do. And I cannot wait to teach you guys the secret to getting patients to say yes to those high dollar, high ticket cases. We're talking the 20, the 30, the $40,000 cases. But the great news is these principles can be applied to your smaller cases too, because I just think that like how to do this and this is what Kiera's really good at. And I have a practice that ⁓ implementing incorporating these tactics. has been able to grow every one of their locations, multi-millions every single year. And people look at these practices, they see their stats and they say, how did you get these numbers? And they said, it all started the day we brought Dental A Team into our company. And that's just a huge testament to me, to the work that we do, to what our consultants do. And for anything, it comes from a passion of being able to help more patients get the dentistry that they need and deserve. So I just feel like there's so much fun to case acceptance and ⁓ It's not about selling, it's about words are free. And so let's use our words to the best of our ability. Let's use our words to the best experience for our patient. And let's help all of them have the trust, the clarity and the confidence to be able to say yes to those. You guys, Dental A Team is obsessed with helping you and your teams have more profitable practices, happier practices, happier teams, happier patients. We are obsessed with that. And our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. and doing it in a tactical, practical, let's do this. So I really want you guys to hopefully take this on, take the system, take the tactics and help more patients say yes. And to just be proud of the dentistry you're able to do. Now, step one is you've got to be really, really good at dentistry. I can sell any dentistry. Like I feel like I'm a miracle girl for practices. I feel like there's easy ways to do this. But step one is we've got to have great dentistry. Otherwise our treatment coordinators and our team and our patients that makes it very, very hard actually for us to want to sell dentistry. So step one of this is going to be you've got to actually do great dentistry. Okay, that's step one. So if you're not good at something, please don't sell it, go get good at it. But also please don't make it worse than it is. You might actually be a great clinician, but you don't give yourself the credit for that. So I'm on a mission to help the best dentists thrive, the best dentists do great dentistry and to help more patients. So that's step one is I got to make sure that you guys are doing really, really, really good. Step two is getting patients to say yes, especially for these higher dollar ticket ⁓ items. We've got to make sure that we've got dialed in systems. ⁓ I use the example from Disneyland that people can feel perfection. And so does our team feel well oiled? And this means that our hygiene team is teeing up treatment. We're all looking for it. If our associate doctors are not doing this treatment and they're referring to our general doc, our, our owner doctor, We've got to make sure all the associates and the hygiene team are trained on what to look for, how to present this, how to tee it up. Do we bring them back for consult? Can we diagnose it? What's the process for that? And if you want these high dollar procedures to be done more often in your practice, training your hygienist and your associates is one of the best investments of your time. So everybody's looking for it. We basically become a referring practice to our doctors that do these procedures. ⁓ I really do believe that everybody. So hygienist looking for it. Hygienist should be the first person and this goes for all treatment planning, but we're going to dive it into these higher dollar ones because there is a little bit different on how we actually present the treatment plan. But all these first steps should be all parts of high case acceptance. Now just also give a little credibility. ⁓ Implementing these processes usually take for just general dentistry, it usually gets you up to a 75-ish percent acceptance rate up to 90. Now, if we're higher than that, I know we might not be diagnosing as much as we need to, but in general dentistry, we should be cracking pretty high case acceptance. Now for my like 20, 30, 40, $50,000 cases, right around a 35 to a 45 % acceptance rate is going to be the targets we're looking for. And that is dollar for dollar, not one for one acceptance rate. So if that helps you guys, that's what we're going for. ⁓ But step one is do great dentistry. Step two is believe in the dentistry. And then step three is going to be where everybody is speaking the same language. hygienists should be the first person to tee up all dentistry. They should be the one showing the x-rays, showing the intraoral photos, showing all of that so the patient can absolutely 100 % see what we see. We want that patient to be bought in. We don't want to just try and help them like, okay, like you might have this. We actually speak in the same terms as the rest of our patients. ⁓ In one practice what we did is we actually had the doctors tell us exactly how they diagnose treatment We as consultants recorded it on our phones and we had the whole team hear it and then we gave them all these recordings and the whole team has to listen to it and this was our fastest easiest way to get everybody up to par like driving into the office driving home from the office like listen to it in the office like you've got Christmas music playing but instead it's it's all the ways that we diagnose and describe this that way everybody says it the same way so the patients hearing it multiple times in the exact same way. Now when the doctor comes in, there should be a handoff from hygienist to doctor. We call it the I creep. So introduce, compliment the patient, recap the treatment and say something personal. Hygienist, you want a fast exam? This is how you get it done. Doctors, you don't want to do that awkward dance of like, how do I get to know you without getting to know you, but I need to get to know you? This is how you do it. Introduce, compliment, that puts the patient more at ease, recap treatment already discussed, and then something personal about them. Then doctors, we get them into a yes frame of mind. We're going to say, can I lean you back? Can I do a full exam on you? Yes, yes. You want to actually get them in the frame of mind of saying, yes. It's true psychology. Again, words are free. It's not manipulation. It is genuinely setting the stage to get a patient open-minded. They don't want to be at the dental office already. So how can I help them get into this higher frame of mind? Then after that, doctor's going to comprehensively diagnose. And then they're going to recap with what we call the NDTR handoff. So next visit, date to return, time needed for appointment, re-care scheduled. This is going to be more for your general procedure. Then we take that, hygiene, then takes ordinal assistant, takes them up to the front office, say the exact handoff. Amalia's amazing up front. Dr. Smith wants to see Kiera back for that crown on the upper right. She wants to see her back for, you know. ⁓ an hour and a half and wants to see her in two weeks and she already has her cleaning scheduled. And then from there, the front office team picks it up. Let's get you scheduled in two weeks. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. We need an hour and a half and then we go over financing. That patient has now heard this multiple times of the exact same thing. And that same process, just with a small fine tuning is going to be for these larger cases. Typically larger cases, yes, they are found in hygiene, but oftentimes it's going to be a little bit longer of a consult if you will, ⁓ because we want to make sure that we have the before and after photos. We want to make sure we build trust with them. This is where having the hygiene team tee it up. This is where we have the perfect handoffs between doctor and hygienist. And then the doctor has to have confidence and clarity. So you've got to work this like pre-treatment build to make sure that the patient feels like they already know kind of what we're looking at. If it's all built up like this, it's very warm, it's very consistent. everybody's on the same page. Your team feels like your patient feels like your team has their stuff together. And that's what we want. So I would look at this, like how are we doing on pre-treatment? Not even if just large cases, but how are we doing with those handoffs? How is the handoff from hygiene to doctor? How is hygiene teeing up treatment? How is everybody talking about treatment? Are we all on the same page or are we all on different pages? What does that look like? And then from that, We wanna make sure that we're really, really, really good on visuals. So are we doing scans? Are we doing mockups? Do we have photos of before and afters of the cases? Do we have clear and simple explanations? Do we have ⁓ more like this is information. So if we're doing an all on X case, do we have information about what this happens and what are the steps? And do we have it broken down into really easy steps for them? I actually changed up treatment plans on these larger cases to step one is extraction in place. Step two is impressions and step three is delivery. Those are very patient friendly. If our case is 45,000, I break it down to step one is, you know, 19 ish thousand and then step two is going to be like 11,000 and then step three is whatever the remainder of that is. This way it's very simple. They can pay in full for some practices or we pay per appointment. Now with these larger cases on AR and also on production and collections to make sure we're not having these huge spikes. Sometimes it does make sense to have the patient pay as they go. Other practices want a pay in full. Both are totally fine. But what we've got to do and what we also have to realize is when we go into the finances. So typically when I'm presenting like a one to $7,000, I'm gonna schedule them first, I'm gonna present the dollars, I'm gonna talk the insurance as a coupon. ⁓ Here's total treatment, here's your insurance estimate, and then this is the total when I see you on Wednesday. Or if you would... require a deposit, take the deposit then, and then ask what questions they have. Then we go into financing options, but it's just a very clear, very confident space that we're gonna walk into. Now, if I'm presenting a 20 or 30 or $40,000 case, it's psychology. It's a smooth flow from front to back. It is the confidence that we are gonna do the best for you. Here's what's going on. Let's talk about it. What questions do you have? I wanna make sure that you're very confident moving forward. Dr. Smith is the absolute best dentist. to create this and to do this treatment for you, like you were in good hands. Notice in there, I edified my doctor. I made sure that I asked them what questions, not do you have questions? The last thing I ever wanna do is have my patient tell me no. I wanna keep them always in a yes frame of mind. Now, we're gonna look at this of cost. I'm not going to plant weeds in my flower garden on purpose. I don't wanna say like, is a big investment for you. Why am I saying that? It's not a big investment. This is an investment. This is you taking care of yourself. This is you deserving this. Like how exciting is it to be able to eat food that you haven't been able to eat for the last however many years? How exciting is it to smile with confidence? I am going to radically focus on the positives for this. And then I'm going to go after and ask them what questions they have. I don't want to pre-assume question marks that they have. When people come in for these 20, 30, 40, $50,000, they're not going to be sticker shocked to see that it's that amount. Some of them might. But the general population knows just like I use the example of when we were doing IVF, IVF is $50,000 per procedure. It's not ⁓ a cheap procedure. And the buyer is very educated when they walk into that. So it's not like what 50 grand? You didn't tell me that. It is more a great, this is what it is. What questions do you have? I want to be here as a support. Now for some offices, they do offer financial avenues that some people might not have thought about. For example, polling from a 401k. For example, a home equity line of credit, going to a bank, you might work with a local bank and having some of those options just so people can see. And I will tell you an IVF, they did actually offer this with us and they put that in our sample, like our folder that we took home with us, just because they wanna make it to where it's easier for us not to have a barrier or a concern. I will say that a lot of times these larger cases are a two-part close, not a same day close. That does not mean that people don't just hand over their credit card and pay you. 80,000 or 150,000 right there on the spot. I've seen it done many times. So I'm not going to assume that people need that, but this will be a tool in my tool belt. Lending Club, Cherry, some of these are going to be better at financing higher amounts. ⁓ And so we're gonna look for that. Sometimes applying for financing in the office through Care Credit, or like I said, Cherry or Sunbit, or some of these others. Lending Club, look to see who you can use. It's going to really help. do know Cherry is a very big fan favorite. ⁓ that does help fund some of these higher ones. A local bank is a great thing and have a direct line to your person that's a loan processor there that can actually help these people get loans. It's a $50,000 procedure. That's like buying a car. There are loans for this and it's not uncommon to do that. And so helping the patient of whatever questions they have. They might have questions about the recovery time. They might have questions of the payment options. They might have questions all the way around. So, Be really crystal clear in your practice of do we collect in full before we start initial records? If so, it might be a two part close where they've got to go find out their financial options, but you set the followup because again, you're a concierge of these, we're a high end, this is a high end surgery, we are completely changing their world. For my IVF, I had a financial coordinator who talked to me, I had a treatment coordinator who talked to me, I had a nurse who talked to me, there were steps through this whole process to make me feel confident. Confidence is going to buy these and close these cases for you. Your treatment coordinator being exceptionally confident. They don't have to know all of the dentistry, but they do need to be confident talking dollars, looking for solutions and being confident in the dentistry you do. I will say all the time, people will hear me. No matter what size treatment plan, people are buying the doctor's confidence and they're buying the treatment coordinator's confidence. If you're confident that this is the best dentistry that people are ever going to get, you will close radically more cases. Also your psychology, what am I thinking? Am I thinking like, that's a big number. If I am, people are going to feel that versus like it's a number, it's a treatment plan. This patient deserves great dentistry. So we really have to make sure and also with payment options, not being over the top on these financial avenues. You offer them 70 different options, they're going to be very confused. I prefer two to three that I'm very confident in. I know the ins and outs of them, things that most people use. I might have a few of these that are just a little bit more. like unconventional, for example, the 401k or the home equity line. A lot of people don't even think about those as options, but they are viable options. ⁓ And then from there, we wanna just make sure that we are dialed in and we have a very, very solid followup on these if we don't close same day. But practice it, track your stats, look to see how you're doing on it, review your stats with your treatment coordinator and doctor every single week. record yourself and listen to yourself back. And I know that sounds wild, but this office that we've added multi-millions to five locations, the treatment coordinators literally record themselves and send it to me and we listen to it. I role play with them for years. Every other week we are role playing. We are talking about it. What's going well, what's not going well. What's the psychology, what's the breakdown. I had a treatment coordinator the other day get on with me and she said, you know, Kiera, like 45 grand is like my large case for me. But what I'm struggling with are these like perio ones where we're charging like 900 for gingivitis and I just don't know how to get through it. And so sometimes also presenting the other side of the coin. What happens if they do nothing? What happens if they start now? A lot of these things, but what I've learned is closing these cases is a finesse. There is clarity on schedule first. There is clarity on being direct in our treatment plans. There is clarity on having a very simple process of step one, step two, step three. There's a very clear, like very strong correlation of higher acceptance when it's that clear, that direct, that confident. Because if I'm going in for surgery, the last thing I want is somebody who's like wishy washy or we can do it this way or what do you think or what do you want or you know, if you need it or if you want it. No, I need somebody who knows what they're doing. This is a $50,000 case. This is a $20,000 case. We need to have our ducks in a row. We need to be very thorough. We need to be very confident in it. And we need to present this plan and help more patients. So when we look at all this, number one, we got to do great dentistry. And number two, everyone needs to be speaking the same language. And we need to have the psychology that everybody wants our dentistry. And we're great here. We need great handoffs, that warm handoff of teeing it up from hygienist to doctor. Everybody's speaking the same language. We need to be showing them. testimonials, this is what it's gonna look like, transformations, this is how your life is going to change, this is how this one patient said. And then from there, we're going to make sure that we also are really, really strong on our how we schedule, how we do our handoffs, how we present the dollars and the financial clarity and the very, very clear next step for them. And then very, very strong follow-up. If a patient doesn't schedule in the office with me, it's two days, two weeks, two months of follow-up. I am going to be very rigid with my follow-up. I'm going to have a follow-up. And then I'm going to review every single week my progress. I'm going to look at what I closed, what I didn't close, what was said. I'm going to listen to my calls. I'm going to listen to the doctor exams because usually, and I hope every one of you hears this, usually cases are won or lost by one or two... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39621855

It’s Time For a Test 01/01/2026

It’s Time For a Test Is your practice patient- or production-driven? The answer should be purpose-driven. Kiera talks about how shifting your core values in a certain way can actually grow everything else. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am excited. This is a podcast built just for you by you. If you ever want me to make a podcast for you, just email in Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com and click on the podcast tab. You can submit topics for me to record for you. And today is a great one and I'm super excited about it. Someone asked production focus versus patient focus striking the right balance. Does it have to be both? So is your practice driven by numbers or by people? And does it have to be a choice? I'm super jazzed. I'm super excited because this is the type of juicy stuff I like to get into because this is what offices talk about all the time. Oh my gosh, we're production focused. Well, that means you're not patient focused. Oh my gosh, you're patient focused. That means you're not production focused. Does it have to be? There's tension. It's tension. It's like, are you on the right side or the left side? Are you blue or are you Which side are you on? Like there's tension here, production focus versus patient focus. Does it really have to be this debate? So I love this. Email me. You guys are love a good pen pal. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I like pen pals. You guys remember that? If you want to write me a letter, you can send me a letter. It's in Verdi, Nevada on the website, P.O. Box. I think it's 635 Verdi, Nevada. No clue what it is, but I will get it and I'll send you a postcard back. So pen pal for real, email us. You guys, really do love a good pen pal. I will seriously send you a letter back. So ⁓ write me. I would love to hear from you. But I'm curious, does it have to be production focus or patient focus or can it be both? Is it the chicken or the egg? I definitely think that there has to be a way because the most successful practices integrate production and patience. So the answer is yes, it can be both. And I don't care what side of the coin you're on. I'm gonna teach you that you can actually be on both sides of the coin and still maintain your ethics. like your ethical integrity, all of that. You guys, this is the Dental A Team. I'm obsessed with dentists. I'm obsessed with dental teams. I'm obsessed with making you happy. I'm obsessed with positively impacting this world in the greatest way possible. And that's why we built this podcast free for you to give you all the tips and tricks. And all I ask in return is that you leave us a review and share this with somebody that can change their life. My goal is to have this podcast into the hands of every single dental office out there. And guys, you are crushing it. We are in the millions of downloads and I can't do that without you. So please today. share, download, or leave us a five star review. That means the world to me and I do read those reviews. So thank you. Thank you for everybody who reads those reviews. I appreciate each of you. So today I want to talk about patient focused version of production focused because you know, I got a pen pal out there. production focused means that we're focused on high volume, goal driven, and we're going to probably have burnout. Like that's the drive. It is a lot of times ego. That's okay. So when I'm talking to you. You can test yourself right now. Are you ready? I'm gonna say, hey, what is your production? Now, to answer that, what's your production? If you just told me your number in gross, you're a little ego driven and I love you for it. And I'm gonna tell you that that is one of the worst things to do because there's no way for us you to ever collect it. I was talking to a practice the other day and they're like, yes, Kiera, we are a $7 million practice and we had a million dollars worth of write-offs. And I was like, well, shoot. So. You're actually, think they actually have two million. So you're not a seven million, you're a five million. That's a bit of a minute. So you're actually a five million dollar practice and I'd rather talk about real numbers because then I can actually truly get you to seven million rather than feeding your ego at this. So that tends to be the case where you're, if you, you might be a bit production. If you're presenting those in gross, ⁓ present them in, it's okay to your buddies. You can present in gross. To me, to here, to this conversation in real life. please, please, please present them in net, what you can actually collect. Now, if we're too patient focused, we tend to run at a slower pace, high trust, but we risk a lot of inefficiency and you actually risk the, like, you really do run a risk of you're not looking at the numbers and you actually can create a really, really, really scary spot where you actually are in like profit row where you have no money. ⁓ And so you gotta have both. We've got to have production where we're able to serve our patients and we've got to care about our patients. We've got to make sure that both of those come together because that's a true business. This is what we're looking for. So I just want you to look at yourself right now and I want you to audit you and your practice. Where do you lean more? Okay. So do you lean a little more left? Do you lean a little more right? Do you lean a little more production focused or do you lean a little more patient focused? It's okay. There's no right or wrong. I just want you to like really look at yourself and assess what route do you fall? because it's gonna help you, okay? So where are you? We're not like all patient or all production, but which way do you lean? I want you to answer that. You can pen pal me. Remember, I got pen pals out there. So be another pen pal for me. And then step two is I want you to marry metrics with meaning, which isn't that cute? Yes, chat GPT helped me on that one. Marry metrics with meaning, I love that. I was like, that is such a good way to bring this to the table. So we want you guys to be like in the middle, we're not production, we're not patient, we're purpose. Did you love that? Another P, we're not patient, we're not production, we're purpose driven. So what this is going to be is you can actually like increase case acceptance to outcomes, not quotas. So it's not like we need 20 crowns, we need to help this many patients. help team members see, like I love Tiff, she said this, she was like, production is the measuring stick to see how many patients we're serving. That feels so much better than like we got to hit 150,000. No, 150,000 shows is how many patients were able to serve. Let's quantify that up to how many patients and now let's put that up to 200,000 and serve that many patients. So we'll help you guys see that like this is a reflection of care. It's not like just, I don't know, like a number on a scorecard. It's people. You guys, all that production was people that we were able to change their lives. That's what we do in Dental A Team. I literally like, when we talk about our numbers, for a while I put up numbers and it was just a number. So you can tell it's a little bit more production focused rather than patient focused. And it didn't matter to me. And then when I was like, okay, we're going to go out and I want to serve, like I want Dental A Team to serve 500 dental practices. Like in one year, I want us to have that many that to me, like think of how many lives we're going to change. Cause my ultimate goal is impact to possibly impact this world in the greatest way possible. So I was like, all right, let's put an audacious goal out there. I want to serve 500 offices. Yeah, you can join us. Yes, of course. And like now it became funds. Like the number is tied to people. Cause I ultimately care about people. care about impact. Money can have impact, but it doesn't drive me. What drives me is changing people's lives. Life is my passion, dentistry is my platform. So how can you help your team see that? So we have to help them see like for me with teams, case acceptance, I'm just saying like that's how many smiles you were able to like truly benefit. There's so many lives you're able to change. I believe the case acceptance is life changing. I was the patient on the other side of that coin. who literally had my life changed by identities. So when we shifted like KPIs are metrics, yes, but metrics have meaning and their purpose. So what does this case acceptance actually reflect? What does this production actually reflect? What did these new patients numbers actually reflect? And when we look at it as this like patient centric, it becomes so much more fun. I did this in a team meeting the other day where, gosh, we were sitting there and I was like, all right, rattle off to me like why you guys go to Chick-fil-A? And they're like talking about it. Not one of them said price. Not one of them. Not one of them when I talked about McDonald's said price. So when I looked at this, I thought, okay, people go to Chick-fil-A for the experience. And I thought, how can we become a more patient centric practice that uses metrics to see how we're doing of serving those patients? That's what it is. That's how you marry metrics with meaning. These numbers on a KPI scorecard are telling me the vitals of how good we're serving our patients. So when I look at our hygiene, I wanna know, are we diagnosing perio or are we doing bloody profies? When I look at Florida, you guys, I'm a huge proponent of Florida. If you're not, that's okay, we can still be friends. I'm here to also teach you holistic. I love Florida. Florida changed my life. It prevented so many cavities for me, like truly was life-changing. So I'm like, absolutely, give it to patients. So when I look at your hygiene numbers, I'm not looking at like, did you get your eight out of eight today? I'm looking at like, did you help proactively prevent decay on all of your patients today? Of course, if they don't want it, that's fine. But like, let's use our words, words are free. Let's set it up in a way to help more patients say yes. I am patient centric with production numbers and using words to get the results I'm looking for. I'm looking for outcomes, not effort. One of my favorite, favorite, favorite lines, and it's probably gonna become like a core value. My team doesn't know this, you guys, is we measure our, we measure by outcomes, not activity. ⁓ we measure it by outcomes. not activity because I can sit here and say, I served this many patients, but if I didn't close any cases, I did not get the outcome of helping truly get them the smiles and the health that they deserve. Bottom line. So then step three is you got to change your culture. You got to have a culture that supports both. It's got to be efficiency and empathy. It's got to be production and patient. It's got to be like truly driven. And I've got so many offices like Kiera, I don't want to my team about the numbers. That's fine. You don't have to. But can't we also help them see that the numbers are helping more patients? Every team I've ever gone into has told me the reason they're in tennis tree is to help change patients' lives. That's why they're here. So when I look at this, I'm like, okay, if that's why we're all here, how do we know that we're actually helping the number of patients that we could? Like genuinely somebody tell me, how do we actually know in a tangible, non-emotional way? How do I know? So we've got to help people see that like, okay, fantastic. We have a culture where when we hit our numbers, We know we serve the patients that we're set here to serve. Period. You're not gonna go away from that and helping people see that numbers equate the outcomes we're looking for. Numbers help us serve patients. And on the flip side, when we, like you guys, there's a book called Unreasonable Hospitality. Have your team do fun things like that where we celebrate the birthdays, the weddings, the anniversaries, the celebrations. We have like a little gift basket on the side where we can quickly go and have some fun with those people to make this magic moment for our patients. have magic moments that produce results. Team training, we gotta do patient and production language. We've gotta be empathetic. So for me to say like, my gosh, I'm so excited that you don't work with Dr. Jones. Dr. Jones is incredible. They're gonna take great care of you. Let's get you scheduled for this appointment. I know Dr. Jones definitely wants to get you back. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. That was patient and production centric, both in the same exact equation. when I talk to them about case acceptance, it's like, perfect. So here's the treatment that Dr. Jones diagnosed for you. This is your total out of pocket. This is your insurance estimate. This will be your total when I see you on Wednesday. What questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid moving forward. Again, production and patient focus. I want them to be so solid. I'm genuinely so concerned about them. I really want them to be solid. If they tell me they got to talk to their spouse, absolutely, 100%. I want you to talk to your spouse. Help me what questions they're going to ask. That way I can make sure you're fully prepped when you chat with them. That's production and patient focused. A cancellation calls in. my gosh, what's going on? Tell me, like, ⁓ I've been so worried about you. Like help me understand where you at, what's going on. Like, are you okay? Tell me like, you're sick. Like, my gosh, what's going on? I know there's been a bug going around. Someone says I can't make it from work. my gosh. Like, I'm so sorry to hear that. Tell me what's going on. Let's find a solution. I know Dr. wanted to see you. I can't wait to see you and I know there's gonna be a solution for us. Production and patient focus. And I think when teams see that you don't have to be one or the other, production focus can come across aggressive, patient focus can come across non-aggressive and very like twiddling my thumb sometimes. And so I'm like the true win is the middle ground. The true win is where we see that patients need to feel loved. and important and that they're humans. And they also need to see that we love them so much. And we're going to make sure that they get the treatment that they need to get done. And we're going to help use our words to make sure it's easy for them to say yes. Both are doable. Both are right. Both are necessary. This is how you guys are able to have it. And so I think you guys can have conversations with the team. How can we be patient and production focused? How can we marry the two because we know the best practices are both. They are, there's not one lever that's stronger than the other. Both are married together as a perfect whole, two perfect complete whole. How can we be more, if you know from, remember we did an audit, if you know you're a little more production focused, how can you be a bit more patient focused? Have that come up in the team. If you know you're a bit more patient focused, how can we be a bit more production focused? And I know you might be bristling on both sides. Production focused people might think that, my gosh, it's a complete waste of time to be patient focused. Patient focused people, they're like, my gosh, you'll maybe be aggressive and like force these people into treatment. The answer is no to both of those. Us treating people like human beings, production focused teams will actually make those patients want to be here more. Our teams that are more patient focused, turning more production focused, it's gonna help us make sure that we're not missing things on the patients, that we're not doing inadequate care. And that actually that patient's not leaving confused and that they truly know what they need to do. And it's very clear of next steps for them. Clear is kind. Being direct is kind. Loving people as people is kind. So I'd really encourage you to adopt this into your practice. And if you struggle with this, if your doctor is like, ⁓ I am not having that team meeting, I'm not having that conversation, great. That's why we have a job. That's what we love to do. Our job is to align doctors and team members to help team members see that production is patient focused and to see that patient focus is production focused. Both sides are necessary. You need both of them. And so to be able to help you and your team get there, I think is a beautiful thing. So I would really, really, really encourage you to be patient and production focused, both of them. Look to see where you could be a little bit more on whichever side you don't naturally lean to. I know you can already do more on the side that you naturally lean to. Go the other side. I want you to think about it. I want you to bring that into your culture. And I'd really encourage you. And if you struggle with this or you're like, I don't really know how to do this, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. It's not just about this. It's about other goals. It's about other spaces. It's about other awkward conversations that you just don't know how to navigate. It's about getting your team and you doctors rowing in the exact same direction. And that's what we're here to do. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always remember, patient and production is purpose driven dentistry. And that's what you're here to do. And I know that you're here for that. I know that you care so much about your patients and that's why I wanted to really bring this up. So thanks for the pen pal. Thanks for writing. I'd love to hear from more of you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Go to our website, give me some more topics and reach out. I'd love for you to be one of our 500 practices. We get to help love serve and have that be the purpose to positively impact and change your life for the better. Not just your practice, but you as a person. Because at the end of the day, I care about you as a human being. I care about you thriving. I care about you having the practice of your dreams and having the team of your dreams because I care about you as a human. So reach out and as always know that I'm rooting for you. Know that I care about you. Know that I adore you as always. Thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39560955

