Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera Dent
Dental A Team Podcast

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. 4시간 전

    #940: What Leaders Should Not Do

    Kiera is joined by DAT Consultant Dana Morsell to talk about common leadership pitfalls, and how you can overcome them. They discuss such points as: Thinking you have to make all the decisions Navigating a lack of creativity or problem-solving Being too focused on goals, and not enough on happiness And more Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.758) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a great day. I have the one and only Dana Morselle on the podcast. Everybody who works with her loves her. She won our review challenge. If you want to help Dana out and you love her on the podcast, go leave us a Google review. Make her even the more triumphant winner. But really, like it would be awesome. We have a goal to hit 100 Google reviews before the end of the year. So you guys do it for your practices. We're asking you now help us out. If you love this podcast, go leave it.   Dana, how did it feel to win the Google review? Like most loved consultant apparently, according to those reviews, how did that feel for you?   Dana (00:34.995) It was awesome. It felt really good. I wouldn't say most loved. I think that I have some viable competitors that are amazing. And it just felt good to see the love, not just for me, but I think for Dental A Team and all the things that we bring. I think being able to make an impact is so special to me. so, you know, seeing it in words just brought a lot of joy.   Kiera Dent (00:40.836) you   Kiera Dent (00:57.732) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (01:01.856) I agree. It was actually so incredible because I think that that's the proof, right? That's the proof of what we do. it's the proof of our clients showing up as well as the proof of our consulting works. Our consulting gets results. Our consulting changes lives. Like I say often, life is my passion and dentistry is my platform. so helping people have their most dreamy lives and doing it through dentistry and helping the systems and the pieces and helping evolve these leaders and   Day in day out loving them. I'm so excited 2025 we are doing in person events for business and leadership and I'm so excited to meet people more face to face and to have more collaboration and to have these brilliant offices and Offices who feel like they're not doing so well All of them are brilliant in their own way and helping them see that they have a special sauce even if they feel like   I'm less than I know when I go to groups, I'm like, what the heck do I have to bring to the table? And I think that that's just so unfortunate that as humans, we've trained ourselves to think that we're less than when as children, we were brought into this world believing that we're more than and so helping people realize they have something to bring to the table and what do you have to give and what can you share to help these other offices flourish? Gosh, this is what I'm here for. This is what we're about. So bring it on. If you want to be a part of our inner circle, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.   All of our clients were super pumped to have you, but yeah, reach out. is limited spacing. And so our venue has been booked. It's in Scottsdale, Arizona. And so if you want to be a part of that, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com have virtual and in-person, so be sure to check out. But Dana, on the topic of leadership, so business and leadership is really what we're focused on. You had an interesting point of on-call that we're always talking about, like leaders, leaders, leaders, and what should leaders do? But Dana, brilliant. Bring in the topic for today and let's dive right in.   Dana (02:49.661) Sure, so today I thought it would be fun to take a look at the flip side and like what are things that leaders commonly do that they should stop doing or are barriers or are holding them back?   Kiera Dent (02:59.536) I love it. Like the flip side of leadership, because you're right, like, leadership can feel like you've got to do, do, do, do, but actually, there's a lot of don't do and stop doing. So Dana, take it away. Let's get into this juicy. I'm really excited for leaders to hear. I actually think it's a breath of fresh air for leaders. Like, there's something I can stop doing. Amazing. I'm like pen and paper in hand. Let's go.   Dana (03:22.781) Yeah, yeah, and I think number one is stop feeling like, for me, that I've been talking about lately, is stop feeling like you have to make all of the decisions. And I think that as leaders and as practice owners, we feel like I have to be the one to make all the decisions. I have to be available for everyone to come to me with everything. And I think that going in with the mindset of stop doing that.   because you have capable people around you. That's why you hired them. That's why you brought them on. And so I've just been talking about it so much lately and it is understand that your team has the potential to make decisions and to find solutions and to do the things alongside you and with you and you don't always have to be the decision maker.   Kiera Dent (04:14.76) Amen to that. And I think it's tricky because I think we're so I'm almost like attuned to speaking up so quickly. And I know I was just in a leadership meeting with our leadership team. And I literally had to sit there and bite my tongue. But you're right, Dana. You want the team to come up with the solutions. You want them to struggle. You want them to throw out ideas that aren't the best ideas. Allow them, because that's how you actually got good at making decisions as a leader. And I find so often,   Like I think about, I want robots or do I want humans that think and take responsibility for their actions? The more they do it, yeah, they're going to fail. But like, is it really failing or is it actually just learning? Some things will be wrong. but ask the team. And I think a good way to redirect, if you're like me and it's like, I have the answer. I have the answer. I have the answer. Like, I just want to keep giving them the answers and telling them is what do you guys think? And then I literally have to sit there and in my mind, like count to 10, like one, two.   Like let there be silence because if you can let there be silence, they'll start to realize you are not going to always give the answers. And what do you think? And asking maybe some of your quieter team members, like, what do you think? What do you think would be the solutions? Our quietest team member is Shelbi and Shelbi sits and observes and Shelbi has wisdom beyond. But sometimes unless prompted, she won't speak up. And so really giving some of them an opportunity to might help you. So I love that, Dana. What happens if your team has a really dumb idea though? Like that's a real thing. Like, okay.   I'm not gonna have the solutions, but they come in and it is like, no, what do you say then? Cause you don't want to disempower them, but you also don't want to be the one who's like making all the decisions. How do you navigate that?   Dana (05:55.793) Yeah, and I think if there's any part of it that you can take that is good, right? Consider that. And then I think, you know what? Keep bringing those ideas. I love that you spoke up today. Keep those ideas coming. You don't have to say that it was a terrible idea. You also don't have to necessarily acknowledge that it was a great idea. But what you want to do is keep the focus on keep bringing them to me. Keep speaking up. Like so proud of you for being confident to share an idea today.   Kiera Dent (06:23.14) Mm-hmm. And I also think like another piece on it is asking your team like what What what do you think we should do about this? So instead of it like I know we'll have in our slack chat of hey I have this question What do you guys like what do you think and I love to redirect and be like hey? Why don't you tell me what you think first? And then I can give you some solutions and say I want you to do this because I always want you coming with solutions I always want you coming with answers because I like what if I'm not here one day?   I need to make sure I'm training you all to be able to make decisions just as good or better than I am. And if you have that mindset and the team knows that, now they're empowered to do it. So tip number one, leaders, stop making all the decisions and empower your team to do. All right? I love it, Dana. What else? What else do you have for leaders to stop doing?   Dana (07:07.528) So one thing that I have been thinking about lately is, it's going to come up, you have to hear me out on this one, right? so, it stopped being so goal focused in that don't put goals over happiness.   Kiera Dent (07:15.722) Okay, I don't know what she's about to say, it's surprise for me too.   Kiera Dent (07:29.188) you   Dana (07:29.201) And I feel like so often I keep seeing that like, yes, we want to build goals. We want to talk about goals, but also need to assess that are these goals that you're setting just because you want to achieve something or you want to win or you want to just go to the next level, but yet they don't bring you happiness. So when I say don't be so goal focused, is be happiness focused too.   Kiera Dent (07:51.556) Yeah.   I think a good, as you were saying that it made me think of like, is it ego focused or is it happiness focused? And Tiff actually gave me some really good feedbacks. I'll speak to this. She said, Kiera, I think you need to stop and enjoy where we've been and where we are. She said, I think it's really hard for you because like I am a driver and I want to keep going. But she's like, but Kiera, you being happy with where we are does not mean we're not going to work on goals as much. It doesn't mean that we're not going to keep growing. It doesn't mean that you're

