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Kiera gives tips to get your practice to become one where team members have accountability and ownership. Set clear expectations and empower decision-making. Create measurable goals. Celebrate those who achieve. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.834) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you are just having an amazing day. I hope that things are going so well for you. I hope that things are just really, really, really incredible for you. I am so excited to be podcasting with you. I just truly, truly love and adore all of you. And I just think that the world of dentistry is such a great place for us to be a part of. And so today I just wanted to dive in. I wanted to give you guys some tips. I wanted to have some fun with you today. And a topic that comes up often is how do we honestly help our team have ownership and accountability? It's something I hear a lot on sales calls. It's things that I hear from clients of, Kiera, like I just want my team to want to own this company. I want them to be accountable. I want them to feel like they own part of this. And so I wanted to just dig into this because the reality is there are a lot of ways to do this. And I just want to ask you, what would it be like if every team member in your practice actually took ownership? Like, what would it look like? So today let's talk about how to make this happen. The reality is when we have accountability, there is better basic care. There's higher efficiency. There's like we get stronger team engagement. We're able to have better profitability in the business. We're able to have a happier, more cohesive team. All these things are super, super powerful for you. And the reality is that these are gonna be some effective strategies to help you create that culture of ownership in your practice. So. You guys know us, we are the Dental A team. We love what we do. We love being here with you. We love serving you. We love giving you tips and tricks to make your practice even better and easier. So that's what we're about. That's what we're here for. And we are so excited to have you here. The reality is we have coached hundreds of practices, thousands of team members and helped them figure out exactly how to give this ownership feel, how to give accountability feels, how to be able to do these things within your practice. And I'm happy to share those things with you. We do work in person and virtually with practices. We work across the nation and we do it in a fun and effective way. We're truly the experts in consulting and it's something that I just love and obsess of working with clients. Today, I just want to do this quick short actionable episode with you guys so that way you guys could go implement them. I like it to be tactical, practical, having a good time. What do you say? I'm here for it. I hope you're here for it. So step one to get this ownership and accountability is Kiera Dent (02:16.386) Number one, you wanna have clear expectations and empower decision making. So something that we did just recently was we changed up job descriptions and we were able to make it to where people knew exactly what their decision making power was. And I thought that that was something so just weird. I was like, do people really need to have this? And what I realized is they do, they need to know, they need to know what is it? Like, what can I make decisions on? And Britt and I talked a little bit about these six principles. of how to make decisions of like, number one is look into it, report it and I'll decide what to do. Number two is look into it, report alternatives with pros and cons and your recommendation. Number three is look into it, let me know what you intend to do, but don't do it unless I say yes. Number four is look into it, let me know what you intend to do and do it unless I say no. And five is take action, let me know what you did. Six is take action, no further contact required. And what's interesting is when you start to give team members kind of even these levels, which one do you want them to do? How can they make it? What are the areas that they have control over to make decisions and really empowering your team? That way it doesn't fall all back onto to leaders. This really can help them start to feel a sense of ownership because now they know, they know their department, they know the areas that they can actually influence and impact because otherwise it just becomes blaming, it becomes waiting, it becomes like, hey, we don't really know. And so what you've got to do is you've really got to make sure that there's clear defined roles. I notice the front office is often what I call sloppy soup. We don't know who's doing what, everybody's doing everything and no one is actually accountable. Nobody actually can do things. They have no idea what they're doing. And so let's get out of that. Let's figure out what are the clear roles, what are the responsibilities, and what is the KPI or key performance indicator? What is the number that that role is going to actually impact and have an effect over? That's really what we wanna look into. We wanna dive into that. That's gonna help them out. Then within that, we help them also know what is your decision making authority and also who do you report to within that. What this now does is we've just set the rules of the game. Your team now knows who do I talk to? What can I make decisions over? What my number is? What my job is? There's a lot less confusion. And I know this sounds like so cliche and like, but Kara, that's really it. A lot of times the ownership just comes from a lack of clarity. It comes from a lack of, don't even know what I need to do. This is where we're going to be able to get. Kiera Dent (04:36.27) people super empowered, super on top of it, super on their A game and helping them to really be able to make decisions. A lot of times people don't have ownership, not because they don't care, because they don't want to, but because they honest to goodness just don't know, like they feel they can't take the ownership, they feel they can't make the decisions. So I have really loved those six areas of how can I get feedback? So when Brit has a project or we're working on something new, so let's say we're rolling out a new project or we're hiring a new team member. I try hard to tell Britt like, okay, this is a number four. So look into it, let me know what you intend to do and do it unless I say no. And when you're working with new team members and new leaders, sometimes they are gonna be at this like look into it, report and I'll figure out what to do. But that doesn't give a lot of ownership. That gives a lot of dictation and dictatorship rather than ownership. And so if you really, really want to have your practice flourish, help them know what the clear expectations are, what their role is, and then what their decision-making authority is. There's a practice that I watched do this really, really, really successfully. Well, and what's interesting is the owner doctor picks, like they are, they're growing, they have multiple practices, multiple locations. And the owner doctor picks and says like, this is where we're going to actually have the practice be after that, the team members get to make all the rest of the decisions and it's leadership and then the office managers. And I think what's really incredible about that of the rules of the game have been laid out and then they're allowed to make those decisions. How much ownership do think this practice has? It's insane. and they fall through and they're accountable because they feel that they actually can contribute. They feel like they can own this. And I think that's one of the biggest pieces to helping your teams have that. So that's number one. So call to action on that is like, your key responsibilities, figure out the KPIs, get clear job descriptions, and then help them know what the decision-making power is. How can they do this? And even start using those six steps. They really, really, really do help. It's been incredible to watch it work out. Step two is going to be making sure that they have measurable goals and accountability system. What we're gonna do is we've got job descriptions, it's defined, they know what their number is, but now like what are the goals? What are we even reaching for? And then how do we follow up on this? So Tiff and I were talking about this with a client and it's interesting because when you actually have strong accountability with your practice, team members flourish. But if we don't have accountability, we don't follow up if something's off track. We don't look into it and ask them like, hey, I noticed this, what is your plan to get this back on track? This is going to really struggle because A, our numbers are going to go down. Kiera Dent (07:02.678) And B, our accountability is really lacking. And it's wild because when you start to track your KPIs and we track them consistently, and then when they're off track, we figure out why and we get them back on track. Like it's this whole tracking progress and having follow through to make sure things are actually moving forward. Otherwise we just sit there. Otherwise team members are just like, well, we track numbers for the sake of tracking numbers, but what does it really matter? Or we don't even track numbers. You're looking for trends and we want to teach our team to look at these numbers, their KPIs, the numbers that they have. We want to teach them to use these numbers to be able to be levers. and I talk about this often of how numbers are levers in a business. And once you know what your numbers are, you can actually then know, I raise our production? Do we need to increase our diagnosis? Do we need to increase our case acceptance? Do we need to decrease our costs? Do we need to make more outbound calls? Like what really needs to happen? And we utilize all those numbers to figure out exactly what we're doing with it. So it really becomes something of like, tracking on a scorecard and all of our practices track it. We have team members tracking this. And then we teach leaders how to follow through with accountability. And accountability is really just being consistent in a lot of ways and empowering them like, hey, this number's off track. What's your game plan? What's your plan for it? And this way we can constantly review it. So we recommend tracking your numbers weekly and then reviewing them in depth monthly is what we do with a lot of our offices to make sure that our numbers are moving forward, that things are tracking in a really good way. This is what it's going to be. And what's crazy is People who start using KPI trackers, people who start tracking their numbers with their team is going to be an area where they actually like truly they start hitting numbers that they've never hit and they're like, wow, just as tracking numbers, instantly we started to become more profitable. Instantly we start to have more production on the schedule. Why? Because we're focused on it. And what you focus on is what you're going to achieve. So if we're focusing on these numbers, you better believe they're going to start to increase. We then start to change systems and implement other pieces based on what the numbers are telling us. Otherwise, we're not gonna change things. So this is where it's super powerful and super fun because now you've got numbers. You've got all these different pieces that are going to impact it and influence it that are really truly going to help you and your team thrive. So really building up a simple tracking system to track those KPIs weekly and monthly is going to exponentially help you. And then number three, when I think about ownership, like... Kiera Dent (09:23.022) I don't know how to say this in a polite way, so I'll just say it. I also think for owners realizing that your team, you are still the owner and team members might not take as much ownership and that's not to say there's anything wrong. So I think also being like realistic with what's going on with it, but then also really truly highlighting those who take ownership. So within our company, we have our team read extreme ownership. We have pens, I'm not even joking. I have it right here, I saw it. Literally, extreme ownership. have pens, there we go, sorry, extreme ownership. And we share it with our team and we remind them that we want them to have extreme ownership. I want them to take ownership of their position. I want our leaders to take ownership of their departments within the realms. Remember, we put the bumper lanes there of what are the realms and what can they do? And then I want them to truly take ownership of their practice. I want to constantly highlight team members that are taking ownership. So we put that in our Friday five shout outs. put that in our core value shout outs. I put that in highlights in the team chat of celebrating and encouraging when people are taking ownership. And then if someone's not having that honest conversation with them of, this is what I'm expecting. What's going on? What are the hurdles? What are the stumbling blocks and how can we overcome those together? That way we can truly own our business. And I think when I realized like bottom line is a lot of team members may never care about the business as much as I do. And that's okay. I really hope you heard that. That's okay. But there will also be a lot of team members who do care about the business like you do. They care about it maybe even more than you do and that's really beautiful. And so hold on to those ones who are truly incredible and they own all their positions and then also be okay when people aren't necessarily that way. They don't necessarily care about it as much as you do. That's also okay. But we wanna create a culture of ownership. We wanna create a culture of accountability and follow through. We wanna create a culture. where we're following through on numbers and KPIs. And that's something that we're super, super, super paramount about doing. This is going to help you really have it. And it's wild, because when I watch offices highlight people and shout people out and I watch it within our team and I watch it within other teams, people start to follow through on that. We had an ownership award all last year and it was really fun to see who was winning ownership and who was the person who was taking this on and who was getting those MVP awards. And what's wild is you will see an increase for Rao. Kiera Dent (11:46.446) you'll see an increase in culture and you'll see an increase in ownership being taken in your practice. So whatever you need to do to create a culture and recognition of that, I would recommend highly implementing that. So this was a quick down and dirty episode with you of these quick actionable items for you of number one, creating clear expectations and job descriptions, making sure that we really are super crystal clear and empower that decision-making ability. Then after that, we wanna make sure we've got tracking our KPIs with accountability and follow through. So we don't just track for tracking, we track with actual follow through updates, making sure we're getting the results that we're looking for. And la…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera is joined by Dr. Christy Moore of Moore Smiles to talk about how Dr. Moore has maintained her passion for dentistry over the decades, including providing solid leadership for your team, keeping an amazing culture, and branching out to services like Botox. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I have such a special guest. I love this woman so much. She has been a client of ours. She's been a dear friend of mine. This woman just makes you want to be a better human. And she's an incredible dentist, has some really fun ideas. I want her to come on and just share like a super unique way she runs her practice and just let you guys know this woman who I've just been so lucky to know for so long. Welcome to the show, Christy Moore. How are you today, Christy? Dr.Christy Moore (00:27) I'm doing great, Kara. Thank you so much for that introduction. How about yourself? Kiera Dent (00:30) Yeah, I'm doing really, really well. It's been a podcast full day, but it's been fun. You're my last podcast of the day. So always an exciting thing. But Christy, you're such an incredible human. I feel like the world needs more Christy's. So I feel like you should tell them a little bit about who you are, where you're practicing, a little bit about your journey to practice ownership. And then like I said, she's doing something so special that so many offices are trying to do that can't do it successfully and Christy, you've done it. So. Dr.Christy Moore (00:45) Thank you. Kiera Dent (00:57) Just kind of tell everybody, like, how did you get into dentistry? What's kind of your path to where we are today? Dr.Christy Moore (01:03) Yeah, so I actually started in dentistry all the way back in 1995, which was quite a few years ago. I started out as a dental assistant and then went to high-teen school, work, yeah. Kiera Dent (01:13) That's why I like you. I had no clue you were a dentalist. This is why we connect, Christy, all right? It says so much about you now. I get it, I understand. Dr.Christy Moore (01:18) Yeah. So I did, I did hygiene for about 10 years and then I went to dental school. I got out of dental school in 2012 and knew that I wanted to own my own practice and came out of the gate purchasing a practice from a previous Dr. Moore, no relation. We still kind of get people wanting to know like if that's my dad or my uncle, there's no relation whatsoever. But it came out in 2012, bought my own practice and started, started right out of the gate being an owner at that point. Kiera Dent (01:52) That's incredible. And do you regret it? Because so many students straight out of school are like, ah, like, I don't think I'm ready. most of them are like, no, just buy. Are you so glad you bought right from the get go? Or do wish you would have like done an associate ship if you could do it all over again? Dr.Christy Moore (02:06) I'm glad that I bought straight out of the gate. I kind of had an idea of like how I wanted to run the practice. I think being in dentistry for a few years before I even went to dental school, I knew what I liked, I knew what I didn't like. So being able to just start out and then own my own practice and then kind of build it from there was kind of nice. You know, I didn't go in and change things immediately that the previous owner had been there for 40 years And so like I kind of slowly started implementing things and changing things like he didn't even have Computers so, you know you come out there's they were still scheduling on the little piece of you know The book we had to like erase it and all that stuff So ⁓ it we didn't have internet in the building, you know, and I come from like having internet. Yes. Yes 2012 Kiera Dent (02:50) 2012? Dr.Christy Moore (02:53) So it was an event to get things up to par. But I'm so glad that I did it that way because the team that I lost team members, of course, but then the team members that stuck it out with me, like I still have one to this day. And she's one of my ride or dies and just levered her dead. Kiera Dent (03:04) course. That's amazing. I think that that's something like, I can't imagine. I mean, this is a true definition of a sleeping practice, Christy. Like I tell everybody, like, you want to buy a sleeping practice, like paper charts. I've never had anybody with no internet. And when I first started assisting, so let's think it would have been in 2003. So that's when I first heard we had a paper book and they like erased it, but that was 2003. I mean, you were multi-years post that and still Dr.Christy Moore (03:35) Mm-hmm. yeah. Kiera Dent (03:41) Yeah, and I remember like erasing, like Terry was her name up front, it was my first office. They had the like suction, we're gonna spit in it. I thought it was disgusting, but I'm like, sweet, now don't have to worry about the UV light. I have no way to suction as an assistant, so that was kind of handy for me, but also disgusting. But I remember like, erase it out. I'm like, this seems so archaic, but YOLO. So here we go. Wow, okay. So then you bought the practice in 2012, no nothing. Dr.Christy Moore (04:00) Yes. Yes. Kiera Dent (04:09) kind of walk me through your practice journey. Like where did you go? Like how many team members? What was kind of the, I mean, you basically had like nothing but up from where you started. So that was a positive, like internet, paper charts. So kind of walk me through, you started there, where are you now today? What does your practice kind of look like? And then I'm gonna ask another question. I just wanna like get to that. Then I have. Dr.Christy Moore (04:21) Yes, yes. Yeah, so when I started out, I bought the practice and we had two hygienists, an assistant and a lady up front. And when I came in and told them that we were gonna go, yeah. Kiera Dent (04:40) I wanted to die. You're like, I'm gonna take away your paper and pencil and she's like, what? ⁓ Dr.Christy Moore (04:45) yeah, she quit immediately. Like I told her we were going to get the computers and she turned in her notice. So yeah, that was immediate. So that was like the first change I had to overcome. So that was kind of interesting. ⁓ But yeah, so every, it was always funny because every time we had a change, things just got better. Things got better each time, you know, and like even like one of the hygienists that I had. Kiera Dent (04:51) believe it. Yeah. Dr.Christy Moore (05:09) I told them we were gonna get digital x-rays, know, because we still had the old school x-rays for a while. When we went and got the digital x-rays, she prayed that Jesus would come back because she didn't want to have to do the training. I was like, seriously? Like you prayed that so that we didn't have to do the training? But yeah, there's people, people don't really like change, I found out. So. Kiera Dent (05:19) What? you No, not at all. Wow. I used to pray, I remember telling a dentist, I had a really strict dentist on our x-rays and I remember saying like, I hope I can make it into heaven if I can't pass x-rays off with you. Like I had a lot of sass as an assistant and that was what I was praying for Jesus for, but not to not have to learn it. Cause honestly, man, cause in dental school, like assisting school, I learned on film, like, which is so... Dr.Christy Moore (05:42) haha Yeah. Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (05:54) embarrassing because I don't feel like I'm really that old but like truly I did. I remember taking the x-rays on Dexter and then when I went to a practice and it had digital I'm like hallelujah you can actually see where your misplacement of your x-ray machine is. I'm like this is so much faster like rather than waiting for it to come through then you're like oh shoot we cone cut and I had no clue like I can't imagine why anybody would be stressed to learn that because I'm like it was so much easier than film. So much easier. Dr.Christy Moore (06:01) yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes, absolutely. But that was the thing, like I think that you were a better, you know, x-ray taker before because you did not want to have to wait, you know, five minutes and then retake it and made another one. So you're like, okay, I want to make sure that I know how to do this and do this efficiently so that I don't have to take it again. Kiera Dent (06:39) mean, maybe that is why, because I was the one who actually trained a lot of the Midwestern students on radiology. They were having the doctors teach it and I was like, listen, guys, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I know you're not good at this and I'm actually really good at this. So why don't I teach these doctors how to like crush their FMX rather than you like, I'm like, you cone cut left and right guys. Like again, nothing personal. I'm just really good at this. So, but yeah, maybe that's why, cause I did learn on film originally and then went to. Dr.Christy Moore (06:59) Yes. Kiera Dent (07:06) by digital, but okay. So you go through this, you have an assistant praying for Jesus to come such an afternoon. Just go, okay. Now, now where are you at, Christy? Where's, where's life on the practice for you? Dr.Christy Moore (07:12) Yes, yes. So now we ⁓ practice in Sweetwater, Tennessee. So it's a small rural town. I have no idea how many people are there, but it's not a whole lot. But it's funny because now we have three doctors. I think we have four assistants. We have four hygienists, a treatment coordinator, an office manager, and an insurance coordinator, and two girls up front. Kiera Dent (07:43) So, and she has internet and likes computers. So we're good on that. That's incredible. You went from two to four and are you working on a second location? I feel like I've heard from Tiffany, like there's a mix with your friend, but like, is there a second location, just a solo location? What's kind of your plan with Dr.Christy Moore (07:47) Yes. Yes. It's a solo location, but I do have a friend that I went to dental school with and she actually is working in an office that's really just kind of down the street from me. And so we've been, I've been helping her quite a bit with that because she didn't really want to like, you know, run the practice or anything like that. And so I was like, well, I'll help you all that I can. So that's what we're kind of doing there, but it's an endo practice and I do not want to do endo at all. Kiera Dent (08:26) You're like, you will say good friends, you do your thing, I'll do my thing. And yeah. Exactly. And I know Tip just loves you. She loves coming to you. I know something that you have highlighted for me, like just in my time knowing you is one, you're always so positive and you're so fun. You make me laugh. But I think about your Christmas parties, like your holiday parties with your team. It's like sleepover at Christy's house, which. Dr.Christy Moore (08:30) Yeah, I'll refer all my endopations to you. Kiera Dent (08:48) Most doctors would never do that. And I just love you like, yeah, they love it. They come over, we do party, we have a slumber party, which I just think says a lot about you. So I'm curious, Christy, like something I think you do really well. Don't worry, there is a teaser. I want you guys to hear something she does really special, but I think you also do incredible for culture. What would you say to like owner doctors going from where you were to where you are today, having the culture that you built? What are some of the tips that you think you've done specifically as the owner and with your team? to have this amazing culture that you run, Christy. Like you just have a fun culture that's amazing. Dr.Christy Moore (09:20) ⁓ I think that my biggest thing is that I just try to treat people and treat my team the way I would want to be treated. You know, I was a team member for so long that that's all that I really knew. And sometimes I think it kind of came back and bit me a little bit just because I did allow things to go on a little bit longer in the beginning. But ⁓ I think treating people the way that I wanted to be treated has just been my motto for everything. The same way it was like dental stuff. Like I do for people in their mouth what I would want done. in my mouth, you know? So I think if you kind of live by those rules, then how can you go wrong? Kiera Dent (09:57) No, I agree with you. And Christy, this is just like your Southern hospitality. I'm always like, I want to go to Sweetwater and just have you be my dentist and work for you. Like just an amazing place that you do. I think kudos to you for doing that. I have a question. If you were to go back to 2012, you're buying this practice, what would be like the one, two or three, I'll allow it to three, things that you would tell yourself to get into place or things to know? Because I think so many owners are maybe where you were in 2012. Again, I have Wi-Fi. probably have at least a computer in the practice. But you know, you never know. I'm always shocked at what I, I walked into this office, he's elite, you know him, he's in our group. And I walked into his practice, I've been coaching for a while, like this man is doing really, really well in his practice. And I walked in and I was like, you have paper charts? Like you didn't bother to tell me for a year that this was maybe an issue? And he was like, no, it's fine. And I'm like, it is not fine. Like, what are you doing? Dr.Christy Moore (10:45) you It is not fine. Kiera Dent (10:51) like let's get you updated real quick. Kudos to him. I don't think usually doctors are that open to changing and he did so like mad kudos to him. I was like, Christy, I'll tell you off podcast air who this was and you will be shocked to like, wait, what? He's so like up to date on things. And I was like, okay, here we are. But if you could tell yourself back in 2012, what are like one, two or three things that you feel would just be good tips of advice for someone buying a practice or taking over a team or the growth you've had in the last 13 years? to get to the level that you are, because you're still happy, you still love dentistry, you still enjoy it, like there's still sparkle in your eye, don't, like every time you come to our calls, I don't feel like Christy's like dead on the ground, like she hates her life. Like I know you have moments of that, but I still think you're very happy. So what would be some things you would tell yourself going back into that back in 2012? Dr.Christy Moore (11:39) I think one of the biggest things, this is like no plug for the DLAA team or anything like that, but ⁓ I did not get a coach until about three years out of practice. ⁓ So I had practiced three years, I really wasn't growing, I really wasn't like going backwards, but I really wasn't growing or anything like that. And so at that point, that's when I actually brought on a coach. And I didn't bring on a coach because I was seeking one out. I had one just kind of show up at the office. And then it's like, he's... He's here, you know, like I can't like say, she's busy because, you know, he's sitting out in the reception room, like waiting for me. And so like, but it was one of the best things that I did. It was hard just because, you know,…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera and Dana perform a practice autopsy mashup. In this episode, they specifically take a look at multi-location practices, and how to make all of them profitable instead of just one or two. Topics discussed include overhead, associates, marketing, and 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 today is such a special day. I have the one and only Dynamite Dana. I think that that's what we're sticking with. I think it's better than the other nickname that we came up with. But Dana, if you guys know her, you love her. She's been in a consultant with us for years. Dana, welcome to the show today. How are you? Dana (00:17) Yeah, good morning. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. I don't get much like podcast time with you. It's usually with him. So it's a fun morning for me. Kiera Dent (00:26) I know Dana's a rock star. ⁓ I, yes, I can sell a little podcast and yes, that's fun to do, but it's more fun to have someone on here. So I sent Dana a message and I had it like in the afternoon. And then I was like, Ooh, my schedule changed and moved it to like first thing in the morning. So Dana, thanks for being easy to accommodate. but I think that that's you. You're just always there, always willing to help and offices love you for that. So Dana (00:43) Yeah. Kiera Dent (00:51) We have a fun topic, you guys. I love a good office autopsy. So Dana and are gonna kind of mash a couple practices together and dig into some practice profitability trends that we're seeing on an office autopsy. You ready for that today, Dana? Because I love these. Anything more than a good profitability story and how to get there, that's what it's about. And I think that that's what so many practices struggle with. They don't understand how to get profitable. They know that it's there. They know that it can be an illusion. Dana (01:03) Yeah, this is exciting. Kiera Dent (01:18) They know that it can be a reality for some. so Dana, I feel like some of the practices we've been dealing with lately, it's like actually making it turn into a reality rather than just as hope and a wish. So take it away. I know you've been working on this. I've been working on this. Let's have some fun today. Dana (01:31) Yeah, it's been really fun the past couple weeks. I've been like able to just do a lot of numbers crunching a lot of future projections a lot of like hey what effort is it gonna take to like get things where we want them to be and it's really fun to give owners like the possibilities of What they currently have or where they want to be and so it's just been really really interesting the last couple weeks getting to do that and getting Kiera Dent (01:43) you Dana (02:02) offices to see like where they want to put their energy where they may need to put their energy and so it's just been numbers aren't you know I'm learning to love numbers more and more ⁓ Kiera Dent (02:14) Yes, did you hear that? Dana, did you start out that way? Let's just let's just help listeners feel like is this a normal thing? Dana (02:22) No, I mean, I am a systems girl through and through. And so, you know, I know how important the numbers are. And of course, like those are pieces I look at. But really, really being able to manipulate the numbers, to be able to project things, that is something that I've really had to dig into more and more. And it's been fun for sure. Kiera Dent (02:45) Yeah, and I love the reason I highlight that is because for myself for Dana numbers were not something natural for some people it is just wired into you but I think for 90 % of human beings out there they would feel very similar to how you and I feel and so I just want to highlight that it's totally normal not to understand numbers but it is also normal to figure out how to use numbers and when you do it actually feels like like life becomes so much easier it's like my gosh, there was an HOV lane this whole time. And I had no clue that there was like a fast pass, fast lane over there that if I would just learn my numbers and dig into it, I would honestly be able to do things a lot better. And so I think like, that's what makes me so excited Dana is this is where we also help practices. Like let's use the numbers to manipulate and actually do less work, more profitability and more ease. So kudos to you for digging in kudos for you, like admitting that systems are your gem, which I think it's easy, right? But to me, I'm like, systems are only as valuable and only as important as the numbers are reflecting. Like, yes, we should put them in, but I'm like, if we're just putting systems in place, but we're not moving the dial, what does it matter? ⁓ You're going to be struggling. You're going to have financial stress. You're going to be like not happy. Use the numbers to figure out which system's broken and then go to work there. It becomes so much easier and less effort for sure. Dana (04:02) Yeah, yeah, it's pretty magical to see. So yeah. Kiera Dent (04:05) Right. All right. So we have a couple of practices. We've got some that are multi locations. We've got some that are solo locations. And I think we should dig into some of these multi locations because multi locations I feel are like interesting families. And what I usually notice in multi locations, ⁓ oftentimes, depending upon the practice, these offices actually like one or two or three are super profitable. And then the other two are like sucking the practices dry. And it's so interesting because we think like, let's get so many, which if your plan is like a DSO rollup or it's legacy, or you want to just expand your reach and you want to help more people, all those things are great and fine. but I think like figuring out how do I make my other locations profitable? Or if you're in a single location, I think a lot of these tactics will apply to you. So let's kind of dig into these multi-location places, Dana. ⁓ cause I think it's funny, like we've seen some offices where it's not funny. It's unfortunate that like two are doing so good. And so they expand and they open up more. And then these other two are not doing so well. they're like two are profitable and two are not. So then we're not profitable all the way around and we're working our guts out. So let's talk about like, how do you fix that problem? And I think for solo practices, if you're in this boat, these things can apply to you too, if you're not as profitable, because I've also seen in solo practices where they've maybe added like a Medi Spa to it and maybe, and that's two technically different businesses under one roof. If the spa is not doing well, like I just talked to someone the other day, their spa is sucking them dry, but the dental practice is doing well, but they think the practice needs help when it's like, no, no, no, the practice is fine. The Medi spa is the problem. Or if practices have multi locations, but it's all under one umbrella, they have no clue which practice is actually the problem practice. And I think that that's something we also see is they don't actually separate them out. So they're like, we don't even know which practice. So let's dive into it, Dana. You've been working with a couple like this. Let's kind of dig into some of your, your tips and tricks. Dana (05:56) Yeah, and that's honestly exactly what we did in the beginning is, hey, let's separate and let's look at numbers individually for each practice so we can see. Kiera Dent (05:57) you Dana (06:06) as a whole, are we doing? Yes. But where are we profitable and where aren't we so that we know, like you said, how we can hone in and target our efforts on the ones that need a little bit more of a boost or show a little bit more of opportunity. And so once we figured that out, then it really is looking at fixed costs for individual practices. It's looking at overhead expenses and then it is really projecting out what does it take to get it to where we want to be. So what do we actually need? And in this instance, it was really cool to be able to even dive a little bit deeper as far as, okay, well, if we take the doctor, if we take the provider away from the profit that's like... Kiera Dent (06:51) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ Dana (06:51) the practice is profitable and he's working in one of the other practices like what does that also cost the practice that is booming and so it's it was really fun to just map that out have them see that also too every time he's pulled to one of these other practices there is a cost to the larger location. And so just getting them to see that it just helps him make a better decision as far as how much time that he is spending there versus associates and then getting the associates to help grow external practices. And it just, think gave him just a clearer picture. ⁓ And then we also looked at, okay, well, you know, considering investing in some marketing for these. So what does it take for how many new patients do we really need to get to that number? And then we kind of mapped it out and okay, well, what does the marketing spend look like for one year, for two years, for three years to get there so then they had a timeline to ⁓ just be able to make decisions on. Kiera Dent (07:57) Mm hmm. Yeah. No, Dana, you brought up so many good points. And I think like, let's drill down into this a little bit, because you like, these are the things where numbers become so fun, because now it's just a plus b equals c. But if we do a plus b plus c, that's going to equal d. If we take a minus b, add c, what does that equal? ⁓ And so that's really where it's like looking at this. And so I think for a lot of providers, especially our powerhouse providers that started the practice made these profits. practices and then open multiples, there can be this thought process of, well, I have to be in the practice all the time. Otherwise, the practice doesn't make money. And I think that is one way to live. But let's also like, choose our own adventure books. Like, let's go back in time, like we could have at the end of that chapter, it says, okay, option one is you're going to actually continue working like