Kiera talks about the concept “going into the storm,” aka how to approach those difficult conversations with team members, and how this builds trust as a practice. 

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I think is gonna be a really, really, really beneficial conversation. This is something that I've worked with tons of offices on. It's something that I feel is such a good just reminder of the type of practice, the type of leader that we wanna be. So, and it's called going into the storm, how to have hard conversations with your team and actually making them easy. So with that, ⁓ this is like, it's just random. So Buffalo, ⁓

 

I I'm going straight into a story for you. Why not? Happy dental day. Happy everything for you. But when Buffalo, there's a storm coming. So they watch this, basically like Yellowstone area over like the Rocky Mountains. When a storm comes, they've watched Buffalo behavior. What Buffalo do is they actually, the storm's coming at them, like these big, we're talking like a big, snowy, scary, terrifying storm, blinding. They can't see. I've been in some of these storms. Buffalo actually turn.

 

face the storm and walk through the storm. Like they literally go into the storm, whereas cows, what they do when the storm's coming, they see it and they actually pivot and they run away from the storm. And what's interesting is the buffalo, when they go and they hit it head on, they're actually able to get through the storm and be able to come out on the other side faster and with less like heartache and burn on them versus the cows that are actually in the storm so much longer because they avoided it.

 

And then they actually, the storm just like goes with them for much, much longer rather than hitting it head on and taking it on. So when we talk about this in teams and kudos to an awesome doctor up in New York, he's the one who introduced me to this. We talk about it in all of his practices. His practices are thriving. We've taken this to other offices. We do it within our company, but it's where can we go into the storm in our practices? Where are we avoiding conversations where if we would just have them head on, we'd actually be able to move it so much faster and further ahead.

 

And I think about this a lot of like those storms, if you realize, are actually the things that are the building blocks of gaining greater trust and vulnerability with each other. So we go to Patrick Lincione's five dysfunctions of a team. The bottom layer is trust and vulnerability. Then the next layer is healthy debate. Then the next layer is commitment. Then it's peer to peer accountability. And then it's results in winning. So if we look at all that, we break it down. People who go into the storm that's building trust and vulnerability and it's having a healthy debate.

 

versus those who avoid it or are avoided. Like it actually just makes it last longer. And I my little sister said, she's like, here, it's like 10 seconds of courage to overcome these things. And when you look at other opportunities and other stories and other scenarios, when people go into the storm, they walk out on the other side and they're like, gosh, I'm so glad I had that conversation. Even though it was a hard conversation, it ends rather than being avoided on it. And so having those...

 

All it does is it's going to build resentment when we are like the cattle and you're in it so much longer and it's more exhausting for you and it's more draining on you rather than turning it and going into the storm. So in your practice, I have some offices who have literally made like hats, t-shirts, swag, and they say go into the storm. And I think it's a really good reminder. And I'm even tempted to do it in our company. So like, Hey team listening, ⁓ I really think it's an awesome idea to just wear shirts, to make bracelets, to have it on a hat of go into the storm.

 

So you're reminding yourself that you're always going into the storm. I want to have this ⁓ conversation because true leaders go into the storm. Those who are followers avoid. And I just want you to realize like, who am I and what am I doing and what's my behavior? And so this healthy debate or healthy conversation actually allows for more direct conversation and builds trust and it builds a stronger practice. And it's wild because I had an office, we talked about this and we talked about their quarterly meeting.

 

And then three months later, I asked them how they're doing in their life. We've been going into the storm so much more. And when I talked to this office manager, she's like, Kiera, it's crazy how many times I need to go into the storm and how many times I was avoiding it in the past. But now that it's on the forefront of my mind, I'm thinking about it more. I'm doing it more. And I'm actually making it to where it's just better experience for me. So the dentistry team, our job is to like make your life easier. Our job is to make you more profitable, less stress, better patient experience. But when we make changes or when we do things in offices,

 

We've got lots of different behaviors in the practice. So we're going to have lots of different people there, which in that case, we're bound to have conversations that don't match. We're bound to have conflict. We're bound to have people that like, there's just going to be a misalignment, which is going to have the opportunity for frustration, confusion, chaos. And so when we have these conversations, when we teach you and your teams how to do this, your team actually flows. This is how we get flow in a practice. This is how we get ease. And actually, instead of having artificial harmony,

 

we actually have true harmony in our practice. And this will actually apply to your personal life. ⁓ Me, I have two sisters, so hello, welcome to three. There's always an odd man out or odd woman, if you will. And one of my little sisters, we realized that there was some pretty awesome opportunities for some healthy debate. My family is really solid on people pleasing. We think that that's the right way to go. Seven kids don't make a big mess, like it's fine. And I've noticed the more I coach and the more my company and the more I work with teams,

 

the less and less tolerant I am to people pleasing and not having conversations when they need to happen. And I remember my little sister and I was for my birthday. ⁓ She's 15 years younger than me. So life lessons, like I've clearly had a lot more life than she has. And ⁓ we went into the storm and my little sister felt like maybe I didn't like her and

 

We talked about it and I remember telling her, I waited about a week and I said, hey, Leticia, are you open to a conversation? And she said, yeah. I said, let's talk about what happened. And I helped her realize that like me having that kind of a conversation with her, like, let me know how it landed because in no way, or form, do I want to be rude or aggressive or anything like that. Cause I know I can have a bit more bold of personality site if you couldn't guess. I'm sure all of you can guess that. And I told her, said, like,

 

Me coming to you and having that conversation actually is me wanting to build more trust with you. So that way we can have conversations. You can tell me what you're feeling. I can tell you what I'm feeling and we don't have to sit here wondering and guessing or talking through other people. And I was actually like really, really proud of my little sister who's 23. Actually she just turned 24. But at 24 to learn these life lessons.

 

and to be open to it and to see that like going into the storm is not a bad thing, but it is uncomfortable because I think a lot of our lives and a lot of society has taught us to avoid to make sure people like us. But the real way for people to like us is to know that they trust us and that they can be real with us. So on that, this is something of like, Hey, if you're avoiding conversations or you're nervous about your leadership, this episode is your permission and your playbook to have these conversations and to truly go into the storm, to hit things head on and to not have the

 

the problems last for so long. So step one is like, let's get the facts in the right intention. So I'm really big on like, when we're highly charged and we come in and we are berating people or we're being rude, that actually can damage a relationship. So like you can go into the storm, but the way we go into the storm, let's have finessing grace rather than like attack mode. So what are the facts of the situation? What happened? What was said, what was done and what's needed to resolve it. And then, excuse me, I'm really big on like say what needs to be said.

 

So let's not just like go into it like, all right, facts are that you were a jerk, did this. Those are actually like someone being a jerk is not a fact. A fact is you said X, and Z on this date. This is how it landed. And these are the clear examples and we stay grounded. So this is where also metrics and KPIs are really great. So if your hygiene team is not hitting it, it's like the facts are that we're actually not hitting our three times our pay like we need to. We looked at all the open time in the schedule. So there's a scheduling issue. We also looked at what our

 

dollar per procedure has been for each hygienist. And we know this hygienist is hitting it, this hygienist is not. We also looked at like what's going on within those and what are the procedure makeups? Do you see how many facts I just brought to the table? So instead of being the hygienist is like, well, you don't give us the time. We can't hit three times. It's like, okay, here's the facts. Here's the data to back it up. Now let's figure out a solution together to make sure that we're able to hit three times our pay. Cause we need to take care of our patients and we need to make sure like this is something other offices can do. So let's make sure we do it. And then what we're going to do

 

is now that's like, we've got the right intention. And what I say is we spend like two minutes on talking about what the issue is very clearly clear as kind. And then we spend the rest of our conversation resolving it and finding solutions to it. So really the goal is to improve, it's not to shame or to blame or to nitpick that person's like, you did this. Like, no, that never is going to land well. That is one way to go into the storm, but that is not the best way to go into the storm. Like kudos, you actually have the combo.

 

but it didn't land in a way that somebody felt respected, heard, and that they're able to accomplish it. So the next step is we have that, prepared our facts and our intention. Next step is going to be like to communicate clearly and directly. Like I said, clear is kind. So we can use words like I've noticed or help me understand, or I'd like to understand your perspective on this. And we speak with empathy and firmness. So it's like we address the behavior, not the person. So it's never like, well, Sarah, you're not hitting your three times a pay. It's like, hey,

 

We've noticed this is happening. These are some of the facts. Help me understand what's going on so we can create a solution together to get to three times our pay. Notice on that, I did not tell them like this is open for negotiation, but I'm also not blaming you and telling you that you're wrong. It's like, hey, this is what's going on. Here are the facts. Help me understand your side. And then let's create a solution together that we both agree to that's going to be able to resolve this once and for all. ⁓ So when doctors and office managers come into it, I had a coach and she told me, always come from curiosity.

 

So when we're going into these, from curiosity, that's going into the storm in a way that's going to yield a positive result. It's like, hey, help me understand, or like, I'd love to understand more about this, ⁓ or hey, help me see your side on this. I'd really love to understand where you're coming from. So a lot of it's like, help me understand, help me understand. I'd love to know more. ⁓ Help me see your perspective on this. I'd love to understand your side. And truly, we're now listening to understand. We're not listening to respond.

 

And I hope you heard that you're listening to understand you're not listening to respond. And then from there, like honestly, I had a doctor, I giggle, I had a doctor who had to practice this with me. Like they literally had to sit there and have an uncomfortable conversation with me and they had to send me the video. So was like, how are you going to come into this? How are you going to approach it? How are you going to say like, help me understand this? How are you going to address the issue with facts? Help me understand more, Kiera. I remember the doctor said it to me and.

 

I watched it I was like, my gosh, we have to this conversation again. Like I swear we just had this and I called the doctor and I said, hey, I got your message. Thank you for it. Like help me understand like what we need to resolve with this conversation. The doctor like, no, we don't resolve anything. You just told me I had to practice. So had to send you another video of this, but we are resolved. like, but notice how you even came into that. Like I'm annoyed. Like, my gosh, I have to freaking have this conversation again.

 

But my ultimate intention is I want to get this resolved so it doesn't come up and I want to resolve it forever. And I really do want to understand what you're hearing, how this is landing so we can be on the same page. When we communicate, going to the storm for me is we are on the same page, we've made a resolve and we're committed to solving this forever. Notice, trust and vulnerability, then we go into healthy debate, then we go into commitment and then it's peer to peer so we can win. So on this, I'm like, my ultimate resolve is like, what do we need to commit to? What do we need to do to resolve this?

 

Like what do need to hear? What do I need to understand? So that way you and I are on the exact same page. So then after that, we then are able to have a follow up and accountability. So once we have that, like I just said, like we had the conversation, we have the intention, we had the healthy debate, whatever it is we commit, we commit 100 % and what we're going to follow through on. So we have a culture of follow through accountability. So it's like amazing. This is what we agreed to. This is when we're going to get it done and this is what you need and this is what I need. And this is when we're going to...

 

touch base and make sure it's good to go again. What I love is when these emails are like, you send this in a recap email form. So both of us, like there's no misunderstanding because what they've actually studied is people's memories are not actually real. We actually don't remember and we fabricate and we change. So like when you have eyewitnesses, actually not great witnesses because everybody's memories change all the time. So when we have black and white of a recap of, this is what we agreed to. This is what we said. These are the dates. Now there's no room for miscommunication.

 

And also what I like to do is on this follow-up accountability, I like to ask them, like, hey, also, I just want to make sure that what I was trying to communicate is what you heard. ⁓ Help me understand, like, what did you hear and how did this land for you? So you say this with Vanessa, because someone might say, like, Kiera, I heard that you think I'm a terrible hygienist and I'm actually doing an awful job. At that point, it's like, thank you for telling me. ⁓ Once again.

 

Help me understand what I said that made you feel that way, because that's not my intention at all. And I want to make sure we're on the same page. I appreciate you so much. So then they'll be like, well, when you said that I wasn't doing blah, blah, great. Well, now we can resolve it. We can fix it. Like, thank you. This is what I was trying to say. Is that more clear? Does that work? Are we on the same page? Then we have the follow up, the support. We follow through. We make sure it's going to be resolved forever. Now, this can be really awkward at first.

 

This is not something that I feel people are naturally born with most of the time. And I think that this is something to practice. So what we've got to do is the three steps for these going into the storm is we prepare with facts. We communicate with clarity. We're like, it's very clear. Like, hey, here's it. We have the facts in our intention. We communicate clear as kind. This is the issue. This is the resolve. Let's work together to find a solution. And then we're having accountability follow-up to make sure that we're on the exact same page with that email recap. And like, perfect. Help me understand. We're coming from curiosity.

 

This will help you have courageous, strong leader conversations. This will help you go into the storm more. And what's interesting is if you even want to take this podcast to your leadership team and help your whole leadership team hear this, like, we're going to go into the storm more this quarter. We're going to start practicing these conversations. We're going to start asking each other how it lands. What's amazing is within your office, it's like a little breeding group of everybody knows what's going on so I can practice on them. So then when I go to my family,

 

it's not as awkward and I can start to have it. And what's interesting is you will actually start to have less and less tolerance for artificial harmony and more and more craving to be on the same page, to have this conversation, to make sure we're communicating on the same page that we're actually communicating. And we're not just trying to talk through a window, right? Like at the stoplight, when you see a car over there and you're like, hey, your music's great. And they're like, what? That's how oftentimes communication is versus like, let's roll down the windows. Let's truly communicate. Let's go into the storm. Let's hit these issues head on.

 

hit the issues, not the person. Let's do it with poise, with finesse and grace. And you can even tell people like, hey, I'm practicing this. I heard it on a podcast. I'm not a hundred percent like great at this, but I'm going to do my best. And I want you to just give me feedback of how it landed for you so I can get better and better and better. This is where it's going to be where you can truly become an incredible leader. And I promise you, if you'll go into the storm, your life will be so much better. Let's get through it. Let's see that these are opportunities for you to grow all these storms, if you will.

 

are opportunities of your soul to grow, to evolve, and to become the person you were meant to be. So see it as the opportunity, see these as great blessings, see them as worthy opponents, see it as like, my gosh, I get an opportunity to grow and become a better version of myself. Thank you for showing up, thank you for this opportunity, and become the leader that you were meant to be. So if you're avoiding a conversation right now, this is your sign to go into the storm, and I'm sure all of us have it. What is the storm that you need to go into? And honestly, you can DM us, like, difficult conversation guide. We have a whole recipe of how to have a hard conversation.

 

⁓ And we're happy to share that with you. So just message us or email us. [email protected] ⁓ This is where I want you guys like the podcast is here for leadership tools. It's for tactical practical pieces. And honestly, maybe send this episode to a colleague to another doctor that maybe, know, doesn't go into the storm as much with their team. Send it to team members, office managers, send it to your office manager and say, Hey, I want to start having these conversations with you. I know I've been avoiding that. I think this is a great framework for us to now start to go into this and giving us permission to play.

 

to have these conversations together to grow ourselves. And honestly, if you're struggling with that, this is where we coach up leadership teams. We coach doctors how to have these conversations. We coach team members how to have these conversations. We have it in a safe space where you can practice, because you're not going to be perfect at it, but we want perfect practice to get these great results. We want you to practice having going into the storm. We want to push you and say like, hey, this is the storm, let's go into it, and having an accountability buddy that won't let you shy away from it.

 

So if we can help you out in that, reach out [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Tiff and Kristy discuss the ongoing challenges of hiring, including how incentives and mentalities have shifted over the past five years — and what you, as someone hiring, can do about it. Part of the discussion includes the pros and cons of how to pay team members.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back today. I have Ms. Kristy again with me and we are just having a good old time over here recording ⁓ Love and Life and getting our time in together. I think you guys have heard us say it before. This is like, and I know Dana says the same thing, this is some of the only one-on-one time that we get in our lives. I don't know if you guys know this or not, but we are a completely virtual company, meaning we are all at our homes.

 

We don't have like a workspace that we come to and then if you're a client of ours, you know, we're on calls or in offices quite a bit as consultants or our consulting team. We really just don't get a ton of time together. So these couple of hours that we bust out some podcasts are near and dear to our hearts and I just adore you Kristy and I appreciate you blocking out the time when your schedule always for it and for always just putting so much value into everything that you do.

 

with your clients, with your podcasting, everything that you do. So Kristy, thank you so much. Thank you for being a part of the Dental A Team. Thank you for being here today. How are you? How are things going over there?

 

DAT Kristy (01:09)

Good, thank you for having me. It's wonderful. I love what I do serving people and it just brings great joy. So happy to be here with you.

 

The Dental A Team (01:18)

Amazing. Good.

 

Thank you. And I have a question that I haven't asked you yet. How are, how's your family adjusting to the heat to being here and your puppy who's not necessarily a puppy anymore, but he'll always be a puppy. All your dogs, I guess, both your dogs, but how's everybody, how's everybody doing kind of getting settled into Arizona?

 

DAT Kristy (01:40)

Yeah, everybody's loving it. Thank goodness there's pools around so we can get cooled off. the dogs, they're definitely staying indoors right now. It's especially the little Frenchie, you know, that you have to be careful because they will overheat really easy. He's I can tell he's missing his walks right now, but they'll swim.

 

The Dental A Team (01:46)

Thank you.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah, good, good.

 

I had a black lab that hated water, like couldn't be anywhere near water, which is so not allowed. And summers were rough. He would get hot, but he wanted to be out there, but he was an Arizona born dog, so he was fine. But I was just thinking about earpups this morning, like, gosh, they're not used to not being able to just go outside and chill in the backyard for a couple hours. Well, I'm glad that they swim. I'm glad that they're enjoying that.

 

DAT Kristy (02:25)

So true.

 

The Dental A Team (02:31)

⁓ and yeah, we're just, we're excited to bring you some information this, this day. We've got, gosh, what four podcasts for recording. So I'm super excited for them all to release and you guys, we always want you to know that these podcasts are for you. So if there's ever anything that you have hopes, wishes, desires, things you want us to talk about things that you want us to dive in deeper on, please just always reach out. [email protected]. We are always taking suggestions and we're always here to help.

 

And also if there's anything that we say on these podcasts that we're like, we'll get you that. We really do mean that as well. have clients that write in all the time and say, Tiff said, and I'm like, sometimes my marketing team is like, what were you talking about? I don't know, but we figure it out. Whatever it is that we say that you can have, we want you to have it. We are here to deliver massive amounts of information to the dental community in the best ways possible and that.

 

comes with a ton of free resources. That's our podcast, that's our sheets, our documents, our website. We have all kinds of stuff everywhere, our ⁓ social media, we're on Instagram and Facebook, like wherever you can find us, you're gonna find a slew of information. So we're here for you and when you're ready for one-on-one consulting and not just getting all the information on your own via the web, please reach out, [email protected]. We are so excited to serve all of you guys in whatever way fits you the best today. Kristy.

 

I wanted to chat this podcast today. I've had, well, number one, I've had a lot of hiring in all of my practices. So I actually chatted with a doctor yesterday, a very successful doctor in Colorado, and he was like, Tiff, what the heck? Like, we lost another one. We just filled our hygiene spots and now we're in front office. And like, what is it? What's going on? He's like, just as soon as I feel like I'm making progress, someone leaves. And I said, you know what?

 

And he's like, it's hard to not take it personally. That's what he said. And I said, you know what? I understand that. And I, and I feel that. And on the level of, you know, being a lead on a team, I don't own this company, but I have a lot of vested interest in this company and its success. And it's hard. And I said, we come from, we come from a time of, of being employees, right? When we were employees and we were working and, and our work ethic.

 

Not even ethic, I don't even think it's ethic. Just like our tendency to stick around one place longer, is, it was there longer than it is now. So we just, we didn't leave. We stayed where we were. We became part of the family. We allowed work to become a bigger piece of our lives than it does for a lot of people in this day and age, in my opinion. I think that we,

 

made work our, like we tied our identity to work. And so leaving was a bigger ⁓ undertaking than it is when you're not so tied to what your job is, your title is, or the place is. And it's much easier to say, you know what, I can, I want to grow into something different. I want to be someone different. I want to change. And so they do, they leave more easily. And I think from

 

our point of view, it makes it really hard because we tied so many emotions to our job and our identity to our job that we're like, gosh, do they not like us? Do they not like where they work? Am I not doing good enough as an employer? But the reality is we've actually created an environment and ⁓ a social standing that people identify with who they are as a human outside of work better.

 

than we ever have in our lives. So it's like a catch-22, no matter what, there's a pro and a con to everything. And the pro is that they're not so identity attached to their jobs or their titles. The con is that it's easy for them to jump ship and try something new. We're much more apt to dip our toes in and try that new thing. And so I think the hiring has just over the last, realistically five years, has had a lot more turnover and we spent a lot more time hiring.

 

than we ever have in the past. And I could be making all of that up. That's my opinion. That's not like scientifically proven, but it's just something that I've noticed by studying people and studying myself as well. Like how am I transitioning? How am I changing my identity tools and all of those pieces as I watch the climates change so much. Kristy, what are your thoughts on that? I know we both have a lot of clients. I have experienced a lot of hiring this year. What are you seeing?

 

DAT Kristy (07:11)

100 % exactly what you said Tiff and it is hard. It's a hard reality. I think ⁓ Back in college. I took sociology not that I really liked it But now I'm like man I wish I would have dug into it more because I think there is something with the new generation and ⁓ Not to go woo-woo, but I think there is something with those personalities. You know what I mean and It's kind of funny and listening to you talk about it because our generation is

 

always like speaking to work-life balance, work-life balance, and I think the new generation actually has it figured out better.

 

But we're angry at it. We want it and they're doing it. And I get it. And I also get it because of being in a, in a practice administration role. Like it's hard hiring and training and retraining and hiring. And so I think ⁓ we've got to find a way to maneuver around that easier versus ⁓ taking it so personal and choosing to see it as a good thing. Maybe not necessarily a thing, but yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (07:50)

Mm-hmm. agree.

 

Yeah, that

 

was beautifully said.

 

You're totally right. I love that you said you pointed out the work life balance because I agree and I whenever I hear the words work life balance now I think of that like yeah, I'm like it's like that live laugh love that we had all over our houses like every room had a live laugh love sign somewhere and it's like so outdated and overplayed when I hear the words work life balance. I'm like, my gosh, like stop saying that just have balance. just have balance balance balance. If you continue separating work and life.

 

and not understanding that it's one, you're one person, you're gonna continue to be out of balance. So just have balance. And I think you're right. think they've, lot of people have found that balance where neither tips the scale and they just understand their boundaries and their priorities a little better than maybe we did when we were their ages. So there's our spiel on that. But one of the...

 

DAT Kristy (09:10)

I was gonna tell you, it's kind

 

of ironic, I'm spilling the beans and being vulnerable now, but my daughter's in dentistry, you I roped her into it. And so I hear it from her often, mom, it's not my life, like it is yours. And I was like, ⁓ stab me, right? Like, it's so true. So I'm living it.

 

The Dental A Team (09:32)

Yes, it is. Yeah.

 

Yeah, so

 

you're seeing it firsthand. You're seeing it with your practices and just watching, but then also within your own home. So I totally get that. And I have a actually happy practice out in Rhode Island near and dear to my heart. The office manager's daughter is their billing rep. And I see the same kind of conversations, the office manager and like stop taking work home, like just do it at work. And then her daughter is like, why are you working at home? Like put it away. And so I do, I see that same dynamic there. And I think, I actually think the ages are

 

about the same, like you guys are both in the same spaces there. ⁓ So it's interesting, but I think with that conversation, doctors oftentimes and office managers are like, what can we do more of? What can we do better? How can we offer things differently? And the hygiene market is wild still, okay? It's 2025, I don't know when you're listening to this, but I hope if it's years from now, things are better.

 

Because the hygiene market is still a little wild. It's just still hard to find hygienists So if you're listening to this now like go apply to hygiene school because the demand is high Go get your degree go do your thing and come out a hygienist, but we oftentimes get asked for provider information on pay, right? And so we have a couple of different scenarios a couple different options. I Mean dollar per hour still near and dear to my heart when it comes to employees. I think that it just

 

I just, for me, it's an ease of life. It's just easier. And so I love dollar per hour, but I do like the stipulation that a provider should be making three to 3.5 times their rate of pay in order to pay for themselves so that the overhead doesn't get out of control. So dollar per hour, three to 3.5 times their rate of pay. You've got to do the digging on what your area.

 

is hiring at or what they're paying their hygienist or their dental assistants, whomever, because it does change, it does differ by area. More rural is going to be maybe a little less, city life is probably going to be a little more, Indianapolis compared to Phoenix, compared to San Francisco, compared to, I don't know, New Mexico, right? They're all going to be very different rates of pay. So I can always, you know, we can always spew out some numbers to you, but Google is a really fantastic tool and Salary.com gets it right every single

 

So go check those for sure dollar per hour and then I really wanted to chat a little bit and we talked about this a little bit ahead of time me and Kristy did on paying based off of production or collections and in my opinion I've seen this I've seen this and in my opinion it's kind of the same structure that you would give to an associate so Don't over complicate it a lot of practice owners a lot of office managers like to over complicate it so just don't do that and

 

pay like you would an associate? What would that look like? What would those stipulations be? What would the percentage of production or collections look like? ⁓ And pay based off of that. There are pros and cons, right, to everything. And I think there are pros and cons to paying off of production or collections. And Kristy, I think I'd love to hear from you on that production-based pay, because I know that you've seen that and worked with some clients that have done that. What are some things that you've seen that work well? Why?

 

Some clients, like I've had clients recently ask, should I move to a percentage structure rather than a salary or a dollar per hour? What do you see work well within that percentage structure on production or collections? Like you said earlier, I do think collections is a little bit more difficult for providers, especially for hygienists that don't have a lot of say in that, but production-based maybe as well. Kristy, what are your thoughts?

 

DAT Kristy (13:08)

Yeah.

 

To be honest with you, this is something a little near and dear to my heart. And I think we will probably see ⁓ a little more of it just with, ⁓ I don't want to get in the political things, but we know that there are some states looking at assistance getting into hygiene. so with that being said, we all know that hygienists come out of school and they take their boards and they're all expecting to come in at that same level. Right. And just like associates, we know

 

they

 

all do their testing as well, come out with their doctorate and get their license. But we know they likely aren't going to produce at the same level, right? So hygienists are no different. Usually your seasoned hygienist can carry conversations different than, you know, somebody brand new. And their skill set is likely a little bit different, whether they've gone through more CE or not. So to be honest with you, I do

 

I'm a huge proponent of paid for performance ⁓ Yet I also feel in hygiene ⁓ Paying them a good going rate like you said, you know know what they're in your area and Give them that good going rate but just like you mentioned tiff with associates if somebody's performing and when I say performing I'm not just talking like production numbers or monetary That's just a side effect, but I'm talking like

 

moving your patients to health, getting them healthy, calling perio perio and having those different, you know, difficult conversations with patients. If they're willing to do that, why wouldn't we compensate them for that?

 

The Dental A Team (14:52)

Yeah, I think that's fantastic. That is a very good point too. And that is something I think that comes up a lot for practices is that perio space. And if I've got one hygienist who's just rocking it out and having those difficult conversations and diagnosing correctly for our patient's health and not just for the production or just for the accolades, but really, really doing due diligence for our patients, how do I repay them? And I think that is a great point that that production-based pay

 

is.

 

an effect of that. think that's fantastic. I also see practices that will do dollar per hour and bonuses. So if you go above and beyond that 3.5%, they can get, you know, a one or 2 % or whatever you decide you want your bonus to be of what's above that. So one mistake I do see practices make with this, I'm going to give you a caveat, is that they'll do it the bonus based off of the total. And I typically would do the bonus based off of what was above and beyond the threshold. So we don't total it, we say this was our threshold, anything above

 

that is what you get the bonus off of. So any bonus programs is that's typically how I'm gonna run it because that's your excess. This is your overhead, this is your excess. So we're only bonusing off of excess and then also a small caveat, I did talk to an office the other day that was, they're making some transitions and they're like, do we change the structure? And I'm looking at it and I'm like, well.

 

they wanted to lower the threshold. And I said, well, no. Number one, no, never do that. ⁓ Number two.