    23분
  2. 1일 전

    #939: Strategic Tips for 2025

    Figuring out how to drink from the firehouse of the new year can be overwhelming. Tiff and Britt give suggestions on where to start your journey to improving your practice’s growth, or perfecting your scheduling, or addressing high cancellations — or whatever your goal is in 2025. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.983) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I have pulled in the one and only Britt. We still need a really strong nickname for you, Britt, but I'm just excited to be here with you today. And I love Britt. People call me Tiff. I love Britt. I feel like it's just like rolls off the tongue. So we'll just, we'll stick with that for now, but we're here in the new year. I'm excited to have these conversations. I've pulled you for a few podcasts today and I just think that you are going to be so stellar.   at the content that we're gonna talk about. And doctors, I hope you're here to freaking learn. Britt, one of her nicknames is No BS Britt. So welcome to that. And I say that today because we're gonna be just talking a lot of business in a lot of the podcasts that we're recording today, but especially this one and some planning for the year. We're in 2025 now. So I wanna make sure you guys are just totally prepped and planned for it. So Britt, how are you on this fine, beautiful morning in Arizona today?   Britt (00:56.718) mean I'm great. It's a sunny day every day pretty much here. So you got to love it. I love that. I'm like, I mean, there's a few nicknames out there, but I don't like spiffy Tiffy is such a good one that like, I don't know if the rest of us will get one that's like that same level, which is deserved. But yeah, so I've got a few but nothing quite like spiffy Tiffy.   The Dental A Team (01:09.455) I know.   The Dental A Team (01:17.303) I know, you had to come in early, you know? The nickname game started earlier than everyone else got here. That must be what it is, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. think things just, my grandma called me Tiffy my whole life growing up. I was Tiffy. And so I think things just rhyme with Tiffy better, you know? It's like a hard end at Britt or Tiff. So it was easy to, it was easy to monopolize on that one. But it is.   Britt (01:19.266) I know.   Britt (01:24.137) It just takes some years. Eventually we'll get there.   The Dental A Team (01:45.709) It is always sunny. I feel like this year I decided, or not this year, I guess last year, I told my son, I said, I think we just need to stop pretending like we live in a state or a space of life that actually has a winter. People who live in the tropics, they just realize, guess what? It's just going to be tropical. Like we're not going to get a winter and that's okay. And I think in Arizona and Phoenix, at least, like that's the life we need to start living. Stop pretending like it's going to be sweater weather. It's not going to happen.   So here we are. Yeah.   Britt (02:15.414) saying, it's warmer this year. Every year we say like, it should be cooler. Like exactly, like it is what it is and you know what? I'm happy for it. I am perfectly fine not having freezing weather.   The Dental A Team (02:21.603) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (02:27.672) I agree. I agree. The 70s in December, I will take it. It's fine. We'll just see what the summer looks like. So we'll chat back around on that when the summer comes.   Britt (02:32.161) Absolutely.   We'll sound a little different then, but it's fine. It's short. It's short.   The Dental A Team (02:38.928) Yeah, yeah, I love it. this kind of, honestly, all of it kind of goes into itself and the plans and the prepping and looking forward. And we are in the business of constantly looking at where we're going. But you also have to look at where you've been. And so in order to make sure your 2025 is super, super strong, you guys, we kind of wanted to revisit some of the pieces that we chatted about towards the end or towards the last quarter, Q4, of 2024.   some of those strategic planning tips and tricks that we had given you back then. We want to make sure that you guys actually implemented them and then look at, okay, implemented, now how do we use them? So I brought Brett here because Brett, think your business brain is brilliant and I want to make sure we don't miss any of the pieces. So guys, I know we chatted about this. It might be a review.   But I really want you to dig deep sometimes when you re-listen to a podcast or when you listen to something that has similar information, you're like, gosh, I didn't hear that last time or this means more to me today than it did when I listened to it three months ago because I'm in a different space. So I really want you to dive deep. I want you to listen in. One of the biggest pieces I think practices can miss is the opportunity to look at the stats and really, really look at where you've been.   where you're trying to go, but where you are right now. for it, correct me if I'm wrong. I think 99.9 % of the people who come to us, the clients, the potential clients, the future clients, the listeners are here saying, we need systems. And WATM is here and we get to build systems. And we come in and I'm like, gosh, you have so many systems. Like the reason that you feel chaotic is because you don't know where to start.   Britt (04:03.172) you   The Dental A Team (04:25.893) Right, Britt? So how do we help them? I really want them to learn how to check trends, know where to start, know what like 2025's focus needs to be, because systems, like you've got a whole dental practice, you've got multiple departments within your dental practice, and to say systems is quite overwhelming. It's like, you know, trying to pull a raindrop out of a rain cloud, it's just not possible, and it causes a lot of chaos and confusion, and I think narrowing that down helps people to be able to see.   What needs to come next? What's that next step? So Britt, you do work with a lot of clients and you've worked with a lot of clients over the last three years that you've been here with us. Thank you so much. A little longer than that now, but almost four. But how do you help them to really see that space, especially going into the new year to say, okay, what do I need to do this year to be super successful?   Britt (05:18.5) I think Tiff, comes from planning for systems, yes, and also our big picture like ultimately shapes our priorities. So like, that's why I think even in Q4, we harp so much on like, all right, what's happened this year? What do you want to do next year? What are our goals for next year? Because having a path or having something we're shooting for helps us to prioritize some things. For example, let's say,   great, we want to grow 15 % next year, right? We've got the space, we know our schedule's not full, we want to grow our revenue, our collections by 15%, and then it's like, all right, then if.   what's going on that's keeping us from getting there. So then we like walk it back and those are some of the important stats that we need to set goals around and make sure we're tracking. If our schedule's not full, then it's like, all right, do we have enough patients to fill the schedule? Do we not have enough patients? Do we need to get more? Is it a marketing thing? Is it just better scheduling and follow up on our end? And that's gonna start to shape some of the systems. So like with this example.   The Dental A Team (06:10.801) Go.   Britt (06:16.824) Let's say our schedule's not full. All right, do we have block scheduling and how are we following up with people who don't have appointments? Those would be two systems that we would start with to get things rolling in the right direction to set us up for success in 2025 if you've got a growth goal like that.   The Dental A Team (06:17.234) .   The Dental A Team (06:31.046) Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love that you narrowed it down from big to small. And that's what the trends will show us. And the mark that I think is truly must right is seeing the bigger picture, like you said, but on a small level, which sounds confusing and contradictory. you're like, how do you go like you're saying big, but you're saying small when we're looking at those big pieces, when we're tracking them. And I do love there's like a side tangent. I do love   the companies that come in and they pull your stats for you, right? So you've got an outside source and you log in and you can see all your stuff. You guys know what I'm talking about. There's multiple different companies and different systems out there. I do love those analytics companies and resources, but I really, really love too for you guys to know the actual numbers and to know how to pull them yourself, even if you're using an analytics company. I want you to be able to see both of them because I believe that if you   have your hands in it yourself, you're soaking in the knowledge. So either way, I want you to just verify, clarify, verify all the pieces, but having a space, I know we've got a lot of our clients, if not all of them by now, on our scorecard system. It's a simple, well simple is probably the wrong word to use there, but it's simple for our clients. It was a labor of love for us, but it's an Excel spreadsheet and I love going old school.   Britt (07:48.055) You   The Dental A Team (07:54.48) with those kind of simple tools like Excel, because I think if we can get all of that data and metrics onto one screen, right, even in a lot of the analytics, like you've got to, flipped between screens and you don't always see how one trend leads into another trend or one metric can negatively or positively affect a metric that it seems like it wouldn't. So you might have hygiene data on one