this, and you are going to be the provider in four locations. Or we can have you be where we powerhouse you. in one or two or maybe all four, but it's a very sustainable schedule for you. And we work to build up the associates and the hygiene department and we make it to where all of them are flourishing with or without you. And to me, I like to choose option B, you can choose option A if you want, but that's like a sure shot to burnout. And I think so many multi-practice owners actually do this, like I'm gonna go to all the practices because I'm the strong producer, I'm the strong provider, I need to get these things going and you can. but it's like for how long and is there another path? So drilling it down, Dana, I think let's talk about like, how can they do this other path with ease? Like what are some of the tactical things that we've seen with practices you're working with, with other practices that we've worked with in the past? Like what are some of these like tactical pieces? how can we, because I think that illusion is so strong that I have to be the producer, I have to be the one who hits the numbers. What else can we do and how long is that timeline realistically? Dana (09:47) Yeah, I think the first and foremost is if you aren't going to be the provider in in the other practices It's really building strong associates really making sure that you're finding the right fit for Whether it's the main office whether it's one of the extension offices whatever it is that that associate really is the right fit and That you are calibrating really well and you are bringing in strong associates who want to grow these practices with you and alongside you because I get you can't be in every practice you can but like you said it sure is a way to be exhausted and burnt out and start to just not love owning all of these practices. Kiera Dent (10:28) Mm-hmm. And like, let's so as you said that it makes me think about like when you buy a practice I remember I was working with this this potential client We were looking at the metrics of this practice and they realized that like 70 % of the production of this practice was actually being done By procedures that this dentist didn't do so was like, well good luck buying that practice You only can do 30 % of this production. So yes, they may have produced like 1.5 or 1.9 like whatever it is but slash 70 % of that because you won't be able to produce that unless you bring an associate in. And so I think when you talked about like, are the monthly costs of this practice? What does it actually take us to run? Let's do our second location. Well, you're so used to your practice right now because you're probably doing these expanded procedures. You're probably doing these higher ones. And most of the time, what I see is doctors are like, well, I'm just going to hire someone who can do bread and butter dentistry as my associate. So then I can just do these big surgeries. Well, if that's the case, we need to figure out. Practice number two or practice number three, A, what are the actual full costs of that practice and what do we need to produce? B, can we produce that on bread and butter or do we need to bring in your specialty? If we need to bring your specialty in or if we're going to pull you out of current option A, like where you currently are with an associate, how much of the dentistry is actually being done by your specialty services? And do you need to hire an associate that can do some of those specialty services as well? This is where the numbers become so paramount because it's like, we produced 1.5 or we produce two or we produce three. Now we're going to open our next location. But like Dana said, like bringing on an associate, it's not just a good fit. It's also making sure that they have the procedure makeup mix that can offset your production loss when you're gone. Or you get very strategic of, okay, when I am in practice A, I'm only doing these high end ones. So I'm producing this amount. They're, they're funneling these exams to me. You also have to be careful because if your associate doesn't do these high end procedures, they're not going to look for in exams. So that's when you calibrate your associates, you calibrate your hygiene team to look for it. And when you get to multi offices, this is where Zoom and virtual meetings become paramount because you get all associates together and we all start looking for it. So we actually become referring partners to one another within the practices. And we also get our hygiene team and or AI to make sure that all the, of us are diagnosing the same level. So these are the things where I'm like, this actually can make your multi-practice ownership way easier if you get these good foundations in place. And like you said, Dana, you find an associate who's like just as good, if not better, if you need them to be, but looking at the numbers because just because your practice is producing 2 million, 2.5, 3 million, wherever you are before you open your second location, maybe it…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Britt dive into the nitty-gritty details of turning all that CE energy you have into an implementable system in your practice. They give insight on establishing a point person, training the team, identifying patients, 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. Thank you for being back here with me and I have Miss Brittany Stone. What is it? No BS Brit. Miss BS Brit. I don't remember what Carrie calls you. This is one of them, right? One of them. But also soon to be Grand Canyon champion. If you didn't listen to our case acceptance one, go listen and hopefully soon we will have some results from Brit killing it. Yeah, you will be a survivor. Britt (00:10) What fun of them! Winner survivor. One of the two. At least one. The Dental A Team (00:29) but then I wanna know how much you sleep on Saturday when you're done. So that'll be the big question. Exactly, yeah, how long does it take for you to get back on the bike once you're done? But thank you for being here with us today, Britt. I think we've gotten, I love podcasting with you, your hygiene brain, like Dana's hygiene brain, you guys just kind of come at it from a different angle. I know the rest of us all have dental assisting backgrounds and. Britt (00:32) Yeah, like that. I if I can reach my legs or not. The Dental A Team (00:55) you know, hygiene assisting, but that hygienist brain just shares a different section. ⁓ And I think you do really well relating with the doctors and kind of that support team space like we spoke to on the case acceptance one. So I'm excited for today, Brett. Thank you for being here. ⁓ You've got the Grand Canyon, but like, gosh, what else is what else is new and exciting? You just went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants not too long ago. So that's true. Britt (01:21) conferences, I went to PNDC, that was a good time. Luckily it was gorgeous weather there. mean, podcasting today is special. I wear my tooth earrings for us today since we're podcasting, know, just lots of fun things. The Dental A Team (01:35) Getting a little fancy. I like it. And you guys, so you just went to that conference, you went to the Arizona Dental Convention that was in March, right? I think that one's always March for like the last, I don't know, 50 years. It's always been in March. ⁓ And then you just went to the other one and then you're heading out again in a couple weeks to dentist advisors. Yeah. Britt (01:55) Yeah, Dentist Money Summit is by Dentist Advisors, which will be in gorgeous Park City, Utah. So, you know, it's a rough life over here. The Dental A Team (02:01) Yeah, I know, right? And actually it's perfect timing because they, I think we've all like our, our seasons were a little bit off this year. So we are barely getting hot, which normally we're at like 110 already, um, which has been fantastic in Arizona, but that meant that Nevada and, um, Salt Lake area, both Reno and Salt Lake area have had snow longer. So I think you're going to hit Salt Lake for Dentist Money Summit right as the like peak. summer season starts. So you're gonna get some beautiful weather and I'm a little jealous. I will be in California or something like that. But anyways, somewhere. Britt (02:36) somewhere else. It'll be great. And my second, my nephew, second of my nieces and nephews graduate. So I won't go to graduation, but I'll get to go. I'm like, I'll be coming like a couple weeks later to see you. So I'll go get to see them while I'm up there too. The Dental A Team (02:50) Okay. Okay, good, good. I was like, wait a second, how do we get you there? That's good. Britt (02:55) I'm not fighting the crowd up there for graduation, which he's like, mom, everybody graduates. I'm like, no, it's still a big deal. We'll just celebrate when I come see you on my own instead of along with everybody else. The Dental A Team (03:06) gosh, that's funny. I was just talking over the weekend, we had a graduation party that we had to drop in on yesterday. So was like, gosh, I'm gonna have to, which is, I don't like thinking about it, but I have to start thinking about it that Brody's in a year. So was like, Aaron's like, is he gonna want a party? And he, said, no, he's gonna be the kid that's like, everybody graduates. It's fine. Like it's no big deal. But it is a big deal. same, Exactly. Britt (03:26) But they still want it, even though you know it, even though they're like, they're disappointed, it's like, oh, come on. But like, they want it. The Dental A Team (03:33) Exactly. It's like my birthday where I was like, it's fine. Like just a dinner, but like, had they not done a big deal for my 40th, I probably would have, you know, been in shambles. So when it comes, he's surely going to want it, but graduation season is upon us and it's wild that we are in the space of life that we're experiencing it with them. think that's crazy. And anyways, you've got some fun travels. if you guys aren't heading CE events, make sure that you do and make sure that you check out. a lot of RCE events. So if you're a listener, if you're a client, whatever, you're a listener and a client, like whatever you guys want, we have, what is it? Every third Wednesday, we have a CE webinar. We've got a really cool webinar coming up in August that we do. ⁓ Every year the content shifts and changes, but. Britt (04:20) to like check out our Instagram if you don't follow us. If I'm there, come find me. Let me know, message us. I got at PNUC to see a few clients which is really fun. It's always nice when we get to meet up in person. So, whether you're a client or just a listener, come find me. The Dental A Team (04:22) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, especially in Brits position because you have a handful of your own clients, but you oversee a lot of the company. So you know all of the client names, but you don't get to see them and meet them. So I know I have a few clients that are asking if I was going to be there and I'm not. I was like, you got to go find, seek out Brit, like go meet Brit. So definitely, definitely follow the Instagram, make sure that you reach out to Brit. If you're there, look for her, say hello, take a little picture with her, and then make sure you're hitting those CEs and make sure you're hitting all the free ones, you guys. We put out a ton of free CE and why not? Because I know you need to stack those hygienists and doctors. You guys need to stack those CE credits. So do it for free wherever you can. And then, like I tell one of my prized clients, set up a CE bucket so that you're saving money for the CE that's not free. And on that note... I think, ⁓ we were actually just talking and I think it's funny because I do think this was like super high thing and right now it's like, I think it's kind of stabilized. It's not quite as sought after as heavily as it was, but for the clients that are doing it or still trying to implement it, there are still some really great CE avenues out there. Today we wanted to talk a little bit on the sleep apnea avenue, systems wise, not to sleep apnea. That's not our genre. You can go take CE for that, Britt can probably tell you a ton. medically, but you know, that's not our genre, but our genre, our space, our niche is the systems behind it. And so on the note of CE and implementing, do think even if you're not doing sleep apnea, or you're not considering sleep apnea, a lot of what we talk about today is copy pasteable, like systems are systems, you guys, and we we overcomplicate it in life. And what we say for one thing can easily be duplicated and slightly altered for something else. So if there's CE that you're doing, which doctors we love you. so much. And when you go to CE, you come back just like ecstatic. And if you didn't take team with you, you're the only one. And it's so hard sometimes to get that generating. Typically, it's that there's not, it's just all a fun idea. There's not a really good system behind it to get that momentum. So taking these systems, even what we talked about for sleep apnea, whatever CE you do, apply it to that. And like you said with the sleep apnea, if they're not taking team members, like it can be really hard to implement. And that's a space too. if you can bring team members to any of that CE or sign them up for the webinar and get them included in it, I think that's a great space too. anyhow, sleep apnea side and system side, Britt, you've worked out the hygienist. So I know that this is some of the stuff like the questionnaire style and that stuff. Like what do you see and what you've actually helped practices implement the systems for sleep apnea. So what do you see as? Britt (07:10) Thank The Dental A Team (07:24) the biggest ticket items of implementing sleep apnea or just CE style in general that is easy, that's duplicatable like that. Britt (07:34) And I think sleep and my yo that's coming in pretty strong for a lot of people too. I think you can similar areas when it comes to looking to implement something successfully. I think that you would look for. So if you're doing one or the other, ⁓ number one, I think is making sure that our team knows what it is. Like Tiff said, doc, you can go to a CE and you get all excited and you understand all the things behind it to see all the dots connect and why this is so important. because it is, but the team often is behind. So whenever you're looking to do something, you might just take a course as like an exploratory, right? And then you're like, no, this is something I really want to do. When you start to get into that phase of like, no, I really want to work on implementing this. I want you to look for things that are going to help train your team because your team is going to be needing to have 90 % of these conversations with patients and you're going to Goal is for you not to have all of the conversations with all of the patients. The goal is for the team to be able to help support you, identify patients and start to educate patients and warm them up to the idea. Because just like for your team, it's kind of a newer thing or a different thing or something they don't know all the details about, it doesn't come easily to them. Patients even more so. So that's why our team needs to be really confident in knowing what it is, the reasons why, and being able to talk about it. I think is number one place to start. Along with that, would say have someone call it your champion, call it your lead of that thing, whatever title you want to give them of someone who is going to be that person who is going to make sure the team has all the things. We educate the team on all the things and they're going to be the one to really ⁓ kind of take point on implementation and keeping this going and getting it to where it becomes a program that's ingrained within our practice. we need someone to be that person. So from the get-go, education, someone who's gonna be a point person before we even start on implementing anything with our patients. So that would be my number one thing, Tiff, to start with is education and identify as someone who's gonna be the point person, because they're gonna start thinking of implementation, what are all the things we need in our practice to get this program going. The Dental A Team (09:54) Yeah, and even like ortho, I have like the same I'm thinking the same thought process because anything that you're trying to grow that doesn't you don't put attention on isn't going to grow. So to your champion conversation there, whether it's sleep, my ortho implants, like anything that's not crowns, fillings, bridges, you know, and even I do have a lot of practices that even do it for crowns, whatever that champion making sure there's a Britt (09:57) Hmm. Yeah. The Dental A Team (10:22) a job description. And I love that you said the education piece because that I think even when I've seen practices implement the champion space, it's still the education piece falls back to the doctor. But putting that I think that's brilliant putting that on the champion of scheduling out the lunch and learns making sure that they're doing the role playing with the with the team and that they're having these meetings with the team on the education and the why behind it, so that they can take that information and and tackle it with the patients. And then it made me think too, like KPI is their key performance indicator. So that champion is responsible for seeing, how many times, how many patients do we need to talk to about this to get our case acceptance where we want it or to get that many cases? I know like for ortho, we might do, we want five starts this month or 10 starts this month. So then you look at how many patients do we need to talk to about ortho in order to get. that because your case acceptance might be like 25%. So you're doing the math for that. then, Brett, I'm thinking that champion is then responsible for collecting the data from the team on how many patients do we talk to, how many patients signed up, and kind of championing all of the results and then looking at how do I control and manipulate the results based on the education implementations, all of those pieces. Britt (11:46) agreed and that's I think probably you Tiff right with clients. Like you said, the new thing, right? Name the new thing that we're doing within the office and you know, they want to do more of that thing and I'm like, alright, well, what's going on? Why aren't we even getting it presented to patients? What's happening? Well, we're just not talking about it, right? Like it really comes back to that. That's one of the biggest hurdles to get over is just talking about it and making sure patients know what it is. The Dental A Team (12:05) Yeah. Britt (12:16) what benefit it would be to them if they're a candidate, if this is something that they need. So that's why I say, make sure we've got that foundation first. And then we go into, okay, we've got a team more comfortable talking about it. How do we identify opportunities with patients? And then that's where we move into what kind of screening do we want for this specific treatment for sleep apnea? Then all right, what kind of screening do we wanna incorporate? across the board. So it's not reliant on a human thinking, this one would be a candidate. Like, no, what are you screening to where we know when these things are checked or we get this answer to this question, they are someone then that we are going to talk to about a sleep appliance or sleep apnea, we're working on getting them tested, whatever it may be. The Dental A Team (13:01) Yeah. And within that, asking those leading questions so that the patient starts thinking, because I think like back to, I think a lot of people do ortho. So back to ortho, you come in and you're hot and heavy. Like I got to get, I'm getting ortho cases and the patient has not had any like leading questions to make them start thinking that there's a problem or a solution needed for a problem. And then you come in and you're like, have you ever thought about ortho? And they're like, no, I haven't. Right? Because we didn't make them thin…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera shares a key secret from the most recent Dental A-Team Summit: common traits of highest-performing and happiest practices.
