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Is running a dental practice the most stressful part of your life? Does hiring and retaining the right people seem impossible? Do you question whether dentistry was the right choice for you? Kiera reflects on DAT's recent CEO Dentist Webinar, including what dental leadership ideally looks like — from an individual and team perspective. Episode resources: 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 I am so giddy to be recording this podcast. If you missed it, you missed out. We did our CEO dentist webinar workshop and it was so rad. We did it in August and just kudos to all the doctors that were there. If you missed it, you're in luck. I'm going to give you the highlight reel. But I really hope that you plan to join us. It was a three day, ⁓ full playful out workshop that I just thoroughly loved. had doctors. joining us every single night and really just having that mindset shift of how do I go from being this day in day out operator to a CEO owner of my business? Like what are the things that I really should be doing as a CEO versus what should I be doing as a founder? Like how do we shift that mindset? And we did it based on our proven model, the yes model. You guys have heard me chat about that. The focusing on you and your vision, earnings and profitability, and then systems and team development. So it was just really, really fun. This really was something to help. Honestly, like afterwards, had so many calls with so many people that were there. And it was just joyful because they said, Kiera, I really want to learn how to be the CEO. Like as you talked about it, I finally understood like what my role should look like and how I should be evolving. And so just really fun. So just want to say thanks for our entire team. Thanks to everybody who joined. And for all of you, if you didn't ⁓ get to be there, you missed out. It was like full blown. And I did a little surprise. I wasn't expecting it, but I actually ended up ⁓ like doing an after party and it was really fun to just have real conversations. So ⁓ really, truly just a highlight. And today I'm going to kind of like break this down into what we did. I'll give a couple of highlights from each day of just for you to kind of get the highlight reel of it. And then, Hey, if you ever want to chat about how to become the CEO dentist of your practice, this is what we're doing for a lot of offices. I've kind of been shifting our model to help dentists and teams really elevate to have practices that run with team. leadership to have dentists to truly run in their realm of being that healthcare provider that you love and or exiting and going out of the chair. No, there's no set path. It's your path and really helping dentists ⁓ just elevate to that level of like, do I own this business and not have it own me? So just super jazz. That's what we're working on. Just really, really, really fun and exciting things and getting your team bought into this as well. So with that, I'm just excited. Welcome. If you're new to the podcast, I'm Kiera. It's super nice to meet you. ⁓ I love all things dentistry, including my last name is Dent. ⁓ I came from self-made, ⁓ being able to help practices grow to the level, the growth, the fulfillment, the joy that they want, helping doctors and teams align. And this is coming from real life, all of my experiences, all of our collective experience of our consulting team, bringing you tactical practical tips to make your life and your business work for you and not against you. So with that, ⁓ was just a jazz. Like it was so fun. So the first day we really talked about, ⁓ just some topics of like who can relate. So if you can relate to this great, this podcast is for you. number one is running a dental practice is the most stressful part of your life. hiring and retaining the right people seems almost impossible. Some months so great. Others feel like you're drowning. Your patients are canceling last minute, leaving your team and you helpless. know how to be a dentist, but you have no clue how to run a business. You're alone with your problems. You question if dentistry was the right choice for you. You feel like everyone has it together, but you don't. ⁓ and I hope if you answered yes to any of those questions, you realize that truly, truly, truly, you're not alone. And every single dentist feels this at some point and some survive and others thrive. And so the whole goal of the CEO Dennis workshop was to help you thrive. And so on the first day we really went through like, what exactly is a CEO? I remember there was this aha moment in my career where I'm like, what does a CEO actually do? I'm not joking, I Googled this and I was like, what is a CEO? Like, what do they do? And it was a good, I would say a good, ⁓ probably identity shift for me. To realize like a CEO is your chief executive officer. So like, this is the person who executes. So you oversee the execution of day to day, but you don't do it all. So your job is to lead the vision, plan for the future. Create and protect the culture and do big opportunities, but stay out of the weeds. Like that's genuinely what you're supposed to do. And a lot of dentists, we'll add one more Asherick. A lot of times you do the dentistry. Sometimes you do it full time and other times you hire associate dentists to do it with you. So like, that's what it means. It means you oversee. You think about a CEO of Amazon, they are not packing the boxes and shipping it out. They are not calling on all the customer service things. They are not creating the bots and the software. Their job is to look over the vision. Their job is to keep people accountable. Their job is to plan for the future, look for the big opportunities, ⁓ really truly protect the culture and stay out of the weeds. So I think when I looked at that, I'm like, how many dentists actually live like this? Probably not a lot. So what we did is we like went through an audit and then we worked on like the key foundation and this might feel a little fluffy and I'm sure some participants might have thought this, but if we don't get the you portion of the yes model correct, we can't say yes to things. The number one, and I purposely built the yes model in the pillars in the exact formula of you first earning second systems third. And if you will follow this model, you really truly can get there. And so what we talked about is how like how you show up as a leader directly impacts the success, the relationships, your financial and personal freedom and the overall happiness and fulfillment you have in your practice. So when I look at this, like, okay, great. You have to take care of you and We talked about like actually how to shift your identity. And so a lot of times people identify themselves today. But if you knew like Tony Robbins said, the strongest force in the human personality is the need to stay consistent with how we define ourselves, not who we actually are, but how we define ourselves. So what we actually had ⁓ everybody doing the workshop on day one was to create this new identity of being the CEO dentist. Like what would the CEO dentist do or not do? ⁓ you're still checking charts at night. What a CEO handle end of day task like that. Yes or no. No one's held accountable. What does CEO allow chaos to become culture? Your team's just clocking in. How would a CEO reignite motivation? You're bleeding cancellations. How would a CEO oversee the systems to prevent that? Your schedule's full, but your profits don't show it. How would a CEO fix that? Cashflow is unpredictable. How would a CEO create stability? You're doing busy work and have no time to look at the big picture. How would a CEO solve it? So just again, it's like when we shift our identity, not from who you are, but to a CEO. So I now am, I'm not Kiera, I'm not dentist Kiera. I am now, you guys, I was never dentist Kiera. I was dental assistant Kiera, I'm consulting Kiera. But for you, like you're dentist John, you go in, you do the fillings, you are this practice owner. But what would CEO John or CEO Kiera or CEO Sarah or CEO Marsha or CEO Tom or CEO Tony or CEO Kevin, what would they do or not do? And when you can shift this identity, you can actually start to see, and you can look at the delegation ladder. And we talked about the delegation ladder of what tasks, because when you're a small business versus when you expand and become a larger business, you actually have different, like it's literally in a tier of what you're going to delegate and when, because as a founder is a new startup, as a CEO, you're doing a lot of the work. You don't have the cashflow. You can't afford it. You're going to do all the work. So at that point, that CEO is doing that. But as the practice builds and evolves, a lot of CEOs stay there and they don't actually evolve into delegating the tasks that they should be. And so when we go through the entire delegation ladder from like administrative tasks, a patient experience, treatment coordinator, and selling cases to marketing, to leadership, these are all the zones of where is your name out on that delegation ladder and where should it be based on the current size of your practice. And then what, even if you're small, what's your next hire? Well, first hires administrative tasks. So it's either a front office team member, it's a personal assistant, or it's an office manager. that's going to immediately delegate all of those front office tasks for you, but they're going to do all of that. And then you move into, you're doing the patient experience, you're doing the closing of the cases, you're doing the marketing, you're doing the leadership, like, but you, you offload that first and then you offload the next and the next and the next. And so really looking at this of like, we, it was really cute. We had this fairy godmother and it's like, you are now the CEO. It's time to be the CEO. And I think for us on day one of people just being highlighted of you now have this new identity. And so looking at it of when I look at this, what's standing in my way of being the CEO? What does my dream business look like? What does that vision timeline look like for me? And what must change now to become the CEO? So as you go through that, that was a quick recap of day one. And then we rolled right into day two, which day two is a lot more tactical. Day one's a bit more of you, you becoming and taking on this new identity. And I will tell you, when I got on calls afterwards, because it was actually real fun. We had a lot of calls, really excited to welcome the new offices to our company and to our group. And they're already shifting and changing. had some people text me after that of saying, I'm now committing to being the CEO dentist. And when you take and embody a new identity, like, because I thought through this and we were brainstorming as we were prepping this webinar or this workshop. And I thought, how am going to get people to recognize that the you portion is the most pivotal pillar of this whole success model? And how do get them to do it quickly? And I realized change identity is the fastest way to change. But like changing identity can feel hard. But if I tell you like, it's like putting on a t-shirt and I say, all right, today you're wearing CEO t-shirt. How are you going to act? Just like I can be Kiera, the executor. I can be Kiera, the consultant. I can be Kiera, the sales. I can be Kiera, the customer service. Those are just t-shirts and hats. But if I'm going to put on my main t-shirt, my main hat, I change my identity and I walk into that office every day. And I'm now the CEO dentist. you will start to act quicker and faster. It's just like the person who wants to get healthy read Atomic Habits. say what they do is they don't ask them to like become healthy. They say, what would a healthy person do? Well, they would walk to their car instead of driving and get the closest parking spot. They would eat snacks like celery sticks for snacks rather than other things. They would have their tennis shoes by the side of their bed. They would go walking every day. you don't, and that's how you'd be able to like, what would a CEO dentist do? What would a CEO dentist not do? That's how you can start to shift this identity and become that. So that was just a quick, like I said, quick recap of day one and then day two is just fun. It's about numbers. ⁓ Numbers are one of my favorite things because you've got to really understand numbers because numbers are your superpower. Not knowing your numbers, believe it or not, causes more stress than knowing them. Even if they're bad, even if they're good, not knowing because you're getting this constant fear of like, are they good? Do we have money? I don't know. It's also helping you make confident decisions. develops the steps of where you need to go. And it also helps you track progress to take action before it's too late. So really numbers to me are the proactive approach in a business rather than the reactive. And it's okay, it does not matter where we start. It always helps us then become more proactive as we're going through. So we went through KPI. So a key performance indicator, which one should you be looking at? What are some common ones? We went through stats and KPI spreadsheets, how we look at these, like what we need to do on the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. So like daily we're looking at month. Today production collections, we only have that 98%. We also want to look at our end of day sheet, making sure we've got all of those procedures built out weekly. We're looking at our KPIs to review during doctor and OM weekly meetings. So looking at trends, creating action items before things get too late, like literally our entire team and our clients, they track stats every single week. Cause we're looking for trends. The offices that do this are always my profitable offices. The offices that don't are the not profitable. Like it is science though, like what you track and measure improves. So track. Monthly, you do your month and number review, like all the KPIs, what were the trends and what are we going to do better next month? Where are we at? I just talked to an office the other day. We realized we're a hundred thousand behind where we want to be for end of year. We have four months left or two months left or one mother, wherever you are. But if you plan and you look ahead. Four months, trying to make up a hundred grand is way easier to do than two months, trying to make up a hundred grand. So when we look at that and you just change the game, you change how we schedule, we change how we're going to do our block schedules. All of it is really easy, but if you don't look at this and you don't measure it. Huh, you're in stress. This is stress. ⁓ We look at our overhead, we look at our PNL, and then quarterly we look at our year to date, where are we at? What are the gaps? We're gonna set reach goals or quarterly goals, and then we track weekly and make sure we're on track for that. So we went through a monthly cost spreadsheet too. This is honestly my most favorite spreadsheet of all time. So legit, I love it, and it's here, and it's something that I have of what is our monthly BAM, our bare ACE minimum? What does it cost us to run the practice? on a h…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana take a close look at a practice that wanted to get a handle on its growth. They discuss knowing numbers inside and out, forming a growth plan, keeping your team involved in any expansion. Episode resources: 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 am just so excited. It is Friday today. I don't know what day you're listening to this or what day it will drop, but you know, these are prerecorded. are not live. So that is not a shock to you. This Friday is almost ending. I think we've got a couple hours left under our belts for both of us, but I get to end it with Ms. Dana and I have missed you, Dana. I was on vacation last week and I feel like I barely saw you the week prior. And then this week has been crazy for both of us and I love our time together. think I scheduled this extra time just to chat next week because I miss you so much. So, Dana, you're rocking this outfit today. I told you that this morning on our morning huddle. Yes, we do morning huddles. And this cut you've got on your hair, I've told you already, but I freaking love it. You look stellar today. So welcome to Friday, Dana. How are you? Dana (00:51) Doing good. I'm excited to end, well, almost end my day with you two. I'm excited. I know we probably don't want to get into it on this podcast, but I can't wait to hear about your trip. And, you know, I'll take as much tip time as I can get. So I'm super excited to be here and to be able to chat with you and to maybe help some people too while we're at it. The Dental A Team (01:13) ⁓ thank you. Thank you. know I did. I scheduled our time next week and I was like, that's our catch up time. But I can say I did figure out I know you recently went on a cruise. ⁓ I am not a cruiser. It's not my jam. So I figured that out. But it was a great sampler platter and I fell in love with Italy. So we'll say that and I've got a lot of stories. I literally yesterday I was like, I need to like, type these out or write them in a journal or something because you know, in 10 years, I'm gonna forget half of them and there are just so many stories out of the nine days that I was gone. So I'm excited to chat with you. And we can share our cruise stories, I guess, right? They're wild. Cruises are wild. Cruise people are a little wild. If you're out there listening, like you're a little wild. I don't know about these 11 PM, like bingo nights and stuff. I'm like, guys, it's wild. But here we are. Dana (01:59) Yeah. I left mine feeling like you. not necessarily, I don't think that like I put it at the top of my list. Would I do another one maybe? But I don't think that it's at the top of my preferred methods for traveling. The Dental A Team (02:15) Same, same, same. But you know, Vegas isn't on my top list either. And it kind of felt like Vegas on water. So maybe it's me. I said 10, 15 years ago, you know, in my young years, I would have been all about it, you know, and I would have stayed up all night and gone to Rome the next morning. But at the age that I'm at now, not so much, not so much. I'm tired. My kid puts me to bed every night at like 8.15. He's like, all right, mom, we're part and ways. I'm like, you're right. I'm falling asleep on the couch. Let's go. So. Dana (02:43) you The Dental A Team (02:44) Anyways, anyways today, ⁓ Dana, I'm here to pick your brain. You've had, you've had monster success. think all of our consultants have had a lot of success, but you've had some pretty monster success with a few practices that you've got a load of practices under your belt, ⁓ over the years and currently working with quite a few rock stars and some that have come back around because they miss Dana so much. So, you know, if