Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera Dent
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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. 16 HR. AGO

    #925: Rising From Rock Bottom

    In this powerful episode, Kiera is joined by John Jackson, executive director of Defy Ventures, Utah. John shares his history as a criminal, the time he spent incarcerated for his crimes, and how he found the power to change. Kiera and John met through a Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery earlier this year, and Defy Ventures is one of the nonprofits the Dental A-Team is donating to through its Live to Give program this year. About John: Correctional officials once labeled John “the worst of the worst.” As he served 18 years in prison, John rose through the ranks of his gang by honing his leadership skills. After four years in solitary confinement, John realized that building his criminal resume would only lead him to life—and death—in prison. He made the dangerous and unpopular decision to step away from criminal activity while incarcerated at Pelican Bay, a notorious supermax prison in California. Since his release from prison in 2019, John served as the director of sales and fundraising at Hustle 2.0, helping to scale the organization from two prisons in California to 700+ jails and prisons in 47 states, serving 13,000+ incarcerated men, women, and youth. He co-authored 11 books. The curriculum provides holistic rehabilitation and healing for people in America’s most dangerous prisons, offering a pathway to college. John delivered a TEDx at Cornell University about ending the generation cycles of incarceration.   Today, John serves as the executive director of Defy Ventures, Utah, leveraging entrepreneurship to help incarcerated people transform their lives. He uses his story of courage and transformation to create hope for those who have been written off and forgotten by society. Episode resources: Learn more about Defy Ventures Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.234) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. if you don't know, Dental A Team has a portion of our company called Live to Give. And every single year, our company goes and looks for organizations or places that I believe in that I feel can give a greater impact in this world. We've done a Make-A-Wish for a child who had stomach cancer one year. We have done Stuff for Santa within our communities. We have done   scholarships for people. And every single year we did a coat drive with all of our clients and we were able to give so many coats to cold families. And this year I met an incredible man named John from Defy Ventures. And John was an incarcerated criminal for 17 years. He was at maximum security. He was in solitary confinement for four years and he was sent to Pelican Prison, which is the number one like federal prison in California where it literally is like a resume builder for prisoners, but that is like the top of the top.   He was in gangs and he has actually come out of prison and his five years since his release date. And he has a company called the Five Ventures where literally they help incarcerated criminals turn their skills that they've learned in prison into something good and to build businesses. And it's such an incredible company. It's probably not the one that I ever imagined that I'd be recommending or talking to you about, but.   I'm bringing John on the podcast. John is a dear friend. met him and I just was so inspired by him of who he is as a person. And then also if you want no affiliation with our company with them, but just a cause of Live To Give where we donated as well. But you are able to sponsor an incarcerated criminal if you want to be able to give them the entrepreneurship skills and you're able to give back to an organization that I believe is trying to stop generational crime. The US has actually more in cart.   our 5 % of the world's population and yet we have 25 % of the world's crime. And just watching how our world is going, if there are people like John who were incarcerated themselves and have been able to turn and become a force for good and to be able to do incredible things for this world, it might be something incredible for you. I am literally so excited to bring you guys today's guest. This is someone that I met a couple of months ago at Tony Robbins Business Mastery.   The Dental A Team (02:19.04) little plug we did freaking win john so we are the winners will show you our trophies. Yeah, bring the trophies up. But john was actually the reason that we won and we were helping support his company which is defy ventures. But john has such an interesting story. And literally I had the most life changing experience talking to john and so I'm so excited to welcome john I there's like so much more I want to say about your intro but I'm let you tell your story more than me enjoying you. But welcome to the show john how are you today?   I'm doing awesome. I have a huge smile on my face because I'm really excited. First is good to see you and second to be on your podcast to get to share with you. Getting to share that win on stage at Tony Robbins was definitely a highlight of my life. So thank you for supporting us and all in pushing us to promote while we were there as well. And I think you're back to back. You're on the back to back winning team, I think, two years in a row now. We're technically three for three, John, but   our win this time was the first one I got the trophy for. So thanks for making the trophy happen. Like I won them all the times, but, and it's funny because my friend that I had first, which some of the podcast listeners may have heard Pierce, Pierce had said trophy and we took a picture and he's like, here, I'm just going to take it home and then I'm going to ship it to you. And I was like, okay, Pierce, that's great. Cause Pierce is like freaking seven feet tall. So of course when Tony brought out the trophies, he like grabbed one. I'm not quite as tall.   And so I was like, no problem, Piers. And then Piers did a freaking podcast with me a little while ago. And those of you who watched it, Piers has his trophy right behind us on the podcast. And I was like, I remember that trophy, Piers. John, like this was like, and this we're talking, that was 2019. So this was five years in the beginning. But John, okay, Defy Ventures, you guys, we're gonna go into prison talk. John, I need you to tell your story. I'm gonna let you tell it. I'm gonna ask you like a thousand questions.   I literally felt like I interviewed you before the win. didn't know we were going to win at business mastery. For those of who don't know business master is an event that Tony Robbins puts on and you go to this event. This is actually in 2019. I went there literally skyrocketed Dental A Team to where we are today. but I learned so much about business and what you're doing is you're at this conference. It's running from like, gosh, 10 AM until 2 AM in the morning. Like it's insane. And while you're there learning content, you're also supposed to be building a business within. It is like the most exhausting thing that you've ever done.   The Dental A Team (04:38.688) And John's business was the one that we did this year of DeFi Ventures. And it was so cool. But John, tell your story because I'm not going to do you justice other than the fact that like this man came from one of the craziest prisons and I'm just beyond blown away of who you are as a person and the background story that you have. So John, tell us all like your little history, not little. It's like nuts. And now we're sitting here. You're a free man today on a podcast with me. Like literally the irony and the magic of your life is just inspiring to me.   Thank you. Thank you. I just reiterate, I really am so grateful that we got to share that experience and Business Mastery has been, it has been a force accelerator for me as well. And whether it's through fundraising or just growing the impact that I want to have. So I'm really grateful that I get to do that and get to be a part of that experience. But yes, I'd love to share a part of my story. And I just start from, you're to have some highs and some lows here, but I promise we'll get to the end of it and it's a happy ending.   but it started, like the most striking memories for me, start when I was 11 and it's, you know, from my mom kissing me, tucking me in a bed, kissing me good night and her going to work. she was a waitress at Denny's. worked the graveyard shift. So I get up the next morning and I'm on my way to school and on my way to school, I see my mom's car parked on the side of the road and I go look in and it was her murder scene. So that was.   I was 11 years old. I never knew who my father was. So after my mom was murdered, I went to live with my aunt. And my aunt was a drug dealer. She was an entrepreneur. And she was a really good entrepreneur. She just used her skills in the wrong way. But when I was 17 years old, I was in the car with her. And we both get pulled over. She's got drugs in the car. And I can remember the cop.   walking up and my aunt leaning over and telling me, if the cops find the drugs, tell them they're yours. She was already on probation. So her getting caught with drugs again was going to send her to prison. So I already lost my mom, right? I didn't have a father. I didn't want to lose my aunt too on top of that. So when the cops found the drugs, I lied and I said they were mine. And my aunt watched as I was handcuffed and put in back of a cop car. Now's my first time being arrested.   The Dental A Team (07:06.285) got to jail, 17 years old slap on the wrist, right? If my first time being arrested, I get released about two weeks later, but something that my aunt did was she praised me. She's like, good job. This is what you do for your family and you protect your family. And looking back now, I kn

