Operatinging a practice is very, very different from owning a practice. Kiera walks listeners through what the path to CEO ownership looks like, including the difference between the clinical and business sides, how performing a time audit will get you started, the ideal approach to establishing a vision, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a great day. I am so excited for this podcast. I am excited to be chatting with you. I feel honored. Where are we at? Are we hanging out? Are we going on a walk together? Are we getting ice cream together? Are we picking up the kids? Are we driving to work? Are we driving home from work? Are we sitting in traffic? Wherever we are, I hope it's a great day. And I hope that even if it wasn't the best day that you're choosing to make sure that today is going to be an epic day, that you're choosing yourself, that you're choosing happiness.

that you're choosing this incredible life. And you remember at one point, at one point, the life you're living is the life that you were dreaming of. And how blessed are we to be able to live this magical life that we get to. So today I just wanna walk you through how to go from a practice operator where you're doing all of it to a true CEO and what needs to change to be able to lead at the next level. So I think this is so fun because owning a practice is very, very, very different than

operating a practice, would you agree? And so like if you're still in the weeds, you're still doing the day to day, you're not yet the CEO of your practice. And so this is something where I wanted to kind of walk you through like, what does that even look like? Because for some of us, we don't even know what the destination looks like. So we're like, well, I can't even visualize it. So therefore I can't even like create it. And I want to make sure that I help you see what that path can be, help you understand what it can look like if you choose that you want to do it.

This is something where Dental A Team's mission is to truly help doctors stop running on survival mode and start leading strategically. So whether you want to be the CEO where you're out of the chair, whether you want to still be the operator where you do some dentistry, but you have the options because you know what that can look like. So that's what we're about. And today it's going to be going from busy operator into visionary, going from day to day to the big picture. And so fun because I actually was talking to a client this morning who actually it's been about a three year journey has now

rounded the bend to where they had their last day of clinical dentistry and they're stepping fully into the CEO role. And as we were chatting, we talked about how it's a mind trip. It's a full blown mind trip and how I told them, said, it's crazy because I'm actually doing this podcast today. I had already planned that I wanted to talk about this. It was so serendipitous that we chatted today. ⁓ But I said, isn't it wild how like what we dreamed of, like you go through dental school and you go through all these things. ⁓

to walk away from that, have associates, to have different people. Just like me, I consult, I still do some consulting, but I do a lot more of running the business, owning the business, and not as much in the day-to-day anymore. And I'm so grateful for the team of Dental A team that allows me to be in my sweet spot, the visionary role, to enjoy it and to allow them to be in their sweet spots. And this doctor and I, were chatting and he just said like, Keir, it's weird.

I don't even know what being a CEO looks like. And I have another doctor and he said, Garrett, it's so weird to go from being clinical all the time to working on the business, but it's so fun to work on the business and to be the CEO that can look. And as I was talking to the doctor this morning, they're thinking about doing a DSO and wondering what they want to do with that. And he's just like, you know, I don't even know. So we started talking and we were rattling off all these things. And he was like, that's what I need to be doing as a CEO. That's why I need to have the time not in the chair is so that way I can.

I can drive this business in the direction it needs to go. And so again, today's podcast is not to say that you need to step away from the chair. As you can see, there's one client who is completely out of the chair. There's another client who works one or two days clinically. Myself, I still do ⁓ a day of consulting and then I still do podcasting and I do the things that light my fire that I still enjoy doing. But there's a path of how do you get there? And it was kind of like when I used to be a treatment coordinator and a dental assistant and I became an office manager and I'm like,

I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. All of these are different layers. I almost want you to think kind of like the wifi symbol. Like you just, you go through different layers and it's different identities. And it's kind like you pop through and you look around and like, don't even recognize this neighborhood. Like I don't even recognize the neighborhood of CEOs. I don't even recognize the neighborhood of working two days of clinical. I don't even recognize the neighborhood of where my leadership team does the bulk of all the pieces that I'm doing. Like I don't actually have to do the hiring and firing anymore. I don't have to do all the one-on-ones anymore.

you pop your head up into a different neighborhood and it's a loss of identity and it's a taking on of a new identity and it's a morphing. I remember talking about this, gosh, this is like in the archives of podcasts. If you wanna go look, go to TheDentalATeam.com, click on podcasts and type in like sloughing and snake and you'll probably find it. But I talked about this years and years ago of how when you evolve from being this operator to this owner, it's kind of like a snake and you have to like literally like slough off.

the old version of you to allow space to become the version that you need to be. And so just kind of going through like, what does it even look like? And if I wanted to, or just maybe propose or think about, because I always believe like the more knowledge you have and the more, I think vision or maybe just like thought, right? Like I never even thought about it. Like I never even thought that my practice could make a hundred thousand. Like what if it made 200,000 a month or what if it made 300,000 or.

There's a practice doing 550 a month or there's a practice who's literally doing a million a month. I have an office that like all their offices are producing. They've got multi offices and they're producing between 350 and 450 a month. Every one of their offices. And I say this not for you to compare and to beat yourself up and say like, my gosh, I'm not even there, Kiera, I'm only doing 30,000. I want all of us just to say there are other neighborhoods, there are other visions. And I wanted today to just show a picture.

