328: 2 Days, 4 Offices, 1 Vision

Kiera is chatting with Amy Ells, regional manager for Finger Lakes Dental Care in New York! The two women just finished two days of meetings with the four Finger Lakes dental offices, and share their debrief in this episode. Topics discussed include…

• Successful team participation

• Running meetings on a cadence

• Inspiring a growth model

• Cruises vs. cookie cakes :)

The underlying point to the huge success of Amy and her practice: traction!

Like what you heard? Listen to Amy’s previous DAT episode, #95, Successful Leadership Teams of Multi-practices.

Amy joined Finger Lakes Dental Care after completing her degree in communications with a concentration in public relations and a minor in marketing from SUNY Fredonia. She has been a part of the Finger Lakes Dental Care team since 2008. Amy is a member of the American Association of Dental Office Managers and has been taking multiple classes over the past few years covering topics from inter-office communications to online marketing. In her spare time, Amy enjoys crafting, traveling, and reading.

For more information and episodes, visit www.TheDentalATeam.com. 

 

Podcast Transcript:

Kiera Dent:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent. I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives.

Kiera Dent:

I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices, coaching teams. Yeah, we don't just understand you, we are you.

Kiera Dent:

Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast.

Kiera Dent:

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am freaking jazzed because I lured in one of my favorite people to podcast with me. I just spent the last two days with her and her practice, and I am inspired by who she is as a person. I've said this to her before, but I'll say it on the podcast for all of you, she's somebody that I just am in awe of who she's become over the years. I have known her, the way she runs her practices, the person that she is, the leader that she is, and I'm so excited she said yes to podcasting with me tonight. So welcome to the show. She's a regional manager. Her name is Amy. Amy, welcome to the show. How are you?

Amy Ells:

Hey, Kiera. I'm good. How are you?

Kiera Dent:

I'm so good. Amy, say your last name, because I got weird about it and was scared I would botch it. Now I'm like, "We're such good friends," and then I'm like, "I think it's just Ells, but I don't want to mess it up." So Amy-

Amy Ells:

It is just Ells. You nailed it. Come on.

Kiera Dent:

I got real nervous. I got nervous. Amy works for some really awesome practices up in New York. Amy, you've just kind of grown. You were on the podcast with me... Gosh, it's probably been a year by now. But yeah, pretty-

Amy Ells:

I think it was just about a year ago. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:

Crazy town. And I convinced you to come back on the podcast, so thank you so much for coming on. I know we just spent the last two days together, so I'm really using up all my thank yous right now. Hang out with me for two days, now podcast with me. But-

Amy Ells:

Well, I had to. I have to thank you for spending the last two days at all four of our offices. Oh my gosh, it was amazing.

Kiera Dent:

I loved it. That's why I wanted to get you on the podcast, because I feel like we just got off of a high of two days. I am on a high. I'm excited. I'm driving. I'm just lit up. I'm like, "It's podcast time." Let's kind of just walk through what we did the last couple days from your angle, and I'll obviously chime in. Let's kind of just tell people what it was like hanging out for two days, going to all the practices.

Amy Ells:

I work for Jason Tanoory up in Upstate New York. We have four offices, and we've been running Traction EOS for the last few years. This year was the first year we did quarterly meetings in all four locations with teams that had not really ever done a quarterly meeting. Kiera came down and walked us through goals and Rocks and set us up for 2021 in two days.

Kiera Dent:

What I love, Amy, is that you guys are the practices that will try anything. You're not afraid to try things. You're not afraid to think outside the box. And you called me. It was right around Halloween. I only know that because I told you about the coolest Halloween costume that we were going to do for 2020. And then-

Amy Ells:

Yes.

Kiera Dent:

Yeah, I told you, my husband and I have poop emoji onesies and we were going to each wear a 20 on our chest, because we just thought that was hilarious. And then I Marie Kondo-ed my house and threw them away the year before, and I was so mad.

Amy Ells:

Oh no.