    1h 1m

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    #924: 2025: Getting Creative For Your Practice

    Kiera lays out a ton of ideas on how practices should be looking ahead to 2025, including the right percentage growth to aim for, why you actually can take time off for vacation, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.994) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope today is such a magical day for you. I hope that you are having such a fun time and I hope that you are wrapping up 2024, getting ready for 2025. I am so excited for you guys as you're wrapping up the year. And I just wanted to take a minute of let's not forget how to maximize and optimize our schedules for 2025. I know it can sound funny, but really if we take the time now,   to project out, prepare for our year. You are gonna have such a better year in 2025. So welcome to projections with the Dental A Team podcast. As always, if this podcast has changed your way, your life in any way, if it's shaped you, if it's molded you, if it's helped you, please leave us a review. Please share this podcast with someone because my goal is to have this podcast in the hands of every single dental practice to be able to positively impact and influence giving tactical practical skills and solutions for free.   So that way we can rise and elevate the world of dentistry. And that's my mission and my goal. And I can only do it with your help and your support. So leave those reviews, share it with somebody and let's make the world of dentistry realize how incredible it is that we're a part of it and give you practical tactical skills to take your practice to the new, to the next level. All right. So as you guys are preparing for production, the big thing you guys need to be doing right now, and I'm hoping that you do this before end of year, that would be optimal.   is let's start building out our schedule for next year. And that means we're looking at the number of providers we have, the number of providers we might be adding in, number of hygienists. And then also let's look at our vacation time we want off. So often I hear, Kiera, I just can't take time off of my practice. And I just say, that's actually not true. You totally can. We just need to plan and prepare for it. And then we need to set our goals accordingly. So you need to be looking at your practice now and it needs to be a minimum of a 10 % growth.   So we did a million this year, we should be doing 1.1 next year. So once we know that, we then go through our schedule, we figure out, all right, how many providers, how many hygienists, how many days off, how many holidays, let's look at all of that. Also, I would strongly recommend that you are actually looking at trends. And doctors and office managers, this is a phenomenal exercise to do together. So what we wanna do is you wanna look at trends. Historically, is our February always low?   Kiera Dent (02:19.648) And I usually look two or three years back, you can make spreadsheets about that. That's how we do it. So we can historically look, all right, how was our December? How was our September? Was it slam dunk timber or was it suck timber? What about our February? Was that low? Was it high? What about our December's? Historically, how are those doing? And once you can get the trends, we can also make our goals and our, like everything way more realistic for us. So then you're gonna wanna look through, and we actually have spreadsheets for this for our clients where you go through and it's going to be, all right, in January, how many?   days do we have available? How many days are we going to be off? What is our doctor out hourly? How many hours are they working? How many columns do they have? What about for our hygienist? And then it actually spits out a monthly goal for you based on the number of providers you have, doctor and hygienist based on what their hourly trends have been, which you can look back three to six months to see what have their, what are they historically doing? Then we can increase that. So maybe if our doctors are producing 500 an hour, maybe we bump them to 525 or to 550.   But really figuring this out so that way we can make sure all of them are hitting the levels that they need to be hitting that then projects you your monthly goal because based on the number of days providers that hourly we're able to do that. Hygienist as you know should be doing at least three times their hourly. Hygienist that's the standard across the board. I know insurances can be tricky and that's where we also look to see, okay, what do we need to add to our appointments? Are we doing our fluoride? Are we doing our laser? What about our FMXs? Are there things that we could be doing because guess what?   So many practices are able to hit this. And so I know that you're able to do it as well. It also means we've got to work on keeping the schedule full so we're not having as many cancellations. So we look at that. And then we also figure out we're going to take vacations in September because historically that's a really junk month for us. So let's do it there. We're also going to take them in February. Let's maximize the time where it's already slow. And if we can do that, we're actually going to do a lot better. And once you get all this data, it's going to spit out a number for you. And it's going to tell you, OK.   based on everything you put in, based on the hourly, based on the providers, based on the days off that we're having between holidays and vacations, you are gonna produce, let's say, one million. Well, we know we need to be at 1.1 because that's our growth. So then we look back and we say, okay, what could we do? Do we need to increase our hourly? Do we maybe need to bring in another provider? Do we need to look at how many days we're closed? Do we need to open up a few others? Do we need to increase our daily goal so that way we're hitting it? What does that equate to?   Kiera Dent (04:43.554) Oftentimes I'll look in offices like we need to produce 20,000 more. Well, a lot of offices are actually working 16 days a month. So if we need 20,000 and we've got 16 days a month, that's 1250 per day that we would need to add in. And then I love to take it to teams and I like to ask, all right, what is 1250 worth of dentistry? That's like literally one crown. That's a couple of fluorides, it's quad of fillings. Like it's a few night guards, a few like whitening.   And we start to get really creative. If we know that I love to break it down and then that becomes your new daily goal for your team. And this is how we're able to take vacations, we're able to hit our goals with ease and we're able to maximize and actually set effective goals for every single month rather than just arbitrary. Cause most people would say, Kiera, that's way too hard. And I used to be this person where I would take, if we need to do 10 % growth, I'll just take 1.1 divided by 12, bada bing, bada boom. We need to do 92,000 per month. Well,   That's great, but what about our low months? What about the months we're taking vacations? Like, are we just expected to produce a lot more? What happens if we have a hygienist that goes out on maternity leave? What happens if we have a doctor that goes out on vacations? Like, that becomes very hard. So if in the month of December, we're only open two weeks, well, I don't think that that month should be equally weighted as maybe August, where we've got five weeks in that month. So what this does is it really helps you actually maximize, optimize, take vacations, and make sure that we're able to hit our goals with ease.   I love this model. I geek out about it. I work with my clients on this. We work in our consulting with this because I think this is something that sometimes can feel daunting. And it's just stuff that we just don't want to do. I'm building out my projections. And then what I look at next is, okay, if that's what we're producing as a practice, what are our costs for next year? And are there costs that we're going to need to bring in of maybe hiring new people or doing different things? And do we actually like is 1.1 or that 10 % growth?   actually going to support and sustain the practice like we need it to do? Or do we need to get more creative? Being more creative, like could we add in other services? Could we do ortho? Could we do sleep? Could we do implants? Like what do we need to do in our practice? What things do we already have that maybe we're not doing? Like I have offices right now that are doing a whitening competition. That's easy ways to add in production on our schedule that we're already doing that we're just not maximizing. What if we've got a 3D printer? Could we look for night guards and could we do that?   Kiera Dent (07:06.332) What about sports teams in the area? Could we do those? Like this is where we start to get into our creative world to really truly grow our practices with ease. And so this is where I wanted to come and just kind of give you guys a quick snippet of how you can actually build these out. And the reason why we do this is like I said, so we're actually able to maximize and optimize and be able to hit our goals with ease. Now things that might come up as a tricky piece is like, well, should I be doing CE? And the answer is,   Like I'm all for CE, I'm all for doctors doing CE, I'm all for all of that. But I also wanna make sure that we're not being CE overload to where we're actually not implementing. So what I say is if you're gonna go to CE, there needs to be a complete action plan for you when you do come back of we're gonna do X number of cases. So if we go to sleep within the next quarter, our team's gonna set some goals around it and we're gonna try and actually ac

    15 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    #923: End of Year Crunch? No Need to Panic!

