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. 3D AGO

    Has Your Practice Undergone the Invisible Friction Audit?

    It's time to perform a special audit in your practice! This one is called the Invisible Friction Audit. Kiera guides listeners through how to catch problems that might not be very obvious, but are total gamechangers in terms of practice operations. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is going to be a great topic. I hope you guys are excited about it because it's going to be an audit of your practice. I think that there's oftentimes invisible friction that's happening inside practices and offices oftentimes don't catch it. They don't understand what's going on and they're like, something's happening and it's just this invisible friction. And so how can we actually catch this sooner in your practice? If you guys are new to our podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent, host and founder of the Dental A Team and the Dental A Team Podcast.   I'm obsessed with all things dentistry, including my last name being Dent. Our mission is to possibly impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible and to influence, inspire, and to motivate you to have the best practice, the best life, and the best team that you could ever imagine. I genuinely know and believe that running a successful practice does not need to be hard. I've had hundreds of thousands of clients tell us that, Carrie, you've changed our perspective. You've made this to where...   I feel happy about going to work. You've inspired my team. We've got team members that text us telling us how much they love working with Dental A Team. And that's our mission. That's our passion. That's what we are truly experts in the field for. And today, this is one of those things of like, when you have friction that's invisible, how do you actually fix that? How do you actually make this thing better? How do you make it to where, my gosh, like, like we don't know and how can we catch this? So I wanted to just help you see like, here's the quiet, invisible, almost like.   cobwebs in the back corner that if you are able to figure this out, fix it so it's not there, you're not just walking past it, hopefully your practice will be able to thrive. ⁓ So number one is just like, how long does it take to make decisions to move your practice forward? And delayed decisions, I remember one of my favorite quotes is, a wrong decision is better than like indecision. ⁓ Indecision actually impacts far greater than making a wrong decision and...   I remember I was at this really big financial conference and they were talking about how one of the presidents of the United States, I don't remember which one it was, came in and there was this big thing of who we're going and what different things they were going to do. And it had serious impact. And the president came in and made a decision. like, well, how do you know that's the right decision? He said, I don't. But what I know is us sitting in indecisions costing us more than making a wrong decision. And I've thought about that a lot of, I don't even think half of the decisions we make in a day and day out of a practice.   would impact millions of lives and different pieces. And yet I think we sit on them acting as if they are these big audacious decisions rather than just making a decision. And I think it also builds the decision-making bone in our body where it's like, okay, we just make decisions and we move forward. And I think empowering your team to be able to make those decisions without needing to come through you to make every decision. So for example, like delayed decisions on.   treatment sitting in unscheduled. like, are we calling on those people who's taking responsibility for that? Like, let's just get unscheduled treatment called in on a consistent basis. What about like billing and insurance errors and issues? What about lab cases not being tracked? What about our Invisalign and Ortho cases? What about team members where it's like, let's circle back later, let's circle back later. Like, just make the decision in the meeting and move forward and make sure we count about it.   What about like patients who need multiple touch points to commit and to say yes to treatment? Like, why did CareDent get so good at closing cases? Because I hated the follow-up. So it was always, and like, it's a two, two, two follow-up. But these like delayed decisions or who are we going to hire or what things do we need to have for this or what budget do we have? And I understand that being a business owner is like death by a thousand cuts. Like you just get pummeled with question day in and day out. So it's like.   Let's have set days where we make decisions and like, let's make the decision and move forward. All of us execute on it. Attraction by Gina Wickman is very big on, we come to the table to solve and make decisions and we move forward and we solve them forever. So I think when you have like practices, like this is just invisible friction that you don't realize is there, but it's all these things sit there like looming storm clouds because we're not moving forward. We're not getting them done. We're not actually executing on things. And then we have to,   follow back up and team members need to remember. And I'm just big on interaction they teach a lot about. We have our weekly leadership meetings and we solve the issues. Now, if there's something that's gonna take longer and doesn't need immediate care today, it can actually go on what's called a parking lot or long-term issues. And I think having this in your practice, having this as part of your cadence, if it doesn't need to have your decision today, get it moving, but stop the friction. And what we've seen is like,   When I have practices that start working on this and people have clear owners and we stop the decision fatigue and we stop having a lag in this treatment goes up, schedules get more full, tasks start to get resolved, team members feel like they get answers, doctors don't feel like there's so much sitting on their shoulders. And that's honestly just you moving things forward and having owners of it. So I also think of like when a treatment coordinator owns all of the unscheduled treatment and they own our   monthly goal and they own how many people are supposed to be in there, we increase our scheduling. Like I was your treatment coordinator. So we start getting more people on the books sooner. We start hitting our daily goals sooner. And I've got a cadence of if you don't schedule today, I call you in two days, two weeks, two months. And then I send you a letter. There's no question marks of how I follow up with these people. There's no like, well, call people, Kiera. No, like it's just a set process that we follow. And then we make sure that people are being accountable to that. I think it's just great. Like it's not changing anything. We're not having to bring in more patients. We're not having to change up.   Our marketing, like we just move things along without having the delay. So I think when you guys are sitting in meetings or you're looking at it, like look to see how can we make decisions sooner and solve things forever rather than sitting here and being like, well, we'll get back to that. We'll solve that later. We'll solve that later. Make the decisions, give the clear owners and move things forward. The other one is going to be ⁓ an invisible friction of I think energy and practices have this is crazy. When we walk into offices, we're able to quickly feel   Is this practice thriving or is this practice like truly just like hanging on by a thread or do people not like each other? And I think that emotional piece ⁓ definitely plays. so looking at like, how's our team culture and what things are causing a rift in the culture. So are we making our one-on-ones every single month to find out how team members are truly doing? Are we looking at like, is our schedule consistent to where people know they can get out on time? Or if that's not ⁓ a culture piece, like people just know we're here for two hours afterwards and that's just our culture.   but at least that expectation can be met. What about like where we can add emergency patients? So front office knows, clinical team knows we're not having this like front office, back office divide. What about when we come into a room, is it clear on how we have our procedures set up so that way every person's there we're not having popcorn? What about like doctors like staying on time and if you're not on time, like let's adjust the schedule and then start scheduling more appropriately so that way we're not constantly running into lunch, running behind in the day.   Making sure our patients have all their new patient paperwork Thinking about are we doing Friday five shout outs? Are we doing team? Shout outs where people are looking at each other and like really finding happiness. We're working with each other I think it's just like that energy usually the drains start to happen on energy and culture and it's just that invisible friction when We can't count on our schedule. We can't count on getting lunch. We can't count on getting out on time I remember I worked in a practice and we were quote-unquote off on Fridays   And I was the one who, we had a patient that was scheduled on Fridays, I would be the one who was the assistant to cover. And without fail, every Wednesday or Thursday, the doctor would be like, we'll just add you on Friday. And it used to drive me absolutely crazy. So much so that I went and I interviewed at another office, I got another job, and then Jason got accepted to pharmacy school. And I think about like, why, Kiera why did you get to that space where you were like so dissatisfied? And it was because I could never bank on   when I had time off, I wish that they would have j

    18 min

  2. 4D AGO

    Do You Know the Most Important Numbers?

    Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite! Morgan Hamon, president of HDA Accounting Group, is on the pod! HDA is a dental-specific accounting group, and knows dentistry inside and out. Kiera and Morgan discuss profit margins, benchmarks, and AR aging, plus why having good financials will help you make smarter decisions. A profitable practice is more helpful for patients, more secure for team members, and less stressed out in times of uncertainty. Don't run your practice blind; get a good CPA. About Morgan:  Morgan is a graduate of the University of Arizona school of business. Following graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy and served for over ten years as a Naval Aviator flying carrier-based F/A-18 Hornets. During that time, he deployed to Persian Gulf and flew combat missions over Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch. He also served as a flight instructor and landing signal officer for newly winged Naval Aviators transitioning to the Hornet, training pilots in air-to-air combat and landing on aircraft carriers. After leaving the Navy, Morgan obtained a master's degree in accounting with a concentration in taxation from Metropolitan State University of Denver.  He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and is the co-founder and President of HDA Accounting Group leading a large staff of professional accountants delivering a variety of financial accounting and tax services.   Morgan regularly conducts practice profitability advising for over 500 dentists nationally, helping them analyze their financial data and identifying strategies for profit improvement. 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 (00:33) Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and you guys, I am so excited. It's always fun when I'm getting ready to start a podcast and the person on the other side of it is somebody that I have just idolized. I refer to their company all the time and then I'm like, oh my gosh, it's you. And that was what just happened with this guest. Today I'm bringing you guys Morgan Hamon He is the president of the HDA accounting group. So you guys know we have a lot of accounting groups that we work with at the Dental A Team. I'm really pro vetting them.   and finding out one of things I love about HDA is they literally have incredible forms for profitability of a practice. Also, watching all your different overhead and you guys know we're super, super pro. But something really fun about Morgan before we bring him on is that he is a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Business. So after that, he actually was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy and served for over 10 years as a naval aviator flying carrier-based F-18 Hornets. So I'm dying to find out about that.   because he was deployed to the Persian Gulf and flew combat mission over Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch. Insanely cool stuff. So not only are you a CPA and sometimes CPAs can be boring people. So the fact that you did this and I say that with love to all my CPAs, I was almost fired from a CPA firm once upon a time because I talk too much. So I'm super jazzed. So Morgan, welcome to the show today. How are you?   speaker-1 (01:51) Thanks, I'm doing well. Appreciate being here.   speaker-0 (01:53) Ha   ha, awesome, okay, so I brought you in. You are with HDA CPA, which is amazing. We have a client in Hawaii right now looking to work with you guys. Several of our clients work with you. you guys, I, Bailey, those are my top two CPAs, Profi, top three that I usually refer. So I'm super jazzed to have you on the podcast. But before we dive into like CPA stuff, which I'm always excited about because I feel as a business owner, that was where I was the most weak. And so I'm excited for you to share some tips and ideas. But tell us about flying.   being, you know, flying hornets, like just kind of give us a quick like one or two stories because I'm dying to hear about that.   speaker-1 (02:30) Sure. Yeah. So I like my family is all CPAs. My dad's a CPA brother, cousins. And I, that wasn't what I wanted to do growing up. You know, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. So I went off to college, Navy paid for it, which is a super deal. And then I, then I owed them some time after that, of course. off the flight school, um, did an operational tour.   and F-18s as a West Coast guy. And that's where we went over to Persian Gulf, over Iraq and all that. And ⁓ after that, I was an instructor pilot on the F-18. So that was definitely my favorite part of my service was teaching the young pilots how to actually use the F-18 as a weapon system and landed on the carrier, which was ⁓ probably obviously my favorite part of naval aviation.   pretty exhilarating. Could be incredibly stressful too, especially at nighttime. And I think there's definitely a few stories where I was just absolutely terrified because the weather was terrible. ⁓ There's nowhere else to land. The ship's rocking around and you literally have to figure it out or you're not gonna see the next day. And it's all gonna be happening in seven minutes. It's very...   So it really, grows you up really fast. And I think, you know, after close to 11 years, my wife and I were ready for, you know, a little more normalcy in our life. moved off to private industry. My wife's ⁓ a nurse. She's been in healthcare for 25 years. ⁓ But in terms like the, like what the Navy did for me and how I apply that to business is you,   learn to assimilate a lot of data, complex data, and hash out what you really need to know so you can execute in a very timely manner. there's a lot of noise. You learn how to disregard that and boil it down to some key action items that'll get you through the mission. And that's how I approach business ownership myself.   And I am definitely not the typical CPA. My value is not that I can no account, like I'm the best accountant in the world, not far from it. But I do know how to run a business and systemize. being a business leader is a completely separate skillset from being a clinician. And I see that, I get it. And the reports...   that you mentioned is those full color dashboard style reports that practice profitability analysis. That is straight from my Navy background. It just serve up what you need to know. Here it is. Here's the checklist, so to speak, so that you can make it happen. that's a bit of my background and where I came from. I co-founded HDA accounting group with my dad, in 2009. So we were the two owners for a long time. And then   for your listeners out there that perhaps use us, they'll know Courtney for sure. She's our tax partner. We made her a partner just over three years ago, which was probably one of the best decisions we ever made. She's wonderful. The clients love her. So there's three owners on one of them. And I spend the bulk of my time meeting new doctors, doing like what we're doing right now, and then spending time with our clients, trying to help them make money, make more money.   speaker-0 (06:10) For sure. That's fun. love that you shared. mean, thinking about trying to fly and land a plane, one that would be hard and then try to put it on a moving target and wish you luck. And if you don't make it, you're dead. And so just the, was like, wow, that's kind of like tax deadline, right? Like you're like so stressed and advanced to get there.   speaker-1 (06:29) It puts stress in perspective. Your hardest day in accounting, death is not on the table.   speaker-0 (06:31) I bet it does.   So   this might not be something you want to talk about so we can always cut this part of the podcast if need be Like were you ever really in combat or did you get a primarily be away from that? So thank you for your service. I'm just always curious. Like how was that?   speaker-1 (06:48) It was limited exposure. So back then when I was there, it was still operation Southern watch. So it was not full blown conflict. However, ⁓ they did not want us there. They would shoot at you. ⁓ they were scared to turn on their radars. So they would not typically engage with missiles, the more deadly type of anti-aircraft threat that we would face. They're too scared to turn them on because we would have ⁓   countermeasures to do with that. they would just, they would shoot like artillery at us. And so you would just, you could like barely see, you knew it was there and it was sort of concerning because you're a couple hundred miles in Tyrak. Like if anything happens, you're not going to receive a warm welcome, know, eject or something. So it was definitely had your attention. I remember that my first mission was at night. I was, you know, I had butterflies.   just because we're like all the almost all the way to Baghdad at night. You're on night vision goggles. It's a big strike package. Like the biggest thing I'd ever done before your aerial refueling over Kuwait, both inbound and outbound a lot going on. And, you know, while we're on this topic before these types of missions, you're in a brief for two to three hours ahead of time. There's a lot of moving parts, a lot of things you really need to kno