And then you get to pick up whatever you want or don't want from this vision. There is no right you have to get here. It's just, I want to show you and paint a picture in case you're thinking about it. So that way you look at life, look at your practice, look at your decision-making differently at whatever stage you are in your business. So there's no judgment. There's no expectation. That's something I love about Dental A Team is I've got clients that are producing 7,000 a month and I've got clients that are producing, oh gosh, like 1.2 to 2 million a month.

It's insane. I've got clients that are at 80 % overhead. Don't worry, they're brand new. All the way down to a 35 % overhead. All of us are in different journeys, we're on different paths, we have different priorities. And there's not a one size fits all in Dental A Team. It is a one size fits you. And then let's just make sure that we expand your knowledge base. That way you're making decisions educated rather than placed upon you. So step one, as you're kind of shifting into this role, is going to be...

shifting from doing to delegating. And this is something where I think as founders, as owners, myself included, we build the, like we've built this so we know how to do all the pieces and it's very hard to let go. The CEO builds the machine, they don't run every part of it. And so really thinking about that, like your job is to build the vision, your job is to do these bigger partnerships, your job is to build the culture, to be the lighthouse on the hill, but not the one rowing the boat. And so,

The way we do this is kind of like a time audit. So we write down every single thing that we're doing and we look to see who could do this 80 % as well as I can that we could delegate. And there's ⁓ in some of our other podcasts and on our summit and in some of our things, we talk about a delegation ladder. And basically we like look at administrative tasks and scheduling tasks and TC tasks and then all the way up to marketing and leadership tasks. And so how can we start to delegate these tasks out? And so you're not doing them all.

And then what we do is we have leads and we have scorecards and we have ⁓ decision pieces to help people understand what decisions they can or can't make. And what happens is when doctors start to let go of this, empower their team without letting go, so they're still in the reins, they're then able to work on growth and strategy and you're able to build the vision. You're able to have the time to go to those big networks. Like the doctor here, like Kiera, all the people you told me like, that's why I need to go make phone calls with. making those phone calls are big decisions for the business.

don't happen between patients and they're not happening after hours. They can, but when you really do shift from this, it's crazy because you start to actually have the time, the bandwidth, the depth, the breadth to be able to even think in this way. And so my suggestion is like whether you want to become this CEO that's owning the business rather than operating the business, I want you to truly look at this to see what's one task that you could delegate or even do a dump. Like this is how I first learned that I needed to hire a personal assistant.

I did a dump and I looked at every single thing on there and I like took a pink highlighter and we're like, what are the that only Kiera can do? And I realized that my list are like three out of like 50 that truly were only things that I could do. I just was obsessed with doing it. People are like, but Kiera, you let someone book your travel. You better freaking believe I let someone book my travel. I don't even know where I'm going half the time. Can I still do it if I had to? Yes. But is there someone who can do it way better than I can and can also help me have time to do other things that they can't do?

The answer is yes. So I want you to just like look to see what are you doing all the time that maybe you could delegate. Start there. This is for CEO or non-CEO. This is for every single team member, business owner out there. Dentist is literally do an audit and see what we can delegate, what we can shift to make sure that we're optimizing ourselves in the best way possible. And then number two is going to be ⁓ the CEO's job is to

literally set up the one, three, 10 year vision of the company. It is to set the culture. It is to make sure that you're evolving it. And so what you're doing is you're helping your team rally around these one, three, 10 year goals. And then we use our weekly meetings to align on those goals rather than like being constantly on fires. Like truly, there was a team I was working with and I'm like, okay, we're talking in fire land all day because we have no clue where we're going.

We're just walking in the desert with no destination. And so you have a vision for your team and you're just constantly harping on that. And so what happens is like as a CEO dentist, what you start to do is you start to do vision. We run this off of traction as my preferred method by Gina Wickman. And you start to set then quarterly meetings and weekly meetings where we're focused on this bigger vision rather than on the fire. So you really go from like,

I don't know, like head in the sand almost and like trying to just figure it out to like, where are we headed? What are the biggest issues? Like that practice, were walking around in the desert with no destination. We gave them a destination. There's still all these fires, but we can then prioritize which things need to get done this quarter and actually start to move the boulders, move the practice, move the progress ⁓ without it just being, I don't know. just, like, I use a really great analogies. It's just a like,

we're focusing on goals rather than on fires. We're going about priorities rather than like just in the minutia. And so when you start to shift this out and the way to have this is like, my question to you is what is your one year goal? What is your three year goal? What is your 10 year goal? Does your team know this? Do you know this? And I don't care what they are. There's no right or wrong, but we start to have it to where we're building it this way. We're moving in this direction. We're not moving in a, it's like a swirl when your head's

like walking in the desert, right? You're just swirling around. You don't know if you've made progress. You don't know if you're going forward or going backwards to where there's a lighthouse. There is a direction. We're moving in that way. And without that teams feel very lost. And so you start to move in that where you're, that's your focus. And then you have your meetings and you get all your departments going and they have department leads that are running them. They're all in line with the vision. And your job is to keep expanding this vision, to expand the pieces. And that does not necessarily mean expanding more practices.

but it's expanding the vision of your location of what you're doing. And then number three is ⁓ there's scalable systems in place that are not dependent upon you. And so what it is is there's consistency. So we've got consistent new patient exams, we've got consistent treatment planning, we've got consistent marketing, we've got consistent ⁓ billing and AR, we've got consistent hygiene protocols, we've got consistent room setups for all of our dental assistants, we've got consistent onboarding for associate dentists.

