The Best Practices Show with Kirk Behrendt

Tips to Avoid the Summer Slump

Episode #590 with Adriana Booth

Summer is approaching, and so is the summer slump. But it doesn't have to happen to you! To help you avoid the “slow months” in your practice, Kirk Behrendt brings back Adriana Booth, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, for ways to stay focused and boost production when every other practice is feeling stuck. Enjoy your summer while still being productive! To learn how, listen to Episode 590 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Adriana’s email: [email protected] 
• Adriana’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriana.booth
• Adriana’s social media: @adrimarieb
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

It All Starts with Marketing by Dr. Ann Marie Gorczyca

Main Takeaways:

Have a year-at-a-glance calendar.

Start managing the summer schedule ahead of time.

Use the summer months to reactivate your A and B patients.

Utilize summer fun to build relationships between teams and patients.

Be aware and mindful of the summer slump so you can work to avoid it.

Quotes:

“One of the things we want to look at is, what do we have coming up? We talked about having a year-at-a-glance calendar so that we know within our own team who is where this summer. Are people out on vacation? Do we have events coming up? We have graduations, graduation parties. We have all these things going on. And yes, we have a digital calendar with the schedule. But being able to see it in front of us is so much more effective when it comes to planning so we can see the vacations, we have fun days possibly planned, and we have something to look forward to. When we also think of that, we look at our schedule internally, so where our patients are coming in, and we want to manage that time appropriately.” (3:21—4:08)

“If we notice we're getting a lot of last-minute cancellations, we're getting a few no shows — our patients also get summer brain. How can we stay ahead of that? So, we want to work our recare system. Starting April, May, we're planning for June, July, August to get us through the summer months that we traditionally call the summer months because school is out and we can say, ‘Okay, who hasn't been in?’ So, we think about reactivating patients who maybe have a little more free time. Kids have more free time in the summer. So, we want to really focus on our recare systems. How do we get people back into the flow, and then reactivating patients who, maybe it's been a year, year-and-a-half since they've been in. It's not that they don't want to see us, it just slips their mind, usually.” (4:09—4:58)

“I think that [summer is] a perfect time to think about your patient identification system. We call it the ABC system. And we're not classifying patients based on, ‘This one is a little grumpy,’ or, ‘This one is really fun and happy, so they're an A patient.’ [A patients are] the ones that show up for us. And we've talked about it in other podcasts, and we have great resources on that in our process, in our program. Identify your A patients. Who are those people that hit the mark and who we want to see? Get those people reactivated and in the recare system first, and then we'll go through the B patients.” (6:02—6:41)

“We think of [reactivation], here at ACT, as in, they have not been seen for an appointment in 18 months. Now, every software is a little different in what they consider an active patient. But just to be clear, we think of it as 18 months since Kirk was seen in our practice for any type of appointment. We're still in the forefront of his brain, but he hasn't been in. He's not so far gone that we think, ‘Oh, we're going to have to really catch up and do a lot of work when he gets in.’ He knows us, he trusts us, and he likely values us. But he may have got busy. And life goes fast. So, we focus on seeing, ‘Hey, who hasn't been in?’ And likely, you or your team will look at that list and say, ‘Oh, Mr. Smith. Where's he been? How has he missed us for 18 months?’ Get in touch with them. Reach out. Most of us have systems. We can send a text, a quick call, ‘Hey, I care about you. Wondering where you're at. Is everything okay? We'd love to see you in the office.’ Make it personal.” (8:10—9:13)

“It doesn't always have to be so head-down serious. We do need to lighten it up a little bit so that when we have to pull that serious energy out and really work hard, we have it. We have it in the reserves because we know something fun is coming.” (11:14—11:30)

“[Summer is] a great time to reconnect with your patient base by introducing your team. And some of you are going to say, ‘But everybody knows our team.’ That's not true. We see each other. When patients come in the office, you see them. We always know a lot about them, but they don't usually know so much about us. So, it's a great time to even do mini interviews. Jaime and I talked about doing these hallway interviews where they're planned. So, you have three questions that you prep the other team member with, and it'd be like me passing Kirk in the hallway, ‘Kirk, favorite ice cream? Favorite color? Bucket list travel item?’ just to make it fun and very spontaneous feeling. Your patients will love it. Even if you are okay with posting a picture of maybe your family, or a vacation, pets, something that they can, when they come in the office, ‘Oh, I saw your picture. I have a lab also. We have the same type of dog,’ or, ‘Our kids have the same name.’ It's all about connection. You and I have done a podcast on connection and relationships being so super important. It's not only inside our team in the office — it's with our patients as well.” (14:17—15:32)

“[Make] sure you're being mindful of it, speaking it. Say the words, “summer slump.” Like, ‘No summer slump here.’ Kirk used to have, ‘No energy suckers.’ A lot of our clients had that all over the office. It's those little catchy things that, it does get into your mind. And when you're aware of it, you will actually naturally avoid it so you don't get into those negative habits.” (16:26—16:54)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:29 Why the summer slump happens.

3:06 Get ahead of the summer schedule.

4:59 Summer is perfect for the patient identification system.

8:00 Reactivation, defined.

10:02 It doesn't always have to be so serious.

12:47 Utilize social media to promote your team.

16:20 Last thoughts on avoiding the summer slump.

Adriana Booth, BS, RDH Bio:

Adriana Booth is a Lead Practice Coach who partners with dentists and their teams to cultivate leadership skills, build practice growth, and streamline business practices. After spending nearly two decades in the dental industry working with top-notch dental teams, Adriana came to ACT to share her passion for professional growth, high-level training, and systems creation with our clients.

As a dental hygienist with a love for continuing education and personal growth, helping a practice become successful is at the heart of her passion for dentistry.

Adriana has a B.S. in Dental Hygiene from West Liberty University/O’Hehir University. By being involved in several Columbus, Ohio, study clubs, Adriana maintains strong relationships within her local dental community. She enjoys a variety of fitness activities, family time, good books, and at the top of her list, her fur babies. 

How to Improve the Treatment Planning Process with Asynchronous Communication

Episode #589 with Dr. Christian Coachman

Episode Resources:

• Dr. Coachman’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christiancoachman
• Dr. Coachman’s social media: @chriscoachman
• Digital Smile Design: https://digitalsmiledesign.com
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

DSD Residency 1

Main Takeaways:

Start asynchronously communicating professionally. 

Building a plan by yourself is not interdisciplinary dentistry.

Have standardized protocols for improving communication.

Leverage your smartphone as a piece of dental technology.

Empower your lab with fast, real-time, clear communication.

Quotes:

“In books, you can find definitions of interdisciplinary dentistry, the meaning, the official definition of interdisciplinary dentistry. But I have my own unofficial definition of interdisciplinary dentistry, and that is treatment plans that are built through many brains. Meaning, if you have one dentist that is extremely knowledgeable in interdisciplinary dentistry but is building a plan alone, in my humble opinion, this is not interdisciplinary dentistry. Interdisciplinary dentistry, interdisciplinary treatment planning, depends on this brainstorm, this beautiful, beautiful brainstorm, of several professionals exploring together the best way to treat that specific patient. And of course, ideally, professionals with different specialties and different backgrounds, even better. So, this is the definition.” (9:17—10:23)

“If you agree with me that interdisciplinary dentistry or interdisciplinary treatment planning means building plans based on several people building it together, then it brings us to a very simple problem. It means that we need to get together to plan every case. Right? A regular practice has, I don't know, 20, 25 new patients per month, 30, 35. It depends. It varies. But let's say 20 new patients per month. It's normal. It's a normal number. It means that you need to have a system that you can treatment plan, as a team, 20 times a month because every patient deserves it. Not only a special patient, but every patient deserves it. So, as I always say, one thing is to understand what you need to do. The other thing is to understand a system that allows you to do it every single day for everybody.” (10:25—11:31)

“We go to courses, and we learn a lot about interdisciplinary dentistry. But nobody actually teaches us how to go back to our practice and implement a system that allows us to plan interdisciplinarily every time, for every patient, every day. Nobody talks about that. What is the system? All the major courses are about the philosophy, the concepts, the know-how that you need to have to plan interdisciplinarily. But nobody talks about the systems that you need to implement to allow you to do it every day, every time, for every patient. And most of the ways that people usually use to plan as a team are not feasible. The conventional ways to sit down and plan as a team, when you see a periodontist, an orthodontist, and a restorative dentist, the way that they usually connect and interact, you cannot multiply 20, 25 times a month for 25 patients.” (11:34—12:39)

“We see a huge number of poor decisions being made in dentistry, in the treatment planning phase, because we are not leveraging the most powerful thing that we should, and that is collective intelligence. Interdisciplinary dentistry is leveraging collective intelligence. If you don't leverage collective intelligence, you are not planning interdisciplinarily, in my humble opinion. So, to leverage interdisciplinarily, you need to connect as a team. So, the question is, how do you create a system to connect 20, 25, 30 times without going crazy, without working during the night, without working on the weekends, working less, more efficiently, treatment planning as a team in a feasible way? That's the magic.” (12:43—13:34)

“Having all the specialists under the same roof is not the solution to develop team communication, interdisciplinary communication. So, we need another formula. We need another system. And that's when we bring the discussion into visual asynchronous communication. For me, the solution for modern interdisciplinary dentistry only happens — only happens — if the practice has a system for visual asynchronous communication. If you don't have a system for daily visual, asynchronous communication every day, every moment, working for you, in my humble opinion, you are not doing interdisciplinary dentistry for every patient.” (17:17—18:07)

“Asynchronous communication means communicating as a team without being available at the same time, nor at the same place. So, you communicate as a team, but you don't have to be in the same place, nor available at the same time, and the communication is still flowing at high quality. Now, the high quality depends on visual communication. So, that's why I call it visual and asynchronous. You need both.” (18:18—18:50)

“[Asynchronous communication is] actually not that difficult. Everybody's already exploring asynchronous communication daily. We just need to be conscious about it and implement an official protocol for daily work in our practice with it. So, every time you're communicating with friends on a chat group, you're doing asynchronous communication. Any kind of chat group is asynchronous communication. Any kind of social media is asynchronous communication. And that's why it's so big, because you can express an idea, post an idea, write down an idea. If it's an open social media or a closed group, it doesn't matter. You have dozens or hundreds or thousands of people there that are looking at your question or at your comment and they will interact with your comment whenever they are available.” (19:00—19:56)

“Nobody is doing [asynchronous communication] in a professional way, in an official way, in a pragmatic way, in a routine way, in a way that every treatment plan follows the same process of visual asynchronous communication. People are using asynchronous visual communication casually. Serious companies, serious systems don't rely on casual things. They rely on professional, official, mandatory, replicable, routine steps. And that's what we need to do. That's the magic. That's what we need to do in our practices.” (21:32—22:16)

“There are so many cool, sophisticated technologies that appeared in dentistry in the last two decades, even more in the last decade, from digital X-rays, digital anesthesia, scanners, intraoral lab scanners, milling and printing machines, CBCTs, jaw tracking devices, digital occlusion, sensors, you name it, the amount of AI X-ray interpretation, and the list goes on. Amazing technologies that appeared in dentistry in the last decade that is changing the way we do things in such a beautiful way. And I usually say, even though you have all these unbelievable technologies, for me, the number one most powerful piece of technology that appeared in dentistry in the last decade is called the smartphone. The smartphone is the best dental technology around that people are not leveraging.” (23:05—24:16)

“Before you buy any technology, you should leverage your smartphone. You should make it official. You should make a professional usage of the iPhone, not casual. Because the iPhone opens the door of collective intelligence in an asynchronous way. Again, if you can meet every day with all your mentors and discuss all your cases with your mentors, you're done. You don't need it. But you cannot. So, how do you connect yourself to people that can help you make better decisions since, in my opinion, making poor treatment planning decisions is the number-one, by far, biggest problem in dentistry? By far, the number-one biggest problem in dentistry, the biggest challenge in dentistry, is improving decision-making on the treatment planning phase. This is the most difficult part of dentistry. This is where I see the most mistakes, the biggest mistakes. And the quality of the outcome is only as good as the quality of the plan. So, the focus should be on the planning. And we are biased towards execution.” (24:33—25:51)

“How do you how do you improve decision-making? There's a tough way, and there's an easy way. The tough way to improve decision-making is to become more knowledgeable by yourself — yourself. And this happens year after year. This is a long-term journey that every dentist should go through. We invest in ourselves, and year after year we become more knowledgeable. And because we are more knowledgeable, we make better decisions alone. But this is a long-term improvement. Now how do you improve decision-making tomorrow, early morning, 8 a.m.? Collective intelligence. Tomorrow, collective intelligence will make you make a better decision, leveraging the people around you. How do you do this? How do you leverage collective intelligence? Asynchronous communication. How do you make it happen? There's only one way: the phone. You leverage your phone, again, not in a casual way, but in an official way.” (25:54—26:57)

“Transform your phone. Transform your phone in the third eye of your specialist. Transform your phone in the third eye of your technician. Every time you're doing something or thinking about something, or you're about to make a decision and you think to yourself, ‘Oh my God, I wish my orthodontist was here with me,’ yes, he can be there. Through what? Through your phone. Not synchronously — don't call them because they're not going to be available. Don't try to speak on the phone even if they answer because it's a bad way to communicate. Take your phone and express yourself to the phone. Film, take pictures, print screens. Translate your question. Translate your doubt. Translate your challenge. Translate option A, B, and C in images, and then explain with simple words. Write down and share that image into the cloud, into the pocket of everybody that can help you.” (27:01—28:11)

