The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast

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Latest Episodes:

210 The Right Way To Give Bonuses To Your Team Aug 16, 2022

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Delivering WOW Dental podcast. I am super excited to have you guys here. Today, we're talking all about team bonuses, how do we create bonuses for our team members, when is the right time to be able to provide a bonus and what is the most efficient, effective, and profitable way to be able to provide bonuses to our teams.

And so we're going to cover all of that. If you've not yet had a chance, I would love to invite you to join us inside of our dental boss entrepreneur Facebook group, where we have thousands of dentists coming together to be able to learn how to better run, grow, and scale their businesses.

To join us there, you can head on over to dentalbossentrepreneurs.com. So inside of our Facebook group, we did have a question come in that was asking about team bonuses. How do we incentivize our teams? What percentage of production should we give to be able to bonus our team members?

And so I wanted to spend some time answering this because there are specific strategies that we can use and things that I want you to actually consider that perhaps you might not have considered. Now, I will tell you, I remember being that practice owner early in my career, making a lot of mistakes.

And the mistake that I made was that if I want to have team members do the things that I'd like for them to do, which is to be able to have patients follow up and schedule treatment. If I want team members to go out and help me with marketing, if I want team members to help to hit our practice goals that are in our whiteboards, I would need to just give them extra money to do the things.

And I really had that mindset and I was telling myself that story of that is how I can actually get them to do the things. Until I remember one of my early coaches coming to me and she said, "Anissa, let's look at your numbers. Let's look at your profitability."

And once I did that, I realized that, and I really knew it to be honest with you as well, that I really didn't have the money to be able to do that. In fact, at that time, I was actually not really paying myself much of a salary. But I love my team members and I wanted to be able to do more for them.

And again, I had the belief that in order to get them to do things, I'd actually have to pay them bonus. And so again, I was just taking money out of basically my own pocket, what was not even there, and paying them. And so maybe you're that doctor right now that is paying team members bonuses.

That's looking at production and saying, "Okay, I'm going to give them this amount." And maybe you don't know your numbers yet. And so I want to make sure that this episode really serves you and that you understand exactly how to know when is the right time to give a bonus, and again, how do we actually provide a bonus?

Because believe it or not, the lie has been told that we are to give a bonus on production. And oftentimes many of you might have even heard me tell my lemonade story of when I was back eight or nine years old, I had this idea to get a Rainbow Brite doll. And my mom said, "Okay, we can get it for you at Christmas."

And I said, "I want to get it sooner. Can I go out and have a lemonade stand?" And so we went to Winn-Dixie, we got the sugar and the ice and the cups. And the next day I literally went around knocking on doors and I said, "I'm Anissa. I love around the corner. I'm wanting to get a doll. I'd love if you could come out."

Gave them my address, "At 12 o'clock and support me so that I can get this doll." Well, 12 o'clock came and the line was down the street and I actually sold all the lemonade. And I got really excited. I'm like, "Mom, I'm going to be able to get my doll." And she said, "Anissa, I'm so proud of you. You had a great idea for a business.

You actually had a great product, and your marketing was great. All of your lemonade was sold. But I really need you to understand that today you did not make 17 dollars and 58 cents. Today, you made three dollars and 24 cents because the rest, the cups and the sugar and the ice, that's actually what it actually cost you to make three dollars in your business.

And so I remember back to that time when I was giving bonuses based on production, not knowing what my numbers were. And guys, if that's where you are right now, it is actually a little bit dangerous. And so as we start thinking about, "Okay. I get it, Anissa. My eyes are open.

My ears are open and hearing you, how do we do things differently?" One of the things that we want to look at is how do we know our profitability. How do we understand what our business is actually making?

And what's really interesting is that as I'm asking practice owners, when we're going through our business boot camps, what I'm discovering is so many people really just have no idea what their business is making on a monthly basis or on a weekly basis or on a daily basis.

And at a minimum, you really do need to know how much your business is actually making. And this is not production. This is not collection. And so the question is, well, how do I know how to do that?

And so one of the things that I encourage you to do is to have a process where you have a team member that every single Monday, for example, they're pulling a report from your practice management software, that now allows you to be able to see your production and to be able to see your collection month to date.

So every Monday, for example, that number's being put into a template or to an Excel sheet or written on a piece of paper or written into a whiteboard. From there, what's also really powerful is having a process, where as your bills are coming in, those bills are being put in place as well into that template.

So even if you're not paying the bill that particular week, it's being entered in. So now you can look at your cash flow ahead of time, you can see what's coming in and now you can subtract the outstanding that is due for that month, from what's actually come in for that month on a weekly basis.

So you can actually see where you stand for the business. This is pretty powerful. If you've not yet been a part of our business acceleration boot camps, I highly encourage you to get in there. We actually provide the template. We actually teach you exactly how to do this, which is really, really powerful and insightful for you to have that information.

But now, you know how much you're actually profiting. And it is off of that number because that is the money that you are actually making after all of your bills are paid, after your team is paid, after your lab bill is paid, after your rent is paid, after your utilities are paid.

And now off of that money, off of that amount, you can now go ahead and say, "Well, you know what? I'm going to give my team 5%, 10%." Right? And what I also encourage doctors to do is to actually have this calculated and do this calculation quarterly. Because there will be months where you will have more profits and there will be months where you will have less profit.

And so it's really nice at the end of a quarter to do an average of your actual profit and to go ahead and set your calculation there. All right. So that's one thing that I highly, highly recommend.

The other thing is really helping your team to understand that profitability is actually what allows you to be able to give them additional earnings so that they can do more and take care of their families, have those vacations, and to be able to buy their dream homes and all the things that they're working for, just like you're working for things to be able to do for your family.

And so as we're looking at how do we increase profit, it is yes, increasing our high-value services, it is looking at ensuring that those insurance payments are going in, that statements are going out. It is really understanding what profits are actually coming in from different PPOs that you're using.

Because now that you have that knowledge, you can see if it makes sense to be able to go with this PPO.. Or maybe you're doing specific services, for example, ortho, so we're going to choose one PPO over another. Okay. So that's something that we want to look at.

Another thing that I highly recommend is for your team to understand that profits don't mean that's how much your doctor is making. And so as I'm working with teams, as my team is aware, profit is not what the doctor makes, profit is where we can now have the ability to make decisions about taking courses, and buying new pieces of equipment.

And of that profit, you can actually allocate a set percentage that goes into an expense account for travel, or that goes into an investment account for the business so that money can be compounded, or that can go into that rainy day fund.

And of course, as a practice owner, you do have the benefit of being able to take dividends out of the profits that are coming in as well, which is obviously one of the benefits of making a decision to own your own business. All right.

So as you are thinking about building your bonus system, the first thing again, that we want to look at is how do we understand our actual profits versus just understanding our production and our collection. We also want to have a system to be able to know how to calculate that number. And again, not you, your team.

You've got people for that. Really simple processes allow them to be able to calculate that. And then having a way for you again, to decide, okay, we're going to go ahead and give out whatever percent. It could be 5%, 10% to your team. And that's done typically on a quarterly basis. All right, guys.

So hopefully that was super helpful for you. If you've not yet had a chance, we'd love to invite you to join us inside of our next business acceleration boot camp, where we'll be sharing more strategies for you to grow your practice, as well as helping you to understand how to get to those numbers to be able to grow your practice, provide more earnings opportunity for your team, and to be able to build that practice of your dreams.

Thanks for listening to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental podcast. Now the next step is to join us inside of our next free business acceleration workshop. And to join us, head on over to deliveringwowbootcamp.com.

209 How to Analyze Your Team and Get What You Really Want Apr 04, 2022

Hi everyone and welcome to The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes. And today, we're talking about how to effectively analyze your team and get what you really want out of your practice. This podcast really was inspired by a doctor who posted inside of our Dentalbiz Chiks Facebook group that she had a team member that came to her and said that she was offered more money in another practice and if the doctor would match it and would give her an increase in her salary. The doctor thought about it and the doctor said, okay yes, we'll go ahead and match it. And on Monday, the team member didn't show up for work. And so I don't know how many of you have been in this situation where you have had something similar happen to you. But I actually want to talk to you today about the analysis of team members and really looking at how do we build and scale that multimillion-dollar practice and what sort of team is it going to take to get there?

And how do we analyze a current team to see if they are at the point where they have the capacity to support us in building our practices? Do they want to be there? Have we been clear with them on what we want? And so I want to take this time to really focus on really analyzing our team, because oftentimes what we discover when we have team members who leave, is that we will actually go through this process of frustration. Why? Because we have to now look at getting another team member. But what I often hear is after the fact, it was the biggest blessing because the person that came after them was the best person that they have ever had in that position. And so I actually want us to start looking at, and I'm going to give you a process today, to actually evaluate your team because perhaps the team that got you here is not the team that's going to get you there.

And so I want to talk to you about how we build that team that's going to get us to that next level of growth. Being able to grow, scale, and serve more patients. Being able to grow in a way that you don't have anxiety, that you're able to be really happy, doing more dentistry that you love, and earning way more money so that you can support your team, so that you can support taking them on trips, giving them those benefits, being able to purchase equipment cash, being able to have way more money to put into your retirement account, your investment accounts, being able to take care of your family and take amazing vacations without apologies. And so, as we start looking at our team, what I want you to start doing is to really ask yourself three specific questions, right? And the first question is, does your team, and I want you to do this, take a sheet of paper out and write down each team member's name and ask yourself these questions.

Number one, does this particular team member understand what you are having them there for? Does the team member understand their role? Does your team member understand how to be the most effective in their job? Does your team member understand what the deliverables are, and what guarantees that they're being successful in their role? Have we been clear? And one of the biggest things that I see oftentimes is, because we are so busy that we don't have the ability to train our team, or we don't have the skill set in the knowledge of how to be able to have our team to be able to step into being the highest performers within their role. Oftentimes what happens is that our team members really are not clear on what they are supposed to do. And so I really want you to ask yourself that question is, does your team member understand their role, right?

Do they get what they're there for? Have we been clear about what they're supposed to do? What are their measurables? What are their deliverables? If they are a treatment coordinator, do they understand that X percentage of patients that come in, that they're talking to about scheduling treatment, we want to have actually scheduled, or are they just there every single day, just doing their best, right? So I really want you to analyze that. The second question is, does your team member actually want to be a part of your practice vision that is growing, that is serving patients, and is allowing them to grow personally and professionally as well? And you know, I will say this, as I am onboarding new teams into our coaching program, one of the biggest things that I ask them, or one of the first questions I ask them is, how many of you guys want more for your families than you had growing up, right?

Like, I don't care if your doctor's watching, like just it's okay, I'm giving you permission, raise your hand and let me see. And then I will say doctors, how many of you want more for your kids than you had growing up, right? And what we discover is that we all want the same things. We all want to be able to take care of our families. We want to have them have more than what we had growing up. And so, as we start looking at that, what I often share is that if we had a table and the doctor was trying to pick up the table by themselves, it would be really heavy. If the office manager came to help, it would be a little bit easier. But if everybody picks up a piece of the table, then we can all move across the room really, really fast.

And so one of the things that I often talk about is this concept of being on the bus. And if we want to go from say Miami to LA, one thing that I've shared with my team, I remember when we first did vision boards when I shared my vision of my practice is, I said, guys, we're going to be there. And anybody who's with me, I promise you, I will never forget. And when we get there, we are going to celebrate. We are going to be able to be so excited about what we've done together. And so for me, for you, for your team, I want you to evaluate them and ask, the second question is, do they want it? Do they want to be a part of a practice that is really serving patients hard and collectively you are growing so that you collectively can be able to have the business grow so that everybody can benefit from that, right?

And I often tell this story as well, when I'm talking to team members, is I'll say, when we first started my practice with our first coach, I remember our coach having us do exercises, similar to what I have teams do within our programs, right? And I remember the team member coming to me and she said, you want us to write down what we have to do daily, weekly, and monthly. You're asking us to do vision boards. Like, this is silly. This is not going to work. And I remember going to Nicole, my team member and saying, you are a great assistant. I think you're amazing, but I need you to know that we are going there and so if you are not wanting to do the things, it's okay, and she was like, well, my last doctor didn't make us do this.

And like, this is not going to work. And I said you know what, we're going there. And so I really want you to understand that in order to get to the next level of growth, it really does mean having to make next-level decisions. And it also means really looking at the current team, because if you have team members that are coming in, that are saying, you know what, this other doctor is going to increase my pay, I just want to go over there, can you give me more money? That's not solution-based. Being solution-based is how can we all come together to be able to have more same-day rollover so that we can all make, not just a little bit more, but a lot more. How can we have the ability now to be able to trips together as teams? How do we have the ability to serve our patients hard?

And I will tell you, I have been able to, within my dental practice, within our coaching programs, I'm really proud of it, build cultures where team members really want to be able to serve the people that we serve. And so within my practice, it's all about, guys, this is my vision, I want to be able to be the number one practice. I want to have the latest technology. I want to be able to offer services that nobody else is offering. Right? And that's why we're looking at putting in sleep apnea and really investing the time in the training. Because for me, I know that we can save so many people's lives. But guess what? I can't do it alone. I need a team. I need people around me that are going to help us to be able to serve all of our patients. And you know what, you're the right person to be here on the team.

And I'm going to train you. I'm going to empower you. I'm going to inspire you. And collectively we're going to be able to help more people. Right? Same thing in our coaching program. I go to our accountability coaches and I say like, I want to support you. Tell me what's important to you. You want to have your first home, your first car, like as a business, I want to be able to support you and your personal dreams. And let me tell you the vision of our business, like our business model, what we're really all about, is helping doctors should be able to grow and scale. I want to be able to help hundreds more doctors to be able to build multimillion-dollar practices, women to be able to grow amazing businesses while being able to maintain a household, and have a ton of time for their self-care. That's what I want to do.

And so now what happens is I've got a team who's like, oh, oh my gosh, I love your vision, I want to be a part of it. And so, as you're looking at your current team, again, do they want it? Because it is so amazing when you have people that are collectively growing for one purpose and one cause, right? And if you have people on your team who are just clocking in, clocking out, being negative Nancy's, talking about other team members, guys, they're never going to be the right fit. And what's going to happen is, it is going to start your growth and it is going to delay you from building the business that you're meant to build. Okay? So the third question that we need to ask ourselves is, do our team members, individually, do they have the actual capacity to do what we are requiring for them?

And I often tell a story of one of our coaching clients who came in initially and she actually had her mom, was her only employee and her mom was doing insurance. And so the question again, asking these three questions, does mom understand that she's supposed to call the insurance company, what she's supposed to do? Yeah perhaps, perhaps we've given mom that knowledge that she's the insurance coordinator. Does mom want it? 100%, mom wants to be there to help her daughter be successful. Does mom have the capacity? Right? And the question is, mm, maybe, maybe not. Because mom keeps making mistakes and no matter how much we keep training mom over and over and over and over again, she's getting frustrated, she doesn't have the capacity. And so as we start looking at that, then we can do a few things. Number one, we can move mom into another role.

And so you move mom into the scheduler. So now she's scheduling appointments, she's confirming appointments. And now you have a team member who's thriving, right? So I want you to think about that. We've had lots of shifts in my practice where we've had people who were really slow in terms of assisting the doctor, but who had a ton of knowledge, dental knowledge, to be able to help patients. So they now came in as a new patient coordinator to actually find out from the patient their chief complaint, to have conversations, because they were actually able to use their slowness as a strength to actually be able to slow things down and have great deep conversations. And so we want to look at our team and analyze like, do we have people in the right seats? But also the capacity, a lot of it is, are team members trained as well as they can be trained?

Like, are they masters in verbal skills? Are our teams understanding the power of being leaders and not going to make excuses or being in denial when things are slipping through the cracks? Does your team have the skillset to be able to come together and problem solve? If you have broken appointments, how can everybody come together? If you have one of the team members whose goal is to be able to start three, $10,000 cases a month, does the team have the capacity to be able to understand how to support that person with what they're doing individually as their role, right? And so capacity a lot of times really comes into training. Are you getting your insurance coordinators the training that they need to be the best, right? Oftentimes we are not investing in our teams. We are winging it. We are hoping that they just get it through osmosis, but the fact guys is that's not how it happens.

And so investing in our team, looking at how can we give each team member continuous training. If they're the scheduler, how do you become better at scheduling? If you are a dental assistant, how can you become the best dental assistant to be able to create systems and processes for consistency so that you're staying in budget so that you are being as efficient as possible? So these are the things that we want to look at. And so, as we start looking at those team members that are coming in that are saying, I want to go somewhere else because they're giving me more money over there, what are you going to do? I want to empower you to not be pushed up against a wall and say, you know what? If this practice is not the right fit for you, it's okay, because we are building a family here that we work together and we are going to continuously grow and celebrate together.

If you have negative Nancys who are going against your core values of building a positive team and family spirit, it's never going to work. You will want to have 100%, A players. Now, how do we get those A players? It really comes into the process of how are we hiring. There are frameworks for hiring. Really looking at asking specific questions during the interview process, looking at having group interviews, looking at including in behavioral style assessments so that you can match the position that you are hiring for with their behavioral style. So if you're looking for an insurance coordinator, for example, you want someone who's detail-oriented. You're looking for somebody who's going to be at the front desk, you want somebody who's outgoing. Who's going to ask how's your family doing? So there are processes for hiring that again, oftentimes as practice owners, we don't understand. I didn't always understand this until I actually invested time learning how to effectively hire.

And that is why now, I have not one but two businesses where we've got amazing team members that I'm able to leverage and have them to be able to be the best of their role. I often will say, in our practice, in our team, we want every team member, no matter if they are in sterilization, if they're your assistant, if you're cleaning the office, to be the director of your position, where you can come in, where you can offer suggestions of how to grow. But that comes in with building your team to become leaders and helping them to understand the power of their role in the practice, empowering them. All right? So hopefully this was a really helpful podcast for you. The key really, in getting what you want, is really analyzing your team. Is really starting to understand how to build leverage in your business and verbalizing that what got you here, won't get you there. All right? Take care, guys. Enjoy the rest of your day. And I will see you in the next episode.

208 How to Build Leverage Through Associates Mar 21, 2022

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes and today I actually want to talk to you about something that is pretty dear to my heart, and it really is all about building leverage in your business through associates. Now, I know some of you who are listening to me right now, you perhaps have associates in your practice. Some people who are listening, you might be thinking, "Well, is now a good time to bring in an associate or what's the benefit of having an associate?"

And so I actually wanted to talk to you to address this because what's been really valuable, instrumental and transformational and allowing me to grow my business, my dental practice allowing me to be able to earn a significant amount of income, grow my wealth, and honestly be able to serve our patients at a much higher level has been by bringing in associates.

Now, some people bring in associates and their thought process is, "Well, I can now bring in associates and I can do more high-value procedures," which is really, really great. But I actually want to challenge you to actually think a lot bigger than that. And I remember when I hired my first business coach, one of the things that I really ask myself is, "What do I want in terms of my business? What is my business going to look like a year from now, three years from now? How am I going to be able to build the ability to have time to spend with my family If I wanted to work three days a week, how could I do that without apologies? How could it take a month off in the summer? How can I build a business that actually serves to me versus me slaving and doing all of the things in my business?"

And what's really interesting is a lot of times because we especially as women have never had an opportunity to learn how to run a business effectively. We are doing our best. We are running our business, we are at the same time managing a household, looking after our partners, taking care of our kids all of their schedules. And we actually have a very unique situation where we are really trying to manage doing all of the things. And unfortunately, what happens is oftentimes time for us comes up short. And we don't have the ability to go to that yoga class or sit down by ourself and read that book.

And so for me talking about this topic for all of you, especially for all of you who are women is really to understand that it is not only important and valuable, but it is almost like oxygen. Something that we need to really start understanding leverage, what leverage is, how we can build leverage in our businesses so that we can have the ability to collapse timeframes in terms of growing our wealth, growing our plans for our retirement. How can we have the ability to duplicate ourselves so that we can have more procedures being done and offered in our businesses so that we can serve way more people at a higher level?

How can we have the ability to have other people doing things so that we as a business owner have the benefits, the true benefits of being a business owner, which is being able to choose how we're spending our days, what services we're providing? What are we doing with our free time? Are we able to make a decision to go into work at 10 o'clock because we want to be able to have some personal time every morning for meditating or going to the gym or going to yoga, being able to and work at a certain time. And again, while we're there be able to do the things that we want to do.

And again, just going back to me, my mindset when I hired my first coach because I didn't know how to do it. I said, "My goal is I want to be able to take a month off every summer with my kids." And in order to do that, I have to be able to build leverage. I have to be able to have somebody who is making sure that things are not slipping through the cracks who's not me. I have to make sure that systems are in place and I need other people that are producing in my business so that if I'm not there, it's not a big deal.

I often time hear inside of the Facebook groups I'd love to be able to take a week off and be able to go on vacation or, "Man, I haven't taken a vacation in multiple years or I'd like to be able to go and take this CE course. But if I do that or if I take my team to this training, we're not going to be able to see patients during that time. And all of a sudden we're going to lose income, and we're not going to be able to pay our bills." And guys, I'm here today to be able to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way. There is another way, there is another solution. And it really does come by adding in leverage.

So what does leverage mean? For me, I am a big proponent that you can have every single thing that you want in your business and your life. You just need to set the goal, you reverse engineer it and then now you just start following out the steps of your action plan. And so for me, I said, "Well, if I want to take a month off, what does that mean? If I want to be able to take time whenever I want, what does that mean?" That means that I need to have other people producing.

Now, what's really interesting in terms of associateships, and again, you might be in that position where you already have associates. And oftentimes I hear people saying, "Well, I want to be able to do all of the things and the high-value procedures, and I want to be able to give them just the fillings and all of those things so I can focus on doing all of the big cases." And I'm not saying that that's wrong, but I'm actually challenging you to think a little bit differently.

I can tell you inside of my practice, I remember thinking, "Well, what are the things ..." And I'm going to challenge you to build this list. What are the things that you're not doing in your practice yet that you'd like to be able to offer your patients, but you have no desire to do? And as you start thinking through that list, I know for me when I started to build that list and that list has changed and evolved throughout the years is I remember saying, "I love to be able to offer clear aligners in my practice. I want to be able to offer sleep and be able to create sleep appliances." Why? Because there are patients who have crooked teeth. There are patients who are snoring in my business.

And so not having the ability to help them is not what I want. I want to be able to help all of my patients. And I ask myself, "Honestly, are these things that you want to do?" And I'm going to tell you inside of my practice we do clear aligners. We're in the process of having training right now for sleep. We do laser treatment in our office. And I can tell you I never learned. I went to the course, but I've never done a clear aligner case. I will never do a sleep apnea appliance in my practice. In fact, in my practice, I don't even know how to use the TRIOS and iTero scanner.

And the fact is that I don't have to. I have team members who have been trained by the best. I have when we brought in laser, I had someone who came in and trained my team for clear aligners. I had my team go through, my associates go through training. I had coaches that held their hands through ClinChecks until they were confident. And so as we start thinking about leverage and bringing in more and offering more, I want you to start thinking differently and start thinking, "What are the procedures that you can bring an associate in for and you can actually have them to be able to be trained?"

The last associate that we hired, she actually was a past nurse before she went to dental school. And she was an older student because she had already had her first career. And so coming into my practice, I actually was looking for somebody that we could invest in and be able to get the training for sleep. And because I knew that was the purpose, I was able to be very specific in my recruiting process. And we went through many people until we found this amazing doctor who has compassion and who had a desire to be able to create in our practice this Blue Ocean Strategy.

And so what it looks like in our practice is that one of our doctors has a tremendous skillset in doing cosmetic dentistry, All-on-4 complex restorative cases. And so what happens is we've actually created within our practice a little situation where she does those procedures. Another doctor is really good at doing clear aligners so she's doing clear aligners. So you have one doctor who may be really good at doing extractions or doing endo. And so what I want you to think about is how can you not create a situation where you're feeling like you have to do all the things, but actually start reversing the process to say, "How can I interestingly do less, but bring in other people to do those high value?"

I often hear sometimes too, "Well, how much of a budget do you have for your associates? Like what if you pay for things and they leave?" So again, we're talking all about leverage. So even if you were to spend $10,000 having a team member to go to an institute, maybe a Spear or a Pankey to be able to go to clinical mastery and you spent even 10 grand, the question is, "Would you get a return on that investment of that 10 grand?" I find would a too many times the mindset is really so closed in terms of, "What if I make that investment?" And I'm like, "My mindset is completely different. It's like let me get you in. Let me find somebody who wants to grow with a company and I invest in you. "And at the end of the day, again, I invest in you. You are happy, you are growing."

And now what happens is that you're able to do, again, a one $10,000 case that will now pay for that. And the practice will continue to benefit month after month after month. So again, I really want you to start thinking about leverage. And for me, the question is how can I be able to get to the point where I can have associates actually producing to the point where I could choose to work if I wanted to or not? And so that's actually my challenge for all of you to be able to think about that. How can I bring in one associate, two associates? And for me, it was like if I bring in two associates, then I would be able to earn the current income that I'm currently earning and even more if they're doing high-value procedures.

So I really wanted to share this message with you to have you to start thinking a little bit differently. And as you start bringing in associates, now you can look at being able to have more time to do those things that you love. And that could be, "You know what? I no longer have to do root canals. I no longer have to do dentures." As I started bringing in associates in my own practice, I really, really enjoy doing complex restorative cases, restoring implant procedures.

And so I essentially stopped doing all of those other things. And I said, "You know what? You do those extractions. You do the clear aligners. You do the endo." You do all of those things. And now what happens is you're able to create a situation where you're doing the dentistry that you love without apologies.

So what I would say your action item for today's episode is to really think about if you have an associate, what are the things that can be handed over to your associates so that you can do more dentistry that you love? Making a list of services that you would like to perform in your practice that you're not currently performing and really look at can you bring in an associate to be able to do those procedures for you. Or if you have a current associate having a conversation to say, "You know what? Let's create some Blue Ocean opportunities in our practice for you to be able to thrive."

And in essence, become a mini specialist to be able to do that inside of our practice and invest in them, invest in their training so that they can be successful so that they can get up and running as fast as possible. And then you want to make sure that you're using the frameworks that we're teaching you inside of our programs to be able to create goals, to be able to use the whiteboards and the scorecards to be able to track performance. And ensure that your team members are actually hitting the goals so that now you have the ability, again, to be able to earn more, to be able to accomplish more, to be able to grow your business without apologies. All right?

So hopefully that served you. If you've not yet done so, guys, I would encourage you highly, highly, highly to join us inside of our Dental Boss Entrepreneurs Facebook group. We're going to be having a lot of really cool things happening in there coming up within the next few weeks. We will be having a get more testimonials challenge, helping you to understand how to be able to build more trust and loyalty with your existing patients, so much so that they're actually creating video testimonials that you can use for your social media, for your marketing.

We're also going to be having an upcoming wealth workshop so that you can understand what's your number, how much money do you want to start putting in now so that you have a set amount ready and available for you five years from now, 10 years from now. And understanding how to build in passive income that can grow tax-free. So really, really excited about that workshop that's going to be coming up and having you to be able to create your game plan of knowing what you want to set aside and how specifically do we budget for that within our practice so that we can ensure that we're hitting our wealth goals.

Definitely want to make sure that you're inside of our Facebook groups, so that you can get access to all of the amazing things that we're helping you with to be able to grow your practice. And if you've not yet joined us, you definitely want to make sure that you're joining us dentalbossentrepreneurs.com. All right, guys. So that's pretty much it. Thank you so much for listening and we will see you next time.

Thanks for listening to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Now your next step is to join us inside of our free Facebook group Dental Boss Entrepreneurs where you'll be able to connect and collaborate with like-minded dentists. And if you're looking for help to be able to grow and scale your practice faster, we invite you to join us inside of our Dental Boss Academy where your first month is free. To join us, go to dentalbossacademy.com. Take care, guys, and we will see you in the next episode.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

207 How To Get Your Team to Do Their Jobs Without Being Told Mar 14, 2022

Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes. And today we're actually going to talk about how to have a team that does their job without being told. So this was actually a question that came into our Dental Boss Entrepreneur Facebook group. If you're not yet a member, we'd love to have you in our community. We have lots of amazing doctors that are getting together that are connecting, collaborating, and communicating. But again, we had a question that came in, and it said like, "How do I get my team to do those things? I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I'm feeling like I am not having accountability. I'm to telling people what they need to do and they're not doing it." And so I actually wanted to address this because it's something that is extremely common as we all probably can imagine.

And it's something that I can tell you, I'm extremely proud of that we have inside of my practice and that we've been able to actually create frameworks for practices, to be able to implement certain tools, certain systems, to be able to have that accountability, which is really great because a few things happen. The team members actually become happier in their positions. They see that they're being able to give their feedback and come up with ideas that are actually being listened to and supported. And what happens is, as a result of it, we have more things happening because we have more people working together for a common goal and for their personal goals within their role in the practice. But as a result of it, the doctor can now focus more on what they really love to do. And what they're really, really good at, which is the dentistry or saying, you know what? I really want to take this course and learn a new skillset, or I want to invest in upping my knowledge of how to run my business.

And now that I have my team, that's taking care of these other things, I can feel focused on my learning, my personal development, my professional development. Again, really looking at doing what you really love to do the business and being able to have more time as an owner of a business, to be able to reap the benefits of that, which is being able to not have to work extremely long hours after work doing things, because now you have leverage built-in.

And so one of the first things that I always say when I work with colleagues is we definitely want to look at having three separate steps. So there are three things that we always want to be able to look at in terms of being able to get this accountability. Number one is we want to have the right people in our business. So we have to have people in order to have leverage. If we're trying to do everything ourselves, or we say, you know what? I asked my team to do this. They didn't do it. I got frustrated. I just did it myself. You're never going to have freedom that way. You're never going to be able to take a vacation. You're never going to be able to take time away because everything's dependent on you. So you definitely want to make sure that we look at the people component.

And the first step really is people because without having a team that you can empower to the next level and I get it right now, a lot of people are saying, well, we can't get team members. I'm not talking about necessarily having to hire people to do this. I'm talking about the people that are currently within your organization. How can we elevate them to actually become leaders within the organization, to have specific things that they are accountable for and they're actually doing it? Okay. So we're going to talk about how that process works, but we first need to again, have the right people.

The next thing is we want to have the right processes. So this is something that is done consistently every single day, every single week. A process is something that is not something that we choose to do one day. And then we kind of do it next week. And it's kind of random. It's something that we do every day or every week or every month or every quarter. And we do it consistently at the same exact time, or the exact same day, or the exact same day on the exact same time. And that way becomes a pattern and it is not something that's going to slip through the cracks. Okay.

So the third thing that we want to look at is making sure that we have tools because what happens is that if we have tools to be able to hold us accountable to the goals, and to the processes that we're setting, then now the tool is going to prevent us from having behavioral changes come in. Oh my gosh, we started this new process and we completely forgot. Or we set this goal, but we really didn't have something to be able to track it. And so how do we get that accountability? I can tell you one of the tools that I actually put into my practice that we've helped hundreds of practices, probably thousands now actually, to be able to implement is this process of number one, inside of our morning huddle, having a daily whiteboard, where we can put our goals, where we can look at historical numbers, where if we're starting a new procedure, we can actually look at that and we can see, have we hit our goal? Have we not hit our goal?

It's really interesting about a week or so ago, I was talking to a doctor, interestingly, that's been following me for a while. And she's implemented a lot of systems that we have put into place with frameworks within the coaching program, the Platinum Coaching Program. So she joined the coaching program, she's getting some progress, but honestly, she's not getting the ultimate process or the ultimate result. And so I started reviewing some things with her and I said, "Okay, let's start back to business foundation. Like, where are you with your scorecards? Do you understand why you're using them? Or is this just an exercise?" Because she said, "I'm feeling like I'm having to do all the things." And she said, "Honestly, I kind of feel like it's an exercise." And I said, "Okay, well that means that clearly I've not communicated or you've not been clear, your team has not been clear in terms of why we're actually doing this."

Nothing in your practice should ever be something that you do without understanding why you're doing it. If it's not giving you an outcome that you desire, you have to figure out, am I doing it correctly or does it even make sense? And I can tell you, like at a morning huddle for me, at one point we were reading out charts. We were saying, "Oh, this patient has mitral valve prolapse. So we need to pre-medicate them" which really wasn't really getting us anywhere. It was just something that we were doing just for the motion. But what I told her is that whiteboards are not that. Whiteboards are when you go in and you say that you want to start doing a new procedure and you're not, then now it actually opens up a conversation for you to be able to have within your weekly meeting an opportunity to say, you know what? We are consistently not being able to get patients started with clear aligners. What's the real issue?

And so the team members can say, well, we're talking about it, but we're just not yet being able to have the patient convert. And so now you're able to have a conversation and you're able to realize that your team and you really do need to invest more in verbal skills training. Or you may discover through this process that, you know what? You said you were going to do a marketing campaign and you didn't. So the first piece is being able to have this tool or being able to use a tool such as a weekly scorecard, where you can track your doctor production per visit, hygiene production per visit, accounts receivable. And you're able to look at all of these different metrics. How many are being rescheduled? What's the hygiene reappointment percentage?

And what happens is that when you have goals, the scorecard is something that we teach our doctors within our academy, as well as in our Platinum Coaching Program, we actually have performance scorecard dashboards built into our e-learning platform. And we create a process where every week a team member goes in. So that's the people part. The process is that they are going in and updating the scorecard. Again, production collection, doctor production per visit, case acceptance percentage, hygiene reappointment percentage, hygiene production per visit, AR over 30. And so now what happens is that the team members doing that, not the doctor. Okay. So that's the process every Monday.

And then the tool is actually the scorecard itself. The scorecard is where you're able to go in and you set your goals. If you hit the goals, great. If you hit them three weeks in a row, how I train within our academy and within our Platinum Coaching Program is once you hit the goal three times, then now you give yourself permission to increase the goal. And it actually shows you when you look historically at the scorecard, it actually turns blue in all areas where you actually changed your goal.

And if you don't, are not hitting a specific KPI, it actually points you to training within our platform that your team can watch. And you can watch to be able to get that number up. So if your case acceptance percentage is flat, we're going to point you to the training to be able to increase that number. So now that you have the person, you have the process and you have the tool then what happens, is that the tool is actually holding us accountable. So if your accounts receivable goes up from one week to the other, you know about it, it's not slipping through the cracks. And you have a specific team member who does your collections in your practice, the treatment coordinator. If you don't have that, the person who is taking care of the payments up front, perhaps this is your front desk team member, your office manager. Now they have a tool that if the number goes up, it can alert them. And now they can go and research that insurance claim, or they can say, well, what happened? And they realize, oh my gosh, the statement was not sent out.

And because of this tool, now they never want to see that happen, so they're going to make sure that statements are sent out and insurance claims are not having those errors. And as a result of it, you'll never get yourself in a situation where your accounts receivable accumulates because you're looking at it. But then are you looking at it?

And so the next tool that we really love to teach and help you to implement in your business is actually having a weekly leadership meeting where you can do some connection within your team where you're getting together, sharing what went really well for you in the last week. What are you proud of? Personally, what are you proud of? What's going on with you? Really giving a core value, highlight who's that team member that really over-delivered to a patient or helped you calling them out and giving them those kudos and that appreciation. But really within that actually weekly leadership meeting, that typically I will say should happen every ... Ours are actually on Tuesdays, right before our first patient, right after morning huddle, again, a consistent day, a consistent time where everybody shows up. And now what happens is that you're able to have that time that's dedicated for the first five minutes or so even, five to seven minutes reviewing that scorecard and saying, okay, well, what really took off? What goal that we have that we really hit?

And then you can now celebrate your team for coming together and hitting that goal or say, you know what? It's time to increase it. Or you say, oh my gosh, we've not hit this goal consistently for the last three weeks, but now not only have we not hit it, but it's dipping, it's dipping. Or the AR just keeps rising and rising. Or our doctor production per visit. Maybe it's not dipping and dipping and dipping, maybe it is. And then now you can, later on in that meeting structure, you can actually have a discussion to brainstorm and strategize about how you're going to improve it. And maybe it's improving your verbal skills. Maybe it is actually doing some role play. Maybe it is doing that marketing campaign that you know that you want to do. And now it's like, okay, well, I really have to just go ahead and do that now. Or maybe it's really tracking now back on your whiteboard, the number of same-day add-ons that you're going to do.

Again, being able to use tools that are first fueled by processes, meaning this is what we're going to do to be able to get that information. And then again, having that once a week time where you can get together and you can ensure that you're going to review so that you can again, see what's flat. And if something's flat, you can improve it. For example, in my practice, we saw that hygiene production per visit was flat about two or three years ago. And so we made a decision just based on that data to look at how can we increase it? We put in lasers, we put in [inaudible 00:13:52] protect. And all of a sudden we were able to increase that number, but if we weren't looking at it, we would not have known that was a sore thumb in our business.

So again, a lot of times people ask me like, what's the key to people, processes and tools? Or what's the key to getting my team to do things and I don't have to do them? And I will typically ask, are you using these tools? Are you using a process that it's done consistently? Nothing in your business should ever be done as an exercise. And I'll tell you, like I'm really very, very proud of where my business is, but here's the thing.

Like I had to make a decision to really focus on implementing these people, processes and tools in my practice. I had to go to my team and say, I give you ownership of this particular number. And so it's for you to come up with brainstorming ideas of how can you get those unscheduled patients rescheduled. This is your role in the business. I'm hiring you because I think you're awesome. Give me your ideas, give me your strategies. Let's talk about it as a team, within our weekly meeting and maybe focusing on each person's individual high goal that they have for the quarter, their rocks, things that are what's most important for them to contribute. And we all support each other through that process.

But again, if you're not having this weekly meeting or if you're not having the tools to hold you accountable, then now you're just taking things day by day by day. So hopefully that serves you. And again, people ask me like, what's the key? How do you have your team doing all of these things? How do you have your office manager running your business for you? And you don't have to really have micromanaging going on? I can ensure you that although I may not be looking at my profit and expenses sheet every single day or my scorecard every single day in my practice. If I log in, my scorecard's being done, my expenses and profit sheet's being done, my team understands how to run ... Any one of my team can run one of these meetings to identify cracks. They didn't know this at first. How would they know?

It's because I took the time, first, to learn it. Secondly, to develop processes and systems. And thirdly, to teach my team. And now they're able to follow the flow, follow the process and we don't miss. We don't miss a morning huddle with the whiteboard. And we've been doing this for probably about 15 years, some of these processes, and we don't miss having that scorecard updated weekly. We don't miss that weekly leadership meeting so that we can review and see what the real issues are. If there are real issues going on and you identify that even in your huddle, that you're not hitting a particular goal, then now you can go back and say, well, let's talk about that in our weekly meeting and strategize on how we can get those patients coming in or how we can figure out what the real issue is about a new service.

Maybe the real issue is just that the team doesn't feel clinically competent. And so we can talk about that. We can leave, and the whole purpose of those weekly meetings is not to go and sit down and just have a discussion. For me, it's all about leaving with a list of items, a list of to-dos and who's going to get those to-dos done. Each individual person, what are they going to work on that week? And that will be done by the end of the next week. What's going to be solved? And it's not just, let's just get together and talk. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. And so hopefully this is serving you, this is helping you. I'd love to be able to continue to help you guys, if you fear or feeling like, oh my gosh, I need this inside of my practice and I know I'm not where I'm going to be, I'd love to be able to help you.

Our Platinum Coaching Program allows us to be able to work one on one with training your office managers to take this off of your plate so that now they can lead your team, working with you to really have those one on one strategy calls, to be able to grow your practice, looking at helping you and your team with training, on scheduling, on hygiene production and productivity, the marketing, the insurance. So we are able to help you and support you one on one and with a one on one coach within our platinum coaching programs.

But within our Dental Boss Academy, we have created the number one online training platform to help you and your teams with the business side of dentistry. And so we'd love to give you an opportunity to first get started with us, perhaps, even in the Dental Boss Academy, where we do have 24/7 online training to help you and your team to put in these systems, giving you again, the online training, giving you access to a group coaching call every month to be able to get support, teaching a new system to you and your team, helping you with those verbal skills, through the training, marketing, marketing calls. We'd love to be able to support you.

If you're ready to get started, we'd love to see you inside of the academy. If you go to dentalbossacademy.com, your first four weeks are actually completely free. So we'd love to be able to help you get started right away. After the four months, if you decide that you are wanting to stay in the programs, continue with the program, which we'd love to be able to help you do, then the monthly investment is only $297, which you can cancel at any time. So again, I'd love to be able to help you in your teams to be able to add in that accountability, getting these things off your plate. And what I often tell doctors when I speak to them is how much would it be worth it to be able to not have to do all of the things in your business, to be able to have that leverage, to be able to know that your case acceptance is high, your marketing is working, that you have team members that are being empowered to get to the next level. Well, that's actually what we help doctors and colleagues do every single day.

So again, feel free to check out Dental Boss Academy. We have lots of fun things that we're doing. Currently, we are starting an out of network challenge. So we're actually going to be a helping practices who want to come out of network, come out of network. We're going to be teaching and empowering the teams to understand the real cost of running a business. What does it really cost to do a filling, or to do a crown so that they can understand the cost of materials and that we're not necessarily making what they think that we're making on the procedures.

In fact, we may or may not know. And so excited to be able to teach that, to be able to teach the case acceptance frameworks around coming out of network. To be able to do something different, we have to have new skill sets. And so developing that through our verbal skills within our academy and Platinum Coaching Program, again, in our out of network challenge. We're actually going to be doing some role-playing with case acceptance with teams also helping you to develop the out of network marketing plan, as well as giving you the templates and tools to help you to be able to better communicate with your patients and what out of network means to them. All right. So hopefully this was a good episode for you. You got lots of value out of it, and I look forward to chatting with you again, really, really soon.

206 Why Not Understanding Your Profit Margins is Costing You Too Much Feb 23, 2022

Hi everybody, and welcome to the Delivering Wow Dental Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes, and wow, it feels really good to be here podcasting. It has been far too long as many of you may have noticed. We haven't had an episode in a while, and honestly, it has been a very busy last four months. I have been focusing on quite a few things. Number one is just building out the most incredible experience for our platinum practices that are in our platinum mastermind. We have been focused on our dental entrepreneur Facebook group, by the way, if you're not yet in that group, I definitely recommend that you get in there. It's a great place to be able to connect with other doctors, to be able to have a great community of people who are there inside of your back pocket, cheering you're on and really being there to help support you.

And we've also spent the last six months actually building out our CE modules and our messaging platform for our Dental Boss Academy. And so it's been a really, really great last six weeks. Some of you guys might have even been in our boot camps. We had our first business acceleration Bootcamp, free Bootcamp back in November. Had it again in February and so that was honestly one of the most impactful feelings I had. We had about 300 practice owners that joined us on both bootcamps and a few nights we were on until 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night, and it was just pretty special. And so today what I'm actually going to be doing, and what I'm going to doing over our next episode is I'm actually going to be answering questions that were asked inside of our Dental Boss Entrepreneur Facebook group. And so the question that I ask is that, if I had a magic wand and I can give you anything inside of your business, anything inside of your practice, or if there's something that you would want to learn, what would that be?

And so we actually had a ton of responses. And so over the next episodes, what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to take time and I'm going to help you to understand what it really means to be able to grow your practice, or how do you build a business that scales? And so if you are a beginning practice owner and you know, I want to be able to take my business to the next level, I don't want to take a lot of time, I don't want to make mistakes or if you are a practice owner that's been practicing for 20 years, maybe you are not where you want to be yet still, or maybe you've even had some coaching in the past or a lot of coaching in the past. And you want to learn new things. This is definitely going to be a really great episode for you.

So today we're talking about profit margins and how do you understand profit margins? And so before we even get to understanding profit margins, I really want to help you to understand why this is so critical. Now, as many of you guys know, as many dentists are coming out of school or starting their practices or acquiring practices, one of the first things that oftentimes people do is say, "Well, how do I get new patients?" And so what I want to do is go ahead and sign up with a bunch of insurances because now I will be able to have patients and I can go ahead and have an opportunity to treat them, to be able to help patients and to be able to earn income for the business. One thing that I say to coaching clients inside of my Platinum Coaching Program, and also within our Dental Boss Academy, one I teach inside of the academy is that, what's most important inside of your business is having information.

When you have information, then now you can make decisions that will allow you to scale, make decisions that there are certain things that you may want to stop and you can actually create a roadmap and plan. And so, as it relates to profit margins, I'll tell you a quick story. So one of the doctors that I was looking at her last year's revenue, her last year's production, collection, her profits, we were actually having a circle of focus call. This is something that I feel is really important to be able to look back at your last 12 months to be able to say, "Okay, well, if we want to grow by 40% this year, or 100% or 30%, or if we want to come off of PPOs, how do we actually create a strategy and a roadmap to do that?" So looking back at again, the last 12 months saying, "Okay, well, we said we wanted to do sleep, but we only did four cases."

What if we really focused on it and we focused on case acceptance and we focused on making sure that our team had the verbal skills and we had the verbal skills. What if we were tracking it on a whiteboard? What if we made sure that everybody really had clinical competency, what would be the outcome? And so we start looking at that. We start looking at where revenues coming from. And so I had a doctor and we were doing a call, circle of focus call and when I looked at her production, it looked really amazing. In fact, she had about $2 million in production for a practice. Now, for many dentists, if you or a practicing as a solo practitioner, or maybe even with an associate, you'd say, "Wow, that's great. I'd love to have a $2 million practice," right. But what was really interesting is that I looked at it and I said, "Oops, uh-oh we got to talk about this."

And she's like, "What?" And I said, "I am so excited that you did 2 million, but your collection is only in relation to the production, only 1.3 million." And so before I give you the strategy based on what I see from last year, to be able to increase your revenue, we've got to fix this because if you're making $2 million, that means that your marketing is probably working and your case acceptance is working, right? Patients are accepting treatment. In fact, your team probably thinks that you're super rich, as well as your friends and family who come to the practice because the practice is really, really, really, really busy. However, based on this, I know that the financials are not exactly matching up. In fact, you might, based on what I see here, not be taking home much money. And she said, "Yes, I agree."

And so what we did was I said, "Okay, before we look at anything, I need you to understand what your profit margins are for your procedures. In fact, let's just start with something simple, like a filling." And so we went through this process of having her to be able to lay out all of her fixed expenses, all of the things that you have to pay, whether you see a patient or not. We taught her what all of those different items were. We went into looking at the team costs, not the doctor and hygienist, because we're looking at a filling. And then from there, what we did was we actually came up with a cost per hour for the fixed expenses for the team cost. And then what we did was we now looked at the cost of supplies. And so one of the things that we provided, in fact, if you're in Dental Boss Academy, if you navigate to the resources and go to forms, you'll actually see the profit margins template there.

But inside of that template, what you'll see and what she saw was a sheet like an Excel sheet or a Google Sheet where I actually did the work because I'm a geek like that and actually made a sheet and put in the materials that we often use for filling where you put in the cost of that material that you're using. And then it actually puts in how many uses you have for that material and the costs per use. And so based on that, adding that up with the cost per hour of your team cost per hour of her fixed expenses, again, that is your rent, that is your phone bill, your power bill, all of those different fixed expenses, what she noticed is that it was actually costing her about $110 to actually do a filling. And so my next question to her was, "Okay, well, how much do you charge?"

And it was really interesting because for the PPO that she was on, she said, "I'm actually only making $108, or maybe it was 120, I can't remember, but essentially either she was upside down or she was only making like 8 or $10. And so my next question was, "Okay, well, let me ask you a question. How many of your PPOs are you on?" And she said, Anissa, I'm only on one." And I was like, "Okay." Right. It's really interesting because you look at that and many people, I don't know about you, but there was definitely a time in my practice when if a patient balance was less than $10, I didn't send out a statement. And there was definitely a time where if somebody came to the office and I knew them from outside of the practice, maybe they were a parent of a child that my kids were friends with.

Or maybe I saw them out at the supermarket, right. Any reason I was giving people a discount. Why? Not that they asked for it, but I felt in my mind I was supposed to, or I needed to, or I felt bad until I learned profit margins, right. And so all of a sudden, you start to say, "Well, if you're giving a discount and also worst case, you're not sending out statements, you really, really are upside down." And so again, really powerful to be able to understand your profit margins. Now, in this case, she's like, "I do want to become fee for service," and so now we can say, "Okay, let's create a plan. Let's look at the services and decide what we're going to focus on for Q1 and what we're only going to focus on."

So it might be clear aligners that the practice is actually very comfortable doing, but if you focused on it again with your verbal skills, with learning our case acceptance frameworks with focusing on, also the marketing, maybe you do an Invisalign flash sale. I know recently we helped a practice. They actually showed up to our marketing office hours for Dental Boss Academy and they were like, "Well, we want to do an Invisalign flash sale." And we're like, "Okay, well, we can help you. I mean, that's what we do." And so we actually shared how to be able to do the campaign, how to market the campaign. We actually provided even templates to post around the office from CAMBA, emails to send out to the patients. And that practice did about $90,000 within one day and became a platinum Invisalign provider, right? So now as the practice says, "Well, I want to come off," we can create that plan. Or we can say, "What else do we want to implement this year?"

And perhaps it might be something like sleep, right? There are so many patients in our own practice that's snoring and if we're able to provide an opportunity to be able to help them with sleep appliances, then now we have the ability not just to be able to help patients, but to be able to bring in that additional revenue, which, sleep appliances is about $8,000 on average, right? So as we started looking at the gaps in the practice and looking at the circle of focus, now we are able to create an opportunity for the doctor to actually collect and not just produce $2 million. So it's pretty exciting stuff. And I'll say this, like knowing your numbers, knowing your profit margins could also help you in a different way. I had a practice that interestingly helped that was a $2.5 million producing PPO practice, which is a great PPO practice.

And what was interesting is that when we did their profit margins, they actually had an orthodontist that came in a few days a week. And so even though the fee was low for a filling because they have expanded services and do ortho, one of their insurances had a very high benefit for ortho. And so it made sense to keep that particular PPO because of the ortho benefit. Okay. So as I'm speaking, I want you to start thinking like, "Do you know your profit margins?" Because it is very frustrating as you know to put effort into growing your business and go to work every day and finish seeing patients and then you have to focus on running the business as well. And at the end of the day, you're tired, exhausted, and you're not sure where you are. And again, this is something that I feel is incredibly important for you to understand and it is a game-changer.

I have been fortunate enough to have been able to help many, many, many practices to understand our profit margins and when you get to this point, all of a sudden you become more confident when you discuss your fees, because you know what your fees actually are. You have accountability for your collections. Your AR is no longer a problem because you and your team really get it. So hopefully this has been an informative episode for you. And I can tell you, profit margins are extremely important for you to understand for your practice. Once you do, then it actually allows you to unfold other things, for example, looking at your schedule, because if you are scheduling a patient for fillings and they have, for example, four or five, six fillings, you can do it in one visit instead of four visits.

Then now you're able to decrease the supplies so you have more profits, or as you start focusing on training for you and your teams, again, learning case acceptance frameworks, then now you'll be able to have an increase in your doctor production per visit. And of course, using the tools, the whiteboards, the scorecards that we do provide inside of our academy are going to be extremely effective for you to be able to set your goals, to be able to look at what's happening from week to week and month to month so that things are not slipping through the cracks. All right?

So hopefully that was super helpful for you. Guys, if you know that you are needing help with profit margins, I'd love to be able to help you. This is something that we do every single day inside of our Platinum Coaching Program, as well as inside of Dental Boss Academy.

And if you've not yet gotten your four weeks for your access to Dental Boss Academy, I encourage you to go to Dental Boss Academy now, and go ahead and claim your free access. We actually are not only providing training for you and your entire team with individual training tracks, but we also have a monthly systems call, a monthly marketing call, as well as group coaching. We also have a bonus call for startups, full marketing content, and over 150 hours of included free CE. And again, as a listener of this podcast, we'd love to be able to help you to understand your profit margins, getting access to our templates and our training so that we can help support you as you're growing your dental practice.

All right? So thanks again, guys, for listening to this episode. It was amazing getting back on this microphone, I have really missed it, and I look forward to chatting with you in our next episode. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Delivering Wow Dental Podcast.

Now your next step is to claim your four weeks free access to Dental Boss Academy by going to dentalbossacademy.com. We look forward to seeing you in our next episode.

205 How To KEEP Patients Coming Back to Your Dental Practice Jul 19, 2021

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Delivering Wow Dental podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes. And today, we're talking all about how to keep your patients coming back to your dental practice. Now, this is something that's actually pretty important and I'm not sure if you've thought about it recently, in terms of how many patients are actually leaving out of the back door or how many patients are actually leaving every single week without being scheduled. And I can tell you this is something that you're definitely going to want to create a system for because it's really interesting. A lot of people are focused on new patients, new patients, new patients. But if you are focusing on new patients and you have patients who are not scheduling, then essentially your business is not going to grow. It's going to be flat. And so, today I'm going to talk about how you can really think about making sure that your patients are coming back.

So, obviously we can look at marketing and not marketing from the standpoint of getting new patients but marketing to our existing patients. And I absolutely love to think about this and to really focus a lot of attention on marketing to my existing patients. Why? Because they are already trusting us. They have already had great service. They know what our culture's like and they can be walking advocates for our practice. And so, as we start thinking about even external marketing campaigns, we want to make sure that we're always involving our patients.

So, what does that look like? Well, maybe you decide that you want to do a clothing drive. Well, you definitely want to make sure that you're posting that on social media but you want to make sure that if you're doing, for example, a Facebook live video talking about it, on your social media pages, you're also taking a photo of that. You are sharing that link to that video, to your patients in an email and they're seeing what you're doing to serve the community. And also, of course, you're inviting them to participate. You are putting up flyers so that your patients will see what you're doing inside of your community.

And what I love doing inside of my practice and what I love helping practices with is actually having these monthly community engagement campaigns. So, now you can go ahead and really be consistent with marketing internally to your patients.