    Tiff and Dana spell out how to avoid the crunch-time that always seems to crop up each December. They give advice on how to find the just-right daily metric for your practice, the power of adding procedure codes, how to get the whole team rallied for the cause, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.174) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Dana and I are back at it today. We are bringing you some fantastic information today, if I might say so myself. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. I know we both had calls. You've had a million calls.   a ton of clients and you had so many calls already this morning and you pop it on podcasts to just give away more information. So thank you for being here with me. Thank you for giving me this time this afternoon. What do you have going on this weekend? It's Friday for us right now. I don't know when this is dropping, if it'll be a Friday or not, but what do you have going on this weekend? Because I think the world needs to know. I was very excited and I'm going to need a picture of your outfit.   Dana (00:41.026) Thanks, I'm super excited. We are going to PBR tonight. It's one of my kids' most favorite things and I will say in Tucson they do it up. They do get a lot of the top bull riders across the country. So my kids are pumped for that and indoor fireworks and country music. so we are pumped. I know, was like in my morning Friday five, like, yee-haw everybody, I'm super excited.   The Dental A Team (00:56.384) Dang!   The Dental A Team (01:03.222) Yeah, I'm excited. My sister and I went to PBR a couple years ago. It was up here in Phoenix and it was fun. We were honestly we went as like, I don't know, it's something to do. But we were like hyped by the end of the night. It was like two hours like 10, 11pm. And I was like, what else are we doing tonight? Like, where are we going? So I was like your kids so I get it. And my feet hurt because I wore her boots and that was the wrong idea. So it's fine. It's fine. Well, you have PBR. I have my   Dana (01:22.946) Yeah, super fun.   Dana (01:27.746) You   The Dental A Team (01:31.946) tonight. You didn't get to hear that. I know. Mariah Carey's Christmas concert and I told the team this morning this is not meant to be political or offensive to anyone. This is just true from my heart. Mariah Carey is to me what Taylor Swift is to all the Swifties of the world. I am not. I I think Taylor's would just be fantastic. I do love her music. I think she's great but to me Mariah Carey is is that. So I'm excited.   Dana (01:49.584) Yeah.   Dana (01:57.614) I'll exchange pictures then.   The Dental A Team (01:59.958) Yes, yes, we'll exchange pictures. You got PBR, I Mariah Carey, we've got it on lockdown. This is going to be fantastic night. I hope all of you are doing something fun, whatever day this might be, that you're listening to this. I hope that the weekend that we recorded this, you did one of those two things if you're here in Arizona. And really, we're looking at, I mean, we're looking at fun things towards the end of the year. This time of year,   is wild. I feel like this weekend specifically I've had like 16 different things come up that people are like, can you do this, can you do that? I'm like, my gosh, plus I fly on Sunday and I'm like, I can't cram anything else into the amount of time that I have remaining for the year and this is the crunch time, the end of the year.   where things just get really, really, really wild. And we really try to cram as much as we can into the time that we have. So personally and professionally, we start doing this, we start seeing practice, you know, schedules get a little wild. And I really want to talk about today, how to make the most of that. So end of year crunch, end of month crunch, but also Dana and I were talking and I want to not just talk about it for December, for the end of the year, I want to talk about it for   forever, for every month. How can we make sure that it doesn't get to the end of the year, the last two months of the year, that we're like, holy cow, guys, we've got $60,000, we've got to make up, we're behind. And I don't want you guys to get there. I don't want you to feel that crunch. I want you to be looking at numbers more succinctly throughout the year so that you don't feel that stress, but.   We do get there. We do get there sometimes during the year, during other months. And I want you to also be prepared for what that can look like. And Dana, you had just this really fantastic plan.   The Dental A Team (03:45.908) that you've laid out that we use for a lot of our clients, all of our clients are doing it, where they should be. If they're not, slap on the wrist and talk to your consultant. Make sure you get it implemented. But I really want to hear, in your words, Dana, how you make sure that your teams and your doctors are constantly looking at those goals, that they don't have that weird crunch time, and they can accomplish what they're looking for.   Dana (04:08.067) Yeah, and I think like you said, you start off by really looking at those numbers throughout the entire year. I think we set them oftentimes in November, December for the following year and then we're like, well, we set them, we know what they are, that's it. And that's great that you know what they are, but continuing to look at them throughout the year and really to continue to look at is there a gap in any of them? And then we are...   The Dental A Team (04:19.774) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (04:23.178) Yeah.   Dana (04:33.858) pushing the needle or spreading the gap out for the rest of the year so that we are just doing our very best and we're staying on top of where we are in getting there.   Oftentimes when we set them in the beginning of the year, those are big numbers, right? They're big numbers and for the team to digest this, we walked through with a practice on our group consulting the other day and our consultant, Christy, just did a fantastic job of saying like, those are huge numbers and to team members sometimes we have to break it down into bite-sized chunks and what can we focus on every single day to get us there? And if we can take, let's say you set a $60,000 gap, if we can take a $60,000 gap and we can   The Dental A Team (04:49.62) Yeah.   Dana (05:16.256) break it down and say, guys, that is one crown a day. Boy, does that feel so much more doable to a team member than we've got to find $60,000. Right. And I love that you said not just in December, because December, like you and I were talking about, Tiv, is like a baby month this year, like where the holiday is placed and with the time off that happens in December and all the activities like December is such a tiny month this year. And so if we wait and we save and we say, okay, well, let's look at it in December, man, we have missed some   The Dental A Team (05:25.29) Yeah. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (05:32.416) Yeah.   Dana (05:46.16) opportunities throughout the year and all the other working days that happened before we got to the month of December.   The Dental A Team (05:51.034) Mm-hmm. Totally. I think that's brilliant and it's something that should be talked about like you said every day Really we should be looking at it especially when it's crunch time and I know I've had so many teams really rally At the end of the month when it is crunch time and not that they waited till the end of the month But they're like, okay guys like we're still needing this 10k Like where are we finding it today and teams will gamify it and they'll really rally around it   when they know what they need to gain, when they know how to win. So this kind of goes into that metrics conversation that we had on another podcast of really knowing how I can affect the metric on a daily basis. I love.   the idea of doing it and breaking that and what Christy said, like breaking a big goal down to something smaller. breaking that yearly goal down to quarterly, down to monthly, down to daily is huge. And I even have practices, I talked to one today that they were like, gosh, most of the days this week were fantastic, yesterday kind of sucked. But overall for the week, we were above goal. Fantastic. So it's from a monthly to a weekly to a daily. Like, as long as you're on track over the big haul, that's what matters.   I do have practices that almost focus too small and then I have practices that focus too big. The two big practices are like, okay guys, our goal is 250 this month and we're at 125, so let's keep going. It's like, okay, cool, but what else is left? And then I have practices that are like, we need $10,000 every day. So every day they're like, are we at $10,000, yes or no?   What they're not doing is what Dana's talking about is really looking at what was our goal minus what we've done minus what's scheduled, right? Divided by the number of days you have remaining because even if I'm at 12,000 of a $10,000 goal today, if I was at 8,000 yesterday and I'm not thinking about that now $2,000 gap between the two days, I'm $2,000 short at the end of the month and I'm like, wait, where did the money go?   The Dental A Team (07:47.338) well, there's a gap somewhere that was missed. So we've got to look at all of those metrics and figure out every single day, my daily goal might change. I have a practice that I was like,   Just I Extended them that was hard to get out I extended them one year past what I they thought they could do I knew they could do it right But they had like a nine thousand dollar a day goal They had three hygienists and they had one and a half doctors had a nine thousand doll

    23 min

  4. NOV 28

    #922: Thanks For Being Part of a Dream Come True!

