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. 1 DAY AGO

    #952: This Practice Has No Hygienist (and is Successful!)

    Kiera is joined by Mike and Stephanie Walton of Walton Family Dentistry in Bardstown, Kentucky. For the past almost year, the Waltons have not had a hygienist in their office. They talk with Kiera about why they were struggling to keep one staffed, what led them to stop having one in the first place, and how they efficiently and profitably operate to this day without a hygienist. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:05.844) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and today is such a special episode. I am so excited. I am being joined by our incredible clients. I've got Mike and Stephanie Walton. They are running such an incredible practice. They are doing something so different, so unique, and I just wanted them to come on and share just about themselves. I think they're just a great example for so many offices out there. So Stephanie and Mike, welcome to the show. How are you today?   Mike Walton (00:30.602) Doing great, doing great. Thanks for having us on.   Stephanie (00:33.948) Thank you so much.   Kiera Dent (00:35.114) Yes, absolutely. And I'll do better. I'll ask like Mike this, Stephanie that, because I know when there's three of us on here, can get a little funny, I'll just have Mike, I'll have you kind of kick this off. You two are incredible. I finally met you for the first time. We've worked together for so long. Tiffanie's your main consultant, but it was really dreamy when I got to meet you in June at the Dennis Money Show with Dennis Advisors.   Stephanie (00:39.209) .   Kiera Dent (00:59.07) So super fun, I'm excited to see you guys in person really soon too, but Mike, I'll have you just kick us off, kind of tell us a little bit about your practice, where you guys are at, kind of the dynamics of what you guys do in your practice. So the audience gets to know Mike and Stephanie Walton's office.   Mike Walton (01:11.809) Great. So we are central Kentucky, little south of Louisville. So we're in a town called Bardstown. That's the bourbon capital of the world and the most beautiful small town award that we've received as well.   Stephanie (01:27.244) In America.   Kiera Dent (01:28.69) I agree. And you also bring the best candies and treats with you. Like they loaded us up when they came and met us. Bourbon Central, it was amazing. It was great. I was so like, it was so, the Carmel Stephanie, top notch, incredible. That was my favorite. So thank you.   Mike Walton (01:43.318) Well, and Kara, have to say, you know, when I first saw you there, you know, of course we've seen each other on the think tank and, I saw you across the room and I was like, Hey, there's Kara. And I was like, she probably don't know who I am. We've never met before officially.   Stephanie (01:44.759) You're welcome. Majestics.   Kiera Dent (01:46.961) Exactly.   Kiera Dent (02:01.086) I did it. Well, cause you know, you guys can see Mike, like there's video of him, Mike always, so we have, meant in think tank, which is our doctor mastermind every the first Tuesday of every month that we have. And Mike always wears his Yankees hat. Always. He always has a hat on. So even tonight I'm like, Mike, what are you doing? I'm not even going to recognize you. And you're right. I was like, where's your Yankees hat? That's fair. All right. So you guys are in Kentucky.   Mike Walton (02:19.4) I'm saving it for next season.   Kiera Dent (02:27.103) Tell us kind of the dynamics of your practice. How long have you been practicing? What does this practice look like?   Mike Walton (02:30.026) So I've been practicing, it'll be 22 years in June. Started out in partnerships and then went out on my own about six years ago. So we are a small office where you are about five operatories. It's one doctor. And then right now it's four assistants, two front desk and then office manager.   Stephanie (02:35.246) you   Kiera Dent (02:56.552) And did you hear there's no hygienist, which is what we're going to lead into of how Mike went from a hygiene practice where he had hygienist to the shortage. was crunch time. Like he couldn't figure out how to, like it was so hard to hire. And so that's what I'm super excited to talk about. There was literally four assistants, no hygienist. Stephanie, tell us about your place. How are you in the practice? How did you get involved? I mean, you must really love Mike to be working there. You're even like scrubbed up over there, girl. It's not like you just shop. Tell us kind of how you.   Stephanie (03:07.129) you   So I could tell that he was kind of unhappy at the last place and I was like, you know, it doesn't have to be that way. And so we started doing some research about how to open an office because they don't tell you a lot of business in dental school. And I had my own career and we had three little kids, but I wanted him to be happy. And we found ideal practices and they helped us open the office up and it was well worth the money.   And so that's how I got in there with him. And it was just he and I and an assistant and a hygienist when we started. And now we have two wonderful girls at the front desk. And so they do the majority of running the day-to-day stuff and I get to do the stuff that expands the practice and things like that. So we've come a long way, especially with your all's help.   Kiera Dent (04:16.54) amazing. Tiffanie loves you. She raves about you. guys, every time you're on her coaching call schedule, Tiffanie is like, I get to talk to the Waltons today. Like truly, it has been such an incredible relationship. She adores you. And Stephanie, I love that you love Mike so much. And I think that that's just so telling of who you two are as a couple, what your practice is, the vibe you have, really just coming together as a couple. So now everyone is wondering and I'm wondering, like, how did you guys even come to this decision to have no hygiene? And how is that even like   operating. Like I need to know this because when you mentioned it on think tank, I didn't realize because I'm not on all of your calls that you literally had zero hygienist in your practice and it's been that way for a little while. So whomever wants to like take this on, I don't know whose brainy idea it was, like how did you guys even come to this decision and how is it going and give me all the things.   Mike Walton (05:04.002) Well, I think what kind of led to, know, after COVID came through, you know, the number of hygienists went way down and, you know, it was constant turnover. It was, you know, they were in such demand and every office needed them that it was constantly training and getting them adapted to how we like things done. And then   Stephanie (05:19.492) Okay.   Mike Walton (05:30.66) somebody else would make a better offer and then they would go. And you know, their schedule would be booked out six to eight months and they'd give you a two week notice. And it was super stressful because you know, then we're faced with, well, we're running an ad, there's no way we're gonna get somebody to replace you in two weeks. And it got to the point where it was like, do we reschedule all these people or do we squeeze them in? And we were squeezing them in.   Kiera Dent (05:34.666) Mm.   Kiera Dent (05:42.377) Yep.   Mike Walton (06:00.778) And it was stress and stress and stress and more stress. And then we got to the point where we're like, we can't do this anymore. and you know, you'd go through the cycle where you'd finally get somebody to bite on your ad, you'd get them in the office. And then, you know, I think about every maybe three or four months, it was turnover. And we were going through the same thing again. And we finally got, we're like, how do we, how do we get out of this terrible cycle of.   Stephanie (06:19.136) you   Mike Walton (06:30.441) of one, having to train, and two, having to deal with a six month schedule that's booked out for a two week notice. And the team was feeling that too. It wasn't just us because they were picking up a lot of the slack. And so we were like, gosh, if we keep doing this, they're going to get frustrated. We're going to lose the whole team. And then what are we going to do?   Stephanie (06:53.736) And we have a wonderful team. The  assistants are wonderful and the two at the front desk, shout out to Haley and Jessica. They are great.   Kiera Dent (07:03.346) Yeah. Stephanie, how did you feel going through this? Did you agree with Mike? Were you like, let's just cut bait and try and see if we can figure this out? Or were you like, let's not do that. I mean, the traditional model is we need hygienists. We know we need two hygienists for every doctor. Like, Stephanie, what was your take? Because I think if I was in your shoes, I have a reasonable level of risk, but I'm also very risk adverse. And so how is it for you? I mean, this is your livelihood. You two are a couple in this. You went away. You've given up your career. You're in this now. Stephanie, how is that for you?   making this decision to go hygiene-less in a practice.   Stephanie (07:36.508) you end up with kind of your opposite when you marry you know and so I'm the kind of like let's don't miss the boat and he's like that let's not rock the boat kind of person so so this was my idea like I was like   Kiera Dent (07:48.042) Okay. I love it. I knew it was. I didn't even know, but I was like, I bet it was Stephanie's. Just knowing you two, I'm like, I bet.   Mike Walton (07:54.627) But that's what I was gonna say is that I think you're directing this question to the wrong person.   Kiera Dent (08:02.612) Yeah   Stephanie (08:03.274) So I'm always like, well, what about this? And what about this? And what about this? And they're like, you're wearing us ou