“It's expensive to have an in-house lab, and it's expensive to have a very great ceramicist. And then, you need to match the relationship, and you need to like each other, and you need to be under the same roof. It's not easy. So, how do you solve the problem? Transform your phone into the third eye of your technician routinely and start recording everything and sharing with your technician what you want, what you don't want, what is good, what is working, what is not working. Every try-in, you record the try-in. If it's looking good, you record because your technician will be super happy to see that it worked out well. If it's not working good, you're going to see what is not working good on the video, on the pictures, a hundred times better than through words.” (28:42—29:34)

“So, the first step, you need to build your dream team. You need to build a team. You need to not only select the people, but you need to onboard them on the process. They need to agree that we are making poor decisions alone today, that we can make better decisions together, that collective intelligence is the best way to go. Way before artificial intelligence and sophisticated solutions, we need to leverage collective intelligence. That's the concept of a study club. That's the concept of morning huddles, collective intelligence. But we don't have the time to do it synchronously every day, so you need to create an asynchronous system. So, you need to explain this to your periodontist, to your orthodontist, and to your lab, if you're a restorative dentist. And usually, the restorative dentist, or many times a restorative dentist, is playing the central role of a quarterback in this process. But it can be the orthodontist or the periodontist. Somebody needs to be the one leading the process. Then, you need to talk to the specialists and the lab, explain this, and they need to say, ‘Yes, that's it. I agree.’ So, that's the first step.” (30:52— 32:08)

“Now, the second step is empowering your lab. Why? Because I said visual asynchronous. It needs to be visual. Your lab is going to play a key role generating the visuals because they have the software, not the dentists. So, every idea, every design, the diagnostic digital wax-up, the functional design, the facial analysis, the lines on the software, the auto simulation, the perio simulation, implant simulation, restorative simulation, the digital articulator, these are the images that will help you make visually guided decisions or will allow you to test your ideas. So, the lab needs to be transformed into a content generator. The lab needs to be brought into the treatment planning moment way before the treatment starts.” (32:17—33:19)

“Step number three is to decide what shared platform you're going to use, if it's iMessage, if it's WhatsApp, if it's Telegram. For example, our lab, we have our own specific platform. There's Rocket.Chat. There are many protected HIPAA compliant platforms that you can use and create your own chat group, invite the specialists, invite the lab. So, that is number three. Define the platform that you want to communicate with as a team. WhatsApp, even though it’s not specific for dental, you can debate the HIPAA compliance, etc. It’s by far the best one. It’s by far the best one still. But there are many others, and you need to choose which one. Again, not casual — official, professional, and you need to then write down exactly how the system will work.” (34:31—35:33)

“It's in our hands. As you listen, it may feel overwhelming. But in reality, to start taking advantage

Dropping PPO's Isn't the Only Way to Reduce Your Write-Offs

Episode #588 with Dr. Barrett Straub

Episode Resources:

• Dr. Straub’s email: [email protected] 
• Dr. Straub’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barrett.d.straub
• Dr. Straub’s social media: @bstraub10
• Kirk’s email: [email protected] 
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lixufs3cobjbrm/OUTLINE_%20%20Dropping%20PPO%E2%80%99s%20isn%E2%80%99t%20the%20only%20way%20to%20reduce%20your%20write%20offs.docx?dl=0

Main Takeaways:

It’s all about achieving balance.

Increase control so you can decrease stress and burnout.

Fill your chair and maximize the efficiency of your schedule.

Know the real reason your team compensation percentage is high.

Before adding anything, understand what maximizing capacity means.

No matter your practice size or insurance participation, track your write-offs. 

Quotes:

“If you've been listening to our podcast, we've been talking about our financial gaps in those four places where money leaves your practice between your gross production and the time you get to put money in the checking account. The first gap, and the biggest one, often is what we call the effort gap. That's basically made up of your write-offs, a big part portion of that. And what we've been talking a lot about with our clients and with other dentists is that finding the participation in insurance that makes the most sense for you and reducing that and reducing your exposure to those insurances to find that write-off percentage that works the best for you. So, we've been focusing a lot on PPOs and being able to reduce that. However, we don't want the focus only to be on, ‘The only way to reduce your write-offs is to drop PPOs,’ because it's not. There are some other strategies that you can use starting tomorrow to lower your write-off.” (2:33—3:31)

“We're in an economy of inflation. We're in an economy of low dental workforce demand. And we’re in an economy of decreased reimbursement from insurance and higher costs of doing business. So, our margins are getting tighter, and that's just a reality. It doesn't mean that it can't be overcome. It just means we've got to think smarter and track the numbers and make some smart decisions.” (5:04—5:29)

“One of the quickest ways to burn-out and stress is a feeling of lack of control over your practice. We hear from dentists every day in our coaching that say, ‘I thought this would be different,’ number one. Number two, we see dentists all the time say, ‘I'm going to produce more. I need to produce more,’ only for the outcome of that added production to be the same reduced margin, and even more burnout.” (5:55—6:21)

“Many dentists out there feel loss of control because they find — and they don't know why —that more production doesn't equal more profitability in every case. And so, how could that possibly be? I just worked my tail off to produce more. I still don't have more, at the end of the day, in the bank. What is going on? That loss of control, that's a daunting topic to figure out. And we have it. Our gaps calculator is going to help with that. And the first gap is write-offs. Write-offs are such a big part of this because as we increase our top line production, many times, dentists are doing that via more insurance participation, more patients coming through the door. And unless you're tracking your write-offs per insurance, per membership plan, per even your cash patients, every segment in your patients, you don't have control over it. Once you have control and know the numbers, now you know what you can do in order to improve that profitability. And that's where stress and burnout decrease, because you can say, ‘I don't love the numbers I'm at, but I see a path. I have hope now.’ And the more hope we have, the less stress and burnout we have. And you can't have that hope as an entrepreneur unless you see the numbers and know the path forward.” (7:08—8:25)

“It's easy to say if you participate in insurances, you're going to have bigger write-offs than fee for service. That's just a fact, most of the time. And yeah, we think all dental practices, whether you're group, big group, small group, solo, high insurance, or totally fee-for-service already, you need to track your write-offs. I've been a fee-for-service dentist. My write-offs, historically, have not always been perfect because you say, ‘Well, I'm a fee-for-service dentist, so I don't need to track that.’ And then, you find out that you're giving away a lot more than you thought for free, and you're doing pro bono care, and stuff on your family during normal clinic hours — which you should do all that. Do as much pro bono as you can. But track it and know it. It's one of the gaps. So, our point is that this isn't just for high insurance participation dentists. This is for all of us.” (9:10—10:02)

“I don't have studies to prove this, but I think 6% to 12%, you're going to be in that fee-for- service. I think if you're fee-for-service, and you're watching your gaps, and watching your write-offs, and budgeting for it, and having a strategy, you should get under 10%.” (10:17—10:31)

“If you look at your overhead and your team compensation percentage is north of 30%, or even higher, I want you to look at your write-offs. And if you think about it this way, we as dentists have to staff our businesses based on our gross production. So, let's back up. Gross production minus write-offs, net production. We have to staff our practices based on our gross production. So, let's say we do $2 million of dentistry. Due to our master fear of gross production, we need to have the people to produce them. But what if we're writing off 40% of that? So, now, our net production is north of $1 million. And let's say we're collecting not 100%. So, we see practices all the time producing to collecting $1.1. So, now, our team compensation percentage is going to be too high because we're paying on $1.1, but we're producing two. So, we have a $900,000 effort gap. So, it's logistically going to be more difficult to get that team compensation into the ballpark of 25%, 26%, 27% because we have to have enough people to produce that $2 million. (11:19—12:38)

“Our motto is better practice, better life. That's about balance, right? So, same with PPOs and fee-for-service. Find that balance that works for you, works for you in that your workday looks the way you want it. You go home feeling energized instead of exhausted. And, at the end of the day, you have the profitability that you thought you were going to have.” (14:04—14:24)

“If you're a dentist sitting at home listening and this is a little confusing, I want you to remember this. Instead of saying, ‘I produce X,’ production is only a third of that first KPI that we all like to know. We all like to go to study clubs and say, ‘I produce this. I produce that.’ Really, we should say, ‘I produce this, I write off this, and my net production is this.’ Unless we have those three numbers, production tells me nothing about your practice. It tells me nothing. You could say, ‘I produce $2 million.’ And unless I know your write-offs and your net production, I have no idea how healthy, profitability wise, your practice is. So, if nothing else, know your production, your write-offs and your net production, because your net production is what you can actually collect.” (16:22—17:06)

“Think of output. Think of a widget manufacturer. They're open X amount of days, X amount of hours, and they have X amount of people, and they have X amount of widget manufacturing machines. If all of those things were performing at maximum capacity, their output would be Y. We can produce X amount. We can produce Y widgets with this many hours, this many people. We have output too. We have five chairs, and we're open four days a week, for instance, and we have 31 hours of available chair time, and we have this many, this many, this many. There's an output there. And most dentists are not maximizing their output. It's hard to maximize. You're probably never going to be 100% of your output. You want to get closer. But because we don't know our write-offs and our production, because we just focus on production, the assumption is, ‘Well, let's do more. Let's add a chair. Let's add a Friday. Let's add a hygienist. Let's add, add, add, add, add.’ And we're going to say, before you do any of them, before you add to your operational capacity, first, let's maximize your already offered capacity.” (17:24—18:32)

“If we just pause and we think logically — so, I need more money, or I need to have more profitability, or I feel like I need more production, well, first, let's look and see if our current chair is filled. So, let's track our hygiene chair. If that hygienist sees patients for 8 hours on a Tuesday, let's look back and say, of that 8 hours, how many hours was a butt in the chair? That's a percentage. It's retroactive. You have to go back and research that, and it doesn't take long. It takes a few seconds. So, we want hygiene chairs to be 90, 95; doctor's chairs, 95-plus. So, let's make sure our chairs are filled. Why would we invest in building a new operatory if the five we have aren't maximized? If we're only at 80, 85, we don't even need to build another operatory. Let's fill the ones we have. That's a lot cheaper and more profitable.” (20:19—21:15)

“You can fill your chair, and then we're going to look at, ‘Well, what's your production per hour, production per day, production per visit?’ the three key metrics of production. And you could say, ‘Well, even though we're at 95%, our production per, our production per visit, isn't as high as it should be. Let's schedule more efficiently. Let's do a schedule analysis to see how long it actually takes to do two fillings, a crown so that we're not scheduling extra time. Let's maximize the efficiency of that schedule.’ So, let's fill the chair, number one. Two, once it's filled, let's maximize the output from the same 8 hours.” (21:55—22:37)

“Doing for resins in one visit takes a lot less time, energy, costs, manpower, than it does in two visits. So, that's a simple example, but let's maximize our time. Let's do quadrant dentistry. Let's build enough value so the patient is like, ‘Yeah, I'm in. Let's get this done,’ instead of tooth by tooth by tooth by tooth . . . There's no good reason unless you haven't built the value to the patient like, ‘Let's do this.’” (24:19—25:03)

“We're in a time of inflation. We're in a time of decreasing insurance reimbursement. We're in a time of increasing costs. And so, our margins, our profitability, are getting tighter and tighter and tighter. We can decrease our write-off if our fees are aligned, if we raise our fees to where they should be. So, we're not going to say just randomly raise fees.” (26:45—27:07)

“Your fees are your fees. Don't compare what somebody else does because if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably already in the top 80%. Most dentists don't really listen to podcasts. They're just looking as a means to an end. That's my first thought. My second thought is, you’ve got to know where you are, overall . . . Here's why both of those are important. You have to have a master fee schedule. And people don't pay for the tooth. They pay for your time, your skill, your judgment, your expertise. Please hear that. Secondly, most great dentists that we get to see, they're not even close to the top. So, we'll go into their practice, and they're in the 40th percentile. I'm like, ‘You've been to Pankey and Dawson, and you're in the 40th percentile.’ And they are amazing human beings, but they're like, ‘You don't understand. I practice outside of Mass, and people don't have money here.’ I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, stop.’ Your fee is important. You have to make sure it's right where it needs to be so that you can afford to pay your team, have some margin. And sometimes, dentists can't do that on their own. They need some help. They need somebody saying, ‘You need to raise your fees.’ And what you said is exactly right. We're going to do this later because that doesn't fix anything, just by raising your fees at the beginning.” (27:19—28:44) -Kirk

“If you're providing 90th percentile dentistry, then you’ve got to charge 90th percentile dentistry. And you talked about it, most people are at 80%, that may be listening. But what's going to happen is they're not, and they think they are. And I was the same way. But when you look and find out the data, then it's like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So, if you are a dentist listening and you haven't raised your fees in a couple of years, it's time. Because everyone else has in the world except you. Not even dentists, I'm talking about your suppliers, your resin manufacturers, the bottled water you buy, the electricity, the utilities — everyone has raised, the dollar is less. You have to raise. We're not saying gouge people. We're saying make incremental fee increases in the fees that are not meeting the level of dentistry that you're providing.” (28:47—29:43)

“Every dentist, let's say a dentist has some PPO participation. They are a contracted provider for three dental insurance companies. Those are three segments. So, insurance company number one, that's a patient segment two, three. Maybe they have a membership plan. That's a fourth patient segment. Every dentist has a patient segment of patients that pay 100% of their fee. So, that is cash paying-patients, uninsured, or a patient that's insured with a with a PPO that you're not a contracted provider. You get 100% of your fee. We want to maximize that segment of your population. We want to see more of those people.” (30:59—31:40)

“There are dentists out there listening right now that are participating in plans that have write- offs as high as 50%, 60%. And two weeks from now, they have new patient blocks that are already booked with someone that they're barely going to make any money because they have to write it off for 60%. And tomorrow, there's going to be a cash paying patient that says, ‘I heard about you. I want to get in.’ And what are they going to hear? . . .  ‘I'll see you in September.’ So, a cash paying patient or an uninsured, they are a true consumer. There's no reason for them to go to any dentist because no dentist is on his list. There's no list. So, it is about your brand, your differentiation proposition, your reputation. How much do they value? So, if they call you like, ‘I am motivated. I heard about you. I want to come in,’ and you say, ‘I'll see you in September,’ they're like, ‘I'm finding someone else.’ So, we have to be knowledgeable of that. And I think it's very fair and ethical to manage your schedule, to leave some spots open for different segments of patients.” (32:32—33:42)

“Fee-for-service dentists basically get 100% of their fee from all their patients. Now, many of those patients pay via a PPO plan that allows you to see non-listed dentists. But the more patients that pay you 100% of your fee, the less write-offs you have, the more net production you'll have without having to increase your gross production. Every time you shrink that write-off gap, what happens? You get to make more money without doing more dentistry.” (35:53—36:26)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:22 Why this is an important topic.