Kiera Dent:

We thought it'd be so funny, but we threw them away. So you and I talked about this around Halloween and you had mentioned, "Hey Kiera, let's just try this out." We've never done it. We've done it with your guys' huge practice. I've been out there several times, running Traction meetings with your whole leadership team. But now to take it to the smaller practices, I personally thought it was incredible. What was kind of your takeaways? What did you see, that if somebody was thinking about doing this, that worked really well or didn't work? What was kind of your feedback on how the couple of days went together?

Amy Ells:

I thought it was great. I loved that Kiera came in. I purposely didn't give too much information to the smaller offices. I'm like, "We're going to do this quarterly meeting. We're going to spend a couple hours coming up with goals for this year. It's going to be awesome." And Kiera came in and kind of broke it down.

Kiera Dent:

Way to prep that up. I like the prep. I sometimes think less is more, and I think you did a good job of saying it's going to be awesome, because they really were all ready to go. So good job on your part. Not too much, but just enough to get them excited.

Amy Ells:

And it was great. The participation from them actually setting their own goals, I think, is going to actually help them hit them, since now that they were part of creating them, they were part of making them and part of picking what the number was, like, "This is the goal we're going to hit at the end of the year. Do you guys think we can do it?"

Kiera Dent:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I thought they did a really, really good job. It was fun to see people... And Amy, you know all these people. I didn't know any of them, except for a few. And for the bulk, we got people that were very introverted to speak to grow goals. What did you feel helped? Obviously, I don't know. I was the one who was running the meetings. You were the one watching on the side. What do you think helped create that participation?

Kiera Dent:

I mean, you guys just have a great culture as is. It's a very growth minded, accepting new ideas. You guys pivot, you've got a lot of agility, you brought in amazing team members. You have 65 team members. That's a huge feat. So it's not like we were dealing with only a couple people. We had a lot of teams, lots of different people. What were some of the things that either you guys have done in the past or that happened this meeting that created that collaboration? Because I thought they were very bought into the goals that they were setting.

Amy Ells:

I think so too. We've been doing bi-weekly meetings at all of the offices over lunches for the past, goodness, two years now, which I think prepped them a little bit so that some of the terminology came up again. We started with good news and personal wins and professional wins. So it kind of brought them back to where we were going. But I think that because they could have a voice in it, they were excited about it. And one of our newest team members, who's been there a month, was like, "Yeah, I'm going to do that."

Kiera Dent:

She was. I loved it.

Amy Ells:

I'm like, "Yes, you are."

Kiera Dent:

I loved it. And I thought, Amy, something that I think you did really well. For those of you who don't know, Traction EOS Style, read that book. You guys can all thank Jason Tanoory and Amy for introducing me to it. They called me up, had me come in. I told Amy, I confessed to her today how it shook out. Jason called me, said, "Hey Kiera, do you want to come train us?" And I was like, "Yeah, I don't even know what that means, but yes." And I literally listened to Traction three times the speed on the airplane flight out to New York. Thankfully, it's a long flight across the United States. As I'm frantically highlighting the book, so that way I can feel prepared to go talk with them. That's literally what I did going out to their meeting. So we've been doing that in your guys' main practice with all of you for, gosh, probably, what, two years now I think is how long we've been working together.

Amy Ells:

Yes.

Kiera Dent:

But I think there came a point that we realized that you, Amy, overseeing all these practices, had to get meetings starting to run on a cadence in all of your practices. So how did you do that? Because I know you were traveling and then Zoom. How do you do your meetings with all your teams just so people who are even trying to start this in multiple locations have an idea of even what you did? Because I do think you had them prepped really well before we rolled out the quarterly to them.

Amy Ells:

We tried weekly meetings like Traction recommends, and in some of the smaller offices, it was too much for the team to handle to take an hour every week. They didn't feel the buy-in to that, so we switched it up to do every other week. And people seemed to like that cadence so that they're involved with what's going on, there's a time to talk. It worked really, really well. So we kind of learned that by trial and error.

Amy Ells:

And then Jason and I were talking, and I can't even remember what spurred it, but I'm like, "Well, let's just call Kiera and see if she can come run four meetings in two days." So I remember calling you-

Kiera Dent:

I love you guys so much.

Amy Ells:

... and being like, "Kiera, so Traction, it's going really well. We want to follow the rules, but we want to break them completely to do these two hour meetings for quarterlies. Can you do that?"