    Here’s to the people who make your life incredible. Happy Thanksgiving! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.856) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy Thanksgiving. You guys, if you are new to the podcast, welcome. I'm so happy you're here. If you've been with me for a while, you know this to be true. I love holidays. I love holidays so much. I am so appreciative of holidays because I feel like it's just the time that like takes our autopilot life and puts it actually on pause and.   Thanksgiving is honestly my favorite podcast of the entire year. I have so many amazing things to be thankful for and it's always just special of what I'm able to celebrate with our team, celebrate with all of you and just give gratitude and thanks. And every year on Thanksgiving, my husband and I have it as a tradition. We listen to the podcast as soon as we wake up. And I really think it just centers me. It centers me of the gratitude that I have for each of you being a part of the Dental A Team family.   Whether you're an active client with us, you've been a client with us, you're a podcast listener, soon to be client with us, my gratitude for you is immense. This was just a girl's dream to be able to help dentists across the nation and their teams. It was a dream for me to help the dentists from Midwestern to be able to live thriving lives and to have their teams flourishing and living thriving lives as well.   for people who trusted me and took a risk when I didn't know what I was doing. even today, let me practice on them and make things up and bring things to them and to be open and humble and have fun and make me laugh and challenge me and encourage me is just truly a blessing. For you guys on the podcast to listen and to be raving fans and to share this with people, I don't take this for granted.   I know how blessed I am. I dreamed of having a consulting company where it was spanned across the nation, where we were able to serve and help people on this higher level. And it's the reality of the life that I'm living right now. And I don't take that for granted. And I'm so grateful and appreciative of all of you. I also hope that you today take time to thank your team. I think so often we can just go by the wayside and we can not necessarily give out that gratitude and that thanks for what we have. I realized that   Kiera Dent (02:04.902) You can either see teams one of two ways. You can either see them as an asset or a liability. And I choose to see my team as an asset. I choose to see that they're brilliant, that they're smarter than me, that they're the ones who make the magic happen. They're the ones who love our clients so much. They're the ones who come up with the brilliant ideas. They're the ones who make the marketing. They're the ones who do the customer service calls. They're the ones who talk to potential clients. They're the ones who are figuring out the partnerships. They're the ones who make all this dream become a reality. They say teamwork makes the dream work. And I say teamwork.   and teens also make the dreams become reality. And so just having maybe a moment of pause and reflection today and maybe sending out some little love bombs to your team and to the people that make your life incredible. I believe that the secret to life and fulfillment is giving and gratitude. And if we can have that sense of gratitude, like today my bracelet, it's the grateful bracelet here. And to have that gratitude, to show gratitude in all that we have, I mean,   We are just truly so blessed to be alive at this day and age. We're so blessed to be able to have the technology and the teams and the resources and the life that we get to live. mean, gosh, life is just so magical. And I hope that you see it as magic. And I hope that today of all days, like you take that pause and be grateful for your family, for your health, for your friends, for your team, for your patients, for your community.   all these things that make you a person, all these things that make life magical, all those things that add fairy dust and sprinkles to your life. But just to maybe take a moment, maybe reflect, maybe write in your journal, I would encourage you and challenge you to write maybe 100 things that you're grateful for. If you guys want, if you're listening to this before Thanksgiving dinner, you can do it. I've done it in some teams and it's very fun where you put your name on the top of a paper. Shout out to our marketing gal, Eve. She gave me this brilliant idea and I've done it in teams and they absolutely love it.   But what you do is you put the person's name at the top of the page and then you send it around the table and everyone writes something that they're so grateful for that person for or something that they love about that person. And then it comes back to you you're able to read this little love note. I've done it in leadership teams. I've done it in full teams. And it's interesting because every time I do it, this is the piece of paper that is stuck up on the walls. This is the thing that saved. This is the thing that's on people's phone savers because to be reminded of that we're loved.   Kiera Dent (04:24.98) is one of the greatest gifts that we can give someone else. So maybe do that with your team, maybe do that with your families, but really truly just showing gratitude today. like I said, Thanksgiving podcast is always my favorite podcast of just giving you guys a tip of gratitude, but also to take this time publicly to thank my incredible team. And I always do a shout out to each of my team members.   of a thank you to each of them. And so we just kind of will go through, I go through them from like when they were hired. And so that way it's just really fun. But shout out to the one and only Tiffanie Trader, the spiffy tiffy. has been with me for seven years and Tiff is someone that if you know her, you love her. Tiff just makes life fun. I feel like she's a beautiful yin to my yang. We believe that we were twins in another life. We just happened to get separated this year by a year or this round.   Tiff and I actually share the same birthday. We're just one year apart from each other. But I'm so appreciative of Tiff and the grit and the love and the determination she's had to come into a company where there was just a girl with a dream and she bought into that dream and she's run it and she's done it and she's consulted all across the nation and she served so many offices and she's on the podcast with me and she writes the newsletter. She just she makes it fun and she's been with me since the beginning and to have somebody that's really gone through all of it with me.   This is something I'm so grateful for. think when you're an owner, and a lot of owners will feel this way, when you have someone who's a ride or die with you that you know you can count on, is something that I think we might take for granted. And it's something that today especially, we don't take for granted. We don't take for granted those people that have made us who we are, that have helped us grow. Like, of course, we've had to bring ourselves to the table, but Tiff is someone who really has been there with me.   She's been a rock through so many things. She's been there through all of it with me. And I'm just so appreciative of her and her love and her dedication and her determination to be the best consultant she can be. She's gone through so many growths throughout the company and to watch her just grow and evolve and morph into this incredible consultant is something I'm so appreciative of and just grateful for her going on this fun ride with me. We celebrated seven years together this year and just excited for the next seven and what we can create and make and serve more clients on another level.   Kiera Dent (06:37.176) So that's our one and only spiffy tiffy. And then gosh, like I think my next one is actually no BS Britt. Actually, I think I lied. I think it's Shelbi. Sorry, Shelbi. My order is like, I shouldn't have gone in order. I should just do you guys like in whatever order, but Shelbi, we'll go to Shelbi next. Shelbi, if you don't know Shelbi, you are missing out on one of the most incredible humans. Shelbi has the deepest love for every single person that comes her way. She makes me want to be a better human.   She loves our client so much. loves me so much. Shelbi has been my EA, our customer success, and literally the jack of all trades. Like that woman can fit into so many different areas. And to watch her blossom from when I first hired her by knocking on her door, she used to be my next door neighbor and she took care of my tomato plants when I was traveling so much to make sure they wouldn't die, to now taking care of me and our entire team. Shelbi is someone that I am so grateful for, for her love.   for her ease every single month in our one-on-ones. We always ask our team who should we celebrate and who should we like give kudos to for going above and beyond and without fail, Shelbi is the number one named teammate of all of our team consistently. Everybody loves Shelbi. Every person that meets Shelbi loves Shelbi. Shelbi is just someone who has a heart of gold, who works hard, who is like this woman loves tasks. She is the person I know I can count on 150 million percent to always follow through.   and deliver more than I ever expect. She keeps all the balls in the air. She never misses things. She truly just has so much passion and love and commitment to our company and to our clients. And I am so like eternally grateful that this girl took my awkward knock on her door and then the awkwardness of living as next door neighbors and working tog

    17 min

  5. NOV 27

    #921: Why Perio Calibration Matters (Even When You Think It Doesn’t)

