Stay ConnectedThis podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to:
– Be more efficient
– Have more fun
– Improve doctor and team communications
– Eliminate frustration
– And make your life easier!
Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM!
New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
As DAT visits with practices, the consultants are hearing more about CE options: doctors and team members who feel like they're consuming too much or spending too much money for not enough or not the right kind of education. This episode is all about finding the right CE for your practice right now. Tiff and Dana talk about taking inventory of what you want to do as a doctor/team member, what you want to do better, and how to get the best bang for your buck. 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: Tiffanie (00:14.535) Hello everyone. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have with me my fave. Dana, Dana, you celebrated your birthday recently. I know we already talked about it on the podcast, but I thought about you all weekend and how was it? How loved and special did you feel? You have this incredible family and these kids that just like pour so much love into you and a husband who loves you to pieces. Like how was it? I know you didn't do anything super crazy special yet for your birthday. That's in the works. And I know you had a ton of sports, but how, how was your birthday weekend? Dana (00:49.276) It was awesome and you're right, like my celebrations are coming this weekend, but I just got extra quality time with family, which I always love. And when your birthday falls, near Father's Day, right? Just sharing that extra time. So just lots of family love, lots of quality time, and it was a great weekend. Tiffanie (01:07.079) I love that. Yes, you're right before Father's Day typically, right? And I'm right before Mother's Day, so I totally get it. And then we get like everything gets smashed together. And I think on Father's Day too, like you're like, I don't want to take away from you and your day. But you know, I'm a big birthday person. So thankfully, it's Mother's Day for me and not Father's Day because that would be a hard decision for me to make. Dana (01:23.196) Yeah. Dana (01:34.78) I love the honesty tip. Tiffanie (01:37.799) Yes, yes, and you know, my boyfriend knows that. He's very well -prepped and he does really well. I spent a lot of time when we first started dating, ensuring that he understood how important the birthday time period was. And that's everybody's birthdays. I like to celebrate everybody's, but specifically my own is like a holiday for me. Dana, I wanted to, before we really dive in, I really wanted to chat with you and really see how things are going in your world of consulting. You have so many practices that you work with constantly. Doctors that you do one on one with. I know you do a lot of virtual within our company and you do travel. You have quite a few travel clients this year that got put on your schedule that you're just, I mean, I'm like you're on the road all the time and I love it personally. I love seeing somebody else on the road as well. How are things going for you? And then also I know we have our newest virtual product and kind of coaching that, you've helped lead a lot of those coaching sessions for and really jumped in and helped to answer a lot of the doctor community questions and things like that. So from your standpoint, how are things going this year? We're about mid -year. How are things looking for a lot of the practices that you're working with one -on -one? Dana (02:53.372) Yeah. Good, I love, I just love the opportunity to be in office with teams. It brings a different dynamic that I'm used to. Of course, I love my virtual clients equally, right? But I do love the in office visit, so I'm excited for that. I think this year has been a little bit different. I think that, you know, there's economy concerns, there are hiring concerns, there are short staffing concerns that we've been dealing with for about the last year to two years. But I do feel like this year, Tiffanie (03:05.031) Yeah. Tiffanie (03:22.407) Yeah. Dana (03:24.11) This is a pivotal year for a lot of practices and so I'm just super excited to get in there to help, to grow, and to be a resource to all of them. Tiffanie (03:34.023) Yeah. I love that. I love that. I think you're right. That's definitely something that I've seen with a lot of the practices I've been working with is just the hiring degrees and what that looks like and the weather and the forecasting within that department is really difficult right now. And I think it's just something that it's the world we're living in right now. And it is the way that it is. So doing the best that we possibly can. I know that you and I have done a lot of onboarding and operations manual and employee handbooks. kind of conversations this year. So I think that's really beneficial for a lot of our listeners. And I think that they've been able to get a lot of value out of those things. And then also something we've been working really, really hard on ensuring is that everybody really knows how to read their overhead, how to kind of manipulate those numbers within the overhead and how to make sure that they're staying on track and that their company and their business is still seeing growth even when there are things that are out of our control. Where I think before, like the team aspect was something that that we could really count on being there for the most part. There were so many of us in the dental industry that were like, she's going to be here forever. And that's never something we want to count on. We don't want to be people dependent. We want to be systems dependent. And I think right now's climate tells us why we preach that and why we have been preaching that for so long. But it's just such a different space that we're living in right now than we've ever lived in within the dental industry before that I've been here for the last. 20 whatever years, we're not going to put that out there. But. Tiffanie (05:07.239) It's just a little bit different. So I think something I've been working with my doctors a lot on, and I know you do as well, is really starting to prepare and get ready for what you want your practice to look like. So at the beginning of the year, we set a ton of goals. And we work backwards from those goals to really figure out where we should be at every mile marker throughout the year. So every half year, every quarter, every month, every day, kind of re -engineering those numbers and those trackable items, whether it's number of fluorides, or number of implants placed or dollar amount that we're producing or collecting. We're always working backwards from that. So something that I've added in for a lot of my practices and something we're heavily looking at now being about midway through the year is the CE opportunities that our doctors are taking. And I think one, my big, my big... Reminder right now is, again, we're about halfway through the year. And if you don't have your CE done already and you don't have your CE planned, this is your reminder to start preparing for that. And I wanted, Dana, I wanted you and I to really just kind of go through some tips and tricks that we've utilized with some of our practices we work with all the time to help them narrow down and figure out what they're going to do. Dana, I don't know if you've experienced this or not, but I have a few doctors. who love to learn. I think most of my doctors just love to learn. They're constantly in the education phase and overload and overwhelm themselves with CE. And Dana, have you seen, I've seen a couple of my doctors that just do so much CE in like two to three years. They just jam pack it and then they're like, I can't do any, Tiff, I can't go to another course. I can't go to another class. I can't implement anything else. I'm spent. I'm just done for. Have you seen that, Dana? Dana (07:00.38) Yeah, I've definitely seen that and then I've seen two doctors that like they do all of it but then the implementation like it never gets there and it's like well that was great to learn and like I'm super excited about it but I didn't actually bring it into the practice. Tiffanie (07:07.815) Yes. Tiffanie (07:14.183) I totally agree. I totally agree. And when we're like, I feel like it's like a tsunami when we just, we get overloaded, right? And I know we do book club every month in our company. And sometimes I even get to the point where I'm like, I need a little bit longer between the book, like where I'm at now and the next one, because I feel like if I move on, I'm just consuming at this point and I'm not actually utilizing or implementing the information that I'm getting. And so I think CE is the same, right? It's similar. And I think we have a tendency, right, as human beings to take in as much as we can, and then like our brains decide subconsciously what we're gonna retain and what we're not. And then we're like, I never, I do this all the time where I'm like, I've never heard that before in my life. I'm like, actually I've heard it like 15 ,000 times, right? But today it's stuck. And I think CE is very similar for doctors where you really just need to know what it is that. you need to know. You can't just go in blind. You can't just go in thinking, I just need to soak up all the information. And for our newer doctors, that's really hard to figure out because there's so much information. There's so much to do and so much to learn that you didn't get in college yet, right? At university, you didn't get all of this stuff. And so you're coming out, and you're just inundated with all of these options. So Dana and I, you and I did a lot of research. podcast recently. I'm really proud of it. It was a really good podcast. We've done some really great podcasts recently, but we did a podcast regarding budgeting and the PNLs. And so I want to remind everyone to always go back and listen to other podcasts that may not seem like, my gosh, this doesn't seem like a relevant topic for what I'm looking for today. I'm looking for CE. That's why I'm listening to this one. Like Tiff, don't be crazy. I hear you. But there's a budgeting one in there as well that we discussed CE budgets. And I think starting with a budget is huge, because Dana, I think we've also both experienced the situation where doctors are consuming so much that it's becoming a financial burden, where it's like, I can't, Tiff, I can't afford to go to any more classes. Dana, have you seen that with some of your practices as well? Dana (09:25.5) Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes it is they can afford the actual course, right? Or they look at just the cost of the course and not necessarily all that is involved in the course, the travel, the hotel, the food, all the things, because some of these courses are over several days, right? So there's added expenses to them. And so I do agree with you that like the budget is the first place to start. Tiffanie (09:46.247) Yeah, I love that. So go listen to that one. And then Dana, you mentioned implementation as well. And it made me think, I did a few months ago, I think it was a few months ago, I don't even remember now. And we can probably pull the podcast numbers and put them in the description here. But I did a podcast with Dr. Dave Mogadam. And I've worked with him for years. He's one of my prized possession clients that I will just always work with. And he did a really great podcast with me in regards to actual implementing the information that he's gotten from a lot of the courses that he's done. So if you're looking for a CE, you're looking for ideas and information, this podcast obviously is going to be a good one. But then Dave and I, Dr. Dave and I actually did run through a lot of the CE that he's done and how he's been able to implement it. So that was actually a really good podcast. So go back and listen to that one as well. So when I'm helping my clients to differentiate or my friends, my doctor friends, they're like, Tiff, I just don't know what I want to do. I wanted to go through, Dana, some of the ways that we help them narrow down what it is that they should be doing. So I think we talked budget. So budget number one, but budget doesn't always mean cheap. Budget doesn't mean don't do the expensive ones. Budget doesn't mean do only the ones that are $1 ,000 or less because you've got travel expenses. Budget just means to make sure that you're. saving and you're putting in another account like a CE budget so that you can do any of the courses that you want to. So my number one or my two things that I make every doctor do when they're choosing CE, it's not like a, you know, put my finger on that piece of paper and like which one does it land on. I want you guys to take inventory of what you actually like doing. I had a dentist recently, she called me. And she's like, Tiff, I need CE. I need to ramp up my production and my practice. Something's got to change. Something's got to give. And I said, great. Let's talk about this. Let's figure it out. And she said, I'm going to go to a course for root canals because I refer a ton of root canals out. I said, OK, that's fair. Most GP dentists do refer a lot of root canals out. I'll give you that. I'm totally down with that. And then I said, do you like doing root canals? Does that light your soul up? Tiffanie (12:05.607) And she goes, no, I hate them. And I said, OK. I said, I hated them too when I had to assist them. So I get it. They're tedious, and they're annoying, and I'm not even doing the work. And she said, no, I absolutely hate them. That's why I referred them out. And I said, OK. Then why are we bringing it back in office? I said, do you think that you're going to be efficient and effective with root canals even after going to a course if you dislike them? And she said, No, I don't think so. It's going to take me too long. I said, great. This was a wonderful 45 second conversation on talking you out of a CE that's not going to do you any good. So it was great. And she changed it. She decided to go for sedation. And that's something she's very passionate about. And it's going to change the face of her practice. I think it's really cool. But I didn't talk her into that. I just asked the questions of, is that something that you actually like doing? So I make them go through and look at, what do you enjoy doing in your practice? And then what do you want to get better at? So a lot of doctors love placing implants. And they're like, I just don't have enough implant opportunities. We can talk about that. We can create the systems to find implant opportunities. It's there. We're just not looking for it. But do you need to get more confident in placing implants so that you see the opportunities? Is that really what's going on? So I think taking inventory of what it is that you actually like doing. And taking inventory of what you want to get better at is key, totally key. Dana, do you have doctors that you've had similar situations with or conversations? And then kind of taking that inventory as well, how do you help them go through that when you're working with pract…
