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#897: How to Cross-Train Your Positions Oct 02, 2024

Show notes

Kiera talks about why it's so critical to have two people in each department who know everything backward and forwards, as well as how to train team members to become those position experts.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.792)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I, you guys. I hope today is just a great day for you. hope that life is positive for you. I hope that you are choosing to find happiness. And there's a really cool quote today that I'm looking at on the day I'm recording. It's by Jim Rohn. And he said, we must all suffer one of two things, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment. And I thought about that because they say discipline weighs ounces, regret weighs.

weighs tons. And I hope that you are disciplined in your thoughts, disciplined in what you focus on, disciplined in what you consume, discipline on the people you associate with and realizing that you're the creator of your life. You're not the manager of the circumstances that come your way and truly owning that role that we are all blessed and given to create the practice we want to be, to create the life we want to live.

to not blame people for when things are happening, maybe to us and realizing what role did we play in that and how can we better ourselves. And it's a crazy world to live in. It's a crazy space. And I think honestly, right now it's a game of mental stamina. I think that that's the world we're living in. I think we've conquered so many things. We've conquered washing our clothes and our dishes and...

Like shoot, even Instacart, like you can get groceries delivered, you can get food delivered. We've conquered so many things and we've been blessed with so much that I think now it's the game of mental resilience. And how do we become the people that we want to be? We've got so much time. We have so much time available to us. And I know we often don't think we do, but I attended a conference recently and you know, we've got 24 hours in a day. So in one week, that's going to be 168 hours. All right. So let's say we are working.

40 hour work week, but let's add in some drive time. So I'll give you 50 hours of that for a work week. All right. And then let's say that we are sleeping, eight hours a day. Okay. So every day. And I'm also going to give you, so we're going to say that's 56 hours of sleep time per week. Plus we're also saying that we've got 50 hours of work time. That's 106 hours a week. Okay. 106. That's a 50 hour work week. It's also giving you 56 hours. So eight hours of sleep a night.

Kiera Dent (02:17.838)

All right, and we have 24 hours in a day. So that's 106 hours. That means we are still left after our sleep and after our work. We are left with 62 hours in a week. Now, if I divide that by seven, that gives you 8 .8 hours of time. And I've taken out sleep and I've taken out work. And now you might say, well, Kiera, we've got two hours of this. But I just thought that's a lot of time.

That's a lot of time. have 62 hours of time. And my question is, what are we doing with that time? We have the time and how are we able, are we, are we doomsday scrolling? Are we consuming things that maybe aren't feeding our souls? Are we working out and honoring our bodies? Are we spending time in connection with friends? Are we allowing our lives to just pass us by? Are we intentionally planning them? And I just think that that's something

so interesting to think about. I had no idea, because I think I'm so into this, like, I'm so busy and I'm so exhausted and this and that. And I'm like 62 hours. That's 8 .8 hours a day beyond sleeping a full night's rest and working more than a 40 hour work week that I still have eight hours. And what am I doing with that? And so I really just think you guys like, think about that. What are we doing? How are we spending our time?

And are we truly creating our lives or are we just managing them? So thinking about that and with that, I'm excited for today's topic. I think it'll be a fun one for you. And that's on, I think to just give you guys like, again, let's tie it into our work weeks because also in our work weeks, how much time are we actually spending maybe on things that aren't moving the needle forward that are maybe just busy tasks? It's so crazy. I'm super excited. I attended an amazing time planning.

event and I'm excited because I'm starting to morph and build. I've taken some time to build something out for dentistry and I'm super freaking jazzed because I woke up one night and I said, dentistry is my platform, life is my passion. And I'm so obsessed in our consulting to give you the tips and the resources to shortcut your way to success, to give you the life that you ultimately want. And so this is going to be a piece where maybe let's look at what we're spending our time on at work.

Kiera Dent (04:39.95)

Could we chunk things together? Could we be more efficient with it? Can we chunk things in our own life? But this is going to help you too. The question was asked of how do we cross train and build a versatile and adaptable team? And I think that this is a great space to give back more time, to give you guys more resources. And I'm not like the biggest fan of cross training. I sometimes think that too many, too many, I don't know, I want to say noodles, because that's what I think of when I go into a front office, I'm like, my gosh, this is like a bowl of spaghetti and everybody's like crossed over each other.

and it's just wild and it's messy and it feels like a spaghetti bowl where everything's not clear. And I enjoy clarity. think clear is kind. think people understanding what their job is to do and not always having everything smashed together in our company. Even it's like every person can do all the different things, but then ultimately who's responsible for it. so sometimes I'm not crazy about cross training, but I also love to have my perspective has been, I want to have at least two people who know how to do everything within my team.

So for every position, so two people who can schedule insanely well and know all the protocols for it, two people within treatment coordinating, two people within office management, two people within billing, and they can be the same people. So it can be like maybe Sarah knows office management, treatment coordinating and scheduling. So in case Maggie is out, I always have a backup to every single position. So two hygienists, two dental assistants, doctors are a bit trickier. You guys are, you tend to be okay on your own, but really looking for

And so the way we cross train is sometimes what I do is I actually will, we'll shake it up for two or four hours, one day a month or one day, a quarter people switch roles and you just get a pick and roll. Obviously licenses, you have to be careful. So sometimes you have to switch positions within licenses. They're okay. But for two or four hours, that person switches and they become someone else. And what happens is you actually become very appreciative. You become very aware.

of what that person's doing in that role. And you are also able to find gaps in different things that can maybe make it easier. I'm also really big on an operations manual. That's why we have operations manuals that we've created that you can buy on TheDentalATeam .com. It's a 750 page one that's broken down into every single person's position with onboarding documents, end of day checklist, accountability agreements, 30, 60, 90 day onboarding docs, and then also what protocols I usually recommend for every single position.

Kiera Dent (07:01.996)

I purposely did not build the protocols for you. have a ton of verbiage in there, but every software is different. Every practice does it a little bit differently. so having you guys have the template of exactly how to build it and then you guys can build it. But I'm super obsessed with making sure that you guys have that. That way you're able to, if Sarah's out or Maggie's out or Tiffany's out, someone can actually go snag the manual and I've got what they do every day. And literally there's videos with

or there's other things that they can follow. So in our company, we have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks. So if someone was out, we have their checklist of what do they need to do for the daily? What do they need to do for the weekly? What do they need to do for the monthly? And we are a virtual company. We're not together, so I can't have printed manuals for people, or we haven't chosen to, but we have it all hyperlinked with videos and also written protocols. So no matter what, if someone's out, they should be able to go onto the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and be able to perform that position.

I also like two people that know how to do everything. So two people know how to do payroll. Two people know how to do our commission reports for our consultants, of like doctors getting paid on production. We have two people that know how to hire. We have two people that know how to place the ads. We have two people that know how to do everything. So no matter what, people also have the freedom to leave. And I know some team members can get protective of their position. like, I don't want people to know because I don't want them to ever replace me. And for me,

What I do is I just believe that that way people can go on vacations. People can have time off. People can do the things that they want to do. And there's multiple people trained to do their position. So I think cross training and building a versatile team. If you really want to dial it in, would do number one, I would have your operations manual completed and like, let's at least get that done. And at least the daily tasks for every position and the weekly tasks. So people at least know what to do and let's have those in a readily available spot. So everybody can use that. Number two, what I would do is I would definitely

whether it's weekly, monthly or quarterly, whatever you choose, I would definitely cross train. And so I would have certain skillsets where we train and not just having people passively watch, but actively engage. if we're going to cross train everybody to be able to schedule, we do a relay races or we have everybody up there, or we have people call in that are our team members calling and they have to schedule it appropriately. but whatever you can do to get them to role plan. know role playing is I did a podcast, gosh, years ago. And I was like, you think role playing is dumb.

Kiera Dent (09:22.178)

Role -playing allows you to practice. So when we're put into that position, we actually don't have to think about it. It can become automatic. And that's what we do. Think about firefighters. They practice fire. So when a fire comes, they actually know how to do it. Think about back in elementary school, and it was like fire drills or earthquake drills. And now they're shooting drills. And people, like, we want you to become automatic. And that's why we do the drills and the role -play. It's what becomes automatic. It becomes automatic of what I say when I answer in schedule. It becomes automatic of how I present a treatment plan.

Not that everything is automatic, but I don't have to think about it. And takes a thinking out of it and allows it to be a little more coast mode for your brain because you've practiced it so many times. So practicing that and training and I'm training the whole team. I used to rotate because there's three departments really, and there's three months and a quarter. And you can have each department actually train on something that would be super helpful if everybody in the whole team knew how to do it. So for example, if your state allows teaching your team to be able to do a sterilization.

And so it's like simple sero or being able to break a room down, obviously up to standard and up to code. but we had our clinical team train our whole team on it and everybody practiced and everybody did it and everybody got passed off. So that way, if we were running behind, people could help each other out. The front office, they really needed help getting recare and reactivation. So for that month, we had a reactivation and recare challenge where everybody was making the phone calls

We're every single day or every single week talking about who is doing the best and what things people were doing and making it into a fun game and who was the goat and who, who did the best and who was the sizzle champion. Those types of things can be super, super fun to get your team on board, to be able to, just help each other out into cross train. Because again, I'm big and sticky that I want two people for every single position to know what to do. Then I'm never afraid.

People are allowed to take vacations, if we're not scared and stressed out, and then to have that daily, weekly, monthly checklist. That way nothing ever goes and gets missed. Have the videos, it's very fast, you guys. have Loom is my favorite. You can also use, there's so many different softwares out there. Take quick videos of things. They don't have to be perfect, and I think done is better than perfect in this scenario. And then have people rotate positions, have people try out the different roles, have people that are not in that position.

Kiera Dent (11:37.774)

try it out and see if can they, can they follow the protocol and get the same results? And if not, let's fix it. Let's update it. But those are really great ways for you guys to cross train and build that versatile train. But with that said, make sure that there's very strong specifics. Who does what? So it's not getting crossed. It's not getting lapsed. It's not getting confusing. Let's make sure that's super clear for them. That way everybody has clear expectations. People feel like they can win and they can succeed. We also can help each other out because we've been cross -trained.

If we can help you guys in any way, I'm obsessed with doing this. I'm obsessed with helping teams get ops manuals done, helping you guys have that success.

Kiera Dent (12:25.484)

you

Kiera Dent (12:32.992)

If we can help in any way we're always here to help you guys and as always thanks for listening I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast

#896: Roadmapping Your Goals Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Tiff and Dana talk about setting yourself up for success, goal edition. When you begin to work toward your dreams for your practice, do you take an all-encompassing approach? This episode focuses on creating a roadmap for those goals to make them easier to reach. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.422) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am here with you today with Miss Dana and we are so excited to chat with you. We've got a couple of things we're working on today and chatting future is one of them today. And I absolutely love these kinds of conversations and these planning conversations. And Dana, we were just talking about it yesterday with this content we're gonna deliver today. And I think it was just divine timing. How are you, Dana? How is your month going? We're rounding out to the end of the year. How are things looking over there in your world? And your hair, by the way, looks amazing if you guys are watching this today. I've told you before, she's a hair genius. Here we are again with awesome hair. But Dana, how are you today? Dana (00:44.49) Thanks, I'm doing good. I'm blessing it like my hair takes me two minutes to do because it's so thin. So that's the only reason why it's really ever done is because it's quick. The Dental A Team (00:50.865) Fair and same. -huh. I totally, I totally understand that. Awesome. Well, guess what, guys? We are here today with some incredible, incredible ideas. And I say that because we thought of them and I think we're incredible, but also because we love prepping and planning. We, we live in a reactive world in general, like just the world in general is a very reactive world and a reactive space. But dentistry itself is incredibly reactive. And I explained this to clients and teams constantly where like our jobs are literally to find the problems that have already happened, right? So we're not always preventative for sure. We love preventative care. We love trophies and you know, paramedicine and fluoride and sealants and yes, that is a space but how often do we push that preventative like I know I'm talking to hygienists and teams constantly about fluoride and adult sealants and like gosh, you guys, these are preventative measures that help but more often than not, we're in the reactive space where something's already happened, and we're completing treatment, we're diagnosing things that are issues. And so when we have a space of life where we can talk proactivity, I think that's a space that us as consultants at the Dental A Team, we love and we thrive on that because we want you to walk into this world prepared, we want you to feel like you have a plan and like you know where you're going. And that way when the The little things come in, the little roadblocks, the rock in the road that somebody kicked up and it hit your windshield. When those windshield cracks happen and that rock in the road happens, it's like, okay, this is a small detour, but I know where I'm going. Whereas if we don't have that direction, we don't have that plan, those rocks in the road kicked up and hit in our windshield is like, it's the end of the world. Like, all right, here we go, another broken windshield. I don't know, I live in Phoenix, so. The Dental A Team (02:48.874) I've replaced my windshield many times in last three years and so it may hit home for me. It's very frustrating, but I feel like gosh, this is that space where we can really make a difference and make an impact on life and Dana, we're into Q4 now. We're rounding out the end of the year and I know you work with a lot of clients virtually and a lot of the group coaching that we do here at the Dental A Team and how are you helping? Dana (02:48.96) You The Dental A Team (03:15.836) your clients to really just finish out this year strong right now and then we'll talk about some more preparation stuff but how are you helping them to really finish out this year strong. Dana (03:26.122) Yeah, and I think it is similar topic as to where we're going to get to in a little bit and that is where did you want to be? Right? Like where did you want to be by the end of the year? And how can we ensure that all the parts and pieces are getting you there? So really just taking a look at where we are, where we want it to be by the end of the year, and how can we maybe reconfigure some goals, look at our gaps, look at the pieces that will essentially push us to where we want it to be the easiest, the fastest, the most efficient. The Dental A Team (03:57.125) I love that. we just last month wrapped up in September, we wrapped up our webinar series, our four pillars. And Dana, you speaking to that reminds me like those were really our first two days of that free webinar series that we had, which if you guys missed it in September, don't worry, it'll be back around again next year. And we do have free webinars every month. I hope you guys know that. We talked about those pieces, knowing where you were wanting to go, where do you want to go? What did you want to end that? And where are you currently? So really, you're talking about, you know, with your clients finding that gap, right, like finding where we wanted to end where we are, so we can see what needs to happen in the next three months, two and a half months, wherever you're at now, what needs to happen to ensure that we get to those goals, and then really tracking it. So I know day one of that, you know, webinar says was really that gap and finding it. And day two is all about the numbers and being able to track it. And I think you're totally right as making sure that we're looking at those, but then making sure that we're tracking it along the way. Because even if today we do the numbers and we see what the gap is and we don't look at it again until the end of the year, you're likely, like in my opinion, you're more likely to still be off and not hit the goal. If you don't look at it in between, then you are to hit the goal. Even though you may have built a plan today for the next two and a half, three months. If you're not checking it and tracking it, you're likely going to get off somewhere or not know that you took a detour. It's like, it's like driving across the country without having your Google maps on, right? Or your Apple maps and just saying, you know what, this road feels right. And not realizing like now you're at the Canadian border and you are supposed to be in New York, right? And like, you it's a small detour, but you didn't realize you were on there until it's the end. And you're like, wait, this isn't this isn't the state that I was supposed to be in. Where am I at? So I love that. It's really, really, really brilliant. And we push all of our clients to do that. And we push all of our clients to not only look at what this year was going to be and what that gap is, but now is the time to really start prepping and planning for next year, which sounds kind of weird, I think most The Dental A Team (06:12.517) practices, most practice owners and business owners are used to like January, but I learned in consulting, it's really hard to build out those goals when your full team meeting or your full business planning meeting is like January 17th, you're already halfway through the month of January and now you've got a gap to make up. Right? So I think we learned really, really early on to start those conversations in November and December, project where you're likely going to be and take it off of what Dana said now, like where were you headed? Where's your end of year headed? What was that goal? Build goals off of that. So Dana, I know you work a lot with, like I said, a lot of different clients and right now you're working on that piece of that gap, but now we're pushing. clients as well to really look at what next year looks like. And we usually say right seven to 10 % growth, I say 10 % is freaking fantastic, right? If you can go above and beyond that, a lot of our early in their stages practices can go way above that. I've seen 25 % even just because you're you're growing right now. But that 7 % is our minimum because of inflation, you guys you have to have to have to account for inflation. that also, that means your goals need to be bigger. That means your fees need to increase. That means all of those pieces need to change. But Dana, with that, as we're growing, one piece I don't think we always remember or always think about prepping and planning for is the amount of people that it's going to take to encompass that growth, right? So we're pushing it and a lot of spaces we say, gosh, We need to make X amount of dollars more next year. And that means X amount of hygiene appointments or that 30 % of the production coming from hygiene could mean an entire additional day or half day a week even of hygiene that we're just looking and saying, well, we need to make this in production, but we might not be backtracking. Do you see that Dana with clients too? And as we've learned to grow and build goals. The Dental A Team (08:31.774) more and more and more even just in our careers, I think we see that that space too, Dana. Do you see that where it's like, gosh, push, push, push, push, push. And then it's like, wait a second, I didn't even realize to stop and think where that was going to come from. Dana (08:44.544) Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I do. And and to like, who it's going to come from, right? Because we can push, push, push that we need X amount of hygiene. But can your current hygienist take on all of that additional capacity? And so I think that when you when you build out goals, or you say, this is where I want to be by a certain point, it's really important to look at it from all of those angles and say, Okay, at what point are we going to need additional technology, additional team members, additional The Dental A Team (08:49.632) Mm -hmm. The Dental A Team (08:54.314) Yes. Dana (09:14.518) supplies, additional whatever that looks like to get to X, Y, and Z seamlessly. The Dental A Team (09:20.865) Yeah, I love that idea. So I want to talk today about a client of mine that I've worked with for a little while. They are just an amazing power couple. gosh, three years ago, I would say three years ago, we sat down and we said, Okay, what do want your life to look like in one year, three years, five years, 10 years, right? And we really broke it down and The most common way to do this is one, three and 10, right? But I wanted that five year mark in there as well, because I think it made a difference for them. And so we really said, gosh, what do you want this to look like? And I, and I speak about them because their story, it just hits so hard for me. And it has been so incredible to watch them take the plan that we developed together, put it into action and create this incredible life for not only themselves, you guys, but their team and to watch the team participate in this and understand it because the communication was there throughout the full team as we built this out. Their goal was always to expand. And when I first met them, it was like a one year plan. That was as far as we could consider was a one year plan. We can't look past that because we couldn't dream to believe yet. And their one year plan was to if we have to add an operatory, but the building is kind of it's kind of wonky. So realistically, we only have space to add one more operatory and that was taking away from the patient waiting area, right? The patient lobby. So they did that. I see they, you know, that one year that they were like, we need to do this. said, then do it like, yeah, your production requires it. You're you need another hygienist. Like you've got for what we're trying to gain for even where you are today, you need that room to continue the path you're on. So that was as far as we could see was how do we continue the path we're even currently on, let alone grow. So they did it, we did it, we got the operatory, it's beautiful, the lobby was redone, it's gorgeous, the practice looks fantastic. And then they said, but now we're in this chokehold, can't do anything more and I want to do more. I want an associate, I wanna do more surgeries, I wanna do surgery days, I only wanna work three and a half days. The Dental A Team (11:38.462) per week, which then turned into, that's my three year goal. My five and 10 year goal is like two to two and a half days. So we started peeling it back and we started once they were able to see the capacity for where they were at and see, gosh, that fulfilled where we are and I can sustain that, but I wanna reach the community more. And the passion behind this dentist, you guys, this practice owner is so incredible. He serves, He serves a community that doesn't have a lot of places to go. His community and his area is a very special community and they love him. And my first visit ever with this team and my first conversations, they were like, Tiff, like we are the at -home dentist and we want to grow and expand to continue providing for more and more people. So we have to get bigger. But our biggest goal is to maintain the relationships, maintain the small town. feel and be the at home dentist. And they said, we've got this, we can totally do this and we have, and we built these years out. So at that point, we said, okay, what does three years look like? What is five years? What does 10 years look like? And the three years was very, it was simple because it was, you know, an associate and this and the five years and the 10 years got a little bit more grandiose, but we realized we needed more space. So they started looking for buildings. But we, built out, this is the space that we would need to encompass what you want to do to keep the production increasing in the collections, increasing to reach the community. We need X amount of chairs. Like we need this many rooms, this many hygiene. This is the space we need. So it's time to look for a building. It's time to, it's time to put our, you know, our pedal to the metal and start looking for a building. And in the meantime, let's plan and prep for what this is going to look like from a team perspective. because what we tend to do is we say, gosh, we need an associate, let's get an associate. And we start vetting associates. And then we're like, shoot, we found somebody, they're gonna start in a month or they're gonna start in two weeks or whatever. And then you're like, shoot, we need assistance, but we don't wanna hire assistance too early. So we didn't think about the assistance and now we're in this space and we're like, gosh, wait, they're gonna need more exams. And we get in this space of frantic hiring and desperate hiring instead of hiring for need. The Dental A Team (14:02.906) So what we were able to do and what I want you guys to really take a look at is look at that one, three and 10 at least, but backtrack then in three years, if you're going to have an associate or an additional associate, how many team members need to be there to support that associate? So our plan was at this state, we onboard an associate. At this state, we start vetting associates. It can take time. You guys know that. So we backtracked it and said, This is the date, this is the year…

Full show notes at the publisher

#895: HR 101: Classify Your Employees Correctly (Or Else) Sep 26, 2024

Show notes

Paul Edwards, HR extraordinaire and founder of CEDR, breaks down with Kiera the classification of employees from a federal perspective. He touches on how to know if you're classifying employees right, where state laws come into play, what happens when there are penalties, and more. Episode resources: Learn more about CEDR Join the CEDR Facebook group: HR Base Camp Listen to episode 574, How to Stop Having Turnover Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.622) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited to be having one of my favorite guests here today with us, Paul Edwards. He is the CEO and founder of CEDR my favorite dental HR company. And I am so jazzed because there have been some things like roaming in politics, roaming around this globe that I felt like Paul would be the best one to bring on the podcast and kind of shed some light on what should employers be looking at? What can we be doing to keep ourselves protected? So Paul, welcome to the show. How are you today? Paul Edwards (00:29.046) Kiera you are so full of energy. I'm good, I'm good. And I'm excited to kind of do a little HR nerding today on your podcast. Thanks for inviting us, I appreciate it. Kiera Dent (00:31.254) Yeah. Kiera Dent (00:39.966) Absolutely. When I heard some of the things coming to the table, I just thought, gosh, I've got to reach out to Paul. We've got to have some fun geeking because HR is not my specialty and that is definitely your specialty. And so wanting to just make sure that we really dove into this. So the reason I reached out to Paul, if you guys haven't heard, we definitely have linked other podcasts for you guys. So be sure to check them out. Paul and I have been on the podcast a few times. CEDR is the number one recommended HR dental company. I refer all the time because Paul Edwards (00:44.651) Mm Kiera Dent (01:08.118) Paul, you guys just make people's lives so much easier. have offices that use you and they're like, I'm so grateful for CEDR. And kudos to you guys as newsletters. Like I click on every newsletter you guys send out because the topics are so relevant. So if people don't know about CEDR before we kick into this, just like Paul, can you tell them a little bit about who CEDR is so they can get those newsletters as well? And then we're going to dive into some juicy political topics that are on the HR ballot today. Paul Edwards (01:17.622) Thanks. Paul Edwards (01:31.226) yeah, okay, so for everybody out there, CEDR, C -E -D -R Solutions, you can find our website. If you go to our website and you input your name into one of the forms, what you end up doing is putting yourself into our education community. So unlike other companies where you start getting phone calls and everybody's trying to sell you something, we'd love to have you as a client, but as a precursor to that, if you're just out there and you want HR education, we want you in our community, and that's what you're talking about, Kiera. The reason why you like those newsletters. is because we have 3 ,000 members across the entire country and they're asking us to help them solve these HR problems. And so we use those questions to create our roundups because they're literally and actually what's going on in the world today. what we do for our members is we provide you two components. Compliance, so when you have a problem with an employee, almost any problem, there's some kind of law, rule, or regulation that probably regulates, which can and can't do, and they can be everything from local, county, city, and it goes all the way up to the feds. So we can help you solve a problem taking two looks at it. The first look is compliance, what does the law say we have to do, and the second thing is what we call the human side. which is we're working with human beings and you can call a lawyer and say, what would I do about this? And they'd say, fire her. But that lawyer doesn't have any experience of what it's like to replace her, to train her, to lose all of your investment in somebody. And so we take that very human approach and we have a group of experts here who get on the phone with you through email. We have all kinds of resources and we help you solve your HR problems. Kiera Dent (02:56.574) Mm Kiera Dent (03:16.628) Absolutely. They're incredible. It's like, what do I do when my employee wants to take over time or if my employee didn't show up or I feel like your guys's education is so telling. I can tell you got your audience very dialed in. And so it's very informative and truly my office managers and doctors who you see there feel so confident in being able to make decisions versus offices who don't have you in their back pocket. They're like, Kiera, what are we supposed to do? I'm like, this is where you check into your state laws. Paul Edwards (03:30.016) We do, yeah. Kiera Dent (03:45.862) reach out to your lawyer because every state is different. So that's why I just am obsessed about you guys. I think you guys do an incredible service for the dental community. So massive thanks and appreciation. So definitely recommend everybody get in that educational resource because I just think it helps you. Even things that you might not be thinking about, I think you guys do a great job of spurring and educating, which hopefully today's podcast also does. So, So what I reached out to you originally was I Paul Edwards (03:46.015) Yeah. Paul Edwards (04:07.86) That's exactly what we're gonna do today. Kiera Dent (04:14.72) this whole NDA thing came up of what's going to happen if the NDA bill passes and an NDA is a non -disclosure and then there's the non -competes as well. What happens with doctors, especially with associates being able to go and work for practices that are so close to them. And so I just want to reach out. I know this is actually going to not be our juiciest topic for you guys. have a juicier one coming, but Paul, if you could kind of just shed some light on what does that look like? Where does that kind of stand in legislation? Paul Edwards (04:35.669) No. Kiera Dent (04:43.114) and what should practices know about this. Paul Edwards (04:45.376) So the FTC wrote a rule that wanted to get rid of, ostensibly get rid of all non -competes. I mean, there were a few that could survive, but they ostensibly wanted to get rid of them. And their stated reason was that it was tamping down employees' abilities to be mobile, to be able to change jobs, move someplace else. And not a terrible argument, but not a good overall general argument. Kiera Dent (04:55.435) Mm Paul Edwards (05:14.486) Predictably, that rule was challenged in both the Florida court and I think two Texas courts. I'll just cut to the chase, everybody. The judges involved in those cases put a, the ones in Texas put a stay on it, which means, legalese -wise, that just means they put a big pause button on it and said, you know, the parties involved, including the federal government, are gonna have to come back and argue some more in favor of this. And we kind of could see that that's what was gonna happen and that's what happened. So based on some recent Supreme Court rulings and stuff that's going on out there in the world, in the legal world, this thing has been paused and I don't see it unpausing for months, possibly years and maybe, Kiera, never. So it's just, it's not a thing anymore. Kiera Dent (05:47.734) Mm Kiera Dent (06:01.672) Yeah, which is such a great thing. And again, when I reached out to you, our schedules couldn't quite align for us to get there. And it was like really hot. And I know a lot of doctors were concerned about that because agreed. Everybody was like, this is going to be very impactful because the reality is I don't think any employer truly wants to hurt. mean, I'm sure there's some out there, but generally the dentist, they don't want to prevent other doctors from being able to go get another job. That's not what it is. Paul Edwards (06:08.939) Hmm? Paul Edwards (06:12.82) We were freaking out. Yeah. Yeah. Paul Edwards (06:23.232) Hmm? Kiera Dent (06:29.51) what they don't want to do is set their practice up to where all those patients could be pulled very easily to another location because that's really like that doctor who hired these associates took the risk and they don't want to have the greatest asset of that practice as patient base being able to be lifted out. And I think that that's where the argument's at. Paul Edwards (06:45.29) That's, yeah, that's precisely, that's precisely correct. And really it was gonna be damaging. And since it's not going into effect, we don't have to go too far into it, but it was really gonna be damaging in ways that the federal government didn't understand or didn't seem to perceive. They could have put written a different kind of rule and put a lot more limits on it. And by the way, non -competes are very limiting. Kiera Dent (07:00.886) Sure. Paul Edwards (07:10.838) There's a lot of limits and some states won't let you have them. Other states that will let you have them say you have to have these specific provisions in them. It can't be too broad. It can't be designed to punish someone for leaving. You you put 30 miles in your non -compete and you're in downtown Chicago and your non -compete is probably going to become invalid. You know, but you put four blocks and that'd be a different story. So like all things and I'll bring it all the way back to HR, the details matter. Kiera Dent (07:11.242) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (07:22.56) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (07:28.585) Right. Kiera Dent (07:34.697) Absolutely. Paul Edwards (07:40.436) Right? It really matters. But for now, we don't have to worry about this. Kiera Dent (07:41.1) Mm -hmm. For sure. Which is great. And that's really what I wanted to bring you on because I know it was really hot and it was really scary and it was, what are we going to do? And that's where I like to have this podcast be up and coming. so Paul, there actually are a few other things that I do think are really going to impact that people should be aware of. And that's this 1099 world, hygienists, associate doctors, like kind of this world, which I think strategy wise from the business's standpoint is it's hard to hire. Paul Edwards (07:58.762) Mm Kiera Dent (08:10.732) It's hard to hire right now. It's been hard to hire since I think 2020. think all of us are still feeling that. And so I don't blame employers for trying to get creative and think outside the box. However, with that asterisk, legalities and payroll and how we hire can really truly impact a practice and do some pretty serious damage if not done correctly. I've seen some class action lawsuits. I've seen big lawsuits. 1099s and misclassification of employees is a very big deal. So Paul, this is your world bigger than it is mine. I just have a very strict lawyer on me. So that's the only reason that I know, because I used to do it pre -COVID. We were in a 1099 world. And I remember my lawyer called me and he said, Kiera, you're welcome to do whatever you want to do. He said, but I just want you to know. He said, I just want you to know that this can become a federal offense on you if it goes. And I was like, Paul Edwards (08:47.7) Mm Paul Edwards (08:54.641) Such a lawyer thing to say. Kiera Dent (09:03.466) So I draw the line, I'm cool to stay in gray, but I'm not okay to go to federal prison. So that's like where I draw lines. But Paul, please, not to scare anybody, but to educate about where this can come into fact and how can especially employers protect themselves in this world. Paul Edwards (09:07.946) Yeah. Paul Edwards (09:19.434) Well, look, the first thing that I want to tell everybody is that you might not know this, but I think you might know it, but I'm going to put it for you in kind of stark terms. As the employer, it is your responsibility for you to classify your workers properly. They really don't get they, your employees, your prospective employees, don't get to make that decision. They cannot make that decision for you. And so there's a set of rules. there's two sets of rules actually. The IRS has a set of rules, they call it the test, and the Department of Labor has a set of rules, and incidentally they call theirs the test too. And if you put the two rules up with all of the little things in the test, and there's many, many bullet points in each test that says if this is true, if this is true, if this is not true, and you go through the whole thing, there's a lot of crossover talk there. So that's, I guess, to some degree, it's beneficial. Kiera Dent (10:07.009) Mm. Kiera Dent (10:15.436) Sure. Paul Edwards (10:16.042) But what I do want to say to everybody is that if you use the test or don't use the test, whatever you do, if you violate this rule that we're talking about, you can be committing tax fraud and you can also be breaking the law when it comes to the Department of Labor. And so it's kind of a double whammy. And here's the important part, Kiera, is that you're leaving a paper trail behind that you cannot defeat. Kiera Dent (10:34.305) Mm Paul Edwards (10:43.104) So this isn't a he said, she said, you can't claim I didn't do it. If you get it wrong and you misclassify someone as an independent contractor, that means you're not paying the workers comp. So that's a problem. That's unlawful underneath your state laws. Because you misclassified them doesn't matter to the state. You still broke the law. You're not paying their matching social security. You're not paying withholding and paying taxes. And again, you're not paying your portion of the social security. Kiera Dent (10:43.18) Absolutely. Kiera Dent (10:53.857) Thank Paul Edwards (11:09.674) So why this matters to both the feds and the state is this is taxable income and you are not paying it and you actually, you are gaining some small advantage. I maintain it's not enough for you to get this wrong. And you're also helping the, you're costing the state and the feds because the person who's misclassified is writing things off that employees cannot write off. So they're acting as if they're in their own business. So what we found, Kiera Dent (11:15.339) right. Kiera Dent (11:34.613) Absolutely. Paul Edwards (11:38.998) is that we've got a lot of hygienists who have come to the practice. Now they may come by themselves, they may come be offered up by a temp agency who's not getting this correct. They will come to the practice and say, want to be paid as an independent contractor. And what they're saying is, if you're paying me $75 an hour, I want $75 an hour to be given to me. And that doesn't... Kiera Dent (12:05.448) Mm Paul Edwards (12:07.678) work when we look at what the rules are with regards to classifying people, Kiera. So, you know, any questions so far? Kiera Dent (12:16.844) Yeah, I think something I've also felt that there's a fun game in. And I think if we think of it as a game, as opposed to like stressful, I enjoy that a little bit more. These classifications actually do change quite a lot. And like what the IRS is sticky on or not sticky on, I do feel also changes because this 1099 world, I understand, like, if you lo…