You Probably Don’t Think About Team Bonding Like We Do 12/31/2025

You Probably Don’t Think About Team Bonding Like We Do Kiera and Tiff are together on the pod to talk about their favorite team bonding activities that keep everyone feeling seen, heard, valued, and respected. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it is a special day. I have the one and only Spiffy Tiffy, TTKD on the pod. We normally don't get a podcast together and I feel Tiff, these used to happen a lot more. We like fix things and now we're gonna hang out a bit more. So welcome. I feel like it's such a treat when you and I get a podcast together. How are you today? The Dental A Team (00:18) Thank you, I agree. We don't get enough time together and we are two ships in the night. So I'm good. I wanted to tell you though, ⁓ Spiffy Tiffy sparked this for me. Kiera, as everyone knows, is a fantastic gift giver. You really are, because you put so much thought into every gift that you give and it's sent with love. So I hope all of our clients who get gifts know that like that same spirit is sent in everything that you get. But my point of it is, years and years have gone by now. The Dental A Team (00:28) Thank you. Thank you. The Dental A Team (00:45) that I get little Spiffy Tiffy gifts. So it either just says Spiffy Tiffy or it has my caricature who will make a comeback one day. But I used my, it's coming, I know, I know. I used my luggage, like my bag that you had given me. And I was just randomly just like walking along like I always do. This happens to me a lot, like Spiffy Tiffy. And I'm like, what? Like, who are you? Like, how do you know that? You listening to a podcast? That's weird. The Dental A Team (00:50) One day, we're coming. Mm-hmm. Thank you The Dental A Team (01:12) And then I realized that I had The Dental A Team (01:13) Weird. The Dental A Team (01:13) my, they were like, what is that? What does that mean? And I was like, well, that's me, obviously. My caricature is on there. So anyways, it was just a funny story that I was just like, what? Like it always catches me off guard when somebody calls me Spiffy Tiffy, or when I get on a client call and somebody's like, ⁓ Spiffy Tiffy. And I'm like, this is so weird. The Dental A Team (01:28) you It is weird and so it makes me so happy that people like get into like who Tiff is the spiffy Tiffy like they're calling you they're like that's like a very very inner circle name and so for people in the airport to be like hey spiffy Tiffy. The Dental A Team (01:38) They love it. I know, literally, literally. And I had a client the other day that was like texting me. ⁓ We text all the time, me and this client, he knows who he is and he listens to all of them and I know this because he was texting me and he's like, it's so weird. Well, he was voice texting in his Tessie, but he's like, this is so weird to be like listening to the podcast in my car, you're talking, but like I'm voice texting to you. So then Tessie is like saying it back. And I was like, wow, that is like an alternate universe. The Dental A Team (01:55) Yeah. you ⁓ you That's a that's a full Spiffy Tiffy moment all the way around and I do love because Spiffy Tiffy actually came from the podcast So like we really want to throw this all the way back. I just I love a good a good nickname I love a good like and honestly tiff it's just stuck like it used to be like TT tiff tiff Spiffy Tiffy though I think is like the clutch like it is the best of the best so and I mean it's got to you We've been doing this for a long time together and that's I think why it's a special treat The Dental A Team (02:19) Yeah. I said it. The Dental A Team (02:41) I don't know how you guys feel in your practices, but if you've got your core person that's been with you since the get-go, I think as the business evolves, you kind of lose that time together because you have to like, Tiff's over with consultant, she's podcasting, I'm running different pieces. We've got like our two different worlds, but I think like, I'm just gonna say a shout out to the founders and their like core person. Have fun time together. Like remember why you got into business together, which is why Tiff and I like enjoy a good podcast time. It's a good hangout. So on that note, Tiff and I are gonna talk about one of our favorite things, team bonding. And this came up because Tiff has so many fun games that she does in offices when we go in and consult. And I just thought about like, offices don't think like we do. And I didn't realize this, Tiff and I used to think everybody, I mean, Tiff and I can be across a room, even today when we're coming onto the podcast, I'm going into Slack to message Tiff our link to podcasts, right as she's sending me a thing of do you want me to join? Like Tiff and I are, it is a weird. I do feel like we were twins. Like, I think we just got separated by one year, but like we were meant to come into this world at the same time. It is a weird synergy that we have together. So sometimes we think that everybody thinks like us for better or for worse. And I was realizing that teams don't think about team bonding like you and I do Tiff. You are such a talented person at getting teams to engage, to have fun, to like get lightheartedness and then really dig into deep topics. And so that's where I thought, Hey, it's Kieran Tiff. Like, let's just do a throwback. Let's have a fun time today on the podcast and give our listeners. Like, hey, here's some great ideas for team bonding that you can do that's fun, enjoyable, energetic, and honestly will bring a little curative magic to your practice. And if you hate doing this, a reason you should reach out to Dental A Team, because we love to do this. I feel like we're just going to put on a party when we're in an office and have a good time doing it. So Tiff, let's talk some of our favorite team bonding things that we do in offices. The Dental A Team (04:26) Yeah, think number one, thank you, Kiera, for all of what you said. There's so much there to be thankful for and grateful for. So this journey has been incredible. And I'm just excited that we're still here together. It's been some moments, you know? I'm kidding, not kidding, but dirty laundry. The Dental A Team (04:38) Me too. Yeah. I mean, I'm just going to slight tangent. was recording earlier and I was talking about like 12 systems and I'm like, Oh my gosh, Tiff and I did a labor of love on the podcast. Do you remember that? We did all 12 systems and we talked about how like you and I have hard conversations together and some client texted you and they're like, how did you and Kiera get there? And you're like, Oh, if you see the conversations behind the scenes that we've had for the years. And I say like, man, The Dental A Team (04:53) huh. The Dental A Team (05:07) appreciation to you. This was not my forte until I met you and you have pulled it out of me, but I do agree. I think that will also tie into team bonding. it's not really a total side tangent. ⁓ I think having conversations and relationships, we were even talking about, we're coming together for a company ⁓ annual planning of leadership and we were debating like, we all stay in separate hotels or do we get a VRBO and we're all together? And Tiff, you said it so well this morning. You're like, it's like family. The Dental A Team (05:17) So I was gonna say, yeah. The Dental A Team (05:33) When you're in leadership, when you're in teams, you've got to learn to work through those problems and not just run to your room, slam the door and be siloed. But I think that that's what team building and bonding is supposed to be about. It's not just supposed to be the surface level. Like if you really want a team that can jive and energize and be solid, you've got to have these team building. And I think a lot of team buildings, the communication and tip, that's honestly something shout out to you and appreciation. Cause the woman I am today, you have had a huge influence on me being the communicator. the hard conversations, the directness. You even tell me like, Kiera, just be freaking direct. Just tell me what you want. I'm like, okay, this is what I want. Like, thank you. That's great. Let's move on. And just the, which I appreciate. So I think like not planned. I think that that's a core route to the team bonding and the pieces is that's what you're ultimately trying to get to is that that connection, that confidence, that trust, that vulnerability that you can say what needs to be said. And the person on the other side is not just going to walk away. The Dental A Team (06:07) Yeah, that's my efficiency. The Dental A Team (06:28) even if it doesn't land right. There have been times you and I have had eyes with each other of like, so I'm going to say like what I think you were trying to say and you let me know if that's what you meant. Cause what I heard was definitely not that. The Dental A Team (06:38) Yeah, yeah, thank you for that. I appreciate that. And I think that to my core, it's why, to my core, it's why waste time on stuff that doesn't, like why waste time, period. Just why waste time? Time is like so precious in all of our lives and we spend so much time trying to figure out what someone meant by something they said or what they're actually thinking or. they said this, like actually they I know that they meant this. I'm like, well, you don't because that's not what they said. So like you can ask them or we can sit here and like keep talking about it. My friends probably love and hate that about me and Kiera, you probably do too, because sometimes I'm just like, how many times are we going to talk about this like boy, right? Like, like I can't talk about this boy anymore because you it's either yes or no. like, so we move on, right. So time and I do think like The Dental A Team (07:13) love. The Dental A Team (07:24) I appreciate that, Kiera. Everything you said, again, thank you. And I agree, like we've come so far and with team bonding and even just like having fun team meetings, the key is that everyone in life just wants to enjoy what we're doing. We just want to enjoy every day. We just want to enjoy the life that we're living. So coming in and having a stuffy meeting or having a like forced to bond with people situation, like sometimes I don't want to bond with that person and that's okay too. We can still be on a team together and work. really freaking well. So don't force people to bond together and don't force things that just just don't force things you guys it should be a very natural situation but the point of all of that is my core is efficiency so like don't waste time just what can we do to like just and and I'm not saying don't work through things I'm saying tell me what needs to be said so that we can work through it because I will spend as much time as possible. as needed, as necessary to work through something. But I don't like the like him and ha back and forth because it makes me uncomfortable because I can't figure out what to do. And so it's a space of just like, as long as it's clear, I can work through anything with anyone. I can be anyone's friend for the rest of our eternity because I can work through anything as long as on the other side it's reciprocated. And for team bonding, and I think me working with teams, I think that's something that I carry and that I bring to make it fun. It's like, cool, we're gonna have fun. And who I am as I show up today is who I am as I show up in offices too. And so I think it breaks down a lot of barriers. So when you come in and you're like, I am the leader and I am the boss and we're gonna do these things, it's like, no, just be with them. So we can just be with each other and be together. like Kiera. Kiera not staying, she doesn't have to stay at the VRBO while we go do our leadership retreat, right? Like we could have put the rest of us together because we're not the owner of the company and maybe she needs a breather, maybe she needs, like she could have done that, but it would have broken that bond between Kiera and the rest of the team. So her being like on the same level as us does not mean that we don't respect her as the owner of the company and as the lead to us that she is. it means that we feel seen, heard, valued, and respected ourselves. So that team bonding really becomes about the team and not just the rest of the team. Kiera's a part of that team. ⁓ But I think, Kiera, I think that was massive information and it was a good spin on it. But I think the fun piece that we bring, think we should, we talk about that. And a lot of that comes from Kiera, you, The Dental A Team (09:58) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (10:12) giving the permission to be that way. When we first started, I think anyone who's like, there's a lot there, but I think anyone who's like, I'm going to be a consultant, right? It's like, I'm going to wear the heels and I'm going to wear the pencil skirt. I was listening to a podcast yesterday, it was like that CEO mindset. And it's like every little girl is taught like you're going to be a mom and a CEO. And we all have that mindset. And that CEO is like, stern. She's like, Yep, GSD. The Dental A Team (10:17) you The Dental A Team (10:41) We don't laugh, don't talk, we get stuff done and I go home to my kids. And it's just like this like stern, stuffy human. And coming into consulting, it feels like that's how I'm supposed to be. And I know a lot of companies are that way and that's totally fine. And I know it works for people, works for people. What we came into was know we're here to have fun and we're gonna bring out the child-like enthusiasm. Because it helps get things done and people can love their jobs like I don't want to come in and be like man I do this Stern Stern I want to come in and be like let's play games like let's rally let's shake things up let's make this fun again and watch what you can do to your profitability just by Living a fun life and care I think that's a piece that people miss when we when we decide we're adults now, so we decide we're adults and we're like The Dental A Team (11:15) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (11:36) not supposed to have fun anymore. We're not supposed to laugh at work. We're supposed to be serious. And that was just the movies we watched, right? That was the Devil Wears Prada. Nobody's actually running around like the Devil Wears Prada and loving their life. Like, no, we're here to have fun. And Kiera, think that's something that you give all of us permission to do, because I think that's the spirit that you carry in life. I think it's like a balance for you, and you're constantly on the teeter totter of that. But I, as just The Dental A Team (11:46) Right. ⁓ The Dental A Team (12:05) lead consultant in the company, not owners, CEO, whatever titles you carry, I get to live that up constantly and not have that teeter quite as much. So I think when it comes to team bonding and you asking me that it's because I do have that permission to like shake things up and just be fun and have fun. And if I'm, I tell my, every practice I walk into, every team meeting that we do, I tell them if we're not having fun here. The Dental A Team (12:06) you The Dental A Team (12:32) I am peace and out. I do not want to live a life that's not fun. So this meeting is like, yeah, exactly. And I tell them that I'm efficient, I'm not wasting my time, I'm not wasting your time. Promise you, I will never waste your time. So if we're not having fun in this meeting, we are not enjoying the heck out of our lives and getting actionable, clear, pushing forward pieces that we can implement right away, why did we even come here today? The Dental A Team (12:35) There's your efficiency. I love it. And thank you for the things you said and the agreed fun I think is such a key element in the spirit of fun. I was thinking about it. It's not quite my best alliteration for you, but I think it's going to be just an added on for you that you're going to appreciate. I was thinking, okay, TIFFs efficiency. We've got Spiffy Tiffy. So it's not perfect because I think it can be taken a smidgey wrong, but I think it's freaking funny. I think we call you iffy Spiffy Tiffy because I can't quite get efficiency, but the iffy kind of just edges for you. The Dental A Team (13:26) So it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like it, I like it. The Dental A Team (13:27) We got the iffy Spiffy Tiffy over there. I'll work on it a little bit more. But to that point, the efficiency, the fun, the team bonding and agreed for me, I don't want to be in a company and this is your space. This is what you do for us on Dental A Team. Fun is one of our core values. It's who I am at my core. ⁓ like yesterday I walked into a meeting, ⁓ and walked in virtually and Eve, our marketer, I she doesn't get embarrassed by this. Like it was freaking funny. I laughed so hard. We were like changing our names. were giving me a hard time because my name came in as the wrong name. And she was like, Kiera, no, you can just change your name like this. So she put in big boss in all caps and we're on this marketing meeting and I freaking laughed. I thought it was hilarious. The fact that she could say that in front of her boss to me. Well, I also know that Eve has the utmost respect for me of what we would do and would never in her wild streams ever disrespect me. So then of course I pop onto the me. I had to like switch and join in a different way. So I throw in bigger boss with a smiley face. and Eve like dies laughing on it. And then our marketing consultant was like, and the ultimate boss. But I think in those realms, being human as the CEO and as the boss of it is more fun. And Tiff, to your point about team meetings and team bonding, I think living life on purpose and having fun in what you're doing is the key to getting success of your team. We can talk and we can give you all the tactics. Like Tiff and I do balloon towers and we help you with that. We do a lemonade stand. That's a ton of fun. We do. Two truths and a lie. do, ⁓ gosh, there's like riddles that we do. There's so many different things that we do that we can tell you that we can spin. We do paper airplanes, we do peanut butter and jelly. Like we can give you the tactical, but Tiff, think it was unintentionally perfect today that the core of how you get team bonding to really resonate is one, be who you are and be true to who you are. I did not want a stuffy consulting company. That was not what I was here for. I did not want the pencil skirts. I want us to deliver the pencil skirt standard while being an approachable human for you. And that to us is our core. That's who we bring in for consultants. If you are too stuffy, if you can't have fun, if you can't laugh at yourself, probably not the place to be because we want clients to be able to do that. So one, be true to who you are. Two, have fun and make sure that your team and your like you're experiencing this and then do bonding on purpose. Like you said, Tiff, I think it's like, what's the purpose when we do all those games, there is a purpose that we tie to it of helping people like peanut butter and jelly is communication of handoffs. Like you tell me to put peanut butter on, I'm gonna wipe it all the way up my arm. We had a whole commercial for this, like let's do some real big throwbacks. It was one of the funniest things we ever did because like that was real and that's real life for handoffs. But when you do team... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39560920

The Secret Sauce to the Perfect Onboarding Process 12/30/2025

The Secret Sauce to the Perfect Onboarding Process Tiff and Monica talk about the fundamental elements to include when onboarding a new team member, and some of them might surprise you. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Welcome back. I am just so happy to have all of you. know there are so many people out there that support the Dental A Team in so many amazing ways. And you guys being here downloading these podcasts and having that little, I know Apple allows the like auto download. I always love that. Cause when I'm on flights, I can just, you know, podcast. But you guys being here. pushing those through for us, being here to just support who we are, what we do is so truly incredible, whether you're a client, a future client, or someone who's just here to listen and you're like, ⁓ you know, never gonna sign up, we don't really have a preference of how you get to us. We just love that you're here. We wanna deliver all of the most amazing information that we possibly can. You might notice we share a lot of information, a lot of tips and tricks, a lot of like, I don't know, feel like, Monica, I feel like they're like. secrets, trade secrets, right? And people are like, gosh, I'll just listen to your podcast. I'm like, fantastic, do that, do that. When you're ready for someone like Monica, who I have here with us today, you guys, to be like, I'm gonna push you a little bit further. She's here, we're here, and we're ready to help you get to that next level. And as I said, you guys, this is a truly, truly exciting day for us. I have Monica back on the podcast with me today. I am so excited to have you here, Monica. I know. Monica Gomez (00:57) ⁓ yeah. The Dental A Team (01:20) Previously, I've kind of given a good spiel of who you are and how we found you. And we got to record a podcast, if you haven't listened to it yet, about this really hiring tips and strategies. But there's so much to learn about Monica, her coaching style and who she is in that episode. So if you haven't listened to it yet, go do that. And as an introduction today, Monica, welcome. I'm so excited to have you here. And I just I'm excited to pick your brain. love I love watching. I feel like I get to watch the flow of how thoughts come to you and it's just really fun and I love our time together. Thank you for blocking out your morning and being here with me this morning and Monica, how are you? How was your weekend? How's life? How's Monica? Monica Gomez (02:04) is great and I'm starting off my week with podcasting with you ⁓ and this is so fun. This is my second podcast and I'm so excited to be here. Our first one was really, there was a flow to it, right? It was a ⁓ great little conversation, valuable. We dropped lots of gems, you guys, so go listen to that podcast and I'm excited to be sharing this space again with you, Tish. Thank you for having me. The Dental A Team (02:19) Yeah. Thank you, thank you. I do love this and it actually makes me think this is like a little off topic here, but just for a smidgen of time. love the podcast space with you consultant ladies ⁓ on our team because I love that this is a space where I get to, I think I get to share how much I love you guys. Like how much admiration I have, how much I look up to you guys and get to like extract so much. knowledge and input from you. And I think this is our space of like, truly having some connection time. And we have our one on ones, I mentioned that before, but those are so goal driven and work driven. It makes me think I love relationship and community. And I think that's something that humans are learning again, we're relearning that we need that. I think we lost that for a moment of time here recently and in the years and we're coming back to that. You kind of don't know what you have until you lose it sometimes and we lost that space. And I think this is our space of true community. We do have our weekly meetings, we have our one-on-ones, we have our data-driven, work-driven time together, but the podcasting space is actually really special to me because I do get to, I get to get to like, want, we get to put you guys out there and I get to just spend this time with you. And it makes me think you mentioned something on the last podcast that we had recorded together. You mentioned that intentional team time together and that like just clicked. As you're talking, like it clicked for me. This is our intentional time together and instilling that into, infusing that into the workplace. It's really special. And I want doctors and owners and leaders and anyone who's here, dental assistants, treatment coordinators, I don't care who you are. I want you to... know from the bottom of my heart, this is a really special place and you don't need to go start a podcast unless you want to. But having that intentional time, like coffee time, like go in the break room and have coffee together and talk about your weekend. Like me getting to hear about Monica's family life and Charlie, her puppy, getting to know those pieces of you personally, it changes and it shifts our dynamic. So I wanted to highlight that because as you were speaking, I was like, my gosh, this is Monica Gomez (04:42) Yeah. The Dental A Team (04:55) something we haven't had yet because this is only our second podcast together, but that I know I do have with the other consultants and it just totally clicked for me because we just, think, mentioned that in the last one. So Monica, thank you for being here. Thank you for letting me say all that and for giving me this intentional time today. Monica Gomez (05:12) Yeah, thanks, Tiff. Yeah, I think ⁓ this time together, we get to peek, a little peek behind the veil, right? And yeah, we do have a lot of connection time. It's structured time, right? But the value of unstructured time is just gold. is, ⁓ it builds trust, it builds ⁓ camaraderie, it builds affinity, it builds ⁓ an endearing, right? An endearing kind of sense of The Dental A Team (05:20) Yeah. Yeah. Monica Gomez (05:42) of viewing the other person in a different light. So yeah, I think this is a powerful, like meaningful time. I agree with you. I agree with everything that you said. This is definitely a special magical space. Yeah. The Dental A Team (05:51) Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Awesome. Well, thank you for being here. And again, if you didn't listen to the last podcast, I know this is the third or fourth time we're saying it. You should. This is kind of I think Monica actually helped me choose today's topics that she wanted to speak on. I think they actually naturally flow together. So I would maybe even listen to this one after the last one ⁓ or listen to this one. And then I don't care which order you do it in, but listen to both of them is my is my point here, because today we really we're going to talk about onboarding. Monica Gomez (06:05) You The Dental A Team (06:26) And you can onboard anyone, but I think maybe when we add in onboarding the right team member, because the last podcast we recorded was really how to hire the right team member and hiring with intentionality and meaning behind it. And the onboarding, Monica, I think has to flow off of that. If we're not continuously showing up as the person we wanted to hire, like we talked about in the last one. If we show up in the interview space and we're like, this is who I want you to be, but then we're onboarding and we're like, meh, meh. We're like, this is boring person and we want somebody who's dynamic and fun and engaging and speaking to the patients, but we're like, not that person. I think it makes a huge difference. So Monica, as you've trained people, as you've onboarded, you've trained practices to do this, what are some key highlights that you like to infuse into the onboarding process? Monica Gomez (07:15) Yeah, great topic. And I agree, this one goes hand in hand with our previous podcast. know, onboarding traditionally has been very much transactional, right? Here's your cubby, here's what you do, here's where you sit, here's how you answer the phones, right? We've got to move. Well, there's a part of it that has to be transactional because you have to learn, you know, what your job is and, you know, the daily to do's. But I think if we lead with that, it's a mistake. ⁓ As I mentioned before, and we talked about how the workforce has changed, ⁓ and we're leading with connection and engagement and authenticity and all those components that make us unique, I think we, I really feel that we need to move. from a transactional place to a transformational or transcendental. ⁓ It's gotta be more about behaviors, right? And how we wrap our arms around like this new person that's joining our little family, right? How would you like to be welcomed into a team that would make you feel welcome and received with open arms and warmth? That's how we have to welcome our new people. The Dental A Team (08:17) Yeah. Monica Gomez (08:36) You know, we've invested so much time and energy in interviewing our job post, our, you know, filtering our candidates, interviewing, that whole hiring process, offer letter, the whole nine yards. And then we just throw them in, sink or swim. We've got to add, we've got to be intentional and we've got to add more value to the onboarding piece because, you know, people sometimes are left thinking like, gosh, The Dental A Team (08:54) Yeah. Monica Gomez (09:05) this is not the place that I thought it was gonna be, right? Like make it the place that you post it on your job ad, right? Like create, you get to be the creator. You're the co-creator, right? This is your platform. Like what do you wanna create for your new people, right? And I think transaction. It's always part of our industry and in the workforce, right? There is a transactional piece to working. ⁓ But again, that humanist, right? And so one great tip, I'll start with one tip and I'll turn it over to you, Tiff. ⁓ One great tip is have a welcome packet for your team, right? A t-shirt, their name tag, little, you know, if you picked up little sprinkles of who they are and what they like in the interview, like, The Dental A Team (09:51) Mm. Monica Gomez (10:02) put together a nice little welcome basket for them, a pen post-it, a nice little saying. I think that's, wow, I mean, that's super impactful on their first day, right? Like, welcome to the team and have everybody go around at Morning Huddle and just give a little shout out as, you know, The Dental A Team (10:11) Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Monica Gomez (10:29) how valuable it is to have a new team member. I think that's super simple and important. The Dental A Team (10:36) Yeah, I love that. think you hit on something really important there. It's really that feeling of being welcomed, coming into a new space is, I mean, we don't even like going to a party unless we know, a dinner party, unless we know everybody who's gonna be there, right? We're like, I only know two people. Like, is that enough? Right? I got a text from a friend the other day that was, know, or not the other day, it's been a bit, but for, you know, Halloween. And then she's like, I gotta go to this thing with my husband. And like, I don't know anybody. And I was like, okay, like this is, we're all coming into this dinner party not knowing. anybody else, even if you've done working interviews, you still don't know them. So I love that really just toning in on the personal piece and the relationship, because if you can have a relationship with them, you can, you know, build that camaraderie just from the get go. I think they actually retain information and onboard quicker as well. So I love that. Yeah. Monica Gomez (11:25) It's hard being an adult, you know? It's hard being an adult. And I think in the practice, you know, just circling back to our topic on our previous podcast, fun is really important. We forget to have fun as adults, you know? And gosh, you know, think of it like you're in the sandbox again. See through young eyes, see through young eyes. Put those lenses on and just remember what it is to just play in the sandbox. with your friends, right? And have like that pureness of intention and that pureness of heart and spirit. I think it's just easier when you can kind of connect to that space to welcome others in. And they'll say, I love that you're here. Welcome to the team. How can I make your week and your integration easier? I think that's a gem right there. That's... The Dental A Team (11:54) Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Monica Gomez (12:21) super valuable for the person receiving and also for the person that's delivering. The Dental A Team (12:26) I agree. I was thinking, as you said, you said it's hard being an adult And I thought, yeah, I remember just being like, do you want to swing? Like, there's two, like, do you want to swing with me? Like, that's, we don't do that anymore. Yeah. It was easy. Now it's like, we go to, we're in the same Pilates class 10 times and I'm still like, do I talk to you? Do I not talk to you? And it's like, goodness gracious. So yeah, like just, do you want to swing? Like just, let's just have fun with it. I love that. ⁓ Monica Gomez (12:33) Yeah. It's easier to fix ones. The Dental A Team (12:51) And so Welcome Packet is beautiful. if you guys like put it together, it could even be like ⁓ a welcome note card. Like, hey, excited to have you. Like everybody, we write thank you cards to our patients or we write condolence cards or happy birthday or happy anniversary. Like, congrats on your wedding. We write these cards and I've seen them in multiple practices. So I know a lot of people do them. You pass them around to all the team members or the happy birthday for the team members, right? Everybody writes on the card and it's like this little message. You could do it as simply as that. Like, hey, Monica's starting on Monday, guys. Like, it's Thursday. Let's wrap this up. Let's get this like welcome card together and a candy bar or a little ⁓ bouquet of flowers, like four carnations. Like, it doesn't have to be difficult. It doesn't have to be robust or like over the top. Just speak to who you are and who they are. I love that. And Monica, something you said was we were kind of prepping for this was you don't have to have it all together. And I loved that because we've saw many podcasts on Monica Gomez (13:32) Yeah. The Dental A Team (13:48) operations manual and it's fantastic. And I agree with an operations manual and practices come to us and they're like, Monica, we need an operations manual, help us build it. It's like, okay, yes. And it's super cool. Also, it's not a requirement. You can onboard, you can train, you can have them help you build the operations manual while you're training. Don't hold yourself back from onboarding someone successfully. Monica Gomez (13:59) Yeah. The Dental A Team (14:15) because you feel like things are missing and I love that you said that. Now, on that same aspect, a job description, super simple, to put together a job description of who they are, how they show up and what their targets are per position and then build off of that to say like, hey, in the first week, two weeks, 30 days and then kind of go from there. Now, implementally, how do you build the action out for... for teams like that, because I'm an aggriance. I love an operations manual. I think it's great, but it's not end all be all. And just because we get through an operations manual and your consulting journey does not mean you're done. You're set for success and nothing's ever going to happen. I think there's a lot of, we could go on a tangent about operations manuals. We won't today. But how do you do that with your practices you're working with? Monica Gomez (15:05) Yeah, I mean, I think people ⁓ absorb information and they learn differently. And I think it's really important that we hit on all three things. It's auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. The operations manual or the training manual is valuable, Because it's a resource that you can go to to reference and get a refresher. ⁓ But that shouldn't be your onboarding technique, right? That's like, OK, here you go. Here's the written. ⁓ The Dental A Team (15:30) Yeah. Monica Gomez (15:34) proof or reference book of what you already learned, right? It is the outcome of your training. ⁓ I think, you know, onboarding can be simple and we make it complicated because everything has to be in writing nowadays and there's value to that. ⁓ But really your team, the biggest piece of ⁓ an employee staying within those 90 days is how we onboarded them. The Dental A Team (15:48) Yeah. Monica Gomez (16:03) Did we just give them manual or written instructions and say, okay, here it is, go do it? Or did we say, okay, this week, part of your onboarding is that you're gonna spend time with every single person in this practice in the various roles, including the doctor. You're gonna sit in and listen to the exams and the x-ray take and the hygienist. And you're really gonna understand all the makings of this practice. it's important that we understand everyone's role and how we contribute to the entire team. So I always recommend that you hire someone and the first three days, break it up. Three, by the way, is a magical number for me. I love everything in series of threes. So three is easy to remember, three things versus five or even four, right? So three days in each role. And have that person that's learning write down the most impact. What did you learn in these three days sitting with a hygienist? Or what do you want to know more about? This will spark their curiosity. Don't give them a script. Allow them to of grasp the topics and let their curiosity ⁓ be the lead. Take the lead on. Here's what I want to know more about, or I don't really understand this, or gosh, I didn't know that, right? ⁓ And that goes for experienced employees or people that are new to the industry, right? That's my recommendation. Allow them to spend three days in every single role, like the journey of onboarding, right? Like, I think it's super valuable. And then... ⁓ The Dental A Team (17:32) Yeah. Fisher. Monica Gomez (17:51) Again, they could be kind of co-creating your manual with you because what they bring back, the knowledge that they bring back, chances are somebody else is going to have that same curiosity or those same questions, right? Yeah, I think that's a really simple tip. And those also that feedback could be part of your 30, 60, 90 day growth plans. And here's what you're really great at, right? I always like to look at The Dental A Team (18:04) Yeah. Monica Gomez (18:22) Think about the growth plan like a sandwich, right? Like there's the beginning, the middle, and the end. And so here's where you are, right? ⁓ Here's where, ⁓ actually, here's your role. Here's where you currently are, and here's where we would like for you to be. And like, what are the steps to get there, right? That should be part of your growth plan, your 30, 60, 90 day growth plan, along with the job description. Yeah, I think, you know, using the job description like you mentioned as a tool, right, to guide people and also for us to understand like, what are they really great at? What are they really proud of, you know, in this job role? And what do they want to know more about? I think ⁓ I ⁓ one great way to kind of get familiar with someone's knowledge,... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39560905

