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Why is it so difficult for doctors to delegate, even when it so obviously impacts the team? Kiera and Dana discuss the art of delegation, and where it overlaps with clear expectations and accountability. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I love when I get the consultants to podcast with me. And today I got the one and only Dana, I actually have a better nickname than Danie for you. I've like upgraded. I really do think you're Dynamite Dana. And so welcome to the show. Dynamite Dana. Like you just are dynamite in so many ways, so many areas. People love you. I know people are like donuts with Dana. That one was really catchy and clever, but I think like dynamite Dana is who I'm going to stick with. So how are you today there? Dynamite Dana. The Dental A Team (00:27) Doing good. I'm glad you found one that felt right. The Dental A Team (00:29) I mean, I still love Dainty so much and that will probably always forever remain. ⁓ But Dana, truly you're a dynamite consultant and I've watched you evolve and it's like, ⁓ you were on the podcast with me last time where you took a practice from negative profitability to multi profitability in just a couple of months. And I think the dynamic and dynamite ability you have so like dynamic doesn't feel as cool as dynamite, but it's because you're this dynamic player and you're able to help teams, help doctors, help offices. The Dental A Team (00:33) You The Dental A Team (00:58) And really it's, think like role clarity, like really focusing on top priorities. And I think that that's like the clutch piece of consulting. If I like boil down what two consultants do differently is yes, we have this like Mary Poppins bag of tricks, but I think the piece is we know which Mary Poppins tool and prioritization and piece based on the numbers, based on the goals need to happen. And I think you're very, very dynamic and dynamite and being able to do that. So excited to have you on the show today. The Dental A Team (01:26) Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. I haven't podcast in a while with you, so it's going to be fun. The Dental A Team (01:31) great time girl. think our last one was talking about your transformation practice. So today's gonna be fun because I think that this is a topic you and I see often is like doctors struggle, teams struggle to delegate and they struggle to have like role clarity and I'm even guilty of this. Like I've watched myself like it's crazy when I have these podcast topics and I'm like hi it's me I know I'm the problem I know I'm hanging on to these issues I know I'm causing this chaos and so I kind of wanted to like talk about why doctors struggle to delegate, why we get into this like bottleneck, and then what it can look like on the other side and how we've been able to help doctors. Like, I know you've got a couple in mind. I've got a couple in mind of what does it look like when we start to trust that process? So Dana, from your perspective, why do you feel like doctors don't delegate and we like bottleneck and we hold on or like owners and founders and office managers? Like, what is that? Like we know we're bottlenecking. Like it's annoying to me. I'm like, I know I'm having a temper tantrum and I don't know how to stop it. Like I know I'm not delegating. I know I'm holding on. know I'm freaking like failing over here. What, like, why do think this is a rift? What are your thoughts? The Dental A Team (02:32) I I will say I feel like Dr. Personality is like a doer, right? They're so used to like to get to become a dentist, right? You have to have succeeded thus far in life. And I do feel like that in order to kind of get where they are, they've had to kind of always do right work really hard, hit the books really hard, hit the clinic really hard. And so I do feel like it's kind of ingrained in them just as humans is that they want to do all of the things. And I also think that there's a misconception of leadership. And being a good leader means doing all things, making all the decisions, having everyone lean on you for everything. The Dental A Team (03:07) Yeah, I love that you say that because ⁓ there's a book that, gosh, I should look up the name of it. mean, like, I really will actually, guys. Like, if you're watching, don't worry, I'm ⁓ looking this up right now. ⁓ But it's like the founder mindset. And I think so many of us, it's the founder's mentality, how to overcome the predictable crisis of growth. And I think about this book often because like you said, it's a... what you have always done won't get you where you need to go. And like those habits and those patterns and the different pieces, it's this, like you said, like you had to work hard in dental school. You guys, watched you. Like I worked at a dental college. ⁓ We watched you be this person. And also there's a perfectionist piece of you literally are working in such small areas. Like the mouth is so small. You have to be perfect. You can't have that. Like, I mean, shoot, you barely move that burr wrong and you're nicking the tooth next to it and you're like, dang, and now gotta like patch this thing up. Like you really do have such a small, finite controlling area. ⁓ But I think it's ⁓ a space of, we all know, Dana, it's like, logically, I know that if I delegate and I trust my team, my life gets better. So what do you feel like it is? Like, how do people actually let go of the vine? Maybe I'm asking for coaching for myself. The Dental A Team (04:18) Yeah, and I think some of the hold back is they might have tried to delegate something in the past and it didn't go very well, right? Because there's an art to actually delegating and delegating that is successful and setting real clear expectations. And so I find like, well, I've tried, right? But the person it fell through the cracks or there wasn't an accountability piece built in. And so I think it's like learning truly how to delegate correctly and delegate so that pieces come back to you and you're not chasing down the thing that you thing that you gave because if you have to chase it down, if you have to check it, like it's still on your plate then, right? That, that it still hangs over your head if you, if those pieces aren't in place. And so sometimes I think too, it's like they have had a past history of trying to delegate and it's like not failing, but feeling like, I should have just done it anyway. The Dental A Team (05:09) Totally. And I think as you said that like, I'm into now the how of like, okay, I hear that I agree. And I, it was funny, Jason, I, call it like tub talk, like think tank talk. Like we go out hot tubbing, we don't take our phones. It's like really beautiful and shoot, it just snowed. So I can't wait to get out there and like go hot tubbing in the snow. ⁓ it's a really magical world, but we were talking about it and I realized we're using a recruiter to help hire some team members for us that I'm really excited about that are like far out of my league that I don't even know how to hire. So ⁓ brought in some executive recruiters for that. And I remember they were asking me, they're like, Kiera, what's going to break your trust the most? And I was like, I know actually, like for me, and so team members hearing this, the number one thing, and Dana, I'm saying this because you are not this person and I'm going to highlight you, I think there's also a space when doctors delegate to make sure the person we're delegating to is right person, right seat. ⁓ For me, I've learned that the way I lose trust the most is when people tell me they're going to follow through and they don't. Like I'm very, because I just feel like, then don't do it. I get they have best intentions, but I'm more obsessed about outcomes and you delivering rather than you just taking a million things on to make me happy. ⁓ And so I thought about it, like, who are the people that I trust implicitly, like on our team and Jason, I'm not going to like do the role of X day. And I'm that's like unfair. You'll get to hear the like behind the scenes, Jason and Kiera talk. One doctor, he was like, Kiera, if I could just be a fly on the wall to hear the conversations you and Jason have. And I was like, I don't know if you want to know them all. ⁓ But I thought about it I was like, okay, my core crew that I really do trust, like what is it and how do I delegate to these people? Like Dana, I know, and this is why I called you Dynamite Dana and Dynamic Dana is Dana, I know with out of doubt, I can give you clients and you're gonna deliver and you're not gonna let me down and you're gonna follow up, you're gonna have scorecards, you're gonna show up to the coaching calls, you're going, like I never have to come and check in on you to make sure you're delivering to clients. Now, you may need help, that doesn't mean they're not gonna be like never asking, but I know you're gonna hit those deliverables. If I give you a project like, hey, you're gonna present, Never in my mind have I been like, uh, Hope Dana is going to show up on that. Like I know I can count on Dana to be there. She's going to follow through. If she's got questions, you're going to proactively ask me. It like, I can give you tasks that they don't come back to me. Now there's other team members where I'm like, I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole. I'm like, uh, did you check on that? Did you check on that? Did you check on that? Like, and I've noticed my anxiety is like lit to the next level. And I think as you were saying that and office managers and team members, I hope you hear this loud and clear. This is the fastest way to break trust and not have a doctor trust you. And truth be told, like I'm going to just call out team members, not even just doctors. You're also being the bottleneck because your doctor doesn't trust you to give it to them. Now, doctors, there is a way for us to not take it back on. ⁓ But I was just, as you said that Dana, I think that there's a big space of doctors make sure that like, if you consistently have a person who's not following through and not delivering back to you, stop trying to make that person fit. Like just call it out of what it is and say, like, listen, this has to change. And if it doesn't, I recognize you're not right person. Like Shelbi, ⁓ she's a kick-a personality for being that. She never lets anything slip through her. mean, Dana, she is on us like sticky. It's like, hey guys, where's this at? Where's that? But she's so nice about it. And there's just certain personalities that are that way. And then there's other personalities that are like more creative and you don't need them to be in. I don't need to delegate all that. Like they can have different projects. And so I think when you look at it, make sure that the person, and you can also look at people's personality profiles. There are some that are like detail centric. They should be your operations. should be your office managers. They should be your billers. And then you're going to have people like myself. That's a little less on details, but I'm a dang good treatment coordinator. I don't need to have as many things. I just need to hit a goal. Like it's less confined versus an office manager. So I think also like picking people that are the right people for that. Dana, I talked a lot on that. What are your thoughts on that? The Dental A Team (08:48) No, I completely agree. I do think it takes the right person in a seat and then once you have the right person clearly defining their role because sometimes too it's like who does it who has the capacity for me to delegate this to right and I think that sometimes things get lost because we ask the person that we always ask and yes they do but then we stretch them so thin things start to fall through the cracks because we haven't said hey is this something that you really feel like you can take on so it comes down to just like you said that trust that open communication and so I think Role clarity helps delegation. It also helps like where does it make sense? Right? I'm probably not going to ask my biller to do treatment follow-up calls, right? I might probably ask the person that's working to my schedule or the treatment coordinator herself. So I think that all of these pieces, sometimes it's hard to like link when I'm like, okay, well, let's get clear job roles. Well, how does that help me delegate? Right? I think linking all these things together can really help a doctor see how The Dental A Team (09:39) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (09:45) easy it can become and not just for doctors like yes this is for the doctor that holds on to everything but for leads that hold on to everything for oms that hold on to everything this is just a really clear path for you to see do i have the right person in that seat is their role really really clear and who has the capacity to take on anything that comes up or something that you want to take off your plate The Dental A Team (10:08) Totally. And Dana, as you said that something, our Dental A Team is in like such a fun transition or like we are, think Dana's feeling, our whole team's feeling it like we have gone from what Dental A Team was to what Dental A Team is becoming. And I'm super excited. We're going to roll out like a state of the company. Dana doesn't know it yet. Like it's coming. Like I can't wait. I know she's feeling the buzz around it, but I recognize as a leader that sometimes you've got to call out what was and where we're going. And our team went through a, what I've called like a snow globe freaking shake. Like we decided like, let's just throw all the confetti, shake every person into different spots. And it's like, Britt's in a different role. I'm in a different role. Shelbi's in a different role. Thinking as like consultants, like Dana, you pretty much stayed the same, but like everywhere else around us, we just like ripped change tour and we built an accountability chart and we had to really say like, okay, what are the seats that the organization needs without names on it? What are the tasks that realistically should go under here? And then like, let's look to see what open roles we have, who fits in what spots. And I remember we had a leadership meeting in September of last year. And who I remember, Britt was sitting at the table, Tip was at the table, I was at the table and Britt looks me across the eyes and she's like, Kiera, I just want to highlight and recognize that what you're about to go through and what I'm about to go through, Shelbi, Tiff, this whole leadership, like it is going to be a shake and it's weird. And we all actually like Dana hasn't seen it yet. You're about to get your PDF version come next week. ⁓ of our accountability chart, because right now it is that like, who does this make sense? Like I have normally gone to Shelbi because it's easy and Shelbi and I were working on like fees and different things. And I realized like, well, yes, I used to do that. Shelbi actuall…