 

You also didn't add in my overhead caveat and you're at 66 % I think overhead for the year, but the team's been bonusing. And so we're digging in trying to figure out like what's going on. I have a couple offices going through this right now. This one kind of East Coast stern was like a little topsy turvy upside down. So I think no matter what you do, you've got to make sure that it's going to work the best for your practice for your overhead. So if dollar per hour right now is the best bet and you're able to manage and control your overhead with

 

that, do that. If you've got a team that you're like, want to, I want to make this more production based and Kristy, like you were saying, like really give that energy to what we're pushing for and kind of pay them back right for the work that they're putting in. You have that flexibility and that level with the percentage on production collections and or bonuses. I love the, if you're asking me either or I would say

 

in my opinion, production-based over-bonusing. ⁓ It just is easier. Again, I want easier, and it's easier, and it's like tailored for this position, this person. It doesn't have to be across the board for the full practice if we're not to a point that we're ready for that yet. So cons. ⁓

 

I think there's cons to everything. There's cons to dollar per hour because often times, especially in the ⁓ temperature that we're in right now with the dollar per hour, it is hard to do three to three to point five times their rate of pay. I tell hygienists and I tell doctors all the time, I'll pay you whatever you're asking for. I'll pay you whatever you want. If you can make it work with the numbers. If you can do three to three point five times that rate of pay in production per hour, you've earned it. That's the point is that the overhead has to match.

 

and for our team members that are listening, I just need you guys to really hear me when I say doctors can't pay you from nothing. So if we're upside down in our overhead, we're not making profit on the company, the business is not profiting.

 

It's not just for the doctor to profit. It's not just for the doctor to go buy a house or whatever you think is actually happening behind the scenes. It's to ensure that things are paid for. And so if we're upside down in payroll, it's got to come from somewhere else. So then we got to pull it from supplies or from labs or from somewhere. And so the pay always just has to make sense. So if you can make it make sense, I don't care what it looks like. So there's pros and cons to all of it.

 

So there's the dollar per hour making sure that you're staying in line. There's you know, collections production based and then there's the accelerated which we're not going to spend a ton of time on the accelerated. kind of feel like it's a dying breed in this.

 

day and age. I love accelerated myself and I loved being hygiene assistant to accelerated hygiene, but that's a really great space too. I do have a hygienist that I know out in like the Chicago area who does accelerated and she's paid on production. She kills it. She is making really pretty numbers over there, but there's pros and cons to everything and it kind of runs the doctor a little ragged, so you just have to have the right system

 

for that and to make sure that it all just makes sense. And Kristy, you've got a ton of practices too in this same space. What would you have seen like really working or not working within any of this, whether it's associates or hygienists, really just what do you see that works really, really well?

 

DAT Kristy (20:08)

Yeah, honestly, Tiff, I'm gonna say the one that I've seen work the best is a combination, right? ⁓ Again, a good going pay rate and then incentivizing them on.

 

I'm going add in it's more of a profit share model, right? Because like you said, it has to make sense with the numbers and be profitable. ⁓ And again, I do see a lot of ⁓ accelerated, but I will caution there too. The ones that I've seen work the best is when you give them a very good assistant that can perform. You know what I mean? Don't give them an entry level person that can't carry conversations. And I shouldn't say can't, but is

 

as developed right and or let them hand pick them and develop them right so that they work in tandem together and I've seen it work very well in both models but you have to have the right personality and desire there.

 

The Dental A Team (20:57)

Yeah.

 

I think that's a fantastic point and to that point I've seen it work really well. ⁓

 

with the right assistant as well. And oftentimes what we do is we hire a hygiene assistant who's like the low level training, not quite the doctor's assistant yet. And the reality is it needs to be someone who knows how to run a schedule, how to talk with the patients, how to sell treatment, how to take the x-rays correctly and really give that concierge service because we've got to make up for not having as much time with the hygienist, right? So the hygienist does all of that in your hour appointments, but when you're

 

shortening them and they're doing accelerated, the hygienist is only in there for 30, 40 minutes, right? You're losing a lot of value there from the hygienist transitioning. So that assistant definitely has to be top level, top notch. And we make that mistake a lot. I've made that mistake in my own office and hiring many, many times. So it's kind of opposite and you really need a skilled assistant to be your hygiene assistant. I agree. That's a great point. Awesome.

 

DAT Kristy (22:15)

And you know

 

what, Tiff, you mentioned earlier that the margins are getting hard, especially with PPO and they're not reimbursing. You made a good point about the co-diagnosis aspect. Make sure you're factoring that in. Like look at what's coming out, know, track it and see, because that also needs to be factored into the pay scale, right? It may not just be 100 % hygiene services. You almost have to look

 

The Dental A Team (22:37)

Yeah.

 

DAT Kristy (22:45)

at hygiene sometimes as part of your marketing strategy in a way, you know? So.

 

The Dental A Team (22:48)

Yeah, that's a great point. I totally agree.

 

Yeah, I love it.

 

Thank you, Kristy. ⁓ I think there's some great ideas in here. You guys know we did not give you the do this answer because it is really case by case. I mean that with every ounce of my being, it is dependent on what's going to work best for your company. If you want help diving into that, figuring out what might be best for you or your company model, we are more than happy to help you on a one-on-one basis. Reach out. [email protected]. We'll be happy to get on a call with you to dive into your practice statistics.

 

sticks and needs with you. Again, no, I don't have a do this, do that, but we can help you. [email protected] and we are so happy to help any of you guys. We are all here for it. We have a team standing by, always ready to hop on a call with you.

 

Kristy, thank you for your amazing words of wisdom and for your vulnerability. And we have more to record, you guys. We got more coming up for you. And we are just so excited to deliver you so much amazing content this month. Please drop us a five-star review below letting us know how helpful this was. If you have ideas, if you have things that you've done that worked or didn't work, send them in. You can put them within your review. People really do go through and read those. Or [email protected]. You can send them over to us and we'll be happy to

 

with you or put that information out for others to read as well. So go find us, Instagram, Facebook, all the places, and we'll catch you next time. Thanks guys.

Kiera and Kristy break down a few reasons why your practice might not seem (or might not be, period) to have any money. They touch on how to find your profit point, knowing your debt, staying on top of collections and AR, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I have Kristy with me and I'm super excited because today is one of my favorite things to do as consultants and I call it office autopsy. ⁓ Don't worry offices, this is a mix of a few offices because believe it or not, offices think that they're on individual islands and believe it or not, you're not. ⁓ Multi-practices actually struggle, they actually do the same things that you struggle with. And so we just wanna make sure that we bring, we're not going to ever disclose who this office is.

 

We will mix a few offices together, but I think for people to see what the office's pain point was and then what as consultants were able to do. Kristy, we have some really fun ones. so Kristy and I decided we wanted to podcast today about some office autopsies of what, hopes to help more offices. So Kristy, welcome to the show today. How are you?

 

DAT Kristy (00:48)

Good, thank you. Pleasure to be here.

 

The Dental A Team (00:50)

Of course. Well, I'm super happy because I think the one that we run into a lot ⁓ is we call it cash flow row or cash flow woes, like whatever you want to talk about. But it's really when an office comes to us and they seem to not be able to figure out what's going on. ⁓ They feel like they're producing. Sometimes they're producing, sometimes they're not. So we'll kind of discuss like how to know if you're producing enough or not. But then they feel like they just like have no cash. And so giving some background.

 

Like I said, I'm going to blend a couple of practices together, but we have kind of going to do like two simultaneous ones. One practice was producing really, really well, but literally the owner felt like they had no money. We're talking like flat broke, felt like they were completely going to go under, had no money, but yet their production numbers were really good and their P &L looked really good. And we're just like, it showed on the P &L. I think, Kristy, you'll find this too, offices get so frustrated.

 

I got so frustrated and angry with my CPA when they said, well, Kiera, like according to the numbers, you have money. And I'm like, great, high five, jerk. I have no money in my bank account. Like it's the most infuriating feeling in the world of my CPA tells me I should have money, but there's no money. Flip that too on the other side when a practice isn't quite producing what they need to be producing to pay for their expenses. And they feel like they have no money and they are flat broke, which in reality that practice is flat broke because they need to produce more or they need to cut.

 

So we're gonna kind of dig on both sides of these with office autopsies of what we see, what we've been able to do. And let's start, Kristy, on the side of what do we do? Like, okay, first step, how do we find like the profit point? Like, how do we figure out what should an office be producing? Because I think that's also infuriating when doctors are like, but I'm just producing. I feel like I'm trying to out-produce my problems. Like, I don't know how to produce more. ⁓

 

how do you, Kristy, as a consultant, come in and help offices just gain that clarity? Because I think sometimes when we know the North Star and we know what we should be targeting, it actually becomes a lot easier to then build block schedules and then figure out what our overhead should be. But how do you help offices even dig into that? As point one to figure out, let's autopsy both of these practices, I think this is step one to really getting clarity.

 

DAT Kristy (03:00)

Absolutely. I agree with you, Kiera. ⁓ The first step is to understand how much we're paying for things. What is the cost to keep the doors open? You know, we talk about overhead, right? But what is overhead? It's everything that we have to pay within a month. Rent, utilities, staffing, right? The other thing that I want to point out is many doctors don't include themselves in that. And I definitely want to pay them

 

The Dental A Team (03:16)

you

 

DAT Kristy (03:30)

Just like if they were an associate in the practice and so we want to include that in that overhead cost if you will and find that What I like to call profit point so we know where we're what's our? BAM right

 

The Dental A Team (03:48)

bam, that bare ace minimum, like what do we have to

 

do? It's kind of like in real life. I mean, I think all of us have a bam in real life. You know what your mortgage or your rent is. You know how much it costs you to like do your groceries. You know how much daycare is, you know how much it costs you for like your Amazon spending. And some of those are fixed costs. So fixed are like your mortgage or your rent. You can't really change those. Those are fixed for you. Yes, like I get it. The semantics, we're not CPAs here. We're not like, that's not our world.

 

The semantics are can you change your rent? Potentially you could go find somewhere else. That is an option you could do. But most of the time those are pretty fixed. Just like our utilities are pretty fixed. You can be like my husband where literally our AC goes off at 6 p.m. at night. He freaking freezes us until 6 o'clock to save on these utilities until 9 o'clock. It drives me wild. I'm like in a hoodie freezing, shivering. And then the AC goes off and I'm like roasting. It's really entertaining because he wants to save the $3.

 

But genuinely speaking, like you're not really going to be saving on those fixed costs. are some fixed ones. Staffing is usually pretty fixed. However, we could add team members or take team members away. So therefore it's not as fixed. But like you said, Kristy, I think it's figuring out in a practice and agreed, doctors should be paid. Like nobody, think that that actually causes more stress for owners. If you don't even know what your paycheck is or you're just taking draws, because then how do you budget your life on a up and down volatile paycheck?

 

I think that creates a lot of stress versus like, okay, great. Let's just put you at a hundred grand or let's put you at whatever is a reasonable salary. Talk to your CPA. They'll be able to give you that. ⁓ And that can be agreed with Kristy. I like to pay you as an associate, but if right now the practice can't support that minimum should be a reasonable salary of say a hundred grand. So that way you can at least bank on that of getting that paycheck in your practice. Sometimes you have to adjust that, but generally speaking, if we at least give you some type of certainty and clarity,

 

that's going to help you then be able to budget your life around that too, in addition to budgeting your practice.

 

DAT Kristy (05:49)

Absolutely. In fact, Kiera, sometimes even with startup doctors, I like them to even keep a spreadsheet of their production as if they were paying them as an associate. And then when they start to get profitable, we can back pay those wages. But definitely they have to take care of themselves first. ⁓ I've even seen where they get a little bit of animosity if not, right? Like, staff's driving these cars and they're getting their nails done and they're doing

 

The Dental A Team (06:00)

Agreed.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

DAT Kristy (06:19)

and I can't even pay myself. So I think it's very important that we understand what that is and work toward that, number one, if we're not there. And then if we are there, adding additional ⁓ percentage to that, which us as consultants can help guide that depending on your goals. If it's paying down debt, paying you as an owner doctor.

 

⁓ And you know, we follow the EOS system, so adding those buckets for taxes and those sort of things that come up and we can be prepared for.

 

The Dental A Team (06:55)

Yeah, no, I think it's brilliant, Kristy. And when you said that, I agree. You don't want to not be paid in your practice, because that gets, A, it's stressful, and B, it's annoying, and C, you've got all this debt on you. ⁓ But I also think when we're looking at our practices, there are pieces, so when doctors are like, I'm not getting paid, I just want to remind that sometimes we're being paid through things running through our practices. And so we've got to be careful, because that is,

 

Like if you didn't have your practice, you'd be paying for that out of pocket. And so that is technically part of your salary, doctors. And I don't want to be the like balloon pop girl over here. I do want to be realistic because a lot of times doctors are like, I'm not making money. And I'm like, but you forgot that these things are running through your practice. So you are being paid for those or those things are no longer coming to you, which is totally fine and legal. Talk to your CPA. Like we want you to do that. There's nothing wrong with it.

 

But when we're looking and we're like stomping our foot saying we're not being paid, sometimes I even have to remind myself of like, yes, but Kiera, if you didn't have the business, all those costs would be coming out of your W2 paycheck, not your business right off. So agreed with Kristy, when we're looking at this, step one is let's find that BAM, let's find that profit point, let's find out what you have to produce. And then from there, what we need to find out is also in addition to that, how much is our debt?

 

Because a practice should not have to be covering your debt, but you as a human needs to be covering your debt. So if your student loans, your practice loans, things like that, the practice isn't necessarily a poor performing practice. You just have all this excess of like, my gosh, I have to pay this off, which that's real life for you. And I think that's the difference of a CPA's bookkeeping for you versus your real life living through it. And I can tell you from personal experience, like this is very hard. Sometimes practice loans do go through your

 

your practice profitability. Again, this is pending on your CPA and how they recommend you do it. But most of the time your student loans and different things like that don't run through the practice. So, but you as a human need to have enough money to be able to pay for all those things. So I think it's finding out the practices, BAM, like Kristy said, finding out your personal BAM, because that might be different. And then from there, let's tack on 10 to 20 % beyond that. So let's say you know you've got to produce 50,000. Well, awesome. 10 % of that would be 55, adding

 

20 % excuse me, so 10 % of that is going to be an additional $5,000. To do 20 % of that's going to be an extra $10,000. So if I know I've got to do 50, I've either got to produce 55 or 60. Now that becomes much easier and I know beyond that I'm going to have 10 to 20 % leftover of the practice after everything's spent. Our ideal is to get it to where your 50,000 is 50 % of your practice and there's 50 % quote unquote profit beyond that. Now again,

 

that profit is a little bit funny because if we're doing a 50 % overhead and 50 % profit, doctor salaries usually are not included in that. If doctor salaries are included in that, then usually it's a 20 % profit at the end of that. So I know those two numbers feel a little like disjointed. They've been very disjointed for me. So if you're doing true overhead, we want it at 50%, 30 % doctor pay, 20 % profit. If you want to combine it all together, then it would be 80 % quote unquote overhead, 20 % profit. Now that 20 % profit though,

 

does technically pay for debt services. So watch that. You might need to scale down our 50 % down a little bit more or 80 % to then be able to offset that. So hopefully that wasn't too confusing for everybody. This is why we're consultants. This is why we help you. But I think when you understand like either need a 50 or an 80 % ultimate goals, we're trying to get 20 % cashflow at the end of the month. think for me, that's like the easiest thing. Like, okay, if I'm producing a hundred grand a month,

 

I want 20 % of that, so that's 20 grand. So like I'm trying to do easy numbers for all of you. I want 20 grand after everything's paid to still be remaining. Now, one other kicker as a business owner is that 20 % is also taxed. So don't forget that that gets taxed. So if you're at a 30 % tax bracket, well, you gotta take 30 % of 20 grand and then the rest of that you can spend. And this is why I think owners get so frustrated, because it's like, oh my gosh.

 

Like just tell me how much money I can have. And when I talked to a CPA and Kristy, I think you come across this, like our whole lives up until owning businesses, we've been paid at the W-2. So everything we got paid, we were able to use. Well, now as business owners, everything we're paid, we don't get to use. That's not the way the game works. ⁓ And it's due to write-offs and different pieces like that. So I think just knowing the rules of the game, I remember being so fresh with my CPA and I said, I like you're playing Monopoly with me. Like just tell me the dang rules.

 

So, and like, don't tell me like, no, you can't pass go, but you can pass go if you do X, Y, Z, but then like, no. So it's really, you've got to have a profitable practice of overhead. That's what we as consultants are really obsessed with. You also as an owner need to be responsible of how you spend. That's not to say you can't spend, but you do need to spend responsibly and you do need to set aside your taxes. And I think when you have all those pieces set up, then you can have guilt free spending because you're paying yourself.

 

Plus, you know what your true profit is. You've saved for taxes, you've saved for a rainy day, like Kristy was saying. We can put buckets into place to pay down more debt. You can put buckets in place for emergencies in your practice. You can put buckets in place for ⁓ vacations. I have a doctor I was just talking to on Alaska cruise and I was like, how's that bucket working out for you? And he's like, I love it, Kiera, you set it up for me. And I know how much I can spend on vacations. I know how much of my paycheck goes into that portion. He also used to spend an absurd amount on CE. So we set a true budget of how much CE money he could use.

 

But that's kind of where you then as owners aren't just trying to waffle through this and actually can figure out those profit points. And I do think, Kristy, like as much as we've belabored this so much at the beginning of this podcast, I feel this foundational piece is what makes owners crazy because they don't know the rules of the game. So they start spending all the money. Then you get this huge tax bill. Then you feel mad. Then you feel like you have no money when it's like, no, you did have money. just we accidentally spent it. So now we got to make up for it later because we didn't put these rules of the game into play.

 

Kristy, you might have a simpler way to do that. What are your thoughts around that?

 

DAT Kristy (12:49)

No, I agree with you 100%. Otherwise, what I find is, you know, business owners, doctors, they just come up with this arbitrary number that they want to hit. But again, just because we're producing something doesn't mean we're profitable. And so they go together, but we have to understand the difference.

 

The Dental A Team (13:12)

I agree. And I love that you said that because production feeds the ego and profit feeds the family. And so it does not matter what you're producing. And I agree with Kristy. It's like, I want to produce a hundred grand. I want to produce 200 grand. Well, high five. Let's help you do that. But on the flip side, let's make sure your expenses are there. And there's another practice I'm thinking of right now where they're like, we have no money. And I'm like, all right, if we have no money, truly it's let's do the checklist. Number one. Like, do you see me even scratch my head? I'm like, if you're not watching the video,

 

Just know when I hear people say, don't have money. I'm like, all right, it's either a production issue or a spending issue. It's one of the two. So just know those are the only two levers for when you're saying, I don't have money. It's either actually there's a third. There's technically a third. And that is a collection issue too, because we're either not producing enough. And if we are producing enough, we might not be collecting enough. And if we're doing both of those two things, then it's a spending issue. So let's break it down to this office autopsy. Kristy, let's go for a practice that is producing enough.

 

they don't have money, how did you fix or how did you find out that this practice had a collections issue?

 

DAT Kristy (14:14)

Yeah, well number one we would look at.

 

How much was their net production and how much are they currently collecting? My minimum benchmark is always to be at 98 % or higher. Obviously, if we can get reservation fees to pre-collect on things, we may see that up a little bit higher. But if they're not at that 98%, what can we do to get them there? What's getting in the way? Is it patient? Is it insurance? Are we not submitting clean claims and getting them back in a timely fashion?

 

The Dental A Team (14:26)

Agreed.

 

DAT Kristy (14:47)

⁓ But definitely that would be the first place to look.

 

The Dental A Team (14:51)

Yeah. And so Kristy just said the benchmark. If you're not at 98 % collections, then there's a problem. Second piece is look at your AR and if you have more than one month's worth of production in your AR, we also know it's a collection problem. So when we diagnose on this practice, I remember we talked to a doctor and they're like, Kiera, I have no money. Kristy, I have no money. And I remember we're like, so actually you do have money. Believe it or not, the money is there. It's just sitting in uncollected amounts. So Kristy, you even went with another office and like they didn't have money and you just straight up called.

 

You like went with the office manager and you guys just picked up the phone and started calling on balances to get the money. And I really want doctors to know, and Kristy, I think this is the infuriating part as a consultant where I'm like, no, like you're producing well, you just have to collect the money that you're producing and don't like, don't even feel bad about it. So what do you do for teams that don't want to collect, that have these big ARs? Like what are a few simple steps? Like if that's my practice, I'm-

 

Hi, Kristy. I'm the doctor today. My team, this does not want to collect money and I feel like I can't pay any bills. What do you do in that scenario as a consultant, Kristy?

 

DAT Kristy (15:53)

Yeah, well, I think we have to dig deeper into their own, like the team members own biases and what's getting in the way and get them comfortable to realize that we're not doing good by our practice and or patients if we're not collecting those balances. So, you know, really seeing what's the roadblock and let's work through it to overcome it because people deserve the care. Patients deserve to be healthy and

 

And part of that is also paying for the treatment, right? So just digging deeper, figure out what's getting in the way and helping them to overcome, create some verbiage for them to feel confident in being able to collect.

 

The Dental A Team (16:39)

Yeah. And Kristy, I think you do an amazing job as a consultant. think this is where I love being consultants is like, you will actually help them sometimes call on accounts and help them see how easy it is. And ⁓ I also think when we're looking at AR, let's get our best bang for our buck. like, let's sort it to biggest balances and let's call on those first. Like, let's figure out different pieces. And like you said, there might be a myriad of reasons why your team members don't want to collect. don't think typically it's due to the fact that they don't want to collect. I think they're just scared. There's fear.

 

They're afraid of a patient being mad. They're afraid of not being able to explain the balance on the account. They might not understand why insurance is denying claims. Billing is a whole black hole, just so doctors understand, like there are a lot of nuances there. But I think on that side, if you are producing, like I remember this practice, they are producing like 150 to 200. And I was like, what do mean you don't have money? And we looked at the P &L and we're like, no, according to your P &L, you have money here. And we just realized it was a lack of collection process.

 

We implemented that Kristy, you helped this practice. They implement, they started collecting and now the doctor's like, wow, like two months later, I feel like I'm like happy as a clown because they literally have money now, but the money was there all along. And that's really like, I think a myth to dispel on this office autopsy is a lot of times the money is actually there. We're just not collecting. We don't have the correct processes in play to do correct insurance verification, to have better estimates, to collect in practice, to then have better ways that we are posting payments.

 

We don't have a process for how we're calling patients and insurance. And if you don't have that whole process dialed in, that can actually get really daunting for a practice. But Kristy, let's flip sides to the other dark side of this coin where they might not be producing enough. So like we said, it's either a production process, a collection process or a spending process. What do we do on the dark side where they're not producing enough? Like that's scary to me. So what do you do on that? I think there's like two zones here.

 

DAT Kristy (18:33)

Yeah, absolutely. Well.

 

Number one, once we figure out that benchmark, typically, Kiera, we go and look at how much are they diagnosing, right? If we're looking to hit 100,000, we typically need to be diagnosing minimum three times that number ⁓ if we want to hit it, right? So where are we with diagnostics? And then where are we in case acceptance? how, if we are diagnosing that much, how much are we

 

actually getting patients to say yes to that treatment if you will.

 

The Dental A Team (19:09)

Mm-hmm. And I think, Kristy, great point on that because it's twofold on this dark side of the coin of if we're not producing, are we diagnosing enough? And if we're diagnosing enough, are we closing enough? And those are two different people actually in this scenario. So doctors, have to diagnose. And if you're a doctor who's scared of diagnosing a couple tools, it's OK. I always tell doctors, it's your moral obligation to diagnose. As a patient, if you were to go in and there was someone who saw

 

Let's say you did a scan, I've had multiple MRI scans on my brain. Do you know how mad I would be at a doctor if they chose, because like they don't know if I can afford it, if I don't wanna hear the bad news or like whatever it is, they choose not to tell me what's on my brain or a broken bone or if I've got something in my blood work, I would be livid. And yet doctors, you're diagnosing, you're taking x-rays and if you're not telling these patients what's going on, ⁓ that's your moral obligation to do that. So if you're nervous about it, that's okay, I'm not here to tell you.

 

there's anything wrong with it. I just want to remind you that this is your moral obligation as a healthcare provider. So there's Pearl or Overjet of an AI solution that might be a solution for you ⁓ or just diagnosing one more thing than you normally would. If you're used to like watching, ⁓ that's okay. Maybe like just watch 75 % of it, but diagnose one of those things that you would normally watch and just notice patients don't get mad. They don't get angry. ⁓ Remember when you do get that frustration, it's just due to their expectations not being met.

 

So if you can even help them co-diagnose with you. So having your hygienist call out their perio numbers and let the patient know before they do it, like, hey, we're looking for the health of your gums, anything above a four, that's something that we need to watch if there's bleeding. And I'm gonna show you, so listen with me, you're gonna hear, ⁓ and then you'll be able to hear. Well, now that patient's listening actively with you of, wow, I heard like seven fours, or I heard like a six in there, now you don't have to try and teach them and say like, you've got perio.

 

They actually heard it and they co-diagnosed with you. You can show them x-rays of here's a healthy tooth. This is what a healthy tooth should look like. Now look at this tooth and what do you see? You guys, if there's decay in there, even the untrained eye usually can see that pretty big chunk of decay taken out of there or use intraoral photos to where that patient's co-diagnosing with you to gain the trust. And that actually makes it easier for you doctors, because then you're not teaching them. Or if you're like really nervous about it.

 

AI teaches them. Like it literally just puts the puts it up on there and you don't even have to hardly do anything other than just presenting it to them and educating them. So something simple there. And then if your team's not closing cases, amazing simple things like an NDT our handoff. next visit date, time, recare that can help tremendously. ⁓ having your team members track their treatment plans, having a consultant help them. Like we literally help listen to treatment plans, guide and give coaching on different ways that they can do it. So there's two ways if you're not diagnosing or producing enough.

 

that we can easily do that. And the next one would be a block schedule. Kristy, any other thoughts on that? Because I'm sure you've got pieces working with so many team members too.

 

DAT Kristy (22:06)

Yeah, listening to you talk about the case acceptance, it's just hitting me that sometimes I think our fear is in telling them, but really if we take a step back and just include them in the process and figure out what are their long-term goals for their mouth and being able to speak to them in a relational way that...

 

The Dental A Team (22:23)

Thank

 

DAT Kristy (22:29)

really is flipping it to what is their goals and getting them what they want. I think that takes the pressure off of us telling the patient, right? And so, ⁓ truly, I think when we master this, it's a beautiful thing and you get patients to stick for very long time because they feel heard, right? And they still are in control of their care. So.

 

The Dental A Team (22:53)

Totally, I agree with you, Kristy, and I love that you talked about like, they're part of the solution with you. And I agree, like, I can't as a treatment coordinator want this more than they do. It really has to be something that they're a part of. ⁓ And also just helping your team see, similar to doctors, when we're watching so many things, team members can accidentally be saying one or two words that's guiding a patient the wrong direction. We might be highlighting insurance more than we're highlighting total treatment. We might be putting emphasis on like your max on insurance or

 

Like we could just start with one thing because we're afraid of presenting total dollar amounts. All of those things are normal. That's like very normal. Your team's not struggling, team members listening. You're not doing anything wrong. Just highlighting that there are different ways that you can present it. And I call it like the sequence. So think about when you're back in high school and you had your locker combination. If your combination code was 321, you could put in the number 213 and your lock wouldn't open. You could also do 123 and it wouldn't open. You could also do 32...

 

three and it won't open. You can have the exact same numbers and just do them in the wrong combination and it won't open versus if we have the right pieces in the right combination, we actually get more case acceptance. So just realizing like what are my tools that I'm using? Am I putting them in the right sequence? Am I using the tools like insurance is a tool? It's a coupon. So let's maximize that, but it's not going to guide my treatment. Let's maximize getting full case acceptance. Let's maximize like Kristy said, knowing their ultimate goals and tying my treatment back to those ultimate goals.