And as we start thinking about how are we marketing to our patients, we want to make sure that we are 100% being consistent. So, that is looking at having a monthly newsletter where you are sharing what you did last month for the community and what you're doing this upcoming month. Sharing an educational article that is talking about a new service or a service that you want to focus on for that particular month.

And of course, having that link for people to go ahead and schedule online or sharing your phone number or asking that they email you back to go ahead and make an appointment. So, that's another thing that you definitely want to consider.

Another thing that you want to look at in terms of making sure that your patients were coming back is making sure that when they're there, they are scheduling their next appointment. And a lot of times, what I hear from teams is that they are giving patients an option to schedule maybe even for a hygiene appointment and the patient says, "I'll call you back." Well, what I need you to understand is that most times patients are saying that because they don't know where they're going to be in six months. And so, now if you can create a system that says, "Okay, I would love to go ahead and make your next appointment. We can do it at the same time of day on the same day, if that works for you. We'll give you a call a week ahead of time. And if that time doesn't work, we can always move you."

Now, your patients know that they're not going to disappoint you if they are not able to make it. Maybe they're going to be traveling for work. And now what you can do is you can create a system so that every Monday, now your team member at the front desk can call patients who were pre-booked six months ago. And go ahead and remind them that they scheduled that

appointment. And again, if there are any conflicts, now you have a week or a little bit over a week to actually go ahead and get someone else into that timeframe. And you can now just move them. You definitely want to never remove a patient from the schedule. You just go ahead and move them.

The other thing that we can look at in terms of, how do we keep our patients coming back, is really looking at our patient experience. What are we doing so that our patients will become those raving fans, right? And really, really important. One of the things that we look at when our patients are coming in is we want to think about how can we ask them three different ways or three different times, how has their experience? So, the hygienist will ask, the doctor will ask and then the patient goes to the front desk and the front desk team member will ask. Well, what that means is we're constantly thinking about how can we create those touch points so that patients do have an experience that they remember. And it could be things such as having your kid go to the toy box first or having hot chocolate for your kids when they come into the office or giving them an office tour and showing them your core values on the wall. It doesn't have to be something that costs a lot of money but it's something that people will want a hundred percent remember.

So, that's something that you want to also think about. The other thing that you want to think about is, do you actually have a system or tracking system for ensuring or actually knowing how many patients are actually not scheduling each week? One thing that we put in place for our clients, as well as inside of my practice, is a customized scorecard. And one of the numbers that we're tracking in terms of metrics is how many patients who came in last week that did not actually schedule for their next visit and taking it to the next level. What's really nice is that if you can have your scheduling coordinator to go ahead and fill in these metrics inside of your scorecard and now what happens is that they can actually have that time on a Monday to go back into the ledgers of those patients and find out why is it that they didn't schedule. Was it that they were referred to another doctor and they're going to be coming back?

Was it that we need to follow up with them to ensure that we have financial arrangements with them. So, definitely want to make sure that you're having notes when patients are not scheduling and then also have systems so that you can actually track it. Because of course, once we start tracking things, then all of a sudden, it's not going to be okay for us to have patients that are not scheduling. So, now we can go in as a team, we can have conversations about how can we improve and how can we get that number down? And so, that's really, really powerful.

So, hopefully these tips help you to be able to put some different systems in place and to be able to start stirring up some ideas. But you definitely want to make sure that in addition to focusing on your new patients, you're really thinking about your existing patients. How is it that we're creating that great experience for them? How are we putting in those touch points? How are we focusing on internal marketing and how are we creating that system that allows us to hold ourselves accountable to actually getting our patients scheduled.

So, hopefully this helps you. I absolutely love talking about this stuff. It's really, really important. Again, a lot of times we're focusing on marketing and we have so many patients leaving out of the back door, which means that we can sometimes not only have flat growth but we actually have negative growth.

All right. So, hopefully that helps you. If this is sounding like you and you're feeling like you're needing a little bit of help with this, we'd love for you to reach out to us at www.DeliveringWow.com.

You can schedule a free 30 minute strategy call and we can discuss how we can help you to grow your practice and scale it to the next level.

All right, guys, that's it for today. Take care. And we'll see you inside of the next episode

204 The Truth About Why Patients Don't Schedule Jul 12, 2021

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Delivering Wow Dental podcast. So, excited to be here today. So, today we're going to be talking about the truth about why patients are not scheduling. Why are patients saying, "We will call you back. We will think about it," and how do we actually overcome that obstacle so that we can actually help our patients get the treatment that we're recommending for them.

So, I remember back inside of my office when I would have so many patients say, "I will think about it. I want to talk to my husband." And as we started to look at why patients were not scheduling, I would ask my team "Guys, do you know what's going on?" And they would say, "Well, you know what, they don't have the money," or "The real thing is that right now, they just don't have a lot of time." Like, "They're really busy right now." And as I started to really think about it, I started to say, "There's actually probably something else."

And so, I actually went on this journey a few years ago to really understand advanced psychology and understand why people actually make decisions and why people don't make decisions. And so, I actually invested in working with some psychologists and also working with coaches who actually teach sales and neuro-linguistic programming outside of the dental industry, interestingly to real estate agents. And I went there with this idea that I wanted to understand, how could framework be created for my dental clients so that they could increase case acceptance. And so, that within my own practice, we could do the same. And what was interesting is once we learned what was the real secret, then all of a sudden our case acceptance skyrocketed. And so, I want to talk a little bit about that process and why our patients oftentimes will not actually schedule and why they probably will never schedule. So, no matter how many times we're actually calling them and saying, "Hey, you remember doctor says that you have that bridge to do," or, "You have that implant to do."

And so, the first thing that I want you to think about is the reason why a lot of people are not scheduling is that they are really confused about how they're actually going to fit it into their budget or how they're going to find the time. And so, what's has been really interesting is understanding this process, that once we are now providing the answer to that question that's actually confusing them and how it has actually worked for other people to solve that same problem. Then all of a sudden, that problem essentially goes away or that issue essentially goes away from them. And so, you might be saying, "Okay, Anissa, what are you talking about?" And so, as we start looking at case acceptance. So, one of the things that we teach in our different frameworks. We've got about five or six different frameworks that we teach for different aspects of case acceptance.

But as we start looking at presenting treatment, one thing that I will always ask the doctors that we work with in the teams is, "If you had to go to the dentist seven times or five times, would that be hard for you or would that be easy for you?" And for many of them, they say, "You know what? That would be really hard for me because I have to see my patients. I'd have to find a time to come in and not have patients scheduled." Or if they work for the dental practice, they say, "It would be really hard because I work in a small business and I have to find somebody to cover for me and that would be really hard." And so, as we start looking at, why is it that patients are not scheduling? I started to really think about the time factor and think that, really, patients are just like us.

They're a business owner. They work for a company. They're self-employed and it's really hard. And so, as we started looking at letting patients know that we recognize that this is hard and letting them know how patients are able to get their work done anyway, all of a sudden, a light bulb started to go off in our patients' minds and in the minds of our clients where all of a sudden they said, "Oh yeah. It's true. It's really hard for me to come for seven visits or five visits." Right. Or even four visits. And so, we started to look at one of our frameworks to really discuss this

and say, "Lots of our patients find that it's really hard for them to come in multiple visits."

"And for you, would it be easier for you to come in one or two visits or five or six?" And letting them know that most of our patients have said that it's easier for them. And so, letting them know that you listened to your patients and now you're offering longer appointments where people can just essentially come, one or two visits, if it's possible, depending on the treatment plan and get it all done and out of the way because the fact is that people really don't want to come to the dentist a lot of times. We get that, right. Then now we let them know that we found a solution for them. Right? You don't have to come in five visits. You could come in one or two. And then from there, in terms of the time, now that you've helped them to overcome that challenge of trying to figure out how they're going to actually get it done, the next thing is to think about the money aspect, right?

And so, asking them, "Now that we know that fewer visits are better for you, is there any reason why you wouldn't be able to come in one or two visits?" And so, for many people, they say, "I'd love to do that but I just don't have the money." And we know that already. And this is all a part of advanced psychology. Again, really understanding the psychology of why people make decisions, which a lot of times, it's just that when you just are confused about what to do, you do nothing. It's almost like, "I've been thinking about painting my house for a while now. And I'm not sure what colors to use. So, I just do nothing and they're still white." And so, that's the same thing that happens.

And so, if now you can have someone to come in. If I had somebody to come in my house and say, "Okay, here's a painter who can do the job for you. Here's different colors that you can select. And by the way, we're going to go and get all of the paint. And then we'll have the painter show up with the paint." Guess what? It's done now because we actually have a solution. Somebody has made it easy for me. And it's the same thing with our practice, right? And so, as we start looking at treatment planning, one thing that we can look at is giving those solutions. So, saying, "We know that most of our patients are just like you. They're not sure how they can fit it into their budget in one day but how they're able to do it anyway is, number one, they realize they have a credit card, perhaps even a zero interest credit card. And so, they're able to get it done that way."

"Or number two, maybe they don't have that solution. And so, we've created a plan where you can just pay a little bit over time." And so, that's another great option or a third great option is that we just make a plan today and decide what you're going to do on each visit, when you're going to come, which day of the month and look at how much you're going to budget for each appointment. And now you have a solution. And in fact, we can actually go ahead and pre-book all of your appointments to actually hold you accountable to getting this done. And so, now you provide three options, which are all really good solutions. And now you can ask the patient, "Which one of these options works best for you?" And so, essentially now, instead of them having to decide and come up with a solution, they're just choosing one and either one of those three works.

Okay. So, I wanted to share those pearls with you. There's lots of different frameworks that we teach that have been really transformational for practices. But I wanted to at least share this one framework with you today here, inside of this podcast, because guys, the reason why people are not scheduling a lot of times is that they just don't know exactly how to actually get it done.

All right. So, hopefully that's helpful for you guys. I look forward to chatting with you in our next episode and if you haven't done so already, make sure that you're joining us inside of our YouTube channel, www.dentalbosstv.com. Lots of great videos and tools for you there inside of our channel.

All right, guys, we'll chat soon. Take care.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Delivering Wow Dental podcasts. Now, if you haven't done so already, we invite you to join us at www.deliveringwow.com to take

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering Wow podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

203 The Best Marketing for Dentists Who Want to Grow a Successful Practice Jul 05, 2021

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Today, we're talking all about the best marketing for dentists who are wanting to grow a successful practice. So I absolutely love talking about this topic. As many of you guys know, we have done some pretty cool things inside of my dental practice with marketing. We have for years now been able to get over a hundred patients a month, which is crazy. We obviously keep growing and we've been adding on associates. But the great thing is that we are at the point now where we're not having to really look at much in terms of marketing. So what I'm going to be doing today inside of the episode is actually sharing how you too can get to that point where you have more patients than you perhaps need and more patients coming in without you really having to think about a lot of paid marketing, expensive marketing.

So let's talk a little bit about the journey of a patient and that journey typically will start with them not knowing who you are. As you're bringing them into your world, they are first becoming aware about your practice, about what makes you different about, how you serve the community, about the services that you provide. From there, we are looking at taking people along a journey, from awareness to making a decision to pick up the phone and call to coming in and having a great experience to becoming a patient who's a raving fan, and then ultimately, ideally a patient that will be with us for life, for them and their families, right?

So as we start looking at building out these raving fans, people who can't stop talking about us, because to be honest with you, if we can focus in terms of marketing on creating an army of raving fans, then again, marketing gets really, really easy because they're actually doing the work for us. So the first thing I want you to think about is number one, are you providing a great experience? Are you doing dentistry that you can really be proud of and that people will want to talk about, right? So if not, then obviously that's where we want to start. But once you know that you're providing a good service, then what we want to look at is how can we start the process of getting known in our community?

Many of you guys know, I'm a huge fan of Facebook marketing for a few reasons. Number one is the target demographic of who we are wanting as ideal patients are primarily using Facebook as far as their social media channel. So what do I mean by that? I'm looking at patients who are between the ages of maybe 38, 55 people who are at a point where they are able to take care of investing in themselves in terms of the investment, the financial investment. They're starting to perhaps see their parents age and understand that right now is a time to take care of yourselves, right? So I love using Facebook marketing. It's also super, super cost effective as well. Honestly, I've never seen anything work like it.

We have worked with hundreds and hundreds of practices and what's really cool is they start to build this following in the community where people are coming up and saying, "Oh my God, aren't you the doctor at so-and-so." Or they are having patients coming in and saying, "I've been following you for a while and I've been telling everybody about you." That's so cool and we can get to that point. So you definitely want to look at number one, are you utilizing Facebook marketing? Are you using Facebook effectively to actually showcase what your practice is known for and to get out there and start doing some community service events as well, really showcasing the culture of your practice? Because let's face it, dental practices, many of them, they'll all provide hopefully a similar level of quality of care.

What makes your business stand apart is the culture. It's what people see when they walk in, the smells. It's how you make them feel, right? So utilizing social, you're able to essentially put a lens of the outside world to what's actually happening in your business. So one thing that we love to do for doctors that are in our platinum mastermind and also within our training program, our Dental Boss Academy is we want to make it easy. We want to make it easy for you to do marketing campaigns. So getting out there and doing a community-based marketing campaign

every month where you are using social media, where you are integrating in internal marketing and you're involving your patients and you're putting up flyers around the office, and you're sending out emails, really enrolling, again, not just your potential patients, but also your existing, because once you start focusing on how to effectively market to your existing patients, and all of a sudden, they now start doing the marketing for you, which is really cool, right?

So a few things that you can look at doing in terms of the internal marketing is, again, if you are doing something, maybe you're having a coloring contest, then you want to be able to have an online version. You want to be able to involve your patients, have them to participate. Now, you can get out there and you can talk about it. You can do Facebook lives. What's really cool is that any of these campaigns, again, these are awareness campaigns where people may or may not have heard about you before. All of a sudden, you are doing videos. Maybe you're doing a small makeover competition. You're talking about it. Maybe you're implementing a new service and you're talking about that. Then now you can take anybody that's watched those videos.

Again, there's some strategy there that is really, really simple, a few little steps. Then from there you start to build, and anybody who's watched those videos or have comment on your posts, now you can start to show them Facebook ads for those high value services, which is really, really cool, right? So again, for me, the best marketing that we want to look at is how do we build this funnel, right? How do we take people from awareness to raving fan, but also how do you create marketing campaigns that allow for this organically happen? What's been really cool is seeing practices that we've worked with have a budget of a few hundred dollars a month and they're now bringing in $50,000 cases or having an extra 20 grand coming in because they are getting people in who already believe in them before they walk in.

But what's, I guess, really most exciting, all of this if you really think about it, is how many more lives we're serving, how many potential lives that we're literally saving. If we start looking at doing sleep appliances and things like that. I mean, imagine doing a Facebook live effectively with the correct targeting where now all of a sudden you're talking about sleep apnea, you're talking about what happens when people snore and how do people stop breathing and you can talk about CPAPs versus oral appliances. Again, with the effective targeting now, anybody who is seeing those videos, they can see specific ads for sleep apnea, which is really, really cool, right? So hopefully those tips are helping you. But again, as fast as possible, I do recommend that you start thinking about how can you build out your marketing strategy where you can continue to not only get the community talking about you, but your patients as well.

All right, guys. So hopefully that helps. So if you have not done so already, I'd love to invite you to get access to our free marketing plan, training and templates. To do so, you can head on over to deliveringwow.com/marketingplan. Within that training, we're actually going to show you how to create your marketing plan. We're going to give you tons of ideas to be able to do that as well and to give you some video training to help you get started. All right, guys, that's it for today. I look forward to chatting you in the next episode. Until then, keep Delivering WOW.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

202 Outlining the Effective Team Meeting Jun 28, 2021

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. So excited to be here with you today. Today, we're going to be talking about effective team meetings, why you should have them, how you should have them, and the components of an effective team meeting. Now, the first question that I want to ask you before we even get started is, are you having consistent team meetings? The majority of people that I talk to, they are actually not having team meetings. They are saying, "Well, we meet once a month, and at the end of the month, we'll review everything," or, "We meet quarterly," or even some practices say that they're meeting annually. And the reason why you definitely want to implement an effective weekly meeting for your team in addition to your team huddles is that now you can actually have a time for your team, if you're the doctor, to come and have your devoted attention, where they can ask you questions.

And that way, you're not getting bombarded with questions throughout the week, you're able to look at your metrics in the middle of the month as it's actually happening, and you can actually make changes based on what is happening, what's not happening. You can also look at actually having a new team initiatives that are getting started, whether it's a marketing campaign, maybe you decide that you want to implement a new service, and so now it's a time to come together collectively as a team to be able to decide what is it that you're going to be working on? Who's going to own the task by which date? And what's also really effective and powerful inside of a team meeting is that it does allow you and your team to be able to connect, not only professionally, but also personally. Inside of our Platinum Mastermind, one of our foundational tools that we look at when you're joining for the first four months is to help you to make sure that you are effectively having a team meeting.

And not just following an outline, but you're actually having accountability. It's actually a tool that will allow you and your team to be able to come together and change "I can't" statements. "I can't have multiple $10,000 days." "We can't have effective team meetings." Whatever the issues, it's a way for you to be able to come together, have that accountability, and again come together collectively so that you change those "I can't do it" statements to "how can I" and you are looking at, how can you do it together? So as you are looking at implementing a weekly meeting, the one thing that you want to look at before you even get started, if you've listened to my last episode on the podcast I talked about, before you start looking at putting in systems, before you start working on the business, you really do need to be able to connect with your team. You need to be able to have that way to be able to open up and be able to communicate, to understand outside of what's happening in the practice what's going on personally.

Because, ultimately, if you have a team member that may be having a family issue, maybe they have a parent who is aging and is not doing very well. Perhaps you're having stress at home with a child or within your marriage. These things actually do affect our practice. And even though we say, leave that stuff at home, it's really important to really understand that we are connecting with people in our practice and that life is actually happening. And so a lot of times when we actually know what's happening, we understand why our team may be showing up in a way that's not ideal, or why even the doctor as well? I mean, we're all people, and so when you're able to connect in your meeting, the very thing that you do at the very beginning is say, "What went well this week? What went well this week at home? What are you proud of?" And you may find somebody who says, "I'm really excited I got to spend time with my husband. We had a great weekend together. It was amazing."

Or they may say, "You know what? I had an opportunity this week to be able to help a patient. Who's been thinking about treatment for a few years and we had a conversation and they decided to move forward." Now what happens is that the doctor can celebrate and acknowledge the team. Lots of times our team members are doing great things, we don't even know it. And so it allows us to be able to really show that appreciation and to let them know that we really do

care about them, and we see and we notice and we recognize their efforts. From there, inside of our team meetings, what we want to look at is we want to be able to look at our numbers for the last week. So what is our doctor production per visit? Our hygiene production per visit? What is our case acceptance percentage? Are we hitting our goals or not? And, again, if we are, celebrating our team.

If we're not hitting our goals, we want to be able to, again, within that meeting, have a conversation about, how we can make sure that we're actually coming together collectively to be able to hit the goal. And there's typically about 10 different metrics that we recommend that you're looking at weekly. And once you do, you're going to start to see some pretty significant changes happen inside of your practice. The other thing that we want to look at within our meeting is we want to look at, what are the things that we're working on, not just this week or not just this month, but what are we doing quarterly? A lot of times you may hear people talk about creating a 90 day plan or creating a quarterly plan, and that's all really good and fine, but what accountability is there to make sure that you're actually hitting it? And so, as you're having your meetings every single week, it's a great opportunity to check in and say, "How are we progressing to actually hitting our quarterly goals?"

And if you are progressing, and it's not just the doctor goals, by the way, the doctor may have their personal goal, maybe they want to be able to increase their personal case acceptance, or maybe they want to be able to start doing more high level services, maybe they want to be able to grow and have a new associate, that's one thing that's really important to them by the end of the quarter, but the team members also, we want to make sure that they have their quarterly goals as well. So that could be, again, how many $10,000 cases are we going to close? And maybe the practice right now is not doing any, and so that allows you to understand where you need to focus, and that would be case acceptance training or focusing on making sure that you're actually doing procedures that will allow you to be able to generate those higher revenues, whether it's going to be sleep apnea, placing and restoring implants, et cetera.

As we start looking at what else we're doing inside of the meeting, we have an opportunity to actually go in and anything that we said that we were going to do in the last week, maybe you have decided that you want to have your team do KPI calendars, which is one of the things that we help practices implement, well, now you can say, "Who's going to own downloading the template? Who's going to go ahead and collect the daily, weekly tasks that everybody is writing down and place it in the template? And who's going to make sure that it's printed out so that now we see that in the break room and now the office manager and the doctor has a copy?" Well, what we want to make sure is that these tasks are not actually being done by the doctor. Again, as I spoke about in the last podcast, the best use of the doctor's time is actually doing the dentistry. And so we really want to make sure that pretty much every other tasks that can be delegated out to another team member is actually being done.

And so now that we are delegating it, we have this opportunity to be able to check in with our meetings that we're having every single week and say, "Did it actually get done?" If not, the team can say, "Well, it didn't get done and this was my challenge. I had a challenge with this." And so now you can discuss it as a team and you can get back on track and you can now actually get that task actually completed. Really, really powerful. As we start getting further down into the meeting, we also want to make sure that we have time to discuss any issues that we have that are happening in the practice. Maybe we have a new service that we're implementing, but patients are actually not scheduling. We need to discuss, what's the issue? Is it verbal skills? Is it mindset? How can we correct this? Maybe it's clinical competency of the team or the doctor.

Now we're able to look at, "Hey, guys, let's go ahead and plan a CE trip. Let's go ahead and talk about that trip. Where are we going to stay? How many days are we going to close the office? Who's going to go ahead and book the flights?" Right now, you have that opportunity to be able to discuss that within the actual meeting. At the end of the meeting, we also love to be able to

say, "How was the meeting?" And the team can actually check in and say, "We had a great meeting," or, "You know what, it was a good meeting, but we didn't start on time. And so if we had started on time, we would have rated it to be a 10 or 100. But because people showed up late, we're going to go ahead and give it an eight out of 10, or an 80%."

So as you start looking at building out your meetings and effective meetings, and these are some tips that you can use to be able to implement your weekly meeting. But I 100% recommend that you go ahead and put in a weekly meeting inside of your practice, and that way you can now have a way to be able to connect as a team, to be able to check in on your quarterly goals, to make sure that you are discussing any issues, and to really look at your practice week by week so that you can change the dynamic of the month. So hopefully that helps you. I absolutely love sharing these tips and tools with you inside of our podcasts. And if you know that you're looking to be able to get help with growing your practice, I invite you to reach out for a free practice strategy call by going to our websitedeliveringwow.com. All right, guys. That's it for today. Take care. We'll chat soon, and keep delivering WOW.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

201. How to Build Your Dental Practice From the Ground Up Jun 23, 2021

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes. And today we're talking about how to build your dental practice from the ground up. So recently I've had quite a few people reaching out to me for practice growth strategy calls who are telling me that they are overwhelmed, they are exhausted. Some people have just been in practice for a few years. Others have been practicing for quite some time and still feel like they don't have a grip feeling like they're doing all of the things, feeling like their team is not yet the right team to be able to grow and scale with them.

And so I wanted to spend a little time today talking about how is it that we are able to build an engaged team, a team of leaders who get us, who want to be able to grow the business with us? How do we get people who are becoming leaders? How is it that we have a roadmap to be able to follow, to be able to grow our businesses? Whether it is to implement new services, to be able to increase our revenue, to be able to save for a rainy day, how is it that we're able to also look at making sure that things are not slipping through the cracks and we have accountability?

And so I wanted to spend a little time talking about these different areas today to give you some insight of what you want to start thinking about as you are wanting to remove the overwhelm inside of your practice. And so the first thing that we look at before we even put in any systems into play with any of the doctors and teams that we work with is I want to be able to really empower the team. I want the teams to understand that the practice is how they can not only be able to grow professionally, but how they're able to also achieve their personal goals.

And so one of the things that I will commonly ask doctors and team members collectively is how many of you want to be able to not only impact your patients' lives, but to be able to do more for your families? And I will say, "Let's be honest here. It's okay, doctors, it's okay to share in front of your team. Doctors, it's okay to be vulnerable. Team members, it's okay to let your doctors say, 'How many of you guys want more for your family's growing than you had growing up?'" And I will typically put up my hand really high and I say, "I know that I am."

And so what that means is that we have to serve our patients hard. We have to be able to work in a healthy business so that we can be able to achieve that impact and change lives, but ultimately so that we will have a business that will allow us to be able to all earn more. And what I will often say is that there are many pieces that make up having a successful case accepted. So it's not just the doctor doing the treatment. It is the scheduling coordinator scheduling the treatment. It is the financial coordinator making payment arrangements and getting that payment and getting that patient scheduled once that's done.

It's also the assistant making sure that everything is set up and also following up with patients in the lab. It's collective effort. But my question that I always ask is who is there to be able to cut the teeth that no one else can? Who can actually do the procedure and that is the doctor. We have the skillset to be able to do that. And so with that being said, I will always ask is it the best use of the doctor's time to be able to do all of the things? Should the doctor be, for example, answering the phones or should the doctor be ordering supplies? And the answer is no.

There are a lot of mouths that have to be fed inside of a dental practice. For me in my practice, we have about 18 team members. If you multiply that times their spouse and their kids and perhaps they have a parent living in the home, that's perhaps 80 or 100 mouths that are being fed. And so what we look at as far as setting our practice up for success is really making sure

hat our team members that are doctors as well understand that the best use of the doctor's time is actually doing the dentistry.

And so when we look at that, then now we can look at the roles of the team. We can make sure that they understand what is it that they should be doing daily, what is it that they should be doing weekly that's really going to allow for the businesses scale? And from there, we actually look at executing and helping them to be able to implement systems so that now there is accountability.

So the first thing that we always want to look at is do we have the right people? And all our people or all our team members understanding that our practice is how they can achieve and grow personally. Because as a business owner, ultimately, our number one responsibility is to empower our team is to get our team coaching, is to get our team training. Because once our team has training and they understand how to be able to grow and to become a better leader, then now we can take things off of our plate and we can focus on those things that we really love to do and we're really good at.

So as we start looking at building our practice from the ground up, we want to start thinking about how can we empower our team? How can we get the right training for our teams so that now they can grow into that leadership and we'll honestly will feel very comfortable and confident that they can actually get the job done? I find so many times what happens is that doctors are doing things like ordering supplies. Why? Because they had a team member that maybe made a mistake and now we don't trust them. And so instead of taking on doing tasks ourselves, we need to focus on creating systems and training processes with accountability.

We need to focus on creating ways that our team can communicate with us so that we are not getting text messages and getting interrupted multiple times during the day as we're seeing patients. And so there's definitely these sort of systems that you're going to want to put into your practice so that now you can have that communication thread. Now your team knows exactly what day of the week that you're going to be there fully committed with them to be able to answer their questions. And again, making sure that you have people that are there to help you to take that training off your plate. Okay?

The other thing that we want to look at as we are building our dental practice from the ground up is making sure that we actually have a roadmap to be able to follow so that we now have direction. Now it's really, really clear. One of the things that we look at in terms of what holds people back is looking at our internal fears saying, "Can I do this myself? Am I going to be overwhelmed? Am I going to be exhausted?"

And because of internal fears, a lot of times we just simply don't do the things that we know that we actually need to do. A lot of times we also just don't understand what exactly is happening. We don't have a plan. And so we have these external fears as well. And so once we focus on having help with creating that roadmap or we focus on creating that roadmap, then now we can grow. And so you might be asking, "Well, what does that roadmap look like?" Well, what I absolutely love seeing practices do is to take some time, to be able to create a strategy where now you can look at the last 12 months, you're able to look at what went well, what didn't go well in terms of revenue per service.

You're able to look at your production and not only production and collection, but your collection percentage. What are those things that prevented you from actually producing? Also looking at all of your expenses. And from there, you're able to understand what your profitability is, you're able to put in cashflow projections and you're able to really understand what a healthy business

looks like. Okay? So as we start looking at growing your practice, you want to be able to create that circle of focus. You want to be able to say, "Okay, what happens if we increase our case acceptance percentage without doing anything else?"

What if we now fully commit to that service that we said that we were going to start last year that we actually did not start or we did not actually execute the way that we intend it? What if we were to start looking at and increasing the number of high value services that we're doing so we're focusing on clinical skillsets? And how would that allow us to be able to serve more people as well as to be able to become known in our community for that service, as well as to be able to increase our overall revenue.

Okay? So that's one thing that we want to look at. The other thing that we want to look at as we are building our practice from the ground up. Not only do we need the right people and processes, but we definitely need to have the right tools. And these tools will allow you to be able to have accountability. And so looking at having, for example, a weekly scorecard where you're able to put in your metrics, where you're able to look weekly and say, "Have we actually hit our goal? If not, let's talk about it in a weekly meeting and say, 'How can we achieve that goal?'"

And as we start looking at assigning tasks, new things that we want to implement in our business if we want to be able to take a training, if we want to be able to implement new marketing, who's going to actually own setting these things up, who's going to help them and by when will it be done? Okay? So putting in accountability, putting in processes so that you can discuss what's happening in your practice from week to week is extremely powerful. And it's going to help you to be able to scale your practice extremely fast as well as to be able to reach your goals. Okay?

So hopefully this was super helpful for you. And you've got some pearls that will allow you to be able to grow your practice. I love being able, as you guys know, to be able to have this podcast to be able to share lots of valuable insight with you as we have worked with hundreds of practices and have been able to see what actually works to be able to allow practices to be able to grow from the ground up. We do invite you if you've not yet done so to be able to schedule a free practice strategy call with us. Go into our website at deliveringwow.com. We'd love to be able to help you to be able to grow your practice.

And if you haven't done so already, we love for you to join us inside of our free Facebook Group, dental bossmovement.com. We look forward to seeing you there. And guys, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions or any thoughts that you have in terms of our podcasts, anything that we can do to be able to help you, please make sure that you reach out to us at connect@deliveringwow.com. All right, guys, take care, enjoy the rest of your day and we'll chat soon.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

200 Teaching Your Dental Staff How to Get Your Patients to Come Back Apr 12, 2021

Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The delivering while dental podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes. And today we're talking about teaching your dental team, how to get your patients to come back. Now, this is one of those topics that I absolutely love. Because a lot of times, as many of you guys know, we're focusing so much on what's happening day to day, we're focusing on marketing, and we have a huge back door problem. Patients are not necessarily making their recall visits, they're coming in or setting treatment plans, they're not scheduling. And so this is a topic that's really extremely important for us to consider.

So as we start looking at having our patients coming back, creating a process for that, the one thing that we want to look at is do we have a system to actually track what happens with our patients week to week, how many patients do we have that came in last week, that actually left without an appointment? Now what you're going to want to get to, you're going to want to develop a system, that now your team can actually come to you in a weekly meeting and a weekly meeting. And they will say, Doc, letting you know, last week, we had 10 patients who were unscheduled, and this is why they were unscheduled, this patient went to see the endodontist, this patient didn't have any additional restorative treatment, this patient is going to go ahead and apply for financing. I'm going to follow back up with them next week, Monday, right, you want to get to that place.

So as we start looking at getting patients to come back, the first thing that we actually want to do is see how many patients are actually leaving out of the back door. Right? Really, really important.

So obviously, that's one of those things that we want to look at, as we're looking at building out our systems, we also want to look at as well, what is our AR looking like week to week, right? Is it going up? Is it going down? I actually had a call yesterday with a doctor who was looking at coaching, and she was saying that they had a huge accounts receivable issue. In fact, statements had not been sent out in over a year and she had no clue. And so that's another system, as many as well as many other systems that you're going to want to put in place that you're tracking week to week. But as we're getting back to getting your patients to come back, once you have that system in place to just see where you are, then now you can actually go ahead and create processes to improve. So as we're looking again, as how we're going to train a team, one thing that I hear a lot of and I see it a lot in Facebook groups are people saying let's have a morning huddle and see which patient that comes in that we can ask for a referral.

Okay, now, that's all great and fine, where we're actually having that discussion and asking for referrals. But the first thing that we want to do just to kind of push it back a little bit, is to actually think about why would somebody want to refer? Right? What is our what is our culture and our practice look like? What sort of experiences are we providing for our patients. And one thing that you're going to want to make sure that you put in place is a system, again, a way to be able to make sure that you're giving consistent, great experiences to your patients.

And so definitely those different touch points I've spoken about in the past, having coffee table culture books, where patients are coming in, they see how you're serving the community, they see what you're doing, in terms of taking care of your team doctors, they see that you're doing continuing education they're seeing before and after pictures of the great work that you're doing. Perhaps you're offering complimentary coffee, tea, perhaps you have, you have a toy box where kids actually go to the toy box first, right? That can be an experience for the kids. you're offering a tour.

You've got your core values on the wall, perhaps you're offering a warm peppermint sentence, how at the end, right? What experiences are you having with your patients because at the end of that process, what you can actually do is now when the doctor comes into the room, the doctor can say, how was your experience today? There are so many people that are afraid to go to the dentist that we want to make sure that you have an amazing experience, right? How was that warm peppermint-scented towel?

So you have our dental assistants who have been trained in hand and arm massage. And so they're able to actually offer that service to patients, right? So we can ask, you know, how was that? How was your experience?

Did you enjoy the Did you get a cup of hot chocolate or the freshly brewed Blue Mountain coffee, right? So we can ask those questions. So as we're planting seeds in our patient's heads, reminding them of the great experience, how was the tour right? Then now what we can do is as they're going to the front desk, now we can have that extroverted team member to ask that patient again, how was your experience today, and when that patient says it was great, it was amazing, then now they can say, wonderful, we would love if you'd be willing to share that experience.

There are so many people that are afraid to go to the dentist, it just might change someone's life, that now we're able to get that video testimonial that now we can add to our website, or now we can upload to Google My Business or now we can upload to Facebook. And we can actually create some ads so that now we have not only hundreds but 1000s of people hearing about that patients experience. Okay, so as we start looking at how can we get our patients to come back? Number one, we have to think about what are the experiences that we're actually providing for them.

Okay, the other thing that we want to look at in terms of how we're going to get our patients to come back, is to really think about what's the real issue in terms of why patients are actually not coming back. And a lot of times, so what it really is, is that we don't yet have the training, we don't yet have the skill set to actually be able to have conversations that will lead our patients to actually go ahead and get started with treatment. And a lot of times, honestly, is that we have this fear of being objection blocked, right? So we have spoken about procedures to a patient and the past. They've said, does my insurance cover it?

And we say, No, insurance doesn't cover this, or it doesn't cover all of it. And so the patient says, Well, let me think about it. And we say, okay, and why do we say okay, because that is the skill set of where we are. So what we want to start focusing on in order to be able to get our patients to come back is investing in training for you and your team. So that now you can be able to have the conversations that when you're presenting a treatment plan, you can say something, for example, here's the thing, insurance is not going to cover all of this. But why are patients choose to do this anyway, is number one, they know that it doesn't take a lot of time, or it's going to save them time, or it's going to save them money or it's not going to cost that much money. And it's going to give you that peace of mind. Right.

So there are some verbal skills, definitely want to look into training. So that now you can get you and your team to the point where now you don't have patients leaving because you have not yet developed the verbal skills for case acceptance. So that's definitely something else that you're going to want to look at as you're looking at creating a process to make sure that you don't have a back door issue. Okay. So again, the three things that you're going to want to look at is, do you know how many patients are leaving out of the back door, the second thing that you're going to want to look at is of all of the patients that are coming in, are you providing a great experience so that they will actually want to come back and not just so that they want to come back so that they will actually tell their friends and their families. And they will actually be able to provide things like video testimonials, that now you can again, utilize in your marketing so that you can attract more amazing patients just like them. T

he third thing 100% you're going to want to focus on verbal skills, and case acceptance that is extremely, extremely powerful. We've actually worked with hundreds and hundreds of practices, helping them to be able to grow to be able to scale to be able to put in systems to be able to fix these backdoor issues. And again, one of the things that we definitely want to look at is are you getting your team trained, right?

And as the doctor you may have an understanding, or you may think you have an understanding, you may say well, yeah, I think case acceptance is pretty good. And then I say okay, well what is your case acceptance percentage rate doctor, so that we can now go ahead and create opportunities to be able to train and get that hire a lot of times, practice owners just don't know. Right? So we definitely want to start looking at where do we need to focus.

Again, as doctors, we are the C II O's. We are the owners of our businesses. And as we're looking at growing businesses that are healthy businesses that allow us to continue to grow and serve people, we want to make sure that we're focusing on providing those great experiences, focus on training our team and focus on again, creating those experiences that will last and we'll allow our patients to share.

Alright guys, so hopefully, this was super helpful. If you have any questions about growing your practice, about setting up these systems, feel free to reach out to me, DM me on Facebook, go to our website delivering well.com we'd love to be able to help you to be able to grow your practice. But again, thank you so much for listening to another episode of The delivering wall dental podcast. I look forward to seeing you guys in our next episode.

199 Treatment Plan Presentation Dos and Dont's Apr 05, 2021

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW dental podcast. Today, we're here talking all about treatment plans do's and don'ts and how can we increase our case acceptance rate? How can we present treatment plans in a more concise way. Things that we definitely need to consider. And things that we don't want to do with our treatment plans. And so, so excited to be sharing this episode with you. So as we start looking at treatment plans, some things that we want to start thinking about is number one, do we have a way to be able to communicate so that our patients are doing as much treatment in one visit? I'm not sure if you've ever thought about that but think about it. If you had to go to the dentists five times or seven times to be able to get your work done, would that be easy for you, or would that be hard for you?

I can tell you, for me as a business owner it would be really hard to be able to pull away from my business. If I were working for a company, it would be really difficult as well to have to keep saying, "I'm so sorry I have to go to the dentist. I have to go to the dentist." So, as we start thinking about treatment plans and presenting treatment plans, one thing that I want you to think about is how can we make it easy for our patients to actually complete treatment? And that has a lot to do with the verbal skills that we're actually saying so that our patients will understand that we can actually get all of their treatment done within one visit and how we're able to do that.

And to share a little pearl one thing that we coach practices to do within our mastermind and what we're also doing inside of my practice is as we're presenting treatment plans, we're actually asking the patients, "Would you like to do this in many, many visits, maybe five or six visits, or would it be easier for you to actually get this done in one or two visits?"

We find that most of our patients either work for a company or they're self-employed, and it's a lot easier for them. So what we have actually done is we've created longer time blocks in our schedules, listening to what works better for our patients so that we're able to go ahead and book everything in one or two visits. Would that be easy for you, or would you prefer to do that? Now, as we're doing that we know that we do have patients who will ask a question, for example, "How much is that going to cost? I'm not sure if I can afford to do everything in one visit." So as we start having that conversation, we already know that that's going to come up and so we are prepared. So now we can say something like, "Most of our patients are just like you. They're not able to fit everything out of pocket in one visit. But here's how they're able to get everything done in one visit anyway."

Number one, they have a credit card. So they will use a zero-interest credit card or a credit card that they have so that they can go ahead and get their treatment done and they can pay it off over time. What other patients may do is that they may want to go ahead and get everything done in one visit and they can actually pay it off over time with low monthly payments. So that's another option that works extremely well for a lot of our patients. And number three, what a lot of our patients do is we can actually go ahead today and see all of what needs to be done. And we can actually go ahead and pre-book all of your appointments so that you now know your budget for every visit. And you can go ahead and block the time so that now you have a way to go ahead and get everything in place.

And now we have a way to hold you accountable for getting everything done. So, as we start having these conversations, one thing that we definitely want to do is we want to let people know the benefits of getting everything done in one day, they will say, "You know what? That really makes sense." And then by using the verbal skills of, "Here's how our patients just like you are able to fit it into one visit." Now they see what's possible. What's really interesting as I've studied communication and neuro-linguistic programming is that we want to make sure that we are letting people know that they're not alone. We want to be able to help people see that there are solutions and giving them multiple solutions that all work for them that now they can find a way to be able to get that done.

So again, [inaudible 00:04:58] my 100% does nothing. Okay? As we start looking at presenting treatment plans really important as well to also have different options in terms of payments. So we've just spoken about that before. And to be honest with you, a lot of patients have not thought about it. They do have a credit card, or they have a zero-interest credit card that they may be able to use to go ahead and finance treatment. And if not, then you want to make sure that you have multiple payment options that are available inside of your practice and also consider having options for prepayments. So definitely want to make sure that you're checking what is possible where you are located. But I can tell you where we're located we actually have prepayment courtesies. So if patients are prepaying for their dental visits, we're able to give them a courtesy where they're able to save 5%.

So we say, "You know what? We want to be able to help you. So we are going to actually reduce the costs by 5% if you pre-pay." Or sometimes we'll say, "Once you're financing, we will actually help you out a little bit with the interest because we want to make this easy for you. So we'll actually reduce the treatment plan by 5%. And from there now you'll have a lower cost. We'll pay some of that interest for you. And now you can go ahead and get that finance." And that is if the patient is paying the interest versus the practice. So that's another thing that you definitely want to consider. The other thing you want to consider when you are doing treatment plans, and what you don't want to do is you don't want to have the patient leave without a good follow-up system.

So one thing that we help practices do within our mastermind is actually utilize a tool such as Asana where any treatment plans, especially treatment plans over a specific dollar amount you're able to now track the patient, and track the conversation, track what's happening. So if they're going out to financing, what's the process? Have they been pre-approved or are they looking for someone to co-sign? What's the follow-up process? Are you supposed to reach out to them on a specific date? And if so, what's possible is going ahead and putting that specific date in so that now you can have a reminder when you're logging in that you have to contact that patient and what the conversation was about. And this is actually a really great software that you can use to be able to not only be able to follow up with unscheduled treatmentbut also to look at communicating about projects, marketing campaigns, being able to facilitate weekly meetings, lots of amazing things that you can use once you start utilizing these tools.

So hopefully that's been super helpful for you. Another thing that we want to look at as we are getting into improving our treatment plans is making sure doctors that you and your team have training on verbal skills and case acceptance. It's so interesting to see how many dental businesses do not focus on sales training, or case acceptance training, or verbal skills training. And if you look at restaurants, if you look at car dealerships, if you look at furniture stores, if you look at Bed Bath and Beyond, right in the mall, they're constantly learning and working on how can we communicate with our customers, in our case our patients, so that they can get to the point of saying, "Yes, I actually want to get started with engaging in that service," or in our case, our dental practice." So that's another thing that you want to 100% definitely want to make sure that you're focusing on as well.

And again, if you need help with that, feel free to reach out. We love helping practices with verbal skills, case acceptance, doing workshops, getting in there, and training you and your team. All right, guys. So pretty much that is it for today. Hopefully, this episode was super helpful and gave you some pearls and some things to think about.

I look forward to seeing you inside of our marketing and practice growth challenge. That's going to be coming up. To learn more and get access to that challenge and to get access for free as a listener of this podcast, you can enter in the code PODCAST and you can go to http:// deliveringwowchallenge.com. All right, guys, that is pretty much it. Chat soon. And I'll see you inside of the next episode.

198 Low Cost Dental Marketing Strategies for New Practices Mar 29, 2021

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Super excited to have you here today. Today, we're here talking all about low-cost dental marketing strategies for startups or new practices. So excited to be here today with you talking all about marketing strategies. As many of you guys know, I absolutely love marketing. It is a way that we are able to have all of the people who are there out in our communities who need dentists to actually find us. And so, again, so excited to be talking today about what actually works for startup marketing.

So about four or five years ago, I started working with startups to be able to understand how to be able to bring in new patients before they open the door. And what that looks like is having patients not only scheduled but have patients who know what we're known for so that when they're coming in, they're actually telling their friends and family so that when you're out at the supermarket, at the gym, they're saying, "Aren't you that dentist? Aren't you that dentist that just opened a new practice?" Getting you to a place where you have other businesses that are actually sending patients to you, having people in your community who are sending patients to you, that's the type of marketing that we're talking about.

Now, as we know, there are many types of marketing and as startups are looking to get new patients, and a lot of times what happens is as you're getting your practice loan, the banks are saying, "Well, this loan is contingent upon you actually having a marketing plan, knowing exactly how you're going to be able to get customers," or, in our case, patients into our practices. And so that's the first thing that we want to look at, is creating your marketing plan. How are you going to get patients in? How are you going to get patients to refer to you your community? What are you going to do in terms of external marketing, whether that's going to be building out your website or it's going to be building out business cards, if you still are looking to do business cards, right?

What's going to be your Google strategy, your Facebook strategy? It can be very, very overwhelming. And so what we've actually done is we want to talk about how can we simplify this process? Because as we know, there are so many moving parts. As you have a startup, you're looking at the build-out, the equipment. And at the same time, you do need to think about where are you going to get patients coming in? And so, one thing that we want to look at is how can we, again, create a marketing plan that allows us to be able to get patients in without having to spend a lot of money. Now we've got a few options. Number one, we can go ahead and drop down $5,000 and do a mail drop. Now I am, a little bit, not the biggest fan, to be honest with you, of mailers.

Not that they do not work, but the problem with mailers a lot of times is that they are very expensive. And if you are doing mailers, many times it does take two or three months to kick in which means that you've spent about $15,000. The other thing with mailers is that because a relationship is not built, a lot of times you have to provide a gimmick or a freebie or some sort of hook that's going to get people to actually call. The other thing with mailers is that if you stop putting out that $5,000, a lot of times what happens is that your leaves dry up. And so what we want to do instead is we want to create marketing solutions that allow us to be able to do the work once and essentially have the results or get paid forever. And that's the type of marketing that I'd love to be able to help you guys with implementing for your startups.

So the first thing that we are looking at with our marketing is number one, having that marketing plan. Number one, you want to make sure that you have that in place. The next thing that we want to look at is how do we build rapport in our community as fast as possible with the lowest cost. And what I'm talking about is not only the lowest cost, but how do we build rapport for in our community so that they see exactly what we're doing so that they are, number one, ready to come in and ready to tell other people. And as we all know, the best way to do that is by using

Facebook marketing and Instagram marketing. This is going to allow you to get out there, let people know what you're known for, take people behind the scenes of your practice build-out and it's going to allow you, as well, to be able to start talking about dental topics so that you can show people how much that you know about the dental topics.

And so, as we start looking at marketing through Facebook, we want to make sure that we have a plan. We want to make sure that you know exactly what to post. We want to make sure that you have a strategy so that you can not only post your, if you call it, to talk Thursday videos but how do we get people to see them? And that's the biggest thing that a lot of people are not aware of as it relates to Facebook marketing or startup marketing. They're getting on there, maybe they're doing some good posts, but what I've seen, the mistake that so many people make, is that they've actually invested the time into learning how to boost effectively.

And what's really cool about boosting Facebook posts is that now you're able to spend $30, $50, and you're able to have a lot of people who see it, who live in, for example, a specific street, a specific neighborhood. You're able to target based on location. Perhaps there's a country club in your area. You can target people who have recently visited that country club. If you're in the US you can target people who are in the highest net income. Once you start doing your videos that is allowing you to become that expert and talk about dental topics, now what happens is that you're able to, again, have people who have previously watched your videos, people who are within a certain mile radius, who live in certain neighborhoods, see those videos.

And now that people are starting to watch your videos, what happens is that now anybody who's watching your videos, you can retarget those people to see your additional videos. And so what happens is that you start to build this rapport where people start to see you coming on over and over and over again. And as you're building your startup, you want to make sure that you're taking people behind the scenes. What sort of tile are you picking out? What sort of team are you looking for? How are you going to serve the community? What's going to make your practice different? And as we start looking at startup marketing, what's really cool is that you're able to get the marketing done at a really low cost.

I would say nine out of the 10 startups that we work with, with delivering, while they're able to launch their startup and their total budget is between $700 and $1,000 for their total marketing, I do recommend that you start marketing at least three or four months before you open your startup. And what if you say, "Okay, Anissa, this is great, but I'm already a startup, I'm already opened. The best time to start is now, right?" Because it does take a little bit of time to go ahead and have that awareness. Imagine if you are seeing a commercial on TV, you see it one time, you probably don't even pay attention to it. But after it shows up two times, three times, four times, all of a sudden you start taking notice, you start singing the jingle.

So what we're going to want to look at as well with your marketing strategy are what are other things that you can do. How can you leverage YouTube? How can you leverage Google My Business? There's some really cool things that you can do to actually get all of your videos seen for free on Google, so that when people are searching for your practice, they're seeing those videos. As you start opening and you're getting patient testimonials, there's actually a really cool feature where you're able to get those videos on Google, again, at zero costs, which is really cool. So these are some tips that we want to look at as we are marketing our startup practice. I'd love to be able to help you guys. What I would recommend that you do 100% is get started, get into our marketing and practice growth challenge.

That's going to be able to help you to be able to kickstart with a social media campaign. And if you know that you're ready to get started with marketing your practice, we'd love to be able to get you inside of our Delivering WOW marketing Program. We have a program just for startups. We actually have a startup call for our startups, where we help you along the journey, helping you month to month of what to do. We have monthly marketing calls. We have all of the marketing content that you need to be able to run your campaigns as you are opening up and

you're wanting to go ahead and promote your high-value services, your implants, your Invisalign, your cosmetic dentistry. Maybe you're an orthodontist, maybe you're a pediatric dentist, we actually have high-value ads that you can actually use and implement and execute right away.

If you're looking at doing marketing funnels to be able to grow your email lists, we've got everything already ready for you, built out for you as well. And what's really cool is that our program is extremely affordable. You're able to get in there and get started right away. All right, guys. So I would love to be able to help you in any way. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. But again, looking forward to seeing all of you guys grow and be able to take your practices to the next level. What we do absolutely matters. And as we're building a business, it's really important to think about our marketing strategy, how are we getting our patients into our practice? Are we're getting patients based on patients who are discounting? Or are we getting patients who are going to come in, who are going to have a great experience and refer their friends and family?

And this right type of marketing is not just about getting patients from Facebook. It's about how do we do internal marketing? How do we get our patients to tell other people? And again, how do we get relationships with other businesses so that they can market for us as well? All right, guys, that's it. Take care. We look forward to working with you and your teams to be able to get your startups to the next level. Again, to learn more, deliveringwowmarketing.com. All right, guys, take care. I love chatting with you guys inside of this podcast, and we will see you in the next episode.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

197 How to Add An Additional Million in Revenue To Your Practice Mar 25, 2021

What's up, everyone? It's Anissa Holmes here with a new episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. And today we're talking about how you can add an additional million dollars of revenue to your practice this year. I'm so excited about this. We have been over the last few months working with doctors as we are in the beginning of a new year, looking at how we can create this Circle of Focus. And as we're going into these meetings, I am sharing, okay, let me go ahead and say this. You have probably heard me say in my practice that I've been able to double profits in my practice. I've been able to double revenue in my practice and it may sound like a marketing thing, but actually, I'm going to show you exactly how you can do the same thing too. And so that's what we're going to actually be doing within this call.

And so, as we're creating our Circle of Focus calls, what we're doing is we are creating opportunities to look at what was done last year and to decide what was most profitable? What were our bottlenecks? What is it that we need to focus on in terms of additional services training for our team? And now as a result of it, guess what happens? The doctors are able to say, "Oh my gosh, I see that I don't have to be overwhelmed. I don't have to be stressed out if we just focus on this one thing and this other thing, this particular quarter, then all of a sudden, Oh my gosh, the compound effect of that for Q2 Q3, Q4 and the compound, that effect for the year is going to be exponential."

And so I wanted to take you a little bit behind the scenes of what we're actually doing in these calls and share how this can again make a huge difference. Now I've been in practice for over 20 years and over the last few years, we've actually doubled our profits multiple times. And it's actually as many of you guys know not very uncommon to increase profits if you have a startup practice. But if you have a seasoned practice, that's not quite as easy.

So what we're going to be talking about is a sneak preview of the process, okay? So the first thing again is that we're going to be looking back at the previous year and we want to make sure that we're working out the opportunity gaps that could have a massive impact on your practice. For example, if you look at even X-rays a lot of times we're thinking, "Well, we're too busy to take X-rays." But the thing about it is that as we start focusing on providing the best patient care, the question is when we are having our patients coming in if we're not doing X-rays, are we missing out on seeing if there's pathology or are we seeing if there are infections that are going on or are we missing that? Are we seeing if there are issues with cavities on second molars because of impacted third molars?

A lot of times we don't understand that these things are really, really important. And so we say, "Well, you know what?" Or we say that we're too busy, we don't have enough time. Again, not really focusing on the best patient care, but from a profitability standpoint, if we're able to focus on even things like X-rays then now what happens is that we can easily add an additional 50,000 revenue into our practice for the year. Or they've been many examples when I've asked the question of, "Do you truly believe that a sealant can prevent a cavity?" And the doctor will say yes and I'll say, "Well, I certainly believe it. I have sealants on my teeth now. I'm an adult. Why is it that we're not talking about sealants to our patients?"

And it always boils down to, "Well, the insurance is not going to cover it." And the real issue is that our team doesn't want to be an objection block because they've presented sealants before and because insurance doesn't cover it and patients say it's okay, they stopped presenting it. And so if we started looking at how can we focus on training our teams for verbal skills so perhaps putting out there, there is something that we can do to prevent cavities. Would you like to learn more? They say yes. We say, "It's a sealant. How it works is that we painted on your tooth and once we do, sugar, food and bacteria cannot get through. As a result of it, we're able to reduce your chances of getting cavities by up to 80%."

Now here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it, but why our patients choose to do it anyway is that they know that number one, it doesn't take a lot of time. In fact, it actually takes about five or 10 minutes. We can get this done for you while you're already here today. Number two, it doesn't cost a lot of money. In fact, it's actually a fraction of the cost of a filling. And number three, it will give you that peace of mind. We do have time today to go ahead and get started. Would you like to while you're already here? Go ahead and take care of all of your sealants today. So as we start looking at focusing on having the conversations, the behavior of being consistent and having the right verbal skills. Now, what happens is that it asked doctors, "Do you think that if you were using this verbiage or your hygienists or your team was using this verbiage, do you think that you could do five more sealants this week?" The answer is yes. What about 10? Absolutely.

