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. 3h ago

    #1,171: What To Do During CEO Time

    Kiera has talked to a ton of doctors to come up with tips for how to fill that CEO time that so often feels fathomless. The ideas include blocking out your schedule to understand your frequency, committing to "deep work" time, optimizing whatever you can, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today is a fun rift of a CEO, giving some CEO tips. And I was just on a birthday trip. You guys, had a birthday and it was so fun. And my husband and went off to Austria and Amsterdam. ⁓ We have traveled a lot. If you guys have been a podcast listener, you know I'm obsessed with traveling. so because we've traveled so much, we're kind of on to off the beaten path locations and.   This year I was like, Hey, I've never seen the Tulip festival in Amsterdam. Like let's head on over there for that. And so when we were there, some of these ideas came to me and I realized this would be, again, I love some white, white noise space guys. If you are an owner of a business and you have not booked yourself one trip that you are off the grid completely. when I talk my, so it was my birthday when I was gone and ⁓ luckily I have some like great friends in my life that texted me. My phone is off off.   Like I kid you not, is on airplane mode. I don't even put it on wifi. Like I don't text people. Jason has his phone and I will say it's the greatest gift I give myself. And one of my friends did not know this quite as well with me. And she was like, Hey, said my other friend, like I texted care like two days ago and I haven't heard from her. She's like, ⁓ when care travels, she is like dead off the grid. Like you will not get in touch with her. If something happens, even if her house is on fire, like she'll deal with it when she gets home, like genuinely she's off the grid. She needs to have that, like just shut off downtime.   And I will say for any of you, and I told an office to do this a while ago and they came back from their trip and they were like, Kiera, that was the best gift and we're going to do that now forever. And so for you, that would be my like birthday gift to all of you to do for yourselves is take a week, completely shut off. No Slack, no emails, no text messages, ⁓ completely turn your phone off if you can. Tell your family where you're at, like have it to where someone can be reachable if necessary. But I will tell you, I sleep better.   than I ever do. ⁓ I come back refreshed. My team all tells me like I am such a happier boss when I come back. I feel like my relationship with my husband is so much stronger because I feel like he gets his wife back. I feel like I come back. I was in the Tulip Festival. There's videos that I have not posted. They're just for Kiera. I feel like literally skipping like a little girl through these Tulip Festivals. I feel I go back to the true core of who Kiera is. I don't need to be a boss. I don't need to be a CEO. I don't need to be a consultant.   I am able to be like free bird Kiera out there. Jason even calls me bird when we travel and it's just a space. So there's a little tip for you that I hope you listen to and I hope you take and hey, if you do it, send me a message and let me know how it went for you. I will also fair warn that sometimes what I call it is it's the adrenaline. What would it be? It's like coming off of the adrenaline. So that drop.   Sometimes I get angry. So fair warning that that does is the dopamine drop if you will and I felt like I have had like three days where I'm just sheer angry and I'm like what is going on? I'm on vacation. I'm in this beautiful place and I'm just mad but it's because you go from being so high tilt throttle to nothing that your nervous system does kind of have this like whiplash. So I have found that some ways to ease into that is one knowing that two I tried to hit the gym like three or four times when I'm over there because that allows like   a lot of that energy to just get expelled rather than going from like high level to nothing. And then I've also found that like reading books, so something for my mind, I usually try to do fiction books. So it's not like obsessive learning, ⁓ but just taking my mind into a different space. Some of those can be a tip for you. again, hopefully some of those help. But ⁓ today I wanted to go through like, how do I actually block and use my CEO time? Because I think that this is a zone that a lot of people want to do as owner doctors and, but they're like, I just don't know what to do during CEO time. So I wanted to   just share with you what I personally do in the company, how I block it, what I have, and then also letting you guys know that we actually have a forum and I'm happy to share it with any of you. can reach out, email us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, but like what do I actually do during my admin time checklist? This has been built with lots of different doctors input and also what I personally do.   So for me, I do have a personal assistant and I have an executive assistant. So first step is if you don't have either of those, and I know I talked to a lot of dentists and they get weird about it they don't want to have an executive assistant or a personal assistant, but I will say hands down, this is something absolutely that's tactical that you should do. I have my personal assistant actually watch my schedule and then her job is to go through and to refine my schedule. And she does an amazing job. She's like, hey, Kiera, you're running back to back to back all these meetings. You need to move into some different places. Like these are some things that I think you need to do.   We actually have an Excel spreadsheet. just so you know, I do have an Excel spreadsheet. I'm looking at it right now as I'm podcasting for you. And I look in there and I put in and I have on my like on the right hand side, I have my scheduling needs, what my frequency is. Like we've got podcasting in there. I've got certain coaches that I need to get into. I've got my workout time in there. I've got like my C-suite meeting with the COO and the CRO and our lead consultant and ⁓ Britt and my EAPA meetings and the bookkeepers and our fractional CFO.   I have all those meetings that I need to be hitting. And so we look to see where are those at, where are the meetings that I need to have, but non-negotiable for me is my deep work time. So that's my CEO time. That's my deep work time. I have to have on busy weeks, non-negotiable, I need a two hour block. Like that is a non-negotiable for me, must, must. And it's during the day. I don't do it on my Fridays or my day off. I don't enjoy that for me. I get really actually annoyed to do it on those days. So mine gets blocked during my time.   For dentists, I recommend you do it during your time. ⁓ Working hours, I recommend that you block it in there because if you're producing, let's say $1,000 an hour, you've got to be doing at least $2,000 worth of value during that time. again, when you're giving that up, you tend to be a lot more productive. for me, my first week is very busy. I, first week in the company is something that is none of our favorites. Like we love it.   But it's hard, it's heavy. We have our doctor mastermind that we do. I usually do podcasting on the first week. I'm meeting with a lot of my direct reports. It's a heavy week for me, but we still have my non-negotiables. And so I just look at my timing and I know Monday's a full meeting day, Tuesday's a coaching call podcasting day, Wednesday I'm meeting with the COO, CRO, CFO. I have all those meetings to make sure that they can move on their items from Monday. That for me, it's a pretty heavy day.   And then I've just got a lighter afternoon on Wednesdays to just catch up on projects. Thursdays where I'm, and for me, I also have to know where is my ideal time. So when you're blocking your CEO time, you need to know where are you the most optimal? For me, I'm always the best in the morning. Like seven, 738, like right there is where I'm gonna start like cranking and I'm gonna just go solid for about two hours till 10. My worst time in the entire day is three o'clock. Like I am dead and usually around 11, I start to like.   zone out and I'm not as productive. So I've just had to try that. That's a trial and error. Test yourself. See, do you like the mornings? Do like the afternoons? Do like the end of day? Like where are you? Brittany's zone, she's a night owl. That girl, she starts to get her prime optimization on it like three, four, five o'clock at night. Like that is when that girl, she starts to churn and she puts out her best work and we both know that. I'm like, amazing. We work on very polar opposite different ones. So like she needs to put her deep works over your OMS, finding out as well for them. But for me,   Mine is Thursday mornings is where I put that deep work. Then what I prefer to do is on my weeks where I'm not as busy. So I do coaching calls every other week. On my non coaching call weeks, I have two hours on Tuesday, two hours on Thursday. So I'm blocking four hours for myself. So your personal assistant, your executive assistant, they should be blocking this. And to me, this is a like, you do not like, you know, like a stove is hot. Like we don't touch that. You never touch my deep work blocks like ever. Don't ask me to schedule there. Don't ask me to put a meeting there.   Do not ask me to disrupt that time. And I am so strict on my deep work time that people know like, we don't touch that with a 10 foot pole. And your team needs to know that. Doctors, also recommend a lot of times, especially if you do it in the morning or the afternoon, go to the library somewhere where people aren't going to find you. Go to a coffee shop where yo