Kiera Dent:

Sure. Let's try it. Why not? What's the worst that's going to happen? It fails? Let's try it.

Amy Ells:

Exactly. So I'm like, "Okay, so we got the first one out of the way," and I'm like, "That actually worked out. We can do this." So two days, four offices, it was amazing. I feel like I had a lot of really good conversations with people. They talked about issues that they were having that we could solve. I loved it.

Kiera Dent:

I agree. So I think if we were to go back and look at how this has all played out, I felt like you did a good job of getting people prepped for their meetings. So you do this every other week. Which I love that you brought up, because for some practices starting Traction, every week is a daunting commitment. And I tell people, "Just start small, even if it's once a month. If it's every..." I like the every other week. I even do coaching calls every other week, because it gives people a week in between to implement, and I found that I even get better results.

Kiera Dent:

Every week coaching calls, oh gosh. Offices that tell me they want every week, I'm like, "You don't know who I am or who you are, because that's going to loop to you so fast that you're not going to feel you got any momentum done." So I think that that's a really good point you brought up of every other week.

Kiera Dent:

And then I loved what we did is we kind of just... I basically broke down Traction into a very simple state of, "Let's show what annual goals are, and then our quarterly map, and then smaller to-dos." So I think you did a good job. I know you had a few of your team members read what the heck is EOS before we got there. But I thought we did a really good job, and this is compliments to you. You had a really good outline of, "Let's just do these as smaller meetings, help them build their annual goals, and then build a 90 day roadmap."

Kiera Dent:

That's really all we did. So we didn't go through everything. We didn't go through for the VTO. We didn't go through right person, right seat. We didn't go through any of that. We really were just looking at, "How do we build their annual goals?"

Kiera Dent:

And Amy, you were really well-prepared for it. You had all the numbers for every practice. So there was no excuse. And I think we tag teamed really well on, "Let's hit the main KPIs." So production, overhead, our case acceptance, our new patient numbers, some of our hygiene numbers. So that way, offices knew what they did in 2020, so then they could make smarter goals in 2021. And then we built three-year goals. We didn't go to the 10-year goal. We decided that's too far out. We really just worked on building that, and then we built a quarterly map for them as well. And we didn't really dive into a lot of the issues. I think that's how we were able to simplify down a quarterly meeting, not lose the team, help build the momentum, but answer enough of their issues that they felt they could be prepared to move forward. That was kind of my take on it. What was it on your angle on the other side?

Amy Ells:

I agree. I agree 100%. And then the issues that we didn't get to fully flesh out at the end of the meeting, we'll rollover and we'll tackle them at their bi-weekly meetings as they come up.

Kiera Dent:

Yes. Which I'm excited-

Amy Ells:

And then-

Kiera Dent:

... you're going to be on those. I thought it was smart for you also to be at all the meetings with me, because you knew what was talked about, you helped set the goals with them. You could push them on things I didn't know. Because had I just been there on my own, I think they could have suckered me a little bit, because I wouldn't have known if they were telling the truth or not. So I thought that was wise that you were there, and now you can follow up with them to make sure they're successful as well.

Amy Ells:

Exactly. And those four offices, I have four amazing office managers that really take the reins for those offices. So it's amazing to watch them grow and go into that now really on top of those Rocks that we just created for this quarter, with their team.

Kiera Dent:

Amy, I'm actually going to touch on this a little bit. You and I kind of talked about this in the car. By the way, I think one of my favorite parts of all of this... Well, I had two favorite parts of our whole trip. One, Amy's a rockstar, guys. It was snowing in New York and she picked me up. She had to scrape her car. Her car was warm. I felt like I was getting Uber rides of the best of the best. That's number one.

Kiera Dent:

And then number two, Amy also is amazing, and one of their practices is right by a location that my little sister had been to. So Amy and I played a little bit of hooky today and ran over and took some videos. If any of you watched the Instagram story when I was falling on the fence that broke, Amy was the one videoing at that moment. If you missed it, email in, because I might've been trying to re-enact a movie and broke a wooden fence in the middle of winter in the snow. So that was two of my favorite parts.