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Transcript
Kiera Dent (00:01)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited to chat with you. I hope that you're just having an incredible day. I hope you're having an incredible life. I hope you remember that honestly, we are so blessed to be in dentistry. We are so blessed to live the lives that we do. You are making huge changes and I hope that you're always so proud of yourself and that you're remembering that what you're doing is truly changing lives. Today I wanted to pop on and I wanted to talk real quick about...
something that we did at our virtual summit in April. And I hope you were able to attend. you weren't, your calendars for next year. We are having it on April 24th, 2026. So mark your calendars now, plan to be there. I would love, love, love to see you there. Because this year our topic was on unlocking extraordinary leadership and profitability. And I think those things go hand in hand. And one of the quotes that we had in there was, extraordinary doesn't mean perfect.
And Simon Sinek has said, there is no such thing as a perfect leader, only one who learns, adapts and grows with their team. And I really, really loved this because we went through an entire model of what's extraordinary leadership, what's the extraordinary leadership formula. And then at the end, we actually went through this amazing thing of common themes of practices. And so what our team did is we actually started looking at all of the dental offices that we've consulted, that we've been a part of, that we've worked with over the years. And we started looking to see
What are maybe some of the common themes of awesome practices that have amazing leadership and practices who maybe have not so good of leadership? And so I thought today it would actually be really fun to hop on the podcast. And for those of who attended summit amazing, this is a nice recap for you. Hopefully to dive it in, there are no recordings of summit. So I thought this would be a fun thing to bring back to the table for you and something I really loved. And I thought about it so much. And also for those of you who might not have been able to attend
to help you start thinking because I found that when I can figure out what are the patterns, like Tony Robbins says, success leaves clues. And I think about this often of, okay, what are the clues of the successful practices? What are the clues of the offices that are doing things differently? What are the clues of the offices that struggle constantly versus the offices that do really well? And one thing that is always in common is there's always an amazing leader, always. They're always watching their numbers. So they make their decisions based on their numbers.
And the third thing is that they have these common themes. So our team actually went through and I remember asking our team, said, okay, let's look at these leaders. Let's look to see what are the themes? What are the pieces? are, like, what is it? And we picked out a couple of offices. We picked out some of these different things and we said, like, okay, here's these awesome offices. What do they have in common? What are the things that they're doing consistently? And let's see if we could build this like,
common theme. ⁓ let's go through it. And it was really a message. Amazing because when we were in summit, we had people I was like, okay, this isn't you. This is other practices, of course. But let's think of like, what are some of the not so good attributes of leadership? What do you think? Of course, this is not you. This is someone else. But what is it for you that that maybe would be like the not so good leadership again, and these are these are offices that could be doing great.
financially. But what I usually find are the great leaders are always the more successful and more profitable practices. So the not so good what they have, what they tend to have ⁓ is they don't trust their office manager or their leadership team. I'm always here for trust and verify, but to truly trust your office manager and to let them lead and to have them as a partner in the business and to hold them to that high level. They're also usually sometimes poor clinicians. ⁓ Again, I'm not a dentist. I'm not here for it.
But was interesting of like a lot of the practices that we see struggling, was the dentistry is actually not so good. And I feel like that kind of ⁓ like truly kind of revolves and it might reflect some possible pieces. So for that, just know, again, these are not all, but we started just looking at like, what were some of the common themes? They were poor leaders. So there's team turnover constantly. So they weren't having the conversations. They were trying to be people pleasers. They were trying to dance around the hard conversations.
⁓ Maybe we're talking bad about other team members. They were gossiping. But that was something, there was a team turnover constantly and people couldn't figure it out. I know there's one office that I can remember. Don't worry, I'll mash it up so you don't know who I'm going to talk about. ⁓ And they were just rude. They were constantly belittling their team. They were constantly putting them down. They were constantly just mean. And so on that, just realizing there was team turnover. Now team turnover can also be because you're not transparent.
not having conversations, it does not mean that you're people pleasing. They didn't implement strategies. They would take a lot of notes. They'd go to a lot of CE, but they didn't, they never implement. So it's just like we're, listening, listening, but we don't actually implement. We don't actually execute. Now remember these are the not so good leaders. Okay. They were highly driven by emotions. So emotions guide. They, I know when I first started, I was very turbulent as a leader and I was very driven by emotions rather than
What's ultimately in the best interest of the business? ⁓ I constantly ask that question. Like, I know I want to take care of you and I'd love to have you be a part of us. But the reality is I've got to drive this business by logic while having a heart and having, ⁓ definitely having some, some love that way too. They also don't look at their numbers. They don't look at their results. So not tracking numbers. They have no clue. It's like they are an ostrich in the sand. They don't want to look at them. They have no idea where their numbers are. When I asked like, how are you doing? It's, it's always like,
We don't really know. We just love to live in La La Land. ⁓ They do a lot of CE, but never implement similar to they don't implement strategies, especially in coaching clients. ⁓ They don't implement. They're like, they always have an excuse. So I think like lots and lots and lots of excuses is another sign of the not so good leaders that we see as common themes. Again, there's like variables, there's other things, but these were common themes of practices that when we meet them, we know that they're probably going to fail. These are common themes.
They have lots of coaches, but they don't trust and they don't execute. So they'll listen, they hire the coaches, they do the things, but they don't actually trust and they don't execute. So the coaches will talk to the team, they'll give them the strategies and they'll be like, yeah, yeah, we're not going to do that. Or, nope, I'm not going to execute that. Or they just don't follow through. They have no integrity on their word. They're half in on everything. So it's kind of like, yeah, we kind of do that. We kind of do this. We kind of do that. Just fully do it. Why not?
⁓ They want to pay to fix the problems with no self-realization identification that they might be the issue. So things like ego, fear, no accountability, everyone else is the problem. I see this often, they blame, they talk about like, my gosh, this person's so terrible or my gosh, like you'll never believe what happened to me. There's always an excuse for why they don't have the life that they wanna have or the practice that they want. So I'm super curious, like as you listen to that list, like I said, like.
⁓ This is a zone where honest to goodness, what are the not so good leaders and do you maybe have any of those attributes? Now let's flip the good side, all right? So these are, again, there's so many things I could have pulled out, but these are the ones that I looked at and I was like, my gosh, these are consistent themes of great leaders. So they're great implementers. They execute, they put things into play and they don't fall off. So they truly implement and they stick. They allow their teams to be free. ⁓ It's interesting. They...
They give them the parameters, they give them the vision, and then they allow the teams to create. They say, all right, here's the parameters of what we are as a culture. Now go create and be free. They're great at decision-making. They don't sit on it. They think about it. They use their numbers and they execute, which leads to the next one is they execute. They make the decision. They follow through. They move forward. If we tell them to do something, they get it done. They follow through on what they say. They own their word. They're consistent. They roll with the punches. It's not high. It's not low. It's just they roll right through.
They have long-term teams. These teams stay with them. They take care of their teams, but they're also honest with their teams and very much holding them to a high level and high standards. The good also live by high standards. They don't tolerate mediocrity. They truly don't. It's just, they cut it out. They move on and they are very, very methodical in their decisions. They make their decisions based on the numbers. They're great visionaries. They see where they want to go and they can truly inspire and rally a team on actual things that are going to happen rather than just theories and ideas.
And they know what they're working towards and they don't get distracted. They truly have these blinders. I feel like so many of them have discipline. So as like who they are, most of them all work out consistently. They have a strong workout routine. They are physically fit. They have date nights with their spouses or their significant others. They make time for their kids. They're very good with their time and time management. They prioritize. ⁓ They delegate really well. They focus on what's the most important for them. But it's interesting as you look at the difference between the two lists.
My question is, which list are you on more so? If I was Santa Claus and it's the naughty and nice list, as you go back and maybe it'd be worthwhile to stop and push pause on this podcast, it's a very short, concise podcast for you today, ⁓ go back and check off of like, how am I doing on this? Is this a trait of mine or is it not a trait of mine? Because the reality is I want you to be an incredible leader. I want you to be incredible human. I want you to truly be so.
such great leaders to be able to have the practice of your dreams and the life of your dreams. And it really does boil down to leaders. And so again, it was such a fun little thing. I thought I'd take like just a little snippet out of summit for you of the not so good and the good leadership. And for you, let's add more to the good. And if you need help with that, this is oftentimes where an outside person can help you see where are my gaps as a leader? Where can I grow? Where can I rise? How can I have these conversations? How can I nip things in the bud faster? How can I stay consistent to this?
You guys, wasn't a consistent human when I started and I had to put things into place to help me be consistent. It's muscle skills to be a great leader. It's not born into you. And so if we can help you reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, you guys truly flex those leadership muscles, commit to being that incredibly great leader for your practice. Your practice needs you, your team needs you, your patients need you. This is your time and you need you. So rise up, be that amazing leader. And if we can help reach out, hello, at the dental...