    21 min

  2. 1d ago

    #1,170: The #1 Hiring Mistake

    Hiring is hard right now. Kiera talks about a critical mistake offices tend to make when filling new seats: Hiring not just for skill, not just for culture, but both. She walks listeners through aligning your hirees with your core values, requiring a full team assessment, and involving your full staff. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I wanted to talk about a big hiring mistake that I see offices make and how to fix it. I'm not just going to leave you on a cliffhanger, but like, let's talk about how to fix it because I know hiring's a beast right now. I'm in the suck of it, but don't forget, this is the success tax. We don't get the suck without the success. Like you have to have both. so hiring is a beast, but I think fixing some of these things, working through it and great news times are changing everybody. ⁓ it used to be that, ⁓   It used to be an employee market and I think it's now shifting. so for people feeling like there's not great team members out there, I will say that the market has shifted and we've actually made our most amount of hires in the last eight months as a Dental A Team company. And ⁓ I think I've learned a lot that I'm excited to share a lot of these hiring mistakes that I've made, that I've seen offices make and how you can fix them. So ⁓ I really think that there's a simple three steps around it that you can solve it. And who knows, I might go beyond the three.   But really helping you guys prevent that team turnover, protect your culture, um, and really, you know, doing it in a great way. Then only teams obsessed with making dentistry easier for you guys. Um, our experiences helped hundreds and thousands of team members build strong teams and to do it with fun and ease and to make it a place where you're obsessed with going. I actually just spoke with a doctor the other day and she said, Kiera, you need to use me as a testimonial and I need to get her on the podcast. Uh, but she said,   A year ago, I hated my practice and I didn't like going and I was ready to literally burn the whole thing down, burn my life down and walk away. And she said, Dental A Team changed my life and you saved me and you saved my practice. And now it's a place where I'm obsessed with going. I'm so happy going there. I love my team. I love my patients. I love what I'm doing. And I think if that's not a testimonial for you of what Dental A Team can do in a very short amount of time, having a doctor who absolutely hated their practice to being obsessed with their practice and being so happy every single day is amazing.   ⁓ I also think that ⁓ just really being here as a person who is hopefully a friend in the industry, we help practices, we fly to your office, we work with you virtually, but you don't have to do this alone. Everybody says dentistry is an isolated island and I would say only if you want it to be. We have a community, we bring our doctors in person together if you want so you can be around a community of like-minded dentists. We physically come to your office and we also work with your team virtually and being team members ourselves.   Every single consultant on our team has to be a team member, front office, back office experience to where we don't just understand you, we actually are you. So let's talk about hiring. So that was talk about like hire for culture and not just skill. And I think mistake number one is not getting both. I think there's certain roles that you absolutely 100 % can just do culture and train it up. I will also say that there's a lot like an office manager role. There's no way I'm going to recommend that you train them up.   Now you can pull someone from banking, you can pull other people and yes, you can train up, but depending upon the space of your practice, hiring for skill and culture is essential. And I think I used to just feel like, like we train, some great people on for culture. And I was like, do you know how much of an uptick learning hill I had for not having any skill there? So you can, but I want to say that if you just hire for culture and not for skill, you've got to have a longer bandwidth, lower expectations of them being able to immediately help you.   Like that person's gonna take a good six to 12 months. I have an office right now and they train up dental assistants. They go through 90 days worth of training in an office and it usually takes those dental assistants about six to nine months before that assistant actually feels comfortable and competent to where the doctors feel like they can trust them. So when we look at it, I know you're desperate to fill the seat, but I wanted to say like hiring mistake number one is being desperate and just filling the spot. And I have done this, Britt and I talk about it often.   And we always say like, is this a red flag that we're not paying attention to? So I feel like hiring mistake number one is you ignore the red flags. So it could be a culture red flag, it could be a skill red flag, it could be an expectation misalignment red flag, but getting better at hearing those red flags and not being desperate on your hires is a big mistake that I'm watching dentists make. And so like, make sure that the resume looks great, but how can I then like test them on it? What things can you do? And as you go through the hiring process, don't be afraid   to refine, tweak, change up and make better your process. I can't tell you how many times Britt and I were like, great, we missed that on that last hire. We're gonna add this to our hiring interview questions and we're gonna ask that next time. I just had a doctor and they brought on somebody and clinically they're not on the same page. And I was like, you guys, this is like a one in a million. I've never had this in years and years and years of hiring doctors. We're gonna add that to it. For hiring doctors, we started asking for actual production procedure reports.   I'm not just gonna take you telling me you're doing a $7,500 day. Show me the reports. I don't need to see patient names, but I do need to see what you were able to do that is diagnosed under you. I need to see a sample HIPAA schedule of what your normal day was. Like there's ways that you can ask for things and get better at sleuthing and sussing out information rather than just taking it at face value. Resumes are lied on all the time. I talk to recruiters and I'm not saying people are bad.   I'm just saying that like 90%, I think they told me, think it was 75 % of all resumes are lied on. And I was like, wow, okay. So then we need to trust and verify. So I would just say like, don't miss the red flags and have somebody like Britt, appreciate, she calls me out and I call her out and we say, is this a red flag that in three months we're going to regret? And sometimes that desperation can hit you hard. I would say have somebody on the other side of you that doesn't allow you to make desperate hires. So,   And then what I do is for us, we really do hire by our core values. So you guys can either have core values or have like the top three personality traits that thrive in our office and put that in our interview job ad, put that in our interview questions. So for us, like we hustle, like that is a big thing. Like Dental A Team runs hard. And if that's not your style and you're more like slow, steady, move on. Dental A Team will never be a happy place for you. Like I move quick, our team moves quick. You've got to be a fast paced individual. So for that,   look to see what are some of those characteristics and then really do a litmus test on those employees, future employees, and make sure that they're really going to fit you well. So I think that you can do filtering systems on culture fit surveys. You can have video intros where they can come, phone screen for core value alignment, but really truly having a filtering process where you're not missing those red flags. You're improving your interview questions consistently, adding one more filter step to the interview. It's like for us for consultants, they have to   apply, we do a mock, and then what they do is they have to do a video one. We have to do a mock scenario with them. Like have a pretty intensive consultant hiring process. For you, look to see how can I really know without hiring this person that they're going to be a great fit, not just a good fit for my practice. And I think raise your standard for hiring that we only hire great people, not just good people. ⁓ I think then other people, another mistake that I found in hiring.   is that you don't involve the team. just make these decisions and you don't use the team. And honestly, having team involvement helps protect the culture, but it also makes them bought into this hire. So have them come in for a working interview, have a team lead, ⁓ lead the second interview, ⁓ and then feedback after the candidate where it's kind of a 360 awareness. So like, what does a hygiene department see, dental assistant department, front office and doctors. So have everyone have kind of like a four view and you can randomly ask people and if you're like, I didn't even meet them.   Well, that's a red flag to me that that team member didn't even go say hello to each potential teammate. I know you might have a large office that might not be doable, but really trying to get that four different angle perspective on this person can give you a really good insight. know there's certain roles that I've had people help me with, assess me with others where it's like, that's just my decision to make. But the more I can get more teams involvement, more perspective on it, the better. And I will say, I just recently had a candidate and I had our leadership team give me assessm

    16 min

  3. 2d ago

    #1,169: The Win-Win Nature of Tech in the Office (If You Do It Right)