    This one's for the doctors and hygienists. Tiff and Britt discuss why perio calibration matters, how accountability on top of that improves practice-wide success, the right percentages your hygiene department should be reaching, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Britt Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.302) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am excited to help with you today with me, with us. Britt Stone, Miss Britt is one of our hygiene queens. You know, we have a couple of them on our team and occasionally I like to bring them in for some hygiene flow and some hygiene spaces. Now, Britt, today we are gonna talk hygiene, but I wanna do hygiene from doctors.   perspective and like doctors really getting a lot of value out of that space. So today's hygiene is a little bit different. Your hygienists can listen to this always as well. Obviously there's gonna be nuggets in there for them, but doctors, this is for you. Before we jump into my hygiene, I'm so excited for this one, my hygiene stuff, Britt, how are you? You just went on vacation and it was a little chilly, I agree, because we're from Arizona, anything under.   80 degrees is a little chilly. I get it. Tell me, where did you ladies go and how amazing was it?   Britt (00:56.382) That was true.   Britt (01:04.513) It was amazing. One, thanks for calling us Hygiene Queens. I think all the hygienists out there appreciate that. So we love it. But I went up to Washington, Seattle area. So out to Woodby Island. So a little island out there. Took the ferry over, enjoyed it. It was great. I mean, we're all Arizona girls that went. It was like a high school crew, all my high school friends that went for a vacation once a year. And so we went out of town, enjoyed some fall, enjoyed some cooler weather since we don't...   The Dental A Team (01:17.913) Super cold.   Britt (01:32.695) get as much of that here and had a great time.   The Dental A Team (01:34.351) No, that's awesome. And you froze, because you were like, those islands, they get really cold no matter what time of year it is. They're chilly, because they're way up there. You're almost Canada in those suckers.   Britt (01:46.497) Yeah, and it's windy and it was rainy because it's fall time, but I mean, yeah, it's, yeah, which makes it nice and green and it was gorgeous. We saw like a bald eagle. Amazing. So it was.   The Dental A Team (01:52.333) in Seattle.   The Dental A Team (01:58.028) to.   that's really cool. Well, I am excited that you got to go and I think that's super cool. I know you guys do your once a year trip and it's always something really, really fun and you get to just disconnect for at least a weekend. So I was happy to see you're out there. Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I love, I do love my hygiene queens and I think hygiene is obviously an imperative space.   for dentistry and today's topic, it's actually, it's serendipitous, know, things always happen and come up. But the other day, my partner was asking me, he said, because he's a financial advisor, so he's always thinking numbers and he advises a few dentists. And so he's like picking my brain for things. And he's like, how much do dentists actually make?   off of a cleaning, because like he'll go in for his cleaning and then come out with like all of these financial questions for me and I'm like, I'm very smart, you like I'll walk you through it. Yeah, so I'm like, nothing. He's like, what do you mean? What do mean they make nothing? And I was like, they make nothing. Like you're not, you are not going to be profitable off of strictly re-care appointments. And so I literally like, that was my initial response was like nothing and like walk away, right? And he's like, no wait, tell me more. And I'm like,   Britt (03:22.275) all the things and then eventually nothing.   The Dental A Team (03:25.539) Yeah, and so I was like, okay, fine, I'll break it down for you. Let me tell you all the things that go into a hygiene appointment and that cost analysis per hour and why it's so important that a hygienist does 3.3 times his or her rate of pay and can produce 30 % of overall production for the practice because if they're not, that department is not profitable for the company. And the non-profitable space of the company   is an issue, right? And it's not to say hygiene that, know, we're never gonna say do things you don't wanna do or squeeze your appointments or do more. And like, that's not who we are. It's really just about finding the spaces where we can create more value for our patients utilizing the tools at our fingertips and creating more profitability for the company because for Dental A Team we believe that the profitability leads to reinvestment back into.   the patients and the practice. So we cannot reinvest back into our patients' experience and all of these, you digital workflows that everybody's trying to do, these new x-ray machines, the scanners, the cavitron tips, guys, like those pieces of things and, and cool lasers and all of these things that you want even for your hygiene space, those are reinvestments back into it. So that profitability creates the space to be able to do that. And doctors today, I really wanted to walk through that. His question the other day was just like,   my gosh, like, this is something that as a consultant and as a dental professional, this is one of those spaces that to me is just like, I'm like, why would you even ask that? Like that was, that was a weird question. Like, obviously it makes nothing. And then I'm like, you want me to walk you through it? Okay, this is one of those spaces that I think people know that they don't. And really taking an analysis and a look doctors at your hygiene department and how you're influencing that.   as well and making sure that you're staying on top of it. think hygienists are incredible. I think dental teams are incredible. I think doctors are incredible human beings. But I think a lot of dentists, a lot of doctors are like, well, they're hygienists. Like you've got this. You've got this. You do the periapart. You do that, which I totally agree with you guys, right? You are in that world. You are in the gums, right? You got the gums. I'm gonna give you that world, okay? My doctors.   The Dental A Team (05:48.642) you diagnose the decay, the things that need to happen, like you are in that world way more than anybody else is. So for hygienists to be the lead on perio and periodontal pieces, whether it's a routine cleaning or sky's the limit, that makes sense to me. But my doctors who pull so far out that they don't actually know what's going on over there anymore, which...   That doesn't happen for anybody out there legally who's listening. That doesn't happen. But when we're not calibrated, or my doctors, I've had so many times a doctor that's like, yeah, I think they'll be fine, maybe a debridement. And the patient gets over, and the hygienist is like, five millimeter pocket. I'm like, no, he said a debridement. I guess we've already treatment planned it, so now we have to do a debridement. My hygiene team is upset.   Britt (06:15.165) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (06:40.269) I really wanted to talk periocalibration today and Britt, I wanna speak to the doctors specifically, hygienists too, and if you're listening to this and your doctor doesn't listen, like share this one, but go back and do these things with your doctor too. But Britt, from a hygiene standpoint, like how does periocalibration with your doctor, how does it positively influence your experience as a hygienist to...   obviously give your patients the best experience, but how does that influence your experience as a hygiene team member within a practice when you guys are more calibrated like that?   Britt (07:13.537) Yeah, mean, is big, right? When it comes down to it, we need to have a standard when it comes to perio that we all agree on. It's doctor-led, right? And then someone's got to ensure that that standard is actually happening. And that's where doctors don't get so disconnected from it that you can't recognize when a hygienist is not following the standard that we've all agreed upon or that you have set forth and you want that level of care provided for your patients. That's where...   You know, as a hygienist, I love a doctor who trusts me. And you know what? You trust me because we are calibrated and you trust my opinion and you double check it and that trust continues to be there because we continue to be calibrated on how we treat our patients. And if we are not, then great, have a conversation and let's address it and let's reset things. mean...   We're all human beings. How many of us have a habit that slowly over time, gradually changes a little bit? It can happen. So we need to help each other, right? Keep that standard of care that we want to provide to our patients. And sometimes it goes both ways, right? I want that doctor double checking, spot checking things to ensure that that quality is there. If there is a question, great, let's have a conversation about it.   If doctor comes to me and says, hey, like question something, then like, great, let's have a conversation about it and let's recalibrate and let's get back on track with each other and get in line so that we ensure that the quality of care that we're providing to our patients is what we want it to be. So I think for doctors, right, anything we do, and even when we work with people on front desk items, it's like, well, how do I make sure that that's happening? Someone's got to spot check. There's gotta be accountability somewhere.   Clinical is where doctor needs to be strong accountability. Office manager is more stro