3:31 Statistics to know.

5:30 One cause of stress/burnout and how to overcome it.

8:26 Track your write-offs.

11:05 Concept 1) Team compensation percentage is too high.

13:30 Achieve balance.

15:33 The real reason your team compensation percentage is high.

16:07 Concept 2) Before adding capacity, maximize your output.

19:49 Concept 2.1) Fill your chair.

21:44 Maximize the efficiency of your schedule.

24:08 Do more in each visit.

26:22 What to do with your fees.

30:43 Concept 3) Think inside and outside of insurance.

35:19 How many patients pay your full fee?

[]

Dr. Barrett Straub Bio:

Dr. Barrett Straub practices general and sedation dentistry in Port Washington, Wisconsin. He has worked hard to develop his practice into a top-performing, fee-for-service practice that focuses on improving the lives of patients through dentistry.

A graduate of Marquette Dental School, Dr. Straub’s advanced training and CE includes work at the Spear Institute, LVI, DOCS, and as a member of the Milwaukee Study Club. He is a past member of the Wisconsin Dental Association Board of Trustees and was awarded the Marquette Dental School 2017 Young Alumnus of the Year. As a former ACT coaching client that experienced first-hand the transformation that coaching can provide, he is passionate about helping other dentists create the practice they’ve always wanted.

Dr. Straub loves to hunt, golf, and spend winter on the ice, curling. He is married to Katie, with two daughters, Abby and Elizabeth. 

How to Find More Energy and Purpose in Your Days

Episode #587 with Katrina Sanders, RDH – The Dental WINEgenist

Do you want more excitement and focus from your career? Then your first step is to discover who you are. Today, Kirk Behrendt is back with Katrina Sanders, The Dental WINEgenist, to help you with the self-discovery process that will uncover the vision and mission that matters to you most. She shares her journey, advice, and the steps she took to ignite her passion and pursue her dreams. Are you ready to find joy in the work that you do? To get started, listen to Episode 587 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Visit Katrina’s website
• Send Katrina an email
• Join Katrina’s Facebook
• Follow Katrina on Instagram  
• Follow Tooth or Dare on Instagram
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Register for Katrina’s next Disease Prevention & Wine Tasting course (October 5-6, 2023)

See Katrina’s 2023 speaking events

Find your Unique Ability

Main Takeaways:

Find your unique ability.

Discover your mission and purpose.

Always be learning and always be inspired.

Create a lasting impact that is outside of dentistry.

Be raw, authentic, and honest. People will support you.

Quotes:

“The reality is, inside of dentistry right now, we are seeing niched practices and we are seeing niched clinicians who are stepping into very unique roles inside of their practice where, now, if they are taking the time to reflect on these things — so, number one, something that you're really good at. I talked to hygienists all the time that are like, ‘I'm really good at social media. I really enjoy posting videos, or doing cutesy little reels, and things like that on social media.’ Well, if you're really good at that, why are you not utilizing this as an aspect inside of what it is that you're doing in clinical practice? Couldn't you take something like this and lift this into your practice? So, little things like that. What are some of the things that you're really good at?” (16:25—17:17)

“So often inside of dentistry, we're so focused on, ‘A hygienist is only as good as the number of minutes that his or her fingers are in somebody's mouth.’ . . . I think we have to change. I think we have to flip that mindset to say, ‘Actually, we have these amazingly talented people who absolutely are good and are trained as clinicians.’ I know how to hold an instrument. I can hold an instrument very well. I can scrape a tooth very well. But there's so much more to me. And one thing that I found inside of clinical practice is how thrilling when you get to step into that so much more inside of your practice.” (19:07—19:48)

“It’s the thing that we aren't measuring that we should we measuring, and that is people cannot look away if you are being raw, authentic, and honest. People can't not follow if you have a mission because everybody wants to get behind a mission. They do. As long as that mission is not hurting somebody, people want to get behind that.” (20:53—21:23)

“I'm not here to make dentistry comfortable. I'm here to make dentistry better. There's a difference there because when you make dentistry better, that oftentimes means that you have to make dentistry uncomfortable. So, you know what that looks like? That looks like getting reviews in my course evaluations that say, ‘How can she say that now it's okay for you to probe dental implants?’ Well, it has been for a long time. I'm not here to make it comfortable for everybody else, because that's what you learned in school 25 years ago, so it's comfortable for you to just hear the same things that you heard 25 years ago repeated so that you know that you're doing a good job. I'm going to make dentistry better, and that means that I'm going to say what's going on in research right now. And that may mean that you're going to have to go back to your clinical practice and make some edits. But that is because when we make dentistry better, we make our community better.” (26:59—27:44)

“What blows my mind is how much if you focus on something else or you expose your brain to something different, how if you're actually listening, you're paying attention, you're soaking it up, where you can pull inspiration from.” (32:19—32:33)

“I think one of the things that we get so focused on when we're in the hustle and bustle is doing the hustle and bustle and not giving ourselves the space, the latitude, the grace, to absorb or soak other things. I've got about four books that I'm reading all at the same time, and then three books that I'm listening to on Audible. And part of the reason why it takes me so long to get through these books is because I'm soaking up so much from it. I'm stopping, I'm reflecting, and I'm thinking, ‘What lesson can I pull from this information? How can this inspire or empower me?’ Sometimes, it's not in my work. Sometimes, it's just, ‘How can this empower me or inspire me to be a more empathetic person?’” (34:32—35:18)

“Sometimes, when I'm absorbing content or I'm pulling inspirational pieces from around me, it's not even just, ‘Well, how can this make me a better speaker? How can this make me a better business owner? How can this make me a better hygienist?’ but, ‘How can this make me a better human?’ Because at the end of the day, when people are working with me and getting behind my mission, they're getting behind me and who I am as a human, the things that are important to me.” (36:09—36:34)

“Take the time to really reflect on what are the things that you are really good at.” (37:51—37:57)

“That decision [to pursue your dream and mission] is a horrifying decision to make because you are placing max bet — this is like Las Vegas. You are max betting. You are putting all the chips in on yourself, on who you are, on the missions, the things that matter to you, the things that drive you, the things that excite you, and you are making an assumption that the very things that excite you excite other people in your community, in your world. And that is horrifying. But I will say, if I could go back in time and tell myself anything, seven years ago when I started writing all this out, it would be just do it. Just leap. Be fearless. Go. Because my biggest regrets are when I held back, when I thought, ‘Oh, no. This slide is too pink. It's going to offend people. Oh, no. This research study, dentistry is not ready for that.’ When I held back, those are the things I regret.” (44:17— 45:20)

“One of my favorite quotes, this is from the musical, Godspell. In one of the songs, “A Beautiful City”, the lyric says, ‘We may not reach the ending, but we can start slowly but truly mending brick by brick, heart by heart.’ I love that because it really means like, I may not reach the end. I may not hit my absolute mission. But every audience member that I connect with, every patient that I serve, every person who listens to something that I'm doing is getting a small piece of me. And I implore anybody listening to this to consider what they're doing on a daily basis — waving to somebody when you're driving in your car, smiling to somebody when you're in the elevator, complimenting somebody.” (48:07—48:55)

“I think the bow in all of this is taking the moments that you love most about the work that you're doing, acknowledging your why, and never forgetting what your mission is, using that as a driver on the days when you are exhausted, you have no voice, and Kirk Behrendt is next door screaming and bouncing off the walls. Take those moments and go, ‘He has a mission. I do too. And we are both here screaming as loudly as we can for that mission,’ and recognize that it is also an incredible honor to share in that mission with people who are like-minded. So, Kirk, thank you for screaming through the walls, because that absolutely echoes the passion that I have, the drive I have. Thank you. And my hope is those of us who are listening to this podcast can look to their colleagues, their doctors, their assistants, their team members, and recognize that these people are alongside you in that same mission.” (50:30—51:39)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:24 Katrina’s background.

5:06 How to find focus, passion, excitement, and joy in your work.

15:47 Find and utilize your team’s unique abilities.

19:48 Katrina’s “why” for her mission.

30:43 Always be learning.

37:14 Take nontraditional paths.

41:06 Change the world outside of dentistry.

45:54 Brick by brick, heart by heart.

50:18 Last thoughts.

Katrina M. Sanders RDH, BSDH, M.Ed, RF Bio:

In the ever-changing world of dental science where research, technology, and techniques for patient care are constantly evolving, dental professionals look to continuing education to provide insight, deliver actionable steps, empower, and create a dramatic impact within their clinical practice.

With wit, charm, and a dash of humor, Katrina Sanders enchants dental professionals with her course deliverables, insightful content, and delightful inspiration. Her message of empowerment rings mighty throughout her lectures and stirs a deep sense of motivation amongst course participants.

Katrina is the Clinical Liaison for AZPerio, the country's largest periodontal practice. She performs clinically, working alongside Diplomates to the American Board of Periodontology in the surgical operatory. Katrina perfected techniques during L.A.N.A.P. surgery, suture placement, IV therapy, and blood draws. She instructs on collaborative professionalism and standard-of-care protocols while delivering education through hygiene boot camps and study clubs. 

The Story of 2 Superpowers in Dentistry

Episode #586 with Dr. Amanda Seay & Dr. Adamo Notarantonio

Every superhero has their origin story, and so does every superfan. Today, Kirk Behrendt brings in two superheroes of dentistry, Dr. Amanda Seay and Dr. Adamo Notarantonio, the founders of imP.R.E.S. dental courses, to share how they met and what drove them to create one of the most transformational courses you can invest in. To learn more about their inspirational stories and about imP.R.E.S, listen to Episode 586 of The Best Practices Show! 

Episode Resources:

• Register for ImP.R.E.S. dental courses
• Follow Dr. Seay on Instagram
• Follow Dr. Notarantonio on Instagram
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Main Takeaways:

Remember that being a dentist requires a lot of hard work.

Take CE that is transformational, not just transactional.

Learning photography is essential in dentistry.

Mastering rubber dam isolation is essential.

Always dream big.

Quotes:

“There's so much CE. For me, transactional CE sometimes are those that — not that it's bad. You go to learn something specific, or maybe you go because you want to hear someone speak. They're there at the podium to give you some information, but there's no engagement. There's no follow-up. Meaning, if you have a question about what was taught after the class, you’ve got to figure out how to get that answer maybe from another colleague, internet, whatever. And you can do that — there are lots of little courses like that. But the transformational ones are the ones where there's a relationship. There's follow-through.” (35:27—36:17) -Dr. Seay

“The first transformational CE I had was at the Kois Center. John Kois is, of course, the head of that whole center, and he is faculty. But he is the one that teaches that entire curriculum, and he's such a big, famous guy. I remember going there for the first time, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have this question. I still don't get it.’ Like, I still don't get it, but I'm so afraid to bother him. I don't want to go up there. So, I went up and I asked, and he asked questions back to test my understanding of, ‘Why do you think this? Tell me why. I'm not saying you're wrong but tell me why you think this.’ And I'm telling him all this stuff, and he could sense my confusion. He's like, ‘Can you meet me tomorrow at 6:00 a.m.? Let's go over this case.’ And I remember that moment. I'm like, ‘You're going to help me.’ Like, I'm no one. You've got thousands of students that you see every year. And he did. I remember leaving that course that week and coming home. I'm like, ‘He cares. He wants to see us better, and he's invested.’ Yes, we paid thousands of dollars to go to the Kois Center and learn from a great educator. But it extends beyond the transaction. And so, I hoped that when I stepped into the educator role that I could achieve the same thing.” (36:20—37:54) -Dr. Seay

“I'll tell you, the question that I get all the time from young dentists is knowing where to start, where to begin to get on this track to do the same kind of dentistry. And, of course, CE is important. But I think you need to have a place that's going to teach you the treatment planning, the diagnosis, the comprehensive dentistry, the occlusion. Whether it be Spear, Kois, or Pankey, find your home to learn that because I think that's critical.” (44:18—44:50) -Dr. Seay