    24분
  3. 2일 전

    #938: Fitness Amid Everyday Business

    “Humans want to move, and life gets in the way.” Those are the words of Laura, Kiera’s personal trainer, who’s the guest for this episode. Together, Kiera and Laura discuss overcoming the often quite sedentary life of dentistry professionals by bringing on a source of accountability. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.9) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I am so freaking pumped to introduce you to one of my dearest friends, someone who has transformed my life and that I just cannot wait to introduce to this audience. Welcome to the show, Laura, my personal trainer, macro guru, the one who knows all the things, who's helped me through so many personal injuries and actually has been able to like make a busy life, work with working out. Laura, welcome to the show today.   Laura (00:04.089) And so, we're going to end it here.   Laura (00:27.021) Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.   Kiera Dent (00:29.614) I'm so happy you're here because I think that you have changed my life and you and I were chatting at the gym the other day and we actually talked about, well, I work with dentists, dentists are very busy, entrepreneurs are very busy, office managers are very busy and yet figuring out how to fit in this working out, eating healthy, taking care of ourselves. And you made a comment, you said, Kiera, they invest in their businesses, but their businesses require them to be their highest self like.   Let's do a podcast and talk about that. So I'm super jazzed to have you here today. Talk about all things. And as a fun side note, I did look up some data and believe it or not, if you work out, you make more money. So let's just add a little plug there too. But Laura, like let's kind of tell our listeners a little bit about you. How did you get into working out? How did you get into being this macro fitness guru that you've become that's changed the lives of so many? Kind of just walk us on your journey today.   Laura (01:00.461) Yes.   Laura (01:09.049) There we go.   Laura (01:21.921) Yeah, I would love to. My journey started in college. I, like many other women, grew up insecure, like judging myself, comparing myself to other women. And I just came to a point in college, I remember the moment where I just realized   I don't want to live my life this way anymore. I want to feel confident. I want to feel strong. I felt disconnected to my younger self in a way. I grew up not necessarily in high school, more like actual elementary school. In my childhood years, I was very active. I did sports, I did gymnastics. And then you get into high school. I didn't do anything in high school. And then comes college and I just felt very disconnected to myself.   And I wanted to get back to that playful, confident, able person, able to do the things I wanted to do. And so I started going to the gym, had no idea what I was doing. I would just climb the StairMaster the whole time. And slowly, the gym I was working out at was kind of the StairMasters where   upstairs and you could look down into the rest of the gym. And I would just see at that time, this was like a decade ago or more, there were no women in the gym and all the girls were upstairs on the ellipticals and the stair masters and then all the dudes were downstairs. And I don't know, I just, started to see what they were doing and copied a little bit, you know, did a couple of the machines that I knew how to do, started to get hooked.   and was like, you know what, what if I made this a career? And I got certified in 2014 and the rest is history. mean, there's actually a lot more to it, but that's basically how it started. And fast forward to now, I feel extremely connected to my younger self through my movement. I have created a beautiful life that I'm able to do what I love and...   Kiera Dent (03:13.978) you   Laura (03:29.613) And yeah, help other women connect to their own bodies and their younger selves as well.   Kiera Dent (03:33.914) I love it. And I love that you went through this journey because I think so many of us, well, I'll speak for myself. I'm not gonna speak for all the listeners. I feel like an idiot at the gym. They have reels about people at the gym of like idiots using like equipment so many times and we're at the gym. Laura was originally virtual. We started out virtual and I actually wanna get into like virtual versus in-person training and if there's a difference because when people are busy, there's solutions that way.   Laura (03:43.629) Thank   Kiera Dent (04:01.028) but I felt like such an idiot. And I think something that you've done for me, and that's why I wanted to bring you on here is because I feel like I was the worst workout person in the world. Like honestly, I feel like Laura should have fired me as a client. So we had a really rough start and I think it was honestly fear of my, like where I was at, fear of not knowing what I'm doing. Also, I do run a busy life. Laura, you told me I'm the second busiest person that you know, second to a lawyer. So I felt like that was like, all right, my life is a little bit more exciting.   but I also had a lot of injuries. And so that was why I hired a personal trainer is because I was actually losing so much muscle mass that I was starting to get more injuries because the current injuries were causing me not to do anything, which then was leading to more problems. And so was thinking about how many dentists and how many team members do we sit there all day long? We're very sedentary. I remember as an assistant and doctors, you're like, I don't sit, I don't even have time to pee, which I get, hear you.   but we're sitting there and yes, you're ergonomically correct, but it's like we work all day long. Where do we actually put in time for this body that's serving us? That's creating like the experience for our patients. Like where do we do that? And so even in the time Laura and I have worked together, I changed it from working out to honoring my body. And so Laura, I really wanted to dig into this of like, you've worked with a lot of people, you're a personal trainer, you're freaking genius at it. I love that you have modified so many workouts for me to be able to lift, to get strong.   Like just yesterday we were working out and we saw back muscles on me and like, that's something I haven't had for seven years. And so I'm excited because coming from a space where I couldn't lift, couldn't squat. couldn't lunge. Like literally none of those things were in my life. I have a very strong issue with food. I grew up anorexic most of my life and Laura, I know that you've been on a journey with that as well. And I think just all these different factors. I'm busy. People are busy. You were able to find like this, like.   little crack of sunshine in my life and then expand it more to where in my week I look out like look forward to working out. We've like reworked my schedule to make that a priority. And so I'm just curious, you work with a ton of people you worked with me. Let's bring this to the table. How do people when they're so busy, when they're so exhausted, when they've got the kids, they've got the job, they've got all the people like how do you even start working out? How does this even become a reality for people?   Kiera Dent (06:22.136) What do you tell people when they're in that spot? Because I think every person listening to this podcast is probably there.   Laura (06:27.225) Yeah, I think we all have some desire inside of us to move. Humans want to move and life gets in the way. And I think the determining factor of are you going to do this or not is are you willing to think deeply enough about why it's important in your life? Like what happens if you don't do this? Take yourself five, 10 years, 15, 20 years down the road.   What does life look like once you've retired and you have all this money to spend and all this adventure to have, but your body is not working properly and you can't truly experience life in the way that you want because your body is failing you. Like take yourself there, take yourself to that hard, reality that if you don't figure this out, you're going to have this experience of life. Or what if you do look at your life one year from now, if you decide to just commit 30 minutes a week.   Even if it's 10 minutes at a time, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 10 minutes, first thing in the morning, I wake up and I get on my Peloton or I do three sets of 20 squats. Like just start so small. What does life look like in a year? If you start that now and you don't stop in 10 years and 20 years, the trajectory of your life will be so different. And I think it's, that is the, like I said, determining factor, whether or not someone commits to this for the long haul.   You have to be very realistic about your about your situation and what you want out of life, know We're so serious about building businesses and making money and being successful But what happens once you get there and you don't have the vessel to carry you through that's that's very that's scary to me So that's that's where I take people   Kiera Dent (07:57.722) Hmm.   Kiera Dent (08:09.496) I agree. I completely agree. And I love that you did this because like at Tony Robbins, he calls it the like Ebenezer Scrooge experience where you like, he literally makes you walk down. It's like terrifying. You hear all these like thousands of people screaming like how awful it'd be. But I don't think we actually like make this as much of a reality. I don't think we see it. And for me, I thought, okay, I really do have a vision of myself. Tiff will tell you, gosh, it's awesome. Tiff and I have committed that we're gonna be like.   98 year old grannies. I'm gonna have cotton candy pink hair. She