And if you were doing even 10 more sealants like two patients alone at $30 a sealant, then now what happens is that you have the opportunity to be able to, again, bring in over 50, $60,000 of revenue into your practice. Now you may think, "Well, that's not a lot of money." Think about it. What if you had an additional $50,000 that now you could pay cash for that next operatory? I just got a message, a boxer just before I came on this podcast with a member of our mastermind saying that she has made a decision to go ahead and pay cash and get a new operatory at $18,000. This is how we're able to do that. What if you had that $50,000 now that you're in that earning stage, you're able to put into your retirement account an extra $50,000 into your retirement account? How would that affect you as you are now getting older? What if you took that $50,000 and you put it as a down payment on a property that now you can get rental income?

You look at $50,000. Again, people are saying, "Well, I'd love to be able to get better team members, higher pay team members or be able to get higher, more skilled team members, or I'd love to be able to pay my team members more." This is how we're able to do that just by doing two patients a week with sealants. So as we start looking at Circle of Focus is extremely valuable.

Another thing we want to look at is looking at the past year, looking at month to month to month, what was the service that allowed us to have the best month? Was it crown and bridge? Was it ortho? Was it that we introduced sleep appliances? What made that happen? Because again, as we start looking at month to month to month, a lot of times we see if we're not looking at this information on a monthly basis, what happens is that behaviors are changing and we have no way of knowing it. And so say, for example, you say, "Okay, we're going to go ahead and implement Invisalign or the best month we ever had, we did Invisalign." And maybe you did 10 cases or you did 20 cases, or you did 40 cases, whatever the number is. And the next month, all of a sudden that drops in half, then all of a sudden, now you have a lower month in revenue and you're not sure exactly why.

And so as we start looking at change of behavior, then now if we saw that dip, then now we can say, "Okay, guys, something has happened this month. We either did not have conversations. We did not have a good follow-up with our patients. We slipped on our marketing this month." And again, now behaviors can change from month to month. So I always love to look at what was that procedure that allowed us to have the best month. And a lot of times it may not even be what we think it is. I have been able to work with doctors and realize that the biggest revenue opportunity for them in their highest revenue month in the past year might've even been dentures. And then I'll ask the question, "Okay, well, do you want to do more dentures?" And they may say, "Actually I would like to do more dentures" and I'd say, "Okay, great, well, let's talk about dentures. Are you currently doing All-on-4? Do you have that skillset?" And they'll say, "No, not yet."

And I'll say, "Okay, well, what if this year we focus more on dentures because you want to do more. And what if we focused on getting you training so that now you can implement All-on-4 in your practice this year?" And we say, "Great, let's do that. When are we going to do that? What month of the year are we going to go ahead and implement getting that training?" And based on that, when we start actually doing All-on-4, what's going to be the revenue for that first case? What's going to be the verbal skills for that first case? What's going to be the marketing for that first case?

And now that we have that first case, then now we can carry that revenue if we did just one case every month for the rest of the year, what sort of impact would that have on our business? Not even doing two or three or let alone five cases. What if we did just one case? What if you're All-on-4 was an extra 20, $25,000 and you're able to do eight cases this year? That would add an additional 200, $300,000 a revenue into your practice right there. Okay? And what if you were now after that first month able to take some of that money and dump it into marketing so that instead of having one case come in, you actually have two, or you have three because you have more people that are coming in?

What if you started focusing on your Facebook marketing, your Tooth Talk Thursdays, which we help practices to be able to really get great results with that now people are seeing that you're actually known for that new service. What if you started focusing on a new service for their hygiene team or your hygiene team, whether you are looking at implementing laser, whether you're implementing a Perio Protect, what would that look like?

Another thing that I love to analyze is looking at current case acceptance. And what we see a lot of times is no matter how good you think that you're doing in case acceptance, you can always improve. And so when we start looking at coaching you and helping you with neurolinguistic programming, which understanding how to be able to get patients to get to that emotional state, being able to actually present cases that are not logic-based that are emotion-based. Asking the questions of what are your goals with your smile, your teeth and your health? Why is this important to you?

Asking specific questions and again, working monthly with your team every single month to be able to keep expounding upon your case acceptance, even having an opportunity to come into your practice and do two-day workshops where we're working directly with your team, training your team on verbal skills in case acceptance. What if we were to be able to improve case acceptance, even without increasing new patients? What if we were able to do more of those Perio Protect cases or perhaps you're doing Invisalign now, what if we were able to actually have more of those cases actually closed? What would be the result of increasing case acceptance?

And so a lot of times we're looking at let's create a Circle of Focus. Let's look at Q1, we're going to be focusing on verbal skills. We're going to be focusing on making sure if you have other issues, maybe you have an accounts receivable issue. We're going to focus on AR this quarter. And we're going to focus this quarter on getting you trained in All-on-4 or getting you trained in laser or sleep apnea. Getting your team trained in XYZ.

And so now we have a solid plan. Once we execute and implement that plan, what happens is that, again, we have already increased case acceptance because we've previously been focusing on that. We're able to go ahead and start executing the new services. We have a scorecard, we have on our whiteboard how many services that we are actually setting as our goal. And now we have an opportunity to see the results that happen every single month. What's really cool with the Circle of Focus calls is that we're actually mapping out what the actual revenue is going to look like once we implement these changes what the profits are going to look like as well for the business.

And what's really exciting is that at the end, the doctor says, "Oh my gosh, I don't have to focus on everything." And I show them, even if you did not change revenue in fillings, you did not change your revenue that you're doing even in crown and bridge. Although it would, if your case acceptance increases, you just focus on one or two or three things and be consistent with one or two things. Then now you're going to have a major compounded effect in terms of the results in your business, in terms of, again, profitability, being able to make sure that patient care is not slipping through the cracks, and making sure that you have, again, that healthy business.

All right, guys. So hopefully this is super helpful for you. We absolutely love working and coaching our clients to be able to be successful to be able to get to the next level in their businesses. If this is something that you feel would be helpful for you, we'd love for you to reach out. Feel free to reach out to me, DM me on Facebook, send us a message, or go to deliveringwow.com to schedule your free strategy growth call. All right, guys, that's it. Thank you so much for listening and we look forward to seeing you in the next episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

196 3 Systems You NEED To Put in Place to Grow Your Dental Practice Feb 08, 2021

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Delivering Well podcast. Super excited to have everyone here today. So today we are actually talking about something that's going to be pretty exciting for you, and hopefully we'll share some pearls that you can implement in your practice right away. But today we're talking about systems you need to put in place to grow your dental practice. Now, one of the areas that I see a lot of people struggling with is actually having accountability in their practice, having all of their team rowing in the same direction, and really having a proven plan and process to be able to grow their production and to be able to serve more patients at the same time.

And so the first system that I actually want to talk about is making sure that you have a system to create your morning huddle with a purpose. A lot of times I hear people saying that within their huddles they're focusing on making sure that they're prepared for the day, looking at what patients are coming in that are having medical issues, things that they need to look at. They are looking at financials, who owes money to the practice. They're also looking at what patient can we talk to, to ask them to refer another patient? And while all of those things are well and done, I think there are actually better systems for making sure that you are being held accountable to those things. One thing that I would love to make sure that everyone is focusing on is being very intentional in terms of adding in accountability, in terms of empowering your team when they're successful, and making sure that you are on track to hit your practice goals by what you're doing daily.

And so one system that I love to help practices with is actually implementing in a whiteboard. This whiteboard will allow you to, number one, look at all of the services that you're providing in your practice, make sure that you're having the conversations, make sure that you are actually empowering your team to help you to hit your goals or to help each individual team member to be able to hit their goals. And also have an opportunity to be able to look at when you're hitting your goals, what can you do to change the dynamic? And so you might be saying, "Okay, Anissa, what do you mean by that?" So what's really interesting is over the last few weeks I've been working one-on-one with our coaching clients, mapping out their plan for 2021. What's going to be your roadmap so that you can double your revenue this year or double your profits issue or grow 40% or whatever the goal is of the doctor.

And so it's really interesting is looking at doctors who say, "Well, I want to start implementing a new service this year. I want to start doing more dental implants." And so now that you've declared that goal, if you have a whiteboard, it is now your circle of focus to focus on dental implants. And so you can now say, "You know what, we want to start doing four cases a month, or we want to start doing 20 cases." Maybe you've been doing implant cases and you want to really focus on it this month, or you want to do 40 cases, whatever your number is. Now you have a way to hold yourselves accountable to the behaviors that will happen. And so what that means is what sort of marketing are we doing? Are we implementing Facebook or are we implementing Google ads? What are we doing to be able to have conversations with our patients?

Do we need to focus on our verbal skills and our case presentation? Do we need to make sure that we have our schedule set up so that we can accommodate new patient consultations and making sure that we're time-blocking for actually completing and scheduling these high value services? What is our financial policy like? And so the first thing that we want to look at, and what's the one domino that can actually knock down the other dominoes, is actually having this metric, having this goal, represented on a tool or a whiteboard that you can look at daily. And so, as you are setting your goal, if you're hitting the goal, then now you can look at what are the elements that allowed you to hit that goal. Maybe you changed your marketing, maybe your verbal skills improved. Maybe you have a better system for follow-up that you put in place. And now, because of it, you can identify what made that happen. And you can continue to focus on that circle of focus so that you can continue to grow.

And so this is one service, implants. A lot of times we look at things that we may not see that are that critical in our business. And it could be something like even x-rays. Are we being comprehensive? Are we really doing the full mouth series when our new patients come in? If our patients are coming in, are we doing the bitewings? Or are we saying, "You know what? We're really, really busy. We'll do them next time." You would not believe the impact on our practices when we start focusing on consistency with the little things.

And so if you know that you're not doing x-rays or you know that you are ... Even sealants, so you're not having conversations about sealants with patients, if you believe in them as an option, focusing on that is going to make a huge difference. For example, even if you were to have four patients that did four sealants a week, now you can bring in, in many cases, depending on your fees, an extra, $2,500, $3,000, $3,500 a month, that can now be reallocated back into education, taking another course or investing in more marketing for your practice to be able to bring in more patients.

So that's one thing that I definitely want to make sure that you're doing, is you're creating your huddle with a purpose. And if you're interested in learning more about these whiteboard strategies, I encourage you to participate in one of our marketing and practice growth challenges, where we actually help you to be able to implement this particular system in your practice.

So the other thing that we want to look at is making sure that you actually have systems where everyone in your practice has actually has their number. They have their KPI, they have their metric. And what's been really exciting as well is looking at practices that have intentional focus within each individual team member. And it could be for the scheduling coordinator how many 10K cases are they going to actually have patients accept? Or it could be for your scheduling coordinator, how many patients are being rescheduled? Or looking at last week's schedule and saying, "What's the minimum number of patients that we're comfortable with actually leaving without an appointment?" Or it could be your marketing coordinator saying, "Well, let's go ahead and have a number of how many patients that we're getting from this particular traffic source," whether it's going to be Facebook or it's going to be your Instagram or your Google ads. Being very, very intentional.

And so as again, you start to be intentional and you start to track the now as a team, you can actually come together and you can say, "How can we support you so that you can hit your goal?" And so say, for example, it's a treatment coordinator and she's not been closing 10K cases, then you can say, "Well, how can we support you? What can the doctor do to support? What can the hygienists do to support?" And so when the patient's in the chair, what is their role in case acceptance, maybe identifying that the real issue is that the team needs to have in-depth training on verbal skills. Maybe it's mindset, understanding that, you know what, there are verbal skills and ways that we can communicate with our patients that will allow us to provide solutions.

So a solution is number one, many of our patients are able to start big cases because they have a credit card, maybe even a zero interest credit card, or number two, patients are able to get their work done in one or two visits because they're able to pay it off a little bit over time, and so you're giving them that solution. Or solution three is that we can create your treatment plan. We can split it up over multiple visits. We can plan ahead of time what your budget is, so that we can go ahead and pre-book your appointments. So now you're providing solutions for patients versus having a patient say, "Well, let me think about it." Because quite frankly, they're saying that most times, because they just are confused of how they're going to fit in into their budget. And we start shifting our focus into training on verbal skills and understanding how we can move patients into understanding their options of how they can actually fit dentistry into their budget. And next thing you know, they're actually scheduling.

So that's something that we want to focus on, making sure that every team member has their number. If it's your hygienist, looking at what is their hygiene reappointment percentage, making sure that they're focusing on that. So now their behaviors will move in a direction of not having a patient leave without a next appointment, because now they're looking at it, they're tracking it weekly. One thing that we love to help our clients do within our delivering while coaching programs, is to actually have these scorecards where you're setting goals, you're looking at it weekly. And now that you're looking at it weekly, again, we are able to ensure that our behaviors do not change. Because a lot of times that's what it is. We get excited. We start focusing on something. And next thing you know, we totally forget that our intention was for example, our hygiene reappointment rate or making sure that every patient has the next appointment. And next thing you know, our behaviors change and our results change and patient care slips through the cracks. And so that's extremely important.

The other thing that I want you to focus on in terms of a third system and the third system that I'm going to share today, and believe me, there are hundreds of little pearls that we could talk about, but the other thing you want to make sure is that you have a system for having a weekly meeting where you can look at what are the things that you're focusing on. So if you have a new service, are you really getting the traction and results that you want? If not, identifying as a team, how can we best support each other so that we can hit our goals?

If you have for example, case acceptance and your case acceptance percentage is not where you want it to be, or your doctor production per visit is something that you're focusing on this year, then you can say, "Okay, well that is our circle of focus. And what we're going to do is we are going to have as our circle of focus with everyone has a number, looking at our doctor production per visit, then we can say, well, how can we increase that? Well, maybe we need to take a new course. And so once we are increasing our clinical competency or we are learning how to do a new service or procedure, then now what happens is that we are going to drive that number. It's going to move forward."

And so having that weekly meeting to say, "Okay, well have we actually scheduled that course? Have we scheduled that training? Or maybe what we need to focus on is again, verbal skills. Then now we can create that circle of focus. So we can look at looking at all of our patients who've been unscheduled, filtering them by highest treatment plan. And we can go ahead and get those patients in." Or we can say, "You know what, we're circling our focus this particular quarter, on making sure that when patients are there, we're providing those solutions so that they can go ahead and get scheduled."

And having that effective meeting allows us to be able to not only look at production and collection, but what is our AR? How did that change last week? Why did it change? Why did it go up? And so when we start looking at that, we can ask better questions, "Is it that we didn't send out statements? Is it that we have checks that have not been entered? What's going on with our AR?" And now when you're having this weekly meeting, you can dive in, you can have that hour of focus to really look at what's working, what can you improve on? And collectively as a team, you can actually create those solutions of getting to faster results and success.

So these are three systems that I highly recommend that you put into your practice so that you can start making that change. You can create your circle of focus, and you can be very intentional about growth this year. Creating a healthy team, creating traction in your practice, and ultimately being able to serve more people and change more lives as well as create a better business. So hopefully this serves you and that you got lots of value. If you haven't yet already done so, make sure that you are a member of our Delivering Well Facebook group, Dental Boss Movement. If you're on Clubhouse, make sure that you are part of Dentist Club. We have thousands of dental professionals now who are connecting, collaborating, and we have a great community. They are on Clubhouse.

And if you're looking for solutions to grow your practice and take your practice forward, make sure that you're reaching out to us @deliveringwell.com. I'd love to be able to talk to you and discuss how we can help your practice grow. But again, thank you so much for taking time to be a part of our Delivering Well community, listening to our podcasts, getting pearls, taking action, and living your best life through building an amazing dental practice. All right, guys, thank you so much for listening. Take care. And we'll talk with you very soon.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering Well podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

195 Why Production is NOT the most important thing in your practice Feb 01, 2021

Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Delivering Wow Dental Podcast. I am super excited to be here today. So today I'm actually here to share with you something that is perhaps going to be pretty insightful for you, as you are looking at, how can you have an amazing year for this 2021? And one thing that I have had a lot of our coaching clients come to me and say is that they want to be able to grow their practice, they want to be more profitable this year. And one thing that a lot of people have the wrong idea about is that if they increase their production, then all of a sudden they will grow, right, or a production is what's most important. And so I'm actually here to share some insight that production is actually not the most important thing that you want to focus on in your practice.

And so I'm going to be giving some specific examples today of exactly what I mean and exactly what you can start to look at, some pearls that you can think about for your practice as you are mapping out your plan of how you're going to hit your big goals, how you're going to hit your profit goals for this year. And so one thing that we are looking at with our coaching clients is actually looking at historicals from the previous year, and seeing what were the different services that made up the production that we have every single month. And that way we can see were we consistent month to month to month. If we said that we wanted to implement a new service, were we actually implementing the service? What does the report show? Right?

One thing that we're also looking at is not just production, right, and what makes up production, but we're looking at another metric, which is of course our collections, but even further than that, our collections percentage. And so you might be asking, "Well, all right, what does that mean? What is collection percentage? I'm listening here." Right? And so collection percentage is the percentage of the funds that you produce that you actually collected. Okay?

And so what that means is that obviously we want that number to be as close to a hundred percent as possible. And unfortunately, most times it's not. And so as we start to look at our collections percentage, then now it starts to see where things are perhaps slipping through the cracks. And so a few examples of that is looking at your adjustments, right? Are you doing adjustments for friends, for a family, for people that you see out in your community and they come in and you feel like you have to give them a discount, right? Looking at adjustments is a great way to see how you are perhaps not collecting what you really should be, and really analyzing your adjustments.

Another thing that you can look at as well, and if that number is not as high as possible to 100%, is that, are you having statements that have not been sent out? Unfortunately, sometimes people come to me as a new client and I realize, "Oh my gosh, your AR is really, really high." Right? And we look at the reason why the real issue is that statements have not actually been sent out for eight months or 10 months. Right? And so you have patients who are happy to pay their balance, but they just never knew. Right? And so if you're looking at your collections percentage by a monthly basis, month to month to month, then now you have the ability to say, "Wait, we have dipped, why? Why did that happen?" And that would be one of the metrics that you're looking at.

Another thing that you can analyze with your collection percentage is that, do you have your checks, right? Perhaps you have checks that are coming to the practice. Are they being input in a timely fashion? Is it that your team is so busy doing calls for unscheduled patients to get them rescheduled, which is a whole nother podcast in of itself, of why that is not the best way to be able to schedule patients. Then what happens is that they're saying, "I don't have enough time. I'm going to get to those checks." And there's checks that are literally sitting there that are not being entered as they're coming in. Right? And so that's another way that maybe you have money there in the practice, but it's not been entered into the bank, right? And so that's something that's important.

Also, maybe you have electronic payments that have come in, but you've not answered them into the ledger, which means that there's going to be a discrepancy between your bank statements and what you actually have in your practice management software. And so these are a lot of things that we start to look at as we're looking at collection percentage. Another thing that we want to look at is really our fees, right? And are we collecting what we're producing? And how many PPOs that we're on? And what is the amount of profit that we're actually making per procedure if we are taking a PPO?

It was really insightful this week. One of my newer coaching clients, we started analyzing this in her practice and I actually gave her an exercise. And I asked her to calculate her practices profit margins for her different procedures. And what that means is looking at the expenses that you have in your practice, that you have every single month, whether it's your payroll, whether it's your rent, whether it is you're looking at your utilities, and calculating how much you're spending monthly divided into the number of hours that you're working, so that you have a cost per hour. And then from there, what we're doing is saying, "How long does it take you to do a filling?" So say if it takes you a half an hour to do a filling, dividing that by half, right?

And then from there, what we're looking at is, what are the supply costs for actually doing that procedure? And so we help and we show them how to quickly calculate that supply costs. But this one client, what happened was that she realized and we analyzed that she was actually getting reimbursed $80 from one of her PPOs for a filling. And what she realized is that her supply costs, her fixed expenses, her costs to actually do the procedure for a filling was $120. And so she was frustrated that she felt like she was working to pay her team because she wasn't getting paid. But the real issue is that things would never turn around because you are operating at a higher cost than what you're getting reimbursed for.

And so when you start looking at your collection percentage, all of a sudden, you start to realize that there is a difference between your production and your collections. And now you can start to dig into exactly why, what is going on, what is happening there. And now you can go ahead and make some changes so that you can move forward in your practice. So hopefully this serves you, hopefully you got lots of pearls to be able to help you to understand that production is not what's most important. Because a lot of people think that, "If I'm busy, if I have patients in the chair, then all of a sudden we are going to have profitability." Right? And the fact is that, that's not the case. What we want to do is we want to focus on how can we maximize the revenue that we're getting in our practice, and how can we make sure that we're leveraging really great systems, like looking at our collections percentage to identify the gaps.

Thanks again for listening to another episode of The Delivering Wow Dental Podcast. I would love to welcome you to join us inside of our free Facebook group, dentalbossmovement.com. And if you're on Clubhouse, find us inside of The Dentist Club. And if you haven't done so already, make sure that you head on over to our website, deliveringwow.com, to get access to your free practice gap assessment. All right, guys, take care, and we'll see you inside of the next episode.

195 Why Everyone's SO EXCITED about the new Clubhouse App Jan 25, 2021

Hi, guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am so excited to be here. Today, we're actually talking about the newest craze and social media app called Clubhouse. Within this episode, what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to share what you need to know about Clubhouse, why I'm so excited about it. We're going to talk about some of the features of ClubhouseI'd love to discuss how we can utilize and leverage this particular platform to actually get the word out about our practice and to be able to get new patients.

I'm super excited to be sharing information about this app. Interestingly, I have been on the app for probably about maybe five to six weeks, and what I've seen happen over the last five or six weeks is seeing dental professionals now have a place where they can come together, they can connect, they can collaborate. They can share, they can have conversations in real time. I have seen myself get into different dental rooms as a moderator. I've also been in rooms where I have been a listener of conversations.

And what's really exciting about the app is that this is not obviously a dental app. This is an app where you can learn about all things. I am personally very fascinated in trying to learn a lot more about cryptocurrency. I'm actually in rooms learning, taking tons of notes. Really, really excited about this app. A lot of people are asking, "How can I get access to Clubhouse?" Well, right now Clubhouse is an iPhone only application and how you're able to get access is to go ahead and to reserve your username.

And then other members of the app, once you're reserving your username, your friends may receive a notification that you have requested your username and they may have an option if they have invites. Sometimes they get that option even if they don't have invites to go ahead and get you into the app. If you know people who are inside of the app, you can also have them to get you in by having them to add you in as a contact and by you actually giving them access to your iPhone telephone number.

There's a little bit of a mysterious algorithm as it relates to how are we getting invites. Invites are coming as you are opening up rooms, and this is an engagement app. So as we're opening up rooms for discussion, Clubhouse is giving us more invites. And that way we can, again, get our friends inside of the app. Once you're inside of the app, there's a few things that you're going to want to do. Number one, you're going to want to go ahead and set up your profile. And that is where you can go ahead and put in your information.

If you are a dentist, you can go ahead and put in where you practice, things that you're passionate about. If you're doing some things outside of dentistry, you can go ahead and add those things in your bio as well. What's most important with your bio is to actually go ahead and make sure that your first three lines, that's the preview, that's what people see when they're scrolling, you'll want to make sure that that has a lot of really pertinent information so that people can quickly see what you're known for, what you're doing inside of your bio.

The other thing that's really interesting about this app is that as of this recording, there's no way to actually message people within the app. You do have the ability to go ahead and link in your Instagram profile, as well as your Twitter profile and your settings. You're definitely going to want to do that. I personally have seen my Instagram following grow significantly. As people are in rooms, as you're in rooms listening, as you're in rooms talking, then what happens is that people are looking at your bios.

They're seeing what's on your Instagram, and they have that way to instant message you within Instagram. A few other things to consider as it relates to Clubhouse is, how does it work in terms of the rooms? Typically, how it works is you have rooms and these are discussion rooms that anyone who is using the app can go ahead and set up. I have been inside of dental rooms that were talking about practice culture. I have been in dental rooms talking about the newest technology that you can put into your practice.

I have been in rooms talking about dental marketing, growing your practice, firing your team. Anyone can go into the app, start a discussion room, get some others in there, and you start having that connection. Now, as you're starting the room, you are actually coming in as the moderator. That means that you have the ability to be able to bring people up to the stage, and up to the stage is the ability for them to go ahead and talk.

How it works is followers of that room, once they're getting the notification or they're seeing it's scheduled and they're coming into the room, they can raise their hand to go ahead and come up to the stage. There's actually three different sections. There's a stage, which is where the moderator sits, as well as anyone who's speaking. You have a middle section, which is people who are being followed by the moderator.

These are people that the moderators are following and you'll see their profiles. And then below that, you'll see the section of others who are included in the conversation. Now, some of the best rooms that I have been a part of have actually had multiple moderators.

And it's been pretty, pretty fun and exciting within the dental space for me to actually co-moderate rooms with other dental coaches or dental consultants, being able to collaborate, to be able to share our collective knowledge and experience of what we've seen work with practices, and to be able to get other dental professionals to come in and have their questions asked as it relates to practice management, hiring, profitability, leadership, how do we get our teams aligned, practice culture. I've also been in some rooms as the listener.

Others I've seen inside of our industry do Clubhouse rooms talking about, for example, dental tourism and the risks that come with that. And I've been able to participate as a listener, raise my hand and give input in terms of my thoughts on dental tourism and some of the risks that I've seen as well. A really, really great area, great opportunity to connect. Now, the question is, how do we find other dental professionals? Well, back when I joined Clubhouse, I actually thought, I'm not seeing a lot of dentist.

I'm not seeing a lot of dental professionals, and I want to be able to learn. I want to be able to listen in on their rooms. I want to be able to connect and collaborate. And so I actually reached out to Clubhouse and created the first dentist room or Dentist Club inside of Clubhouse. We have hundreds of dental professionals that are now within that club.

And the value there is that if anyone is in the club who is starting up a conversation, starting up a room, now other members of that Dentist Club will be able to have that notification or be able to see that there is a discussion room going on. And now as we are each starting different rooms, we can get more dental professionals in the room. It's a great way to be able to connect and to collaborate with other dental professionals. If you are in Clubhouse and you're not yet a member of Dentist Club, you definitely want to make sure that you're in there.

This club is not a Delivering WOW room or Delivering WOW club. In fact, we have actually set it up where any member of the club can go ahead and create your own discussion rooms. I've seen dental professionals come in. There was actually a group from Australia, a few dentists that were wanting to connect and discuss topics as it relates to dentistry in Australia, and a dentist there created a room talking about having it entitled Australian Dentist Unite. I highly recommend, if you are a member of Dentist Club, go ahead and start a room.

The power of starting a room within Dentist Club is that you're able to leverage the club, again, to be able to get your message in front of other dental professionals. A few other things that's been really fun actually for the last few nights inside of Dentist Club is a member, somebody coming in and saying, "Hey, let's get on and just chat." Discussions have been starting like at 9:00 at night and we've had people talking about dental events. Are you ready to get back to dental events?

There've been discussions that have been about technology, and the discussions just winds up being like a big group, a three-way or four-way call, or people getting together and just chatting and having a good time. Right now that's what we crave the most, right? We crave connection. And what I typically say is that in our front pocket, we have our friends and our family and perhaps even our spouse. But in our back pocket, we have our people, our tribe, people that get us. That's what this Clubhouse is.

It's a great way to be able to connect with people who get us, who are fellow dental professionals. A few other things as it relates to a Clubhouse. Once you're inside of the app, how it works is that you have the moderators. If you are in the audience, you want to get onto the stage. If you have a question or if you have a comment or a pearl, you can within the app go ahead and raise your hand, and then the moderator can get you up to pull you to the stage. You also have the ability to ping people in.

If it's a discussion room that you are getting a lot of value from, you can actually go in, there's a plus sign at the bottom, and you can go ahead and start pinging in your other dental friends so that they can be a part of the conversation. You also have the ability... The question is, are we always going to be able to get or have notifications going off about Clubhouse?

You have the ability within your settings, you go into your profile and then there's actually a settings gear, and you can go ahead and turn off your notifications in the evening, or you can set your notifications of how frequently that you want to be notified. In case you're wondering, is this app something that you can use to be able to get patients into your practice? The answer is actually absolutely yes. Some students of my marketing program have actually been testing using Clubhouse to be able to get new patients.

Typically, what we are teaching in our marketing program is to do a weekly Q and A, a weekly Tooth Talk Thursday, talking about different dental topics on your practice's Facebook page, which of course, you can leverage and put on your Google My Business. You can use for YouTube. But what we are actually testing is getting out and creating a discussion room about a specific dental topic.

Now, the question is, how are we going to get access to the local people in our community, so that people in our community are actually seeing our rooms that we're setting up to talk about these dental topics? What I would recommend is actually going in and following the people that you're friends with who are in your local community, right? Your friends, your contacts. And that way you will follow them, they follow you. And that way they will see the rooms that you're opening.

But another way that you can get access to people who are local and have them to start seeing what you're doing in terms of your rooms is to actually go ahead and start following clubs that are within your actual area. For example, if I live in Atlanta, there's a club that is about entrepreneurs of Atlanta or any other discussion group as it relates to Atlanta.

Well, if I'm in there and I'm looking at people's bios and I'm seeing that they're in Atlanta, and it looks like someone who I would like to connect with or have a connection with, or we have something in common and they're also in Atlanta, then now you are building a network of more people that are within Atlanta. And again, as you're opening up your rooms, they will see that you have a room.

And once you're having that discussion, you can say, "Hey, if there's anybody else here in Atlanta that you feel would benefit from hearing this discussion, go ahead and ping them into the room. You'll see that plus sign," and then now your network and your following will start to build.

Over time, once you're consistent, if you have a room, for example, every week talking about a different dental topic, how do you beautify your smile with veneers, or how to replace missing teeth, three different ways, or the best time to take your kids to the dentist, or do we really need a filling, or how can we prevent bad breath, or any topic, right? Then now you become that expert. I have seen some of our marketing students have really good success already on Clubhouse in a really short time.

You are able to change out your profile picture as you're discussing or having a room. I've seen some people change out their profile pictures to before and after pictures, so that you can actually see what they're teaching through this app. It's incredible. Definitely encourage you to play around with it, get in there and see what's possible for you in terms of you becoming that expert inside of your community. If you haven't yet had an opportunity to explore or to get into the Clubhouse app, I highly recommend it. You are going to learn a ton.

And again, not just about dentistry, but about all sorts of topics that you're interested in. And as you're joining, make sure that you get into the Dentist Club. You can search for it once you're getting into the app and come and hang out and connect with fellow like-minded dental professionals. All right, guys, that's it for today's episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast. Hopefully this served you well. If you haven't yet done so, make sure that you are going to our website deliveringwow.com, so that you can get free access to your practice gap assessment.

And if you haven't done so already, go ahead and head on over to Delivering WOW's Facebook group, our Dental Boss Movement, by going to dentalbossmovement.com. All right, guys, enjoy the rest of your day and we will chat soon.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

194 How to Get Dental Patients TO KEEP COMING BACK For Lifetime Jan 22, 2021

Hi guys and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Anissa Holmes. And I am so excited to be here today. Today, we're actually going to be talking about something that is very dear to my heart, and that is how to get dental patients to keep coming back for life. As many of you guys know, I absolutely love the whole concept of marketing. Why? Because there's so many people out there that need to find us. We have a gift to be able to help them to be able to serve them, to be able to make them healthier, to be able to change their lives. But at the same time, we want to make sure that once those patients come in, that we keep them coming back for life. We keep them referring to others.

And so I'm really excited today to actually share some pearls, some tips that I have actually implemented, I've used along the years of my practice, I've been practicing for 22 years. And so it's been really exciting to have patients who've been with us for years and not just patients, but team members that have been with us for a really, really long time. So really excited to be able to share these pearls with you today. So as it looks at, how can we start to get patients coming back for life? What we have to really start thinking about, and I talk a lot about this within our programs. I talk about this a lot here on this podcast and our Facebook group as well is as you're starting your practice journey, as you're opening up your practice, or as you're starting to think about getting your practice out there and becoming known, one thing that's really important that I always ask is what do you want your practice to be known for?

What do you want people to say about you when you're not around? And for me, absolutely, it's all about delivering an amazing wow experience. In fact, at the end of our patient visits, we actually send out an email. And what I'm looking for in that survey is for them to say one word. I'm actually waiting for them to say the word wow. I want them to say, "Wow, I can not believe that my kid was able to go to the toy box first." Or, "Wow. I can't believe that the team was so kind and so nurturing and they listened to me." Or, "Wow. I actually got a hand and arm massage before my treatment." Or, "Wow. I cannot believe that every month, they're doing amazing things to be able to serve this community." Because when you start creating what you want to be known for, what's really exciting is that now your patients will start to tell other people what you are actually putting out there.

So it's really interesting. And as we look at, for example, the demo space. I remember when I first started this podcast, about four or five years ago, I was fangirling on all of these amazing dental coaches, dental speakers, dental gurus that were out there. They were speaking on stage and I just wanted to be able to pick their brains and to be able to learn from them. And so I remember interviewing so many amazing people and when I decided to create my first live event, my Delivering Wow summit that was held in Jamaica, I remember reaching out to a lot of the people that I had interviewed on the podcast.

And one of those people was actually Sandy Pardue. Many of you guys know Sandy. She is the guru of scheduling. And I reached out to Sandy, and I said, "Sandy, I would love if you would be willing to speak at our conference." And Sandy said, "Absolutely, I'm there." And she's like, "I'd love to go to Jamaica." So Sandy's there. And all of a sudden, I start sending out information to all of the speakers. And Laura Hatch was a speaker, many of you guys knew Laura. Elijah was a speaker. Bruce Baird was a speaker that year. We had a lot of amazing speakers. And as I sent out the information to them, one of the things that I started to say that I sent out to them was that this was going to be the dental event of 2018. And I kept saying it. Well, next thing you know, Sandy Pardue was saying it.

Now, this was my first event. And I was very adventurous, trying to get 400 dental professionals to make a decision, to get on an airplane, to fly, stay in an all-inclusive resort, carry their teams. And a lot of people didn't know me at that time, but guess what?They knew Sandy, and Sandy said it was going to be the event of 2018. And so what I want you to understand is that as you're looking at building your practice and having your patients to say things about you, you actually have this really interesting and unique ability to actually manufacture what you want people to say. And so I actually wanted to have the speakers to say that, and that's exactly what happened. And so the same thing happens in my practice. So as I talk about, we want to be known for delivering amazing while experiences as I'm coming on, for example, and I'm doing a Facebook live, maybe I'm coming on and I'm doing a Facebook live talking about that we are doing a new service that we're really excited about called Pero Protect.

And it's going to help patients who have bleeding gums and gums that are starting to look long, or I'm doing a Facebook live where I'm talking about the fact that we're going to do a free small makeover and change someone's life in our community. Well, one of the first things that I'll say on that Facebook live is before we get started, let me just tell you a little bit about what we're known for. Number one, we're known for seeing our patients on time. We're known for delivering amazing WOW experiences. For example, when you come in, there's going to be an iPad and headphones to take away the sound, we serve freshly baked [inaudible 00:06:26], kids get to go to the toy box first. And we're also known for the amazing technology that we have in our practice and how we serve our community. And we're also known for beautiful, natural looking dentistry.

Because I'm out there and I'm sharing what we're known for on the Facebook live. Now, what happens is that people who are seeing us on Facebook, they start to hear it over and over and over again. And now they start to share it. And now they start to internalize it. When we have a new patient that comes in and they're calling us on the phone, we're saying, "Thank you so much for calling. What is it that you're wanting to learn more about? Why are you scheduling your appointment?" But then we'll say, "Before you come in, let me just tell you a little bit about what we're known for." We do the same thing when the patient arrives. I walk in as a doctor and I say, "I'm so happy to have you here. Let me tell you a little bit about what we're known for." So we constantly do that.

So the first thing is, if you want to have dental patients to keep coming back for life, I want you to really think about that. And it could be that you want to be known for great experiences. It could be that you are making a decision that you want your practice to really focus on a specific service. Maybe you want to do high end, high level, complex cases. You want to be known for doing comprehensive dentistry. People who have had teeth that are worn down, broken down, missing teeth. You want to be known in your community for being that dentist that has the knowledge and the competency and the skill set to be able to help those people. Well, as you're doing your Facebook lives, or as you're communicating with your patients, you want to let them know, even when they're calling on the phone, maybe they're price shopping, what makes your practice different. Okay? And that's the number one thing. So there's actually three points. That's the first point is that you really want to think about what do you want to be known for?

The second thing that you want to do, if you want to have your patients to come back for life, is you want to make sure that you are involving your patients in all of the marketing that you're doing that's involving the community. So you might say, "Well, Anissa, what do you mean by that?" So, one thing that I really love within my practice and I love seeing colleagues do, it's so exciting, is seeing them serve the community. When we decided to go into dentistry, I can tell you, when I went into dentistry, I wanted to be a doctor to help people. I wanted to be able to change lives. And so when we are doing things where it shows that our community really cares about people, our patients are going to connect with that. They're going to tell other people. And in fact, the type of marketing that I love and what I love helping colleagues with is getting to the point where you don't have to focus on Google ads that are $2,000 to pay Google at an agency. You don't have to worry about $5,000 mailers.

Once you implement doing marketing where your community and your patients know what you're known for, and they're telling others, you can not turn that off. And so it's very, very different where perhaps you have a Google ad and you decide next month, "Oh gosh, I don't want to run it anymore." All of a sudden those potential new patients dry up, with this type of marketing, where you're involving your patients in the marketing that you're doing now, again, you continue to create that referral source and you continue to put out in front of them that your practice is different, and they want to tell people and they want to keep coming back.

And so a few examples of that we have done is actually this month, we are looking at a clothing drive. So a clothing drive could be, Christmas is over. And now a lot of people have gotten new clothes. Let's do something over the next month or over the next two months if you want to have it linger for two months and go for that time. And what we'd love for you to do as a family activity is we'd love for you to clear out your clothes that you have in your drawers, drop into our office and what we're going to do is we're actually going to take those clothes and we're going to donate them to missionaries of the poor. And what we're also going to do is we're just going to have some fun with this. And randomly, we're going to select one person to win a gift card to our practice, maybe a $200 gift card.

Well, now when you're running that type of campaign, what you can do is you can go on, you can do your Facebook live. And remember when you're doing your live, introduce yourself. Also, make sure that you let people know what you're known for. But now what you can do is in addition to doing your Facebook live, for example, on Facebook, then now what you can do is you can email your patients and you can send them the link to watch that Facebook live, which will increase the views and visibility. And part of that is asking people when you're on the Facebook live to actually share this video with everyone that they know who are their Facebook friends, so that others can participate as well.

And that's going to allow, in terms of Facebook strategy, to be able to organically get way more people, to be able to see your Facebook page to your practice and within your page, if you have even before and after photos of the dentistry that you're doing, you're not going to be necessarily boosting these, but they'll see the dentistry that you're doing. If you're wanting to be known for sleep apnea and you've got information on your page about sleep apnea, or you got patients that are creating testimonials of their experience and how their life was changed, or maybe you have a wife talking about her husband and how her life was changed, because he's no longer snoring. That would be great, right? So you're sending people, you're driving traffic to your Facebook page.

And what's really cool about that, is that now, again, your patients are seeing that you're doing something great for the community. You're sending out maybe a little text in letting them know how they can participate. Other things that I also recommend and what we implement with our clients that we have within our marketing program for delivering well is we're actually giving you the flyers. And so we want you to have a flyer. We actually give you a Canva template, so you can go and edit, put your practice logo. But you'll take that flyer and you'll post it around your office. And so we actually have these flyers that we post at the front desk, we'll post them right outside of the operatory. So we make sure that the patients see what we're doing. And as the patients are coming to check out, we also say, "This month, we're doing a clothing drive to support missionaries of the poor. We'd love for you to participate and maybe go home and clear out your drawers and drop them back off to the office."

Now, are your patients all going to participate? Absolutely not. In fact, you may only have 5%, 10% to actually participate, but what will happen is that it leaves a lasting mark in their mind that you're always doing something to serve. And that's why I'm a huge fan, and within our delivering while marketing program, within our clients, what we're doing is we're actually leading and helping practices or team members to implement these campaigns. And so every month we're doing something different. Typically, in February, we're doing a children's free day of dentistry. We also recommend that you send out press releases to your local media so that they know that you're doing this. You can get a lot of free exposure.

I've actually been invited to speak on the local news, talking about our free day of dentistry. It's really incredible, but there are lots of amazing things that you can do every single month to be able to get out and share that you're doing something with the community. And again, you want to involve your patients. Another thing that you can do as well, that we do. And we also help practices within our program is looking at creating a monthly email that goes out to your patients. And that can be photos from last month's community and campaign announcing what you're going to do in the next month or the current month, and also sharing an educational article. And that could be about any procedure, invisalign, All-on-4, sleep apnea. And that way you're serving as giving education and also showing that you're different.

So that's the second way that we can keep our patients coming back for life is to keep enrolling them on why your practice is different, why it's unique, why you care, why you serve. The third way that you can keep your patients coming back for life is obviously you want to do great dentistry. You want to be able to connect with your patients. But even deeper than that, because we've all heard that before. One thing that I want you to think about is when you're creating your patient experiences, when you're creating your practice culture, when you're hiring your team, when you're doing your social media posts, everything that you're doing, all of the different facets, I want you to think in a different way.

I want you to think if I were to ask any patient that walked to the front desk, how was their experience today? And maybe because you're creating content for your Facebook page, is to create such a great experience that you know, that they would give what I call a sliced bread testimonial. And what do I mean by that? I had a patient one time that came into the office and we asked her if she would share her experience. And she said, "This practice was so good it's the next best thing to sliced bread." And so we actually started to call our testimonials sliced bread testimonials, and so on our whiteboards where we're tracking all of our different services and we're holding ourselves accountable to conversations and continuing to learn, we actually have a goal of getting at least five sliced bread testimonials every single month.

Which is really cool because we typically will get way more. And we actually don't share all of them on our Facebook page, but going into the mindset that every patient will be willing to give you a sliced bread testimonial makes you really think about what sort of team am I going to have, to have, to get that. What sort of are we going to have, to have. Again, simple things. We have our kids that go to the toy box first, right? That doesn't cost us anything extra, but it's something that people remember. And now when you have a mom coming in, you can say, "How was your experience? How was your child's experience?" And they'll say, "Oh my gosh, John got to go to the toy box first. And this experience was amazing." Or, "Every time I tell them we're going to the dentist, he always gets excited because he knows that he's going to get that toy. He knows there's going to be his hot chocolate there for him. And he knows that it's going to be a really great experience."

So hopefully those three pearls that I've shared with you will help you to understand the process of getting our patients to keep coming back for life. It's one thing to be able to do marketing campaigns, to be able to get in front of our patients. But the key is how do we keep them and we keep them coming back. We keep them as raving fans and we keep them referring? All right, guys. So that is pretty much it. Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of our Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. If this served you, I'd love for you to continue to listen, make sure that you're subscribed to our podcast. Also, if you haven't done so already make sure that you join us inside of our delivering while Facebook group, dentalbossmovement.com.

If you are a member of Clubhouse, join us in the dentist club. We'd love to have you where we can connect, communicate and collaborate. Go into Clubhouse, start a room, start sharing your knowledge with others. And also we do have our upcoming marketing and practice growth challenge, where we will actually help you to set up your whiteboards, to set your goals. We're going to run a social media campaign together. We're going to help you create your marketing plan for the entire year. And we'd love to get you in and to join that challenge, you can go to deliveringwowchallenge.com. And if you type in the code, podcast, you can actually get free access. All right, guys, that's it. Thank you so much for listening. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode, take care and enjoy the rest of your day.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

193 What to Say to Your Dental Patients if the COST is Too High Nov 02, 2020

Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW dental podcast. Today we're talking all about what to say to your dental patients when they say that the cost is too high. Now I don't know about you, but inside of my practice, sometimes we have people that come in that are saying, "Wow, that much for an implant?" Or, "Wow, I didn't know that Invisalign would cost so much." And so I wanted to share with you, because I'm sure I am not the only one that has patients saying that inside of our practices. And so one thing that I want you to really think about before we start thinking about even verbal skills, is really understanding the actual cost, the actual fee, your profit margin, what it actually takes for you to be able to run your practice and to be able to deliver services.

One thing that's really interesting is over COVID, with our mastermind, we started to have a lot of marketing intensives, and practice growth intensives, and business intensives, and numbers intensives. And so one of the intensives that we did was looking at making sure that every owner knew what their profit margins were. So profit margins are the actual cost to be able to do a particular service, and that is taking into account the supply costs to be able to do that particular service. That is taking into account our fixed expenses and our variable expenses per hour, to be able to do that. And what's really interesting is as we had the workshop, one of the first things I said was how many of you know how much it actually costs to run your practice per hour? And what I mean by that is looking at what are your costs per hour for salaries? What is your cost per hour, including your rent or your mortgage, your costs per hour, including your utilities, looking at your marketing cost, dividing that into the number of hours you work.

Because a lot of times what happens is that when we are not certain and sure of our actual expenses, when we're not certain of what it actually costs to do even a crown, taking into consideration that we have the fee for our materials, that we have the fee for our lab, and not just that breaking down our adhesive or our etchant or our tips or our burrs. Once we are not really understanding what our costs are, then sometimes we get into this whole thing in our mind of, well, maybe our fee is too high, or maybe I should try to reduce it.

One thing that worked really well for me in my practice that really gave me the confidence, and one thing that I teach our clients, is to look at your profit margins, because when you know that, for example, it's going to cost you $140, for example, to do a filling in your practice, then you know that if a patient says, "Wow, $160 for a filling," if that's what your fee is, hypothetically, that you know that you're not going to feel bad about it, because you know what your actual costs are.

It was really interesting, as we started looking at profit margins years and years and years ago, what we discovered is that, wow, it does cost a lot of money for us to be able to deliver a crown. And so when a patient came and said, "Oh my gosh, doc, a thousand dollars," for example, to do a crown, we're able to confidently say, "Absolutely." We know our cost. We know our expenses. And we know that the fee that we have set is extremely fair, based on our expenses. And so because of that confidence, now we had no problem quoting our fees.

And it's really interesting, is a lot of times you start getting into understanding case presentation and verbal skills. And for me, this is a foundational piece that's really important for you to know. And not only for you to know, but for your team, because as we know, many times, they're like, "Wow, the doctor's getting $1,000 for this procedure or $2,000 or $3,000." And without knowing the actual expenses, even when you start getting into full mouth reconstruction, full mouth rehab cases, once you're using a high quality lab, high quality adhesives, and you're taking the time to spend with the patient, which is looking at what are your expenses for rent for that time, salaries for that time, it really does add up. And so once you and your team understand what these numbers are, it's going to go a really long way. And so if you haven't done that exercise, looking at your profitability, looking at what you are actually making on profit margins, I highly recommend getting into our accelerator program so that we can teach you and your team very quickly how to be able to identify this.

Another thing that you really want to consider is how are you presenting your treatment plans? What are you doing to set the stage so that patients understand that there's going to be an investment that they will be making? And what's been very exciting is seeing our clients use our frameworks, where now they're coming in and they're saying, "What are your goals for your teeth, your mouth, your smile?" And the patients letting them know, "I want my teeth to be strong. I want a beautiful smile. I want to be healthy." They're letting you know why they're there, what they want, what they desire. And from there, asking a question of, you know, what else? And they're saying, "Well, I really don't like that there's this brown spot here on my filling. It's driving me crazy." Or, "When I'm eating, food is getting stuck," and we say, "Well, what else?" And they're telling us all of their issues. "Well, you know what? I also have a toothache here." Or, "I don't like the look of that dark line."

And from there, we're able to find out, emotionally, what are the triggers for the patients? What are their desires? And from there, we ask questions like, "What would it mean for you if you got this fixed?" And so now they're saying, "I'm healthier. I have more confidence. I don't have to be annoyed and frustrated with this food that's getting stuck." And from there, you can now offer your suggestions, offer your solutions, because you know exactly what they want, what they need, what they desire, and they understand what will happen for their life, or for them, once they go ahead and make that investment.

And so from there, you can now get their permission. "Is it okay if I take some time and share with you how we can help you and how we've helped other patients just like you?" And of course the answer's going to be yes. And at the end of it, you say, "Now, this is going to be an investment. The great thing is that once you have your smile makeover done, once you have the food that is going, this is what your life is going to look like. You're no longer going to have to have food getting stuck. You're no longer going to have to cover your mouth or have to worry, or even have to worry about your denture getting loose." And so from there, the question is, this is what you have. This is what you want. Do you want me to help you with it?

And when they say yes, then now you present your treatment plan and say, "This is certainly going to be an investment in yourself, and you're worth it. The great thing is that we have ways to be able to help you fit dentistry into your budget, and we're going to work with you and create a customized plan so that you can fit this dentistry that you so deserve and you so want into your budget."

All right, guys. So I wanted to take some time to go through this, because, again, a lot of the challenges that we have is that we don't know our fees. We're not confident in our fees. And so that, to me, would be the first step, investing in understanding where you are and then taking it a step further and investing in verbal skills training and case presentation training. Which, of course, if you're looking for help, we're here to help you with that, as well, within our accelerator program.

All right, guys. So hopefully this helps you. I love talking about case presentation, and how do we get our teams aligned, and how do we serve more people? And that's what we're here for. We're here to help people to get dentistry done, to get healthier, to give them their confidence and to help them live their best life. All right, guys, that's it. Take care. See you guys next time, and enjoy the rest of your week.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

192 Training Dental Team Who are Not Good With Patients Oct 26, 2020

Well, hello, everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Delivering Wow Dental Podcast. Today, we're talking all about training a dental team member who's not good with patients. So question for you. Have you ever had a team member that was afraid to talk to patients or was not outgoing or really building connections with your patients? I can tell you, I certainly have had that throughout the years. And so I wanted to share some insight and tips to be able to help you navigate this if you find that you have introverted team members or team members who are just not making that connection. So, in particular, what I'd love to discuss today is really looking at behavioral styles, and how can we assess all of our team members to be able to understand their behavioral styles? And what's really interesting is, as you start to get deeper into understanding and learning how this works, what you will discover is that the same things that apply with our team members in terms of behavioral styles also applies to our patients and why they make the decisions that they make.

It also applies to our family and our friends. And so, what we're talking about today is really looking at different behavioral styles. And what's really interesting is a lot of times we may look at a team member and saying, "Wow, they're not making the connection with our patients," and we start to really investigate why this is happening. And some of it is really just inherent. They may be an introvert, but digging deeper into behavioral styles, it's really interesting because we start to look that there are actually four main types. So you may have heard of DISC assessments. And with this, there are four main types. There is the D, which is the dominant personality style. They tend to be the leaders. They tend to be people who are okay with taking risks. There's also another behavioral style, which is the I. The I is going to be the person who's very outgoing. They are the life of the party.

Really interesting with the I, what we tend to see is sometimes they are not very good with follow through. Not always, but that's something that we typically see with the Is. And also going back to the D, they definitely are that dominant personality, and as a result of it, sometimes they can come off as being pushy. So as we start looking at the S style, the S style are people who are very, very connected to other people. They're very sensitive. They have a lot of strong feelings of connection with people. And the flip side of the Ss is sometimes they are taken advantage of, because they're so kind, they're so loving. And then you have the C, and the C behavioral style is someone who is very detail-oriented. These are people that typically are going to be accountants. They're the type of people that may be surgeons. And the flip side of the Cs is sometimes they are very, very serious, and sometimes they are really slow as well to make decisions.

And so, as we start looking at behavioral styles and the roles of our team members and the roles that they occupy in our practice, it's really important that we really understand where they are in terms of a natural behavioral style. And what's really interesting is sometimes when we get into a work environment, we have an adaptive style. But what I've discovered over the years is, I remember in the early days wanting to have, for example, social media done in my practice. And I gave that task to someone who had more of an S style, so there were very calm natured, definitely an introvert, and they really struggled to be able to ask people for video testimonials. And we switched it up and we gave it to a team member that had more of the I style, very outgoing and very excitable and loved talking to people. And all of a sudden, it was really, really easy for her to make that connection and to get those video testimonials.

And so as we again start looking at building out our team, one thing that I always coach on to my clients is to think about what you have a lot of, and also to look at gaps in terms of behavioral styles. And so if you have a team that is full of I, you're going to have a lot of fun in your practice. There's going to be a lot of extroverts. And something to think about and consider is, again, that flip side of it, where if you're having so much fun and it's the life at a party, we need somebody to be serious and get into the weeds and get things done and make sure that everyone is being held accountable. And so, if you have a team that has an imbalance, thinking about your next hire and which role or behavioral style you're going to put in. The same thing, if you have a team that everyone is very, very sweet, very, very emotionally connected to patients, and they're very, very soft-spoken, and you don't have Ds on your team, strong leaders, then you can have weaknesses there as well.

And so it's really, really interesting how this whole thing works. There are lots of different assessments. We have a particular one that we administer within our Accelerator Program, as well as for our coaching clients in our Mastermind, and it's been really, really insightful to get feedback from doctors saying, "Oh, now I understand why my hygienist, who's very outgoing, struggles with writing chart notes." And so, as team members start to understand their behavioral style and team members understand each other better, then now what will happen is that, as you are assigning tasks to be done, again, maybe it is building a new marketing campaign, maybe it's making a decision to start doing Loom videos to go ahead and document the processes that are happening in your practice, maybe you're making checklists of what you do daily, weekly, and monthly, that particular task would be really easy, creating a checklist, for someone who's a C. You give that to a different team member, they may struggle with it. And so, as we start looking at getting into peak performance and high performance and scalability of our practices, we want to know, what are the strengths?