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#894: Book Club: Die with Zero, Maximize Your Life Experiences Sep 25, 2024

Show notes

Kiera reviews the September book club selection: Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. She compares the Die with Zero method with profit-first, talks about applying this mindset in her own life, and how to enjoy life richly. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.346) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it is book club time. And this is one of my favorite books and I am so excited and I hope you read it with me. And if you didn't, hey, well, here's your opportunity to read the book club. I will give you a synopsis and hopefully I make this so intriguing and so exciting that you definitely want to go read it. So this book is called Die With Zero and you better believe that it is gonna trip your minds up. So if you're a prophet first person, if you don't even know what the heck I'm talking about, Well, welcome, because this is the book club all about fulfillment. As always, thank you guys so much for being podcast listeners. Please do me a solid and go leave a review today. Go leave those five stars. Share this with someone that you know might be considering how are they generating the revenue in their practice? How are they? What's their fulfillment life plan? But share this podcast because my goal is to get this podcast into the hands of every dental practice to be able to positively impact and inspire offices to be the best leaders. the best teams to serve their patients at the highest level and truly be able to give back on a level that we as far outside of our, our wildest dreams and to do it with ease. This podcast was made for people just like you who don't just understand you, but are you I've sat in your shoes. I am a business owner. I come to the table with expertise and understanding and humility and love and compassion and no judgment. And I just ask that you guys share this with a dentist who right now could benefit from having that. positive impact in their life. An office manager who might be struggling with their team or maybe someone who's thriving. Share in a Facebook group, share in a group that you're a part of. Go in there. You guys, I had an office reach out and they're like, Kiera, we're struggling. We're dropping Delta Dental and we need some verbiage. And I popped onto our website and I went to our podcast and I typed in insurance dropping verbiage. And there's three incredible podcasts. So truly anything you guys might be struggling with or wanting to know more about, I guarantee you in our almost thousands of episodes. you will be able to find that. And if you can't find it, email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Our team truly lives to serve you and they want to make your life easy. So reach out. We love you guys. So the broadcast today is Die With Zero. You guys, I'm so excited and I can't wait to talk about this. So Die With Zero, it's funny, my brother, I actually called him. My brother is in business and finance and I said, know, Rhett, that's his name. Kiera Dent (02:27.468) I said, Rhett, I have a question for you. This was a couple, gosh, this was probably a year ago. said, if you had an opportunity to grow your business to insane heights, would you do that? Or would you kind of like chill and coast? My brother's super brilliant. He's an MBA. He works for a really large company. His job is to go in and inspire teams and to help them out. And he's also efficiency, which means he also fires people. And my brother is someone that I think is one of the most incredible people. Like I truly look up to him. He's two years younger than me. And I said, Rhett, what would you do? And Rhett told me, said, Kiera, you know, if I had an opportunity to serve and to give, I would make my business as big as I could possibly make it. Okay. Fast forward a year, Rhett came to me and he said, Kiera, I've actually been thinking about that conversation. And I read a book called Die With Zero. Have you read it? And I said, you better freaking believe I've read it. Let's talk about it. And he said, I actually think I've changed my mind on your business or business ideas in general. He said, I actually think I would find what fulfills you versus slaying away for your entire life. He said, die with zero definitely gave me a different perspective. And I thought, I love this because die with zero. actually think I was talking to my husband about this morning before I got onto podcasts. And I think die with zero is such a mind trip because it's contrary to what we've been taught all of our lives. We've been taught, go to work, save for retirement, get your retirement at 65. And then go and live this glamorous retirement life. there's profit first with Mike McAllux, which I'm obsessed with profit first. And I remember when I did a book club with our team on profit first, one of our team members, she's like, I cannot handle die with zeros mentality because profit first is talking to us about building the profit and saving and building this whole piece. And I was zero is talking about like living in the moment. So I'm here to say, I actually don't know which camp I sit in. I actually think there's beauty in both of them. But this Die with Zero, Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. So if you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to read it. It's going to be incredible for you. But Die with Zero, I'm just gonna give you guys a couple little quick synopsis of some of the points in the book so we can book club on it. So there's 10 points that they have in here. Number one is maximize positive life experiences. Number two, invest in experiences early. Kiera Dent (04:50.456) Three, aim to die with zero money. Four, use all available planning tools. Five, give money to kids in charity early. Don't live life on autopilot. Seven, plan in terms of seasons. Eight, no one to stop. And nine, take big risks early, not later. Okay, so lots of things in here, but really he said, gosh, I'll read you guys this quote from him. He said, if you spend hours and hours of your life acquiring money and then die without spending all of that money, then you've needlessly wasted too many precious hours of your life. There's just no way to get those hours back. If you die with 1 million left, that's 1 million of experiences you didn't have. And if you die with 50 ,000 left, well, that's 50 ,000 of experiences you didn't have. No way is that optimal. The question we must answer is how to make the most of our finite time on earth. Ooh, like I love it. Because that's, think, I think that's the question. And so when we look at these 10 aspects of it, again, like I'm saying, I don't think my perfect camp is here, but I think like my conversation with my brother was very much one of, right? Like we all think of the fear, like what happens if we run out of money? My conversations with Ryan Isaac of Dentist Advisors, he's my financial advisor, there are always conversations around, well, Ryan, like how do I know I'll have enough money to make it to me being? 97 years old with my cotton candy pink hair and I'm living the most fulfilling life as well. And so this whole principle, my mom and I were talking, my grandma, she just turned, I believe she just turned 90 and I talked to my mom and my grandma has like, she's done well. Her mom, so my great grandma passed away and there was this like very large fortune that was left. And I talked to my mom and I said, mom, grandma's not gonna be alive for that much longer. and she fell and she slipped and she fell and she broke some vertebrae and some ribs. This is a 90 year old woman and my grandma is still so afraid of money and this woman has more than enough money. She's definitely not gonna be dying with zero. And I talked to my mom about this because there's also this piece of my mom, maybe there's these weird pieces of it, then she'll get an inheritance from her mom. But I talked to her about this book and I said, mom. Kiera Dent (07:06.35) Grandma, like what if you could actually live this incredible world with her where you made her last decade of her life the best decade of her entire life? Where she's doing all the experiences. But what's crazy about it is my grandma is now 90. And that to me, I think is the premise of this book of like, why did my grandma wait until she was 90? And who knows if she'll even be able to do it. But in the book, I remember there was like a definition of the ideal optimal life is we want to make it too. So if I plan to pass away, I hope I make it to a hundred, maybe 130, but let's just say I pass away at 97, which feels a little creepy right now to me to like put a death date on me. but the hope is that like, I'm living my fullest, most richest life all the way up until like 96 with my health and all this. And then in my last year, my money and my health kind of like, nose dive and I go out of this world fully rich in life experiences and really living to the fullest. Now my other grandma, she's my adopted grandma and she is, I believe she just turned 96 actually and she's been able to paint and she goes on trips and she hangs out with her elderly group. Her husband passed away, my gosh, like at least 20 years ago. But my adopted grandma, she is very vibrant and I'm looking at her and at 96 she's still walking up and downstairs and yes she's had a knee replacement and there's some things going on with her eyes, but she paints china and has like very world -renowned china painter. She teaches, she has a kiln in her house. I wish I would have taken lessons from her when I lived with her and I never took advantage of that. She reads, but just recently probably within the last, I don't know, three years she stopped traveling, but up until then she was traveling. And I think about her and I have no idea where her financial state is, but I think about her and I'm like, that's the life that I want to be living where I'm healthy and I'm taking care of my health and I'm able to do all the things that I love doing until like my last, like hopefully six months of my life. And then like at that point we're gone. And that's what I think Bill Perkins whole point in all of this book is, which is why I love it is thinking differently of not a saving until we're out of money or saving until we're at this certain space because Kiera Dent (09:15.95) He talked about in the book of like going to Italy, maybe when we're 40, but like if we could have gotten in our 20s, we're younger, we're more vibrant, and we have longer time for the investment of that experience in our life rather than less time with those experiences and talking about how, yes, we're always trying to save money and yes, we need money to survive. I'm not here to discredit that for one second, but is there a balance between the amount of money that we need and the life experiences that we're able to maximize? So that's why he's saying maximize our positive life experiences. Are we spending money on experiences rather than just saving money? Now, this is where the mind trip is because we still need money to be able to survive. And so how are we able to maybe accomplish both? And that's really what I think I'm obsessed with with this book club. And I hope you guys are geeking on it with me and I hope I'm challenging your beliefs as well. But he said, expect invest in experiences earlier because that allows you to have that longer term ROI on life experiences. Like if you were to even think back on the last 10 years of your life, what are some of the highlights? Gosh, like the last 10 years of my life, like I'm just gonna do my 30s for you. Jason graduated pharmacy school. We have hit all seven continents, which I'm obsessed with going to. We went to Bora Bora. We've been able to buy our first home. We've gone through IVF together. I love, love, love being able to travel with my parents. We were able to go with his parents and my parents, both to Hawaii. We surprised them with a trip to Hawaii. guys, really did not cost me hardly anything. took... like very inexpensive flights, I bought them early, but it was one of the most incredible experiences to do that with my parents. Traveling with Jason, because Jason's philosophy was, we're not gonna travel until we retire. And my philosophy was, when we retire, we're gonna be old and it's gonna be a lot different to travel. Like, I wanna travel while I'm young and I can still hike up a mountain. And it's crazy, because even within our 30s, my knees and my hips actually are a lot different than they were when I turned 30. And so Jason and I, just traveled to Tokyo. This is the life of not having children. People are like, how do you travel so much? Well, one, traveling gives me life. And two, I just, truly do believe in this, like living and having life experiences now rather than later. I remember Jason and I were in pharmacy school. I was, I am not joking. I was making $12 an hour while we were in pharmacy school. We were at that point, $65 ,000 in debt for his pharmacy school. We had no help from either of our parents. Kiera Dent (11:36.59) We didn't have scholarships. I'm making literally $12 an hour. This was not that long ago. It was 2016, 2017, 2018. I was working at the dental college, so I did get some great health benefits that way because of it. We lived close enough that we rode our bikes every single day to and from school. And Jason told me that we were too poor that we couldn't travel. And I said, excuse me, no. So I remember every month. like when the end of our bills would come, I would literally look around my house for anything that had a tag on it that we hadn't used yet that I could go return to the store to make our ends meet. Like this is CuraDense real life. We did not turn the AC on. We were in Arizona. We kept our house at 80 degrees, sometimes even up to 85 degrees. We slept with the fan on at night, not the AC. We're talking it's 117 degrees outside. We decided to make sacrifices to be able to put, would put, think 20 to $25 a month away in my travel fund. I put it in a high yield savings account, so something like Ally, and I just started putting money away. Every single month I was like, okay, here's our expenses, this is where we can be, this is how we can cut costs, because I'm so adamant that we're gonna be able to travel, and I just started putting money away, like as much money as I could put away. Anytime I got a raise, I didn't live on that raise. I literally just put that money straight into our savings account. And while we were in pharmacy school, you guys, I'm not kidding, I'm making 12. I was able to get up to 14 and I ended leaving that job at $18 an hour my last year there. But I was able to pay for me and Jason to go to Ireland and then we also were able to go to Paris with my brother who had just come home from his mission to Paris with my parents. Jason was a little nervous about that. But that came from me literally like discipline, putting money into my savings account every single month. scrapping down like we really, I price matched, I took my little like ads from the grocery store to Walmart, thank goodness they were price matching at that t…

