Rereleasing one of DAT’s most popular episodes! Kiera is joined by Tiffany at eAssist to talk all things outsourcing. eAssist is a remote dental billing company that offers a variety of services (like dental billing, patient billing, insurance verification). Together, Kiera and Tiffany touch on the following topics: How outsourcing can help increase your front office’s success The best tip for following up on outstanding claims How often billing is touched in a healthy practice How to get buildups paid The rate of appeals And a ton more! Episode resources: Learn about eAssist Email [email protected] Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum!   Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:51.47) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I don't know about you, but billing was my absolute arch nemesis in a dental practice. So I'm super excited with our guests today. They run one of the companies we actually recommend and refer all the time, eAssist. If you guys haven't heard about them, they are fantastic. You can outsource your dental billing. And I am always pro doing that. You can call me lazy. You can call me efficient, whatever you want to call me.   Honestly, I'm so jazzed to have Tiffany, Tiffany with E -assist on the podcast today. Tiffany, how are you? I am so good. Thank you so much for having me on here. It's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. We were just chatting about a good old Kansas city. What took you to Kansas city? I should have asked you, but like, let's just air it to the whole team or the whole podcast crew. What took you to Kansas city? I actually was born and raised in liberal Kansas. It's a small town, Southwest Kansas.   and then went to school at K state and then moved here. I lived in Denver for a little bit and then ended up coming back. Do you miss Denver? I worked in Denver for a while. Or are you like, Nope. Cause Kansas city has way better sports. mean, you guys just crushed the, you know, March madness. So kudos to you guys. Happy. I'm sure the whole city was like, that's something I do love about Kansas city. It's like a raving city when it comes to sports, you guys love your sports team. So do you miss Denver? You happy with Kansas city? Like, how does that work?   I love Colorado. It's gorgeous. When I lived there, my kids were little, so I feel like I didn't really get to, I don't know, explore and, you know, really be involved with all the things that I would like to do. But, and, and one of my best friends lives there, so that's kind of sad to be away from her. But I do love, I love me some Kansas City. We've got good people here. Good people, good food, good sports. I mean, you got the whole shebang.   Guys, if you're looking for a good place to go, Kansas City, appears is a great place or Denver, but real topic, Tiffany, kind of walk us through, like if people haven't heard of eAssist, kind of just give us a background on what eAssist is. And then I really want to talk today about how outsourcing billing can help with admin teams because right now we are in the great resignation. Hiring is probably one of the hardest things. And so I think it's a really, really pertinent topic. So tell us a little bit about who eAssist is, what they do, just so people know about what your company   The Dental A Team (03:07.864) Yeah, so eAssist is a remote dental billing company that offers a variety of different services. So we do dental billing where you'll have a dedicated team for your office that remotes in and submits all of your claims and attachments and whatnot, and then comes in and posts all of your payments. We also have a patient billing, which then handles things from that point on.   where they are sending statements and following up on past due accounts with patients. We also offer insurance verification, which anybody that's It's been so long. I've been waiting for you guys to get to insurance verification. like to hear this, I'm just jazzed because that takes so much time. So thank you. Yes, it's amazing. For some reason, there are unicorns out there who actually enjoy doing insurance verification. And thankfully we have them. It is a weird -   talent to obsess, but I'm glad that they do it. I mean, you can really crank that stuff out if you're like on it and that's what you do. I had a girl that I used to work with and she's like, Kiera, I get paid like for all of my, I've just learned how to do it. She like was so fast at it. And I thought, wow, there you go. Like you can have a free day and get all your insurance is verified. She was so quick. So I'm glad you guys have that now. That's awesome.   Yeah, well, and it's a easier when that's your only task that you're taking care of, you know, and you're not having to answer the phone or schedule new patients and get all that information or checking patients in there out or working up treatment plans and you know, the list goes on. So insurance verification does, it can be a huge time sucker if you will, but it's also literally the number one missed dental billing   And in my opinion, it is one of the most paramount pieces of dental billing because if we don't verify, then patients ask us questions. We're not as confident when we treatment plan, even though everybody knows we do not treatment plan based on insurance. But if they're going to ask me what their insurance is estimated to cover, and I haven't found that information out, I get fumbly. I'm not as confident. Patient's not as confident. And good information in, good information out. You can send cleaner claims, get paid faster.   The Dental A Team (05:22.126) it's just, yes, I'm such a pro. Like don't, don't skip it. It does. Yeah, it, has, actually the number two reason why patients leave a dental practice is, because they have lost their trust because they've gotten an inaccurate treatment plan. So insurance verification is the way to, really make sure that the, the, the quotes that we're, giving to patients are as close, as close to true as possible. I mean, with insurance, you know, anything can happen,   Yeah. What is the number one reason you've got me like questioning? You number two is due to loss of trust on treatment. What's the number one reason people leave practices? it is because they feel neglected. Interesting. Okay. They don't feel taken care of. Yeah. I talk to people about that all the time. Like what, what can we do today to help our patients, feel safe, seen and heard. Interesting. I like it. I like it a lot. There you guys go like   I feel like that was like Dettol Tidbit 101, Tiffany. Thank you for that. But yes, so I am a huge proponent of eAssist. And the reason why I've just fallen in love with you guys is because you do it really well and you have to keep people hired and staffed and I don't have to deal with it. So I think especially right now, so many offices are just realizing like we don't have manpower out there. mean, I ran up, oh gosh,   I could be totally lying on this number, but it was about this amount. I'm thinking I'm a little erring on the side of less than more, but I think I ran up a bill of over 12 grand last year on Indeed ads, trying to hire people. And I think that's a pretty hefty cost to try to hire people that weren't out there. Now it's starting to kind of shift, but at the same time, people get sick, people have kids, people have work problems, people have car problems, people get COVID, people get COVID exposures, people   The list goes on and on and I just love that e -assist. Like you guys have to deal with that. You guys, I'm sure struggle with it, but me as the client and the practice, I don't have to deal with that turnover when I outsource. So let's kind of talk through this about how outsourcing really can help increase your front office's game and make it easier for them and just have more consistency on the billing side. Sure. mean, you know, it really all, like we said, starts with insurance verification and that takes up so   The Dental A Team (07:41.486) time. And we really want to do everything that we can to really create that ultimate patient experience, which as I said before, it's making them feel seen and heard. And you can't, they don't feel seen and heard when you're on hold with the insurance company and the patient walks in and you're not standing up to greet them or see how they're doing because you don't want to hang up because you were just on hold for like 30 minutes. And then it's like, there's no   Right? Like you just, it's like, you're weighing the pros and cons. Like what's it worth right now? Because I know that they can't really work up a treatment plan unless I get this done. does the patient even want to go back and be seated if I don't look at them and smile when they walk in the door. So yeah, that's for sure. And then really helping to submit clean claims. So a lot of times,   claims are generated and they're put in the queue. And if you're sending them electronically, know, they go out the, they go out and over to insurance to be adjudicated or whatnot. But people are opening up those claims and looking at all the information to make sure that it's accurate, that the codes that are being submitted are actually the correct codes, that there are radiographs attached, intra -oral photos, narratives,   clinical notes, period charting. There's just so many things that go into that, in making sure that that click, that claim that's going out is clean and it looks good and everything is being sent the very, very first time. Otherwise, you know, it takes time for claims to be processed and that's just longer and longer that there's money that's not going into the bank. So for sure. And I think it's interesting how you talked about this. Cause I remember I was consulting in a practice.   And the gal who was over billing, I said, okay, perfect. Like our AR is really high. Let's look at this. Like why are our accounts receivable so high? And a lot of it was actually insurance. And I said, Hey, we're having like a lot of these insurance claims come back. looks like. And she said, Kiera, it takes way more time to actually check my claims before I send them out. So I just send them out and then I wait for them to come back and then I fix them.   The Dental A Team (10:01.998) No! That was due. response was the same as mine. I was like, it actually will save you lots of hours, like tons of hours, if you'll make sure your information's clean before it goes out. That way when it comes back in, we have less and less and less.   Dirty claims is what I call them. Like if you have to resubmit, I call that a dirty claim. We like we want clean claims, always clean claims, only clean claims. We want to get paid quickly. I'm like a one and done type girl. do one take podcasts recording 99 % of the time. Like that's how I feel your insurance claim should be. So people who say, oh, that's too much time, Tiffany. I don't want to actually take the time to make sure everything's attached correctly. I'm just going to send it out to get it done. And then whatever comes back, I'll deal with it. And I'm like, oh man.   That just like gives me anxiety. I know it's like making me want to throw up a little bit, but yeah, it's a really big deal to make sure that those are going out as clean claims. Now things can happen, right? Like sometimes things will get kicked back. So another really good thing that ESS does is they make sure that you're following up on those outstanding claims on a regular basis. So I can't tell you how many dental offices that I've gone into and I'm running that outstanding claims report. And it's   massively long. And I'm asking them, when's the last time, you know, that you looked at this? And sometimes they've never run the report to begin with. I didn't even know that it existed. Or they say, oh, I do that once a month. I print the report like at the beginning of the month and then I work through it. So yeah, best practice is to follow up on every single outstanding claim every 14 days. You gotta touch everyone. Yeah. Yes.   So I'm gonna ask because let's just like, let's give offices like above and beyond today. What are your favorite billing reports to run? Like what do you suggest? What's kind of the frequency you suggest? So in case an office is like, no Tiff, I've got this. I'm gonna just call you Tiff because we have a Tiff. I hope that that, like that just got real close right there. But they're just gonna say, you know, I think I can do this in my practice, which I'm all for. If you guys can do this in your practices, rock on.   The Dental A Team (12:10.958) I just think outsourcing can free up a lot of manpower to do other things. So what's kind of the cadence of reports that you guys recommend people run? How often, like you just said, run your unsent claims report or all your claims. Like look at those, like every 14 days. But what else do you guys run? What's the cadence? What's the frequency? Just so people get an idea of how often their billing should be touched in a healthy practice. Yeah. So you're, you're going to want to run your, uh,   production and collections and look at those numbers. I like to do that every single day. I wanna look and see what has come in and like what production has been done, how much we've actually collected on. And then definitely on a weekly basis, if you have weekly team meetings, I know there's different schools of thought on that and I don't wanna get into the practice. I'm pro weekly, you're good. Okay, good, I love it.   So I would always touch bases to review all the numbers with the team on a weekly basis. I think it's important for the team to know what the numbers are. That's how they cash their paychecks. That's how they get paid. And I think it creates incentive to help them work a little harder and kind of have some buy -in as far as that goes. And then definitely on a monthly basis. So the average dental practice has a collection ratio.   of 91%. So that means they're only collecting 91 % of money that is rightfully theirs to be collecting to begin with. Whereas - just that a quick personal connection. If your paycheck, if I decide to only pay you 91 % of your paycheck, you wouldn't be super happy about that. You'd be like, what the heck? You ripped me off.   Pay me right. People get pissed because they have to pay taxes all the time. I'm like, so that's like rightful money for your practice that's going to help your practice grow and evolve. And it's just because we didn't like look into it. I agree. Like my, I get it. I don't expect people to be perfect. I did just interview a girl and we give scenarios for a consultant. And I said, we asked the question of like, what do you think is a healthy collection percentage? And she wrote back and she said a hundred percent. And yes, it can be done. And I'm like, dang, watch out guys. If she gets hired.   The Dental A Team (14:21.934) that those offices are going be pushing 100%. I'll give a little bit of grace. do 98%. I don't know what your number is, Tiffany, but. 98%, right? Yeah. I don't expect perfect, right? 90, I mean, we always say, like at ESS, we say we want to help you collect 100 % of what is rightfully owed to you, always.   I will say on average with eAssist our collection ratio is 98%. Awesome. Very cool. Okay. So we want to look at production collection every day. We want to have a weekly meeting and then a monthly meeting as well. So what reports do you run? Because for me, was running like procedures not attached. I was running my unsent claims report every day. I was running my AR report and I say every practice you should   every single patient in that ARR report every single month, like at least like touch every one of those. And I do that on purpose because if you've got 25 pages, I want you to hit every one of those. So you stop sending dirty claims. can get that ARR sheet shorter. But that's my philosophy. Billing has never been my strength. So. Yeah, no, I completely agree with that. 100%. I love all of those reports, especially checking to make sure that treatment that has actually been walked out is actually being sent and submitted to insurance.   And it's not just sitting there and nobody even knows that it exists. So that's super, super important. I mean, I paid for myself on our consulting just by running a procedures not attached to insurance. was like, so I just found you guys like $75 ,000 by procedures that you should have submitted anyway. And they're like, what? is this even I cash or Venmo. Exactly. Exactly. So you're welcome. I'll see you in six months. It's perfect to see you. But OK, procedures not attached claims. What else do you what were you going to say?   Annually, you need to be printing out all of the procedures that you have done throughout the year, as well as all of your fees that are attached. And really what you're checking for is how the codes have changed. What codes have been revised? What codes have been deleted that aren't applicable anymore? Are we still using codes that have been deleted? And is that a reason why a lot of these   The Dental A Team (16:37.404) claims are being kicked back from insurance, right? We have to make sure that we're talking the same language. So, for example, like there's a code that, you know, you might use in, in December, but then come January, that code is no longer applicable. And so now you're like, you're speaking a completely entirely different language and the insurance company doesn't know what you're saying.    Which I think is something a lot of offices overlook and they don't realize codes change. mean, how many people are doing like perio maintenance and there are now, different perio codes that so many people aren't doing, that could be changed. So, okay. So you recommend doing that at least once a year, making sure we're current. I'm going to ask a question. It's a total derail, but I'm just curious. A lot of people are getting so frustrated that buildups are not being paid with crowns. Do you have any tips on how to get buildups paid?   consistently? Yeah, you to make sure that you're always including a narrative for one and listing how much tooth structure is actually remaining once the tooth is fully prepped and all the decay and everything has been removed. So a general rule of thumb with that is there needs to be more than half of the tooth structure missing in order to get that build up paid out.   The Dental A Team (18:55.04) Also taking intra oral photos. So I actually, I just did a webinar on this and I was talking about intra oral photos. I am a raving fan of the intra oral photo. So you want to take a photo before to show the extent of the decay. You want to take a photo after the prep and you want to take another photo once the buildup has been completed,   And I say this all the time too, a picture is worth a thousand words, but in dentistry, it's literally worth thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars. And the crazy thing about buildups is that most payers will deny a buildup the first time that you send it out. And the reason for that is only 33 % of denied claims are ever appealed. So No way.   That's a crazy stat that makes my heart hurt. That's just easy billing. That's what I think too. That was direct guys. I have no filter today. Clearly. I know. If that's you, it's okay. Do it different. Now, know, I hope you are part of that 33%. If you aren't like get on the bandwagon and appeal those claims because just because they deny it does not mean that it's denied forever. And that was something I didn't realize as a biller.   when I first started that I could actually go and say like, no, you're wrong. Luckily I had clinical experience and I'm like, what do you mean you're not paying for a buildup? It clearly needs a buildup. Like we're going to resubmit this and I'm going to tell you why it needs to be covered. Like I don't care who the dental board people are. Like I can prove this 100%. So, but gosh, only 33%. That's insane. Okay. It is. Yeah. It's crazy. It's nuts. And so in insurance companies, they know this, right? So they're like, okay, I got in, um, a hundred   claims for buildups. We'll just go ahead and deny them. Only 30 of them are going to come back that we're going to have to pay out on. People just kind of accept it because they   The Dental A Team (20:54.626) They either don't know how or they don't have the effort or the time or the energy to fight for that reimbursement that is legitimately theirs. There's no, you know, scelo stuff like going on. It's this is my money. Give it to me. Right. I feel like, OK, tell me if you've got clinical experience, you worked in dental practices. I can tell. I feel like ESS billers like the equivalent of a hygienist.   Hygienists are obsessed with getting that little speck of calculus and we're all like, give it up, it's fine, like it's good enough. And yet I feel like like ESS billers are obsessive about getting, even if it's 20 bucks, like we want to get that because that's rightfully our money. And you're not going to sit here and deny claims on us when we know, like it used to light my fire when I would be able to appeal a claim and when...   And they were like, well, okay, we'll pay it now. Like it felt so good. was so rewarding. So I feel like that's a healthy analogy between like true billers who love billing and people. mean, I'm not the person who's like, let me go chase it down every single dollar. Like it's fine. It's 20 bucks. I'm like, you think about those 20 bucks or 25 or 65 or a hundred times. How many of those procedures, like if you want to just feel sick, go run a report from last year of how many buildups you had. And then.   Just do a hundred percent. Cause honestly, you probably only got like 10 % of them covered. So you could drop it down to 90 or even 50 % and just see how much money you lost just on that one code because we didn't go back and appeal it. Exactly. It's, isn't it crazy? And the, the other really awesome part about E -assist is, um, while we have brilliant minds on our team, there is not a single one of us that's perfect.   And when you've only got one person in your office that's doing this, it doesn't matter how awesome they are, if they're not plugged in and like constantly learning or networking or connected, there are things that can be missed. like within eAssist, we have an entire platform where everybody can go on and like post a question about this. And then there's literally, you know, thousand people coming back to answer their question.   The Dental A Team (23:12.642) that sense of community and really bringing all of the brains and all of the smarts together to really increase your bottom line and get you the money that you're out. Which is awesome. I think it's just a matter of, I feel like so many offices neglect billing because like we're going to actually go after our collections if we're not, we don't have enough money for payroll. Like that's a given. We'll do that. Or if we don't have enough money for supplies, but I just feel like it's   a slow bubbling pot that doesn't have to be taken care of. Checking our claims doesn't have to be done. Resubmitting claims doesn't have to be done. Sending out collection letters doesn't have to be done. It'd be great. I remember in office, this is such a gross story. It like made me so sick. Don't do this. This is not good. But I remember there was an office and they had, I think they had one to 2 million in over 90. And I was like, wow, that's a lot of money in that.   And I asked like how she was going about her process and she said, oh, you know, once I hit over 90, I actually just start like writing it off. And I said, I'm sorry, what? Like you, that's not your money to write off number one and number two, there are a lot of ways to collect that. Let's definitely fix that. And so again, I feel that billing and dentistry is such a, it's not a well -taught model in my opinion. It's not well, it's just   I learned from the person before me and if they knew how to do it and most of time that's learning and I just like there's so many layers to billing, is why I really love what you guys do. I think it's actually a really brilliant thing. I will ask this question and I'm hoping it's like, I'm hoping to dispel some people's beliefs about e -assist because I've heard from some offices like I love e -assist and I've got my own two cents on it. So don't worry. I'll like back you guys on it too. But they say e -assist is really inconsistent because they're not in the office all the   So I wanted to ask a question like, how would you answer that question? Cause I've got my own two cents on it from the practices side, just because it's outsourced. But what would be your, cause I've heard from some people like, well, my biller is not that great or she doesn't know all these things, which is just eAssist. Which isn't eAssist. I'm not saying it can't be like impossible. I'm sure there's like maybe a random scenario, but the systems that we have in place on the backend.   The Dental A Team (25:36.888) the checks and the balances and the reporting and every single one of these, these Ea sisters have their own goals and they've got so many that they're reporting to on a consistent and irregular basis. So I just don't see how that could happen. I just saw them. That's good. I wanted to dispel some rumors that I've heard. And also I will say from the practices side, I am always saying just because it's an outsource company, it doesn't mean you don't need to check in with   So I recommend offices when you do outsource that you have a relationship. Like I treat my outsource companies as if they're my team. And I'm going to, if Tiffany, you were my biller, I'm going to set up consistent meetings with you where we review our AR, where we look to see where we're at. We look to see our collection percentages. We look to see the statements that were sent out. We look to see why our claims are being denied so we can fix it on the front end. Like just because they're getting denied doesn't mean keep doing it. But I really suggest, and that's something   that I will preach forever because I think outsourcing truthfully is one of the best things that can happen. Like, hello, thank you, COVID. Thank you. All these different things that have happened to us to create amazing outsource companies. think you guys are one of the top tier billing companies out there, but really I feel offices can't neglect the responsibility of ensuring that the E -assister is working on their practice to the goals that you want and that you're communicating those goals as well. Would you agree? Like that's kind of my two cents on outsourcing.   and how offices need to take some accountability on it as well. Absolutely. It's all about having consistent and clear communication. And if you feel like you can't pick up the phone and call your e -assister to ask them a question, then you need to let them know or let your team leader know so that they can get you a different e -assister. Communication is incredibly important. And making sure that you're providing great soap notes.   for documentation purposes, that you're taking the right x -rays, that you're taking those intraoral photos, that you're charting the bleeding on probing. You know, that all of these things are happening because that's what your e -assister needs to be set up for success to get all of the other stuff on the back end taken care of. And if you're not involved as a practice owner, as a doctor, that's a big deal. And I know that you're busy and you've got a lot   The Dental A Team (28:00.694) stuff on your plate and there's a lot going on and that's okay. But you need to be involved in the process. Otherwise you may not always be happy or get the result that you could have. For sure. And that's why I wanted to bring this up. Like I'd rather dispel what people think. But I think also, as you said that one of the benefits of having an outsource company is they force you to have tight systems. So things like we aren't charting our bleeding, I need this information. So coming from somebody who knows what a practice should look like.   I think that's actually one of the best things I remember when I started outsourcing our podcast. It's now in house, but we had, we went with somebody who was working for another company. And I remember it was like, I instantly created a very quick system because this person knew what we should be having, how it should be done, what the process should be. And we had just hodgepodded it together prior to that. Like it was fine. It was working, but it wasn't succinct and tight. And when you said like, are your hygienists documenting   Ontario charting and are they doing it consistently? So many offices I walk into, they're not doing it consistently. I'm like, guys, we need that to get our claims to be paid. They're not taking intraorals like you were saying for those buildups and then they're complaining that it's being denied. they're like, well, I guess all buildups are just denied. No, that's why I love ESA. That's why I love working with companies who bill.   for hundreds and thousands of practices because you see so many more claims than I see, you know tips and tricks, you've got your whole community of people. So that's where I just feel like if nothing else, I also think it's a great way to ramp up your systemization and get cleaner documentation, cleaner notes, cleaner insurance verification, cleaner billing, so that way it really is a better process all around. So. for sure.   100 % I mean I'm all for outsourcing. Eassist obviously is about outsourcing, but they also believe in the power of education and you know you've got to make the choices that are best for your practice. And if you've got the team in place and you feel like they can handle it, but they just need to to learn or have some education to support them. Eassist also has dental zing, which is an entire online webinar continuing education platform. They're not out there saying.   The Dental A Team (30:14.222) You must outsource to us like in order to be successful at saying, you know, make the choice that's right for your practice. If you want to outsource, we're here for you. If you want to coach and train your team, like we're here for you. Here's some courses, like let them take these. it's yeah, that's great. Which I think is awesome. So guys, end all be all. Stop doing it the hard way. There's a book called, gosh, what is it? It's not how, but who.   And I really love thinking that because I think so often in practice, like, how are going to figure out our billing? How are we going to figure this out when sometimes those can actually just be answered by who is there a billing company like ESS that you could outsource to and try it. Tiffany, if it, if an office wants to set up with you guys, how long does it usually take from like, call you say, I need help with billing to you guys actually submitting my claims. Like how long is that process? If I'm a practice in dire need, just so I have a timeline.   that's actually a great question. It's been a while since I've been on that side of things. but I know in the past it's been usually seven days. I think the goal is to maybe to cut that back. I'm not actually sure, but it used to be seven days, but that's also really dependent on you getting them all of the information that they need in order to get things set up. So there's, you know, tech installation and all of that, but it can, the turnaround can actually be exponentially quicker than that. it all just kind of depends on systems.   That's awesome. again, very quick turnaround time. I know that doesn't seem like fast, but it is quick. You guys start billing immediately. You start telling them, helping them get their systems in play. I know there's check scanners. So it becomes a, you guys have it really dialed in. So Tiffany, I love this conversation. I love that we went from how to get buildups paid. went from what it even looks like to outsource. We've talked about different types of reports you should be doing, uh, looking at your claims every 14 days that only 33 % of people.   appeal denials, like crazy stuff. So guys, if you are looking and you're saying, Hey, I'm ready to get going and I need help. Tiffany, how do they get set up with ESS? Like, what's the best way to connect with you guys just to find out more information, see if you're a practice, I can qualify. What's the best way? Yeah, absolutely. So first thing is first, always go to our website, dental billing .com. There's a lot   The Dental A Team (32:31.67) A lot of your questions that you have are going to be answered just by looking at the website, including pricing and what all of that looks like, the variety of services that are offered and which you feel like is the best for your specific practice. And then you can always send out an email to learn more at ESS .me. Awesome. Well, Tiffany, I am so excited, guys, if this is even something you've been considering, I'd strongly encourage you guys to look into it.   Touch base, C, because at the end of the day, let's cut the stress off your front office, outsource it, make sure your billing's coming in consistently. I know I always love when my paychecks are consistent and that money into our company is consistent. It's very stressful when it's not. And not having it dependent on people's time or availability or hiring is a really awesome solution. So Tiffany, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being a part of eAssist. Super grateful for you and all that you guys do for the dental community. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having   Of course. All right, geuys, check it out. Try it out. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Email me [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.   The Dental A Team (33:45.09) wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

Britt reviews the July book club selection, You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay, by touching on the principles that most stood out to her: clearing out your limiting beliefs, knowing the power of the present moment, applying a positive narrative to your life, and more. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Britt Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Britt (00:00.436) Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Britt and you're here for Britt taking over the book club podcast today. I'm super excited to be with you, privileged to get a chance to talk about our book for this month, spend a little time together, talk about it and hopefully learn a little bit from each other. So I'm a big book club fan. I love that it's just a chance for us to come together, talk about ideas, talk about things that are discussed in the book. And I love even hearing your feedback on the podcast on how it goes.   Welcome to Book Club Podcasts. Let's get into it. This month, the book for Book Club is You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. Now, this is a book, she wrote it back in like mid 80s. So back around the time that self -help was kind of getting started, she was one of the first that kind of gained some popularity in the self -help realm. And this is one of her books that she started that out with.   I love digging into these books. When it comes to self -help, I'm a big fan. One thing I love about it though is kind of reading through it. And when we read through these books, it's kind of like challenging ideas of what are they saying? Do I agree with it? And ultimately kind of like picking out what are the pieces that are helpful to you and like taking those pieces along the journey with you. So with this book, Louise talks about some good concepts in here.   really a lot of it comes back to like we manifest what we think, right? So our brains are extremely powerful and they have a big impact on our life in a lot of different ways. And so throughout the book, she's kind of talking about how our minds can impact one, our health on some things, right? And it can also impact just kind of our happiness and our mental health. And I think there's some things that have been learned since she originally wrote this book, but I think some of the   core principles within it stand true, even to this day. We know, right, in this day and age, we know stress can definitely impact our health, right? So the better we are at managing stress, the stronger we get mentally more resilient, then it's gonna help us to be healthier than if we let that stress ultimately impact us. So really a lot of those principles do ring true. Some of them might be a little extreme on her end, in my opinion.   Britt (02:16.656) But there's a lot of good things to take away. Like I said, I love reading these types of books and kind of picking out the pieces that I agree with that I'm like, yep, that's something that I definitely, you know, can implement within my life or like something really good to think about. So let's hop through some of the really kind of big main points that I found super useful. You guys, if you've read the book, awesome, great job. Good job on reading it. If you haven't, that's okay. We'll give you a recap. You can decide if it's something you want to go and spend the time to read.   I'm a big audiobook fan, so for those out there who love the audiobook, I'm with you. I like to listen to it. You can get a lot in and crank up that speed and listen to it pretty quickly. But we'll give you a little recap. We'll talk about some of the ideas, and then you can go dig in from there. One of the big principles from the beginning that she hops into is that really we're responsible for how we feel, right? Things happen in life. Things are gonna happen in life, but we get to choose how we respond to it.   And that can really shape how we view the world, that can help to shape our happiness, and ultimately can impact our health. I think it kind of comes back to the principle of you find what you're looking for. Kind of that first thing of we manifest whatever we think, we find what we're looking for. If we're always looking and saying like, I'm just waiting for the next shoe to drop and waiting for the next shoe to drop, the next shoe is going to drop at some point. So where you focus your energy and especially that mental energy that's really powerful and strong.   you know, is where we're gonna kind of manifest things and see those things come to life. So that's one principle that I really liked from this book is we manifest whatever we think. So look for the good, you're gonna find the good, right? Look for the bad, you're gonna find the bad. And also manifest whatever we think. If we see something as an opportunity, right? We view challenges as something like I can overcome this or I am strong. Those are all things that are gonna help us when it comes to life to have a little bit different outlook and tackle it in a different way.   which can impact maybe like how much we stress about something or can ultimately impact our health. So that's one thing that I take away from it is absolutely there's something to be said for like a gratitude journal. It trains your brain to look for the things that you're grateful for. And I surely believe that that has a positive impact on our lives. So number two big takeaway that I found from the book was the first step on the journey to loving yourself is to clear away your limiting beliefs.   Britt (04:38.974) So this is a big one. I was actually just in physical therapy yesterday. I had shoulder surgery, right? So I was chatting with some of the physical therapists over there and just talking about how strong our minds are and helping us even when it comes to healing something, right? If I think my range of motion is limited or I can't do this thing, the chances of me actually doing it are pretty slim. But if I believe, yep, I can do it, I'm gonna get healthier, I'm gonna get better.   and I don't kind of guard that injury as much and I work through and I push through and I get the range of motion back, it's a very powerful thing. But if in my mind I'm sitting there thinking, it's not gonna get better, I'm not gonna be able to do that, right? Those are the limiting beliefs that are gonna keep me from improving or healing over time. And it's truly a powerful thing. You can apply that to a lot of things in life. think I was...   super like scared shy child and so I had a lot of limiting beliefs on myself and it was getting to the point where like hey like I can try it or I'm a strong person or I can overcome it or you know I'm smart why why can't I go and try that thing so trying to kind of switch that narrative a little bit to challenge some of those little limiting beliefs and see what's possible within yourself   So I really loved that in this book, which I think is always something that's a good reminder that we're capable of a lot more sometimes than we think we are. And I think in dental practices, right, for those leaders that are listening, our doctors, our office managers, our leads within their position, or just those team members who are the natural leaders, I think we can help to support each other in that way, right? When we know our team, we know each other really well.   we can help to challenge some of those limiting beliefs and help our team grow and help them feel empowered to where maybe they're able to do something that they didn't think they were able to do before. And it's amazing and it's so fun to see those things happen. So another principle that I found really interesting from the book was your power really lies in the present moment and each thought creates your reality. This for me, I kind of think of right in the moment,   Britt (06:49.17) sometimes we have to build up the courage, right? And I think like that's that internal, that mental toughness, that's what's our internal dialogue that's helping us to be in the moment to do the thing, to have the courage, right? To live in that moment of strength or do the next thing. That really that present moment is so important and each that creates that reality. And so what do we tell ourselves? I'm a big sports fan. So I think sports, I think of this right now knowing   Paris Olympics are coming up pretty soon right now. And I just, I don't know, I love the stories, I love the journeys, and I love the mental power that comes from those athletes and that you see them create that power in those moments where they're present in the moment and their thoughts are ready for them to be able to succeed in those moments. And I know those elite athletes do a lot of work to get themselves there and to mentally get themselves there so that they can.   perform in the way that they know that they can and perform to the best of their abilities. And you guys, if it's good for Olympians, it's good for us too, right? We can incorporate those same things within our lives in those times where we need to be present, right? Create the reality in the moment that we can accomplish those amazing things and go for it. So I love it and I love how it relates to a lot of different things and Olympics, I'm ready for you, summer's my favorite, so.   Another principle within the book that I think is important to cover is that your body is trying to communicate what's going on inside. So take the time to listen. I believe a lot in listening to your body, right? In those moments where it's like, hey, my body needs some rest, right? My body needs some mental support. I need some, you know, if it's family time or I need some time around those people that help to really bolster me   I think it's listening to our body and also listening, part of our body is like our minds, where are we at and what do we need? And I think it's really important to take note. think sometimes we can get running so quickly on all the things and that we're just sitting there distracted, we're not really listening to what we need. And I think those are some of the times where we really get run down. So take the quiet moments. I think sometimes I've had to learn to be able to sit in some silence sometimes to actually.   Britt (09:05.138) work through my thoughts or know kind of where I'm at. So I'm a big supporter of meditation. like sometimes it's that or sometimes it's just sitting outside in the quiet and giving yourself some time to breathe. But really listening to your body and what you need and taking the action on it. Some people it's to manage stress, right? That when you can really feel that within your body, you need to get out, you need to exercise. If that's the case, then let's make that something regular so that you can take care of yourself, right?   Everyone these days, right? There's those moments we get run down. So building it into a routine to take care of yourself and then listening to your body on the times you need a little bit more, I think can really help to make us happier humans overall. I really enjoyed that one. One where I kind of maybe see a little bit different than Louise and maybe shows the time that this was kind of written in the 80s are, think listening to your body is super important.   100 % I think research even modern day shows that stress can impact our health. Some of the ties she makes to specific things as far as mental or struggles, things like that resulting in a specific physical ailment. I'm no doctor, I'm no psychologist, so like I will own that 100%.   But I think it definitely can impact our health, but maybe not in like the direct linear way that she kind of describes on a few things. So I don't know, read it, see what you think. That's where with these type of things, I'm always like question it, see what aligns with you, read other things, do some research, and then take the things away from it that you feel like are beneficial for you. I also thought a good thing within the book to cover was that resistance uncovers the problem and the problem uncovers the need.   So let's dig into that a little bit. Some of the areas where we feel resistance to something, right? We're hesitant on something, we're not confident in something. Where we feel that kind of either that mental resilience that we're coming up against means that there's something there that's holding us back. And I think this ties a little bit to our, right? Like our reality and what we're in and being in the present moment.   Britt (11:17.992) And that reality can be that resistance. So sometimes it's passing those limiting beliefs and moving past them. So that can be the resistance we feel that there's something there that's holding us back. What is it that's holding us back? And if we can uncover what's holding us back, then we can either evaluate and say, like, all right, like, that's my limit, I'm good there, or no, that's just a limiting belief. I need to reframe that, restructure it so that I can move past   So I think that's something that's helpful and useful as well that can come in those quiet moments where you're like, all right, why am I feeling resistance to this? How can I work through it? Is it something I want to work through? And what's the solution to it? And then I think that in order to change, must really release the past in what you were. And that's part of releasing, I think, those limiting beliefs. And look for the future. I think all of us as human beings, for ourselves and for others,   allowing the opportunity to change and to grow as human beings is something that I always love. It's so much fun to watch in people. It's great that we are adaptable human beings and we can grow and develop in a lot of different ways. And so I do enjoy this book. It's kind of digging into, all right, what are the things that are holding us back? What are the things mentally, are there some physical showings of the stress or the mental things that are going on that we want to address?   and knowing that you can make some changes, whether that's individually, can make some changes, right? Listening to books are a great way, taking that quiet time, being able to evaluate or whether you need to like talk to someone and work it out and have them help you work past some of those limiting beliefs. But human beings are adaptable and that's one of the amazing things and we can definitely change. So I think there's a lot of good things to gain from here and whenever we're talking about.   especially our mental shaping our physical, the impact that our mental can have, some good ways to help us reframe things or some good ways to get us on the right track mentally of thinking in the way that we want to, our positive affirmations or something, some sort of statement, something that's getting you thinking, I am strong or I can do hard things or life is fantastic. I'm so grateful for the life that I have.   Britt (13:35.132) It's kind of what's that narrative that you have running in the background, that real that's running in the background of your mind, and is that reality or do we need to switch some of it? And that's where some of those daily affirmations or positive affirmations, however often you say them, can help us just to retrain that. Doesn't mean we're not acknowledging what reality is, but it's challenging what we're thinking, how we want to view things, and if we want to view things differently, then let's start.   saying that to ourselves and have that be the narrative that's running in the background to help us succeed. So you guys, I really enjoyed reading this book. Like I said, it's one that I definitely like challenge some things. Do I believe everything? Do I agree with everything? And then what are some of the positives to take away from it? And I definitely took away some of the positives that we manifest whatever we think. The first step on the journey to loving yourself is to clear away your limiting beliefs.   Your power really does lie in the present moment, what we believe, and each thought creates a reality. Your body's trying to communicate with you what's going on on the inside. So take time to listen. That can be hard these days because we've got a lot of noise going around. But take the time to listen in whatever way that is for you. Nature is usually a great way to do it, to get out, get unplugged, and just kind of get some silence to be able to kind of hear yourself and know what's going on.   Acknowledge that sometimes resistance and covers the problem. So the things that we're pushing back against sometimes are the problem that we need to then go evaluate and see if that's something that we need to fix. And in order to change, you must release the past and look forward. Allow yourself the opportunity to change. Allow others the opportunity to change as well, think is really big, especially when we're working with team members, family members, right? It applies to everything, but allowing them that chance to change.   is huge and yourself. Sometimes we need to give ourselves a little bit of grace, acknowledge where we were, what's been, acknowledge that we can be who we want to be in the future and go for it because it's possible. So you guys, I'm so happy that I got to take over Book Club today, take over the podcast, spend some time with you. And that wraps up the Dental A Team podcast today. So let us know what you think. We love hearing from our listeners.   Britt (15:50.6) Drop us a five -star review or email us over at Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. Thanks so much for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

As DAT visits with practices, the consultants are hearing more about CE options: doctors and team members who feel like they’re consuming too much or spending too much money for not enough or not the right kind of education. This episode is all about finding the right CE for your practice right now. Tiff and Dana talk about taking inventory of what you want to do as a doctor/team member, what you want to do better, and how to get the best bang for your buck. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT’s Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Tiffanie (00:14.535) Hello everyone. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have with me my fave.   Dana, Dana, you celebrated your birthday recently. I know we already talked about it on the podcast, but I thought about you all weekend and how was it? How loved and special did you feel? You have this incredible family and these kids that just like pour so much love into you and a husband who loves you to pieces. Like how was it? I know you didn't do anything super crazy special yet for your birthday. That's in the works. And I know you had a ton of sports, but how, how was your birthday weekend?   Dana (00:49.276) It was awesome and you're right, like my celebrations are coming this weekend, but I just got extra quality time with family, which I always love. And when your birthday falls, near Father's Day, right? Just sharing that extra time. So just lots of family love, lots of quality time, and it was a great weekend.   Tiffanie (01:07.079) I love that. Yes, you're right before Father's Day typically, right? And I'm right before Mother's Day, so I totally get it. And then we get like everything gets smashed together. And I think on Father's Day too, like you're like, I don't want to take away from you and your day. But you know, I'm a big birthday person. So thankfully, it's Mother's Day for me and not Father's Day because that would be a hard decision for me to make.   Dana (01:23.196) Yeah.   Dana (01:34.78) I love the honesty tip.   Tiffanie (01:37.799) Yes, yes, and you know, my boyfriend knows that. He's very well -prepped and he does really well. I spent a lot of time when we first started dating, ensuring that he understood how important the birthday time period was. And that's everybody's birthdays. I like to celebrate everybody's, but specifically my own is like a holiday for me. Dana, I wanted to, before we really dive in, I really wanted to chat with you and really see how things are going in your world of consulting.   You have so many practices that you work with constantly. Doctors that you do one on one with. I know you do a lot of virtual within our company and you do travel. You have quite a few travel clients this year that got put on your schedule that you're just, I mean, I'm like you're on the road all the time and I love it personally. I love seeing somebody else on the road as well. How are things going for you? And then also I know we have our newest virtual product and kind of coaching that,   you've helped lead a lot of those coaching sessions for and really jumped in and helped to answer a lot of the doctor community questions and things like that. So from your standpoint, how are things going this year? We're about mid -year. How are things looking for a lot of the practices that you're working with one -on -one?   Dana (02:53.372) Yeah.   Good, I love, I just love the opportunity to be in office with teams. It brings a different dynamic that I'm used to. Of course, I love my virtual clients equally, right? But I do love the in office visit, so I'm excited for that. I think this year has been a little bit different. I think that, you know, there's economy concerns, there are hiring concerns, there are short staffing concerns that we've been dealing with for about the last year to two years. But I do feel like this year,   Tiffanie (03:05.031) Yeah.   Tiffanie (03:22.407) Yeah.   Dana (03:24.11) This is a pivotal year for a lot of practices and so I'm just super excited to get in there to help, to grow, and to be a resource to all of them.   Tiffanie (03:34.023) Yeah.   I love that. I love that. I think you're right. That's definitely something that I've seen with a lot of the practices I've been working with is just the hiring degrees and what that looks like and the weather and the forecasting within that department is really difficult right now. And I think it's just something that it's the world we're living in right now. And it is the way that it is. So doing the best that we possibly can. I know that you and I have done a lot of onboarding and operations manual and employee handbooks.   kind of conversations this year. So I think that's really beneficial for a lot of our listeners. And I think that they've been able to get a lot of value out of those things. And then also something we've been working really, really hard on ensuring is that everybody really knows how to read their overhead, how to kind of manipulate those numbers within the overhead and how to make sure that they're staying on track and that their company and their business is still seeing growth even when there are things that are out of our control. Where I think before, like the team aspect was something that   that we could really count on being there for the most part. There were so many of us in the dental industry that were like, she's going to be here forever. And that's never something we want to count on. We don't want to be people dependent. We want to be systems dependent. And I think right now's climate tells us why we preach that and why we have been preaching that for so long. But it's just such a different space that we're living in right now than we've ever lived in within the dental industry before that I've been here for the last.   20 whatever years, we're not going to put that out there. But.   Tiffanie (05:07.239) It's just a little bit different. So I think something I've been working with my doctors a lot on, and I know you do as well, is really starting to prepare and get ready for what you want your practice to look like. So at the beginning of the year, we set a ton of goals. And we work backwards from those goals to really figure out where we should be at every mile marker throughout the year. So every half year, every quarter, every month, every day, kind of re -engineering those numbers and those trackable items, whether it's number of fluorides,   or number of implants placed or dollar amount that we're producing or collecting. We're always working backwards from that. So something that I've added in for a lot of my practices and something we're heavily looking at now being about midway through the year is the CE opportunities that our doctors are taking. And I think one, my big, my big...   Reminder right now is, again, we're about halfway through the year. And if you don't have your CE done already and you don't have your CE planned, this is your reminder to start preparing for that. And I wanted, Dana, I wanted you and I to really just kind of go through some tips and tricks that we've utilized with some of our practices we work with all the time to help them narrow down and figure out what they're going to do. Dana, I don't know if you've experienced this or not, but I have a few doctors.   who love to learn. I think most of my doctors just love to learn. They're constantly in the education phase and overload and overwhelm themselves with CE. And Dana, have you seen, I've seen a couple of my doctors that just do so much CE in like two to three years. They just jam pack it and then they're like, I can't do any, Tiff, I can't go to another course. I can't go to another class. I can't implement anything else. I'm spent.   I'm just done for. Have you seen that, Dana?   Dana (07:00.38) Yeah, I've definitely seen that and then I've seen two doctors that like they do all of it but then the implementation like it never gets there and it's like well that was great to learn and like I'm super excited about it but I didn't actually bring it into the practice.   Tiffanie (07:07.815) Yes.   Tiffanie (07:14.183) I totally agree. I totally agree. And when we're like, I feel like it's like a tsunami when we just, we get overloaded, right? And I know we do book club every month in our company. And sometimes I even get to the point where I'm like, I need a little bit longer between the book, like where I'm at now and the next one, because I feel like if I move on, I'm just consuming at this point and I'm not actually utilizing or implementing the information that I'm getting. And so I think CE is the same, right? It's similar.   And I think we have a tendency, right, as human beings to take in as much as we can, and then like our brains decide subconsciously what we're gonna retain and what we're not. And then we're like, I never, I do this all the time where I'm like, I've never heard that before in my life. I'm like, actually I've heard it like 15 ,000 times, right? But today it's stuck. And I think CE is very similar for doctors where you really just need to know what it is that.   you need to know. You can't just go in blind. You can't just go in thinking, I just need to soak up all the information. And for our newer doctors, that's really hard to figure out because there's so much information. There's so much to do and so much to learn that you didn't get in college yet, right? At university, you didn't get all of this stuff. And so you're coming out, and you're just inundated with all of these options. So Dana and I, you and I did a lot of research.   podcast recently. I'm really proud of it. It was a really good podcast. We've done some really great podcasts recently, but we did a podcast regarding budgeting and the PNLs. And so I want to remind everyone to always go back and listen to other podcasts that may not seem like, my gosh, this doesn't seem like a relevant topic for what I'm looking for today. I'm looking for CE. That's why I'm listening to this one. Like Tiff, don't be crazy. I hear you. But there's a budgeting one in there as well that we discussed CE budgets.   And I think starting with a budget is huge, because Dana, I think we've also both experienced the situation where doctors are consuming so much that it's becoming a financial burden, where it's like, I can't, Tiff, I can't afford to go to any more classes. Dana, have you seen that with some of your practices as well?   Dana (09:25.5) Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes it is they can afford the actual course, right? Or they look at just the cost of the course and not necessarily all that is involved in the course, the travel, the hotel, the food, all the things, because some of these courses are over several days, right? So there's added expenses to them. And so I do agree with you that like the budget is the first place to start.   Tiffanie (09:46.247) Yeah, I love that. So go listen to that one. And then Dana, you mentioned implementation as well. And it made me think, I did a few months ago, I think it was a few months ago, I don't even remember now. And we can probably pull the podcast numbers and put them in the description here. But I did a podcast with Dr. Dave Mogadam. And I've worked with him for years. He's one of my prized possession clients that I will just always work with. And he did a really great podcast with me in regards to actual   implementing the information that he's gotten from a lot of the courses that he's done. So if you're looking for a CE, you're looking for ideas and information, this podcast obviously is going to be a good one. But then Dave and I, Dr. Dave and I actually did run through a lot of the CE that he's done and how he's been able to implement it. So that was actually a really good podcast. So go back and listen to that one as well. So when I'm helping my clients to differentiate or my friends, my doctor friends, they're like, Tiff, I just don't know what I want to do.   I wanted to go through, Dana, some of the ways that we help them narrow down what it is that they should be doing. So I think we talked budget. So budget number one, but budget doesn't always mean cheap. Budget doesn't mean don't do the expensive ones. Budget doesn't mean do only the ones that are $1 ,000 or less because you've got travel expenses. Budget just means to make sure that you're.   saving and you're putting in another account like a CE budget so that you can do any of the courses that you want to. So my number one or my two things that I make every doctor do when they're choosing CE, it's not like a, you know, put my finger on that piece of paper and like which one does it land on. I want you guys to take inventory of what you actually like doing. I had a dentist recently, she called me.   And she's like, Tiff, I need CE. I need to ramp up my production and my practice. Something's got to change. Something's got to give. And I said, great. Let's talk about this. Let's figure it out. And she said, I'm going to go to a course for root canals because I refer a ton of root canals out. I said, OK, that's fair. Most GP dentists do refer a lot of root canals out. I'll give you that. I'm totally down with that. And then I said, do you like doing root canals? Does that light your soul up?   Tiffanie (12:05.607) And she goes, no, I hate them. And I said, OK. I said, I hated them too when I had to assist them. So I get it. They're tedious, and they're annoying, and I'm not even doing the work. And she said, no, I absolutely hate them. That's why I referred them out. And I said, OK. Then why are we bringing it back in office? I said, do you think that you're going to be efficient and effective with root canals even after going to a course if you dislike them? And she said,   No, I don't think so. It's going to take me too long. I said, great. This was a wonderful 45 second conversation on talking you out of a CE that's not going to do you any good. So it was great. And she changed it. She decided to go for sedation. And that's something she's very passionate about. And it's going to change the face of her practice. I think it's really cool. But I didn't talk her into that. I just asked the questions of, is that something that you actually like doing? So I make them go through and look at, what do you enjoy doing in your practice?   And then what do you want to get better at? So a lot of doctors love placing implants. And they're like, I just don't have enough implant opportunities. We can talk about that. We can create the systems to find implant opportunities. It's there. We're just not looking for it. But do you need to get more confident in placing implants so that you see the opportunities? Is that really what's going on? So I think taking inventory of what it is that you actually like doing.   And taking inventory of what you want to get better at is key, totally key. Dana, do you have doctors that you've had similar situations with or conversations? And then kind of taking that inventory as well, how do you help them go through that when you're working with practices?   Dana (13:47.388) Yeah, I actually just had a similar conversation to that and it was based on root canals, right? This doctor loves doing root canals, but the team was struggling scheduling them with her because one of the associates is much faster. So their automatic schedule default was to put them on the associate and she was getting frustrated because it is something that she loves doing and wants to do more of. So we did have the conversation about, hey, this is a great opportunity, right? This is where we want to utilize some of your CE budget because,   Tiffanie (13:49.735) Hahaha.   It's always ricking us.   Tiffanie (14:10.151) Yeah.   Dana (14:17.294) if this is something that you absolutely love doing and you just need to be more efficient at it, CE is a great opportunity for that.   Tiffanie (14:25.127) Totally agree. Totally agree. And there's so much CE out there. So then the next layer is doing the research on the courses. And I have doctors email me constantly, hey, Tiff, do you know of any courses that do XYZ? Do you know where this is? So we definitely use the similar or same tools as you guys have. I definitely pop on the Google, and I'm like, hey, find me this course. And I definitely help narrow it down. But the next phase there is really the research. And when I'm having my doctors research the courses that they want to do,   It's going to be based on interest. It's going to be based on time, right? Can they get to these courses? How long is the course? And how much time do we have to take off of work? Which, by the way, that should probably be added into your budget as well, time away from the practice. But we're also looking at who's hosting the course. Do we know anything about?   this company or the doctor or the individual, it's not always even just a doctor, who's hosting and who's putting on the event, who's giving you the information, who's teaching and training you for this. Do you know anything about that?   Do you have any reviews? Are there reviews you can find online? I know there's a lot of doctor forums. We have our own doctor forum. If you're not a part of that collaborative team, then let us know, reach out, and we can let you know how to get in there. But there's so many different doctor forums. Facebook, there's all kinds of spaces to ask the questions. So do the research, figure it out, ask your peers. One, if they've ever done the course, if they've ever heard of this doctor, whomever is putting it on.   and if they have any good reviews on it. Dana, I've definitely seen, there's a rise I think in CE opportunities for sure. I think there's more CE opportunity today than there ever has been, but I've also seen a rise on, I don't know how to even say this, just I feel like kind of arbitrarily going to an event and just being like, that event was meh.   Tiffanie (16:27.943) And it's like, well, did we know anything about the person before we went? And I think that's not always a step we had to take before. And honestly, I remember back in the day when I was in practice, our CE came from the ADA event, the AZDA event that came every year. And we'd just go to the convention, and we'd wrap up so much CE there. But now there's just so many other opportunities. I think it's kind of flooded and making it difficult to narrow it down. How do you help your doctors narrow that part down to really   decide is this a good CE event? Am I going to get something out of it and is it worth the money?   Dana (17:03.356) Yeah, I think the first thing I say is just assess what type of class do you feel like you really need? If you're going to get more efficient at something, it might be better if there is a hands on portion versus a lecture, right? Or something in person that you can ask your questions versus virtual. You can certainly learn a ton virtually, but I think think about why am I going to this course? And so like what type of platform am I looking forward to begin with?   once you narrow down the type of platform you're looking for, whether it's hands -on, you know, just a lecture or virtual, then it is, like you said, do your research. Is there information on the speaker? Can you talk to somebody who has taken the course? Do you have a platform that you can ask those questions and making sure that even the bullet points of what is in the course align with the reason why you're going or doing it in the first place.   Tiffanie (17:56.135) I love -   I love the idea that you said of making sure that it's hands -on if you need hands -on like you're a root canal doctor who wants to get more efficient and better at root canals and he actually enjoys them. Huge benefit there. Most doctors are on the other side of the spectrum, so it's why endodontists I think do so dang well. You're welcome. But that's huge because if they go to a course or a lecture where they're just listening or they're watching online or they're watching root canals happen,   live in front of them, but they're not participating. It's not a live course. It's all kind of digitalized. It's hugely different because you're not practicing. So it's kind of like trying to learn. It's expecting your team to learn new verbiage skills and be really proficient at it and get it spot on every single time without ever role playing.   So if you're going to these courses, an implant placement course, and I've had plenty of doctors come back from an implant course, and they're like, it was OK. It was just a lot of lecture. And I didn't actually get my hands dirty. I'm like, well, do you feel more confident? They're like, no. I feel like I have maybe more information, more clinical knowledge stored up in my brain. But I don't actually feel more comfortable doing it. But when they go to a hands -on implant placement course where they're placing 30 implants in a weekend on real humans,   that the company has vetted that needs these implants, that's when they come back and they're like, I'm ready to place an implant. And now you have X amount of implants backing you up. Because I think.   Tiffanie (19:31.239) I don't know, I'm making this up perhaps because I'm not a dentist and I've never physically been in this situation, but I can only assume that when you've taken a course like implants or root canals and you've only done the handful that you did in your initial course, maybe you did five or 10 and you've placed one in practice, I would think in your head you're like, I have not done very many of these and I truly am not sure how this is gonna go every time you're getting in there. But when you go to a course where,   where you get to place 30 in a weekend, plus the ones that you've already done, you've got 30 trials behind you that you're like, no, actually, this is like second nature. It's like making someone answer the phone in front of you on a role play 30 times. They're like, OK, no questions asked. I know how to answer this phone call. And I think I've seen in my practices and my doctors so much confidence come from making sure that they went to a   CE that was one, super beneficial towards what they were trying to implement, and two, gave them some of that background and that experience that they need to really hold themselves more confident. Now, Dana, question, has this doctor been able to find a hands -on course for root canals that they're going, or are they just starting this process fresh right now? Yeah.   Dana (20:55.1) They're just starting the process fresh. But I did send a few resources that I think will be good.   Tiffanie (21:01.063) Awesome. That's so cool. Awesome. All right, guys. So.   I'm going to say one thing I see doctors do when it comes to CE is they look at their production, they look at their schedule, and they say, I want to make more production. I want to make more money in the practice, and I want to stop referring all of these things out. It's the first place people look. But sometimes they fail to think about, am I referring these things out because I actually don't enjoy them. Please remember, when you're for a job,   to do something that you hate that you really don't enjoy, you are going to be slower than someone else who loves doing it. Okay, so associates are great opportunities. If you have associates in your practice or you're considering associates, this is a great opportunity to get a yin and a yang. My doctor that asked that she's like, I think I want to do root canal. I'm like, do you love root canal? She said no, her associate loves root canal. So I said, great, let's send her to courses so she can get more efficient at it.   it and you do something totally different because actually you like the aesthetic and the cosmetic world and it makes no sense for you to go detour from that. Just stick with what you love. So watch what you're looking for. What are the parameters that you're basing your decision off of and really make sure it's something that you're going to enjoy doing. And you guys, you know what, caveat, you may not know if you like it until you go to the course and that's okay too. There's never a wasted CE course in my opinion because there's always some   thing that you can bring home. I had a client that was like, Tiff, this front office course we took was like,   Tiffanie (22:40.935) the worst thing ever. And I was like, okay, potentially for sure, but there's gotta be something that you were able to take away. And we dug through, we dug in, and they found quite a few things that if for nothing else, they were like, honestly, seeing how great our practices and the systems that we've been able to put into place together and all of the pieces that we have were on track and were ready to add to those. So they were.   Anyways, they were doing a lot of the things this course was doing, but they found pieces they could bring home. So even if it's a course that you get done with and you're like, dang it, why did I do this? Stop yourself right there. Look for the positives. What could you bring back to the team from that course? There's always going to be something. So take inventory of what it is that you want to do. What do you want to learn to do better?   And then what's going to be the best bang for your buck when it comes to a CE course? Always ask your peers for references, recommendations. Always do your research on the course and make sure that you know who's putting it on, who's teaching it, and their credentials so that you come out feeling even more confident. And then Dana, tell me again just a quick overview of three hot ticket items for a budget, and then they can go listen to our budgeting podcast as well.   Dana (23:56.636) Yeah, Hot Ticket IM Sir Budget is just knowing really truly what you can spend within your overhead on CE and then not just the price of the course, but what is the total cost, including the travel, the lodging, the food, of going to do that course. And then like you said, don't forget the production that it will cost for you to be gone or out of the practice.   Tiffanie (24:06.311) Yeah.   Tiffanie (24:19.527) I love it. I love it. Super actionable implement to implementational pieces. You guys, I hope that you loved this. That's a wrap for us today on CE. Please drop us a five star review with information on any CE courses that you guys have taken and you've loved. We are always looking for more information. Like we said, we get asked all the time from our clients and.   non -clients, people who aren't even with us yet, what kind of courses are out there. So if you ever have any information, please just send it our way. If you have any questions or you want to know more about our doctor community, please email us in at Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. We can't wait to hear from you.  

Mark Rasmussen of Moolah is on the podcast with Kiera! Moolah is all about modernization of payment in dental practices. Mark and Kiera talk about Moolah and its full suite of payment tools, what modernized payments look like in dentistry, software/devices to use, honest processing fees, and more. Bonus: Dental A-Team listeners get a pricing discount: www.moolah.cc/thedentalateam  Episode resources: Learn more about Moolah  Score preferred pricing as a DAT listener here! Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.622) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am super jazz. I have a new guest to the podcast, new to the Dental A Team family. I have been watching this company for the last several years. I've had my eyes on them. I recommended them several times, but I'm super excited because I want to help you guys modernize how you guys are taking payments in the dental world. I feel like dentistry is a little old school. So I'm super jazzed to have the CEO and founder of Moolah, Mark Rasmussen on today. Mark, how you doing over there in beautiful Mexico today?   Mark Rasmussen (00:00.76) Thank you.   Mark Rasmussen (00:30.552) I am doing fantastic here. Thank you for allowing us to be part of the podcast. Excited to join you. And as you mentioned, yes, in down here in sunny Mexico, a little family vacation, happy to take a little break and talk with your community.   Kiera Dent (00:35.598) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (00:45.934) Amazing. Well, I was like, that's pure dedication. I offered to have you rescheduled because I'm like, you're in Mexico, go with the family. But I also know sometimes work is kind of fun on vacation. It's like, you know, you guys sit at the pool, I'll go have some alone time. But hopefully.   Mark Rasmussen (00:50.072) Haha.   Mark Rasmussen (00:59.608) Listen, you're winning in life if you feel that your work is worthwhile. Taking a break from a little vacation, that's how you know you're winning. So yeah, glad to do it, excited to do it.   Kiera Dent (01:08.079)  Awesome. Well, I do love Moolah a ton. So I just want, Mark, let's kind of give the listeners, you're new to the podcast. Like I said, I've watched you guys for years. So can you kind of walk the listeners through Moolah, Mark, how did you get into dental payment processing? Walk us through kind of like the history of you and Moolah.   Mark Rasmussen (01:24.888) Yep.   Sure, awesome. Okay, so I have been around electronic payments, just non -dental for about 27, 28 years. My God, I'm dating myself, but yeah, about 28 years. And...   Kiera Dent (01:38.446) Hey, it's fine. I'm sure you're probably like 29. You probably started this business when you were one. That's my assumption, right? Or like you got into it. Yeah, of course. You're fine. 30. Never looking younger than 30 over there. You're looking good.   Mark Rasmussen (01:43.064) Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Let's go with that. Yep. Exactly. I've actually, this is not gray. I actually make this gray. This is normally dark, but I just tried to distinguish myself and try and go gray.   Kiera Dent (01:57.07) I thought you were trying to like match your like mullah swag, right? Like, you know, like beard and mullah, like same thing so that we look covered head to toe. You got the black glasses, you know, the white beard. It's not gray. It's just white. You're trying to go on brand. Yeah, you're welcome.   Mark Rasmussen (02:00.632) yeah, there we go. Mm -hmm. I like it.   Mark Rasmussen (02:06.936) I like it. I like it. Exactly. Exactly. So, so been around payments forever. About four years ago, we got invited into the dental community from our friends at Dental Success Network. And so we started going to their events. And, you know, they loved our model. Our model has always kind of been about simplicity. Even when we were non dental, we were all about like,   you know, no contracts, no monthly fees, we provide the hardware. And so that kind of was really resonating with the dentist. But the constant feedback that we were getting was like, hey, this is cool. But we really want technology, we really want all of our payment activity posting into the patient ledger. And so we set about to go build that out and took us a couple years and but you know, ended up with a phenomenal platform that allows us to really kind of serve up.   this full suite of payment tools for dental practice. That's in practice payments, of course, storing patient cards, being able to create and manage payment plans, be able to create and manage in -house membership or discount plans, sending out electronic requests via text or email to collect on a balance, allowing the practice to have a online payment submission, you know, so those patients can make payments after hours. So just this full suite of payment tools.   that are posting back into the PMS. And really we think serving up the full suite of tools that today's practice would need.   Kiera Dent (03:40.206) for sure. And I think that that's brilliant because you actually are speaking the language. Me as a team member, that was always our big thing with the processors of great. I'm glad you got this great one, but they don't go into the PMS system. They're not easy for me. But I'm curious, Mark, and this is something where you can be honest. Dental A Team is like no filter. I tried really hard to just have a good time on the podcast. How dated did you feel dentistry was? Yeah, of course. Yeah. But I mean, you're totally. Yeah, of course. Do whatever you want. I mean, I'm here for it.   Mark Rasmussen (04:00.056) Nice. Should I grab a tequila shot and serve Asus right now? Or like how much of a good time are we having here? I'll stick to water.   Kiera Dent (04:08.718) Yeah, okay. But I'm curious when you came because you didn't experience dentistry before you came into it. How dated was dentistry as an industry from your perspective? Like, were you a little like blown away? Like, I kind of say like, we're horse and carriage sometimes and some like, the fact that we didn't have online payments blows my mind, right? Could you please call during eight and five to make your payment to pay me? Like, we're gonna make it hard for you. How dated did you feel like dentistry was when you guys entered the industry? No judgment. I just   Mark Rasmussen (04:16.024) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (04:30.424) Right. Right.   Kiera Dent (04:37.454) Because I think, like I said, it's horrible.   Mark Rasmussen (04:38.008) No judgment. I won't call it will protect the innocent. I won't call it any names. But yes, when I got into the space, I was blown away because there are some, you know, big legacy providers from payments perspective that had all of these legacy relationships with all the PMS is and I kind of just felt like they've been resting on their laurels for a really long time. Like they have the relationship and then they kind of stopped innovating. And so, yeah, I was, you know,   Kiera Dent (04:41.142) you   Kiera Dent (05:03.662) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (05:07.352) surprised that there was a lot of room to make improvements. And so yeah, it's been a great time. And not only improvements on the technology, but even the methods of I'll just call it old school solution providers, payment providers out there. Most of them are old school. And what I mean by that is that, you know, everything from, you know, the signup process or learning about what the fees are going to be.   If you go, for example, go take a look and again, I'm not naming any big names, but go, we all know what they are. If you go to their website and you go to see like, all right, well, how much does merchant services cost from this company? None of them have pricing or rates on their website by design, right? They're all meant to submit a contact form and then wait to have a salesperson call you back. And then, you know, it's just, it feels, it always felt very like car sales, like no disrespect to anybody who sells cars.   Kiera Dent (05:52.014) Peace.   Kiera Dent (05:58.318) Right.   Mark Rasmussen (06:04.92) but it felt very car salesman like of what that experience looked like. And so we were always a big believer of like, we wanted to make, you know, getting signed up for processing less sales like and more transactional like, and how do you do that? You wear your pricing on your sleeve. Like you can go to, you know, the Moolah website, you know exactly what our processing costs. There's no surprises. You don't need to speak with anybody to get pitched on what the services are.   Kiera Dent (06:17.998) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (06:28.878) Thank you.   Mark Rasmussen (06:30.584) And so again, I always liked that. I like more of a transactional experience than a sales experience in kind of, you know, all my aspects of life. So, you know, that element, we saw room to improvement. So, you know, easy to know what the pricing is. And then from a signup perspective, everything can be done online, right? You don't have to have this salesperson send you, you know, paper applications or PDF applications, and you don't need to fill those out and then submit them to the bank and then wait for a couple of days for underwriting.   Kiera Dent (06:34.99) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (06:58.158) Thank you.   Mark Rasmussen (06:59.768) maybe have to provide financials or tax returns, like all that. So with us, we removed all those elements and it's just very easy to know what it costs, very easy to sign up within seconds. So again, just removing the barriers to entry on the actual signup process is a big lift in experience as well.   Kiera Dent (07:11.566) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (07:18.862) Totally agree. And I think I think that that's what's so fun is having these disruptors come into dentistry of this is what you guys could expect from other people but you're right like it is kind of dated and dentistry is such a Relationship industry. I mean I say lab people and reps are so lucky because dentists are so loyal to them So I really really do love that you guys are disrupting it and like you said it's making payments easier and so I was just curious if you can talk about like   Mark Rasmussen (07:39.028) yeah.   Kiera Dent (07:45.134) what does modernized payments look like? Like what should practices, like what's the standard that we should be living at right now? So offices can kind of almost checklist them of am I doing this in my practice? And if not, maybe I should consider a different processor.   Mark Rasmussen (07:59.064) Yeah. So the first thing we touched on is I think you should look at a vendor who can provide you the immediate kind of instant on type of experience. I think the whole legacy of, you know, multi -day underwriting with the bank having to have a hard credit inquiry pull is unnecessary today. Although again, a lot of the legacy providers work that way. So an instant on, I think, you know, modern, you know, modern payments day means not having to lock yourself into any contracts. I'm a big believer in that. Like,   Kiera Dent (08:08.942) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (08:29.4) Any vendor that you work with, I think for the most part should allow you to exist in kind of like a month to month environment, right? Because if you're doing your job as a vendor, you don't need to lock anybody else up, right? They're going to stay with you if you're doing your job right. So I'm a firm believer in no contracts. Another thing I'm going to recommend is stop locking yourself into having to buy the hardware or software, right? And most of the vendors will either charge exorbitant amounts for the hardware,   or they'll try and put you into a non -cancellable lease for the hardware or rentals. All that do away with, you know, shameless plug. Of course, we don't do that, but we're not the only ones. There's a few other great vendors out there where they'll give you the hardware or they'll provide it to you at a fair price. Don't overpay for hardware or lock yourselves in a contract. You know, from a tactical standpoint of like payments specifically,   Here's the thing is that I think a modern practice should have. Obviously, you know, in practice, all the latest and greatest. So what is that? That's of course, old school MagSwipe, that's EMB chip card capabilities. That's also Apple Pay, Google Pay, kind of the tap to pay. That's a great convenience for your patients. Wireless devices are a great add on for the practice, right? So they don't have to be stuck at the front desk. You know, you should have devices that can go anywhere in the practice, you know, operatory, consult rooms, et cetera.   Wireless devices are a big lift. Storing patient cards, I think is a great convenience as well. I talked to a lot of practices who really love that because it's interesting. You talk to the front desk, nobody really wants to talk about or like, nobody likes the transactional element of asking for money and having to collect money, right? So if you can take that element out of your experience with a patient at the front desk,   Kiera Dent (10:02.798) So genius.   Mark Rasmussen (10:25.592) and you're like, hey, would you want us to put that on the on the visa we have in file? Great. That's easy. You know, so storing patient cards, I think is a big one. You know, being able to offer, you know, especially when you're when you're building out treatment plans and those dollar amounts to get higher, being able to offer the patients, you know, multiple payment options, obviously credit card, but then even being able to take that credit card payment and break it out, you know, your kids braces. Great. Let's let's set that up so that we can easily just charge out $100 a month or whatever the case may be.   Kiera Dent (10:29.006) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (10:55.576) So being able to have multiple payment options to offer the patient is phenomenal. Other things that I, yeah, please, yeah.   Kiera Dent (11:03.054) I just want to plug in that one real quick on the payments because you guys have modernized it because a lot of people like well We did that but I remember my gosh I had so many credit cards that I had to remember to run as the office manager I had to like make sure it was the date then I finally got smart and I was like let's do it on the first and the 15th and not just like every day of the month but there's still offices that are trying to remember to run all these cards and for you guys just to set it up it's like a set it and forget it like of course if it declines so much easier we just go check on that but   Mark Rasmussen (11:21.24) Right. Right.   Kiera Dent (11:31.982) I think to just pin on there, your practice might be doing it, but this is automatically doing it through the software where your team doesn't have to try and remember it, saves so much time from a team member having to do it.   Mark Rasmussen (11:41.944) 100%, 100%. And so many, I talked to a lot of offices that before they connected with us, many of them were like self -admitted and they're like, hey, they're like, I'm not proud to share this, but I'd be like, so how are you guys managing your reoccurring payments? So like, we have card numbers just written down in Notepad and I just make myself a reminder and outlook to go ahead and pull those out. I'm like, okay, you didn't tell me that, okay. But that's kind of the reality. So, you know.   being storing car data in binders. Yeah, it's exactly much safer. But having those card numbers available to you and where they're delivering not written down anywhere. So where they can be compromised is you know what they refer to as PCI compliant best practices. So being able to do that, not have your practice, you know, exposed to the you know, the dangers of having card information, you know,   Kiera Dent (12:12.27) They're binders. Binders, Mark.   Mark Rasmussen (12:39.224) exposed and compromised is huge. And of course, any reputable, you know, vendor that you're dealing with, that's going to lie to store patient cards, they're going to have it where it's tokenized. None of the tokenized card data of course, is ever going to be touching any of the practices servers. So the practices, what they refer to as is out of scope, you know, they're not actually dealing with and holding any card numbers. So that's, that's a huge element as well. what else? you know, I've seen get popular over the last couple of years.   memberships, in -house memberships and in -house discount plans are gaining a lot of traction. And I get it, right? It's great for the patient, it's great for the practice, gets the patient in the chair more, the practice kind of gets some reoccurring revenue going, it's a win -win. And there's a lot of great vendors out there in the space that just focus on that. But again, that's a feature set that we built into Moolah.   that allow you to kind of create and manage your own in -house discount plan. So having that, I think is a big part of today's modern practices. Sending electronic requests, right? Collecting on balances. The old school way of sending paper statements is dead, right? And the evolution of that went like, okay, it was paper statements and then everybody realized that nobody is going through snail mail anymore. And then it went to, okay, cool, let's be able to send electronic email requests.   which was an uptick in lift in response rates. And then, you know, beyond that, you know, text requests kind of like even went even further. I mean, the response rate of just going from email requests to text requests is significant. So, but, you know, giving the practice ability to collect on these balances and send those out electronically, automatic reminders, drip campaigns and all of that.   and allowing the patient to kind of like, you know, make that payment when it's convenient for them, you know, if it's at their home, on their couch, on their phone late at night, doing a quick Apple Pay transaction. That's what it's all about, you know, is making, you know, easy for your patients to interact and handle, you know, their billing issues with you is the ultimate. The other thing I'll touch on is, you know, online payment, right?   Kiera Dent (14:49.294) Yeah.   Mark Rasmussen (14:54.36) So allowing that patient be able to go to your site and click a button, say, hey, make an after hours payment and be able to make that payment after hours. That's another big, you know, we think kind of best practices to do for today's modern practice. And then really the cherry on top of all these things is that these things in itself are great, but really to really elevate this is all this payment tech we talked about is then having an automatically post into the PMS real time is where the magic really happens. And so.   I highly recommend kind of all those touch points as well as having it also integrate directly back in your PMS. That's where the magic really kind of happens, you know?   Kiera Dent (15:31.182) for sure.   And so Mark, I'm curious when you guys do that and goes back into the PMS, does it split because people will like get annoyed when it's like a split payment and my family balance might be $1 ,000, but only 25 come to Kiera and the rest goes to Jason. Does it split or do they need to manually split at the practice level?   Mark Rasmussen (15:52.472) You can do it in two ways. So I'll speak for our system. When you run a payment in Crown, which is our payment platform, you can either have that payment be an unallocated payments, right? And just post to the ledger at the guarantor level. And then you can decide where you want to split that up to, or you can actually, from our system, you can do that transaction, that payment allocated to procedure. And you can pick, when you're doing that allocation, you can pick within the family members,   and at the procedure level of where that payment's going to be allocated to, just as if you were to natively do it in the PMS. So you can do it, you know, like for prepayments, right? Prepayments is something where it's unallocated and then you can assign it afterwards. Or again, you can just assign the payment to the procedure right out of the gate, either way. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (16:27.502) That's awesome.   Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (16:41.39) That's awesome. And for patient or for practice, like of course they're going to feel concerned about like, yeah, but Mark, if people are making payments and I don't know and they're doing it at night, how do I make sure I don't miss any of these payments? So kind of what's Moolah's process to make sure they don't miss it.   Mark Rasmussen (16:53.272) Great question. Yeah, great question. So first thing is that we notify the practices in two ways. One is they'll get an email when a payment's made, you know, anytime, whether it's after hours or they're gonna get an email that hits their inbox. And then within our software itself, in the top header, we have this notification bell that anytime there is a transaction that's been made after hours, like a website payment or text to pay, it's gonna let them notify them that it was done. So they're not gonna miss it.   Kiera Dent (17:20.686) So Mark, as you said all these things, I just thought, to me it felt like I was just talking to a normal website that I purchase on all the time, right? Like I think about Amazon. Amazon's so easy. I make payments. I think about the hospital even where my husband works, like when I go see my doctor. They're not sending me paper statements. I don't think I've gotten a paper statement from a medical office in so long. I also just thought I went to therapy the other day and they're like, do you want it on your card on file? And like,   It's crazy because that's how we live in our day -to -day lives of all the things we as consumers are consuming, but yet in our dental practices, we're so far behind, which is why I'm obsessed with you guys as a company. And why I wanted to bring you on the podcast and share you with our community is because the reality is, this is so...   Mark Rasmussen (18:03.544) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (18:05.806) like up and coming, but you're also I love the passion that comes from you. Like I can tell that you're not just somebody who's like, here we are. You're constantly thinking like, all right, what's the next thing and how are we going to make this even easier? And how can we make this so much simpler for the practices? And I think getting on board with companies that are young, that are innovative. I know you said you're only like 30 based on like you starting like in the industry at one years old. I think you're only 30 years old now, right? But you've constantly made it and brought you, but you brought this young energy with you of staying tech and saying savvy and   Mark Rasmussen (18:26.104) Right. Yeah. 50.   Kiera Dent (18:35.918) I mean, the thought of having those processors that can come into the operatories, like same day treatment is so easy. We're not taking the cards and walking them up front and then bringing it back to them. Like it's just normal. I mean, we think about going to restaurants and now there's like little Apple pay sitting at our booth, even if we have a server. We have innovated as a society and making sure practices do that. But Mark, the questions always come and this is why people don't switch processors. One is it's hard to break up with my current processor. So what do they do in that regard?   Mark Rasmussen (18:50.68) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (19:04.846) to break up with a processor in an easy way if they want to switch to Moolah.   Mark Rasmussen (19:10.168) Great question. So the first thing that I, when we're talking to practices, what I always like to say, and cause it's exactly right, making a switch from, you know, your processor, your legacy processor to somebody else seems daunting. It's like, okay, this is going to be a pain. I got people got to learn my stuff. well, we always tell practices, I'm like, don't cancel your current processor. Like Pepsi, Pepsi challenges, right?   Don't disrupt anything, keep your current processor, try out Moolah, bring us into your practice, don't cancel your existing processor, and make sure you guys love it like we say you're gonna love it. I want them to feel comfortable. And that does a couple things. One is after two weeks and they hate us, then great, we can part with friends and we'll have the hardware picked up and they didn't change anything with their current provider. But if they love us like I believe they're gonna love us, well then great, that gave them, that gave the staff the peace of mind of knowing like, hey yeah, I've got this new system.   but I have my old system in place in case I don't remember how to do something. So not trying to time of like, hey, when should I close my old? When do I add in Moolah? Don't put yourself through that stress. Just add Moolah, try us out. And again, there's no contracts with us. So just bring us alongside, Pepsi challenges for a couple of weeks. And then when your staff and everybody's like, yeah, we love Moolah, cool. Then at that point, you can make arrangements with your processor to close that out.   Kiera Dent (20:17.454) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (20:36.344) I can't can't to other processors, right? Because many of them have, you know, these long -term contracts and early termination fees. They'll have to course check with their vendor. But the good thing is that once you make that break and once you do come with Mula, Moolah, never have that worry again. There's no contracts with us. At any time, if anybody wants to close out their account, really easy to do business with us, really easy to not do business with us. Let us know. We'll have the hardware picked up at our expense and we'll wish each other well, you know? It's all good.   Kiera Dent (21:05.486) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (21:06.2) So at least they can make that break and get out of the contracts and be with a company where they can truly be in a month to month environment.   Kiera Dent (21:14.67) Which is amazing. And I think something that's really awesome is I was thinking about that. If you are in a long -term contract and you can't get out of it, Processing is only charging you on the fees that you do. You might have a monthly fee with the hot hardware that you did purchase, or that might be something you paid upfront. However, you can actually move almost all of your transactions over to Moolah while you wait for that contract to leave. And so just don't think that you have to wait until that contract ends. I do process on two different processors intentionally because I want to like,   Mark Rasmussen (21:35.928) point.   Kiera Dent (21:43.726) leave one and move to another one, but I'm debating because that's going to lead me to my next question about fees. I'm testing two companies currently myself, intentionally, but you can, you can move all your processing over to Moolah if you love them so much, even if you're in contract. So I want that to just be a note for you guys to be afraid of. Yeah.   Mark Rasmussen (21:45.944) Yeah.   Mark Rasmussen (21:58.712) Yes, good point. Yeah, exactly. And you know, in tip to your point there. Even even if you're going to, you know, not cancel the service, maybe that's going to relate to, you know, 20 $30 a month and just maintenance fees. And you're like, well, hey, that still makes sense rather than having to spend three or $400 termination fee. I'm just going to pay the monthly minimum, you know, for whatever it is that six months to take me to that contract term. Yeah, you don't have to wait, you can just kind of pay that minimum.   Kiera Dent (22:20.814) Right.   Mark Rasmussen (22:27.32) and then actually cancel it when you're not going to get hit with a termination fee. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (22:30.51) sure. Yeah, so again, don't feel locked into it because they're going to want you to think you're locked, but it's a very minimal fee, especially if you love it. But something I am curious about, Mark, I feel I will just speak a little bit candidly about the industry. Credit card processors have a little bit of a reputation of being amazing at the beginning, and then they start tacking on all these stupid fees that I don't know, which is why there's companies like Merchant Advocate that come in and check and make sure that our processing fees are not too high. So walk me through processing freeze with Moolah.   because realistically that is always a scary thing when you switch processors. And I think that that's also another reason people don't want to switch. I love you. I love the things you do, but also are you charging me? Like right now I've got somebody who's like, Kiera, switch over to us and we'll be at 2 .9, which I still think is higher. I'd prefer it to be more like 2 .5 % processing fee, but they just sent me an email and I'm very disappointed because they're a very large company and I was so freaking pumped to use them. But they said,   In one year, so I'm like, you guys are smart. You want me to like get all my clients on this new processor. And then in one year, they're literally going to tack on this huge freaking fee on me. And I'm annoyed because it's going to be 10 bucks per transaction, like up to $10 per transaction indefinitely because they're now adding on this like stupid software. I feel annoyed by that. So I'm speaking very candidly. Tell me how your guys's fees work because obviously this is what people are going to be concerned about too. As much as I love you, I also make sure the fees make sense.   Mark Rasmussen (23:30.168) Right.   Mark Rasmussen (23:41.976) Yeah. Yeah. Yep.   Mark Rasmussen (23:50.132) Yep. Yeah, exactly. So we're, we're all about simplicity, right? Like, we love technology, and we love simplicity. So we've been talking about technology, let's talk about simplicity. So you know, anybody out there who's listening to this, and you've seen a merchant account statement, right? Nine and a half, actually, yeah, nine and a half out of 10 times, you look at that merchant statement, that month end statements, it's your eyes will roll back, it's like,   line item after line item after line item of like miscellaneous fees like, okay, this visa fee, this interchange fee, this transaction fee, PCI fees, don't even get me started on PCI fees, but we'll come back to that. PCI fees, monthly minimums, annual fees. I mean, it's crazy. It's like way overcomplicated by design. Not only that, I run in and talk to a lot of practices where like, you know, it's funny.   Kiera Dent (24:19.978) Yeah. Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (24:30.062) They're sane.   Mark Rasmussen (24:44.664) They're like, hey, I started engaging with you and then it had me look at my merchant processing again and my merchant processing statement that I just looked at and the pricing we're paying today is very different than it was when we signed up with them two years ago. So over these two years, they've been bumping up the rates unbeknownst to them. So, you know, with that being said, Moolah takes a very, you know, simple approach. With Moolah, you get, you know, our platform, you get our technology, right?   Kiera Dent (24:57.166) Mm -hmm.   Right.   Mark Rasmussen (25:11.192) There's no monthly SaaS fees or annual fees. There's no fees for the software, number one. The hardware, we're gonna provide the practice to brand new wireless smart terminals. They don't have to buy, rent, or lease those devices, they're included. Not only do we provide them the devices, but we also warranty them indefinitely, which is huge, because normally you're buying these devices, and normally it's like a 12 -month manufacturer's warranty. And then Murphy's Law kicks in half the time, and then it's like month 14, the device fails.   And then you're like, oops, sorry, you got to buy a new device. Whereas with Moolah, first of all, as mentioned, we give them the hardware, but we're warranting them indefinitely, even beyond hardware failure, even accidental damage we will cover. So a practice that comes on board with us, three years later, they call us like, hey, we accidentally dropped the device off the counter and broke, cracked the screen. We'll cover that. Just give us a call. We'll provision replacement. We'll overnight it. So practices that do, you know, processing with Moolah.   totally are future -proofing themselves of ever having hardware expense again. Okay? So no fees on the software, no fees on the hardware. So then it comes down to we make our revenue on the merchant processing. And we've done that. And I think is a really fair, simple and straightforward approach. It breaks down to this. There's literally two fees that a Moolah practice will have when they do business with us. One rate, which is 2 .49 % flat rate for anything that's done in practice.   Kiera Dent (26:17.582) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (26:35.416) And it doesn't matter whether it's an Amex or a Visa or a Mashcard Discover, the card type doesn't matter. If it's done in person, it's 2 .49%. There's not a transaction fee on top of that. Normally, you'll see like 10 or 20 cents per transaction. None of that, just 2 .49. And then that same logic carries over for any of the card not present transactions. So that would be 2 .99 % for anything that's done, you know, text to pay, the website payment.   Kiera Dent (26:47.95) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (27:01.304) So it's literally only those two pricing elements. 2 .49 on transactions are done in practice, 2 .99 where the card is not present, nothing else. And so, you know, when I say nothing else, literally nothing else. So we're eliminating all the kind of miscellaneous fees that we were talking about earlier. The statement fees, the interchange fees, PCI fees. This is a crowd favorite. So not only do we remove the PCI fees, right? And I'm sorry to the rest of my industry.   Kiera Dent (27:19.278) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (27:30.552) peers, but this is the truth. PCI is a complete racket. It's become a financial racket to processors of looking to extract more revenue. So we look at PCI where there not only is there never a fee with Moolah on a PCI fee, but we take care of all the tasks. No longer does the practice have to do that once a year self -assessment questionnaire. No longer do they need to deal with quarterly scans. It's   Kiera Dent (27:35.694) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (27:51.05) Thank you.   Mark Rasmussen (27:58.04) All the PCI elements are managed on the practices behalf. So they never have a PCI fee or a task to do as long as they're with Moolah, which people love. So, and again, as I already mentioned, there's no annual fees, there's no contracts. This is 249 .299. And to really hit that home, as we were talking about previously of like, hey, somebody just trying out Moolah, right? So if you're trying us out, let's say you sign up with Moolah, we send you the hardware.   Kiera Dent (28:07.854) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (28:26.264) but you didn't get around to actually switching over and then the month goes by. Well, guess what? You would have zero expense from Moolah. If you didn't process any payments from us, nothing's gonna kick in. There's no minimums, there's no statement fees, none of that. So if you didn't process a credit card payment, you would have zero expense from us. So, you know, expense is truly driven from when you process credit card transactions and that's it. So really simple, right? And really straightforward and, you know,   Kiera Dent (28:50.638) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (28:53.304) people can get around and knowing what this costs because again, we wear our pricing on our sleeve. There's no surprises. We don't play that game of like teaser rates and then a couple of months kind of sneak in a little message and hope nobody notices and increase the rate. Those rates are gonna be as they are. There's no intention of increasing them.   Kiera Dent (29:06.446) Yep.   Kiera Dent (29:12.142) Yeah, and it's interesting as you're saying that, Mark, I pulled up one of my processing fees. So I'm just curious, because this is what I'm seeing. So tell me, what things are actually nonsense versus what are real? Line item, it says two, visa never approved domestic. What does that even mean?   Mark Rasmussen (29:28.728) So that's referring to an interchange element. So here's the first thing we'll say. Interchange, which is basically the wholesale cost from, you know, not to bore everybody, your audience, but you've got two sides of the equation in credit cards. You have the card issuers, which are patients banks, you know, from their Citibank Visa or their Capital One Visa. And then you have the acquiring banks, which represent the merchants. So interchange is what the card issuers charge the acquiring banks when their customers present their card to their merchants. That's interchange.   Kiera Dent (29:36.078) Mm -hmm.   Mark Rasmussen (29:58.776) And so interchange consists of hundreds and hundreds of different card types with different price points. And so whether it was a Visa, vanilla, you know, plain Visa card, was it a debit card, was it a rewards card, was it a corporate card? So all these variations of interchange expense and there's all these nuances of different fees related to that. Now, listen, these elements happen, doesn't matter who your processor is, all these elements are happening with Moolah in the backend, but we just absorb it all. And so,   Kiera Dent (30:10.286) Great.   Mark Rasmussen (30:28.408) Even though we're very simple in our rates to the practice, make no qualms about it. We're not any different. There's a lot of elements behind the scenes of different expenses that are happening non -domestically. You were talking about rewards, downgrades, all these things are happening behind the scenes. But to our practices, they don't care about that. And they don't need to worry about that. They know that if they do it in their practice, it's 249. And if they do it as a Cardinal President, it's 299.   Don't worry about anything else. We're managing all that behind the scenes.   Kiera Dent (30:58.798) That's awesome. Yeah, because as I'm looking at this statement, I'm like, interesting. I didn't know I had a monthly service fee that has been added on a fixed acquire network fee, another AXP system processing fee that's quite substantial. And I'm like, none of those things were on there prior when I originally signed up. And so I was like, hey. Hey. And so it's interesting.   Mark Rasmussen (31:14.872) You're like, that wasn't on this, that wasn't on my sign up form. I don't remember seeing that. All right, well, we need to talk after the podcast and get you guys over to Moolah, right?   Kiera Dent (31:22.574) I know. Okay, I know. So anyway, that's what I wanted to point out to you guys is like me even looking at this right now, like as listening to the podcast with Mark, like double, I mean, you probably saw my eyes shift over because I was like, what the heck? I got all these fees sitting over here. But what's crazy is I've kind of hovered around this like 2 .9 % for all the time. But I just knew that they were tacking on fees and I had to do this like, my gosh, Mark, we really want to bore people. I had to do all these like   compliance things and they had me do this whole thing to get my rates down and I'm still not but I'm in this higher compliance area. All this nonsense. But anyway, beyond that, I think everybody should use moolah. So I think for modernized payments, I think for the 2 .49, that's insane. Like people are all talking about what are ways that we can save costs on our overhead. Well, get your processing fee down to 2 .49 in practice, you're going to be substantially lower. And then the other ones are 2 .9, which is still lower than what most are at most around three.   Mark Rasmussen (31:54.424) Right. Yeah.   Mark Rasmussen (32:00.216) Thanks.   Kiera Dent (32:17.326) I would usually see about 2 .5 to 3 .3 is typically what I'm seeing for fees, not to mention all the additional add -ons and also having to pay for your process. So if an office, let's say they've got two of these, but they want more, they're a really large practice, do they pay extra for an additional terminal? I would assume yes, because you guys complimentary too, do they pay for extra terminals?   Mark Rasmussen (32:23.64) Yep. Yep.   Mark Rasmussen (32:38.424) They do. So we provide them two, if they want additional devices, it's $30 a month for those additional devices. If they're a larger practice, you know, you sweet talk us a little bit. Well, we have been known to include an extra device or two if it's a larger practice. So, yeah, exactly. Talk to the team. But the short of it is that if the practice is joined more than $60 ,000 a month,   Kiera Dent (32:45.517) Wow, awesome, very easy.   Kiera Dent (32:55.214) So, you know, do a little good sales pitch to Mark over here.   Mark Rasmussen (33:08.44) and they need additional devices, we're usually pretty flexible about providing those additional devices.   Kiera Dent (33:14.51) Do you guys ever do reduced pricing at all if a practice is doing large amounts per month? Or is it just like, this is what it is? I was curious, because I know there's a lot that do hire amounts.   Mark Rasmussen (33:20.248) We do, we do. We do. So matter of fact, so we have the 249 .299 is our wrap rate for dentists. Any practices that come through one of our partnerships, those come in at a reduced rate. And then we have even a lower tier if the practice is multi -practice as multi -locations. So definitely inquire with us.   about those, you know, reduce rates if you're with any of our partners. And yeah, a lot of them. You know, the other thing I was going to mention, just because this is kind of exciting and new for us, and it's crazy how much this has been, practices have been asking about this over the last 12 months. The question that a lot of practices come to us and ask, and they say, is there any way that I can offload my credit card processing fee to the patient?   Kiera Dent (33:50.702) for sure.   Kiera Dent (34:11.982) Yeah. Yeah, I'm curious on this.   Mark Rasmussen (34:15.096) A year ago, we would get that request one out of 10 times. Today, we get that request like seven or eight out of 10 times. So like the cats out of the bag, like people want that. So I'm happy to announce that we just went into beta on being able to offer compliant surcharging. And so you'll be able to practice what they'd like to, they'll be able to offload the credit card processing fee, both in practice and any of the card not present activity, the text to pay, the website payment.   Kiera Dent (34:22.35) Mm -hmm. Agreed.   Mark Rasmussen (34:44.792) you'll be able to offload the credit card processing fee onto the patient. That only does on the credit cards. You're not allowed to do that on the debit cards, right? Debit cards, there's no additional fee to the patient, but if they're paying with a credit card, you'll be able to offload the credit card processing fee to them. And the nice thing with that Moolah is that not only are we giving them the capability to do that, but we're also handling that surcharge amount correctly in the PMS when we're posting into it from an accounting perspective and keeping that clean. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (34:54.03) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (35:10.538)  amazing because agreed I think that's a big piece. I mean when I look at my credit card processing fees a year I'm like we're in the upwards higher like it's almost like another employee when you look at that annual amount that you're paying credit card processing fees and so I just think it's a really awesome way I really love you guys mark. That's why you guys are a sponsor of ours this year That's why you guys are a partner of ours And so definitely everybody let them know that you came from the Dental A Team podcast mark How do people connect with you because I think people should modernize their payments?   Mark Rasmussen (35:19.832) Yeah. Yeah, no doubt.   Kiera Dent (35:39.47) I just feel like would you continue purchasing from Amazon if you had to send them a paper check? The answer's hard pass, no. Would you continue working with Amazon if you couldn't shop at night on them? The answer is no. Would you continue working? And I understand that Amazon does not feel like a dental office, but I'm like, I wouldn't continue seeing my therapist or all these different people. It's so archaic when you go to other even medical professionals that don't take Apple Pay. I'm like, what, you don't take Apple Pay?   Like, what are you doing? Like, everybody takes Apple Pay. Everybody does the tap pay. Why am I still having to insert my card or write you a check or give you my card? Like, it just feels so archaic. And I love, Marc, you guys truly have modernized it and it's not hard. And I love that it's very simple and that people can try you out, see if they like you, but offices that are using you that I know love you. So how can offices get Moolah in their practice? Yeah.   Mark Rasmussen (36:05.976) Yeah. Yeah.   Mark Rasmussen (36:27.32)  Cool. I would recommend if any practice that's interested in learning more about us is, and maybe Kiera in this podcast and description or something, put a link for, because we have preferred pricing for Dental A Team clients. And so I would just take a look at that link that's probably associated with this podcast. And on that page, you guys can go ahead and schedule a time. It's convenient for you to do a demo. And so I think a demo is the, is the,   Kiera Dent (36:40.43) course.   Mark Rasmussen (36:57.176) best natural step for any of your listeners that want to know more about Moolah. And again, schedule that demo and we'll run them through and show them all of the features, all the benefits, and then assist them with getting signed up at that preferred rate that they'll get through Dental A Team.   Kiera Dent (37:15.182) Amazing Mark. And I just like, you know, I love to like sweeten it a smidgey for you guys. So let's just do a hypothetical, a practice is processing a million a year. Okay. And they are just paying that extra half a percentage mark, right? That would be pretty simple. Right? So, you know, if you guys are just paying that extra half a percentage, I'm doing this on a million. That's a $50 ,000. It's insanity to me of how much you guys are saving. Did I do my math right?   Mark Rasmussen (37:24.632) Yeah.   Mark Rasmussen (37:29.592) Yeah? Yeah?   Mark Rasmussen (37:40.216) Right? Yeah.   Kiera Dent (37:44.654) Or is it less than that? A million and we're doing, I lied to you guys. $5 ,000, $5 ,000 just on a half percentage, five grand, which might not seem like enough for you guys to go after. Five grand just by switching processors that you would be saving every year, just on a million dollar practice that you process. That's like, and you probably listen, yes, just the rate.   Mark Rasmussen (37:49.048) We said a half a percent.   Right. Right.   Mark Rasmussen (38:04.344) And you're just talking the rate. And you're just talking about the rate. What about all the other miscellaneous fees that they're probably paying as well? So it's going to be more than five grand. And I feel very strongly that they would be improving their experience on a daily basis with the technology. So not only are you saving on the rate, but you're just improving your day -to -day experience with payments. It's kind of a win -win.   Kiera Dent (38:13.39) Yes, but right alone!   Kiera Dent (38:22.062) I love you, Clint.   Kiera Dent (38:29.55) And as a team member, I have way less I've got to do. I don't have to remember. I've got a drip campaign. I can have them pay on that. I'm not sending statements anymore. So those costs in and of themselves. So I'm just saying, like, for a million dollar practice, it's a guarantee, probably $5 ,000 savings for you just on the rate, let alone everything else. So I think it's worthwhile to schedule that demo. So Mark, thanks for being on the podcast today.   Mark Rasmussen (38:51.224) It was awesome. Thank you so much for allowing us to be there We're so glad to be a sponsor and be with you guys. You guys are rock stars. So appreciate you   Kiera Dent (38:58.03)  Amazing. Well, for all of you listening, guys, don't be like, take the effort, go look into this. It will save you so much money and your team will be happier. Definitely reach out and for all of you listening, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

