Dental A Team Podcast

Dental A Team
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This podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to: - Be more efficient - Have more fun - Improve doctor and team communications - Eliminate frustration - And make your life easier! Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM! New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

  1. 10 HRS AGO

    The Perfect Formula for Onboarding Your Dream Team

    Tiff and Kristy spell out what it takes to onboard to the best of your ability. They touch on the questions a hiring manager should be asking themself during interviews, how an applicant will be learning about your practice, the appropriate vibes to give out for your business, and more.   Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am here with you again today with my fave podcaster I'm sorry rest of the team. She's got that title right now. She's got the crown Miss Kristy is here with me today And this one we had to talk about it beforehand and I'm excited. I'm now excited for this We had to brainstorm a little bit before recording this podcast to ensure we were on the right track and like minded on this which I think speaks volume to the   you know, podcast topic, but also to how well our team works together and how well our team really is bonded. And Kristy, before we get into today's topic, first of all, welcome. Thank you so much for giving me, it's Monday today, so giving me your Monday afternoon so we could record a couple of podcasts. How are you?   DAT Kristy (00:50) Good, I always look forward to my Mondays when I get to spend them with you.   The Dental A Team (00:54) Thank you. I used to do these on Fridays, which was like, it's a fun way to end of the week. But I was like, I think it's a fun way to start the week too, because we get time together. And then I just like them better on Mondays. So hopefully you guys do too.   DAT Kristy (01:08) I agree.   The Dental A Team (01:10) So today's podcast, you guys, if you're subscribed to our newsletters, you know that our podcasts kind of follow the same topic and genre of our newsletters. If you're not subscribed to our newsletters, hop over to TheDentalATeam.com, hit subscribe because there's actually, I mean, we follow the same cadence and the same topics, but they're gonna be a little bit different. So if you're looking for more information, a lot of times they have downloads in them too. So if you're not subscribed, go do that.   Our marketing team would love me for that little plug, but truly if you're not getting those yet, you should be, so go grab them. ⁓ Today's topic may be, I think today's topic on podcast might be a little bit different than topic by newsletter. And Kristy and I wanted to take a stab at really kind of switching the mindset on this space. And Kristy, think I'm gonna like boost our egos. I think you and I actually do really, really well.   at seeing something and flipping it and being like, well, what if we looked at it from this angle instead of that one? I think you and I actually do really, really well at that. So thank you for working together with me on that. Today, you guys, your newsletter coming through, like I said, it's gonna be a little bit different. Today's podcast, we're really gonna be talking about not off-boarding, like what to do, how to let someone go, because we're really not here for that. Like the consulting team is here for...   doing everything we can to hire the right person and to make sure that there's complete clarity around everything that each individual is doing, that the path is set and you actually have no questions about keeping them on or off boarding them. Like that's in your court, that is not in our court. So we thought it would be more beneficial and more fun for the two of us to really talk about onboarding correctly and like even before you're onboarding, what that looks like.   Kristy, I think this might actually be fun. I'm just spinning us a little bit, but I kind of want to talk about us attracting you into the Dental A Team because you haven't always been here, right? We have met you, Kiera, I have met you a long time ago, but you haven't been with the Dental A Team forever, even though to us and likely to all of our listeners, it does feel like you have been a part of this team since   DAT Kristy (03:20) No.   The Dental A Team (03:33) the very beginning, which I think also speaks volumes to our topic today because that goes right along with what we're thinking. Now, how did that happen, Kristy? Like, how did Dental A Team, how did we attract you? You found us. ⁓ We are so thankful for it. But how did we attract you, who fit so seamlessly into the dynamics of our team, our goals?   you literally like consult just like we do like everything about you embodies who we are. How is that possible? How did we do that?   DAT Kristy (04:11) Yeah, you know, with every place you go, there's little things that may change a little bit, but the heart of things don't change. And so you're right, if we align not only in process, but also culture. so ⁓ when it came time for my journey to shift and change, it was important to find the like minded space and people. ⁓   not only for me to help them grow, but for you guys to help me grow, right? Like they say, look around who you surround yourself with because you're kind of like the top five people you hang around, right? And so ⁓ it was really important for me to find that culture and process both, you know, and I'll make sure we were aligned.   The Dental A Team (05:05) Yeah, thank you. I think if you guys can hear what she's saying, right, Kristy's saying that she was able to see that she was in alignment with who we are as humans, that our goals, our vision, our company standards really aligned with Kristy. While there might be some caveats and some spaces of learning or some spaces where it's like, okay, I thought it would look like this, but let's try this or and let's try and let's create this. ⁓   DAT Kristy (05:07) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (05:34) That's massive because offboarding, offboarding does, it's not easy, you guys. It's not, there's not an easy peasy process that takes emotions out and just makes it to where you're the robot that can easily just fire people whenever you want. What I do instead is I try to make sure that I'm representing our company to the best that I possibly can in everything that I do. So when I'm going through, I'm the hiring manager for our consulting team.   When I'm going through, I'm doing the same thing Kristy said she's doing. I'm looking to see, does this candidate align with who we are? the response is coming back in alignment with how we speak to each other or how we speak to clients. Is it in alignment with what I would love to see a timeline as, right? Like I've gotten, I've had candidates where I'm like, my gosh, their resume is fantastic. This is the experience that I want, spot on.   I'm gonna reach out to them and I don't hear from them for like a week. I'm like, well, that's not in alignment with us. And so ensuring that on both sides, we're taking a step back and we're questioning the alignment of those pieces, I think is a huge, huge reason why it's been successful. Now, in order to do that, this is a caveat, you guys. You can't just show up and just,   expect everyone to know how to show up, right? You've got to really lead by example. And in my opinion, we are leading by core values, mission and vision. We are driven by the why of this company. And that is what attracts people. That's what attracted Kristy. Kristy was attracted to the why of our company, our mission, our vision.   and how we show up, which are our core values. I show up in our core values, Kiera does, Britt does. When Kristy came to the interview, she was like, okay, got it. I can see it in real life. So Kristy, as an outsider, you're applying for a job. In what ways were you able to see that we did have an alignment or at least enough alignment to say, let's explore this in that... ⁓   hiring process, like in the application process, you're sending your resume outside of listening to us on on podcasts, I'm thinking how can offices kind of emanate and represent that in a space where like minded people can find them?   DAT Kristy (08:06) Yeah, if I'm understanding you correctly, think it's truly... ⁓   You have to make sure you're painting clarity for people on, you have to speak your culture. Like for instance, how many times do we talk to our own clients and say, do you have a mission statement? Do you have core values? And they'll be like, yeah, we do, somewhere. You know what I mean? You have to live it and you can't just say, yes, I have it. You have to show that you have it and you use it and it means something.   The Dental A Team (08:37) Mm-hmm.   DAT Kristy (08:47) Right? And so when I found you guys, you could recite it. You lived it. You wove it into your process. Right? And it told me that it means something to you and you live by it. Like it's our code of conduct, if you will. Right? And it can't just be put in a drawer. You have to keep it alive in order for it to serve the ultimate goal and mission, if you will.   The Dental A Team (09:15) Mm hmm. Yeah, I totally agree. And it's just a it's a rep an outward representation. And so I think even in our job ads, right, and I know I work a lot with clients on this. I know I see you guys doing it, too. I know Monica just helped a client last week with some job ads. But making sure those job ads speak to you because I can write a job ad. But if you copy and paste the job that I wrote, even writing it for you, even my clients that I've worked with for seven plus years,   DAT Kristy (09:16) Thank   The Dental A Team (09:44) I can write it for you and I know you, but unless you go in and speak some of yourself into that ad, it's not gonna hit, it just doesn't resonate. And so a lot of practices too are very different than who I am. So if I write your ad and I attract me to your practice and your practice doesn't, you're not me, that person is likely not gonna be a good fit.   DAT Kristy (09:51) Mm-hmm