    36 min

  3. 5D AGO

    Top 4 KPIs a Business Owner MUST Know

    Tiff and Kristy shine a light on key performance indicators that won't just propel a dental practice to success, but any business. This includes knowing your numbers (stop treating them like the bogeyman!), locking in production, case acceptance, and diagnosis. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. You guys know that we love podcasting. I hope we have a ton of newbies here who don't even know who we are. I say that because our reach at Dental A Team is something that we are intentional about and intentful on expanding further than you guys can even imagine. So something that we are very intentional about at Dental A Team is looking at how many lives have we impacted.   and how many lives can we impact. And we know that dentistry is vast, business is vast, so we also know we have some listeners here who aren't even in the dental industry, but just business owners in general. We love that and we wanna welcome all of you. So all of you who are here today that have been listeners for a long time, welcome and thank you so much. All of you who have shared these podcasts with others, thank you so much because you are helping us serve our mission.   And for those of you who are new, know that Dental A Team is mission full and mission forward and we are here to help support you in the best ways possible. So welcome everyone. Today's topic is gonna be super fun. But first, let's welcome Kristy to the show. Kristy, how are you today, my dear? Thank you for being here. It's a Tuesday afternoon for us, so it's a little wild for a podcasting day, but how are you doing over there today?   The Dental A Team (01:17) Doing good. Hey, ⁓ we had a big warm up and now we're kind of on the downside of it. So the weather's perfect and couldn't complain. And I get to spend time with you.   The Dental A Team (01:28) I agree. I know I do love podcast days. So this   one's a long time coming. This one was a long time coming and it's true. We definitely were both in Phoenix. The Phoenix area, I should say. Everybody always says, where are you? And they're like, is that Phoenix? Like, it's all Phoenix. So we are in the Phoenix area and it definitely got warm really, really early, probably two months earlier than normal for the, for the,   temperatures that we were experiencing. So we've definitely felt like, gosh, we hit summer really early, but we're getting a little snippet of springtime right here around the corner. So I agree. I'm very, very excited for this cool down we're experiencing. With that, I think that's actually like a really good thought process to start on. We have our warms, we have our cools, and with quarter one having, you know, it's behind us at this point, really looking forward to see what the other three quarters look like.   Was that a warmup for you? Was it cool down? We have some practices that are onboarding right now, some new practices that are onboarding to Dental A Team that are like, gosh, I've been in a cool down or they're about to onboard because they're in conversations with us and we've had kind of a cool down for that first quarter, meaning maybe we're not tracking quite as well towards our goals as we could be, but I've got a few practices. I talked to one specifically just today that is in a massive warmup and   Kristy, I'm gonna brag for a second. I saw them just a weeks ago in person and we did our in-person visit and we, gosh, it was our first one ever and the team was just phenomenal. They jumped on board. The doctors were just floored at how well the team jumped on board with the goals. They've never talked goals before. I increased them by quite a bit, by like 17%. I said, you guys can do this. I know what you're capable of and you know what, Kristy, as of last   Friday, which there's still two days left in the month technically for them. They were 82 % towards their goal and they were $20,000 ahead of any month yet this year. So, it was just really cool and I brag about that and I talk about that because I want you guys to know the possibilities and one of the things that we did, I told them today, I said the best part about what we do is that we make small tweaks in areas that make massive differences. We're not completely overhauling anything.   we're saying what can we tweak in the best way possible to get a different result than what we're getting. And what we tweaked, one of the biggest pieces that we tweaked was looking at the numbers. They they weren't looking at them. And I remember in January or December, they said, Tiffanie, how are you gonna promise us that we're more profitable? And I said, well, what does more profitable mean? And they were like, well, we're making more profit. I said, well, what profit did you make? They were like, well, don't know.   Okay, well how do we know if we're making more if we don't know what we made? And so really just focusing in and being intentional about looking at the numbers and looking at where we've been and where we can go. It opened their eyes to really even see the possibility because I increased them slightly and it's going to be a massive difference for them and their numbers. And so   I say that, Kristy, I think your warmup and your cool down kind of gave me a little spur of excitement there because we definitely see those seasonalities within dentistry and business ownership too. And something I think that keeps us on track no matter what seasonality we're in is really focusing in and looking at those top KPIs at least. So we can dive and we can go minute and track the smallest things and that's fine too.   But I wanna talk today about really those top four KPIs that every business owner should be looking at. And I can say business owner because realistically, it transfers to any business. I know people who are in, like I've helped chiropractors before, we've helped eye doctors. I've talked with financial advisors about their businesses and marketing companies. they're so, all of it kind of transfers very seamlessly. It's the systems behind it that gets you there that are different for dental.   Kristy, with all of those words that I have said, welcome to the show, sorry for stealing it all. What do you feel like, if I were to say top two KPIs, what would your first two KPIs for any business owner to track really look like? What would they be?   The Dental A Team (05:47) Yeah. Well, I think it has to start with what do we need? What do we need to cover the bills for the month? Because that's our first benchmark, right? Otherwise, all of the numbers are just numbers. We don't really know where we're going. It's funny that you were talking about that TIF because my mind went to, I don't know why in dentistry it's so taboo to talk numbers, but literally, could you imagine if you had to pay your bills for the month and you never opened your bank account?   The Dental A Team (06:16) Yeah, I mean, I've done it and it's really scary. It's stressful. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (06:17) I just, yeah, it's like, is there enough to cover it? Yeah. So   definitely I think the number one benchmark has to know what's our BAM that we have to go for, and then we can start digging into what are our goals to get there.   The Dental A Team (06:36) Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And by bam, she means bare ace minimum, you guys. What does it take to pay those bills and to keep the business thriving? So your bare minimum comes prior to your loans, prior to your owner pay, really prior to savings, right? Prior to profiting. So this is like, if I were to sell today's business, my business today, I was to sell this company to someone else, what are the financial obligations that they would take on?   That's going to be your employee costs, your marketing, your supplies, your rent, all of those pieces, your top line overhead and really figuring that out. And then adding into that, what does it look like to pay my loans, to pay my debt, to pay myself and to profit on top of that? So you get your bare minimum. Yes, I can survive. And then you get your thrive. How do I thrive? How do I pay for the things that and the lifestyle that I want? Now that's my goal.   including some profit to add back into the business later or savings, you know, for those rainy days, for those compressors that go out, all of those fun pieces, making sure we've got that in savings. So I totally agree. Making sure that that benchmark is there and that's going to be your collections, right? But it also transfers right directly back into your production. So those give you your top two KPIs right there where it's your finances. So we're looking at   What do we need to collect? What does my bank account need to have deposited every month in order to thrive? And then within my production, how do I ensure that comes? Now, Kristy, something I see practices do, which I don't necessarily disagree with, I think that it just makes it more difficult than it needs to be, is to track for collections. And so in the huddle, they're like, okay, we need X amount more in collections. The reason that I have opinions on that and is   is because we don't have as much control over the collections as we do over the production. Now, over the counter collections and what our patients owe us, we do. We have control over that, we can get it. And we have some control over insurance to the extent that we're following up, we're submitting and following up correctly, but their timeline to pay us, we have no control over that. So on a Monday, I mean, I've put in myself $80,000 worth of insurance checks on a Monday.   and then gone three weeks like, my gosh, when are we seeing more money? Because it fluctuates so much. So I think having that coll