What are our weaknesses? We want to understand who's good at what. And the other thing that we can start looking at when we really start diving into this and really looking at how can we improve the performance of our teams is also looking at, what is it that each individual team member loves to do and is good at? What is it that they like to do? And they're good at? And then below the line were the things that they don't like to do and they're not good at. And so, as we start looking at that, it's going to be very, very nice to see the results that starts to happen in your practice once you start to assign tasks and really put people in their area of strength and put people in the area of their natural high behavioral style. And once you start doing that, now you're going to have a team that's really working in synergy and working together, again, all for the same goal, to be able to grow the practice very quickly.

So hopefully this helps you and serves you. I absolutely love digging into the psychology of what happens to make practices grow, the psychology of what makes patients make a decision to come into our practices. It's pretty exciting. And so if you haven't yet done behavioral styles, I highly recommend that you do the assessment within your practice. If you're wanting help with it, of course, this is something that we help practices with all the time within our programs. And so if it's something that you're interested in, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or to have a look at our web site at deliveringwow.com. All right, guys. So that's pretty much it for today. Hopefully, this serves you and we look forward to chatting with you again, really, really soon.

Thanks again for listening to today's episode. Now, the next step is to join our free Facebook group, which is the Delivering Wow Hangout. Inside of that group, you will be able to mastermind and share with dentists and team members. And to join us, go to dentalbossmovement.com.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering Wow Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

191 3 Tips to GROW Your Dental Practice Quickly Oct 19, 2020

Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am super excited today. Today, we're going to be talking about three tips to grow your dental practice quickly. And what's going to be really exciting about today's episode is that everything that I'm sharing is actually part of a process that you could use to be able to ... Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW Podcast. Super excited to be here with all of you once again. So, today I am pretty excited to announce that we have actually done some pretty significant changes with our Facebook group. So as many of you guys may or may not know, back in April, I made a decision to, I guess it's now temporarily close our Facebook group, our Delivering WOW hangout group. And I did it for a few reasons. Number one, I wanted to really focus on my coaching clients.

As many of us know, we had lots of transition, lots of changes, lots of overwhelm, lots of stress with COVID-19. And so, during that time, I really wanted to just serve my coaching clients really, really hard. We winded up doing multiple, multiple workshops. There were several weeks where we were on Zoom calls for two or three hours, just using that gift of time to build systems and to really hone in on training their team and just looking at how can we use that time and that opportunity. I also really wanted to focus on looking at what was next in terms of our training programs for the dental profession. And so really honing in on really creating a virtual platform where there would be CE, not just for practice management, but for clinical. And so we started honing in and we invested tens of thousands of dollars into our practice accelerator program, which is now allowing us to be able to train doctors and teams and have live coaching calls and help with marketing.

So it's been pretty exciting seeing all of the work that we put in and seeing the results of our clients. And so now, guess what? We're back. I've decided to go ahead and open back up our Delivering WOW Facebook group, which is now opened and rebranded as our Dental Boss Movement, super excited. We actually created a doctor only Facebook group back in April, which is now rebranded as the Dental Boss Movement, Doctor Only Group. So super excited to have you guys back in the groups and we're going to be doing some pretty exciting things. I am, once a week in our Dental Boss Movement Group, doing updates for our community, sharing a lesson. And also, of course, making any announcements that would be helpful for you and your team. So if you've not yet joined us there, check us out, dentalbossmovement.com.

This is a great group for you as well as for your teams to be able to get insight to grow your practice. And to be honest with you, also to connect with like-minded dentists. To be able to post your questions, get feedback, collaborate with others, share your wins, share your struggles and super excited to have that group back open. So today, I am actually going to be talking about three tips to grow your practice quickly. And this is going to be pretty exciting. Because when many people come to me, they have a few concerns when they come to us and they're looking for coaching. Number one, people are saying, you know what? I want a stronger team. I want accountability in my practice. People are telling me, I want to have a way to make sure that things are not slipping through the cracks.

And what I also of course hear is, I want to make sure that we are growing, that we have more profits, that we're not just wasting our time going day by day, that we're serving our patient's hard and that we're doing more cases to be able to change more lives. And so what I'm going to share today is actually going to be a really simple way to be able to grow your practice quickly using actually one tool. And really, really excited to share this with you. So one of the things that we implement with our coaching clients in our mastermind, as well as for the members of our practice accelerator program, which of

And what I also of course hear is, I want to make sure that we are growing, that we have more profits, that we're not just wasting our time going day by day, that we're serving our patient's hard, and that we're doing more cases to be able to change more lives. And so what I'm going to share today is actually going to be a really simple way to be able to grow your practice quickly using actually one tool. And really, really excited to share this with you. So one of the things that we implement with our coaching clients in our mastermind, as well as for the members of our practice accelerator program, which of course is our on-demand program. With live calls is having what we call a level 10 meeting. Now, some of you may have read the book, Traction, where you learned about level 10 meetings.

And so within our delivering wall programs, we use a lot of the principles and teach and help practices to implement a lot of processes and frameworks from EOS. And the level 10 meeting is one of them. And what we've done is we've really implemented and customized it for dentistry. And so, what that looks like is, every single week, having a meeting with your team where you can, number one, check-in and see, what are they sharing as their personal and professional best that they've had for the last week? Allowing you to be able to review and look at your numbers and see, what did you do really well to celebrate, again, success? And to look at opportunities for growth that week. To be able to look at all of the past projects that were important, maybe it is creating a new training manual, maybe it is starting a new marketing project, maybe it's committing to doing some research to purchase a new piece of equipment or taking a CE course.

It's also allowing you to really have an opportunity to hone in on cracks and discuss things that need to be discussed in your practice. Maybe you have broken appointments. And so, I absolutely love practices having this meeting. This is something that we've been doing in my practice for years, as well as something that we help practices implement, again, within our accelerator program and within our coaching program, our mastermind. And so, I want to share some of these tips with you and hone in on a few particular areas to go ahead and give you three things that you can look at specifically to be able to grow your practice. And number one is, having that opportunity to come together every week as a team. And the first thing that we do in our level 10 meeting is, we have where our team comes in and they share their personal and professional best.

And what's really interesting is that we have team members, everybody has their tasks that we're working on, but we're all people. And so you may have a team member that may have marital issues, you may have a team member that has a sick child, you may have a team member that is sick that week. And so, having an opportunity for your team to come in and say, this is my personal best. I was able to spend time and take a weekend away and spend time with my mom who's getting older. Or, you know what? This week I didn't have a personal best, I'm having some struggles. And they're able to share that. Then now the team can understand where they are and they can support them. And what's awesome as well is it's personal and professional best.

So the professional best they may say, I'm really excited, maybe it's a team member, maybe it's a dental assistant. Last week there was a patient that came in and she was very apprehensive about getting that bridge done. She had some dental work done in the past and it didn't work out really well. And I was able to talk to her and share with her that we are going to take time and we're going to listen. And we went ahead and started that treatment. And I'm really proud of how I contributed to that. And so that's a great way for the doctor to be able to really see all of the great things that our team members are doing. A lot of times, we just don't. We're stuck in a bubble or we're so focused and zoned in on treating the patients that we don't realize all of the extra things that our teams are doing.

And so this is a great thing that you can do is to have your team to share their personal and their professional best. And again, personal best might be like, I'm so excited. I was able to put time into myself and I spent the weekend reading a book or doing some self-care. Really, really powerful stuff. So that's the first tip. Because a lot of times we look at how can we build a strong team, and a lot of times it's really just having that simple time every single week to just connect with them and to learn a little bit more about them. And when we do, we give each other grace and we give each other support. And it's so interesting, I hear my coaching clients a lot of times, I say all the time, you might've heard me say as well, if we want to pick up a table, a big, heavy dining room table, it's really hard for me to do it by myself.

Even if I get my office manager or a team lead to help me, it's a little bit easier. But if we have the entire team picking up a little corner of the table, we're able to pick it up very quickly and walk across the room. And it's the same thing. It's these foundational core principles of just coming together, connecting, seeing what we're doing well, and not just the team, but the doctor. I'm really proud this week. I wasn't sure, I was very nervous. I know we've started doing and there's a line and I wasn't sure, but you know what? I went ahead and I did it. I did my first case and it went really well. It's great because your team hears you being vulnerable, they hear you being proud and even sharing, I've been working so hard, so hard, so hard, and I decided to take the day off yesterday and just spend time playing board games with my family.

And again, they see you as a real person. So that's my first tip. To be able to build a strong team and strong culture is implementing ... not only just implementing this weekly level 10 meeting, but having that time at the beginning of the meeting to just do that connection. And it takes literally five minutes, where everybody just shares that. That's the first thing. The second thing to grow your practice quickly is, you're definitely going to want to have a way to look at results and performance from the previous week. And by the way, these level 10 meetings, I have them in my practice on a Tuesday morning. That's typically what I recommend, first thing before you start seeing patients right after huddle. And that way you have Monday to go ahead and have your team to go in and to pull the metrics.

So that would be the doctor production per visit, hygiene production per visit, production collection, new patient numbers. How many patients last week left without an appointment? How many patients were rescheduled, that were unscheduled? What's your AR looking like from last week? So there are certain things that we recommend that you look at in your practice and have a team member to be able to put them into the scorecards that we've custom created for our accelerators and for our coaching clients. And within that, now on a Tuesday, you can quickly look and say, oh my gosh, these metrics turned green, we hit our numbers. And the ones that you hit, you can celebrate. And the ones that you didn't, then now further along in the meeting, you will have that time to discuss them. But this is really important, looking at your numbers week to week.

And once you have a system in place where you have a team member that can take five minutes and put the numbers in, then now you can have a way to be able to discuss, and again, celebrate and also analyze. And analyzation is never about, oh my gosh, you didn't do your job, or we let this patient slip through the cracks. It's about looking at, how can we come together and discuss? And so if the doctor production per visit last week was not as high as we want it to, where our goal was set, then we can say, okay, what can we implement this week? Can we go ahead and pull a list of unscheduled patients? And if you have a way to be able to send them an online email with a scheduling link, then now you can send a blast to a few hundred patients and give them another opportunity to schedule.

Or now you can look at same day rollovers, or now you can, perhaps if you feel that you need new patients, if you're looking at that metric, you can go in, do a Facebook live to talk Thursday video that we're talking about a specific procedure. And so you're able to change the dynamic of the month before the month actually ends, and change performance based on what you're seeing. If you see that your unscheduled patients rescheduled number is not where you want, you can focus on that this week. Or if your hygiene patients did not book their next visit and you had 87% last week now you know. And so you can say, hey guys, what happened last week that we failed to have the communication, that we failed to take the time to get the patient rescheduled. And now again, you can change the dynamics.

So that's another thing that we look at, is really looking at our weekly scorecard and utilizing it within a weekly meeting where that meeting time actually holds us accountable to looking at the numbers and not just having, for example, a team member go in and write down the numbers, but nobody's analyzing them. And to be honest, as we all know, there are lots of things that we implement. We have our teams doing things, and we never look at it, we don't follow up on them. And that's a big, big mistake. And so putting it into a system like this is going to be very helpful for you. The other thing that I recommend to be able to grow your practice quickly, and this is as it relates, again, to the level 10, is to go ahead and make sure that you are having that discussion time within your level 10 meetings.

So this is a time where you're bringing together any issues that you have. Maybe, again, you had broken appointments, lots of broken appointments from last week. Maybe your hygiene production per visit number is just not growing, you're staying flat. And so you can have that discussion about, what can we do to be able to increase hygiene production per visit? What's the issues? Maybe the team needs to have training, case presentation training. Maybe you need to look at, what are some additional services that you can implement in your practice? Maybe it's going ahead and getting certified and trained in Perio protect. Maybe it is looking at creating a reactivation project for unscheduled scaling and root planing patients. Maybe it is looking at your schedule and actually putting in block scheduling for scaling and root planing or a Perio Protect to, again, hold you accountable to having the conversations, to doing the marketing, to doing really good follow-up for patients who have treatment planned.

So having that time weekly, where you can, what we call IDS, identify any issues in your practice, discuss them and solve them is going to be extremely, extremely powerful. And what happens is really important when you're having these meetings, is don't just meet for meeting’s sake. At the end of the meeting, what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to look at, what are your next steps? Who's going to own the next steps and by when? And so if it's a situation where, for example, with the hygiene production per visit, you're saying, I want to be able to implement Perio protect. Then the question is, okay, what's the next steps? Do we need to contact Perio Protect so that we can become certified? Do we need to look into learning more about how this procedure will help our patients? Do we need to go ahead and do our reactivation project?

If so, who's going to own contacting those patients? Who's going to own setting up some emails to go out to our existing patients who have unscheduled scaling and root planing? So that's the next steps, is looking at, who's going to own it? In addition to who's going to own it, by when will it be done? And so now the next week, when you're having your next level 10 meeting, you can come back and you can discuss, was it done? Are there any questions about the task? Are there any issues? And you can continue that discussion until the task is done. And what's also really cool as well is utilizing a tool such as Asana. And this is something that we use in my practice, as well as what we train on in our accelerator program, is using Asana.

And with Asana, now you can have your level 10 task within the Asana platform. And now you can communicate on the different projects between any team members that are associated with that task. And you can ask any questions, you can upload files, get feedback. Pretty, pretty cool, what's available once you start looking at expanding your mind and thinking a little bit differently about creating systems and growing your practice. All right. So hopefully, this served you and helped you. I absolutely love connecting with all of you on this podcast, and I look forward to connecting with you guys inside of our Facebook group, dentalbossmovement.com. All right, guys, that's it for now, take care, and we'll see you next week.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Delivering WOW Podcast, with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

190 3 Ways to Increase Treatment Plan Acceptance Oct 05, 2020

Hi everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I have recently had a bunch of people reaching out to me through Facebook Messenger, asking me about treatment plan acceptance, and how can they increase their revenue for their practice? How can they have their team get more confidence? And so I decided to actually take today to talk exactly about that. All right?

So we're talking about treatment plan acceptance, and how do we increase that? And there's actually three steps or three ways that you can increase your treatment plan acceptance. And the first way is for those who have reached out is actually the first step, is number one, understanding that there is no ceiling on how many cases that you can close with high value cases, setting your goals really big is really, really powerful. I've had people reach out to me as well and I said, "Okay, let me share some simple strategies with you to be able to grow your practice and significantly scale and get more revenue." And they come to me and they say, "Well, it's not possible. We are full. We are doing the best that we can. We're really busy. And I don't see that we can actually grow anymore."

And so the first thing that we want to look at in terms of increasing our case acceptance, our treatment plan acceptance is to really not limit our mindset. And what's been really interesting as I've worked with practices who've grown even over a million dollars in one year, the biggest shift for many of them is really shifting their belief of what was possible in their practice. And so that's one thing that I want you to really think about.

And I remember when I had my first coach years ago and she was sitting down and we were going through and we were creating budgeting and expenses sheets, and we were looking at reverse engineering how the practice would grow. And I set some goals and she said, "Okay, great. This is really good. And this is very safe. But what I want you to understand is that you can actually double or triple that goal and you can achieve it once you reverse engineer how." And so I was like, "Okay." We did it. And that's exactly what happened. And I've seen the same thing happened with all of the practices that have really adopted this philosophy that we've worked with. And so I say, "Let me see your goal. Okay, go ahead and double it, go ahead and triple it." And then they are able to now reverse engineer and design a plan. So, that's the first thing that I want you to think about. Okay?

The second thing that I want you to think about is that there are simple processes for you in your team to be able to increase case acceptance, right? And so, as we start looking at case acceptance, a lot of times people are like, "Well, if we educate people more or we show value, then now, patients will say yes." One thing that I want us to always understand is that when we are learning systems and processes and we're learning them in frameworks, all of a sudden, now we can repeat the process very simply over and over and over again. And pretty much guarantee that we're going to have the same result every time. And it's very similar to a principal. And what is a principal if you look at the principle of gravity? If we were to drop a pen, it would always go to the ground, right? Because, that is a principle.

Well, when we learn in frameworks and that could be frameworks for how do we hire effectively, that could be frameworks for accountability, that could be frameworks for, again, in this case, treatment acceptance. Once we're learning in frameworks, it's going to be really easy for your team, even if they've never had any experience before in verbal skills or sales, or even working in a dental practice. Once they're implementing the frameworks, they too will be able to get results. And so it's really important that as you start learning, and as you start looking at how you're going to grow your practice, that you start thinking about systems and frameworks for you to actually get results.

And really interestingly, I have recently had a lot of the members of our mastermind come to me and

they're like, "Oh my gosh, our practice is growing really fast." And what they're excited about is that they no longer have to do everything in the business. And I said, "The framework for success of where I want you to get to is number one, I want you to learn. And then from there, I want you to create a really good system or process. And then what we're going to do is we are now going to actually go ahead and create an automation of that process. And then now you're going to delegate that process." And it could be something like, how do we onboard teams?

"And we are going to create a process of when we onboard, we're going to do step one, step two, step three. And then you create a system. Maybe you're recording videos, you're putting those videos perhaps in Asana so that now, new hires can go into Asana. They can go ahead and watch those videos. So you're now automating that process. And then how do you scale is that as you continue to have more team members come on, there'll be able to watch that training. There will be accountability, and you won't have to micromanage them because you've already been very clear." Right? So, that's an example of that.

And so as we start looking at, again, treatment plan acceptance, there are definitely some frameworks that you could use. And so that now goes into step three, how can we increase treatment acceptance, right? And for me a framework that's very, very powerful and obviously it takes time to really understand this framework and to implement the framework, but it's very, very simple. And how it goes is really number one, with step one is always asking a question. And that question is something that we would say, for example, "There's something that we can do to prevent cavities. Would you like to learn more?" Or, "There's something that we can do if a patient has bleeding gums or is having issues with their gums starting to recede. There's something that we can do to prevent the bleeding and stop the gums from getting long. Would you like to learn more?" Or, "There's something that we can do to prevent that dark line at the gum. Would you like to learn more?" Right?

So asking a question is now going to have a patient say, "Yes, I'd love to learn more." Right? Because, you pointed out something that could be a potential issue based on what you're observing. Right? From there, you're now saying something like, "Great, it's called a..." And then now you insert in the name of the service. "Great, it's called a sealant. How it works is that we paint it on the top of the tooth. And once that's done food, sugar and bacteria cannot get through. What it is, it's called an all-porcelain crown. And so how it works is we're able to make a crown that looks exactly how your tooth looks. There's no metal. So what it is, it is called Perio Protect. And how it works is you wear simple trays, similar to a bleaching tray. And once you're wearing it, the bleeding will reduce. And you will also significantly decrease your chances of needing to have gum surgery." Right? So you're explaining in very simple terms, what it is.

From there, you'll now put out any resistances, right? "So here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it." Right? If that's a resistance, a lot of times teams are afraid to talk about high value services or services that are not even high value, even sealants or fluoride or any of those services that really could help the patient. They are afraid to have those conversations, because they are afraid that there are going to be objection block, people are going to tell them no. Why? Because that's happened in the past, right? "So here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it, but why our patients choose to do it anyway is because..." Right?

So now you're pulling the objection back, right? You're putting out the objection and then you're pulling it back, right? "Why our patients choose to do it anyway..." And then now you can go ahead and insert in the reasons why people choose to do it anyway, right? "It's typically a peace of mind benefit. They will have peace of mind because..." Or, "The reason why our patients choose to do it anyway," you go ahead and put out a time benefit. "It doesn't take a lot of time." Right? "It will save you time." And also money.

"And it will save you money because now you won't have to worry about the cost of doing a filling," or, "Now, you won't have to worry about the cost of having to do deep cleanings over and over and over again. It will reduce your risk." Right? Or, "It will reduce your costs, because now you won't have to look at the costs of having surgery."

So typically, going ahead and putting out the objections, pulling them back, and then giving those benefits are really huge. And then from there, you'll always want to look at giving a call to action, right? "So we do have time today to go ahead and..." And whatever you have time to do, "Get started with your sealants, go ahead and take the scan so that we can get your trays made for you for Perio Protect." Right? Whatever that first step is, going ahead and giving that call to action is going to be very important and powerful. And so that's what we're looking at, right? To be able to let people know what the next steps are.

Now, my question, I always ask when I teach this framework and there are actually a few different case acceptance frameworks that we share, this particular one would be for a patient after you've presented treatment. There are also pre frameworks that you can learn for you and your team that would help you as you have a new patient to really find out what their issue is, why they're there, what's their real issue. No, no, what is their real issue, right? Which we're not going to speak about necessarily today on this podcast, but what's really cool and a lot of times when I teach this framework, I'll ask teams when we're having our training sessions, I'll say, "Now, do you feel like I'm selling you anything? Do you feel like I'm selling you anything?" And they'll say, "No." And they said, "It sounds like you're just letting me know about something that can help me. And you are giving me more information and letting me know how it will help me." And I say, "Exactly." Right?

A great framework, it's very simple for our teams to implement. It's very simple for us to implement. And it works, right? And the reason why this is so powerful is because the team members and the doctors are now feeling that they are giving patients solutions, right? And when that happens, confidence develops. And when confidence develops then now, you're having these conversations with patients and now you're having your patients actually get started on the treatment that will help them. Right? To help them to get confidence in their smile, to help them to get healthier, to help them to be able to prevent decay and damage to their teeth, which obviously once a cavity starts, it never goes back to its natural state, right?

And so, as doctors, as teams, as healthcare providers, this is something that's really powerful. And if you've not yet started to implement frameworks into your path of learning in your practice, this is definitely something that you're going to want to invest in because it's extremely powerful. It's going to help you to be able to help so many more people, help you to be able to give your team confidence, to be able to give yourself confidence, and allow you to be able to significantly increase your revenue for your practice. And as I always say, never feel embarrassed or ashamed about wanting to have a successful business. That's why we've gone into business, to be successful.

And what success looks like for us is being able to be able to have freedom, right? If things are needing to be replaced, equipment needs to be replaced in the practice, we have the freedom to do so, freedom to be able to invest in our education and our knowledge, to be able to keep growing. Freedom to be able to now have the finances, to be able to invest in a better team. Freedom to be able to now have time as we start to understand delegation skills and how can we delegate and elevate with our team to be able to have time freedom, to be able to spend with our families. And that financial freedom to guarantee our future success with our retirement, and being able to give and make an impact inside of our committees. Really powerful stuff, guys. So again, I really look forward to helping you to continue to increase your treatment plan. Acceptance is really, really powerful once you start to implement these frameworks.

There's no limit on how much you can grow.

All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to another episode. I really hope that this was helpful for you. If you've not yet done so, you want to make sure that you're joining us inside of our free Facebook group, our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group, where we have dentists coming together for support and action-taking tips and motivation. And if you'd love to learn more about how we can help you, feel free to reach out to us deliveringwowplatinum.com. We have live one-on-one coaching that we do with practices helping you and your team understand how do you grow and scale your practices faster. And we also have on-demand training programs for you as well. All right, guys, that's pretty much it. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, take care and keep Delivering WOW.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

189 How to Use Google My Business in your Dental Marketing Plan Sep 28, 2020

Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Today, we're talking about how to use Google My Business in your dental plan and I'm just so excited to be sharing this information. Oftentimes you hear me talking about social media marketing, you hear me talking about making relationships with other businesses in your community so that you can build those partnerships. But what we're talking about today is something that I haven't actually talked about before. And it really is how can you utilize Google My Business, which is a free tool, to be able to bring more exposure to your practice. And again, so excited about this, because this will be once implemented correctly, transformational for your practice.

Now you might be asking me, well, what is Google My Business? Or I've already got a Google My Business listing. And so Google My Business, if you're going to Google, Google My Business, you'll see where you can actually go in and you can customize your listing for your practice. So you can put in your practice hours. You can go ahead and put in a link. So if people are wanting an appointment, you can go ahead and put in an online scheduling link. You can go ahead and verify your location so that a map shows up when people are searching for your practice. But what many people do not really understand with it is that you have these other functions and options. And one is to be able to go ahead and upload photos or upload videos directly to Google My Business. Now you might be asking me, well, what's the big deal about that?

Well, number one, Google is of course the number one search engine and what many people are focused on and you'll hear out there is like, we want to get more Google reviews. And so there's a lot of emphasis on deciding, and I hear it in Facebook groups. Like what companies should you use to help you get more Google reviews? Or should we just take the review link that Google gives us and we just put it into our emails that we send to our patients? Like what's the steps and process? But imagine in addition to that, you have the ability to have real live video testimonials that you've gotten for patients or real video testimonials that you've gotten of patients actually sharing their experience. And so it's not just a review, it's actually a video. Well, you can actually do that with Google My Business.

Now as you're going to Google My Business, you may notice that there are some businesses that have videos that are showing up. So you go into a main Google feed and you will type in a name of a business, and in the middle section you'll see videos. So sometimes you'll see Facebook videos, sometimes you will see YouTube videos. What's interesting about these videos is that you cannot actually pay Google to put those there. Those videos are put there organically by you showing up and being consistent over time with doing videos, again, either on your social media profiles or on YouTube. And so this is something that you do have to work for, but what's really cool about Google My Business is that you have the ability on the right hand side below where your practice map will be, will be to actually go ahead and upload and give Google information to show.

So imagine for example, that you are doing a video testimony in your practice, you've given a great experience at the end of the visit. You ask your patient, how was your experience today? And they say awesome. And we say, you know what? We would love if you'd be willing to share a little video testimonial or share a video, or allow us to take a video with you sharing your experience today. There are a lot of people that are afraid to go to the dentist and it just might change someone's life. Now, as you're getting that video, typically it's not a Facebook Live. It's just a recorded video. A lot of times what we're thinking is, okay, well, what are we going to do with that video? And then you are posting it on your Facebook page, you can create an ad with it, get a lot of exposure.

But one thing that you can also do in addition to that is you can take that video and you can actually

directly upload it to Google My Business. And what's really cool is that again, when people are searching for your practice, they see your listing, now they'll see your video. So what's also very awesome as well is that you have the ability to put in a button. And so after you upload the video, you can put in a button which would be a learn more button or schedule an appointment button. And this is where you can put in links for people to go ahead and schedule online. You can send people to your funnel.

So maybe you have a patient talking about dental implants, or maybe you've done a tooth talk Thursday video, where you're doing an educational video about dental implants, again, repurposing that video. If you are uploading it to Facebook, you can use that download feature by using those three dots, you can download the video, you can reuse that video, uploading it directly to Google. And with that again, and utilizing the buttons feature, you have the ability for people to either call your practice directly, and most times they are searching on mobile. So they click that button, immediately calls from their phone. You can put in a learn more button. You can put in a button, for example, if you're talking about implants or Invisalign, if you're using funnels. That would be a great application for you to go ahead and put in your link where people can learn more about the service. They can perhaps see if they're a candidate, take a quick quiz and you can go ahead and capture their email to continue to send them information about your practice.

So again, so excited to share this information with you about Google My Business. It is a free way to be able to get exposure for your practice and to be able to let people learn more about you and allow you to, again, continue to become that authority in your practice. What's really cool, as well is that not many people know about this. And so when people are searching and they're going to other practices pages, they may have a listing there. Your listing will now have those videos. Also, as you're posting to social media, different things that you might be doing in your community, maybe you're doing a charity drive where you are collecting clothes for a local charity, go ahead and repost that on Google as well. And what it does, again, even if people are not participating, it continues to really let people know what you're known for. And so when they're searching, they have that ability to get a sense of how you serve the community, your culture, and again, having those video testimonials, getting those from your patients and reposting and repurposing them on Google is really huge.

Another little tip, a side tip, and we're not specifically talking about this today is actually repurposing your videos that you're doing for Facebook to YouTube as well. And so YouTube is a huge search engine. And so taking those videos and again, uploading them, looking at creating a YouTube channel, it doesn't take very long to go ahead and get those videos uploaded again. Whole nother strategy for YouTube, which we'll talk about in the future episode of how do you get people to see them, the keywords, et cetera. But again, today, we're talking all about Google My Business. And so if you've not yet done so, go ahead and head over, take a look at your Google My Business listing, and start posting your photos and your videos.

All right. So hopefully this was a really helpful tip for all of you. We love serving. And for me, my big calling and purpose is to help dentists understand how to be able to grow your practices faster so that you have time and financial freedom. And so that you are in a position to make a bigger impact on your team's lives, your community, your family, and your world. All right, thank you so much for listening. If you've yet already joined us inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group, we have dentists who are coming together every single week for action taking, learning, and support. And we'd love to have you inside of our free community. To join us all you have to do is go to dentalbossmovement.com. All right, guys, take care. We will chat soon. And until next time keep delivering Wow.

If you're ready to take your practice to the next level, I invite you to join me inside of our next marketing and practice growth challenge. Inside of this challenge, you're going to create a full 12 month marketing

lan, launch a marketing campaign that's going to allow you to be able to connect with your community as well as other local businesses. And I'm also going to show you how to use our whiteboard strategy that we've used with practices to be able to actually double their production, focusing on doing more high value services. Again, I look forward to working with you as well as your team inside of our marketing and practice growth challenge. And to get started all you have to do is go to deliveringwowchallenge.com.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

188 How to Get More Dental Patients As An Introverted Dentist Sep 21, 2020

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am so excited to be here. So today, I'm going to talk about something that is pretty real and honest, and it is about being an introverted dentist and how can we get more dental patients if we are an introverted dentist. So question for you, are you an introverted dentist? And the reason why I ask is that I, interestingly, am. So many people look at me and they're like, "Oh, Anissa, you're so extroverted. Like you get out there, and you're doing Facebook Lives, and I see you everywhere, and you're on social media, and you're having summits and doing all of this stuff." And people actually assume that I am an extrovert.

But what's really interesting is that if you go back to the first episode of this podcast, what you will hear, and it's almost embarrassing, is that it actually sounded like I was reading. And so my office manager, at the time, comes to me after my first episode, and she says, "Dr. Holmes, I listened to your podcast, and it sounds like you're reading." And I was like, "You know what? I'm not going to delete it. It's okay." And what I said to her is perhaps the turning point, and will be the turning point for you, and it's been for so many people that have been through our challenges where I'm challenging people to step out of their comfort zone and do a Facebook Live. What I said to her is that, "You know what? There's something that I have inside of me that I have to give. I have knowledge of how to help people. And what's really important for me is that they find me, that they hear my voice so that I can help them."

And so I continued to do my podcast. And as Facebook Live came out, I started to do Facebook Lives. And now it's really simple for me to do that. And I'm still an introvert, by the way. But what I recognize is that I have a gift and people need to hear my message. You're on this podcast right now. And if I had let being an introvert stop me from getting on the microphone and delivering the message, we may not be obviously where we are today.

So I wanted to really look at that for you and really ask you that question. And the question is do you have a gift? Have you taken time to learn how to place implants, or how to help so many people, and actually save lives, and help marriages as well by understanding how to help patients who have sleep apnea? Have you made a time investment in understanding how to do beautiful cosmetic cases? Because so many times we have introverted dentists that love to learn. You're at conferences, you're taking the courses. Your hands are amazing. You can do beautiful dentistry. And what happens is that no one knows who we are.

And so if you know that you have a message and a gift, it's almost your moral obligation to step out of your comfort zone, to do something that you've never done before, and to go ahead and put yourself out there, because that's the only way people will know about us. One of the fastest ways that I have found, at least to have people to start overcoming their shyness and their introvertedness and putting on an extroverted face, is by focusing on doing Facebook Lives. And what's been so amazing over the years, working with practices, and over the last year or so, working with practices in our marketing and practice growth challenges, I will from day one say, "You know what? I want you to come on. Do a Facebook Live. And guess what? It's okay if you do your Facebook Live and you stumble. It's okay if you stutter over your words. It's okay if the video is sideways."

It's okay, because if it's not perfect, you're learning. And when we learn, we figure out what we need to improve on and we keep getting better. And so even in that group, what I'll say is, "If it's sideways, that's okay. Get in there. We'll show you how to fix it." And guess what happens? Even now, I've been doing, I can't tell you, hundreds of Facebook Lives, and there are times when I get on and I start fumbling over my words. And what do I do? I just delete it. I delete it and I start over. And guess what? You can continue and not start over. You just keep going. And guess what? The next day is another day.

And what's been really interesting is seeing practices and owners and team members to start utilizing, using Facebook Live. And what happens is that now they get more clear with their message. It makes people think more about what is it that you want to say. And interestingly, a lot of the same things that we're doing on Facebook Live we're actually taking into the [inaudible 00:05:59]. And so when we're doing a Facebook Live about let me talk about three different ways to replace missing teeth, or here's why you actually need to go to the dentist. The difference between doing it at home and doing it in the office. Or anything that you're doing. Getting out of your comfort zone, doing the gift card giveaway to go ahead and get gift cards from other businesses. Man, that's really hard for people. A lot of times people are saying, "I'm very nervous to go and ask another business for a gift card."

And all of a sudden, I'm challenging you, yes, I am, to go ahead and do it anyway. And now you step out of your comfort zone and you realize, "Wow, that actually wasn't that hard. I asked someone and they said, 'Yeah, I would love to do that.'" And guess what happens? Now you get more confident and you can do it again and again and again, and build more relationships and market your practice.

And so again, today, I really wanted to talk about this because I see so many dentists who are introverted, including myself. But if your business matters to you, if your practice matters to you, if your patients matter to you, and people in the community that need to find you, then it's really urgent and important that you step out of your comfort zone and you do it anyway. So hopefully this serves you. I love helping you to be able to step out of your comfort zone. And so hopefully with this, you will take that next step.

All right, guys, hopefully this was helpful. I look forward to chatting with you guys again soon. If you haven't yet signed up for our Marketing and Practice Growth Challenge, you definitely will want to do that, deliveringwowchallenge.com, so that we can help you get to the next level. If you're using the code dentalbosschallenge, the challenge is completely free, so we'd love to be able to help you with that. Again, thank you so much for being a listener to our podcast. If you are a member of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group, I look forward to seeing you every week where we have free training for you and your practice. And if you haven't yet joined us, make sure you're joining us in that group as well, dentalbossmovement.com. All right, guys, thanks so much for listening. Take care and we will chat next week.

If you're ready to take your practice to the next level, I invite you to join me inside of our next Marketing and Practice Growth Challenge. Inside of this challenge, you're going to create a full 12-month marketing plan, launch a marketing campaign that's going to allow you to be able to connect with your community as well as other local businesses. And I'm also going to show you how to use our whiteboard strategy that we've used with practices to be able to actually double their production, focusing on doing more high-value services. Again, I look forward to working with you, as well as your team, inside of our Marketing and Practice Growth Challenge. And to get started, all you have to do is go to deliveringwowchallenge.com.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

187 First Week on the Job - Training for Dental Team Sep 14, 2020

The Delivering WOW podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes, the number one show for dentists who are not afraid to take action and want to receive massive results. Now let's get to work to focus on what matters most.

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Today, we're talking about First Week on the Job Training for your dental team. Now, how many of you have had a new hire to come in and all of a sudden it's a month later, three months later and they're still not doing the key functions that you hire them for? If this is happening, oftentimes what that means is that we don't have a good onboarding system. And so what I'm going to be sharing with you today are some tips that you could use as you're starting to bring in new hires, to get them trained up as fast as possible. And believe me, not only do you want them to be trained and to be able to be efficient and being productive for the practice, they also want to be able to be comfortable in what they need to do. And once you create a great system then you will now have predictability.

Now, as we start bringing in our new hires, even backing it up a little bit, when we are looking for our new hire, when we are interviewing, there's definitely a proven framework for hiring. But part of that is making sure that that team member understands what they're being hired for. What are the roles, what are the responsibilities? And so it's one thing to say, "I'm getting a new office manager," but do they truly understand that their role will now be, for example, to make sure that a particular profit number is set for the practice?

Do they understand that their role is actually to work side-by-side with you to actually carry out your vision, to be able to lead the team, to be able to make sure that a certain number of unscheduled patients are being rescheduled? And it may not be them who's actually the scheduler, but they're holding that metric accountable. They're making sure that marketing campaigns are being done consistently, even though they may not actually be running the campaigns, right? Do they understand their roles and responsibilities? Does that team member understand your core values?

In fact, for my practice, even on the interview or the pre-interview application we actually asked the question of which core value in my practice resonates with you the most? And we actually have that as a question when we have our group interviews. And so as we start looking at onboarding, if we actually inside of our recruiting process, we actually are very clear on their roles, on their responsibilities, that really makes this training in onboarding a lot more beneficial, okay?

Let's go ahead and talk about the onboarding process and typically what that looks like. Now, the first thing that I think is very, very important is to have an orientation with your new hire. That is looking at making sure that they understand your vision for the practice, your vision for them, how you see them growing within the business. Really important for them to understand very, very clearly their hours, right? When are they working? People want to know when are they being paid? What about vacation time? What about sick leave? When do they get breaks?

These are things that oftentimes they are asking on demand when they have the question. If we can just go through this as an orientation then now there's a lot of clarity. Also, you want to make sure that you have a checklist for collecting information, such as a background check form, an employee application, making sure that you have all of the tax documents. If you are requiring certain vaccinations that you have that in place. Really important we also start looking at things like X-ray training, do they need to have that in place? And so these are the things that we're looking at, okay?

Also very important is that the team member again understands their essential functions. And so if they are for example coming in as a dental assistant, are they going to just be responsible for helping the doctor in the operatory? Will they also have to be responsible for sterilizing the equipment? Are they going to be responsible for actually having those conversations with patients about treatment? For example, in my practice, our dental assistant, one of them is responsible for doing all of the scans and talking about Invisalign.

Do they understand clearly the additional duties that they will need to do? Will they be ordering supplies, right? Because every dental assistant in every practice may have different roles and responsibilities depending on how big the practice is. And just because they're coming in as an assistant does not mean that they understand exactly what we will do in our practice so that's really, really important.

Now, as we start looking at training and evaluation what's really important is that your training is actually done in stages and that you have evaluations done at the end of each week. And so typically what I will recommend is that you actually have a six-week training period and you would again be able to make sure that this new hire has basic proficiencies in different areas. And so over the six weeks you'll be looking at their ability to suction, their ability to chart, sterilization procedure set up, how they're scheduling appointments, right? Making sure that they can take X-rays. They can take intra-oral photos, making sure that they can do an office tour.

And so as we start looking at breaking this down week-by-week, we can ensure that they actually have the skillset, that they have the confidence, that they're following what we're looking at in terms of that new hire. And so what this could look like for a dental assistant is on week one, having them to actually read the dental assistant manual. Typically, in a manual what I will recommend is that you have a manual that has photos of your setup, that has information about each procedure, right? So having them read your training manual is really, really important, okay?

Also making sure that they learn proper shutdown and start up procedures for the day, learning the office tour. Also important for them to understand basic instrument setup for hygiene and for exams because as you know, what will happen is that every dental practice is different. So taking time to not just throw them in there but actually taking that week to make sure that they understand how to set up for your procedures, making sure that they understand how to break down the room, sterilization. Make sure that they understand tooth anatomy, right? And at the end of the week then now you can go back and you can actually assess and say, "Go ahead and give me an office tour." And you can actually ensure that they are doing it in a way that you will like, okay."

Some examples for week two is having them to learn your process for intra-oral photo taking, introduction to X-ray training. What we also love is having our team members to actually watch videos on procedures. And so if you have a software that allows your team members to be able to watch educational videos or even go into YouTube, it's very powerful. We typically will do that in our practice as well. I'm having them to actually watch videos so that not only do they understand, but they understand how to communicate effectively about that procedure because as we know patients are coming in, they're asking questions and so now our assistants are also serving as an educator.

And if you're looking for training for your dental assistants on the business side of dentistry, how to be able to close more cases, how to be able to communicate effectively to get patients to say yes, how to be able to set goals and become an active versus passive dental assistant, we'd love to be able to work with you and your team inside of one of our programs. Making sure that they understand the setups for the advanced procedures for your crown and bridge through implants, right?

Moving into two surfaces numbering, you may assume that your dental assistant understands when you say, "We want to go ahead and do a MO on tooth number three, but maybe they don't know what that is especially if they have not been assisting for long. So making sure that they understand teeth numbering, make sure that they are understanding how you want them to suction, what's the best way and again at the end of week two going ahead and giving them an evaluation, okay?

That's typically how we will do week three. We're getting into perio chart training, learn instrument tray set up for root canal. Every week you're putting in more things, how do you use the autoclaves. Week four you can go into instrument set up for extractions, looking again at hands-on suctioning. You can start getting into impressions for whitening, creating whitening trays, understanding dentures and what needs to be done for denture adjustments. Then going into again week five and week six, and as you're going into week six, looking at how do you plan a treatment plan? How do you chart needed treatment, understanding on how to navigate the appointment book on week six, getting into phone training and introduction to scanners.

As you can see, having a weekly training schedule for onboarding is not only going to help your team to be successful but it's also going to make sure that you're able to be very clear about what you are looking for. And a lot of times I'll hear a doctor say, "I work too busy to treat you my team." And then what happens that years later you are at a disadvantage because every time you're asking for a particular instrument they don't know what you're talking about. Or you are doing things yourself and you're saying, "I'll just print this out myself." Or, "I'll just chart this myself," because you haven't taken the time to actually train your team, right?

As you get a bigger team what's really great is you can start elevating people up to become leaders. And so in my practice now we have a lead dental assistant, we have a few dental assistants. And so her role and responsibility is actually to go through this training and onboarding process with any new hires. And so now she is actually gone through this onboarding process with our dental assistants that have come in and now that has taken that off of my plate, as well as the plate of the office manager.

And again, you start looking at this and even with an office manager, many times they don't have the ability to actually go ahead and oversee the onboarding of a dental assistant. They may not have the knowledge of core skill steps of taking impressions or scanning, or understanding the tray setup. That's something that you can keep in mind as well.

Hopefully this was helpful for you. You are definitely going to want to create a training and onboarding process for all of the roles inside of your practice, right? This will allow you to be able to get your team members comfortable so that now you can start focusing on additional things, right? And this is going to be looking at what is their rock? What is the KPI? What's the one thing you want them to focus on again? How many same-day rollovers are you going to be helping the doctor achieve, right?

Having those conversations about Invisalign or implants, it's going to be really important to help the practice to continue to grow. And so the faster we can get through the foundational basics the faster we can get into those profitability conversations. I definitely recommend that you go ahead and start implementing, putting in your training processes and creating a system for this. This is something that we are definitely helping practices with within our Delivering WOW programs. And so if you're interested in having us help you we certainly are here to be able to lend that support. All right, that's pretty much it for today. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of our Delivering WOW Dental Podcast and we will chat again soon.

Thanks again for listening to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Now, the next step is for you to join us inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group, where dentists are coming together for support and action-taking tips and motivation. To join us in the group, head on over to dentalbossmovement.com. And if you're looking to grow your practice faster, make sure you join us inside of our next marketing and practice growth challenge. And to learn more, go to deliveringwowchallenge.com. Take care and we'll see you inside of our next episode.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

186 How to Create an Automated Dental Practice Sep 07, 2020

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am super excited to be here with you today. So today I'm actually going to be discussing automation and how you can create an automated dental practice. Now, the reason why we want to create automation in our practice is that automation adds accountability in our business. And oftentimes where we really fall short is that we're very busy, right? As owners of a dental practice, we are doing the dentistry. We are managing patients' expectations. We are leading a team. We have families at home at the same time, right?

And so, many times what happens is, of course, we are putting a lot of things on our plate. Things slip through the cracks and at the end of the month, we're like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't get that done. And I really wanted to get that done." And so the faster you can automate your systems, automate your processes, that now can be even managed and handed over to a member of your team, you actually will have the ability to actually scale your practice and grow your practice and be more predictable. So super excited about that.

Now, I'll talk today about a few tools that you can use to automate your dental practice. And these are tools that I actually use in my own practice and tools that we also use for members of our Platinum Mastermind and our online virtual coaching and training program that we have for doctors and teams through our Platinum Gold Program. Okay?

And so what we're looking at here are utilizing tools like number one, utilizing whiteboards, right? Whiteboards allow us to automate the process of looking at how many new patients that we're getting day to day or even week to week. Right? It also allows us to look at the number of testimonials that we're getting. It allows us to look at how many crowns we're doing, or if our team is actually having conversations with our patients about services that we are starting to implement. So say, for example, you make a decision, "I am going to start implementing Perio Protect in my practice." Right?

And Perio Protect, for those of you who don't know is a great service that you can have for your patients where you're creating custom-fitted trays, similar to a bleaching tray. It delivers a gel solution where they can actually do this at home. And once they are using it, it will decrease bleeding, inflammation, pocket depth, decrease their chances of needing to have surgery. And this is a procedure that actually can bring in significant additional revenue for your practice.

And so say, for example, you take the course to become certified in Perio Protect, your team does your training. And all of a sudden, many times, if there's no accountability, then what will happen is that now it's the end of the month. And you're like, "Oh my gosh, we planned on starting, but we actually didn't start." And so if you can use a whiteboard as a tool for an automated process, then now what happens is that you will not have that goal slip through the cracks, right? You will know if you're not hitting the goal, that the team is not having the conversations, and now you can go back to the team and say, "I see, we're not hitting the goal. What can we do to hit the goal? Do we need additional training? Is anyone stuck? Do we have any issues with getting the cases to the lab?"

Because sometimes there are things like that, that as the owner, we may not be aware of. Maybe our dental assistant is still trying to get the lab set up and get everything put in place with the scanner, right? So these are things that we will want to know. And when you have an automated process for accountability, then now you will be able to quickly get to results. Okay? So, that's one of the things that we want to look at.

Another thing that we want to look at is how can we automate communication in our practice? And one of the tools that we teach, and one of the tools that we utilize again in my practice is actually a tool called Asana. And how it works is it is actually a software that you can use to number one, to be able to automate the process of having a place to put down all of the gaps in your practice, all of the issues, all of your wishlist items of things that you want to implement, right? And then from there, you can actually utilize a system such as a level 10 meeting so that every week now you can go into Asana and you can go ahead and have at the very top where are people at the beginning of the meeting.

If you're having this once a week meeting where your team members can come together and say what is their personal and professional best? What is the thing that they're proud of for that week that they've done in the business and personally? And again, having a level 10 meeting and even utilizing Asana now allows you to automate the process of doing this check-in with your team every single week. Some other things that you're doing on this level 10 or in this level 10 meeting that you're having once a week. And again, we use Asana templates so that we have this format where we just follow it so that nothing slips through the cracks. But we also have that opportunity to look at our practice performance.

And so weekly, we're looking at our scorecard numbers and scorecards are something that we have built into our Platinum Coaching Platform where practices can log in and now we can actually track their new patient numbers, their doctor, and hygiene production per visit. We can look at the accounts receivable week to week. We can look at how many unscheduled patients were rescheduled. We can look at the hygiene reappointment rate. So there are specific metrics that we can have the doctor team leader of the team go in and set goals for and we can see for that week, if you've hit the goal, right? If you've hit the goal, then it's an opportunity to celebrate your team for a job well done.

And if you've not hit the goal, then now we know where the opportunities are to have a discussion as a team and say, "Well, why did we not hit the goal?" And start looking at, "Okay, well, what can we do to get back on?" Which is where inside of our programs, we actually provide the coaching to now be able to get you back on to get those numbers up so that now, hopefully in the next week, you can go ahead and hit or surpass your goal. Okay?

So having this automated process to now have you hold yourself accountable to looking at your numbers is going to be very powerful. Also, inside of your level 10 meeting, you can look at previous to-dos. So say, for example, you had someone on the team that you had assigned to send out an email. Maybe it's an email that is stating that you're going to start doing Invisalign in your practice, or this month, you're going to be doing a special marketing campaign where you will actually be giving away gift cards for local businesses, and you want to have your patients to participate, right?

And so within this meeting, again, you can go ahead and look at previous to-dos. And now you can ask that team member, "Did that email get sent out?" Right? If not, why? Really, really powerful stuff. And then also, as you have things coming up, maybe that week, you had a lot of broken appointments. Maybe that week, you had insurance that did not pay on particular claims and you want to have a discussion about maybe your system or your process for following up with insurance. Or maybe you had made a decision to go ahead and for example, collect a copay for PPE, right? And it was not collected. And so now there's a time within that meeting that you can actually have that discussion and find out what happened, what was the real issue, right? So that you can not blame or create excuses, but actually just discuss it so that you can create a solution so that in the future, you won't have that issue again. Right? So that's extremely powerful again when you can automate the process of actually having these discussions.

And what's really cool within these level 10 meetings, is that typically, at least in my practice, and what we recommend for practices is that these meetings are held once a week on a Tuesday morning, perhaps before you start seeing patients so that you don't have any reason why you can't do the meeting if you're running late with patients. I don't recommend having it right before lunch, but if you have it in the morning before you get started, then now you have everyone's focused attention. And then the day before on Monday is when the team can go ahead and fill in the scorecards. Okay? So, that's typically how you can look at automating.

What's really cool about Asana as well, is that you don't actually have to even wait until this weekly meeting. What you can do is within the actual task, so say, for example, you have made a decision that you're going to treat 100 kids for free, right? So you're going to do a special drive where you're going to help and do something special in your community. Well, with that drive that you're going to do you have a particular team member that will own that task. Now it doesn't mean they're going to be doing all of the tasks, but they will own making sure that it gets done. And so they will perhaps collaborate with other team members and say, "Okay, who can call a company to get items donated? Who can go ahead and print out coloring sheets for the kids so that when they arrive, they'll have coloring sheets? Who can..." Right? And then you just start going from there. Right?

And so what can happen is that throughout the week, there's actually conversations within the actual card, within Asana. You can actually go ahead and tag any individual collaborators. That means any of these other people on the team that are working on that particular project. And now people can communicate about that specific project within the card, which is really powerful. Because again, now you can get stuff done throughout the week and you don't have to actually wait until the next time that you're having a level 10. And what's really cool as well is that the doctor can be included in these conversations so that now the doctor, you don't have to necessarily even do anything as it relates to the test. But now you are aware of what your team is working on. And if they need your specific feedback, they can tag you and say, "Doc, what do you think?" So this is some really powerful stuff.

We also use in my practice, Asana to be able to, and we have a separate board from our level 10, to look at our bills, right? And so we have a private board between myself and my office manager, where she actually enters in all of the bills that come in, that needs to be paid. She actually scans a copy of the bill, which can be scanned directly into that card, or it can be imported in, in linked In from a Google Drive. So if you're using Google Drive, as we do in my practice and what we teach in our programs, then now you have really good organization of your bills that that link could actually be shared with your accountant or an external person that's going to help to audit all of the things that are happening in your practice.

But what you can do again in Asana is now you can have that, so that even if you're not in your practice, maybe you have an admin day when you're working from home, then now you can go ahead and go in, see what bills that need to be paid. You can see the physical bill. She can go ahead and even type in where there's a tab or field in there, the amount of the bills. So now very quickly, if you're paying your bills from home, you can also do that. And again, now this is a great automation process so that you don't have bills slipping through the cracks. I can tell you, it actually happened in my practice multiple times, where I'm just so busy, where all of a sudden the power bill hasn't been paid. And we even had one time, the power company show up to turn off our electricity. And it wasn't that I didn't have money to pay my power bill, I just didn't have a system. And so now we don't have those issues, because we have that automation already built-in. Okay?

So I really love automation. It's a great way to be able to get accountability, to be able to scale. There are so many other ways that you can automate your practice. We also put automation into our marketing. And so, one of the things that we do within our marketing, which is really cool, is we've built out marketing funnels. And so how that works is, say, for example, we're having a coloring contest. We've actually built out automation where we can issue out a coloring sheet. And when people download the coloring sheet, we actually collect their email address so that we can send them the coloring sheet. That's all automated, right? And then once that happens, then now we can get their email address so that we can start sending out automated email addresses, letting them know about the practice.

And we can even include in an online scheduling link, such as LocalMed or one of the other online schedulers, or we could put in our practice contact us page from our website, for example, if you don't have the online scheduling link. And so now again, it's automated where people can actually make appointments. We've done the same thing for implants. We've done the same thing for Invisalign. So we could do, for example, a Tooth Talk Thursday video, where we're discussing different ways to be able to straighten teeth. Maybe we're talking about Invisalign. And then we can say, "If you'd like to learn more and see if you're a candidate, go ahead and take the quick quiz," right? And then from there, again, it's automated where they're answering questions to a quiz and where at the end of taking the quiz, we can offer them an opportunity to come in and there would be an opportunity there for them to go ahead and schedule online.

So I absolutely love automation. Automation with creating systems is amazing. Again, using whiteboards, utilizing your scorecards, where you can automate the process of having a system where you know week to week, how many patients rescheduled, how many patients last week left without an actual appointment. It's really, really powerful stuff. I absolutely love having this automation in my practice and it's helping the practices that we serve grow really, really fast.

So hopefully this helps you and serves you. If you're looking to put in more automation into your practice, if you're looking to be able to utilize the scorecards and whiteboards and even understand how to automate your marketing, we'd love to be able to help you with that. This is what we love to do. This is what Delivering WOW is known for, helping you to grow your practice faster. And if so, we'd love for you to reach out to us. Once you go into our website, deliveringwow.com, you'll see our programs, you see how we can help you to be able to take your practice to the next level. All right?

So again, hopefully, this helps you and has inspired you to think about how can you automate more systems and processes to take things off of your plate. Once you start automating, then what will happen is that you will grow. You will scale. You will have opportunities to be able to do more, to be able to delegate more to your team and to allow your practice to be able to get to the next level. Again, I look forward to chatting with you. If there's anything I can do for you, again, feel free to reach out to our website, send me a Facebook message. And we look forward to helping you get to the next level.

Thanks again for listening to another episode of The Delivering WOW Dental Podcasts.

Now, the next step is for you to join us inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook Group, where dentists are coming together for support and action-taking tips and motivation. To join us in the group, head on over to http://dentalbossmovement.com. And if you're looking to grow your practice faster, make sure you join us inside of our next Marketing and Practice Growth Challenge. And to learn more, go to http://www.deliveringwowchallenge.com. Take care, and we'll see you inside of our next episode.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

185 Training Dental Team to Collect Payment - What To Say to Patients Aug 31, 2020

Hi everyone. I hope that you are having a fabulous day. Welcome to another episode about Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Today, we're talking about how to train our teams to collect payments well. So, this is a topic that a lot of people struggle with. A lot of people will struggle because they're not even quite sure how to have collections come in. And so, I wanted to share a few things with you that hopefully will be super helpful for you as you are navigating your practice ownership and becoming a better business owner.