    30 min

  2. 5D AGO

    Achieve Work/Life Balance WITHOUT Sacrificing Production

    Kiera shows listeners multiple places in life where there's likely opportunity for more balance, freedom, play, and ease by: Maximizing the hours you already work. Protecting your time like a CEO. Empowering your team to own their roles. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and I am so excited because I love this topic and I hate this topic and it's such a great one and all of you are gonna be so excited about it and it's work-life balance without sacrificing production. Yep, you better believe that it is true and I'm here to show you today how you can do this.   but I really hate this terminology of work-life balance. So if you're new to the Dental A Team, welcome, hello. I'm so excited to have you here. If you've been here with us for a long time, high five, hugs. I'm so grateful you've been a part of this journey and I'm so excited to share with you tips, tricks. ⁓ And again, remember, sometimes the greatest form of learning is remembering what you already know. So these might be tips that you've heard before, but hopefully today it hits you differently because no man who's walked through a river is ever the same man because he...   is not the same man and the river is not the same river. So you today, you're not the same person, you're not the same practice, you're not the same scenario. So wherever you are, I'm super excited for you to figure out how to get this like balance and bliss in your life. And I hope you're ready for it. So the reality is like, I used to feel, and I don't know where this came from, like, why do we feel that we always have to like grind like our nose to the brim? Like we have to work so hard and we have to just grind so hard to get to success.   that like you just hate your life. Like why is it, why is it this like busyness and this exhaustiveness and this tired to be successful? Like why, where? And so I do believe that you can have balance and performance that can coexist, that you can be productive and balanced. And so the reality is we're going to walk through some of these pieces for you to help you see where could I maybe strike a little more balance, a little more freedom, a little more play, a little more ease in my life.   And that's maybe the better term of like work-life balance is more ease. It's more flow. It's more, I think just intentional. And how can I do that? So you guys, I love this. think that you should be something that I'm really passionate about is work and life. I'm very passionate about you being the best version of yourself in your life. That way you can show up as the best version of yourself for work. do not believe, Tiff and I talk about this all the time. Like outside of Dental A Team public's eye.   all the time about how work and life are not separate. It's like we think about these two halves and it's like, no, it's one. You're one person. You're going through this and it's like, well, here's half of me that's work. Here's half of me that's life. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. How can I, Kiera, be the best version of myself that like feels balanced or ease or flow or calm or any of those things? Cause balance to me, don't love. Balance feels like I've got to like have my weight in front of me be equal.   ⁓ But flow to me is like a river flows and sometimes it's faster and sometimes it's slower and all of that's correct. And so this is something where for you to be the best version of yourself, for you to still be productive at the office while being the best version of you, ⁓ I think is what today's podcast will be about. So this is something where it's like, if you feel you are stretched thin or overwhelmed or you don't know how to produce without overworking and if you stop or slow down and get off the hamster, well, you're afraid that it's all gonna crash and burn. Well, hi, I'm Kiera.   I'm your personal therapist today ⁓ and I'm here to help you realize that that's not the reality, that there's a better, easier way to do it. And I'm here to give you a couple of quick steps that hopefully will take you through that ⁓ because I was there, I've seen offices do it and we've helped offices, hundreds, like literally hundreds and thousands of offices get out of that hamster will.   and into the flow that they were looking for. Tiff said it once and she was like, imagine Phoenix traffic. If you've never been to Phoenix, we'll do Chicago traffic, we'll do Texas traffic. Like you name it, big city traffic. She's like, just imagine if you're sitting there and this is like your life and you're sitting there and you're in this bumper to bumper traffic. And then all of a sudden you see that like better than even like an HOV or carpool lane. Like there's just like the way it strikes me like a lucky charm. Like it's like, ah, like the angels are singing. It's this gold path over there or like the yellow brick road. And you're like,   say, well, like I could get out of this nonsense over onto that lane. And like everybody, there's no traffic. There's no slowing down. It is just this easy breezy, like truly like, hope you guys can visualize this like golden path road with gold light over it. And everybody on that road is just so happy. And yet you're sitting here hating your life because you're sitting in all this nonsense traffic. Well, that's kind of hopefully how this feels of like, let's teach you how to get over into that.   that lane that you didn't even know existed today and give you some tangible tips to that. So number one is going to be maximize the hours that you already work. So let's have it like, ⁓ we did this awesome thing ⁓ at a conference and ⁓ we're talking about this and this is so fascinating to me, okay? So in a given week, there's 24 hours in a day. Yes, everybody following? And there's seven hours or seven days in a week, okay?   So if we take that, I love some good numbers, I love some good math. So 24 hours in a day, and we have seven days in a week, that's 168 hours, all right, in a given week, okay? So now, let's say I'm gonna be really generous to you. We know, let's say, let's just, mean, Dennis, let's give you, like, we're gonna work 40 hours in a week. You might say I work more than that, that's okay. I'm just gonna subtract 40 right now, okay? So that leaves us with 128 hours in a week.   Now you're like, well, Kiera, we also have to sleep. I got you. I'm going to be real generous and I'm going to give you eight hours of sleep times seven days. That's 56 hours. None of you are out there probably sleeping eight hours. As you should be prioritizing this, I do not want to be scrimping on sleep because I think sleep is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. So we have 128 hours after the 40 hour work week. We've got 56 hours of sleep minus 128. That leaves us with 72 freaking hours a week. And my question is, what are you doing with those hours?   Now you might say, Carrie works 60 hours. Fantastic, you still have 52 hours if you're working a 60 hour work week, which I hope and pray you're not working 60 hours. So let's get it to where maybe I don't wanna be working even 40 hours and I would prefer to even work 30 hours. Well then if I gave you 30 hours, you're up to 82 hours a week of extra time. And people are like, Carrie, I don't have time, I don't have time. 72 hours, 72 in a week outside of sleeping and work.   Now you're like, well, I've got to make dinner and I've got the kids fine go for it, but there's still so many hours. And I, when I heard this, I was like, yeah, what am I doing with those 72 hours? Like, all right. So maybe I could do like an hour of workout every day. All right. So like, let me just put out like seven hours there. Like, okay, 72. Let's just take this down 72 minus seven hours. All right. I'm down to 65 hours. Well, you know, I've got to like, hang out with my kids. Like we're at soccer, we're at camp. Like that takes, okay. Count it up. How many hours? Like drive time and all of that.   Let's give you like, okay, shoot, you're at 15 hours a week, which honestly, I guarantee you're not putting 15 hours of soccer and camp and all that in a given week. Maybe you are, but honestly, that's a lot. That's like two full days of work plus some extra time. So if we're at that, you're still at 50 hours and we're not scrimping sleep. We're not scrimping work. We're not scrimping kid time. We gave you an hour of workout every single day.   something to think about. So in this step one, to be able to have this balance or flow or best version of you is to maximize the hours you already have. So ⁓ me and Chad GPT, I named her Wanda. I hang out with Wanda all the time and I'm like, all right, you're the most brilliant scheduler of all time. You're the most productive business coach. Like you teach me how to maximize my time. And Wanda gives me some really good things. And it was interesting because I started looking like I realized   that I was spending an extra 30 minutes going to the gym every single day with how far away it was. And I was like, all right, well then that actually adds up. What if I just bought a home gym? Like there are solutions. What if I got weights, free weights? have my personal trainer. She could create some. So I go to the gym X amount of days and I work from home X amount of days. Could that help out? Like that would give me some time back in there. And so it's really like, how can you maximize the hours that you already have in your life to then maybe have a bit more fun?   Like I don't want all scheduled. I want fun. I want to hang out with Jason. I want to be able to like you guys I used to not watch TV at all because I felt like it was an absolute waste of time because I wasn't making money and I wasn't doing something prod