The Best Present on a Day Full of Presents 12/25/2025

The Best Present on a Day Full of Presents Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Dental A-Team! Kiera encourages listeners to acknowledge and celebrate the people in their lives in real time. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and Merry Christmas. I hope that you guys are so happy and I don't know, I feel so honored that you're sharing Christmas Day with me. I hope that you unwrapped your packages. I hope that you were able to give amazing gifts. I hope that you were not naughty this year and you were nice. I hope that like, my gosh, like I just wish that I was with you like walking down the stairs to your Christmas morning. I hope that you were with your friends, your family. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope that you woke up today just feeling the special magic. of this time of year of anticipating our next year. And I just hope that you're surrounded by friends and family and that you just feel love. I hope you feel love for yourself and just Merry Christmas. I am so, I love this time of year. I love this holiday and I did not used to love this holiday. It was my favorite growing up. And then there was a short stint of time where I hated it. Like no Christmas music, no things. I don't even know how that was possible because I was Mrs. Claus. I worked for United Way of Utah County and I was Mrs. Claus for the year and we did Sub for Santa. And that was a year I realized that there is truly magic in our communities and in us serving each other. And gosh, I just like, I remember growing up like, yes, I loved presents and I love those things, but a lot of times it was just like my family being together and little things. And like in my family, had, when I was really, really little, we had these like dollars. don't know, they were called like. I to say scholar dollars, but that wasn't right. They were these like little dollars that my mom gave us. And it was like little things that we did that were kind gestures to our siblings, like helping each other out. My family was lawn mowing business. And so we'd help each other with that. And growing up and getting older, I think, well, yes, it's so fun to have gifts for my siblings. The real gift that I look forward to, and I'm sure a lot of you can relate to this is being with these people, being able to be present with them, being able to share special moments, to be able to share magic with them, that's what makes holidays magical. ⁓ And when I think about like this time of year, giving's not just about gifts, it's about like our presence. So not present, but presence, our impact, and how we're able to like show up for our families and for our teams and our practices. And so when I look at this, I just really think about like, in the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of giving, in the spirit of that, like leadership and team culture are so important of gifts that you can give your team. And this is what can help you guys thrive. So of course, it's the holidays. I'll make this short and sweet for you ⁓ because I really want you to think about like when we're looking at our families and we're looking at today, being present with our family. is one of the greatest gifts that we can give them. think of how many times are we scrolling on social media? How many times are we not present? I even think about me and Jason, like we're hanging out together and we are both knee deep in our phones. And I look up and like 45 minutes have passed by and I've been sitting by the person that I absolutely love. And the world is so obnoxiously annoying on asking for our time, asking for our attention. And I think that that's why we get so excited about holidays is we actually have this like Dedicated shutoff time where we can be with our families and holidays sometimes actually bring out the worst in us I know two Christmases ago It was absolutely one of the worst days and I felt so annoyed because I had to slow down and I couldn't go anywhere and I couldn't call anybody because people with their families and I felt stuck and I felt trapped and I was like this is not a good thing Kiera you clearly are operating at such a high velocity all the time that you slowing down was actually one of your worst days and so I think when I look at like being present in life I think being present for my team. How many times is my team talking to me and I'm slacking or I'm sending an email off or I'm not fully listening or I'm responding to a text message. I think the world today is craving people being present, of being intentional, of listening, of caring. And I think that that's like when my family gets together, yes, a gift is nice, but the gift of their time and attention is becoming more and more valuable because I think it's so hard to capture that from people. And also I think being present for yourself. showing up for yourself every single day, having meditation time, having journal time. Like the world can be so loud. Things can be like, we have dinging things, reminders constantly that it's like being present, listening, showing up, engaged, engage with your team. I think about Britt, there's certain times that her and I would just like shoot the breeze and we're just hanging out with each other. And I'm like, those are more meaningful than our meetings. And we're just like trying to rattle things off and get things done. And so I just think like, if we're giving a gift of presence, not present, how can you as a leader do that? And I think one of the biggest things that doctors can do is to actually be fully attentive in team meetings. ⁓ And for team members to be fully attentive in team meetings, I can't tell you how many times I watched teams and the doctors on their phone, they're not engaged. And I just think like, if you're asking your team to be here and you're asking them to solve problems, but we're not willing to be present, Gosh, like that's just such a hard ask. And I think as leaders, that is your job to silence them, to be present, to be with the people in front of you and not to be distracted elsewhere. And I say team members to do the same. We've got to also have our minds be there. I could be completely checked out of my phone and Slack, but my mind could be elsewhere. And so how can I be fully attentive in my team meetings when I'm having conversations with people? And I will say like, doctors, this is like, Merry Christmas. Be present for your team. ⁓ I watch often and I see doctors just scrolling on social media, even when I'm there having conversations with them. And I just think if you're willing to do that with me, that you're paying me to be here. ⁓ and that feels icky to me. How do think your team feels when they're coming to you as a leader, as someone that they're looking for, for support. And I just think for your family, the gift of like, even if it's like five seconds, even if you put the phone down, ⁓ even if you just like really commit to be there. be there. ⁓ Another thing is like to pause during the day like a short connection. ⁓ It doesn't take a lot to be connected to people. It doesn't take a lot for you to just say hello to ask them like genuinely with no agenda, no time construction, not having your phone, not having your watch go off. Like even people is like, my watch like, hmm. Yep. huh. I'm listening. I'm like, you're not listening to me. I literally have my watch to where it will not have text messages come through at all. I use it specifically for a watch. If I need to later, I can have things pop in but I shut off the notifications because it drives me nuts when I'm in a conversation and I'm having a conversation and they pull up their watch, they pull up their phone like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. No, it's not uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. You're not listening to me. You're not present with me. So I think like today, practice being present with those around you. You might be Kiera who had like one of her worst Christmases a few years ago and it was awful, but I realized this is, I'm out of touch. I'm out of practice. I don't do this often. And if we can train that muscle, gosh, what a gift it's for yourself, a gift for your team, a gift for your family to truly be present. ⁓ I also think another way for you to do it is to celebrate people in real time. So the reason why this is a gift of presence is because you have to be intentional. You have to be paying attention to them to celebrate them in real time. like look for it, look for when your assistant does like perfect handoffs to you, like. They're handing the instruments and they're just crushing it. Celebrate that with them. Celebrate when someone closes the case for you. Celebrate when we fill this schedule hole. Celebrate when we like got that claim collected. Celebrate when like doctors, got that perfect endo, like you got all the way to the bottom of that root tip. Celebrate when you did a perfect crown prep. Celebrate and be present in that moment. Celebrate when patients tell you great things. Celebrate when we get an SRP diagnosis and we went from a bloody profie to an SRP and we told them what they really needed. Celebrate when our team is like giving a great patient experience, celebrate when our team does a tour of the office and highlights how great of a place it is, celebrate when people edify each other, celebrate those little pieces in your life. This is such a fun, easy way, because I really do believe that we're just becoming a society that's not present. We're giving presence, but we're not present. ⁓ We're so distracted trying to be connected that we're missing the people right in front of us. And I think about that. We have no social media Sundays in our house. And Jason and I are shocked at how many times we like go to the app on that day. And it's just a habit. It's like these habits that have been formed. And so I think like, can you be attentive in team meetings? Can you be just connected at little points, like busy times throughout the day and just pause and connect? Can you connect with your spouse or your kids? Text them, send out little magic moments to them every day. Like, Tell them how much you love them. I will tell you like, shout out to Jace, he's such an incredible man. He's like my greatest gift in this world. Every day he texts me three reasons he loves me. And ⁓ sometimes I don't read those with intentionality. I just think, Kiera, he sat there and thought about you. The least you can do is just be like so present and say thank you. ⁓ To give that gift to me every single day is beyond magical. To send a little love bomb, you could even do it in the morning. It can be part of your morning routine of like, I meditate and then I send out magic to somebody and just tell them how much you love them to be present, to be connected to somebody truly connected, to pick up the phone. My brother calls me and I think about how often am I distracted while I'm on the phone with my siblings rather than being present and intentional with them. Jason tells me he'll take five minutes of me being intentional rather than 30 minutes of me being distracted. And I just think like, a gift we can give each other to not just give presents this year. but give our presence. And on our team meeting, say that like passion, present, results, solutions are four things we say in our company. We want to show up with passion. We want to be present. And that means we show up with the people in front of us, email, Slack, text, phones are closed. And I'm not here to say that we have to be perfect at it, but I am here to say that today of all days, I hope you take time to go be present with your family, present with the people in front of you, and to maybe give a little bit more of that gift of presence to your team this year. Be attentive in team meetings, be connected during busy times, celebrate the small wins with your team. And I will tell you that, and this means like being at morning huddle, being connected and doctors who do this have higher morale, have stronger retention of teams because they feel cared about. They feel seen, they feel heard, they feel like they're a human. So I'm telling you that's five minutes of your time that you are giving up to get this huge outcome. You're gonna have stronger relationships. You're gonna have better relationships with your kids, better relationships with your spouse, parents, siblings. aunts, uncles, neighbors, and I think it's a gift to give. And I think it's something for all of us to do. So I would just say like today, give someone your full attention, no phone, no distractions for five minutes. See if you can do it. And then maybe work up to 10 minutes and just try it and just see. And also for yourself, sit there in silence for five minutes. See if you can do it. Sit there for 10 minutes. See if you can start to train yourself that your, your preferred operating system, unlike mine a few years ago, is to be present rather than to be distracted feeling like I am present. And I would just say that's I think a gift for all of you. And so today is Christmas. I hope that you're celebrating with family. I hope that you love yourself. I hope that you give yourself the gift of presence to be present for yourself, to shut off, to disconnect, connect to yourself, to connect to ⁓ the universe, to God, to your higher self, to the space around you, whatever you believe today that you really truly do. Give that great gift to yourself and to those that you love, including your team. You guys, we are so blessed to be alive today. We're so blessed to have experiences. I'm so blessed to have all of you in my life, my Dental A Team family. Gosh, I just like want to celebrate you. I want to be there with you. I want to drink, you know, non-alcoholic eggnog with you. I want to be like, cheersing you on the great things you're doing. I want to be present with you. I want to listen to your struggles. I want to listen to your wins. I want you to be a part of our community. I want to see you the first Tuesday of every single month. I want to meet you in person. I want to be that cheering cheerleader for you. I want you to see what it feels like to have somebody see you, to know you, to recognize you, to love you, to encourage you, to give you a good like push when you need a push to hold you accountable. That's our gift to you. So if that feels good to you, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I am not working today, but I will be working tomorrow and our team will be there for you. So reach out. know this is a time where you guys settle down. You are more present. You're not busy with patients. You have time to connect to yourself, to connect to your family. And I think, hey, maybe giving yourself the gift of time to get a team that's trained a little bit better, to get a patient experience that's a little bit better, to help you be a CEO instead of an operator all day long, every single day. It might be the time. You might be able to settle into that and to be present, to give yourself even more time back. be a gift to give yourself. So if that feels right to you, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'd love to chat more with you about it. And I hope you just go celebrate with your family. No, I'm like sitting there with you, drinking the eggnog, sitting there, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, hanging out with you at the beach, wherever you are. Just know that I'm giving you a giant hug. You're doing better than you think you are. I adore you. I love you. I'm here with you. You don't have to do this alone. And I'm happy to be the person to guide you. I'm also happy to be your friend on the podcast that walks with you every single day. But just know you're not alone. You're doing better than you think you are. and I'm willing to give you the presence that you deserve. And I hope that you give that to those that you love as well. And as always, thanks for listening. Go have a magical, merry day, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39511950

The Right Kind of Spice for Your Practice 12/24/2025

The Right Kind of Spice for Your Practice As the holiday cheer permeates our day-to-day, know that that same kind of energy and excitement can be found in your practice year-round! Kiera talks traditions, countdowns, and culture from a dentistry perspective. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it's Christmas Eve. You guys know that I'm obsessed with holidays. I'm obsessed with this time of year. I'm obsessed with just so many fun things. And I hope you guys are like, yes, listen to the podcast. Sure. But I hope that more than that, you're hanging out with your families. And if you don't celebrate the holidays, I hope you're taking this time to celebrate you and to just be there with you. guys, I just love the holidays. think that Christmas is more than just about present and like those traditions and all of that. I think it's just like the anticipation of what's coming next. And I think one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is like the excitement that we feel leading up to it. My husband and I were on a really fun trip this year, but we had to plan the trip in like two weeks and I actually missed the anticipation leading up to it. So with the holidays, I feel like every single year we get this anticipation, we get this gift, we get this same excitement that I really do hope that you guys are feeling that same excitement that hopefully you're feeling for Christmas Eve tonight, going into the excitement into your dental offices for 2026. Like just think about it, you guys, we are about to wrap a bow on 2025, roll into 2026. And I think that energy, that excitement, that fun, that zest, this is really what brings the magic of the season. This is why the holidays are so special. It's time for us to sit back. It's time for us to reflect. It's time to get out of our routines. And I really just hope that you guys are giving yourself the greatest gift of anticipation. but I hope that it's anticipation with a thought out plan. I know there can be anticipation for Christmas when I have not thought about family and it is a frantic scramble. And if you are that office for 2026, I would encourage you to not be that office. There are better ways where I actually like to have our entire year gets wrapped up by December 15th so I can go into the holidays, have a good time. ⁓ I like to have my Christmas gifts all bought usually around. Halloween. I like to just have it done and out of the way. And I would hope that the anticipation of how great the year is going to be how great the holidays will be how excited you are for people to get this rather than in the frantic scramble because both can be anticipation both can be great gifts. But I hope that you're giving yourself the gift of like true joy and anticipation of the excitement of the year to come rather than the frantic frazzles. So guys, if you don't know me, I'm Kiera Dent. ⁓ founder and CEO of Dental A Team. love all things dentistry. I love helping dentists and their teams find happiness. Life is my passion, dentistry is my platform, and truly to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. Like this is something where I just hope that teams and doctors have excitement for what's ahead and that your team and you feel energized and not exhausted. And if you feel exhausted, that's okay. We've got solutions for you and I'm here to help you with that ⁓ because I really do believe that you and your team can crush it. And as we're on Christmas Eve, you guys, my family is so fun. Jason said when he joined our family that Christmas and the holidays were just a good time. Like it has always been so magical. ⁓ Christmas Eve, we're going to be hanging out with family. And it's been fun because we shifted it up. I was selfish. And for the first several years of our marriage, I was with my siblings because my little sister is 15 years younger than me. And so I really want to be a part of my siblings' lives. I wanted to be there and be close to them. And Jason was so accommodating. He was the youngest of his family. And so all of his siblings were grown, that we went to my family for so many years. So Christmas Eve with his family is very different. And the anticipation and the excitement, I was a little disappointed last year when we were with his family versus my family, but it was so fun. And we were able to make new traditions and... we were able to create fun things and his dad, I made his parents who are much older, they Jason has a complete accident, ⁓ do family Christmas pajamas and matching with us and to be able to create new memories and new holidays. And I really do think that the energy and excitement and the love that we feel at this time of year can be something that you can also do with your own practices. So ⁓ I think that like, getting anticipation with clear goals is going to be super, super beneficial for you guys. just like when we were kids and counting down the Christmas, teams also can get excited with this countdown to goals and to what's coming up and what the vision for 2026 is. And so I just really would encourage you right now, if you haven't done it or it's in the process, create goals and topics and conversations that your team can get super jazzed and excited about. Having a vision, having a fun year. Every year I theme my year and you guys it's not too late. Like we're only on December 24th. You still have like a week before this year is over. So take the time, give yourself a theme, something to look forward to, something that you and your team can anticipate with excitement and counting down ⁓ of clear annual goals, clear quarterly goals, and then like celebrate those milestones as they come up. Like when we hit them, what are we doing to celebrate? and have countdowns and visual trackers just like we have advent calendars. In my family, my mom was awesome. There were seven kids in my family and each of us had an advent calendar where we'd count down the days to Christmas. And I think, why don't we bring that fun, that zest, that excitement into our teams? Why are we sitting here like, hey, we hit production. No, like let's add the spice, let's add the fun. I think teams get really excited. People are like, what is different about Dental A Team over other consulting companies? And I'm like, what's different is we bring fun and excitement and get results. That's what's different. Like why not make your practice a little more fun? So I think that you guys could build like a gold tree in December where every like scheduled case you get is an ornament and it can be super, super fun. Like you guys don't want to bear Christmas tree. So maybe consider that. Maybe we have something that kicks off in January where we have snowflakes and or we donate and we give back. Like we talked about at Thanksgiving time. Could you create visual countdowns for Thanksgiving where it's like for all the number of cases we do, we're gonna donate to a family in need. I don't know. There's so many ways you can do it. And I don't think doctors, is for you. This is why it's a Dental A Team and dentist and team podcast. Team members, like let's get your ideas. Let's get you on the podcast. Listen to this episode, share this with your team. But like, how can we build visual countdowns and have a fun time? Because again, the anticipation with clear goals is what's gonna help you guys this season. So number two, I think something that you guys can do is like, just like on Christmas Eve, like build traditions that fuel culture. I was talking to an office and they were dressing up as wicked. And I said, my gosh, are you guys gonna go to the wicked opening? And they hadn't thought about that, like wicked part two. And like, that's the fun stuff that fuels culture. So like, what can we do just like at the holidays? Like we all get excited for the charcuterie boards or for the matching pajamas or for stockings or in my family, we did baby stockings on the tree in addition to regular stockings. We had countdown chains, had advent calendars. The holidays are so special because of the traditions. And so what traditions can you guys put into place in your practice? So could we have our tradition at like end of quarters when we crush it, we do X, Y, Z that people can look forward to it. We can get excited for it, that our goals are leading us to these like fun ideas. Could we do annual CE trips or retreats that everybody looks forward to? Our company cut them and then they got sad about it. And then we like, I get it. There can be pieces, but like this is culture. Our team all gets excited for fun Friday on morning huddle. We all get excited for ⁓ Wednesday is core value shout out days. Like all these little things drive and thrive with culture. And so what can you guys do that can make it fun? Can we have a shout out jar that everybody gets gifts? Can we do like, I don't know, once a quarter, we do a, our favorite things, gift swap. So many little things that are going to just building traditions that are going to fuel your culture because We have the countdown of anticipation of goals, but goals are not met with crummy cultures. A lot of times when I look at offices, I'm like, how is the culture? How was the leader? Those things are going to impact you far more than anything else. And so what is the tradition of culture that you guys can do? And I have a practice and they started celebrating their team. So every single month they had shout out jars and we shifted a whole culture who used to be like mean girls status. They were actually just women. There were men too, but like the movie mean girls. to being this team of loyalty, of camaraderie, my team was even that way. I remember saying like, I felt like I used to be on Johnny Depp's ship. I was in the middle of the ocean, my boat was burning. My team was not a great culture. And when you start to do these little culture burns, so for us it's Friday five, it's the shout outs every single Wednesday, it's annual retreats, it's two events in person, it's our holiday party, everybody gets excited for it. Live to give is a part of our company. First Friday of the month in our team is half day Fridays. Those of you who work on Fridays, you know that's a big deal. Those of you who don't work Fridays, pretend it's a half day Thursday. But just things that your team can really just get excited about. And so I'd say like, pick maybe one team tradition that you can start in January and carry all year long. And this does not mean doctors, have to do it. Luckily in every quarter, there are three months and there are usually three departments in a practice. We've got our front office team. We've got our dental assistants and our hygienists. If we wanna do... front office, clinical team, dental assistants and hygienists and doctors. You can do that too, but you can rotate. So that way there's traditions, there's things that we look forward to. There's an office who does Dip Tuesday and they bring all sorts of dips, ⁓ vegetable dip, chip dip, you name it. And they just have a ton of fun. And I think that's what makes work not feel like work. That's what makes us, ⁓ holidays to me are the sprinkles on a cupcake. The cupcakes nice, but when I get sprinkles added, it's more fun. And so traditions and anticipation and countdown, just like the holidays, that's what's more fun. Those are the sprinkles. Those are the sparkles. Those are the excitement. ⁓ And then I think step three on this of like, how can we build this anticipation within our practices is for you to truly like giving a gift of growth. And that is oftentimes like we talked about the anticipation, the excitement. And so growth is going to be what helps your team thrive. I remember Tony Robbins, you guys know I love Tony. He said that progress equals happiness. And so in your team, what is the progress for each team member? What are the things that they can grow towards? How are we growing as a team? So are we doing new systems? Are we doing new processes? Are we going to expand the roles? Are we going to have consulting or CE that's gonna open doors and help us see things differently? My team was so excited. Like they weren't thrilled when I hired ⁓ a consultant. But I will tell you, it's been one of the greatest things that we have ever done for our team. Like, of course, they're excited, they're consultants, but they also thought they knew everything. They knew what we needed to do. ⁓ to have somebody come in with new perspectives, new ideas, how are you gonna be able to help grow your team? And I would also say, in addition to this, not just growing them professionally, but personally. So every year I do meet with my team, I wanna find out what are their personal goals, what are their professional goals, and how can I look for little ways to help them achieve those goals. So when I know someone wants to pay off student debt, or I know somebody wants to buy a house, or I know they want to learn about something, Dave Ramsey's got a class. ⁓ This person wants to buy a house. I help connect them with realtors. Like whatever you can do to make dreams and wishes come true for your team. I think as business owners, as leaders, this is honestly one of the greatest gifts that we're able to give our team. And so just recognizing the gift and the responsibility, just to be able to help your team. to grow them, to elevate them and to help them. So I really do believe that when you invest in your team, you give them growth opportunities, you're able to establish them into these incredible humans, not just employees. This is when we get excited. looking at this, like, you can even talk to your team, like, what's a skill you wanna learn this year? What's your personal goals you wanna learn? And then invest in them. ⁓ Brittany Stone, no BS, Britt has said it to me many times, to me and to our clients. do you look at your team as an asset or a liability? And I think about that often, and if you see them as an asset, you treat them differently than you do if they're a liability. And so when we look at this and we get excited about it, like there's so much anticipation today of all the days of the year. think Christmas Eve is probably one of the most anticipated days of the whole year. There's such a beautiful space. And so for this, how can we get anticipation, tradition and growth? and bring this magic into your practice. I think that's a beautiful gift that you guys can give. so really it's like, bonuses are nice, growth is nice, but it's anticipation that I think is a secret sauce of it. Like I said, and there's the anticipation of knowing where we're going, where we're headed and having those direct goals versus the anticipation and the terror. Both are anticipation, but anticipation that's exciting, anticipation that's fun, anticipation that's predictable, anticipation that creates spice and magic for your team. And I think this is how you build a team of flourishing people. This is how you build a team that wants to flourish. This is how you build a team that's bought in. This is how you build a culture that's raving team member fans. This is how you build a culture that people want to be a part of. And then you start to post about these things. You share, you talk about it. This is what we do. This is who we are. Your team thrives. You thrive. And so today, tonight, as you're dreaming about what you're going to get tomorrow morning, I also hope you dream about what your practice is going to get next year. ⁓ What are the little fun traditions that you can put into place? What are the different little pieces that you can do for your team? What is the anticipation that we can put in place? I love the ideas of like having countdowns to things like how do get these fun countdowns? How do we build traditions that will be so fun? How do we give the gift of growth to our entire team? How can you truly flourish and grow your team? I think is something that you deserve to have. And so your practice can be as exciting. as Christmas Eve, Christmas morning. And I'm not here to say that it's every single day, but it doesn't have to be draining. It can be fun. And I think this is how we add spice, energy, and fuel to our businesses and to our lives is by doing the unexpected, by doing the things that bring joy and happiness to all of us. So I hope that you guys take this on. I hope that you know that at Dental A Team, we help you guys build goals and traditions and systems that really do create magic all year long. that help create aha moments to give support and strength to your teams. So doctors, you don't have to do this alone. You don't have to carry the whole sleigh by yourself. You can actually have other people help you with this and to inspire and to change your team, I think is one of the greatest gifts I gave my team. And if you're thinking about it, I'd encourage you to give that gift to your team as well. So if you guys want that, if you want to feel energized and not burn out next year, if you want to unwrap the gift of growth and excitement for 2026, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I want to help you. want to make sure that you guys are flourishing and thriving and not just surviving. And I hope you guys have the happiest Christmas, the happiest holidays that you think about this, that you get excited to create little traditions. Pass this along. If you're not creative, pass this on to a team member. Have them listen to it. Share this with a colleague. Have it where it's a competition between you and another person. We've got to make things fun in life. And I hope that you guys just know that I'm cheering for you. I'm rooting for you. And I'm here to serve you. I'm here to support with you. And I'm here to grow with you. because I do believe that you deserve magic and you deserve ease in your practice. You're worth it. You deserve it. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39511940