    Tiff and Nikki dive into all things tech + dentistry, including what practices can implement to make the day-to-day more efficient for staff and convenient for the patient — all while keeping that personal human touch. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiff (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am back here today with you, with one of my favorite Dental A Team consultants. We have a few consultants, and they're all my favorite, but I'm here today with Miss Nikki Mack, who many of you have met over the course of the last few months that she has been with Dental A Team, and all of you know she has a vast amount of experience in the dental industry, and she's right here in town with myself and Britt and   Gosh Pam, everybody's here. Dana's down south, but that's okay. Nikki's here and she's here with me today. And Nikki, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to have you here today. We're gonna have so much fun together. You are a bundle of energy and a bundle of fun. And I'm just excited to be here. So how are you? How are you loving this like semi cloudy weather we've got and what's life in Nikki's world look like?   Nikki Mack (00:49) Gosh.   It's been fantastic. I'm super happy to be back. I had so much fun last time. ⁓ and actually I'm really excited about today's topic too. So that helps, obviously, but I can't wait to talk about it. ⁓ it's gorgeous. It's still over a hundred, but you know, we learned to live with what we can get. the gloomy skies, a little bit of humidity, maybe some sprinkles. Like that's I'm ready. That's a great way to kick off my weekend. So I'm here for it.   Tiff (01:00) Yeah. Yeah.   I know.   I agree.   I agree. This is like the one time, I don't know, in maybe my entire life of living in Arizona that I can't say, yeah, it's over a hundred, but it's a dry heat, 'cause it's over a hundred and humid. So I'm not really sure what to do with that. I'm like, it's cloudy, can I go outside? And I'm like, gosh, it's still really it's still a hundred and five. So I'm not sure w how to I'm not sure how to act.   Nikki Mack (01:31) Yeah.   Yeah.   Cloudy skies make me want a sweater, but then I walked outside and I was like, ⁓ no, that's not. That's not what's happening here. So we might have a real monsoon season this year. I can't wait.   Tiff (01:43) Yeah.   I know.   I know. We're supposed to. We're supposed to. So we will, listeners, we will keep you in the loop on the Arizona weather. I know everybody's always dying to know. I actually it's one of the most like most often asked questions that I get when I do travel. So I know you're all just dying to hear about it. We will keep you posted. ⁓ but I agree Yeah. Yeah. Always wanted to be a meteorologist, you know. Here we are. Here we are.   Nikki Mack (01:58) Yeah.   We're here for your weather updates and your dental ⁓ improvements. That's what we do.   Tiff (02:17) but I agree, today's topic is actually really fun and ⁓ it's it's tech techie and I think tech in dentistry can mean so many things. And so we'll narrow down kind of what we're chatting about today and and to to make it easy, I think tech has been so like virtually involved since COVID shutdowns and we've just really spun in dentistry on so many different platforms.   Be used. So tech in the dental industry no longer just means we have a mill, we have a 3D printing machine, we have scanners, and that is tech, but there's so much more that goes into it and that can be involved in that that term that I'm really excited to talk about it today. And Nikki, I'm excited. I know you love tech and the technical industry and AI and all that stuff, and   And you you love to geek out on it ⁓ in your personal life. And like I think we all use those tools. So I'm excited to talk about it today. And and something that I want to start this out with today is really the idea of how much we use technology in our everyday lives and how much ⁓ convenience the American citizen is after. We want efficiency.   Nikki Mack (03:16) Yeah.   Tiff (03:37) We want convenience. We do a lot. We jam as much into our days as we possibly can. And so being able to use technology severely impacts our worlds. And gosh, even this morning we do every Friday, we do like our f our Friday fun Friday. What's the most fun thing we did? And Diana, one of our consultants on our team, she's like, gosh, this week I ordered my groceries and they were delivered to my house. And she's like, that was life changing because she's a busy mom.   And I was like, that's so funny. And then today we're talking about this. I mean, gosh, technology. We're ordering, we're ordering our groceries, we're ordering Amazon. Like, how much stuff do you order on Amazon even when you want to support the other, the other companies and the other stores? But how much are we ordering on Amazon? Because it's easy, that ease of access. We're scheduling as many appointments online as we can. I just paid a bill to my healthcare office online and making sure that we can do all of these things from our phones.   in the most convenient ways as possible has become such an industry standard and a and a life standard for so many of us. I want to chat about that today within the dental industry. And Nikki, you said something before we got on, you're taking some notes, you're doing some things, and I I want to highlight that note because first we'll go through kind of like what is technology, Nikki, in your in your world and the practices you're working with, how do you see practices really using   Nikki Mack (04:47) Yeah.   Tiff (05:01) technology in that fashion, like for efficiencies, for conveniences, what are you seeing in the dental industry that people can implement within their practices?   Nikki Mack (05:11) So I think the key when we talk about it is we want to do things that make it easier for us and convenient for the patient, right? Like those should be kind of the two, I feel like key core pieces before we use anything. But   We also have to keep in mind that technology doesn't have to replace that personal touch. Like they're still coming to see us. I'm still gonna greet them at the front desk, right? We're gonna ask how their vacation was. They're a part of our practice. But people do want that convenience and you want to help the office. So I see it in ways that can help the team be more efficient. ⁓ with like virtual appointment assistance, right? Online appointments. my gosh. I mean, in 2026, I can book my oil change.   online right i don't even have to call the auto shop   for that. People want to be able to book it online. And then that's one less phone call that you have to take that you can be interacting with a patient, right? Face to face, engaging. So a lot of ⁓ online appointment scheduling, ⁓ bill portals, billing reminders, being able to send off statements, people can respond to the link in that text and pay for it. ⁓ all of those kind of pieces usually are the key. And then not quite our topic today, but   with diagnostics, right? There's a lot of technology available that can really help you get some valuable information to put in front of the patient too. But that leads us back to efficiency, right? And offering that convenience to patients. So I think it's really those touch points is where I see it the most.   Tiff (06:25) Yeah.   Yeah.   Yeah,   I agree. And I think you you touched on that like AI component for the back office for diagnostic tools. We have we talked about earlier, you know, the scanners. We have all of these digital ⁓ so we say tech, right? But really we're talking about like digital technology, right? Because tech can be so broad. So we have all of these digital resources that really do c ⁓ create conveniences for the patient.   And I think we undervalue even Nikki, what you just said, we ha we have them in the back office for diagnostic tools. I think we undervalue the convenience that that can create for our patients because the convenience of understanding, I'm not la I'm not logically sitting here thinking with my forefront brain, wow, being able to see this on the on the screen is so convenient and it's making my life so much easier. But me being   Nikki Mack (07:25) Mm-hmm. ⁓   Tiff (07:29) A person who can understand this, do it in an efficient and an effective way, move my day quickly, say yes to scheduling, say yes to being healthier because I can visually see it. That's convenient and it's making my experience better. And it's also to your point, Nikki, all of those conveniences, appointment ⁓ scheduling online, confirming our appointments online, paying our bills online, seeing the   Seeing the AI version of my mouth, seeing how my teeth have changed, all of those things are cutting down on the effort that the human is having to put out so that that bucket of time and energy and capacity that has been left because we were using it on something else. Now we filled this capacity bucket with extra time. I can now sit as a dental professional and spend more time connecting.   with the human across from me because I'm not spending the time on the phone calling to schedule the appointment or answering to schedule the appointment or doing all these pieces. So not only is it more convenient, effective, and efficient for the patient, but the team is getting some time back as well when they're used correctly. And I think that's huge. I think it makes a massive difference.   Nikki Mack (08:47) my gosh, it's   it's so massive. I think people outside of dental probably don't realize it, but all of us in it, we know it, right? We live it. The single most valuable thing in a practice, in my opinion, is time because it doesn't matter if you're a one

    28 min

  4. Jun 25

    #1,168: To Scale or Simplify, That is the Question.