Full show notes at the publisherAre you providing your patients with a 5-star treatment? It starts with your front office. Kiera breaks down what a full rollout of peak client care looks like, identifying five different points to utilize as soon as that patient walks through the door (or calls). Episode resources: 5 Star Treatment Planning Document Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I am so excited. Today is gonna be one of my absolute favorite topics, and it is getting more patients to say yes to treatment. You guys, I obsess about this, and I talk about it a lot, and I just feel that these are some really good things. And so I wanted to go through our five-star treatment planning process with you today, so that way you guys are able to help more patients say yes, be able to maximize your practice. Because at the end of the day, a patient who comes into your practice, they want to do dentistry. There is a treatment coordinator that I worked with for years and she always says like, Kiera, my thoughts are when I go in and I treatment plan, like the reason is patients are gonna say yes to me because they're at the practice, they want to get this help. And I just think having that mindset helps so much. And so this is a five-star treatment planning and we've actually created it for the entire practice. And one I'm gonna go through is, specific and then we actually broke it down for our front office team, our clinical team and our doctors of this process of five star treatment planning. And what's really fun is when we implement this into a practice, we do a full rollout with the team. And then what we do is actually once they complete it, they actually get to check off their stars. And there's actually way you can become five star certified in Dental A Team. So if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera. Dent really is my last name. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry and I'm obsessed with teams and doctors having their best life possible. Our team is so committed to you, to your practice, to making sure that you are thriving and not just surviving. And so really giving you guys tips and tricks that you can go implement into your practice to help more patients say yes, to be able to help your team be so thorough and so productive and really making life easier. So we love to hear from you. I love pen pals. You can always reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And if you're ever curious of, I wonder what consulting could look like in my practice. Be sure to book a call. It's complimentary. We go through your practice with you. We assess your practice. We give you a roadmap, whether you work with us or don't, to make sure that you are always being able to positively impact your team, your life, and your community. Because our goal is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So with that, five-star treatment planning. So these are the quick five stars that we go. And like I said, then it's broken down more in depth of what each department needs to do. ⁓ The first one is going to be more for front office team members. And it also can be for clinical team if we're actually having them present treatment in the back. And so the first star is when we go into it, we're going to smile and assume the yes. So before we even walk into the room, we have confidence. We know that we're going to go into it. We know that we're going to have patients say yes to us and we smile. We are going to assume that the patient wants to do dentistry. Why are we going through and saying like, my gosh, this is a big case. my gosh. I don't know if they're going to accept. my gosh. my gosh. Stop that. Why are we doing that? There's absolutely no reason to do that. Patients are at the dental practice and just because they don't love the dentist doesn't mean that they don't want to have healthy mouths and healthy teeth and being able to have confidence. I say our mouths are the coolest thing ever. We get to smile with them. We get to talk with them. We get to eat with it. Like there's so much value to it. Like it truly is, I think, the gateway to our confidence. It's the gateway to our health. And so being able to help patients have that. So I'm always going to assume, like my mantra is, everyone says yes to Kiera and there's always a solution and we will find it together. So we go in and we have that and we're going to assume the yes. We also gonna use what I call the three E's and that is edification, empathy and energy. So I'm gonna watch the patient and I'm going to edify the doctor, which is star number two. I'm going to have empathy for what they're going through and not just assume it's run of the mill, just because it's a crown for us, doesn't mean that that might be life altering for our patients. But we're not going to put negativity out there. We're still going to be able to have empathy and positivity for them and help them see that this is the best place for them to get their treatment done and then making sure our energy matches. You guys, I come in really high. I have a lot of energy. So many people are like, Kiera, we want to consult with you because we love your energy and our team needs that. Well, guess what? Our whole team has to have that because this is who I am. And sometimes you need to have energy and like, need to get too excited on the podcast and I need to rally you. But for some of you, I remember there was a doctor who's like, Kiera, you're like a little much for my team. And my team's more like, hey, how are you? Well, guess what? That team is actually a better fit with Britney Stone. Britney is a much better match energy wise than I am. And so just making sure that we mimic and mirror the patient across from us. So star number one is smile and assume the yes before we even walk into it. Star number two is we want to rave about the doctor and repeat a perfect handoff. So we want our patients to feel like they're on the winning team. And I think about it, if I'm going in like, I'm going in for surgery. And if that treatment coordinator who's presenting to me, so I've met the doctor, they've diagnosed the treatment to me. Okay, so all that needs to happen before we get to this spot. But the doctor told me, Carrie, you need to come back for surgery. If that front office person that I'm talking to about my financials said to me, gosh Carrie, you're so lucky. ⁓ Dr. Kressler is absolutely incredible and you're going to get such great care. I've seen him do this surgery multiple times. I know you're in the best hands and truly I'm here to make sure that you're taken care of. We're super excited for you and I know you're going to have great results. Like even me saying that I feel this whoosh of like confidence of OK, got it like I am making the absolute best decision I possibly can. And so this is what we do. So number start number one is smile and assume the S use our three E's. Number two is rave about the doctor. Help them see that we're on the winning team. and use that perfect hand up. It'd be like, awesome, Kiera, you are so lucky. Dr. Jones is so incredible. He's done this treatment so many times and we're gonna get you taken care of. Dr. Jones wants to see you back for a crown. We need to get you scheduled in about two weeks. We need to do about 30 minutes and we're also gonna get your cleaning scheduled for that. This is gonna be amazing. Doctor is incredible. And then we move to the third star, is schedule the appointment first and give two options. We wanna get the commitment. So a lot of times treatment coordinators will like come in like, how was your visit today? Meh, I'm at the dentist. Why don't we control this narrative? I'm going to smile like, Hey, it's so great to see. I'm so excited to get you helped out. Dr. Jones is so incredible. You've made a great choice. And I know he's going to take great care of you. We're to get you scheduled for that crown in two weeks. It's going to take us about 30. It's going to take us about an hour and a half. I hope a crown's not 30 minutes. It's going to take us about an hour and a half. And we're also going to get that cleaning scheduled. perfect. First things first, let's get you scheduled. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. That's when Dr. Jones does all of their crowns. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. The reason I wanna move right into scheduling is because this is gonna help me get a commitment. And I believe that words are free and we should use them to our advantage. So when I'm going through this, let's just make it very easy for the patient. We smile and assume the yes, we rave about our doctor and talk about our perfect handoff, and then we move right into scheduling. Now the patient might be like, well, I wanna know what this is going to cost. I say, absolutely. I want you to feel so solid and rock solid confident moving forward. Dr. Jones is extra busy. So we always just make sure we get you on the schedule, make sure we get that appointment set. I'm to go over all the financials. I want you to be super confident with that. But we'll just get you scheduled since the schedule is so busy. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. Now, if they push back again, don't stress, talk to them. But this way they're able to see the flow, how we're going to do this. Because for me, what I'm also doing on that is I'm putting emphasis of we are doing treatment. And the question is how we want to pay for it, not the question of are we doing treatment or not. I'm not forcing a patient, I'm not making them doing it, but sequence does matter when it comes to treatment planning. And you guys, I am a dang good treatment coordinator. 50, 60, $70,000 cases paid in full same day. It is not something that is hard, but it is something that's finesse. And I do believe that it's an art, not a like set in stone science. It's an art, it's a feathering. It's a reading the patient, it's understanding. And I'm giving you guys literally how I do this and how it's worked for so many practices. practices we've been able to add multiple millions annually by doing this process. So we schedule first, get them scheduled. Then after that, we're going to present the total treatment. So star number four is point to the amount. I don't say it out loud saying 10 grand is very loud and obnoxious and obtrusive. Pointing to it doesn't feel as bad. And I'm going to use the art of silence. So that's star number four in our five-star treatment planning. So once the patient's scheduled, we're gonna present the treatment, all right? So we're gonna go through that crown and that cleaning. It looks like it's going to be this amount. This is what your insurance is estimated. I'm pointing with my fingers. I go down and your out of pocket total will be blank this when we see you on Wednesday. What questions do you have for me? I want you to be super confident moving forward. And then I zip my lips and I'm silent. And the patient usually will say, perfect. Nope, no questions. I'll see you then. Or they'll say, ⁓ I'm curious about that. Like that was a little bit more than I was thinking. Do you have any options? I promise you they will say that. But instead of me right here, which is where I think most treatment coordinators and failing goes wrong is when they say, ⁓ my gosh, so do you have questions about financing or do you have any questions about this? One, I don't ever want a patient to say no to me. So I don't ever use the questions of do you want to, or do we want to do this, or do you have questions? I say, what questions do you have for me? Let's get you scheduled, not do you want to schedule? And these are just small little nuances, but if you watch yourself and you listen to yourself and doctors, same thing in your exams. and clinical team members, same thing when we're back there. We're so obsessed with this like quick, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, I wanna get you in and out versus I want to actually solve, I want to actually schedule patients and I want to actually be thorough with my patients. So what questions do you have? Words are free, use them to your advantage, use the art of silence and don't talk, zip your lips, but people get nervous and they don't want you to break up with them and they don't wanna be rejected so they start talking and they're like, my gosh, we can talk about finances, we can talk about, do you actually wanna just for free? This is how discounts come about. This is how doctors are like, my gosh, I just gave that, it's a way for free. Stop talking. Let them process and let them ask, what questions do you have for me? I want you super confident moving forward. And I stop and I smile. And I truly do. And I might feel awkward, that's okay. But remember, I'm assuming the yes, they're going to say yes to me. Why wouldn't they say yes to me? And my second mantra is there's always a solution. And we together, me and this patient are going to find it because my job is to make them healthy, happy, and like total full care of health. So then we go on to star number five, and that is over objections, okay? So objections do come, but objections to me are like, just remember that they need more information. We haven't educated them on something. That's all it is. They're not rejecting you. And so I say, go beyond the no with air quotes two times. And I do it as an S because I just want to find out and I want to dig to the root. I'm not forcing these patients, but 99 % of the time an objection just means I need to educate them more. I need to answer their questions. I haven't filled them in on something and that's all it is. So we become a word ninja, we go past it, let's find a solution. And then if I've gone past it two times and I've really done my best, then I schedule them on a two, two, follow-up. So I call them in two days, two weeks, two months. So no matter what, they're still gonna talk to me and I'm going to make sure that they get the success. So that's our five star. And when you start tracking it, we track it as well. We look to see our patterns and it helps our treatment coordinators get better and better. So now you're like, well, But Kiera, that's great. Now let's talk about the objections. Cause I got my fifth star. My fifth star means I got to go past objections twice. Well, let's talk about some objections. Number one is a lot of people do think about just insurance. So they're like, okay, well, what about insurance? I like to explain that insurance is a coupon. So like just like Kohl's cash or coupons at the store. Well, you still want to buy the carrots, even though they're not on sale. And so what we do is we use our insurance and we maximize every single penny of it. but we also don't want to just wait on insurance and have insurance dictate because it's never going to be cheaper. or more predictable than it is today. So we wanna make sure that we your treatment taken care of, you're worth it, you deserve it. And we're gonna squeeze every single dang penny out of that insurance company that we c…
Full show notes at the publisherKey Performance Indicators (or KPIs)! By establishing KPIs in your practice, you find ways to remove the emotion that doesn't need to be there. Tiff and Kristy explain how KPIs drive a practice — and how to implement them if you haven't started yet. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back again today and I say we again because I've got Miss Kristy here with me. You guys know how much I love her and podcasting with her is just, I told her today, like I just, you bring a sense of calm and it's great and letting it be on a, like Thursday afternoon, this is kind of cool for me ⁓ and ending my week. I've got, you know, we've got things to do tomorrow, ending calls with this is really, really cool. So Kristy, thank you so much for being here today. How are you? The Dental A Team (00:29) Good and you? The Dental A Team (00:31) I'm good, thank you. ⁓ I'm... I was gonna say that, like what the heck? I'm so glad you're here though because, you know, this time last year you were here in snow and ice and I'm so glad you're here but it is cold and I heard you guys, record these, this is January right now, it'll be released in February but it's like so cold. It's like 43 degrees in the morning here and us Arizona women are just not used to that so. The Dental A Team (00:34) It's cold for Arizona. The Dental A Team (01:01) I agree and there's supposed to be ice and snow coming, not for us, we get rain, thank goodness, but I'm like, that's why we live here, so we don't have to deal with ice and snow. yeah, puts a little damper on travel, so we'll see. We'll see how that goes, but I am glad that you're here. This is the time of year that everybody comes and visits. February is a massive, massive time to be in Arizona. In March, we've got spring training games going, we've got... Waste Management Open, we've got, oh my gosh, every weekend there's a taco festival or something going on. So this is the prime time to be in Arizona. If you wanna come visit, tell us that you're coming and we'll be happy to give you some suggestions. Kristy, we talk about these a lot and I'm excited because I know you actually thrive in this world a ton. You make decisions based on these. are phenomenal at projections. four practices and the world of KPIs, which you guys, for those of you who don't know, key performance indicators, those are the indicators within your practice that tell you how you're performing. I had years and years and years ago now, like way too long to even count, I had a manager one time and she said, Tiff, I want you to start joining the KPI meetings on Thursdays with the CPA doc and I. And I said, okay. And then I ran over to my computer and I was like, Google, what is KPI? What does KPI mean? I was like, I'll be there. That sounds great. This is like growth for me. You're putting me in. I was like, yep, I'll be there. And then I was like, what does this mean? So if you don't know what it means, you're not using them, you are not alone. I had to Google that once upon a time. And that was before Chat GPT. I feel like I would have been so much better off if I had that to break it down for me. But alas, here we are. And Kristy, I love KPIs. I love black and white decision making. I love any opportunity we have that we can remove some emotion. from a decision, especially in the dental industry. We have a lot of emotions in the dental industry and being able to remove those and say that yes or no something is or isn't working. And my favorite piece of that is when we do that, Kristy, I think it gives us the opportunity to tackle the system and not make it personal about the person. Like it might not