you're out there and you're missing Dana, you guys, she's still here. We love her and we're keeping her. She's not going anywhere. But you have actually worked with, ⁓ a few of us have worked with clients out of the country too. And you specifically, you've worked with a handful. I think you've probably worked with more than any of us have out of the country. So today's conversation is kind of fun because it is chatting a little bit about somebody who's out of the country, like their successes that they've had. not in the United States, but. for one, kind of notifying everybody out there, especially our Canadian listeners here. We do work with clients in Canada all the time. And Dana is actually a super stellar. She's trained a lot of us on a lot of things she's learned. And we've all been able to really kind of figure out how to manipulate some of our US standards and our ideas and our protocols and really translate them towards Canadian. And I think the biggest pieces in the Canadian world there are the billing. and the way the claims go out and the things that you're able to build and collections processes, things like that. But we've kind of got that down. Dana did a ton of work with this practice in regards to that. So today's actually super fun because it's also really cool to see, I think Dana, I think it's awesome to see that like business is business. I say that all the time, like I don't care what your company is. We've worked with CPAs, we've worked with ⁓ podiatrists, we've had... you know, chiropractors that we've consulted because business is business protocols or protocols. So it's really cool to see that even dentistry outside of the country, so many of the systems and the protocols that we use every single day that I would say some of us take for granted are totally transferable. So today's conversation, I really wanted to dive in and kind of pick your brain, on how this client was able to see so much success. They were really, they're really a fantastic client. And I know that they implement really well. ⁓ And that's a huge piece of the success, you guys. If you come and we give you the tools and you don't implement them, I can't do it for you, right? So Dana, I know this client does really well in that aspect, but I mean, you took them, I mean, I'll let you tell the story, but their production, their collections kind of skyrocketed once you started really cleaning up some of those systems. Where do you feel like was the best starting point? Like I know you had like Keaton on, on some things we always do, what was our journey like? Dana (05:32) ⁓ The first thing is this office came in and they were they were doing well, right? They weren't sure how well they were doing though. So we really really started with numbers. ⁓ Knowing numbers inside and out, knowing expenses inside and out, knowing what goals should be. ⁓ you know, even knowing where payroll expenses were sitting and things like that. So it first first started with number review. So that we basically knew how well they were doing to be able to kind of put projections in place and look at growth trajectory and talk about like what growth should be or could look like. But it started really with honing in on those foundations and getting the doctor to understand. their numbers and what they were telling them as far as ⁓ growth and opportunity that there were for the practice. So we really, really started in with that. We did create a scorecard so that they could look at numbers every ⁓ month. We looked at trends together and really, really got them comfortable in what the numbers told them. then it was like, okay, I'm ready for the growth, right? I can see, I think some doctors come in and it's like, well, I feel like I'm doing okay. And I feel like I want to grow, but I actually don't know if I can grow. because I don't know like what my foundation is. So that was really, really eye opening. The other thing was this doctor was working a ton of time and didn't necessarily have any time to work on the business, right? It was always working in the business. So then it was taking the numbers and creating a plan to work them out of the business at least one day a week ⁓ and to also then create some admin time. within the rest of the week. getting them to have those pieces really allowed for them to have discussions on what a growth plan. looks like and it kind of helped us take off from there. So looking at the numbers, we realized, you know, the number of patients that they had, he really couldn't serve on, you know, solo. So then we started looking at associates and bringing in associates to the practice. And then when associate schedules started to get full, was like, what's next? And so then it was adding surgery services and sedation and getting hospital days. And so it was really, really fun. And then we got to a certain point of growth and it was like, this is so much for me to manage. And then we built a leadership team. So there was just a lot, a lot of pieces that happened. ⁓ But honestly, and truly practice came in at about 3.2 million and was projected to end that year at five. Right. So it was a ton of growth, but it honestly and truly started with knowing the numbers and knowing where the potential was and what we needed to do, what levers we needed to do to pull to make growth really happen. The Dental A Team (08:02) Well. Mm-hmm. That makes sense. makes so much sense. So the projections and that growth plan that you did with them, how did you project that? So to know that you could take them from that 3.2 that they probably didn't even know they were accomplishing. It sounds like they were successful, but like you said, they didn't know their numbers. They didn't know how successful, which happens, think, a lot for our clients. We attract clients who are doing well and just don't know the space that is left to target. So how did you help them find that within that growth plan? Dana (08:47) Yeah, we first started just looking at like patient number because it was feeling like yes, they were doing well, but you know being like schedules were jam-packed. So looking at active patients and actually saying hey you do need to actually grow your hygiene department. right? So to be able to serve the patients you already have within the practice. So then we really honed in on how many, how much hygiene time do we actually need, right? For this practice. And then looking at, and this is one thing that like where Canada does differ in their billing, especially for hygiene, they, can bill for time, right? We bill for services in the U S they can bill for time. And it does still illustrate a point though, that when we're billing for what we're doing time or not time, right? It's important. So making sure that there are standard billing. and for the US, right, it's not necessarily billing, it's actually like perio and what we recommend in the time that we have with the patient, but really getting them calibrated on that and really getting them all moving in the same direction. And then I was expanding the hygiene department. Once we've expanded the hygiene department, then we needed the providers. We needed the providers to do the restorative dentistry since we expanded the hygiene department. So we really started with hygiene and started with adding hours there, really making sure that we fine-tuned the billing process so that, know, hygienists were producing really what they should be producing for their time. And then adding, again, the doctors in there for the restorative that came out of hygiene was just kind where we started. started. The Dental A Team (10:16) Awesome. And it sounds like they were at a space then where I think a lot of doctors get to, or a lot of practices get to where it's either I'm good and I'm going to like steady eddy this and I'm just going to, I'm going to stay where I'm at, or I want to continue growing. And I think a lot of doctors get to that space and they think I'm supposed to continue growing. And that's not a hundred percent always the case. It's not necessary. You should continue to grow to keep up with inflation. obviously, but I think ⁓ something that needs to be said is you don't have to add more hygiene. You don't have to add more doctors. You don't have to do all of those things. But if you want to continue to grow, you want to continue to see those ⁓ numbers increase the way this practice is did, that's a great step to take. And being able to first see all of the patients that you have currently, ⁓ not even including, it sounds like any new patients, we're just trying to handle the current load, I think is fantastic. And then like you said, it sounds like you did a decent job really honing in, not just the billing, because we want to bill for time, right? I get that. But also honing in their peri-o protocols. while you're increasing, well, we added, you know, added associates. But while you guys were increasing the value on the doctor's side over there, you made sure, it sounds like that. hygiene was able to keep up with the increased production on the doctor side. And I think that gets missed a lot, Dana, where it's like skyrocketing doctors and we're like, why is hygiene at 12 % of our production now? Well, because we forgot to focus on them. And I think that's something you guys did really well. And I'm sure your hygiene background helped you see that this is an important space. those perio protocols really, really helped, I'm sure. And how did their team do? Dana (12:05) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (12:07) A big scare I think doctors have is getting hygienists on board. Our hygienists have a scare of maybe changing their thought process on a lot of those pieces. How did this practice do with implementing those changes in their period department? Dana (12:22) They did a really, really good job, but I will say when we decided to kind of tackle that, we really booked out a set of meetings where they really were able to work through it, to look at each other's patients, to look at what each other built, to look at what each other did for those patients, to pull x-rays and FMPs and all of those things and really work through it together and really calibrate. ⁓ They had a series of, I think, monthly meeting for four months and really really work through it together as well as at that point we had a leadership team and so having the lead hygienist really double check those things and have conversations with you know, some hygienists initially took it on really strong and they did really well. Other hygienists didn't do quite as well, quite as fast. And so just having individual conversations, using some of the other hygienists as examples, and really letting those that were really strong give verbiage tips, give billing tips, give all sorts of tips to the hygienists who weren't as strong. And they really, really leveled up and learned from each other, which I was super proud of them for. The Dental A Team (13:28) That's awesome. That's awesome. So the planning and the prepping, I think, is key and having those initial conversations, but then also having follow up. Because I'm sure some of those conversations were, like you said, seeing the other patients and being able to see those spaces. But I'm sure some of those conversations were like, how did this go for you? And what was your case acceptance? Or how many times have you talked about it? And how did that conversation go? And really kind of batting ideas back and forth. And I would venture to say yo…
Full show notes at the publisherRe-releasing a DAT listener favorite! Kiera is all about key performance indicators in this episode, and why they're important. When framing KPIs as the vitals of your practice, it makes a lot more sense! Some of Kiera's favorite KPIs are … Production (net, not gross) Collection (at least 98%) How many new patients you're getting Average diagnosis Acceptance rate Overhead There are a lot more indicators she talks about in this episode, so whether you're a beginner with KPIs or elite status, there's something you can learn. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:05) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, pillar, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A-Teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, how's your day today? You guys loving it? Are you crushing it? I hope you are, wherever you are. I am actually sitting in my bedroom. I ⁓ rarely ever podcast here, because usually my husband's home. But tonight, I have some friends over there in the front room, and I definitely needed to get some podcasts done. Sissy was asking me, I just love having team members that are great at what they do. And I hope you guys take time to acknowledge the team members that make you great. The team members that are just awesome at what they do. guys, Sissy keeps me so on the ball and I love her for it. Shelby does, Tiffany does, Brittany, Dana, Kylie, they are just an incredible bunch of people. And guys, if you ever get the opportunity to meet any of them, you are one lucky person. So I hope you're having a great day. I hope you're loving it. So podcasting today from the bedroom. I hope the audio is great. I hope you're loving it. Sun's just going down and today I just wanted to dive into a topic that I think is really awesome and it's KPIs. So what the heck is a KPI? A KPI is Key Performance Indicator. I'll be completely honest. You guys, know I'm like authentic Kiera Dent. People when they call me and they chat with us, like interested in working with us, the number one thing I get told is, Kiera, you sound just like you do on the podcast. And I'm like, this is really great because it is me. I don't shake it up, I don't change it. The only thing I do differently is I talk in a microphone so my voice sounds a little bit like smoother, if you will, on the podcast than in real life. But beyond that, same cadence, same tones. This is Kiera real life. So you guys know I am always, I try really hard to just be authentic Kiera. So if you ever come meet me in person, you peel back the Wizard of Oz current, I would be the exact same person as I am on the podcast as I am in real life. So when I first started as an office manager, I did not know what a KPI was. I did not know why they were important. I didn't know that I should be tracking these things. I literally had no idea. So guys, if you're in my boat, hey, welcome, welcome to the CureDent No KPI Boat. If you know what they are, welcome, welcome to the Elite Boat. And if you are using them, welcome to the Rockstar Amazing Boat. Let's make you even better. So KPIs, I call them, the way I describe a KPI is they are the vitals of your practice. So just like when you go to the doctor and they take your blood pressure, your temperature, they listen to your heart rate, all those things, those are the vitals. They take your weight. ⁓ I just went to the doctor the other day and it's super cool, like, right? You sit on the chair and they say they'll take your weight. And it was funny, the gal asked me, she said, do you wanna know your weight today? I was like, wow, thank you. Like, thank you for not making me have a bad day if I don't want to or thank you for giving me the opportunity. It just made me giggle. But bottom line is the vitals, we go to the doctor and they take those vitals first because if any of those are out of alignment, that's the first sign that we have trouble. So that's what I think of with KPIs in a practice. These are the core pieces that are going to show you, is your practice healthy or is it not healthy? So yes, it's tracking and there's lots of different KPIs you can track. That's why it's called a key performance indicator. I am a firm believer that you should be able to change these up. I think there are certain things that you should be tracking consistently. But I also think as human beings, we get stagnant and bored. So give yourself a decent amount of time to track and then shake it up. That way you're growing constantly and we don't get bored with KPIs. So for me, some of my favorite KPIs, this is a question every consultant who comes to Dental A team to work with us, we ask them, what is your favorite KPI to measure? One, I'm checking to see if they know what a KPI is. Guys, I probably would have flunked the consulting test if I would have come on. We're a more elite company, guys. I have to keep these consultants on their top notch. They can't be lower than us now. So I ask what your favorite KPI is to track and why. Most of the time I get production and collection. Production is a great KPI to track. It's something, and again, be careful on production. Make sure you're tracking it on net, not gross. A lot of people wanna tell me that they have. These huge successful practices, but guess what guys, if you can't collect it, don't even tell me that number. I don't care. It does not impress me because guess what? That high gross number feeds your ego. Your net number feeds your family. So I don't care about it. So report that number in net. Next up is your collection percentage. I want to know how you're collecting. So if you're a $1 million practice and you're only collecting 700,000, that's stressful. That means you're at a 70 % collection rate. I am aiming for a 98 % collection rate. Now, There are lots of other KPIs and I will say there are some great softwares out there. Practice by numbers, dental intel, divergent. Those are my top three favorites. I'd probably put them in the order of dental intel, divergent, practice by numbers. I think all three of them are great. I love them all for different reasons. The reason I'm pro-ing for dental intel is because they just merged with Medento and guess what? They are kicking it. So I love that. I love what they do and I love Medento as a company. So any company with Medento, that's going to be my favorite company right now. But bottom line is a lot of these track KPIs. What I found that gets tricky and what a lot of offices do is we often track too many things that we don't actually move the needle on anything. I'm guilty of this. So in our company, was having Cissy track how many Instagram followers we were getting every single week. At first, I thought it was a great marketing metric. I thought it was great to see how our marketing was doing. Guess what? It was actually just feeding my ego. So guys, if you want to feed my ego, please just go follow us on Instagram. I would love it. Get your friends, get your family, get your siblings, get your kids. I don't care who. You can boost that number just to feed my ego. At the end of the day, do the Instagram followers actually matter? No, they don't. They don't move our company forward. What matters, just like you guys, how many new patients we're getting. So don't actually care about social media followers. Yes, it's a fun number to track, but what I care is how many new patients are we getting? Then after that, I actually care about if I'm going to the elite boat or to our rock star boat on how