    26 min

  4. APR 2

    Keep Your Head On Straight With AI

    Kiera is a guest on The Zero Balance Podcast with John Stamper! She and John discuss the advancement of software over the past few years, and why the current culmination — artificial intelligence — isn't something to be skittish around in your practice.  Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today we are sharing a guest interview I did on another podcast. And it was too valuable not to bring you guys here.   this episode, you're gonna hear this host lead the conversation and then I'll wrap us up at the end. I cannot wait. It was truly one of my most   incredible episodes and I truly hope you enjoy.   John (00:19) What's going on everybody. Welcome to another episode here on The ZeroBalance podcast brought to you by the team at Quanta Suite. Very excited to keep this thing going. Uh, our last conversations and episodes crazy to think it's 2026 already were at the Dykma conference. And I had the privilege of spending time, not only with the Quanta Suite team, but also a lot of great individuals that came on the podcast and talked about what they were seeing in that case, it was in the DSO space. Uh, I'm very excited today to   be with Kiera Dent from the Dental A team. I've known Kiera for many years. We were actually just talking before we came on here live. ⁓ she is doing a lot along with her team to help dental practices, take things to the next level. she's been in dental for many, many years. And so we're going to have a conversation today, ⁓ kind of around all things AI and automation and love to have her, you know, kind of share with all of you what she's seeing, you know, her and her team are working with dental practices on a daily basis. And obviously, you know, the Qantas suite team is, is creating.   their software in an effort to be able to support practices in the RCM world. But Kiera, it's such great to have you here. How you doing?   Kiera (01:26) Oh my gosh, John, it's great to see you again. And I love chatting about all things dentistry. I love having the last name dent. I love dental. love AI. love, um, it's crazy. Dental A Team hits 10 years old this year, which is like absolutely wild. Uh, 2026, I was getting ready to, know, writing my goals out and I was like, Oh my gosh, I turned 40. My husband turns 40. We've been married for 15 years and Dental A Team hits 10 years this year. So   ⁓ and I bring that up only because like, it's like a trifecta of a cool year for me. ⁓ but I think as you were discussing, like being in dental consulting for 10 years, having worked in front office teams, having worked at a dental college, having owned dental practices, having bought and sold, having consulted like 300 plus offices physically, ⁓ watching the DSO emerge, watching AI come in. I just think it's really like such a fun time for us to be in dentistry and so many great advancements and, yeah.   In Dental A Team, we are obsessed with doctors and teams, like getting them aligned, getting them streamlined, helping dentists be like CEOs and owners of their practices. We love ⁓ Josh, we love what he's building in DCS and now in Qantas. We think that they're doing some really fun, incredible things. And Dental A Team, we're just really big on, I think, streamlining dental practices, helping them say yes to more things. So getting them in their vision, getting financially free and profitable.   and then getting systems and team development to support that. And AI is definitely being a big player. And I think dentistry is, it's so fun because it's been such a, like, I think slow roll on evolution in certain ways. Sometimes I think we are very archaic. My husband's in healthcare and medicine and he's like, wait, that's your guys' software. I'm like, don't judge. I know it's a little dated. He's like, they didn't even have that when I started my career 15 years ago. ⁓ But I think,   to watch dentistry evolve into AI and automations and different things. I think we are in such a special time. So yeah, we work with solo practices. We work with multi practices. We work with emerging DSOs. We work with DSOs. We've got consulting for kind of a broad spectrum and kind of our sweet side, like two to five to $10 million practice. ⁓ We definitely have built a lot of things that can help multi offices, but yeah, we really love those offices that are obsessed about team, about culture and about.   just positively impacting the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So John, super excited to talk about it. I feel like we just have like so much knowledge to bring to the table and just rift and discuss and give your listeners hopefully a fresh, fun, positive perspective on the world of AI dentistry and of course bringing team and doctor perspectives to the table for you today.   John (04:03) Well, thanks for sharing that. you can see, everybody, Kiera comes with a ton of energy, but it is rooted, as she mentioned, in years of experience in this industry. And here's where I wanted to start, Kiera. So I want to go back maybe like five or six years in dentistry when there was a lot of new software platforms that were coming to dentistry, patient engagement, right? It was like this big giant party and a lot of practices were excited. You may remember though, as someone that works directly with the dental practices with as much   excitement as there was there also was a little bit of overwhelm right because it's like where do we start like how do we build these in and it's funny that you talk about your husband because yes in dentistry these are all somewhat kind of new to the industry and so practices are figuring how to use them and I do feel like okay maybe a couple years ago with like firms like yourself that have really helped these practices figure out how to utilize them they got that under their belt and then   here comes AI, right? And here comes this whole new way for these practices to be able to communicate, you know, task orient and all that stuff. So that's kind of the first place I'd like to start is that when you look at the work that you do now with the dental practices and I say the word AI, where is everybody's heads?   Kiera (05:13) Yeah. and agreed. I think, I think that this is just evolution of business. Like if I were to like even simplify it down, I think dentistry has been so much like we drill teeth, we fill teeth, but I'm like, guys, we have evolved. We don't do wooden teeth anymore. we've evolved and now there's laser and there's PRF and there's more advancements to dentistry that we do. Like I have a practice, I call them my PRF powerhouse and they've added PRF to their practices and we've added multi-millions to their office.   But like, yes, financially, that's been amazing, but their patient care has gone up so much, like the amount of results we're seeing. so when people are like, software's AIs, I'm like, hold on. You have evolved in your dentistry and you've seen how much it's evolved and how much better it is. I mean, the way we used to do crowns compared to how we do crowns, we can do same day crowns. We look at how we do ortho. We look at the different like skill sets that we've been able to add in. I feel like AI is the same thing. And I think when we get a little skittish, that's actually where I feel like we're   at more danger of a society. as I don't want to use the word old John, but I'm like, Hey, if you're not going to innovate and like you're going to die. there's innovate or die. We've got to grow and evolve or we're going to be left behind. And I mean, I think we see that with certain practices who elected no, no, John, I'm not going to have online and online. No, they're going to see my sign. They're going to drive by. This is how I'm going to be. Well, if you don't have an online presence today,   you're pretty much not visible anywhere in the world. No, no, no, John, I'm not going to do Google reviews. I don't need to do Google reviews. Well, Google reviews are how people find you. And now it's becoming AEO where AI is actually now searching for offices. I mean, we just did a trip to Iceland and where did I go? Chat GPT. And where's my next place I go? I go to Instagram, TikTok. What are the best places to go? No, John, I don't need to be on social media. We don't need to have that presence. We have our marketing. We send postcards.   Well, if you're not on Instagram, people are going there now. They go check your Google reviews and then go check your online profile. So I think for dentists to maybe recognize that high five, like you actually have evolved over the last several years. You've evolved. You are morphing and as businesses, it is an innovation or it is a die. And so when we talk about AI, AI is going to be awesome. You guys, AI was created. Like I think so much of the reason it took off is because we had 2020, we shut down.   Then we went through 2021 of the great resignation. We could not find people. You want to talk about hygiene shortages? Well, great. Now we're able to bring in people and you're like, but AI is not going to replace hygiene. Correct. But AI is actually helping with perio charting and different pieces that we're able to utilize. It's cutting down our costs that we're able to have on some of the billing and the revenue cycle management that we actually have alleviated funds to be able to pay the higher costs of hygiene that's offsetting. So our businesses can still be profitable. So when I look at it from a business,   I think guys, welcome to 2026, welcome to AI and get excited about it. And rather than being afraid of it, let's start to embrace and you don't have to be the earliest adopter, but I will say similar to like, I'm not going to join the internet. I'm not going to have