Kiera Dent:

But we talked about this on one of our drives, and Amy, you just said you have four amazing office managers. You were the office manager of one of the practices that now there's another amazing office manager in there. And this is me wanting to pick your brain. Amy, you lead with such grace, you lead with such optimism, you lead with empowerment. Most people have egos, and I don't ever feel an ego from you. And maybe you do, and maybe I just see the best side of you, but this is who you are every time, and I've seen you multiple times in a two year period. You were one of the offices I see every three months. I see you all the time, so I don't feel it's something that was just happenstance this time.

Kiera Dent:

How do you not have egos? You just said, "I'm so excited for these office managers," but I think some people might feel that they aren't as valued or they might actually crimp office managers' growth. What are some of the things that you do, other than just being amazing Amy Ells, that has helped you grow? Because I feel like your office managers are so empowered by your leadership.

Amy Ells:

Well, we all have our moments, right? I'm sure that they've all looked at me at one point and gone like, "Really? You're really telling me this right now?" But for the most part, honestly, with the growth plan that Jason wants to do, if I spent that much time micromanaging them, I wouldn't be able to do anything else.

Kiera Dent:

Hello, Dental A Team. I hope you are as excited as I am, because guess what? May 14th and 15th this year, we are running Dental A Team's full team summit for the first time ever. It's May 14th and 15th, a Friday, Saturday, and it's CE training for you and your whole team in your practice.

Kiera Dent:

In the past, you've had to fly your whole team to get full team CE, and instead, we're bringing the CE to you. You guys, I have attended so many virtual events, and I cannot wait, because this is going to be epic of all epics. We're going to teach you guys, with your whole team working together, how to build your dream practice, how to have accountable teams and run effective meetings. We're going to have breakout sessions with each department specifically, so billing, OM, TCs, schedulers, hygienists, assistants, and doctors, and we're going to round table style, learning from the best. We're going to have lessons on leadership. We're having guest speakers come in. You guys, it is going to be epic, and I want all of you there. So head on over to our website, thedentalateam.com/events, and snag your ticket for you and your team to attend Dental A Team's full team summit this year.

Amy Ells:

So it's-

Kiera Dent:

Got you.

Amy Ells:

... not an option. So I want people in place that really buy into what we're trying to do and want to see their office grow and their teams grow. And maybe they have a front desk person that they hired that turns into our next office manager.

Kiera Dent:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'm just impressed. And maybe you tapped into something that I think is also helpful. The fact that Jason, the doctor, has a really strong vision of where the practices are going to go, and you're very bought into that and you know you play a key role in there, that might make it easier. Because I know sometimes when people have other practices, there might not be as strong of a growth model and they might feel more pulled back. But I feel like you were such a driven person and you're like, "Yes, let's do this."

Kiera Dent:

Do you have any tips for office managers? If you were helping a regional do something like we just did with these four offices. It's a very innovative, creative idea. What kind of spurred some of those ideas for you, or what... I'm just trying to think what are some of the things about you and your culture that you guys have been able to create that's allowed this growth model, that's allowed you to have 65 incredible employees? I mean, you guys are in your best hire culture that I've seen in the two years I've worked with you. What are some of the things that you guys feel just you've done really, really well to create this type of a culture and business that you guys run?

Amy Ells:

I think a couple of things are our focus has always been you do the right thing. If you do the right thing and you take care of the people in your office, patients and your team, you're just going to be successful. If you are in it for different reasons, that's when other parts start to suffer, and patients and teams feel that. That's just not how we run.

Kiera Dent:

I would agree.

Amy Ells:

And the biggest thing is listen to ideas from your team. There were definitely some things thrown out today that I would not have done. But is it a bad thing? No. So let's-

Kiera Dent:

True.

Amy Ells:

... see what happens.

Kiera Dent:

Yeah. Sometimes on those quarterlies, I'm like, "Well, is it a bad idea and is it going to hurt the practice? No. So let's have you guys try it," right?

Amy Ells:

Right. And what's the worst that happens? They don't hit that goal, and next quarter, we set a different one. It's not going to tank the practice by any means, so let's see how it goes. And maybe I'm wrong, and it's going to be the best Rock that there is that's going to bring on some new level of patient care, and I'm like, "Wow, I did not see that coming."