many new patients you're getting. Do you know how much each patient's value is? Do you also know what our average diagnosis is on each patient? And do we know what our acceptance rate is on each patient? If you don't know that and you're already tracking some of these numbers, that might be a fun zone for you to go to, to be 2.0 or 3.0 of KPI tracking. If you're just starting out, don't go there. Let's just get you tracking new patients and where they're coming from. Bottom line is these are the vitals. So first steps first, I want you with your KPIs to make sure that you have the vitals of your practice. Production, collection, new patients. case acceptance, reappointment percentages. Those are like your main shebangs that are really gonna tell you where you're going. If you wanna add in your overhead, I also love that because that's gonna pull in the business side of it to make sure that we're actually profitable as a business and we're not just running around trying to serve, but not even being profitable as a practice. We need our practice to be profitable. Otherwise we can't serve more in our community. Those are my main things I love to focus on. So if you're just starting out, start tracking those. I prefer you track them at a minimum every week at best. I actually like these ones to be tracked on your morning huddle. It's great. Everybody has it, have it on a whiteboard. Everybody can see it. That is the vital heartbeat of your practice. I would love you to do it. Just like on my Apple watch, I'm watching the rings on my Apple watch. That's honestly the only thing on my watch face guys, because it'd be really fun. But I decided I don't want to get distracted by other things. I need to master these items before I move on. So that's why I love it to be front and center. Get these KPIs front and center. Get a whiteboard, guys, they're real cheap. Put it up, track these items. Production, we talked about it. Net, not gross. Collections, we wanna make sure we're collecting at least 98 % if not higher. And then I want you to know how many new patients you're getting out of goal, what your case acceptance is. A healthy practice, if we're talking dollar for dollar, I'd like you to be anywhere from 35 to 65%. Now there's a wide range on that because I actually, if you don't... diagnose a lot of ortho and you're not diagnosing a lot of implants in larger cases, your dollar for dollar should be way up higher. If you're diagnosing these huge treatment plans constantly, you actually should be hanging out lower because we're presenting so much treatment that I'm okay with a lower case acceptance. If we're one for one, meaning one thing accepted off of our treatment plan, no matter how large it is, I want you actually to be sitting at at least a 90 % case acceptance. If you're not, we got to talk. That's right, you and me, we're going to have a date, we're going to chat. We need to get that case acceptance up because what we're doing is we're dis-serving our patients. We're not helping them find a way to get this treatment done. You as a treatment coordinator, your job is to be a solution creator with the patient. So do your job, find the solution, get those patients accepted. That way we can help them have healthy mouths and a better life, right? That's what it's all about. Hey, Dental A Team listeners, how was your 2021? Have you reflected back? Where did you really win? Where did you really not win? If 2021 was a year of years, congratulations. I am celebrating with you and I would love to invite you to take it to the next level. If 2021 wasn't quite your year, hey, it's all right. I'm there for you. And I would love to invite you to make 2022 the year for you. That's right, guys. If you're ready to take massive action, if you're ready to take your practice and your team to the next level, increase your profitability. Yeah, guys, through an easy way. Get your entire team aligned and you're ready to just have your life be different. That's right. Team development, top to bottom system development, top to bottom, changing and shifting your culture, improving your team morale. If that sounds like what you're interested in guys, I'd love to invite you to join us in our Dental A Team platinum group. It's the exclusive group where we physically fly to your practice. We give you insider tips. We share with you. have a quarterly newsletter that goes to that shares all the updates we're coming up with and we share it with our platinum group. We'd love to have you and I would like to invite you because guys remember you're always one decision away from a completely different life. So reach out guys. I'd love to chat with you. I'd love to see if you're a great platinum client or what works best for you. Email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and I can't wait to welcome you as our newest platinum client. Take massive action. This is your year. Let's make sure 2022 is your year. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Can't wait to welcome you. So those are my main KPIs that I love to track. Once you get those dialed in and you're consistent on those and you know, then we're going to start diving into even more data. I want to know how well our hygiene department's doing. They should be producing at least three times their pay. So if I'm a hygienist making $10 an hour, wouldn't that be a dream guys? Welcome to 2022. Hygienist $10 an hour. Yeah, right. You guys are like a hundred and a billion dollars an hour. Like it's crazy how much hygienists are at right now, but let's say for the sake of this podcast, it's $10 an hour. Okay. I should be producing at least $30 per hour as a healthy hygienist. That's on a PPO. If I'm fee for service, I like you producing at least four times your pay. So if I'm in a fee for service practice, I'm producing $40 an hour, okay? So that would be another great KPI to track. You can also break it down per department. So we might have our doctors. Great KPI to track on our doctors is what are they producing per hour? Most doctors should be producing at least $500 per hour at a minimum, okay? So if we're working in an eight hour day, that's a $4,000 day per doctor, again on net, not gross. So that's a great metric to put in there. What are our doctors producing per hour? What's our doctor case acceptance? What's our doctor diagnosis? Great KPIs for you to start tracking. If we move on to our hygiene department, you can track fluoride, you can track perio. Perio is a great set to track. We can track ⁓ how many night guards they're doing. We can track how many orthostarts they're doing. Great KPIs to track, again, if you're in the elite rockstar status. ⁓ Dental assistants, I like to track how many same day conversions you get. Also, how many times you leave the room is a great KPI to track. Also, how many Google reviews do dental assistants get? Those are all really, really great ones that you can do. For front office, scheduling. How often are we scheduling our hygiene and doctor…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Kristy break down the concept of work-life balance, and why so many people can't seem to acquire it. 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 am back today and you know, this is me Spiffy Tiffy I never say my name and I just assume everyone knows me. I actually this is a funny story. I actually had ⁓ Someone the other day it was a child was like, ⁓ you record podcasts you you're on a podcast Are you famous and I said well maybe in the dental world like for ⁓ small, tiny percentage, people might know who I am. So, it's Spiffy Tiffy, Tiffanie, I'm here, I've been here for a while, and I'm just super excited to bring so much fun and joy, and one of our core values is fun, and it has been Kiera and I's core value since the day we met, and that is one that I have refused to get rid of, even though every year we update our core values and they shift and change a little bit, fun has stayed there. The definition of fun has evolved and been tailored down to what we want it to be, but it has remained and I think we have some fun. So I hope you guys have fun on this podcast. I hope you enjoy it. I have Kristy here with me today and she is ready to rock out some fun, you guys. And I, you know, we've already recorded one this morning and Kristy, you said it perfectly. I was going deep and I don't know. It's a feeling today. We got a lot of leadership stuff we're chatting about and I feel like goodness gracious, Kristy, you're my gal. You keep me centered. You keep me calm. DAT Kristy (01:07) Thank The Dental A Team (01:21) and you allow me the space to go deep. So thank you for being here. Thank you for recording so many podcasts with me and just for being you, Kristy. How are you? DAT Kristy (01:30) Good, thank you. I'm excited to be here. It's always a good time when we can get together and help with anything ⁓ with our doctors, hopefully up and coming doctors, new to dental aging doctors. Yeah. The Dental A Team (01:42) Yeah. Yes. Right? Yes. I agree. I totally agree. And I love that you said that because there are so many listeners here. I think sometimes I forget, we get a lot of clients that have listened to our podcast in the past and that's how they found us. And it's just such an incredible resource to be able to get information to people and a tool to be able to reach so many new dentists. And then Kristy, I think I forget when they come, from the podcast, right? Or they've listened to the podcast in the past and came from, I don't know, Zenist advisors. They maybe said, hey, talk to these ladies, they're great. Whomever, wherever, however they found us, I forget that they still listen. And then I'll have a client that's like, I get texts sometimes that's like, Tiff, I'm listening to this one, and you just said this, or Kristy said this, Trish, and I get these texts from clients that I've had for years. And I'm like, my gosh, that's funny. I didn't even consider the fact that you You were still here. So repeat offenders. Thank you so much for being here. We love you guys. So like Kristy said, clients who are here. Hello. Um, those of you who are listeners and maybe you're just like, no, Tiff, I am a listener. I'm a diehard listener and I will be here for that. Hello. And if you're a listener who's like, gosh, I just keep thinking about it. I keep considering and this information is great. And these ladies sound amazing, but today's not about it's and, and, and. DAT Kristy (02:43) you The Dental A Team (03:10) I'm gonna call them because whether you say yes to success and you're our newest client or you say this is incredible information, I'm gonna implement some of these tools that you just gave me and we'll talk again soon. We're here for it. I want you guys to understand that we are not the company that you call and it's like, if you don't say yes, we never talk to you again. No, you say yes and, right? Yes, this was great information. and I'm ready to start. Yes, this is great information and I'm gonna go implement it I'll talk to you soon. Okay, pressure's off. So just call us. That was great, Kristy. I think that was a wonderful reminder to everyone. There's literally no pressure. Gosh, Kristy, I love you for so many things and today I am just loving on you for leadership communication, conversations and just like effective balance, right? We have a fun topic here, and I told you I have some tangents on it, and I think you do too, and I think we align pretty well on this topic. We really wanted to chat, and there's a newsletter. If you're subscribed to our newsletters, you should be getting a newsletter as well that will have similar, probably very different conversations in it, but make sure you're signed up for our newsletters that you're getting that as well. So today's topic, this moment's topic, is work-life balance. And I... get asked this by a multitude of professionals, whether they are team members, leaders, managers, owners, doctors, dentists, I don't know, and financial advisors, like anyone under the sun who does a job, I have heard, I want work-life balance, TIF, how do I have work-life balance? And I think it's a really tricky statement, and I think it's overused and misunderstood. And I think you just need balance. My opinion is by separating, Kristy, tell me if I'm crazy. By separating and saying I want work-life balance. It's like saying I have a life and I have work. For me, I have a life and I work within that life. I don't have my work-life that is like, in your brain, it just creates these two separate entities that then you're trying to smash together. It's like saying I'm a dentist. and I'm a chiropractor and I want to do both out of my office. So I want to, while I'm drilling and doing this crown, I also want to be cracking their neck. You can't do that. It's literally impossible. So I think saying I want balance in my life is more clear and more understood than I want work life balance, which confuses it and makes it feel impossible. It feels literally difficult when I say I want work life balance. it in my body feels difficult. It feels hard. But when I say I want balance, that feels achievable. That is like graspable. can see it. I know what it feels like to have balance. So I can emanate it. I can mimic the feeling in my body and I can find it. And I just think people just misunderstand that. But Kristy. What are your thoughts on it? How do you feel about the term work-life balance? And then we'll get into, I promise you we'll get into how to achieve some of this balance. But Kristy, first, think definitions are always most important. So tell me your thoughts. DAT Kristy (06:39) I know we never want to go like political or anything like that in that realm, but listening to you takes me back to growing up and hearing how moms entering the workforce and how can they work and be a mom. And so it just, kind of makes me laugh. And honestly, what you said is spot on. I don't, I don't know how you can do both at the same time, but The Dental A Team (06:52) Yeah. DAT Kristy (07:06) but I do think you can be wear many hats. It's just how do we devote our time to it? So identifying, honestly going back to the results, what are we looking for in the first place? So when you say work-life balance, tell me more about that. What does that mean? What does that mean to you? Because it may mean something different to somebody else. I for one get, a lot of gratification from my work and purpose from it. So it brings a lot to my life. So to separate, yeah, I can't. But to devote certain amount of time to certain things, I can grasp that 100%. The Dental A Team (07:51) Yeah, I love that clarity that you brought even to maybe like potentially realizing where the term comes from, because I agree with you. think that that is a huge space and a huge learning curve for everyone. And we're still kind of in it. think we're, I think we're still so much in that world. It's 2025, but we are still so much in that world of moms and not even just moms, but primary caretakers coming into the workforce or primary caretakers also working. And it's like that, I think you're right. I think that is a confusing factor. And I love what you said that work gives you, it provides something positive to your life. So to keep those separate feels wrong. And I think so many of our leaders and our dentists feel that same way, which also confuses it. And you said, tell me more, tell me what that looks like. And I know I've asked the question before and I've had a doctor be like, that means I'm home before 5.30 so that I can cook dinner for my family. I'm like, that's easy. Like, what's keeping you at the office? Like, why are you there? Right? Like, let's remove some obstacles. And I've had doctors that are like, well, I have a doctor that was like, Tiff, I wanna work three and a half days a week and I wanna make a million dollars in collections a year. Cool. He's like, then I can be home. I be with my kids. I can do all the things. And he does, he does that. That's his work life balance. And, and that's his balance, right? His balance is being able to target and hit all of this areas of his life that are important. And Kristy, it makes me think of, ⁓ in March, we did our in-person event with so many of our amazing platinum doctors came out to visit us and their office managers. And we did a blocked scheduling, ⁓ exercise for. personal life and like for our ourselves and for crowns, root canals, etc. So by personal life, mean like ourselves and what we did it was super cool of really looking at the like six areas of our lives six to eight areas of our lives that are truly valuable and important that we want to contribute to so, you know your relationships your marriage your work ⁓ DAT Kristy (09:52) Hahaha! The Dental A Team (10:13) Right? Remember in Summit, I forgot to add work in there. ⁓ If you were there for Summit, you guys are laughing. But all those different areas that make us who we are and where we want to show up in life, and then time blocking and saying, this is how much time, like you said, time, this is how much time I want to dedicate to this area for it to feel valuable and balanced, because it's not all going to be equal. I'm not gonna spend as much time maybe going on dates with my boyfriend and having one-on-one time as I am recording podcasts and showing up for my clients. That doesn't mean it's imbalanced. That would be wild. He would go crazy if I were spending that much time like, we're going on a date or we're going on a river cruise. I don't even know what we would do with that amount of time. Couple times a year for our long vacations, we do that and it balances. When we say work-life balance, it almost sounds and feels like we're looking for equality between the time spent. And that's just, it's just not realistic. There are a lot of people who have more time outside of work that they're doing other things with their life. And then there are other people who are like, no, I'm passionate about my job and I want to pour into it. That's their balance. And I think you nailed it, Kristy, by really keying in on that time and saying how valuable it is to consider that there's even more than just work and quote unquote life. Like there are attributes to your life that need that value and that time consideration. DAT Kristy (11:53) I almost wonder Tiff, like listening to you talk, we almost have to identify, like the first question should be what's missing, right? Because really why is that even a term, work-life balance? Wouldn't you agree it's likely there's something missing in that equation, so how can we do more of it? And the other part that... The Dental A Team (12:03) Yeah. Yeah. Totally agree. DAT Kristy (12:22) Again, you know me, queen of analogies, but it's like people come in to the office and they go into hygiene and they're like, are you flossing your teeth? No, I hate flossing my teeth. Well, you need to be flossing every day. Why do we go from zero to a hundred? Like, can we maybe start with, how about flossing