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. 15 HR. AGO

    #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

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    #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

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    #944: Reignite Your Passion

    Kiera lists a series of questions listeners can ask themselves when they’re feeling a lack of passion for their job, life, relationships, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.994) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today is just a great day for you. I hope that you're loving your life. I hope that you are enjoying being in dentistry. And if you're having a bad day, well, let's chalk it up. Hopefully you only have like 10 % of your days that are bad and 90 % of your days that are good. I believe that we are truly in the best profession. We get to change people's lives. We get to do dentistry for people. We get to help people in ways that they didn't know. The smile is the universal hello. And we're able to give people confidence where they didn't feel like they have.   We're able to give people a way to give nutrients to their bodies, a way to communicate with people. And we're doing that through dentistry. So I'm just excited for you and I love it I hope that you do too. And remember, Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so if this podcast is serving you, blessing you, sharing, you've taken any tip, please share it with somebody. Please help us get this podcast into the hands of every single dentist, every single practice.   Because I believe that that's how we'll be able to achieve our mission of impacting the world in the greatest way possible Today I wanted to dive in to just a fun topic of how to recreate passion I think it's very easy to lose passion. We've been doing things for a long time. It's day in day out We've been working hard. We've been taking on the challenges. We're on opera like smooth operating wherever you are   How do we recreate the passion in our lives? How do we get that passion back? And I can speak from personal experience on this. I lost my passion. I truly did. It was a grind for me. Work was no longer fun for me. And not to say I didn't enjoy my clients, because I always loved my clients. And I love podcasting. So those were still really fun things for me. But overall, being a CEO and   dealing with the struggles, I had some really, really hard things in the business. And I think that's oftentimes when it like kind of sucks the wind out of us and we lose passion. We can lose passion when family life is hard. We can lose passion when it just feels like it's Groundhog's Day. Go in, say hello, do the same thing, leave. And so just trying to help you think of how can we reignite that passion? And I put on here, there's lots of different ways, but today I wanted to dive into the art of play.   Kiera Dent (02:19.59) and bringing more play into our lives and realizing that I think sometimes we make our jobs and our careers be a one-stop shop for everything we're doing. We literally are sitting here saying like, needs to be my fulfillment piece. needs to be my significance piece. It needs to be my challenge. It needs to be my financial piece. It needs like, it needs to be the space where I feel loved, all these different things. And yet that's a lot to put on one space. I understand that we spend a lot of our time there, but when we lose the passion,   One, I would ask, are there things that we could delegate off? I made a whole list over here of the things that I just don't like doing anymore and where I was getting like into the suck of losing my passion and realized could those things be delegated? Could I hire somebody for those? Could those things get off of my plate successfully? And the answer was yes. So we hired somebody new, we delegated some tasks and I got really, really super clear on what things do I absolutely love doing day in and day out of my life.   I love working with my clients. I love doing numbers. I love the podcast. I love doing events. love speaking. What I don't enjoy doing are like all the little like nuances around all of it. And I've got a team. And so that was just also me realizing I'm in the wrong spot. I've been staying there with my hands in the pot for so long and I need to trust my team and I need to truly empower them that they are brilliant. They're more brilliant than I am and to remove myself. So that's one big passion suck is.   Are we maybe doing things that don't bring us the passion that suck the passion that someone better than us who loves to do it could actually take on. that's step number one. Step number two is what are we doing outside of work and where are our hobbies at? And I remember sitting in therapy trying to figure this out. bought Simon Sinek's like, find your why. My why was there. It just got buried. My why has always been there is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And it's through expert consulting for dentists and teams. Like my why is still there. I still know exactly why I do this. I understand it.   