Hello@TheDentalATeam.com as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
Tiff and Britt explain the right way to achieve case acceptance — without over-complicating or over-simplifying. Getting this down will increase trust among team members and help keep your schedules 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 here today. I have Miss Brittany Stone. I pull her in every now and again as often as I can to do recordings with me. And I love, love, love nothing more than having Britt here. I love having all of the consultants in a rotation, but Britt is, you know, a special OG podcaster. She has been with me since the beginning of time on these podcasts, it feels like. So, Britt, thank you so much for being here today. How are you? It is a beautiful Monday morning for us. I'm actually a little warm. It's getting hotter in Phoenix again, but Britt, how are you today? Britt (00:40) I'm doing good. I mean, it's the time of year where shade is beautiful, right? Like it makes a big difference. And right now in the shade, it is still very nice. It's just the direct sunlight that's a little bit warmer. So it is a gorgeous day outside and I will still definitely go get out on a ride later today. So but happy to be here. It's always fun. I feel like we said it before like these are times like geek out together. So it's like hangout time, but we get everybody else to come along with us and listen to the fun things we chat The Dental A Team (00:43) Yes. fair. That's so true. I do love bringing them on rides. I always make Dana talk about like workout apparel and have something for me to do. Britt (01:12) Dana's like the deaf queen. need something like Dana's got whatever it is that you need. The Dental A Team (01:20) know, I know I love it. So I just pick and choose like what do I need from who's on who's on with me today and what can I gather from them and you are my outdoors like Dana's outdoors too, but she's my apparel and my protein. You're my like outdoors you're doing Grand Canyon this weekend, I was supposed to be doing it next weekend. I don't think I am but you are doing it Friday. So in just a couple days, are you prepped and ready? I don't know that there's every day that anyone says yes, I'm ready. But are you prepped and ready? for the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, guys. She is hiking from one rim of the canyon to the other rim of the canyon. It's a big deal. Britt (01:54) in one day. yeah, it's four days away and I'm as ready as I'm gonna be. Like at this point, like let's go. The Dental A Team (02:01) Yeah. I agree. agree. I'm near doing it in one day, which we had planned on doing as well. I was calculating the other day based on like how our hike was going what I felt like our timing was going to be. And I calculated with the addition of the extra like two ish miles because the bridge is closed. ⁓ I was thinking like a good 20 minute a mile pace obviously would get you to like 10 hours but then that's no breaks. That's a freaking hauling pace. Britt (02:20) Correct? The Dental A Team (02:31) So I thought for us it was gonna probably be like 12 to 13 hours. Is that what you're thinking? Yeah. Britt (02:37) Yeah, and I have to remind myself, like it's one of those things. I'm a power through girly for most things, but this is a marathon, not a sprint. And so from things I've read, they're like, take a break every hour, eat something every hour, make sure you're hydrating. So I'm gonna try to do that. And they say, get down the canyon in the first like third of whatever time you're planning and it's gonna take you like double that time to get out. So that's fun. The Dental A Team (03:05) good. Good. That's what I was thinking too. Like, take your time. That's what we were saying when we checked our pace, did like almost we did nine and a half, 10 miles, and kept like a 20 to 25 minute pace and it was fine. But it was like, that's a third of what we are going to be doing. so making sure that was to get down. So that was, you know, get down in that amount of time. Britt (03:08) Yeah. The Dental A Team (03:26) But I'm excited for you. can't wait to hear about it. You're to have to post pictures, send them to our marketing team so that we can see a Duna-Lay team out on the rim to rim. It's something that our team has been actually talking about for a couple of years now. So Britt's going to be the first one to overcome that bucket list item for us and test it out. So she's our test queen. Britt (03:44) We'll see if I go do it with you again when someone else wants to go do it or if it's like, I did that once, I'm good. The Dental A Team (03:51) Yeah, yeah, well, hopefully it's I'll do it with you again, because it sounds like my Grand Canyon partner is you know, he's younger than me, but he's an old man and is falling apart. So he may not be able to do it. So you might have to do it with me later. So you just keep me posted. That's true. That's true. That's true. Britt (04:04) You and I can do it, and Damon will crush us all. We know this, but we can always go and do it. So yes, I will keep you posted. I will take pictures. I know no matter what, it'll be gorgeous, and that's what it's all about. The Dental A Team (04:15) Yeah, good. I'm excited for it. And I just, I'm so impressed. So super cool. I can't wait to see pictures and everyone who's listening, you're welcome for the adventure there and keep your eyes peeled. If you don't know what the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim is, go look it up because you need to understand what she's doing. It's a big deal. ⁓ and Erin, it's a fee. And Erin keeps reminding me because, and I grew up in Arizona. And so I think that we've talked about this before. We think like, Britt (04:34) It's a scene. The Dental A Team (04:43) to the Grand Canyon. It's a giant hole in the ground. It's been there forever. I grew up here. It's not a big deal. And Aaron's like from Oregon. He's like, it's a one like it's one of the wonders of the world. And so we definitely take it for granted. So I'm sure a lot of listeners here like you guys are crazy, which actually that I was talking to him about this on Saturday while we were hiking and I'm like, gosh, I know I take this for granted. But I said, you know what, actually, it's kind of like in dentistry, when we're diagnosing and we're just like, you need this and we're using all this terminology that us is so like second nature. It's so just ingrained in us and it makes sense. But to the other people, it doesn't. And I correlated that thought process of like, for me, the Grand Canyon is something that has and will always be there. And it's just like a part of my life. I take it for granted because I grew up in Arizona. I'm like, I've never even really spent time there because I'm like, Matt's there. I'll do it someday. Britt (05:38) I've it. I've seen it. The Dental A Team (05:40) And he's like, people come from out of the country to see the Grand Canyon. To me, that's freaking wild. But that's the difference, right? In communication, even, and understanding. And I think it flows that idea, that mindset of like, what are we taking for granted? What are we skimming past because it's natural for us or it's always there. And I think we skim past a lot of times, relationship building or ⁓ focusing on like the problem when we're treatment planning and jumping to the just the solution and speaking in words and terminology maybe that people don't necessarily like relate to and that relating piece is massive and it's kind of that same we all have spaces of life that we just take for granted and we skim past like the Grand Canyon and 7th wonder of the freaking world right it's that communication space and I think ⁓ on this Grand Canyon topic here Britt (06:29) you The Dental A Team (06:36) your case acceptance directly correlates. And I'm sure Erin was like, this is super cool. We're talking dentistry on our hike. I'm talking about the grand canyon. But it's so true. And Brett, have you seen that? I know you consult a lot of practices too. And have you seen that too, where it's like, gosh, we're just, and you've been a hygienist actually, right? So just speaking to the like solution, like, you need a crown, you need a bridge, you need an implant, you need full mouth reconstruction. And patients are like glazed over like, cool, really, really Britt (06:42) Yeah. The Dental A Team (07:05) diving into that, Britt, what have you seen within that and how do we get back to like basics on how to simplify case acceptance increasing because we do overcomplicate it in my opinion. Britt (07:18) I agree, we overcomplicate it, but we also oversimplify at the same time. I think when it comes to talking to patients about things, because these are things that are, we don't even have to think about them. We are around all day long, this is what we're trained to do, so identifying it, knowing it's important, they're just things that come so easy to us, kind of like the Grand Canyon thing that I'm like, yeah, I've seen it a couple times, but you know, it's fine. ⁓ The Dental A Team (07:23) Yeah. there. Britt (07:46) But with patients, think often what we'll do is we will like gloss over parts of it to where, and we think that we can say like a couple words and like, you need this. And they're going to be like, yeah, absolutely. I need that. And they're going to make sure it gets done because in our brain it makes complete sense that that's what needs to happen. And I like to try to remind people when it comes to how we present treatment. ultimately getting patients to the point of doing their treatment. Like that is truly where we are playing the advocate for that patient. And so in it, like, yes, it'll be thrown around that it sells all of these different things, but really it's how can I explain it in a way to where that patient one understands what's needed, what the problem is, what will happen if they don't do anything and how we can get that thing done. And my job is to help to make that as simple, as clear as possible to where they understand it and they get that treatment done instead of sometimes just short-changing pieces of it to where they don't really understand and they're saying no. And I'm like, well, it's their choice. And I'm like, but did I really explain it to where they understand what choice they're making? The Dental A Team (08:58) Yeah, that's a really good point. I like how you said that like over complicating, but oversimplifying because there's that middle ground, right of like, walking, we're going too fast. And so we exhaust ourselves halfway through the Grand Canyon hike or we're going too slow. And now it's night when we're getting out and that's scary. So it's like finding that middle ground of pace to make the perfect run to run hike, I think it was actually perfect. had a client call last week that they were like, And this I think is super common. We've heard this a million times, right? Like he's taking too long in the exams. He's explaining everything, right? It's like, okay, are they a details person? Are they a bullet point person? Really being able to gauge the human that you're talking to, the patient in the chair and getting some of that information. you mentioned like making sure the team is supporting the doctor. And I, when I speak to doctors in relation like this, I really like to call them the support team. And I know everybody calls them like employees or my employees or they're my staff or they're my team. And if you attach that support team to it, like they're really here to support you. So having them help to prep the patient. So handoffs are essential and making sure like, ⁓ they know they bring led to the fact that there's potentially something going on here. So that's that co-diagnosis space, right? Which I think is a hard word to understand because the word diagnosis is in there and you're not actually diagnosing. You're just like, leading them down a path that there may be a diagnosis, I think it gets a little confusing. Britt (10:27) diagnose, preheat, whatever term that you want to use, I'll tell you my view in my hygiene brain and I think, again as an assistant, you should think the same way. If I'm sitting there complaining about how long an exam is taking and it's not because the doctor is talking about personal stuff and chit chatting with this patient on the personal side of things, I didn't do my job well. The Dental A Team (10:29) 3D. Yes. Britt (10:53) Because if I did my job well, I would have already talked about most of those things to that patient, to where the doctor doesn't have to have that full conversation. I can recap it, say, hey, here's what's going on. Here's what I see. Here's what we talked about. We want to make sure you take a look at it, doc, to see what's needed and confirm, you know, if there's anything that's needed there. Cause then I, I've cut down 90 % of that conversation for them. And I like to be on time. I think most hygienists like to be on time. One of the things that I loved about being a hygienist is like, I'm running my column. Like that's part of the beauty is that I have a lot of control over how that day runs. It's just my exam part. And I have a lot of control over how that exam goes if I prep. The Dental A Team (11:37) 100 % agree. I had a client two weeks ago, speaking with a doctor because their team was like, Tiff, like, I can't get him into these other appointments. And these are running long and blah, blah, blah. So I go into the call thinking like, all right, I got to get this doctor in shape. Like, what is what is he doing that's holding them back from being on time in these other areas? And what it came down to realistically was the inconsistency in the information. from the support team going to the doctors and the inconsistency in having a support team in the room with the doctor. And so when I go in like, okay, you gotta cut down exams. And he is like, well, that's cool. But like, it's so inconsistent. That makes me think, right? So you're saying pass off that information, gather the information, pass it off. I hated nothing more as a dental assistant than to be gathering the information and then it not being used. And you know, that's still to this day. If I make something, if I create something, if I get the information and the data and then it's not, it's overlooked, it's not used, or I'm asked to create it again, I will freak out. It's just, it's just who I am as a human and Brit does really well with me. ⁓ but this team specifically, right. was intermittently, like sometimes they had it, sometimes they passed it off. Sometimes they did it. Sometimes they were in the room with him to anesthetize. So they were giving a handoff like sometimes they weren't. So then what happens is you're training that doctor to not trust that the information's going to be there. So the team is upset and they're like, well, it's like he asks the questions as if we didn…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera and Dana offer a life raft for businesses struggling to keep cash flow in the green, including specific steps to help get your practice back on course. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am jazzed. Dana, the one and only Dynamite Dana over there. She's on the podcast with me today. Dana, how are you today? Dana (00:10) doing pretty good. It's a beautiful day here and so I'm just excited to be on the podcast with you. Kiera Dent (00:15) Dana, I am so glad because you and I, feel like we're ships in the night. We see each other, we wave to each other. We love working together, but the reality of us like being on the same boat to talk to each other is few and far between, which is so ironic. But every time I see you in person, I'm like, Dana, we need to hang out more. Like, so it's fun to podcast, even though, I mean, it's a funny way to say hello. We're like here to do work, but at least we get to like have more interactions. So, ⁓ thanks for being on my ship today. I guess like welcome, welcome aboard, matey. Dana (00:44) Yeah, happy to be here, Gatton. Kiera Dent (00:48) But today you guys, Dana and I, we were talking about like some burnout and cashflow row. So think about death row. We actually have a lot of clients that come to us. Thankfully, like once they become clients, they get off death row, cashflow row. But we thought about, think oftentimes burnout and cashflow row ⁓ go hand in hand. And so I figured, Dana, let's get into like, how do you get off of cashflow row? like death row, you're about to go and like die like literally. ⁓ I feel it's becoming a bit more common than I've seen in the past. I'm super grateful and I just want to shout out and for all of you listening, if you're on cashflow row or you're on burnout row, ⁓ just like a huge hug, a huge hug of love, a huge hug of no judgment. Gosh, I get like emotional thinking about it I think it's so easy as a business owner to like just harp on yourself to just feel like Like, why am I so dumb? Like, why can't I figure this out? Like, the mean girl or boy in your mind is just like vicious and wicked. And it makes me so angry that we're this way to ourselves as business owners. Cause I'm like, you know what? You're freaking strong. And like, you took these risks and like, you don't know what you're doing, but you know, you wanted to like build a great like culture for your team. You wanted to build this amazing life for your family. And yeah, it's hard. It's really hard to be a business owner. And I think I speak of this so candidly because Like I've been on death row, like cashflow row. I've been on burnout row, like, and you just sit there and when you need to like have the most love and respect for yourself and grace, it's when we like punch ourselves and kick ourselves and yell at ourselves. And so ⁓ I thought it would be a really, ⁓ hopefully timely podcast for some of you listening of just love of no judgment, of encouragement, and maybe some like shining little stars when you need a North star right now, because It can feel very daunting. And I want to tell you, you don't have to do it alone. ⁓ You telling yourself you're alone and on an island is your choice. And it's a choice that you don't have to stay with. There's so many ways we can help. I think even just like when we get clients that are on cashflow row, I feel like they feel they finally got a life raft sent to them when they didn't know it was even possible. And as consultants, think Dana and I and our whole consulting team are so passionate about getting you into cashflow positive and doing it with ease where it's not that hard. But Like it wasn't overnight that you got here either. So it's not going to be overnight. get you out of there. We're to move you pretty quickly. Cause I think like, Hey, someone's like holding the lantern for you in this dark cave. Like, all right, here's the way out. can really, really