Pay Attention to THIS When Purchasing an Additional Practice 12/23/2025

Pay Attention to THIS When Purchasing an Additional Practice Tiff and Trish discuss the need-to-know info for the buyer of a practice, including team member transparency, new patient inflow, software use, and more. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are back again I have Trish with me because I freaking adore her and I the we just recorded a podcast We record a few at a time. You guys know that I batch them It's called efficiency and that will be on my tombstone per Kiera. She tells me that every day It will it will if it's any vision. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like grating cheese by hand like come on anyways We are here today and we just recorded a podcast. So these are kind of serendipitous that they're back to back and it ended up this way in a weird way. So I don't have to go down that rabbit hole, but we just recorded a podcast on this seller's perspective of how to ensure that you're always ready and prepped to sell no matter where you're at in your journey, making sure that 10, 20, 30, five, two years down the road, you can sell your practice and that it's not as... as stressful an event as it would be if you were unprepared. So I can't say we can remove all the stress. I can say that we can remove some stress that is just unnecessary. So today, now, I really wanted to look at the buyer's perspective. And we kind of hit on both a little bit on the last one, but this one's gonna be a little bit different. So make sure that you listen to both. Doesn't matter which order, I don't think. We'll find out by the end and I'll tell you if you should have listened to the other one first. I know, I know, inefficient, but it's okay. So Trish and I are here today. You guys know I adore Trish. If you just listened to the Sellers one, which you should, ⁓ you heard me just rave about Trish. And Trish, love, I realized when I was recording with Monica a couple of weeks ago, which those were fantastic, you guys, if you need information and ⁓ ideas on training your team and operations manual, et cetera, all those pieces, Monica has some stellar ideas over there. But I realized Trish, while I was Recording with Monica, I love podcasting. I love this aspect. I'm just a weirdo like that. But I love podcasting with you guys. And I realized in the beginning ⁓ with Monica, it was our first time podcasting together. And it was the first time that I got to rave about Monica and just really say all of the things that I love about her and I think is just so incredible about her with her consulting and just who she is as a human. And I get to do that with you guys here in this platform. And Trish, you're one of my favorite people to rave about. love all of our consultants. You guys hear me rave about them, but Trish is such an incredible human being. It is impossible to describe you. You're just multifaceted. And I realized this is my brag session time. And I'm like this, I love it. It makes me so happy inside. DAT Trish Ackerman (02:37) Thank I that. The Dental A Team (02:49) to just watch you guys thrive and to get to just tell the dental community how amazing you guys are and how special it is for them to get to hear from you and to get you guys in person with them and working with their teams and the leadership that changes the profitability that I've seen come out of everyone's work is so cool. And I realized with Monica, I'm like, this is why I love podcasting with them because I love getting to love on you guys. It's just so cool. So thank you for, I hope so. Dana's over there. just always like ask her about workout stuff, you know, and I'm like, she's, I love on her too, but I'm always like, what's your hair product? What's your, what's your workout? It's fine. It's fine. ⁓ so thank you for letting me have this space Trish and for, ⁓ always being open to all of the things that I need. ⁓ your, DAT Trish Ackerman (03:19) We'll take it. Thank The Dental A Team (03:43) one of those people that I know I can trust to just be myself. So thank you for that. Thank you for being here today. Of course, of course. I love my job. So with that said, number one piece of suggestion that I have before we get into this buyer side, Kiera and I, have been at this for a little while with the Dental A Team and DAT Trish Ackerman (03:46) You're welcome to attend, thank you. The Dental A Team (04:06) Carers Dental Consulting and Dental Masters and whatever name we decide it's been the Dental A Team for a long time and it's going to stick the Dental A Team, it's not changing. But we have had a couple of renditions and one piece that I know we have gotten really, really good at, but that we've really had to work hard at. And from a buyer's perspective, a seller's perspective, I think this is insanely relative, the people. We have worked really, really hard at the people aspect and pouring ourselves into the people and figuring out that that's actually what we love to do. We love to consult. We love to be with the teams and the doctors and we love to see all of those pieces. I love being on stage. I do. But pouring into our team and creating a business that's not solely dependent on Kiera and I and a company that could thrive if we're on the road, if we're on vacation, that has been a massive transition in our company. And once we realized that and we got really good at it, we started attracting some really, really cool people. And Trish, you're one of those people and you do not shy away from letting us know that it's working ⁓ or letting me know when I'm not on my best A game of that. And I love that about you. And I love that about our team. think I can count on any one of you ladies to be that person for me. thank you. And doctors and business owners out there, think this is a huge piece of selling or buying a practice. And Trish, you mentioned that towards the end of our sellers one is the team and really making sure that the team is there for the longterm, but they're really supportive. know if, you know, we built this company to be a sellable company. That's a known fact. It would be wild for us not to do that. It does not mean that Kiera is selling the company tomorrow, but she could. if she needed or wanted to. And Trish, from a team perspective, just real quick to hit on that, as a team perspective, how does that make you feel ⁓ for the doctors and practice owners out there to kind of hear? DAT Trish Ackerman (06:13) You know, this is a hot topic. I won't go down bunny holes, but I have seen many, I've been with a lot of doctors that have purchased a practice and they have acquired that team. And I've seen the bright side of it and I've seen the dark side. The bright side is what I'd like to share today because we'll put the light on that. And I also do want to, I want to add something to what you just said, Tiff, about how you and Kira are also feeling like The Dental A Team (06:26) Yeah. DAT Trish Ackerman (06:42) you're in a different space now in the company because of the people. But I also want to remind you that that is something that you and Kira, you built that. You built, it didn't just happen. You guys built that. you do have to, like for Kira, there is a level of trust that has to take place. And I'm sure it's really difficult. I mean, this is a livelihood. And this is the same for these dental practices. So when a buyer is coming in, Typically they do acquire a team and it is the responsibility of the selling doctor to be very transparent. We can't leave team members out when they get shocked and just told I sold and there's a buyer coming in there. could we I've seen I've seen entire teams walk out like, okay, we're out. We're not we're not dealing with it. But when there is a lot of transparency introduction to the incoming potential buyer, sometimes they haven't even bought yet. The Dental A Team (07:30) Yeah, thumbs up. Yeah. Yeah. DAT Trish Ackerman (07:41) ⁓ and just letting the team, ensuring that the team knows that they're going to be safe. They're to be safe. There's change coming, but they are going to be okay. And if they value and adore their doctor, which many of these team members do obviously, and if they've been there for a long time, then they also want to be part of that support. So being a part of this whole process is, I always say number one, like start there. The Dental A Team (08:07) Yeah, I totally agree. I love that. So taking that to the next layer, right, as a buyer, I think that would be a a great inquiry when looking at practices, right of what is the team's knowledge on this situation? Do they know that you're selling? How far into those conversations argue how prepared is the team? And really like, what am I walking into? I think is massive. think if you were dating, and you are on whatever dating platform, because that's where you're finding people these days, right? And it's like, yeah, I have three kids. It's like, cool, what am I walking into? You would not just walk blindly into a family and expect everything to be just fine. It would be, you know, there's a, yeah, yeah. Like there's a courting period for both, for the parents, right? For the... DAT Trish Ackerman (08:53) no family. The Dental A Team (09:03) boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever it is, right? And the kids, there's a courting period for all of it. And they think that we devalue that in the buying and selling situation. I think, that was great perspective. If I'm a buyer, that's definitely a great question and inquiry to ask. And I think when you're adding additional practices, we have a lot of dentists, a lot of doctors who want to, they have their flagship and they want to expand and they want to reach more communities. And so they're adding, another family and now we're the Brady Bunch and we're meshing these two families together, but not having that knowledge of who am I meshing into the family I already have. There hasn't been a courting period. Could be really, really dangerous. DAT Trish Ackerman (09:44) Yeah, I can. And like, where is this new practice going to be? Like, there's so many things to look at here, but we can cover that today. And I'm so happy that we started with the team piece though, because I just want to have that all over. If you're wanting to buy a practice, where's the team, team, team? Who are you adopting? The Dental A Team (09:45) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, who are you adopting? love that. And who are you expecting your current team to befriend? They've got to, you know, even if your practices are, they're never, they're never going to quote unquote work together. Not how, if you've got multiple practices that don't communicate, that don't have anything to do with each other, that's a lot of, in my opinion, that's a lot of stress. I think that's like, if we're gonna continue the dating theory, right? That's like having your family. And then you start a second family. And you have a wife, kids, a dog, and you have a wife, kids, and a dog, and you're trying to keep these two lives separate from knowing each other. That's a lot of stress. That's a lot of work, and it's just completely unnecessary. You can adopt this practice as team and welcome them into the family that you have, as long as you already have worked on that culture. And I think if you're expanding... Practices you're buying additional practices that culture piece has to be intact your systems have to be intact So I think buying additional practices is a fantastic idea if that's your journey That's the the road the path that you want to take and you've been called for it do it But look at those pieces so from we talked the seller's perspective earlier And I think sellers and buyers perspective is super similar just like we we had said it's like buying a house so if you're buying a house or you're selling a house you're kind of Selling a house, you're thinking what's the buyer looking at? And as the buyer, you're looking at these pieces and how is it valuable to you? And Trish, some things that you had mentioned before was the patient base, making sure it's a healthy patient base. I think from a buyer's perspective, it's active patient base, but also then new patients coming in. Are they still getting new patients? Because that's where a lot of your diagnosis is going to come from. And then healthy profit and collections. are huge. We've already talked about the courting of the team. What does the team know? How are they going to support the cell? I think is a great question. How is your team prepared to support the cell and making sure they're on board? But Trish, when it comes to the, I think the profit in the AR is probably for most buyers, a massive question mark. And when it comes to that as a a doctor coming in, even if they're going to partner maybe, but buying that additional practice to come on board with yours, what are some pieces that you really look for within the profit or the collections and maybe even down to like software if you're adding an additional practice, what are some pieces you would advise your teams and your doctors to look up? DAT Trish Ackerman (12:36) Before I even would go there, would first need to know what, like, what is the philosophy of this dentist? What kind of dentistry is he wanting to do? And there's, you know, we could, anybody can find a profitable practice somewhere close to them even. But if you're a, if you're a doctor that like wants to do heavy surgeries and you're all on fours and the big time stuff, but you find a practice that has a great patient base, good profit and all that stuff by a college. then that might not be the right demographics for you. So like that is something that you even have to look at first. What type of patient base are you trying to attract? And what type of patient base, if you find the one that is Purcell, okay, good profit, team's healthy, accounts receivable is on point, but it's a patient base that is not going to be super open to your philosophy of dentistry, then that could be painful. So that is also something, it might be a great deal, but that we'd be very careful about what's actually inside that patient base and if it's gonna align with the type of dentistry that we're looking to do. The Dental A Team (13:36) Agreed. Yeah. I think that's like buying, you've found your perfect house. You're like, my gosh, this is the elevation that I want. It is white with black trim. It's got an acre of land, which is impossible to find and all the upgrades inside, right? This literally happened yesterday. I'm like, this is the house, but exactly, right? Like it's like backing a busy street and it's. DAT Trish Ackerman (14:06) They a train track above it. The Dental A Team (14:13) almost 20 minutes away from where we need to be. Right. So it's like, it's like finding your perfect home and you're like, this is the one, but it's completely outside of our school district or our, know, it's adding 20 minutes of Camille. I've done that. I have literally done that. And you guys, it was hard and it was unnecessary stress because there are more out there. So I love that you mentioned that because it's shiny objects syndrome, right? Like that shiny object comes and it looks perfect. It's packaged beautifully, but underneath that shiny exterior is hiding something underneath that is gonna cause a lot of pain in the end. And I think that is the perfect statement there. Like watch for what it is that you want to do. Know what your philosophy is. What is it that you want to do with your dentistry? DAT Trish Ackerman (15:08) Yep. And you can get there. It's not that they can't, but in order to get there, it's going to take some remolding of yourself temporarily. again, I'm going to use the high surgical doctor that wants to do lots of surgeries, lots of implants, but these patients have only seen one tooth dentistry and they've been patients for 20 years. We can introduce that after a couple of re-care cycles. We need to kind of mesh with the selling doctor and the dentistry that he did and build the relationship first. So as long as the buyer can be patient, can accept that, then it can work. It can work. And it's not that difficult to do. I do think that that's when we come in very handy because that requires a lot of coaching. That does require accountability on their philosophy, behavior change. And that's again, I mean, I don't want to totally toot our horn, but I will when it comes to that piece, because I think we do an excellent job coaching the doctors through situations like that. The Dental A Team (16:14) Yeah, I totally agree. I've worked with a practice similar to this that came on board after purchasing the practice and ⁓ high aspirations and wants so much CE and wants to do all of these things within his dental philosophy that I am totally on board with. Although the purchase of the practice was a practice that just isn't, it wasn't ready yet. And there were a massive amount of patients, honestly, thriving. on patient base 3000 patients within their database and very healthy active patient base. So the reactivation, the re care, like it was, it was easy to get that thing turning, but it took two to three re care cycles before he gets really start diagnosing the things that he wanted to diagnose. And just purchasing, this was a brand new practice first, you know, first time he's owned a practice. And I was like, you, you want to go in. and you want to ramp up marketing and you want to replace the patients with the patients that you want. I hear you. I hear you. But financially and profit wise, that's not the way. And that's where, like you said, Trish, the coaching really came in handy because it was an easy space to gently add in the things that. that he wanted and that he needed with the patient base, weeding out the patients that weren't gonna be okay with it, keeping the patients that were and now being ready to implement some marketing in a few months. know, it's still about a year and a half out from original ownership of this practice. Now we're ready to start marketing, but we had to get there because the finances had to make sense. And so I love that you say that, because I think a lot of people think it's totally fine. Like I can fix him. Yeah, those things bother me, but we'll train it out of them. it's not really the patient base that I want, but I can replace it with new ones. Can you? Because if you're next to a college, like Trish said, you might not be able to do it as quickly as you need to. And honestly and truly, you may not be able to do it. So I love that analogy. When it comes to profit in the AR, I think that's an easy space for doctors to look at that they kind of freak out about. But again, Trish, like you said, when you've got somebody behind you, you've got a coach. I know we've helped a lot of practices purchase their, not helped them purchase their practice, but really helped look at the pieces of it. It is an easy space for us to see healthy, not healthy when it comes to finances. pulling the reports and kind of like going in and getting all the pieces, not our jam. That's not the type of consultants that we are, but we are the type of consultants that will walk you through step by step on what to look for. We will help look at P &Ls. We will help look at the overhead costs and the ⁓ health of the AR and credits like Trish mentioned, and really help to advise and give opinions. ⁓ But outside of that, for a buyer who's adding that practice, I think you nailed it saying, what's your philosophy? Cause... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39511930

Does Your Practice Have THIS Hidden Gold Mine? 12/18/2025

Does Your Practice Have THIS Hidden Gold Mine? It’s office autopsy time! Kiera shares the story of a practice that recently discovered $2.5 million going unnoticed. She talks about the doctors and their (very) busy schedules, the need for an additional hygienist, and what the cold, hard numbers told this practice about next steps. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am excited. I was just in a practice and we were going through a lot of really fun things. And whenever I come from an office, I get so excited to come back and chat with our podcast family of things that you and your practice should and could be doing. I was told when I was in this office, this is the Dental A Team magic where we physically fly to your practice. We work with your teams. We work with you as a doctor. We uncover hidden pieces that maybe you didn't even know to bring to a call. I think it's so magical to be able to do this for practices. And so today is a little office autopsy of finding $2.5 million left behind on the table in ways that you would never expect. Sound interesting? Well, I hope you're ready because I wanna take you through and uncover hidden little cashflow pits that you might not even be looking at. So number one, we decided to go through... because this doctor is so busy. So many of you tell me I'm so busy, Kiera, my schedule is jam-packed, and I say congratulations, but what is the cost of that? So for example, if you have your hygiene department, you should be looking at your active patient base. So an active patient base for a general dentist should be 1,500 patients as an active patient for one doctor. High end, like where you can kind of get by is 1,900, but beyond that, that's very high. And we're talking 12 months and 18 months. So take a look at both of those numbers. and just look to see where are you at. So this practice, they have about 4,500 active patients with two full-time doctors. They're at capacity. So what's happening is we have options. We can add more hygiene, but then that's going to have our doctor to hygiene, AKA our exams at the wrong amount. What's happening is they're dropping periopatients because they don't have space for their... Regular prophy patients, then they're diagnosing SRPs, but they have nowhere to put them for six months. They're pushing new patients out for four to five months. So we did a little bit of fun math and we didn't even, this is just gonna be some hypotheticals, but I think for you just to hear like, what are some of the things that actually can hurt your practice and how much are you leaving on the table when we do things like this? So for this practice, when we went through and we looked at it, we thought, all right, let's take an average prophy and whatever it is for you. Maybe it's 150 up to 200 for an average prophy. We're talking prophy, x-rays, cleanings, or just even prophy and an exam. How much is that for you and your practice? Now, look to see how many active patients you have. If we've got 4,500, well guess what? You get a double that because those patients are coming in two times a year. So have fun with those numbers. We divide that by 12. We look at how many patients we're seeing per day. Now that doesn't necessarily mean how many you are, but that's how many you're going to need to see. Then we look to see how much hygiene we have right now today to see, we actually have enough hygiene spaces for it? But let's not forget that we also have to add new patients because in addition to our active base, we are constantly adding more patients. Yes, we are losing some patients, but my hope is that you at least are adding more than we're losing. So we've got to look at those two together and see how much time we actually have in a week, in a month that we need to be seeing patients. This is gonna then show you your gap. So for this practice, they had over 200 appointments that they were short every single month. That's at a minimum. So clearly they're ready to bring on another hygienist. This was great numbers to see, do I bring on a hygienist? Do I not bring on a hygienist? But the problem is they're already at five hygienists with two doctors. You can start to do the math. So it's like, well, great. Well, we're not diagnosing perio either. So options are we could bring on a sixth hygienist and that hygienist would just do SRP. That doesn't mean just that person, but we'd have eight hours of SRP in a given day. spread across all the hygienists. That means we don't increase our exam numbers, but we do increase our number of perio. We do increase our number of hygiene spots. That's going to help in some instances. But even if we fix that problem, remember we still have all these patients that we're not seeing. So this practice right now, they told me, hey, Kiera, we're pushing our patients out about eight months is where we've got to put them. We can't see them on the six month mark. We've got to push them to the eight month. So I did the math and I was like, okay, average pro fee is going to be about $150 per patient. but you gotta take all those patients that would be seen in one month and we times that by 150. Now, I understand this is very loose math, but it gives a good idea because think about it, those patients, if we saw them every six months, that's money from insurance and also from seeing them on a regular schedule, plus not just that, but patient care. We see them on the six month interval, but these ones we're not seeing every six months, we're seeing them every eight months. So that means there's two months that we're missing out on opportunities to see them. So when we did the math, it averaged out to about $450,000 with this patient base annually, just of miss hygiene. And that was only on one month. If you want to do it on two months, which is realistically what it would be, that's almost a million dollars worth of revenue, just in hygiene miss opportunity. That's fascinating to me. This is why I think a consultant is so powerful because we come in and we do crazy numbers like this and we look at your numbers and we look at where you're at. And it really gives you the confidence to know, can I bring on an associate? Can I bring on more hygiene? I feel like this, what does the number and the data suggest? So just looking at that, I was like, a simple fix is bring a hygienist in, let's have our perio go up. And then also we need to bring a doctor in for whether it's full time or not. So we ran scenarios of if we brought a doctor in, if we added more hygiene, if we had our doctors do this, what do we need to do? How do we keep our doctor to hygiene ratio running all these scenarios to then say, my gosh, this really would help our practice out. And when I think about this and I think about practices for us, are you looking at numbers and metrics like this? Are you calculating the cost of missed appointments or not scheduling our hygiene patients back? Not to mention that we're certainly not doing 30 % of our patient base as perio. What these hygienists are doing is they're seeing that they need perio, but they don't have space to put them. So they don't want to have the conversation. This is no knock to a hygiene team. Several hygienists do it because I'm going to tell you, you've got this awful disease. but then I'm not actually going to be able to get you in for X number of days, weeks, months. That feels really, really, really hard to try and convince a patient of this. So what do we do? We clean it out and we say, you know what, we're just gonna get it next time. But next time then fumbles and then we gotta have these conversations. Then we don't wanna have these conversations. We're constantly looking at like, we're just punting the ball down the line. So what do we need to do on this? What are the scenarios in this option? How much money is being left behind, but also how much patient? And this is great. Other options that we considered are, we cut insurances? Because, hey, if we've got this many patients, what if we cut out our lowest producing insurance that pays us? And the doctor said, no, my mission and vision for this practice is that we care for the average patient, that we are here to take care of them and support them. And that's what this doctor wants to do. So it's like, great. They have an incredible building. They've got more space to build out. Fantastic. Let's bring in the other doctors. Let's bring in more hygiene. Let's serve these patients because instantly if we brought on one or two more hygienists, Guess what? We could backfill very quickly with all those patients. Plus we need to hold space for new patients and perio that would be ideal based on the number of perio. So then you look at your patient base, you figure out 30 % of that. That's going to tell you how much SRP spaces you need to hold every single month in the practice. Don't forget, once you have SRP, you also need to have perio maintenance is in there. So this you can see is like this amazing web of data, of knowledge, of fun. to figure out how much is your practice actually leaving on the table unintentionally. And when I looked at that, the doctor, he was like, well, Kiera, number one, you're always worth your weight in gold. You come in and you find little things. You guys, that is one small change that's worth 450 to $900,000 just in the amount of pro fees. That's nothing else, nothing. Like that's all we did. And to be able to uncover little opportunities like this and so, for you to look at your practice, this is why I wanted to give you this scenario of this practice. There were several others that we looked at that we found that we were able to just quickly identify. But I think so often people are looking for big moves. They're looking for these all on X cases. They're looking for what could I do here? How could I do this? What could we change this for? And what I wanna highlight to you is I promise you there are little gold nuggets in your practice of true solid gold that's serving patients at a higher level. or you have to do nothing else in this practice. And all you need to do is just shift one or two things and instantly your practice is going to grow 10, 20, 30, 40, 50%. Small little tweaks and changes, small little gaps, small little pieces. So it's let's look to see our hygiene patients coming in on time, like on the six month interval. Do we have the correct active patient base for the number of doctors that we have? Do we have enough hygiene to doctor ratio? What's our perio percentage? How many perio maintenance are we doing? Are we solid on those pieces with our patient base? And then if we are on those, let's look at our x-rays. Are we doing our FMXs and our comp exams on regular frequencies? Are we doing perio, excuse me, are we doing fluoride therapy on all of our patients if you believe in that? These little tiny opportunities just in hygiene I've highlighted for you, not to mention all the other spaces that we could go after, but just hygiene alone. Are we collecting before patients walk out the door? Are we using our block schedules and getting enough block time in our schedules for our new patients, for our perio? Do we have those blocked in there? Because if we don't, guess what? Like I don't even do the math for you on how much SRP patients are, but you wanna tack that on with the number of patients that we're missing out on. That's for sure a $1.2 million mistake with no extra effort. So I just want you today, it's a quick fast episode. It's a down and dirty of one, I think this is a huge. A-ha of what a consultant can do for your practice. Number two, I think it's a quick a-ha for you to look at your practice and say, hey, during my CEO time, let me go walk through my practice and let me see these little gaps and cashflow gaps in my practice and let's see how we can close those up. And number three, I really hope you realize so many people think they need to expand, go get another practice, all these different things to grow their business. And I will tell you that 99, maybe I'll say 90 % of the time, we can find growth, we can find opportunities. right underneath your roof with no extra effort, no extra energy, just to do a small change. Perfect block scheduling. Usually can add $1 million plus to a practice if we do it correctly. No extra hours, no extra time, no extra team members, just being more strategic with it. Increasing your case acceptance, small little change, small little tweak, way more revenue to your practice. So my question to you is, what's it worth? What's your hour, two hours, three hours of admin time worth to you if it could show that you could create this? What's it worth not to call a consultant to just come check your practice and see what are maybe the hidden gaps? You guys, this practice is doing amazing. Their overhead's great, their team's great, all of that. You would think on paper that this person doesn't need a consultant. They're not stressed, they're not cashflow poor, they're none of those things. What they are is they are looking for the hidden opportunities that a consultant who's been in practices hundreds of times can come and find for them. They're looking for, what am I not thinking about that you're gonna think about? I want you to come in and find that. And I love it. I feel like I get to go in as a sleuth. I'm not looking for systems or operations. This practice, like I said, on paper, this practice looks like they would never need to call a consultant. But what I want to highlight for you is we found in a less than day and a half, over a million, and I just told you one part of this story, over a million dollars worth of opportunity for this practice. Would that be worth your time? Something to consider. Something to think about. And I hope today you take this and you don't just think about it, but you go do action because I promise you there is just this same, if not bigger cashflow leak in your practice or hit an opportunity that you're not thinking about that would radically change your practice, your patients, your team, your life. So go find it. And if you don't know how to do it, reach out, or if you're like, Hey, I'd love you just to come see like come sleuth. Let's do this together. Reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com your practice, your team, your life is worth it. and you deserve all the happiness in the world. And I'm happy that you chose to listen today. I'm happy to hear you hung out. And if you thought this was a fascinating podcast, share it with a friend because I think all of us could think a little bit differently, find these little opportunities. Again, no extra diagnosis, no extra work, just changing it up a little bit, doing things a little differently and their practice is going to exponentially grow. Yes, they need to bring a doctor. Yes, they need to find a hygienist. Yes, they're strategic, but we talked about all the different scenarios, ran all the different numbers and hey, here's all the options. Now pick which one you want to do. There's so many ways to do it, but look at the awesome opportunities that they could do. And I hope that you do the same. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39419350