Kiera Dent:

That's a really good point. I think oftentimes we think we know best as quote, unquote, "leaders," and the reality is... I mean, you guys just even talked about how some of your team members, or how you've been able to find other team members, and it's in very different ways and trying different things. And I do think that that's part of your culture, that you guys are really incredible about, "Let's just try it. What's the worst that's going to happen?" I mean, as long as you guys...

Kiera Dent:

Jason gave me some... He gave me two guidelines for office meetings. He said, "One, you have to follow the core values. And two, we have to maintain profitability at some level. Beyond that, let them have ownership of their practice, and encourage that." I thought that was such a unique culture, such a unique... I mean, that's it. Follow the core values and make sure we've maintained some profitability. Beyond that, sky's the limit. You guys create. I think that's brilliant because I felt the teams were really bought in by having those parameters, and that's coming from you and Jason.

Amy Ells:

He's spot on with that. They can't do anything that's going to break it. We're going to be there to support them no matter what Rock they pick, so they always have a backup plan, which is us.

Kiera Dent:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). I felt, when we were working together on this trip, that your life was actually set up so easy for you, in a way. I mean, yes, of course you've got to follow up. But oh my gosh, you just got roadmaps for every one of these practices. They're all bought into these goals. They all just set their goals. They all just set their Rocks. And now your job is just to make sure it executes. But literally, you just got teed up for them to learn how to do this. How did it feel for you on your end? Does it feel scary? Does it feel freeing? Truthfully, I don't even know. We haven't prepped on this. How did you feel having all that come play for all your offices?

Amy Ells:

That was the best part. You wanted to thank me for coming on. I'm like, "I will do anything Kiera wants." She sat through two days of these meetings and literally worked out goals for the next year for every single one of my offices that I think pushed them a little bit to get to that next level. And we're going to hit some, we're not going to hit them all. But even if we get close, it's in such a better spot than we were, let's say, in April when we were running through COVID, seeing emergency patients. It's just such a different world right now, that I'm like, "Oh my God, that was amazing."

Kiera Dent:

That makes me so happy. I was just thinking as I was leaving, "How would I have been in your shoes?" And I thought, "Wow, all four of your practices have goals." And I'm curious, because you guys also as the leadership team, organizational team were really smart, because you knew, as an organization, what goals you wanted them to hit before we even went to the meeting. You didn't share that with me. We kind of played... I felt like Bob Barker a little bit. I would look at you to see, like Price is Right, am I closer, am I off? Go up a little, down a little?

Kiera Dent:

But Amy, now I guess we can share from the goals of the organization set for each of these offices before we even went in... Again, you guys, I flew blind. Amy just gave me an up or a down. How did the offices do setting goals that were close to what you guys wanted as an organization? Were we close within, were we over, were we under for all of those practices that we were?

Amy Ells:

They were super close. One office set a goal way higher than what we have estimated, and I cannot wait to see if they can do it.

Kiera Dent:

That was our one this morning, wasn't it?

Amy Ells:

It sure was.

Kiera Dent:

Uh-huh (affirmative). They came in guns ablazing. Their office manager... And I also noticed it really depends on the office manager you have in place, how the rest of the team will follow. It was really impressive.

Kiera Dent:

We saw multiple different office managers, and the ones that have gunners, the ones that are driven, the ones that have this positive, we can do it, their team followed suit. And I noticed even assistants were stepping up and saying, "Nope, we can do this. We can do this." We obviously have some that were like, "No, we can't do this." But for the bulk, it really fell down.

Kiera Dent:

That's exciting to hear, because I was curious, this is me doing a recap of the office visit as well, to hear that the goals... And the reason I wanted to bring this up is because so often people are scared to give offices and other people autonomy, because they're afraid that they will set lower goals than what the organization wants them to do. But I've found, working with several offices, that most of the time, the offices... It's not always, but I will say about 90, 95% of the time, offices set just as good if not better goals than what the organization would set for them. Did you find that to be true this trip, or am I off base on that?

Amy Ells:

100%. And they buy them way more, since they set them. And it wasn't me coming in, going, "Okay guys, these are your new goals. Make it happen." That's awful.