Monday, Wednesday, Friday instead of all or nothing, right? So I almost feel like that question, work-life balance needs to start with what's missing that I need more of. The Dental A Team (12:35) Yeah. Yes. I love that because there's a gap we're not seeing and we feel out of alignment and we're not taking the time to step back and see it. And I think you're spot on because there's an area of life, the six to eight components, how many ever there are, there's an area that's out of alignment with the definition of balance for you. Kristy, I think what you're really good at and what you said even earlier was, well, what does that mean? Right? You're really good at speaking to your clients in a clear and kind way and asking questions that evoke thought and results. So when you ask those kinds of questions to your clients, I've seen them, I've watched them, I join all of our consultants' calls at some point or another. So I've seen this happen live. They are able to give themselves the space to find it because you interrupted their thought pattern with something different so that they could think of it from a different point of view. And I think it's just really, really something that is missed in a lot of consulting that's just systems focused, right? Like we are systems focused, we do provide systems, but we're people focused first because without this, without these kinds of definitions, your systems aren't, they're not gonna stick. I promise you, they're just not gonna stick, okay? We've seen it. So Kristy, something you do really well with your clients is, DAT Kristy (14:09) Thank The Dental A Team (14:16) keying into those definitions and then asking the thought provoking questions, you might even already have the answer, right? You are like, I know exactly, but if you tell the person, right, they're like, maybe, but if you evoke the thought process, interrupt those thought patterns and get them shifted onto a different, it's kind of, makes me think of when you're driving along, driving along and you're like, shoot, there's a detour. And then you like scooch over to the next road. It's detouring you on and you're like, wow, these are beautiful houses. Like I've never been down this road and I've lived on this street for 20 years, right? But your pattern was disrupted and you were able to see something new and beautiful and fresh. And, or sometimes you're like, wow, this is ugly. I can't believe I live this close to this street or this, like sometimes you go down and you're like, what is this building? Like this looks horrible. DAT Kristy (14:58) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (15:11) Right, so sometimes you open a door and you're like, wow, that is really ugly and I have got to spend some attention there. Doesn't mean every time we open a door, it's gonna be like rainbows and butterflies, right? But sometimes we open a door that's like, I need to sprinkle some magic fairy dust in here because this is a space that needs some attention. And Kristy, I think you truly do open those doors for clients. And my question in that,…
Full show notes at the publisherDr. Len Tau, aka the Reviews Doctor, is on the podcast. With Kiera, he goes into the most critical nuts and bolts of making sure your practice stands out (or at least keeps pace with) online reviews amid AI. He explains jargon terms like ranking power and factors and velocity of reviews, whether or not you should actually be responding to reviews of your practice, and a ton more. Visit SuperchargeYourDentalPractice.com and enter the code RAVING to save $100 on registration for Dr. Tau's annual conference. About Dr. Tau Dr. Len Tau thrives on helping practices maximize their online reputation, marketing, and social media strategies. As a speaker, Len is known for his lively and engaging presentations packed with ready-to-use strategies. He regularly travels the country sharing his marketing brilliance and passion for practice growth with audiences. As a consultant, he offers practice leaders with real-world solutions tailored to fit their specific challenges and opportunities. Len loves to help doctors and their teams understand and implement successful online systems to build their practice. He currently serves as general manager of the Dental for Birdeye Reputation Marketing Software. Selected as one of Philadelphia's Top Dentists by Philadelphia Magazine, he continues to experience growth year after year in his fee-for-service practice focusing on general, cosmetic, reconstructive and implant dentistry. Following his father into the dental profession, Len graduated from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and continues to pursue ongoing continuing education opportunities. He has had the privilege of serving patients for two decades. He is an active member of numerous professional organizations including the American Dental Association, the Pennsylvania Dental Association, the Academy of General Dentistry, the Eastern Dental Society, the Northeast Philadelphia Dental Implant Study Club, and the American Academy of Clear Aligners. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so excited. This is one of my dear friends. We've known each other for several years in the industry. I'm super freaking pumped. I'm going actually be at his event next year in September. Little teaser. Stay tuned. He's got an amazing event he does every year in September. I have Dr. Len Tau. He is one of my faves. He is better known ⁓ as an authority in the dental consulting world, reputation marketing, and a practice growth. He's recognized by dentistry today as a top dental consultant for eight straight years. He is the author of Raving Patients and 100 plus tips to 105 star reviews in a hundred days. Like this man knows how to do it. He's one of my faves. We really do collaborate on so many fun things. After 20 plus years in clinical practice, he now helps dentists nationwide, increase revenue, case acceptance and visibility. He leads the dental vision at BirdEye, hosts the Raving Patients podcast and runs the Supercharger Dental Practice Conference, which is the one I was alluding to that we're gonna be at next year in September, empowering practices to thrive in today's competitive landscape. He's truly one of my faves. And today we're gonna dig into like, how do you get online reviews? But Len, welcome. I'm so happy to have you on the podcast. How are you today? Dr. Len Tau (01:06) I'm good, thanks for having me, I'm excited to be here. Kiera Dent (01:08) Of course. And this just came about because Len like, let's just do a little teaser. You're prepping full like steam ahead right now for your event that's coming up in September in Florida. ⁓ I love like the last time you and I were on the podcast, we talked about you in clinical dentistry. And then we reconnected after some time and you've left the chair, you're living your best life and you full blown gone into the event space. So just like, I know we're gonna get into like online reviews and how AI is changing that it's going to be just a really, really fun episode today. But tell us a little bit like How is it going from like full blown dentist in the chair to now full blown events, like running these awesome events that we're super excited to be a part. Just kind of give me a little insight to that. Dr. Len Tau (01:46) Well, it's been, it's been a lot of, a lot of fun. It's been very different, obviously, you know, for 23 years, I practiced dentistry, um, for about 12 of those, 13 of those who was full time. And then I went part time in 2017 until I sold and retired in 2022. Um, but one of the things I've grew up on in dentistry was going to dental events and, the big, the ones, the small ones, you know, all over the country and as a dentist first, and then as a vendor. Kiera Dent (02:08) Mm-hmm. Dr. Len Tau (02:15) Um, since 2013 or 14, so a long time in the space. know, one of the things that really hit me was that the events are not really put on very well. They're not, um, you know, whether you, if you're a dentist, there's issues when you're a vendor, there's issues. And I said, you know what? I want to change the game. And, um, one of my goals when I retired from dentistry was to start putting on events. So in 2023, um, in, in September, we did an event in Delray had 208. Kiera Dent (02:25) Right. Dr. Len Tau (02:44) Dennis there, 33 sponsors. was, first day was business, second day was marketing. Excuse me. First day was marketing. Second day was business. Had a 13, 14 speakers. It went off better than I could ever imagined. I then moved to the last year in 2024 to Scottsdale. And we were at the Scott Resort and Spa, which is a beautiful hotel and the event was good. It wasn't great. Definitely moving to different coasts. I felt there was not as much, know, engagement, excitement about the event. So I, my family and my wife and I decided, Hey, we're going to do this. Let's have people come down to me. I live in beautiful, you know, part of Florida. we're having this year's event and the next three of them at super at, ⁓ at pure 66, a brand new hotel, ⁓ in Fort Lauderdale. It's literally half hour from my house, five miles from the airport, easy to get to. So this year event is September 26th and 27th. Kiera Dent (03:32) Bye. you No. Mm-hmm. Dr. Len Tau (03:45) We've got 14 speakers, ⁓ mixture of business and marketing. So we've got people talking about social media, about content. We have people talking about saving money on taxes. We're talking about how to become a fee-for-service practice. ⁓ So a lot of different great content and top speakers, Steve Rasner, Paul Goodman, ⁓ Jeff Buski, ⁓ Richard, Rich Maddow. So some real, real heavy hitters. And then some people who people haven't really heard of, Melanie Diesel, who's new in the dental industry. So, but I like to do it differently and my events are very high end. You come, you're going to see things you probably have never seen before. I give a ton of time to the vendors so the vendors love me because they make sure that they get integration or interaction with the attendees. So you're going to be speaking in 2026, same weekend at September 25th and 26th in 2026, same hotel, pure 66. Kiera Dent (04:28) Sure. Yeah. Dr. Len Tau (04:40) We're ramping things up right now. We're literally a month out from the events. still have people signing up. I still have people wanting to reach out as sponsors. And it's, it's, it's, is the fun time for me. Cause when I'm done, I'm, you know, I get a couple of months of break and then I start promoting 2027 again. So ⁓ it's been a good time. I really enjoy it. And I find that I've kind of ⁓ created something that's very different and the attendees really enjoy it and the vendors really enjoy it. So if I can make everybody happy, Kiera Dent (04:45) No. Dr. Len Tau (05:09) That's all I'm looking to do here. Kiera Dent (05:11) ⁓ and Len, I hope the audience, if they can't see it, they can hear it. I think it's so fun because I mean, I've seen you in different spaces in your career, in your life. And there is just this like giddy, like younger version of Len that I feel is emerging of like, it's like giddy boyhood, like excitement of I'm excited to put these on. I'm excited to do these events. And it just makes me so happy for you. And what I think I'm hearing is yes, attendees are happy. Vendors are happy. But I also hear that Len is very happy and to do something in dentistry is just very, very fun. It's very exciting. And so we're jazzed. I'm really excited. I love good events. I love great time. I love to help. love business marketing. Everybody can take that. That's not Kiera's jam. Like I, that's why I wanted to bring you on. You guys are very good at marketing. You're very good at that space. but to talk about how to help people have their best lives to grow the practices that they want to grow. I think you and I are so synergistic in that. So we're super excited and I love, I mean, I'm not going to highlight the fact that there were a couple of sixes in that is September 26 at Pier 66. You guys hopefully like, I like the alliteration. Don't put anything weird on it guys, but I do appreciate that you made it easier. September six and nines flipped upside down are a six. Like hopefully everybody can remember September 26, Pier 66. It'll be a good time in 2026. I mean, we got four lines, so we're okay. We've at least got four sixes, not we didn't end on three, but I really hope an exciting step. We'll make sure we put some info for people. For this year and for next year, I think it'll be a fun time. Dental A Team will be there, so come hang out with us. ⁓ Len, I'm super excited. I will not spoil secrets, but a lot of the things he told me for the events, I will say he does put his heart and soul into it. So Len, excited about that. Thank you for sharing. Good luck for this year. We're gonna be rooting you on this year and next year. And now let's pivot. Let's go into like your jam. You're in BirdEye, you're in marketing, you're on online reviews. AI has come into the scene. Practices are changing. I also will say, I hope everybody listens to you of their like succession story. You hung up the hand piece, but you are still full steam ahead in dentistry. And so I hope people see that like there is no path to dentistry. Like you just, it's a, it's a beautiful world that you're in. So let's talk though, online reviews, AI, how is this working? How do we make sure that practices are still being visible? Chat GPT is on, on the prowl. There are clients signing up with us now that have found us on chat. GPT, which is so random. It's changing how people have been doing things. Walk me through. What are you seeing with these online reviews? The importance, how to bring AI in? Like, let's just kind of go in a rift on how practices can still be visible with AIs. Like just showing up to the scene. Dr. Len Tau (07:43) So I wanna talk about chat CPT for a second. ⁓ I refer to it as my best friend. ⁓ It helps me edit. No, I haven't named it yet. No, I haven't named it. ⁓ you have? Kiera Dent (07:50) Have you named it? I've got to just ask Len. Have you named? I have! Me and Chet, I had a name and now her name is Wanda. I don't know why, I don't even know where Wanda came, but people are like, here, are you hanging out with Wanda again? Cause I agree. Like they're our best friends. So go on Len. I can't wait to hear what you name your Chet GPT cause mine is currently Wanda. Dr. Len Tau (08:06) I'll have to, I have to name it now that I have to think of something. ⁓ but no, I started using it. I'm like, this is really helpful and it's only gotten better. And, just to give you an idea is, ⁓ my wife and I, and my son, my son just graduated high school. He's literally just started his freshman year at, university of Florida on a free ride. ⁓ smart, smart ass kid. I'm very proud of him. But, you know, and I travel a ton, but I travel a ton for business and I made a commitment. I think I told you that, Kiera Dent (08:25) Boo? Yeah. Dr. Len Tau (08:35) during the summer when he was going away for school, I was not going to travel. So from March to literally next week, beginning of September, I haven't traveled at all for business. we did plan some really great travel for our personal lives. And one of the things we did was we had a cruise, a 17 day cruise to Europe. ⁓ And when I decided I did not want to do the excursions to the cruise, cause they're really expensive and you're with all these people. I prefer to kind of just go and tour myself. Kiera Dent (08:44) It's awesome. Dr. Len Tau (09:05) So I use ChatGPT in every city. And I said, I'm going to the city. This is what I'm going to get in. This is the cruise I'm going on. It got the cruise itinerary. And I said, I want to set up private tours in every city with different people. And it helped me pick the best tour guides. They referred me to a website called Tours by Local, which is an amazing website that you can meet people who are local that will take you around. show you the city and it was amazing. It was amazing. So I thank Chachi PT for doing that because I wouldn't have known about half these things if I didn't do it. And in fact, one of the women, and actually the very first place you went to, which was in Split, Croatia, which was beautiful. I told her that literally that's kind of how I went down this road was I asked Chachi PT, what should I do in Split? And they said, you need to use this tour guide. She's the highest rated tour guide and has the best reviews on tours by local. like, What's towards by local? And that started this whole thing. So she was, she was amazed to hear that. So, ⁓ I have been using Chad GPT for a long time, like I said, and even now it is people I know type in, know, get me to the best dentists in the area. And it's very much based on reviews. So you have to be a highly rated practice. you may not believe in reviews and if you do, think you're not smart, but you know, if, if you want to be at the forefront of where people are looking, Kiera Dent (09:58) Yeah. Yes. Dr. Len Tau (10:25) You have to generate reviews in a significant amount. Velocity now, which is how often you're getting them, is one of the biggest ranking factors on Google, whether you want to believe chat GPT or not. ⁓ But you have to get reviews. You can't, you know, rest on your laurels and say, well, I have enough because you never have enough. Okay. And, ⁓ and you've got to let Google rank you high. And there's been a big discrepancy in the industry, a big, I don't want to say a misunderstanding. Kiera Dent (10:43) read. Dr. Len Tau (10:52) But I've been in the review space now since 2013, so 12 years. And in the past, dentists thought that if they get reviews, they're going to rank. And that's not the way it is anymore. If you have reviews, but don't pay attention to the other ranking factors, you actually don't rank well. And that's a problem. So, chat GPT AI is so important, but you still got to dominate Google. You still got to get to the top of the pages. And that's really where the direction is going. and if you aren't there now and you are ignoring it, you're never going to get there. So I would love to talk to you about…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera shares some motivation everyone could use a bit of right now, especially if you're facing significant challenges. Her episode reading recommendation: Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
Episode resources:
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:01)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just want to give you a quick tactical, amazing, miracle morning recap. I have a friend in my life right now who is just struggling and I struggled last year and like I realized, my gosh, like maybe it's time for me to give you guys a quick boost on how we can create a little bit more momentum, a little bit more magnetism in our lives with a lot of ease. So if that's what you're here for, I'm here. Today's more about a life rather than a tactical tip.