Full show notes at the publisherMark Rasmussen of Moolah is on the podcast with Kiera! Moolah is all about modernization of payment in dental practices. Mark and Kiera talk about Moolah and its full suite of payment tools, what modernized payments look like in dentistry, software/devices to use, honest processing fees, and more. Bonus: Dental A-Team listeners get a pricing discount: www.moolah.cc/thedentalateam Episode resources: Learn more about Moolah Score preferred pricing as a DAT listener here! Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.622) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am super jazz. I have a new guest to the podcast, new to the Dental A Team family. I have been watching this company for the last several years. I've had my eyes on them. I recommended them several times, but I'm super excited because I want to help you guys modernize how you guys are taking payments in the dental world. I feel like dentistry is a little old school. So I'm super jazzed to have the CEO and founder of Moolah, Mark Rasmussen on today. Mark, how you doing over there in beautiful Mexico today? Mark Rasmussen (00:00.76) Thank you. Mark Rasmussen (00:30.552) I am doing fantastic here. Thank you for allowing us to be part of the podcast. Excited to join you. And as you mentioned, yes, in down here in sunny Mexico, a little family vacation, happy to take a little break and talk with your community. Kiera Dent (00:35.598) Thank you. Kiera Dent (00:45.934) Amazing. Well, I was like, that's pure dedication. I offered to have you rescheduled because I'm like, you're in Mexico, go with the family. But I also know sometimes work is kind of fun on vacation. It's like, you know, you guys sit at the pool, I'll go have some alone time. But hopefully. Mark Rasmussen (00:50.072) Haha. Mark Rasmussen (00:59.608) Listen, you're winning in life if you feel that your work is worthwhile. Taking a break from a little vacation, that's how you know you're winning. So yeah, glad to do it, excited to do it. Kiera Dent (01:08.079) Awesome. Well, I do love Moolah a ton. So I just want, Mark, let's kind of give the listeners, you're new to the podcast. Like I said, I've watched you guys for years. So can you kind of walk the listeners through Moolah, Mark, how did you get into dental payment processing? Walk us through kind of like the history of you and Moolah. Mark Rasmussen (01:24.888) Yep. Sure, awesome. Okay, so I have been around electronic payments, just non -dental for about 27, 28 years. My God, I'm dating myself, but yeah, about 28 years. And... Kiera Dent (01:38.446) Hey, it's fine. I'm sure you're probably like 29. You probably started this business when you were one. That's my assumption, right? Or like you got into it. Yeah, of course. You're fine. 30. Never looking younger than 30 over there. You're looking good. Mark Rasmussen (01:43.064) Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Let's go with that. Yep. Exactly. I've actually, this is not gray. I actually make this gray. This is normally dark, but I just tried to distinguish myself and try and go gray. Kiera Dent (01:57.07) I thought you were trying to like match your like mullah swag, right? Like, you know, like beard and mullah, like same thing so that we look covered head to toe. You got the black glasses, you know, the white beard. It's not gray. It's just white. You're trying to go on brand. Yeah, you're welcome. Mark Rasmussen (02:00.632) yeah, there we go. Mm -hmm. I like it. Mark Rasmussen (02:06.936) I like it. I like it. Exactly. Exactly. So, so been around payments forever. About four years ago, we got invited into the dental community from our friends at Dental Success Network. And so we started going to their events. And, you know, they loved our model. Our model has always kind of been about simplicity. Even when we were non dental, we were all about like, you know, no contracts, no monthly fees, we provide the hardware. And so that kind of was really resonating with the dentist. But the constant feedback that we were getting was like, hey, this is cool. But we really want technology, we really want all of our payment activity posting into the patient ledger. And so we set about to go build that out and took us a couple years and but you know, ended up with a phenomenal platform that allows us to really kind of serve up. this full suite of payment tools for dental practice. That's in practice payments, of course, storing patient cards, being able to create and manage payment plans, be able to create and manage in -house membership or discount plans, sending out electronic requests via text or email to collect on a balance, allowing the practice to have a online payment submission, you know, so those patients can make payments after hours. So just this full suite of payment tools. that are posting back into the PMS. And really we think serving up the full suite of tools that today's practice would need. Kiera Dent (03:40.206) for sure. And I think that that's brilliant because you actually are speaking the language. Me as a team member, that was always our big thing with the processors of great. I'm glad you got this great one, but they don't go into the PMS system. They're not easy for me. But I'm curious, Mark, and this is something where you can be honest. Dental A Team is like no filter. I tried really hard to just have a good time on the podcast. How dated did you feel dentistry was? Yeah, of course. Yeah. But I mean, you're totally. Yeah, of course. Do whatever you want. I mean, I'm here for it. Mark Rasmussen (04:00.056) Nice. Should I grab a tequila shot and serve Asus right now? Or like how much of a good time are we having here? I'll stick to water. Kiera Dent (04:08.718) Yeah, okay. But I'm curious when you came because you didn't experience dentistry before you came into it. How dated was dentistry as an industry from your perspective? Like, were you a little like blown away? Like, I kind of say like, we're horse and carriage sometimes and some like, the fact that we didn't have online payments blows my mind, right? Could you please call during eight and five to make your payment to pay me? Like, we're gonna make it hard for you. How dated did you feel like dentistry was when you guys entered the industry? No judgment. I just Mark Rasmussen (04:16.024) Mm -hmm. Mark Rasmussen (04:30.424) Right. Right. Kiera Dent (04:37.454) Because I think, like I said, it's horrible. Mark Rasmussen (04:38.008) No judgment. I won't call it will protect the innocent. I won't call it any names. But yes, when I got into the space, I was blown away because there are some, you know, big legacy providers from payments perspective that had all of these legacy relationships with all the PMS is and I kind of just felt like they've been resting on their laurels for a really long time. Like they have the relationship and then they kind of stopped innovating. And so, yeah, I was, you know, Kiera Dent (04:41.142) you Kiera Dent (05:03.662) Mm -hmm. Mark Rasmussen (05:07.352) surprised that there was a lot of room to make improvements. And so yeah, it's been a great time. And not only improvements on the technology, but even the methods of I'll just call it old school solution providers, payment providers out there. Most of them are old school. And what I mean by that is that, you know, everything from, you know, the signup process or learning about what the fees are going to be. If you go, for example, go take a look and again, I'm not naming any big names, but go, we all know what they are. If you go to their website and you go to see like, all right, well, how much does merchant services cost from this company? None of them have pricing or rates on their website by design, right? They're all meant to submit a contact form and then wait to have a salesperson call you back. And then, you know, it's just, it feels, it always felt very like car sales, like no disrespect to anybody who sells cars. Kiera Dent (05:52.014) Peace. Kiera Dent (05:58.318) Right. Mark Rasmussen (06:04.92) but it felt very car salesman like of what that experience looked like. And so we were always a big believer of like, we wanted to make, you know, getting signed up for processing less sales like and more transactional like, and how do you do that? You wear your pricing on your sleeve. Like you can go to, you know, the Moolah website, you know exactly what our processing costs. There's no surprises. You don't need to speak with anybody to get pitched on what the services are. Kiera Dent (06:17.998) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (06:28.878) Thank you. Mark Rasmussen (06:30.584) And so again, I always liked that. I like more of a transactional experience than a sales experience in kind of, you know, all my aspects of life. So, you know, that element, we saw room to improvement. So, you know, easy to know what the pricing is. And then from a signup perspective, everything can be done online, right? You don't have to have this salesperson send you, you know, paper applications or PDF applications, and you don't need to fill those out and then submit them to the bank and then wait for a couple of days for underwriting. Kiera Dent (06:34.99) Thank you. Kiera Dent (06:58.158) Thank you. Mark Rasmussen (06:59.768) maybe have to provide financials or tax returns, like all that. So with us, we removed all those elements and it's just very easy to know what it costs, very easy to sign up within seconds. So again, just removing the barriers to entry on the actual signup process is a big lift in experience as well. Kiera Dent (07:11.566) Thank you. Kiera Dent (07:18.862) Totally agree. And I think I think that that's what's so fun is having these disruptors come into dentistry of this is what you guys could expect from other people but you're right like it is kind of dated and dentistry is such a Relationship industry. I mean I say lab people and reps are so lucky because dentists are so loyal to them So I really really do love that you guys are disrupting it and like you said it's making payments easier and so I was just curious if you can talk about like Mark Rasmussen (07:39.028) yeah. Kiera Dent (07:45.134) what does modernized payments look like? Like what should practices, like what's the standard that we should be living at right now? So offices can kind of almost checklist them of am I doing this in my practice? And if not, maybe I should consider a different processor. Mark Rasmussen (07:59.064) Yeah. So the first thing we touched on is I think you should look at a vendor who can provide you the immediate kind of instant on type of experience. I think the whole legacy of, you know, multi -day underwriting with the bank having to have a hard credit inquiry pull is unnecessary today. Although again, a lot of the legacy providers work that way. So an instant on, I think, you know, modern, you know, modern payments day means not having to lock yourself into any contracts. I'm a big believer in that. Like, Kiera Dent (08:08.942) Mm -hmm. Mark Rasmussen (08:29.4) Any vendor that you work with, I think for the most part should allow you to exist in kind of like a month to month environment, right? Because if you're doing your job as a vendor, you don't need to lock anybody else up, right? They're going to stay with you if you're doing your job right. So I'm a firm believer in no contracts. Another thing I'm going to recommend is stop locking yourself into having to buy the hardware or software, right? And most of the vendors will either charge exorbitant amounts for the hardware, or they'll try and put you into a non -cancellable lease for the hardware or rentals. All that do away with, you know, shameless plug. Of course, we don't do that, but we're not the only ones. There's a few other great vendors out there where they'll give you the hardware or they'll provide it to you at a fair price. Don't overpay for hardware or lock yourselves in a contract. You know, from a tactical standpoint of like payments specifically, Here's the thing is that I think a modern practice should have. Obviously, you know, in practice, all the latest and greatest. So what is that? That's of course, old school MagSwipe, that's EMB chip card capabilities. That's also Apple Pay, Google Pay, kind of the tap to pay. That's a great convenience for your patients. Wireless devices are a great add on for the practice, right? So they don't have to be stuck at the front desk. You know, you should have devices that can go anywhere in the practice, you know, operatory, consult rooms, et cetera. Wireless devices are a big lift. Storing patient cards, I think is a great convenience as well. I talked to a lot of practices who really love that because it's interesting. You talk to the front desk, nobody really wants to talk about or like, nobody likes the transactional element of asking for money and having to collect money, right? So if you can take that element out of your experience with a patient at the front desk, Kiera Dent (10:02.798) So genius. Mark Rasmussen (10:25.592) and you're like, hey, would you want us to put that on the on the visa we have in file? Great. That's easy. You know, so storing patient cards, I think is a big one. You know, being able to offer, you know, especially when you're when you're building out treatment plans and those dollar amounts to get higher, being able to offer the patients, you know, multiple payment options, obviously credit card, but then even being able to take that credit card payment and break it out, you know, your kids braces. Great. Let's let's set that up so that we can easily just charge out $100 a month or whatever the case may be. Kiera Dent (10:29.006) Mm -hmm. Mark Rasmussen (10:55.576) So being able to have multiple payment options to offer the patient is phenomenal. Other things that I, yeah, please, yeah. Kiera Dent (11:03.054) I just want to plug in that one real quick on the payments because you guys have modernized it because a lot of people like well We did that but I remember my gosh I had so many credit cards that I had to remember to run as the office manager I had to like make sure it was the date then I finally got smart and I was like let's do it on the first and the 15th and not just like every day of the month but there's still offices that are trying to remember to run all these cards and for you guys just to set it up it's like a set it and forget it like of course if it declines so much easier we just go check on that but Mark Rasmussen (11:21.24) Right. Right. Kiera Dent (11:31.982) I think to just pin on there, your practice might be doing it, but this is automatically doing it through the software where your team doesn't have to try and remember it, saves so much time from a team member having to do it. Mark Rasmussen (11:41.944) 100%, 100%. And so many, I talked to a lot of offices that before they connected with us, many of them were like self -admitted and they're like, hey, they're like, I'm not proud to share this, but I'd be like, so how are you guys managing your reoccurring payments? So like, we have card numbers just written down in Notepad and I just make myself a reminder and outlook to go ahead and pull those out. I'm like, okay, you didn't tell me that, okay. But that's kind of the reality. So, you know. being storing car data in binders. Yeah, it…
Full show notes at the publisherAs a follow-up to episode 858 (Deciphering Your True Overhead), Tiff and Dana circle back to focus on managing your practice's debt by knowing your PnL. They touch on how to interpret your numbers, considering whether the debt is worth it, healthy money ranges, and a ton more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Listen to episode 858: Deciphering Your True Overhead Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.238) I've got Dana with me and today we are chatting a little bit more about money and I think this is this is a space where I've worked really hard over the last few years as a consultant to just get really good at because I feel like I knew money but not as well as I do today and I think it's a space that we all can always get better at and Dana I love collabing with you and learning. more from you as well because you have done a ton in the financial world yourself, family -wise, work -wise, all those pieces. So Dana, thanks for being here with me today and for always being my like, yep, I can podcast with you today. I, we say it every time we love podcasting together, but I truly love how flexible and easy you make it for me to get these in the schedule. So thank you. How are you today? I'm doing pretty good. It is sunshiny and hot here in Arizona. And I think we're so alike and are just like love of the sunshine. So it's a fantastic day today. I agree. I agree. I every day this week, this this week has been I keep saying it's like a Monday every day this week has been a Monday for me. Where I'm on my fifth Monday right now. So every day this week, I have made a point to make my little mushroom latte, scorching hot. take it outside and sit on my back porch in the sun next to the water and just sit there. I've sat there for as long as I could. Today I only got to 10 minutes because it was a little toasty. It was 6 .45 and it was so hot. I was like getting sweaty. I'm like it's 6 .45 a and I'm sweating outside. I must be in Phoenix. So it was toasty and then I looked at like the little thermometer. I came back inside, I looked at the little thermometer thing and it's like 82 degrees or something. I was like, that'll do it. Welcome to Phoenix. Yeah, we do. We thrive on being outdoors, being in the sun, whatever it looks like. I think I love and hate the question, mountains or beach. Yeah. I truly don't care. I truly don't care. You want to, yeah. I'm like, both. Just put me, put me in the sun. Give me the outside inside question. Yeah, exactly. I love that. I love that. I'm actually going to change your question to outdoors indoors because it's going to be outdoors no matter what that looks like. Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:21.134) I love that. I always say, I don't know, maybe Tahoe, because I get water and I get mountains. Yeah. I can paddleboard in the mountains, but I love my desert. And I think you do too. I think we love where we live. Yeah. Okay. So it's hot. It's my fifth Monday, but it's been a really good week though. It's been a really great week. I think the whole team's back. A lot of us were on the road or on vacation. Dana, you got to take vacation. I'm so happy for you. Feel so like re -energized this week. Plug to my teams to remember my doctors to remember that time off is essential. Just make sure that it works with the whole team. But definitely make sure you're doing that. So Dana, first week back, it's been crazy. You've had a million calls. I was looking at your schedule and I'm like, holy million calls this week. I thought it was just me, but it was all of us. And you decided to podcast with us today. So thank you. The Dental A Team listeners appreciate you being here. You get a ton of great feedback on all of your stuff. We've talked a little bit recently about P &Ls and budgeting. And we talked about what kind of percentages and what that might look like and how to create some budgets. But this time, I wanted to deep dive a little bit further. Last time we kind of skimmed it. We talked about what true overhead is. And remember, you guys, if you remember, if you haven't listened to it, you don't have to listen to it before this one, but you should listen to the other one as well. about true overhead and budgeting because I think they're going to go together really well. So remember that your true overhead is anything that if someone were to purchase your practice, this is the overhead that they would be purchasing with that practice, right? This is what they could expect to inherit. So it does not include your doctor pay and it does not include your debt services. So today I really wanted to talk about the idea of managing debt by knowing your P &L and looking at your P &L. That's something, Dana, I said I've worked really hard on my money mindset and our knowledge and my business knowledge for my clients and getting better and better at that. I think we're all getting better every year, but I know that's something that you and I both have worked on really hard with a few of our clients this year that have really just kind of gotten upside down in some debt situations. And so I wanna pick your brain a little bit today. You've had one. The Dental A Team (04:44.333) Very recently, actually, that I struggled with maintaining their overhead, getting their overhead down. But then their debt on top of the high overhead was just, they were drowning. They were seriously drowning. And I know you helped them to at least identify it and start chunking away based on that. So what were some of the steps that you took them through with really just even understanding their P &L so that they knew where their money was going? Honestly, tip the very first step was getting them to look at it. Right? Like they have a CPA who sends in their PNL every month who but getting them to really take a look at it because for a lot of practice owners that is scary. Right? Like being responsible for team members and responsible for a business and keeping doors open and keeping people's jobs. Seeing real numbers in front of them can be stressful and scary. So it was getting them to look at them consistently was piece number one. Yeah. The next piece was just getting them to understand what it was telling them and what all of their expenses were and where to kind of categorize them. And we did talk about this in a previous podcast, but things that are personal things that are taken through and itemized in different ways, learning what they are, learning where they should go. And where their debt services are, all of their debt services, and then just getting them to make smart decisions based on those numbers because we can on a whim and a prayer hope that we can afford that scanner, right? But if we've got real numbers in front of us that tell us we can confidently make better decisions. Yeah, totally. I love that. I love that you said number one, you have to look at it. I think that's the biggest piece. I have so many practices that Well, number one, doctors, we know and understand what school looked like for you, as in you didn't have any business, really like business training. I think that I think I had a doctor tell me once they had like one semester of like business training that really wasn't anything applicable. So I get it. And that's what we're here for. That's why you hire people who know those things so that they can teach you and guide you. Now, I love that you said, look at your PNL. The Dental A Team (07:07.725) Now, I think this is huge for a couple of reasons because Dental A Team is a consulting company and we love what we do. We love our clients. We love the non -clients. We love everyone in the dental community. And I think one of the biggest things that we set out to do that could be different, I have no idea, than other companies out there, but we really want to teach you how to do this on your own. I don't want to be the person that has to do it all the time. for you because other than it's kind of like, I think of it like my husband doing my checkbook register, like my husband managing the money, right? I have no idea what that looks like. So then when I need to make a decision, I might make a decision on a whim or not even make a choice or a decision because I don't know. And so it could be very stressful to me because he's got full control or he's, you know, he's the one that makes all those decisions. So it kind of makes me feel like that where if we're leaning on our, our consultants or our CPAs or our bookkeepers fully for that knowledge and that information, you sometimes I think are in the dark and will make poor judgment decisions. So we always want our clients to walk away from our financial conversations, feeling confident in the information that they've gotten and feeling confident that next month. you might be able to walk me through your P &L so that I'm not always the one doing it. I want you to learn how to do it as well because as much as I love you and I have worked with many of my clients for five plus years, so I am here for a lifetime, we're all here forever, but I don't want you to need me. I want you to know how to do this stuff on your own. So I love that you said that. Number one, pull it up. And I think unlike, the personal side of money mindset and like financial awareness and any financial podcast you ever listen to, right? They're like, number one thing, look at your bank account every morning. Know what your money looks like. So guys, like pull your PNL, know what that looks like, read through it. Even if you can't read it yet, even if you're like, I don't know what these numbers mean, don't shy away from looking at it. The Dental A Team (09:17.933) Because the more you look at it, the more you'll start to understand and gather on your own. And the more questions will come up that you can then ask the professionals who do know. So I love that. Look at it. Number one. Now, Dana, I'm going to stay there for a second because I know that it, that this specific client, I think you've actually had a couple and I know I've had a couple too, that it was like, they were so afraid of looking at money, but they were so afraid of debt and afraid of money. that they wouldn't look at it. So what did you do? How did you coach them through that and get them to a point where they could look at it without anxiety? Like I know it's anxiety inducing for some people. How did you help them get through that? It was just walking them through and building the confidence that when you know your money, right, you can control your money. And so when you don't know and you don't know what the pieces are, you don't know what's coming in, you don't know what's going out, you can't make decisions. And so when you know it, you can own it. And you can fix things. And your piano and your money will always tell you a story. And so once you know what that is, then you get to own it and you get to make it better. But when we I'm sure you've done this right at one point. You're just like, gosh, I didn't even know what's in my bank account. Like I hope to gosh, the Starbucks will go through and it's a finger in a prayer and a flute, right? Where have you checked your bank account before you went out? You might not have bought this before you bought that Starbucks if you really wanted the Starbucks. So it just helps. It's just giving them the confidence that the numbers may be scary and they may not be great when we look at them. But what it does is it allows you to take back control. and get your way out of it. Figure out your map to move forward. I totally agree. I love that you brought that control in there because that hit, that hit hard. I hope everybody felt that hit. When you're allowing your money to control you, it's a very different space of life than you learning how to control your money. So I love that. So looking at the P &L, learning your P &L and understanding it, I think this podcast today, I wanted it to be about how to manage your debt using your P &L, right? The Dental A Team (11:35.437) So number one, Dana's talking about knowing your money. Where is your money going, number one? Listen to the budgeting and true overhead podcast. That budgeting is gonna help you manage your debt a ton. But I think secondary to that is really being able to see within your overhead, what can you change or manipulate to help you pay down some of the debt that you have. When we talked on the last podcast about the budgeting and true overhead, we broke down. your top of your spreadsheet, right? We take your P &L and we put it into an overhead spreadsheet. And which, these are available if you guys want them, email Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com, okay? So we take it and we put it in this overhead spreadsheet. So the top of that spreadsheet is your true overhead. This is what somebody would be taking over if they were to purchase your practice. That tells us this is how much money we have left over at the end of the month. Your goal there is 50 % or less, okay? Typically the range I'm seeing GP practices in is 55 to 65%. Okay, 55 is still pretty healthy. Okay, 65 is like, okay, we can get you to a healthy spot. That's like a yellow for me. Anything, 65 and above is like a red. 65 to 65 is like a yellow, and then anything 55 under is like a green for me. So if we're in that yellow space, whatever. So now we can see, okay, this is where I'm at. I'm in a yellow, I'm in a red, I'm in a green. And now we say, okay, this is how much I paid myself that month, and then. this is how much debt services were that month, and at the end of it, this is how much money I had. Now, I've had practices that we got to the end, and it was like a negative 9 % I saw one month on a practice. And he goes, that's why I had to go into my savings. That's why I don't have any money in my account. I'm like, exactly, exactly. But when we're not breaking it down, when we're just paying things because we need to pay them, when we're just buying things because we need quote unquote, to buy, we need to buy them, we don't know that we're actually negative until we look back later and we're like, shoot, but if we're projecting and we're planning for it, we can see why were we negative. So that specific doctor, what I did is I have, and I have a lot of my practices doing this so that we can manage the debt is I have a different portion on that spreadsheet that says the debt, right? Who's the debt 02? What's the origin date? The Dental A Team (13:58.861) What is the amount that we're paying and what's the projected payoff date? So I know how long do I have to keep this in the spreadsheet and can we pay this off earlier? Can we allocate funds to pay this down earlier? So then it adds it up for me and I can see X amount, $10 ,000 a month is going to debt services. It'll plug it into my spreadsheet right away. So I know. Every month, at least $10 ,000 is going there. Now, if I can't change that $10 ,000 that cannot be reduced in any way, I'm going to look, if I'm struggling to pay that debt or my practices, right? I'm going to look at your overhead. And Dana, you did this like budgeting conversation on the previous podcast so perfectly. Cause you're going to look and…
Full show notes at the publisherRe-releasing one of DAT's most popular episodes! Dr. Jesse Green is back on the podcast to share more real-life experiences of a dentist. In this episode, Dr. Green shares with Kiera how to move your practice from being profitable to scalable. He shares specific insight about: How to become a training institution How to best back away from the business And how to overcome the fear of giving over your practice It may be a hard pill to swallow, stepping back into a role where you're no longer the primary profit generator, but Dr. Green shares how other doctors of all shapes and mindsets have managed to do so. About Dr. Green: Author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Dr. Jesse Green is a leading dental business coach. He established Savvy Dentist to support dentists to develop financial intelligence, have more time and work less, create high performance teams, and master the art of patient flow. Episode resources: Connect with Dr. Jesse Green Listen to episode 414, How To Be a Savvy Dentist Reach out to Kiera 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 & Team podcast. I'm your host, Keira Dunt, 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 (00:52.866) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kira and you guys, I have a very special guest that I am excited to bring to the show today. I was on his podcast just recently and obviously we want to have him back on our podcast, share a wealth of knowledge and believe it or not, he is actually from Australia. So it is early tomorrow and his time. he said Australia just opened up. So I think his highlight of his day was being able to get a haircut. think all of us here in the States can remember that day. but I'm so, so excited to welcome Dr. Jesse Green to the show. How are you today? I'm really well, Kira. Thank you so much for having me on the program. I'm really, really, really, really happy to be here to talk to you today. absolutely. I'm so glad. And your haircut does look good. I see you on zoom. It does look nice. It good. It felt fantastic. Honestly, as well as things you appreciate the little things in life and you think how good is a haircut? It's It's like this luxury that we used to take for granted. Now it feels very luxurious. I absolutely, remember luckily I had just come back from Antarctica when the pandemic hit and I had, so coming back from Antarctica, I got my hair done. got my eyelashes done. got my nails done. Cause I had been gone for three weeks anyway. And so I felt very lucky, but Ooh, towards the end of that shutdown, I was like, man, I was having to learn how to cut my husband's hair again. man. Took me back to pharmacy school days. I agree. I remember a meme and they said, next time there's a pandemic, can we say that barbers and beauticians and cosmetologists can be considered essential business? And it's got this guy with hair cleared out into his nose. I felt it was very fitting. So, hundred percent. So Jesse, I just wanted to kind of talk to us about how you even got to where you are. I know the topic today that we want to go into is how to earn more while working less. You also talked about how to have a very a productive associate dentist. So you've got a wealth of knowledge, but just so our listeners know, kind of just give us a quick background and bio on how you even became known as the person who earn more and work less because I'm so excited to learn about that today too. thank you so much. So I'm a dentist by profession. And so like most of your listeners, I did the usual dental school thing, but prior to dental school, I had a business and I was always The Dental A Team (03:13.74) really interested and engaged in business, loved it. Did the university thing like everyone else, kind of then found my way into clinical practice and really knuckled down and focused on that. And then I was a dentist in the Navy and I learned a lot about leadership and process and, and organizational structure. And then when I went into my own practice, I did traditional practice management kind of teaching. And while it was good, it was fine. We certainly had a business. producing good money, but in actual fact, I was so tired, so burnt out, so stressed out. My kids were little. was doing dentistry during my work day. Then I'd come home, have dinner with the kids, and then I'd be trying to do payroll or other, you know the how it goes. You know the story, right? And I was, and I was tired and stressed and burnt out. So what I did is I then sold that business and I didn't quite figure out how to fix it until I started a different business, which was around. I was building websites, running SEO, PPC campaigns. And then it was when I ran that business and I kind of got out of the dental head space and went, my God, I remember all these lessons that I had when I was a kid with my first business that I'd learned that I didn't ever apply to my dental practice. I had this massive, honestly, it was a face palm. I mean, you just go, I can't believe I did that. Jesse, what were you thinking? Clearly not. So then I started thinking about all of the traditional. practice management techniques and how we could adapt some of those and replace some of those so that businesses can have a true business rather than self -employment. So that's kind of how it came about. I love that because you're right. And the way you just described dentistry is how dentist life is working with so many dentists. I think that that's the life of an entrepreneur as well. I mean, you see lots of different businesses yourself and I think it's just that like, just never feels like there's enough hours in the day, but like you said, There's got to be a better way to do this. think of it constantly. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I see a lot of people who are way more successful, very, profitable and they don't work crazy hours. They have a true life. Like how do they do that? So I'm excited to have you just dive into that. And I'm excited to see where this podcast rifts and goes to. I also love that you are a dentist as The Dental A Team (05:31.352) That's why I wanted you on this show. Like let's talk about real life experiences of a dentist and how to, like you said, earn more and work less. That's a mantra that I have. We're actually working on an office manager planner that's called do less, create more. because I think it's really that mentality. So Jesse, take it away. I just want to hear like, your knowledge, tell us how to earn more and work less. Like you figured this out. So share the secrets with us. I'm ready. Well, thank you. Thank you for that, for that, yeah, free rain. I'm also going to tell you that I learned it the hard way. I learned it. I learned it through experience. learned it easy way. I'm going to learn from you. Well, that's what we want. Right. That's what we're going to give our listeners. But the reason I say that is because everything I've done, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, Kira. So I just want to start this conversation by saying, I'm not perfect. I didn't get this. wasn't, you born with some sort of insider knowledge around this. had to learn this through trial and error and bumps and grazes and bruises. But think that's really important. I'm going to jump in right there because I think so often we sometimes hear people say, this is how I got there. And we think, well, they were just born that way, or it was just naturally given. And so I really love that. Like, Hey guys, with hard work, learning from great mentors like Jesse, you can be there too. And not limiting yourself is to me a huge, huge piece of what this is all about. So Continue on. I'm cheering right alongside of you. Like, yes, go. You're not just this like dipped from, from heaven Hercules. man. If only, so here's what I learned. one of the things that I learned is we, we spend so much of our time doing clinical work and we do that because we want to make a dollar and we understand the necessity of making dollar, but it's also what I call a golden handcuffs. And at some point we need to. lift our gaze from the patient who's in the dental chair in front of us and start surveying our surroundings. So typically there's a couple of different levels of practice that we see a profitable practice, scalable practice and a valuable practice. And so a profitable practice is that typical practice where the dentist is going to work, doing the dentistry, going home at night, doing the payroll sort of thing. And you can actually make quite good money out of that. mean, this is the trap is you get used to the money. The Dental A Team (07:51.652) You get used to the toys, you get used to the lifestyle and you get on this treadmill and you keep thinking, my goodness, I've got all this stuff, but I don't have time for my kids. so working harder is not the answer. so let me just repeat that for all the dentists here who are really conscientious, who are normally the people that work hard, the good people that work hard. And we just want not work quite so hard, but work a little differently. We want to shift our focus. And the way that we cross from a profitable business to a scalable business is by crossing what we call the leverage line. so the leverage line is at that point, you've got a practice owner who's no longer the primary revenue generator. You've created a team and this is your work, right? This is what you help a lot of people with creating what we call a self -managing team, a team of that know what to do, they know how to do it. We've given them the resources to do their job really well. They know what success looks like. We've got some success metrics in place, but those people come internally motivated to do well. Okay. So we're not having to put the defibrillator on them every day to heart start them. They come with batteries included. And so when we've got a self -managing team and we've got our systems and processes, we're now starting to create some leverage. How do we get to that point? How do we make that leap? And it is a bit of a leap. And because you guys are North American, I'll try and use a baseball metaphor to go from profitable business to scalable business. It's like going from first base in baseball to second base. can't get to second base by keeping one foot on first. There is a moment in time where you have to leave first base. And you have to run towards second. And when you're in the middle of the two bases and you're not, you're not yet on second, but you've left first, it's uncomfortable. It's uncertain. And there's doubt. And so managing that emotional journey is really important because the natural tendency for us is to run back to what's comfortable rather than pushing forward. Now, the way we push forward is to understand that making money all day, every day. The Dental A Team (10:09.217) is a great short -term fix, but it is also what's going to keep us stuck on first base. So we need to dedicate some of our time to building that team, to becoming really good at training people, to being really good at finding great talent, training great talent, bringing them on. And that means we need to take on a mindset of becoming almost a training institution so that we can take these wonderful people and get them up to speed so that they can join The freeway, it's like an on -ramp onto the freeway, get them up to speed really, really well. When we do that, we build the resources for them to use. We now can start hiving off activities that we don't want to do. So that's where the delegation comes in. Now, of course, this is nothing new. This is quite rudimentary. It's quite basic, but what is the hard part is actually letting go. Kirit, let me ask you a question. Of all the dentists you know, what proportion do you think tend to have perfectionistic tendencies? Oh, you know, every single one of them. Me included, me included. And that's what I did wrong in my first practice. That's what I did wrong. I had to learn and as I've gone through other businesses to learn that 80 % is okay. 80 % done by someone else is a hundred percent awesome. Yes. Yes, I love that. Did you guys hear that? 80 % done is a hundred percent awesome. Yeah. So let's get our team members out there being prolific. They may not be perfect, but they'll be prolific. They'll get through a lot of work for you if we let them do it and we resist the urge to micromanage. So how do we get away from micromanaging? Now, one of my good friends and other dentists in the United States gave me a wonderful book called Turn the Ship Around. And for your listeners there, I'd really encourage you to grab hold of it. The author is a wonderful guy, David Marquet. He's a US Navy submarine commander. And what he talks about is developing a leader -leader model. So rather than teaching people what to do or telling them what to do, we want to teach people how to think like us. Not just to do what we asked them to do or to be task -oriented, we want to develop their thinking. So when our team members come to us and say, yeah, Kira, The Dental A Team (12:29.793) You know, this has happened. What should I do rather than because you've got the answers at your fingertips rather than saying, Hey Bob or Hey Mary or Hey Susie, this is what I think you should do and give them the answer. By doing that, we're actually training them to come to us all the time. So we want to be able to go with them and say, what do you think we could do? What else could we do? What risks do you see with that type of action? What do you think I'm thinking about and start that conversation so they can understand your thought process? Now, again, it sounds really simple and it's simple, but not easy. Simple, but not easy. So that, would be a starting point there. Now I'm happy for you to guide me, direct me wherever you want me to go with this conversation. Okay. Number one, I love it because we just talked about number one is I think, I think for me it's accepting that I'm going to have to leap and go into that scary zone. Like you said, it is very easy. Like I think it's that, that control, that safety net false security of, know that if I work here though, Jesse, I know I can make money. know I can sustain my lifestyle. I know that I can continue to live this way. However, I think it gets to a spot where when does that hamster will become no more? When do you want to say like, I don't want to do this anymore. I feel like until you get to that breaking point where you say enough's enough, you won't want to jump from first base to second base. you use that really great analogy. But I think when you ar…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana are wrapping up their series of marketing-focused episodes. This week, they discuss internal referrals. They talk about three things to ramp up success with these referrals: Identify your why Know your patient avatar Bring a competitive spirit Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Sign up for our FREE Monthly CE Webinar Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:07.85) Let's go. Hello, Dental A team. I am so excited to be here with my girl, Dana, again today. We are wrapping up some marketing conversations that we've been having with you guys. And today, we thought it would be really fun to talk about internal referrals. Dana, I know you chat with your practices a lot about this. And you train teams constantly from a virtual aspect and in-person aspect on how to really get those referrals from your. your patients and how to build the business and new patients based on internal referral styles as far as asking for referrals, asking for Google reviews, you come up with, I know you come up with fun contests and different things that the team can do to get involved and caveat for my doctors, it doesn't always have to be a financial gain for everyone participating. Dana, you have a ton of ideas that you come up with that are actually not. bonus related at all. They're just fun. And I think anytime we can gamify stuff, anytime we can get people really working as a team against each other to just kind of bring that sports mentality in there, we see really cool results. So Dana, thank you for being here with me today. How are you? Doing good. You know, I'm always excited that you let me hop on these with you. Because it's always a good time. I agree. I agree. And thank you for saying, letting me I feel like sometimes I force it into your schedule. And I'm like, I hope this works. So thank you for always being open to it. I think internal referrals are actually something that can be really, really fun, but I think that there's something that's daunting for teams. Do you agree, Dana? Yeah, yeah, I do. And I think you can make it fun, like you said, and I think the daunting part is they feel like they're asking something of their patients, and it can sometimes just feel unnatural, right? Or, you know, I'm asking, And to me, it's patients don't know it's important to us unless we ask, right? Of course, if somebody is in the grocery store and they're like, hey, do you have a good dentist? I'm sure they would recommend you, right? But knowing that you want them to be intentional, that's what comes from the ask. Oh, for sure, I totally agree, totally agree. And I feel like it sometimes feels like we're asking for something without giving something back, right? So it's like asking for $5 from a friend knowing you're never gonna pay it back, right? The Dental A Team (02:24.962) So I think the mentality around it, I 100% agree. It's very easy when it's organic and someone asks you for it. Like, hey, do you have a recommendation for it? But when you're saying, hey, do you have friends or family that you could send to us, that feels different, right? It doesn't feel quite as organic. So I think one of those spaces that I like to help jump over that hurdle is for team members and doctors to really work on remembering what it is that you are giving. to your patients and to the community and the reason and purpose on why we're here. Because when we're asking for it, we're asking for those referrals, it feels like help me. So like, if we wrap it around the reason that we're here, we're here to positively impact the dental community and your physical community where you guys are in a very positive way, right? We're here to bring them dentistry that they might not be able to get down the road. If you truly believe in where you work, you believe in your doctor, you believe in the healthcare. that you're invested in there in your practice, it's a no brainer that you would rather your patients, their friends, their family, the community come there because you know they're getting good quality dentistry, right, from a good quality dentist. And you don't know what they're gonna get if they go down the street. I used to think that a lot when I was in practice. And Dana, you live an hour and a half-ish south of me, so I think we're kind of like similar dental communities here. in Arizona where it's just there's dentists on every corner. And I remember knowing the dentist down the street, we would see work from that dental practice. And I would just kind of sometimes cringe like, oh my gosh, like people don't know what good dentistry is, but we do. So for us to not share that or not ask our patients to share that information makes me so sad because I would see these things and Dana even. You've probably seen this even more than I have because you're further south, but I've seen work come from other countries, well, say, right, come up from other countries that I'm listed in tears, like, gosh, this is so scary to me because it's just so far off base of what this patient needed, and now they're in a bad situation. And so I think, Dana, for me, one of the key pieces that I work with teams on is really diving into why are we here? Why do we want more? Because... The Dental A Team (04:44.882) Dana, I think that sometimes it gets flipped in our brains of like, that desire, that egotistical, like we always just want more. But flipping it for the teams and really seeing what we're doing, and then we benefit from it. Dana, do you feel like that helps you to connect with the teams as well? And like takes out that ask, we'll say it's like, we're giving them something. But Dana, how do you do it with your teams too? Yeah, I always, and I agree with you, it's like figure out what your why is, and in most cases your why is to impact the community around you and your patient base. There is an office nearby that their slogan is like, your smile is our priority, and I loved their Care to Share card because it said let their smile be our priority too, and it was just like that light bulb of, that's exactly what you want to do. By asking for that referral, you're saying, hey, let me take care of the people that you care about. And so I think remembering that it is bringing people in to give them the same experience, to maybe reduce their anxiety about dentistry, and to truly, truly improve their oral health, that's why we ask. Yeah, I love that. I love that card, that's so cute. And I love care to share cards. I think those are like super fantastic ways to get your name into the community. So I love that. So on one hand, just making sure we know what our why is. Why are we here? Why are we trying to reach these people? Like, what are we trying to? impact in the community around us. And then on the other hand, Dana, I think I'm not prone to setting like a wide fishing net, right? Like I'm not the fisherman out there that's like, I just need to make a big catch of whatever I can. Like I'm out there for the tuna. Like I want this giant tuna because that's all I want to eat, right? I'm not casting this net to just eat whatever. I want just the tuna. So I think one thing I work on with teams, and I actually did this with a pediatric practice of mine last week, is go through and dial in the avatar of the person that you love seeing in your practice. Who is it that you want to attract more of? And for this practice in particular, we're working on reviews and referrals simultaneously because I think they just go hand in hand. So I started asking them probing questions. Like, who is it that... The Dental A Team (06:56.834) fills your day with joy. Who is it that you love when they come in the door? Who is it that really just like gives you energy instead of takes the energy from you? And they started dialing in this kind of personality type. And for the pediatric practice, you know, we focused in on the mom because it's typically they're seeing the moms, they're bringing the patients in for their treatment and for their appointment. So we focused in on that mom. And I'm like, okay, so we know. what we want to do, we know our why, we know what we're doing. We're trying to get kids a safe place to come. That one's easy, right? We know what it's going to take to do it and what it will look like if we don't do this. So that's a piece I think that a lot of practices don't always think about our people in general, like what this is like the root canal, right? If you don't get a crown, you're going to need a root canal. This is the root canal piece. So if you don't do this, if you don't push on your on your community to come to a safe place, what will happen? We don't know. So we got those things dialed in. And then we started talking about what this person looks like. What does she do? What is she