As a follow-up to episode 858 (Deciphering Your True Overhead), Tiff and Dana circle back to focus on managing your practice’s debt by knowing your PnL. They touch on how to interpret your numbers, considering whether the debt is worth it, healthy money ranges, and a ton more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Listen to episode 858: Deciphering Your True Overhead Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.238) I've got Dana with me and today we are chatting a little bit more about money and I think this is this is a space where I've worked really hard over the last few years as a consultant to just get really good at because I feel like I knew money but not as well as I do today and I think it's a space that we all can always get better at and Dana I love collabing with you and learning.   more from you as well because you have done a ton in the financial world yourself, family -wise, work -wise, all those pieces. So Dana, thanks for being here with me today and for always being my like, yep, I can podcast with you today. I, we say it every time we love podcasting together, but I truly love how flexible and easy you make it for me to get these in the schedule. So thank you. How are you today? I'm doing pretty good. It is   sunshiny and hot here in Arizona. And I think we're so alike and are just like love of the sunshine. So it's a fantastic day today. I agree. I agree. I every day this week, this this week has been I keep saying it's like a Monday every day this week has been a Monday for me. Where I'm on my fifth Monday right now. So every day this week, I have made a point to make my little mushroom latte, scorching hot.   take it outside and sit on my back porch in the sun next to the water and just sit there. I've sat there for as long as I could. Today I only got to 10 minutes because it was a little toasty. It was 6 .45 and it was so hot. I was like getting sweaty. I'm like it's 6 .45 a and I'm sweating outside. I must be in Phoenix. So it was toasty and then I looked at like the little thermometer. I came back inside, I looked at the little thermometer thing and it's like 82 degrees or something. I was like, that'll do it. Welcome to Phoenix.   Yeah, we do. We thrive on being outdoors, being in the sun, whatever it looks like. I think I love and hate the question, mountains or beach. Yeah. I truly don't care. I truly don't care. You want to, yeah. I'm like, both. Just put me, put me in the sun. Give me the outside inside question. Yeah, exactly. I love that. I love that. I'm actually going to change your question to outdoors indoors because it's going to be outdoors no matter what that looks like. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (02:21.134) I love that. I always say, I don't know, maybe Tahoe, because I get water and I get mountains. Yeah. I can paddleboard in the mountains, but I love my desert. And I think you do too. I think we love where we live. Yeah. Okay. So it's hot. It's my fifth Monday, but it's been a really good week though. It's been a really great week. I think the whole team's back. A lot of us were on the road or on vacation. Dana, you got to take vacation. I'm so happy for you.   Feel so like re -energized this week. Plug to my teams to remember my doctors to remember that time off is essential. Just make sure that it works with the whole team. But definitely make sure you're doing that. So Dana, first week back, it's been crazy. You've had a million calls. I was looking at your schedule and I'm like, holy million calls this week. I thought it was just me, but it was all of us. And you decided to podcast with us today. So thank you. The Dental A Team listeners appreciate you being here. You get a ton of great feedback on all of your stuff.   We've talked a little bit recently about P &Ls and budgeting. And we talked about what kind of percentages and what that might look like and how to create some budgets. But this time, I wanted to deep dive a little bit further. Last time we kind of skimmed it. We talked about what true overhead is. And remember, you guys, if you remember, if you haven't listened to it, you don't have to listen to it before this one, but you should listen to the other one as well.   about true overhead and budgeting because I think they're going to go together really well. So remember that your true overhead is anything that if someone were to purchase your practice, this is the overhead that they would be purchasing with that practice, right? This is what they could expect to inherit. So it does not include your doctor pay and it does not include your debt services. So today I really wanted to talk about the idea of managing debt   by knowing your P &L and looking at your P &L. That's something, Dana, I said I've worked really hard on my money mindset and our knowledge and my business knowledge for my clients and getting better and better at that. I think we're all getting better every year, but I know that's something that you and I both have worked on really hard with a few of our clients this year that have really just kind of gotten upside down in some debt situations. And so I wanna pick your brain a little bit today. You've had one.   The Dental A Team (04:44.333) Very recently, actually, that I struggled with maintaining their overhead, getting their overhead down. But then their debt on top of the high overhead was just, they were drowning. They were seriously drowning. And I know you helped them to at least identify it and start chunking away based on that. So what were some of the steps that you took them through with really just even understanding their P &L so that they knew where their money was going?   Honestly, tip the very first step was getting them to look at it. Right? Like they have a CPA who sends in their PNL every month who but getting them to really take a look at it because for a lot of practice owners that is scary. Right? Like being responsible for team members and responsible for a business and keeping doors open and keeping people's jobs. Seeing real numbers in front of them can be stressful and scary. So it was getting them to look at them consistently was piece number one.   Yeah. The next piece was just getting them to understand what it was telling them and what all of their expenses were and where to kind of categorize them. And we did talk about this in a previous podcast, but things that are personal things that are taken through and itemized in different ways, learning what they are, learning where they should go. And   where their debt services are, all of their debt services, and then just getting them to make smart decisions based on those numbers because we can on a whim and a prayer hope that we can afford that scanner, right? But if we've got real numbers in front of us that tell us we can confidently make better decisions. Yeah, totally. I love that. I love that you said number one, you have to look at it. I think that's the biggest piece. I have so many practices that   Well, number one, doctors, we know and understand what school looked like for you, as in you didn't have any business, really like business training. I think that I think I had a doctor tell me once they had like one semester of like business training that really wasn't anything applicable. So I get it. And that's what we're here for. That's why you hire people who know those things so that they can teach you and guide you. Now, I love that you said, look at your PNL.   The Dental A Team (07:07.725) Now, I think this is huge for a couple of reasons because Dental A Team is a consulting company and we love what we do. We love our clients. We love the non -clients. We love everyone in the dental community. And I think one of the biggest things that we set out to do that could be different, I have no idea, than other companies out there, but we really want to teach you how to do this on your own. I don't want to be the person that has to do it all the time.   for you because other than it's kind of like, I think of it like my husband doing my checkbook register, like my husband managing the money, right? I have no idea what that looks like. So then when I need to make a decision, I might make a decision on a whim or not even make a choice or a decision because I don't know. And so it could be very stressful to me because   he's got full control or he's, you know, he's the one that makes all those decisions. So it kind of makes me feel like that where if we're leaning on our, our consultants or our CPAs or our bookkeepers fully for that knowledge and that information, you sometimes I think are in the dark and will make poor judgment decisions. So we always want our clients to walk away from our financial conversations, feeling confident in the information that they've gotten and feeling confident that next month.   you might be able to walk me through your P &L so that I'm not always the one doing it. I want you to learn how to do it as well because as much as I love you and I have worked with many of my clients for five plus years, so I am here for a lifetime, we're all here forever, but I don't want you to need me. I want you to know how to do this stuff on your own. So I love that you said that. Number one, pull it up. And I think unlike,   the personal side of money mindset and like financial awareness and any financial podcast you ever listen to, right? They're like, number one thing, look at your bank account every morning. Know what your money looks like. So guys, like pull your PNL, know what that looks like, read through it. Even if you can't read it yet, even if you're like, I don't know what these numbers mean, don't shy away from looking at it.   The Dental A Team (09:17.933) Because the more you look at it, the more you'll start to understand and gather on your own. And the more questions will come up that you can then ask the professionals who do know. So I love that. Look at it. Number one. Now, Dana, I'm going to stay there for a second because I know that it, that this specific client, I think you've actually had a couple and I know I've had a couple too, that it was like, they were so afraid of looking at money, but they were so afraid of debt and afraid of money.   that they wouldn't look at it. So what did you do? How did you coach them through that and get them to a point where they could look at it without anxiety? Like I know it's anxiety inducing for some people. How did you help them get through that? It was just walking them through and building the confidence that when you know your money, right, you can control your money. And so when you   don't know and you don't know what the pieces are, you don't know what's coming in, you don't know what's going out, you can't make decisions. And so when you know it, you can own it. And you can fix things. And your piano and your money will always tell you a story. And so once you know what that is, then you get to own it and you get to make it better. But when we   I'm sure you've done this right at one point. You're just like, gosh, I didn't even know what's in my bank account. Like I hope to gosh, the Starbucks will go through and it's a finger in a prayer and a flute, right? Where have you checked your bank account before you went out? You might not have bought this before you bought that Starbucks if you really wanted the Starbucks. So it just helps. It's just giving them the confidence that the numbers may be scary and they may not be great when we look at them. But what it does is it allows you to take back control.   and get your way out of it. Figure out your map to move forward. I totally agree. I love that you brought that control in there because that hit, that hit hard. I hope everybody felt that hit. When you're allowing your money to control you, it's a very different space of life than you learning how to control your money. So I love that. So looking at the P &L, learning your P &L and understanding it, I think this podcast today, I wanted it to be about how to manage your debt using your P &L, right?   The Dental A Team (11:35.437) So number one, Dana's talking about knowing your money. Where is your money going, number one? Listen to the budgeting and true overhead podcast. That budgeting is gonna help you manage your debt a ton. But I think secondary to that is really being able to see within your overhead, what can you change or manipulate to help you pay down some of the debt that you have. When we talked on the last podcast about the budgeting and true overhead, we broke down.   your top of your spreadsheet, right? We take your P &L and we put it into an overhead spreadsheet. And which, these are available if you guys want them, email Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com, okay? So we take it and we put it in this overhead spreadsheet. So the top of that spreadsheet is your true overhead. This is what somebody would be taking over if they were to purchase your practice. That tells us this is how much money we have left over at the end of the month. Your goal there is 50 % or less, okay? Typically the range I'm seeing GP practices in is 55 to 65%.   Okay, 55 is still pretty healthy. Okay, 65 is like, okay, we can get you to a healthy spot. That's like a yellow for me. Anything, 65 and above is like a red. 65 to 65 is like a yellow, and then anything 55 under is like a green for me. So if we're in that yellow space, whatever. So now we can see, okay, this is where I'm at. I'm in a yellow, I'm in a red, I'm in a green. And now we say, okay, this is how much I paid myself that month, and then.   this is how much debt services were that month, and at the end of it, this is how much money I had. Now, I've had practices that we got to the end, and it was like a negative 9 % I saw one month on a practice. And he goes, that's why I had to go into my savings. That's why I don't have any money in my account. I'm like, exactly, exactly. But when we're not breaking it down, when we're just paying things because we need to pay them, when we're just buying things because we need   quote unquote, to buy, we need to buy them, we don't know that we're actually negative until we look back later and we're like, shoot, but if we're projecting and we're planning for it, we can see why were we negative. So that specific doctor, what I did is I have, and I have a lot of my practices doing this so that we can manage the debt is I have a different portion on that spreadsheet that says the debt, right? Who's the debt 02? What's the origin date?   The Dental A Team (13:58.861) What is the amount that we're paying and what's the projected payoff date? So I know how long do I have to keep this in the spreadsheet and can we pay this off earlier? Can we allocate funds to pay this down earlier? So then it adds it up for me and I can see X amount, $10 ,000 a month is going to debt services. It'll plug it into my spreadsheet right away. So I know.   Every month, at least $10 ,000 is going there. Now, if I can't change that $10 ,000 that cannot be reduced in any way, I'm going to look, if I'm struggling to pay that debt or my practices, right? I'm going to look at your overhead. And Dana, you did this like budgeting conversation on the previous podcast so perfectly. Cause you're going to look and see, are there areas that I could reduce my true overhead to allocate some more money?   down below to pay off some of that debt. And I think, Dana, that's just a way to be able to manipulate your money. And like you said, control your money instead of your money controlling you because it's so stressful when you're like, where this specific doctor was like, where Tiff, where is my money? I'm like, I don't know. What are you buying? Like, where? I don't know. And then, you know, two weeks later is like, can I buy a scanner? And I'm like, no.   You don't even know where your money is. This is where your money is, right? So I think that's just an easy way to do it. Now, Dana, where have you seen with these practices where you're like, let's look at your money, your true overhead is a little high, but maybe you've even seen their debt is too high. What do you do then with those practices to really help them start managing that debt within those P &Ls and those overhead spreadsheets?   Yeah, I think for some form of it is what we talked about prior, which is, can I budget the things that are above the line to leave more money to offset what is below the line one, and then to I look at each debt service right now, practice loan, we've got to have that. Okay. But the next debt services, are we utilizing the thing that we're paying for? I like is this even need to be a debt service for or can we sell it or get rid of it or utilize it more to make it worth what   The Dental A Team (16:15.597) it costs in debt services. And then if we've got extra money, is there a debt service down here that if we paid off now would allow you to do something else that boosts the business? Yeah, brilliant. I love that you just said, I wrote it down, evaluate your debt. Is it worth the money that you're spending? I think that happens a lot with scanners and mills and all of the things I think.   I think practices are getting much better at utilizing scanners for the new patient exams and all of those things and full mouth scans. But a lot of practices aren't. And I know two years ago when these things really started like making a wave in dentistry, they weren't using them. And they're spending thousands of dollars every month on the scanner that's sitting there collecting dust. And at that point, if it's not something that you're truly going to put into practice, why are we paying for it? It'd be like paying for a car that sits in your garage.   but you're upside down and can barely buy your groceries, why is the car still sitting in your garage? Sell the car. You would sell the car. So why is the scanner still sitting there if that's not something you're truly gonna implement? Maybe it's not something you're ready to implement, whatever the thing is, right? It doesn't have to be that. It could be a CBCT and you're like, gosh dang it, I'm never gonna do root canals that I need this for. You know what, I actually hate placing implants. Is the CBCT worth it in your practice then? Is it paying for itself or is that something that you might be able to sell?   and recoup some money or at least pay down the debt that you owed on it. I think that's brilliant. I think that's brilliant. So today's podcast is all about using your P &L to manage your debt. And I think number one, Dana, the first thing you said was look at your P &L. So then look at your P &L, know your P &L, look at your overhead percentages, and then look at your debt. You guys write out all of the debt that you have. What are all the payments you're making every single month? Where's the money going?   And then let's look at where can we allocate more money? And you guys, I'm going to go ahead and point this out. It doesn't have to be upside down for you to do these things right now. You could be in a really healthy space where you are making 20 % profit or 22 % profit, but you're still like, I still have debt and I don't like that. Then let's start paying it down. Let's start looking where.   The Dental A Team (18:33.709) where you can allocate more money. So obviously, if you're more profitable on the business side, you can pull money from your profit and pay debt down sooner. That's an obvious one. My caveat there is just to make sure that you do have cash reserves on the side to ensure that you're taken care of there. The reason that I say that, my number one reason for saying that is pandemic, okay? We know what that looked like. And if there's ever a space or you know what, if you...   Next month's production and collections is just ugly, but we still have to pay people. We want to make sure that we can pay people without having to take out a loan to pay our employees. So don't pay off loans to put yourself in a space where you have to take out money later. Make sure you've got those reserves on the side, but then start looking, okay, what if I only had 15 % profitability in my practice? So 15 % of my...   collections is going into my reserves, my bank accounts. But now I can allocate another 5 % to 7 % for a 20, 22%. I can allocate that 5 % to 7 % back into debt. So then I think, Dana, and this is going to pull on your personal knowledge, I would think then you would look and tell them, correct me if I'm wrong, you would then look at the debt that is costing you the most. So what's got the highest percentage rate?   What's maybe they're going to take the longest to pay off the most monthly payments? Like what's harming you the most Dana? Is that how you would you would tell? I was gonna say patience you tell your clients to to work it off. Yeah, absolutely I want them to start with those things because again most of our debt services come with some sort of interest so the quicker you can pay down those with either longer terms or higher interest the more your money starts working for you. Yeah. Yeah, perfect. I love that.   I love that, okay, so whether you're in a negative percentage rate on your, or a negative percentage on your profit, or whether you're positive on your profit, I think today is always a great time to look at your debt services. I have had a lot of clients that just, like Dana said, just looking at the numbers, just pulling the information and knowing where your money is going, I've seen a lot of clients really be able to pay off debt years before they thought they were going to be able to because their money,   The Dental A Team (20:54.605) started working for them. They were more in control of the money and they could see where it needed to go instead of just sending it where they thought it should go. They could really see, okay, it makes more sense to do this. And one of my clients, I've talked about them before that, I mean, we turned around their money in their practice where they were like, they were taking loans to pay loans. And we turned that around for them really by just looking at   where the money was going and making more educated decisions on new loans. So now we discuss it as a team, you know, me, wife and doctor, we discuss it as a team of what would it look like if we were to add this debt. And super fun plug, they're one of my, they're my,   that I spent the most time digging into this with. So I pull on them when we talk about this stuff, but most of my clients, I'm working on this stuff with them. But these guys just had like the biggest transformation. And I hope they listen to this and I hope they know who they are and how much I just adore and love them and love working with them and how fantastic it felt to watch them completely change their lives. Like the stress, you could see the stress and he still works his tail off. We're working on that.   So he still got a lot of stress, but they weren't, they're no longer stressing about money and watching that dissolve for them. I saw both of them just become happier people. They, they just, they both like stand a little taller. they're excited for their futures. They bought a beach house personally, because they could see that personally, they no longer needed to finance the practice. The practice was running itself and.   The money was there. And so my biggest, and I think Dental A Team in general, and Dana, I know you operate this way too. My biggest goal as a dental consultant with Dental A Team is that we can get your practice working for you. Instead of you working for your practice, your practice should support an exceptional personal life. You should be able to do all of the things that you dream of. You should be able to have all of the amazing things that you want as a business owner.   The Dental A Team (23:11.373) We just have to do these pieces in order to get your practice working for you. So those are, I mean, it's incredible. Dana, have you, I know it makes me emotional thinking about them, right? And I've had a few clients, but like in there, like my most recent and the biggest one, but I know earlier on we spoke about clients that wouldn't, you know, look at their P &Ls and I know you've worked with a lot of clients recently on having to manage debt. What has that been like for you as a consultant?   how did that feel for you to be able to help them with that? And then for them, how did you see their lives transformed just learning to look at their money? Yeah, I mean, it's been huge being able to have these discussions and being able to show clients like what their numbers tell them where they can make changes that have big impacts is huge. And the biggest thing that I think I see is just like their decision making confidence, right? If you look at your numbers, you will always know if you can give a team member a raise.   If you look at those numbers, you will always know if you can buy the supply or take the course or do the thing that you want to do. And then once you get that honed in and you're able to pay down the debt, usually every time I do an intake call with a client or their first call, it's like, okay, what can we do personally? And so often it's work life balance. And we can think that that's   delegation and we can think that that's like our scent, but truly it is the confidence and the profitability of the practice that allows them to do the outside things that create that work life balance. Totally agree. I totally agree. I love that. I think that's like drop the mic. That's the rap. That's the thing. So change your lives, change, change your money, change your lives, like pay attention to your money, change your life. And I think that's personal and professional.   And I think all of us can use those tips and those reminders. So when you're working to manage your debt using your P &L, number one, look at your P &L. Look at it every month. Look at your bank accounts throughout the month. Make sure that the deposits that you're seeing in your operating software match or are close to. Just know that your cash and your checks will always match a spot on, but your credit card's in your.   The Dental A Team (25:23.181) things like that will look a little different, but make sure that those deposits match, that they're making sense. Watch your money, watch how it's coming in and watch how it's going out. And then Dana, you said understand the categories on your P &L, understand what they mean and how you can manipulate them. And then making smart decisions, evaluating your debt, is it worth keeping? So look at your P &L, pull your debt.   information like how much debt do you have? What are those monthly payments look like? Add that into your monthly budget and figure out is there anything within that that you can change to pay off that debt any quicker because any debt is bad debt. Just get rid of it if you can, but ensure your company is profitable in those ways. So go pull your P &Ls, look at them, learn them, reach out if you guys need help. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. We are here.   told you today multiple times, we help clients with this every single day and we love it. We have learned so much ourselves in this realm and being able to help manipulate the money within the practice to work for you. And for the team, this is something all of our clients are very passionate about is reinvesting back into their team. This is how we get there. We have to make sure that the P &L and the debt management make sense before we can reinvest back into the company and the team. So this is how we do it.   Dana, thank you so much. This was a really applicable one and I know you've worked really hard with your clients. So kudos to you. You're an incredible consultant, you're an incredible team coach and you really change lives every single day. I get to watch that from my position within the company and I get to see that come back from our clients and the clients that you touch the lives of. So keep doing what you're doing, keep growing, keep learning and keep.   teaching all of the valuable things that you have. Thank you for being here today, Dana. All right. Everyone, go re -listen to this. There's a lot of things in there for you guys to pick up and take notes on. Reach out, Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. As always, leave us a five star review below. Tell us how much you loved this and we can't wait to catch you next time. See you later.

Re-releasing one of DAT’s most popular episodes! Dr. Jesse Green is back on the podcast to share more real-life experiences of a dentist. In this episode, Dr. Green shares with Kiera how to move your practice from being profitable to scalable. He shares specific insight about: How to become a training institution How to best back away from the business And how to overcome the fear of giving over your practice It may be a hard pill to swallow, stepping back into a role where you’re no longer the primary profit generator, but Dr. Green shares how other doctors of all shapes and mindsets have managed to do so. About Dr. Green: Author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Dr. Jesse Green is a leading dental business coach. He established Savvy Dentist to support dentists to develop financial intelligence, have more time and work less, create high performance teams, and master the art of patient flow. Episode resources: Connect with Dr. Jesse Green Listen to episode 414, How To Be a Savvy Dentist Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:05.806) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental & Team podcast. I'm your host, Keira Dunt, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you.   Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A -Teams. Welcome to the Dental A -Team Podcast.   The Dental A Team (00:52.866) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kira and you guys, I have a very special guest that I am excited to bring to the show today. I was on his podcast just recently and obviously we want to have him back on our podcast, share a wealth of knowledge and believe it or not, he is actually from Australia. So it is early tomorrow and his time. he said Australia just opened up. So I think his highlight of his day was being able to get a haircut. think all of us here in the States can remember that day.   but I'm so, so excited to welcome Dr. Jesse Green to the show. How are you today? I'm really well, Kira. Thank you so much for having me on the program. I'm really, really, really, really happy to be here to talk to you today. absolutely. I'm so glad. And your haircut does look good. I see you on zoom. It does look nice. It good. It felt fantastic. Honestly, as well as things you appreciate the little things in life and you think how good is a haircut? It's   It's like this luxury that we used to take for granted. Now it feels very luxurious. I absolutely, remember luckily I had just come back from Antarctica when the pandemic hit and I had, so coming back from Antarctica, I got my hair done. got my eyelashes done. got my nails done. Cause I had been gone for three weeks anyway. And so I felt very lucky, but Ooh, towards the end of that shutdown, I was like, man, I was having to learn how to cut my husband's hair again. man. Took me back to pharmacy school days.   I agree. I remember a meme and they said, next time there's a pandemic, can we say that barbers and beauticians and cosmetologists can be considered essential business? And it's got this guy with hair cleared out into his nose. I felt it was very fitting. So, hundred percent. So Jesse, I just wanted to kind of talk to us about how you even got to where you are. I know the topic today that we want to go into is how to earn more while working less. You also talked about how to have a very   a productive associate dentist. So you've got a wealth of knowledge, but just so our listeners know, kind of just give us a quick background and bio on how you even became known as the person who earn more and work less because I'm so excited to learn about that today too. thank you so much. So I'm a dentist by profession. And so like most of your listeners, I did the usual dental school thing, but prior to dental school, I had a business and I was always   The Dental A Team (03:13.74) really interested and engaged in business, loved it. Did the university thing like everyone else, kind of then found my way into clinical practice and really knuckled down and focused on that. And then I was a dentist in the Navy and I learned a lot about leadership and process and, and organizational structure. And then when I went into my own practice, I did traditional practice management kind of teaching. And while it was good, it was fine. We certainly had a business.   producing good money, but in actual fact, I was so tired, so burnt out, so stressed out. My kids were little. was doing dentistry during my work day. Then I'd come home, have dinner with the kids, and then I'd be trying to do payroll or other, you know the how it goes. You know the story, right? And I was, and I was tired and stressed and burnt out. So what I did is I then sold that business and I didn't quite figure out how to fix it until I started a different business, which was around.   I was building websites, running SEO, PPC campaigns. And then it was when I ran that business and I kind of got out of the dental head space and went, my God, I remember all these lessons that I had when I was a kid with my first business that I'd learned that I didn't ever apply to my dental practice. I had this massive, honestly, it was a face palm. I mean, you just go, I can't believe I did that. Jesse, what were you thinking? Clearly not. So then I started thinking about all of the traditional.   practice management techniques and how we could adapt some of those and replace some of those so that businesses can have a true business rather than self -employment. So that's kind of how it came about. I love that because you're right. And the way you just described dentistry is how dentist life is working with so many dentists. I think that that's the life of an entrepreneur as well. I mean, you see lots of different businesses yourself and I think it's just that like, just never feels like there's enough hours in the day, but like you said,   There's got to be a better way to do this. think of it constantly. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I see a lot of people who are way more successful, very, profitable and they don't work crazy hours. They have a true life. Like how do they do that? So I'm excited to have you just dive into that. And I'm excited to see where this podcast rifts and goes to. I also love that you are a dentist as   The Dental A Team (05:31.352) That's why I wanted you on this show. Like let's talk about real life experiences of a dentist and how to, like you said, earn more and work less. That's a mantra that I have. We're actually working on an office manager planner that's called do less, create more. because I think it's really that mentality. So Jesse, take it away. I just want to hear like, your knowledge, tell us how to earn more and work less. Like you figured this out. So share the secrets with us. I'm ready.   Well, thank you. Thank you for that, for that, yeah, free rain. I'm also going to tell you that I learned it the hard way. I learned it. I learned it through experience. learned it easy way. I'm going to learn from you. Well, that's what we want. Right. That's what we're going to give our listeners. But the reason I say that is because everything I've done, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, Kira. So I just want to start this conversation by saying, I'm not perfect. I didn't get this. wasn't, you   born with some sort of insider knowledge around this. had to learn this through trial and error and bumps and grazes and bruises. But think that's really important. I'm going to jump in right there because I think so often we sometimes hear people say, this is how I got there. And we think, well, they were just born that way, or it was just naturally given. And so I really love that. Like, Hey guys, with hard work, learning from great mentors like Jesse, you can be there too. And not limiting yourself is to me a huge, huge piece of what this is all about. So   Continue on. I'm cheering right alongside of you. Like, yes, go. You're not just this like dipped from, from heaven Hercules. man. If only, so here's what I learned. one of the things that I learned is we, we spend so much of our time doing clinical work and we do that because we want to make a dollar and we understand the necessity of making dollar, but it's also what I call a golden handcuffs. And at some point we need to.   lift our gaze from the patient who's in the dental chair in front of us and start surveying our surroundings. So typically there's a couple of different levels of practice that we see a profitable practice, scalable practice and a valuable practice. And so a profitable practice is that typical practice where the dentist is going to work, doing the dentistry, going home at night, doing the payroll sort of thing. And you can actually make quite good money out of that. mean, this is the trap is you get used to the money.   The Dental A Team (07:51.652) You get used to the toys, you get used to the lifestyle and you get on this treadmill and you keep thinking, my goodness, I've got all this stuff, but I don't have time for my kids. so working harder is not the answer. so let me just repeat that for all the dentists here who are really conscientious, who are normally the people that work hard, the good people that work hard. And we just want   not work quite so hard, but work a little differently. We want to shift our focus. And the way that we cross from a profitable business to a scalable business is by crossing what we call the leverage line. so the leverage line is at that point, you've got a practice owner who's no longer the primary revenue generator. You've created a team and this is your work, right? This is what you help a lot of people with creating what we call a self -managing team, a team of   that know what to do, they know how to do it. We've given them the resources to do their job really well. They know what success looks like. We've got some success metrics in place, but those people come internally motivated to do well. Okay. So we're not having to put the defibrillator on them every day to heart start them. They come with batteries included. And so when we've got a self -managing team and we've got our systems and processes, we're now starting to create some leverage.   How do we get to that point? How do we make that leap? And it is a bit of a leap. And because you guys are North American, I'll try and use a baseball metaphor to go from profitable business to scalable business. It's like going from first base in baseball to second base. can't get to second base by keeping one foot on first. There is a moment in time where you have to leave first base.   And you have to run towards second. And when you're in the middle of the two bases and you're not, you're not yet on second, but you've left first, it's uncomfortable. It's uncertain. And there's doubt. And so managing that emotional journey is really important because the natural tendency for us is to run back to what's comfortable rather than pushing forward. Now, the way we push forward is to understand that making money all day, every day.   The Dental A Team (10:09.217) is a great short -term fix, but it is also what's going to keep us stuck on first base. So we need to dedicate some of our time to building that team, to becoming really good at training people, to being really good at finding great talent, training great talent, bringing them on. And that means we need to take on a mindset of becoming almost a training institution so that we can take these wonderful people and get them up to speed so that they can join   The freeway, it's like an on -ramp onto the freeway, get them up to speed really, really well. When we do that, we build the resources for them to use. We now can start hiving off activities that we don't want to do. So that's where the delegation comes in. Now, of course, this is nothing new. This is quite rudimentary. It's quite basic, but what is the hard part is actually letting go. Kirit, let me ask you a question.   Of all the dentists you know, what proportion do you think tend to have perfectionistic tendencies? Oh, you know, every single one of them. Me included, me included. And that's what I did wrong in my first practice. That's what I did wrong. I had to learn and as I've gone through other businesses to learn that 80 % is okay. 80 % done by someone else is a hundred percent awesome. Yes.   Yes, I love that. Did you guys hear that? 80 % done is a hundred percent awesome. Yeah. So let's get our team members out there being prolific. They may not be perfect, but they'll be prolific. They'll get through a lot of work for you if we let them do it and we resist the urge to micromanage. So how do we get away from micromanaging? Now, one of my good friends and other dentists in the United States gave me a wonderful book called Turn the Ship Around.   And for your listeners there, I'd really encourage you to grab hold of it. The author is a wonderful guy, David Marquet. He's a US Navy submarine commander. And what he talks about is developing a leader -leader model. So rather than teaching people what to do or telling them what to do, we want to teach people how to think like us. Not just to do what we asked them to do or to be task -oriented, we want to develop their thinking. So when our team members come to us and say, yeah, Kira,   The Dental A Team (12:29.793) You know, this has happened. What should I do rather than because you've got the answers at your fingertips rather than saying, Hey Bob or Hey Mary or Hey Susie, this is what I think you should do and give them the answer. By doing that, we're actually training them to come to us all the time. So we want to be able to go with them and say, what do you think we could do? What else could we do? What risks do you see with that type of action? What do you think I'm thinking about and start that conversation so they can understand your thought process?   Now, again, it sounds really simple and it's simple, but not easy. Simple, but not easy. So that, would be a starting point there. Now I'm happy for you to guide me, direct me wherever you want me to go with this conversation. Okay. Number one, I love it because we just talked about number one is I think, I think for me it's accepting that I'm going to have to leap and go into that scary zone. Like you said, it is very easy. Like I think it's that, that control, that safety net   false security of, know that if I work here though, Jesse, I know I can make money. know I can sustain my lifestyle. I know that I can continue to live this way. However, I think it gets to a spot where when does that hamster will become no more? When do you want to say like, I don't want to do this anymore. I feel like until you get to that breaking point where you say enough's enough, you won't want to jump from first base to second base. you use that really great analogy.   But I think when you are there and I know I'm there, I say it all the time, I'm like, you know, there's gotta be a better way to do this. And I have the confidence in me. I've trained myself that, hey, Kira, you know that if it fails, guess what? Worst case scenarios, you're just gonna go back and do it all over again. Like I know I can grow a business. I know I can make it profitable. So like that's already a given and it doesn't matter recession, no recession, pandemic, whatever it is, I believe that people who can build businesses can do it again and again and again.   and so my thought is, so for me, it's a challenge and excitement of like, okay, fantastic. Like you said, this is a profitable business and now we're going into a scalable business. So that leap is, I really love that you talked about having that team do it for you. And I know I get guilty of this often today. I was about to answer an email and I was like, this is literally does not need my answer. I don't need to approve this. can, like, does it really matter? The answer is no. So I just wrote back and said, you have full control on this. I know you know it   The Dental A Team (14:55.363) Just, just take care of it. know you know what to do and you're going to do the best thing. I've trained them. I've trained them. Like you said, it's a training thing. I also loved a lot of the questions you mentioned of asking them to think like leaders and owners versus just telling them because that's more of a long -term game versus a short -term just constantly feeding them. So then I'm curious, like, okay, great. We've got an awesome team in play, but I feel like to really know that you've got this awesome team and play, you do have to make that jump to see does this team actually know how to execute? Because if you're always   They don't have to execute. that's where, that's where I actually go on vacation to see if they sink or swim. Like, good luck. Well, that's exactly, that's exactly the right. he's, that's a really good point you're bringing up and thank you for bringing up because you've actually, answered the question and one of my clients, is a lovely, lovely guy and, his name is Barry and Barry in our community takes more holidays than anyone I know. And he is a really good business owner.   And the way he started stress testing his system, stress testing his team was exactly that. He'd take a holiday. He had take note of what didn't work when he got back and he'd just make some notes and go, Hmm, I've got to fix that. Now I'd like to just leave your listeners with a thought process. Every headache, bottleneck, pain in the neck comes back to a deficiency of assets. So what do mean by   Specifically, there's lots of different types of assets, but in a dental practice, there's a couple of broad categories. There's, you know, there's the goodwill of the business, you know, the patient base, there's the team as an asset, there's the cash, there's the physical infrastructure. But what I'm referring to here specifically are the intellectual property assets. What are the systems, processes, checklists, cheat sheets, whatever else you need to have in place. So when it comes back to these bottlenecks or things that go wrong, we go, hmm.   What asset do we need to create in our business so that if I teach someone how to use that and they've now got the resource to do it and they've got the confidence to do it. If I go away next time, that thing should not break again. And so it's that constant iterative process. to take that metaphor or to give you another case study around that, one of my clients.   The Dental A Team (17:15.311) Uh, really lovely lady. Um, when she was working with us, she was taking home about $350 ,000 a year out of her practice. Yeah. Which is okay. She was working four days a week, about 46 weeks of the year. So it's 184 days. And what we did with her is we did exactly the process I've just shared with your listeners already. And she was able to take her take home money from 350 ,000 to about 1 .1 million and   a day and a quarter a week. So she went from four days a week to a day and a quarter. It wasn't really a day and a quarter week. was 65 days a year, but 65 divided by 52 is a day and a quarter on average. here's the thing. That was great. She loved it. And that's a wonderful headline number to talk about. it, and it makes me sound like an amazing coach. I'm not, she was an amazing client, but here's what I want to say. We made a mistake. This is, this is really important. It sounds   better than it is. The mistake was that in that time out, she went traveling around the world. This is pre -COVID. She went traveling around the world. And what happened is some of those systems, some of that team structure started to erode and to collapse. Yep. And what happened, so here's the thing, is when you get into that scalable space, that when you're starting to create that time, freedom and flexibility, you're still there as the leader.   You're still there setting the vision, the direction, the concept of just being absent. I don't think is entirely sustainable. I don't think you can be on the beach drinking Pina coladas 365 days a year. Maybe, maybe you can, but what we had to do for this client is we had to reinstall a leadership team. So this is the next thing is now we have to build a more robust structure for her. And now.   She still works less than 60 days a year. She's making more money than she was before, but now she's not the only leader in the practice. She's developed a leadership team as well. So I think, yeah, it sounded great upfront and it was great upfront, but she pulled out of the business too soon before she was replacing herself as a leader. And I think even with that team, she's still going to be there to walk the corridors, to set the vision,   The Dental A Team (19:33.227) Yeah. Be the culture champion to do all those sorts of things. Absolutely. And I love that you brought that up because I think so often there's kind of this mindset of if I do it right, I don't have to be at my job and it will be, I think my favorite phrases, it will, what do they say? It will just run on autopilot. That's the phrase that I hear often like, Kira, I just want my practice to run on autopilot. But I love that you point out as leaders, as CEOs, your job is to set the vision. Your job is, I like the phrase you use of culture champion.   really set those that that is your job to do and instill that it's there and to have a leadership team that can continue to drive forward. But my question is to you though, Jesse is what did she do to increase her income that much? She's working less. What were some of the things that she was able to do? Is that having, like you said, a rock star associate producer? Because a lot of times bringing in associates, people are scared they're going to make less. So can you give any insight of how was she able to have more take home pay working less hours? Because I think people kind of get funny in there and   feel that if they work less hours, their income will drop as well, which clearly you've proven. Don't leave your job. You still need to do your job of being there, making sure you're having those people in play. But what were some of the things she was able to do to increase that take -home pay for herself while working substantially less hours? Yeah. So it's a great question. And I also point out this was a two and a half year process as well. again,   I want to make sure we set the expectations of your listeners. is not a good thing. can't just do this tomorrow. I know it's not a magic button. There's no silver bullet. I'm sorry to be the one to, tell you that Santa's not real, but there's no magic bullet. so I feel like now, now I'm going to be unpopular. I hope none of the kids are listening. But look, here's what happened. You're absolutely right. She had very productive associates and what we did over that period of time.   is we were able to help those associates become more more productive. And there was three key things that those associates or three key skills that those associates needed to master. The first one was that they needed to master the ability to build their own appointment book. They need to build a following. So they needed to know a lot about internal marketing, making sure their patients were happy to give them a great clinical experience, clearly to make sure they get a great customer care experience.   The Dental A Team (21:54.541) But from the dentist's point of view to keep rebooking those patients to make sure they're coming back for their scheduled maintenance, we call it a recall system here. I'm not sure what the phrase would be. Same, same. So that makes sure they're coming back for their recall appointments, all of those sorts of things to make sure they're building value for those appointments so that the patients understand why they're coming back, why that treatment is important. The second skill they needed to learn was the ability to master case presentation.   Right? They needed to be able to offer treatment. Firstly, I beg your pardon, they needed to be able to comprehensively diagnose, you know, rather than patch and plug dentistry, they wanted to take a holistic view of the patient's mouth to recommend appropriate clinical care, the same sort of care that offer their mother, and then to be able to present that in a way such that it was accepted. So they needed to learn those skills. And the third skill that they needed to learn.   was the ability to deliver high quality work in an efficient manner. And that comes back to workflow, it comes back to utilizing your auxiliary staff, your dental assistants, other people, just the usual sorts of things about four handed dentistry, rubber dam techniques, all those sorts of clinical things. And to be able to do predictable, high quality dentistry efficiently. And that was the skills.   And the big mindset that united all of those three points, the mindset that those associates adopted was one of being an intrapreneur. So I like that phrase. Yeah. So they, they viewed themselves as their own unit within the business. know, they took responsibility for themselves. They took responsibility for their business. They took responsibility for their productivity.   they took responsibility for the clinical care. And that was a culture shift. It was a mindset piece. And again, that took a little bit of time. And so that was a key thing. Now, in addition to the associate dentists, I don't know exactly how this translates to the United States, but in Australia, we have oral health therapists and they're, they don't have a full dental degree, but they can do quite a lot of restorative dentistry. So what we did in that process,   The Dental A Team (24:09.419) is we used everyone's skillset to the maximum that we could. So we built the team up and we pushed the work down. So we trained the dentist, we trained the oral health therapist, we delegated everything that we could to the oral health therapist. So the dentist's work or the dentist's time was used for its highest and best use. And then that meant that the principal dentist was delegating to the associate dentist as well. So her time was used for his highest and best use.   And so it was just this process of training people, delegating, training people, delegating. And so that cycle continued. I really liked that you, just said that because I think so many, I'm curious, like you might have a, an answer to this because as you said that training up an associate dentist to take over your schedule, sometimes it was very scary, Jesse. some doctors feel like that's their identity.   that if an associate dentist takes over my book of business, I even have a practice anymore? And for your oral health therapists or specialists, we call those like EFTAs. So experienced, expanded function dental assistants that can literally do that. But I have quite a few offices that have these EFTA dental assistants and the dentist will not leave the room. They will do the filling even though they don't have to do the filling because now they have somebody that can do it for them. They could be seeing more patients.   People ask me often how I was able to 365 ,000 a month in a five -op practice. Well, we literally had three columns of doctor production and you better believe I had big production next to each other and we would prep, prep, and then we had like an implant that an assistant couldn't help us with. And then our assistants were working while our dentist was over doing high, high level implant sedation cases. And per hour we were cranking.   but we were very, very, very talented at what we did. We had lots of trainings with our assistants to make sure they were doing just as good, if not better clinical work. how do you, Jessie, what do you say to these people who hear you and they're like, that's a really great idea, but I like to do the fillings or I am scared that if I pass it to my associate, my associate is not as good as me. so, or I feel like it's ego. feel like ego just runs it so much   The Dental A Team (26:23.725) So many people stay in this loop for a long time because they aren't willing to train. So do you have any tips of thoughts for that? Maybe you experienced that, maybe this dentist experienced that because I don't think it's, I don't think the ego is bad. think the ego is a natural part of life. I also think being afraid to give up your practice that you've grown to someone else is a very normal feeling. But do you have any thoughts of how people can overcome that or how you've helped people overcome that fear? Are you guys sick of trying to figure it out on your   I know I am. When I'm trying to run a business, sometimes I just think like, there's got to be a better way to do this. And so for me, my answer has been to find someone who's done it and does it really, really, really well. Like I'm talking the best of the best of the best. I want someone who's been in my shoes, somebody who understands what I'm going through. When I was looking for the consulting business, I found a coach who literally has run a consulting business. Well, that seems like the perfect fit. So you guys right now,   We have a few spaces open in our platinum consulting that is in the consulting where we actually come to your practice. We help you get systems implemented. We don't just tell you what systems implement. We actually implement them with you and for you guys. It is one of the best investments I've ever made is to hire a coach who understands the business I'm in, who's lived it, who's done it. And that's what we in the dental team do. We literally physically fly to   So if you're sick of trying to figure it out on your own, if you just want somebody who understands you, join our platinum. I'd love to have you. I'd love to have our consulting team come out and see you, be in your office, be with your team and truly help you get onto the easy path of dentistry. It doesn't have to be hard. So join us in the platinum. We'd love to have you.   Yeah, sure. And it's a great question. It's probably the question that needs to be answered, isn't it? It's the thing like, yeah, Jesse, I get it intellectually. makes sense. I, you know, I see it all happening, but how do I do it? Right. So I, yeah, this is the emotional journey. This is the emotional journey. And this is why I mean managing the emotional journey is as important as managing the intellectual or the numbers journey around it. So you're absolutely correct. So,   The Dental A Team (28:39.947) I struggled with this as well. This was part of why my first practice, you know, I didn't scale it because I just had all this stuff. A couple of things I'll share with you, in no particular order. I'll drop out a few things and hopefully, God willing, I'll be able to tie these into a nice neat bow at the end of it. Perfect. So I remember a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Necker Island, Richard Branson's Island   We spent some time with Richard Branson and he was talking about how he runs all these businesses. And he made a comment, which I've read in one of his books as well. And that was about training. know, people often worry about, you know, if I train people up and they leave, you know, aren't I just training the competition, so to speak. And his point was, well, what if you don't train them and they stay? Great question. I like the flip of the mindset.   And I went, wow. So for me, that was a light bulb moment to really see my business as a training institution. Now, what we needed to do with the transition of patients from the principal to the associate, there's a couple of things around this. we have a process, which we call pass the baton and patient transfers. And essentially it's about handing over the patient and being for the associate to be able to leverage the relationship.   that the principal has with them. And I'll explain that in a moment. But if the principal is really worried, maybe just start handing over a few things. Maybe hand over one filling at a time. It doesn't have to be, I'm going to send my entire patient base to my associate in one fell swoop. Maybe let's get used to just handing off one particular procedure. Maybe it's a class one occlusal composite resin.   Maybe it's endodontic treatment. Maybe it's whatever it is that you don't love to do or in your heart of hearts, you know, it's not your strong suit because we all have clinical areas that we know we're not great at or not as strong as other areas. So let's think if you're worried, let's do a dip in the water, know, dip our toe in the water and see how we go. But the way to do that is really about saying, know, Kyra, there's this restoration that we need to do on the lower right -hand   The Dental A Team (30:58.823) And, you know, this is obviously not going to get any smaller. it's going to get bigger if we don't tackle it. And so, I really would like to see this tooth treated as a matter of priority. Now, the challenge I've got is that my diary, is full for the next couple of weeks or months, whatever it is. And I don't really want to wait that length of time to get onto this feeling. I think we need to do that sooner. What I'd really love to do is to book you in with my associate, Peter. Peter's a fantastic dentist. does this all day, every day. And in   Peter's the person I see for my own dentistry. What if we were to get this filling done with Peter and then we can pick up the rest of the treatment plan as we move forward from there. So even if it's just handing off a procedure here or there, just to get things moving, just to build that confidence and then over time we can start transferring patients more fully. And we can even get, if you want to, you can get into a shared care model. I've got a couple of clients that do shared care. So   The patient will come in, they'll have the restorative dentists doing the bread and butter restorative dentistry. We'll have our crown and bridge expert, which is the principal, doing the crown and bridge and the high production work. We'll have our therapist or hygienist doing the hygiene or whatever it is. So again, we can introduce that to new patients and say, here at our practice, we adopt a shared care model. And what that means is that every step of the journey, you are getting our very best team member for this particular part of the treatment plan.   I'm going to coordinate that treatment plan for you, but I'd like to introduce you to my colleagues as we go through this so that you can get the very best set of hands working on you as we go through this treatment plan. So that's another way of doing it as well. really love that, Jessie, because I think you brought up quite a few things that I would like to highlight. And number one is you edify every person who's going to be taking the treatment. And I can tell genuinely, you do think that they are really fantastic. You've done a great job training them.   So you have full confidence. And as a patient hearing that from my dentist that I love, and I mean, instantly I had this interesting thought of when we go to the hospital, we don't expect one doctor to take care of our entire body. have the endocrinologist, we have the heart and vascular, we have the neurosurgeon. So why do we expect everything to be the exact same in our mouth with just a dentist? And so I think like that was a mind shift I have never thought of. so I appreciate you saying that, helping me have a light bulb moment.   The Dental A Team (33:19.603) and I really love that you just edified every single person, like they're going to be fantastic. And you instilled your confidence in that other person. I am going to ask, as we wrap up, how do you, you specifically decide that you are ready to start having less production in your schedule? Because the fear I know a lot of dentists have, and I don't know this, I'm not a dentist. So it's that fear of, okay, Jesse, I heard you. I've trained my team up. I've got a great leadership team. I've heard.   And don't worry, we'll do another podcast guys. Jesse and I will get on another one. So you guys were learning from profitable to scalable. And then what was your last tier? What's the last year? Valuable. Valuable. Scalable to valuable. So we got to still learn how to get valuable. But reality is, okay, I've learned that I'm profitable. Now I'm going to go to scalable, but I'm real scared to have this associate and to start leveraging because I'm terrified that my paycheck is going to go down. So how do I   That that's not going to happen. How do you like make that leap? Because I think that that's what holds people in this circle forever. They're like, I'm fine. I'll just have one practice. I'm literally speaking to a dentist right now. I know he listens to this podcast. So I'm hoping that we can answer this. A couple of them, they're like, I don't want an associate. I don't want to give this over because I won't have anything to do. My paycheck will go down. So what do you say to them? How did you do that for you? So it's a really good, great question. And again, it's a really important question to answer. The key is this is it's   process of gradual reduction. not again, my client didn't go from 184 days to 65 days in one step. What we did is we looked at, if I stop working one day a week or half a day a week, how much am I producing in that half day, one day, whatever it is. For easy mathematics, let's just say I produce $5 ,000 a day. Ease of maths. Maybe it's more, maybe it's less, it doesn't really matter.   Let's just say, so if I give up a day of dentistry, I want to net $5 ,000 from my associate. Now, if we've trained our associates and they're productive, that's great. That's a big help. So A, we've got to train them to be productive first. But what I'd be saying is what do I need to, you know, what do I pay my associate? Now in Australia, our associates are often paid a commission of billings. that how works for you well? Yeah. So let's just say hypothetically,   The Dental A Team (35:42.594) 40%. So a dentist gets 40%. So we would get 3000 of a $5 ,000 associate day. That would mean if I was going to give up $5 ,000 of my own production, I would need net $5 ,000 back from the associate to be in the same financial position. And so then I work at how many associate days do I need to replace my one day with?   Okay, so in this example, it's roughly one and three quarter days of associate time. By the time I pay the associate their commission, that I would now be back to where I was previously. My paycheck remains the same. In fact, it's probably a little bit higher because I'm not paying for a dental assistant twice. I'm paying for it once with the associate. So all of those things would work out. Now,   This is a big question with a long answer that I'm trying to provide concisely. We would run some financial modeling on that and we would go, okay, what's my billing? What's my commission rates for the associates? What are they producing right now? How can we step them up? How can we help them produce more so that we're getting closer to a one -to -one trade? That's really what we're trying to get to.   I feel like that's a little bit of a messy explanation. I hope it landed. hope it makes sense. pretty clear because it just as simple math that is math of how much do I need my associate to work to replace my income? How do I get them there? How do I make them more productive? So that way at the end of the day, associates happy, they're doing super great. They're happy because we've got a very productive schedule for them. So they're killing it. And it's also replacing the income that I would quote unquote be losing. now I'm not losing.   I've actually created an engine that generates income when I'm not working, which then I'm guessing leads you into your valuable level. Yes. Is where that would go. So a hundred percent. just really quickly on that, that then ties into other conversations around capacity. It ties into conversations around patient flow. It ties into all of those other things that come off the back of that. For sure. Absolutely.   The Dental A Team (37:57.491) That's just like a whole nother can of worms. then it's like, well, great. That is a whole can of worms. can say that next time. know my associate, but I don't have space to put this associate. So now I've got to do a build out and now I've got to get them to produce even more because I got to pay for the build out to get them to produce enough. So it just feels like too hard. But like you said, financial modeling, I think is a great idea because when you can see it in writing, you start doing small chunks at it and you'll see that it will pay for itself. Like one operatory usually is paid for within one to two months of production maximum.   It doesn't take that long to pay off that operatory with production running through it. Then they're producing while you're producing. So you're actually not losing anything. And then they're making money when you're not on that day and they've already covered themselves and the practice can still continue on. there's, to me, I'm with you, Jessie. I see it. I've seen it done so many times, but also you and I are on the other side of this business model because we've seen it done so many times that we know it works. So then how does it kick off into valuable? I get a quick wrap up.   which I don't think is fair for you. So we'll definitely like do another one and talk more about this, but I love this idea of how you can earn more without work with working less. So keep, keep it going. I'm excited. I can get out on business all day long. So, well, I think we could do both do that. So I love this conversation. So do you remember we spoke about going from a profitable scale? All we needed to cross the leverage line to go from scalable to valuable. need to cross the enterprise line. So it's understanding what the drivers of enterprise value are.   And so there's a couple of things I just want to share with you around how I built that model. That model used to be called profitable, scalable, sellable. And I changed it because I'd have so many conversations with dentists where they'd be saying, you know, I don't really want to sell my practice. You know, I get it, but you could, and you could do it easily and for a lot of money. And so I changed the language from sellable to valuable because what we're creating there is an asset. Right. And   In profitable, you've created a job. In scalable, you've created a business. In valuable, you've created an asset. So this is the key transition and the mindset shifts as well. So you go from being self -employed in profitable to being a business owner in scalable to being an investor in valuable. That's the different mindset that we bring to this.   The Dental A Team (40:23.975) When we think about the enterprise value line, really what we're trying to do in all of this, the big drivers of enterprise value are really about risk management and how do we reduce risk and then how do we drive earnings. So if we look at the value, again, I know anyone listening to this is an expert in valuation, probably cringe when I say this, but value is often described as the repeatable sustainable earnings times a multiple.   So we want to drive the earnings, which we've spoken about briefly already, and we want to be able to have a higher multiple. And what determines that multiple a lot is risk. So how do we de -risk the practice? So if I'm going to sell that practice, how could the next person come in and reproduce my results consistently from day one? And that comes back to identifying risk. And the biggest risk, of course, is key person risk. Right.   So we want to be able to not just replace the principal dentist to create the leverage that we spoke about at Scalable, but we want to identify the other key people in our team. We want to make sure that we have built training pathways into the practice for all the roles, not just for the associate dentist, but for your dental assistants, for your therapists or hygienists, for your expanded function dental assistants, for your receptionists, for your practice managers, all of those people. So we want to be able to...   replace people. I'm not trying to diminish people as I say that we want to be able to replace people if someone leaves the team quickly, well and reliably. Yep. So it's about understanding that. again, the other thing that I spoke about, repeatable sustainable earnings. If you've ever looked at subscription models, you and I probably live in this world a   I don't know about your business, we run a subscription based business and subscription based businesses that recurring revenue is more valuable because it's more predictable. Now in dentistry, there's a lot of talk about, do I have a subscription model and membership model? And that you could definitely do that. That's fine. But interestingly, we have the recall system, like din as a subscription model. So I was thinking, was like, it's not membership guys. It's your patients are actually a membership program.   The Dental A Team (42:50.611) Like because it comes every six months and that's what insurance is set up. That is literally a subscription model. That's genius. I had never thought of it that way. It's right there for you, right? So we want to make sure that we are really dialing in that repeat business. We want to make sure that we have predictable income and we can project with confidence that, you know, you were doing $360 ,000 a month, I think you said. And so we want to be able to know that next month I'm going to do $360 ,000 as well.   And the month after that, and the month after that, what we don't want is a roller coaster of revenue. We want to see stability of earnings growth. So stability of earnings growth is a metric that Warren Buffett uses to value companies. And so we want to see stability of earnings growth while we're de -risking the business. So I'm sorry that I've kind of a whole lot of stuff in there. Don't apologize because this is actually one of the number one reasons I love to podcast is because I get to talk to really cool people like yourself.   I get a geek out on dentistry. got a geek out on business. The two things I actually love to talk about. And for me, it was fun because these are things that I think about independently, but I don't have a lot of people to talk to about this because I'm supposed to coach it to a lot of people. I'm sure you feel similarly. We have a lot of clients who are coaching this, but to have somebody that I can talk to about these things, geek out with you on it. And I love that you talked about this valuable asset because I love to not think of always having this   because I was actually just talking with another financial investor advisor, dentist advisors, Ryan and I had this conversation the other day and he was talking about how sometimes once our business becomes this profitable asset, sometimes it actually makes more sense to keep it versus sell it because you're actually more profitable long -term because you've created this money -making machine. You're giving amazing value. You're providing incredible jobs.   that it actually is way more profitable than selling it off for millions. And let's be real, most of the people who build these businesses are highly driven entrepreneurs. So give yourself six months and you'll be building another business. why not keep the one that's super profitable, keep that thing churning and use it for other ideas. So I love that you talked about it as an asset. I just hope that the people listening today, I did a podcast with an author, his name's Jeffrey Shaw. He did the self -employed life, very, very talented author.   The Dental A Team (45:11.387) And I remember he and I talked about what makes really successful business owners. And we think that the key tipping point is business intrigue. Those who are intrigued by business, these conversations you and I are having, Jesse, because these are the things that spur the innovation, that spur the hard work of building that training facility, that gets you to dig deep and build a team of leaders. So that way you can pivot from base to base, like we just discussed. So go from profitable, like you said, and I love the imagery of like you're self -employed. Then you become a business owner.   And then what did you call it? Remind me. Investor. An investor. Like even just those mindsets are such different mindsets of how you view your business and where you're providing it. So Jesse, I loved it. I thought it was one of my favorite podcasts actually, and I hope all the listeners did. So Jesse, know you obviously work with dentists. You are a dentist. If people want more, I know you've got your podcast as well. just kind of share how people can get more Jesse Brown in their life like I need in my life. Sure. Well, you can find me at SavvyDentist .com.   the podcast is there. Come and have a listen. This is the sort of stuff we talk about and, Kira and I come and listen to the conversation Kira and I had on my podcast, which was about recruitment and ice cream. It's really, it's a great episode that Kira shared with our audience. So, that was great, but yeah, head across to savvydentist .com or join us on the, in the Facebook group, savvy dentist Facebook group. And we'd love to see you there. So yeah, you just, it's brilliant. Brilliant. I love it so much, Jesse.   Guys, check it out. Jesse, thank you for your time. Thank you for, I mean, sharing your nice haircut with me too. It was so fun to sit here and just feel like we were hanging out together. when Australia opens up to the rest of the world, you'll be one of my first people I want to come see. So super great to have you. So thank you again for being here today. thank you so much for having me. And we can't wait to see you down under. It would be great to have you here and I'd love to catch up and have a beer. Absolutely. All right, you guys, thank you all for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental Elite Team podcast.   The Dental A Team (47:06.003) That wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next  

Tiff and Dana are wrapping up their series of marketing-focused episodes. This week, they discuss internal referrals. They talk about three things to ramp up success with these referrals: Identify your why Know your patient avatar Bring a competitive spirit Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Sign up for our FREE Monthly CE Webinar Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:07.85) Let's go. Hello, Dental A team. I am so excited to be here with my girl, Dana, again today. We are wrapping up some marketing conversations that we've been having with you guys. And today, we thought it would be really fun to talk about internal referrals. Dana, I know you chat with your practices a lot about this. And you train teams constantly from a virtual aspect and in-person aspect on how to really get those referrals from your.   your patients and how to build the business and new patients based on internal referral styles as far as asking for referrals, asking for Google reviews, you come up with, I know you come up with fun contests and different things that the team can do to get involved and caveat for my doctors, it doesn't always have to be a financial gain for everyone participating. Dana, you have a ton of ideas that you come up with that are actually not.   bonus related at all. They're just fun. And I think anytime we can gamify stuff, anytime we can get people really working as a team against each other to just kind of bring that sports mentality in there, we see really cool results. So Dana, thank you for being here with me today. How are you? Doing good. You know, I'm always excited that you let me hop on these with you. Because it's always a good time. I agree. I agree. And thank you for saying, letting me I feel like sometimes I force it into your schedule. And I'm like, I hope this works.   So thank you for always being open to it. I think internal referrals are actually something that can be really, really fun, but I think that there's something that's daunting for teams. Do you agree, Dana? Yeah, yeah, I do. And I think you can make it fun, like you said, and I think the daunting part is they feel like they're asking something of their patients, and it can sometimes just feel unnatural, right? Or, you know, I'm asking,   And to me, it's patients don't know it's important to us unless we ask, right? Of course, if somebody is in the grocery store and they're like, hey, do you have a good dentist? I'm sure they would recommend you, right? But knowing that you want them to be intentional, that's what comes from the ask. Oh, for sure, I totally agree, totally agree. And I feel like it sometimes feels like we're asking for something without giving something back, right? So it's like asking for $5 from a friend knowing you're never gonna pay it back, right?   The Dental A Team (02:24.962) So I think the mentality around it, I 100% agree. It's very easy when it's organic and someone asks you for it. Like, hey, do you have a recommendation for it? But when you're saying, hey, do you have friends or family that you could send to us, that feels different, right? It doesn't feel quite as organic. So I think one of those spaces that I like to help jump over that hurdle is for team members and doctors to really work on remembering what it is that you are giving.   to your patients and to the community and the reason and purpose on why we're here. Because when we're asking for it, we're asking for those referrals, it feels like help me. So like, if we wrap it around the reason that we're here, we're here to positively impact the dental community and your physical community where you guys are in a very positive way, right? We're here to bring them dentistry that they might not be able to get down the road. If you truly believe in where you work, you believe in your doctor, you believe in the healthcare.   that you're invested in there in your practice, it's a no brainer that you would rather your patients, their friends, their family, the community come there because you know they're getting good quality dentistry, right, from a good quality dentist. And you don't know what they're gonna get if they go down the street. I used to think that a lot when I was in practice. And Dana, you live an hour and a half-ish south of me, so I think we're kind of like similar dental communities here.   in Arizona where it's just there's dentists on every corner. And I remember knowing the dentist down the street, we would see work from that dental practice. And I would just kind of sometimes cringe like, oh my gosh, like people don't know what good dentistry is, but we do. So for us to not share that or not ask our patients to share that information makes me so sad because I would see these things and Dana even.   You've probably seen this even more than I have because you're further south, but I've seen work come from other countries, well, say, right, come up from other countries that I'm listed in tears, like, gosh, this is so scary to me because it's just so far off base of what this patient needed, and now they're in a bad situation. And so I think, Dana, for me, one of the key pieces that I work with teams on is really diving into why are we here? Why do we want more? Because...   The Dental A Team (04:44.882) Dana, I think that sometimes it gets flipped in our brains of like, that desire, that egotistical, like we always just want more. But flipping it for the teams and really seeing what we're doing, and then we benefit from it. Dana, do you feel like that helps you to connect with the teams as well? And like takes out that ask, we'll say it's like, we're giving them something. But Dana, how do you do it with your teams too?   Yeah, I always, and I agree with you, it's like figure out what your why is, and in most cases your why is to impact the community around you and your patient base. There is an office nearby that their slogan is like, your smile is our priority, and I loved their Care to Share card because it said let their smile be our priority too, and it was just like that light bulb of, that's exactly what you want to do. By asking for that referral, you're saying, hey, let me take care of the people that you care about.   And so I think remembering that it is bringing people in to give them the same experience, to maybe reduce their anxiety about dentistry, and to truly, truly improve their oral health, that's why we ask. Yeah, I love that. I love that card, that's so cute. And I love care to share cards. I think those are like super fantastic ways to get your name into the community. So I love that. So on one hand, just making sure we know what our why is. Why are we here? Why are we trying to reach these people? Like, what are we trying to?   impact in the community around us. And then on the other hand, Dana, I think I'm not prone to setting like a wide fishing net, right? Like I'm not the fisherman out there that's like, I just need to make a big catch of whatever I can. Like I'm out there for the tuna. Like I want this giant tuna because that's all I want to eat, right? I'm not casting this net to just eat whatever. I want just the tuna.   So I think one thing I work on with teams, and I actually did this with a pediatric practice of mine last week, is go through and dial in the avatar of the person that you love seeing in your practice. Who is it that you want to attract more of? And for this practice in particular, we're working on reviews and referrals simultaneously because I think they just go hand in hand. So I started asking them probing questions. Like, who is it that...   The Dental A Team (06:56.834) fills your day with joy. Who is it that you love when they come in the door? Who is it that really just like gives you energy instead of takes the energy from you? And they started dialing in this kind of personality type. And for the pediatric practice, you know, we focused in on the mom because it's typically they're seeing the moms, they're bringing the patients in for their treatment and for their appointment. So we focused in on that mom. And I'm like, okay, so we know.   what we want to do, we know our why, we know what we're doing. We're trying to get kids a safe place to come. That one's easy, right? We know what it's going to take to do it and what it will look like if we don't do this. So that's a piece I think that a lot of practices don't always think about our people in general, like what this is like the root canal, right? If you don't get a crown, you're going to need a root canal. This is the root canal piece. So if you don't do this, if you don't push on your on your community to come to a safe place, what will happen?   We don't know. So we got those things dialed in. And then we started talking about what this person looks like. What does she do? What is she wearing? Where does she shop? What are her hobbies? They started saying like, maybe she's a stay at home mom or she works from home so her schedule's more flexible. She can come in any time. She's wearing Lulu leggings and she's carrying her Stanley cup, but she's also got her coffee in the other hand and she's flying in just on time and she's happy to see us.   She, you know, let their kids go to the back and when they act up, she puts them in their place. Like all of these things, they had it so dialed in. They said she plays tennis, she plays pickleball, she just brunch on Sundays with her best friends. Like they could picture this person. They could feel what it would be like to hang out with this person. They named her Courtney. And so we knew, we knew who we wanted, right? We knew who we wanted to target. And I said, great. When your Courtney's come in, you're gonna know.   And when Courtney comes in, I want you to ask for a review or referral every time. And two days ahead of your schedule and a day ahead of your schedule, I always want you guys looking at your schedule and identifying your court needs. Because Dana, something you said to me earlier is right. We are typically going to refer people who are just like us because we are the combination of the five people we hang out with the most. So if Courtney's coming into their practice, she, I, we called that, I mean, we had to name people, right? So, you know,   The Dental A Team (09:17.918) the quote unquote Kiera, I said they said Francine and I was like, Oh my gosh, that's funny. So do we want to Are we looking at our court needs? Are we looking at our friends? Like Courtney's not hanging out with a friend scene who's late to brunch and always has baggage and drama like Look for your court needs ask them for these things and Dana. It was so cool The next day the next morning. I'm now in a whole different state Whole different practice. I get a text message from the practice   And she says, we have a Courtney fighting. This is not a drill. She's in our practice. And I was just so happy. It literally was less than 24 hours. It was, I mean, it was probably 14 hours, right? With, in reality. And they knew who she was. And this woman, and I truly believe like, you put it out there, you understand, you see it in your mind, and that's how you attract things, right? Like, you know what you're looking for, so you see it. It's been there the whole time.   But now your vision is clear and you can see it. So you're quote unquote attracting it. So they could see it, they keyed in. This woman, this amazing soul came in with everything that they asked for and left the most beautiful review with pictures unprompted. They didn't even have to ask for it. It was incredible, but I believe that it's because we got dialed in. And so now they got that boost of confidence of who they're looking for.   and what it is that they're going to be asking this person to do or leave or whatever. And the universe was like, hey, guess what? We're going to give you a freebie. This is how easy it could be. And it was just really cool to see that. And Dana, you work on avatars a lot with practices. I know I watch you. You do it even in part of the operations manual stuff that you do. You're constantly working on avatars. And I think   That was just a really fun case and it just happened. It doesn't always happen where Courtney walks in the next day and leaves you an unprompted review, but we worked really, we spent a couple hours on building this personnel. So I think that it was just the universe giving them some kudos, but what else have you seen dialing that in? And I think a caveat too, and Dana, you probably have a lot of practices like this. That model that we built, Courtney, right? She's your typical, we've been to the age ranges, like she's your typical millennial mom.   The Dental A Team (11:37.322) Right? I'm like, that's me. That's Dana. Like they're, they're all over the place. Right. And I would freaking, you fill my day with those people constantly. Heck yeah. But it's not always the model for where your practice is located. So sometimes, right. That the model that I'm like, heck yeah, let's go to freaking brunch. I want to, I want to brunch with all of these patients. I'm down. Let's go. Sometimes that's not the case. My practice that I worked in for years prior to consulting,   is in a retirement community. So me trying to attract courtneys isn't gonna work. So Dana, I know you do this a lot. Like I said, that's an easy, I did an easy version of an easy millennial to just spot and find that millennial mom. How do you go about that though with practices where it's full of people like us or people who want to attract fun, lighthearted young people but they're in an older community and that's just not the case. How do you help them work through that?   And I think when that happens, you look at your patient base and I always say, okay, start with the patients that are in your practice already that you love, right? That always come in, always fill your cup up. It may not be your ideal, like if you could choose anyone in the country, right? But of your patient base, get to that most ideal. Identify the patients who really, really do feed your energy bucket are aligned with you and you feel like always have a great experience and.   you enjoy when they're there in the practice and I think start there, right? Because we can't, again, like you said, create this avatar where like that avatar doesn't really exist in our community, right? We're certainly not going to like market four hours away and expect the patients are going to drive. So I think know your community, know your limitations on your.   Patient avatar and then go with most ideal and I think start with who do you have in your practice that you really do enjoy seeing what traits do they have what things are they interested in, and you can start to build from there. I love that I think that's beautiful I think starting the patient basis is so smart and like you said the people who bring you energy that fill your bucket that I always say like we'll get their treatment done who's like dang you're right Doc I got to get that done like who are you not.   The Dental A Team (13:49.21) bending over backwards for like working so hard to convince why you're there for them. So I love that. I think that's beautiful. And then I think, I think once we get that dialed in, the team or once we did that, the team felt a little bit more confident on asking for those reviews or those referrals because it didn't seem like it didn't feel like that wide fishnet. Now it was like, I know who I'm looking for. I know who the big tuna is. Like I'm going to go for the big tuna. We're going to have this amazing meal at the end of the day.   So it made it easier for them. But at the end of everything, I still asked them. On a scale of one to 10, one is heck no, I refuse to ask for reviews or referrals. 10 is like, I could do this all day long. I could ask, where do we land? And when I went through the team, our median number was a six or a seven still. And so then I just had to remind them, it's not magic, it's not overnight, it's not something that you hear once and you're like, oh, I got this. This is something that you have to be insanely consistent on.   And just do it all the time so that you're practicing. You've got to role play the verbiage. You've got to find the verbiage that sits right with you and you just have to do it. I know I used to practice, I still do, I used to practice by like using people's names when I go out to restaurants, if they've got a name tag or the grocery store, the grocery store clerk is like, is there anything else I can do for you today? I'm like, no, Bob, thank you so much. And Bob's like, oh my gosh, what else can I do for you? Like.   Just opening up that conversation and getting comfortable talking to people that you don't know, but you know their name. Like you don't know your patient super well, but you know their name. So just get comfortable talking to people and then remember your why. And so Dana, even if maybe as I'm talking, I'm like, what if they even talked about it once a week in a morning huddle? Like, why are we here? Or come up with a slogan.   kind of like your mission vision, but a little slogan, like the one that you just talked about with that practice, like why are we here so that we have that why just ingrained in our brains constantly? Because I think that feeds our soul to accomplishing something. Dana, real quick, and while I only wanna take a couple more minutes here, what are some of the games that you've come up with to help gamify and bring that kind of like sports mentality to asking for reviews and referrals?   The Dental A Team (16:07.762) Yeah, sure. And I love what you said that like it isn't necessarily a bonus, right? Most of the time when I gamify this, it's more for accountability and consistency than it is to like incentivize the team. So I think how can you.   have accountability built in that is fun. So Tiff, you were at the practice with me and we did this and it was just a glass jar, right? A mason jar or something that you have on hand and different colored like craft beads, right? And each team member got assigned a color and then each morning we'd say, all right, who asked for a referral yesterday? Put your bead in for how many you asked for. And then at the end of the month, right? It was, we just tally them up and like who was our referral queen or king?   Right? And so it is, it's fun. It brings out competitive spirit. It does build an accountability. Cause if we all said, we're going to do ask for two, you better believe we hope that everybody's putting their two beads in and you don't want to be the one that doesn't have your beads out and putting it in the jar. Right? But there was no other incentive associated with that. And I think sometimes when we do these, right, we feel like we have to give discounts or give bonuses or give, and then I think it's truly sharing the science with team members or the statistics. And it's like,   really truly for every four asks, we typically will get one, right? So our ratio of asks has to be higher. I also loved how you said like verbiage oftentimes the barrier is it feels inauthentic or scripted. So having them figure out really, you know how they can say it and they can say it comfortably really, really helps. And so you can do star charts and as silly as they sound, right?   Star charts, even to somebody in their 40s can be really fun. And so I think build it in, but build it more for accountability, right? Or that challenge or that competitive spirit than incentive. I love that. I think it's the competitive spirit, like you said. And I think sometimes too, we forget to ask our teams what would make them happy or what would inspire the fun for them. I know too, I've seen like...   The Dental A Team (18:05.93) depending on what time of the year it is. I think you've done it. I think I've seen Britt do it, like a little football will move across the game field or a basketball towards the hoop. And it's like for every, how many ever you get to move your ball. So it depends on what time of year it is. You could do a car for NASCAR. Like you can do anything under the sun that's gamifying it. Cause that competitive spirit really just brings the fun.   And I think the fun is taken out of things very easily, especially when there's a fear of rejection, a fear of judgment, all of these things are coming up when we have to ask for something. So if it's not fun on top of that, there's no competitive spirit, there's no spirit of fun invested, why would you do it? I mean, if a fear is holding me back or I'm afraid of rejection, there's no win for me at the end, I get it, I get it. But if I can just have that competitive spirit and move my little football or put my little beads in there.   that's gonna make it fun. So I love that. So I think internal referrals are huge, you guys, you know, that should be your biggest source of new patients. So watch those watch your ROI on them, make sure that your teams are always tracking where your new patients are coming from, and where everything is happening. And I think the three things I can think of today, you guys, is figure out your why? Why are you guys asking for new patients? What is it that you're trying to accomplish within your dental practice? Figure that out with your team, and then figure out who   Who is your avatar? Who is it that you're targeting? Who should they be looking for? Because guess what? When they're looking for that person, they're already there, you guys. I am a firm believer in the fact that everything you want, everything you desire is right in front of you already. You're just not clear enough on what it is so you can't see it. It's there waiting for you. It's just part of the vision that gets blurred in the background because you're focusing on other things. So when we can focus on what you truly want,   It's already there and now you can see it. And then bring some sort of game to it. Gamify it, bring that competitive spirit and make it fun. Dana, I know you'd have some gems. I love the games that you always play. And I love really truly how you dial in that avatar. So thank you for being here today. I appreciate it. And I know our community appreciates it. Community, if you have more questions, if you wanna pick Dana's beautiful brain over here on more ideas, send them in. Hello at thedentalateam.com.   The Dental A Team (20:26.486) We are always happy to help and as always, leave us a five star review below. That's how people know that this was intentional, helpful, and that they can get some great information. And that's how we know we're doing right by you guys. Thank you everyone and have a great rest of your day.