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#893: There's Still Time to Meet Your 2024 Practice Goals Sep 24, 2024

Show notes

It's time to assess the goals you set for your practice this year. In this episode, Tiff and Dana discuss taking a good look at those 2024 goals, considering the averages and trends in order to project out, starting to think about 2025, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.761) Hello, Dental A Team. We are back. have Dana here with me today again, and I'm so excited. Dana, I truly do love the time that we get together. feel like, like right before we podcast, we prep and then that's like when we get jam our personal life, conversation in there real quick. the only time we get that's just one -on -one, which is crazy because we could create that at any point, but it just, it pops up podcasts. You know, we do it a couple of times a month and it's perfect. So Thanks for being here. Thanks for giving me that time and gifting me with your presence. How are you today? You got like hot stuff coming up, like literally heat. Dana (00:38.06) Yeah, yeah like literally heat wave stuff so, you know, everybody send me your love and I don't melt this weekend The Dental A Team (00:46.475) Yeah, yeah, I was just in Oregon and I was there with a practice and the office manager was like, gosh, I just don't understand like how you guys do sports. Like you can't, how do you do football? And I was like, the kids are out there dying. My son refuses to play summer lacrosse. He does, he only plays ball ball and spring ball and spring ball is a, is a push because it doesn't end till middle of May. But spring ball starts in February, but your kids are doing year round sport. So your son has football this weekend, tournaments in Phoenix. I'm in Phoenix and I'm standing here podcasting sweating in my home in Phoenix because it's 102 outside right now, maybe 105. I'm not sure, you know, at the end of August. So bring lots of water, lots of sunblock, lots of shade. That sun gets intense and I will be praying for you, Dana. Dana (01:18.707) Yes. Dana (01:44.307) Thanks so much. appreciate it. think we're going to need it. That and buckets of water, like you said. The Dental A Team (01:47.286) Yeah. And Gatorade, like lots of electrolytes or the Costco liquid IVs or something. Like, yeah, yeah. But you're in Arizona. I'm gonna call you a native at this point. You've been here for so freaking long, but you're an Arizona gal. You're from southern, you know, more southern Arizona, but you get very similar heat. So you guys are ready for it. It's just not, it's just not, still not fun. I live here constantly. And when I come back from trips like Oregon was beautiful and Colorado was gorgeous this week. Dana (01:56.116) me. Dana (02:12.735) Mm -hmm. The Dental A Team (02:19.723) And that practice, was like, dang, if I could stay here longer, I totally would. It was like 82 degrees, it was beautiful. And then I land last night and I was like, back to the 105. Here we go, a 20 degree swing. Well, we are nearing towards the end of the year, so Phoenix will start pouring off soon. So for all of you who love to come visit Scottsdale in the winter, I'll see you soon. It's right around the corner. And I, know, I air quote winter. I don't feel like we actually get to celebrate winter here, but. Dana (02:29.619) Yep. Dana (02:42.558) Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:49.771) In about six weeks, it'll finally be 90. So we'll see you guys soon. Nearing the end of the year also makes me reminded that we really need to check in on where you guys are at for the year. Like, what are you trending towards? Where are your practices going? We talk a lot about KPIs, key performance indicators, because they're incredibly important to the success of your practice, your team. Like we talk about how a team should be involved. A team should know these numbers. This is the time of year you guys that you really need to make sure that team is behind these KPIs 100 % and that we're pushing towards them. Now, Dana, I know you've had a lot of practices recently really push on you to like ramp up that business side of what you guys are doing together. You are fantastic at everything, but systems are your jam. So you always, I know start. with all the systems and making sure that like we've got that foundational piece. But then once we're ready, we're really looking at are those foundational pieces progressing the business side and watching those KPIs. So I know production collections, new patients, like everybody knows those three. If you're not looking at those three, I don't know what the heck you're looking at. But I also push a lot for overhead. And I've really been paying close attention to active patient count because as new patients are coming in, we've got patients attritioning out. And if our new patients aren't you know, compensating for our attrition and still adding to our active patient count, we're really not growing. So to be able to find that growth. But like I said, I know you've had a few practices recently, they're like, okay, we're ready, we're ready, which is great, because we're towards the end of the year, we need to make sure that we're progressing. Where do you start them for clients, maybe who haven't been watching their KPIs, and they haven't been looking at the trends, or if they're going to make it? Where do you baseline them? once they're done with systems and ready to move on to that business piece. Dana (04:43.323) Yeah, and I think this is a great time of year. If you haven't done it, this is a great time of year because there is still a little bit more than a whole quarter left. And so this is a good time to and really where I say at this point in the year with my clients who when we're ready to look at numbers, we know we have goals, we've got goals established, right? Now it's time to look at the gap. Where are we for the year? And where are we? Where do we want to be? And what's the gap? And how do we make that up? So if we've hit our goal every month, great, right? There's not a gap there. But if we haven't, which in most practices, we might have had a month or two where we were off, where's our gap? And how can we successfully plan on each of those numbers with what we've got left as far as the year number of working days? What does that look like? So sometimes that is reassessing our goals or shifting our goals because we have a gap to make up. But this is the time of year to really look at that and say, okay, we've maybe been on track some months, off track some months, what do we have left to make up for the end of the year? And how can we just ensure at this point that we crush it by the time we get to December 31st? The Dental A Team (05:45.159) Beautiful, beautiful and figuring out that gap and then adding it back into your goals. So if you're, you know, off by $200 a month or whatever a day, that really allows you then like you're saying to really backtrack, see what that goal needs to be, and then adjust all the pieces. And I think right now, like you said, we're nearing like the last quarter, this is the time when we're pushing you to send end of year letters, we're pushing you to get all those patients in for re -cares and get the crowns done. And like, we want a busy schedule. We want a full schedule for the end of the year. But if we don't know what our gap is and what we need to schedule to, we might start filling that in advance and then not be prepared to actually make the goals that we wanted to, because we didn't know what they really needed to be. So I think that's really smart of you to, really look at that and figure out that gap ahead of time so that we can plan for it. Because We can then change, right Dana? You can change your blocks on your schedule. You can change your goals. You can change what hygiene openings there are. And maybe you're like, gosh, we need X amount of new patients to get the case acceptance we have based on the trends of the case acceptance we've seen this year. So if we know we need a certain dollar amount produced on the schedule, we can look at what our case acceptance trends are. What's our average case acceptance. And then we can calculate how many new patients it might take to get to that diagnosis amount, to get that case acceptance, to get the schedule full. So I think when we really consider KPIs and we really consider looking at where the business is going, backtracking in those ways is something that we often miss when we're on our own or sometimes consultants don't catch it or coaches or business partners, sometimes they don't catch that where you can really take the trends that you've had so far this year and the averages and then project. what you need so that you can make the changes to hopefully hit those goals at the end of the year, or at least to get really freaking close if you're too far off. Now, Dana, how do you suggest they do like, if they're tracking and they're like, my gosh, this is great, we actually might go over, do they stick with it? Or do they then reduce their goals? Dana (07:59.295) So I'm never ever an advocate of reducing goals. We want to the best year that we can. And so like, let's rock out what's left with the team. And no, I'd say keep it absolutely the same. And let's just see if at the end of the year, we can again, make it the best year we've ever had, make it the best quarter we've ever had. So I'm never an advocate of reducing goals. I feel like let's look for the gap in anywhere that we're under. The Dental A Team (08:22.755) Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I don't like to bank on things. if we're doing really well right now, fantastic. We're trending towards our goals. We're trending to maybe go over our goals. But then guess what? What if something falls off the schedule next Thursday and it was this $30 ,000 cosmetic case or a $50 ,000 full arch case that you finally got and they fall off and they weren't prepaid and they decide not to come back. Now we've got a gap. Now we've got now we've got room to make up for stuff. So I agree whenever we're ahead on things I think just stay the course Keep scheduling the way that you're scheduling is obviously working and then next year we know hey I think we were a little low on our goals and what we thought we could do and we can ramp those goals up a little bit more so looking for the gap looking to Manipulate the schedule and manipulate whatever we need to manipulate and change now so that we can hit those goals don't change things to backtrack but make sure we can hit and surpass those goals for the end of the year. And then also start looking at your KPIs that you're tracking to make sure you're trending. Start looking at what those need to look like next year. Because here in about two months, two and a half months, we're going to push you to start setting those goals for next year, for 2025, based on what you're doing for 2024. The reason we don't wait till January is because if we waited till January, if we didn't do it in November, December time frame, if you wait till January, you're already scheduled. January should be about 50 % full going into the month, 50 % to goal going into the month. So if we don't have an all team meeting until mid January to set 2025 goals, we're already a month behind on our goals. There's already a gap because most of the time, let's face it, we're not, we're not hitting what we needed to hit. If we're going to increase goals, we're hitting what we're used to hitting. And it's just going to create a gap. So start projecting and start getting ready to see what are those goals need to be next year and start looking at them in like November, December. So start right now. When you hear this podcast today, I want you to go pull your numbers, pull your production, your collections, your new patients, your overhead, your active patient count, whatever it is that you decided this year. These are the trends we're going to watch. Go pull the numbers that support those and show you if you're on track or an off track practice growth. A lot of people will say, The Dental A Team (10:47.711) see 10 % practice growth this year. fantastic. What does that mean? How do you know that you've had 10 % practice growth this year? I agree, you should have at least 10 % practice growth, seven to 10%. That's what we push for. I love the 10 % mark. I agree, you should, but how do you know that you've experienced 10 % practice growth? So Dana, looking at trends, figuring that out, looking at, okay, what do we need next year to look like? What kind of KPIs do you have your practices watching and going through? And I can speak on my behalf too, with the practices I work with, what kind of KPIs do you have them measuring to see, yes, I grew by 10%. Dana (11:30.335) Yeah, typically the big ones that I'm looking at are production and collections for that and just saying, hey, if where I'm at this year compared to where I was last year, are those numbers 10 % higher? The Dental A Team (11:42.206) Yeah, I agree. I totally agree. Production collections are huge, you guys. And we say those like in tandem because you can you can produce all you want. But if you're not collecting them, like I don't I you're just wasting your time. So production collections go in tandem. And then on top of that watching your overhead because if you're increasing production collections, and you're saying we're going to grow by 10%, you really want your profitability to be growing as well might not be a profitability growth of 10%. Okay, but It might be based off of last year. You might be 10 % more profitable dollar for dollar, not percentage wise, than you were last year. That may be true. You might not go from 20 % profitability to 30%, but the dollars in the bank of profitability should be about a 10 % growth, just to the same as your practice is growing, as long as your overhead is staying where you want it to be, or staying at least relatively similar to last year. So overhead, production collections overhead. And then I throw in there the new patients and the active patient count, because if we don't watch our active patient count, we're only watching the dollars that are coming in. Oftentimes we'll get ourselves in a situation where we start seeing, why is my recare schedule falling apart? Why aren't we booked out six months? What's happening here? Well, we spent so much time on new patients, investing in marketing for new patients and getting all these new people in the door. We forgot about the people that weren't coming back for their cleanings. Now, Recare kind of stinks. We're clamoring for new patients and we're trying to fill a schedule. And so our productivity really goes down and that 10 % growth can go down. So watching also that your active patient count is growing with the production and collections by that 10 % mark as well is gonna make sure that all of that is in line. Cause if you did X amount with the amount of patients you had, but you wanna do 10 % more, you need 10 % more patient base too. or you need 10 % more reimbursement rates on your fees. So whichever way it goes, I know I do have a lot of practices…