help you. But really Dana, think like just again, I hope all of you listening know we come to you with love, with no judgment. You're not a terrible business owner. You're not dumb. You shouldn't have known this before. It's just, this is where we are kind of like a patient with perio, right? Like it's okay. Like this is where we are. And the great news is There are solutions and there's a way out and there's a way to happiness again if you want. So Dana, that's kind of my like emotional pitch to start this off with. Any thoughts you have? Because I think you've seen quite a few come to you on Cash Flow Row from day one. Dana (03:49) This is. Yeah, yeah. And I love just your vulnerability there, Kiera, as a business owner, because I say it to doctors all the time, like, whether it's a dental office, whether it's a consulting company, whatever business it is, it doesn't come with an instruction manual. And so we get in there with the best of intentions, we're ready to work hard, we put everything you have into it. And there are ebbs and flows in business. And sometimes it gets really, really hard. And you're right, it is the self talk that that you have to take a look at and the blame that you put on yourself for being the reason why you got there. And you know what, it's okay, we're gonna figure it out ⁓ and we're gonna stop the bleeding and we're gonna start focusing on the things that are going to matter and are going to move it forward. And you know what, as a coach, I get the pleasure of cheering you along the way and sometimes kicking your booty when it's needed. And ⁓ it is, we are seeing it more and more and I think it comes down to two, like knowing what cash you need, knowing what you're spending your cash on, and sometimes making some hard decisions based on that too. Kiera Dent (05:05) Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think with that it's like awesome. Here we go Here's the blood like we're going to help you get out of that and I love that you said there's no instruction manual just like being a parent There's no instruction manual and so there are just different ways to do it So my big thing and in Dental A team, always like we are profitable We call it the yes model so you can say yes to everything you want in life and the Y stands for you as a person We're gonna focus on E stands for earnings and profitability and S stands for systems and team development. So like those three things together are going to give you success with ease. So today, if you're on cashflow row or burnout row, I think oftentimes burnout comes because of cashflow. Like it is the scary piece to it. So with that, let's talk about like, what can we do if we're in cashflow row? What are some of the fastest things that will help people get out of cashflow? Dana, I'll let you take this. We're going to just kind of riff back and forth. Like you guys, this is unscripted. This is just from our knowledge of things that we do. of like when we see offices and again this is coming from real life offices things we've actually done to get them off of cashflow row. Dana let's just riff because you've got a few that have just come and you've got a few that have been there and ⁓ they're doing well. Dana (06:12) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it is. It's a reviewing of expenses. Is there anything we can cut that we're not cutting ourselves too lean though that we can't continue to grow? And then also, what do need to produce and produce it consistently? Kiera Dent (06:27) Yeah, I love that. So it's like we either need to increase our production or we need to decrease our expenses. And on the production, I will also say we need to make sure we're collecting. It's wild to me. I was talking to a doctor who's on quote unquote cashflow row and they said, Kiera, I have like $300,000 sitting in AR. And I was like, so you're really not on cashflow row. You've got the money. You just haven't collected it. So realizing that usually in dentistry, there's quite a few cashflow opportunities very quickly. But I agree with you, Dana. Like step one is like, let's get our PNL and let's know our numbers. Is there anything on there? Like, and I'm talking like, you don't like, gosh, people get wild and they start cutting things that actually you need. Like I know your hygienists are expensive, but they also produce for you. I know billers can feel annoying, but they also collect money for you. I know your treatment coordinator can feel expensive, but they're putting money on your books. I know a consultant can feel like I'm going to cut. can do this on my own, but they're literally the only person holding you accountable and pushing you through and guiding you. So it's one of those things of like, let's look to see like, what really is stuff to cut? And I'm talking like subscriptions that you're no longer using. This is one that it makes me wild. I don't understand this. It makes no sense to me. But when people are in cashflow row and the only thing I can come up with Dana is it's ego. That's all I can figure out. So I'm just saying to you like, Hey, I hear you. see you. Let's cut the ego and get you into cashflow positive. And then like rock on, do whatever you want from there is like holding onto equipment that you're not using. It's weird to me. Like, Okay, so we're not like, we thought we were gonna do all these scans of the Itero. And if I look at the last six months, we literally have like taken three scans. Or I bought the CBCT, because I thought was gonna do all these implants, and I'm not doing implants. Or I have like multiple Iteros, but like we've cut back and we've scaled back like, so I only need one Itero instead of three Iteros. those are big expenses on your debt and your loan. Like, let's sell those, let's get rid of them. people, I don't know, it's like embarrassment or ego or like, Maybe you're still like wishing for the good old glory day. I don't know what it is, but I'm like, get rid of that. Cut the cost. Like think in your own life. If you had a car that you had a car payment on, even though it's the nicest car and it's your dream car, but you can't afford food, you're going to get rid of that car. You're going to sell it and you're going to buy something more economical and affordable. Like let's just get rid of it. No one, no one cares. Like honestly, none of your colleagues know that you're selling the equipment off because you're freaking broke right now. That's just you and it's okay. it truly like what can you get rid of? there equipment you're no longer using that you could sell that you could pawn off just to get you some cash flow quickly and cut some of that debt services? Like is there any debt service that we can get rid of for you? That's a question like but I think it's a very easy cut on the PNL. Dana thoughts on that. Dana (09:02) Yeah, I agree with you. then and again, I can't, I can't really decipher where it comes from. But I do you do see offices wanting to hold on to those things. And maybe it is like, well, we'll turn it around, and then I'll use it. Great, then we can get another one down the line. Right. But right now, what the immediate relief from dispensing of it will far outweigh hanging on to it until down the road, maybe we'll need it again. Kiera Dent (09:27) Exactly. Like it's okay. Like don't don't even stress about it. We're not we're not here for we're not here for that ego. So I think when we're looking at the PNL, let's look to see like go back to COVID days. If you were a business owner during COVID, I remember we scrubbed that PNL like, could we call the lenders? Could we put this on pause? Could we like get rid of this loan? Like those things I think are really important because that actually can free you up exponentially being buried in debt. I remember my husband when we were paying off his loans. Holy moly, he could not see outside of that debt for one second. We can't get rid of our practice loan, but you could renegotiate your rent, like your lease. Those are things that you can do. I remember during COVID, people got very scrappy and I'm like, don't forget that scrap you just learned a few years ago. Like take those lessons and go through them. that's step one of, but be careful. Like Dana said, please don't cut things that are going, let's not cut the hygienist right away. Like I'm looking at what are the things that are nice to have, but not necessary to have. Let's cut those things. ⁓ well, I put consulting in a must have. think if they're a great consultant and they're holding you accountable and they're moving you forward, yeah, you better believe it's one of the best dollars you'll ever spend. Now, if you are not, ⁓ if they're not moving you forward, if they're just having like rando conversations with you, probably a good thing to move on. But again, you also should go to your consultant. They work for you and say, I am in cashflow row, which hopefully if they're a good consultant, they would know that. And it's like, we have to make this happen. Now there's no other options. So after we do that, next step is let's look at our AR. Doctors, if you don't know how to run your AR, that's your aging report. Let's just go see how much money is sitting out in our AR. And let's see if it's patient portion that we could collect or if it's insurance and also why and how much is in our 30, 60, 90 and over 90 buckets. Because that over 90, like this sounds awkward, but doctors like truly you can call patients and you can collect. We can send text messages. I know that feels awkward. I know that doesn't feel like what you want to do. But these are ways like there is cash there. Also, like, let's look at the protocol of how are we getting there? Are we not collecting when they get into the practice? We can start collecting when they come in. I was in an office yesterday and they're like, gosh, our accounts are all funky. And I was like, sweet. As soon as they walk in, let's collect the money before they even go to the back. They're like, but that's different. We've never done that. And I'm like, think about a hospital. You do that. Like you show up, you pay the money and then you go back, like switch it. It's not weird. People don't think it's weird. It's very normal. So like, let's collect the money. Let's put some systems into place. So we stop getting into an AR crunch. And really making sure that that is something that we are very proactive on. Do you know other thoughts on AR? AR to me, think is just like this like, I don't know. It's like an endless pit. And I think I have it because when I first started the business, I had this endless pit of AR and I didn't even know it existed. And I'm like, oh, no wonder I'm broke. It's just because we're not collecting the money. And then I was like, Sweet, let's change the system. That's a system you should put into place. But what are some other thoughts or systems you have around AR to help people get this cash? Dana (1…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera reflects on some of her most memorable episodes and experiences across 1,000 episodes (!!!) of the Dental A-Team podcast! 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 feels like a ridiculously special, amazing, incredible day. We are at 1,000 Dental A Team podcasts. Like, can you honestly believe this? I can't believe it. I can't believe that we have hit record on this podcast a thousand times. And honestly, I wanna say thank you to you as listeners, to all of you who have made this podcast a reality. If you're new to the show, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent. I love dentistry. I love making people happy. I love. truly enjoying life. And this podcast came to me while Jason, my husband and I were hiking Yosemite. And I said, Hey, I've noticed that there's this area where they're unserved, where doctors and teams are not communicating on the same way. And like, there's really got to be a better way to help practices scale, to grow, to evolve. And being a team member myself and a business owner, I thought let's combine both of those perspectives. So truly it's an honor. ⁓ I honestly cannot believe that we are here. So if you've been here since episode one, please send me an email. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I will send you a personalized thank you to you. I am just so honored. If you've been here for at least like 900 of them, let me know. But truly it's such an honor to be able to have this podcast where we're able to give back, to serve, to share, to laugh, to grow. This podcast has been such a healing space for me. And so today I thought it'd be really fun. for us to actually go through some of our most powerful success networks that's helped hundreds of doctors. It helps you. And I've called it the yes model. ⁓ that's focusing, wow, that's focusing in on you being able to say you, earnings and systems and team development. So focusing on you as a person, helping make sure that you're profitable as a practice, and then having systems and team development in place ⁓ to make sure that you can really, truly say yes to everything in life that you want. Because I truly, truly, truly believe. that running a practice, having a successful team, having a team of people that are accountable does not have to be hard. And so really that's been the whole purpose of this is to make it tactical, practical. And I thought like, Hey, this is going to be something really fun. We're actually going to pull from our framework. But what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to pull from past episodes, some of our hottest episodes, some of those fun episodes to kind of help you see how we can focus on you as a person, how we can focus on your earnings and profitability of the practice and helping with your systems and team development. Now, something that is fun is that there actually were several episodes that were our top downloaded episodes over the years. And so this is just something fun if you enjoyed it, amazing, but truly we looked back and these ones stood out. And so our episodes were episode 469, 10 Practices in 2 Years with Lewis Chen. So such a fun one to inspire, to ignite, to help all of us like really just get, I remember that practice and I was like, my gosh, I thought I like. rampaged up and in like two years we had three, but to do 10 practices in two years. Our other top downloaded episode is episode 501, What Office Managers Need to Know and really helping those office managers highlight, elevate. Being an office manager in dentistry, I feel is such a tricky zone because there's really no rule book for it. And that's what we tried to create at Dental A Team is what is an office manager supposed to do and giving support to office managers and doctors so you can truly have these incredible leaders in your practice. And then our next most downloaded episode was episode 607, A Day to Remember. And that was actually released on Thanksgiving. So shout out to you guys for having these as the most popular downloaded episodes. But like I said, I want to give you guys that framework for being able to say yes to everything with some podcast tools. Don't worry. You want to go back and listen to them if you don't want to. But trying to chunk that so you can really look at your life and your practice. Kiera Dent (03:41) So breaking into the you section, this is about you as a person. This is about you being that visionary, that owner, that fulfilled human, because honestly, if you're not fulfilled and you're not happy with what you're doing, honestly, your practice can't be there. And when we build the yes model, we purposely put it in a specific order of you first, and we focus on you as a person. Then we focus on earnings and profitability. And then we focus on systems and team, because what I found is if we put them in this order, You as a person first, kind like take the oxygen mask off of you, put it on you. Like you've to take care of yourself first before you can help other people. If we put that oxygen mask on yourself, then what we do from there is we can give and serve to other people. Then we focus on profit. Cause honestly, so much of stress comes from cashflow. Like honestly, the bulk of offices who sign up with us and not all, but a lot of them are struggling with cashflow. They're struggling with profitability. They're struggling to learn to read their numbers. And then we do systems and team development. And a lot of times we think like, let's put the systems in place, cause that's gonna fix everything else. But what that does is it doesn't make sure that you are fulfilled and we know where you're headed as a person. So focusing on you as a doctor, scaling honestly starts with you, but that doesn't mean we're doing more. It means that you are the leader that your practice needs. You know where you're headed. You know what the direction of the practice is. And that's where this can all come together. So some of the episodes that we pulled out for you guys from all these thousands of episodes, like literally we have a thousand. ⁓ would be number 17. Like let's go way back in the archives. If you have not gone, you guys can always head on over to TheDentalATeam.com, click on podcasts. You can search any topic and you can go find all thousand episodes. But going back clear to episode 17, I love this one, is Goals are lost without Accountability. So when we're having those, like if you don't have accountability in your practice, if you don't have things to help keep your team accountable, Honestly, doctors, you can have all the goals that you want, but you've got to have the accountability with it. And so I really love to help doctors and teams come together within Dental A Team and our consulting ⁓ to make sure that your goals are hit because we have accountability and that means your personal goals. So where you want to be and your professional goals. And we have a client that really like was struggling with some of their goals, but they knew where they wanted to go. They wanted to get a beach house. They wanted to be able to take care of their children in college. ⁓ And what was really lovely about that is because we knew where they were going to go, we were able to help hold them accountable to it. And then we were able to the E portion that we'll get to, we were able to help create the profitability within the practice using production and metrics to be able to help them get there. But really looking at goals are lost if you don't have accountability. Like truly, if no one's holding people accountable, you doctor have to do it all. But even a lot of times things just get lost. And so making sure that we really are working through these different pieces to make sure that your goals are not just a wish and a hope, but they're actually being measured and we're tracking them. We're making sure you're living the dream life that you want