    38분
  4. 1월 2일

    #937: The Full Picture of Practice Success

    Tiff and Dana start their first episode of the 2025 focused on getting the entire practice team on board with goals. This doesn’t mean just the numbers or just the patient experience, but all the pieces of the puzzle. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.926) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be back here today. We are recording quite a few podcasts today, Dana and I, and this is our second up, so we should still be super fresh for you. Just kidding, we're always fresh. Dana, your hair looks amazing. You guys know it's hair and leggings and workouts, apparel and...   protein bars for me. Like she is my girl who shares all of my same hopes, dreams, wishes, and desires in life. So Dana, your hair looks amazing today. I love it. Yeah. I used my...   Dana (00:33.454) Well, you know, I'm podcasting with Tiff. I had to put a little effort in.   The Dental A Team (00:38.46) Well, thank you. went and straightened it real quick, but I used my my crimper thing yesterday. I've used it quite a few times on my new haircut. I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but it worked. For all you male dentists out there listening, just give me a stitch. I'm sorry.   Dana (00:43.854) Let's go!   The Dental A Team (00:51.26) Dana, made her, this is like a year and a half, two years ago now, something like that. I made her give me a tutorial because she was doing this weird thing with her hair and I was like, my God, it looks so good. I need to know how to do my hair like that. She's like, just get this thing. I'm like, yeah, but I don't think you understand. I need a tutorial. So she literally did a tutorial for me on how to wave my hair. And it is actually really cute with my new cut. So thank you, Dana, for stepping up my game, my hair game.   and all of the other games. Your Tip Tuesdays, I'm always like dying to see what it's going to be. I have protein bars because of you. I have so many things. So thank you, Dana, for having all of the tips and the tricks in your back pocket every single time.   Dana (01:36.022) can't take credit for it, I'm constantly asking my girlfriends, hey, what are you guys doing? Give me all the products too. So a lot of them are tips that have been shared with me that I just pass on.   The Dental A Team (01:46.182) That's what this world is about, right? Everything we share on this podcast are things that we've learned along the way, either on our own from exploration or because we learned it from somebody else. And that is the beauty, I think, of life and really being able to have that community and that camaraderie where you can share those things. So you have your girlfriends, our doctors here at the Dental A Team have each other. We have a...   An amazing doctors group that I feel like is just like that, Dana, where I see things go off all the time on the little texting app and they're like, my gosh, what do you guys have for this? Or what new bond are you using? My bond sucks. Or cosmetic stuff. So I think that's...   That's how we do it. That's how we move along and that's how we were meant to do it. We were never meant to do life solo. We were meant to do life in groups with incredible, amazing people. And we are here for it every single day. We love our clients. We love you guys who are our clients and we love you guys who are not yet our clients. And we have those communities for you. So look for them. Instagram, Facebook, we've got all kinds of communities there for our clients who are listening. If you don't know what I'm talking about with this doctor,   collaboration sucker, you better be texting me right now. Same with Dana. If you are our client and you don't know what I'm talking about, you better be texting me right now. Let's get you in there. Awesome. Dana, today I really wanted to talk about teams and how doctors and leaders, so doctors and probably office managers, business administrators, can really utilize the team to help push goals.   I think oftentimes we have clients that come in, they onboard, and I hear a lot of the time, and Dana, I think you might as well, I don't talk to my team about numbers because I don't want them to think that I'm numbers driven. And I think it's super freaking common in the dental world because we have a really hard time differentiating black and white numbers and emotions. And   The Dental A Team (03:44.13) I always like to say that emotions are fleeting, the way I felt when I woke up this morning, drastically different than how I feel right now. And that was like six hours, seven hours ago. Like within a day, I've had so many emotions come and go that if I'm constantly weighing out if something's working right or not, or if I'm growing or if I'm happy, if I'm sad, I'm just constantly trying to weigh out what that looks like based on my feelings, it's gonna be very difficult. But dentistry, we are in the   care profession and we are saturated, luckily I think this is an incredible asset to all of us, we are saturated with emotional beings, highly emotionally intelligent human beings that are keyed in first to how we feel.   So bringing in that numbers aspect can feel cold and sterile and it can feel like, Tiff, I'm here for the patients. I'm here for the patient experience. I don't wanna talk about the numbers. I've literally had a doctor say, I don't wanna look at the numbers. I don't wanna talk about them. And I said, okay, you don't want to yet, but we're gonna get there. Now Dana, I know you've had that as well. What do you feel is the reason that you've seen or reasons that you've experienced that doctors or business administrators might not want to talk about numbers?   Dana (04:58.923) Yeah, I think a lot of it comes from a fear of when they talk about numbers, the team sees that only as profit, right? Or dollars, dollars, right? When we talk about numbers and dollars that go directly to the doctor or to the owner. And so I always feel like   The Dental A Team (05:08.433) Yeah.   Dana (05:16.692) Yeah, we want to talk about production. We want to talk about collections. We want to talk to dollars. We also want to talk about expenses, right? You want your team to have a full picture of numbers, not just the dollar, because when they have a full picture of the numbers and they also know what those numbers tell them in relation to patient care and patient experience, and all of those are part of numbers. And so I feel like you can't talk about numbers without talking about those other things too. And you can't highlight, like you have to highlight what the numbers tell you about those pieces, which are the   The Dental A Team (05:22.214) Correct.   Dana (05:46.808) that usually rally up the team that they really care about that are the reasons why they are there. And so when you make those connections of, yes, these are dollars, but these dollars tell us about patient care. These dollars tell us what an amazing patient experience we're creating for our patients. These dollars tell us how great we are at getting our patients to accept the treatment that we recommend to them. And these dollars come with expenses. And so they aren't just profit. They aren't just dollars that are sitting in a bank somewhere and accumulating interest.   The Dental A Team (06:10.789) Yeah.   Dana (06:16.384) and making you as the owner, right? And you as the owner should you take all the risk, right? So don't feel guilty about that either. You take all of the risk. It is all of your license. It is all in everything that you've created. So also don't feel guilty if you make a healthy profit from your practice. But I think when you have a full picture.   The Dental A Team (06:21.498) Yeah.   Dana (06:33.334) of expenses and what they tell you and all of those things numbers become really easy to talk about and team members can start to get behind those numbers when they understand what those numbers are telling them about the things that they care about.   The Dental A Team (06:49.692) Totally agree. I 100 % stand by everything you just said. One thing that you made me think of is, because you're talking about this profit piece, gosh, I think a lot of dentists, you all want the profit, but I think a lot of you feel almost guilty for the profit, and especially when it comes to the numbers. That's why sometimes you don't want to talk about it. I totally understand that. But I think what you forget to see in that,   is how much decision making becomes easier when you know the numbers. When you know that you're truly profitable and when the practice knows you're truly profitable, the team meaning that it makes it much easier to make decisions. So can we take an extra day off next month because there's a festival in town and we all want to go to it? Can we buy the ultrasonic or the autoclave or the cavatron? how many cavatrons do we get asked for at the end of the year you guys? I just had one, I just had a call today.   Dana (07:41.003) you   The Dental A Team (07:44.966) They're like, hygiene department needs a cavern shot, and we need an ultrasonic, we need a sterilizer, and I'm like, cool, we've got to figure out where that's coming from. But the team, I mean the team, I just had this call with this doctor this morning, he's one of my favorite doctors I talked to, him and his wife. We have...   like tenfold changed their money and their financial situation and their practice and it has been incredible. They went from like an 82 % overhead to typically they're like 57 to 62 % right now. They're profiting, they're able to put money aside. He has a CE bucket I make him put money in, all of these different pieces. He's just bought a new practice to expand. It's huge. All of this stuff has happened in the last couple of years but it