be that you suck. it's that the system's not working or we're not using it correctly. And if that's the case, I'm fine. We start using it correctly or we alter it. But I think, Kristy, it makes me feel a lot better about accountability and about KPIs and just about leading teams when it's less about a feeling and a person and more about the system. So I'm excited. Kristy, tell me, why do you love KPIs? The Dental A Team (03:41) Yeah, for the same reason, Tip, because so many times we see people focused on the wrong thing. And when you really dial into the metrics, they start to tell a story, right? And sometimes even metrics can look a little bit deceiving, but that's why I like to say the numbers start to tell a story. And then we get to dig into it and figure out the story. So, you know, just in saying that, I think if I wasn't doing what I was doing, I would be some kind of detective. And I mean, The Dental A Team (04:09) I think you would too. The Dental A Team (04:10) Maybe that's why it's so exciting for me, but like, and it's truth, right? The numbers don't lie. And so a lot of times we have misperceptions on things and that's the human aspect. So to give grace on us, and I also feel like what we measure expands, it grows, right? And so if we're focused on the wrong thing, what do we get more of? And so, The Dental A Team (04:33) Mm, true. The Dental A Team (04:40) I just think it's the fastest way to make improvements. And it's kind of funny Tiff, because in other things we do, if we want to lift weights or we want to lose weight, what do we do? Get on the scale or we're like, we lift 50 pounds. my gosh, I added another weight. We measure it really well, but in dentistry it's like taboo. ⁓ we can't do it. Like it's so bizarre, right? But I just, again, it's the true measure. We talked about this. The Dental A Team (05:02) I agree. The Dental A Team (05:07) on a different podcast of winning. It truly lets us know if we're winning or losing, and maybe we'll focus on the wrong thing, right? I know you've heard it a zillion times. Doctors come on, need more new patients. I need more new patients. I need more new patients. And we look at their outstanding treatment list and it's like $3 million. And I'm like, do you really know what you mean? Right? So again, sometimes it lets us win faster because we can breathe direct and focus on The Dental A Team (05:26) You for sure. The Dental A Team (05:37) what's really gonna get us there. The Dental A Team (05:40) Yeah, I love that you said that. I love the idea of focusing on the wrong thing because I think we do that a lot. focus on the negative, right? We're like, what was our attrition rate instead of what's our new patient and our active patient count? Are those growing? Because if our new patient count and our active patient count are growing, attrition's fine. But if we're looking at attrition rate, we're like, how many are we losing? We're grasping. It's a different kind of energy and that will grow. So if you're looking at it, you want your attrition to grow, then keep watching it. If you want your active patient count to grow, keep watching it. And if it's not growing, then you tackle the systems and assume attrition is happening. So I love that you said that because it broke it down, I hope for everyone, a little bit differently there. And our podcast today is How KPIs Drive a Practice. And I think in that simple statement and those two minutes you were just talking, you just broke it down, like verbatim on how it drives a practice because what you focus on will grow no matter what. you're right, it's so everything in our life, we count everything. Like it's just human nature to count and track everything we do. We track our money, we track our expenses, we track our weights, we track our weight, we track everything that we do, we track our gas mileage. know, my sister's always like, ah, I got 16 gallons or whatever. I need to go get the best gas price. And I'm like, girl, I don't. I don't know what she's like, what is your car get? I'm like, I have no idea. But there's, know, she's tracking that. But like, then we go into a dental office, it's like, don't talk numbers. Don't talk numbers. Don't track it. Because that's going to make somebody feel bad. It's like, no, we're going to track it. We're going to see that we're winning. And we're going to feel really, really good. Like my sister, sometimes she comes home and she's like, ah, I guess mileage was down. Sometimes she comes home and she's like, guess what? Simple. But that's how simple it can be. doesn't have to be astronomical, but those small wins add up to something astronomical. And I have had so many clients that, I've had clients that have purchased practices, they're like, all right, when are we starting marketing? I'm like, well, what do you mean? You've got, like, what's your patient count? What's your active patient count? And then what's the total patient count of that practice? Because you have, every patient right now is a new patient. Starting marketing, is a wild use of your money. Let's internal market, let's get your exams better. There's so many different avenues that we think are just the norm, so we jump on board with them. But then when we pull and extract those actual KPIs, we can find the root of what we need and the root of any problems that there might be, any systems that need to be revamped. So I love that, because that's how you're driving success, by watching the KPIs. Kristy, and you've got, I hope everyone knows, I don't say it every time, but Kristy's done so much in her dental career and held so many titles and she's consulted for far longer than she's even been a presence here at the Dental A Team. We're so grateful for her. Kristy, in all of your experience, what do you feel are the easiest KPIs to start tracking if we're not tracking any? And then what are the most valuable KPIs maybe that people don't think of? The Dental A Team (08:53) Ooh, that's deep. Obviously, I think we have to look at it as like two different forks in the road, right? Because so many times we hear the practice of a million dollars and then we hear the practice of six million. And I think doctors, you guys get all ramped up and think if I'm the million dollar guy, why am I the six million dollar guy? And I'm thinking, wait, wait, you don't necessarily want to be that guy. You're actually more profitable than, you know. The Dental A Team (08:55) I I like that one. Correct. The Dental A Team (09:22) So it's not just what's happening in the practice, but also how profitable you are, right? And truly us here at the Dental A Team, we're looking to make sure you're hitting that profitability because that's where the true freedom is. But with that being said, the biggest KPIs out of the gate is what do I need to hit every month to be profitable? And then I measure my production, net production. and collections. And ⁓ I am going to throw new patients in there, but in a different way, because doctors do want new patients and a lot of times they're getting them. But don't just look at how many I'm getting. Look at how many are reappointing. ⁓ you know, it's one thing that you're getting them and you might be doing limited, limited and letting them go out the back door. So again, look at those, but also put more weight on how many are getting reappointed. And then ⁓ I also like doctors to look at diagnostics, dollars and diagnostic or sorry, acceptance dollars and percentage. ⁓ They go hand in hand. It can't just be percentage of acceptance because maybe I'm not accepting enough to even get to that goal. Yeah. The Dental A Team (10:31) case acceptance. Yes, yes, I love those. Yeah. The Dental A Team (10:46) And lastly, probably in that tip would be your reappointment rate. How many are we reappointing? Because keep those patients of yours. Don't have to spend so many external dollars to gain more because if we just keep what we have and too often we look at how many people are sitting in our inactive pile or we don't look at it and you have a whole nother practice sitting there that you could tap into. The Dental A Team (11:13) Yeah, I love that. I love what you said about the case acceptance dollars, the diagnostics and the case acceptance dollars. I too have doctors, I love having them ⁓ track their diagnosis and then their dollars. Number one, I hated being a treatment coordinator that had no control over how much was being diagnosed and only initially when I was treatment coordinator, were really only looking at case acceptance, which is very popular. So case acceptance, case acceptance, and then they're like on your neck and that call these three people, why didn't these, like call the people and like I have called all the people. I can't, and we have so many clients, right, that the TC's are like I've called all the people, Tiff, can't, Kristy, I can't call anymore. Cool, it might not be in the case acceptance. Sometimes it's in the diagnosis and then to loop back to your new patient statement, all of those go so hand in hand and this is why, ⁓ heaven help me, this is why. things like our scorecards, clients of Dental A Team that talk about the scorecard. This is why the scorecard is so important because you can look at a dental analytics screen and it's choppy, all over the place. The scorecard brings it together so that you can see what's affecting something else because to your point of the new patients, I had a practice near and dear to my heart. He hit his massive goal this year and I'm so proud of him. We worked really hard on, it was, you know, Timelined out for five years and he hit it literally two weeks before his deadline, his date. One of the things that was holding his practice back was the new patients. He needed more new patients, needed more new patients, so his marketing company is like, all right, we're gonna ramp up new patients. And then all of a sudden we've gotten new patients, but it's like, we're not growing. There's nothing on the schedule, what's happening? And so I said, okay, what kind of new patients? And we had so many emergency, limited, transient, going through town, looking for an emergency. He was doing a lot of same day dentistry, but not getting things booked on the schedule and not really adding to his patient count, because there wasn't reappointments happening. When we dialed that in, we found that and I was like, here's the key, switched his marketing, his new patients went up, Then we focused in on his case acceptance. And then like you said, with the dollars, we're seeing, are they accepting fillings? Are they accepting crowns? Are we getting the near cases? Like what is the case acceptance percentage is cool, but what are we actually, what's the procedure that's being the dollar amount and is there a ceiling maybe in our treatment planning, either back office, front office, wherever it is, is there a ceiling that our system needs to be able to help us overcome in diagnosing a certain dollar amount or treatment planning a certain dollar amount? The Dental A Team (14:03) Yeah, I love that you say that, And as the TC, that's the one that gets me because so many doctors go back up there or come to us and say, they're just not closing it. And I always tell my practices, case acceptance is a team sport. And literally, it…
Full show notes at the publisherThis episode is all about the power of a phone call, and how you can maximize it. Kiera goes into the formula for phone call success, and how it will boost your patients' interactions with your practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and gosh, I decided to shake up the background and hang out in my house and have you come hang out with me. And so if you're watching this, welcome. This is the studio. This is where I live. This is where I hang out and just trying a couple different things. I really obsessed about making this podcast a space where you feel like you're hanging out with me in my living room. And we're just sitting here. chatting shop, we're sitting here talking about all things dentistry. And today I wanted to just go through a quick episode with you guys of how we can improve our conversion rates. So there's a couple quick levers of how we can improve our calls, our being able to get our forms and documents and being able to do this without spending more time because that's something that we all wanna do. And so ⁓ I think it's a lot of times like how can we convert our calls better? How can we get things done a little bit more efficiently? Do we do AI? Do we not do AI? And so. I really feel like just small improvements. You guys know on Dental A team, I'm obsessed about small little improvements done to create efficiencies. I remember I was in a practice and they said, ⁓ okay, Kiera, like come on in, we wanna see you. And I went in and we were able to add about 13,000 to their practice. And they were like, Kiera, what did you do? I'm like, what did I do? It was just very simple, easy things. was, ⁓ we had patients stop at the front desk and start making their payments so we were able to make our collections higher. We had them doing a handoff to their team of what were the next steps. So that way the patient felt confident of what they were doing next. ⁓ and we just scheduled patients. We assumed the yes. And those are not hard things. Those are not sexy things. Those things are just things that are going to help you guys tremendously. And so today it's like, let's figure out how we can convert a few more things. So. Dental A Team is truly a company where I believe that growing and having sustainable growth comes from optimizing before we spend more. And I know that it feels so. Alluring and something that I want to do is I want to spend more and I want to get the magic pill and the reality is that you can probably get the exact same results with minimal effort if we just optimize a little things and so figuring out how we can catch more missed calls or how we can convert more new patients or figuring out how we can get more patients to say yes to treatment is something that's really really fun A Team's podcast is tactical, practical, implementable. That's how we operate. That's how we like to consult. And I love working with practices. I love being able to see you guys ⁓ in your offices, being able to do things, ⁓ being able to just live your best life. Life is our passion. Dentistry is our platform. So, all right, you guys ready to dig in? Because I'm ready to dig in. The number one thing is, let's talk about our phone calls and optimizing our phone calls. because that is our number one zone. And I think it's crazy how much we spend on marketing to get these new patients and how much we work on having a great patient experience. And then we have our newest trained person that knows nothing about our practice answering our most important phone calls. And so things on this are like when we miss phone calls or we don't handle a phone call correctly, those are little lost opportunities. And this isn't to rag on our front office team. We're busy. You guys, I've sat in the front office. I prioritize the patient in front of me over the phone. And so what are some little things that we can do? And there are softwares. There's like patient prism and they're like, I pretty sure with weave, they have them where we can actually track and monitor and see our, ⁓ our phone calls and see how we're doing. But we want to just help our front office team. Like it is crazy. Jason, husband told me, ⁓ he was like, yeah, I, Kiera, if you don't like what someone tells you at a practice, just wait, call back and you'll get someone else and you'll get a different answer. And I think about that in practices and how often are we possibly doing this? How often is our practice maybe. doing it where we actually are having Susie follow protocol and Sarah isn't and therefore Susie is undercut, but Sarah was trying to do what's right. They're both trying to do what's right. So this is where we're at front office teams. Let's make sure we're all saying the same thing. So no matter if they get Sarah or Susie or Kiera or Jason or John, every single one of them is the exact same. And this is going to help. So number one, we need to have actually in the front office team, especially usually there's quite a few of them. We need to make sure that one person is dedicated to like first on phone, second on phone, third on phones. So everybody knows like, hey, what is the ring, the ring place? Now, if you're a really large practices, sometimes they put it in a call center. All those are totally fine, but we need to make sure that every single person is actually optimizing our phone calls. And so it is a, you can even get a phone tree where we optimize new patients. We have a line for billing questions. So that way we can actually know which phone call should I prioritize and know exactly this