 

just using the tools in the right sequence can also help with that case acceptance. Now, if you are a practice that's not diagnosing enough, I think that this becomes like a little bit of an ego check and I'm sorry to be the ego check day today, but it might be something where if we're not diagnosing enough and we are collecting and we're not producing enough, it might be time for us to look to see about cutting costs. And this is something where I don't love to have this conversation. However, bottom line is the practice has to thrive.

 

Otherwise we all will fail. And doctors like you won't be able to help your team. You won't be able to help patients. And ultimately your livelihood is on the line too. Nobody is happy in this scenario. So when an office is like, don't have money, great. We've looked to see, you diagnosing? We've looked to see, are we collecting? We've looked to see our case acceptance. Like let's check all the boxes. Flip side is what are we spending money on? Immediately I'm gonna go to anything that you no longer need in the practice. So I know we might have been in the glory days.

 

doing all these ITero scans. Well, guess what? Glory days are gone. We're no longer there. And I hate to be Debbie Downer, but the reality is we need to sell that. We need to get out of that contract. Anything we are not using in the practice, we need to cut those debts off of us. And this is just a yucky moment. And I'm sorry, but you've got to do it. And as a business owner, this is your job as a CEO is to watch the profitability of the business. Like you have to, and you have to make those hard cuts. And I will tell you, you do it one time. You're a lot more cautious on things you'll purchase in the future.

 

So we start cutting costs of things that are not paying for themselves. So if we've got extra equipment in the practice, if we've got other things that we can sell. Also, team members, we might have bulked. I've done this as a CEO, so I'm just gonna tell you, like, it was a really, really, really bad day when I realized I over-bulked anticipating something to happen in the practice, and I actually had to scale back and cut. That does not feel good, and it's something that we want to avoid. However, if we have ultimate, like, more team members than are necessary, or we could outsource to things,

 

I'm not here to say, determinate team members. Like we said, like we went through all the different scenarios, everything we possibly could do. But the reality is you may have bulked too much in a practice and you need to scale back and cut. And that's just a zone where you walk the walk of shame and you commit you're never going to do it again. But ultimately you have to get yourself to a profitable zone. You've got to look at your own spending. A doctor was like really struggling on spending and they had multiple credit cards. Consolidate those credit cards down to where you only have one. We pay it off every single time.

 

We look to see what other things we like work out deals with the lab or different people. ⁓ But you've got to be realistic. You might have to get a line of credit to get yourself out of it. You might have to take equity out of your home or your practice. Those are things I hate doing, but I also feel sometimes the pain of discipline is better than the pain of regret. And I would rather go through the pain of discipline and learning to like cut my costs and watch my costs and not hire. Like I might extra hire.

 

a hygienist. I might extra hire a treatment coordinator. Those are two players on my team that will actually generate revenue for me. And not to say assistants don't because assistants can, but I could get by with a Mr. Thurshy. Now, dentists, I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for that. The reality is you can do that for a short amount of time. And I just want to highlight like it's inconvenient, but it's also inconvenient not to have money to pay your bills. So like choose our heart on this. But this is a zone where like I heard a doctor and they were struggling and they

 

They spent like 10 grand on something unnecessary. And I'm like, that's a spending issue. That's a you issue. That's not a practice issue. And it's not a diagnosis issue. If you cannot produce what you have for your costs, it's like the person has to accept the fact that they bought too big of a house. Like you've got to scale down. You got to size down. And as much as that's an ego blow, that's also smart business ownership. So Kristy, that's my like soapbox. So doctors, like we said, it's first, let's make sure we're producing. Like, let's figure out our amount. have to, then we're going to check our production. Then we're going to check our collections.

 

Then we're going to check our diagnosis. We're going to check our case acceptance. We're going to check our block scheduling. Then we're going to go into any unnecessary costs that are on our PNL. ⁓ Look to see, there anything we could do to reduce costs? And then it's going to be, we've got to cut. And like, you've got to make that decision before you go under. ⁓ You owe that to your patients. You owe that to yourself and you owe that to your team. And it's a sad, crummy day, but it's part of business. Kristy, what are your thoughts?

 

DAT Kristy (28:27)

Yeah, I think you nailed it. The only area we didn't uncover was you usually do have some unscheduled treatment that you may be able to tap into. And I would definitely explore that resource. But you nailed it, Kiera. I mean, you hit all of the boxes for sure.

 

The Dental A Team (28:46)

So those are kind of like looking at a practice that says, I don't have cash. These are some of the ways to diagnose that we do within practices. And notice the very last thing that we went to was cutting. That's not our mission. That's not our process. And we're never going to tell you to cut somebody. That's going to be ultimately your decision. We're just going to remind you that as a CEO, that's part of your job. And I remember going through COVID, had a coach and she said, Kiera, you've got to have a list. You've got to have a list in your mind of like when things get tight, if they get there.

 

What are you going to do to make sure your business thrives and survives? And that has stuck with me when I realized like, that's why I'm paid a CEO salary. That's why I'm paid to make these hard decisions. That's why I ⁓ signed up to be a business owner. Like that's the hard side of success. Success has two parts of that coin too. There's the light side and the amazing side. And then there's the dark side that a lot of people don't talk about. So if you're looking at your practice and you're saying, I don't have cash, go through the checklist, Kristy and I just gave you. ⁓

 

And sometimes it does help to have a buddy in it with you, a consultant, somebody who's in it with you. Like Kristy, I think about the night that you picked up the phone with that office manager and you guys started calling, you called on accounts with them. I think sometimes not feeling alone in the process. think somebody pushing your team, because you're like, I don't know how to say this to my team. ⁓ Someone who can help guide them, someone who can help look at your diagnosis and help you diagnose maybe one more thing, ⁓ really can be an asset. And I call Kristy our money bloodhound.

 

If I have a practice on cashflow row, I'm like, all right, Kristy, I don't what you're gonna do, but girl, go to work and go start looking. And I think having an outside set of eyes, it's not sitting in there floundering with you, but can have a cool, calm, collected head, sometimes can be the most beneficial. So if you're struggling, reach out, we're here to help you. And it comes with no judgment. Kristy, don't think I've ever once heard you judge a single practice. You come with love, you come with open arms, and you come with solutions quickly.

 

to make sure they get there. So Kristy, any last thoughts you have for these practices who might be struggling, who are hearing this office autopsy being like, my gosh, that's been me, or my gosh, I feel like I'm headed that way. Any other thoughts you might have for them?

 

DAT Kristy (30:43)

⁓ Just again that you're not in it alone and having us to help ⁓ guide mentor and just make sure you have you know daily weekly monthly Systems in place and balance, you know a checklist balance. We got ya we can help

 

The Dental A Team (31:00)

We do. do. Well, Kristy,

 

thanks for being on the office autopsy with me. Thanks for just loving our clients so much and helping them. I think that client who two years after you started helping say to us, I like have never been this free or like, my gosh, like this is what ownership should feel like. I think those are the wins that we live for as consultants of hearing you thrive, hearing your successes, hearing you have your dream life and not being so stressed, ⁓ even in possible situations that are stressful. So Kristy, thanks for being that consultant with us.

 

DAT Kristy (31:30)

It's a pleasure. Thanks.

 

The Dental A Team (31:32)

Of course, for all of you listening, don't be on cashflow row. Don't be struggling about these things. If you are part of any of the scenario, if you're like, my gosh, any of those things resonated, reach out. [email protected]. Go to our website, click on TheDentalATeam.com book a call. Like truly it's a no judgment, just clarity, just momentum. Even if we can't help you, we've got resources. Even if you're not quite the right fit, that's okay. Like we will be there to support you. ⁓ but I think it takes courage to book the call. It takes courage to admit you need help. but there's so much freedom.

 

to know that you're not alone, that you're not having to do this alone and that there's somebody who truly can help you get out of the scenario and that's been there, done that and done it successfully many times. So reach out and as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

Kiera walks listeners through the science of giving raises without breaking the bank or falling into the feel-good trap. She gives three steps to implement around the topic of raises:

1. Know your numbers

2. Raises are earned; they’re not automatic

3. Communicate with clarity and boundaries

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am excited to talk about something of, can you give out a raise and can you actually afford it? Like, how do even know there's got to be like some better model than just like a hope, a wish, a prayer? Like how often do I do this? And I thought it just be an awesome podcast to connect with you, to share some valuable tips and to really just empower you to make these decisions confidently, competently, and with ease. So welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm Kiera. I love dentistry. I love helping you have a better life.

 

a better quality of life, more happiness in your life, more ease, more joy, more flow, truly doing life and business on purpose. We're here about the yes model. So you can say more yes to more things in your life. So that's about you as a human being, making sure that you are fulfilled, that you are flourishing. stands for earnings and profitability and S is for systems and team development. Truly, truly, truly growing you, evolving you, making sure that you have all these pieces in place so that when you're able to live life on purpose, have your business on purpose and truly just

 

magnify all of this. So today, raises aren't just something that are feel good move. Like this isn't something of like, ⁓ hey, like I feel good. Let's just give you a raise or I do it out of desperation. They're honestly a financial decision that truly can impact your bottom line. It can impact your practice. can, and like with hygienists coming through and dental assistants and the economy, it's like, how do we do this? And so I wanted you guys to just see kind of like three steps to know, can I give these raises out? How do I do this confidently? And what's kind of the flow?

 

without risking cash flow. So this is something that we're about. love doing this. Races don't, when they're done right, they increase retention, they boost morale and they elevate their culture. Like that's really what it's about. They're super helpful and they have to be timed and strategic as well. So it's not something of like, let's just willy nilly this, which I used to do. used to say, I don't have a set plan. Like it's just whenever now I'm like, wow, let's actually have a plan for this. Let's go through this. And I want to break this down into three simple steps for you.

 

So first steps before we ever give out the raises are we need to know our numbers. So payroll should be 30% of your collection. So if you're collecting $100,000 payroll, and that includes all fringe benefits, our 401k, everything, should be 30% or less of your total collections. Now that's across the board, it does not matter geographically. Some specialties are a little bit higher, a little bit lower, but the goal is we want it around 30%, or in some offices, they're around 27%. So again, I'm here for like great cases, great...

 

We want to take care of our team members, but we want to know how that's going to be there. So that's what we're looking for. And we want to make sure that we're profitable. So our goal is to have a 50% overhead of that 30% is payroll. So team members, are you hearing? The bulk of our monthly costs should be paying you. That's what it is. After that, our 50 % overhead, 30% doctor pay, 20% profit. That's what we're aiming for. That's what we strive for. That's what we try to get our offices to. So this way, we're not just giving raises haphazardly because

 

There's practices out there that like, let me just give them a raise, but their collections are not there. They don't have the money to do it. They backslide, their profitability is not there. And the reality is we've got to know where we're at right now on payroll. So the only ways to have that is we either decrease costs. So like maybe we can cut labor expenses that we don't need, or we need to increase our production or our collections.

 

So it's really our levers that we have to deal with in this scenario. So when you look at it, before we go in like, oh, we need to get everybody raises, you've got to run the numbers to see where are we at now and where would we be? So I love to have, when I'm running numbers with offices, I love to have a conservative. It's like, hey, this is my bare bones. This is what I can have running my practice. Then I have my like middle tier, like this is where we basically are at right now. And then I love to have on the higher end, what do I have if I'm giving raises out and hiring new people? What does that look on the high end?

 

because then I can look at my total costs and I can see how much do I need to actually add in? What do we need to produce to be able to afford this of a practice? And I look at these three areas on my spreadsheet constantly. I call it my monthly costs. I have my conservative, my middle of the road and my advanced. This way it helps me see. Now, after that, we're going to have our raises based on performance and value. So we don't want, so this is step number two, raises are earned, they're not automatic. I understand that.

 

There are things with inflation, there are different pieces, but the reality is, long as what I do is I look around every year, we have it set up to make sure that what we're paying out for payroll is in the higher end of what is within our area. So you can actually go look on Indeed, you can look on Glassdoor, you can look on other areas to see what is the average pay for dental assistants in our area? What's the average pay for hygienists in our area? What's the average pay for billers, office managers, schedulers, treatment coordinators?

 

And our goal and our practices is to be in the top percent of those. We're not maybe going to be the highest, but we are going to be hopefully in the top 90 % of that. So that way you know, are we in line? Are we not in line? What do we need to do? And then what we're going to do from there is we're actually going to build out job descriptions. So we have an entire thing of dental assistants and all the pieces where it's tiers. So like a basic assistant. So let's say our range for assistants is 18 to $25. Well, at the 18, here's the range of what the assistant needs to do.

 

At the 20, this is what the assistant needs to do. At the 22, this is what they need to do. And at the 25, that's a lead assistant. So it scales it up so you're able to see like, okay, if I want a raise, this is how I'm going to grow in the company to then know what I need to do to be able to get a higher pay. I think this is so valuable for offices and it's also valuable for team members because now team members can look to say, if I want a raise, this is what I need to take on. This is what I need to learn. It's not just like, well, I've been here for two years. Give me my raise.

 

it's no take on more responsibilities because we are going to pay you but it's based on the experience that you bring to the practice as well. So with that, these are going to be performance based raises. And it doesn't mean that like just because someone hit that 22 that I have to give it to them right now. What it can mean is like annually you can look at it, see where your assistants and your team are at front office every position and see who qualifies for raises and who doesn't. Now when I'm running my projections and I'm looking at my costs,

 

A lot of times I will run my assistance on the high end or if I know they're like on my high end of those monthly costs, I'm going to look to see, all right, what do I have today? Now, if they went up one bracket or two brackets and I wanted to pay them this amount because they're doing it, what does that impact my overhead and what do we need to do? Because hopefully as people are expanding on those tiers, they're actually able to take on more, they're able to produce more, they're able to do more within the practice to make the practice more profitable or to grow.

 

So that way it's linked. So it's the tier raises are based on performance and value, making sure they're adding more value to the practice. And this way we can have it. And we have all these broken out for every single position. We call them tiers in it. And it's really beautiful because now for me, I know the high end of my assistants will be this amount. The high end of my hygienists will be this amount. And I'm not sitting here vacillating on these decisions. And then every year we just go through and assess and adjust as needed. But we run the numbers to make sure it makes sense. And then we do an end of year potential review of all of our people.

 

to see who gets raises and I can then put that into my projections for the next year when I'm building out our block schedule, building out the projections on the practice. All of that can make it really, really ⁓ special and also accurate to know what are we going to do and what do we need to hit in order to keep our overhead and our metrics in line. Hopefully that made sense because I feel like it's really like one, know your numbers, two, have your raises tied to performance and value, but based in the projections that you need to have within the practice.

 

And then after that, step three is to communicate raises with clarity and boundaries. So raises do impact your morale. Like, so you've got to make sure communication is key and you don't want it to be where we're giving one raise to an assistant, but then we don't give it to someone else. And then people talk and they get really angry. We also don't want to raise up all of our hygienists just because someone got a raise when they're not qualifying for it. So I like to have reviews with our teams. I like to review where they're at, where their compensation is at, what they're doing.

 

This is all where team leads can also put it into play to see how is this team member doing? How are they going? What's the next level? And then being transparent in what's needed to move from tier to tier. So having those one-on-ones, showing people, hey, what are your goals? And I like to find out team members when I'm having my one-on-ones, what's their personal goal? What are their life goals? And how can they move up to the next level? Now, if you're newer to business ownership, you might not know how you can do these raises. So that's really where I love my conservative.

 

my middle and my high end, so then I can look to see what do I need to produce? What do we need to collect to be able to make sure that we can actually afford this? So when we have offices, I have a lot of offices, like don't make decisions about this on emotional decisions. This is not a zone where we want to like, my gosh, well, Sarah came and talked to me and she's going to quit unless I give her a raise. Well, what that does is it sets a standard across the board for all the rest of your team members to see that. And they're watching, your team's watching to see what are you going to do? And I would rather,

 

like have a hard conversation and let them know like, I'd love to give you a raise. The reality is we know the process, we know the tiers. I know that there was another opportunity that came for you. I'd love to keep you. I'd love to find a solution. I also need to be fair with the rest of our team and I can't adjust policy just for one team member. So this way you can have like truly structured review time. You can not have off the cuff, like someone comes in like, I want a raise. And I'm well, what am I supposed to do? The team now knows how they can get raises and everything's very transparent.

 

very clear. And this way it's very clear for all team members. It's clear for you. It's clear is kind. So ⁓ practices, we have this for dental offices, I'll be honest in dental team. This is something Britt and I have been working through. We have a lot of positions in our company that we have never, ever, ever worked with. So we're very naive of like, okay, well, how much should this person get and how like, what should we have them do to qualify for raises? But for you, you're really lucky.

 

We've worked in the dental office. We know all the tiers. We know what they should be adding in. So you don't need to be like I am in our company where I'm like, how do I give these raises? What should people be getting? What does it qualify? We literally have it broken down for you, easy for you. You can adjust it. And then we just check in your area of what you should be doing for your raises in different areas to make sure you're paying in that top 90 % of your area. So hopefully that helps you with like know your numbers, tie your raises to values and have it tiered and then have set times where we actually review it and communicate with clarity.

 

I will not be doing raises throughout the entire year. We have it, we assess it, we know when we're going to roll out our raises. We talk to team members, we let them know, so it's very clear, it's very transparent, it's very open with them. And this way, you guys don't have to have struggles. And I will tell you, offices that do this honestly use their numbers, their alignment and their structure for raises. It's not based on emotion, it's not based on willy-nilly. They literally can walk in confident, like no, yes, yes, no. Team knows.

 

And that just makes it a lot easier. Then team members aren't like me where I was always like, okay, so it's my one year. Are they going to give me a raise? Are they not going to give me? I don't really know. It was always awkward. And unless we went and asked the doctor, we didn't get a raise and I hated it. So don't make it that way. Like make this where it's something easy for your team, easy for you. You make it something where everybody wins. Everybody knows it makes it easier for your office managers. They're not in question. They can hold the line for you. Everybody wins through this. So this is truly where we want you guys to look at your

 

Like action items are look at your raise process and see do you actually have a process and what can you do to make this where it's clear, confident? For me, I review all numbers in September and October and I build my budget for the next year. That's when all raises go through. I do it really much like corporate, so I know who's getting raises, who's not. We have a lot that are production based within our company, so the more they produce, the better off they're going to be. I don't wanna have to worry about those, but I still need to assess and just make sure are our bases accurate, are the pieces there?

 

Britt and I worked through this for a good solid chunk of time where we're reviewing it, we're looking at it, we're making sure it fits within our numbers of what we need, and then we know what we're able to do. So review it, see if you have it, and if you need help, email us, [email protected]. These are tricky numbers, these are tricky pieces, these are like, how do I know? The tiers are amazing, I'm happy to help you with that. So email in [email protected]. Truly, this is where you can elevate in your leadership. This is where you can be more clear.

 

This is where you have hopefully a little bit more clarity of how do I give raises? How do I know if I can afford it? Giving you the numbers as your guide, giving you the tiers, giving you the parameters within your area, and then having set times where you look at it, you project it out, having your monthly costs. So again, we're looking at multiple different lenses to see yes or no. So we're not emotional, but we're truly directed.

 

This is something I love. I love giving owners ⁓ clarity. I love being a fairy godmother for you where we literally can answer all these questions. You can call us. We'll pick up the phone. We'll help you out. This is what it's like to be part of our consulting. If we can help you reach out, this is what we love to do. And if you're ready to reward and retain your team the right way, reach out. Let's help you out. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

 

Kiera is joined by Zaneta Hamlin, owner and founder of Cusp Dental Boutique. Zaneta, who built her practice from the ground up, shares with Kiera her journey, reflecting on what got her to this point and what she would’ve changed and focused more on if she were to start over again.

Plus, Zaneta talks about how she’s turned even the smallest items and exchanges into branding opportunities for her practice.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so giddy. I have one of my favorite humans in the entire world. Like that is not an exaggeration. She's got a million dollar smile. She's one of the funniest people I've ever met. She makes me laugh all the time. She really does. Like Zaneta when you smile, is the world just makes like it's just a happier place. Zaneta Hamlin, one of my favorite doctors. This woman can brand like nobody's business. Surprise fact, I even have her all of her branding sitting here. I have her stickers.

 

I love the business card. That was my favorite thing that you added in for me was a business card for me. But Zaneta Hamlin, one of our clients, one of my faves, welcome to the podcast today. How's your day today?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (00:39)

Great, how are you? I'm happy to be here in the chat.

 

Kiera Dent (00:43)

I'm so happy to have you. My day has been amazing. It's been podcast day and by far my favorite podcast is you today. So I'm really, really excited because I have wanted this podcast to come out for so long. So Zaneta I don't want to like do you a disservice. I just said a few things as to why I wanted you to come on the podcast. Like I said, being a part of our community, I just watch you and something I've noticed about you since literally the day one is you dress incredibly well and you're always branded. Like you're a walking

 

machine of branding every event I've seen you at you have Cusp Dental I know where you are I know your colors you have everything branded you think so intentionally but you're just an amazing human so Zaneta kind of tell us and honestly I want to go with you and do ⁓ dentistry in other countries that's something that you and I are gonna do outside of that so to fill our listeners in a little bit Zaneta kind of walk them through who is Zaneta Hamlin how did you get to be into Cusp Dental just kind of give us a little background on who you are the dentistry you do

 

Zaneta Hamlin (01:29)

Absolutely.

 

Kiera Dent (01:40)

Whatever you feel like sharing, this is Zaneta's time. And I want everybody to get to know you because you're just an amazing human. So walk us through, how did you get from where you were to where you are today?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (01:46)

Bye.

 

So am

 

a second generation dentist. ⁓ I started off as an associate. I went to my dad's alma mater, went to Howard University College of Dentistry around this area in the Virginia Beach Hampton Roads area. I would say Howard is the real HU, so that's going to probably offend some people great. Yes, yes.

 

Kiera Dent (02:01)

Amazing.

 

That's okay. She's here for it. There's no shame. Zenita, this is your podcast. You get to say whatever you want

 

today. No filtered.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (02:19)

yeah. So second gen dentist, ⁓ I started off as an associate. So I associated for about nine years, ⁓ until I, ⁓ birthed the idea for Cusp Dental Boutique. It was initially going to be an acquisition. That was the plan I was with, ⁓ coaching prior, but it was more, it was geared more towards, ⁓ acquisitions and

 

That didn't work out for me. ⁓ just, everything just didn't work out. And the type of practice that I was looking to create ⁓ just didn't fit in the other practices. So ⁓ my husband actually found the space that we are in ⁓ and we just built it from scratch. It was a shell. ⁓ And then we have Cusp Dental Boutique. Now, ⁓ yeah, I do like to brand. So.

 

Kiera Dent (03:12)

That's amazing.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (03:17)

you

 

Kiera Dent (03:17)

Please do, I want you

 

to, because I also hope people hear, like I said, I brought you on for a reason, Zaneta. This is where I want you to brag. I want you to share about who you are, because I think so often we don't, and so many times dentists feel they're doing it all alone. So trying to bring different dentists, different perspectives. So brag, Zaneta, I'm gonna brag about you too. So this is your show, brag as you should.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (03:38)

I do love my practice. I love how we do things differently. There's a lot of technology. mean, lately I've had a few temps in my office. And so just having the temps has shown me how much my office does that others don't. And so, the expectations are bit higher with what they should do. ⁓ But everyone comes in and like, my gosh, this doesn't feel like a dental office. doesn't smell like a dental office.

 

⁓ even the swag they get is different. Now, yeah, I'll give the Cusp Dental Boutique chapstick or things like that, but the koozies, the ⁓ wine tumblers, because you can have wine. ⁓ I think one of the things that you might be referring to is ⁓ my luggage ⁓ cover.

 

Kiera Dent (04:18)

Why not? Why not?

 

Yes. Yes.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (04:30)

I

 

do have that because look, your bags, when you check a bag, even if you are rolling, like it's carry on, people see it as you're dragging it wherever. So it's advertising, you know, they might be in a different state. You might come visit Virginia Beach. You what? I was on a flight to Detroit and I saw, you know, this Cusp Dental Boutique. I want to see where that is. Maybe they have an emergency. Top of mind.

 

Kiera Dent (04:37)

Mm-hmm.

 

don't

 

disagree with you. This is why I brought you on the podcast because the way you think about branding and advertising, like I remember meeting you first at this conference and like you're repping it. Like you've got your Cusp Dental Boutique and it makes me so happy because that's also, think why you do so well in your practice. Like you love what you've built. You can see the love and the passion and the pieces. Yeah. The luggage. just wrote it down. Dental A Team needs to freaking put those on because we travel everywhere. Think of how many dentists are traveling to conferences and we are not branding. So

 

Zaneta Hamlin (05:22)

All the time, yes.

 

Kiera Dent (05:27)

Dental A Team, if you're listening, which most of them do, ⁓ surprise, maybe it'll be your holiday present. Shelbi, we need to get these. So, you know, there we go. Yeah, it's brilliant.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (05:33)

There we go.

 

They are great.

 

Nobody's gonna rep your brand better than you. So if you aren't proud of it, you know, so you gotta rep it. And yeah, I put it on anything. We went, ⁓ our family went on a Disney cruise, our first ever Disney cruise. And I just randomly saw, cause ⁓ a sorority sister of mine told me we need those ⁓ clips for your beach chair to put your towel on so it doesn't fly away.

 

Kiera Dent (05:45)

Mm-hmm. I love it.

 

⁓

 

right. Of course. Of course you can.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (06:03)

Well, I happen to find there are stretchy versions, like ⁓ elastic versions, and you can customize them. So of course, mine, one side says

 

Cusp Dental Boutique, the other side says Cusp Untethered. So either way, you're getting something. And it went on. So on the Disney Cruise, you could see four chairs. Cusp Dental Boutique, Cusp Untethered. You know.

 

Kiera Dent (06:19)

Something.

 

Amazing.

 

It's incredible. So, okay. So I think Zaneta, something that you do so well is you built this practice. And I mean, even, I think people seeing the clips of this online, I mean, you doesn't even look like you're sitting in a dental practice. Like you're in this very different vibe, different feel. So walk me through how has it been being an owner? And then I want to go through like what have been the struggles, what have been the good things? Like you have this amazing space, people you've got raving fans.

 

Like you have built this boutique dental practice, which I think is so great to stand out when I think dentistry has been a little bit tricky. And I think you're doing a great job of that. And then we're going to pivot to like some of your favorite brand. I mean, she's already listed her luggage covers. can like literally Zaneta. feel like if there's something she can put a logo on, she will like, it is like, Oh, I could put this here. I could have a bracelet. I mean, your jacket, I guarantee you there's a Cusp Dental pin. I guarantee. Yep.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (07:15)

Really.

 

yeah,

 

I mean the back of my jean jacket says untethered on it.

 

Kiera Dent (07:26)

It's all there. She's constantly, it's constant. Like Zaneta, I think you are one of the few people that thinks in their branding so much that it is a part of you. It's what you do. It's who you are. It's not like I'm Zaneta and here's work and here's Zaneta. It's I am these pieces. So walk me through, you started this scratch start. How's it been going?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (07:27)

The symbol is right there.

 

you

 

Kiera Dent (07:50)

The wins, the stresses, the struggles, like where are you at on the business ownership path?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (07:56)

I mean, there have been ups and downs. I will be very honest and frank about that. I've never been a business owner. So this is my first kick at it. ⁓ But I'm very frank with my team, like, hey, guys, I'm learning too. And I rely on them to also give me their feedback. Now, I always take it into consideration. It doesn't always mean like, hey, we're going to do what you recommended this time around. But I do like to listen to them and see what they think, because they have great ideas. But you won't know unless you actually listen to them.

 

It's been up and down. Like when people opt to leave the practice to go somewhere for whatever reason, ⁓ I've taken it personally in the past. Now, ⁓ my gosh, I mean, hopefully Dana has seen how much I've grown in that department.

 

Kiera Dent (08:38)

I was,

 

I would agree. Dana's been coaching you for quite a while and Zenita, I will even say not being in the day to day with you all the time, you have grown exponentially. It used to be this, I remember being in the Dr. Masterminds, different places. It was just this like complete stress. And I feel like you have definitely grown as a business owner, as a leader, and I'm really proud of you. And you seem happier, but you still haven't lost your flair of like loving your practice. Like it didn't jade you even though it stressed you out. And agree, Dana, Dana will for sure be watching this and she will be so proud of you.