All of our associates are doing the same type of dentistry. And you really have these scalable systems that are in place, not necessarily put by you, but are guided by you. And so you've got these key players. So when you become the CEO, you've got to also have key players. So you've got an incredible office manager or regional manager. You usually have a personal assistant or executive assistant that's with you. You have your hygiene lead. You've got your dental assistant lead. You might even have a marketing team, depending upon if it's outsourced or internal. ⁓

But those are the players at the table. You have a clinical doctor at the table. And so we have these scalable systems where they're constantly able to be able to have the same results without the effort of needing to recreate it every single time. Like I remember Tiff and I, when we would bring on new hires, it was like, gosh, like build a new thing and build a new thing. And I was like, no.

we have onboarding documents, we've got videos, we've got the way we do it. And there's still so much autonomy within all of it. But these are systems to where at a $1 million practice up to a $20 million that these can scale. So like the way you onboard at 1 million versus the way you onboard at 20 million will be very different. And I just want you to see like, this is where we actually can assess, we can grow, we can evolve. And we've got these scalable systems. I recommend two times a year that you actually assess them. So we look at

What's our operations manual? What's our onboarding? How are those? we need to change them? Do we need to adapt them? Do we need to morph them? And so this is where we start to build it out. This is where operations manuals become very paramount because as a CEO dentist, your job is to delegate more. So you've got more time to vision. You lead with that vision and you help make sure all your leads know where they're going. They're leading and empowering their team. And I have this quote over here by Gandhi that says, a sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create.

So as a CEO who stepped out of clinical dentistry and you're now owning the business, you're creating, you're delegating, you are leading with vision and having your ⁓ leaders in your practice and everything is systematized. Like literally everything is systematized and automated as much as possible to where the business really is running whether you're there or not. And that's the true thing. Can I remove you?

Keep the vision, so your job is to keep the vision, but I take you out, slide you out, and you're not there for a month, for two months? And would the business still perform? Would the quality care and the patient care still be as optimal? Would the billing and the overhead and the accounting, would those all work, whether you're there or not? And if we lost a key player, could we replace them with another key player and it would still run? This is how you start to create a business rather than a job. This is how you start to have team members that know

how to scale and how to evolve and how to help and serve more patients with the same quality of care that you've set up. This is where it's no longer dependent upon you being a part and like having your hands in every single pot to make sure everything's going because the pots get too big. There's too many pots for you to be able to handle. And so whether you want to become the CEO visionary owner or you want to just have less like dependent upon you, these are very tangible and tactical for you today right now where you are.

So this is where it's like, if I'm exhausted and I'm tired of running on fumes and I would prefer to have more time in the visionary role and less time in the doing role, that doesn't, again, it doesn't mean that it's wrong. It just means that you're morphing. Like again, we're popping through a new neighborhood, a new vision, a new level for you. Then this is where we just, we choose one of these things or something in all the areas and we start to implement small little changes.

that start to make big changes over time. They say the days are long, but the years are fast. And so how can we start to put little things into place to help you scale, scale your impact, scale your bandwidth, scale your time and help empower other people that are going to be able to scale right along with you. So this is a sign for you to just think a little bit differently, to start looking at the broader vision, the bigger vision, the what could be possible, and then start to put things into place today.

I do not care what your vision is. do not care what you want to do. I do not care any of those things. Whatever your vision is, is perfect for you. I just wanted to paint a picture of what could be. What are other people doing? What are maybe some possibilities to where you start to think differently, you start to create differently, you start to hire differently, you start to train differently, you start to lead differently, you start to become the next best version of you because you knew you wanted to evolve into this. No person wants to be doing every single thing and burnt out and burnt to a crisp.

No person does. Everybody wants to feel balanced, feel satisfied, to feel happy, to feel growth. Growth equals happiness. And so evolving into the next version of you is something that I feel is very paramount for you and your team to do. So think about this, on this. This is maybe a sign to think differently. And for all of you out there, I hope that you're thinking differently. And if you need somebody to coach you, to guide you, to get your team on board, you're like, gosh, I like, don't want to be in the chair as much, but I don't know how to get my team on board with that. That's what we do.

This is what we're experts with. So reach out. [email protected]. We're happy to help you. And today I hope you just think a little bit differently. Maybe question a few things. What could I delegate? How could I look at this differently? Do I have a vision for my team? Do I have scalable systems? And if not, pick one or two that you can do. And as always, we're here to help you. We're rooting alongside of you because your ultimate vision is our ultimate. Like that's what we're passionate about. We want to help you get your ultimate vision.

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