    26 min

  6. NOV 26

    #920: Book Club: Right Person, Right Place, Cheaper Cost

    Kiera and Britt review Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan. The theory is to consider how much time you’re spending on tasks that would be done better and cheaper, and give you more time for other tasks that only you can do. Kiera and Britt give examples of how this can work in a dental practice as well as your personal life. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera and Britt Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.92) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am pumped. I have the one and only Brittany Stone on the podcast with me for our book club. Britt, how you doing today?   Britt (00:10.986) I'm doing great. book club day is always fun. tell you, I know people like wish they could be part of our actual live book club with Dental A Team. I've heard it from clients before, but we've got a pretty good one.   Kiera Dent (00:18.711) you   Kiera Dent (00:23.638) We do. And Britt, we are thinking of shaking up our book club for 2025 of adding in a little more fiction. I'm not sure how you guys feel about that. So be sure to email in. Do you want us to solely stick with dental books? Do you want us to cut the book club? Or do you want to roll into our fiction? Britt has been banned from choosing the ones Britt and I book club on, which are very dicey topics. We will not even share the ones we book club on. They're not bad. They're just   very very very charged of I don't know it's not even like politics   Britt (00:55.114) They make you think that there's some of those like ethical or different things that you're like, hmm, what do I think about that? So it's more of like stretching the mind on things, not like bad books.   Kiera Dent (01:03.241) Exactly.   Kiera Dent (01:07.608) Exactly. No, no, I should clarify that it sounded like you were like reading these steamy books. No, we just like the ones that challenge our ethical minds and make us question. It's kind of like those like if you think about I remember there was a one like the dad, the train person and the tracks are there and he hears this little boy and it's like you could either save your child or you can save a train of 500 people. What are you going to do? Like I hope and pray I'm never in that position, but Britt loves to bring these juicy ones up like that.   We're not even going talk about it because I would cry. Luckily, I don't have a child, so I wouldn't even have to make that decision. That is the one benefit of failed IVFs. We're fine.   Britt (01:45.888) Hey, you know, you got nieces and nephews. It must be a family trait. I've got one niece that she was asking her mom at Sunday dinner when our family was together, would you save me or the dog? So, you know, she does love the dog.   Kiera Dent (02:00.03) I mean, I would. Britt, would you save me or Bertie?   Britt (02:06.128) So you want to know what I told my niece and here's why I just get like we'll get back to the book. Don't worry guys. It's a tangent. I Like I told my niece to give her a hard time and like well you couldn't walk and get yourself out of the house The dog might get lost you're you're smart enough to help yourself, but the dog may not so   Kiera Dent (02:11.478) sorry.   Kiera Dent (02:24.413) What if I'm like stuck in bed Britt like decrepit I can't move and birdie is birdie who are gonna save then?   Britt (02:33.781) Both.   Pick them up. One in each arm, let's go.   Kiera Dent (02:40.701) Well, on that note, that's how our book clubs usually shake out. So maybe, maybe one day, Britt, we might actually host a live book club. If you guys want that, let me know. We could do like a live webinar style and have you guys come give the book. Let me know if you'd be interested in that. I don't know if I don't know, we might do it. might not let us know if you're interested.   Britt (02:51.231) Yes.   Britt (02:59.625) I don't know if that's fun or not. It's kind of a nerdy thing. We know you guys like your dental nerds out there You're listening to us and you're reading books with us. So maybe it's interesting   Kiera Dent (03:07.916) Maybe, maybe you'd want to. So let us know, email Hello@TheDentalATeam.com Let me know. There's two things I'm dying to know. One, should we stick with business books for next year? Two, I lied, I want three things. This is how I roll. Britt knows it's going to turn to three. Two, should we keep the book club for 2025? And three, would you want to attend a book club live with us? Cause I could even do a live podcast. So let us know if you want to do that. One, should we change to fiction?   Two, should we keep it going? And three, do you want to attend a live book club with us? Let us know. Email in Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. If I hear from none of you, we're eliminating the book club and Britt and I are just going to do our own ethical dilemma ones on our own that you'll never know about. But we're here for it if it's serving you, that's ultimately the podcast is for you. And just want to say thank you all for being our listeners and part of our Dental A Team podcast family. We're hoping several of you actually join our Dental A Team in-person family.   Britt (03:48.032) I   Kiera Dent (04:00.792) Speaking of meeting us in person, next year, 2025, we are releasing business and leadership events. They're happening. We're super freaking jazzed to meet a lot of you. It's part of our platinum consulting now. So be sure to reach out if you're interested, if you want to meet us, they're going to be incredible. call it like, basically these events are going to be fun because it's Dental A Team, of course. They're a day and a half on a Friday and a Saturday. And I call them like, we're stripping it down to the bones of your business.   to literally get down to what's really going on. Let's figure out what the issues are and then let's make you a map of clarity when you leave and it's for doctors and OMS to come to. So that way doctors, you don't just come and get jazzed up and then have to go get your team on board, but you literally can come and be with us in person. So Britt, Tiff, Dana, myself, Kristy, all of our consultants, you're gonna meet a lot of the Dental A Team in person. So one, if you wanna meet us, come join us. But two, I really think it's an incredible opportunity to...   basically like mastermind with other doctors, like mastermind so cliche and we're actually doing it a lot differently and it's built on your life. It's built on your business. We're having you really like, like I said, it's like a full autopsy of your practice in front of other offices to where we can give you the nuts and bolts of what you need to do to be successful and to have your dream life and your dream practice. so we're super excited. We're going to do this every quarter.   But two in-persons next year. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. and I are pumped about it. Tiff and I are giddy. We have been dreaming of doing this for a few years. So there is limited spacing. So before end of year, be sure to get in. I would love to have you be a part of it. And prices do go up in 2025. So be sure to get in in 2024, because I like to save you money. And it's also a great tax write-off. So if you've been thinking about it, you've been wondering if I should do consulting, the answer is stop thinking and start deciding and execute. Let's make 2025 thriving rather than surviving.   So Britt on that, Who Not How? This is actually excellent. The book is Who Not How by Dan Sullivan. Dan Sullivan makes me like have a good time, because I actually met Dan Sullivan in real life. So that was really fun. It was awesome. And this book is really about, instead of thinking about how do I do this myself, who can I hire, who can I elevate out to be able to do this faster and more effectively? And honestly, Britt, as I...   Britt (05:52.448) You   Kiera Dent (06:16.684) I didn't even mean to tie these together, but think about a consultant. Like, why are you trying to run your practice on your own? Why are you trying to rally your team? Why are you trying to figure out how to run this practice successfully when literally there's the Dental A Team consultants, there's other consultants as well, they can do it better, faster, more efficiently than you can. Why are you spending your time? And so even for this, like Britt, goes back to the book club of buy back your time. If you know, you're hourly. like, let's do what's a general dollar per hour for.   a usual Dr. Britt. Like let's not go high end, not let's not go at low end. What's usually a dollar per hour for a dentist.   Britt (06:52.0) Well, and they say even go from yearly. So like, what's a yearly salary for a dentist? Let's say, you know, we know our dentists do a lot better than this. But let's start with an easy number just to make it simple. And let's say 100,000. We know you're doing more, but let's say 100,000 to make easy math.   Kiera Dent (07:09.684) I hope you're doing more. If you're not doing more than that, you should definitely still call because, our doctors are usually doing two, three, 400,000 take home that that's like on the low end as well. have some doctors taking home in the millions, which is great. And I, I geek out about that. I don't care about your number. care about your life. And we ultimately build your, your take home pay based on what you want your life to be. So, okay. So if you are making a hundred thousand, if you are doing a task that's below that hundred thousand dollar a year mark,   Britt (07:17.535) Yep.   Britt (07:30.495) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (07:39.562) you should be delegating it out.