is a new patient phone call. Now, when we, When we answer the phone, I actually put mirrors in front of a lot of our team members. We want them to smile. We want the patient to feel the energy on the other side of it. We want them to feel like they chose the best place. And I actually feel this is one of the greatest ways to optimize is if you just give your patients a little bit different experience on the phone of like, we are so excited to have you call us versus we are annoyed that you bothered us in the middle of our day. That tone and intonation is going to help patients say yes or no a lot more to you. I remember, and I shared this example a few years ago, I was trying to find a PT and I called around to a bunch of different locations and I literally chose the place based on how they answered the phone. And I think I truly believe in today's world of AI and automations that what is going to become the number one differentiator more than cost, more than anything else is kindness. Kindness and customer service is going to be what far outshines most everything else because it's becoming a trait. ⁓ People are grumpy, people have the COVID cranks still, people are annoyed. I walk into stores and like, we're closing in 30 minutes. I'm like, fantastic, I'll just shop on Amazon. They don't yell at me. This is where I think we need to recognize our society and people want to be loved. We are human beings, we are human connections. And so really being able to give that. it is about, let's answer the phone. Let's have our intonations and our tone and that big smile. And then let's make sure that we're following protocols. So how we block schedule, how we schedule patients, how we handle a new patient phone call. New patient phone calls are great to optimize. It is a, like we take control of it instead of saying, you have insurance? It's amazing. How did you hear about us? Let's change that tone and that vibe. So that way they feel like, my gosh, like I heard about you on Google. We absolutely love our patients. Like our Google reviews are what we're so proud of. And we strive to make sure that you as a patient coming in. are going to be able to leave us those same reviews because you have the best experience with the best dentist. I'm Kiera, it's so nice to meet you. Let's get you all ready and set up for your appointment. What are we looking for? we coming in like when was the last time we saw the dentist? I want to make sure I set you up for the right type of appointment. We just take a few minutes to be human. A new patient phone call can literally be done in five minutes and make them feel human. It's taking control of the conversation initially. It is saying. Hi, how did you hear about us? I'm Kiera, welcome to our practice. I know you're absolutely going to love it here. Let's get a couple of information. Let me start with your name, your phone number in case we ever get disconnected. I'm gonna make sure I get you so taken care of and we truly cannot wait to welcome you into our practice. ⁓ And then we go through, if they have insurance, fantastic. If they don't, if they're on an insurance plan that we don't take, that's fine guys. These people can still come. want you to, I'm gonna drill this down so hard on optimization of our phone calls. ⁓ Just because a patient doesn't have insurance, we are not going to let $1,000 dictate if this person comes to see us or not. You guys, $1,000, I know that not all insurances are 1,000, but that's usually about the max, but they pay so much more than that. And this is about a long-term relationship rather than a short-term transaction. I'm going to say that again, our new patients, it is about a long-term relationship rather than a short-term transaction. And if we can remind them of this is the greatest place, you're so welcome to be here. You're so like, we are so happy to have you here. People choose that all day long. People want to know they're on a winning team. So how can we make them feel like they made the absolute best choice by choosing our practice? And I want you to audit phone calls. So for the next couple of days, I would like, and we actually track, we have trackers where it's like, let's get our new patient trackers and how many of these new patient phone calls scheduled and didn't schedule. And if you have your front office team track this for about one week, they will actually be able to see how many new patients are actually getting, how many are we converting and why are we not converting it. Then if we actually listen to these calls back, we can fine tune one or two statements and be able to optimize and get people to come in. You guys like, this is one of the things I'm like, I don't know how much more easy I can make this for you. But if we just prioritize two or three little things on our phone calls, making sure we all schedule correctly, that we welcome them and we're excited and we just role play this for the next month, you will absolutely increase your practice. I promise you, because we're going to convert more phone calls. We're going to have more happy patients. We're going to have patients who are more excited to come to the dentist because they're already feeling welcomed. These are little things that don't make a big, like they don't seem grandiose, but they make a huge, huge, huge impact. so making sure that we're optimizing that you guys, the phone is one of your most powerful resources in your practice. And if we have like, you do not want your billing representative and billers, this is nothing against you. am not a great biller. I was like, I don't want to go to bat. I don't want to go figure out the one penny you do. And that's why we have different roles. You want somebody who's so excited, who loves your practice. ⁓ I've had front office team members that are in this role that are from like tanning salons or from a high end customer service or from a waiter waitress situation or a hostess situation where they just love and they want to welcome and they want to greet and they're so excited and they just make that person feel like a million bucks. so making sure that our phone calls are optimized really truly is going to help us and help us really ensure that our practice is optimized. And so with that new patient phone call, It is a, let's snag them at the beginning, let's ask them how they heard about us, let's capitalize on that, let's find out what type of cleaning that they want or what they're calling for or when the last time was that they went to the dentist and then let's schedule them appropriately with VIP customer service. And then what I typically do is if we are using insurance, I say, fantastic, I'm gonna send over our new patient welcome information right now while I've got you on the phone, make sure it gets to you. And then I do need to get that back 48 hours before your appointment to make sure it's confirmed. Did you get that email from me? Fantastic. When can I expect to see this? I want to make sure I don't miss it for you. And that way I can get your patient, your appointment confirmed. I have them commit to me right here, right then, because if I do that, this patient's already more locked and loaded to come into me. They've committed that they're going to get this back to me in the next two days. I'm going to look for it. And if you really, really want to stand out and shine on customer service, following up in two days, hey, Kiera, I didn't see that paperwork come through. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it. You can set little reminders for yourself. This is not hard. and listening as front office, you be like, my gosh. But I wanna say what is actually hard? Choose your hard on this. Chasing a patient, not getting my insurance until the day of being, like having new patients, no show on appointments, that's hard. Me following up in two days on their paperwork and making sure that they give it to me so I can, 48 hours ahead of time to make sure their appointment's confirmed, that's not hard. That's just a shift of your process that optimizes your process and makes it to where you actually have a ton less work. It feels like hard work today. Just like if I were to say, okay, go sign your name. You're like, okay, I can sign it. Got it. If I say, okay, now sign your name, but you have to sign it every other letter, that's going to feel hard because that's actually easier than you signing all the letters. And if you practice every other letter a few more times, you actually become faster at that than you were at your initial signature. So just because it's different doesn't mean that it's hard and it's not efficient. It just means you're doing it as a different way. And so really looking at that and seeing how can I actually make this to where we can optimize our phone calls. And that's what we're going into. You guys, just a small optimization of our phone calls, of how we operate, of how we ask for information, that's going to cut down so much more time that allows you to be in front of your patients, because you're not chasing all these forms all the time. I promise you, get patients to commit to you before they even get into your practice, and you're going to have a completely different practice. And so I want you just to remember that this is a great way for you to optimize on a phone call. Now, there's several other ways that we can optimize. We can optimize on our handoffs. You guys have heard me talk about NDTR about a thousand times. We optimize on that and I say it's like, we don't just get a drop a sheet with our front office or we drop a patient…
Full show notes at the publisherRe-releasing a DAT listener favorite! News flash: Setting goals for yourself isn't selfish! In fact, Kiera encourages you to set personal, then professional goals. In this episode, she talks about why it's important to think about yourself a bit more, why taking personal time helps you AND your team, and the best way to actually set those goals. Say the things you want to have; be clear about the life you want. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review 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 (00:31) You guys, I hope today's an awesome day for you. I hope you're doing something great for you. Hope you're loving on your teams, giving them compliments, telling them how great they're doing, being very specific and intentional. And I hope you are just remembering that you are working in the best profession, in my opinion, that you could ever, ever, ever ask for. That's right. I believe that dentistry is the greatest profession any of us could ever work in. And I feel truly blessed and honored that we get to work and serve and Give back to a community that I am obsessed with. So with that said, guys, please be sure to leave us a review if you have not done so. Yes, I'm talking to you. I don't know your name, but I'm talking to you. Please go leave us a review. I know you've been a podcast listener for so long. Please help us out. Help us grow our podcast and serve and give to to more people. Guys, it's very simple. Whatever device you're listening to you scroll down to the bottom. There's a spot where you can either write an actual review or just leave the star rating. So please help us out. Keeping us at that five stars and giving back has been really, really beneficial. And then we're able to rank higher on the dental. When people search for dental podcasts, we're able to rank higher and help and serve more people. With that said guys, I want to talk about why as teams and owners, it's important for you to set goals for you. That's right. I think oftentimes we get so obsessed with setting goals for our practice that we forget that it's okay to set goals for the life that we want to have, for the life and the practice that we want to have. Not the one that we think we should have, but the one we genuinely want to have. What happens with that is so often I was actually just talking to a doctor and he said, you know, I really, really, really want to have where I only work three days a week. but I'm concerned that that's going to impact the team's goals of being able to grow and produce more since I'm such a strong producer. Okay. Number one, kudos to this doctor for loving on his team so much that he wanted to make sure his team was successful. Also with that said, I have found that when you are setting goals for yourself personally, you're much happier and you want to work harder. And also docs, if you just tell us what your goal is, we as team members get to become insanely. Yep. You got it. innovative. So we get to come up with it like this office. The office manager said, Hey, that's fine if you want to do this, because guess what? That gives us an opportunity to come up with different ways to change our insurances, to look for ways making sure that we have our fees exactly where they actually should be. It's going to eliminate patients who don't want to be paying for the services that we're offering. I love that this office manager took it on as a challenge. of how she could actually reach the goals that the practice is set while also reaching the goals that the doctor had for themselves. So for you guys, it's really that thought process of how can we actually achieve the goals that we want? Want? Yes, I said it, want. I want you to achieve the goals that you want. ⁓ And so with that said, making sure that you're setting goals for you. Now, sometimes I think that we feel selfish. We feel like, well, who am I to deserve this? But the answer is you're a person. You're a person of worth. You're a person who actually deserves to have the life you want if you want to have it. Or you can sit in a victim mentality and say, well, this is just the life it's going to be and I have to do this and I have to do that. Well, fantastic. You're welcome to stay in that mindset, but that's actually not true. You don't have to do anything. You get to choose the state of life you live in. You get to choose the state of being that you come to work every day in. You get to choose those things. Those are things that you have full control over. You also get to determine the goals that your practice sets together. Doesn't mean you'll necessarily reach them, but guess what? You get to set that. You do. You do. And so because of that, make sure that you actually are setting goals that you want to achieve. And don't worry about being selfish. We often have these stories in our head that aren't real. Guys, if you're a doctor who only wants to work two days a week, Please just say that. Say that because that way we can actually work and create something. We could hire an associate. We could do a lot of different things for you. We just need to know what you actually want. So I recommend setting three personal goals and three professional goals. Yes, tis the season guys for goal setting. I'm obsessed with it. I was just talking with my younger sister and she said, Kiera, I don't know how you have so much passion for setting goals. So if you feel that way too, that's okay. ⁓ but my little sister also told me a few days later, said, Kiera, you ignite thoughts in my mind. You make me think of, should start setting goals. I want to set goals. What am I doing? And she said, so by you saying this, you're actually giving back on such a greater level because she said for me, I don't think like that, but you do. And so if I can actually benefit from listening to you and hearing your passion, I'm then able to set and create goals as well. When that's something that I just don't even think about often. And I loved that. So I thought, okay, let's talk about this, but really getting into the nitty gritty of being okay, setting personal goals ⁓ of what you really want. So number one, I set three personal and three professional goals every single year at a minimum. This last year I had five of the five, I hit four of the five. The only one I didn't have hit was having a baby. ⁓ we can't get pregnant guys. And it's so irritating to me, but I probably shouldn't have set a goal around something I really don't have full control over. So, ⁓ but beyond that, I did hit all the goals that we have and it's actually pushing us to go and start on a journey of IVF. If any of you have tips on that, please email me personally guys, it's not professional. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'm super excited. That's our 2022 journey. ⁓ The bottom line is setting those goals. So because I had a goal of having a baby last year, guys, and even though I didn't, ⁓ It forced me to think of the company differently. It forced me to have our entire company work on getting our SOP manual done, of having people learn to run the business so it wasn't completely dependent on me, of getting it more internal and having a team that could do this for me versus it being dependent on me all the time. It was one of the best goals that I set because it forced the company to innovate, create, and go into a different realm than it's ever been before. So that's why it's a paramount, guys. I hope I'm like drilling this into you to set goals that you actually want. Now, what do you do if you don't know what you Well, let's just go do a dream session. All right. Let's have you go just dream and imagine of anything and everything you've ever kind of even wanted. I'm talking like silly things. Like I've wanted to have a home cooked meal every day. Like silly things. Because what it will do is it will start to generate. an activity that I did that you guys can try is I'm going to give you three minutes, one sheet of paper, only one sided. Yes, you heard right. One sided. You can't write on the backside, only the front side. It has to be at eight and a half by eleven. I can see you guys getting huge poster boards, you overachievers. You got three minutes. You can even do it faster. Do it on two minutes. Set that timer for two minutes. Anything that's written on this paper, you will achieve. If it's not written on this paper, you will not get it for the rest of your life. Yeah, I just made that real serious. The rest of your life. Okay. So it's forcing you to think, I will only get these things if they're written on this piece of paper and I have two minutes to write down what I actually want in life. I don't care if they are materialistic. I don't care if they're relationship. I don't care what the heck they are, but you have two minutes and you get nothing else on this list for the rest of your life. That's a really good way to get you guys to think about what you actually want in your life. Okay, try it out. Then after that, go around and write one three or 10 years next to this. What is it going to be? Are you going to achieve this in one year, three year, five year, 10 year? Because some of those goals might take a little longer to achieve, but that's a great way to really see what do you actually want. Again, like really play by this. If this is all you are going to get for the rest of your life, the rest of your life, some of you might have a few years left. Some of you might have less time. or more time, but this is all you're going to get. That's how you can start to see like, do you actually really want in your life? And then from there, that's how we can start to create these personal goals. I write silly goals. I write awesome goals. I write goals. you guys, every year I get better and better and better at this. I haven't always been good at it I don't think I'm great at it today. I just think I'm willing to consistently do this year over year over year. But I write things that I actually want. This last year. You guys, I love to have savings accounts. You can ask Jason. I've got about like 12. My bookkeeper hates me. Not like hates, hates, but just drives him nuts. And I've got so many bank accounts, but I like to have these because they give me security. I've got my company bam. I've got my personal bam. I've got a fun from traveling. I've got a fun for my house decorations. Like I get crazy guys, but it gives me security. And so I oftentimes will write goals around how much money I want to have in my savings accounts. Guess what? Every year I hit these goals. I write goals. I love cars. love fast cars. I did just buy a Tesla Model 3 performance. So zero to 60 in three seconds guys. And I freaking love it. It's so fun. I love fast cars. So oftentimes I write goals around cars. I also this year my goal is to be in the best shape of my life. So I hired an in-house chef. Guys it's actually cheaper than going grocery shopping. Just so you know I did the math on it. It is cheaper. than grocery shopping to have an in-house chef. I don't know how I found this guy, but it was something that I wanted to have. So I'm hiring somebody. They're going to come cook for me one day a week. They make me three meals with eight servings each. That's 24 meals for me and my husband. They will put it into containers for me. Bada bing, bada boom. I've got dinner, lunch for an entire week and they come in once a week and they go grocery shopping for me. And it's cheaper than if I were to do my own grocery shopping. So things like that. I want to be in the best shape of my life. You guys, I'm terrible. I love to cook. I just don't make the time for it. And then when I do cook, I go to, it's too quote unquote hard for me right now to eat healthy meals. So I said, okay, if I'm going to be in the best shape of my life, what do I need to do about it? So those are some fun goals that I do just so you guys know, I have a goal to not work Mondays and Fridays. I love to have Fridays as my own personal day to do Kiera's things. Monday, I love it to be business dream day. that's not quote unquote work. I just don't want to be scheduled in meetings. I want to have a day where I can dream about the business. And if I want to work, I can. And I can start when I want to start. And I don't have meetings that are scheduled. That's something I want to do. So writing those things, being OK to say the things that you actually want to have. ⁓ In years past, it was that I wanted to travel out of the country one or two times. This next year, it's probably going to be that I have at least four weeks off throughout the year where I can actually just go on vacation with my husband and we can go have a great time. Whatever it is guys, you can create these goals. So really making sure that you write your personal goals. Then you go to your professional goals. Notice I do personal and then professional. Reason being is because if I take care of me, it's just like on an airplane guys, you got to put your oxygen mask on you first. Then you find a way to create it within the business. If you're clear of the life that you want to have, if you're clear about who you want to be, and this goes for owners and team members, guys, this is not just reserved for owners. This is reserved for everybody. Everybody, everybody can have this, you guys, every single person. So with that said, you guys then go to professional. If you want to have this life, what needs to happen professionally? What are the growth goals that the company needs to have? Now you might need to scale it back. It might be unrealistic for you to take four weeks off this year. Maybe it's that we start this year at two weeks and then next year we go four weeks. Just know because you write it down, it does not mean it's written in stone. It can be adaptable. One of my new values that I've created for myself is flexibility. Cause I was like, no, I said four weeks, I will find a way for four weeks. Well, flexibility can really change my life. It can help me be happier and more content with it out of being as hard. So giving myself that permission to have flexibility is something that I really valued. And so. Maybe I'm gonna change it. Maybe two weeks is still gonna give me that excitement and that happiness. But being able to start working towards the life I wanna have. I'll tell you guys, three years ago, I said I wanted the company independent of me. Took me three years, guys. And the only way we were able to actually find out if it was is because I got COVID and I was out for a week. Like down for the count. My head was spinning like a top with helium in there. Like that's…
Full show notes at the publisherA practice won't truly thrive until its team members are aligned and attached to your company's purpose. Tiff and Kristy go into what it takes to gain collective buy-in from those who keep your practice humming, including being reminded of fundamental desires, embracing vulnerability, understanding motivators, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I'm so excited for you to be here today. You know, I'm always excited. I love podcasting. I have loved doing this over the course of all of the years that Kiera and I have been putting these out. They are so much fun. It is so cool to reach you guys and it is amazing to get the time in with our consultants. And I'm bringing her live to you, well not live, I guess. It's live for me. It's recorded for you. But I'm bringing her all this month for you because... We just busted them out in one day, if I'm honest with you, Kristy. Thank you for being here. Thank you for blocking your afternoon for podcasting with me. And I'm excited for this topic. How are you and how excited are you for this topic? The Dental A Team (00:41) Excited and I'm doing well. It's not 49 degrees in the morning. It's actually 71 here Oh 72 now, so know that's a little chilly to us, but I'm excited the sun's shining and We get our time together. So I'm excited The Dental A Team (00:49) ⁓ That's fair. I love walks and I was doing morning walks until like mid December and I was like, I can't, I don't know if it's because I'm an Arizona girl or if it's because I have, you know, thyroid stuff and Hashimoto's, but that chill, as soon as it hits my body, I'm done for. You don't want to be around me. You don't want to know me. And so I have not been going outside in the morning nor later in the evening because that Arizona desert does something different when that sun goes down. So very happy to hear 71. Those are my, I really, think my sweet spot is like 73 to 76. That's my ideal. So if we can find a place that's always 73 to 76, I say we jet. That's where we're going. We just stay there. So I love this topic today because, I mean, I love every topic we go through, because you tend to really spin it for me and make everything fun. ⁓ But I love the emotional side of life and the buy-in side, and today really talking about how to get teams bought into your big why. And I like that because I love purpose. I like everyone to have a purpose. And I think when a practice owner knows what they're after, they have their purpose, it allows the team to then see their purpose within that that why within the owner's purpose. And we actually talked about this a little bit. Now that I say that, it's like I've repeated that we talked about this at the Mastermind in September. And it was actually fun. Anyone who was there will hopefully remember maybe recap will remind you. But Kira was talking we were talking about writing their why's like what are they doing? What's their purpose? And Kiera spoke about hers and it was really really emotional because Kiera and I get emotional it was fun to see for her how her purpose and her why came to life when she spoke about it because I think it morphed a little bit as she was saying it but then it was really fun because she was able to see how my purpose is fulfilled within her purpose in that I think for owners, it's scary to think that your team has a drive or a why or a want, and it can feel like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. And if they have their own thing, they're gonna leave. And some of them will, that will happen. I've seen, I had a practice. The Dental A Team (03:34) Hmm. The Dental A Team (03:39) She was there in September. She'll remember, she'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I had a practice, I went, we did a stellar meeting. ⁓ it was so much fun. So much fun. She has the best practice, she has the best why. She's just an incredible human. Two days later, ⁓ she had a team member quit because she wanted to open up her own business and she wanted to do hair. And the inspiration from talking about why's and talking about what are we doing with our lives. prompted her to quit and start a hair salon. She just, I was like, I am sorry and not sorry at the same time. So it can happen. And I think that's the fear for a lot of people. But watching Kira open up and then watching Kira get so emotional over how my why and my purpose is fulfilled within what I do, within my position. The Dental A Team (04:15) Yeah. The Dental A Team (04:33) it was like something morphed and changed for her and we all got to see it as like this butterfly effect. But I say that because I can't, I can have my own purpose and my own why, we all do. But when you can see how it aligns with the company that you're working with and how you can serve your purpose and your why within the job that you're in, that's really cool. And I think Kristy, for me at least, personally as a team member, that helps keep me tethered to the job. Because if I don't know what the why is, where we're going, what are we growing for, why are we tracking these numbers, like what's the big deal, and I just wanna help people, I'm gonna move on until I find my place. And the find your place is being in alignment and being attached to the purpose that your company is serving and driving. And that was a really long-winded way of introducing the topic. But I thought as soon as I said those things, I was like, oh my gosh, the September event. And so I hope all the doctors listening who were at the September event remember, because it was a really magical time for Dental A Team. And for those of you coming to future events, just buckle up, because there's always something really cool attached. But Kristy, passing the mic over to you, what are your thoughts? And really gaining team member buy-in, what do you? What did I prompt for you in all of those words I just spewed? The Dental A Team (06:02) Yeah. Yeah, and all those words. Tiff, I know we were talking numbers earlier, so hopefully they were listening to that too, but the numbers are our gauge, but the buy-in has to be emotional. It's gotta be vulnerable and it's gotta go back to why you do what you do. Like, why'd you get into dentistry? And doctors why maybe, I mean, you said it, doctors why may be different than team members, but. I venture to say almost every one of us that got into dentistry have some sort of passion for caring, you know? And we gotta get back to the root of that. And we even talked about ⁓ finances and getting to the emotional why. It's no different. If you want our teams to be bought in, you've gotta get to your emotional why. And you doctors have to be the North Star in that. You can have leadership teams, right? But they've got to be very clear on the why. And it doesn't mean that our direction won't change, because it could change. But that intentional, why do you do what you do? Why do you wake up and get out of bed? We have to identify that. The Dental A Team (07:17) I love that. You're spot on. And something shifts and changes, I think, for a person when they key in on that. And it's not just going with the motions. We can go through the motions in life very easily. And I think you finish high school and you go to undergrad and you go to school and you go to whatever. You go through dental school. You become a dentist. You do the thing and then you buy the practice. And it's like you get there and you're like, why did I do all that? Right? They forget. They forget why they did the thing. And I listened to a Simon Sinek thing not too long ago. Well, you know, I love listening to him, his speeches. But one thing that he's been able to key in on for purpose is going back to your high school self. Because in high school really is when we decided what we wanted to do and we tagged it to a work. like to a physical thing, like what is the job we're going to hold? But somewhere in there, our high school self wanted to serve a purpose and we attached the job to that purpose. So if we can kind of think back to our high school self and really think what did we love? What inspired us? What did we like doing? Where did we feel the most fulfilled and satisfied at that age? that helps figure out what it was that you're intending to do in life. What is that purpose? Because the purpose isn't, this might rock a few of you, the purpose isn't to do the best dentistry in Kentucky and have smiles that last forever. That's not why you're here. You were not put on this earth to. Do fillings you might be doing fillings, but that's the actionable piece. That's the what? but what's the why and We actually Kristy shared this recently with a client and Really like I feel like this kind of work on your purpose your your emotionally driven purpose is What can? re-inspire dentists who might feel like they don't know what they're doing anymore. Why am I even here? Why did I become a dentist? Or teams that are like, what are we doing? Why are we pushing? What are we even after? But that emotionally driven why you can see where in your purpose, the what that you're doing, the job that you're doing, might be satisfying and fulfilling that space. The Dental A Team (10:05) Wow, that was big. And yeah, you're absolutely right. We just went through this exercise and when you start feeling burnt out, it's great time to go back and revisit that why to reignite that fire and remember why you're doing it because you are going to go through the ebb and flow and the hard times to get there. But when you can let that