Dental A Team Podcast

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

  1. 7H AGO

    #1,148: Disappearing Profit? You Might Be Missing This!

    Ever feel like money is disappearing from your practice? Tiff and Dana share where practices tend to find that missing money, as well as how to trim down those expenses. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I always want to say on that opening, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and I have to really think about it. Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back here. Dana and I have been on a podcasting frenzy we love these days and then we're like out of breath and I also love that because it feels like productive and anaerobic. So I'll take it. I've got Dana here with us today. Dana, thank you so much for riffing with me today, for being here, for blocking out your morning, for podcasting and just   All awesome, awesome. Thank you for being an awesome part of this team. We were literally just talking about how my brain just is like ping pong, ping pong, and then I won't finish a statement. That was it. That was me proving to you that that really happens real life. So, and don't cut that podcast team, whatever. Dana, how are you today?   DAT-Dana (00:38) you   doing really good. am honestly and truly, I feel like today we've rift a lot and we've come up with some really great, I think, content ideas for doctors and teams. And so, so far, I'm super proud of us today.   The Dental A Team (01:01) I agree. I agree. think the marketing one, if you guys haven't listened to the marketing matters, I believe that's what they're calling it. But there's a marketing one that Dana and I just did. I actually, I think that was one of our best podcasts. That was so good. So good. And KPIs again, I know we talk about KPIs a lot, but we really went on a very good tangent of inspiration versus motivation for those KPIs. So I agree. I think it's been fun. And I love talking profit now.   Dana, I think you and I have grown to love profit. Not that we didn't love profit before, but I think we've grown to really, really see some high value in the profit side and just love finding it and talking about it more than we ever did before. So I want to talk about profit today. And we talked about it a lot. It's a huge piece of Dental A Team's Magic Sauce is really, really working systems and   logistics and business and leadership to turn into profit because at the end of the day, that's the only way the business is going to survive. And Dana, when we talk about profit, think teams tend to be like, okay. And I think doctors think teams hate it, that they don't want to hear about it, that they don't want to know that it's like, yeah, that's going in your pocket. But the reality is most teams want to know that their business is profitable because most teams   want a place to work, if nothing else. They want a profitable company because it guarantees that they get to stay where they're at. And if you guys have, you know, we talked about that inspiring why earlier, and if you've got a really inspiring place, you've got a place that people want to work, they want you to be profitable so that they can keep working there.   DAT-Dana (02:44) I agree with you. And doctors, if you feel like your team doesn't care about profit, then it's because they don't understand what profit means to them. And so I think that instead of so often, doctors just shy away from it. And I think instead of shying away from it, make sure that they know what that profit means to them. Because Tiff and I can say, hey, we know and hands down, you're right, Tiff, like people are going to pick job security, right? They're going to want to be in an office that has job security. Do they know that that's profit? Probably not.   The Dental A Team (03:09) Yeah.   DAT-Dana (03:13) Right? And so somebody says something about that or like that. Do they want to grow in their position? Yep, they probably do. Do they know that that comes from profit? Maybe not. And so I think sometimes it's just like, hey, my team. Well, if your team doesn't want to talk about profit or you think they don't care, it's probably just because they don't understand that profit drastically impacts their lives too.   The Dental A Team (03:35) Totally agree. That was massive, massive. And that's the space of really understanding the intentionality behind what you're doing. So if you intend for the team to understand profit, then they will. You'll say the words and they'll understand it. profit turns into not only job security, but it also turns into being able to invest in more tech, more, I don't know, chairs. Oh my gosh, do know how many times as a front office team member I was like, can I just get a new chair? My back hurts so bad.   And they were like, well, let's look at the budget. I'm like, cool, what do I have to do to get a new chair? But those things all come from that profit because we can't spend what we don't have. And so teams really understanding what that turns into and also like how can we impact the community? We've got kids sports teams coming in saying, can you ⁓ sponsor our team? Can you do night guards? Can you do this? Like we wanna be able to say yes to all of those things and that comes from the profit.   Now you know our stance on profit, but Dina, what about disappearing profit? I've had actually, I've had this come up a couple of times. I've had a couple of emails from doctors that they're like, I can't find the money from 2025. I don't know where it went. I should have had X amount of dollars, 400, $600,000 and it's gone. I'm like, okay, well let's look for it. And Dina...   Love those and I hate them because I'm like, well, what do we do for a year? Where what were we doing here? Okay, so I have you know, I have my ideas on where it goes and and we dig and we find it we usually find it but Dana Where do you see the biggest question marks on when doctors say where's the profit? Like where the biggest question marks? Where do you start digging and where are you usually finding it?   DAT-Dana (05:01) Yeah, it usually leads to a rabbit hole, but...   Yeah, typically I am digging first and foremost into just like expenses, right? Like where did expenses fluctuate? Did we spend more than we needed to or did we spend in arbitrary areas just because we weren't keeping track of it? So honestly and truly, do you know what your BAM is and can you assess very easily or quickly like months where it is?   well below well above right so that you can kind of watch those flexes. just worked with an office on this not that long ago and I'm like hey from January to March expenses swung by $100,000 right like what happened let's dig in here because those giant fluctuations to me are a red flag of like hey we're not watching something or something got overcharged double charged things like that so I think the first place to tackle is just like knowing those things like knowing what   the profit should be, knowing what the expenses should be and are you, do you have a cadence where you are looking, reviewing? Because I think what happens is we hire a CPA, we get into QuickBooks, everything auto syncs into QuickBooks and we just kind of like set it and forget it.   And I think that like we don't know that sometimes hey things can swing that Gigantically if we're not looking at those things and we're not looking at those prior to making decisions, right? We're not looking those before we're like, hey, yeah, you can have a raise or hey Yeah, I want that cvct writer. Yep. Let's it's time to mill same-day crowns and we didn't look at that now We're in a big swing of expenses   The Dental A Team (06:51) Yeah.   DAT-Dana (06:52) So I do feel like making sure that all of that is to say, making sure that you know what your numbers are when it comes to expenses every month where they should sit roughly and honestly and truly what you're spending all your money on.   The Dental A Team (07:06) Yeah, I have practices Dana that have Amazon Prime. I think everybody has Amazon Prime. My sister and I canceled Amazon Prime actually, and we just have Amazon, which is wild. And every time you try to purchase something, they try to sign you up for Amazon Prime. But it's kind of like, it honestly reminds me of all of the financial stuff you've done with all of the companies we don't have to name. But ⁓ it reminds me of those because you really second guess the purchase.   And then you're like, okay, well, let me let it sit in the cart for a minute. And then you go back in, you're like, why did I even have this here? Or I'll throw stuff in the safe for later because I'm like, well, it's not on sale right now. And I'm not gonna get it today. So do I really need it? So I'll put it in the safe for later. But I have practices that are so Amazon Prime ready that they're like, we need paper. I'll just order it real quick.   we need pens. you like those pens better? You like the Sharpie pens? I'll order those on Amazon real quick and we'll have them here tomorrow. Right? So they're just constantly processing these Amazon orders. And then what happens, I have a practice that was like Amazon galore. I'm like, where is all of this money? Like what is happening here? And then what happens is you've got some demo supplies, some front office supplies. It's impossible to like see the difference because of how you're placing the orders. It's just this constant running battle or Walmart. I'll have   practices that are like, we have a list. So I just sent Joanna to Walmart and I'm like, okay, but why aren't these on orders? And we say, we watch the dental supply budget and ordering really closely. And we'll say order two times a month. Once is phenomenal, two times a month max order your dental supplies.   but then we forget those front office supplies and they're sneaky or the paper towels or the toilet paper

    27 min

  2. 5D AGO

    #1,147: This or That: Running a $3-Million Office or Three $1-Million Offices?