to be living. that would be an episode. Another episode in here would be 551 Leaders, You Need to Decide and helping you as a leader know that your team can't read your mind. You've got to make decisions. More is lost through indecision than a wrong decision. I have a quote over here by Theodore Roosevelt that any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The next best thing is the wrong thing. And the worst thing you can do is nothing. And so making sure that on there, you guys are making a decision. Doctors like you have to decide. You have to be clear. You have to know where you're going. And I think deciding the life you want to live. ⁓ I have a quote that we say often, your practice should serve you, not you serving your practice. making sure it's really giving you that dream life. Otherwise, go be an associate, like honestly, but there shouldn't be the stress and the heartache. And I know that there's stress with running a business. That's not something that we can ever take away, but really making sure we're fulfilling your bucket, your cup, making sure you're taken care of is a big portion. ⁓ Episode 940 was another popular one, What Leaders Should Not Do. I thought this is a really good one to help doctors like realizing your role has to change. You have to become this incredible person. We have to know where you're going. We have to know this vision. But honestly, like leaders, you should not be doing everything. You should not be fixing everything. Otherwise you're enabling. And I remember another great ⁓ thought is when we empower our teams without accountability, we actually create ⁓ entitlement. And so what are we doing and are we fixing everything and helping? Like we think we're helping, but we're not actually having our team rise to the table. so really looking at like, these are the things not to do. These are things that won't help you become the leader and the person that your practice needs and really relies on you to be. So another great episode of what things should you not be doing. think that that sometimes helps again, because as the visionary, as the leader of the practice, as you, as a person, ⁓ making sure that you're not running yourself ragged, trying to make everybody else and pleasing everybody else. But that way you're truly working as a team. You need to show up as a CEO. You need to show up as the dentist. But you also need to have good working hours and good life ⁓ balance and life happiness and making sure that you're fulfilled and that your cup is being full. Otherwise, you're going to burn out and really making sure we take care of you as a person. Last episode to highlight in the you section is 948, The CEO Visionary and The OM Implementer and pulling from EOS and traction where We literally have like CEOs, you're the visionary and how to have your office manager really be a yin to your yang to help support, to help make the visions come to life, to help bring all these pieces to the table ⁓ really, really truly can help. How do these two roles operate and who should be doing what and getting and gaining that clarity because again, when we focus on you and we know where you want to go and we know the pieces. Then you're able to settle into your role as CEO of the practice too. And you're able to settle into all these different pieces, but really looking at you as a person, like not doing more, you as a leader, you as the CEO, you as a spouse or a partner or a parent or a sibling or a child, whatever it is, but you showing up as the best version of you. so yes, these are. four episodes a lot on leadership for you. But really in that section within the Yes Model, I want you to really look at your life and I want you to see, are you truly living your best life? Are you truly fulfilled? Are you delegating to your team? Are you leading your team? Are you ⁓ working hard? ⁓ Or are you doing things smarter and actually working? happier and more enjoyable. When I ask you about your personal relationships and I ask you about your personal life, do you have an identity outside of work or is it just work? ⁓ Do you find joy in the little things or have you lost that joy and sparkle because you're so consumed with the business? Those would be some things and if we're not taking care of you, it might be time to give a little TLC. I remember there was a great ⁓ podcast guest. And he said a comment, he said, we should take care of our billion dollar asset, AKA our body. And I've thought about that a lot of do we take care of us, our body, our mind, our psyche, our happiness, to make sure that we can show up as those leaders that our practice and our patients and our community needs. ⁓ And so this section, I really hope that you highlight, yes, being that leader who needs to evolve and rise, ⁓ but really making sure that you're the human that you wanna be. we've got the North Star dotting to where you ultimately want to go and really just spending and highlighting that. Okay, so the question to that is what do you need to stop doing in your life right now? Practice or professional or personal or both. So that way your team can start owning more and also so you can start having more fun in life. What do you need to stop doing? Like literally I'm sitting there with you pretend I got my pen and paper and you're like, okay, Kiera. This is what I need to do to feel more fulfilled, more happy, more like me. What do you need to stop doing? Notice I didn't say start because you want to go like, no, I need to start journaling. No, what do you need to stop? Cause I'm trying to help you see that a lot of times less is more and you actually can create more by doing less. All right, next up is earnings. Making sure that you have profit with purpose. Collections don't equal profits. And so... What I've noticed is like in larger practices, oftentimes they do protect their margins and they measure what matters. And so really making sure that when we're looking at the numbers, so we're looking at our earnings, this is moving into the second portion of the yes model. ⁓ Are you paying attention? Are you using your numbers to guide every single decision in your practice? And what I've seen is when practices come to us in chaos and move into clarity and more into control and more into ease, they know their numbers forward and backward. Like they truly know, they use their numbers to make decisions on who to hire. They know their top line numbers. And what I love about this, like with our clients, we work hard on getting them an overhead scorecard. ⁓ So they know what their overhead is. We look at their monthly costs slash their BAM, their bare ACE minimum. We're looking at projections in the practice of what do we need? How do we hire? We're looking at other pieces for that I really just love are looking at their overhead as well to make sure. we've got our overhead, we've got our monthly costs. We've got our profit margins to make sure we're looking at debt services to make sure that with the debt services, we're still profitable and we have cashflow in the practice and that these practices are thriving. And then we use KPI scorecards to make sure that the metrics within the practice are leading to the profit for a profitable business to make sure that doctors have a cashflow. And also in there, we include to pay doctors, like doctors you've got to be paid, otherwise it's really hard. And so again, just because…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera is joined by Mark Rasmussen, CEO of Moolah, to talk about the landscape of credit card fees and how to reduce them, membership discount plans, and other bonus features offered by the dental payment tech company. (Pssst, Mark was last on episode 866, It's Time to Modernize Payment Processing!) Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am super jazzed because I have a guest here who's going to help us with cashflow leaks, modernizing your practice, figuring out those membership plans, all the things that you need and want. We're going to talk about some case studies. This is one of my absolute favorite guests, Mark Rasmussen, CEO, owner, founder, Moolah. How are you today, Mark? Welcome to the show. Mark Rasmussen (00:22) Hey, Kara, I'm doing fantastic. I'm doing awesome. So, so, so it's connected with you and your listeners and excited to get into all this juicy good stuff about revenue and payments and modernizing things. Let's do it. I love it. Kiera Dent (00:31) Yeah. Let's do it. So I have a slight crush on Moolah. Like truly you guys like just make credit card processing easy. And so what I want to start off, if you guys don't listen, Mark and I have done other podcasts in the past together. ⁓ But I don't know, Mark, what you guys say on your email subject lines, like on your little, what is it your signature, but I feel like it should be like your new favorite credit card processing company. Like that's what I feel like Moolah's tagline should be because I wanted to do a couple case studies with you since we last chatted. Mark Rasmussen (00:40) Hahaha Kiera Dent (01:05) ⁓ Mark knows, like, I do have a crush on Moolah. I try to get them to come and be our processor too. Mark Rasmussen (01:10) I need to like soundbite clip that, like I have a crush on Moolah just like everywhere in social. I love that. Kiera Dent (01:15) I do. do because I like companies that make things easy, but also are like the cheapest on the market and credit card fees are one of my biggest beefs. Like really truly I get annoyed when I look to see how much credit card fees are charging. And when you guys, ⁓ deadly team listeners, just so you know, I'm going to throw it out there. Like anybody who goes through our link literally saves 10 basis points. ⁓ on it, which is huge to get anywhere in the credit card industry. So you're getting below that 2.99. So you're getting 2.89 on cards not present and 2.39. And I hope that Mark, I'm allowed to say that because I'm just going to be bold and brazen. And if not, we'll cut that out. So don't stress about that. Mark Rasmussen (01:52) No, no, no, for sure. And not only that, it's like, that's not just a like teaser rate, like they look, your practices will get that preferred rate forever, right, which is awesome. And, and it's like you and I were talking a little bit earlier, too, of like, a bit of shock and awe of like, I and myself as well, I've been seeing like some statements from potential practices. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, I'm like, I'm seeing like, Kiera Dent (02:03) which is so big and you don't add extra heat. Mark Rasmussen (02:19) six, seven, eight percent, like net effective rates. I know you were saying you have been seeing even higher. It's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. It's almost criminal. Kiera Dent (02:25) Mm-hmm. Yeah, so it does feel criminal because like here's the thing like you might get a cheaper rate somewhere else but when you look and dig into the details and this is where it feels annoying and obnoxious to me and doesn't happen right away it happens like when you've stopped looking at it you're like I've checked my credit card company for years they don't do anything and then all of a sudden it starts creeping up and being eerie and that's where I just get annoyed and that's why like I have a crush on Moolah because you guys don't do it and you guys stay consistent for it so I felt Mark and I, you didn't listen to our last podcast, we'll definitely link it in the show notes for you. But Mark, I felt we should kick today off with some case studies because I have some clients that I've recommended over to Moolah. And I think my favorite one is we were looking and I had a practice and our overhead was high. So like this practice, they don't love to like look at numbers. They have an amazing CPA. Like I will say we do look at numbers, but they're kind of like, yeah, carry it. We'll just like out produce our problems a little bit. And that's fine. Like anybody can have that. But I said, Hey, Mark Rasmussen (03:17) Alright. Kiera Dent (03:21) Your credit card fees are really high. think that they were honestly like 10%. And I'm like, is that really true? Like that just seems outlandish. And they said, well, Kiera, we're in a contract. Mark, do you want to throw up with contracts? Tell me about credit card contracts. Mark Rasmussen (03:33) Oh, I hate contracts. I hate contracts like really in anything in my life. I don't know. So yeah, but that's, it's just crazy. The industry for the longest time has like felt the need to like lock these business owners and not just Dennis, but business owners in like these typically it's like three year contracts. And then, you know, they'll have like termination fees. And so they take advantage of that. And like you were saying, I talked to so many practices are like, Oh, I'm paying X and you know, they were paying X the first month that they signed up. And then they didn't look at it, like you said, and then six months later, eight months later, the processor started like nudging it up, nudging it up, nudging it up. And to the point where when you look at what their rates are, you know, two years from when they signed up, it's like almost 180 degrees difference. So yeah, please you guys out there, please make sure you stay on your credit card processing. Look at those month end statements. Look at, you know, what is being nudged up because Kiera Dent (04:19) Yeah. Mark Rasmussen (04:28) You know, they'll just slip it in a little statement message. They're not forthcoming about it. I promise you they're not like, shooting you multiple emails or calling you and be like, hey, we're going to increase your rate. No, no, no, no, no. They're going to slip it under the table and hope that you never pay attention to it, which is really what happens because you guys are all busy. You guys are all doing amazing care on patients and you're not paying attention to that. That's the reality. Kiera Dent (04:49) And it's creepy to me because it's also done on things that don't make sense. Like I feel like reading a credit card statement with what they're charging is like reading very highly processed foods. And I'm like, I have no clue what 90 % of these words are. And I feel like it's the same thing when you come to a credit card statement. And so back to this practice, what we did, there's two case studies I wanted to bring to the table today that are my own personal clients that I've referred over to Moolah that I signed up with Moolah. So this practice, again, overhead, let's out produce our problems. Mark Rasmussen (05:00) That's a good comparison, I like that. Kiera Dent (05:18) And it was wild because the first month they switched to Moolah, their CPA sent a letter to all of us and said like, hey, what'd you do? Did you switch credit card companies? Your fees are so much lower. Like that fast first month drop down. So we went from about a 10 % fee on what they're producing and collecting to then dropping it down to this 2.89 to 2.39, depending upon if card was present or not, which is super awesome also because then you can get cards. Mark Rasmussen (05:28) guys. Kiera Dent (05:44) on auto renew, like on just processing internally and you don't have to, like you can have cards present or not present within the practice, which is so awesome. ⁓ But I was shocked like that fast. And then another practice that we brought to Moolah, they were locked in with another credit card company. And so I didn't know you couldn't do this, Mark. So this was like rookie mistake on me. Like I was, I'm scrappy and I thought, well, okay, fine. You guys are in a contract. So. just stop processing through that processor, switch everything over to Moolah. Well, you know this Mark and I was rookie so you know what happens. Do you know what happens with those companies? Mark Rasmussen (06:21) No, listen, I said that a lot too because technically, really, if the practice is in a contract, and I've said that before, you probably have these miscellaneous junk fees, these monthly minimums that are gonna hit maybe 20, $30 a month. But even if you're paying that minimum and you saved thousands over here, who cares? Pay that minimum, just write that contract out. What happened here in this scenario? Okay. Kiera Dent (06:44) That was exactly what I said too. So that's what, cause I was like, why not? I thought the exact same thing. I'm like, okay, if we're looking at, you're able to save 3%, 4 % like higher amounts and we're processing, even if you're processing a hundred thousand or 200,000, like that extra two, 3 % do the math. Like that's surely going to offset the cost. Well, what happened is we actually did that. So a client signed up with you guys. They did that. And we got a letter from the other processor saying, Mark Rasmussen (06:54) Yeah. Kiera Dent (07:11) that, we have a minimum and if we don't hit it, it was going to be substantial and to get out of contract, it was going to cost us a thousand dollars. So we literally said, fine, take the thousand dollars because we'd already saved that much through Moolah's savings to be able to like, we're just like, like it's a done deal. Like they were trying to threaten them with this thousand dollar fee, but we were like, that's so minimal to get us out of this contract based on how much we were saving. Now this practice was processing a decent chunk. Mark Rasmussen (07:32) Right. Right. Kiera Dent (07:38) But I think even if you're processing like 70,000, 80,000, that one, 2 % stacks up. Like it's insane how much we pay in credit card fees. So those are like the two that I wanted to bring to the, like I said, this is why I have a crush because I hate credit card fees so much. And that's going to lead into our next topic. But Mark, anything you want to add? Cause these were two cases that I've watched since we last met. Mark Rasmussen (07:45) yeah. I love that. Kiera Dent (08:00) ⁓ I'm constantly on the prowl for cheaper people. I love that you guys don't charge for the terminals. You have it set up the next day. There's no contracts. Like that's where I said, like it's your new favorite, like credit card processing. You don't increase the fees. You give our clients reduced rates. If you have multi locations, you guys also take care of those practices. Like it's amazing what you guys do. So that's my like pitch for Moolah, but if you want to add anything else. Mark Rasmussen (08:22) I love that. wanted to, because you just like rang a memory. So what you were referring to in that practice, right, where like, okay, you can't just skate by and just pay the minimum, right? Or they were gonna hit him with his fee. Well, another thing I'm gonna tell your listeners out there is, listen, if you don't go with Moolah, great, do your homework. But one thing to look out that I've seen in contracts, which is crazy, is that sometimes you'll see a contract, all right, if