    34 min

  5. APR 1

    How to Achieve the Coveted Doctor/Hygiene Alignment

    Kiera and Dana dive into the hygienist's mindset (which tends toward patient care over business numbers) and how a doctor can get a full hygiene team on board with metrics and measurables. They touch on the hygienist drought, growing your practice without stepping on your hygienists' toes, setting expectations everyone can agree on, and more. Dana also touches on a hygiene team she worked with for a couple years that went from struggling to hit its goals to hitting even their daily goals 95% of the time. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a great freaking day over there. I get the one and only Dana, Dynamite Dana over there. I did not say the other nickname. If you've been on the podcast for a while, you might know, but Dana, welcome to the show today. How are you?   DAT-Dana (00:16) doing pretty good. Thanks so much for having me. It's not always that I get dedicated, you know, Kiera time. So I'm excited to be here.   The Dental A Team (00:22) I know when Dana and I get a podcast, like it's not always common, but I mean, you guys might start seeing Dana a bit more. I've got a few plans and tricks up my sleeves for Dana. We've been together for a long time. Dana, like donuts with Dana tip. don't remember what that was like dentistry tips or something. You were on a roll. You used to, I think you still do them actually every single week. Um, but Dana, you were just a diehard dedicated and always without, will not share it.   DAT-Dana (00:39) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (00:49) but Dana always has the best story. So if you don't know Dana and you want like a good giggle in your life, you name it. And also Dana is the best with trivia. We do a company end of year party every year and it's always like trivia based. Dana whoops everybody. Like this woman knows facts and stats like nobody's business. So Dana, today's gonna be a fun day because not only is Dana dynamite this way, but we're gonna do a little bit of an office autopsy about a hygiene department. So if you don't know in Dana's Other Life,   Dana used to work at a prison as a hygienist and Dana that still is a trip to me. Like, did you ever get nervous that they were going to take their shackled hands and like stab you with an instrument? I'm truly curious because that's my fear. Let's just talk about that for one second.   DAT-Dana (01:27) Yeah, I mean, there were   a lot of like protocols in place for protection and for safety. But at the end of the day, you knew where you were. you know, yes, there was always I think just a niggling element of I just need to be careful, pay attention beyond my toes. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (01:44) Like you're working with sharp instruments.   I mean, it's not like you doled them out to take them in there. Like we're not going to have a sharp scaler. You get a doled one. Like you got to be in there. But yeah, cause I remember I worked in an office and they would bring in inmates and they would be like handcuffed top to bottom. And the girl would always be like, so what were you in prison for? And I'm like, why are we, why are we poking the bear? Like, why don't we just keep them calm? And like, I don't even want to know. Like, but she did it every time. I was only up there a couple of times consulting them, but.   DAT-Dana (02:04) Thanks.   The Dental A Team (02:13) Anyway, beyond prison, also is an incredible hygienist. So today we wanted to kind of office autopsy because Dana had a practice that she worked with for several years on hygiene and their number one motive and their number one objective was hygiene. And I think that this is such a, it's very delicate because I think dentists want hygienists to produce and as a practice, we want hygienists to produce. And Dana, as a hygienist, you feel, I'm not gonna put words in your mouth, but the assumption I get from a lot of hygienists is   We want to just do great work and we don't want to always have to be looking at numbers. Maybe that's true or not, but like Dana, I want to hear what's kind of like the mindset of hygienist and then how do doctors approach this? And then we'll dig into the practice that you worked with that like really freaking crushed it. But I think like, this is such a, I don't know. I feel like it's a sliver in a practice. Like no one wants to talk about it. Like let's just not touch it so it doesn't hurt. But then it like blows up and people are like, my freaking hygienist aren't producing and they don't want to like tick them off because no one's there.   So let's talk about it, because is that how hygienists feel and how do you win over hygiene?   DAT-Dana (03:12) Yeah,   I think it's a mindset. I think it's a difference in mindset, right? I think dentists are always looking at the business side of it because oftentimes the dentists are the business owners and hygiene, their mindset is patient care. And so the easiest way I think to get alignment on that is you actually are caring about the same thing. You just don't realize it. And so it is getting alignment in like numbers tell us   how we are doing in patient care truly. So getting a hygiene team to understand that, getting them aligned that.   No numbers aren't everything, but actually numbers tell you exactly the thing that you care about most. ⁓ And so I feel like they look at it from different angles. And if you can get them aligned and actually it is the same thing and numbers tell you hygienist, the thing that you care about most, which is patient care and making sure that every patient leaves your chair happy, healthier than when they walked in. Understanding that the numbers will tell you how well you're doing at that. ⁓   It's definitely a mindset shift, but I think once you can get them aligned with that and then understand that you're truly talking the same thing, it's a game changer.   The Dental A Team (04:25) I love that Dana and as you were saying that it made me think of like when we do a practice assessment with a practice when they're reaching out to work with us or just wanting clarity the first question one of our first questions is like do you have a 10-year vision that you and your team are rallied around and as you were saying that Dana I thought about okay well if our hygiene department has a vision that we're all rallied around so let's say it's patient care well then the next question always that follows is how do we know if we're having excellent patient care and it's something that can't be a feeling   because we've got to be able to track and measure just like I can't say that I'm the best basketball player, but I have no way to prove that and measure it. My husband's in pharmacy and he's always like, if you're the best, then just freaking prove it, like stats and number it. Like, why do you have to it on feelings? Like, ⁓ it's such a hard thing because then we really never as a hygiene department know, like, are we really doing the best patient care? So then we make actual stats of, okay, great, we have this many perio patients. Like, this is our perio percentage. This is our fluoride percentage.   This is how many reviews that we get, this is how many patients are leaving on time. And then like, this is how we know that we're like hitting our daily goal to make sure we're not missing like our FMXs or different things that need to be done on a regular basis. So as you said that, I thought like even a way to get hygiene teams on board is like, what is our vision? Like you said, and then how do we truly measure that? We got to have actual stats with that. It can't just be the warm fuzzies of I think I'm doing well because what's crazy is I can think I'm doing well and then I have to go run a mile.   And I'm like, no, I've been doing my cardio. Like I'm really a great runner. And then it's like, I ran a mile in 15 minutes and people are like, are you even running? Like until I track and measure, there's no way to improve. And so I think it's when people realize like, that's the only reason we're doing it is to see like, hey, if we've got the best patient care, then like, let's prove it, let's document it. So that way we're confident in that as well. So Dana, I'm curious, I'm a dentist. How do I get my hygiene team on board that there's gonna be a consultant that's gonna like make them?   track number, like what do people even say to make a hygienist, which is you like get on board with this idea. And then Dana, we're going to dig into like how you help turn around a hygiene team. So A though, how does this dentist get his hygienist on board or hers?   DAT-Dana (06:29) Yeah,   I think it's an open and honest conversation of just like you said, like, give me give me descriptors of what an amazing hygiene department looks like to you. If you worked in an office and you said you walked in and this was the best hygiene team you've ever worked with you've ever been a part of what does that look like? And oftentimes that will lead to conversations about patient care about those things. And then it is okay, guys, how do we know, right? I   I want you guys to be the best hygiene team. probably sit here and think you are the best hygiene team. How do I know that though? And then you start to attach those metrics and those measurables to say, hey, like, we want to be this. We, we feel like maybe we even are but how do we know for sure? And I think that it's an opening that conversation and as well as like the   Best part of, yes, I worked very solo for many years in the prison, but when I went into private practice or when I got to temp in offices, the best thing that I loved was getting to learn from my other hygienists. And so we're going to get alignment. We're going to learn a lot from each othe