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#892: Hiring Outside of Dentistry Sep 19, 2024

Show notes

Kiera talks about how to effectively hire team members who don't have formal dentistry training — and how they can be some of the best employees you'll ever have. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.942) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. I hope you are just having the best day of your life. I know sometimes we don't always have the best days. know sometimes different things happen, but I truly hope that you just remember we are so blessed to be in dentistry. We're so blessed to be able to have the jobs that we have. We're so blessed to be able to give patients back so much confidence. Welcome to today. And don't forget that where intention goes, energy flows. So if we're constantly thinking about how terrible life is or how terrible our job is or how hard the hiring thing is, we get it. And also remember if we can switch our focus and see the good, we tend to get more of that. If you don't believe me, I'm going to have you guys do a quick fun activity. If you're driving, I would recommend you not do this, but you know, if you're not, that's fine. I'm going to give you guys 10 seconds and I want to have you look around the room. and want you to count everything that's white. On your mark, get set, Kiera Dent (01:02.41) And now I want you guys to stop and I want you to tell me how many things you saw that were red. And usually when I do this in an office, people are like, my gosh, like I wasn't looking for red and they all started giggling and I'm like, and how many of you actually looked for white things and you saw beige things and counted them as white? The reality is we get what we were looking for. There's red all around us, but sometimes we're missing it because we're looking so heavy for the white. And for I'm looking around my room and you better believe I'm gonna count these beige shelves over here and this cream blanket over here, but I'm going to miss all the things that are red around me. And there's red all around us all the time or there's yellow or there's orange. But I want you to think about this because in today's topic, I think this is super relevant for what we get is what we are focused on. And so again, if things aren't going as well, again, I think that there's a lot of help that can happen. I'm not here to say that we just have to have an optimistic attitude. but I do believe that looking for these positive things will actually breed more positivity into it. It's like a snowball. The more we're focused on the good things, the better it goes. The more we're focused on the negative things, the more we tend to find more negative. And that's not to say that we can't have the hard times, but it's interesting. look there, I have a practice and when I started with them, gosh, they were doing about 200 ,000 per month and they are now crushing over $480 ,000 a month. And I think about this practice and they have struggles and they have different things that they're doing. But one thing I've noticed consistent about this practice is they are constant. I mean, constantly focus on the wins, the positive, how can we grow there? They've got incredible core values. Their leadership team is very focused on it. Their office manager is very focused on it. Their doctor is very encouraging and empowering. And I'm like, what is the difference of certain offices that just struggle? And when we come to meetings, they talk about their issues, but they do it in a way where how can we fix this? What do we need to learn? They collaborate with their consultant. They use me as a coach and a guide and a sounding board versus other offices. They often love to live in problems and they don't take action and they don't fix it forever. And again, just looking at your practice and what are kind of the behaviors and the attributes, because I don't believe that things are just happenstance. I do believe that certain things do happen, but even in our own company, like I am literally like, Kiera Dent (03:19.95) you put me on the radar and I am always looking for what's wrong, how can I solve it? And that's a consultant's world, but that's not always positive to do in my marriage, in my family, in myself. And so making sure that we're using things to our best interest. So with that said, thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team Podcast family. Thank you for your reviews. Thank you for sharing our podcast and keeping us as one of the number one dental podcasts out there. Please keep doing that because my goal is to be in the hands of every dental practice out there. to positively impact and influence the world of dentistry for good. And so we're gonna go right on, yes, I have my pen out. This is the teacher in me. I did use to teach high school sign language, believe it or not. I feel like I've lived many different lives. So I was a model at one point in time. I taught high school. Gosh, I've done so many random jobs. I worked for a geology firm for once upon a time. I used to work at Century 21 in their accounts payable. I was told I talked too much over there. But I feel like a myriad of jobs. worked at KFC and A &W. I think that's a random. I mowed lawns with my family lawn business. That was very embarrassing in high school to have people honk and wave when I'm in my total grubbies. My brother thought it was totally fine to go to the mall when we were dressed like that, and I was mortified. So the jobs I've had are quite vast and varied. But that's kind of going into this, because there was a question about hiring. And what do we hire? And how do we hire? And how do we stop the turnover? And hiring verbiage? Stapping and all this and then the question popped up that we saw of is hiring from outside of dentistry a good idea So I kind of want to just like let's dive a little bit into hiring Let's talk about some different outside -the -box solutions but really I also want you to remember like what we focus on is what we get and I was just recently at a seminar and they talked about how asking better questions Leads to better results. So if we say why is hiring so hard? we've literally programmed our brain to believe that hiring is hard and we're having to find ways to make hiring hard. And I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about it like so much of what we, what we experience is not what we experienced, but our perception of the experience is what we actually experience. I'm going to say that again. So much of what we experienced in life is not the actual experience. It's our perception of the experience. so asking better questions to prompt our brains, to prompt our team. So instead of saying, why is hiring so hard or why can't we find anybody? Kiera Dent (05:41.56) We're literally programming ourselves to believe that we can't find anybody in that hiring is hard versus saying, we need to hire an office manager. Where are office managers at and how can we find the best office manager? We want to hire the best hygienist. Where are the hygienists at and how can we hire the best hygienist for our practice? That is a very different piece and you literally like, we're asking questions and we're giving ourselves answers. And so ask better questions and get better answers. Other questions could be like, all right, so hygienist. it's a different hiring landscape out there. What are hygienists looking for now that would make us competitive to hire the best hygienists? Well, now that's a very different answer instead of answering why is hiring hard. Why is hiring hard can be very much a like, woe is me mentality of like, well, the job market and COVID and there's all these hygienists. But yet I have a lot of offices that are hiring hygienists with no problems. And I don't say that to make you feel yucky. I'm just saying that if other people can do it, you can too. I do believe better questions lead to better results. And so what question you're asking could be why you're getting maybe lackluster results. So like, for example, let's go outside of dentistry and say, why is it so hard to work out? Well, I've just programmed myself to tell myself that working out is hard versus what makes working out fun. Well, now I have a way different outcome. I have a way different answer and I have a way different, I'm solving a different problem. And so I want you guys, when you're thinking about it, just like I said, There are a million questions around us just like there's all the red around us and there's all the white around us and all the orange and yellow It's all around us. There's candidates all around us, too and So let's just kind of go through the hiring landscape a little bit of number one Let's ask better questions and let's get better answers. So let's think of where are these best candidates located? Who do we already know? That's an incredible hygienist or an incredible office manager and could we tap into those resources and ask them? Hey, where were you at when you got hired? What are some areas? What are some things that you would put in a job ad? Do you know any people that are like you that might be interested in getting a job? What things should we be putting in our ads? What things should we be looking for right now? Those are way more proactive questions to be asking versus why is this so hard and why can't we hire anybody? Literally, you're making your reality. so let's stop those questions and let's give better questions. Now, on the other side of it is then with we're having a lot of turnover. Let's ask the questions Kiera Dent (08:03.66) Why are we having so much turnover and what's causing team members to leave our practice and really get to the root of it and fix those problems forever. And so what is that and how can we fix it? you know, like our team, we just got some good feedback from it and it was like, all right, what can we do? Are there different things that we could change? What's the common thread and A, are we setting up wrong expectations when we hire or B, do we need to make some like structural changes within our company? It's really good. And again, remember it's not right or wrong. And I know this is hard you guys. I am a person who It needs oxygen, just like I need people to like me as a person. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but I've just realized that that's a piece about me where I really enjoy having people like me. like the connections. I like people around me. I like to have a good time. so oftentimes when I hear negative feedback or constructive feedback, it's sometimes hard for me to disassociate that this is just feedback. It's not actually about me. And so if we can disassociate it and realize like We are so lucky and so blessed that they're telling us the feedback so we can find the root problem and solve it and fix this problem from happening. We do live in a world where people are changing jobs and sometimes that can feel frustrating because it's not what we're used to. But yet at the same time, we aren't used to taking film X -rays anymore either. And what an amazing transformation that's been. Isn't it an amazing transformation that maybe we get more team members that come in. And because team members are turning so much Maybe that could be a positive for us and maybe that helps us onboard people faster. And that's also where I do believe that hiring outside of dentistry is a good idea. Some of my best practices actually hire outside of dentistry. And what's crazy is when we hire outside of dentistry, a lot of times these people are actually more loyal to the practices. Dentistry is a very different industry, just so you know, from corporate, it's very family friendly. It's very kind. It's very, It's just a different vibe and I don't have a better way to describe that other than the fact that it is just truly a different vibe. so sometimes when people hire outside of dentistry, they literally get people where they train them from the ground up and these people are diehard loyal to them because they've given them this incredible opportunity. I know a lot of the corporate dental practices actually hire people outside of dentistry. They train them for about a month and these people are amazing employees. Kiera Dent (10:24.626) I work with some offices and I train them to be great treatment coordinators. I work with some other offices and train them how to be incredible billers. So there's a lot of skillsets that are transferable. And so I know some people that have hired outside of dentistry, they go for the service industry. So restaurants and waitresses, believe it or not, Shelbi, if you guys have ever gotten to interact with our company, you've probably been able to meet Shelbi. Shelbi is by far one of the most incredible employees that I have. so kind, she's so considerate and Shelbi who used to be a waitress and I was like this girl pays attention to people's needs. She's obsessed about serving and taking care of people. She's an amazing customer success employee and takes great care of our clients and she takes great care of me. But I paid attention to the type of service she came from. Kaylee who used to work in our company, incredible person. She came from selling. She worked in, she's a high school or excuse me an elementary school teacher and she also used to for one of the best car companies in our area. That company had incredible customer service and she had amazing customer service. And so I hired her from there. I've heard of people hiring from tanning salons and from the beauty industry and from waiter and waitresses and from fast food and some people who want really good treatment coordinators. They snag them from in the mall. Those people who are like giving you out those perfume samples, they say like, hey, if you want a job that's like meaningful and impactful, that's going to serve and uplift people, give me a call. And they literally give out their business cards to them. But paying attention to this service industry, some of my best office managers actually come from the banking industry. Like hands down, I'm obsessed with bankers who come in as office managers because they get the finances, they get the, they have it. They just need to learn the industry knowledge, but they are not afraid of money. And best office managers. And that practice that I mentioned to you at the beginning, who's just been doing an incredible job. They are a practice who hired outside of dentistry. I have another practice and they took one of our online virtual courses of our dental assistant one, and they literally are training dental assistants within. They weren't able to do a dental assistant course. There are some programs where you can actually create a dental assistant course and have a second business within your practice. I'm happy to share that info. If you want it, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. But this practice couldn't do that in the state they're in. And Kiera Dent (12:40.002) We took the course, our course, our dental assisting course online. Literally, I built it to be training someone from off the streets to be able to do dentistry. Our entire virtual academy course, I built it with videos an…

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#891: Who Builds the Ops Manual? Sep 18, 2024