but I believe that this tactical tip is going to set your DNA up to be the successful practice, the successful office manager, the successful hygienist, successful team member, giving you the DNA and the blueprint for it. So my name is Kiera. We love helping dental offices, their teams and their doctors and their patients truly live life at a higher level to be happier, to be more fulfilled, to be more profitable, to say yes to more things in your life. We call the yes model. You as a person being fulfilled, happy, vibrant.
E stands for earnings and profitability and S stands for systems and team development. Like let's put the systems in place. Let's teach you the tacticals, but let's make sure we get the DNA right. ⁓ Miracle Morning was a book that came into my life by Hal Elrod at such a vibrant time. I was at my lowest of my lows and I just needed almost like ⁓ a roadmap out. And I feel like this book was so magical and so powerful for me. And I just really, really, really appreciate it. So ⁓ I'm going to give you guys like kind of a rift on it.
But like helping you just get this into your life. Because like I said, my friend is just struggling, high anxiety, burnout, feeling like, can't I be, like, why can't I do this? A new mom, feeling just truly burdened and down. And I remember I was talking to them and they said, Kiera, I just don't understand. Like, I feel like I should be able to do this and I feel like I can't and I don't understand why. And I thought, gosh, how many people feel this day in and day out? Like all of us.
And that's the lie is we all think that everyone else can figure this out and I'm just the schmuck and I just don't know how to do it when it's all just a stupid lie. And I'm so irritated about it because the life experiences that we're having right now are truly gifts to us to help us evolve into the person we ultimately want to become. if you could realize that the challenges we're facing right now are truly the gift of your soul to propel you into the version of yourself that you need to be.
is something so hard to comprehend when you're going through it, but so easy when you're on the other side, like, wow, that was the greatest gift life ever gave me. And remember life is always happening for you and not to you. So how Elrod, like it just helped me have like a routine, like a routine of pieces. So like I said, I'm just going to break it down for you. He goes through what he calls are the lifesavers. And the lifesavers on there are S stands for silence, A stands for affirmations, V stands for visualization, E stands for exercise, R stands for reading.
and S stands for scribing. So on the silence, the way he describes it, it's like, be quiet in your mind and block out the chatter through meditation, prayer, or focused breathing. Okay, so I do it, I do meditation in the morning. I love Joe Dispenza, that's the one who's come in for me for a long time, I didn't. I've done calm, I've done lots of different things, prayer, whatever it is, but the goal is to quiet our mind. And I believe that our mind is like a muscle and we need to strengthen it. And so this is a great way to almost do like bodybuilding for the mind is to every day.
just have a moment and like a time of silence. And I usually do this before I start my day. So it's kind of like setting myself up, building that foundation, creating this affirmations, tell yourself encouraging words to achieve goals, overcome fears and feel happy. And what they've proven is like one thing that I love about Joe dispense is he talks about like the future causes anxiety and the past causes depression. And how can we be in this future moment in this present moment? And then how can we create our future and actually break the pattern and the habit of things that are known and create an unknown?
of what we actually want to become. So when we do these affirmations of like X, Y, Z, and then we go followed up with the visualization, a visualization, imagine yourself doing things you need to for the day in your future life and imagine what it feels like to succeed. So for me, it's like, what is that? Like, don't have to say that he's always like, what is that future life? Like I hear him in my head because I listen to him every single day, but it's like visualizing, like, what do you want to be? How do you want your life to be? Who do you want to be? And I was like, what things? you're
You're basically creating this future that's pulling you, that's compelling, that's something you don't know. And you're able to like literally bring this into your world. Now, I'm not gonna lie to you, this is not an overnight sensation. It's something that you build up over time. But it's really beautiful when we're giving ourselves affirmations, which I have like a ton of I am statements. And then we go into E stands for exercise. So doing something of movement. It can be a one minute movement, but like just go for a walk or a jog. Getting moving allows the blood and oxygen to flow to your brain.
like my morning walk, like the shower for my brain, clear out all those cobwebs before I take off, doing something to honor my body which is this beautiful billion dollar asset that I have that I promise and committed to treating her with so much respect and love. R stands for reading. Fill your brain with positive thoughts and ideas to improve yourself. So any type of reading, anything, even if it's like two minutes like you could grab, but it's not scrolling, it's something of positive. Like you'd be shocked at how many books you get through if you'll just read like a page of morning. ⁓
to just fill your mind with something positive. And then S stands for scribing, write a journal to process thoughts and reflect on what you've achieved. So they have the short and condensed version of the savers, because I was like, wow, that feels like a lot. But again, it gave me a roadmap. So like, cool, I do meditation. Then I visualize within my meditation. Then I have affirmations. My husband says his affirmations in the shower. Like, truly, that's not a joke. Or he says that on his drive to work. And then we have our exercise. We have our reading. And we have our scribing.
I have cut a few of these things down. That's like the quick down dirty formula for it. And so for me, what I try to do in my journal is every morning I do what I'm grateful for, accomplishments I had from the day before, because I want to build that momentum. I do my improvements. And sometimes I just do one. I don't give myself any more than three. So my improvement was live in gratitude more. That was my improvement. I just want to see where life is more abundant and beautiful for me. That was my improvement. So it's nothing hard. It's nothing berating. It's truly just that.
I always do a portion of joy, like what was my greatest joy from yesterday? What's my self love? That one was really hard for me. I put that in and I had to write three things that I loved about myself, whether it was physically, mentally. So the one I wrote in here is that I love my brilliant mind. What's wild is like, why are we not our best friend? Like, why do I not look in the mirror every day and be like, gosh, girl, I just love you I'm so grateful for you. Like, why not be the biggest cheerleader for ourselves? So that was a big thing for me. I write down my goals of what I want to achieve.
And then what are my results for that day that I want to accomplish? So that's my scribing. Journaling for some reason makes me feel weird. It's been a few years block for me that I haven't been able to journal. So that's kind of my quick formula. And then just so you guys know, I have my like just a couple IM statements of like four year affirmations. I say, I am creative. I have growth and expansion. I am love. I have divine connection and collaboration. I have self love and compassion. I am honest. I have an abundant mindset. I'm fun and playful.
I have trust and flow, I have queen strength. So those are just a few. And then some of my affirmations are like, my success is inevitable. This is one that I always have like, hold on, I'll read you my favorite one. I'm 100 % committed to being so dang good people can't ignore me. Kierda is a name that is known across the world for good and for changing those she touches through word, deed and presence. And that's who I wanna be. That's how I wanna show up in this world. I also love this one. I am committed. Let me read this one to you.
⁓ I think this one's just funny. ⁓ I am committed and choose to be happy each day by laughing so hard, doing super fun things weekly. So just some like really fun things for you. I have another one. This was at a time in my life where I did not have great relationships in my life. So it's been on here for almost nine years. It says I am 100 % committed to only having healthy, positive relationships in my life. I immediately cut out toxicity from my life. ⁓
I am 100 % committed to being grateful for the amazing life that is already mine and continue to watch success, joy, money, grace, friendships, employees. Yes, I added employees. Don't worry, that was for surely added. And happiness flowed to me with ease, acceleration, and continuity. So for you, I hope whatever it is, whatever your version of Savers is, whatever your version of Miracle Morning is, that you remember that you are the greatest asset, that you're choosing you, that you are showing up for other people.
This is the dumb analogy that I hate, but it's true. Put the oxygen mask on you first to give to other people. This is your breath of oxygen. This is your, whoosh, is the way to have a simple foundation for you every morning to prime your mind. For me, I feel like, why don't I prime my mind for what I want to see rather than priming my mind for whatever comes in my way? I truly believe that I am a creator of my life, not a manager of my circumstances. And I want to be creating this beautiful, abundant, radiant version of me.
And I hope that you want that for you too. I will tell you when I first started this, 90 % of what I just read to you, I didn't believe and I didn't feel and I didn't think was mine. And over time, after doing it day in and day out, and it's not lying to myself, it's just again, like Jodis Benz says, it's not looking forward and causing anxiety and it's not looking in the past and causing depression, but being present and then co-creating my future life of what I want, what I believe, what I can create, and then allowing that to come to me.
with ease, grace, continuity. So if you need help with this, not only do we coach on dentistry, but we also help people become the best versions of themselves. And I hope that you just take this because life's too short. We are going to have bumps, we're going to have bruises, we're going to have pieces come through. But what I hope is that you're able to find hopefully something in this miracle morning to give yourself the foundation, the ritual, the routine, the system for your life to give you the extraordinary life that you deserve. If we can help you reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.