    22 min

  3. 6D AGO

    Do This to Finish Out Quarter 4 Strong

    Tiff and Kristy provide guidance on how to assess your practice's financial health as 2025 begins to wrap up (and what to start thinking about for 2026). They touch on… Reviewing those P&Ls monthly Aligning spending habits Keeping emotions in check And more! Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I truly love this portion of what we get to do in our worlds and getting to get you so much valuable information out to the masses is something that Dental A Team has worked and strived just so hard to achieve in our.   consulting world of just getting you all this information and I have with me today one of my faves. I seriously, I have the most amazing consulting team and if you guys haven't heard from all of them yet, you soon will and if you don't know them personally yet, they're not your consultants. I hope that you get to meet every single one of us even if you're just coming to the events, however it is, but I...   have a personal favorite here for recording podcasts with. She calms me, she just keeps the energy light and fresh and I love any time that we get together. Kristy, thank you so much for being here today. How are you doing? The weather is like weird today. I always tell everybody about the Arizona weather and it's so much fun to have everybody here in the same place. We all live in Arizona in the Phoenix area. Jane is down in the Tucson area, but.   We really love it. And Kristy, how's your world over there? You're just in the beautiful little pocket of Phoenix. And how is it?   DAT Kristy (01:23) Yeah, it's awesome. I love that you say that because we do pride ourselves on the weather here, right? But even with that, this weekend we got a lot of rain, what they say the most in like seven years. Yet all of us, even as close as we are, we experience it so different, right? Like some places flooded. I didn't get flooding, thank goodness, but it downpoured. It was fun and it's made it for cool mornings. So we're taking it.   The Dental A Team (01:42) Yeah.   I agree. I agree that humidity is hitting us hard. So we're not super used to that, but it is making for some, some really beautiful mornings. totally agree. And yes, Britt and I were actually in Reno at our quarterly in-person traction event where we have a, implementer who comes in and leads it for us. And he helps us to build out the company structure and,   teaches and trains us on how to run large meetings like that. So it's always super cool. But we were up in Reno with Britt and or with Kiera Shelbi and Britt and I actually got stuck. Jenna got out. She got back to Denver, which is crazy because Denver always shuts down. And so she got back to Denver. But ⁓ we got stuck until Saturday because the airport was shut down. And then there was a storm in Vegas because we thought, OK, well, we'll fly to Vegas because it's only a five and a half hour drive from there and we'll still get home. And then ⁓   that flight got canceled too. So it was wild. was meant to be, got more time in Reno and got to spend a little bit more time with Kiera. So that was great, but it was kind of crazy. It's not usually Phoenix that disrupts the flight patterns. And it was a hundred percent Phoenix. There were so many flights canceled because so many planes were stuck here and other planes couldn't get in. So it was wild, Kristy. It was wild to watch it from afar. We just got like TikTok notifications and you know, news articles are like, my gosh, all the Waymo's stuck in the puddles and things like that. So.   DAT Kristy (03:15) Yeah,   they just stopped in the middle of the road like what the heck.   The Dental A Team (03:18) Yeah,   that's why whenever somebody says, you use the way most? I'm like, heck no, I have seen them stuck in the middle of intersections far too many times. I'm sure one day it's going to be fantastic, but I haven't built that trust muscle just yet.   DAT Kristy (03:30) Yeah, agree. Well, I'm glad you made it home safe. And ⁓ yeah, the humidity is odd for us too.   The Dental A Team (03:34) Thank you.   Yeah,   yeah, it totally is. And my son was like, Oh, you go to the East Coast enough, Mom, you're fine. Stop complaining. And I was like, Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. But but in the spirit of planning, we we truly had an amazing time really just one getting the time together as a leadership team and then to really looking and projecting like where are we at? What's Q4 going to look like? And then also kind of prepping and planning for 2026. So super relevant in this conversation here.   today and really looking at ⁓ practice health from a financial standpoint. And this is something that your CPAs and your financial advisors and all of those professionals should be looking at with you as well. This is the time of the year that we're really looking at what is this last year? Because we get to Q4 and it's like, well, it's kind of like the end of your senior year, right? You get to the end of your senior year of high school or college and you're like, well, everything's kind of basically submitted. So from here,   It's really just like, let's do our best and make sure that we really cross that finish line strong, but there's not a ton of pivots to be made to really change the game. So kind of prepping and planning. And I think looking ahead at 2026, putting in some really solid ways of checking in on that financial health, something that I've seen that, Kristy, I know you do this as well, but something I've seen a lot of clients really ramp up is a monthly pulse and even like,   weekly sometimes pulse on what the financials of a practice actually look like has really been beneficial in helping them to really reach those goals. And Kristy, you are really fantastic at figuring those financial goals out and then like backtracking them to see, okay, well, what do we need to do to get there? And how do you help practices really keep that financial pulse top of mind and that   running that way so that they're constantly looking at those numbers without feeling overwhelmed and also without losing sight of it. Because you know sometimes you do something too often, you start glazing over it. What's that fine balance that some some tactical tips that you have that you and your practices are working on right now?   DAT Kristy (05:52) Yeah, well, first and foremost, I believe that you have to be getting your P &Ls from your accountant monthly, right? We can't be waiting. I have seen some clients where they're begging for them for three months ago, you know, and it makes it really hard to stay on top of it if we're not getting them monthly. So first and foremost, make sure you're getting them from them monthly so that we can take a look at them and evaluate. And I like what you said, Tiff. ⁓   you can be, you can go over the top. It's a fine line, right? So I love looking at them every month and I'm not going to freak out if something's out of whack one month, but certainly let's look at the quarter, right? And make sure that those metrics are in alignment for the quarter. And to your point, I always like to speak in terms of like, we're going to crawl before we walk and we're going to walk before we run. Like,   In the crawling stage, let's just make sure where's your overhead, right? What percentage are we at there and what is our profit or EBITDA, so to speak, right? Where are we ranging there? That would be my first little steps to take and start looking at it.   The Dental A Team (07:10) Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. And I think what time of the month do you usually push for those PNLs to be received? I have my judgments, but what are yours?   DAT Kristy (07:21) like to say by the 15th. I'll give you a little grace and give you by the 20th, but the 15th is my ideal target.   The Dental A Team (07:28) Yeah, yeah. I think I'm a little stricter. If I don't have those CPAs reaching out to us by like the eighth to the 10th, I'm like, my gosh, how are we supposed to work with this? There's a lot of, and I ask that because there's a lot of clients out there that are getting them like the first week of the next, next month. And so maybe December, we're finally looking at October.   DAT Kristy (07:35) Thank   The Dental A Team (07:53) And that is like, gosh, such a lag that we've got these questions floating around of like, where's my cashflow TIF and how do I fix this, Kristy? And it's like, I don't know, because I don't have eyes on what's happening. The P &Ls should be much quicker and much cleaner than that. And realistically, it's just it's the bookkeeper going in and allocating the certain expenses to the category that they should be in. So it's time consuming.   but it shouldn't be too crazy. And if yours is too crazy, then we probably need to look at your spending. Do we need to dial back the number of orders that you're placing every month? Do we need to make sure that things are a little bit more simple on that side, that it can be done quicker? Because we wanna be able to make real-time adjustments as quickly as we can. If we're on a two-month lag.   then we're adjusting for two months ago, it could look totally different. And then next month we get two months ago and it's like, it was totally different. We didn't need to change it. And so we're just constantly spinning our wheels in that way if we're not getting the data fast enough. And that is, in my opinion, one of the easiest ways to ensure that you're financially healthy is really just ensuring, like you said, Kristy, that on an overtime basis, things are consistent and they're clear, that they make sense.   DAT Kristy (09:08) 100%. I like that you said push to the 10th, because obviously