“For cosmetics, if that's what you want to get into, the AACD is a great place to start because it's inexpensive for so many cosmetic educators under one roof. We’re there, and all of our friends that are educators are there. So, for a very small tuition price, you get a little sampling of all these different educators. And then, when you do that, you can decide, ‘All right. Well, I really like this person,’ or that person, and then make a plan. Make a budget and a plan to say, ‘This is how much I can spend this year on CE.’ And that's the cost of closing your practice, travel. And be intentional about your plan so that you're not just sitting around saying, ‘When I have more money. When I have more money,’ because you're never going to have more money. I mean, I had nothing but debt coming out of school. You have to say, ‘This is how much I'm willing to spend and invest into myself.’ When you're intentional about it, even if you fall short of taking maybe that fifth course that you want to take that year, you've taken three instead of not taking anything, and you slowly chip away at it.” (44:54—46:06) -Dr. Seay

“I think one of the biggest problems that we're seeing now — and it's not their fault. I took eight years to finish the course curriculum, and I was getting accredited. I was trying to do everything. But you can only do so much and comprehend it. This younger generation — and I know there are a lot of students on this. I think they should really listen to what I'm about to say and let it marinate for a second because they have the world too easy. What do I mean by that? I'm hungry. DoorDash. Boom, it's there in 10 minutes. I need groceries. Instacart. Boom, a button in one second. I want to learn how to do sinus lifts. YouTube — no. No, no. There's a reason that our courses are 25% lecture and 75% hands-on, because we are firm believers in, you want to learn a Class IV composite, you're going to do it five times in our course, and you’d better do it 50 times on a plastic tooth the next week if you want to develop it.” (46:27—47:28) -Dr. Notarantonio

“Everybody now, because of social media, Instagram, and all this, they see all these people with so many followers, and they want to be famous. And they're missing the point. You need to educate yourself at a pace that you're capable of understanding it, and apply it, and then you go to the next step. I didn't get my fellowship for one year. It took me six years. I did 1,000 cases for the 50 I put in. I learned every one, and I got better. Life is too easy now. Everybody can get anything in half a second, and they don't want to put in the work that Amanda put in to get where she is, that I put in to get where I am. They think we woke up, threw a case on Instagram, and all of a sudden, we're famous. It's not true.” (47:30—48:10) -Dr. Notarantonio

“I understand how [through social media dentists] can become enamored with, ‘Oh, this is the lifestyle of a cosmetic dentist who lectures,’ or whatever it may be. But what they don't see is that we're grinding it out in a storage unit, counting compules of composite for our courses, bagging them, labeling them, and doing — I mean, there's a lot of not-sexy stuff that we do behind the scenes that we don't always show. And his resident, Sarah, who helps us with our courses, the first time she came to help us prep for the course and clean up, she looked at us, and she's like, ‘Oh my gosh. I had no idea of all that you guys do. I didn't even know how you do this.’ And there's no magic button. There's no like, ‘Take this CE, and all of this will magically come to you.’ You've got to work. You've got to grind it out. You've got to fail. You think you're going to go home, take your first photo, and it's going to look good. No. You're going to do your first composite, and it's not going to look good. But you keep doing it. You get up, and each time, you get better.” (48:34—49:46) -Dr. Seay

“I think photography is absolutely essential. I think that you can't really evaluate your own work if you don't know how to take a photo. And you can't get better if you can't take good photos. You can't get better outcomes if you can't take good photos. Dr. Brian LeSage says don't let your photography hurt your dentistry.” (51:10—51:40) -Dr. Seay

“[The rubber dam isolation course is also important]. Let's go back to the highlight reel. You see somebody slap on 20 veneers on every single patient, and then, a) some people, you don't know how they even cemented them. B) you see some of the video, and I cringe because I'm like, ‘There's saliva all over the teeth.’ I'm like, ‘Wait a second.’ Yes, you want to be famous, and cosmetic, and blah, blah, blah. But is your stuff going to last? And what is the foundation for everything we do in our office, with the exception of surgery? It’s bonding. You cannot bond without good isolation. There's no argument. I don't care if people say there's no data, or research, or this and that. You cannot bond if you get moisture contamination. So, how do you do that? Rubber dam. So, you could take our class for a composite course and make beautiful composites. But do you know how to stick the composite to the tooth? You could take our veneer course and learn how to prep, smile design, or injection mold. Can you make it stay as long as humanly possible?” (51:52—52:50) -Dr. Notarantonio

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:02 Dr. Notarantonio’s background.

7:33 Dr. Seay’s background.

12:44 The story behind how they met.

19:58 How they started ImP.R.E.S.

25:24 Their individual superpowers.

27:54 Dr. Notarantonio’s “why”. 

31:31 Dr. Seay’s “why”.

35:13 Transformational versus transactional, explained.

39:00 Dr. Seay and Dr. Notarantonio’s current and future courses.

44:02 Last thoughts.

46:07 It takes hard work to be a dentist.

50:03 More about ImP.R.E.S and how to get in touch.

Dr. Amanda Seay DDS, FAGD, FAACD Bio:

Dr. Amanda Seay is the award-winning Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Clinical Director of Expertise Dental in Charleston, South Carolina. Her expertise ranges from complex restorative treatment planning to comprehensive preventative and reconstructive dentistry.

Dr. Seay is a recognized leader in the dental industry and has been featured in various dental publications for her influence and dedication to the profession. She was named the 11th Most Influential Person in Dentistry by Incisal Edge Magazine. She is the 85th dentist in the world who has earned the honor of Fellow Accredited Member status with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.

Dr. Seay is the Director of Outreach and Engagement for the Seattle Study Club, an international and preeminent continuing education organization for dentists. She is also the co-creator of imPRES Dental Courses, an internationally recognized dental esthetics continuum.

She holds a clinical instructor position at the Kois Center, one of the most prestigious dental institutes in the country, and has published over 70 articles covering the art and techniques of esthetic dentistry. She also serves as the Restorative Section Editor for Inside Dentistry.

She is a Key Opinion Leader for many leading dental companies and is involved in the testing and creation of new dental products. She was named Top 25 Women in Dentistry in 2012 by Dental Products Report. She was the recipient of the Lucy Hobbs 2015 Award for the Women to Watch in Dentistry.

In addition to operating a thriving full-time dental practice, Dr. Seay is a dedicated wife and the mother of four children.

Dr. Adamo E. Notarantonio, DDS, FICOI, FAACD Bio: 

Dr. Adamo Notarantonio is a graduate of the University of New York at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine (2002), where he received honors in both removable and fixed prosthodontics. He completed his residency in the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program at Stony Brook in 2003 and was chosen by faculty to complete a second year as Chief Resident. 

Dr. Notarantonio was accredited by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry in 2011, and recently received his Fellowship in the AACD. He is the only Accredited Fellow in New York State, and the 80th person worldwide to achieve this honor. He was further honored by the Academy when asked to serve as a consultant and examiner for the Accreditation and Fellowship processes. 

In 2016, Dr. Notarantonio was awarded the AACD’s Rising Star Award. He has been re-elected to serve on the American Board of Cosmetic Dentistry®, is the most recent past-chairman of the ABCD, and has recently been appointed the Accreditation Chairman of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. 

Dr. Notarantonio is a graduate of the Kois Center, where he studied under Dr. John Kois. He also has completed The Dawson Academy Core Curriculum. He has received his fellowship in the International Congress of Oral Implantologists. He has been published in multiple dental journals and lectures nationally and internationally on such topics as CAD/CAM dentistry, implant dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, composite dentistry, and dental photography. He also volunteers his time at the NYU College of Dentistry where he is a Clinical Instructor in the Honors Aesthetics Program. 

Dr. Notarantonio is an avid golfer and is also fluent in Italian. 

6 Items You're Missing to Transform Your Day-to-Day Life

Episode #585 with Jenni Poulos

You make about 35,000 decisions a day. How do you sift through the things that matter? To help you get more out of your days, Kirk Behrendt brings back Jenni Poulos, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, with actionable steps you can take to change your life. With the Ivy Lee Method, “the big six”, you can transform the days in your practice, as well as your everyday life. If you're ready to start loving your days, listen to Episode 585 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Send Jenni an email
• Join Jenni’s Facebook
• Follow Jenni on Instagram  
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

The Myth of Multitasking by Dave Crenshaw

Main Takeaways:

Multitasking is a myth. It will actually rob you of your productivity.

At the end of your day, write six things to accomplish tomorrow.

Prioritize your six things in the order of their true importance.

Intentionally focus on one task at a time until completion.

What doesn't get done carries over to tomorrow’s list.

Keep things simple.

Quotes:

“Never in my years and years and years of coaching have I walked into an office and had a dentist or a team member tell me, ‘You know what? I have so much time available in my day. I always know exactly what I'm going to do, and when I'm going to do it. I start and finish it without distractions,’ said no one, ever — ever — especially in this world. The dental practice is crazy. We’re always pulled in a million directions. That's the nature of the beast. Without a plan for our days, we end up functioning, always, in reactive mode. And what we really need to do is move out of this reactive mode and into a proactive mode to create efficiency and have a more predictable day. We become way more productive, and our days are happier.” (2:07—3:14)

“In the early 1900s, Charles Schwab, who at that time was a steel titan, the second-biggest steel company in the country, was looking for ways to increase his productivity. He wanted to beat out the competition and become number one. So, he had a consultant named Ivy Lee come in. He said, ‘If you can give me 15 minutes, I will show you and your executives the way to get more done.’ Schwab, I can see him laughing through this, ‘Well, how much are those 15 minutes going to cost me?’ And he said, ‘Nothing. Unless it works, nothing. In three months, you can send me a check if it was worth it.’ Three months later, Ivy Lee got a check for $25,000 from Schwab that said, ‘Thank you. You changed my life.’ Today, that's a check for $400,000 for 15 minutes of his time. So, that's the story. Let's talk a little bit about what he said in those 15 minutes.” (4:54—6:01)

“So, this is the method. What [Ivy Lee] said is, ‘At the end of your day, I want you to write down the six most important things that you need to accomplish tomorrow. Not more than six. Spend a few minutes and think about it. What are the six most important things? Prioritize those items in order of their true importance — not what I want to do, and not what's easy to do, but what's really important. Then, when you come in tomorrow, get to work. Concentrate on the first task. Work on that first task until it’s finished, and don't move on to the second until you've taken it to completion. Approach the rest of your list in the same manner. At the end of the day, anything that's not done moves to the list tomorrow, and you rinse and repeat.’” (6:04—7:04)

“We talk about why [the Ivy Lee Method] works. Conceptually, this is so simple. What are the six things that I want to do? Why does it work? One of the main reasons that this really works is because of this myth of multitasking. It’s not a thing. Our brain can only focus, intentionally, on one thing at a time. What you're actually doing is called switch tasking. Your brain is jumping from one thing to another. Every time it does that, it has to refocus, and the work that you're doing ends up not being as high quality, and it takes you longer. So, you need to stay intentionally focused on one thing. Until it’s done, give it your full attention. And then, move on to the next.” (8:50—9:40)

“I've presented [the idea of intentionally focusing on one task] to doctors and dental team members, and they're like, ‘This is ridiculous. Do you know what it’s like in the dental office?’ I'm like, ‘Yes. I've worked in a dental office for 20 years. I know exactly what it’s like.’ This doesn't mean I don't answer the phone. This doesn't mean that I don't deal with the patient in front of me. This doesn't mean, ‘I started doing payroll. So, sorry, crown prep that's in seat two. I'll be there when I'm done.’ This means that the task that we’re working on, if we have to step away from it because of these other things, when we can come back, we get back into that. We give that our attention. It doesn't mean to ignore everything that's going on around you. It means, what's the most important? Stick with it until it’s done. Then, next. Stick with it until it’s done.” (9:42—10:31)

“This does require you to actually think about what's important and to prioritize. And just that process of putting a little thought to your day, thinking about, ‘What are my priorities? What do I need to do?’ helps you get that higher score and get those big six things done. In a world where we have so much competing for our time and attention, if we don't set priorities, something or someone is going to end up setting them for us.” (12:41—13:14)

“[Decision fatigue] is another big reason why [the Ivy Lee Method] works. When we prioritize, when we make this plan, we fight off this decision fatigue. And this concept of decision fatigue, it’s mental exhaustion that results from the sheer number of decisions that you need to make in a day. I saw something recently that said the average adult makes 35,000 decisions in a day. That's a lot. That's a lot of decisions. So, what happens is we become overwhelmed with these decisions. This results in procrastination, poor decision-making, and burnout. We waste time because, ‘I don't know what to do next. I don't know where to start.’ So, a little bit of focus on making the plan — and this is why the evening before can be really beneficial, because you show up the next day and you know where to begin. It’s one less decision that you need to make. And when you're done with that, you know the next important thing that needs to be done. So, you're making a plan for your decisions. You're prioritizing for yourself, and you can stay focused. It’s one of the big reasons why this works.” (13:32—14:49)

“This is the number-one reason why [the Ivy Lee Method] works — because it’s easy and because it’s simple. We talk about the KISS concept, “Keep it simple, stupid.” That originated with the Navy Seals in the 1960s. Take the easy path. This is something that's well-known in scientific thought and problem-solving. I don't know if you're familiar with the concept of Occam’s razor, but it basically says the simplest explanation is usually the best one. All things considered equal, the simplest explanation, the theory that's easiest, it’s the best one. It’s the one we should go with. We look for excessively complex solutions to our problems. We do it over and over again. I have downloaded 17,000 apps to make me more productive. Guess how many of them I still use.” (15:22—16:19)

“Pause, focus on what matters, and don't try to do too much. Because when we’re focused on nothing, we are distracted by everything.” (18:09—18:20)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:01 Get out of the reactive mode.

