Stay ConnectedThis podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to:
– Be more efficient
– Have more fun
– Improve doctor and team communications
– Eliminate frustration
– And make your life easier!
Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM!
New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite! Dr. Lewis Chen is aboard the Dental A-Team! Dr. Chen has become an extremely successful dentist in a short amount of time — like, 10-practices-in-two-years successful. He shares with Kiera what he did differently to find his success, including utilizing the right resources and committing to a schedule. Dr. Chen and Kiera also discuss the difference between work and luck, things that went well, and pitfalls he wishes he'd avoided. He also shares life hacks, his best tip for delegation, and how to elevate teams. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (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 say 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. Kiera (00:14) Because face it. Kiera (00:34) 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. ⁓ Team listeners, this is Kiera and you guys. Today is a pretty special day. I have a dear friend. We have chatted so many times. He is a rock star on Instagram. If you do not watch his channel, you definitely need to. And he's just one of the coolest people that I feel is a great inspiration. He's been able to do what a lot of other offices have not been able to do. So I'm so jazzed to bring on Dr. Louis Chen. How are you today, Louis? Dr. Chen (01:14) Good. Thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure. It's been so long since we've been actually meeting in person. think the last time was in 2018, 2019. Kiera (01:23) I Because I saw you I think first, was it Paul Goodman's event, the dental nachos? I think that's where we first met. Dr. Chen (01:30) Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's when I saw Mark in person for the first time and then I saw you for the first time, but I've known about both of you, you know, from some years back. So it's about time. Almost fangirling at the time. I'm fangirling now still. Kiera (01:43) So. Well, you're so kind. You just you inspire me. So I am so jazzed. Kind of take our listeners. I know a little bit of your journey, but gosh, you have done some impressive work since 2019, only in 2021. And in the middle, we had COVID. So kind of just walk our listeners through just your back history, your backstory of how you even got to being a dentist, what kind of inspired you to become one, where you're at today. Just kind of give people your quick bio on you. Dr. Chen (02:13) Quick bio, so okay, I'll give myself a short version. So I started in college with an economics major to which I graduated with that degree. And during that time in sophomore year, I remember interning at dental office and my parents liked the arts, liked the sciences, tried dentistry and I did. since that time, I shadowed a dentist and he was very, I was very shy guy. He's like, listen, you should spend some time learning about patient care. Just learn about patients. Don't think about the dentistry. Dentistry will come. go to school for that. School doesn't teach you how to speak to people. ⁓ then later I focused a lot of my time doing it. And I realized in New York City, the crux of New York City, dentistry is not cheap. It's an expensive commodity. part of that you when I sat there, realized like, you know, patients who've had a great time when they checked out, they had to build a pay, it's usually not as exciting. Kiera (03:21) It's true Dr. Chen (03:23) Yeah, so I had I was sought out on mission. said, well, you know, why in New York City is very saturated? Why should I be perpetuating that sort of, you know, that the stereotype of dentistry, dental work to be expensive? So I sought out a vision and said, you know what? I love dentistry. I want to provide good quality care. It's like, social hour, happy hour, every day, every hour. But why can I just make it a little bit more affordable? than my neighbor, neighboring dentists. And I wanted to provide exceptional patient experience and exceptional patient care, the dental care, so on and so forth, the whole camera things. And then I said, know what? I want to do on a scale. I want to at least have five offices by the time, and I want to achieve that. And I was 19 at the time. Kiera (04:13) Haven't even gone to dental school. You're like, here's the vision. This is what I want. And let's make it happen. Dr. Chen (04:18) Yeah, and that's exactly what I mean, through dental school, wasn't my vision. My vision was to be an exceptional provider, which is kind of still falls into my core values when I first started. purpose behind what I do is just, know, making, helping as many lives as, you know, impact as many lives as possible through this journey. then now fast forward, you know, I went to dental school, did right residency. And then 2019 to 2021, my partner and I which is who I met in dental school. was my professor at the time. And since then I've got all the new partners we just started to build and from two locations and now in 2021, hopefully by the end of 2021, we'll have 10. Kiera (05:02) You guys heard that right. That was 10. So, you know, 2019 to 2021, 10 practices. It's pretty impressive, Louis. And what I love, ⁓ you and I are very aligned. Our mission at Dental A Team is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And you also wanted to positively impact, ⁓ and change the way patients view dentistry. So I just love it. Louis, I think you're an inspiration to so many. So I'm going to like, let's get ready. Let's dive deep. Cause I'm sure people listening are like how. How did you do it? It like, that's great. You had a vision when you were 19, you went to dental school. Sounds like you partnered up with somebody fantastic. And now here you are two years later and you've got 10 practices. So kind of walk us through some of the things that you felt helped perpetuate that and make it into a reality. You're also in New York. I mean, you got hit hard with COVID. I think you actually were one of the hardest hit places of all. I mean, massive growth, massive, massive change. And you're also like real chill. You are always like, fun and engaging. also attend a ton of CE. You also have a personal life. So I'm a lot of people ask how and I'm always curious to know like very successful people, people who just I feel like and sometimes it's weird to say like successful people because you're like, I'm just Lewis, like I'm just this person. But it's like you do things differently. You are a different breed. Everybody else has the same opportunities in life, but you do things differently. So what are some of those things that you feel like you've done differently to get to this state in your life right now? Kiera (06:18) Your Dr. Chen (06:29) That was a loaded Kiera (06:30) It is a loaded question. That's why you're on the podcast, Louis. You can ask all the questions to you. Dr. Chen (06:33) I You asked amazing questions. I'm happy to entertain and I feel like I should be a better question asker too. To start, think to perpetuate is one is having the proper resources available to you and just committing yourself. I remember when I was in residency or whatnot, on top of being in residency, learning what I had to do and just kind of self-learning. I was listening to lot of podcasts and then eventually podcast was a huge learning experience because it's available. It's available and why not utilize it? Over time as you start building your sort of operations business, I entertain, you know, just taking CEF. Actually, one of my team members, couple of my teams are infatuated with you, Kiera, by the way. They love you. They're like, Oh my God, I wish I could be Kiera. I'm like, you should. Kiera (07:19) When I come to New York, I'll be there in December, let me know, we'll hang out, be a time. It'd be a fun surprise list, we should definitely like off air, come up with a surprise, it'd be real fun. Dr. Chen (07:30) Yeah, it's it's it's I do send a lot of information you send out to your newsletters are fantastic. So again, actually reading the resources are provided. I know sometimes people just kind of sift through and kind of toss it away. But I should sift through it and I say, well, I'm going to forward to the appropriate team members so I can elevate them. Right. So one of the just, you know, being the good filter of resources is one of what you do is committing yourself to a schedule. Right. For me, like I'm always an early bird now, like 5 to 35, 45 wake up. I work pretty much all day, like nonstop and it's hard to get a hold of me. I'm always bouncing around offices. And I what gets me going is really just that commitment to purpose, which I think that people don't focus so much on. And when they go into dentistry, it's that purpose. I still stand by what I want to achieve when I was 19 till now, which is basically just continue to drive and push for great, great things, you know, and over time it, you elevate yourself. and you realize you just start to grow in size, expand, you need to have a belief system. And it comes first, which is, know, what's your core values and really just redesigning everything that you do. So ⁓ that gets me going. I wake up in the morning, I have a purpose behind what I do. ⁓ I have my own personal core values that I abide by. ⁓ And there's nothing better than that. Kiera (08:51) I love it. I love it so much. And Lewis, of course, I'm going to dive in deeper. think a few pieces I pulled from that is one, it sounds like you're very, ⁓ let's say like regimated, like, you know what you want to do in life. And I found that when I talked to successful people, it's one of my favorite things about the podcast is picking people's brains. ⁓ Tony Robbins has a quote that I love and it says successful people ask better questions. So it's like, what is that routine? Like you have a morning routine, you wake up at certain times, you're very much dedicated to a purpose, something beyond you. Because like when those hard days come, which they will always come, it's pulling back to why are we doing this? What is the why behind it? So I love that you, started first with that. I also love that you mentioned you filter through the resources that are available. You're right. This podcast is free. Like people can download it, listen to it. We put it on for free and we bring on really awesome guests. also like our newsletters are written by our consultants and I check all of them, make sure there's awesome facts, tangibles in there. It's not just a newsletter of like But it really is, but also filtering through like what is that best information? So I love hearing that you actually take the time to read through it. Be systematized in how you operate. So I'm going to dive into like, what do you feel? Cause I feel like I was given the golden spoon of success meeting Mark Costas. Like I will say that again and again and again, just like proximity is power, right place, right time meeting people I connected in, I helped an office grow exponentially. They connected me with Mark Costas, had the whole DSI experience. It was amazing. Kiera (09:56) but you're also very Kiera (10:18) perpetuated Dental A Team, learned a ton, but like that was a strike of lightning, but I don't think it was just pure luck. think right place, right time, also looking for opportunities. So for you, what were some of those opportunities again, cause I hate when people say it was just luck. I'm like, yes, did I get a really lucky golden card out of heaven? Absolutely yes. But I also think there was a lot of preparation that came for it. So what were some of the things you feel like you've been, you've done well that has kind of propelled you to be able to do 10 practices in two years? Dr. Chen (10:46) To your point, know, like I do say it's a part of luck, but I think it's a little bit of understanding whether the luck is presented to you. Because sometimes people, there's plenty of opportunities that presented it. And sometimes we just don't visualize it to be a luck. know, for me, I was really hard. You I worked hard and I graduated early from dental school, but I was the only guy who worked till the very, very end. Even though didn't have to, I still wanted to work. didn't take the vacation that other people did. I just really wanted to be the absolute best at what I did and be comfortable with it. And my partner at the time, my professor at the time is a prosthodontist. So he's very detail oriented. He had his eyes on me, like this hard worker, great with people, loved dentistry, good clinician. And I had a vision, know, him and I sat down and he said, what are your goals? Because he wanted to hire me as an associate. What are your goals? What do you want to do? And then as soon as we got off that dinner, I remember it was December 2016, something like that. He was just like, what if I want you to work with me? Like not just work with me, like work, build something with me. I'm like, what's going on? And I didn't went to residency and I was like, all right, cool. I'll continue to do what I had to do. ⁓ But I continued to revisit and commit to my, that luck and opportunity. ⁓ Again, I think to that point, I think we have to understand that we have to our best self out for us every day because if you're not performing optimally, yeah, sometimes people perceive, you know, under performance is not optimal performance. And I'm going to deliver, you know, if an interview falls short, you know, like what I have to do, that's the first impression, right? ⁓ So I definitely think that we have to be on A game all the time for sure in order to, and then... Once you hit that point, critical mass like a games always your game. Kiera (12:38) That becomes your new standard. That's where it is. That's your baseline. Dr. Chen (12:41) That's the baseline. Did I answer your question, Tyler? There's another loaded question. So I was like, Kiera (12:46) It was a loaded question, Lewis. I just like to pick people's brains of like what it sounds like if I were to recap it in a way, it's almost as if I feel like you put in a lot of hard work, hustle and grit. And I think that that's important. I love the picture. I'm sure a lot of us have seen it of the ballet slippers. Like there is a ballerina on point and one foot's in the ballerina slipper and the other foot is this like cut up bloody hot mess. And it says everybody wants success, but they often don't realize what it takes to get there. And I think about, like, I just heard a lot of that hard work, that grit. You also had a vision and you were very committed to it. So I think about team members, I think about practice owners of what is that vision and are you actually committed to it? Are you a fair weather fan or are you like ride or die? I will a…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Kristy talk about revisiting those goals your practice set at the beginning of 2025, and if you're falling short, discuss how to get back on track. 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 so excited to be back here today. I've got Kristy with me. You guys know I love podcasting with the consultant team and I love each of them for something very, special. Kristy, you are my gal that, like, I feel like we can talk about anything. Always be on the same page. You riff with me very easily. And you always, always, always, I have to value this and appreciate it at the end. If I ever ask you for anything I missed, you always catch something and always have a pearl of wisdom. And I just think it's really, really, one, talented. Like not everyone can do that or think. A lot of people get like stressed, especially podcasting. And two, it just makes me really, really excited for your clients because I know you just operate in that way. You're always thinking of like, my gosh, what else can I add? What value can I bring? And your clients are just insanely lucky to have you as a consultant. And your previous clients I know are just always checking in with you and they're always asking those simple questions or those hard questions. And Kristy, think it's just really cool. You're an insanely special human. So thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of our team. I hope you understand and know how valued you are, the Dental A Team, and just personally and professionally. Kristy (01:25) Absolutely. Thank you. I'm honored to be here and be a part of ⁓ changing dental lives. ⁓ The Dental A Team (01:26) Yeah. Thank you. And just so everyone knows who's listening, podcasts are not like super easy. Recording podcasts can be a little daunting. And that was even before we had to do it by video. And I think about this a lot, actually, because it just, I think it's so funny. This is kind of like cell phones. We're going go on a little small little tangent because I think it's hilarious. I remember way back in the day when we were like, bricks with these giant cell phones. We were like, this is stupid, like, why it needs to be small? So we had this little tiny flip phone that you really couldn't do a lot on, right? Because it was so small, but it was small. We wanted small and compact. And then we went to a BlackBerry and it was like, this is a whole computer and I can do my emails. And then we went small again. We like keep going back and forth and back and forth. And now, know, iPhones got it pretty well dialed in, but it's so much bigger than my cell phone was in high school. And I think about this a lot because I think we go forward and backwards in life constantly. This is no different than that. Because you remember, I remember Brody was little and I used to do Beachbody coaching. I loved it. It was just like a past life that I absolutely loved. The fitness industry, the fitness world is my passion. But I remember we used to get on Facebook Live or we do YouTube videos and we were like, hey guys, this is how you make this cake or whatever it was. And then we removed the video aspect, right? And that's when podcasts got popular and podcasts were not video. Podcasts were strictly just talking. And I remember Dana and I, or Britt and I, like get together and we could see each other, but it wasn't being recorded. So we could come however we wanted to look. It was just like, come as you are. We're only here for the voices. And then now, then we added the video back in and I'm like, wait, like we keep going backwards. Now I feel like we're doing YouTubes all the time. So. Anyways, my small tangent there is like going forward and then coming backwards and feeling like you're making progress, but then technology pulls us back a little bit. And I think that we do that in life and personal life. We do that in habits. We're like, so good. The 30 days