    29 min

  4. NOV 4

    The Critical Pieces to Building a Practice With Character

    A practice built with character is a practice made up of loyalty, positive culture, and long-term growth. Kiera provides listeners with a list of questions to ask that will set the tone for showing up as the best, truest version. She then gives specific takeaways to meet that ideal culture and stay consistent. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I hope you're having an amazing day. I hope you're having fun. I hope you remember that dentistry is honestly the greatest profession we could ever get to be a part of. So I hope you're just so excited. I hope you're loving your life. I hope you're happy. I hope that if you're not, that you're committing to make a change in the next week so that way you can be happy. My husband showed me this reel the other day that said, it was from like, I don't know, a Buddhist monk, I think. And he said that yesterday is dead.   Today is all we have and tomorrow is not born yet. And so don't wait for the happy life. You want the happy day. And I've thought about this so much because I think so many of us wait for happiness. We wait and we think, once I get this or once I do that or when I have the team or when my practice doesn't have this, then I'll be happy. Then I won't be stressed. And it's like, no, it's actually on the day. It's today. It's the decisions I'm making today. It's the pieces that I'm doing today and finding that happy.   And they said when you can have a happy day is when you have the happy life. I think when you can have the less like the more stress free day more consistently, it's when you have the more stress free life consistently. And so with that, just reminding you that it's okay. You don't have to do this alone. And I'm here for you and our team's here for you. And dentistry really is one of the greatest professions you could ever be a part of. So welcome. I hope that if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera. I love dentistry. I love helping people. love life.   And I love helping people get the life that they always dreamed of and making that a reality. Today, I wanna talk about ⁓ character. My dad and I were talking and my dad said, in the word character, there's the word act. And I had never picked up that the word character has act. ⁓ And I wanna talk about some leadership pieces today and culture pieces for your practice on building a practice with character and how people act. And...   I think character is something that you hire, yes, of like how people are naturally and who they are naturally, but also I think it's something that you do lead. ⁓ when we look at this, like when you have a practice of character of how people are acting, it does create loyalty, it does create culture, and it does create long-term growth. And so for everybody just going through that, ⁓ looking at that and seeing what is your character possibly? What is the character of your practice possibly?   And what things can we do to evolve your character to make it be a place of things that you want, of the loyalty, the culture, the long-term team. ⁓ And when I look at really awesome practices, the way people act and the character that that practice has is truly something embedded deep into the roots of that practice. going through that, ⁓ Dental A Team's goal is to help offices build to scale, to have the life that they want, ⁓ but to do it in a way that's meaningful.   that it's fulfilling, that it has purpose for you. And so ⁓ this is truly trying to help build a culture for team members to stay, for patients to be raving and for leaders to truly be proud of the practice that they built. So character with this act, like step one, if you want, like we'll just kind of go into this whole process is like how you act when it's hard. ⁓ And I think when I look at teams,   Culture is something that's like not built during easy times, it's revealed during the hard ones. When our production's not hit, when the cash flow's not there, when like all the things are pushing upon you, how do you act? Do you respond with conflict with consistency, clarity and compassion? Do you admit mistakes as a leader? Do you prioritize long-term trust over short-term comfort? Like how is your character in those hard times? And for you as a doctor, and there's the book, Extreme Ownership by Jacque Willings, and I think about this so much of   Like, okay, what is my culture of my company? But what is the culture of me? Because my team ultimately is a reflection of me and how do I act? In high school, I was nominated as most poised and I thought that was such a weird phrase for me to get like most poised. But I actually think about that a lot and like when things are hard, do I lose my temper? Do I yell? Do I shout? How do I act? For me, I almost think like I have the tiger like queen strength. Like what if I was the queen of this   I don't know, like kingdom, my business. Who do I need to show up as? And that character, like really looking to see how do you act. And it's crazy because when you look at a team and you want a team to be a certain way, you got to look at the leaders and how are they showing up? How are they acting? And when my dad talked about this character, it's all about how you act. It's how you act in the hard times, how you act in the good times, how you act when no one's watching. It's how you act when people are watching. And what is your ultimate character in your practice? And so, ⁓   When doctors start to have consistency, clarity, and compassion, when you say like, kind is clear, ⁓ when you're more clear, when you admit mistakes and you have humility, but in addition to that, you also are focusing on making sure that I don't just admit the mistake, but I find the solution to the mistake so it doesn't happen again. ⁓ When we're doing long-term, we have uncomfortable conversations and we're building trust over short-term solutions. Like I'm not just saying things.   And who I was at a leader at the beginning of the NLA team compared to who I am today, she's a much more mature grownup version of herself. ⁓ And it came through a lot of these hard conversations. It came through a lot of these hard awarenesses. It came from asking people, but also asking myself, did I show up as the person that I want to be and the leader that my team needs me to be? And if not, what do I need to do to change that? And so   Thinking about that, that's the culture you're building. And as much as I don't want to be like a rip on leaders, leaders are the mold. Like how you, what you do and don't do is a subconscious theme that runs through your practice. And so I think when people feel like they have no hope and they have no way of changing things and there, there is no solution. The answer is like, there actually is a solution. There actually is a process and a path out. It just sometimes is starting with you.   and not sometimes starting with you, it's always starting with you. And so if you can focus on building that and the culture you're building constantly, that's going to help and that's gonna lead into the next phase and that's gonna be through core values. And core values, I used to think were so laissez-faire. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, core values. But ⁓ really it's hard to hire the character you want. It's hard to continue to create it if you don't even know.   what it looks like in your practice. so core values kind of give this like framework. call them like, to me, they're like a cookie cutter is how I envision it. Like here's the cookie cutter, not like that we're a cookie cutter practice, but it's the shape. So a cookie cutter shapes the dough into what they want it to be. And core value shape the practice into what we want it to be and helps us have this, I would say filter of who we're hiring for. And so it's, what are the three to five core values that define your team and how you work? Now owners,   Go back to when you first started your practice and what were the three core things that really made your practice what you want it to be? For me, it was always do the right thing, fun and ease. Like from day one, those were the pieces. Those are our core. And if you look at it, it's do the right thing for the company and the practice. We like to have a ton of fun when we're doing it. I I love sprinkles. I love to the sparkles. I love to add the glitter. I love to add the fun. I love to surprise and delight. And then it's to do everything with ease. How can I make this easier for a practice? I don't want things to be hard for an office.   But like that's truly the core of when I started a Dental A team. Now we've evolved into who we want people to be on our team. We have other people, pieces of ownership. We have pieces of passion for excellence and results focused. We have pieces of grit. And so there's other core values that have come and there's core and then there's aspirational. ⁓ But I want to make sure that the people we're hiring and filtering through have that character in them already. I don't want to try to develop that in them. I want to expand it once they're a part of our company.   but I don't want to try and convince somebody to have grit. Like grit's a core portion of you. So what that does is once we figure out what our core of our company is, then we have those in our hiring, we have those in our reviews, we have those in our meetings and decision-making. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the core values when I've been looking at team members and I look to see rating this person on our core values, how do they fit? And a lot of times the people that are not elevating our team are the ones who usually are getting lower scores on the core values.   And it becomes very crystal clear for me. And