be your burning desire in your gut, the rest of it's going to fall back into place. Yeah. The Dental A Team (10:33) Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I love all of this work. It's part of like who I am as a human is to help people figure out the inspiration that makes them love what they do every day. That is what I said in September. is my purpose is to inspire people to love what they do in life. So this stuff lights me up. Like I know I'm in my purpose when I get to talk about this stuff. So that's very easy. But how do you Once we key in on that, Kristy, how do you suggest or coach doctors in sharing that with the team? Because it is incredibly vulnerable, especially when you figure out that your purpose has nothing to do with dentistry. Dentistry is the engine behind the purpose, a lot of, we talked about this earlier too, a lot of people are afraid to share those kinds of things. They're afraid to share the numbers, they're afraid to... The Dental A Team (11:13) it is. The Dental A Team (11:27) It's scary to be vulnerable and it's scary, it can be scary to inspire a team to want their own purposes too, again, because you don't, you're like scared they're gonna leave or go start a hair salon. But what do you, how do you coach them on that and how to be vulnerable? The Dental A Team (11:46) Yeah. Well, I think it's funny that you said the hair salon, first of all, because that person can be a great referral source back to the practice. So it might not be all bad. That too. Yeah. And with that being said, it is vulnerable. And what's coming to my mind is how many times do The Dental A Team (11:50) I do too. That's fair. I was thinking that was the opposite of you. ⁓ The Dental A Team (12:11) And again, doctors, I'm not trying to pick on you, but how many times do they come to us and say, they're just here for a paycheck? The Dental A Team (12:18) Mm. All the time. The Dental A Team (12:21) And maybe we shouldn't make that wrong. The Dental A Team (12:24) Yeah, I say that. ⁓ my gosh, yes, drop the mic. I say that all the time. We are here for a paycheck. We have to pay our bills. The Dental A Team (12:28) Yeah. Yeah, and doctors paying something too, which means I think my soft spot goes back to sometimes doctors are afraid to say they're doing this for a quality of life or a legacy of life that they're going to leave and it is tied to money. And I don't think we need to be shameful of that anymore. I truly don't. And I think we need to give permission because even if I am here for a paycheck, that doesn't mean I'm going to serve differently. Right. ⁓ It's okay and let that be the motivator because if they're getting that, they may serve even better. The Dental A Team (13:13) Yeah, yeah, and you made me think of to speak to all the team members who are listening. For me, when I hear that somebody wants to a legacy or a legacy dental practice where their kids, if they decide to be dentists, can come be dentists, like this lifestyle, I want this lifestyle for my family. Well, I'm helping serve that I'm helping provide that. And in turn, I'm also growing. I'm also reaping benefits of them succeeding. So I would much rather work for a doctor who's driven to keep going and keep growing than someone who's like, we're just here to do the fillings. Like cash your check, because I'm like, are we though? Are we going to be here in a year? Like is this stable? The doctor who's like, yeah, I want to build a legacy and I want to impact this community and my family in XYZ ways. I'm like, cool, you're bought in. That means this is stable. I can get bought in on that because my family is going to grow as your family grows. And I can see myself here for a long time. And I think that's that team buying and that vulnerability of this is why I'm here because I'm here to serve my family. I'm here to pay my bills. I'm here to make sure Brody goes to college. I'm here to make sure that he has everything that he wants and desires. Ask my The Dental A Team (14:16) Yeah. The Dental A Team (14:42) checking account. That is my goal. Brody is happy and it's served by doing things like this. And if I want my goal, if my goal is to leave a legacy and be the entrepreneur who leaves a legacy for my family, that people can pick up that business and they don't have to work for anyone, then that's going to look different. I'm going go open a hair salon. I'm going to go do that thing. But I'm going to do that regardless of you telling me. The Dental A Team (14:44) you The Dental A Team (15:10) your purpose and your why, it's gonna happen no matter what. So don't be afraid to share it, just know you're serving, you're providing a space where people can grow. Whether they grow with you forever or they grow to a place where they're like, cool, I can go do that thing that I've always wanted to do, that's incredible. You got somebody to a point where they could go fulfill their life dreams, holy cow. That's really freaking cool. And hopefully in the meantime, in the middle of that, you guys built some awesome systems that somebody can come in and learn. Because not everything's a guarantee, but the way you said that, Kristy, is just spot on. That vulnerability piece and allowing the team to decide if that's what they're here for or not, instead of leaving in the shadows, never speaking of it, and hoping that they stay anyway. The Dental A Team (16:05) Yeah. How many times have you, I mean, I haven't worked at a lot of jobs, so I'm pretty loyal to my jobs, but for people that have gone, and I've interviewed people and hired people, so…
Full show notes at the publisherRe-releasing a DAT listener favorite! Dr. Dave Moghadam joins Kiera to discuss getting your hygiene team on the same page and at the same point of understanding. He shares his approach, and goes deeper into the following: Gather all information and establish a flow of procedure Hold a longer meeting for your hygiene team to review and add their own ideas Allow a period of follow-up for questions Transition into monthly or quarterly meetings to continually update Dr. Moghadam utilized the Dental A-Team's hygiene course to help him come up with this approach to calibrate his hygienist team. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review 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 am so excited to bring back on one of my favorite guests, one of your favorite guests, somebody who is in the real life with you guys. He is a practicing dentist, rocks our office. I've known him for quite a while. And he's a man that creates systems, implements and executes. And today I'm jazzed to bring him back on. Dr. Dave Moghadam, how are you today? speaker-1 (01:13) Wonderful, Kiera. Thanks for having me back. appreciate it. It's gonna be a blast as always. speaker-0 (01:17) It's gonna be great if you guys have not heard his other ones we've talked about we've gone from acquiring practices Bringing on associate doctors. We've talked about team quarterly calibrations and now we're gonna dive into something that you started I actually think you started it maybe COVID maybe you're doing it pre-covid ⁓ But but it's going to be diving into hygiene calibration, which I think is so relevant. I mean right now hi, Janice are like more Harder to find than unicorns in my opinion. They're like real real tricky But we just know that they're real. I think it's a great time actually to bring this in. So Dave, kind of walk us through, like I said, you're practicing, Dennis, this is your real life. This is what you're doing really in your practice, which is why I love having on the podcast. So kind of take us away on this hygiene calibration, how you even got the idea for it, what spurred that. I'd love to hear. speaker-1 (02:08) Yeah, so I think as far as like, how did this come about? What was the situation? Everything like that. Some of the key things that were happening were I had focused a lot on a lot of the rest of the practice, like a lot on systemize this, do this, let's grow and everything else was just really just taking off. But the one thing year after year after year that was kind of like fairly consistent, not really like, my God, really, you know, growing was the hygiene department. So I started to look into things of, how can we just improve? And I always feel like if we improve some of the other basic stuff, the numbers fall. So I think a lot of the things that I was ⁓ looking to do was just getting some consistency, make sure everybody's on the same page. At that point, had gotten, yeah, this was about two years ago. So we had just gotten a new hygienist to join our team who's been with us ⁓ since then. We had another hygienist who was only there a day a week at that time. So it was kind of a little difficult to try and get everything all buttoned up. the way I went about it was one, I first took the big chunk of what we had in our operations manual, such as protocols, expectations, standards, record keeping, all that stuff. And then the other thing is I contacted you and I said, Hey, what do you have for this? Because we're all going to be on our butts for a while when the world closed down for a little bit. we went through the hygiene course. I took some, some pearls from there. tried to organize things a little bit more. Uh, we did a little bit of coaching with, Tiffany as well, uh, virtually then. So we basically, the, outline for this, you know, it was basically protocols standards, you know, what ⁓ record keeping, know, what if you encounter some hiccups with patients, you know, as far as, know, those types of situations, ⁓ you know, what's the appointment flow like, what's the communication, like what are the key points that we want to hit on, ⁓ teeing up the doctor, pre-teeing up the doctor, which I'll get into in a little bit. ⁓ And then, you know, a lot of this is kind of reviewing our, basically chunking out our routes. is very detailed and that kind of like highlights a lot of this stuff. And then we get into you know some basis of treatment planning, incorporating some bundles which is a concept that you guys helped us you know incorporate and bring in, and then just talking about some of the other basic stuff like how do we talk about fluoride, you know why is it important to ask for referrals, and then you know financial discussions which basically means just don't have the financial. speaker-0 (04:56) Right. Yes, I love it. Well, and I love it. Something I wanted to point out is I feel like there's actually a ton of opportunities all around us. It's just, we willing to see them and then actually execute on them? So you saw COVID as a time we're all hanging out. We've got nothing to do. This is the area that I haven't spent any time on. So like, let's make this rock solid. And I think there's so many opportunities like that. Hopefully not another pandemic shutdown, but there. all around us all the time. So Dave, let's actually deep dive if you don't mind on a lot of these topics. I know that's kind what we came today for just so people get an idea of how you calibrated your hygiene team on this. Like you gave the resources. Yes guys, if you want to get our hygiene course, we're constantly updating it. It's getting ready to move to all videos. Once you purchase the course, you have it for life. definitely speaker-1 (05:43) You're kidding, right? I wonder who gave that suggestion. speaker-0 (05:46) That was Dave, which is great because I came in with steal of a deal and said like give me honest feedback and then I felt bad your team was going through as we were rampantly speaker-1 (05:56) That's really going to button it up. ⁓ speaker-0 (05:59) Good good. So we're working on videos working on audio, but we're constantly updating and innovating it and asking for your guys's feedback So if that's helpful for you fantastic, like Dave said we did do virtual calls with his hygiene team very spot specific but kind of like walk us down through this Of like what exactly does this calibration look like you listed those items kind of deep dive with us on it. Yeah speaker-1 (06:19) Yeah, that was just a lot of verbal diarrhea there. I just kind of threw it out there. So we'll break it down. We'll go section by section. Yeah. is what happens. So basically, as far as protocols and standards and things like that, I mean, that's just kind of the basics of what are we expected to do. It's kind of like if you think of onboarding, it's repetitive. It's a review. But kind of like, what do you expect to do in the morning, during the appointment, at the end of the day, kind of going through, making sure everybody knows what the all that looks like, making sure that they're very clear on like what's expected for the end of day sheets that, you know, that they take pictures of and turn in every day, all that stuff. You know, record keeping, you know, how often are we doing, you know, probing, how often are we taking x-rays, you know, what kind of photos do we expect? And then as far as like pickups that relate to that, I mean, we, I think of it in a positive way, half our patient base is 60 and a I love it. It's a really a wonderful type of practice, but in over the past five years of, ⁓ know, initially early on transitioning and taking over a practice like that, and then taking in other practices like that, we get a lot of stuff where people think that the X-ray head is gonna melt their faces. And, you know, because of that, it's kind of like, well, let's figure out a way, what's gonna be our kind of standardized way of how we're gonna address these concerns. What are we going to go ahead and do? So we like a little pamphlet basically that shows some examples of things, why we take x-rays, what could be missed, all that stuff. Very simple, very straightforward. Has a little chart that we just kind of found somewhere on Google about radiation, the mouse, like that. And they kind of have their set kind of like, hey, we go through all that stuff. And if it kind of becomes a push versus shove moment, they have to come grab me, which I don't really love, but it is what it is. And then we kind of go from there. So that's not to get sidetracked, but that's kind of, you know, one of those things. Like when we have situations where things may not necessarily go smoothly, it doesn't matter what the actual answer is. Everybody just has to know it. speaker-0 (08:23) Right, right. No, I love that. And I was going to say, Dave, based on our last podcast we did, you know, they've to come get you maybe throw that into your calibration role play. What do we say to these patients? ⁓ But I really do. speaker-1 (08:36) I don't necessarily want to encourage. I like to do dental treatment and sit at my desk and drink water. speaker-0 (08:43) I definitely agree and that's what I feel like most dentists feel. So I like that. So with that, I like that you do that. So how does this kind of hygiene calibration look? Do you do it consistently? Is it like once a year that you do it? Did the hygienist help create it with you? They brought up the issues that they were coming with. I kind of break it down. Like if I'm a brand new office, I don't really know. I want to do this. I'm hearing you do this. What are kind of the steps to be able to actually get this into my practice and start running it? speaker-1 (09:10) Yeah, so I think the big thing is I think you gotta just like deep dive into it, like do it once over whether it's like one really long appointment or like maybe a couple of weeks of a couple of hours. I think it's a lot to try and like just be like, yeah, you're gonna like remember all of this stuff. Like even if we do every three months, stuff like that. ⁓ And right after we did it, we were doing weekly hygiene meetings. So we kind of will like chunk out, you know, little pieces of this to kind of get a little bit more granular or kind of talk about how we improve doing weekly meetings is a lot, it just was really, and we were just being very, very inconsistent with it. So I was kind of like, ⁓ like it's Tuesday and yesterday was Monday and Monday was really hard. And now I'm really tired and you know, Dr. Seth's not here today and I'm around all morning. So you know what? I just feel like, not doing this at once. That's what would happen. So now we basically have at least one scheduled each month and a second one that's kind of like floating. Where so that one we're going to no matter what kind of go through some of this. And then if there's another topic that we kind of want to dial, you know, dive into a little bit more, that's at the second one. It makes it a lot more manageable to go ahead and do things that way. I think when you chunk it out like that, these are not like 20, 30 minutes. You know I'm saying? Like, you know, after everybody's kind of had some time to relax before we're to start to see our patients again. But I think the first thing is really