sugar detox, like I'm doing so good, right? We get to 28 days and we're like, but just a little bit won't hurt. I just want a little sugar. And we're like, dang it. Now we're sliding backwards or whatever the I think we do that a lot in life and it doesn't have to be technology. It can just be habits. It can. It can be anything in some some places. A place that I see it a lot is within our goals within a company that only team has company goals. We we do the same thing over here. Every business is business is what I always say. We've consulted eye doctors and chiropractors and like business is business. I talked to. You know, my financial advisor about his business structure, he's like, help me with the CPAs, whatever. Business is business and we all move forward and fall back and move forward and fall back. And today, Kristy, I thought it might be beneficial kind of being mid-year-ish to do a check-in on that. I know we do it with all of our clients, but making sure even non-client doctors who are here, business owners who are listening, that you know that this happens. This is... This is life. Like we're back on video. Here we are. This is life. And we go forward and then we fall backwards. But no matter what, there's always a space to move forward again or move forward more. If you didn't fall backwards, you move forward more. There's always that space and there's always that availability. And oftentimes we get to this space in the year, June to like August timeframe, and we haven't looked at our trajectory very often. in and maybe we look and we're like, ⁓ heavens, Tiff, like, I'm like 300 grand short of what I wanted to hit this year. And Kristy, how many times have you had a doctor call you just like, this is it, we got to change my goal. We've got it. We're not doing three million. We're doing 2.7. And you're like, no, we're not doing that. Yeah, like, no, we are not here for changing goals. We're here for pushing forward. And I thought it would be fun for us to really take a look at that today and figure out how can you know that you're on or off track? And when you're off track, what do you do to get back on track? Now, Kristy, ⁓ what do you have your clients doing? And what have you always, you've worked with, you've consulted for a while. what have you always had your clients doing to stay, not even to stay on track, but just to know where they are. Like how do we know our baselines in business? Kristy (06:15) Yeah, well first off, I always like to start the year projecting out our year, right? So looking at what we did last year and creating a goal with growth on top of it and projecting that out for the future. But then also when we do that, ⁓ taking it and chunking it down. So we may have a big goal and starting the beginning of the year, if our goal is three million, that can be so daunting, right? And I think we all have to remember. The Dental A Team (06:44) Mm-hmm. Kristy (06:47) Yeah, we always have to keep our eye on the prize, but we need to also chunk it down. And you made a very good point about it being June. And my mind went to thinking back to the beginning of the year and how we're really excited, thinking of like starting school even. Your first year in college, I'm a freshman and I'm all gung-ho and I'm ready to study and I have these habits. And then all of a sudden we start to fall back in routine. remember, The Dental A Team (07:05) Yeah. Yeah. Kristy (07:17) that each day is a new day to start over. But to your point... Right now, we have our big goal and maybe we have a sheet with a thermometer or however you want to fill it and make sure we're always keeping our eye on that prize, but go smaller. Go to your month view, go to your weekly view, then go to your daily view and chunk it down because it makes it so much more doable and we resist the urge to change the goal then because we can look and see where we're at. The Dental A Team (07:33) Yeah. That's nice. Kristy (07:49) and what we have to do to get back on track. The Dental A Team (07:53) Yeah, I love that you said that like scale it back. Look at what the different layers are and then always looking at if you added these layers together now, does it equate to where you need to be? And something you said, Kristy was massive. Like I think so many doctors get into the year and like I'm going to do three million this year and then that's it. And it's like divide three million by 12. That's what we're hitting every month. And then we just go month by month by month. But if we're not looking at our leads, our lags and our current, then we get lost in the shuffle. And Kristy, I think that's what you're saying, right, Cheon? Get back and know and then always look at what we've accomplished and where we have left to go. Not June to August timeframe can be seriously pivotal in making or breaking those goals, because if you now look at January to June and you say, OK, What did I, what have I done? What is my year to date production so far? And then subtract that from your yearly goal and you're going to see your gap, right? So that's what you have left to do this year. Sometimes you might look at that and you might see your $300,000 short. That sounds massive, right? You're like, holy cow. Well, let's divide that by how many months we have left this year. Doesn't mean we throw in the towel and we're done. We say, okay, If I'm going to do this, how do I get this done? And again, what you said, Kristy, it's mid year, but we're doing the same thing. We're doing the same thing that we did at the beginning here. We're just reevaluating and reassessing where we have left to go. So a lot of times, you know, I've had dentists that were like a hundred grand short, even at the end of the year, we look at it and we're like, oh my God, we barely missed it. Well, let's look at where we missed it. Why did we miss it? What happened? to get us to this point? And how do we make sure that this doesn't happen again? And typically it's been missed somewhere during that year where it was like we were short 25 grand on this month, we were short 25 grand on this month, and we were short 10, 10, like whatever it equates to, right? But it's like those add up so quickly that we tend to miss them. So if you get to that mid-year and you say, okay, this is what I have left, let's reassess. and look at how long do we have. Kristy, something I do get asked a lot is, well, what do we do when doctors are like, let's take this vacation time? Or I've got associates who are like, oh, guess what? Next month, I've got CE and I've got this and I've got office managers and doctors that are calling me and pulling out their hair. And they're like, I have a goal, but how am I supposed to hit this? So Kristy, what do you suggest when they are off? goal, they're off track, they've got how much ever money that they need to make up and then they've got something looming, some sort of maternity leave or something we just didn't really account for. How do you have your doctors really account for that and put it back into their goals? Kristy (11:02) Yeah, I love that we're talking about this subject and I know we tend to talk about, you know, bridging the gap when we're behind and we'll certainly talk about that because many times it's that but... Also, don't forget to celebrate if you're ahead, you know? And so celebrate if you're ahead, but not just celebrate, take a look at what you did to get there so you can repeat those processes, right? And to your point, if we are behind, take a look and chunk it down. What would it take to bridge that gap? And if I have providers looking for time off, The Dental A Team (11:28) you Kristy (11:37) Factor that into the equation. If we're behind already and we take this much time off, what now will the gap be? So for associates, for owner doctors, ⁓ it may not be easy to find a temp for them, but for hygiene, it's very easy to say, if we're ahead, do I really need to find a temp? Because we're ahead in our goal. Or, The Dental A Team (11:44) Okay. Yeah. Kristy (12:02) Do I need to find a temp because we're behind in goal? So it helps you make those strategic decisions. ⁓ with that being said, for owner doctors and associates, if we're behind, can we add in anywhere? Could we add one more hour to the day or could we work a Friday versus taking it off? What would that do in order to take that week off? And or can we change our block scheduling? The Dental A Team (12:19) Yeah. turn. Kristy (12:32) some bigger rocks. Take our mind back to during COVID when we only did emergency treatment. It's okay if we push a filling off here or there if it means adding that big rock so we can make up for the loss, right? It's not that we're not going to do the filling, but could we put it in a month where we're already at goal, if you will. The Dental A Team (12:39) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think those are really great points and something you said there was like work the Friday instead of not working made me think of I do have an office that does a few offices that do this, but one particular does really well at looking ahead one to three months consistently, if not further. But they're always looking at OK, if we want to as an office, take this time off or if we have to take this time off for CE or whatever, are there days in the month that were closed that we could open to make up that production? And think that's massive. And again, like you said, I'm going to mimic it. You like definitely celebrate when you're ahead and then look at what does that mean? Now, something I do steer away from, and I know, Kristy, you do too, is changing the goal because you're ahead. So that doesn't mean next month you do 120 instead of 160. It just means great. We've got padding for if we need to utilize that. So if the time comes, I know I had a practice in February that by March they were like, How are we so short? When they looked at it, they had hygienists that had called out sick. They had an associate dentist that was out for a week. They had a hygienist that was on surgery. They lost almost $60,000 just in like crazy schedule happenings that they weren't truly prepared for. And so that can happen at any point. So if you're ahead and then you get to November and it's like, wow, this is kind of crazy. you can account for that. if you get to December and you're so far ahead that you're like, hey, actually, like, we're going to take two weeks off or we're canceling everything for two weeks because we're good. You want to be able to have those flexibilities. so, Kristy, I think it's brilliant the way you have them constantly looking at them. So your practices are always looking at their KPIs, their measurables of where have we gone? Where are we trying to get to? And what do we need to get there so that we can constantly strategize and figure out a new route for that. Now, what do you suggest if we're, I don't know, say $300,000 short, whatever, a hundred, I don't care how much it is, but we're getting towards the time of year, we tend to forget this, that June to August timeframe is a good time to look at your goals because September to December can get a little wild, in my opinion, within dentistry. So if they're a little bit short here or a lot of…
Full show notes at the publisherRyan Isaac of Dentist Advisors returns to continue his discussion with Kiera about the future of dentistry, including options aside from DSOs. The question a practice owner should ask themself, Kiera and Ryan say, is what that individual wants out of their life — then consider the best platform to get you there. 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 this is going to be part two of mine and Ryan Isaac's conversation where we're digging into DSOs to sell to not to sell, all of that. And I truly am so excited for you guys here, part two. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. Kiera Dent (00:17) why don't we take a pause and just think of like, what's the future of dentistry as now the future pioneers of dentistry? And what are we going to do to our profession? Yes, there's top dollar. Yes, there's things about it, but is there a way to influence? and make sure that the integrity of dentistry can maintain long-term. I have no answer to that, but again, this is Kiera Dent sitting on my podcast where I think that there is a voice and an influence and like on Dentist Advisors podcast, is there a way that we can influence our industry in ways that will protect and still pay out? Because I'm like, even if you don't get the 10X EBITDA, you still can get a freaking great payout if you do your life right to where you can be financially set up. Ryan Isaac (00:33) Mm-hmm. ⁓ Kiera Dent (00:58) still be able to sell your practice, not have to sell it in ways that could potentially hurt the industry. I'm not saying one's the right answer or the wrong answer. There's no judgment on my side. It's just, let's maybe think and consider how it could influence. Can we get people that could be private equity higher up that could help protect it? Those are things that, and again, I'm just Kiera Dent here in Reno, Nevada. Ryan Isaac (01:03) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Same, okay. Okay. Yes. No, these are the questions. You're totally influential. I think it's just in the opposite direction. ⁓ I don't think we can influence private equity. Private equity is ruthless in every industry. They don't. It feels dirty. It feels dirty. And I have a question for you, but I just want to say really fast. ⁓ I do feel like, yes. Kiera Dent (01:30) It's dirty. It's dirty. Is there a way though, Brian, you don't finance better than me. Is there a way that there could become dentists that could become in private equity where they own it? Because once you, there's no way to insulate, you don't think. Because once you get to that level, you just, I mean, I've had. Ryan Isaac (01:44) Yeah, but they'll do the same thing. I mean, they'll want the same thing. Now, money's money. It's why capitalism runs the world. mean, that's why, you know, it's like why it influences politics and money and business runs the world, you know? ⁓ Okay, hold on. There's so many good things here. Number one would be not every group will be a DSO, private equity backed DSO. And you know, many, many ⁓ clients and just dentists around the country who will end up being owners of Kiera Dent (02:05) Okay. Ryan Isaac (02:19) 20, 50, 100 group practices that will stay privately held and ran by owner doctors. That will be a chunk of this ⁓ group practice ⁓ takeover. So in that space, the influence can still be huge. ⁓ I think the chance to influence the integrity of private practice is in those who don't sell to DSOs. I think it's in the industry, educated in influencing the industry for people who aren't going to sell and who are going to maintain control. Now, I do think that in the future, more and more dentists will be in a group. ⁓ are probably, yeah, be fewer and I can see why it would make sense to do that. There would probably be fewer and fewer people with just solo doc, solo location practices. know, some towns and rural places, that would be hard to do. Kiera Dent (02:47) Mm-hmm. I do too. Ryan Isaac (03:15) So I think you're Dorothy, is that what you said? I'm Dorothy. I think that is possible, not with private equity, but with still the owner doctors that still exist and the group practices that are ran by dentists, not private equity back. I think the influence is still gonna be, I mean, if you took the projections of what will stay private, Kiera Dent (03:20) Yeah, hi. I agree. Ryan Isaac (03:40) and then the chunk of the group stuff that'll be non DSO non-corporate, that's still got to be 40, 50 % of the industry eventually. Kiera Dent (03:49) I would think so. I mean, look at it right now. There's corporate dentistry within. And again, there's nothing wrong with any, because I have clients that are in corporate dentistry that run their practices like private. They take care of their teams. So it's one of those things I still think, like even if you are, and that's another way that we can influence this, if you are part of a private equity-backed DSO, you can still influence your practice. You're still the dentist working in the practice. You can still run culture. You can still run change. Ryan Isaac (03:59) Totally. Absolutely. Yes. and hit it. Kiera Dent (04:16) ⁓ I know the doctors I have, they're part of a very large group corporate and things that we have done together, like I work with them, they're my only corporate practice that I work with, but we have literally influenced the top tier CEO. They've asked what these offices are doing differently. They're taking things that I've helped bring into the practice and they've asked like, what's changed in your practice? Like we hired this girl who teaches us to run it like private practice. Their culture's incredible. We're even right now petitioning up to the top people because they're writing off things that you can actually bill out to insurance that they're making them write off when it's like, actually, no, we can bill it as a non covered service and actually have the patients cover. So I'm like, I do still think whether you're in private equity, but I think you've got to be a strong enough doctor where you advocate for the rights of your patients and the rights of your practice. And I'm super proud of my client who does this because her and her husband, they go to bat and they're like, they write some pretty direct emails to the CEO of this and say like, hey, and they're a big enough force. Cause I mean, Ryan Isaac (04:55) Mm. Yes. huh. Kiera Dent (05:15) They're the top tier practice in their area. have them making like, we are adding multiple millions to their offices every single year. But I'm like, I think that's also how dentists, even if you're in private equity, even if you're in group practices, I think at the end of the day, are clinicians and clinic, like you are, you are the product. And I think that they have, I think dentists have more say than they might realize that they do to influence the industry and keep it more positive and more ethical than it could be otherwise. Ryan Isaac (05:38) Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree with that. We all know people who are in those group models that are still running like amazing, almost privately held practices. The other thing that's interesting that's different than medical, because it always gets compared to the medical field consolidation that happened, is medicine has a distinct difference and advantage in that they have hospital systems where gigantic campuses where they can house hundreds of doctors in one place, right? It's just not that's not a thing in dentistry, which I think will will force it to stay a little unique, different than medical, because