    16 min

  5. OCT 30

    Proof That You Need to Know Your Numbers

    Office autopsy time! Kiera and Dana review a "practice" that went from broke to success in a handful of months, and how tracking their numbers saved them. Every single office will go through a cash flow crunch at least once, so it's important to understand the right flotation devices to utilize. This could mean pulling overhead apart, identifying production and collections percentages, analyzing fixed costs, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a special day. I have the one and only Dana Morsell on the podcast today. And prior to this, asked her, she's gone through a few nicknames and Dana, believe it or not, I was actually thinking about this last night. No joke. I was thinking like, there's Spiffy Tiffy and there's no BS Britt. And I was like, Dana, you've been with me for a long time. Like, why have I not gotten like a good nickname for you? And like, Britty Gritty.   And I was like, okay, I just like throw wise on the end of these names like Tiffy, that is their TT DM does not sound quite right. Like that's like DMing on Instagram. And so I thought like, it's just Dainey. And now you told me I to do it with a Southern draw. So it's going to be like Dainey on the far. So well.   Dana (00:44) Yep, it has to   have it. I feel like it reminds me so much of my dad and like it just has to have that.   Kiera Dent (00:51) Well, it's my dad. grew up on a dairy farm for all the listeners. Don't worry. We have like a really good podcast today. It's an office autopsy that Dana has taken these three incredible practices, like one owner, like they went from just stress and chaos and burnout to complete an absolute just like freedom, which and Dana has done it so quickly. So we're going to get there. I'm just going to tell you about this dairy farm real fast. ⁓ my dad grew up on a dairy farm and he used to say his mom would always like, Ricky, like that's how he would call him.   imagine myself on this like beautiful estate and like sweeping my porch and having this like big white porch out there. And I'm like, Dainey!   So that's how I envisioned this so, you know, that's that's the vision over here So whether you like it or not, otherwise we can go back to donuts with Dana. What do you prefer?   Dana (01:38) ⁓ I actually love you standing on your white porch shouting that, so we'll take it.   Kiera Dent (01:41) I think   it just fits and if you haven't heard other podcasts, if you haven't been with us as long, Dana has the most random stories like running her bicycle into a deer. She has so many animals. She's got kids like Dana will always come to the table with the most random stories and she whoops everybody on trivia. We play games in our company and it's always like team trivia. Dana will whoop them. So, you know, here we go Dana. Welcome to the podcast. How are you over there Dana? Special Dana?   Dana (02:09) doing pretty   good. Yeah, doing pretty good. think all of my wild stories and my trivia comes from like, I don't know, I just have this like weird memory thing where I can like memorize things very quickly. Even like applying for a car loan, they're always shocked that I know all of my account numbers, all of my balances down to the penny, like just off the top of my head. And so I think that that's kind of where some of that comes from.   Kiera Dent (02:28) No.   I didn't   even know that about you. So that's also a really interesting thing to note. All right, so Dana will remember, mean, is this okay? Is it something where you can remember numbers like past past? Or is it like your banking out is just current right now, but you couldn't remember like a month ago.   Dana (02:47) No, so it is   past-past, but it's because I don't know, my brain does this weird, like I make a riddle out of everything and I'm constantly like, okay, well, if I run and remember something, like if it's, you know, two, three, six, I'm like, well, two times three is six. And like, I just, I don't know, create like weird connections, especially with numbers in my brain and like riddle it so that I remember it.   Kiera Dent (03:07) Fascinating. Fascinating. Okay. Well, there's   another random fact about Dana. So Dana is one of my absolute fave humans in the entire world. Dana, truly, I say that on the podcast and I genuinely mean it. And we have talked about it on show, off show. Dana is just a super incredible human and offices who get to work with her are so lucky. So we thought it'd be fun. Office autopsy time. If you're new to the podcast, this is where we kind of go behind the scenes. ⁓   We mash up a few practices. just so you know, you'll never really fully know exactly who it is just to keep a client patient confidentiality. But we want to highlight of things that we do in real life, because I think consulting can be kind of hard. Like what do you actually do and what are the results you actually get? And so Dana just had some really solid wins with some practices. And I thought, Dana, let's get on the podcast and do our office autopsy, where we lift up the hood and we look behind the scenes. And what were some of the things you as a consultant did for this practice?   What are some of the wins and gains that they've had? ⁓ that I think will just be fun. So Dana, let's take it away. ⁓ kind of like, where did this practice start? What have we implemented and where are they now? Maybe even tell them like where they started, where they got to. And then we'll talk about the how, because that's really fun. I don't like to wait for the like end result. I want to know quickly like, okay, they were like dying, drowning, broke, and then they got like hundreds of dollars and they got it in like a month. How did they do it? So take us away. Where were they? Where did they get to? And then let's go into the house.   Dana (04:30) Yeah, and I think that this practice is just a really cool example of like the importance of knowing your numbers, especially when you have multiple practices and knowing what each practice is bringing to the table and having really clear separated numbers for those things. And so it was just really fun and I think a cool way to highlight how when you know those things, then you can fix systems that are broken or aren't working to see massive progress. So when this office came, they were at a negative profit.   ⁓ each month and   Kiera Dent (05:03) We're talking like they're losing money, losing sleep, stressed out of their minds.   Dana (05:04) Yeah, yes.   So stressed, they're pulling personal, you know, they're pulling boatloads of personal cash every month to cover expenses to keep these practices open. ⁓ You know, doctor is going from office to office. And it's truly, truly really stressful time and they don't really know where the leaks are coming from. And they can't put their finger on what's going on that's causing it. And   yeah, stressed out to the max and just really, really wanting help and wanting to kind of pinpoint and give them a clear picture of why they are so stressed and why these practices that feel as if they're booming or are starting to get busy aren't profitable at that point.   Kiera Dent (05:35) This   And I think this is so common for so many practices, which is why we were talking morning huddle. We share all of our client wins every single day. You guys, we have a morning huddle. It's very fun. We talk about team wins, client wins. And when Dana talked about this, I'm like, Dana, we're podcasting. Like, can you get on the podcast with me? I think this is such a big win because it, yes, it's, it's quote unquote one practice that we've kind of mashed a few of them, but this is like every single office. And so many of them don't realize what's going on with my profit numbers. They feel like it's booming.   but they have no money left over and then they're stressed to the max and they're countless hours. And this isn't just a brand new practice. Like this is a business owner who'd been in business for a long time. Like it's almost that I should with air quotes know what I'm doing, but I just don't know where it is. And Dana, I'm so proud of you for saying like they need to know their numbers. We harp on this like crazy because when you actually can dig in, which I'm excited for you to kind of do like the grand reveal and then the how, but I mean, how many practices, Dana, this is, I hope people realize one,   practices all go through this. So this is not just a siloed to one or two practices. This is every office at some point is going to go through cashflow crunches, stressed out, working all hours and not being able to pinpoint. And just because you're profitable today does not mean you're forever going to be profitable. It is something you have to constantly work at, constantly be vigilant on. And it's not just like, set it, forget it, we're on our way. And so I think for that, but also I think so many people because they don't know what to do.   they spin their wills that creates this cycle of death in my opinion. Like you truly are spinning, you're burning the candle at all ends. I remember when I met, cause I'm, I talked to this office when they were joining our company and I'm like, my gosh, like I can't want this more than they want it. Like they have to make the decision to join us, but my gosh, I see your problem. see your pain and we have got to fix that like an ASAP and get CPR because   the owner was just running frantic and it was impacting family life and financials. And to me, you worked so hard that you should not be living that life this far into business ownership, whatever stage you're in. So I'm ready for the grand reveal. I hope people just realize this is not s

    27 min

  6. OCT 29

    Your Teams Want to Be Appreciated! Here's What To Do.