 

She already is, but you have definitely grown in the time that we have known you. And I'm really proud of you because I don't think everybody does grow. Some people just stay stagnant, but you have wanted to grow. You've wanted to evolve. You listen to what people say. You've made friends in our community. You and Christie have become BFFs. Christie Moore, she's been on the podcast too. Super excited to hang out in person, but you do a good job of executing and implementing Zenita. You're very humble. You're very coachable. And you're also just a ton of fun. Like you keep the Zenita piece of you while also growing and evolving too.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (09:38)

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's there's no way you can't change stuff if you don't accept it. Because if it was working the way you were doing it, then why are you coaching? So no, it's it's been up and down. I've learned to delegate. I wasn't doing that before. And I'm still learning to ⁓ give deadlines because sometimes I will suggest that something needs to be done and not say when I need it done by and in my mind, that means you've done it already.

 

Kiera Dent (09:45)

Right.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (10:04)

⁓ so working on that, but I am doing better with letting others, ⁓ do things for me and that I don't have to do all of it. And I have a great team that understands that I will do it all if not, if they don't step in and they will be like, no, no, no, I got it. You go do something else or maybe go eat. about that? so, ⁓ I think it's who you surround yourself with that. ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (10:18)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah. Yeah. Good.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (10:33)

helps and like you mentioned like Christie, for example, I was talking to another doctor when I went to a master class a couple of weeks ago for the AGD and he was telling me like, hey, when you are looking to move your practice into different levels, like moving up, like for example, me, you know, trying to add an associate and grow, he was like, talk to people who have done it or people who ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (10:54)

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (11:02)

have been in that seat before, or coaches that can help you. And I was like, well, definitely my coach can help me with that. And to like, you know, talking to somebody like Kristy, who's been there, done that, probably even read a book about it, you know. So ⁓ it's who you surround yourself with too, that can help you.

 

Kiera Dent (11:20)

Yeah, no, I think you've done an amazing job and it's just fun. It's fun to watch you evolve as a leader. It's fun to watch you. I mean, I remember some of our first emails were I'm staying here so late. Everything's on my plate. I don't know how to do this to now hearing you of I delegate and I built this culture of a team that knows who I am. They give it had to change yourself as Anita. That's something I love about you is I don't feel you. There's been a huge change of Anita. I think there's been like Zenita 2.0 is Anita 3.0.

 

where you just keep like, keep the core of who you are, but you evolve as your business evolves and like letting the team know, yes, this is who I am and this is what I'm expecting. And I'm very honest and very frank. I think it's really helped you tremendously. And like, let's give some snaps. You are bringing in an associate. You are evolving your practice. You are growing into these things. And so if you were talking to somebody, say in your shoes, they just found this space, they found the shell. They're super excited. There's Anita, who you were at the beginning.

 

Zenita today, what would you maybe tell that practice owner of some things of like, hey, as the wiser version of me, this is what I would maybe do or I would execute on XYZ or I would do this again of something that I did. What would you say are some of those tips you would give maybe a Zenita coming in doing a similar path?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (12:36)

probably would have learned to delegate earlier. I think, yeah. Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (12:40)

I agree.

 

Yeah, I remember

 

some long emails and some hard nights on NotDelegate and a lot of hours at the practice unnecessarily.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (12:48)

Yeah

 

I was quick focusing it. Don't do quick,

 

you can, but why? know, like, I can't believe I did that and how much time I put, but it's interesting though, like some, the things that I have delegated, I'm still busy. I still have to do things. it's like, now I'm like, how did I have time to do that? Like, no wonder why I was stressed. No wonder why I wasn't sleeping, you know, like, so I would have definitely, ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (12:57)

I agree. I agree.

 

Yes.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (13:20)

delegated sooner. I would have gotten an aura ring earlier. That's something she knows talking to her about. I would have gotten that earlier. ⁓ But I also would have trusted my intuition more a earlier. I mean, I did, but not at the level in which I do now. Like, for example, if I extend an offer or like,

 

Kiera Dent (13:24)

Right? ⁓ It works great. Yes, agreed. Okay.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (13:49)

you know, I make a decision, because I like to make decisions pretty quickly. Like it's this and we're going with it, right? I don't go back and like ponder it like, oh, did I really make this mistake? Like, was this a mistake? Should I have done this? Should I have done that? I've had those thoughts before, but then I quickly am like, no, no, no, it's, this is the way we should go if an offer was made and it wasn't accepted.

 

Kiera Dent (13:53)

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (14:17)

It's because that wasn't for me and it probably would have been a headache. You know, I've gone down that route with like negotiations and stuff like that. And I thought to myself, hey, had that actually worked, it would have been a disaster. So I'm glad it didn't. So definitely ⁓ intuition, like leaning into that and just going with the flow.

 

Kiera Dent (14:35)

Yeah.

 

Mm hmm. No, and I do. I do think that there's so many times that we feel like there's all these other experts, which I do agree like great job. Kudos to you. You you jumped into consulting and you hired coaches and you talk to mentors and talking about Sheena and Christie like you use your doctor community around you and you work with other mentors. But I do believe that there's an internal knowing that I think we often lose by thinking I've never done this before. So how am I supposed to know? But I do think that there's a core knowing that

 

I really love that you brought that up, that people really do need to trust themselves. They need to execute on that more. ⁓ So many people are like, well, someone told me I shouldn't do this. And I'm like, but you know, like you know what you need to do and you're gonna, you'll figure it out and it will work. So, okay, I love your story and I love what you've done. And I'm so happy that you're sharing with other people. And now I wanna pivot to, let's talk about your branding. Talk me through, you said everything is branding opportunities. Every single possible thing that you do.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (15:18)

It doesn't feel right.

 

Kiera Dent (15:36)

Like has this always been a part of you? Did it just come with buying the practice? And then I want you to walk through some of the specifics that you do of branding intentionally, maybe even like who you use or where you get these things. Like, I don't think people realize like marketing is a lot easier than they think it is. You did a scratch start. So you have had to figure out how to market yourself with no money. So kind of walk us through like, how have you done this? How has the marketing been for you? How has it been finding more new patients like?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (15:54)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (16:02)

I don't know, whatever you want to take on this branding, because honestly, you are one of my queens of branding that I've met as a dentist. You do it so well. So walk me through just whatever, however you want to take this branding, marketing side of the business.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (16:15)

No judgment. Okay. Ready? Okay. One of the cheapest things you can get and y'all don't, well, let's just go through it. So ⁓ pens. Okay. So I would go to Pens.com. They always run promos and stuff like that. Get some pens, get your favorite pen. ⁓ they send you, they'll send you something. See exactly. Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (16:17)

No judgment. I'm ready.

 

No judgment, we already put it there.

 

You do.

 

I have it. It's literally right there.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (16:42)

What I, how I started was, mean, of course, Studio 88 did my logo, my colors and all that stuff. That was a process to get to what it is now, right? Because there were different versions of it, right? And then I started putting it on pens. So here's what I would do. would, when I go to a restaurant, family, friends, myself, whatever, you know, they give you a pen, a Bic pen or some whatever pen.

 

Kiera Dent (17:08)

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (17:10)

I will sign with my pen and I will leave that pen.

 

Kiera Dent (17:13)

You're so clever. Okay, keep going.

 

I want to hear all these ideas. I'm writing them down by the way. They're brilliant.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (17:20)

So

 

I always have a bajillion pens on me in my purse or in my pocket. wear scrubs, so I have them in my pockets and stuff. Like even where, like my car, where I take my car to get it serviced or I'll change whatever. They've got my pens floating around too. The wine shop that I go to with, that I have membership at, they've got my pens. They always ask me, what color is coming out next? You know, like, cause I do different colors based on different seasons, as long as it's within brand.

 

Kiera Dent (17:45)

Smart.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (17:48)

So I can tell when that pen was from because we've only been orange orders. And black was the last order we had. We have a teal one now. That was a mistake, but still I have 500 of them. So we're gonna work through that. Yeah. And then I also did a partnership with a restaurant that's not too far from my office, half a mile away. They're out by the water. They gave me gift cards that I can give to new patients.

 

Kiera Dent (17:54)

That's incredible.

 

So we're giving them out. Yeah.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (18:17)

I gave them a boatload of pens. So when they are having people sign their checks or whatever, you know, they finished their eating and all that stuff, they've got a Cusp Dental Boutique pen that people usually jack, they steal those. And so they've got 200 to sort through, whatever. So that's how I really started getting the brand out. I would wear what I had, if know, if I had t-shirts or something, I would wear those. Now I have sweatshirts and stuff too.

 

Kiera Dent (18:24)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm

 

Zaneta Hamlin (18:48)

But it was just really wherever I can show folks. When I go with my kids to their games or their school or whatever, I might have something. And people ask, ⁓ are you the one that owns? Yeah, hi, you should come to this. You know, just really, so it could be anything. mean, again, pen is a simple and easy thing to do to carry, not a huge investment.

 

Kiera Dent (19:03)

Yeah.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (19:16)

you know, do that. And then when Stanley does promotions and they customize them, you do that too. Yep. Yeah. And koozies are cheap. ⁓ I use ⁓ Citi Paper. They are in Alabama. A friend of mine, another business owner, she's a pediatric dentist. Quinn, sent them or referred them to me and ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (19:23)

On brand, on color. Excellent.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (19:44)

They do all of my koozies, whether it's the regular size koozie or the tall ones, which we did one season for a beach, because we're right by the water. ⁓ And then even like our goodie bags, we don't do the traditional goodie bags at the office. They're cotton, because also check out the environment. I have to come up with something for my patients who bring theirs back to reuse them. Like, hey, maybe if you bring your bag back, so we can just refill it with your supplies if you need it.

 

Kiera Dent (20:02)

Yeah.

 

Cute.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (20:14)

⁓ But things like that have been great and people love it because it's different. Now I use mine for like when I travel for makeup, like my makeup brushes. It's, you know, I've had patients that will use it for their sunglasses. We have Cusp sunglasses, which patients use when they're sitting in the chair anyway to protect their eyes and 90 % of the time they want to walk out with it anyway. So again, take it. has my logo.

 

Kiera Dent (20:25)

Mm-hmm.

 

Take

 

it, please.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (20:44)

Yeah,

 

take it. Yeah, by all means. So yeah, and sunglasses can be pretty cheap too.

 

Kiera Dent (20:47)

⁓

 

Mm-hmm. So what do you feel? Okay pens koozies sunglasses shirts sweatshirts reusable bags What do you feel are if I'm like on a budget? Pens obviously what else you feel has been I mean and also I'm hearing you you know your population You're by the beach. So you're thinking in beach like they're gonna want drinks. They don't want sand on those So koozies are gonna be great. Keep them cold. They're there

 

Zaneta Hamlin (21:02)

Mm-hmm. Yes.

 

Kiera Dent (21:14)

the towel thing at the beginning of the podcast. Well, yeah, that makes sense because you're at the beach. People need those are going to use those are going to see them. ⁓ I like what things would you say if I'm on a budget are going to be the best bang for my buck? I love the Stanleys. I didn't even think about like you're watching promotions on every single thing that your patients would use like sunglasses, clever. Again, you're a beach community. So what has been your best ROI?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (21:33)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (21:39)

because branding is like awareness, but then there's also like, I need patients to come back with that. So what do you feel has been your best ROI that you could say these patients came from this if I could only choose like one or two of these items?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (21:53)

If we, my team probably would have to help me with this, but if it's based on what people have asked for, I would say it's chapstick.

 

Kiera Dent (22:04)

Interesting.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (22:05)

Yeah, because you don't have to be at the beach to use chapstick like chaps you should keep these puppies moist like drink your water and Moisturize your lips ⁓ SPF all the things the chapstick folks have asked for like hey Do you guys still do the chapsticks because I think and I don't know I know there are different types, but the one we do is like the big daddy one I have one in my ⁓ pocket somewhere, but ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (22:14)

Yeah.

 

You

 

Zaneta Hamlin (22:34)

Um, people really like that. You know, someone once someone said to me, Oh yeah, a friend of mine was using it and I just liked how it went on. And, you know, she said she got at her dental appointment. I was like, Oh yeah. Okay. I'm glad you came because would you like one today after your appointment? can give you one.

 

Kiera Dent (22:52)

because we've got

 

some and you can share them with all your friends.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (22:56)

Yeah, so I think that has been great.

 

And then the koozies are the second ones because people ask for that again. You could be anywhere. I mean, my neighbors use the koozies when we're out in the neighborhood, you know, hanging out with the kids and stuff like that. So yeah. ⁓ look at that.

 

Kiera Dent (23:16)

Mm-hmm.

 

Look at that. She has it. I'm telling you, this woman walks in her logo. I would not be shocked if you told me you had pajamas in it.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (23:28)

That's it.

 

That's a good idea.

 

Kiera Dent (23:32)

There you

 

go. Pajamas. know our team has been asking me for workout clothes, like tank tops. Um, and then also they want the branded shoes of Dental A Team shoes. So that way they're like, we do a different one every single year. Cause that way, like your team is always wearing stuff also. So like if it's stuff that they do, yes. Um, you can do that. We also found out you can make a custom Nikes. Uh, you can make other customs that.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (23:47)

Yeah Chuck says it converse

 

Can you put lingo on

 

it?

 

Kiera Dent (24:01)

So those are things, again, I haven't done it yet, but write down the, get your notebook. ⁓ But honestly, I think Zaneta, some of these things, even post podcast, if you can send me and we'll include it in the show notes, some of the suppliers that you use and some of the ideas that you have. like we've listed off, she's got the Stanleys that she brands, there's the ChapStick. But if you looked and if you saw on the video and if you miss it, it's not the cheap ChapStick. Like this is not a cheap ChapStick. There's some dental offices that give.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (24:29)

They have...

 

Kiera Dent (24:30)

Gross chapstick.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (24:31)

yeah, the minis. I know!

 

Kiera Dent (24:33)

The minis or the ones that just like get in your mouth and they taste disgusting or they like don't actually moisturize. They almost like dry it out worse. So you're like putting it on. ⁓ You know what I'm talking about. Excellent. Do you hear this? She's coming to our doctor in-person mastermind, which is in September and we're super excited about it. It's a doctor in leadership one and Zaneta is already thinking I'm bringing it for everybody. And that's not because these dentists.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (24:40)

Yeah.

 

Yes. you're getting one. I think I'm bringing some for everybody when I come to the meeting.

 

and you get a chance to.

 

Kiera Dent (25:00)

These dentists are not her client. We don't even live by her, but yet all of us are going to be wearing it. She never knows where one of us is going to be. I'm going to be on the airplane sitting there flying out to the East coast. Someone's going to see it. They're going to look it up cause they're going to love her logo. And lo and behold, they'll be like, ⁓ I saw some girl putting this chapstick on, on a plane. You never know where people are going to be. And that's very easy. I thought your restaurant idea was so clever and like pens. I did not even think about signing with your own and just leaving it there constantly.

 

the luggage, our team's getting luggage carriers. Like that's going to be part of their standard onboarding. Cause we fly all the time and dentists are on planes all the time. So Zenita.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (25:32)

Thank you.

 

Dentists,

 

their assistants, their office managers, their spouses, somebody, it's fun. And I saw this cute lady walking by with this and took a picture of it and sent it to their spouse or whoever, best friend. Have you been in this company? Or why aren't you doing that?

 

Kiera Dent (25:43)

Mm-hmm.

 

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. It's a very, it's

 

so clever, Zenita. I think, okay, so what's your most random favorite thing that maybe wasn't the best ROI, but you just loved it. It was one of your favorite like things that you created that's been branded. I mean, you got a jean jacket that's unbranded. You've got your shirt, which is a super darling shirt. Like what have you loved that was like, yeah. And then you also said you got sweatshirts.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (26:16)

Thank you, you really sound interesting.

 

Kiera Dent (26:20)

What else do you have? Like, what was your favorite?

 

Zaneta Hamlin (26:23)

well, I really like our, wine, ⁓ tumblers. I have a Yeti that has, ⁓ Cusp Dental Boutique on it, but we have tumblers or two versions again, depending on which one you break out. know when you got it because we only rotate certain things and we've, we've done some promos where like our Cusp Circle folks get, which we have to get better about it. But when people do our in office, ⁓

 

membership, yep, they get those things. So like the t-shirt, I'm not going to just give to like our regular PPO patient. Like it's going to be, you know, our membership folks that get those, like the nicer branded items. But I really like the ⁓ koozies or not koozies, the tumblers. ⁓ I use it often enough. ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (27:01)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

often enough, all the favorite things and you can have it as

 

a business write-off because you want them. They're branded. You pull them out for parties. You can put them on social media. Obviously, it's a complete business write-off. I agree. Yeah.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (27:24)

Excellent. Yeah. I had

 

my previous coach, she would put when she would go to the beach or wherever she would go, she would take pictures with her wine tumbler in different places. I did like a, I think it's in my ⁓ Cusp merch on my Instagram, where it just shows people with Cusp Dental Boutique things in different places. ⁓ And sometimes I'll still do that. Like I'll set it somewhere or whatever.

 

Kiera Dent (27:40)

Ha ha ha!

 

Zaneta Hamlin (27:54)

I've had patients who will send me pictures of themselves out in the wild with random Cusp Dental Boutique things. yeah, but the wine tumbler has been great because no one else has that. no dental offices, you know, like it's something you wouldn't think of for a dental office. So yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (28:09)

Yeah.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Totally. Well, and as you're

 

saying, I hope people picked up on, I wrote down some notes that I think you maybe don't even realize you're doing, but you don't call it a membership plan. It's called Cusp Dental Boutique Circle. So it's your, and as soon as you said it, I was like, that's her membership plan. But notice the way you say it, Zaneta, is you want your people to be part of your group. It's a community, it's a group, it's not, and like they're getting the special stuff. They're getting something that's different than everybody else. So you're setting it apart for people that are a part of your inner circle.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (28:27)

Yes.

 

Kiera Dent (28:46)

Then it said Cusp merch and I was like, probably gonna start selling your merch like honestly, but right now it's just on social media, which then helps patients realize they go, they tag you, you're gonna be putting it on there. People will see it. ⁓ You also are very clever. You said two versions and I was like, that's so smart because then people are going to want things at different times. They're gonna see other people getting it, which then creates retention of people wanting to come back because they saw the merchandise. They saw different things.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (28:51)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (29:15)

but also you strategically know like when were, when did I see them? Where were these pieces based on what they're, they're having? So it's a very like thought out process that I don't even think people, I don't even know if you realize like the depths of the pieces you're doing that are just very fun. And it seems like you just have a ton of fun doing it too.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (29:22)

there.

 

I do. mean, it's, I don't know. It's, I, now I will say if you are wearing your brand, you can't be outside acting crazy. So you can be fun.

 

Kiera Dent (29:41)

I would agree. I was going to say, do you ever get sick of like having people be

 

like, hi, who are you? Like, I'm like, no, sometimes I want to go incognito on a plane. Like I don't want anybody to know me. So.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (29:48)

Yes, right. I

 

do have those times. Like tomorrow, I'm supposed to be going to Cape Charles with my husband. It's our wedding anniversary. I have gone back and forth because we're going to be visiting an artillery. I'm like, do I go? Because I will wear my Cusp baseball cap. I have it in three colors. My team, some of my team members have them.

 

Kiera Dent (30:01)

No.

 

Thank

 

Zaneta Hamlin (30:15)

I think one

 

of our videos, were wearing it for like, it's our like new patient welcome video we have for wearing the hats. But my husband wears his often. But I've thought, do I go to this place wearing my Cusp Dental Boutique hat? Because it has the symbol in the front ⁓ and the name of the practice in the back. ⁓ Or do I go incognito? Nobody should know who I am. But the Eastern Shore,

 

Kiera Dent (30:42)

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (30:43)

is close enough and we do have patients that have come from there. So just from talking to you, I'm thinking that I'm probably going.

 

Kiera Dent (30:50)

at least have

 

like, there'll be a little Cusp Dental Boutique cameo if not the full show. So yeah, of course she's taking pens.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (30:55)

I'm also taking pens. So I'm going to be leaving them at the

 

distillery strategically and the restaurant. ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (31:02)

The pen, the pen.

 

And I will say, Zaneta, I mean, you shipped this to me at Summit, because this is where it came from. We were at Summit and I was like, I need a notebook. And you messaged in the chat, I saw it come through, Zaneta said, I'm sending you a notebook. And lo and behold, this shows up in like the super cute notebook. I still have it. It's got a beautiful, I mean, it's a real nice pen, Zaneta. She did, that's something else I'm noticing with you. You're not scrimping. Like this is a very heavyweight pen. It's a nice feel pen.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (31:14)

It did.

 

Kiera Dent (31:32)

which also is on brand with a Cusp Dental Boutique office. You're not going for this like hot, like you're not going for the burn and churn, which is fine. If you were, it'd be a different type of pen. Your stickers are very high end stickers. Your business card is high end. It's on brand. There's the untethered. There's the Cusp Dental Boutique. Like just, I mean, you guys, I still have these. They're very nice. They're cute. They are not, I feel like I'm selling Cusp Dental Boutique. Like I feel like we're on an infomercial. Like here, here we are.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (31:59)

Please keep going.

 

Kiera Dent (32:02)

But I think something like this pen is compared to some of these crummy ones, like, you know, Pens.com, they do send you some really junky ones. They also send you some really nice ones. But I've been in offices writing with pens, like from the Pens.com, like they ship them to me. I'll have a rose gold one. I'll have a white one. And in offices, the dental assistant's like, I love your pen. And I'm like, well, you can have it. Here you go. Like take it, write it, share it with everybody. But I do think there's something to be said. You do nice things.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (32:10)

Thank you. Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (32:31)

rather than doing just cheap things to slap a brand, but your brand is higher end. Your brand is a nicer brand. So you're making sure it's very intentional with your brand.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (32:42)

think when you are going to brand your items, and I get it, it depends on which season you're in in your practice, right? But when you are going to put your name on something, you want it to represent you well. And so yes, the things that I have done are probably, you know, I will always say they're top tier. But some of these things you can also get when they go on sale. Like they'll send me stuff like, it's now 85 cents.

 

Kiera Dent (32:48)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (33:11)

you know, to get this pen or 50 cents for that pen. I'm like, oh shoot, get it, get it now. We're gonna get this color. This is gonna be this season or 2024. This is the color, you know. So it's just, and it's something I think it's probably my mother, cause she's always like, like if I'm gonna go out with her, like sometimes I wanna just dress down and wear sweatpants, right? She's like, where are you going? You're not following me like that. You know, and so it's like, okay, all right, I get it. Like I gotta represent you and myself well.

 

Kiera Dent (33:20)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

You

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (33:41)

So yeah, for things you're gonna put your logo on, you do wanna make sure it's something that people are gonna want, that it looks good and it represents you. So if you can't, maybe hold out till you can get the one that you really want. Because if it's crappy and you don't even like it and you're not gonna use it, why get it? Save your money, invest it in something else. Get AI.

 

Kiera Dent (33:55)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah.

 

Get AI.

 

was a mastermind conversation we had this week. There is a podcast inspo'd by Zaneta. I will not say exactly which one. She knows, you guys can all guess on the podcast coming out. I recorded it right before this one, but Zaneta, I think it was just so fun. I really wanted to hear just about the different ideas. So anything you have of like, like you said, Pens.com or where you get your koozies or any of those. Cause I think that's also the hard part of there. So much out there, like who are the good brands? So even if you can send some of those that you like.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (34:06)

You

 

Kiera Dent (34:30)

I'd be happy to share those along. But I think if nothing else, I hope listeners today start thinking of differently of how can you brand your stuff? How can you do simple things? Where are your patients hanging out all the time that are the ideal patients you want? Not just patients, because we don't want all patients. We want your ideal patient. So like you said, they're going to be at the distillery. So you're going to a certain place. Like I picked up on that. You're not like I'm handing these out at, we won't say certain names.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (34:32)

Yeah.

 

you

 

Kiera Dent (34:56)

but I know you would not be dropping pens at certain places. You will be dropping them up. They don't go to all locations. They go to intentional locations where you know, it's like you said, there's a restaurant on the water. Well, I can already tell what type of a clientele is at that one based on where this restaurant is. So without Zaneta even telling you who her ICP is or ideal customer profile or avatar of patient, she's intentionally putting all of her brand in the places she wants people to be at her ideal patient base.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (35:10)

You

 

Kiera Dent (35:25)

to grow and Zaneta, mean, without even sharing any of your numbers, the fact that you've taken a scratch, start shell of a practice, built it with your own branding, your own pieces to now you're going to be bringing on an associate. think people can attest that some of the things you're doing clearly have been working really, really well. So thank you for sharing. I got excited. I I wrote a ton of notes over here and I hope other people did. And these are the type of conversations that come out at the mastermind.

 

Zaneta is talking about all of her problems, but then she's branding her Cuspware everywhere and all of us want it. So it goes like, you know, it's a good, it's a good thing. And honestly, Sheena needs to talk to you. She needs help on her branding. So and Sheena shout out to you. Just like, you know, you need like these are the things.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (35:57)

Ha ha!

 

I would love to, but I do think

 

though, just, I probably picked this up from Studio 88, just because you're a dental practice, a dental office, you do not have to do everything dental. Like my logo doesn't have a tooth anywhere, right? It can, and that's great, but it doesn't have to. So just because it's a dental practice, like my logo or the things that I brand aren't specific to dental things. So my recommendation is,

 

Kiera Dent (36:20)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (36:33)

Put your logo on something that you like and you would use outside of work. That is the best way to market your practice is on things that you would even want to use. It doesn't have to be like things you would expect from a dental office. You know what I mean? Like, hence the rumblers and yeah, the wine stuff.

 

Kiera Dent (36:52)

right? The wine. Yep, yep. It's

 

stuff that you like, but also what I think is important is we often attract the people that are like us and as patients. And so Zaneta is doing things that make her happy, that make her want to do it, that are going to attract people that are very similar to her. Not everyone's going to love this pen. There will be some of you that will be like, that's too thick, that's too fat. Like I don't like how that one writes. And you would prefer another style of pen.

 

but people that like this high end vibe feel where it's this gel. mean, I already know Tiffany would love this pen and in the other colors. I also love that you do different colors. It's so clever, like so many fun things and you just have fun, but you do it. I'm really proud of you on an overhead budget. Good job. Like when it's on sale, when these things like, not just buying the Stanleys, you're literally being an intentional business owner too, which I think shows that you can do branding and marketing on like within an overhead budget.

 

and still have a ton of fun and make beautiful, high quality things. I mean, your logo just stands out even in this video. It's strong. It's, it's Anita. It's beautiful. And it just definitely represents who you are as a person too.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (38:00)

And the final thing I'll mention about that is not every, like right now I'm the only one with the Stanley, but I will say my, if I make more of these, cause I wanted to try it out. I wanted to see how it would do. And my team members were like, I love that. You there are certain things that only squad members have. So like, right. So you want to get it. Like there's certain jackets or sweatshirts that we have.

 

Kiera Dent (38:14)

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (38:28)

You only get that if you're on my team. So ⁓ there are certain things you and like this t-shirt patients don't get this, you know, and it has our ⁓ humble hearts, skilled hands at the back. If they're wearing it out, they're like, well, where'd you get that shirt? Even if a patient from Cusp Circle wants a shirt, theirs is a little bit different, right? So again, strategically, you know, no, how'd you that? Cause only team members have that or whatever. So.

 

Kiera Dent (38:41)

I love it.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

⁓ Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (38:56)

If it's a little bit more expensive, yeah, maybe do that for your team during the holidays or their anniversary ⁓ or their birthday or something like that ⁓ that you're not just giving to anybody else.

 

Kiera Dent (39:05)

Mm-hmm.

 

It's really clever. So for birthdays and anniversaries, do you have swag or gifts? I'm guessing it's all Cusp Dental Boutique. So tell us kind of about that. I mean, I didn't mean to go down this path, but I'm just very curious.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (39:20)

So, not always, so give me some credit there, not always. our first, so for my office, the first anniversary, you get a Marc Jacobs tope.