you can never have a giant campus building with, you know, 400 dentists. Yeah, like 500. I mean, I don't know. I guess never say never some some group might invent that and you know, like the dental campus of the city. I don't know. Yes, it's possible. But it seems a lot less likely. Yeah. Kiera Dent (06:18) Mm-hmm. 500 off, you imagine? Say hi. I mean, dental schools have a lot, but I'm like, okay, I think the piece that would be really hard is to justify 500 beds, like 500 ops. You've got your hygiene that's cranking. So you gotta have, in a 500 bed, would need, like, we can only see 500 patients a day. so you can only see if it's 500 a day, that's how many patients you could actually see. I don't think that would be a full city, and we're basically taking over whole city. Ryan Isaac (06:55) Yeah. No. Yeah. Kiera Dent (07:03) And then you might not be pulling out that much dentistry outside of all of that to be able to fill that many doctors in their schedules. Cause so much of it's hygiene run, it's like a two to one ratio that I think that would be the zone. ⁓ Ryan Isaac (07:07) No. I love this analysis. Yeah, I couldn't go that far, but there you go. That's exactly right. So I do think it'll stay different enough in nature because of that. ⁓ And yeah, I, to go back to the, love your question. We've been kicking this around a lot in dentists advisors and I want to reiterate the same thing. There's no judgment here. There's no right or wrong. For some people, it's absolutely the best decision to exit with the DSO and just find the right one. Take your time. ⁓ Kiera Dent (07:19) There you go. I agree. Ryan Isaac (07:43) to go through the deals with someone who really knows what deals look like, not just a friend or a CPA unless that CPA is looking at hundreds of deals. Call Brandon, right? Kiera Dent (07:51) Seriously, I'm like, why? He's got like every flavor of ice cream available of DSOs for you. And like, what are your goals with your financial advisor? What do you need to retire? And then you make sure that the deal is going to actually get you that because like you said, Ryan, it's your greatest asset. And that's where to me, it breaks my heart when people do this. And I was actually, when we were talking about assets, ⁓ there was a stress test portfolio that I heard at a conference that I thought was really awesome that I think about often. so thinking about when you said like, we're investing into this stock. Ryan Isaac (07:59) Yeah. That's it. Kiera Dent (08:20) portfolio, like we're basically putting so much of our biggest asset and so many of our dollars into one single stock. And they said, just stress test your portfolio. If my two biggest portions of my portfolio. Okay. So the two biggest portions right now. And I think about this often, even you and me, Ryan, if those two asset classes dropped yesterday, cause I always do like, if they dropped tomorrow and you're like, well, I'd freaking move things. No, if it dropped yesterday, so there's nothing you could do. Do you have the staying power for things to recover? So like, I don't need to liquidate my assets. Ryan Isaac (08:24) in one single, yeah. Mm. Kiera Dent (08:50) can still have income from our other assets and buying assets that are down. So looking at that, and I think about that often, like, so if your biggest ones are in the stock market and in your DSO and both of those dropped yesterday, like that's all that's gone. Could you still be okay? And if not, maybe look at other ways to diversify that portfolio. I'm not an advisor, Ryan. So you speak to like, if you agree or disagree on that, because that's my thoughts on it. Ryan Isaac (09:11) Yeah. Although yeah, no, that's a really ⁓ logical way to look at stress testing something. If the stock market disappeared as a whole yesterday, all, yeah, well, we just, every publicly traded company in the entire world would be gone simultaneously. We would all be in so much trouble. Like we just wouldn't have cell phone service or gasoline or, you know, like a million things. Yeah, for a minute. Kiera Dent (09:26) You say that we're all gonna go to the apocalypse, like. Good thing you're by the ocean. You at least have a good time there, Ryan. I need to get out of Reno, Nevada for that one year fact alone. Ryan Isaac (09:44) Yeah, yeah. For me, yeah, it would work for a minute, but then we would have no grocery chains, there would be no shipping distribution, there'd be no trucking, there would be no like, you know, we'd be done within like a week. You know what I mean? So, but you're the logic of it is true. It's almost like what if we just looked at stress testing a deal, you know, and you said there's usually three parts in a DSO deal, there's the cash up front, there's usually some kind of earned back, or bonus system, that's usually a smaller piece. And then there's the equity piece. And if one of those didn't exist, if one of those dropped off, what would this deal look like? And I think the question we have to ask is if the equity didn't hit, you know, if they don't get returns on multiples on their equity, like they're projecting and always, of course, the projections are huge, you know, always, always. If this does not come in like you expect, let's just say it's half of what they expected that which would be probably fair to say, or it's all you do is get your money back one day. Kiera Dent (10:32) always. Ryan Isaac (10:43) What does this now look like to you? Is this a survivable thing? And is this even something you would be interested in doing? But again, you said this before, I've been saying this, go talk to someone who knows what these deals look like, like Brandon. I'll give you an example. with a client a few weeks ago who had an offer. They were getting a lot of pressure from the group where this came from. They were kind of involved in like, well, I won't even say it. It was just a group of people of other dentists that were kind of pooling practices together. And this buyer, Kiera Dent (10:50) you Ryan Isaac (11:14) just a lot of pressure, a lot of hype, right? A lot of hype. And the deal as the details started coming through started smelling really weird. And even he was just like, I don't know. He talked to Brandon for 30 minutes and it became so obvious so quickly how bad this deal was. And now he's pushing the brakes a little bit. He's going to ramp up his profitability, work on the practices some more. He still wants to consider a sale, which is great with that's fine if that's still what you want to do. Kiera Dent (11:38) Yep. Ryan Isaac (11:43) But I think that conversation probably just saved him millions of dollars, literally in 30 minutes of conversation. So just talk to somebody, please, about these deals. There's every flavor out there. There's so many ways that they can twist and bend these things. And yeah, there's just a lot of moving pieces in there. So just be careful. Yeah, just talk to someone. Be careful. Kiera Dent (12:02) I would like, and what you said, also think like, make sure that you're also selling it for top dollar. This is something I really love about working with you guys, working with clients is if we know that there's a sell on the horizon, think one of the best things you can do is truly like pulling a consultant, pulling somebody. And like I was talking to a doctor the other day and they're like, KK, we want you to come in and help us like with our systems, but they're selling in a year. And I was like, well, respectfully as your…
Full show notes at the publisherAll the new tech out there available to practices can be exciting to get your hands on. But if you're not integrating things in a productive way, it'll likely end up in the digital broom closet, collecting dust. Tiff and Kristy talk about the best methods to use when bringing a new program, software, service, etc. to the team. 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. We are so excited to be here today. I have a really exciting, I don't know, subject today on our content and I'm actually really, really excited to talk to you doctors about this and team members, office managers alike, everyone who's here, this is great information for you. I have some offices I'm gonna chat about and just some things that they're doing really, really well I think with their dental assistants that's really setting them apart from. other practices that I've seen or worked with or other practices in their area specifically. So I'm really excited to talk with you guys about that today. And I have brought on with me, of course, one of my favorites. I love all of our consultants, you guys, but Kristy, I know I just love your heart, like your heart and your soul and the love you have for other people. I love having you on our team. And I think that No matter what content we're talking about, you relate to it in some way or you find a way to love on our clients regarding it. But I think today, like, I think it's gonna be a really cool one to do with you. So, Kristy, thank you so much for being here with me today. How are you? You're in a new home. hope, gosh, everybody, if you are a client of Kristy's, I'm gonna brag on Kristy right now. And Kristy does not brag on herself often, unlike any of us do. But Kristy moved states. She moved... She moved states, you guys, without anyone even knowing. I told Kristy, and I will say it again, if I didn't know you were moving, I would never have known you were moving. And I know your clients felt that same way. So you guys, if you are clients with Kristy's, if you see Kristy on social media, you want to write in, like, please give her some kudos because you literally never would have known that you moved entire states. And now you are in comparison in my backyard. It feels like I know you're still like. Kristy (01:49) Yes. The Dental A Team (01:50) hot minute from me, but ⁓ you're here in Phoenix with me. So welcome to Phoenix, Kristy. How are you guys doing? How was the move? How is your family? Tell me. Kristy (01:58) Yep. my gosh, we're doing wonderful. We're enjoying this weather. I know it's going to heat up pretty good this weekend, but we're enjoying it and just making the most of it. ⁓ Getting rid of boxes. How about that? We'll leave it at that. The Dental A Team (02:11) Yeah, yeah, good. I know you went through a garage over the weekend, you said, and it is hot, you guys. Like, I was freaking dying this weekend. I'm like, gosh dang it, why does Phoenix do this to me? But I love it. I'd rather, I have to remind myself all summer, I would rather be hot and like dipping in my pool, you know, or my community pool or my friend's pool or whatever. Somebody has a pool somewhere. I would rather do that than shovel snow. any time of the day, any time of the year. So I will not complain too much about our weather. Kristy (02:46) That's right, amen. I agree. The Dental A Team (02:48) Awesome. I love it. Well, I know a lot of people, you know, follow our journeys and I just think it's really special. So thank you again, Kristy, for the dedication you have to our clients, to our company, and to the results for clients and non-clients alike. You really worked your tail off to, like, you know, you integrated just family and work so well. I think while I speak on behalf of your family as well, I think you really do it seamlessly and every one of us really truly appreciate you. So. That's my spiel on Kristy today, you guys. And I'm so excited to jump into this and you'll see it in your newsletters. If you're not subscribed, go subscribe because there's a slew of information in there. And just so you guys know, if you're not subscribed to the newsletters, you should be. Those newsletters, we actually write them. So the consulting team and our marketing team, we put a lot of work into those newsletters. actually, we write a lot of the content that goes along with those. know marketing takes like one a month, I think, but gosh, there's anywhere between four and six newsletters a month, and they are written by us consultants. So you're always getting the most up to date, accurate consulting information as possible from there. And then we do utilize those similar subjects in our podcast here. So today we are going to speak to one of the newsletter subjects, but we're actually going to spin it just a little bit. So if you're not getting the newsletter again, go check that out because it's going to have different information than we talked about today. Our newsletter focus, our subject here is really, really focusing on dental assistants and new tech and how dental assistants should integrate it or could integrate it and what that looks like and just what we've seen and what we recommend as a company and as consultants on that standpoint. But something I really wanted Kristy and I to focus on today and to really take a look at and kind of spitball between us some ideas is really integrating the tech because I know dentists. I know most dentists, I know the dentists we attract as well, dentists I've worked with are just like so excited about new tech and new everything and we want the latest and the greatest and I love that. I think it's because I think dentists are artists and I think there's just a huge massive creative space within dentistry and for those. individuals who want to be in like healthcare, medicine, but really have that artistic creative side, dentistry fits really, really well for you guys. And the new tech allows us that creativity and to be up to date. But then on the flip side of that too, for the healthcare space, you guys really want the most up to date technology to serve your patients and to serve your community. So I think those both of those reasonings are super massive. But what I see, and Kristy told me, you know, if you see this as well, What I see most often is that doctors are gung-ho. They're like, they're on all the forums, first of all, all the forums. And I know my office managers are like, get him off the forum. But they're on there, they're on all the forums, they're getting all the information, and they're researching the heck out of everything. And then they're jumping, and they're saying, all right, I'm going to get it, and then I'm going to get trained on it, and then I'm going to come back, and we're going to use it. And... They go, they get trained on it, and then they come back and, Kristy, what have you seen in your history? I you've been working with a lot of dentists. You've worked in office. You've worked consulting. What have you seen most commonly? Doctors getting new tech coming back. What do you typically see? Kristy (06:16) you It's multifaceted, think. I think that I see them getting very, very excited to implement it and show the patients the new technology and also for them to use it, like you said. Yet, I think they fail to remember that they sometimes forget to include the team on the training and then their team gets very frustrated. so quickly, ⁓ the doctor ends up getting frustrated because I've invested in this technology and ⁓ my god. my team's not using it and all of a sudden it goes in the cupboard or you know they're not using it like they want to so ⁓ typically out of the gate that's what I've seen happen. The Dental A Team (06:55) Yeah. sure I totally agree and I have to say I've been that person right I've been the dental assistant that's like I don't have space for this like what are you talking about I know how to take an impression I'm gonna keep taking an impression and then I'm gonna take my backup impression because I don't trust the scanner right and I'm like double dipping and wasting time and just really afraid to like jump right in because I didn't, I wasn't there. I didn't get the excitement that the doctor did. I'm not on the forums and truth be told, like I'm just trying to survive. Like I'm just trying to get to the next patient, trying to take care of this patient the best that I can. And I'm trying to get to the next patient and keep a schedule on track and you like flooding this in and you being like, Hey, it's Monday morning. Like I learned this cool thing. We're going to implement this really is like, it's like, It reminds me of like a clock spinning and you've got all these cogs and all these wheels and then you put like this little toothpick in there and it just like stops and it's like trying and trying and trying until the toothpick breaks, right? And then it can go again. But like that's what it feels like when you're in like go, go, go, and we're going to keep the flow of the schedule and we're going to do all of these things. And then you stick this little toothpick in the cogs and we're like, no, and we're like fighting against it. ⁓ until it breaks and we're like, okay, cool, this actually does help. But it takes a minute for us to get there, I think. And I do think that it's just so sad on the doctor's side in most cases, because you guys are so excited for this thing and you're like, this is going to change our lives and I just need you on board. And it can be so deflating. so number one, I love new technology. Number two, human nature is to say no and to slow down and to be like, nope. things are great the way they are, even if they're not working perfectly or super well, they're working enough to get us to the next step. And so we're not always gonna be super on board to just change something. Change is scary and we're like, nope, I'd rather stay where I'm at, because this is comfortable, whether it's right or wrong, than jump on board with change. So in thinking about this, as we're writing the newsletters, I'm like, gosh, there's so many. There's so many things we can talk about with the tech. Like you guys know what that is and we'll throw it in the newsletter. Like, yes, it's there, but what do do with it after the fact? And something I have seen, Kristy, that I've seen a few doctors this year, then one in particular, he's a go-freaking-getter, and he is like go, go, go all the time, and he pushes for the change and he does it really well. But something that I saw him do recently, in the last like year to two years is as he's growing his tech. So he's layering on rather than whole new. So he's doing a really great layering effect, especially with like the in-office crowns instead of being like, we're going to do an office crowns and dentures. He was like, we're going to do in-office crowns. Then we're going to learn to design a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And now we're going to do dentures and we're going to learn to design. So one thing he's done well is he's been able to see the technology and then scale it back. So like a reasonable learning capacity. Whereas I think dentists, your brains work that way. Your brains are techie by nature to a point. Like that's just, that's how your brains work. That's how you got through school. Not everybody is that way and