    Are you starting to panic over how to reward your team for another year well done? Should you show appreciation in the first place? Kiera gives advice on how to figure out those end-of-year bonuses, parties, trips, and more, plus how not to stress about it. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I hope you're just having an amazing day. I hope you're loving your life. I hope you remember that, honest to goodness, this is such a blessing. We get to work in dentistry. How fun is that? And I just hope you remember that we are so blessed to give back to people. We're blessed to be in dentistry. Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So that's what we're here for. And the job of this podcast is to give you tactical practical tips that elevate your mind, elevate your thinking.   help your practice be more profitable, more fun, more successful. That's what we're here for. So with that today, I just thought it'd be fun. Like end of year bonuses, trips, parties, like how do you even decide what to do? This comes up often in our consulting offices, like I don't know what to do. We had an in-person mastermind meeting and I remember the doctors, there were team members there too, so we had it. Doctors and leadership team members and the doctor was like, team members, just tell us what you want.   And the teams are like, we just want to be appreciated. And they're like, we know you want more than that. And so I just thought today it'd be fun to just kind of do a rift with you of what are some of ideas? What are some things you can do pros and cons? So doctors, you can work with your team of really what can I do for this end of year and what's the most powerful and hopefully just giving you some food for thought today, making this tactical for you. So when I'm looking at end of year bonuses, number one, ⁓ I hate surprises. So me as a business owner,   I actually set a budget for what our end of year will be, whether it's bonuses, trips, parties, I don't care what it is, I try to set that. And right now I'm trying to release this early, so hey, you could be proactive on it, but for me, we actually have a budget for it. And then I don't like to do big expenses, that's just not my jam, I don't enjoy it, unless I'm buying like a big vehicle or something like that, that I can have an immediate write off. But even that, I try to keep my cash and just get the write off for it. So with that, when I'm doing end of year, like I said, budget it out, project it out, and then start saving.   whatever month this is releasing, however many more months you've got through end of year, let's say we're going to do $5,000. We'll break that up over the next, let's say we've got five months left, save $1,000. I put mine into a high yield savings account. That way the money's there, I can spend it it's not hitting me in December when everything else is hitting me. So that's what I'm going to do is whether it's a bonus, trip or the party. Like you can set a budget, doctors, you don't have to let your team decide what you're going to do. And oftentimes I like to set that as a percentage.   of what we're doing. So if I know that we're going to do XYZ and I know my overhead's at 50%, well, I could do like 1 % or 2 % of that. That way my overhead's at 51 or 52 % with this cost, right? That makes it really nice and easy. And then I'm going to be able to figure out the budget from there. So that's one piece. Or you can just say, I want to do $5,000 or I want to do this. Or like, let me look this up if we want to do a trip or a party, let me figure this out. So for our team, we figured it out. This is how much we spend every single year per number of team members.   I can then plug that into my projections for the next year. So I know based on the size of the team, where we're going, how much this is going to cost us, it's really going to help you then just budget it out. And I think knowing the budgets, putting it into our projections, then we're not getting these psycho surprise expenses. This is hopefully going to help you not cry in December, because so many offices are like, I had the worst December. And I'm like, well, yeah, we have all the holiday time. We're not doing as much dentistry. And we get hit with all the expenses. Double, triple, quadruple whammy.   not a super fun month. So let's cut the crying in December and make this easy. Now, how do I decide if it's going to be a bonus, a trip or a party? Well, that depends on your team, depends on what you're doing it for. What's our why behind your, why you're doing this? What do you want to achieve out of this is really something I want you to look at of why are we doing this? So for some people it's like, Hey, we set this huge lofty goal. So we're going to do a bonus of X amount. Again, looking at your numbers to determine that amount. I love percentages.   ⁓ or dollar amount so that way you just know what you need to do. So that could be a bonus system that you put into place of, hey, we crush it, we hit this. It could be for your leadership team possibly. It could also be for your teammates, whatever it is, but that can also, that could be a bonus. It could also just be, we want to thank you. ⁓ Do we go on a trip? That's again, dependent upon your team. Is your team more bonus? Are they more trip? Are they more party? Is it a combination of it? And also what feels good to you as the owner? What do you want to do? What's going to help you celebrate this?   That's going to be a decision for you to make. And so when I'm looking at this, you can have an anonymous survey. Some people get so excited about trips, but then when you start to get into the logistics, it's like, well, how much is this going to cost? we do a plus one? How much time is that going to be away from the business? What is this really going to cost all the way around? And is that worth it? I tell teams, I'm like, rock on. If you want to do this, figure out the cost. Let's figure it out. Put it in our production. Let's add it into our monthly piece. That way we can pay for it. Awesome. Again.   I don't want these things coming out of craziness. I like to plan for them, prepare for them and have the whole team help you. Now, if you're gonna do a party, a lot of times I like parties over bonuses. And I know I might have unpopular opinions on this, but what I found is as a team member, like X amount of dollars doesn't weight as heavily as something that maybe I wouldn't buy for myself. So for example, ⁓ those like red light masks, that's one of the things that are out there.   The Dyson and then if you don't know what I'm talking about, go check these out. The Dyson blow dart. Like that thing is insanely expensive. I'm probably not gonna spend it on myself, but it would be awesome if I were to get it. ⁓ What other things? The Aura ring. A lot of people want the Aura ring. They don't wanna drop 400 bucks and they don't wanna pay the monthly subscription. ⁓ Other gift ideas like a Roomba, a Roomba lawnmower, a fire pit, a, I don't know. We've done like AirPods. We've done the virtual realities. ⁓ Like the Apple Vision Pro.   Those are the things people are not going to buy for themselves oftentimes, but that weights heavier than if I were to give you 500 or a thousand dollars. Now I understand that people like cash, but as a team member, what I will tell you is I had an office, give me an end of year bonus. We got it in our card. It was based on longevity. It was based on these pieces. That cash did not actually weigh as heavy because what I did is I went and spent it on bills.   And so instead, like getting an Apple Vision Pro, I remember the day I got that, I was like, oh my gosh, like this is so rad. I never would have bought it for myself. How incredible, or getting a KitchenAid, or getting a Louis Vuitton wallet. And I understand that not everybody's going to want these things. like, no, I don't care about those things. But what's fun sometimes on the parties is you're able to have this really fun time. We do a raffle in our company. That's what I've decided to do. And I picked this up from Midwestern University's dental college, is every year we did a raffle. We all got to do that.   all these awesome prizes. And then every year they gave us some type of swag and they gave us like a holiday party. So I didn't get an end of year bonus. And what I noticed was people enjoyed those so much. Everybody looked forward to it. Everybody got excited about it. Everybody walked out with these awesome gifts. Nobody knew what they were walking out with. We could see all the gifts. So was like, oh my gosh, who's going to get the huge TV? Who's going to get the MacBook Air? Who's going to get XYZ? And they like, all the gifts weren't super high end. All of them weren't low end, but it was something really, really awesome.   And then I thought they were so smart because they gave out branded swag. So it was umbrellas, jackets, ⁓ just things that we would use like lunch bags that were super appropriate. But think about it, that's amazing marketing power. I was walking around with this swag. I still have it to this day. I have a lot of the stuff that I got from it. But that's what I decided to do because it would just be fun. So for us and our company for end of year, our team knows.   I do it on Cyber Monday, happens every year. We do a holiday party, we dress up, we have an ugly sweater contest, and then we raffle off. So we play fun games at the company. We all just get together. We're a virtual team. Otherwise I take everybody to dinner or we do an awesome fun experience. And then we raffle. And I go hardcore on these prizes. I go do fun things for our team.