Where Are You in Your Business’s Life Cycle? 12/17/2025

Where Are You in Your Business’s Life Cycle? Kiera compares the stages of a business to the stages of the human life cycle, from the infancy of a startup, to the chaos of money flow without systems, to the growing profitability of early adulthood, and so on. The goal is, of course, to reach maturity, where the business can run on its own, there’s work-life balance, money flow, and more. Kiera gives listeners the common factors for each “age group,” and what needs to be done for practices to reach their prime. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope you are having an amazing day. I hope it's an epic day. I hope you're loving your life. I hope you're having just so much fun. ⁓ I love dentistry. I love podcasting. I love connecting with so many of you. I just met people this week that are Dental A Team fanatics and it's always fun. And it's funny on calls when I get to chat with you in real life, people are like, Kiera, you sound just like you do on the podcast. And I'm like, that's great because guess what? It is me. So I am so excited to podcast with you guys today. Welcome. If you're new to Dental A Team podcast. Hello, I'm Kiera Dent. Dent really is my last name. And it's because I love all things dental. ⁓ I love my husband, even though he's not a dentist. ⁓ I love, I just love life. I love helping people. We had a, in our consulting, we have what we call our doctor mastermind. It's a doctor only mastermind and it's on ⁓ Tuesday, the first Tuesday of the month. And we call it Think Tank Tuesday for our doctor mastermind. We had all of our doctors there this week and we had several doctors come. It was just a really, really fun time. And as I was sitting there, I tell everybody that this think tank is supposed to feel like you're sitting in my living room, hanging out with me. We're all just here having like a good time. I love to see there's one doctor pushing her daughter on a swing. There was another doctor making dinner. There's another doctor sitting at the office, another doctor driving home. It truly is a like, let your hair down, come be, let's come hang out, let's all be together, let's all work together. Cause honestly, dentistry can be super hard and challenging. And ⁓ as I walked away from that, we were talking about the life cycle of a business and people were just talking about where they were and here's where I am and how do I get to the next phase of my business? What are some easy moves? And it was crazy because it's actually not that hard to move from one part of the business to the next part. ⁓ A lot of times it's just having somebody pointed out to you. ⁓ giving you the confidence that you can do that. ⁓ And then having a group of people around you that are just like you. And as I walked out of that meeting and that just fun hangout time, there's always Kiera's after party, which is not recorded. It is Kiera unfiltered. I just thought, I'm so blessed to get to know these human beings, these people that we get to work alongside with, that we get to collaborate with. I get to see them go through all the phases of business from where they were to where they are. working with us, get to see their production increase, I get to see their ROI ⁓ tenfold, I get to see how happy they are in life, I get to see when they were once stressed to where now they're exuberant and happy and fulfilled and that is why Dental A Team exists. That is why the podcast exists is because I want all of you to feel like you have ⁓ someone in your corner, someone who is rooting for you, someone who has answers where you feel like there are none, someone who sees the path more clearly than you can. someone who's created a community of like-minded doctors that are either where you are or have been where you are and can help you get to the next step. We have doctors who mentor each other. have ⁓ masterminds in person. have where we come to your practice. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're feeling like, gosh, I just don't even know what to do. The answer is there's actually always the what's next to do. There's always somebody who can help you. It's just you having the courage to book the call to ⁓ invest in your practice in yourself and decide that you're worth having the life and the practice that you know, you're capable of having. And so if that resonates with you, reach out, come join our doctor mastermind, come meet us in person, come hang out with me in real life. I would love to have you be a part of it. ⁓ my mission truly is to change people's lives. and that's luckily I get this amazing platform of dentistry. So, reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com because honestly, I believe that it is so fun and so powerful. ⁓ to go from that. And so I teased out a little bit of a life cycle of a business. This came from Tony Robbins. I really love Tony. I love a lot of things that he teaches and ⁓ there's a lot of wisdom. so just to kind of to take this on for the podcast today, I feel like, hey, we talked about this in our Dr. Mastermind, but I think it'd be very beneficial for all of you to hear. And this is my adaptation of it to take it to dental offices and kind of then giving you some of the things that I see in a practice so you can kind of understand. But basically we have kind of like think about the life cycle of human beings. It's where we start out as infancy. We're born into this world and then we're infants and then we're toddlers. And then we go into this like middle life, like middle school. And then we go into high school and then we go into young adults. So college or young adult. Then we go into maturity or our prime of our life. Then we go into this kind of midlife evaluation. That's right before we retire. Then we go into aging. Then we go into institutionalization and then we go to death. So we think about how people go around and it's interesting because there could be say a 25 year old, 30 year old, 40 year old who actually could be on the aging path even though their age is not where you would think that they would be. And so the idea of this is to kind of look to see based on like a life cycle of us where your business is and what maybe is like the pain point. So when we look at a business and we look at like children, so an infant, They're screaming, right? They're screaming all the time. Yes, they're alive. Yes, they're there, but they're screaming and they're hungry and they don't know how to make money and they always have all these problems and it just feels like it's problem after problem after problem. That's like when you first start a business and it is chaos and it is exuberant and it is blissful and it is terrifying. Like Tiff and I were actually joking about it when we were on our doctor mastermind and we were talking about how like Dental A Team when it was in its infancy stage. I literally was paying Tiffanie via Venmo. I did not have any payroll set up. I don't know why Tiff stayed with me. So Spiffy Tiffy shout out to her today. ⁓ But I really truly was such a naive business owner. I did not have protocols. I did not have a lawyer. I didn't have HR. I just said, I want to be here in this world and put something together, but no processes, no systems. It was screaming mayhem all the time. And then you go from that infancy stage to toddler, right? Toddlers, they can sleep through the night. They're more independent. They can reason on certain things, but they're not this middle schooler, right? ⁓ And so when we look at that toddler that like they're going to elementary school, they're kind of in that middle stage. This is now where a business has elevated. It's not like paying people via Venmo, ⁓ but you still don't have the cash flow to be able to hire great people. It's still this like very new. You probably have one or two people. Practices that are in this realm are more the the startup phase. So startup is like your very infancy, whether you're buying it or if it's a scratch start or you already have it. But it's kind of that screaming and then you move into toddler where like we can afford like one or two people on our team. but maybe we're moonlighting at another practice. cash flow is not consistent. ⁓ Systems and processes are not in place. And it's really just in this like delicate, but more stable, like we're like, okay, we're not we're not gonna go broke. We know we can kind of handle, but at the same time, cashflow is not there. Then you move into middle school and you think about a middle schooler. This is where like we're starting to hit production. We can kind of have a few team members in there. We kind of maybe have a little bit of money, but not quite. ⁓ And we're starting to get a little more established, but we're like very gangly. We're very awkward. ⁓ We're doing the dentistry, but we're still, we're still not quite making it. And so from there, when we move from there, You didn't go into a teenager and you think about a teenager, they think they know what they're doing. They've got the keys to the car. And this is where you've got money, but you're blowing through it because you have no systems, no processes. Like you are mayhem. Like you're making the money, but you're not keeping the money. And you're running on all four cylinders. But it's just chaos. It's wild. There's a frenzy. There's an excitement. And I think when Dental A Team was in that phase, We had a little bit of money and so we were hiring people, but we didn't have quite enough money so we're not hiring experts quite yet. And you can just feel there's like this teenage energy and ⁓ then you move into like young adult and young adults were like perfect. The company is making money. We're able to hire more experienced people. So like we can bring on an office manager. We can bring on a better hygienist. We can have more things in place. And then we go into this like maturity and maturity and prime are where we're. Profitable, we've got the production, we've got the systems in place. have a leadership team that's running the practice. It's not all dependent upon the dentist or one or two people. We've got the systems in place, we've got the profit in place, we've got the production in place. And a lot of times that happens when people are in this maturity or this prime, they're hanging out right there. What they often do is this is when they wanna buy another practice. Sometimes they even wanna buy a practice when they're in toddler, teenager, or like that college mid-year. But they're really just... this is when they do it. And what happens is when you buy a practice or you expand your practice or you any of the phases, then you actually like usually kick yourself down and you go back to either toddler or maybe middle schooler or high schooler and your business like re re fumbles. There was a practice that I was working with and they're like, Kiera, we have this great opportunity. I worked with them for a year and we got everything set. The doctor was like, I'm tired of having to run it all. So they were like kind of in that probably more at that mid year, they were probably college age. So the practice was great. They were profitable, but the doctor was still doing everything. And the doctor was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. I need you to train my team. I need you to train all the people so that way I can just come be a dentist and truly own my business, which kicks you into that maturity and prime. So we worked together. We were able to train the team. We were able to train the doctor. We did leadership training. We trained the whole team. We put systems into place that they didn't realize. And the doctor like literally we got them into prime like It was incredible. It took us about a year to get them there. And they're like, Kiera, it's great. Cause I was thinking like, we're wrapped up. put a bow on this. I'm super excited for you guys. And the doctor was like, Kiera, guess what? There's this awesome opportunity for another practice. Do you think we should buy it? And I tell you, when people get into this like prime, like they're in it, they've, they've, they reached the mountain. They're like, we should buy another practice. And I was like, well, so here's the deal. your kids have gone off to college. That's where your practice is right now. Like you're sitting here, you're very happy, you're very comfortable. Life is very easy for you. And buying another practice is going to be literally bringing on a screaming brand new, like brand brand new infant baby. Do you want to do that? And the doctor was like, that's a good point. ⁓ Let me think about that. And they're like, here, the deal is just too good of a deal. And honestly, if I was in their shoes, I would have done the same thing. The practice was truly a, you should take it and do it. And then what happened, we flew all the way back down into toddler. Like we didn't go quite back to infancy, but oh my gosh, like the practices started screaming and both practices started struggling. And all these little pieces came up because we went from having this mature, we're in prime, our life is really easy to bringing on this screaming baby. And all of a sudden everything started jostling, the leadership team got jostly. We were bringing in different partners and lo and behold, two, three years later, we finally now gotten the practices. they're right around teenager, maybe young adult for both locations and guess what they want to do? You guess it, they want to buy another practice. And this tends to be the cycle of dentistry. ⁓ Or what actually can happen is we go from prime and then we actually can go into midlife evaluation. And what happens here is when doctors are considering like, do I want to sell? Do I want to keep sitting in the chair? Maybe we're ⁓ not, not purposely, but maybe we are not diagnosing as much as we used to. Maybe we don't want to go to the CEs. Maybe we don't want to do all these other pieces. And you start to get into this midlife. And if you're not careful and you don't get the CE or get a younger associate or whatever it is to kick you back over or bring in different team members, you can actually then fall into aging and become this aging practice that ⁓ if you're not careful, will actually die off. ⁓ And that's what we call sleeping practices. New grads love to buy aging practices, but then what can also happen is your team members might also be at a different space on the life cycle than you are. So sometimes when you inherit this sleeping practice as a new owner, well, you might. inherit a team that also is maybe a little bit sleepy too where they're like I'm on my way to retirement, I don't want to be putting in all this new technology, I don't want to do all this software, I don't want to do all these changes or that team might be like sweet and they got kicked back just like someone in their 50s can be like you know I'm gonna go run a marathon and they kick them back into that maturity, that prime or they're in their 60s or they're 65 like my mom she went back to college, my mom was on her path to aging and she went back to college later on in life, she became She got her master's degree and she started working a job. You better believe that pushed her all the way back over into like teenager. Like she had no clue what she was doing, but she flipped herself back over and, and added more of that energy back into her life. And so all of us, what I was trying to explain through all this is just because you're at one space in the life cycle does not mean that you're forever on the trajectory up and over the curve. It's like a bell curve. ⁓ what we're trying to aim for on whichever side of the bell curve, whether we're on the young toddler or we're on the more aging headed towards institutional. is our goal is to keep our businesses keep pivoting towards that prime, that maturity, that middle spot where the business is running without us, it's profitable, we're able to have all the time, the work-life balance that we wanna have. And so when you're looking at this, the questions are one, where are you personally on the life cycle of the business and yourself? Are you a new owner? Are you a seasoned owner? Where do you fall on that? Where is your practice through all this? And then where is your team through all of this? And then assessing based on all those factors, what needs to happen to get you closer to that like middle section where we were striving for that's the prime and where is it? And what do you need to do to get back there? So a couple of scenarios were like a doctor is struggling, they're exhausted, they're burnt out, they're doing all the work and like, what should they be doing? They're producing well, they've got hygienists there, but they're exhausted. They're working like five days a week, just exhausted. Like what can this person do? And so the questions are, where is this person on the life cycle? This person could be in teenager where they're just exhausted because they're doing it all. They also could be over on midlife evaluation where they're doing it all. Both can actually be true, depending upon the practice and where they're at. And there is no science to this. like, okay, if you have XYZ, then you fall here. Like this is more for you to assess. ⁓ And when I look at this and I think about it, ⁓ options for this practice are hiring an associate would be amazing. That would kick them into prime. It will also kick them down into the screaming if they don't have the systems in place. But what it will do is it will add some energy. You could also add in team members and no more than you do because you've got the money, you've got the flow. You could bring on a consultant that can help you get to the next level. You could actually add on extra days. You don't have to necessarily work it, but it's what can I do to get myself to this prime where I'm profitable? I'm producing what I want. I'm working the hours that I want. I'm innovating the practice. My team is aligned. My team is running the practice. I'm not staying here. till super, super late every single night. I have my family life that's ideal for me. That's what we're aiming for. That's what we're striving for in consulting and working with our clients. This is what I obsessed about is how can we get more clients to their sweet spot? That's when I say like living their dream life when I walk it and I see people that have gotten there. That's what I mean by this, like maturity, this prime. Like I remember my CPA told me ⁓ once he said, Kiera, it actually gets a lot easier later on in life. He's like, because then like you bought the house, you bought the cars, like whatever it is that you were striving for, and then money becomes easier. And I was like, you are a liar. There's no way this is gonna happen. And then you meet people and they really are there and they're comfortable and they walk with ease. And there's just this like, I don't know this calm about them, but they're still very energetic. They still have a lot of things that they wanted to, but I think the frantic energy of the young or the exhausted energy of the aging doesn't exist. It's more this centered calm, knowing, doing things on purpose and intentional rather than reactionary. It's a very, very different space. And so like that's our obsession is getting offices to that space. And so for you to assess and to diagnose, where are you? And what's fascinating to me that I often find is sometimes the dentist is actually the problem. There was a dentist that I was chatting with and this doctor refuses to delegate. And I'm like, so... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39419310

Are You Looking Ahead For Your Practice? 12/16/2025

Are You Looking Ahead For Your Practice? Tiff and Trish discuss the often ignored practice transition — are you looking ahead for your practice? Ten years out? Thirty years? The two consultants discuss what to keep in line now so that any changes on the horizon are received with minimal panic and damage. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are here today with some really, really just fantastic information. We're rounding out the year, if you can believe that. It's almost 2026, so whatever year you're listening to this in, hopefully it's also still super relevant, but we are heading into 2026 here soon. And we thought that it would be really fun to just wrap the year with a couple of different practice strategy kind of. don't know, just like how to progress where you're at, from where you're at to where you wanna go. Strategy podcast. So I'm just super excited. I have one of my favorite human beings in the world here with me today. I have Ms. Trish Ackerman. She is a prized possession on the Dental A Team team here. She is a traveling dental consultant with our team, which means that she does virtual consulting. So we do. coaching calls, video calls, we team training calls, all those pieces, you guys know that, but she also travels to practices and sees different practices in person, kind of helping them strategize and train the team and get things working again, kind of oiling that machine. And something I like to say is, I always tell my practices, Trish, and I think you probably feel the same way, I always tell my practices that we have the most incredible practices that join the Dental A Team. We really attract the most incredible people, but more than anything, I always know that I'm coming into a practice that's running really well. And my job is to find the areas where they just kind of feel a little bit stuck. Maybe something's a little bit inefficient. Maybe there's just something that's like, gosh, if we tweak this a centimeter to the left or a millimeter to the right, kind of I think of like implants, like, you know, you gotta just get them just right. And if we can make that little tweak ⁓ with them in office and find those areas, then their lives become. less stressful. like to remove the stress. So I always tell practices, gosh, like I just don't get invited to practices that aren't doing well. I'm always, I'm always just so shocked at how well practices are doing. And Trish, I know you've consulted for a while. You've been here with our team for a little while, but you have just so much, there's like a wealth of knowledge behind you and all of the aspects of everything that you've done. And I'm so excited for you to be on this team. I know your practices are thriving because you're here. We are thriving because you're here and we're all better people because of it. So Trish, thank you so much for being here today. I'm excited to pick your brain on these practice strategies. How are you? Your hair, we already talked about your hair is stellar. I had a weird hair dream. So hair is on the mind. It's like, it's a thing today. So welcome with your beautiful glasses and your beautiful hair. And it's 8 a.m. in the morning. What were we thinking? But this is a great way to start our day. Trish, how are you today? DAT Trish Ackerman (02:44) I'm doing great. Thanks, Tim. I always like doing this with you. The Dental A Team (02:47) Okay, thank you. Thank you. That makes it much easier ⁓ when I schedule it that you enjoy doing it. So thank you. I appreciate that. ⁓ I do enjoy life with you. You shed a lot of perspective for me. So thank you. ⁓ Yeah, definitely team listeners. I had this, okay, start over. Marketing, our marketing department, they help us come up with a lot of topics. And then the consulting team, we kind of look at them more like, hey, is this relevant? Is this something that DAT Trish Ackerman (02:55) Welcome. Thank you. The Dental A Team (03:17) we're seeing pop up in our worlds of consulting with our clients and our listeners is this something that's going to be super beneficial. And this topic came up and I was like, gosh, actually, it's kind of super cool to end the year with this because now we get to look into what next year is going to be. And this could be a lot of strategy that helps build, I think, Trish long term visions. It might not be something that someone's thinking about today. Just like I know we have. you know, lot of new graduates who listen and, a lot of doctors who've been in practice for 20, 30 years, or even three years, five years, wherever they're at on their journey, I feel like this is information that we like to shed light on for all of our practices. That's like, always be prepared. Just like, I don't feel like, I don't feel like we buy houses. We don't have a home and not know the value always. Like we're always making sure we know the value. We're making sure we know, you know, our prices right. our interest rates are the best that we can get. Do we need to refinance? We're always looking at those aspects, but I think that we forget to duplicate that and look at it in our business as well and make sure that we always know the health of our business. And Trish, when we're building out goals, I know you and I both do this. We like to look as far ahead as we can, like 10 years ahead to say, what could that look like? And when do you want to retire? Right, when do you think that you want to repair? How long do you want to work? And even if that's 30 years down the road, making sure that at any point we could be ready for that. And so today is really talking about practice transition strategies, what that might look like. And Trish, I want to know from your perspective, you've done quite a few practice transitions, I would imagine, in the history of dentistry that you've got behind you there. What are some of the... What are some common to start, like let's start just broad. What are common practice transitions that you have seen that you've worked through? Like what does that even mean when a doctor says I want to transition or we say transition in there to understand that? What does it mean to transition? What have you seen? DAT Trish Ackerman (05:24) What I've seen is doctors that have been with the practice for many, many years, they built their legacy and they are ready to pass the baton to a new dentist. And it's a big decision. And sometimes they're sometimes they have sellers remorse because then they realize that, shoot, maybe I wasn't quite ready. But I have, I have seen it where, I mean, most of the time the sellers are very ready and, the new buyers coming in are very ready. So you know, it's a transition. We make sure that the doctor, both doctors are aligned, the seller and the buyer, and that it's a good fit for both. The Dental A Team (06:03) Yeah, I love that. love that. So transition could mean a sell and a buy, right? A transition is a change, right? Transition is we're making a change. We're looking different in the future than we do today. And I agree, I think a couple of pieces that on both sides are super important, I think is that alignment word that you used, right? And making sure that we know where we want to go. I think a seller needs to know where they want to go. Why do they want this practice? the or why do they want to sell this practice and the buyer needs to know why do I want this practice and being in alignment with that is absolutely key. Now, when we're prepping for selling ⁓ and transitioning, we'll call it transitioning, what are some of the things that you have advised or you've worked on yourself while helping practices to sell? How do you prepare for selling? Like what do you need to make sure is in place if they're not? We'll take it two ways. Maybe someone's not selling today. They're like, well, one day I might sell. And then maybe someone's like, gosh, I need to sell. want to sell. I'm ready to get out. So what would you advise someone who says maybe one day I might want to sell? How do they keep their business prepared for that? DAT Trish Ackerman (07:16) Well, that's always the best way, like start a plan. There are times when it's like an emergency and need to sell, when they have the, when they've got the time to plan, you really want to ensure like the, like you were talking about, tip that the selling of the house, you don't sell your house if the flooring is just a hot mess or if, or if the roof is caving in, you get those things fixed first. And in a dental practice, you really need to protect the patient base because the new buyer or even somebody transitioning in to purchases, what does the patient base look like? And if we're adding a partner, do we have a patient base for them? If we don't, this is the time that we, the doctors need to be hyper-focused on growing that patient base. That also requires like, what does the accounts receivable look like? What is the collection ratio? Is this practice producing but not collecting? And though you do like kind of a full analysis on the top. five KPIs typically, and then ensure that they are in really good condition. You want your practice to look appealing and you want your practice to be healthy. And when you're selling anything or transitioning in, the patient base is always number one. So if you have the syndrome where the front door is open, but the back door is open as well, we need the time to strategize to get that back door closed to ensure that when we go to sell this new buyer, The Dental A Team (08:35) Yeah DAT Trish Ackerman (08:43) or new partner knows that there's a solid patient base in place. And then again, the counts receivable, that's another really big one. That's got to be cleaned up pretty well. Again, to look appealing and to be worth something. The Dental A Team (08:55) Yeah, I love that. I am in transition. Like we're looking at purchasing a home and we have a home that we're either going to rent or we're going to sell. And what you're making me think of now is that our realtor, I love her dearly. She is one of my best friends in life. And she is like, cool, we can totally do this, but she needs some really nice pendant lights. Like Tiff, got to open that. She's like, I know you've got some storage closet somewhere that's got a ton of, you know, a ton of decor, like she's like, you gotta spruce this place up. Like, yeah, she got brushing up, this is perfect. And I was like, ⁓ wow, yeah, you're right. And as I'm looking at Zillow and looking at all of these homes, I'm like, ooh, I love those pen and lights and ooh, I love that has black trim. And I'm like, my gosh, actually it's those pieces ⁓ that just sparkle that make you want that thing. If you want to get a good price, if you want something great for your patients, you want a great person to purchase your practice and you want a great person to carry on the legacy of what you have built and a great person to take care of the patient base that you have worked so hard to get, I think you have to make it attractive and appealing. And I think you're absolutely spot on. The patient base is huge. A doctor buying a practice, a DSO purchasing a practice, like anybody purchasing his practice. purchasing a practice wants to see that it is valuable. And the value is in the people, right? The patients and the dollars. And I think what you said is exactly true. The flip side of a patient base, you can have all the patients in the world and you can have that back door closed, but if you're not collecting the money, that back door is open. The money's just going out the door with the patients instead of staying in the practice. That's also an issue as well. So you've got to, you've got to hang those pendant lights and get those systems in place and really, really evaluate if you were, if you remove yourself emotionally from the practice that you've built and you look at it objectively, would this be appealing to you? If you looked at your home on Zillow, you took pictures and you scrolled through those pictures and you looked at your home, would you be attracted to purchase that home? If you weren't emotionally tied to the place. So. DAT Trish Ackerman (11:15) Yeah. The Dental A Team (11:15) I love that. DAT Trish Ackerman (11:16) And piggybacking on that, when you're buying a home, you're buying a practice, what's your profit look like? I mean, if you're buying something that isn't going to have any value because there's a lot of debt tied to this or like a home, if you're going to purchase a home, but you're paying too much for it because it's really only worth, mean, those are also the things that the buyer has to look at. Is this practice, is it like heavy, heavy overhead? And if so, The Dental A Team (11:19) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. DAT Trish Ackerman (11:43) that needs to be trimmed down along with ensuring that the patient base is strong. If you're gonna sell something, it needs to be profitable to the buyer. The Dental A Team (11:52) Absolutely, absolutely. I think that's spot on because you're gonna look at a home and you're gonna say, okay, well, this is the dollar amount that they have it listed for based on these photos or based on what I see in person. This is what I'm gonna have to put into it to make it what I want it to be. So I'm gonna take that into consideration. So if you've got a house priced at 525 and I know it's gonna take 60, $70,000 to... make it valuable to me, make it the home that I want. Now my brain is saying, this worth 600,000? Because that's what I'm actually putting into it. And then my offer to you is gonna take into consideration the upgrades that I feel I need in that home in order to compensate for the price that you've listed it for. Yeah, I love that. when you're talking strategies for, we always, think, let me start over. DAT Trish Ackerman (12:35) Absolutely. The Dental A Team (12:44) Prepping for selling, I said this in both versions, right? Because I want a doctor to purchase a practice and think that way, right? I want you to think if I were to sell this down the road. Like how can I invest, reinvest back into this practice to make it the best that it possibly can be? I want this practice for a long time, but we're not gonna be here forever, right? We're not, we may be in our home forever, but the likelihood of that in this day and age in 2025 is unrealistic. We're not gonna, we're likely not going to serve the term of our loan agreement in our home. Like we're going to move on, we're gonna find something new and the same is true for your business. So making sure, we don't know. We don't know when that's going to happen. We might say, want to practice for 30 years. Great. But if you wait for 25 years to get ready to sell, you're going to be in an emergent sell situation. So day one today, making sure that you think like a seller doesn't mean that you're selling your practice. It doesn't mean that you're not there for your team. It doesn't mean that we're not here for the culture and that we're not here for the growth and the patience. It means we're preparing for everything. That will set you up for success because you're constantly thinking about the value and about the return on investment that you're making. think that thinking like a seller, thinking, what would I do if I were selling this practice right now, helps you objectively make decisions in the practice, in my opinion. ⁓ Emotions are really, really hard. Emotions are fleeting. Emotions will drive us and we have to be able to step outside of that. to make really great business decisions most of the time. Now, Trish, me, I always tell my practices, know the worth. So get valuations, like every so often. How do you feel about that? How do you suggest people do that? DAT Trish Ackerman (14:35) totally agree. think at least every five, five to seven years get a valuation of the practice because that'll also help you guide. If let's say it comes in pretty low, that will give you the valuation company can give you all the tools and the map that you need to get the value up. And if you just sit stagnant, which unfortunately a lot of doctors do, and then they're super shocked because the practice isn't worth anything. And that is what we don't want to happen, especially to our clients, know, if this is something that they're talking about. So if the valuations, sure, they might cost something, but get it done anyways, because you can continue. It's almost like when you remodel the home. I love using the house as the analogy and get the valuation consistently through the years, because they don't know what they don't know. And when you're only in those four walls all the time, You don't see what you can be actually doing. the valuation, that totally helps, because it gives all the current owners new perspective, new ideas. The Dental A Team (15:45) beautiful. love that new new perspective, new ideas. I love that. And I think I'm addicted to it's like a it's a problem. I am addicted to model homes, just going and walking model homes. I love it. I love walking model homes because I love new perspectives and new ideas. And walking into a model home for me is like, ⁓ my gosh, I wouldn't have even thought to do that with that kind of a space. Right. So I'm getting to see DAT Trish Ackerman (15:56) I don't know how to tell you. The Dental A Team (16:14) all of these interior designers work their magic in brand new homes, fresh and new, and I can go, my gosh, I can do that. And we we toured a spec home, meaning it was already built, ⁓ but nothing's in it. it's new, but not all the upgrades. But I thought there was the spec home that I'm like, what do you even do with that space? Like that is the most random space I've ever seen in a house. It's just this little cubby in the back of a kitchen. So I was like, we need to go look at the model home. So we went and looked at the model home and I was like, oh, that's brilliant. I never would have thought to do that. But what you made me think of was that, like touring model homes, right? If we're not getting the valuation, we don't know the value of our home, but we're also not looking at what other people are doing and touring models. We're not going to... It makes me think of the ADA, the CE courses and the Arizona Dental Convention and the California Dental Convention and going and seeing the floor models of new chairs, new, like getting all of these new ideas and doctors, caveat, it does not mean that we need to implement everything. I do not buy everything I see at the model homes. I just get ideas and then I watch for really good deals, right? But that's where I think we can get those pieces, those missing pieces in something that I think we have really exciting here at Dental A Team is we have such an amazing community of doctors who are like-minded, but doing things in a different way in every practice. Every practice has their own flair. And when the doctors come together, when they get together at our masterminds and they're in person and they're at our doctor-only masterminds on the first Tuesday of every month and they're sharing these ideas, it's like touring a model home with your best friends. Like, ⁓ my gosh, I didn't even see that. I didn't even hear it when Trish said that to my team. I didn't hear it that way. I'm to take this back and communicating with each other and getting that fresh perspective, like prepping for selling valuation and have some really good people surrounding you to constantly keep your brain fresh. Yeah, I love that. ... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39419305