that quick to understand things. Like my kid, he's gonna be an engineer. He looks at something since the day he could start talking. Like, I don't know, I remember him being like three years old and he's in the car asking me like, how does that? work? And I'm like, I don't know. Right? Like, and so I'm like, how do you think it works? So then he's like, I think, you know, and he's constantly he's always done that, like he, or thought he had figured out how like traffic lights are put together, right? This was a funny story. Actually, he said, they take two giant bendy straws, and they stick them together. And that's how the traffic lights are built. And I was like, Yep, that's how they're built. But that's how his brain works. He's got that like, engineer. thoughtfulness behind it, where I look at a traffic light and I'm like, thank God that's there. Like, thank God we're all stopping when we need to stop. I don't care how it was built or how it was put there, just that it works. So you bring new technology in, right? You've got Brody's mindset that's like, how does this work and why does it work and what's it going to do? Then you've got my mindset that's like, how do we get to the end? Like, what's, what are you trying to do with this? I don't care the mechanics of it, just like, what are we trying to do? And we get stuck. Now, if we had a bunch of people on your team that thought the same way you do, right? So we've got a bunch of engineer Brody's running around, nothing would get done. Literally nothing would get done. You would just be talking about the process the whole time about how it could get done. It'd be theories running around and like, what if we changed this? And what if we took this tech that works and we'd like tweaked it? You would get nothing done. So then we try to, we try to take that mold and that learning style and smash it on top of people. who don't necessarily think in that capacity. So what this doctor has been able to do is really take a step back and layer the technology and layer the training, Kristy. And then what he's been doing, I've noticed, is taking his team with him. And maybe not all of the dental assistants, right? Maybe the lead dental assistant and like one more so that two people know it. we're not. We're not saying break the bank and send everybody to a course, but he has been able to take like two dental assistants to a course where he's learning how to design something or he's learning how to use a new scanner, how to use a new mill or a new 3D printer. Gosh dang it. Like I don't even know how to use those things, right? Because I'm not in office learning, but he's taking them and they are coming back with the knowledge. So then what he's done, and I've seen a couple of practices do this really recently with them, implant courses and all kinds of new things. What they've been able to do is now it's not just the doctor, right? That one has all the knowledge. When are you going to trade them? Like, do you have time to do that? No, you actually don't, right? Now it's not just the doctor who knows everything, but it's also not just the doctor who is excited. And when you have people behind you in that excitement, one, I think, Kristy, you don't lose the, like, you don't lose it as quickly, you don't get as deflated because you've got people there rallying with you. And two, Kristy, I think we can speak to this because we train teams. When you have more people behind the idea, it's easier for a group to follow. One person compared to three people on the same team is going to ge…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera is joined by Ryan Isaac of Dentist Advisors to dive into DSOs. They discuss such questions as: Are they the best financial choice for your practice? The best life choice? Are the horror stories true? And so many more. 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 I am freaking jazzed for today's podcast. It has been way too long. Me and this guest talk quite often on like life and personal and business, but podcasting it's been a hot minute. I've got Ryan Isaac from Dentist Advisors, my personal advisor, one of my dearest friends. I think we're siblings in another life. Ryan, welcome to the show today. How are you? Ryan Isaac (00:07) Mm-hmm. Thank Thank you. I'm really good. just realized I was trying to hit mute and cough, but I hit like a chapter marker instead. So there you go. To your listeners or your ⁓ editing team, then there's a chapter marker while I'm coughing. So in your intro. Yeah. Tis the season. Kiera Dent (00:35) You're welcome. Yeah, that's fine. I'm okay with it. This is real life. We're sitting on, I mean, Ryan, you're sitting on the couch. I should get like my posh chair. I've been considering changing up my podcasting zone. Yeah, of course. All of us can see it. We're excited for that. Ryan Isaac (00:40) Hahaha Can I show you? Can I just give you a little vibe check here? I mean, it's actually, that's the ocean. I'm on a little summer getaway for a second. So yeah. Yeah. Kiera Dent (00:54) my gosh. That's amazing. So that's Ryan's life. Ryan's living his rich life over there. He's like truly. So, okay. If you're new to the podcast, Ryan is my personal advisor. Like truly he actually works on. We talk about my life. He's helped me make some really good decisions and not make some bad decisions. So I feel like financial advisors. My best advice is you gotta just find someone you trust. And I know Ryan is way more conservative than me, but cares about me as an individual so strongly. And Ryan, huge kudos to you. And so we talk about it a lot, but something we talk often is like, what's our rich life? And I remember Ryan for years, you were like living in your van, truly driving to California all the time to be by the beach, because you love surfing so much. So it just makes me so happy to see that you are living your best life by the ocean. You're doing what you teach all of your clients to do of living their version of a best life. Something that we try to do in dentistry and dental team too, like, hey, let's help your business provide you the best dream life you want. So that's Ryan. Ryan Isaac (01:36) Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, thank you. And there's no there's no right way to do that. I mean, everyone has their own thing that's worth the money or worth spending on. We're just kind of joking around about this, too. There are people who will sit in ⁓ small rentals or apartments on millions of dollars because to them having lots of security and liquidity is more valuable than houses or everyone's got something different. But, you know, we're all we're all chasing it, hopefully. Kiera Dent (01:57) Catch y'all. I think it's called the like emotional ROI and what helps you sleep at night in your financial world. So Ryan and I usually get on the podcast and we'll talk about finances. I mean, obviously dentist advisors, Ryan do a spiel. What is dentist advisors? Just so people know. I think you guys are financial advisors for dentists specifically. I'm not a dentist, but I can speak honestly, but a spiel. And then we're going to actually go like a hard left turn of what we're going to talk about today. Like really. Ryan Isaac (02:26) Ooh. Uh-huh. Yeah. Thank you. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, our on ramps coming up here really soon. We got to get over it. We got to get into the right lane. Dentist advisor started ⁓ almost A Team years ago now with me and Reese Harper. Shout out to Reese Harper. And yeah, we were dedicated to being ⁓ an independent fiduciary fee only ⁓ advisor for dentists to manage investments and give financial advice. Ultimately, Kiera Dent (02:51) Yep. Shout out to Reese. Ryan Isaac (03:17) you know, a dentist path through school and debt and taxes and all the stuff they go through, ⁓ you know, buying a practice, building businesses. There's no reason why all of that should not pay off every it should pay off for every dentist. There is enough money to be made in dentistry. And so our job really and you kind of said this with the you know, in the intro, ⁓ I really do feel like just protecting my clients, you know, and that's a philosophy that we've. built into our business. There's no reason why dentists shouldn't make it to the life they want and to the finish line financially. so, you know, ⁓ it's more about consistent, small, good decisions for long periods of time and avoiding like a few big mistakes that could derail you forever. So yeah, we have a custom financial planning process, ⁓ a lot of like reporting and data, and we just manage and track ⁓ dentist finances and make sure they end up in a good spot, safe and healthy and Happy, hopefully. Kiera Dent (04:15) which I love about you guys, Ryan, and I really think you guys do a great job. And this is something you've taught me. And we have a friend who said a great quote that I feel should be your quote. I can't give it like, so you can take it and like make your version. But they said like regular investing is like vanilla ice cream. It won't make anyone jealous, but it always tastes good. And I felt like that's such a great way to look at how you've taught me how to invest. ⁓ At the end of the day, it's just a small, consistent thing. So I think Dentist advisors does really well. And Ryan, something you've done for me. ⁓ Ryan Isaac (04:24) well. Okay, okay. Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. . Kiera Dent (04:44) Like it's so dumb, but I know you're watching me and I know like when I, like you're really not watching me, but I feel like you're watching me. Ryan Isaac (04:49) Yeah, well, let's hold that disclaimer here for a second. I see your numbers. I see your accounts. I see your emails. Every time you save money, I'm like, Kiera, good job in the email thread. Gold stars. Yeah. Kiera Dent (04:53) Like, I know he's not, like, he watches my account for sure. That's all it is. And I just know having Ryan there where I need to send it in every single month of what we're going to invest. We've talked about the plan has been such a game changer for me. So that's why I love Dentist Advisors. And like we said, we're now like taking our off ramp because Ryan and I want to talk about DSO sales. I think this definitely implies to a financial advisor. We have a lot of clients that we send to Dentist Advisors. We work such hand in hand with both sides. Like we love what you guys do. You love what we do. It's Ryan Isaac (05:19) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (05:30) Truly like the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich or whatever your favorite. If you want this to be meat and cheese, peanut butter and honey, whatever it is, I think it's the best duo. Yeah, exactly. That is the best. Captain Crunch, but would you rather Captain Crunch or Reese's? Or. Ryan Isaac (05:37) Captain Crunch in 2 % milk, you know. No. I would actually say fruity or cocoa pebbles, to be honest with you. Or cinnamon toast crunch. Can we arrive there? Okay. Kiera Dent (05:52) We both disagree on that. So cool. Okay, can handle Golden Grahams or are we like back to the s'mores run? Remember the s'mores Golden Graham? Ryan Isaac (06:00) Yeah, I do remember the scores. How are we like not landing on the same one at all? What about honey butches of oats? Wow. Okay. ⁓ Kiera Dent (06:05) It's okay. That's fine. I'm not like the biggest serial fan and I go through phases. I love Lucky Charms, but I'm not joking. Those marshmallows give me the chills. Like I can't crunch into it without it being like full body chills. So I don't know. weird. But back on this. So we've actually had a lot of clients that are debating of do I sell? I sell to a DSO? And I'm like, talk to freaking Ryan. Ryan Isaac (06:18) Yeah, it's like biting Styrofoam. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. you Kiera Dent (06:32) I don't know what you want to do for your retirement. I have no clue how this is gonna impact you with your taxes. I don't know all the stuff, but what I do know is I'm a freaking miracle girl, so we're gonna get you top dollar for your cell, but like let's talk DSO. Cause also like DSO to not DSO, like I don't know Ryan, there's a million things. So let's Rift. You wanted to talk about this. I love this. Let's do it. Ryan Isaac (06:41) Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, and so you said something a few minutes ago about ⁓ dentist investments. And yeah, like our job is to help manage investment money for people ⁓ in a really long term kind of boring way, if we're being honest. But yeah, it's very yeah, it's just like it'll be there forever. Just let it do its thing. But the biggest investment any owner is going to have is their practice. And that is the thing Kiera Dent (07:08) vanilla ice cream ish. Ryan Isaac (07:18) is why you and a team is so important because the thing they should protect above everything is their practice investment, their business investment. There's nothing more impactful to a dentist's entire life and not just their money, but their entire lifestyle, probably their mental health, their wellbeing, where and who they spend their time with. So it is by far the most important factor in all of this. And so the world that we're in now is that DSOs are an option to sell to, to work with, to become a part of. They are in some shape or form, you know, supposed to become the majority of the industry in the future. I think that's a broad category. think the category is more like group practice will become the majority of the industry. I'd love to hear what stats you've heard and what you actually see. think people talk about, you know, 60 to 70 % consolidation in the industry. becoming some kind of DSO or group practice. ⁓ yeah. Kiera Dent (08:19) Yeah, I was actually at an AI conference with that just literally this last week. And they said that they're estimating 65 % of the market will become in the DSL world in the next like five to 10 years. So I think a lot of people are expecting, which is so funny to me because I remember, gosh, I think I was Mark, this is a long time ago, we were at the dental college. And so we're probably talking like, Ryan Isaac (08:32) Uh-huh. Yeah, okay. Kiera Dent (08:46) 2018, 2019, I remember talking to the students, like, what do you think is gonna happen? And I'm like, I know I'm unpopular, because even Mark wasn't on board with this. And I'm like, I think I'm unpopular, but I'm pretty confident DSOs will be the future. And they're like, you're full of it. They're like, there's no way. And I'm like, I mean, I'm not emotionally invested in this, but if I look at what's going on, my husband's in healthcare. This is what happened to pharmacies. This is what happened to mom and pop shops, like for medical. Ryan Isaac (08:57) Mmm. Yeah. Kiera Dent (09:14) I cannot think for one second the dentistry and with the EBITDA like offers that you're getting, it doesn't matter. And Jason, were talking about this the other night. I'm like, even if doctors want to have a legacy practice, that's great. You sell to this person, but this person now is younger. They have more debt and DSOs is like one bad day and this DSOs right on their doorstep. They're going to sell. Like it's just, I mean, you've got to some really strong guts around you to not think about a DSO. And I think DSOs, Ryan Isaac (09:42) Hmm. Kiera Dent (09:44) can often hit you at emotional times. Like Brian, you know me. There have been times that I told you like someone offered me a buck for Dental A Team, they could have it like one bad day. It's just like shirt. Like everybody has it in business ownership. So I think that that's where the DSOs are super attractive to people. But like I was talking to an office yesterday who's considering working with us and they're like have a one year buyout. And they're like, we're thinking about doing this DSO. And I was like, all right, but like what's your ultimate end game? What are you trying to achieve? Ryan Isaac (09:46) Mm-hmm. yeah. Yeah. yeah. We all have those days. Yeah. Kiera Dent (10:12) you met with other people to talk about DSOs, there are other options and he's like, well, it's too big for these partners to buy. I'm like, well, it's actually not like there's ways for partners to buy you out if you want. think it's just, DSOs feel like the easy button, but I don't know if they're really easy. And I think that that's where I'm a little bit on the fence and I'm super jazzed for us to rift on. Is it really the best financial choice? Is it the best life choice? I don't know, Ryan, you know, the finances more than I do. just. Ryan Isaac (10:14) It's on. Mm-hmm. Same. Yeah. Yeah. Kiera Dent (10:40) I do good job of helping people get their assets where they want them to be. So they have choices and options of what they want to do. Ryan Isaac (10:42) You do. Yeah, so I think, you know, it makes a lot of logical sense, especially the way it started with DSOs, that it would have gobbled up a lot of the industry. Hearing 70 % made a lot of sense to me. Maybe we're just in a dip in a lull, which we totally have become, we've entered into that because of the, you know, the debt and rate situation that happened over last few years in inflation and, you know, just interest rates. Money got really expensive. It was hard for a lot of companies to grow across a lot of industries. And, uh, but, and I, I'm, uh, I want to say these statistics correctly, uh, from smarter people than me in the DSO space. I think there's something like maybe, you know, 350 to 400 technical DSOs in the country right now. And I've heard in multiple sources that up to a third of them are in some kind of financial receivership right now. Meaning, and I know you've seen this with clients too. DSOs have grown and they purchase and they borrowed money and then rates hit them and they grew too fast. They went ahead of themselves and they defaulted. And ⁓ there are some major DSOs, huge ones that I did not ever think would happen that went into default that are going bankrupt that are changing ownership. ⁓ People are losing their equity money, they're not going to get their payouts. ⁓ And they're they don't own their practices anymore. I mean, there, we have some clients in that situation. So Yes to the consolidation in the future of that because of just that's the nature of economy sometimes in industries. And I don't know if it's going to hit 70. I don't know. It makes me wonder. ⁓ Those multiples are down a lot than they than they used to be. And they'll probably you know, they'll probably fluctuate, come back up a little bit more when money gets easier. ⁓ Kiera Dent (12:22) I don't know anything. Ryan Isaac (12:36) Also, I think people are getting a lit…