Brad Titensor with Dental Warranty is back already! This time, he and Kiera talk about getting your team excited about incorporating and utilizing a new service in the practice, including: steps for integration, goal-setting, building habits, and what a presentation to patients sounds like. Episode resources: Learn more about Dental Warranty  Get a DAT discount on a Dental Warranty demo! Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.784) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And I just wanted to bring Brad on from dental warranty again, because he was asking me a question of how do you get a team bought into wanting to put a warranty on or how do you get other offices wanting to, your team members incentivize to do this? And I'm a freaking team member. So I thought, Brad, I was going to get, just give him some verbiage right now. And I thought I'm going to hit record so that way we can give you guys my real time live feedback of how like, cause that's the next thing. Like doctors, you're so jazzed. You're so pumped about.   putting dental warranty into the practice and then the team says, I don't want to do that. Like welcome to everything else, right Brad? So Brad, welcome back to the podcast. You're part of dental warranty. Hello, welcome back. Okay, ask me your question and let's just do this live. I'm going to do some verbiage recording and we'll do this as part two of your guys's podcast of like what to do when you take it to the team. So ask me your questions and let's just rip live.   Brad (00:39.502) Yep, thank you. Good to see you.   Brad (00:54.254) Yeah. So, so one thing that we deal with sometimes is, you know, doctors love the idea. So they see the value firsthand. Okay. This is something that really is going to protect my bottom line, help my practice, grow my patients. but they kind of hand it off to their team and the team feels, that they already have enough on their plate and either they're already busy. What's, you know, one more thing we all heard, you know, the doctor comes back from some sort of conference or meeting like, gosh, who's calling me now? So.   So I know we do a lot of RN to keep it so simple and so streamlined for the team to use. But yeah, so my question was how to get the team excited about doing this? And if there's anything you'd recommend to help encourage them to kind of just build it in and just utilize it.   Kiera Dent (01:36.016) For sure. Okay, so let me understand a little more of the true pieces. So me as a team member, what do I actually have to do? What do I have to do for processing? How much is it? Kind of walk me through some of those more specific details and then I'll tell you exactly as a team member what I do as a TC, what I do in my practices to give you guys some of that verbiage. And I think this is for anything you implement. We're just gonna use dental warranty as my example today.   Brad (02:01.902) Perfect, yep. So for the office, the team that you use, what they'll do is they'll create their own dental warranty procedure code, so just their own dummy code, and they're gonna build it in right on the treatment plan. So you're gonna list the treatment they're receiving and the six -year protection plan, similar to how some offices might do fluoride or whatnot. You're gonna build it in as part of the process, and then you're gonna offer it to the patient right there along with the treatment. Here's your crown, your buildup, your two fillings, and your six -year protection plan.   Kiera Dent (02:19.536) Mm -hmm.   Brad (02:28.782) This is what your dental insurance is going to save and here's your total that includes your coverage. So it's really that simple. And then we are integrated with Thentrix, Eagle Soft, Open Dental, and they'll have their own dashboard where they just hit the patient's name, submit warranty, or add warranty, submit. So it's very, very simple for the team to use, but we track all the patient coverages, details, and benefits through the dashboard.   Kiera Dent (02:32.688) sure.   Kiera Dent (02:53.744) Got it. And so how much extra is it? And is it per procedure or is it like one warranty covers everything? I'm curious on that too for the team.   Brad (03:02.382) Yes, so the practice would charge the patients anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the office fee. So take dental insurance out of it. It doesn't matter if they have their cash paying or if they're a PPO. It's based off of the office fee. And our fee that we end up collecting is just 10 percent. So if the practice charges 15 percent, they'll keep the 5 percent. We collect 10 percent on the back end. So let's say they do charge 15 percent of whatever that procedure cost is.   Kiera Dent (03:30.) Okay.   Brad (03:30.638) And so if there's going to be extractions, things that are not eligible for the warranty, that would not be factored into the total fee. But anything that's eligible, so any permanent cosmetic or restorative treatment would be being on that. And it's the patient that will be just the one total. So on the back end, we track it individually, but on the patient's end, it's just the one total along with their treatment.   Kiera Dent (03:50.612) Nice. Okay, so let's say, because obviously we don't want to just do 10 % because then dental warranty takes the whole thing. Like it's great. But I'm guessing that the way practices also make money is let's say my crown in office, we charge $1 ,300, insurance is $1 ,000. I'm going to go off of the $1 ,300. And that's what I'm going to go. Now, if I only did the 10%, which would be $130, Dental Warranty is going to take that. But next time they come in, instead of me only being able to collect $1 ,000, I can collect $1 ,300. Is that right? That's what I would collect from Dental Warranty.   Brad (04:18.542) Yeah, it's a huge benefits. Yeah. So obviously, insurance probably not going to touch it next, you know, five plus years. So yeah, we are saying to check back to the practice for that 1300 and patient can use that towards maybe a new crown or now they might need an extraction root canal, something different. They can actually use the value to go towards the next street.   Kiera Dent (04:23.568) Right.   Kiera Dent (04:29.648) Okay.   Kiera Dent (04:37.744) Gotcha. Okay, amazing. And so then my next question is, I don't know, I'm literally just asking questions like an office. I feel like I'm like, I'm the OM right now. Let me ask you all my questions. Is dental warranty ever considering doing just like a monthly fee to where it's like X amount that the patient would pay and then their dentistry is covered or is it just going to stick to each one? I have my reasons for asking this. I'm just curious if you know about that.   Brad (04:45.614) That was good.   Brad (05:02.19) So we had previous plans probably eight, nine years ago where we did dabble in that area. It seems to work better for both the patient and the practice doing it based off of that, you know, 15%, 10, 15 % of the procedure cost. But yeah.   Kiera Dent (05:19.184) Okay, great to know. The reason I was asking is because I'm like, cool, then I just sell it like a membership plan. I tack it into my membership plan. This one, it sounds like it's just adding in kind of like when I do an implant where I'm going to tack on the custom abutment so I don't have to go back if I'm adding a custom abutment. I'm just basically going for like worst case scenario. So I did hypothetical, a crown, our office fee is $1 ,300. The 15 % would be 195 added on to that.   is what it would be. Now, if I have a filling that's like, let's say 150 bucks times that by 15%, that's $22. So it's really minimal. I agree with Brad as a team member, what I'm going to do is I'm going to tack it on as a dummy code to all of it. Now, I think if you do 10%, it's very easy, but I don't think that makes sense for a practice. I would definitely just charge the 15 % across the board. I think if I was in office, I might also consider just figuring out what I could put in just for easy numbers. So you might even have a fee schedule. So you could create that dummy code that would link.   to it and then put it in an explosion code so that way your team's not constantly having to figure out that 15%. I think that would make a team's members life easier because I think that math is where they're gonna feel annoyed of like, I gotta add this in and then I've gotta calculate it in. Not that it's hard, but it might just be an idea that you guys could do. And then just as an office manager, just tack it into all the explosion codes that you do for procedures. That way it's automatically in there. The dollar amount's always in there. The only thing you're gonna have to watch is set a reminder.   that when you increase fees, that you also increase the warranty amount. So we're never like short on dollars. So that's what I would say for like setting up as a practice. So it sounds like for me as a TC, go ahead.   Brad (06:47.714) And jump in real quick. So with our integration, that actually pulls that data over for the team so they're not having to do the math. It really has a calculator attached to it. And so you're just going to click, OK, you got a post, a buildup, a crown, the two fillings. You hit Select All, and it'll show you the whole warranty fee, the value, and then you put right there on the treatment plan. So it pulls that data so they're not having to do the math.   Kiera Dent (07:08.048) Nice. Okay. Easy. Okay. Beautiful. So that's even easier. There you go. So there's, there's a, an objection that now is very simple. I just put it all in simple. I can have it. I am thinking for them, like, cause they're going to need the calculator up there, just finding ways to where it's like almost automatic, kind of like the crown bill of like, no one complains that I have to present a crown on a buildup is just part of it. And when I train teams on this, I say, like, let's, let's come up with all the objections that patients going to say, like, well, why do I need this? I would just let them know, like, Hey, like dentistry, like,   Things happen in your day to day. You're using these teeth every single day. And so it's just a good way for you to have peace of mind of, like Brett said, whatever life events happen, that you have peace of mind and you can come in and there's no questions asked. We'll take care of it for you. If anything's ever happening anywhere, you move anything like that for the next six years, you're protected. That's how I would present it to a patient. I would say if it was me, hands down, I would always do this. No questions asked. I would always do this. That way I know no matter what's happening, I'm covered. So they'll say, yep, here it is. This is your total out of pocket. This is what our insurance estimate is.   and this will be the total when I see you on Friday. So I'd already have them scheduled for it. I'd present my total and I'd have them sign off on it. Go submit the warranty, easy, there's nothing there. Now I guess Brad, the next question is teams will wonder what happens when that patient calls me? How easy is it for me? Like I'm guessing I just scheduled them as a normal patient. How do I submit the claim and how hard is it to truly get that? Because that's gonna be the sticking spot for teams is like, how hard is it when they actually come back and need to use this warranty?   Brad (08:34.158) Yeah, so on our end, we typically flip a coin. If it lands on heads, we'll pay out. If it lands on tails, then you don't get paid. Yeah, it's pretty much. We got a double -sided coin. Yeah, no, I'm just kidding. So we, yeah, I mean, not understand how busy the team is. So we try to make this as simple as possible. So when the patient comes in, actually, let's take dental warranty out of it. So currently, if there is no warranty, patient calls say, hey, I ate that soft bread or whatever they broke their crown on.   Kiera Dent (08:40.08) Cool. Awesome. So you guys can do it in practice. It's easy.   Kiera Dent (09:01.072) Mm -hmm.   Brad (09:03.598) Now the patient comes back in. Now the team has to talk to the patient. Okay, what happened? How long has it been? Now the team has to go talk to the doctor. The doctor's thinking, well, how long has it been? What happened? Now they call the lab. Hey, can you help us out? You know, this is the situation. That's a lot of work, a lot of headaches, a lot of stress on everyone's part and makes that team member very uncomfortable saying, hey, Mr. Patient, I know you just paid $1 ,300 just three years ago. You're gonna have to pay that all over again. That's not fun, right? So now...   Kiera Dent (09:30.256) Right.   Brad (09:32.59) Dental Warranty and so the patient says, hey, I broke my crown, what do I do? come on in, have a seat, let's take care of you. There's no charge, we've got you taken care of. Take care of the patient. Huge swing from the previous conversation that you would typically have to have to now saying, hey, we've got you covered, you get to be the hero. And great time to get some good reviews, referrals. Take care of the patient. And then on the back end, they would file a claim through our dashboard. So it's done online.   Kiera Dent (09:50.704) Mm -hmm.   Right.   Brad (09:59.822) And we asked for the same documentation that you would typically send to like an insurance company. So we're not having you do any additional work that, you know, you're already doing this stuff. So that's the same reason I see that, you know, that broke it failed that the work was completed initially. And then, and then we'll pay to practice within 30 days or less for that, that treatment that was completed.   Kiera Dent (10:04.176) Okay.   Kiera Dent (10:10.512) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (10:21.296) Nice. Okay. And I think that that was just the questions of like, how hard is this compared to what we're already doing as team members? and that does seem very simple, right? We're already taking extra. You should take an extra. If it broke off, we'd take the intra oral photo and we have our notes written and we just submit that off. So as long as it's really that simple, I think for teams, my question is, I think it just might feel hard for the team because it's something new. And so what I usually do is I say, all right, guys, we're going to try this for three months. We're going and like, let's set a goal as a team of how many patients do we think we want to do warranties on?   What I've learned is you're going to have your gunners and you're going to have your Shires. And so the ones who are like, let's do like 500. And then the other people are like, we could do two. I try to be like, well, let's be realistic. And like, what if we just, and I try what I've, what I've learned is really pertinent with teams is you have to give them something where they're actually going to win anytime. Because if I'm like, let's go 500 and they miss it, they're not going to want to do this. If I do two and it's too easy for them, they're going to feel like it wasn't a challenge and it's ridiculous. So.   I usually try to go for something where it's a no brainer. It's a guarantee. I'm like, okay, too. All right, let's go. Like what if we did five? I think that that's fair. We go from 500 down to five. I think we can easily all agree to that. So let's aim for five for the next three months. We're going to track it and then like, let's celebrate and let's see how it goes. So every single month, and if we got more than five, or if I think like, okay, you guys, realistically, we work five days a week, maybe we'll bump it to 10. So like just getting into a spot where I know for a fact, they're going to hit this goal their first month.   it's going to get them super excited and say, I know the first like, but let's try it three months. Are we all on board? We could do this for three months. Usually if teams know that there's a short amount of time, it's just a startup energy to get them going that they don't want to do. So in practice, when I consult, I usually will do six weeks. I'm thinking for this, it might take a little bit longer. So like the day that it's implemented, I can actually do my first one. And then what I'm also going to encourage my team is that first day I want to do at least one.   So at least doing one that first day to see how easy it was, how clunky it was, like whatever it is. And I'm going to have like the first week is training. So like everyone, I want every single person to do at least one is what we're going to do. so all my treatment coordinators, all my schedulers, all of them in their first week need to at least get one done. and then after that it becomes a challenge or a competition to see who can do the most. And then we basically have a star chart. I always track it in the back. So whether it's stars or whether it's tally marks on the whiteboard for morning huddle.   Kiera Dent (12:41.104) something where we can see this scoreboard live, because whenever you implement something new, like I said, I'm using dental warranty as an example, but this is how do you get a team bought into new ideas, you've got to be tracking it consistently and keep it top of mind, because otherwise it slips to the back and they're too busy to do it. Also, when you're rolling this out, I would recommend you only roll this and nothing else. So like, let's keep a laser focus on dental warranty or whatever you want to implement for six weeks to three months, and we just focus on that. Like, yes, we've got our other goals, but this is the...   only new thing I'm pushing forward for them because otherwise it gets lost in the background. So doctors, you've got to be careful of giving them the chance to win, to make it into their daily habit where it's very simple for them. I trained the whole team how to add it on. So it's just easy. You can help the hygienist tee it up. But like, you're so lucky. Like we offer a thing where it's covered no matter what happens. Train your dental assistants to talk about it because we all know that once that doctor leaves, they turn to the dental assistant and ask, is this really true? So like training the whole team is like, why?   Use the example of Apple care, like in our last episode that we did, if you miss it, be sure to go check that out. But I think all those little pieces are going to help. And then if you want to incentivize your team, I don't know, let's say, let's say we're doing the hypothetical of 15%. Okay. We know the dental warranty. So let me do my $1 ,300 crown times 15 % is going to be one 95. So that's how much I know it's going to cost. If it's a $1 ,300 crown, I know 10 % of that's 130 bucks. So that means I've got $65 of extra cash, if you will.   that's just going to come to the practice naturally when they sign up. So I would do the math if I know I want 10 of these per month. So that would be 65 extra dollars. And that's if I'm doing it on a crown. So we're going to do it on 10 crowns. Be careful because if you do a filling, you're like at five bucks if you're lucky. So if it's there, but let me just say that I did 10 crowns over the next three months, I could do a pot of 650 bucks. Did you follow my math on that, Brad? I'm saying $65 if I'm 1300. I know over the course of three months, I guarantee you I'll be able to get   at least 10 crowns within that. I would feel pretty good betting on myself on that. Easy. That 650 bucks that I'd have available. Maybe you can do a little competition and say like, all right, the person who gets the most warranties, we're going to do a $200 Amazon shopping spree for you. And Amazon shopping spree sounds a lot more fun than an Amazon gift card. And I usually do on shopping sprees. It's like you have 10 minutes and you have to spend the 200 and get as close to the 200 with tax without going over. And we're all going to watch.   Brad (14:36.334) easy. Yeah, very easy.   Kiera Dent (15:02.128) And then the second person is going to get a hundred dollar Amazon shopping spree. And the third person is going to get a $50 Amazon shopping spree. All of you are going to shop at the same time. Or if it's like a whole team effort, I could take that six 50 and say like, how many team members you have divide that up by your team and say, if we hit this goal, we're doing an Amazon shopping spree with the extra cash that we have leftover. And I'm dividing it up by the team. So like, those are different ways that you can do it. It's very fun. Everyone gets on their phones. They quickly add it to the cart. They don't have 10 minutes. You have X amount of cash that they've got to spend.   But I think that can become something really fun and you as a practice are not any less like on it and you're creating this like fun habit. If you really want to go after just the treatment coordinators, you could do a bonus. I know some people say for every warranty that you sell, you get X amount of it. But like on membership plans, I feel like a good TC should just naturally want to add this on versus it being something where I'm getting paid for everyone I do. I would probably rally the whole team for my first one, two, three months.   and pay them out like every single month because you want to keep the momentum going. So it's like the first day and then do the surprise and delight. So me as a practice, I always was surprising, delighting. So if I had someone kill it in a week at my Monday morning meeting, I'd be like, my gosh, Brad, he crushed it. You guys, he did seven warranties last week. Here's a $50 Sephora gift card. You would probably be a girl. So that's why I said Sephora. I know for you, Brad, you might want like,   Brad (16:26.126) I love Sephora. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (16:26.352) a pair of Nike shoes. Maybe you want some Nike shoes, right? So we're going to be like, and you go get a pair of Nike's on the company. Because what that does is the team's like, my gosh, like I want to do that, but I'm not doing it every single time. And I don't have a guarantee. They know they're going to get an Amazon shopping spree at the end of however much we get. This is a pop for the team or for whomever you want in there. But I think that's a really fun way to do it. It's not a guarantee for life. And that's why I don't really love to have this set up where it's like, TC every single time you get this, you get paid this amount.   because it's not a set warranty monthly, it's very hard to know how much I can do for every single time they have it. Also for teams, they don't like percentages just as my two cents. Teams are not going to be crazy about like, you get 1 % of what you, like, no, they're not going to enjoy that because it's too much math. They're going to want, I get 10 bucks for everyone I sell. I get 20 bucks for every crown I do. It's much easier. And what I've learned is people make it way too complicated to make the math make sense. So I'm like, sweet. I know I've got at least 650 bucks.   I can go off of that. Everyone's going to get a hundred dollar Amazon shopping spree. If we hit this goal now and anything above and beyond that guys, I'm going to add more to it. So like let's rock and roll or you take them over to the store or whatever it is, but that's usually how I'm going to incentivize, but you've got to be laser focused for six weeks to three months on this new piece, because what we're trying to do is just make it a habit for them. So they offer it every time we present it every time it becomes just a part of it. And when I get teams doing that laser focused,   And then you say like, how many patients have we served is how I probably would rack it on my back tally board. We have served this many patients and help them have peace of mind. How many patients do we think we can do this week? How many patients do we think we can serve? And the team is going to be very incentivized by helping patients is usually what I found our team motivators. Okay. I'm off my soap box, Brad. Other questions? Did that help?   Brad (18:14.574) I absolutely love it because it adds to the culture, adds to the excitement, makes the monotony of another day at the office. It changes a lot of things. We had doctors that had done really successful team bonuses with this and they said, I'll do it in a heartbeat because I know that the more excited the team is about this, the higher acceptance I'm getting overall. I've seen my case acceptance go up because I know teams are more passionate about presenting treatment.   And yeah, I'd gladly give them the whatever percent it is on top of that. That's just, that's, that's now a team bonus not coming out of my pocket. My team's excited about, so it's, it's a win all the way around. I love it.   Kiera Dent (18:49.52) Mm -hmm.   sure. And if you don't want to do like just the 650, what you could do is you could rally. This one does take a little more math, but you could actually put in how much we've done on warranties of like the money coming to the practice. And then you have on that, like we're going to like this pot, the bigger it gets, the more I split with you guys. So, and it could be a 50 -50 split. It could be a hundred percent split for three months, right? But just know I do a short finite amount of time because I don't want to set the expectation that this is forever, but I want   What I'm trying to do is just build habits for them. Now, if you want it to last forever and you're like, yeah, rock on, whatever we do in warranties, that's what we're going to split with the team. Just be careful because if your TC's are the primary ones doing it and your dental assistants are just kind of like lacking back in the back, there's two perspectives. One is we're a full team. We sell this together. We do it together. And without each other, we wouldn't be able to get there. Other times it's like you get annoyed as a TC of like, I'm working hard.   to get these, but then all these people split my bonus. So sometimes if I do that, I'd be like, perfect. 50 % goes to the TC's. We all know that they're selling this. They're the ones who are really doing the work. And the other 50 % gets split amongst the clinical team, because we need to be teeing it up. So you can think about different ways that you can split it. Or like what I do for leadership pots, I take the total amount and I do like an extra 10%. I just cut off the top and that goes straight to leadership. So they get that split amongst themselves.   And then the rest of it can go to the team. So the team's getting 90%, leadership's getting 10 % or 20%, but that way you're like harder workers on it are being like more motivated. Or those harder workers are getting that like $50 Sephora gift card or the Nike shoes or whatever, or the Lulu gift card, because then it's something where I am recognizing them while the whole team is working hard together.   Brad (20:37.55) Awesome. Yeah, we actually had a kind of a bonus structure set up that from our offices and they got very excited about it and did well enough that the doctor took the team members and all their spouses to Mexico on just what they made from the warranty because they were doing so they had like 90, you know, 5 % of their patients buying it. So, yeah, so they did well and it's yeah, it could have a very positive effect on the morale and and for the team. Yeah, that's a big, that's a big difference for even 20 bucks extra for.   Kiera Dent (20:50.928) Yep.   That's all.   Kiera Dent (21:01.488) Totally. And it's.   Brad (21:06.798) such a short time for someone that's getting paid hourly is huge.   Kiera Dent (21:10.672) Mm -hmm and also doctors I agree with what Brian just said be careful because what we think is a big bonus is Different when they're making less than what you are doctor So like just make sure that the bonus makes sense for their dollar amount and don't think anything's too small And you don't need to go so large either So I think I'd run some numbers and just see before I rolled out a bonus so that way you know You're gonna be profitable on it figure out the simplest way But it's usually a six week to three month and then like Brad said I do have some offices as well where we like put some pretty lofty goals up there and if they hit it   They get to go on these really awesome trips with their spouses or with the team and they freaking love it. And so, and you're happy because you didn't have to pay anything extra. It was already covered for you and it was just slush gravy, but it was an amazing team morale boost as well. So I think in general, hopefully this podcast comes across. Yes, I know we're talking specifically down on warranty. This is how you get team buy -in when you want to roll out a new product, a new service, a new piece. And then you just figure out how to incentivize, how to make it a game, how to make it fun.   Sometimes you can give like the goat pin award. I know I had an office where we had a little glittery goat and every week whomever was like the highest one of things got to wear that goat pin for the week and then it got transferred to the next person or they can maintain it and keep like being the goat of the practice. If you don't know what goat stands for because I didn't it's greatest of all time. So there you go. You're welcome. I'll help you out. But I think all those pieces are how you can really get the team bought into this. But like I asked at the very beginning, Brad, thank you for clarifying. It's got to be so simple.   Brad (22:27.534) Bye.   Kiera Dent (22:36.272) and realize they're resisting because it's not part of their day in and day out. It's just like when you introduce something different, they're annoyed and they say they don't have time because they don't want to learn it. So that's why I always do a small timeframe of like, let's just do it for six weeks. Every team will commit for six weeks. And six weeks is so short. And then let's evaluate in six weeks, make it better. Cause we're going to do this for three months, but we're going to go six weeks and then we'll figure it out. We'll make sure it's super easy for you. That's all they need to know is this isn't a forever thing if we hate it. And then they'll buy into it.   Brad (23:05.613) Love it. Yeah, that's I think the biggest thing is just that first step, that first patient, that first conversation, just getting past that and like, that wasn't scary. And that seems to be great. But it's yeah, just kind of hitting the ground running is the key. So I love it. I love all those tips.   Kiera Dent (23:13.168) Right.   Kiera Dent (23:16.656) For sure. Cool. All right. Well, for all of you, I hope that was helpful. Brad, if people missed it on the last one, how do they connect with dental warranty? I know if you guys missed our last episode, be sure to go listen because we talk about the benefits for the practice from a practice standpoint. I just wanted to do a second part to this where we talked about how you get your teams bought in to rolling out new things, how you can incentivize them, how you can make fun games on it. But truly, I think dental warranty is incredible. So Brad, how do they connect with you? If they want more info on dental warranty, what do they do to get to?   with what do they do to get to you? Let me be very awkward on this last part. Your turn.   Brad (23:50.062)  Yeah, so they can go to DentalWarrantyCorp .com and or give us a call at 1 -800 -691 -7234. And make sure to mention Dental A Team because we have a huge promotion that's 500 off the setup and kind of training fee. So it's just 250 to get us practice up and running. So very, very minimal cost to get going for such a great kind of payout and investment on the back end.   Kiera Dent (24:17.264) Yeah, and as you just said that, I have like 250 to do bonuses for my team that don't come out of my overhead. Yes, please. So Brad, thanks. Thanks for asking the question. And for all of you, thank you for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Tiff and Dana walk through what onboarding is, and how to utilize your team to update and carry out the methods. The consultants touch on how to prioritize the onboarding schedule, what often is missed in the onboarding process, and why it’s so critical to be systems-dependent instead of people-dependent. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Sign up for our FREE Monthly CE Webinar Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.174) Hello, Dental A Team. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have Dana with me. She is my favorite person for this kind of topic. She's my favorite person to podcast with. Don't tell everybody else that, but I love podcasting with you, Dana. So thank you for being here, Dana. I'm going to pick your brain a ton on this subject. So I'm super excited. How are you today?   I'm doing good. Excited to be here. I love the podcast. You know what, Tif? I will be honest to say podcasting was always something that made me super nervous in the beginning. And I've grown to love it so much. And part of that is because I get to do it with you. thank you. I appreciate that. I really do enjoy it. I think I love getting my time in with you. And this is the best way that we can do it in our virtual company right now. So I love it. Thank you.   All right, Dana, today we are talking about some onboarding tips, which I think we have talked about this a lot. We just said that. We talked about onboarding a lot this year. There's a lot of podcasts that have gone out on onboarding or building out your operations manual. But today I kind of wanted to spin it. We won't take a whole super long time kind of diving into the operations manual side of it. But I really wanted to spin it today and talk.   about some systems that you've used Dana for practices. And I say this every time Dana is my operations manual guru. So I lean on you pretty heavily. I want to talk about first, I want to define onboarding. Number one, like what is it? What is it not? And then number two, I really want to talk about how we can utilize the team to effectively update onboarding and really carry it out because I think leadership or doctors like   they get a little stressed out about it. And I sometimes wonder if it's because we feel the weight of the new hire on us and we think we have to do everything. And it's just not always the case. So first, Dana, what would you define onboarding a team member into a dental practice as? Yeah, I think onboarding is the complete process of bringing on a new team member and training them from start to finish on all of their tasks, their job responsibilities, their job descriptions.   The Dental A Team (02:16.238) and culture pieces in the practice. So I always want to include that mission, the vision, the core values and onboarding them culturally too. And it includes all of the HR pieces. So are they attached to their benefits? Have we done their employment eligibility? All of those pieces are included in onboarding. Yeah, totally, totally. And I think you said like the successful part of it, right? And that really truly means   within that onboarding time period, whatever you choose that to be, we typically will say like a 30, 60, 90, so you have a 90 day onboarding protocol. But whatever that length of time is, that person, whoever it is that's onboarding, whatever position it is, should be able to carry out 80 at the low end, but I would say at least 90 % of that position's duty and be able to carry the KPIs that go along with that position to success. So successfully onboarding,   Like you, I love that word because it really, it really pulls out the trigger point of the onboarding. Cause I think often, well, number one in dentistry, how do we, how do we typically onboard? We're like, my gosh, you're a dental assistant. Fantastic. You have two weeks of experience. It's totally fine. Don't worry. Go sit in that room and he'll tell you what to do. You're going to be totally fine. Cause I've got five patients I need to go work with. So bye. It's just like, it's just training by fire and.   Sometimes it works and oftentimes it really doesn't. And I think you said something in your definition about culture and core values. And I think that right there creates a culture. I think it creates a culture of having to move too fast for one, like this rush, this sense of rush. And I think it creates a culture of not always getting the support.   that you might want or need and it can make someone feel that I'm just like surmising and making assumptions, but I can only assume that it could make someone feel a little less than, like inadequate because they're like, I'm supposed to know these things, but I don't. So successful onboarding, I love that. Dana, what do you define for your clients that you do this with? How do you help them, I guess not define, but how do you help them figure out   The Dental A Team (04:38.029) what goes into those months? Because we do typically do a 30, 60, 90. And I think everyone in the dental industry is like, you have your 90 days. If we don't like them, we got to get rid of them before 90 days. And I think somewhere along the way, somebody just made this up. But how do you create that with them in that 30, 60, 90, depending on the position that they're taking on? Yeah. Well, I talk about this a lot right now because I feel like   Dental teams right now are already understaffed. And so then when they get a new team member finding the capacity within the team to train, having this onboarding system really helps because once it is done and built successfully, that team member should have a resource to do some independent training too, and not feel like they just have to be thrown in, that there are support pieces in place for them too. So usually what I do is, okay, let's take everything that this position does and what is essential.   for that team member to know within the first 30 days, then 60 days, then 90 days. So you're basically prioritizing the order in which you train things based on necessity of what are the things. So let's use a front office team member, right? If we have a check -in person, we want them to know how to greet a patient. We want them to know how to confirm an appointment. And we want them to know how to take a phone call and schedule, right? Like those would be the first essential pieces. We would want them to do that way before we would want them to maybe learn how to present a treatment plan.   Right? They're the greeter. So what is essential for them to learn in the first 30 days, 60 days and 90 days that then really kind of starts mapping out your training plan? Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love what you said. I love the essential pieces like what is essential for that person. And then those tie back then to basically the goal of that position. So if you're like, what's the goal of your check in your greeter? What's the goal of your billing department? Because if you can see that clearly, if you're like,   check -in greeter, you want them to create the warmest welcome and create the atmosphere that you guys are portraying as your patient experience and that it's the first phase of the practice, the first phone call answered. Like now you know, okay, I've got to dial in, not necessarily even the system, like the operating software. I'm going to spend some time there, but more importantly, they need to know how to present themselves.   The Dental A Team (06:58.125) They need to know how to speak to people and how to engage. So I love that the essentials. And so then we've got the essentials, maybe I would say, and maybe you can tell me what you would do. I think if I was looking at essentials for the first month, because they're also learning, they're always learning our practice. They're learning our culture. They're learning our team members and our patients. So maybe like three to five items that would be essential for them to get really good at. So then by that 30 days.   they should be masters at those three to potentially five. I think three probably feels the best, but they should be masters at those three things. So this person that you have described should be fantastic at making eye contact and greeting the patient as soon as they come in. They should be fantastic at answering the phone and helping at least figure out where that phone call needs to go and be able to speak to the patients. And they should be fantastic at calling to confirm appointments that have been unconfirmed on the schedule. Yeah.   Yeah, no. How do you how do you set up? So okay, so we've got our essentials. How do you set up from there? So then from there it is just really what's the next layer? What is the next level of things for them to learn that are their responsibilities? Then that goes in your 60 days. And that is probably a longer list, I'd say more of like, like 10 things, right, but then go on the 60 day portion. But it's just what is the next layer for them to know and aren't maybe necessarily the most essential.   but are still pretty important for them to own at that 60 day mark. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Okay, so we've defined your onboarding. We've kind of talked about how do we get there. I love the idea of taking their duties, their goals and their duties of the job position. So you can pull your job descriptions if you guys have our version of the operations manual you guys know, or maybe you don't know and you need to know. If you download those in your back office, then   You have a table of content for every single position within the practice that we've created. And you can pull that and utilize that in the job flow to pull these, to extract these duties out to create that 3060. There's also a 306090 in there, but you can make it your own and figure out what you want it to be. Something that I love doing with practices is really attaching a trainer to a duty.   The Dental A Team (09:22.477) So it doesn't have to be one person. I remember when I was in office, I was like, gosh, I love the idea of not being short staffed and having someone to help, but I hate the idea of me having to train them start to finish because I don't have the time for it. So I have a lot of practices and Dana, I think you do this too with your clients that will look at, okay, well, I need you to learn how to greet the patients. Who's gonna be the best person?   to teach you what that looks like because they're really good at it. And I'll have practices go through and it might be a dental assistant that's teaching a front office hire on how to present themselves in front of patients because she might be my best at that specific thing. So sometimes it's like completely feeling outside the box, but it's satisfying and fulfilling the training. And then also when you tag that in the 30, 60, 90 breakdown that you give them, they know   who they can go to for that thing. And then that person knows what they're responsible for. So when you do your check -ins, when you do your 30 day check -in or if you're doing weekly check -ins, I have a lot of practices doing that for the first 30 days, you have that trainer there to say, yes, they're passed off. Yes, they did it. And you have the trainee there to say that person helps me. So I love doing it that way. Now that's one way I think to get the team more invested and involved in the onboarding.   so that it's not all on one person, but refining the onboarding. Dana, I know you, again, you do this constantly with teams. You work with a lot of teams in general. How do you get the teams involved in the refinement process and the creation of that onboarding for those new positions?   Yeah, and I think that this is probably not the best part of this topic, but the part that gets missed often that I think like this podcast is unique on is that usually offices is like, yeah, well, we created our training plan. Here it is. And they never touch it again. Yeah. And now they're trying to onboard someone five years later and they no longer have this patient communication system. They no longer have this.   The Dental A Team (11:32.205) software system, they no longer put their x -rays in this system, right? And so then it's like, well, you spent all this time and yeah, that's great. But now we decided we're gonna pull it back out to use it. And it's not really that usable because we haven't updated it. So I think for the team getting buy -in in that when these things are updated and they are easily usable, it makes it so much more streamlined when we do bring on a new team member.   So just like when I do a lot of operations menu and we say, hey, update your operations menu every year, don't forget your onboarding pieces because a lot of things can change in a practice in a year's time. And so making sure that when you bring on a new team member going down through the 30, 60, 90 and like, do we still do that? Do we still do an automated read care system? Do we still send out reactivation letters? Do we still send out postcards?   Like those things that constantly change, we want to make sure that that's not still on our onboarding card because we don't want to spend time training or hunting or having a new team member hunt for resources on something that we don't do anymore. Yeah, that's brilliant. That's brilliant. And I love the idea you said.   As we're updating our operations manual yearly, having those people within that position go through the 30, 60, 90, which kind of feels weird, right? As a team member, like I'm updating what would onboard for my position. So like it feels weird and it feels like am I setting myself up for somebody to take my job? which is a scary space. I know we all live there within our, within our positions of wherever you're at. So caveat there, don't stress out. It's just to make sure that everything's, everything's always duplicatable.   And one, you should never be content with where you are. You should always be looking for growth. Like a human nature is to grow. Human nature is to learn. Human nature is to become something different than you are today. When we get content or complacent in life, we tend to not be as happy, joyful, or like moving forward. So always be looking for that next step. Now,   The Dental A Team (13:40.781) If that's the case and you're checking or insurance verification or whatever in your practice, could you learn TC? What would that look like? What is that onboarding, right? And then guess what? Maybe you level up and you start learning to treatment coordinate in your practice. Somebody's gotta fill your shoes, right? And also,   Maybe the practice grows, you guys. I see this constantly where the practice is in growth mode, major growth mode, and we've got to add another person that does maybe another treatment coordinator. We've got one rock star treatment coordinator. She's not going anywhere, but I need someone who can do what she does. And if we haven't updated her 30, 60, 90, she's training that person, period, I'm done. I'm not touching it. If she hasn't updated it, for lack of us knowing we needed to or for   fear of being replaced, she's got to train this person on her own now because nobody else knows those pieces. She's the only one that holds it. So I think Dana, kind of what you're speaking to, and maybe, maybe you can pull out better words, but I think what we're speaking to here and what you're saying is don't be people dependent, be systems dependent. And so to the doctors, don't be people dependent, be systems dependent, because you just never know.   Right, Dana? You've seen that, right? We've seen a lot of turnover this year. We've seen a lot of turnover. We've seen a lot of need for cross -training because of turnover. And let's face it, we want our team members to be able to maybe take a vacation and emergencies happen and things come up and people somehow sometimes have to be replaced or shifted in those times, especially now more than ever. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. And I've got a practice we talked to.   Nicole, one of our, one of our prized possessions here on our team, we had a call yesterday with a client and his goal, he is a young, like driven doctor. And I love my calls with him because he is just passionate about what he's doing. And he's like, I want to make 10 million in 10 years. That's what he wants his.   The Dental A Team (15:52.301) practices to collect. So he's, he's got a couple of practices now he's buying more, he's vetting associates and then figuring out where they want to be and buying a practice where they want to be. I thought that was brilliant. side note, but he's looking to grow. And I'm like, if we don't have these positions, so if the practices you have don't have these manuals dialed in the 30, 60, 90 dialed in, it's going to be really difficult.   to transplant, pick up and transplant into that next practice or to grow. We've got one practice that they're like, we're adding more operatories to it. Well, guess what? You add more operatories, you add more assistance, you add more hygiene, you need to add more front office too. So some positions are going to be potentially duplicated.   within your practice. And I think too, you know, there's practices that I know Dana, you work with some too, that have extended hours. So they've got like two shifts of team members. So there's literally two people doing the same job sometimes in the same day and they just kind of like pass it off. So I think that's brilliant to make sure that it's done. So getting the team invested in refining is like you said, having them go through their jobs.   and making sure that everything's updated, making sure that 30, 60, 90 is also updated. And then Dana, do you ever have, when they're refining these, because I know we do it in the beginning when you first built your operations manual, but do you, when they're refining them, have them trade their operations manual portion with a different employee or team member in the practice? Do you do that? Yeah, I do that all the time. And that really just says, oftentimes team members don't understand how much we have to break things down, right? Because   their experience now they've been in the practice they know the system inside and out. So then when they go to document it, it is a more simplified version of that if I walked in with no experience, and can I do the task? So I have them trade so that can somebody who doesn't know your position do that tray setup or   The Dental A Team (17:47.757) present that treatment plan or schedule that type of appointment in a different department to truly say, do I have this broken down enough that if I had to independently hand this to an assistant while I hopped into due chair side with doctor, they can do the task independently. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And then I bet when that happens, there's holes to be found. Yeah, because I know if I went, you know, into any practice right now, I'm a trained dental assistant, and I might think I know how to do it. But I might   totally bought to trace that up and have all kinds of questions even based on a picture that I saw like can't find this instrument and I have no idea what this is. I remember when I was first learning to dental assist and my doctor was like give me the plastic. I'm like these are all metal, what are you talking about? But it's the like flat end composite one for anteriors and he just kept giving me the plastic. I'm like why are you calling it that? It is not plastic.   And so there's just like so many misunderstood words that to someone and I do that a lot where I'm like, I can't wrap my mind around how you're not understanding what I'm saying because I don't know any other way to say it. So sometimes just allowing the other another person, another point of view to look at something and say, this is how I'm interpreting this. And if you're wanting something different, maybe we should word it this way helps me a ton, a ton. And I know as we're onboarding, even in our company,   there's been a lot of times where it's like, Hey, if it looks like this, it might help this. I'm like, great, great. I love that. So, okay. So Dana, I want to talk about just some like pros and cons real quick. So what are some things that you've seen fall apart for practices that didn't have onboarding tools ready when they hired? What would that look like? So if our dentists today were like,   I'm not, you guys are crazy. I'm not doing this. I'm not putting the work in. What could they, what could they expect? So usually what I see is just a much lengthier onboarding process. So we've got team members that are onboarding and it's at six months and they're like, they still don't know how to do this, this, this, and this. Well, were they ever trained on this, this, this, and this? Because sometimes in, in dentistry, right? We might do one thing and then we don't do that thing again for months.   The Dental A Team (20:13.293) right, or we don't touch it for weeks. And so for a new person to watch something one time and then remember how to do it and do it independently six weeks later when we're asking them to do that, it will feel as if they aren't making any progress or they only know half of their job. My hunch is they were probably only trained consistently on half their job because we don't have a list of things that we're keeping track of that we know.   This person has been taught this. They were trained on it by this person on this date and they said they could do it independently. Yeah. So we're missing that accountability piece. Yeah. I think you're right. It made me think too of how many times I've had doctors say she just sucks. She sucks. She can't do it. I'm like, well, what isn't she doing? Like, what's just nothing. She just, she's not doing anything. I'm like, well, what, what are you expecting her to do? Well, show up. Okay. What does that mean? So it's like almost like   without the onboarding processes, without thinking about the onboarding processes and really defining what that looks like, it's almost impossible to say if that person is truly working or not. If their personality is not working and they're just a lump on a log and it's just, you know it's not gonna work, I think that's very different. But if you're trying to say that somebody's not fulfilling the roles of that position, but you're not even super clear on it, it makes it really hard to be able to say. And I think, Dana, when you said it makes it a lot longer,   Right. That's where doctors come to us and they're like, how long, how long should I keep someone before I know that it's time to get rid of them? And I think that helps clarify it as well. So doctors, I would say based on what Dana said, what I'm getting out of that is if you're in that situation, look at your onboarding. If you've ever had that situation and you have onboarding, look at your onboarding. If you don't have onboarding, go do your onboarding. because I think the flip side of that Dana, and maybe you agree is.   like ease of accountability. It's easier on the team. And I think splitting it up, splitting the training up between the team members makes it easier on the team. And I think that it, I think it truly helps the culture fit of that individual for your practice. So they become a better team member than maybe they would have before. They may have worked out either way, but I think they become a better team member all the way around.   The Dental A Team (22:28.845) I agree, I think you can think of like any position that you've had where the onboarding process isn't that smooth. It's like, I don't know how I can win, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and it's super stressful. Even for the new team member. So yes, it is stressful for the team and finding time to train and finding time to follow an onboarding system, but it is just as stressful for a new team member to come into a practice and try to learn all of their systems within that first 90 days.   So it sets clear expectations for both sides and it also reduces stress for both sides too. Yeah, I love that. Good. Okay, Dana, this was huge. Thank you for all of that information. I knew you'd have the tips that I needed. So Dana, add if you think of any too, but I'm thinking, I did write down, break down what's essential. So I think first and foremost, you said to...   pull out your operations manuals, look at what it is that that position does, so what's the goal of their position, what are the duties that they do, and then pull out like three, five tops, but probably about three things that need to be done essentially first. So what are those first essentials, that's your 30 days, and then layer on from there. So if you don't have an onboarding process already, I would have your team members start pulling their operations manuals for their positions.   and going through that, what's essential for this position to learn and then how do we layer on top of that? That's how you get your team involved. If you have these onboarding processes already, get your team involved and maybe like Rochambeau and just what you have now, give your position to someone who doesn't typically do your position and then flip -flop and see where those gaps are because that's where you're gonna be like, they'll say, well, well.   What's weave? You're like, my God, we haven't used weave in years. We have Modento. Or what's this? What's that? And you're like, my gosh, OK, got that, got that. So you can highlight those areas. So I think pull those operations manuals, pull those 30, 60, 90s, and have the team start helping to refine them so that you know your systems and processes are correct. So Dana, you're incredible. Thank you for being my onboarding and operations manual guru. Our team really honestly relies on you a lot for that. So thank you. I appreciate you.   The Dental A Team (24:36.621) Yeah. All right, everyone, go do your things. Go do all the things. Let us know how it goes. We'd love to hear from you. If you need help, if you need an operations manual, you don't have one, you don't know how to get a hold of one, Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. We can send you the resources and links on how to find our operations manual and what it looks like to have that. So if you need help with it, reach out, Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. And we have...   consultants that are ready to help you get the best operations manual of your life. We appreciate you, we value you, we value your feedback, so leave us a five -star review below so we can hear how implementable this was for you and we'll catch you next time.

Amid the tumult of an election year and rising inflation, Kiera is joined by Brad with Dental Warranty to talk about peace of mind. Together, they discuss why warranty is so critical, what additional revenue looks like, how to sell patients on the investment, and more. Episode resources: Learn more about Dental Warranty  Get a DAT discount on a demo! Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.714) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I'm super pumped. I've got an amazing guest on the podcast today. We're going to be talking to you guys about a couple different things of how to bring in additional revenue to your practice. I think all of us would love that, especially with uncertain times. I mean, we've got an election year, we've got patients doing a couple of funny things. We've got an inflation year. And so I thought it was very poignant and pertinent to bring on Brad with Dental Warranty today, just talking about different ways that we can kind of, I don't know, I feel like.   insulate our practices against the uncertainty of times that we're headed into. I feel like never be afraid. Let's create a game plan and then you guys can execute and you can capitalize and win because I believe when people are afraid is the greatest opportunity for practices to flourish if they've got a good plan in place. So Brad, welcome to the show today. How are you?   Brad (00:46.478) Doing well, Kiera, thanks for having me on board.   Kiera Dent (00:49.418) Yeah, Brad and I usually hang out at in -person events. We haven't seen each other this year, so I feel like I'm really glad we're on the podcast, because I haven't had my chit chat with you, you know, on the bus rides and all the different events we go to. It's been a hot minute, so. Yeah, likewise, agreed. So Brad is with Dental Warranty. You guys have probably heard him on the podcast. I am one of the biggest believers of Dental Warranty, because I feel like watching dentists all the time, dentists just overpay.   Brad (01:00.622) That's right. Yes, it's great to catch up. It's been too long.   Kiera Dent (01:17.578) in the way like you don't think you're overpaying by doing free dentistry and the thought of you're losing money constantly on doing free dentistry. We are in a time and an era where you no longer have to do this. You can give the patient peace of mind. You can close more cases with it. You can have it to where your patients are getting the services that they need. And in addition to that, it is actual additional revenue kind of like membership plans at other places, but in a way that's not slimy, it's not greedy, it's nothing. It's truly giving the patients a better service.   that they need. Like I do not think any of us would ever say that AppleCare is greedy on our phones. I think all of us just have peace of mind that my super expensive, I don't know, $1 ,500 phone phone productive. And that's a $1 ,500 freaking phone for two years that we are willing to pay AppleCare on. But our mouths that we use every single day, like we literally eat with them. I just think it's so cool. So Brad, there's my soap box. Welcome everybody. If you can't tell, I think Dental Warranty should be in every practice, but Brad, go ahead.   Let's talk about this additional revenue stream and the uncertainty of an election year and all those different things and how really making sure we insulate and protect our patients could be a beautiful thing this year.   Brad (02:20.654) Yeah, absolutely. Now it's funny you mentioned that kind of protection on Apple care on your phone. I was actually just talking with a dentist. He's like, you know, people buy a warranty on their big screen TV and they don't touch that thing. Maybe dust it every once in a while, but they don't touch it. It's on the wall. How often are you using your teeth? You're clenching, you're grinding, you're biting, you're chewing. Anything that happens to your mouth, why would someone not want to protect that? So there, yeah, there's a lot of uncertainty, especially because a lot of times when patients are at the practice, it's because maybe something else.   either failed or they broke or tipped or cracked something, if they broke what God gave them, why would you not want to warranty and protect what you're doing, right? And give them that kind of assurance and peace of mind knowing that you do high quality work and that you've got their back no matter really what life sends their way.   Kiera Dent (03:07.242)  And I think Brad, as you were saying that I actually feel like I made a connection that I haven't made. I mean, I've talked to you guys forever. I've been one of the biggest supporters of Dental Warranty since I met you guys. I just was like, this is a no brainer. Why would people not bring this into their practice? But as you just said that, like you're right. We all, I mean, like you go to Best Buy and they're like, Hey, put this warranty on your TV. On freaking Amazon is like doing the two year protection. Like on a dang vacuum at Walmart, like, Hey, you went the two year protection. I'm like, those businesses are smart.   And I mean, people will like, yep, it's five bucks. It's 20 bucks. Of course, like put it on. It's no big deal. But I was thinking about our bodies and I think there might be this misnomer. I don't know. This is just me like literally having an aha moment right here live is our bodies naturally repair, right? It's like you get a scratch on your arm. It will naturally repair. I don't need, I have almost like a human being warranty on my body, but I think what we don't realize is like teeth and bones and aging.   don't have this body warranty. I don't know, I've got to go get surgery. And I'm really anxious because the last time I had surgery, it's same toe, same thing. And just another thing like popped up out of nowhere. And I was like, my gosh, I've got to do it. And like last time I did not heal as well. And I was 10 years younger. My body is getting older. I should probably get it done now versus even in another 10 years, because I'll be older. But I think there could be this like idea.   that our bodies will just naturally heal. And so maybe it's something where it's like this external product, there's no way we can fix a TV. Like we don't know how to do it, but yet like a scratch on my arm, I don't know how my body fixes it, but it just fixes it. And so maybe that's kind of the disconnect that we as business owners might have of like, no, there's no reason to warranty teeth. Like they're just this natural part of our body. But like you said, I think when we can look at it, not as a product per se, but as...   I think teeth are one of the dumbest body parts of our entire body. Like I really do. And I say that I love dentistry. Like how dumb is it that we lose our teeth as babies and then we get these 32 teeth. We lose four of them usually for wisdom teeth. And so we've got 28 teeth and yet there are these like little porcelain plates in our mouth that we hope and pray that we don't chip. I understand that they are not porcelain, but that's what they feel like to me. Like it's this very delicate, dainty, beautiful thing.   Brad (04:52.622) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (05:16.65) It's like a, like a China cabinet and I've got to like eat with this. I got to smile with this. I got to talk with this and hope and pray that nothing happens to this beautiful smile. And so I think looking at it as because they're so delicate, like a TV, like a phone, like other delicate things that you would protect, maybe helping people realize that that's why they should protect it. but maybe that's the disconnect we've had over the last couple of years since dental warranty has come into the playground that people maybe aren't seeing. I don't know if that made any sense or if I just confused people more, but that was my.   Brad (05:18.766) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (05:45.994) maybe muddled aha moment for myself, whether it benefits anybody else or not, that's to be determined.   Brad (05:52.59) No, I love it. I think that's, that's huge. And a big part of this is whether the patient, you know, buys the six year protection plan or not. The great thing about this is now you're having these conversations with your patients. So many times patients, they get their treatment done. They think dentistry is going to last forever, no matter what they do to it. They expect a lot of times the dentist will do it free forever because they just paid that one time. So this is educating the patients, letting them know, Hey, you know, this is what we're doing here. We do great work. We pretty much last long time.   but it is a part of your body and things act differently. You could do things outside of our control and set right expectations. So again, whether they buy the protection plan or not, it doesn't matter. If they have it, great, they're covered, the doctor's covered. If not, the patients don't come back in just expecting it to be free later on, because it was talked about. And it's not some surprise that, I thought there was going to be a lifetime guarantee on this thing. It's like, no, how many times have you used that tooth since I've seen you last?   So it's all about, yeah, just taking care of your patients and setting the right expectations to eliminate the frustration, the headaches, the bad reviews, the lawsuits later on.   Kiera Dent (07:01.034) Right? Well, and it's funny because I mean, I think about like when I'm getting my lashes done or when I'm getting my hair done and like girls chat, right? Like we love to sit there and gab and chat and like people getting their nails done. And when people find out I work in dentistry without fail, I hear like, my gosh, dentistry is so expensive. Like I had this thousand dollar crown that I had to put in or all they want to charge me this much for a night guard. And so people already do assume that dentistry is expensive. And then they're like,   this dentist, they didn't do a good job on my cap. I love when they call it a cap. I'm like, clearly like you are older. It's a crown. It sounds way better to say a crown. but they just, they feel like they're so annoyed that it broke down. And again, I think it's because we expect our teeth to last forever. Like, well, this is all we get. So it should last forever. But I agree with you. I think that there's an education piece that we're lacking. And I also was thinking about like dentistry even 50 years ago, people weren't living as long 50 years ago as they are today. So I,   just like with modern medicine and bodies and different things like our bodies are and the longevity of life is much longer than it has been in the past. And I also think dentists in the past costs weren't as much schooling wasn't as much different things. And so like I talked to dentists who bought practices or they went to school say 25 years ago and they're like, Kiera, I would not be a dentist in today's world. Like schooling's too much.   the cost of running a business is too much. Everything is so much more than it ever was. Like how did these dentists even come outside of it? So I think if we look at the perspective and the timeline of even how dentistry and bodies have evolved over the last couple of years, and I'm saying decades of years, thinking about that, I do think it's important to have warranties. I think it's the same thing for other companies. Like why are they throwing warranties on as well? Like things have just cost more. Things are lasting longer. People are lasting longer than they have been.   And so I think it's just a, it's evolving with the world. And I think practices need to evolve as well and do it in a way that's educating. Like you said, Brad, because the last thing you want is for a patient to come and expecting that crown to be redone for free. Even insurances will cover it usually every five years. Like they plan for that crown to break down, but patients don't realize that. And so we know that internally, but the patient doesn't know that. So I agree with you. I think it's a great way to bring up conversations that should have been had years ago.   Kiera Dent (09:18.666) but are now just coming to the table. But I'm like, but hey, it's okay because we're also now introducing PRF or PRP into the equation because it's such a better, like the body's neosporin. Like so many things like buildups go with crowns. We don't necessarily do just extractions. We now do implants. So, so many things we've educated the patient based on, I think this is just another layer to educate.   Brad (09:18.734) Mm -hmm.   Brad (09:32.75) Yeah.   Brad (09:41.87) Absolutely. And one of my favorite questions to ask a dentist is, okay, so tell me about the lab you use. You know, why did you choose that lab? And they say, well, they do, you know, they use the best materials, they  warranty it, you know, if anything happens, oh they warranty it. So if you value a lab, because they offer a warranty on their lab work, which  every dentist does, that's one of the things they like about their lab. When your patients want the same thing, they want to go to the dentist that warranties their treatment.   It's not saying that it's a cheap lab or it's not going to last, but no, it's high quality and they stand behind it and that's why they offer it. And so same thing with this. If patients aren't asking it, they're thinking about it. They want to know how long it's going to last. What happens if it breaks, it fails? What if I move, if I lose my dental benefits? All the what ifs. So again, now by proactively talking about this, we're seeing more patients say yes to treatment. More patients come into the door. So a lot of offices will actually   Kiera Dent (10:17.962) Yeah.   Brad (10:39.662) put this on their website. So it's now, again, it's a proactive approach saying, hey, this is how we're different. You've got the best doctors, provide the best treatment, and we go over and beyond the typical kind of standard of care and provide an excellent service along with our excellent treatment. So yeah, it's a great marketing tool as well to help stand out and again, eliminate those pain points that always happen in the future.   Kiera Dent (10:55.37) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (11:05.866) for sure. Well, and like you said, without the patient even saying they are thinking those pieces and I feel like the warranty for all of us, like going to buy a $1 ,500 iPhone, I keep looking over there because my phone's literally sitting there and I just bought it in December, you have so much less stress. It's very good peace of mind. And so for your patients, like they are thinking about that like   what happens if I have to replace this because it is $1 ,000 or it is $5 ,000 or whatever it is. It just gives them that peace of mind that makes it easier to move forward because now the questions are answered. What if this happens? What if this happens? Like amazing. I know I have warranty on it. No big deal. Same thing with everything.   Brad (11:41.07) I mean, I can't tell you how many times I like bid on something or bite on my fork or something just so simple. I'm like, I'm good. You know, like, doesn't matter. I'm good. I've got I've got coverage. In fact, I've actually now I'm proud of I don't know if you knew this, but I'm now a proud user and customer. I've been on warranty myself. So yeah, yeah. So I'm on both sides. So I actually I got some veneers about two years ago or so. I was wrestling with my son. He was about four years old at the time.   Kiera Dent (11:49.418) huh.   Kiera Dent (11:59.658) Wow, Brad, good job.   Kiera Dent (12:07.434) Nice.   Brad (12:10.606) and had them in one of those good headlocks, he jumped up and head butted me and destroyed my front tooth. It was 28 days after I got veneers. And so I laughed because literally that's what I do. I went back to the practice, I was covered, the doctor was covered and no issue at all. I didn't have to pay anything, doctor got paid all over again like a brand new case. But take dental warranty out of it.   That's kind of a scary moment. You know, as a patient, I'm thinking, okay, I paid a lot of money for this. I know it wasn't your fault really, but you're gonna help me out, right? And he's probably thinking, I did a great job. This was on you. Why should I have to eat it? So if you buy a car and you drive off the lot and you get an accident a mile down the road, you're not gonna just get a new car from the dealership. And so, so again, I just again laughed because I knew I was had that benefit. And so I've seen firsthand that it does work.   Kiera Dent (12:42.122) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (13:01.926) That's amazing. Well, and like for you also, because I think dentistry is such a scary thing too. It's our mouths. It's the way we talk. It's the way we eat. Like that's why. And it's like, no, no, no, Dennis, you owe me this because like, this is my freaking front tooth. Like you've got to fix it. You just did this. It should be in here forever. Even though life happened. And so I think.   Dental Warranty really does make it to where the patient and the provider can both be happy in a win -win. Like that doctor's super happy to do it. They're not doing free dentistry. No one is begrudgingly doing something. You're not paying and angry about it. They're not redoing dentistry and feeling like, well, I'm glad we can help brought out again. Like, of course we want to help them, but it's never that fun thing. And so this is just a win -win and nobody's upset about it at the end of the day. No one felt like they had to do free dentistry. No one felt like they had to pay again for something that should have lasted longer. And there's also the expectation there. So.   I think it's amazing and I think we've talked about so many benefits for the patient and what I think right now is it is also an election here and there are things that are coming into play. There's higher inflation. So the world by large right now has a little more trepidation. They're sitting here wondering what's going to happen. I was just on a DSO meeting and they were talking about like penny upon who's put into office that might actually impact the capital gains which is going to impact practices selling like so we're all kind of sitting here waiting to see.   who's coming to the playing field, what's gonna shake and change our world. And so, but patients still need dentistry, they still need to continue moving on, life still needs to continue on. And so I feel like dental warranty right now is really pertinent to give those patients peace of mind, no matter who's elected, no matter what the inflation rates go to, you're covered with your dentistry. And so I feel like for that uncertainty right now in the world, yes, it's a great time to bring it in because I think there is uncertainty. And it's a good time to, I think, in my opinion, to bring this to your practice.   to get it to be a standing piece of your practice. If you've kind of been on the fence wondering like, should I bring it in or not? Great time because uncertainty always leads to wanting to have something of certainty when we're uncertain times. So that's why I love it. I think it's a good time right now. But Brady, you were also talking because like in addition to these uncertain times, I know that this year's been kind of funny for some offices. Revenue's not as high as it normally is. Patients aren't wanting to say yes to treatment as much, which I do believe that if you had a warranty, more patients would say yes. So just like plugging that again.   Kiera Dent (15:14.666) I do think it could be a cause and effect. And I think having a warranty program on it, you would get a lot more patients saying yes, because they're just holding back on uncertainty of funds. Like they're just wondering what's going to happen. I don't know if I want to do this yet, but if I'm covered for the next six years, that fear is gone. But in addition to that, let's talk about the additional revenue that the warranty program does bring. Again, I think it's just a nice benefit. It's not the motivator for it, but it is a nice benefit, especially when you guys might have a little bit lower. I believe in having multiple revenue streams to your practice.   is never a bad idea.   Brad (15:45.934) Yeah, absolutely. So, so the big difference there between having to have like your own in -house plan and if, you know, let's say a patient bites on a popcorn kernel or soft bread, whatever they like to say that day. And, I broke my crown. I was actually talking to my friend last week and she said, she knew I, she knew I worked in dentistry. And so she's like, Hey, I was, I was eating soft avocado bread or toast. And I was like, okay, that's what everyone says. So yes, they always say, if that's the case, they come back in and say two or three years later, instead of.   Kiera Dent (15:58.026) all the time.   Kiera Dent (16:10.634) I'm sorry.   Brad (16:15.63) you now having to maybe do it for free for that patient. And it's not just doing it for free, but now you've got the overhead costs, you've got your chair time is being used up. You don't have now a paying patient in that chair. So instead of doing, you know, have that negative, you know, costs involved, now you're getting paid your full fee, like it's a brand new case. But on the front side, so this is something that actually the patient purchases from the practice. So again, it's the fees.   100 % carried over by the patient and a portion of that stays in -house for additional revenue. So our average practice, as long as they just offer this the way we train and are consistent with it, they should see about 30 to 50K a year on additional revenue. That's with patients buying the warranty and then also on claims being paid out on. So that's a huge swing. And then we've got offices that do very well that double, if not triple those numbers.   Kiera Dent (17:01.962) Wow.   Brad (17:07.438) And that's a new employee. That's a lot of things that you can do on your website. A lot of great coaching. That's a lot of stuff that they can do, which they've been putting off for a long time with just an additional revenue stream.   Kiera Dent (17:22.09) Gosh, well, and I think about it because it's something that the patient needs. I'm always looking for things of like, what does the patient need? I mean, AppleCare, think of how much Apple makes on AppleCare. Because we buy it, same thing with our houses, with our cars, like all the insurance companies, like why are the insurance companies the biggest buildings in the world? It's because, or like, I shouldn't say the world, but they're oftentimes the largest ones in cities. It's because people buy it for peace of mind, but then don't often need to use it. And so,   like you want your patients to use it. You want, you want Brad to come in when his kid does that and then you're happy. He's happy. You were able to make him smile. He's leaving you amazing reviews because your customer service at your practice was so incredible and you were able to be paid for it to do it a second time, which is not common in dentistry. And so I think looking at that, it's just this amazing piece of mind for people. But like you just said, there's 30 ,000 to 50 ,000 a year. You're right. That is another employee. That is another.   like scanner that is hiring a consultant, like that is something and it's like, there's just that margin, which everything should have a margin. Do you want to talk to me about margins? Let's talk about fluoride. Like you all know that that costs you like a buck and we're not going to get into the nuances. And I think it's brilliant, but it's the same thing with this. There should be a margin of profit for the practice on everything that you're selling. That is a wise business. and so I think is, I didn't realize it was bringing that much revenue and that's insane.   Brad (18:42.606) Yeah, and what's great about this is the better your business is and grows and stronger business is, the more patients you can help. And so you have these cases that you wish like, man, your heart hurts for these patients. But if you got that additional revenue, you're not sitting there, you know, bootstrapped and scared to do anything for free because you're so tight. But now if you have that, there are situations now you can maybe help out a little more.   Kiera Dent (19:09.77) Mm -hmm.   Brad (19:10.478) But yeah, there's a lot of fun things that the practice can do with that. You have team bonuses, all sorts of things. So yeah.   Kiera Dent (19:15.69) Yeah. I mean, I love when things are like a little added bonus in my life. I'm always happy about those. So I think it's an amazing product and amazing thing for your patients to help with closing cases, to help with the uncertainty, to be able to make it to where you're getting paid for it. my question is, which I'm sure a lot of offices would ask, like what happens for, I mean, there might be some cosmetic offices or people that are doing big cases or dentistry or even just smaller cases, right? It doesn't have to just be for the big cases, but they haven't implemented dental warranty yet.   What do you do for all those past patients like night guards, ortho, all these things? Is there a way we can retroactively do it or do patients have to just start today? Is there anything that they can do? Because I know that can get weird. Some people get nervous to bring it in because why didn't I tell these people for the last 10 years? And I think it's fine. There's always a solution. But is there anything you can do retroactively for patients that maybe we didn't have this in place when they came in?   Brad (20:08.974) Well, good question. And first of all, too, I'm going back to the point of, you know, for big cases, it's funny because I'll talk to one dentist and they'll say, yeah, I've been doing a lot of these big full mouth cases, all our next type cases, full mouth of veneers. I want to really kind of build this in as part of the benefit and kind of the case fee. And the very next doctor I talked to him like, yeah, I do a lot of just crown and bridge work. And I just, a lot of fiddling. This is great. Something I wanted to provide for those patients. And you never know what a big case is to which patient.   you know, a ceiling unit crown could be a huge case. You never know who values that peace of mind, who's going to want that protection, who's going to need it. And so again, just giving them the option. But yeah, so when office comes on board, that's a question that comes up a lot. So what about patients that have come in recently? What do we do about those patients? So our rule of thumb is we can go about 30 days back for anyone that had recently received treatment and then go back to offer to those patients. You'll have a success coach that from our team that works with the practice directly. And they're pretty good about getting things approved. So if...   maybe six months prior or maybe in the middle of a huge case and it's been over the last year, we're pretty good about getting those approved to get a warranty there. But the message is when they come back in saying, maybe if they didn't have it on their crown they had two years ago, it's saying, hey, we're excited about this new program because this is something that, if something happens outside of our control, we do great work, we control, we put in your patients in your mouth, but if the...   you know, if you move travel, if you have some sort of accident, now we've got something that protects you on kind of these life events. And so the shift is kind of letting them know that it's something that's new and exciting and that they can offer on the new treatment they've received.   Kiera Dent (21:48.842) That's awesome. And I do like how you guys said it as life events. And I know eating avocado toast does not feel like a life event. but I think it's also training the patient to realize like we did do good work. Like it was something that we did really well. Patients don't, and they'll never accept the fact that every single freaking day we're chewing and we're putting stress fractures into our teeth without them realizing, which is why the soft bread or the easy chip. And I'm like, yeah, but what have you been chomping on for the last like 10 years? That's why it broke on that soft piece of bread.   But they don't realize that just like we don't realize the damage that we do to our bodies every single day or the damage we do to our cars or whatever else we have insurance on. And so I think it's just a really awesome way to help them see it as a life event. I think that's a brilliant phrasing that you guys gave because it does just kind of frame it for a patient like or when those accidental things happen, right? Like that's why we do this because I want you to have complete and total control and peace of mind that no matter what's going on in your life, you're going to be able to have that beautiful smile and be able to just come right back in or.   Take care of it. What happens when they do move, Brad? Tell the offices what does happen on that because I know that you guys have a thing. They're not going to fly back to see you. So what happens in that regard?   Brad (22:56.238) Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I've seen on different Facebook groups saying, hey, had a patient move to this area, you know, anyone there that could help this patient out or they try to phone a friend to somebody they don't know. And it gets complicated. And then, yeah, patients sometimes have to fly back. It's a nightmare or that even prevents them getting the treatment they actually need and that is best for them because now they have to pay all over again for somebody who's paid for. It's kind of a mess. So, yeah, so it follows the patient's smile. So if the patient were to move across the country,   they can actually go to any doctor anywhere. And we will actually pay that retraining practice to do the work over again. Sometimes a patient might call that initial practice and say, hey, I got my denture at your office, I got a warranty, what do I do? I moved. And then that's something that we just connect with the patient and their new practice and get them taken care of. And a lot of times two patients will call us and say, hey, I moved to this new area. I've got one of your warranties. I want to go to another practice that does this because I'm by it again. Who do you recommend? So we can always give.   Kiera Dent (23:42.57) Cool.   Brad (23:54.51) recommendations to people that we work with in that area as well.   Kiera Dent (23:57.802) Amazing. I think it's like, I don't know. I just, I cannot think and I'm trying to because my job on a podcast is to poke holes and things and to bring things to light. And I'm like, I truly cannot see why an office would not do this. To me, it just feels like it's a no brainer. And I mean, yes, of course I like you guys. That's why I bring you onto the podcast. That's why I literally sponsor and have you guys as a partner with me. And I'm very choosy. There's a lot of companies who want to partner with the NLA team and I don't accept a lot of them due to the fact that I don't believe.   Brad (24:24.91) Glad we made the cut.   Kiera Dent (24:26.186) You did make the cut, Brad. But I just think it makes sense and it's such a great piece. So kind of maybe you hear why offices wouldn't do it. And let's see if maybe me from a practice perspective can give some insights because from me sitting where I sit as a treatment coordinator, as a business owners, owning down practices, as seeing how much money I watch in consulting of offices riding off of free dentistry, of the stress of having these patients come back. And it's like, what do we do? Because this is ethical and moral internal conflict.   And then patients also saying like, we're not saying yes to treatment right now. I'm like, why would you not do this? But maybe Brad, give me some of the things you guys hear and let's see if we can maybe work through some of those objections people might have.   Brad (25:04.366) Yeah, I would say that the two most common things is that it's usually from the dentist and it's the patient what they think the patient will think. It's their own perception. It's like, well, I don't want my work to sound cheap. And I get that. You're an artist. It's your craftsmanship. It's kind of who you are. And you want to make this sound like it's high quality and it's going to last. And you should. And so that's what we recommend is use this.   to tell your patients that you are the best dentist. You do so much CE. You were at the top of your class in dental school. You used the best techniques, best labs that you predict this treatment to last a very long time. But again, there's things that happen outside of our control. So that's now how we can provide a better service and experience and make sure that this is covered even if you fall on your face in the parking lot today as you walk out to your car. And so that's the message. And kind of going back to what you mentioned earlier about...   Kiera Dent (25:57.45) Mm -hmm.   Brad (26:02.702) Kind of failure and stuff. It's not in this it's not the practicing, you know, in fact In fact, the practice probably even shouldn't use the word failure, you know if this fails it's you know This doesn't if this is an integrate or if you have kind of like like event or trauma physical accident things that we can't control We've now have you taken care of Which is again, that's huge when patients are making that decision especially if they had maybe that root canal go south and now they need additional treatment or the they did   Kiera Dent (26:09.93) Agreed.   Kiera Dent (26:21.482) Mm -hmm.   Brad (26:31.15) you know, have to replace the filling three times already. They're scared to do it again because they think they're just going to have to pay every year on the year. So yeah, so again, it's kind of setting that expectation and let them know that it's high quality. And again, going back to, you know, why do you use the lab you use? And a lot of times they say it's because the warranty. So on the patient side, they're not looking at the dentist thinking you're using a warranty because you're not high quality. You're using a warranty because you stand behind it. That's all the best brands and companies do that.   Kiera Dent (26:58.602) Yeah, well, and if you don't, people don't offer a warranty. Like, that's one of the things like, I mean, you look at that, they're going to do it. So I agree. I think it is a shift of mindset. And for doctors, I just want to say like, you do incredible work. But I think what Brad is trying to say and what dental warranty is, is your work is going in someone's mouth that they use every single day. Like,   Brad (27:03.95) Yeah!   Kiera Dent (27:22.666) this is something that you can't control. You can't control if they're chewing ice like we all know those ice chewers. We can try and educate them, but you don't know what they're doing at night. Are they wearing a night guard? Are they grinding all night long on that? Like on their teeth? What are they doing? Are they? I mean, gosh, I've seen people like snap open bottles with their teeth. I've seen people rip things with their teeth. I mean, we see it because we're so attuned to it in dentistry, but that's outside of your control. And so you did the great work in the chair, but that doesn't mean that   their life habits and their chewing habits and their day to day eating habits are something that you necessarily need to warranty. And I think that that's also the piece of like, you're actually warranting them as a person, you're not warranting your work and you're just being paid when they choose to make the decisions they make on their teeth. Like that's how I view it. It's them, it's a them problem is really what you're warranting. You're not having to do free work based on how they're chewing. It's nothing to do with you at all. You did the great work in the chair. Now this is just going for them. And sure, sometimes it is you. Sometimes it did fail.   I know that there's times that cement, it was not totally isolated. But guess what? That also happens. You're also human, but that's like a one out of a hundred times. And that's also covered versus there 99 times that it's them causing the problem. So that's my perspective on it too. I don't think it's a dentist and I don't think it sounds cheap whatsoever. And I love how you guys say it. We do the best work. We want to make sure that your investment is taken care of. And that way you have peace of mind, no matter what life event or accident or anything that comes your way.   you know that you'll be taken care of, no questions asked, come back in and we'll take great care of you. Like that's how it views. And I feel like it's more of a customer service pitch as opposed to your work isn't good.   Brad (28:55.63) Absolutely.   Yeah, we've got practices that say, you know, we're getting to these bigger cases. We want to roll out the red carpet for our patients, kind of provide that concierge type experience, you know, provide the best value, best bang for their buck. And that's why they wanted to include a warranty on that case, on that treatment. Yeah, so that's the biggest thing is kind of shifting is I don't want this to sound cheap, but no, this is so high quality and so great that I want to...   Kiera Dent (29:05.834) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (29:12.33) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (29:16.938) Yeah.   Brad (29:26.126) to provide this extra protection on it because who knows what you're gonna do with it in the future.   Kiera Dent (29:29.866) Right. And I think also for you realizing whatever you perceive is what your patients are going to perceive. So if you feel like you're doing it because you've got cheap dentistry, they're going to feel that too. But if you just flip that story and paint it as one of we do the concierge work and just say, you know, I think generational shifts are happening. Brad and I, and where we are.   It is not weird for me to ever have something come up as a warranty. I get it every single day. I get it everywhere I go. It's on Amazon. It's at the stores, at every grocery stores with every like, and I mean, we're talking like $25 products that people are buying and it's like, you want a two year warranty on it? No, I don't want a warranty on that. Like, but I think generational shifts are happening too, where for us, I expect warranties to be everywhere. I don't know how you feel, Brad, but I definitely do. I think my parents or my grandparents might feel a little bit different about warranties coming into play.   but I know my in -laws, they're in their 70s, they're much older in life and their money is tighter for them. So I guarantee you, my in -laws would be so appreciative of a warranty being offered because they just spent thousands of dollars on dentistry and they were like, Kiera, this is really expensive. The peace of mind for them to know for the next five, six years they're going to be covered. I know my in -laws would have purchased that because they don't want to have to go shell out another grand, two grand, three grand for that dentistry being done. So even though I think...   The younger generations are used to warranties. The older generation is also coming into financial pieces that they've never had of retiring and looking at their funds differently than they ever have. I think both generations would appreciate a warranty greatly knowing the investment costs coming into play.   Brad (30:59.886) Yeah. And again, what's great about this is presented to the patient, give them the option. If they buy it, you've got peace of mind, they got peace of mind. It's literally, it's a win -win. Worst case scenario, and this is something that the doctors actually really appreciate is if they say no thanks, no big deal. In fact, some offices what they'll do is they'll put a little check box on the ledger that says, I opt out of six year coverage. Patient will sign off on it. That way five years down the road, they come back in and says, it looks like you had opt out of the coverage. You know, this is what, you know, to expect next.   Kiera Dent (31:22.762) Correct.   Brad (31:29.454) They're not, what? I didn't know. They're not surprised because they opt out of it. It's, again, you drop your iPhone, you don't have AppleCare, you don't expect Apple to give you a new phone. But if you do have AppleCare, you're like, yes, I'm good. And so, yeah, that's what it is.   Kiera Dent (31:29.514) Mm -hmm.   Totally.   Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (31:40.394) No, agreed.   Kiera Dent (31:46.41) Great. And I think also the education is there. So now when they come in, it's not that awkward conversation of you should cover this. It's you elected out of the warranty program. So and just let them know like perfect, no problem. So just, you know, if anything does happen over the next six years, it will be out of pocket for you. Then they know there's no questions anymore of like, are we doing this for free? Are we not doing it for free? They know what to expect. And doctors, if it is something on you or it was maybe a mistake in your lab or maybe it was a mistake there, by all means, you have that conversation, but they're prepared to pay you in full.   because the conversation already happened.   Brad (32:18.894) Absolutely. And I've had doctors say, you know, if that is the case, they'd opt out. They can say, well, it looks like you'd opt out of our protection plan. Tell you what, if you get you need to get the six year coverage on the new treatment, because we're not going to do this again, but I'll give you a 20 % off or whatever you know, the practice would decide. But they can still kind of help the patient out, still get paid the vast majority of the full fee. And the patient still has the benefit and thinks they're being super kind and have that coverage for the next six years. So it's a lot easier to have those hard conversations when then you can provide the   Kiera Dent (32:32.938) Smart.   Kiera Dent (32:44.65) Yeah.   Brad (32:48.366) solution the next time around.   Kiera Dent (32:50.602) Right? And it's you get 20 % off when you buy the six year for the next one, because we're not doing this again. I think it's brilliant. I think that all of those really do give peace of mind for the practice and for the patient. Awesome. So Brad, if offices, not if.   Brad (32:54.446) Right. Exactly.   Brad (33:02.51) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (33:07.082) when offices, because I think everyone should do it. It's like an election year, there's uncertainty out there. You're feeling like patients aren't closing cases. Like put all the pieces into play before you tell me that patients aren't closing cases this year. Like I truly do know that you will close more cases with this because patients are skittish right now. They're scared of the global climate at large. And so giving them that peace of mind, I know will help you close more cases. So Brad, how do they connect with you? Like I said, I think everyone, I mean, between swell,   and dental warranty. I like walk around all the time, like you should have all your patients leaving Google reviews and every patient should get a warranty program. So that's why I love you guys. That's why I recommend you so heavily. But Brad, how do offices work with you? What does that look like?   Brad (33:48.526) Yeah, so it's pretty simple. So if anyone is interested, they can go to DentalWarrantyCorp .com or they can give us a call at 1 -800 -691 -7234. And make sure to mention Dental A Team and the podcast. We've got a huge promotion to get started where we take 500 off the setup and training fee. So it's just 250 to get started. So there's no ongoing fees or additional support. So it's   Kiera Dent (34:10.57) Nice.   Brad (34:15.118) It's just the one time upfront of 250 get started and then the rest is profit for the practice. So again, every time a patient buys this, it's revenue in the practice.   Kiera Dent (34:24.426) That's amazing. And so again, like, I love sweet rewards. So it's like, it's helping my patients is helping me get covered. Plus, it's also giving us that extra revenue, like he said, to bring on a new employee or to like 30 to 50 ,000. Just think of what you could do with that. And you're protecting the patient and your practice. So Brad, I'm obsessed with you guys. I think everyone should do it. I mean, 250 to get started. I can't think of a better investment that's gonna I don't know anywhere else that you could put 250 in and get 50 grand out of it. Like that's a really   Brad (34:51.246) Right?   Kiera Dent (34:53.386) I don't know. I just think it's amazing. But truly, I just think for the patient benefit, which is why I vet companies heavily before I promote them, I think it's such a good patient value add. I know you guys, I'm like, Brad, I've had dentistry done extensively. And the worst thing was knowing it was such a big cost to me. And then what happens? Because I mean, when you have a tragic accident or you've got decay or things like that, you always want to know, what happens if this happens again? Because it's already happened to me one time. And I'm going to have to have this again. Goodness.   It's amazing. So Brad, thanks for being here. You guys go check them out. Everybody should connect out. Dental Warranty Corp, like a corpse. That's what I was thinking when you said, I mean, it's corporation, but now you guys won't forget it. Or we'll put that phone number in the show notes for you so you guys can just call, reach out. Like you said, be sure to mention Dental A Team. And Brad, I mean, I can't wait to see you next time. But thanks for being here today and just truly sharing how practices can see it as such a value add, such a peace of mind. And you're not selling yourself short. You are not cheapening it. I just want to like,   Brad (35:29.518) Yep.   Kiera Dent (35:51.882) really, really, really, really push that on doctors. Like he said, the best companies offer the warranties. That's the companies that know that their work's amazing, which is why they're willing to warranty because they know you're not going to come back in. The only way you're coming back in is if a life event happens. Other than that, it's amazing dentistry. So I think it's a win -win all the way around. So Brad, thanks for being here.   Brad (36:09.038) Thanks, and hopefully see you sooner rather than later. Yep.   Kiera Dent (36:11.818)  all of you listening, Thank you all for listening. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.   Brad (36:16.366) All right, take care

This episode is for those who want a good time. Happy Fourth of July! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.654) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera and happy 4th of July. You all know that if you've been listening for a while, know how much I love holidays and I am so grateful to live in America. I truly feel so blessed to live in a country where me, especially as a woman, is able to have a business and to be able to serve and to be able to live the way I do. And I understand that there are politics and different things that maybe aren't right per se, but I think overall I am just so grateful.   to live in a country that allows me to live and be the person that I want to be. So happy 4th of July to all of you. And today I thought I'd get on with actually a super fun podcast for you. So this is coming from DentistMidtownAtlanta .com. So I've got to give credit because this is not me. Shout out to these doctors and I hope that they are a listening dentist like listener because if you are reach out, mad kudos to you. Literally pulled up. I was like, what am I going to do that would be fun for you guys?   that would just make today as a 4th of July a good time. And so what they have is they actually wrote back fun dental facts for the 4th of July. Like I said, I cannot take any credit of this because I'm literally reading it off of a website. So this is not Kiera Dent. This is not Dental A Team. But I did think it'd be a good time for you guys to hear some amazing 4th of July holiday festival things that are dental specific. So number one, from 19... Excuse me, 1768 to 1770.   the infamous Paul Revere. He went into local newspapers offering his services as a dentist. I had no clue that Paul Revere was a dentist. A few years later, Revere verifies the death of his friend by identifying a bridge he constructed for him. This was the first known case of postmortem dental forensics. I had no idea. So maybe you guys all know that and I'm just new to the dental scene. But that was 1768 to 1770. In 1789, a Frenchman by the name of Nicolas Du Bois, I'm not gonna say last part.    for porcelain teeth. I had no clue 1700s. And you guys I think it would be really fun as a team if you guys want when you get back into the office because I'm sure today you're celebrating but kind of play some of these and ask people what year these things are done. I think it could be a fun dental one. Like I said, today's podcast I hope is just more of an enjoyable one. Of course, I'll add something tactical to the end for you. But for now, sit back and enjoy these 4th of July dental random pieces. So on the 4th of July in 1790, an American dentist   Kiera Dent (02:24.142) flag constructed the first chair made for a dental patient complete with the adjustable headrest and arm extension to hold the dental instruments. In 1825, porcelain teeth began to be manufactured commercially. I did not realize 1825. That's pretty ancient. In 1832, the first luxury reclining dental chair was invented by guess. Do you guys know James Snell? In 1833 to 1850 on the 4th of July, two brothers from France, the   Crocores introduced amalgam filling material for cavities to the United States. So welcome. Thanks to them in 1833 is where amalgam came in. In 1846 on the 4th of July, a dentist named William Morton conducted the first successful public demonstration of the use of anesthesia for surgery. Like I can't imagine dentistry without anesthesia and those poor people who had to go through it before that. So thank you 4th of July. These ones are going back.   These are some interesting dental facts of that. So again, maybe not necessarily per se on the 4th of July, but just some fun dental facts for you. But that's when anesthesia came in. In 1859, the American Dental Association was formed by 26 dentists that met at Niagara Falls. In 1866, the first woman to earn a dental degree, the first woman to earn a dental degree was Lucy Beeman Hobbs. She graduated in 1866. 1871, the first patent for the electrical dental engine, self -contained motor and handpiece was given to George F. Green.   In 1890, after a dentist Willoughby Miller wrote a book on microeconomics microorganisms of the mouth, it sparked the interest of the oral hygiene and started a movement to promote regular brushing and flossing worldwide. So you guys can think that marketing model from 1890. 1895, the first dental x -rays of a living person was taken in the US by a prominent dentist in New Orleans, C. Edmund Kells. Then in 1917, the first dental hygiene licensure received in Connecticut by, do you know it, Irene Newman.   In 1937, the first dental screw implant was placed. I had no idea that implants came from 1937. That's insanity to me. 1938, the first toothbrush made with synthetic bristles, nylon, appeared on the market for purchase. 1945, cities in New York and Michigan began water fluoridation by adding sodium fluoride to their public water systems. In 1950, the first toothpaste containing fluoride was placed on the market. 1960, lasers were developed, produced, and approved for the soft tissue work such as when treating periodontal disease.   Kiera Dent (04:46.99) And in 1990, new restorative materials were introduced beginning an era of cosmetic aesthetic dentistry. And these were used for crowns, veneers, et cetera. So just a fun time of dating back to when our country was founded is something fun because our country was founded back in 1776. So just kind of doing a quick like little run through of dental history for you guys on the 4th of July. But what I think is so interesting that I kind of wanted to bring to the table today for you on the 4th of July is just thinking about.   how evolved dentistry has become since our country was founded back in 1776. And to think of all the pioneers of dentistry who came before us, who paved the way for those who are making different strides. And I think even in today's world, I think about Brian Harris, who was on the podcast, and Kyle Stanley, and some of these other, I would say, pioneers of dentistry in today's world, where they're thinking differently, they're looking for it. Think of all the softwares that we use right now. Think of all the founders, people who wanted to make the dental experience better. And I would ask you a question today as you are...   thinking about the, since our country was founded, the dental kind of highlights, what are you doing to create, to be a pioneer, if you will, in your practice? Is it that you are giving exceptional patient care? Is it that you are having a team where people just love to work for you? Is it a place where you are working to grow to be multi -practices to serve more patients? What are you doing? Because each of us has our own special unique ways. And I think about the founding fathers of the United States.   I think about a lot of these pioneers in dentistry and without them believing in themselves when probably they didn't believe in themselves. I'm sure there were a few who thought that they were very like above and beyond, but we wouldn't be where we are today without the founding fathers finding America and finding this land and the place that we, a lot of us get to work. I know we have quite a few listeners from other parts of the world and I'm cheering you on on the day that your country was celebrated as well and formed.   But thinking about these pioneers, thinking about the people that brought things to the table, and how are you being that with your team in your practice as a team member, as a dentist, as an owner? What are you doing? I think of so many hygienists and they do things differently. I think about my team and how they bring so many ideas to the table and so many of the things that we're currently doing in the company are due to the team coming up with these innovative ideas. And I just think about, as we reflect on the freedoms that we get to enjoy, we also have an opportunity in   Kiera Dent (07:11.598) in my opinion, a moral obligation to make sure that we're, we're leaving a legacy in the way that we can. How are we able to make it better for the next people that come? How are we able to do that in our everyday? How are we able to make our team members lives easier? How are we able to set up patients for generational success with their healthcare and their dental treatment care? How are hygienists able to educate and train these patients? How are we able to create an experience for these patients that's changing? I mean, hearing that anesthesia came into place.   Like I can't even imagine having that. And yet to think that somebody had an idea, thinking about dental x -rays, thinking about digital x -rays, thinking about now with like Pearl and Overjet with AI coming into place for reading x -rays, thinking about all these different advancements, it came because people were willing to believe in themselves and to try and to go and to execute on something even when it might've felt scary. And so for you, kudos to you for taking the leaps for doctors who have opened their own practices.   For associates who have taken the leap to be these doctors, I know it takes a lot of work to go through it. For office managers who have grown and evolved, for dental assistants who maybe were never assistants before, for hygienists going through school to become these incredible hygienists and clinicians, to educate our patients, for our front office team members who learn and to train and to grow and to listen to the podcast and to become the best person with customer service in a world where I think customer service might be dying off.   How can you and your practice be a pioneer in dentistry, patient experience, team experience in today's world? And what things can you bring to the table to make the world of dentistry an even better place? I think back to when I started the podcast, there was no podcast for teams out there. And I realized this is a zone that I can give back that I can change and serve so many people's lives. I'm one of the youngest people to ever build a consulting company. And I did it because I wanted to do something different.   And to give you guys the resources and the tools and to change your life to where it doesn't have to be hard. It can be easy if you're willing to implement the ideas our consultants give you. Like the reality is that's where it came from, but it's an idea that sparked and you don't have to do it in these grandiose ways. You don't have to be the inventor of something. You don't have to start a business. You don't have to do a podcast. You can literally do it on the phone call. You can literally do it with your patient care. You can have perfect handoffs. So that patient experience is amazing.   Kiera Dent (09:27.438) You can be the best hygienist that teaches your other hygienist in your office or other colleagues around you of how to give better patient care, of how to do a cleaning more effectively. You can be a doctor who shares their knowledge online or inspires other people to do cosmetic dentistry or to do full mouth or to tell where you're getting your CE so other people can have it and share podcasts with other people to inspire them. But just think of how many opportunities we have to really, with the magnitude of technology right now,   radically grow and change and evolve the course of dentistry. And it happens from very simple people who didn't think that they were making great strides. You look back at all those people and you know what, they're not the founding fathers. They're not people that we hear all the time, but they made a huge impact for us and our career and what we're doing today. And so just really wanting you guys to maybe as a team, you can think about this, have fun with the little dental trivia. I thought that was really entertaining and wanted to share with you, but really just think about how can we make a   an experience to change the way dentistry is perceived within our communities, within our teams, within our workspace, within the world of dentistry around us. And how can we be somebody who says that example? What can we do to share? If you guys have a resource or you know something, email it into me. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. I want to hear, I want to hear the people you're using. Like today, I just heard about an incredible photography class and we're sharing great people with you, but equally share, give back. Because I think when like they say tides rise, all boats.   And so how can we, like, it doesn't matter which boat it is, like the tide is rising, all of them. And how can we all collectively rise and grow dentistry? Thank goodness to those founders. Thank goodness to all those people who worked hard within dentistry to give us what we have today. And I would say, take that into your own practice, but you only need to make the ripple effect within your own community, which will expand heavily, give back to your communities, give back to your teams. And I hope you go enjoy the most magical 4th of July.   no matter what country you're in, you get to celebrate the 4th of July too. But truly, I feel so blessed to live in a world and a country where I'm able to have the freedoms to be able to make an impact, to be able to give to you guys and serve you and share with you as much as I can, and to be able to learn from you as well. And that's such a blessing and a gift. And I'm so grateful for that red, white and blue and for the opportunity to be here. So happy birthday, America. Happy birthday to the founding fathers who made this country what it is.   Kiera Dent (11:51.406) and truly look to see how you can be an influencer within your own space to be one of those people that impacted in your own way. And I can't wait to hear what it's about. So be sure to email me Hello @ The Dental A Team .com. If we can help you and your team in any way, please be sure to reach out. I'm here for you. It does not have to be hard and we can truly make an impact in the easiest way possible. And with that, go enjoy your holiday and thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Tiff and Dana share the Dental A-Team method to understanding your practice’s true overhead, and how to budget to get that overhead to where you want it to be. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