This Is the Holy Grail of Dentistry 12/11/2025

This Is the Holy Grail of Dentistry Dr. Pia Lieb returns for a second part on the podcast. In this episode, she talks about being obsessed with your craft, and why that extra 10% for patients will take you miles. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:10) I love that you, ⁓ I think this is probably what's made you really great. I don't know. I've heard a lot about you. But I think what you do is you make sure that the patients are obsessed with the results and not that Dr. Pia is obsessed. Like you're obsessed with the craftsmanship of what you've done. You're really talented at that. But like hearing that you let people walk out and go try these on and what is it going to be like before you do it? That to me says that you are so obsessed about the outcome and the result for the patient. And then your job is to make sure you have the most excellent craftsmanship, the best product, the best techniques, the best method to get them the outcome they want. And I think hearing that, I'm just so proud of you. And I'm so grateful to hear that there are clinicians in our industry that are obsessed about that rather than the reverse. Because I think some people are obsessed about maybe the dollar, maybe about doing these types of cases, but they're not the best at it, or this is what I think that they should look like. You really want to make sure that that patient is like a walking raving fan of you before you even do the work on them. And that I think is very special about you. Dr Pia (01:17) Thanks, but you know, I like to say that, you know, like, the thing that people don't understand is I'm technically the Hermes of dentistry because I, it takes a long time to make a Birkin, right? It's all made by hand. So are the veneers, hence why it's so hard to get one. But look, I Kiera Dent (01:39) Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (01:42) 22 years old and it still looks brand new because it's the quality of the craftsmanship you know and I tell all my patients you should get anywhere between 20 and 25 years out of the mirror okay this whole nonsense of five years and ten years that's because they want to redo the case and for you to pay them again if you're doing good quality work the only reason they should be replaced is because you have recession due to old age Kiera Dent (01:55) Wow. Mm-hmm. Wow. And you don't have any issues with these super, super thin ones popping off. Dr Pia (02:17) No, because okay, let me let me explain to you. Let me explain to you physics. Okay. Okay, do you know why they pop off? Kiera Dent (02:19) Let's talk about this. I'm so, cause a lot of people haven't popped off and it's so scary. So I'm like, let's talk about this. You know, this is why I'm asking you. Cause I don't like, feel my guess is that they were not bonded on correctly. And that's my guess. Okay. I'm ready. Dr Pia (02:28) Okay. No, it's, two things. There's two things. That's one, but that's the second one. Right. But let me explain to you. Do you remember when you were in high school and we went to, ⁓ Kiera Dent (02:37) Okay. Dr Pia (02:43) ⁓ chemistry and we had the microscope with the two glass slabs and we were looking for amoebas and all that stuff. Okay, remember how we were all a painting that you know what and we all tried to pry those two glass slabs apart and it never worked? Well that's the same principle with veneers. The thinner they are the stronger they are. Kiera Dent (02:51) Yep. Yeah Fascinating. Dr Pia (03:06) Okay and I'll tell you why because teeth you know because you're in the business so teeth we all have ligaments right the teeth are hard it's a hard structure the bone is a hard structure so we have the dental ligaments right they're horizontal they're transversal so those are like the shock absorbers that hold the tooth inside the bone socket. Now Kiera Dent (03:12) Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (03:30) when you're speaking and when you're eating those teeth move microns not visible to the eye but your teeth have mobility just like trees have mobility in the wind right we don't see the trees move unless it's a hundred mile an hour winds but if you have a five mile an hour wind you don't see that tree moving right but it does move Kiera Dent (03:44) Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (03:56) So when you're doing these 3D print and you're filing like the turkey teeth where you have the little pegs left and the ratio of tooth to porcelain is 50-50 or you're having 60-40 or 70-30 that 3D printed porcelain does not flex. Kiera Dent (04:05) Yep. Makes sense. Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (04:23) but your tooth does. So that's the number one issue why they pop off. The thicker they are, the easier they'll pop off. And the number two reason is the dentist has no idea about occlusion. Because if you have a premature contact or you have lateral excursions or a protrusive, you're going to pop those off like there's no tomorrow. Kiera Dent (04:23) True. Interesting. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Totally. Yeah. Dr Pia (04:51) So these are the basic principles. If you don't know occlusion, you shouldn't be doing dentistry. I'm talking about GPs or it's the holy grail of this profession. Occlusion, occlusion, occlusion. Kiera Dent (05:03) And I will tell you as a patient who has the most obnoxious bite, ⁓ there are dentists who do no occlusion and there are dentists who don't because my bite you adjust one teeny tiny little micron and the whole bite gets thrown off and they're like, no care, it should be fine. And I'm like, I can always tell if you're just doing blue paper and you're having me bite chew all around, I know you don't understand occlusion because I'm like, you're never going to get it. I'm going to be, you're dancing all the way around. Like from the patient who has sat there, four hours upon hours and had to find other dentists because the dentist who thought they could do it truly can't do it. And this isn't me being a jerk. This is me being the patient who has to suffer through a dentist who doesn't understand occlusion. Like what you just said as a patient, ⁓ and like there's some, know, you can have it like completely off and like, yeah, it feels great. And then you have patients like myself that teeny, teeny, teeny tiny. I can feel it. You can't even find it. And I'm like, no, it's off. My bite is not, my teeth are not coming together. Dr Pia (05:59) You always know, the patient always knows. They're always right. Kiera Dent (06:02) always. And please don't have me laying back. Please don't have me lay back. Let me sit up. Let me lay back. Let me tell you on both of them, because it's always different. And they're like, no, it's good. And I'm like, it's not. You're not sitting in my mouth. Dr Pia (06:09) Yeah! Because you most probably have long centric, right? So you have one occlusion when your head is back and you have a different occlusion when your head is forward. Now, if that's the case, you need to check both. Kiera Dent (06:18) Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Correct. Thank you. Preach, please, for the patients like myself. These are the pieces. And I don't disagree because when I have seen dentists and they're not checking that and the patients are constantly popping off, I'm like, just maybe check to see how those teeth are hitting in all directions because they will pop. Dr Pia (06:43) ⁓ but let me interrupt you for one thing. The other thing that's an issue, okay, if they do it and you're anesthetized, you're not going to get a good read. You always have to call the patient back the next day and check the occlusion again in all the positions when they're not anesthetized because I will guarantee you on my career that it will be off. Kiera Dent (06:53) ⁓ no, never. Yep. Yep. Always. And they're like, no, you can bite when you're numb. And I'm like, I don't even know how I'm biting. I have no clue. I know I'm biting differently. Preach. These are the things and the conversations that I've said. And having somebody like yourself who's so good at this. I mean, you guys, has a referral-based practice. Like people are flying in to see her. I can see why, because how you speak about this is so different. And I think today, one, I hope people are inspired of things to do, things to not do. different ways to do this. I also love the risk that you took. I love the growth. I love the determination of self of I will be the best. You have the passion. You've got the grit. You've got the tenacity. I have doctors who are great surgeons that are truly incredible at this. I've got doctors that are amazing at occlusion. I've got doctors that are amazing at fillings. There's a doctor and one of his patients said like, have the smoothest fillings in all the land. And he's like, that's really weird. I had him fix a filling that chipped. And I'm not going to lie, he has the smoothest fillings in all the land. Like I've never felt a feeling as smooth as this man did for me. Dr Pia (08:12) That's because he polished it afterwards. 99% don't polish them. You know, I had a colleague, checked, he did a, we put a crown in and I'm like, Joe, can we polish it? He goes, no, you're good to go. I'm like, no, I'm not. He's like, but I polished it. I'm like, okay, there is a porcelain polishing kit that you've got to go red, blue, white. Kiera Dent (08:18) I was shocked. Hahaha Dr Pia (08:40) and the white has to be on low rpms and you have to make sure that it's shiny and polished and he's like i don't have the patience for that go do it yourself in the office and i did Kiera Dent (08:52) But I think like that even I feel like dentistry you It to me what I'm hearing is a lot of dentists. It sounds like go 90 % of the way But it's like that extra 10 % is what really in my opinion makes a lot of difference for patients It's doing the polishing. It's doing the small finesse like you you're working in such a small space anyway Why not make it absolutely perfect and dr. P? think you really inspired me to even look at myself in my life of where's that extra 10 % that I could really just make a dazzle Where could I really make it shine? It's not, it doesn't take a lot of time, but it does take intentionality. So as we wrap today, this has been such a fascinating podcast and I've absolutely loved it. And I just appreciate your time. I want you to wrap with, you can do do's, don'ts or a mix of the in between. What should people who are doing cosmetic dentistry from your perspective as truly one of the most expert people I've ever met do in cosmetic dentistry or don't or you're welcome to do a mixture as just a quick wrap rattle of things that you've seen in your career. Dr Pia (09:48) Before we do that, want to talk to you, I think that we should do this again because I want to talk to you about DSOs and private practice. Kiera Dent (09:56) Mm, yeah. That is very fascinating. This is heavy on my mind of all different topics currently in the landscape, which I don't disagree with you. Dr Pia (10:08) Yeah, that's things are things are changing and not for the better. Kiera Dent (10:12) They are. Yeah, absolutely. That will be it. Dr Pia (10:17) Because I'm a dinosaur now. I mean, there's very few of us that do handmade work anymore. So getting back to your question. Look, I Kiera Dent (10:22) I don't disagree. Dr Pia (10:30) cosmetic dentistry you have to be very very very passionate about it and and the key is to leave your ego at the door and try to be the best version of yourself and that means take every course if you're a young dentist or still in dental school take every course that you can take you know look on Instagram and find the people that do the handmade work like myself and you know there's a handful of that do it and ceramist as well and find the good beautiful work and reach out to everyone like you know everybody can reach out to me you know and ask me like hi how do I do this or how you know how should I go about doing that the thing is you have to be passionate if you're do and what I've told every student of mine in 18 years you're not doing this for the money the money will come you have to do this because you love doing it Kiera Dent (11:31) I don't disagree. think, on that note, Dr. Pia, what is the best way for people to follow you? Because I love that you said this and I tell people all the time, the world has shifted. We are in 2025. I'm going to choose a plastic surgeon, a cosmetic dentist, a surgeon based on their Instagram. I'm gonna go look at their photos. I'm gonna go look at their work. We don't live in a world where we are isolated just to our own state anymore. Like people fly across the country to go get the best work done. So. Dr Pia (11:56) yeah, mean Instagram, I get internationals from Instagram. I've gotten Kazakhstan, I've gotten the UK, I've gotten the French, I've gotten so many and they're all Instagram. And I'm like, okay. I'm just Dr. P, I spelled out the D-O-C-T-O-R. P-I-A, my first name. Kiera Dent (12:06) How cool is that? So what is your Instagram handle? So people can follow and kind of see what you do. Dr. Pia, and I think if you want to see someone, I know you said you're a dinosaur in this, but as we've been chatting, I'm like, this is the doctor that I would fly across the country to go to. This is the one that I would go see. She knows what she's talking about. She's got the finesse, she's got the passion. She's willing to do one veneer. She's the person I'm going to trust to do work on my mouth. And it's how does she get seen? How does she get known? How does she do this? Guys, these are the legends. These are the people. These are people that have just like done what you're wanting to do. Follow her and also, I don't know if you have heard at the beginning of the podcast, it sounds like Dr. Pia, you're passionate about helping any person who this is their dream become the best in the industry. And that to me is why she... Dr Pia (12:51) for sure. For sure. Just DM me if you have any questions. That's the whole like Instagram is the new portal of learning. Kiera Dent (13:01) Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (13:04) Just ask questions. mean, it's none of us were born knowing how to do veneers. We all had to learn it at some point. And as long as your ego is at the door and you're willing to learn and be the best version of yourself, then you're great. You're great. But if you think you know it all, I'm still learning. And I've been doing this for decades. I'm still learning. I want to be up to date and things are changing. Materials are changing. There's so many things. Kiera Dent (13:13) Right. Dr Pia (13:34) Styles are changing. Thank God the Hollywood smile is dying. Finally. This took about 16 years, but thank God it's dying now. It's going back to natural Kiera Dent (13:34) Yeah. No. Right. which Dr. Pia, people didn't get to hear this. I heard this pre-show. You came on, we were just chatting and you said, I love my career. I love what I do. And to hear that you've been doing it this long and can still say that you love that. That's what my hope and wishes for so many doctors out there is that, and like, yes, we will get you back on the podcast to talk about DSO private practice because I think so many people are like get in, get out real quick. And I think that you are just such a great example of loving your craft, loving what you do. committing to be the expert and look, you've had this long of a career and you're still obsessed with what you do. And I just want to honor you and say thank you and thank you for inspiring dentists today on the podcast. Dr Pia (14:24) Well, thanks for having me. And look, the young generation, the new graduates that are out there, I think we need to tell them the do's and don'ts of DSO. Kiera Dent (14:36) Absolutely. So that's a wrap for today with Dr. Pia. We'll have her back on talking about DSOs and new grads and the, I think the perspectives, because right now it's a world of a lot of noise and to find wisdom through that noise is paramount. So Dr. Pia, thanks for being on. Thanks for sharing your cosmetic knowledge. Yeah, I did too. And for all of you listening, I hope you commit to being the best at your craft, to getting hungry. There's a great quote. I'm a BYU football fan ⁓ and their coach says, be hungry. Dr Pia (14:51) It was a pleasure, I loved it! Kiera Dent (15:05) Stay hungry, stay humble. And I think that that's what Dr. Pia has done. And I hope all of you commit to that. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39330590

A Conversation With the Michelangelo of Dentistry 12/10/2025

A Conversation With the Michelangelo of Dentistry Kiera is joined by renowned cosmetic dentist Dr. Pia Lieb to talk about Dr. Lieb’s journey in her field, as well as her insights into what the rich and famous ask for (and pay for) when it comes to their teeth. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited. I have an incredible doctor on our podcast. Dr. Pia is coming to from New York, Manhattan. And this woman is incredible. She has been able to build and sustain a high-end cosmetic practice. She's figured out how to be, you guys are gonna love this, a referral only destination for patients seeking discretion, innovation, and ultra-personalized care. This woman has been named the Michelangelo of dentistry and I am so excited to welcome her on the podcast. Welcome Dr. Pia, how are you today? Dr Pia (00:32) Thanks for having me, Kiera. Kiera Dent (00:34) Of course. Well, I have been so excited about this podcast. I don't often get to bring clinical guests onto the podcast. And so to just kind of hear of how you do your cosmetic dentistry, how did you become this practice of being so sought after? ⁓ How did you become the Michelangelo of dentistry? So kind of just walk the listeners through how did Dr. Pia go from where she was to where she is today? Kind of just give us a background on, on who you are and what your story has been. Dr Pia (01:04) Well, I'm gonna start with, it all started in dental school. There was a lecturer by the name of Dr. Gallup Evans who has passed away since. And he was giving a PG, which is obviously post-doctoral course on cosmetic dentistry. And his reputation was he was the one who did. the supermodel Polina Povaskova's veneers back in the early 90s. And I went up to him after the lecture and I basically said, I'm a sponge, teach me, tell me what to do so I can do the same thing that you're doing. I've completely fell in love and cut out a class to go to that course. And after the course, he turned around to me and said, well, sweetheart. You're either born with it or you're not. So I went home and I cried for five days. and he completely tore me to shreds and that really got me upset and ⁓ I was a great student. was the youngest in NYU as a student. I graduated high school at 16. I was the nerd, right? And basically what I did is I was asked to start teaching after residency and that was my... Kiera Dent (02:03) Absolutely. Dr Pia (02:26) way to make sure that I would never allow anyone to speak to a student like that. And my whole point was, I want to empower the dental students. I don't want anyone to feel the way I did by this particular person. And basically I had nowhere to start. So I started taking all of these courses, these PG program courses, and I met up. Kiera Dent (02:37) Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (02:53) When I was actually in dental school, I went and I met the holy grail ceramist who invented veneers in America. And I went up to him and I said the same thing, I'm a sponge, please teach me. And he was like, great. Okay. You have a car. And I'm like, yes, I do. He goes, all right, come to the lab every Friday after school and every Saturday, let me teach you how to prep and how to do veneers. And this man who also passed away has taught me everything. Kiera Dent (03:12) I'm Dr Pia (03:23) that I know because the doctors were not doing it and there was only two guys in New York that were doing veneers in the 80s and in the 90s and those were older men in their 40s and they were not going to take a young 20 year old female and teach her what to do because they were you know insecure that we were going to take over the business from them. So that's how it all started. And obviously, I taught for 18 years and I did do that what I set my mind to do. I wanted to give every one of my students the best experience that they can have with dentistry and with cosmetic dentistry. And we're still friends after all these years. So I must have done something right, that they still love me to invite me for dinners into their houses. Kiera Dent (04:10) Thank ⁓ I think that you're speaking to my own heart. mean, having that love being in the dental colleges, of to give back, like that's the whole reason Dental A Team exists was because of those students that you just fall in love with. And kudos to you because I got really lucky and I worked at Midwestern University's Dental College in Arizona. And I have been told that the culture there and the experience there is not like most dental schools. It was a very empowering, very enriching. There was no smashing of models. There was no... ⁓ destroying people's dreams, but I know that that's not everywhere. so kudos to you for ⁓ making a stance and also not giving up on your dream. And I think something I took from that is how often are we maybe told something that's not true and we believe it. We take that on as an identity and yes, crying for five days. I don't blame you, I would have done the same thing, but ⁓ it is. Dr Pia (05:03) No, it's demoralizing, you know, like it's just here you are, you're this young bright-eyed and bushy-tailed eager beaver who wants to be the best at her profession and then you get some 50 year old man telling you, ⁓ honey, you can't do this, you gotta be born with it. I'm like, really? Kiera Dent (05:20) Hmm. Maybe I am born with it and have you seen it. ⁓ Dr Pia (05:25) And you know what I was and that's that's the thing and it's just but it's the way he said it but we'll get back to karma because 18 years go by and he was lecturing again and karma if it's a small I don't want to say the b word on a podcast but Kiera Dent (05:42) Mmm. Hahaha Dr Pia (05:51) it is. So he's got the lecture, same thing, same before and afters. And this time I'm wearing a white lab coat and scrubs underneath and I had you know, and at this point, I was clinical assistant professor and there were like 350 doctors in the audience. And he's like, Does anyone have anything to say? And I'm at the back wall, I wasn't sitting down, I was standing up and I raised my hand and I was like, He goes, and he goes, I know that name. You're in press and you're my competition. And he was like, and you know, what is it that I said? said, you know what? Thanks to you, I am who I am today. I want to say thank you. If you didn't say this to me and make me go home and cry for five days, I wouldn't have. done everything humanly possible to be your competition and here I am I didn't know if he was gonna slap me or kick me out or just whatever it was but it was not what I and he said you know come on down and just tell us more about it he goes you've got so much pressure all over the place and it was funny because at that point Kiera Dent (06:52) Ha! Dr Pia (07:08) That was like maybe 10 months after I did 10 episodes on TLC of 10 years younger. And I was all over the place. Like everybody knew me from TV and from press and ⁓ the New York Times wrote that I'm the Michelangelo in Smile Boutique. And it just got to that point. I got the recognition that I worked so hard for. he was like, all right, give me a hug. I was like, thank God. to get a slap. But I was ready to get like thrown out or to. So that's kind of what I wanted to do is I just want to empower every single person out there. And you have to understand, when I went to school, we there were no women, it was 97 % men, we had Kiera Dent (07:43) You Dr Pia (08:02) maybe seven girls in the graduating class. I mean, not that we had a lot. We have much smaller classes back then and we were 97, but seven out of 97 is a low percentage. Kiera Dent (08:14) That is, yeah. Wow, that's such a fun, ⁓ I think kudos to you. And one of my favorite lines through life has been, life is not happening to us, it's happening for us. And I'm sure in that moment, you felt like life was happening to you. Like, who is this jerk? And they destroyed my dreams. And yet, ⁓ again, not to say that that's ever the right route to go. But I just want to highlight and compliment of you took something that people could have said would be sour grapes and you actually turned it into beautiful wine. and you turned it into something beautiful and it was fuel to your fire to make you into this incredible woman that the world needed. And so I'm very curious, how did you then go from, okay, here we are, how'd you become this renowned cosmetic dentist, getting on TLC, getting all the press, like what was kind of the way to get into that? Because I'm sure there's a lot of dentists who want to live your dream. How did you do it? Dr Pia (09:04) I think the way in was truly like in 1998 or 99, I don't remember what year it was, but it was the first gen art fashion show for Fashion Week in New York where they took up and coming young designers and they had a private fashion show with about 10 of small up and coming, which we don't have anymore. mean, New York Fashion Week is no longer what used to be. But I go there and I had a patient from Belgium who had a really good friend who was an up and coming crazy French designer and he was showing the runway and I just basically went with her and I remember that we were after the fashion show there was a VIP with champagne and we got these wristbands and so forth and my my patient was, you know, late 30s, single and ready to mingle. And there was this really cute male model that did the runway for ⁓ another designer that wasn't as big. And she was like, my God, he's so cute. And here I was, I had no makeup on, right? Kiera Dent (10:07) Yeah. Dr Pia (10:23) this long Margiela dress and I have like Doc Marten boots, my hair up in a ponytail, just like mascara and red lips on. And I went up to this guy and I said, hi, I'm Dr. Pia. You know, my friend Jacqueline wants to meet you. And he had this woman who was next to him and she was like, you gotta talk to me. I'm his booker. I didn't know what a booker was. So I'm like, what's a booker? I thought it was like the, you know, betting on horses, know, like booking, you know, that's what I thought. Kiera Dent (10:47) Yeah. Yeah. Dr Pia (10:53) And basically, ⁓ I was like, No, no, no, I'm just, you know, we're going behind if you guys want to come and join us at the after party behind and he was like, great, she goes, No, no, no, we can't go anywhere. You got to go through me. And I'm like, Okay, I said, Look, I'm a cosmetic dentist. And back then we had cards, right? So I was like, Here's my card. She goes, I want one, too. And I and Yeah, that was it. had some drinks afterwards. And she was like, Yeah, I want to come in as a patient. I have to come in first before he comes in. Because he said he needed his teeth done. I was like, okay, so the next morning, I'm like, live it at like nine o'clock. I call Wilhelmina who was like back then the number one modeling agency for men. And I call and I'm like, Can I speak to Jennifer and Kiera Dent (11:32) Yeah. Dr Pia (11:47) She picks up the phone. I'm like, hi, it's dr. P again. I'm like, I just want to make it really clear I'm married. I do not I am NOT picking up on on your male model It was my friend who was interested just making putting it out there and being totally transparent. So she's like fine I Want an appointment so I booked her and the moment that I booked her She introduced me to the modeling industry. So then I started getting all the models Kiera Dent (11:57) Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (12:13) the supermodels, I got everybody in and I think that's how it all started with the press and everything because they've seen my work with the modeling industry and that's how kind of it all started and the thing with me it's always been privacy it's I've never named names I will never name names because it's like plastic surgery if you're going to go in and get a facelift do want it to be plastered all over the press I don't think so so it's the same thing with veneers I mean I do very natural handmade porcelain and the whole secret that I think to my success is I've never gone into that chicklity white Hollywood smile the toilet bowl teeth or the turkey teeth as now they all go to Turkey to have them done well I've never done that so for me I've always followed what I believe in and did the best that I can and I think that that is as long as you love what you do Kiera Dent (12:55) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah. Dr Pia (13:12) and try to be the best that you can be. think the universe, no matter what God you believe in, you know, I think the universe gives it back to you. Kiera Dent (13:23) I think, well, and also what I heard from that is kudos to you for just going and meeting people and for being out there. Like, I don't think people realize the power of connections, the power of human interaction, the power of who you know. I think we're in such a society where it's all online and we just think, which you can still connect online, but like, don't be afraid to say hi to people. Don't be afraid to introduce yourselves and... Like I said at the beginning, Dr. Pia, it's very rare that I bring on clinical guests to the podcast. So I'm curious, you work on supermodels, you work on really incredible people. I have a doctor, which we will not name names either, who works on movie stars in LA. so I have a couple of questions and if you don't want to answer by all, you probably do. We will chat post show and see, exactly off call. ⁓ But. Dr Pia (14:07) I probably know him. If it's it, we'll do it all off, off. Kiera Dent (14:15) I'm curious, Dr. Pia, just for listeners to know, what is like, I'm gonna ask a few questions and like I said, privacy and respect are my number one. So if there's something that you're like, I'm not gonna answer by all means, audience just know Dr. Pia is so kind to come onto the podcast for us and I did not prep her because I never know what I'm gonna ask. It's just a genuine curious host over here wanting to know, what are the average cases like dollar wise, our low end to our high end of cases that you're doing? I just want people to know, because I think people do not believe that this is real life dentistry and it can be. Dr Pia (14:51) You're talking about veneers or you're talking about all the procedures. Veneers. Veneers are from three to 45, 100 or two. It depends. mean, if someone is a massive grinder and I've got issues with them. Kiera Dent (14:54) I would say let's do veneers and then let's do other procedures. Dr Pia (15:12) having, you know, doing the grinding at night, felspathic, I'm a little bit weary of doing that and I'll do the 3D printed. ⁓ As much as I'm not the greatest fan of doing that, I would rather keep them in a night guard and let them have the beautiful teeth. But it basically is... ⁓ Kiera Dent (15:19) Totally. Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (15:35) You know, for the handmade porcelain, I mean, there are some people out there that are charging over five. And I think that's just a little bit exaggerated because I know how much it costs me to make. think, you know, 4500 is a fair price. You don't have to go above five. I think that's just the ingredient. Kiera Dent (15:42) Totally. Sure. Mm-hmm. Which I appreciate that you say that, especially with the press and with the people that you worked on. You have an opportunity to charge more, but you're also being ethical and fair, which I think ties to the passion, the love, the reason people can trust you. So how many veneers, this is like, now I'm gonna just be like a nerdy patient. How many, because I feel like a lot of people just want like the four veneers and then the six and then. Dr Pia (16:15) Alright, come on, bring it on! Kiera Dent (16:20) Do you just do all of them? there a space where clinically you recommend like we stop here for smile lines? What's kind of your, what's your, what's your clinical excellence on this? What do you recommend? Dr Pia (16:25) No! I think you should have either one or as many as you need. think the biggest problem and the... Okay, now you got me. So my competition in New York will only do 10. And he's my former student. Kiera Dent (16:37) I'm ready. She got fired up everybody. Juicy like sits up. Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (16:51) which is even more infuriating to me. Like I so disagree because I think if you have a beautiful smile and let's say you fell and you've had a root canal and the tooth is starting to change color. I think if you're a good clinician and a good clinician is a cosmetic dentist, I don't believe a GP could do this. Okay. And men, we have the issue with 40 % are colorblind. So that's another issue altogether. Kiera Dent (16:52) That's I do remember there was a girl in dental school who couldn't like really see and I was like, how do you like she couldn't see colors and I'm like, how do you, how do you, how do you get over that as a dentist? I'm just curious. I can't check the color, right? Okay, so making sure you think that you can do one if you're a good clinician, which is, love this. Cause people tell me all the time, you can't do one. Dr Pia (17:29) Well, they get the dental assistant to choose the color. I do one. do one. So I do one. I do one. I'll do two. If you're if you ground I do four. I'll do six, I'll do 10, I'll do 12. If the person has a really big smile and it's a color correction like a tetracycline case, then I have to do 12, you know, like, because it depends if you're someone that has this uber large mouth, then and you when you smile, you go back to the second molars, you have to do it. But I feel that this whole entire ⁓ doing 10 or nothing. think that is so unfair to the patients. And I think it's such bad karma as well, because it's going to come back and bite you later on, because I don't feel that everyone has to have that many done. And the other thing that I'm actually known for is the fact that I don't believe that you have to necessarily file the tooth down. If the teeth are in the correct position, okay let's back it up. If the teeth are not in the correct position do Invisalign first and then do the handcrafted veneers because the way I do them they're as thin as a contact lens so there is no drilling needed. Anytime why I wouldn't want anyone to drill my teeth to put veneers on why are you taking away to add on it's an Kiera Dent (18:42) Love. Mm-hmm. Dr Pia (19:08) moron right so if you are a true cosmetic dentist and know how to do this and have the right support of the right ceramist they should be see-through Kiera Dent (19:09) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah. Dr Pia (19:24) So if that's the case, there's no drilling involved. And if you need only one, just do one. There's no reason to spend that money on doing more if you don't need them. Kiera Dent (19:32) It's incredible. which I'm so grateful to hear this. This is why I was so excited. I'm like, I have so many questions about this and I'm just curious of how you do it and to hear that being really talented at this, you don't need to do more than that because I hear all the time like, well, if you only do four, then you're gonna see it, but I don't disagree with you. think if you're good at what you, and this isn't just dentists. I also think dentists, well, I'm gonna go out on a limb. Now I'm fired up to be, like, here we go. Dr Pia (20:02) No, no, they want the money. It's clear as day. They're doing it... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39330565