    Consulting across hundreds of offices means the Dental A-Team has seen a thing or two when it comes to scaling strategies, and in this episode, Kiera shares the secret to what type of quantity works best for you. Specifically, she connects why practice success should start with what you want as an individual. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today's topic is a freaking fun topic. ⁓ I think it's something people ask all the time, should I have like one mega practice or like three littles? And so today the topic is going to be, should I run a $3 million office or three $1 million offices? So it's kind of this like different ways to scale and to grow and in Dental A Team, if you've been a listener, welcome. I'm so happy to hang out with you. If you're new, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent.   And our job is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And really it's to just talk about these things, about what you're dealing with. Cause a lot of times it's like, do I just expand my practice and have this mega Montropolis or do I have multiple littles? And I think just talking pros and cons of what we've seen as a consulting company, of working with hundreds of offices that have this. And I think there's, there isn't a better, it's more of what is your preference. And so I just wanted to go like,   what this is gonna look like, different ways to talk about it. And Dental A Team, we love to do this. We love to talk about scaling strategies that are going to match your leadership style, your lifestyle and your financial goals. And that's what we're about. And in consulting, we'd call it the yes model. So we focus on you as a person and what you individually want, earnings and profitability. Like what does this look like? How do we make sure that you're profitable and successful financially? And then implement systems and team development based on what we're finding in that. So you can say yes to more in your life. So I really wanna talk about like,   We're gonna just help you hopefully tickle your brain, tickle your fancy on what is the best way to do it. Do I do that one powerhouse or do I have multiple streamlined ones? So I think here what happens is when I see practices like this and I have consulted mega-montropolis, I have consulted multiple littles. And I think that there's different things. Like I found that like to the three million mark, it's usually sometimes easier under one umbrella if you've got the space.   Now when we're pushing the five to seven to 10, I've got one practice that's producing 14 million in one location. And what I find is like, these are just big offices. So you got a lot of team, you got a lot of patients, you got to have a tight culture, you got to have team depth, you got to have high leadership presence. And it just like, there's just more players involved, but at the same time, it's all under one roof. Whereas when I've got multiple little offices, we got to have systems, we got to have   decentralized leadership and you got to have trust in your people because you're not able to oversee everything. Like I can't have one manager sitting in the office overseeing everything. I've got to have a regional that's popping into all the offices people reporting up. again, there's like no one or right. It's more like what's your preference? Do you like depth or duplication? So I think people who like depth have a larger practice. Those who like to duplicate and think in systems and processes multi offices are usually for it.   I've got an office, are in, gosh, they're in Texas and he's freaking checklist manifest. So he's built an app, he's built these things. That man is built for duplication. I have another doctor who is very, ⁓ loves to be involved, wants to grow and develop a team. He is more for depth. So two different practices, two different styles. They're both producing about the same. I got five locations doing 5 million and I've got one location doing 5 million. So it's just more what is it? And I think for you, like, are you hands on?   or use strategic oversight. The one who's got five locations, they're strategic oversight all day long. Like they don't love to be a clinician. They like to go and like systematize. They love the operations. They think like that. The one who's got hands-on is the 5,000,001 location and very much hands-on, wants to mentor all the doctors, wants to mentor the team, wants to be a part of things, loves being a part of it. And I think their personality is once more like...   It's interesting, my meetings, my meetings with the one with five locations, it was very much like, Kiera, what are the systems? What are the processes? What do need to be doing? How do I fix this versus my one who's five million is like, Kiera, I want to build a leadership team. I want to develop these people. I want to help them get to their next levels. And there's no right or wrong. So I hope as you listen to this, you're just able to see yourself of, you more this depth or you more this duplication? Are you more systems processes? That's usually a multi-location versus depth build a monstrosity.   And the one that I've got that's producing 14 million, that doctor is more of a depth. And the reason why that they ended up building more practices is because they wanted their impact to reach further. But I would say if they could, they would actually build and they are building. This practice is basically building a mini dental hospital. So it's going to have, think right now they're at 20 ops in the $14 million practice. And I think they're looking to build a 50 op practice. So by default, this person was adept, but then out of necessity to serve more.   and to give back more, they made multiple. So I just think it's a space of what do you like to do? Do you want to mentor single large offices? Or do you wanna have like three doctors under one roof? Or do you wanna have three doctors that you gotta travel to and mentor them virtually? Neither one's right or wrong. I think it's know thyself and be true. And that's gonna help you just figure out where you wanna go. So that's gonna be like step one. Step two is systems. You've gotta have systems. And especially if you're going into the multi.   system, system, systems, because if you grow without systems, you're gonna have burnout. Ask me how I know, oh, because I did this. And it freaking is annihilating and it's hard and it's awful. So when you have one large office, you've got to have advanced scheduling, you've got to have clinical efficiency, and you've got to have strong communication loops. It is massive. And like the biggest thing we have in these large practices, our team members feeling like they're not in the loop, they don't know what's going on. I mean, we have so many assistants, we've got our lead assistant in the $5 million practice.   and we're working on having a second because they've got like 14 dental assistants in this practice. Whereas multi locations, you have to like build like centralized billing, centralized reporting, leadership infrastructure, everything's reporting up to it. You've got to have office managers that you can trust with minimal oversight. And so I think for you, it would be as you're listening to this, like, who am I? Do I enjoy like, like I kid you not these 5 million for like stressing, I'm like pushing my   my piece, my temples here, because I'm like, gosh, the 5 million and the 14 million, I do think that there's some easy when it's all under one roof because you can talk to people, you can see them, but you also have just a lot of bodies moving. So our scheduling, we've every person in these practices works four days a week. So you now have a scheduling nightmare of how do get everybody on the same page for meetings, for this, for that, for trainings. So we have to be very strategic in our scheduling and   You've got to think about how we do checkouts and how we do the flow because now we've got eight hygienists checking in. So I've got eight profies coming in. I've got three doctors working. So I've got 15 people possibly checking out at one time. That's a lot of people versus my 1 million. I usually have five operatories. I've got two hygienists. I've got three patients checking in, checking out usually at the same time. So there's just this like   There's ease because everybody's under one roof, but it's hard because there's so many and it's like just duplicated. So you've got to be really, really strong. Things can slip through the cracks. Our treatment planning has got to be strong. Like, and it happens in all of them, but I really think it's a what do you look at and how do I set up the systems and structure of and both of them require it. Both of them just have different types of systemization and what's required for both of them. So when I see like doctors expand before they have like billing that set up.   When you're in one location, I do think you can have more gaps because people can quickly fill in and you can catch them versus when you're in multi locations. I feel like those gaps hit so much harder and faster and it's harder to pick them up because like, shoot, we don't have billing. This practice is drowning. This one's not, and we're running amongst four locations. So I do think sometimes the multi locations tend to have a bit more exhaustion, but if you're built for the systemization, it's okay. But if you're not built for that and you don't live in that,   it is easier oftentimes to maintain under one roof. So I think like, look at you of like, what systems would I need to upgrade for either path? Whether I'm 15 checkout patients versus three checkout patients, but at four different or five different locations a