making a big, you know, let's get all the information organized together. Let's go through it all. Let's make sure somebody's on the same page. ⁓ I would assume, you know, as we're going to hopefully be onboarding, we'll find an onboarding another hygienist, you know, over the next several months, it would be something that would be a big chunk of the onboarding process. But I think, you know, we'll get to it. I mean, there's a lot, a lot more to go through, but I think having done this for a while and I realized sometimes when you kind of have this, even if somebody, if they've helped make it and you're kind of just driving those points home sometimes, you know, like we talked about in our podcast, things will get stale or there's a way to do it better. And I really have felt that, you know, uh, over time, if I've in the times that I've tried to really, you know, ask for feedback and listen in an environment that doesn't seem so confrontational, know, hygienists and all my team members really sometimes bring these just like amazing, wonderful ideas that I never really would have thought of about. And that's really how I think it really kind of starts to really grow and evolve. And that's hard because, you know, a lot of times everybody, every team member is different. And we have some that are a little... touchy about things. And a lot of times I try and explain that, you know, everything that we were talking about here is not like, Hey, you did like a crap job at this. It's kind of like, Hey, like, I want to try and see how we can make this a better situation for our patients, for you, for me, is there a way that we can maybe try this to see if this is better? Like what suggestions do you have? want to make sure you know, overall, That's the thing, because I always am that type of person that's like, let's make this better, better, better. Sometimes people think it's like, hey, you're doing a not good job. like, no, you're doing a great job. I just don't sit still. And that's kind of a problem. I'm sorry it comes across that. So I've gotten my office manager a little bit more involved as far as like, you know, she's in the meetings as well and asking some more of these questions that I think it's led to a little bit less of a like. confrontation, a lot of this confrontation, but less, you know, heated kind of environment. That's a great idea has come out of things here. speaker-0 (12:53) Well, I think it's because you're also getting into that. Yeah, you're also calibrating with them. And so it becomes more of a learning versus a dictation. And that's where I think the freedom is the freedom to come up with ideas, the freedom to give that feedback when it's when it's coming together to calibrate and to connect versus judging critique. And so I feel like you did a good job of spinning it getting everyone there. So if I'm breaking this down for an office, it sounds like one. gather all the information of like kind of the flow of the procedure. Like what is it, what's involved in that? Thinking of, mean, Dave gave you a really great checklist real quick of those items. And then from there, it sou…
Full show notes at the publisherDo you want your patients to feel confident and cared for and to become raving fans about your practice? Kiera takes listeners through specific steps to help practices refine what their patients go through upon entering to exiting your office. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I'm excited for a quick tactical practical tip for you guys that I just think is magical. And I'll start with like a story about it to kind of kick us off. ⁓ Jason and I, we just recently went to Ruth's Chris. We decided we were gonna do a day date and Jason and I, went to the spa. I convinced him to go to the spa. He's not like obsessed about it, but really loved in like the hot tub room that they actually turned on a football game for him. So. I don't know how the spa gods were on my side that day, but they definitely were. And then we decided to go to Ruth's Chris. And if you guys are familiar with Ruth's Chris, ⁓ it's ⁓ an amazing steakhouse. And ⁓ I noticed when we went in there, there was just a different vibe. And I've been very obsessive about high-end restaurants, reading the book, Unreasonable Hospitality. I think I'm more aware of it. If you guys haven't read that book, I definitely recommend putting that on your book wish list. And what was interesting is, When we came in, they said, hi, Mr. and Mrs. Dent, great to see you. And they took us back to our table and the waitress was so kind to us. And she said, here's this information. What information do you guys need? There were seat spot for us. The busser came through and was like, we really love working with people like you. You guys just make our life so much easier. They're like, here, let's just box this up for you. You made great choices for you. They had all of our stuff boxed for us. The presentation was beautiful. They didn't come by and they weren't annoying to us, but they were so genuine to us. And then as we were leaving, they said, thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Dent. And they knew all about us. Okay. So that was one experience. Another experience has been Jason and I were in Bali and we went to the four seasons and I remember if you've been to Bali, you'll understand. Jason and I both got Bali belly. And if you haven't heard mine was, I got it on our flight home. I've never in all my years of flying, knock on wood, I've never once thrown up ever on a plane. Mine is my flight home that was a nice nine hour flight from Taiwan to San Francisco. And I threw up and had diarrhea the entire freaking time of that flight. I had thrown up about 13 times in two hours and I figured out, if I can make a system for this, like it was hold the vomit bag, go to the bathroom and brush my teeth all at the same time. I realized you can create a system for anything. So that's a little bit beside the point. So I'm here to tell you about great experiences. But at the four seasons, they were top notch. They had an app. They would text us. When I asked them like, hey, you guys have any medicine? They're like, ⁓ we don't have medicine. Here's the pharmacy. We can get it for you. We'll have it to your room. They had it to our room for us. They brought different things for us because they knew that we were sick. They had a turndown service for us. They paid attention to our likes. Our wants, made sure everything was done every single night for us. It was one of the most incredible experiences. And I think about it, like people are like, Kiera, you traveled all over the world. You've gone to Antarctica. You go to these places. And I'm like, Bali, even though I threw up for eight hours on my flight home. Bollywood one of my most amazing experiences and I'm like, what was it? Like it was how I felt at Four Seasons. It was how I felt of everybody was so happy for us to be there. They were so grateful for us to be there. People would say hello to us. They knew our names as we walked through. And ⁓ I've just been paying attention to like Ruth's Chris was recent. The Four Seasons was another one. And then I think about other experiences that maybe weren't as great. I think about... Hotels Jason and I we flew home. We missed a flight coming home from an international flight So we had to snag a hotel the only hotel available for us was a hotel I will not say But it was we'll just say a budget-friendly hotel and I remember we checked in and no one was there They weren't happy to see us. They were annoyed to see us the shuttle. I'm not joking you It was supposed to be there in 15 minutes We waited two hours to get our shuttle and they kept telling us one's on the way one's on the way. They were like you need to call this person By the time we got there our bed was dirty The bathroom was broken. And I just thought, man, I remember that experience. I don't remember the Four Seasons experience, but which one do I want to go back to? Which one do I tell my friends about? Which one am I like, I threw up and I was so sick from Bali. You guys, would never recommend doing a cooking class internationally. I know exactly what caused our sickness. my gosh. And my stomach like to this day still hurts about it. But yeah, I loved that trip so much because of how I felt. And so that's what I want to go into today of the patient experience in designing and creating a journey that the patient wants to be a part of and they want to rave about. And I know we've talked about this at several other times ⁓ because it's something where I remember I was at a conference once and they said, Kiera, what people remember is the beginning and the end. They don't really remember the middle. And so in dental practice, it's our beginning. It's our first phone calls and it's the end on how they leave. Yes, they might remember the middle of the procedure, but typically speaking, it's those, those two points in anything like think about a show you go to. You usually remember the beginning. You remember the end. think about Taylor Swift and I'm like, definitely remember the countdown clock. Like I can remember that. remember everything coming out. Middle, like there was a lot going on and the ending, everybody can remember that. But, and yes, there are still things and that's not to say the middle can't be great, but we want to make sure that it is this experience that people are so obsessed with because we want to help them feel so good. And I think the dental office is such an intimate space. Dentistry is intimate. Everything that we do in dentistry is intimate. And so if we can help patients feel a certain way and that doesn't mean we have to be perfect, but it does mean that we create a patient experience and a patient journey for them. So for me, even in Dental A Team, it should be that the patient experience, our customer experience is very intentional and not accidental. So we kind of think through it, like what do want our patients to feel? What do we want our patients to say about us? And it's also crazy because you can go look at your reviews right now and see what the patient experience is today. what you've created maybe not intentionally or intentionally. Just go read it. What is it? For us at Dental A Team, I want people to feel like it's fun. I want it to feel like it's easy. I want people to feel like, my gosh, like they understood me, that they're thinking ahead of where I'm at, that they can guide us and that we are non-judgmental and that you and your team are gonna rise to the next level. Go read our reviews. That's what it is. But that's by intentionality and design. That's our core values. That's what we talk about constantly. It's how we onboard our consultants. It's how we refine. how we take feedback from clients of if they're not getting it, how can we make this process easier? How can we make it easier for our consultants? How can we give better education? Like what can we do because that's the experience we want them to have. And so, ⁓ this is going to be an episode. If you really want patients to feel like super confident and cared for and to become raving fans for you to where they love the dentist, you have an opportunity to change how people feel about going to the dentist. And I think it's an amazing opportunity if you choose to do it. So Number one is like, let's think about first impression. Remember, like it's the it's the end caps. And I think if we can even just design those two really, really intentionally, like four seasons and Roos Chris, did you notice in both of those? And this is not on purpose. I just sharing the story. I talked about my entrance and my exit at Bali. We were freaking sick on that last day. And I remember that the most more than anything. Yes, they did the turn down service and that was great. But I didn't talk about our New Year's Eve dinner that we had. I didn't talk about the waiters like none of that. And as I think back, I'm like, yeah, that was really nice. I remember our first initial and our ending. Same thing with Ruth, Chris, how they entered us and how they exited. I talked about both of those. Go back and rewind. And that was not on purpose, but this even just proves my point that the experiences you remember are those end caps, the beginning and the end. So what is our presence? So number one is how do we answer the phone on the first new patient impression? That's going to be it. I talked about this just recently. If you haven't heard that, go back and listen, but like, how do we greet people? And are we like smiling when we answer? Are we excited or are we like, Oh my gosh, another freaking phone call, like, hello. Right? I don't know if any of you had a mom who had a mom voice where she's like, Kiera Cherie. And I was like, hello. My mom was like, I didn't do that. I'm like, oh mom, you did. And you had the snap and you'd give me those mom eyes, right? Moms had those two voices. My sister's husband, he was like, my mom used to like snarl at me with her teeth. My mom didn't do the teeth, but we all know like, and I feel like that's how it should be like, we could be busy in the patients, but as soon as that phone rings, I want our front office to feel like. my gosh, I am so excited to be answering this phone call. We are so excited you're here. Like almost like buddy the elf, like you're so excited. Maybe not that enthusiastic, but like that same sentiment. We are so excited. So we want it to be this like welcoming. We are happy you're here. We're not annoyed that you're here. And that's the very first impression. And then when they come into the practice, this is our next first impression. And if we botch our phone, we oftentimes can make it up on our second, but I will tell you that first phone impression is going to be paramount. So get our best person answering those. best person and all of our front office team needs to realize when you answer the phone, you go on stage and you like sit up and you smile, even put mirrors up there so they can see themselves. You guys, not a joke. My mom said I was so vain. She gave me a like desk with a mirror and I used to sit there and talk on the phone in front of the mirror. And I was like, why do you do this? And I'm like, mom, like watch how I talk and I look at things and I look at, I practice my smile and it could have been a little vanity. Uh, but I know it's helped me present and be able to speak. And I guarantee you a lot of that mirror training. is why I'm able to go present on stage today and be able to engage and invoke emotion because I practiced for a long time in the mirror. So having that mirror, having people see how they are, because if I'm sitting down, I'm like, hey guys, welcome to the podcast versus, hey guys, welcome to the podcast. You feel two very different things. And I feel too, I'm like super jazz on the second one. The first one I'm like, cool, I got a freaking podcast today. No, like I'm excited. I'm excited to hang out with you. I'm honored that you share your time with me. So we want it to be, and whatever your experiences, and some doctors you might not be like Kiera level 20. Well, guess what? My team is Kiera level 20. We want to answer the phone in that level. If you are more like subdued and you're more like spa boutique, your phone needs to answer. Like I would be utterly shocked if I called the spa and they're like, hi, welcome to the spa. I'd be like, whoa, tone it down. Like this is the spa. And that's even Kiera who's excited. The dental office, it's like welcoming and engaging and like, hi, I'm like so excited you called. We're truly going to take great care of you. And I'm really excited to bring you into the practice. Notice I even have a patient voice that's different than my podcast voice, which is different than a spa. My spa was like, hi, welcome to Serenity Spa. I'm so glad you're here. And I'm Kyra Dent and I'm changing right here, but it's because I feel that. And that's what I want people to experience in our phone and how people walk in is going to be our first step. So we need you to truly train and what is it? And if you haven't built this for your front office team, help them see this is what our, this is what our patient experience is. We want a confident, energetic, calm, whatever it is, first interaction. And we want our online experience. our website, our scheduling, our messaging, our phone messaging to follow that same experience. So if that's our first impression, they're still filling it. Then they want to make the phone call. And we want to just like reduce any friction. How can I make this easier? I'm going to send you the paperwork. I'm going to schedule you now. I'm going to make sure I get this back in 48 hours. So I've got your appointment confirmed. This is how we're going to work. And I'm also setting clear expectations of we are so excited to have you here. And these are the rules of the game that we play by. You notice like I even feel myself go into like a confident and welcoming human. That's our first experience. And if you will refine this, you will start to notice you train your patients from day one of we are so happy to have you. This is how we operate. We have you run on time. We have you send in our information. You always confirm your appointments 48 hours ahead of time. And we are so excited to welcome you to our family, whatever it is. listening to our new patient phone calls, experiencing that, putting the mirrors up there. And then it's a, when the patient comes into the practice, let's make sure that that's an amazing experience too. Is our waiting room area clean? Do we have our front office person? You guys like, it drives me wild when I walk into a practice and it is cluttery with paper. You guys clear that clutter and make it clean. Dental practices need to be sterile. Yes, you can have cutesy stuff, but it still needs to feel clean and sterile. Front office team members, I'm gonna be a little bit hard right now. Do not freaking eat food in the front where patients can see you. Go to the back. watch it so often. You're just sitting there like you break your crack or anything. No one can see you. They can. They see crumbs. It just feels. People can feel perfection. They can feel cleanliness. They can feel dirtiness. And thi…