you cancel early, it's like a 350 termination fee. Okay, fine. but I've seen others out there where the processor says they try to enforce liquidated damages. So the processor will say, oh, we've been making, you're in a three year contract, on average we're making like, whatever, $500 a month on your processing. If you leave us now, it's not early termination fee, we're gonna calculate that $500 for the remaining 16, 17 months and they hit you with this liquidated damages thing, crazy. So just be on the lookout for that. If you're doing anywhere that's a contract, Kiera Dent (08:57) No. Mark Rasmussen (09:20) Look out for liquidated damages, that's no bueno, but better yet, find somebody that's just not gonna put you in a contract. Much easier. Kiera Dent (09:26) Yeah. And also like, okay, Mark, help me understand. And maybe you don't know because you guys don't do this and that's okay. But to me, it feels really funny that I signed a contract with them and there's got to be something in the fine print because I'm like, how did they go from what they told me to being able to add all these extra surcharges later on and increase it when we're in a contract? Mark Rasmussen (09:43) for sure it's in the fine print. yeah. It says that any, it basically says that any time at our discretion with 30 days notice, we can make an adjustment to any of your pre-schedule. And so they'll just do that. And then they'll just put a little message, you know, really small font in whatever kind of notification. And you know, in their minds, right? All right, well, we checked off the box. It's super shady. It sucks, but it's, you know, it's out there. Yeah. Kiera Dent (10:05) Yeah, it is what it is. And I would say they'll like look at it because two clients that were in contract, we were able to send over every person that I've sent to you guys have just loved who you are, that it's easy, that it's fast, that it's the cheapest processing. And there's a few other features that I think we should talk about. I feel like I'm on like a Moolah sales pitch right now. Like I'm truly not. I just get giddy. Like if you guys hear me talk about Swell, Mark Rasmussen (10:27) Ha Kiera Dent (10:30) was Zeke and Google reviews. I have a crush on Swell. They just do Google reviews better than anyone else. And right now, Moolah for sure, you guys are taking the cake on being able to do credit card processing better than any other company that I've come across, which I think is amazing. And so something else that I think is ratcheting fees on practices when we're looking for some of these cashflow leaks is on membership plans. Now, I'm a huge proponent of membership plans. I also think with the economy, with where insurance is reimbursing, ⁓ people are starting to look at like should we be going out of network? And my big proposal is, hey, yeah, of course, if you want to do that rock on, membership plans really can help with that. But ⁓ there are some membership companies that actually charge pretty outlandish fees. I never wanted to pay for that. I was scrappy in a practice. So what I did is I just charged the patient an annual fee. Well, that was like eight years ago that I was charging an annual fee. And I think you look at today's world, no one wants an annual fee anymore. They just want like a monthly fee and they want it to be low. Mark Rasmussen (11:02) for Right. Right. Kiera Dent (11:28) But managing that is nonsense on my own paying for it. And Moolah, like I've heard through the grapevine, you guys are doing something with membership fees. Can we talk about the membership plans? Talk about how you guys do th…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Kristy discuss how to best support patients during limited exams, including centering your own team's frame of mind, creating proper triage protocol, building trust through communication, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Tiffanie (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back today with some really, really exciting things. We speak to the doctors, we speak to the team side, and we really want that to come together in today's podcast. We've got a lot of information for you doctors, but then we've also got a lot of information for you to pass off and train your team members on or pass off this podcast, and we will help train your team members on this space just here within this podcast even. Jam-packed with a ton of information. It's for everyone. Team members, if you're here listening and your doctor's not a listener, vice versa, send it on over because I do think this is going to be some great information for everyone to start implementing right away. So you guys, I have Kristy here with me today. You know her, you love her. I know her, I love her. There's just no one on this earth that will meet her and not love her. So Kristy, you are just an amazing human being. are an excellent coach. and consultant. You've been doing this for many years and I am just constantly impressed by you and how you really work so well with doctors and especially team members. I've seen you really diffuse a lot of situations, handle with care, and you constantly make people feel seen and feel heard. So thank you for being here with me today, Kristy. And really before we pop into this, I'm going to I like to surprise you and Dana. Dana will tell you I do this a lot. So something pops into my head and I'm like, actually, that's gonna be really great. I think before we even get started on this, you guys, so that you know, we're gonna be really, we're gonna be talking about how to really, really maximize a limited or an emergency exam and how to enlist the team to support and getting the most out of it for yourself and for your patients. So before we get started, Kristy I would love for you to share with everyone here today and myself. on a couple of ideas or maybe even tools, I don't know, but how do you do so well at presenting yourself for other people to be able to feel so comfortable and the ability to allow people to be able to feel vulnerable in your space to be able to learn and to be able to make changes and impart changes with practices? Like, how is that? I know it's a natural tendency of yours, but if there's anything you can help doctors and team members really learn on how to show up so that they can do that too, I guess is what I'm asking. Kristy (02:35) I suppose you're right. I think it does come natural to me. I'm a pretty great listener yet. Also, I think it's very important to validate people where they're at and never make them feel small. You know, Tiff, I do not like being in the limelight, but I get a lot of thrill out of watching other people's growth or really watching them and seeing their brilliance within them and making that shine, bringing it out. I suppose I look again, it's meeting them where they're at, showing them maybe something different than they even thought possible for themselves and just touching on their brilliance. It's okay if we don't know everything right now, but dang, together we're gonna grow and we're gonna do this. So really just partnering with them and making them feel safe in that space, know, treating them like I would have wanted to be treated too. So, yeah. Tiffanie (03:30) Yeah, thank you. Thank you. And it sounds like for implement implementation tools, it's really seeing people and acknowledging. what it is that they're doing. if you've got a front office team member and you're like, gosh, like we've got 99 % of our patients confirmed for tomorrow, acknowledging that like, how did you do that? And really, like you said, partnering, I love that you use that word use it often, really partnering with that person and celebrating some of the things that they're doing really well. But also acknowledging there may be space for growth, we might have 99 % confirmations, but maybe we have three, four, five hygiene openings on the same day. So acknowledging spaces that are going really well, but also that there is growth in everyone to be found and how do we layer on top of what we're doing really well already to create change in all of the areas to get the results we're after. Yeah? Yeah, yeah. So I love that theory and idea and I love how you do handle that. I think it's key and Kristy (04:28) You nailed it. Tiffanie (04:36) imparting any kind of change or any kind of just updates even, right? Like handbook updates, like all of those pieces that are scary to go back to your team and say, hey, we're going to change this, we're going to do it differently, because human nature says, no, keep doing it the same. Even if it's not working, this is comfortable. So I want to stay here with what I already know. So really being able to have that candor and be able to have those conversations and utilize communication really well to be able to impart the the changes is going to be key. And then acknowledging once that change has happened, that it's working or not. So making sure we're tracking the results, but then also acknowledging the work that's being put in. think, Kristy, that's something you do really well is going back and saying, gosh, this is what we did. Look at how amazing these results are. This is what you guys put in. This is why it's working. And going back and re-acknowledging the steps that it's taking to do that. Huge massive kudos to you, Kristy. I know you don't love the spotlight, but we're on a podcast, so your spotlight is always with me. I do think that really flows right into being able to maximize the limited exam. Kristy (05:43) Yeah. Tiffanie (05:52) There's so many spaces, there's so many spaces of growth, there's so much space of support for the team to give to the patient and to the doctor. And then also, I think everything you just said, Kristy, for team members, for doctors and team members to utilize, this works hand in hand with our patient base as well. With anyone, you guys take this home to your family and just be shocked at how amazing your kids' rooms will look if you utilize those communication tools and really acknowledge them for. picking up that one stuffed animal when there's 15 more, like great, like let's get these other ones. So let's figure this out. Like really take these tools to any space of life, but it goes hand in hand with our patient communication as well. And the emergency slash limited exam space can be really tense for both of you. And it's a vulnerable space. Dentistry is a vulnerable space for patients anyways, but then knowing that gosh. 100 % something is wrong. Like, I'm stressed. I don't I'm stressed about cost. I'm stressed about what this is going to be. Is my tooth savable? Is it going to hurt? maybe it hurts now. There's so much emotion wrapped around these appointments that we've really got to handle them with care, love, candor, all of those spaces. Like Kristy like how is Kristy, put that in your head, what will Kristy do? How Kristy handle this this communication? And how can your team support you in getting the best results and outcome for your patients? And Kristy, you and I were just chatting right before this and really talking about like the triage, incoming call, because we always say everything, right? Everything starts with the call. But how can that, in your opinion, Kristy, how can the front office team member taking that phone call, how can they support? the back office dental assistant's hygienist doctor in that appointment. What's that first step look like for them to truly support this patient in getting the best care possible? Kristy (07:47) I love how you talked about the limited exam in the very beginning and opportunity. think number one, that's where we need to go. And also you mentioned about supporting them. They need us. And many times, I mean, you've been in the practice just like I have. You've been an assistant too when that limited exam has messed up your day and it just, you know. Again, it maybe didn't make for a real positive day, but truly I think taking a step back and looking at it a little bit differently, really we all got into dentistry at the heart of it for some reason to care for other people. And yes, while it may mess up our day, those people truly are the ones that need us, probably the most, right? And so taking that step back and putting that frame of mind, when that phone call comes in. And like you said, also triaging it, right? Sometimes it truly isn't the emergency that the patient thinks it is. So having a set protocol or questions that we can ask on the front, you know, I'll share with you. I love the, a scale of one to 10, how bad is it hurting today? And on that same scale of one to 10, you know, have you taken anything for it and where does it land when you take something on that same scale? Because if they're at a nine for pain, but they take something and it subsides to a five, I may have a little bit of time to get them in and not necessarily mess up my schedule, right? But if it's a nine and nothing's helping, know, yeah, we got to find the best, worst, worst, best time, however you say that, to put them in. But really, it's an opportunity to make a difference for them and truly do what we- Tiffanie (09:34) I'm sorry. Kristy (09:44) What we love to do is care for people, right? And hopefully make a different outcome for them. So on the first call, we can make a difference. We can triage it to also help the best, but also take great care of the patient. Tiffanie (09:58) Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. And that triage you guys I would I would create I mean, I have them we can send them to you Hello@TheDentalATeam.com just ask us for them. I would create an intake card, an intake form. And what I used to do actually, when I was in the in the front office at my dental practice, I had it on like a sticky note or a card, it was laminated and it was up by my computer so that I would ask those questions and what I would do and what I encourage team members to do. is to throw it into the notes section of the appointment. So how long has it hurt? Like Kristy said, on a scale of one to 10, what would you rate your pain today? Are you taking anything for it over the counter or otherwise? Have you ever had this looked at before? Is this the first time that this has occurred? And really, and what is it? What area of the mouth? What is happening? What are your symptoms? And then now we can, that's a triage to be able to say, okay, where does this appointment go? I do have to say there are so many practices, so many dentists that reach out and they're like, Tiff, Kristy, Kiera, Dana, Britt, like on my schedule is nuts. And I can think of a doctor in specific that one of our first calls, he's like, Tiff, I have like 10 limited appointments a day. And my if you called me today to schedule my limited availability is two weeks out. And I was like, what? That's wild. Like there's I have so many questions right now. Like, why are patients not getting treatment done? Are these new patients? It's so many questions like that is wild to me. And that's the extreme but I definitely have doctors who are like, hey, I've got I've got limited emergency exams air quotes there if you're listening in the car that are coming in and it's like, well, I had a filling done a week ago and it's still high. Okay. we didn't triage then to figure out what the actual quote unquote emergency is. That's an office visit y'all. Like that's a, you know what, great, let's get you in where we can to get that adjusted. But I'm saving this spot here for someone who's in pain because they have a toothache, right? And I get you, I hear you team members, a high filling is going to cause pain. Yes, get them in. Don't make them wait a week. Don't make them wait two weeks. Get them in. But the patient who calls if their face is swollen or their tooth has fractured or they just got into an accident. I had a kid that fell at baseball practice and knocked his tooth out or broken. These, guys, how are we getting these patients in? So being able to triage that and asking the right questions ahead of time is gonna help you to manipulate the schedule accurately and really, like Kristy said, get those patients in where they need to be seen. And I have oftentimes myself taken phone calls that a patient is like... You don't understand, I gotta get in and I'm like, okay, great. Like, let's talk through this. Let's let's talk about what you've got going on. And I'm like, okay, like it's 355. And you're all you're gonna survive. Let's get you in at 8am. Let's get you in at 9am with the doctor, we're going to be ready for you. We're going to be able to do treatment, we're going be able to do something to get you out of pain tomorrow. let's get you in in the morning, right? Because it's like, okay, on the scale of I know dental emergencies, the person calling me doesn't have that same scale. And so to them, what they are experiencing is massive. But when the grand scheme of things to ask a team to stay late, probably not, and you can survive until tomorrow morning, right? So you get to triage these things and make the best schedule for you all. and then also prep the team, you guys. I mentioned at the beginning that I'm putting all of those things in the appointment notes because I then want my dental assistant to be able to say, my gosh, Kristy. Kristy (13:37) Thank Tiffanie (13:49) Come on back, like let's get you taken care of. And then on the walk even, used to, as a dental assistant, I'd be like, Kristy, gosh, how are you feeling it? From the notes here, it looks like that upper right tooth is really bothering you. How are you doing? And I'm sitting Kristy down and I'm putting her bib on and I'm like, tell me more about it. It looks like you're taking ibuprofen and it's kind of reducing it. Have you tried anything else? Like now we're in conversation and Kristy, how does it feel on the other side to be like, my gosh, great. They already, they took the information yesterday and now we're actually, we're in conversation about it. And Kristy, from your point of view, how does that conversation utilizing the information, which caveat you guys, if your front office team is putting the information in there and you're not using it, they're gonna stop putting it in there. And then you're gonna be upset that it's not in there. So make sure you're using it. But Kristy, from the patient standpoint and from your point of view, your perspective, how do you feel that conversation? lands for the patient in respect to going back to what we talked about earlier with the communication. How does that help that open that space in those lines? Kristy (14:54) Yeah, I love that you bring that up because it is a true opportunity to make a huge difference and it really does elevate the patient's level of trust and we have to remember that those patients coming in on emergency are probably…
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