 

Kiera Dent (39:24)

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

 

I love it. I love it. No, there is no judgments

 

they needed. These are the things that make offices stand out. I love it.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (39:37)

It's the mini though. So they get,

 

it's the maybe, I guess it's the small. So ⁓ far I've given four of those out. But anyway, you get that in whatever color. I order them, get them in bulk during the holidays. So I have them hidden somewhere in my office. So whenever someone's anniversary is, I can get in, I know what color they want, I can ask, and then they get that for their first anniversary. Second anniversary, what I've done is, ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (39:51)

Mm-hmm.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (40:06)

I have, we did like the, I think it's like the Turkish towels, because again, beach, and then ⁓ city paper put my logo on it. It's in like leather or something like that on the side. ⁓ So they have that, and you know, the Turkish towels have like, it's like tied at the bottom or whatever, like the things hanging off of it. So we did that in a wine. So the wine shop that I go to, they custom made a, they, brought the towel.

 

Kiera Dent (40:11)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

 

No.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (40:35)

They put that in there with, so my team members that have gotten to their second year anniversary, they fill out a questionnaire from the wine shop that tells, ask them specifically what kind of wines they like. We put that in the box with other goodies from the wine shop. So it might be like truffle almonds or whatever that will pair well and little things based on what they like. And then that goes with it. And so that was year two.

 

⁓ I'm still thinking what's gonna happen for those that make it to year three, ⁓ but it's always gonna be something different. They'll get at least something that has Cusp on it. It's just the first anniversary has the Marc Jacobs tote. And that started from like a joke that we had in the office, because people would walk around with these Marc Jacobs. And my admin at the time, Rachel, she was great before she moved. She had, and it's on social media somewhere where,

 

Kiera Dent (41:05)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah, I love it.

 

Yeah

 

Zaneta Hamlin (41:32)

She wrote on a brown paper bag, the tote, and she would walk around the office with it. And I was like, I get the hint. I get it. So that's when I bought it and I just made it a rule. Our first anniversary, that's what you get. So it's the same.

 

Kiera Dent (41:36)

Mm-hmm.

 

You

 

It's amazing. And I love that you

 

think about like buying it on sale, there's different things. And then it's part of the Cusp. I love that it's called the Cusp squad. And you've got the Cusp Dental sort of like Boutique circle. So it's like you've got different names also for your groups that people want to be, which is so amazing. I have a friend and she does this in her dermatology and I didn't think about it. But she has it so exclusive that people like fly in from other places to go to her dermatology and be like, how did you get into joyful?

 

And she's just done a great job of branding it, of making things special, of making it to where this is only for, and I mean, I wrote so many notes because this is not my specialty. That's why I wanted you on the podcast, Anita, because I think hearing what other people do really can help us out. And like you are literally thinking in branding all day, every day, what can I do? But also doing it in such a beautiful aesthetic way as well that people want it. I mean, who doesn't want to Mark Jacobs bag that, yeah, I'm okay with it saying Cusp on it. Like I'll take that, right? ⁓

 

It's a beautiful thing that people do want, which is amazing. I love it. Well, Zaneta, I adore you. Any last thoughts you have, anything on branding or business ownership or anything that you feel leaving our listeners today would put a nice pretty bow on this for you today, because I've loved it. I've enjoyed all the tactical pieces, so many different fun things, like something so far from what I normally talk about that just makes me excited and psyched ready to do this. So any last things you want to add, any advice, any pieces?

 

to put a on our podcast today.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (43:19)

Just make it fun, get stuff that you would use, doesn't have to be dental related. mean, ⁓ yeah, you can check in with your team too. They might have some great ideas that you can use, but yeah, just have fun with it and be obnoxious as you want to with it. Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (43:40)

I love it.

 

Amazing. Well, Zaneta, thank you. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing. And I think this is just something really special about our dentist community of like people like you and Christie and Sheena and like, Jamin and all Kevin like so many cool amazing doctors that we get to hang out together. I didn't know how that community was going to shake. had visions of it becoming what it's been where you pop on your hair is always wrapped up because you're coming from patients on your computer hanging out.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (44:07)

Yes.

 

Kiera Dent (44:09)

And then all of a sudden I see the like eyes flash to the screen like what? And I'm supposed to do what? You guys want the what? But just like a fun community and having doctors like yourself that just bring special different ways. I think it's just amazing. So thank you for being on the Dental A Team's family. Thank you for being a part of our crew. It's just like, and thank you for sharing on the podcast today. I really appreciate you.

 

Zaneta Hamlin (44:30)

Thank you for having me. Like, yeah, I'm glad Brandy got us to this point because, I'll definitely, I won't disappoint next month. I'll have some new ideas for you because my pin is going to be on, so you'll see that too, on my blazer.

 

Kiera Dent (44:41)

I know you won't. Zaneta, I guarantee you. I can't wait.

 

I cannot wait. Yeah, you walk around with this pin. I'm telling you Zaneta dresses herself to the hilt with her brand and it's amazing. I love it every time and I never know what you're going to show up in and it's always different. You're always thinking but I also love that you highlighted because some people can go crazy and not be smart strategic business owners and you're able to do both and that's really what I wanted to highlight. So

 

Thank you and thank everyone. ⁓ And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

 

2026 might still seem like a ways off, but now is the time to start chipping away at preparation. Tiff and Kristy walk practices through what to do to be ready for a fresh start come January 1. They talk about lag and lead measures, what to put on your calendar now, fee schedules, and a ton more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am back at you today, Miss Tiffanie, Spiffy Tiffy. No one's called me that in a while. I have not recorded with Kiera in a hot minute. That's how I know I have not recorded with Kiera, because I haven't been called Spiffy Tiffy in a minute. ⁓ We're here today. I have Miss Kristy with me today. She has just done a slew of recordings with me. We blocked out two hours today, and we said, you know what? We're just going to bust out a bunch, and we are doing it. Summertime gets a little wild.

 

and it gets hard to schedule these suckers in there. So Kristy, thank you for being here with me today. Thank you for scheduling this in your schedule and making sure that we could get this done. How are you?

 

DAT Kristy (00:39)

It's always fun spending time with you. We don't get to do this all the time.

 

The Dental A Team (00:44)

I agree. We really don't. And I started doing ⁓ for you specifically because I'm like, gosh, we really don't. I still get like so much time with Trish, Monica is in, you know, we're doing so much onboarding. ⁓ And so I was like, no, we need, I need Kristy, like just touch base, check in one on one time. Like I need that outside of our monthly one on one. So I agree. And I'm excited to be here today. I think we both have animals at home and it's funny. We like

 

go a certain amount of time and then they've hit their limits. And I don't know, I've got a cat that's running around just screaming right now. I don't think you guys can hear it, I hope. But I think what happens is she's just like, okay, I'm tired of hearing your voice. Even when I'm on coaching calls, like maybe my inflection is different or I don't know. There's something about podcasting that she hits her limit at about an hour in, hour and a half. She's like, I'm done. I'm either podcasting with you or you're being forced to turn it off.

 

Yeah, anyways, animals are wild. ⁓ They are. my gosh, they are like kids. They're exhausting. Yeah, they are like, because I think they're worse than kids. You know, when I was little, they used to say, I don't know if people still say this or not, but they used to say, when you think you're ready for kids, get a dog. And I used to be like, that's easy, right? And I'm like, actually, I find that my animals are way more work than my son is. they just require so much of me at

 

DAT Kristy (01:43)

I like kids.

 

The Dental A Team (02:10)

their own discretion. Like it's just, it's when they want it. And I have, I have two cats and a dog and the dog is much chiller, but even puppies, I'm like, puppies are hard. Puppies are not like a newborn. I does not, in my opinion, the same apples to apples, but maybe that's why they say that because you get exhausted by the puppy and you're like, I can't, I can't do this right now. So who knows, but we're not here to talk about dogs or cats. We are here.

 

We're here today because we are rounding out the year you guys. August is always like such a weird time ⁓ for me because it's like the beginning and the end. It's the beginning, like we're not even too fall yet for Arizona. It feels like fall. We don't really get a fall so we start in August. ⁓ But it feels like we're coming up on the end, but we just started. We get to August so quickly and so.

 

With that, a lot of times we can kind of forget to prep for the upcoming year until it gets to the last minute because we're like, gosh, it's so early, Tiff. Like, Kristy, we've still got so much of our goal left. We're still working on these things. How am I supposed to think past that? But we really truly do have to prepare in a lot of different ways to ensure that we're ready when January hits. I don't know about you, Kristy, but I know in my practice, I think the

 

before I was office manager, my office manager and my doctor probably sat down and like did some goals, right? They knew what they were doing. But we didn't know until the end of January when we had our team meeting what those new year's goals were. And that was really hard because I'm like, well, shoot, we're already behind because like, what are we doing here? We had no idea that we had increased our goals because we're still working off of old goals. And I think that that likely happens more often than not.

 

Because we want a fresh start. We want our January kickoff and it's like if we're not doing January kickoff on January 2nd It's not a kickoff anymore. I guess now we're playing catch-up So a lot of practices really need to start doing this in December November even but December really talking about what next year is going to look like with your teams ⁓ Kristy do you feel that that kind of we talked about this a lot today? Like what was it like back went back in the day when we were in office But did you feel like you kind of ran that same?

 

trajectory that same calendar year advice.

 

DAT Kristy (04:31)

Yeah, 100%. I think ⁓ in dentistry, we get so focused on lag measures. And I don't know that we ever intentionally focused. It's just the way it's always been. And so you and I talked about this before. We just do it because that's how somebody else did it. And we think it's the way to do it. But I think, again, when you know better, you do better. And we always need to look at the lag measures. looking at lead measures and starting literally now,

 

The Dental A Team (04:38)

Yeah.

 

Bye.

 

DAT Kristy (05:01)

is a great practice and and to be honest the ones that I see hitting goals for my teams ⁓ we look at them early and we set the tone early. Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (05:11)

Yeah, yeah,

 

it does a great point. You hit the nail on the head. We really do focus so much on lag measures, which are a lot of my lag measures will feed into our lead measures. So totally. But I do think that dentistry as a whole misses the mark on lead measures. Even like I had a client the other day that said, Oh, I died, because he died. She's

 

DAT Kristy (05:35)

you

 

The Dental A Team (05:36)

She said, yeah, my CPA, I'm just not too sure about them. They said that not to get too crazy about it, but that I would get my PNLs by the 28th every month. And I about fell out of my chair, because I was like, what the heck? That is a two-month lag measure at this point, because by the time we're reviewing them, we're into two months later from those statistics, those overhead stats. And how are we supposed to make adjustments and change? So you're telling me,

 

that we are gonna have potentially two bad months because we didn't know it was a bad month until we're at the third month. And I was just like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If that's the case, if that's their standard, it doesn't fit our standards. This is not going to work. We have to have better, quicker lag measures so that we can change the lead measures. And I think what you just said plays right into that. Because to them, that CPA, it was like totally natural and normal. It was like, yeah, fine, we'll get them to you.

 

You can see them, but they're not using them to tell you how to change your business. Some CPAs are, work one-on-one with a couple of different CPAs for my clients and with my clients that are doing that. They're fantastic, they're giving them information and advice every month based off of what they're seeing. That's massive. It's very uncommon also. CPAs at the end of the year would be like, well, this year you overspent in this category, so drop this.

 

⁓ for the love, could I not have seen that earlier and made adjustments so that I didn't overspend for an entire year and then could have changed this entire P &L? That's what we do. We look at the P &L with you and we dive into it. And like I said, I do have a couple of CPAs that dive into that with me with clients or sometimes I'll have questions and I'm like, hey, I'll shoot over an email and like, what is this? What are you seeing? And they'll give me the answer. And I'm like, fantastic. Thank you. Those are

 

freaking phenomenal. Those are clients that I can really dive into numbers and be like, let's change this. Let's turn the dial on this. Because at the end of the year when they're like, next year you can't. I don't want to ever tell you that. Next year you can't. No, next year you can because we adjusted things on the lead measures, meaning what's to come because we were able to see your lag measures. So Kristy, that was brilliant. That was a massive tangent, but that was brilliant.

 

And I think it really flows into all of those because if you're year to date at August and you don't know those numbers, you haven't looked at them with someone with a CPA, a coach, a consultant, get on that. Do that because what's gonna happen is November, your CPA is gonna be like, let me tell you all the things you shouldn't have done this year. I don't want that to happen. Get on it today. [email protected] if you want advice, if you need help, if you want to one-on-one coach with us, we can help you dive through it.

 

We are here for it. We have had plenty of clients that have seen incredible profit year over year because of the consulting that they've received, because of the directions that we've been able to push them that they weren't able to see. Again, focusing on the the log measures to push the lead measures. Now, other things, I really wanted this to be like a let's prep for the next year, which I don't know when you're listening to this, but right now it's August, 2025. So we are prepping for...

 

2026, which is crazy to me. I told, actually I told Kira this morning, my son, started senior year today as I took his little picture and I'm just like, my gosh, and he graduates, you know, 2026. And I'm like, I knew this day would come, but it always felt so far. Like this is, I think when I was a kid, I thought we'd be flying around in cars by now, which I think we're actually really close, which is crazy. But.

 

To me, like 2026 felt so far away when I was a kid, I thought we're gonna be the Jetsons by then. So again, I think we're actually really close. But it's crazy to think we're prepping for 2026. You guys, we gotta round out 2025 and really be able to project into 2026. And there's some simple things, you guys, we have checklists for this too. So reach out, [email protected]. We can pop you over some checklists, but there are some really simple things. Kristy, like.

 

I want you to go through, like you were talking earlier on another podcast we recorded about really scheduling some things out. So what are some things that can be done next year that should be in the schedule? And then we'll kind of dive into the goals and stuff that they're going to have to do before we get to the 2026.

 

DAT Kristy (10:11)

Well again, we're all about projecting forward right because you touched on not saying no and part of saying no Maybe adding things so we can say yes, right? So looking at the schedule putting in your HIPAA your OSHA any training CPR, right? ⁓ Is there CE we're planning on let's research it. Let's figure out how much it's gonna cost Are we taking team not taking team? What's the what's the average?

 

cost because all of that can be factored into our lead measures right and and what is what do we have to make in order to have that happen is it a year for raises have we done fee valuations for the upcoming year a lot of offices don't look at that yearly and I encourage my offices to because here's the thing especially if you're a high PPO you never get to go to the insurance companies and say

 

hey, I haven't raised my fees in five years, so now I'm gonna make this big jump. They don't let you. So doing those incremental jumps every year, ⁓ another area where people fail to ⁓ evaluate is if you're selling products. Have you looked at the invoices to see what you're paying? And nowadays, that's a big thing, right? Adding in the tariffs and different things that are affecting what we're paying for. Have you adjusted it? Because a lot of my practices charge just what they're paying for it, and then

 

The Dental A Team (11:15)

Yeah.

 

DAT Kristy (11:40)

we look at it and go, my gosh, we're in the hole because we've never adjusted the fees. ⁓ getting your new fee schedules, right? If there's any negotiations that need to happen, I would add that to the list too.

 

The Dental A Team (11:45)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, and now is the time to do that to start negotiating it so that you can have it for that new year. That was massive because that hits both making sure it's scheduled out to update your fees, but then also right now sending in the request for increased fees to be updated. So that was a twofer right there in my opinion. So good job. Yeah. I also remember earlier you said the PCI compliance. So making sure all of those PCI OSHA HIPAA

 

all of those training CPR, everybody's up to date and checking all of those. Like when was the last time anyone, that any one individual did those pieces and are there people that need them updated? I know there's a lot of, gosh, specialty practices that will offer for GP practices, the CPR training. We used to do that through the orthodontist we worked hand in hand with. He would just, I mean, it was a referral, a referral mechanism for them, right? It's marketing for them, but they would hire the CPR trainer and then they would invite

 

dental offices to come get the CPR training for their team. So it's free for us and that orthodontist paid for it. So check with those things as well, but making sure those things are scheduled out. And that's something doctors that your office manager should have that kind of a yearly checklist to make sure that they're going through those. Another thing that you kind of touched on there was like maintenance of different. ⁓

 

everything right you've got all of your everything needs maintenance so what does your practice look like what are your compressors looking like do they need to be maintenance your ultrasonics like really just diving in and every year it should be that fresh start and looking at what are we going to do now Kristy you mentioned which i love because it goes hand in hand with that too of really budgeting that so budgeting your ce's i had a practice this year they're like help me

 

our cash flow, what is going on? When we delve into it, there were a ton of ⁓ auxiliary necessary purchases and updates that were made to the practice, to the ⁓ exterior of the practice. So these things were necessary, but they were unplanned for that.

 

I think you can look at and probably project towards the end of the year to really build out a budget and a percentage and a bucket within your 2026 goals because you guys, it's really easy. If you know it's going to be X amount of money, divide it out over the 12 months and say, great, how am I going to make that up in production and collections to get that money so it's not costing you? It's coming out of the profit for that year, which is what happened with this other practice. We just thought there'd be more profit, but that profit then

 

went towards, you know, the renovations, excuse me, that needed to be done, but we could have built it in a little bit better had we known they were coming.

 

So that leads into our goals and really looking at what would a 7 to 10 % increase. Those are the numbers I typically go with increasing from this year 7 to 10 % next year, 7 % for inflation you guys, 10 % because why not be profitable on top of inflation? So you can do 7 % and kind of call it status quo. 10 % is gonna be that growth space that you hopefully and probably are desiring. And really when you look at it 10 % over the course of the year,

 

is really a drop in the bucket. Kristy, have you found that same thing where that 10 % is like a couple hundred thousand over the course of the year split up over the month is realistically not that much? Kristy, do you see that same thing?

 

DAT Kristy (15:27)

100 % TIF, I think the problem we get into is we wait till the last minute and then we're trying to crunch it in that short amount of time. But when we look forward and we have the whole year, guys, it can be as simple as one more crown a week, you know, or one more crown a month, depending on where you're lying. and when we break it down like that for teams, it makes it so digestible and and it helps fire us up when we make it that simple. Nine times out of 10.

 

The Dental A Team (15:41)

Yep.

 

DAT Kristy (15:57)

I see them even going further because it's like wow it was so easy right and it never I mean Think about it in our field and we all know this to be true I don't none of my doctors are immune from this but November and December are crazy months. Why do we do it to ourselves? Let's start now

 

The Dental A Team (16:11)

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I agree. And that makes me think of

 

a practice I went into one time, and we did their goals. And I said, Okay, well, in order to finish the year where we want to, we need to ⁓ increase your daily goal by $2,000 across for hygiene to doctors, right? $2,000. They were like, you're crazy. And I'm like, No, I'm not.

 

This is how much it is per provider. And they were like, Tiff, we love you. We love your training. And we think you're crazy. going to put it on there. We're going to try our hardest. And we're going let you know. The next day, they went above and beyond that $11,000 goal by almost $2,000. The next day, they hit the goal consistently. After setting that goal, they hit it.

 

and they were like, Tiff, I was getting texts from the team members for days. Like, I can't believe we're doing this. We didn't think it was possible, but actually it was right there, because it was all within the scheduling, right? How are we scheduling things? What are we prioritizing? How are we looking at the structure of our schedule and still serving our patients? So I totally agree. The increase is easy.

 

as long as it's broken down in a digestible amount. The full yearly amount, you're like, all right, guys, we did 1 million, we're gonna do 1.2 this year. And they're like, my gosh, like, when is it enough? But if you're like, 1.2 is X amount per month, X amount per day.

 

They're like, okay, we can hit that. We can figure that out. And you're like 30 % from hygiene, 70 % from doctor or 25 % from hygiene, 75 % from doctor. Like figure out the numbers and then figure out daily goals for everyone so that it is digestible, because that's much easier to work with.

 

⁓ Another thing to be really, really prepped for is, ⁓ what did we say? We said, updating the paperwork, you said, Kristy. So making sure we know what next year needs to look like. We just did a podcast on OSHA and HIPAA compliance, so making sure you're scheduling that out, but then also making sure that your HIPAA paperwork is updated, is gonna be massive, your health history.

 

If you are taking CEs, does that need to be updated on your health history? Do you need to ask sleep apnea questions or Botox questions or implant questions? Like, do you need to update that at the beginning of the year and making sure you have all of your patients' data? Kristy, I know you talked about too, you have some clients that just don't have everyone's emails. This day and age, most of our communication is going out by emails. I know most of my clients are sending statements by text and email. There's really not a lot of paper. So making sure

 

updating those as well. And then Kristy, I don't want to glaze over those you guys, practice software updates too, but I kind of do because I kind of want to talk a little bit very quickly though.

 

As we're adding goals, Kristy, I you do this a lot. You help practices project what their profitability point is, which is also like your BAM, your bare ace minimum, right? Same thing, different words. How do you also help them project? Do they have enough people? So as they grow their goal, they need to potentially increase staffing and making sure they have the right seat. How do you help them see that when you're helping clients build out those goals?

 

DAT Kristy (19:36)

Yeah.

 

think that's an important piece of it. Running some reports in your software is going to be helpful. Look at your active patient base. Has it grown? If it's not growing, why not? Are we missing working re-care? And again, lag and lead, guys. I have a lot of practices where maybe capacity, they're booked out, and so they don't work re-care, and those people are falling through the cracks. I would challenge you, even though you are booked out, to still work that re-care.

 

because every day we wait, they're getting pushed out that much further, right? And it's nothing that we have to shy away from, but again, it's like, man, our hygienist are in high demand. Let's get you scheduled, right? And bring that information. You guys need to look at that. our next new patient openings, when can we schedule for perio maintenance? When can we schedule for root scaling? We need to look at our procedure counts and add in maybe extra blocks.

 

The Dental A Team (20:40)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

 

I totally agree and making sure at the same time then that we have enough team to accommodate those patients that act as patient based how many patients can one hygienist see in a year? How many hygienists do you have compared to your doctor time? How many assistants do you have compared to the columns of treatment that you're working with? And then one piece I think gets missed, Kristy, in that conversation too is front office team. So like how many back office team members do you have in comparison to your front office team?

 

I usually like to use an easy ratio of like the number of dental assistants it takes. I should have front office as well to kind of duplicate that to make it super simple. But you're right, pulling those simple reports from the system to ensure we're doing everything we can to get those patients in. But what is that active patient count? Because that's gonna tell a really big story on how much growth we can sustain on the size and the capacity that we have now and the team that we have. So, beautiful. Thank you, Kristy. ⁓

 

you guys this wraps up a ton for 2026. hope you're feverishly taking notes if you are not driving. If you are driving, re-listen. But as always, [email protected]. We can shoot you over some really easy end of the year, beginning of the year prep checklists ⁓ for office managers, doctors, whomever. And just make sure you guys that you're pre-scheduling things. And I would even pre-schedule this time of year, next year, start prepping for this stuff. Put it in your calendars as an office manager. I had everything in my calendar this time of the year. I was starting to

 

for the following years, so 2026 goals, but I was also...

 

⁓ requesting fee increases. I was sending out end of year letters, right? Like get your treatment done because what happens is we tend to wait till October and that's why November, December is crazy. If you send them now, you can fill September, which we also call September. Start reaching out to those people now and get September filled, October filled and don't make your life too hectic November and December. You can even those out. So you guys go do these things. They're not hard. They're actually really easy and they can be really fun.

 

[email protected] we can send you over this information and you guys, have so many consultants on our team, Kristy, Trish, Monica, Dana, they are here helping clients every single day to work through these things and so much more. We would love the opportunity to chat one on one with you to see what we can do to help you as well. [email protected], you guys, we'll catch you next time. Thanks so much.

Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite!

The Dental A-Team is seeing a lot of burnout across practices we visit, so Kiera’s here to offer tips about delegating. Just because you can do a bunch of tasks doesn’t mean you should. Kiera provides DAT insight on the best/easiest way to delegate, how to fill the time you’ve delegated out, and what the delegator and delegatee should absolutely not do.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:05)

Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, 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, pillar, 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.

 

Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and you guys I hope today is a great day for you. I am car casting today I am headed down to see my parents for a little bit today and Decided you guys know me when I drive between that Nevada, California state line I love to podcast if you have not heard about the time I was headed to my little sister's graduation and I was Car casting with a microphone. They have an agriculture check

 

point and go take a listen to that one. If you don't know which one that is, email us [email protected] guys. just want to say a massive, massive, massive thank you to all of you who have been stepping up, taken on our review challenge and honestly leaving us reviews. I've seen you guys posting on our Google reviews to help deadly team. Get the word out. You've also been posting on Apple, Spotify, YouTube. I have been seeing those and I just want to say thank you. Shout out today. I saw Annie.

 

had posted and gave us a massive five star review and Annie, thank you. There's so many of you that have been listening in. Brooke Birdie saw your review as well on iTunes. And I just want to say guys, number one, it feeds my ego. So thank you. I am a words of affirmation girl. So that definitely is the best way to give back to me and make me feel like a million bucks. That's number one. So if you really want to make my day, please leave us a review and just tell us how great we are. I would love that. And number two,

 

Thank you guys for helping us help more practices. We have actually been seeing an upward trend on our podcast downloads. That is kudos to you guys. ⁓ Massive, massive, massive boosts on our downloads. And I just want to say thank you to all of you for doing that, because this is helping us help more practices. You know, when I started working at the dental college, the dean asked me why I wanted to take on this position. And I said, you know, I want to find a way to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. That's honestly why we

 

I did my job at the college and then that's also why I decided to ⁓ take on and work with the consulting company. And then that's why we started the podcast. So you guys, the only way for us to reach every dentist in the world is by you guys helping spread this. I think that that's the way we'll be able to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So guys, keep hitting those downloads, keep leaving us review, keep sharing these.

 

When I see you guys on social media platforms where you're sharing our podcasts with people, it's been so helpful. So thank you guys for taking that on. So today's topic is how to delegate. I know I've chatted about this a few other times, but it's just been coming up more and more. And I know a lot of offices are struggling. I'm seeing more and more burnout amongst team members and owners. And so I thought that this would be a very applicable topic for you guys today. So basically number one, when it comes to delegating,

 

We've got to look to see what is the reason for delegating? Are we trying to find more time for ourselves so that way we can be more balanced? Are we trying to grow team members into another position? Or are we just trying to ensure that all team members are being utilized throughout the day? Maybe you have another reason you want to delegate, but oftentimes I find that the number one reason we don't delegate is because we're concerned about losing our place in our job.

 

and the value that we're bringing to the practice. When in actuality, I think it's let's get people into their zone of geniuses so we can work more effectively and consistently together. So for me, I think one of the best and easiest ways to delegate is for everybody just to do a brain dump on the tasks that they're doing day in and day out. Now the reason I like a brain dump rather than a time journaling is because oftentimes those things that we put on a brain dump are going to be the things that we can actually think about.

 

that are for for for front of our mind. So those things tend to be the ones that are consuming the most of our time. There might be other things on there that we don't think about, so you can always add back to this list. But what I really love to do is I love to brain dump all the information and then after I brain dump, I go back through, you guys know if you don't know, my favorite color is pink, and I go back through with a pink highlighter and I literally look at all the tasks that only Kiera can do. A lot of times the tasks that I'm doing are not things that only I can do.

 

Or if they are only things I can do, I might need to train. So for example, I used to be the only person who could podcast on our team. So we decided, Hey, the consultants actually have a lot of great information that they could be sharing. And it doesn't necessarily have to just be Kiera. So we decided to start training the consultants to see could the consultants ever podcast if something were to ever happen to me. And the answer is yes, I trained them about the microphones. I taught them how to podcast. taught them how to do cadences, but I realized.