So, one thing that we look at in terms of our collections is really making sure that we have a solid system for knowing if our collections are getting out of control. And unfortunately, what happens way too often is that people have a revelation one day, maybe you listen to this podcast and you go and you look at your collections and you're like, "Oh my gosh. Our AR is crazy and we need to work on it. Now, we need to hire a company to help us fix it." And it never had to be that way.

And so, typically, when you see AR or you see collections, what has happened is that you did not have a system for seeing where things were not paid on time and you're waiting too long to now have a patient know that they have a balance and now you're embarrassed to call them. Or perhaps you actually misquoted from the very beginning. Or perhaps you did not have good follow-up, right? With claims. And so, there you are chasing them. And so, the first thing that I do recommend is actually to utilize, say system, to be able to track your AR week to week, right?

One of the things that has been really effective in my practice and for many of you who are in our platinum program is actually having your scorecard. And so, one of the numbers that we're actually looking at weekly is our AR. And so, the question is, if we have a situation where our account's receivable is out of control, what are easy ways that we can get it in? How do we get our team to collect payments? What do they say? What's the process? And so, one thing that I wanted to share with you today is actually a process called amnesty.

Now, how does that work? Well, say for example, you have realized now that your account's receivable is $50,000 or it's $20,000 or a hundred or 10 or whatever amount. And many of the accounts are over 60 days, right? So many times what will happen is that a practice will turn those accounts over to a collection agency or they will say, "You know what? I don't like seeing this number. And so, I'll just erase it. I'll just write off these accounts and I'll just start fresh. And we won't have this problem again."

Which means that you're writing off maybe $50,000 and that could have perhaps paid for your kids to go to college for one year, right? And so, this is definitely not something that you want to do, right? So, there is a better way. So, with an amnesty program, how it works is that you are actually contacting those patients that have that overdue balance and you're letting them know that their account has actually come up for audit, right? And so, what that means is that you're giving them a courtesy call that their account has come up for audit but you're calling actually to help them out and to clear it up.

And so, what you want to do is instead of actually charging the full fee, right? Perhaps they have a balance of a thousand dollars. Instead, what you will do is to help them out, you will actually go ahead and lower the amount that they have to pay. That will help them and it will prevent them from having to go to collections, right? So, what that means is that you are reducing your fee and you will not have to now deal yourself with a collection agency. And typically, as accounts go to collections, many times they never become collectible or we're not getting very much. And so, this gives you that opportunity to get that cash flow back in.

So, how are we actually getting in touch with our patients, right? So, sometimes I'll hear, "Well, patients are not responding. They see our calls and they're not picking up." And so, a few things that you can look at is certainly using other methods to be able to get in touch with your patients. Obviously, phone is great because you can have that direct communication. And while you're on the phone, you're going to want to go ahead and get their credit card and let them know, "Once we clear this up today, we can go ahead and take off and you will save $225. For example, once you settle this today, we do take American Express and Visa and Mastercard, which of those three cards would you like to use today?"

All right? So, again, I've said today probably about four or five times. And so, that's some of the verbiage that you'll look at. But if you're not getting them on the phone, a few things that you can do is you can certainly look at sending out text message or email letting them know that there is an urgent message from their dentist and or from doctor and put in the name and that you need to speak to them today. "So, please contact us today. There's something urgent that we need to discuss," right?

And so, you're putting that word in there, urgent. We want to talk to you today and hopefully with that, you will get them to actually contact you right away. So, you definitely want to do that. And sending out one email mail and saying, "Well, they didn't get back to us," is not enough. As we know, people are typically not opening all of their emails. So, you'll want to make sure that you're following up with that. But ideally, what you're wanting to do is definitely get the person on the phone.

Hopefully, you're also getting a work number for your patients. And so, if they wind up in this situation, another option is to contact them with their alternate number. So, hopefully, this serves you and helps you. I have seen a lot of practices who have really gotten into a lot of trouble with their collections and they weren't quite sure how to get over it. And again, the last thing that you want to do is just say, "You know what? I'll just write it off and I'll just start fresh." That's different. Definitely not where you want to go. Okay? So, hopefully this serves you.

And again, in terms of training your team to collect payment, what you want to also let them know is that number one, they can do it. Number two, not every patient is going to have the ability to say yes right away. And so, you will get some people saying, "Man, I'd love to do that but I don't have the ability." In which case you can look at, "Okay. Well, let's look at giving them a second option," right? And that could be something like, "Your balance is a thousand dollars. Are you able to go ahead and do $50 a month?" And then from there you can set up for them to go ahead and have that financed over time with a third party.

So, definitely want to make sure that you have multiple options for them. But again, the key point, which is where we started is that you want to have a system. You don't want to get yourself into a position where you have to even be thinking about amnesty or thinking about collections. Once you have a good process where you are actually very aware of the fee that you will receive on the day of payment or a day of service, then you should not have this AR accumulating.

Again, making sure that you have good communication. Once you are accepting insurance, what is the amount that you expect to come from the insurance and how much would the patient actually pay, right? Having good processes. Again, looking at it weekly allows you to catch things as they're slipping through the cracks before it comes too late. Thanks again for listening to another episode of our Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I can't wait to connect with you inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group. And to get access to that group, all you have to do is go to dentalbossmovement.com.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes.

184 How Much Do I Pay My Dental Team Aug 24, 2020

Hi, guys, and welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am so excited about today's episode. Today, we're actually talking about, how do you pay your dental team? And actually this came up because a member of my mastermind actually sent me a message today. And she said, "I'm not sure what to do. I would love your advice." And what she said is that a team member had actually come up to her and had asked for a raise. So this is a very common thing that happens in our practice. We'll have team members say, "You know what? I really need to earn a little bit more. Can you help me?" So it puts us in this dilemma because a lot of times we're thinking, "Well, I'm not sure if I can afford to pay my team member anymore," or, "I'm not sure if they really have the skillset," or, "How can I pay them more?" And all these things go through your mind.

So I wanted to come on and really help you to navigate this because there are some really creative ways that you can actually empower your team to actually do more for the practice and ultimately give an ROI for the practice. And I'll tell you a quick story. Recently, we have had one of the ladies in my office and she had come in to help to follow up on insurance claims and to be a secondary person to answer the phones. And recently we decided to actually move her into the role of scheduling coordinator. Now what's really interesting is that because she was at a pay grade of where she started, I actually wanted her to be able to earn more. I thought that if she was now scheduling coordinator, she would have a different skill set. And now she would be able to actually earn more money for the business.

So, although she didn't have any experience in scheduling, I actually said, "You know what? I want to let you know that I feel that you can do this. And I have seen you interact with patients. so we're going to give you training. Of course, we're going to teach you these scheduling frameworks and the case acceptance framework. But as always, we are going to set some goals of how many patients you're going to get rescheduled." And we said that we would actually start with perio scaling and root planing. So we created a filtered list and she went through and what's really interesting is that at the end of the month, and I told her this, I said, "You know what? I want to pay you more, but I want to make sure that we can earn more for the company with the value that you're going to add.

So if you can show that you can add more value and more revenue, it's not going to be a problem to actually increase your salary." So we put in the training and we gave her the support and wouldn't you know it, she actually scheduled the number that we had given her. In fact, she actually exceeded that by about 25 or 30%. So I just want to say that to say this, once we are empowering our team, we let them know that they can do it. And we actually give them higher goals that will bring in more revenue. What happens is that now, if they are the right fit team members, who really want to excel, who want to get to the next level, who wants to keep evolving and elevating in their knowledge, they will actually be up for the challenge.

So it's our responsibility to look at training them. So going back to the doctor that said, "My team wants to have more. I'm not sure what to do." One thing that you can look at really is how can we be very clear with our team of our expectations for the different levels of pay that we offer in our practice. And this is actually looking at something called a pay grade system. So essentially how this works is that you can create different levels. So say, for example, you have a dental assistant and the dental assistant comes in and they have the skill set to do very minimal dental assisting skills. So they can assist in fillings. They can set up your trays. They can sterilize the instruments. Then that person would come in with the level one pay grade because they would have those specific things and skill sets that they can do.

Now, as the dental assistant starts to develop their skillset and they invest in themselves in additional training, then now what happens is that they're able to add more value. So some of these things would

be things like delivering night guards or doing in-office bleaching. So this allows the practice to actually make more revenue because those tasks can actually be delegated to the team who can actually earn revenue for the practice while the doctors actually in the other room, treating another patient. So looking at being able to check supplies and inventory, placing orders. They're now getting more into an admin level of being an assistant. So that would be a different pay grade. So as we start looking at level three, we can start asking ourselves, "Can the dental assistant do things like do ortho adjustments?" Or, "Do adjustments to dentures and relines, making custom trays."

These are things that are definitely a different skill set, being able to place sealants. And once you do, then what happens is that they can bring in more revenue. I actually have a dental assistant in my practice and she orders all of the supplies. She's amazing at making all of the temporaries. She also can work at the front. She can make phone calls. She can make appointments. She can discuss treatment plans. So what happens is that because of her skillset, she's able to actually bring a higher ROI to the practice because she can actually do certain procedures. She even actually does all of the conversations about Invisalign. She does all of the scans. She does all of the pre-photos.

This is a different level of a dental assistant. So as you start looking at your current team, if they're wanting to earn more, what you want to do is actually look at creating a pay grade. And this will allow you to actually specify what would be a level one, a level two, and level three, and the pay that you would typically give for that level. So now they know their earning potential and they know that if they want to make, for example, $3 or $5 more an hour, what it will actually take. So hopefully that serves you. You can create a pay grade standards, not just for dental assistants, but you could also do it for your front desk. You could do it for hygiene and the same thing with that. Like there's a different hygienist that comes in, that is doing pro-fees and some scaling and root planing versus a dental hygienist who's coming in and now knows how to utilize lasers. Or can go ahead and have the patients get started with perio protect.

That's a different skillset and that can come in at a different pay. All right. So hopefully it serves you. I see so many dentists that unfortunately are actually losing team members, or they're saying things like, "Well, we can't afford to pay you." And what I always say is, "How can we? How can we support you? How can we help you?" Because when we do what happens is that our team works even harder for us because they want to continue to serve. They want to be able to let us know that they appreciate us helping them to grow. So hopefully this was helpful for you. And as you have team members come to you as they will in the future and ask for raises, I want you to actually have this document where you can go ahead and show them, "We would love to be able to pay you more. Let's go ahead and get the training put in place. And once we do, we can look at elevating your pay."

All right. So hopefully that serves you. I really appreciate you taking the time to invest in your knowledge, to be able to grow your practice, and to invest in listening to this podcast, to show you how.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Delivering WOW Podcast, with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

183 How to Discuss a Treatment Plan With Your Patients Aug 17, 2020

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am so excited to be here with you today. So today we're here to talk about how to discuss a treatment plan with your patients. And this is one of the questions that I get asked so often from dentists and dentists inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group. And so I wanted to take some time to actually go through how I do treatment plans in our practice and how we have helped others all over the world, really, to be able to understand how to deliver treatment plans and have success.

Now, one thing that I talk a lot about is how can we learn how to do things for our practice? How can we grow our practice using frameworks? And the reason why frameworks work and why they work every single time is that frameworks are a lot like gravity and gravity is a principle. And so if we drop a pen, the pen will always go to the ground because gravity is actually a principle. And so I love when I am coaching our clients or when I'm teaching and sharing that I talk about frameworks. And so when we start looking at how do you discuss a treatment plan with your patients? I think what we need to actually do is back up to how can we get patients excited and asking us to start treatment without us even having to think about how we're going to present the treatment plan. So stay with me here.

So as we start looking at frameworks, I want to go ahead and share one with you. There are many frameworks that we can implement, but this one is one of a few different frameworks that we have created with delivering well for increasing your case acceptance, for getting more patients to go ahead and get started with their treatment plans. And so this case acceptance framework will help you to be able to, again, close more high-value cases, it will help you to have your team become more confident when they're speaking to patients, it will give them the confidence because patients are going to start saying yes, and they're going to get excited and they're going to want to have conversations even more. So really, really excited about this. So how it goes is actually, let me just go ahead and give you a quick example and then I'll break down some of the strategy. All right.

So as we start looking at procedures that we want to discuss with patients, and this could be Invisalign, it could be veneers, it could be all-porcelain crowns, it could be Perio Protect, it could be Velscope, it could be sealants. What's always going to be most important is that we truly believe that the service that we're offering, the service that we're suggesting, recommending is something that we truly believe in. Because if we don't believe in it, if the hygienist or the dental assistants of the front office doesn't believe in it, then it's not going to be easy for us to talk about something. And in fact, we shouldn't. And so that piece is really very, very important. And so when we start talking about, for example, VELscope, if you don't believe that VELscope can help to reduce the risk of oral cancer getting worse, then you shouldn't discuss it. So I'm going to give an example, an example of sealants.

So recently I actually was on a phone call with a doctor and she was saying that she's just not sure how they can grow their practice even more, like everybody's working really, really hard and they're tired, they're overwhelmed at the end of the day. And she said, "Honestly Anissa, I don't think we can produce anymore." And I said, "Okay, well, let me ask you a question." And she was actually a pediatric dentist. And I said, "Do you truly believe in sealants?" And she said, "I absolutely believe in sealants." And I said, "Are you sure?" She said, "Yes." And I said, "Okay, great. Well, are you always recommending sealants when you know that they can benefit a patient?" And she said, "Well, to be honest with you, not all the time." And I said, "Okay, well, when would you not?"

And she says, "Well, sometimes what happens is that maybe a kid has come in, maybe they've had sealants, maybe even done somewhere else. The sealant has come out and so now we are a little bit shy

and don't always have the conversation because we know that parents are more than likely not going to want to pay for it because the sealant has already ... They've already paid for it." And so I said, "Okay, thank you so much for sharing that." And that's really important because a lot of times we're not having conversations because we are afraid of being objection blocked. And honestly, the reason why we're afraid of being objection blocked is that we've not yet learned the skillset that I'm actually going to share with you now. All right.

So say, for example, in my practice, we have a general practice. We see kids, we see adults inside of our practice, and I am a true believer of sealants. In fact, when I was in dental school, Dr. Filler, who had the clinic for dental students to have their teeth cleaned, he was the first person that really talked to me about sealants. And it was in my freshman year of dental school. And he said, "There's something we can paint on your tooth that would prevent cavities. Would you like to learn more?" And I said, "Yes." And so he told me about a seal and he's like, "We have time today. You want to go ahead and get them done?" So I got them done. And what was really interesting is over the years, every time I would have a cleaning, I would always say, "How are my sealants? Are my sealants okay?" So clearly it was important to me.

What I really thought about later on, as I started looking at strategies to grow my practice, how do I better communicate with my patients? How do I train my team? What I discovered is we were not talking about sealants to adults. And the real reason was just like, the story that I shared earlier is that we were afraid that because insurance might not have covered it, that patients would say, no, I don't want to do it. In fact, we, more than likely had had discussions with patients and patients were saying, is insurance going to cover it? Is insurance going to cover it? No, it's okay. And after hearing that so long, we just stop talking about it.

So let me go ahead and share something that you can utilize to actually become more confident, so your team can become more confident and so that you can help patients get their results and get the treatment that can serve them and really help them. So here's an example with sealants. Ms. Joe, there's something that we can do to paint on your tooth. And it would prevent a cavity by up to 80%. Do you want to learn more? So the patient says, yes. And we say, great. It's called a sealant. How it works is that we paint something on the top of the tooth. And once we do, bacteria and food and sugar can't go through it. And because of that, you're 80% less likely to get a cavity.

Now here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it, but why our patients choose to do it anyway is that they know that number one, it doesn't cost a lot of money. In fact, it's just a fraction of the cost of if you had to have a filling. It doesn't take a lot of time. In fact, we can go ahead and get these started today for you and it typically takes 5 minutes, no more than 10, depending on how many we're doing. And it gives you that peace of mind that you don't have to worry. Now we do have time today to go ahead and get started with doing your sealants. We can do more than likely, maybe four or even six of them today. Would you like to go ahead and get started with getting those done today?

All right. So as we start looking at that framework, my question to you is, do you feel like I was trying to sell you anything? All right. I would love to know, like do you feel, like go ahead and think right now in your head and answer that question. And so I know the answer is no. I said, there's something that can help you. Would you like to know more? They said, yes. I told them what it was, really simple terms. I was not bringing out photos, I was not showing them before and after pictures, I was not breaking down exactly how I do a sealant. I just said it's simple. It's something we paint on the tooth and sugar, food and bacteria can't go through it. So now they're putting that picture in their own mind and then I put out the objection. Now here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it. But why our patients choose to do it anyway.

Now, as we start breaking down the strategy here, what's really powerful is that we are starting with

asking that question. There's something that can help you. Do you want to know more? And this could be, there's something that can help you to reduce the bleeding, that can decrease the chances of you needing gum surgery. And that can prevent your teeth from looking long. And this could be a patient that has perio. Do you want to learn more? They're going to say yes. If the patient has a dark line at the gum, because they've had a PFM crown, there's something that we can do to beautify your smile and remove that dark line. Would you like to learn more?

And so patients say yes, they give you permission. It's almost like when we go to the mall and someone is handing out samples of teriyaki chicken and they're saying, would you like to have a sample? You say yes. Next thing you know, you're looking at the menu and you're enjoying the sample and you're buying Chick-fil-A for lunch, or you're buying Chinese food. It's the same exact thing. And so we get their permission, we go in simple terms. Great. How it works is, really simple, really, really simple terms. So Perio Protect could be great. It's called Perio Protect. How it works is we give you a tray that's very similar to a mouth guard or bleaching tray. There's special gel in there that's made specifically for patients who have bleeding gums and who have gum disease and who are at risk for surgery. And you wear the trays. And once you do it decreases, those risks. Now here's the thing. Insurances not always cover it, but why our patients choose to do it anyway.

So you want to go ahead and make it simple. You want to go ahead and put out the objection. So if the objection that they're going to typically tell you is insurance doesn't cover it, then you will say, here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it. So you put out the objection so that now you can speak to that. Why our patients choose to do it anyway. That is so powerful because people want to understand how they can get things done. And when you let them know that other patients are still doing it anyway, now they realize that they can too. What's really important as well is to go ahead and put through the benefits. I love giving a time benefit. So here's the thing. It doesn't take a lot of time. So even with Perio Protect, it doesn't take a lot of time. In fact, instead of having to come in for many visits where we have to numb you. Now, those visits in office for deep cleaning will decrease because you'll be able to have this tray and you'll be able to do it at home.

Or you can go ahead and get your sealants on it. It just takes five minutes. So you want to put out a time benefit, you want to put out a money benefit. So Perio Protect will save them money because now they will not have to do as many deep cleans in the office. The sealants will save them money because they won't have to do the fillings. And you also want to providepeace of mind. And you will have peace of mind because, and let them know why they'll have peace of mind. All right. The last piece of it is putting out a call to action. And that call to action would be, we do have time today to go ahead and get started with whatever their first steps are. All right.

So that could be taking your scan for your Perio Protect trays. It can be taking your photos, your before photos or your pre-impressions for your diagnostic wax up for your veneers. We do have time today too, I could be doing the procedure and let them know that you have time. And then go ahead and put out the question. Would you like to go ahead and get started today?

All right. So hopefully this serves you, and this helps you. Again, this case acceptance framework is something that I created. I was really frustrated hearing a lot of people talk about case acceptance. And so a few years ago, I really went on this journey of really trying to understand the psychology of why people make decisions, the psychology of why patients make decisions on what's really holding practices back. And I invested hours and hours and hours, and a ton of money, really working one on one with people who are teaching advanced psychology and really started to dive into creating this framework and many other frameworks that will help you grow and get you your results and give you that confidence to be able to help your patients, to be able to get the treatment that they truly deserve. So hopefully this helps you.

Again, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. If this served you if you could do me a huge favor. Inside of our iTunes, inside of our Google, you'll have a place to go ahead and review this podcast. I'd love it if you can just share some feedback, maybe of your takeaways, and how this podcast has helped you. And if you've not yet had a chance to join us inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group, I invite you to join me there. dentalbossmovement.com, every single Wednesday I'm coming on and doing training for you for completely free, helping you to grow your practice. We're also bringing on dental bosses who have done amazing things, where they're sharing their journey from getting started to having success. Again, can't wait to see you inside of our Facebook group, dentalbossmovement.com. And I look forward to chatting with you again, really, really soon.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

182 How to Market Your Startup on a Budget Aug 11, 2020

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering Wow dental podcast. We're talking all about startups today and how you can launch your startup without spending a ton of money. So what brought me to create this podcast is, recently, I was actually in a forum in Dental Town, and one of the marketers that was there made a really good point, is that a lot of times when we have startups, a lot of times people are not thinking about their marketing. They're budgeting for their equipment. They're budgeting for their supplies. They're thinking about costs for their team, but many people are not actually budgeting for their marketing. And they actually made a recommendation that dental practices put in between 20 and $25,000 in their budget to launch their startup.

And what was really interesting is that a lot of times I see those numbers, and because I've seen so many startups launch with a thousand dollar budget, or even less, I know that there's actually another way. And so today what I'm actually going to be doing is sharing that framework and how we're able to get startups to be able to get to success. And what I've seen happen so many times are startups that are coming in and they are typically being able to fill up one or two months of their schedule. I've seen startups follow the framework and become fee for service. I've seen them hire an associate within six months. I've seen startups go to a million dollars. And so the framework actually absolutely works, and so super excited to be able to share.

To give you a little backstory, how this actually started was, about maybe three or four years ago, Ashley [inaudible 00:02:07], many of you guys know her, she is the founder of the Startup Facebook Group. She actually reached out to me and she said, "Anissa, I was listening to your podcast, and I heard you talking about the power of Facebook Live. And I've never done a Facebook Live before, but I actually went onto my personal page and I did a Facebook Live, and so I wanted to share it with you." And it was actually her and it was really, really, a really great video. She was at the site of her startup. She was in her car and she was making a huge announcement that she was leaving her associateship and that she was going to be creating this amazing dental practice.

Now, when you look at the office location, it didn't look so nice. Like it was old, it needed a lot of work, and she said, "Isn't it beautiful," right? And she says, "Well, not yet, but it will be, and I'm going to have you to follow me and to be able to see what we're doing."

So she reached out to me and she shared that video and I said, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Let's go ahead and create your practice's Facebook page right away." And she said, "But I don't have any patients yet." And I said, "No, let's go ahead and do it and we're going to document the journey." And so through that process, she started to document her journey, and between documenting her journey and some strategy with Facebook marketing, she was able to get about a 1000 or maybe 1100 people following her practice. By the time she opened, she had over 50 patients booked, and it really led to a lot of success and people in her community knowing what she was known for.

Now, if we fast forward three or four years, what's been really exciting is how many startups who have come to me and said, "I saw what you did for Ashley. Can you help me?" And the answer is yes. And so, what's been really cool is being able to utilize this framework on practice after practice after practice, and it works every single time. It's almost like a principle or almost like a principle which is gravity, which is if I drop my pen on the ground, it's going to go to the ground. Why? Because it's a principle. It always works.

And so when we start looking at learning how to grow our practice through frameworks, whether it's going to be a marketing framework, a startup framework, whether it's going to be how can we hire our

team, case acceptance leadership, once we work in frameworks of proven processes and systems, it's going to be pretty simple to be able to get the same result.

And so, what we have in terms of startup framework is really looking at, first of all, being willing to step out of your comfort zone. There's a lot of time spent in going to dental school and in building our startup and then having our dream, and there are so many people out there that need to hear our message. They need to know about us so that we can help them.

And so, what's really interesting is that the first episode of this podcast, if you go back and listen to it, it was terrible. My office manager said, "Dr. Holmes, it sounds like you're reading." And I said, "It's okay because I have a calling and I have some way that I can help people. And so I know that once I continue and I'm consistent, I will get better, and people will hear my message and I'll be able to help them." And so that's the first thing that I encourage all of you to do as you're looking at building your startup, is to be willing to step out of your comfort zone, be willing to stretch out and say, "You know what? This really matters."

From there, what's really important is showing up. And I always recommend that you do your first Facebook Live as a video to come on and let people know what you're doing, why that community matters, why you're launching your startup, what your practice is going to look like when it's open, how your patients are going to feel when they come to your practice, right? Those are the key elements. And from there, you're going to want to be consistent. What's been really cool, and we have evolved over the years and we've seen things that have really worked very well, such as, every Thursday, coming on, even when you're not open yet, and doing a Tooth Talk Thursday, talking about dental topics, talking about why it's important to go to the dentist, what's the difference between cleaning your teeth at home and in the practice, talking about three different ways that you can replace missing teeth, or what's the difference between a veneer and a crown, right?

These are ways that you can start building a following. And once you do that, what will happen is that people will start to look forward to what you're doing, taking people behind the scenes of, "We are getting our sign and I'm so excited. Let me show you our sign," and they will see your excitement, right? Getting on and sharing your story is so powerful.

One of the startups that we had, Dr. Paul Win that we work with in New Orleans, his second video had 15,000 views. And what's really, really special is that he came on right before he actually opened his practice and he did a video and he talked about what it really took to become a dentist, that he had tried multiple times to get into dental school and he didn't get in. And he was wondering if he was good enough. And he went through the dental school, he got in. And over the last few years leading up to opening this practice, he's been given an opportunity to work in a practice where they've done very advanced dentistry, and this is his calling and he's there to serve. And he's so proud of what they're building and what they've built and how they're going to be able to help people. And it's so powerful.

And so the first thing is showing up, taking people behind the scenes. Now, there is a second step and this is where a lot of people, they can do the first step, but they get stuck on this second step, and it's really understanding the power of Facebook marketing. What's very special about Facebook is that Facebook has some very unique features, where once you're getting on and you're doing your videos, where you can actually start to accumulate what we call a retargeting audience. So anyone who's watched your videos, anyone that's commented on your videos, now you can actually start grouping them in an audience, so that when you're boosting future videos, and ultimately when you start running ad campaigns for your high value services, your implants, your Invisalign, once you open your practice, now you will be able to show those future posts to people who have already seen you, people who have already connected with you.

And so that's one of the most powerful features of Facebook marketing. And so a lot of people will ask me, "Anissa, well, what sort of audiences should we set up with startups?" And it's typically going to be, because many people don't have a website, you don't have patients yet, right? But what you do is have the ability to keep showing up and doing your videos. And so you have your video views audience, you have your engagement audience, right? All of the people that have commented and shared.

And then from there, what you can do is you can actually build what we call lookalike audiences. And so you can go to Facebook and you can say, "Facebook, give me a group of people that are just like people who have commented on my videos. They like similar Facebook pages. They have similar Facebook friends. They live in similar locations, and let's get that expanded." And so that's the strategy of how we're able to get startups to be able to have this audience of loyal followers.

Now, there are some other little tips that you can utilize such as, on your Facebook Lives, you're going to want to ask people, "What part of town are you watching from?" And those comments will increase the number of newsfeeds that Facebook actually puts it into. There's some strategy there, right? Also, letting people know, "It would mean the world to me if you share this with everyone that you know. We are so excited about being in this community and this message that we're sharing today," especially with your Tooth Talk Thursdays, "this message can be very helpful. So if you can do us a huge favor and share." And so, what happens is that, again, you start to build this following.

Now, there are some additional things that you can look at. One of the things that we put in place with Ashley, and one of the things that we've done for the other startups that we work with, is starting to actually create an opportunity to collect emails. And so, as we start getting closer to opening, one thing that we love is actually integrating in what we call a funnel. And it's something that takes honestly about 30 minutes to an hour to set up. This is something that we show our startups how to do, and it doesn't take very long. We actually give them the template.

And so now, they can actually go ahead and collect email addresses, giving people an opportunity to be able to be able to register to become a VIP of the practice, to be able to register to have an opportunity to win a $5,000, sorry, a $1,000, that would be a great 5,000, a $1,000 gift card or free teeth whitening for life. And so, you give that opportunity. You also give them an opportunity to get a special bonus gift, to be notified when you are opening, are taking appointments, to be notified when you have your VIP grand opening party. And again, they get a bonus gift.

And that bonus gift can be something like when you schedule within whatever time if you are already making appointments, then we will be able to give you special pricing off of your first visit, maybe a $50 off, right? So it won't be every visit, but maybe that first visit, and there's a timeline there. So that creates that urgency for them to go ahead and schedule.

And so between, like I said, showing up, between understanding how to boost and use Facebook and implement Facebook ads correctly, understanding on that next step, again, how to be able to collect email addresses. And that's very powerful because as you are opening now, you can eat email everyone and say, "We're open." And if you have an online scheduling link, you can go ahead and send it out for them to go ahead and book your appointment.

And so, in this last 12 minutes, hopefully this has been super helpful for you to share. It doesn't take a lot of money. A lot of times, people are spending on mailers and Google ads and all of these things that are incredibly expensive. And to be honest with you, the problem there is that, a lot of times, people don't know who you are. And so you have to now not only spend a lot of money on marketing, you know, mailers, you're looking at sometimes $5,000 for a mail drop, but they don't know you, which means that a lot of times now you have to put in discounts.

And for me, that's not the way to get started with your career in dentistry. You want to be able to attract

the right fit, people who are looking at you and saying, "You know what? I know you're the expert, I know you can help me and I'm ready to come in." And that's exactly what you're able to do with Facebook.

So hopefully this helps you. I love working with startups. What's been really cool over the last few years is seeing so many of them grow. Now, we actually have a startup mastermind where startups are coming together every month, which is really cool, sharing what they're doing, what they're working on, coming together to discuss where they are in their marketing journey. And it's really amazing to see. And typically, people will ask me, "Well, how soon before we open should we get started? How soon before we open should we contact you and get started with our marketing?" And typically, it's between three and four months of opening is what I would typically recommend. We do have people contact us ahead of time and I say, "Just wait until three or four months. That's a sweet spot."

And what's really cool, and I'll share this quick story, is does this always work? And I'll share the story of Cassandra. Cassandra came to me and she said, "You know what? I've seen you work with Shana Home. And I've seen what you've done with Tiffany and Tiana. I've seen what you've done with Ashley and so many people. And so I knew if it's worked for them, it'll work for me." But what was really interesting is that she started doing her posts. She started showing up and doing our Facebook Lives and, well, the engagement did not come.

And she came to me, she said, "Am I doing something wrong? Like what's going on? I'm really getting frustrated." And I said, "You know what? The only thing is that we haven't given it enough time. Like you've been doing this for three weeks, four weeks. So just trust the process, trust the framework." And sure enough, when she opened, she had two months of patients there for her. Within two months, she actually decided to go totally fee for service. Within six months, she's now looking at bringing on an associate and she's actually saved cash out of profits to be able to equipped new operatories for expansion. And the only marketing that she's done is social media and Facebook marketing, implementing the framework.

And so, if she can do it, if others can do it, you certainly can too. So one of the most common questions I get is, "Anissa, Can you help me?" And the answer is yes. And so whether you have just purchased a practice and you're ready to get patients, or you're building a brand new startup, our framework is here to help you. I'm here to help you and to lead you so that you too can have the same level of success as so many startups that we work with. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook, Facebook Messenger, or reach out through our website. I'd love to be able to have a chat.

All right, guys, I hope this was super helpful for you. We look forward to seeing you inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group, where we have dentists that are coming together for support and action taking. And again, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We'll chat soon.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering Wow podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

181 - Why Everyone's Talking About Burst Oral Care! Jun 25, 2020

With so many toothbrushes on the market, it can be overwhelming to choose the best one for yourself, your family, and your patients. Well, I’m happy to inform you that you can finally stop searching for the best toothbrush brand (we’ve found it!).

BURST toothbrushes are clinically proven to remove up to 10x more plaque than a manual toothbrush. They reduce gingivitis (bleeding gums) and have an incredible one-month battery life, which means you can take yours with you anywhere. This top-rated toothbrush has got everyone in the dentistry industry talking and is quickly becoming one of the best toothbrush brands in the world.

On this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Brittany Stewart, the President and COO of BURST to talk about their amazing product in more detail. She also reveals an exciting opportunity for dentists (and their teams) to generate passive income with BURST sonic toothbrushes!

In this episode, we discussed:

What BURST is known for beyond their incredible toothbrushes
How the BURST toothbrush was created
Unique features of the BURST toothbrushes
How you can turn BURST into a source of passive income for your practice
A brief overview of BURST’s new dental floss
How to become a BURST ambassador

If you’d like to find out more about BURST, you can check out their website.

To find out more about BURST’s incredible ambassador program, head over to burstoralcare.com/ambassadorprogram

For more information and to explore other episodes, click here.

180 - Why I'm Excited About Dental Intel's New Morning Huddle Jun 18, 2020

Are you making the most of your morning huddles?

Dental Intelligence is the smartest software ever built for dentists. Their innovative technology helps dentists keep on top of tracking, analyzing, and growing their dental practices.

Dental Intel has recently launched a new Morning Huddle software that helps practice’s make the most of their morning huddles. The morning huddle is arguably the most important time of your day because it gives the entire team the opportunity to come together, review targets, celebrate victories, track progress, and so much more.

I was so excited when I found out about Dental Intel’s Morning Huddle that I couldn’t wait to invite my good friend, Jarom Dastrup, onto the podcast to talk about this amazing new software feature in more detail.

In this episode, we discuss:

What a traditional ‘morning huddle’ usually looks like
Why your practice needs to start every day with a morning huddle
How morning huddles can help you reverse engineer success
How Dental Intel’s new Morning Huddle software works
The importance of having a morning huddle
New features included with Dental Intel’s Morning Huddle software update
How Morning Huddle can help your practice drive more revenue

Want to find out more about Morning Huddle and how to make your next morning huddle a complete success?

Download Dental Intel’s e-book – a 30-page document that explains everything you need to know about morning huddles, including why they’re so important and how to structure a morning huddle for maximum impact.

179 - Integrating Sleep Medicine Into Your Practice with Vivos Jun 11, 2020

Sleep apnea is more common than you might think. If left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to potentially serious health risks, which is why it’s so important to target the root cause of sleep-disordered breathing.

To help further understand what sleep apnea is and how we can help treat patients suffering from the condition, I invited Bryan Ferre, Chief Evangelist at Vivos Therapeutics Inc., on this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast.

The Vivos® System is a clinical breakthrough in the treatment of sleep-disordered breathing for individuals of all ages. Their treatment even includes more difficult cases of sleep apnea, including mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea resulting from underdeveloped upper and lower jaws.

But, how does the Vivos® System work? And, why should you consider integrating sleep medicine into your dental practice? Bryan explains all in this episode of the podcast!

In this episode, we discuss:

How sleep apnea treatments can help increase production per visit
The touching story about why Bryan is so passionate about sleep apnea treatment
The percentage of people who suffer from sleep apnea
How the Vivos® System treats the underlying condition of sleep apnea
How to seamlessly implement sleep medicine into your practice
The real value of sleep medicine and helping patients to overcome the issues that come with sleep apnea
Reasons why underdeveloped jaws have become so common

If you’d like to learn more about the Vivos® System, you can check out their website and visit their conference website, breathingwellness.org.

To listen to this episode of the podcast, go to: deliveringwow.com/179

178 - Why You Need to Discover Your Story with Joshua Scott Jun 04, 2020

What’s your story? Every dental practice has a story and sharing your story with patients can do remarkable things for the growth of your practice. But, how can you tell your story in the most authentic way possible?

Joshua Scott, the CEO of Studio 8E8, believes that creating authentic stories and bringing your story to life is key if you want to ‘captivate and connect’ with people. Studio 8E8 is dentistry’s story-driven marketing agency.

I’ve always believed that stories are the heart of a great dental practice, which is why I’m a huge fan of Studio 8E8 and how they can help dentists create incredible campaigns and strategies. I’m thrilled to have Joshua Scott join me on this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast to learn more about his business and how they can help propel growth.

(On a side note, we recorded this episode just before the last Delivering WOW Summit in New Orleans. Joshua had some great insights, so I wanted to share this episode with you and who knows, maybe you’ll catch Josh at the next Delivering WOW Summit!)

In this episode, we discussed:

How Studio 8E8 helps dental practices tell their stories
Discovering your story and learning how to tell it the right way to the right people
The importance of using authentic story-driven marketing and how this type of marketing can help grow your practice
Using video to tell your story, gain credibility, and engage with patients
Why you need a stand-out website to catch patient’s attention

Want to learn more about Studio 8E8?

Head over to the Studio 8E8 website to find out how they can help you bring your story to life!

To listen to this episode of the podcast, go to: deliveringwow.com/178

When things slip through the cracks... Jun 02, 2020

177 - How Dental Videos Can Grow Your Practice May 28, 2020

Waiting rooms are far from being the most exciting places in the world. However, there is a way that you can make your practice’s waiting room entertaining, educational and even (dare we say it) fun for patients.

On this exciting episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Michael Sernik, the CEO of Channel D, a company that creates fun, engaging, and customizable videos to play in your dental office reception area. Their bite-sized videos are high-quality and designed to stimulate interest in the treatments your practice provides. You can even customize videos to incorporate things like your team’s photos, names, logo, and a call to action that drives engagement and practice growth.

Channel D is so creative and unique. By showing short, fun, and informative videos to patients as they wait in your reception area, you can keep them entertained while showcasing a consistent message that educates patients on your latest treatment options. This is an incredible service that I highly recommend, especially if you want to make sure your patients come back to your practice for their next dentist appointment.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Channel D was founded and what they are known for
How dental videos can create interest in your treatments
How to drive patients to accept treatment by focusing on the damaging result of the existing condition
The importance of using videos that contain emotional triggers and humanize the dentist
A brief overview of the process of working with Channel D
Tips to get patients to pay attention to your videos
How dental videos for your waiting room can help improve your team’s clinical knowledge

To listen to this episode of the podcast, go to: deliveringwow.com/177

Why I'm Starting My You Tube Channel May 26, 2020

Hi guys, I hope all as well wanted to come on today and tell you some really exciting news. We are, as many of you guys know starting our YouTube channel, which is dental boss TV, I am so excited about it. But actually wanted to share a little bit of the behind the scenes of getting started with this YouTube channel and why I decided to actually go ahead and create the channel. Okay, so today is all about how I decided to start a YouTube channel, what we're going to be helping people with, and quite frankly, what I had to do to figure this thing out because as many of you have heard me talk about before, I don't know anything about YouTube. As you guys know, I love social media. I love Facebook marketing, but YouTube is something that I have not spent any time on. And so as I started to look at how can I help more people How can I do more teaching? How can I spread the word? I thought you know, what would be really cool is to create a YouTube channel, dental boss TV, where every week I could give a lesson, right? And it would be a quick lesson to be able to help you to grow your business. But the issue a few things is I did not quite know the tech. I didn't know the format of how to how to be able to communicate and teach effectively on YouTube because I've typically done it on Facebook or inside of our coaching programs. Or if I'm speaking on stage, and I actually did not understand the whole keyword thing, and all of that stuff. And so what I actually decided to do was to seek out some friends who had really great YouTube channels that had a lot of followers. followers that were doing exactly what I wanted. And so I reached out to one of my, one of my mastermind members in my inner circle. And he said, you know, you've got to speak to the sky, Scott. And so I spoke to Scott and decided before the end of the conversation, that he was going to be the one that was going to help me to launch my YouTube channel. And so what's been interesting is that you know, sometimes we are the teacher, and sometimes we are the students. And I went in and I said, Listen, I don't know, anything, but I know that I want to be able to have this opportunity to help. And I know that at first, it's going to maybe suck. And as I do it over and over again, it's going to get better kind of like when I did my first podcast if you go back For the first episode, it was pretty bad. And now I can get on and talk, you know, without, without any effort, right. And so I told him, I said, I know. The first episodes may not be as great as we're going to be. But I want to shortcut and fast track that time. And so if you can, if you can mentor me if you can coach me, I also know that I want really cool thumbnails. I want to be able to make sure that the thumbnails are interesting and unique and it grabs people's attention so that they will want to watch the videos. And so what's been really cool is I actually hired him about a month ago. And so far, what we've actually done is I've actually done a complete photo shoot with him giving me the exact poses of what I would need to do for my thumbnails given me examples of Other people, he actually went in and did keyword research for, for our industry. Interestingly, he used to own a dental lab, and he's got a bunch of dentists and his family, which is awesome. So he already knows the dental space. But we actually created a plan of different categories or types of content that I would teach and looking at keywords of what people are searching for, what people need, where they're getting stuck, what dentists need help with, and that would allow me to be able to actually speak to what people are saying that they need help with, which is really cool. Now, there are so many lessons here because I, you know, I had a desire to do something. I didn't know how to do it. I essentially found someone who already had the knowledge I decided to know what This is my result, I want to shortcut my path. And so I said, you know, I'd love to hire you so that I can get your knowledge. And the lessons are that also because of that, I said, You know, I want an interesting thumbnail. And not only was he able to help me with that, but he was able to say, here are other poses or thumbnail photos that people have done, that have already worked have already been proven to work. Instead of me trying to figure it out. I'm literally in the photoshoot looking at all of these examples. And so as you are going to our YouTube channel, you're going to start to see these images that are created and these thumbnails and, and you'll be like, Oh gosh, I remember that. She said that she did that. The other really cool thing is, you know, having an expert. It was so cool because I didn't have to do the research. I didn't have to guess what people need help with. There are actually, you know, their systems already created of how to do that research. And having someone to step in and say, this is the plan, this is the system. Really, really easy for me to follow. And, you know, now we are actually going back to the past videos that we put on YouTube that have been more of an interview style. And for consistency, we're changing out those thumbnails. And he's given me instruction of how to train my internal team with delivering well to actually go in and up to update those images as well. So giving me instruction of how to train my team now. Why am I telling you all of this right? What was the purpose of this story? Number one is just to take you behind the scenes of what we're doing with our YouTube channel and why I decided to create it. But also, there are so many lessons and so many people come to me all the time and they say, Anissa How is it, that you're able to do so many things? Right? How is it that, you know, other people are trying to figure things out, and all of a sudden, it looks like you are already an expert. And the fact is that I'm really not an expert on YouTube. But one of the actions that I take and the action that people like us take, who get to results faster, is that we seek out the experts, we seek out the mentors, we are okay. with not being great at first and going ahead and doing it anyway. And constantly saying, This is what I did, how can I make it better? This is what I did. And what's really interesting as we started to look at the tech right and I'm so used to using my phone to do Facebook Lives, and You don't even use my phone right now for this podcast. And I, you know, have a nicer camera. But that's more of a learning curve right with video and transferring of files and different lenses. And I know that if I had to now incorporate that, in addition, to also all the other things that we're doing, which is do your photoshoot, and just start doing content if I had to now learn a new piece of technology, in order to get started, it might be a block. And so it was really important for me and decided to start this channel was thinking about what are the things that are going to keep me stuck from taking action and eliminating them and so although it would have been nicer for me to record with a DSLR camera, I knew that that would be a block for me, right? One thing that he recommended, you guys hear my dogs barking in the background. One thing that he recommended was that I actually record in my office, right instead of recording in my home office or recording, you know, out somewhere, he said, you know, it'd be really cool to record in your office. And so now I had to create a specific time where I can go into my office. And I found that time, right. So I said, You know what, I can go in on a Friday afternoon because we close the half-day, and I can record my videos then. And so it's just, the whole point of it is guys, like, whatever you want to achieve, right? Whatever you want to learn. Maybe it's going to be, you know, how do you build systems that will last How do you understand how to use social media, right now to be able to increase productivity or profitability, how to be able to improve case acceptance, right? Anything that you want to learn, right how to schedule effectively, how to become a better leader. There are always people there that have the knowledge. You know, maybe it's asking your friends, your colleagues, you know, who have you used that's been successful. You know, maybe it's making a post inside of our delivering wall movement, Facebook group for all of you who are dentists, right? Maybe it's seeking out maybe it's messaging me directly, and saying, Hey, I'm struggling with this. Can you help me with this? Or is there someone you recommend, right? Because there's always knowledge out there, you just have to. Once you make a decision that that's what you want. Then you just have to go ahead and get Started and so that's my message for you. Hopefully that's helpful for you and that serves you. As always, I really love connecting with all of you guys, and I look forward to chatting with you guys on our next episode.

176 - How to Increase Hygiene Profitability with Jennifer Turner May 21, 2020

On this episode of the podcast, I’m thrilled to be joined by Jennifer Turner, our very own Dental Hygiene Profitability Coach at Delivering WOW.

Jennifer helps dental practices drive growth with key metrics, KPI's, scorecards, and business process improvement systems. Essentially, she gives you what you need to run a successful dental practice. Jennifer has had many incredible accomplishments throughout her career, including her former role as the Editor in Chief of Preventive Dentistry Canada, developing numerous webinars and authoring articles within the dental hygiene industry.

Nowadays, Jennifer’s primary focus is helping dentists get ‘the lightbulb moment’ where they learn to believe in themselves, grow their careers and scale their dental practices.

In this episode, we discuss:

Who Jennifer is and what she’s accomplished throughout her career
Why Jennifer enjoys making dental professionals see that they are capable of achieving more
How Jennifer can help the hygiene department increase revenue
The importance of focusing on education to help scale your hygiene department

If you’d like to learn more from Jennifer and find out how you can grow, scale, and market your dental practice, consider joining the Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind group, where Jennifer is an active coach and you’ll learn about practice growth, marketing, and so much more!

To explore other episodes and for more info go to: deliveringwow.com/176

Our Major Pivot May 19, 2020

Hi, guys. Wow, it has been a long time for one of the podcast in my car. And I'm super excited to be coming back on we have had so many changes over the last eight weeks in, in the world in dentistry in my practice and delivering Wow. And, boy, it's finally where I am coming up for breath. Prior to COVID-19. Of course we had our Delivering WOW Summit. And it's so interesting because the summit as the summit ended, which was on the Saturday, it was actually the Friday before that things started to shut down and we really all became aware of what was really happening. We had no idea where we would be today, but really interesting. The summer

It ended on Saturday a little bit early. And on Sunday morning, headed back home. And then Monday, I'm actually closeed my practice. And so it's been a really interesting few weeks. So I just wanted to catch you guys up on what has been happening and what we are currently doing, to make recommendations of how you can can reopen your practice and things that you should be focusing on. So, for the last eight weeks, we have been honestly working our butts off helping practices helping owners helping teams, many of you guys know of course that I'm the founder of the Platinum mastermind, we went into overdrive, realizing that doctors are going to need so much not only just supportive, what to do to work on their businesses, but just mental support, to be able to get them through this time.

And you know what we're working on was distractions honestly just working on your business.

We went into teaching virtual meetings, how to use zoom. We went into making sure that you knew how to effectively work on your business things you could work on just sharing a few things that we helped practices with.

was really looking at creating, for example, KPI calendar. So what are the things that you do daily, weekly and monthly?

That

that will allow you to have that checklist. So if you are hiring a new team member, or you are having a team member, that's out everybody has that checklist of what's done for each individual team member, we actually went a deep, deeper and a bit further for our practices that we had done these calendars with. We started talking to them about the power of documentation.

Documentation of exactly what you do. And so looking at, you know, for example, the 10 things that a scheduling coordinator does in a day writing down where the whatare the steps of each individual action item that you're doing. And if you have the ability to create recordings to talk through exactly what you do, or to even screen share how you are, how you're doing your different steps of your procedures really, really powerful. We went into showing you know how to save these videos, save these documents in folders within Google Drive and then organizing it within columns and different categories within Asana. So we started geeking out on some pretty, pretty amazing stuff. So that now practices have virtual SOPs or standard operating procedures.

We obviously had our virtual summit which allowed us to

restream our summit videos, which is really awesome our speakers really brought it this year and I think it's because they realize you know what they were there for a purpose and they were going to give and pour out all of themselves into the attendees who made a decision to

to fly in for the summit and so pretty, pretty dynamic event, we wind it up again, streaming that photo for three weeks on our delivering wall Facebook page is pretty, pretty awesome. We're able to get that

started pretty quickly. Of course, we had lots of videos and interviews with experts and hiring Virtual Console. I started teaching you know, marketing systems and then we we ended up having

over 900 practices join us in our Platinum mastermind gold program, which is I totally did not expect that but

What it really showed me is that doctors really understood the power of training and working on their businesses and they stood up and said yes, I need help me coaching. And so we opened up our platform we made major pivots and shifts. So in the past we have had our monthly marketing campaign service that provided

images and the copy or the words for Facebook ads, articles, etc. Monthly campaigns that included flyer suppose in the office and the newsletter words to send out to patients and all that stuff. You know, we have that service. We incorporated that into gold. We started having weekly challenges with that, that free access that we gave to those practices in gold. It was really cool again seeing them do their KPI calendars.

Seeing them create

a ton of engagement and grow their Facebook audiences, we actually worked on setting up Facebook audiences. And so many of them had so many people reaching out even during these times asking for appointments. So pretty awesome stuff. So where are we now we are essentially two months.

Two months in and practices are opening back up. And so what's going to be really important now is looking at how you schedule and block scheduling and how can you maximize your revenue and in the year really, really well. And I can tell you, I've been on vacation before for a month, come back and we still had our best year ever. And so I'm going to encourage all of you to be really strategic about cash flow, looking at historicals in terms of what were your production numbers, breaking it out down into services, you know, what was the revenue per service was

Is what was the collections historically? What were your expenses historically and really looking at planning? And saying, Okay, well, how fast can we not only get to where we were before, but how fast can we surpass the revenue that we had, because we do have a huge opportunity, we have a clean slate, in terms of a schedule. And so making decisions to look at our time and be very strategic about where replace patience is going to be huge to be able to determine the revenue that we have and how we end the year. And so what I'm recommending is that you look at time blocks, and the only thing that gets placed into those time blocks are specific services. So and the services are based on on revenue, right? So if you have a time block for an hour, and you're able to do four fillings in an hour, then that's what you're doing.

going to want to do so making time blocks where you're either doing a crown, or you're doing four fillings or you're doing a root canal, anything that allows you to be able to predict your revenue for that hour, it's going to be significant. Also, looking at hygiene, once you're able to start bringing in your hygiene patients, and looking at scheduling those, those perio patients, it's going to be really, really

important because those patients are the ones who need the most help, right? They have active infection, many of them and disease and so we want to make sure we prioritize those, those patients and then again, being strategic about placing them on our schedule in those blocks will ensure that we're able to be

be able to predict

our revenue. So really, really powerful stuff.

One thing that we have to look at as well

With the additional cost of PPV, and the shortage of appointments, the importance of really looking at getting patients in from multiple procedures per visit and letting them know, you know, we have many patients we're wanting to schedule, you know, when you're calling them and, you know, maybe they have three crowns that are unscheduled or they have seven fillings or, you know, five fillings and saying, we want to make sure that we give you priority, because this work, we know is really important that we get you scheduled for so we're giving you that call to give you priority to get you scheduled. But this is the thing, like once we schedule you, it might be a while before we can get you for your next visit. And and so what we're recommending that you do is do come in and do all of your treatment that you can in one visit, you know if you've got to look at financial arrangements, then look at that, but really it's going to be very powerful.

And the thing is that many people are working from home and they have flexible schedules. And so in the past, they might not have been able to do these longer appointments, but now they have the ability to do so. Which is, which is going to be very helpful for them. And then also in terms of your actual expenses in your, in your practice, if you're able to do three patients in a day instead of eight patients, and that's going to decrease the risk because you have fewer people in and out of your practice. You also have, you know, less time so you have to be breaking down cleaning down the rooms, less PP because you are with one patient for the day instead of six or seven. And so it's going to make more financial sense and even for the patient again, if they're having to come and do one filling, one filling, one filling the peep the PP for that, you know section of seven fillings is going to

be significantly higher than if they come in one visit. So definitely recommending that you have those conversations with patients in terms of multiple procedures in one visit. Alright, so hopefully this was super helpful for you. I have really missed doing these podcasts in my car. But I think it's a really great way to kind of take you behind the scenes of, of what we're doing, what's working, how we're helping people, and giving you some really clear tips in and ideas of how you can grow your business. All right. Hopefully that's helpful and we will chat soon.

175 - How to Save on Dental Supplies with Crazy Dental Prices May 14, 2020

I’m super excited to be joined by Jay Glazer and Howie Friedman from the Crazy Dental Price Club on this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast to talk about how you can save a lot of money on dental supplies.

Crazy Dental Prices is a dental company and manufacturer authorized dealer. They specialize in finding and offering guaranteed cheapest pricing and the very best in class logistics.

Founded in 1985, Crazy Dentist Prices has decades of experience helping dentists save money on essential supplies. The company operates as a member only service, granting dentists access to crazy low prices on all of their favorite brand name products.

On this episode, we discuss:

What Crazy Dental Prices is known for and how they help dentists save money on supplies
How Crazy Dental Prices can help you plan for profits
How to make purchasing supplies less stressful and less time-consuming
How to know if you need help from an account manager
Why you should seriously consider shopping for dental supplies with Crazy Dental Prices

To find out more about Crazy Dental Prices, check out their website and sign up today to start benefiting from their incredible service.

If you want to save 10% off your order with Crazy Dental Prices, use code WOW10 at checkout.

When you checkout with your first order that’s over $1000, use the code WOWLIGHT and Crazy Dental Prices will send you a FREE curing light!

To explore other episodes and for more info go to: deliveringwow.com/175

174 - Protect your Practice in Difficult Times with Dental Safety Net May 07, 2020

Have you ever worried about what would happen to your dental practice if you were unable to work?

Jordan and Bryan Brenner wanted to create a safety net for dentists so that they would be protected in their time of need. So, they co-founded Dental Safety Net, a company that connects dentists to help support each other during difficult times.