I hope you choose you. I hope you choose to love you the most. I hope you realize that giving yourself 10 minutes, 15 minutes a day is the greatest gift you can give yourself for everything that your body and soul does for you day in and day out. Commit, love yourself, and if we can help, like I said, reach out. I'm betting on you and I hope you are too. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
Kiera and Kristy talk listeners through the patience of the hiring process, with specific attention to understanding training capacity, establishing onboarding expectations, utilizing available resources — and what to do when you do all this already, and it still doesn't seem to work. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera and today's an awesome day. I'm so excited. We have the one and only Trouble Hunting Kristy on the podcast today. I call her the truffle hunter because she finds all the money in the practices. Like Kristy, I don't know if you've looked at the stats, but you are rivaling me on the amount of production you're bringing into practices, which I think is a huge shout out to you. Kristy's one of our incredible consultants. So Kristy, with that intro, how are you today? Kristy (00:27) doing wonderful. Thank you. Kiera Dent (00:29) Good. Yeah, of course. I feel like I need to get like a good nickname for you. So I've been like, clicking Kristy, but it's like, that's not what I'm going for. I'm going for like hunting Kristy, but I need like something. So if anybody out there can think of it, like in my mind, Kristy sits there. I don't know. It's a really funny image I have of you, Kristy. I see you like with your little shovel. You're like digging for the gold and the practices. You're like, I'm going to find it. It's like sleuth status Kristy. So if anybody has a great nickname, send it on over. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'm always here for good nicknames. So, Kristy will find one for you. You know, here we go. But Kristy, we've been working on some practices together and ⁓ just like in general consulting, I think there's some fun things. And right now I think it's like, what do you do when you can't hire team members? I think hiring like hygienists for an office, the hiring climate is really tricky. And I think we've been coming up with some good ideas. Kristy (01:01) Yeah. Kiera Dent (01:23) that might be really fun to dig into if you're down with that today. Kristy (01:26) Love it, absolutely. Kiera Dent (01:29) Awesome. All right, Kristy. So with practices, I were pretend I'm your office and I'm like, hey, Kristy, I need to hire, but I can't hire. Like what's step one, two, three? Where do we even start to find these people? Because I think this happens in almost every single practice. I've said it before in our company. Like how do we break beyond that to help offices really find some people? Because you had an office that like could not find anybody. And now they're onboarding three people in one moment. Like it's pretty incredible how we went like the swing and the shift. So how do we get to that other than just having patience through the process? Kristy (02:03) Yeah, well, I think there's multi steps to it. But first, I think we have to take a look at ourselves and figure out, are we the type of person that likes to train people or not? Right? Because if I truly am not a person that likes even training people, our avenue may look a little bit different than ⁓ if I really enjoy developing and coaching them up, if you will. So first there's that step, if you will. And then I think the next step Kiera is, I get my doctors and teams brainstorming. What attributes are you trying to find within this person? What do they need to possess as a person, personality wise? And what skills are you looking for them to possess? Kiera Dent (02:31) Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because I love that you actually brought up do I want to train and develop somebody and then who are we looking for because I think Sometimes people like know thyself and be free I think is the best way to phrase that I am someone who we used to try and hire consultants and train them up and honestly we did a dang good job, but I got to a level as the company grew where I'm like We just need people who are already expert consultants that can come in at the level that we need. And so even though I might love to develop people, I think also looking at the size of your practice to see, is this a position that we have the space to grow them? Like if I'm a brand new practice owner, trying to grow and develop an office manager, probably not a great idea. Like that's hard. And that person also, you have to look at too, the ROI of this position that, well, I might not feel like I can afford it. they're actually going to bring money like a very experienced office manager who knows how to bill and knows how to close cases. Even though they're very expensive with air quotes around it because you're brand new will pay undue dividends. Just like when I hire, I remember hiring my first treatment coordinator. I looked at her in the interview and I was like, listen, her name was Kristen. I still remember this. And I'm like, Kristen, I begged our doctor to like stamp off and let me hire you, but you have three months to prove yourself. Otherwise I have to fire you. Like literally can't afford you for three months beyond this. So, but you should. I mean a treatment coordinator should be putting money on our books. Kristen was amazing. She paid for herself ten times over but it's that like risk too. So, when you look at this of do we have the time to train them? Do I have the skill set to train them? And is our business like for us? Training consultants right now does not make sense. I can't teach a consultant. how to run a $6 million business that sells to a DSO and get them trained up to that level of expertise. That's something we've outgrown the training space. So now we need to bring in expert consultants that have been there, done that, done that successfully rather than trying to convince them. So I think it was a really solid point you had on that. But Kristy, what happens when you as a consultant know that this doctor could train someone? So for example, like a dental assistant, like we could train them. but the doctor maybe just doesn't want to, but they don't really have the funds to pay for the higher level. especially like a dental assistant. I'm like, dental assistant is not necessarily gonna put money on my books. They might make me move faster if I have a highly trained one. Like that is, it's nice to have, but what do you do on that type of a practice that like you as a consultant are looking at the numbers and like, maybe we should try to train this person up. What are your thoughts on that? Kristy (05:34) Yeah, well, to back up, think speaking to what you were talking about is what's the end result we're looking for and within what timeframe, right? Because again, realistically, if we need, if we're a startup and we need butts in the chair, we've got to be producing. We don't have time to train someone up, right? And if a doctor isn't really that great at it, we've got to find different solutions for acquiring that person. And I think reaching out to your team members to find ⁓ their resources, who do they know? Who can we tap in that maybe they know and worked with and has been successful, right? And bring them on. But also I do believe we have to have a good onboarding process with expectations. You know, what by when and set them out. not just for the person coming on, but for team members to enroll them in helping them too. Kiera Dent (06:38) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kristy, brilliant point on that of like onboarding expectations. What results do we want by when? And I think that also is probably like the pivotal piece when we're looking at this of what is our result? When do we need it by? That way we can see like who should I really hire of all my candidates? And then I loved how you said like, let's figure it out. You and I were in a practice together and we were like, okay, what sets us apart? Why should people want to work with us? And then who do we want to hire? and this office, they like run on roller skates. So I'm like, put that in the ad, say like, we run fast and hard. We don't want people that like, if you don't love spinning around like 50 plates going in the air, this is not the place for you. And it's been crazy, because like, that really does speak to, now the person who wants that is going to come rather than just hoping and praying. ⁓ But Kristy, what do you do like this office? The one I'm thinking of this doctor, it would, it just like the cards were falling left and right. Like every time we'd get on a call, was another team member was gone. And just so you know, this is not just isolated to this doctor. Kristy and I have seen this over our careers. Like this happens. It just comes in waves. And then we're like, we sit here and giggle empathetically. It's like, gosh, like this is just so frustrating. And it's like a giggle of like, I don't know what else to do. I'm either going to cry or I'm going to laugh with you. So like, let's choose the laugh and figure it out. What do you say to those offices? Like when it feels like, Okay, I'm putting the ads out. I know who I want. I've got my onboarding expectations. Like I literally can't find anybody. What do you do in that spot? Or like where should they even go? So first of all, I guess question A is where should we be posting these ads? What can we be doing to hire? So all of our fishing rods are out there. And then part B will be like, what do we do when all fishing rods are out there, but we're just not getting bites? So where do you recommend fishing rods should go to find people? Kristy (08:08) Yeah. Yeah, well first off with your team, who do they know? Who can they reach out to? What are the resources they have? Also schools in your area, know, they may have contacts, not necessarily new grads, because this doctor didn't need a new grad for sure, but they might have relationships still with part of their ⁓ alumni, if you will. and or lists of their names that they could reach out, you could solicit, you just never know. And I don't mean solicit in a bad way, because there could be people that are out there working, but aren't happy where they're at and are looking for something a little bit different. Or they're happy but want growth opportunities, you know? So again, pull your resources, look at your teammates, and don't think just my assistants. It could be an admin team member, it could be a hygienist that worked great people before. ⁓ The other areas, obviously, if I wasn't looking for somebody that was hugely experienced and I had the ability to train, I like looking at restaurant servers or you find people that have great customer service and are willing to go the extra mile. I love dangling a carrot out there and not only dangling the carrot, like promoting them as well. Like, hey, you are a fantastic server. If you know any friends that are just like you, have those qualities and are looking for a career, I would love, you know, to have you give them my card. And sometimes you'll do that and they'll look at you and go, well, why not me? You know, and you just found someone. So. Kiera Dent (10:17) Exactly. Kristy (10:20) Those are a couple avenues. know you have some as well. ⁓ Kiera Dent (10:24) Yeah, Kristy, I love that you talk about that. And I love that you're scrappy like this. And if you're hearing Kristy's voice, Kristy loves where she's at. She loves, like, I just feel the love and compassion and just like helping team members feel that. And I think when you can convey that, it really is an easier path to get people to want to work with you. ⁓ dentistry is so small and I feel like we're a nice patchwork quilt where we're all somehow connected. Like we have the oddest family tree where every single person, I mean, Kristy and I, Kristy's like, hey, I met you a few years ago. And I was like, this is really funny. I literally have an email from you in my inbox, but yet our worlds came back around a few years later. So just remembering like we all, and once you start brainstorming with your team, people are usually like, my gosh, I know this person or hey, I live next door to a hygienist. Let me ask them or hey, what about this person? And so I agree, Kristy, like the power of networking. And like, I remember we went to, I was in a drive-through and there was this girl who was like, amazing at customer service. It was at a fast food restaurant drive through and I just handed my business card to her and was like, girl, you're incredible. Like if you're ever looking for something or know someone who's just like you, have them call us. And this girl did call me like it's wild Shelby, who if you've met her in our company, literally my next door neighbor, she wanted my plants and knocked on our door. So look and hunt for good people all the time and always, always, always be on the hunt. I think let's not get ourselves into these pickles where we meet people. but let's always be recruiting, always be looking for great people. And then of course I'm here for like writing really awesome ads. So we love using a company called Ava HR. We have a promotional code through Dental A Team. I've negotiated down to get you the best pricing, but you can post one ad and it will like, you can post how many ads you want and it's just one monthly fee. So I'm really big also though of like, this is where I put my fishing bait. I'm out there putting like a bunch of different titles to see who's applying to my different ads. based on the title because just like podcast episodes, it's interesting. Shelby and I went and pulled like the most downloaded ones and it does not matter the content, it matters the title. And so same thing with your ads, like yes, that's going to attract somebody. So put really awesome titles and see like we have tried different ones to pull in consultants and the one that works best is usually like a regional manager or a consultant, like looking for something different. That one tends to pull me my best candidates, but I've tried office manager. I've tried treatment coordinator. I've tried like. but until you know a bait works in your area, you've got to try them out. So that's why I really love that. Talk to your reps. Reps are connected. Doctors talk to people on the golf course. Like it's shocking how many dentists have come from golf course conversations that I've seen looking in your area. And just like you said, service industry, some of my absolute best office managers are bankers. So they're coming from banking and some of our best schedulers actually came from like tanning salons or hair salons that were super busy. Lots of high-end customer service moving really quickly. ⁓ but those are some of the best places. So I think like, get your fishing poles out there, start looking and then like, don't stop. Don't just like throw the fishing pole out there and hope and pray that the bait stays. Watch it, constantly update it, stay top of mind with people because just because you had a conversation with your team today doesn't mean they remember in a week from now. So making sure it's like top of mind, this is who we're looking for. If you know anybody, you see anybody and it's crazy because all of a sudden. like little bubbles just show up in your world and people show up. So I think brilliant ideas on that, Kristy. So then part two of that question was what happens? Like, I honestly think it's just pati…
Full show notes at the publisherDental A-Team's marketing mastermind Eve joins Tiff on the pod to discuss the top marketing strategies that can be easily implemented in your practice. They touch on social media, offline marketing, retention, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am in the studio air quotes there because you know, we're in two different places I say that all the time, but I am in the studio with someone very very special today and I'm so excited I just I adore this human being more than I think she will ever know I think she thinks she knows how much I adore her but she has no freaking idea And I'm so excited to bring her here with you guys today. And I always bring my consultants and they are by far and away the A team and they make the Dental A Team who we are. And I'm always just so happy to bring them to you. But today you guys, I have the most amazing human being. I have Eve with us. And some of you may know Eve's name. ⁓ All of you likely see her handiwork every single week in your inboxes, in your email. ⁓ invitations, if you're part of our doctors groups, you are seeing her sprinkles of fairy dust and everything that the Dental A Team puts out, our logos, everything that we do. Eve is our marketing genius behind the scenes and she hates that term, but she really is our marketing genius. I have. Eve, I'm just so happy to have you here. Like I could sit here and talk about you for the whole podcast and the amazing things that you've been able to do with us and for us. But first and foremost, massive welcome, massive thank you for taking this on. This is not, you love to be behind the scenes, but being in the face of everything is not your favorite space. And I somehow convinced you to do this. And Eve, thank you so much. And how are you today? How excited are you to be here with all of us? Eve (01:37) I am equally excited and nervous to be here. This is definitely one of the things that I had to challenge myself to do. you know what? It scares me and it's something new that I've never done before. So ⁓ let's do it. The Dental A Team (01:52) I'm so excited. for all of our listeners, if you've ever attended one of our monthly webinars, we do free webinars so everybody knows every single month. It's the third Thursday every month. Eve actually, that's her. She is responsible for those. She puts them on. You've probably heard her amazing voice on there and maybe even seen her face a time or two, but that is the handiwork of Eve. And I know most of the content and most of the stuff, the engagement that you're seeing is put on by the consultants, but I want you guys to know Eve is freaking brilliant. She is a mastermind and she has so many tools in her tool belt. And honestly, she, and I are constantly just in awe. Eve of the, we've told you this before, where we'll create content now, you guys. we, Kiera and I create the content. We're like, yep, let's rock and roll. And we send it over to Eve and I'm like, my God, I didn't even think of that. Like she's thinking of like dental things for us now too, because. You've just done so much of it with us and you pour your heart and your soul into everything that you do. And I think when it comes to a great marketer, that is a massive piece of what really makes you shine and makes the company that you're working with or for truly shine as well is that you pour your heart and soul in there and you become who you're working with and you become that piece of content and you just embody it and you literally, like, ⁓ it makes me think of like Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey does really, really well studying everything that he's going to his characters, right? So he does all the studying and he literally becomes them. And I've watched documentaries about him where he's like this different human. And that's what I imagine you doing Eve, when you go in and you do all of our content and all of our slideshows, our decks, all of that. You just become that content and you make everything just shine a little bit brighter. So massive kudos to you. Huge thank you and. Again, thank you for doing this podcast with me, you guys. This is gonna be huge. Obviously we're doing it about marketing. I get so many questions about marketing and if you know I love marketing, it just lights up my soul, I don't know why. I love changing something a little bit to get a different result and to see what happens and use different words, use different tools, and it really, really lights my soul on fire. I get asked a lot of marketing questions and something that even just what you talked about right now when we're prepping for this, I'm like, gosh, I actually get asked these questions constantly and I get asked for marketing companies. We have a ton we can recommend. We have