    Ever feel like your office doesn't fit the standard benchmarks for growth? In this episode, Kiera and Dana riff on how to know whether going big or tightening the screws is the best way forward for your practice — including specific questions to ask yourself so you can get started on change today. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today's a lucky day. I get Dana on the podcast with me. Dana, she is Donuts with Dana. She's been my ride or die for so freaking long. I love this woman so much. And fun fact, I didn't quite prep her 100 % for this podcast and yet she still shows up for a podcast with me. So Dana, how you doing today?   DAT-Dana (00:20) Doing pretty good. Listen, any podcast with you is a good time. So if I get time with Kiera, I'm showing up.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:25) Well, I appreciate   it because selfishly I needed to throw a few podcasts in the morning before a coaching call day. And I was like, ⁓ doing them solo. I'd rather have a consultant. So I just looked across the calendars and was like, which consultants are free and like threw them on people's calendars. And then Dana was like, I didn't even know that this was a podcast. So, but Dana, I equally feel the same. Like if I can snag you for a podcast, like let's roll girl. Let's have a good time. Dana.   You're Dainty to a point, but you're also Dynamite Dana. And we just had a client who's looking to work with you. And I told them like, Dana, you don't take on new clients. Like it is a very rare season. Like you happen to have a few clients that just like you've grown them enough. They're too new level that they're not staying with us. They've been with you for freaking ever. And I was like, Dana has a very rare opening. And I remember this client was like, well, we want to meet Dana. And I was like,   hold please, I'm just gonna send you a bunch of podcasts and if you need more than that, you just let me know. So, and when I was looking through them, it was like, Dynamite Dana on the podcast. And I was like, I think that one just got to stick for me Dana. Like it's the best one by far because you're a dynamic, you're dynamite and you just crush it for teams. So excited for today because today's topic is scale or simplify. Like what should growth look like in your practice? And this one I just felt was gonna be a fun rift with you and me because we have practices that.   DAT-Dana (01:23) you   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (01:40) I think are on both sides of this coin and how do offices know? So I'm excited Dana to rift with the one and only dynamic dynamite, Dainty on the pod.   DAT-Dana (01:52) It's getting longer and longer, but I love it.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (01:56) But what's crazy is Dana like here's a fun fact about Dana that you guys might not know for those of you who've listened for a while great welcome if you haven't go back and listen to some of them Dana's been Don't is with Dana. I think still my favorite one, but ⁓ Dana has this wild memory you tell her one time like I can change alliterations on Dana multiple times which we've done with core values and Dana has the most current one always Dana I don't know how your memory does this cuz I'm like you'll remember that on   whatever May date we're doing this podcast on that on that date it was dynamic dynamite Dainey and you're like yeah Kiera that was the latest one and I'm like how like I have a good memory but you even skunk me like it's impressive has this always been the case for you like did you crush everybody on memory like that game memory   DAT-Dana (02:37) Yeah, it is. It's always been the   case. And it's weird. I was trying to explain it to Britt and Nikki one time. And it's like, my brain just automatically like does alliterations and associates things with like other pieces that then I can, I don't know. It's very strange, but I'll take it.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (02:51) I don't know. I love it.   So, every year for our company holiday party, if you guys don't do it, it's a good time. have, I hope Danny still love it. Like, but we, do fun. Kiera's games are just made up games guys. And I have a great time and it's always changing the rules. Tiffanie always loses. Even if I try to like slightly ethically cheat for her, like I give her 10 tickets on the beginning and I'm like, Tiff, if you can't freaking win with that much of a jump.   DAT-Dana (03:01) yeah.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (03:20) but it's always about team trivia and Dana whoops, she skunks every single year she wins it because she just has all the memory. So maybe Dana, that's why you and I both love the holiday party. Cause I just like, even tried to make it to where you won't win it. Not cause I don't want you to, but I'm like, my gosh, like you skunk them every time. So it's a fun time. We, but I'm never letting Shelbi do it again. She made me do, do you remember Jeopardy last year? I had like 200 tickets a person that I had to like peel off and raffle off.   DAT-Dana (03:32) We have... I know.   Yes.   Sift through, I know.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (03:50) That Shelbi is like, that one was worth 15 tickets. And so if you guys want ideas, we're gonna talk about how to simplify our scale. Like that's our topic. But if you want us to rift on holiday party ideas, Dana, that just might have to be a topic. So email in because the marketing team has to see that you want to know this for me to make podcasts anymore. So email Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and just say like, we want to hear about all your holiday party ideas. Dana and I might get back on a rift. So, but Dana, let's talk about.   scale or simplify, how do offices know? Like what are some of the defining pieces? Because I think this is something about Dental A Team I'm obsessed with is we don't have a set like model, like not every office has to have X, Y or Z, it's truly yours. like that also, I think for some offices, they just wanna be told. They wanna like, I want my mom to tell me what to do for college. Like mom, just tell me. And I think people are like, well, just tell me Dana, do I scale or do I simplify? Like how do people know? Like what's some, and again, this is a full blown, we had a few.   Excuse me, talking points, I'm not here to follow any of them. I'm just here to talk like real life, like how do we guide offices if they should simplify our scale? What's kind of some of the things you start with within office?   DAT-Dana (04:53) Yeah. So usually I'll honestly start with the owner and like, what do you truly love? Because if you don't love managing people, if you don't love doing the procedures that it takes to expand, if you don't love like   running the business and crunching the numbers and doing those pieces, if that doesn't inspire you, then let's talk about simplifying, right? Where if, if really and truly that's why you show up every day is for those pieces, then let's talk about scaling, right? And what growth looks like and you know,   what that looks like for you and it might be adding practices, might be expanding the space that you're in, it might be a variety of different things, but honestly and truly what do you love because I don't want to build something that at the end of the day just makes you dislike coming to the office more or exponentially harder.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (05:49) I agree with you, Dana. I think this is a spot where almost giving you as an owner, the green light to say it's okay to stay where you're at. ⁓ I have an office in Florida and every time we got on a call, everybody around them was telling them to expand. So they had six operatories. They're producing 3.5 million. Their overhead, kid you not is 35%. And people were like, right. Like it's just, ⁓ it was a great practice and they worked four days a week. It was a husband, wife duo.   And I remember we talked all the time and they're like, Kiera, everybody thinks that we should scale. Like we should get another practice. Like we've got this. And I was so annoyed because I'm like, everybody chirping in your ear doesn't realize what you want. What they wanted, their kids were a little, they're like, we want to be home with our kids. We have a very profitable practice. We're very happy with it. We have minimal debt on it and it's just fulfilling our life. And what we want to do is we want to have our summers. We want to go golfing with the boys. We want to.   get on a boat and go take, they take a month off and they go travel because they can't and they can still pay their team while they're gone. And I think for them, they actually hit this spot of growth. And what they were looking for is they didn't want to necessarily grow the practice. They practice like who would change that up? mean, they've got the, they dropped out of insurance. Like I'm talking, they have the sweetest of the suite. They work six to three. They're off every day at three o'clock. Like you want to make a dream life for people that to me was like their dream life. And so when I looked at it,   But what they did is they got stagnated and they just needed something to fulfill. So they actually then went into like church groups and community groups and she got into bodybuilding, which Dana and I can appreciate. Like she got very obsessive about like working out and putting in and spending her time in her physical health. And he spent his time in like Bible study and giving back in the community that way that I feel that if there's a spot, Dana, like you said,   know thyself and be free. And it might be that you want to scale, but you don't want to scale your practice. You just need to go find another avenue of fulfillment that can be in varying shades