Kiera Dent:

Totally. But you were smart, Amy, because you knew what they needed to do. You had your numbers, you had figured it out beforehand, and we were able to do it. That was something I thought was really, really good prep work on your part is to know what they needed to be so we could either adjust the dial, working in tandem together, to make sure that the offices were where they wanted to go, but with them setting the goals.

Kiera Dent:

And today, I loved how we even had one team member set a goal and then set it for her quarterly goal, and then say, "I don't want to call myself out, but I probably need to set my goal a little bit higher, don't you think I should?" She saw that she wasn't pushing herself as much as she could, and she came back and rewrote her goal, which I thought was awesome, because now she owned that even more.

Amy Ells:

Amazing. I saw it and I'm like, "It doesn't matter. She's got a great goal there. I'm going to let this go." And she's like, "No, that one's not high enough." I'm like, "Rocking."

Kiera Dent:

It was so fun. And I just think for you, Amy, and I'm hoping other offices are hearing this, talk about how much easier it is to lead and guide when you have four offices that you used to be having to give the goals to, push them along, hoping... You're driving all of that weight, because you're having to push them along yourself. And now we just got four offices bought in, headed where you want them to go, but doing it their own way. Because I found there's a hundred different ways to realm. They just get to decide which way they want to go.

Amy Ells:

Right. And the system is already built that they're going to check in with each other every single week. Are you on track or off track for your goal? I'm so excited for 2021 at this point. I'm like, "This is amazing."

Kiera Dent:

It feels good. So Amy and I will have to do a follow-up in March. I come back out in March to see you guys, see how it did. Amy's going to stay on top of them on... So you joined their meetings, which I think is still really smart. Because what I've found is I almost call it training wheels. We did a baby meeting. So it wasn't everything so they didn't get overwhelmed. They built the goals and you came in. Now you're going to help support them on these next ones.

Kiera Dent:

But the goal is... Hopefully my goal is come out and see them one more time. Maybe we start doing it on Zoom, then we come in person, so every other time. And we really start to then lead to where for the next one, hopefully, the office managers... It'll either be the next one or the following. We'll kind of see the cadence. But they should know their numbers and they'll know them a lot more because they're more invested and they know what their goals are to hit as an office.

Kiera Dent:

But I love that we phrased it as like, "How are we going to celebrate what looks like a win this year?" All of the offices pushed their goals higher than I thought that they would, and they just want to sit there and dream and be okay to dream, and then figure out what was realistic for them.

Amy Ells:

And I think that they set some really good goals. I loved that one office, their three-year goal was their office cruise. I'm like, "Okay, let's do it."

Kiera Dent:

Another office wants cookie cakes from you, Amy. So they have their goal that they want-

Amy Ells:

Every quarter.

Kiera Dent:

Every quarter. But what I loved, Amy, is you said yes and absolutely. And I think that's something about your culture is you guys aren't afraid to invest in your team. You're not afraid to... If they want a cookie cake or they want a cruise, like, "Let's find a way to make that happen." Which I also thought was interesting to see different offices are motivated by different things. Let them choose what their motivation is versus you always assuming... Everyone thinks it's always money or it's always this, or everyone wants this. But yet we literally went from a cruise to a cookie cake. Both are extremely happy with those two outcomes.

Amy Ells:

And it's funny because that cookie cake, we had one office that was struggling with case acceptance. And the beginning of last quarter, I came in and we were talking about it and we set a goal to get it up 5% because it needed to get up there, and we hit it. So I brought in a cookie cake, and I didn't think they cared that much. But for them to bring it up again, I'm like, "Okay, I'll bring a cookie cake every week. Let's do this."

Kiera Dent:

That was something else. Amy, as you said, 5%. And I pulled something from a Tony Robbins event I just went to. And then you and I, without... We didn't even talk about it. Something I felt we did really, really well that I totally snagged from Tony Robbins, and then you guys do it as well, is oftentimes people will say, "Okay, so my production goal is this. Let's double it."