And it just got buried and I forgot. I truly forgot and I believe I've got lots of whys. But that was like the big thing of like, why am I doing this? But I realized I didn't have any passions. I didn't have friends. There was a book I read a while ago called Find Your Tribe. I like it. I will say it's extra churchy. I mean, I am religious and it was a little extra even for myself. So if you can, if you could read past that or if that doesn't bother you, I just want to, I want to give a disclaimer on it. But the book is really good and she talks a lot about   Kiera Dent (04:42.616) finding five people within a five mile radius of friends. And this is where play comes into play. I did not mean that play on words. So this is where play comes into play and not a play on words. There you go. But what are you doing that's fun? What are you doing as adults for play? Are you into pickleball? Can you get into sports? you, and not that you have to, it's like not kid sports or not hanging out with friends because your kids are that, like, what do do that's soul filling for you?   And I remember sitting there thinking like, honestly don't know. It's almost like I lost myself and I needed to date myself again. You know how couples, they fall out of love because they forget to date each other. Like what they were doing when they were dating, they've stopped doing and in doing so, they actually fell out of love with each other accidentally. And so have we also like fallen out of passion with ourselves because we forgot what even makes us human. We've gotten to our careers. We've become the bosses. We've become, we've been working hard. We...   get lost in the shuffle of kids and family and all the different pieces that we get lost in that we forgot what even makes us a human. And this is where the art of play comes in to play. What do we do for fun? And so I remember I was like, but a lot of these things for me, and I will just speak very candidly and you can judge me or you can like me. This is Kiera Dent, real and raw. I said a comment in therapy. I said, a lot of these things feel stupid to me because they don't make money.   And I think about like buy back your time and who not how, and I know my dollar per hour and it's like, play does not equate to my dollar per hour. And yet my therapist said, but Kiera play is so much of life that isn't going to have a financial ROI. And can you do something just because you enjoy it and not have to feel productive, not have to feel like it has an ROI on it. And she's like, you can still love your work. You can still enjoy that, but there's this whole side of our lives.   that won't ever have an ROI. It won't ever make you money, but it actually will make you money because you're happier and you're more fulfilled and you're more fueled. And then you're actually going to want to go work more because you're happy because as soon as you're done with work, you go play. It's like this whole thing of recess. Think about in school, we work hard and we go play and we have recess. We get done with the day and we go play outside with our friends. We would call up our friends and we'd have play dates all the time. And yet as adults, what are we doing to play? And it doesn't mean that we're just sitting in front of a TV and vegging and numbing our minds.   Kiera Dent (07:08.47) It doesn't mean that we're drinking and numbing our minds. It means what are we doing to fuel our souls? What are we doing that makes us excited? And so we started listing off ideas and she was like, okay, Kiera. And I'm like, you want me to go book club with people? I was like, this is stupid. said, you want me to go craft with people? This feels so dumb to me. I'm like, you want me to go join a sports team? This also feels so dumb to me because it feels like, no, I need to be at work. Like my dollar per hour is this and I know I can produce that. And yet the play is where passion is.   And so she said, Kiera, feel uncomfortable and do it anyway. And I want that to be your motto. Feel uncomfortable, do it anyway. So that means I feel uncomfortable at a book club, do it anyway. I feel uncomfortable going to the, like calling friends, getting my five friends within five miles and saying, hey, let's meet up for lunch or hey, like, let me have you over and have a party. I feel uncomfortable dressing up for a Halloween party and going to it.   I feel uncomfortable carving pumpkins with people and I sit there and the business still chicks. But when we get into play, we actually forget. I feel really ridiculous going and painting ceramics with my dad. took my dad, said, my dad and I call it fun Fridays. And my dad comes up, he lives about two hours away and we went and we painted ceramics together. And my dad said, Kiera, why do you like to do this? And I said, dad, I like to just have mindless chit chat