    23 min

  5. Jun 24

    #1,167: The Life-Changing Magic of an In-Office Consultant Visit

    Kiera and Trish are on the podcast together (yay!) to dive into the art of a Dental A-Team visit to your office (double yay!). They go into how an eagle-eyed consultant was able to take a specific office that couldn't quite reach its goals and tip them into success. They also touch on relationship dynamics, the power of "mom eyes," being a cheerleader and a coach, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited for today's podcast. I have the one and only Trish. She's known as TADA in our company. She's all the confetti, the glitter, the sparkles, the spice, and Trish honestly just reminds me how great life is. So Trish, welcome to the podcast today. How are you?   Tricia Lee Ackerman (00:17) I'm doing great, thank you Kiera. I always love getting this time in with you.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:21) ⁓ likewise, I, Trish, you are just my little like light on the Hill. just, whenever I need to remind myself how good life is, I just need a little Trishism in my life. So Trish, thank you for being that. And Trish, you just got back off the road. You were in offices and that was what we're going to podcast today of like, you have had some pretty freaking outstanding results after being with offices, being in person with them. And so we kind of wanted to office autopsy that, but like Trish.   Just walk us through like what is an office visit like and how does that magic happen? So kind of walk us through because you just Literally flew in I think last night and here we are. was like, hey, let's do a quick early morning podcast with you But yeah, let's let's talk about some of that magic Trish What what happens in an in-office visit and how does that magic happen?   Tricia Lee Ackerman (00:57) Yeah, that's good.   You know, it's like we do, we build strong relationships, you know, via the Google meetings and video meetings and such, but something truly does happen when you get to touch somebody, hug somebody, and then really just like look at them knee to knee, eye to eye. And I was, when I meet with teams, like it's typically, we kind of know each other already. You know, we've been working together a couple months, sometimes even up to like four or five, six months already. But when we get there and we see each other,   And we get to have a lot of fun together as a collaborative team, because the Dental A Team style is like, we are fun. That we definitely are. And we try to make the lives of people easier. And this collaboration that takes place, also is kind of like it's cousins with a trust that also forms at the same time. So it's like we collaborate, yeah, that's great. But then the relationship, it steps it up a notch and a trust starts to come.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (01:39) Yeah.   Tricia Lee Ackerman (02:00) And when you can see that happen, can all, well, you feel it and then you know it's there. And then the magic really starts to like, it speeds up the momentum. It like you hit the, you hit the pedal to the metal and like, it's go. And I've seen it more than once. And so it is truly the onsite visits that, that bring this kind of full circle and put the big red bow on what we're trying to accomplish for ourselves as consultants and for the teams.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (02:30) Yeah, I love that you say that because you're right. Like we do virtual and in-person consulting. We also have an in-person mastermind, which is so fun, but it's that I think it's the collaboration. It's the connection. It's the conversations that are had that you wouldn't normally have. ⁓ it's having, I almost got like the hallway whispers, teams open up a lot to you when we're in person. They, we find out things. And also when we go in person, you're able to see things. I remember, I think like one of the highlights of my career.   was walking into a practice that I had been consulting for almost a year. We were growing them and I walked in and I did like a, it was a head turn. Everybody says I have some good mom eyes without being a mom. And I was like, you guys have paper charts? I didn't know that this was a thing. And how has this never come up on a single call because paper charts should not be happening. And the dentist was like, but Kiera, I'm just so comfortable with them. And I said, well, great, we're gonna get really uncomfortable and it's time to change. I just think it's a...   Tricia Lee Ackerman (03:23) Yes   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (03:27) things that offices don't even know that they should be bringing up to you of issues on virtual calls. We can't see the practice. can't see how like there's a practice. You and I both know them very well. The thing we did for them was we put in a different flow and that's all we did. And that increased our case acceptance, it increased team morale, but it was just something simple like that. So Krish, you have a practice though. You got an office, it's a unique office. ⁓ And I think what's magical is,   after the visit, it's crazy. People can always tell, I had somebody actually chart my visits and they were like, Kiera, without fail, every time you come in, we get a boost in production, a boost in revenue. And I'm like, well, yeah, cause the team's happier. You guys are all aligned. You're rowing in the same direction. But the goal is that that can also sustain. So I hope that it's a, and what I have seen is it's a boost and it's like, there's a spike, but then it's also the baseline goes up and it stays up.   Typically speaking, because people are like, well, if you're not here all the time, how are we supposed to get these boosts? And it's like, no, it is a boost, it's a spike, but then is the baseline hires and we live in that, that becomes our new norm. Then we come back in and we spike again and the baseline norms up again. So Trish, let's talk about, you got a couple office autopsies out there. What did you do for some practices and what were the results afterwards?   Tricia Lee Ackerman (04:42) Well, I have, I do have a client and there's two practices. We joined them together for the onsite visit and they were, because there's the two practices, they are real, they're very great with being collaborative, but we were all together. So everything was implemented at the same exact time. you know, Kiera, what are the other things I want to throw in about our approach is when we do implement and when we do go onsite, it isn't like the Dental A Team way.   You know, doesn't have to be this way. You know, we asked the teams, well, here is a way that we could do something a little bit easier. How do you think we could do this? So there are really big part of, and these teams that we work with, I mean, they're like, geniuses. They really are. We actually learn so much from them. But this particular team that really kind of sticks out to me, they were really struggling hitting their goals. They kind of just didn't know how to do it.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (05:26) Okay.   Tricia Lee Ackerman (05:36) But we set in metrics that they could, we broke them really, we broke them down almost like to the hour. So they didn't have to look at a big thing. And yes, that we can do virtually. However, being together and me being able to watch them collaborate and give them those like, almost like the standing ovation, like, wow, did you guys see what you just designed? And Kiera, when I left that practice, they have hit their goals the last two months now. We put in some, which,   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (06:03) Yeah.   Tricia Lee Ackerman (06:04) is so neat because they have such a skip in their step. But this, in February, they were $600 away from their collection goal. It was the last day of the month. They ended up going over by $4,000 because they are competitive with each other now in a super fun way. And they ended up getting a patient that was in for a consult to schedule and pay in advance because they wanted that goal. And   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (06:07) Ha ha ha!   dang.   That's incredible.   Tricia Lee Ackerman (06:32) And it's those things that they would not have done before. again, you know, it's almost like it's an invisible magic that does take place because they now know that they have somebody that's not there to change them, that's there to help them. And they want to make us proud. They want to make themselves proud. And it just kind of like the progress that they want to make steps up quite a big level.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (06:35) Mm-hmm.   Tricia Lee Ackerman (07:02) It just does. It just does.   Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (07:02) Yeah,   it does. And George, what I love, and I think you highlighted it so well, you're exactly right. I think all of our team, not I think all of our team members, all of our consultants have been team members before. And that was something as a team member and also as a business owner, I wanted to make sure when Dental A Team is consulting, we don't go in and we don't say, have to follow this script. Because people push so hard on that. They're like, listen, I'm not your robot. Like I don't want to do that versus   here's some tools and here's some resources. Like my job is to be your little fairy godmother, whatever I can do to help you. But at the end of the day, we're looking for outcomes and results. We're not looking for robots. And so if you guys are doing a great job and you're hitting the results, fantastic. And I think Trish, what you said is I think Denali team does a really great job of bringing teams together, helping them put together tangible, actionable plans that are like, this is what we're going to do in here is how we're going to set the goals, but we get the teams to do it. And yo