wearing? Where does she shop? What are her hobbies? They started saying like, maybe she's a stay at home mom or she works from home so her schedule's more flexible. She can come in any time. She's wearing Lulu leggings and she's carrying her Stanley cup, but she's also got her coffee in the other hand and she's flying in just on time and she's happy to see us. She, you know, let their kids go to the back and when they act up, she puts them in their place. Like all of these things, they had it so dialed in. They said she plays tennis, she plays pickleball, she just brunch on Sundays with her best friends. Like they could picture this person. They could feel what it would be like to hang out with this person. They named her Courtney. And so we knew, we knew who we wanted, right? We knew who we wanted to target. And I said, great. When your Courtney's come in, you're gonna know. And when Courtney comes in, I want you to ask for a review or referral every time. And two days ahead of your schedule and a day ahead of your schedule, I always want you guys looking at your schedule and identifying your court needs. Because Dana, something you said to me earlier is right. We are typically going to refer people who are just like us because we are the combination of the five people we hang out with the most. So if Courtney's coming into their practice, she, I, we called that, I mean, we had to name people, right? So, you know, The Dental A Team (09:17.918) the quote unquote Kiera, I said they said Francine and I was like, Oh my gosh, that's funny. So do we want to Are we looking at our court needs? Are we looking at our friends? Like Courtney's not hanging out with a friend scene who's late to brunch and always has baggage and drama like Look for your court needs ask them for these things and Dana. It was so cool The next day the next morning. I'm now in a whole different state Whole different practice. I get a text message from the practice And she says, we have a Courtney fighting. This is not a drill. She's in our practice. And I was just so happy. It literally was less than 24 hours. It was, I mean, it was probably 14 hours, right? With, in reality. And they knew who she was. And this woman, and I truly believe like, you put it out there, you understand, you see it in your mind, and that's how you attract things, right? Like, you know what you're looking for, so you see it. It's been there the whole time. But now your vision is clear and you can see it. So you're quote unquote attracting it. So they could see it, they keyed in. This woman, this amazing soul came in with everything that they asked for and left the most beautiful review with pictures unprompted. They didn't even have to ask for it. It was incredible, but I believe that it's because we got dialed in. And so now they got that boost of confidence of who they're looking for. and what it is that they're going to be asking this person to do or leave or whatever. And the universe was like, hey, guess what? We're going to give you a freebie. This is how easy it could be. And it was just really cool to see that. And Dana, you work on avatars a lot with practices. I know I watch you. You do it even in part of the operations manual stuff that you do. You're constantly working on avatars. And I think That was just a really fun case and it just happened. It doesn't always happen where Courtney walks in the next day and leaves you an unprompted review, but we worked really, we spent a couple hours on building this personnel. So I think that it was just the universe giving them some kudos, but what else have you seen dialing that in? And I think a caveat too, and Dana, you probably have a lot of practices like this. That model that we built, Courtney, right? She's your typical, we've been to the age ranges, like she's your typical millennial mom. The Dental A Team (11:37.322) Right? I'm like, that's me. That's Dana. Like they're, they're all over the place. Right. And I would freaking, you fill my day with those people constantly. Heck yeah. But it's not always the model for where your practice is located. So sometimes, right. That the model that I'm like, heck yeah, let's go to freaking brunch. I want to, I want to brunch with all of these patients. I'm down. Let's go. Sometimes that's not the case. My practice that I worked in for years prior to consulting, is in a retirement community. So me trying to attract courtneys isn't gonna work. So Dana, I know you do this a lot. Like I said, that's an easy, I did an easy version of an easy millennial to just spot and find that millennial mom. How do you go about that though with practices where it's full of people like us or people who want to attract fun, lighthearted young people but they're in an older community and that's just not the case. How do you help them work through that? And I think when that happens, you look at your patient base and I always say, okay, start with the patients that are in your practice already that you love, right? That always come in, always fill your cup up. It may not be your ideal, like if you could choose anyone in the country, right? But of your patient base, get to that most ideal. Identify the patients who really, really do feed your energy bucket are aligned with you and you feel like always have a great experience and. you enjoy when they're there in the practice and I think start there, right? Because we can't, again, like you said, create this avatar where like that avatar doesn't really exist in our community, right? We're certainly not going to like market four hours away and expect the patients are going to drive. So I think know your community, know your limitations on your. Patient avatar and then go with most ideal and I think start with who do you have in your practice that you really do enjoy seeing what traits do they have what things are they interested in, and you can start to build from there. I love that I think that's beautiful I think starting the patient basis is so smart and like you said the people who bring you energy that fill your bucket that I always say like we'll get their treatment done who's like dang you're right Doc I got to get that done like who are you not. The Dental A Team (13:49.21) bending over backwards for like working so hard to convince why you're there for them. So I love that. I think that…
Full show notes at the publisherBrad Titensor with Dental Warranty is back already! This time, he and Kiera talk about getting your team excited about incorporating and utilizing a new service in the practice, including: steps for integration, goal-setting, building habits, and what a presentation to patients sounds like. Episode resources: Learn more about Dental Warranty Get a DAT discount on a Dental Warranty demo! Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.784) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And I just wanted to bring Brad on from dental warranty again, because he was asking me a question of how do you get a team bought into wanting to put a warranty on or how do you get other offices wanting to, your team members incentivize to do this? And I'm a freaking team member. So I thought, Brad, I was going to get, just give him some verbiage right now. And I thought I'm going to hit record so that way we can give you guys my real time live feedback of how like, cause that's the next thing. Like doctors, you're so jazzed. You're so pumped about. putting dental warranty into the practice and then the team says, I don't want to do that. Like welcome to everything else, right Brad? So Brad, welcome back to the podcast. You're part of dental warranty. Hello, welcome back. Okay, ask me your question and let's just do this live. I'm going to do some verbiage recording and we'll do this as part two of your guys's podcast of like what to do when you take it to the team. So ask me your questions and let's just rip live. Brad (00:39.502) Yep, thank you. Good to see you. Brad (00:54.254) Yeah. So, so one thing that we deal with sometimes is, you know, doctors love the idea. So they see the value firsthand. Okay. This is something that really is going to protect my bottom line, help my practice, grow my patients. but they kind of hand it off to their team and the team feels, that they already have enough on their plate and either they're already busy. What's, you know, one more thing we all heard, you know, the doctor comes back from some sort of conference or meeting like, gosh, who's calling me now? So. So I know we do a lot of RN to keep it so simple and so streamlined for the team to use. But yeah, so my question was how to get the team excited about doing this? And if there's anything you'd recommend to help encourage them to kind of just build it in and just utilize it. Kiera Dent (01:36.016) For sure. Okay, so let me understand a little more of the true pieces. So me as a team member, what do I actually have to do? What do I have to do for processing? How much is it? Kind of walk me through some of those more specific details and then I'll tell you exactly as a team member what I do as a TC, what I do in my practices to give you guys some of that verbiage. And I think this is for anything you implement. We're just gonna use dental warranty as my example today. Brad (02:01.902) Perfect, yep. So for the office, the team that you use, what they'll do is they'll create their own dental warranty procedure code, so just their own dummy code, and they're gonna build it in right on the treatment plan. So you're gonna list the treatment they're receiving and the six -year protection plan, similar to how some offices might do fluoride or whatnot. You're gonna build it in as part of the process, and then you're gonna offer it to the patient right there along with the treatment. Here's your crown, your buildup, your two fillings, and your six -year protection plan. Kiera Dent (02:19.536) Mm -hmm. Brad (02:28.782) This is what your dental insurance is going to save and here's your total that includes your coverage. So it's really that simple. And then we are integrated with Thentrix, Eagle Soft, Open Dental, and they'll have their own dashboard where they just hit the patient's name, submit warranty, or add warranty, submit. So it's very, very simple for the team to use, but we track all the patient coverages, details, and benefits through the dashboard. Kiera Dent (02:32.688) sure. Kiera Dent (02:53.744) Got it. And so how much extra is it? And is it per procedure or is it like one warranty covers everything? I'm curious on that too for the team. Brad (03:02.382) Yes, so the practice would charge the patients anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the office fee. So take dental insurance out of it. It doesn't matter if they have their cash paying or if they're a PPO. It's based off of the office fee. And our fee that we end up collecting is just 10 percent. So if the practice charges 15 percent, they'll keep the 5 percent. We collect 10 percent on the back end. So let's say they do charge 15 percent of whatever that procedure cost is. Kiera Dent (03:30.) Okay. Brad (03:30.638) And so if there's going to be extractions, things that are not eligible for the warranty, that would not be factored into the total fee. But anything that's eligible, so any permanent cosmetic or restorative treatment would be being on that. And it's the patient that will be just the one total. So on the back end, we track it individually, but on the patient's end, it's just the one total along with their treatment. Kiera Dent (03:50.612) Nice. Okay, so let's say, because obviously we don't want to just do 10 % because then dental warranty takes the whole thing. Like it's great. But I'm guessing that the way practices also make money is let's say my crown in office, we charge $1 ,300, insurance is $1 ,000. I'm going to go off of the $1 ,300. And that's what I'm going to go. Now, if I only did the 10%, which would be $130, Dental Warranty is going to take that. But next time they come in, instead of me only being able to collect $1 ,000, I can collect $1 ,300. Is that right? That's what I would collect from Dental Warranty. Brad (04:18.542) Yeah, it's a huge benefits. Yeah. So obviously, insurance probably not going to touch it next, you know, five plus years. So yeah, we are saying to check back to the practice for that 1300 and patient can use that towards maybe a new crown or now they might need an extraction root canal, something different. They can actually use the value to go towards the next street. Kiera Dent (04:23.568) Right. Kiera Dent (04:29.648) Okay. Kiera Dent (04:37.744) Gotcha. Okay, amazing. And so then my next question is, I don't know, I'm literally just asking questions like an office. I feel like I'm like, I'm the OM right now. Let me ask you all my questions. Is dental warranty ever considering doing just like a monthly fee to where it's like X amount that the patient would pay and then their dentistry is covered or is it just going to stick to each one? I have my reasons for asking this. I'm just curious if you know about that. Brad (04:45.614) That was good. Brad (05:02.19) So we had previous plans probably eight, nine years ago where we did dabble in that area. It seems to work better for both the patient and the practice doing it based off of that, you know, 15%, 10, 15 % of the procedure cost. But yeah. Kiera Dent (05:19.184) Okay, great to know. The reason I was asking is because I'm like, cool, then I just sell it like a membership plan. I tack it into my membership plan. This one, it sounds like it's just adding in kind of like when I do an implant where I'm going to tack on the custom abutment so I don't have to go back if I'm adding a custom abutment. I'm just basically going for like worst case scenario. So I did hypothetical, a crown, our office fee is $1 ,300. The 15 % would be 195 added on to that. is what it would be. Now, if I have a filling that's like, let's say 150 bucks times that by 15%, that's $22. So it's really minimal. I agree with Brad as a team member, what I'm going to do is I'm going to tack it on as a dummy code to all of it. Now, I think if you do 10%, it's very easy, but I don't think that makes sense for a practice. I would definitely just charge the 15 % across the board. I think if I was in office, I might also consider just figuring out what I could put in just for easy numbers. So you might even have a fee schedule. So you could create that dummy code that would link. to it and then put it in an explosion code so that way your team's not constantly having to figure out that 15%. I think that would make a team's members life easier because I think that math is where they're gonna feel annoyed of like, I gotta add this in and then I've gotta calculate it in. Not that it's hard, but it might just be an idea that you guys could do. And then just as an office manager, just tack it into all the explosion codes that you do for procedures. That way it's automatically in there. The dollar amount's always in there. The only thing you're gonna have to watch is set a reminder. that when you increase fees, that you also increase the warranty amount. So we're never like short on dollars. So that's what I would say for like setting up as a practice. So it sounds like for me as a TC, go ahead. Brad (06:47.714) And jump in real quick. So with our integration, that actually pulls that data over for the team so they're not having to do the math. It really has a calculator attached to it. And so you're just going to click, OK, you got a post, a buildup, a crown, the two fillings. You hit Select All, and it'll show you the whole warranty fee, the value, and then you put right there on the treatment plan. So it pulls that data so they're not having to do the math. Kiera Dent (07:08.048) Nice. Okay. Easy. Okay. Beautiful. So that's even easier. There you go. So there's, there's a, an objection that now is very simple. I just put it all in simple. I can have it. I am thinking for them, like, cause they're going to need the calculator up there, just finding ways to where it's like almost automatic, kind of like the crown bill of like, no one complains that I have to present a crown on a buildup is just part of it. And when I train teams on this, I say, like, let's, let's come up with all the objections that patients going to say, like, well, why do I need this? I would just let them know, like, Hey, like dentistry, like, Things happen in your day to day. You're using these teeth every single day. And so it's just a good way for you to have peace of mind of, like Brett said, whatever life events happen, that you have peace of mind and you can come in and there's no questions asked. We'll take care of it for you. If anything's ever happening anywhere, you move anything like that for the next six years, you're protected. That's how I would present it to a patient. I would say if it was me, hands down, I would always do this. No questions asked. I would always do this. That way I know no matter what's happening, I'm covered. So they'll say, yep, here it is. This is your total out of pocket. This is what our insurance estimate is. and this will be the total when I see you on Friday. So I'd already have them scheduled for it. I'd present my total and I'd have them sign off on it. Go submit the warranty, easy, there's