    15 min

  4. JAN 16

    #943: Office Autopsy: When Cash Flow is Low

    Kiera summarizes a practice that was struggling with cash flow. She breaks down what the Dental A-Team did to pull back the curtain and find out where cash was hiding, and what was done to fix the flow. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.814) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today's incredible for you. I hope you are having the best life. I hope you're just enjoying everything and more. I really truly hope that things are just going so well for you. Don't forget guys, we truly live in the best industry, the best time, all the things are here for us. And so let's not forget how great things really are for us. As always, thanks for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. I adore you. I appreciate you. I respect you.   I look up to you. I want to be more like you, all the things. And I'm so, so, so, so, so happy that so many of you are a part of our family. If you guys remember, my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so if you can share this podcast in a Facebook group or on your drive, us, share this with a colleague, share this with a coworker, share this with someone. Today's going to be an office autopsy.   and leave those Google reviews, those five star reviews on whatever streaming platform you're on. That helps us stay top ranked so more offices and more teams and more doctors just like you can be infused with positivity, tactical tips that are going to make your life, your practice extraordinary, easier and happier and more profitable. So I think it's a win-win-win and that's what we're all about at Dental A Team. That's what our consulting's about is how to help you create and achieve that extraordinary life that you've been looking for.   and do it with ease.   Kiera Dent (02:06.531) If you are new to the Dental Inn Team podcast, my name is Kiera Dent. Dent really is my last name and I do love what I do. I started this consulting company wanting to help the students of Midwestern University's dental college in Arizona. And I took a practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million with one of the doctors. She was incredible. We did incredible work. And I thought, man, if I could help her.   Maybe I can help other doctors too. And that's actually how Dental A Team started. I had never done consulting before. So everything you get within Dental A Team are things that I wish I would have had things that when we were scrambling, when we couldn't get our team bought in, when we couldn't hit goals, when everything seemed so hard, I wish I would have had these items. And so that's actually what the consulting company has been built upon has been created on is all of that. So that's what Dental A Team's about. And so for those of you who are new,   Every so often, I will do what's called an office autopsy, where I take you behind the scenes of one of our consulting clients. Yes, I do keep them anonymous. And sometimes I will mix and mingle so you can't quite figure out exactly who I'm talking about. And that's just to keep the practices anonymous. I do have permission to share. And these are just things that we've done with a practice. So today, and I love to walk you through because   When I was an office manager, when I owned my practices, we were just in our own silo place. And yet if I can share information with you, help the best practices win and thrive, that's what I'm about. Because I believe that we have a moral obligation within dentistry to help practices that are the best, provide the best dentistry for more patients and to help patients have the best experience. I really, really truly do believe that that's our moral mission. And so, and it's our ethical code and that's what we're here for. So with that, there was a practice.   They were an amazing office. And I remember this doctor called me, I was sitting on an airplane. I used to fly a lot more than I do today. We fly to our practices. We also have offices come together and we meet together for business and leadership events that are so fun. And we basically like get naked on our business in front of other people. And I think it's one of the most beautiful things. They're not physically naked. I feel like I need to like have a massive disclaimer on there. But basically, like we stripped down your business to the bare bones of   Kiera Dent (04:13.889) what is going on in your practice and what are the real things and what are the roadblocks with no nonsense. Like let's actually figure it out and then let's not spend our time fixing the 500 things that we could fix. A business will always have opportunities to fix and that's why it's a business. But the reality is I think as business owners and as leaders, our job is to sift through all the opportunities and pick the one, two or three items.   that are going to exponentially move us forward in the fastest, most effective, efficient way that will be the best for our teams, the best for our patients. And so that's where we strip it down to the bones, what's going on in the practice, and then we're able to help us identify what do we need to do over these next three months to make sure our practice is flourishing and thriving. And we do this in a group of like-minded doctors. We do this where you are really able to exponentially grow and we have your office manager come with you. Because when I attend events, I love them and I get hyped up.   but then I gotta go back and get my team hyped up. So we figured we are dentists and team consulting. We work with both. We don't just work with one or the other. We are comprehensive that way. And so really having this beautiful match made in heaven where the office managers also get to hot seat. They get to go through, they get to have these opportunities and they get to mix and mingle with other office managers to really pull and seep out the best of the best. So.   That's what we do. either go to you or we bring you together or a mixture of both. And it's so magical. And so this doctor called me and I was sitting on a plane and he was telling me how hard his practice was and how the collections were just struggling a lot. And he said, Keira, can you help me? And I said, well, actually, yeah, this is our specialty. My hunch is there's a lot more than just collections, but usually offices will reach out when cash flow is low. Obviously, right?   We're in panic. We need cash. How do we get this? Let's contact a consultant who's an expert consultant who's been there, done that, done that successfully multiple hundreds of times over and let's hire them. So cashflow, team turnover, culture, lack of vision, wanting to go to the next level. Sometimes there aren't really a lot of problems. I just want to go to the next level and what can we do for that? So those are usually the typical reasons why someone's going to actually reach out for consulting. And so this doctor, it was the cashflow, the cashflow issue.   Kiera Dent (06:25.187) Other times offices will also reach out for systems. I think that that's a very, very interesting thing too, to see, what are the systems we could be doing? So depending upon where they are in a practice, if they're like zero to a million, usually it's more about systems and foundations and leadership. If they're like a million to about that 5 million mark, it's usually optimization, leadership, cashflow sometimes in that area. And then if they're 5 million plus, usually it's like, let's take to the next level or like, let's get our systems dialed in or where can we do those small refinements?   And then when I'm hitting the offices that are like 10, 20 million, those ones are more like we're mass scaling. We're trying to get all the practices operating in the same direction. So, depending upon where you are, you may or may not fit. Maybe you're above, maybe you're below. Either way, that's really what they're looking for. So, this office, they're in that middle tier, the 1 million to 5 million range, but cash flow. Cash flow is hurting. They're struggling and they don't know why. So, going into the practice, first thing we did was we looked at immediately where can cash be hiding and cash can oftentimes be hiding.   in your AR accounts receivable and doctors I always feel so bad for you because you did the dentistry and yet we didn't collect and I always tell people I'm like how would you like to go to work and you go do the work and then you don't even get paid for the work and so that's where with teams I'm very adamant of you have to be collecting the money you have to be helping your doctor like we did the work we did great dentistry and we can expect patients to pay for that and so we immediately went to the AR and their AR was sky-high   and the money was right there. All the cash was there. Another practice we saw that there's $350,000 of AR sitting there. Well, no wonder our collections fell low because we've got AR there. So you need to put a system into this practice to actually start collecting the AR. So we started sending out statements. We had a process of when do we send the statements? How often do we send the statements? Who's working on these statements? What day are they working on the statements? Are we calling first, then texting, and then sending a paper statement? The answers are yes, we're doing those items.   but they didn't have it. And within a couple of months, this practice was able to collect over $200,000. You better believe that doctor saw the ROI of our consulting immediately. And now they also feel like they've got cashflow. But how did we get here and how do we stay out of there? So a lot of times in consulting, we go in and administer CPR immediately. I guarantee you when you get into consulting, there's usu