    12 min

  7. OCT 28

    The Secret to Success With Perio

    Tiff and Dana discuss how to achieve full team alignment on periodontal policies and protocols, even when it's the last thing you feel like doing. Their tips include which habits to build upon, which templates for conversation with the patient are most educational, maintaining team alignment, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are back with you with us today I have Ms. Dana and I'm so excited to do these podcasts. I have podcasts all day I have podcasts with you Dana. I podcast with Britt today I never get Britt on these suckers anymore and then I think I'm Kristy later, too So it is a whirlwind of podcasting day. Thank you for letting me, you know Just bust it out and get all of you guys here today   I'm really excited. I'm really excited for the one we just did. We record these just kind of like back to back to back just so you guys know in case you were wondering how this actually happens. We're not live right now. I wish we were. That'd be super cool. But it'd be really time consuming at the same time. But we just did a really fun one. I'm excited for them to hear about it. Dana though, I haven't asked you lately just how's life. had, it sounds like a full weekend of kiddos sports.   Dana (00:54) Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (00:54) ⁓   But you personally, you guys, talked about consistency in this last one. And you personally, you have some of the best consistency that I've ever seen anyone maintain. So number one, I think my big question that might be on everyone's mind is why? How do you maintain that consistency? You show up for everyone, but you still show up for yourself. You still do your workouts. You still make sure that your path   for your own health is one of the most important aspects of your life. So Dana, how do you maintain that?   Dana (01:29) Yeah, I think that just I learned early on in life, right? Like, especially with my health, like I had a point in my life where my health cup was pretty much empty and I had nothing to pour from. And so I just promised myself when I made it through that, that like,   I would always prioritize keeping that like as a priority. And ⁓ it's just something that like, I've shown up for for myself. ⁓ And to like, because I've shown up, it just, I don't know, like it just keeps me   saying it makes me a better mom, it makes me a better friend, it makes me a better partner, it makes me like, just better in so many ways, because I do take that space. And I don't always like, there's guilt, for sure that I do it and that I take the time and that you know, like I put other things aside to do it. But I think what it like, reaps and benefits and rewards for me outweigh those things. And so I'm truly on to the point now where I have kept it so consistent that   when I fall off I feel terrible.   The Dental A Team (02:43) Yeah, yeah, that's the real deal now.   Yeah, I love that. I think that the things you pointed out there just your why is big enough. And I think a massive reminder to everyone that typically for a human being to make a change in life, it has to be hard enough. Like, we don't change things that don't feel like they're not working, right? That haven't like sprung up as a quote unquote, like broken piece of life yet, right? Like however you want to word it.   If it's not hurting, we don't typically think, we're not thinking about it. If it's not hurting, we're just not thinking about it. So why are we addressing things we're not thinking about? So when it finally does get bad enough, I think I had a similar story, not the degree of health, but a similar instance where it was just like I hit the spot where it's like I actually don't have a choice. I either take care of myself or my health continues to deteriorate.   So was honestly, it was easy at that point. So it's interesting because it's so easy, I think for us from the outside, especially for you and I for fitness and health, like I think you and I have, I can imagine you're the same like my whole life. It's been in my, it's been in my being for as long as I can remember. So it was very easy to see that in myself and to see that in my life and to see where.   the consistencies or the inconsistencies are, but it's interesting to take a step back and see how relatable it is to just so many aspects of life. And if we applied those same steps and processes, the same thought to other aspects of life, how different things could look. And we narrow that focus because I think fitness and health just like, I don't know, I feel like it's like a box to check instead of like,   away and for you and I like it's a way especially for you and so it's just gives you the template for other areas which I think for us makes a lot of times consulting fun. I think it's more fun and it's a little bit easier for us to sometimes see the structure of what needs to happen because it's literally mimicking the results that we've seen in other areas of our life and first   So happy you're here, Dana, because had you not taken that initiative, things could look very different today. And I'm very happy that you did and that you dedicated to yourself and that you continue to. Second, you were teaching your kids the most important valuable lessons of their entire life. And it's so cool to watch you do that and to watch you show up for yourself, but for them too. I've always taken that stand with it. They're like, Brody's going to know that exercise is for health. It's not for the other.   ideas in there. So I never wanted him to, you know, have whatever complications with health and fitness in his life. So I made it a priority for me pretty early on in his life because of that. And then really had to about six years ago. So I applaud you for those pieces. And I just think it's really, really cool. And I think it kind of stems and spurs into a more fun version of today's podcast.   Because I really do think that that consistency and again that template that you have for like no I'm just going to do it and some days, you know I'm sure you wake up like I do or I'm like today's not the day and then it's like no just go just go it's 30 minutes It's an hour of my life. Like just go and you will always feel better afterwards So sometimes life comes in and this task or this duty comes in and it's like this feels like it's gonna be really hard I don't really want to talk to this person about this thing   I'll do it next time. And the I'll do it next time only slides us backwards. And we see that with the health and fitness very easily. If we don't go to the gym today, like we're sliding backwards to tomorrow. But in these conversations that we're talking about today with the perio, everyone's favorite word, perio, and being in alignment on the periodontal care kind of makes me think of those areas where we really do slide backwards because we're like.   I don't really want to have that hard conversation or, that kind of borderline or I don't know what we would classify this as. I'm just going to probe you today. Maybe they'll see somebody else next time. Like you're my, you're one of my favorites, Brits, my other favorite, ⁓ perio brain to pick when it comes to stuff like this, because really getting alignment on that can look like so many different things and consistency on the alignment I think is one of the key pieces. And Dana, there's so much to pick apart in there.   I'm obviously alluding to have the hard conversations with the patients when they need deep cleaning, even if they've been coming to your practice forever. I don't care, just do it. But how are the doctors important in your opinion and from a hygiene standpoint in gaining the alignment within the periodontal care, within the periodontal policies and protocols? Because we can tell a hygiene team to go do it, but I feel like without the doctor, we're like 90 % there.   Dana (07:22) Mm-hmm. ⁓   Yeah,   and and I really and truly feel like the doctor is so crucial in to me. It's like, ⁓ we have to do in this situation is build a plan and then create habits stacking for our hygienists like to do it right. And I think that the doctor is so crucial in setting up the standard of care for perio like what are the expectations for the hygiene team for each specific perio service within the practice? What are our parameters? What are our guidelines?   That way, when a patient walks in, no matter which hygienist they see, the same thing is recommended. Also too, it gives a very clear roadmap for the doctor to back you up. You've built it together. So you know that if you follow the protocol, the doctor can confidently back you up. You know that you'll get that every time that they walk in the room. And then lastly, importantly, just as important, it allows you to ⁓   confidently have the discussions that maybe you haven't. And I've seen an office as to where we built the protocol and there are moments of maybe we disagree, right? Maybe we see something different on an x-ray or maybe we see, you know, we probe slightly different or our angles are a little bit different or I've got a doctor versus a hygienist that one presses a little bit harder when they probe, right? But it allows us to definitively be able to make a decision and say, we default to the protocol. This is what the protocol   The Dental A Team (09:08) Yeah.   Dana (09:16) says when we have this many millimeters in probing depth, this many, and this is how often we do those things. This is the cadence in which we bring them back. These are the results that we expect to get it. And so when you have that outline, whether you are so far from it when you start or whether you're like pretty close to it when you start, it's okay. It's just build your roadmap of