    23 min

  6. Jun 23

    #1,166: Tackling Overhead? Look at These 3 Areas First

    Tiff and Dana address one of the most popular topics for Dental A-Team consultants: overhead! They talk about what it entails, where to start when looking to reduce it, critical questions to ask yourself about needs versus wants, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiff (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for listening. We say this every time, but we love what we do and we love bringing you so much valuable information. And the fact that Kiera can do all the podcasts she does blows my mind. ⁓ but she is a busy bee over there, and the fact that we get to do these as well is just really, really fun for us. It allows all of the consultants here on our team to really feel like we're giving back to you guys. So with that, I have Dana here with me today, and   Dana, gosh, we have been podcasting together for a really long time. I can't even put a number to it. And I remember, I don't know if you remember, but I remember I remember where I was sitting. I remember the thought process. And I remember it was me, you and Britt on a call on a Zoom link. And it was the first time marketing had said we want to do video with the podcast. And I was like, what? And video like was not, it was just like up and coming.   I didn't understand it. It was on Instagram. I was watching I was like, why am I watching you talk? Like the a podcast is to listen. Why am I watching you talk? And now I mean it's very normal and that's how I watch them. And I feel like I feel like it was like YouTube came back around, you know. But anyways, I remember that day vividly. ⁓ I don't remember what we were talking about, but I remember being like, I have to like do my hair. I'm gonna be seen.   DAT-Dana (01:23) Yeah. Yeah. I know it was   funny because we always could see each other, right, in those early days, but it was just like we weren't creating the video content for it. And I remember thinking exactly like who's gonna want to watch   Tiff (01:33) Yes.   DAT-Dana (01:35) us who's gonna want to watch us do this thing but then I see my kids literally like watching people play Minecraft and it's like their favorite thing and I'm like wouldn't it be more fun to actually go play? So I do feel like there is definitely this like niche of people like wanting to watch and like you know get a glimpse in of like the podcast world and just different worlds in general and so I agree with you. I remember the three of us just kind of being like who's gonna want to watch us talk to each other but hey we're so glad you're here.   Tiff (01:37) Yeah.   Yes.   It's true.   Yeah.   DAT-Dana (02:05) Yeah.   Tiff (02:06) Yes, I agree. And the three fur podcasts are hard. So hard when there's so many people virtually. And yeah, I r I remember the shock. I wish I could remember what the ⁓ podcast actually it was probably I bet you it was probably one that we did for Kiera. We probably it bosses day or something, yeah, 'cause if there are multiple of us. Anyways, that was that popped into my head this morning as I I always have to now have like prep for podcast time so I can like   DAT-Dana (02:12) Yeah.   Like Boss's Day or something like that. Yeah.   Tiff (02:35) just tame my hair or get my ring light just right. And I'm like, gosh, I remember the days that we did not have to do this. And then we have c new to Dental A Team consultants come on and I'm like, we're gonna podcast. And they're like stressed and I'm like, I get it. I just I get it. I saw them go talk yourself in the mirror for a bit first. You'll get used to it.   DAT-Dana (02:50) Yeah. Yeah.   I know   I remember in the early days I would always have to reframe my podcast because I'd see podcasting on my schedule and I'm like, ⁓ like I gotta get on. So then I just started reframing it. It was like time with Tiff, time with Britt, time with Kiera. And it's how I like kind of learn get over the like of the podcasting space. So I totally feel it when new consultants are like, I have my first podcast today.   Tiff (03:12) I love that.   Yeah,   yeah, and they all come to you, right? 'Cause I'll all schedule it and then they're like, Dana, what do I do? That's so cute. Yeah. I love the reframe. That actually like goes I think hand in hand with what we're talking about today. ⁓ but I think you can do that with anything and I have to remind myself, even like gosh, when I get up in the morning, I got up this morning and I went from for my walk and I was like, ⁓ this sucks and I was like, No, you get to be in the morning sun.   You get to move your body before anybody else in the house is awake. Like I think that's the part that's the hardest is like everybody else gets to sleep, you know? But you that reframe is so powerful. And we can look at a schedule and think I I look at my schedule and I'm like, shoot. This is so busy. Or gosh, I'm I'm like   So long today, and I have to reframe it often and be like, gosh, no, actually I get to do something really cool. And I get to wake up and go for a walk and I get to do these things or I get to go to an office and I get to be boots on the ground with other people. So I love that you mentioned that reframe, Dana. That was really smart. So today's reframe, which I love, I think this is one of the most popular conversations that we have. We get a couple of things here at Dental A Team. ⁓   We love everything that we get, but the most common, most popular things are systems, which we will help you with systems, I promise you. And there are thousands of podcasts I think that just Dana and I have done on systems and operations manual. So go look them up. We're not doing that today. And the second, which I actually really have grown to truly love, ⁓ is overhead cost reduction and and overhead analysis. And so many practice owners and leaders come to us and they're like, gosh.   what does overhead even mean? I know I had a conversation with a client last week that has been in the dental like consulting world for years and years and years. And w his question was what does that even what does it mean? Like overhead can mean so many different things to so many different people and so many different consulting companies. And for the sake of today's conversation and the sake of forever with Dental A Team know that when we say overhead, we are talking about top of the line   Whatever I always say if someone were to purchase your practice, what are the expenses they'd be taking over? Anything outside of that, your pay, your taxes, your debt, your debt will follow you typically, right? You can lump it into the loan, ⁓ but it's not overhead top of the line expense. So your debt, meaning your scanners, ⁓ your school debt, anything like that is outside of quote unquote overhead. So when we talk about overhead, it's top of the line and that had to that that   explanation, I think it can just vary. It can vary depending on who you're talking to. So today we wanted to reframe that, Dana Go. No, I love it.   DAT-Dana (06:08) and I don't want to interrupt you, but I think too just   just to be clear on overhead too, anything that you run through the business, right? Again, that's not something absolutely with your CPA, you structure it how you want. But understand that that's not an expense that somebody is going to take on when they take over the bracket.   Tiff (06:25) Yes, I love that. Thank you. Good clarification. so with this kind of reframe, every everybody's like reduce overhead, reduce overhead. And I totally agree. And a lot of a lot of companies, a lot of people, ⁓ a lot of strategists will come in and they're like, okay, what can we cut? And we for sure, like, we'll come in and look at what if there's space to make cuts, but our biggest piece is always we're not gonna spend a lot of time on it today because we've got a million other podcasts about it.   I think I just did one actually with Kristy not that long ago, but the first place we're gonna look is your collections. A lot of people will say, I need to over I need to produce. And I love the statement, you can't outproduce your problems. So if you're producing, producing, producing, producing, but you're still feeling like there's an issue. And if you're meeting the financial, like you're meeting your goal, your production goal, but you're still cash flow short, then there's an issue in your collections. And so look at your collections and Dana.   I would love to hear quick snippet, what are the areas that you tackle when it comes to overhead and it comes to collections? And then I want to talk about the reframes and the other pieces.   DAT-Dana (07:33) Yeah, so you're exactly right. The first thing I'm gonna look at is the collections number. I'll look at the total, like what is the total percentage and like what profit point do we need to get to when it comes to collections? And then the very next thing I'm gonna look at is your AR because honestly and truly I've been able to get practices out of cash flow crisis, out of really feeling that pinch simply by going after already produced   ⁓ monies. And so I think that those are usually the things that I look at. Okay, what are we collecting? What does our profit point need to be for healthy AR?   Right. And and obviously we're gonna talk about is that possible? How do we get your schedule to get you there? But then the very next thing I'm gonna look at is AR. Is there money that I can just quickly tackle that's already been produced that's gonna help the collections problem? So I'm looking at the total collections, collections percentage, and then what's sitting in AR, because if I can tackle that and make a really quick difference, ⁓ sure, we can budget things, we can line ite