nothing there. Now I guess Brad, the next question is teams will wonder what happens when that patient calls me? How easy is it for me? Like I'm guessing I just scheduled them as a normal patient. How do I submit the claim and how hard is it to truly get that? Because that's gonna be the sticking spot for teams is like, how hard is it when they actually come back and need to use this warranty? Brad (08:34.158) Yeah, so on our end, we typically flip a coin. If it lands on heads, we'll pay out. If it lands on tails, then you don't get paid. Yeah, it's pretty much. We got a double -sided coin. Yeah, no, I'm just kidding. So we, yeah, I mean, not understand how busy the team is. So we try to make this as simple as possible. So when the patient comes in, actually, let's take dental warranty out of it. So currently, if there is no warranty, patient calls say, hey, I ate that soft bread or whatever they broke their crown on. Kiera Dent (08:40.08) Cool. Awesome. So you guys can do it in practice. It's easy. Kiera Dent (09:01.072) Mm -hmm. Brad (09:03.598) Now the patient comes back in. Now the team has to talk to the patient. Okay, what happened? How long has it been? Now the team has to go talk to the doctor. The doctor's thinking, well, how long has it been? What happened? Now they call the lab. Hey, can you help us out? You know, this is the situation. That's a lot of work, a lot of headaches, a lot of stress on everyone's part and makes that team member very uncomfortable saying, hey, Mr. Patient, I know you just paid $1 ,300 just three years ago. You're gonna have to pay that all over again. That's not fun, right? So now... Kiera Dent (09:30.256) Right. Brad (09:32.59) Dental Warranty and so the patient says, hey, I broke my crown, what do I do? come on in, have a seat, let's take care of you. There's no charge, we've got you taken care of. Take care of the patient. Huge swing from the previous conversation that you would typically have to have to now saying, hey, we've got you covered, you get to be the hero. And great time to get some good reviews, referrals. Take care of the patient. And then on the back end, they would file a claim through our dashboard. So it's done online. Kiera Dent (09:50.704) Mm -hmm. Right. Brad (09:59.822) And we asked for the same documentation that you would typically send to like an insurance company. So we're not having you do any additional work that, you know, you're already doing this stuff. So that's the same reason I see that, you know, that broke it failed that the work was completed initially. And then, and then we'll pay to practice within 30 days or less for that, that treatment that was completed. Kiera Dent (10:04.176) Okay. Kiera Dent (10:10.512) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (10:21.296) Nice. Okay. And I think that that was just the questions of like, how hard is this compared to what we're already doing as team members? and that does seem very simple, right? We're already taking extra. You should take an extra. If it broke off, we'd take the intra oral photo and we have our notes written and we just submit that off. So as long as it's really that simple, I think for teams, my question is, I think it just might feel hard for the team because it's something new. And so what I usually do is I say, all right, guys, we're going to try this for three months. We're going and like, let's set a goal as a team of how many patients do we think we want to do warranties on? What I've learned is you're going to have your gunners and you're going to have your Shires. And so the ones who are like, let's do like 500. And then the other people are like, we could do two. I try to be like, well, let's be realistic. And like, what if we just, and I try what I've, what I've learned is really pertinent with teams is you have to give them something where they're actually going to win anytime. Because if I'm like, let's go 500 and they miss it, they're not going to want to do this. If I do two and it's too easy for them, they're going to feel like it wasn't a challenge and it's ridiculous. So. I usually…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana walk through what onboarding is, and how to utilize your team to update and carry out the methods. The consultants touch on how to prioritize the onboarding schedule, what often is missed in the onboarding process, and why it's so critical to be systems-dependent instead of people-dependent. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Sign up for our FREE Monthly CE Webinar Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.174) Hello, Dental A Team. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have Dana with me. She is my favorite person for this kind of topic. She's my favorite person to podcast with. Don't tell everybody else that, but I love podcasting with you, Dana. So thank you for being here, Dana. I'm going to pick your brain a ton on this subject. So I'm super excited. How are you today? I'm doing good. Excited to be here. I love the podcast. You know what, Tif? I will be honest to say podcasting was always something that made me super nervous in the beginning. And I've grown to love it so much. And part of that is because I get to do it with you. thank you. I appreciate that. I really do enjoy it. I think I love getting my time in with you. And this is the best way that we can do it in our virtual company right now. So I love it. Thank you. All right, Dana, today we are talking about some onboarding tips, which I think we have talked about this a lot. We just said that. We talked about onboarding a lot this year. There's a lot of podcasts that have gone out on onboarding or building out your operations manual. But today I kind of wanted to spin it. We won't take a whole super long time kind of diving into the operations manual side of it. But I really wanted to spin it today and talk. about some systems that you've used Dana for practices. And I say this every time Dana is my operations manual guru. So I lean on you pretty heavily. I want to talk about first, I want to define onboarding. Number one, like what is it? What is it not? And then number two, I really want to talk about how we can utilize the team to effectively update onboarding and really carry it out because I think leadership or doctors like they get a little stressed out about it. And I sometimes wonder if it's because we feel the weight of the new hire on us and we think we have to do everything. And it's just not always the case. So first, Dana, what would you define onboarding a team member into a dental practice as? Yeah, I think onboarding is the complete process of bringing on a new team member and training them from start to finish on all of their tasks, their job responsibilities, their job descriptions. The Dental A Team (02:16.238) and culture pieces in the practice. So I always want to include that mission, the vision, the core values and onboarding them culturally too. And it includes all of the HR pieces. So are they attached to their benefits? Have we done their employment eligibility? All of those pieces are included in onboarding. Yeah, totally, totally. And I think you said like the successful part of it, right? And that really truly means within that onboarding time period, whatever you choose that to be, we typically will say like a 30, 60, 90, so you have a 90 day onboarding protocol. But whatever that length of time is, that person, whoever it is that's onboarding, whatever position it is, should be able to carry out 80 at the low end, but I would say at least 90 % of that position's duty and be able to carry the KPIs that go along with that position to success. So successfully onboarding, Like you, I love that word because it really, it really pulls out the trigger point of the onboarding. Cause I think often, well, number one in dentistry, how do we, how do we typically onboard? We're like, my gosh, you're a dental assistant. Fantastic. You have two weeks of experience. It's totally fine. Don't worry. Go sit in that room and he'll tell you what to do. You're going to be totally fine. Cause I've got five patients I need to go work with. So bye. It's just like, it's just training by fire and. Sometimes it works and oftentimes it really doesn't. And I think you said something in your definition about culture and core values. And I think that right there creates a culture. I think it creates a culture of having to move too fast for one, like this rush, this sense of rush. And I think it creates a culture of not always getting the support. that you might want or need and it can make someone feel that I'm just like surmising and making assumptions, but I can only assume that it could make someone feel a little less than, like inadequate because they're like, I'm supposed to know these things, but I don't. So successful onboarding, I love that. Dana, what do you define for your clients that you do this with? How do you help them, I guess not define, but how do you help them figure out The Dental A Team (04:38.029) what goes into those months? Because we do typically do a 30, 60, 90. And I think everyone in the dental industry is like, you have your 90 days. If we don't like them, we got to get rid of them before 90 days. And I think somewhere along the way, somebody just made this up. But how do you create that with them in that 30, 60, 90, depending on the position that they're taking on? Yeah. Well, I talk about this a lot right now because I feel like Dental teams right now are already understaffed. And so then when they get a new team member finding the capacity within the team to train, having this onboarding system really helps because once it is done and built successfully, that team member should have a resource to do some independent training too, and not feel like they just have to be thrown in, that there are support pieces in place for them too. So usually what I do is, okay, let's take everything that this position does and what is essential. for that team member to know within the first 30 days, then 60 days, then 90 days. So you're basically prioritizing the order in which you train things based on necessity of what are the things. So let's use a front office team member, right? If we have a check -in person, we want them to know how to greet a patient. We want them to know how to confirm an appointment. And we want them to know how to take a phone call and schedule, right? Like those would be the first essential pieces. We would want them to do that way before we would want them to maybe learn how to present a treatment plan. Right? They're the greeter. So what is essential for them to learn in the first 30 days, 60 days and 90 days that then really kind of starts mapping out your training plan? Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love what you said. I love the essential pieces like what is essential for that person. And then those tie back then to basically the goal of that position. So if you're like, what's the goal of your check in your greeter? What's the goal of your billing department? Because if you can see that clearly, if you're like, check -in greeter, you want them to create the warmest welcome and create the atmosphere that you guys are portraying as your patient experience and that it's the first phase of the practice, the first phone call answered. Like now you know, okay, I've got to dial in, not necessarily even the system, like the operating software. I'm going to spend some time there, but more importantly, they need to know how to present themselves. The Dental A Team (06:58.125) They need to know how to speak to people and how to engage. So I love that the essentials. And so then we've got the essentials, maybe I would say, and maybe you can tell me what you would do. I think if I was looking at essentials for the first month, because they're also learning, they're always learning our practice. They're learning our culture. They're learning our team members and our patients. So maybe like three to five items that would be essential for them to get really good at. So then by that 30 days. they should be masters at those three to potentially five. I think three probably feels the best, but they should be masters at those three things. So this person that you have described should be fantastic at making eye contact and greeting the patient as soon as they come in. They should be fantastic at answering the phone and helping at least figure out where that phone call needs to go and be able to speak to the patients. And they should be fantastic at calling to confirm appointments that have been unconfirmed on the schedule. Yeah. Yeah, no. How do you how do you set up? So okay, so we've got our essentials. How do you set up from there? So then from there it is just really what's the next layer? What is the next level of things for them to learn that are their responsibilities? Then that goes in your 60 days. And that is probably a longer list, I'd say more of like, like 10 things, right, but then go on the 60 day portion. But it's just what is the next layer for them to know and aren't maybe necessarily the most essential. but are still pretty important for them to own at that 60 day mark. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Okay, so we've defined your onboarding. We've kind of talked about how do we get there. I love the idea of taking their duties, their goals and their duties of the job position. So you can pull your job descriptions if you guys have our version of the operations manual you guys know, or maybe you don't know and you need to know. If you download those in your back office, then You have a table of content for every single position within the practice that we've created. And you can pull that and utilize that in the job flow to pull these, to extract these duties out to create that 3060. There's also a 306090 in there, but you can make it your own and figure out what you want it to be. Something that I love doing with practices is really attaching a trainer to a duty. The Dental A Team (09:22.477) So it doesn't have to be one person. I remember when I was in office, I was like, gosh, I love the idea of not being short staffed and having someone to help, but I hate the idea of me having to train them start to finish because I don't have the time for it. So I have a lot of practices and Dana, I think you do this too with your clients that will look at, okay, well, I need you to learn how to greet the patients. Who's gonna be the best person? to teach you what that looks like because they're really good at it. And I'll have practices go through and it might be a dental assistant that's teaching a front office hire on how to present themselves in front of patients because she might be my best at that specific thing. So sometimes it's like completely feeling outside the box, but it's satisfying and fulfilling the training. And then also when you tag that in the 30, 60, 90 breakdown that you give them, they know who they can go to for that thing. And then that person knows what they're responsible for. So when you do your check -ins, when you do your 30 day check -in or if you're doing weekly check -ins, I have a lot of practices doing that for the first 30 days, you have that trainer there to say, yes, they're passed off. Yes, they did it. And you have the trainee there to say that person helps me. So I love doing it that way. Now that's one way I think to get the team more invested and involved in the onboarding. so that it's not all on one person, but refining the onboarding. Dana, I know you, again, you do this constantly with teams. You work with a lot of teams in general. How do you get the teams involved in the refinement process and the creation of that onboarding for those new positions? Yeah, and I think that this is probably not the best part of this topic, but the part that gets missed often that I think like this podcast is unique on is that usually offices is like, yeah, well, we created our training plan. Here it is. And they never touch it again. Yeah. And now they're trying to onboard someone five years later and they no longer have this patient communication system. They no longer have this. The Dental A Team (11:32.205) software system, they no longer put their x -rays in this system, right? And so then it's like, well, you spent all this time and yeah, that's great. But now we decided we're gonna pull it back out to use it. And it's not really that usable because we haven't updated it. So I think for the team getting buy -in in that when these things are updated and they are easily usable, it makes it so much more streamlined when we do bring on a new team member. So just like when I do a lot of operations menu and we say, hey, update your operations menu every year, don't forget your onboarding pieces because a lot of things can change in a practice in a year's time. And so making sure that when you bring on a new team member going down through the 30, 60, 90 and like, do we still do that? Do we still do an automated read care system? Do we still send out reactivation letters? Do we still send out postcards? Like those things that constantly change, we want to make sure that that's not still on our onboarding card because we don't want to spend time training or hunting or having a new team member hunt for resources on something that we don't do anymore. Yeah, that's brilliant. That's brilliant. And I love the idea you said. As we're updating our operations manual yearly, having those people within that position go through the 30, 60, 90, which kind of feels weird, right? As a team member, like I'm updating what would onboard for my position. So like it feels weird and it feels like am I setting myself up for somebody to take my job? which is a scary space. I know we all live there within our, within our positions of wherever you're at. So caveat there, don't stress out. It's just to make sure that everything's, everything's always duplicatable. And one, you should never be content with where you are. You should always be looking for growth. Like a human nature is to grow. Human nature is to learn. Human nature is to become something different than you are today. When we get content or complacent in life, we tend to not be as happy, joyful, or like moving forward. So always be looking for that next step. Now, The Dental A Team (13:40.781) If that's the case and you're checking or insurance verification or whatever in your practice, could you learn TC? What would that look like? What is that onboarding, right? And then guess what? Maybe you level up and you start learning to treatment coordinate in your practice. Somebody's gotta fill your shoes, right? And also, Maybe the practice grows, you guys. I see this constantly where the practice is in growth mode, major growth mode, and we've got to add another person that does maybe another treatment coordinator. We've got one rock star treatment coordinator. She's not going anywhere, but I need someone who can do what she does. And if we haven't updated her 30, 60, 90, she's training that person, period, I'm done. I'm not touching it. If she hasn't updated it, for lack of us knowing we needed to or for fear of being replaced, she's got to train this person on her own now because nobody else knows those pieces. She's the only one that holds it. So I think Dana, kind of what you're speaking to, and maybe, maybe you can pull out better words, but I thi…