    43 min
  2. 2 DAYS AGO

    #951: Using AI + Other Tech in Your Practice

    Artificial intelligence is steadily growing as a presence in our personal and professional lives. In this episode, Tiff and Dana talk about how AI can be used effectively in practices, game-changing technology in recent years, and the never-out-of-style human interaction among it all. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript The Dental A Team (00:01.681) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited. We are second month of a new year, and that means you should be tracking your goals. If you're a Dental A Team client, you have this amazing new scorecard that we've introduced that my personal clients have freaking loved. And being able to see where those goals are so quickly in the month and being able to track along and see what we need to do to pivot or change or continue growth has been really cool. So welcome to new month, new year.   knew you. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. I know you have a ton of clients that have been onboarded with that scorecard and doing super well as well. How is this new year treating you? This 2025, how's it going, Dana?   Dana (00:46.03) Oh, it's going pretty well. Happy New Year to you and everyone listening. Yeah, I'm super excited about the scorecard. Clients seem to really like it and I think it'll just be a game changer for 2025 to keep everybody just intentional and focused on the things to move forward. So I'm really looking forward to 2025.   The Dental A Team (01:04.136) Yeah, me too. Me too. I have a client that I talked to actually this morning that was like, well, we needed to make some adjustments to the scorecard to fit their practice, which is why we say that we're customizable because anything that we do, it's got to be custom fit to that practice. So we had made some adjustments in there and then.   I was like, you know, you guys, know that you're tracking everything. Like this office manager is meticulously tracking everything in the practice. So I said, this is like an overview. Like my meticulous tracker is like an overview for you guys. So make it your own. Let's figure it out. But I told her there's so many practices out there that don't know what to track or how to track it or how to see the trends within the numbers. And her mind was just blown.   She's the wife, they've owned the dental practice for years and years and years and years. They've been in dentistry forever. So she's learned all of that along the way, but she was just mind blown at how some people just don't know. And I didn't know when I first started managing, I was like, what do all these numbers mean? And we all have to learn somewhere. So it's just been really cool to watch everyone continue that growth in the new year and really, like you said, track along with those goals and see.   what can be done to manipulate and change the results to create something magical. Whatever it is that you want, can change those tracking metrics and change those results to create something really cool. Within that conversation, I'm excited about today, because today, Dana, we just prepped for this. And I think your track that you're thinking for this conversation today is so beautiful. We talk a lot about new dental tech is what I'll air quote it as.   kind of like new things on the scene. And it's really easy to talk about scanners and lasers and all of those CBCTs and all the different things in the practice that we can implement kind of in the clinical aspect. I really love what you are talking about now with all the other pieces. There's so much AI coming into play. And that's what you had mentioned Dana. And I really want to chat about that because it's so cool.   The Dental A Team (03:06.342) I know I chat GPT, especially on my personal side. like, I create and think of so much stuff, you know, for Dental A Team, I'm sure you do the same, you create so much for us and our content. I know on my personal side, I'm like, Ben, chat GPT, tell me what to do. that, like, AI has really come into play strong, I would say in the last year. And this year, even a month and a half or whatever into the year feels like   Like it's a do or die. Like you're using AI. There's just no two ways about it. So how have you seen in your practices currently, the AI bots come into play and all those pieces aside from chat GPT that can help with the patient response. But how have you seen those AI tools really be being implemented? And then I want to think about how do we see like the future, what that's going to look like as well.   Dana (03:58.528) Yeah, I think it's actually pretty incredible some of the new like dental AI stuff that's coming out essentially now you can use AI to be almost like a receptionist or a part of especially your front office team. Lots of dental tech companies coming out with   They can, you know, the chat bot or the AI bot can take care of missed calls or after hours calls. So now patients can have communication with you 24 hours a day, not just when your office is open. Being able to log into your system and actually schedule the patient without you there.   The Dental A Team (04:35.067) Mm-hmm.   Dana (04:38.23) and doing it really actually pretty well. And then sending, you know, a lot of the AI, the reception, it's like, then they send you, you know, an overview of the call so that you know exactly what was said, you can add in any notes that you want. So it truly can be as if they called while somebody was in the practice. And so AI is really coming in strong this year, especially in the dental world. And I'm excited, you know, I know a lot of offices in my calls, it's like they struggle with call volume, and they struggle with   The Dental A Team (05:06.285) That's nice.   Dana (05:08.685) getting their team members to be able to handle the volume of calls that are coming in and still get their tasks done. So when you have something that can easily handle that overflow and keep you going and keep you moving forward and you can still have a pulse on it, I think it's actually really cool.   The Dental A Team (05:14.163) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (05:23.313) I agree, and it makes me think of vacation time too, because there's so many practices that don't have 20 team members that if people are taking vacation or if doctor wants to take vacation, there's not two associates to take over the schedule. And so it's like the practice is closing down. But one of the biggest fears I think a lot of practice owners have is shutting down the practice means there could be a week or how many other days of patient calls and patient interactions that are missed.   Sometimes we don't have the staff to be like, hey, sometimes they want to take vacation with you, know, or the same time as you. So that's what it made me think of too, is, well, grab a bot for, you know, that we have somebody maybe checking in on it and looking at it. Obviously, we don't fully trust it yet. They haven't taken over the world just yet. But having somebody monitor it, but for vacations, things like that, you said the after hours kind of extends into that. Or Fridays, a lot of doctors, and it's a lot of new patient opportunities on Fridays because...   dentistry. You know, we love being off on Fridays as often as we can as well. But a lot of companies are actually off on Fridays or have flex Fridays. And so sometimes I think for the just humans in general for the population, Fridays are kind of a catch up day where we're making appointments, we're calling in, we're asking questions and we're getting appointments done. And so we miss a lot of opportunities there. And the dreaded Monday fell apart.   Dana (06:44.91) Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (06:45.046) So, you know, it might still fall apart. You might still get those calls, but at least it's not walking into 30 voicemails on Monday morning and then being like, oh my gosh, everything we talked about in huddle is just completely destroyed because everybody fell off the schedule or whatever. So I love that. I love that. Have you seen to I know there's a lot of third party companies, Modento and Dental Intel and Diversion, all those companies. Have you seen to I haven't like looked into it. So I'm asking.   For reals, if they're using any of those tools yet within their stuff, think Modento had some stuff like on the wire. I'm not sure, but, any opportunities or anything for like confirmations, right? Cause I know, I guess like Modento has done voicemail jobs. So it's like, we're already partially there with like voicemail jobs and the automated, voicemails or phone calls for re-care and things like that. So how do you think that'll affect having the AI bot I feel like is so much more.   customizable and you can like give it rules. can give it lingo and verbiage and just kind of different things. So how do you see that transitioning for companies like that too?   Dana (07:55.734) Yeah, I can't say that I've seen any of the companies integrate it yet. I do think it's coming, but I do think some of the newer companies that are doing AI really well and are coming out, they are offering those things like confirmation calls, like re care calls. You can get your basically AI receptionist to do those things for you. And truly, I think because it is customizable, it also does feel more as if it is a human versus those automated text messages that as much as we try to make them warm and   The Dental A Team (08:19.937) Yeah. Yeah.   Dana (08:25.592) friendly and specific and just from our office, right? AI, think is a little bit of a step above that.   The Dental A Team (08:33.717) Yeah, I agree. I agree. think it's caveat, I know I said chat GPT and I know a lot of people love verbiage. think Dana and I get a lot of, and the other, other consultants as well. But I know Dana and I for sure get