    30 min

  7. NOV 21

    #919: Debriefing 2024

    Kiera and Britt outline how to go about assessing 2024 for your practice. They give three metric areas and discuss questions for evaluating each: Profitability and business Clinician and dentistry skill Personal and team fulfillment Included in all that is the recognition of accomplishments. Don’t forget to celebrate! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera and Britt Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.812) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a special day. I have the one and only Brittany Stone, no BS Britt. What else do you have? What other names Britt? think bad.   Britt (00:11.616) mean, you got my full name today. So like that's always, Tiff did that the other day on a podcast too. And I'm like, I always get worried when it's my full name that comes up.   Kiera Dent (00:15.127) You   Kiera Dent (00:21.158) Brittany's still back on the podcast. Don't worry. No fear there. It's just a good name. I mean you go by Britt. I only usually call you Britt every so often it comes through as Brittany   Britt (00:23.542) you   Britt (00:31.786) My mom did a good job. I'm happy with it.   Kiera Dent (00:34.22) Yeah, and then BS. What's crazy is there's an office that I consult and their office manager is killer. She's incredible. And her initials are BS. And I was like, you and my BS are two good BSs.   Britt (00:47.03) huh, it's true. They are fun initials to sign on anything when it's like a legal thing that you initial and you sign BS. I'll just say it makes me Google anyways.   Kiera Dent (00:56.458) I mean, someone that I know, I won't say who they are. They have an account called BS Investments. So it's like they're just like nonsense investments. And we were transferring some money and the bank stopped us and they were like, are you sure you want to send it to this? Yes. So agreed. The legal, all the things. There's some good initials. But I thought they were very clever to have BS investments. Like those are just the ones that are like shot in the dark. You don't know what's going to happen. So with that,   Britt and I are back on the podcast. thought it'd be fun to podcast today about like, let's just go through kind of what we do internally. Britt and I work, believe it or not, we're not just consultants in Denali team. Britt does all operations within our company and her and I really do yin and yang. And so I thought it'd be a fun podcast for us today of kind of like, how do we assess how our 2024 was for you guys to really like, let's go through how was 2024 for you? What things should you be looking at? How do you assess if it was a good year?   if it wasn't a great year, because honestly, I think it's fair to say that 2024 was actually our hardest year as Dental A Team, like all the way around. And I think a lot of practices had a hard year. I think there were some who had like best years ever. But I think it's important to note that like ebbs and flows in business are normal. And that's okay. It's just how do we assess was it a good year or not? But shoot, I mean, we hired consultants this year, we hired recruiters this year, like we went all in this year.   because there were a lot of things we were struggling with as a company and I think like struggling and also on the high ends, we also hire coaches then too, but it's like making sure you're really getting the need and the support you have. And like those were pivotal decisions you and I made throughout this year, yin and yanging off of what we both had and our different perspectives.   Britt (02:41.949) Yeah, for sure. I think when it comes to looking at years, like even your tough years, right? Everyone's going to have them. That's welcome to business. Welcome to life. That's what happens sometimes. And even just looking back and making sure that we always look at the things that went well. I think sometimes when we get to end of year, you're like, my gosh, what are all the things? What do we need to fix? What do we do? And making sure to take a look back at what went well and the things that went well.   What do we need to keep doing and not lose track of as we start to focus on maybe some areas or some other areas?   Kiera Dent (03:13.248) I agree and I'm glad you brought it up because I think sometimes you and I are actually cynical and like it's like yeah, yeah, yeah, that was something good. So my question is, I mean, this is a real question. haven't, you guys, we don't script any of this. This is just me and Britt rifting in real life here. How do you not just like get complacent and be like, yeah, that was great, but we need to fix all these things. Like how do you really celebrate the good things going on and not lose sight of those? I don't know. Like I said, this is a rift. You and I have never really talked about this in real life.   Britt (03:20.721) huh.   Britt (03:41.378) I think it takes effort. That's why I try to keep it top of mind because it's more a reminder for me than anyone and anyone else out there that's like me that we struggle to look for the things that did go well or the things that are going well. So it's making the conscious effort to find those things that went well and acknowledge them because yes, I agree.   Kiera Dent (03:47.982) you   Britt (04:01.802) very easily that I'm like, yeah, yeah, or like not take credit for like certain personality types, right? Like I'm like, yeah, it's like, sure, sure, And like move on to the next thing. But I think everyone can benefit, myself included, from practicing and becoming better at accepting the things that did go well and accepting the accomplishments.   Kiera Dent (04:18.67) I actually love that perspective. makes me think back, like I started doing this little exercise where they say to do a celebration at the end of every week. So you literally look back on your week and you write an entire paragraph of the celebrations of the great things that happened for that week before you go in and start planning your next week. And I thought it was stupid. Like, I skipped it for quite some time. I was like, I know better than you. That's just a waste of time. And it's interesting because on the weeks when I will do the celebration box,   Britt (04:41.174) you   Kiera Dent (04:49.31) and you and I both attended this event so you know exactly what I'm talking about. That celebration piece literally flipped my brain into a more optimistic, positive, I could do more momentum than when I'm just like week to week, what did I not get? And I honestly wonder, and I have no backing and nothing other than just my own personal experience, I wonder if truly celebrating those wins and really building that momentum before we go into our build.   can actually help us see the positives. it's almost like those are the sunglasses we're putting on. So then when we do go and tackle where things didn't go well, maybe we have a better proactive mindset on it versus like, we suck, we need to figure this out. It's almost like down and beaten versus vibrant and finding the solutions rather than just problems.   Britt (05:27.914) Thank   Britt (05:36.374) Yeah, and I think it's the perspective, right? That I think when you start with what you've accomplished, it makes going into planning to accomplish more things like, all right, like, yeah, we can do these things. So like, it's not like, well, we keep working on the same thing, right? Like, are we keep doing this? Are we keep doing that? Or like, there's always something wrong. Like, no, it takes a minute to set some perspective on it first, and then move into the next things. And I think for us, right, working with clients, I become more aware of it because I think like,   care about them celebrating more than I care about me celebrating. So like when things happen, I'm like, no, no, no, can we stop for a second and just acknowledge like how far you come right now? Like I was on the phone with the client the other day. And I've been with them since like early on when they opened and they like expanded and added associates and I'm like, can we just acknowledge for a minute and just like, I've been with you for like four years almost now, but like how far you come and really a relatively short amount of time.   Kiera Dent (06:07.32) same.   Kiera Dent (06:23.182) you   Kiera Dent (06:33.086) Which is ironic Britt because without us again scripting any of this I did the exact same thing for a client that I've had for almost the same amount of time I think I'm a year longer than you with that client and I said can we just celebrate the fact that you've built this practice You've had two babies you've cut down your hours You've expanded your practice like you've gone from these numbers to these numbers like that's a lot and I remember one of the doctors she's like Thank you for telling me that because I think I forget to to acknowledge where we've been and where we've come from   And there's a quote that I heard where it says, we overestimate what we can accomplish in a year and we underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade. And I think it's just that like, we really do get a lot done. It's just the day in, day out grind. It's often hard to see progress when you're in it consistently. So agreed. I think that that's a good way to start of like reviewing your 2024 of like, let's celebrate the things that did go well and like make a whole laundry list and like have it as the brag sheet.   Get your leadership team. And honestly, Britt, we should do this before we set our goals. We should probably have a nice brag sheet, because I think a lot more got accomplished. And it's also fun to look back and see, we did accomplish a lot. I think it he