    28 min

  6. MAR 31

    Vision-Driven Growth is the Panacea Your Practice Needs

    This episode is all about your vision for your practice, and how you can use it to propel growth and success. Tiff and Dana share how to create a vision that's true to you, how to get your team members bought in, how to set goals according to that vision, and so much more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. You know that the consultant takeover section here, I don't know if that's even still what we call it, but that's what we call it, Dana and I call it, because that's where OG status, know, like Donuts with Dana came on the other day. I was like, oh, I do miss Donuts. Anyways, we're here with you today, you guys. are, gosh, almost done with Q1 by the time this releases. It's wild. It's, you know, and I think we say this every year probably,   I know January every year we're like, this is the longest month of our lives. But then we get to the end of January, we're like, that went so fast. Where did the time go? And then from there, just doesn't stop. It just doesn't stop.   DAT-Dana (00:40) I know, feel like January   is 12 weeks long and then the rest of the year is like two.   The Dental A Team (00:43) Yeah, it's so   true. Yeah, especially February, which I know February is quote unquote a short month. But I'm like, does that two days seriously mean we lost two weeks? Because that's what it feels like. I don't understand it. Time, it's all relative, right? We just make it up anyways. So that's why. That's why, because we just make it up anyways. So Dana, we just recorded a really fun podcast. I actually really, really loved that one on overhead.   DAT-Dana (00:57) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (01:13) listen to that one yet about why not to cut your team members. Go listen to that too. You don't have to listen to it first. You don't have listen to it today. I don't care. Just listen to it sometime. But I think that it really actually coincides really well with this podcast topic that we're talking about today as well. And on a side note to all of you listeners out there, if you ever have podcast topics, things that you want to hear about, please let us know. You guys, we create these. Actually, our marketing company creates these based on like,   what's relevant in the dental industry right now, but you know, Kiera does a ton of podcasts. We do a ton of podcasts. We're always really happy to add things in that you feel you're seeing in your practice, because if you're seeing it, the likelihood is that other people are seeing it as well. And that's why we focus so heavily at the Dental A Team on community, because we really want you guys talking to each other. So that includes this. That's my little plug for Please Send Us Ideas. Thank you. Thank you.   ⁓ But this one, this one's fun too. I think we do, honestly we do a lot of really fun things at the Dental A Team. ⁓ I think, I mentioned it on the last one, but Dana I think for me at least, focusing on the people first actually really, really drives me. It makes me feel like we're in we're in a stale business sometimes, you know? Like it's.   ever-changing, dentistry grows and it changes, but kind of not at the same time. It's kind of also stale, especially when it comes to team members.   DAT-Dana (02:41) And then it makes no teeth, right?   And so it can only expand and grow so much and sure, has it made leaps and bounds? Absolutely. But again, it is still teeth and the business of dentistry.   The Dental A Team (02:48) Yeah.   I agree. So I think adding in that human side of it, the people side, gives us purpose. And I think probably in any business, right, I think Aaron's a financial advisor and if he didn't, he loves the people aspect of it. He really, he became a financial advisor to help people grow their finances, to help people retire successfully and he loves nothing more than being able to help someone see that path.   And I know not all advisors are that way and not all consultants, dental consultants are that way, but I think that purpose driven piece is what separates any business from the other ones. Yeah.   DAT-Dana (03:34) Yeah, and I think   at the of the day, it's people taking care of other people. And so it is a people industry. I think we always think of it as, it's healthcare, right, for sure. But it really is people taking care of people, so.   The Dental A Team (03:46) Yeah, yeah, good point. All right, well that's our philosophical piece. I loved it. And on that same vein though, that same note is really, ⁓ today we want to talk about vision-driven growth. And I think to me, Dana, when I saw this topic, I thought vision-driven growth, Realistically, it's just like, for me, it's having the map. It's kind like a treasure hunt.   DAT-Dana (03:50) Okay.   The Dental A Team (04:12) I feel like and it's having the map with that X on it, then I can say, okay, this is how I'm going to get there. And I think when we think of growth and in dentistry, I think 10 years ago, 15 years ago, growth was seven to 10 % every year. And like getting that new thing, like my growth this year is gonna be I'm gonna get a new Pano machine or I'm gonna add an operatory or I'm going to, it was like very physical.   And I think now, vision-driven growth, I think now what we're noticing and seeing is that we're dreaming more and we're applying that vision-driven growth, meaning this is what I'm gonna do, this is the physical of what needs to happen because I want to see this thing come to fruition. And that vision of, typically it's like an impact-driven vision, right? Like what was I put on this earth to do? What is my purpose and how is my business serving that purpose?   The reason that I like that so much better than just the physical piece of it is because Dana, think as a team member, I remember sitting there and being like, cool, 2.5 sounds great, but it doesn't mean anything to me. Like 2.5, 3 million. I remember when our goal was like, we started at 1.2, and I remember the year that we were like, 3.5. And I was like, this is weird, but like, I don't even know. I literally can't even fathom what $3.5 million looks like.   Right, it literally meant nothing to me. So nothing about my drive or how I showed up changed. I was just like, okay, cool. So now our goal is this and we schedule enough to reach that goal. That sounds great. But I think Dana when it's like, we wanna reach for us, we wanna reach this many practices, we wanna reach this many people. It just makes such a big difference. So I think, I don't know from a team member standpoint,   I don't, I can't get on board with this stale goal.   DAT-Dana (06:16) to know why I'm doing what I'm doing every single day, right? I have to like, as a team member, those are always questions that like, like, why do we want to get there? Why do we need to get there? What does getting there do for us? What does getting there mean we serve? Like, those are the things that I think team members ask. And so I think practices that lead with a vision and look at the vision for the growth, like you get team members bought in, you get team members understanding and wanting to be a part of it, it makes   So many things easier to it makes hard conversations easier, right? Because it doesn't align with the vision It makes growth conversations so much easier and oftentimes think about like, you know I'm always looking at like the physical fitness space, right? Because that's super important to me. And so if I can sit here and say like well, I want to get stronger this year Great, but what what do I mean by that? Why do I want to do that? like do I want to do that because if I know that I want to do that because   I don't know, I want to race my kid down the street and I want to be faster or I want to be able to just like be there for them forever or I want to not have joint pain or whatever it is that like, why do I want to get stronger? I'm so much more intuitive in like the pieces that I do to get there. If I know that like I don't want my joints to hurt, then the exercises that I pick are going to look very, very different than like, if I want to be the fastest mom in the neighborhood.   right? Well, I do to be the fastest mom in the neighborhood looks very different than if I'm just looking at my joints, right? Because I probably am not going to be running a ton if it's my choice that are and why I want to be there. So I think like when you have a vision and when you know why it also helps you map your roadmap out to be much more clear and and have team members that are just much more bought in because they know why we're doing that they know what   The Dental A Team (07:40) Mm-hmm.   Fair.   DAT-Dana (08:07) we're going to get out of doing that. Whether it's we get to now treat a thousand more patients, whether it is we get to bring in another doctor, whether it is we get to bring on new team members that we get to connect with.   The Dental A Team (08:19) Yeah, I totally agree. I love the fitness aspect because it's so easily relatable. think for anyone, whether you're into fitness or not, it's an easy, tangible piece to relate to. ⁓ And I think with that, it's like you set your goal, right? And then you work backwards. Same with your vision driven goal. Like my goal was always when Brody was little, I remember the day that I was like, I will not huff up these stairs anymore. I will not tell my kid we got to play later because I'm tired.   ever again. Like this is not okay. And so, and it wasn't even just the weight loss. wasn't like, it was literally just being physically fit enough that I could keep up with my kid was my goal. And then they grow up and they're 17 and you got to find a new reason. But t

    24 min

  7. MAR 26

    Are You the CEO Your Practice Needs?