    25 min
  3. 3 DAYS AGO

    #950: Staying Up-To-Date: Dentistry’s Latest Techniques + Technology

    Do you ever feel like there’s too much happening in dentistry to keep your head on straight? Kiera talks about 4 ways you can stay up to date without being overwhelmed: Listen to podcasts Attend conferences Join a consulting group Find what you’re passionate about Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.554) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the podcast. I hope today is just a magical day for you. I hope that you're having just a great time and I hope that you just remember that we're in the greatest space possible. We get to be in dentistry. We get to help people. We get to literally help people have greater smiles and greater happiness in life. And I think that that is one of the most incredible things that we get to be a part of. So thank you for being a part of our family. Thank you for being on the podcast with us.   Thank you for listening in, get ready. We're gonna actually start to have a lot of you join us on the podcast. I have a new idea that's ready to trickle out and I hope you are excited for it. I wanna get to know more of you. I want to hear from more of you. So get ready, it's coming for you. Today is going to be kind of a funny topic. I thought it was funny. I have our team, they're super kind, our marketing team, shout out to them. They actually go and they read Facebook groups and they read.   different areas, they read a lot of dental information and they're constantly watching things and they listen for what you guys are emailing in on, which you could always email me a podcast topic. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I love to hear from you. love pen pals. and so our team, they go out and they scope and I read this one and I said, I don't want to podcast on that. and then I read through, they have a nice list for me of about seven pages of topics for me, which is super nice. And this topic was on there like,   It was here. And then I looked on the list and it was here again. And I thought, okay, fine. I will talk about a topic. And I hope that this is helpful for you. And the question is like how to stay updated on all the new dental technology and how to keep my team educated and up to date with the latest techniques and technology. And to me, this feels like a no brainer, but I realized this is obviously a question that you guys have. So let's answer it. All right. So welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm going to teach you how to do this, how we do it, how we help other offices do it.   And again, something that I thought was so just everyday knowledge isn't. So here we go. That's why we had the podcast. That's why we share. And if you love our podcast, please do me a solid favor, go like, review and share with somebody today. Okay, so ways that we were able to do this. Number one, you're doing a great job. You're listening to a podcast. So high five there. I try really hard to bring people to the industry that I've met, that I talk to, but it is tricky. And it's like, how do we know that these people are the best? So find somebody who's a trusted source.   Kiera Dent (02:19.774) within the industry that you can trust. I have prided myself for years that I started Dental A Team because of Midwestern students. Shout out to all my Midwestern students out there. I noticed that in dental school, they were gonna get freaking eaten alive coming out into the world of dentistry. And it's like, how do you trust different reps? Because people are so good at selling you on the latest technology and the latest this and the latest that, that it's kind of scary.   And so that was something that I wanted to do is to be a resource, to be a beacon, to help you know, these are people I've vetted. Just so you know, any sponsor I bring on, they have to work with us. They have to do different pieces. They have to let me beta test on them of other practices before I will even introduce them. So I have quite a few people in the back burner at all times that I'm testing, that I'm vetting, that I wanna make sure that they're getting results before I bring them onto the podcast. I got burned a little bit early on. And also if you listen to past podcasts,   that company might not stay the top of the list. I'm constantly looking for it and I tell offices like you might not get to be or sponsors. I will always be looking and if someone comes in better than you, they will get promoted from me. So I think that that's one zone. Like I've told Zeke at Swell, if anybody comes onto the market that's better doing Google reviews than him, I will definitely promote them. As of today,   Zeke is still the number one way that I get Google reviews for clients. They tell me all the time, Kiera, but we have it in this software, this software. I say, guess what? Zeke does it for, think like 149 or 199 a month. And I have offices who I literally beta tested on who got over 50 reviews in one month from using Swell. They have grown their practice from having like three new patients a month, I'm not joking, to having over 45 new patients a month by using Swell. People ask, how did you do it, Kiera? And I'm like, honestly, it was Google reviews and time. That's it.   And so for that, I will promote them. And so when you're curious about how do we find this up to date of new technologies, I think listening to podcasts and listening to trusted sources out there, like AI and different pieces, I also think going to conferences. So the way I actually meet a ton of our sponsors and speakers and different people are through conferences. I go to these conventions and I go meet people and then I go test their products and then I work with them and I figure out and I have a lot of our clients are beta testers for me and they'll try them out and I get free trials for them.   Kiera Dent (04:35.566) but going to your conferences in your areas, not only is great for a CE, but go meet people. And I know it can be annoying to be sold all the time, but it can be helpful. And so for example, like right now, the greatest AI on the market is between Overjet and Pearl. Those are the top two for adding AI onto your X-rays to help you co-diagnose, to helping you with that. They're the best on the market. I love Pearl. That's the one we've selected to go with. We have an affiliate relationship with them where I get the most preferred pricing for all of our clients.   So if you're interested in that, be sure to reach out. We can help you connect with them and get that discounted rate. But this is how we do it. Also, I think online, like watching reels as silly as that sounds, but there's a lot on Instagram and TikTok and things like that. But then questioning it as well of is this really real and what really is needed for my practice? So right now AI is hot. So let's be looking at AI and what things could we implement into our practice. And it's one of those things I don't like to be the earliest adopter, but I also don't want to be the person who never adopted and I actually got left behind.   So when we're looking for this new technology, we're looking for these new things, attending those pieces, watching it, and then doing our own individual research. Like you can email me anytime, hey Kiera, have you heard about this company? I love it when people do that. Cause one, you expose me to other companies and two, I'm able to then go research them, vet them, and then bring it to the podcast and share. Because my goal is within our community, within consulting, I love it. We bring our offices together. And this is actually how I also learn about a lot of things. And that would be my third point of like, join a consulting group.   I know I'm a consultant, so hopefully you want to choose the Dental A Team, but join a consulting group that brings people together, that shares. We bring our doctors together every single month, and then we meet in person actually twice a year. And it's because I want you to mastermind and I want you to talk to each other, and I want you to figure out what are the best ideas, what are the best resources, who are you using for this, who are you using for that? Because just hearing and talking with other people, it's like, my gosh, I didn't even know that. In our company, we call it Tip Tuesday.   And every Tuesday, our team member brings pieces to the tables. Like today, Shelby brought like a window cleaner. And it seems so silly, but I think back to community, right? Think back to back in the day when we didn't have technology and we weren't all connected virtually, we were connected in person. And when you're in person, you chat. And when you chat, you share your secrets and you share the best things that work for you. And so like Shelby sharing a glass cleaner that's $2.89 on Amazon, life-changing.   Kiera Dent (06:59.234) But without community and without chatting, that's something that I would have just gone on my merry way continuing to buy Windex that is the strongest being promoted product out there. And it sounds so silly, but it's tips like that. What are the little things you're doing in your practice? What are the elite practices doing? What are other offices doing? And let's all share. And it's not just the elite practices. It's a lot of startups. Startups are scrappy. They've got other resources. But like I talked to my gym trainer and we used to virtually coach. And then I went in person with her.   And instantly I'm connected to people for the podcast and people for social media and different people for whatever it is because I'm with her. And so getting together with a consulting group that meets in person or meets virtually that shares ideas, our community goes wild and it's incredible to see them all sharing, hey, what cosmetic group do you want to go to? Or, hey, what's a great resource for this? Or what's a great t