One Practice, One Year: Roadmap to Flourishing 12/09/2025

One Practice, One Year: Roadmap to Flourishing Trish shares with Tiff and listeners her experience with a practice that started with a whole lot of uncertainty under a new doctor, and the steps undertaken that lead to a thriving workplace within a year. Specifically, she touches on how trust, flexibility, and numbers each played a role in this success story. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here today. We are, I have Trish here with me. So we are here just hanging out today and we, I'm so excited actually that we did this at 8 a.m. It's way more fun. At first I was like, ⁓ that is early to be ready. But then, know, we're like, spray our hair's great. Our makeup is fresh. Like it's actually super fun. So thank you for spending your morning with me Trish. How are you today? We are hot to try. DAT Trish Ackerman (00:27) Thank you. We are hot to trot. The Dental A Team (00:31) Trish, I got to love on you already twice, so go listen to the buyers and the sellers version of practice ownership, you guys, because you'll get to hear how amazing Trish is. But I want to pull a random on you, Trish. And I have not asked in a while, and I think that the Dental A Team listeners in the world out there needs to hear, how are the piggies? And yes, I said pigs, like oink oink, how are the piggies? DAT Trish Ackerman (00:56) The piggies are great. So I do have two pigs and ⁓ they are very well known with my friends and my colleagues. I have, it's Miss Daisy and Joey and that is spelled J-O-Y-E. And well, they're doing great. However, winter's here is coming. It's winter in Arizona. we think they don't like the cold. They don't like the cold at all. So we have been having some loud piggies that like to come indoors and they do. So we have in and out pigs to go in and out with dogs. The Dental A Team (01:07) course. Yeah. Ugh. Yeah. DAT Trish Ackerman (01:26) We have a total podcast just about that. anybody's thinking about getting a pig, please call me first. The Dental A Team (01:30) Yeah, yeah, and that's true. I, Trish, I think actually, like, save the pigs. I think that's a really good point because I and we can, you can take any theory and apply it to anything, right? Anything, everything looks great. ⁓ And when you're in it, you realize maybe I didn't do enough research, right? So this sounds like a great idea, but maybe I didn't do enough research. And I've known people, aside from you who have had pigs as pets. And I know one family that just thrived loved their pig and ⁓ they live a long time. You guys, there's a lot to know about pigs. are incredibly smart. ⁓ but I do believe they're very smart to the point of like stubbornness, right? But there's like so much to learn and Trish, something that everyone should know is a passion of yours is these, the pig projects. Right? And that stems from that right there, in my opinion, of people not understanding what they're getting into. When I was young, I wanted nothing more than a little pig. I wanted a little piggy. Right? And so many people in the early 2000s, in the 90s, they got a little piggy. And what happens to a little piggy, Trish? This little cute little oinker does what? DAT Trish Ackerman (02:49) it gets real big real quick and then it roots everything and people are not prepared very and loud we prepare yes life's not The Dental A Team (02:50) They're so big! They're so big, they're so destructive. loud. My mom was like, you're not getting a pig. Yeah. Thank God. So, so everyone knows Trish does, she volunteers ⁓ for, there's a whole, the whole place here, the volunteer that takes piggies and cares for them and loves them. And it's just something that she's really, really passionate about that I didn't even know existed until meeting Trish. So thank you for bringing that to my life. But I love the analogy that can be taken from that, right? Because we do that with everything. We're like, okay, that was so cute. my gosh, sparkly, do it, yes. This is an instant yes. I want it, I need it, I want a goat, right? I want a highland cow, a mini highland cow, because why? Instagram shows me pictures of them next to a fireplace. I wanna cuddle with a mini highland cow. That sounds dangerous, right? Like I also want a coyote. DAT Trish Ackerman (03:40) Yes, yes. Yeah, it's great. The Dental A Team (03:57) Like there's so many things that we want in life because they're cute and they're sparkly and they feel like they're gonna feel amazing. And then we get there and we're like, ⁓ shoot, I did not do the research. I did not realize this pig was gonna get so giant, right? So I love that. Thank you for letting me take that journey with you. And so if you do have piggy questions, Trish@TheDentalATeam.com. It's her direct line. You can make sure. DAT Trish Ackerman (04:03) ⁓ Mm-hmm. Thank you. I'm your girl. The Dental A Team (04:25) And it's going to be just fantastic. It's going to be so much fun. okay, on that note, practice owners, doctors, know, teams even, we all get into that space, right, of shiny object syndrome, or it just sounds like it's going to be amazing, or it looks so pretty. And we sometimes tend to miss some of the underlying pieces that we've got to know. And I think that's where consulting is super beneficial. for practice owners. There are so many things that you don't know until you know. And a lot of those pieces are healthy patient base, right? What is a healthy patient base? How do I keep, maintain, create a healthy patient base? What the heck is billing? How do I even do that? What is insurance? Why do they tell me what I can and cannot do? These are literally real questions that we get from doctors and, or team. Why does my team hate me? How do I make my team like me? Well, my team likes me, but they don't respect me. Culture is massive. And all these things are things that we don't always think about when we purchase a practice and we get into this like beautiful building or the, ugly building that we're going to make beautiful or whatever it is. And just like the piggies, it was so cute and such a good idea. And then all of a sudden it's this massive. Mass, like how much do they weigh Trish? Like a full grown pig weighs what? DAT Trish Ackerman (05:56) I mean, I don't have the hogs, but Miss Daisy, I mean, she's close to 90 pounds and Joey, he's about 110 pounds and they start out little. The Dental A Team (06:01) 110. Yeah, yeah, and people think like a St. Bernard is wild. Like no, these are pigs, right? Like it was so cute. They are really cute still. I'm not saying they're not still cute. I'm just saying they come with some baggage, you guys. So when we're looking at these practices and we're helping these practice owners, these are pieces that we have to dig for. We've got to be like, hey, like that's a truffle finder. Like that pig is going to tear up your backyard. but we can safeguard it. There are things that can be put into place to make sure that your backyard is safe, right, or as safe as possible. Same thing with your practice and your consulting. And that's what we do. We are good. Trish is great at pigs. She is great at many things. Recare, reactivation, AR, billing, team, culture, leadership. I could literally list the millions of things that Trish is really, really fantastic at. And I think sometimes she's like an octopus that can just like all these arms are just going in different directions and she's just so fantastic at it. And Trish, we've talked about a specific client before and this client is just super cool, super amazing, super fun and a go-getter, like quietly a go-getter, which I love. I love that it's like a sneaky go-getter because he's so quiet. ⁓ So we talked about them before, but something I wanted to kind of highlight and focus on today during our podcast is yes, they've done these amazing things and with your leadership and your guidance, they have implemented some really incredible tools that we have talked about in the past, ⁓ you know, for handoffs and exams, mentorship, like all these pieces and it's worked wonderfully and the doctor is doing fantastic, but something I don't think we highlighted in the last podcast on this. on this topic and conversation is the work that you've done with the manager and the team and like how that has flowed and how the doctor's leadership in the last less than a year has really molded the culture in the practice that that practice has now become, it's thriving. Like it's a practice that is safeguarded. It's a practice that has the systems in place that the team is really excited to be there still. and has the like and the respect. I want to hear those tools, because those are sometimes the tools that we miss in moments of get our operations manual done and do all these checklists. And I want to hear how you helped them do that. I know he did it, they did it. And that is something that we can truthfully say. They showed up. They did the work. But what were the... They did, and how did they do that? Take me through all of those pieces. How did you help them do that? How did they do the work? How are they showing up that's different than practices we're not working with right now? DAT Trish Ackerman (09:00) This practice, it's so special to me because of the legacy behind it. just to reiterate this, we've got our current doctor in there now. It was his dad's practice and it was also his grandpa's practice. so he had something that we knew, he had something that we knew we had to preserve and grow and just blossom more than anything that practice had ever seen before. And this doctor, he's kind of like your, he's just like your perfect implementer. And I never, and that doesn't happen all the time. And it did with him. And he, this is a doctor that has a stellar OM, like a real OM. And she, they are great partners. And when we, you know, we kind of walked through all the KPIs initially, like let's look at everything. The Dental A Team (09:35) Yeah. DAT Trish Ackerman (09:55) And then we started breaking it down, like where could we improve or where could we increase things or where can we be more efficient? And we'll start with just say the patient base, because this was a bottlenecked practice, which is it's got his pros and cons for sure. I mean, it's great because you're bottlenecked. The cons are you could possibly lose a lot of patients very quickly. But what we did is we would strategize together and I would map out the steps for him in like an ABC fashion. The Dental A Team (10:06) Yeah. DAT Trish Ackerman (10:25) Here's A, go do that. Here's B, go do that and C. He would do just that with the support of the OM and team. The OM and the doctor together would roll out at team meetings and even sometimes just morning huddles like this is something we're implementing today and they would do it. And that is, you know, it's like to have, if you bring us on to help you, there has to be a trust there. I mean, we're, certainly not here to make make you do something that is not gonna work. Sometimes something doesn't work, but we pivot quickly. But for the most part, we're here to help. And this doctor walked in with nothing but trust. And I admire everybody that comes on to us, because this is a big decision to get a coach and have somebody consult for your practice. But that is really how they made these things move, They did everything, everything, and almost exactly how I would roll it out to them. The Dental A Team (11:17) Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I watched it. I watched it. I, as you were speaking, picked up that trust word as well. And I think the, the trust that he has for himself to make good decisions flows into all of the other pieces. And, and I don't mean that he knows every decision is a good decision. He trusts that no matter what the decision that he makes, he's going to pour into and it's going to work or it's not. And if it doesn't work, then he moves on to something different. He trusts that no matter what, at the end of the day, it's going to be okay. So that means that he trusts the people that he surrounds himself with. If he has chosen you, he trusts you. And I think that trust flows into, I think it makes us better consultants, right? Because we feel that trust, we know, and we're going to push you. We know the extent to which we can push you. And if that trust is not there, you're not going to get as much push. And I know there's a lot of There's a lot of times that I hear I'm not seeing movement or I need more. Well, it's both ways. We're gonna gauge it by how you're showing up. We're gonna show up too. And this is someone who shows up and that trust then, it doesn't just flow into the type of consulting that he gets. It also flows into how his team shows up. And you said that his office manager I've met, wonderful human and is just, wants the best for the why, the purpose of the practice, the why that they're there serves it. That then allows them the trust that they have in each other, in the decisions, in the practice, in their why, in their purpose flows to the team so that they can show up and say, hey, we're doing morning huddle today. It doesn't have to be this like, hey, in a couple of weeks, like we're prepping for this, hey guys, we're prepping, because now I'm coddling and the team is like, is it good? it, like why is this? Why can't we just do it, right? When it's not like a, hey, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna try this out. It's gonna be amazing and let's do this. It's a like, ooh, like a gas and a break at the same time. It's like, ⁓ well, maybe though the team feels that. And they're like, I don't think I wanna do this then. I don't trust that you've put a lot of thought into this. I don't trust that this is a good idea. So I'm gonna rebel. And then, know, teams and practices and practice owners are like, why isn't this working? I think you nailed it there with the trust. He trusts himself, he trusts you, he trusts his team, and he trusts his spouse. The trust is ever flowing. He trusted his father to gift him, maybe not gift him, but to build this legacy practice for him to take over one day. And I think that is massive. So then that trust flows into everything that he does. And I think you get to see that. And Trish, what are your... What are some of the ways that you've seen the team really rally behind him? DAT Trish Ackerman (14:24) They, okay, behind every number is a story and watching his numbers change. The story is that the team changed with him and they are, they're very transparent with their team. They're very, they're, very direct, but in a lead, but they, they both have very strong leadership. They're a firm and principal, flexible and procedure is what I love to use. The Dental A Team (14:27) Yeah. DAT Trish Ackerman (14:50) So they would be firm in principle, like this is a new implementation that we're going to roll out today. They would be flexible in procedure with certain team members because, you know, change is always kind of wild. It can be. The flexible and procedure would be, okay, if you're not ready to implement today, let me set you up with some coaching, but immediately so that we can ensure that we get this implementation rolled out by next Monday. So it wouldn't be something that could just never get implemented, they could, if they needed to take some heavy lifts a little slower, they would, but there was always a timeline behind it. Nothing ever just sat ever. And team meetings, they're really, really good about their team meetings. They have solid agendas. They go in there with an action plan and they leave with action items. And they're just, they're marching. They continuously march together and forward and upward, always. They did, the doctor also did kind of early on, he did a really, really good analysis, a sincere analysis on right people, right seats. And there was some discoveries made there. And knowing what those discoveries are, that gave me something to also help coach him with. you have to have, the doctors cannot do this alone. They can't. Team meetings are imperative. They have them. And again, The numbers tell a story. And how did I know right away that this team was behind him was the numbers. But how did he do it? Consistency, implementation, follow through. He didn't just say he was going to do something. He did it. He did it. The Dental A Team (16:34) Yeah, yeah, and he delegated, right? He delegated to his team the pieces where they could support too. think something that I noticed right off the bat was that he trusted you, he listened to you, and something you guided him on was the pieces that only he could do versus the pieces that other people could help him do. And so mentorship, mentoring an associate dentist to take some of the load off of him, to build the schedule, to make room for the new patients, to get the block scheduling in place. DAT Trish Ackerman (16:52) Right, yeah. The Dental A Team (17:02) that mentorship could only come from him. But the other pieces, the implementing the block schedule, creating the block schedule, training the team on the block schedule, he didn't have to do that. And he trusted and allowed the delegation process and he trusted his team to carry it through. And I think something Trish that you did well with him and that he did well with you was allowed for the results. Everything was results driven. So if you implement this, you should see this. DAT Trish Ackerman (17:30) Yes. The Dental A Team (17:31) Now we see and make sure we see that. If we don't see that, like you said, the numbers don't lie, right? The numbers tell a story. If we're not seeing the result, the expected results, we look at why are we not seeing the expected results? So he trusted that that implementation by his team was going to get the results. And if it didn't, he trusted that you would guide on why that result didn't happen. Yeah. Yeah. DAT Trish Ackerman (17:54) Yep, and how to approach the team maybe a different way to get the implementation active. The Dental A Team (18:00) Yeah, yep, totally, totally. so massive kudos Trish on keying into, massive kudos to this doctor and massive kudos to you to really keying in on the areas of growth rather than just saying this is what we do, right? We're not that kind of consulting company but I watch you really mold your consulting per client to what they need and where they're at, like you meet them where they are at and you are able to really see things that they thrive in, things that they love, things they're really good at, and then areas where it's like, you're not super great at that and you probably don't like it, so like, do you need to keep doing it? Is this something you need to keep doing or is this something that maybe we can pass off to somebody else? DAT Trish Ackerman (18:53) think we're all really good at that here. mean, it's, think we get, we do get to know our clients quickly, really quickly, as far as just how are they going to tick with us? And, and when, know, with, with this doctor, one of the funnest things that I did discover with him is, is I found out that he was competitive and that was something else that really moved the needle. And I was like, ⁓ okay. And I ran with that. And knowing that he was competitive and then started having them bring their presented treatment. How much dentistry did they present yesterday? And I mean, that just took... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39330530

Here’s What You’re Not Delegating (That You Really, Really Need To) 12/04/2025

Here’s What You’re Not Delegating (That You Really, Really Need To) Kiera provides very specific tips for how a visionary CEO can keep their practice(s) flourishing on multiple levels without sticking their fingers in all the pies. She gets to the quick with a single question a leader should ask anytime a new task comes across their desk: Just because you can do something, does it mean you should? Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I'm excited about today's topic and I hope you are too. Delegation, I feel like it's such a, ⁓ feels so hard. It feels like what should I do? What should I delegate? What should I not delegate? And this is for like helping you get to multi-level success. So whatever your success level is, whatever you want it to be, delegation is a huge portion of leadership. And I feel like, especially in multi-practices, if you want to get to multi-practices, that's kind how I'm going to highlight this today. You have to ⁓ really get good at delegation. It's not about doing more. It's about doing more of the right things ⁓ and doing less of everything. And so really, really, really getting into that zone of genius, helping you out with that. So I'm excited about this. ⁓ I'll kind of work it through in a couple of different parts to make this easier for you. It's helping you know, what should I delegate? What should I keep? and how to lead across all the locations with clarity. Because as you scale, a lot of people forget that they have to delegate, that they have to get different pieces. And so what happens is things just start to fall off the wagon. And that can get really, really scary. And then you're trying to like catch it all. And so many people, when they get into multi-practice ownership, they tell me like, I wish I would have just stayed at one. And I think, well, yes, there are benefits to staying at one. You had a call inside, you're so wanting to grow. It's just hard right now because we didn't set it up as successful as we could have. Now, I am not one to judge. I did the exact same thing. And so I know the the taffy pole stretch of trying to do every single piece when you're a multi-practice ownership. And so this is coming from real life tactical, curious life experience of what we see with clients to give you the tips of the trade, to give you the secrets to success and doing it here on the podcast in such an open, friendly, welcoming, no judgment zone. More to just give you a hug to tell you, hey, you're doing better than you think you are. And let's give you some tactical practical tips to help you out. So, A Team, we're obsessed with single practices, so multi-practices. We love to help owners build thriving practices at all levels. We love to work with practices anywhere from the startup zone all the way to the multi-location zone. Whether your plan is to build it into a legacy practice or to sell to a DSO or to whatever it is, there is no right answer with Dental A Team. It is your right answer. It is what is best for you, your life, your practice, and also allowing you the freedom to change that. So. working with doctors and their teams to get to that high level success. ⁓ We are ultimately here to help you have the most profitable practice, the happiest team, the thriving practice of your dreams, and to do it on the easiest way possible. So that's what we're about. This is for ⁓ true, true, helping doctors become true CEOs, not ⁓ operators of their businesses to own their businesses to act in that seat rather than being the managers that oftentimes they are. So step one, when you're moving into this multi-practice ownership, you are shifting and I want you just to know your identity is going to be stripped away. You're going to become the same thing that you feel very uncomfortable in because you've never done this, but this is what your organization needs and I think so often owners fail to rise to the need of the organization of what it needs and they like to stay where it's comfortable. And I remember as an office manager, I like when I truly stepped into the office manager role, I'm like, Well, this is weird. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. And you've got to just settle in and you'll figure it out very quickly. so helping you just know as the owner CEO of the company, what you have to own, like your true role is to own the vision strategy and culture. These are things that do not get delegated out. They're the core of the leadership. They're you setting the example. And when I realized, like, I remember one day I Googled like, what does a CEO do? Like I truly did not know. ⁓ because I'd been a manager for most of my life. I'd been a doer most of it. I did not realize that my job was to own the vision, the strategy, and the culture. Now, not all CEOs, not owners of businesses actually enjoy the vision. You might not be a visionary and that's okay. You might just need to have somebody paired with you who's a really strong visionary. There's usually a visionary integrator according to Traction by Gina Wickman that I choose to, I subscribe to the strongest. So I'd be like a CEO and a COO. ⁓ The CEO is the visionary, the CEO always operations the day to day making the dreams happen. So it's like Walt and Roy Disney ⁓ are some good examples of that too. So when I'm looking at as a portion that you cannot delegate away, you've really got to own this vision strategy culture. That's you, you're the culture master, you're the strategy, you're the vision. So where are we headed? What does that look like? ⁓ What's our 12 month? What's our three year? What's our 10 year target? That can still be, you set the like framework, the team builds it into a full complete picture. And then what's the culture that we want replicated across all the teams. So ⁓ when we start to get that vision strategy and culture aligned and ⁓ owners don't delegate that, you then can bring in hires faster. You can have core values. You can have KPIs like, because we know it's very clear. How do we act? What are we going towards? And then what are the things that we need to measure? So this is truly something that when I realized like that was my job and it was the bigger picture piece, there's other people that do the day to day. It felt awkward. I'm not gonna lie. Like I was like, ⁓ I feel like I'm putting on a different t-shirt today. And like, I don't even feel comfortable. Like I don't look good in yellow. Well, you might not look good in it, but this is what the organization needs and nobody else is doing this besides you. So ⁓ the question is, if you're a multi-practice ownership and you're in this ownership role, question one is, have I clearly communicated our vision? It's like, if Kiera or the Dental A team were to walk into my practice today and ask any team member, would they know the vision of our company? That should be a resounding yes. And if not, you have not communicated it enough and it has not been clear enough. Does your entire company know the core values and do they live them? And does every single practice know what their targets are for that practice and the KPIs they're tracking? It's very simple way to ask yourself this. And I love to ask this and I love to come to offices. If you were to ask any member of our team member, they would be able to tell you, yes, we know exactly what our core values are. We know what the mission is of our company. We also know where we're headed. Now, I think I could be a bit more clear of where I'm headed in the three and tenure. My leadership team knows that a lot better. My core team knows where we're headed this year, what our core values are, and what the core values are of a company. We have this on a... So some of them could rattle it off, our new team members, this is part of their onboarding. So helping you really figure that out is going to be paramount because now all your practices, all the locations are operating the same way and there's strong clarity. Step two is you're going to delegate operations for leaders. So this is kind of like the CEO versus the COO. So like realistically owners of like CEOs of DSOs and multi-practice ownership, you don't have to be a DSO for this. It can be multi, it can be private still. I have a lot of private practices that are three, five, 10 locations. That's totally fine. You can do that, but you can't scale if you're still solving the supply issues and front desk drama and putting them. So you have to have a regional manager and a lead at each location. That's paramount. You need to have it. They need to have their KPIs and what they're tracking. They also need to know how to make decisions. Like what's the decision framework and how, what do I have decision making autonomy over at the office manager or regional monitor level versus what needs to get approval? And then also we've got to have like training, not just tasks. So that way everybody has training of what do we need to do when we have that set up consistently. So you teach your team and you have a set protocol and process of how to run huddles. Like a system to me is something that no matter who you are, where you come from, whether you've been with us for one day or 10 years, you should be able to do the same thing and get the same results. So a huddle should have a form that everybody follows. You can have it broken down for me. I even have minutes next to it. Like this part's two minutes, part's five minutes. So it's a true 15 minute huddle. for every single practice. Our one-on-ones have a set protocol of how do we do them, when are they run, and how often are they done, where are these things stored? We have a process of how we set up our rooms. We have a process of how we schedule. All these things that you start working on, and doctors who are owners and visionaries might not be good at these processes. So you need a really good regional or really good office manager or really good operations next to you to help build all these things so you do have confident leaders that are leading next to you. But this is everything that gets delegated out. And there's a doctor that I worked with who's actually really, really great at checklists and operations and building. And I said, that's fine. Rock on. You got to pick which seat you want to be in. Do want to be in the CEO visionary seat or do you to be in the operations seat? Both are fine. Both are on the table. Both are doable. And you could honestly do both super, super, super well. You just have to decide which one you want to do. And this doctor, two years later sent me a message and they said, Kiera, I'm so glad you pushed me into that because as much as I was trying to do both, wasn't excelling in either. So they moved into the CEO visionary role. They hired an amazing assistant to them. They hired an amazing regional manager and the practices are flourishing on multi-levels and they have seven locations now in their organization. But this way, there's not the bottlenecks. The CEO, the owner often creates these bottlenecks because they're not delegating those pieces. And then next up is going to be like, how do we actually systematize across the board all the locations? And... ⁓ So this is again, like we've talked about it so many times, it's KPIs, having a dashboard and a scoreboard so you know how every practice is doing, having leadership meetings with agendas and having communication that's very open amongst all practices. And then I do like a centralized training at least once a quarter, if not like once or twice a year. So that way all the teams and all the organization, I know this is a pain for people, but the more you get them all together, the more they realize that they're all on the same team, they're all there. But like, this is not you owner, you're delegating these pieces. So you're delegating the reporting and the communication. So if you look at this really, you're not delegating the culture, you're not delegating the vision, and you're not delegating ⁓ the other piece to that is like the strategy of how we're going to get there. That's your world, that's what you're supposed to be doing. And then your job is to really rise up your leaders. But you are delegating operations, you are delegating systems, you are delegating meetings. Like there's so much to your job that you've been used to doing that you're delegating. And me going from an office manager to a business owner, sometimes it's easy for me to get stuck in management because that's where I feel comfortable. That's where I feel good. ⁓ Vision and strategy, that's actually really hard to put on a scorecard and to account for my time to say like, yep, I put in 40 hours. Well, vision and strategy are not tasks. are, it's like fluffy clouds. and they take quiet, they take ⁓ out of the office, they take ⁓ white noise time is what I like to call it. And it's actually very hard. And I think sometimes this is why CEOs don't like to go into this because it feels fluffy. feels, ⁓ I don't know, like so hard to track, if you will, which it is. But at the same time, if you do that job and you do it well, everything else falls into place and then you just check in on all the other pieces. that are truly delegated. really, it feels so, sometimes I feel like it's unfair. I'm like, what? Like this is all I'm doing and this is everything else that they're doing? Tasks and vision do not get put in same buckets. They're not on a scale of equilibrium. It's not like, well, I spent three hours on vision so I should spend three hours on tasks. No, sometimes vision takes longer. Sometimes it's harder to build. Sometimes strategy's harder to build. The number of nights and times where I'm like working it through in my brain and I'm building it on paper and I'm working through like, What does the company need and what is the culture and how am I going to show up and present and like, what are the meetings I'm going to put it in place? Just because that comes natural for visionaries does not mean that it should be shortchanged for operation that's task built and task focused. But all of this is literally delegated. So all you do is you own the vision and you delegate the operations and you delegate the systemization. Now you oversee it, you are a part of it, you can help create it. So that way it's there. But this is how you have to start to operate in multi locations. A lot of times you are also over the hiring of new doctors ⁓ and then like the partnership portions within the company. If that's a piece of it, that's really what the owner CEO visionary C is responsible for. Yes, you might still do some clinical dentistry, but typically the more practices you build in, the more you're going to need to be overseeing the entire organization and doing less and less and less dentistry because it's something you can delegate out. No one else can do the vision, the strategy and the culture. They can't. everything else can be delegated. And I know this feels weird. It feels awkward. And it's not always right away, but it will start to be something you phase out and phase out and phase out. And it actually becomes really fun and it becomes hard and it's a challenge, but that's what it is. Scaling is not doing all of it. It's about doing the right things as a leader. And this is something where so often we have a phrase in our company where we say, just because you can do it, does that mean you should do it? So leaders, really want to ask the question, just because you can do it, and this is for regional managers, this is for office managers, this is for all leaders, just because you can do it, does that mean you are the best that should do it? We have some team members on our team that love to help out, and I am so grateful for that. Also though, creates that murky and muddy to where I actually don't know who I need to hire, because I've got five people doing something when two people should be able to do it, but I don't know, are they overworked or underworked, because we're all quote unquote helping. So having that. clarity around is really going to help you. So this is a zone where when you're trying to scale multiple practices and you've got that taffy pole, it's the cue that you've got to step into the CEO level leadership and your practice might not need you fully a CEO yet. The business might not need you solely there yet. And so you've got to work on it in phases. And I think the phases are the hard part because you are taffy pulled. So you start to set up days and you start to set up blocks where this is my deep work time for CEO time. And then this is my clinical time. Then this is my... CEO time, and then this is my culture time. This is my strategy time. And I hate the word strategy, it's the swear word in our company, but you do have to build strategy. You do have to talk to other people. have to work on those big relationships. Like that's part of what you do and not undermining it and getting you fully into the right person in the right seat for your organization is going to be paramount for you. And it does take a lot of time. And if you're someone like me, I talk to think, I don't think to talk. So you might need somebody on the other side that works it through with you, whether that's a coach, whether that's a mentor, whether that's your manager, but being able to work through it so that way you're truly in that CEO seat. And so for this, this is strategic leadership. This is next level leadership. This isn't what you've been doing day in, day out, and it's for the next level. And so as you might even be a solo practitioner listening to the podcast today, helping you see what do I need to become and how do I evolve into this? Who do I need on the team? What players do I need to have with me? are all going to be paramount for you to get to this great success that you have. So for this, if you're scaling, you're stuck, you feel like you're doing it all, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. This is what we do. Our job is to make it to be simple, to be easier for you, to be more fun for you, and all around to create the freedom and the growth that you need to be successful. You have to have the space to do this. That's paramount for you to be able to do it. And we're here to help you along the way. And as always, don't do this alone. You don't have to. And just because you're learning a new role, just like a lot of office managers are learning a new role. There's nothing wrong with that. We're here to help you. We're here to support you. You're not expected to know at all. So stop pretending like you need to and start to grow into the zones that you are truly great at. And as always, let us know how we can help you reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com book a call. Let's talk about it. Let's find your gaps. Let's give you some resources, no judgment, just massive momentum, massive clarity. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team podcast. /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39210115