 

That was something that only Kyra could do before, but you guys, I am looking to try and have a baby. We've been talking about this forever, but guys, don't worry. I'm a walking bag of, I feel, lethal hormones right now. We are starting the process of IVF and ⁓ if you haven't done it, that's great. Congratulations. If you have gone through it, please send me help because I literally feel like a lethal bag of walking hormones and don't even know how to control myself right now. It's like one minute I'll be fine. The next minute I'm bawling my eyes out. And I heard even after you have babies,

 

this doesn't go away. I don't, I don't quite know what to do. But the bottom line is our team had to be able to start delegating things to our other team members that they could do just as well, if not better than me. But that also came up with, I had to realize I needed to start training. So delegating, we've got to look at like, what's our ultimate goal. So for me, my ultimate goal was I wanted to ensure that Dental A Team could continue to grow, bless people's lives, positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And for me,

 

to also be able to be a mom. So in order for those two things to happen, I had to start delegating and utilizing it. I realized I don't delegate that much. I like to swoop in and save the day because I think I can do it faster and better. Well, the answer is yes, I theoretically can, but that doesn't mean I should. Okay, I'm going to say that again. Well, yes, I theoretically can do everything potentially faster and better. That doesn't mean I should because what that does is that actually means that I'm a one man team.

 

rather than a multiple person team. So I want to have all of the people on my team working super well. And I want to ensure that they're all able to do the task. And it's not just me. So I would say that you guys are going to be able to start looking for your why of why you want to delegate. So once you have figured out your why as to why you want to delegate and the plan,

 

Then we go through, like I said, and you highlight all the tasks that are actually tasks that only you can do. Like I said, some of those tasks that only you could do, maybe if you trained, you could actually get those tasks passed off your plate. But I really like you guys to ensure that you know exactly why you want these tasks to be completed, why you want to delegate. I think having a strong why helps you realize that that's what you're actually going to do rather than it just being a wish that you're hoping one day will come true.

 

Like I said, I'm not a great delegator and I realized that because I like to swoop in, save the day, make everything better and theoretically I can do it better, faster. However, I can't ever grow the company. I can only grow as big as I can grow. So realizing that sometimes delegation also will be an avenue for growth for your practice is one of the best pieces of advice I could ever give any of you. So realizing that when you delegate, you allow other people to blossom and shine, you allow yourself to blossom and shine and grow to a larger scale.

 

Now I will say some people I watch them delegate and then they get lazy. They will pass all their tasks to other people. They'll grow everybody else, but then they forget to grow themselves. So when you delegate off of your tasks, say if you're an office manager and you get a front office lead and then you get a clinical lead, well, sometimes you as an office manager, no longer know what you should do. This is where you start diving deep in the areas. Maybe you don't know. Let's talk about the business aspect. What are the financials of your practice? What about overhead? Do you know how to adjust that?

 

You're going to start thinking like a business owner. Also go to your dentist and figure out what's on their plate. Have them brain dump and look to see what tasks you can take off immediately and what tasks you need to learn and grow into. So making sure as you delegate, you don't get lazy. You don't pass too many things there. Also before you delegate, I want to make sure that you've built an admin time into your schedule. So doctor time, you can have that as CEO time. You can have it as admin time. You can have it as golden time. I don't care what the heck you call this time, but it's set block time every single week in your schedule.

 

Oftentimes the practices all notice that they'll want to hire somebody else before they put in this admin time. I chatting with a front office team. Typically we like to have one front office team member per doctor, unless it's a solo doctor, then I for sure want two front office people just so we avoid any temptation of embezzlement or fraud or anything of that nature. So what happens is a lot of times people feel like they need to get more people upfront, but they don't realize you can delegate tasks that would actually make the patient experience better. For example,

 

chairside treatment plans on an iPad, taking fluoride payments in the hygiene operatories that make it so much faster and easier for every single person in the practice. What about tasks like insurance verification? That might take a long time and it might actually be cheaper to outsource that. So looking at that, but also before we even consider that, I want to see, you actually doing ⁓ that admin time every single week?

 

And if you're not, that might be a critical place to start before we even start delegating. Because a lot of times, a lot of those projects that we want to delegate, if we just had one or two hours in a week where it was dedicated, not interrupted time, we could actually crank a lot of those things out and be super hyper productive. So for me, I have a business focused time. I have a three hour block every Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. My team knows, do not even think about scheduling something there. Don't do it. It's not good for you or for the business.

 

So that is my blocked golden time and I work on big project items. So for me specifically, I work on, I'm looking to bring in a different position in our company and I'm mapping that out, talking to mentors, figuring it out, writing job descriptions for it. Other things like I'm not going to use that time to podcast. As much as I love to podcast, I have that built into my schedule in another place. I'm not going to use that time to answer my emails. Instead, I'm going to use that time to work on high level.

 

most productive projects. For some dentists, that's where you might be designing cases. So getting all that ortho completed or designing those cosmetic cases that you know you need to get completed. That's where we're going to be able to have a much more successful and productive schedule if you actually block that time. For office managers, this time might be where you actually go through your one-on-one employee check-ins. It also might be where you work on maybe sign development or looking at all the KPIs.

 

and figuring out what KPIs need to be adjusted, doing a deep dive on the numbers. For billers, this is the time where you call on those collection calls. You work on your AR, that's the deeper projects, the ones that have to have a ton of time dedicated to solving them and figuring them out to get them paid. That's where we utilize this time. For our scheduling team, this is the time when you call all those unscheduled re-care calls. Same thing for treatment coordinators. We call those unscheduled treatment lists.

 

Just think of every person did this. ⁓ I forgot the clinical team. Let me give the clinical teams some ideas. Don't want to let you guys feel left out. So for our clinical team, we might want to give them some block time to maybe get those crowns or those ortho cases done. This might be the time that our team actually orders for the practice. It could be the time ⁓ for a lead hygienist. This might be the time that you create like the perio protocols or review the numbers on your hygiene, on your hygienist and see.

 

How is their fluoride ratio? How are their perio numbers? This is the time when you'll deep dive in there. It's not the time we dedicate for sharpening scalars. This is the time where we literally are maximizing and doing those high level projects that will move the practice forward. Hey, Dental A Team listeners. You guys have heard the early bird gets the worm, right? What does that even mean? Well, it means that the early bird is the person who maximizes on benefits.

 

optimizes their practice and they take advantage of great deals. So guys, right now, this week, last chance to save on Dental A Team's virtual team summit. It's all about optimization and execution with an emphasis on full team. And then Saturday is all about leadership. So guys, don't miss out. You know, you're going to come. So you might as well pop on over to TheDentalATeam.com snag those early bird tickets, because once they're gone, they're gone and you'll be paying more for the same event. So head on over to TheDentalATeam.com.

 

Snag your early bird virtual summit for April 22nd and 23rd, and I'll see you there. So again, before we ever delegate, I want you to make sure you have that time built in. After that, I want you to figure out why you want to delegate. What's the bigger purpose as to why you want to delegate these tasks. Then what we do is we come up with a game plan of, fantastic. This is what we are going to delegate. This is how we're going to delegate. This is why we're going to delegate.

 

then we actually have to delegate. Okay? So we have to delegate guys. That's part of the game. That's what we have to do. Now people get really nervous to delegate because why? We don't want to what? Dump on somebody else and make their life stressful. Well guess what? They might already be doing half of what you're doing and if it just was their project, you might make their life a lot less stressful. Let's just pivot that a little bit. Also, we might be able to do things like, ⁓ we might be able to find efficiencies.

 

I will tell you if I give Shelby a project that I've been working on for quite a while, Shelby is way more efficient and organized and structured than I am. And so she usually can come up with a better way of doing it than I can. That's going to create ease and efficiency for our entire team. So when we go to delegate, we can check in with people, ask how much time and say, hey, here's the list of items. First and foremost, you can have a team meeting and be like, here are all the items up for grabs. Who wants to own this section? Now.

 

I say to team members who are being delegated to one of the number one ways for you to lose confidence in your practice, the person who's delegating to you is by not following through. If you say, yeah, I'll take that on, but then you never actually do it, I do not want to delegate to you again. I lost trust. So when people do this, I'm going to say you've got to own it with integrity. So if I say, yes, I'm going to take this on, I don't care how I've got to remember it. I don't care how I need to figure it out.

 

my job because I committed, I'm going to own this process. I'm going to own the fact that I need to do this because I committed to it and I own my word. It's not accountability. You don't your office manager following up like, okay, Kara, I know you said you take on ordering. Did you get it done? The answer is yes, the office manager should still do that. But me as a person who took this on, I need to have an attitude of ownership in my practice where I don't need somebody to come follow up with me.

 

check in because I know when I say I'm going to do something, I will fall through a hundred percent. So team members, leaders, everybody listening, check yourself. Are you a person who actually owns your word, takes ownership of the things that you commit to doing with your job, with your personal life, all those areas. Do you actually take ownership of it? Do you take ownership of your health? Do you take ownership of your happiness? Do you take ownership of your financial wellbeing? Do you take ownership of the schedule if you're a scheduler?

 

Do take ownership of making sure every doctor hits goal every single freaking day if you're a treatment coordinator? Do you take ownership as an office manager that you will continually hit a minimum of a 10 % growth rate every single year and make sure that your team is super happy and content? As a doctor, do you take ownership that you are going to produce and increase your clinical skills so you can be the best provider that there ever was? As a hygienist, do you own that you should be producing 3.3 times

 

or 3.5 times your pay or 3.0, I don't care guys, choose your number and stick with it. There's a million of them. Minimum three, maximum 3.5 and less your fee for service. Then I for sure, for sure, for sure, for sure want you to be producing at least 4.5 times your pay. Okay? Do you take ownership that it's your job, not the scheduler's job to ensure you're hitting your production every single day, that you're mixing your schedule, that you're maximizing, that you're getting a 98 % reappointment percentage?

 

Assistance, do you own the fact that you should not be getting up in a procedure to go get something because you didn't set up your operatory? Do you own your job? Do you own that you should be looking for same day treatment you can add on because you look at their treatment plans. You don't just robotically do what's on the schedule. You actually proactively look for things and own that as your job. Okay, so if you're not there, let's start there. That way when people come to you to delegate to you, you know that you can count on yourself to.

 

own whatever is coming to you to delegate. So then once we delegate, we pass it off. We have to make sure we've got clear expectations of when we want people to follow back up with us. So for example, I passed a task to Shelby. I wanted to find out a report on our consultants. That was something guys that was on my to-do list for about nine months. Yes, nine months and I did not complete it. So I decided this is something that is not just a Cura only task.

 

Shelby is probably much faster and could probably get this done faster for me. So what do I do? I pass it to Shelby. I asked her, Hey, this is what I need done. What do you need help with me? I gave her all the resources and tools so she could actually execute on it very well. And then I asked her, okay, what will you need from me? ⁓ she told me, and then we said, what date could you get this completed by? Shelby had to methodically think about, Hmm, this is going to take me a while. I have a lot of tasks on me. I think Kiera, I could get this done by the end of Q1.

 

does that work for you? So that means March 31st. And I said, totally no problem. We put it in, we have a task organizer. We utilize a CRM. So it's kind of like your guys's Dentrix open dental. And it's where all of our clients are housed. Plus it's where all of our tasks are housed. So we have it there. Shelby and I put the deadline on there. And then when she gets it done, she checks it off. If you guys don't have a task manager or things that these projects, I would suggest you get one. For practices, I've seen the software Asana or Trello.

 

or Google Docs all work really, really well when we're assigning out a bunch of projects and needing to have deadlines on them. So those would be the ones. Some offices love Basecamp, other offices love monday.com. For me, Asana is probably your easiest, fastest one to set into place. Or a simple task manager, ⁓ Google Docs is honestly going to be your easiest one. And then just make sure you review it every week and check it off. We noticed with our team, we were delegating. Our team was taking ownership of it.

 

However, we didn't have a consistent follow-up process. And I would say that's the next piece of delegation that oftentimes fails in a practice is we don't follow back up. So for us, we just said it as Friday morning at our morning huddle. We pull up the task sheet and we pull up our Asana board. And we go through every single task that should be done and everything headed up for the next week to make sure our team stays responsible and they don't forget. And we have a consistent follow-up process. So that way it's not sitting here thinking, well, I'm sure Shelby will do it.

 

We actually have a set process in our company where we follow up every single week. That was because we realized we were passing out tasks. Our team was doing a great job. But then we all kind of would get sidetracked and forget what we had committed to doing. And we need to have a place where we could have everybody aligned. So those are some of the key pitfalls that I see with delegation. Those are some of the solutions that I've seen work well. But at the end of the day, we can sit here, we can talk about it, we can create solutions, all these different things.

 

But what really is the number one piece is actually doing it and then following up. Those are the two most paramount pieces with delegation. I will say having a strong why is going to make you delegate faster and more consistently than just talking about it until I decided, Hey, I'm getting pregnant. Hopefully fingers crossed. I didn't really see the need to delegate. Yes, I did for my own mental sanity, but until I had that why.

 

And other times when I've opened up a second practice, instantly I've got a strong why that I need to delegate these tasks so that way all the information can come back to me as a regional manager and I'm not having to micromanage or check in all the time with my team. Guys, there is a different between micromanaging and checking in. Checking in, keeping track of all the projects is not micromanaging, period. Micromanaging is where it comes sit over your shoulder and tell you how to do your job. That's micromanaging.

 

but checking in with you to ensure that you're actually doing your projects, that's just called running a business. That's called running a team. That's making sure all the team is growing in the same direction and the team knows the set expectations. So guys, try delegation. I see it happening. You can make your team work so much more effectively and efficiently. So I suggest, one, get a list of all the things that could be delegated. Two, let's pass it out to the team and ask people who can own it. Three, let's make sure we have a set time of where we can actually follow up as an office.

 

and ensure all projects and tasks are being completed and done. And four, create a culture of ownership where when we say we'll take something on, we own it, we don't drop the ball. I want to sing this song to you guys like, we own it. You can go look it up. I didn't do it justice and I'm not going to sing karaoke for you guys. However, get your team to own it, delegate, rise everybody up, make sure that you guys don't have a set process for it and realize how much more effectively your team can operate when all of us are working together.

 

growing the company in the way that's best for the company to grow. All right, guys, as always, so much love to you. Thank you for being a Dental A Team listener. I super appreciate it, guys. So thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

 

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 time.

 

Kristy and Tiff discuss the new treatments they’re seeing practices adopt these days and how to successfully start the process (if you want to). They touch on the best ways to gauge interest, training and implementation tips to start off, how to track results, and more.

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Transcript

The Dental A Team (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so happy to be back here with you. We are recording today from the comfort of our own homes with the ACs blasting. I am about to bust out my fan. is on the charger right now. I don't know if you know this or not, but Kristy and I come to you from the sweltering desert of Phoenix, Arizona. And I have to say, I'm crazy. My boyfriend is like, it is hot. We're getting out of here. We're moving to Prescott. And one day I'm sure we will, but.

 

I love where I live and every time I go travel to an office and I'm gone for like a week, I'll see two, three offices at a time. I come back in and just coming into Tempe on that plane over in the mountains, you can see the Buttes, you can see South Mountain, you can see the city and just like the buzz of it all makes me so incredibly happy every single time. I love where I live. I cannot at this point in my life imagine living anywhere else. So when I say that out loud,

 

People think I'm crazy. And I'm like, listen, it's beautiful here. My best friend, bless her heart, she's like, Tiff, it's brown. It's all desert. And I'm like, it's not. Do you see these colors, like the saguaros and the pink flowers that bloom and the yellows? And like, I don't know, Kristy, am I crazy? Or what are your thoughts? You came back to Arizona. So obviously, there's something to be told about that.

 

DAT Kristy (01:25)

It's too funny that you say that because it's so true. I'm you know when I moved to Idaho everybody's like Arizona it's a desert and I'm like but there's desert here. I have to agree the Arizona desert is much prettier. ⁓ Southwestern Idaho is very deserty and we're talking brown. There's where the brown is but Arizona desert is very beautiful. Even this time of year like come on Palo Verde's aren't brown they're green.

 

The Dental A Team (01:35)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Bye.

 

Right? Literally

 

in their name, right? Palo Verde. My boyfriend always says, yeah, Arizona is like so inventive, the green stick. And I'm like, well, it's green. It is green, okay? That's our state tree and it's green. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I just think it's beautiful. And there's nothing like a desert rain. I know that sounds so cliche. Everyone says it, everyone hears it, but I swear to you, the smell in the desert after a good rain or even a light sprinkling is magical.

 

There is something about it that just changes the composition of your body and you become a much happier individual. just, can't be, you can't be angry in the desert rain. So.

 

DAT Kristy (02:33)

agree with you Tiff

 

and if you and I can figure out a way to bottle that stuff I've always said we'd be millionaires.

 

The Dental A Team (02:39)

Yeah, well, you know,

 

I just, my friend just told me this a couple months ago. There's actually a bush out there. I need to just take a picture of it and figure out what it is. We were hiking one day. There's a bush out there that you, when you pick the leaf and you like put it between your fingers, it smells like the desert rain. I'll find it. Yeah, I'll find it and take a picture. I don't know what the bush is, but I'll find it and take a picture and Google it so that we can, we could bottle it. My point there. Yeah. I actually had a friend in town.

 

DAT Kristy (03:02)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (03:06)

Um, he lives in North Carolina and he was visiting and he was like, I'm taking some of this home so that other people can smell it. Cause it is incredible. And I'm like, yep, that's what Arizona desert rain smells like. So anyways, everybody who wants to come visit, we are here for it. We aren't taking any new visitors like to stay. I'm just kidding. You can move here. It's just, it's just getting crowded, you know, but visitors are welcome. Come.

 

share in the heat. I know most people come in the month of February for the Waste Management Open and you just let us know when we're here and Kristy and I will pop over and say a little hello to you. So Kristy, getting on to business, I love talking about Arizona and I would do it forever, ⁓ but we're kind of rounding out the year right now. We're heading into quarter four. This is the time of year I'm like, well,

 

we can still make massive movements, we can still make massive changes and hit those goals, but really we need to start thinking about what are we doing ⁓ after these goals are hit. So lot of people don't think about the next year, which is 2026 until December, but I'd like to start talking about it here in August. So one of those pieces, Kristy, I really wanted to chat today about offices that we've seen implement new treatment. And I know right now, ⁓ fillers, Botox, I've seen

 

a ton of practices doing like facial aesthetics and the lasers and I don't even know what they're called the ones and like all of these amazing things and takes me back to when I was ⁓ working in office gosh when I first started I was like 19 and my doctor's like where are those paraffin wax things can we get those and I was like you're crazy we are not a spa like we're not doing paraffin wax for our patients I have enough to do

 

chair side, have enough to clean up, we're not doing this, right? But he really wanted it and so we did at least, we did warm towels. So it's like, I can handle warm towels, it's all you got. But now, there is really like this spa aesthetic feel to a lot of dental practices. And I know there's plenty of us out there that are like, no, not doing that. I am a dig my heels in kind of girl. So I dig my heels in until the very end. But I'm kind of getting on board with it. I kind of like it. And it's adding a different sense and a different value.

 

And honestly, I love marketing and it's adding a different marketing avenue because it's a different demographic of people who can come for the aesthetic side and see, I love these people. Let me switch my dental as well. They may not, that's okay. They may love their dentist. But if you can come to one place and get multiple things, that's kind of cool. So, Kristy, I just wanted to chat a little bit about some of the things that we've seen. We've worked, you guys, just so you know, we worked with a ton of practices on adding aesthetics.

 

Botox fillers, ⁓ implants, just like simple single tooth implants, multi-tooth implants, all on fours. Gosh, what else? Orthodontics, making sure that the marketing is there, making sure that the treatment coordinating aspect is there, making sure that case acceptance is working, the schedule is working, the block scheduling. We have helped implement this in so many practices. So as we're talking today, just know we're speaking from that implementation experience and what we've seen really work for practices.

 

from our experience working one-on-one with doctors. If you're someone who's looking to implement new products or new services in your practice and you're not really sure on the how-to, please reach out. We would love to help you on a one-on-one basis. [email protected]. Again, we have a ton of experience in this. have five experienced consultants ready to work one-on-one with you. ⁓ Kristy, Monica, and Trish are...

 

freaking incredible you guys. I have just seen them move mountains for clients in very short amount of time. if you are ready to take that step, let us know. [email protected]. But Kristy, I know you've had a lot of clients. You've actually had, you've had some fun clients that I can think of off the top of my head that are kind of fresh and new and starting out. And I know one in particular I can think.

 

probably is this like go-getter wants to add everything, wants to take all the CE, wants to implement everything and wants to just run with it. And then you've got some others that are like, I'm going to like take my time. I'm going to buy it my time. I'm to take the CE. Maybe in a couple of years, we'll be able to implement it. Like there's like such drastic differences there, but what kind of ⁓ procedures have you seen implemented recently? And what do you feel like your clients are doing really well?

 

to implement them within their practice with your support.

 

DAT Kristy (07:45)

Well.

 

like you, the med spa thing has really taken off in dentistry. So adding in the Botox, the laser ⁓ and sleep, even for little kiddos, the tongue ties has been an area of exploration. with that being said, Tiff, think first and foremost, yes, you're right. I have one client that's kind of a go getter and and honestly him bringing the energy has worked really well for him because his excitement is

 

driving it, right? But one thing that I would say in the very beginning, if you're exploring this and you aren't that go getter, energetic, I'm going to do this attitude and you're kind of thinking about it, start to take a pulse with your patients. know, explore, hey, if we offered this service, is this something you'd be interested in? See if people are interested in it because you may be leaving room on the table, right?

 

And maybe you'll find out they're not interested and it will drive you in a different direction But with that being said, like I said take a pulse of your own patients, but I also doctors recommend that you ⁓ Get your admin team ⁓ Keeping a list of things that patients are calling in and asking for and they have to say no we don't do that because that's an area of opportunity that perhaps if you have a hundred people calling and asking

 

The Dental A Team (09:10)

That's a great idea.

 

Yeah.

 

That's a great idea. I have never in my life thought of that. That's beautiful. I love that you said to ask the patients themselves as well. If I started offering this, is this something you'd be interested in? And that one's kind of an easy one when it comes to like Botox and things like that, because you can tell when someone has utilized that procedure before. So I've even had doctors say, where are you going for your Botox? Like, do you like where you go? Are you happy there? What are they doing well that keeps you coming back? even as far

 

is

 

to ask what they're paying because it really helps them to figure out.

 

how they can generate that within their own practice based on a scale of like, know, chatting with a couple of different patients, because you really can tell fillers as well. And all of that stuff, you guys, to be redone at some point. So I think that's a great idea. apnea is huge. I think the kiddo stuff is massive. I have a couple of doctors, couple of doctors, but then also I have a GP doctor that does a ton within the lip tie, the sleep apnea, all of those pieces for the toddlers and children.

 

She's so passionate about it that her team is behind her as well on it. So I think that's a really good point. And I think, Kristy, something you touched on was that passion and how excited that specific doctor we're thinking of is about everything he does, everything he does he's excited for. And so I just feel like walking into his practice, you're just amped up. Like the energy's got to be so high. But for...

 

everyone no matter what anytime you go take a CE, anytime you have an idea, anytime you're like I want to implement this and you go get trained on it, I think the biggest missing piece that I've always seen myself as a consultant and then myself even as a dental assistant or for an office is that information lapse between you taking the course and coming back with the information and that ⁓

 

I get from a business standpoint and a doctor's standpoint, it's hard to take your team to the CE with you. And sometimes it's not even offered to bring your team. So I get that, but that's where training comes into play. And I think that's where having someone on your side, a coach and a consultant, someone who's working hand in hand with the team who really can help create protocols, who can help with the verbiage because you're over there implementing. And I don't know, Kristy, if you've ever experienced this, I remember my doctor, he would get so deflated.

 

because he'd go do this thing, he'd be rammed up sleep. He wanted to sleep so badly and I hope to this day that he's doing it, but it was so difficult and we didn't get the training, we didn't get the courses, he was training us which was great, but it was like also we are doing everything we were doing before you took this course. So the space for me to learn how to add this, for me to take the time out of my day,

 

to implement this just isn't always there. And so the space to do the training is sometimes lacking if you can't take your team with you. So I know I've got a practice that I've helped a ton with sleep just in general at their practice because they needed the protocols put in place, but they didn't have the time to even sit down and type them. So it was like,

 

We're going to do this together real quick. Our tips got these ideas. We've got templates that we utilize with our clients that we're like, hey, these are my ideas. And we go back and forth. And we figure out what's working, what's not working. And Kristy, I know you've done that too. What have you seen work really well with practices for that training and implementation?

 

DAT Kristy (12:57)

It's kind of funny because the ways you're talking I'm thinking of a client right now that literally just went she did take her team to Vegas for clear liner course and Thank goodness. were blessed to go right because you're you're right getting the whole team behind them and the energy coming back in is huge the energy really does propel the momentum as you're Trying to ramp up and to your point not everybody can take the whole team So so I get that yet if you can get one or two chances

 

to go and help you wonderful. If not, would definitely recommend coming back and having the conversation and have doctors speak to their why. You know, why do they want to implement this? What is their vision for it? And then create benchmarks. Like how will we implement this and what can we do? So if we want to do more clear aligners, what is

 

The Dental A Team (13:37)

Yeah.

 

video.

 

DAT Kristy (13:56)

something we can do every day to help that outcome, right? Is it add one more scan to a patient? You know, get those commitments from team and buy in and then have fun with it. We're always talking about the sprinkles and adding the fun. So find a way to gamify it. And if I do this action every day, it's going to create a better chance of my outcome, right?

 

The Dental A Team (14:00)

Yeah.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah,

 

yeah, and to that point, you're then tracking your results, right? Which is something that we have all of our practices tracking their results consistently for that reason, because we want to see the things that you're doing every day. Are they creating the result that you wanted? Are we moving closer to the goal that you were set after? Or are we moving further away from it? Because then we can see what we want to tweak or change or what needs to be added. And then again, to your point as well, what's one thing that we can add?

 

A lot of times we come in with all of the things and it's like, that's too much and we can't process it all. So if you do that, like one thing, so for sleep apnea or Botox or any of those spaces or though it's like, what's one thing you would change aesthetically if you had the opportunity? Like what's one question? You can start asking every patient that walks through your door. Do you find yourself waking up a lot at night? Do you find yourself, know, do your partner say that you're snoring?

 

Do you have a hard time falling asleep? Do you have a hard time waking up? What are the key factors? What's one question, two questions you add onto it? How can we layer this and stack to get things done? And like you said, maybe we're taking one more scan today than we took yesterday. We're gamifying it, we're tracking the results, and we're making sure that it's fitting. And that's something that I think as consultants, we've been able to really help teams get excited about.

 

and really be able to help them break it down because for doctors, for our visionaries, it's sometimes difficult for a visionary to see the path. They see the end result. They see what it is that they're after. They see the dream and the finality. We have to take it layers backwards and say, how do we get there?

 

The visionaries have a hard time figuring out how we're going to get there. And when they're the only ones who are trying to figure that out or there's no one on the team that's like, okay, I got it. I will figure it out from here. That's where the consultants come into play or training office managers to see that space to say, okay, what are the steps it's going to take to get there? And how do we incrementally layer and add onto those steps to ensure that we do? So, Kristy, I think you're hitting some massive spaces there.

 

with the tracking the results, the just one thing and making sure that we are training the team as we can. I also think don't wait too long.

 

If you've gone to a course and you've learned something, you need to start practicing it because you learned it. And then if you're waiting a year to implement it, you're going to need to go back for a refresher course because you haven't been doing it. And I've seen that happen. I don't know if you have. I've seen that happen, especially with like Botox, where they go get the training, but they're just like dragging their feet, probably out of fear and actually implementing it. And then they're like, well, shoot, I need to go get a refresher course because I haven't done it since I did it at

 

my training. Have you seen that too, Kristy?

 

DAT Kristy (17:27)

Absolutely.

 

I love that you mentioned that because I think one realm where we're really good at this if you think about it is ⁓ Milling same-day crowns because they force you to find patients, right? They're like, okay have your patients lined up because we're gonna do it in those other realms We don't necessarily do that. So a component that I think we miss a lot is we plan the CE we schedule it we go the course But we didn't block out time to meet with team coming back, right?

 

The Dental A Team (17:36)

Yeah. ⁓

 

Yeah.

 

DAT Kristy (17:57)

So make sure that time dedicate the time to make sure it happens and Hey, let's line up the patients. Let's get them in the chair and start because you're right Otherwise, we just get back into routine and it's gone to the wayside and you know See is wonderful and it's all knowledge. But unless we're interpreting it into something It's just money spent right? Yeah

 

The Dental A Team (18:22)

Agreed. Yeah, agreed.