Dental Safety Net is a network of dentists and practitioners who are willing to go above and beyond for their fellow doctors. Their mission is to provide peace of mind for dentists and their families in times of need. If you have to unexpectedly stop working for whatever reason, Dental Safety Net has your back. They make sure that your business is protected as well as you and your family’s financial well-being.

In this episode of Delivering WOW, I talk to Jordan and Bryan Brenner about their company and how they can help dentists when life takes an unexpected turn.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Bryan and Jordan launched Dental Safety Net
What Dental Safety Net is and how they can help give dentists peace of mind
The power of forming groups of dentists to support each other
What it’s like to be a member of Dental Safety Net
How Dental Safety Net has helped real dentists in difficult times
How to become a member of Dental Safety Net

To learn more about Dental Safety Net, you can visit their website or give them a call (206) 880-0513

To explore other episodes and for more info go to: deliveringwow.com/174

173 - Why You Need to Invest in Team Training with Laura Hatch Apr 30, 2020

As dental professionals, we all want to provide the best care possible for our patients. But, it’s not just about your capability and skill as a dentist. Delivering ‘WOW’ to patients starts with the front office team and making sure patients have a great experience from the moment they schedule an appointment to the moment they leave the practice.

So, how can you make sure you’re delivering a WOW experience to each of your patients?

Joining me on this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast is Laura Hatch, the Chief Vision Officer at Front Office Rocks. Laura is committed to learning how to manage and empower team members. She is a Fellow of the American Association of Dental Office Managers, a national and international speaker for dental authorities like AADOM, Patterson, and Mid-Atlantic Dental Society, and has been recognized as one of DPR’s Top 25 Women in Dentistry for 2016.

She and her team at Front Office Rocks help dental practices train their teams in a way that makes sense for them. They focus on patient retention and carry out training online through videos and webinars, which means you can train your entire team whenever and wherever your staff learns best, desktop, phone, or tablet.

In this episode, we discuss:

Tips to improve training processes in your practice
Why you should always schedule a time for training
The importance of investing in training
Why investing in your team is the best investment you’ll ever make
The connection between the front and back office of your practice

Want to learn more about Front Office Rocks and their training? Visit their website and discover how they can help change the way you train your team!

Don’t forget to grab a copy of Laura’s book, ‘Step Away from the Drill: Your Dental Front Office Handbook to Accelerate Training and Elevate Customer Service.’

To explore other episodes and for more info go to: deliveringwow.com/173

172 - How to Create a Dental Membership Program with Jordon Comstock Apr 23, 2020

Are you thinking about creating a dental membership program for your patients?

Dental membership programs can help dentists better-serve their patients. But, this type of dental membership can also help generate predictable recurring revenue for your practice and in this episode of Delivering WOW, you’ll find out how.

I’m joined by the founder and CEO of BoomCloud, Jordon Comstock. BoomCloud is a dental membership software company that enables dentists to reduce dependence on dental insurance by creating an in-house membership program for their practice. They make it easy for dental practices to administer membership programs that generate recurring revenue, attract uninsured patients, retain patients and help increase case acceptance.

In this episode, we discuss:

How BoomCloud helps dental practices build dental membership programs
How a dental membership program can help you to create and maintain an additional income stream for your practice
The benefits of building a dental membership program
Why patients want to sign-up for dental memberships
The problem with traditional dental insurance companies
How a dental membership can reduce your dependence on third-party insurance companies
How dental memberships help to increase patient loyalty and retention
A brief overview of monthly and yearly pricing plans

To find out more about creating Dental Membership Programs with help from BoomCloud, visit their website or email Jordon directly – jordon@boomcloudapps.com

You can also download Jordon’s eBook – How to Create & Grow a Dental Membership Program.

To listen to this episode of the podcast, click here.

171 - How Tray Therapy Helps Patients with Gum Disease with Tanya Dunlap Apr 16, 2020

Patients who have periodontal disease often struggle the most between office visits, which is why I invited Tanya Dunlap, the Managing Director at Perio Protect LLC, onto this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast to talk about their non-invasive trays.

Perio Protect LLC use Perio Tray Therapy to give patients with periodontal disease an effective option with prescription tray delivery of a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide gel deep into periodontal pockets. Using this type of non-invasive tray therapy delivers treatment deep below the gum line, helping patients achieve much healthier gums.

Tanya joins me for a highly educational discussion about tray therapy, how you can help patients get healthier gums and how you can implement this type of treatment in your own dental practice.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Perio Protect helps patients get healthier
What type of patients would really benefit from Perio Protect’s non-invasive trays
What makes the Perio Tray Therapy different to anything else on the market
How the Perio tray works and what drugs you can use with it
How to select patients to be a candidate for tray therapy
Financial aspects of Perio Protect’s Tray Therapy including insurance and billing information

To start implementing Perio Protect’s Tray Therapy treatment in your own practice, head over to providers.perioprotect.com or email support@perioprotect.com – remember to mention Delivering WOW to get the discounted rate and receive your first set of Perio Trays for FREE!

To listen to this episode of the podcast, click here.

170 - How to Become a Better Leader with Dr. Ankur Gupta Apr 09, 2020

Do you want to learn how to become the best leader for your dental team? If you’re nodding yes, you’re going to learn a lot from this episode of the podcast, where I’m joined by Dr. Ankur Gupta.

Dr. Ankur Gupta completed his General Practice Residency in 2005 and built his dental practice soon after. In the beginning, he thought his success and the success of his practice was inevitable. However, his plan went up in smoke as he watched his practice flounder and finances become unpredictable. In an attempt to turn things around, he tried personal and professional “experiments” in self-improvement.

Nowadays, Dr. Ankur Gupta enjoys excellent new patient numbers, case acceptance, a solution orientated dental team, and so much more. He even shares his knowledge and helps other dental professionals across the country implement practical step-by-step strategies to help them see the same success.

In this episode, we discuss:

What Dr. Ankur Gupta is known for
How to become a better leader
Why good leadership is important within your dental practice
The importance of showing your team appreciation
How to do an annual evaluation of your team members
Why every practice owner needs to create a “dream team” vision

If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Ankur Gupta and his seminars, please visit: https://drankurgupta.com

To listen to this episode of the podcast, click here.

169 - How To Plan For Financial Freedom with Ryan Lee Apr 02, 2020

On the Delivering WOW podcast this week I’m thrilled to be joined by Ryan Lee, a Financial Advisor and the Co-Founder of Cashflow Tactics, who in an interview recorded before the recent pandemic, reveals how dentists can grow their practice, escalate personal wealth and reach a level of financial freedom.

Cashflow Tactics empowers those seeking a life of financial independence with the tools and strategies necessary to grow wealth, build cash flow, and create financial freedom. Together, Ryan and I talk about why it’s so valuable and important to take a strategic approach towards gaining financial freedom. Ryan also shares some cashflow tactics to help maximize personal wealth while growing your dental practice at the same time.

Now is a time to focus on the future, for you and your business, and I truly hope you will find these strategies useful.

In this episode, we discuss:

What Ryan Lee is known for and how he helps practice owners and dentists stimulate cash flow
Why it’s so important to strive towards financial freedom
How to develop a strategic approach to help you increase your income
The difference between production, collection, and profit
Why you need to be intentional about increasing cash flow
How Ryan and his team at Cashflow Tactics empower people with money
Understanding that money is just a tool and you just need to learn how to use it

To find out more about how Cashflow Tactics can help you gain financial freedom using the Financial Freedom Formula, head over to: https://cashflowtactics.com/wow

To listen to this episode of the podcast, click here.

168 - How to Use the 5 Love Languages to Improve Team Communication with Dr. Trent Redfearn Mar 26, 2020

Did you know that the five love languages can help improve your relationships with your team and your patients?

Dr. Trent Redfearn is a dentist with a unique skill set. He attended University of Missouri-Columbia and graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He then attended University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, receiving his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) in 2008. Since then, he has done extensive training in communication and teaches dental teams how to strengthen and improve their relationships using the five love languages. Dr. Trent Redfearn is also the Founder of Dentovation Academy of Dental Assisting.

The five love languages include words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. Not everyone responds to these five love languages in the same way. Some people value gifts while others prefer to build relationships by spending quality time with someone they want to connect with. By understanding each of the five love languages further, you can use that knowledge to build both your personal and professional relationships – including the connections you build with patients in your dental practice.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why it’s important to show appreciation to your team and vice versa
How to improve your team’s communication skills with each other and patients
Understanding how the five love languages work when it comes to improving relationships
Why you should figure out what love language each team member responds to the most
How to resolve conflict using your knowledge on the five love languages
How to identify your blind spots and respond to people with a different love language than your own

If you would like to connect with Dr. Trent Redfearn and learn more about using the five love languages to help build deeper connections with team members and patients, you can reach out to him via his LinkedIn profile.

To listen to this episode of the podcast, click here.

Virtual Solutions to Help Assist Through COVID-19 Mar 18, 2020

In this trying time when the world is faced with so much uncertainty and fear, it’s more important than ever that we come together as a community – even if that means we can only interact virtually.

The ADA (American Dental Association) is recommending that dentists nationwide postpone elective procedures in response to the spread of the coronavirus disease. This is said to last for at least three weeks, but it may continue longer depending on the development of COVID-19.

In response, I decided to reach out to Michael Anderson, the Co-Founder of Wonderist Agency, a full-service dental marketing agency. Wonderist Agency delivers the best in dental marketing, with a smile. They also specialize in virtual consults, which is something that many dental practices are likely to shift towards during this difficult time to connect with patients and team members alike.

Michael and I discuss how dental practices can leverage virtual solutions to help assist through COVID-19 such as hosting virtual consultations with patients, training team members, and how to cope with the impact that COVID-19 will have on things like patient care, team training and revenue.

In this episode, we discuss:

How to leverage virtual consults
How to determine what cases are classified as emergencies
How you can be there for your team and patients during trying times like this
Everything you need to know about hosting virtual consults
How to use Wonderist’s virtual consult software at no cost

If you want to use the same virtual software that Michael talked about in this podcast episode, head over to https://www.yourvirtualconsult.com, where you can access the software at no cost during this time.

Although the site will ask for your credit card information to sign-up, you will NOT be charged. Remember to use code FIGHTCOVID19 to benefit from the no cost virtual consults offer.

I hope that you find this episode helpful and please know that my team and I here at Delivering WOW are keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers and we hope that you, your families, and team members stay safe and healthy.

167 - The Membership Model with Tom Comerota Mar 12, 2020

I’m delighted to bring you this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast, featuring Tom Comerota of Dental Stores.

Tom is helping offices across the country scale their business and increase their revenue by introducing products, services, and membership plans to their practice. And he does it all without stocking any inventory in the practice.

His amazing model increases customer retention and profitability, while making quality dental care more affordable and accessible for everyone. It’s an amazing concept and I’m sure you’ll find it eye-opening!

In this episode, we discussed:

What Tom is doing with Dental Stores and how offices are benefiting
Why it’s important to offer services and products to your customers online
What a membership plan is, how it works, and why it is so valuable
The future of dental offices
How to add value to your customers through services and products
The intricacies of running a membership for its full life cycle

To find out more about Dental Stores and the work Tom does, head over to their website.

Tom also has an exclusive deal for Delivering WOW listeners, so if you would like to claim your special offer, just follow this link and enjoy another perk of listening to this show!

To listen to this episode of the podcast, click here.

166 - How to Market Your Dental Practice Online with Adam Zilko Mar 05, 2020

In our always-connected times, marketing has moved away from flyers and word of mouth referrals (though they’re still helpful!) and towards digital and internet marketing.

For some people, this is exciting. For others, it’s like a nightmare come to life!

If you know you should be marketing your practice online but don’t know where to start, Adam Zilko is one of the best people you could ask. His company, Firegang Dental Marketing, works with dental practices across the country to make marketing work for them in a way that is reliable and provably effective.

Well here’s the great news – you don’t need to find Adam to hear his advice, because he’s my guest on this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast!

We talk about digital strategies for dental practices and Adam shares a very special offer for Delivering WOW listeners.

In this episode, we discuss:

What Adam and his team at Firegang Dental Marketing do
Whether it’s better to handle marketing in-house or with an agency
The best way to start marketing your practice online
Why data is the foundation of great marketing
How to not waste your money with digital marketing

If you’d like to find out more about Firegang Dental Marketing, check out their website or give them a call: (800) 398-0979. And don’t forget to get your exclusive Delivering WOW deal from Adam here. If you’re a member of my mastermind, you can unlock your own unique deal here!

To listen to this episode of the podcast, click here.

165 - How to Close More High-Value Cases with Tony Seymour Feb 27, 2020

Wouldn’t it be great if ALL of your patients could afford treatment? Many practices see patients turn down treatment plans because of financial setbacks. However, there is a way you can help more of your patients say yes to treatment without worrying about finances.

On this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, I’m joined by Tony Seymour, the President of Alphaeon Credit. Tony is an experienced financial and healthcare executive with broad experience in all aspects of patient financing to the healthcare industry and sales leadership in the ophthalmic medical device market.

Now, he’s helping patients and practices from all over the world close more high-value cases because cost is no longer a reason to not accept dental treatment. Thanks to Alphaeon Credit, patients can get important dental treatments carried out without worrying about not being able to afford the overall cost. Together, we discuss how Alphaeon Credit can help your practice book more high-value cases thanks to their incredible payment plans.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Alphaeon Credit differs from other players in the patient finance space
How to on-board a patient with Alphaeon Credit
Verbal skills to help your team close more high-value cases
How Alphaeon Credit can help your patients pay for treatment plans
The process of a patient getting approved for a finance plan from Alphaeon Credit

If you’d like to find out more about Alphaeon Credit, visit their website.

To get in touch with a member of the Alphaeon Credit team, email teamcredit@alphaeon.com or call the hotline: 920-306-1794

164 - Why Every Dental Practice Needs Weave with Mike Buckner Feb 20, 2020

I’m super excited to welcome my good friend, Mike Buckner, onto this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast. Mike is the Director of Business Development at Weave, a platform that cares about your patients as much as you do.

Weave has a unique set of features to help increase practice efficiency and profitability. Mike and the team at Weave understand the importance of having a good phone system. After all, the phone is the lifeblood of the practice. Everything goes through the phones, which means you need to be ready for every possible new lead and scheduling appointment.

During my conversation with Mike, we talk about Weave in more detail including its unique services and how they can help you save time, save money, and grow your dental practice fast.

In this episode, we discuss:

What Weave is and Mike’s role within the company
The unique features that Weave offer dental practices
How Weave’s phone system can help maximize the impact and outcome of your phone calls
A look at Weave’s new payment feature and how it can help grow your practice
How two-way texting can help scale your practice
How Weave and the Weave App can help save practice’s time and money

Weave is an incredible all-in-one communications platform that can really help your practice engage with patients 24/7, schedule more appointments and increase revenue. If you would like to find out more about Weave, you can email Mike here.

To listen to the full podcast episode, click here.

163 - How the Medical Billing Landscape is Evolving with DeVon Banks Feb 13, 2020

Dental billing and insurance can be tricky to navigate. There are a lot of components to it from medical cross coding to claim submissions, patient billing, and so on. However, it doesn’t have to be so complicated, especially if you’re working with a company that caters to your individual needs such as D-TECH Billing and Claims.

DeVon Banks is CEO of the company and joins me on this episode of the podcast to talk about what she’s going to be teaching you at the Delivering WOW Live Summit 2020! DeVon is one of our highly-anticipated speakers at this year’s event and we are so excited to have her and her team join us at the Summit in New Orleans, March 13-14th 2020.

DeVon is an industry expert in insurance, revenue cycle management, and Dentrix. Her and her team at D-TECH Billing and Claims work tirelessly to help hundreds of dental offices across the country through practice management software training, dental billing, medical cross coding, and more. They take the headache out of technology management, so you can focus on what you do best – caring for your patients!

In this episode, we discuss:

How DeVon and her company helps dental practices grow through medical billing
How medical billing is evolving in the dental industry
Why a lot of dentists struggle with insurance and medical billing
What type of things you can bill for that you might not be aware of
What DeVon will teach at the Delivering WOW Live Summit 2020

If you want to find out more about DeVon and D-TECH Billing and Claims, you can visit the website here: https://www.dtechbc.com

Have you got your tickets to the Delivering WOW Live Summit 2020?

Don’t miss the ultimate event for dental practices, taking place at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, LA, March 13-14th 2020!

If you want to come along and receive 12 hours of CE from speakers such as Devon, Sandy Pardue, Laura Hatch, Len Tau, and many more, get your tickets today!

162 - How to Schedule More Dental Appointments with Tom Brown Feb 06, 2020

I’m thrilled to welcome Tom Brown, the Vice President of Sales at LocalMed, onto this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast. Tom is an old friend of mine and we go way back. I’m also happy to announce that he will be joining us at this year’s Delivering WOW Live Summit event, which takes place in New Orleans, LA on March 13-14th 2020!

Tom has over 20 years of sales leadership experience and has a very unique relationship style, process-oriented approach to sales. He is very passionate about helping dentists grow their practice using real-time online scheduling. LocalMed makes it easy and convenient for any patient to book an appointment with your practice. Not only that, but patients can book an appointment even when your dental practice isn’t technically closed, ensuring that no patient’s inquiry is left unanswered. With LocalMed, your dental practice is open for scheduling 24/7 and makes things like scheduling appointments and synching them up to your calendar a piece of cake.

Almost everyone I know in the dental community is a client of LocalMed, which speaks volumes about the company’s ability to really help dentists grow their practice. In this episode, Tom talks about LocalMed in more detail, revealing who they are, who they serve, and how they can help scale your dental practice.

In this episode, we discuss:

How LocalMed has grown since its launch in 2011
What LocalMed is known for
How dental practices can use it to schedule appointments
How to increase patient retention
How LocalMed can help reduce no-shows and cancellations
Tips to make booking appointments with your practice easier for patients

To listen to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, click here.

161 - Practice Management Recipes with Sandy Pardue Jan 30, 2020

The Delivering WOW Live Summit 2020 is just around the corner and we’ve got an incredible line-up of speakers and social events that we know you’re going to love. One of our special speakers is a close friend of mine, Sandy Pardue. Sandy is the Director of Consulting with Classic Practice Resources and one of the most highly-anticipated speakers at this year’s event.

Sandy has helped hundreds (if not thousands) of doctors with practice expansion and staff development over the past 25 years. Known for her comprehensive and interesting approach to dental office systems, Sandy offers a fresh outlook on how to become more efficient and productive in a dental practice.

In this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, Sandy and I talk about how you can employ an action plan to help you reach your goals and grow your practice in 2020 and beyond. Sandy also gives you a taste of what you can expect from her speech at the Delivering WOW Live Summit, including a peek inside her incredible recipe book of practice management tips, success strategies, and more.

In this episode, we discuss:

Top tips for growing your practice in 2020
Why more dentists should dig deep and take a closer look at their numbers
How to boost your retention rate and get patients back into your practice
Why you should put automated phone systems in place to avoid missed opportunities
A sneak peek inside some of Sandy’s ‘practice management recipes’ that she’s going to share at the Delivering WOW Summit 2020

For more information and to explore other episodes, click here.

160 - Summit Shoutout with Elijah Desmond Jan 23, 2020

I’m so excited about this year’s Delivering WOW Live Summit, which takes place in New Orleans, LA on March 13th – 14th 2020! This is the ultimate event for dental practices, where you’ll receive 12 hours of incredible continued education and come away from the event with everything you need to take your dental practice to the next level of success.

I’m happy to announce that my good friend, Elijah Desmond, is one of the incredible speakers at this year’s Summit. Elijah is the Founder of Smiles at Sea and one of the best speakers, entrepreneurs, and people I know, which is just a few of the reasons why I’m so excited to have him join us at the Delivering WOW Live Summit in March. He’s also a fantastic motivator, author, and innovator!

Elijah’s work on bringing emotional intelligence into dentistry is ground-breaking and will change our industry for the better. He believes that our patients’ experiences aren’t just about providing dental treatment as a service and ‘getting the job done,’ they’re about connection and understanding.

He’s going to be delivering the most amazing deep dive on compassion and connection at the Summit and joins me in this special episode to dazzle us with a sneak preview of his talk.

If you’ve ever wondered how you can build better relationships with your patients, what your patients really want from their experience, and how to make it all happen authentically – you need to hear this!

In this episode, we discuss:

Why emotional intelligence is so important in dentistry
Why patients want more than a service
When it’s the perfect time to start connecting with your patients
What the one thing is that patients want to feel when they contact your practice
More details of Elijah’s plans for the Delivering WOW Summit
How the Summit will be about experience and community as much as education
The fact Elijah will be officially debuting his alter-ego – DJ Smile – after months of training

To find out more about Elijah and his work, you can visit his website or find him on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

Want to attend the Delivering WOW Live Summit 2020 and hear Elijah’s incredible speech for yourself? I don’t blame you! Get your tickets today! But hurry, seats to this year’s Delivering WOW Live Summit are going fast!

For more information and to explore other episodes, click here.

159 - Summit Shoutout with Samantha Leonard Dec 19, 2019

I’m so excited about our line-up of expert speakers for the Delivering WOW Summit in New Orleans in March 2020.

One of our speakers will be Samantha Leonard of Stream Dental HR. She’s also our dental recruiting, hiring and onboarding coach on the Delivering WOW Platinum Coaching Program. She was the most talked-about speaker at our summit in Jamaica and she’s going to be coming to New Orleans to share even more insights into applying effective HR systems that will make your practices thrive.

Samantha is truly passionate about dental HR. She knows first-hand the negative impact a wrong hire or a toxic employee can have on team performance, patient care, and your bottom line. Being caught in a constant cycle of hiring and firing can put immense strain on you and your practice. Getting the recruiting process right, however, is a big challenge for dental practices.

That’s why Samantha now specializes in helping dentists hire people that are fully aligned to their business goals and not just about getting warm bodies on seats. She believes that with the right hiring strategy you can be freed from the constant worry of the next resignation or another firing.

With every new hire costing around $25,000 can you afford to keep on getting it wrong? Tune in to this episode to get a sneak preview of Samantha’s New Orleans’s speech and her tips to finding that ‘office unicorn.’

On this episode, we discuss:

Feeling overwhelmed by the revolving cycle of front desk staff
Why it's important to find people who will help you achieve your goals
Actionable items you can implement to help you find those self-starters who will help your business grow
What processes you can put in place to ensure you don’t feel like you are being held hostage by toxic employees
Why you need to take time to develop a strategy and a vision and find candidates that fit that

Also Samantha explains more about her unmissable upcoming talk at the Delivering WOW Live Summit in New Orleans - March 13-14th 2020!

We’ll give you everything you need to know to take your dental practice (regardless of whether you’re just starting, or if you’re already well established!) to the next level!

So book now for the dental event of 2020!

To find out more about how Samantha and Stream Dental HR can help you find your dream team and implement effective HR systems that your team and practice to the next level, head over to her website to find out more.

You can also connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram – and of course, on the Delivering WOW Platinum Coaching Program.

For more information and to explore other episodes, click here.

158 - Using Online Reviews to Build Your Reputation with Dr. Len Tau Dec 12, 2019

I’m thrilled to welcome Dr. Len Tau to this episode of the podcast to talk about the importance of online reviews to help improve your reputation and grow your practice.

Dr. Len Tau is a practicing dentist and General Manager of Dental Vertical at Birdeye Dentist in Northeast Philly. He’s also a speaker, consultant, podcaster, author and an expert when it comes to online reviews. Dr. Tau will be one of the speakers at my Delivering WOW Live Summit this year too, which the entire community is super excited about. Dr. Tau is the host of The Raving Patients Podcast and recently published his brand-new book, Raving Patients, where he shares simple tips and best practices to become visible and demonstrate credibility online.

As dentists, our online reputations are incredibly important. However, no business is perfect, and we have to expect some not-so-nice reviews to pop up now and again. It’s how you respond to these reviews that matter and in this episode of the podcast, you’ll learn how you can do that and how you can use online reviews to build a powerful reputation for your practice.

On this episode, we discuss:

How to deal with negative online reviews
Why online reviews should play a key role in your marketing strategy
A few key takeaways from Dr. Tau’s new book, Raving Patients
Tips and strategies for using online reviews to build your reputation
What you can expect from Dr. Tau’s seminar at the Delivering WOW Live Summit 2020
HIPAA tips for dentists dealing with unfair or negative reviews
How to automate the process of receiving online reviews from patients

To learn more about how your online reputation and reviews can make or break your practice, check out Dr. Len Tau’s website for more information.

If you would like to hear more from Dr. Leonard Tau, you can tune into The Raving Patients Podcast and pick up a copy of his new book, Raving Patients.

To find out more and explore other episodes click here.

157 - Smiles for Christmas with Ian Lynch from Legend Networking Nov 28, 2019

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s time to think about others and how we can give back to our communities and people in need. Ian Lynch, the CEO of Legend Networking, is on a mission to transform the smiles of children who have been abused.

Legend focuses on serving the dental community and their gift campaign, Smiles for Christmas, is about helping children in need. Giving toys, food, and clothing is an impactful way to provide comfort to children who need it most. Many of these children will have no toys to play with at all, which is why toys are a huge part of Legend’s gift campaign, to show these children that they are not forgotten.

Smiles for Christmas also focuses on providing children in need with clothing and food and in this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast, you’ll learn how your dental office can help make a difference this holiday season!

In this episode, we discuss:

Why Ian launched ‘Smiles for Christmas’ and how his childhood impacted his decision and passion to help others
How Legend Networking’s charity, ‘Smiles for Christmas’ is helping children this festive season
How you can get involved and donate toys, food, and clothing to children in need
How your practice can be in with a chance to win some amazing prizes
Why it’s so important for dental practices and teams to give back this holiday season

To find out more and to explore other episodes, head over here.

156 - Driven Dental Implant Marketing with Charles Biami Nov 21, 2019

Do you want to start attracting more high-value dental patients to your practice each month? If so, you don’t want to miss this episode of the podcast, where I’m joined by Charles Biami, the Founder and Chief Marketing Manager of Driven Dental Implant Marketing.

Charles helps dentists just like you attract and convert high value dental implant cases and he does it in a way that provides a consistent flow of new monthly patients. With Driven Dental’s deep understanding of patient needs and the dental industry, they have the experience, insights and know-how to help you drive 20+ qualified opportunities to your front desk each month.

Together, we discuss exactly how Driven Dental Implant Marketing can help drive more high-value patients to your practice including some practical strategies to help you convert more patients over the phone.

On the podcast we discussed:

What Driven Dental Marketing can do for your practice
How to target patients searching for dental implants online
How Driven Dental Marketing can help you convert more leads into patients
Why every dental practice should have an online chat service
Strategies to help your front desk team get more conversions over the phone
Why more dentists need to understand that marketing brings prospects, but it’s up to your team to convert those prospects into patients

To find out more and to explore other episodes, click here.

155 - Should We Share Numbers With Our Team? Nov 07, 2019

In this solo episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, I explore whether or not practice owners should share numbers and even personal expenses with their team.

Sharing practice numbers with certain team members is a great way to increase trust and empower the people you work with every day. After all, when more people in your team are aware of the numbers, it makes it easier to reach new milestones, smash goals and even grow your practice.

However, knowing which team members to share this valuable information with and what numbers you should share with them can be difficult. Listen in to discover what numbers to share with your team and how sharing numbers with certain team members can help increase profits.

In this episode, I discuss:

Why you should share your practice vision and numbers with your team
The role of an office manager
Important practice numbers to share with your team
How to calculate your practice’s profits and manage your cash flow
Tips to help hold your team accountable for meeting practice goals
Why you should share a percentage of profits with your team

Do you want to grow, scale and market your dental practice, FAST?

The Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind Program is the #1 program for dentists and teams to help scale and market their practices to new heights.

Inside of this Game-Changing Program, you will learn unique practice growth systems, how to manage your time, the best strategies for building a Rockstar Team, how to market your practice and so much more…PLUS…you’ll get NEW practice marketing campaigns every single month!

To find out more about the Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind Program, click here!

To find out more about this episode and to explore other episodes click here.

154 - Takeaways From My Mastermind In Boise Oct 31, 2019

This week I’m reflecting on my time at in Boise at a Mastermind with MY inner circle.

There were some of the most incredible entrepreneurs at the event and I wanted to share my takeaways with you from those last few days.

Just being surrounded by all these inspirational people who share your goals, have beliefs of what is possible and have overcome obstacles was truly inspiring. Their stories really hold us accountable and ensure we are also going after our own goals.

One of the mastermind group, Thomas Shipley, Co-Founder and CEO of Atlantic Coast Brands, said something that was so true. Surrounding yourself with knowledgeable, successful people who are willing to share their success stories and their fails, enables you to “collapse time frames” and “collapse the learning gap.”

It’s all about growing together rather than learning on your own. Don’t go at business alone. Find an easier path to success by reaching out to those people who have the knowledge and experience that can help you. Find out more on episode 154 of the podcast.

In this episode, I discuss:

How surrounding yourself with knowledgeable, successful people can help you grow as an individual and elevate your business
How I have used the power of masterminds for my own success
How our members have undergone inspiring transformations by doing our Marketing Practice Growth CHALLENGE
Drawing on the strength of others to level up on your knowledge and grow your business
How to take your practice to the next level and take care of your team
How you can find an easier path to success by reaching out to those people who have the knowledge

Are you fed up of going it alone and want a shortcut to success?

Find out more about the Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind and Marketing and Practice Growth CHALLENGE

153 - Would You Have Put This in a Safe? Oct 24, 2019

I recently went to a local jewelry store with my daughter to pick out a birthday present for her friend. I thought it would be a great opportunity to find out what she would like for her own birthday. As she was looking, I told the sales-person to put whatever she liked aside. Then I would come back and pay for it.

However, when I went back to pick up the items and the sales-person who was helping me checked the reserve section they couldn’t find the jewelry my daughter had picked out.

After searching the entire store, the sales-person said that sometimes people don’t come back so they put the items back. My surprise was ruined. The owner then steps in saying “The next time we have an item to be reserved, what I want you to do is just give it to me and I’ll put it into the safe myself.”

This is something that I see happening in our dental practices. As the owner of a business it can be easy to just step in and “do it yourself.” But, if we want to level up in our leadership, we need to stop saying things like “I’ll put it in the safe myself.”

You can’t grow and scale your business by doing everything yourself. So, don’t be like that jewelry owner. Become the business owner that empowers your team and put processes in place that will help you build your business. Find out how on this episode of the podcast.

In this podcast episode, I discuss:

Why a 'do it yourself' attitude is taking focus away from your business
The importance of empowering your team to be problem solvers
Why it is important to your business' success to make your team members effective leaders
Why you need to elevate and delegate to get you to the point where you no longer need to do it yourself
That to elevate your business, you need that skill-set and knowledge of how to delegate

For more information and to explore other episodes click here.

152 - Creating Experiences Worth Sharing with Ryan Vet Oct 17, 2019

It’s with great pleasure that I get to introduce my latest special guest on the podcast, Ryan Vet. With his can-do attitude and his positive vibes, he’s the perfect person to discuss creating experiences worth sharing with you all.

Ryan Vet is an international speaker, author, entrepreneur and investor. You may know Ryan from his writings in Forbes or Dental Economics or at speaking at a dental meeting near you.

He has devoted his life towards inspiring others towards a positive change. A fun fact many people don’t know about Ryan is that he’s a trained sommelier.

On the podcast we discussed:

Ryan’s professional background and how he became an entrepreneur
How to create experiences worth sharing
Taking ordinary opportunities and transforming them into extraordinary experiences
Why you should walk in the shoes of your patients
How to create your own business identity
The importance of cultivating culture

If you just can’t get enough of Ryan, then he’s got a book coming out in November 2019 called Cracking the Millennial Code where he shares how to motivate and manage millennials.

You can also find him on Twitter , Instagram and LinkedIn.

For more information and to explore other episodes click here.

151 - Are You Trusting Your Office Manager? Oct 10, 2019

Once you have an Office Manager that really steps into their role, amazing things happen.

This week I dive into how to empower your Office Manager, and place them in the role of a Chief Operations Officer (COO). And, it doesn’t take much to make this change. In fact, it only takes the leap to be open and trusting enough to reveal your financial comings and goings.

Your COO, to truly take a decision-making role, needs to understand the difference between revenue (collection, production, hygiene-per-visit) and profit. Remember, profit is not your salary. It is what’s left after you’ve taken your salary.

If you have a COO that knows the full picture of your business finances, they will spontaneously generate solutions to cashflow problems that crop up. Believe me, it feels so good to have someone in your corner, helping you think about the bigger picture. But, that is only possible if you share everything needed to evaluate the health of your business.

On the podcast we cover:

Why you should treat your Office Manager as your Chief Operations Officer.
How to define the Office Manager role with specific accountability.
The story of my first business - a lemonade stand - and how my mom taught me what profit means.
Why it’s crucial to separate your salary from your business’s profit.
Getting your scheduling coordinator excited about their calls with patients by imparting the right skills and systems.
The importance of your Office Manager understanding profit and your practice’s financial health.
A story of the last time my Office Manager made a very helpful and proactive evaluation to help solve a cashflow problem.

For more information and to explore other episodes click here.

150 - Is Your Team Frustrating You? Oct 03, 2019

I recently had somebody reach out to me for advice on training new team members. This doctor was feeling frustrated because they had just hired a new team member and they found themselves having to repeatedly tell the new hire what to do.

I understand that hiring someone new and training them over and over again can be super frustrating and time-consuming, which is why I wanted to talk about the steps you can take to get through this process much quicker.

In this episode of the podcast, I reveal why so many dentists struggle to train new team members and what you can do to document your practice’s processes so that you don’t have to keep repeating yourself every time you welcome new team members into your practice.

In this podcast episode, I discuss:

A lesson we learned at my practice when it comes to developing new processes for the future
Why it’s so easy to get frustrated with new team members
How to document your practice’s processes and save time training new team members
Why you should create training videos and use them for onboarding new staff
The importance of providing clear guidance and direction to your team

If you want to listen to the full podcast episode, click here.

149 - The Secret to Preventing Employee Turnover with Dr. Paul Etchison Sep 26, 2019

On this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, I’m thrilled to be joined by Dr. Paul Etchison, who reveals the secret to building a powerful dental team and preventing employee turnover.

Dr. Etchison is the author of ‘Dental Practice Hero: From Ordinary Practice to Extraordinary Experience,’ which details how dentists can grow startups to $1m in collections the first year, how to destress the day to day running of a practice and how to become a leader that influences practice culture so positively that practice growth becomes organic.

Dr. Etchison owns a large office in the Chicago suburbs and only does two days/week clinical dentistry. He is the host of the Dental Practice Heroes Podcast and during my conversation with him, he talks about dealing with team power, culture and running a great practice. Paul’s existing practice in Chicago is likely to collect a staggering $4.5 million in collections this year. If that’s not enough, Paul has never lost a single team member throughout the eight years his practice has been running, which means he has zero employee turnover.

On the podcast, we discuss:

How Dr. Etchison got into dentistry and started his own dental practice
Why Dr. Etchison has experienced zero turnover and what he attributes that to
Tips for hiring the best team members no matter where you are positioned
How to grow demand for your services and why block booking is so beneficial to your bottom line
The importance of creating an amazing patient experience and getting referrals from your existing patients
How to keep your team happy, engaged and accountable for practice growth

To find out more, and to discover other episodes click here.

148 - The Power of Belief Sep 19, 2019

If you want to scale your practice, you need to believe that you can. You also need to have a great team that you can trust to help you achieve practice goals and work together to build a successful and profitable dental practice.

On this solo episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, I talk about the true power of belief. Over the years, I’ve seen some practices grow by up to 70% and many members inside the inner circle of the Delivering WOW’s Platinum Mastermind group have experienced amazing practice growth too.

When you peel back the layers and really think about how all of these practices managed to grow so fast, it all comes down to the power of belief. They believed in themselves, their team and their practice. It was that inner belief that steered their decisions and helped them to achieve their dreams, both inside and outside of their practices.

In this episode, I discuss:

Insider secrets that have helped practice owners grow their practice
The importance of having the right people in your practice
Why belief is so powerful and a crucial part of being able to successfully scale your practice
How to change your perspective by telling yourself empowering things that will motivate and inspire you to hit your goals
Why having belief in yourself, your team and your practice is so important and shouldn’t be overlooked

For more information and to explore other episodes, click here.

147 - How to Do Better Endo with Dr. Sonia Chopra Sep 12, 2019

Do you want to improve your confidence with endodontics? My guest on this episode of the podcast, Dr. Sonia Chopra, DDS, is a practicing endodontist who has made it her mission to help dentists improve their confidence with endodontics and their patients’ experience.

Dr. Sonia is the Founder of Sonia Chopra, DDS and E-School, an endodontic-focused community for dentists seeking to perfect their skills, improve their practice and enhance their patient care. Sonia was born without eight teeth and is no stranger to cavities, implants, and bridges. She always knew she was meant to become a dentist. It was like she was born to help people and with her own dental troubles ripe in her memory, it was easy to put herself in the patient’s chair and understand exactly how her patients felt.

But it wasn’t until an endodontist finally relieved Sonia of a months-long infection through a root canal that she understood the importance of saving teeth. Dr. Sonia firmly believes that the power to keep your patients healthy and happy — and out of such agony — lies within you and your commitment to deepening your understanding of endodontics.

In this episode, we discuss:

Sonia’s personal dental troubles and how she found her way into dentistry
Why general dentists need to educate themselves and get better at endo
Challenges that dentists (and their patients) face due to a lack of endodontic knowledge
How Dr. Sonia’s “E-School” can help you build your endo knowledge and enhance patient outcomes
What you can expect to learn from E-School and why it’s so important for general dentists to get better at endo
The difference between the independent and coaching version of the program

Dentists face a lack of endodontic resources, which means you’re losing patients every day. If you want to enhance your endodontics training and provide better care for your patients, you NEED to enrol in E-School: Online Endodontic Continuing Education for General Dentists, an online endodontic course by Sonia Chopra, DDS.

To learn more about this course and how Dr. Sonia Chopra is helping general dentists like you perfect their endo skills, you can visit Dr. Sonia’s website.

For more information and to explore other episodes, click here.

146 - How To Create Opportunities To Invest In Your Practice's Success Aug 15, 2019

When it comes to evaluating a practice’s success, most practice owners focus on production or collections. However, what really matters most is profit, which is why I’ve invited Jay Glazer and Howie Friedman from Crazy Dental Prices onto the podcast to chat about growing your practice so that it’s as profitable as possible.

Crazy Dental Prices is a DC Dental company and a members-only service that gives dentists access to a range of brand name products at the cheapest prices – guaranteed. The team at Crazy Dental prices reviews competitive dealer pricing and consolidates the information on its website, offering an unparalleled online shopping experience.

If you’re a dentist who wants to spend more time treating patients and less time negotiating for the best-priced supplies, Crazy Dental Prices will help you to reduce overhead while improving the quality of care that your practice delivers to its patients.

On the podcast, we discussed:

How Howie and Jay started and what lead them to Crazy Dental Prices
What Crazy Dental is and how they can match the lowest price on each item in the dental market
Tips to generate higher profits and cut your overhead
How to cut expenses and relocate budgets to areas that can help grow your practice
How vendors convince you to pay more for dental supplies and how to spot the signs
Why it’s so important to invest in yourself, your education and your practice
How to join the Crazy Dental Price Club

Would you like to sign-up to become a member of Crazy Dental Prices?

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about Crazy Dental Prices, email jay@crazydental.com and use the promo code WOW10 at checkout for 10% off your order!

For more information, head over to: deliveringwow.com/146

How To Keep Your Hygiene Patients Coming Back Jul 06, 2019

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I actually wanted to come and talk to you guys about hygiene reappointment rate. So that is the number of patients, or the percentage of patients, that have a next appointment scheduled for dental hygiene. Now, what's been really interesting is I am going through Q3 planning with our inner circle, and we've got a few new people that have just joined our inner circle, and a few of them are really rocking their hygiene reappointment percentage, and we had a few that are not quite there yet. And what's really interesting that I tell people is that there's always going to be something that you're focusing on. You might be focusing on learning how to do a new service, so you're taking CEs, right? You might be focusing on creating a process for how you answer the phones, right? So there's things that you're going to be focusing on, and because you're focusing on that, you're not even thinking about other things. But, however, once you have processes in place, or you have a coach or your mentor, or you have tools, such as scorecards, to be able to look at things consistently, that's when change can really happen, right? And so I wanted to talk to you guys about a simple and easy process to be able to have consistency with your hygiene reappointment rate. Now, why do we want to do that? The reason why is that we have patients who are coming in. Our role is to keep them healthy, and if patients are slipping through the cracks, meaning life happens, time passes, and before you know it, a year passes, they are no longer in the healthy zone for many of them, right? Years pass, and again, bacteria's continuing to grow and grow, and they're missing lots of places, right? So we start looking at how can we help our patients to be more consistent. How can we create processes that patients do not have their healthcare slip through the cracks? And it is really looking at how do we have processes in our practice that can help hold our patients accountable. And so I just wanted to share a process with you that has allowed me and my practice, as well as the practices that we work with Delivering WOW to be able to consistently have at least a 97%, 98% hygiene reappointment rate. Now, why do I say not 100? Because there are going to be patients who quite simply cannot have a pre-booked appointment. A few examples in my particular practice is we have some people who live all over the world, so they may live in England, they may live in Canada, they may live in parts of the Caribbean, they may live in different places. And so they may not be able to set their next appointment, because it's only when they come in and they travel on specific holidays where they have their dental work done. We also have students who are in university, and so we're not 100% sure when they will be back in town. Same thing, we have students who are in boarding school, and so those students will typically come home for Christmas, and they'll come in the summer, and we'll see them during those specific times. But outside of that, I really want to make sure that all of our patients have a next appointment on the schedule, and so what we have done is we created a process, and how it works is when Mr. Joe comes in, we say, "Hey, Mr. Joe, I'm going to go ahead and make your next appointment for six months, and if it does not work for you at the time, then we can always change it. But we found that a lot of times, life happens, and what happens is that in the past, before we were pre-making appointments or pre-booking appointments, a lot of times patients just, life happened and things slipped through the cracks. And we want to make sure that we keep you on track, because as you know, when you're cleaning your teeth at home, you're not able to get everything. You're doing your best, but when you come in, we have mirrors and we have lights, and so we want to make sure that we keep you healthy and keep you consistent." Now, there are going to be patients, of course, that say, "Well, I don't know where I'm going to be in six months," and so this is a process that will allow them to feel comfortable still making the appointment. So what we do, or what we have done, is inside of our practice management software, there's always a color where you can have a customized, for example, you will have an area that says left message, and it will be a customized color. Maybe it's going to be purple. You have one that says confirmed. You have all of these different colors that can be there to code your appointment. So what we did was we actually created a new code, and it was called pre-booked. So we have Dentrix. We went in and we created an additional one called pre-booked, and we actually chose the color red. And so what we do is when we make the appointment, we will always want to make the appointment if possible the same day that the patient is in, and around the same time. And if we're always doing that, then that appointment time and day will pretty much always be available, right? So we'll go ahead and put that in, make sure that works for the patients. We will go ahead and choose the pre-booked color, and then what we do is fast forward six months every month, sorry, every Monday. What we do is every single Monday we look at, the front desk looks at, the next week's schedule, and anyone who has a red as a color code, we know that they were pre-booked six months ago. And so the front desk calls them, says, "Hey Mr. Joe, just reminding you that we had scheduled an appointment for you. It's going to be next week, Tuesday, at 2:00PM. Confirming that that time works for you. We look forward to seeing you then." And they'll say, "Yes, sounds great. I'll see you then." And we'll go ahead and get them confirmed. And if they say, "Oh no, I'm traveling," we say, "Not a problem. We can go ahead and move that appointment for you," and we go ahead and say, "When are you coming back from your travels?" And they'll say, "Well, I'll be back on a specific date," and we'll say, "You know what? Let's wait about a week, because I'm sure you'll be busy when you get back, and if you'd like we can schedule it the following week, if that works for you. We can do either morning or afternoon. Which would you prefer?" And so the goal here is to never let the patient actually come off the schedule. If they cannot make it, you find another time, because what you want to make sure, and this is the verbiage, is that you don't have their healthcare slip through the cracks, right? And what we have found is that when patients say they will call back, life happens, and before you know it, they're three months, four months, sometimes a year, even, past due. And you can tell the patients that, because that's the truth, right? And it makes sense, and they're like, "You know what? You're right. Let me go ahead and make that appointment." And so that is the process. Now, there are going to be some patients that you're not going to get on the phone right away, so you do have an opportunity to make a few attempts. Also, as you know, there are automated processes, so we have that in place, as well. That can send an email reminder or a text reminder to the patient, and so we have that process in place, as well. But it's really nice to be able to have that phone call, because that's when patients will say, "Oh no, I'm traveling," because sometimes what happens, I know I've had this happen, as well, I'll have an appointment and I mean to call, I mean to call, but I get busy and then I'm like, "Oh no." Like it's the day before or two days before. And so if somebody called me a week ahead, and I knew that I was traveling, then I could just move the appointment, and you would have less opportunities there, in terms of the practice, to have people who are no-showing or are breaking appointments. And it's also an opportunity, as well, to be able to look at unscheduled treatment that they have not actually completed within the six months' time, and you can go ahead and get that scheduled while they're already there. Again, "Mr. Joe, you're coming in for your cleaning. We noticed that you still have two fillings that have not been done in the last six months. We'd like to get that scheduled for you while you're coming that same visit, if that works for you, so that you don't have to miss more work. We can just get it all done while you're here, and you'll be done with all of those fillings." So that's kind of the verbiage, and again, that allows you to be able to increase the production on the doctor's side, while you are also, of course, keeping your hygiene schedule consistently booked and filled. And you know, it's really interesting, a lot of times we focus on marketing, and you'll have 10 patients a month that you're getting from marketing, or 20, or 30, or 90, or whatever the number is, and a lot of times, practices are not actually checking what's happening in the back door, and you have patients that are falling through the cracks and just as you're getting 20 patients a month, you have 20 that are becoming inactive every month or have not come in for the last 18 months. And so this is a really great process that's going to allow you to be able to keep your patients healthy, keep them on track, have a really great process for communicating with your patients, making sure that you are not having patients slip through the cracks, as well as allow you to be able to do more restorative work and get that unscheduled treatment rescheduled. So I hope that helps for you, and I really love being able to share all of these amazing tips and strategies with all of you. You are my people, and I love our Delivering WOW Podcast listeners, and our Delivering WOW community. Now, if you haven't had a chance, please make sure you're joining us inside of our Facebook group, which is deliveringwowhangout.com. And if you haven't had a chance already to sign up for our next marketing and practice growth challenge, you can do that by going to deliveringwowchallenge.com. All right, guys, that is it for today. Take care and keep Delivering WOW.

The courage of a leader Jul 06, 2019

Hi, guys and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental podcast. Today is going to be a little bit of a coaching session and today, we're going to be talking about how do you assume leadership? How do you level up, to be able to run a successful dental practice? So, what I see happening, so many times, is doctors are reaching out to me and they're blaming their team, right? They're like, "Oh, well, my team does not want to do vision boards. My team does not want to do scorecards. My team does not want to stay past 4:00 PM. My team does not want to, my team does not want to." Right? Then, I look at practices where the teams are super pumped up and excited to actually help the business grow. I want to talk to you guys today about, how do you get that team that is excited to be able to work alongside you, to be able to create a really amazing place inside of your community? What I see happening, so many times with practices, is that, to be honest with you, you have not necessarily done due diligence in hiring. What I mean by that, for you who are practice owners who are listening to this podcast, it's super important, before you even think about hiring a team member, that you're super clear about what you are expecting out of them. What is going to be their job description, right? Also, making sure that they are clear, in terms of what is expected of them, right? For example, if they are an office manager, it's not going to be possible for them to say, "Well, I can't come in until 10 o'clock." Or, "I can't work on Thursdays." Right? It's not going to be possible, because the office manager or the team lead, they are the one who is essentially running the business for the doctor. Taking the doctor's vision and carrying it out, ensuring that all projects, in terms of community service and marketing projects are being done, whether they're doing it or not, right? Overseeing to make sure that it's done. Making sure that processes are continuously being built, systems. Written documentation of processes, making sure that the practice is growing week-to-week. That scorecards are being done right. If you're getting resistance, doctors, from your office manager, saying that they are not able to do the things that need to be done, to be able to run the business, then either, to be honest with you, you've made a bad hire, right? It's not the right person for your culture. Or even more so, what happened is that a lot of times, we have not been clear about our expectations. What I find a lot, is that doctors are really amazing people and they are very kind. Sometimes, they're very afraid to step up and be a leader. If they are not happy with something that they're seeing in their business, they keep quiet. I can tell you one thing that I've always said in my business, is that if somebody is going to be disappointed, it's not going to be me. It's not going to be me. I'm going to make sure that what we believe in is going to happen. If that means that, for example, we have made a decision that we are going to do one marketing campaign every month to help all the community, then it has to be done. Or, if we're going to give headphones and iPads to our patients while they're having a procedure done, so that they can listen to music, it has to be done, right? As you're stepping into leadership, for many of you guys, it's super important that you understand that the business that you are running, you will get what you deserve, or you will get what you put into it. Or, you will get what you envision for your business, right? If you have a vision to be able to have a business where people are working alongside you, then first, you have to visualize that. Number two, you have to look at the employees that you have right now and think, "Are they there with my vision?" One thing that we do inside of our platinum program and our inner circle, is we always want to make sure that we can get the teams aligned and we see who is on our team or not. Who's going to be a part of our practice vision or not. We find that out really early. Typically, what I find is, when we work with practices within the first year, there's changes in their team. Why? Because the doctors become better leaders. They know clearly what they want, they know what they're going to tolerate and what they're not. They're going to be better at hiring and being very clear and specific about what the roles are, right? So, one of the things that we do with teams, of course, are the vision boards. Some people think that that's a little, silly exercise, but it's actually not a silly exercise. Having vision boards allows you to see what team members are going to give you pushback, or what team members are going to be excited, because guess what happens? Once the business grows and everybody works together, the team can achieve whatever is on that vision board. If they truly believe that they are in the right place with the right doctor, with the right teammates, then there's nothing that the team cannot do together. As I start looking at, how can I grow businesses, how can I work alongside practice owners so that they can get to time and financial freedom? It is super important to be very clear, in your mind, about the business that you are going to have. Not one that you wish or hope that you're going to have. Not Looking at what others have and being envious. I see some of the people that we work with, they've got amazing teams and they come to us and they're like, "You know what? We've just flatlined. We have been in other coaching programs and nothing has changed. Our team wants to be able to get to the next level and we a need next level of training to be able do that." I love when those practices come to us and then we have some that are, quite honestly, a mess. There's a lot of resistance and negativity on the team and the doctor is afraid to step up and be that leader. So, if you're listening to this and you are that leader or that future leader in your business, I encourage you, make that decision today, right? Make that decision today, that you're going to have that practice that you dreamed of. We spent a lot of time going into dental school and have put a lot of time, effort, expense and tears into building an amazing business that's going to allow us to be able to help a ton of people inside of our community. It's no way that we're going to be able to do that alone. We have to have dedicated people who are working side-by-side, arm-by-arm with us, so that we can achieve the goals. We start looking at, "We need to have weekly scorecards done so that we can know if the doctor production per visit is high or low. We need to make sure that the whiteboards are being done. We need to make sure that the AR is kept below a certain amount." Right? There has to be consistent processes. If you have a team that's giving you pushback or making excuses, you're never going to achieve your goal, right? A lot of those key metric tools that we utilize are there to be able to even highlight and see weaknesses. You look at, for example, if a hygiene production per visit is low, I can look at it and say, "Well, why is this so low?" When I'm reviewing scorecards at practices and then the doctors are like, "Well, my team member offered sealants to patients, but they told them 'no', so they're uncomfortable talking to the patients about sealants." I'm like, "Okay, well this is an opportunity for training." Like, "Don't accept that." Like, "Your team has to be trained on how to have verbal skills. They have to know that 4 out of 10 people are going to tell them 'no'." Just expect that. So the first four, you're like, "All right, that was one of my four." Then, the fifth one tells you, "Yeah." You have prevented a health problem and them having a cavity, right? The benefit is definitely more than being afraid to have a conversation or communicate, you know what I mean? Anyway, I hope this helps. I am just about to pull into my office right now, but I just wanted to send out that message today to you and I hope it speaks to you. We will chat soon. Again, if you have not joined us inside of our Facebook group, please join us at the Delivering WOW hangout. Once you're in there, please make sure that your introduce yourself so I can know who you are. I love Facebook Live videos, so if you can even come on and do a Facebook Live and introduce yourself, tell us a little bit more about you, we would love to get to know more about you and your practice. All right, guys, take care. Until next time, keep delivering WOW.

145 - The Power of Virtual Consults with Dr. Brian Harris Jul 04, 2019

Have you ever considered hosting a virtual consult with a patient? This is still a relatively new concept in the dental industry but it’s really taking off for my guest on this episode of the podcast, Dr. Brian Harris.

Dr. Brian Harris is the Founder and CEO at Smile Virtual Consult, where he and his team provide treatment advice and guidance to patients via a 10-15 minute customized video. Patients simply submit a photo of their smile and a Smile Virtual Consult doctor responds with the answers to their questions along with recommendations for improving their smile.

Dr. Brian Harris is a cosmetic dentist based in Phoenix, AZ. He’s known for his ability to help patients achieve a beautiful smile and answering their questions for free in an open, honest and convenient way. In my discussion with him, we talk about how useful virtual consults are and why more dentists should leverage them in their practices.

On the podcast we discussed…

How Brian got into cosmetic dentistry and what sparked his passion for virtual consults
What a virtual consult is and how it can help generate leads for your practice
How to let your patients know your practice offers virtual consults
How virtual consults can help you increase your conversion rate and case acceptance
The importance of connecting with your patients and being authentic
Why virtual consults are a great way to get more referrals through word of mouth

If you’d like to find out more about Dr. Brian Harris and Smile Virtual Consult, you can visit their website and check out the 'I’m a Doctor' tab to schedule a call with a member of the team and learn more about how Smile Virtual Consult can help you connect with more patients.