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  5. 1월 1일

    #936: 2025: The Year to Thrive

    Happy New Year! Instead of setting resolutions to start off 2025, Kiera tries a different route: identity changes. What fights can you stop starting in your personal or professional life in order to become the best person, the best dental hygienist, the best doctor, the best _______ you can be in the new year? Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.878) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy 2025. I feel so honored to be with you on New Year's Day today. I mean, I'm calling 2025 the year to thrive and no longer survive. Like, let's get real. Let's get on this. Let's stop surviving and let's start thriving. And so to kick off New Year's today, I was thinking about it. And usually on New Year's around this time, we're all setting our goals. We're setting our resolutions.   And I actually want to give you a different spin. Are you open for it? Like, let's start 2025 on a different note. And that is maybe instead of setting resolutions, let's set identity changes this year. Resolutions are fighting. Let's change that verbiage and change how we think about that. I'm so excited. I love this podcast. I love all of you. And I was thinking about resolutions and resolutions are like,   you know, I want to lose weight or I want to be this leader or I want my practice to be there. And I think resolutions are different than goals and changing an identity is actually the fastest way to do it. One of my favorite quotes of all time is the need to stay like the greatest, like the greatest driver within the human being is the need to stay consistent with who we believe we are, not who we actually are, but who we believe. And so changing identity,   is actually the fastest way to grow and to evolve and to hit the goals and to hit the resolutions. It's not just setting a resolution like up like a sticky note on a wall. Like I want to be this. Okay, great. But if we don't believe we are so like there was an example and they said like, I don't know if I can stop smoking. I've been a smoker. I am a smoker. You know, I'm gonna try really hard. Well, in their mind, they're still a smoker. So trying to put it up there, I'm gonna stop smoking is actually fighting against who they believe they are.   And that's a fight rather than a flow versus saying like, I'm not a smoker. Like I'm an identity. I don't smoke. I'm not a smoker for me. I've never smoked in my life. I'm not a smoker. That wouldn't even be a thing. Like, but I take it on of I'm not a smoker. And so oftentimes I love the book by James Clear, Atomic Habits. There were things I liked about things I didn't like about it. The overall piece that I really, really loved though, was when he talks about sometimes getting to these resolutions means we need to start thinking as that person.   Kiera Dent (02:20.942) So if maybe today I don't feel like I'm not a smoker and I'm trying to get there, it would be like, what does a person who doesn't smoke do? And we start to act like them. And I have a really great example of my mom. My mom, she went and met with her doctor and her doctor said, you've got to start having more exercise in your life. You're not getting enough steps. You're not having any of these things and you need to start hitting 10,000 steps a day. Well, my mom, I was watching her and her and I started doing it. I had like, I'm just...   I enjoy a good challenge. And so when we were in Tokyo, I got several days in a row of hitting over 10,000 steps and there was a badge of hitting 30 days in a row. And so I was like, sweet, I'm going to hit 30 days. Like I'm to hit 10,000 steps. Like we're just going to do it. And my mom was doing it. I'm like the doctor told her she needed to do this. And it was really interesting. I remember meeting up with my mom one day and she's like, Kiera, how are your steps? And I was like, great. I've got like this, I did this earlier today. I set up my schedule. Like I went for my walk or whatever it was.   I was like, well, you know, maybe I'll get it tonight. Maybe I won't. And in that moment, I thought like, my mom has this is just like a hope and a wish rather than an identity. And not to say I was better than her. It was just for me, I had already decided like, this is what I do. This is who I am. And I'm going to hit this like, period. I don't care what I've got to do. If I've got to walk at midnight, I'll do that. In airports, I'm like rolling my suitcase up and down and walking just because it was something I was committed to. I remember my mom and I were talking and I said, mom,   Like I pulled James, James Clear into the equation. said, mom, like, what would a healthy person do that would hit their steps every day? And I said, maybe just consider that. And so my mom started actually asking herself the question. She's like, well, like, what would a healthy person do? They would start taking a walk on their lunch break. And I was so proud of my mom. My mom started taking walks on her lunch break. And then my mom said, like, a healthy person would get up in the morning and they'd go for a walk before they'd go to work. So my mom started getting up and going for a walk at work or before work.   And then my mom, was interesting. I was listening to her and she's like, you know, I've already been prepping like it's going to be winter time and it's going to be like rainy and snowy. And she's like, I don't like the cold. And so she's like, what would a healthy person do with that? They would go walk at the mall and they would plan their schedule to be able to go do that. And I was so proud of my mom because she went from someone who was like, maybe I'll get this AKA setting a resolution to this is who I am. This is my identity. I am this healthy person.   Kiera Dent (04:42.466) but she had to get there by thinking of herself as this other person. What would this person do? And so when we're looking at our businesses and we're looking at our goals and we're looking at the things we want to do, what would a doctor who produces 3 million a year do? What would a CEO who owns a $3 million business, what would they do? What would an office manager who runs a $2.5 million practice, what would they do? How would they start their day? What things would they actually work on? What things would they delegate? What things would they not do?   What things would they, how would they present their cases? How would they close their cases? How would they follow up with their cases? If it was a hygienist who produced 3.3 times their pay, what would that hygienist do? They would be looking at their schedule every single day. They would be checking for comp exams and for x-rays when their x-rays are due. They would be looking for fluoride and adjunct services, sealants. They would be tracking their metrics. They would be tracking their numbers. They would be adding these things to their patient schedules because they're obsessed about their patients and want their patients to thrive.   What would a dental assistant do that could add same day treatment every single day? They'd be prepping their schedule. They would be talking to the treatment coordinators of how do we up our, how do we talk to the patients about this? They would be figuring it out. They would be looking at their schedule all the time. They'd be talking to the patients. They'd be helping the patients realize this is better for them and they don't have to come back for multiple visits. What would a biller do that has 98 % collections? And they don't spend all day doing it. They would be   prioritizing their time, they'd be doing their insurance verification in batches. They would be calling patients instead of sending statements. They'd be proactive with that. They'd be collecting balances when the patients are in the chair. They'd be working their 90, 60, 30 days. They would be having set aside time. They would have a schedule set up to where they actually followed through on this. They would not make excuses for it. And they would own their results. And I think if we think this way and we change our identities, and again, maybe we're not there today,   But as we're setting these resolutions, what would someone who has great family work-life balance do? Well, they would set up their date nights for their spouse. They would set up their kid time. Those would be the first things. They would have their work schedule in there. If they know that they only want to work four days a week, they then build a schedule with block scheduling. And they start to realize that they might add additional treatment in, higher dollar treatment, whether it's cosmetic or implants or sleep or different things like that. They would look at it.   Kiera Dent (07:06.06) A CEO of a practice would be looking at their numbers every single day, if not weekly. The reality is you've got to know your numbers forwards and backwards. They would love numbers and obsess about numbers. They would love to solve puzzles and crack codes. They would make sure that they empower their team to make decisions and that they're focusing on the top pieces. They would hold their team accountable. They would have agreements. They would make sure that this team is actually operating at the highest level. And if they don't know how to do it, they would hire people to help train their team to do it.   a doctor who's producing three million. They're confident with their presentations. They aren't afraid to tell patients what they need. They're very good with their case acceptance. They're really good with their handoffs. They're really good with their comprehensive diagnosis. If they're not good with that, they would put in AI, so Pearl or Overjet, to use on their x-rays to make it easier for them. But they would actually get confident presenting treatment. Now, what does a con

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  6. 2024. 12. 31.