    14 min
  4. JAN 30

    #949: Add Back $600K-$1M to Your Practice

    Did you know you’re losing $600,000 to $1 million by having open time in your schedule? Kiera talks about what is likely impacting your schedule and how to fix it (without working overtime). Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.974) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is just a great day and I hope you're having a great day. I hope that you remember you are changing people's lives through dentistry. Like what you're doing, know billing, hygiene, hygiene checks, dentistry, doing the exams, doing the numbers, looking at the profitability, running the business doesn't feel like you're changing lives, but you are. You're giving people the confidence of their smiles and their healthy mouths. You're helping them have long-term systemic health. You're saving them from period disease. You're helping them have like   preventing the risk of cardiovascular disease. You are doing such a great service in this world and you're also helping more people smile more confidently, changing their lives exponentially. And just remember you're doing so much good. So let's keep it up. And I'm here to give you all the tactical practical tips, infusing your world with positivity and changing this world in the greatest way possible. If you love the podcast, leave us a review, share it with a friend, do something of goodness today. You guys just stay here and listen on your own.   Share with someone, send it to a doctor, send it to a team member, send it to a colleague, whomever it is, put it in a Facebook group, tag me. I'd love to see a picture of you where you're at. Tag us. It makes me so happy to get to know you instead of just talking to you. So share, I'd love to hear from you. And thank you for being a part of our family. Make sure that you guys are sharing though. keeps us at the top of the list. And my goal is to bring you massive value that you naturally want to be sharing. And so today my massive value is...   how to give you back like 600 to a million dollars to your practice. You on board with that? Does that sound dreamy enough for you to share with someone to listen in to take some notes? I hope so because Tiff and I were actually talking the other day and she was like, Kiera, it's so interesting. I talked to practices and like, I'm not hitting my numbers. I can't afford these things. I can't do this. And the answer is that's true. But there's a simple, simple, simple solution. And then we're going to, I'll give you two. That's actually helping you.   miss this money and it's so simple and yet we look at over all the time and it's your schedule being open. I know, I know. I took you to the top and brought you down to the bottom. What, Kiera, you want to tell me that? Yes, your schedule being open because if we take your hourly production and your hygiene's hourly production and we go and look at your open time in your schedule, if you just filled your schedule, it's like we calculated it. It's 600 to a million dollars in most practices by just having open time in their schedule.   Kiera Dent (02:24.216) which then you're like, well, I can't afford these things. can't do it. Well, yeah, because your schedule's open. And so I want to give you some tips. Like I said, it seems kind of like, gosh, OK, we're going to do this. We are going to do this because 600 to a million just with an open schedule. So what impacts our schedule being open? Cancellations, not closing treatment, not getting patients to schedule, not reappointing our patients, not having a cancellation policy within our practice.   Those things create open schedules. And then also I'm going to lovingly and directly say not having our team focused and obsessed on filling the schedule. Offices who are obsessed with filling the schedule, meaning we have it to 90 to 95 % to goal every single day are the offices that are freaking killing it. The other offices are like, we tried our best. See you later. It's five. No. As a front office team member, the expectation and the agreement we made was I was not allowed to leave for the day.   unless my schedule for the next day was full. Now people tell me, Kiera, we fill our schedule, it's full at the end of the day and I come in in the morning and I have voicemails canceling my whole day out. Well, phenomenal, you don't have a cancellation policy. Number one, don't let them leave a voicemail to cancel. It's way too easy to break up with someone on a voicemail. So let's eliminate that. On your voicemail, can say, thank you for calling, if you have an emergency here, this is. Also, we do require.   Kiera Dent (03:56.866) Also, we do require a 48 hour notice for any appointment changes and we do not accept those via voicemail. Give us a call back during normal business hours to move your appointment or reappoint your appointment. That was really, really clunky. Call back during business hours to reappoint or reschedule your dental appointment. Also, text messages, I do not accept them via text message. I tell them, hey, thank you for reaching out. We can't take any appointment changes via text. Give me a quick call and I'll help you get this taken care of.   Amazing. They text you. So we don't have to worry about that. My dermatologist literally has no voicemail. I kid you not, there is no way for me to leave them a voicemail after hours for cancellation. They don't have it and they have a policy that if we don't have a 48 hour notice that we have a credit card on file and it's a hundred dollar fee, you can choose whatever you want. I'm not here to advocate that you should charge fees. I'm not here to say you should have a credit card on file, but I am saying you need to have a policy that your whole team is behind.   I'm very big on you are a specialist, you are a doctor's office and patients should value your time. So whether we're having them leave you on, they put a deposit down, there's a credit card on file, but every specialist, I'm talking IVF, dermatologists, doctors, like everybody in healthcare has a credit card on file. And if you choose not to show for that appointment and you don't give them a 48 hour notice, there is a deposit that's non-refundable that they do take. Now you don't have to do that, but you do have to have a policy.   Some offices, if you choose to cancel or reschedule your appointment, I never use the word cancel, they just reschedule because I have no one who cancels on me. They reschedule their appointment. If they choose not to do it within 48 hours, that's okay. We push them out six weeks or 12 weeks, whatever it is, and then we move them forward after they've waited for about four weeks. If they continue to do it, so it's a three strike policy for me, if they choose to continue to do that, then they actually get put on what's called our walk-in.   list like, Hey, care, it sounds like you're super, super busy. We're actually not going to reschedule this appointment for you. just give me a call and you'll be on a same day walk in, that we'll be able to get you in if we have availability that day. but either way, there's a set policy and we're going to start to train our patients. So our patients stop canceling off of our schedules because remember 600 to a million, just by having open schedules is something we need to stop. And so looking at this, you can also have them sign that they understand that these things are happening, but really   Kiera Dent (06:18.958) getting super clear on what our cancellation policy is, having everybody follow through on it and making sure, and you're not being a jerk. You're just saying like, these are the rules of our game. We want you to play the game with us. These are the rules. Do we agree that we're both going to play by them? Absolutely. Yes. Phenomenal. Come to our practice. We're going to be on time for you. We're going to get you back and we're going to make sure that we see you and we have the adequate time for you. That's how we play the rules of the game. So number one, keeping our schedules full. We don't take those cancellations.   We make sure that at the end of the day, our schedules are always filled, filled up to goal. We call, you guys, I used to call all the time and I got so good when patients called to cancel and I'm like, my gosh, Mrs. Jones, tell me what's going on. like, I hope you're doing okay. Tell me what's going on. And I find out what her problem is and then I find the solution. Mrs. Jones, doctor was so excited to see you today. I understand you have a work meeting. Like thank you for letting me know. We do require a 48 hour notice for any appointment changes.   Let's see, I could actually like if we could get you in and out by two o'clock today, does that work for you? Yep, that works great. Amazing. Mrs. Jones is in my schedule. I just move her time. We move along. There's so many ways that we can keep patients on the schedule. We can let them know like, hey, like I have people that like I can't make it send an Uber. If they're a big case, send an Uber to the patient. But you've got to have some solutions for them to where patients are staying on our schedule. And I feel like this is where if you own   and your friend office owns that the schedule will be full and that's what their agreement with you is. Excellent. Hold them to that level. And people are like, but Kiera, patients are canceling for sure. Let's count for a 10 % cancellation. Like that's normal, but guess what? We've still got to keep 90 % of it full. We still have to go through that open time. Hygienist not hitting their goals. does it do to open time? Anytime we have open time on the schedule or if we like finish with a patient on time or like, let's say it's an hour and we finish at 45 minutes.   For every 15 minute increments, let's have people make five phone calls. So we'