To listen to the full podcast episode, click here.

The Patterns of High Performers Jun 27, 2019

Anissa Holmes: What's up, guys? And welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am super excited to be coming on today. So I just want us to share a few observations. As I was talking about on my last podcast, we had opened up our inner circle for about a week and we actually invited people who had been through our business acceleration boot camps and people who were in our coaching level of our Platinum Mastermind to apply. And what's really interesting is, again, patterns. You guys know I love to talk about patterns that I see and patterns for success, right? Now, this is really, really interesting because I do quite a few phone calls for practice owners who are looking to grow their businesses. And all of the practice owners that I spoke with this week who were interested in Inner Circle... First of all, they all signed up for inner circle. Anissa Holmes: But the interesting thing is that they were so excited, they were all in. They had done their homework and they were ready to get results, right? And it really makes me think about action takers. And interestingly, the same thing for me. A few weeks ago, I did a speaker training. And it was amazing. It was phenomenal. And so, as many of you guys know, I'm going to be speaking at Funnel Hacker Live, which is a huge marketing conference. And so I want to go all in to being able to deliver the best presentation ever. And so I'm speaking to another friend who is an amazing speaker and he actually works with men. He has a men's group that helps men to be better husbands and it's amazing. And so he had a speaking trainer that he has worked with as well. Anissa Holmes: And so I'm really overly obsessed with this whole thing right now, maybe. But I went all in and interestingly, the next training is a week and a half from now and it's in California. And of course, I'm like, "I know this person can help me, I know they can get me results. I see what they've done with my friend." And I did some research and I was just like, "I'm all in." And I look at, again, the patterns of people who are successful. I look at the patterns of those people who are in my inner circle. I look at the patterns of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, successful dentists. And what's interesting, by the way, is that the doctors that joined my inner circle this week, they... Interestingly, money was not a big topic of discussion for them. Anissa Holmes: It was just like, "I want in. It doesn't really matter, the cost and because know it's going to give me results." And they did not micromanage, asking so many questions about the process. They just have seen how we've helped them already and they see the people that we've helped and they decided to be all in. And they're going to have amazing success and I'm so excited for them. And I think about calls that I have with some people who are interested in joining the platinum and we are on a call for a really long time and at the end of the day, they're like, "Wow, this can really help me with marketing. Wow, this can help me with hiring. Wow, this can help me with case acceptance. Wow, this can help me with building processes to know where there are leaky spots." Anissa Holmes: But then we come off the call and... Actually, before we come off the call, they were like, "Oh, how much is it a month?" And, "Oh gosh," and I'm like, "Well, if you're not ready to invest in the $1,200 a month program, that's why we have the $300 a month program." And if we can't grow your business, teaching you similar processes that we teach our inner circle that's allowing them to grow and add an extra $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $50,000 a month.... If we can't give you that with our program, we might as well just shut it down. And so despite that, these are people that know that it can help them and know that it can take them to the next level. And maybe they don't believe that the investment can get them to the next level. Anissa Holmes: Maybe that's it. But I find a different pattern and that pattern is that some people are just really slow. And one of the guys today, I was on the phone with him and I'm just like, "You know what? It doesn't matter to me if you join the program or not. I want you to join it so that you can grow your business. But I know the program is amazing and I know it helps people get results." And so I'm like, "What's going to hold you back and what's holding you back? If it's okay, if I can get permission to coach you for a little bit." It's what holds people back from growing, is procrastination. And what holds people back is not taking a leap of faith and believing them themselves and giving themselves an opportunity to be successful. Anissa Holmes: And so they just do nothing and give themselves a chance to perhaps have failure. I don't know. Interestingly, as I've become... really started to own this whole mental space of my own, of knowing and having the confidence that what we're doing is crazy life changing and it's not being taught in any other programs. I'm just asking people, "Can I give you my... Can I get permission to just coach you on this?" Because that's what good coaches do. And one of my inner circle members today, I was like, "My job is to love on you. I love you so much, but my job is to kick your butt because you're not going to grow if I just am your friend and I don't point out what you need to work on. I love you so much to kick your butt." And she's like, "Yeah, I know. That's what I need." Anissa Holmes: So anyway, I am not really sure where I'm going with this podcast, but I guess the message here is that if you're finding something that can help you, and it's not just with the Platinum Mastermind or Delivering WOW. Perhaps it is a program that you want to learn how to be a better cook. I don't know. And you know that it's going to give you what you want. You just have to do it. Sitting around and procrastinating and thinking about it is robbing you of time where you can be successful. So I hope this message speaks to you and I'd love to be able to get to know more about you and your practice and if there's anything I can do for you, reach out to me. I'm here to help. I'm here to serve and I want to see you be successful. All right guys, that is it. If you've not had a chance to join our Facebook group, join us at deliveringwowhangout.com and we'll chat soon.

144 - How to Treat More Rockstar Patients with Weston Lunsford Jun 27, 2019

I’m so excited to introduce you to my special guest on this episode of the podcast, Weston Lunsford. Together, we discuss how you can find your ideal patient and the things you can do to attract more ‘rockstar’ patients to your practice.

As CEO of Dental Intelligence, Weston oversees the strategic direction of the company and its products. While he is responsible for the revenue growth and future expansion plans, he dedicates a large part of his time to be intimately involved with their clients, the dentists, to fully understand their needs, wants and experience with their solutions. Weston spent the previous 10 years as the founder and principal partner in Lunsford Peck, a Certified Public Accounting firm providing services for medical and dental professionals with nearly 2,000 clients. Weston and his team are passionate about what they do. They trust in each other and in their abilities to create something special, something unique, and something impactful. As Dental Intel always says, “we make incredible happen!”

On the podcast we discussed:

Weston’s professional background and how he got into dentistry with Dental Intel
How to increase production in your practice
Why it’s important to identify the type of dentistry you want to do
Efficient ways to target your ideal patients
Why and how you should rate your patients
How to increase patient retention

If you’d like to get a FREE practice analysis from Dental Intel, whereby you’ll discover strengths and opportunities for growth in your practice, click here.

For more information and to explore other episodes, click here.

Why I Decided To Reduce My Clinical Days Jun 27, 2019

Anissa Holmes: What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am super excited to be coming on today. I just wanted to share a few observations. As I was talking about on my last podcast, we had opened up our inner circle for about a week, and we actually invited people who had been through our business acceleration boot camps and people who were in our coaching level of our Platinum Mastermind to apply. Anissa Holmes: What's really interesting is, again, patterns. You guys know I love to talk about patterns that I see and patterns for success. Now, this is really, really interesting because I do quite a few phone calls for practice owners who are looking to grow their businesses, right? And all of the practice owners that I spoke with this week who were interested in inner circle, first of all, they all signed up for inner circle. But, the interesting thing is that they were so excited. They were all in. They had done their homework. They were ready to get results. It really makes me think about action takers. Anissa Holmes: And interestingly, like the same thing for me, a few weeks ago I did a speaker training, and it was amazing. It was phenomenal. As many of you guys know, I'm going to be speaking at Funnel Hacker Live, which is a huge marketing conference. So, I want to go all in to being able to deliver the best presentation ever. I'm speaking to another friend who is an amazing speaker, and he actually works with men. He has a men's group that helps men to be better husbands, and it's amazing. He had a speaking trainer that he has worked with as well, and so I'm really overly obsessed with this whole thing right now maybe. But, I went all in. Interestingly, the next training is a week and a half from now, and it's in California. And of course, I'm like, "I know this person can help me. I know they can get me results. I see that what they've done with my friend." I did some research, and I was just like, "I'm all in." Anissa Holmes: I look at, again, the patterns of people who are successful. I look at the patterns of those people who are in my inner circle. I look at the patterns of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, successful dentists. What's interesting, by the way, is that the doctors that join my inner circle this week, they, interestingly, money was not like a big topic of discussion for them. It was just like, "I want in. It doesn't really matter the cost, and because know it's going to give me results." They did not micromanage asking so many questions about the process. They just have seen how we've helped them already, and they see the people that we've helped, and they decided to be all in. They're going to have amazing success, and I'm so excited for them. Anissa Holmes: I think about calls that I have with some people who are interested in enjoining the platinum. We are on a call for a really long time. And at the end of the day, they're like, "Wow, this can really help me with marketing. Wow, this can help me with hiring. Wow, this can help me with case acceptance. Wow, this can help me with building processes to know where there are leaky spots." But then, we come off the call, and you know ... Actually, before we come off the call, they're like, "How much is it a month?" And, "Oh, gosh." You know? And I'm like, "Well, if you're not ready to invest in the $1,200 a month program, that's why we have the $300 a month program. And if we can't grow your business teaching you similar processes that we teach our inner circle that's allowing them to grow and add an extra 10, 20, 30, $50,000 a month, if we can't give you that with our program, we might as well just shut it down." Anissa Holmes: So despite that, these are people that know that it can help them and know that it can take them to the next level. And maybe they don't believe. I don't know. Maybe they don't believe that the investment can get them to the next level. Maybe that's it, right? But, I find a different pattern, and that pattern is that some people are just really slow. One of the guys today, I was on the phone with him, and I'm just like, "You know what? It doesn't matter to me if you join the program or not. I want you to join it so that you can grow your business, but I know the program is amazing, and I know it helps people get results." Anissa Holmes: So, what's going to hold you back? And what's holding you back, if it's okay if I can get permission to coach you for a little bit, is what holds people back from growing is procrastination. And what holds people back is not taking a leap of faith and believing themselves and giving themselves an opportunity to be successful. So, they just do nothing and give themselves a chance to perhaps have failure. I don't know. Anissa Holmes: Interestingly, as I've become really started to own this whole space of ... or mental space of my own of knowing and having the confidence that what we're doing is crazy life-changing and it's not being taught in any other programs, I'm just asking people, "Can I give you my ... Can I get permission to just coach you on this?" Because that's what good coaches do. Anissa Holmes: One of my inner circle members today, I was like, "My job is to love on you. I love you so much, but my job is to kick your butt. Because you're not going to grow if I just am your friend and I don't point out what you need to work on, right? I love you so much to kick your butt." She's like, "Yeah, I know. That's what I need. You know?" Anissa Holmes: So anyway, I am not really sure where I'm going with this podcast, but I guess the message here is that if you're finding something that can help you, and it's not just with the Platinum Mastermind, or Delivering WOW, right? Perhaps it is a program that you want to learn how to be a better cook. I don't know. And you know that it's going to give you what you want. You just have to do it. Sitting around, and procrastinating, and thinking about it is robbing you of time where you can be successful. Anissa Holmes: I hope this message speaks to you. I love to be able to get to know more about you and your practice. If there's anything I can do for you, reach out to me. I'm here to help. I'm here to serve, and I want to see you be successful. All right, guys. That is it. If you've not had a chance to join our Facebook group, join us at deliveringwowhangout.com, and we'll chat soon.

Finding Your Purpose Jun 24, 2019

Speaker 1: Hi, guys. Welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Wow. It has been a while since I've come on and done a podcast from my car. Actually wanted to just jump in here and just tell you guys what I've been working on. I've been super busy, as many of you guys know, building out the back end of our Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind program, which is where we have all of the different industry coaches. We've also been working in the mastermind creating content for our social bundles. We've been just adding on more and more resources for members who are currently in our programs. So, a lot of focus has been put to that, which, unfortunately, means that I have not been as consistent with the podcast. But fortunately, all of that work, or the majority of it, is behind me. I'm really excited to get back to our podcasts from the car. Speaker 1: Today, I actually wanted to talk to you guys about the power of creating an impact in your community. I actually just had a doctor who was going through our Facebook Bootcamp. They did a Project Smile, which many of you guys have heard me talk about Project Smile, which is a smile makeover competition that allows you to be able to come together with your team to be able to select someone to come in for a free smile makeover. What's really cool is, of course, it really connects you as a team. You serve the community. And ultimately, in terms of marketing and Facebook, it brings a lot of exposure to your business in a really, really positive way. Speaker 1: But, what was really neat is that this doctor actually tagged me. He was showing the video. This was the reveal of him and the patient. He's got the biggest hug ever from the patient, and what he said was, "It really feels good to be a dentist." It's so interesting that so many times I hear dentists that are coming to me that are burnt out, and they're tired, and they're exhausted. It's not easy being a dentist having to help patients with all of the emotional things that they've had to deal with in the past surrounding dental experiences and having to help them with that, having to manage people, having to work with different suppliers to get the lowest costs. It's not easy to run a dental business, let alone the toll that it takes on our bodies from having to sit in specific positions and things like that. So having this doctor say, "Wow. It feels good to be a dentist," it really made me feel good because it shows that, number one, the work that I'm doing to be able to help dentist is so powerful and it's so important, but it also shows how we as dentists can reconnect and find back our purpose and our passion. That really had me to start thinking about practices, purposes, and practices, gives. Speaker 1: A lot of times, we just go through the day and we don't think about our purpose. The purpose of our practice is definitely something that has not as much to do with teeth but what we're doing to leave a legacy in our communities. Interestingly, it has nothing to do with the money that we make. So, our purpose is, why do we exist? Why are we serving others? Speaker 1: And when you start looking at creating your purpose and your why, and you are having that culture in the practice, then what happens is that you're able to attract team members who are aligned and who are drawn to that purpose. It's really interesting is that when you look at a life cycle of a business, many times there are ups, and there are downs, and there are times when things are going really well, and there's a ton of new patients, and you're closing a lot of cases. Then, all of a sudden, you see that you have a slow month or you see that maybe there's a team member that is experiencing personal pain in their family and it kind of draws on everyone. So, that happens in every business. Speaker 1: Where you start to have a practice or when you have a practice that has a purpose, what you see is that you have team members that no matter if you're up, no matter if you're down, they're going to be there with the practice owner. They're going to be aligned to helping the business to be able to get over any struggles that it's going through. And again, when you start looking at what is the purpose and the purpose is to change the lives of your patients, when you start looking at what is the purpose, which is to give them better health, what happens is that when you start looking at case acceptance, then false beliefs that a patient cannot afford treatment or your beliefs that they will not be able to will not stand in the way of you telling people what they really need. Speaker 1: I see that a lot with talking to doctors. I say, "What is going on?" Actually had this happen recently with one of the practices that I work with one-on-one in my inner circle. We were going through their numbers, and their hygiene production per visit was really low. I'm like, "Why is this number low?" Everything else has been increasing like crazy. They smashed their production goals, and they've smashed their collection goals, and the doctor production per visit has gone way up, and their AR 30 days and up has been reduced significantly. So, they're working on so many things, and I said, "Well, what is going on with hygiene?" They said that essentially the hygienist had a patient that they offered a sealant to and the patient said, "I'm too old for this," and essentially told the hygienists that they didn't want to have the service done. From that point, the hygienist had in their mind that they were not going to offer that service because people didn't want it. Speaker 1: I'm here today to tell you that there's always going to be people that, number one, are not going to want what you're offering. Then, there are also times when people really don't understand how what you're offering them can truly help them. So when we are so certain that something can help them, it's really important that we break through that noise. I told the doctor and the office manager, I said, "What could have been said is that Miss Joe ... Just say, 'Miss Joe, you're being so funny. Actually, what's really interesting is that we have tons of patients who are even in their 70s that are getting sealants because they don't want to have a cavity pop up. They're in a position where they are getting older, and they have to worry about taking care of getting a cavity or having a toothache. So if we can prevent that, it makes a ton of sense, right?'" Speaker 1: So, sometimes it's just a little bit of coaching and verbal skills that we have to do with our team members. But what's interesting is that we have these concepts that happen with doctors as well. So they'll say, "Well, a patient really can't afford to have these implants or this number of implants, and so we're going to give them an alternate procedure or we're going to recommend something different." And in your mind, you're saying that and you haven't even spoken to them. You haven't even told them what you feel honestly is the best thing for them. Speaker 1: What's really important is that when you start looking at talking to patients, you have to talk to them as if the money doesn't matter. Because the fact is that it really doesn't. Because if we're serving people and we're telling them what we really need from our heart, they see that we care, and you're going to have patients to accept the treatment that you recommend. And when they do, of course, the funds will come in. Speaker 1: Again, I just wanted to talk to you about purpose and passion. Because if our purpose and our passion is to be able to serve people, to be able to help them, to make sure that they're healthy, to make sure that they're going to have peace of mind, then it's really important that we are all in with that purpose and we don't let false beliefs and internal beliefs get in our way of doing what we know is best. Speaker 1: Another final point to leave with on this podcast is to find a bigger calling. Find a bigger calling in your practice that will have you to keep working really, really hard. It could be that you want to be the number one practice known for helping patients who have sleep apnea. It could be that you want to be the number one practice known for helping patients who have dentures to be able to get a note, another option to be able to eat and have confidence. So, you're going to do everything that it takes to be able to get out there and serve. Speaker 1: And, again, having a purpose and a why, getting back to the beginning of the doctor that did the Smile Makeover Competition, there is nothing that you can do that's more impactful than to gift someone a beautiful smile. So if you've not had an opportunity to start Project Smile, I encourage you to do that. It would really significantly allow you to be able to, again, connect with your team and to be able to change someone's life. Speaker 1: All right, guys. So that is it for today. Thanks so much for listening. If you've not already joined us, make sure you join us on the inside of our Facebook group, and that is deliveringwowhangout.com. All right, guys. Take care. Until next time, keep Delivering WOW.

143 - Financial Planning for Dentists with Reese Harper Jun 20, 2019

I’m super excited to be joined by the CEO of Dentist Advisors, Reese Harper, on this podcast episode to talk about financial planning and how to create more wealth as dentists. We also explore why it’s so important for dentists to be prepared and educated when it comes to using a CFP to help them grow their net worth and retire on time.

Reese is committed to building a team of expert advisors who help dentists fulfill their wealth-building potential. He began his career in 2003 and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™. He also holds CLU® and CHFC® designations from the American College of Financial Services.

Reese’s investment in leading edge technology and his decision to focus solely on dentists has led to a powerful service platform where advice is given with greater precision at faster speeds. He is the host of the Dentist Money™ Show, a popular speaker at dental conventions, and a regular contributor to dental publications.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Reese got into financial planning for dentists
Why dentists are often reluctant to attend financial events and build their wealth
What to look for when choosing a financial advisor
The steps you need to take to start financial planning
How to make smart financial decisions
Financial planning tips for dentists in debt

If you want to find out more about how Dentist Advisors can help you with your financial planning, you can book a free consultation here.

To listen to The Dentist Money Show, where you can find more tips and advice on making smarter financial decisions, click here.

You can also access Dental Advisors’ amazing Financial Education Library for Dentists, where you’ll discover lots of resources and insights on investing, retirement planning, personal finance, debt management, profitability, and many more topics.

To find out more and to explore other episodes, click here.

142 - How to Integrate Membership Plans Into Your Practice with Dr. Drew Byrnes May 23, 2019

I’m so excited to have Dr. Drew Byrnes from Dental Membership Direct on the podcast to discuss how to integrate membership plans and create financing in your practice.

Dr. Drew Byrnes is a fee for service dentist and the host of the Fee for Service Dentist Podcast. He interviews everyone from industry leaders to bread and butter dentists to find out what is working for them and how we can all strive to perform better dentistry for our patients every day. He has made it his mission to help dentists grow the FFS side of their practices.

While dental experts say that fee for service dentistry is dead and that the golden age of dentistry is over, Drew is on a mission to prove them wrong. He is determined to stay out of network with dental insurances for his entire career.

In an attempt to unite those who share his vision, Drew pulls back the veil on dental insurance companies and levels the playing field by sharing tricks that we can all implement into our own practices.

On the podcast we discussed:

Why Drew is so passionate about helping dentists create an automated dental membership plan
The problem with modern dental insurance companies and their common loopholes
The benefits of filling chairs with cash-based patients
Whether you should outsource dental membership plans or manage them in-house
How membership plans can help increase patient retention rates
What you can get from the membership plan offered by Dental Membership Direct
How Dental Financing Direct works and how it can benefit your practice

If you want to find out more about Dental Membership Direct and its software, you can schedule a call with the team here.

You can also lean how to automate your practice growth with a dental financing plan from Dental Financing Direct by visiting the website and scheduling a call.

If you’re new to membership plans and want to learn how to use your plan to grow your practice, increase patient retention and profits, the Membership Master Course is for you.

To listen to Dr. Drew Byrnes’ podcast, The FFS Dentist Podcast, click here.

For more information and to explore other episodes click here.

141 - Growing Your Brand With Dr. Jessica Emery of Dental Soiree Apr 18, 2019

I’m thrilled to introduce you to my special guest on this episode of the podcast, Dr. Jessica Emery. Dr. Emery is the founder of Sugar Fix Dental and Dental Soiree and is a Chicago cosmetic dentist, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Dr. Jessica Emery grew up just outside of Boston, in Worcester, MA. She followed in her mother’s footsteps and attended Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. She opened Sugar Fix Dental Loft here in Chicago, completely from scratch and built the practice of her dreams. At Sugar Fix, Dr. Emery has created a spa-like atmosphere treating her patients to white-glove service that she has become known for. She is also the creator behind ALL of Sugar Fix Dental Lofts social media and marketing.

In the fall of 2016, Dr. Emery founded; Dental Soiree. Dental Soiree has been a dream come true and holds unlimited potential for the future of dental marketing. Additionally, Dr. Emery recently launched Soiree Stock, a membership program that gives dental professionals access to unique styled stock photography.

On the podcast we discussed…

The power of creative photography in dental marketing
How to be more creative with your images
Why your photography should tell a story about your practice from the patient’s perspective
Tips for incorporating props and using stock photography
How you can sign-up for the “GET SOCIAL” Workshop

Are you ready to put Instagram and Facebook to work for your dental practice?

Learn more about the GET SOCIAL Workshop from June 1st to 2nd in Chicago and reserve your spot here.

You can also find out more about both Sugar Fix Dental Loft  and Dental Soiree by visiting their websites.

To learn more about the Influencer Package or Soiree Stock go here. 

If you’d like to connect with Dr. Jessica Emery of Dental Soiree personally, you can contact her via Facebook or follow her on Instagram @thedentaldiaries or @surgarfixdentalloft

For more information and to explore other episodes click here.

New Facebook Updates Apr 11, 2019

What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Today, I wanted to come on. I was actually inside of my practice's Facebook account, and I noticed that there were a few changes for targeting. I'm super excited about that, and so I just wanted to jump on. For all of you guys who are running Facebook ads, are boosting posts to your practice, this is pretty exciting news.

In the past, we were actually able to target people based on their net income. You could put in someone who has a net income of $100,000, or 300,000, or half a million dollars, and that was super exciting, right? You could also target people by their home values and the amount of liquid assets that they have. A lot of you guys be like, "How does Facebook know all of that?" Well, I can tell you Facebook is super smart, super intelligent.

In fact, really interesting, and I'm sure this has happened to you as well. I was actually in a van with some volunteers when I was in Kenya when we went off to build a classroom for Delivering WOW. I was in the van with two of the local volunteers, two local Kenyans. And what do you know, just a few minutes later, all of a sudden, I'm getting requests from Facebook to actually friend them. It's happened so many times before. Facebook is pulling data based on where we're clicking off of Facebook. They're also pulling data based on our geolocation, and home values, and things like that. They're able to get that data.

So this morning, I was actually inside of the Facebook account, again, for my practice. We are just working with making sure that we're always testing different things. Of course, now we have our Delivering WOW marketing agency. We are actually running ads for practices and also running ads for different dental coaches, and companies, and stuff like that.

But inside of the targeting, I noticed this morning is that now you can actually target again with net income. This is for US, but it allows you to be able to target people who have the upper 10% in net income for the United States, as well as targeting for people who have the upper 10 to 20% net income, and also looking at other percentages as well.

Now, what's really interesting is that it does say top 10% in the United States. So you might be like, "Well, for dentists, I'm not trying to target people in the entire US," meaning I don't want everybody in the US to see my posts. But, there is actually an additional layer of filtering when you are working with Facebook that you can now use this new targeting option. Then, what you can do is you can put an additional layer filtering. This is where it gets really neat because you can actually put in your practice's address and you can now filter that to target people who are within 10 miles of your practice or you can put on additional filters where you can target people based on a specific street that they live on. So if you are, again, trying to get more people in who are able to afford services, using these types of filters with your boost is super amazing.

Now, one thing you might be asking is, "Okay, I didn't even know all of this was possible with Facebook. We're just posting on our practice's Facebook page." And the first thing that I always teach when I train teams in our Facebook bootcamp is that you want to make sure that you're posting essentially things that are happening behind the scenes. So you want to think about Facebook as almost like a camera that allows people to be able to see what's happening. People are on there almost like ... actually, almost like people are watching TV. They're going through Facebook, and they're seeing what's happening, and so your phone or your camera is the one that's documenting that, and Facebook being the tool to show it, kind of like if you think about a TV, right?

But what happens is that once you're posting things, then what actually happens when you're using Facebook as an advertising platform is that you now have the ability to run an ad to whatever you're posting. That's spending $10, $20 if you're posting something. Sometimes you'll want to spend $50 or a little bit more. Again, if it's just something you're posting that you want it seen for a few days versus having something that you want to be seen for a month, or maybe you're doing a small makeover competition, you'll put a bigger budget to that.

But typically, most posts that we do we're spending about $20. What we do is we have the ability to choose these audiences. So again, what we work with in our Facebook boot camp and what we set up for our clients and our agency is we actually set up the targeting where you now, when whenever you boosts, you actually have a check list, like a dropdown menu, where you can say, "Okay, I want to target people who are within 10 miles of my practice who are also, for example, moms of kids who are ages 3 to 12." So if you were wanting to talk about children's dentistry, then that would be the audience, right? Or if you're running ads for dental implants or cosmetic dentistry, again, you'd want to choose this audience that I've just spoke about this morning, this new one, which is targeting by the net income.

So again, super excited. Lots of really cool things that are happening with Facebook. There's also a few little internal changes when you are setting up your audiences. Yesterday I noticed there were some changes when I was doing the Facebook bootcamp when you're going to set up your website, retargeting audiences, and stuff like that. So for those of you guys who have been through bootcamp, I would encourage you to just jump back on and see what's new and see what's current. For those who've not joined Facebook bootcamp, I encourage you to get your teams in there so that we can help them to understand how to help your practice grow.

The bootcamp is just three one-hour sessions. After, that your practice should be in really good shape. That's something that I encourage you to do. If you guys need help with Facebook and you want us to take care of everything for you, we have that ability as well. We're super excited about our agency. We've been having people to ask us for years like, "Can't you just do it for us?" We've actually been building a team and building content for about eight months now, so we're super excited to be doing that now. If you want to know more, you can always go to deliveringwowmarketing.com.

But again, lots of cool, exciting things happening with Delivering Wow. We're reaching way more practices and helping way more. It's super exciting, especially for me as a dentist, to have seen so much transformation within my own practice, how many lives have been changed when people are like, "If it wasn't for you and what you're doing on Facebook, I would have never had the courage to walk through the door." So, I'm so excited to be able to help so many other practices to experience that same level of being able to help and serve people, and to be able to do more of what you love, which is the dentistry.

All right, guys, so that is it. Take care. Again, if you want to learn more about our different options for marketing, whether it's having us train your team or actually just doing your Facebook for you, you can head on over to deliveringwowmarketing.com.

Why We Created The Platinum Mastermind Apr 10, 2019

What's up guys? Welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am super excited to be on today. I am actually driving in my car. I am heading out from dropping my daughter to ballet. I just wanted to jump on spend a little while. We have had a crazy few weeks, one with wrapping up our Delivering WOW Summit so of course you guys have probably seen all the pictures if you were not there. It was an incredible, incredible special event. There were a lot of tears shed. There were also a lot of like huge celebrations, of wins, or practices that had grown over the last year by 30 or 40% from our inner circle. We also had a workshop helping practices understand the achievement cycle and seeing their gaps. Overall, it was just a great even with great, great speakers. We have since shifted our focus into the launch of our Platinum Mastermind. I can tell you, I am so excited about this program.

Inside of our Platinum Mastermind, many of you guys have heard of it. I had this idea to actually teach all the things that we had been teaching in our inner circle. These are things like, "How do you create your vision for your next year, for your next three years? How do you get your team on board? How do you actually reverse engineer so that you work in a 90 day world?" I'm also looking at how can you put in accountability such as using tools like Asana, and Asana boards to actually get tasks done? How do you create scorecards that are created every single week by a member of the team so that you can look at things like production per visit, you can look at things like the number of new patients that you're getting, looking at things like your AR over 30 days percentage right? Is it within the goal that you set? It's been a really amazing year.

Like I said, we decided to launch this platinum program. A lot of people really don't understand or know the full story or why I even decided to even do this. Just to kind of go into that a little bit because it is actually a crazy vision and a passion project of mine to be able to have like one place where people could come together with the top coaches. What has happened in the past is that if people needed help with sorting out for example their insurance, and understanding how to do medical billing, I would send them at Devon Banks, right? We've had so many people that needed to bring on a new team member, or change out their team members when they joined our coaching programs because they may not have had the right person in the right seat, or maybe they just didn't have the right person that fit in with their culture. We were sending people to Samantha Leonard right?

We have had business boot camps in the past, and Glenn Vo has worked with these dentists and gotten them to be able to reduce their overhead by sometimes 1000 or even $2000 month. I was like, "Wouldn't it be really cool we had all of these people on one dream team helping out all of the practices?" Then I started thinking about who would the other coaches be? One of the people that I thought about was actually Gary Takacs. A lot of people are looking at how can I become fee for service?

I thought about, "Well if we had him coaching people to become fee for service, that would be awesome. What if we had Sandy Pardue helping people with all of her great ideas that she has for how to get your schedule as efficient as possible? What if you had Laura Hatch on the team?" I reached out to all these people and they were like, "Yeah, definitely in." I said, "Okay, what would happen is that we would have different members of the team. We would be able to see what their gaps are. Then we would see which coach they need to work with based on their gaps."

If they were, for example, a front desk person and they needed help with insurance, then they could just work with Devon right? If they needed help with understanding how to schedule, they would work with Sandy. If they needed help with case acceptance, they could work with Greg on case acceptance. The thought process was that the team members would each have whatever coach they need to work with, and again all within one program. It's kind of a really far fetched or crazy idea. I can tell you when I started coaching, I was paying about $3000 a month for my coach, and the coach was just coaching me. I just thought, "It would be great if I had somebody to come in while I'm being coached as being the leader and understanding profit margins and understanding the economics of running a business, people could also be training my team", which unfortunately I did not have. I had to figure out all of that stuff myself.

Inside of the Platinum Mastermind, we're working directly with the doctors. We have [Shaquila 00:05:22] who is a mindset coach. She'll be working with doctors to help them to realize their full potential. We also will be working with the doctors so that they can understand their verbiage with case acceptance. We're also going to be working with the doctors as well, so that they understand how to get the right culture in their business, and the right people in the right seats, and really understanding the numbers and the metrics of running a business, and what happens when one number goes down and one number goes up, and how can you essentially look at lead measures versus live measures, how can you ensure that you are not waiting until the end of the month?

Again, I'm really, really excited. We have been working super hard for this particular program. For me, I also wanted to make sure that the total experience of all of the members of our program would be a really great experience. Instead of utilizing a normal website or a normal software that delivers content or delivers training, I actually sought out this developer who is in Germany. I gave him my vision after doing a lot of research. I said, "I want an interactive elearning platform where people can actually have direct communications with their accountability coach and schedule a call. I want people to come in", so the doctor would come in, and they could now give access to their team members to get a coach. When the team members log into our platform, training platform, we could actually give them a diagnostic assessment to see how competent there are in their roles in the practice.

From there, we can know their deficiencies. They would have a call with an onboarding coach who is also an accountability coach. We can actually customize and get them the right coaching that they need, instead of them trying to figure it out. The issue with a lot of elearning platforms is that there's just a lot of really good information, but it's not organized very well. There tends to be a lot of overwhelm. What we decided to do with the program was to again make it really organized where you would actually have each coach working within their own track, where there would be coaching sessions that would be going on streaming through the platform where the members can ask questions. Then this is really, really cool as well, as you guys know, I love Facebook. We have our Delivering WOW Facebook group.

I was like, "What would be really neat is" that anybody that's going through that track, so say for example the dental assistant track with Trent, I was like, "Anybody that's going through that track, it would be nice to have like everybody to be able to communicate within that one track so that there's not a lot of clutter and confusion", which is what you see in Facebook groups, right? Then I was like, "You know what would be really cool as well is that you would have not only conversations within a specific track", so say for example all the doctors who are going through mindset coaching, that track again is a doctor only track for practice owners. Everybody would be like it would be private to those members, right? The other thing I thought would be really neat is that you could actually have communication within the platform across the job titles as well.

Having like a communication thread with all of the office managers just talking amongst themselves. You don't have that benefit in a lot of the Facebook groups because everybody's like all over the place. Then the other thing too of course in Facebook groups, a lot of people are just giving their opinions. Sometimes it's good advice, sometimes it's like completely wrong advice. Having that one place where people could actually get advice from the people that are coaching and helping practices and speaking on these topics they've studied, they've done the work, they've done the research, many have written books, these would be the people that your team would have access to to be able to coach and train them. Again, I'm so excited about that. Of course, you guys know I love marketing. What we did was I actually decided to include our Facebook boot camp in the program.

We also created Facebook campaigns that practices could run every single month. We actually give hundreds of images that you could use for social media. We have a Google Ads course that we're able to get from [Brent Allen 00:10:06] from Marketing 32, so we've got that course in there as well. We're also putting in some Instagram training from Jessica Emery, that's going to be there as well. Then what's really cool as well is that [inaudible 00:10:21] for many of you guys know her, she is phenomenal with marketing. She actually does marketing for a 40 million dollar dental group in North Carolina. She's actually going to be on every week doing a call helping practices with their marketing, and helping them with their campaigns and if they get stuck. What's really cool as well, one other thing is for people that are running Facebook ads and they're getting stuck, or trying to do funnels, because we actually have a funnel course included in the program as well.

We actually have a social media manager who is a part of that track helping with support. I really tried to see how could I again just create one resource for everyone in a practice. For me I was like, "If all this program did was give practices the ability to be able to close one $5000 case a month, would it be worth it" right? "If it would be possible for a practice to be able to now have the ability to do more continuing education and to do more fun team building events because there was a lot more money coming in, because now there's accountability tools in place to make sure that revenue goals and different KPIs are being met, would it be worth it" right? Then I'm like, "I see what's happening with all of our inner circle practices, they're taking vacations all the time. If all it allowed the practice owner to do was to be able to spend time with their family, because now their teams are trained by the best people in the industry to train them, would it be worth it?"

For me I'm like, "Absolutely, yes." That's why myself and my team have been working tirelessly on this platform because it's important. It's so important that we bring it to the marketplace. You look at even the amount of coaching, how much does it cost. I was even talking to [Shaquila 00:12:20] who is a mindset coach. She's like, "There's a lot of people that really need my help. When they come to me, they say that they're already spending $30000 a year with a coach. They can't afford to do both." For me in this platform I was like, "How can we get you everything you need in one place?" When you look at the cost of our program, so the program cost at the current time is $1200 a month, which is like so so little and just a fraction of what all of these coaches when you look at Okay it includes the Facebook Marketing, it includes marketing every month, it includes the social media manager, it includes in accountability coach.

That's something that so many practices are lacking. They're in coaching programs, but there's no one to hold the doctor accountable. Even more so, for me, no one to hold the team accountable. If the team is doing things like reporting numbers on the scorecards and they know what to do when a number drops, then guess what happens? They can be held accountable, and the doctor can attend a once a week meeting with their leadership team who is like their office manager or financial coordinator or lead dental assistant, et cetera. The team can actually report to them the progress of the practice. That's when things get really amazing and really cool. We've seen that happen just time and time again with our inner circle practices, and even within my practice now going in for a one hour meeting once a week, those are called level 10 meetings. We actually teach you guys how to run those meetings as well inside of our platinum program.

It's transformational guys. I am so excited again about having you guys in the program. I feel like every single dental practice needs to be inside of Platinum just because you know what happens when you have the right people training you? It makes practicing dentistry fun again. It makes the whole process of serving your patients just such a better experience because you don't have to worry about the business side of the practice. It's all taken care of. You might be wondering like, "Okay well is that cost the $1200, is that something that I can fit into my budget?" For me, when I look at expenses, for me the biggest expense is not actually taking action on what you have in front of you that can help you to be able to grow and scale your business, and give you time and financial freedom.

Not having access to the training that can help you is one of those things that can certainly be a situation where there may be regrets, because again, it is a huge expense if you're not getting your team trained, if you're not billing things to medical, when they're not billing things to medical when they could be billed to medical, you're not understanding how to close those $20000 cases, and you're letting them walk through the door. That is probably the biggest expense that you could actually have. Again, I just wanted to come on and just talk to you guys about the why of why I created Platinum, and what my vision was, and why I feel so passionate about this project and this program. I know it's going to help people. This year at our Delivering WOW Summit, we had practices on stage. We're seeing a huge award called the WOW Award. That was for 30% growth or 20% growth while taking fewer clinical days in the practice.

For me, I honestly I have a vision. Why am I doing this? My big why is to be able to see 200 practices on stage getting their award next year when we have our delivering wealth summit. I mean that would bring the biggest amount of joy to not only me or my team, but also all of the practice owners, all of the team members, and of course, all the coaches that have helped all of you on your journey. That's essentially what our Platinum Mastermind is. Again, I invite all of you to schedule a call with us, so we can learn more about your practice. Once you go to deliveringwow.com/platinum, you will be able to learn more about the program, all of the coaches that are there. If you're ready to get started, you can go ahead and just click the button and get started, and we'll get you in right away, get you onboarded with the onboarding coach, and start getting everything set up for your practice.

Again, if you have any questions, or if you'd like to schedule a call, you can also do that on that page as well. Again, it's deliveringwow.com/platinum. All right guys, so again just wanted to jump on. I'm so excited about this program because we're going to be able to help you with all of those gaps. We have the who's and we have the right coaches. We have the right people that can train your team. You don't have to worry, we'll do all of that for you. All right guys, until next time, we will chat. Take care and keep delivering WOW.

140 - The Ease of Providing A Dental Warranty to Your Patients with Jared Parente Mar 28, 2019

I’m super excited to welcome my good friend, Jared Parente from Dental Warranty Corp, onto this episode of the podcast. We discuss how you can grow your dental practice by giving your patients peace of mind with dental warranties they can trust.

Jared Parente is the CEO of Dental Warranty Corp and has committed the vast majority of a highly-entrepreneurial career to growth opportunities in healthcare. His work has helped to generate results through a focus on better patient experiences delivered through unique and disruptive concepts.

Dental Warranty offers nationwide, life-proof protection for restorative dentistry and appliances. It offers a unique practice growth opportunity with typical practices seeing an acceptance rate between 40% and 80%.

In my discussion with Jared, we talk about how your warranty can act as a powerful practice builder to help you not only grow your practice, but boost hygiene consistency, treatment acceptance and revenue.

On the podcast we discussed…

How Dental Warranty can help increase case acceptance
What happens when you present a claim with Dental Warranty
How payment for the warranty works
Procedures that are covered in the warranty
How to present Dental Warranty to your patients
The onboarding process of getting started and training your team

If you’re ready to get started or you want to find out more about Dental Warranty Corp, you can visit www.dentalwarrantycorp.com or email brad@dw-corp.com.

For more information and to explore other episodes go to: deliveringwow.com/140

139 - The Fastest Way to Get Started With Invisalign With Nancy Ward Mar 21, 2019

The dentistry industry is competitive. If you’re not offering the latest products and services that your patients are looking for, you risk losing their custom to another practice that does offer those things. And, one of the most sought-after products in today’s market is Invisalign, which is why I’m so excited to have Nancy Ward from Invisalign on this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast.

Invisalign (www.invisalign.com) pioneered the world’s first clear aligners, helping people to straighten their teeth to achieve the smile they’ve always wanted – in as little as 3 months! Nancy has been an Invisalign provider for 12 years and is part of the US and Global faculty for Invisalign.

In my discussion with Nancy, we talk about how dentists like you can utilize Invisalign to enhance restorative outcomes and grow your practice.

On the podcast we discussed…

How to integrate Invisalign in your practice when you aren’t a trained orthodontist
The process of learning how to be an Invisalign provider
Tips for training your team on Invisalign
How to utilize your team to help increase consults and case acceptance
How Invisalign can help boost your bottom line
Advice for getting started and certified with Invisalign

Invisalign treatment can be used to treat mild to complex teeth straightening issues from slightly crooked teeth to gapped teeth, crossbite, open bite, underbite and much more.

To find out more about Invisalign, go to: www.invisalign.com

For more information, go to: deliveringwow.com/139

138 - How to Improve Phone Call Conversions with Mango Voice Mar 14, 2019

Does your team struggle to convert potential new patients over the phone? If you’re nodding your head, this conversation with Jonathan Karren, the Account Executive at Mango Voice Phones, will be like music to your ears!

In the episode, we talk about how you can improve call conversions to help grow your practice and fill-up your weekly schedule. Jonathan’s role at Mango Voice is to drive customer acquisition through direct sales, social media marketing and partner relationships.

If you’re not familiar with Mango Voice, they are an enterprise-grade VoIP phone system based in the cloud. With its time-saving features, they help dentists and other business owners from all over the world run their business much more efficiently.

On the podcast we discussed…

What Mango Voice is and how it can help you increase phone call conversions
How you can use phone call recordings as a coaching guide for your team
Using SMS to respond to missed calls and get back to patients quicker
Converting voicemails to emails
How to use Mango Voice to market your services
Tracking the performance of your marketing campaigns using number tracking technology

For more information head to: deliveringwow.com/138

137 - Increasing Practice Efficiency and Communication With Mike Buckner Mar 07, 2019

On this exciting episode of the podcast, I welcome my good friend, Mike Buckner, onto the show to talk all about how you can cut through the noise with help from some powerful technology.

Mike Buckner has been working in the Dental Technology Field for eight years. He has worked as a Business Development Executive for Solutionreach, as well as a Director of Business Development for Dental Intel.

He is currently the Director of Business Development for Weave, and speaks at various meetings about patient retention and building patient loyalty. And, on top of all that, he has twin baby boys that keep him on his toes!

On the podcast we discussed…

What makes patients reluctant to come back to your practice
How to improve patient retention by focusing on relationships
The action steps you can take to maximize relationships with your patients
Why you should use text messages to bond with patients and increase case acceptance
Using the Weave App to help improve efficiency and communication

Weave is a powerful and unique platform that improves your customer response, team workflow and revenue generation. Go to https://try.getweave.com/deliveringwow/ to save 50% off activation!

If you’d like to get in touch with Mike to learn more about Weave or to ask him any questions, you can email him at mike.buckner@getweave.com

Want to find out more and explore other episodes? Head to: deliveringwow.com/137

136 - How To Grow Your Practice With Google Traffic With Brett Allen Feb 28, 2019

Would you like to learn how you can get more traffic from Google and grow your practice? If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, join me on this episode of the podcast for an insightful discussion with Brett Allen, the CEO and Co-Founder of Marketing 32.

Marketing 32 is a Google Marketing Agency for Dentists and Dental Specialists. The team at Marketing 32 are also the creators of "Google Made Easy for Dentists" which is a step-by-step program that is transforming the industry by helping dentist do their own SEO and Google Ads.

Brett and I have a very interesting talk about how dentists can leverage digital marketing to attract more patients and explode the growth of their practices. So, if you're struggling to fill up your appointment schedule or you just want to expand your practice and accelerate its growth, this is the episode you’ve been waiting for!

On the podcast we discussed…

Why you should use multiple traffic sources to help grow your practice
How to leverage relationships and get people in your community to talk about you
Strategies for using Google Marketing to reach new potential patients
The difference between search-based marketing and display & retargeting marketing
How you can use funnels to educate and convert patients
Tips for choosing the best keywords for your ads

For more information, head to deliveringwow.com/136

The One Thing That Saved My Day Feb 25, 2019

What's up guys? I hope that all is well. I wanted to come on and tell you guys a quick story that happened actually last week with my kids. Many of you guys know I have two teenagers, a 13 and a 14 year old and quite frankly, we've been having some challenges with getting them to get up on time, to get their breakfast on time and to leave the house on time and it's caused a a lot of frustration on my part as well as my husband and caused them to leave the house, I'll say this, in not a great mood. I'm not sure how many of you guys have teenagers but it's not always easy.

But an interesting thing happened a few weeks ago where Sarah on my team, she actually does coaching with office managers of our inner circle. Anytime they are having any challenges or any time they need help with anything, they just box her and she jumps on calls and she works directly with them. There was actually a doctor that tends to want to stay really late in the practice and her office manager was actually struggling with it. He said, "We're staying really, really late and I want to make sure that number one, I'm getting home on time with my family but that the doctor is as well." Sarah gave them a suggestion to actually set an alarm clock where five minutes before ending time, the alarm clock would go off and the office manager would just pack up and say, "Okay, I will see you tomorrow. Have a great night."

It's really interesting because after about two to three days, the doctor caught on and said, "Is that alarm clock for me?" The office manager said, "Yes, we discussed that we would both leave at a certain time to get home to our families and Sarah said that this is a great tool to hold us both accountable." And the doctor smiled and they went home and I thought, this is really, really interesting because I'm looking at my kids and every day they're struggling to get downstairs on time to get their breakfast which means that ultimately that they're rushing and they're frazzled to get out of the door. Sometimes getting to school a few minutes late.

What we decided to do was to basically implement the same system and we set, having to set an alarm for the time they had to wake up, the time they had to get downstairs and the time that they needed to leave the house. Now, one thing that I can tell you, I've not been good with, nor my husband is having written down rules. I think most parents you don't actually have checklists for your kids but we actually decided to that. We've made very clear times of the time that they need to again, wake up, get downstairs and leave the house. And we said, "If you are not leaving the house on time, that means that you will have no electronics for the night. No TV, no phone, no computer, nothing. And if happens twice, the same thing will happen, plus there will be no activities on the weekends. Meaning, no get togethers with friends, no parties."

Everything was written down, it was very clear. We also wrote down that some additional guidelines would be that their clothes would need to be laid out the night before, their schoolbags would need to be packed. Everything would be done and we put the specific time of when that would have to be done. We also wrote down their bedtime, the time that electronics had to be downstairs. Very, very clear. Nothing on the paper was able to be in a form of an emotion. It was just something that was written down, written guidelines.

The interesting thing that happened is that after a few days we actually printed it out, we realized my daughter actually taped it into her bathroom so that she could see what the new guidelines were for getting up and the interesting thing is that this has been going on now for six days and they have gone downstairs, had breakfast, versus trying to scramble to eat breakfast quickly. They've gotten to school on time, they've been a lot happier and it's just been really, really good.

It really goes to show the power of having tools for accountability. Again, just setting clear little timers and having a written down process as well as very clear consequences if the guidelines were not followed. Going back to our practices, it's so important when we are wanting to have specific guidelines for our practice and a lot of times I hear from doctors, "Well our team is getting to work late." Or, "Our team is not getting to the morning huddle." Or, I hear all of these different things and it's so interesting because again, you have to start looking back at yourself just like I did with my husband, and I said, "The reason why all of this frazzleness is happening is because we haven't created processes. We haven't given the kids tools to be successful."

And once we took time to create again, something that was written down, something that had very clear, specific times, once we had again, consequences, there was not room for discussion. There was no room for disagreement. There was no room for argument. It was just a rule or a guideline. Again, I just really wanted to just tell you guys the story. Hopefully, it inspires you to think about things are happening in your practice that are not going exactly how you want and start to think to yourself, is there a document that could be written down that makes things clear? If there's something that you keep repeating over and over again or something that's frustrating you in your business, is there something that can be written down? Are there tools that you can use for accountability?

Again, timers, clocks, using Asana, using some sort of systems that's going to, Asana's one of those task management softwares. I talk about that a lot. If a task is not done by the date that it's set, it turns red. Do you have these processes in place again, with clear guidelines? I hope that again, this inspires youto think about creating some processes in your business and perhaps in your family as well because it's not a great situation when you go through the day and you started off frazzled. It's really super important.

All right guys, that is my tip for today. I hope you guys took some value out of that and we'll chat again really, really soon.

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135 - Aftercare Chat Bots with Dr. Anne O'Donnell Feb 21, 2019

I’m delighted to introduce Dr. Anne O’Donnell to the podcast and talk all about how dental practices can use aftercare chatbots to connect with patients and offer ‘Care beyond the Chair.’

Anne is a dentist based in Ireland and has been in practice for ‘more years than she cares to remember.’ She has had her own dental practices and sold a small corporate in 2018. She then became the groups Clinical Director. In 2013, she bought a failing practice and completely turned it around. It is now a multi-disciplinary general and specialist practice with a tenfold increase by 2018.

Anne is passionate about dentistry, her team, and her patients. She and her team have even developed a patient aftercare messaging service using Facebook Chatbots called "Care beyond the Chair.”

On the podcast we discussed…

How ‘Care beyond the Chair’ works and how it helps make patients feel appreciated
Why chatbots have a higher open rate than email
Recommending dental hygiene products using chatbots
Tips for scheduling automated chatbot messages
How personalized messaging can help dental practices connect with their patients
How to get patients to opt-in to receive chatbot aftercare messages
The process of setting up ‘Care beyond the Chair’ in your practice

If you’d like to get in touch with Anne and find out more about how you can introduce her aftercare chatbot service in your practice, you can email her at dranneodonnell@gmail.com or reach out to conor@socialmediaelite.ie for more information.

For more information and to explore other episodes go to: deliveringwow.com/135

What Happened When Our Practice Ran Out Of Water Feb 20, 2019

What's up guys? It is Anissa, super excited to be here talking to you today about, are you leveling up your team leaders? So, I actually just looked at my What's Up messages and I received a message from Tammy, who is my Office Manager, and the message actually says ... Now granted it is 2:00 in the afternoon on a Friday as I'm recording this. The message says, "Hey Doc, just letting you know we had no water today. The Water Commission was working in the area and so, all of the water was turned off. Our backup tanks did not kick in, they were not working. And so, I contacted the plumber, he came in, he fixed our tanks. Everything is working, we're all good to go. We rescheduled the patients, everything is fine. Again, just letting you know. Let me know if you need anything, have a great weekend."

Now, I am so excited because number one, there are processes in place for what happens if there is no water, right? So, she knew to contact the plumber. She knew where to get his number. She knew if there was an issue, who to call. What was also interesting is that, she just took control, right? They took control over letting the patients know, rescheduling the patients. And it all ended well, despite perhaps, having to inconvenience a few patients with rescheduling them. But, I think the biggest lesson of what happened today is number one, it's a Friday. This morning, I actually was on a few Zoom video calls with our team getting ready for Summit. I ran a few errands. Again, typically on Friday's I'm not in the practice, and there was what could have been a big issue. Or maybe it was. And it was solved. It was solved by my team. It was solved by my Office Manager.

And so, my question to you is number one, do you have a strong team leader? Do you have someone who can run the business for you, whether you're there or not? Somebody that has the tools and processes and knows what to do. A lot of times we have Office Managers, but we do not actually, take time to build out processes in case things happen, right? And then the other thing too, is that a lot of times I can tell you the leader I would have been in the past, my Office Manager might not have had the ... Might not have had the ability to say, "You know what? I'm going to take this on." They might have felt like they would have had to have called me from the very beginning of the day, tell me their problem and ask me what I want them to do. Ask me what I want them to do about patients, right? And I would have been perhaps that leader that would have said ... Or that Doctor that would have said, "Okay, let me come in and try and tell you what to do" or "Let me come in and see what I can do to find a plumber", right?

But again, the team took control. And so, as you're building out your practice. As you look at becoming that true leader and scaling for growth, it's not possible for you to try to micromanage your team. And certainly, as you look at growing your business, it's going to be increasingly hard for you to be the Office Manager, right? And I say that and you may be like, "What?" But ... Well, let's just be real. So may of us who are dentists, if it's a small practice, we don't have Office Managers. I hear that from our members of our programs they're like, "Well I don't really have an Office Manager. I'm the one that actually oversees the team. And I'm the one that actually oversees making sure the payroll is getting done. And I'm the one that oversees ..." And I think that's really, really great when you're small and you're just getting started so that you can learn exactly what needs to happen, right? But as you are looking at leveling up your leadership. As you're looking at growing your business, what you realize is that you cannot do everything.

And, I also hear a lot of Doctors who typically ... I mean dentists, we tend to be those type As, and we feel like no one can do things better than us. But what we discover is that if you have other people doing things, even if they're doing it at 65, 70, 80% and you have multiple people that are doing other things for you. What happens is that, more tasks are able to get done. More marketing is able to get done, more processes are able to be built. More team training is able to be done if for example, you're not having to do all the trainings now for your teams, you know? So as you start looking at leveling up, I want you to start looking at changing your mindset and shifting to think a little bit bigger. I mean, if you look at any company, any major company you're not going to have the owner ... For example, let's just say Target. The owner of Target is not going to be the one doing the ordering, and doing the marketing and doing everything, right?

And they're not going to be the one micromanaging every department and micromanaging what the COO or the Operations person is doing, right? And so, that's essentially what your Office Manager is. For me I say, "Tammy runs my business", right? I own it and she runs it. That's her job, right? Her job to make sure that the marketing's in place. Her job to make sure that our team members are onboarded when we have new team members. Making sure that all of our systems are in place. Making sure that whoever is supposed to be scheduling a certain number of appointments every week, making sure that they're being held accountable for that. That's Tammy's role, right? And my role is again, to go in and to be able to form connections with patients and to be able to form those connections and continue to be the creative thinker of how we're going to continue to impact our patient's lives. And give them great, amazing experiences, right?