    #935: Prompts to Reflect on 2024

    On this final day of 2024, Kiera gives listeners a series prompts to reflect on the past year — personal, professional, and many stops in between. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.964) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy New Year's Eve. I cannot believe 2024 is wrapped up. We're done. Like chalk it up. We're done. Can you believe that it is 2025 in less than 24 hours? You'll be ringing in that new year and I hope you do it with Dental A Team. Of course we'll be there celebrating with you. But 2024, 2024, can you believe it's wrapped up? It's done. It's packaged up. We can't go back in time. We can't change things.   All we can do is reflect and celebrate and look forward to next year. And so I'm so excited. I thought I'd just pop on quickly today of let's do a quick reflection. Let's think about how it was. I love New Year's Eve. And this is probably 1 of my favorite holidays because gosh, like a few, man, this is before I got married. So we're talking 15 years ago. I only been married for 13 years. So I'm guessing 13, 14 years ago is how long ago it was. But I remember.   sitting there and I said, I love new days because new days are brand new days with no mistakes. And I thought about that with new years and like how much excitement is there of like, it's a brand new year with no mistakes. It's a brand new year. It's a clean slate. And how beautiful is it that we get to have this every 365 days most years to be able to clean slate, to be able to say, all right, that's who I was in 2024. And this is who I'm going to emerge into in 2025. And I think people who really are very consistent on doing this and   Spending a little bit of time on today New Year's Eve where we sit and we actually journal So I'm gonna give you a few journal prompts if you want To reflect back and I know I've had a few podcasts over the next couple over the last few months about reflection But today's like the pinnacle day of it So if you've already done this amazing if not, I'm also gonna give you some personal things to think about too So of course technical and life life and dentistry like I said life is my passion dentistry is my platform and so   Let's just think about today as we're going through. Number 1, I want you to think about your personal life. I want you to look at your physical body. I want you to look at your health and I want you to rate yourself on a 1 to 10. How is your physical body? How is your health compared to where you would like it to be? Is it a 10? Like I'm 10 out of 10. I'm perfect. I'm a nine. I'm an eight. I'm a seven. If you're on the path there, be generous with yourself. Don't be too hard on yourself. But let's look at our physical bodies. Okay. So 1 to 10, how are you doing on your physical body?   Kiera Dent (02:24.33) 1 to 10, next 1. How are you on your personal relationships? Like, let's start with like your marriage or your intimate relationship. 1 to 10, is that like, if I were to go talk to your spouse or your boyfriend, girlfriend, whomever it is, your significant other, if I were to ask them how, like on a 1 to 10, how are they showing up for you? What kind of a relationship do you have? Is 10 like, it's off the charts. We have incredible, incredibly passionate relationship. I feel like they support me, they love me.   Where are we at on a 1 to 10 with your, and that's how are you showing up for them? And also like, how are they showing up for you? But we really, we can only control ourselves. So let's rate ourselves on how are we showing up? How is our relationship compared to where we want to be? If you're not in a relationship, great, it's not a 10. How are you on that? 1 to 10. Next up is how is your personal relationship with yourself? What's your self talk to yourself? Is it positive? Is it negative? How do you view yourself?   Are you proud of yourself? Are you someone that you would want to know? Are you not? How is that? 1 to 10. Next, how is your mind? What do you do for your mental health? From meditation to mindfulness to stillness to having control over the thoughts that come your way. 1 to 10, how's your mind? All right, let's move on to how is your fun in life? We'll put travel.   I think travel is an easy 1. 1 to 10, how did you do on your vacations and the travel you wanted to take this year? 1 to 10, was it 10? Like it was off the charts for me and Jason, it was a 10. We had an incredible year this year. We traveled, we saw so many incredible things. We made so many memories. It was amazing. 1 to 10, how are your hobbies and things outside of work? How is that? 1 to 10. For me, it's like a five. Do a lot of hiking, but not as many hobbies as maybe I would like to do. Okay, so we've got quite a few things on your personal life.   How is that, we can also put in there like your expansion, your growth, so like reading books and expanding your mind, listening to podcasts, maybe not necessarily dental, but things. How is that? 1 to 10. How are you doing on that? Now I want you to dig into like, let's talk about your wealth and your financials. How are you financially? And we can talk in two different levels. So could have two different 1 to 10s on here. How are your financials as far as your take home pay? Where is that at 1 to 10 of where you'd like it to be?   Kiera Dent (04:48.548) And then your next 1 would be, is it on your, you're setting up for your financial freedom for longterm. 1 to 10, how are you doing on that? Are we saving for retirement? Do we have our 401ks in place? Do we feel like when we want to retire that we'll be able to retire and do it with ease? Or are we not on track at that at all? And team members, this is for you too. Doctors, this is a great 1 that you can share with your team. Okay, so we've got our personal life. We've got our health. We have our...   Our expansion, have our finances. Now let's look at our business. How was your year this year on a 1 to 10? 10 was like, it was freaking awesome. We hit our goals. We had a ton of fun. Like I'm just living my life. It's like, you know, we're getting there. 5 is like, whoo, like treading water some days, winning some days. 2 is like, I'm treading water every single day and I don't know if I can do this anymore. Where's your practice at? 1 to 10. How about your team? Let's do your team. 1 to 10.   How are they? Is it the dream team, everyone you want? Do have a few bad apples in there? Just some people you know you need to get rid of and you haven't? How's your team? 1 to 10. And I know you like everybody. I know you love everybody, but how's the team getting you to where you want to go in your practice? 1 to 10. How's that going for you? Next up, let's talk about your practice. How are your systems? 1 to 10. Are things like smooth flow and easy going, we got this dialed in? 1 to 10. How is that? How are you doing on that?   1 to 10, or are you like, shoot, we don't even have systems. you have our operations manual done? Do your dental assistants know how to set up for every procedure? Does your front office track the calls that come through? Do we have a system for our scheduling? Do we have a system for our treatment tracker and do we review it? Do we have set KPIs for every single position? Do we review those? Do we have set mating cadences? Do we have morning huddles? Like what do we have going on within our systems? Do we have hygiene trackers? Does our hygiene team, are we tracking our perio and our fluoride and having meetings around that? How's our training and onboarding?   How's our firing process? How's our HR compliance? How are all the systems within the practice? How's our leadership? How's our management? How are all those different pieces? And of course, you can go through each department and rank each department if you want to go further down of how's our office manager 1 to 10, realistically leading, guiding, having the profitability, being basically the COO of the business with you. How's your office manager? What about your front office team? Let's talk your scheduler 1 to 10. How's your schedule?   Kiera Dent (07:13.988) What about your TC's? 1 to 10. What about your billers? 1 to 10. What about your dental assistants? 1 to 10. You can break them out by name if that's easier so you don't lump them together. What about your hygienists? 1 to 10. What about your doctors, including yourself? 1 to 10. How's their clinical suite? How's their production? How are they doing on that? How's your bookkeeper? 1 to 10. How's your lawyer? 1 to 10. How's your financial advisor? 1 to 10. How's your marketing? 1 to 10.   How is your CPA on taxes? Do they prepare you for them or do they not prepare you for them? I understand me asking all these questions. You can not go back in time into 2024, but you can go forward into 2025 and make changes. So now we've gone through, we call it the yes model in Dental A Team. You as a person is the why I did that first with you. E is for earnings and profitability. S is for systems and team development. So as you look through that, look to see how many tens do you have.   nines, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, 1 zeros. There might be some zeros. Maybe you don't even have that. You are welcome to add any other category. And then how's your fulfillment? Like this is kind of 1 that I might just put overall. How happy are you? If you looked back in 2024, how many days of the year? Like we can't know. So this is just an assessment, right? Like there's no right or wrong. I'm not going to grade you. You can only do it. more of a feeling. On a 1 to 10, how is your fulfillment this year?   On a 1 to 10, how many days? So like, was it 100 % of my days I was happy, 90 % of my days I was happy, 80 % of my days I was happy, 70 % of my days. How many days were you super happy

    18분
  7. 2024. 12. 26.