Full show notes at the publisherAs the weather heats up and schools let out, there's one main thing on people's minds: vacation! In this episode, Kiera talks about maximizing the slow days and weeks at your practice, including batching vacation days, production goals, and more. 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 I just thought this would be a fun one to release ⁓ right before we're prepping for summer, ⁓ because I know a lot of you want to take some summertime off, but our practices are still running, right? ⁓ A lot of times we don't want to close it down. Sometimes we want to close it down. So I thought, let's just pop on, do a quick tactical practical of what to do to have products for our team to figure out what to do to make this tour. You can have an amazing summer vacation and a profitable practice. As always, Dental A Team is here for you. We are here for dentists and teams. We love consulting. We love working. We love making your life easy. We love helping you have the dream life that you've been looking for. And honestly, it's so magical to be able to help so many offices turn what they thought was impossible to possible. So today, let's dive in. Let's talk about, all right, I go on vacation, but my team's still working. What on earth should I have them do? Like... honest to goodness, what do I do? So I'm going to give a few ideas, but before I get into that, I think it's super important that for future, some offices will actually strategically plan when doctors are off and when the full team is off. So what I would say is let's look at this and is this something that you want to do or is this a way to like max out all the vacations that you're looking to get done? Cause team members might be wanting to take vacation too, or is there a time of year that you want to take off? that then the rest of your team could take off. So we're kind of like batching our vacations. Some offices will do that. And you can look at a projection forecaster and figure out, okay, how far do I need to go? What do we need to do? What would we need to produce? And it will help you actually set goals so that way you can be on vacation stress free. So that'd be number one. Other times offices love it. They love to where the hygienists are going to keep working pending upon your state laws. Front office is going to catch up, but what do we actually have them do? So that way they're working effectively. we're able to move this practice forward. So things that I would recommend are always an operations manual. This is a great time. People always tell me, I don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have time. Let's actually get that operations manual completed. Let's build out the protocols, let's take the pictures, let's write the pieces. And we have an operations manual, a template in our, ⁓ in our virtual academy that all of our offices get. And so like just certain things that you could do for like an office manager is leading morning huddle tracking. Like how do we track our production? How do we track our collections? How do we do our reappointments? How do we fill out our KPIs, end of day checklists, next day schedules, checking to see it? How do we fill out a scorecard of all of our metrics? What about for monthly closing the month by the fifth of every month? How do we do that? How do we set the supply budget for the next month? How do we do production and collections? Doctors, you might not even know how to do half this stuff I'm rattling off. ⁓ making projections for the years, putting in our OSHA training, our HIPAA training, who do we contact for all of that, ⁓ looking at payroll, how do we do team training. For schedulers, would be like routes look prep, new patient referral tracking, confirmation calls of all the patients, re-care calls to fill the schedule, patient check-in. Like these are the type of protocols going out to our dental assistants and hygienists. How do we set up for... breaking down a room, how do we do a bridge prep? How do we do burr blocks? How do we do the seric machine, changing traps, charting, checking insurance eligibility, cleaning the mill, co-diagnosing treatment, crown prep, crown seat, downtime. There are about a bajillion ⁓ protocols that your team could honestly do. And we have this whole beautiful checklist where you literally, who's writing it? When does it need to be done? What does it look like? And also in our template, we show exactly how these protocols should be done. So like at the beginning, what's the purpose of this? What are the steps? What are the supplies needed? And then a picture of it if applicable. So that way everybody knows how to make this template. Everybody knows what we're looking for. We have it in there. So it's like all of them should have a purpose, step-by-step, supplies if needed picture, and then making sure that they're all in a word format. You can also add videos as well if you want. But if I had this much time, this much downtime, I would set it with my team of how many protocols that we need to get written or also updating my operations manual. It is an amazing time to get so much work done. And this is just, feel like like dusting the baseboards. Like it's annoying, it's obnoxious, but it has to get done. And so really making sure we're maximizing our time on that to get that done. That's a huge, long beast of a project that if I'm out on vacation, yeah, that's a great one to get done. Other things you can do while you're out for your team to have downtime is, Some offices are swapping softwares and it's a great time to get everything prepped, have everybody take on training modules, things like that. So if you know you want to swap a software, great time to do it. Get your whole team trained, have a team champion, their job is to swap X number videos. Please don't say like go learn it. Nope. Take our like template of all these protocols, have them learn how to do it in the new software so that way they're able to train people. So I definitely recommend if you're doing a software change, go on vacation, have everybody learn it while you're out. And then we come in or not even just the software, but implementing like if we're doing flex or we're adding weave or we're adding Modento or adding whatever it is, whatever software, AI, we're adding toothy, we're adding Lassie, whatever it is, it's also a great time for the training to happen, the onboarding to happen without all the patient noise. Other things during this time, this is huge where I'm going after re-care and I'm going after unscheduled treatment and I'm also going after collections. Hard, hard, heavy hitting on the front office. And what I say is like, let's set goals before we leave of what we're going to collect, what we're going to get done. That way we're on the same agreement and alignment with each other. We're not sitting here like, I hope and pray they collect this much money while I'm on vacation. You also can do this when you're on CE because you're out of the office, set it up. Let's think about these things. These are great things for you and your practice to be doing. They should be happening consistently, but this is where we get like that big oomph, that big like, my gosh, we got to get this done. So it's operations manual. That's a huge lift calling on all your own schedules, re-care. Like I literally would have it. Pound out how many we've got, like how many days we're going to be gone. If my scheduler is not seeing any patients, but they want to work, they should be able to get through a pretty hefty list. Now you might say like, but Kara, we're booked out so far. And I'll say, high five. We still need to make those calls for when patients fall off the schedule, but also get them booked even further out. You just built yourself a VIP fast, quick fill list that then when patients do fall off, we have all these patients teed up, ready to go. So I'm always pro. Get them in, get them in, get them in, make the calls. Same thing on unscheduled treatment plans. Let's get all those patients scheduled in, like clean it up. And that means we print out the whole list of unscheduled treatment plans we're going through. We're cleaning up treatment plans. they ⁓ didn't accept treatment and they denied it, we need to clean it out of the treatment plans. We need to clean it up towards an actual list. We need to call patients. And I prioritize, I'm not just going down the list A to Z of calling patients. I really want my team to get the best bang for our buck. So I'm going to look to see what do need to fill our schedule for to hit our goal. let's go find treatment plans that fit that amount, fill those in first. So let's prioritize the treatment plans that we want. And then after that, I'm going to suggest that your team starts to clean it up, call your TC should be able to get through that entire list. So I've got my scheduler calling all their re-care. I've got my TC cleaning up all of my unscheduled treatment when I'm gone for, and this would be if I was out for a week. If I'm only out for a couple of days, there are other things. Then we're going to go after that and we're going to go to our billing. So this is like office manager, biller. We should be able to in one week's time if we have no patients truly, they should be able to get through your almost your entire AR list if not the whole AR list. So I prioritize which days am I calling on insurances. I'm going to be calling my patient balances. I'm also going to prioritize which ones I want them to do to make sure that we're hitting our biggest bang for our buck because we can collect. Tiff and I were talking on another podcast. sat there for a couple of minutes in an office, called and collected on three accounts very quickly and easily. but we need to go into like the mindset we're here to help these patients. We're here to collect the money. We're here to serve them, ⁓ figure it out. Now this does not mean we're sitting here texting. So many people are like, we're calling, we're texting, but I'm like, no, no, no. We're calling with intentionality to get the AR cleaned up. Like your job in one month is to collect, I don't know, a hundred grand or whatever it is. So setting that goal and expectation and agreement together really makes it to where a doctor's like, we're getting us out of the hole that we got into. We're doing these big hefty projects that we've been putting off and we're really making a huge movement. So those would be like real quick. Now for your hygiene team, if they are there, I recommend that they are seeing patients pending your state laws. And dental assistant teams, this is where we're going to go through. You can organize your supply closet, clean it all out, put the tip out bins in place so we cut down our supply costs for us. Notice every single thing I'm saying is propelling your business forward. Every single one of them. We're not sitting here like, I really want to reorganize my ops. Well, great, if you're reorganize your op, you're making a protocol for it, a template for it, and you're making all ops exactly the same. ⁓ If we're doing supplies, we're not just sitting here like cleaning house, we're putting tip-out bins, we're making it towards a more efficient ordering system, we're actually moving the needle forward rather than just wasting time and spending time. ⁓ Those are some really big things for every single department. You could organize the burr blocks, we could figure out our inventory, we could get an inventory thing in place. We could work with a buying group. could negotiate deals on that. We could get a membership program put into place. ⁓ We could work on our marketing, like our TikToks for the next hour long. Now, if I was having them build out all of my marketing videos while we were out, I would limit it to, I only want you working on this for two hours because marketing's so fun and your team could sit there for so long, but that's more fun in its brand awareness more than it's going to drive and get results moving forward. So those would be some things that I would do. ⁓ You can go and answer all the reviews and answer every single one of those. So you boost up your SEO to get it higher on the algorithms. All of that would be stuff that I'd be building out, mapping out, putting things into place. But really, think getting that ops manual updated would be something so valuable. Calling on all the unscheduled re-care, calling on all of our unscheduled treatment, going after our insurance and AR. And even if you've got clinical team members, give them some of these lists. They can call on unscheduled treatments. They can call on re-care. They can call on balances. They can call and sit on hold with insurance companies. Imagine if you will, you've got five phones going on different insurance companies and when everyone picks up, the biller goes and pops over to that. Like that is huge efficiency to get through these lists, to get things resubmitted. And also if your team members have to come and listen on insurance, you better believe they'll be much better at getting those claims. Correct information. Update your note templates if we're noticing a lot of these balances aren't getting paid. Why? How can we fix this forever and move it forward? So I'm always looking for what are the like cobwebs that don't just make us feel better, but actually move our company forward. These are things in the doctors, when you come back, you're like, wow, like, and have them report. I always love them to report like, hey, I was out, what did you get done? Like tell me your wins. What did we end up like? We were able to schedule 50 patients while you guys were out. That's amazing. That's a good use of the time, like absolutely worth it. We were able to bring in. I don't know, 100,000 worth of unscheduled treatment plants. Like, frick, yeah, that's amazing. We were able to collect $100,000 worth of balances and that took out 55 or 100 accounts that we were able to get through. They should be able to get through way more than that, especially no patients, no interruptions. Now, when I have that, also make sure that I'm like, hey guys, I want you to have a good time. I'm out. I also really do expect that we see results from this. So let's set this up. That way all of us are on the same page. Here's extra projects if we get done earlier. Could you imagine if you came back and your whole operations manual was done? No, this is not fun. So if team members are going to be working there, I want it to be something that's moving our business forward. I don't want it to be like, we're just sitting here cleaning the mill. No, we can get that done. We have to get that done. That's urgent. That will get done no matter what. But what won't get done is the unscheduled treatment list. What won't get done is the AR. What won't get done are the operations manuals. Things that we won't like. Urgent things are you will sharpen your instruments hygienist. I promise you, will. This is not a time where we have everybody out that we just sit there. That's a nice to do, but it's not a mu…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana are in the mood to talk about moods — specifically when it comes to setting the tone for patients and case acceptance. The two discuss overcoming objections from a foundational level, including your mindset, effective language, 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 we are so excited to be here with you today. I have back on the podcast with me Miss Dana. I am so excited to see your beautiful smiling face today and gosh Britt did Rim to Rim, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim recently and Dana I've lived here my whole life. I am an Arizona girl. I love the mountains and I'm like, gosh, people just go out there and it's like, why didn't you bring water? Right? Like you guys are crazy. You've been here for a long time. You hike avidly. Your husband hikes more avidly than anyone I know and knows the Arizona mountains like the back of his hand as if he grew up here. And I'm like, yeah, I could do rim to rim. And then Britt got back and I was like, Dana (00:47) you The Dental A Team (00:48) Okay, Dana, like we should do Rim to Rim, but holy cow. If you guys don't know what Grand Canyon Rim to Rim is, please go look it up. It's like an event that people literally, my boyfriend says to have like, you take it for granted. People literally come here from other countries to see the Grand Canyon. I do take it for granted, that's fair. But hearing Britt's story, Dana, I'm like, holy cow. If we are going to ever do that in our lifetime, I think we need to start today. What do how do you prepare for that? Dana (01:18) Yeah, my biggest takeaway is like the planning of it because I like because I avidly had because my husband like you're right hikes more than any human on earth like I'm just like we can just go do room term and honestly, I'll be like I was like, no, I'm doing rim to rim to rim. Like I'm not loving at the first. I'm not starting at just rim. And then hearing her I'm like, Okay, well, I definitely need to plan. The Dental A Team (01:22) Yes! Literally. Yes! Yes! literally the same. Dana (01:45) more because I'm like I hike in Arizona all the time. I know what the heat is. I know how to hydrate. I know how to do all those pieces. I'm like but maybe I should plan it out a little bit more. The Dental A Team (01:54) Literally what I said, my takeaway was I did not do planning for it and I didn't, I just, I don't know, I'm take it for granted. I didn't think it was necessary. I'm like, I hike, I work out, I run, I do the stair climber, I do cycle, I do spin classes. Like I am pretty okay to just like sign up for a race and do it and whatever and I thought the same thing minus the rim to rim trip. I was not going an extra rim. I thought I could just pop over and do rim to rim like no big deal people do it all the time constantly can't be that hard just kidding just kidding so I think we need it on our bucket list here within the next I would say three years based on the fact that I'm over 40 at this point I'm not gonna lie to myself I'm not I need to get myself three years to get this sucker done ⁓ and probably shorter than that so Dina we just need to prep and plan for this sucker Dana (02:53) Yep. Yeah, we just need to pick a date, right? Because if I don't pick a date, can think I'm going to plan all I want. ⁓ So I just need to pick a date and then I will force myself to plan. Now that I know how much prep I should probably put into it. The Dental A Team (02:55) We need to a Yep. same. Same z's. I agree. I agree. I tell people that constantly. I'm like, gosh, the most fit you'll ever be is when you know vacation is coming. You will have bikini body ready when you know that vacation is coming. But when there's not something planned, you're like, I'll do it. I'll eat this for now and I'll make it up later. I do it constantly. So you're right. Okay. Everybody