Full show notes at the publisherAmid the tumult of an election year and rising inflation, Kiera is joined by Brad with Dental Warranty to talk about peace of mind. Together, they discuss why warranty is so critical, what additional revenue looks like, how to sell patients on the investment, and more. Episode resources: Learn more about Dental Warranty Get a DAT discount on a demo! Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.714) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I'm super pumped. I've got an amazing guest on the podcast today. We're going to be talking to you guys about a couple different things of how to bring in additional revenue to your practice. I think all of us would love that, especially with uncertain times. I mean, we've got an election year, we've got patients doing a couple of funny things. We've got an inflation year. And so I thought it was very poignant and pertinent to bring on Brad with Dental Warranty today, just talking about different ways that we can kind of, I don't know, I feel like. insulate our practices against the uncertainty of times that we're headed into. I feel like never be afraid. Let's create a game plan and then you guys can execute and you can capitalize and win because I believe when people are afraid is the greatest opportunity for practices to flourish if they've got a good plan in place. So Brad, welcome to the show today. How are you? Brad (00:46.478) Doing well, Kiera, thanks for having me on board. Kiera Dent (00:49.418) Yeah, Brad and I usually hang out at in -person events. We haven't seen each other this year, so I feel like I'm really glad we're on the podcast, because I haven't had my chit chat with you, you know, on the bus rides and all the different events we go to. It's been a hot minute, so. Yeah, likewise, agreed. So Brad is with Dental Warranty. You guys have probably heard him on the podcast. I am one of the biggest believers of Dental Warranty, because I feel like watching dentists all the time, dentists just overpay. Brad (01:00.622) That's right. Yes, it's great to catch up. It's been too long. Kiera Dent (01:17.578) in the way like you don't think you're overpaying by doing free dentistry and the thought of you're losing money constantly on doing free dentistry. We are in a time and an era where you no longer have to do this. You can give the patient peace of mind. You can close more cases with it. You can have it to where your patients are getting the services that they need. And in addition to that, it is actual additional revenue kind of like membership plans at other places, but in a way that's not slimy, it's not greedy, it's nothing. It's truly giving the patients a better service. that they need. Like I do not think any of us would ever say that AppleCare is greedy on our phones. I think all of us just have peace of mind that my super expensive, I don't know, $1 ,500 phone phone productive. And that's a $1 ,500 freaking phone for two years that we are willing to pay AppleCare on. But our mouths that we use every single day, like we literally eat with them. I just think it's so cool. So Brad, there's my soap box. Welcome everybody. If you can't tell, I think Dental Warranty should be in every practice, but Brad, go ahead. Let's talk about this additional revenue stream and the uncertainty of an election year and all those different things and how really making sure we insulate and protect our patients could be a beautiful thing this year. Brad (02:20.654) Yeah, absolutely. Now it's funny you mentioned that kind of protection on Apple care on your phone. I was actually just talking with a dentist. He's like, you know, people buy a warranty on their big screen TV and they don't touch that thing. Maybe dust it every once in a while, but they don't touch it. It's on the wall. How often are you using your teeth? You're clenching, you're grinding, you're biting, you're chewing. Anything that happens to your mouth, why would someone not want to protect that? So there, yeah, there's a lot of uncertainty, especially because a lot of times when patients are at the practice, it's because maybe something else. either failed or they broke or tipped or cracked something, if they broke what God gave them, why would you not want to warranty and protect what you're doing, right? And give them that kind of assurance and peace of mind knowing that you do high quality work and that you've got their back no matter really what life sends their way. Kiera Dent (03:07.242) And I think Brad, as you were saying that I actually feel like I made a connection that I haven't made. I mean, I've talked to you guys forever. I've been one of the biggest supporters of Dental Warranty since I met you guys. I just was like, this is a no brainer. Why would people not bring this into their practice? But as you just said that, like you're right. We all, I mean, like you go to Best Buy and they're like, Hey, put this warranty on your TV. On freaking Amazon is like doing the two year protection. Like on a dang vacuum at Walmart, like, Hey, you went the two year protection. I'm like, those businesses are smart. And I mean, people will like, yep, it's five bucks. It's 20 bucks. Of course, like put it on. It's no big deal. But I was thinking about our bodies and I think there might be this misnomer. I don't know. This is just me like literally having an aha moment right here live is our bodies naturally repair, right? It's like you get a scratch on your arm. It will naturally repair. I don't need, I have almost like a human being warranty on my body, but I think what we don't realize is like teeth and bones and aging. don't have this body warranty. I don't know, I've got to go get surgery. And I'm really anxious because the last time I had surgery, it's same toe, same thing. And just another thing like popped up out of nowhere. And I was like, my gosh, I've got to do it. And like last time I did not heal as well. And I was 10 years younger. My body is getting older. I should probably get it done now versus even in another 10 years, because I'll be older. But I think there could be this like idea. that our bodies will just naturally heal. And so maybe it's something where it's like this external product, there's no way we can fix a TV. Like we don't know how to do it, but yet like a scratch on my arm, I don't know how my body fixes it, but it just fixes it. And so maybe that's kind of the disconnect that we as business owners might have of like, no, there's no reason to warranty teeth. Like they're just this natural part of our body. But like you said, I think when we can look at it, not as a product per se, but as... I think teeth are one of the dumbest body parts of our entire body. Like I really do. And I say that I love dentistry. Like how dumb is it that we lose our teeth as babies and then we get these 32 teeth. We lose four of them usually for wisdom teeth. And so we've got 28 teeth and yet there are these like little porcelain plates in our mouth that we hope and pray that we don't chip. I understand that they are not porcelain, but that's what they feel like to me. Like it's this very delicate, dainty, beautiful thing. Brad (04:52.622) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (05:16.65) It's like a, like a China cabinet and I've got to like eat with this. I got to smile with this. I got to talk with this and hope and pray that nothing happens to this beautiful smile. And so I think looking at it as because they're so delicate, like a TV, like a phone, like other delicate things that you would protect, maybe helping people realize that that's why they should protect it. but maybe that's the disconnect we've had over the last couple of years since dental warranty has come into the playground that people maybe aren't seeing. I don't know if that made any sense or if I just confused people more, but that was my. Brad (05:18.766) Thank you. Kiera Dent (05:45.994) maybe muddled aha moment for myself, whether it benefits anybody else or not, that's to be determined. Brad (05:52.59) No, I love it. I think that's, that's huge. And a big part of this is whether the patient, you know, buys the six year protection plan or not. The great thing about this is now you're having these conversations with your patients. So many times patients, they get their treatment done. They think dentistry is going to last forever, no matter what they do to it. They expect a lot of times the dentist will do it free forever because they just paid that one time. So this is educating the patients, letting them know, Hey, you know, this is what we're doing here. We do great work. We pretty much last long time. but it is a part of your body and things act differently. You could do things outside of our control and set right expectations. So again, whether they buy the protection plan or not, it doesn't matter. If they have it, great, they're covered, the doctor's covered. If not, the patients don't come back in just expecting it to be free later on, because it was talked about. And it's not some surprise that, I thought there was going to be a lifetime guarantee on this thing. It's like, no, how many times have you used that tooth since I've seen you last? So it's all about, yeah, just taking care of your patients and setting the right expectations to eliminate the frustration, the headaches, the bad reviews, the lawsuits later on. Kiera Dent (07:01.034) Right? Well, and it's funny because I mean, I think about like when I'm getting my lashes done or when I'm getting my hair done and like girls chat, right? Like we love to sit there and gab and chat and like people getting their nails done. And when people find out I work in dentistry without fail, I hear like, my gosh, dentistry is so expensive. Like I had this thousand dollar crown that I had to put in or all they want to charge me this much for a night guard. And so people already do assume that dentistry is expensive. And then they're like, this dentist, they didn't do a good job on my cap. I love when they call it a cap. I'm like, clearly like you are older. It's a crown. It sounds way better to say a crown. but they just, they feel like they're so annoyed that it broke down. And again, I think it's because we expect our teeth to last forever. Like, well, this is all we get. So it should last forever. But I agree with you. I think that there's an education piece that we're lacking. And I also was thinking about like dentistry even 50 years ago, people weren't living as long 50 years ago as they are today. So I, just like with modern medicine and bodies and different things like our bodies are and the longevity of life is much longer than it has been in the past. And I also think dentists in the past costs weren't as much schooling wasn't as much different things. And so like I talked to dentists who bought practices or they went to school say 25 years ago and they're like, Kiera, I would not be a dentist in today's world. Like schooling's too much. the cost of running a business is too much. Everything is so much more than it ever was. Like how did these dentists even come outside of it? So I think if we look at the perspective and the timeline of even how dentistry and bodies have evolved over the last couple of years, and I'm saying decades of years, thinking about that, I do think it's important to have warranties. I think it's the same thing for other companies. Like why are they throwing warranties on as well? Like things have just cost more. Things are lasting longer. People are lasting longer than they have been. And so I think it's just a, it's evolving with the world. And I think practices need to evolve as well and do it in a way that's educating. Like you said, Brad, because the last thing you want is for a patient to come and expecting that crown to be redone for free. Even insurances will cover it usually every five years. Like they plan for that crown to break down, but patients don't realize that. And so we know that internally, but the patient doesn't know that. So I agree with you. I think it's a great way to bring up conversations that should have been had years ago. Kiera Dent (09:18.666) but are now just coming to the table. But I'm like, but hey, it's okay because we're also now introducing PRF or PRP into the equation because it's such a better, like the body's neosporin. Like so many things like buildups go with crowns. We don't necessarily do just extractions. We now do implants. So, so many things we've educated the patient based on, I think this is just another layer to educate. Brad (09:18.734) Mm -hmm. Brad (09:32.75) Yeah. Brad (09:41.87) Absolutely. And one of my favorite questions to ask a dentist is, okay, so tell me about the lab you use. You know, why did you choose that lab? And they say, well, they do, you know, they use the best materials, they warranty it, you know, if anything happens, oh they warranty it. So if you value a lab, because they offer a warranty on their lab work, which every dentist does, that's one of the things they like about their lab. When your patients want the same thing, they want to go to the dentist that warranties their treatment. It's not saying that it's a cheap lab or it's not going to last, but no, it's high quality and they stand behind it and that's why they offer it. And so same thing with this. If patients aren't asking it, they're thinking about it. They want to know how long it's going to last. What happens if it breaks, it fails? What if I move, if I lose my dental benefits? All the what ifs. So again, now by proactively talking about this, we're seeing more patients say yes to treatment. More patients come into the door. So a lot of offices will actually Kiera Dent (10:17.962) Yeah. Brad (10:39.662) put this on their website. So it's now, again, it's a proactive approach saying, hey, this is how we're different. You've got the best doctors, provide the best treatment, and we go over and beyond the typical kind of standard of care and provide an excellent service along with our excellent treatment. So yeah, it's a great marketing tool as well to help stand out and again, eliminate those pain points that always happen in the future. Kiera Dent (10:55.37) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (11:05.866) for sure. Well, and like you said, without the patient even saying they are thinking those pieces and I feel like the warranty for all of us, like going to buy a $1 ,500 iPhone, I keep looking over there because my phone's literally sitting there and I just bought it in December, you have so much less stress. It's very good peace of mind. And so for your patients, like they are thinking about that like what happens if I have to replace this because it is $1 ,000 or it is $5 ,000 or whatever it is. It just gives them that peace of mind that makes it easier to move forward because now the questions are answered. What if this happens? What if this happens? Like amazing. I know I have warranty on it. No big deal. Same thing with everything. Brad (11:41.07) I mean, I can't tell you how many times I like bid on something or bite on my fork or s…
Full show notes at the publisherThis episode is for those who want a good time. Happy Fourth of July!