4:35 The Ivy Lee Method, explained.

5:55 The six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow.

7:06 Intentionally focus on one task at a time.

12:31 Don't let others set your priorities.

13:28 Decision fatigue, explained.

14:50 Keep It Simple, Stupid.

17:47 Last thoughts.

Jenni Poulos Bio:

Jenni brings to dental teams a literal lifetime of experience in dentistry. As the daughter and sister of periodontists and a dental hygienist, she has been working in many facets of the dental world since she first held a summer job turning rooms and pouring models at the age of 12. Now, with over 10 years of experience in managing and leading a large periodontal practice, she has a firm grasp on what it takes to run a thriving business. Her passion for organizational health and culture has been a driving force behind her coaching career. She has witnessed firsthand how creating an aligned and engaged team will take a practice to levels of success that they never believed possible! 

5 Tips to Increase Productivity as a Dental Team

Episode #584 with Robyn Theisen

Your schedule may be full — but full of what? If your days are packed with busywork, you're not productive or profitable! So, how do you increase productivity without working harder? To find out, don't miss this episode! Kirk Behrendt brings back Robyn Theisen, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, with five tips to work smarter as a team to run a more predictable, productive practice. To learn how to get started, listen to Episode 584 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Robyn’s email: [email protected] 
• Robyn’s social media: @actdental
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
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Links Mentioned in This Episode:

The Best Practices Show Episode 566 with Robyn Theisen

The Best Practices Show Episode 576 with Debra Engelhardt-Nash

Main Takeaways:

Have morning meetings.

Start by setting goals and setting schedules.

Get a mix of patients. Don't recycle the same ones.

Focus on bringing back unscheduled A patients, not C patients.

Understand the difference between being busy and being productive.

Quotes:

“Working smarter, not harder, is cliché and it fits here with the way you leave at the end of the day. How do you feel about your day? If you're exhausted, that's a different type of productivity than leaving at the end of the day like, ‘That was a great day! It felt good. We saw patients. We were able to spend time with all of our patients. They left with great service.’ That makes for a more productive day, I believe, and there are ways to do that to make sure that you can accomplish that.” (3:57—4:24)

“Where I would start is setting goals, and then creating a block schedule or scheduling to goal. There are different ways to refer to it and different ways to set it up, but knowing, what is your goal at the end of each day? And the easiest way to do that is by a number. So, you have a production goal, setting up your goals that way, and then analyzing your schedule. When do I want to do the most productive procedures? When do I want to put those into my day? Do I want to have that all done by noon and after lunch? Or if you're working straight through that afternoon part, it’s set up where you're doing different types of procedures that don't require as much for you. I also think that blocking your hygiene schedule and setting that up with it is another way to not feel crazy during the day. How many exams do I want to do in an hour? How do I incorporate scaling and root planing blocks into that? How do I incorporate the new patient block so that you have the time to be in all of those different places, and give your patients the best that you have to offer, and take care of yourself in the process?” (4:47—5:51)

“In dentistry, we often hear, ‘September is always a slow month,’ or we have different “slow months” that we've talked ourselves into throughout the year. And if we are dedicated to a system, and then to the production and scheduling to production, the ebbs and flows don't have to be as high and low. You have a system around how you schedule to goal, the ways in which you direct patients to those holes, and the whole team is working on scheduling to that goal so there's more consistency in your days, in your months, and in your years.” (7:23—7:54)

“You can look back at your production and know, ‘I did this many crowns. I did this many fillings. I have to seat this many crowns.’ So, if you can look at what those different services are and how many you need, you can start to put together a schedule that allows you to get your composites done, and it doesn't have to be a whole day of composites. You have your crown blocks; you have your high production blocks. So, there's a way to look at what you have historically done and be able to create a schedule around that. And hopefully, as you become more productive, that changes a little bit too. So, you might have to tweak your blocks as you go along. But it’s about looking at what you've historically done, what your goals are, and how do we fit those services together to get to that goal each day.” (8:50—9:31)

“Offices that have morning meetings are 17% more productive than offices that do not. And this is a great piece of the block scheduling system, or scheduling to goal, is the morning meeting. I think it’s a crucial part of it because it’s the opportunity that we have to look at today to say, ‘Are we scheduled to goal? If we’re not, what are the opportunities? What are the same-day treatment opportunities that we have that are coming in today that we could schedule? Where do they fit in the schedule so that we can get ourselves to the goal? What are the next openings that we have within our doctor’s schedule, hygiene schedule, whatever that is? Who’s coming in today that potentially fits that?’ And so, we can direct those patients to fill those holes or the gaps in our block scheduling. Then, it becomes a team sport to do this, not an individual [on a] business team that's stressed with getting the schedule full and having it be full. It’s the whole team.” (11:04—11:59)

“I have been to a number of morning meetings where they just read what's on the schedule. They read the same things that we can all read. It’s more about looking at the opportunities. I can read what's happening today. I want to know what I can't read on the schedule and what opportunities we have to fill those going forward.” (14:02—14:19)

“My third tip is around mix of patients. I know that there are many, many, many practices out there that are absolutely crammed full in hygiene. They’ve hit capacity. What I'm also seeing at the same time, for those of you that have Dental Intel, is I'm seeing a correlation in the diagnostic percentage of the doctor. So, I see that the diagnostic percentage is lower than what we would like to see or what the national average is. And diagnostic percentage is looking at how many patients came into your practice today that you diagnosed something new on. So, it’s looking at the number of exams that you've done, and where you've diagnosed. What I'm seeing is that we’re having the same patients come in over and over again. Because we’re at capacity, we’re rescheduling those same people. And the minute that somebody falls off a list or falls off their appointment — they cancel the appointment, or they don't show up for it — we are using our ASAP list to fill back into the schedule. So, we’re recycling the same people over and over again instead of looking at the opportunity in our unscheduled patients. How many patients have not been in in six to nine months or six to 12 months? Even the 18 to 36 during the COVID-19 period, if we invited those patients back in and continued to mix up treatment opportunities, we’re going to have a different mix for the doctors as well.” (15:18—16:40)

“A lot of [unscheduled patients] still consider you to be their dentist. They don't realize how much time has gone by. And so, it’s not that they don't consider you to be their dental home. They are unaware of the time that has passed. And many times, we haven't called them, or we haven't reached out to invite them back.” (17:49—18:06)

“The diagnostic percent is impacted by many different things, one of them being the mix of patients. Another thing that I see that goes back to the block scheduling is that when doctors have no schedule to their day or cadence to their day, they're rushing in and out of exams, the diagnostic percentage can also be impacted by that when you don't have the time to spend with your patients. So, going back to the block scheduling, if your schedule is more predictable and you have the time to be able to spend with your patients, that also impacts that number.” (19:23—19:53)

“Are you looking at A, B, C patients in your ASAP list? Are you looking at those in your unscheduled patients? There are ways to not be calling the same C patients over and over again that have cancelled, or owe you money, or any of those things, and keep inviting them back into your practice. Let's, instead, look at the unscheduled patients that are A patients and bring them back in.” (21:09—21:32)

“[When you reschedule A patients], you get patients back that you enjoy seeing. You're not fighting with people to find value in coming to their appointment. You have these people that are like-minded, and it’s more gratifying to work with those kinds of people in your practice. We talk about patients that show up and pay their bill. Many of my practices, their A patients are also people that trust them and accept treatment. They trust what you're telling them and they're going to accept to move forward with the treatment. So, it is an all-around more enjoyable experience, and you have healthier patients that you're serving because of it.” (22:17—22:50)

“Bucket number four is hygiene production. When I think of hygiene production in a block schedule, I don't just think of perio. I think of hygiene, overall, and our standard of care, and are we aligned, and are the beliefs that we have about hygiene and when patients should have fluoride, when they should have X-rays, when they should be considered for some type of gum therapy treatment, are we following those? Do our metrics say that that's what we’re doing? And to make the hygiene schedule productive is a big part of the practice. And similar to having a dentist do composites all day, if we have hygienists that are doing prophy, prophy, prophy all day long, they're not going to be nearly as productive or, I would think, have as much fun and enjoy the profession as much as if there was a mix of things in there. When are we taking the X-rays? Mixing in some perio treatment, mixing in a new patient, having that mix every day that isn't so repetitive can be far more productive for the office and result in healthier patients.” (23:51—24:55)

“I find with a lot of my doctors, when we start talking about standard of care, they can tell me what their standard of care is, and they assume that it’s happening. And so, without that calibration piece or numbers to really track that information, you don't actually know what's going on in your practice and that your standard of care is being followed. So, there's an opportunity to be more productive, and an opportunity to make sure that you are following through on the health piece of what you promised your patients and what's important to you as a team.” (27:39—28:07)

“Bucket number five is a dental health history. So, in most practices that I'm in, we have the health history form. And then, there's typically another form that patients are filling out that has something to do with, ‘Are you happy with your smile? Are you interested in whitening?’ any of those things. What I see often is that they get overlooked the first time when it’s a new patient, and then they really get overlooked again because it gets tucked in the computer. Nobody really goes back to it. And those are great opportunities. COVID-19 really changed a lot with our practices with what services you provide for people to see. So, oftentimes, patients have no idea what possibilities there are. Unless we go back to asking those kinds of questions and understanding what they really want for themselves, I think we miss a whole opportunity to talk about different services, what kind of cosmetic opportunities are there, what can we do to improve somebody’s smile. All of those, it’s a missed opportunity to not use that form on a regular basis.” (29:23—30:22)

“I am getting closer to 50. And as I get closer to 50, my healthcare needs to change, or what I want for myself changes. It’s different than when I was 40. I'm looking now at how we preserve this. So, over time, if nobody ever talks to me about that again — I've changed over the last decade. I want to know what options are out there. I want to know what I need to do to maintain what I have and to keep my teeth.” (31:02—31:25)

“I am all about being efficient and effective and working smarter, not harder. So, spending the time to plan your days and being intentional about them makes for a more productive day for your entire team, a more gratifying day, and leads to better health for all of your patients — which is ultimately our goal when we’re working in dental practices, to take the best care we can of our patients.” (33:16—33:35)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:31 Productivity versus busyness, explained.

3:40 Work smarter, not harder.

4:39 Tip #1) Start by setting goals and schedules.

5:51 Be dedicated to a system.

8:39 Look at your mix of services to schedule.

10:47 Tip #2) Have morning meetings.

12:11 A great practice has a great huddle.

15:14 Tip #3) Get a mix of patients.

18:11 Pay attention to your diagnostic percentage.

19:53 Bring back your unscheduled A patients.

23:47 Tip #4) Pay attention to hygiene production.

26:26 Calibrate on standard of care.

29:18 Tip #5) Get a dental health history.

31:55 Topic for Robyn’s next podcast.

33:08 Last thoughts on increasing productivity.

Robyn Theisen Bio:

Robyn Theisen brings an entire life and legacy of dental experience to the team and every team with which she works as the daughter and sister of dentists. With almost 20 years of experience in dentistry, her roles ranged from practice management to operations at Patterson Dental to coaching teams. Robyn’s passion is empowering teams to realize that they can dramatically impact the lives of the people they serve by implementing skills and systems to remove barriers to life-changing dental treatment. She has done it for decades and does it every day with dental teams.

Outside of coaching, she enjoys time with her husband, Rob, and two daughters, Emerson and Ruby. She loves traveling, music, fitness, and cheering on the Michigan State Spartans.

Messages That Move People: Three Ways That Public Speaking & Presentation Skills Can Grow Your Practice or Advance Your Skills as a Dental Professional

Episode #583 with Katherine Eitel Belt

Anyone can become a better speaker — and everyone should! Public speaking is one of the most important skills you can have, especially as a business owner. To help you go from an average to fantastic speaker, Kirk Behrendt brings in Katherine Eitel Belt, founder of LionSpeak, with tips to speak better, present better, and improve how you communicate with your audience. To learn how to present messages that move people, listen to Episode 583 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• LionSpeak: https://www.lionspeak.net
• LionSpeak Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LionSpeak.net
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Use code LION200 for $200 off the video series!

Main Takeaways:

It matters that your message is clear.

Clarify your message in an inspirational way.

Be aware of your body language when presenting.

Learn the difference between a framework and a script.

Understand why public speaking is an important business skill.

Master the four-step “bookshelf framework” for clarity and memorability.

Use storytelling/story selling to communicate what you want your audience to know.