Morgan Hamon returns to the podcast and Kiera dives deep with him. They focus on how owners/doctors can prepare their cash flow and tax planning for an associate buy-in, including the ideal time to execute, time horizon, three common frustrations and how to avoid them, and so much more. Episode resources: Learn more about HDA Accounting Group Connect with Morgan: [email protected]  Listen to episode 704, What Should You Expect From Your CPA Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.686) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited. This is one of my favorite guests. He's been on the podcast a couple of times because I felt like I really did not understand my numbers for a long time as a business owner and I felt very dumb. And my first year on taxes, I got like literally my shorts burned so bad with taxes. And Morgan Hamon, owner of HTA accounting, is one of the top accounting companies that I refer to.   They're dental specific. I'm obsessed with it. The office is working with them because I know their numbers are clear. I can read the reports. I know what their profitability is. They're looking at it. So Morgan, welcome back to the show today. How are you?   Morgan (00:37.562) Thank you, Kiera. Always a pleasure to be here. Appreciate it very much. And we're all doing great.   Kiera Dent (00:44.047) Good. Well, I know you guys just finished up taxes. So April, I know you go clear till September. Morgan, help me understand. Why do people ever do an extension? Is it just because they don't have like the cash of it? Like, what is the benefit of doing an extension? I just need to know this for my own personal satisfaction because I don't know.   Morgan (00:58.554) the extension, there's really no, I would say, benefit of doing an extension. Part of it is just kind of realistically looking like what can be done during the first few months of the year. And so extensions are pretty normal. And just so everybody knows, the IRS really doesn't care. The extensions are automatic, no questions asked, no adverse consequences. And truth be told, they really don't care.   The IRS really doesn't want every tax return by April 15th. They can't process it. They can't process what they get by April 15th. So, being able to extend the personal returns out to October 15th and the personal returns out to September, or the corporate returns to September 15th actually helps the IRS. They really don't care. Why the April 15 deadline is important is because that's when the IRS wants their money. So, and that is a common misconception.   Kiera Dent (01:50.542) Yes.   Morgan (01:53.114) that the taxes do April 15 or do when you file the tax return. Both of those are incorrect. The truth is the IRS, they want paid as you earn the money during the year is the truth, which is why if you're a W -2 employee, you have mandatory wage withholding. And if you're a business owner, you're supposed to send in some estimated payments during the year to pay that in so that by the end of the year,   substantially paid in and then doing the tax return is more of a paperwork drill than a cash call, ideally. But that's why extensions exist, how they work. Just realistically speaking from an accountant's point of view, if people are wondering, why is my return on extension? Well, part of it is just understanding the workflow. So,   As everybody hopefully knows, if you own a dental practice, you're almost sure to have what's called a pass -through entity, whether that's a sole proprietor, an S corporation, or a partnership. And what that means is the practice itself does not pay income tax. The profit realized by year end passes through to the personal tax return and you pay your tax personally. So before we can do a personal tax return, the business tax return has to be done.   Kiera Dent (03:11.246) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (03:23.322) And when the business tax return is done, it's not that the business then owes taxes. It's just the math. You collected this much money, deducted all these expenses, it leaves this profit left over. The corporate return deadline and the partnership return deadline is March 15. And here, that's absolutely absurd because the year -end accounting is very extensive.   Kiera Dent (03:41.39) Okay. Yeah.   Morgan (03:51.002) any loan document that hasn't been provided yet has to be tracked down. If there's any payroll discrepancies, those have to be figured out. Everything has to be done in January, including sending out 1099 install applicable vendors. So realistically speaking, not only for us, but any professional firm that's doing a thorough job, completing December and year end really takes the whole month of January, which means that neither us or any other firm out there can really start   Kiera Dent (04:05.102) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (04:15.694) Right.   Morgan (04:20.89) doing business returns until the 1st of February. February 1 to March 15, that's six weeks. Can you see 100 % of your patients in six weeks?   Kiera Dent (04:23.47) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (04:27.758) Cool.   Kiera Dent (04:33.646) I mean, you know, their startup maybe.   Morgan (04:36.218) We're an established practice, right? You can't do... And so, for us, we can't do a year's worth of business tax returns in six weeks. So those are going to be on extension, which is then going to push the personal returns on extension. Keep in mind, an extension doesn't mean September or October. If you do a personal tax return like April 16, it needs to be on extension. Well, it's just a little extra time. So...   Kiera Dent (05:00.302) Gotcha.   Morgan (05:03.706) That's probably the really long answer to your question, but that's how they work.   Kiera Dent (05:06.734) I like it.   Okay, well that was for my own personal knowledge for all of you here. Welcome. Morgan is, I think just the more we're educated as business owners because I feel like every year tax feels like the game of monopoly. And I just feel like there's like so many more rules that if I wish I would have known them, I could have been better educated. So I feel like Morgan, a couple of things that people really are struggling with that I'm hearing that I'd love to dive in, like let's learn some more rules to the game of tax. And I...   Morgan (05:24.602) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (05:38.798) I did have to change my mind. I realized that tax is kind of a fun game for me and how can I maximize and minimize my taxes? How can I just be smarter and better educated, which is why I love podcasting with you, which is why I love having people work with you as clients. And I think having a really good dental specific CPA is vital because like Morgan, you work with so many practices. You can see the trends. You can help people know better, but let's talk about associates wanting to buy in. How does that impact our taxes? How does that impact?   because how does that impact what we're paying, our payments to ourselves? Can you just kind of walk us through associates buying in that?   Morgan (06:13.23) You bet. It's one of those topics where if a client emails and says, hey, I got my longtime associate. I'm thinking about bringing him as a partner. That is always going to result in an appointment with me, right? Because you can't go over email. We have to talk about it. It's complex. So I think the biggest key takeaway, if somebody has a longtime associate,   Kiera Dent (06:36.174) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (06:43.226) they say, you know, I want to bring them in and have a business partner. First off, I'm a fan of that. That's how we're structured. You know, I have two wonderful business partners, many advantages to that. But I think before we even start talking about how that is done, like first and foremost, it's really important for that doctor to understand that when you have a partnership, you know, does...   Kiera Dent (06:49.966) Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.   Morgan (07:09.882) with all those benefits that go along with that, there's also some additional cost. The structure has to change. And so there's going to be more entities, so your compliance costs also go up. And things just get a little more complicated. So if somebody is wanting to buy into a practice, there's a particular way that that needs to be structured so that...   moving forward, both doctors can take advantage of tax saving strategies. The buyer buying in can actually deduct the cost of what they're buying in, of their buy -in. And there's ways to flow the money so that when we get into those tax deductions, they're all done at a personal level rather than the partnership level. So if one partner wants to buy a Cadillac Escalade and the other partner is cool with their, you know,   Kiera Dent (07:48.11) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (08:06.702) Thank you.   Morgan (08:09.722) Prius or whatever, like that cost difference, that needs to be at the personal entity level rather than the partnership level, so you don't have to negotiate that. So any time a partner buy is in, it requires a significant restructure. It takes a lot of time. There's going to be more entities. You have to be more disciplined about how the money flows, and there's more tax returns to do that there just is. So that's the big picture of what's involved.   Kiera Dent (08:24.43) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (08:33.71) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (08:38.17) And I would say if I'm visiting with a client and they're thinking about this, January 1 is the ideal time to execute. And I would say, in the time horizon, in my opinion, at least six months to plan.   Kiera Dent (08:39.862) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (08:46.99) Okay.   Kiera Dent (08:54.318) Okay.   Morgan (08:56.89) So that's the overview. I wasn't sure how much details you wanted to go in with structure.   Kiera Dent (08:59.246) Mm -hmm. Yeah. Well, I think I want to know a couple of things. I think it's really helpful. And January 1, so I have a few questions. One is, like, I just had you and I have a mutual client, and they're going through this. And for a year before the associates going to buy in, I actually had the owner doctor.   Morgan (09:16.442) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (09:21.902) start running and we worked really hand in hand together of having that owner doctor start to almost feel what it will feel like to change their paycheck. Because I don't think people realize how much flows through the company of personal expenses. And so what do you recommend for doctors to set themselves up for an associate to buy in? Because like, well, yes, their monthly paycheck is going to shift, they will be getting a lump sum of cash potentially with the buy in. And so it's one of those things, but I feel like people are so used to their monthly pay.   as opposed to a large sum. How do you recommend owner doctors start to prepare for this associate to come in with cashflow, with taxes, so they can just be, I think, mentally and emotionally prepared for that change when that associate buys?   Morgan (09:51.866) Mm -hmm. Yeah.   Morgan (10:03.066) You bet. So in almost all these cases, including the doctor we're talking about, they have, it's almost always, it's a very successful, larger, single owner operated dental practice, which is classified as an S -cooperation. So single owner S -cooperation. The reason it's classified as an S -cooperation is because that helps manage the self -employment payroll tax burden for that owner.   Kiera Dent (10:14.446) Thank you.   Morgan (10:30.778) And how that works is the owner takes a reasonable W2 owner salary. Now that owner salary is not a measure of what they're worth, what they produce, anything. We are setting that salary at a reasonable threshold. So they pay in a reasonable amount of payroll taxes. And then when you take profit distributions from an S corporation, the owner just takes home the leftover cash every.   Kiera Dent (10:37.39) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (10:57.914) Those are not subject to self -employment payroll taxes. And that's where the magic happens with a single owner S -Corp. Perfect structure for single doctor practice, doing well, enjoying some success. And so the pay they're used to, Kiera, is kind of a very modest W2. And they're entitled to all the leftovers, right? A month end, a quarter end. And we like to see lots of those. That's why we undertake this journey of business ownership. There should be lots of healthy distributions. So when a partner comes in,   Kiera Dent (11:01.998) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (11:15.63) Right.   Morgan (11:26.394) or someone buys in, things change. One question is, why can't I just have the doctor buy half my S -Corp? I guess it should be easy, right? Just come in and check for half and let's just keep one entity and then we don't have to like do anything more and all this complicated stuff Morgan's talking about. If a doctor buys stock in an S -Corp, you can't deduct stock there any more than you can deduct the cost of buying mutual funds on.   Kiera Dent (11:38.83) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (11:51.278) Yeah, exactly.   Morgan (11:51.482) Charles Schwab, right? It's non -deductible for the buyer. So if they're ponying up 700 grand to buy half of a big dental practice, like it's really a bad deal for the buyer if they can't deduct that. So that's like big issue number one. Big issue number two is if two doctors are sharing a single S corporation, they can set the W -2 however they want, but...   Kiera Dent (12:04.91) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (12:19.482) with an S corporation at your end, the profit distributions, the dollars distributed must exactly equal, like be proportionate to ownership percentage, like exactly to the rules. So when two unrelated doctors work together, they usually have a component of their pay based on what their collections are, right? To keep things equitable. The only way to true out any differential and pay in this situation would be to change the W -2. And the more you crank that salary up,   Kiera Dent (12:27.726) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (12:45.494) Yep.   Morgan (12:48.346) because some doctor has higher production, the more money you're paying in payroll tax starts destroying the S -Corp. But it gets even worse because what happens? One doctor wants to buy a new Ferrari and the other doctor says, I've got three kids, I'm cool with my minivan.   Kiera Dent (13:07.726) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (13:09.498) You can't share though. There's no true up. Because sometimes they say, well, you'll just take an extra distribution to kind of true up the cost. You can't do it with an S Corp. So it makes virtually all these things that can be done to minimize tax bill as a business owner, all those tax strategies become extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, when you share. So for those reasons, just buying half an existing S Corp is a non -starter. You should not do it. We've had clients.   where they're set up that way when they come to us and it's just, they have all those frustrations, those three frustrations I just mentioned, they exist. So what to do then? We can't do that. Like my recommendation is you set up a brand new PLLC, now in, or in California, a partnership. And that'll be taxed, or classified as a partnership.   Kiera Dent (13:47.246) Yeah.   Morgan (14:08.506) And so the day of closing, so let's say we're going to do it January 1, the doctor with their existing S -Corp, they're going to sell, let's say it's a 50 % buy -in, they're going to sell 50 % of the fixed out, the equipment and the goodwill to this other doctor. They're going to place that in their own entity they have set up, which leaves half of what was left in the original entity. And both doctors then can contribute those to this new partnership. And then both doctors hold their interest in that partnership in their own personal entities.   Kiera Dent (14:37.774) Thank you.   Morgan (14:38.17) So now there's three entities instead of one. Now with a partnership, the doctors can slice it and dice it however they want. You want to do a monthly payment based on production, knock yourself out, cut checks, and those go to the personal entities. And then at the end of the quarter, end of the month, end of the quarter, if they want to split the leftovers per ownership presented percentages, those go to the personal entities. And that way in the partnership is super clean.   Kiera Dent (14:52.362) Thank you.   Thank you.   Morgan (15:04.762) There's no cars, there's no home office, there's none of that in the partnership. It's all just very, very clean. And then from each doctor's personal S corporation, they will take a reasonable W -2 salary to save money on payroll taxes like we just described. But then in their own entity, they can do the car and the home office and take their board meeting and do all the items on the checklist and get all those tax savings. And it doesn't matter what the other partner's doing. Like it's completely separate.   There's no drama, there's nothing to negotiate or chew up. So, and it's perfect. And that's how HD accounting group is structured. It is a PLLC classified as a partnership. I hold my interest in Morgan K. Hamon, LLC. I do whatever I want in my entity. Courtney does what she wants in her entity. Ken does what he wants in his. And we just, we do our own thing. And the partnership is super clean. It is only business expenses, you know, for.   Kiera Dent (16:00.878) So then, do you guys set up for like you own, here's the HDA, we'll say this is the dental office up at the top. You guys have your own individual ones. It's almost like a DSO structure is what it feels like to me. But like with the profits up there, everything goes through. We can't deduct our own personal things that'll come out of our own S -Corp. So which is fine. But up here, it's basically just like true overhead. Do you put the doctors as part of that overhead of their production and pay them on production?   Morgan (16:08.538) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (16:14.682) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (16:18.874) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (16:28.814) or do we just pay the W -2 salaries? What do you recommend for that? Pay on production or what do you do?   Morgan (16:31.898) Well, first off, at that partnership, right, that top company, the doctors are not on W -2. And that is one of the really important action items. If a client's undergoing this, hey, when you set up that partnership, all the staff are going to go beyond the W -2, but not the partners. A typical agreement that we see is every month there will be a payment to the partners.   based on collections attributable to their efforts. So they're going to pull that out at Dentrix Curve Open Dental. And they're going to work that out internally and say, hey, you had these collections, I had these collections. And then they're going to have a uniform percentage. And it'll typically be a little bit lower than an associate because we don't want to believe that the practice dry cash.   Kiera Dent (17:05.55) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (17:26.382) where.   Morgan (17:27.834) And it should be based on collections rather than productions, because as mutual owners, they have a shared responsibility to make sure the practice is collected money. So maybe it's 25%, 30 % of collections attributable to each doctor's effort. And that's a monthly payment that goes to the personal S corporation. The terminology for that is technically called a guaranteed payment from a partnership. And that sounds a little silly, because we all know there's no guarantees in life, but that's what it's called. So it's not W -2. It is a check that gets cut from the partnership.   Kiera Dent (17:34.606) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (17:49.198) Okay.   Okay, good to know.   Morgan (17:57.754) to the personalized score. So that's monthly. Now we get to the end of the quarter and these two doctors have spoken and they say, you know, at the partnership, our break even, and we calculated a true break even, right? The break even before anything goes to the doctors, we've covered all the expenses plus debt service. The true break even is let's say it's 80 ,000 a month. And they say we've talked and we're about 150 would be, is like the cashers are weak, we can sleep at night. We're calm.   Kiera Dent (17:59.278) Okay.   Morgan (18:28.378) So at the end of the quarter, there's 200 grand in the operating account. Their mutually desired cash reserve is 150, so they each cut a check for 25 each. And that's a check that goes directly to the personalized corp. So money is going to accumulate in that personalized corp from there. That's how the doctor takes the money home. They take their reasonable W -2 paycheck that we would help calculate. That paycheck is not going to pay all their bills. They're going to take lots of distributions out of their personalized corp. And then pay the card, home office, and door.   Kiera Dent (18:52.974) Gotcha. What do you do? Because usually in a partnership, there's a spender and a saver. I think the same thing in a relationship. So what happens with the distributions? Because I've seen with a lot of associates and partners that one wants to take distribution sooner than the other. How do you set that up? Because I do feel like sometimes that's a sticking point. How do you recommend setting that up between partners?   Morgan (19:01.466) Mmm.   Morgan (19:12.282) Yeah. It's the, what we'll call it. So yeah, it is a relationship that's everything like accounting is a relationship business being in business, being partners as a relationship business. So with a partnership, you need a prenup and that's called the operating agreement. And I tell folks you look, you need a, you need a really savvy attorney that works with a lot of dentists because they're not only going to set up these entities and do the asset purchase agreements, but you need a very well -written strong.   Kiera Dent (19:22.094) Okay.   Morgan (19:42.626) operating agreement for the partnership where you agree on all of this ahead of time. How are we going to quantify the cash reserve? What is going to be our savings reserve? What percentage are we going to use to pay? You got to sort all that out. You have to identify, well, what happens if someone gets hurt or disabled? What if they get divorced? What if, heaven forbid, they pass away? All of that has to be outlined in the partnership agreement. What happens if you decide you don't like being partners?   Kiera Dent (19:46.67) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (20:13.306) Like that has to all be lined out ahead of time. So you don't have to negotiate that. So that's the answer, Kiera, is it's all negotiable, but it needs to be set in stone in that partnership operating agreement prior to day one. I mean, they got to agree to that going into it.   Kiera Dent (20:34.67) So I agree with you. And I always tell everybody like, you need to plan the divorce before you get married. Like, what does this look like if we break up? Because in a couple of partnerships I was in, I wish I would have known facts and details because I would have made different decisions differently if I would have known the outcomes of those. But like, you get into it, which is why I agree. Have a really good dental attorney draft this who's seen it because the more exposure you get, the more you know what issues will come up.   Morgan (20:55.706) Okay.   Kiera Dent (21:00.43) But Morgan, what do you recommend is healthy? Like from a tax savings point, because my husband and I, I mean, Morgan, if I could, I would just keep, like, I love to spend, but I also love to save. I'm a very unique individual. Most people are not like me. So I love to have all of my savings accounts, but I also like to spend money. My true fun game is I like order off Amazon to get the spend thrill. And then I go return to get my savings thrill. Like I'm this constant return girl. But what do you do? Like what is a healthy amount to have in your savings?   Morgan (21:23.194) I'm sorry.   Kiera Dent (21:29.358) as a partnership of a business? What is healthy of how often to do distributions? Just as like a general idea. So doctors going into the associate partnership relationship even have an idea of like what could be normal.   Morgan (21:38.65) Mm -hmm.   So my personal opinion is that, and just to define terminology, I call it operating cash reserve. Some people might call that working capital, rainy day fund, whatever that is. It's sort of the minimum amount you want to have in your bank account at all times. And the reason you want that amount is at its core, you just to be able to pay your bills and not have to feel like you're juggling cash, right?   Kiera Dent (22:01.038) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (22:11.054) Right.   Morgan (22:11.226) So payrolls do the same week as the rent, same week as gotta pay the Shine bill. Like you can just pay it and not have to worry about it. In my opinion, that is somewhere between one and two months of a monthly break even point. For smaller practices, it tends to be a higher multiple. For larger practices, it tends to be a lower multiple. And the reason for that is, is,   you know, if you've got a really large practice and their breakeven is $180 ,000 a month, I mean, that ends up being a huge chunk of cash. You don't necessarily want to keep 400 grand in the operating account. So that's why you'll see the lower multiples. Ultimately, it's up to the owners and whatever the comfort level is. But I think if we were to just put some boundaries out there, minimum one month up to two months. That is not to say I have a client and a really good friend of mine, big practice.   Kiera Dent (22:47.95) Right.   Morgan (23:07.418) And they keep 100k breakage at a minimum. And in my opinion, that's a little skinny, just given the size of their operation. But you know what? It's up to them. It's whatever they want to do. So that's how we define that. And then.   Kiera Dent (23:15.79) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (23:22.19) But then do you also have to have a tax bucket or is, I guess it wouldn't be taxed because it would just be the money passes down to each entity, right? That's where it becomes individual.   Morgan (23:28.698) This is really a good thing to bring up because, and this is where I'm going to reiterate where we started, the businesses don't pay income tax. It's just math.   So I'm just going to use a real simple example. Let's say it's a single doctor practice. It's a $1 .2 million office. And at the end of the year, you look at the collections that they collected during that tax year. That's all the expenses, the rent, the marketing, the staff, us, the bank fees, all that.   deduct the equipment, everything, and there's going to be a profit number at the end. That taxpayer owes income tax on that profit, regardless of whether they take it home or not. That number flows through. So with a partnership, what makes it confusing? So we've had a couple instances where it's a 50 -50 partnership. It comes time to do the quarterly tax plan. So we're looking at this ahead of time. And...   Kiera Dent (24:16.654) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (24:22.766) for sure.   Kiera Dent (24:30.958) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (24:38.298) They'll each get their in tax planning, taxes are paid individually. The tax plan is prepared, delivered and discussed individually because everyone has their own situation. But for part, they'll get together and talk. And so we're doing say a Q3 tax plan and it's 50 -50. They do it right down the middle. It's all pretty similar. And then they'll get a tax plan and one doctor has a higher forecast tax liability and then the higher recommended estimated payment than the other. And they say, wait a minute, we're 50 -50.   Kiera Dent (25:06.286) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (25:08.154) Why am I paying more tax? Well, it's because that profit flows through to the personal tax return and one spouse, maybe they have, or one doctor maybe has a spouse who's a physician and makes $200 ,000 W -2. Well, their income gets added on to the partner profit. It puts them in a higher tax bracket, higher effective tax rate. Any time...   Kiera Dent (25:15.022) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (25:35.642) There's a spouse who is a high earning W -2 that are almost always under withheld significantly because wherever they work, their withholding tables are not including the practice owner's profit, right? So it's always under withheld substantially. So you have to make up for that with a higher quarterly estimated payment. So that's why there's the Delta in tax payments, right? Because when that liability hits the personal, you got to look at, wait, you got 12 Airbnb rental houses?   Kiera Dent (25:46.958) their spots. Right.   Kiera Dent (26:02.638) Thank you.   Morgan (26:04.282) Okay, that's a lot of rental income. That's going to push you up. So it's very individual. Now, in terms of a tax bucket, if folks want to save for tax in a partnership, that's going to be at the personal S -corp level. Just hold on to the money there. Ultimately, when they write that check, it's a personal liability. And so the best thing to do, like when we're doing tax planning, we will look at year -to -date profit.   Kiera Dent (26:20.59) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (26:33.37) We know that for sure. We can look at that. And then if we're doing tax planning ahead of time, if you think about it, there's months in the year that haven't happened yet. And that's where tax planning gets hard. Because what do you put in those months? So we look at trailing four -month profit trends, and we forecast those out to December 31. We add the forecast to the year to date, and that gives us our annual profit just to do some tax planning ahead of time.   Kiera Dent (26:44.43) Right. Mm -hmm.   Morgan (27:03.066) And when we do that, we're calculating an effective tax rate. An effective tax rate is just total tax or total income divided by the tax paid is effective rate. And what that really means is if you go, if anyone were to go Google, you know, what are the tax income tax rates for 2024? You're going to see these different brackets ranging up to 37%. And those are, that's the law. That's reality.   but only your income within those brackets is subject to that percentage. And so when you average it out, you're gonna end up with what's called an effective tax rate. So if somebody is just, it's mid -year, we talked about, okay, it's mid -year, what should I be thinking about? Well, look at your last year's tax return. If there's a tax summary on there, which hopefully there is, ours have that, it'll tell you what your effective tax rate is. And you gotta look at federal and state. So if you're a federal,   If your federal effective tax rate is 29 % and you're here in Colorado and your effective state tax is like 4 .4%, just round that up, that's 35%. So whatever income you see you've earned during the year, just keep a third of it. Hang on to a third of it and just keep it handy. Now, hopefully you won't need the whole third. We get to your end.   Kiera Dent (28:09.198) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (28:15.342) Yeah.   Morgan (28:25.306) And in November, they decided we're going to pull the trigger finally and buy that Sarek we've been thinking about. Holy cow, $150 ,000 tax deduction overnight. 50 -50 partnership, each gets 75. That's going to lower it. But I would rather they're saving a third and maybe you don't need all of it. Yeah. And then whatever's left, it's their money. You can go do something with it. So.   Kiera Dent (28:41.646) Agreed.   Kiera Dent (28:46.094) That's what I say is the business owners tax return like over save and that's how we actually get our tax return. I agree. I think I'm much happier and I put mine in a high yield savings account and so I am earning interest on it, which technically I do need to report in which I do, but I love having it sit there and that's how I've done it for years and it's worked out really well. So I'm curious Morgan, that was really, really helpful and I appreciate you walking through that. Can a new owner, let's say this isn't necessarily an associate, it could definitely apply to like the partnership piece, but.   Morgan (28:49.53) Hmm?   Morgan (28:53.242) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (28:57.306) You first.   Kiera Dent (29:16.59) I just I met a doctor they purchased a practice this year and they were thinking about buying another Like they wanted to buy their mill and they want to buy all these things and I said I would chat with your CPA and find out if it makes tax sense to buy it this year to buy it next year and what other people that was at the conversation they said well can't dental practices roll through losses year after year and I have never known that I haven't asked that so I was like well Morgan's here I'm gonna ask him the question   Can you roll loss from year to year to year in a dental practice? Because I've never heard of that.   Morgan (29:48.73) It depends on what the loss is. If you're electing to take section 179, which let's define that real quick, because everyone's heard of that. I'm like, what is that? So when you buy medical equipment,   Kiera Dent (30:00.75) I don't know what it is. Again, here's the rules of monopoly. Tell us another rule Morgan.   Morgan (30:09.466) The rules are that must be depreciated over five years. Now depreciation is another one of those terms. We're going to talk about that. It means you write it off. So if you go buy an order of dental supplies, you're going to consume that within 12 months. So you get to deduct the whole thing right away, like a dollar for dollar deduction. When you buy equipment, things are going to last with a useful life longer than 12 months.   Kiera Dent (30:20.014) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (30:39.354) The rules are that you must then take the deduction over that estimated lifespan. And the IRS has very standardized rules. They used to not have those, and then the IRS would fight with the taxpayers over what the useful life is. And so that was all standardized. And so now medical equipment, it's five years, period dot. And then it's accelerated depreciation. So you get your biggest bang for the buck, you're two, you're three.   Now Section 179 says, you know what, forget that whole five year deal. Let's do it right now. Let's do it right now. And that exists to encourage people to spend money on their business. So you buy this and then you can deduct it all right now. Well, depreciation, regular depreciation can create a loss, but Section 179 cannot.   Kiera Dent (31:20.31) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (31:28.858) If someone has an S corp and they're on owner salary and the owner salary is creating the loss, you can't take that. So when it comes to equipment, this is what I've always said for years.   When you make investments in your practice, do so for the operational and clinical needs of the practice. If you don't need it for one of those two reasons, stop. Don't buy anything. So the timing then, so let's say, they say, you know what, we really want to buy the milling machine. Like we're really excited about it, it's something we're going to do. And it's year end and they say, well, so the question comes up, should I do it now or later?   Kiera Dent (31:53.55) Right. Yes.   Morgan (32:11.802) Hi, you know, we can look, okay. What, what is your liability? If they just bought a practice that year, you know, I might say, look, if you need it now to practice how you want and to make more money, then do it now. We'll figure the taxes out. if it's on the wish list and like, you know, the horizon, we're going to do this. And we're definitely doing at least six to eight months. Like we want this in here and they just bought a practice. I, you know, I would say, let's think about holding off till next year.   Kiera Dent (32:24.686) for sure.   Kiera Dent (32:35.886) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (32:41.518) Okay, and that was my thought too. Right.   Morgan (32:41.594) because we got a lot of deductions this year. And this is why, Kiera, is that if a practice is growing, right? And that's, you know, you and I are in that same business. We want to help our doctors make more money and grow and be more successful. If you're more successful making more money, you will have a higher effective tax rate, like we just talked about. There's no two ways about it. So if you have a higher effective tax rate in a future year, your tax...   Kiera Dent (32:56.462) course.   Kiera Dent (33:02.99) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (33:09.754) when you buy equipment, that tax benefit is also greater. So here's a quick example. You buy 100K piece of equipment and you have an effective tax rate combined federal and state of 25%. That's a $25 ,000 tax benefit. If we do it next year, buy the same $100 ,000 piece of equipment and you're making all this more money enjoying all the success and your combined effective tax rate is 30%, that's a $30 ,000 tax benefit.   Kiera Dent (33:12.494) Correct.   Morgan (33:37.37) So putting it off to the future year on a growing practice is not a bad thing. And so when you hear things like, well, you don't want to miss out on your Section 179, I'm just like, well, hold the phone here, right? Let's do what makes sense for the practice. You never miss out on anything ever when it comes to tax deductions. You get to deduct 100 % of every dollar you spend on your practice. It's just a matter of when. And next year is not a bad answer.   Kiera Dent (33:48.11) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (34:01.87) Okay.   Kiera Dent (34:06.51) Awesome, no, that helps a lot. So I just want to ask as we wrap this up, Morgan, this has been so helpful. I don't want to chat bonus. I will always ask you a million questions because like I said, I feel like taxes monopoly rules teach me more. But let's talk just real quickly. I want to get a smidge dicey on politics with you.   With the election coming up this year, what do you think business owners and practice owners should be preparing for regardless of whomever? And I mean, maybe you can say if one gets elected Republican or Democrat, like what did it impact us tax wise or things that we should be preparing for for the next four years? Of course, I don't hold this as a crystal ball. Like I said, I kind of want to get a little dicey and juicy with you on this podcast. Like what would you say would be some wise things for us to be doing as business owners now, pending upon the political landscape moving forward?   Morgan (34:34.618) Yeah.   Morgan (34:44.442) Yeah.   Morgan (34:52.026) And I don't, I can't say for sure. It is really difficult to change the tax code. I mean, it happens like once in a generation. So regardless to who wins, the chances of something drastic taking place like next year, I think are pretty slim, particularly if it's right.   Kiera Dent (35:11.79) So you don't think that if one got elected over the other, because there's always talk about like high earners, which dentists obviously are that they're just going to get like hosed on taxes. And they'll increase that. Do you think that that could happen in any way?   Morgan (35:18.81) Mm. Yeah.   So the big question right now is that the 2017 tax cuts and jobs, that is set to expire. And if that expires, the highest marginal rate is going to go back to 39 .6 from 37. The brackets are going to change. So is that going to happen? I don't know, regardless of who wins. Because I don't know.   Kiera Dent (35:30.222) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (35:53.402) I don't think it's going to be particularly popular for that to expire no matter who wins. Now, can we do anything about that as business owners? I don't think so because we have passed through entities, all of us. There's no hiding the money. There's no... This is a question I get all the time. Like, well, I'm not going to take the money out of my business because I don't want to pay...   Kiera Dent (35:59.63) Sure.   Kiera Dent (36:10.67) Mm -hmm.   Morgan (36:22.874) pay tax on it. And I'm like, there's an hour. And I get it the other way, too. I'm just gonna pull it all out of the business. So you can't really like do anything different. So when I think about this, yeah, I definitely don't want to see those.   Kiera Dent (36:24.014) We still do. It's a profit.   Kiera Dent (36:29.902) No. What about like real estate? Like what it makes sense to do real estate or like I've also heard that the capital gains tax if one gets elected over the others could impact if people are selling for DSOs. Like any of those things with capital gains or real estate. I also heard I think that depreciation for the syndication. I don't know if I'm saying the right words in real estate. It's like going down each year of how much it is. I'm not saying to go get into that, but are those any of those types of things, things we should look at?   Morgan (36:59.802) You know, the capital gains one is one that has kind of my biggest attention. Just because they're talking about some high, some pretty substantial changes. But again, if things revert back to the 2017, you know, that doesn't put capital gains up at like 40 % or whatever they're talking about. I mean, that's a new rule that would go in place. And I just, I can't see how that possibly get passed because you're discouraging.   Kiera Dent (37:04.142) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (37:18.958) Right.   Morgan (37:27.226) entrepreneurs and job creators, you know, from investing, particularly in real estate, you know, if you look around, like all the apartment complexes and everything that cities need to house people, well, those aren't government projects, those aren't investors. And if you take away the reward, who's going to take the risk? You know, so I think the likelihood of capital gains blowing up like that is, I don't know, I have a hard time seeing that. But like, what are we doing? What am I doing? I'm doing the same things I would do anyway.   Kiera Dent (37:43.598) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (37:50.51) Okay.   Morgan (37:57.37) Collect the most money you can. Watch your overhead. Don't have collection problems. And one question I get all the time, Kiera, someone's like, and you know what? I think I'm gonna sell. Like I've been at it for a lot of years, I'm gonna sell. How do I prepare to lower the tax bill? You heard that one? The sad answer, there's really nothing you can do, right? And if someone's wanting to position their practice to sell,   Kiera Dent (38:15.534) Great question.   Morgan (38:26.202) You do all the same things you'd want to do anyways. You want the highest annual collections with the highest profit margin, because that's going to yield the highest valuation. And both of those are things you'd want to do for yourself anyway. Collect a lot of money with the highest profit margin possible, make the most money, that's how you prep it. But on the tax, you're taxed on the taxable gain realized from the practice. And the gain is calculated as the difference between what you got paid,   Kiera Dent (38:39.63) Mm -hmm. Sure.   Morgan (38:53.914) and what your tax basis is, and your tax basis is what you paid in the first place, less what you've taken into appreciation. It's set in stone. You can't go back.   Kiera Dent (39:02.254) But if you got paid that out, could you get that paid out over like a five year term and reduce it that way so you're not getting it all up front or does that really make a difference?   Morgan (39:09.466) You could, but that requires an owner carry. So does, you know, to try and trim, you know, well, and to try and spread that out and maybe I'm in a lower effective rate in future years, you also then for that to work, you get paid out over time, which means you're, you're doing some type of owner financing. So do you, does the, does a seller want to take that risk? Maybe they really like this new doctor, but if the new doctor comes in and turns out that they run that practice in the ground.   Kiera Dent (39:28.366) Sure.   Morgan (39:39.45) and declare bankruptcy, do you want to just be out of that money? Or do you want that money like all up front? So there's, what that's called, it's treated like an installment sale is when you get, you can sort of that tax bill out, but that requires the owner carry, which increases risk.   Kiera Dent (39:43.926) right. Is there any?   Kiera Dent (39:57.646) Is there anything that I sound so naive, so I hope everybody gets a good laugh out of this, including yourself. Is there any type of 1031 exchange like they have in real estate for businesses? Like you can't put that money anywhere else to reduce the taxes.   Morgan (40:11.29) Now, so that was killed in 2017. If things revert, you know, there could be changes there. But yeah, as it is, the 1031 exchange, and that's always in the gun sites of Congress, right? And I've heard talk about it, like even the real estate one going away, because it's not, you got to, the 1031 is not a tax -free exchange, it's a tax -differed exchange. We're just putting this off.   Kiera Dent (40:26.03) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (40:39.854) But it's because we were putting it off in the hopes that we'd have a lesser income that year, right? So we'd pay less in taxes when we defer and start selling those business, those real estate off, right?   Morgan (40:40.41) It only exists for real.   Morgan (40:50.842) Now for real estate, I mean, generally real estate appreciates. Right. So, you know, in terms of real estate, 1031, I think you are just putting it off. I don't think it's going to be less.   Kiera Dent (40:55.406) That's fair.   Kiera Dent (41:01.166) What have you moved to Puerto Rico though when you sell it? I'm just asking questions over here.   Morgan (41:05.658) Bye.   Maybe you moved to Puerto Rico. So regarding that, it's hard enough to have the so -called crystal ball in just looking at, OK, it is June 6. I can hardly believe right now. It's hard enough just to see, OK, for the next six months, what's your profit going to be? That's hard enough to try and say. Trying to look into future tax years on how the laws are going to change, I just.   Kiera Dent (41:11.022) You   Kiera Dent (41:26.958) I know, right?   Morgan (41:39.674) and then make decisions now based on what we think then. I don't know, maybe that gets a little out of my lane, you know, maybe gets into the financial planning lane. But, you know, regarding tax, you know, what comes first and foremost is run a successful business. Be an amazing clinician, be an amazing business leader, inspire people. You know, I get asked all the time, like, what's the hot geographic area? What specialty should I go in so I can make the best decisions?   Kiera Dent (41:56.814) Agreed.   Morgan (42:07.706) money and I say look geography has nothing to do, geography is very limited impact. Some of our highest earning like most successful clients are in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities on the planet. It's the doctor, what type of clinician, what type of business leader and those doctors that have the whole package and run an amazing business and the patients love them, the staff love them and they refer out minimal because they have an expansive skill set. Those are the doctors that make   the most money. So like my focus is always on, okay, how do we help doctors get there? How do we help them enjoy the most financial rewards? We will execute a number of tax strategies to trim that tax bill, keep them informed along the way and enjoy that type of success, financial success. But I'm not really looking ahead trying to look at what's going to happen now.   Kiera Dent (42:40.846) Yeah.   Morgan (43:03.994) We'll certainly pay attention depending on what happens next year and any changes in likelihood. And trust me, there's going to be plenty of professional commentary on predictions on what may happen. But there's nothing I'm not going to advise anybody to do anything differently now other than just run the best dental practice they can and comply with the tax treatment plan, which is tax planning, and make those estimated payments.   Kiera Dent (43:31.758) I love it.   Morgan (43:32.346) and do everything we recommend to trim that text.   Kiera Dent (43:36.622) Yeah, brilliant Morgan and I appreciate that and I just want it again. I always love asking people's opinions on it because I think everybody is wondering what to do, but I agree with you and I think some of the best advice is don't try and lower your tax bill like having a higher tax. I mean and that means like don't make less than you should run a very successful practice by the things that are going to move your practice forward. Do it because it's going to grow your business. You and I are very, very complimentary in that regard and so I just love you chatting about him right now. I'd say we're halfway through the year.   So people start looking at your tax bill, start looking at what you're projected out there, start making sure you have these things in place. Talk to your financial CPA. That's why I wanted Morgan on right now is because I want you guys preparing for end of year. So you don't have these hard December's with bonuses and different ways that you do things, have a plan in place. So Morgan, if people are like, that's it, I'm done. I need a new CPA. I love Morgan. I love that he can help me set this up, whether it's associates, whether it's startup, like Morgan is truly brilliant with dental CPA work.   How do people connect with you? What's the best way to get in contact?   Morgan (44:36.666) So they can jump on our website, HDAGroupDental .com. That shows our core value proposition, our three main services. There are links all over that place to set an appointment. Just realize we don't have salespeople. Initial consultation is me and my business partner, Courtney. We do all of those personally. You're talking with an owner up front. We get to know you, understand your situation, and tell you about what we do. So you can set an appointment that way. Or if you just want to email me, mhamon, M-H -A -M-O -N, @   HDAGroupDental .com. I will respond to you personally and we'll set up a time to chat and see if it'd be a good fit.   Kiera Dent (45:12.974) amazing. Like I said, I love you guys. I appreciate you answering all the questions. Reach out. And I really do believe getting good numbers is probably the best thing I ever did to make my business successful and having a good CPA that I could count on that got me numbers timely, that knew what I was doing in my industry. So helpful. So Morgan, thanks for being on the podcast today. Always enjoy our time.   Morgan (45:32.922) Me too, Kiera. I enjoyed it. I appreciate you having me.   Kiera Dent (45:35.918) Always. And for all of you listening, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

We’re halfway through 2024! That means we’re halfway toward the goals made at the beginning of the year. In this episode, Kiera reminds listeners to prep for the end of the year now by touching base with the right people, and adjusting or pivoting where necessary. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.622) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to today. I hope you guys are just having such a great day and I hope it's an amazing day for you. And I truly do hope that you're remembering that life is amazing. Life is beautiful and we get to be so blessed to be alive. Now, if you guys are struggling, I know I have been struggling a little bit lately. that's okay. Like every day is not meant to be a perfect day. And so I think it's just remembering to find out like, what are the beautiful things that we can be grateful for?   In one of my meditations, yes, I do meditate every morning. I try to, I believe that strengthening our minds is kind of like working out, you guys, we deal with a lot of hard things all the time. And so getting that mental stamina, I think is something so pertinent. And the other day I was meditating, I use calm. And then actually just recently found out about a company called inner armor. that really does like they train actually athletes with it and utilizing your breath and also your eyes. so if you guys are interested in our armor,   jury's still out for me on using it. But I was super excited. I got introduced to this company for it. But in my meditation the other morning, they were talking about how they do a gratitude countdown. And she was in this really dark place. And so it's just like, whenever you're kind of in that schmucky zone, just to say like, all right, gratitude countdown, and you can do it with a buddy, my husband, I started doing this. And I actually think it's helped me a lot to get kind of out of my schmucky zone of   like 10 things that you're grateful for. And then the other person says 10 things that they're grateful for. So the other night I've been kind of in a, in a slump, if you will. I think that I'm in this weird, I don't know. It's a morphing. It's a, I don't really know my purpose currently. I'm sure all of us go through this. I meant seven years in the business and I hear it seven year stitcher itch. And so, but that gratitude countdown, I think actually can be so pertinent for us of building that mental stamina. So,   Every day, I know that this lady on the meditation, she talked about how she just does, like even on her daily walk, she'll do 10 things that she's grateful for. And it actually was really awesome to hear my husband's things that he was grateful for as well. And so just kind of like building up that path as opposed to the path of negativity. So if you are not having, if you're on the Cloud9, amazing, keep going with the gratitude.   Kiera Dent (02:19.758) Maybe you're kind of in a slump right now. Again, remember it's just seasons and this isn't forever. And I think it's just figuring out how to manage those tidal waves again through that mental stamina. So welcome to today. I hope you guys are looking forward to what we have. Our goal in Dental A Team is to bring positivity to the world of dentistry and to remind us why we're here and why we're doing what we're doing and to give you tools in your tool belt to be able to   master your mind, master your emotions and be able to execute on the best team and patient experience. So if you guys are loving our podcast, shout out to you all. You are keeping us as one of the top most listened to podcasts. So I just ask that you guys leave a review, share this in a Facebook group. If people are asking for podcasts or if you heard a great podcast that's helping you, be sure to just share it. You can share our reels that we have out there as well. But that just really helps us do that. So I wanted to say thank you to all of you who did it.   I always love to do a shout out and I actually just noticed a review that I really loved the other day. So I'm actually going to shout this person out. So pulling it up on our podcast page and the way you guys leave a review is just you go to wherever you listen, Spotify, Apple, whatever streaming you've got, go down to the bottom and then you do a, you actually just leave a review right there. So you can either do the five stars or you can write one, but Shelby A actually posted, and that's why I like this one. It's special. It was.   on my birthday. So thank you, Shelby. She said, this is a great resource for dental offices and someone like myself that aspires to be a better dental consultant. Thanks for all your wisdom. And then Jamin came in and said, thanks for sharing your knowledge and wisdom of all things dental. It's a pleasure to listen to your tips and tricks. There's almost always something that I hear you say that makes my office a better place and me a better person. So just wanted to give them a shout out because I do appreciate and I do read them. So thank you. All right. Today's topic is   on kind of preparing for the year and this is releasing in July. And so we are halfway through the year. And I just want you to kind of do a halfway midpoint check -in to see where are you at? What are you doing and what things do you need to be working on? We have this really, we have two awesome groups in Dental A Team. I've got our one -on -one coaching clients that come to, we call it Think Tank and we do it on the first Tuesday of every month. And it's our doctor mastermind and with such an amazing one.   Kiera Dent (04:33.71) And then we also have our group that comes together and they meet all the time. They're meeting every single Thursday and the first Wednesday of the month, we actually do a pretty deep dive, Dr. Mastermind. And I got to be lucky. I got to be part of it the other, the other day. And it was interesting because we were talking about numbers and we were talking about KPIs and we're talking about making sure the foundations of their business are in place from their core values and their org chart to their numbers, to their systems.   And one of the doctors in that group, he said, Kiera, I love how you guys have set this up because you really were intelligent in helping us as leaders build up first. And then we actually do a secondary part where we as Dental A Team, take it to your team for you. But in conjunction with what the doctors have already done. So for example, for the core values, we actually take you through an entire exercise as the, the doctor and the owner of the practice to go through, figure out your core values, figure out your mission. And we do it from a completely doctor business standpoint.   And then we have like a week or two later where you actually can take it to your team. So that way the doctors are creating the vision, but then you take it to the team to execute and to build and to expand it. And he said, Kiera, the way you guys have built this is so brilliant because, and I was so glad the doctor came to this aha moment on their own. He said, you did it in a way to where the team built in and they created the goals with us. And so it's not just us creating these goals and saying, this is what we need to do, but it was all of us.   creating these goals and I can go back to them and say, remember, we did this together. We built these goals together. And I was like, I'm so grateful because that's how you get goals and that's how you get your team bought in is you have them co -create with you. You have them take the autonomy. They're asking me, Kiera, how do we get the numbers to where our team cares about them? And the goal is where it's not Dental A Team just teaching, but it's truly a group mastermind of all of us working together on it. And I loved the group because what they said was,   You know, we actually have gamified it. We've told our team like, these are your numbers, like you take it and run with it. Like, what do we need to do to hit this big goal that we set together as a team? What do you need to do in your department and really take that ownership? And I said, that's the key to making numbers matter with your team is getting that ownership where they feel like that's my number and I own it. Hey, shout out Tiffanie all the time. You guys hear her on the podcast often. But I love Tiffanie for so many reasons. But one thing that I use in this example is Tiff, if you listen to her,   Kiera Dent (06:49.934) She feels like Dental A Team is her company. And I agree. I don't believe that Dental A Team is just Kiera's company. I believe that it is everyone on our team's company. And I want my team to have that ownership. I want them to feel like they have the autonomy to build things. I want them to feel like these numbers are their numbers. They're not Kiera's numbers. Yes, I'll bring the bumper guidelines of what I want them to be. But ultimately, I want my team to own their numbers. And so,   It was really beautiful in the group. I loved being able to share ideas and our group is amazing. It's very intimate. It's very real. Some people get so nervous about groups, right? Like I don't want to go to it, but it's crazy because I felt the same way. I thought, no, no, no. I only want one -on -one, but it's interesting because I joined Tony Robbins group and I actually have paid to be in the top tier where I actually got to go to Tony's house and I got to be a part of his mastermind. But something I noticed is,   Well, I love talking to Tony. I've talked to him a few times. I've done some interventions with him. He's helped me personally on my personal life and my business, which is incredible. This man is a genius, but it's interesting because he talks about it and he says, oftentimes the power that you guys are getting from these events is not me coaching you. It's you hearing everybody else's experiences and you're learning from them because you're hearing ideas that you wouldn't even come to the table with on your own.   And that's why I love this group. That's why we built the group was because I felt like one -on -one is so incredible. And we still have a ton of one -on -one help. You get to come every single week and ask your questions of your practice. You get to have an online chat that the consultants are a part of. But it's so cool to hear other people's experiences. Like in our doctor think tank, the doctors all are learning from each other and it's like, well, I did this in my practice center. Let me give you this perspective of me who might be your associate. Let me give you this perspective. And I just think that...   So often we're not looking at that. And so using your team, but then also being a part of a community or a group where you get to learn and not have to go through the success tax on your own. Being able to learn from other people, I think is one of the most valuable pieces we can do. And I thought about myself and what do I value in business? And I said, I value being around other people that are like me, smarter than me, and can guide me where I need to go. And so just when I'm having you guys look at halfway points of your numbers, your overhead, getting your team bought into this,   Kiera Dent (09:02.286) being in places where you do have other people that you can lean on for support because going back to even the beginning of this podcast where I was talking about mental stamina, I think oftentimes mental stamina is required, but the way we have it and we're able to fortify and continue through is by having people and connections. I was talking to my therapist the other day and she said, you know, Kiera, what makes life worth like having meaning is connections in life. And I've thought about it. How, how many connections do we have?   that aren't necessarily like patient connections or team connections. Do you have colleagues around you? Do you have friends around you that are supporting you, that are pushing you forward, that are reminding you, hey, it's our halfway point. How are your goals? How can I support you? What can I do? These are some of the things I've done. Let me share them with you. Because I think back to, you know, go back 50, 60 years ago and community was so much more. People lived in their same places. People grew up in their same places. People didn't travel as much. We're more of a transient society now. And so,   Do you have community within your work? Like I purposely have joined DentalAid, Tony Robbins, because as a business owner, and especially as a consultant, where do I go for that support to be able to buoy myself up? Where do I go to have people that can work on my business for me? Where can I go with people that are like me? And that's actually what we've tried to create in Dental A Team is a space for doctors to come and connect together, a space for office managers to come and connect and learn from each other. So really building a community.   So with that, as you guys are looking at your end of year, I hope you're thinking about a community and who do you have and do you have someone guiding you? Do you have someone giving you these checkpoints that's also holding you accountable to it? That's something I'm really, really big on is that you don't just come and hear words, but you actually take actions. So going from podcasts of listening to action and implementation is truly where the magic is. So for your end of year, I hope you guys are meeting with your CPAs right now, that you are.   taking the time to look to see where you at, have you saved enough for taxes? I believe that when people have a bad December, it's due to lack of planning. And so right now you're at mid -year, be the proactive office who reaches out to your CPA and finds out where am I at? What's my profit? What do I need to have saved for taxes? Am I on track or am I off track? Because you still have six months through the year to be able to make up if you haven't had it versus trying to catch up next year when it's another year. Are you guys on track with your?   Kiera Dent (11:23.726) numbers and your goals of where you wanted to be for this year. And if not, can you pivot? Can you pull your team together? Can you lean on the community of doctors around you and ask them for support of what do they do to be able to move forward? I know all of our doctors are leaning on each other. I know all of them are working together. Are you looking at what you need to build and making sure you have a good block schedule in place that's actually going to support your goals rather than it just being a hope and a wish? I believe that goals can be hit successfully with a plan.   And so often we just set a goal, but we don't actually have the plan or the pieces in play to actually make it happen. Are you getting your team re -engage? Are you taking the CE that you want to do? It's mid point. How are you doing on your goals personally as well? Are you doing the things you want and how can you pivot and adjust so that way at the end of the year, it's not like, well, just had another year with no goals being hit, but you can actually say, no, we had a plan we pivoted. And I don't believe this is where we change goals. I'm really big on.   Keep the goals consistent. That way we can make better goals and we can learn from them. Goals are stars to guide by, not sticks to beat ourselves with. And so with it being this midpoint portion of the year, I really hope that you guys are working on the mental stamina, that you're getting your team bought into your numbers, that you're watching your numbers, that you are, and not for the numbers sake, but to make sure that we have the systems in place to give the best patient and team experience that we can. People often have this negative mindset around numbers and goal setting. And...   My question is why? What is it? And most people don't want to feel like failures. And so I'm like, how can we pivot it to be winning to where it is kind of this like out there goal, what we're working towards and we're striving towards because otherwise we just flounder, right? If you don't have any direction, then it doesn't matter where you end up. And so I know all of us have some type of direction, but we often don't have the discipline or the support of a community around us to be able to hit the goals with ease, to be able to do the things that we want.   to be able to figure out when we're off track, what do we do to get back on track and to have people that are supporting us. So when you're like, hey, I'm off track, there's a whole group of people or resources around you to be able to support you. And so I would just say it's mid -year. Mid -year is the time to be having your consultant look at this, to be having your CPA look at this, to be talking to your financial advisor to find out what exactly do I need to be doing to make sure I'm on track personally and professionally.   Kiera Dent (13:38.19) to get your team back bought in. Maybe you have a mid -year kickoff again of like, let's reinvigorate ourselves. What KPIs do we need to track? How can we innovate within our practice? If we're off track on our numbers, can we add in an ortho week? Could we add in a Botox membership? Could we reach out to Dental Menu with Paul Lowry, who's really brilliant on being able to build not just membership plans for our dental procedures, but also for additional ones like Botox or whitening or other things that are.   generating revenue in the practice and are great for patients as well. And if you haven't reached out to them, be sure to reach out to Dental Menu with and let them know Dental A Team sent you. I've never seen Botox work in a practice except for one that had it on a membership program. And I was like, that was so smart because then it helped it to where it was like basically my free pass because I'm already paying for the membership. So why would I not come in and get it? And it was a great revenue booster for a practice. So all these different little pieces, how can we innovate right now to ensure that we're going to hit the goals by the end of the year?   I feel like it's mid -year slump or mid -year trump. Like which way are you going to go? Are you going to like trump the year and have it be your amazing time or are you going to slump and be like, well, if we just had another miss of a year. If you're listening to the podcast, I don't think it's going to be another miss of the year. And sometimes we just need the accountability. I use the example of me with my personal trainer. I had a personal trainer and I worked out for six months, you guys. Like I had gone from no working out to working out. I did, I think I missed maybe five and five workouts.   in the total of a six month period. And I worked out every single week I was on the road. Like I was very disciplined. I was very dedicated to it. And as soon as it stopped where I had to show up for my calls, I could do not. I went to Bora Bora in March and I did not work out again until June 5th when I rehired this girl and I started doing it again with the accountability.   And so know thyself. For me, like I did a perfect experiment, right? I went six months, I was amazing. I tried to do it on my own. I thought I'd built the habit and I wasn't. I literally dropped off the bandwagon and I rehired her. And I'll tell you, I already feel better. I'm working out more. I have more confidence in myself. And it was simply from that accountability of just knowing I had to show up for someone else other than myself. I think we often try to willpower through our goals when the reality is there are people that are there to help us, to support us, that will not let us fail. And I love that we do that as a consulting company.   Kiera Dent (15:54.83) Whether you're in our virtual group, whether you're on our one -on -one, we do not let our clients fail. That's something I'm really big on. You have to show up and do the work. That's something I will never take on. You've got to show up as an active player, right? Like she can be there all day long supporting me, but if I'm not willing to do the workouts and I'm not willing to do what she tells me to do, that's not she's a failed trainer. That's because I didn't show up. So it's a two -way street, but I'd say reach out, get the help you need. If you're off track for those goals, it's not too late. We still have half of the year, but also let's not wait until we're into that   fire spot of Q4 and then it's really, really hard to come back from it. Now is the time halfway. So I wanted to get on today and give you that halfway midway point of what can you do? How can we ensure that you're successful? Because I truly do believe that success should not be a guessing game. Success can be consistent. Success can be something that you can count on. Success does not have to be a hope and a wish and hoping we hit our goals every year, but it can be more consistent and more predictable. And I would love to help you guys if Dental A Team is the right place for you. Reach out.   We do a free call with you. It's very easy. You can email [email protected] You can go on our website and just click a time that's good for you. It's like 15 minutes. It's very easy. Or you can join us every Friday at 8 am Pacific time. We actually have like a what is it like to work with Dental A Team? What is it like to work as a as a client? And you can just come. It's always there is always running. I would love you guys to join us. So either of those ways, whatever is easiest for you, email us [email protected]   Click on our website to go to TheDentalATeam.com click book a call or come to our weekly FAQ with Dental A Team I apologize. It's 8:30 not 8 am So 8:30 Pacific 11:30 Eastern very simple go onto our website. It's right there You can join us every single week come and ask I try to make it very easy for you because I know when it's time to reach out For help or when you're like, I would just love to know a little bit about this. It's always better when it's easy.   So reach out, I'd love to help you, but it's midway point and I want you guys to make sure that 2024 is not a year where it's a hope and a wish of success, but a guarantee of success. And with that, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

Tiff and Dana talk about why videos are such effective additions to your practice’s operations manual. Their guidance includes the software to use, what topics to start with, who records them, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript:  Tiffanie (00:02.174) Hello Dental A Team, I'm so excited to bring you Dana back in the house with some operations manual excitement. I don't know if you've heard her or not, but she is my ops manual guru. Dana, thank you for allowing me to lean on you for these pieces constantly. You do more with our operations manual and our clients operations manuals than I think any of us do. And it's just super helpful for me. So thank you for being here today, Dana. How are you?   Dana (00:27.72) I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. You know I always love podcasting with Sif.   Tiffanie (00:33.214) I love it. Thank you. Thank you. Today's been a weird day for us. I think it's like, is it gloomy where you are? I know you're an hour and a half south, but my weather usually comes from you or California. So yeah, yeah, it's like intermittently gloomy, super hubby looking. We'll see. We'll see if we get it. You'll go you'll go down before me. So just let me know. Yeah, keep me posted. So I promised some operations manual stuff today.   Dana (00:53.544) I'll let you know.   Tiffanie (01:02.174) There are just so you guys know, I mean 200 probably I have no idea. We've done so many podcasts on operations manuals. So go back through and listen to them. If you're on the website or on your iTunes or whatever, you can use the search and within dental A team and just search for those podcasts. If you say operations manual, I'm sure a slew of them will pull up. So go listen to some of those if you need help building them out. If you're our clients already, you're an active client with dental A team.   There's been courses that you can watch. You have access to an operations manual. And if you're practice momentum client, bring it to your Ask Consultants everything hours every Thursday. And that's something that the consultants are there to help with as well if you guys have questions. So we're kind of layering. I say all of that because we're layering onto an operations manual today. So I don't want you to feel like this is like.   ground zero start and you're getting just a little bit of information. This is a layering on top of. So listen to it now. If you don't have an operations manual yet, start wherever you want. Listen to this, take your notes away and then go listen to the other ones as well or work with us directly to make sure that we get that done with you. That's my plug for today. Like don't feel overwhelmed by this. Today I wanted to talk with Dana and I'm gonna have Dana do most of the information today because...   You truly do more dental, a team operations manuals than anybody on our team. And I really wanted to talk about layering on top of that with videos. And it's something that we've done in our company that I think has made our onboarding, our transitions, our education a lot better and easier for the team that's currently here, a team that's come on team that's been here, all of those pieces. So just.   So you guys have it, the companies that we really like to use that are just super simple, Loom. L -O -O is literally the easiest. It puts it into a library, you download it, you upload it into Google Drive or wherever. So we use Loom a lot, but then also Zoom. So not to be confusing, Loom and Zoom. Zoom, you can record and screen share, do all those pieces, download it if you have an account with them already, and then save those as well. So.   Tiffanie (03:20.382) Those are my company plugs. Those are my company recommendations. You can do it with your iPhone. You can do literally whatever you want. Don't over complicate it. Don't pay a lot of money for something just simple free as always best. So whatever is free unless you're already paying for something that has it use that but Dana you had some awesome suggestions that I wrote down that I want you to go through for how you're recommending to your clients and to generally teams whole world here.   of what to use those videos for. Because I have to be honest, when you said this, I was like, duh, that makes sense. But for me, I was thinking the how tos, right, which I think I hone in on how tos and like, making this we both do making systems more efficient and easier. So like, that's where my brain went as videoing taking these taking these screen shares and things to show how to do a big deposit or whatever. But I really like your piece of it for simplifying.   some onboarding pieces. So Dana, I'm gonna just like be over here silent while you walk us through how you have teams do that for some onboarding pieces, because I think that's huge.   Dana (04:27.24) Yeah.   I love video as far as operations menu. And really the reason I like it is people have different learning styles and in dentistry, there are a lot of visual learners, right? Like we, we have to watch setups be done. We have to watch handoffs in procedures. We have to watch those things. And so video allows you to do those pieces so that a person can ideally, right? With any great onboarding system, you want to have pieces that a team member can do without somebody standing there beside them during the training, especially right now.   today's hiring climate where we don't always have a person to train a new person. So we need those parts and pieces that allow training to continue, even when someone can't be directly beside them walking them through it. And video is just a way of taking it to the next level. Can a team member read through a how to Yes, can a team member read your core values? Absolutely. But video helps them connect to it on a different level and probably spend less time to because I feel like if you can read it and you can watch a video and you   you can do all of those button clicks, right? Or you can see the person on the screen talking about the mission, vision, core value. You connect with it a whole lot differently. And I would say probably better when you have both of those parts and pieces. And so I say, look at your onboarding as a whole and anywhere that you can add video to streamline things and to make things easier and to make it to be that.   that person can pretty much do that thing unassisted or learn that thing unassisted. It buys us valuable training time.   Dana (05:59.624) within a practice. So the first place I start is mission, vision, core value, right? We hopefully you're hiring for core value, you're looking for those team members who match that. But in that onboarding period, having those things that a person can watch and really connect with and hear the owner or the visionary of the practice say, Hey, this is really where we want to go. This is why these are the pillars of our team, right? It helps them align with that. And again, it doesn't have to be delivered one on one.   It still gets that personal piece though, because again, it's on video and I think...   I can have a phone call with someone and those are great, right? I can read something and that's great, but that visual really attaches some meaningful things to that. So I think mission, vision, and core values are a great space to elevate operations manual with video. I think too, all your HR pieces, right? When you're onboarding a new team member, yes, we want the how -tos, we want the written protocols, but anything that you can turn into video as far as...   Hey, this is how you log into payroll. This is how you get your pace up at the end of the week. This is how you clock in. This is how you set up your password for things. All of those HR pieces that happen in the beginning, usually there has to be a dedicated person to walk them through the takes up time, right? The trainee that has to say, okay, this is how you I know in Arizona, you have to verify employment, right? If we could just have a video that shows that then the office manager or the front.   Tiffanie (07:01.438) Mm -hmm.   Tiffanie (07:16.926) Yeah.   Dana (07:27.688) office person that is training them to do that can be hands off with it and buy valuable time back. So all of your HR pieces I think are fantastic areas to add in video again to streamline processes and to free up training time with a trainee and trainer too.   Tiffanie (07:45.054) Yeah. Yeah, I love that you said like, the payroll, right. And I'm thinking like the clock in clock out, like you said, how many times as an office manager was I asked, how do I clock in and clock out again? Where do I find this? How do I do this? And it's like, it was always a can you show me and I'm willing to show you but what if I could show you infinite amount of times because you can just press play on this video or and whatever it is. So I almost feel like Dana.   making sure that those HR pieces and that onboarding from the get -go is your first space, like that's your baseline of videos. And then moving into the how -to's is almost more important because it offloads so much stuff from the doctor or the manager or whomever is onboarding these team members and really allows even the current team, like current team forgets things, right? Where do I find my pay stubs? Where do I, how do I put in PTO requests? Like,   What do I do for this? How do I find coverage? All of those pieces are stagnant. Like they're not super changing where your systems sometimes are changing, right? So you're having to go back in and re -record or re -update your systems. These ones are not typically changing very often. So you can do this video and it's almost a forever space and peace because it's not changing. It's not moving. It's stagnant and consistent. So I would start there.   Dana, you talked about the mission vision core values. Who do you suggest when you're doing these, who do you suggest records those videos? Because I know we're in the business of delegating. I know we delegate a lot. We train a lot of doctors to delegate. Is that something that you delegate, or who do you have recording those ones?   Dana (09:33.64) actually have the owner doctor record that and that's one of the reasons why I have it recorded, right? The owner doctor may be hands off, right? You may be a practice that, hey, I've got my associates in there, they're running the day to day, my office manager is really running my onboarding, but I do think mission, vision, and core values should come from the owner and I think recording it is a space where the owner doesn't have to be there to deliver it, but it's still delivered in a personal message via video, so the office manager can certainly play it for the person or give them the link to the video to watch, but I think the message coming from the owner,   just makes it more meaningful and that really should be who sets the mission and vision for the practice too.   Tiffanie (10:10.366) Yeah, I agree. And as you're thinking, I'm like, gosh, this is something we need to do for dental a team. Because I'm thinking, that's something to as you hire someone that your manager when they send, you know, you hire someone, you send the offer letter, they accept it. And then the office manager sends all the paperwork to get started, right. And that's the I nine and the W twos and the eight fours and the   All the paperwork that needs to be done, that usually gets sent off earlier, done that first day, but it would be really cool to have like a welcome email to new employees, to new hires, that you send this beautiful welcome email that has these videos attached that's like, hey, we wanna introduce you truly to who we are. This is us. And there's these three videos, super simple loom or zoom or whatever, your iPhone, doesn't have to be hard, videos from the owner.   And you could even do like an intro, like I know for new clients, for dental A team, we always try to send a little welcome from the consultant that you'll be working one -on -one with if you're a one -on -one client. And what if your office manager sent a little like, can't wait to onboard you when you come in, I'm excited to meet you because I mean, the climate right now, like you said, the hiring climate, it kind of, it's a little rough right now. And I have had, Dana, I don't know if you've experienced this, I have had practices that have,   fully quote unquote hired someone, offer letters and whatever is accepted and then they don't show up or they're like, hey, actually I accepted a different offer. But what if they were already tethered and tied and bought into who you are as a practice with these simple videos? I think that could help retention. It could help, what am I trying to say? Team members on board, actually on board, right? And then those stagnant pieces. So then I think the question,   The doctors then are saying because you know, I can see doctors going like, yeah, sure. But then what I have to record all of them. Mission vision core values. But then Dana, I don't think it matters. If like if your office manager records or your, your HR director or your billing representative records how to clock in and then six months from now your billing representative decides to have a baby and not return to work but recorded the video.   Tiffanie (12:33.47) I don't think it matters that forevermore she's the person who's on the video on how to clock in because Dana, do you think that's something if you are a team member, you're going to be like, wait, who's this? And why isn't she here anymore? What's going on? Are you already bought in? You're going to be fine.   Dana (12:47.208) I think you're going to be fine. And that's usually what I say when we do this is the great thing about this is oftentimes when you are training a new team member, right, you might want an assistant to walk you through OSHA pieces. You may want the assistant to walk you through medical emergencies, like where we keep those things, right? Because they stock it. They know where those things are inside and out versus the front office person. But typically if you're coming in as a biller, right, it's going to be a front office person that trains you. Well, the great thing about videos is...   The person who does it best can create the video, which then makes it full team training versus just one person doing all of the training for the new person, which kind of divides and conquers, which is great. And so, no, I don't think it matters if it was a billing person or if it was the OM. Really the core piece that I feel like does matter is that mission vision core values coming from ownership. I think the rest of the pieces, the team member will just be so thankful to have a video to walk them through it, regardless of who created it.   Tiffanie (13:44.622) Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. Totally agree. I love that. I was like, I know exactly what's gonna come next. So I love this. So I think Loom or Zoom, those are fantastic options. Again, we use Loom. We have used Zoom too, though. And again, just don't pay a lot of money for something because it's just not necessary. So save your pennies, add it to your overhead. We don't want to see that overhead increasing. Take your operations manual and I'll probably start it sounds like with your   employee manual. So what are the HR pieces? Start recording there. So I think action item wise, like you're going to take HR inventory, take your employee handbook, take HR inventory of all of the pieces that someone has to show direct train on and look at what can be automated. So what could there be a video for? And then I would just delegate delegate out to people at action dates, actionable dates for return and have   Those people, like Dana said, who's the best at this, have them do the recording so that they're quote unquote doing the training as well. And then doctors listening, doctors and practice owners, record your mission, vision and core values. You don't have those built out. Like I said, go back, listen to more podcasts because Dana breaks them down really beautifully on how to create those. So record your mission, vision, core values, give them to your team. I think your team probably.   could use a listen on it and then also get them ready for those onboarding team members who are yet to come and consider some sort of welcome email, a welcome packet to really solidify people in. Gosh, what else? HR inventory, delegate, action items is the biggest piece. Give yourself an action item for recording your mission, vision and core values and then go back and listen through.   some of our podcasts to ensure that the operations manual is where you want it to be so that you can then now tack on extra with those videos. Dana, what kind of timeline would you give a practice if you were delegating this to them to take their employee manual and automate it like this?   Dana (15:57.672) I think to get it fully automated where we're doing how to's or we're kind of taking a protocol inventory, I'd say give yourself three months, map it out, right? Do a section a week until you get through each piece. And I think I don't want you to spend time doing something that's not going to be beneficial. So really map out before you do it, what would be more beneficial to have the video, right? Because the video is not going to elevate necessarily everything. But there are definitely things that would be easier if we had a video.   in place. And so I'd say map it out over three months. That gives you 12 weeks. Tackle it each week at a time. Use your whole team. Onboarding, even if it is for a front office position, can be done by lots of people in the team who do the things day in and day out.   Tiffanie (16:44.67) Yeah. Okay. Next follow -up question. I'm, I'm being the doctor, the devil's advocate. How are we having the, the team members doing this? Are we building it into their schedule? Are we asking them to do it after hours? Are we requiring what's that look like for these practice owners?   Dana (17:02.536) think it can look like however you want it to look like and wherever you have the space. I think just we need to set the expectations from the beginning. So just figure out is it something that needs to be done after hours? Do we need to come in on a Friday when we're closed and bust out as many videos as we can? Or can we set aside an hour each week or an hour each day for team members? Honestly, it doesn't matter to me where you map it out just that it's mapped out and the expectations are really clear when team members should be spending their time working on it.   Tiffanie (17:31.518) I love that. Thank you. Okay, so we're gonna map it out. You guys take HR inventory, start there first with your with your employee handbook, take that HR inventory, delegate, figure out who's gonna be best to do certain pieces. Dana, I loved the three months. That's 12 weeks. I love that. So map that out over 12 weeks and then give those deadlines and make it realistic with your team, get the get the buy in from the people get the agreement from the people who are going to be doing these on the actual date.   that you've set so that they can figure out too, how to work it into their schedule. Give them some flexibility and some opportunities to expand upon their schedule if needed to get this done because it is worth it. And then doctors practice owners go record your mission, vision and core values today. Listen to more of our podcasts from before if you haven't heard them yet and just go bust this out. We can't wait to hear send some of them in. We would love to see these videos you guys. I'm not even joking. Hello at thedentalyteam .com.   And I hope like someone random checks the email and didn't listen to this podcast. And they're like, why are we getting all of these in here? It'll be so great. I really hope you guys can make that happen for me, please, because on my side, it would be really funny to watch this happen. But I really do want to see these videos. I think it's a really great idea. Dana, thank you so much for having so much valuable information, for bringing it to the table and for walking us through.   that recording. It was brilliant and I love it. Thank you for being here. You are valuable and so appreciative. Everyone, leave us a five star review because we like hearing from you. Hello at thedenalieteam .com. Send us your videos. We're excited to see you and questions you guys if you're confused. You're not sure how to use the products. You're not sure what you need or you're like, gosh, I really need help with this. Can Denali Team help me? Please reach out.   go to our website. There's a scheduling link there for a call link. You can chat with Shelby or our sales team at any time. And then hello at the dentalatm .com. Those really do come to the consultants as well. So you'll get a ton of help there too. Thank you, everyone. We'll talk to you next time.

Welcome back to DAT Book Club! This month’s selection was Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work by Nick Sonnenberg. As you’ll hear, Kiera had a ton of takeaways from reading this book. She specifically touches on the following in this episode: Best ways to communicate internally Questions to ask yourself about what needs to be done and when Principles for efficiency Planning and work management And a ton more Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.942) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to book club. It's June. How's your summer going? Are you guys having a ton of fun? I hope you're living up your life. Jason and I are living up our life. We bought a boat last year and I have wanted a boat. Jason and I, before we got married, we always said, we're going to buy a boat before we buy a house. And Jason had a truck and then we went to pharmacy school and Jason sold his truck. So then we had to get a truck. So then it was like truck, boat, house. We bought the truck.   We bought the house, then we finally bought a boat. And everyone said the best day of buying a boat is the day, like the best day of owning a boat is when you buy it and when you sell it. And Jason and I luckily have not experienced that. We love boating so much. I grew up on the lake. We wake surf. And so it's summertime. We are on the lake all the time. So if you guys are ever wondering like, what does Keira Dent do? I geek out about dentistry and I boat and I wake surf and I love it. I crank the music up.   Um, I love driving the boat. I love sitting out there and I'm such a fair skin beauty. So, uh, I hit the lake early in the morning between 10 and two. I'm definitely not on the water. That's usually when most people go, but fun fact, evening boating, no one's on the lake. You don't get sunburn. The water is the most warm. It's so calm usually, and it's the best time to go. So I usually hit early, early morning and then evening sunsets and do dinner on the lake. So I hope you guys are living it up. Uh, with that cheers guys. We're halfway through the year.   We are halfway through. So I think this book club is so perfectly timed. I am so jazzed. This book, I actually read it a couple of months ago, preparing for this podcast. I'm not going to lie to you. It has lit a fire under my booty and I messaged all of my team and said, especially my leadership team. And I said, I want everybody to read this book. And we're actually going to do a really deep dive book club. We always do a book club within our team. Ours is on the third Monday of the month. And we just do a book club and happy hour. Like we hang out, we're virtual.   And so it's just a fun time for us to hang out and just pick up pearls of knowledge from books that we read. And so, but for this one, I said, we're doing an actual like, I want us to figure out how we can implement this. So truth be told, if you did not read Come Up for Air, How Teens Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning and Work by Nick Sonnenberg, read it. I think of all the books that I have recommended this year in our book club. This and Buy Back Your Time, but this one especially, like I took, I don't know if you guys can see, if you're watching.   Kiera Dent (02:25.774) Literally here are my notes and I don't know how I'm gonna summarize this in a quick podcast But I mean, I'm still scrolling still scrolling Okay, and there we're finally done That's a long time and that's a lot of notes and so I was trying to think of like I'm just gonna start to rift and hopefully you guys love it, but There's so many great ideas from this book that honestly when I read it I felt like this is my life and this man is speaking right to me and he gets it and I think the word leverage   I know my words decisive, which I feel like I shouldn't switch. But I kind of want to switch my word, and I've never allowed myself to switch. I mean, I even have, guys, this year we got all of our team, our words for the year. Nice little journal here. I have a bracelet on today. But I actually, I think I am pretty decisive. That's funny, because I'm going to talk about switching gears. I think the word leverage is something, because I think I've grown so much of being.   the doer and the dental assistant and the office manager that growing into being a leader. And I'm sure some of you have this where we've been the doers. How can we leverage ourselves to basically all of us be working at the top of our licenses or the top of our degrees and leverage our teams around us. And everybody's going to be happy and stop drowning for work. So leverage might be my word. It might just switch mid -year. We'll see what I decided to do. I mean, I should probably stick with decisive since I'm switching mid -year.   But leverage is really speaking to me strong. And so I'm just going to, like I said, rift on this book club. I hope you guys loved it. I hope you geek out. I hope you do this with your leadership teams. And I hope if you've read it before that you reread it because I think there's so many pearls in this book that are impossible to input. I shouldn't say impossible. I feel like it's very lofty to implement the bulk of them, but good night. It was amazing. So, uh, first thing is he talks about CPR, CPR for a business. And that's kind of what the whole thing was premise around is communication, planning, and resources. And.   I mean, I'm just gonna quickly go through some of the highlights of things that we've already changed because I think one of the biggest takeaways I took from it is within teams and organizations, there's gotta just be simpler ways for us to retrieve information, not necessarily of how we like store information. And I've thought about that so much, like for your team to know where are the procedure, like the protocols of how do we do things in our practice and how do we make sure that everybody's on the same page for it and how are we communicating and how are we planning things? And so,   Kiera Dent (04:41.742) Just a couple of things that they mentioned is email should only be communication with people outside of organization in email. I love that he actually talked about for those of you, because I know there's some dentists who just like they're like drowning in emails and there's no way for them to cut up to catch up. And what he said was basically it's like the rip the bandaid method. And he said, you go through your email basically for like the last 30 days and you just look at those emails and you respond to anything pressing.   And then what you do, and you give yourself about a week to do it, and then after that you delete everything else. And he said, because if it was really important, it's actually gonna pop back up, and everybody freaks out about it. But guess what, if it's something really important, it will come back, and you can literally get your inbox to zero, and then we keep it at zero. And if we also switch our communication with people outside of our organization in email, so I will tell you from someone who had...   thousands of emails when I first started the company and it just always felt like I could never catch up and I was like I was literally drowning in this. It's like I'll catch up with my emails, I'll catch up with my emails, but I just didn't. And so two things I did, one, I put all of my promotional, I have one, it's Casey Staples, that's my very original OG, Go Back in Time. That's where I put all of my emails from.   Old Navy, I don't know why I said Old Navy, I don't usually shop there, but I recently bought some leggings, so they were in my inbox. When I sign up for books like High Output Management, they go to that one. And what I do with that one is I actually, anytime I realize I'm not opening these emails, I just go and unsubscribe. And so that's where all of that almost like junk mail goes, and I have an inbox literally over there for just that. And so that way my work email and the ones that are really important, I'm not getting all those promotions, I'm not getting anything in there because...   Really, I only want that to be important things. So within my work email, Keira at thedentalateam.com, we actually switched it because they said email should be for external communication. So with clients, with podcast listeners, with all of our vendors and sponsors and affiliates, like that's what that communication should be for. Internal should never be coming from email. It should be coming from Slack or something that's your internal communication software. And so we switched, we used to do WhatsApp, now we're into Slack. I was a Slack hater and now I'm a Slack lover.   Kiera Dent (06:50.606) And that should be your internal communication. So we used to check our team for like KPIs and reminders. And instead of doing that, we moved all into Slack. So all of our reminders, there's ways that you can set it all up. But that way, because you talked about, if you have to go retrieve something. So I have a conversation with a team member. If we simplify the streams of communication and the lanes, you're like, okay, it was a client. I know that's an email. It was with a team member. I know that's in Slack. And then it becomes much easier for you to organize and retrieve information.   And that's what they talked about so much is we drown in work trying to retrieve information so much rather than just getting the information. They also talked about getting work management tools. So they recommend Asana, ClickUp, monday .com. And that's where we need to see that work is getting done. So, so many offices tell me, Kiera, we don't know what projects are working on. We don't know how to follow up with it. Well, they said you need to have a work management tool. So it's email, internal communication, work management tool, a knowledge base where this is where everything about our company is actually.   sitting in a knowledge base and it's like a wiki, org charts, coda guru, or some of the companies they recommend. I did just see a company that has their knowledge base sitting in monday .com and it's just own separate thing because things get lost in Google drive and things get lost all over the place. And so if everybody knows, because also there's outdated things, I know our Google drive has a lot of outdated things, but you really have one set space where this is everything that needs to go in there.   And then they said you need process management tools. So that would be like SOPs, Checklist for the Company, Insurance Policies. And they did mention this process management tool might come later when your organization gets larger. But having it to where it's not in the Google Drive and it's not so impossible to find, but it's actually in a place like Train You All or Sweet Process or Process Street. But again, that could be something that might come later. And so it was interesting because everybody processes the same way, but...   We don't all know how to retrieve it the same way. That's I think why the alphabetical system was there. And so they talked about how business can only grow for how fast knowledge can be retrieved. And I thought like, I had never thought about that being a stopping block in our company of people can't retrieve knowledge fast enough. Think about in your dental practice. We don't want it passing from person to person to person. We want it to really be something where no matter who you are, if you're brand new or if you've been here for 20 years, that all of us know how to retrieve the knowledge without having to go to somebody.   Kiera Dent (09:11.822) And they said that you've got to align as a team of how to use each tool and more people hired. It actually gets harder in the organization and you need to have the processes. Otherwise we're just, we're not necessarily making more money. And so he said, get the systems right first. And it was just like, he said, like live up to a full potential. There's always a better way doing things, right. It's efficient and must purposefully improve.   And so I felt like his thing was he's just constantly looking for like, where can I leverage? Where can I leverage? How can we leverage this? And, um, like, how can I put myself in a flow state more often and double my productivity? You like batch your tasks, you minimize the pings and dings, you automate your processes and we, we really get all of our pieces automated. And so I just thought about like, he looks at his email and how can I automate this through Zapier? And there's so many zaps and different automations that you could do within Slack, within email, within our softwares.   And can we actually do that? And then another key point I took away is the power of saying no. And he said, say no more often. And it's not a good use of resources. Does this need to be done? Does this seem to be done by me? Does this need to be done by me now? And I thought that was just such a beautiful thing of, does this need to actually be done? And does this need to be done by me? And does this need to be done by me now? And again, so we're not like getting sucked into tasks that actually aren't moving us forward.   I, and it was funny because we actually just had this in the company the other day. We were headed out to an event and because I speak at events, I have kind of been dubbed to be the event person who sets up and does the banners. But, um, my team doesn't understand because they don't present per se that a presenter's mind is very different than a tactical setting up an event mind. And I told them, I said, you guys, it's starting to get really, really hard on me to have to go to fly in to set up this booth.   which I don't mind doing, but does it really need to be done by me or are there ways? Just because I'm there and it's convenient doesn't necessarily mean that I need to do it and I need to do it now. And it was crazy because when we thought about this, we realized we're actually just doing it because it was easy per se. It was easy for everyone else and not necessarily easy for me. And in doing that, we actually were able to save me two days on the road and still get the best experience at an event. It was crazy, but I think really questioning,   Kiera Dent (11:33.198) does this need to be done and doesn't need to be done by me and doesn't need to be done by me now, will actually free you up a lot more than I ever realized. And it was such an interesting mindset for me to just start thinking in those terms because I think leverage is something where it's not, I feel like there is tactical, but there's also a lot of things that aren't necessarily tactical, but I think it's changing our mind of almost putting on like a pair of sunglasses where we look to see.   Does this need to be done and doesn't need to be done by me now? And is there a way that I can possibly leverage my time and my resources better to get a better result? So I felt like it was just beautiful how they talked about that. And then here's something you guys are going to love. He talked about, there's a lot of different principles for efficiency. And he said some ways that we, cause I love offices always tell me like, Kiera, I want to learn how to be more efficient. And he said, you've got to optimize the retrieval of information, set up systems to remind individual productivity.   And then if things need to be done over again, find ways to make that simpler. And then we make a, and I just thought like, gosh, that's such a smart way to do it. I actually, I don't usually download all of the books, but this was actually a really, really, really awesome download. He has, there's so many tools and resources and I printed it out and because you can actually download the nine principles of efficiency. There is a CPR framework and we can take the quiz and, um,   with communication, he said, reduce the scavenger hunt, learn when and where to communicate. And we all have peak times. And so make sure that we're, we're not using those peak times to do those kinds of more mundane tasks. And so like really, really, really figuring out how to do this. And then he said there's synchronistic communication, which is like meetings, phone calls, you use this for feedback, one -on -ones issues, Slack, and there's different ways that you can use Slack and connect with it. And then he said there's asynchronous communication, which is.   like flexibility, recordings, digital whiteboards, options of when we can respond. And so really paying attention to that and like using things so you can not necessarily have to always be in a meeting. Like could this be done asynchronistically of like a loom or screenshots or Nero, which is whiteboard and sticker notes. Like, can we actually do that? And I thought about it so much of our team hops on meetings. We're a virtual team and I thought about it so much of.   Kiera Dent (13:51.662) Okay, do we really need to have a meeting or is this just something that someone could send a loom on and we don't have to actually get on a meeting and use everybody's time? And so that was a pro tip of loom. Make sure that you just utilize that. Really question, does this have to be a meeting or there are better ways to do it? So again, back to email, the zero, they talked about limiting the emails that can come to you. Items that should not be in your email are internal communication, projects or task info, because that should be in a task management tool and meeting agenda items.   And I just thought that was such a good way to really, really, really think about it. And then he said internal communication tools are like a walkie talkie. And so it's like, just like, Hey team, I need this. And so having, you know, conversation histories, you can archive columns. So if you're talking about like promotions within the company or we're running a, an Invisalign day, you could actually have a channel where you talk about that. All the notes are there and then you can archive it. And so that way people can really see it.   channels, when and how, making sure there's public and private, figuring out the different channels and communication of who needs to be where. So everybody is just really, really clear. And then I think one piece for you guys that would probably really benefit was the planning and work management. So having a framework for knowing which projects need to be worked on. And he said meetings make them actually work worthwhile. He said longer meetings, less accomplished. Meetings miss the opportunity to bring teams together. The true cost of a meeting.   is one of your biggest costs in the company. On average, there are 21 hours of meetings per week. And he said, their options are eliminate them, eliminate the number of people who need to be there. Does this need to be a live meeting? Can we have an agenda to make it more productive? Reduce the duration of a meeting by 15 minutes and reduce frequency. What if we did it bi -weekly and do more in less time? Does this really need to be a meeting? And then he gave some meeting rules. He said, keep it short, account for breaks. So he actually sets his meetings of instead of an hour, it's like,   50 minutes and he said, because everybody could benefit from that break. And also if we shrink it down in time, which I've actually done this with a lot of doctors on their schedules, we run over a doctor that's running over constantly. What I do is I actually, if they want two hours for a crown, I actually shorten it to an hour and 45 because just simply seeing that time on the schedule can actually make people be more efficient and effective because they think the time's less versus, oh, I have all this time and they bleed through it. So shrinking it down has actually helped a lot of doctors that I've consulted.   Kiera Dent (16:15.63) And then he said, make sure that we audit the attendees. Do we actually need all the attendees there? He has a rule in his of if this meeting doesn't apply to you, you don't need to be there. I think some teams might take that to the extreme, but I did love that. And for me, when I look at meetings, I have actually dismissed quite a few team members, not because of poor behavior, but I just realized like this meeting probably doesn't apply to you at this point now. So like there's no reason for you to hang out, take off. And he said, use an agenda.   And for him, it's no agenda, no meeting. And he said, there should be a moderator, take notes and store in an organized place, action items so things don't get lost, decisions need to be tracked in the management software, so our project management, who needs to make it, show up on time and start on time, no agenda, no meeting. And he said, make sure you do pre -work for each meeting. So for example, for one -on -one meetings, send your team that one -on -one agenda, they fill it in, they need to have that filled in before you get there.   for your leadership meetings. Everybody needs to come in with their issues, their concerns, they need to fill in their wins. All of that can actually be done before the meeting. So, and we can review that before, and then we can just get to the meat of it. And I thought that was such a good idea. And just really thinking of how can we do it, default your calendar so that way it's shortened up on time and use different pieces that we can actually make it to where things are just more organized and more concise. So,   I know I'm like on a rant and there's so many things like, then your work management. And he said the work management like is more of like a map. It's not the walkie talkie. So we organize all of our work related issues. Asana he said is the most functional and he does have a pretty strong bias towards Asana. But I think that there's so many pieces where you can actually see a graph of the work that's going on at any moment and making sure that just all the tasks are in there and you assign them out.   we make sure they're followed up on. And so I think my biggest, you guys, I have like notes upon notes upon notes, and then looking at workloads and capabilities, like how much time does each person have? Do they have downtime? Do they have space? Can you sprint plan each week? And some of these things I feel for a dental office might not be as relevant, but so many of these things I think could, because if we even like sprint our weeks within our leadership teams and really get good at like how much time is in meetings, how much time is on their day -to -day tasks, and then how much time is available for,   Kiera Dent (18:36.526) higher level projects and then we get those higher level projects done. Like that's where I got so pumped because it just felt like it gave me like a roadmap and a step by step of how to get there. They talk about goals and planning and he said companies usually hit their goals 50 % of the time. What needs to get done to achieve the goal? And he talks about OKRs, which like versus a KPI and really reviewing those and making sure that our objectives are so specific.   And then you update them weekly and refer back to them and you put statuses in like Asana or whatnot. So at any moment, you can see how your teams are doing. At any moment, you can see the productivity of your company and you can really see quickly of what needs attention, what needs to be focused on. Instead of having a meeting to find that out, we have a status updater within the pieces and tons and tons of resources, like all the pieces he had in there. But what I loved was a company's growth is so determined.   by the ability to retrieve information? And can we cut down and become a little bit more efficient? How can we leverage these systems and tools? So getting our emails down to zero so we're not feeling like we're drowning over there, using internal communication to truly communicate with our team and follow up so we know where to retrieve the information, having a knowledge base, having your SOPs documented, having it where it's really so simple for everybody to just win in a simple way without having to ask.   And he said, when people are asking like, hey, where is this? You can tell them like, where do you think you would find it? And if they can't do it, we've got to figure out a way to get that information easier to retrieve so everybody knows. And so I hope you guys love this book. Obviously, you can tell I love this book because I just felt like for the first time, I read a book that really gave me understanding of what each tool should be used for, how I can have track our workloads as a company, how I can track those projects that need to get done.   because oftentimes I feel like teams and myself included become stagnant and we deal with the, the urgent, not the important. And this really helps us just have set cadences of sprint planning every single week and a way for us to map it out. And I think what's really fun is I love consulting and I love helping you guys and your teams so much because I feel like I'm able to see a lot of these efficiencies and share these tips and help you guys with meetings and help you with tracking tools. And it comes from.   Kiera Dent (20:56.878) reading books like this. And so if we can help your team in any way to become more efficient, more organized, dental specific, that's where we're here. And for me as a consulting company, there's not a lot of consultants or people that can help consulting companies get more efficient. And what I would give, like I thought about this so much of, if I could find a coach that has run a consulting company, has done it successfully, has grown it to the levels I want it to be,   can give me the shortcut to success. You guys, I could not put a financial number on what I'd be willing to pay to get that. And so I just want to let you know how blessed and lucky you are as dentists that there are consultants who have grown multiple practices. Dental A team has been that. We have done that. We've done it successfully. That there are consultants out there that know all these processes and they can actually help you get this into place.   There is actually a resource in a community of other doctors like you that can share their efficiency hacks of what they're actually doing, getting connected. And so for me, wishing that there was something set up for dental consultants out there, I searched, it's really funny, dental consultant consultants. They don't exist because just dental consultants show up. But to be able to find somebody who could help me, I couldn't put a price tag on that. And so if you're in that boat,   Like give yourself the gift of efficiency, give yourself the gift of being able to leverage your time by utilizing a consultant who knows how to do this and knows how to do it successfully and has done it for hundreds of practices. Check their resumes. You guys, we have hundreds of offices that we've reduced their stress, increased their efficiencies, increased their production and their profitability and made it to where they don't have to be at work as often. That's getting their life back and what I would give.   to have that blessing and gift in my life. Consider yourself so lucky that there are dental consultants willing to share their knowledge with you. So if we can be that person, reach out, hello at thedentalateam .com. You guys can click, just book a quick call. It's something that's very simple. It's like 15, 30 minutes, very short. We'll help give you a lot of tips and resources. Every call, I guarantee you, I'm always giving resources and free advice on it. Regardless if you choose to work with us or not, I want it to be a perfect fit. I want to make sure you're a great fit for us and we're a great fit for you. So just book the call.   Kiera Dent (23:13.294) There's no reason not to because honestly, you can come up for air now. And then I would just recommend reading this book. So I hope you guys loved it. I can't wait to hear your feedback on it. Email me any of your conversations. I love book club pen pals. I have a few of you, so thank you. And if this podcast is blessing your life, please always just leave us that review. Go leave those five stars. Please do it today, because your reviews keep us at the top of the list to truly be in the hands of every single dental practice out there. Next month, July, we're going to have the book, You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay.   Get ready for some deep soul searching. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