Full show notes at the publisherThis episode is all about the (sometimes surprising) benefits of comprehensive financing! Kristy breaks down why putting together a FULL plan for health will help patients and your practice in the long run. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Thank you so much for being here. I want you to know that the Dental A Team, we truly, truly love what we do. And I wanna start this out by just thanking all of you for allowing us to be here. I know we're with you in your car or while you're getting ready in the morning or while you're falling asleep at night, I don't know, maybe in your team meeting, but we're here with you somewhere or I wouldn't be able to say this and we value and appreciate that, the consulting team specifically. We love what we do, we love helping clients, we love helping people, we love helping practices and practice owners build a business that works for them and not them always working for the business. So I'm just super excited to be here today. I wanted to just shout out you guys, massive thank you for the support that you give us, that you continue to bring to us and just know we're here. Dental A Team is here for all of your needs and just reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com anytime you need us. And I have with me today, Kristy, Miss Kristy, I adore you. Thank you so much for being here. I said on a different podcast we recorded that we have a slew of time together today and I'm just, I love it. It is the best way to end a call week. So thank you, Kristy, for being here with me today. How are you? And I'm excited because I think you're really excited about this topic. So how are you doing, Kristy? The Dental A Team (01:17) Yeah, I'm doing well. I'm grateful to have time with you. We don't always get time during the week, so I'm getting some extra Tiff time and it feels good to end the week this way. The Dental A Team (01:30) I agree. I agree. I committed recently, just so everyone knows, to being more intentional about my one-on-one time with the consultants. it really made me not just podcasting, but like actual one-on-one time. But it made me think yesterday while I was going through the schedule, kind of figuring it out, it made me think of doctors too and practices. And this is not in alignment with our, get to it, we'll get to profit in a second, but it is kind of in alignment with profit because We tend to forget, we just get in the machine of doing and in the machine of business and we forget that there's people and that you're not the only one who's busy or stressed or what have you and that the team is counting on you, the team needs you. So my leads and my doctors, it's just like a friendly nudge, a friendly reminder that if you're feeling stressed, you probably need to open up some time in your schedule to insert some team time. And while we push our clients to do one-on-ones, I do one-on-ones every month. with our consultants, but sometimes you just need one-on-one time that's not a one-on-one. You know what I mean? You just need connection. And that's what I call it, is I call it our connection time. So we have our one-on-ones, and then we have our connection time. And I think in office, it's a little bit easier, because you guys are side-by-side and you're talking, but still, to just have that 10, 15 minutes, it's like, hey girl, tell me how your life is. What's new? What's going on? And really connect with people. It's my strong nudge to remind you guys to give the kudos, give the connection, and make time for the people who are there doing this with you. So, Kristy, thank you. Thank you for bringing that up. And I am thoroughly enjoying this because I've had so much Kristy time and I get time tomorrow morning. So I am really enjoying this week and it really lights my life up. So thank you. Now. The Dental A Team (03:17) You're welcome. I was going to tell you, I love that you say that and I truly do believe this does tie to profits. And I know in practice we're super, super busy. I like to call it, go break bread with your people. Like be intentional with the time, even if you have to combine it, go break bread, take them out, get the work done on reviewing what you need to review, but then connect as people. And I do think that that reaps rewards in your profits because The Dental A Team (03:24) I agree. The Dental A Team (03:47) The teams that do this are more connected and they jive together. So I do think it ties together. The Dental A Team (03:53) I agree, thank you, I agree. Now tell me, Kristy, we've got quick tips to increase profit, and honestly, this is a quick tip to increase profit. We'll get you a couple more, but Kristy, tell me, because I agree, I think the connection does, but what about the connection do you think it is that does help the profit? It does help people really be on the same page and same team? What is that doing for the bottom line from a numbers standpoint? Because we can see it from an emotional standpoint and the relationship, but from a numbers standpoint, what do you see? in those practices that do go break bread together. The Dental A Team (04:26) Yeah, I love that you say that because it's connecting as humans and also like letting us see each other in different ways. It again, we talk about this so much. We look through loops, the providers do looking for problems. So really good at being nitpicky and finding problems. And you know, maybe you have the teammate that was late three times this week. And when you actually sit down and find out my gosh, their grandma's going through cancer and you didn't know. It just sheds things in a different light and it lets us serve each other versus when we're in that critical mindset, we pull apart. So it really does connect us together. And when we're connected together, even the person that's going through the trauma or turmoil, they feel safe in the environment and protected and lifted up by their team. So they can leave it at the door. I know we talk about that all the time and as humans, it's almost a false thing to say, because when you're in turmoil, it just doesn't stop. But when you know people understand, it can be your freeing space for just a few minutes or a few hours while you're at work. So it creates a different understanding and it allows you to connect as a team. The Dental A Team (05:42) Yeah, and thank you. I agree. And that in itself, I think allows you all to be on the same ⁓ wavelength, like the same page we're connected where we're able, well, we're able to ask better questions and we're more comfortable, we're more vulnerable, and we're able to say when we need help. And I think that's massive because when we can be vulnerable with each other and say, hey, I'm not, I don't know what this means. I don't know how to credential a doctor. tell me what do you suggest? Where can I learn it? Or we're just able to speak to problems that we're having or areas we need help in. Makes it easier to ensure that we are hitting those goals, because otherwise we're kind of faking it till we make it, thinking I'm the only one with an issue and I'm the only one who's stressed out and I'm the only one sitting in this space. But when you do have that alignment and connection, it's much easier for a team to be vulnerable with each other. And then we actually can push KPIs and we can push goals and we can create profit because we're in alignment. The Dental A Team (06:46) Yeah, you know what's funny? I went through a HR course one time and I remember them saying the biggest thing that's going to determine a new employee staying is how well they feel received. And I like to say truly, like, that goes for all your team members. And sometimes when we get in the rut of our day to day and we see the same faces every day, we forget to take care of each other. And so taking Like I said, it doesn't have to be fancy, but get out of your space and reconnect as a human. It's gonna reap rewards on how they serve your patients too. They're gonna show up differently for each other and patients. The Dental A Team (07:23) Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ that's a massive one. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I love it. Thank you, Kristy That was that was fun. I know that wasn't ⁓ what you had in mind yet, but I it. I liked it. So everyone, there's one quick tip. ⁓ I think it's quick. think it's it's easy, but it's intentional. So you have to be very intentional about your schedule and how you're going to accomplish it. So set your goal. Do the thing. Now, Kristy, I am really intrigued and excited to hear your Quick tip on, what do we call it? Increasing profit is what we're calling this one. So your quick tip on increasing profit. What is your, what is it? I'm so excited. You guys, she just like lit up when I told her. She's like, I've got an idea. And I'm just as shocked as you all are to hear it here. We're all hearing it the first time together. Let's go, let's hear it. The Dental A Team (08:15) You think I'm going to say AR and I'm not. The Dental A Team (08:18) I did! The Dental A Team (08:21) Actually, it is part of it and we'll get to it. But the one that I'm thinking about right now is get to comprehensive financing. Everybody wants to just phase out phase one and you guys are tripping over dollars to make two. Like find a solution that gets people healthy. Then you can always back up to phase one if we can't find a solution. But so many times we dive into just the first phase. The Dental A Team (08:29) Mm. The Dental A Team (08:48) and we tap people out and then it's not till next year. So just try something different and get permission to share all you see clinically so your TC's can present comprehensive finances. The Dental A Team (09:05) my gosh, you did. You came in swinging with that one. Okay, thank you. That is brilliant and I love that. And it is a quick tip. Now explain, define, make definitions here. So what would comprehensive financing by that, what do you mean? The Dental A Team (09:19) What I mean is out of everything the doctor talked about, the total cost to get you healthy is, right? Presenting and finding a solution so they have a plan to get healthy. We're always gonna let the patient be in the driver's seat so we can do it in their timeframe or however their budget allows. But for the most part, give them a plan to be healthy, especially if that's what their goal is versus I don't wanna shock them. Literally the other day I had a doc on and I was like, okay, so what you're telling me is if I come into you as a new patient and you're my doctor and you think I have cancer, you're not going to tell me that you're going to like just plant a little seed and then you're going to it come back and you're going to spring it on me. get permission. Well, number one, get in relationship with your patient and find out what their goals are and then get permission to share. And then also tell them we're going to The Dental A Team (10:01) haha The Dental A Team (10:15) we're gonna do this, they get to decide how fast or how slow we go. And so with that, then it can guide you because so many times I was telling, I remember back when I very first started, there was a doctor and he'd treatment plan crowns in all quadrants. And of course it was an elderly lady that had a budget, lived on a fixed budget. And I thought I was doing great, because I was just gonna get the first tooth done that was broken and obvious. And one month later she called and was like, all I was doing was eating bread and that tooth broke. And I was like, so truly had I presented a solution that fit in her budget and she could get them all done at the same time, it would have been better for her and the practice. So I'm just challenging you to start with everything and then you can always go backward and you will capture more. The Dental A Team (10:48) no. The Dental A Team (11:12) doing that. The Dental A Team (11:14) I love that idea. how does, thank you for the definition, how does that improve the profit point for them? The Dental A Team (11:22) Yeah, you're doing more treatment on one person. It doesn't take as many patients and ⁓ I can schedule it all right now. And in fact, know, the same doctor that I was talking about, and I say this when I'm coaching my clients, I wish I was a brilliant person that thought about it, and I didn't even think about it at the time. It was years later when I learned better, but that doctor used to do wisdom teeth and practice. And so I'd sit there and we'd diagnose people with fillings all over their mouth and he'd say, ⁓ you don't want to be numb on both sides. It's so uncomfortable. We'll do this side, then that side. And the next patient would come and they'd need wisdom teeth and he'd go, ⁓ you want them to do them all at the same time. You don't want to go through that again. Just we'll up everything. And I'm like, wait a minute. It was good for this person, but not that. How about we just let them decide? Do you want to do more, right? Versus, or do you want to do less and come more often? The Dental A Team (12:13) Yeah. The Dental A Team (12:19) So again, it doesn't take as many people and it slows down your day if we're doing getting people healthy. The Dental A Team (12:19) Yeah. Yeah, I love that because it's building better blocks in your schedule. It's utilizing your time. Your dollar per hour is going to increase and you're not as busy. You're not running around from patient to patient and room to room quite as much because you've got bigger cases that you're working on at a time. Yeah. The Dental A Team (12:49) You got it. And naturally, your overhead goes down. I used one instead of five bibs. I used one saliva ejector instead, you know. The Dental A Team (12:53) Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And time in the chair, marketing dollars spent. Yeah. And you're targeting a different demographic of patient avatar, because you're targeting a patient avatar that wants to get healthy and can figure out the finances with you rather than just new patients who might need things diagnosed. I love that. Well, you you shocked me. You did it. I love that. So The Dental A Team (13:03) Yeah. You got it. Yeah. The Dental A Team (13:26) And I think actually those really tie in together now that I was going to repeat them and really in order to comprehensively diagnose and finance, right, to get the dollars for that, the team has to be in alignment. Like those things just don't, they don't happen for teams that aren't on board with your dental philosophies. And in order to be on board with your dental philosophies, you got to be connected as humans. or they do start, I'm hands down telling you the truth from experience. If you lose the connection, they start to doubt you and what they're doing and what you're doing. They start really looking with a fine tooth comb at the things and it's just not worth it. So the connection piece, I do believe, like you said, it helps the profit points in multiple ways. And I think that's how to spearhead the comprehensive diagnosis and financing. The Dental A Team (14:00) you The Dental A Team (14:23) Also because then I can see a hygiene departm…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera 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: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review 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 t…
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