    18 min

  3. 6D AGO

    #1,146: So You Want to Quit

    Kiera walks listeners through a list of questions that should be answered before officially stepping away from your job. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is gonna be a fun day. Like, are you ready about it? Let's talk about when you wanna quit. All team members, all bosses, every single one of us has that. And yet we're so freaking scared to say that out loud. And I just want you to know that like, it's okay to say you wanna quit. It's okay to say you don't wanna do it. And I want to just give you some tactical pieces to navigate through these tricky times. And also like, what do we do when we wanna quit? And to know, are we really ready to be done?   or is it a season that we can change? So you guys at the Dental A Team, I'm obsessed. Our job is to love on you to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. I love doing dentistry. My last name's freaking Dent. I love working with clients. We work with clients one-on-one. We fly to practices. We work with you virtually. And we also have in-person masterminds where doctors and leadership teams come together to truly like be inspired. We call it life and dentistry on purpose. I'm super excited and I hope you can be a part of that. So let's talk about like, all right.   When do I want to quit? And like, let's kind of matrix it down. So when I'm looking at when I want to quit, I break it down to like, what things do I still enjoy doing? Do you still like doing dentistry? Do still like like helping team members? Do you still have patients? It's okay. You can have the list of like, what things do I still love and what things do I absolutely hate? And I just think it's like, most of the time, when I talk to doctors and like, I want to sell my freaking practice care, I want to just give up and quit or office manager like, I'm just sick of this.   When I asked them like, okay, let's talk about what you really don't like. Most of the time for owner doctors, it's usually cashflow and it's usually people management. Well, guess what? Great news. Doctor, you weren't meant to be the people manager. High five. Congratulations. Like, let's get you out of that seat. You're not the right person for that seat. So you're exhausted because you're trying to be the dentist. You're trying to be like the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, all within the practice. And that's freaking exhausting. And it's not what you were even like meant to be. Dentists, a lot of you are introverts. How do I know this? Cause you work in a like teeny tiny little mouth all day long.   And you're like, gosh, I'm not gonna go like wow and dazzle these people. And I know you're more extroverted but introverted, but like you have to have a piece of that because you work in like such small, small, small mouths all day long and work on smudge, small tiny teeth that like trying to be this expansive human and be on social media and be this person, it's exhausting. And so I just want you to show like, okay, what can we do and how do we figure out what this is going to be? And I just think like, this is our role. This is how we look at it. And for everybody to figure out like,   What happens when I feel this way? So number one is I want you to think of what do I really, really love doing and do I still love doing that? Then number two, what things are like exhausting and draining? Now, it might get thrilling. You might say, hmm, I don't enjoy anything. Well, great. Today's not the day for you to be answering this question then. I want you to be honest because I look at it and sometimes I'm like, hey, well, I still really love getting on the podcast. Some days I look at my day and I'm like, ⁓ I'm terrified for it.   Other days though, most of the time, I was like 90 % of the time, I genuinely get so lit up and so excited to podcast and meet new people and give you guys great tips and tactical pieces and like, cool, let's go to the next thousands of episodes and how can I help you guys and like come up with topics you haven't heard of or change it with the landscape? I genuinely still love that. I still love coaching clients. love like, brush my shoulders off. Like I love to help a client like go from where they are to where they didn't believe was possible and to help them get there with ease and help their team and help them and like,   Like when I get off calls and I get text messages from team members saying like, here, you just totally changed your mind or we always love them and get on your calls because you bring so much positivity or doctors like, gosh, that was like such a good call, like you were looking so far down the line, things we didn't even think about. Like I still light up on that. I still love going into offices and just like brush my shoulders off, like killer visit that you didn't even know was possible. I still love to do mastermind events. I love to bring doctors together. It freaking scares me. I usually cry every single time. It's like so many emotions that like   come into me and out of me all in one moment. Like, I don't know why I do them, but I love it. I love hearing how we're changing people's lives. love when people are like, my gosh, I didn't even know this. Or like, we share resources together and people get to meet. Like, I'm so excited. We're about to run one. And like, I am giddy to see all these people that I love so much in one room and get to share like best friends with each other. I still love that. I still love figuring out new content and new ways to help dentists like thrive. I still love that. Things I don't love doing. ⁓   I hate running meetings. Like I hate them. I do. So what do I do instead of sitting here complaining and saying, I want to quit. Is there another option? And, um, I had a business coach tell me, said, Kiera, instead of thinking like, which door do I need to go through? Why don't I look at all the doors that are available for me? And that to me was such a freeing thing. Like, okay, so we could quit. You can like, let's just put that as an option. We can also sell the practice, like another option.   Then the third thing is like, well, if managing people stressing me out, I can hire a fractional COO. Didn't even know that was a thing. So if you've got like multiple practices and you're like, can't find a regional, they're expensive. I'm talking like 180 to 250. I'm not joking. That's like literally how much they cost and they're working part time. It's really fun, but they're smart and they know how to run businesses and drive things. You can hire a regional manager. You can hire, if you're like, I'm so tired of doing dentistry, you can hire an associate like.   Could I have this? they're like, yeah, but Kiera, I still have to manage. Not wrong. What if my manager became a partner in the practice? So they're tethered in and they're like part of the practice. You can do this. Like, what if it's like, I just feel like I can't ever take vacations. Well, great. Let's like figure out how many vacations you want. Let's figure out the numbers of what we need to produce when you're there. Or we change up our overhead. Like, great. These are all solutions. ⁓ Kiera, I'm just so tired of managing teams. Well, let's see how many team members you're managing and do we need to add leadership members and train them to be leaders?   We've got books, we've got training, we've got courses that we can send them to, to help them be great leaders. Like, I think so often we just feel like it's a, I'm sick of it I'm going to quit or I'm going to sell my practice. And then I think about it. This is how I play the game. I've actually talked to a decent amount of brokers working with clients over the years. And I think something that gets lost is what do we do afterwards? What's your plan after? And is that something that's going to be fulfilling for you or not? You're like, I'm   for me, I'm like, I know exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take two years off. I'm not gonna talk to a single soul. It's gonna last me two months, guarantee you. I'm gonna go out and work out every single day. Well, great, I could do that now, I? I'm going to travel and see my family more. Okay, great, like talk me through. What is it really gonna look like? Could we do that now? And I think we oftentimes limit our opportunities in the moment of what we're doing and we like exasperate our opportunities thinking of what it would be like versus   Could I not have this life that I'm dreaming up today? And could I actually delegate or pay? Like I think about this, a lot of dentists, make pretty good money. A lot of our clients are usually making 200 on my low end a year, up to like 10 to 12 million a year plus. Okay? So when I look at this, I remember I had an office, they were netting, I think 1.2 million. And they're like, it's just not worth it for me to do this anymore. And I said, really? You're taking home 1.2 post-tax.   You're only working four days a week. You're off every single day at three. 1.2 is not worth it. You're gonna have freaking problems. Like you will, that's part of it. You signed up for a business. It's not gonna all go away. You're still gonna have issues. Things are gonna break. But you're also making 1.2. You could go be an associate and make 200,000, no issue and have none of these problems. Is that what you wanna do? There is no right or wrong answer. But I really think it's like, let's look at this and let's see how can we actually make this better? How can we like?   Could I fix any of these things? For me, when I look at it, I'm like, all right, I'm sick of running meetings. We're hiring a full-time COO. I can't wait. It's gonna cost me my arm, my leg, and my throat. Like, awesome. But it's gonna give me s

    14 min

  4. MAY 5

    #1,145: The Flip (and Fun!) Side of KPIs

    Did you know there's actually a right and wrong time to implement key practice indicators (or KPIs) in your office? Tiff and Dana reveal what should be firmly in place in a practice before you start assigning metrics for success. They touch on KPIs position by position, staying human amid the numbers, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. You guys know that I love podcasting. You guys know that I love spending this time with you. And I love getting to spend the time with my consultant team as well. So I have Dana here with us today. Dana, how are you?   DAT-Dana (00:16) doing pretty good. I'm excited to be here. It's not that often that I get get dedicated podcast time with Tiff, so super excited.   The Dental A Team (00:22) I know,   I know it's because I schedule us long and we bust out a ton and then we don't see each other for a month on podcasting at least. So I agree, I agree. Well, Dina, it's springtime here. We like to call it springtime, which I think that Arizona just doesn't know when spring starts and ends because it goes straight into summer. So realistically, these drop in May, recording in April. I don't know when spring is, but it's hot. We've had a little bit of a cool down.   You've had a ton of sports and it's a beautiful time of year. How's everything down in your neck of the woods of Arizona going?   DAT-Dana (01:00) It's good. It is. It's beautiful. Now is the time where like you just love being in Arizona. I feel like, we don't really get a spring. It's kind of like a mismatch of random weather, like week by week. But now is the time where I truly love being in Arizona and get to be outside a ton. And, you know, if we could just get this wind to go away that's been hanging around down here for a couple of weeks, it would be perfect, really.   The Dental A Team (01:05) Yeah.   Yeah.   Yeah, my sister and I were talking about the wind yesterday. It really has been very strong, very strong. Yeah, especially where you are. You guys get whipped real bad with some wind. Yeah. Well, I'm excited that we're here today, that we're inside. It's supposed to warm up again. I think cool down. Who knows? It's going to rain. Maybe you might get rain. I probably won't. It's going to be great. It's going to be great.   DAT-Dana (01:35) Yeah.   Yeah.   The Dental A Team (01:48) I   wanted to chat today, something that keeps coming up for me on client calls, especially for new clients that come in. know that Nikki and Pam and Trish, you and I are pretty tapped out. So we're not getting a ton of new clients, but I know Nikki, Pam and Trish bring ⁓ oftentimes to our co-labs, really doctors looking for how to speak numbers and how to speak KPIs. We get it a lot. get people asking, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. That is our email address and we have people that   that pop in all the time on really how do we get our team to love doing KPIs and love watching them and kind of a leadership team standpoint, how do we do that? So I thought it would be interesting to chat a little bit today on the flip side of KPIs. And Dana, think we have an interesting perspective. Number one, we say this all the time that we, anything that we train, we try to duplicate in our own company. We try to create that space here. So we do a leadership.   a ton in our company. We train on leadership a ton. That's kind of like our year two process for clients coming in. We work a ton on systems year two, ⁓ or if systems aren't done yet, might be year three, but we really hone in on leadership a ton once practices get kind of the baseline groundwork done. So with that said, would say Dana, number one, I'd want to look at how far are we in our practice? Like, are we to the point now that we've   that KPIs, they matter or that they make sense, right? Because you've probably seen it and I've definitely implemented too early KPIs with Teams too. So finding that perfect timing and then obviously there's other aspects to it. But Dana, how do you feel about that? And what are you seeing with your clients you've worked with for many years, many of your clients? So when do you kind of see that KPI leadership standpoint roll in?   DAT-Dana (03:40) Yeah, I agree with you, Tim. do think it is like practices when you are building systems to like to add KPIs on top of that when it's like we don't even really know what we're doing to kind of get to these points. ⁓ I do feel like that's a little bit too early to kind of roll out KPIs. I think like when you have your systems in place, when you have job descriptions in place and when you really   feel like you have a team that kind of knows what they're doing and knows where the business is headed, I think that is the time to really start to implement KPIs.   The Dental A Team (04:11) I agree. And I think what that really boils down to and what you just described is the basics for so mission, vision, core values, job descriptions, and then looking at like the basic KPIs, even new practice KPIs, but getting a team to like love doing their own KPIs per position is that next step. So those practice KPIs, like you're saying, Dana, those are the ones that are going to tell us if the systems that we're doing are   benefiting the practice. Are they creating the results that we want? So production collections, new patients, maybe marketing RLI, but really narrowing it down and simplifying it so that they can start to see those to-dos, those things that they're doing every single day that are in line with their job description, they're adding value to those KPIs and then kind of taking a step back and layering it. I know when I look at KPIs and I look at our KPIs in our company, I really try to look at, what is like   What do they mean? How do they apply to my position and to your position or marketing's position? Does it make sense for that KPI to be attached to that person or that department? And then ultimately, what's the impact that it's making on the overall results, right? What is the company going for? And Dana, how do you help reverse engineer that? Because I watched you do that with a lot of practices. Dana's like,   Amazing. She's so good at pulling out meaningful, impactful KPIs per position. And I think your hygiene experience helps you to see those spaces because those back office ones are really the hardest. So how do you help practices reverse engineer that? How can they take a look at that today just from maybe from like an overarching big standpoint? And then we'll narrow in.   DAT-Dana (05:59) Yeah, sure. So I think it really comes down to just like you said, Tiff, making it meaningful, making them see that the things that they are doing every single day, we spent times building the system, we created these systems. So let us have an easy tool for you to know that if the input that you are giving every single day is getting you a certain result. And so I think that I love that you use the word meaningful because I feel like that we get asked all the time, like, how do I have   motivate my team to care about numbers? How do I, you have to make them meaningful for them, meaningful for their position, meaningful for their impact that they are putting into the practice and into patients. And so I think that that is, I think that's kind of where the magic happens. It's like, you've got these overarching goals. So then breaking them down into, let's say, quarterly goals. And then what can each team member do daily, weekly, monthly to help impact or move those quarterly pieces. So I think it is chunking it down, but, to the point where   team members feel like they actually, like the things that they're doing impact them. And I think when you can make those connections, we can say, hey, you've got to keep the schedule full. Well, what does full mean? Right? What do, what does full mean that like I am winning that day or I am hitting that goal or I am like being super impactful. And sometimes too, it's just relating it to.   Yes, these are numbers, but at end of the day, typically numbers equal patients, right? Typically numbers equal impact into the community. Typically, like it means how much we're improving the overall oral health of the patients that leave the practice. And sometimes when you can tie that like, yes, you filling the schedule equals that or yes, you hitting your period goal equals comprehensive care.   When you can link those things with team members, that's how you motivate them. That's how you make these numbers meaningful to just say, hey, I need you to hit 95 % of schedule to goal, right? Well, yeah, that's a number, but what does it mean for that person? What is the impact it does for the practice when they hit it? And like taking time too to celebrate it when we see it.   The Dental A Team (08:02) Yeah. And something that that changes for us, Dana, that dentistry has always in my opinion been like a just do it because we said to do it, right? You build the same way we've built since 1995 because that's how we do it. Right. And we've not, we're super innovative when it comes to photos and CBCT scans and tech and all of these cool things that the back office is using. So doctors and dental assistants are like, heck yeah, this is so cool. Dentistry moves so fast. But then the rest of the team is like,   Does it? Like I'm still doing, I'm still scanning papers. Yeah. Like what the heck? It's not, it doesn't innovate in the other areas. I think now with AI, we're seeing a lot of innovation and I think a lot of front office team members are probably like, Whoa, I'm not okay with this because that's never been dentistry from the front office standpoint. So my point in that is when we have a KPI a

    26 min

  5. APR 30

    #1,144: A Secret to Success People So Often Undervalue

    Did you know: Positive employees are 31% more productive and show higher sales and creativity? That's why Kiera is talking all about positivity! She shares tips for how to encourage those higher cortisol levels among team members and patients. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope you're having a great day. I hope that you realize that we are so lucky to live in the profession that we do that honestly dentistry is just this life-changing profession and I'm really grateful to be here. I'm grateful you're a part of our podcast family. As you guys know, the Dental A Team podcast was created to positively impact and inspire you in the greatest way possible. Our mission is to be in the hands of every single dental practice owner and office manager out there. So please do us a favor.   leave us a review, share this with somebody today. It really helps us stay at the top and to truly impact, inspire in the greatest way possible. If you're to the podcast, welcome, I'm Kiera Dent. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry. And you can always go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com and you can click our podcast and you can search if you need help with billing, associate scheduling, leadership mindset, you name it, it's all tagged there for you. So it can be a great resource for you of lots of inspiration, lots of motivation.   and it's something I'm very proud of that we've created. I'm proud and grateful for all of you being here. So today I think is very, very on cue for what we do and it's positive mindsets and how it really is, I think, ⁓ an advantage that most people underestimate. having that positive mindset really can set you apart from other people. It can help you ⁓ just really have a team that's positive.   And I think that it's a currency. Positivity and negativity are both available. And it's just which one are we going to have? Which one's gonna run our practice? And so ⁓ there really is research that talks about positivity and how high performing owners use it as a strategic advantage that we're gonna dig into today. So I just am excited to go into this. I really like have been giddy about this because I think it's just an advantage that most people don't realize. And I think it's something that is a trained habit, but also something that really is very doable. And I think...   Shoot, if I could eat a bowl of checks every morning and I would get this huge strategic advantage in my practice, would I do it? Probably yes. If I could just have a more positive outlook on life, literally I'm talking like a one or 2 % better and I can have a strategic impact on my practice, why not try it? So looking at this, positive employees, here's some research for you guys, positivity drives performance. So they say positive employees are 31 % more productive and show higher sales and creativity.   So if we look at this, and that's from Sean Anchor, it was a Harvard research on positive psychology performance. I was looking at this when I was prepping for this podcast and I thought like, okay, so if we know that positive team members are 31 % more productive, okay, great. And then next to it is teams operating in a positive environment have stronger engagement and lower burnout. So we don't want to have team turnover. So right there, and the brain literally performs better when it is not operating from stress.   Okay, well, fascinating. Like if I look at this and I think about, okay, a Harvard researcher did this, like, why not? So it's, it's a, it's a matter of it. And Sean Acker was like, ⁓ author of the, gosh, of the happiness advantage. And like, I mean, they say this, it's really truly something that's going to make your life that much better. And so.   I read a lot of books on positivity, a lot of books on how to be more positive, a lot of things of what can we do to enhance this? And I think it's like, it's crazy that when we look at this like 31 % more productive and the happiness and the joy felt while striving toward potential, which required training the brain to find opportunities. So when it talked about on happiness and success, it says when we are happy, when our mindset and mood are positive, we are smarter, more motivated and thus more successful.   happiness is the center and success revolves around it. Happiness is not the belief that we don't need to change, it's realization that we can. It's hard to find happiness after success if the goalposts of success keep changing. Note that. So if we're constantly moving it, it's very hard to find that happiness and the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy is a positive and engaged brain. Fascinating. So I was thinking about this and I was like, all right, so if we know this,   What can we do to add that? So number one, we know it's going to drive it. So you think about this, like we can even change our morning huddles to what were wins from yesterday. We start to look and find the positivity, the wins, the happiness within our world. And we start to share that every day. My team, they've been pushing me. I've had a few people say, like, can we change it? Morning huddles. And I'm a hard no, because Monday's a motivation. We all get connected as a team. Tuesday's tip Tuesday, where we all share some of the best things.   We are not a together team, so we have no water cooler talk. We're not sitting in the break room like, my gosh, I love this lip gloss, or have you tried this recipe? We don't get that. So tip Tuesday is when we do that. Wednesday's core value shout out, and we shout out team members who are emulating a core value and doing really, really well at it. Thursday's thankful Thursday, we say what we're thankful for in our life, and Friday's fun Friday. And what I found is, and then after that, we go through that, we do it, and then we talk about client wins and wins as a company. Every single day, my team knows this.   I do this intentionally because I know that focusing on the good, we create more good. Focusing on the bad, we're gonna create more bad. So then what we go from there is emotional states are contagious, whether you realize it or not. So if you're always grumpy, you're always down in the dumps, it's contagious. If you're always positive, you're always looking for the glass half full, that's contagious too. And I think when we, I've seen a lot of teams that are one or the other and the positive teams,   help each other out, they work harder together, they hit goals easier. There is this rallying versus a dragging. And so when we look at it, ⁓ there's actually some emotional studies by a Yale professor where it was like, your mood is an operational infrastructure. And when we looked at that, thought about like calm leadership lowers cortisol levels across groups and improves collaboration. If we know this, how can we as leaders have an emotional state that's contagious? And I think some of the pieces that you have are   going to the gym, reading, like I have a calendar, it's actually being held under the mic. was like, where is it? It's right here. It says, today is the day and every day is a positive quote. And it sits here on my desk every single day because I want to infuse myself with good things. I was noticing that I was very negative and it's because I was always talking about what are the problems? Like as CEOs, we're always looking down the line as OMS is like, we've got an issue with this, we've got an issue with this. Like what's going well?   What are the good things in our company? What things can we really focus on and say like, this is great. Because the more we have that, the more we talk about wins. So honestly, our morning huddle is where I focus on the wins and the positivity of the company. We do it at the same thing in our company. have it Mondays, we start out with our personal wins and our professional wins every single Monday. Cause I want people thinking of how great their personal life is and how great their professional life is. So what else can we do?   ⁓ I read a lot of the positivity books. I listen to a lot of great podcasts. I do meditations that get my mind in the right space. So I can show up as a leader that has an emotional state that's very contagious. It's very fluid and it's very there for people. So I think when offices start to realize that you are the emotional currency in your practice, when you are contagious, if you've got team members, gosh, like it's so hard when I got...   I don't know, just an E or on the team. I'm like, all right, we gotta change this because it's dragging the whole ship down. And for me, I know we'll be higher performing. I know we're gonna get our goals with more ease if we have that positivity. So I think like, perfect. How can we look to see, how can we bring that energy up? And even for my lower energy people, I tell them like, people are like, Kiera, that's just not my natural state. And I'm like, great, well, we're on stage. So it becomes your natural state.   I don't care who you are at home. I do care how you are on stage and that's the stage of our dental office. When you're patient facing, when you're interacting with team members, we have a culture of positivity. We have a culture of teamwork. We have a culture of fun. And I expect that. And then the next piece is going to be something, ⁓ I got a really cool one that I'm excited about where gratitude is one of the highest ROI leaderships. ⁓ It's very scientifically backed.   where gratitude does improve your psychological well-being. It increases optimism, it strengthens relationships, and it reduces stress. And that was pulled from another Harvard Health and UC Davis study. And there was a great human that I got r

    19 min

  6. APR 29

    #1,143: You Need to Protect Your Practice's Ecosystem

    This one is for the billion-dollar assets of each practice: the doctor! Kiera is a pragmatic cheerleader, encouraging doctors to realize the asset they are. She touches on self evaluation, burnout, and building a practice that doesn't require constant sacrifice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. today I just want to give you a perspective shift that I hope you take, that I hope you run with. And I hope that you see the beauty in just thinking about it differently. I'm Kiera Dent. I'm the host of the Dental Dental A Team podcast. I love all things dentistry and I love positively influencing and infusing and impacting your life for the better. ⁓ We fly physically to your practices or we coach your team, you and your team virtually.   We also have in-person doctor masterminds where our entire community gets together. We share, we laugh, we have a good time and it's for doctor and leadership. I don't believe that running a successful practice should be hard. So come aboard, join us. You can always head on over to our website, TheDentalATeam.com, click on book a call. We do a free complimentary assessment of your whole practice, leave you with tactical, tangible tips and advice. So reach out, there's no reason to do this alone. And if you have an expert, that's your podcast buddy.   Let's do this together. There's no reason to make your life hard. I'd love to connect with you even just to say hello. So today I'm going to just give you guys this like really fun thing of dentists. are truly the greatest asset of your practice and you need to start protecting that. Woo. I said it. now be careful. There's a fine line of egotistical and humble, but I want you just to realize that doctors like you are the greatest asset. If we don't have you producing, we don't have your vision. We don't have a business. Let that sink in for just a second.   Like you're not a provider. You're not just a provider. You're our like entire ecosystem. And so taking care of you, I have on here, I'm not joking. It literally is right here on my computer. says I'm a Foxy Fit billionaire babe. And I also say my body is a billion dollar asset. Treat it like such. I have a thing that says I identify as a Ferrari. ⁓ Things to remind me that I really need to take care of me because I'm the greatest freaking asset. And again, it's not coming from a place of egotistical. It's just facts.   And so I want you to just realize that we've got to take care of you. And so I wanted to just give you three quick tactical tips today on how we can take care of the most valuable driver of the practice, which is you. So I want you to start thinking of yourself as that billion dollar babe or billion dollar boy, like whatever you want it to be. But like, if I really have a billion dollar asset, be as in boy or babe, I need to start treating myself like that. Like you're probably producing 500 million.   two million, four million, 20 million annually. Your diagnosis influences millions of people and lives over your career. And yet you run yourself like you're replaceable and you just run yourself into the ground and you just think that you're this machine. And I just want you to realize that like that's not sustainable. Like you need to start realizing I'm a billion dollar asset. And when like this means we don't skip lunches, we don't skip workouts, we don't like overwork ourselves, we don't.   squeeze emergencies in on every single day. Like you did that when you were growing the practice and I get it. But like, you guys production on the top might not be great for the body on the bottom. We might have decision fatigue. We might have case acceptance failing. Like everything's spinning around breaking because you yourself is breaking down. We've got to start treating ourselves like a high value asset. Going to the gym, eating food regularly, taking care of our relationships, being, showing up for other people, having a quiet mental time. This is a spot of like,   Okay, does my schedule protect my performance or does it drain it? If you can't even go to the bathroom in the middle of day, you might need to change some things up. And I know a lot of dentists do this. I did this as a dental assistant. We just run crazy because we're like, we need to serve all these patients, which is great. But the next piece is like burnout is not part of your job. So exhaustion impacts your leadership. Tired doctors avoid hard conversations. Diagnosis gets more conservative the more tired you are and more burnout.   team feels tension grows starts to plateau. And so when we look at this, like not only is it a personal issue, it's also a business liability. And I have seen plenty of doctors go through to where they actually stopped diagnosing as strongly. And it's not that they're doing anything wrong. They just were running themselves ragged. were draining themselves. Like burnout should not be part of the job. You didn't sign up for this, go into all this debt, go to school for all these different things just to have it be where you're not, like you're not able to take care of you. And then   Like we got to look at this and say, like, your business should work for you and not the other way around. So how can I build a practice that does not require constant sacrifice? So my growth should create freedom, not heavier days. If everything depends on you, the practice is not scalable yet. We need to scale it down and get pieces, people and processes in place before we do that. And taking care of ourselves. I'm not kidding. Like going to the doctor regularly.   having date nights with our spouse, working out at least three times a week, ⁓ making sure that we're standing up and moving our bodies, making sure that we have mental health time for ourselves, going to meeting with a therapist if we need to, having meditation time in the mornings, going for walks, getting outside, having, like I said, date nights where you're not exhausted, making dinner. That's life. It should not be, I mean, I do this too, so I'm equally guilty and I'm not here to preach, I'm not here to...   be above, I'm here to be with you and to say that like, okay, I want you to map out your perfect life. I want you to say like, hey, what did I imagine my life looking like by building this practice? And it can change and it can morph. So it doesn't need to be like at the beginning. For me right now, I want it to be like Mondays are meeting days. I work out three to four times a week. I'm off work every single day at four o'clock. I go for a run or a hike or a walk with my husband every single day outside.   I do yoga every single day for at least 10 minutes. try to have like Fridays are my CEO time where I just have like white noise time. But this has been an evolution of Kiera. This is Kiera was running herself so ragged that there was nothing left. I didn't want to be with my husband. had no time. Like literally I'd walk up from work because you know, I'm downstairs, just walk up the stairs, don't have a long commute. And I'd be like, I'm just so exhausted. I have nothing in me to make dinner. I have nothing in me to like talk to you.   I wanna just sit on the couch and veg and have TV time. That's not living. That's not why I built this business. Like here I am making all these dentists have their fulfilled lives and teams. And yet I'm drowning and feeling like I have no time for vacations. I have no time to be with my family. I have nothing that makes me feel like me. And what I found is you switched that. I meditate every morning. I do yoga 10 minutes before. I used to be like, okay, let me hurry and like work on the business beforehand. Like I felt like I was getting so much done. And now it's like, no.   I don't start until 730, eight o'clock. I don't look at Slack. Slack's no longer on my phone. Emails are no longer on my phone. ⁓ If clients text me, that's great. I'm going to respond to you at eight o'clock when I'm in the office. Of course, if it's an emergency, we will absolutely take care of it. But generally speaking, I need to take care of Kiera. I need to take care of my life. I want to show up for my husband. I want to show up for my family. I want to show up for me. And when I started realizing like, if my body was a Ferrari, I'd put the best fuel in it. So let me fuel myself in the best way.   I would wax and shine. So let me go work out and like, I go sit in the hot tub sometimes in the middle of the day. Why not? You can take mental breaks at the practice too. You don't always have to be working. Have good food. You can hire people that can help you with this. Personal assistants are great. Like everything does not need to sit on your shoulders. I have a gym trainer. I have a personal assistant. I have an executive assistant. I am about to hire a house manager. I do have a house cleaner. I have a lot of people that support me and help me.   And I realized because I need to take care of me. So for you, I want you to look to see how can you treat yourself more like a billion dollar asset? Everything I listed off to you is 10 years in the making. It did not happen overnight. What's one thing today that you could do to treat your body and your mental psyche as the billion dollar asset that it is for your practice? How can we implement just a little bit? Because you're not just working in a multi-million dollar practice. You're a leading one and you're producing it.   and I need you to operate accordingly. NBA like players, they're not on the court every single day. Football players, they've got seasons. All of us have seasons. In dentistry, we don't get seasons. We've got patients that come every six months, which is great. So we got to make those seasons throughout the week, through

    13 min

  7. APR 28

    #1,142: Why Do Practices Need a Consultant in the First Place?

    What are the most common reasons a dental practice reaches out to the Dental A-Team? In this episode, Tiff and Kristy discuss those woes of an office (systems, lack of team alignment, metrics, etc.) that lead doctors to ask for help, and how consultants can turn the sometimes-dreaded details and numbers into a story that everyone in the practice can rally behind. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are back here today with, we used to have this consultant takeover and I kinda like that. We are taking over the podcast, but we take over the podcast often, so I think we did away with that title. But I'm bringing it back today. Kristy, I like consultant takeover. How are you over there and how do you feel about consultant takeover?   The Dental A Team (00:19) Absolutely. I'm doing good today. It's a Tuesday, so it's a weird day for us to be podcasting, but I'm just grateful for the time and to be able to help our listeners give some tips. It's always a fun time when we can get together and podcast.   The Dental A Team (00:34) I agree. I agree. It is a weird day and I kind of at the same time love it because I feel like I've had some consulting already today. So my brain is fresh on the consulting mindset. Not that I ever leave the consulting mindset. You can ask my son anytime we go anywhere. I'm like, okay, if they would have just said it this way or if they would have just reminded us this way, like I'm always consulting, but I agree. And Tuesday is an odd day for this.   ⁓ Listeners, I hope that you have listened to a few podcasts. I think this is actually a really great follow-up. It's a separate podcast, so it's not like a two-part series, but I really do think that this is a wonderful follow-up to a podcast that Kristy and I have previously recorded about the top four KPIs. And today we really, really wanna talk about the story behind the results. And first I want to...   consider the reasoning behind tracking metrics. Why are we tracking metrics? And I think that will lead to the story. And I guess even before that, really I wanna talk about the woes of an office, the pieces that lead us to consulting, the pieces that lead doctors to say, please help me, I'm not sure what's going on anymore, or to say more likely,   please give us systems, train my team on the systems. And we say, cool, you have systems, let's figure out what's working and what's not working. So Kristy, I think first let's highlight some of the reasons that we recommend tracking metrics because that will allow you doctors here listening, you team members here listening to really see where you fit into the puzzle and why this is valuable information for you as well.   Kristy, I think some of the reasons that I can think off the top of my head or some of the things that come to us are lack of accountability, right? Our team doesn't understand what they're supposed to be doing or they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing. I think payroll, I hear payroll is high. I hear cashflow, I don't have any cash. I don't know where my money's going. My money's not working for me.   The Dental A Team (02:34) Thank   The Dental A Team (02:53) What else? What else do you hear, Kristy? What are some reasons that you recommend?   The Dental A Team (02:59) Yeah. Well, first of all, I think it helps team understand their role and their part in the bigger piece of the office. You know, it's not we we do win together, but each of us, if we have things that we can champion and feel a part of something, ⁓ I think I see better results overall with teams and   The Dental A Team (02:59) KPI tracking.   The Dental A Team (03:28) When teams have clarity and they have understanding of a metric to know if it's a healthy metric or not, they feel empowered to ⁓ go to the next level too. Otherwise, truly it's when we see them, they say, my team's just clocking in and going through the motions. It's because they don't really know their part and what they're responsible for and truly if they're on target or not.   The Dental A Team (03:53) Mm hmm. I agree.   I agree. Yeah. So doctors coming and saying, again, like our team's not in alignment, our team's not doing what they're supposed to be doing. Yeah, I agree. And then we've got some team members will come and they'll say, I'm not fulfilled in my position. I want growth. I want to make more money. I want to understand more about what the practice needs to be successful. I have a lot of my office managers that just want to understand.   We have a lot of doctors who come to us and say, want to learn how to run my business. I want to have a personal life and not just a practice. I want to get home earlier. If you guys are falling into any of those spaces or insert your own reasoning, this information is for you. doctors and team members alike, I want you all to understand if you're here today and you're like, go numbers, heck yeah, I love numbers, phenomenal, welcome, we're here for you.   And if you're here today like Tiff, Kristy, I don't wanna talk about numbers, they make me uncomfortable. We're in a healthcare field. We're here to help people not to talk about money. Welcome, we're here for you. And I am here to dispel that mindset. I'm here to make sure that you understand the importance behind the numbers and the importance behind your practice staying in business. My opinion is, and maybe it's crazy,   My opinion is if you're not paying attention to your success and your failures, you don't know where you're going, where you've been, or what the gap is in between, where are you going to be in one, two, five, 10, 20 years? And if you're not still here because you didn't pay attention and because you didn't have goals, because you didn't know where you were going, you didn't know how to successfully run and grow a business,   how many patients that you're here to help, me and Sirthat, are left behind in the dust with maybe somewhere to go. I've known a lot of patients who have come to my dental practice I worked at for years that say, you know, I haven't been to the dentist in 10 years. Why? What held you back? Well, my dentist, you know, he retired or he moved. They switched ownership and I just didn't know what to do. I never found another dentist. ⁓   Break my heart. Like gosh, we preach that we're here to help people, but we're afraid to look at the success on helping those people and we're afraid to make sure that we're here for a long time. And in order to ensure that we're here for a long time, financially, the practice has to be secure. There's no ifs, ands, or buts around it. The practice has to be financially secure. You have to continuously be growing.   and you have to be in a growth mindset. Or just cut through the crap and call the BS and say, I don't really care what happens. If you care, you also have to care about your numbers. And that may be an opinion that you don't love today. I challenge you to come back in a week and re-listen. Tell me if you still feel that way. Great, let's have a conversation.   But I truly believe with everything that I have, if we're actually here to help people, we are gonna do everything we can to ensure that I'm here for a long time to help as many people as I can because I believe in what gifts I have to give to this world. And if you believe that, today's conversation is gonna be incredible for you. So, Kristy, today we wanna talk about how the results tell the story. And I think everything I just said is the story, right? The way they're thriving.   We're surviving, we're thriving, or we're dying, right? I wanna be in that middle, that thriving. I really wanna thrive. I've survived for a long time. I personally, professionally have survived for a long time. And I think everyone gets to the point where it's like survival is enough, survival is fine, but thriving is really freaking exciting and it's so cool. And I'm ready to thrive. Tell me how you help practices see their results.   and the story there within. Because like I said in a couple podcasts, but more recently the one we just did together, you love results. You love tracking metrics and you love helping practices see their successes. And you really do a great job of pouring into them on a, gosh, like a leadership personal just love space. You pour into them.   and you do that within their results and you see those stories. So I want you to really walk through some of those stories that you see within the results and how do you help practices to be able to read and see those stories themselves.   The Dental A Team (08:44) Mm-hmm.   Yeah. Well, I think we're in a unique situation because we're in healthcare, right? And we are already our compassionate, caring people. I was just in office and I was saying this to one of my teams. I don't think I've ever been in a practice that didn't have someone with those characteristics. And if I was, they weren't there the next time I came back for sure. ⁓ And so with that, you know, to your point earlier, Tiff, I think that   we need to get over the fact that we are a for-profit business. Because again, along those lines, I've never seen an employee that said, don't need a paycheck or that I don't need a raise. I'm okay with what I'm making. So with that being said, I challenge how you look at it from the onset. But with that, think truly because we're compassionate and caring and we get to do what we do and help people,   The Dental A Team (09:37) Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (09:55) The money just follows when you're doing the right thing. So I truly like to take a step back and ask my teams, how do you define a healthy patient? Let's start there. How do you define a healthy patient? And again, we're never gonna

    28 min

  8. APR 23

    #1,141: Why You Need a Membership Plan In Place

    Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite! Kiera is joined by Brad from Kleer to talk about the perks of membership plans over dental insurance, why a membership plan can create consistent revenue for your practice during uncertain times, and how to even start putting together such a plan. Kleer, by the way, helps roll out membership plans effectively and successfully to uninsured patients Kiera and Brad also touch on why patients may be hesitant to sign up for a membership plan and dental practice resistance, and how to overcome each. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we are bringing you something so special. I am so excited because this is one of our most popular episodes from the archives. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or catching it again, I am so excited because it's jam packed with a ton of takeaways that you can start using right now in your practice. We have released thousands, literally thousands of episodes. And I wanted to start bringing a few of these amazing episodes back for you. So I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.   on the Dental A Team podcast.   speaker-0 (00:32) And you guys, I am so excited to welcome back one of my dear friends, someone that I just respect. I respect their company a ton. And right now, I think it's super relevant for everybody out there because we all know dental insurance is not the greatest. It's shifting. It's changing. It's unpredictable times. So I'm so jazzed to be bringing on Brad. He's with Kleer. Brad, how are you today? How are you, Kiera? I'm doing really well, thanks. So. ⁓   speaker-1 (00:53) Good night, how are   speaker-0 (00:57) Brad, I said real quickly, Kleer. didn't give any thing behind it. People who have listened to the podcast have definitely heard me talk before about Kleer for membership programs. So just for those who don't know, let's just have you kind of share what Kleer is, how they can connect with you. And then we're going to dive into it. always like, I hate at the end where it was like, and by the way, if you want to hang out with Brad, so I'm just going to give you guys Brad's info, what Kleer is about, and we're going to dive into how to like really make a predictable income.   in unpredictable times. get ready, but Brad, how can people connect with you? What is Kleer all about? Let's just give our listeners a little bit of background on you guys.   speaker-1 (01:33) Yeah, so Kleer got started in 2018. And so this is now our fourth year in dentistry and having our software available. And basically what we do is we work with dentists and office managers to help implement and stand up and easily manage their own membership plans, something that's scalable that ⁓ can be successful for their practices.   Like, should I go for membership plans as well? ⁓ Or do you feel like most of the airplanes kind of knows that?   speaker-0 (02:05) Like let's just at least I mean if you haven't heard of membership plans guys now is the time to get on board with membership plans because I just did a podcast the other day where we were talking about how tis the season for dropping insurance plans like it is becoming rampant people are realizing with inflation what insurance plans are reimbursing that it's really not sustainable and so a lot of people are shifting dropping insurance plans and I think membership plans are the number one way to go which is why I wanted Kleer to get on the podcast today to talk to you guys about it   as a great solution to a problem that if you're not experiencing it, you will be experiencing it. I don't think it's a matter of if, it's a matter of when your practice will experience it. So yeah, dive into membership plans just so people understand if you haven't heard of a membership plan yet.   speaker-1 (02:50) Yeah, so membership plans are basically like an alternate coverage options for your primarily uninsured patients. Because like real quick background research is a lot of our data shows us that uninsured patients, they come in less frequently, and they accept a lot less treatment compared to their insured counterparts. So what can we do to provide some type of coverage option that doesn't have the red tape and restrictions that insurance traditional insurance has?   And this is where with membership plans, these practices can create their own care plans and offer them directly to the patients at a monthly or annual subscription. So like what's included with the membership plan, we see that pricing is anywhere typically between like say $260 a year all the way up to like $380 a year. It can go higher or lower, but what the patient's paying for when they're paying for that 260 to 380,   they are getting access to their hygiene and preventative care. And in addition to that, they'll get say a 10, 20 % discount off other procedures. So like I said, the practices have full autonomy. There's no more third party that's really meddling with that relationship and dictating the fees and the treatment protocol. Practices are in full control. They offer a dressing to the patient. So it's a really good patient retention tool.   Patients appreciate the benefits that they're now receiving directly from the practice. And we actually see that the membership plan patients are more profitable than the other patients that still remain without coverage. And like over the past two years, like Carrie, you know that a lot of practices have been implementing membership plans, but the pandemic has really acted as like a catalyst during that time because   a lot of practices and practice owners who are very cognizant of their patients want some type of coverage option, some type of alternate that they can offer to their patients, whether they're going through financial hardships, they refer load, whatever it is. ⁓ But yeah, that's essentially what membership plans 101, if you will. That's what they are. We help practices automate processes with our platform.   and make sure that it's easy to manage and implement and be successful.   speaker-0 (05:14) Which I love and Brad, it's funny because for those of you who heard my and Brad's podcast, gosh, it's probably been over a year now. Um, but we talked about me as a fee for service patient and we literally did, like, I was a case study because I wasn't going to sign up for my six month cleaning. Um, because like I work with hundreds of dentists for me to get a cleaning. It's pretty simple to do. I'm on the road often. I really do. Like offices are super nice to me. I can get a cleaning at any practice I go to.   But Brad, we like it was a case study where I signed up for the membership program at my dental practice and I literally scheduled my six month cleaning because it was quote unquote free. And so I am a literally a walking in testament that membership plans do work even for somebody who's been in the dental field. And I think I'm pretty savvy when it comes to what people are doing. But just, mean, they got me and it made sense. And something I feel people don't realize is one, a lot of offices right now   I've been seeing and Brad, I'm curious from your guys's research, which is why I love Kleer. guys research things so much. So you're very data driven from the research rather than just feelings. And I've been seeing from a lot of our practices that the topics are, how can we drop insurance plans? And I'm always like, the first question I ask is, okay, perfect. Do you have a membership plan in place? Because as soon as you drop this insurance, I don't think practices realize that patient becomes a free agent. They are no longer tied to you.   They're going to go somewhere with insurance or if you can get them on a membership plan, they're no longer a free agent patient. They're now tied to you in some way. But guys, like if I'm a fee for service patient, I am literally a free agent walking around and I can go to whatever practice I want to go to. I'm going to choose an office based on location, their responsiveness to me, their cleanliness, if I like their dentist or not, how their billing is, but I'm not tied to that practice. And so without these membership plans, I think a lot of practices don't realize   that you can drop insurance plans and get patients to stay and retain and even become higher paying patients than they were before by implementing a membership plan. So that's what I've seen. I'm sure you guys have data on it. Anything that you guys have found Brad in conjunction with that or things you guys have seen on your side.   speaker-1 (07:28) Yeah, it's pretty funny. And I touched on how the pandemic has acted as this catalyst. But now the dust has kind of settled after two years. People are understanding how to adapt and how to behave when it comes to COVID-19. But what's really interesting is there's all different types of reasons why practices are implementing these membership plans. Because every practice is different and their priorities are different. So one that you mentioned that's a huge one right now is that they want   membership plans in place when they're planning on dropping one, a couple, or several PPO's because they want to leverage the membership plan as a patient retention tool. But we're seeing other reasons too. It's like, I mean, you said so yourself, you were a case study. We're seeing that more and more. Like you heard it throughout the past like six months, the great resignation. It's been, they've been talking about it since like September, October of 2021, but   We're seeing that there are more people that are starting small businesses. There are more people that are retiring from their jobs earlier than anticipated. And there's more gig

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

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