Quotes:

“Here’s the reality. Scripts work when people follow them. But they tend to be complicated. They tend to be, ‘Here is the step by step by step,’ and nobody can remember a hundred steps when the phones are ringing, and people are coming in and out. And it doesn't feel authentic because they didn't craft it. But one thing scripts did, whether it’s speaking from the platform or whether it’s on the phone, one thing scripts gave us was consistency of message if people followed it. And so, I like that. As a business owner, I don't want you to call my office and talk to Kelly and get one experience or one set of information, and then call and talk to Stacey and get something completely different. As a businesswoman, I want consistency of brand, of message, of information. But if we only look at scripting to give us consistency, we lose authenticity, that feeling that I'm actually talking to a human being who’s present in this moment, who is really getting me. But if we only follow on authenticity, then the conversations go wacky and wonky.” (5:43—7:00)

“I think a lot of people would never aspire to be a public speaker. And maybe they never will. But Warren Buffett said, someone asked him, ‘If you had to narrow it down to one professional skill that you think is essential to people being successful in business, what is it?’ And he said public speaking. Think about an owner of a practice. Whether it’s a solo practice or a large group or a DSO company, as an owner, our main job, in my opinion, is to make sure there's never a day that the people who work for me aren't clear on what we’re creating. And because of that, there's never a day where they're not clear what they should be focusing on to help us achieve that future vision. And so, the ability of an owner to stand up before a team and clarify where we’re going, why we’re going there, and what it’s going to take, and simultaneously do it in a way that inspires their team to want to get on board is a very, very important business skill, and I would say lucrative skill, for the owners that know how to do that.” (8:29—9:45)

“All communicators, we have two things we’re trying to create with patients, with team, with the public, with our families. That is clarity. Every time we speak, we’re hoping we’re creating clarity versus confusion. We’re also hoping that we can create that clarity in an inspirational way. In other words, people leave a conversation from me, and they're not confused about what I'm asking for. They’re super clear, but they're also inspired to take a step toward what I'm requesting. And if we can do both of those, we are an excellent communicator.” (9:45—10:20)

“If you're a hygienist, a dental assistant, or an administrator, and if you have any desire to advance your career in terms of your salary or in terms of your position, then the ability for you to clarify your message and inspire a team is an essential skill to be at the front of the line for that promotion and at the front of the line for salary increases. It’s a skill that owners and managers long for and they're willing to pay for. And they notice the people at a team meeting that are able to stand up, make their case for what they're wanting to say, and do it in a way that brings people together and doesn't drive them apart. That skill is something we all want, and we notice it in our employees.” (11:07—11:56)

“Sometimes, we are very passionate about a particular part of our work, and we wonder, what would it be like to help others understand it as deeply as we do, or be able to have the proficiency and mastery that we have? So, let's say a hygienist is particularly passionate and highly skilled with lasers, or a clinician is really passionate about implant placement, or an administrator is really passionate about a particular way of enrolling patients into treatment. There is an entire industry of people who have not mastered those skills. And a lot of dental professionals will take on a side gig, if you will, of speaking about the thing they're very good at and very passionate about, and they have this very fun, lucrative side gig of sharing their passion with the industry. So, I want to encourage people that it’s easier than they think, if that’s a goal, to do it, and that our industry really needs them.” (12:10—13:17)

“It matters that [your message] is clear. It matters that it’s inspirational. They don't have to be Tony Robbins, but they do have to talk about why we’re going here and why the team would want to accept the invitation to get on board.” (16:19—16:34)

“We’re cursed with something that I call the curse of knowledge. So, if we’re going to take the front of the room — that might be a stage, but it might just be the front of your team meeting — wherever that is, you're going to take the front of the room. It’s a leadership position. And we could all talk for days on the things we’re passionate about and that we know a lot about. But our audience can't listen for days, and they can't absorb it. And so, our goal is not to share with them everything we know about the subject. Our goal is to organize our content in a very tight and easy-to-understand way. I always say our job is to make the complex seem simple. It’s complex. Right? What you teach, what I teach, these technical things, they're complicated. But our job is not to show how much we know.” (17:30—18:26)

“We use something we call the bookshelf framework. It’s essentially a four-step — the quickest way to describe it is, I'll say to the people we’re coaching, ‘Imagine you have a shelf and some brackets, a pile of books, and two bookends, and your goal is to make a beautiful bookshelf on the wall. Out of that pile of supplies, what would you need to put on the wall first?’ Of course, it’s the shelf and the brackets. So, that's how we build the content structure of the speech. We organize our content using this. The shelf represents, in one sentence, what is this speech about? What is the thing I want my people to understand and take away in one sentence? If we can't get clear about that, we can't get our audience clear about that. So, that's actually the hardest thing about the whole bookshelf, is getting that clarity. Once we’ve got that, then we put the books on. The books are the containers. We say up to five — less is more. The books are the containers for the supporting concepts of our bookshelf, one-line, bottom-line. They hold the pieces, the examples, the data, the support, all of that. Now, all the books aren't the same size. They might have chapters and subchapters, depending on how much time you have. But once you get beyond five, people can't remember it and they tune out. So, we try to put everything we want to say inside these five books, and how deep we go in them depends on time.” (18:52—20:32)

“The best speech I ever heard — I still remember it. It was almost 20 years ago. I heard this speech at the National Speakers Association, and to this day I can tell you what that speech was about, what I did with the information, why I thought it was important then, and still now in my career. I remember he made us laugh, he made us cry, he made me think, he made me act . . . Joe Calloway. He had a 45-minute keynote to 2,500 professional speakers. That's a pretty big deal. He nailed it. And 20 years later, I can remember what he said. How many people listened to us, and 20 years later can say, ‘I remember what Katherine spoke about 20 years ago’?” (20:34—21:19)

“If you want your message to be memorable with your team, with an audience, with anyone, less is more. Clarity is everything.” (22:01—22:09)

“The two bookends [of the bookshelf framework] are the opening and the closing. How do we make those really, really stick and really memorable? So, organizing your content would be number one on my list.” (22:11—22:22)

“Number two on my list [of the bookshelf framework] would be story. So, if you think about the content as being the black-and-white information, then story, metaphors, examples, video clips, humor, all of that adds color to the black-and-white. It adds the color. Those are the pieces that make the content interesting and also memorable. And so, I would suggest people work on little things that happen in life that you say, ‘You know, when I went and picked up my dog from the groomer, the exchange I had with the clerk,’ that is essentially the same thing that happens over here. Start to think about, where can I find simple stories that are analogous to what I'm trying — what you're trying to say is, ‘Here’s the point I'm making in my presentation, and it’s just like this thing that happens in everyday life. It’s just like that.’ The stories make it more understandable and more relatable. So, stories would be something — learn to find them, learn where to put them, and learn how to tell them in an interesting way.” (22:22—23:37)

“If you want to be a great presenter, you've got to know what to do with your body on the stage. What we do with our body really communicates our level of confidence — our level of confidence in the subject, our level of confidence in ourselves as a professional, and our level of confidence in the exchange there. So, what we do with our feet, our hands, our eyes, all of that. People ask me all the time, ‘What should I do with my hands?’ And I say, ‘Well, I don't think you should worry about it too much, unless you're doing something weird, that your hands are jingling something in your pocket.’ I talk with my hands. I know a lot of people do. I don't worry so much about my hands, but I do worry a lot about where my feet are. Because pacing, backing up from the front of the stage, swaying, being cocked off to one side with your weight on one side, all of those things definitely communicate, ‘I'm not very comfortable up here.’ And so, I think handling that is probably my third. So, content, simplifying it, finding stories, putting some color on that, and then knowing how to move with confidence, move with ease on the stage, is important.” (23:40—25:04)

“Professional speakers and consultants — any professional — ends on time. They just do. There are some tricks of the trade, no doubt about it. We divide content into need-to-know and nice-to-know. So, once you have divided it in your mind and in your slides and handouts, then it’s pretty easy to glance down at the time, see you're maybe running a little behind, and put them in a little exercise where they turn away from you to do their exercise. You come over here, skip to the next need-to-know, and wrap this up. And they're never the wiser. The audience never knows what you skipped. But what they do notice is that you get to the end, and you go, ‘Oh! I've got . . .’ and you speedwalk through the slides, you speed talk through the content, and then you get them out late. They know that, and it’s not professional. And a lot of it comes from, we had too much to begin with.” (26:24—27:21)

“I usually have maybe 10 or 15 because the bookshelf outline is in my head. And if you do this long enough, your slides are going to go down anyway. There's going to be a time where the videos don't work, the slides don't work, whatever happens. And so, you have to know that bookshelf and be able to speak to it in the room without anything. When you can do that, you really have a sense of deep confidence about it. And that comes across to the audience, no doubt about it.” (27:25—27:54)

“[Professional speaking is] a wonderful, wonderful side gig. It’s a wonderful full-time career. I will say that you can make a living being a speaker. You absolutely can. But to make a good living being a speaker, you're going to have to be on the road a lot. That really is intriguing and fun for some people. For others, young parents, that may not work for the full lifestyle that they want. So, just know that if you're going to make a living from speaking honorariums and from the work of speaking, it only makes sense you're going to be travelling a lot.” (28:44—29:20)

“There are other reasons to be a speaker. Sometimes, it’s philanthropic, something we’re really passionate about and we want to — like, I know some people who speak on human trafficking, and they're not interested in the honorarium. They're really interested in making a difference in the world, and that's all they really want to do. So, it’s not about the money. Also, if you do have a business, professional speaking is a really great marketing tool. For me, it’s a fantastic marketing funnel for clients. And so, I care a little less about what I am compensated for for the speaking gig if it’s a perfect-fit audience for me. If it’s not a perfect-fit audience, then I do want my honorarium. So, I've made some business decisions around that because I don't want to be on the road all the time. I want to be on there just enough to spread the message that we’re passionate about, and for it to be a good adjunct to our business. So, I think there are those things to consider, the lifestyle to consider.” (29:22—30:23)

“Moving an audience to action and watching the lightbulbs go off, having people come up later, either at the speech or sometimes years later, and say, ‘That speech you gave two years ago changed my life,’ that is part of the reason that I love being a speaker, is watching and having and experiencing those moments of transformation in my audience. So, if that's something that is calling you, I think speaking is a great vehicle for that.” (30:24—30:57)

“If you've never been a speaker, get some coaching. Make sure your content is really good and that your speech is good. There are organizations that can help you get in front of meeting planners. There are showcases in our industry. I know Seattle Study Club has a showcase. Speaking Consulting Network. Lots of different organizations have some speaker showcases. Elijah Desmond on Dentistry’s Got Talent. They're like TED Talks. Short, 10, 20-minute talks. You can get on and get in front of meeting planners. They get to take a look at what you have to offer, and then decide if they want you on their program. So, some great ways to get started.” (30:59—31:40)

“I have heard a lot of things, and probably your listeners have too, of, ‘Take some deep yoga breaths into the diaphragm. Maybe do some jumping jacks outside the room. Or take the stairs to the room instead of the elevator.’ And those things can work. But they are, in my opinion, addressing the symptoms. What are the symptoms? Sweaty palms, dry mouth, racing heart, shaky hands, shaky knees. All of those are symptoms of a deeper cause. And so, the deep breaths and all of that stuff addresses the symptoms. I would rather think about addressing the cause and not having the symptoms. The symptoms are a result of adrenaline that is pumping through your blood. That is a fight-or-flight response from the amygdala in the brain, the primitive part of our brain, that says, ‘We perceive a threat here. There's a threat. You're not safe, so get the heck out of there. Run or fight!’ And it pumps this adrenaline to allow you to run really fast or fight. Well, we can't do either of those if we want to stay on the stage or we want to stay at the front of the room.” (32:48—34:04)

“I started thinking about, why do we view [public speaking] as a threat? What is the threat? Because without a threat, the amygdala isn't triggered. The threat is that we fear, essentially, judgment. We think of the audience, or we look at the audience, or we’re being introduced to come on, and we feel that heart rate start speeding up. It’s because our amygdala says, ‘These people are going to judge you. Are they going to like my content? Are they going to argue with it and disagree with it? Am I going to look foolish up here? Am I going to forget my words? What if they don't laugh at my jokes?’ And we build this up to, ‘I'm not going to be good enough. I'm not going to be safe up here. This is not going to be good,’ and the amygdala says, ‘Get out,’ and it pumps the adrenaline so you can. But because you don't run, it comes out in the shakes. That's all the adrenaline trying to work itself out.” (34:08—35:04)

“I was speaking before 150 of my peers. This was last weekend. It was a new speech because these people have all heard my other speeches, so I had to come up with something new. So, it was the first time I've done this speech. It’s been years, but all of a sudden, I've got the butterflies. I'm like, ‘Well, that's interesting.’ And I've learned to bless — first of all, I've learned to acknowledge it, to say, ‘Well, there you are.’ And then, I bless it, ‘Thank you for reminding me or alerting me,’ because I wouldn't be feeling this otherwise, ‘that I have framed this audience as a body of judgment. So, let me reframe it in the other thing I know it is.’ I mean, if we’re honest, there is some judgment in that room. They're waiting to see, ‘Are you going to be worth my time?’ So, I'm not going to say it isn't a body of judgment. But I'm going to say it is also something else. What it is also is a body of need. They're there because they're hoping against hope that you're going to say something...

3 KPIs to Know if Your Periodontal Protocol is Working

Episode #582 with Miranda Beeson

Is your perio at zero percent? If it is, it doesn't have to stay that way! Once you create a periodontal protocol, your next step is to track a few numbers. To reveal what those key KPIs are, Kirk Behrendt brings back Miranda Beeson, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, so you can understand what's working, what's not, and the countermeasures to put in place. Your perio percentage should be as high as possible! To learn how to go from zero to 60 — and beyond — listen to Episode 582 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Miranda’s email: [email protected] 
• Miranda’s social media: @actdental
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

3 KPIs to Know if Your Periodontal Protocol is Working: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T8shs-Fz86O7dtbfx3dma5kKOknvsIJo/view

The Best Practices Show Episode 574 with Miranda Beeson: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-strategies-to-encourage-dental-hygienists-to-diagnose/id1223838218?i=1000612492886

Katrina Sanders’ Disease Prevention & Wine Tasting course (October 5-6, 2023): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/act-dental-hygienists-live-course-october-5-6-2023-tickets-368595568267

Main Takeaways:

Monitor your periodontal visit percentage.

Monitor your periodontal diagnostic percentage.

Monitor your periodontal acceptance percentage.

Look at all three KPIs together to get the whole picture.

Help patients discover what they need rather than telling them.

Build value through conversation and bringing patients into the process.

Quotes:

“If we put something into place, strategies around creating periodontal protocol in the office, that's great. But it really doesn't mean much if we don't know if it’s actually working. Are team members following through? Are we getting the response from patients that we want? We want to know if those protocols are working so that team members can have accountability for their role in the process. Their own accountability, maybe we need to be tied into that. Or we have our own as practice owners and doctors. And also, so that we can course-correct. Or, even better, celebrate when we need to. When the data points show us that we need to put some countermeasures in place or course-correct, great. But if we’re doing really well, we want to take the time to acknowledge the team members who've been putting in the effort and making that happen. So, there are a lot of reasons why monitoring this is really important.” (3:12—3:58)

“I would venture to say very few [practices have a periodontal protocol]. From my own personal experience as a hygienist, over the years, I can't remember a practice I joined that had an established periodontal protocol when I joined the practice. And then, when I look at coaching and the teams that I have had exposure to, most of those teams have none, or something they’ve tried to develop on their own and they really need some help getting it growing, getting it where it’s actionable. So, I would say, if I had to put a percent on it, it would be a really low percentage of the number of offices that truly have a documented and aligned periodontal protocol in their practice, which is why we did that previous podcast around the strategies to help make that happen in your practice. But again, if we put that into place and we don't monitor for its success, then what's the point?” (4:27—5:14)

“I worked in a practice that when I joined the practice, it was two percent perio. That's when I started looking into — I was the only hygienist there — how do I make a periodontal program? By the time I left the practice about three-and-a-half years later, we were at 22% perio. So, it’s a matter of sitting down and aligning, and really creating that philosophy in the practice and putting strategy into, how are we going to identify health in this practice, and then what are we going to do to treat anything that’s not health so that we’re all doing it the same in a way that is the most optimal care for our patients?” (6:30—7:06)

“The first thing that we’re going to measure is our periodontal visit percentage. Now, a lot of our clients and coaching clients have Dental Intel, so this helps us do that pretty easily. But you can do this manually as well, or just print reports within your practice management software. And what that is is the percentage of patients that are seen by the hygienist within a given period of time, whatever timeframe you select. Generally, we’re looking at it weekly or monthly when we’re reporting on that.” (7:56—8:21)

“So, what percentage of patients that the hygienist is seeing are periodontal patients? We’re going to look at prophys, the D110, separate from all of those 4000 codes. And this is where you talked about — I have codes on my cheat sheet here. The codes that go into that periodontal percentage are D4355, the gross debridement; D4346, the gingivitis therapy, because technically a patient is not diagnosed with periodontal disease when we’re using that code, but they're not healthy. And it is still technically a perio code by way of how we classify it. The D4910, periodontal maintenance patients. And then, the quadrant codes, the periodontal therapy codes, D4341 and D4342. And in Dental Intel, which you can also customize this in your own software, would be your implant maintenance codes or your implant therapy codes, like the D6080 and D6081. So, what percentage of the patients that the hygienists have seen within a given month, of those patients, how many were a periodontal procedure that was performed?” (8:22—9:29)

“A lot of people, like we talked about in our previous podcast, are doing periodontal services and gingivitis therapy and coding it as a prophy. So, it really does start with coding for what we’re truly doing, putting out a treatment plan, talking with our patient about the difference in this type of cleaning or hygiene services than what they're used to with preventative nature. So, really putting the appropriate codes on the services that we’re providing.” (10:13—10:40)

“If you're at zero percent, two percent perio, like I was telling you, my practice I joined was two percent perio. If I had thought I was going to get to the benchmark of 35%, 40% perio in the first six months, that would've been crazy. I want to go from two percent perio to four percent perio, four percent perio to maybe seven percent perio. Now, as time goes on and you're working a periodontal protocol over time, and it gets more established and your team gets more comfortable having the conversations with patients, the business team gets more comfortable with handling objections around the treatment plans, you're going to see that gap increase larger each time. You might start with a two percent increase. But eventually, you might go from seven to 12%, or 12% to 18%, 18% to 29%. That gap will start to increase over time as the confidence and knowledge within the team improves over time.” (11:06—11:54)

“I have some awesome teams, so shout-out to all my teams. All of them that are working on this right now, the biggest thing is celebrating and helping them stay motivated with the small accomplishments. I have a team right now that's, again, they started at zero percent. When we did our last check-in for the weekly numbers, they were at three percent. And we’re going to talk about periodontal acceptance rates in just a minute as well, that was 100%. So, they went from no patients to three patients being diagnosed this week. All three of them accepted treatment, so we had to stop and really celebrate that progress. Three patients might not seem like a lot if you have an active patient count of 4,000. But three patients being treated optimally for their disease state, and your team feeling comfortable and confident, we have to celebrate that growth. And that means next time the growth is going to double because now they're more motivated.” (12:47—13:38)

“When we look at our community, our culture, we look at research — we know that based on age differentials the research is a little different — but over half of the population has some form of periodontal disease, gum disease, gingivitis, and or active disease. As we get older, 65 and above, that number goes up into the high 60s, in some research, even the 70 percentiles. So, what we’re looking for is, how do we reflect in our practice, on our patient population, that same level of care? And so, the benchmark is going to sit around 35%. And that will vary. I know that's a Dental Intel benchmark, and we do work with them pretty exclusively with a lot of our coaching clients. There are some people who would argue that that benchmark is 40% to 60%. It depends on your geographic area, access to care. There are different things that come into play. But certainly, 35% is a solid benchmark to start from.” (13:49—14:43)

“The second KPI you're going to want to monitor is your periodontal diagnostic percentage. What that means is, it’s the patients that we’re seeing for hygiene that were diagnosed for new periodontal treatment. So, new codes that are those 4000 codes, the same ones that I mentioned before. So, a patient comes in for care. You have eight patients today, and two of them were treatment planned for a 4000 code. Maybe one of them for gingivitis therapy, and one of them for quadrant periodontal therapy. And so, we’re going to look at, out of those patients, what percentage of the patients that I saw at any given period of time were diagnosed with new periodontal treatment codes?” (15:38—16:15)

“I think it’s really important for the hygienist to track [these KPIs]. The accountability really comes back to that team member. First, making sure that the team members who are going to be asked to track these numbers are part of the strategy around, why are we tracking them? They really have to have the buy-in. Otherwise, this is just a chore or a task that you're giving them. But when the hygienist is responsible for monitoring that, they're going to be paying closer attention to the outcome. They're going to be thinking more mindfully about it throughout the day and thinking to themselves, at the end of the day, if they're tracking day after day or week after week, ‘What can I do? Because, oh, man — I was at two percent this week, but Michelle was at 22% this week. Maybe I need to get with Michelle and figure out what she’s doing that I'm not doing.’ So, there's a level of accountability when the hygienist is the person tracking those numbers.” (16:31—17:22)

“When you're looking at your periodontal visit alone, that's telling you one piece of the picture. What we need to be looking at is, ‘How do we make that grow?’ Well, let's look at, how often are we making this diagnosis? If we can see that that number is maintaining relatively low, or maybe it has a spike, ‘Oh! What did we do last week when we had that spike?’ so that we can improve our efficiency with more diagnosis and more acceptance. These numbers are going to follow suit with your perio visit, initially. When you're first implementing a periodontal protocol program and you're at one percent in terms of your perio visit percentage, this number is also going to be relatively low because you're not really diagnosing perio. But as we start to diagnose more perio and this diagnostic number goes up, then over time as we schedule those appointments, that visits percentage is going to go up as well. And so, they really all tie into each other. But the consistency of monitoring it and ideally monitoring it at weekly team meetings, reporting to each other, checking in with each other so that we can see ourselves along the way and not waiting till month’s end and looking backwards and, ‘Wouldn't it have been nice to know if halfway through the month I wasn't anywhere near where I needed to be?’ So, if we’re looking at that weekly, monthly at minimum, then we can start to make those changes that we need with the efficiency of the protocols to try to improve over time.” (18:07—19:30)

“If your periodontal visit percentage is doing great, you're up to 10% now, and then all of a sudden, it levels off, I bet if you look at your periodontal diagnostic percentage as of late, it’s gone down. Because if we’re not diagnosing new perio, that visit number, that overall periodontal percentage is going to decline. So, they do have a direct correlation which feeds into our other KPI as well. But you can't really look at just one and tell how healthy your protocol is. You have to look at all three of them together to get the whole picture.” (20:01—20:35)

“The third [KPI to monitor] is periodontal acceptance percentage. So, what that one is is the number of those patients that we diagnosed with gingivitis, or some form of periodontal disease, and treatment planned those 4000 codes, how many of those patients commenced with all or at least part of the treatment that we recommended? So, what was the acceptance percentage from those patients of moving forward with that treatment that we recommended? And you can see how those tie in with each other. So, it might be important to see, ‘Great. Our diagnostic percentage was 20%. That’s huge! We did awesome diagnosing perio.’ But if our perio acceptance percentage was four percent, are we doing a good job relaying the value in what we’re recommending, or are we just doing it and checking the box? Now, if we’re at 100%, that's awesome. We’re killing it. Every single patient that we treatment planned for periodontal therapy this month proceeded with treatment. We must be doing something right. Let's celebrate that and talk about what we did this month to make that happen.” (20:40—21:41)

“[Acceptance means patients] scheduled. They scheduled something. Something got put into the schedule from that treatment plan. So, if I treatment planned four quadrants of periodontal therapy for a patient and they scheduled for their first quadrant of therapy, that's considered the patient accepting. Now, there are two different ways you can measure this. And to [not] get too complex, we should probably be careful. But you can measure it by the dollar amount. You can measure it by like, ‘I treatment planned $20,000 of periodontal therapy, and $10,000 of periodontal therapy got scheduled.’” (21:59—22:33)

“In the very beginning when periodontal protocols are newer to teams, I like to focus on patient acceptance first because it’s an easier measurement to understand and wrap your head around. And sometimes, when it’s new to our teams, that means it’s new to our patients. We haven't been talking about this. And so, them accepting even one quadrant is a big deal. And then, we can work through the experience of that first quadrant, building more value. They're not scared anymore because we kept them nice and comfortable. And then, they're going to proceed with scheduling the rest of that treatment. So, when it comes to breaking down acceptance, it’s that that patient that we treatment planned scheduled for something off of that treatment plan — at least got started with that treatment plan.” (22:33—23:18)

“I have teams, and I know they're not the only ones out there, that the doctor is doing the initial periodontal assessment, diagnosing, treatment planning, and discussing that with the patients. They see the doctor for their new patient visit. So, these periodontal protocols are going to be built into your new patient experience, but they're also built into your existing patient experience, those recare visits. So, that's your hygienists, for sure. And in a lot of offices, the hygienist also does see the new patient, so it would be built in there as well. But I don't want to miss out on mentioning that there are doctors who perform the new patient evaluation. They perform the full-mouth periodontal charting. They sit the patient up and go over those findings with them. They're talking about the value of what's next, and treatment planning. And so, we have to also know that the doctors, this information is really important to them as well. And in some offices, it might be the doctors or their assistants that are tracking this data around acceptance because it might be them that is having to develop that.” (24:03—25:00)

“These all fit together in a bubble, but the diagnostic percentage and the acceptance percentage probably feed in the most. If you're just looking at acceptance percentage, you're going, ‘Great! We were at 100% this week. We killed it with patient acceptance for our periodontal procedures,’ but if we’re not looking at diagnostic percentage, is it that we diagnosed 50% of our patients with perio and 100% acceptance, or did we diagnose one patient with perio, and that one patient accepted? So, if we’re just looking at acceptance, we’re missing the piece of, ‘How big is the exposure?’ which is where that diagnostic percentage comes into play. In the same way that if we’re just looking at, ‘How many did we diagnose? What percentage did we diagnose?’ but not looking at how many of those actually moved forward with treatment, we’re only getting a piece of the picture. Those two really go closely together.” (25:18—26:13)

“[Your periodontal acceptance percentage should be] as high as possible — 100%. I shoot for high goals. I want 100% of my patients that I'm recommending perio care to move forward. But we have to do, just like we have with anything else, where are we starting at? Are we starting at zero? If we don't have a periodontal protocol and we’re starting from scratch, then we might start a little bit lower because we know our team is not as confident yet presenting that. We know our business team hasn’t really worked through how they handle presenting the investment and handling the objections around it. So, maybe our percentage starts at — we'd like to have at least half move forward. And by next month, we want to be at 70%. By the next month, 80%. And eventually, my goal would be all of the patients that you're recommending treatment to are moving forward because they have the value, and you've set up easy systems for them to be able to pay for this investment if they're stuck there. There's...

Put Your Dental Marketing to the Test

Episode #581 with Xaña Winans

You want your phones to ring, so you put out some ads. You create a brand-new website, rent some billboards, and spend tons of money on everything possible. So, why isn't it working? For that answer, Kirk Behrendt brings back Xaña Winans, founder and CEO of Golden Proportions Marketing, to explain the marketing funnel, the biggest problems dentists have in this process, and how to fix it. A new website alone will only go so far! To learn what you're missing in your dental marketing strategy, listen to Episode 581 of The Best Practices Show! 

Episode Resources:

• Xaña’s email: [email protected] 
• Xaña’s social media: @xanaathena
• Golden Proportions Marketing: www.goldenproportions.com
• Subscribe to the Best Practices Show Podcast
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club
• Join ACT’s Master Class
• See our Live Events Schedule here
• Get the Best Practices Magazine for Free!
• Write a Review on iTunes

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Take Xaña’s self-diagnosis quiz! https://www.goldenproportions.com/practice-marketing-checkup-act-dental

Xaña’s course (June 16-17, 2023):  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/discover-your-dental-marketing-dna-the-six-steps-to-success-tickets-274942178457

Start With Why by Simon Sinek: https://bookshop.org/books/start-with-why-how-great-leaders-inspire-everyone-to-take-action-2c622935-8c0c-4d97-9e9a-4fd6286d8336/9781591846444

Best Practices Show Episode 546 with Shelley DeGroff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgFoj5VUimQ

Jackass Brewing Company: https://www.jackassbrewingcompany.com

Main Takeaways:

Have a strategy.

Focus on branding.

Know your lead conversion.

Measure your lead generation.

Constantly optimize your marketing.

Make your new patient experience excellent.

Quotes:

“Every single doctor, when they call us, might start out with something like, ‘I think I need a new website,’ or, ‘I've got a friend who’s been doing television commercials, and I want to do that.’ And what they're failing to see is that just going after a single strategy is not going to solve the bigger problem. But us telling them only gets us so far. It’s kind of like if someone tells you how to solve the problem, you're like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. I can figure this out on my own.’ But if you go through the journey and you diagnose the problem yourself — and that's what this quiz does — you can't unsee all of the things that it reveals that tells you your weakness is not just that you don't have a great television commercial. Your weakness in your marketing is like 16 other things.” (4:15—5:03)

“Most doctors focus on lead generation. They say, ‘I want the phone to ring. I want more patients. I want a certain kind of patient.’ But all they care about is the phone ringing. What they fail to realize is that to get true return on investment out of your marketing, you've got to start at the top of the funnel, which is your brand awareness and your brand message. And you've also got to pay attention to everything that comes after lead generation because that's where the return on investment comes from, is looking at, are you converting the leads? Are you retaining those patients? Did you give them a great experience? Are they advocating for you and sending more people in? So, this quiz takes people through all the stages of the funnel, both things an agency would do and that your own team could be doing, or you could be doing, to help improve your own marketing.” (6:04—6:51)

“The data tells me everything. The data that we collect really correlates to everything that we ask in this quiz because it’s not just measuring how often the phone is ringing but, is it being converted? Are these patients being retained in the practice? Are you getting reviews and referrals? The part that I love about it is that it connects directly to your practice management software over 50 different platforms, and it will measure your return on investment in real time. So, there's no hiding behind something that isn't working. It forces my team to get better because if the ROI isn't there, we need to pivot strategies or we need to change something about what we’re doing. I can also see if there's something on the doctor’s end, the team’s end, that they can improve to help have an impact on their ROI. But if you're not measuring that bottom line number, it’s just a guess.” (7:33—8:24)

“As much as I love marketing and the art and the creativity that goes into it, it’s got to produce. And you've got to have some transparency in, ‘What was my end result in this thing?’ so you're not just throwing money down a black hole. But if you don't have that transparency — and I will tell you, this has become a big thing. It’s funny, when I started this about eight years ago, nobody was automating ROI. Now, it’s catching on. There are other groups that are starting to do it. But a lot of them still ask the doctors to run the report every single month. They say, ‘I need you to run a report. I want you to match up these phone calls that we tracked that came in and try and find them in your patient reports. And then, you're going to put this all on a spreadsheet so we can calculate your ROI.’ No doctor does that. No team does that. You know they don't have time. It’s a complete obligation. So, automating it and having that information at your fingertips has been a gamechanger for people.” (8:47—9:47)

“I think the biggest problem is [dentists] have a very narrow point of view as to what they need to be doing. They are not thinking big strategy.” (9:58—10:08)

“[Dentists] are focusing on the “what” and the “how”. The “what” is, they're a dentist. The “how” is, they're general, or they're using a piece of technology. But none of them are focusing on why they do what they do. That is why their patients are only buying based on who takes their insurance, or what the cost is, or, ‘Can you get me in on a Saturday?’ So, this big other thing that I think is the biggest problem is dentists don't know their branding message, which is their “why”. And so, they are just one of many in their community, and they don't truly have the competitive advantage that they should in their marketing.” (10:23—11:01)

“Inefficiencies in marketing are, again, because there isn't a bigger strategy. And so, you might be putting all of your money into just one part of the marketing funnel. Often, they're putting it all into the lead generation. But it’s completely inefficient to spend all that money to make the phone ring if nobody is listening to the phone calls, if nobody knows the questions that the patients are having, and why they're choosing not to come into the practice and choose somebody else, or that your team doesn't know how to explain your “why” to these callers on the other end. So, these inefficiencies — I wish it was just one. But they're absolutely everywhere, following all the way down the process.” (11:58—12:41)

“Every doctor that I work with, they don't want quantity. I can get you quantity all day long. They want a patient who comes in “preheated” that says, ‘Yeah, I looked at a bunch of dentists. Your vision, your values, the way that you take care of patients, that connected with me, emotionally.’ They come in. They already have trust with you. They move forward with treatment faster. They are bigger advocates of what you're doing, sending their friends and family because they get — it’s almost like a soul mate between a dentist and a patient when you can find the right doctor who shares your values and your vision. That really goes back to that branding message and being able to put that out there in the first place.” (13:32—14:19)

“Trust comes from authenticity. That comes from truly being yourself and not creating this marketing message, this persona of something that you don't actually live by when the patients come into the practice. It’s about figuring out who you authentically are, why you love dentistry, why it’s so important to you, and then sharing that with people. And those are the people — that trust is going to be there because they're going to know it’s real and it’s authentic because it’s coming from you and not just some marketing-created message.” (15:32—16:03)

“We have this broken down into sections that are related to the marketing funnel. The first section, and this is almost universally the lowest score for every single person, is strategy related. So, we’re asking questions about things like, ‘Grade yourself, one to five. Do you create annual smart goals about your practice growth?’ . . . Very few dentists have ever sat down and created goals for their practice, unless they're working with somebody like you or I. So, we ask them about their goals. We ask them to grade themselves on, ‘Do we have an annual execution calendar and a budget? Are we sitting down as a team once a week, or at least once a month, and regularly reviewing the strategies and making sure that we are doing the things that we agreed that we’re going to do in order to be successful?’ We ask them, ‘Are we actually dedicating time each week in our schedule to do the marketing tasks, not just to have a plan but to actually put the plan into action?’ So, it’s all on a grade of one to five for each one of these questions, five being, ‘I'm killing it. I do this without thinking. I do this in my sleep.’ One is, ‘Oh, crap. I haven’t been doing this at all.’ And the strategy is universally where people get like 25% out of 100% on their scores, as a general rule. It’s pretty low. Big opportunities for improvement there.” (16:30—18:02)

“Branding has been the biggest thing that most practices are missing. So, let me set this up for you. Let's assume you're a patient. You're like, ‘I'm new to an area,’ or, ‘I just broke off a tooth and I don't have a dentist.’ They go online and search “dentists near me”, which is the first place almost everybody starts. They're going to see a couple of ads, and they're going to see the local listings in the Google Business Profile, and a whole bunch of opportunities under that. So, first, they're overwhelmed with a lot of information, trying to figure out who to pick. They are not picking a practice based on insurance, at that point in time, because they'd never even made it to your website. So, how do they decide who they're going to stop at and say, ‘I'm going to click on this site’? Because they're not going to click on the 15 different links that are going to be on that page. Yes, reviews are a big part of it. But if they are completely unfamiliar with your practice name and what you stand for, you're just one of the 15 on that page. If you've got a really strong brand and good brand awareness, and someone sees you and they go, ‘Oh, I've heard of that practice. I know what they stand for,’ there's instant trust and they are far more likely to click on it. So, you put in all that energy and effort to make sure your website is ranking number-one on the page. But you can get skipped if you're basically brand-new to them, if they’ve never heard of you before. So, that brand awareness is hugely undervalued, in my point of view, because that's the thing that drives them to pick up the phone in the first place.” (19:31—21:08)

“If you stop and look at the practices in your community that are really successful, like the people that you almost envy because they have got it all going on — they’ve got a great social media presence, they’ve got great reviews, people talk about them a lot — I guarantee, if you go look at their marketing, there is a very clear message about who they are, what they stand for, and how they treat people. Their brand message, their tagline, however you want to be using it, is crystal clear. You probably didn't even realize it because you've been exposed to that same kind of message over, and over, and over again in all these different mediums, and it just felt right. It feels like that soul mate connection. You go, ‘Okay. This is why this guy is so successful,’ or girl, because they're clear on who they are and why people want to come to them.” (22:02—22:53)

“Once we get through strategy and branding, we get to the part that everybody is most familiar with, and that's lead generation. The first question that's on here is, we meet our new patient goals every month and they grade themselves, one to five. And you know what? I get such an interesting response to this one because, most of the time, they haven't set a target. There's no goal for how many new patients I want to get per month. They're like, ‘Well, is my schedule full? Then I think I'm getting enough.’ So, first, they have to understand how many new patients they're getting a month.” (25:02—25:34)

“We’re also asking them, ‘Is there a clear, digital marketing plan in place that is comprehensive?’ From SEO, to reviews, to social media, to paid search, is there a plan, or are you hoping one thing is going to do all of it for you?’ Because again, back to the branding, that branding gets shared across all of the strategies and platforms that you're using. So, you can't just do one thing. We’re also asking them, ‘Is there more than one predictable new patient source that you're getting people from, aside from referrals?’ We all know those ought to be coming in, but there should be a minimum of two or three different lead generation sources. Because if one of those lead generation sources goes dry, you're up a creek. Maybe your SEO is killing it and you're getting a ton of new patients in. But if you have somebody who comes in who’s a competitor who’s really hitting it hard, and your SEO gets pushed down because maybe you're riding that wave of how well your website is doing, and so you don't keep up with it, or you go, ‘I don't have to invest as much money in SEO because I'm getting so many people,’ it’s really easy to lose traction and lose new patients very quickly if you don't have multiple sources that are regularly bringing you new patients. So, don't rely on just one. That's a really fast way to get bumped off.” (25:36—26:56)

“The other thing with lead generation, how the heck are you measuring it? Don't tell me, as a doctor, ‘We ask every new patient that schedules.’ That does not tell me where your leads are coming from because it’s the halo effect — especially if you're doing your branding right; they’ve seen you on social, they’ve heard about you from a friend, and they read your reviews. There could be any number of different things. You're going to have to have some level of call tracking in there to get more accurate data about how well your lead generation is working.” (26:58—27:27)

“Somebody has to have seen or had some interaction with your brand a minimum of seven to nine times — not before action, but before their brain even notices it and goes, ‘Oh.’ So, I could hear about ACT Dental seven to nine times from other people in a variety of things, but it doesn't really stick. It doesn't click until I've had that level of saturation. And then, you might make it into my consideration process. So, there's a lot more that goes into it before they're ready to take action.” (28:03—28:36)

“If you're clear on your brand message, they come in, they're pretty much going to agree with your treatment plan. They're not going to argue with you or go shopping for other doctors because they’ve got that trust, because they’ve seen your brand, they know who you are and what you stand for. It all works together. This is why you can't skip the steps. You've got to go step by step by step through the funnel.” (29:10—29:29)

“The one that we tend to forget about is lead conversion. So, great. The phone is ringing. Are they scheduling? That is critical. Are you listening to the phone calls? Are you able to document whether somebody is scheduled, didn't schedule, went to voicemail? It kills me, over 33% of all calls that come into dental practices go to voicemail. We have covered millions upon millions of phone calls. And I will tell you that, consistently, 70% to 80% of all calls that go to voicemail hang up and do not leave a message, and they are on to the next dental practice. So, you are losing money simply because you don't even know that your phone isn't getting answered. The only way you're going to know that is with some level of call tracking.” (29:35—30:24)

“I hear [practices say they answer every call]. Then, we start tracking the calls, and we have a little review. We have a special chart that's a missed call analysis and it tells us exactly the dates and the times. And they're like, ‘Oh. Well, that's when we always have our Wednesday team meeting. I didn't realize that we were missing that many new patients who were calling at that period of time.’ Or, ‘We don't open until 9:00 on Thursday, so all these people that are calling at 7:00 and 8:00 blew it.’ It’s very, very eye-opening once they see that data.” (30:38—31:07)

“We use this in our call tracking technology too. If someone hits your voicemail and you get that bounce-back text message, put in your scheduling link if you have online scheduling. Because, often, they just want to make an appointment. If you can make it that much easier for them, that they don't have to wait for a phone call back and they can take care of that right on the spot, you're going to convert that many more people.” (32:35—32:56)

“You've got to have the strategy at the beginning that looks at all of these stages because you're going to keep seeing — and that's what I love about this quiz. There are problems for everybody. Hell, my business doesn't do it perfect 100% of the time either. But there's going to be a little weakness somewhere. So, think of it as a constant optimization of your marketing that you can take, ‘Okay. I want to work on this one little thing, and I'm going to adjust it, and I'm going to come up with a new script for how we talk to patients. I'm going to come up with a different technology to help make sure that they get converted and schedule. I'm going to...