    25 min

  8. OCT 23

    Dentists, Here's How to Successfully Wear Your CEO Pants

    Kiera joins the Raving Patients Podcast to talk about obtaining that CEO mindset to systematize your practice. This mindset does not mean doing it all yourself, but leaning on others to maximize their skillsets. Kiera also discusses with Dr. Len Tau how to separate yourself from having your entire identity associated with dentistry. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Speaker 1 (00:00) Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Raving Patients Podcast. As you know, I'm your host, Dr. Len Tau, and I am super excited today for multiple reasons. Well, first, before I get there, I want to first thank my sponsors, both Dental Intelligence, CallRail, and a new one, Net32. You'll be hearing their commercials as well, so check out those companies. And again, the only reason I'm able to do this every single week is because of their support. I also want to remind everybody about   my event, is only one week away. One week from now we'll be gathered in Fort Lauderdale for Supercharge with Dental Practice 2025. If you wanna be a come out last minute registrant, you can reach out to me. I will be glad to add you as a guest of me. So please reach out to me. You can check out the content at SuperchargeYourDentalPractice.com So I said I was super excited and I'm super excited because of our guest today. And she's been a guest before and I just recorded an episode with her on her podcast. ⁓   We're talking about Kiera Dent, who is from the Dental A Team, and we're gonna be talking the CEO mindset systematizing your practice for freedom and growth today. So before I let ⁓ Kiera take it off, I'm gonna go ahead and introduce her. So she is the founder and CEO of the Dental A Team, an entrepreneur, consultant, speaker, and podcast host dedicated to helping dental professionals reach their highest potential. Through customized in-office and virtual consulting,   She empowers dentists and their teams to cultivate an ownership mindset and achieving lasting growth. With experience spanning every role in the dental practice, front office, dental assistant, regional manager, and even practice owner, here brings unique first-hand perspective to her coaching. Alongside her team of expert consultants, she has partnered with hundreds of practices nationwide, leading them to greater efficiency, profitability, and fulfillment. As she often says, we don't just understand you, we are you.   So please welcome to the Raving Patients podcast, Kiara Dent. Kiara, thank you so much for being a guest on my podcast today.   Speaker 2 (02:03) Oh, Len, thank you so much. so excited to be here. I loved our podcast we did together. I love the podcast we did in the past together. I'm super excited about Supercharge. Everybody should go. We're going to like sneak peek, be there in 2026. Like Len, huge fan of you guys. Just excited to be here with you. So thank you. Thanks for having me. And yeah, it's always a little weird and fun to hear your bio read right before you get on. So just grateful to be here and just like have a good time with you. It's always a great time when we podcast together.   Speaker 1 (02:30) Well, I'm excited to spend the next 30 minutes or so with content from you. So I always like to ⁓ start off for people that don't know who you are. I obviously read your bio. Can you just tell dentists and other people reading or listening and watching this episode how you help dental practices?   Speaker 2 (02:50) Yeah, absolutely. So with the bio you heard, I started out as a dental assistant and then went throughout and I've owned practices. My first practice I took from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. And that was with a Midwestern grad. I worked at the dental college there. And so helping practices, what I learned was   I've been a team member, I've been in so many of the team roles. And then in addition to that, I've owned dental practices and I understand the business and I've run multimillion dollar practices and businesses. so bringing that perspective, I feel like there's the dentist perspective, there's the owner, the CEO of the practice, and then there's the team perspective. And both are necessary for practices. And so Dental A Team, say like, it stands for dentist and team. So what we really do for practices is whether it's virtual or in person, it's...   I call it the yes model line is what I like to say is number one, you as a person, we're going to focus on your vision, where you want to go as a doctor. Like what is your vision? The practice should serve your life. ⁓ because I believe that when you're supported, you're actually a better owner, a better boss, a better dentist. And then we go to E stands for earnings and profitability. We've got to make sure it's a profitable practice. And then we use those things, the vision and the numbers to then tell us what systems and team development we need to put into place. I'm really much a custom.   Let's see kind of like dentists do with patients. Like let's do a comp exam. Let's see where we're at. And then let's go for what's going to make the biggest impact with the least amount of effort. And being team members ourselves, I really think that we're able to like, Hey dentists, we want to hear your vision. We need to know where you're going and then go do your like favorite thing. It's dentistry. And then let's help your team be empowered to learn how to run the practice. So it truly is like a self-managing team, utilizing every single player in the team to their highest potential, but doing it with a ton of fun and ease. Like as a team member, I didn't want more hard work.   As an owner, do not want you to give me more homework. I'm already busy. So I feel like we really come in and bridge that gap of like where we are to where we want to go and do it in the easiest, most efficient and most fun way possible to help like team and patient experience be the top that it can be.   Speaker 1 (04:48) So I guess someone's listening to this podcast and they say, you know, want to, I want to change the culture in my practice, but I'm very much a micromanager.   So which means they're not focused on their dentistry, they're focused on managing the team. Do you help with that? Because there are so many micromanagers out there. I always wanted them for a very long time. And honestly, wasn't until I gave up that micromanaging and I just did the things I was going to do that my practice excelled. So ⁓ that's something, if someone's a micromanager, do you get them off doing that? Or how do you deal with that?   Speaker 2 (05:19) Yes, and I'm so glad you said that because I think most   Founder owners are micromanagers. think leadership we believe I I think so many there's this belief out there that we just come into this world as great leaders and we should just know it like you went to dental school you should just know how to be a leader and leadership is a journey and so for those micromanagers I think it's really fun to have the doctor and the team perspective and to be able to help both of them say like no doctor like these are the things but what I found is doctors micromanage because there's a lack of communication feedback loops so it's a lot so it's either a lack of communication and feedback   loop, a lack of knowledge, or they just like genuinely want to be a manager and they don't want to be an owner. And I'm like, great, let's just figure out what the the reasoning is. And then let's find the solution to that. So if team members have doctors that are micromanaging, first question I'm looking at is like, where's the feedback loop and what are we missing? Next is like, hey, doctor, I understand that this is where we're at. This is where I need you to be for the growth of the practice. What do you need to feel confident to be the dentist, to be the like not micromanaging like   there's a lack. And when I realize there's a lack and when teams can realize that there's a lack, like there's just something missing, we fix that, dentist is now able to be happy, team's able to flourish, everything starts to move in in a good motion. absolutely. I think being team members ourselves, we're not doctors, we're not dentists. Like, Len, I'm gonna lean on you for clinical. Like, that's not my world. I'm not here to even discuss it for one minute. But what I am here to do is to bridge that gap between doctors and teams.   Because ultimately it's same team, like everybody wants the best experience for the patient. We want the practice to flourish. So if we're all same team, let's help get people right seat, right person, help them understand what they should and could be doing. But also like office managers, there's this whole weird world for them too, where they've never been taught to be managers. They've never been taught what they should or shouldn't be doing. They've never been taught like what the difference between an office manager is and a biller and a scheduler and a treatment coordinator and how all those roles are different. And so helping people understand even what their job entails.   I think really can cut that micromanagement passion project. It's just a lack of knowledge and so teaching teams and teaching people, but we're very hands on. I really don't like fluff. That's why think when you and I get along well, I want it to be tactical. I want it to be practical and I want it to be something that's sustainable as well.   Speaker 1 (07:34) And that makes a lot of sense. And that was a great answer, by the way.   We're talking about, obviously you're very systematized. You put systems in place, the team follows, everybody knows what they're doing, runs like a well-oiled machine. Okay. And that's how my practice was when I left, when I was traveling. ⁓ I knew things,

    39 min
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This podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to: - Be more efficient - Have more fun - Improve doctor and team communications - Eliminate frustration - And make your life easier! Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM! New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

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  • Creator
    Dental A Team
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2025
  • Episodes
    1.1K
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    © 668974
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    Dental A Team Podcast

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