Show notes

Tiff and Dana take a look at the mechanisms that go into building an operations manual: who participates versus who keeps everyone on track, what's the timeline, what type of accountability methods come into play, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02.51) Hello, Dental A Team. We are so excited to be here with you. I have the one and only Dana back on the podcast with me today. And Dana, your hair looks amazing. I hope people are watching, because I love this side swoop and curl thing you got going on. It's super cute, super cute. Dana (00:20.448) It's Friday, right? Fun Friday. The Dental A Team (00:22.52) Fun Friday, I love it. You're right, you're right. Dana, just so you guys know is, well, you guys already know she's my fashionista when it comes to workout apparel and athleisure wear, which we live in. So she's my fashionista there, but she also teaches me tips and tricks on how to do my hair. One time I made her record herself on how to, I think it's called the wave now, it's like the crimper thing, and she literally had to record herself to send it to me. I'm the older sister. So I don't have people in my life to teach me these things. Sorry, Eileen on Dana for that. So now you're gonna have to record yourself doing your hair today. Thanks. thank you, thank you. I am excited to be here today. You are, I say this constantly, but you are like our Ops Manual guru within our company. You have done so much work on the Ops Manual itself for us and you work with clients on it and you've done. Dana (00:58.02) Okay, do it again, always for YouTube. The Dental A Team (01:17.416) Ops Manual masterminds and creation courses, like you've done it all. So I've had a few things come up where practices are asking, they're kind of writing in, doctors are asking who does the Ops Manual because doctors will sign up, they'll take it on, they're like, yes, Tiff, we're gonna do this Ops Manual, sign me up, Dental A Team, send me your manual. Like, okay, great, you signed up for the manual. And then the doctor's like, well, now I'm seriously overwhelmed because there's no way I can do all of this. So I thought it would be nice to take a couple of minutes today to really talk about who should be doing the operations manual and what that looks like. Like how do we hold the accountabilities? What are the parameters? What are all of those pieces? Because it's not, in my opinion, the doctor and it's not just one person. I think the doctors, the associates, the everybody hygienists have a part to play in it. But Dana, when you're working with your clients and maybe specifically, even when you're working on your courses, your opti -manual courses that you've done in the past, how do you have doctors really figure out who to have build out those operations manuals. Dana (02:19.448) Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree with you, Tiff. Right. If one person were to build this, and specifically the doctor who is also doing dentists thing, it's a huge project. And I feel like it could potentially take you years. And by the time you're done, it needs updated. You've added new things. So I think going in with realistic expectations of who's supposed to participate, how are we going to get this massive project done. And it really does take full team. The Dental A Team (02:27.296) Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:34.836) Yes, exactly. It's Nolan Boyd, doesn't even matter. Dana (02:49.355) Okay, so there are lots of pieces in the operations manual and so core values mission vision Yes, those things can be done by doctors your job descriptions could be done by doctor and you don't have an om maybe doctor that does fall on you but then once we get to like the how to's the checklists the task lists all of those pieces that is full team all on board there who sits in that seat and does those things day in and day out and Honestly, ideally that's who you want to be building them because they know the systems, know the protocols, they know all the button clicks of everything much better than no offense doctors typically you do right for each position. The Dental A Team (03:26.006) Yeah. The Dental A Team (03:31.222) Yeah, for sure. For sure. I agree. I totally agree. think doctors want to have the control of it and they want to know and I do think doctors I do think you need to go through it to know those different clicks and to know what your team members are doing. But we don't expect you and this is why we have training. This is why we have clients. We don't expect you to know everything that every position is supposed to be doing or is doing. And again, that's why there's training. They don't even always know everything they should be doing. And so to expect you to be able to develop all of it, again, I agree mission, vision, core values. Those can be built out with the team for sure, but that is like near and dear to the doctor's heart. Why are you here? Why is your practice in business? What does that look like? And job descriptions. I'd love to tailor the job descriptions, Dana, to the results of that position. So like, Who embodies that position? What's the ultimate result? I think like treatment coordinator is to build relationships and sell treatment, obviously, right? Close cases, get production on a schedule. But when we put that like build relationships in there, when check -in's job is to successfully collect all information from patients while building that relationship with them for a long lasting patient, know, lifetime with our company. Those are the types of pieces I think that people miss in a job description. They hop into that job description and it's like bullet points of like, well, these are all the things that you would do in this job. That job description is literally describing how can I win within my position? So for doctors and office managers to build that out, you guys are literally building it out based off of why do I have this position in my practice? What's the point of this position? And then from there expanding. So I agree, I think those pieces are key. elements that doctors office managers can have their hands in but to think all of those pieces that you were talking about Dana, I just think of like all the front office how to is like how to send a claim and a doctor's like screenshotting the ledger and like screenshotting with a little arrow like this is not this is not what I need you spending your time on like I need you spending your time on that lab case that no one else can develop and create right? Let the billing representative take the screenshots of the ledger and put the little arrows in there. The Dental A Team (05:50.586) That's not for you to do. So I totally agree. I everyone needs to have a hand in it at a certain point. Now, Dana, hard questions for everyone needs to come up for us. And I just, actually, you guys, I just talked to a doctor the other day and it wasn't necessarily about the operations manual, but it was just accountability in general. He's like, Tiff, I'm off track. Like, how do I get back on track? Like, where am I failing? Why isn't this working? Because he started like turning the dial on. accountability and really putting it in place and the team was like bucking up like what do you mean like what the heck and like well when you're not used to it when it's not something you've ever had and then you implemented it's kind of like telling your kid all of a sudden like hey you need like your room needs to be clean but you've lived the first six years of this kid's life with a chaotic messy room and all of a sudden you're like no you got to clean your room by tomorrow right like you got to get it done so they're gonna buck up so I kind of related it this morning as I was thinking about this podcast to the operations manual, because it's an added piece that we're adding to their list of duties. We're adding now, build the operations manual. They're going to buck up a little bit and me, procrastinator queen and forgetful diva over here. I'm going to put it to the last because I'm like, I've got other things that patient facing. got things to do. This is going to be the last thing that I do. And then likely I'm going to forget that I was supposed to do it. And then a year goes by. and a doctor's like, hey Tiff, I still don't have an operations manual. Okay, well, probably missing some accountability. So how do you structure those accountabilities with the practices that you work on? Because you do really well with succeeding and getting systems in place and operations manuals done. How do you help them structure those accountability pieces? Dana (07:38.488) Yeah, and I and I do feel like this is where I say put one person in charge of checking in looking at due dates assigning tasks those pieces and Ideally doctors. I'd love to see this be something that you delegate what that doesn't mean though Is you don't check on the person that you've delegated it to? I usually say pick a lead pick an office manager pick somebody who has the capacity to take it on in your practice and they are like your operations manual guru now that means then you just have The Dental A Team (07:54.636) good call. Dana (08:06.594) weekly monthly check -ins with that person to ensure that everything is on track. So I think assigning it to one person to really keep track on the rollout, keep track of all the pieces, because it's a lot of pieces. And so we need to make sure that we've got deadlines set for things. The Dental A Team (08:18.208) Okay. Dana (08:23.116) Tasks assigned to individual team members and so the one it comes to that tools for the person who is in charge of keeping it organized and keeping it on track is Really what works best for your team if a whiteboard works best and they need their weekly, know every week We're putting up what we need to get done Who's doing it by when are they supposed to have it done? And how are they to get it to you? Whether you put it on a whiteboard whether you create an Excel spreadsheet, right? And you are tracking all of that in there figure out what's going to work best for The Dental A Team (08:48.139) Mm -hmm. Dana (08:53.03) your team, make sure that there's a person that's overseeing it, and then make sure you as the doctor owner are checking in with that person so that you just have a pulse on things moving forward. The Dental A Team (09:05.085) I agree. And I, I'm going to pull out that you said, choose what's going to work for your team. There is a lot of doctors out there. There are a lot of doctors who thrive with Excel spreadsheets and the nitty gritty things and like all of those thought processes really work well for them because that's how your brains are working. And that's fantastic, but not everyone jives with an Excel spreadsheet. So If you create you go through all this work and you create an Excel spreadsheet and you're like, you guys, this is going to be amazing. This is what we're using. And then they don't dive with it and they never look at it. You're going to be really upset. Like you're going to, your heart's going to hurt. You're to be like, put so much work into this. I don't understand. They don't listen to me. Like, why don't they do what I asked them to do? Dana said, do what works for your team and the visual. I love the visual of the whiteboard in the break room or wherever. conference room, like wherever you guys have that whiteboard. I love the visual because it's a constant reminder. Sometimes, you know, Excel spreadsheets get forgotten about because you have to pull them back up. You got to have it open. You can only have one person in there at a time. Like there's limitations to it. And an Excel spreadsheet may work for your team. That may be the perfect option for them and they love it. And that's perfect too. But think about where's your team at? What's going to be the most beneficial and what's going to remind them to get something done. So I do love that like to tack it off. Check it off, check it off. And then another thing I want to pull out is that you said buy wind dates. So break it apart is what you said, break apart the pieces that need to be done, the structure of what needs to happen to get an operations manual completed, and then set deadlines. And Dana, I know with my clients that have that I've finished this or that I have them working on it now, it'll be like, okay, you're at your how tos. And I want you to have five how tos written. by next Friday, September, whatever that date is, sixth. Is that how you mean, like, pick it apart and do a buy win date? Like, really break it down and simplify it? Because I think, if I do, if somebody told me, they were like, you gotta have all your how -tos done by December 31st. Like, today is, what, August 30th, something like that, while we're recording this? Like, have it done by the end of the year. I'm like, cool, I got time. The Dental A Team (11:24.183) And guess what's gonna sit there until the end of the year when I'm in a mad dash rush to try to get things done. But if they said, okay, or if I broke it down for myself. So if that was my goal, all right, great, we're gonna have this done by December 31st. I would have to tell myself, okay, I'm gonna do, I have X amount of how -to's and I'm gonna do X amount per week until December 31st. And I've got to check those off. I've got to build my plan. I've got to build my path to get there. and I'm gonna have to check those off as I do them. Otherwise, we're gonna get to December 31st and it's gonna be like, I got half of them done because I started last night and I really just didn't have the time. I had four months. But I couldn't find the time, I didn't make the time to do it. So we've got all this planned out, we've got it all going. think weekly meetings, if you're weekly meetings or once a week check -in even during morning huddle, if you're doing morning huddles, like really just getting a baseline. for where everyone's at and having, like you said, that one person who's responsible for the full accountability, but everyone's truly like holding each other responsible and accountable. And the doctors are not just fully out of the loop because I see that a lot with operations manuals, with anything where doctors just like, cool, hands off. And I love that. want a hands off approach, but I don't want you to be frustrated in the end when we get there. And then there's a million excuses from an entire team as to why it's not done. So. I love that you said that Dana. I love that you pulled that out. If the doctor is the office manager, what do you usually do? Cause you do have quite a few clients actually, cause they don't have a true office manager right now or yet. How do you help them structure that accountability since it is honestly falling to them in most ways. Dana (13:12.876) Yeah, and I basically break it down. There are each sections to an operations manual and then once you've got it broken down, it truly is, like you said, delegating those pieces in small chunks that are manageable for that doctor in an amount of time. So I…

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#890: Hacks for Increasing Profitability Sep 17, 2024