    15 min
  5. JAN 29

    #948: The CEO Visionary + OM Implementer

    Kiera gives insight into how CEOs and office managers (or dreamers and task-drivers) can effectively work together to run the ideal dental practice — without stepping on each other’s toes. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.646) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so excited to be on the podcast. I'm excited to be podcasting with you. I hope that your new year is rocking and rolling and I hope that you are just enjoying your time working in dental practices because remember, we are so blessed and so lucky to be working in an industry that literally changes lives. I believe that dentistry is the best possible industry for us to be a part of and you get to make people's literal smiles come true. So as always,   Thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team family. Please be sure that you are always leaving us review, sharing us with other people. That is how you keep us as the top dental podcast out there. And I just want to say for every one of you that has done it, truly thank you. Thank you for sharing this podcast with others. Thank you for being on our journey. And for those of you that are new, welcome. I want you guys to remember we are getting up there on our numbers of podcasts. So we are in the 900s, almost breaking about a thousand episodes.   I cannot believe I have made that many episodes. That's a lot of episodes. And sometimes it might feel daunting or you might forget that this is a resource in your back pocket. So always head on over to TheDentalATeam.com click on our podcast page and you are able to then go search every episode. So if you have like, wanna know information about cancellations or I wanna know about partnerships or I wanna know about buy-ins or I Kiera talked about Pearl AI, but I can't remember where that was at.   go search our podcast in any episode that I have ever recorded for you of all those thousands of episodes, because there'll be more coming, you will literally be able to go find any one of them. So just be sure put that in your resource pocket. A lot of people want to know like, how do get our hygiene? How do we do perio? How do we do fluoride? How do we run effective meetings? How do we run quarterly meetings? Any of those things literally, I want you to think about this as your Google or your AI for you.   It's all there. There's a ton of it. have verbiage for you. I have information for you. So be sure that you're always using those as resources for you because I believe in working smarter, not harder. And I'm always here committed to sharing the top tips and tricks for you. So today I just wanted to dive into a really fun topic that I think is great for you guys. I think it's something that I get asked a lot. It's something that I'm excited about and really helping you understand kind of what a CEO visionary   Kiera Dent (02:14.816) and an office manager, implementer or integrator role should look like and how you can have this in your practice. Because as I'm watching offices and as I'm coaching practices, I'm noticing that dentists, when they start to move into this CEO role, they actually don't know what the heck they're supposed to do. It feels very weird. It feels very awkward. It feels like I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing. And so giving you guys some tips of what does this relationship even look like? So.   There's a great book. guys know I'm a huge faction, a huge fan of traction. Merged those together and had faction come out. Huge fan of traction by Gina Wickman. We help a lot of offices, Dental A Team's version of traction where we actually help you build leadership teams. We help you get quarterly goals in place. We help you with accountability, tracking data, scorecards, write people, write seats. So if that's something you're interested, be sure to reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com Super, super, super fun and very effective.   We have a lot of offices that we've worked with for years on this and being dental experts, we're able to help solve a lot of the problems that come up. Whereas some of the other implementers or integrators, they really can't help with that. So it's a really fun niche that we're a part of that I absolutely love. So if you're interested in that, how do I set up these leadership teams or quarterlies, be sure to reach out. I'd love to help you. But in doing that, Gina Wickman wrote another book called Rocket Fuel. And Rocket Fuel, I think is a really lovely book that kind of splits apart this visionary role.   and this integrator role. And not all CEO doctors are visionaries and not all office managers are integrators. And so really figuring out and dialing in, what does this relationship look like? Like what should a CEO do? What should a doctor do? What should an office manager do? I think this dynamic can actually get really tricky and it can get really hard for people. And you might not know exactly what does this look like and how can we maximize it? And so I just kind of wanted to come on and paint a picture. Now, again, this is a picture that's painted.   But it's a, I would say it's made with markers that you can erase or it's one of those like, remember the Etch-A-Sketch that you're able to use like with the sand and you'd like etch it out and then could like shake it up and erase it. That's what I think that this picture and this dynamic should look like for you where it's not perfect. It's not something that you have to do, but this is gonna kind of just give a sketch and an outline of like, what does a visionary do? What does an integrator do? And doctors, a lot of times what I'm seeing is,   Kiera Dent (04:33.43) you come in and you've been a clinician and then you're like, okay, I've mastered my dream. I've made this a reality. I have taken it to where I no longer have to do clinical all the time. I've hired associates, we've onboarded associates and now what do I do? And what you tend to default into is more of the office manager role, which is fine if you enjoy management, but if you don't, don't slip down into that. And also you might not be the best for this role. You might not be as good at communicating.   I learned like know thyself and be free I think is the best thing I could ever tell you. And so what is your role and what do you like love to do and what if I were looking at your energy sucks in life versus the things that light your fire. What we're trying to do is get everybody into those zones of genius. There's some great books out there. There's some good places where you can kind of look to see what are the tasks. Do I enjoy them? Am I good at them? Am I not good at them? I've done some podcasts on that where you can honestly quadrant yourself into like these are tasks that I love doing and I'm good at.   These are tasks that I don't enjoy doing, but I'm good at them. These are tasks that I am not good at and don't enjoy doing. And these are tasks that I can train people on. So there's kind of some quadrants. And the goal is first to have like 90 % of our day in the quadrant of these are tasks that I'm good at and that I actually enjoy doing. So if we can get you guys there, phenomenal. That's what we're trying to work on. so helping visionaries see, I think so often as doctors are producers in their   these drivers and they've been like with an eight to five schedule moving into what I call more of a creative visionary. It's a very different space. And a little while ago I was on a trip and I realized that the creative mind is so much different than the structured mind. So when I want to create my best ideas, well, if I put it into my calendar, Kiera, you're going to go create at this time. I don't. And I started noticing my marketing team was doing this. They would be their most creative.   when they were in the middle of the night. A lot of my marketers would work at two, three, four a.m. They would sleep in and then they'd come and I was like, this is such a weird world. Like I'm used to the dental office and we have patients at seven a.m. and we're done at five p.m. And that's just the life we live. But that's a very structured schedule versus this creative schedule. And doctors and visionaries start to move into more of this creative schedule, which is not an eight to five per se. It is not forcing ideas and creativity to come.   Kiera Dent (06:52.48) It is having more space, but I think visionaries oftentimes don't give themselves the space because they're like in this very rigid mindset. And so just kind of, again, like I said, painting this picture with an Etch-A-Sketch where we can shake it off. We can decide which things we want to do, which things we don't want to do, but helping office managers and doctors kind of learn this relationship. So doctors don't accidentally get into the office manager's lane and office managers allow the doctors the freedom and flexibility to become these CEOs and these visionaries.   that they want to be. Now, if you are a doctor and you're not a visionary, that's okay. You do not need to be. Some doctors are incredible, incredible, incredible implementers, and they actually hire someone like another doctor or maybe a CEO to come in to be that visionary role. And that's okay. So again, this is an Etch A Sketch. It's not a perfect painted canvas that we can't change in a race and add different lines to it. It's just a picture. But typically speaking, a CEO who's a visionary, their main pieces are vision,   growth, sometimes they add numbers in there and culture. And usually if I like box it out, that's going to be the three things that that visionary is responsible for. They usually leave meetings. They don't have, they don't have a lot of to-dos. They don't have a lot of items. They come in, they give the vision, they help build the culture. And th