Kiera Dent:

And we were talking about passing out... They're called smile cards or whatever. I call them internal referral cards like the care to share cards that people have heard about. So we're working on internal referrals. And yet I loved... And I don't know if you picked up on this, Amy, but when we went around the room, I had everybody say how many share cards they thought that they could give out per day. I did this intentionally because every person came in with a different number. Some people, it was like four. Some people, it was 10. Some people... It was all over the map. One person was one. Another person was three. It was all over the map.

Kiera Dent:

So what Tony Robbins said is when he sets annual goals is he actually says... Because I knew if we could get 200 cards out... I hadn't done all my homework before, but I had a pretty good idea. I thought if they could do 200 cards in this next quarter, that's a ton of internal. So instead of having them put some crazy lofty goal, I said... Amy, I don't know if you picked up on it. This is literally me testing an idea. But I said, "Guys, I want you to knock it out of the park. Let's make sure you guys can absolutely do this. Let's just do one card per person, and just do the clinical team." And I was like, "Do you think that's realistic?" And everybody was like, "Absolutely no doubt."

Kiera Dent:

So now they bought into a confidence piece that they could do... And you also did the same thing, like, "Let's bump case acceptance 1% or 2%." Literally that's all we did, because that feels so attainable. Versus coming in with these huge lofty goals of, "Let's get case acceptance doubled." Then it gets deflating. Did you notice that? Because that was something I picked up on that you were doing, I was doing, and they bought in so well to such a small bump, but everybody's doing it. A huge-

Amy Ells:

Yes. I loved the one internal referral card per person when you gave it that number at the end of the quarter. Because if you share one card per day, you're like, "That is not going to get us any patients. That is just a waste of my time. And then you're like, "But it's 200 cards by March 31st." And everybody's like, "Okay."

Kiera Dent:

Yes. I thought you and I did a really good job. And I would say for anyone setting goals, sometimes we're like, "Well, let's double production." Well, that might work for some offices. But some people might say like, "We worked our tails off last year and that was hard, and now you want us to work double?"

Kiera Dent:

So Tony Robbins had this principle of you can actually get a 20% bump on your business by doing a 5% increase in five different categories. So the compound effectiveness. And that's what we were doing today. I thought you and I did a really good job of that, because we hit... Most of the goals we had them built were around KPIs. Which is another thing I think you've done well, Amy, to prepare your offices for this is they're tracking their KPIs weekly, correct?

Amy Ells:

Weekly.

Kiera Dent:

All offices track weekly, right?

Amy Ells:

Yes.

Kiera Dent:

But something I noticed, which I'm super curious to watch this and I'm sure you are, is they were tracking their numbers, but I didn't feel that they actually had a relationship with those numbers, because they'd ask, "What's your case acceptance." And I don't know. I'm like, how do you not know you track things every week? But yet now we set goals to make those numbers actually mean something.

Kiera Dent:

I'm getting so excited about this, because it was all the prep work you've done, now I'm excited to watch them have a connection and a relationship that they own and see what you guys get this year. And I don't know if you have anything you want to add to that or things you've done, but that was something I was noticing today, how little of a connection they had and how much of a connection I think they will have, give it three months, to embolden-

Amy Ells:

I agree.

Kiera Dent:

... these KPIs.

Amy Ells:

100%. I look at those scorecards all the time, every week. And for them to be like, "I don't know what my fluoride percentage is." Because that happened to every single office. And I'm like, "Really?" I'm like, "Okay, so you know we track it, but you don't really care because it's not in your day-to-day. Okay, so this should help."

Kiera Dent:

Yes. I thought you did a really good job, because you guys were tracking all these KPIs. But we just made quarterly goals for each department based on things that they've already been doing. And then because they've already been tracking it, they already knew it'd be very easy to say, "Well, why don't we just bump it?"

Kiera Dent:

And we were smart. Amy, I thought you and I did a good job. They would set their own goals, but we'd be like, "Well, why don't we just have you knock it out of the park? Let's do a 5% bump or let's do a 2% bump." It was very minimal. I think that that helps people stay very engaged versus getting deflated, and you'll actually... I'm excited to watch to see what happens. I'm guessing you guys will see a massive revenue bump, a massive new patient bump, a massive case acceptance bump across all practices, and it won't be hard for them to do. Because 1%, 2% seems so easy, that it's a no-brainer that they'll hit it and they'll have momentum, and so they'll even do better than you thought they would.