    30 min

  8. NOV 20

    #918: 3 Steps For an Effective Leadership Meeting

    Kiera breaks down need-to-know pieces of leadership meetings—ones that are regularly scheduled, have focused agendas, and require personal ownership from each person present. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.798) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope you guys are just having the best day of your life. I hope that you just remember we are truly so incredibly blessed to be able to be in dentistry. I say this often and I genuinely mean it. I think it's so incredible that we get to be a part of dentistry. We get to be part of all this evolution. We get to be a part of AI coming into our practices and being able to have all these fun things. We're able to help our patients with   PRF and now there's laser that's helping with restorative treatments have less sensitivity and we're able to add it on and have literally patients healing like within three days after a full mouth extraction by using a lot of these procedures like it is truly mind-blowing that we get to be a part of this and giving people their smile. I was in an office this last weekend one of the the team members she's new to dental and she said you know a smile is the universal hello.   And while, yes, I've heard that before, it just kind of hit me again of how beautiful of a work dentistry is where we get to help people with that universal hello of being able to smile and have the confidence and also be able to fuel and be able to eat the healthy foods that we need to eat. To my mother-in-law, she had an accident and she wasn't able to eat. Some things happened and just hearing like how hard it was for her to be able to eat and consume food and how hard it was for her body to heal. just thought...   I think we sometimes forget how important our job and our role and what we're doing in dentistry is and the life impacts we're able to make for people. just wanted to remind you of what a great work you're doing and mass kudos and celebrate your team because we really are doing a work that changes lives. I understand we're not heart surgeons, but we are smile surgeons and we're able to give people the smile and the confidence of their dreams and make that a reality for them. So just wanted to remind you.   Keep doing what you're doing because you're making an incredible impact in this world. So as always, thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If you've not left a review, please go leave those five star reviews. Be sure to share this podcast with someone. Just literally like send it to someone. I want you to think of one dentist or one office manager or one hygienist that you know. Just send this podcast to them because I really am here to inspire and positively impact this world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And the only way I can do that is providing great content.   Kiera Dent (02:21.984) that you naturally want to share. So please share this with someone. And today's topic is going to be really fun for you to share. It's all about how to run effective leadership meetings. I know. Don't worry. I know how to give a good pitch and hook. How to run great effective leadership meetings. I just came in off the road. did nine leadership meetings in one week. That was my latest record. It's definitely something that I have not done before. And to say I was very tired at the end of it and   What my favorite phrase is, came from Tony Robbins and he said, bone tired, but victorious. And that's how I felt. I was literally physically exhausted. I slept in four different hotel rooms in five different days. It was just very, very like I was running. I was sleeping on all different time zones. But by the end of it, my cup was so full from being able to help so many offices achieve goals and dreams and amazing leadership teams that they never believed were possible.   And for me as a consultant, think my greatest success is watching my offices. Yes, I love numbers. I love hitting up sexy numbers. I love seeing offices who when I first started with them, like I have one office that I'm thinking of, when I first started with them, they were doing about 2 million. Incredible practice. They were doing a great job. And just over the course of a few short years, they are now producing, we're hoping that they end in the 5 to 6 million range.   And so to be able to give that ROI of sexy numbers, those are always fun for me to throw out to you of true real life examples, other offices that are producing 12 million, other practices that started out as scratch startups that are now producing 1 million, 2 million, 3 million, and having very successful profit margins on that too, because I don't care what your top line number is, I care what your profitability is, to see offices that bringing on partners are able to pull in 35 % profit.   Those to me are really fun, sexy numbers, because I think in consulting, you're looking for ROIs. And so to be able to share those success stories, but then I also have other offices that don't have as great of numbers. And I really do look to see what's the difference between them. And I think there's a few differentiators and one is execution and commitment. Offices that flourish truly do execute and commit for at least the three to six months or whatever we've committed to as a team, they commit and they stay committed to that. They don't just like, yeah, we did this. And then they let it slip off.   Kiera Dent (04:41.056) The owners are very, very strict with that. Something else is the doctor is very much, the owner is very much involved in not necessarily running the meetings or doing all the pieces, but they're there setting the vision. They are there being a part of it with the team and they very much love their teams. And then the other part is they expect their teams to rise up. They expect their teams to have the conversations. They invest in their teams. They pay for the consulting, but they have their teams come to the meetings.   I have an office and like our meetings every single month. We have our leadership meetings and it is never missed and it is never let go. It is and it is in gold and it's so important and they expect the leadership team to go and tell the doctor what they learned at that meeting versus my other offices who are missing the meetings. They're not blocking the schedules. They're not taking the time. They're not following through. And then we're looking at the numbers. We're consistently looking at the numbers to see where we at, where the lovers and we fall in love with numbers.   All of my offices that are very successful know their metrics forward and backward. If I called each of them up right now, they would know their overhead, they know their profit, they know their collection percentages, they know how much is in their AR, they would know how much their doctors are producing, every single one of them. Like literally I would call them, but that's been trained over years of this is what we need to look for and we need to make decisions off of that. And then I train leadership teams to do the same. Training leadership teams to think like owners, to look at this practice and take the ownership of like, yes, the doctor is here.   but leadership teams are now setting the vision. They're setting the goals. They're setting the objectives. The doctor has a small portion of that as the owner, but the leadership teams are ultimately taking the ownership and having an ownership mindset on the practice. The doctors that don't do as well in consulting, or I would say in general, are the ones who are making excuses that are blaming, that aren't having the uncomfortable growth conversations with their team, that aren't expecting their team to show up to meetings. It's crazy. Some teams start right on time. Like the offices that do really well.   They are always set up, prepared. Everyone has a notebook and a pen. They're there usually five to 10 minutes before the meeting starts. And that's the expectation that they have versus other offices. They're coming in. No one has notes. No one's taking notes. No one's following up on what's going on. You obviously have two different stages, two different standards, but both of them have the same opportunity if they desire. And so just giving you guys some tips on how you can run very successful leadership meetings is one.   Kiera Dent (06:59.796) always have it like set in the schedule and everybody comes and I recommend you always start five minutes like they're there five minutes before and that's on time. We always have an agenda. So there's got to be an agenda. I follow the traction model by Gina Wickman. We call them L10 or level 10 meetings. And there's a very solid structure in there where we start with our personal professional wins of the week. And then we have our expectation of what we're hoping to get out of the meeting. I do this every single time our team does it. My offices that I coach do this.   After that, we then go into reviewing last week. Did we get our action items done? Where are we at? We look at the numbers and the metrics. If anything is off track for that quarter, that goes to an issue that we're going to discuss. And then we move on to issues and issues we don't just go one by one by one. We categorize them, we put them together, and then we look at what's the one, two, and three most important things to get solved and resolved. And we come to meetings to resolve. We don't come to meetings to just talk. So we're coming there to make decisions. We're coming there with all the information people speak up.   Then we commit, we have our action items, people follow through. And a lot of times it's lik

    18 min
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About

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

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  • Creator
    Kiera Dent
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2024
  • Episodes
    923
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 668974
  • Show Website
    Dental A Team Podcast

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