    18 min
  6. JAN 28

    #947: Strategically and Effectively Plan Your Wealth

    Tiff and Britt give tangible tips for creating a wealth plan of action. They cover everything from knowing what your ideal work-life balance is, when you hope to retire, the right systems you can create now to set you on your path, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.504) Hello, Dental A Team listeners and welcome back. I am here again with Miss Britt. Brilliant Brain Britt is what I've dubbed her today on some awesome business tips and insider tips, things that we've learned along the way, things that Britt has actually gone to school for. So welcome to that. Thank you, Britt.   Britt (00:19.787) Real life is cool, Cliff. Real life is cool, too.   The Dental A Team (00:25.935) Fair, fair. But I do love picking your brain for it on these pieces because little do many people know you do have a degree in healthcare management. I think it's really, really freaking cool. And not just any degree, like you have, you know, your master's degree in this and it's really freaking cool you guys because   It means not only do we have, you know, the knowledge that we've all picked up along the way and we've taken courses and CE and all these things and learned and learned how to use freaking Excel and things like that. But Britt also has that side of it that I get to pick her brain on things that just really, really helps you guys learn how to manage your business. So we all do have the real life training, but Britt, I think it's really cool when we get to utilize your degree and you get to utilize it in our company, I think.   I assume you do, but it's really cool when you get to do this stuff. So thank you for being here with me today, Britt, letting me pick that beautiful brain of yours. And just for always being here for us, you are an amazing human being and anything that I need, you're like, yep, we'll figure it out. So thank you for recording with me. How are you doing today, Britt?   Britt (01:15.638) Mm-hmm.   Britt (01:34.127) I'm doing well, thanks Tiff. These are fun combos because one, like we both have years of experience in dental and so, and worked with a lot of clients. So it's fun just to kind of talk about ideas and cool things we've seen and what we've learned along the way.   The Dental A Team (01:49.156) Yeah, I agree. I agree. And today is one of my favorite conversations. I love nothing more than to help a doctor and a business owner of any caliber and degree learn how to make their business work for them and then not spending so much time working for their business. Like you guys became business owners, you became practice owners so that you can have your own business, you could make your own hours and you get into it and you're like, gosh dang it.   Brit, this sucks, I'm working all the time. And it's like, yeah, you will do that for a little while for businesses and it'll come back around every now and again as well. But really looking at how we can plan and project for the future so that you can make that switch at some point and it flips to where the business really is creating the lifestyle of your dreams. And that's something that we work really hard at. I know we work with mostly entrepreneurs, which means.   We work with visionaries, we work with the people who have the big dreams, and then we get to help implementers, office managers typically, right? And doctors learn how to be an implementer from a visionary, but we get to work on the implementation side of really finding the strategies and keying in on the pieces that are going to help us get to that big vision that you want, doctors. So we have other podcasts, a ton of podcasts that'll talk about how we've helped other doctors do those things. I want you to listen to those. I want you to never feel like you're alone.   We are here for you today. I'm actually really excited about this one today strategic wealth management and really planning for that in the future. And Brett, this is going to be a lot of conversation from you. So I hope you're ready. I hope you've got all your words ready to be used today. I know I use a lot of words in a day and I feel like I never run out, but you might run out. I don't know. But I hope you're ready for this because this one is this one. I'm letting you take over quite a bit here on the strategic planning because   I think you do above and beyond look further than a lot of people even look, and look further than maybe some of our listeners are even thinking about. A lot of our doctors are younger, you know, they're 50 and under, and these generations right here, and these two, know, generations, the 30 to 50 generations, we're not always thinking of our retirement. I don't know what happened to us, but we kind of forgot that piece was going to come one day.   The Dental A Team (04:08.186) for a lot of us. So really looking and making sure that we're considering those pieces and you do that well. You go retirement, I think you go retirement first, like what's our retirement plan and then five to 10 years. so, Britt, take us through some of the pieces that you work with clients on and you've worked with, you know, clients even before you were with the Dental A Team. I'm really making sure that we're looking at our wealth management from a long-term and a short-term.   How do you help people prep for that? What's the first space you look for?   Britt (04:38.719) Yeah, this is always fun and that's why I love lately I've been on some of our free assessment calls right even with clients coming in to say like all right where are we at you know how can we help you and this is always an important thing that I want to know is right how long do they see themselves owning a business or doing dentistry both really because it just helps us to figure out   We talked about this already even with KPIs. I'm like, what's the future? And then I work my way back. So I'm like, all right, what's the long term? Where are we wanting to go? If it's like, I know I've got at least 15 years of me. Great. Awesome. Like that at least gives us a starting point of where we think we're going and how long we need this business to be producing or the value we need from it for how long you're going to be retired. And so that's where I start is thinking, okay.   So for those of you out there that don't know right now, number one action item, it doesn't have to be exact, right? You don't have to do it, but like, what would you love to be your age of retirement to where at least you're not sitting in the chair anymore doing dentistry? That's an important number. One, for you to know, and two, get a good financial advisor, because they need to know that number, because then you're going to work with them to figure out what lifestyle do you want? How long do we think you're going to, you know?   The Dental A Team (05:35.121) Thank   The Dental A Team (05:51.538) Thank   Britt (05:57.333) live on this great earth and live an awesome life and how much money is that gonna take? So we know, all right, what value do we need in investments, in an account, within your practice, because that's an asset for you as well. How much wealth do we need to build for you to be ready to retire by that point in time? And so, yes, even if we, whether a client says it or not, I'm always thinking about what's that ultimate point? What's the end point we're working towards and how are we gonna get there? Or at least I wanna get you in a position to where   The Dental A Team (05:59.314) Thank   Britt (06:27.317) you have the choice to do that, right? You don't have to, but I never want a client to get to the end to where they're like either physically can't do it or something else and they're not set up to be able to live a great life and enjoy it for the rest of their days. So always thinking that big and then thinking about like, all right, and kind of, there any milestones? Some doctors know right away, hey, I want to work down my clinical days and we'll spend more time with family.   The Dental A Team (06:29.009) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (06:51.955) you   Britt (06:52.423) Awesome. Let's figure that out. Some are like, no, I want to work and do you know, be in the chair. That's the part I love for as long as I can. Fantastic. That just kind of helps us to see what are the pieces we have. I love it. I think Kira was saying the other day.   life is ultimately just like a series of algebra equations, right? Like everything you look at, it's like, all right, I've got A and C, what B do I need to get to C type of a thing, right? So that's kind of how I look at this is, all right, where do we ultimately need to go? What do we need this asset, this practice to become to do its part in that grand scheme of things? So knowing that first, and then with the practice, it's like, all right, great.   The Dental A Team (07:12.253) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (07:19.111) Yeah.   Britt (07:35.687) Either, what do we need to build in value of building this up to where what's our EBITDA? What could I sell it for? Not saying you're going to sell it, but I always want it to be worth as much as possible.   And also like what do need to be making from that practice? Some people they need the full salary of doing the clinical and you know making a lot out of that practice for a certain amount of time and then even just knowing of like all right once I've done that for 10 years I don't have to I can but I don't have to I could always bring in an associate and make X amount off of you know profit from the practice You know based on kind of what we estimate there will be so that's kind of how I work it We've got to know the end   The Dental A Team (07:46.034) Agree.   Britt (08:15.769) goal, financial advisors, know dentist advisors are one of