time we work really closely with, but Eve, I really, really wanted you to come in today and really help us narrow down some effective marketing strategies that you've seen that you think can translate very easily to dental practices. We are a dental consulting company. So our marketing might be a little bit like a smidgen different than an actual dental practice, but I think that a lot of it translates and marketing is marketing in my opinion. So there's a million things. And I think there's two that you just talked with me about that I want those to be like, this is the meat of it. But one question I get asked a lot that I wanna pick your brain on and I want just like, put this out there. And first off, before we even get started, everyone know Eve is like, She told you she is equally as excited as she is nervous. And she is really, really fantastic at making sure that anything that goes out is as accurate as possible. So just know this is coming from ⁓ her marketing brain, The learning, the training, everything that she's got behind her and also opinions. Like these are things that we've... tested, these are things that we've done, things that she's done, whether it's with our company or not, and opinions that we have on things that could or could not work. So with that said, one of the biggest questions I get asked is social freaking media. do I, dental practices on social media. And there's a whole bunch of different avenues for that and a whole bunch of different genres of dental practices. think I see like cosmetic practices or these smile design practices, obviously, they're gonna get a good foothold and it's going to be more important for them to be on social media. But something Eve that I've always thought or been told is that for a general dental practice, your social media is really there to help boost SEO and it's really there to like get in front of your patients. It's not necessarily going to be something great to get in front of people who don't know you. And I think of that because I think of like the stretch within the country. of how many people are randomly coming across social media accounts, what's your opinion on social media and dentistry? Eve (06:29) ⁓ Well, think first and foremost, think social media is very important. And no, first and foremost, thank you so much for all the kind words. Thank you. Is this episode about me? That's great. Glad I came. Now, I do think that social media is very... And I think that more and more dentists are realizing now that social media is super important, is one of the main pillars of marketing. Because if people don't know that you exist, they're never going to come to your door. ⁓ The Dental A Team (06:36) Of course, of course. Yes. Eve (06:59) One mistake that I think many ⁓ business owners in general do is they treat social media purely as a sales tool. ⁓ Social media can be that if you play it right, but it's more about awareness. It's more about building that trust with your community. It's about ⁓ showing like how you show up for your community. actually, my dentist, ⁓ I love their social media. They really just, their social media makes me feel like we are best friends. ⁓ Like even seeing the familiar faces, ⁓ just seeing everything that they do kind of on a day to day or them taking me behind the scenes and stuff. It's really, something that really does build that trust with the audience. The Dental A Team (07:40) Yeah, what is it for for dental practices? like you said, like sales, they're using it for sales. Are they going to gain new patients from it? What should it be used for? Eve (07:51) You definitely can get new patients from it, but ⁓ for, if we're talking about acquisition, I would definitely recommend running ads. So your feed is not just basically covered with, I don't know, promo on whitening. And then the next post is ⁓ kids are going back to school, book your checkup and stuff like that. ⁓ Social media is to build that trust with the community, to kind of show who you are to them enough that they are going to like you and they're going to trust you and they're going to come to you. After all, feel like dentistry is a very, and I don't think people really think about it this way, but it's a very kind of like intimate service really. ⁓ So I think that trust is just very, ⁓ very important. The Dental A Team (08:36) Thank you. Yeah. And what I'm gathering there is that it should be a reflection of who you are. So who your practice is. And I think that kind of flows into a lot of podcasts that we've done on really knowing who you are, how you want to show up in the world. So what your core values are, what your mission and your vision are. And I feel like then if your social media is speaking to that, it's kind of as just putting yourself on display rather than saying, please come schedule. hate, I hate, like I always think of like the Easter bunny, right? And the like Easter bunny picture that everybody posts. It's like happy Easter. And it's like everybody posted that or happy St. Patrick's Day and it's the little leprechaun. And it's like, huh, just be different. Like do a picture of your team with little leprechaun hats on and say happy St. Patrick's Day. Like do bunny ears on the doctor and not this like stock photo that everyone's using and then following it up with, by the way we've got a whitening special for wedding season. Like everybody's doing that. So I love the way you said that. Eve (09:40) Yeah. And I would challenge anyone that's listening to it to kind of try to be themselves for a minute and try to actually present themselves the way they are. Not what, not in the way that everybody else expects them to be. Like you're saying, it's, don't know, Christmas is coming. Everybody's posting happy Christmas from X, Y, and Z. ⁓ dental try to be different, try to, try to do what you as a person would do because that there is a massive chance that whatever you do or whoever you are will actually. really make someone relate to you ⁓ even more. The Dental A Team (10:12) Yeah. And you're trying to attract that patient avatar of the patients that you want, not everyone you're trying to, you're trying to narrow down your niche. So thank you. Perfect. ⁓ massive piece that I wanted to chat about B and I actually just got off a call this morning, ⁓ with a client and she had asked me for ideas on this and, ⁓ really just like boots on the ground marketing is what I like to call it and community outreach. And I love that style of marketing, especially for practices that are in a really community based town. like LA, maybe not like as many things to do, but there's still some, think boots on the ground style marketing you can do, but especially for those rural cities or rural communities within a big city that can do that kind of community outreach. What do you feel, how relevant do you feel? that is or earlier you called it like offline marketing. How relevant do you feel that is? Because I do feel like a lot of marketing companies even are pushing so much online, so many Google ads, so much SEO and everything is like this online presence. And I do believe in Google ads and I do believe in Google reviews to boost all of that, but there's still gotta be something else that can go in. Eve (11:05) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (11:28) line with it, but what are you seeing that works really well or experiencing yourself? Eve (11:33) 100%. And I think, and that's something that I mentioned to you earlier, that I feel like so many dental practices move online so much that there was so much room in offline marketing. There was this whole pool that is basically uncovered. And I brought an example of myself where I really, I do love my dentist and if he's listening, I love you, but I have moved. I have moved. now it means that it's like a 45 minute trip for me to go and visit my dentist. The Dental A Team (11:55) Yeah. Eve (12:02) I'm on a lookout for a new dentist. And what I've noticed is ever since I moved, I've been getting flyers from literally everyone with my name on it. So obviously they have access to my name, my address and everything. I've got flyers from the pest control guys, from people that are offering to fix my roof. People that are doing landscaping, driveways, everything else. I have not received a single one from a dentist. And this is someone that I actually genuinely need. So I know my job now is to go on Google. The Dental A Team (12:31) Yeah. Eve (12:32) run all those reviews and pick a new dentist ⁓ that I hope that I can trust. But that kind of shows that there is that massive gap, really. Because if you were in my area, so if you're in South Ogden, Utah, look. Yeah. The Dental A Team (12:48) I have a dentist for you. I didn't know that's where you moved. I have a dentist for you, but go on, go on. Eve (12:55) Perfect. So if you're in this area anyway, just know that there is zero offline ⁓ competition for you. So you can for sure attack this area. ⁓ But seriously though, I feel like he has that everything is moving online so much that there was more room again for offline marketing or even when it comes to like community ⁓ inspired initiatives. ⁓ The Dental A Team (13:16) Yeah. Eve (13:21) You know, and you can be as creative as creative as you want. I've seen one dental practice around dropping like toothbrushes. think their slogan was smile more or something like that. And they were dropping toothbrushes and they were hanging them in, in a little bags on door handles of the houses. ⁓ so even doing things like that as well, even though obviously it might be a little, you know, it might be time consuming. It might need a lot of planning, but those things do, they might not get you up. The Dental A Team (13:36) ⁓ smart. Eve (13:48) They might not get you a new patient right away, but they slowly build up that kind of trust or it slowly shows people that, hey, we are in your community. We're serving your neighbors. The Dental A Team (13:57) Mm-hmm. I could see that. Yeah, I think a lot of dental practices pulled back from the flyers and they became, I don't know, think that, I think in the, I know when I was in practice, when we were in, we did thousands, we would do drops of thousands of these. flyers and they would come back. would get the fly with the patients would bring them in. They would get them. But it takes so many times for those to get in front of someone before they're ready to call. And they would say, you know, I've had this here for six months and it's been hanging on my…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera talks about the concept "going into the storm," aka how to approach those difficult conversations with team members, and how this builds trust as a practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I think is gonna be a really, really, really beneficial conversation. This is something that I've worked with tons of offices on. It's something that I feel is such a good just reminder of the type of practice, the type of leader that we wanna be. So, and it's called going into the storm, how to have hard conversations with your team and actually making them easy. So with that, ⁓ this is like, it's just random. So Buffalo, ⁓ I I'm going straight into a story for you. Why not? Happy dental day. Happy everything for you. But when Buffalo, there's a storm coming. So they watch this, basically like Yellowstone area over like the Rocky Mountains. When a storm comes, they've watched Buffalo behavior. What Buffalo do is they actually, the storm's coming at them, like these big, we're talking like a big, snowy, scary, terrifying storm, blinding. They can't see. I've been in some of these storms. Buffalo actually turn. face the storm and walk through the storm. Like they literally go into the storm, whereas cows, what they do when the storm's coming, they see it and they actually pivot and they run away from the storm. And what's interesting is the buffalo, when they go and they hit it head on, they're actually able to get through the storm and be able to come out on the other side faster and with less like heartache and burn on them versus the cows that are actually in the storm so much longer because they avoided it. And then they actually, the storm just like goes with them for much, much longer rather than hitting it head on and taking it on. So when we talk about this in teams and kudos to an awesome doctor up in New York, he's the one who introduced me to this. We talk about it in all of his practices. His practices are thriving. We've taken this to other offices. We do it within our company, but it's where can we go into the storm in our practices? Where are we avoiding conversations where if we would just have them head on, we'd actually be able to move it so much faster and further ahead. And I think about this a lot of like those storms, if you realize, are actually the things that are the building blocks of gaining greater trust and vulnerability with each other. So we go to Patrick Lincione's five dysfunctions of a team. The bottom layer is trust and vulnerability. Then the next layer is healthy debate. Then the next layer is commitment. Then it's peer to peer accountability. And then it's results in winning. So if we look at all that, we break it down. People who go into the storm that's building trust and vulnerability and it's having a healthy debate. versus those who avoid it or are avoided. Like it actually just makes it last longer. And I my little sister said, she's like, here, it's like 10 seconds of courage to overcome these things. And when you look at other opportunities and other stories and other scenarios, when people go into the storm, they walk out on the other side and they're like, gosh, I'm so glad I had that conversation. Even though it was a hard conversation, it ends rather than being avoided on it. And so having those... All it does is it's going to build resentment when we are like the cattle and you're in it so much longer and it's more exhausting for you and it's more draining on you rather than turning it and going into the storm. So in your practice, I have some offices who have literally made like hats, t-shirts, swag, and they say go into the storm. And I think it's a really good reminder. And I'm even tempted to do it in our company. So like, Hey team listening, ⁓ I really think it's an awesome idea to just wear shirts, to make bracelets, to have it on a hat of go into the storm. So you're reminding yourself that you're always going into the storm. I want to have this ⁓ conversation because true leaders go into the storm. Those who are followers avoid. And I just want you to realize like, who am I and what am I doing and what's my behavior? And so this healthy debate or healthy conversation actually allows for more direct conversation and builds trust and it builds a stronger practice. And it's wild because I had an office, we talked about this and we talked about their quarterly meeting. And then three months later, I asked them how they're doing in their life. We've been going into the storm so much more. And when I talked to this office manager, she's like, Kiera, it's crazy how many times I need to go into the storm and how many times I was avoiding it in the past. But now that it's on the forefront of my mind, I'm thinking about it more. I'm doing it more. And I'm actually making it to where it's just better experience for me. So the dentistry team, our job is to like make your life easier. Our job is to make you more profitable, less stress, better patient experience. But when we make changes or when we do things in offices, We've got lots of different behaviors in the practice. So we're going to have lots of different people there, which in that case, we're bound to have conversations that don't match. We're bound to have conflict. We're bound to have people that like, there's just going to be a misalignment, which is going to have the opportunity for frustration, confusion, chaos. And so when we have these conversations, when we teach you and your teams how to do this, your team actually flows. This is how we get flow in a practice. This is how we get ease. And actually, instead of having artificial harmony, we actually have true harmony in our practice. And this will actually apply to your personal life. ⁓ Me, I have two sisters, so hello, welcome to three. There's always an odd man out or odd woman, if you will. And one of my little sisters, we realized that there was some pretty awesome opportunities for some healthy debate. My family is really solid on people pleasing. We think that that's the right way to go. Seven kids don't make a big mess, like it's fine. And I've noticed the more I coach and the more my company and the more I work with teams, the less and less tolerant I am to people pleasing and not having conversations when they need to happen. And I remember my little sister and I was for my birthday. ⁓ She's 15 years younger than me. So life lessons, like I've clearly had a lot more life than she has. And ⁓ we went into the storm and my little sister felt like maybe I didn't like her and We talked about it and I remember telling her, I waited about a week and I said, hey, Leticia, are you open to a conversation? And she said, yeah. I said, let's talk about what happened. And I helped her realize that like me having that kind of a conversation with her, like, let me know how it landed because in no way, or form, do I want to be rude or aggressive or anything like that. Cause I know I can have a bit more bold of personality site if you couldn't guess. I'm sure all of you can guess that. And I told her, said, like, Me coming to you and having that conversation actually is me wanting to build more trust with you. So that way we can have conversations. You can tell me what you're feeling. I can tell you what I'm feeling and we don't have to sit here wondering and guessing or talking through other people. And I was actually like really, really proud of my little sister who's 23. Actually she just turned 24. But at 24 to learn these life lessons. and to be open to it and to see that like going into the storm is not a bad thing, but it is uncomfortable because I think a lot of our lives and a lot of society has taught us to avoid to make sure people like us. But the real way for people to like us is to know that they trust us and that they can be real with us. So on that, this is something of like, Hey, if you're avoiding conversations or you're nervous about your leadership, this episode is your permission and your playbook to have these conversations and to truly go into the storm, to hit things head on and to not have the the problems last for so long. So step one is like, let's get the facts in the right intention. So I'm really big on like, when we're highly charged and we come in and we are berating people or we're being rude, that actually can damage a relationship. So like you can go into the storm, but the way we go into the storm, let's have finessing grace rather than like attack mode. So what are the facts of the situation? What happened? What was said, what was done and what's needed to resolve it. And then, excuse me, I'm really big on like say what needs to be said. So let's not just like go into it like, all right, facts are that you were a jerk, did this. Those are actually like someone being a jerk is not a fact. A fact is you said X, and Z on this date. This is how it landed. And these are the clear examples and we stay grounded. So this is where also metrics and KPIs are really great. So if your hygiene team is not hitting it, it's like the facts are that we're actually not hitting our three times our pay like we need to. We looked at all the open time in the schedule. So there's a scheduling issue. We also looked at what our dollar per procedure has been for each hygienist. And we know this hygienist is hitting it, this hygienist is not. We also looked at like what's going on within those and what are the procedure makeups? Do you see how many facts I just brought to the table? So instead of being the hygienist is like, well, you don't give us the time. We can't hit three times. It's like, okay, here's the facts. Here's the data to back it up. Now let's figure out a solution together to make sure that we're able to hit three times our pay. Cause we need to take care of our patients and we need to make sure like this is something other offices can do. So let's make sure we