 

And it makes me think of two of ⁓

 

Like you said, they tell you to have patients ready for the crowns, but same thing for implants, right? Same thing for Botox, same thing for any of those, but implants especially. I always tell doctors, before you go to the course, I say take inventory, look at how many outgoing referrals you had to oral surgeons. How much revenue did you feed oral surgeons in your area of that thing that you're going for? Because they have had practices in areas of their city

 

that it was like it didn't make sense financially to implement the thing because they weren't getting it in their doors, right? They were a younger demographic, they were college demographic, and they really just weren't getting a lot of need for the implants or for whatever it was that they were looking at. And so they actually decided, you know what, like that was just, there's so much that we see that we're supposed to do. ⁓

 

like all on four, all on X. Like there's so many GP dentists that are like, well, I just felt like I heard that that was what was going to change my life forever. And I'm like, yes, in a lot of ways, it's really hard. So don't do things just because it's what you're supposed to do. And it's like the next best up and coming thing. Cause I have seen doctors who have taken inventory and they're like, actually, like I was going to do it because I thought I needed to, but I don't think my patient demographic shows me that I need to. I may actually focus

 

in on this and they switched their CE focus completely because they saw the need wasn't there and for me that's massive because now you're you are getting an ROI on what you're doing. Now for a lot of dentists they want to learn the thing because they want to know it and that's totally cool. don't I don't I have no ifs, ands, or buts about it but just make sure you know what you're getting into and then like Kristy just said I love that idea of making sure you've got people lined up to get the service.

 

once you come back. And it's an easy conversation. It's not, I'm going to go get trained on implants. And so when I come back, I'd love for you to be one of the first people I place an implant on. That's uncomfortable, right? But it's just like, hey, I don't have the tools for this right this second. ⁓ You can go to an oral surgeon if you want it sooner, but I am going to be equipped with those tools here in the next six months. I'd be happy to revisit this with you at your next re-care or call you as soon as I get the stuff in.

 

Same statement, different words. so vulnerability on one hand. If it's family, like shoot, I've had plenty of doctors that's like, hey, I'm testing this on you and you're getting it for free. Or I'm testing it on you and you're gonna pay for the lab fee, like fine.

 

whatever, but patients maybe be a little bit more tactful with. But Kristy, I think those were some great points. Those are all wonderful things that I've seen you help doctors implement. I've seen Dana, Kristy, or Trish. I've seen all of you guys. Monica, know she's done it too. We've all implemented on some level some of these systems and protocols with practices for things that feel really hard when you're in it. The great part about consultants,

 

I'm not attached to it, you guys. Kristy's not attached to it. We're attached to you seeing results and we're going to bird's eye view it and see where the missteps are happening, where the gaps are that can be filled to create a different result because Kristy's not emotionally attached to it. So they do really, really well. Kristy, Trish, Monica, Dana, all of them do really well at being able to see those gaps and see how you as a team can fill them and then train you guys on how to fill them. Our job is not to do

 

it for you because then I'm not teaching you anything, right? Kristy is not, she becomes your regional manager and that's not what we signed up for. But what her job is to do is to show you the path, train you how to do it, watch those benefits, you reap those benefits at the end. So we're excited to help you guys. Kristy, I know you're excited. You love implementing and Kristy loves nothing more than finding the money, finding the money, finding the production and helping you implement structures that really work to make a difference in your practice.

 

Kristy, thank you for your words of wisdom today. Those were fantastic. think my biggest nugget today is the idea of duh.

 

have people lined up and ready to go for whatever it is prior to you ever going and getting the course. And I think as I say that, Kristy, there's a lot of protocols and a lot of training that can be done prior to the CE to get your team ready too. Because otherwise the team's just upside down trying to figure it out. But those protocols and things can be put into place before you actually get trained to place and plan. So Kristy, thank you for being here with me today. ⁓

 

Everyone, I hope you took some solid nuggets from this and you can see how beneficial this can be. Drop us a five star review below. We'd love to help you. [email protected]. We can't wait to hear from you guys. Thanks.

 

Derick Van Ness of Big Life Financial returns to the podcast to discuss with Kiera the new realities of the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill — and how dentists can capitalize on the impacts. They discuss bonus depreciation, research and development credits, and more.

Further, there’s an opportunity for DAT listeners at biglifefinancial.com/DAT, where you can learn if you’re overpaying on your taxes and what new opportunities exist.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I'm excited to welcome back a popular guest. He and I have chatted multiple times. We've gone around and around on different topics of how to help dentists build more wealth. So Derick, ⁓ with Big Life Financial, we talked about our research and development credits. Today we're going to be talking about this big, beautiful tax bill, how it's going to impact dentists, how it's going to impact building wealth. I do think it also impacts team members. So Derick, welcome back to the show. How are you today?

 

Derick Van Ness (00:29)

I'm great, Kiera. I really appreciate you bringing me on the show again. It's always fun to talk.

 

Kiera Dent (00:34)

Of course, we all know that I love wealth strategies. love ⁓ it takes time like you and I were talking about pre show. ⁓ I think it's something to educate ourselves on and to be around really smart people and to constantly be looking at different things like I know hot in the real estate world right now and with buying businesses and buying practices, the big beautiful tax bill is actually great for the bonus depreciation coming in. So just like educating ourselves and that's what I wanted today to be.

 

not getting high into politics. These are bills that are into place ⁓ and how to take advantage of them, how to maximize them. Derick, you work with a ton of dentists. So Derick, for those who don't know, you kind of give a little bit background on how you and I even got connected, how you got into dentistry, ⁓ how does Big Life Financial play into this. We have a lot of mutual clients together. So just kind of give people a background on who you are and how you got to the dental space.

 

Derick Van Ness (01:26)

Absolutely, you know, I started out back in like 2010 2009 2010 helping small business owners with taxes and financial strategy I was working for another firm at the time and I had been a house flipper and if for those of you who remember 2008 wasn't so good if you're a house flipper, right and When that whole thing fell apart kind of fell in my head I took a lot of the skills that I had and a friend of mine hired me to help

 

Kiera Dent (01:46)

It is not.

 

Derick Van Ness (01:55)

small business owners with taxes and financial and business strategy. ⁓ Working with them, I had a chance to work with about 1,500 business owners over seven years. And then eventually went out and started doing my own thing because there were some different things that I wanted to do that they didn't offer. ⁓ essentially, in that time, I worked with a lot of dentists and a lot of doctors. ⁓ And so I kind of stayed in that arena, which led me to ⁓ meeting you, Kiera.

 

through Mark over at DSI and all the stuff that I'd done with him and then found you guys and just love what you guys do with helping people to build their teams. Cause I'm such a huge advocate of how important that is to have the right team to run your practice, right? Especially if you're going to have multiple practices, it just can't be about you. And so it was just kind of a natural fit. And like you said, you, you definitely love financial strategies. So.

 

We got into it, we talked about a bunch of different things, had a chance to work together. Like you said, have shared a lot of clients along the way, but it just seems like dentists have a lot of the problems that we solve, which is they pay a of taxes, they make good money, and most of them didn't get an MBA in college to understand how business and finances work. They've had to learn along the way. And so we see ourselves as part of that process of helping dentists become.

 

better business owners, better entrepreneurs, and honestly create freedom in their life instead of just having a business that runs them, because it's easy to have that happen in dentistry. So that's sort of how we got connected. I don't know, over the last, since whatever 2008, 2009 was, last 15 plus years, I've probably worked with somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 business owners. I would say a good chunk of those have been dentists. So that's how we ended up together.

 

Kiera Dent (03:48)

Yeah.

 

I love the journey. love hearing what you've done. I also agree on like building wealth. And I think going through dental school, working at the dental college, dentists are coming out with, you know, upwards of 500, 600, 700, $800,000 in debt somewhere up towards that upper million. Midwestern was a very expensive school. looking at that and then watching offices and I remember the first dentist that I worked with and we were partners. We, called her 2.5 because we were 2.5 million debt.

 

Derick Van Ness (04:03)

Cheers.

 

Kiera Dent (04:18)

was like, you better straighten that spine 2.5. Like we need that spine for a long time. But it was something where I realized like, that's a substantial amount of debt. One to walk out of school with two you buy a practice on top of that and then you want to try and like even remotely live your own personal life. It just felt like the odds are possibly stacked not in a dentist favor. I've had several dentists where this is the case where they're multimillion in debt, trying to get these practices off the ground. And so really coming up with

 

Derick Van Ness (04:43)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (04:47)

like yes, long-term, if they make it, awesome. Hopefully it will pay off for them. But what are maybe some strategies and tips that they can do now? I think like so many of us look at real estate and wish that we would have gotten in at the 2008 because now you're selling them out or even in 2020. And so it's like, what can people do now, even if they didn't maximize or we didn't buy practices back in the day when they were so cheap, they were pennies on the dollar. What things can we do now to maximize? I was even talking to this girl the other day.

 

And she's like, yeah, my baby was born on New Year's Eve. And I was like, wow, talk about a great tax write-off. And she's like, I didn't even know that that was a tax write-off. I didn't even know the benefits of things. And so I feel like just so many little pieces that could make us smarter business owners to, I'm here, I love living in the United States. I love paying taxes for the country that we get to live in. I love the opportunity that we have to be business owners. With that said, I also think it's smart for us to be very wise stewards over our money to figure out different strategies.

 

And no, it's not sexy. No, it's not fun. A lot of it is just like save, like invest, do the things you're supposed to do. And it's going to be part of what is it? Like the eighth wonder of the world of compound interest. Like there are other pieces, but Derick, like, let's talk about this big, beautiful tax bill. How does this work? How does this impact business owners? What are some of the benefits we can take care of? Now we're talking in 2025, things will change and shift as the landscape shifts, but knowing that's in place, what are some of the things dentists owners can do now?

 

to maximize that coming out.

 

Derick Van Ness (06:18)

Yeah, you bring up a good point, Kiera. You know, it's not that this stuff happens overnight, but it is, it's systemic, right? You're doing it day in and day out. And tax is one of those things, whether you like it or not, you have to file them every year. And I'm not going to lie to you, that's part of what I like about being in the tax world is people have to do it every year. It's a pretty good business model that way, right?

 

Kiera Dent (06:30)

Right.

 

I

 

was gonna say you've got the reoccurring opportunities because it has to happen every year just like dentists have profis every six months. I mean it's a great built-in business. mean kudos to you. I don't enjoy it but it is a necessary evil to be done.

 

Derick Van Ness (06:52)

I totally get that. If you would have told me you're going to work in taxes even 15 years ago when I first got into it, I would have said absolutely not not interested. But what I can tell you is every dollar you make in taxes is the same as a new dollar you make in your business. Right. But you don't have to have employees and risk and additional insurance and additional equipment and all this other stuff. So it really is pure profit when you can reduce your taxes. So

 

even a small amount of tax strategy can go a very long way in increasing what you get in the bottom line, right? And if you could just take a lot of dentists across the country, they're in the 40 % tax bracket, maybe a little higher or lower depending on your state, but somewhere in that range, if you could even lower that by 10%, that's keeping an additional 10 % of your income. That's a lot of extra money for people to be able to save and put to work without having to go do more risk and...

 

buy a bigger building and do a build out and deal with more personalities in the office because all of those things are variables, right? So I see it as a pure profit machine if you get it right. And so I've chosen to think it that way because I spend so much time in it, but it really does come down to just keeping a lot more of the money you make. And it's a very potent way to do it because honestly, with 10 to 15 hours a year, so think of that as like one hour a month.

 

you can really add a lot to the bottom line of what you get to keep. In some cases, we can cut taxes almost in half for high, high income earners. So it's a pretty big deal.

 

Kiera Dent (08:25)

Well, and as you said that I think it's a big deal for today because yes to have that back to you is great. But like we talked about compounding, compounding until you've experienced compounding seems like not real. Just like I think when like you have bought your first house and it's like, how am I ever supposed to do this and make money on it until you bought your first practice? A lot of those things I think feel ⁓ arbitrary, they feel false. And then once you get into the compounding world and you're like, my gosh, like

 

we're making money without having to do anything. It's like, yeah, I could save on my taxes in a legal, ethical way, have more money at the end of the year that I could then put towards this, like you said, make it work for me. Well, now that it's just duplicating, it's multiplying, it's replicating, those things to me are things I get excited about. Those are things that I look for, because I don't think there's a lot of money.

 

I call it the money making machine. What things can we put into your money making machine to where it's working for you day in, day out without you having to do any extra work? I think all of us check yes, let's say yes to that. So Derick, let's talk about how we can create more of these money making machines, putting our money to work for us rather than constantly trying to chase the money dream to where at the end of our careers and even during our careers, we're living the lives that we wanted to get to when we first started out into these careers.

 

Derick Van Ness (09:29)

Yep.

 

Yeah. And I can tell you guys this, if you only walk away with one thing, it's the idea if you want to build wealth, you need to create systematic savings, right? Systematize putting money aside, whether that's actually savings account or investing or however, but just getting money out of the spending cycle and into the building cycle. And it's like watching your child, right? Like in the beginning, kids grow and it's like day to day, you don't see it, but year to year,

 

it starts to make a bigger and bigger and bigger difference. And then, you know, when they're teenagers, you're just like, what's happening, right? So it's the same kind of thing with your money. In the beginning, if you're just watching a day to day, you don't really see the growth. You have to trust the process, right? But the biggest thing you can do is put that on autopilot, because if you have to automatically go into your bank account every month and move money over or every year, move money over, it's much harder. And like writing,

 

Kiera Dent (10:28)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (10:42)

25, 50, 100, $200,000 checks feels hard. Setting aside 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, $10,000 a month, and then you cut that in half per pay period, and all of a sudden it gets a lot easier. It's like, oh yeah, $1,000 a pay period, not that big a deal. Much easier than writing a $25,000 check, right? Or two or $3,000 per pay period. It really does add up. And that's where the tax piece comes in is, in many cases, it's like found money. I try to teach our clients to...

 

Kiera Dent (10:46)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (11:11)

save like you're going to pay full blast on taxes. And then when we do the tax strategy, all this money is left over. And so it feels like extra money, and then you can put it to work, right? And that's where you do get to play with some bigger chunks. ⁓ But really, it's that habit of automating, setting money aside. If you can just only take one thing from this, it's that. And taxes can create a huge amount of that for you along the way. So let's talk about the tax bill, right?

 

Kiera Dent (11:24)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah,

 

let's talk about it. And I just want to highlight on that, Derick, of I was talking to a CPA the other day on the podcast and he talked about how like there's a different psychology of business owners. ⁓ We go from getting a W-2 paycheck that we're used to being able to spend all of it because taxes have already been taken out to them becoming business owners and not having taxes automatically taken from that and needing to be super disciplined on saving. And so I agree with you. And when I realized like,

 

I got so annoyed when I'm like, great, so now I never get a refund check ever again in taxes. I was like, no, actually it's actually so much better now than it ever was. Because if I just set it aside, I'm like, taxes are pretty simple. I guess there's some nuances to them, but it's pretty much like whatever tax bracket you are, take your profit at the end of the month, set that aside. And lo and behold, if you do the tax planning strategy, like you said, usually I'm ending up with a pretty good substantial chunk at the end of the year that I count as my like quote unquote, like

 

the refund check or whatever. It's been so long since I've gotten one that I don't even know what it is. But it's awesome because then you have this huge lump of money because you've been saving it. You weren't expecting it. All your expenses in your life is taken care of to where now, like you said, it is really fun. Is that an investment? Is that buying something that I've always wanted to get? Is that real estate money? Because the amount of cash, if you are strategic in how you do it, is exponentially substantial.

 

It is truly life-changing. So I'm excited, Derick. Let's talk about the tax bill, but I will second you and ditto you and just say, yes, there's discipline to it, but that discipline equals so much freedom on the other side that just try it. Trust us on this. Save, learn to save on it and ⁓ be blown away at how much you're able to have at the end of the year if you do it really well.

 

Derick Van Ness (13:25)

Yeah, I 100 % agree and I love your approach, Kiera. That's exactly what we try to teach with people. So let's talk about the tax bill, right? There's a ton of stuff that's in there that we're not going to touch on because like the child tax credit go up $200 a year. Yes. Is that going to move the needle for you as a business owner? Not really, right? Is there a little bit for senior tax relief in there where there's $6,000 of income that they don't pay taxes on? Yes. Does that really matter for you? Probably not, right? So we're going to...

 

Kiera Dent (13:33)

Okay, let's talk.

 

Derick Van Ness (13:55)

we're going to talk a little bit about a couple of key things that can really move the needle. One of them you alluded to, Kiera, that I think is really important is the idea of bonus depreciation, right? People who don't know what bonus depreciation is, it's when you buy certain types of equipment or real estate, you can take all the depreciation in the first year, right? And that can be ⁓ a huge chunk, especially when you combine it with something like cost segregation. For those of you who don't know what cost segregation is, the two really

 

Kiera Dent (14:04)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (14:24)

work well together. So I think it's worth taking just a sec, even though it's not new, it really enhances this strategy. ⁓ Cost segregation is when you have a piece of real estate, you bring in an engineer, and there are companies that do this, right? So you don't have to know all this stuff. ⁓ But they come in, they reclassify as much of your building as they can as equipment. And so what you get to do is depreciate a portion of the building, the stuff that's equipment much more rapidly. So a lot of times five, seven or 15 years.

 

versus either 27 or 39 and a half years. So you get a lot more depreciation on the front end. It's not like you get more overall, but money today is worth a whole lot more than money 20 or 30 years from now. You can invest it and use it to grow your business, et cetera. But then when you add bonus depreciation to that, you can get a lot more of it in the first year. what this really means is if you're

 

Kiera Dent (15:06)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (15:21)

buying the right kind of equipment or you're buying a building or you're doing big improvements, you can get a lot more depreciation and that depreciation can save you in taxes, right? And this is one that I feel like most CPAs kind of get bonus depreciation, but a lot of them don't bring in the cost segregation piece. So if you own a piece of real estate, especially if you bought it in the last few years and you haven't done a cost segregation study, this is something that you would have to know about because someone has to physically come to your building. If you haven't done one,

 

Kiera Dent (15:39)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (15:51)

should talk to your CPA about it or talk to someone about it. I'm sure Kiera knows people, we know people, there are plenty of people out there who do it. But that's something worth looking at, especially if your building's worth, I would say, $250,000, $300,000, and you've had it less than five years and you haven't done this, yeah, it's totally worth looking at. It could be a real nice windfall. So that's a big one. It had been in place, then it started phasing out from 100 % to 80 % to 60%.

 

Kiera Dent (16:04)

I

 

Derick Van Ness (16:20)

but now we're back at 100%. So this is a big one, especially if you own your building or you're buying a lot of equipment. ⁓ Another really big one is the SALT tax. Now, people hear SALT tax and they're like, what? They're thinking of like the SPICE, right? SALT stands for state and local tax. And really to simplify this, and there's kind of a workaround in almost every state where you can do it as a pass-through setup. And essentially what that means is,

 

Kiera Dent (16:27)

Mm-hmm.

 

Bye.

 

Derick Van Ness (16:49)

If you pay all your state taxes before the end of the year, those state taxes become a write off for your federal taxes. Now this was in place up to $10,000. So if you were in a 40 % tax bracket, it could have saved you $4,000. Now it's up to 40,000, four zero, $40,000. So if you're making a lot of money or you're in a high tax state, you can pay those state taxes before the end of the year and it creates a federal tax write off.

 

And so like if you were in a, you know, paying in a 32 % tax bracket and you paid $40,000, it's going to save you, you know, between 12 and $13,000 in taxes that year, which is pretty significant for found money. All it has to be done is you have to pay those taxes and then your, your CPA or your tax pro has to claim that. Right. So that's another big one that got raised and you probably heard a lot about it in the news because

 

People were trying to get it raised higher and some people thought it should be lower. It really does favor business owners. It's not something a person who doesn't have a business can do. And that was part of the controversy, right? ⁓ But at the end of the day, it's law. So you should be taking full advantage of that.

 

Kiera Dent (18:03)

I feel like that definitely impacts like the high state tax ⁓ states like California, New York, like some of those bigger ones, definitely because I live in Nevada, it's a no state income tax state. So if I understand correctly, Derick, and this is where I love bringing smart people on, the salt tax doesn't apply to me per se in Nevada, because we don't have state income tax. Is that correct? But in those higher ones, it definitely helps you out tremendously by being able to take those those credits and apply them.

 

Derick Van Ness (18:32)

That is correct, yeah. And like another really high one is Oregon. They have quite high state tax, whereas Washington has none. So yeah, that doesn't apply to everybody. But if you're in a state that has even medium, like I'm in Utah, income tax there is right around 5 % for the state. It's still significant, right? You can still do up to the same amount. You'll just get there slower than if you're in California.

 

Kiera Dent (18:36)

Mm-hmm.

 

I agree.

 

Right.

 

Derick Van Ness (19:00)

Once again, just one of those things like you talked about, know, having kids or, you know, having the ADA like disability access to your building or a lot of these other things that like there are a bunch of little things, but they really do add up doing the Augusta rule. I'm sure you guys have talked about a million times and paying your kids properly. And we have a whole strategy of actually how to help people use tax strategy to pay for their kids college, which is a pretty cool one using some of that.

 

Kiera Dent (19:15)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (19:29)

But those aren't part of the tax bill, so we won't dig into that today. ⁓

 

Kiera Dent (19:32)

But they

 

are smart things to know because as you're listing it off, I think when someone's making, let's say your practice is doing a million, let's it's doing 2 million, 5 million, let's say you're at a 50 % overhead, let's just do 5 million, that's 2.5 mil. Not all of that's going to come to you as profit, but let's use like, it also could be coming to you as profit, even if it's in the form of distributions and different pieces. I'm like,

 

Derick Van Ness (19:42)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (19:55)

on that 2.5, if that's your taxable income, now let's just do, let's say you're in the highest, like that would put you in the highest tax bracket. So we're at a 37%. Like that's almost a million dollars worth of tax money right there on 2.5. So I understand that say 12 grand doesn't seem like that much, but I'm like, but 12 grand is still going to chip down this tax bill. And then you do another 20 grand here, then you do another 15 grand here.

 

All of that does exponentially chip down and like the bonus appreciation. That's why I think Derick, you're talking like the $200 on a million of taxes, not really going to move the needle, but 12 grand, 15 grand. It's the stacking and being able to keep that money. You have to pay this tax no matter what. And why not like benefit and minimize and reduce it and keep that money. then even worst case scenario, you even go invest it or you put it somewhere like a high yield savings account, but still making 4 % for you.

 

that you wouldn't have been making so that money's working for you. I think it's a no brainer ⁓ no matter what tax bracket you're in just to see. But like I also think this is where I don't like to get lazy on my taxes like, is it really worth doing the Augustus roll? Yes, it is. Because like you said, every dollar saved today, if I could even take that 600 or that 2000 or that 12 grand, put it in right now, like go back to college. How many of us wish we would have invested at that point in time? 20 bucks when we were in college.

 

Derick Van Ness (21:02)

You

 

Kiera Dent (21:19)

into the stock market and what that would be worth today, I think that there's just value in being strategic and smart and this is how you build wealth. It's not sexy, but if you do it consistently, you will exponentially become wealthier much faster than otherwise. I think it's the fastest way to get to wealth long term because you've got a runway in front of you.

 

Derick Van Ness (21:38)

Well, I'm going to throw something out here, Kiera, because I get to see behind the scenes, right? I work with a lot of successful dentists and dentists have a really good income. Dentists generally are not great at creating wealth. I'll just be totally honest with you. A lot of them, they make enough money that they, ⁓ they can spend and they have a good life and they're able to put some money away, but proportional to their income, a lot of them are not great savers because of exactly what you talked about. A lot of them make all this money, but they got to pay off a lot of debt.

 

Kiera Dent (21:42)

Mm-hmm.

 

I would agree.

 

Derick Van Ness (22:08)

right, student loans and a business loan. Well, that's a lot of cash flow, especially in the first five years going out of lot of people's pockets. So a lot of times I'll see a dentist and they're making, let's say they're taking home $500,000, which is very common. ⁓ But you look at their investments and everything and they've got 300 grand saved. And they've been at it for 10 years and you're like, what happened? it's they paid off student loans, they paid off business debt.

 

Kiera Dent (22:27)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (22:33)

They've had to invest in equipment along the way. They've had to remodel their office. They bought a house. You know, and they have some nice things. But now when you start going back and saying, hey, we can do this, this, and this, and now you get to save an extra, let's go really, really low, an extra $20,000 a year. Okay. I did some math the other day for our newsletter, $20,000 a year. If that's what someone saved and they just put that money to work at 7%. Over 30 years, they'd have $2.1 million roughly.

 

Right? So it's like, it's not, it doesn't appear to be a huge thing, but over time it really does add up. And to be quite honest, someone who makes $500,000, I can think of a bunch of ways that are outside of the new tax bill, things we've been doing for years that can really save them a whole lot more than that. And so for a lot of people, like if somebody is making two and a half million dollars, there's actually some advanced strategies that can really move the needle in a big, big way. But these small things like paying your state tax by the end of the year,

 

It takes you five minutes and you saved 13 grand. Okay, that's a big deal. Doing, making sure you're paying yourself properly so that you don't end up paying self-employment tax unnecessarily on more of your income than you. Okay, that's another seven, 10, 15, 20 grand. ⁓ Paying your kids, Augusta rule, bonus depreciation. Okay, now all of sudden we took a bill that was maybe 120,000 of taxes for someone who makes 500 grand and now they're paying 50.

 

Kiera Dent (23:34)

Hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (24:00)

So they kept 70,000. Like that's a big deal. You put that together and using the math I just did there, that's about $5 million over 30 years, right? So it's significant and I bring up the two and a half million thing, because I don't see a lot of dentists. I have a few clients that make that kind of money, but most of the dentists, especially people who own one or two practices, they're making between on the lower end, maybe 300, 350, on the higher end, maybe 800, 900,000.

 

Kiera Dent (24:00)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

I agree.

 

Derick Van Ness (24:29)

You know, so suddenly an extra 50, 70, 80, $100,000 a year is a lot of money. It makes a really big difference.

 

Kiera Dent (24:37)

I agree.

 

I even think though, on no matter where your bracket is, I think like, well, one, I just hope I don't know, Derick, I need to surround myself with people like this. I hope that no matter what income I make, I don't ever like pish posh 70 grand. Like I just hope I hope I never I mean, I hope that I'm a freaking billionaire at one point in my life, like that'd be incredible. And like the amount of good that we'll be able to do in this world, like even today. But I'm like, I hope that I stay

 

humble and grateful enough that I would never say like 20 grand or 50 grand is not worth my time to do ⁓ in a small effort. ⁓ And so I think that that's just a zone of like, let's remember the humility as well of like, yes, these things are tax savings, but they're also going to exponentially grow you, you, your practice, your family, like your contribution, your good that you're able to do in this world. So even if you're not using it for yourself, think of the good that you can give back to this community in this world. So I think

 

And then I'm also like, yeah, and if you're at 300, 70 grand is a lot. If you're at 900, 70 grand should still be a lot. If you're at 2.5 million, 70 grand should still be a lot for you to where I think like, I also feel it's a skill of staying sharp rather than getting lazy and sloppy as we evolve. I know I've done it. Like I used to be way more scrappy when I first started the company and I'm like, yeah, well, do we really have to do all this? And it's like, but I think this...

 

sharper we can keep ourselves and the more disciplined we can to be expert saviors. Like I talked to Ryan Isaac of Dentist Advisors often and he and I talk about like the biggest thing is like being a great saver, like building your wealth, but then also not losing your wealth by doing dumb things or not being disciplined and watching what you've built. Like it's kind of two sides of the coin and being able to get there at the end of the day, I think is what we're all striving for. So I think it's brilliant and I hope that nobody says pish posh to us.

 

Derick Van Ness (26:12)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (26:34)

70 grand if we could save you that much in taxes.