With the changing landscape, Kiera gets very real with practices in this episode. She’s joined by Paul from Dental Menu to talk about why it is absolutely critical to get a membership plan in place. They lay out the steps to take if you’re considering dropping insurance, and how Dental Menu seamlessly slots into your practice: Create a good product Set up marketing Establish an operating procedure Go out and market Paul even has a Dental A-Team special for those interested in working with Dental Menu! Visit www.dentalmenu.com/dentalateam.  Episode resources: Learn more about Dental Menu Get a Dental A-Team special! Connect with Paul directly: [email protected]  Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.558) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today, you guys, I am so excited because I have an amazing guest on here. And right now, I'm going to come in a little bit more firm on getting prepared as a practice. Because as I'm watching the geopolitical landscape, as I'm watching inflation, as I'm talking to practices, as I'm watching DSOs come into place, practices need to start getting prepared. And so I'm going to come in a lot stronger today on   insurances, you cannot keep running your practices the same way we've always done insurance reimbursements with inflation. Like you guys are getting a squeeze and I'm watching and I'm seeing there's very successful profitable practices. And there's also the ones that are really, really struggling. And I feel like it's kind of like an hourglass and we're starting to squeeze out that middle and you'll either be the profitable practice or the struggling practice and it's going to happen. It's already in place. And so my job on the podcast is to educate you. And so I'm really pro.   Prepping and preparing for when you will want to drop insurance plans. And I think you need to have a membership plan in play. So Paul with Denil Menyoo, welcome to the show today. I'm glad you're here because I think people will be dropping insurances. It's not going to be an if it's a when, it's also helping people get higher practices, but they're doing it because they're annoyed with the, the reimbursement rates with inflation, but they have no plan in place for when they drop. And I'm watching a lot of offices that drop these patients with insurances.   that they have no way to retain these patients. They have no way to get them back into the practice. And then they have to turn into this fee for service with heavy marketing costs that they weren't expecting to have. They didn't have anything in place before they dropped. And I think a membership plan is crucial for success of dropping insurances and being prepared. We're also in a weird election year. We're in all these different pieces. There's like people are nervous or worried about their benefits or worried about spending money. And membership plans, I think can create a lot more security for practices. So Paul, welcome to the show today. There's my soapbox. Welcome.   Paul Lowry (01:50.522) Yeah. Thanks, Carissa. Would you say you're a prepper today? We need to, we need to like include some freeze dried food storage with every purchase or something.   Kiera Dent (01:55.246) I think I would say I'm a prepper for sure.   Kiera Dent (02:01.038) Seriously, I just think it's like a I don't know. I feel like my job as a consultant is I mean, it's for better or for worse. I'm constantly expected to look for what's going wrong and how do I solve it? I don't think that that goes well because I can't really shut that brain off in my marriage and I don't think my husband loves of like this and we need to fix this. We need to fix this. I don't think he loves that piece of me, but I think for practices, my job as a consultant is to be looking down the pipe six months, 12 months, two years from now.   And what's going on? What's going on within the world? What's going on within dentistry? What's going on with the trends? Like, I feel like Paul, I hate research. I've always hated research. In college, I hated research projects. And I feel like as a day consultant, this is why I podcast because this is how I get all my research in, in a more fun way. But yeah, for sure. I'm a prepper. Like, I don't think the world's gonna end. But I do think dental practices, the landscape of dentistry is shifting and it's going to continue to shift.   Paul Lowry (02:55.162) Yeah, absolutely. And membership plans are definitely a way to help with that as you're trying to change your practice. I know we've been on this before, we quote this stat a lot, but one of the studies again we've done, 250 ,000 patients, we did ourselves only 12 out of 100 patients without insurance were still active within five years. So you're losing your patients without dental insurance. And we see a lot of practices that are like, no, we're not. It's like, well, let's see the data, because the data...   Kiera Dent (03:00.814) Yeah.   Paul Lowry (03:24.506) I know you hate research, but the data doesn't lie. And so, do you love numbers? Yeah, I mean, that same study, 64 out of 100 insurance patients were still active. So insurance, we all hate insurance for a lot of reasons, but the bottom line is they get patients to come back to a practice on a regular basis and they've packaged the products in a way that is easy for consumers and employers to purchase.   Kiera Dent (03:26.99) I do love numbers though, Paul. So let me just throw that out there. I don't want to run a research project, but I do love the data from it. I do.   Kiera Dent (03:38.478) Wow.   Paul Lowry (03:54.138) So if you're going to complain about insurance, but two things that drive me nuts is your best patients you're charging double or triple for, that's dumb. It's like, hey, you're going to be a really good patient. I'm going to charge you triple. You're going to be a pain in the butt. I'm going to charge you half. Like no business does that. We want to take care of our best patients, you know, my, for us, our best clients. I'm going to do whatever I can to keep them. My clients that maybe aren't as good.   Kiera Dent (04:03.566) Yeah.   Paul Lowry (04:20.122) Maybe I don't care as much if they decide to leave, right? I mean, that's just business in general. So first thing you've got to do is create a good product of services to offer your patients. If you're no longer going to be either in network or you're, you know, they don't have dental insurance. What are you offering? And if it's your full UCR rates for an exam cleaning x -rays, that's not market competitive. To me, UCR rates are who pays MSRP when they go to Coles. If you do, you're a moron, right? I mean,   Kiera Dent (04:22.446) Right.   Kiera Dent (04:43.566) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (04:49.742) Even like on cars, right? Like we see that too, like no one does.   Paul Lowry (04:51.546) Anything like in retail if you pay retail Why like why would you do that and we've all had? medical bills right where it's like Okay, you have medical bills that are just absurd and then all the insurance company beats them up And then they only pay this much no one's gonna pay the full rate on a on a medical bill I mean, are you really gonna spend? $75 ,000 for you know the birth of a baby like you can't   Kiera Dent (04:57.774) you   Paul Lowry (05:20.538) You pay that for a wedding nowadays, Kiera, but we won't get into that.   Kiera Dent (05:20.974) We'll be in the woods. I'm gonna go to the woods. I know it's ridiculous, no one is gonna pay those fees. They're inflated fees feed the ego. It's like, yeah, I could charge this much, but who's doing that? Nobody. Everybody does that. It's a sales tactic, right? Like normally it'd be this amount, but you're actually getting it for this amount. And insurance funds, I agree with you. If you want to look at a good marketing company, insurance companies are brilliant. Like they figured out how to get these patients to come back to you consistently over and over and over and over and over again. And they're still paying out of pocket, which I think is ludicrous. Like here's a small little coupon.   but they keep coming because they've trained them into patterns and habits of what they're supposed to be doing. It's brilliant, like truly brilliant.   Paul Lowry (06:14.874) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So instead of, instead of ragging on the insurance companies, why don't we see what they're doing well? And why don't we mimic what we can? Because dental insurance is a prepaid benefit. So why don't we offer something similar to our patients where we're collecting that revenue? And that's really what a good membership plan should be. And I've been on here before, Kiera, talking about the difference between a discount plan versus a membership continuity plan. You know, you've got a discount plan that's   a coupon or a groupon. So let's say you, I'm in Utah, you guys want to come out here and go skiing. We're going to try to find the best deal possible for a Lyft pass or a Lyft ticket. Doesn't mean that we bought a season pass to that resort. It just means we're going to go there one time for as cheap as possible, which nowadays isn't cheap. So we're going to try to find it as cheap as possible versus a continuity plan like membership, Netflix. We're seeing car washes pop up all over in Utah.   Kiera Dent (07:09.71) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (07:09.85) There's a reason it's $25 for one wash or $29 for their pass, because once they get you on that, you have two or three cars. It is crazy. You're like, I'm paying $100 a month for car washes, and I have to go to that specific wash, right? And so that's what you're trying to do is don't just sell a discount plan where it's like, hey, I'm gonna give you a discount on services. That's pretty short -sighted. What you wanna do is get them to commit to your practice long -term. You can't just buy insurance.   Kiera Dent (07:20.59) Yep.   Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (07:40.57) and get that kind of one time discount and then cancel the next day. I mean, they have the open enrollment periods and you're paying and all that. So you want a true continuity program like a gym membership. They're paying every month to have access to care so that you can get them on the membership plan long term. That's how you're going to make money. But also it's how you're going to take care of patients. This isn't just about, you know, making money as a practice. This is about giving patients access to preventive care, which is pretty cool. And to dental care in general. You know, we, we heard.   Kiera Dent (07:59.31) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (08:10.266) there's an NFL player that died because he had periodontal disease. I mean, it's crazy, right? So we're not just trying to maximize profits. What we're trying to do is make sure our uninsured patients have access to dental care at regular intervals so we can keep them healthy. And if you're charging them a ludicrous amount for that preventive service that isn't really market rate, what you're doing is saying, hey,   Kiera Dent (08:14.094) Yeah.   Paul Lowry (08:33.722) You can either pay me triple or you can go buy insurance and then I'll give you a better deal and you're driving them to the insurance companies because you're not willing to offer any good alternatives.   Kiera Dent (08:42.478) Right, or you're driving them to not come back. Right? I think it's this like weird, weird piece. I'm glad you talked about the data. I truly do love numbers. I love to read people's research. I don't like to go do the research. But just thinking about it, I mean, this is what I watch practices do. They come, they complain to me about their dental insurance reimbursement rates, which I agree with. I'm not here to combat that whatsoever. But then after that, what they say is,   Paul Lowry (08:44.89) That's mainly what you do, right? You drive them up.   Paul Lowry (08:52.922) That's good. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (09:10.158) So what we're gonna do, Kiera, and they get so excited, we're gonna drop insurance because we charge all these patients our UCR fee, this is how much we're gonna make. And we don't even have to see all of them, so we're fine if they don't come back. And I'm like, that's great, but you realize you've got a team, you've got an overhead that you've already budgeted based on the patients you're currently seeing. So we go and what a lot of offices do is they drop the insurance. And then I get a frantic phone call of like, Kiera, we dropped and not a lot of them are coming. So we've lost all these patients.   Now we have open holes, my hygiene schedule is wide open. I don't know what to do because I don't have a marketing plan. We've tried to get these patients to come back in, but they don't want to pay the office fee. Like it's a mess. And then they panic. And then I kid you not, Paul, usually about six months a year, it's usually about the year mark after they've dropped insurance, I get a call and they're like, Kiera, I'm considering going back in network. What do you think? And I'm like, my gosh. Like the reason we're having this like, because they're panicking. They don't have the patients in there. They didn't.   Paul Lowry (10:02.746) You   Kiera Dent (10:08.078) all these patients that they thought loved them so much, they really were truly coming due to the insurance plan, you drop them, they're gonna go somewhere else unless you prep and prepare and have these patients, you educate them, you start to turn them on to the membership plan, you start to make this a more appealing alternative. Like my husband has insurance through his employer. I don't like the dentist. So I literally pay for a membership plan. But Paul, I'm such a good example of this. Before I was on a membership plan, I only went in once a year.   because I have access to dentists, like at my fingertips, I work with hundreds of them, I can get probably a dental cleaning anywhere in the world, like I really could go to a dentist anywhere, I'm like wherever I move, it's fine, I'll know somebody there. But I didn't even go twice a year because I didn't have a set cadence of needing to go and feeling like I needed to be there. Insurance and membership plans will force a patient to feel like they need to use their benefits. And so again, it's just because it's been ingrained in us for years through the insurance company. So right on that insurance company's coattails,   Paul Lowry (10:41.146) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (11:04.974) Prepare your practice so that way people are already trained and ingrained. You have a plan. Your team knows how to do a membership plan. So when you drop that insurance company, the patients will still stay with you and you don't have as big of a drop from it. The offices that I see do this very successfully have a membership plan in place. They've done it for about six months to a year. So the team is trained up and then they go and they start dropping insurance plans. They move them to the membership plan. And if they're smart, they drop right around open enrollment time and they swoop right in and they become the open enrollment piece for it.   Like it's very intelligent if offices just do a smidge of planning, they keep a lot of those patients and then they have no issue and their schedules are wide open, not wide open. They're full, they're packed, but they're actually making more revenue and they're being paid what they want to be paid.   Paul Lowry (11:50.266) Yeah, and do it kind of gradually too, like you're saying, you've got to do it over time because you're not going to keep all those patients. And so, I mean, we talk a lot about that too. There's really only two ways to make more money, right? You either need to get more per patient or you got to increase capacity and see more volume. Essentially, you'd have to try to grow. And so if you're trying to make more per patient, you've got to be willing and realize that, yes, if we drop insurances, we need a good alternative.   Kiera Dent (12:04.654) Yep. Right.   Paul Lowry (12:16.922) And then you also have to realize that some of those patients that are employer paid plans, they may, they may not come back. You know, I mean, doctors don't like to hear it, but your poop stinks, so to speak. Right. I mean, they think that they're the best dentist ever and that patients will come to them and pay whatever. And, and that's partially true. Like there's better dentists, but it also gets to where cost isn't a real issue for families. And you'll talk to them. It's like, well, I don't want to go to this other dentist, but.   Kiera Dent (12:41.55) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (12:46.106) Like I almost don't have a choice kind of a thing, because those UCRs are so out of control that I just, I'm kind of forced to go somewhere else. So as you drop those, you're going to create more capacity and you're going to convert some of those patients to your membership plan. But you're also going to create capacity openings to where your marketing now is effective. A lot of people stop marketing because they say, Kiera, I have no room in hygiene. I'm out eight months for hygiene. So why would I market for new patients? Okay, well, I agree with that. But as you...   Kiera Dent (12:53.326) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (13:08.078) Correct.   Paul Lowry (13:13.818) create capacity by dropping some of your low tier insurances, now you're gonna have room for new patients. And I'm telling you right now, new patients that come in, if you don't have a long term way to keep them coming back on a regular basis, you're gonna churn them and you're gonna be stuck paying that marketing company year after year after year. I was doing marketing. I had customers that paid us several thousand dollars a month for years and it was crazy because it was like, how are we generating 30 to 50 new patients a month?   for three or four years and you still need my services. That's when we got into the data stuff of just like what's going on. Those offices all had discount style plans, they were running themselves. But all it was doing was giving them a discount to close the treatment, but it wasn't retaining in longterm. And so that's really what you need to do with your membership plan. So you've got to price it correctly, you've got to get your team behind it, you've got a good standard operating procedure. And then, you know, of course you've got to be able to...   Kiera Dent (13:45.838) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (13:54.094) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (13:59.886) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (14:11.898) to market and get people signed up.   Kiera Dent (14:14.19) for sure. And I think Paul, something you guys are doing really well, which I love. I feel like dental menu is not just a membership program, which is why I promote you guys, which is why I recommend people work with you is because I have an office that I just referred to you, they want to bring Botox into the practice. And I'm like, good luck. Botox is one of those services that like is more for the team than it is like I have yet to see successful practices. The only office I've ever seen that was successful is one that ran their Botox on a membership plan.   And so dental menu allows you to add in these like whitening and these additional services within the membership plan of what these patients would want to pay for, which I think is brilliant what you guys do. I also think that you guys have a lot of things just set up smart. You think about it from the data perspective. You think about it from the team perspective. You guys have used me of what do I think of as team members? How do we make this easier? I remember there's one day you and I chatted about it and I was like, I wouldn't recommend doing it that way because as a team member, that's what I'm trying to get away from. And.   I love that we've collaborated quite a bit on your guys' product, but I'm super excited. I want you to actually share screen and show because pricing the membership plan, I think, is always something people get scared of. And so I'm fine. If you guys want to use Paul and Dental Menu, rock on, do it. If you want to do a membership plan on your own, rock on, do it. What I think Paul and I are coming to you today to say is you've got to get prepared. You've got to get your team in place.   And my thing is, so that way, when you want to drop that insurance plan, because you're so angry with it, you have things in place to where you don't crash and burn and don't have the patience on the other side of it, but you're actually prepared for it. So, Paul, I actually think what you guys are building right now is super cool. So if you want to share screen, I think you can, those of you who are just listening, we'll explain it. Don't worry. But, those of you can see it. I think Paul has a really awesome way that they're actually building this. So you can see how to actually set your membership plan correctly.   to retain these patients and keep them as long -term patients. And also, I just want to really plug, when you have a membership plan, I want you guys to think of these patients as like insurance patients, not in the way that they're paying you, but like how long insurance retains patients for. So it's the retention piece is what a membership plan is. It should be just having basically your own office insurance plan. I know we're not technically allowed to say that, but if you think of it in that mindset, this is you're wanting them to stay with you for the next 20 years.   Kiera Dent (16:25.422) they just pay the membership fee as opposed to paying dental insurances.   Paul Lowry (16:29.434) Yeah. Yeah. And we see like a lot of officers we work with, they say, well, hey, we've got a membership plan, but we kind of hide it behind the front desk and we only use it if we have to. And I usually say, well, you've priced it incorrectly then if you don't want hundreds of people on your plan, it's not designed well. It's what it is, is it's a discount plan and it's kind of like, well, if you guys come to me and I do a demo with you, I'm going to see if I think I'm going to sell you. And if I do, then I'm going to charge you my full rate, but.   If I don't think I'm going to sell you, then I'm going to start discounting. We've all been, we've all tried to buy a car or something where it's like, like just like, do I have to act like I'm not interested? So I'll get a better deal, you know? And that's kind of what happens with those membership plans. And so you can see my screen here. We've got a pricing tool for anybody that's listening to your podcast, Kiera, if they want to reach out to you or reach out to me, we would share this pricing tool at no charge.   So even if you guys wanna do it yourself or you wanna look at doing it yourself, you wanna just analyze prices within your own ecosystem without even talking to us, I'll send you this link. You guys can knock yourself out and play around with it. Happy to share. We're real open with our education. So what we like to do is look at your UCR fees of included benefits, exams, x -rays, cleaning, and so on. If you're gonna do any panoramic things or fluoride or things like that, we can look at those too.   Kiera Dent (17:41.23) Thank you.   Paul Lowry (17:54.81) when you're looking at your plan, like Kiera said, we're not allowed to call this insurance, but it is kind of funny because if you were gonna go and network with an insurance company, what would you wanna see? Like you're gonna wanna see a fee schedule, right, before you sign the contract? Seriously, you're gonna, well, what are you gonna actually pay me? Because I'm not saying yes until I know. Well, it's funny, because on membership plans, you're willing to go and network with yourself, and you don't even know, you're just like, I don't know, 300 bucks a year sounds good to me, that's what.   Kiera Dent (17:56.694) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (18:16.462) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (18:24.142) Yeah.   Paul Lowry (18:24.442) That's what somebody told me or that's what the office down the street and there's so many variables. So if you look at the screen here, it's good to look at your cleaning, your exam, your x -rays. What do you want to actually be paid when you do those services? So you'll notice on this slider down here, the recommended monthly price, if you want to be paid, you know, here's kind of your estimated insurance payouts at 40 % right off with your UCRs and we can get your actual numbers and plug them in here. But if you look at,   getting paid these amounts here for services, you'd need to charge $32 a month. That would give you 67 or 65 for the x -rays, 49 for exams, 110 for the cleaning. You'd need to charge $32 a month or $384 a year. If you say, well, hey, that's not enough, I'd wanna be paid more. I wanna be paid my full UCR is 150 for a cleaning, 70 for exams and 95 for x -rays. Your monthly price is 45 a month. And so I may ask you, okay,   That may be great for you, but is that marketable for patients in your area? Because if you're charging your full UCRs, why would I sign up for a membership if I'm not getting any savings? So you've got to kind of balance that out. If you're willing to accept insurances at these rates and you're writing 40 % off, well, you might want to give them a better deal on the preventive services that keep them coming back on a regular basis. But again, you're only going to set a 15 or 20 % discount off your UCRs on treatment.   That's where you're going to make your money is your crowns, root canals, fillings, implants, and so on. But you've got to have a tool to keep them coming back on a regular basis. So it's not exact science, but you want to have that happy medium of making a, you know, creating a better deal for patients while still making profitability. Now, if you're paying your, your hygienist on collections or your associate doctors on collections or things like that, you know, maybe you want to look at, at bumping this up so that they're making more. Your hygienist is making more on a   cleaning than she is with an insurance plan. That's going to get her to present it, right? And so setting this up right so your providers as well, they're being compensated. And we won't talk about that really today, but that's one of the things DentalMenu does. It just allows you to match up your collections and production real time when services are used. So you're not adjusting services to zero so that you're not taking off your providers because they won't promote the plan if they're getting a zero record on the ledger on collections when they do services.   Paul Lowry (20:49.498) because then they're not making any money. That's a big problem we see as well. At any rate, you can include breakage as well. So insurance companies, how do they make money, Kiera? Do they make money by paying claims out that equal their premiums? Definitely not, right? So premiums minus claims equals profit for an insurance company, correct? So the amount you're charging every month,   Kiera Dent (20:52.686) Right.   Kiera Dent (21:05.55) Definitely not.   Kiera Dent (21:12.526) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (21:15.802) We're basically basing them on coming right on time for services. Those that are listening, do your patients ever call you and move their exam cleaning x -rays appointment? Or do they ever no show? Right. And so when they move those appointments, this is a gym membership, they have access to a cleaning every six months. If they call you and they say, hey, Kiera, I'm going on vacation or I'm sick or...   Kiera Dent (21:26.67) Never. They're perfect. They're stuck there like glue.   Paul Lowry (21:42.17) Maybe they make up an excuse, but in reality, I just don't feel like coming in today. So I need to move my cleaning appointment and then the offices we work with get all bent out of shape. my whole schedule is falling apart, it's falling apart and you didn't give me your, you know, 60 day notice, whatever really it is. So when, when they move their appointment, which a lot of times they will, you're just going to move that appointment. But guess what? They're still paying. They're paying your monthly membership gym membership fee.   Kiera Dent (21:57.742) Ha ha!   Paul Lowry (22:10.394) They don't get two cleanings a year, they get access to it for 32 bucks a month. So when you kick them out and you see them at month seven, you just captured seven monthly payments for that cleaning instead of six. You see the patient at month seven, you're not going to pre -appoint them five months out because they came in late. You're going to pre -appoint them back out six more months. If you talk to patients, if they come in at month eight, they don't want to see you again in four months for a cleaning. They've got time. You know, their time's valuable. So.   You capture some of that breakage like an insurance company would by running it as a true continuity program. So this little button here, you can either capture all that breakage yourself, or if you want to pass some of that on to patients, you can, and that'll lower the monthly price. That's what insurance companies do, right? They pass breakage onto employers because they know it's going to be so high. They pass some of it onto employers because it lowers the premium, which gets more employers to pay for it for employees.   They don't pass all the breakage on, but they pass some of it on. And so you can do that in the pricing module as well. But this is a good way to look at your plans is how much do you want to make for an exam cleaning x -rays and then do the math so that you're charging appropriately monthly and annually so that you're happy and realize what you're making with insurance versus what you're making on your membership plan. So you can go through that.   If you're seeing kids and you're only scheduling them 30 minutes in the chair and you can see twice as many in hygiene, how much do you really need to charge for a child cleaning? Make it cheaper for families to come in and do that. If you're doing perio type stuff, what do you need to make for your perio maintenance? So go through all that process. We've got a cool rewards program as well. I know we've talked about that on here before too, Kiera. When a patient gets a cleaning on the plan,   they earn $25 towards treatment that may be needed in the future as long as their plan stays active. Well, you can imagine once they get some rewards, they don't ever want to cancel their plan. So they just keep coming in and it ties them to the practice. And it also gives them an amount towards treatment. I've seen offices that drop insurances, they'll do a rewards program that's like a hundred or 150 or $200 of rewards when they get their cleaning so that every year they get two, three, $400 towards treatment.   Paul Lowry (24:19.45) Now obviously those plans have to cost more than 25 a month. They've got to cost 50, 60, 70 bucks a month, but they're really rich in benefits, right? They get, and your membership plan doesn't dictate what types of materials go in the mouth either. You can actually sell them the better materials that last longer, that look better, and they're going to be able to pay for those. So we would go through all this process with you. Again, I'm happy to send this. You'll set that discount that you want on restorative work. You're...   We're seeing 40 to 45 % now, Kiera, is what the write -offs are on restorative work. And so again, if you're writing off 15 or 20%, that's a better deal for patients, but you're still making quite a bit more than you are on insurance. So this varies depending on whether offices are trying to grow, whether they're at capacity, whether they're dropping insurances, right? We're gonna go through kind of this with our offices, but figure out the way to build a program so that you're profitable.   but you're offering a good product to patients so that they're gonna convert and then your marketing is gonna be more effective and you're gonna end up making more per patient as you fill in those gaps.   Kiera Dent (25:28.942) Yeah, no, I really love that. And thanks for sharing your screen on that. And for those of you who couldn't see it, I would definitely say like, pop on, come look at it, see. We'll also make sure that we have that on social for you. But I think like the coolest thing about this is it just shows how to get those, like what your UCR is, which like we know most likely you're not charging. What we're paying for insurance is, so when we drop it, even if you're making 10 or 20 bucks more per procedure, that's already a great piece in that way you can have it there.   Paul Lowry (25:48.026) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (25:58.414) And you can also check to make sure like the hygienist, I know that that's a big thing with membership plans. They don't want a zero dollar cleaning. So this shows how much each procedure is going to be. And I know Dental Menu does a really good job of tracking the money, making sure that we're able to like pay it because I know like it's like an annoying thing for offices of how do we actually pay this out? But I think you guys have done a really great job on the tracking side of it as well too.   Paul Lowry (26:19.226) And think of this, Kiera, like if you're a solo practitioner, you're making your money on treatment, what if you were to go like this for the exam and not get paid for it? Cause do you really need to? You on the practice, you're seeing the patients, you're getting treatment, and then you're to go like this for the hygienist. We've even seen people go above UCRs. So hygienists, look, if you have a fee for service patient, if you get them on the membership plan, you'll actually make more off that patient than you would if they stay fee for service. Talk about getting your...   Kiera Dent (26:38.51) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (26:48.73) back office, you know, behind the plan. I mean, it's kind of interesting. So there's fun ways to, and the plan is building the raisin for the hygienist. We hear a lot about, you know, how do we get more hygienists? They're costing too much, all these kinds of things. We'll build it into the cost of the plan so that the patient is generating the revenue in the hygiene department to compensate your hygienist. You're not, you're not just having to make less as a doctor just because you want to pay your hygienist more. You're setting up a program that's generating revenue.   so that all parties win, hygienist, patient, and owner of the practice, everybody's gonna make money.   Kiera Dent (27:22.254) Mm -hmm, which I just think again is a really good piece. So I feel like getting this set up, figuring out how to set your pricing right, getting it in the practice so people want to do this. And I love this sliding scale. And for those of you listening, we're basically taking it from like 77 % of the UCR up to like 120 or 150 % of UCR dropping the exam. So you can play with it because I agree. Now, if you have an associate doctor, they might want those exams, but exams are not really their production. Like it is. I'm not just saying.   it is their production. What I'm trying to say is it's not the bulk of what their paycheck is based on. Their bulk of their paycheck is based on the treatment. And so if we can find a way to incentivize the hygienist to get them on here, you're making more per procedure because the reimbursement rates are higher for you. So there's a ton of ways I love that you can just do this for adults, for children, for perio. I think it just makes it very clear and you can see what percentage versus just like haphazardly making a number up to pay for it.   Paul Lowry (28:15.226)  yeah, totally. Yeah. And then I know I wanted to talk just real briefly too about, so once you have kind of from a high level, you got to think if you are starting a business, right? All right, hey, Kiera, let's start a business. We're selling widgets, whatever it is, right? It doesn't really matter. But the first thing you've got to do is figure out your costs. You got to figure out what your widget is.   Kiera Dent (28:19.438) Awesome. Well, Paul, I think, yeah, go ahead.   Paul Lowry (28:42.266) You got to figure out your costs and you got to get some marketing materials up. You got to build a website and then you got to go sell your product and fulfill on it. I mean, that's essentially really all you're doing with a membership plan is okay. Insurance takes all of your services. They bundle them up. They beat the crap out of you and then they figure out how to sell them and make a profit. And so you're going to do the same thing, but you're not going to beat yourself up, right? But essentially you've got to look at your services and bundle them into.   into a product and then you've got to go sell them. And then the last piece, of course, is you've got to have a way to fulfill or manage those. And so that's really what we're trying to help with is help you price it. We'll build some marketing materials, right? We'll build a cool landing page. We'll build the ability for patients to sign up. Here's kind of what those look like. We'll help with those add -ons that we were talking about. Here's where they can look at different services and upgrade and things like that. So they're going to build all those things out. And then after that,   we've got a really cool system and we've touched on it that's gonna integrate with practice management software. It's gonna help the front desk have a good standard operating procedure. It's gonna match collections and productions real time when services are used. So you're not adjusting things off. There's not gonna be the ability for mistakes and fraud and all the stuff that we see. And then after that, we actually do, this is a new service that we're offering here. I'll show this on the screen as well.   but we are offering some internal marketing services as well. So if you're dropping insurances, let's say you've got a low tier insurance that has, I don't know, 80 patients on it. So you drop that insurance, you get 10 of them to convert over to your membership plan during open enrollment, you get 20 of them to still be billed out of network and they're still with you and you're billing out of network and you lose 50 of them, which that's.   That's a reality, right guys? You're not gonna convert 100 % of these patients over to your membership program. So you lose 50 of them. So what are you gonna do? How are you gonna create patients into those capacity holes? And so what we're doing is we're sorting patients in the practice management software, putting them in three buckets, patients with dental insurance who haven't been in for 12 plus months. Guess what guys, when people lose their dental benefits, their insurance, they don't usually call their...   Kiera Dent (30:31.758) Thank you.   Paul Lowry (30:58.618) dentist and say, hey, just so you know, I wanted to update my dentrix record. I just want you guys to know I no longer have my insurance. FYI, nobody does that. Guess what they do? They don't come in. They don't show up and all of a sudden they're passed due for recall and you're calling them saying, hey, you need to come back in. Guess what they're thinking in the back of their mind? Well, I don't have insurance and I don't want to pay for this. And it's an unknown cost and it's scary. Some of them don't think they can even access care because in the medical world,   Kiera Dent (31:02.83) Yeah.   Right. Mm -hmm.   Right.   Kiera Dent (31:22.478) Thank you.   Paul Lowry (31:27.098) Sometimes you can't even access care if you don't have insurance. And so they don't even realize that they can still come. So we're gonna go in, we're gonna look at the patients with dental insurance who haven't been in for 12 plus months, patients without dental insurance who haven't been in for 12 plus months, and all the rest of your patients. For each group, we're gonna send an email and a text message with a link to your landing page with your membership plan. We're gonna have a video educating about it, and we're gonna invite them to sign up for the membership plan. So.   Kiera Dent (31:42.534) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (31:46.734) Thank you.   Paul Lowry (31:55.194) ones that show they have dental insurance, we're talking about using their benefits. By the way, if you don't have it, come in. Ones without dental insurance, we're talking to them a little bit differently. And then all the rest of the patients were just doing kind of an an Hey, look, we've got this great new plan. And then ones that don't have insurance, Kiera, we're, actually, we'll talk to the front office. We'll find their scheduling preferences. We've got to see what the blocks are, where we can schedule. And then we'll actually mask the phone number. We'll call on behalf of the office.   Kiera Dent (31:58.67) Thank you.   Paul Lowry (32:24.378) And then we're going to actually sell the membership plan and schedule them in the practice management software. So your front desk shows up. They're going to have a signed, sealed, delivered patient that has signed up for the membership plan and schedule an appointment. Depending on how big these lists are, we're getting anywhere from 10 to 30 patients signed up for the membership plans in a 60 day period. So imagine, you know, you hire us, we get in there, we build this thing and you get 20 membership patients paying you 30 bucks a month that fill those holes. What's that worth to you?   Kiera Dent (32:43.15) Wow.   Paul Lowry (32:54.522) It should be worth a lot, right? And so the other thing that I kind of like to talk about is you've got your front office. She's doing a lot of reactive tasks. And so if you think she's going to be proactive making these calls, you probably should think again, because she doesn't want to do them. And she might do one or two here or there, but it's going to take you years to get through that list. If you have us do it, I mean, we're really cheap. We offer a discount for Dental A Team members.   Kiera Dent (33:00.846) Thank you.   Paul Lowry (33:20.634) If you sign up for dental menu, we're actually doing this entire campaign for a one -time fee of 495. It's a loss leader, but we want to get patients on the plan. And obviously if we get patients on the plan, you stay on our platform long -term. I mean, I'm not, it's, you know, I've got ulterior motives if you want to look at it that way, but we don't have any contracts either. So even if we got these patients for you, and if for some reason you don't think our software is worthwhile, no, no worry. But I guess my point is,   Kiera Dent (33:37.87) Yeah.   Paul Lowry (33:47.61) This is really inexpensive. If you get 20 existing patients reactivated for 500 bucks, it's the best ROI you're ever going to get on any kind of marketing. Now, once you have that, you're going to have to turn to your external marketing. And you know, know, Kiera's some people I'm sure she could refer. We could as well. We don't do that. But when you're doing external marketing, you've got to think about it from a patient lens. Pain is the biggest motivator.   Kiera Dent (33:51.246) Yeah.   Paul Lowry (34:15.706) Pain is amazing to motivate patients, whether they have insurance or not. If you don't have insurance and you've got the need for a root canal, it doesn't matter what it costs, right? You're gonna go in and get that taken care of. But if you're not in pain and you've gotta get that person off the couch and into the dental practice, you've gotta have some sort of offers. And if the offer is, hey, come in, we'll do an exam cleaning x -rays and we'll give you a surprise bill somewhere between 300 and $1 ,000 when you're done, that's not gonna get new patients in the door.   Kiera Dent (34:19.726) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (34:44.474) You've got to have a good way to have them access care. And so I'm being kind of long -winded, but the marketing is really awesome to get patients. Like you've said, you've got to have a plan. So if you want to get off the insurances, you've got to create a good product. You've got to get some marketing stuff set up. You've got to get a good standard operating procedure and a fulfillment mechanism for your team so they're not hating life. And then you've got to go market. I mean, those are the steps. And so...   Kiera Dent (34:44.878) Right.   Paul Lowry (35:12.442) Do it yourself if you want, that's awesome. We've got educational videos on our website, they're free, go ahead and watch them. Do a call with me, I'm happy to tell you tons of stuff that we know and walk through things. I'll give you some free information and then go for it and execute it. And if you want help with those steps, obviously we're happy to help you, that's why we have a company. We feel like there's things we can do to really help you, but put a plan in place and execute on the plan like any other business owner would do with a business.   Kiera Dent (35:41.166) Yeah, no, and Paul, I love that you guys talked about the setting the pricing and then also the marketing. I mean, just the fact of getting that many patients back into your practice alone can really help. And I love that you guys have it tiered. Like for those of you just listening, it's like there's an email and text message for people with dental insurance, without dental insurance, and patients who have had an appointment in the last 12 months. So really a lot of opportunities. And I think that that is just the benefit of a company versus a DIY.   is that you have more tools and resources because you guys are working with hundreds of practices. So Paul, I love what you guys are doing. I think there's so many cool advancements, but like we said, it's the prepping time of getting these things in place right now. So that way when, when you want to drop insurances or when the landscape's changing or when patients are leery, all those pieces are going to come into play for you. So I would just really encourage you like reach out. I love Dental Menu. I think they're one of the best membership programs out there. I think they make it very easy. And I think that they're very smart business wise.   and team -wise and patient -wise. So Paul, how can people connect with you? I know you said go to the website, but how can they get connected with you directly?   Paul Lowry (36:44.698) Yeah, so you can, one thing too, I want to point out, Keurig, sometimes this is a challenge. So everything we do is white labeled. Patients are still paying your practice directly. They're not signing up for a dental menu plan. And so all we're doing is taking your DIY plan and giving you some amazing tools to sell more patients and to manage it better. It's, you're still controlling the whole revenue stream. If you fired us, you're still controlling that revenue stream, which is not the case with a lot of membership platforms out there. So just, I want to make that clear that,   Kiera Dent (36:52.558) Awesome.   Paul Lowry (37:15.258) It's still your plan, right? You use tools all the time. So if you want to dig a swimming pool with a shovel, you can. If you want to dig a swimming pool with a backhoe, you can. It's still your swimming pool, right? And you can decide how you want to structure it. So if you want to get in touch with me, you can go to the website. You can just email me directly, Paul @ DentalMenu .com. That's D -E -N -T -A -L -E -M-E -N-U .com. That's probably the best way to get ahold of me. I mean, you can look us up on   Kiera Dent (37:17.326) Right.   Kiera Dent (37:26.894) Mm -hmm.   Paul Lowry (37:42.202) LinkedIn or Facebook or those kinds of things, but shoot me an email. We're happy to work with you. You can go to the website for those educational modules. We've got an assessment tool you can look at. You can schedule a demo there. If you put on there again that you came from Dental A Team, then you're gonna get that discount on the marketing as well. So those are probably the best ways. And I'm happy to chat with anybody that wants to reach out.   Kiera Dent (38:04.878) for sure. I truly think Paul you guys do such a great job of educating and I appreciate you. So like I said, everyone, I really would love you to like I said, I'm coming a little stronger of get prepared now. So that way you have opportunities and options and you don't you aren't like those practices who just drop and then try and rebuild. You guys are smarter than that you're more educated and so reach out. So Paul, thanks for being on the podcast today. Thanks for sharing all those things. I'm so excited for you guys. I feel like   Paul Lowry (38:19.886) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (38:30.222) the landscape of dentistry is actually coming into such a beautiful positive and you don't have to be like shackled to insurance anymore unless you want to. I think there's more options out there. Yes, you have to think differently, but so many options. So Paul, thanks for being here today. It was great to chat. Of course, and for all of you listening, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.   Paul Lowry (38:37.754) Yeah.   Paul Lowry (38:43.866) Yeah, thanks for having me, Kare, appreciate it.

Kiera gives listeners three steps to set up an ideal emergency after-hour protocol response. Define “true emergency” — what should the doctor actually have to come in for? Role play! Listen to example calls and set language to use. Place daily blocks for those emergency appointments. She adds a couple additional pieces of advice, including using a rotating emergency response schedule with other practices. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.782) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I hope that you guys are having the best day of your life and I hope that you guys are just enjoying your time. I hope that you remember that right now you get to be a part of dentistry. It's a great time. It's an amazing profession and you get to change people's lives and I hope you just remember that you are changing lives and it is a great place to be. Also, if this dental podcast has blessed your life in any way, please do me a favor and leave a review. Share this in a Facebook group.   tag us while you're driving because my goal is to get this podcast into the hands of every single dental office out there and I can only do that with your help. So please, I will provide the free content. I will be here every single week with you guys. I just ask that you do me a favor and share this at least once a week with somebody or some group that you think it could benefit. That means the world to me and it's how we're going to be able to reach that mission. So today I just want to jump in a quick tactical podcast with you guys today on how can we actually handle emergency after call after our calls.   to keep our patients happy and cared for, but also to allow doctors to have a stress -free life. And this is for solo doctors, because obviously if we've got associate or other doctors, we can rotate the time. So I'm just gonna dive into it. We saw this as a question that came up. I always love when people ask me for podcast topics. If you ever wanna leave me a podcast topic that you want for your practice or for you, head on over to thedentalateam.com   click on the podcast link and right there, there's a place for you to actually submit ideas. You can also just email us, hello at thedentalateam.com. I would love to hear from you. I love a good pen pal, but really any topics you guys want, this podcast is built for you. So the more I get your ideas, your questions, the things you want, the more I'll be able to build podcasts for you and for your team. And also we can create quick rules for you, make it very simple for you. You can also post questions in our Facebook group. So head on over to our Facebook group, join our group, enter the discussion. I'd love to have you there.   All right, emergency after calls. So let's say you have multiple doctors. I think that everybody doesn't want to have to always be on call. And so like our success team, they rotate every other weekend and they know who's going to be on call, what the expectations are. And they also know the weekends that they're going to be off. And so that way they can really get that balance. And so I think that's a great way. If you do have other providers in the practice that they can actually rotate that. And the second thing is I've seen some offices actually have,   Kiera Dent (02:20.046) their team members more on call. So the doctor doesn't necessarily have to be on call. And this is in solo practices, larger practices, but you can actually rotate the team. There's ways you can do it. Check with your state laws to where it's on call pay and not regular pay. And so if there is a call, they take a company cell phone and they just take, they vet those calls. So that way the doctor doesn't need to always feel like they're on call and handling those emergency calls. Also is to make sure that it truly, truly is an emergency when they're calling you after hours.   A lot of times we can train our team members to find out is this truly an issue or is it something that could be solved on Monday? A lot of times, offices will save a spot on Monday for those emergencies that do come in over the weekend of like, perfect, let's take some ibuprofen or we can call in some medications if needed. Doctors, that's your world. But really educating our team of like, what is a true emergency? So something for me that was kind of like an art practice of what we saw as the standard of a true emergency where doctors going to go in.   was usually, it was a broken tooth. Like if someone got in an accident, their tooth was broken. Obviously that's gonna be a weekend emergency that we're going to go in for. Another thing like a lot of times abscesses, the abscesses ignore an extreme pain. But remember, it didn't happen overnight usually for an abscess. It's been there, we probably diagnosed it on that patient. And if you want to, you can have that. Some practices prefer to call in a medication. Some practices don't because they don't want the patient to get out of pain and then never show up.   So you guys can make that determination for your practice of what's going to be best for you and how you want to do that. But I think like really those are our true two emergencies. Everything else like a popped off temporary, there's temp cement that they can put on at the grocery store. Other things like we want to take care of our patients, but we have to remember like what truly is an emergency. And I think about it like a doctor at a hospital is not going to come in if I have like...   you know, my cast got wiggly, they're going to say perfect, like, you can just manage it. We'll see you on Monday. It's not something urgent. They're going to come in if I like cut my finger off in the blender, they're going to come in if I like poked my eye or I broke my bone, things that have immediate consequences. And I think in dentistry, we think it's an emergency because the patient is frazzled. And so I think actually, a lot of times those emergencies to help these doctors have stress free lives is let's actually role play these. So there are some   Kiera Dent (04:44.91) some companies. So like if you have your phones, you can actually have them record the calls and we can listen to these emergency calls and let's see if it truly is an emergency on the weekend. I think a lot of people just want it to be taken care of and if the dentist is willing to come in, fantastic, but like true emergencies, a broken tooth and usually an abscess were pretty much the only two that our doctor would actually go in on the weekend. Also, if the doctors have it set up of if there is an emergency, this is the time I'm willing to come in. You guys, I did break   my ex -fiance, notice X, and he did smash my face into a wall on a Saturday. And I had to go to the dentist. And I will tell you that dentist was out and about and I did not see that dentist for about five hours. So just so you know, I do feel like my case was extenuating circumstances and I did need to see a dentist that day and I'm grateful he was able to come in. But just so you know, if it's a true emergency, they're going to be willing to wait until it's convenient for the doctor as well.   So doctor who's like, I know you want to care for these patients, but remember they are paying a premium and you do get to have it on your own time. Some other offices will rotate with offices too. I know that that's an option for solo doctors. If you don't have an associate, you and maybe a couple other practices in the area that are our solo doctors, maybe you rotate. So one practice takes it the first week of the month. The next one takes it the second, third and fourth. Obviously that's on our honor that we don't try and take each other's patients. But it can be set up to where.   Fantastic this week, we become the emergency call line for all four practices and they can come in the next time it's going to be for the other one. They'll be on call for it. And that can sometimes help you to where you're only then having to be available one weekend out of the month that we can go on vacations. You can be free, but I want you to also remember and let's pretend doctors that you are on vacation. You are completely out of the country and a patient called in with an emergency. What would you do? Odds are the only two you'd go in for is probably a broken tooth or that root canal.   But odds are you'd probably call in a medication. You'd see them on Monday when you got back. And so remembering that if, if we're on vacation and we wouldn't be coming in, we like, we'd probably call another doctor and send them to that. If the emergency is not to that level, when you're on vacation, is there a way within our practice that we can change it into where those emergencies aren't coming in? They're not overwhelming our schedule. It's not as having to give up our weekends. So I really do think, um, our team practicing, reviewing the calls, let's see what we could have said.   Kiera Dent (07:11.246) How can we get it to where this patient feels so happy? Maybe having a block space on Mondays for emergencies in the morning to where like amazing, no problem. We're going to have you take some ibuprofen. We'll get you in right away on Monday morning. No problem. We actually reserve spaces for that. I think some really good word ninjaing verbiage for your team can cut down those ER after hour calls. And honestly, if it's an evening one, they're fine. They'll come in the next morning and there'll be a spot for them.   I used to hold two emergency appointments every single day, morning and afternoon, and it was true emergencies. And I want to remind you if it's a true emergency, they'll come at any time I have available. So I put it in my schedule right where we actually wanted it every single day because true emergencies will come. Everybody else can fit into our schedule where it's ideal. And so I really, really think most of these, we care so much about our patients being happy and cared for, but I think we oftentimes maybe overdo it when it's unnecessary. And so biggest takeaways from this is one,   Let's define what emergencies you're willing to come in for. Doctors, this is your life. It's you giving up your time to go in. Worst case scenario, there are emergency dental cares that they can go to on the weekends. And I know we don't necessarily want to do that, but I want to remind you there are other options. And 99 % of the time, unless they're in some fluke accident like I was in, the problem has been there. They just elected not to get it done. And so I also think like there was a chance for them to get this done when it wasn't in pain. And not to say we punished them for it.   But I want you to remember you didn't cause this problem and they had choices prior that they chose not to do most of the time. So number one, identify what are true emergencies you are willing to come in for and train your team and let them know these are the ones. Number two, let's role play and let's listen to calls of what the emergencies are and how we would respond to that patient to help them see that they can come in on Monday. Number three, place that block every single day so we do have those true emergency spots where we're holding them for true emergencies and that patient can come in.   And when I talk about a broken tooth, let me just clarify, that's like they were in an accident. It wasn't like decay and it fell off. Okay, so two very different scenarios, fluke accident, face, longboarding accident, car accident, things like that where really, I mean, you guys, I had no decay in my teeth. I just happened to get a nice concrete wall to the face. Those are things that I would say true emergencies and that patient will be so grateful and appreciative because that really is something you do need to take care of that day. And then,   Kiera Dent (09:39.406) After that, let's just remember if you were on vacation, what would you do and who would you actually go see? And then possibly look to see, can you rotate the days, the weeks, the months with other offices? So that way you feel like you can be off call. You don't always have to be on call because it is true. They come in on the weekends. And so, but we also do need to have balanced lives as well. And so that would be my recommendation. We're really great at training on verbiage for teams, helping you doctors also realize.   what's truly a true emergency versus what's one that really could be handled on Monday and giving you that, that confidence to still care for them and take great care of them and do it on a day that you're already in the practice, really, really, really can give you the confidence. So if we can help train your team, reach out, [email protected]. We're here for you. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the dental a Team podcast.

We’ve talked about it before: Your patient avatar is crucial for success (listen to episode 747, Creating a Raving Fan Patient). Now, it’s time to understand what the value of that avatar can add to your practice. Tiff and Dana touch on… Reverse engineering your ideal avatar Considering the right metrics Working with your marketing team And more! Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Listen to episode 747, Creating a Raving Fan Patient Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01.844) Hello, everyone. We are so excited to be here with you. I have Miss Dana here with me again today. I love podcasting with her and I love we were just going over like what we're going to talk about today and we're reviewing the content for today. And she just Dana, you always have this perspective like what you just said to me and like, my gosh, you're totally right. You always have this perspective of whatever system it is, what it actually can provide and deliver. So thank you for being here. Thank you for all of the work you put into all of our   and our company. A lot of the content that you guys see, that you read, that you're getting on your newsletters, that you're getting delivered to your inboxes, that you're getting delivered to your offices, your gifts, all of your things, these come, most of those items, if I'm honest with myself, come from Dana. And Dana, you are an incredible asset to this company and to all of our clients. So thank you for the hard work that you put in. Thank you for constantly.   thinking out the side of the box and seeing things from different angles that even I don't always see. You are incredible. Thank you for being here with me today.   Dana (01:03.51) Thanks, Tim. Thanks for having me. And you know, I think it's like efficiency queens over here because we both I think, self admittedly, are that I'm not going to do a system if it's not going to give me a result or give me something to see. And so I am always looking for just those little diamonds in the rough when it comes to systems.   Tiffanie (01:10.552) Yeah.   Tiffanie (01:22.74) I totally agree. Totally agree. And you, you see so many systems because you do work with so many clients, both in person and virtual. And I think you're constantly seeing like trial and error on how things are working and how different teams are implementing and doing them. And I think the, I think the positive side of all of the virtual clients that you do work with is that you get a lot of exposure to them because you're working with them constantly every month. And so you're seeing that.   ebb and flow and you're seeing the immediate direct results of them actually implementing the system. So I think it's just really cool. I think it's an advantageous space that you get to sit in and that your clients sit in honestly, because you have so many clients in of your own and then even in practice momentum that you've been working with on ACE, like there's so many clients that just get so much exposure to you, to Nicole, to Britt and all of those different spaces that are just.   getting so much value because you guys are able to see the immediate results and kind of help them pivot and change on the drop of a dime. And I just think it's really cool. Whereas other clients I see like quarterly or, you know, every six months, I'll just see them for visits. And it's like an overhaul of all these pieces. So I think it's really cool what you're able to do. So we've been talking about we've talked about a lot of things. And we talked about a lot of marketing in the past couple of months and   One of the pieces that we brought to the surface was the idea of building on an avatar. I thought it would be fun today to kind of just like hit in on what the avatar's value actually is, right? Because we talked about the avatar, how to do it, why we want people to do it, but then now looking at the actual value, and I think you hit on some absolutely wonderful pieces. I was thinking like being able to hone in on the patient that you want, the patient base that you want, should be.   help exponentially. One of the first places that I saw it was really knowing when you know who you want in your practice as far as patients, I think it helps us figure out who we need working side by side as well. Because when we know their end result, we can work backwards from there. And oftentimes we're reactive and we're like, gosh, we need a dental assistant. I need someone with this experience. And sometimes that experience, I'm going to say like comes at a cost. Like sometimes the experience you're looking for,   Tiffanie (03:43.316) comes at the cost of them knowing everything and maybe not being super engaged with how your practice does it. I know I hear from doctors all the time, the words she keeps saying at my practice we did and it's like, no, you're here now. So I think sometimes we don't reverse engineer things, we just react and we respond. So when we know when we built out the avatar, we built out our goals, we're like, this is the practice that we want. This is the patient that's going to get us there.   Now we can say who are the people, the team that will work with that patient to get us the best results because I think in a second, Dana, I want you to go through those pieces that you're talking about because with the right team, with the right patient, those trackable measurable items that you're going to speak on in a second, that's the only way they're going to get there. If we have an avatar built of a patient and we don't consider the avatar of a hire,   it could be really messy in between and we could have a clashing of personalities. So I think the valid one of the values of an avatar that I see is that it's going to simplify hiring for you. So you can build that avatar of hiring off of the avatar of the patient that you want and really dial in on what that's going to look like. My other piece was like marketing spend and I think that's fun Dana into yours.   We can decrease marketing spend because our targeted ads are to the people we want and we're getting a better ROI because we know exactly who we want. That's who it's going to. We can decrease our marketing spend and increase in other areas. So Dana on that marketing piece, cause I think hiring aside, like we can bring that back in a second, but on that marketing piece, have you seen that you implement avatars? We talked about this before a lot with a lot of your practices as you're going through operations manuals and as you're.   really building out the goals and the dreams for practices. So when it comes to that marketing spend, have you seen that even get more clear for practice managers and practice owners on what the marketing is going to look like because they have the avatar?   Dana (05:45.398) Yeah, I think the great news is when you build your avatar, you're thinking about services too. Like what is the kind of dentistry that they're gonna value? Because does that align with the dentistry that you do? Because you want your avatar and your ideal patient base to want the kind of procedures that you want to do or that you're offering, which then ideally does give you an idea of new patient value, right? Because when we are...   doing these marketing dollars to bring in this ideal patient, we should actually have a pretty baseline of what is our average new patient going to be as far as production or value because we've designed that avatar to really, really want the things or the services.   that we're ideally serving them with. And so I love that you said, okay, let's think about it in hiring. And I think when you link it to hiring, I always say, okay, well, what is the experience then for that avatar that we're trying to create and which team members will create that experience because all of that then leads to increased case acceptance of the things that we are targeting, which then does give you a baseline value of that patient, which I think.   helps with marketing spend, helps with knowing really like what you should be putting into marketing and if you're getting your ROI because you should have an idea of patient value just based on avatar alone.   Tiffanie (07:01.332) Yeah, I totally agree. I love that. So you brought that to me and I'm like, my gosh, you're totally right. Because not only does it increase your patient base, but it increases the value of each individual patient. And this one makes me think too Dana, there's a lot of practices out there that are going to be for service that are dropping major insurance plans that will go unnamed that have always scared the dental industry, but they're doing it and they're doing it. A lot of them are doing it successfully. And I think if you don't have,   these things in line, if you don't know your avatar patient, your avatar team, we start dropping insurances and going towards fee for service, we can get really scared, right? Because I think the people that we lose, this is just me making an assumption, I guess. The people that we lose or I've seen practices lose when dropping an insurance are typically people who are very insurance minded, who are saying, no, I'm not gonna do fluoride because my insurance doesn't pay for it, I'm over 18.   who are saying, well, if they're not going to pay for the crown, then I don't believe I need it. Right? So there are the x -rays or any additional anything at all. They're the ones that are like, no, because insurance said, right? Well, if my insurance downgrades, why aren't you doing a silver? I could have had those conversations and drives you wild. So those are the patients typically that are going to follow the insurance. So the patients that are retaining are probably more.   geared towards your actual avatar patient. But if we don't have our hire in line, we don't have our team in line to serve that avatar patient. And we've got a team who's insurance focused and insurance minded that doesn't match the avatar that we're targeting. Now we've got this issue where we've got maybe a team member who's super insurance focused and driven, talking a patient out of coming to your practice because they don't accept.   Right? We're not in network. We're not participating with that insurance. So that is a huge flip -flop, I think, in our brains that we've never, I've never actually like sat down and thought about how those things are so in alignment. I think it's huge. So just that alone, right? Just that alone increases your patient value. So I think the value of an avatar and the things to do really is to go listen to the avatar.   Tiffanie (09:23.924) podcast, we're not going to break it all down for you now. Go listen to that. We already did it. Build out your avatar from your goals, right? You want to build out your avatar from your practice goals and your life goals. What is it and who is it going to take to get you to those goals and reverse engineer? So know your patient avatar, build that out. And from there, I want you to consider and think about sometimes it's helpful to just like journal ideas out and then figure it out. But really think about who   Could be working with that patient who's gonna be the best team member. What's their personality? Like what are they doing? How do they think about insurance? What are their goals and dreams and aspirations? What are the things that they're pushing for in life? How do we get that avatar for our new hire now right or for our team making sure that our team is in line? I do want to put the caveat whenever I have my doctors or practice administrators at all do exercises like this. I need you to delete your team from your brain. I   Don't think about the things that your team brings to the table. Don't think like, well, Joanna is, you know, she's so sweet and kind and I want somebody sweet and kind just like Joanna. When you put the person to it, it makes it much more difficult to be objective with the person, the ideas of the person you actually want. And that may be your full team, totally fine. But you need to come up with a very objective list to be able to score from to make sure that you're in alignment. So delete your team from your brain.   as you're building these, just like I want you to delete your patients as you're building your avatar. Don't be like, well, I don't want to Jack, Jack's the worst or Mary Sue is always here and I want more Mary Sue's like, that's fantastic. But what does that patient actually look like? So go build your patient avatar, build your team avatar from there. And then let's talk metrics because I think you guys need to start playing metrics now or prior to having done this exercise before and start looking at what's   decreasing and increasing. So once you've got your marketing avatar narrowed in, chat with your marketing company, get things retargeted, make sure that we're super focused on the patients that you want. You should see an increase then in like patient acquisition, you should see the right patients coming to your practice. I did this with a client in Utah. And prior to building out really what he wanted the new patient to look like, he was like, I just need patients. So we're just grasping at everything.   Tiffanie (11:52.34) And there were a couple months where he was overloaded with quote unquote new patients. And he was just like, I Tiff, I can't do this. Well, we broke it down and I started noticing that his quote unquote new patients, right? Label them how you'd like. Were limited and comp exams, mostly limited. And these people were coming for extractions and they were in town and had a crown fall off, but they don't live there. And they're just like these one stop shop patients.   rotating through this very small practice, he's only got two operatories to himself and two hygiene. So he just didn't have the space for it. So I pulled back and I started with the marketing company like, what are we? What are we marketing here? They're marketing emergency dentist, right? So he's getting everything and I'm like, well, do you want to be an emergency dentist? Because that's what you're doing 100 % they're getting the results that we're after.   they are getting the results for emergency dentists, but is that your forte? And he's like, No, I really, really am getting into cosmetic and implants. That is a far cry from where we are. So building out that avatar, I had him go through it based on the, the procedures he really wanted to do, like you said earlier, Dana, like really honing in what it is that I want to do, and then build the avatar from there, we scale back marketing from   emergency dentist and switched it over to family cosmetic and routine dentistry. Now his new patients went down, right? He didn't, he wasn't getting as many quote unquote new patients because he wasn't getting these emergency limited exams. But the value of the patients that he was bringing in far outweighed the value of all of the one stop shop because he got two cosmetic cases in three months. So his marketing spend,   reduced because we were targeted. We didn't have to pour as much money into marketing. We were super targeted and the value of those patients went up exponentially while building his active patient count because active patient count was a big thing for him. But you guys, I told him, I'm like, yeah, Joe came in today for an extraction, but he lives in Alabama and you can't, he's active, right? But he's not an active patient.   Tiffanie (14:10.1) So that is an example though. I think he's an awesome example for me to really show how honing in on that decreased ad spend, decreased marketing, increased patient value. And it also in the middle of all of that, one of his prized front office workers, she's fantastic. She retired. And I was like, she's part time. We're working around her schedule.   or working around like difficulties with certain programs and speed and stuff, why don't we look at what you need for the patients you're looking for? And so we did and he hired this girl who is just fantastic. And the increase he's seen like they're adding, we just had it the other day, we're adding another day a month, like everything's just rolling forward, but it's all because we started with.   What are you actually looking for and where are you spending your money? So the increased ad or the decreased ad spend increased patient value and increased case acceptance. So that's my like plug for how well this works just because I know Dana, you and I both implement this a lot. We've been, we build out avatars a lot. I just did it with a pedo practice the other day and it was so much fun.   but it really produces a solid result and you work with teams on this a lot too. So with all of that, we've got our trackables, right? Marketing, value per patient, and then case acceptance. I think so then like your schedule, your production, all of those pieces will be positively impacted. But I think those are the real three things that are super strong. They're easy to measure. Now, Dana, on the flip side, I've told like the doctor story.   Right. But what have you seen? Cause you do implement this with a lot of teams a lot of the time. What have you seen on the team side? the value of the avatar for the team. What have you seen like the bright patients coming in and maybe even like the wrong people working for us exiting. Like what have you, what are you seeing in your teams as you're working through this?   Dana (16:17.686) Yeah, I do think when you hone in on those pieces, it becomes easier for the team, right? It helps them map out that patient experience that we know this patient is going to value. It helps them be able to tee up the type of treatment that we know we want to do for these types of patients. It helps them in their communication. It helps in so many ways when the team has a really clear picture. It even helps them like, who are we going to target to ask for referrals and reviews, like simple things. It helps them really   hone into who is ideal.   Who maybe are we okay letting go of both patient and team members, right? Because they're not part of that ideal process or what we eventually want. And so I do think when the team has clarity on those pieces too, it makes a lot of things easier. And as a team member, I would certainly want a patient who is more ideal for the practice because I know at the end of the day, they're going to accept the treatment recommendations, which is the reason that I'm there is to improve their oral health. And so when we know that we're targeting the right types of patients, we're able to have really good communication.   with them, we're able to get them to accept treatment, that's a huge win for team members too.   Tiffanie (17:24.788) Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. I love that. And I think, I think one of our biggest fears in the dental industry, because we're super reactive, in my opinion, is the loss of people and the loss of team members and then having to train them. So it's like making sure all of these systems and processes are in line. And as people are on your team and the team that you have today and making sure that they're documenting everything that they're doing, their systems and processes, making sure that all of those are in line.   There's a slew of podcasts you can listen to on those as well. Dana breaks them down beautifully every single time. So go listen to those, but make sure that those are all online. And I think never be, never be so tied to a team member or a patient that you would feel like at a loss without that person. Like I can say, Dana, if we lost you, if we lost Britt, if we lost Nicole, if we lost anybody on our team, it's a loss and it, it's detrimental to us.   but it shouldn't be something that if it's someone who's not the right fit, we can't stand losing them. I think that that makes a huge difference and that's a big clarification there. So action items today. Number one, go listen to the other podcasts. If you haven't listened to the podcast on the avatars yet or the operations manual, go do that because they're really, really detailed. Dana honestly breaks them down super well.   Number two, build out those avatars if you haven't yet. If you've only done your patient avatar or you've only done your team, go to the other one as well and see how they flow together, how they combine to get you the results that you want. Number three, start tracking these pieces. Look at your marketing spend monthly if you're not. See how you can decrease it or how you can change it. Communicate with your marketing company on honing in on that avatar. Let them know who you're trying to attract.   They work off of avatars, you guys, if you have that information for them, you can give it to them. Your marketing team is like, thank you, because it makes their lives exponentially easier. So track your marketing ROI, track your dollar per patient value, and track your case acceptance if you're not, because you should see those things start to increase and decrease marketing as you see the right patients coming through the practice. Dana.   Tiffanie (19:42.964) Thank you so much for this. Thank you for all of the work you do with all of our clients and for always helping us to build all of these things out. Is there anything else that you think we should repeat or anything that we need to make sure that they really take away today that you can think of?   Dana (19:58.966) No, I think like always you recapped perfectly and honed in on the pieces and takeaways for everyone.   Tiffanie (20:04.5) Awesome. Sweet. Okay, everyone, go do the things. Leave us a five star review below. We love hearing from you. And if you have questions or you need help, please reach out hello at the dental a team .com. Like I always say, it's a lot of the time as consultants answering those questions. So feel free to reach out. We're happy to be here for all of you. Thank you.

Kiera lists out exactly what doctors should be looking for when either buying a new practice or hoping to systematize their current one. Considerations such as:  What’s the AR? What procedures are being offered and is there room to add more? How is the team communication? How are supplies purchased? Then she suggests how to boil down the most critical items to implement and ways to go about doing so that won’t overwhelm the team. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript:  Kiera Dent (00:00.91) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners, this is Kiera and I am so excited to be podcasting with you today. So I just wanted to get on and do a quick tip, tactical one with you of tips of buying a practice. But if you already own a practice, some things you can do to just maximize and optimize. There was a really interesting post where we found that someone bought a practice. They wanted to own their practice.   They thought the practice was going to be a great practice. They were super excited that the schedule was full. So when vetting the practice, they saw full schedule. They also saw like perfect. The patients are coming in. They had a lot of amalgams, a lot of opportunity for them because they weren't doing amalgams. So like we could do that. When they were visiting the office before the sale, they couldn't figure out like why the AR was so high. And good news that they didn't buy the AR. So some tips on that.   And then they were just kind of looking at like, why would like the business aspect of the practice and CE and things like that. And like, they were trying to figure out fraud and ordering supplies. And so they made this list of changes that they wanted to do. And I read this post in this article. So this person's listening. Hello, nice to have you. Thanks for sharing your story. But they thought of just some different things. And so I thought about when you're looking at a practice to buy and or in your own practice,   A few things to look at is number one, with their AR being high, are they collecting patient portions? My husband told me, I kid you not, he just went to the dentist. We actually go to two different dentists here in Reno. And he said that, yeah, he left the office and they're like, oh yeah, you can just pay next time. That is a great way to have high AR. And so really making sure that your practice, even if you've been doing that for a long time, that you work on making sure that you are collecting at time of service.   I know that sounds so silly, but people ask here, how are you able to add 20 grand to a schedule? And I'm like, I literally had them stop at the front and make sure that they actually collected their balances before they left. You can go a step further and actually pre -collect before they even go to the back. So if they've got balances, think about when you go to the doctor's office, they always have you collect the copay before you go back and see them. They're very proactive on collecting. And I just think why in dentistry do we not do that? So that's one thing when you're looking at of that high AR, what can be also looking to see, are they billing out?   Kiera Dent (02:22.222) claims? Are we sending them out? Are we running our procedures not billed to insurance report constantly and consistently going all the way back to the beginning of the year? Because if we're not running that, we're actually not able to see like what procedures we actually did that just they got stuck in the funny zone and they did not send out. And so looking at that, and so for this office, I just thought let me give you some tips. Where   A few things when you're buying this practice, good things to look for are what's the AR? Do I want to buy that? Do I not? If it's a high AR, are they collecting at time of service? Can we get that there? Another thing to do is looking about billing out same day. Are we doing that with hygiene? How's their hygiene department and are they doing perio? What's their perio percentage? How many new patients are coming in? Where are those new patients coming from? There's another practice that I talked to and he's looking to buy the practice and he's like, here, we're only getting like two new patients a year, a month.   And I was like, whoa, I would not be buying that practice until I found out why and am I confident I could increase that new patient flow? Other things to look at when we're buying this are what are all the procedures that they're offering in the practice? Are we able to add in additional services? And even within your own practice, if you own it right now, can we add in additional services like ortho, Botox, implants, all on fours, smile makeovers, any of those things sleep? Are those things currently in the practice? And if not,   What one's going to be, excuse me, the least amount of effort with the most amount of ROI and could we add that in? What else about like, what is that doctor doing? And are they delegating the tasks of the business? And could you set up your schedule to work on the business for even two hours a week where we look at the financials, we're going through the billing, we're looking at the reports, we're running those reports. We're also looking to see what other things we're cross checking. We're going and grabbing an EOB and just checking to see was it posted.   Also, we're looking at the AR. We actually have a spreadsheet. Dental A Team has this for a lot of our clients where we have an AR spreadsheet where you download all the AR. Your biller is expected to go through every single account. And then every single month, you actually have a meeting with your biller. And we go through every single account. Is it first, second, third statement? Are they set up to go to collections or are we writing the accounts off? The doctor is gonna review all those information before we do that. These are the accounts we need to do. Insurance follow -up, how long are claims taking to get paid?   Kiera Dent (04:45.294) Doctors, you don't have to do this, but you could simply just have an insurance AR spreadsheet and patient portion where you look at it and your biller knows that they need to get this done. So I think that really can also help and make it easier for you too. That's a good way to prevent fraud. You're checking all the payments. We're also closing off the audit trail of who can actually take things in and out of the ledger, making sure nobody can delete the audit trail, putting up passwords on your computers, making sure that's there.   making sure that payroll, you have a good company for payroll and QuickBooks and making sure you're actually looking at your P &L every single month, looking to make sure all the charges are there, putting your P &L into an overhead calculator to make sure are we in a line with industry standards to make sure we're not overpaying or underpaying or where we could maybe chip down one or two zones to get that a little bit stronger, making sure that we have goals for our whole team.   looking for production and collection goals and what our overhead is and new patients. With new patients, are we having referrals? Are we making sure that we're getting our Google reviews? Are we using a company like Swell to make sure our Google reviews are high and to be drawing in new patients even when we're sleeping? Are we looking for other zones that we could be attracting more new patients? Can we do monthly giveaways that are for our ideal patient avatar? And then looking at...   when you guys are diagnosing treatment, are we reactive? Are we proactive? What are we doing with that? And, you know, some dentists are like, we'll just watch it and see, could we move it into even where we do one more item of treatment than we would normally do, not over diagnosing, but maybe something that we would watch. So we're going to watch five teeth, let's watch four teeth and actually treatment plan one of those. And so I think that there's also so many other zones that can help. And also the question is like,   when we go and buy a practice or when we're trying to make changes, people ask us all the time with consulting, like, how do you actually do this? And how do you get a team bought in? And what I found is make a running list of all the items that you want to change. Teams enjoy change. I don't say that they don't like change. Teams don't like unnecessary changes and teams don't like to have a ton of changes put on them all at once that are just going to fall off the bandwagon. Teams like to have less stress, more fun. And so what I found is if we   Kiera Dent (07:05.07) I like when I consult a practice, I literally make a running list of all these items. I'm looking at the AR, I'm looking at how we're scheduling patients, I'm looking at handoffs, I'm looking at how the exams go. I'm looking at all these different pieces. I'm watching their morning huddle. I'm looking to see are they tracking goals? I'm looking to see how do we answer the phones? I'm looking to see how is the front office working? Do they have it separated out? Are we sending our claims? Looking at their AR, pulling an EOB and checking that, listening to how the hygienists are teeing up perio and fluoride. I'm looking to see our...   Assistance looking for additional treatment they can add on I'm looking for handoffs between doctors and and team members I'm looking at their financials. I'm looking at their overhead. I'm looking at their costs of things I'm looking at their supplies in the practice. Are we putting them in all the operatories? Do we have one set space? I'm looking at their sterile Are they cross contaminating and not realizing it? All those things I look at and you better believe that if I go tell a team all the things that they're not doing or things that they could improve   I'm probably gonna lose a team. Just like if you buy a practice and go try to change everything all at once, you're probably going to lose a team. So again, I have a whole list. I'm putting it in a notebook. You can have a document for it. And then what I do is I consolidate, I combine, and I also look to see what if I could implement only three items will move this practice forward the most, the quickest, and I get the team bought in for a six week time period.   The reason why I do six weeks is it's just easy, perio, a six week retreat, come and check it out. But I've also found that that way the team feels like there's not too much. And what I also do is before I go implement anything, I already know usually what I want to implement and what I think would help this practice the most. But I go to the team and say, hey, where are our struggles? Where are the hot fires? And what do we need to do to change? Like the hot fires are our communication. Our hot fires are this. And I already know I want to implement X, Y, Z. I want to implement.   handoffs between doctors because they know it's going to increase case acceptance. I want to implement an AR spreadsheet to make sure we're tracking that because our collections might be low and let's see if we can get that. And I'm going to collect like perfect handoffs where we collect money. Those might be my three things that I'm going to implement. And then what I do is I get the team to tell me what their problems are and then I bring the solutions to their problems to the table. And that's what we work on for six weeks. And so I think when you're buying a practice, do the same thing.   Kiera Dent (09:23.15) When you're looking at your practice, go around, be a consultant, listen in, spend an hour just walking around and you'll be shocked at how much you see and then look to see of all your great ideas, what's going to move your practice forward the most and then stick to that for six weeks. Don't let anybody off the hook. That's what I think people really love when we consult them because we don't let you off the hook. You are with us. You are, uh, you're accountable to us. We're going to check in because what I found is people have shiny object syndrome. So we start this when we want to change all of these things.   So we try to do 500 things and we actually don't end up doing any of the things. And so if I can just get three items put into place, maybe it's three items as a team and then an additional one or two for people to just get things rolling, but it's very manageable and it makes their life easier and more efficient because it's solving their perceived and true problems with actual solutions that will make a difference. And then I make sure it's sticky. And that's how you're able to truly make change in a practice. That's how you're able to, when you buy a practice or things to look for,   or when you're having your team and you wanna make changes because buying a practice and having an existing practice oftentimes have some of the same problems. Just when we're buying it, we're very, very nitty gritty because we wanna make sure we're taking care of our investment. When we own it, we forget that we should be constantly protecting our investment because we want to refine and make it better. But that's not just better for us, it's better for our team and for our patients. And when we come from it with that approach, your team's bought into it. So I might suggest buying a practice, here you go, here's some tips of what to do.   owning a practice, these are also some tips, but I might suggest no matter where you are, make your whole laundry list of items to improve, consolidate and combine any of them that are likes with likes, and then figure out what are the top three items that if implemented for the next six weeks would exponentially move your business forward and then stick to those consistently. And I think that that is just a really, really lovely way to do it. Another way to do it is what we do in some of our consulting where we have all 12 systems.   and we run it on kind of a monthly cadence for you. So yes, you've got your hot fires, but you're also starting to implement every single system. And so we're chipping away and we're not necessarily looking at like, what are the big issues right now, but we're chipping away at systems. So over the course of the next 12 months, you literally will become systematized. And I think that that's another great way to do it. It's a little more streamlined. It's a little more structured. We're not shaking the tree as much. We're not coming in and implementing as many things, but you know, over the course of 12 months, you'll really get your practice very systematized.   Kiera Dent (11:48.558) We'll be able to still address your issues, but this is a good way for you to also do it. So either it's let's go pick the top three things or let's just follow a map of the 12 items. Like with my finances, I usually don't go look for the big three items to move. I don't really even know what I should be looking for. But in Dennis advisors, they have 12 elements of things like my trust and my finances and my PNL and tax strategy and my burn rate, my save rate, and it's set up on months. And so I just know I need to work on that one little area.   And at the end of 12 months, I will have my financial portfolio much, much better. Same thing with your practice portfolio. Following those 12 months can really, really help you just get it into a better spot. And what I love though, is I know that just because I'm following this path doesn't mean that hard problems and hot topics won't hit you. And so that's where you also have access to the consultants every single week to ask those hot items. And you also have a community of people and the consultants to answer all those questions for you. But those would be some of my tips of how to buy the practice.   how to get a practice systematized, how to get a practice organized without dumping everything, but also not losing the momentum as well. Cause both are beautiful and both are necessary. It's just the time, the effort and the energy and making sure that we're consistent. Consistency is key and making sure that we're focusing on the things that will truly drive us forward and make an impact. So our team doesn't just think we're painting the house just cause we feel like painting. We're literally doing it with a purpose and an intentionality behind it. So if we can help you guys, I'd love to have you come join us.   Reach out [email protected]. Click on our link, schedule a free call. If you want to do the 12 systems or the spot checking, both are available. I'd love to help you, but hopefully this year it gave you guys a bird's eye view of how to really truly make your practices more systematized with ease to give this person of like looking at it from all the ownership piece, but not implementing it to where we overwhelm our team, but we're still able to execute.   So I love stories like these. I love giving you guys tips and solutions, things that we see on a day -to -day basis and the success stories on the other side are less stress, more profit, happier teens and a happier life. So reach out, I'd love to help you. hello@thedentalateam .com. Go do this on your own if you can, otherwise reach out. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

Something many dental practices tend to forget: passing off information with open communication in mind. Tiff and Dana review why handoffs are so critical to building trust and increasing patient acceptance. They touch on diagnosing with the patient in the room, having conversations directly with them, why NDTRs need to be implemented, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Tiffanie (00:02.055) Hello everyone, Dana. Thank you for being here. I am so excited to be here with you today. And before we get super into what we're talking about today, I have a question I haven't pulled out, I feel like in far too long. So for all of my fitness enthusiasts who listened to us specifically for Dana's tips, I apologize. I know you're out there. But Dana, I have a question for you.   I am in the market for obviously always leggings and I will be buying new leggings soon.   Okay, restart. I will be buying leggings soon. And do you have any new legging brands that you cannot live without that the rest of the world needs to know about? Or favorites in general?   Dana (00:50.292) Hmm. That's a good one. I have to be honest. I don't know that I have a new ones. Now I will say I definitely have my solid go tos for different activities. So depending on what you want leggings for, I think I can give so I wear different leggings for running than I do for like doing CrossFit than I do for just like everyday wear, right? Because now I can expand all of the expenses.   Tiffanie (01:04.775) Okay.   Tiffanie (01:16.871) Mm -hmm.   They do everything. I like there's daily wear leggings and I'm like, I get that because I wear my leggings. But okay, so running, let's see running and CrossFit today.   Dana (01:30.612) Okay, so for running, I really like the Wonder Unders by Lulu. They're more of their running. A lot of people like the Fast and Freeze. They're actually not my favorite. I like when I'm running things to be more compressive.   And then there are several different athletic ones that I like for running too. So I feel like if you haven't tried athletic leggings, I do really like their stuff for running. For CrossFit, I will forever ever go to FLEO. They're just my favorite. They stay in place. They don't move. They are squat proof. So for anybody into leggings, that's an important thing.   Tiffanie (01:59.639) Okay.   Tiffanie (02:07.015) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel like we need to like, get it to where you're getting an affiliate with these things when I ask you. But it is, this is such a side tangent for everyone. But I, my for my birthday, my sister and the kids got me all these gift cards. So I got Lulu, obviously, and Athleta and then GNC, all of these things. And I've been saving it because I'm like, I don't know which ones I want. But   Dana (02:13.364) Right.   Tiffanie (02:33.415) I really want to try the athletic stuff. I just always shy away because you just never know. You know, you just never know. So I'm going to try athletic. Thank you. And we'll get you an affiliate discount one day. I have.   Dana (02:38.324) Mm -hmm. Yeah, you should. But you've been hiking a lot, and I'll say, I can send you the link, but Athleta has actually cross leggings that are partly hiking pant material, part legging material. So the front is hiking material, the back is leggings, and they're amazing.   Tiffanie (02:52.231) Perfect.   Tiffanie (02:56.839) Awesome, yeah, because we are doing Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, not Rim to Rim to Rim, because I'm not Dana crazy, but Rim to Rim in the fall. So that would be fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, awesome. All right, fitness enthusiasts, now you know. Lulu, obviously, always a bet. Athleta, and then yeah, get me those hiking pants. Thank you. And if anybody would like them, let us know. Hello at thedentalatd .com. We are happy to send them over as well.   And that my friends is how you get things done and I think today's conversation is super fun because I love communication. I love face -to -face communication. I love written communication. I love all of the things and I love over Communicating not to the point of you know annoyance but over communicating to the point that we know without a shadow of a doubt our patients   fully understand exactly what they need to come back for, what was diagnosed, our team understands what they need to come back for, how they're going to schedule it. Dana, let's break down some of, I'm going to think of like my top three things that clients complain about or need help with, right? Because everyone comes into the dental team and they're like, we need systems. I'm like, my God, that can mean anything, right? So the top three things I feel like we get complaints on are communication in general. My team's not talking to one another.   case acceptance is low or patients aren't coming back and the schedule is chaos. Just pure chaos. Dana, can you think of anything else that would be top notches?   Dana (04:28.436) I mean, the other thing that I hear is patient flow, but I feel like that's incorporated in the communication and scheduling.   Tiffanie (04:35.175) Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Patient flow, that's going for number four. And I agree. What I like to do, well, what we like to do in the building team, we do this for our own personal meetings. But then we also do this for our clients as well. We look at all of the complaints, we're like, okay, what's not working right now? What are all the things that are not working? And then we try to see, okay, if we could fix one thing, if we can implement one thing, how many of these items could we take off of this not working list? So if we could fix one of these pieces,   communication, schedule, and patient flow is helped immediately with this tool. So we've talked about this before, we've talked about it quite a few times, and we like to reiterate it because we know, Dana and I both, we consult a lot of practices, and I know, and Dana, you may or may not agree, I know a lot of my practices, I have to go over this every six months or so as a reminder because we stopped doing it, and Dana,   Do you see that on your side as well with your clients? You've got actually a ton of practices to start visiting this year. That ramped up a ton for you. But you have a lot of virtual clients, a lot more than the rest of the consultants on the team do. So do you see that also with the virtual clients that you've got to come back around to it every six months or so?   Dana (05:50.004) Yeah, it's I mean, teams humans, right? We're cyclical, we can be really great about something for so long. And then we start to kind of taper down and just need that little like, nudge back to the thing that we know is really important. And oftentimes, we're still doing a piece of something, right? But some of the details have fallen off or parts and pieces of it have fallen off. So it's definitely something that I feel like is cyclical and a practice and we just have to revisit because it is so important.   Tiffanie (06:18.983) Yeah, I agree. I agree. That's a good point. Everything is cyclical. And that is why we, you know, go back to things, but why we like to expand on things that we've implemented, because I think when we layer on top of things you've already implemented, then it helps solidify all of those pieces. So this one is just really passing off the information. And this is super huge.   Passing off the information we talked about on another podcast, go back and listen to it if you haven't listened yet about co -diagnosing and really passing that information from the hygienist or dental assistant to the doctor. One thing that I didn't make super clear or we didn't make super clear in that podcast was really the idea of passing that information off to the doctor in front of the patient as well. So this kind of information needs to be passed off in front of the patient in order to help build that relationship, build the trust and increase.   the patient's case acceptance because your patient, we're not doing all of this, you guys, from like the front side of our brain. We're not like evaluating and thinking, are they communicating? Did she listen to me? Is he listening? Are they on the same page? We're not thinking those things, but subconsciously, these are things that we are like ticketing, right? We're like, I'm gonna save that. I'm gonna save that. We don't even know what's happening. So when we're doing these things in front of the patient and we're like, hey, this is what we saw and what patient...   A here has told me this is what we've discussed throughout the appointment so far. And doctor hears it and listens, the patient's like, yeah, that's cool, we did do that. now he knows and I'm a part of this conversation. I'm a part of everything. When we do it out in the hallway and I'm all for both, I used to do both when I was chair side and I was in office, I am all for both because sometimes there's sensitive information that can't be said in front of the patient as well, totally fine. Prep your patient or prep your doctor.   behind your patient, behind the wall, and then prep your doctor in front of the patient. When you don't do the in front of the patient, it breaks that trust just a little bit and it creates, it just creates a gap in the patient communication and the patient being a part of this conversation. Doctor comes barreling in and he or she is like, my gosh, so Tiff's told me, she's like, okay, cool. Like she told you.   Tiffanie (08:30.407) right or it looks like you've got this or I see doctors come in Dana all the time and they're like tell me what's going on and the hygienist is staring at me like I just told him what's going on in the hallway now this exam is going to take so long so Dana do you see that and do you have I think I think people I'm gonna like side tangent for a second we're gonna stay on the same track but also plug a little bit information here people shy away.   from virtual coaching or consulting often because they don't think they're gonna get the same value or they don't feel maybe not even value, but they don't feel like they're gonna get the same time, right? So sometimes teams when I'm in person will pull me and they're like, I have to tell you everything. But I do have, and Dana, tell me if you're seeing this and if your hygienists do this for you, I do have virtual clients too who a lot of the team is like, hey,   When we do our team call, I have these things to talk about. So when you're doing your virtual clients, is this something not being chair side or not being in practice, this passing of information, is this something that you're able to train the teams on virtually as well?   Dana (09:39.612) yeah, absolutely. And I think it's just like asking questions and digging in and say, hey, tell me how you do it, right? What does your hand up look like to your doctor? Do you do it behind the scenes? Do you do it in front of the patient? And then I think I always, when I train this virtually, right? Like sit in the patient seat and you're exactly right. Like we don't automatically tick it, like tick those things through as a patient, but it's blaringly obvious when it doesn't happen.   right? So I don't think we're checking the box of Yep, they did this. Yes, they did this. Yes, they did this. But when it doesn't happen, there's a little bit of like, and it's not on purpose, right? But there's a little bit of ningle like, are they even talking, right? So doctors that come in and are like, Hey, tell me as the hygienist, like I'm like, well, because   I but I did tell you when I want the patient to know that I told you because I want the patient to feel like we're on the same page and that this is important enough that I said it to you. And so I always say virtually right, put your piece, put yourself in the patient chair, put your patient hat on for just a second. And what does that feel like?   Tiffanie (10:32.583) Yup.   Tiffanie (10:40.711) Yeah, I love that. I love that. Okay. I love that. Put your patient hat on. I wrote that down. That's going to be an action item later on. I love that. So making sure passing off the information, you guys, this doesn't just need to come from doctor. We talked about this earlier or not earlier, but in another podcast, right? Of like, he doesn't, she doesn't. My exam is this because of she or he, right? Well, what, where can we control? So if we're trying to take back control, take back time within our appointment,   this helps that because it helps get the conversation started. This is another time saving space for teens and for doctors. This is another way to get increase your case acceptance. Really talking to the patients about what we're seeing over the patient is huge. So passing off information there. And then I think that leads us straight into also passing off information from diagnosis, right? So doctor diagnosing.   team member, right, our support team is putting everything in the computer, diagnosing over the patient to the team member, but then sitting a patient up and explaining it to them, giving our team member what we like to call NDTR. And you guys have probably heard this, if you're clients of ours, we work on it constantly. There's a million podcasts dedicated to NDTR. But this is huge because what we try to do is think of the things that a patient needs to have happen.   before they leave our practice? What are the four things that makes it super simple that no matter what, our patients are always leaving with an appointment, they're always leaving with clarity, and the team knows how to schedule them. Remember we said we were going to save you time, we were gonna fix patient flow and fix communication, right, and fix that schedule. So this helps wrap that up. So NDTR is next visit, that's your urgency piece. What are patients coming back for?   That is not your entire treatment plan. That is what is my team need to schedule next for this patient? Then we have our date. Dana, as soon as we're done, I want to hear what you say for this space. I think we're probably pretty aligned, but I usually say, I'd really love to see you back in my chair within the next couple of weeks if our schedules can align on that. And then time, caveat, date, doctors, do not say next Wednesday. Okay, your team will kill us.   Tiffanie (12:56.839) It is not next Wednesday. It's when my team can find time for this, right? Time is how long will this appointment take? So if we're scheduling for a crown on number 18, how long does a crown on number 18 typically take you? Not just my doctor 20 to 40 minute prep time, but how long is that appointment that the patient's going to be in the chair and then re -care, making sure we always have our re -care scheduled. If we have those four things, we've got treatment and we've got re -care handled and taken care of. Now, Dana.   Verbiage wise, how do you handle, and I think teams revolt when this happens and in person is probably, I think on our side, a little easier to calm everything down, but virtually, you do this virtually on a daily, I feel like. What's your verbiage look like for the date piece and how do you help teams kind of be okay with it?   Dana (13:45.3) Yeah, so usually what I say is the date one is that sticky one, right? Where we have to be a little bit careful what we say. And so I usually say one, add it to morning huddle. So we know when the doctor's schedule is booked out too, right? So that then it makes handouts easy. But what we don't want to say is, hey, I want to see you in two weeks. And then we don't have anything, right? Because then we just kind of...   stepped on our own feet here. So I love how you said our schedules align. I usually prompt teams make sure you know when your doctor is available. And doctors and the reason why I say this is I want my doctors to be pretty specific because if a doctor says as soon as possible, it's pretty subjective to you as soon as possible could be like, well, as long as I get in here before my re care my next week here, right. And for me, that could be like, no, I want to see you this week. So I think the biggest pieces that I coach on is knowing how far out doctor is booked so that it's   really easy for them to say those pieces. And then two is making sure that doctor is as specific as they can be in the moment so that we don't leave that wiggle room of patients trying to determine what is as soon as possible or how important is it be really specific.   Tiffanie (14:56.263) I love that. And I think you hit on a really huge point right there. The clarity, like not, not making it so that someone else has to figure out what the clarity is because my interpretation of the word that you use could be very different if you're not making it super clear of what your interpretation was. So ASAP, I love that one. ASAP for me is like, Hey, let's grab lunch. Like ASAP. I mean, my schedule is all over the place. So ASAP for me is like,   probably a month and a half or so away. I think Dana and I have been talking for years about going hiking together and it's never happened. We live an hour and a half apart from each other and it's not happened. Like those are the types of things that's like, no, if we wanna do it, if it wants and needs to get done, we're putting a definitive timeline on it so that you know what you're working with. If I'm working with an infinite amount of time on ASAP, I have all the time to think about and work with.   it's gonna be when it's convenient for me and I'm also probably going to change it because there's not a deadline. But if you set that deadline, you put those parameters around it, that's the only amount of time that I have to work with. So I'm gonna work with that amount of time, not infinite time. So I love that you said that. So you guys, NDTR, whatever it is that you guys decide to use, remember next visit, date, time, re -care.   Okay, make sure you're passing that information off again in front of the patient, your team's hearing it. I love writing it on route slips or some sort of exam card or something. We do a lot of, I do a lot of exam cards in practice that are laminated and we put NDTR on there for practices that refuse route slips. I love route slips, but if we're not doing them, then laminated sheets are fine too. But knowing your time.   I think knowing how long appointments actually take you. So do some time trials if you don't have that set. Dana, you were spot on knowing your schedule and your team knowing your schedule because a lot of times it changes, it shifts and you might be four to six weeks out and you could even say, hey, I think we might be four to six weeks out right now, but if we can, I'd love to see you sooner. Let's get you on the books for where we can right now that works with both of our schedules and then let's call you in sooner if we can get you in. You can start that.   Tiffanie (17:16.263) And then the patient goes up front and is like, Hey, there's some sort of list I can be on to get in sooner. And the, the team, let me tell you, your front office team is ecstatic because when they have a hole come up in the schedule, now they have a slew of patients to call from. and then I love Dana, what you said to put your patient hat on, sit in your chair and feel what it feels like to be the patient. How is that communication looking? How is it working? what can you see that could be ramped up or.   better what could help your relationship building with your patients, because ultimately, that's going to help them get the treatment done. So I love that. Passing information off, co -diagnosing, telling your doctor when they walk into the room, introduce your doctor, tell them over the patient what you guys have discussed, what happened during that appointment. And then doctors diagnosing using something like NDTR to really make that happen and make that stick for the patient. Clear parameters for your team. They know exactly what to schedule.   They know when you wanna see the patient and they know how much time you need for that appointment. Those are huge and I promised you we'd show you ways to ramp up communication, help fix the chaos in your schedule and help your patient flow. These help all of those pieces. Communication you guys, communication and practices sucks because we're not talking to each other, period. We're only talking to each other when we need something. We're like, hey, can you, hey, can you, hey, can you?   And then you feel drained at the end of the day and you're like, I don't even want to be around these people. She just always wants something from me. Ramping up the communication and being like, hey, Sally's here. She's ready and this is what she needs to come back for. Dana is fantastic with the schedule. She's going to handle everything that you need right now. But if you need anything else at all, I'm just down the hall. Now, mine and Dana's communication is ramped up because our affinity for one another has gone up because we're being forced to communicate in a positive way constantly.   So ramping up your handoffs will ramp up your communication. And then you'll see other areas where like, okay, that's better. It's getting better, but I can do this maybe one more thing that could increase it even more. So handoff in front of the patient, co -diagnosis, handoff in front of the patient, your NDTR, back office to front office, NDTR as well. Like I said, there's a million podcasts on it. So go back and listen to those if you really like the idea. But if you're looking to ramp up communication in your practice,   Tiffanie (19:40.807) Help your schedule and help the flow. Knowing your timing and knowing your schedule are gonna be key. You can help your team and your team can help you. Action items, I'm gonna clarify, because it may have gotten confusing in there. Time trials if you don't know your timing. Put your patient hat on, sit in the chair and figure out how you can ramp things up, and then know your schedule. I love that Dana said, add it to your morning huddle.   so that you guys know how far you're booked out. When is your next opening? What does that need to look like? Dana, thank you so much for letting me pick your brain. I love having you on Maze and I really appreciate you diving into your virtual consulting and coaching for us and how that's been beneficial for your clients. So thank you so much. Is there anything you can think of at all that we've missed on the action items or anything you wanna add in there?   Dana (20:33.684) No, I think we hit it off.   Tiffanie (20:36.615) Awesome. Awesome. You guys go make this magic. Go do the things. Leave us a five star review below if you love this podcast and let everyone know the nuggets that they can take away from it and go listen to the other ones. Like I said, there's a lot of NDTR ones in here. So go listen to the other ones to get more nuggets and we'll see you next time. Thanks.