    #934: It’s Time to Reevaluate Your Handbook

    Did team members in your practice have to have any hard conversations this year? Maybe about dress code or drug testing? Did that new PTO policy work? Were there uncomfortable topics with patients? Tiff and Dana give advice on how to go about updating your handbook as 2024 comes to an end, so you can be more ready than ever when 2025 begins. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.422) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have Dana. You guys know I love podcasting with Dana. She's my girl. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. know we have, it's Friday, and so we're super excited about that. We have fun things in our lives coming up and we have so many podcasts to get recorded today for all of these people and I'm so excited because it means I get extra time with you. Dana, how are you today?   Dana (00:27.746) Doing good, doing good. I'm just as excited to be here. I love this time too.   The Dental A Team (00:32.202) Awesome. Awesome. And we just sprung on you guys, only asked for your permission, but we sprung on you a little meetup for the consultants here in a few weeks. And I am so excited. You guys, you listeners, I know you guys know we are all kind of like super close by. Some of us are further away in other states, but we're a fully remote company. And so we don't get to see each other a lot. And so the culture that we're able to build with our company, in my opinion, is freaking incredible because we're rarely ever   together but we are going to do a consultant meetup in a couple of weeks and we do a Live To Give every single year where Dental A Team just kind of goes back to the the communities as best we can and we do angel tree shopping or one year we dropped off coats for   homeless shelters and women's shelters and kids shelters and all these different things. We just really love to give back and so we do a live to give shopping spree basically. So in a couple weeks Dana, I'm so excited. You're gonna be here. Kristy's gonna be here. Britt is here already, but I actually will see her. Kiera's flying in. It's gonna be such a huge event and I'm just so excited to get some time to crunch some things, figure some things out for the future for us.   and do the Live To Give and get some shopping done for some kiddos. anyways, how excited are you for it though? We sprung that on you like yesterday.   Dana (01:57.814) You did. I'm truly so pumped. Anytime I can, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, get time with my consultant crew. It's some of my favorite time and they're some of my favorite people. So I would have moved heaven and earth to make that work.   The Dental A Team (02:14.302) No, thank you. I agree. It's so much fun getting all of us together and   Just getting some fun out there and getting some brainstorming. I feel like we brainstorm the best when we're side by side and I'm excited for it. Well, on that note, it's kind of our end of year wrap up is what our meeting is about. Like what is next you're going to look like and part of those this is HR Britt is what I like to call her. in our company, she handles our HR pieces and part of what I want to talk to you guys about today is really the employee manual and towards the end of the year making sure that it's wrapped up and ready to   Dana (02:28.972) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (02:50.132) to go for next year. So Dana, you had some really great ideas, you always do, on updating the employee manual and where to go about those things. And one caveat I have, number one, I love talking about companies like CEDR.   They're fantastic. C-E-D-R, you guys. If you need an employee manual, if you don't know what needs to be in there, like we have options, we have ideas, we can definitely help you through with that. But CEDR does a really great job at pulling all of your state's laws, all of those little pieces that we don't necessarily always know you might not know. So I'll always say that. Reach out to CEDR if you use them or if you need one from scratch. Updates wise, same thing. Like what does CEDR have for your state? Right now towards the end of the   year, we pretty much know what the new laws are going to be coming into effect for the next year, this next year, I know what year you're listening to this in right now. But this next year is 2025. So most of those state laws have already been passed or any federal changes or laws to employee sanctions and different pieces have already been passed. So they're already there, you just got to find them. And you've got to make sure that they're all encompassing that you've grabbed all of them. So CEDR does that for you any employment lawyer,   Most of the lawyers you guys retain for most of your business pieces can usually snag that information for you too. So just double check. know, states like California and New York have really strict employee policies, so you just want to make sure you're always on part of there. So that's like the first layer of updates for me and the easiest space to really tackle and hit. But Dana, I loved your idea and really like looking back on the year to project for the future. Will you walk us through kind of   your thoughts on that and what you used to do when you were in practice.   Dana (04:37.142) Yeah, sure. I think the end of the year is a great time to just kind of reevaluate. Did I have everything in my handbook or did situations come up throughout the year that man, I really wish I had had something in writing for that. So, you know, I had a couple instances and practices this year where like they had to like have some hard conversations around like drugs or dress code, right? And they didn't have those things defined or they didn't really know what to do because it's like, well, can I ask them to take a test? Can I ask them to wear something specific because I don't have it   in writing. So if you happen to have to have some of those hard conversations or make some uncomfortable decisions and you don't have it in writing, now is the great time as you are updating for laws or you're getting your handbook in place to begin with. Just considering throughout this year, was there anything? Did my PTO policy work? Did raises come up at times I wasn't expecting them? So maybe I put in my handbook like when I evaluate for raises or that raises are based on performance or that I follow a tier raise structure.   The Dental A Team (05:26.414) I'm stop.   Dana (05:37.664) you know, maybe we had some team members who they asked for some last-minute PTO, so like maybe we need to get in writing a little bit stronger of what the process is for getting it approved and what kind of notice they need to give. So just looking back through the year and did anything happen that man I wish I had had something in writing or this was uncomfortable because I didn't.   The Dental A Team (06:00.686) think that's fantastic, I love that whole structure there. I love that you pointed out like drug policies, things like that. Those are things I think we forget to think about often times when we initially make it because...   I mean, we're all here with the mindset that people are naturally good human beings and that things are, which not to say that they're not naturally good human beings, but sometimes what we feel like is intuitive or known or like just natural thought process just isn't the case. And we find that in literally every aspect of life. So not forgetting that when it comes to the employee manual is true as well. And making sure I think Dana, as you're talking, I'm thinking like getting so granular with it that it can't be confused or misconstrued.   that it's insanely clear that from the smallest level possible and the biggest level possible, we can understand this entire makeup of whatever this rule or whatever you want to call it is.   It made me think too about smoking breaks and where are they allowed to indulge in a cigarette if that's something that you may have a team member on your team who does that or vapes or these are all the real things. These are all common factors of everyday life. Where are those things able to be handled, be done? I know for me, my practice I worked out for years, we had that it could not be on the premises at all because we didn't want patients walking into it.   advocate it for our patients for their health and their overall you know teeth so we had to make sure that they weren't walking into it and they weren't seeing any team members who may be on the team that did partake in those so it had to be off-site completely on their lunch breaks or what have you so I think though that's something that we tend to miss until like you said we get to the situation and we're like great awesome I actually don't have something for this so carry on and we'll fix this later making sure though I   The Dental A Team (07:56.116) think too, we're having those conversations with those people. Because I can say that maybe, you know, when updates come around, and they're like, pointed, right? And then you're sitting there like, is that because of me? Did that? You don't want to make your team members feel like you're attacking them or a situation either. So I think making sure to have those conversations with them like, hey, we know that this happened. We know that this was a situation. It wasn't something I was prepped to handle. We handled it together and we did our best. We handled it beautifully.   Moving forward just so you know, there will be a policy in place for it. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. It was obviously something that I had not known I needed to put into place, but I'm really glad that it was you and we could have this conversation and get through this. I think it's better, and

    23분
  8. 2024. 12. 25.