These Are Critical Pieces For Your Onboarding Strategy 12/03/2025

These Are Critical Pieces For Your Onboarding Strategy Onboarding a new team member has turned into a very transactional process. In this episode, Tiff and Monica discuss how to add authenticity, connection, and engagement to the mix. Episode resources: Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Welcome back. I am just so happy to have all of you. know there are so many people out there that support the Dental A Team in so many amazing ways. And you guys being here downloading these podcasts and having that little, I know Apple allows the like auto download. I always love that. Cause when I'm on flights, I can just, you know, podcast. But you guys being here. pushing those through for us, being here to just support who we are, what we do is so truly incredible, whether you're a client, a future client, or someone who's just here to listen and you're like, ⁓ you know, never gonna sign up, we don't really have a preference of how you get to us. We just love that you're here. We wanna deliver all of the most amazing information that we possibly can. You might notice we share a lot of information, a lot of tips and tricks, a lot of like, I don't know, feel like, Monica, I feel like they're like. secrets, trade secrets, right? And people are like, gosh, I'll just listen to your podcast. I'm like, fantastic, do that, do that. When you're ready for someone like Monica, who I have here with us today, you guys, to be like, I'm gonna push you a little bit further. She's here, we're here, and we're ready to help you get to that next level. And as I said, you guys, this is a truly, truly exciting day for us. I have Monica back on the podcast with me today. I am so excited to have you here, Monica. I know. Monica Gomez (00:57) ⁓ yeah. The Dental A Team (01:20) Previously, I've kind of given a good spiel of who you are and how we found you. And we got to record a podcast, if you haven't listened to it yet, about this really hiring tips and strategies. But there's so much to learn about Monica, her coaching style and who she is in that episode. So if you haven't listened to it yet, go do that. And as an introduction today, Monica, welcome. I'm so excited to have you here. And I just I'm excited to pick your brain. love I love watching. I feel like I get to watch the flow of how thoughts come to you and it's just really fun and I love our time together. Thank you for blocking out your morning and being here with me this morning and Monica, how are you? How was your weekend? How's life? How's Monica? Monica Gomez (02:05) ⁓ Life is great and I'm starting off my week with podcasting with you ⁓ and this is so fun. This is my second podcast and I'm so excited to be here. Our first one was really, there was a flow to it, right? It was a ⁓ great little conversation, valuable. We dropped lots of gems, you guys, so go listen to that podcast and I'm excited to be sharing this space again with you, Tish. Thank you for having me. The Dental A Team (02:21) Yeah. Thank you, thank you. I do love this and it actually makes me think this is like a little off topic here, but just for a smidgen of time. love the podcast space with you consultant ladies ⁓ on our team because I love that this is a space where I get to, I think I get to share how much I love you guys. Like how much admiration I have, how much I look up to you guys and get to like extract so much. knowledge and input from you. And I think this is our space of like, truly having some connection time. And we have our one on ones, I mentioned that before, but those are so goal driven and work driven. It makes me think I love relationship and community. And I think that's something that humans are learning again, we're relearning that we need that. I think we lost that for a moment of time here recently and in the years and we're coming back to that. You kind of don't know what you have until you lose it sometimes and we lost that space. And I think this is our space of true community. We do have our weekly meetings, we have our one-on-ones, we have our data-driven, work-driven time together, but the podcasting space is actually really special to me because I do get to, I get to get to like, want, we get to put you guys out there and I get to just spend this time with you. And it makes me think you mentioned something on the last podcast that we had recorded together. You mentioned that intentional team time together and that like just clicked. As you're talking, like it clicked for me. This is our intentional time together and instilling that into, infusing that into the workplace. It's really special. And I want doctors and owners and leaders and anyone who's here, dental assistants, treatment coordinators, I don't care who you are. I want you to... know from the bottom of my heart, this is a really special place and you don't need to go start a podcast unless you want to. But having that intentional time, like coffee time, like go in the break room and have coffee together and talk about your weekend. Like me getting to hear about Monica's family life and Charlie, her puppy, getting to know those pieces of you personally, it changes and it shifts our dynamic. So I wanted to highlight that because as you were speaking, I was like, my gosh, this is Monica Gomez (04:44) Yeah. The Dental A Team (04:57) something we haven't had yet because this is only our second podcast together, but that I know I do have with the other consultants and it just totally clicked for me because we just, think, mentioned that in the last one. So Monica, thank you for being here. Thank you for letting me say all that and for giving me this intentional time today. Monica Gomez (05:15) Yeah, thanks, Tiff. Yeah, I think ⁓ this time together, we get to peek, a little peek behind the veil, right? And yeah, we do have a lot of connection time. It's structured time, right? But the value of unstructured time is just gold. is, ⁓ it builds trust, it builds ⁓ camaraderie, it builds affinity, it builds ⁓ an endearing, right? An endearing kind of sense of The Dental A Team (05:23) Yeah. Yeah. Monica Gomez (05:44) of viewing the other person in a different light. So yeah, I think this is a powerful, like meaningful time. I agree with you. I agree with everything that you said. This is definitely a special magical space. Yeah. The Dental A Team (05:53) Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Awesome. Well, thank you for being here. And again, if you didn't listen to the last podcast, I know this is the third or fourth time we're saying it. You should. This is kind of I think Monica actually helped me choose today's topics that she wanted to speak on. I think they actually naturally flow together. So I would maybe even listen to this one after the last one or listen to this one. And then I don't care which order you do it in, but listen to both of them is my is my point here, because today we really we're going to talk about onboarding. Monica Gomez (06:07) You The Dental A Team (06:28) And you can onboard anyone, but I think maybe when we add in onboarding the right team member, because the last podcast we recorded was really how to hire the right team member and hiring with intentionality and meaning behind it. And the onboarding, Monica, I think has to flow off of that. If we're not continuously showing up as the person we wanted to hire, like we talked about in the last one. If we show up in the interview space and we're like, this is who I want you to be, but then we're onboarding and we're like, meh, meh. We're like, this is boring person and we want somebody who's dynamic and fun and engaging and speaking to the patients, but we're like, not that person. I think it makes a huge difference. So Monica, as you've trained people, as you've onboarded, you've trained practices to do this, what are some key highlights that you like to infuse into the onboarding process? Monica Gomez (07:16) Yeah, great topic. And I agree, this one goes hand in hand with our previous podcast. know, onboarding traditionally has been very much transactional, right? Here's your cubby, here's what you do, here's where you sit, here's how you answer the phones, right? We've got to move. Well, there's a part of it that has to be transactional because you have to learn, you know, what your job is and, you know, the daily to do's. But I think if we lead with that, it's a mistake. ⁓ As I mentioned before, and we talked about how the workforce has changed, ⁓ and we're leading with connection and engagement and authenticity and all those components that make us unique, I think we, I really feel that we need to move. from a transactional place to a transformational or transcendental. ⁓ It's gotta be more about behaviors, right? And how we wrap our arms around like this new person that's joining our little family, right? How would you like to be welcomed into a team that would make you feel welcome and received with open arms and warmth? That's how we have to welcome our new people. The Dental A Team (08:19) Yeah. Monica Gomez (08:37) You know, we've invested so much time and energy in interviewing our job post, our, you know, filtering our candidates, interviewing, that whole hiring process, offer letter, the whole nine yards. And then we just throw them in, sink or swim. We've got to add, we've got to be intentional and we've got to add more value to the onboarding piece because, you know, people sometimes are left thinking like, gosh, The Dental A Team (08:55) Yeah. Monica Gomez (09:06) this is not the place that I thought it was gonna be, right? Like make it the place that you post it on your job ad, right? Like create, you get to be the creator. You're the co-creator, right? This is your platform. Like what do you wanna create for your new people, right? And I think transaction. It's always part of our industry and in the workforce, right? There is a transactional piece to working. ⁓ But again, that humanist, right? And so one great tip, I'll start with one tip and I'll turn it over to you, Tiff. ⁓ One great tip is have a welcome packet for your team, right? A t-shirt, their name tag, little, you know, if you picked up little sprinkles of who they are and what they like in the interview, like, The Dental A Team (09:53) Mm. Monica Gomez (10:04) put together a nice little welcome basket for them, a pen post-it, a nice little saying. I think that's, wow, I mean, that's super impactful on their first day, right? Like, welcome to the team and have everybody go around at Morning Huddle and just give a little shout out as, you know, The Dental A Team (10:12) Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Monica Gomez (10:31) how valuable it is to have a new team member. I think that's super simple and important. The Dental A Team (10:37) Yeah, I love that. think you hit on something really important there. It's really that feeling of being welcomed, coming into a new space is, I mean, we don't even like going to a party unless we know, a dinner party, unless we know everybody who's gonna be there, right? We're like, I only know two people. Like, is that enough? Right? I got a text from a friend the other day that was, know, or not the other day, it's been a bit, but for, you know, Halloween. And then she's like, I gotta go to this thing with my husband. And like, I don't know anybody. And I was like, okay, like this is, we're all coming into this dinner party not knowing. anybody else, even if you've done working interviews, you still don't know them. So I love that really just toning in on the personal piece and the relationship, because if you can have a relationship with them, you can, you know, build that camaraderie just from the get go. I think they actually retain information and onboard quicker as well. So I love that. Yeah. Monica Gomez (11:26) It's hard being an adult, you know? It's hard being an adult. And I think in the practice, you know, just circling back to our topic on our previous podcast, fun is really important. We forget to have fun as adults, you know? And gosh, you know, think of it like you're in the sandbox again. See through young eyes, see through young eyes. Put those lenses on and just remember what it is to just play in the sandbox. with your friends, right? And have like that pureness of intention and that pureness of heart and spirit. I think it's just easier when you can kind of connect to that space to welcome others in. And they'll say, I love that you're here. Welcome to the team. How can I make your week and your integration easier? I think that's a gem right there. That's... The Dental A Team (11:56) Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Monica Gomez (12:23) super valuable for the person receiving and also for the person that's delivering. The Dental A Team (12:28) I agree. I was thinking, as you said, you said it's hard being an adult And I thought, yeah, I remember just being like, do you want to swing? Like, there's two, like, do you want to swing with me? Like, that's, we don't do that anymore. Yeah. It was easy. Now it's like, we go to, we're in the same Pilates class 10 times and I'm still like, do I talk to you? Do I not talk to you? And it's like, goodness gracious. So yeah, like just, do you want to swing? Like just, let's just have fun with it. I love that. ⁓ Monica Gomez (12:34) Yeah. It's easier to fix ones. The Dental A Team (12:53) And so Welcome Packet is beautiful. if you guys like put it together, it could even be like ⁓ a welcome note card. Like, hey, excited to have you. Like everybody, we write thank you cards to our patients or we write condolence cards or happy birthday or happy anniversary. Like, congrats on your wedding. We write these cards and I've seen them in multiple practices. So I know a lot of people do them. You pass them around to all the team members or the happy birthday for the team members, right? Everybody writes on the card and it's like this little message. You could do it as simply as that. Like, hey, Monica's starting on Monday, guys. Like, it's Thursday. Let's wrap this up. Let's get this like welcome card together and a candy bar or a little ⁓ bouquet of flowers, like four carnations. Like, it doesn't have to be difficult. It doesn't have to be robust or like over the top. Just speak to who you are and who they are. I love that. And Monica, something you said was we were kind of prepping for this was you don't have to have it all together. And I loved that because we've saw many podcasts on Monica Gomez (13:33) Yeah. The Dental A Team (13:49) operations manual and it's fantastic. And I agree with an operations manual and practices come to us and they're like, Monica, we need an operations manual, help us build it. It's like, okay, yes. And it's super cool. Also, it's not a requirement. You can onboard, you can train, you can have them help you build the operations manual while you're training. Don't hold yourself back from onboarding someone successfully. Monica Gomez (14:01) Yeah. The Dental A Team (14:17) because you feel like things are missing and I love that you said that. Now, on that same aspect, a job description, super simple, to put together a job description of who they are, how they show up and what their targets are per position and then build off of that to say like, hey, in the first week, two weeks, 30 days and then kind of go from there. Now, implementally, how do you build the action out for... for teams like that, because I'm an aggriance. I love an operations manual. I think it's great, but it's not end all be all. And just because we get through an operations manual and your consulting journey does not mean you're done. You're set for success and nothing's ever going to happen. I think there's a lot of, we could go on a tangent about operations manuals. We won't today. But how do you do that with your practices you're working with? Monica Gomez (15:06) Yeah, I mean, I think people ⁓ absorb information and they learn differently. And I think it's really important that we hit on all three things. It's auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. The operations manual or the training manual is valuable, Because it's a resource that you can go to to reference and get a refresher. ⁓ But that shouldn't be your onboarding technique, right? That's like, OK, here you go. Here's the written. ⁓ The Dental A Team (15:31) Yeah. Monica Gomez (15:35) proof or reference book of what you already learned, right? It is the outcome of your training. ⁓ I think, you know, onboarding can be simple and we make it complicated because everything has to be in writing nowadays and there's value to that. ⁓ But really your team, the biggest piece of ⁓ an employee staying within those 90 days is how we onboarded them. The Dental A Team (15:49) Yeah. Monica Gomez (16:04) Did we just give them manual or written instructions and say, okay, here it is, go do it? Or did we say, okay, this week, part of your onboarding is that you're gonna spend time with every single person in this practice in the various roles, including the doctor. You're gonna sit in and listen to the exams and the x-ray take and the hygienist. And you're really gonna understand all the makings of this practice. it's important that we understand everyone's role and how we contribute to the entire team. So I always recommend that you hire someone and the first three days, break it up. Three, by the way, is a magical number for me. I love everything in series of threes. So three is easy to remember, three things versus five or even four, right? So three days in each role. And have that person that's learning write down the most impact. What did you learn in these three days sitting with a hygienist? Or what do you want to know more about? This will spark their curiosity. Don't give them a script. Allow them to of grasp the topics and let their curiosity ⁓ be the lead. Take the lead on. Here's what I want to know more about, or I don't really understand this, or gosh, I didn't know that, right? ⁓ And that goes for experienced employees or people that are new to the industry, right? That's my recommendation. Allow them to spend three days in every single role, like the journey of onboarding, right? Like, I think it's super valuable. And then... ⁓ The Dental A Team (17:33) Yeah. Fisher. Monica Gomez (17:53) Again, they could be kind of co-creating your manual with you because what they bring back, the knowledge that they bring back, chances are somebody else is going to have that same curiosity or those same questions, right? Yeah, I think that's a really simple tip. And those also that feedback could be part of your 30, 60, 90 day growth plans. And here's what you're really great at, right? I always like to look at The Dental A Team (18:05) Yeah. Monica Gomez (18:23) Think about the growth plan like a sandwich, right? Like there's the beginning, the middle, and the end. And so here's where you are, right? ⁓ Here's where, ⁓ actually, here's your role. Here's where you currently are, and here's where we would like for you to be. And like, what are the steps to get there, right? That should be part of your growth plan, your 30, 60, 90 day growth plan, along with the job description. Yeah, I think, you know, using the job description like you mentioned as a tool, right, to guide people and also for us to understand like, what are they really great at? What are they really proud of, you know, in this job role? And what do they want to know more about? I think ⁓ I ⁓ one great way... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39210095

The Science Behind a Stress-Free Practice 12/02/2025

The Science Behind a Stress-Free Practice Kiera goes into the key pieces for a worry-free practice, including systematizing your stress points, providing boundaries around time and energy, and leading proactively. Episode resources: Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope you're having an amazing day. I hope that you are excited for today's podcast. I am, because like, why don't we create a stress-free practice? That sounds like, sign me up. Yes, please. Thank you. Happy to take you guys through that and how to create a stress-free practice, at least at a base level, at least certain tactical tips that you can put into place today to start exploring that, experiencing that. And honestly, I just love, I love the game of business. I love the art of business. I love. ⁓ I love the impact and the change we're able to make. And I truly just love human beings. I love helping people just experience their best life, whether it's my sister or my friend or my neighbor or our community or our podcast family, whomever you are, wherever you are, I'm just so grateful and honored that you're here with us today. So if you love our podcast, if it's changed your way in any way, shape or form, do me a favor today and just share it with somebody that you think this could make their day better. Whether it's today's podcast or another podcast. Go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com, click on our podcast tab, search any topic that you ever could want, make sure that you're able to access all the free resources that are available to you. And if I can help you personally or professionally in any way, you guys, truly like, I built this company to be a friend in the industry, to be somebody who has vetted all the different people out there to help you out. And it's so fun because I used to work at Midwestern University's dental college before I started consulting. And it was so fun. The other day I was on a call. and my phone, like I was on a video call and my phone lit up and I looked at it and it was literally a dental student. we're talking throwback to the past, shout out to my Midwestern family. And I was like, oh my gosh, I've not seen that name on my phone and we're talking eight plus years. And so as soon as they finished the call, I called them back and I was like, dude, it's been so long, how are you? And it just like, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much right now. It made me so happy to be able to have been in the industry long enough to have worked with so many different clients and have so many different resources that no matter what has been thrown my way with different clients, this student that I haven't talked to in eight years who's at a pretty awesome crossroad of their practice and their life and what they're doing, to be able to truly give them ⁓ advice, to give them resources, to help them out. And I realized once again, that that is why this company exists. It is to truly be that friend in the industry. And he's like, Kiera, like, your time is valuable. And I was like, are you kidding? Like, this is what my time has meant for my time is meant to help and to serve and to be that resource and advocate. Whether you work with us as an active client or whether you're an massive advocate of the podcast, ⁓ or if we're just someone who have we met in passing, just know that you have somebody out there who is truly committed to making you the most successful, the happiest. all the best resources I can possibly bring to you. That's what this podcast is about. So share this with somebody who needs this. Make sure that you get this into the hands of all these dentists that need the help, that need the resources, because this is a free resource. There's no strings attached other than just asking you to truly give back to those around you, in your community, in your study clubs. Make sure everybody is a raving fan listening to the podcast, because my job is to help you become the best that you can possibly be. So with that today, like I said, I teased it out a little bit. We're gonna help you figure out how to create this, you know, stress-free practice. And it's honestly going to be through nothing sexy, nothing hard. I hate hard things. I like it to be easy. One of our core values is ease. So everything I bring to the podcast, everything we do in consulting should make your life easier and not harder. like honestly, stress-free practices come from systems and leadership. That's the bottom line. It's systems and leadership all day long. And it's the discipline to follow through on both of those. That's what it is. So this is something where it's like, we're going to reduce the chaos. We're going to protect your energy and help you truly feel so much better in the practice because this is what we're about. Like this is how we're able to get you guys there. And so the systems and the leadership done with consistency will help you have stress-free practices. Now, a lot of times it's, know what you should do, but you don't do it or you don't consistently do it. It's like parents, it's like, I know I shouldn't give my kid candy, but I do it because they're screaming and I just want the screaming to stop. Well, is that a temporary fix or is it a long-term solution? And so for this, making sure that we're systematizing. Now systems for point number one are going to be exhaustive. You will never be fully systematized. You will never be fully done and perfect in all the pieces. There will always be an evolution. And I just want to like get rid of the hope and the wish that, my gosh, like maybe I could do this or maybe it would change or I will one day reach this mountain. You won't. So when I work with offices, like how do you get them systematized? How do you do it? What's your magic diet pill? And I'm like, Well, I systematize the stress points. I systematize what's causing the most pain that's going to give me the most gain. And I do that immediately because then the screaming stops, but it stops forever. Did you hear the difference? The screaming stops, but it stops forever rather than just feeding my baby candy. So they stop screaming temporarily. Well, then they're going to start screaming because they get a tummy ache and then they're going to throw up on me. And then that's a whole nonsense rather than just giving them the food that they actually need and want and doing that consistently to help my baby out. So for your practices, we're gonna systematize those stress points. So what happens from this is, I usually when I go into a practice or our consultants go into your office or we're working with you virtually, we're going to look for the top three pain points that you tell us are the pain points. Then we're gonna use the data to actually tell us additional pain points. And then we're gonna look at those two things combined and we're gonna pick out the top three things that are going to move the practice forward. Like literally this is what we do. So sometimes it's a scheduling and efficiency. It's a communication like that happens all the time. It's a billing, it's a profitability, it's a lack of production. It's a, don't know what my next step is. It's whatever your pain point is, like, my gosh, like I was talking to an office the other day and like, I'm so sick of the like time off requests and people calling out sick coming to me as a doctor. And I said, that's funny. Who's your office manager? Like what's your office manager doing? Because that should never be coming to the doctor. Should definitely be going to the office manager. That right there. is a simple, easy fix. We put up a system, we put up a process, we just tell the team, here's the new organization chart, here's who goes to who, boom, pain point gone and resolved as long as you stick with it. So what we wanna do is we wanna look at what our top three recurring pain points are. Again, we talk to the team and then we look at your data. What do your numbers tell us are truly the issues that you're having? And then what we do is we create systems, SOPs or protocols, and then we have accountability with it. So like when I go into a team and, there's an issue of our scheduling. Well, great, let's put a scheduling template in. Let's roll it out to the entire team. Let's let everybody know what the rules of the game are. That way everybody can play the game. And then we put it into place for six weeks and we reassess and we refine and we change it up as need be. And when you start to do this and you start to systematize, and for me, I don't like systems that you have to remember. I like systems to just be in place. So a scheduling template just goes in place and everybody can follow it. We tell them the rules of the game, but it's very easy. Like don't make it where it's like, This green block is for just treatment, big treatment. Well, what the heck is big treatment? Let's do this green block is for a $2,000 and you can have X, Y, or Z that can go in there. Fantastic. Well, now I know when I'm looking for green blocks, any person who's a crown or quads of fills or endo or implant, like anything 2000 or above can go here and I can stick it in. Now, now that's easy. I know it's $2,000 instead of big production. That's so much easier. Then what happens if I can't fill that? Well, great, 24 or 48 hours, whatever we decide as a team that feels good to us, we hold that block for that long and then we can go and change it. Now what happens is somebody is like, but Mrs. Jones just wanted to go in that spot. I know I'm not supposed to. What happens then? Well, great, the person who's scheduled gets to call Mrs. Jones and move her. We don't play the game. We don't get to do this. Like unless it's 24 or 48 hours, that block is held for that exact procedure. And I checked to see whose name did it and they get to call that patient with me. awkwardly sitting there with them, supporting them, so we don't do this again. I want to make it so uncomfortable that you would rather follow the blocks rather than have to deal with the consequence. But it's fine, you know the rules of the game before we start the game. So that way no frustration occurs because expectations have been laid out. Fantastic, we follow the blocks. People are like, Kiera, we're hitting higher production. We're getting out on time. We're getting our lunches. Patients are happier. Isn't that funny? That was something that was such a big pain point for you. And with simple little steps that we put into place that all of us like agreed to follow, the whole team's on board, we all know that. We instantly fix the problem. This is what I'm talking about, systematizing your stress points and making it to where everybody can follow it. We hold it accountable. But like once you put it in there, now there's really not a lot of like remembering what we have to do, because it's all in there spelled out. Like NDT or handoffs, if you're struggling to get your case acceptance up, put that in place. phenomenal, it's on every single route slip, it's in every single note template, then all you really have to remember is to fill in the boxes. And we have a tee up to where the team members prompt the doctor if the doctor forgot to say it. That's great. And now you're like, Kiera, you just added $25,000 to my practice. You're welcome because you did the work. You followed the system. You systematized the pain point and we looked at the numbers to tell us based on what you're telling us, based on what the numbers are telling us, let's put this into play. So if we can solve three of those issues for you, That would be amazing. So looking at your practice, look to see what those pain points are and commit to systematizing those, those hot points, those stress points that are going to move the needle forward the quickest for you. Then the next piece to make the stress fee is you've got to make sure that there are boundaries around time and energy. So with offices, a lot of times like burnout doesn't come from working. Burnout comes from having poor boundaries and overworking and committing to everything to where you feel like you can never catch up. So what this is is like, I love to build with doctors your ideal week. And we're going to, guys have heard me talk about this constantly. I cluster likes with likes. So we have our admin time. We have our doctor time. We have like when I'm building out a block schedule, we have it to where you want your crowns and we have what you have at the end of the day and right before lunch. So that way we can actually batch all of this along. You can get a lot more done when it's batched and it's clustered and it's connected. And then we protect that. Like doctors, I tell them, like, here, I can never get out of here on time. And I'm like, great. So here's the deal. You get out by like, what's reasonable. Let's say you end patients at five, you're out the door by 530. For every day you're not out at 530, I'm gonna let you out of a four day work week, if you have three days, you gotta get out one day, that way you don't have to be perfect. Three days you gotta be out by 530, and if you're not out by 530, you owe me a thousand bucks at the end of that week. my goodness, guess what? They instantly get out at 530, how? Because we made it a priority, we had a strong boundary on it, and we said this is what we're doing, and there was something on the other side of it. Or it can be like, okay, you follow this for the next two weeks and you get to have a pedicure or a massage or whatever you want to do. We attach something fun to it. But what's wild is just changing how we're working. It's changing how we're setting this up, but we're making it a, like it's a, it's a no go zone. We don't go past this and we say no to what doesn't align in those blocks. So for me, I know I've got podcasting days. Tiffanie was like, Kiera, can you wait? And I said, no, Tiff, I've got podcasting. Like I gotta get there. And she's like, that's okay. I can take care of it in another time. Or I could have been like, absolutely, Tiff, no worry. Like I'll push the podcast. Like not a big deal. Well, when I do that, yeah, then I'm to be working on podcasts later. Everything goes down. Nothing works well because I didn't set boundaries around my time. And I didn't make a commitment that I was worth it because saying yes to something is saying no to something else. And I say yes to Kiera because I know at the end of the day, my greatest asset in life is my body. It's my time. Like that's my greatest assets. And so I've got to be so, so, so strict on it. Everybody will try to take it. It's my responsibility to be consistent with that. So we protect that. We say no. And what's wild is when doctors will do this and they set up their ideal weeks, when they set up their admin time or their CEO time, their deep work time, and they actually commit to it and they stick with it, they literally start to grow the practice exponentially. They start to feel so much happier. They start to get out on time. They start to have more time with their families. I had one doctor and she was just burnt to a crisp. Hated her life. I will tell you this woman now is since working with us has added over $450,000 to her practice She's got a 24 to 1 ROI of her consulting to her amount that she's paid in consulting to what we've brought to her practice Pretty good ROI that's better than the stock market if you ask me so a great great odds to bet on if you're looking for something And I remember she was just burnt out and she's like here. I have to like keep working every single night I'm exhausted and I said great. Here's your Here's your task, every night I want you out the door by let's commit to a time, 5.30. And I said, and you're gonna go home and you're gonna give yourself and your family a gift and there's no work, it doesn't come with you. It doesn't like, you don't get to take home that backpack. Like I think schools have mistaught us that we go to work all day long, AKA school, and then we come home and we work all night long. And I'm so anti this model. Like, whoo, get me on a soap box. because then we do that at work and we're working 40 hours and then we're taking it home and then we're not showing up for our families and we're not showing up for ourselves and then we wonder why we're chronically tired and we're not working out and on and on and on on and And I'm just so sick of it that I'm like, awesome to this doctor. said, great. So tonight's a gift. I want you to leave everything at work. It's gonna be here for you tomorrow. Like you go home and work on it for two more hours. Are we really gonna move the needle? And she's like, no, probably not. I was like, I want you to go home tonight and I want you to go have fun with your kids. I want you to go be with your husband and I want you to like, let me know how you feel tomorrow. And I got a text and she's like, Kiera, like I played a game with my kids and it felt so good to be a mom and to show up. And we consistently started giving her her life back. And we started to have helping her see like at five 30, you're out the door. We don't take anything home with it because when we have those parameters and those boundaries, what happens is you naturally find ways to actually accomplish the work because you know, it's a hard no. And I used to take work with me all the time and it used to be this And then I was like, absolutely not. So for me, my boundaries are, I do not work at all, like ever, non-negotiable on Sundays, period, nothing. And I don't work on Saturdays. Like there might be an emergency here or there, which that's fine. And it is a true absolute emergency. Like we're talking, someone's quitting and we've got to figure out what we're gonna do. Like Sarah is something that we, there was no planning for it. Like those types of things, absolutely. But 99.9 % of things do not need to be resolved on a Saturday. clients text me on a Saturday and I love them and hey, I'm here for it. I'm not here for it on Saturdays. So great. And I tell clients text me all the time. And if I'm busy with family or I'm not available, I will not respond to you, but you get it out of your head. You get it over to me. I will take care of it when I'm back in the office. So fine. I don't care if clients text me on Saturday. That's fine. It does not bother me. It does not disrupt me because I know that Saturdays I don't work. That's my free day. I also have a CEO day that literally I block. And I know because if I have white, white noise time, deep work time, So much more happens in the business. I also have workout time for myself. I work out three to four times a week. That's a non-negotiable. I have my morning routine every single morning, non-negotiables for me. That did not start as a day one. It became a process. But I started realizing if I don't take care of me and I don't have this future vision of 90 year old Kiera who's still super, super, super sharp. She's got time. She has energy. Her body's strong. She took care of herself. If I don't prioritize that version of me. Today, she's not gonna be here at 90. So this is for you to predict your boundaries, to set it out. And I promise you, I promise you, the stress in your practice will actually decrease because you will be better balanced, you will be better focused, you will be better, like just cognitively, you will feel like you're not exhausted all the time and you can make better decisions. So your leadership will actually rise if you start to set those boundaries around your time and energy. And then number three is leading proactively and not reactively. So for that, like once again, this comes to you as a calm... /episode/index/show/dentalateam/id/39210080

Dental A Team with Kiera Dent

TOPICS