    Kiera is a guest on The Extraction, a podcast by TeamCare, to talk about accountability without the drama. She, along with co-hosts Kyle Bergman and Dr. Sharon Bleiler, discuss the sometimes difficult realities of what it takes to be a good leader versus a great leader.  Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today we are sharing a guest interview I did on another podcast. And it was too valuable not to bring you guys here.   this episode, you're gonna hear this host lead the conversation and then I'll wrap us up at the end. I cannot wait. It was truly one of my   episodes and I truly hope you enjoy.   The Dental A Team (00:18) everyone and welcome back to The Extraction podcast. Your cohost Kyle here today with my cohost and the co-founder of TeamCare, Dr. Sharon Bleiler. And today we are joined by Kiera Dent, who is the CEO and founder of Dental A Team, a consulting and training company focused on profitability, systems, accountability.   culture and leadership in dental practices. Kiera has worked nearly every role inside of a practice, which is a big part of why her content lands with both owners and teams. So in this episode, we are going to be riffing a little bit about everything and anything that goes into making a practice smarter, scaling from a leadership, bonding. We're going to talk a little bit about AI and efficiency. And so stick around. This is a good one. Kiera.   Welcome to The Extraction. How are you? Amazing guys. Thank you so much for having me. I've been super pumped to get on the podcast. Definitely a big fan over here. Excited to just rift on all things dental. I mean, my last name is Dent. So it's definitely my cup of tea here and excited to be with you guys today. So thanks for the warm welcome. Absolutely. And thank you again for taking the time to join us. I know you're super busy and congrats on all the success you've had building dental.   A team. One of the first questions I love to ask is what brought you to the dental industry? Not necessarily something that people grow up aspiring to be back when we want to be firefighters, astronauts or Olympians, but what brought you into it? Curious. mean, great question. It's funny. I remember in first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Larson had us like right out where we wanted to be. You guys, I have gone all over the map. I went from being like, I wanted to be a hotel cleaner. That was a big dream of mine. I was like, I want to be a hotel.   cleaner mom, like it's gonna be amazing to wanting to be a vet. I don't even really like animals. Like you can judge me harshly right now. And I was like, vet all the way up to I wanted to have, I wanted to break the world record and have 99 kids because I was like, listen, and then I'll just have like, I had already thought in processes at that point in my life. Like if I just like meet with them like one day a year, I could see each of them three times a year to then being like, listen, I just want to like wear scrubs for my life. And so was either like be a nurse and learn the whole body or be a dental assistant and just learn the mouth.   So that's actually what got me into dentistry was the desire to wear scrubs. Also, I became varsity tennis player, not because I love varsity, I just wanted to wear the cute skirt. Like that was really my motive in life. So I clearly am like a mixed bag over here of why I got here. But I actually then got into dental assisting. It was very fun, loved it. And then I went to college and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I settled on wanting to be a marriage and family therapist. And I remember   I was sitting in my interview, I was in Oklahoma and I was interviewing to get my degree and master's get accepted to school. They asked me questions and I was thinking about my patients back at the dental office. And it was a, I call these like the pivotal moments where I sat there and was like, Keara, do you really want to be a marriage and family therapist? The fact that you're sitting in this interview, you've worked hard. mean, passing the GRE is freaking hard. So like even to get there, I was like, do you actually want to be this marriage and family therapist? And it was a moment where I was like,   I think I actually absolutely love dentistry and that's where I'm meant to be and what I love to do. And then you fast forward a little bit further and now we're in consulting and I feel like I've been able to blend my love of the marriage and family therapy, of the love of people and wanting to solve problems, but I get to do it in a space of dentistry that I feel is just magical to change lives. So that's kind of my like roundabout random story of going from hotel cleaner to veterinarian to becoming a dental consultant. And I feel like I really did that like sweet landing of a space that I'm obsessed with of helping people.   And I say, dentistry is my platform, life is my passion, and to be able to bring that to the table is very fun. Kiera, that makes so much sense that you married those two because I watched your video on your website, and I've been a dentist for a while, and you you hit it out of the park. As soon as I watched it, I'm like, yes, it's really hard. Yes, you love it, but yes, you're trying, you always have, I always say like you have one wheel off the wagon and you're always trying to get it back together. that you were in counseling and yeah, you got it.   Thank you. In our research of looking at what you've done, Kiera, I see a lot of similarities in your leadership style along with Dr. Sharon's here. One of my favorite all time quotes from any human is when Dr. Sharon said, you know why I'm a good dentist and a good manager and a good owner, Kyle? It's because I raised four kids. It's because I was a mother.   Because I was a mom first. You talk a lot about accountability without drama. Noble Dentistry, our in-house brand underneath TeamCare, is run equal parts Iron Fist and a lot of empathy. Everyone there, it's an excellent practice. 14 operatories, seven associate doctors, millions of dollars a year. It got there under the leadership of Dr. Sharon and the incredible technology that builds Power's TeamCare.   But Dr. Sharon lives and breathes set every day, accountability without drama, being direct with people, having meaningful conversations. What in your experience does that actually look like in a real office? Yeah, well, mean, Dr. Sharon, I love your story and I love what you've built. I think like powerhouse and that is not an easy feat. with physically my body's been, think, in over 300 dental practices in the course of my career. Our team, think, has physically been in over a thousand. So like...   To say that I've seen a few dental practices in my time is not a lie. And to see people that are able to grow to the magnitude that you've been able to is something that I think there are, there are traits, there are characteristics, there are pieces. And it was interesting because I think like one, you're an insane example and everybody listening, like kudos because you've got a great example. Dr. Sharon, I'm freaking proud of you and I love what you've built and I love what you've created and.   Everybody listening is really lucky to be able to hear your successes and to learn from you. The second thing I want to say is we had an in-person mastermind with our doctors and we bring them all together and it was something I did not want to do. Like literally I was like, I'm not doing masterminds guys, like everybody does masterminds and our doctors like, Kiera, please bring us together. And I'm like, listen, this is not my cup of tea. Like I'm a girl who loves to be on stage, but then I definitely love to just like shut it off and not be on stage anymore.   Events, feel like they just linger longer forever. So I am the girl who puts on an event and then you don't see me at all. Like it's like a goodbye, wave goodbye to the children, send them on their way. And like, I don't want to see you until the next morning. And, but I noticed in there that when you ask about the questions of accountability and iron fist and different things, there was a moment that I hadn't realized until just two weeks ago. And I've even watched myself, we're 10 years into the company now. And I think that there's an evolution of leadership. And I think Dr. Sharon, you'd probably agree to this that.   I think there's the firefighter stage when you first start and you're like bros and gals with your team. And you're really in this like, I want to be best friends. And I actually think it blurs the lines of accountability really hard for these new owners, but they want to keep the team and they want to have good vibes. Like I was talking to a tennis the other day and she's like, I just love my practice. She's three months in Dr. Sharon. So we know she's still in like the honeymoon phase. And she's like, I just love my team and they're so great. And we just like all have the best thing and we hang out all the time. And it's just great vibes.   And I thought, honey, I'm so freaking pumped for you to experience. It's Sharon's laughing. She's like, you get it, you have it, you understand. I think that as you evolve, you start to recognize, and I said this quote the other day to a dentist, said, there will be points in your career that you are loved, there will be points in your career that you are hated, but I hope where you actually land is respected. And I think when you can have the filter of, how can I be a respected team leader? How can I be a respected CEO?   You start to make decisions of accountability that are firm, that are fair, that are consistent. And that is what teams ultimately are looking for. They're not looking for you to be b

    34 min

  8. MAR 25

    Seriously, Stop Shying Away From Accountability

    Does it seem like there are communication troubles in your practice? Spoiler alert: That usually has to do with accountability. Kiera and Dana riff on why creating an accountability ladder a) isn't as difficult as you think, and b) will save tons of time, energy, and money. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I've got the one and only Dana back with me today. I wanted to podcast with Dana, so I ⁓ maybe selfishly took her for two podcasts today. So Dana, welcome back to the podcast. How are you today?   DAT-Dana (00:12) Doing pretty good, I'm ready for round two.   The Dental A Team (00:15) Good. I do love podcasting because Dana and I were just able to rift and jive and it's fun. I think when you work with people for quite a while and you both have a ton of passion, makes podcasting very easy. So Dana, I wanted to just kick us off today on, I think, accountable teams. I think accountability is a buzzword in practices and people might be like, womp, womp, accountability. But I'm going to say like, no, it's not womp, womp. It's a, if you don't have accountability, your team is freaking chaos. And yet I think   offices don't want to have accountability and then we're going to do a pivot of like what happens if your doctor doesn't want to be accountable. So tune in. I hope you guys are ready. We're going to dive into it because it happens and I don't just think it's teams that aren't accountable. It's also doctors that aren't accountable. Like what do do because if accountability is such a like ick and issue and constant stressor for everybody. Well, like what the heck? Like how do we, how do we fix this and overcome? So Dana, let's dig in. Let's talk about like   I'm gonna just walk us through. It's gonna be a short rift today, but walk me through like, we get new offices. And I found that usually the number one issue they have is communication, which usually leads down to accountability. That's at least what I find. But I think that it's like, well, where do you start and how do you know like, is my team accountable? Is it not like, what do accountable teams look like? What do accountable teams not look like? Walk me down through like what you see in the practices you consult.   DAT-Dana (01:35) Yeah, I agree with you. It typically will come down to communication. And so when I talk to a team about accountability, I always say, there's accountability ladder, right? So we have to hold ourselves accountable first, right? Then we've got leadership team to hold us accountable. And then we've got practice owner typically there at the top. But there's always a caveat to that. And that is it has to be seen from the top down. So yes, we have to hold those lines. We have to follow those ladders as far as the chain of accountability. But   the tone for accountability is set from the top down. So if we don't have an accountable practice owner, we're probably not gonna have accountable leaders, which means we're not gonna have an accountable team. And so that's usually how I kind of open that discussion and that it does really come down to communication and some personal integrity, right? If we say we're gonna do something, do it. And if we notice that somebody isn't, have the conversation. So like you said, it really truly comes down to 100%.   of communication ⁓ and clear expectations.   The Dental A Team (02:39) Yeah. Gosh, Dana, like I love the accountability letter. Thank you. I have not heard that from you. So I think that's a fun, like you're right. It does start as you. And then it goes to your leadership team or your direct manager. And then it goes to the practice owner. And as you said that, just thought like, my husband and I were chatting the other day and something Jason, hi, I don't know why I do the things I do half the time. Jason and I were watching love is blind. So we decided to say like, okay, if we were in the pods, what questions would we ask each other?   And Jason, think Jason is a very, uh, he hears what's not being said. And Jason said, I would ask the question of what things are going to make it really easy to be in a relationship with you and what things are going to make it really hard to be in a relationship with you. And I was like, that's pretty good. Pretty great question. And I told Jason, I said, like, one of the things for me with Jason is a lot of times Jason, feel, um, tries to kind of like form himself into the relationship he is. And so he'll maybe not say everything a hundred percent the way like,   Like we had an issue and he was like, you know, like, and tried to just like almost sugar coat it for the person. And I, I called JSAO. I was like, Jay, why, like, why, why don't you just say like, I'm sorry. And Jason told me, he said like, well, in this scenario I'm embarrassed because I didn't do X, Y, or Z. And, ⁓ gosh, this is coming from years and years and years of coaching. ⁓ so that's the only reason I was able to see it. And thankfully Jason and I have a very open relationship where like he tells me like the hardest thing for me is like, girl, you gotta let go of control. think Dana would agree.   Like I need to just let go and like trust people like that is my zone. So he will call me out of like care. That's like you're controlling, like just let it go. Thank you. ⁓ and for him, I was like, just having that personal integrity, I know will give you confidence cause I've done it as well. So for example, if I'm embarrassed with something, say like, Hey, I missed that and I'm really sorry. Like I dropped the ball, but even in those small little instances of like, I don't know if like Dana, I was supposed to do a podcast and I messed up with her. It's like, Hey Dana, I'm real sorry. I dropped the ball on that podcast.   You can count on me in the future to do X, Y, Z. And in those small little subtle areas, I think that that's where you start to build personal accountability and confidence. And then like you said, Dana, it then is like peer to peer. And I know it gets weird and people are like, I'd rather not tell my team. I'm like, really? Cause let's just play, let's play the game. We either tell our team members and we have direct honest communication where we're able to have that. Or we sit in artificial harmony where everyone's walking on eggshells. Like you choose me, which practice you actually want to live in. And then that's also going to help us start to have that.   And I do think, Dana, like as consultants, it's really fun to be able to open the floor to teach people like, okay, let's start with ourselves. And like, this is how we're going to have personal integrity. Like you literally say what you, if you tell someone you're going to get back to them by Friday, you get back to them by Friday. And we start with these little accountability check-ins. Like if you messed up, you take ownership for that and you say what people can count on you for. Then we go into like this week, everyone's going to hold each other accountable to one thing. So everybody's going to do that together. Like   We all know everyone's got the floor. We go around the room and ask like, Dana, are you good if people hold you accountable? If they see something and she's like, yes, you get every person to say yes, because now we've got buy-in from the team. We have it. Now they all start to hold to their accountable. And Dana, I guess the question is like, does this really work or is this just consultant theory of like a pipe dream that nobody actually ever gets to?   DAT-Dana (05:51) ⁓ I I truly and honestly think it actually works I think that people just have to be willing to dig in they have to be willing to get a little bit uncomfortable and they have to be willing to work on communication so never am I like okay just freely go and have these conversations right we talk about how to communicate we talk about like have you noticed somebody isn't receiving what you said very well right read body language and understand hey this is what I wanted you to hear it looks like maybe that upset you a little bit   The Dental A Team (06:07) You   DAT-Dana (06:21) Can you tell me where I maybe lost it or can I start over? So it really then truly comes down to breaking down communication. And I think that teams that can learn to navigate conflict, that can learn to navigate these hard conversations, I honestly and truly feel like it is doable.   The Dental A Team (06:24) Mm-hmm.   And I agree with you, Dana, because we've watched it and I have teams, your highest producing less stressed practices are the ones that are accountable. And like you said, it starts top down. So, and what I can count on, and it's always crazy because I can tell if I give a doctor action items within our coaching call, if they get them back to me within the week, I know that team's going to be an accountable team. If that doctor misses every coaching call and gives me excuses every time, I know the team's going to be a struggle.   and the doctor's going to blame the team and say, team's not accountable. And Dana and I have the really fun job of saying, well, let's first work on action items with us. Because if you can get to be like, if you tell me you're going give this to me by Friday, I'm going to expect you to get it to me by Friday. Because it's those small micro integrity pieces that I feel people don't think are important. But to me, I feel like it's the floodgate to saying, like, do we actually do what we say we're going to do? Or is it just a free for all? Like, we just talk nonsense and it doesn't matter.   And I think owners and doctors, like if you tell your team you're going to produce, you got to produce. If you tell your team that these are the goals, but you're not wi

    19 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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