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Rereleasing one of DAT's most popular episodes! Did you know that team members can be more profitable with accurate deep work time than just producing from the chair? In this episode, Kiera talks about intentional block scheduling for all positions in the office. She poses questions everyone needs to ask themselves, suggests amounts of time for deep work each week, gives ideas for priorities to pursue, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:05.774) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A -teams. Welcome to the Dental A -Team Podcast. The Dental A Team (00:51.0) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and ooh, am I excited for the podcast today? So I podcast and I love podcasting and I tend to just podcast and think of ideas. So I typically have one day during the week that I'll podcast and then throughout the month I will be writing up topics. And so I've actually been working on a couple of different topics. They come to me, I'll text my husband, I'll be in the shower and I'm like, Jason. You've got to write this down, send this to me so I don't forget. So today's topic is coming from one where I've had a lot of questions and this has been something that I've been doing for so long. I have explained it. I'll do it on the podcast today. I'll explain it for you again, but we talk often about block scheduling for dentists. So if you don't have block scheduling in your schedule, definitely go and listen to some podcasts on block scheduling for your practice. Block scheduling can also be considered like productive. scheduling to where we're making an optimal schedule with your ideal life, ideal procedures, and we're able to grow it exponentially. With that, I like to always share a little example where I have a practice that with block scheduling, so optimal, we're looking to see how long does it take per procedure. We're looking to see what their goals are for the practice, how long it takes, maximizing assistant time and doctor time. We were able to take them from 2 .2 to 4 .2 million in one year. I will also put in there, we did add three operatories. However, without adding those three operatories, it was 2 .2 to 3 .2 million. So just so you know, by being more strategic with our time, I was able to add over a million dollars worth of revenue, no extra days, no extra time, just smarter scheduling. So I started thinking about this and I'm like, you know, there's so much fanfare and so many ideas out there for doctor scheduling within schedules, but what about admin block scheduling? And it kind of alluded to this week I was working with my team. I've been working with my husband. So it's probably where it's hot on my list, but we often don't block schedule. And when I say block scheduling or CEO time or admin time or whatever you want to call it, deep work time, I don't feel we've ever been really taught how to do it. then it's also, we are taught, but it feels too hard. So then we don't do it. So today, this week I was actually working with Shelby and Britt and The Dental A Team (03:07.169) Virtual companies are very different, especially when we've come from dentistry. Dentistry is easy, right? Our schedules are there for us. They tell us what to do as clinicians. So as a dental assistant, or it's a hygienist, our days were scheduled for us. The front office schedules for us. We do our day, off we go. But when you're the front office, and I remember my switch from clinical to front office, your days are different. Also, when I went from in office to home, where I worked from home, again, very different. My husband, he works in a pharmacy. is overseeing, gosh, I think he's got 35 pharmacists he oversees in multiple different clinics. And I just feel like we often run the rat race versus doing what's actually important in a practice. So I've been figuring this out. I've been mapping this a lot and I've been curious, why does this feel hard? And I thought, you you hear that example of the rock sand water, which honestly I feel has an overused analogy, but I feel like what we do is we often build our life with so many rocks or so much sand. that we forget that there's other space for that water. And so then like all the little things feel so hard and so exhausting and like we just can't catch up and that we're not gonna be able to get there. And so what we do is we don't get it done. And then it feels like this mountain of tasks, this monumental moment to just get our emails done. So I started thinking, how can I front office team members and doctors block not just a productive schedule that's going to be profitable, but let's do a productive schedule and a profitable schedule for your time that's not clinical. Because I actually believe that you can be more profitable with accurate deep work time than you can be just producing in the chair. So I wanted to walk through how to do this. So first question is, I want you to know yourself. So that's the first question you have to answer is, are you a more productive person in the morning or are you more productive in the afternoon? I just need you to answer that because that's going to radically impact how we build your schedule for you. So for Kiera, I am a very much a morning person. I am about junk by three o 'clock. Like don't ask me to do big projects. That's why I don't do any coaching calls after three o 'clock. Don't worry. All my clients that I do coach, they're early. I start my calls at six AM and people think I'm absolutely crazy for doing it. But like today I was up at three AM building content and projects because I am such a morning person. The Dental A Team (05:30.094) 3 a is not normal. I have been on a tight deadline and I'm flying out of town and I've got a lot of things. So 3 a is a little extreme, but I just know that I'm going to be so much more productive in the morning. So Britt on our team is definitely an afternoon person. And my husband's like, Kiera, how could she schedule her like heavy concentration time in the afternoon? And I said, Britt loves like go hang out, go for a walk, hang out with her dog, come back around three, four, five in the afternoon and then just get it done. If I ask her for a 7 a meeting, she'll be there, but I know her optimal speed and optimal time is definitely afternoon. Shelby's a morning person. So once you know your optimal time, also figure out your team members' optimal time, because we can build schedules based on our optimal time where we're going to be the most efficient with our time. And I feel like with admin time, deep work time, let's ourselves up for success. So the next thing is... figure out who you are. Most people are sprinters, meaning we can usually concentrate for about an hour on a task. Other people like Britt, who are more like billers, people who are really into the numbers, into the spreadsheets, they can concentrate for like a two to three hour block. Like she needs a solid amount of time to be able to research, to dig into it, because when she gets into a project, she's in it. For me, if I have a shorter stint, an hour, hour and a half is much more productive for me. So number one, know thyself. Are you a morning or an afternoon? Like where are you most productive? also I know a lot of creatives, people who are very creative. Sometimes they'll work at one, two, three o 'clock in the morning. Like that's where they are at their optimal machine. And I feel like our bodies and who we are, our machines. so let's like, all of us run on different food. My husband, he's a carb guy. If I feed him carbs, he can run for hours. Me, I'm a protein girl and I've definitely got to have protein in the morning, especially for hiking. Like we have two very separate breakfasts, very different styles and different energy that fuels our bodies. Same thing with how we operate and how we work. So I want you to figure out your optimal time. Where are you going to be the most efficient to be working on the most important pieces of the business? Next up is let's find out who our team is around us. Where are they at? And then third is how much time is actual optimal for you? And this can be a trial and error. I used to think like, I'm going to block three hours. You guys, by like hour one, I'm thinking about what am going to make for dinner? What am I going to do? I think I need to stretch. I need to get up. The Dental A Team (07:52.556) So I realized I can't do these big chunks of time. I have to break it up and almost like consolidate my time to force me to work more efficiently. So just figure out who you are. My recommendation for the general population is break it into smaller chunks because typically if we've got four hours or two hours too long of a chunk, it actually will make us unproductive. So on that, then from there, okay, we know we're a morning person. We know we work in an hour and half stints. Next up is to go look at our schedules. I would never in my wildest dreams recommend Mondays to be a day that you work on your business. I just don't. think that so many patients call in it's hectic. It's chaotic. People are coming in like Mondays just feel like this, madness energy in the world. I don't enjoy that. You might feel like no Monday's my motivation day. And that's the day that I get everything mapped out. Know thyself and be free is my best recommendation. I prep Sunday evenings to make sure my week is all prepared so I can come into Monday mayhem. and be ready to go. My deep work times are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have two in my week. Brittany and Shelby, they both have two or three. They are for an office. So like think of an office manager and a scheduler or a treatment coordinator. They each have their time. I also look at the tasks that are necessary. Britt needs more time than I do. Britt has heavier projects. She has research projects. She's got a lot more time. So Britt needs like... four to six hours per week where I need about an hour and a half each time. So about two to three hours per week. That's my optimal time. Again, this is going to come ebb and flow and the more consistently we take our time, the more doable it will be for you. So with team members for doctors and clinical team and front office, whomever needs to work on bigger projects, most of the time this is your front office, like your office manager, your scheduler, your treatment coordinator. I feel like doctors and OMS need at least two to three hours per week of deep work uninterrupted time. Then our schedulers and our treatment coordinators, I usually recommend about an hour a week of uninterrupted time. Billers might need two to three, depending upon what they're working on, because that's more of like deep work, harder getting through projects, and then leads in your practice. I usually recommend about an hour per week. So that just kind of helps you break down the timelines, how much time we're needing to do for each position within the practice. But then we got to go build it into the schedule. So for me, I actually like my team to work at the same time. So me and Shelby, we work at almost the same time. The Dental A Team (10:14.71) She's my right hand. I have to ask her a lot of different questions. So for her, she's very smart. Office managers, I would do the same thing. You're kind of like Shelby with me. Block your time the same time as your doctor, because doctors working hard, they're not gonna be interrupting. They're not gonna be asking for things. That means office managers, you can probably get a lot more done during that time. So you've just got to start to build a schedule. So what I do is I actually build this onto offices schedules for them. In my schedule, I have it. It's a deep work block. And then every week, So whatever your choice is, like, okay, so we know we're, we're mornings. know we need two hours a week. We're looking at doctor schedule, Kiera schedule, all the people schedules in our practice and we're building out a like admin deep work. We're going to get all the big projects done schedule. So from there, what we're going to do next is we build the schedule. Okay. So it's all in there. So for me, mine are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Britt has hers on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Whatever, choose your poison. I don't care when you do it, but we're going to build it. and front office team members, you've got to also make sure you coordinate schedules to make sure that we're not overlapping each other. We don't want both office manager treatment coordinator to be gone at the same time. We want you guys to stagger your schedule so you can cover for each other as well. That way the front office is always taken care of. Doctors, I recommend you do this offsite. Doing it in your practice is probably not going to be beneficial. I like to go to a coffee shop, to the library, somewhere offsite. And office managers, it might be wise for you to consider this as well, talking with your doctor. Where can you go that you're the most productive for me? If I'm going to take this much time away from the practice or my business, it's truly working on the deepest, like most productive projects of the week that are going to move my practice forward the most. So this is like building protocols, writing handbooks, writing policies, reviewing my systems, all those different things are going to help you exponentially with this. So what we do is then I believe that if we're going to block this time, we then need to. hold ourselves to a standard where we can actually, 100 % actually go through and make sure we maximize this time. So for you guys, I really want you to think about this, like what do you actually need to get done during this time that's going to be the most productive for you? So for me, I believe I've got to plan and prepare if I'm going to block this time off on my schedule. And I believe that if you're gonna take this time out of your schedule, you should block and plan. The Dental A Team (12:39.34) So for doctors, I'll just give you a quick list. This is with a client we were just working with who has time and wanted to use that time productively. And so we broke it down because I believe that a CEO, have three duties and that's profitability, culture and vision. And office managers, I would say that yours is similar in addition to team. And so maybe you break it up and I do like admin tasks, but this isn't like checking your email, responding back to people. It would be reviewing the credit c…

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#889: Here's Where Practices Fall Short When Hiring Sep 12, 2024

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Cory Pinegar of CallForce joins Tiff to talk about how to successfully hire the best people for your practice. They discuss the importance of consistent communication, what happens when one team member isn't fitting, bringing on remote workers, and more. Episode resources: Check out CallForce Get in touch with Cory directly: cory@getcallforce.com Listen to episode 526: Applying Healthy Boundaries Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.058) You guys I'm so excited to be here today with the one and only Corey from reach and I just I'm blown away Corey that I get to do this podcast with you. I know I told you this a couple times we chatted a little bit yesterday we had a little bit this morning but for the world that's out there this man's brain has just done wonders for the dental industry in the last eight years it has blown me away. I've watched you grow. I've watched your companies grow. I told you before when I was in practice, you know, way back in the day, long time ago, I actually used some of the products that you ended up purchasing and taking over. And I have seen that massively improve the dental industry. In my opinion, I've used them personally in practice. And I have a ton of practices that use both sides of what you do. So Corey, I I'm blown away again, like I said that I get to do this podcast with you. know you've done a couple with Kara. She's fantastic at them and I listened to them over and over. And I'm like, gosh, there's so many great nuggets. send them to a lot of clients and I can't wait to dive into what we have today. Corey, how are you doing today on this beautiful sunny Tuesday? Is it sunny in Salt Lake? It's freaking hot here in sunny. So I just make the assumption. What is it like out there? How are you Corey? Cory Pinegar (01:15.44) Hey, it's not as hot as it is in Arizona, which we're grateful for, but thank you for having me. Your team has always been amazing and it's a pleasure to be here today. The Dental A Team (01:18.283) It's bad. Yeah. The Dental A Team (01:25.385) Awesome. Thank you. We love you. We love your products and we love supporting you guys. And honestly, I truly I have a few clients who use your products already. And I love being able to recommend something from someone that we know we can trust that's done your due diligence to create an incredible company that reaches the masses and really, honestly, I love the benefits that you guys bring to not only our country, but other countries is just really, really cool. So If you guys don't know this company, I want you to do your due diligence. Follow the link below that Sissy and the ladies will tag in there, learn more. We're going to talk some about it. But Corey, I think what we've chatted about, what we've decided is really relevant and prevalent right now in the world and in our industry is really exciting for me. So we're going to do our due diligence and we're going to talk about both companies. But I think I want to pick your brain today. done this incredible job of really learning how to onboard employees, hire great team members, really vet different people. And right now in the industry, what I'm seeing with a lot of my clients, I told you this morning, I just got off a call last night with a doctor and I'm like, gosh, like I just, my heart pours out to him and I want to go work in his office. I'm like, gosh, just, I will just come do it. Like I can't, we cannot fill this position. And every time we get somebody that we're like, okay, great. This is going to be awesome. they don't show up the first day or they have childcare issues or something happens and all of a sudden they can't be there. And I'm like, what the heck? It's just the way the world is right now in the hiring industry. was like, Hey, it's just hygiene. And now it's like dental assistants and front office and just finding people has become increasingly more difficult. And Corey yesterday when we chatted, you had some incredible ideas and ways that you've actually learned how to vet really great team members for your company, for other companies to use as virtual assistants. And so, so that you guys know out there, Corey's company has has two different sides. have, you know, the re care, recall, phone answering all that. But then they've recently within the last year and a half or so been really, really, really taking over, in my opinion, the virtual assisting world. The Dental A Team (03:48.841) with ways of hiring that I don't think other companies are really using and it's making a huge difference and a huge impact. I'm seeing it in my own personal clients. And I'm honestly seeing it in the industry, just reviews that I've seen of your company. Like I am blown away by the way that you go about hiring these individuals and the thought process that you put into it. So Corey, will you just kind of give us some of your biggest tidbits? What do you look for when hiring and how are you really? vetting these people as humans to be good people that are actually showing up for work because they are showing up virtually but they are showing up. How are you doing this? How are you creating this magic? Cory Pinegar (04:29.332) Well, I actually want to even take a step back before we hop into it. I, one, appreciate your kind words. We're not a perfect company, but we're really passionate about the market. And we believe that there's a lot to do better for patients and practitioners. Before we even dive into some of our hiring practice tips and tricks, one thing that I want to talk about is you have to create an environment in your company or in your practice that is a win. And what I mean by that is there has to be or there is three stakeholders or shareholders in any business. There's customers, there's employees, and there is the business itself. And the business has to make money. If a business consistently loses money, then eventually the business goes out of business and there's no more employees and there's no more customers. If you don't treat your customers, The Dental A Team (05:21.009) Yeah. Cory Pinegar (05:25.108) really well, then your customers don't refer, your customers don't stick around. And if you don't treat your employees well, if you don't create a sustainable, happy, healthy, not perfect, but environment that cares, your employees don't stick around and they don't treat your customers great. And so even before you go, if you go hire the world's best person, but then you don't have a winning environment and winning team, nothing is going to happen. And so what I and all of us in dentistry, The Dental A Team (05:51.569) for sure. Cory Pinegar (05:54.792) are entrepreneurs, everyone who's listening today owns or has started and wants to grow their own practice. And something that I've learned from doing this from eight years and inheriting it with no formal business training, like a lot of doctors as well, is businesses have to be built to be sustainable. And so you have to look at your environment well before you go to your hiring practices or go find the best person in the world and you have to say, Does a team member walk in here and do they have the opportunity to grow? Is it a safe space? Is it a space where they can be pushed professionally? Is the business producing capital that returns to you as the owner that is meaningful and moves your family and life forward? And number three, and equally as important, is are your patients raving patients at the end of the day? And if you do those three, you create a flywheel, that means the business is even sustainable beyond yourself. That's the number one thing that I do. You go for it. The Dental A Team (06:51.987) So I'm gonna jump in, because I have questions. Okay, so I think that's beautiful. That right there, like drop the mic, you've done everything. Fix those things and you've got at least a place I think where you can attract the right people. So my question then is the practices you aren't really maybe even realizing that they need to focus more internally, like we need to fix the foundation before we bring more people in. Do you see... within your experience as a business owner and watching other business owners, do you see that that translates to maybe an ability to hire? Like we need somebody and we're like scraping and trying to hire, but we can't, or hiring the wrong people or not realizing who we need to hire without that kind of foundation. What are the repercussions that you've seen in your experience with that when they're not doing the right things yet, or maybe not knowing? Cory Pinegar (07:43.988) Yeah. So when a business isn't sustainable, especially on the employee side, they have higher turnover naturally. Who wants to work in an environment where they don't feel valued, where they can grow personally, professionally, and financially? And so you see higher turnover. Then what we see from the practices is an urge to fill the gap quickly because the turnover is consistent. And so what they look for is, I want someone with dental experience in revenue cycle management or insurance verification, and I want them to start as soon as possible. I want an able body to get in there. And that is the next step of the death sentence. Because if I've seen anything through my eight years and hiring thousands of people and having hundreds of them not work out to I've goofed it up as bad as anyone has. What I've learned is The Dental A Team (08:15.613) yet. Yeah. Cory Pinegar (08:36.992) personality, soft skills and EQ, emotional intelligence skills, can not be trained. And different practices need different types of people. But what happens is when a practice is in a pinch, what they're doing is they're sub diverting all of those core skills that can't be trained and going to someone saying, you can ride a bike. Well, we need a bike rider. But then what happens is six months down the road again, it's not the right personality fit. They don't have the right soft skills for the job. And that turnover is created again. It's a systemic system that then just until the core problem is fixed and until the practice starts saying we hire for fit, then we hire for skill, it re -incess and repeats and the doctor and the practice is often wondering what the heck is happening when it really takes a step back, a slow down. and improvement and then you can create something that is sustainable and less stressful. The Dental A Team (09:40.546) For sure, for sure. I love all of that. And I think what that translates into, right, is you can find someone, I think, with the IQ, with the emotional intelligence, with all of those personality traits that you're like, this is fantastic. This is the person we can train, he or she, to do anything that we want them to. But when that foundation isn't there, like to go back to that piece, if our foundation of team and patient and business experience isn't there. So our team experience is met, our patient experience is like, how many can we get churned through, or it's just not 100 % because our team's not super happy. And the business maybe isn't going in the directions that we really want to see it growing in. We bring that person in, we're like, I found them. I've heard this tip, I found the person. She's the perfect fit. She's gonna solve all our problems. I'm like, fantastic. let's see how this works, like let's get it on. But when those other pieces haven't been solved yet or even found, maybe they don't even know that they're an issue yet, that person fails, right? Or the team, the business fails that person. And so they don't last because those other pieces haven't been there yet. So then it's like, well, shoot, you told me to hire for the personality, Tiff, and that didn't work. Now I'm gonna hire for, I need someone who can fill a schedule. I need someone who knows treatment planning. know need someone who knows how to schedule an open dental and can answer the phone. And I'm like, cool. So then we fly into that other space where they're hiring for need and they're hiring for the quote unquote experience that they have, but they might end up with someone who didn't have those emotional intelligence pieces. So as a business owner, and I think, I mean, we've gone through it, like everybody goes through these trends in a business, this is just part of business, you get stuck on one spot of the business and you're turning and you're turning and you forget the other pieces or they just kind of fall to the wayside. But in your experience, when you've seen that in your business or in other businesses, you help a lot of doctors across this country. How do you see them like realize like what are the key points that they can see? They've got the turnover, but are there other areas where they can see? I think this might be a foundational thing. The Dental A Team (12:01.191) I keep having this turnover, keep having people come in. How do they notice that? How do they know? I've got to focus in on my team's experience because there's an issue here. Cory Pinegar (12:11.722) think some people are naturally wired. Some people are lucky enough to be gifted to see the whole picture. The reality is it's a painful level of introspection and listening. I recently hired a coach who went and surveyed all of my direct reports and came back and it's a painful colonoscopy. But it's really insightful because you see the way you act and everyone thinks they act a certain way well. The Dental A Team (12:33.192) It is. Cory Pinegar (12:38.89) Perception is generally reality and perception of other people looking at you is the reality that generally matters in business. And so it's taking those moments to slow down, realize how you're acting, learn about better ways. And then it's the continued art of always learning. I am so far from perfect, but I think I probably either read or listen to educational content for 30 minutes to an hour and a half every single day. And it's the only way that we can then take our team back and develop people and process to truly allow us as owners and leaders to step back or else the chaos always continues. The Dental A Team (13:11.19) Well, I love that. I love that. The Dental A Team (13:17.814) Mm -hmm. The Dental A Team (13:25.322) Yeah. What are you choosing for your personal development? What are you, what are you learning right now? What are you taking back to your team? Cory Pinegar (13:32.852) What am I taking right now? I'm working on developing trust in our organization. And so how do we build pillars that then work and support together? And what's been really interesting is the coach that I've been working with has then gone through the pillars of trust. And so it's credibility, it's the ability to be reliable, it's the ability to have personable conversations. Sometimes I look at leadership or trust, these large... The Dental A Team (13:38.038) Yeah. Cory Pinegar (14:00.254) almost gargantuan words that are hard to define. And it's been really helpful to take a step back and get a coach. But the only ways that I've been able to do it is swallowing the pride pill, which I still struggle to swallow every day and…