So again, this is a quick one today. But I just wanted to pop on because I thought it was really, really neat that Tammy sent me that message. And that she had actually taken care of everything. And I'm confident that she did the right job. And again, just encouraging you to keep moving forward in your practices. We're all getting there and we're all again, continuing to look at how can we make ourselves better to be able to impact our teams and our practices.

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Off to Funnel Hacker Live Feb 19, 2019

What's up guys, it's Anissa. I am super pumped to be on today. I am actually heading out to Funnel Hacker Live, which is in Nashville, is a coming together of 3,500 and more marketers from all over the world. What's really interesting is that I used to feel a little bit embarrassed or a little bit ashamed to let people know how passionate I was about Funnels and about helping dentist or by using Funnels to be able to grow businesses and it's really interesting. This summer I was traveling to Kenya, many of you guys know that when we launched our first online coaching program, which was Delivering Wow U, all of the money that we actually made for the startup of that product actually was donated to village impact, which is a community organization that builds schools in Africa. So I actually built a classroom along with a few other members of the ClickFunnels community and we went to Kenya this summer to open up our classrooms.

But anyway, I was in the van with Russell Brunson, who was the founder of ClickFunnels and he told me something that was so impactful for me and not just for me, but for all of you and for the entire industry of dental. I was telling him about what I've been doing in my practice and what's been happening with those doctors that have been through our marketing programs and he was blown away. What's really interesting is that typically with Digital Funnels, you're looking at sending people to a page where they can get some useful information and give you their email address and phone number in exchange for something. So it could be for a [inaudible 00:02:08], could be for a checklist, it could be for example, the weekly printables that you guys are getting. But in the dental world we are offering, for example, seven consultations this week for Invisalign and click here to see if you apply, right.

Based on the response, they just might qualify and by doing this process, we're able to not only get people that are interested in coming in, but it gives us an opportunity to capture information so that we can contact them and see if they really truly are ready to get started and if the procedures are in their budget and if not, offer an alternate procedure for example, maybe a denture instead of an implant or maybe a cleaning to at least get them in and get started. The other cool thing about Funnels is that once people are giving you their information, they are now able to start receiving immediate emails from your business, which means that you're going to continue that nurture process and continue to stay in front of them.

But I was talking to Russell and I was like, what's really neat is that a lot of marketers think that the Funnel is the Funnel, but the Funnel is actually what happens before people ever go to your landing page. What has worked extremely well for me as well as my students is by doing engagement campaigns. So that's going to be the Project Smile or collecting clothes for charity that goes to get a local charity in your community or doing a 12 day prize giveaway with prizes donated from strategic partner businesses or getting out and treating a hundred kids for free. Those are the things that people will want to share, things that people will want to connect with and ultimately what sets the story of what makes your practice different and unique and if you use social media as a tool, then what happens is that now you're able to re-target anyone who has commented on any of these campaigns, if it's been shared to their newsfeed or anyone who has shared the campaigns or liked the campaigns and these are sort of campaigns that absolutely truly work.

I actually received a message last night from Dr. Ann when she's in California and she is one that really wanted social media to work for her and she had tried everything and then she joined our program. Just by doing Project Smile, which is the smile makeover competition, it transformed her practice and it was probably about five months ago that she had it. I think she had 40,000 people to actually view her video, but it's been transformation of what's happened after. So what I spoke to Russell about was that, this is the key in healthcare. It's not giving people at $39 coupon, it's not buy one, get one free. I mean, this is about people's health, right? If you can educate them and get inside of their mind, how this treatment that you're offering can help them, can make them feel better, can make them look better, can make them healthier, then you're able to get someone in who otherwise would have never had treatment and you can change your life.

So I said, for me, Funnels are a tool. But really it's about how do we build trust with people who have no idea who we are so that when they come in, we don't have to take so long to get through that trust cycle. How do we have it where they've seen our testimonials of our patients? We just posted yesterday a patient on our Facebook page who came in and he said that he had been seeing our ads on Facebook and he was a little bit skeptical, like how could this really be true? But he just kept seeing so many posts of people that were happy and he started to continue to see what we were doing in the community. He decided to just go ahead and make the phone call and he's like, "Everything that they say here is real and it's true and they care about you". He talked about the service that he had, that he had perio and he's been other places and his gums weeks later would still bleed and he came to our practice and after his first visit, he was surprised at how gentle the procedure was because he had never experienced that in the past. Now he was coming back in for a follow up visit and his gums had significantly stopped bleeding and he was just going on and on and on about his treatment.

Now, imagine which we did, we boost this post out to people who are living on specific streets in our neighborhood that we want to have more patients come in from or we have this shown to people who have seen our post about our community impact events. So they have seen information about us giving back to the community, now they're seeing testimonials of patient. Well, if they're not ready to come in right now as a patient, maybe they just had a cleaning somewhere else. I can assure you that that seed has been planted in their mind that the next time they have a dental visit, they're going to consider if they're in the right place or if they are talking to a friend who is saying that they have a dental issue, your practice is going to be top of mine. So to me that is what a Funnel is about. It's getting people from not knowing who you are, to getting them to follow you and become a raving fan even before they're a patient.

It's really interesting because I am really big about ROI. Like if you're going to spend marketing dollars, you want to see that immediate return. But the interesting thing is that with Facebook, the immediate return is not just from that patient, but all of the people that they talk about your practice to like their friends and their family and their coworkers. That's the huge benefit because you're creating this viral effect of word of mouth. So traditionally, it would take a really long time to build up that rapport in your community on what happens with social media is that you have a shortcut. I was telling all of this to Russell in the van, we were in Kenya and I was like, "This is how Healthcare Funnels work" and after they have gone through the process of getting to know the business and seeing the testimonials, then when you put a Funnel in front of them that says, "Who's at risk for cavities? Take this quick quiz to find out" or "Who is a candidate for dental implants? Take this quick quiz to find out".

These are the things that once they know who you are, they're going to be like, "Oh, I knew that, that business" and then next thing you know, they are on your email list and they're receiving information about that service and your practice is calling them and saying, "Thanks so much for your interest in our practice. We wanted to offer you are an opportunity to come in. We have a few spots this week where we're giving away a consultation for you to come in and get to know us and I have a few questions for you, right? It's based on that service, you know, I see that you've been missing teeth for a certain number time" or "I know that one of the areas that you wanted to focus on was this or that". When you do, again, when patients come in, they're ready and I've seen over the last nine years that we've used social media in my practice that when these patients come in and we ask them like, how did you get to know our practice? How did you hear about us? And they say Facebook, I internally smile because I know that I am not going to have to take a few visits to be able to nurture them, to trust us.

I know that they've seen us already, they're ready to get started and our case acceptance rate significantly increases. A lot of times people talk about different forms of marketing and why I'm so passionate about Facebook marketing or Funnel marketing is that we literally can get in the ears and the eyes of people who otherwise would have been afraid to go to the dentist and because they see what we're doing, they start to trust us and the fear starts to break down over time and we can help them. Many of us have unique skills, right? We go to extra training and we learn how to do additional services, whether it's help patients who have sleep apnea or we are skilled at placing dental implants or we've invested in the time to learn how to do Ortho in our practice.

But we keep that knowledge inside and no one knows that we are a doctor that loves to do that or they're not even thinking about us because we're not putting ourselves in front of them and it's like out of sight, out of mind, which is why I am such a huge fan of marketing. Even if you're in a position where you're busy and you actually don't have the capacity to see more patients at this time, it's really important to still continue with marketing perhaps who are different purpose, perhaps not giving call to actions for people to schedule. But your putting yourself in front of them so that you stay relevant because as you know, businesses that come out of mind, what happens is that ultimately they lose that ability to be top of mind on people's tongues and you definitely want to make sure that, that doesn't happen to your practice.

I definitely recommend that you look at and take a really close look at what you're doing for your marketing and your business. Social media is the easiest and fastest way to be able to tell your practice a story, take people behind the scenes, show them all of your patients who are extremely happy with the work that you're doing, with the way that they're treated and it's a message that needs to be heard. If you've gone to dental school for years, it's really your obligation to let people know how you can help them. Because if you don't, you are not in my opinion, impacting as many people as you truly can. So I hope this word of inspiration inspires you to look at your marketing, to look at what you're doing and to perhaps make some shifts. Again, this isn't going to be, it's already started off, but it's going to be a really, really good year for all of you. You are in the right place and you're in the right tribe and we are certainly here to help you along your journey.

All right guys, so I am almost at the airport. Again, I'm heading out to Funnel Hacker Live. I will be doing some podcasts from there so you guys will be able to hear some recaps and take you behind the scenes of this incredible event. But again, enjoy the rest of your day and we'll chat soon.

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My Facebook Ad That Did Not Work Feb 19, 2019

What's up everyone? It is Anissa Holmes and today I want to take you behind the scenes of my Facebook ad that did not work. Now, many times when I am inside of Facebook groups or perhaps sometimes when I'm out at conferences, people come up to me and they're like, "I know that you work with dentists to be able to help them understand social media and the strategy behind it and how they can get a lot of patients using social media without spending a lot of money. However, the issue that I've had is that I've tried Facebook, it didn't work. I ran some ads. I posted. Nothing happened." So, people say, "What can you recommend for me to get better results?" Right? Which is normal. Which is typical. Which is a great question.

I actually wanted to talk to you about what we do inside of my practice when we run Facebook ads as well as what we teach inside of our Facebook boot camp. I think this will help you a lot and shed some light into the real truth behind running Facebook ads and creating campaigns. Again, we have just started to test, I think it's been four or five days now, a campaign for dental implants. What we did was we actually chose three different images and the three different images that we chose, I think maybe one was a man, one was a lady, one was a couple. We also had different versions of the copy. The copy are the words that go with the ad. We had a short copy version and we had a long copy version. Copy is again the words. The short copy means like one or two sentences and then a call to action to apply for a cosmetic consultation versus one that's more of a story form that's longer.

Again, just the short copy, kind of what it looks like is here's how our patient's are getting rid of their dentures forever. This week we're offering seven free consultations to those who qualify. Click here to see if you qualify. Or click here to apply. That's a short copy. What happened is again, we ran three different images, three different versions and after we did that we used a quick button inside of Facebook, it literally takes less than a minute and we created what we call a duplicate. We just made a copy of those and then we just went in and edited the text. We put the long copy. Now, what happened in terms of the results is that we had one ad that received a ton, ton, ton of clicks.

I think we had a total of maybe 64 people or so to opt in, meaning they give us their email address. They requested that we contact them for an appointment. Of those 64, there was one ad that had probably about 38 people to click through and complete again giving us their email address, going through the funnel on that one. There was another one that might have had maybe 16. Another one might have had eight. Another one might have had two. And two of them might have had like one or zero.

You can see here, and the numbers might not be exact there but you kind of get the point. Right? There was one or two ads that had a lot more people clicking on it. What was interesting is that the highest was one image, which was in a short copy. The second highest was a different image that was in a long copy. That was really interesting because it meant that there were two images that people liked and that the copy really didn't matter. There was not a clear winner. Our audience and our community, for some reason, these particular versions were resonating with them.

Now, if I had only run the ads that had zero clicks. I think it was one that had zero and then one that had like one or two. If I had only run one version of the ad then I would have looked at it and said, "Oh, this is not working." This is not a good ad. I need to go back and I need to change the images. Or I need to change the words. If I really was not experienced in understanding how funnels would work, I might say, "Well, my funnels not working and I need to change my funnel." I shared this example with you to let you know we really don't know what people in our communities are going to resonate with.

The best way to understand what people are interested in or what's going to move them to take action is actually to test. Then from there you know your clear winner. What we typically do is the ones that are getting one click or getting zero clicks, we just turn them off. That means that we're no longer spending any money to promote those ads. We're only keeping on the ones that people are clicking on. The other thing that you can do is you can say, okay, well, this particular one that's working, if you want to take it to the next level, we were running this ad with this particular audience.

For example, the two winning ads. You can say, well these are ones that people are clicking on, what if we were to duplicate that ad now and instead of sharing it or instead of only sharing it to this particular audience, people who might live on specific streets. You can say what if we were to also show this ad as a different ad, again clicking that button to just make a copy of the two that are winning. What if we were to show those ads to people who have previously been to our website. What if we were to show those ads who people who have previously watched our videos, if you're doing Facebook Live videos or have previously commented on posts or shared your posts or liked your posts. Or messaged your practice's Facebook page in the past. Those are the warm audiences.

What if we were to show the same winning ads that were seen by what we called a cold audience, people that have not interacted with your Facebook page or your business in the past, and again take those two winning ads and now you are creating copies to run to people that have interacted before? Then you say well I'm curious like what would be the results? Most time, many times, those warmer audiences are going to convert a lot better. You're going to have even better results.

The ultimate goal is once you figure out again, which one is working then you can just continue to run those ads until you see a drop in the number of clicks. Typically what we'll do is we'll run the version for at least a month and then once a month we check in. Literally, again just a few minutes to just log in to the back of Facebook and see what's happening. See what people are clicking on. See how much it cost per click. If it's working and continuing to work then you continue to let it run. However, many times what happens is that people in your community, once they start seeing, especially the images, the same images show up in their news feeds they are going to overlook it. Like they're not going to click on it. They're not going to stop. It's not going to catch their attention.

What I recommend you do ideally is every month go in and change out the images. Put new images in, even if you're using the same copy going ahead and changing out the images or perhaps continue to let those same ones run and go ahead and create a new version, changing out the copy and seeing how people respond to that new copy again. Otherwise, things can get a little bit stale and things that might work at the beginning can lose it's effect.

Again, I just wanted to take you guys behind the scenes because I do hear that question of, "Well, Facebook doesn't work." Part of the problem sometimes is people are just not posting the right thing or they are not boosting or they're not running to a specific audience, they're just putting up something on their page. The facts that Facebook is really a marketing company so if you don't pay for Facebook ads to be seen in specific news feeds or to be seen, you're just not going to have the same level of result.

All right guys, so I hope that that helps. Again, I am super pumped about sharing all of my knowledge with all of you so if you have any questions at all, just post them inside of our Delivering Well hang out Facebook group. Says Deliveringwellhangout.com. Again, we are here to help and support you.

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The Truth About Bonuses Feb 18, 2019

What's up everyone? It is Anissa, wanted to jump on and talk to you guys about bonuses. When should you bonus? Should you bonus? How should you bonus? And there's lots of different thoughts and ideas about how to reward your employees or your team members for a job well done. Now, before we do that, I actually want to tell you a quick story. So back when I was nine years old, I wanted to get this Rainbow Brite Doll. I don't know if you guys had that Rainbow Brite Doll. If you remember it, if you're old enough to remember it, but it was a really, really colorful doll. She had like blue hair and yellow hair and I just wanted this to doll. But the problem is that I knew that my mom would probably not get it for me. So I came up with this grand idea that I would actually create a lemonade stand to be able to get the money to be able to buy this doll.

And so I came home from school and I said, "Mom, I want to do lemonade stand on Saturday, and so can you please take me to the supermarket." And so she actually said, yeah, she took me to Winn Dixie. And we went in, we were walking the aisles, pushing the shopping basket and I put in my lemons and my cups and we bought some ice and we got sugar and we had a container that we could use to store the lemonade. Now, what I did was on that Saturday morning, I actually woke up and I went around in the neighborhood and I said, "Hi, my name is Anissa. I am trying to raise money to buy a rainbow Brite Doll and I would really appreciate if you could help me. So today at 12:00", and I gave them my address, "We're actually gonna be doing a lemonade stand and that will help me to raise money to buy my doll.

Well, everybody in the community that I knocked on their doors thought, "Wow, what a nice little girl and what a great idea." And so we actually had a lot of people come and to be honest with you, we actually ran out of lemonade. We sold so much lemonade, cup after cup after cup. And at the end of it, I was so excited because we had made $15.48. Now, I can tell you I was ecstatic because the doll was like $13 and I was like, "You know what? I've got enough money to buy my dog." But what was really interesting is that I went and told my mom was like, "Mom, we did it. I got enough money." And you know what my mom said? She said, "Anissa, I'm so proud of you. You worked so hard. And everybody that came, they were really, really happy and like, I'm so proud of you. But what I want you to really understand is that you didn't actually make the $15.38. What you actually made was $2.38.

See, the rest of that money that you made, it actually went to pay for the supplies, the cups and the ice and the lemons. And so what you actually made was what was leftover and that was the profit." Inside of a dental practice, many times we work really hard or our team works really hard and we have the false belief that we have actually made more money than what we have, and we are not taking into consideration the overhead, the team salaries, the benefits that we're giving to our team members, the rent, the water, the utilities, the lab bill, all of our different costs. And a lot of times what happens is that we are not sharing with our team what those expenses are. And so what they see is like what I saw. They saw the revenue, they saw the income coming in to the business, but they never saw the expenses.

And so as you're looking at how can I incentivize my team or better yet, how can I reward my team for a job well done, which I'm a huge fan of? One thing that you want to make sure that you're always doing is you're looking at profit. Now, unfortunately, what happens is far too many practices have no idea what their profit is. They're waiting for their accountant to give them a report and many times their accountant is just really there to do their taxes. And so many doctors assume that, "Well, what we have coming in our production is profit", but the fact is that those are completely two different things. And so what I would encourage you to start looking at is as you're considering rewarding your team, the first thing that you need to do is actually take a step back and look at what is the revenue, what are the expenses, and it's actually quite simple to be able to calculate your profit.

And so what you do is you look at what is the actual revenue coming in, and I don't mean the production which many times is actually inflated because of PPO write-offs. But what is the actual collections? What is the cash coming in? And from there, I say, okay, let's go ahead and remove all of the expenses that we have. So that's going to be all of your fixed expenses, meaning that you have to pay them whether you see a patient or not. So that's going to be your team salaries and your rent and your power bill and your water bill and your utilities, your cell phone bill if you have a cell phone bill, those things will be constant. And then you start looking at your variable expenses. What are your supply costs? What is the cost for you to even buy printer paper and ink for your printer?

A lot of times people really don't think about that, but the fact is that the business doesn't make anything until those things are taken care of. And so the profit is what's left after you look at your income misusing out all of your expenses. And so if you're not tracking that, you can certainly use different systems. Your accountant can help you with that. Internally, we love to do it within our scorecard. We actually have our team member anytime or I'll say this, every week, they put in the revenue that comes in per provider. We actually have hygienists, we have our doctors and so we can see breaking it down, where is our revenue coming from. And then what we do as well is, as a bill comes in, even before it's paid, it is actually the amount is filled in.

So we have a ... if you think about an Excel sheet or if you think about a diagram, on the left, you have a list of all of your different expenses. So at the top are all of your fixed expenses, like I said, all of your employee wages, etc, and below that is all of your things that are variable. So you have all of those different fixed and variable expenses and then at the top, you have like January and February, March, April, May, all the way through. So that way at the bottom, again, month by month, you can see what is your revenue. So that's your top item, what are your expenses, and then you see your profit. And if you break it down this way, it also allows you to see month to month to month, what are your expenses for each particular item. So you can look at, well, what are my expenses or how much am I paying for my power bill? So if you see that it goes up one month, you're like, "What happened?" Or if you look at your lab bill and it goes up, you can say, "Wow, well we had a good month", or you can look at your marketing and ensure that your marketing has given you an ROI. You can make better decisions.

And so I definitely encourage you to start looking at your expenses, looking at your overhead as well as obviously looking at how you can increase your cash that's coming in. So those are all of the business strategies that you have that you're working on with the other metrics on the scorecard, tracking your production per visit, hygienist production per visit, your reappointment rate, all of those different things. But again, just to keep it really simple, if we're looking at giving bonuses, guys, please do not make bonus one of your fixed expenses or one of those expenses that are at the top. You always want to make sure ... because guess what guys, what a business makes is at the bottom and a lot of times we think, Oh my gosh, we've made...", and you and I see practices that are making $3 million or they're bringing in $3 million worth of revenue, but then their expenses are like 280,000. And so everybody thinks the doctor is like a multimillionaire and the business is only making $200,000 a year which may seem like a lot, but to be honest with you, by the time the doctors paid and you're wanting to have money to reinvest in equipment and reinvest in growing the business, if you want to look at a new location, it's gonna come up short.

So again, I just wanted to come on and talk to you guys now about the truth, about numbers, the truth about bonus systems, and I want you to consider getting vulnerable and telling your team. I can tell you, when I told my team and opened up about the truth, about all of our expenses, their mouth dropped, they couldn't believe it. They Just saw the income and they thought obviously, just like I did when I was a little girl and I saw the money come in from the lemonade stand. They thought that that's what the business made. And so I had to educate them and teach them about what a business actually makes. And then I said, "Now I want you guys to actually ... because you're working so hard, I want to be able to create an opportunity for you to make more money. And so anytime we are getting profit, then we will share that profit with you. So you can make a decision whether you want to share 3% of the profit 4% of the profit, 5% of the profit, whatever that's going to be with your team.

But now it makes sense because you are actually sharing something after all of your bills are paid and it puts you in a much better piece of mind state. Again, I see doctors all the time that are giving bonuses to their teams and they're not even getting paid, which is crazy. So that's one of you that are listening right now. You just need to stop it. Alright? It means that team members are gonna be a little bit upset perhaps because things are changing. But how do you get over that is by having a real conversation and being open and honest about where things are and if you got the right people, they might be disappointed, but they'll understand. And you want to have people that are motivated.

Again, when I told my team, all of a sudden, they started working harder. They were like, "Doc, we thought we were making a lot more money than what we were." Again, they were looking at the top number and I was like, "Yeah, guys, that's why we got to work so hard." It made sense and they Started to work harder and all of a sudden, the numbers just started to get higher and higher and higher with our profitability. So I hope that helps. If you guys have any questions, just drop them on the inside of our Facebook group and that's the best place to be able to connect with me and the Delivering WOW hang out.

And again, I hope that this helps to make you think a little bit about what you're doing in your business. Are you looking at your numbers? And really, how are you rewarding your team? And I love to reward my team. So I encourage you, if you have a great month, if there's a lot of extra profits, share it with them. It will get them knowing that you really appreciate all of their hard work. Again, if you're gonna do a bonus, it's completely fine, but just do it the right way. All right guys, that's it. Take care until the next episode.

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134 - Proven Process for New Office Buildouts with Steve O'Leary Feb 14, 2019

I’m thrilled to welcome Steve O’Leary, the Project Consultant at APEX Design Build, onto the show to talk about the best processes for designing and building your ideal dental practice.

Steve is a natural born leader and dedicated to delivering high levels of customer satisfaction with help from his positive outlook on life and great listening skills. He has worked at APEX Design Build for almost three years and is super passionate about the company and what they stand for.

Apex Design Build is a fully integrated design, architecture, and construction firm that specializes in creating state-of-the-art healthcare facilities. Their motto is as enduring as it is simple: Your practice made perfect.

On the podcast we discussed…

Everything you need to know about APEX Design Build Vs. Design Bid Build and what each involves
The importance of having a high level of communication during the new buildout process
Questions you should ask before hiring a team to help you build a new practice
The impact that a well-designed dental practice can have on your patients
What to expect when you hire a firm like APEX Design Build
How long a typical build project tastes at each phase
An estimated ballpark figure of building a typical dental practice
Taking the first steps towards designing and building your own practice

If you’d like to learn more about APEX Design Build and how they can help design the dental space of your dreams, go to: apexdesignbuild.net/the-apex-continuum/

To listen to more episodes of the Delivering Wow Podcast, click here.

Behind the Scenes of Our New Funnel Project Feb 13, 2019

What's up guys? I hope that all is well. Welcome to another episode of our podcast. I actually wanted to jump on, I am right in the middle of organizing my Google Drive for a new product that we're going to be launching which is our Delivering WOW funnel program. We have had almost 1,000 people to go through our Facebook Bootcamp, and inside of the bootcamp we give a Facebook ad for every service. We give about 20 or 30 images, we also give a Done For You funnel and email copy for dental implants. But what's happened is that, a lot of our members are like, this is really, really good can you provide us more content? So we want to be able to get for example, images every single month for Invisalign as well as maybe, an article that we can share with our patients. As well as fresh Facebook ads, as well as fresh images, right?

And so what we've been working on for the last six months is actually, creating all of that content. So for actually 12 different dental services: implants, Invisalign, cosmetic dentistry, cavity risk assessments, pediatric dentistry, sleep apnea, braces, safe amalgam removal, Wisdom teeth, Six-Month smiles, teeth whitening, peri ... I mean, it's just a whole list. We've actually been working on this as a secret project, listening to our members, right? Now, I want to talk a little bit about what we're doing ... What I'm actually working on right now and how this applies inside of your dental practice. And this is a pretty big project that we're working on. Again, every single dental service that was spoken about we need to provide images for regular ads, images for funnel ads. As well as short copy ads and long copy ads and articles and like, its just a whole bunch of stuff. We want to make sure that we're over delivering.

But, the question is that, how do you keep things organized? And how do you ensure that you're not getting overwhelmed? Well, a lot of it comes to simple processes, right? And so, a lot of times you guys see me launching different things. So we have our Printables Program, which is so crazy because I actually thought up that idea probably about three or four weeks ago. It has not even been a whole month, and I came up with this idea and then what I did was I just kinda mapped out the process and I spent about a day mapping out the process of how it would work, where we would get the content for, for the articles, which is typically coming from our writer. And then passing that onto our graphic designer, and then passing that onto the person who uploads the printable, to an Amazon file that we can get a downloadable link. To now putting it inside of the emails that we sent out, right? So it's creating a process.

Now, because we took the time to create the process, what happens is that in about two weeks we actually were able to launch it, which is crazy because it's a pretty big project, there's a lot of moving parts. But, quite honestly, the reason why we're able to get that up and running, which has been crazy successful. So far we've had almost 1,000 people who have signed up for our weekly free Printables, which is great because we are now allowing people to learn more about Delivering WOW and how we can help them, our podcast, our free Facebook group, and all of our different programs. But the reason why we're getting ... Able to get it launched, which is why I'm talking about that today is that, I actually took the time to map out the entire process. And because of it we got it launched very quickly and the same thing with our funnel program that we're about to launch. Like, it's a lot of moving parts, we probably have about 20 people working on this project. We have three different writers, we have three different graphic designers. We have just a ton of people that are working behind the scenes.

The only way is that we're organized, right? And so inside our ... For example, our Google Drive, I took time to say, "What are all the services? What are all of the content that needs to be complete? Whose going to actually complete it, right?" And then sharing links of where everything can be saved. And I say that because even yesterday, I'm helping my sister ... She's a pre-K teacher and she's been working with

ipt by Rev.com

helping pre-K teachers with like, their curriculum and lesson plans and she's been doing a lot of Facebook Lives and really helping them. But now they've asked her for ... And she's been doing that just as a hobby. But they are now asking her for content. And they want to get access to, for example, monthly lesson plans. And so I said, "Okay, let me help you map out the course." And we did the exact same thing like, I spent about an hour just, organizing because she's like, "I'm overwhelmed I don't know where to start." I'm like, "Just take some time. And just write out like, what 12 things can you help people with?" Okay, so the first step is to create those videos. Now that you've created the videos, what's going to be the next step that you will want to create an additional resource that will help them so that they won't get stuck, right?

So that would be a checklist or a PDF, right? From there what is the next step? From there the next step is to say, "Okay. What are we going to create for them?" So if it's going to be lesson plans, if it's going to be an activity sheet. All of the things that you're going to deliver to them outside of say for example, the 12 learning topics that you want to give them as a bonus, right? And then she's like, "Alright I get it." So step one is, what are your 12 videos? Step two is going to be what's ... What additional resources? And then like, for the monthly deliverables again, the lesson plans. What are you giving? Again, how many lesson plans are you going to give? And then based on that, are you going to do a video with them? And again, it can get super overwhelming. But the way that we broke down the process is like, alright let's map out all of the steps. Now let's just focus on what you have to do for step one. Don't worry about all of the other steps, you've already written them down. Let's just focus on these 12.

So the first step is creating your first 12 topics. Once that's done, create the first 12 videos. Once that's done create the templates that go with them. Once that's done, then you move on and we created a really cool spreadsheet inside of Excel where she could actually just, map through seeing how the content is moving as well as like, having an Excel link to the folder where the content is and she was like, "Oh my gosh! This makes so much sense." Now, the reason why I'm talking about this again, on this podcast and relating it to dentistry, is that a lot of times we say that we want to launch a marketing campaign, or we say that this quarter we want to be able to create a process for our account receivables collections. Or we want to create a process for how we answer the telephone, or we want to create a process for how team members can request time off, right?

So there's a lot of things that we want to do. Unfortunately, a lot of times it's just talk and talk with good intention. But without an actual plan of how you're going to get there, it can be super overwhelming of how you're going to actually do all of these things. And so, one thing that we started to do within my practice as well as, with our inner circle practices. As well as now, within our Dental Profit Academy, is we're actually teaching the process of 90-day planning through using tools. So using a tool such as, Asana. And Asana is great for task management. And even within our Printables Program, even within our Delivering WOW funnels, it's the same thing. So we use Asana so we can see progress move and then the content is saved within like a tracker. And the content is saved also in folders in Google Drive. So the Asana is kinda like how we move things over. But, we do the same thing for our dental practices and so we say, "Okay, with the 90-day plan, what three things are going to work on this quarter? What are we going to work on for January, February and March inside of marketing?"

And then, just like ... Just mapping it out, right? And the same page in Asana ... Or you can do this if you're not using Asana, if you're writing it down. So just take this tip. If you're going to do marketing, what are three campaigns that you're going to do? So, you're going to a clothing drive, you're going to be doing a Valentine's promotion and a March Madness promotion. So you just dump it out, right? And then from there, okay what are we going to do in terms of training? What training does our team need? So they need training on case acceptance, need training on answering the phones. They need training on how to use a specific tool such as, Asana or Dental Intel or whatever it's going to be. So you just write those three things down and then from there you're like, "Okay well, what are we going to do in terms of processes? What processes do we need to build out?" Again, do we need to create an operations manual? Do we need to create a process again, of how we communicate with a patient when they have an overdue balance?

Like, a written documented process, not just something that's in someone's head, right? So again, all of that can be super overwhelming. But if you just jot it down, then take time after that ... And that can be super fast. Like that can be accomplished typically in like, 10 minutes. Then you can say, "Okay, now let's break this down further and let's just look at marketing. Who's going to own that on the team?" And so, you just talk to the marketing team and say, "Okay. What are we doing now, now that we're doing for ... Now that we know what we're doing for the first three months. What are we doing for the first month, right?" So the first month, we're going to work on a back-to-school ... Or we're going to work on a clothing drive, right? So, within that again, we're not worried about everything else so it makes it super easy and it's just the marketing team. Not the Doctor, not the office manager who is looking at overseeing everything. But just the person that does marketing.

For me, it's a lady who is also at the front desk. And then, the question for her is like, that's the only thing she has to work on. And so, what are you working on ... First you need to know like, who are you going to give the clothes too. And then, how many weeks are you going to collect clothes. And what it's going to be the process? Are you going to give a prize? Is it going to be like, anybody who donates gets an ability to win a $25.00 or $250.00 gift card to the practice. Like, what is that going to be? And then, from there the person would create a Facebook post to promote it on Facebook and Instagram, of how people would be entered to win and where they need to drop off the items, right?

So, that can technically be done by a marketing person in an afternoon. Just like, writing down like, who's going to do what? What's going to be done, what ... when? And then now they have their checklist. So they're checklist could be like, alright by tomorrow I'm going to find out who we're going to donate clothes too. You know what? We're going to do it for two weeks and then I'll go ahead and task myself out for Wednesday to go ahead and create a Facebook ad, you know, just the words and go ahead and kinda, map out what we're going to type up. Or if you're inside a Dental Profit Academy, we actually have campaigns that we've created for you. So, we've got campaigns for about 35 different campaigns and we just provide again, two or three examples every single month, so you can get in there and get that content. I actually, created that because my person ... My office was getting stuck. And I was like, "Would it help you if we just created a whole library of images and everything where you could just literally copy and paste it?" And she was like, "Yeah. That'd be really awesome."

But anyway, whether you're using our content or not, that's how you would breakdown for example, marketing. If you start looking at, okay well, processes, right? You can say, "This quarter we're going to work on these three processes." Well, who's going to own like, creating a documented process of what happens when a patient has an overdue balance? Who on the team is going to own that? And then you can be like, "Okay. That's going to the financial coordinator." And that might also be the office manager, or it might not be. But it's certainly not going to be the person who is necessarily doing the marketing, right? So that person can say, "Alright. I will go ahead and document a process of what needs to be done." Maybe they're doing a screen share using like, Screen Castify to do a video of their screen, of them recording what happens when ... Or maybe they're taking screenshots and actually just putting it in a typed document, right? So now again, if you have a new team member that joins the practice, it's already documented. You don't have to have any confusion, it's super clear.

So you're creating that documented process. And again, because they're only focusing on one documented process per month, right? It's not overwhelming. And because it's just one person, it's not overwhelming, right? They can certainly just focus on that one thing. So, I hope you guys are starting to see how you're able to get a whole lot of things done, just be being organized in the beginning. Like, that's the whole purpose of this particular episode to talk to you about putting in the time first and planning and mapping out what you're going to do. And then from there what you can do is say, "Okay. Who on the team can oversee that part of it?" And then from there, they have their roadmap. They know, for example, if you're the business own or you're the Doctor, if you want to create and map out what you want to have done. Or maybe your team can work with you and you do ... Which is what I recommend, a team meeting to decide what areas need to be worked on, right? And do your 90-day planning together.

But again, once you start breaking it down like that, it becomes super easy and super clear. And the team is like, "Yeah. I can take a whole month to just, write down what I do for this every single time." And what happens is that, before you know it you're like. "Oh my gosh! I've gotten so much done." And after a years' time now you're like, "Wow! I have 12 documented process and we've done 12 impactful campaigns in our community, which has brought awareness to our practice and allowed us to serve and give back." We have focused on having our team trained on again, case acceptance or having our team trained on how to use a specific tool or how to answer the telephone, right? And before you know it, at the end of the year, your team is like, rock stars because they've had all of this training.

Again, what's the important message of this particular episode? Is to just take time and to map out what needs to be done. And then before you know it, things are happening. They're happening very, very quickly. People are not overwhelmed and again, just going back to the example of me working with my sister yesterday, at first it seemed like super overwhelming for her to create a course for teachers with giving them free lesson plans every month. Free checklists of activities that they can do and materials. And when I broke it down and I was like, "What are ... If you're gonna do that, how many are you going to give?" And she's like, "Well I'll give two lesson plans." I'm like, "Okay. Then, what else are they going to get?" And she's like, "Well they'll get an activity sheet and a coloring sheet." And I'm like. "Alright great. So let's not think about that now. Let's think about the 12 extra little five minute videos. You can give them a tip about this and this and that and the other. And so, let's just focus on that first. Can you tell me the 12 you want to talk about?"

Like, she spat it out so fast. I'm like, "Alright, can you create a five minute video on each one of these?" She's like, "Yeah." She's like, "Well what about this?" No, let's just focus on this. She got that in her mind so she's like. "Alright, I can get that done by the end of this week." And I'm like, "Great. From there, those are done. Now you can go ahead and crate a resource that would attach with that. And then you're done. And then now you can focus on your ... The actual lesson plans. And then you can focus on the activity sheet and like, a coloring sheet. And then from there you can move it over onto a platform, you know, such as Quick Funnels to deliver it. And then you can focus on marketing the program."

So again, I hope that this was helpful for you. This is how my mind thinks with all of the different things that I do. Whether it's, how do we get more stuff done in our dental practice? How do we get more stuff done with Delivering WOW, when I'm also helping ... Which I find myself now, doing a lot of helping other people who are wanting to ... Want to launch courses and help people. A lot of them are coming to me now. This is the same process that I go through with them. So again, I hope this helps and I look forward to chatting with you guys really soon.

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The Uncomfortable Conversation When You Grow Your Team Feb 12, 2019

What's up guys? I hope that all is well. I actually wanted to jump on today and talk to you a little bit about what happens with teams when you start to scale and grow. I actually just received a message from ... and they were saying that as their practice is growing, now that they're implementing all of these great strategies, the practice is growing, there more patients. And they're needing to actually hire more team members. And so the question is, how do we prevent people who have been there for a while, getting a little bit concerned. Maybe worrying about their job security. And so I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about that.

Actually, what I'm going to do is talk to you about what happened inside of my practice, because the same thing actually happened inside of my practice. So as we've been implementing all of our strategies to better serve our patients, giving them more great experiences. Such as the warm peppermint scented towels, and the complimentary hand and arm massage, giving them headphones and iPads to tinkle with the sound. And generally just taking care of them, as well of the things that we've been doing to showcase our practice on social media and Facebook.

We've been growing extremely fast. I actually have two other doctors in my practice. We're going to be adding on a third, and so what's happened is that as we have started to scale, and we have started to get busier, we've had to add on additional team members, and so we had, as all practices have, had to have a talk with our team and for me, having that talk with my team, was letting them know that I am so excited about where we're going to and where we're growing to, and the fact is that if it were me alone, working and we had a certain number of patients, I probably would only need one assistant, and I'd probably only need one person up front and maybe a hygienist. But as I start to grow, there starts to be more patients, then what we have to do is continue to expand to be able to serve patients at the highest level, which means that we need to make sure that we're getting enough team members so that our current team members are not being overwhelmed and stretched.

Now one thing that's super important when you start having this conversation is to really find out what your team members' greatest contribution is, and what we have discovered throughout the years is that there are certain people who are really good at being leaders and managers. There are certain people who really don't want that responsibility, but they have other things that they can actually contribute with. So we have one person who is actually an assistant, and she loves doing outreach, she's super involved in her church, and so we gave her a leadership role, not to train necessarily the other assistant, but her role was to be the Community Outreach Manager and to actually find different schools that we could go to and in doing so that actually empowered her. And so one of the things that I encourage you to do is really look at your team members and see what their strengths are.

One of my other team members who's at the front desk, she's really, super outgoing, and she's not afraid to ask people for video testimonials and so we had her to own that, and we actually had her to own reaching out to strategic partners to be able to create some really cool social media campaigns where we would give away prizes that they donated. Right? So now she's like a pseudo, you know we haven't given her the title or maybe we have, she's the Director of Marketing, but she's really somebody at the front desk who takes phone calls and checks patients in and out. But she's been able to be given a different role. So as you're looking at growing and scaling, if you've got great team members, it's always great to say like, what would you like to do more of or what is your special gift or talent? And then from there you can shift them into that position.

Now as you're growing and scaling, what you may realize is that you have to hire people who are below the skill set of your existing team members, and you actually very likely are going to hire people that are at a higher skill set than your current team members, and for certain team members that might make them a little bit nervous. But one conversation that's super important for you to have with your team is that inside of a business, no one is more important than anyone else.

And I often tell the story that for me, I feel and I truly believe that as a doctor, I am not more important than anyone else because if Mr. David was not there. Mr. David is the person who actually cleans the windows in our office. He sweeps the floor. He sterilizes the instruments and so if Mr. David was not there and the office was really dirty or the windows were very dirty, it would really affect my day. If the instruments were not clean, I would not be able to see patients. If my assistant was not there, it would be really hard to get through my day, for example, if I've got a bunch of crown and bridge patients because she's the one that does the temporaries. So what we realize is that in order for us all to achieve the same objective of the practice, we all have to have a different role, and in doing so we will be able to make our contribution which is biggest, and the company will ultimately grow. And when the business grows, everybody wins because there's more profits and now the practice owner can afford to look at raises, can afford to look at taking the team on continuing education, but if there is no growth then obviously there's no way that that can happen, right?

And so as you're looking at growing and scaling your practice, and having to have conversations like this with your team member, it's really important for you also to recognize that there's going to have to be a change in your leadership as you grow and scale your practice. Your leadership levels that you might have had when you had one employee is going to be quite different when you have four and quite different if you decide to expand to have ten or even 12 or even more. In my practice, I think we have 16 team members now, and we're going to continue to expand that as we have another doctor that's going to be joining us this year. But again, get okay with having these conversations with your team members because ultimately when you do, you can inspire them to greatness and take on higher level roles and let them know that it's okay that other people joined so that the practice can make it's greatest contribution.

Alright guys, we'll chat later. Take care.

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Why You Should Never Drop The Ball on These Metrics Feb 11, 2019

Hi, guys. I hope that all is well. I actually wanted to jump on. Something really interesting happened to me when I was looking at the podcast stats, and it was quite interesting. It really related me to what happens inside of our practice where we really drop the ball in terms of looking at what is happening in our business, looking at what drives our performance and our success. So, I wanted to tell you a quick story.

So, I actually, as many of you guys know, we're starting this new podcast format, right? Where I am giving you quick tips, telling you what's going on behind the scenes in Delivering WOW. So, I actually went into our podcast audio player.

What's up, guys? It is Anissa Holmes. Wanted to jump on really quick. Hey, guys. What's up? Wanted to come on and tell you a quick story about the power of tracking, looking at numbers, and how it affects your performance as well as your behaviors. So, I actually want to start off with a quick story. So as many of you guys know, I decided to take you behind the scenes of Delivering WOW, let you know what we're working on, why we're doing certain things. What's interesting is that when we decided to shift over to doing more podcasts and using this format, I actually went into Libsyn, which is the place where we store, upload all of our podcast files.

Interestingly, I actually ... I no longer upload my podcast. I have someone that does that for me on my team, and so I haven't actually looked in there in a really, really long time. Now, I looked in there actually today, and it was really astounding. So number one, it was really, really cool to see that we typically have about 9,000 downloads per episode of our Delivering WOW podcast. But what's really interesting is I looked at our stats for December. Now, in December, we actually had half of the number that we typically had. We had almost 4,000 downloads of our podcast in December.

So, you might be asking, "Okay, well, what happened in December?" Well, what happened in December is December happened. I was on vacation with my family. A lot of things were happening with Delivering WOW wrapping up the end of the year. Quite frankly, I probably was just tired and needed a little break after traveling so much in the months of October and November. So, we actually only released maybe one or two podcasts in December. And when you look at the metrics, it really tells a lot. It shows us that, number one, if you're not being consistent, you're not going to get the same results.

But what was really interesting as well is it really showed me the power of looking at numbers and metrics really in any area that you want your business to grow. So with Delivering WOW, we're tracking all sorts of things. We're looking at how many email subscribers do we have, how many people are joining our Facebook group, right? Because if we can get in front of more people, we can help them. The same thing in our dental practice. We're tracking how many new patients are we're getting. We're looking at the reappointment rate, how many people are getting a next appointment. It happened for me with the podcast, and I was like, "What if we were looking at this number more often, right? Would we have decided to be more consistent in terms of not only doing our normal four podcasts, but even starting this program a little bit earlier where I'm podcasting a lot more often and taking you behind the scenes?" And you know, what's interesting is that now that we are adding on this new section of podcasts, these short little bites where I'm coaching and giving you strategy to grow your business, it'll be interesting to look at the data and see based on data what happens if you guys like it, if you don't like it.

And the numbers actually tell the truth, you know? So, looking inside of our practice, the same thing is so important, and not just in a dental business, but any business. Again, with Delivering WOW, we're tracking lots of little things and it's not necessarily money that we're tracking, but it all ties into the profitability of the company because many times it's those specific things that you focus on that really make the biggest difference. One thing that I've learned from my mentor, Russell Brunson, is, what is the one domino that if you just tip over that one domino, it makes them all fall down? That's the power of metrics. That's the power of using scorecards.

So what we decided to do about, well, maybe it was the middle of last year, was to start using a weekly scorecard inside of my practice. Not only did we start using it, but we started using it within our inner circle coaching program. We also, toward the end of the year, released it for Dental Profit Academy so that they could also get access to the template.

But what was really neat is we started tracking specific numbers, and those numbers were things like, again, new patient numbers, the dentist production per visit, the hygienist production per visit. We were looking at, again, the reappointment rate, how many patients who have not been seen within the last 18 months are now being scheduled, right? Are now being rescheduled. We started looking at the number of visits. How many visits were we actually getting done per week? We were looking at our accounts receivable over 30 days.

What's really interesting is that we decided to, again, use that scorecard. We had a team member and their job, not only in my practice but in all of the practices that we work with, was to go in. We actually use Dental Intel for just about all of our inner circle practices. The office manager or the scheduling coordinator, someone on the team goes in and pulls that number or those numbers. And then what they do is they quickly, from a weekly report, just enter them on the scorecard.

Now, a lot of times people will say like, "Why are you having your team do that? Can't that be automated?" And interestingly, I spoke to Weston, who's the founder of Dental Intel, and he was like, "You know, if you want, I can actually get this custom created for you and all of the people that are in your program so that it's automated." I was like, "No, Weston. I really want to have a team member to go in and look at the numbers. That's going to drive them back to Dental Intel every single week to really dig in and see what's happening, make sure that they're using the software to be able to dive deep, get the numbers, and names of the people that need to be called, and just take action, you know?" And it's also, again, a form of accountability versus just having a number that they are actually physically having to move. It means that you're going to look at it, you know what I mean?

But anyway, sometimes I go down a rabbit hole. So anyway, the purpose of the scorecard really is to look at the numbers. What was really interesting is that many times goals were set. So, say for example, a production per visit goal. I know I said it in my practice that we would double it, and I mean maybe I was a little bit aggressive, but I just wanted to see if we were tracking it, if we could actually do it. The interesting thing is that we actually met that goal, which is crazy, before the end of the quarter.

But, I started looking at, again, not just my scorecard, but the scorecards of all of our inner circle members, and the same exact thing was happening. The hygienist production per visit was increasing. The new patient numbers were increasing. And the reason why is that instead of focusing on lag measures or looking at things that happen after, you actually were using data and real information, real, real, real useful information to make decisions. So again, if the hygiene production per visit was consistently low and in the past nothing was done, now they were able to go in and say, "Okay, the production per visit is not where we want it to be or it's not as much as it was last week. What's gotten us off track?"

And then you can say, "Okay, let's make sure that we're talking to all of our patients about why scaling and root planing is absolutely necessary if they want to make sure that there's further destruction of bone. Or, let's really try to make it convenient for our patients and instead of scheduling one quadrant at a time or even two, we just block time out and we get the patient in and we get the treatment completed in one day. Or you know, let's go ahead and run a report to see all of our patients who have unscheduled scaling and root planing and let's get those people as a priority, even over perhaps people who have unscheduled hygiene, right?" Because again, the production per visit would be more by actually scheduling those patients versus, say, for example, a prophy patient, right? So, it's really interesting what happens when you start to look at numbers and you allow it to influence your decisions or really hold you accountable to things that you need to be held accountable for.

And again, going back to the podcast, if I had been looking at the number of the drop of podcast downloads, I probably would have not let a week slip, you know? But, we all learn. It's a lesson here. Hopefully this will encourage you and inspire you to start looking at your numbers again week by week. It's something that can be done very, very quickly. And if something is off inside of your weekly team meeting or in your morning huddle, a quick mention can be made of what one thing or one or two things that need to be focused on for that week and it will significantly improve the profitability of your practice as well as patient care because things will not be dropped. The ball will not be dropped.

And again, looking at the numbers, which is all that to me is the truth, right? It reveals the truth. When I looked at the performance of the practices that we're working with that are using scorecards, it was like a massive, drastic jump in performance in the quarter once they started implementing scorecards. If you haven't started tracking your numbers, you definitely want to go ahead and do that. We're here to help you if you need us. But again, I just wanted to make light of this because it's super important, super critical, and it can really change everything for you inside of your practice.

All right, guys. So, that is it. I will talk to you guys really soon. And again, I look forward to chatting with you inside of our Facebook group, so make sure you head on over to http://www.deliveringwowhangout.com.

Updates To The Podcast Feb 09, 2019

What's up everyone? It is Anissa Holmes. I am actually driving in my car. I wanted to come on and just give you guys a quick shout out. It's actually Saturday. I had breakfast this morning with my husband. I'm actually driving to pick up my daughter. She went to watch a school soccer match. But I wanted to come on really quickly and just let you guys know what is happening with our podcast and how it's going to allow us to serve you even more.

Many of you guys know that Delivering WOW was recently voted one of the top dental podcasts. We actually came in number three behind Nifty Thrifty and A Tale of Two Hygienists. We've been doing the podcast now for about three years and I really want to start actually taking you guys behind the scenes of what's happening with Delivering WOW, what's happening in my day, the ups, the downs, how we're helping our coaching clients, and how we're serving.

I hope that you like this format. We're going to be doing a lot more podcasts, and many of them will be me driving in my car. So you just might hear a little bit of noise in the background, but I think that's completely okay because it's important for you to see what's happening behind the scenes and to hear my thoughts and to be able to get further coaching from me through this medium. If that's okay with you guys, I'm actually going to share one thing that we have been able to do which is really, really cool.

I actually had this idea to be able to give more to the practices that we are serving through this podcast and our Delivering WOW community. Many of you guys know that we have a coaching program. We have Dental Profit Academy, and of course we have our Facebook programs as well. But one thing that we have focused a lot on is really providing a lot of content inside of the dental industry. So every Monday many of you guys may not know, but we actually have an article that we release and it's going to help you to grow your business.

Now one thing that we wanted to do was take it a little bit further, take it one step further, and actually allow you to have a printable resource that you could use for your team meetings. One of the things that we talk about in our coaching program is the importance of having weekly team meetings where you could actually focus on creating new processes or focus on improving systems or if there's an issue with communication between team members or between what the practices see as important, and individual team leaders, letting them know what you want to focus on, how you're going to get it done, special projects, et cetera.

What we decided to do was to create these weekly printables. What it is is every single week allowing you to be able to get a free resource. This is going to be how to run effective meetings, what numbers are most important for you to focus on, how do you conduct a morning huddle. I just wanted to make sure that you guys are getting access to this resource because we have spent a ton of time and money and budget to have our team to be able to support this one with coming up with the content which is the strategies that we teach with myself and our leadership team, but also looking at creating the graphics, getting it uploaded into our email service provider, and making sure that it gets delivered to you every single week.

If you've not signed up for the weekly printables, you definitely want to do that. It's completely free, go to http://www.deliveringwow.com/printables. But again, I wanted to just make sure that all of you guys get access to that really, really great resource. While we're speaking about resources, just sharing with you, as many of you guys know, we have this podcast which is a great resource for you. We also again have articles that we're releasing every single week on our website which is Delivering WOW. So you want to make sure that you check that out.

If you've not joined our free Facebook group, you can go to deliveringwowhangout.com. We've almost past the 15,000 mark and what's really interesting is we've got the top industry leaders, past podcast guests, they're all inside of that group, and so it's a great place to mastermind, as well as to get support, get questions answered by not just by me and our coaching team, but also other coaches and leaders and other rockstar dentists who are really just crushing it. So again, I want to make sure that you have access to that. http://www.deliveringwowhangout.com is the quick URL to get in there.

Again, I really hope that you guys are going to like this new podcast format. I love if you are listening to this podcast. If you could just take a minute to go inside our free Facebook group and let us know what you think about this new format for the podcast. I'm curious to hear your thoughts. All right, guys. I will chat later. I'm actually just arriving at the school, and again, I will look forward to chatting with you soon.

Join our Free Facebook Group at http://www.deliveringwowhangout.com

133 - Integrating Ceramic Implants with Michael Foley Feb 07, 2019

If you want to make your dental practice stand out from your competitors, you’ve got to start thinking about new and innovative products and services you could potentially start offering to your patients.

In this podcast episode, I’m thrilled to be joined by Michael Foley, the founder and president of Emerginnova. It’s a fantastic conversation all about ceramic dental implants and the steps you can take to integrate them into your practice.

Emerginnova is the official North American distributor of ZERAMEX Ceramic Dental Implants. ZERAMEX is a growing company with a solution that is evolved like metal-implants but has all of the benefits of Ceramic Implants.

No one knows more about the market and future of this sector than Michael Foley. So, who better to talk to about the dental implant market and advise you on how you can start using ceramic implants in your own practice?

On the podcast we discussed…

Michael reveals how he got into the dental implant business
The benefits of ZERAMEX dental implants including the fact that they are 100% metal-free
How dental implants can help to differentiate and grow your practice
Marketing ceramic implants to patients who don’t want traditional titanium implants
Common misconceptions about ceramic implants
The training process of placing ceramic dental implants
Pricing and the expected cost of integrating ceramic implants
Everything you need to know about ZERAMEX ceramic implants
Tips and advice for marketing ceramic implants and how it can help improve your SEO performance

Are you considering integrating ZERAMEX ceramic dental implants in your practice?

Visit zeramexusa.com to find out more!

For more information go to: deliveringwow.com/133

132 - Improving Oral Hygiene With Ian Miller Jan 31, 2019

I’m thrilled to welcome Ian Miller onto the podcast to talk about all the ways that you (and your patients) can improve oral hygiene and enjoy a wider, brighter and healthier smile.

Ian is the Director of Global Sales for both Plaque HD and Steraligner. His passion for getting premium oral hygiene products into the mouths of your patients is only surpassed by his drive to make it as easy as possible for all of your patients to have maximum oral health...oh, and his love for baseball and getting into the Guinness book of world records because of it!

On the podcast we discussed…

How Ian transitioned from the world of B2B business to oral hygiene
How Plaque HD got started and what inspired its creation
The benefits of using a plaque identifying toothpaste that’s suitable for the whole family
Ian shares a compelling story about how Plaque HD helped improve a child’s oral health
Teaching patients how to brush their teeth properly
Using Plaque HD to achieve a brighter smile, whiter teeth, and a healthier body
How Plaque HD can help reduce the High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) levels in your body
The possible impact that using this toothpaste can have on your oral hygiene in just 60 days
What Steraligner is and how you can use it to keep your toothbrush clean and sanitized

You can find out more about Ian and get in touch with him by calling 8776775277 or emailing him directly at imiller@plaquehd.com

If you want to find out more about Plaque HD toothpaste and their new Plaque HD Whitening Toothpaste, head to plaquehd.com

For more information go to deliveringwow.com/132

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