    17 min

  5. JAN 15

    #942: How to Combat Loneliness

    Loneliness and social isolation are factors in an epidemic across the United States. Kiera takes the time to talk about ways to fight back the loneliness in our everyday lives. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.9) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope you're having a great day. I hope things are going so good in your world. I'm so grateful you're a part of the podcast family. I really enjoy podcasting. enjoy, gosh, we're coming up on what is it? Our fifth year. gosh. I think even maybe our sixth year. The podcast is released in 2019. So yeah, we're coming up on its sixth birthday this year. my gosh.   I'm gonna have to fact check myself. Let's just say, Dental A Team is gonna be six years old. That's insanity to me. Maybe it's five years. Might be five? It's gotta be six though. Happy birthday Dental A Team podcast. But if you've been with me, I've enjoyed it. I enjoy the time. I'm so grateful for each of you. And I hope that I've been able to give you tactical practical tips and infuse your world with positivity, truly, because my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And I currently do that through consulting, expert consulting for doctors and teams.   So today I wanted to talk to you about something that I think a lot of us are seeing. It's interesting because there is something we have leadership, we have solo practices and loneliness. And there's some studies that have come out. So this one's from The Guardian, just recently released. And they're talking about how loneliness, it says more broadly, lacking social connection can increase the risk of premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.   In addition, poor or insufficient social connection is associated with increased risk of disease, including a 29 % increased risk of heart disease and a 32 % increased risk of stroke. That to me is astronomical. And so I was thinking about it, like literally they're showing that loneliness is actually worse for us than 15 cigarettes a day. can kill you faster than that. And yet like smoking was one of the greatest like killers of the world. And so thinking about this of like,   what causes this and like, you know, leadership is lonely. Owning a practice is lonely. Being a CEO is lonely. I'm sure hygienists and dental assistants, we can feel it's lonely. And yet we're working with so many people, but yet it's a lonely space. so realizing that loneliness is such a prevalent piece and it actually is shown to kill more people. What do we do for this? And they say loneliness is as bad for our bodies as it is for our minds. There's doctors   Kiera Dent (02:27.95) The US top doctor surgeon general Vivek Murthy is so worried that last year he issues an urgent warning about the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation. These are not quite the same thing though there is a big overlap. Social isolation describes an objective lack of social connections while loneliness is all about perception. You can be lonely without being socially isolated and if you're lucky, vice versa. And so just looking at this like we used to be in a society that was so connected.   Right? Like you think about communities and you think about tribes and we think about going back to even archaic times where people were in tribes and there were cavemen and cavewomen and we all hung out. And then you think about like when my husband, I went to Bali, families live together in these communities and you don't leave them and you stay with them. And there's such a community and camaraderie and everybody knows what's going on and you're there. And I think in, in the U S especially social media came out. Right? So we're   We're more connected, but we're actually more lonely than ever before. And they also were talking about in this article that people are actually afraid to admit. It says many of us struggle to admit we are lonely. There is a tremendous stigness, says Mark Rowland of the Mental Health Foundation. And so looking at this, it's like...   Kiera Dent (03:47.214) How do we combat this? Leadership's lonely. Owning a practice is lonely. And on this one, says, like, loneliness is not insurmountable at any stage of life. But it's very difficult when it's, let's say, rusting away at your mental and emotional life without you even naming it. Bringing it into the light and sharing with yourself and then with others is really the first step of breaking the cycle. And so today, I just kind of wanted to talk about   What can we do to combat loneliness? They have some ideas in this article of what you can do. They say, you know, try to keep busy, have hobbies like gardening, jigsaw puzzles. They also said it's important that these things are fun or fulfilling. Be careful about working too hard or watching TV shows simply as a distraction. They will only delay or suppress your feelings and could actually make your mental health worse. And then they talk about like stimulate your mind. So podcasts kudos to you on being on podcasts.   