just congratulate Britt for surviving rim to rim. And that's a real statement for surviving. Um, it's a huge feat. It's massive. So if you are on our Instagram, which I'm sure you are just give her a shout out. If you see her face in there, if you're one of her clients and didn't know she did it, congratulations. Here you go. Text her. Um, but it was super cool. So Dana, we're going to put it on our list. That's our next to do. We'll add it to, uh, our fitness challenge thing over there. channel. Today guys, I wanted to talk about more than the Grand Canyon, but seriously if you don't know what it is, you should look it up. And if you are planning on coming and you don't live in Arizona, like seriously you think we need to plan like prep and freaking plan you guys? There was another hiker this weekend and it's not even our true ⁓ hot season yet and there was another hiker this weekend in Phoenix that did not make it through her hike and she was an avid avid hiker. So it's no joke you guys. ⁓ Please be safe. So on that note, overcoming objections is actually what I wanted to talk about today. So rim to rim is my objection today. I'm not ready for it. I get that. But overcoming objections in the practice, you guys, we really want to talk about case acceptance and what that might look like. And doctors, office managers, I know sometimes we get in the space of like, this is for my treatment coordinator. Doctors, this is for you too, especially when you're chair-side treatment planning. Because sometimes I feel like Dana, feel like doctors get that look of glazed over, like, okay, either this is too much information or I've checked out because I have an objection, but we just talk through it, right? And how many times have we even done that in a personal relationship? That makes me laugh because I'm thinking, even my kid, I'll just keep talking at him and wait for him to catch up. And then he's like, yeah, sure. And then turns around and I'm like, I don't think that's gonna happen. Whatever that was. He checked out. He's obviously no, right? Yeah. Dana (05:24) I'm thinking that, no. The Dental A Team (05:27) Like he checked out and I didn't catch it. So the moment when there's a checkout, like that's your objection. There's an objection in there somewhere. Either it was overload of information or they're just not, they're not on board yet because of a reason. I like to go into everything assuming, yes, I live my life that way. My boyfriend's constantly like telling me that I'm like a golden retriever. Right, I'm just like, yep, life is great, what's next, let's go. Because it's just a detour. Whatever it is, it's just a detour. And it's an opportunity to gain more information, in my opinion. So if there's a no, if there's a roadblock, I'm like, cool. What can I learn from this? What information do I need in order to get around this roadblock? Or should I be taking a different route? So it's a detour. So when I go into a treatment case, when I'm presenting treatment or when I'm training team members to present treatment and doctors, I'm constantly in the yes mindset. Tony Robbins talks a lot about mindset, about mind frame, on where you're supposed to be, and that yes zone is massive. If I assume the yes, I'm leaving opportunity for that. And Dana, isn't it true, like when you go into a conversation with the like, yeah, everything's gonna be fine, you're more optimistic, right? You're not set on an end result necessarily, and if it's not fine or a yes, it gives you that opportunity to create something new. And do you feel like Dana, I have a question, an actual real question, because I live my life this way, but like, I don't always check in with other people. People coming to you with that open mindset, right? That like, yep, this is gonna be fantastic. Does that then set the tone for you on that conversation? Like you as a person, whether it's personal, professional, whatever it is, does that set the tone for the conversation for you being like, okay, well, this is an opportunity? rather than it being like, this is a conversation. Like, how does that feel on the other side, Dana (07:24) Yeah, and I think it's funny that you asked that question. I agree, it does set the tone and I think though it's harder to see when it's from that mindset. right? Like I think we very easily see when someone negative sets our tone negative, right? But I don't think we always understand that like the initiative and the consciousness that the person that is setting the positive tone is doing. And so I think it's harder to relate to or harder to think that it works because it's very easy to spot it when it's the other way, not necessarily when it is the positive outlook and the positivity that breeds the positive. So I love that you specifically asked that question because I firmly do believe it. I think it's just a The Dental A Team (07:33) Yeah. Dana (08:03) little bit harder to see. The Dental A Team (08:05) Yeah, that was a huge massive point because it's like anything we're always going to remember the negative more than the positive, right? So I always tell teams, well, number one, this rolls into case acceptance as well because if you get a no and you carry it, you're always going to remember that no, you could have 10 yeses today and that one person said no to two fillings. And it's like, oh, I suck, right? But I just sold 10 freaking implants, right? But it's like getting your hair done. And I say, you're walking down the street. walking down the street and you're like, gosh, my hair, it's so good. I got bangs today. And you've got like nine people walk by you. And they're like, dang, I really like your hair today. I really like your hair, right? Nine people tell you, you look amazing. And one person stops you on the street and they say, gosh, I like your hair, but I'm just not sure I would have gone with bangs. When you get home or when you get into your car, what are you doing? You're looking in the mirror and you're second guessing your choice on bangs. You're not saying, Nine people and myself love my hair right now. You're saying one person's second guest bangs. Why did I do this? Should I have done this? And I think that's exactly what you just said too, Dana. It's really easy to be like, gosh, they just like came in so aggressive and just totally changed my mood. This person put me in a bad mood. One of my least favorite statements of all time. I get to choose the mood I'm gonna be in. That's my power and my control. ain't nobody taking that away from me. But we say that, right? Like this person just totally changed the mood, but it's not always noticeable when someone comes in with a positive, right, or an open mind and they change that or they keep the mood that you've been in. You're totally right. It's not always noticeable, but it makes a huge impact. So your patients may not notice that you're like, hey, let's go. They may not notice that they're like, yeah, like let's figure this out instead of being in like a gosh, Dana (09:49) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (09:59) treatment mood. So huge point there, Dana. I love that you pointed that out because going into it with that mindset, you're not going to reap 100 % of the accolades and the rewards. They're not going to be like, thanks so much for being so positive all the time. You might get that every now and again, but we're looking for that feedback and we're not always getting it. So then we get worn down and we're like, why even try? When you're tracking your results, you're going to know why you try. when you're tracking those yeses, when you're just tracking the conversations even, like you're not always gonna get a yes, that's okay. And that's what we're here about today is those objections. When you go in with that yes mindset of like, I can do anything. It's not always this person's gonna say yes to this treatment. It's this person is gonna say yes to their health and we're gonna get them there. So I go in thinking, this is a huge opportunity to learn more about this patient and to get them healthier. I don't always go into it, which I think is a mindset shift, Dana, for the healthcare field in general. We think like, I'm selling treatment. You are selling treatment, but you're selling someone their health back, right? So I'm selling you back your health. You are unhealthy. You came to me with a deficit, and I'm selling you back your health, right? And so when we put it in that perspective, we put in the perspective of learning and opportunity, it shifts the mindset quite a bit. So. That was a fun tangent. Thank you everyone for following along with us. I hope you gleaned some opportunities there and some mindset shifts. I think it's huge. Now, Dana, when they do come in, they're like, okay, we've got this, we've got this. And then they're like, I'm just not ready. Like, what do you, you train a lot of systems, you train a lot of communication and a lot of ⁓ verbiage, that people like to call it scripts, right? What do you tell your teams is the best path to take? when you do get an objection. Dana (11:54) Yeah, I think that I think first of all, Mr. Preface that right. I always try to teach teams that anything outside of a yes is a no. Right. So but there are no's that are true no's and then there are solvable no's. And so it's it really helps teams to kind of know the difference. Like a true no would be I'm leaving tomorrow to go out of town for three months and like I truly cannot do the treatment. Right. Or ⁓ I just bought a new house and haven't paid my first mortgage payment. Like I want to wait until I make that that's a true no, right? Or there's then they're solvable knows which are, you know, gosh, I don't know if I'm ready or I need to talk to a spouse or ⁓ that's a lot, you know, that's a lot financially or all of those are solvable knows and usually the easiest way to solve them is to ask better questions to find out what is the actual barrier, right? Because driven coordinators, we teach them a lot, you've got a lot of tools, you've got a lot of things that you can offer patients. ⁓ But what I want you to do is hone in on what to offer instead of throwing the book at them, right? Like, well, here are all of my solutions and now you choose. Well, they don't actually know what those choices mean, or they don't actually know what to pick in those choices. So I think it's asking questions to get down to the bottom of The Dental A Team (12:56) Yes. Dana (13:09) what is holding the patient back so that you can provide the right solution for that patient. The Dental A Team (13:15) Yes, I totally agree. You made me think of ⁓ the game Guess Who? Do you remember that game? When we were little? I think it's back around again and they have way cooler pictures, by the way. Ours were like, ours were bad when it was like trending back when we were kids. Anyways, Guess Who is the game where you flip your board up and you've got all the pictures of the different characters and you're one of the characters on the other person's board. You've got your little…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera returns with the Green Park Dentistry team, Chief Operations Manager Jeff and Dr. Andrew Sugg, to discuss tips for those who want to evolve their leadership. Jeff and Dr. Sugg share their own journey, which included immersing themselves in a new community. 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 this is part two of Dr. Andrew and Jeff talking about, they already went through their expansion, what they did, and now I really wanted to get into the nitty gritty of what makes Andrew so incredible as a doctor and what makes Jeff an incredible leader in his practice to get the growth and the success that they've been able to have. And I'm so excited for you to experience it. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. Kiera Dent (00:24) Andrew, can you walk us through, what do you feel are some of the things you do so superior? Like, I want you to brag a little bit. This is a moment where Kiera Dent is so freaking proud of you. Tiff is proud of you. Our company is proud of you. ⁓ because I think other people want to know how to do this. So I almost want to peel back the curtain just a little bit on what are some of the things you do really well in assembly? Like I said, Jeff, chime in too. Then we're going to reverse. We're going to talk about Jeff and Andrew, you can chime in on him. So like both of you can just schmooze each other tonight as well. You guys are going to have an amazing night post podcast. You're welcome. All right. But truly, Andrew, what are some of the things you feel set in part? Jeff & Andrew (00:52) Yeah, thank you. Well, that leads into a great, was going to say, like, I feel really lucky to have Jeff, obviously. And I know not everybody has a Jeff or can trust someone as much as I trust Jeff. But I think obviously it can be very hard on our marriage. So that's one side note. And I know like a lot of couples that that happens. But I think I have to always. Right? know. Two years ago, I was worried. And in gay years, that's like 40 years. Kiera Dent (01:19) I'm so proud of you. 10 years in and you still, I think, love each other, which is amazing. I think everybody is. You're like, okay. But it's one of those things also though, I will say, like throwing it out to couples, when couples go through what you have gone through and you're able to like be through the thick and the thin of it, I will also give advice. Like when I watched people go through dental school, and Andrew, I'm sure you saw this, I was so angry at so many of our like friends that went through. Jeff & Andrew (01:33) you Kiera Dent (01:46) Like they went through the residencies, they got to the end and I'm like, you freaking made it. And that's when they get divorced. And I'm like, Oh, if you're to get divorced, get divorced during the hard times, but like you have made it. You've made it. And now it's like, it's a matter of like, we bonded together, we grew together. And I think like making sure that stays a priority in your marriage. You guys remember I was a marriage and finally therapist prior to this. Like that was my thing. I like, Oh, don't give up on what you like. You went through the freaking hardest years together. Now it's like, enjoy this amazing life we built together. Jeff & Andrew (01:50) Yeah. Right, yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah Kiera Dent (02:16) and don't lose sight of how grateful we are for one another. anyway, like off my tangent, keep going. Jeff & Andrew (02:20) No, that's that one. So I guess that's that's part like that's kind of part of my after always remind myself I need to be very appreciative for everyone around me. So that's probably number one. And I guess that goes into like, you need to kind of check your ego, right? Like as much as everybody wants it to be all about the dentist and all about me. I'm really just the guy that does the dentistry and I enjoy kind of being like that side note, like I'd rather people come talk to him. Right. So I think like the more you can step back and see yourself as that clinician is very beneficial. And then kind of let, again, the people around you lead and be those positive lights that they can be, that's like how you're gonna grow, right? And then I think that goes along with an associate where, ⁓ again, kind of being humble, like, yes, I know a lot, but I don't know everything. And I learned stuff as much from the associates or how they do things differently as much as they may learn from me. And I think when you come to a situation more with ⁓ curiosity and... really trying to find how you can learn and be better every day, then they only want to do the same. So you really have to lead by example, lead with curiosity, really come to work every day, just trying to do better for people around you. And I want to chime in. think you lead from your heart too. You have a passion for people and you have a passion for what you do, dentistry. Like you live, breathe, speak it all the time. Even outside the office. You're always- Too hard, right? Shut it down. You're always seeking new things. You're always at speaking with Dr. Parks about, what do you think about this? Or how would you approach this rather than this point of, hey, I do it this way, you have to do it. You do approach curiosity. And I think the frequency that he's able to, the amount of time they spend together in this office, they share an actual office. ⁓ So they're able to compare. Kiera Dent (03:45) ⁓ And now you look beautiful! Jeff & Andrew (04:14) Everything all the time. So if at any time that they're both in the office together I could walk by they're always talking about a case or how they could improve something or how could we approach this or This is funny. What like what should we do? You know, it becomes this collaboration and less of a like we're having a calibration meeting this day for this time We're going to talk about X. It's kind of a constant Yeah, like I listen in on his new patient exams. He listens in on mine. And yeah, it's just a constant thing. I think, honestly, again, that was a necessity that that started that way. And I think in our old office, it was actually me, Jeff and Dr. Parks all in a room that was really meant to be for me. And we all were crammed in there. And eventually Jeff moved because he got tired of listening to us talk about dentistry. Kiera Dent (05:01) I was gonna say that's why Jeff's not in the office. He's like, I don't wanna hear about this dentistry. hear about it way too much. You two have fun. Jeff & Andrew (05:04) He's like, I gotta get away from Yeah. need some space. Yeah. So that wouldn't have been a decision I probably would have made if we had all this space, right? So I think it is funny, like again, that necessity and just kind of trust in the process and learning what you can. But I'm like, I'm so grateful for those early years and like he and I have such a bond now that we're excited for our next associate and bringing him or her into our office and making them a part of our little dorky dental group. Kiera Dent (05:32) love it. And I mean, Jeff, you're right. But I if I'm to have a dentist, I want the dentist who talks nonstop about dentistry. I know that's not probably so nice at home. Jason has an alarm on our phone for us. So, Jeff, if you want to take like marriage tip from me and Jay, because I will talk about business forever. And he's like, shut down, girl. The alarm goes off at five every night. And that's when I have to stop talking work. And it goes off like it's every single day. Six o five. I know what time and I'm like, OK. Jeff & Andrew (05:40) I'm Hahaha Kiera Dent (05:59) That's my time limit. So you want to talk about like a show? I'm like, I don't even know what I'm about. So it's a really handy thing