    #933: Merry Christmas, Dental A-Team Family!

    Kiera invites listeners to consider what gift(s) they provide others — whether it’s patients or team members, or in a more personal capacity. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.422) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and Merry Christmas. If you don't celebrate, well, happy December 25th. If you do celebrate, Merry Christmas. I love the holidays. I truly do. And this year, my husband and are celebrating with his family, which is so fun because we got married 13 years ago and I'm the second oldest of seven. And so my siblings were very young. I have one sister and she was born...   when I was 12 and another sister born when I was 15. so I really, when we got married, my husband's the youngest of five and I just really, really, really, really wanted to spend holidays with my siblings because they were so young when I got married. And so for the last 13 years, we have been with my parents and my family except for one year.   which was when my brother got married and we were with Jason's parents. And so super fun to be celebrating with his family today. I just hope you guys are with something, someone doing something fun, whether it's family or it's friends or it's by yourself, but that you are just taking this time to celebrate. I think holidays are especially beautiful. And in Christmas, I think Christmas is just a magical holiday in the sense that I feel like.   We give gifts to each other and we give of ourselves and also Christmas is like right before the end of the year and so you might be headed back to the practice to produce or you might be just completely done, but wherever you are today Merry Christmas, and I hope you have just fallen in love with two things number one is Being in the spirit of giving I think that that's something that's so important and parent mount for us that we are truly   giving. I think I've shared this on the podcast before, so some of you may have heard this. For those of you that are new, welcome. I went to a conference and our group's name was Live to Give. And I remember hearing the thing that the secret to living is giving. And so in this holiday season, I know it can feel bustly, I know it can feel crazy, but I think when we take a step back and we look at what is ultimately the season, it's the time where we all give gifts to people. give holiday parties and we give gifts to our team, we give gifts to each other.   Kiera Dent (02:15.23) We're looking for those perfect gifts, but the reality is, what is our gift that we're giving of ourselves day in and day out to our team and to our patients and to our communities and also to ourselves? And so maybe today you take some time to think about what is that gift? What is my gift that I bring to this world? And I know that that can feel awkward for some people, but I would really hope that I can encourage you to love yourself a little bit more. And what is something incredible that you bring to your team?   In some teams, what I have them do is I have everybody draw. Don't worry, they can write words if they desire. But I have them draw who they are and what they bring to the team. And then Brittany Stone, she took it a step further with a team where inside I have them draw. I remember one person drew a visionary. So it's an eye with a cast of a vision. Another person drew Gumby because they're very flexible. But whatever it is, you draw that. And then what we had our teams do is actually, Britt did this.   And she had people actually write what that person brings to the team outside of it. So for example, in a circle, you could put what you bring to the table. And then on the outside of the circle, your team tells you like what you bring to the table and how you benefit and like what your gift is to the team. And it's crazy because inside the circle, we often are so hard on ourselves and don't give ourselves credit of what we bring to the table. I understand that we're trying to be humble most of the time and not egotistical. But then when we have teams do this, how much they actually share of   what everybody's bringing to the table. And it's just such a lovely experience because people are able to see themselves in a different light. And I think that that's actually like, as you're reflecting today, you're spending time, you're opening presents, you're doing whatever. What is maybe the gift that you bring to this world or maybe the gift that you want to bring to this world next year? Maybe you want to bring more kindness. Maybe you want to bring more humility. Maybe you want to bring more patience. Maybe you want to bring more vision. Maybe you want to bring more fun.   Maybe you want to bring more energy. Maybe you want to bring more balance. Maybe you want to bring more gentleness. Maybe you want to bring more positivity. Whatever it is, what is your gift that you can bring to this world, to your team, to your family, to yourself? And then also, I would ask if you were writing a letter, Dear Santa, what would be something I would ask for three wishes? One, what is the wish that you would have for your team? Two, what is the wish that you would have for your practice?   Kiera Dent (04:37.494) and patience? And three, what is the wish that you want for yourself? I did this in our doctor think tank a little while ago. And it was so interesting. I asked him like, what do you want? What like what would you guys want? And the group was actually very quiet. And I realized we've forgotten to dream. We've forgotten how to ask for what we want. We've forgotten how to to be vocal about those things. And so maybe today, just look at that and see what would be my wish for my team.   And really like be intentional with this. What would be the wish for my practice? And then what's the wish that I have for myself? And then what I would think is how can you make those wishes come true? How can you bring and give gifts of yourself for your team? And that doesn't mean you have to do it. It means you can delegate. means you can use other people. But what would be some fun things for you? And maybe this year you want to give yourself the gift of health. So you're going to prioritize your health. Maybe you're going to give yourself the gift of a stronger relationship and you're going to   be done on every Thursday at five o'clock and go on a date with your spouse or your significant other. Maybe you're going to give yourself the gift of fun and you're going to plan one day a week or a month where it's just a fun day for you. Maybe you're going to give yourself the gift of a new hobby and you're going to go get into pickleball or something. But like really think about what would be a gift that you'd give yourself because I think that so often we're obsessed with giving to other people, which I agree with. And that's secret to life is giving.   but also let's not forget to give ourselves a gift as well. I think the greatest thing I did for myself in 2025 was giving myself the gift of health. I have been on a health journey. Some people look at me and you just might think, like we obviously have our super, like our preconceived notions. And I have had immense pain in my knee and my hip from years and years of traveling. I ran a marathon. I went from zero running in October to running a marathon in December. So I trained for about two and a half months.   I've had severe knee pain since then and then top like tackle that on with all the years of flying that I have of just being crunched up in seats. And I have had pretty severe knee and hip pain. And this year I just decided like, I want to be 99 years old and still active in spry and I'm hoping that my last six months of my life are going to be the ones where I phase out and maybe that's when my health deteriorates. But if that's what I want my vision to be, thank you to the book of die with zero, it gave me that perspective.   Kiera Dent (07:01.456) but I've thought about that so many times of, if that's what I want to do, what do I need to do today to be able to have that vision? And maybe when you're thinking about the gift, you want to give yourself paint the vision of who you are at 99 years old. And what does that life look like? Maybe that will also help you figure out what to give your team, what to give your practice and what to give yourself. Because this year in 2024, I committed and I hired a personal trainer and we went to the gym and it sounds so silly, but for me to be able to squat and not have knee pain.   which I have not been able to do squats, any type of lunges, squats, nothing for seven years. Like literally my quads, my hams, my calves were all atrophying. To be able to this year, me, my coaches, my PT, I have an incredible group of people around me. We were all celebrating at the fact that I can do a squat with no knee pain. And that has been seven years in the making. It was an added benefit because I was able to wake surf a lot better this summer too.   But just to feel strong and to feel like I'm taking care of my body so I can be this 99 year old woman who's not frail and feeble but is strong and has strong muscles. I have to do things daily now to be able to do that. I worked on my macros. I worked on protein intake. I worked on eating healthier. I worked on figuring out what the meals were. That was freaking hard and I hated every second of it. But to see how much healthier I am today versus where I was a year ago.   is a gift that I could never get back. I can't go back in time and live my life differently, but I can move forward and we can give ourselves those gifts now. So maybe even today, think about who do you want to be when you're 99 years old? Going into that hundred, I hope I live to like, I don't know, 103 sounds like a fun time. I love the number three, but just thinking abou

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