Amy Ells:

That's what I'm hoping for. And we have such a great team. I look at the team that we have now, and I'm like, "These guys are amazing. I'm so excited."

Amy Ells:

The other big part was it was so nice to have you there leading the meeting, because then it's... You're outside of our office. Most of them had not met you until today. So they're like, "Okay, so this person knows dental, knows nothing about us, and isn't biased." It was perfect to have that outside voice in the room.

Kiera Dent:

Awesome. That's super good feedback too. Amy, I just love... One, I love you, I love your practices. I love that you guys just... You're gutsy. You don't mess around. You're like, "Well, we want to grow the practices. If we're going to be on this growth trajectory, we've got to get the practices engaged. Here, let's try this." And I'm so excited to watch and see how this quarter shakes out. So those are-

Amy Ells:

Me too.

Kiera Dent:

... a lot of my takeaways. Any last takeaways you want to add to, things that you felt went well, that you would recommend to somebody wanting to try this?

Amy Ells:

I would highly recommend if you have started diving into Traction, do your quarterly. And even if your goals are awful and in a year, you're like, "That did us no good," you've gone through the process now, so you are going to be in such a better place when you try it again. Because I know our first time making Rocks, our Rocks were not good. Some of them were great. And then others, we got to the end of the quarter and we're like, "Yeah, I don't know if I did it or not." So practice makes perfect.

Amy Ells:

For our first go with all four locations, I cannot wait to see if we did good, bad, or need to change it completely. I am so excited.

Kiera Dent:

I love that, Amy. I want to wrap up on what you just said. Something I think we did really, really well, and you and I pushed each other on it, which was super helpful. I loved having you there. I loved being there. I think the outside perspective... I'm doing it this year with our company, because it's just easier to have an outside perspective.

Amy Ells:

So much easier.

Kiera Dent:

But we made sure every Rock was a measurable rock. People would say, "We just want to increase our internal referrals." But we were really good at asking the question like, "How are we going to measure this, and how is this going to get us to our bigger goal?" I think those two questions make Rocks so much better. And that comes from you and I.

Kiera Dent:

I know I've had a lot of failed Rocks in offices in my own life. The asking those two questions, "How are we going to measure this?" and, "What bigger goal is this helping us achieve?" helps people make sure they have even better Rocks.

Amy Ells:

100%.

Kiera Dent:

All right. Well, Amy, we're going to put this out. I think we should do a wrap-up after the next Traction meeting that we do, just so people can hear how it worked out. But I would say everybody, try it out.

Amy Ells:

Absolutely. Part two.

Kiera Dent:

And then we're going to do a wrap-up. Part two. Stay tuned. Amy's going to do her part. I'll do my part. The offices will do their part. And we'll come back and let you know how our Johnny Appleseeds, did they grow or did they get burned by COVID? What happened to our seeds? We'll find out what happens to these seeds.

Amy Ells:

Oh gosh, no.

Kiera Dent:

Even if COVID happens. I love that we pointed this out. People are like, "But what about COVID?" You guys did better through COVID. There's no excuse. That's just business. There's always going to be something, so let's keep working. And they bought in so well. Such a fun visit, Amy. Loved it. Thank you.

Amy Ells:

Yes. Yes. Oh my God, I had so much fun, Kiera. Thank you. Thank you.

Kiera Dent:

Yes. And as always, thanks for hopping on the podcast with me. This was epic. I'm so glad we did it.

Amy Ells:

Yes, me too.

Kiera Dent:

All right, you guys. As always, thank you for listening. Thank you, Amy, thank you, Jason, for getting me introduced to Traction. We will let you guys know in three months. Stay tuned. I can't wait to do the wrap-up. And as always, thank you so much for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Kiera Dent:

All right, Dental A Team listeners, that's a wrap. Thank you so much for listening. And if you loved today's podcast, go leave us a review. It takes you five seconds, and your review helps more offices, more practices, more team members just like you find out about the Dental A Team. Thank you guys so much for being part of my Dental A Team family.