for me to have to shut it down. But Andrew, I am curious on that. I think a lot of doctors struggle and I love how you talked about like, this isn't how I do it. Like, what do you think and how can we do this? I'm curious. So let's say you saw of a future associate, we'll use Dr. Parks right now, cause that's one you know, you won't know the future one's personality, but Jeff & Andrew (06:01) Yeah. Yeah. Kiera Dent (06:27) Let's say you see dentistry that's not up to your standard with Dr. Parks. How do you go and have that conversation with him to where he feels supported, but at the same time, you don't allow your culture, your brand, the type of dentistry to go out the door without having, like, people don't know how to have this conversation because you're both dentists. So how do you handle that with Dr. Parks? Jeff & Andrew (06:46) Yeah. So I think, ⁓ kind of bring it back to like what he's doing it for, right? So it's not about me seeing a problem, but it's like, hey, here's how this could maybe be a better outcome for your patient, right? Or I would like argue, I would like to kind of always spin and make myself an example. Like, hey, I used to do it this way, right? Like, or I used to do something different, but my old mentor who I love and admire, like she helped show me the way, right? And I've really learned a lot from her. So I think that's also where like for our future associate, need to make sure that that is a key component of their culture is to be open and constantly learning and be curious. And ⁓ I think that is definitely a big goal of ours is to find that in the next person. And that's where we also feel very lucky with our associate. We know that that's not ⁓ very easy to find an associate and kind of have that success with it. So again, as much as I'm appreciative for Jeff. I'm very appreciative for Dr. Parks too, and I think it shows in our relationship as well. Kiera Dent (07:46) Yeah. Well, I think like also though, when you've built a practice to your size, you normally now get to be choosy and picky. I feel like when you're like a little bit smaller, it's kind of like, I got to like help someone wants to come work in this like amazing brown, purple, green popcorn ceiling and share an office with me, my husband, and you get to be in here too, like Harry Potter corners all the way around. But now you get to be even more choosy on who comes forward because you've got this amazing space. You've got the place where someone wants to come. Jeff & Andrew (07:56) Yeah. Right. Yeah. Seriously. Right. Kiera Dent (08:14) And I think that's gonna be really awesome to watch you grow on that next one. So thank you for that. Jeff, I wanna pivot to you. I've watched your leadership. I've watched you grow. I've watched you run a team. I've watched you go from Gilbert to Jeff. I've watched you sit in meetings. It was so fun to see you in person. It has been far too long for me. It was pre-COVID since the last time I saw you. And we met in person and I watched you. You sit there with this inquisitive mind. You sit there with this, you've got a... Jeff & Andrew (08:31) I know. Kiera Dent (08:41) depth of knowledge that's just impressive to me. And also I've watched you grow in your leadership. I've seen you, I talked to Tiffany and you're in your community in leadership courses, you're doing pieces. I just wanna know, and Andrew, this is now where you're gonna like love on Jeff on this, of how have you gone from where you were to where you are today? Like I know that's a whole process and I know that's very broad, but just even thinking of some of the strokes that you've taken, I know you and Tiff have worked super hard. I'm gonna give like mad kudos to Tiffany and I'm sure you will too. Jeff & Andrew (09:08) Yeah. Kiera Dent (09:08) But I'm just curious because I think leadership is so elusive for so many people. And yet I've watched you like take this on this, but you're also a baller. Like you don't get run over. You have hard conversations. You speak up. You're very brilliant in what you do. Andrew, I agree. Jeff's a machine. I watch him. He's like, all right, got my list. I got all these things. I'm going home. Andrew, this is what we're going to do. You think, Jeff, you think Andrew's running the show, but. I know that who's really running it is you. Like you're like, all right, this is getting done. We're getting all this done. This is where the lights are going. Everybody move in on this day. But you do it with poise and grace. so I'm just curious at like tips for people who maybe are trying to evolve in their leadership, things that you've done to be the, like truly, I think you're a huge example of a successful leader. And so it's okay. This is your brag moment. I know it can be awkward, but I really am just so proud of you and excited to hear what you think has been part of that evolution of you. Jeff & Andrew (09:37) Yeah. Well, the first, thank you. That's like, I want to cry right now. Thank you. You don't often hear that. ⁓ So thanks for that. ⁓ Honestly, know, I had a little experience ⁓ in my past career about, ⁓ you know, it was an industry that's off offshore. So it's a difficult industry. Kiera Dent (10:06) You're welcome. I feel tear-eyed, Luke, because I'm just really proud of you. Like truly. Jeff & Andrew (10:27) for me personally to enter into, know, with these rough, greasy, you know, I'm not scared of dirt, obviously it was geology, but, you know, a lot of people aren't socially aware who might be working with them, you know, so, you know, being gay in an industry like that, that's nobody's like, ⁓ did I offend somebody by what I said? That's, you know what I mean? So that's, you kind of get a little bit of a tough skin there, right? So I've had experience. With that, I've had experience managing projects ⁓ offshore. I've had experience managing projects onshore. I grew up in a family that my dad, my parents are business owners and I was put to work for not a legal pay at a very young age. So I just learned like, I've got to work to do this stuff. then, you know, fast forward to meeting you guys when I was unhappy, I was like, what am I going to do? Right? So you guys, you, Tiffany, the collaboration, the tools, the building blocks, the confidence, the empowerment that you were like, you can do it and you're the only one that is, right? ⁓ So that led me on it. And then we went into the catalyst of showing up to that office that day with a different vibe and then seeing that it works. ⁓ So then I think naturally we moved to this county from a very different county in Florida that a lot... Kiera Dent (11:46) Thank Jeff & Andrew (11:55) population was very different and we're in a very different population here. So we did have some fear coming in. So we were cautious about, you know, how we represented ourselves, if we made a big splash. And then as we realized the momentum of the practice and the service of what we were doing, it was gaining momentum and people came to us for our service and our dentistry. So then that gave us confidence to be like, okay, this is what people want. And I think part of my mindset ⁓ in creating the vision and how the business that we want is thinking about past jo…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera talks with Chief Operations Manager Jeff and Dr. Andrew Sugg of Green Park Dentistry about identifying your dreams as dental leaders, and finding the path to get there. 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 is such a special magical day on the podcast. I have two of my absolute favorite human beings. We have known each other for so many years. They are incredible, incredible dentists, practice owners, managers, like you name it. These two men are some of the most brilliant people I've watched in dentistry and I've watched them grow from beginning, very basics. to this masterpiece of their life, of their community, of this practice that I truly think is such an example in this world. So Jeff and Andrew, welcome to the show. How are you today? Jeff & Andrew (00:33) Great, thank you for having us. Doing well, thank you for having us. Kiera Dent (00:37) You're so welcome. And I know it'll get a little weird, because when there's three of us here, it's always like, who's supposed to talk? So I'll try really hard to just call someone out. But honestly, guys, how does it feel to be, and I'll ask Jeff first. So again, I'll just riff through this. How does it feel from when we first met to where you are today? How does it feel? What would you even say? What's a word? Or what's the expression of where you started to where you are today? How was that experience for you, Jeff? Jeff & Andrew (00:42) Yeah. ⁓ if I had to sum it up in a word, looking back at myself in this experience, I think my younger self would look at today and be astonished that one, this is the career path I'm in that I didn't set out to. ⁓ you know, two, I started in this dental industry with zero experience other than knowing Andrew and listening to what he talks about when he comes home, to today. that we have gone from a team of seven in this tiny building with five ops we started with to now a team of 20, 17 ops in a 16,000 square foot building. I literally cannot, I have to pinch myself being like, we did this, take a minute, let's reflect. I'm still kind of coming down from all of the renovation and the moving and calibration. ⁓ So every now and then I have to remind myself like, wait, this is our place, we did this. So take a minute and reflect. And I'm still kind of battling with that because I'm used to going full force. So I'm astonished. Kiera Dent (02:16) It's amazing. And Jeff, I'm so glad you said that. we've known each other. Jeff and Andrew have been clients of ours for years. This is like a client spotlight where we bring on people to just, I think, share their journey, share their experience. And for me to have like a proud mama moment of just being so freaking proud of where you are. And I agree, I'm astonished. It's not something when I met you too that I thought, would it be capable? But I do think it's all for all of us, like a pinch me moment. And for me, What I love is seeing my favorite humans just flourish. And I feel like you guys give back to your team, you give back to your community. You're the good guys that I always want to win. And so I'm your biggest raving fan over here. Yes, have the life, have the experiences, do the things because you're just amazing humans that are contributing so much to this world. So I love that. Andrew, want to hear, and also Jeff, always you should just love Andrew so much and the fact that he brought you into dentistry. Welcome to the best profession ever. So kudos on that, Andrew. Jeff & Andrew (03:07) ⁓ huh. Yes. Thank you. Kiera Dent (03:12) What about for you? How's this journey been from where you started? You and Jeff, think it's like adorable. Jeff literally had no clue. I remember Jeff, you're like, I don't even know what these things. Jeff & Andrew (03:20) That's exactly what I was going to say. Like Andrew brought me and I was like, Hi, Kiera, I'm Jeff. And I don't know what I'm doing and I think I need your help. So I do have to throw in a kudos, a super thank you for guiding me and helping me get to this place. So yeah, you guys really helped kind of us. Kiera Dent (03:32) my gosh, I can't take the huge credit. Tiffany has been like the mass superstar for you guys. I've been able to be the proud mom on the side that's just freaking rooting for you all day long. But yes, I do remember definitely like, hi, your adorable glasses. Like you guys were just like dressed in white I think the night I met you and hi guys, super nice to meet you. So, Andrew, didn't mean to cut you off, go ahead. Jeff & Andrew (03:47) No, it's okay. I think that's it though, is you guys have really helped bridge that like my clinical side and love of dentistry and what I've always really enjoyed and still geek out over all the time. And you helped pull Jeff in and help him understand how he can kind of make this what he wanted to be. And I think that was something that kind of stuck with us ever since we first met y'all was that was on that weekend that we heard was Like if you're not happy in your office, there's one person to blame and it's you, right? So it's like, you have the power, you have the energy, the time to put into that and kind of make it what you want. And I guess that's where like, my word would be excited. Cause I do feel like the more that we lean in and kind of just trust our gut and do the things that we kind of really want to do, it becomes more fun. We kind of are instilling in our team what you've instilled in us to kind of take that leadership and work towards their goals and find their secret secrets that kind of stand out and really make them shine. And I think it's just, it's been really fulfilling and really exciting for us. Kiera Dent (04:57) That's amazing. And I think for both of you, I remember, I feel like there was a pivotal moment. I don't know what year it was, but I feel like there was a moment where you both just hunkered down of what do want our life to look like? What do we want our practice to be? What do we this to look like? And I feel like that was your, I call them lightning bolt moments. And I feel like it was just like, from there, I feel like that's where momentum just skyrocketed for you. And I don't know if you guys remember that from persons on the outside looking in. That's something that I really watched, but I'm just curious, like, did you feel that way? I'll start with Andrew first on this one. Did you feel that way? And if you did, like, okay, give me the thumbs up or like, yes, did you feel that way? That's question one. Let me be a better host here. Andrew, did you feel that that was something that changed for you guys in your practice? Jeff & Andrew (05:37) Yes, no, I definitely did. it is hard though for me to put pinpoint. I think I had to lean into trusting having Jeff here and having you guys help him. It just allowed me to really focus and be that dreamer that I am. I'm definitely the dreamer. He's the implementer. So I think you helped us to find roles and understand kind of where we really can help each other, you know, kind of reach those goals together. So. Yeah, I don't know the day or time, but I definitely felt like it was soon after meeting you guys and we just really felt like, okay, we can do this. it just, yeah, it's just magical. ⁓ Kiera Dent (06:14) It's truly magical. Thank you. Jeff, what about for you? Jeff & Andrew (06:18) Yeah, ⁓ I remember several moments and I think a lot of ⁓ it was like a light bulb. I remember it was, you know, the career change and all that. It was hard for me, you know, going from the scientific, you know, yeah, marine geology, marine geophysics, so like offshore to now dealing with people. Kiera Dent (06:22) you Is it geology? Am I like making that up? Jeff & Andrew (06:43) you patients, the public, it was crazy. I don't know what world I was in. But then I realized, you know, I was coming into the office. I am not enjoying coming into the office. I'm not enjoying this. And I started to see, you know, you know, at the time we called it staff or employees. And it was like that. Why are we doing what we're doing? Right. So you guys helped me realize that I'm the catalyst to change. We are. ⁓ And Kiera Dent (06:43) Yeah. It's real! Jeff & Andrew (07:11) We had past experience of being treated poorly or maybe unfairly or just feeling unfulfilled. And I started to realize we're in this industry that I'm not enjoying going to work, so nobody else is enjoying going to work. Who can change it? That's me. And then I started to notice that it felt like people in their roles and their careers within the office felt unfulfilled or underappreciated. And it's like a dental assistant isn't just a dental assistant. do the work that the dentist to allow the dentist to do his job. So without that, it's essential. So why don't we treat them like essential? So there was that moment that I walked into that door and I had you and Tiffany in my ear like, come in with a different energy, present differently. And I did, and I remember that moment. And I remember seeing people be like, whoa, this is a little different. Like, this could be a fun day. And I'm like, this is going to be a fun. career. And then that started, okay, how can I make people's roles more fulfilling? How can we create growth opportunity? How can we show them that there's opportunity in our practice and they have the power to grasp that, to have a fulfilling life? We go to work every day for eight hours or longer, you know, so if they're not fulfilled there, how are we serving the people that are serving us? Kiera Dent (08:38) That's incredible. And I think Jeff, this just highlights a lot of your leadership and like the growth I've seen in you. I remember Cranky Jeff, who did not enjoy going to the wards. Like, what is it? Yeah. Jeff & Andrew (08:45) They call him Gilbert, that's my middle name. So that's the ⁓ alias for Cranky Jeff. Kiera Dent (08:53) like it. Yeah, I do remember those days and you were not happy in this and I don't think Andrew was super happy. Andrew, you've always been like one of the most passionate dentists I've ever met, which is so fun to see you like light up when you talk about dentistry and do all the pieces. Jeff, on the other hand, I think you kind of like drug him into this like, Hey, I need you in here. Gilbert, it sounds like was the one that and then Jeff came to the scene realizing like the the space for you and Jeff, that's something I really love to highlight is I think so many leaders don't realize it's within them. Jeff & Andrew (09:01) you Yeah. Kiera Dent (09:21) because it doesn't look the way that they thought it was going to be. I just I'm excited to get into that. And I'm just curious. So you briefly mentioned you guys had this small practice in my mind. It's like purple or pink walls. Is that really true? Like inside? Jeff & Andrew (09:33) It started that way. It was like very dark green, brown, had purple. Yes, there was some magenta. Yeah. Yes. Very dark brown. Popcorn ceiling too. ⁓ Kiera Dent (09:39) knew it. It was like a dollhouse in my mind. Like it was like this like little like very short like ceilings. ⁓ Yes, not that great. I remember being like, Tiff, this is where they work. Like, okay, looks like this. Like, I mean, how could you not have fun, Jeff? There's like colors of every rainbow on all the walls for you. Like, okay. ⁓ but you guys went from this small building to now this massive practice. You've got all these team members. but something I, I'm probably going to like butcher your vision just a little bit. but I remember hearing it when you said it and it stuck with me again. I think I'll get like the gist of it, but