    29 min

  7. Jun 18

    #1,165: The Perfect Quarterly Calibration

    Re-releasing a Dental A-Team favorite… Ladies and gents, he's back. Dr. Dave Moghadam is again on the podcast, this time to talk with Kiera about quarterly team calibration. While there's no silver bullet A-to-Z cookbook for how to operate a practice, an outline certainly helps. Dr. Moghadam shares his outline for setting up the ideal quarterly calibration meeting: Start with the why (review practice's mission, vision, and values) Align over treatment, planning, and diagnosis Review what makes your practice stand out To keep things exciting each quarter, Kiera and Dr. Moghadam also chat about ways to shake up the meeting. 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 we are bringing you something so special. I am so excited because this is one of our most popular episodes from the archives. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or catching it again, I am so excited because it's jam packed with a ton of takeaways that you can start using right now in your practice. We have released thousands, literally thousands of episodes. And I wanted to start bringing a few of these amazing episodes back for you. So I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.   on the Dental A Team podcast.   speaker-0 (00:32) and you guys, I am so jazzed to welcome back one of my favorite doctors, an office that we coach, and he just thinks outside the box.   This man is brilliant. He's grown a ton. I'm so proud of him. We've worked with him for quite a while. So welcome back to the show, Dr. Dave Moghadam. How are you?   speaker-1 (00:47) I'm doing wonderful Kiera. Thanks for having me. Super excited to be there.   speaker-0 (00:50) my gosh, absolutely. Well, when we were doing our last podcast, you were somebody that I just admire. One, you're a doctor. So you give a different perspective than I do. Two, you're brilliant. And three, you've got lots of cool topics that I'm excited to share. So I am Jazz. When we were on our last podcast, you came up with a few more. Today you just came up with another one. Guys, I will tease that one out. It's not today's podcast, but we will do it again. It's gonna be I T F U. So I hope you guys are excited for that.   I'm excited.   speaker-1 (01:17) That's the the closest I think I can get you to swearing.   speaker-0 (01:20) It   is the closest. but today we're gonna kind of dive into team quarterly calibration, which Dave, I will say, is probably one of my top doctors that thinks in systems, but not just thinks, actually executes. And you see massive growth and evolvement of your team. You were one of the offices who literally called me during COVID and said, Kiera, I'm gonna train my hygienist. What do you have on hygiene training? And I was like, Who are you? Fantastic. We have our hygiene training course. Like, here you go.   Try it out. We're beta testing right now anyway. But kind of let's take it away, Dave, on this team quarterly calibration because it's so needed. And I love that you've actually created a system around it that you've proven to be effective in your practices.   speaker-1 (01:59) Yeah, for sure. So I actually I I got the idea from another office that you work with that's in up upstate New York. Wonderful, amazing doctor. Really, I mean, really, really just drives home that aspect of really just thinking outside the box, having a crazy drive and really just executing. Really has a wonderful team in place there. Let's be real.   speaker-0 (02:20) He's   far away. Dave, you know he's far away. And I'm gonna say this like out loud because I know exactly who you're talking about. And I actually mentioned this to another doctor I was talking to today, and I said, let's be real. He's far away, and I visit him four times a year. Like we're talking opposite coast from me. And I said, and I truthfully do it because this man I think is such a brilliant leader, and I selfishly go to coach them to learn from him. So agreed, like just massive kudos want to bring this on. And you were mentioning he had a word document.   He's just brilliant and I'm so jazzed that you took some things that he did and spun it to your own. And I wanna point out, everybody listening, take what Dave's gonna share. He took it from somebody else. I don't think there's anything wrong in taking items, mimicking them, mirroring them, and recreating them for your practice. So please, please, please, like do exactly what Dave did. Take it and shout out to that office in New York. Thanks for paving the way for so many great ideas.   speaker-1 (03:14) Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think that's the best thing. I think when we all go ahead and, you know, take take ideas and expand on them and share them back and forth, you know, things really kind of get going. I'm always happy to, you know, help help out others in in the same way. But at the end of the day, I've tried to explain to people that I've shared, you know, a lot of my systems, my processes, my my things with is just because it's it good for me doesn't mean that it's gonna be good for you. You have to do the work, not because I want you to not, you know.   reap the the rewards of this, but because it it has to fit for your office and it has there needs to be some some ownership, some authorship from from your team and how things work as well. So I mean taking the concepts and expanding on them and making your own is gonna be the key in, you know, anything that we're gonna talk about today or just in in general, really.   speaker-0 (04:00) Totally agree. And Dave, you just drove home a really, really good point because I don't think that there actually is a plug and play. I don't think you go to the store, buy a system, come back to your practice and say, Okay, let's put it in, put the batteries in, read the instructions. I genuinely think, like you said, it's a concept, it's an idea that then needs to be transformed into your own practice. And I think so many offices get frustrated that they don't see momentum because they literally try to say, like, well, this is what Dave did. So take it, move it into my practice and hope that it goes on autopilot.   But they don't realize the countless hours you put in to making this work for your practice. So I love, love, love. And I hope all you guys heard that because I'll give you guys systems all day long on this podcast. It's what we do. We come to your practices and do it. Bottom line is there's a reason we don't have an A to Z cookbook as a consulting company. I don't believe it works. I believe you have to customize it to your practice to get momentum.   speaker-1 (04:49) You   can have an you can have an outline because even even even with making this, I mean, spoiler alert, like I made this, but then you know, six months later, a year later, like, you know what? Like, we should probably do this like this. It's a never ending, it's a never ending thing. It's just the way that things go. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean it's it's one of those things as you you grow and you learn. And the other thing that we'll get to is as as your team becomes more comfortable and they start to go ahead and give   their input about things, that's when it really kind of, you know, starts to hit its straw.   speaker-0 (05:20) Right, right. I agree. So we've teased it up enough, guys. So we've got this awesome team quarterly calibration. So Dave, kinda take it away again, and like you said, this is this is as of today, but I promise you, give Dave six months to a year and it will look it will look different. It will be fine tuned again. so I'm excited. Take us away.   speaker-1 (05:40) Yeah, so I I think the first thing is like ever every office, you know, in starting to create, you know, why you're there, what you're doing, all that stuff. In in one way or another, you sit down and you and you figure out your mission, your vision, your core values, like all these key concepts in, you know, any business. And that was something that we did really early on, as I was actually five, five years ago, probably right about now when this podcast is gonna air. first thing I did is I sat down and we kind of all talked together about what   What are we going to do? Why are we going to do it? You know, why are we here? So kind of reviewing those key concepts. And we we kind of cycle through, you know, reviewing those things on a weekly basis, but it's a good time to kind of highlight that in the beginning. of like, well, why are we here? What are we actually trying to do? Why are we going to make the decisions that we make on a daily basis? So that's the first thing. The other thing is like, well, what are the practice philosophies? Like, how are we going to treat and plan? Why are we doing things in that way? You know, this kind of stems off of that. And then   you know, we move towards, you know, in discussing things with patients, what's the way we're going to do that? You know, so the key concepts I always kind of bring out is, you know, what do we see? You know, what's going to happen if it's if it's not treated? What are the best options that, you know, you we can give somebody? And, you know, why is that better than other options? You know, so these are always the key points that I I want in the back of, you know, our team's mind when we we're talking about situations and things that we see.   And then other than that, I mean, I think it's two other big, big topics here. You know, what conditions, you know, are we going to encounter? And you know, how are we going to discuss those things and what is treatment planning generally like? And then what makes our office special? You know, really highlighting those things, like talk