There’s always that one patient… Kiera talks about the professional way to go about communicating with a rude patient, even when it includes dismissing them (listen up for dismissal letter verbiage!). Remember: There’s always a lesson to be learned in these situations. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.91) Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope you guys are having the best day of your entire lives. I really do mean that. Today is, there's a really cool quote that I read and I want you guys to have it. It says, no matter how many mistakes you make or how slow your progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying. That's from Tony Robbins. And I just, I read that the other day and I thought, gosh, our podcast family and our clients need to just realize like,   We really are doing so much more than we think we are. We're doing so much better than we give ourselves credit for. So I hope you just like give yourself a nice pat on the back. I'll do it for you. Uh, but really you are doing a great job and I think it's so easy to criticize and it's so hard to compliment. And I think we build momentum in either one of those ways. And so look to see which way you're building momentum consistently. So today guys, I am on a quick tactical podcast. Are you guys ready for this? I hope you are. Um, one of these is going to be just really fun.   I want you guys to have a quick tactical on how to handle difficult or rude patients. Don't worry, I go from like, it's amazing and we're so happy to like, how do you deal with those rude patients and what do we do with them? So if you're loving our podcast, please do me a favor and help us get into the hands of every dental practice out there by sharing this, by sending it to somebody who could use it, by someone who needs that boost, even if it's not this one, but send our podcast to somebody and leave us those reviews.   That's how you guys are going to help us beat the tough dental podcast that is shared with all of the practices, because if we can help them be better, we help more patients, we serve more people, and we're able to all rise together. So with that, how do we handle these rude patients? Number one, I think about, let's define difficult or rude patients. Are they a good patient or do they just like, when we see their name on the schedule, do we all just like, because I have two people, one is the assistant dean from Midwestern.   He told me that every year at Christmas time, he gave his team a gift and they were all able to go through and they actually dismissed like the top patients that really just made all of them cringe. And that was the gift he gave his team. And I've thought about that so much because we oftentimes think like we need every patient. No, we don't. We actually need those kind patients and we want the patients who are great patients that we don't look at. With that said though, there are some that will challenge us and I don't want you dismissing people that challenge. Now difficult or rude ones that we just literally like, oh my gosh.   Kiera Dent (02:27.406) Give yourself the freedom and the luxury of realizing it's okay to dismiss them. And the way we can do that in a professional manner is you can just write them a letter and just say like, hey, Kie   ra, at this point, we don't feel that we are serving and meeting your dental needs the way that we want to. And we're so committed to always being able to serve our patients at the highest level. We never ever, ever want to leave you empty handed or without a plan and a path.   So as of now, we are having you removed as a patient within our practice due to the fact we don't feel like we're serving you at the highest level. And we're actually going to be recommending you to, and you list off two or three different dentists that are amazing in the area that could take great care of them. Now check with your legal team, just make sure. But really it's just, we're dismissing them in a professional manner. We don't feel like we're serving them at the highest level. And so we're going to actually dismiss them, but we're going to give them a place to go.   And so we actually do have a sample one. It is not legal, and I will put stamps all over it. But it's one that you can say, after careful consideration and thought, we found that it will be in all of our best interests to sever the practice patient relationship here that we have with you. We found that we may not be the best fit for your dental needs and are unable to carry out the services you may require for your specific case. At this time, we're recommending that using dental care through a new dental care provider.   And from there, like that was a little more direct. I do like it. I also think though, like, let's give them a few other options of where they can go. So we can like, we're going to make sure that they're informed, that they're guided, that we make sure that they're going to be given some help. And I really think that it's fine. I'm like, we just don't feel like we're serving you at the highest level. And due to that, we are severing the relationship where we are.   ending our relationship with you. And here are a few other practices that we think would be incredible that are going to take great care of you, because we really do want you to be taken care of. I don't care how much you dislike these people. You all know that you want these people to be taken care of. You know that you want to love them and serve them at the highest level. And you know that you want them to be taken care of. We don't want to want to just like kick someone off onto the street. We do want them to be taken care of. But at the same time, you don't need to have every patient in your practice.   Kiera Dent (04:43.566) And if they literally do make you're like, Oh, it's the groan. It's the, I just would rather not see this patient ever again. Do yourself a favor. Um, I have a reminder that pops up on my, on my tasks every so often. And I said, only work with clients who light my soul on fire. And, uh, that was something I had to realize. And that doesn't mean that if you don't light my soul on fire, that there's no other consultant in our company. Um, but for me to really realize that.   the soul sucking energy was actually taking a lot more from me with working with clients that maybe I wasn't best suited for, or maybe we just didn't jive as much. Like I love my clients that when I get on a call, my soul is filled. It doesn't matter if it's a hard thing or not. Like that's who I want to work with. And so for you in practicing, there will be some patients that you want to dismiss. And so I really, really, really would just say, we send them a letter. We say, as of this day, as of this time, we are no longer seeing you as a patient. And here are the people that are going to be great.   make sure that their balances are all taken care of. We want to make sure that we have that taken care of for you because there's also a space like if we do have collections, we also need to dismiss them with the collection. So like if it's someone who has a collections balance that we can dismiss them from the practice as well. So we've contacted for a dismissal because of collections, we can say we've contacted you several occasions with monthly statements, telephone messages and personal letters.   regarding your outstanding balances with our practice. We have determined that due to the noncompliance with our practice's financial policy that we must terminate our dentist -patient relationship. In order to allow you adequate time to find another dentist, we will be available during regular business hours for the same safety visits time permitting should an emergency arise in the next 30 days. You may contact the local dental society or find somebody else, and we're happy to forward your x -rays to your new dentist. And that's how we can dismiss them.   I really do love if I have dentists that you can recommend or again, like here's a few that we know do take your insurance because we really do want to make sure that you're taking care of. I do like that version of it as well. If you do want to offer the 30 days for them just to make sure that they're taking care of because there's so many ways that we can handle these patients. But again, I don't want you dismissing somebody or I wouldn't recommend that you just somebody who challenges you or who.   Kiera Dent (07:04.398) who forces you to be better, right? There's, I know I have some clients that, well, they might not quote unquote light my soul on fire. They're probably really good for me because their questions and the things they do, and they're not disrespectful to me. They just challenge me and they make me have to be a better version of myself. Now, the ones who are rude or difficult or never keep their appointments or they don't pay their balances or it's just, it's so much headache. My thoughts are, why are we doing this? We're a service industry.   And if they're not meeting our expectations, let's dismiss them. Do yourself and your team the favor. Dismiss them. You can do it in a professional manner. You can send them a letter. You can have it where you work with them for 30 days. There's a way for you to be able to work with them and send them to another provider. Please don't pass your bad patients to your friends. But remember, just because they're a difficult, rude patient for you might mean that they would, doesn't mean that they'd be a bad fit for someone else.   I also want you to really look at it as to why are they so difficult and what have we done to not have those clear expectations? So if they're always missing appointments, did we not have a clear policy on that? If they're constantly running late, did we not have a clear policy on that? If they're not paying their balances, did we not have a clear policy and protocol on that? So this way we do everything on our side too to make it to where it's there. So instead of.   blaming them. Let's also take some ownership doesn't mean we don't dismiss them. I'm totally fine because it should light your soul on fire. And I hate when there's a patient like I know exactly who it was. It Dr. Calls office we had a patient named Betty. I was like, I hate seeing Betty. Like she's just so mean and she takes so much time and she never is paying and there's always a problem with everything that we ever do. Like, I just don't enjoy this.   But again, let's look to see, did we not have a policy in place of like warranty work of we will do one visit for you. And then after that, each additional visit will be a normal limited exam fee. That's a simple way to actually fix this difficult, rude patient with a simple protocol to let them know the rules of the game. And so that's something else I would do is with these difficult, rude patients, how can you change the rules of the game and make it stronger and better to where you can serve them? Do we just need to change the rules of the game and help them out? And then they become these amazing patients.   Kiera Dent (09:17.39) that could also be the shift. So one, before I dismiss, let's look to see what is truly the root cause and is there something we can change in our protocols or our policies to not have them be a difficult or a rude patient? Number two, dismiss them. It's okay. Give yourself the freedom and the gift and make space for these incredible patients to come in that value, value your team, value your time, because you're going to be happier and you'll be in a better state of flow. And that doesn't mean that we have to do it in a rude way.   We send them a letter, we take care of them, we give them the recommendations, but we are very clear that we are severing the relationship. They will no longer be seen in our practice and that they do need to find another practice and we're here to support them on that path. Whatever your verbiage is, again, that's gonna be a path for you to talk with your CPA and your lawyers and just make sure it is compliant and that you can send it off. And so just get that approved. Those are some samples I gave you, but do do your due diligence on that. So with that, I think that this is awesome training for your team as well.   to let them know how we handle it, how we look for it. And this is something I really love because in the Dental A Team, we don't just work with dentists, but we work with your teams as well. And so we're able to give them those tools and those resources and that help. And so if we can help your team and empower them of how to handle these difficult patients, because sometimes it's our protocols that create the difficulty, not necessarily the patient. We weren't clear with our expectations. Therefore, we need to actually have them reset. So with that reach out, if we can help, [email protected]. Here's your quick tactical.   how to handle those difficult, rude patients. Remember, you deserve to have patients who light your soul on fire, who make you so excited to come to work, not dreading to come to work. And those ones that you do dread, let's move them along, serve them at the highest level, always end in the most professional, compassionate way, and do yourself a favor. So, and if we can ever help and serve, reach out [email protected].. Click on the link if you guys want some help with these dismissal letters, be sure to reach out [email protected].. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

What Would Doctor Do? Tiff and Dana educate about how to set up doctor’s diagnosis with some pre-gaming strategies. It’s as easy as 1-2-3: Calibrate the language and focus Set clear expectations Doctors, empower your team The consultants give examples of how to go about this, plus insight on why this will improve how your practice functions.   Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01.732) my goodness. Hello, dental A team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have Dana, my, my fave podcast gal with me today. You guys know that Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. we've got some fun things in this one today. I cherry picked you for sure for this way back in the day when we created these newsletter topics because we're going to talk hygiene. So,   Doctors, teams know we're going to talk dental assistance and hygiene. But first of all, Dana, how are you today? How's life?   Dana (00:34.165) Doing good. Life is, you know, it's winding into summertime. So things are starting to, like sports are slowing down, school stuff is slowing down. So it's a good space to be in. How about you?   Tiffanie (00:41.412) Yah!   Tiffanie (00:45.764) I agree. Lacrosse, like banquet was last week and that was our last lacrosse thing until fall. And I was like, my gosh, I don't know how Dana does it. I had one kid, one kid in one sport. And I was like bananas this spring. So you are super mom, you are super consultant, super everything. So thank you from us and from your family for everything you do Dana, cause I think it's wild.   Dana (01:11.604) Bye.   Tiffanie (01:14.468) When my life gets chaotic, I'm like, I think about you. I don't know what you're doing over there with the kids. And you're just always, always being the best mom ever. So kudos to you. And that honestly, like, I think that's just how you personify yourself in general. You're just constantly like, on the next thing with a smile on your face and like, this is what has to happen. So this is what's going to happen. And you just get it done. And I think I can probably.   accurately guess that that was you in hygiene as well. So I think it's kind of cool to pick your brain on these. You guys know that Dana is my go -to systems lady. Like systems are her jam. She does see freaking fantastic at them. And one thing I wanted to look at today were some systems that we could put into place in practices or that we actually do work with a lot of practices on to help doctors get more diagnosis from their dental assistants and hygienists. And I think -   I think we do our team a disservice by not allowing them to play a bigger part and a bigger piece in that aspect and really feeling like they are giving more to our patients than we ever realized we could. And I think this is a good area, Dana, where we can take some of those simple systems and implement them so that anyone can use them. But first, how did that go for you?   Chair side, when you were a hygienist and you've got a doctor coming in, like how did you do that? And then how do you take that and implement it into your consulting now?   Dana (02:40.084) Yeah, sure. I think that as a hygienist for me, the biggest thing was working for a doctor who like, he gave me the open space and actually said like, I honestly I know you're coming from hygiene school where like, you can't diagnose you can't do the things like you're not the doctor and he's like, I want to set the expectation that you have that space. And no matter.   what you say, right? I will always have your back when it comes to patients and patient care. And so I think the biggest thing is knowing that he truly wanted me to do that, right? Gave me the confidence to go in and have the conversations with patients. And his biggest push was you spend so much time with them. And then I have so little time with them. And there's so much that you can do to make my little bit of time that I have with them, be more efficient, be more effective. And you know me to   I think this is something we share like I don't want to waste one minute. So if I can pre -do all of these things and just kind of be like here it is, right? That's a wing for me. And so I think the first thing is and doctors this is for you. Let your hygienist know that you want them.   Tiffanie (03:35.144) Yes.   Yes, yes.   Tiffanie (03:46.724) Yeah.   Dana (03:53.844) to do these things and give them the space to do it and set clear expectations that I want you to take the photos before I come in and I want you to talk about those photos and I want you to take scans before I come in and I want you to talk about them. I want the patient to see them. So I think one is giving the space and the next is truly creating a flow of what do you want your hygienist to do.   Tiffanie (04:03.204) Mm -hmm.   Dana (04:16.34) before you come into the room so that they have very clear expectations of what conversations they should be having and when they should be having them.   Tiffanie (04:25.636) I love that. I'm always taking so many notes. Thank you. I hope everybody's taking notes unless you're driving, then stop replay and take notes. So I love that. I think that's great. Like that your doctor said that you're with your patients way longer, right? Than the doctor is. And I think that's just the way of life. I think our dental assistants are there longer than our doctor is. Our doctors are in and out and our doctors, we've got them in a lot of different rooms. So to expect them to do all of those pieces every single time they're walking into a room.   feels absurd to me. So I love that you said that. And some key parts that I pulled out that I think is huge for everyone to understand is that this isn't something that you can go in on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever day is tomorrow in your practice and say, okay, guys, we're going to do this thing called co -diagnosing now. Like we're going to do this thing where you're going to tell me what you think the patients should need, because that's like a giant, I think of like clouds, right? I've said this before, like clouds, and you're trying to pull raindrops out of the cloud.   And it doesn't work like that. Like you've got to have, you've got to start small. You've got to start with clarity. So I think what you said was beautiful where you're calibrating. We like to call it, what would doctor do? Right? So what would doctor do if they saw this piece? Right? So we're calibrating on what that might look like, what doctor may say, because you guys, they're the support team, the dental assistants and the hygienist, you guys are preheating the patient to what   may be diagnosed. I'm gonna make a huge caveat here on co -diagnosis. Okay, I know the word diagnosis is in there. That's what it's called, co -diagnosing, but you're not actually diagnosing treatment. You're not saying you will need a crown here because you're not licensed or educated right in the laws of you to do that. Do you know what the doctor's probably gonna do?   Absolutely, because you've worked with the doctor, you can see it. You see what's on the x -ray, but you've not actually been trained, quote unquote, to read the x -rays. So you can't legally diagnose, but what you can do is you can say, hey, what I've seen happen before when I see something like this is. So you're prepping the patient. I always like to say prep for worst case scenario because anything is better than that. So if you see a fractured filling and...   Tiffanie (06:46.276) you're like, gosh, you know, this, this is pretty big. Usually what I see when something like this happens is we might need to put a crown on there. And have you ever had your have you ever heard of a crown before, right? If they don't have a crown. So you're preheating them to something that the doctor may say. The idea there is that doctor, I don't believe and Dana, I think you probably agree with me here. I don't believe that the doctor should be the first person to tell a patient if we can avoid it, that something is wrong.   that shock value, like Dana said, you have more time with the patient, you have a better relationship, but time, you have more time with the patient. So you shock them with the information, have the conversations, kind of get them used to the idea that something is wrong. And then when doctor comes in and confirms it, they're like, okay, got it. Now, you guys, my dental assistants and mostly my hygienists, this is huge for your exams because...   I think the biggest complaint I get from my clients, from my hygienists and my clients practices, and Dana, I think you probably see this too, is my doctor's always running late. His exams are too long. She doesn't get to me quick enough and then I'm into my next patient because her exams are too long. Exams are too long, exams are too long. We're spending too much time talking. My exams are too long. That's all I ever hear and I'm like, great. So then I think...   I always train on, okay, awesome, his or her exams are too long, that's passing the blame. That's saying that's out of my hands, it's their problem, they're issued, they need to fix it. But if we took ownership in this situation and we said, what can I do to help this situation for me? This is my appointment, like I'm stressed out that my next patient's ready, I'm not done here, how can I take that control?   of this situation and I think co diagnosing is one of those spaces. What information can I give the patient to preheat them to make the exam shorter? You guys, when the doctor comes in and is like, my gosh, you're getting a new crown and they're like, what? What is a crown? How does this work? And doctors like, awesome, let me tell you. How much time Dana do you think could we even be safe there? Like I just, it blows my mind that that's not something I think that we think of in the chair, right? That's like that bird's eye perspective we get to see it. But when you're in,   Tiffanie (09:05.7) in it, you don't see it. But Dana, how much time? I mean, you don't have to quantify it. But like, in general, did that save a lot of time for you, Chairside, when you started operating that way with your doctor?   Dana (09:16.884) absolutely. I mean, I remember when I first started and yeah, I took some calibration, right? I kind of had to learn through through listening to him do exams, like really what he would treatment plan. But I do feel like it made 15 minute exams into five minute exams. And that is huge when it comes to a 60 minute appointment.   And it's always funny because we always hear, you know, well, when doctor says it, like patients believe it and that's for sure true, right? Like we can, as a hygienist, we can talk about fluoride. So we're blue in the face, but when the doctor backs that fluoride up, like all of a sudden it's like, wait, is it too late for me to get that fluoride? I turned down. But I think understand that the relationship there also is a flip side. And I think every hygienist myself included has had that patient where the doctor leaves and they turn and they whisper like, do I really need that? Right. And so.   Tiffanie (09:50.82) Yeah.   Dana (10:07.238) So that it's there for hygiene too. And I feel like the more that we can take those barriers away of yeah, absolutely. Right? Like we talked about it, Dr. talked about it. Now it should be super important and you should trust as a patient that you truly need it because we're aligned and we both said round about the same things.   Tiffanie (10:28.612) Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think that's huge. I think that's huge. So I think what would doctor do, right? Calibrate on what that looks like. And Dana said it exactly how it goes, right? You calibrate by seeing the exams, by seeing the diagnosis, but you guys can also calibrate by setting aside time to review x -rays together, review case studies, review treatment plans, and allow people to ask you the questions of, well, why did you diagnose that? Or doctors, you're not gonna love me for this.   Be super consistent with your diagnosis too, because I've had a lot of hygienists come to me and say, Tip, I would love to co -diagnose, but I honestly have no idea what he or she is gonna diagnose in the moment, because sometimes this similar or same situation is a crown versus a filling on another patient. And I do understand doctors, I'm not saying that it's black and white, it is a very gray situation and I totally get that, but there has to be some sort of consistency so that they're comfortable preheating, even if you're not,   going to do the crown every single time, what do you want them to talk about if they see that situation? What do you want their conversation to look like? Calibrate, make sure your diagnosis is as calibrated as possible so that it's super simple for everyone, including your patient. If your hygienist is confused, your patient's probably confused, put that caveat in there. Calibrate that, get that super in line, but then calibrate what would doctor do? What do you want your hygienist to say to your patient?   when a certain situation comes around, do you want them to say, hey, this might be a crown, let me walk you through that. And when you come in, it's either a crown or a filling, but what did you want he or she to say in that moment? Dana also, you talked about photos, x -rays, scans, making sure that those are all up. I love intraoral photos. I have been a huge advocate for that since, I don't know, they started like 20 years ago, right? And I remember trying that first camera and it was so big.   It's so ridiculous. But they're huge. And I love doing a good tooth and a bad tooth, a good filling and a bad filling and really just looking for staining, looking for anything that might be an issue today or later. And I think your scans, those are freaking fantastic. The scans, the internal scans of the whole mouth are going to show.   Tiffanie (12:42.276) Movement it's gonna show all of those pieces as well and making sure that you're reviewing those with your patients before doctor comes in and that you're like wow, that's kind of that looks like a crack right there I'm gonna have them double check that because if that's the case We want to make sure we tackle that really quickly so that it doesn't fully break Those are the conversations that you're having you're not saying I see I got some stick here from my Explorer Looks like you have decay may or may not could just be staining How many times have we gone through that right like my gosh doctors like I think it's just staining   Got it. Okay. Fantastic. Worst case scenario is, wow, you've got some staining here. You've got some discoloration on your teeth. I'm hopeful it's just staining, but in the event that it is decay, it could look like this. Because when doctor comes in and even if it's just staining, doctor comes in and is like, no, it's fine. It's just staining. We're like, thank goodness. I was really worried it was something different.   we need to probably ramp up our hygiene care at home to ensure that this doesn't happen again, because the staining can lead to decay. You've just now bundled up a simple diagnosis and your hygiene care. Like you, you scared the patient and then brought it back to great, let's continue preventing that with ramped up hygiene care. So making sure those photos, x -rays and you guys, those, the scans, everything you guys are calibrated on that as well. I think Dana and I probably,   overuse the word calibration sometimes, but it's huge. If you guys aren't on the same page, if your hygienist or dental assistant doesn't know what you want them to say in the co -diagnosis, what would doctor do? They're not going to say it. If they don't know what you want up all the time, it's consistent every single time, they're not going to have it out and they're not going to take them, right? If I know you're not going to look it into oral photos or we're not going to use them with the patient, I'm not taking them. Dana, is that crazy? Is that me?   Dana (14:35.3) Nope, that's not you.   Tiffanie (14:39.364) I'm not taking them. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna waste my time, right? Dana, you are 100 % true. They're right on the time thing, right? And I think that comes from working in a dental practice. I tell my family all the time, like, I know exactly when I'm gonna get somewhere. I know exactly how long dinner is gonna take me to prep and make. Even if it's a new recipe, I will have it done when I say it's gonna be done. Because dentistry, being on the minute, right? I work in 10 minute increments because for -   25 years in the chair, that's what I worked off of. And I can time things down to the minute. And it's beautiful, but it's also stressful on the other side when things get a little chaotic. So help them time those, help them get your time back, help them get their time back, calibrate on what you want them to say, calibrate on what you want up, use it. And then you guys, Dana, I think you spoke on this, but I think maybe some more.   about just like your doctor backing you up to really drive it home. I know my doctor always backs me up as a dental assistant, always said, gosh, Tiff, like great eye. Even when he didn't see that something needed to be diagnosed, he'd be like, great eye, I'm really glad you caught that. Let's put a watch on there because there is some significant staining there. Today it's not decay, but I want to make sure we check that again when they come back in. He leaves and my patient is like, okay, well, that's great, but what do I do so that it's not decay next time?   And I'm like, great question. Let's walk through that. So Dana, how did your doctor really truly back you up? Because I think that is, I think that's honestly more important than the calibration, because then a doctor comes in and says, nope, you're wrong. It's not that. We are like, I'm never saying that again. I'm not going to feel, I'm not going to feel this again. So I'm never saying that again. So what did your doctor do to truly back you up as a hygienist in your practice?   Dana (16:18.932) Yeah.   Dana (16:32.34) Yeah, I agree with you, too. I feel like the biggest thing that I hear when it comes to barriers of that is confidence that like what happens if I'm wrong, right? Like, you want me to tee these things up and and I can be as calibrated as I am to you and still make a mistake with that, right? Still think that that staining is decay or still think that that filling is a crown.   Tiffanie (16:38.084) Yeah.   Dana (16:51.508) And so he just did such a great job of, you know what, Dana, typically you're right. Like this usually is that in this case, I think it is. And he would just steer the patient in the right direction. He never used the word wrong. He never used the word like, no, that's not it. Right. He never, he always just navigated the conversation and the patient actually got the diagnosis that he truly diagnosed for them without making it seem like the things that I talked about weren't important or weren't true.   Tiffanie (17:14.468) Yeah.   Dana (17:20.116) And so I think it is finding that line of, I'm going to steer the conversation where I want it to go and the treatment that I really truly recommend, but I'm not going to step on my hygienist's toes and make it look as if she made a mistake and the things that she talked about weren't the case. Because dentistry isn't always black and white. There is gray when it comes to diagnosis. You can look at doctors diagnosing, you know, I mean, it can be all over the place sometimes. And so I think it is just giving your hygienist that same grace that you wouldn't associate in that like, it's not wrong.   It's just this is this is what I want to do or this is what I'm diagnosing.   Tiffanie (17:55.748) Yeah, I love that. I think that's beautiful. And it's, I wrote down the word empower, because I think your doctor was using very empowering verbiage and just words specifically to make you feel empowered to do it again, because no matter what, right, there's that line of allowing us to feel empowered or allowing us to feel defeated. And it's very easy to feel defeated when you think something is going to go one way, and then it's totally different and we get in our heads. And we've got a lot of time to sit and think about the fact that we diagnose that.   co -diagnosed that wrong. So allowing that empowerment and really getting on board is going to be huge. And I think doctors, your action items today are go figure out the kind of verbiage that it's going to take to empower a team. If you don't, if you don't feel that you're already empowering a team, go learn some of that, go dig some of that up. And even just kind of in the mirror, I would say in the mirror verbiage to yourself, like talk to yourself and see how did that   feel how did that land because I know you're saying it but you're watching yourself say it and it's gonna make you feel a certain way I promise you that so go figure out how to be super empowering maybe even ask your team how you know how do I how and when do I empower you how do I instill the sense of empowerment in you and when do I make you feel like you're not empowered that will help you kind of steering guide those conversations as well then schedule some meetings calibrate on what would doctor do if you're not calibrated already   If you are and you feel like your hygienists are there, they're top notch, your dental assistants know what you're going to do, fantastic, then freaking just tell them to go co -diagnose. They might just be holding back and they're like, gosh, I knew he was going to do that. And that's a cool feeling, right? As a dental assistant, I was like, haha, I knew it. I knew that's what he was going to do. But like being able to talk about that over the patient is really cool too. So calibrate on what would doctor do? What does that look like for your team? Calibrate on what you expect to have up, photos, scans.   x -rays, all of those pieces, what do you expect to have up? Use it and figure out how you're gonna best empower your team. Those are gonna be your three action items from today and I think they're super valuable, super important. I would love to hear and Dana would love to hear, I know we have practices actually track this for us when we're working on calibrating and we're working on these types of things because we use this often, both of us do I know, to decrease that exam time, to decrease the amount of time that your chair side.   Tiffanie (20:19.3) and increase the relationship build with the patient, I promise you, it increases the relationship build, it increases the stickiness and it actually will increase your case acceptance. So start tracking your amount of time, chair side in an exam and start tracking your diagnosis or excuse me, your treatment acceptance if you're not already. If you are, then start tracking the difference after co -diagnosis compared to prior. So.   How can your dental assistants and hygienists help you diagnose? It's called co -diagnosing you guys. And if you need to re -listen to this a couple of times, if you need to take this to the team, I implore you to do that. Dana, remember, was and is a hygienist by trade. She did it for many years and it sounds like her doctor was just super empowering and super fantastic in that way. As a dental assistant with my doctor for years, he was very much the same and I always felt like no matter what, he was gonna stand behind me and it was okay even if I wasn't spot on with what he wanted.   So calibrate, calibrate, calibrate and empower. Go do the things. Dana, thank you so much for being here. I love being able to pull from you because of your experience in the hygiene field, but then also your experience with your practices that you coach on the daily. Because again, I know you work on this stuff a lot to help decrease that time and help increase that case acceptance. So Dana, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you and I value you. Everyone go do the things.   Leave us a five star review below if this was super helpful for you. Let people know what you implemented, what worked really well for you, and if you have ideas of your own, we'd love to hear them. You guys, hello at thedoll18 .com, or if you have more questions regarding this, please reach out. We are always here for you, and we'll catch you next time.

Kiera gives listeners tips that you can implement right now to start trimming the fat on practice costs and making more money. Suggested actions include reviewing your PnL monthly, buying discounted supplies, utilizing a productive schedule, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.686) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I'm so excited to be podcasting with you. I hope that you guys are loving it. I hope you're loving your life. I hope you guys are just enjoying this beautiful ride that we get to call life. If you're loving the podcast, I encourage you to please go leave us a review. Those reviews keep us as the top dental podcast out there. And our goal is to have this podcast in the hands of every dental practice out there. So please share it, tag us, leave those reviews, share this with the dentist, post it in a Facebook group. You helping us helps us reach our mission.   Um, and my goal is to just really, truly positively impact the world of dentistry. Remind us that this is the greatest profession. And today I wanted to go through some not so obvious ways to cut costs in a practice. Uh, right now I know that there is some trickiness around fees and insurances and inflation guys like, shoot, I'm in it too. Uh, I was talking to my coach the other day and, uh, we just looked back even like four years ago of what we had for job postings for certain positions. And like that's archaic fees now.   And I do think things are shifting and settling, but man, I thought let's get on a podcast. Let's do a short, quick tactical for you of some not so obvious ways of cutting costs in a practice. And if you should actually do them, because we've been seeing a lot of threads out there where you guys focus on cutting costs, but there might be another way to do it. So just diving into it, let's think about our two levers when we're looking at our costs. There's lever one, cut costs.   lever to make more money, right? I think about our own budgets, our own lifestyles, we can either cut the costs or we can increase our paychecks. Like that's really how we do it. Or we do investments or different things like that. And so when I look at this and it's crazy because when we interview consultants, I actually have a very similar question to this because I feel like most dentists realize if I want to get better production, I just need to cut my costs. But the re or profitability, excuse me, if I want better profitability, I just need to cut my costs.   But like, is that really the case? It's kind of like, let me go line item by line item by line item. And I'm sure some of us with the inflation have gone through and we've cut out the unnecessary. So I'm not saying to not look at that PNL. I do think like a few things that I'm gonna give you a tactical is number one, if you're not reviewing your numbers, AKA your PNL, AKA your profit and loss statement every single month and looking line item by line item by line item, that's a great opportunity for you. I actually do mine every single quarter. So I look at my numbers, I look at our profitability, I look at our overhead every month.   Kiera Dent (02:23.406) and every single quarter I go through, I kid you not. Here's mine is, right here. I print out every statement and as you can see, there will be pink highlights over there of things to check. Is this our correct budget? Is this allocated correctly? Is this put in the right chart of accounts? Are we still needing to pay for this? This round, I was actually able to find like we're not using some of the pieces that we thought we were using. I cut those subscriptions. There's no reason to continue on.   Jason and I in our personal life, we only hold onto one streaming service at a time. So we'll rotate between Netflix and Paramount Plus and Hulu because we feel like if we have all of them, we're not even utilizing all of them. So using one just forces us to use that. Then we shut it off, open up another one, shut that one off, open up another one. And it's crazy and that works for us. My husband's also very, very, very, let's say conservative, cheap, whatever you want to call him. But I actually love that it's a solution I had never thought of.   And so in your dental practice, like, is there a way that maybe we don't have to pay for all the things and we could get a little more creative with it. But again, like a streaming service is like $10. And I'm not to say that 10 or 20 or 30, don't worry, I know Netflix is like clear up there on the 30 a month. That doesn't seem like it's going to be a lot, but every penny does count up. So when we're looking at cutting costs, I really do say like, let's not cut unless there's a way that it's actually going to move the needle forward. Like,   In our Tesla, we were paying $10 a month for the car karaoke. I was obsessed with the car karaoke when we first bought the car, but guess what? It was novelty and it wore off and I've just been paying $10 a month. And I looked back, we've owned our car for two years. That's almost 250 bucks that I've just been paying and not even using. So those are the types of things to cancel if we're not using them. So that's one way to cut costs. And I do believe you should do that. So check your numbers every single month and then also run your PNL quarterly just to see is there.   anything that I can possibly get rid of that we're not using that's moving us forward. The next thing that I see of cutting costs is using a company like Synergy or GPO, or it's a group practice, where you're able to get discounted rates on your supplies. I love Synergy, I recommend them. Be sure to tell them Dental A Team sent you. But Synergy helps a lot because what they do is you're able to still use Darby or Patterson or whatever one you're using.   Kiera Dent (04:39.662) but they just have so many dentists buying that they're able to basically get it in bulk. Kind of like what you would see at Costco, where we're able to get reduced pricing on things. Like you guys, I went and bought a beach towel at Costco the other day because at this other grocery store, it was like 30 bucks for not even as nice of a towel. And Costco had these awesome towels that were super fluffy and way bigger for 10 bucks. Well, how am I able to get it that much cheaper at Costco? It's cause there's lots of us paying members.   and we're able to get that price reduced. So synergy is a great way for you to get your supplies cut lower. And then also one thing I love is putting all of your expenses in the P &L into what I call the overhead calculator. And we do have an overhead calculator. You guys are welcome to reach out. Hello at thedentalityteam .com to get that. And anyone who books a call with us, if it's relevant, we definitely give you that overhead calculator. So I want you guys to be able to get that.   But what's really cool is you take your PNL, you put it in based on the industry standards to see where am I high? Which, which category is it? My payroll? Is it my supplies? Is it my labs? Like what category is high? And then can we go dive into that on the PNL and find out why is it high? So that's honestly where I feel like, yes, you can cut costs. I'm not pro cutting team right now. You guys team is coming in usually between 28 and 35 % of your collections every single month. Like it has gotten so much higher than even when I started dental a team.   but you do need people. Preventing turnover is going to keep your costs lower because when you lose somebody, you have to replace them with usually somebody who's gonna cost you a lot more. That's not saying to underpay people, I want you to be fair wages and to be like more than fair and to be in the highest realm so you keep the great people. But what's interesting about it is guess what? The reality is turnover is gonna be one of your biggest costs. Like it's the human capital cost that's gonna bite you in the booty if we don't have a great culture. So,   do our one -on -ones, invest in that, have team bonding activities, make it a great place where people want to work. That doesn't mean we don't have accountability. It does mean we have accountability, but we make it a place where people really do want to be with us. That is like some costs that we can cut. You can also look at your merchant fees and there is a company called Dental Merchant Advocate. Be sure to tell them that only team sent you and you can actually look at your credit card fees and get it reduced and they can help you reduce those merchant fees. I'm seeing a lot of offices say like,   Kiera Dent (06:56.334) There's no charge for ACH in cash or check, but there's a 3 % fee for credit cards. I have mixed feelings about that. Do I really want to nickel and dime people? Maybe. But is there other ways that I could do this? And the other side of it is increasing production. And I feel like people are like, I just want to go cut because I can cancel that subscription. It almost feels like taking a diet pill. But my $9 .99 on Tesla is not going to offset my 40 % of payroll costs.   It's not. And so what do we need to do instead? The other side is we produce more. And the way you produce more is not saying you've got to work more. I want you to hear me really clear. Producing more does not mean you have to work more. Producing more is we need to work smarter. And I'm obsessed with, you can call it productive scheduling, you can call it block scheduling, but it's like making our days where they're very productive and they're very easy. So we make an ideal. We say, how much do we want to actually do?   And what do we do from there is we look at it and we say, all right, I want to do a crown. I want to do a root canal. I want to do all these things. And I go off of my lowest insurance fee. Let's not go off of our office fees, but let's go off of our lowest or our more average one. Like most of the time, our crown is this amount. Most of the time a root canal is this amount. Most of the time, and again, we're not going high. And if your lows are, your fees are really low, maybe I'd consider cutting that one insurance plan.   but we want it to be being paid fairly for, otherwise it becomes very hard and you do have to produce more. And so looking at that, is there a way I could possibly drop one of my insurance plans, get them on a membership plan and be able to be producing more that way? A lot of people also are like, well, I've got to just go fee for service. And I think there's a middle ground. You for sure can go fee for service and I'm not here to tell you not to, but what I am saying is fee for service then becomes tricky because you've got to pay a lot more for marketing and people don't realize that. Your insurance fees are your marketing budget right now, just so you know.   And if you can get that many patients on a marketing budget and you're willing to do that, but please don't, please do not kid yourself that you're like, Oh, well I'm now fee for service. You have to now work your freaking booty off to get these patients in. Please, please, please do not miss that mark. And so if you're really good with marketing and you're getting them in because insurance just allows you to have so much more access to people and they come to you because like I have met life or I have Delta. So I'm looking for it. Then I look at the reviews and I come to you. So.   Kiera Dent (09:16.078) That is a huge piece that's driving patients to you that you don't realize. So what I mean is productive scheduling is actually the best way to do it. So looking at what do I need to do? I have added millions and I'm not kidding millions of dollars just by making a more productive schedule. Um, I've added in over 20 grand a month and they did not work any more days and they actually were able to have a less busy schedule because what I do is I play the game of math and I look at it and I say, all right, this is how much a crown is root canal. We, we do all the procedure makeup.   We build a whole schedule based on how many procedures you're already doing, how many new patients you're already seeing, how much per year you're already doing, or how much we want to be doing. And we block it in and we actually figure out how much each day is worth, like dollar wise, if we were to follow this ideal schedule. And what's crazy is when people then start looking for patients like puzzle pieces and we say, oh, you have a crown. Dr. Smith actually does his crowns on Mondays or at eight o 'clock or on Thursdays at four o 'clock, which works best for you.   And now I'm not saying, Hey, what day works best for you? I say, Dr. Smith does this. This is when they're the most, this is when we do our crowns and I schedule you think of yourself like scheduling surgery instead of that. We are just scheduling a massage. We are specialists. We are people that can stick to a schedule. My surgeons, the doctors, they do not just take me whenever I'm available. They say, this is when we're available. When can you come in? But at a massage place or a hair place, they're like, Oh, what day works best for you, Keira.   That's not who we are. We are specialists and if you start to train your team to do this, you guys can actually have a much more productive schedule. And if all of us are looking for that, blocks are held for 24 hours. That's my rule. So tomorrow at nine o 'clock, if it's not filled, I fill it with something that's close to that, a toothache or whatever that dollar per hour production needs to be. I also have my hygiene team reporting their dollar production per hour, making sure that we're hitting those marks. What can we do? I'm also looking to see, do I have enough perio in my schedule? And are we diagnosing enough perio? Are we doing bloody profis?   If I've done all these pieces and I'm truly doing them, the next question is doctors, are we diagnosing enough? If you wanna be producing 100 ,000, the goal usually is that you need to produce three times, you need to diagnose three times as much as you want to produce. So if I wanna produce 100K, I need to be diagnosing 300 ,000. That's the stats, that's what we see typically. And so looking at that, are you diagnosing enough? Are we watching everything? Are we actually diagnosing?   Kiera Dent (11:40.11) Are we putting a lot of watches on things? And I'm not here because there's another article that I said of, are people over diagnosing? And I don't think that they are. I think that there's some people who are, but I think that there's another piece on it of, are we making sure that we're actually diagnosing and not just watching things? What are we watching? We're waiting for that decay to get worse. Like it's there, it's present. You know there's decay. Why are we not getting rid of it? And so I feel like getting that confidence of this is where it is. And if you're struggling with that, then get Pearl AI or Overjet AI.   to where now you have AI that's also backing you up and saying, this is what you have. It's black and white and there's no questions. I think that investment, tell them Dental A team sent you, we do have affiliated fees with them. My thing on affiliate fees is I always just ask them to give you guys the lowest deal. So please just mention Dental A team. That way they know we're sending people to them. But the piece is, if you're going to do this and you're struggling with that, get AI on your x -rays. Use them because you can diagnose easier and more confidently. That way it's not just you.   trying to convince your patient they need this. Also assume that the patient wants to do the treatment. Why are we sitting here like, I feel so bad to tell them they have a cavity. I would rather you tell them because Kyra Dent here did not floss. And someone finally told me, Kyra, you've got to start flossing. And let's start it as an Easter resolution. And I kid you not, I have gone five, six, seven, 10 years. Like however long it's been since that one person told me that I needed to do this and gave me a plan and helped me get there to where I floss every single day now.   Simple things like your job is to tell them these pieces. So, um, thinking about how can we just make sure we're diagnosing enough that we're educating our patients and that we're really looking at our diagnosis and then our acceptance rate too. Let's look at our case acceptance. Are we the diagnosis that we are making? Is our team closing them? And if they're not closing, let's look for the patterns. What cases are we not closing? Which treatment coordinator is not closing? Which hygienist isn't closing? Looking for the patterns and then role playing, fixing it, looking for the hygienists that are doing the best on perio.   listening, having them record when they are presenting it to a patient so we can actually hear it. Those are ways that we cut costs, aka increase our production so we don't have to cut costs. Also just knowing your BAM, bare ace minimum. What do we, if we have $50 ,000 worth of expenses, ideally I would love you to truly 1000%. I said truly 1000%. I would love you to look at this and I would love you to see.   Kiera Dent (14:06.542) All right, what do I need to do to get our acceptance up? What do I need to do to help with that? And when we look at all of this, it just boils it down. It breaks it down. Having a treatment tracker, looking at our diagnosis and acceptance rate, looking to see what patients are not closing cases, recording things, role playing, training, teaching, but we either cut costs or we increase production. Let's make sure that we have a productive schedule.   And if this feels overwhelming and daunting to you, high five, you're in the right place. Reach out. Hello at thedentallyteam .com. This is what I geek out about is helping offices get this in place so you don't have to cut costs. So going back to that example, I don't think I quite finished that. Your costs are 50 ,000 a month. Like you look at everything. You, I want you to be at 50 % overhead. So that means we need to produce a hundred thousand. So if my costs are 80 ,000, what's 80 times two? You got it. 360. Okay.   So whatever, or excuse me, 80 ,000, 160, there we go. Okay, whatever it is, you just double it. If my costs are 100 ,000, I need to be producing 200 ,000. Then I look at if it's 200 ,000, that's my bear ace, like I've got to get that done. I go look at, I work 20 days a month. That means if it's 200 ,000, I've got to be producing 20K a day. If I have three hygienists, each hygienist needs to be producing probably 1 ,000 to 1 ,500 per day.   then I need to figure out doctor schedules and how do I make that to where it actually works? And you basically just turn it into a puzzle.   Do you guys feel like I'm on a rant? I feel like I'm like just so passionate about this and I want you all to do it because you don't have to just penny pinch costs. You need to do that as a smart business owner, but we also need to be looking at diagnosis, acceptance, productive scheduling, and then also looking to see where can we refine each of those pieces. Now, if we're doing all of that, then there might be ways that we can actually add on materials fees or lab fees, which are totally legal and allowable with insurance, but that's gonna be up to you. So guys, if we can help you with this, these are some tips of how you can cut costs.   Kiera Dent (16:04.59) in a non -conventional way. And I don't think people often realize there's two levers. I cut costs or I increase production. Which lever do I want to pull? Which one can I use? And honestly, this is how I'm able to cover our fees as a consulting company. Every time you joined consulting, we cover our fees 100 % plus some, because we're able to put this in there. 20K to your schedule in a month, adding in multiple thousands and millions of dollars just by being able to help you build a schedule that's productive.   And then we look for those puzzle pieces, AKA patients. We focus on being a specialist versus a massage place. We focus on realizing we direct our patients rather than being directed. We realize that an ideal schedule for us is an ideal schedule for our patients. These are the pieces that are going to drive your practice forward. And we can definitely help you reach out for a free strategy call. Hello at thedentallateam .com. Go to our website, thedentallateam .com. Book on that, book a call. It's 15, 30 minutes, very short. We'll give you a ton of value. And I can't wait to welcome you into our family.   Guys, go figure out ways to cut your costs, be the CEO, own your company. And with that, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Warmer weather means vacations are on our mind. Kiera talks about how to take those two-week vacations (or more!) and not have it affect your practice’s profit and loss. It’s about planning, yes, but Kiera gives you the variables to consider as you calculate how much you can vacation based on your practice’s output. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.91) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I want to talk about how you can take vacations and not have it hit your production. Anybody up for that? Because I am, because I live to take vacations. So today that's what we're going to dive into on the podcast. And just a quick reminder, our goal of the podcast is to get this podcast into the hands of every dental practice that there is. We want to positively impact. We want to tactically inspire you. We want to give you the motivation to keep going and realizing that dentistry is the greatest profession you could ever be a part of. So please today,   Leave us that review, give us those five stars, share this podcast with someone. Remember you are getting this for free. And what I ask in return is that you share this with somebody you post about us in a Facebook group. I am so happy you're here and I have chosen to give you all of our content for free. If you ever want to join us, cause you're like, wow, that's a lot of free content. I need to now implement it. Join us.   but all this content is given to you for free. And I just ask that you please share it with other people, that you leave those reviews. And that's all I ask because that way we're able to serve as many patients as we possibly can. That's my mission. That's my goal. If you want to work with me, phenomenal. I would prefer you to work with us if that's what you need and share this with people and just change their lives. So with that, let's talk about how you can take a two week vacation without this hitting your PNL.   We've read up that a particular doctor said that they went down 20k in monthly collections when they took two weeks off. And I agree, that's freaky scary. So, you know, let's actually dive into that of how can I take vacations and not have it crush my PNL. So the way you do it is you plan. And what I recommend for my office is, and I know that this is not as fun. I've done it myself as well. It doesn't feel as spontaneous as when we're in our youth. Like, I just want to go on a vacation today. I would love that.   You now own a business, you have a child. We've got to be a little bit more productive unless you're okay with having that production hit. But I would prefer to set you up on a successful path where you can have the vacations, you can have the production you want, and we're not tanking our production because you go on vacation because then it doesn't feel fun. It's like, oh, I don't want to go on vacation, I just lost 20K. Like that's terrible. That is crummy. So let's make sure that we give you the tips. So what I recommend for my office is, and this also helps your scheduling team,   Kiera Dent (02:15.342) And they're a lot happier because now expectations are just laid out. So my husband and I, usually in like October, whenever you're listening to this podcast, go for it, do it today. Don't wait till October. But typically in October, my husband and I start planning all the vacations that we want for the following year. Sometimes I have to do it a little bit earlier. Dental practices, you do start to book out six months in advance. So just throwing that out there that maybe June, July would be the optimal time for dental practice to start thinking of their vacations that they want to do next year.   I understand that's pretty far in advanced, but guess what? The end of the year is going to be here before we know it. So if you can just set that cadence up of like, what vacations do we want? Do we have spring break? Do the kids need to be out? My husband and I, this last year decided that we were going to take two trips just for me and him. So it's no CE, it's no work. It's not tacked onto a work trip. I don't, I love work trips. I don't enjoy having a work trip and then trying to be intentional.   with my relationship. It's very, I go from work brain to intent. Like it's, it's hard for me. So we just decided this year we're going to take two trips, just me and him really enhance our relationship. And those are the two. So I put those in, um, and I went a little extra geeky this year and I put in all of my personal trips, all of my CE trips, all of my work trips to see how much time was I actually on the road. I go a lot and I just needed to make sure it was a good balance for me to be able to maintain. And so what my husband and I did, um, and for doctors for you, just figure out.   And it doesn't have to be set spaces or places. Like right now, I don't know where my husband and I are going in October. We have the time blocked off. I still don't know where we're going to go, but we did block that time and we're going to go somewhere really fun. We went somewhere in March. I didn't know where we were going to go. I decided we booked like pretty last minute. It was about a month in advance. We booked a trip to Bora Bora and it was so fun, but we had the time blocked off. So you need to go figure out how much time do you want? Do you want a week, a quarter? Do you want like two weeks here? But we even have a spreadsheet that we share with our clients.   of where they can actually do a production. So we look at every single month, the days available, we take out all the holidays that they'll be closed because we have those holidays to factor in as well. And then we factor in the doctor's days off that they want to have. All of this is totally doable if we plan and it's not going to tank your production. So then what we do is we actually figure out how many available working days we actually have every single month. And then we figure out what we want to do for their production goals for the year. I usually recommend at least a 10 % increase.   Kiera Dent (04:37.006) If you're not actively growing year over year as a healthy growth rate for a practice, also make sure you're increasing your fees. So on that note, then what we do from there is we figure out, all right, so let's say this practice wants to make 2 .5 million is what their goal is for this next year. That's their healthy growth rate. What we do is we take that 2 .5, let's do 2 .4, that's gonna make my math easier, 2 .4 million. We need to break that down of what they need to be producing every single month.   I'm double checking, so 2 .4 million. And we've got 12 months, we need to be producing $200 ,000 a month. From there, we look to see, okay, what does our daily need to be? And we look at those months that maybe have longer months, shorter months, and we figure out, we break it down based on the number of days available to work, cutting out all the holidays, cutting out all the pieces, what each day needs to be. Because now instead of it being, well, we have 12 equal months of 200 ,000, maybe it's that we have, we do the number of days available.   divided by the dollar amount that we need each day to be. And then from there, we can actually set our monthly goals. And our monthly goals might not be exactly like the same. It's not 200 ,000 across the board. It might be that January is going to be 150 because we're taking a week off. And then our February, March, April, May are going to be 225 because we're going to make up that additional 50 ,000. Plus we know we're going to be gone again in June. So our goals shift, but it becomes a daily goal, not a monthly goal based on the days that you're gone.   Okay, I hope all that math just made sense. And this can get a little tricky, but what's really fun is we look to see time production, daily production, and then we block schedule according to that. And we make it to where it's exactly the dollar amount we need. We track it, we might be down a month, we might be up a month, but we watch it every single month. So for my clients, I'm tracking it based on the projections of where we want to be, based on the vacations they're planning to take, what we need it to be and what we need to produce. Now in some states, if doctors are going to be gone, hygienists can still work.   And so that can be a great way to like not have to put as much on the doctors, but really it's just figuring out the math equations is how we do this. You can take all the vacation you want, truly. It does not matter to me. I feel like you will be prepared. You will be so healthy. You'll be so happy. And then we just have to figure out how we actually break it down into your block scheduling, your productive scheduling, figure it out. And then we adjust and maybe those aren't the goals that we want. Maybe we need to change our goals. Maybe we need to increase our goals. Maybe we need to decrease our goals.   Kiera Dent (07:01.646) Maybe we're more intentional with the time off we take. Maybe I'm like, well, I don't actually need two trips this year. I just need one trip. All right. Fantastic. We changed that, but you then play with the math equation. You look at the projection spreadsheet to see what do I really want to do? What time do I want to have off? And for me, I do think having vacations are super important. And I think just being strategic. So I feel like the office that I've got that's doing this really, really well, they're in Washington. And what they do is they said, we want to have one week, a quarter off where we take a vacation.   So I check in with them, I hold them accountable, I make sure that they're taking a week off and we just prepared their schedule for them. We figured out what they need to produce with these vacations off to hit the goals they want. And literally they're blowing the goals out of the water because they know what they need to hit. They know what their daily goals needs to be. They've got their treatment coordinator bought in. All the team knows the goals. Everybody's working towards the same pieces. They get the vacations off the team does. The doctors get the team, the time off. Everybody's happy and we're not tanking production. So I feel like you get the tank production.   because what happens is you didn't plan for it, you took the time off and then you're trying to scramble and work super hard when you get back. You're going to have some months that will be lower. But you also have to make sure if I take that much time off, I need to be using the money from my higher months to be able to offset the cost if it's gonna be a tight month. Also saving that money, we don't just spend that money. That does take discipline, but this discipline truly equates to freedom. And this is how you can take it.   all the vacations, all the fun, all the tips, all the pieces and make it truly beautiful and enjoyable as opposed to feeling stressful. And I think it's one of those pieces of like just making a lot of fun. Now, the other side is you could hire a temp doctor. I think there's pros and cons to that. Some people are like, I am totally fine with that. Other people are like, I'm gonna have to come back and do their work. But I feel like you don't actually have to do it, a temp doctor, if you just plan. So,   I think, let me pull up for you guys kind of this projection spreadsheet and if you're not watching it, I understand that. But really, it's not that hard to do if you're willing to just plan a little bit. So I have an office again and they did a conservative one. So like, hey, if we were to not take this many, then we'd be able to take this many vacations.   Kiera Dent (09:20.846) And then I have others that are like, let's do an aggressive one. If we want to take 10 vacations a year, what does that look like? And I sometimes just think there's the fear of we don't actually know, like, what is it going to take for us to do it? And so I think that this just removes the fear. So let me share on the video. Here you guys go. Here is the spreadsheet, like I was mentioning, of the January, February, March, April, the number of potential working days, the number of days the offices close.   the number of days the office is open. And then you put in the doctors, what their production is. We put in our hygiene days, how many hygiene columns they have, how many hygiene days are going to be off, the hygiene goal, and then the monthly department. Then we put our office monthly goal, we put our overhead goal in here, and then we do our budget based on our collections and overhead. And then you come all the way over to the end of the spreadsheet, and you can actually total this up to tell us what our production would be. So hopefully just giving you guys a quick visual of what this looks like, of how you can actually build this.   to where it's not stressful for you anymore. You don't have to make this stressful. You don't have to make it hard. You literally can take vacations. You just need to know. And like I said, you can build a conservative, you can build an advanced, you can build a crazy one, you can build a non -crazy one. You can figure out how many days you want, but really it's just planning, preparing is going to make it easy. So I would love to help you take more vacations. I would love our team to be able to give you that freedom back in your life.   to teach you how to do this. And this is part of what we're doing in our company. So reach out hello at dentalateam.com. Go plan, go take those vacations. We're right about the time, right around summertime where you should be looking for next year anyway. Pre -plan those. You don't have to know exactly where you're going, but live your best life. Plan for it, prepare for it, and enjoy it. And with that, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Thanks for, wow. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

Kiera is joined by Dr. Jamin Houser of Castle Valley Dental in Colorado to talk about reaching that dream life! Dr. Houser has achieved a minimal work week while still being able to engage with all the aspects he loves about dentistry. He shares with Kiera what it took to get him to his idyllic day-to-day, how it’s benefited his team members, and why he never wants to retire. Episode resources: Learn about Dr. Houser Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum!   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.878) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am beyond giddy. I have one of the most incredible people on the podcast with me. We have a really fun story. We met a few years ago. I was speaking at a conference. He came up to me. We ended up buying way too much lotion because we both are emotional like buyers and we felt bad and we bought all this lotion. And now here we are two years later. He works with us in Dental A Team. He's a client and he is just one of the most incredible people I have ever met from.   Jamin (00:20.175) Sure.   Kiera Dent (00:30.222) personal life, to how he leads and guides his team, to leadership. I think you guys are in for a massive treat. Jamin Hauser, welcome to the podcast. How are you?   Jamin (00:38.287) I'm doing great, Kiera. Thank you for that kind introduction. The lotion story though, that guy was a great salesman. Like it just happened. I don't even know. I walked away like a hundred dollars pour and I had like six tubs of lotion. So good for him. Yeah. That's so hot. It is.   Kiera Dent (00:50.606) This is all I still have it. I mean, it's great lotion. I agree. He was so good. It gives you with a hand massage. Then it's great. And you're like, yep, I want this. And then like, they give you all these deals for buying like huge cases of lotion. So, but to give you guys a little backstory, I was speaking at Rocky Mountain Dental Conference. That was a wild, surreal moment for me. Jamin, I don't know if you actually knew this, but my first practice that I owned was in Colorado.   Jamin (01:05.263) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (01:18.254) And I had actually attended Rocky Mountain Dental Conference when I was an office manager. So I sat in the audience and then I actually attended all these courses. And so it was actually a full circle moment for me. I was beyond scared because I'm like, Holy cow. Like what have people that I used to work with are in the audience? Like I, I, it took me about six months to be, I was so happy. I got scouted for that conference. Um, we had an amazing experience. And I remember you sat in my operations manual. Of course I spoke three.   I had three courses there two years ago. And I remember when you were in the audience, I'm like, this guy and I are going to be friends. Like he's just a good time. He's sitting there and I'm like, why is a doctorate in operations manual course? Like that's usually pulling in office managers and lo and behold, here we are working together. You have seen insane growth in dental a team, which has been so fun, but you've also blessed my life a lot, which is why I wanted you to be on the podcast. Cause I think your story is incredible.   Jamin (02:08.879) Well, you've also blessed my life and the life of my teens and my practices. So thank you very much for that.   Kiera Dent (02:17.07) Of course. Yeah. So with that, I wanted to talk because Jamin, like I said, Jamin worked with the Dental A Team for two years. Tiffany's been out to his practice. Jaimond is one of our ambassadors within our mastermind group of our doctors. We've done an in -person event. He came to a LumaDent with us last year. But something I've noticed about Jaimond, and so you guys, selfishly, I brought him on the podcast for myself today too, is I feel like Jamin has the wisdom of where I want to be in my life.   And so how can we get there? And I feel like so many dentists want to be living the life you're living, Jamin, and, but they don't know how to get there. And you've got your amazing family and you and your wife have such a great relationship. And I mean, I texted you the other day to get on a call and like, Kiera, I'm off going motorcycle riding. Like I'll be back in a few hours. And I'm like, it's a Wednesday Jamin . You're like, I know I'm off for the week. How do you do that and run such successfully high numbers?   Jamin (02:44.751) boy.   Jamin (03:07.823) on me.   Kiera Dent (03:10.766) but also, so you have this very profitable, you've got two locations and yet you were working so many hours and now you've got it down and I feel like you have gone from that five day a week grind per se, but I don't think you even had that to living your ideal life and schedule and still having this profitable practice at serving patients and serving teams. So that's really what I wanna dive into. I'm gonna let you riff to wherever you wanna go and let's kind of talk about how you've been able to do that.   Jamin (03:30.479) Sure.   Okay. Yeah. I think the biggest thing to understand at the outset is everything comes at a cost. And I knew that this is where I wanted to be and having that kind of destination in mind, I was willing to sacrifice some of the perks of working longer and harder, namely financial perks, but I was willing to sacrifice that so that I could have more time to pursue motorcycle riding and spending time with my wife and traveling and doing those kinds of things. But there was a time.   that I was, I didn't have any associates and I had both practices and I was working very long hours. This was maybe 10 or 12 years ago. And so I've been there. Like I know how much work it takes to make a practice work successfully and to bring everything together with the team. And it's, it's a place where I think you have to be to get to the other side, if that makes sense. So I just kind of always knew that for me, I never really want to retire.   I think that I could do dentistry almost indefinitely if I manage my time right and manage the clinical exposure and the wear and tear on your body. It does, it's exhausting maintaining that level of focus with patients, not just with hand skills, but conversationally and being in the moment. It takes a lot out of you. And so I knew that I couldn't do that indefinitely. And so I kind of was starting to position myself.   maybe 10 years ago, at least mentally, like where I wanted to be now. So.   Kiera Dent (05:05.55) Yeah. Okay, so how did you get that? So you're working two practices and I should have had you like introduce yourself. You're this incredible dentist, you run these great practices, you live in Colorado. So 10 years ago, and then what did you start to do? And what if you could go back in time, even 10 years ago, maybe even like things you would have changed. But like, let's walk people through okay, 10 years ago, you're working in both practices, you don't have an associate. Now 10 years later, if you want to just like paint a picture of what your life is you work.   Jamin (05:10.766) I'm out.   Absolutely. Yeah.   Jamin (05:26.767) Yeah. Yeah. No.   Kiera Dent (05:33.102) Just tell them your schedule so they can see this gap, and then we're gonna show them how they get through the gap.   Jamin (05:37.711) Sure. Okay. So now I work three to four days a week, but a work day to me looks like a five to six hour shift. And I have, my staff has been so kind. They're like, when do you want to work, Jayman? And I said, I'd rather work in the mornings than I can have the afternoons free in Colorado, the afternoons. All the mornings are great too. Colorado is just wonderful. But now, now I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday mornings. I'm usually done with clinical.   commitments by noon or one, and then essentially every other Thursday I work half a day, and that's about it. I work with four other doctors and I really want them to be successful. So I don't have a problem shifting new patients, emergency patients, patients that don't really mind seeing a different doctor into their schedules. Not so much so that I don't have to work, because I'm definitely willing to work, but just to help them build their clientele.   My associates are wonderful and amazing. And I know that when patients have a chance to meet them, they're probably going to forget about me pretty quickly. And, and, and that's not like something I want, but it is something I want because I don't want them to feel like they have to see me every time they come into the office. And of course I do have patients that I'll see as long as I'm, you know, putting gloves on and that's great. That's a compliment as well, but, um, kind of pushing the other patients and especially new patients, emergencies to the associates so that they can.   build up more rapidly and stay busy while they're at work is kind of how I look at my day now. And so sometimes I do get off a little early, but mind you also, these are the clinical hours. I do spend quite a bit of time on the business side of dentistry, which I really enjoy. I've kind of reinvented our financial tracking and budgeting and everything over the last six months, kind of aligning with dental a team. You guys have really been a big help with that. So.   So thank you for that, but it makes everything more manageable and just, I know what's coming in and what's going out and what we need to do to maintain that.   Kiera Dent (07:39.246) Yeah. So, Jaimyn, well, thank you. That's a huge compliment. And I remember we were texting in January. You were getting me all pumped up for an event. And I remember you telling me you were just coming back off of vacations. And like, your production numbers have exponentially grown working together. But like, what I look at is so many people get so like fixated on the numbers. And I remember in part of the text you said,   Jamin (07:43.247) Yes.   Kiera Dent (08:03.79) I don't do this solely for the numbers, but it does look fun like when our numbers go up, which I agree. And I love that you just have this perspective of life and numbers and they both just shake out. Cause I feel like so many times people are just reaching and trying to get to these spots. So 10 years ago, you're working in both practices to today. You barely are working like two and a half days a week, realistically, like it's still, um, and you love it and you're doing it because you want to, and you love it and you don't want to retire. How did you decide, Jamin, that you wanted to keep working?   Jamin (08:22.799) It's a lot, it's still a lot.   Kiera Dent (08:33.742) for a long time versus selling out to a DSO or just like at that point being so burnt out. Cause I mean, you've got very successful practices, a DSO, but like, cause I think sometimes, I mean, Ryan Isaac and I were just talking the other day of like, the pieces, how do we sustain and survive until we're like 80, 90 to keep ourselves like mentally and clinically sharp. So we're not like decaying our minds. And I've thought about this so much. How did you decide you did not want to retire and like give up the gloves?   What, what made you decide that? Cause I think for so many dentists, when they're at that kind of like push, it's like, it's an all or nothing. They want to like sell the practices and go to doing nothing. And I think you figured out kind of the middle ground that gives you the life you want, gives you the fulfillment of still doing dentistry and you didn't have to give it all away. So how did you come to that decision?   Jamin (09:19.407) Because I love dentistry. Like it's not something I really want to walk away from. And I don't mean to sound any kind of way, but like really genuinely you can help people and not every person and the cosmos sends crazy people into our lives that you wish weren't a part of your practice. I get that. But there are those, there's a certain set of people who are truly grateful that you're able to help them and, and you just have an emotional connection with them as much as anything that you provide clinically. And it's really rewarding. And.   Maybe for me that helps to fill a need that I have in my life. Not necessarily just to being able to contribute to somebody feeling better or looking better or yeah, all of those things. So for that reason, I didn't want to come up with a plan or chase a goal that was going to close the clinical door for me. I had looked at possibly partnering with a DSO maybe right before COVID, I think.   Kiera Dent (10:02.67) Mm -hmm.   Jamin (10:18.447) And, uh, I went down that path quite a ways and I learned a lot about practice valuations and EBITDA. And it really, at the time felt like this isn't what I want, but in hindsight now, it was a real big blessing learning so much from that process and being able to position these practices so that they aren't successful for me, but that we're able to have success for our whole team indefinitely, really, as long as we keep the right people in the right places. So.   Kiera Dent (10:40.942) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (10:45.998) Yeah. Which I think is such a beautiful piece. And I do, um, I'm super excited. We're having a, some DSO people come to our doctor mastermind and we'll podcast with them too. I love our doctor mastermind cause I try to bring in like really fun people and just like, you just spoke there and whatnot. But I think Jamon, something I just really love about your perspective is you go, you educate yourself and then you make the best decision for you long -term. I think something I've learned from you is you don't just make a short -term decision today. You think of like,   Jamin (10:58.415) Yes.   Kiera Dent (11:13.71) When I'm ex, what do I want my life to look like? And then you almost build backwards, which I think has been really magical to, yes, I know we coach you, but to also learn from you. I mean, I could choose you on who I hang out with. I like hanging out with people who make me better.   Jamin (11:24.175) It's so kind.   Jamin (11:28.751) Yeah, I have the same philosophy, Kara. So that's a compliment to you. Um, and I agree. Like if you don't know where you're going, I was a little disciple of Dr. Bruce Baird for awhile. And one of the things that he said that always stuck in my mind was like, if you don't know where you're going, you're like driving around in your car with, um, tinfoil on the windows, like you're going to get somewhere, but it might not be really where you want to go. So to take that tinfoil off and have a direction and a purpose.   Kiera Dent (11:32.75) Thank you.   Jamin (11:55.791) Even if it's 10 years down the road or whatnot. And by the way, I'm not a huge goal driven person. I'm kind of more fast and loose maybe if that's appropriate, but like let's get there and we're going to have fun getting there. So.   Kiera Dent (12:09.422) Yeah, which I think aligns with who you are as a person. And I think that I actually love that you said that because I'm so goal oriented, but I'm noticing that sometimes we are striving for a goal. And I started picking up like, we're thinking we're going to fill a feeling when we get to that goal. And if I can figure out what that feeling is and provide it right now, the goal is kind of irrelevant. And I've hit so many goals and I'm like, well, what the heck? Like, it's not even that fun. And I've just worried like done all this time, the fact that you have fun along the way. So,   All right, walk me through what were some of the pivotal pieces that you started to do to get from where you were 10 years ago to where you are today that could maybe accelerate the path for other people listening if they want to get to your lifestyle. Cause Jamin, I'm really talking about myself here. I would love to be working basically two and a half days a week. I think I feel guilty leaving my practice or my business. And I feel like, Oh, everyone else is going to have to work. I think you did something beautifully. You want your associates to really succeed. Um, but kind of walk us through like,   What would you do to accelerate that path for somebody wanting to get to where you are for the fulfillment reasons you've got?   Jamin (13:14.415) So for me, for my whole career, I've always been hesitant a little bit to take that next step. So my first practice, which is one of these two practices that I'm privileged to work with now, well, they're both scratch starts, but the first one was right after I graduated from dental school. And it was me and a front office lady, because I've never been billing like front office whiz. And I did my own assisting in hygiene. And then there came a point where I hired an assistant. And I waited like a year to hire a hygienist, my poor patients.   I apologize to them, but it would just seem like such a big step. But as soon as I did, like we, we, we were propelled to that next level. And as I look back over the last 20 years, so I graduated in 2001, University of Colorado, and I've just been here ever since same hometown. So, so to answer your question, I think I've been kind of reluctant to take that next step. I did have a few associates before I landed where I am now. And I do have the blessing and the good fortune of working with my brother.   Kiera Dent (14:00.622) Mm -hmm.   Jamin (14:13.039) And with my son and, um, that does give me a lot of benefit as far as working with associates. I think that along the way I had an office manager that was so such an effective office manager. Her name was Megan and she changed my life in the way that she worked me out of the practice on the business side. She just took care of everything for like 10 years. And one day in 2019, in November, she came to me and said, I'm leaving. And I was.   I was not expecting it. And she said, I think that you've lost focus on your practices and you need to be involved in the day -to -day operations. And there's no good way for that to happen except for me to leave and for you to pick up the, pick up the reins. So she'd left and I started doing payroll myself. I started doing the bookkeeping and these are things that I enjoyed doing previously, but she just was so good at it. I literally didn't have to do any of any of the business side. She did the hiring, firing everything.   So in the last four or five years with Hergon, it took us a minute to find the next team, management team to put in place. And I think that's the biggest thing. Like Megan was great and she was also very right in that she did everything. So along the way, staying involved and finding a team to work with that allows you to be involved at the right level, I guess I should say. And so the office managers that I work with now are both fantastic. And...   They prompt me and they hold me accountable, but at the same time, they let me, they don't let me, I still am involved in the business side of the practice and the things that I don't love doing, we've aligned in such a way or we've come into each other's lives in such a way that we compliment each other. And so I'm not a big employee review person. I know it's important. My poor staff, they have had so many empty promises over the years. I apologize for that.   But you know, that's something that we're working towards being better with them, with a management team that is more focused on that. And I'm still involved when I can be, but they're not waiting for me to take the reins there. So to get there quicker, to answer your question, like how could I have streamlined that more, um, going back 10 years more efficiently, I think just getting that team in place and then standing on their shoulders to see further down the road. Right. And so identifying in that team, the things that you don't like to do.   Jamin (16:36.591) And finding people who like to do it. And, and so that was a big part of it. And we're still working on little bits. And I don't, I appreciate your very kind introduction. Like I still have stress in my life, like daily, but it's a different kind of stress. And I was thinking about that recently. And I think without some, like, I believe that some stress is healthy. It keeps us, it keeps moving us forward and keeps pushing us. When I didn't have stress was when Megan was running the offices for me.   Kiera Dent (16:58.094) Mm -hmm.   Jamin (17:05.391) And it was an easy life. It really was. And we were growing. She did a great job, but I'm much happier now being involved in actually having an awareness of what's going on in the practices than not. So.   Kiera Dent (17:19.951) Yeah, that's an interesting path. And it's funny, when I podcast, I oftentimes think of like titles and I'm like, gosh, this I think would be an amazing way of like maximizing healthy stress because I think we're so stress adverse and to see that that stress can actually propel us in ways that we didn't. And as I'm listening to it, not knowing your full story until today, so thank you for sharing that, but is...   Jamin (17:33.231) Yeah. Yes.   Kiera Dent (17:45.294) You I think are more fulfilled and happier now because you're doing the things that light your soul on fire and you're more involved versus like sometimes when you have like the great Megan's that's who we want, right? We're like working hard to find this Megan to where we sit back because we know we need to delegate, we need to leverage, we need to get, but oftentimes we leverage the things that we actually are really good at that light our soul on fire. Watching you and how much you love the business and the profit first. And I think you and I can sit and geek about, uh,   Jamin (18:12.751) Probably.   Kiera Dent (18:13.39) funny things and business things like you and I love to talk about leverage and I love when we talk about book clubs like you were probably my best dentist on book clubs with me because you'll be like Kiera I was just listening to this book great book club like let's talk about buying back our time and what are you doing on this one and so it's really really fun because you I feel maybe that's also where the fulfillment piece is and Jaimie I thought it was you hit the fulfillment because you're working two and a half days what I think the fulfillment is is you're doing the pieces that you want.   in almost probably more of a balanced way and not balanced up equal but balanced up. I want to do clinical dentistry so I've got my clinical dentistry. I enjoy the numbers in the book and being a part of that. I enjoy growing the leadership team. I enjoy having hobbies and being with my family and being able to travel to where it's not dependent upon me but I'm still involved in the pieces I want. Is that a fair like almost equation that I think you've put yourself into?   Jamin (19:05.423) I a hundred percent agree Kara and like a big turning point in that was meeting you at that mid -winter because it was just, just growing up and being a dentist for the last two decades, I always kind of felt like a lot of things came easy. A lot of things didn't, but I always remembered like Michael Jordan, like this great basketball player always talking about having, you know, he would sometimes mention his coaching team or his personal.   coach or whatever. And I was like, why does he need a coach? Like he's so great. And I am in no way saying that I'm any, any likeness of him in dentistry, but I always thought I would be better if I had somebody to coach me along as it went. And I just never found that. And I wasn't looking for a coach when I met you in the operations manual course, uh, you know, at that mid winter conference, but, um, since, since then, like the ways that you and your team have impacted my office.   Like I can't imagine not having you a part of us. And it's, we had a lot of changes last year, um, both like physically, literally in the office, but also staffing and streamlining and operations. And it's really helped us to get to where we are. And it's a, it's a journey, right? Like I, we are not at a destination yet. I think one of the, I don't mean to sound cheesy by saying this, but I really love seeing the team grow around me, especially in particularly the associates. And I don't even, we don't call each other associates or.   We're all doctors when we're at work. And, you know, I mentioned that I work with my brother and my son and we have two other associates. And for me to see them growing and accomplishing more and having satisfaction, like that also fills a bucket for me that really makes me happy. And my office manager, the one, one of the offices now, um, she hadn't been an office manager before, but she had all this experience and she just wanted to grow into this.   And so providing opportunities for others to find happiness and find their spot.   Jamin (21:03.759) Like that's a big part of it as well, I feel like. So.   Kiera Dent (21:06.574) Yeah. Well, huge thanks for joining Dental A Team because you've changed my life too. So and it has been fun because I watched you, Jamin, actually evolve more. And I know we were chatting at another time and you're like, I don't know why offices wait. Like I should have done these things sooner and I wish I would have done them sooner. And like the things I've seen you grow in are we do push you to be a bit more accountable and looking at your numbers and figuring out the financial path. And but it's.   Jamin (21:10.415) All right, yeah. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (21:34.094) And that's what I love is every office is different. Everyone brings different challenges and more fun. But as you said that I love one, you've got an amazing culture. You've got an amazing, I love that you don't call them associates. I hope every office just heard that. Call them doctors, put them on the same playing field with you. Something I'm curious and I'm sure a lot of people are is tell me about the financial status. I don't even know your actual dollars. You cutting down more, really empowering your associate doctors to do well, your doctors. So your other partner doctors within there with you.   How has that impacted you financially? Have you noticed a hit? Have you noticed a, or has it been like, yeah, maybe it was a dip, but like my life didn't change. I'm just curious, because everybody, I think that that's the fear of if I give up and I let people take all the new patients and let people do all the extract, it's a scarcity mindset. So I'm curious from someone who's actually done it, how did that actually play out financially for you?   Jamin (22:24.847) That's a great question. It's still playing out. It's constantly evolving. My personal like income levels have dipped, but again, I'm fine with that for me. Wealth now isn't defined by dollars. It's time. It's like, I just want time. So yes, it was affected, but it's hard to quantify it because at the same time as we were bringing in another associate and we, we doubled the size of one of our offices last year, we went from six treatment rooms to 12.   The other office we went from five to eight. So we had a lot of changes and that added expenses that were just kind of normalizing now. So it's kind of hard to say where it's going to shake out. We're always working on profitability. It seems like the first number of years in practice, I was looking at production. It was like production, production, production. Like, oh, our production's climbing. We are more successful this year than last year. And of course, collection percentages are important to look at that as well. But.   And now for me, it's completely shifted to profitability. It doesn't make any sense to double the size of our practice if our profitability isn't going to show a linear increase as well. And it hasn't been that yet, but we're growing and everything's trending in the right direction for that to happen. So initially, yes, it's been a little bit more financially, not yet my income dipped, but I think going forward and where we're tracking towards and.   of getting the teams figured out it's we're on a great trajectory. Also last year, the last couple of years have been really weird with HR, like trying to find the right people to hire. And we didn't, we went for like a year with needs. And then last year we, we were able to hire and we probably got too big. And so we're kind of settling into that sweet spot and our percentages were a little off. And I think we're starting to normalize there as well. And you know, I don't have an MBA. I really wish I did. So I could predict and plan those things better.   Kiera Dent (24:00.078) orderly.   Jamin (24:20.591) But as we see our economy and maybe our industry normalizing a little bit, even though it's different, it's kind of slowed down as far as the hiring difficulties and just some of the unknowns that we've been working through for the last couple of years, that we can now manage again and not be quite as reactive managers, but be more proactive.   Kiera Dent (24:36.718) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (24:40.974) Mm -hmm.   I'm glad you said that because two things came to mind. One was I just attended, this is like a little, like, let me throw out like one of my cool things that I do. I just attended a conference with Tony Robbins and I joined one of his groups to where we could actually go to his house. And it's something I wanted to do for years. And so I was just at his house. And I remember he said something when you talked about how for you now time is more valuable than wealth. And I've really been thinking about this. And Tony said something he said, oftentimes,   that pendulum switches when people feel like there maybe are more years behind them than ahead of them. And I've thought about this a lot because right now you and I are in different places in our lives, Jamin. And I wondered how can us before that pendulum shifts, realize that truly time is so much more valuable than wealth and wealth is feeding our ego. And then secondly, we talked about profit.   And it's crazy because there was someone at the conference who stood up and they were talking and there's, it's only 40 of us that are there with Tony. And so this guy stood up and he said, yeah, Tony, when I met you two years ago, I was at 2 million and two years later, I'm at 29 million. And I was blown away because, you know, I've had similar like lofty goals and how are we going to serve this many people? So I talked to him, um, cause we were in a group and here I am thinking I'm like small potatoes compared to this guy. And we talked.   And my business is not half of his size, not even close. It's like a 10th of his size. And yet my profitability margins, I'm making more than he is as a smaller business than he is at this. And I thought about the headaches. And so when you said that, I'm so glad that you've shifted to profitability. Like I was giving, I wish on the screen, I could have given you like all the gold stars and I'm sure that they'll edit this to give you the gold stars. But the cool thing is,   Jamin (26:14.799) Yeah.   Jamin (26:25.583) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (26:30.478) Profit is what actually matters. It's not the top number, just like time is the top number, not wealth. And I think if we can get those two things aligned in life, that's where I think freaking fulfillment and freedom actually lies. And I think we lie to ourself thinking that the dollar's amount will give us the time and that the production number will give us the profit. But in reality, it's the time and the profit that we're truly seeking.   Jamin (26:41.999) Thank you.   Jamin (26:53.967) Yeah, I agree. I agree. That's pretty great. I hope I'm not on the downside of my life, though.   Kiera Dent (26:59.182) I hope you're not either. I hope there's, well, here's the cool thing too. Tony, this was another thing that he talked about. He said, Kiera, well, he didn't say Kiera. I assume he's always talking to me. So in my mind, it's a Kiera conversation. But he talked about how like right now there's so many cool advancements coming in. He said, right now we're on the cutting edge to where if we can keep ourselves healthy, again, going to time and prioritizing our true wealth of health and time.   Jamin (27:09.327) or he is always talking to you.   Kiera Dent (27:26.766) He's like, I believe that if we're able to keep ourselves healthy, there's so many changes happening within healthcare, within all the research coming through, all the different things they're doing. He's like, I feel that we're actually going to be able to extend our lives for many more years beyond what we've been able to do. And I do believe it. Like there's so many crazy cool things coming. He's like, our biggest thing is how can we maximize our health to give us those longer years? Because there's so many things that are going to shift and change. So I'm not saying that your pendulum has shifted to where there's more years before or ahead of you.   It just, to me, I thought, how can we get that pendulum shift to realize without having the age and the time and the decades, we start to appreciate it today as opposed to later. And that's why I wanted you on because I think your perspective and wisdom really can help a lot of us.   Jamin (28:12.783) I appreciate that. I think it just depends on what you're chasing too. Until you realize what it's really gonna take to make you happy, you may never get to that point no matter how old you get. And so understanding at a certain, understanding at an earlier age what you need to feel happy would definitely put you in that position to experience that at a younger age. I like having time. I don't know if that was always my goal from day one.   I've just realized as I've kind of went along, I stumbled into it and it's like, Oh, I did plan for it, but now that I do have a little bit more discretionary time, it's definitely a good place to be.   Kiera Dent (28:52.27) It's crazy. Jaimie, you give me so much perspective. And that's why I went on the podcast today because I just feel people need your perspective. They need your wisdom. They need like I feel more Jamans in this world. I guarantee you do better dentistry. I guarantee you are a happier team member. I guarantee you're a better leader, a better father, a better spouse, not to say that you're perfect. But it's interesting to me because I think when you get that shift, the shift of priorities, the shift of perspective, the shift of   Jamin (28:57.679) Thank you.   Jamin (29:04.239) You're so kind.   Kiera Dent (29:20.462) what you're chasing. And like you said, like using the team and empowering the team and being able to look further down the line because of it. And I thought how many hours, because you've been given discretionary time to work on the business, I guarantee you that's why your business is growing and trending in the right direction. And we oftentimes think we have to be doing the tasks of clinical dentistry to grow our businesses when the reality is sometimes it's, and it's not equal. It's like one hour of business time might equate to like 10 hours of clinical time.   Both are going to get you the same outcome, but one's less time than the other. And where are you going to really maximize? So, Jaimie, any last thoughts as we wrap up today? I loved this podcast. I always enjoy podcasting with you. I love hanging out with you because you just make me want more time, more freedom, and to really be fulfilled in life, which I think is something I'm chasing is fulfillment. And so learning from people that from my viewpoint have a lot of fulfillment in their life is what I seek.   Jamin (29:57.103) No, thank you. Likewise.   Jamin (30:12.495) Oh, you're very kind. I appreciate you inviting me to come on here with you. I always love hanging out with you and just chatting about these kinds of things. And really, truly, and not shamelessly plugging, but you guys have made such a big impact for me personally, between providing materials to help me grow and taking my hand and pulling me in the right direction to holding my team more accountable in the right areas and everything. Our coach is Tiffany. She's...   I texted her yesterday with a stupid question and I was like, do you have a second? She's like, I always have a second. It's just nice to have somebody to like lean on when you need something. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.   Kiera Dent (30:48.43) Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I love you being a part of our group because honestly, I believe the power of the group and the power of all of us is the people that are a part of it. And I'm very like, I think we have a really awesome group of doctors and great people like you. And I'm so glad you mentioned that about TIF because that is our culture. Like we've always have time. We're here for you. We want to support you. We want to have that right hand with you at all times. So, Jaimie, thank you for being on the podcast today. Of course. And for all of you, if you're interested, you want to be...   Jamin (30:53.039) Thank you.   Jamin (31:12.559) Thank you, Tara. I appreciate you.   Kiera Dent (31:17.806) Like Jaimie said, like don't wait guys, reach out. Hello at thedentaleateam .com. I would love to help and serve you. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Kiera explores not only why so many people want to slow down in their everyday lives — but also what happens once you’re slowed down. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Sign up for DAT’s Weekly Webinar Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.22) Hello, Dental A Team team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited to be podcasting with you today. I just, I love our podcast family. I love being able to share tactical tips and tricks to make your life easier, to make you less stressed, to make you happier, and to just give you a little positive dose of goodness in your days. So I am just honored to be here with you. I hope wherever you are, you just remember you're doing better than you think you are and that life is truly just magical.   So I am excited for today's podcast. If you guys can do me a favor, share this with someone today. Go post it in a forum that you're in. Go share it with someone. This one is actually coming from a bunch of forums. Our marketing team went out. They looked to see what are you guys asking the questions about out in the dental world? We combed a bunch of you guys and here we are producing content for you. So today's podcast is directly from what you guys are asking in forums and I just wanted to build podcasts for you of kind of...   What are you guys facing? So please share this, go put it in a group. Our goal is to truly be in the hands of every single dental practice across the globe. So share this, we want to positively impact and just give you tactical tools. As a consulting company, we really do minimize your stress, help your team get on board, and we do that virtually or in person. So if we can help you in any way, please reach out, hello, at thedentalateam .com. You can head on over to our website, thedentalateam .com, click on our link there.   a book, a call, or every single Friday, uh, we do it at 8 a .m. Pacific. So 11 Eastern. You can actually come join a free webinar. So it's there, it's on our website. Um, but you can come see an, I shouldn't say webinar. It's kind of like learning what Dental A team is about. So if you ever wondered what is consulting about, what does it look like to work with you guys? Come, it's literally 15 minutes. You don't have to say anything. You can listen. You can ask your questions if you want to. Super easy. We tried to make it so applicable and easy for you to just come pop on super short 10 to 15 minutes. So.   If you're ever wondering, come ask. I'd love to see you there every Friday, 8 a .m. I believe, I'll double check that. They just changed the time on us. So I'm 99 % sure that it's every single one I lied to you, it's at 8 .30. So 8 .30 Pacific, 11 .30 Eastern. Don't come at eight, we won't see you there. But it's on our website, come join us. If you ever wanna just shoot me an email, hello at thedentalateam .com. We'll send you the link, easy peasy. I'll also make sure that link is in today.   Kiera Dent (02:21.262) notes for you so just click on that if that's ever helpful. We'll start adding that so if you're ever like gosh I just I think I want to work with a consultant but I don't even know what that looks like I don't really want to get on a call come I want you to find out I want it to be easy so just come it'll be a ton of fun and it's really short 10 -15 minutes 830 Pacific every day. So on that note today's content is brought to you by the Facebook forums out across the globe and it is how do we actually slow down?   Um, this is a great, great question. And I was so excited when I saw it because reality is one, do you want to slow down and why do you want to slow down? I think back to COVID and I feel like we all got this like little glimpse of what I think life used to feel like it was slower. We hung out, we spent more time with friends and then COVID went away and it just feels like it ratcheted up. At least that's how I feel. And I read a really awesome book called, um, do, uh, do less.   and Create More by Kate Norpp. I think it is called Do Less, I believe is the name of the book. And it was just a really interesting thought process of like, is there a way for us to actually create more by doing less and slowing down? So I think there's a couple of ways to take this of like, how do we slow down? One is, I actually watch a lot of practices and they work three days and produce more.   And so I think be careful of our limiting beliefs. My husband and I were chatting and I said, well, you know, what do you actually want in our life? What do you want in your life? And he said, you know, Keira, I want more time, more freedom. And I said, do you really? And I said, I'm not trying to like pick a fight. He was on his way to work, right? You know, when you get into those hot conversations, right before people go to work and like, that was the wrong timing. So it almost was the wrong timing. But I said, do you actually really want that? And he's like, yeah, I do. And I said, well, like what's holding you back from doing that?   And I think sometimes a slowdown is stuck in the quote unquote stories we tell ourselves or the limiting beliefs or even just the beliefs, right? It doesn't even have to be a limiting belief, but like, okay, so if I slow down, I'm going to make less money. And I want you to ask with every one of your objections, is that actually true? So my husband was like, well, Kiera, if I stop working, I think it's gonna be that, you know, we're not gonna be able to cover the bills. And I was like, well, that's not true. We definitely can, we're good to go. So what's next?   Kiera Dent (04:34.51) And he said, well, I'm scared that you wouldn't respect me. And I said, well, is that actually true? Like, we don't know until we try. So I don't think it would be. I want you to be fulfilled and whatever fulfills you is what I want. But then like other things are slowing down. Like there's the fear of loss of income. So is that actually true? No. What about other things like, well, if I slow down, my patients will be mad at me.   I've seen lots of dentists slow down and their patients aren't mad. And the ones who are, they leave and go find someone else and they're able to actually do higher value procedures. So it's all these limiting beliefs, all these different zones of, and just again, beliefs. And I want you to just ask yourself like, one, why do I want to slow down? Two, are like, what am I actually afraid of to slow down? And then three, are those things actually true? So for me, I think about slowing down. The reason I want to slow down is I honestly want to take care of -   Like I feel like I wake up and it's like work, work, work, work, work and that's my only identity versus it being let me go and invest in like my body, take care of it, eat healthy, sleep, workout, then go like be great for my patients, go be great for our clients and then come home and be present with my family. Well, that's kind of why I wanna slow down. I also feel like I'm very unintentional with the people that I'm with a lot of times. Like I feel like I'm constantly trying to run from one project to the next to the next. So with my team, with the patients, with the clients,   It's like, all right, great. Finish you up and onto the next one versus like, is that really how I want to live my life? I'm not sure. I want to spend more vacations, but for you, like, how do we actually slow down? One, why do you actually want to do it? And then two, what are the things stopping you from doing it? And are those actually real? Then after that, I was thinking about how do we slow down? Um, like, what am I going to do when I actually do slow down? I want to have a compelling vision. So I was thinking about it and I'm like, okay, great. So I slow down. What am I really going to do with that? And I think that there's, that's the fear.   That's the piece of what do we do with our time? Who are we gonna become? Are we gonna become schmucks? Are we gonna become lazy? Like all these things I worry about, but that again, without trying it or doing it, I don't have a compelling why. And so for you, what is it? What do you wanna do? And then I also think that there's an internal judgment that oftentimes I see people face of, well, like if I slow down, will I respect myself?   Kiera Dent (06:55.598) And I also think that this comes back to like, what is your identity built upon? So thinking about, I said this to my marketing team and I wish I had a visual, I don't have a visual today, but just imagine I'm drawing you a chalk outline, okay? So of a human, don't worry, it's not a dead person, but like, just pretend I've drawn you as a chalk outline. And of that, think of like, what makes up this person? So you as a dentist or you as a team member, how much of that? Is that like the foot? Is that the foot, the leg? Is that the foot, the leg, the arm? Is that 50 % of you?   Again, like I get that it's a body, but I'm trying to have this be like of you. And then, so for me, like what I would have is I'm a consultant. That's probably like my foot. I don't spend a lot of time there. I don't think it's a huge part of my identity anymore. It used to be like all of my identity, but now as a consultant, it's probably like a foot. Me as a CEO, that's like half my body right now. Like that's a big portion of my identity. Me as a wife, like half my head. Like I'm here, like I'm here for you, but that's not a huge portion of my identity. Me as a sister, it's probably like.   little hand. Like I'm there, I'm there for my siblings, but like I don't, I don't put a lot of time there. Um, me with church, it's honestly probably like a little wristband, like a little bracelet. That's not a huge identity of me. And then I feel like I've got, like, I do enjoy going boating. That's like maybe a little bit like my arm to my shoulder. Um, those are kind of like my hobbies. Those are the areas that I feel like I show up. So like I have this half a body almost that doesn't have an identity and I actually feel like work.   fills that in. I don't have a lot of hobbies. I don't have a lot of things and it's not bad. I do love work, but I think oftentimes we don't slow down because we have all these pieces. And if you think about it, I've got a foot, a leg, half a body. I've got half of a head. I've got a little bit of a hand, a little bit of a wrist, a little bit of an arm, and then the rest of it's empty. Realistically work fills that in. I think I just maybe wasn't as honest as I was saying this literally live doing this with you. So, okay, great. If 75 % of my identity makeup is work,   Well, that's really hard to think to slow down because I'm going to lose 75 % of my identity. What do I do next? And so I think that then that becomes a process of like, let's develop hobbies. Let's develop, like, let's go to pickleball. Let's go hang out with friends. Let's plan some more vacations in there. Like what truly makes you up today versus what makes you up in the future? Like if we were, and so like, if you could slow down, let's draw that chalk outline. Okay. So here we are today. So fill that little body in. You guys can draw this like,   Kiera Dent (09:22.99) If you're driving, don't. Um, but if you're there, just draw like a little outline of a person, or you could even do a circle and just put those things of what makes up your identity and what portion of it is making it up even like a pie graph. Then let's have next to it. You could do a pie graph or another body. I like thinking of my soul of like, how much of it is this in my perfect world? If I was to slow down, what percentage would be work and like a CEO, a dentist, a boss, um, church politics, hobbies that you're a part of.   a spouse, a parent, how much of it fills in there. And then, like, what would we want that to actually look like for me? I want that extra, like, 25 % to be filled with hobbies. And I don't even know what those hobbies are. In my mind, I think I would love to get into cooking again. I also think I'd really enjoy gardening. I think I would enjoy some other things I've just wanted to go try. I would really, truly love to read more.   I feel like I read a lot of self -help, but I don't feel like I read as much. So like having some time there. And then I genuinely just, I love to craft. I used to craft all the time. I used to make things. I was very creative. And now I just don't feel like I have time for that. Cause it doesn't feel like it equates to business. And so I think so many people feel like, well, it's not making money. It's not progressing me forward. It just feels fluff, but we have to realize that fluff makes us up. That's what fuels our, that's the juice, the squeeze in life.   that actually makes us feel alive, friends, family, those things. And so have your current and have your, if you slowed down, what would you actually have this look like? Because if we don't know where we're going, change feels very scary. If we don't even know what we wanna move into, it can feel very terrifying. And then once we figured that out, it's really asking yourself what's holding us back and is that actually true? So let's pull out the, I would make less money. Is that true? Do you know dentists?   who work three days a week and actually make more than you do? The answer is probably yes. I know several and they're very successful. They take month -long vacations at least three times a year, super successful. And they honestly are just doing it for fulfillment to do dentistry right now. So the answer is yes, you could actually make more. Now don't get into the how, we're not like, well, how could I do that? I don't know yet. But the answer is no, it's not true that if you slowed down, you would actually make less money. I'm gonna have upset patients. Again, not true. Could you not bring on an associate? Could you not bring on other team members?   Kiera Dent (11:40.302) Could we not do things that are different that way? The answer is yes, we could. So that's also not true. I might, like, I might get really bored. I might get depressed. All right. Is that actually true? It might be. So how can we prevent that or mitigate that? And then we actually have a plan because I really do believe the plan, not the how, but the plan and breaking those limiting beliefs or those things that are holding us stuck. Oftentimes we stay where we are because we know no other way.   And then, and it's like, they think about health and they say, you're either going to get healthy or you're going to be forced to get healthy. Which do you prefer? I think I'd rather choose than be forced. And so for that, I just think we often think we want to slow down, but if we don't even know what that's going to look like on the other side, it feels so scary. So we're just going to keep doing what we're doing. Then once we get that plan, we've got to start intentionally making, making steps towards it. So maybe it's all right, once a month, I'm going to take a Friday off and I'm going to do a hobby. Perfect. Easy.   That's one step or I'm gonna take a half day once a month and I'm gonna go to the spa. I just need to like Zen out, rejuvenate. Once a month, I'm going to add in a hobby and I'm gonna just have the space for it. Whatever it is, but we start to slowly scale into that to where we feel like we're more on that balance because oftentimes I think people slow down because they're on the verge of burnout and burnout comes when we don't fill our souls, when we feel like we're constantly giving to everybody else and no way to fuel our souls. So what fuels you?   Is it time hiking? Is it in nature? Is it on trips? Is it like hunker down? Right now I'm at the spot of like, I just want to watch TV and talk to nobody. Like I want like a mind numbing gel, like no more, I'm done. And that's like where I'm at, but that's, that's on the verge of burnout. And so doing the pieces of how do we actually slow down, figure out where we are today, where do we want to go? And then do one thing this next month that's going to help you, that's going to create the balance for you.   just a little bit more. It's not fully going to be there, but we start to slow down. Or you can just radically rip the bandaid. Some people are like, all right, I'm going down to three days. I know I can do it. I trust the process. I would definitely say like, plan for it a little bit more because there's lots of ways that we can prevent that. But that's how we start to slow down. Also putting our phones away when we get home, being intentional with the time, being present when we're in places will already like immediately help you feel like you're slowing down. I used to take pictures all the time for the gram and I had someone tell me they're like,   Kiera Dent (14:04.942) You know, I stopped doing that because I felt like I was always focusing on what the picture was rather than being present. And so I stopped taking photos. I have not posted it. So I'm not saying it's wrong, but it just helped me realize I want to be here and I want to be present and I want to be living fully. And so sometimes like putting off of our devices, turning things off, turning down the noise, sitting in stillness. Honestly, I try to meditate and I just feel like my mind goes a million miles a minute because we have so much stimulation now that sometimes even just having some.   quiet. I call it like my, my recharging time where I'm shut off from everything. I'm disconnected and I just sit in stillness for 10 to 15 minutes. That's hard. Go sit on the couch and try to sit there for 10 minutes. No phone, no book, no TV, no food. Just sit there. And can you sit there for 10 minutes? Set a five minute timer, then set a 10 minute timer, then set a 15 minute timer. And this sounds so ridiculous, but what it's doing is it's teaching you and it's reprogramming you that you can slow down.   Your body's not used to it. So it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Like we're on high alert versus like, no, slowing down is being present, slowing down is living. And so having that and experiencing that is such a beautiful pace. So hopefully I gave you guys some tips on how you can slow down, how you can find that space, figure out where you are today. What is your identity made up of? How can we change and shift that identity? And then what's one or two things that you could do this month to start to slow down. And this is something I'm super passionate about within our consulting. I have a doctor who,   is living their dream life right now. She didn't think she could slow down and we realized, but your kiddos only have so much time left. And so we prioritize, we made a plan for her Fridays. We figured out what she needs to do with her associate doctor. We figured out her numbers. We showed if we cut down three days, this is the income we'd need to shift. And so she has a plan and it's just step by step. And she came to a call the other day and said, Kiera, like, I am just so happy with who I've become. And it doesn't mean that there aren't hard days, but...   She's more of where she wants to be. And sometimes I think we just need someone to hold our hand and help us and remind us that it's going to be okay. But I think hopefully that gave you guys some tips to slow down, to enjoy, to put the phones away, to be present with those that we love, and to truly just enjoy this beautiful thing we get to call life. So if I can help you in any way, reach out. Like I said, we have that virtual or we have in -person consulting. You guys can always come to that one on Friday at 830 Pacific.   Kiera Dent (16:29.752) on Fridays, 11 .30 Eastern. Come find out, it's quick, it's easy, 10, 15 minutes, come find out what Dental A Team is about, if consulting feels right for you, or book a call. I'd love to chat with you. Hello at TheDentalATeam .com, and as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team podcast.