comedy, fitness, like work related, whatever, get moving. Physical exercise can help with loneliness. Try to engage with the people you meet. And I think about how often do we go to Starbucks or are we on a train or are we at a coffee shop or are we at the grocery store and we've got AirPods in, we've got our phones up. I mean, so often I think our phone is our best friend. I was at a bachelorette party and I don't drink. And so I'm always the DD with my Shirley Temple and   they were all dancing and I kind of just felt like I would and I also watch all the stuff. So that's kind of my world. And I remember sitting there and I felt very lonely and yet I'm in a room of a ton of people. Instead of talking to someone, what do I do? I grab my phone and I instantly look at my phone to make myself not feel as lonely and like look at social media and feel like I'm doing something to connect. But like talk to people, say hi, ask them about themselves. I think we've lost the art of communicating with people. I remember talking to someone and they said that   they, excuse me, that they did, they have a, some of them they're dating and they don't even see each other and they're just like 30 minutes away. And I thought, my gosh, like, no wonder we're so lonely. and they also said in this article, find people who get you, spend time with pets, try to use social media in a positive way. And then talking to therapists can also help. And I was just thinking like,   Kiera Dent (06:09.124) These are really, really, really important things and like prolonged social isolation and loneliness are truly like so close to smoking. What are we doing with it and how can we stop it and what can we do to combat it? And so I was just thinking for you, what are you doing to combat your loneliness? Do you have friends? Do you talk to people? Are we so on our phones and social media all the time? Do we put our phones down and do we engage with the people around us? Do we build hobbies?   we go to the gym? I will tell you, I am not a gym human. But I actually am now. And I love going to the gym because it gave me people around me so I didn't feel as alone. Talking to family members, but having people around you and I think having five friends within five miles is so paramount, true friends that you can talk to that you can tell things to. But even within leadership and in a practice, I found it's always super helpful to have mentors to have a community to have people who get me.   I joined Tony Robbins because those are entrepreneurs who go through the same struggles I do. I made a friend group within that group and we meet every single quarter and we talk about like, what are we going through and how can we help each other and where are our numbers at? And we work through the pieces of it. And I'm so grateful for that. My team, we're all a virtual team and yet we communicate all the time with each other, but I miss the in-person engagement. And so we are bringing our team together.   more consistently and meeting with each other face to face to combat that loneliness. But for leaders, where are you going and where are you communicating? And do you have a network? For me, my coaches are huge for me. And yet I think that there's importance for loneliness to combat it, to have coaches that we pay for and to have mentors and mentees and communities, but then to also have our own personal. Do you have friends? Do you have people that you talk to? Do you have hobbies? Like,   Jason and I, I love the memes that are going around of like when my extroverted self makes plans and my introverted self has to fulfill those plans. And I keep saying like, I want more friends and I want to have more people around us. I, cause there is, it's a lonely world. And the way that you're able to then share with people is by knowing them and getting to know them and spending time with them allows you to open up and to share your struggles and to share your life. But without that, it's tricky unless they're paid as like a therapist or a coach.   Kiera Dent (08:29.732) And I remember there was one night we were invited to a birthday party and I'm like, my gosh, it's the weekend. I don't want to go. I've output so much energy at work this whole week. I just want to recuperate and recover. And there are times to do that, but it was so fun because I'm like, okay, we'll just go for like 15 or 30 minutes. And sometimes I think that's all we have to do for ourselves is it's 15 or 30 minutes that we're going to go, but we're at least going to go socially engaged. And it was actually so much fun. And we ended up staying for three hours and   had the best time and we were so fulfilled and it was so good to spend time with friends because then we saw them the n

    16 min

  6. JAN 14

    #941: The Path to Multi-Practice Success

    When it comes to owning and operating multiple dental practices, not everything runs the same. That’s a common surprise for those overseeing multiple practices. In this episode, Tiff and Britt discuss where practices often fall short in keeping things running smoothly across all offices, and how to set yourself up for success. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.134) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am back today with, I've got a new nickname, brilliant brain Britt, triple B, brilliant brain Britt. I like it. I'm back here for some fun business talk today. are working hard, Britt and I, I hold her business brain for a few different podcasts today and we're working hard to make sure you guys that you've just got some really, really successful business tips and tools early on in the year.   Britt (00:09.18) I'm going get some   The Dental A Team (00:28.014) going to be all year long that you're getting business tips. Like always, we love the business side of dentistry because we really, really want your business to work for you, not you work for your business. So we work really hard with all of our clients and all of you listeners to make sure that you have the tips for success there. But today I've pulled Britt on a few different items. We just got done chatting some about really starting your 2025 off right, which was a little bit of a review of how to end Q4 and get prepped for 2025.   but I wanted you guys to have all of those goodies. So if you haven't listened to that yet, you don't have to do it before today. Listen to today, but they can go backwards and listen to that one as well. Today though, Britt, you have, this in your background. Like this is something that you've done. We've both had our hands in it, but you have like honestly and truly just managed multiple practices and really helped set them up for success. You've done transitions, like you've done it all. So I really wanted to bring you on today to pick your brain on some of the pieces that.   are super important and paramount in learning, maybe prior to would probably be, you know, helpful, but a lot of us are not in that situation. A lot of, a lot of doctors listening today already own multiple locations. And so really knowing what they can do and what they can learn and what they should be looking out for is kind of what I'm interested in today for multi-practices. Before we pop in though, how are you today? How is, how's Britt's beautiful brain doing?   Britt (01:53.724) It's doing good today. It's it's not too early. Britt's brain super early is not always the best. I gotta have a little time to warm up with the day. That's that's how I work or late nights. That's that's my brain time really. So everybody works a little different, but I'm good. It's not too early. I get to sit here and chat with you about I don't know this kind of stuff is fun. Growth is fun. Different ideas are fun, so it's going to be a good time.   The Dental A Team (02:18.394) I agree. I agree. And your brain just works like this, like numbers, the black and white of it all. Like I've given you kudos before, know, you do really well at seeing the gray too and working through the gray to find the black and white, which I think in business is incredibly, incredibly paramount to success. Working with people is not always the easiest thing in the world. I tell all of my doctors and my office managers that the hardest part about your job is going to be managing the people.   But you do really well with it because of that aspect. So I think it's really, really important to say that now because I think doctors listening and managers listening, whomever business owners are listening, that's a space for you to learn to utilize that black and white data, but to bring in that personal side and to bring in that emotional side without letting the emotions take over the results, I guess. so, Britt, that's something I really want to pick your brain on, but   From the tactical standpoint, what are a few things going into multi-practice ownership, or maybe they already own, right, but hopefully going into, what are some key pieces that they should really be prepped for, looking for, tracking, to know that they're on the path for success for both of them, and what should those look like? Should they be the same? What's the easiest way to go about this when you're taking on a new practice?   Britt (03:43.098) Yeah, number one thing is have a practice, have your flagship running really well and strong systems in your flagship before you start taking on another one is the ideal way to do it, right? Learn how to manage what is one location before you start multiplying that stress or management of all the locations. And with multiples, it's a different mindset. And I think that's where   The Dental A Team (04:01.624) I agree.   Britt (04:09.562) We work with a lot of private practice and even multiples that are private practice and people that are like maybe even transitioning to DSO because it's one of those scenarios to where like the same thing doesn't work for everyone. So that's, do a lot with our practices that are custom and it's like, all right, where are we going? What are we doing? What's it going to look like? What's the feel you want behind it? And when you start, when you know that you want to potentially even go multiples and you're starting with one location, I want you to put like the multiple brain on.   The Dental A Team (04:21.478) Yeah.   Britt (04:38.192) We don't have them yet, but we want to start building things to where there are systems that can easily be transitioned into multiples. What I mean by that is, yes, there are going to be some steady things that are like, great, the way we do AR and send statements is going to be the same way we send statements all across all locations. The way we budget for supplies is going to be the same way we budget for supplies across all locations. But make sure you're keeping things really clean bookwise and especially at   The Dental A Team (04:45.956) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (05:07.051) Mm-hmm.   Britt (05:07.356) when you start getting into multiples and thinking bigger. So for example, let's say, great, now we've got a couple locations, great, we can share resources. shoot, we ran out of something. Great, go grab some from the other location. You wanna track all those things and pay it from the appropriate business so that each business independently is going to look like the reality and the numbers will be the reality and it's not getting mucked up by the other.   And so you actually know how to, one, drive each individual practice, and then two, know like, all right, when we pull those numbers together, what does the organization look like with all offices together? So it's a little bit of a different mindset when you're doing all the pieces. So great, accounting-wise, that's gonna be one piece that you wanna think of. Hiring team members even, great, what's our onboarding? It's not just gonna be one location, we're gonna be working towards more, so we wanna have a strong system.   The Dental A Team (05:45.157) Okay.   Britt (06:04.024) Systems awesome what things can be easily translated across all offices and then where is that great to where each office has a little bit of room for their interpretation on specific things and especially if you're wanting to Let's say I know some that they've got like a PPO practice and then a fee-for-service practice If you know that's the direction you want to go then all right create systems that can work for both And then we just customize some pieces of it based on the location   So big things I think are accounting, planning systems for multiple locations, and also leadership and mindset. Going from a team that's at one location and they think that's what it is, teams get scared of change. so prepping the team or getting them on board that like, this is the direction we're going. This is what we ultimately want. So they're on board to help. And when you get that next location, they...   The Dental A Team (06:32.997) Mm-hmm.   Britt (06:58.46) even though it may not really even impact them, but they get scared. What does that mean for us? What are we gonna look like? How's the culture gonna change? All those pieces. So those are some of my most important ones is just thinking multiples, even if you're only a one to start with, and that's the direction you wanna go.   The Dental A Team (07:15.827) Totally agree. Yeah, I have a few practices, a few practice owners that I've chatted with that they're like, okay, so like, I'm just going to open a second location and restart. I'm going to try again. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I totally understand that. But it's kind of like, we're driving our car and like the wheels, you know, are a little looser or they need air, the tires are like something like, you know, mechanically is just not right. And we're like,   scrap it, or just, I'll keep this car and I'll keep paying for it, but I'm just gonna get a new one that might be a little bit better. It's kind of what I feel like when they say that, right? Like, just fix the things. You can do that. You can have to. You can have an old car and a new car if you want both. You could sell the old car and buy a new car if you want to do that, but don't keep an old car and keep paying for it when it's broken and then get a new car and start paying for that too.   an absurd waste of money and resources. So I think of it like that. And I have had a few practice owners that are like, but this one is just like, I'm racking my brain like, cool, we haven't found the root cause yet then. So when you're digging into those pieces and really looking at why is my now this is gonna be my flagship

    26 min

  7. JAN 9

    #940: What Leaders Should Not Do

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

    23 min

  8. JAN 8

    #939: Strategic Tips for 2025

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

    24 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 - 2025
  • Episodes
    944
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 668974
  • Show Website
    Dental A Team Podcast

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