    36 min

  8. Jun 17

    #1,164: This is Why Your Front Office is Struggling

    Does your front office feel overwhelmed? Kiera shares what the problem is 99% of the time, as well as how to clear up the confusion, and three tactics that bring about clarity and control very quickly. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Trasnscript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I just wanted to talk about front office overwhelm. Like, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. That's a real thing, it's a real deal. This happens all the time. And I just want you guys to be able to fix that quickly and easily. So today, we're here to wrap. We're here to have a good time. We're here to talk about the front desk overwhelm and how you can fix that and do it with a ton of ease. So.   If your front office feels overwhelmed, if you feel like they're overwhelmed, if you're ever scared to walk up there because you're like, my gosh, they're always stressed out. This is the episode for you and your front office team, because honestly, it's usually not that they have too much to do. It's that they're just, I call it front office soup. Then they're just all like, it's a bowl of spaghetti and we're all slurring and slopping and it's just a mess up there. But because we just have to figure out what matters and who does what.   And it usually, in front office team members, I hope you hear me loud and clear, I'm not being a jerk, I'm Kiera Dent from the block and I've sat in your shoes and I understand it and I've been in your shoes and I know this overwhelmed feeling. It's not usually a workload problem. Usually what it is, is it's a role clarity problem. 99.9 % of the time, if we clean that up and we like untangle the ball of spaghetti, everybody's super happy, everybody's clear and things start rocking and rolling. So.   Again, this is where we're at today. I wanted to just give a quick tactical podcast for you for that front desk overwhelm. And I want you to just know that like at Dental A Team , every single consultant on our team has been in your shoes. ⁓ I don't just say these words on the intro to the episode. We don't just understand you. We genuinely are you. We've been in your shoes. We've sat in your shoes. We've sat at the front office. We've taken the phone calls. We've had the schedule fall apart last minute. I've had the treatment plans not close. I've had doctor on my case saying, Kiera.   get the schedule full and I'm like, I don't really know what to do, okay? I've had that phone running a million miles a minute. We get it. It's chaotic up there, but it doesn't need to be chaos. And so when we have all that, how can we take the urgency away and help you focus on the important thing? And so this is gonna help us kind of figure out like, why do people get overwhelmed? How do get the confusion cleared up? And then what are three things that bring clarity and control very quickly? That's not gonna take months and months to get that stabilized, but to actually do it really quickly.   If you don't know us, hi, we're the Dental A Team. I'm Kiera Dent. Dent really is my last name. It took me three fiancees. You can ask me about that later. It's a real joke, but it's a real life. I love dentistry. I love helping people have their best lives. And I love the dentistry as the platform that brings us all together. I've been a dental assistant, a treatment coordinator, a scheduler, biller, an office manager, regional manager. have all my own practices. I took my first office from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened a second location.   To say I've been around the block is not a lie. I have bought practices, I've sold practices, I've been parts of DSOs, I've been part of boutique practices, I've merged offices, you name it. I don't think that there's a single thing that I haven't done yet in dentistry, so try me. I'd love to meet somebody that I'm like, yep, never heard of that before. ⁓ And our job is to make dentistry fun again. Our job is to make you love your life again. Our job is to bring simple clarity. But as a business owner myself, I hated where I'd go to conferences and people would just talk.   to me and I have to go back and rally my team and I realized I'm gonna create a business that's gonna make your life easier. So we actually work with doctors and teams. We help doctors set the vision, where are we all going? And then we figure out your finances. Let's make sure you're profitable. And if you have tax aversion, like you're so scared of it. Not that you don't pay it, don't get me crazy on that, but that you're so scared because you feel like you're making money but you're always broke. We help offices actually like find the money, keep the money, make the money. Like let's have you be profitable.   And then the other part is how do we do system and team development together? I call that the yes model. You first vision, making sure you're taking care of E stands for earnings and profitability. S is systems and team development. Doing that yes, success model. So you can say yes to more in your life. Truly, truly. And teams freaking love us because guess what? We get this. We understand it. Doctors love us because we're magic magicians that can fix it with your team, but also help you be profitable. It's like.   Let's put a bow on all the beauty together. So let's talk about your front office because everything freaking feels like a priority. my gosh, I gotta answer the phone and check patients out. I gotta try and schedule all the doctors asking me questions. I gotta keep my doctor busy. I've got constant interruptions nonstop. As soon as feel like I get patients checked in, that hygiene team's bringing them right back out. It is nuts. And it's because we just don't have priorities hierarchied. And also we're not using time when we need to.   So when front office is jumping between five tasks and finishing none of them well, that's chaos. And so how can we actually make it to where things aren't as chaotic? Because yes, you're always gonna have interruptions. And I think for us to never feel like, I can never have interruptions, like that's not my perfect date. That's not real life. We signed up for an amazing job that's very busy up front. And I feel like my job in front office, I say like, I'm here for air traffic control. Like that's my job. And I'm gonna make sure every plane lands easily, AKA every patient has an appointment. I get them scheduled. We're gonna have calm.   Like I want to feel like JFK's airport. Like we're there. I just think about that airport and that air traffic control. I'm like, they have people flying in and out like mayhem or you can go to Atlanta or you can go to like any big city. Like think about that air traffic controller. And that's who like, I want to be at the front office. So front office team members, hopefully that's a good vision for you of, Hey, yes, we've got a million things going on, but we are laser focused on what's the most important thing. And so I love to give like, okay, number one, our scheduling person, what's their number one job? Their number one job is to make sure our schedule is filled to goal every single day.   That's your job. So hygiene and doctor like bada bing, bada boom, that's your role. You keep them on there and you do not leave the day until your schedule is full. Like I'm not having you go home like, well, I did my best. ⁓ Outcomes over activities. I am big on this. We own our role. We don't just do a job. We own that. So if I'm a scheduling guru, you better believe I'm going to have my hygiene schedule full, full. That doesn't mean perfect. It means full and productive. And I'm going to have my doctor schedule the goal.   treatment coordinators, your number one job is to have your doctor's hitting goal or exceeding goal every single day. Not a full schedule. I don't want all the white space filled in. But if my doctor needs to be hitting 5,500, you make it rain sister or gentlemen, you go figure out how to do it. You go look at your unscheduled treatment plans. I'm not gonna say you sit here and call 20 unscheduled treatment plans unless you're an office that's 7.5 million, then yes, maybe we'll put that as a job. But 99 % of the time, your job is to call as many as needed to get your schedule full, period.   So scheduling coordinators, it's to make sure we're running on time, hygiene's full. Sometimes I have doctor over there. Treatment coordinators, you're always responsible for getting doctors scheduled to go. Billers, 98 % collections, non-negotiable. We gotta have money in the bank, otherwise we're broke and we can't feed our team. And we've done the work, we need to collect the money. So from there, and then office managers, your job is to make sure profitability is there, KPIs are being hit, and the whole team is flourishing. So that's just like a very simple like.   Yeah, but Kiera who's first on phones first on phones is scheduler first person they're always on it unless you guys like no we want them to be concierge style we have a concierge then they're not first on phones but we have somebody who's first who's second who's third on phones so as that phone rings we've got it can you set up a phone tree so where if they've got billing questions it just goes to the billing line and the biller can help with that if you're like Kiera I only have two people in my front office fan freaking tastic we need to have dedicated power hour time so front office and scheduler usually does insurance verification too typically that's who's gonna do it   but sometimes my treatment coordinators, like they want to make sure that they get all their insurance verification done and they have maybe a bit more time than our schedulers do. So again, it's who's got the most amount of time and who's the best with bandwidth on that. That's how I'm gonna set it up. I

    20 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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    Dental A Team
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