The right handoff can go such a long way. In this episode, Tiff and Dana break down why handoffs are so important for patients, how handoffs can extend from chairside to checkout, and the best way to know if your practice’s communication with patients and each other is working effectively. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: The Dental A Team (46:09.582) Hello everyone. We are back with some actual implementable things because I have my systems girl here. You know, I say it all the time. Dana, thank you for being here. Thank you for being such a rock star with everything you do. Honestly and truly you create so much content for this company. You create so much stuff for your clients on the daily. And a lot of what we put out there is from your brain. So thank you for being here. I truly think you're brilliant and you are such an asset to this company.   You've been all over the place lately. I feel like I we like cross paths. We were almost in the same place at the same time. A couple weeks ago when you were in Florida, you've been to Florida, you've been to Virginia. I don't even know you've had inclement weather. Where have you even been the last couple of weeks? I feel like it's like we're in the world of Carmen Sandiego. That's my daily. Yeah, I know. Where am I now? Let's see. Yeah, there was one week where I was in five states, all four time zones in a week.   So I've been in, let's see, Alabama, Iowa, Indiana, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina.   The Dental A Team (47:19.214) Yeah, I think that's it. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot. That's like dip travel right there. Yeah. That's insane. March gets crazy, right? I don't know why. March gets wild. Every year for me, March is insane. So weird. Yeah. Well, we crossed paths a few times then because I was, I haven't been to North Carolina yet this year. No, I can't even remember. Yeah, I was. I was North Carolina in March. Yeah.   like this feels so long ago now. So I was in North Carolina, Alabama. Airlines stuck there. But yeah, we were there. Oh, that's right. Oh my gosh, you were stuck there. I should we should have called it. We should have called Jeff Andrew and just gotten you a night. So North Carolina we crossed that we would have crossed like at some point, Indiana and Alabama and I flew out of Florida when I was in Alabama. Yeah. Insane. So thank you for being such a road warrior. We get   such insane results and the feedback from your clients is always just so, so cool to see. And I know you don't go on the road of time because you do a lot of our virtual consulting. We have a ton of virtual clients. So Dana, Dana works one -on -one with most of them. But then we've got our other virtual clients that do kind of that group status that they're loving it. But I know when you are on the road, it's like once a quarter or so, and it's like slam together. So.   Huge, huge thank you for everything you do. I know your clients love it. And the dental team definitely, definitely loves it. So thank you. Now, one piece I know I always work on in practice because it's the best space to see it is that handoff, right? And increasing case acceptance with a good handoff. So Dana, you were on the road recently. I know you got to see a lot of things. One,   how do you feel like the handoff increases case acceptance? What does that look like? And then two, what are some things that you saw while you were on the road recently? Yeah, well, one, I think it's, I want you to recognize I see a lot of times in offices handoffs are done behind the scenes, okay? And the way that a handoff can help increase case acceptance is the patient actually hearing it.   The Dental A Team (49:35.342) So I think we do a great job of, you know, hey, Dr. Smith, this is what's going on with this patient. This is what they said. This is their chief complaint. This is what we talked about, right? And we do it behind the scenes and you can do that. But where it really helps increase case acceptance is when the patient actually hears it. They're part of that conversation. And where I feel like it helps to build that is it's the trust and the relationship. When I say something and then I hand it off to you and then you back that up.   Right, that builds trust. There is something to be said for like shock dentistry in that like, I'll play the hygienist, right? I'm familiar with that role. And it is a patient just spent 40 minutes with me. And then the doctor comes in and doctor has five minutes. Well, if the doctor comes in and starts saying, you know, you need this treatment, or I see this area of concern, or I see this, and I haven't said anything, right? Well, it not necessarily is on purpose, right? Or that the patient starts to build distressed.   on purpose, but in their mind, right, it's I just spent 40 minutes with in and she didn't say any of that. And so now the doctor comes in and I'm a little bit shocked that there's something going on. And then I started my head to be like, well, do I really need that? Because she didn't see it. And she didn't say anything. Right. And now doctor comes in and I'm a little bit surprised. And I'm starting to doubt. And so when patients feel surprised by things when patients don't actively hear themselves,   it starts to downgrade the trust that we just worked really hard to build. Yeah, yeah, totally agree. I love that. I love that. So you're thinking or speaking on even like chair side handoffs. And I do agree, I think, and I used to do that as an assistant, I'd run back and I'm like, talk to me, these are all the things that you need to know, right? And then we'd walk in together and you'd start talking. But in consulting, I've noticed the same thing. And I think you can do both.   I don't think that we're saying not to do behind the scenes, because oftentimes too, there are some things that need to be said that the patient shouldn't hear, that they need to be prepped on personality or something that was embarrassing that they told you that they don't want to hear again, right? There are things that need to be prepped behind the scenes, but having that conversation and seeing it over the patient solidifies it. So if you're co -diagnosing, right? So you should be talking to the patient and saying like, these are things I'm seeing.   The Dental A Team (51:58.83) call it doctor knows the doctor is taking a close look at it. While he or she is looking at everything. So you're kind of they call it like pre heating or co diagnosing, you're making sure the patient's warmed up. And then when doc comes in, saying those things again, right. And then they're like, Oh, she didn't forget that must actually, that actually needs to be addressed, right. Then doc's like, Oh, gosh, did you guys talk about that? And the patient's like, Yeah, yeah, she kind of, you know, she'd let me know that this is what it looks like. And now doctors diagnosing it.   And that patient's heard it now three times, at least by the time he gets the diagnosis, right? So one, I think making sure that it's said over the patient is huge. And two, you guys have to think about how many times it takes somebody hearing something before they're ready to believe you, right? We're very skeptical humans, okay? And we are sold at it every corner. I tell a lot of my practices, look at your phone, open up your Instagram, open up your TikTok, like every other thing.   Every other, I feel like every third TikTok I go through is a sale. Like they're trying to sell me with something. And how many times have we heard, um, I bought this off, I bought this from TikTok or because of TikTok, right? So we're constantly being sold to and we're primed to say no. So we have to get over that. We're in the back of our minds when somebody says something, this happened to me. I was in the dentist chair and he's like, Oh, you got, you got something over here. We need to redo these fillings. And I was like, Oh, I don't think I do. I'm a dental consultant. And I was like, I don't think I do. Right.   And then he never said anything to me about it, the high dentist, right? So then I, you know, get my second opinion at a practice that I consult. And he's like, no, you got it. You're missing a piece of the filling here. And I'm like, are you kidding me? That's what it was. Like, I didn't believe this other doctor. And I didn't trust them just because I'm a skeptical human being. And I was like, I think I would know if I needed a filling. No, I wouldn't. I'm not in my mouth. This is a dental consultant. It means nothing.   But I'm a skeptical human being when it comes to things like that. Now you tell me Dana comes on here and tells me I need a new protein powder, a new pair of shoes that I'm going to run in a couple of times. Some new leggings, some new Lulu. She's like, guess what Lulu just came out with? This new scuba jacket that Costco has that's not Lulu, but like it. Guess who's buying all of those things. But you tell me I need a filling. I'm like, a couple hundred dollars. I don't know about that. I think you're lying. No, that's who we are by nature.   The Dental A Team (54:24.238) So this handoff, right? Hearing it multiple times solidifies the fact that it actually needs to be done. And the patient's like, okay, okay, okay, now I understand. Now I've heard it so much too that I'm comfortable enough to ask questions. I'm comfortable enough to say, how come I didn't notice that? Like, what should I have noticed? Right? What could I have done to prevent this? How can I make sure this doesn't happen again? Now I'm more comfortable.   to ask more questions. So that chair side handoff is huge. And then Dana, I know you train a lot on the chair side, but then after that, you train a lot on making sure that the handoff continues. And we don't have to go into super detail, you guys. There is, we call it NDTR, Next Visit Date Time Retire. It's probably at least one, maybe 16 podcasts that talk about NDTR. So if you go to our website, you go to the podcast spot, or I think you can do it in your iTunes app as well, or whatever it is, the podcast app.   If you search NDTR, guarantee it'll pop up or handoff, all of those will pop up. So we're not going to go super into DTEL because we've done it a million times. But Dana, that handoff for even checkout, right? Support staff to support staff, my dental assistants and hygienists to my front office. I feel like that builds trust in the patient again, because they're hearing it again, you guys. Statistics years ago said they needed to hear it seven times. I think this year I saw a stat that said 13.   I don't think we're ever going to hit 13. Please don't. I don't, I actually don't want you to, but five to seven times, I think it's probably pretty key. So they're hearing it again. But then Dana, I also feel like when I forced those handoffs, right. Or when I was in my dental practice here in town and I forced my hygienist to have that handoff with me and my dental assistants, I felt like my relationship with them increased because I was talking to them so much during the day. I was more comfortable as a team member with my team.   and having more conversations with them on a personal level that increased our relationship. So it wasn't even just helping the patients, helping the patients relationship, but it's helping our relationship. And so Dana, I feel like maybe you agree or disagree or think it's maybe not as important, but I feel like if that relationship between you and I is ramped up because you're constantly talking to me at checkout, our patients experience is more positively impacted.   The Dental A Team (56:47.31) impacted because our relationship is so tight. So how do you, what do you think about that? And how do you train practices to do something like that? Absolutely 100%. I always use Jeremy, my husband as an example from this during COVID. He had like, pretty bad heart side effects that like were super concerning. He had called cardiologists for an emergency appointment, right on the phone. They're like, Hey, are you having pain? Okay, we'll bring you in for an emergency. So he gets there and he checks in and she's like,   Oh, I see you're here for an emergency. Are you having any pain? And he's like, Yeah, I am. So then the medical assistant comes out and gets him and he's like, Hey, you know, you're here for an emergency. Are you having pain? And he's like, Yep. And he's like, well, rate your pain. So he says, you know, nine, then they're walking back in the person seating and is like, Hey, you know, are you having pain today? And he's like, for the love of everything, like, yes, right. And I remember him turning to me and being like, I don't think I want to be here because these people don't seem like they know what they're doing. And because I do what I do for a living, I'm like,   Well, no, I'm sure that they do, right? Like this person is gone and is a certified cardiologist. These people have degrees. I'm sure that they do. It's just, it feels like no one is talking and no one is on the same page. And 100 % it immediately flipped the trust to be gone. And so I think we have to look at Kandos as continuity of care and patients want to feel like...   Team members are communicating and team members are all on the same page when it comes to their care. And handoffs are the easiest way to form that. And to form that truly, right, we need that communication from team member to team member to make sure that we aren't missing anything, that we aren't dropping the ball, that we have passed on that information and we are treating our patients to the best of our ability because we can communicate.   And so I always use it as an example because I don't think we necessarily catch that breakdown, right? And like, we're all doing our parts and we're asking, right? They were all asking and making sure, you know, we knew he was in pain, but when no one was communicating in the office, his trust instantly fell to the point where he considered walking out of the appointment. Yeah. To his own health, like,   The Dental A Team (59:02.062) I don't know where to use that, right? Like his health is on the risk, like you guys, this is not being downplayed whatsoever. This was a very scary situation in Dana's life. And for him to be to the point of distrust where he was in a really bad situation, he needed that appointment and he needed multiple appointments, but he needed that appointment for him to be in a space where it was like, I don't feel safe here because I don't trust them. I'd rather go somewhere else. He needed to be somewhere in that moment. He didn't have   He didn't have time to go other places. Like he didn't have that. So for that to have pushed him that far in a space of emergency, think about the spaces where it's not an emergency and patients can casually make that decision, right? When they leave. So I totally agree. I think that's huge. And that is such a good way to frame it and brings it to reality, right? So that trust is huge.   you guys having conversations like you guys being friendly with one another and repeating information talking about the patient with the patient, right? Talking about the patient with the patient there makes a huge difference. So I think those are huge. I think handouts are everywhere. I tell my practices constantly. You have a chair side handoff, you have a checkout handoff for sure. You have a handoff every time someone new is entering.   the space of communication with your patient. If your patient's gonna be working with someone else, if you're a dental assistant and you're assisting and someone else is gonna take over so you can go trim that model, right? So you can go deliver the retainer or the denture that someone else can't do. You should be introducing that assistant as that assistant comes in. Your patients should be aware of what's going on and there should be a handoff every time there's gonna be another support team member having communication.   with that patient, you should be transferring it. And a lot of practices, right, we'll call that the trust transfer or transfer of trust or transfer of care. That's all it is. You guys should make sure that no matter what your patients feel comfortable, confident, secure, and that they trust the situation because they can see that your communication is top notch. A lot of practices are doing things like this. And again, if you're doing the behind the scenes one, do them both. Just move it to in front of the patient too, in a way.   The Dental A Team (01:01:24.174) right? That's not so rushed or hurried or short or negative sometimes, right? Do it in a way that the patient should hear it. So, careside handoffs in front of the patient, Dana said, and then that checkout handoff to the TC, checkout, filler, whoever's sitting there taking the patient at the end of the appointment, they could have a handoff as well. My biggest action item for these, Dana, I love role play. Do you love role play? Yeah, I love role play with these because we don't always know   what we sound like. And a lot of times, we're like, I do that. I do that already. I hear this constantly. I do that already. Totally. Let's tweak it a little bit. Let's tweak it a little bit. Let's see what we can tweak to get a different result. Role play it, record it, watch it back. Put people in those positions who aren't normally in that position.   so that you can hear how it is, so that they know how it should go, so that everyone knows how to do this. Have a front office person do a chair -side handoff, right? Now they understand you're gonna get more comfortable in your handoff when you're comfortable in someone else's handoff that you're not actually touching. So role play, okay, get it down, role play it, role play it some more, and then role play it again, and make sure you put it in action. Handoffs will increase case acceptance, you guys. When a patient trusts you,   When a patient trusts where they're at, when a patient has heard it multiple times, they are more willing to get the treatment done. They are more willing to say, yeah, you're right, I do need that. I got the treatment done by the second guy who told me because I heard it again. He confirmed it. Had the high dentist said it and the doctor confirmed it, may have been a different situation, I'm not sure. But I had a doctor say it and I was like, I don't know. And then I had a doctor confirm it and I said, yeah, you can do it. Okay? So.   Go do the things, go role play, get your handoffs in check, care side, and that checkout handoff. Let us know how it [email protected] and go search the podcast. Again, it's NDTR or handoff. It's all in there guys. It's all in there and reach out to us [email protected]. Let us know how it goes. Let us know if you need more information. If you want the NDTR sheet, I'm sure we can send it over to you. And don't forget to drop us a five -star review. Share some love with Dana. They have.   The Dental A Team (01:03:42.062) come out on the other side, thankfully, but that story is very true, you guys. It's a very heartfelt situation, and we're just so happy to have both of you here with us, Dana. So thank you, everyone. Good luck. Let us know how it goes. We'll see you next time.

Kiera reviews May’s DAT Book Club selection, High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove and why her takeaways are complicated. A few of her favorite ideas from the book: delegation is not abdication; allow time to connect; and why less is more when it comes to performance reviews. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.974) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to May's book club. I hope you guys are excited. Book club was something I didn't know if you guys would enjoy and so many doctors when I was about to cancel it, message in and said, we love this. We love this for our team. You've given us such a easy resource to work through and to be able to do this and then read it and then hear your synopsis on it. So welcome to book club. This month is high output management by Andrew S Grove. And I'm just curious of how many of you read the book?   how did you feel about the book? This one I think puzzled my mind a little bit more. And as I was going through it, I'm like, Kiera, why was this one a puzzling book for you? Why was this one maybe a little bit harder for me to digest? And I think a piece I had was one, I might have thought that the information was dated. And in that, I felt like, Kiera, you might be thinking small because just because things are quote unquote dated or we're doing things differently today.   does not mean the founding principles of what made this organization, the CEO legendary, I can't apply to today. And I think I was thinking so literal as opposed to conceptual. And the other side of it, I thought, I don't know if I'm really set up to do, be a manager. And so I'm super curious, how did you guys enjoy the book? I hope you're ready for it. If you guys are enjoying our podcast in any way, shape or form, please also before we kick it off,   Go leave us that review. You guys, I was looking at those reviews the other day and I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for making us one of the top dental podcasts out there and truly just resonating with the world. And our goal is to get this podcast into the hands of every dental office out there. So please help me out on our mission and share this with somebody today. Leave a review, tag us while you're listening in the car. It means the world to me. So let's kick off High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove and some of the key points that I just noticed in the book club were number one,   Um, like this is a granddaddy, like they're the CEO of Intel's legendary CEO during the transformative years. And I just think about that of, gosh, like they had so many different pieces in there. And so just as kind of a high level, there's the managerial leverage, there's training is the boss's job, motivations, meetings and decisions, one -on -one meetings, delegation and tax relevant, KPIs, performance reviews, interviews, and then promotions and recycling. And so, uh,   Kiera Dent (02:21.134) Really, I felt like there were so many good tips and I'll just dive right in pretend we're hanging out in my podcast. There is a chair right over here. So pretend you're just hanging out with me sitting here and we're just having a conversation in my podcast studio in my living room, if you will. We're just sitting back having a comfy cozy conversation because I'm really curious. This one was written in 1982. Uh, that's quite, quite a substantial amount of time since this was written. And like I said, I think I was a little more closed off upon reading it.   I think I felt like this doesn't apply. I like the one -on -ones. Oh my gosh. I texted Brittany and I said, this book is recommending we have way longer one -on -ones. And so I feel again, I wasn't looking at the conceptual ideas and more of the logical black and white. Like this is a workbook I'm going in, I'm implementing versus looking at what things can I be looking at?   to really optimize the output of it. And so one of the big things that I really love, like let's take it, is a manager output is the output of their organization and their neighboring organizations under their influence. And so thinking about a manager, and again, I don't know if I'm cut out to be a manager, but that said, just because I don't enjoy managing, I truly don't. I looked at the other day, I was doing a time exercise and I'm like, gosh, like I just feel sluggish.   And I was writing it down and I thought like I have block scheduled and I've maximized my time and I batched my tasks a lot of times and what do I need to do to get out of this bunk? And what I noticed, my funk is due to the fact that I'm in so many meetings. It is death by a thousand meetings and I'm just not enjoying it. And I thought, I don't enjoy this. Britt is our operations manager. I need to get out of these meetings more.   With that said though, I don't think just because we don't enjoy something means that we can abdicate it if we do delegate it. And so that was really a piece I took from this of Kiera. While you might not enjoy managing per se, this is going to give you tips of how to successfully lead your team and guide your managers and give them resources to make sure that they're exceptional managers. So what I really loved is they were talking about like the manager's output should not be focused on how much work they're able to produce.   Kiera Dent (04:29.934) but is measured on how much output that the team is doing. And I thought about like, doctors, we're looking at our production per hour and hygienists, our production per hour, a manager oftentimes like, it's just a million to do's. And so for you and managers and CEOs and owners and office managers and all that, if we realize that our KPI is our team's output, what are we doing? How is the output of the team, our production, our efficiency? That's what our job is to do. And then,   the way you actually maximize that output is to focus on tasks that have high leverage. And so you're working on high level output and you are looking at the high leverage activities because they have a long -term outcome of a high output from your team. And so like planning ahead and making sure that we're batching our tasks and really making sure that we're doing high leverage is making sure that our team output is a lot higher.   Um, they also talked about like when a manager is putting off decisions that actually can impact a lot of times the effect of that. And so making sure that we make decisions quicker and more efficiently. So we're not stopping the work of our organization. And so just kind of thinking about that, uh, minimizing your interruptions. So that way you can actually get those tasks done, blocking your schedule, creating a scheduled time for people to connect with you. And I thought that that was such an interesting point of creating a scheduled time where your team can come talk to you. And I thought about that of.   if I really had quote unquote office hours where my team was available, of course there's times when there's emergencies, but would that cut down my emergencies? Would that cut down all the interruptions I'm getting throughout the week? I have never tried it. And so I think that that's something for me that I asterisked in the book of try adding this in to see does that cut down? Because if the team knows, it's kind of like we recommend on offices of.   block one hour of CEO time, block one hour of admin time, office managers minimum per week. And that what it does is it cuts down all the fires and all the things. Cause you have a set time where you know, you're going to work on tasks. And I thought about that of, does that help our team know that you're available always with no other meetings, nothing where you are here for your team every single week for them to really be able to come to you. So I just thought like, maybe have that created time where people can connect with you.   Kiera Dent (06:48.078) I really loved how they talked about training along with motivation is a way to improve performance with your team. And I thought about that training along with motivation and how little time do we as managers. And when I go back to being an office manager, I had my set one hour a month that I was set up for training. Is that really enough time to train?   And I was just actually talking to a manager. She's got a really beautiful practice. And she said, Keira, I think I'm ready for my next step. What's my next step? And I said, realistically, your job is to step back and go to all the different departments and really set it up. And we built a schedule for her. So for example, it'd be Monday, you go and work with the front office. Tuesday, you're on hygiene. Wednesday, you're on leadership. And Thursday, you're on doctors. So how are we going to set it up? Not to say that the whole day is doing that, but there's a cadence for her to know which department am I going to go look in.   Which ones am I going to work on training? Where can I really help? And so it's not just a one -time event, but it's clear of who's training and the, in the book, they recommend that the manager trains. For me, I enjoy leveraging and thinking, how can I train my leaders in each department to basically be managers where it's not just my office manager? And I think that again, this is me thinking literal rather than conceptually, and how can I apply this to dental practices doing this podcast with you? Um,   And so just kind of a thought for you guys to think of if we were to possibly schedule time, would that help? Also looking at training and do I have set time and enough training to really be able to get my team where I actually want them to be or am I just holding back and making it to where we really aren't getting the training because I'm not prioritizing that because I'm so busy putting out other fires. And they said meetings are the medium of managerial work. 50 % of the time in meetings.   25 % and then non -contributary. And I thought, oh my gosh, 50%. And so to me, again, like I said, I was very literal on this book versus thinking, and could it be that I don't have productive meetings? Could it be that if I actually had this more effective that we'd have less problems? So just thinking about it, and again, this is a book that really did, I said, puzzle my mind and make me think of what things are really going to be applicable for dental practices and for my own practice.   Kiera Dent (09:02.574) And what do I want to do about that? And what do I want to implement? And I just want to put it out there that everything we hear in books, everything we hear in podcasts, everything we hear on Facebook and social media, I really hope that we become better sifters of information rather than just doers of everything. Because doers of everything actually don't prioritize. And as I thought about this book, I thought, fantastic, what things can I take from this book versus...   trying to implement the entire thing, thinking if I do this, because for me, I do believe that we have wisdom within our businesses. I do believe that we have wisdom as managers of that resonates with me and I can see how that would work versus this doesn't resonate with me and I don't think this could work while still having an open mind. So again, thinking about this to me, put me in 50 % of my time in meetings, I don't want a job. I would rather not, but for a lot of managers, they're perfectly fine with it as long as we're being effective with our meeting time.   I really have thought about this and I wondered there's a lot more ways to be effective with our meetings. And so I just thought about let's caution through the information we receive and truly pick up the pearls that actually resonate with us. Like I said, this one was probably the hardest book of all of our book clubs that I've gone through just due to the fact that I felt like there were probably more efficient ways.   that I could get the same outcome with less time and effort while not abdicating my responsibilities. So I really felt like there were just a lot of pieces when they talk about meetings, they said, within meetings, we always need to make sure that we nail down what decisions need to be made. When does it need to be made? Who's going to decide who will need to be consulted prior to making the decision? Who will we ratify or veto the decision? And who will need to be informed of the decision? And I did think those questions were really fantastic.   Also questions to ask yourself before calling a meeting is what am I trying to accomplish? Is the meeting necessary? Is it desirable or justifiable? And don't call a meeting unless those answers are yes. So, and remember by saying yes, we're actually saying no to something else. And so that's, I think, where I kind of looked at like 50 % of my time in meetings. Do I really need to spend that much time or are there ways that I can actually get what I need to done more succinctly? And I think that that's a piece for you.   Kiera Dent (11:23.374) They talked about one -on -one meetings, which you guys know I'm very pro having one -on -one meetings. They said, these should occur once a week, up to once every few weeks, depending on how quickly things are changing in the environment. And I remember reading this and they recommend a pretty lengthy amount of time for every one -on -one where we really do work with them and we facilitate what's going on and what's bothering them and making sure that we're talking to them about their lives as well. And...   I'm really giving them that guidance and direction. And I think I agree that one -on -ones are phenomenal once a month. But I also feel like spending so much time. I don't know, I'm a 50 -50 split because sometimes I think that they're too short. We do ours 30 minutes every single month. Britt does all of them. And I join in once a quarter. And sometimes I wondered if I had more time, would I hear more? Other times I think.   If I had maybe that set time where people could connect with me, could that offset the need for as long of one -on -ones with them? So really just make sure that on one -on -ones we're getting information back and we're not just giving information. I think that that was the biggest piece. Another piece that I took away from this is being present in meetings and really making sure that I'm there. And recently in our team, I noticed we were all very distracted in meetings and I felt like, well, this is why our meetings are not going as well as I would like them to be.   So I said, everyone has to shut off Slack, everybody shuts off their email, everybody puts their phones on silent, and we are here present. And in a virtual team, it's a bit trickier. I think in person, it might be easier, but in a virtual team, that is a bit trickier. And so really for me, I noticed that when we were all present, so much more actually got done. And I thought, could we actually simplify our meetings just by simply being present? Could we cut down the amount of time and the amount of meetings by being present, having an agenda, pieces like that?   And so just a few pieces like that and they talked about like how far ahead should we be looking and they recommended five years but really just one year and implement between now and the next meeting. And I thought that was really beautiful to think of because you know we've got Gina Wickman who's got traction of the one three ten. We've got like so many things but I love the let's have a five year we need to kind of like that goal out there and then we want to implement.   Kiera Dent (13:41.518) Like for this year, this one year, and now what's going on between now and the next meeting. Um, I really do love Gina Wickman's traction where it said in a quarterly, like 90 days sprint. And we know the big projects, but I have noticed that those big projects as I've coached teams, as we've done it in our own company, that those 90 days sometimes get forgotten meeting to meeting to meeting because there's just higher issues that come up. And so with this, I thought that really is a beautiful piece of what needs to be done now between the next meeting and making sure that there's that set plan for it. So.   I feel like looking at a lot of these different pieces, looking at KPIs where we have focus on the output, so really making sure we have that performance reviews, making sure that people know where they're going, which is different than your one -on -one. So we've got to level with our team, and we've got to make sure that we're really paying attention and we're hearing what they're saying. And then we really make sure that this is, like these reviews are for us and also for our team members. So.   putting those pieces in place and then like how you take care of performances and interviews and what we do for that and then promotions within. And I liked that they talked about performance reviews and annual raises and they said, less can be more, sit down with a blank paper, write it all down, see the trends and examples, will they remember everything if not remove and how to improve their performance. And I liked the simplicity of that. And so I feel like those are just some of my key highlight takeaways. But like I said,   The pieces that I took from this of sifting through all of it, reality is I'm probably not gonna implement a lot of this book in my life. For some of you, this might have been a book where it was a slam dunk, but the reason I bring books like this that challenge our thinking is because the goal is not to implement everything that we read in book club. The goal is to pick out the pearls from wisdom in this world that will actually move your business forward. And so for me, setting up time where we're available for people to connect with us, I do think that that's like,   asterisk dog, dog ear that page. And then batching tasks. I'm such a pro and I'm going to go back through and look to see how I can batch. I thought about other things that I could batch to cut down for me meetings. I think that the, the following up of those questions of who needs to make the decision, what needs to happen that could really help my team move forward. And then making sure that I do have maybe those annual performance thing. I don't know. I've been very anti doing annual performance reviews and raises. However,   Kiera Dent (16:05.998) I do think for teams to know that there's a set time for that could clear up expectations. So for me, that's a question mark, right? So I have ideas and I put it as a question mark. And for you, I would love to know what did you guys get from this? I think this would be a possible great discussion book for you and your manager if you want. But maybe it's not, maybe it's not the one, but really I think overall, my biggest takeaways, if I can like scale myself all the way back, if I don't want to do the meetings and I don't want to have that much time on one -on -ones, one is what's the...   What's the underlying principle and reason as opposed to the tactics? And then how can I put the tactics into place? So really making sure that we're maximizing our one -on -one times, maximizing our meeting times, asking myself those questions, making sure that we're available for our teammates to try and reduce. And then I think my biggest piece is a manager's, like the way we measure a manager is the output of the team. And if I could boil it all down, that's the piece that I would take away from all of this is,   a manager's job, like their output is the output of the team. And how can we maximize that output of our team while still balancing and having a be a 10 of fun is a question I think is worth pondering, maybe worth answering, and then implementing. Because honestly, wisdom without action is just dreams. And so how can we implement one thing,   But again, only one thing if it truly moves us forward. And I think that that was one of the greatest lessons from this book club. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Like I said, I don't always choose books that are like the most fun. I purposely choose books that challenge our thinking because I feel like if we can challenge our thinking, we're able to make smarter decisions. So next month, I know you guys are gonna love it for June. It's called Come Up for Air, How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work by Nick Sonnenberg.   And I will tell you, this is one that I have obsessed on. My whole team is reading this book. Leadership is reading this book. I have not stopped thinking about this book. Buy back your time, plus come up for air. I feel paired beautifully together. And then just to prepare you guys for July, the next book after that is, You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay. That one is a very, very emotional book. And so get ready to like really do some inner soul work. But my goal is to give you guys.   Kiera Dent (18:17.614) management systems, leadership and personal development books this year. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. If we can ever serve you help you and your managers become higher producing managers. If we can help you guys look to see where the efficiency gaps sometimes just having somebody come in. Like I wish I could go get Andrew Grove to come into my company and say, Kiera here is XYZ and if you implemented this, you would be so much more efficient. That's what I'm obsessed with doing for dental offices because we see so many and we get to help you truly cut down the fluff.   Maximize and optimize and do it with ease and a ton of fun. So if we can do that for you reach out [email protected]. Thanks for listening I'm gonna catch you guys next month on our book club with come up for air by Nick Sonnenberg Thanks again for listening and I'll catch you next time on the dental a team podcast

Kiera is joined by Dr. Brian Harris, the founder of Smile Virtual, to talk about cosmetic dentistry and virtual consulting. They touch on cosmetic needs in the current economy and how social media changed the game, as well as implementing virtual consulting and the way to get patients to want to do it. Dr. Harris also teases out how to get case acceptance virtually. Episode resources: Learn about Smile Virtual Connect with Dr. Brian Harris: [email protected] or @drbrianharris on Instagram Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum!   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.942) Hello, Dental A Team  listeners. This is Kiera and I am so jazzed. The guest I have today is someone that I feel like we have circled in the same circle without actually doing a podcast together ever until today. So I'm so jazzed. I have recommended this man so many times. I'm so excited to hear where he's at in his life, all the different things, cosmetic dentistry, you name it. Brian Harris, welcome to the show today. How are you?   Dr. Brian Harris (00:24.122) I am doing amazing. Thank you for having me. And I feel the same way about you. I feel like I've seen you all over. I hear people talk about you and your team and the amazing things that you do within dentistry. And so I think this is cool that we're actually doing this together. And I'm excited to see where the conversation takes us.   Kiera Dent (00:43.406) You and me both. So Brian, funny fact, my husband and I actually got set up on a blind date. I was disengaged is what I called it. I make the joke, my last name's Dent, it was three fiancees. So my husband, I was set up with a guy that I worked with at a law firm, Geology, he was a lawyer, and his name is actually Brian Harris as well.   So it makes me always like happy when I see your name, cause you've got like a good affiliation that way. Brian Harris set me and my husband up and you are not the same Brian Harris, but like it's just a good affiliation. But Brian, for those of us who don't know you, people that have never heard about you, can you kind of talk about your, um, the founder of smile virtual and kind of just your story. You are one of the like Godfathers and just genius people around cosmetic dentistry. So kind of just give people an intro of who you are, what you do.   And then we're going to like rift on cosmetic dentistry, case acceptance, all those pieces.   Dr. Brian Harris (01:39.514) Yeah, for sure. Thank you for the nice words. That means a lot. And yeah, I think my story is a little... It doesn't start off very interesting, you know, kind of the typical, you know, my dad was a dentist. My two brothers are dentists. One of my brothers owns a dental lab. My father -in -law is a dentist. So, like, I mean, it's just it's always been part of my life. I started practice in 2005.   I kind of had an early look into this world of cosmetic dentistry because my dad was one of the kind of the original pioneers of cosmetic dentistry back in the early 90s. And so I feel like I always had a kind of a different view of what dentistry could be like. And so graduated, bought into the practice, you know, fast forward 2016 ish. We have five Harris Dental locations.   we were just rocking it. I mean, it was going great on the surface, like on the outside looking in, everything was great, but just totally burned out and not really doing the stuff that I love to do. And right about that time is when social media started becoming a thing where people started posting pictures of teeth on social media. It was very weird back in the day. It's normal now. And...   Kiera Dent (03:01.486) Yep.   Dr. Brian Harris (03:03.322) And yeah, my wife was like, you just need to like start posting more of what you do and doing more of the stuff you love and not feeling so burnt out. And I did that. And one thing led to another. And before I knew it, we were booked out eight months in advance and only doing small design cases. And that's kind of all I do today. For the last probably six years now, I just do porcelain veneers. That's it in my practice. And...   We're still booked out quite a ways and I love it. And part of that process, I would say a big part of the success though was the creation of Small Virtual, really the most well -known video console platform in dentistry as it relates to really driving leads and closing big cases. So that's my story.   Kiera Dent (03:55.118) I love it. Well, and I just have a question. I mean, Brian, welcome to the podcast with me. I will always ask all the questions I want to know. Like, we'll get into the nitty gritties. You find out about I was disengaged and then engaged, you know, three times. Like, tell me how happy are you from where you were? You had you had like, I feel the quote unquote, the dream life, right? You've got all these practices. It's booming. And you told me you're just getting to burn out.   Can you tell me the difference of your happiness level today compared to where you were when maybe people looked at you and they thought like height of his career, where I would say today you're probably at the height of your career, but just tell me like your happiness level and your stress level, fulfillment level between the two places of your life.   Dr. Brian Harris (04:34.426) Yeah, I think it's really important to understand that every stage of growth really does require a different version of you to show up and be able to manage it and be able to manage the stress because I feel stressed now. It's a different stress, though. When you're booked out three, four months in advance and it's just small design cases, like...   Financially, it's amazing. Ego, amazing. But the stress of having to manage those cases at a high level when most of my patients fly in and out in two visits only, I have to be on all the time and there's not a lot of room for air. There's not a lot of room for something not fitting or for me to miscommunicate something with my patients. So, absolutely loving where I'm at.   But still, the stress is still there. It's just a different type of stress. But I would say to the actual question of burnout, yeah, I think it's a real thing. I think what happens is you think you want your practice a certain way or you think you want things a certain way and then you get there and you're doing it and then you're like, man, I don't love it, but it's great. It's a good income. And I think the...   The cool thing about our profession though is like you can play, you can pivot, you can move and say, okay, I built this and I love it, but what I really love is this. So what if I just do like more of that? And I think that part of our profession is pretty fascinating.   Kiera Dent (06:05.422) Right.   Kiera Dent (06:09.902) Yeah, no, I completely agree. And I'm glad you brought that up because I think so many people look with eyes of envy of how do I get there? I want to know. But I really love that you said like there is a different level of stress at every layer and I don't think it goes away. I also think there's a healthy amount of stress that does drive us to be better, but just realizing, I think looking from the outside in what that looks like. So I want to get into nitty gritty. I don't ever do clinical on the podcast because I'm not a dentist. I can talk about dental assisting and like all the ways to suction spit.   which by the way, in tip culture that has come into play, I think about this often and I thought about it years ago before tip culture was a thing. And I thought, why don't I just have a tip jar and be like, you're welcome. I didn't suck up your uvula. I've thought about this. So if you, if any person ever wants to do that, like how come I don't get that for not sucking up your uvula and giving you this amazing smell anyway, that's a total side joke, but I'm curious, can we dive into nitty gritties because you do the clinical and I'm curious about like the trends in cosmetic dentistry and how you're able to.   like the pieces that you guys have in cosmetic dentistry and using Smile Virtual to be able to do more cases like this, because I think so many people want to do it, Brian, but not many people are able to do it. So like, I'm so jazzed. I miss clinical in my life. I don't get to be chair side as often anymore. And so let's just kind of dive into wherever you want to take it with how to get this cosmetic dentistry there. Are people still doing cosmetic dentistry, the economy, all these different things?   How do I get that going in my practice? What are some of the things I need to do clinical wise? You take it wherever you want to go. This is your time and I'm just jazzed for it.   Dr. Brian Harris (07:43.802) Okay, I love it. So I'll go first. I want to go with like where things are at right now as it relates to cosmetic dentistry. And then, and then let's jump into the virtual console piece and the communication side, because I think that's just a massive thing that's changed in that people really need to understand how to communicate treatment with patients. But I'll get into that in a minute. So here's what's changed. When I came into practice,   The only way that somebody would know about cosmetic dentistry was like if you had a book in your waiting room with before and afters and they were usually like just actual photos to see cases. And so the patients would learn about it with their own dentist and the dentist would talk to them about it and they would do the work. And so it was very much a doctor driven process. We would tell people, hey, you don't want to go with that shape. It won't look natural. You don't want to go that bright. And so it was...   Kiera Dent (08:23.502) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (08:43.674) We had full control of the process. That's why when you look at like AACD accreditation, a lot of the this idea of like natural look and translucency and shapes like it's such a it's such a big thing. Well, what's changed and what changed everything was social media. So now patients find out about cosmetic dentistry like they can look through thousands of cases in an instant online. So they come in knowing what they want.   from size, shape, color. And the number one piece of advice I can give to any dentist or even dental assistants listening is like, I think the best cosmetic dentistry is whatever your patient feels is cosmetically pleasing to them. So good example, if you go on like my Instagram page, I'm sure you could find 10 cases that you think look great.   Kiera Dent (09:13.71) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (09:41.658) And equally 10 cases that you're like, whoa, those are too big, too bright, white. And I think, you know, and I'm proud of that because for me, it's not about what I want. It's about like giving people what it is that they want. I think that's a that's an important thing. And doctors are learning the hard way when they're telling patients, no, no, you don't want that. We're going to do this. And then people get things redone. I had two consults yesterday, people that have been in veneers six months or less.   Kiera Dent (09:44.27) I did.   Dr. Brian Harris (10:11.898) that want to have them redone because they're like, I don't want all this translucency. It looks like there's stuff on my teeth. I don't want my teeth to look like triangles. And that's what nature looks like, but it's not what people want. So those are my thoughts on cosmetics.   Kiera Dent (10:27.054) Mm -hmm. Yeah. Which I'm glad. And so, Brian, I have a funny story of how I actually am just so grateful for this. It's not really funny. I had an ex -fiance prior to the one that Brian Harris set me up with. And he actually smashed my face into a wall.   And I had to get a lot of cosmetic dentistry done. And I'm glad you said that because I remember there was a dentist who tried to make my teeth like too short. And I literally felt like I was a completely different person. I didn't want to smile. And so even though they felt like that's what I should look like and in temps, I remember like I didn't want to smile. I felt like I looked like I had a like a mental, like a physical issue with me and like the way I communicated, I felt like people looked at me differently than they had ever looked at me before.   And so for you to say that, I agree with you. So being a patient on the other side of this and to know that like, and I had to have mine like redone it multiple times because they weren't right. And the fact that that dentist was so kind to me to get it to where it was just perfect because I didn't ever think I'd smile again with confidence. And so just to speak to this, um, I always get nervous sharing this cause I'm like, Oh great. Every dentist is going to then look at my teeth and be like, where was it? And what did they do? And, um, but the reality is like you said it's beauty to that.   And so being the patient on the other side, when they made my teeth too short, I literally felt like I was a completely different person and it really did rock my confidence. And so I think that was one of the most beautiful things you said is to look at the cases and you're right. That Instagram page is not for your ego of like, this is it. It's the satisfaction that you've given these people their confidence in their lives back or made them have more confidence than they've ever had before.   because you're able to give them what they ultimately wanted. Same with hairstyles, same with nails, same with like all those different things that are cosmetically pleasing. It's in the person who's wearing it, not in the person who's creating it that I think is a really, really incredible point to make.   Dr. Brian Harris (12:28.762) Yeah, 100%. It's hard for some people to let that go. It's hard for professionals to accept that, but it's just the reality. There's just different styles, different trends, different looks. And so I think that would probably be the number one thing that I would say is, it's about the people more so than it is us. And so I think that's a good transition segue into the whole virtual console piece. So.   The reason I even started the small virtual software platform was I realized that the sales process in dentistry really was broken. When you look at where we are today with technology and with everything else, people would come in and see me. They just wanted to know, can I trust you? What are my options and what does this cost?   Kiera Dent (13:21.902) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (13:22.362) and we would make them jump through all these hoops to get those questions answered. And, you know, as being in the coaching and consulting space, you know that oftentimes we're coaching teams on like tactics and strategies and what to say when they're not ready and like how to, but it's all focused on this, like the sales strategy. And I had this like awakening where I'm like, you know what? It needs to be about like.   the buyer's process, it needs to be about the buyer strategy. And so I thought, what if we could just, like instead of me doing all this with the patient when they're in my practice, vulnerable, they don't know who I am, their spouse isn't there, they have no idea what things cost, what if I could just take time and record a video for them, not a live video like this, but like a prerecorded video of just saying like, hey, it's great to meet you.   Kiera Dent (14:09.838) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (14:13.946) you know, they can send them some small photos and I can just tell them like, hey, here's my recommendations. Here's what it's going to cost. Here's the next steps. You'll see the link below for financing and just made it like really, really easy. Everything changed, you know, so now I will not see a new patient in my practice unless they've gone through a virtual console. The virtual consoles take me about about seven minutes each one. And in that consult, I can sit down when I have time. I do.   a lot of it just before my day starts. And I just say, hey, you know, this is who I am. Here's the kind of dentistry I do. Here's what I see with your smile. Here's what I recommend. Here's what it's going to cost. And then, you know, here's a bunch of other people just like you that I treated in their stories. And when you're ready, I'd love to work with you. And so what happens is it takes all the pressure out of the sales process. And now the only time I see people is when...   They're in my office, but they already know my fees. They already know my recommendations. So, you know, it's like a 92 % close rate on, you know, 20, 30, $40 ,000 cases.   Kiera Dent (15:21.422) That's incredible. And so I think there's probably the fear. So I'm glad you're talking about this. The fear of because there's like a sales mindset out there, right? Like, no, no, no, Brian, I need to get them in my practice. I need them to see all my technology. I need them to see the success cases. I need them to see all this. So I basically like earn their trust. And so I don't want to necessarily do that because I'm going to deter people that would possibly be a buyer.   So how do you overcome that? Because I know that that's what people are thinking. Like, no, no, no, I can close them better if they meet me. Like, they're going to fall in love with me. How do you overcome that? Because I mean, you clearly are only having people that come in and close you. You have a great case acceptance. It's not wasting your time. You're not wasting chair time. But I think there's sometimes a scarcity mindset of like, yeah, but what if I don't get enough people doing these virtual consoles? What if I'm not getting that flow? How do I make sure I keep my books full?   Dr. Brian Harris (16:10.33) Yeah, so two parts to that. I think one is I agree with that. You want before you just quote a fee, you want to be with somebody. And so they're not just buying a veneer. They're buying like you. They're buying the experience or buying the confidence. But you can do that with video. That's the great thing. And it doesn't have to be live. You can do it pre -recorded and still build that connection. And I think a bigger part of it, though, is   You have to think about what do we want when we're buying. We think, oh, we need to get them in. They can see all the technology. But from the buyer's perspective, when you're the buyer and you're going in, yeah, you're excited about that stuff. But you're also like, there's always that looming question of what is this even going to cost? And like, can I afford? There's all these unknowns. And I think the difference is it's this idea of you want people to want to buy from you.   Kiera Dent (16:56.75) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (17:09.978) like people want to buy, they just don't want to feel sold. And so it's really hard in the in -person process to not have it feel like they're being sold because you talk to them, but then you don't present the fees. Somebody else comes in, gives them the sheet. Just like anytime you go and buy a car, buy anything super expensive, there's always that unknown.   Kiera Dent (17:11.662) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (17:30.074) And it's wild what happens when you take all the unknowns out of it and you're just like, hey, here's what it is. When you're ready, I'd love to work with you. It's like people want to then come and work with you. And if they can afford it, at least they are able to figure that out before they came in to see you. Now it's not embarrassing. And when they can, they will come and see you. And it's just one more person out there that knows who you are and what you do.   Kiera Dent (17:53.262) That's a good perspective to have and to correlate my husband and I did IVF for a few years and I actually really appreciate like me going in. I knew each cycle would be about 25 K and so I've already vetted myself. I've already looked at it and I do think it actually takes away that fear and trepidation. I'm not going in and then I'm being sticker shocked. I'm like, oh, I didn't even know like and it took me a while. I knew IVF would cost me 25 around like four years before we decided to go and do it. But like you said,   them even knowing because people don't necessarily know what a smile makeover is going to cost. Like they have no idea. And so it is a fear. And I think one of the biggest concerns people have, and I love teaching this in case accepted, is like, you don't ever want to make them feel like they can't afford something. You want them to be the ones who are determining like, can I afford this or can I not? You can be there to provide all the solutions of how to do it, but not making them feel embarrassed or ashamed that maybe 25k is out of their realm or maybe 30 ,000 out of their realm. That's where you get that like,   trepidation, you get all the excuses. And so it's I really do love especially with these bigger cases and consults, just letting them know the questions are gone, they trust you, they like you. It's no nonsense. And when they're ready, they already know the pieces and I trust you more. And so when I'm ready to spend the 25k, I'm probably coming back to you than somebody else, because you're upfront with me to begin with. So it feels like it's like you're almost building a pipeline for a future, kind of like going and talking like dental students that then eventually buy and whatnot.   but really just building it up with people that know you like you trust you already and your fees are where they are. And you're not also trying to undercut. Cause I also think the flip side is dentists feel bad when the patient's in the practice. Oh, they can't afford it. Now we're chipping our fees down and then you're doing the case for less than you want to and you're annoyed by it. And neither party's happy in that scenario.   Dr. Brian Harris (19:43.386) Oh, and you said something about like IVF costing 25K. And I think that's important because most of the time when people are going through that, the cost is kind of the cost in general. Like I bet if we gave a multiple choice test and said, you know, cost for, you know, rhinoplasty, cost for breast augmentation, cost for IVF, like there's a general sense in the public of what things cost. I don't think that exists in dentistry.   Kiera Dent (20:06.734) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (20:10.394) And part of it is because there is a drastic difference. You have some people charging $18 ,000 for an all -in -four procedure and then others charging $40 ,000. And you have some people charging $1 ,200 a unit for a veneer and others charging $3 ,000 to $4 ,000. And so I think it's really easy in dentistry for people to get blindsided of like, oh, I saw the billboard that was $1 ,200 per tooth for implants, but you're telling me that this is going to be $3 ,500 per tooth. And so...   Kiera Dent (20:10.702) Please.   Kiera Dent (20:19.47) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (20:38.83) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (20:39.77) I think anywhere where there's room for confusion, I think there's room for real opportunity to build trust. And the great thing about doing it with video is you get to control the conversation because you get to share photos, you get to share people's experiences, you get to then talk about the cost, but you get a control on how it's delivered.   Kiera Dent (21:02.254) Mm -hmm, which, Brian, I'm sitting over here. You're probably seeing me look down. I'm literally taking notes on everything you're saying. I'm like, oh, when there's confusion, there's an opportunity for a cost. That's a brilliant thing for you. What I'm noticing is you're finding the gap, and you're shooting the gap on so many things. Look at it from the buyer's perspective, not my perspective. Look at it from the patient's perspective, not my perspective for what they want their smile to look at. Look at where they're confused, because you're right. Like,   So they see on the billboard, cause you know, the ones that are like, I see them all the time and I tell people like, you don't necessarily, maybe you want to go to that office. Maybe you do. It's your choice. Um, but I think like so many other practices are putting those billboards up and they're going for the price shoppers. And I'm like, but that's not necessarily the best dentist that you want. Um, and I do think it's interesting because like you said, dentistry is so variable, which is odd. Cause my husband works in medicine and medicine is not half as variable. Like IVF clinics across the nation.   They're pretty much all the exact same fee. There's some that might be like, it's like a two to five grand variance, but that's it. Same thing for like breast augmentation. Like there really isn't that much variance. Some of them are like maybe you've got this world renowned person, but generally speaking, they're in a very similar range. And I think it's because medicine doesn't really matter where you go. It's pretty much the same fee because they have standardized it across the board. Whereas dentistry has not been standardized. We're kind of the wild wild west over there, just hanging out in our own playing field. But you're right. That is a   zone where patients really do get confused and it's like, well, if they're only 1200, why are you 3 ,500? Who do I trust? And then at that point, like you said, it's, you have two opposing sides, which person are they going to trust? Like you said, that's the opportunity. So can you kind of walk people through how you use the smile virtual and how that works and how you even get patients to want to do it? Cause you're also changing by your behavior too. But I think it's more common than what people might assume. I think there's so much more online that people are used to doing even today.   So I think it's also smart to be getting us up to date, but how does Smile Virtual Work? How do you use it? How do you get these consults in? How many consults are you doing like a week? What does that really look like deep down?   Dr. Brian Harris (23:04.762) Yeah, you almost have to look at it. It's a different way to market. You know, the it's like everybody else is over here like SEO, AdWords, kind of marketing for the same patients trying to get visible online. And then those patients are coming in, but you don't really know like what you're getting is the thing. The mindset with Small Virtual is like, you know, thinking about like a funnel of like, hey, I just want to drop as many people in through this process as possible because once they're in,   then I get to control the conversation, whatever that may be. And so I have it on a link on, so if you go to at Dr. Brian Harris, like my Instagram page, you can see every one of my Instagram posts, there's a call to action of request a virtual console. It's on my Facebook page, it's on my main website. Just that alone, adding the video console feature to your website increases like people taking action from like a normal four to 5 % engagement rate.   to 17 % because they can get answers immediately right away. But you have to word it right. They have to understand what they're doing. It's not a Zoom call or it's not a teledentistry visit. It's a, you know, send a photo, tell me what you want to change. I'll get back to you with cost and recommendations and next steps. And so it's kind of creating all the doorways.   Kiera Dent (24:08.014) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (24:31.962) so that people can kind of walk through there. And then it's just call to actions. And so the content that I post, you'll notice online is it's not about me. It's not about like pictures of me, selfies of me, me traveling, my cars, my family. You know, it's more patient driven. It's like, hey, this page is for you because this is about you. And then there's always just a call to action of, hey, if you want to know what's possible, upload a smile photo, send it in.   And it's designed to be really, really easy. You know, the question of how many do I get, it's not really fair for me to answer that just because I do get quite a bit, you know, and quite a bit is probably an average of three, probably three to four a day of people, you know, wanting a new smile and inquiring. But we just had...   Kiera Dent (25:10.126) Sure.   Kiera Dent (25:20.206) Like Brian real quick, how long have you been doing all your photos, all your marketing, all the pieces? Like, let's just give people perspective. Like you've been doing this for a long time to build this up.   Dr. Brian Harris (25:29.85) Yeah, so I've been doing it for, I mean, what we're coming up on five years now.   Kiera Dent (25:34.19) Okay, so just remember, Brian's getting three to four a day. He's been doing it for about five years of just that constant repetition. Now it's like, you know, when people, cause I don't think people tomorrow are like, I want a new smile. Like I go to the dentist, I'm like, do I have any cavities? And so I think it's also like, you're making them aware, you're educating them to where when they're ready to buy and they want to get their smile redone, Brian Harris is the person they think of, right? Like it's all that pipeline funneling that you're doing.   of awareness, recognition, referrals, people doing that. So I just hope people realize if you don't get the three to five console today, it doesn't mean it wasn't working. You built this up for so many years and now it's there and it just keeps flowing for you.   Dr. Brian Harris (26:17.946) Yeah, for sure. And that's where I was going to go next because so it's interesting. We just had a run this mastermind group of about 35 dentists and our meeting in Miami last week, I pull up because everybody's everybody uses the platform. You know, it's not a small virtual thing, but everyone in there use it because they see the value. And so I see all the console requests that everybody in the group gets. And what's crazy is the first year there's three doctors in the group that get significantly more than I do.   Kiera Dent (26:32.64) Yeah.   Dr. Brian Harris (26:47.642) and they've been on the platform a lot less, but they're just out there, just they're putting out TikTok content, Instagram. I mean, they're just crushing it right now. And so there was one in the group that gets about 600 a month and he's like in way over his head. He's like, doesn't even know what to do, right? Because there's not even, so now the problem is, well, how do you sift through all these? Like how many of these are serious and how many of them are? But then there's others that have been on the platform since we launched.   that have been like four or five years, they get about four to five a month. And part of it's just because of their location. Part of it's just that the visibility is less for different people. But all of them have the same mindset of, hey, if I get five in a month, and even if I only convert two of those, it's a small design case, anywhere from six to $50 ,000. And so, you know, and the...   Kiera Dent (27:42.574) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (27:45.882) monthly fees, it's a $3 .99 a month fee. So they're paying the monthly software fee. But just from that alone, in the first case, the second week in January, it's paid for the entire year. So it does vary based on, I will say though, it varies based on how much time you're willing to put into it. The doctors that are like, let's go, and they push out content and they make it just a part of their practice, they just absolutely like,   Kiera Dent (28:00.366) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (28:16.41) do very well with it.   Kiera Dent (28:18.222) That's really incredible. And so how do you do it? Oh, it's on your website. Do you block time in your schedule to respond to these? So it's like every day I've got this amount of time to respond. And if they don't have it, then I'll do admin work. What's your flow of how you actually incorporate this into your practice?   Dr. Brian Harris (28:34.33) I tell doctors initially, don't block time because you're going to have time. You'll get the one random patient that may reschedule or just do it in between patients before the day starts. And then as you ramp up, then my next device is like 7 a .m. to 8 a .m. on a Tuesday or a Wednesday and only use that time for recording consults. And then when it gets busier, like I do all of mine on Thursday. So.   Kiera Dent (28:52.59) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (29:01.402) Thursday is my day to record podcasts like this, create content. And then when we're done here, I'll go and record probably eight or 10. And then I'll be caught up. And so I try to split it out like that. Do our summer in the morning, summer in between patients, summer on Thursdays. But you work it in and there's a system and process. Initially, it's a little bit weird because you're speaking to a computer screen giving advice.   Kiera Dent (29:08.91) Mm -hmm.   Nice.   Dr. Brian Harris (29:30.01) you know, recording yourself and so you overthink everything. But it just takes a few before you're like, oh, it's almost like the more.   Kiera Dent (29:33.102) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (29:39.514) The more smooth and polished you are, the worse it is. You don't want it to come across as being a smooth sales pitch. I'll sneeze in the middle of one and I'll keep going. Or a dog will bark in the background, I'll keep going. Someone will knock on the door and I'll answer the door, talk to him and be like, I apologize. Because I think people want to see that it's real, it's not necessarily white coat and doctor talking to patients.   Kiera Dent (29:43.022) Agreed.   Kiera Dent (29:46.958) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (30:04.046) Mm -hmm. Completely agree. And I think it makes you real, right? That's that trust factor that people are looking for is how much, like, I want to buy from somebody who I feel real, who I trust. And I tell everybody when you come to that case acceptance, I'm like, they're not buying the dentistry. They're buying the confidence. And like, are you the person? Are you the person I can trust? Are you the person that's going to get me the outcome I'm looking for? Because we're skeptical.   So many people are good at sales and we've learned how to sell. And so we've trained humans to be skeptical. And so I agree making yourself way more real. And it's funny, I hated doing video podcasts. Like I hated it, Brian, for the first time I was like, I don't even want to look at myself. Now I got to like make sure my hair is right. Make sure my, and it's not, it doesn't matter. Like just be the person you are. And that's what people love. And so I think that that's awesome. How much, how long does a cosmetic case.   So I'm also thinking like clinical schedule wise, you start to get these, are we blocking off like a Friday? Are we blocking off X -Men? Like how do you then build it in? Because I think that that's also where people get nervous of, great, I can do the virtual consult, but then I gotta find space in a schedule to get all this in. How much time and how do you recommend they set up their schedules for that?   Dr. Brian Harris (31:12.506) Yeah, so you phase it. So initially it's just like, it just becomes like, yes, they want to come in for an in -person console and then you just book them like you would in your normal schedule. And then what'll happen is things will get busier. And so I always recommend the doctors block one entire day and that's only for cosmetic cases in virtual consults. And so I would say most of, most of the doctors on the platform fall into that category where they're general dentists,   They do a little bit of everything and then one day a week it's just small design cases, but every week they're doing one to two small design cases. And then after that, then it's like Tuesday, now you add a Thursday. And then where I am right now, so I've got a system and this simplifies a lot of it. So I'm with patients Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I do long days with no lunch, but whenever I prep a case on Monday, I seat the case the following Monday.   So I have a one week turnaround time. I average about three hours for a 10 unit case. And so there's no confusion with scheduling. There's no like, if I prep Monday, I see Monday. If I prep on Tuesday, I see the following Tuesday in the morning and then I'll prep a case in the afternoon and then I'll see that following Tuesday. So it's always one week out. And then it's just a system where every day I have.   Kiera Dent (32:20.398) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (32:26.222) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (32:37.946) what I call my rock appointments, like three big rocks, which is either it's a prep or a seat. And I've got two consult spots for in -person consults. And then we've tried to mix in two or three, just like 15, 20 minute appointments. And those are usually final photos, bite adjustments, just like the simple stuff.   Kiera Dent (32:57.582) And you're big on photography, which I agree in cosmetic. I think that that's a piece of like having really good photos too. Like a photo's worth a thousand words. And then my husband was just saying the other day, like a video is worth like a thousand photos. And so like showing those, and I think you're really big. And I know a lot of the clients that have worked with you, it was really for like getting good photography and learning how to present those cases and having the confidence with it.   Dr. Brian Harris (33:07.066) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (33:22.318) Um, which I think is actually really smart because it's showcasing and I told people like your Google reviews are one thing. I think our Instagram is becoming the validation of our Google reviews and like seeing the tangibles. I'm like, if I'm going to go get, I don't know anything like a nose job, I'm going to go check out their social media page. I want to make sure that what they're going to give me is what I actually want to look like at the end of it. Uh, so I really do agree with you on the photography. Any tips you have as we wrap up today on like the case acceptance portion, like how do you actually.   Get the confidence, because I know there's a lot of doctors who want to do this. They're not confident in their fees. They're not confident in presenting this amount. It feels very daunting to them to present a case like this. What are your tips on any case acceptance pieces? I think using Smile Virtual cuts out so much of it. How do you get that cases closed for them? Any tips you have on case acceptance closing?   Dr. Brian Harris (34:13.882) Yeah, actually, that would be we should do something down the road. We should do like a joint webinar or something on the road where we talk in more detail about that, because we could talk for a full hour just on that alone. But but I think I think the most important thing is to understand that the great thing about video first is that it takes away the fear because you're not talking to a human. Sometimes it's hard when you're talking to somebody.   Kiera Dent (34:20.494) down.   Dr. Brian Harris (34:41.434) and you can see that they're uncomfortable. They're looking down like it's natural human nature. It makes it hard to talk about money when when you're talking to a screen and makes it easier. But the most important thing, like I would say the number one piece of advice I can give when it comes to case acceptance or talking about money or talking about all of that is like I start every single one of my consults off the same way. And it's always like I just write in front of them, you know, and sit kind of, you know.   and not in a weird knee to knee eye to eye. Like it's not a force type thing. It's just like, hey, listen, you came here to see me. You took time off work. You're paying to have this console. Like the most important thing to me today is just that you walk out of here getting exactly what you want. And so instead of me trying to guess what that is, like I'm just going to share everything with you. And then in the end, when it comes time to talk about cost, you just let us know like what feels comfortable to you.   because it does me no good to try to guess where your budget's at. But it does you no good for me to hold back and not tell you what's possible because that's the one thing I promise all my patients is I'll tell you anything that I think would benefit you. We're going to talk about it, but you are going to be the one to decide if it's a good fit. I think that to me, it sets people free. It sets them free. It sets you free because now when you're, you know,   Kiera Dent (36:00.622) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (36:08.762) DO on number three, MOD on number four. They're not like thinking like, oh, here we go again, dollar signs. It's like, no, you've already set them free from that where you're just like, I'll talk about everything. I'll tell you what I think you should do. And then ultimately you just decide what makes the most sense. And I'm here to make it happen, make it look amazing. Whether we do one filling or whether we do 28 veneers, like it doesn't matter to me. And it truly doesn't. And I think that's the most important thing is Dennis has to get to that mindset to where like,   Kiera Dent (36:32.558) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (36:37.85) You need to just be there to serve them at the highest level, regardless of what they decide to do. You just need to be okay with it.   Kiera Dent (36:46.222) Brian, I think that's brilliant. And I'm definitely, I like made another note over here. As you said, like people look down. I'm like, don't worry, Brian. I'm just taking like a bajillion pages of notes over here. Definitely want to get you back on and dock case acceptance. But I agree with you. Like be upfront with them, be like, let them be free. And Kyle Stanley, I did a podcast with him just the other day. And he said the same thing when dentists get to the spot where they don't need the dentistry, they don't need the patients to say, yes, your practice will take off because there's no more of that desperation, even energy sitting there. Like,   This is what it is. If you choose to do one, you choose to do five, that's fine. But Brian, again, I hope people feel it. You have so much confidence in it. You're not there to sell them on anything. You're not there to push them in any way. It's literally like, do whatever's best for you. I'm here. I'm going to recommend it to you. They've already built trust with you. You literally laid the foundations of trust with them. And I think that that comes from all the different pieces you have. So loved our podcast today. I'm so grateful we finally connected. I want to do another one with you on case acceptance.   But tell people, Smile Virtual, I think is such a great thing. Can people like try it out, demo it? Like how does that work if they're interested? Cause I also think it's not just for cosmetic cases. I think like implants and like all these bigger cases that are coming through, it's a great way to maximize time, improve efficiency. So how can people use Smile Virtual? What does that look like? How can they like look into it and try it out?   Dr. Brian Harris (38:03.386) Yeah, so I mean, it's great for anything where there's confusion around costs. So all on four cases, clear liners, small design, but even on Perio for some offices do kind of higher end of Perio treatments. It's great for that. So the easiest thing is just SmileVirtual .com. If you just go to SmileVirtual .com, I think we're still running a 14 day trial where people can try it out for free. People can reach out to me.   Kiera Dent (38:13.486) Mm -hmm.   Dr. Brian Harris (38:29.946) just through Instagram, just at Dr. Brian Harris, or they can shoot me an email, just brian at drbrianharris .com, and I can get you more info. But yeah, I mean, it's really, I mean, you asked the question of like, how do you get better at these things? I mean, the way to get better is just surround yourself with people that are already doing it and learn from them. And I think that's the great thing about this community. It's like 400 and...   50 now, I think, like -minded doctors that are all, they all have one thing in common. It's that they use video consoles to help their patients and because of it, they're more successful and they want to help others. So just surround yourself with the right people that aren't afraid to share their secrets. I think that's the key.   Kiera Dent (39:16.878) I completely agree. Gosh, Brian, thank you so much for your time. And guys, if you don't know, it's Brian, B -R -I -A -N, Brian Harris. And so go check him out on Instagram. Love following you guys. We're huge fans of you. I think Smile Virtual, like I said, I have had so many offices use you guys and their case acceptance has gone up. They weeded through all those like wasted appointment consults because all the people who are coming for consults are really ready. And...   Brian, I think you just inspired us of like, figure out what your passion is, what you love to do more of in your practice and grow to that level. And it's totally doable. I mean, the economy is what it is, but patients still want it. Like, don't forget that the economy does not impact all boats. And so there are lots of people who want the work done. You just need to be out there so they know you can do it. So Brian, thank you for being on the podcast. It was truly an honor.   Dr. Brian Harris (40:03.514) Of course, thank you. Love your energy, love what you're doing and it's an honor to be here. So thank you. Have an awesome rest of the week.   Kiera Dent (40:09.934) Thanks. And for all of you listening, thank you for joining and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Tiff and Dana are back with more tips to perfect your patient experience and office systems. This episode focuses on maximizing appointment efficiency from both the doctor side and hygiene side. The consultants walk through four critical steps: Taking an inventory of your appointment process Consider timing with a fine-toothed comb Implement block scheduling the right way Schedule the next appointment for what the patient actually needs Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:10.414) Hi everyone, I'm so excited to be here. I've got my girl Dana here with me today. It's a beautiful Friday afternoon here in Phoenix while we're recording. Dana, you are what, two hours below me, two hours away from me. How is it down there where you're at? Beautiful, sunny, awesome day. Oh, I love it. This is my favorite time of year. I think it's just the most beautiful time to be in the desert and here in a couple months.   maybe even a couple weeks, I might be saying something different. But I truly do love the dry heat. So I'm so happy to be here. Dana, you impress me constantly. You just got off the road and you have been on the road like crazy the last few weeks. How are you doing? How are you feeling? You've been in offices literally all over the country. You had your toes in sand on the Virginia beach the other day. Today you're in a sunny...   desert, how are you doing with all of it? You've been traveling more than normal. Yeah, more than normal. But doing really good. I think I love in office pieces getting to connect with teens getting in there getting to see how they do interact with patients. It just brings like a fuel to the fire, even though sometimes traveling can be a little bit daunting. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I love that. I do always feel like I get like a like a runner's high.   after being in offices and like reinvigorated and just ready to like take over the world, it feels like. What are, there's some things I wanna chat about today. One of them is appointment efficiency tips. That's what this is gonna be wrapped around. So it's gonna be a lot of really actionable information for everybody. But what were you seeing while you were in offices? Is there anything that kept, I mean, you've been in quite a few practices recently, like I said, all over the country. So is there anything that you saw that was like routinely coming up?   that trends that a few practices were dealing with while you were out there? Yeah, I think I've seen a lot of like patient flow, time management, maximizing like the 60 minutes that we have with patients. So it actually is kind of great that we're talking about appointment efficiency because I do feel like in a lot of practices, we do see some struggles in there, some hiccups, right? And sometimes it just takes a little tweak and things run a whole lot more smoothly. Totally agree, totally agree.   The Dental A Team (02:28.142) And I think we are running into that space of like coming up on summertime. And so it is like, what are, what can we do? And we've got so many people that have vacations. So we've got, you know, a lot of cancellations in the schedule, a lot of people calling out, but then on the flip side of that, we have a lot of patients that are like, Hey, I have vacation time. Let me use it. Or we're going to be gone. Let me get this done before we leave kind of situation. So I totally agree. I think being on the road, I was on the road last week and we definitely worked on a lot of like flow and efficiency pieces. I think that's something that dental hygiene does really well.   with our clients and with our listeners is to really always look for that efficiency piece. How can we make the most out of the time that we have? And caveat for my team members listening, that doesn't always mean that we're adding things to your appointment, right? We're asking you to quote unquote do more. It just means how can we be super effective with the time that we have and give the patients the best experience that they possibly can have with the time that we've got while they're in our practice. So,   Following in line with that appointment efficiency tips, I think that's something that every practice thrives with and comes to dental 18 -4 systems, right? And this is a huge undertaking. How do we ensure that our appointments are going as efficiently and as effectively as possible? And Dana, I know you are a hygienist. I think this is super, super key for you to speak on hygiene behalf. And then I was a dental assistant by trade. And so,   I kind of have an idea for how the doctors movements are, where our doctors are at, how those doctor side appointments can go, but then also like shuffling him or her over to hygiene too, to get that worked in and all of those pieces streamlining. Now I have to tell you a story. I have an office near and dear to my heart. I actually just spoke to them this morning and my in office visit I did with them, my first time being in their practice years ago, I remember walking in and I thought, I looked at their schedule and I was like,   Holy cow, like this man's been practicing dentistry for a long time, but his appointments are really long. He's like two and a half hours for a crown prep. And I'm like, for anybody who's, you know, been out for as long and practicing for as long as he has two and a half hours, not knowing the crown in office seemed like a really long time. So I was like, I'm going to watch this. And, and lo and behold, I start watching and I go to the back office and I'm observing their dental assistants. And I noticed that the dental assistants are standing over the patient with two suction.   The Dental A Team (04:50.286) And so we've got a high speed and a slow speed section going at the same time. And their doctor is sitting with the drill and a mirror and every 30 seconds, he's pulling the mirror out, wiping it on the bib, putting it back in because he can't see. And then also he's got there constantly in the, in the mouth with the two sections and he's got everything he needs on his tray. So he's with one hand like grabbing and throwing, grabbing and throwing the other hand with the mirror and they're dissectioning water or not. And I was like,   I think I can help here. I think I can help. So I pulled them out of the chair and I said, like, has anyone ever taught you how to assist? And like, nope, not really. We went to school, but we didn't have hands -on training. And this is what we did. And I said, the doctor, I'm like, why are you not asking for what you want? And he's like, I don't want to step on toes. I assisted that morning. I had them watch me. I assisted every appointment they had that morning. Flip -flop, they assisted in the afternoon. I watched them. By the end of the day, we had, we.   started shortening the appointments to what they were, right? So by the time the patient left, we shortened it. I stole the tray back from the doctor and I was like, don't touch these instruments. Don't be grabby and don't throw things. And by the end of that day, we had three and a half hours of open time on that schedule, just unused time in between patients. And the practice on his wife, the office manager, her mind was just like blown, right? It was mind blown. She's like,   what we could do so much with this time. And I'm like, yeah, so all these patients that are booked out three, four, five weeks, because you don't have time to get them in, start calling them in. We've got two really trained assistants. And the point of that story is just within that itself is a ton of appointment efficiency tips. Because if you're not, if you're a dental assistant and you've got one section and you've got an air water tip, like your air water tip should be over that mirror if the doctor is using that mirror to look at it too.   He should, he or she should have a clean mirror constantly. You can air it, you can air water it when it gets kind of gunky, right? Some things just kind of fly on there. You can clean it off. And then you're also going to make sure that that left hand is always available to be grabbing things off of their tray, switch over the high speed to the left hand and you're grabbing things off your tray where your composite is, your brushes, all those things are over there and you're passing with your hand. So that's called.   The Dental A Team (07:07.854) two handed dentistry, right? Or four handed dentistry if you're including the doctors, but you're using both of your hands constantly. And that's how we know how to schedule appointments. If we're not efficient chair side, I wanted to talk block scheduling today and that's something Dana that I think you're really fantastic at implementing with practices is the block scheduling. But if we're not sure where our doctor's at,   or what our assistants are doing, or we're not super efficient chair site or know how long things take, block scheduling doesn't work. We've got to have that dialed in so well that it's easy for them to say, this is where that appointment goes. So chair site efficiencies, like look for those spaces. Are dental assistants using both sections? Do you need them to use both sections? Sometimes during a surgery, yeah, you do need that, right? I need the slow speed section for.   fit and I need that high -speed suction with the surgical tip for the socket. So yes, absolutely. But depending on that treatment, like what should they be doing? Where should the things be placed? Tray size, like are your instruments? I know a lot of hygienists do this where they know which scaler they're going to need next, like from start to finish of the appointment. So their trays are set up in order of which scaler they're going to need. And a lot of hygienists got, Dana said, daisy.   Dana, I've seen like not even look at their tray to pull their instruments their heads just in in the mouth, right? Their eyes are in the mouth and if dental assistants are thinking that same in that same vein What is my doctor going to need next? It's much easier and I used to just pull from the front and move to the back pull from the front move to the back So the next thing you need is right there Dana, do you like is that how just within the appointment before we even talk about block?   scheduling and how to schedule things like how do you see those are some dental assisting pieces, but on the hygiene side, what did you use to do that in that made you super efficient or what have you implemented with practices that helps kind of tighten up that space there? Yeah, and I think it really is truly just figuring out ways that you can buy even if it's 10 seconds, right? If I don't have to look at my tray and say, okay, where is my   The Dental A Team (09:23.726) Gracie, right? Or where is my 1314? If I know automatically where it is every single time, I just bought myself five to 10 seconds. Well, every time I transition an instrument, I just bought myself back a minute, a minute and a half, right? And that makes a huge difference in a 60 minute appointment. So it's always looking for those little bits of pockets of time. If I can prep a patient with something before I do it, right? So if I am peri -returning and I say, hey, if you see...   If you hear one, twos and threes, those are normal. If you hear fours, those are kind of my warning lights, right? Like that we're progressing towards disease. Anything after that, five, six, seven, I've already prepped the patient. So then when they sit up, I just bought myself a window of time because they kind of already know where we're going. If I am talking about home care, right? And I can tell the patient maybe needs some floss help. I can do it as I am flossing their teeth. Do you feel this? How I come over here? Do you feel, instead of having to sit the patient up and having a,   a whole explanation of it. And there are patients where, yeah, you do have to sit them up and do that. But when you can buy back windows of time, if I'm applying for it and I'm messaging up to my front, hey, patient ready to check out treatment plan in, if I'm sitting there waiting for an exam and I'm typing notes and I'm doing my OHI as I'm there with the patient, all of those things buy you back seconds, minutes, lots of time in there to be able to do other things like scanning, to be able to take intraoral photos, to be able to...   you know, present a treatment at the end. So when you can look for those opportunities in employment, even in hygiene side, right? Same thing on doctor's side. I only want doctor doing what only the doctor can do. So if you as the assistant can get in there and do something, jump in there and do it because again, we're just looking for those little bit of windows of opportunity that equals maximum efficiency. Yeah, I love that. And I love what you said about like gaining yourself back that minute and a half.   even like at the beginning, that minute and a half, you guys, I don't know if anybody's ever done a one minute wall sit, but they kind of suck. A minute is a really long time in the grand scheme of things. And so what could you get done in a minute? What could you do with the relationship building in a minute? We're talking about the treatment even more in detail with the patient, answering the questions that they need that you don't typically have time for, that you're like trying to rush them out for. How can we give back to the patient?   The Dental A Team (11:45.486) with that time that we're saving, I think that's brilliant. And I love the idea of talking as you go. I used to love to do that you as a dental assistant, there are so many spaces you guys in hygiene, obviously, it's super, super important and clear to be like, you're in the mouth, talk about their mouth, like talk about, I love conversation. And I love building the relationship. But if there are things to talk about in the mouth, that's your opportune time, because you're there, you're in it, your patients expecting it.   and they're now thinking about it as you're going. Dental assisting side, making sure your patients like Dana just said, making sure they're prepped for what's coming. I used to love to make sure my patients understood what's coming. We're gonna do the scan now. Like this is what it's gonna be like. Let me pop it in there because what happens a lot of times are we're gonna do the PAs. It might feel this. I remember I put something in somebody's mouth and they're like, oh, oh, what is this? Get that out of my mouth. And I'm like, but I only have so much time. Like I can't explain this. But I thought, okay, well.   have I prepped them for the fact that there's a giant wand, right? A scanner feels to us like it's super small and it's really cool. And like, it's just this magnificent little wand. It feels really big in your mouth. If you haven't had a scan done, go get one done. It feels really big in your mouth. So making sure that they're prepped for things like that on both sides. Dental assistants should be doing scans on new patients.   you've read care appointments, they can help with that too. But also, right, obviously, crowns and ortho stuff like that, but making sure that they're crafted love that those are huge efficiency tips. So I would take inventory of your appointments, what you're doing already. And then maybe, maybe what you're doing already, what you think you're doing, that maybe you're not, or that you're not doing consistently, and then what you could do to alter change some of those appointments and doctors, if you're noticing.   Next week you go into the office and you're noticing that your dental assistants maybe aren't like on top of what you need next. Talk them through it. I have a lot of handsy doctors is what I like to call them. And they love to just grab because it's faster. In that moment in your mind, it is faster quote unquote to grab, right? But for the long haul, if you think about a seven hour day of patience,   The Dental A Team (14:01.294) If you could save that 15 seconds, 10 to 15 seconds, every time you have to go grab an instrument, add that up throughout the whole day, every appointment, every time you grab something, it adds up to hours. I promise you that. So take inventory and figure out what your timing looks like. Where could you be more efficient chair side? And then that leads into that block scheduling. And Dana, I think truly, I think you do an amazing job.   training this, you have so many practices that are using block scheduling, you're my go -to girl for it, you know that I call you for that, especially for Eaglesoft practices trying to get their blocks in and like Dana's your girl. I am Densho Ikefalle, open dental, I can help you with, Eaglesoft that's Dana. But Dana, will you take us through, once we get that, because I think that kind of taking inventory of your appointments, figuring out your timing, go hand in hand.   And then once we have the timing down Dana, what's next steps for block scheduling to really help make it the most efficient as possible? Yeah, I think then next comes your X's and slashes, right? Or knowing when maybe you could overlap your doctor again to maximize production in the day. So just mapping out for teams that they know, hey, this is where doctor could hop to another room. Same thing with assistant team. So it helps you maximize your team members.   including your doctor. So mapping out in each appointment type, what portion of that is assistant time, what portion of that is doctor time, same thing if you're doing assisted or accelerated hygiene, when should the assistant be in there, when should the hygienist be in there. So again, when we are scheduling, we are maximizing it from the very beginning. And we are utilizing whatever provider time we have available in the schedule. Yeah, I love that. I love that. So.   Take an inventory of the appointment, figuring out what, like how long your appointment is. And actually let's add a caveat here. It's something that I think many doctors that I've worked with, many of my clients tend to forget to look for is also the assistant time within your appointment. So just like the accelerated hygiene assistant time, you've got to account for that as well. So it starts with finish. So when did the patient get that? When did the patient leave? So your chunk in the middle is super important. We need to know that for the Xs and slashes.   The Dental A Team (16:17.966) But overall appointment timing for the blocks to make sure that they're scheduled correctly, we need that start and end time, and then your time for your Xs and slashes. Xs are typically doctor time, slashes are typically assistant time. That's just the way of the world, and it makes it very easy if everyone in dentistry follows the same thing, because everybody's learned it that way. I know some of the softwares do colors. So I think Open Dental does like white and colored.   So white would be assistant time colored would be doctor time. The point in those is that we need to be able to see where doctors at so that when we overlap, we're overlapping assistant time with doctor time. I have a huge pet peeve. Dana, tell me if it's just me. It could be my assistant side. It could just, I thrive on efficiency and I thrive on zero wasted time. I, one of my biggest pet peeves and I love all of you who are doing it this way.   And if you prefer to do it this way, by all means, I'm not saying to change it. I'm just saying it's less efficient. I hate when I look at a schedule and I see a slash and a slash at the end of the appointment, the last 10 minutes and the first 10 minutes. So there's a slash and a slash and then the X's are like somewhere else. And I'm like, okay. Or if we have two assistants and we've got a slash, we can put a slash with an X.   So when doctors finishing here, my assistant on the second appointment is prepping the patient for the doctor to come in. So there should never be an X and an X together. That's the rule. But a slash can be with an X. A slash can be with a slash. A slash can do anything at once as long as we have enough assistance to make up all the flashes. But when a slash and a slash is together where it could have been a slash and an X, it drives my mind crazy because I think, okay, I could have brought that patient in. I could have brought in every single patient at least.   10 minutes early, if not 20 minutes earlier than where they're at, adding up to a whole nother appointment by the end of the day, I promise you. And when my clients come at me and they're like, I can't get limited appointments and I have nowhere to put my crown seats, where do I put these adjustments? I'm like, well, there's a lot of time here. So Dana, is it just me? Am I being crazy or is that a normal thing? Nope, that's a normal thing.   The Dental A Team (18:41.71) And I think that we do it right because I think we're constantly looking for like that buffer of time and I feel like we've got to maximize it, especially when we have the assistance. If you have the bodies, but make it as tight as we can, right? Because they can pivot and help each other. And I think sometimes we forget that and we end up with slash and slash and we're just looking to make sure two X's are next to each other. And that's great. We don't want two X's next to each other, but two slashes next to each other when we have two assistants is wasted time. Yep.   Yeah, any inefficiencies and honestly, I think we get into a space where we start treating our dental assistants, which they are amazing. You guys, I was a dental assistant by trade, so I'm not knocking anything, but we start looking at it as if they are the providers too. But if I had two dentists, right, I'm not scheduling them that way. So I'm thinking, I've got two assistants, like how can I maximize my doctor's time?   I, this is me from my I hope he listens. Sometimes he listens. My doctor that I worked for for years, I would sit up front and my back was to the space where people would walk into the front area, right? And I was forward facing with the patients. I could feel him behind me. And I'd look at the schedule. And I'd be like, where is he supposed to be that he's not? Or what did I mess up that he had time to come and ask me to do whatever this is that's gonna this next?   project that's gonna fly out of his mouth. What did I do wrong with the schedule that he's not in a room right now? Or if I saw him in his office, I'd be like, what's going on? You should be why are you not in a room? Why are you not busy? You guys that's when the chaos comes in, right? It's like doctors asking me to do a million things. Keep doctor busy. If doctors busy, doctor doesn't have time to ask you to do a million things. So watch your schedule, block correctly, and keep your doctor busy doing like Dana said,   only the things that only a doctor can do. Okay, there are plenty of things that the rest of us as a support team can do. Keep your doctor doing the things that only he or she can do, because the rest of us can't do those things. So I love that. So take inventory of your timing, take inventory of how your appointments are going. Are there areas where you could save time in something to add it back to your patient experience somewhere? And I consider scanning.   The Dental A Team (21:05.55) a patient experience plus. When patients understand their mouth, when they can see it, when they can understand what's actually happening, that increases your patient experience. Yes, it'll increase case acceptance diagnosis, like all of those pieces, your ortho cases, totally on board with all of that. But more importantly, your patient's understanding their mouth is huge. So I consider scans patient experience. So it gives you time for patient experience.   Figure out your efficiencies, figure out what your timing looks like and where your excess and flashes should go. You can then implement blocked scheduling really easily. Your blocked scheduling should equate to what your daily production goals are, however it needs to happen. And if you need tips and tricks on that, like that's a whole, like she literally, I'm telling you guys, Dana trains on this constantly. That is a whole training. So if you do need more tips and tricks, please don't hesitate to reach out. We work with practices constantly on implementing blocked scheduling. It's very,   very second nature to us. But I'm not going to spend all the time going through all of it today. So check your efficiencies, chair sides, how can you make that appointment more efficient? How can you add back to the patient experience and look at what your timing and your X's and slashes are. The last piece that I want to make, I don't know why I've been hammering in on this so much lately, Dana, but it drives me wild. I want everyone to schedule their next appointment for what they actually need. So if I'm   a dental assistant, and I'm scheduling an appointment, I'm not just, I see it all the time in the little description, it says crown and nothing's in there. And I'm like, how do you know your timing is right? Do you need a buildup? Do you need, are there fillings next to the crown? Like what are we actually scheduled for? So schedule what you're doing. If you're doing a same day crown, your seat should be in there as well. Schedule for what you're doing. Hi, Dennis. I implore upon you. This is coming from my front office part.   and from my office manager heart. And I would assume this would make your life easier as well. I can't imagine that it wouldn't. Schedule for what you need at the next visit. Right, Dana? If you took x -rays today and you know you only take them once a year, right? You take fight wings once a year. If you're not doing them six months, you know next time you don't have to take those x -rays and vice versa. If you didn't do them today, you know next time. I'm, I like to say I'm a lazy human. I love the path of least resistance. I want easy.   The Dental A Team (23:31.63) I want to fish it. And I am telling you right now, I hate taking x -rays. So if I were a hygienist, I would be doing it just so I knew I didn't just stack a whole day full of patients that needed x -rays. And I would be like every other patient maybe would need x -rays, but I would sprinkle them in where I needed to, where I wanted to, and build the day that I wanted to work rather than feeling every day like I was coming into something I'm being told to do, I guess.   Right, that could be my stubborn nature as well. I'm a stubborn lazy tourist. It shows. Dana, is that crazy? Or did you do that as a hygienist? Like, how did you work that to make your days the most efficient in your hygiene world? Yeah, I don't think it's crazy at all. Honestly, I don't think you can plan for your day if you don't know what you're doing in your day. Right, you can't plan for your patient.   if you don't know, and we talked a lot this entire time about finding those pockets of time, you won't be able to find those pockets of time if you aren't prepared for what you're doing with your time in the first place. So if I look at a patient beforehand, right, and they're not due for x -rays, I'm gonna prep to scan them. But then if I get in there and they're actually due for x -rays, right, well then I'm not prepped or prepared to do all that I need to do for that patient. And so I think, same thing like you said, a crown. Nothing drives me more crazy when I see crown too. I don't know if there's a buildup.   Also, we know we need PAs for insurance purposes. Put that in there so we're not forgetting it, right? All of those little things just help us run more efficiently, run more smoothly. Now my billing department's not hunting me down to make sure I took that x -ray, right, for them to submit. Then they're not appealing because we didn't have it. It truly, truly, truly, those little things, when we plan and prepare and prep, makes our day go smoother, be more efficient, and make sure that all the parts and pieces we have for each and every patient, each and every visit.   we're ready and we can be as proactive as possible instead of that like reactive, right? Well, I just spent five minutes on health history because I didn't think I needed x -rays and then I get in there and oh darn, this patient needs x -rays. Now that pocket that I built on relationship, right? I might've sped through a little bit faster because I knew I had that. So you can't plan if you don't know what you're doing with each and every patient. I love that. Thank you. I love the PA idea too. I have so many practices that are like,   The Dental A Team (25:49.742) How do I get my dental assistants to remember the game? Put it in the appointment. They're looking at the appointment already. So they're going to do everything that's in there. They have to set it complete anyways. So beautiful. I love it. Thank you, Dana. This was a good one. So we need to take inventory of our appointments. How can we be more efficient chair size? What's our timing look like once we know our efficiencies are dialed in? Xs and slashes, where are the dental assistants? Where are the doctors? Remember, line those Xs and slashes up. Never an X and an X. Rarely a slash and a slash.   Block scheduling that rolls you right into block scheduling and how to do that and then schedule for what you need every single time this helps you be more prepared, your doctors be more prepared and your your front office support team is more prepared as well. They know exactly what's going on and your timing will be more efficient just knowing what you're coming up against. All of those pieces. I think this is fantastic. Dana, thank you so much. I love picking your brain.   I know you do this a ton with practices, so I know you have some awesome ideas. So thank you for being here with me, Dana. And I hope everyone took some good nuggets. I was writing notes as Dana was talking. If you're not driving, I hope you were writing notes as well. If you were driving, listen back through. There were some awesome tips in there. And if you love this content, like I know you did, please drop us a five -star review. Help our community know that this was a good...   implementable podcast for them to listen to and we appreciate seeing it. So if you need any information, like we said on the block scheduling, hello at the dentalatm .com, we work with our clients constantly. We work with our group clients, our virtual clients, all of those people constantly on how to implement things just like this. So if you need a little bit of extra work, just reach out to us. We're here to help you know, we love our community and you guys will catch you next time.