I remember you saying like, we are going to be like, Jeff & Andrew (09:51) Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Kiera Dent (10:17) the dentist that the community chooses. Something like that. don't know how, I feel like I'm close to it, but I really loved that it was like, okay, we're gonna impact our community really largely. We want to be the place that our community chooses. And you did this whole expansion and I'm just curious, like, okay, what worked well? What didn't work well? What were like, let's just kind of go on like a fun road. I'm not gonna pick who like you guys can tag team over there, but I'm just curious of. You went from Gilbert Jeff, who's angry to this like weird house that you're in to now this like amazing business building community. Like the impact you guys have in your community is amazing. You have all these team members. Like what were the highlights? were the like walk me through? I need to know what did you do right? What did you wish you would have done? What advice do you have for other people looking to go down this journey? That's something I think you've done so well. but I think like it didn't come without a lot of learning and a lot of growth that I'd love you guys to just highlight. But also you did some things really freaking well too, so highlight that too. So ⁓ it's over to both of you, whomever wants to pick up the ball and run with it, it's yours. And tag team, because I'm sure both of you have very different perspectives on how that took place. Jeff & Andrew (11:23) Well, I can start because I think one thing for me that's been really amazing is like, really, you guys helped be our cheerleaders to say like, hey, if you stick with these things, you stick with these systems, it's really allowed us to kind of be ourselves. And in a way, that's what feels unreal. Like it feels really magical that like we get to be ourselves every day. We get to stick to like what our core values are. And it feels lucky that people appreciate that. And that shouldn't be like. rare in the world today, but it really does feel that way. So I feel really lucky to come to work. I feel lucky. get to be honest and authentic with the people around me. And I think ⁓ that's been like the biggest, coolest thing to me, like through all of this is I think having you all as cheerleaders, I was really like the biggest thing because you move into this building and increase in our team size is kind of like, that happening? And then I'm like, I'm going to go do the dentistry. You, you guys figure it out and you're like, yeah, we're to hire some people. Kiera Dent (12:17) Andrew's always pushing it off like, Jeff, I'm gonna go do this, like good luck on all the fires. No wonder you a good one. I'll put it. Jeff & Andrew (12:19) Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, can you stop being the dreamer for like a year? need a break. Stop dreaming. Come down for second. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. would say so, you know, kind of piggybacking off what we touched on earlier with elevating the team and that sort of thing. So when we did that, was kind of like positivity just keeps. Kiera Dent (12:26) He just can't stop. That's amazing. Jeff & Andrew (12:46) building, right? It's contagious. People want to be around it. People like it. They want to feel that way. So we did some work internally with the team and then we realized the team likes it. You know, this is real, you know? So then that immediately transfers to the patients and then to th…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana give guidance on how to successfully manage a practice through an office manager, including long-term business vision, powerful leadership, productive systems, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello Dental A Team listeners. Dana and I are back at it again today ⁓ with our podcasting spirits behind us and we are so excited to be here with you guys today. Gosh Dana, this is like the beginning of summer for us right now and no matter where you're at in the country, I think you've either been on summer for a few weeks or you're just barely getting there. feel like summer breaks are wild. Like Brody is in school two weeks past my niece. Like it's just been crazy but. The most fun part about this for both of us is that, I don't know if you guys know this or not, we get asked this question a lot, where is your headquarters? Like, where are you guys based out of? And Dana and I, Britt and I, gosh, I think most of the consultants at this point are in Arizona. Our HQ is actually Reno, Nevada, but we work from home. So, fun part about podcasting during the summer is that each of us have some sort of little or family member or someone At the door honestly like I had to text in our you know got a family chat go and that's like hey guys FYI and Dana's like let me put a sign on the door so Dana welcome I know I know being a mom is something that lights both of us up and I think one of the best I don't know most I don't know it was like fun parts of our relationship is being able to also laugh about what it's like to be a mom in Arizona in the sports and in the summer and I love that about the two of us and Dana tell me what has what's the start of summer looking like for you guys over there you've got your I have it easy I will never never discredit the amount of moming that you do over there so tell me how is mom life today Dana Dana (01:47) it's good. You know, I mean, it's wild, right? Like, there's a beauty of being able to work from home in that, like, I can very quickly throw chicken nuggets out the door and everybody is fed, right? Yes. But they like all summer long, there are no go zones, depending on what I am doing during the day. So like, if I am on calls, the front room is off limits, because it's directly beside my office. And so I can hear everything that you do. The Dental A Team (01:58) You just turn them down the whole way, get it. Yep. I love that. Dana (02:17) So I'm constantly like chunking my windows of time as to like where they can be in the house and I've had to put signs up because my neighbor kids also want to come get my kids and I'm like well we just can't knock on the door right now. The Dental A Team (02:31) Yeah, yeah, please just give us a moment. I love that. And honestly, though, it's kind of ⁓ like time blocking for practices, right? Because like, when can you do certain procedures? Like you don't want, you know, sedation in the front room with everybody walking by, you've got to have a very specific place for the sedation and a very specific, like no-go zone of do not pass this line once we've started. So it kind of kind of makes me think Dana (02:34) Yeah. question. The Dental A Team (02:59) of how synchronistic life is in general. I say this a lot, with clients that tell us work-life balance, right? We just talked to a client about this together recently, and I'm like, goodness gracious, like we just need a life-life balance, because if we take the systems that work in whatever aspect of life it's coming to you, and if you've got systems that are working at work, you can probably duplicate them at home and vice versa. If you have systems that are working at home, you can probably take that same thought and that same theory and apply it at work. And it works truly like tremendously because your brain's already wired to think that way. So when you can just stop trying to recreate the wheel and use what you know works, applying it in all areas of your life, things just are easy. I feel like that's how you create easy discipline. and how you create easy habits. So taking that like time blocking and room blocking and like, guys, from these hours, this is what you're gonna be doing. It's very similar. Billing, you know, all those things. Billing coordinators need to be like, don't bother me between these hours. It's just like, you've got your kids on the other side. I tell doctors constantly or office managers, leadership teams that people are people. We learn how we learn. And if we look at how we teach our children, we can duplicate that. Dana (03:59) Yeah. Thank you. The Dental A Team (04:18) in training systems as well. So Dana, I just spiraled my whole brain right there. I love it. Thank you. Thanks for being such an incredible mom. You are truly impressive. And for those of you who don't know, she's got a slew of children and animals and happenings at her home constantly. And the way that you manage all of that truly is impressive. I think you're an incredible person, Dana. Dana (04:41) Thank you, Tib. It is a whole lot of winging it. So I appreciate that. The Dental A Team (04:44) But winging it, I mean, I think we all wing it when it comes to parenting. I don't think anybody actually knows the step-by-step on what we're doing. So we're all winging it and we're all doing the best that we can, but you also make time for you. You make time for work. You make time for making sure that you're prioritizing what makes you happy and fulfilled because I think that is then teaching your children to do the same and it's super cool to watch. So having an almost grown kid. I live vicariously through you watching you parent your children and it's super fun from over here. So thanks. Thanks for continuing to have more for us. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. And I hope all of you are here for it too. know you guys, I know you guys get a kick out of my questions I give to Dana because Dana just intrigues me her life and really her choices intrigue me. She's always got something that I'm like, give me all the goods. What can I do now? Brody brought home a soda the other day or I guess the water. Dana (05:11) you Keep enjoying the video, Jeff. you The Dental A Team (05:38) that you had mentioned a couple weeks ago and I was like, oh my gosh, I know what that is because Dana told me. So you guys, she's here for the tips. If you want them, write in, ask them. Ask Dana, go on Instagram on Mondays now I think it is. Mondays or Fridays, it pops up all week for me. I find them, but she's on there too you guys. She's constantly just divvying out the tips. Find Dana, she's our tip master. And today I'm going to pick your brain some Dana. I want to talk about really effectively Dana (05:41) you The Dental A Team (06:06) running a practice through an office manager. And doctors, I don't want you to hear that and think, OK, I don't have to listen to this. Let me go get my manager. Nope, this is for all of you guys. This is for everyone. This is for dentists, owners, office managers, leadership, anyone aspiring to become an office manager, anyone aspiring to just give good tips to the team. Office management can come in varying sizes. And the label office manager, we found even just in hiring consultants, right? hiring when we were in practice that office manager really doesn't have a good definition for it in the industry. Anything can be an office manager. Most of the time, Dana, maybe you could speak to this as well, I have found that the office manager position, like quote unquote there, usually narrows into billing or dealing with upset patients and really doesn't broaden outside of that. Have you found that as well, Dana? Yeah. Dana (07:04) Mm Yeah. Yep. And I usually feel like anytime it is promoted within right, it's typically like, well, she's really good in those insurance. So yeah, yep, I agree with you. Sometimes, you know, yeah, there's some HR pieces added in there or like, you know, I, but I feel like it does encompass mostly keeping track of AR and the money, which is fine. The Dental A Team (07:11) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think that's one aspect of it, right? And being able to oversee everything. So there's different avatars for a billing representative, a billing person, and most other positions in the practice. That's gonna come with a different kind of avatar. So depending on the type of office manager that you want in your practice, that's gonna be making a decision there on what your avatar is going to look like. And for us, your office manager in your practice is really helping to run the practice. think Dental A Team considers an office manager like a secondary owner almost, right? You're looking at it as this is my practice. This is something that I'm fully invested in growing and I love it the same as I would if it were my own business. So that kind of investment really comes from a certain personality type and a certain leadership type. So that style of office manager is really what we're speaking to today. And there's nothing wrong with any type of office manager, any style, any avatar, like you do whatever your business needs. is what your avatar needs to look like. So today we're speaking towards that different kind of mindset of really growing the practice and being fully invested in it. The reason that we look at it that way is we really think that there's two different minds between a dentist and the office manager that needs to push the agenda of the practice. Our dentist is kind of our idea maker. They're the person who's just coming up with all of the plans. And I think we all can name a few of these. have one on our team. Ms. Kierdent is fantastic at this. She has the brains and the ideas behind most of the things that we do. And they're just shouting things out, right? They're like, my gosh, we could do this. We could do that. We could do this. And the team is like, stop changing things. Well, when you leave the practice management up to the dentist who's there to create ideas, and there's no one there to filter ideas through, and to project manage when things do make it past go and we're like, yes, we're gonna do this. When it's all on the doctor, you are gonna suffer those changes consistently because no one's there to say, hey, is this projecting us towards the goals we're working on or is this confusing us and keeping us from reaching those goals? So then we do have teams that are in constant chaos and constant change and they're like, Dana, I can't take another word from this doctor. It's like, well, that's. We gotta get the doctor out of that position. So that's the type of office manager we're speaking to today is a type of office manager that can say, yes, that's a fantastic idea. Let's see where it will take us. Is this going to push us towards those goals? I have to just brag a little on a client that I've worked with for a while now. Near and dear to my heart, like just two of my favorite humans in the whole world. And honestly, their whole practice is full of some of my favorite humans, but. not that they didn't start as my favorite humans, but they didn't start there, right? They didn't start where they are today, years later. They started in a very different position. And when they came to me, their goals were to grow production. were like, everybody's goal, right? I want to grow production, which actually means I want to grow collections, right? I want more income. We want more saved on the side. They wanted to reinvest in the building. They wanted to do a little bit of a build out, but they knew that they didn't have a lot of space, so they needed to work with what they had. And the dentist who was there, he really, really wanted to be a dentist. He loves having a business, but entrepreneurship just is a path for his dentistry. So he truly wants to be a dentist, and he wanted to do more surgery. He wanted to do more involved dentistry. So I was like, fantastic. Office manager, let's talk. Now this specific office manager had never been in dentistry before, at all. at all, very different career path. could tell you all about it on a whole, it would take a whole podcast because the career is just so cool. Very different career path, probably about as far from dentistry as you could possibly get. And he made the decision to support the doctor and said, I'm going to figure this out. And he was a great manager, right? He managed expectations, but really felt stressed out, second guessed his decision. He's like, don't think this was right for me. I don't think I'm cut out for this. And I was like, well, let's test the waters. Let's see. And we went down a journey together that has changed, I think, the course of both of our lives, probably. It's just been so cool to take this journey with them. But taking an office manager, Dana's done this too. I think all of us at some point have taken an office manager who's never worked in dentistry before and helped to create an amazing office manager. So all of you dentists who are like, well, they don't have experience. It's not always necessary if the other pieces are there and if the dentistry can be taught if there's space for it. So keep that in mind. I don't I'm not telling you go find someone with no experience. I'm not telling you you have to have experience. Like I'm telling you it's just got to fit for you. This specific manager and a couple others that I've worked with didn't have that experience. And what we worked on then was what it takes to be an office manager, which is actually leadership. And Dana, I know you work on this a lot with a lot of practices, starting with the leadership and really becoming the person that a team can look up to, starting with the culture and creating what you want your practice to look like. Because without that, Dana's freaking systems queen. But Dana, how difficult is it to create systems for a practice that we can't imagine what we want it to look like? as compared to being able to imagine what we want the business and the practice to look like and what the leadership should look like, then the system's followed. Which do you feel like in your experience, especially with an office manager who's never been trained in dentistry, which do you feel like is the path that you take the most frequently? Dana (13:06) Thank ⁓ hands down it's building the vision and figuring out what you want because anywhere in dentistry when it comes to the schedule when it comes to your leadership team when it comes to goals like you have to know what you're trying to achieve before you build the pieces to achieve it The Dental A Team (13:41) Yeah, exactly. And I think a lot of people start with the systems, right, Dana? And that's where it gets really confusing. And it's like, the systems are so tailored to an individual. Systems are so tailored to a specific practice, and that practice is goals. So when you start out just blanket systems, it could be anything. You could create anything, and it will or won't work. It's it's hard to tell. It's like throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping that it sticks, that it's done. you just, don't know. But when you have a vision and you can create something that supp…
Full show notes at the publisher
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