Episode resources:
Practice Momentum Group Consulting
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Become Dental A-Team Platinum!
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.654)
Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera and happy 4th of July. You all know that if you've been listening for a while, know how much I love holidays and I am so grateful to live in America. I truly feel so blessed to live in a country where me, especially as a woman, is able to have a business and to be able to serve and to be able to live the way I do. And I understand that there are politics and different things that maybe aren't right per se, but I think overall I am just so grateful.
to live in a country that allows me to live and be the person that I want to be. So happy 4th of July to all of you. And today I thought I'd get on with actually a super fun podcast for you. So this is coming from DentistMidtownAtlanta .com. So I've got to give credit because this is not me. Shout out to these doctors and I hope that they are a listening dentist like listener because if you are reach out, mad kudos to you. Literally pulled up. I was like, what am I going to do that would be fun for you guys?
that would just make today as a 4th of July a good time. And so what they have is they actually wrote back fun dental facts for the 4th of July. Like I said, I cannot take any credit of this because I'm literally reading it off of a website. So this is not Kiera Dent. This is not Dental A Team. But I did think it'd be a good time for you guys to hear some amazing 4th of July holiday festival things that are dental specific. So number one, from 19... Excuse me, 1768 to 1770.
the infamous Paul Revere. He went into local newspapers offering his services as a dentist. I had no clue that Paul Revere was a dentist. A few years later, Revere verifies the death of his friend by identifying a bridge he constructed for him. This was the first known case of postmortem dental forensics. I had no idea. So maybe you guys all know that and I'm just new to the dental scene. But that was 1768 to 1770. In 1789, a Frenchman by the name of Nicolas Du Bois, I'm not gonna say last part.
for porcelain teeth. I had no clue 1700s. And you guys I think it would be really fun as a team if you guys want when you get back into the office because I'm sure today you're celebrating but kind of play some of these and ask people what year these things are done. I think it could be a fun dental one. Like I said, today's podcast I hope is just more of an enjoyable one. Of course, I'll add something tactical to the end for you. But for now, sit back and enjoy these 4th of July dental random pieces. So on the 4th of July in 1790, an American dentist
Kiera Dent (02:24.142)
flag constructed the first chair made for a dental patient complete with the adjustable headrest and arm extension to hold the dental instruments. In 1825, porcelain teeth began to be manufactured commercially. I did not realize 1825. That's pretty ancient. In 1832, the first luxury reclining dental chair was invented by guess. Do you guys know James Snell? In 1833 to 1850 on the 4th of July, two brothers from France, the
Crocores introduced amalgam filling material for cavities to the United States. So welcome. Thanks to them in 1833 is where amalgam came in. In 1846 on the 4th of July, a dentist named William Morton conducted the first successful public demonstration of the use of anesthesia for surgery. Like I can't imagine dentistry without anesthesia and those poor people who had to go through it before that. So thank you 4th of July. These ones are going back.
These are some interesting dental facts of that. So again, maybe not necessarily per se on the 4th of July, but just some fun dental facts for you. But that's when anesthesia came in. In 1859, the American Dental Association was formed by 26 dentists that met at Niagara Falls. In 1866, the first woman to earn a dental degree, the first woman to earn a dental degree was Lucy Beeman Hobbs. She graduated in 1866. 1871, the first patent for the electrical dental engine, self -contained motor and handpiece was given to George F. Green.
In 1890, after a dentist Willoughby Miller wrote a book on microeconomics microorganisms of the mouth, it sparked the interest of the oral hygiene and started a movement to promote regular brushing and flossing worldwide. So you guys can think that marketing model from 1890. 1895, the first dental x -rays of a living person was taken in the US by a prominent dentist in New Orleans, C. Edmund Kells. Then in 1917, the first dental hygiene licensure received in Connecticut by, do you know it, Irene Newman.
In 1937, the first dental screw implant was placed. I had no idea that implants came from 1937. That's insanity to me. 1938, the first toothbrush made with synthetic bristles, nylon, appeared on the market for purchase. 1945, cities in New York and Michigan began water fluoridation by adding sodium fluoride to their public water systems. In 1950, the first toothpaste containing fluoride was placed on the market. 1960, lasers were developed, produced, and approved for the soft tissue work such as when treating periodontal disease.
Kiera Dent (04:46.99)
And in 1990, new restorative materials were introduced beginning an era of cosmetic aesthetic dentistry. And these were used for crowns, veneers, et cetera. So just a fun time of dating back to when our country was founded is something fun because our country was founded back in 1776. So just kind of doing a quick like little run through of dental history for you guys on the 4th of July. But what I think is so interesting that I kind of wanted to bring to the table today for you on the 4th of July is just thinking about.
how evolved dentistry has become since our country was founded back in 1776. And to think of all the pioneers of dentistry who came before us, who paved the way for those who are making different strides. And I think even in today's world, I think about Brian Harris, who was on the podcast, and Kyle Stanley, and some of these other, I would say, pioneers of dentistry in today's world, where they're thinking differently, they're looking for it. Think of all the softwares that we use right now. Think of all the founders, people who wanted to make the dental experience better. And I would ask you a question today as you are...
thinking about the, since our country was founded, the dental kind of highlights, what are you doing to create, to be a pioneer, if you will, in your practice? Is it that you are giving exceptional patient care? Is it that you are having a team where people just love to work for you? Is it a place where you are working to grow to be multi -practices to serve more patients? What are you doing? Because each of us has our own special unique ways. And I think about the founding fathers of the United States.
I think about a lot of these pioneers in dentistry and without them believing in themselves when probably they didn't believe in themselves. I'm sure there were a few who thought that they were very like above and beyond, but we wouldn't be where we are today without the founding fathers finding America and finding this land and the place that we, a lot of us get to work. I know we have quite a few listeners from other parts of the world and I'm cheering you on on the day that your country was celebrated as well and formed.
But thinking about these pioneers, thinking about the people that brought things to the table, and how are you being that with your team in your practice as a team member, as a dentist, as an owner? What are you doing? I think of so many hygienists and they do things differently. I think about my team and how they bring so many ideas to the table and so many of the things that we're currently doing in the company are due to the team coming up with these innovative ideas. And I just think about, as we reflect on the freedoms that we get to enjoy, we also have an opportunity in
Kiera Dent (07:11.598)
in my opinion, a moral obligation to make sure that we're, we're leaving a legacy in the way that we can. How are we able to make it better for the next people that come? How are we able to do that in our everyday? How are we able to make our team members lives easier? How are we able to set up patients for generational success with their healthcare and their dental treatment care? How are hygienists able to educate and train these patients? How are we able to create an experience for these patients that's changing? I mean, hearing that anesthesia came into place.
Like I can't even imagine having that. And yet to think that somebody had an idea, thinking about dental x -rays, thinking about digital x -rays, thinking about now with like Pearl and Overjet with AI coming into place for reading x -rays, thinking about all these different advancements, it came because people were willing to believe in themselves and to try and to go and to execute on something even when it might've felt scary. And so for you, kudos to you for taking the leaps for doctors who have opened their own practices.
For associates who have taken the leap to be these doctors, I know it takes a lot of work to go through it. For office managers who have grown and evolved, for dental assistants who maybe were never assistants before, for hygienists going through school to become these incredible hygienists and clinicians, to educate our patients, for our front office team members who learn and to train and to grow and to listen to the podcast and to become the best person with customer service in a world where I think customer service might be dying off.
How can you and your practice be a pioneer in dentistry, patient experience, team experience in today's world? And what things can you bring to the table to make the world of dentistry an even better place? I think back to when I started the podcast, there was no podcast for teams out there. And I realized this is a zone that I can give back that I can change and serve so many people's lives. I'm one of the youngest people to ever build a consulting company. And I did it because I wanted to do something different.
And to give you guys the resources and the tools and to change your life to where it doesn't have to be hard. It can be easy if you're willing to implement the ideas our consultants give you. Like the reality is that's where it came from, but it's an idea that sparked and you don't have to do it in these grandiose ways. You don't have to be the inventor of something. You don't have to start a business. You don't have to do a podcast. You can literally do it on the phone call. You can literally do it with your patient care. You can have perfect handoffs. So that patient experience is amazing.
Kiera Dent (09:27.438)
You can be the best hygienist that teaches your other hygienist in your office or other colleagues around you of how to give better patient care, of how to do a cleaning more effectively. You can be a doctor who shares their knowledge online or inspires other people to do cosmetic dentistry or to do full mouth or to tell where you're getting your CE so other people can have it and share podcasts with other people to inspire them. But just think of how many opportunities we have to really, with the magnitude of technology right now,
radically grow and change and evolve the course of dentistry. And it happens from very simple people who didn't think that they were making great strides. You look back at all those people and you know what, they're not the founding fathers. They're not people that we hear all the time, but they made a huge impact for us and our career and what we're doing today. And so just really wanting you guys to maybe as a team, you can think about this, have fun with the little dental trivia. I thought that was really entertaining and wanted to share with you, but really just think about how can we make a
an experience to change the way dentistry is perceived within our communities, within our teams, within our workspace, within the world of dentistry around us. And how can we be somebody who says that example? What can we do to share? If you guys have a resource or you know something, email it into me. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. I want to hear, I want to hear the people you're using. Like today, I just heard about an incredible photography class and we're sharing great people with you, but equally share, give back. Because I think when like they say tides rise, all boats.
And so how can we, like, it doesn't matter which boat it is, like the tide is rising, all of them. And how can we all collectively rise and grow dentistry? Thank goodness to those founders. Thank goodness to all those people who worked hard within dentistry to give us what we have today. And I would say, take that into your own practice, but you only need to make the ripple effect within your own community, which will expand heavily, give back to your communities, give back to your teams. And I hope you go enjoy the most magical 4th of July.
no matter what country you're in, you get to celebrate the 4th of July too. But truly, I feel so blessed to live in a world and a country where I'm able to have the freedoms to be able to make an impact, to be able to give to you guys and serve you and share with you as much as I can, and to be able to learn from you as well. And that's such a blessing and a gift. And I'm so grateful for that red, white and blue and for the opportunity to be here. So happy birthday, America. Happy birthday to the founding fathers who made this country what it is.
Kiera Dent (11:51.406)
and truly look to see how you can be an influencer within your own space to be one of those people that impacted in your own way. And I can't wait to hear what it's about. So be sure to email me Hello @ The Dental A Team .com. If we can help you and your team in any way, please be sure to reach out. I'm here for you. It does not have to be hard and we can truly make an impact in the easiest way possible. And with that, go enjoy your holiday and thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
Tiff and Dana share the Dental A-Team method to understanding your practice's true overhead, and how to budget to get that overhead to where you want it to be.
Episode resources:
Practice Momentum Group Consulting
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