Just because dentistry is one of your talents doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile service. When it comes to friends and family asking for discounts or free treatment, it can get sticky if you’re not prepared. In this episode, Kiera gives three pointers to addressing when someone inevitably drops your name in hopes of a discount: Recognize your worth as a dental professional Put a dollar amount to the discounts you’ve given Create a friends and family fee schedule, then use it Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.83) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and oh, I am excited. Our team has actually been going and doing a little research for you guys to find out what are the topics the dentists and teams have been asking in the industry across the globe. And I am so excited because this month, I'm going to start shaking it up a little bit on you guys. So I am so excited for you. There's going to be different topics, very tactical, practical. I hope you guys are having a great time.   As always, thanks for listening to our podcast. Thanks for making us one of the top elite dental podcasts across all podcast platforms. You guys listening, sharing, subscribing, downloading, those are all how we're able to help and serve and really truly positively impact the world of dentistry with the tactical and practical. So thank you for being a part of this. Thank you for being here with me. I am so honored that you are here with me tonight or today or in the morning or whatever time you're doing this. I'm excited. So today let's talk about what do we do?   for friends and acquaintances who feel like they should get treatment at no cost. I hope you guys are ready for this. This is a common problem. As you guys know in the Dental A Team, we consult practices to make your life easier, more fun, have your teams have less stress, and be able to do it all with ease to get that more profitable practice, but honestly to have the most dreamy life that you could ever imagine. So that's what we're about. And you guys know that this is a fun topic because really it comes down to a full team effect of.   How do we really handle those friends and acquaintances? And honestly, dentists, I mean, I remember as a, when I was in a practice, our dentists would go and I could always tell when they'd been out with their neighbors or their friends because like, oh, hey, they're going to give a call and they're going to come in. And then doctor feels awkward and we don't know what to do because we feel like we should give them it to no cost. And the reality is you actually don't need to. And I'm here to help hopefully break that limiting belief, give you some awesome verbiage and some tips.   for you and your team. So number one, high five, you're here. I'm so happy you're here. Number two, let's talk about it. I'm gonna ask you, do you think that you were the best dentist? Do you feel that you give incredible dentistry? And do you feel like if you had someone that could do the quality of dentistry on your mouth that you would be more than happy to pay them? I hope you're able to answer yes. And if not, let's get some CE to where you can answer yes to that. But the reality is you're probably a pretty fantastic dentist, especially if you're listening to this podcast.   Kiera Dent (02:21.646) So we have to realize that just because it comes natural for you and just because it's a skill for you does not mean that it should be done for free. Now, if it brings you joy, phenomenal, but if it doesn't, I want you to think about you are providing a service that people pay because they can't do it. And they're so happy that you're giving them the confidence, you're giving them the certainty, you're giving them the ability to eat the foods they want to. Like you have to think about how much our mouths do for us, the ability to talk, to smile, to communicate with other people.   all these things, you're actually giving your patients the ability to do. And so I just want you, I wanna remind you that like that's what you're giving them. You're giving them this incredible thing and you just feel like, oh my gosh, but I'm already doing this and it's so easy for me and they're my friend. Well, yeah, but you might have a friend who works at the grocery store or at a restaurant. That doesn't mean you expect them to give it to you for free. So I just wanna break it from you of like you are doing incredible things. Don't forget that you're doing incredible things.   But I feel like sometimes because we're talented at it, we just feel like, well, it's so easy for me. Therefore, why am I charging for it? That's false. Like just because it's a talent, just because it comes natural for you does not mean that it's not a service worthwhile. And also remember people want to pay you. We want to pay people. Like I am so grateful for my coaches. I'm grateful for my dentist. I'm grateful for my doctors. Like I want to pay them. I want to thank them. I can say thank you all day long, but their time is valuable too. So I really want you to remember.   You are valuable. You're doing something so incredible for these people. So don't undersell yourself. Also, by people needing to pay for it, they're also a lot more, like they'll be more timely. They'll show up better for you. And they're actually gonna be better patients for you. So just realize like it actually is a good way. And it's also a great way to keep friends because when we don't and there's this unsaid exchange, oftentimes resentment can build on both sides. I had a dentist and they would trade work all the time, but.   For them, it takes you like 30 minutes to do a filling and for this other person, it takes them like all day, but the costs are the same. That's not really a great way to make friends either. And so just realize that when we just charge our fees, you can offer a small discount if you would like to, but the goal is to not do it at no cost. And I think when we set it up, if you feel awkward about it, you can always have your treatment coordinator do it. So I'm just gonna help you like number one, you've got to realize that you're worth it. And I just want you to know that you do not need to do dentistry for free.   Kiera Dent (04:41.742) People do need to pay for this. And even with your family, they can pay, you can have a friends and family fee schedule where they're at least paying something for it. So I just think like, number one, if this was, let's say you're going to your parents or you're going to a friend, you would pay them. Most likely you would pay them. Like I'm not gonna take my car to my friend who's a mechanic and not pay them because I know what that feels like. I'm not gonna ask my friend.   who's a doctor to diagnose me all the time. Like that's unfair to them. Just go to the doctor. Let's not also put our friends in those situations. So number one, realize like you are freaking worth it and you don't need to feel like you have to give it away for free. I also really do think that they'll respect you more. So they know and they're either gonna come and pay you happily or they're gonna find someone else and both are awesome options. So that's number one. Now number two, I wanna train your team on what we need to say. And so,   you can have a couple of different options. If you don't believe that you're giving away a lot of free dentistry, I want you to start tracking how much you give away for free, just so you can see the dollar amount. Now, this isn't to hold guilt and resentment. This is just truly to show you actual tactical, factual, how many numbers am I actually paying out every single month? That's something I really do want you to be aware of because oftentimes you are giving away so much more than you think that you're giving away. So paying attention to that number also helps you realize like, gosh, I wrote off like 30, 40 grand this month.   I don't have to do that. And I think we think we need to, but you're just living by rules that you have set, no one else has set. And so when they come in, again, if you're uncomfortable about it, have your treatment coordinator come in and give them the fee. You do not have to offer a discount, own your fee. So if you wanna charge full fee, charge full fee. If you wanna give them a friends and family discount, that's fine. But I think like whatever is gonna make your time worth it, because it is giving up chair time.   you are and there are parts of like, but Kara, I wanna serve and Kara, I wanna do these things, which is true, but I don't want you to be taken advantage of. And you're not gonna ask this question of, hey, how do I handle friends and acquaintances who feel like they should get it at no cost if you're not feeling like you're being taken advantage of. And guess what? Multiple people put this post out there. We went and did a bunch of research across all the different platforms and saw this one come up several times. And so I'm realizing a lot of doctors feel like they have to. Well, when you feel like you have to, it's no longer fun.   Kiera Dent (07:03.63) because I'm not able to do this and be able to do the surprise and delight that I want to. You can always charge the fee and then you can surprise and delight them and be like, hey, thanks for coming in. Like I just wrote off 500 for you. They're still paying you, but you can surprise and delight if it sparks joy. Like let's go to Marie Kondo, right? If it sparks joy inside of you and makes you so happy to do it, then do it. But if you're doing it out of guilt or resentment,   Let's just get you out of that. And you can always say like, no problem, my team will take great care of you. Just give them a call. They'll put you in the schedule. No problem. Now, if they're like, hey, is like, I don't think most people aren't going to be like, is this free? Like, you know, my team will take care of it. We do have our friends and family fee scheduled. They'll take great care of you and they'll give you your pricing when we chat with you. Easy. Just pass it off to someone else. Your team's going to protect you. They don't want to have $0 in the, in the schedule. They don't want to have team like patients just calling. I.   I was like, Oh, doctor's been at the party. People are just calling and getting on our schedule for free. And my whole schedule now I've got goals and I'm trying to hit it, but doctor was saying hi to everybody. And now I can't fill my schedule. So I want you guys to just realize like, you don't have to do this and you can pass it off to your team. Now team members, a couple of options. One, we either discharge our full fee to, we can have a friends and family fee schedule where we actually put that in there. If they have insurance, we do still need to collect what we are obligated within the contract.   I know a lot of people are like, we'll just do it for insurance only. And I'm here to tell you that that's a big, big no -no. Um, we don't want you guys getting in that. If you're not willing to charge the patient, their portion, you're also not allowed to charge the insurance, the portion for that. So you've got to make sure you collect it. That's something where that's an easy combo of like, yep, we'll bill your insurance. Um, we are obligated under contract for that. So this is where we are. This is what we do need to collect for that easy conversation. Um, other ways you can give them your membership plan for free. Like that's a very simple way. So their cleanings are free.   I don't think you even have to do that. Why not just give them like 50 % off? I have found that when people pay for things, they tend to care about it a little bit more. Now, of course, you can always be generous. You can always do things, but I just wanna remind you, you do not have to do it. So have your treatment coordinators, build a friends and family fee schedule, figure it out if you wanna do a membership plan where they get it for 50 % because they are a friend and family, and then it's 20 % off of all treatment.   Kiera Dent (09:19.854) but it is like fee for service style. That's an easy way to do it for them. Maybe you give them the $300 membership plan for 150 or 200. They get a hundred dollars off. Like, I think we often feel this guilt of, oh my gosh, I've got to offer it for free. But guys, like even a hundred bucks off feels awesome. And I'm super appreciative. I think when you do this, you also set yourself as my time is valuable. I do want to help you and I am able to be generous, but I don't need to be like a hundred percent generous.   And again, it's not you being selfish. It's not any of the things you're telling yourself. I can already hear like, but I'm being so selfish and like, I have so much and why do I need the reason we're charging for this is because they're taking the space of a patient who would pay you. And they're also taking your time, which is valuable. Just like if you were to go see your chiropractor or you were to go see this, or you were to go see this person, you would want to pay them and also paying them. Let's not take away their opportunity to serve you and to thank you for the goodness that you provide for their life.   So often we think that by giving something for free, we're benefiting them. But I can even remember a time my little sister and I went to Ireland and she had come back and I didn't feel like she had a lot of money. And so I was like, it's okay, Katrina, I'll just pay for everything. And I paid for everything throughout the trip. And at the end of the trip, we got into a little heated spat and she said, Kiera, I am so frustrated with you. She said, you told me that we were coming on this trip together.   and I saved money and I was more than happy to pay and I wanted to pay because that makes me feel like I am a part of this. It's fine if you wanna cover things, but you not letting me pay also made me feel like you didn't think that I could afford it, that I wasn't worthy to be on this trip with you and that you were just treating me like a little child who needed to get everything for free. I had not realized that, because I hear I was thinking I'm doing the nice thing and I'm paying for everything, but my little sister wanted to.   she wanted to feel like she was participating in it. And I just thought, what was I doing? Like taking that opportunity away from her. And so I just want to remind you, like you also, when we do this to other people, we are taking that opportunity away from them. We are taking the opportunity for them to feel good about it. And then if something happens, we're not like, oh my gosh, I gave it to you for free and I got to do it for free again. Rock on. Like we've already set it up. My husband's family is very business. They build beautiful custom homes.   Kiera Dent (11:40.078) And what we found is there is no trade work and it just keeps better friends. So charge the fee that's fair for you, have that friends and family fee schedule, have a percentage off on a membership plan, but charge the fee that's fair for you. And I always tell everybody, I'm like, Hey, I don't do trades, even with consulting, like I don't do trades. I am happy to pay you because I want to just keep lines clean. I respect your time and I want to do that.   and vice versa, I think it just keeps clean lines. Here's my fee for it, we do offer X percent or maybe it's even 10 % off for friends and family or maybe it's 20 % off, but please, please, please realize you do not need to go 50 % or 100 % off. You're still being extra generous with your time and you're still being so good to them. And if you don't even offer a single discount, guess what? You are providing them insanely great dentistry that they can't get at a lot of other places and you're doing it for them and being awesome.   but we also don't want to set it up to where if there's problems, now they've got to come back for free. And because it was done for free, it's awkward for them and they don't want to call you. Let's just cut that. We want them to be a patient. We want them to be a paying patient. We want them to be just like everybody else. You're going to see them on time. You're going to end on time. You're going to give them a discount if you want, maybe 10%, maybe a free membership, maybe 50 % off the membership, whatever feels good to you where you truly feel so happy about it. And then we move along.   And you're not sad about it. You're not upset about it. You're not frustrated. But what I found is you just need to build that structure right now. So go back to your team, build the structure of what we're going to do, build the fee schedule, figure out what we're going to do that way. When they come, you make awesome. Here's my team's number. I'm not allowed to schedule for them. They get, I make their schedule Harry scary. And I told my team, I love them way too much to do that. Here's the number, give them a call. I'll let them know you're calling. They'll take care of everything for you. They'll let you know pricing. They'll let you know every piece of it and they'll take great care of you. Pass it off.   Your team now knows what to do. You don't put your team in an awkward position of what do we charge this person? Can we charge them? Your team's now empowered. You're empowered. The patient feels happy. The patient's feeling a great, paying a great fee. If something happens, they can come back to you with no guilt. And you're also allowing them to pay you for doing the incredible service that you're doing. So action items are number one, you are worth it. Stop doing it for free. Number two, you've got to figure out how much you're riding off. If that's going to help you realize you need to, you need to do this for yourself and also for your patients.   Kiera Dent (13:56.366) Number three, build a plan with your team of exactly what you guys are going to do and how you're going to do it when these friends and acquaintances come through because it doesn't need to be at no cost. We've set that up. We've told them, and if you've been doing it for a long time, you can let them know like, Hey, we do have a new policy for it. Um, I just want to make it fair across the board for everybody. So just chat with my team. We do have a friends and family fee schedule now, so you'll be able to get that. It's our VIP one only close friends and family. Get it. And off you go. Here's the call. Danielle's amazing. She's going to take great care of you. I can't wait to see you.   pass it off, no big deal. You're still helping them out and be able to just speak with confidence. So I hope that helped out. If we can help you and your team, if we can give you guys the resources, this is what we coach on all the time. So things like this, things with your team. So reach out, hello at thedentalateam .com. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

Dana and Tiff dive into the topic of creating exceptional first impressions in dental offices. They explore practical strategies for creating a welcoming atmosphere that instills confidence and trust in patients from the moment they arrive. From personalized greetings to thorough attention to cleanliness and organization, they emphasize the importance of every detail in shaping a positive patient experience. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast TRANSCRIPT: The Dental A Team (01:04:00.494) Hello, everybody. We're so excited to be here. Dana and I just brainstormed just a second on what we were going to chat about today. We've always got our topics, but we kind of have to brainstorm. And sometimes they feel like, gosh, Dana, I was like, I don't know, I feel like we just did this one. But I think we can dive deeper. And I think you've got me spinning in a different direction that I hadn't even thought of. That is the power of teamwork. So Dana, thank you for being here. Thank you for spinning my brain always and seeing that other side you actually.   You just come and clutch with that a lot during team meetings, during consulting, during podcasting. Like you really truly are able to see a different side that I don't always see. So thank you. Thank you for being here. How are you doing today? Good. Thanks for having me. You know, these are always so fun. I know. I love it. I love how we get to see each other now. When we started these, we couldn't see each other and we could just be wearing, you know, pajamas or whatever we wanted, but it's okay.   But I do love that we get to see each other. I remember like the first couple ones we had all three of us, we had Niki and Brit on there. And it was like so weird. And we were like, is this so weird? And now it would be really weird not to see you. Weird how, it's funny how like quickly that switches. So if you're listening, know that there's a video out there on the interweb somewhere. If you could see our blonde hair and beautiful faces anytime you want. I think it's on, I think we started putting them on YouTube every time and they're always on Instagram.   probably TikTok, I would assume that it's on TikTok. I should know these things. But anyways, today we are talking about first impressions. So if you haven't listened to it yet, we did a deep dive on the phone call and how that value of the first phone call can turn into a scheduled appointment. So that was kind of our first impressions phone call. This time we're gonna deep dive a little bit further into the patient actually coming to the practice.   So they've already had the phone call, they've already been scheduled, they've already gotten the confirmation emails and texts, and you've gotten the paperwork, all of those pieces, and now they're coming into the office. So Dana, this was your brainchild. You were like, no, we're going to do an office. I think it's brilliant. Duh. Duh, Tiff. How do you want that to look for your practices? If you were to walk into one of the practices that you've consulted, how do you expect that first impression to go?   The Dental A Team (01:06:18.254) I want it to be so warm and welcoming and that the instant the patient walks in, this is a place that they want to be. They feel comfortable being dental, right? We know it can be an anxiety space for a lot of patients. And I think more patients, right? Than not. They anticipate maybe pain, some discomfort, some maybe even embarrassment because they don't love what their teeth look like or, you know, they're just,   generally in pain from coming in, right? They're coming in to deal with pain. And so that can be an anxiety space for a lot of people. And the more warm and welcoming they feel from the second that they walk in, again, it's just that safe space, right? That trust that we always try to build in every experience across the board for our patients. So when they feel that when they walk in, when you introduce for yourself, when you say you're so excited, oh my gosh, I've been talking to you. I'm so excited to meet you.   And then you can direct them on what to do. You can show them areas of the practice. It just sets up the tone from the very beginning that you want them to feel throughout the appointment. Absolutely. It's just that relationship build, right? I feel much more at ease. And honestly, I feel like if something if I feel comfortable, confident, I feel like I trust you just from the get go from that interaction. And if I feel like, gosh, I could like I feel comfortable talking to you.   if something were to happen that is less than ideal, I'm like, ah, whatever, right? So I agree. I think that first impression walking through the door should be warm and inviting, welcoming. That person should be smiling. I love, I contact you guys and like as soon as that door opens, you're looking up. I know we're in the computer. I know we're on the phone. Even if you're on the phone, you're looking up and you're like, like, I'll be right there, right? You're, you're mouthing to them what needs to be, what needs to be said. Um,   and making sure that they just feel that welcome. One thing that I love is when patients walk in and I have a practice that's like, oh my gosh, Dana, welcome. Dana's like, how did you know it's me? I used to do that with my friend office and when I was in the front office, my check -in, and I would, every patient I knew, right, like, oh, this must be this person, this must be, I had so many patients that would say,   The Dental A Team (01:08:41.294) I know you have the schedule, like how do you know that it's me every time? And I'm like, well, if I'm honest, I got three men and one lady coming in at 2 p .m. I know you're not Joe, Bob or Gary and they would laugh, right? But I'd be like, honestly, like I'm reading my schedule. I know enough about my patients who are coming in to guess who this is. If Joe says he's 17, Gary says he's 45. When a male walks in,   the door, I'm not going to be like, what's your last name? I'm going to be like, oh, he looks older than 17. I'm going to be like, oh, hey, Gary, how are you? Right? So know your schedule, know your patients, be welcoming, be inviting. And if you use your patients names or Mrs. Smith, right? I know there's a lot of states in the country that thrive on the Mrs. and the Mr. West Coast. I always say we're the wild, wild west out here. I'll call you whatever I can think of in the moment.   But use their names, be inviting, say hello Dana. Like Dana, how are you today? Ask questions and let them feel like you're welcoming them into your home, right? Dana, I like to say, I have practices, I'm like, if you go to a party, right, or you're throwing a party and people are coming into your home, and if you're not, you go to a party and you're not welcomed, you're not introduced to the host, you're not like, you don't know anybody there or you're searching for the person you know, me,   my introverted extroverted self, I am going to go to the food and the drinks. And I'm going to have something in my hands that's going into my mouth so that people don't feel the need to come bother me. I'm going to be busy, right? Because it keeps me, it keeps me from feeling awkward and uncomfortable. So walking into a practice, I don't want your patients to feel awkward and uncomfortable either. So I love that. Dana, know your patients, smile.   Be prepared, right? Warm, inviting, and welcoming. What else do you feel like really sets the tone for that first impression? Maybe even like not even just how that person's welcoming them, but just office -wise, what else sets the tone for that first impression? Yeah, I actually was just in a practice in Virginia Beach and like their welcome was fantastic. They had a comfort menu. They figured out what the patient wanted on the TV. Do they have a specific channel? What was the music that they wanted in their operatory?   The Dental A Team (01:11:09.198) Did they want aromatherapy? Like all of those spaces. And you may not have to offer all of those things, but I think it is how can you prep, right? So that then their transition to the back is super smooth. Do you need anything updated in your system from them? Are they aware of where the bathroom is, right? You assistants can attest that there nothing is more frustrating than you come out and get the patient. And as you're walking in the back, they're like, well, can I use the bathroom? Right? Sure you can, but it would have been nice if you had used it before I came to get you.   And so in the front, if I can say, oh my gosh, Tiff, welcome to the practice, the bathroom's over here, feel free to use it. Just a quick update from you right here. Here's our comfort menu, anything you like, right? Then the patient is 100 % prepared. I am prepared and I can give anything to my clinical team that they need so that the welcome on their end can be as smooth as possible too. Yeah, I totally agree. I love that. That's a great idea, a comfort menu. I think a lot of doctors are writing that one down.   So know your patient's smile, be prepared, comfort menu so that their transition is as smooth as possible. And then I used to always think, what are my patients seeing when I walk in the doors? When they walk in the doors. So as the like front office, I would go out in the front and walk through the doors. And in Phoenix, it gets really hot. I don't know if you guys know this or not. So we had like door handle covers, but they'd get dirty, right? Or we'd forget to put them on. So I'd go out and just double check.   Sometimes the A -frame is on the ground because it's windy. But like if we're not getting up and checking these things, right? I walk up and I'm like, oh, okay. And then I touch the handle and it's well, scorching hot, because it is, right? I'm like, that's my first impression. Like A -frame down, hot handle, right? Walk in and is there trash? I remember, gosh, 2 .30 PM to 4 PM prime child time.   Oh my gosh, we'd have hot cocoa cups, all strong about all the games were out. There's candy wrappers everywhere. There's napkins. I'm like, where did they even find the napkins? There's we had a coffee thing. There'd be sugar packets opened. I had a lady. I had a lady open the K cup thing and put it in the in the Keurig and then try to run it. And I had dirty water for days. Like, there's so many things right that   The Dental A Team (01:13:34.03) pace that's happening out in that lobby area that we're not generally aware of. But if we get up a couple times a day, and we go out and we think what's my patient's experience when I walk into this room, if I walked into the chaos that those afternoons were, I would be like, this place is trashed. And I don't think I would think, well, there must have been a lot of kids in here, right? Because the kids weren't there anymore. If the kids were there, sure. But when the kids are gone, and it's   completely tracked. If I walk into that, I'm like, wow, this is weird, right? Or walking up, I know my doctor hated me for my sticky notes, and I couldn't have my sticky notes until I had my own office that patients weren't coming to, right? But walking up and there's a million sticky notes and like papers are thrown about and it just looks disorganized. So I think your first impression is how you're feeling like you're welcome, right? How is how is how is the team welcoming you into the practice? How does that feel?   But then also, what's the feeling when you're walking into the building? Is it clean? Was your entrance clean? Is the parking lot maintained? Is it chaotic out there? Are the chairs strewn about? Are they dirty? A lot of times people would spill the coffee or food that they brought in and there'd be a stain on the chair. So like, those are the things we have to look for too, when we're looking for not only just our first impression, but a patient that may have been coming here for years. I used to have patients that'd be like,   Did you know that this is over here? I'm like, no. If that were my house, I would cry, right? Like, no, I am inviting you into my home. And this is what my expectation is. If I were to invite you to my actual home, I would have cleaned it before you came. And now you're coming to a space where you're going to be sitting with your mouth open for at least 30 minutes, if not longer. And I've got things strewn about in the lobby where you're sitting. Not cool.   bathrooms, making sure the bathrooms are clean, making sure your water's soft, if you've got water, coffee bar or whatever, making sure that the amenities are stopped. They're not going to ask for it. They're just going to be like, oh, that sucks. Like, didn't get a water today. Didn't get a water next time either because it's still empty. Look for those pieces. So what is the actual impression? What's the feeling? And oftentimes, I like to make people switch. I talk about that a lot. So I'll make the dental assistant go walk through the front as   The Dental A Team (01:15:58.51) dental assistant because you're seeing it all day. If you're sitting up there, you're seeing it all day and we get blind, right? We have blind spots. Same with dental assistants. So sometimes I'll hop to front office, walk the operatories and they'll be like, oh, there's dogs over there. Nope, there sure is. But I've been looking at it all day. I have impression material. Oh my gosh, Dana. Remember the alginate? Where we take epinates and then just the alginate everywhere. And I come out with my hair like wild and I'm like, where's the broom?   How do I get rid of this? And I'll be out in there for days, I swear. Those are the wild days. I hope people aren't using Algenet still. I mean, I think there are still some spaces for it, but man, we use Algenet for everything. And it got wild and torn up those models. I would cry if there were all the bubbles at the end. Oh my gosh. It was, you guys.   Love where you're at in dentistry now. Love those scanners. I'm so jealous. So first impressions, you guys, obviously the phone call, there's a whole other episode on the phone call, but this first impression is what does it feel like when you walk through the doors? So what does it look like visually? How are you feeling walking into it visually? Do you feel like you're welcomed into their home? Is it clean? What would you think if you're walking into someone's house and it looked like this? And you're like, oh, I don't think I really want to eat dinner anymore. I'm not very hungry.   They're sitting there with their mouth open. Okay, so what does it feel like? What does it look like? Have your team row shambles, switch it up, walk through the practice in the opposite spaces that they work. And then also making sure we've got those amenities ready, that we're welcoming, that we're inviting, we're smiling, and we're greeting them by name if we can. Dana, you talked a lot about kind of just being prepared and making sure we've got what we need.   Anything else you can think of? You said the amenities list, I guess like paperwork style they may need, just making sure that we're prepared. Did I miss anything in there that you want to make sure we add? No, I think we did it all. I think when patients feel like they're prepared and you're ready and right, Dennis, we have an expectation of cleanliness. And so if I walk in and everything is a mess, right? Well, you know, I want the space that I'm going to actually have my care done to be, to be, to be clean. So I think,   The Dental A Team (01:18:24.27) Those are often pieces that we overlook. And those are often pieces that if I walk in and they've got my paperwork prepared and they're ready and they're not like in the back, oh wait, we forgot to have you do this, right? That's just like something so small, but something that can truly make a big difference. I totally agree. I totally agree. I love it. Thank you, Dana. I love picking your brain. I tell you that all the time. I love that these are spaces you train on so much with your virtual and your in -person consulting. So thank you.   for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us today. Guys, if you have questions, if you have stuff you're doing that you think is really cool that other people need to know about, share in our doctor community if you're a part of that already. We have our Facebook groups and we have our five star view below, but also [email protected] But if you are a part of that doctor group, shoot it in there. I see awesome ideas coming through all the time. I know the other day they were talking, a lot of the doctors were talking about ways that they were like,   being thankful to their team, getting back to their team. That was really cool to see. So if you've got stuff that you're already doing, drop it in our Discord chat of our doctor team. If you're a part of that, if you're not, reach out, find out how you can be a part of it. It's a pretty awesome tool. We look forward to hearing from you guys. Thank you so much for being here and we'll catch you next time.    

Get ready for a deep dive on DSOs. Kiera is joined by Brannon Moncrief, principal and CEO of McLerran + Associates, an industry leader in dental practice sales and sell-side advisory for DSOs. Basically, if you want insight about selling to a DSO, this episode is for you. Kiera and Brannon discuss: Pros and cons to selling to a DSO What common mistakes are and how you can avoid them Different deal structure examples The DSO landscape over the next 20 to 50 years And so much more!   Episode resources: Learn about McLerran + Associates Connect with Brannon: [email protected] or 512-660-8505 Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast   TRANSCRIPT:   Kiera Dent (00:00.878) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so jazzed. I have been dying for this man to get on our podcast. I think DSOs are hot right now and it's what do I do? Is the DSO world good? Is the DSO world bad? Should I sell to a DSO? Should I not sell to a DSO? What are the mistakes? I think there's so much confusion and lack of clarity around it. And I have actually found someone referred to me from a client that I think toes the line really well of private practice and DSO to really be educational. Brandon.   I don't even know how to say your last name, Brandon. I'm not going to lie to you. So tell me how I say your last name. I was going to say Moncrief. Is that right? Brandon Moncrief. Coming in today, he has over 20 years of experience as a banker, broker, and sales side advisor, and has facilitated the sale of over a thousand dental practices. That's impressive. Kudos. His firm, McLaren and Associates, provides sales side advisory to large practice owners who are interested in pursuing a DSO affiliation or private equity partner.   Brannon Moncrief (00:36.297) Moncreme. You got it. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (00:57.614) He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two daughters and spends his free time traveling, cooking, and being outdoors. So we're definitely going to geek on travel. Austin, keep it weird. Brandon McCreary. I think I got it. Welcome to the show. How are you?   Brannon Moncrief (01:09.545) I'm doing good, good to see you. Thanks for having me.   Kiera Dent (01:11.79) Yeah, Brandon and I are actually like swimming in the same pool. We're going to be at the same events together. He's going to be speaking with our private Dr. Mastermind pretty soon. But one of our mutual, I have a client that I've consulted for years, sent me your thoughts about his practice. And that's how I actually got introduced to you. And I just am super jazzed. Let's talk. I obviously gave your intro, but kind of tell a little bit about who you guys are.   how you even got into the DSO space. I mean, bank or broker, you already have red flags on you from most people's perspectives. So kind of like win us over. I think you're great. So they already will like you, but kind of give us some feedback.   Brannon Moncrief (01:47.273) Awesome, thanks. I have spent my adult life in dentistry. The first nine years of my career was focused on lending money to dentists all across the country to buy, start, expand practices. So in that role, I worked.   Kiera Dent (02:00.43) How did you even get there? Like, were you just like, cool, I'm on Dennis? Or did it kind of fall into your lap?   Brannon Moncrief (02:04.841) It was very random. I mean, finance degree straight out of college. I was recruited by a finance company that focused on lending money to dentists out of the Houston area. Thought it was cool that I could actually use my degree. You know, new dentistry was a good industry to be in. And yeah, took a took a leap, started off as a loan underwriter and then worked my way up to the director of business development. By the time I left that company to buy McLaren. But as my role as a banker, I worked with   all the brokers in the country and a lot of the CPAs, attorneys that we do business with today that are still in the industry. And I recognize very quickly like broker is a four letter word in a lot of markets. The bar, what's that?   Kiera Dent (02:44.782) It is. I was like, Banker broker, you really want me to say that? I'm like, you really have that in your bio. Okay, I'll say it.   Brannon Moncrief (02:53.545) Yeah, it's kind of a four letter word and I understand why. And being a banker, I was constantly frustrated with the work product and the lack of professionalism that I saw among the brokerage community. And I was like, hey, I can do this better. So that's why I decided to step out of the role as a banker and step into the role as a broker. And I bought McLaren and Associates, which was a small mom and pop practice brokerage shop, like you see a lot of them out there today.   I purchased the company 13 years ago at the time. The legacy business really focused on doing doctor to doctor, traditional practice sales in Texas, where the company was based and built the company up substantially in the doctor to doctor world, doing traditional practice sales. Got to the point where we were doing about 50 to 60 doctor to doctor practice sales a year. And then we saw DSOs and private equity come into our backyard in Texas. We were kind of on the forefront of a lot of the consolidation.   and start to acquire a lot of the elite practices that we thought we were eventually going to sell to private buyers. And we quickly realized that doctors really didn't understand EBITDA, they didn't understand private equity, they didn't really understand the different levers involved in these deal structures, and they were getting taken advantage of. And for a while, we pounded the table and it was like, we're never gonna sell a practice to a DSO, it's bad for dentistry, it's bad for patients. Hopefully this is all just gonna go away. But after a while,   Kiera Dent (04:15.086) Thank you.   Brannon Moncrief (04:20.265) you know, we started to realize once private equity comes into a vertical and starts to consolidate it, they double down and they're not going away. So once we realize, hey, DSOs are here to stay, it's our job to educate doctors, to protect dentists. That's what we do on a daily basis. We need to build out a team. We need to build out a process to walk doctors that want to go down that path, you know, through that, that the navigation of a DSO transaction. So we did.   Kiera Dent (04:29.262) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (04:49.449) We built out another division of our company. That's the team that I lead. We've got a former investment banker on the team. We've got a couple of guys that actually worked for DSOs on the buy side that have now joined our team. We do sell side advisory. They used to work for DSOs on the buy side. Who better to have on your side if you're selling your practice than somebody who's sat on the other side of the table. So we now have a team of 13 all over the country.   HQ is in Austin, but we have an office in San Diego, an office in Atlanta. We've closed over 200 DSO transactions. We work regularly with about 50 to 60 DSOs. There's over 500 of them out there, but I certainly wouldn't sell my practice to all of them. So we're very, very careful about vetting DSOs, making sure that we only put the best options in front of our clients, and then making sure that our clients are fully educated. They understand that they do have options, right?   Kiera Dent (05:33.262) Right.   Kiera Dent (05:45.614) Thank you.   Brannon Moncrief (05:46.025) One option is to do nothing. You're right, stay the course. Maybe they just need to work with a great consultant like you to help solve some of their pain points rather than affiliate with a DSO. We have other clients that are already knee deep in the process, already have LOIs on the table from DSOs, and they need proper representation. They need somebody to kind of reset the playing field and negotiate on their behalf. And then we have other clients we talk to where it just makes sense to hang on to the business and eventually sell it.   in a more traditional sense to a private buyer. So we try to take a really objective approach to educating dentists regarding all the options available to them. And then at that point, it's a pick your own adventure situation, right? And whatever you want to do, we can help you execute at a very high level or help bring in the resources that you need to take your practice down the path you want to go down.   Kiera Dent (06:39.982) Sure. And Brandon, I really love that about you guys, which is why I wanted you on the podcast, because I feel like Dennis tell me all the time that they're getting usually like at least 20 emails a month from DSOs trying to buy their practices. And so I remember, gosh, it's been at least is pre -COVID. So either 2018 or 2019.   I remember I was out at a dental college in Nebraska and it was UNMC. And I remember talking to some students there and they said like, Oh, do you think DSOs are coming? And I remember saying, I was like, I don't actually think private practice is going to be traditional for a lot longer. And I think DSOs are going to come in pretty strong. And I don't mean to like rain on your parade. And I might be very unpopular in my opinion, but I saw the exact same thing you did of DSOs are here and private equity is here. And so.   Instead of fighting against it, instead of saying, I'm like, shoot, if I had a practice right now, I mean, I've owned plenty of practices. Like there is temptation around it to get higher multiples. There's also DSOs going bankrupt where people are losing their entire investments. There's, um, so I think that there's a lot of like unknown around it. And that's why I wanted you on the podcast is to start to educate to where people know, because I think fear only comes from not being educated. Fear comes from not feeling like you understand your options and then you feel like your pigeon holes into a zone.   that you maybe didn't necessarily wanna go into. So I really do agree with you. And also DSOs love consultants because we usually grow the practices. We help you get it to the level you want it to be. So you're getting those higher multiples. If you choose to sell to a DSO, if you choose to have it on your own, if you choose to keep the practice and sell it to another associate, it never hurts to grow your practice to X number and get it as high as you can before you sell, just like you wanna get your house to look the nicest it can.   before you sell it to get your highest multiple. It is an investment at the end of the day as well. So Brandon, I'm excited to kind of just chat through like, let's talk about what kind of like, let's start educating about DSOs. Like what questions should I be looking at? What are the pros of selling to a DSO? What are the cons of selling to a DSO? Like I really would love you to kind of like educate on DSOs. Cause I think people understand like do nothing. I get that one. And maybe like you said, look at the pain points of what you really have. I get that it feels,   Kiera Dent (08:52.846) tempting to sell to a DSO and just like wipe my hands clean. I don't think that usually happens. I'm excited for you to hear. But then the other side is they're also pretty familiar with selling to an associate or a doctor partner buy -in that way and then transitioning out. But I think some of those decisions can also impact if they ever want to sell to a DSO because I've heard a lot of DSOs prefer don't have true partners in if you're going to sell to a DSO. Don't partner in your associates potentially because it makes it messier when you sell to a DSO. So I think it's more like,   What mistakes do we make when we're trying to sell to a DSO and what do we need to do to make sure we're educated on that?   Brannon Moncrief (09:30.569) Yeah, so we always start our process with a discovery call with all of our potential clients. And the first question I ask is talk to me about your why, right? What are your goals? What are you looking to achieve? Is it that this is strictly an economic decision? You're five years away from exiting your business. You're evaluating. What would it look like if I hang on to the business for a few years and sell to a private buyer versus sell to a DSO today, maybe hit a recapitulation event and then exit the business.   Let's quantify what is your business worth in the private buyer world versus the DSO world and map out. What does a no sale, traditional practice sale look like down the road versus a DSO sale today and you hanging on to some equity for a while and then monetizing that equity in a recap. So is it purely economic or do you have some pain points that you're trying to solve for? Are you fed up with managing the business? If so, what components of the management?   Would you like to give up? And how does that play into autonomy? Are you concerned about maintaining clinical autonomy? What about operational autonomy? You're looking for better work -life balance. Are you looking to take a step back and work less both on the business and in the business? Or are you entrepreneurial and you're looking to actually lean in, continue to scale the business, maybe add additional locations, but you don't want to do it on your own. You want to use somebody else's capital and infrastructure to do so. So we always start with defining the why.   You know, what are your goals? And then let's talk about how your practice is engineered financially, quantify the economics, and then talk through options. And we do a lot of financial modeling and forecasting to figure out, you know, how each option is going to play out. You know, now annually and cumulatively over a five year, seven year, 10 year window. And that's exactly what we did for your client.   we were mapping out what would it look like if you sold to a DSO today versus sold pieces of the practice internally to associates and then eventually sold your remaining equity to a private party 10 years from now. How do these options compare? What are the different deal structures look like? What are the different avenues to get to your eventual exit from the business? And he loves what we did for him because it provided him   Brannon Moncrief (11:57.001) a lot of clarity regarding what his options were and what the potential economic implications of those options were going to look like. But even if you're five years away from selling, I think it's critically important to understand what your options are so that you can groom your business in a way that's going to make it more marketable and more valuable if and when.   you decide to pull the trigger. And I think you said it well, if you're going to sell your home, you're going to make improvements to your home to ensure that it's the sexiest house in the neighborhood when it's time to sell so that it sells quickly and for top dollar. Sometimes when you make improvements on your home, like you make improvements on your practice by working with a consultant, you decide to live in it because you've now created the environment.   Kiera Dent (12:47.566) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (12:51.337) that you want to have long term. So I think evaluating your business early and investing in changes that can make your practice more marketable, more valuable when it's time to liquidate it is going to make your life more enjoyable along the way and then make the windfall bigger and better when it's time to sell. So we always like to start these conversations early, start this education early rather than calling me.   you know, the day after you were ready to sell. And then I have to deal with the asset, you know, as it sits. And a lot of times it's avoiding the mistakes that doctors make leading up to a sale rather than having to make changes to the practice to make it more marketable or more valuable. So I think you really want to do both. You want to avoid the mistakes and then make the enhancements so that we have a much better asset to sell when it's time to go to market.   Kiera Dent (13:47.342) For sure. I think the question comes up Brandon of will private practice be around long -term or is it just the inevitable that I am going to sell to a DSO? I think that's a question a lot of doctors right now are facing because like, are we going to become like healthcare? Are we going to like all the mom and pop locations in healthcare pretty much got swooped up and now healthcare is very standardized and now we're starting to see the branch off. I think it's funny to watch. I'm like the two industries while yes, still healthcare.   they're shifting sides. Like, I don't think healthcare will ever go back to private practice, but there's a lot of healthcare providers that are doing their own thing. They're doing the concierge, they're coming to people's homes, they're starting their own like fee for service clinics because they're sick of the pieces. And I think that that's what dentists are afraid of. And I feel like, I feel like we as dentists and like the people in there right now are at a pivotal point that's going to actually lay the foundation for the future of dentistry.   And so it's like, are all the dentists right now going to sell it and they're all going to become like standardized healthcare. And that's going to actually hurt our industry in the future. Or is it like kind of an inevitable where it's going to happen regardless. So I might as well like selling cash out because I happen to be a part of the wave, kind of like, you know, the 2020 boom of homes and like, Hey, it's just right time, right place. And you happen to be a part of this evolution. Like what's kind of your take on the...   the landscape and what it's gonna look like and say like the next 20 to even 50 years, which I know is a pretty far projection, but I think people are also thinking about that. They want the money, but they also don't wanna hurt our industry and long -term make it to where it becomes this not as, I think, patient -centric due to the fact of all the different pieces in play.   Brannon Moncrief (15:28.169) Yeah, I love this question. So as your practice gets larger and larger, as you start to talk about a multi -million dollar rev practice, multi -doc practice, it does become exponentially more valuable and more marketable in the DSO private equity world versus the more traditional practice sale environment. As a practice gets larger and larger, it actually becomes less valuable and more difficult to sell to a private buyer. So I think inevitably with the move towards group   practice and these larger and larger offices, they're harder to liquidate in a traditional sales. So many of them by default will sell to DSOs and private equity, some type of institutional corporate buyer. I think you'll see that trend continue. And it's kind of a unique trend. And it's one of the reasons private equity got into the space. I mean, up until 10 years ago, it was actually pretty rare.   Kiera Dent (16:03.182) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (16:26.441) to run into a dental practice that had more than $2 million a year in revenue. Now it's extremely common. To answer your question directly though, I think private practice will survive long -term, but I think it has to evolve and emulate some of what DSOs are doing in order to fight some of the headwinds that the industry is facing. So the move towards the group practice model, multiple doctors working in larger facilities,   Kiera Dent (16:26.926) I agree.   Brannon Moncrief (16:56.265) I think that's definitely going to have to happen. Larger practices can leverage economies of scale to drive up reimbursement rates and drive down overhead expenses. So I think that's going to be a necessity. Going multi -specialty, you know, patients don't want to go to, you know, five different practices for their dental care. They want to go to one location. So the more you can create a one -stop shop, a multi -specialty practice.   Kiera Dent (17:18.83) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (17:25.929) I think the better you're gonna do with patient retention. So I think as long as private practice is paying attention to the trends in the DSO space and emulating what DSOs are doing well and then moving the other direction on the things that DSOs are not doing well, I think private practice can thrive long -term. So I think there's gonna be a balance.   I think DSOs are going to continue to consolidate the marketplace to the point where we get to probably maybe 50 max 60 % consolidation, but a large part of the marketplace will always remain private. We are about 10 years behind general healthcare and medicine. Dentistry tends to lag about a decade behind general medicine. The difference between dentistry and general healthcare is that   Kiera Dent (18:15.694) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (18:24.137) in general medicine, the government is heavily involved. Medicare, Medicaid, you know, they really control pricing to some extent and a lot of regulatory oversight. We don't have as much of that in dentistry. So unless dentistry fully integrates with general health care and then becomes subsidized by the government and somewhat controlled by the government, I think private practice will survive. And   Kiera Dent (18:27.214) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (18:32.974) Yeah.   Brannon Moncrief (18:53.481) potentially thrive long term.   Kiera Dent (18:55.502) Is there a possible black swan event? And I have not thought about this until our conversation of insurance is actually coming in and playing a factor because like, what is it? I think it's called the PBM in healthcare where literally they came through and they started to regulate the number, like the costs that people were able to pay. And so I thought like that could theoretically be a black swan event within dental where there could become a PBM that regulates all the fees that were allowed to charge.   insurance, like there's more with insurance and dental, would that change the landscape? Because now you're not getting as high as multiples, right? Like the profitability would radically go down on dental practices per se, if it's all regulated through that. Do you see that even being a possibility that could come in and play? Or do you think that they'll still stay out of it and DSOs will still continue to dominate through the market?   Brannon Moncrief (19:44.297) It's a possibility, but not a strong likelihood. And if and when we were to see that, it's going to take 30, 40, 50 years for that to happen. Dentistry is extremely fragmented right now. And that's why private equity, that's why DSOs love it. And to me, that's why we don't have some of that systemic risk that general healthcare had when all the hospital systems started buying up all of the practices. We will get to a point.   Kiera Dent (19:57.358) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (20:11.342) Gotcha.   Brannon Moncrief (20:12.745) probably 10, 15 years from now where the DSOs segment of dentistry will consolidate, the consolidators will start to consolidate other consolidators. So maybe there's only 10, 15 DSOs left standing, but I don't think they're gonna control 80, 90 % of the marketplace at that point. I think just from an efficiency standpoint and regulatory standpoint, it will make sense for that side of the marketplace.   Kiera Dent (20:17.23) Yes.   Kiera Dent (20:23.598) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (20:33.55) Gotcha.   Brannon Moncrief (20:42.121) to themselves consolidate. But I think dentistry will always, to some extent, be a boutique, privately held business. I don't ever foresee it going fully DSO or follow the path that medicine has taken. That's my hope, even though I'll probably be retired by the time we get there.   Kiera Dent (21:00.366) Interesting.   Kiera Dent (21:05.518) Yeah. And likewise, I mean, it was just an interesting thought of like, because I'm like, what would turn over the DSO space? What would flip this entire thing? And I'm like, I think it'd be the insurances, which I don't know if the insurances have any desire to play in the game of dental, but I am thinking you get more DSOs, less practices that they're trying to serve. I could see insurances getting smart and savvy.   to where they start to almost trying to infiltrate the DSO world as well. I just don't know if they'd let them in because it's going to cut profitability. So I'm not sure how it would play into it, but always enjoy a good like, let's just talk future and could that impact at some point.   Brannon Moncrief (21:42.953) You know, I think the interesting difference between general health care and dentistry really comes down to the fact that health insurance, you typically have it for really dramatic events. Yes, it helps subsidize, you know, ongoing care. But one of the reasons you really need to have health insurance is because if you have a massive health problem or have to get a very serious, potentially life saving drug or surgery, it could bankrupt you overnight. Right.   Kiera Dent (21:59.694) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (22:11.566) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (22:12.873) Dentistry isn't really like that, right? So for that reason, you don't have to have dental insurance. Most people can figure out a way to come out of pocket to pay for their dental care that they need in order to just be a normal, average, healthy human being. That difference right there, I think will keep the government out of dentistry and will keep insurance from controlling dentistry. Does that make sense?   Kiera Dent (22:15.374) It's going down.   Kiera Dent (22:29.998) for sure.   Kiera Dent (22:38.798) That's a good point. Yeah, it does. And I also think the DSOs though, with as many as they have, we do need to be careful for the private practices that remain. They might have the ability to drive prices down because they can, because they can do less on procedures to get more patients to come, which would then hurt the private practice space. So just kind of keeping those things in mind. But again, you're trading off like boutique private practice for more corporate DSO. And is that going to impact it or not? But I think something to note. So,   I want to switch gears into DSOs. Talk to us about what like, I love starting with the why I think that that's important. And I think some people don't know and today you might not know, but at least having the cards on the table, I think helps you make better decisions. So what are some of like the mistakes you see of dentists selling to DSOs? My first one I think is it's emotional and they just get sick of it. It's a bad day. So they decide to sell. And I think that that's never a good way to make decisions. But what are some of the mistakes you guys see consistently across the board that dentists do?   because there's horror stories of DSO. Like I just heard of a big DSO going bankrupt and people had so much of their quote unquote, like valuation of their practices in the DSO stocks. And it's completely gone. Like all the savings, all the money, all the equity that they thought they had is gone and they don't have their practices either. And I'm like, they're literally left almost like they're not bankrupt per se, but they're pretty darn low compared to what they thought they were getting. So walk me through these mistakes, things you see, some of the horror stories and how   these dentists can protect themselves and be more educated.   Brannon Moncrief (24:09.801) So first and foremost, the failure to really define your why, right? I think, like you said, a lot of dentists, it's like FOMO, or they had a bad day. They make an emotional decision. They get burned out from really, typically not the dentistry, but working on the business, managing the business. So you've got to define your way. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (24:27.534) All the things they deal with, they don't want that.   Brannon Moncrief (24:34.217) And look, I mean, most dentists don't enjoy, especially the HR component. That's become an absolute nightmare, you know, post COVID. But you've got to define your why in order to determine is a DSO affiliation even the right fit for you and is now the right time to pursue it. So if you don't clearly define the why, you run the risk of selling to a DSO when maybe that wasn't the proper course of action. You run the risk of selling to the wrong DSO.   that's not prepared to actually allow you to accomplish your goals, especially if you're looking for operational and administrative support. Responding to an unsolicited offer is a big one. Like you said, a lot of your clients getting solicited on a daily basis by DSOs, their goal is to do a deal in the dark. Their goal is for you to not have somebody like me at the table. They want what they call a proprietary lead.   Kiera Dent (25:24.43) you   Brannon Moncrief (25:31.817) Because at the end of the day, their fiduciary responsibility is to their investors. And their goal is to buy low and sell high. And if you don't create competition for your practice, if you don't control the narrative regarding EBITDA, you're going to leave a lot of money on the table, potentially millions. So by responding to an unsolicited offer, by not having a sell side advisor, by not creating competitive environment for your practice, one, you don't have optionality. If you don't have optionality, you don't have perspective as to,   you know, what different DSOs are out there, because they're all different, you know, to some degree, they all have a different deal structure, a different financial sponsor, they're at a different stage in the recap cycle, they have a different management team, and they have a different approach to dentistry and to operations and management. So you've got to make sure you date around to really get perspective and create optionality. And then that optionality, go ahead.   Kiera Dent (26:24.814) How, Brennan, can I interrupt right there? How much variability is there from DSO to DSO? Because I am very naive on this and my thought is like, no, they all pay you X percent and it's the same across the board. How much variability is there per DSO?   Brannon Moncrief (26:38.793) It's wild how much the deal structures vary, how the size of each DSO is different, their leadership team is different, how involved they are in the day -to -day operation of your business is very different. Some of them have virtually no infrastructure and really no ability to help you operate your business. And some of my clients are like, that's fine. I want them to give me the cash and leave me alone. Other DSOs have a really robust infrastructure and are really hands -on operationally on the day -to -day.   Kiera Dent (27:01.07) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (27:07.689) And for some of my clients, they want that, right? They want help administratively. So.   Kiera Dent (27:09.998) But like, I can't understand why a dentist would want to sell to a DSO that's not going to support you with all the like nonsense that they've got to deal with. They take the money and they become an associate. Is it just for the stock buy -in of the DSO? Like to me, I cannot understand that purchase. Help me understand that one. Cause I think that that one feels just so silly. And like, why would you ever do that? You're literally giving up your profitability to be an associate.   And I just cannot understand that. Help me understand that. I understand why you would sell to someone who's got more infrastructure to help you with it, but like, why? Why would you do that?   Brannon Moncrief (27:46.505) I think it has to be a balance of support and autonomy. Most of my clients want support, but they don't want some corporate overlord. So it's evaluating, what are your pain points? What do you want to get off your plate? And is the DSO prepared to take those responsibilities? And is it better to affiliate with a DSO and give up a majority ownership interest versus outsourcing those things and hanging on to your business?   Kiera Dent (27:51.534) I agree.   Brannon Moncrief (28:16.521) I think a lot of it comes down to what is your runway to exiting your business? That dictates, and then what is the valuation of your business comparative to selling in a more traditional sense to a private buyer? If you've got $4 or $5 million in revenue and a million or more in EBITDA, and you have a plan to exit your business five years or less, hands down almost every time, economically speaking,   Kiera Dent (28:21.55) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (28:45.065) Assuming you partner with a DSO that's well positioned to hit a recap within that five year window, selling to a DSO is economically going to win every time. But a lot of our clients in that scenario were like, okay, that's economically going to win, but I want to keep my autonomy. So I want to partner with a DSO that's not going to be really involved in my business on the day to day. This is purely an economic play versus others that say, look, economics are important, but what I really want is support.   Kiera Dent (29:08.27) Thank you.   Brannon Moncrief (29:14.569) I want to really go back to being a dentist, focusing on the patient experience, clinical dentistry. I don't really want to be so much involved in the day -to -day operation of the business. In that sense, you've got to look for a DSO that's got the infrastructure and it's got the managerial and operational pedigree to actually step in and take over those responsibilities. The worst case scenario is when you're that person and you're like, hey, I'm okay with giving up the economics. I want the support.   Kiera Dent (29:14.638) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (29:42.825) and then you don't properly vet the DSOs and create competition for your practice, and you partner with the ESO that can't offer any support. So now you're in the same position, but you're making a lot less money. So that's why creating optionality and vetting the DSOs is so critically important. And by creating that optionality, not only are you gonna land with the right DSO, but you create the leverage to negotiate a much better financial outcome. By creating competition for your practice,   Kiera Dent (29:45.838) agreed.   Kiera Dent (30:09.006) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (30:12.617) and running the process, utilizing what we call a bid process, having DSOs bid on your practice, controlling the narrative regarding EBITDA and holding their feet to the fire, you're probably gonna increase your valuation by 20 to 25 % compared to an unsolicited offer. We've worked with clients that already had an unsolicited offer on the table. We reset the playing field that our own EBITDA analysis went to the open market and created a competitive landscape.   We ultimately ended up selling to that same DSO that had made that unsolicited offer, but for 30, 40 % more than their initial offer. If that doesn't tell you how opportunistic and somewhat predatory DSOs and private equity are, I don't know what else will.   Kiera Dent (30:57.358) Yeah. And I think, so can you tell me then like economically speaking, what is a good deal? It's not like support wise, what is a good deal? And then I have a follow up question of the risk on that. So what does a good deal look like? Like what are some of the highest ones you're seeing economically? So we're talking top dollar, not support, none of those things, because there might be a trade off to that, but like what is your highest one?   Brannon Moncrief (31:21.481) You touched on it though, you've got to evaluate your risk tolerance. And that's where you have to look at cash versus equity and where the equity is held. So a lot of our.   Kiera Dent (31:25.166) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (31:29.582) Because that's the piece that I really feel like, to me, I feel like that's actually such a big risk because these DSOs are buying, but if they go bankrupt, the worst case scenario is you lose all that stock, right? And so really only the amount that they paid you is what you get because they technically own your practice and you don't, you might not even have a job. Is that true?   Brannon Moncrief (31:46.601) It depends. So what you're describing is a holding company model where you own the stock at the parent company of the DSO. So you sell 100 % of your business and you trade a piece of the value of your business. Let's say 30 % of the value of your business. You exchange that for stock and the DSO is holding company and that scenario.   Kiera Dent (31:54.094) Right.   Kiera Dent (32:04.142) Because that also helps with taxes, right? Like that's a tax offset. Instead of you just getting the whole cash for it, it can help offset your taxes and not get as much cash from that.   Brannon Moncrief (32:12.521) Correct. The taxes on the equity component are deferred until you actually liquidate that stock. But in that scenario, you are betting on the DSO being successful and hitting a recap and having the ability to liquidate that equity. If the DSO is not successful, if they do go bankrupt, and I do want to make the point, there are a handful of DSOs that have gone bankrupt or that are headed there in short order. By and large, most of the DSOs are relatively healthy financially. In any industry,   Kiera Dent (32:17.774) Right.   Brannon Moncrief (32:40.233) you're going to see some companies that get a unicorn result and absolutely knock it out of the park. You're gonna see a handful that go BK and the rest are gonna fall somewhere in the middle. But there is risk in all of these deals. And that's where, you know, working with somebody like me that's constantly monitoring the health of these DSOs and vetting them and only allowing the best options at the table is critically important because it's very difficult for you to do isolated in your business all day.   to really understand the entire landscape and properly vet the buyers. So in the holding company model, where all of your stock is at the DSO level, you do run the risk that you can lose all of that equity if that DSO completely fails financially. The more realistic scenario is that you don't get the type of return that you were promised on that equity. You're able to liquidate it but not at the three, four, five X return.   that the DSO may have promised you when they initially acquired your practice. The other model out there is the joint venture model where you sell a majority ownership interest in your practice. Maybe you sell 51 to 70 % of the equity in your business, but the remaining equity is actually retained equity in your own practice. So in that scenario, there's a little bit less risk because you still own equity in your own business and you can own that equity long -term. You're likely...   even if the DSO goes bankrupt, ever going to have to forfeit that equity. So in the joint venture model, I feel like there's a little bit less risk, a little bit more control over what happens with the equity comparative to the holding company model.   Kiera Dent (34:21.166) Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Gotcha. So like, what is a good... I mean, there's so many pieces. And like, what determines good, I think, plays to your tax strategy, plays to where you are on your retirement run, plays to how long you want to keep doing dentistry. And because really, from what I understand from a lot of those joint venture ones, it's you get paid X amount, and then you have X amount that's in stock.   that X amount is paid to in a check, you have to work for X number of years. They basically have turned you into an associate. And I bet you you still stay it. You're not an associate, right? But they still pay you as an associate, don't they?   Brannon Moncrief (34:53.993) The joint venture model is.   In a joint venture model, you're going to have chair side income like you were working as an associate, but you're also going to have a pro rata share of EBITDA if you still own equity at the practice level. In the holding company model, you're purely an associate because you no longer own equity at the practice level. So you're selling 100 % of the EBITDA and the DSO is going to control that. So you have to be prepared to live on your chair side income.   Kiera Dent (35:26.798) Mm -hmm. Right.   Brannon Moncrief (35:27.721) So again, that's why the joint venture model, or at least having some sort of joint venture component, your ongoing income's going to be higher than it would be in a holding company scenario. But you've got to evaluate. If you're going to liquidate a piece of your business, you're going to take a pay cut. And you've got to evaluate what is your pre -closing income, what is your post -closing income, what is your annual personal burn rate, and how does that compare to your post -closing income? Are you going to be able to live on?   Kiera Dent (35:44.014) correct.   Kiera Dent (35:51.822) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (35:57.353) your annual income until you're waiting for that recap event to occur. But to go back to your question.   Kiera Dent (36:02.734) Well, don't forget, like how many things do we run through the businesses too? So don't just think it's your, what you're being paid. I had a dentist just recently do this who thought about selling to a DSO and did not realize that there was an additional almost 300 ,000 being run through the business annually in addition to their associate pay and their W -2. And so just realizing like that's going away and that's not probably going to be there. And so making sure, because we think our take -home pay is just our associate pay.   and or W2 that we're getting for taxes to minimize the tax running through the business. But all those things running through the business are truly your like pay. And so just making sure you're set up because I do know a lot of dentists struggle on that to make sure like you said the burn rate, how much you're getting from it. But I, it's just it's so interesting to me of like, how do they actually make wise choices on it? And it feels like it feels like a convoluted mess is what it feels like, like, how do I know how it's hard?   Brannon Moncrief (36:55.817) It's a very complicated. It's a, it should be a very complicated discussion. I think the problem is, and one of the reasons we got involved in the space is so many doctors were making it very simplistic. They were pulling the trigger on a DSO sale, had no idea what their EBITDA was. Their buddy sold to this DSO. This business development guy walks in the door. He seems nice. He makes an offer that's higher than what a private buyer would pay. And before you know it, they've sold the goose.   Right? And then later they find out what they actually got themselves into and how the equity functions and what their rights are at recap. And that maybe they undersold their business or sold it prematurely, or maybe a DSO affiliation wasn't the right fit for them. So you've got to be pragmatic. You've got to be intentional. And this is a complicated conversation because we started talking about where is the equity held? How does that impact, you know, risk? How does that impact your ongoing compensation?   Kiera Dent (37:34.062) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (37:51.598) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (37:53.929) we could get really deep in talking about the tax implications in the sense that at the initial close, there's gonna be major tax implications. You're gonna lose potentially a lot of your write -offs. You might be paying a lot of personal things pre -tax by running it through your business. Now at the same time, by monetizing your business, most of which is gonna be a capital gain, you're converting EBITDA, which is ordinary income,   Kiera Dent (37:57.038) to 100%.   Kiera Dent (38:05.55) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (38:20.393) into a capital game. There's massive tax advantages in doing that. So normally there's a push and pull with every single one of these elements of these deals. And in order to be fully educated, you need your financial advisor involved. You need us involved. You need your CPA involved. These are very, very complex conversations that need to occur front end really before you ever start to entertain interest or offers from a DSO.   Kiera Dent (38:24.142) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (38:45.294) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (38:50.505) So our process is four to six weeks of education, valuation, talking with your advisors, working with your team to make sure one, what's your why and is this a fit? And then two, can you afford to do it? And are you fully aware of all the levers involved in the deal? Are you aware of the tax implications? Are you aware of what your post -closing incomes are gonna look like and how that compares to your living expense needs?   How does the cash it close after tax and any type of closing cost? How does that fit into your overall financial picture and retirement goals? It's a very, very complex detailed conversation. You should not enter into the decision to sell your practice to a DSO casually. And again, that's why we got so involved in this. I wanna go back to your question. It was like, what does a good outcome look like? And good outcomes,   Kiera Dent (39:36.334) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (39:43.79) Yeah.   Brannon Moncrief (39:46.537) in today's marketplace typically look like monetizing your business for no less than seven times EBITDA. I have not closed the deal at less than seven times EBITDA in three years. So if you're entertaining interest from a DSO and they're offering you less than seven times EBITDA, no doubt you're leaving money on the table. We have sold practices for as high as nine, 10 times EBITDA, even recently, despite the fact that interest rates are elevated and the capital markets are tight.   You know, I love deal structures that involve a joint venture component where you're going to have some practice level retained equity, because then you're going to have some ongoing pro rata EBITDA distributions on top of your chair side comp, especially for my younger doctors that have a longer runway. I think that that structure, either a pure joint venture or a hybrid structure that combines joint venture equity with holding company equity makes a lot of sense. And then just ensuring that you clearly define the why.   Kiera Dent (40:21.934) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (40:32.59) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (40:45.417) and you're getting what you want out of the transaction so that you don't have seller's remorse. If you want full autonomy, you want the DSO to be hands -off and very light support, partner with a DSO that functions in that manner. If you want to work with a DSO that's got heavy infrastructure because you either want to take a step back and you don't want to manage your business or you want to really scale your business and you need somebody that's got the operational support to help you do that.   you've got to end up with a DSO that is a fit with that vision. So it's really personal. Everybody's kind of got a different why. Everybody's at a different stage in their career and a different season in life. And everybody's got a different personal financial situation. So evaluating all of that before we go to market is really going to dictate who we're going to market the practice to and what a good outcome is going to look like.   Kiera Dent (41:18.446) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (41:41.641) If I have five of your clients and they all want to go to market and sell to a DSO, there's a high probability they sell to five different buyers.   Kiera Dent (41:48.462) I would agree.   Yeah. And something I was thinking as you were saying that, Brenna, I don't know if you're open to this, but I might consider throwing on one other question of you start with your why. Second, you figure out like what you want for your retirement piece of like, what do you financially also need it to be? Because I think there could be a why, but also you want to make sure like you said, no sellers remorse of the financial aspect from tax implications to reoccurring monthly revenue for you of how much you're taking home. And then also what your retirement looks like. I would venture to guess that one where it's all in the holding company is probably going to have a high   higher return due to the fact that there's more risk. Like that one to me feels like, like that's how they're going to be able to get you to come. Right. If, cause it's, if they get there and you have nothing else there, if it's all within, um, and the other one sound like probably not as high, but again, that's the same thing in the stock market, right? You go all in risk or you go to private equity or you go to venture capitalism, you have an opportunity for way higher return. You also have opportunity for like nothing to pan out. And so I think it's just like really weighing that in. So your why.   Brannon Moncrief (42:25.705) if they get there, right? Yeah.   Kiera Dent (42:49.678) your financial piece. And then like you said, not, I think knowing that there's so many DSOs out there, that feels exhausting to try and vet them all and like have a spreadsheet of all 500 and what the offer is and what they're willing to, like that's too much. And so really it's like you hone it in and then you figure out the DSOs that really fit to it. But I think that this is where people then make either the I'm not selling or the I'm just going to sell because it feels too hard to educate. And so my recommendation, that's why I wanted Brandon to come on today is,   call you. How does it even look to work with you? So let's educate them on that. But like, get the pieces in place. It's kind of like a will. It was really weird for me to put up a will. And I felt very awkward having to call some siblings and say, Hey, if I die, or I'm in a coma, this is what we do. And I remember feeling like very shaken for a good couple of weeks. And then as soon as we signed it was like, got it. I know what I'm going to do. I know what happens. Like there's no more of that fear around it.   But getting to that took me quite a few weeks to get there and to get all the pieces in play. And I kind of feel like it's a similar thing with your practice, but getting a plan in play. So when these offers come through, you're not just one day on a bad day, selling your whole practice and your whole livelihood on a whim. So Brandon, how does it look like? Do they have to pay you? Do you guys do it for free? Is it a complimentary thing? Like what's your, I truly don't even know. So it's education for me too. How does it work for them to start getting educated, getting their plan in place kind of like a will.   So when they're ready to sell, everything's in place and they know exactly what they want to do or they keep it. And they also are totally confident with that today, knowing that they could change their mind in a few years if their life changes as well.   Brannon Moncrief (44:24.937) We always start with a casual, we call it discovery call. And that's typically a call with me. That's what I do all day long, is talk to large practice owners. And this is whether you're interested in going the private buyer route or going the DSO route. I want to make the point that we're agnostic and very objective. We can help you execute at a high level, irregardless of what path you want to go down. But we start with a discovery call just to get to know each other. Spend 30, 45 minutes, talk to me about your why, tell me a little bit about your practice.   Talk to me about your family. Talk to me about your runway to retirement. Why did you decide to pick up the phone? And call me. What's the goal? And from there, we decide, does it make sense to do a deep dive? Do an EBIT analysis. Do a cashflow analysis. Quantify what's your practice worth in the private buyer world. What's it worth in the DSO world? We kind of do a SWOT analysis to also determine if you're going to sell three or five years from now.   Kiera Dent (45:01.422) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (45:20.713) where do we see some blind spots? Where do we see some areas for improvement? So we can do some coaching on those calls. And typically, if they're not ready to go to market and they do have some things they want to work on, that's where you come into play, right? So we go through that process of doing evaluation, talking about the economics, talking about options. And that cost for that exercise is $2 ,500. That is credit towards our fee if and when down the road.   we consummate a sale. And we have a lot of clients that are a year away, three years away, five years away from actually executing on a sale. We only charge the valuation fee once and we'll update it at no cost when the doctor's ready to go to market. But what it does is establishes a baseline. It establishes where am I at today? And we can often help coach you to re -engineer essentially the goal that you're ultimately looking to achieve. And once we've established that,   intimate relationship through doing the valuation, we can actually be an advisor to you along the way. Otherwise, if we haven't done a deep dive on your practice, it's all anecdotal in nature. So once we've done the valuation, we talk about options. If it's time to execute a sale and go to market, then we sign a listing agreement to represent the doctor in marketing their business and negotiating a sale. And at that point, we take the opportunity to market to all the DSOs that we feel could be a   good fit and for lack of a better word, create a bidding war. And we help our clients vet each DSO. We help with the diligence process. We help control the narrative regarding EBITDA. We analyze all the offers as they come in and decide how are we going to negotiate once all offers are on the table? Do we have a clear front runner or we want to call for best and final among multiple parties? And then once we ink an LOI, we help them navigate the closing process.   Kiera Dent (46:53.102) Mm -hmm.   Brannon Moncrief (47:16.137) Bring in the CPA, bring in the attorney, bring in the financial advisor at the appropriate time and help negotiate all of the major and minor points of the deal. Navigate the legal agreements, navigate diligence and ultimately navigate closing and integration. The whole process is kind of daunting from a 10 ,000 foot perspective. Our job is to break it into very manageable pieces and make sure that you're educated and represented from start to finish.   Kiera Dent (47:33.806) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (47:43.854) And so, Brandon, please, I hope, I try so hard not to be offensive and I'm very dis -simple minded. So I hope this lands like very clean and nice. It feels like you're almost like my real estate agent. Like you help me get my house ready. You help me know what's a good market value. You help me figure it out. Then you help me market it. We find all the potential buyers. You help me get my pieces and then we sell it and close and off we go. So that's kind of how it feels like in simple terms of someone who's never sold in a DSO what that looks like. But how is your guys is like a real estate agent. They have,   X percentage off of it. Do you guys do a percentage or are you flat feet?   Brannon Moncrief (48:17.097) Yeah, we typically charge a percentage and that percentage can range from anywhere from 6 to 9 % depending on the size at close. Yep. With the valuation fee credited towards our commission. So 6 to 9 % of the value of the business. Our goal is obviously for you to be educated, create a lot more optionality so that you land with the right buyer and then negotiate a premium of 20 to 30 % comparative to what you would get.   Kiera Dent (48:25.614) of the clothes, right? Okay.   Brannon Moncrief (48:47.049) negotiating with the same exact buyers on your own. So we like to at least double or triple our fee economically in return of value. And I like the analogy to a real estate agent in one sense, but real estate is relatively simplistic, right? It's heavily regulated. No, no, no, no, I think it's a good comparison. And here's why. That is a heavily regulated industry.   Kiera Dent (49:05.07) Totally. That's what I said, don't take offense. I know it's really simple.   Brannon Moncrief (49:13.865) relatively easy to pinpoint what your house is worth, comparative to the other houses in your neighborhood. And if you listed it on Redfin or somewhere else, you could probably sell it on your own. But the reality is, 95 % of us hire a real estate agent when we go to sell our home, despite the fact that it's a really linear process and it's highly regulated. DSOs, private equity, the Wild West. It is not regulated at all.   Kiera Dent (49:39.182) Exactly.   Brannon Moncrief (49:41.545) your business, the value of your business is gonna be predicated upon your EBITDA and how you control that narrative. There's a lot of different options out there and it's not a linear path from start to finish. So it's much, much more complex than selling a home and that's why if you're gonna hire a real estate agent to sell your house, you sure as hell need a strong team of people behind you to sell your business, which is likely your most valuable asset and...   you're probably more invested in emotionally than you are your home.   Kiera Dent (50:13.486) I would agree. And so Brandon, my last question for you, and then we got to wrap, is how do I know that your percentage fee is good versus going and vetting other companies like you? Because now I've got like multiple companies. I've got to find somebody like you, aka real estate agent, for simple terms. And then I've got to figure out the DSOs, aka all the buyers and figure out which ones of those are good. How do I vet and like know that your fee is a good fee and I'm not overpaying, just like real estate agents, right? There's some that are like 2%, some that are 5%. Like they've kind of like,   narrowed out because we can see it and it's exposed when I'm looking on a house. I can see the seller and the buyer or the agent's commissions. How do I know that your fee is a good fee? And I know that that's asking you, but like to educate the consumer, how do they know if they're getting a good deal with you and to work with you versus another firm?   Brannon Moncrief (51:00.777) So as far as fees go, our fees are relatively similar to the other advisors in the space. It really comes down to experience and reputation. And I would encourage any of your clients to do as much vetting of us as they would like. Look at our 125 -star Google reviews. We have plenty of client references that are like, thank god I hired these guys because this process was extremely complicated.   And I had an offer from a DSO before I hired them and they got me 30, 40 % more. So between references, experience, reputation, I mean, that's how you know that we drive value for our clients. And so much so that if I have a conversation with a client and I don't feel like my representation is going to move the needle, I won't take them on as a client. You know, you and I both relatively young in this for the long term.   Kiera Dent (51:52.782) Okay. Cool.   Brannon Moncrief (51:57.577) I've spent 20 years building a fantastic reputation and if we can't provide value, we're not going to take on a client.   Kiera Dent (52:05.87) Cool. And I think that that's what it is, right? Like let's educate on DSOs, but then also educate on firms to represent us going to the DSOs. So Brandon, that was so helpful. I feel like it was so much clarity and also so much muddling. I'm like, oh my gosh, this was like an onion with so many more layers I didn't realize. So I just appreciate your time. I know you're speaking with our doctors really soon coming up as well that are part of our company. But if you want to connect with you, just want to start to get educated, what's the best way for them to reach out with you?   Brannon Moncrief (52:33.609) Yeah, you can text me, you can call me. Text is probably better, text or email to schedule a discovery call. So my cell phone number, everybody thinks I'm crazy for giving out my cell, but this is all I do all day is talk to doctors. It's 512 -660 -8505. That's 512 -660 -8505. And my email is Brannon, B -R -A -N -N -O -N at dental.   Transitions .com. And I encourage people to check out the website. We have a lot of great podcasts, webinars, articles on the website. Again, we like to lead through education. So dentaltransitions .com. Check it out. And yeah, if you want to have a conversation, please reach out.   Kiera Dent (53:22.83) Awesome. Brandon, this is so great. And I hope all of you like just take time to get educated because I believe fear is there when we're not educated. And then we have more cards in our hand to be able to play and make smarter decisions. Biggest thing I beg of all of you is no rash decisions based on emotion. Let's get our will, aka our DSO sell plan. Cause at some point you will sell your practice in place before you need to. And that way you just know the cards on hand. And Brandon, just appreciate you a ton. I think you're doing great things in the industry. So everyone reach out and as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

When it comes to a prospective patient’s first phone call to your practice, there is magic that should be happening to convert the call into a visit. Tiff and Dana talk through that process, including the right energy to give, what to say, the information to request, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Practice Momentum Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

This episode is all about celebrating your team and practice. Kiera gives ideas for adding more fun to the work day while still keeping things professional. Remember, applying flavor is a culture builder, marketing tool, energy booster, and more. Episode resources: Wish Tiff and Kiera a happy birthday! Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

Kiera touches on the best-of from this year’s Dental A-Team Summit, including: your relationship between your work life and personal life; increasing production or improving efficiency; facing the pain of change; building long-term wealth; and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

Kiera is joined by Pedro Becker of Axle to talk about how to effectively use a centralized dental platform that utilizes artificial intelligence while staying human. Points of conversation include learning curves with automation, how this software is transforming dentistry, what’s easy for the patient and the practice, and more. Episode resources: Learn about Axle Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

Join Kiera as she uncovers the power of SOPs and Operations Manuals for dental practices. Learn how these tools can save time, ensure consistency, and streamline your operations. Discover practical tips for creating your own manual, from dividing tasks among team members to keeping protocols user-friendly and accessible. Tune in for expert advice on storage and maintenance, and revolutionize the efficiency of your practice. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast  

Kiera goes through different positions in the practice and gives advice on how to streamline. Examples include how office assistants can maximize their time; when doctors and office managers should schedule their week; the power of clustering and cadence; and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

Kiera and Britt are discussing the April book club selection, Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire by Dan Martell. They share their top takeaways about treating time valuably, how to best go about starting to delegate, where an assistant can fit in, and more. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Britt and Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

As an employer, it can definitely feel like all you do is give, and working with those team members who always want more can be a major hurdle. Kiera talks about the right way to approach giving, what to consider from the team member’s perspective, budget confines, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

If you’re looking to up your review game, it’s important that you’re in the right arena(s). In this episode, Kiera talks about why practices should showcase their best selves on social media. Specifically, she touches on the ideal number of reviews your practice should have, and why considering your social media presentation is so critical. Bonus: Ideas for social media content and a prime review resource! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast    

Kiera takes a close look at scheduling, and what to do when things are too full — a hot topic in offices right now. She urges listeners to change how insurance is being presented; avoid double-booking; and consider an expansion of hours. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

It’s time for a dive into brand awareness on social media. In this episode, Tiff and Dana talk about the realities of social media marketing for practices: the what, where, why, and how, including why it’s so critical, who you’re updating for, content ideas, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

Sometimes, when it comes to hiring, you just get lucky. In this episode, Kiera talks about the art of hiring: the good, the bad, and the lessons that come from both. You’ll hear advice on… How long you should wait to know if you’ve hired the right person Why it’s important to be practical when hiring, not emotional What hiring someone complementary to your style means And more Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

In marketing, every dollar counts. In this episode, Tiff and Dana talk about how to know if your marketing dollars are yielding the right results. They touch on why you need to know how much you’re spending on marketing; whether the ideal patient is being converted; and why your active patient count is so important. Want a spreadsheet to start tracking the important stuff? Email [email protected].  Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast

An office reached out to the Dental A-Team with the following question: How can an office manager earn respect from a team that’s not listening? Kiera shares tips on the proper approach to being an effective office manager (or anyone, really) in the dental practice.  She explains why OMs should:  Understand your motive in the position Consider the best interests of the business Avoid empty threats And more Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Dental A Team's Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast