The Dental Marketer

How can you have strong profitability and a cohesive team in your office? In this episode, I'm sitting down with Tricia Casasanta, a seasoned expert in practice management, to delve into the intricacies of improving operational efficiency, mastering PPO negotiations, and developing strong leadership skills in the dental field. Tricia shares strategies on how her company assists dental practices in streamlining their operations, training staff, and negotiating insurance contracts to elevate overall performance and profitability.

Tricia's outlook on leadership is particularly fascinating; she describes it as a continuous journey rather than a destination. She provides crucial advice on handling poor hires and underperforming team members through candid conversations, clear communication, and timely interventions. You'll find her tips on strategically managing PPO plans and insurance networks enlightening, especially if you're new to navigating these complex systems. By the end of this episode, you'll be equipped with actionable strategies for building a cohesive and motivated team, highlighting the significance of trust, continuous training, and a thoughtful approach to leadership.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How to streamline dental practice operations for efficiency and profitability.
• Effective strategies for PPO contract negotiations.
• The key elements of leadership in practices and why it's a journey, not a destination.
• How to handle poor hires and underperforming team members.
• The importance of clear communication and timely interventions in managing teams.
• Strategic approaches to dealing with PPO plans and insurance networks.
• Practical steps to build a motivated and cohesive team.
• Why integrating technology is crucial for operational efficiency.
• The common pitfalls new practitioners face with PPO networks.
• How to foster trust and continuous development within your team.

Ready to transform your practice with Tricia's expert insights and actionable strategies? Tune in to this episode now!

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Sponsors:
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For high quality AND affordable dental supply options, visit The Dentists Supply Company(TDSC) website today! Our listeners get a special deal - 25% off on orders over $500 - Just type in the special code: TDM25 at checkout for your exclusive offer. AND if you're a member of your state's Dental Association, you may be eligible for additional savings upon providing your ADA number. Click or copy and paste the link here to save today! https://www.tdsc.com/

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Guest: Tricia CasasantaBusiness Name: Strategic Practice SolutionsCheck out Tricia's Media:

Strategic Practice Solutions: http://strategicpracticesolution.com/

PPO Negotiation Solutions: http://pponegotiationsolutions.com/

SPS Dental Academy: https://spsdentalacademy.com/

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Other Mentions and Links:

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Terms:

UCR Fee Schedule

NPI - National Provider Identifier

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Insurances:

Aetna

Dentemax

Careington

Principal

Guardian

UnitedHealthcare

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Products/Brands:

CEREC

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Organizations:

Women in Dentistry

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Books:

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability in Work and in Life

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Assessments:

DiSC

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Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

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Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

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p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

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Still on the fence about hiring virtual assistants? In today's Monday Morning Episode, Dan Johnson shares his wealth of experience managing staff in a dental office setting. He unpacks the dynamics of the hiring landscape over the past 12 years, highlighting the increased competition and rising wages that employers face today. Dan underscores the pivotal role of creating a robust office culture, tailoring work schedules to meet employee needs, and offering enticing incentives such as trips to maintain a motivated team. Yet, despite these diligent efforts, he candidly discusses the persistent hurdles in employee retention and introduces an innovative solution that has proven indispensable—virtual assistants.

Dan details the advantages of integrating virtual assistants into the workforce, emphasizing their exceptional work ethic and adaptability. By incorporating this strategy, his practice has not only navigated staff shortages but also experienced significant growth. Additionally, Dan reflects on the importance of thinking outside the box and surrounding oneself with smart, capable individuals to facilitate mutual growth.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How has the hiring landscape changed for dental practices over the last decade?
• What strategies can create a strong and motivating office culture?
• Why adjusting work schedules can significantly impact employee retention.
• The role of unique incentives, like trips, in keeping staff motivated.
• How virtual assistants can revolutionize your dental practice operations.
• The benefits of leveraging remote talent for flexibility and efficiency.
• The importance of creative problem-solving in staff management.
• Tips for finding and surrounding yourself with capable, growth-oriented individuals.

Tune in to this episode and take your practice growth and staffing strategies to the next level!

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Sponsors:

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For DSO integrations, startup solutions, and all your dental IT needs, let our sponsors, Darkhorse Tech, help out so you can focus on providing the amazing care that you do. For 1 month of FREE service, visit their link today! https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/darkhorse-deal/

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You can reach out to Dan Johnson here:

Phone: 254-652-5717

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Mentions and Links:

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Podcast Episodes:

Feel Passion for Dentistry Again: 12-Months to Success with This Mindset Shift | Don Barden | MME – The Dental Marketer Podcast

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People:

Tim Cluley - Midwest Dental COO

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Software/Tools:

Indeed

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Places:

Zion National Park

Grand Canyon

Flagstaff

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Businesses:

Whataburger

MPS Program with Midwest Dental (Dental Supplies)

KFC

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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)‍

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Michael: Hey Dan, so talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning?

Dan: So a piece of advice I give is, something that we've dealt with in our, personal offices. And that is the hiring process of trying to keep and retain staff members. Over the years, about the last 12 years, as we had went from one practice to multiple practices, we found that hiring has been up and down.

When we first started hiring was easy. everybody wanted a job and it was a good place to work good field to work in, especially for the front desk. pretty easy eight to five job, but as the years have gone on and time has gotten tougher, and then minimum wage has gone way up.

Like before we could hire pretty effectively at a pretty decent wage and be competitive. But now a lot of places are, offering jobs at 17, an hour. And so our normal, quote unquote, easy front desk positions have been harder to find because they can go somewhere else. and find a job. So my bias is a way to not only hire, but to retain, employees.

And really for us what has happened is we have a great culture in office. We do the trips. We actually adjusted our schedule from eight to four. In our offices to try to help our team members be able to get off early get home to their kids when they get out of school because most of our team members are female and so they want to be home with the kids.

And then we also provide, lunch we kind of did it tailored to them, but we found over the, especially the last couple of years is itjust haven't been enough. We'll hire somebody on for a position, let's say a front desk position to answer phones. And three months later, when we do what we call check ins, we don't call reviews.

We call check ins to see how things are going. We might've hired this team member to come in from, 10 to six. three months down the road. They don't want to do it anymore.

When we meet with them, they're like, I don't want to do this, but they want us to give them a raise for less work. we've been struggling with how to coach. And how to uh, manage this, situation with all team members. we feel like we're a great workplace. We have good humor in office.

Our hours are good. Our pay is competitive. We do yearly trips, with our team Like we've been to Zion's national park. We went to grand Canyon. We've been to Flagstaff. We took our producers to Florida and then we incentivize. Every single one of our team has an incentive based program on top of their pay, based on goals we've set in our office.

so what we found with all that is, it's not enough. And it seems like never to be enough. And as business owners, it's frustrating because not only do we have to pay employees more and do incentives more we're a uh, PPO office So our insurance. premiums don't change. We have to write off 30 40 percent of everything that comes in pretty much.

And so we're actually losing money. We've lost more money over the years than we have because we can't adjust our fees. We adjust our fees. Insurance says it doesn't matter. You can raise it to 1000, decide how much we're gonna pay. And so we're trying to combat. rising costs and the ability to hire quality people.

so my bias to that is, is something that we actually found. I had a friend of mine that is in the dental field in Florida, reach out to me and said, Hey, we actually use virtual assistants. My first. Thought went to artificial intelligence, but all AI, cause it's a big craze, right?

There's a lot of really cool things with AI. And it's going to be in our lives forever. but I was like, hi, VAs, you virtual assistant, what can they do? And you know, like, well, they can credential, they can insurance verification, all these things.

And I'm like, I just don't know. But the kicker for me was, we put an ad out on Indeed and some local places here, and our main office is in Waco, Texas, and we got about 15 applicants and we set up interviews. we do a group interview, 10 of them showed up, so 5 out of those 15 that we said, hey, come to this interview at 4 o'clock, we didn't tell them it was a group interview, only 10 showed up.

in that 10 as we did the group interview, 3 of them left. we do it as a group so they can see their competition. there's a whole methodology of why we do it that way. So they can say well, man, she looks put together. He looks great. There's other people that want this job. Three of them walked out.

Michael: The three that walked out. They just walked out like once they got there, they're like at now and left her.

Dan: well, No, what happens is when we do the interview we breathe everybody of how, what our culture is like, my brother gets up and I get up and we just talk about what we're looking for.

are our cultures, our office and how we kind of operate. So it's not saying the same thing to. 10 different applicants when you get in the room. It's just saving time. But then at the end of it, we say, listen,listen, see all these people in this room. You're all going for the same job.

We have two positions available. we want to make sure that you're the right fit for us. And we're the right fit for you. And after we say that three people walked right and I don't know if it's the competition thing, or if it was just something that they. We're nervous about you just don't know They didn't give us a chanceand so through the interview process We actually have them when they sit down in the lobby before we start they thought of personality assessment We want to see what their personality is like see how they answer questions what they would do in certain Situations And a side note, a funny story we did once, we had them do what we call the hamburger test.

We gave everybody 5, and we said, I need you to go over here in Texas, Whataburger is a big thing. And so we're like, I need you to go over to Whataburger. But we gave every single one different instructions of how we wanted our hamburger. So one might be, I want no ketchup.

I want whore pickles and I want onions and one might be just one. My hammer are cut in half. Just simple instruction to see if they'd follow the instructions. And when they came back, some would come back with just regular hammer. We're like in the interview? Why didn't you follow instructions?

And they're like I didn't know if they would do that. And so automatically know they would follow instructions. If we give you detailed instructions of the employer, and it's written down, it should be pretty easy to follow those instructions.

Anyways, side story. That's how we ended up hiring one of our best employees way back. This is years ago. She's still with us is because she came back and we wanted to hammer cut in force. Not just half fours, she had to tell them,

I need my hamburger cut in fours, and I don't remember what else was on there like, half mustard on one side, half ketchup on one side.

And, she said she had to go back twice, because they cut it in half, and they didn't put the ketchup on in one half, and mustard on the other half. So it showed us that, That she was willing to take direction and go above and beyond to, get the hamburger, right? we did a couple of times, people got,people didn't like it so much.

And we had some team members like, ah, it just takes too long. But for me, it was kind of a cool way to see if people fall direction. anyways, back to the hiring is when we did the interviews, we hired two girls. four front office positions, but ours is different because our front office, we have four offices.

We have one girl that sits up front for check in and check out. Cause we do most of our check in. I like our payment in ops, patients. So there's not a lot of in and outs. So it's mainly just check in and then we're walking out and say, thanks for coming, here's your appointment card for the next.

so this was for our call center, which is in the back where they had all the insurance verifications, pretties, if they, we have two follow up calls, maybe it's a hygiene recall, recare, and we hired them. And within two weeks after we did it to train, we lost one just never showed up.

Don't know why competitive pay. No, qualms about Just didn't show up. The other one, after about three months we did our check in, I was telling you,and her, we hired her for a specific task. In that check in, she wanted more money. Well, I get paid this somewhere else. My friend works in another office and gets paid this. And I want to do less work. we can't do that. We can't be like, hey, I'm going to do less work on a patient. But I'm going to charge them more It's not how that works. Likeusually when you want more pay, there should be something behind a, Hey, I'm willing to do this. Or for us, we're like, Hey, you've been doing this awesome. We're going to reward with pay. or incentives or something where it's more. So what we found through that is, the virtual assistance have changed the game.

I took a chance because I was nervous. We're talking about virtual assistants from the Philippines. So not local because we have to competitive, right? And so we hired one, her name was chin. the cool thing about is when we hired her, it I use a third party company and they sent me a couple of resumes.

I picked the one. And then we did a virtual interview with all of them. And so I was able to talk to them and like me and you, I can see them. I could talk to them and I could ask them questions. And the reason why I wanted to do that and I thought it was cool is because then I could see How they react to certain questions, you know What kind of knowledge they had in the dental field which is important because most of the people we hired had no dental knowledge we were hiring them straight out where we had to do all the training And so you spend a month and all the money training and then they walk out or they leave super frustrating and just not business savvy And so with this virtual assistance, we found that These employees or their contracting employees.

They're not technically your employees that they work extremely hard They'll do anything that you need or want and they're willing to learn with no questions I can say I hired you for this position can you do this for me and they would not even question it jump on it and do it so the thing I took away from is sometimes we have to look outside the box Of what we're normally used to doing because I know this not only in our offices, I am part of Mps program with midwest dental supply.

They're a big supply company in texas and oklahoma I talked to Tim Cloutier, COO, and me and him are real good friends. he's told me over and over, like all his offices that his reps supply for struggle finding employees, not only clinical employees, but admin employees.

people are just looking for solutions. so I think the solution that you have to do is sometimes step outside your box. and find the untraditional ways of how do we grow as a business. doesn't mean you can't find really good people locally. And I think it's important that we try to find people locally.

But sometimes you have to say, okay, I have to do what's good for my business because I have people in my business to support. As a business, we're not only looking out for our paycheck. We are stewards of everybody that works for us. We help their family have food on the table, cars they drive, and it's important for us to keep that going and keep our business growing and thriving.

So not only we can help them, but we can also hire others to do other things. Like we started one office with four ops. one doctor and two hygienists. Now we have four offices. six doctors, eight hygienists, and about 30 admin assistants. just think about the impact that you can make on people's lives.

By doing that, by hiring and growing. I had one office that I was talking to me. He's like, well, I want to hire local. I just want to stay local. think it's more authentic. And I'm like, great. But if you're not getting the work and the value out of the people you're hiring locally, you're going to struggle to grow.

And then if you struggle growing, how are you going to hire more people? That's not how it works. So if you're able to bring people in on your team that can do things that you're not good or your team's not good at. Help you grow so you can hire more assistants or you can purchase another office or you're grown enough that you hire another doctor on your team or hygienist.

And so there's other ways to facilitate and make that process. Better for your office and for your team. it's just a different way because I know all offices are struggling with this the ones that I hear we've had people for 30 years. I'm like you've never had turnover Come on, all businesses have turnover all of them.

So because people leave and lot of times they just I think the grass is greener on the other side and people leave for a dollar more is your sanity and how you're perceived at work and your uh, how you feel worth a dollar more.

For me, it's not like I'd rather be in atmosphere that I really like and enjoy working in the people I work with and sacrifice a little bit of pay to have the enjoyment and not the stress. So. I gotta go to work today. You know, it's like, yeah, I get to go to work. I got cool people I work with.

We have fun. Yes. There's stressful days, but overall it is pretty amazing to work with the people I work with. And I'm lucky because I work with my brother, and some people might say that's It can be bad, but me and my brother are completely different, but it works well. He's a year younger than me.

And we've been good friends since we were little, and it's just worked very well. And so we'll continue everything we do. All our business stuff is me and my brother, any business thing I did, we do it. We're always involved with each other. So

Michael: it works out that way. Nice, man. So then.

Thinking outside the box. Awesome, man. So Dan, I appreciate your time. If anyone has further questions, you can definitely find them on the dental marketer society, Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you? Well, yeah,

Dan: reach out to me directly. I give my cell phone out to anybody. it's 254 652 5717 so you can text me a lot of people might have questions like how we did it with our virtual assistants or with our team a lot of people might have questions because my background is I'm not A doctor that's the difference people like oh my brother's a doctor.

on the business side. My background is I own a bunch of Kentucky Fried Chickens And when my brother was going to Ohio state, he said, Hey, would you ever come help me run my dental practices? Long story short is, I ended up selling my franchises, moving down to Texas when he had one practice but we had a goal of how we were going to grow it.

And so my perspective is a little bit different than a dentist perspective or a clinician perspective because most of the dentists out there that are listening, They don't make you take business classes, which is just crazy to me. you're going to school to be a dentist.

Most of them come out as owners. But they're not sure what to do. And so finding somebody that can do things for you, to help you grow a business is the best way, to grow. One of the best advices I've ever had. had Don Bardem on your podcast. little bit ago, right?

. Mm-Hmm, . He,

Dan: He gave me advice about eight years ago. Don's a mentor of mine and he told me the smartest people in the world put people around them that are smarter and better than them at things they can't do. And that helps everybody grow. And so that's what we've done is. I might be good at certain things, but when I grow businesses, I put people on my team that are better things that I'm not good at.

I'm more of a big thinker. I'm not a more of a structural, do things in North. So I find somebody that can do that for me. keep me on task and do this. And can it be frustrating sometimes for sure, but overall it is well worth putting people around you. And that's how me and my brother have done it.

His strengths are not my strengths. My strengths are not his strengths. But it works well together to how we have grown from one practice. With four ops We grew it and we built it now at 17 authorities with four doctors and four hygienists.

And so through the program and putting people around you is something that has helped us push past and grow professionally and, in our just personal life.

Michael: No, that's beautiful. That's great advice. So that's going to be in the show notes below. Reach out to Dan at the same time, Dan, thank you so much for being with me on this Monday morning episode.

Dan: Thanks, guys.

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How can you thrive in the dental industry without it consuming your life and identity? In this episode, Dr. Matt Vogt returns to the podcast, sharing his incredible journey from a budding dentist to a successful coach with The Lifestyle Practice (TLP). We dive into Matt's experiences, exploring the evolution of his startup practice into a flourishing establishment with multiple staff members and a thriving culture. Matt candidly discusses the importance of hiring the right people, fostering a positive work atmosphere, and evolving as a leader to build a self-sustaining team.

Matt also opens up about the challenges that come with practice ownership, including dealing with burnout and maintaining a positive mindset. He reveals how shifting his mindset played a crucial role in managing these hurdles, and emphasizes the significance of focusing on what can be controlled. Matt also touches on the insights and support provided by TLP, explaining how their coaching focuses on business systems, leadership, and mindset to ensure sustainable growth. Whether you're in the beginning of your startup journey or a multi-practice owner, this episode offers a wealth of advice and inspiration.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How Dr. Matt Vogt built a thriving dental practice from scratch.
• The key to creating a strong, positive work culture in your practice.
• The impact of hiring the right people and fostering long-term employee loyalty.
• Practical advice on decisive business decision-making.
• Strategies to prevent burnout and maintain a positive mindset in practice ownership.
• How to integrate dentistry into life without letting it consume your identity.
• The role and benefits of The Lifestyle Practice (TLP) coaching in achieving personal and professional growth.

Ready to transform your approach to practice ownership and learn from Dr. Matt Vogt's journey? Tune in now!

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Sponsors:
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For high quality AND affordable dental supply options, visit The Dentists Supply Company(TDSC) website today! Our listeners get a special deal - 25% off on orders over $500 - Just type in the special code: TDM25 at checkout for your exclusive offer. AND if you're a member of your state's Dental Association, you may be eligible for additional savings upon providing your ADA number. Click or copy and paste the link here to save today! https://www.tdsc.com/

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Guest: Dr. Matt VogtBusiness Name: The Lifestyle PracticeCheck out Matt's Media:

Practice Website: https://thedentistsatgc.com/

Website: http://thelifestylepractice.com

Email: [email protected]

TLP Podcast For Dentists: https://thelifestylepracticepodcast.podbean.com/

What quality of life is your practice affording you? - Survey: https://thelifestylepractice.com/quality-of-life/

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Other Mentions and Links:

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Software/Tools:

Facebook Ads

Google Ads

Facebook Live

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People:

Dr. Justin Short

Dr. Derek Williams

Dr. Steve Van De Graaff

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Podcast Episodes:

(Quick Decisions in the Practice Episode) - TLP For Dentists

131: Dr. Matt Vogt | The Dentists at Gateway Crossing – The Dental Marketer Podcast

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Businesses/Brands:

UPS

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Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

‍
Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

‍

p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

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Are you thinking about launching a dental startup but don't quite know where to begin? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Chris Green to dive into the essentials of setting up a new dental practice, beginning with the crucial steps of demographics analysis and site selection. Chris shares his insights on the "windshield test," a simple method to augment data analysis with hands-on site evaluation. He also reveals practical strategies for identifying promising locations, accounting for natural barriers, and balancing commercial and residential areas—all keys to making sound, long-term decisions for your practice.

The conversation continues with essential advice on how to work effectively with real estate agents and what to consider during site visits. Chris also discusses his book, "The Eminently Qualified Dentist," which includes a valuable self-evaluation scorecard to help dental professionals assess their leadership skills. As the episode wraps up, you'll get tips on regular self-assessment and Chris' philosophy on being always a work in progress.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why demographics analysis is critical for dental startups
• How to perform the "windshield test" to evaluate potential practice locations
• Effective strategies for identifying the best areas for a new dental practice
• Tips for navigating natural barriers and balancing commercial-residential zones
• How to collaborate with real estate agents to find the perfect site
• Insights from Chris' book on self-evaluation and leadership in dental practice
• The importance of regular self-assessment for continuous improvement

Tune in now to equip yourself with the tools for a successful startup!

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Sponsors:

Studio 8E8: Dentistry’s story-driven marketing agency. Traditional marketing repels. Story-first dental marketing attracts.

We bring your story to life in a way that captivates and connects: https://s8e8.com/affiliates/tdm?utm_source=tdm&utm_medium=affiliate&wc_clear=true

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You can reach out to Dr. Chris Green here:

Website: thepracticelaunchpad.com

Email: [email protected]

Chris' Book - The Eminently Qualified Dentist: https://a.co/d/3AgXjbI (Reach out to Chris for a free copy!)

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Mentions and Links:

‍

People:

Dr. Thomas Reed

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Software/Tools:

CoStar

‍

Podcasts:

Jocko Willink Podcast

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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

Michael: Hey, Chris, we'll talkto us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning?

Chris: Hey there, Michael. I'd like to talk about demographics and actually the analysis of driving and having the area or the location you pick pass the feel and the site test more so than just the numbers test.

talk to me a little bit about that like driving around and just looking or.Yeah. So it's a little bit.more intuitive than that. we have our demographics reports. We might be looking at them. We're looking for that 3, 001 dentists to population ratio, you know, the high income area.

But then we have to look at how does it feel? Does it pass the windshield test? When I drive by behind the numbers, what does it feel like? So that's what I like to do.

Michael: What's the windshield test?

Chris: Yeah, so just. behind the steering wheel, you know, you're looking out the windshield and you're looking around and you're like, oh, cool.

There's a lot of homes being built or. Oh, wow. You know, The demographics report said this was only like 1800 to 1, but I'm not really seeing the dentists. where are they at? so does it pass the eye test? So to speak would be maybe another way to say that.

Michael: Gotcha. Okay. I like that.

So then if you can, let's just say we're listening to this and we decided to do that. We're taking a drive strategically. How should we start? What are we mainly looking for that are red flags and what are some things that. We can probably let pass.

Chris: Sure. So one thing that's well, known, if you've researched anything on demographics with a startup are natural barriers, like a highway that maybe people wouldn't want to cross or by us, there's the foothills in Colorado.

So there's no real homes along the foothills. So now I've just eliminated growth to the West of me completely. Right. So if I'm butted up too close to there. And a couple more dentists come in and there's not a lot of room for new homes. I could be in trouble long term and I'm praying for turnover of the existing home, so to speak.

The other thing would be, how much commercial real estate is in the area. Is there more commercial than residential, We want a nice balance of both and a lot of times in these newer areas that are up and coming The residential is there before the commercial is developed. So a lot of these projects are ground up commercial that we see a lot of startups going into they're waiting for the developers to finish to give them that great show

Michael: How do we know that's a good balance then the commercial? And then the residential,

Chris: some point you got to go with your gut and say, this is the location, right? You've worked with plenty of startups over the years. I'd turn the question back on you. What's your opinion on, some of that?

Michael: Oh man. so when we focus, we focus just on ground marketing, right? So if it's commercial. We do want a lot of commercial, if it's residential, you have the HOAs, you have a lot of other specific things that you can be a part of. So I don't know, I guess it just depends on the type of practice you want to be right in the city, specific suburban area.

Chris: Yeah, that's a great point. Are we talking a city and urban type atmosphere, rural or suburban for me? Just, I would say 80 percent of people are going to go to a larger suburb close to a major city. Let's say within 20 minutes to an hour outside a major city, Denver, Chicago San Francisco, whatever it may be.

Michael: Yeah, gotcha. Okay. you're investing so much money into this, right? Your startup. Why wouldn't, not everyone just want to do this?

Chris: And you said, hey, bring something that's unpopular. It's a little ambiguous, right? What I'm saying, it's not quite a science. It's a little bit of driving around, analyze the competition.

Maybe your real estate agent didn't show you place that was available that has great visibility that meets the demographics and everything. But it just isn't on their radar and you have to say, Hey such such real estate agent. Would you mind looking into this place? It looks like it's vacant.

Looks like it could be a good opportunity. I've seen situations like that work out really well for startup clients.

Michael: Okay. So when you talk to them, real estate agent, is there a way you would want to bring that up to let them know like, Hey, you missed a lot of stuff. Or no,

Chris: Some of them might be directing you where they know they're going to get a nice commission on it. But other times it's just not on the market, right? Maybe the hasn't listed it. maybe it's just doesn't show up on their searches on, what is it? CoStar or whatever. or maybe they didn't realize it was in a good demographic zone.

Based on your demographics reports. So it's a team approach. Remember no one is more invested in this than you, the startup doc, So they're dealing with maybe, 20 clients at a time or something like that, you have your one little baby, you gotta do everything possible to make sure it's a home run.

Michael: Nice. I like that. So Chris, you also have a book that you just came out with, right?

Chris: Correct.

So the book's called the eminently qualified dentist. I was listening to the Jocko Willink podcast and he talked about the eminently qualified Marine and I printed out this sheet and itit's about Marines and likethe levels of leadership what would signify that you're good at your job as a Marine.

And I was like, wow, what if there was a scorecard that we could more objectively evaluate ourselves as dental practice leaders. so myself and Dr. Tom Reed compiled with or 12 categories the practice culture.

Marketing leadership so on and so forth.And then some descriptions and ranking yourself from zero to five. And at the end, you could fill out the scorecard let's say you did that today, and maybe you've been working on some things you check in, six months from now, take test again and you see, Hey,it looks like I'm doing a little bit better as a leader.

It looks like I am growing in the trajectories in the right direction.So that was the idea behind the book and it's quick read, more of an evaluation something that you might take on a flight,fill it out, read it, and then, reevaluate yourself.

Michael: So if you can, one of the main things on there that you do, would you recommend, Hey, we should probably reevaluate ourselves every how often,

Chris: maybe quarterly, there used to be a scorecard that I would use and evaluate quarterly, definitely annually when you're doing your maybe annual goal setting and things like that.but for maybe a book like this, twice a year,

Michael: If you can let us know right now, where do you feel like, okay, I need to improve on this?

Chris: Sure. I would say if a hundred percent, means. You've got it all dialed in. I would say we're probably lying to ourselves. I would say where I could improve a little bit more is with hard So you could always get better at having those hard conversations and not putting hard conversations off. I would say that would be an area for me to focus on.

Michael: Yeah, man, that's interesting. So it does dive deep into the, not just like, what's your production looking

like? What do you want it to be? But it's. goes into the granular part of conversations, which honestly Chris like, I feel like that's hard for anybody. You know what I mean? Like that's a, a difficult, nobody loves to be like, I love coming in and having difficult conversations.

Maybe like 01 percent people, but that's good, man. Okay. So then this is available where?

Chris: This would be available on Amazon. It's called the eminently qualified dentist. I it's 19 or 20. I've sent out a lot of free copies as well. So just hit us up if you want a copy I've got some good feedback so far for the people that have actually gone through it.

It's, a reality check, right? When we introspective and evaluate how we're showing up to the world. we're always a work in progress is how I look at myself. So. There's always room for improvement and it's like when one category starts to do well, maybe another one suffers and it teeter totters.

So it's hard to find that balance and everything.

Michael: Yeah, no, a hundred percent, man. We go through seasons all the time, but awesome. Chris, I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find them on the dental marketer society, Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly?

Chris: Sure. I'll just give my personal email. C M green D M D at gmail. com. You can also find me at the launchpad. com, which is our startup coaching group.

Michael: Nice. Awesome. So that's going to be in the show notes below and Chris, thank you for being with me on this Monday morning episode.

Chris: Hey, I really appreciate you having me, Michael.

Thank you.

How can a servant approach to leadership transform a dental practice? In this episode, Michael sits down with Dr. Bobby Grossi to explore his unique approach to patient care that goes beyond dental health to embrace overall wellness. Dr. Grossi shares his journey from dental school to owning a successful practice known for its holistic care and efficiency. By reverse-engineering his patient care model, Dr. Grossi ensures maximum efficiency and convenience, meeting all patient needs in one visit. He discusses the vital role of human capital, emphasizing staff development, ego removal, and the practice of regular performance reviews for continual improvement.

Dr. Grossi also provides practical insights on fostering a patient-centered practice culture. He shares his methods for effective communication, tailored consultations, and transparent payment plans, which build trust and commitment with patients. He addresses the challenges of handling difficult patients and the importance of maintaining a positive atmosphere by dismissing non-compliant or disrespectful individuals. With advice on mentoring staff, embracing challenges, and having a clear vision, Dr. Grossi’s approach serves as a roadmap for dentists and practice owners aiming for success and patient satisfaction.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• What it means to practice servant leadership in dentistry.
• How a holistic approach can enhance patient care beyond dental health.
• The benefits of reverse-engineering patient care models for efficiency.
• Strategies for investing in staff development and acknowledging their contributions.
• Importance of removing ego and practicing regular performance reviews.
• Tips for effective patient communication and building trust.
• Handling difficult patients and maintaining a positive practice culture.
• The role of transparent payment plans in securing patient commitment.
• Dr. Grossi's philosophy on the abundance mindset in attracting appreciative patients.
• Advice for younger dentists on embracing challenges and maintaining a clear vision.

Listen to this episode now to hear Dr. Bobby Grossi’s valuable insights on leading with care and efficiency!

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‍
Sponsors:
‍

For high quality AND affordable dental supply options, visit The Dentists Supply Company(TDSC) website today! Our listeners get a special deal - 25% off on orders over $500 - Just type in the special code: TDM25 at checkout for your exclusive offer. AND if you're a member of your state's Dental Association, you may be eligible for additional savings upon providing your ADA number. Click or copy and paste the link here to save today! https://www.tdsc.com/

‍

Guest: Dr. Bobby GrossiPractice Name: Grossi Dental & WellnessCheck out Bobby's Media:

Practice Website: https://www.grossidentalandwellness.com/

Website: https://thedentistceo.com/

Email: [email protected]

Podcast - Relentlessly Committed: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relentlessly-committed/id1501523027

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobbygrossidds/

‍

Other Mentions and Links:

‍

Software/Tools:

Facebook Ads

‍

People:

John Maxwell

‍

Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

‍
Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

‍

p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

‍

Are you feeling burned out or stuck in your profession? In this Monday Morning Episode, we're sitting down with Don Barden, an esteemed economist with over 25 years of experience on Wall Street who now dedicates his expertise to the dental industry. With a Ph.D. and deep understanding of financial markets, Don shares his unique perspective on the mental roadblocks that dentists face. He introduces a compelling framework that categorizes dentists into four types: failures, frustrated, traditionally successful, and transformative practitioners. Don's goal? To guide dental professionals in shifting their mindset, reigniting their passion, and paving the way for enduring success and fulfillment in their careers.

Drawing from his vast experience, Don lays out concrete strategies for developing the right mindset while steering clear of unproductive social expectations. He talks about the transformative power of focusing on personal and professional growth and stresses the importance of a self-managed practice. The discussion is packed with valuable advice for dentists aspiring to elevate both their career satisfaction and financial success. By the end of the episode, you'll be equipped with actionable insights to embark on a journey toward a thriving and lucrative dental practice.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The four types of dentists and where you might fit in.
• Why mindset is critical for overcoming frustration and burnout.
• Practical steps to shift your thinking and reignite your passion for dentistry.
• How social frameworks may hinder your progress and how to block them out.
• The benefits of committing to continuous personal and professional growth.
• Strategies for developing a self-managed, successful dental practice.
• How to unlock potentially lucrative opportunities within the dental industry.

Let's listen in to these transformative insights with Don today!

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Sponsors:

For DSO integrations, startup solutions, and all your dental IT needs, let our sponsors, Darkhorse Tech, help out so you can focus on providing the amazing care that you do. For 1 month of FREE service, visit their link today! https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/darkhorse-deal/

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You can reach out to Don Barden here:

Website: https://donbarden.com/

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donwbarden/

‍

Mentions and Links:

Books:

The Self-Managing Company: Freeing yourself up from everything that prevents you from creating a 10x bigger future.

‍

People:

Dan Sullivan

‍

Places/Economy:

Wall Street

‍

If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

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Michael: Hey, Don, so talk to us before we jump into the one piece of advice. If you can give us a little bit about your background, who you are.

Don: Yeah, I appreciate this. First of all, before we even get going, I want to thank you for what you're doing. I tell you, this show is as good as it gets for getting people pumped up and ready to go and getting that information out quickly to people who need it the most.

So forget about me, man. I just want to thank you for for what you're doing. And yeah, I'll give you a quick background I'm a classically trained economist, Ph. D. S.25 plus years on Wall Street. I know economics inside and out, but I'm really a frustrated anthropologist.

So I care more about the decisions people make I care about yield curves and interest rates. So we can talk about that, but it's boring. What's important and I think this is so applicable to the dental industry. is what's happening. How does it make you feel? And most importantly, what do you want?

And I think that's one of the big struggles right now in dentistry. I've worked with dentists literally all over the world. It's my favorite group to work with. And for a couple of reasons one, most dentists out there are very frustrated right now. And they're frustrated because they fallen out of love.

With their first love or their first career love and that's dentistry and they didn't fall out of love with the active dentistry. They fell out of love with all the crap that comes with it, Cause nobody tells dentists how to run their business and what to do. money comes in, money goes out, you keep what's left over.

but then you wake up one day and you don't feel good and you're frustrated. But here's what I've learned is why I just love dentists. Dentists at their core are caregivers. They got into it with some unique path. Every dentist has got a cool story. But at the end of the day, when they get into it, they are caregivers and dentistry is a way to continue to care for people and the better they are at it and the more excited they are about it, the more the universe gives them opportunities and new patients and things to go out there and help and serve people.

Dentistry is a self fulfilling prophecy. for a love and it's a love that dentists have for their craft and for caring for people. Dude, of all the people I work with around the world, they're the best because they have that thing, that just makes them special. So, I've had a good career as a professor, as a consultant, as a wall street guy.

And at the end of the day, if I could just spend the rest of my days with dentists, I'd do it. Cause they're, that cool.

Michael: So like, what would be the one piece of advice you'd like to give us that can move the needle here?

Don: Yeah. When I say dentists are frustrated, a really unique proposition because there's only four times a dentist out there. There's the failures, the frustrated, the traditionally successful, and then transformatives. most people in the consulting world or whatever, they prey on. vendors are the same way that people are trying to sell you folks stuff.

They go after the failures because you're drowning and you'll do anything not to drown so they can sell you more stuff or they go after the traditionally successful. And those are the dentists that are just sitting around. They got a good, you're a member of the country club. Kids are in a private school.

You feel good about your spouse. Everything is good, but you're not going to do anything to disrupt that. Those folks take no risk. But what's interesting is where the market goes. Cause they think, everybody knows you, or, oh, you have a thousand new patients a month, or, oh, you got this. We need to do it.

The reality is you're not gonna do anything. It's because you're traditionally successful. You made it. Okay. You're not going to do it. The two types of dentists that I like are the other two, the frustrated, who are folks that are just raising their hand saying, I need help, but I don't know where to go.

Can you help me get from here to here? And then the transformatives. Those are the dentists that are always looking forward, always saying, I want to try something new. I want to continue to grow. I want to serve more people. How do I continue to transform? So I think the first thing dentists have to do right now is ask themselves, Are you a failure?

Or you're just frustrated. Are you a traditionally successful person, which means you're pretending, you don't want to risk anything. You're just going to pull up in your cocoon or are you transformative?

either way, the dentists that are going to survive and be happiest in the future or the frustrated and transformative, it's not going to be traditionally successful. It's certainly not going to be the failures. So if somebody's listening to this, they're like I'm a little frustrated.

Okay, let me tell you what to do. Or even if you're transformative, I'll give you the same advice. You might want to have to write this down. You need to change the way you think about how you think, about the way that you think about your thinking. You got that? So don't change your mind on something.

Change the way you think. About how you think about your thinking. And then what happens if you look out there and you realize, I need to get rid of all this social construct, this framework of what I read and what my buddies are telling me and what I see these other people who aren't even in the industry doing.

Forget that. Here's what dentists really want, whether they're frustrated or whether they're transformative, they want the same thing. They just don't know how to voice it. And this is what we try to help them go, wow, you're right. So many dentists right now are frustrated. They want out, they want to just quit.

They want to dump, they want to say, I'll sell it. I'll make a few bucks and I can brag to the country club that I sold my business and my spouse will be fine. And my kids will be okay. I'm not going to do the math about being broke when I'm 75 or 80, but we'll figure it out. I just want to go.

That's what the industry is telling you to do. You need to change the way you think about that. Maybe your frustration doesn't warrant selling and then transforming is the same way. When you're transformative, the universe brings every opportunity possible to you. And when that happens, you're going to get some people coming in and going, we love you.

We want to be a part of you. We'll pay you X amount more than what you're worth because we like what you build. And frankly, we think we can do it better. Yeah. Don't fall for that. So here's what I tell people when you're frustrated or when you're transformative, what you really want is a choice.

You don't want to say I can sell out and just put some money in my pocket. You want to commit to changing the way you think about how you think about the way that you think about your thinking and say, look, if I can roll up my sleeves and over the next 12 months, I really get back into this. I really put my head down.

I really start focusing on team development. I start focusing on the economics of what's happening. I start looking into the future and create a plan. First thing that's gonna happen is you're gonna fall in love again with the craft. You're gonna fall in love and say, Oh my God, when I start blocking all the noise out, I stopped worrying about the social construct or the framework about what everybody else is saying and doing.

I forget what my buddies at the country club are saying. I commit with enormous amounts of courage and capability. I commit to 12 months of real focus. Which means I'm going to become self managed as Dan Sullivan said. So I'm going to be a guy or lady in this business who I can walk away for a month, take my kids to Europe and Asia and Australia and come back and I made more money than I would have made if I was here.

That's what you want. But to do that, you got to change the way you think about how you think about the way you think about your thinking. what happens if you roll up your sleeves for 12 months and really get in, you're going to get some help. Sometime bring in people who are going to help you out.

Here's what's going to happen. You're going to wake up in 12 months. And 1st of all, you're gonna be in love with the business again, which is a beautiful, wonderful feeling. But number two, you're going to find that that choice has two sides to it. And it's both in your favor that you sit there and look at it and go, Oh my God.

Thankfully I've spent 12 months getting my life back together, focusing on my practice, team development, everything I need to do. I've got so many new pages coming in. I'm frankly in love again, and I'm making so much money. Why would I sell I'm making money when I'm not even here.

Why would I sell? Or when opportunity does knock, guess what? You're going to sit there and go, yeah, man, we're making a fortune. You don't even need me. This is a self managed practice. My name's not on the marquee. This is a machine that is just pumping out money. I'd sell it to you, but how serious are you?

And now you're gonna see a premium kick in. So imagine that in 12 months you went from frustrated or transformative to so unbelievably happy that you have a choice. I love my business again. I'm making so much money. It's crazy. I can take months off and make more money by not working than working.

I am in love and I'm making a lot of money and there's no end in sight to it. Why would I leave? Somebody might come up and offer you so much money. It's ridiculous. Real money, adult money, because you've created a self managed business that runs on its own. It's growing and it's got so much enthusiasm that it's contagious.

That gets you a premium. So don't think about what am I going to do to sell. Don't think about what am I going to do because I'm miserable. Think about how can I change my thinking? How can I commit with courage to seek the capabilities necessary to go out and just rock it? And when I do, I'm going to have some ups and downs.

during this next 12 months, and I always tell people this, if you're really committed to doing this, You're going to learn the art of being a successful manic depressant. Because one minute you're up, one minute you're down. One minute you're up, one minute you're down. But then it starts shortening and then before you know it, you say to yourself, holy cow, these swings aren't like they used to be.

My company's running on its own and it's great. And you sit back and you're in love again, you're making money again, and now you have a choice. And I think that's the biggest thing dentistry is facing right now is they don't think they have a choice anymore, but the only person that owns that is you, the dentist.

And if you say, I'm willing to change the way I think about my thinking and I'm willing to commit with courage and I'm going to go for these next 12 months and roll up my sleeves. So I know in 12 months I'm either going to be making so much money and it's crazy that I wouldn't ever want to walk away from my first true professional love.

dentistry or because of that, these folks that are throwing money around and throw real money around and when they do, that's a good day too. But either way, you now have a choice. You've got the high ground and you're driving it, but it comes from commitment and courage to change the way you think about how you think about the way that you think about your thinking.

And it puts a bogey out there that if you do it, man, it's just like working out, 90 days. It's going to be better if you focus on yourself and your business to drive not to sell Not to not feel miserable, but to drive to a point of nirvana where you have a choice Dude, there's nothing wrong with that And I see dennis all the time And it usually changes the mind when I just say the one thing Would you like to fall in love again with your career see men and women tear up because the real answer is yes I All right, it's going to take some work.

It's going to take commitment and courage. We're going to get the capabilities out there. dude, in the blink of an eye, it's going to be 12 months down the road. And since you had the courage to change the way you think about how you think about the way that you think about your thinking, you now have choice.

And both those choices are good. And the ultimate scenario is when you're in a position where you can't make a bad decision. You stay and keep it? Great. You sell it for a super premium? Great. They're both good decisions. So that's it, You know, Change the way you think about how you think about the way that you're thinking.

Be honest with you. Am I a failure? Am I frustrated? Am I traditionally successful? Or am I transformative? Either way, if you're honest, and you say, I want to fall in love with it again, change the way you think about how you think about the way you think about your thinking. Have commitment and courage and go out there and rock it.

And there's so many scholars out there, Dan Sullivan, all of them, who talk about that. You get out there and do that, you'll be in love again, and that's all anybody wants, right?

Michael: Yeah.

Don: It's a great thing. And dentistry is set for some big economic upturns right now. But it's going to be those who follow that path.

there's nothing wrong with having a good choice.

Michael: Yeah, to change the mindset of it. Awesome, I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions Where can they find you?

Don: Yeah, they find me on LinkedIn. Just say, Hey Don, I heard you on this show. Anybody who I do a podcast for, and I'm happy to do this for your listeners.

we wrote a book years ago that's, I think in 39 countries that talks about this type of mindset. I'll send anybody a free eCopy of it if they want, but they can reach out to me on LinkedIn or you can just send me a direct email at [email protected]. It's DON at dwb. A. R. D. E. N. dot com. I answer every email myself.

I talked to everybody. We got a great team here, but man, I'd love to help anybody out if they want to reach out and you just need a kind word. I'll be happy to move you from failure to frustrated. Or if you say I'm stuck in this loop of being traditionally successful, and that's not really me, but I'm stuck.

I want to get back to being transformative. Love your work, man. And I really appreciate what you're doing here.

Michael: Awesome. So that's going to be in the show notes below and also on the dental marketer society, Facebook group. And Don, thank you so much for being with me on this Monday morning episode.

Don: Hey man, keep it up. You're doing great work and just thrilled and honored to be here. So thank you.

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How is data driving the dental industry now more than ever? In this episode, we dive deep with Steven Maroulis, the visionary CEO of Jarvis Analytics, to explore the transformative power of data analytics in the dental industry. Steven takes us on a fascinating journey from his beginnings in a marketing agency to spearheading a company that's reshaping how DSOs and group practices operate. You’ll hear about the pivotal moments in Jarvis Analytics' evolution, including their significant partnership with Henry Schein One, and how their innovative solutions are driving operational efficiency and enhancing patient experiences.

Steven unpacks the critical metrics that DSOs need to track—like new patient acquisition, retention rates, and no-show percentages—and shows how focusing on these key performance indicators can lead to smarter, data-driven decisions. He discusses the role of modern technologies like AI and automation in eliminating manual tasks, thus allowing staff to dedicate more time to patient care. Through real-life examples, Steven explains the powerful impact of targeted marketing campaigns on patient acquisition and retention. You'll even hear about how detailed patient data can set up your Invisalign days for success, effectively turning your community into committed patients. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why embracing data analytics is not just a trend, but a game-changer for dental practices.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How Steven Maroulis transitioned from marketing to data analytics in the dental industry.
• Key milestones in the growth and evolution of Jarvis Analytics.
• The essential KPIs dental practices should track to improve operational efficiency and patient experience.
• How to effectively reduce no-show rates with automated patient reminders.
• The role of AI and automation in driving practice efficiency.
• Detailed patient data's impact on running successful targeted marketing campaigns.
• Practical examples of boosting conversion rates for procedures like Invisalign.
• Steven’s vision for the future of fully automated data collection and analysis in dental practices.

Let's dive into this episode with, Steven Maroulis, to discover how data analytics can take your dental practice to the next level!

‍

‍
Sponsors:
‍

For high quality AND affordable dental supply options, visit The Dentists Supply Company(TDSC) website today! Our listeners get a special deal - 25% off on orders over $500 - Just type in the special code: TDM25 at checkout for your exclusive offer. AND if you're a member of your state's Dental Association, you may be eligible for additional savings upon providing your ADA number. Click or copy and paste the link here to save today! https://www.tdsc.com/

‍

Guest: Steven MaroulisBusiness Name: Jarvis AnalyticsCheck out Steven's Media:

Website: https://www.jarvisanalytics.com/

Email: [email protected]

Henry Schein One Benchmark Report 2024: https://info.henryscheinone.com/2024_benchmark_study

‍

Other Mentions and Links:

‍

Terms:

ROAS - Return on Ad Spend

‍

Software/Tools:

CallRail

Salesforce

Qlik

ChatGPT

Google Ads

Build Your Own KPI Tool

‍

Practice Management Software:

Eaglesoft

‍

Dental Brands/Businesses:

Henry Schein

MB2 Dental

Smile Brands

42 North Dental

Elite Dental Partners

Invisalign

Floss Dental

Ideal Dental

Deca Dental

Altima Dental

P4Denstist

Lighthouse 360+

Demandforce

Patient Engage

Sesame Communications

Great Expressions

‍

Establishments/Organizations:

Vanderbilt Health

Change Healthcare

Fred Loya Insurance

‍

People

Justin Puckett

‍

Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

‍
Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

‍

p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

‍

‍

‍

Could Instagram ads be the key to effectively marketing your practice? In this conversation, Dr. Anissa Holmes uncovers the secrets to leveraging Instagram ads to attract new patients and build a thriving practice. With her expert guidance, you'll learn how creating strategic video content, such as showcasing your practice’s unique features and sharing compelling patient testimonials, can drive local traffic and convert viewers into loyal patients. Dr. Holmes makes it clear that with even a minimal ad spend, you can achieve significant results that benefit your practice.

Dr. Holmes also takes you behind the scenes of her marketing agency, Digital Floss, and shares practical advice for dental professionals operating on a tight budget. From building a community of brand ambassadors to utilizing interactive quizzes and landing pages for effective lead generation, this episode is packed with actionable tips. Whether you’re new to digital marketing or looking to refine your existing strategy, Dr. Holmes provides the blueprint for success!

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How to use Instagram ads to attract new patients to your dental practice
• Techniques for creating engaging video content that highlights practice differentiators
• The impact of patient testimonials on local traffic and patient conversion
• Budget-friendly strategies for running effective Instagram ads
• How to build a community of loyal brand ambassadors
• Utilizing quizzes and landing pages for effective lead capture
• Practical marketing advice for practices with limited budgets

Don’t miss out on these expert tips – tune in to hear Dr. Holmes' invaluable advice today!

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Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here:

Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/

‍

You can reach out to Dr. Anissa Holmes here:

Website: https://www.digitalfloss.com/

‍

Mentions and Links:

Tools/Resources:

Instagram Ads

Boost Post

Google Ads

Upwork

Squarespace

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Brands/Products:

Invisalign

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People:

Dr. Ashley Joves

Russell Brunson

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Community/Groups:

The Making of a Dental Startup Group

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Books:

Expert Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Creating a Mass Movement of People Who Will Pay for Your Advice

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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

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Michael: Hey, Anissa. So talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning?

Anissa: Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, thank you for having me. so one thing that a lot of people are not aware of are the power Of Instagram ads.

this is something that I have been using for quite some time. I do have a marketing agency that focuses on social media, but what's really powerful about Instagram ads is that it's almost like when Facebook just got started and nobody knew about Facebook ads. Like it's literally happening right now.

And many of you early days of Michael's podcast, you know, you've heard me speaking about social media and Facebook, this is better than when I was teaching Facebook guys, the results are insane. what you're able to do If you have videos that you're putting up, so these are going to be.

Reels, where people can go and see that you're an expert or what makes your practice different, or maybe it's going to be a video testimonial, but putting a little bit of ad spend on it, So going in and boosting that video. And again, it's just going in following the prompts. But once you're doing that, a couple things happen, You're able to have people on your team helping you. Thousands and thousands of views. For example, in our agency, Digital Floss, we had a client who was not an extrovert, Very quiet, very humble very, kind, very shy, almost ish. And being able to have those videos. highlight the sweetness of this particular doctor and how they were there to really serve the community and the things that they were working on in terms of Invisalign and those things.

So anyway, you put the Instagram ads in and you can literally spend about 5 a day. And with that over a month, we were able to get about 30, 000 of views on her video of people that were five miles from her practice. Now, this is huge, but it doesn't stop there. All The other powerful thing is that when you're running.

Instagram ads. You have the ability within the ad itself to be able to drive visibility or traffic, if you will, to somewhere else, whether it's going to be your website, whether it's going to be your online booking link. My favorite is actually a digital marketing funnel, So imagine now having a quiz where people can see if they are a candidate.

For clear liners, or they are a candidate for dental implants, or if they qualify or pre qualify for financing right now, all of that traffic can go to that website where you are able to also collect email addresses if you have the right internal processes or team. Or agency and process to be able to call those leads to get them pre qualified to give them book the sky's the limit.

But again, being able to spend, that amount of money, a dollar or less per click to your website is huge. So again, imagine spending, like 5 a day or even committing to, you know, 100 budget. Being able to get a hundred people to click to your website and being able to get, 000 views is huge.

So that's the biggest thing that no one is talking about. There are definitely some people that are talking about Instagram out there that are teaching Instagram. If you go and look at their individual Instagram pages, though, there's typically, you'll see 300 views on their videos or a thousand views on their videos, right?

Maybe. Maybe, that allows me to really understand that that's not being done. it's all about getting people in your local market to see it. Compiling that with what Michael teaches, right? With all the ground marketing. It's really powerful. Google's great. But what can we do on the organic side so that people in our own neighborhoods, in our own communities are talking about us.

And so going into Instagram ads, compiling with that ground marketing guys is like game changer.

Michael: So if we wind a little bit, how can the community, see that they're an expert, for example, the videos that they boost, how do we know post is boost worthy or we're looking at it and we're like, that wasn't the best post.

Anissa: Yeah, so definitely there's some strategy behind it. I've seen lots of things again, just evaluating, but what works really well is utilizing the three opportunities at the top of your reels or your actual posts to be able to pen. Okay. And so what I recommend, whether it's either a photo post or a video is that the first real estate, the first post that you have pinned on the left.

Is going to be, what makes your, practice different? So what makes Glee Dental different, why are our patients choosing us, The middle one should be your focus, So if that quarter you want to focus on clear aligners, so you want to focus on all on four.

What do you want to be known for, Whatever that is, That video needs to be in the middle and the one all the way to the right is going to be a patient testimonial. So now within one quick glance, they're able to see that you're the expert why people are choosing you or what sets you apart.

And at the same time, have an actual patient validating or vouching for your practice. I actually recommend to just have an ongoing budget of five dollars a day. And those will ultimately with that strategy will wind up having before, you know, at 100, 000 views, 200, 000 views.

And again, being very strategic and, putting in the address of your practice location. And that allows you to, again, be able to target people that are five miles for your practice. And then. If you have an ongoing content strategy, which I 100 percent recommend, and you've got a video that's coming out every week or multiple videos, at least one of those videos every week, putting that 5 on.

And so if you've got that ongoing budget in addition to again, once a week, putting a 5 on it for those, I typically say, let's just do 5 for 7 days. And then next week we choose another video and we do it 5 for seven days. And that way you can stay within budget. I know there are different people that are listening to this podcast, a lot of, young practices and a lot of startups I know really listen to this as a huge resource.

And so as you're trying to really, modify or really stay within budget or like really tried to juggle a lot of things that strategy works really well. You know, The three at the top or every day and then once a week choosing one and then pushing it out for seven days and then it'll auto expire and then you just keep boosting the next one.

So there's lots of strategies and again, you can incorporate this in with funnels and call centers and all of the things, but this is something that people can definitely start utilizing where they can see some immediate results.

Michael: Nice. Okay. Great. And so I know you also mentioned.

There's a lot of views that start coming in right when we do this. So out of the views that happen, how many are like cheeks and seats? How many patients actually come in?

Anissa: Yeah. So there's two things that happen here. Okay. So number one is we're building a community of ambassadors. That ultimately you will not be able to turn off. So one of the things that I did for my practice if you remember, Michael was like, how did I get the 50, 000 people follow me? Like when my community started marketing for me, here I am now. 10 years out, 15 years out. I've got three associates and we don't have to do the Google ads and all of the things we just brought the practice in to do the social now.

Cause it's really cool. A lot of things that are happening, but the reality is we don't have to because our entire community now sees that we're an expert. And so if you commit to the strategy, even for a year, it will pay you forever. Imagine now everybody's talking about you. So it's not a short time.

Oh, I need to have five patients tomorrow. More powerful strategy than that, And so that's the 1 thing that happens, The 2nd thing that happens When we attach it to a funnel, is that now we're able to have the ability to collect email addresses to collect phone numbers, and now we can contact those leads immediately. The third thing that happens. Is that we have the ability once people are going to your funnel to actually have a tracking pixel there.

And so if you're looking at doing Facebook ads again, if you're using an agency for that, or you're doing it yourself now, you have the ability for those Facebook ads to now be seen to people first who have visited through either people watching your videos or going to the landing page. And so you're going to have higher convergence as well.

Michael: Interesting, I like that, building a community of ambassadors, you have a marketing engine from that point on. So then I know you mentioned the landing page that we can send them to. What should the quiz look like or do we do this?

Anissa: Yeah, absolutely. So once they are going to The landing page is typically a page that has Information about the service.

So for example, they're coming from an Instagram page Video or even a post, They go to a page and it'll say maybe it's going to be about pediatric dentistry. Is your child at risk for cavities? Take this quiz to find out. Or are you a candidate for dental implants? And so they go ahead and put in their information.

There could be information about the doctor. They could be some Google reviews on there. And again that's one way to be able to build it. But again, the power there is to be able to get the results. Now they put in their phone number, they put in their email, and the beauty of that is that now you have those email addresses.

We have a doctor within digital floss, where we're doing this with Instagram, also doing this with Facebook ads, and they now have an Invisalign day that's actually happening next week. And so what we're able to do for them. Is we're able to build out an email campaign to people who have previously gone in and taken the quiz some of them have become patients. Some have not but giving them that opportunity to come in and participate in this clear aligner day. Some of you guys know Ashley who has her startup Facebook group. This was literally the funnel that I built for her prior to opening.

But it was a startup funnel and what we're giving away was a chance to win a thousand dollar gift card or free teeth whitening for life. And so this could actually be put out before you even open up your appointment book. And now the beauty and benefit of that. Is that you have those emails so that when you're ready to actually start taking patients, which is what she did, she's able to email them and say, okay, we're now making appointments, or maybe even in that funnel, having the ability for them to be able to get an online booking link and start prebooking appointments.

If you don't have a back end team or agency to be able to help you. And so definitely, not just creating awareness, but creating that engine where you have the multiple touch points is going to be really powerful.

Michael: Gotcha. Okay. And then one of the last questions. let's just say our budget is like, oof, to the itty bitty.

Right. I know some people say like Instagram is a different type of audience than Facebook and then Google ads is like an overall kind of thing. What would you recommend? Would you just stick with Instagram?

Anissa: somebody has a very little budget. you know, I love to do Google ads and Facebook ads and funnels.

And I just need to start with something. What I would say is just pick up your phone guys, pick up your phone and figure out how to do stories, right? It's not hard. You've just follow the prompts, Because the power of stories is that you're getting into people's feeds.

You can download. The story, you can use it as a real then when it's in storage, you can put captions on there. You don't have to have an external software to do that. Now that can be a real and you can literally boost these videos yourself, an again, small budget. Huge impact, Once you get that going, then now it becomes, okay, great. This is going now. I'm busy you know, or I don't have time for this, or I don't want to be the person having to remember to do this. And at that point, you can look at bringing in a local photographer, a videographer to get videos for you, whether you're going out on Upwork or online jobs, or, finding somebody to be able to edit the videos and all of the things.

Or again, if you want to have an agency that can do for you, I own an agency is, for example, there are people that can literally fly in, do all of that stuff for you and you show up and the posts are there. But again, the thing is just don't not do it because you think that you need to have.

An agency or a big budget or all of those things, like my first website for my dental practice guys, I built it myself on Squarespace. Mm-Hmm. .. Same thing for my coaching program. Like I built it myself, right? And then now, it gave me some insight and when I realized, you know what, it's not as good as somebody else will do it, or, I just put a little bit more money and, and then I had somebody to help me with it.

And that's really the premium where you're gonna get to that point. But the point is like, do something. Don't not do anything. Right?

Michael: I love that. Yeah. And then real quick, digital floss.

Talk to me about that.

Anissa: So I'm pretty excited about digital floss. Many people knew me from teaching Facebook and teaching funnels.

I've worked with Brunson for seven years one on one. He's spoke about my Invisalign bundle and his book, Expert Secrets. And so after so many years about a year ago I was with Russell and I was like, I'm finally going to go ahead and say yes. I actually co founded a marketing agency with my business partner who is a pastoral assistant also agency owner Vemul we formed an agency that did not exist.

And so we literally go out and we film content. You speak with a premium copywriter, my copywriter who gives you really heart centered copy. We do the editing, we post for you, we build the funnels. And then now we can retarget with those Facebook ads. We do Google ads and it's really high touch again, clients saying, Oh, we've got an Invisalign day.

And the very day we're like, okay, here's some flyers that we've designed for you. ahead and print these out and put them at your front desk, right? Or we're going to email your, leads list. And then being able to have that call center that can get people pre approved for financing for you and put them right into your schedule.

So, that's our niche. We are, focusing there, but we're really excited about being able to help practices to do social correctly. And it's not about, followers. It's about actual patients that will come in and building the community to be that marketing engine for you.

Michael: Awesome. That's going to be exciting in this. And I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find her in the dental marketer society, Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly?

Anissa: Yeah, absolutely. So digital floss is the best way to connect with us.

And what's really cool is that, we have calls and some people it's just social. Some people, they're like, I don't want to be on social, but I need help. And so we're able to help them on the Google ad side. And sometimes, honestly, it's just telling you strategy and say, you know what?

Let's start first with you doing it on your own and do this and do this well, and then reach out to us. we're just there to be a resource. My partner and I are practitioners first in the dental field, and so we're just really here to try to help give you strategy and help get you so that you can build that impact.

Michael: Awesome. So all the links are going to be in the show notes below if you want to reach out to Anissa. Anissa, thank you for being with me on this Monday morning episode.

Anissa: Thank you so much for having me.

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Could personal branding and virtual care be the x-factor for your practice? In this episode, I'm sitting down with Melissa Turner, an industry powerhouse affectionately known as the @thetoothgirl on Instagram. Melissa unveils her fascinating journey from dental hygiene to co-founding pivotal industry events like the Denobi Awards and the National Mobile & Teledentistry Conference. She breaks down the art of building authentic, community-focused brands for dental practices. Melissa shows how practices can shift from overly credential-focused messaging to patient-centered marketing, using genuine team photos and local community engagement to tell a compelling brand story.

But the conversation doesn't stop at branding. We get into cutting-edge strategies for enhancing patient retention through virtual care and mobile services. Melissa passionately advocates for incorporating telehealth and mobile units to meet patients' evolving needs, especially as the population becomes more mobile. She envisions a future where every dental practice offers both in-office and remote care, ensuring no patient is left behind due to mobility or geographical restrictions. The episode wraps up with Melissa sharing her personal strategies for maintaining motivation and growth, including the importance of a balanced life and supportive work environments. This episode is packed with practical tips and visionary ideas that might be the next step for your practice!

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How personal branding can grow your practice.
• The importance of community engagement in building an authentic brand.
• Common pitfalls to avoid in dental practice marketing.
• Strategies for improving patient retention through virtual care.
• The future of dental practices incorporating mobile and telehealth services.
• Effective work-life balance strategies for dentists.
• The importance of supportive work environments, especially for parents.
• Practical steps for setting boundaries and maintaining personal growth.

Tune in today to learn the ins and outs of branding, virtual care, and the future of dentistry, with Melissa Turner!

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Sponsors:
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For high quality AND affordable dental supply options, visit The Dentists Supply Company(TDSC) website today! Our listeners get a special deal - 25% off on orders over $500 - Just type in the special code: TDM25 at checkout for your exclusive offer. AND if you're a member of your state's Dental Association, you may be eligible for additional savings upon providing your ADA number. Click or copy and paste the link here to save today! https://www.tdsc.com/

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Guest: Melissa TurnerBusiness Name: Cellerant Consulting GroupCheck out Melissa's Media:

Website: https://www.melissakturner.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetoothgirl/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissakturner

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Other Mentions and Links:

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Software/Tools:

Zoom

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Organizations/Events:

The Denobi Awards Red Carpet Gala

Oscars

National Mobile & Teledentistry Conference

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Brands:

Starbucks

Uber Eats

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Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

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Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

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p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

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Could subbing in multiple offices before starting your own be the key to clarity? In this episode, we're bringing on Dr. Lara Saleh, a seasoned dentist, to reveal some game-changing advice for aspiring practitioners. Lara shares her journey from working in various offices to finally opening her own practice, highlighting the invaluable lessons she learned along the way. She candidly discusses the protocols and strategies that have made her practice thrive, from managing financial challenges to implementing clear emergency protocols. This episode is packed with real-world insights that could make all the difference for anyone dreaming of establishing their own dental hub.

Lara delves into the critical importance of working in multiple dental environments before taking the plunge to start your own practice. Recognizing what works and what doesn’t has helped her shape a practice that not only meets her standards but also ensures patient safety and satisfaction. She pulls back the curtain on the must-have protocols and the potential pitfalls, including which stress-inducing sedation techniques to avoid and why hiring adaptable team members is crucial. With a focus on continual learning and adaptation, Lara's advice is both practical and inspiring for any dentist looking to elevate their career.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The benefits of working in multiple dental offices before starting your own practice.
• Key protocols to have in place for a successful practice.
• Financial challenges of running a dental practice and how to manage them.
• Non-negotiable practices that will ensure the smooth operation of your clinic.
• Effective team management strategies and the importance of hiring adaptable team members.
• Why continual learning and adapting to new systems keep your practice competitive.

Tune in now to empower your career with Lara's expert advice!

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Sponsors:
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Oryx: an all-in-one cloud-based dental software created by dentists for dentists.
Patient engagement, clinical, and practice management software that helps your dental practice grow without compromise. Visit Oryx today for a special TDM offer! (Just click or copy and paste the link here) https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/oryx/

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You can reach out to Dr. Lara Saleh here:

Website: https://drtoothfairy.com/

Email: [email protected]

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Mentions and Links:

Terms:

Demerol

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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

‍

Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

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Michael: Hey, Laura. So talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning?

Lara: my one piece of advice for anyone who is thinking about opening their own practice. is if it's possible to do what I did. And I think it's a wonderful start of a career. If you want to do private practice is to take some time off, but not completely off.

You'll be doing subbing or replacing doctors. Either because of an injury, or they go on maternity leave, or for any other reason, they just want to go on vacation, you just cover for them. So I did this exclusively for about 18 months before I opened my own practice, and that really opened my eyes to what I wanted to implement in my office, what were the non negotiable things that I wanted in my office, what I could compromise on, And the definite no no's. And I gained a lot of perspective by knowing what not to do in my office. And actually it set my priority list on what's really important and non negotiable all the way down to what's really a kind of forbidden to be done in my office. And that I do not want to go down that path.

And that was. The best thing that I did throughout my career, because when you work in one office for a long period of time, you're an associate, you get sucked into that office and the policies of that office. I think I covered about, 21 offices in the whole state of Virginia, where I worked, I just got to see so many things that I never thought I would implement in my own office, or I didn't think it would have been, a good idea.

But when I was there and practice in these offices, it turned out to be fantastic ideas that I would have never thought about had I not been in that situation in this office at that time.

Michael: After the 18 months, did you feel ready?

Were you like, okay, this is all I needed. I'm good to go on my own.

Lara: Absolutely. I felt I'm ready to do everything that I needed to do clinically to open a practice. But also there's not a lot of transparency when you're actually visiting an office. There's not like that huge door that they would open for you to look at their finances and to look at billing issues.

So that part, I just had to learn when I opened my own office because you learn it hands on, like the first time I saw an EUB is the first time I learned how to deal with an EUB. I've never seen one before until I opened my own office and that's how I learned it.

Michael: Yeah. Interesting. Okay. And then what were some of the non negotiables or the no nos that you mentioned?

Lara: most of it were protocols. That I did not want to implement those. Emergency protocols. really learned it the hard way in one of the offices you never think that it's going to happen to you, but it might happen to you.

And the worst thing is not to be prepared for it. So even subbing at those offices, I had it in my contract that I had to look at their emergency protocol before actually going into that office and making sure that. Their emergency kit is up to date and well stocked.

Michael: Gotcha. So emergency protocols and you immediately implemented that into your absolutely now.

Lara: Yes.

Michael: Okay. And then what were some things that you watched that you said, I would never want to do this. I thought I did, but I would never want to do this with my team or my practice. Yeah.

Lara: Honestly, oral sedations. my training program was very heavy on oral sedation. some of the practices wanted me to do.

To sedation at a time and then sedation fell out of favor, but some offices still were heavily sedating kids some of the offices would advise you to use their protocol, which might be something that you're not trained to use, like Demerol. I was not trained to use Demerol.

they had good record with Demerol. my stress level was much higher with sedations. And I knew that right there. And then when I wanted to open my own office, keep in mind that I opened my office after 10 years of practicing. So I've had a lot of experience experience and I saw a lot of things and I was okay doing sedation the way I learned how to do it.

But once I started seeing how these sedations are and how little control you have after the sedation for monitoring, I decided that is something that I do not want to do in my office.

Michael: So do you get a lot of parents who ask?

Lara: Actually some parents don't really know the difference between nitrous, mild sedation, moderate and deep sedation.

So there's a lot of people who don't know, so kind educating them. And I do refer some cases to other providers who do them. It's just I learned to be true to my comfort level and to listen to myself. If I'm not 100 percent comfortable with a procedure, I'm not doing it. And I learned that from, age and just stress levels.

I don't want to be stressed for the rest of the day or for two days after my sedation.

Michael: you ever feel Laura, like the ones that you feel super stressed or not comfortable, do you think okay, you know what, I'm gonna get there. I want to get there. I'm going to get some training. Or you're just like, Nope, that's just not how my practice runs.

That's not how we are.

Lara: After 10 years, I kind of learned, what really stresses me out. I just want to avoid it. let's say it's an advancement in pediatric dentistry, I definitely want to learn about it. So if it's something that we were not heavy on in my residency, I would want to learn about it.

But sedation, I had, a lot of training on it. And we were super competent doing sedations. We did this every morning in our residency. So every morning we started with a sedation three days a week. So we're super, super comfortable doing the sedation. It's just my stress level was high after doing them that I decided I do not want this chronic stress, even if it's not super high stress, chronic low stress, I feel is very detrimental for your health, your mental health, your physical health, and for everybody around you.

Michael: Yeah, no, a thousand percent. So then You worked at 21, that's a lot, 21

Lara: Sometimes it was just an afternoon.

So it still counts, but it was just an afternoon. But it was quick in and out. It would be an emergency. They'll call me and can you come in this afternoon and I'll show up for the afternoon.

Michael: Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So the 21 offices that you worked at, which were the things that you saw when it came to systems that they implemented?

Were a good idea or were not a good idea, but it turned out to be fantastic to you in your eyes.

Lara: Some of the systems that I thought were a great idea are system implemented by someone on site. There was that office manager that she ran this office.

lovingly being respectful to everybody and in an emergency situation, you have the team leader, you have everybody knowing their roles, things just fell into place. And the day went by so well. Another thing is an office manager that was super tight with the owner, I feel like everybody liked that nonchalant, but nobody knew what they were doing. So instead of doing your job, a hundred percent, everybody was getting by, by doing 50 percent and people just getting confused, who does what and when should it be done? So I feel like these kind of situation I wanted to avoid.

Michael: All the confusion and everything like that. So be more specific.

Lara: Yeah. having like a role for everybody and a very well defined role. So these are your responsibility. And it's kind of hard sometimes when you're a startup, cause you really don't, know everything.

And then you start making lists. And that's what I did. I started making lists and start as I go adding on to these lists of responsibilities, but it's so well defined that people have their boundaries and also like, this is what's expected of you and.

this is the outcome that I want. So you can do everything that is expected of you, but not have the outcome that you want. That means maybe you didn't give them enough training on it, there's something that needs to be fixed within those boundaries that you've set.

Michael: I like that. So then whenever you're making this list and you add new technology, new practice management software or something. Do you put it on there like, I expect you guys to get it, to know it, or do they sometimes say like, I don't like this practice management software, it's not working with us,

Lara: some people express this pleasure with some things. It's just cause you're adding things on their plate. But I was very clear that I am learning with them. So as I learn more things, they need to keep up with me. And that's how we're a team. If I'm just learning, that means everything is falling on me.

That's not teamwork. So as I learn and every CE that I go, I try to take at least one or two people with me, even though it will not be super beneficial for the dental assistant to come to a trauma. for me, it's just keeping that teamwork. If I learn something, I want them to learn with me.

If I evolve, I want them to evolve with me. And that's how I think the best thing for a team is to evolve together. So we have actually blocked time on our schedule when you're a startup, you have a lot of time, but I do block time for us to go through pediatric dentistry articles and I have also blocked time to go through our software.

everybody needs to know how to schedule an appointment, how to cancel an appointment, how to collect payment. Everyone in the office, no matter what their role is, everybody needs bare minimum. And then with our current software, we have a lot of evolution in it. And requests, so they keep adding stuff to the software and we block time to actually go through every additional feature, whether we use it or not, it's going to be determined later, but we all go through it together.

Michael: I like that. And then the software you guys use is what right now

Lara: is Oryx cloud based.

Michael: Gotcha. Is there a reason why you guys went with cloud based?

Lara: I think this is the future of everything having your software, your radiographs, everything in the palm of your hand, anywhere you go was just a non brainer for us and not having a server and depending on backing up those servers was just I feel like it's a dinosaur age to have anything that is not completely cloud based.

Michael: Okay. I like that. So then any final pieces of advice that you would like to give to our listeners?

Lara: If you're thinking about opening your own practice. Open it with the mindset of the future.

if you're going to hire somebody, hire them thinking that they need to be open to all the newer technologies that you want to implement. Do not hire someone who's so attached to their previous, say software, or do not hire someone who's attached to their previous practices who are not open to learning new things.

Most of my hires have no dental experience. And it worked out great for me.

Michael: Wow. That's fantastic. If anyone had any questions or concerns, where can they reach out to you?

Lara: They can reach out to me at my first name, Laura at Dr. Tooth Fairy, which is the name of my practice. Laura at drtoothfairy. com.

Michael: Nice.

Awesome. Laura, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it. And thank you for being with me on this Monday morning episode.

Lara: Thank you for having me.

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