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#888: Insider Scoop on What Office Managers Do Sep 11, 2024

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Rereleasing one of DAT's most popular episodes! What do office managers even do? Why is it important to have an awesome OM? Kiera is joined by Brit and the two are talking the best parts of having an office manager — and a good one at that. The two hit on the following topics: The one trait you need to be a successful OM Why your OM needs to be a numbers person How to be fair and respected as an OM What the ideal OM/doctor relationship looks like Plus a ton more! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:05.806) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A -Teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. The Dental A Team (00:51.352) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I've got Brittany. It's always weird to call her Brittany because in real life I call her Britt all the time. But Brittany Stone is one of our incredible consultants. If you don't know her, you must get to know her. Britt is all things goodness. She's great at listening. She's great at consulting. She's great at spotting problems. She's great at coaching people up. If you haven't heard her podcast in the past, go listen to them. They are fan -freaking -tastic. So I'm excited to podcast with her today. Britt, how are you today? I'm doing good. It's a rainy day in Arizona, which for us is a treat. So I'm enjoying it. That is a unicorn of a day for you in Arizona. remember those days. And people just stop driving. They don't go anywhere. I remember people didn't even want to go to the movies when it rained. And I was like, what? It's just raining. I know. They don't like to get wet. And they're like, this is out of the ordinary. It throws them off. They don't know what to do. It does. And I will say, I did not believe that Arizona had monsoons. I was like, you guys are ridiculous. No, they have monsoons because the earth does not accept any water. It's the desert. like hands up in the air. No way Jose not taking this. And gosh, like you can flood those streets real fast. It's crazy. And Arizona raindrops are different than I also lived on the East Coast in Northern Virginia. That's like usually like a misty rain and Arizona raindrops are rather large also. So you will get real stoked real fast. So fast. can calm down. also didn't know about a Haboob. I thought somebody literally made that term up. I was like, what did you just say? Like those massive dust storms, I've been caught in them and you cannot see a thing when you're in one of those. So that's when people really shouldn't drive. I would agree. The Haboob warnings. was like, what? That when you take serious rain, you can still do it. It's fine. But if a Haboob is coming, stay out the road. It's just such a weird phrase. It's funny to me. But with that said, Britt and I wanted to just pop on and kind of do a riff today on like what a true office manager should do and the importance of hiring an incredible office manager because we gosh, we interview a lot of people for consulting. I put this out there because we are, we are always hiring consultants. So if you know of somebody, and you are a true office manager, you've been there, done that, know how to run it. We'll kind of give you guys a quick overview. we'd love to work with you. We do not hire ever. The Dental A Team (03:10.805) an office manager from a practice we've worked with no ifs, ands or buts period. Cause then like it's weird. One, we have a weird reputation and two, who wants to hire us? Nobody. It's just weird. We don't do that. So with that said, but if you know of anybody who's an amazing office manager, then they're done that that's we're always hiring. So please email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. we do train people to become consultants. had never consulted prior to working with us, but she had all the skills and all the tools. necessary to be an incredible consultant. Same thing with Tiffanie, same thing with Dana. And so with that, we found through the interviewing process, there's a lot of just weird shades of office management. Would you agree, Britt? I would agree. That's the best way to say it. It's one of those terms that's like kind of a catchall sometimes. And unfortunately, then for some doctors, they're like, well, do I really need an office manager? But I don't really know what that person does or how valuable they can be. For sure. And I think it's also like, I was just talking, I think it was with Tiffany yesterday. And I said, honestly, if I had a business coach come into our company, Shelby's amazing guys. I'm not going to lie to you. Shelby is a freaking rock star when it comes to operations. However, in that same vein, myself and Shelby have never ever, ever been operations managers in corporate America. I've been an office manager in a dental practice. I've been a regional manager in a dental practice so I can do dentistry like with my eyes closed, but corporate America, when we're talking running a virtual company. You have never have done that. So although I think that Shelby does amazing at what she does, I promise you, if I brought in a business coach, they'd probably look at our company and be like, Whoa, you guys need to put a few more systems into play. If you did this, this, and this, it'd probably be a lot easier. And Shelby and I would probably look at each other and giggle and high five and be like, well, sweet, now we know. Because we don't know even what that looks like. And I think that that's where so many doctors might think their office manager is like killer and amazing. But it might be because you've never really worked with a true office manager that would literally like blow your mind. Same thing with office managers. You may never have even known what it should be like to be a true office manager or what things you should be doing. And I think that that's sometimes unfair for office managers too, because like Britt said, you're kind of thrown into the position, catch all be all. You now are office manager. Good luck. No training book out there for you. So here we go. So Britt, let's kind of dive into like you went from hygienist, clinical hygiene. The Dental A Team (05:30.955) to office manager. So I feel like you really had a good learning curve and can really relate to this of like, what do office managers even do? Why is it important to have them, especially coming from a clinical side as well? For sure. And I think the biggest thing when it comes to office managers, because it is quite a catchall term, if I think about like, what's the thing that you really need to be successful as an office manager? And I think being a problem solver is probably like way up there on the list because ultimately I need to learn how pretty much everything runs. I need to understand even if I don't know how to do dentistry, I need to kind of have an idea of what that doctor is doing so I can make sure things are running smoothly. And there's no way anyone's going to know all of that information from the get go. So being able to really like gather information, problem solve, figure out what needs to be done, and then like systematize it so that things are getting done are huge. For sure. And I think it's like to do it simply as well, because so many office managers might see the problem, but then they might not actually solve it or alternatively, they're the solver for everything, which means the whole practice is rely on that one person. And then that person never gets anything done. And it's like always a bottleneck around that one office manager. So I agree with you, Britt. You've got to, as an office manager, be able to solve problems quickly and empower a team and know what even needs to be done. What system could you put into play? And it's either you've been there, you worked with a lot of practices, you hire a coach, or it's like the school of hard knocks trying to figure it out on your own and hashtag Shelby and I are in the school of hard knocks right now. it's tricky. like And we were looking, I literally have interviewed two different people for business coaches on operations just to help us out for the exact reason that we're talking about this, because we've never done it. We don't know. And so I love what you said, Britt. You've got to be a good problem solver. And I think building a plan that you can roll it out to the team. Shelby does a really great job of that. She's really fantastic at like, hey, here's the problem. I'm going to create a protocol, roll it out to the team. So it's very simple and then hold them accountable to it as well. The Dental A Team (07:48.513) And your managers are often like your, your implementers, right? And that's Shelby does really well with is like, all right, once we've got an idea, we've got a solution. Like how do we actually put it into practice and make sure it's workable? Yeah. So I think it's like around problem solving is what they should be doing. And doctors, this doesn't mean you create the solutions for them and then they go implement. You can do it together, but oftentimes it should be, you can go, here's the problem. Managers should be able to like, thank you, fantastic, I'll have an answer to you by Friday. And they've got a whole plan worked up of how they can solve it, who's going to be responsible. Here's the protocol and go and implement it from A to Z. Also think managers have to be really great communicators. And I would say fair and respected is a key, two key attributes of managers of being fair and being respected in the practice. So holding those accountability lines, holding your team to the standards and not playing favorites. But really being able to see what every person should do and where, like what are the KPIs they should be held to and where is the gap in their skillset? And can that be coached up? Can that be trained? That way they can actually be operating at the highest level and they know what that level is so you can keep coaching them towards that. Mm -hmm, agreed. And I think along with that, it comes with KPIs and team members. You're the ultimate, like you need to kind of have eyes on everything. doesn't mean you're in everything, but you've got either a KPI, a measurement, check -ins, like you've got your touch points to be able to know what's going on in the practice and be able to identify issues. And if you don't know what a KPI is and you're an office manager like I was, a KPI is a key performance indicator. And I've kind of coined it as like the vitals of the practice. So what's actually going to move your practice forward in the most simple vital pieces. So for example, You better know your AR. If you don't know what AR is, AR is aging report. So how much money is sitting in unpaid either claims or patient balances? To me, that's a vital KPI of your billing because if we don't have strong collections, which is going to tell me about our AR, if we're not sitting at about a 98 % collection rate, guess what? We are not going to be able to pay bills. So we need to absolutely watch that. It doesn't mean the office manager has to be your biller. It just means office manager needs to have eyes over that. The Dental A Team (10:11.885) and be able to know what the standards are and then help the team achieve that on a consistent basis, rather being like some months were low, some months were high, having more of that constant feed and understanding how those KPI dials are turned for every position and what they really need to do to get them to move forward. For sure. And that's where your problem solver hat comes on where it's like, all right, if this should be at 98 % and it's not happening, then we need to dig in and find out what's going on. And then be okay to have the conversation with your team member. If the team members know this is going to tie back to office managers also have to be great at setting clear expectations that are held consistently. So if your collection ratio should be 98%, you need to be able to have those conversations with your billing team and find out why are we not at 98%. What are the problems there? And for me, I feel like as a manager, Let's come in with a curious mindset, not a blaming mindset. I actually don't care why our collections are at 90%. I don't care whose fault it is. That's irrelevant to me. What I care about is this is the problem. We're at 90 % when we should be at 98%. Let's figure out what the root cause of that is. Let's create a system and a solution. My hunch is if you were sitting in a 98 % or a 90 % collection ratio, it's either we're not collecting over the counter. We're not processing our claims cleanly. So they're coming back and I'm having to resubmit a bunch of them. Or this is usually the number one is that that biller is not actually taking the time to work the AR consistently. So some days they'll like get in there, work it, and then they'll go for two or three weeks and then they'll get back in there and work it. And we don't have a set process and pattern set up to ensure that our collections are always staying high. But that's what we're talking about. Like knowing the KPI, diving deep into it, creating a solution. and then following back on it. And I think that that's so key of office managers. And to like loop from there, I think another key piece that office managers should do and know are practice numbers. Like you've got to have a little business savviness to you, which Britt, I'm super curious. How did you get your business like savviness within, we're talking like knowing overhead, knowing AR, knowing how you, like what you should be spending on supplies and labs. Like how did you learn that Britt from your? The Dental A Team (12:31.821) It was a combination of two things. So one on the job and two, I did study healthcare administration. So I did hygiene school and then I studied healthcare administration. So I learned some of the business side and then my dental, dental specific metrics, I learned on the job from learning from other people and just really wanting to watch those numbers and know where I should be. because I like to know what I'm trying to achieve. I don't like to feel like I'm just wandering, even if I might be doing well. So I wanted to find out where should I be at, what should I be meeting, what should I be reaching, what's healthy so that I could be confident in the job that I'm doing. Which I think is brilliant because for…

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