do it. And then what we're going to do is now that's like, we've got the right intention. And what I say is we spend like two minutes on talking about what the issue is very clearly clear as kind. And then we spend the rest of our conversation resolving it and finding solutions to it. So really the goal is to improve, it's not to shame or to blame or to nitpick that person's like, you did this. Like, no, that never is going to land well. That is one way to go into the storm, but that is not the best way to go into the storm. Like kudos, you actually have the combo. but it didn't land in a way that somebody felt respected, heard, and that they're able to accomplish it. So the next step is we have that, prepared our facts and our intention. Next step is going to be like to communicate clearly and directly. Like I said, clear is kind. So we can use words like I've noticed or help me understand, or I'd like to understand your perspective on this. And we speak with empathy and firmness. So it's like we address the behavior, not the person. So it's never like, well, Sarah, you're not hitting your three times a pay. It's like, hey, We've noticed this is happening. These are some of the facts. Help me understand what's going on so we can create a solution together to get to three times our pay. Notice on that, I did not tell them like this is open for negotiation, but I'm also not blaming you and telling you that you're wrong. It's like, hey, this is what's going on. Here are the facts. Help me understand your side. And then let's create a solution together that we both agree to that's going to be able to resolve this once and for all. ⁓ So when doctors and office managers come into it, I had a coach and she told me, always come from curiosity. So when we're going into these, from curiosity, that's going into the storm in a way that's going to yield a positive result. It's like, hey, help me understand, or like, I'd love to understand more about this, ⁓ or hey, help me see your side on this. I'd really love to understand where you're coming from. So a lot of it's like, help me understand, help me understand. I'd love to know more. ⁓ Help me see your perspective on this. I'd love to understand your side. And truly, we're now listening to understand. We're not listening to respond. And I hope you heard that you're listening to understand you're not listening to respond. And then from there, like honestly, I had a doctor, I giggle, I had a doctor who had to practice this with me. Like they literally had to sit there and have an uncomfortable conversation with me and they had to send me the video. So was like, how are you going to come into this? How are you going to approach it? How are you going to say like, help me understand this? How are you going to address the issue with facts? Help me understand more, Kiera. I remember the doctor said it to me and. I watched it I was like, my gosh, we have to this conversation again. Like I swear we just had this and I called the doctor and I said, hey, I got your message. Thank you for it. Like help me understand like what we need to resolve with this conversation. The doctor like, no, we don't resolve anything. You just told me I had to practice. So had to send you another video of this, but we are resolved. like, but notice how you even came into that. Like I'm annoyed. Like, my gosh, I have to freaking have this conversation again. But my ultimate intention is I want to get this resolved so it doesn't come up and I want to resolve it forever. And I really do want to understand what you're hearing, how this is landing so we can be on the same page. When we communicate, going to the storm for me is we are on the same page, we've made a resolve and we're committed to solving this forever. Notice, trust and vulnerability, then we go into healthy debate, then we go into commitment and then it's peer to peer so we can win. So on this, I'm like, my ultimate resolve is like, what do we need to commit to? What do we need to do to resolve this? Like what do need to hear? What do I need to understand? So that way you and I are on the exact same page. So then after that, we then are able to have a follow up and accountability. So once we have that, like I just said, like we had the conversation, we have the intention, we had the healthy debate, whatever it is we commit, we commit 100 % and what we're going to follow through on. So we have a culture of follow through accountability. So it's like amazing. This is what we agreed to. This is when we're going to get it done and this is what you need and this is what I need. And this is when we're going to... touch base and make sure it's good to go again. What I love is when these emails are like, you send this in a recap email form. So both of us, like there's no misunderstanding because what they've actually studied is people's memories are not actually real. We actually don't remember and we fabricate and we change. So like when you have eyewitnesses, actually not great witnesses because everybody's memories change all the time. So when we have black and white of a recap of, this is what we agreed to. This is what we sa…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Kristy discuss the ongoing challenges of hiring, including how incentives and mentalities have shifted over the past five years — and what you, as someone hiring, can do about it. Part of the discussion includes the pros and cons of how to pay team members. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back today. I have Ms. Kristy again with me and we are just having a good old time over here recording ⁓ Love and Life and getting our time in together. I think you guys have heard us say it before. This is like, and I know Dana says the same thing, this is some of the only one-on-one time that we get in our lives. I don't know if you guys know this or not, but we are a completely virtual company, meaning we are all at our homes. We don't have like a workspace that we come to and then if you're a client of ours, you know, we're on calls or in offices quite a bit as consultants or our consulting team. We really just don't get a ton of time together. So these couple of hours that we bust out some podcasts are near and dear to our hearts and I just adore you Kristy and I appreciate you blocking out the time when your schedule always for it and for always just putting so much value into everything that you do. with your clients, with your podcasting, everything that you do. So Kristy, thank you so much. Thank you for being a part of the Dental A Team. Thank you for being here today. How are you? How are things going over there? DAT Kristy (01:09) Good, thank you for having me. It's wonderful. I love what I do serving people and it just brings great joy. So happy to be here with you. The Dental A Team (01:18) Amazing. Good. Thank you. And I have a question that I haven't asked you yet. How are, how's your family adjusting to the heat to being here and your puppy who's not necessarily a puppy anymore, but he'll always be a puppy. All your dogs, I guess, both your dogs, but how's everybody, how's everybody doing kind of getting settled into Arizona? DAT Kristy (01:40) Yeah, everybody's loving it. Thank goodness there's pools around so we can get cooled off. the dogs, they're definitely staying indoors right now. It's especially the little Frenchie, you know, that you have to be careful because they will overheat really easy. He's I can tell he's missing his walks right now, but they'll swim. The Dental A Team (01:46) Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, good, good. I had a black lab that hated water, like couldn't be anywhere near water, which is so not allowed. And summers were rough. He would get hot, but he wanted to be out there, but he was an Arizona born dog, so he was fine. But I was just thinking about earpups this morning, like, gosh, they're not used to not being able to just go outside and chill in the backyard for a couple hours. Well, I'm glad that they swim. I'm glad that they're enjoying that. DAT Kristy (02:25) So true. The Dental A Team (02:31) ⁓ and yeah, we're just, we're excited to bring you some information this, this day. We've got, gosh, what four podcasts for recording. So I'm super excited for them all to release and you guys, we always want you to know that these podcasts are for you. So if there's ever anything that you have hopes, wishes, desires, things you want us to talk about things that you want us to dive in deeper on, please just always reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are always taking suggestions and we're always here to help. And also if there's anything that we say on these podcasts that we're like, we'll get you that. We really do mean that as well. have clients that write in all the time and say, Tiff said, and I'm like, sometimes my marketing team is like, what were you talking about? I don't know, but we figure it out. Whatever it is that we say that you can have, we want you to have it. We are here to deliver massive amounts of information to the dental community in the best ways possible and that. comes with a ton of free resources. That's our podcast, that's our sheets, our documents, our website. We have all kinds of stuff everywhere, our ⁓ social media, we're on Instagram and Facebook, like wherever you can find us, you're gonna find a slew of information. So we're here for you and when you're ready for one-on-one consulting and not just getting all the information on your own via the web, please reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are so excited to serve all of you guys in whatever way fits you the best today. Kristy. I wanted to chat this podcast today. I've had, well, number one, I've had a lot of hiring in all of my practices. So I actually chatted with a doctor yesterday, a very successful doctor in Colorado, and he was like, Tiff, what the heck? Like, we lost another one. We just filled our hygiene spots and now we're in front office. And like, what is it? What's going on? He's like, just as soon as I feel like I'm making progress, someone leaves. And I said, you know what? And he's like, it's hard to not take it personally. That's what he said. And I said, you know what? I understand that. And I, and I feel that. And on the level of, you know, being a lead on a team, I don't own this company, but I have a lot of vested interest in this company and its success. And it's hard. And I said, we come from, we come from a time of, of being employees, right? When we were employees and we were working and, and our work ethic. Not even ethic, I don't even think it's ethic. Just like our tendency to stick around one place longer, is, it was there longer than it is now. So we just, we didn't leave. We stayed where we were. We became part of the family. We allowed work to become a bigger piece of our lives than it does for a lot of people in this day and age, in my opinion. I think that we, made work our, like we tied our identity to work. And so leaving was a bigger ⁓ undertaking than it is when you're not so tied to what your job is, your title is, or the place is. And it's much easier to say, you know what, I can, I want to grow into something different. I want to be someone different. I want to change. And so they do, they leave more easily. And I think from our point of view, it makes it really hard because we tied so many emotions to our job and our identity to our job that we're like, gosh, do they not like us? Do they not like where they work? Am I not doing good enough as an employer? But the reality is we've actually created an environment and ⁓ a social standing that people identify with who they are as a human outside of work better. than we ever have in our lives. So it's like a catch-22, no matter what, there's a pro and a con to everything. And the pro is that they're not so identity attached to their jobs or their titles. The con is that it's easy for them to jump ship and try something new. We're much more apt to dip our toes in and try that new thing. And so I think the hiring has just over the last, realistically five years, has had a lot more turnover and we spent a lot more time hiring. than we ever have in the past. And I could be making all of that up. That's my opinion. That's not like scientifically proven, but it's just something that I've noticed by studying people and studying myself as well. Like how am I transitioning? How am I changing my identity tools and all of those pieces as I watch the climates change so much. Kristy, what are your thoughts on that? I know we both have a lot of clients. I have experienced a lot of hiring this year. What are you seeing? DAT Kristy (07:11) 100 % exactly what you said Tiff and it is hard. It's a hard reality. I think ⁓ Back in college. I took sociology not that I really liked it But now I'm like man I wish I would have dug into it more because I think there is something with the new generation and ⁓ Not to go woo-woo, but I think there is something with those personalities. You know what I mean and It's kind of funny and listening to you talk about it because our generation is always like speaking to work-life balance, work-life balance, and I think the new generation actually has it figured out better. But we're angry at it. We want it and they're doing it. And I get it. And I also get it because of being in a, in a practice administration role. Like it's hard hiring and training and retraining and hiring. And so I think ⁓ we've got to find a way to maneuver around that easier versus ⁓ taking it so personal and choosing to see it as a good thing. Maybe not necessarily a thing, but yeah. The Dental A Team (07:50) Mm-hmm. agree. Yeah, that was beautifully said. You're totally right. I love that you said you pointed out the work life balance because I agree and I whenever I hear the words work life balance now I think of that like yeah, I'm like it's like that live laugh love that we had all over our houses like every room had a live laugh love sign somewhere and it's like so outdated and overplayed when I hear the words work life balance. I'm like, my gosh, like stop saying that just have balance. just have balance balance balance. If you continue separating work and life. and not understanding that it's one, you're one person, you're gonna continue to be out of balance. So just have balance. And I think you're right. think they've, lot of people have found that balance where neither tips the scale and they just understand their boundaries and their priorities a little better than maybe we did when we were their ages. So there's our spiel on that. But one of the... DAT Kristy (09:10) I was gonna tell you, it's kind of ironic, I'm spilling the beans and being vulnerable now, but my daughter's in dentistry, you I roped her into it. And so I hear it from her often, mom, it's not my life, like it is yours. And I was like, ⁓ stab me, right? Like, it's so true. So I'm living it. The Dental A Team (09:32) Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah, so you're seeing it firsthand. You're seeing it with your practices and just watching, but then also within your own home. So I totally get that. And I have a actually happy practice out in Rhode Island near and dear to my heart. The office manager's daughter is their billing rep. And I see the same kind of conversations, the office manager and like stop taking work home, like just do it at work. And then her daughter is like, why are you working at home? Like put it away. And so I do, I see that same dynamic there. And I think, I actually think the ages are about the same, like you guys are both in the same spaces there. ⁓ So it's interesting, but I think with that conversation, doctors oftentimes and office managers are like, what can we do more of? What can we do better? How can we offer things differently? And the hygiene market is wild still, okay? It's 2025, I don't know when you're listening to this, but I hope if it's years from now, things are better. Because the hygiene market is still a little wild. It's just still hard to find hygienists So if you're listening to this now like go apply to hygiene school because the demand is high Go get your degree go do your thing and come out a hygienist, but we oftentimes get asked for provider information on pay, right? And so we have a couple of different scenarios a couple different options. I Mean dollar per hour still near and dear to my heart when it comes to employees. I think that it just I just, for me, it's an ease of life. It's just easier. And so I love dollar per hour, but I do like the stipulation that a provider should be making three to 3.5 times their rate of pay in order to pay for themselves so that the overhead doesn't get out of control. So dollar per hour, three to 3.5 times their rate of pay. You've got to do the digging on what your area. is hiring at or what they're paying their hygienist or their dental assistants, whomever, because it does change, it does differ by area. More rural is going to be maybe a little less, city life is probably going to be a little more, Indianapolis compared to Phoenix, compared to San Francisco, compared to, I don't know, New Mexico, right? They're all going to be very different rates of pay. So I can always, you know, we can always spew out some numbers to you, but Google is a really fantastic tool and Salary.com gets it right every single So go check those for sure dollar per hour and then I really wanted to chat a little bit and we talked about this a little bit ahead of time me and Kristy did on paying based off of production or collections and in my opinion I've seen this I've seen this and in my opinion it's kind of the same structure that you would give to an associate so Don't over complicate it a lot of practice owners a lot of office managers like to over complicate it so just don't do that and pay like you would an associate? What would that look like? What would those stipulations be? What would the percentage of production or collections look like? ⁓ And pay based off of that. There are pros and cons, right, to everything. And I think there are pros and cons to paying off of production or collections. And Kristy, I think I'd love to hear from you on that production-based pay, because I know that you've seen that and worked with some clients that have done that. What are some things that you've seen that work well? Why? Some clients, like I've had clients recently ask, should I move to a percentage structure rather than a salary or a dollar per hour? What do you see work well within that percentage structure on production or collections? Like you said earlier, I do think collections is a little bit more difficult for providers, especially for hygienists that don't have a lot of say in that, but production-based maybe as well. Kristy, what are your thoughts? DAT Kristy (13:08) Yeah. To be honest with you, this is something a little near and dear to my heart. And I think we will probably see ⁓ a little more of it just with, ⁓ I don't want to get in the political things, but we know that there are some states looking at assistance getting into hygiene. so with that being said, we all know that hygienists come out of school and they take their boards and they're all expecting to come in at that same level. Right. And just like associates, we know they all do their testing as well, come out with their doctorate and get their license. But we know they likely aren't going to produce at the same level, right? So hygienists are no different. Usually your seasoned hygienist can carry conversations different than, you know, somebody brand new. And their skill set is likely a little bit different, whether they've gone through more CE or not. So to be honest with you, I do I'm a huge proponent of paid for performance ⁓ Yet I also feel in hygiene ⁓ Paying them a good going rate like you said, you know know what they're in your area and Give them that good going rate but just like you mentioned tiff with associates if somebody's performing and when I say performing I'm not just talking like production numbers or monetary That's just a side effect, but I'm talking like moving your patients to health, getting them healthy, calling perio perio and having those different, you know, difficult conversations with patients. If they're willing to do that, why wouldn't we compensate them for that? The…
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