 

Derick Van Ness (26:37)

I sure hope not, right? And if you do, it's because you've got a better use of your time than that. But quite frankly, most of this stuff, especially taxes, the cool thing is we've had a few tax rewrites in the last, you know, 10 years or so. But typically we don't have a lot of tax rewrites. So once you know the rules, it doesn't change that much year to year. A few little things change here or there, but for the most part, if you can take the time.

 

get yourself the right team or learn the rules yourself. mean, I think even people who know how to do this themselves, having a good tax pro on your team can be worth a lot because things do come up. ⁓ But honestly, most of it, once you know it, doesn't take a lot of time, right? We're talking a couple hours a year. And if you know what you're doing, a lot of this you kind of do along the way or it's already set up, like setting the money aside for taxes that's already set up, paying before the end of the year. That's just the thing you do one time, you write one check or make one payment online and

 

Kiera Dent (27:17)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (27:32)

and you're done, right? And a lot of these things are easy. ⁓ Another one that's a really big one that came up with the tax bill that I'm very excited about is they brought back the research and development credits. And this is another thing that for a dentist, it'll probably take you two hours of time ⁓ to do it, like an hour to work with someone to do the projects, which is basically an interview of what have you done, what's the research so that the tax team can look at that.

 

Kiera Dent (27:43)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (28:00)

And then just getting your tax returns over because not only do these credits come back, but you can retroactively, we've got one year to do this retroactively. You can go back and claim the credits for 2022, 2023 and 2024. And so that gives us three years where you can amend and go back and get that money. And I mean, for a typical dentist, I see on the low end, there are a lot of them. If you're investing in equipment, trying new stuff, which

 

Kiera Dent (28:15)

Wow.

 

Derick Van Ness (28:29)

most dentists to compete have to be doing today. If you're doing, you know, still doing mercury fillings from the seventies, then maybe that's not you. But most people who are listening to your podcast are...

 

Kiera Dent (28:32)

Mm-hmm.

 

I was going to say you, most of the podcast

 

community should be in that realm.

 

Derick Van Ness (28:44)

Yeah, I'm kind of joking, but typically, I mean, it's between $10,000 and $20,000 a year. if you have a big practice, I mean, we've had clients that have gotten multiple six figures back because they did some major overhauls and a bunch of stuff. But let's call it $15,000 to $20,000 a year for a lot of dentists. It takes 45 minutes to do it, the interview, and then a little bit of time to review that, make sure it's good.

 

So let's call it two, maybe three hours of total time to get that money back, right? And you can do this every year when we amend. You have to amend them and they go back to the IRS. And the IRS is taking about a year to get checks out. They're a little buried ever since COVID. They got behind and they just never caught back up. But once you get on top of that for 2025 and beyond, like you can just do it proactively. You just don't pay the taxes. You don't have to wait for a refund.

 

And so it's another one of those things where you spend an hour or two a year and you get 10, 15, 20, $30,000 a year that you just get to keep. Right. And so this one to me is a huge one for dentistry because the rate at which the industry is changing, right. Uh, went from, from cone beams to milling people, milling their own crowns. Now it's 3d printing pretty soon. It's going to be, you know, a lot of these things you see at the shows with the robots doing things and all kinds of different things that

 

Kiera Dent (29:50)

Awesome.

 

Totally.

 

Derick Van Ness (30:12)

Dentistry is a very progressive industry, right? A lot of AI coming in with answering phones and scheduling people and answering questions and all of that kind of stuff. You may as well get credits for it. You're doing the work, you're buying the equipment, you're figuring this stuff out. So if you're doing anything where you're upgrading, trying new technology, looking to get better, faster, more efficient, you're probably accruing the credits. ⁓ And it's just something you don't want to miss out on. R &D credits are... ⁓

 

not as well known as they could be because it's very much a specialty thing and it's relatively new to the tax code. It only became permanent in 2015. It's been around since the 80s but it changed a bunch and became permanent then. And the reason we didn't do it through 2022 through 2024 was there was a change in the 2017 tax code and you know they gave tax breaks.

 

Kiera Dent (30:43)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (31:07)

to corporations, they had to make it up somewhere. And this was the place where they said, if people claim R &D, they also don't get to write off all the expenses without going into all the detail. It just wasn't worth doing. Now we can go back and recover that. Congress didn't think it was even going to become a law. I think they thought they were going to amend it. And then COVID happened. And they sort of forgot about it. So it became a law in 22. Anyway, this is all fixing it. So to me, this is a huge one. It's an easy win for a lot of a.

 

Kiera Dent (31:18)

Yeah.

 

Derick Van Ness (31:36)

a lot of dentists to be able to go out and just get a bunch of money back in taxes you've already paid for stuff you've already done. And it's pretty minimal effort. ⁓ There are lot of different people out there who do it. We do a free estimate for people so they can kind of see what's on the table. But yeah, it's pretty straightforward. To me, that's probably the one specific to dentistry that's going to apply to almost everybody listening almost every year. And so

 

I kind of saved it toward the end here because I think it's the big win. know, the others, the bonus depreciation can be bigger, but you're probably not buying a business or massive amounts of equipment every year. But if you are, then that's going to be a huge one too.

 

Kiera Dent (32:20)

Yeah. No, Derick, I love that. And I did some math because you talked about like one hour approximately per month to do these things. And I just I did some really, really conservative numbers. So I was like, if we were doing 20 grand of how much we get for tax savings of like actual dollars to you. And that was in 15 hours a year. That's 1333. So about 1400 per hour. And so thinking about a dentist who's producing 1400 per hour.

 

That's actually, that's a pretty high production. You're producing about $11,000 a day as a dentist at that rate. Then I was thinking like, okay, the R &D is 10 grand, 20 grand in two hours. That's now producing $10,000 an hour. I was like, that dentist would be producing $80,000 a day. Just to put in comparison of your dollar per hour on production, you apply that to your tax savings. I think that it's to me,

 

Not all dentists are even producing $1,300 an hour. Even very, very skilled dentists, like 500 to 1,000 is actually pretty great. That's what we try to target for doctors to do. 8,000 a day is a pretty good amount. So when I just did the quick math and I'm like, a lot of dentists are not working five days a week. A lot of you are working four days a week. So if you just added this as part of your CEO time, one hour per month to dedicate to this.

 

What's the ROI of that time? think it's very well worthwhile. And I will agree with you, Derick. We've had you on the podcast before. That's why I had you come back on, because I am seeing multiple clients get these R &D credits coming through that I just think it's a worthwhile thing. Again, I feel like it's Geico. That's what I feel like right now. Like one hour or like one quick call could save you 10 to 20 grand. I think that that to me, again, let's be sharp. Let's be savvy. Let's make sure we take advantage of these opportunities because again,

 

Derick Van Ness (34:00)

you

 

Kiera Dent (34:13)

Like you've said, the compound of that 10 or $20,000 that you get over the course of the next 20 to 30 years while you're doing dentistry, even if it's five years, even if it's 10 years, ⁓ that to me is so worth your time. I feel like that's the best use of your time you can possibly do as a CEO, as a business owner. So Derick, that's why I want to do back on because I think everybody should connect with you. Everybody should talk to their CPAs about this.

 

I know you guys do the R &D credits. I also know that you guys do accounting. So if people are looking to connect with you, Derick, like what's the easiest way? Like I'm fired up listening to this podcast. I'm committed to my one hour a month. It's like one and a half guys. So you're gonna have to be a little bit more, but I'm committed to that. Where do I start? How do I get going to make sure that I can maximize this big, beautiful tax bill and also the R &D credits for my practice.

 

Derick Van Ness (35:03)

It's a great question. So we actually set up a page just for Dental A Team listeners, right? So it's just, my company's called Big Life Financial. And we do that, it's not big money financial. Our goal is to help you get money out of the way so you can live the life you're here to live as a human, right? And really spend the family time and make the contributions and express yourself as you want to. But it's BigLifeFinancial.com/DAT. So if you go there, it's a research and development credits

 

opt in right for the page because I think that's the biggest win. But we will also do, if you would like, a full three year tax review for people. Anybody who wants to see, have I been overpaying? There's a million things we didn't touch on today because they're not part of the new tax bill. There are things that have been around for a long time. ⁓ But we can help you to get a good idea of have you been overpaying and what are the opportunities out there? ⁓ And so that's a great way to start. And then from there, if it seems like you want to

 

Kiera Dent (35:46)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (36:03)

find out more, you have questions or things come up, but that's a good starting point, right? It's like a diagnostic that gives us a good place to start from. So BigLifeFinancial.com/DAT will set up a free call. It should only take maybe 15, 20 minutes at first just to answer any question. That's great.

 

Kiera Dent (36:19)

15 or more could save you.

 

It really fills up, it's true. It's true. Daria, I do have a question though, because people get creeped out by taxes. How often do doing this and looking back at past taxes alert audits within the IRS? Because people creep out about this.

 

Derick Van Ness (36:37)

So doing it,

 

so the R &D credits, especially this because they literally passed a law and said, yes, you can go back and do it. So there's going to be a ton of people doing it. So I don't think it's going to be any type of audit unless you really weren't doing research, right? But that's what the interview is for, is to help us to identify it. And our team will essentially tell you what does and doesn't qualify. But there's no risk to it, especially because they're saying, hey, yeah, you can go back and do this. You could.

 

I mean, you could have claimed it before, but nobody did. So it's not going to stand out. also, even in the past, when we've done this for people prior to that law change, I think out of 16,000 filings, there's been like maybe 12 or 15 audits. It's lower. It's even lower than a typical audit range. And I don't know how that's even really possible, but it's just been very low. It's not something the IRS is really worried about. It's not huge amounts of money.

 

Kiera Dent (37:10)

Mm-hmm.

 

Derick Van Ness (37:35)

You know, some of these other strategies care that you're aware of. people are getting 50, 100,000, $200,000 tax breaks and those are much more highly scrutinized. You really doing this work, which dentists do, uh, and based on your industry, I don't think they're really going to bat an eye. It doesn't mean there's a zero chance, but it's very, very low. Just like if you had a piece of equipment, forgot to depreciate it. Now you went back and amended to do that. It's that straightforward. It's a permanent part of the tax code. It's not gray area stuff.

 

Kiera Dent (37:42)

Right.

 

which is super helpful. And that's just where I wanted to clarify because I know people get kind of weird of like, yeah, I want to save on my taxes, but I'd rather not get audited. And so I think this is a world where you can be both. You can save on taxes legally, just like the Augustus rule. Like that is something very common. People do it if you don't know about it, talk to your CP about it, ⁓ your kids having real jobs. So I feel like it's something where, like you said, it's not talked about as much, but that does not mean that it is not as commonplace or that you shouldn't bonus appreciation on real estate, on big equipment.

 

Derick Van Ness (38:10)

Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (38:36)

These are things that I also feel this is the time like a political landscape for you as a business owner to take advantage of tax benefits. The person who's in the White House currently, whatever you choose to believe or not believe is very pro businesses in a lot of ways. And so I'm like, if you're ever going to try it based on who's in office, ⁓ I think now is a great time ⁓ with how many things are coming forward for businesses and being more business. ⁓ I would just say

 

business friendly, I think is where the political landscape is currently. Again, not to go down a political path, just to be looking at like, if I'm hedging my bets, now is probably a really good time where odds of audits are probably a little bit lower than maybe at other times of the political landscape. So just things to think about. Derick, I love these podcasts. I love building wealth. So guys go to BigLifeFinancial.com/DAT, so Dental A Team. So it's just DAT our initials.

 

Derick Van Ness (39:15)

Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (39:32)

And Derick will take great care of you. Derick, any last thoughts as we wrap up today? I appreciate you so much being on here.

 

Derick Van Ness (39:38)

No, just think, you know, dentists work really, really hard and I feel like a lot of them don't get the fruits of their labor because there's a lot of these little things that they haven't been taught. And I think all the little things do add up. So, you know, this is one of those things that if you choose to just take it on, figure it out in a year or two, you'll be way ahead of the game and you get to benefit from that basically forever. Right? lot of this stuff, once you figure it out one time, you can just ride.

 

80%, 90 % on autopilot. So if you've been afraid of it, would say it's climb over that hill, whether it's with us or someone else, it is really worth it. You guys work too hard, take too many risks, deal with too much headache to not get the full amount of the money that you really deserve to keep. So yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (40:23)

I agree.

 

That's why Derick gets to be on the podcast because we're very aligned. I've always said I want dentists to be insanely wealthy, insanely. I see what you go through in school. mean, 2.5 million debt ⁓ to even get the opportunity to practice. ⁓ That's really where I was on a very strong mission to help dentists just like Derick to be as successful as you want to be. And there's little strategies like what we talked about that are big strategies. So take advantage, get over the hump.

 

Chat with Derick or your financial advisor or your CPA. But these things, I think, need to be part of your every single year conversations. They need to be talked about multiple times. You need to be asking what's been changing in the tax bill, keeping yourself a part of it. Very simple moves, big gains this year. Derick, as always, thanks for being a part of it. I really appreciate you. And for all of you listening, thank you for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

High-performing practices don’t happen by accident, and in this episode, Kiera shares the steps that the most successful practices put in place to get there. 

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today is just an incredible day for you. I hope you guys are ready to be on the podcast, whether you're driving, listening to us as a team meeting, going to work, going for a run, going on a hike, driving in the car, whatever it is. I hope today is just an incredible day and I hope you remember dentistry really is the greatest place for us to be. I'm so excited to podcast. I'm your host Kiera Dett and truly I'm excited to help you make dentistry more fun, to make your day more fun.

 

because we have done over a thousand episodes. So if there's ever anything you're struggling with in your practice, be sure to head on over to TheDentalATeam.com click on our podcast tab and make sure that you download whatever podcast it is. Like you can type in case acceptance or overhead or PNL or staffing or hiring or hygiene. And every single episode we have ever done in the archive of the thousands, literally of episodes we have done, they're there for you.

 

And I just want to say thanks. Thanks for hanging out with us. Thanks for being part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If this podcast is serving you, if it's helped you, if this made you laugh, if it made your practice better, be sure to leave us a review and share this in groups. Honestly, our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible and get this podcast into the hands of every single dental office out there. So share and hey, let's have a great day today because I wanted to go through three systems that every productive practice has in place. And honestly, a lot of practices don't have them.

 

This is something where like these high-performing practices, they don't just happen by accident. They run on systems and most practices are missing these top three. Like truly I've walked into hundreds and thousands of offices and I'm shocked that they don't have these three simple easy ones in place for them. ⁓ These right systems are going to help drive consistency, reduce your stress, increase your profitability and they're very, very easy for practices to implement. Now, just because something's easy doesn't mean that practices...

 

actually do it. So I want you to be part of the elite. You're part of Dental A Team. Why not tell you the best of the best of the best? I mean, why not? Like you're here, you're listening. Let's make your time effort energies worth it. I'm on board. Are you on board? Cause I think it'd be great. guys Dental A Team was truly created for you. We are obsessed with building smart, scalable practices and systems to help you have the life that you want to live. We want to make teams and practices happier. We want to make patient experience happier. And this is something where we don't want you working harder.

 

One of our top core values in the Dental A Team is ease. We want everything to be easy. As team members ourselves, we don't want to put hard things into place for teams. We don't want doctors to be working late nights and not spending time with their families. We want you to be profitable, happy, successful with ease. So the first system that I found that we've talked about many times, and I'll just go to a high level today because there are deeper podcasts on it, but to kind of break this down into the three simple, sexy systems that are not so sexy, but they really truly will help you drive.

 

profit, efficiency, happiness. And the number one, da-da-da-da, I hope you're ready for it, is block scheduling. Like yes, block scheduling, it's crazy. ⁓ Literate people reach out to us just to help them with block scheduling. And I am shocked because block scheduling is something where you literally can put it together in such high value ease. ⁓ I'm obsessed, we do have a block schedule template that we work with our practices. And it's one of those things where we keep making it like,

 

more and more and more and more and more because we realize there's easier things to do on it. But just as a quick sample, I really, really, really love helping offices make this so fun. Like, let's make it easy for you. Let's make this exciting for you. So I'm actually going to do a share screen. So if you guys are watching, amazing, hey, welcome, I'm super happy. And if you're not, that's okay. What we're going to do is I'll walk you through it as well. So if you're listening, driving the car,

 

but I will also try to share this with you. So on here, what I've done is we have actually created these boxes for you to fill in, okay? So we fill in all the green boxes and on the left-hand side, what I have is basically all of your procedures in the practice, what they are, how much time it's going to take you and how much it's going to cost you on average. Now we want time, if crown prep and buildup, how much time is that going to take you? Well, fantastic, it's gonna be an hour and a half. Awesome, put that in.

 

How much is the cost approximately? Don't go for your highest fee and don't go for your lowest fee. We wanna go right in that like sweet spot, middle spot. And then what about what providers? Cause some providers do procedures and others don't. So put that in there. We also wanna look for our new patients, our SRPs, how many perio maintenance as we have active patients over the last 18 months and 12 months to make sure we have enough blocks for that. We wanna go through our current hygiene spaces and our weekly availability.

 

I want to look back at last year and see how many pro fees we did, how many SRPs, how many periomaintenances would be needed based on that. And then any specialty procedures we've got, then we look at how many hygiene hours we're going to need for new patients, how many SRPs, how many hour pro fees, how many periomaintenances, and then our goals if we want any of those specialties. So that's like master sheet number one. Then we move into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. This is awesome. You actually start to look, you know, every single week I need X number of new patient spots, X number of SRP spots.

 

X number of procedures. And what I love to do is at the top of this ⁓ Excel spreadsheet that I'll show you, I actually put dollar amounts for how much each hygiene group be producing, how much our assistant only columns are, and how much our doctor columns are. So when we look at that, it will actually give us a total production based on how much that procedure should cost us. Now, of course I could have an endo here, but I also could have a couple crowns there. So it's just a dollar amount approximately what I'm trying to do. And then what was really amazing is we'll get to a grand total page.

 

tab that will tell us what does our weekly total equal. Then we do a monthly total based on four weeks, it's gonna break it down. So in this practice example, their weekly total is about 94,000. That means their monthly total is about 379, giving them an annual total of 4.5. What's wild on this is this is a real practice. These are real offices doing this. And what's insane is this practices are usually doing like three or four million and we're able to then add 500,000 or like 300,000 or an extra million.

 

just through great block scheduling. It's wild. It truly is something where they get out on time, they have less stress. We guide patients to the appointments. And this is where I obsess about showing all of you how to do block scheduling. It is literally a super easy, sexy, simple system that takes a little bit of planning, a little bit of prep work, but then you execute on it. And if you don't have one in place, this is something where you have got to get it in place. You've got to guide your patients where you want them to go. And like I said, this is one of the top three systems that

 

the productive practices are using, whereas the not so productive practices are not using it. People are like, it's too hard, Kara. Well, if it's too hard, reach out. [email protected]. We literally work with offices. We put these into place. We bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars. So when people are curious about consulting ROI, I'm like, listen, I can easily go into your schedule. We can add hundreds of thousands of dollars with no extra effort on your part, just utilizing your schedule better. It's kind of like people when it's like, gosh, like that person can just get so much done in their day.

 

Well, it's the same thing with your schedule at your office. You can get so much more done in a day when you're just more effective, more efficient with your scheduling. So this is the framework that protects production in your practice. So audit your schedule, get block schedules in place. And if you are struggling with or heard this a million times, reach out, [email protected], book a complimentary practice assessment. We'll show you blind spots. We'll give you free tips.

 

We will literally help you whether you work with us or not. So there's really no cost to you, no effort other than you swallowing your you know and booking the call and saying like, hey, I've tried, I need help. And even if you can do it, what's your time worth to you? Doctors, you're producing five, six, $700 an hour. Well, think about it. If you can outsource that to a consultant, hashtag the Dental A Team, think of the ROI of your time. And I actually think it's a better use of your time to go produce.

 

and let us help your team put this into place. All right, system number two is my favorite thing, excellent handoffs. Excellent handoffs that are going to boost and increase your case acceptance. And we call that our sexy NDTR handoff. This is wild. I tell offices about it. They hear it on the podcast and they still don't use it. And I'm like, why? This is our 50 % to 100 % case acceptance. It literally does not need to be hard. It's how you're able to add same day treatment. It's how you're able to have better scheduling. It's how you're able to perfect your handoff.

 

from every single team member and that's to literally at the end of every exam, every appointment, tell them next visit, date to return, time needed for that appointment and is there re-care scheduled? NDTR, it's the magic formula. It literally boosts your case acceptance. It is not hard, it is simple to do. The only thing that's annoying about it is you have to remember to say it at the end of your procedure. But we've even made that easier and we throw it on your route slips. We put it on your computer, we put it in your exam notes. So you should not be forgetting and every team member should be prompting you for it.

 

I promise you, if you will just put this one system into place, you will see massive growth all the time when people are interviewing us to see if they want to work with us and we're interviewing them to see if they'd be a great client. I literally am never afraid when people are like, Kiera, can you cover your ROI? Like what's the ROI? And I'm like, well, on average we have it, started it out. Most of our practices within their first three months are seeing a 30 % increase in production just across the board. Okay. So now there's some that are 10%. There's some that are 50%.

 

all across, like on average of hundreds of offices, they're seeing a boost of 30%. Well, let's just say you are a million dollar practice today. That's an extra $300,000. We are not even like, are barely, you're like a 10X of what you're paying us versus what you're getting. And that to me is something that's so insanely valuable is you need to make sure that you're adding your consultant in who can add these results for you. And we do it through non-sexy ways. Like, hey, let me give you an awesome handoff to say at the end of the procedure that's going to

 

and eliminate the excuses a patient's going to bring to you, but it's going to help teep all of your treatment. It's going to make your handoffs perfect. It's going to make it to where patients want to say yes to you. I've literally watched them leave the operatory and they don't get operatory like hallway amnesia. They literally like our little robots and they walk right up front and they're like, hey, Dr. Smith wants to see me back for that crown in two weeks for an hour and I need to get my cleaning scheduled. And they just smile. And you're like, where did you come from? And why did not all of my patients do this?

 

is because you don't have this in and it's something that's so easy to do and yet most practices don't do it. So I would recommend every one of you, doctors, add it in. I want you to look at that exam room when you walk into it, every hygiene room, every time you walk through the door, you are just going to say it every single time and you will be shocked at how great your case acceptance goes, but not even just your case exceptions, your patient's happiness. They're not confused. Where do start? Why is dentistry so confusing? Why do I not want to do this? You've literally given them the roadmap.

 

eliminated half of their excuses that they're going to go up and have objections. Treatment coordinator like, here teach me how to get over objections. I'm like, hey, just have a better exam. And 50 % of those objections are already gone. They're not confused. They don't have amnesia. They know exactly where to go. And then we ask them, what questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid moving forward. You told them we're moving forward. It's not a question of are we doing dentistry or not. It's, hey, we're doing dentistry. Next step is going to be, you can talk about how you want to finance it. But what questions do you have for me? I want you rock solid moving forward.

 

This is how the elite practices do it. You guys wanna know? I've been in hundreds of offices and I'm here to show these are the three sexy systems that your practice needs to have in place. All right, get it done, get that in place. And if you're struggling, this is something we teach to teams. We get the whole team on board, because sometimes you listening, trying to get your team bought in, sometimes that's hard. So fly in an expert, we'll come and train your team. There we go. That was a little bit of a tongue twister. We will train your team to do this.

 

to have great case acceptance. And this is how we're able to add in one practice, we added $25,000 in one day just by doing this. All right, system number three, this is going to sound so silly, but a morning huddle that's truly a huddle that drives performance and alignment. Like literally this is what we do in office. We cut our morning huddle and I'm like, rock on, you cut out your secret treasure trove. Like this is something that can take five minutes, 10 minutes, and our job is to look for what did we do great yesterday?

 

what's on our docket today and are we going to win the day? I do not need to hear about every patient. do not need to hear about Mrs. Jones has high blood pressure. Fantastic, that's something hygienists you need to know. The whole team does not need to know it. We need to look at the scoreboard just like football players, basketball players, baseball players, whatever it is. We look at our scoreboard, AKA how we did yesterday, where we are on track for our month and we say is today schedule two goal? And if not, what are we going to do to truly win our day? Now I understand that numbers can sometimes not feel like patient care.

 

I want to reverse that mindset for you. And I want you to know that when we hit our numbers, that is our benchmark, our measuring stick to show that we served our patients at the highest level. And we did not let little gaps fall into place like missing fluoride opportunities, missing x-ray opportunities, missing same day treatment opportunities, missing diagnosis opportunities. These little simple things are what we're trying not to do. So that's why we set our goal. We have our block schedule. We know the treatment we want to do.

 

We know the hygiene patients that we need to be seeing. We know the open schedule time that we need to make sure that we've eliminated. And when we morning huddle it out, we can literally strategize how we're going to win our day. So we have more consistent days, more consistent treatment, more consistent patient care, more consistent happy teams. This is where we look for bottlenecks. Where are we going to get jammed up? Could we move a patient by 15 minutes today and make our schedule a lot easier? What does hygiene mean? Hygiene, are you scheduled to goal? And if not, what are you going to do to make sure that you get your patient base scheduled to goal?

 

It's wild when every player on the team takes ownership of their position over their column, over their goals that we've all committed to, to ensure that we're not missing any patient care. Now you might not get to your exact goal on hygiene side, but I promise you, if we're looking for every single thing those patients should be getting, you will always hit goal. I promise you, we don't set goals to make it to where it's like impossible or you have to do extra dentistry. We set them so we don't miss little things. And I think like, if you just have it that way where we remember, we do it, we chart prep.

 

Every person's chart prepping the night before, they're looking for their opportunities and we come to Morning Huddle to strategize how we're going to win. We can identify VIP patients to ask them for reviews and referrals. We can do challenges within our team of who's gonna get the most reviews in a day. There's so many little things that Morning Huddle can do and it's also a combination where we connect, we have a game plan and then we go and execute and go to work. So this is really something where it's like, let's use metrics in our Morning Huddle. Let's figure out how we're going to truly strategize and win.

 

and let's look for same day opportunities that we could use to, it's crazy, it's wild when you will use morning huddles like this of the strategy, the huddle to win the game, you will be insanely shocked at how much is there that you might be missing here and there. So these are the three non-sexy systems that every single productive practice has in place and they're incredibly good at it. And that is our block scheduling, our NDTR handoffs and our morning huddles that are setting us up to win.

 

This is something that will significantly improve your productivity and team alignment. Like they get everybody on the same page. We're rowing in the same boat. People are like, Carrie, I got to put all these systems in place. And I'm like, no, you don't. You just need to put the systems in place that are going to help you win. And that means winning on the number side for sure, but winning on team alignment, happier patients, getting out on time, more time with your family. Let's put those systems into place. Let's not be spending a lot of time wasted time on things that don't truly move the needle forward.

 

why we put systems into place. This is why we're obsessed with it. Because the reality is one small change. Any of these changes is going to radically improve your life. It's going to improve your practice and it's going to improve your happiness. So why not do it? And if you are struggling with this, you're like, gosh, Kara, I hear your podcast. I listened to you. I've heard you tell me this a hundred times. Book the call. [email protected]. Book the call. Let's stop living in mayhem. Let's stop living in madness. Let's have expert consultants literally look at your practice, look at your numbers and put these things into place.

 

We had a doctor, I'll just pull this up, literally texted us their first month and said, I have never been as confident as I am working with the Dental A Team. I've worked with a lot of other consulting companies and in just one month, I already feel less stressed, more at ease and excited to come back to my practice. I was curious if I needed to sell my practice and now I'm confident that I can live here, be happy and enjoy dentistry again. It's in one month. So if that's you, if you feel like that, you're like, gosh, I just need this, book the call. [email protected].

 

Make sure you're on our newsletter list. Make sure you're getting our tips. But more importantly, make sure you're getting the life and the practice that you deserve. Guys, we get one practice, we get one life, we get one opportunity. Let's make it the best we possibly can. For all of you listening, I'm so grateful for you. I know these things can be yours. I know you can put these systems into place and I encourage you to do it. It's your time. Execute. I put up on my mirror a long, long time ago. I said, don't just dream, do. This is the time for you to put the things into place that you know will move your practice forward.

 

Refine if you're already doing it and reach out. It's time. Let's do this. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.