    24 min
  7. JAN 23

    #946: Find the Hidden Value in Your Practice

    Kiera points listeners to where opportunity for hidden savings or additional value could be lurking in your profit and loss statements. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.942) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just want to have a really fun podcast with you. I want to talk about some possible ways of hidden value, how to trim some fat in the practice. think these are just some fun things that I don't think we often think about that really can actually add pennies, dollars, Benjamins, thousands into your pocket with minimal effort. As always, thanks for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. I adore you.   I appreciate you. If I was with you right now, I'd be telling you, you're doing way better than you think you are. And my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. Life is my passion. Dentistry is my platform. And I am here to infuse you with positivity of tactical tips of sharing how you can be living your best life. Life, the life you were destined and meant to live and doing it through dentistry because I'm obsessed with helping you guys give back to people, share with people and become who you were ultimately meant to be. With that, you're loving this podcast,   Go leave us the review, share this with someone because for me to get this into the hands of every single person, every single dentist in this world, I need your help to do it. So please truly go share, share this with someone. And today let's start talking about ways that we can trim the fat, find the hidden value of just little things that we might not be thinking about. My husband does this. He is the guru in our family of looking at our expenses and figuring out what things are we not doing.   of just little tiny things of hidden fees. So you can do this in your personal life and your professional life. And something my husband and I were talking about is we don't have this on a set cadence, right? And so how can we set this on a set cadence? So if you're using a software, our company uses ClickUp. I would not recommend it for most practices. I usually recommend Asana or Trello or Basecamp. Asana is my go-to. Monday.com is another great one. Those are all really good ones, but put this as a reoccurring task. So every year we actually look at these things. And then I do set as a reoccurring task.   every single quarter. My bookkeepers know, so email your CPAs today. Hello, CPAs. Super excited to talk to you. I need you to send me a detailed P &L at the end of every single quarter. I set up myself reminders in my inbox. You can set it up in your project management software, whatever it is, but have a reminder to review your P &L. And I think review your business P &L and your life P &L every quarter. And if you go through every single line item, you will find little areas, but a few things for you today of hidden costs, hidden value, things that you could be doing.   Kiera Dent (02:20.834) Number one is your insurance. My husband, he's a pharmacist and we have disability insurance, we have life insurance, and there will actually come a point in time, potentially, that you actually no longer need this insurance. For dentists, I'm strongly advocating for you to always carry your disability insurance in case anything happens. I've had so many dentists actually have fluke weird things, like I had a dentist in their 30s have a stroke, I had a dentist in their 20s get cancer, I had a dentist who had tingling in their hands and they actually have   something in their neck, you never know when something weird is going to happen in dentistry. Your hands are really what are going to be able to make it to where you can be successful in your career. but assessing it. I know for us with our our insurance, it's usually we do a lot of research when we buy our cars or our house or our practice or we're getting out of school, but then we never go and reassess it. And so check to make sure are we really like are we paying more than we should be?   Is there a better carrier out there? Are there new people on the market that could be better for us? And just go check instead of just paying that premium every single month, go and look, can we trim the fat? And I know this sounds annoying and you're like, gosh, I don't want to do it. Delegate this to someone, have your managers look into it for you if you want to. But the point is look to make sure that we're not just passively paying our insurances, but we're actively looking to make sure, are we getting the best rates? Are we getting the best fees? Could we negotiate our lease and our rent? That's another zone.   all the different areas that we've negotiated, let's make sure we're looking back. And I think insurance is a really, really big one. The next one is internet. Internet goes up on us, cable, our subscriptions. Can we get those discounted? I know a lot of times with insurance, give you a promo, or excuse me, internet. They give you a promo for a while. And can you cancel it and restart it? Please do it on a weekend. We do not want it disrupting patient care. But can we cancel it and actually get reduced fees? And I know it doesn't sound that great. It's like, OK, well, maybe I could get 50 bucks.   Well, 50 bucks over the course of a year is 600 bucks. And so if we look at that, I know 600, you're like, but Kiera, we're doing like 4 million. I agree with you, but $600. It's the principle of continually looking for where can we trim the fat? So we're always staying at our peak because we never know. And so we're always looking at these things, trimming little hidden costs. These things add up. So let's say we're able to save $200 on our insurance. We're able to save 50 bucks on our internet. Then the next one is credit card fees.   Kiera Dent (04:44.834) I'm going to be a huge advocate for you looking at credit card fees and not just being like with the person that you started the practice with. Credit cards are notorious for tacking on these extra additional fees that you don't even know what they are to where you're paying 7 % on your credit card transactions. That's ludicrous. There's companies like Bestcard or Moolah. can definitely, we have affiliate relationships with them that we can connect you with and you can get the best prices and promos with them. You get terminals for free. You should be paying...   two to three percent max on your credit card transactions. And so when you look at that, paying an additional four percent on credit card transaction fees, that is so much. So let's say you're a four million dollar practice. OK, let's say that you let's actually I'll just do two million. OK, let's come down a little bit. So a two million dollar practice, you transact all of that and we're paying an extra four percent. That's an additional eighty thousand dollars just because we weren't wise stewards over and like looking to trim the fat.   looking at these items. This is where we look at it. Every single month my credit card company sends it to me. You can send it to your manager. Do the quick math. How much was it? How much of that percentage did they take out? Because it doesn't seem like a lot. But what is the true percentage? For me, I try to average 2.7 to 2.9 because we don't take actual cards. You guys actually do a lot of actual cards in the practice. I know you have a lot of cards on file. What can we do to get that reduced down? And there's also companies like Dental Merchant Advocate that can actually go through your credit card statement, see how they can save.   They do a 50-50 split so they take 50 % of the savings and you get 50 % of the savings So it's a great company They can reduce it for you But also go and look at these other companies and see could you also reduce your own fees for you? So look at that look to see look at the credit card fees. What are you being charged for me? I also have a bunch of credit cards that charge me annual fees Could we be getting the same points or better points from other credit cards? Of course talk to your financial advisors because I know opening and closing credits can actually hurt you and help you depending upon how you do it   But are there other ones that you could be doing that would actually give you better rates, give you better return? Being just intentional with the credit cards. We put so much money on our company cards. Are we still in the best credit card for our business and for the savings that we could be getting? Or are they charging us? Again, we don't fall in love with it. Things change. So let's make sure we're always being so strong. Same thing with your labs. Are there better labs out there? Are there better supplies out there that we could go and work with? I know that there's some great companies like Ordo, O-R-D-O.   Kiera Dent (07:09.114) They can actually get you reductions on your supplies. I know you love your suppliers and I'm not here to say not to, but there are better ways to do it you can actually save a lot of money. There's buying groups. If you want some help, email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. You can literally work with your same exact suppliers, but you can save exponent. Like we're talking thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. To me, these are the simple things that put money in your pocket. And like we said, $200 on our insurance, 50 bucks here, 80,000 with our credit card fees.   with our supplies, a lot of offices are saving hundreds of thousands. Like I am telling you in the hundred thousand right there, we're up to 180,000. If we could save a hundred thousand on our supplies labs, getting a reduction without losing it. You could bring in a 3d printer and not have to pay for those night guards or orthotrains. Now, of course, make sure that you are trained and you

    14 min
  8. JAN 22

    #945: From $1.2 Million to $2.5 Million — Here’s How

    Tiff and Britt provide a play-by-play of what one practice did over the course of one year to go from producing $1.2 million to $2.5 million. This includes having the right systems in place and the right people in the right seats. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02.09) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. We are doing something really exciting. I have Brilliant Brain Britt with me today. I'll say that three times fast. I love it. It's sticking today. It's sticking. But I'm super excited to do this podcast today. This is something we don't always do. We're just trying to mix it in for you guys so that you guys can really feel a connection to other   Britt (00:14.852) Thanks.   The Dental A Team (00:30.767) human beings. That is something that Dental A Team works really hard on and this year in 2025, it's a really, really major focus for us is to have all of our doctors that are a part of Dental A Team to have other doctors and other practice owners and leadership people to communicate with because I think sometimes we feel like we're on our own little island in dentistry and there's a dentist on every corner in most cities and states but we still feel like we're alone.   We really want you to have that connection piece that's really big for us this year and always has been. And Britt and I, Britt, I have you here today. We are going to talk about a practice transformation. This is a client that I think no names used, right? But I think this is a client situation and the statistics is something that we see a lot. This is a very common practice that came into the Dental A Team and then...   Britt (01:13.221) you   The Dental A Team (01:24.237) Honestly, the results that we saw were pretty common as well. Like this isn't something that I think preface this with that everyone gets the same results every time. It definitely takes a lot of parts and pieces moving together at the same time to make sure that the results are there. Everyone sees results, but.   really looking at the transformation of this practice and I want you guys out there to think how can I see myself in their shoes? How can I see myself in what they're doing or what they're looking for? It's gonna be really huge today. So Brett, I'm excited for this one. How are you doing? How excited are you? What's life like over there?   Britt (02:02.821) Good, you know, it's always fun. just think of right recently we wrote a bunch of cards to clients and it's just a fun time to sit back and think about, oh, look at, look at all that we've accomplished together. Look at how much fun it is. So I kind of feel like that's like this transformation day is talking about, oh my gosh, it's so fun to think about all that can be done and all the fun things we've done with our clients.   The Dental A Team (02:23.888) I totally agree. And those cards were so much fun to hear, right? I love thinking about, I was thinking about them the other day. I'm like, gosh, I can't wait for them to like, I'm sure you guys have gotten them now and opened them and I've heard from a few clients, but I love bragging on results and I love bragging on people. And one of the biggest pieces that we work really hard with our clients on, I've said this a million times, but it's making sure that the business is working for them and not just them working for the business. a lot of...   clients, a lot of potential clients, know, the clients that are coming in and doing practice assessments with you guys and looking at what could my life with the Dental A Team look like and what should I be focusing on within that practice assessment. Our clients that we have now, future clients that will come and a lot of you guys out there listening are really looking for very similar things. And the practice we're going to talk about today, that transformation today is, gosh, this is somebody who we worked just.   so close with and we love them to pieces and in 12 months, so you guys know, we were able to take this practice, this practice and their consultant, they went from 1.2 million and their practice they were doing okay, right? 1.2 million is not bad, but they were kind of tired, they were exhausted, they had two young kids at home that they wanted to be at home with and they were working a lot of hours, they were trying to implement the systems, trying to get everything going.   and just putting a lot of work into this practice to really get it to where they wanted it. What they wanted, you know, was more income. They wanted more profitability. They wanted to be able to take some time off clinically to be with their family and build a life outside of the practice. And I think a lot of the people we talk to, that's the space you guys are in too. Whether you've got littles at home, graduated kids at home, no kids at all, future family, no future family, like no matter what.   I think everybody's in the business of getting time back and wherever you're applying that to doesn't matter. It's just not being handcuffed to what you're doing every day, but what you're doing every day to allow you to have the life of your dreams. And that's where this practice was. And within 12 months, I want you guys to know the pieces that we're going to talk about today.   The Dental A Team (04:33.842) are just some implementables that we worked on with this practice that their consultant worked really hard with them to implement. Went from $1.2 million in their practice in 12 months to a $2.5 million practice. So they doubled their production and their collections. Collections stayed right in line with their production. You guys, that's a piece I want you to understand and know. Your production can double, but your collections also has to double. You've got to make sure you're staying in that 98 % or higher.   They did that. So their overhead dropped as well significantly. They went down about 10 % in that year. So they increased their production collections, decreased their overhead by about 10 % and their hygiene, which we push, you know, I really want to see your hygiene to three to 3.3 times their rate of pay. This practice is hygiene went above and beyond and we're doing about five times their rate of pay. So there's probably, you know, some fee for services in their low PPO, you know, signups. They've got only a couple PPO's and   high reimbursements, but I want those are all a part of those that puzzle you guys. So I really want to dive into how they did this and Britt just objectively, if you have a practice that comes in, you're doing a lot of these practice assessments yourself as well with the with the team, but a practice comes in and they're like, gosh, we're doing fine. Like we're decent. We're at one point two million. I've got two kids at home. I'm tired. I'm working a lot. I want to be home more like   Objectively, what are some of the first questions that you ask or you're looking for to know where to take this practice with their systems?   Britt (06:07.159) I think systems and people, right? I think that's two things within even this case is looking at what systems do we have running and what people do we have helping to run things that aren't just doctor. I think it's common, That sometimes, not sometimes, often we will have doctors come in and they're doing a lot of things on the business side or keeping track of front desk. They're doing a lot of pieces that aren't the most productive thing for them to be doing.   The Dental A Team (06:22.77) you   The Dental A Team (06:34.897) Yeah.   Britt (06:36.365) And so looking for what are those opportunities of either gaps in systems to where we just don't have a plan for things, we need to shore some things up and if we're a little bit more intentional about what we're doing every day, we're gonna get better results. And then number two is how can we get the right people in the right seats that allows everybody to function at the height of their ability. And when we've got those two things like rockin' and rollin' with this transformation that we have.   The Dental A Team (06:58.215) Yeah.   Britt (07:05.445) it just runs smoother and especially for doctors, right? Then you've got a little more time and you can focus most of your energy on patient care and doing some of those bigger cases, you know, having even just more mental space and exams to talk about optional things, to the opportunity to do more work. And so that's kind of what I'm looking for. like, all right.   The Dental A Team (07:20.381) Mm-hmm.   Britt (07:26.051) What systems and what people do we have? How much is that doctor into and what can we start to transform on both sides to make the most of everybody?   The Dental A Team (07:36.628) Yeah, it was just brilliant because this practice in specific that we're talking about, those were the pieces they were lacking. They didn't have an office manager or a leadership team. They didn't have a team. They were passing things off to you. They weren't delegating things. So this doctor comes in and two young children, and wanting more time at home, exhausted and not able to push the production and the collections in the ways that they wanted to.   you look at it and you're like, yeah, because you're doing everything. So if we're holding all of the cards ourselves, whether we're the manager or the doctor or whoever it might be, if we're holding all the cards, I think of it as like, you're trying to hit each one of those pieces and your capacity is only so big. So what happens is   You're managing the growth. You're also performing the dentistry. You're making sure that the patients are happy. You're making sure the team's happy. You've got your hands in so many different pots that you've only got a l

    26 min
4.9
out of 5
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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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