330: Story Vs. Fact- Treatment Planning

Did you know that the stories you tell yourself are true? Oh, that patient is too poor to afford treatment or my doctor is a bad leader or I’m egotistical … If you think these things enough, they establish themselves in your mind and then it’s all you see! Kiera is here to fix that, encouraging listeners to change up their thought process.

Stop making stumbling blocks where there should be stepping stones. Tell yourself stories that create a positive reality.

Let us help you become the best dental team member you can be at www.TheDentalATeam.com! 

Podcast Transcript:

Kiera Dent:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent. And I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective. Because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, 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. Yep. We don't just understand you, we are you.

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

            Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I am still on the road. This is car casting 101 tonight. I feel like Delilah. Did any of you ever listen to Delilah on the radio? Delilah, it's dark guys. I'm just driving on. Who knows where I'm at in this country? I'm on the East Coast somewhere headed towards New Jersey, but I'm excited. I've got a great topic that I want to bring up because I was about to be done podcasting. Then I looked through my notes and this is another awesome topic that I was like, "Ugh. No, I'm going to do another one." I can't wait to record this for you guys because I think this will be one that you guys will play for your teams. You'll share it. Office managers, doctors, share this one with your teams.

            On the topic of sharing, share this with a friend. Please leave us a five-star review. That's how we're able to grow this podcast. So just like you guys are growing your practices, help us help other offices. Share this with colleagues, you guys. I believe that dentistry is the best profession and I believe that we can all impact in such a big way. And that's why we built the podcast was to help offices become A Teams. We deliver all this free content, and the way you guys are able to help that keep going is to share it, to subscribe, to leave reviews so more people can find us. That's how you guys are able to give back and we greatly appreciate that.

            So tonight's topic, or today... Are you listening to it during the day, during the night? Who knows? Today or tonight's topic for you is on stories. Stories that we tell ourself that we believe are true. And this is a topic because this is impacting treatment plans. This is impacting fluoride. This is accepting case acceptance. So I want you guys right now to list off some stories that you believe. Also, it impacts leadership. I had another doctor that I was talking to and it was his leadership. This impacts us on all different levels because what we believe is true is what we create into reality.

            Now, you guys might be like, "Oh, Kiera, here we go. This is more on life." You're right. It is on life because this impacts your case acceptance. This impacts your leadership. This impacts your team. This impacts your life because it's life.

            So what happens is we get these stories. You can believe that you are an incredible leader. You can believe you're a terrible leader. You can believe that you are humble. You can believe that you're prideful. You can believe that you're egotistical. You can believe that patients have money or you can believe that they do not have money. Guess what? You're right. You're right because you're going to make yourself right. You're going to make yourself right. You're going to find proof no matter what it is that it's correct.

            So let me give you guys a couple of examples. I have a treatment coordinator that I've been working with who believes that every patient, if they accept treatment, they're going to lose their house because they'll be broke and they won't have money to do it. That sounds extreme. You might be like, "What? That's ridiculous." It's not ridiculous because guess what? That wasn't her top surface level. Her top surface level was patients can't afford it. Did you follow that? Her top story was that patients can't afford treatment. It's always financing.

            Once we got down to the bottom of it, she told me that she believed that if patients paid for it, that they might lose our house. And that was really what the deep, underlying fear was. You guys, sometimes it comes from childhood. Sometimes it comes from our family upbringings. Who knows where these stories come from? And that's not really the relevant part. The relevant part is we create realities based on our belief system and we make that real.

            So for this treatment coordinator, I asked her, I said, "Is that really true that if they buy this treatment or they say yes to treatment that they're going to lose their house?" She was like, "No, that's absurd." But it's not absurd because she believed that was true. And she didn't even know that that was in her subconscious running the show, which is why she wasn't getting acceptances. She was bringing that into reality. You guys, isn't that crazy cool? That because they're able to fix that, she now is getting a ton of yeses on her treatment plans. Patients are saying yes because she realized she was holding back. She was not offering treatment plans in a confident way. She was almost presenting them to help patients say no to her because that's what she wanted them to say. Of course, she could say on the surface she wanted them to say yes. But subconsciously, she was scared. She was worried about these patients. Once we were able to break through that, she was able to start getting yeses. So this is where I say your stories create your reality and you bring that into existence.

            A lot of doctors, "Well, Kiera, that tooth's not going to break." You're exactly right, so why are you diagnosing it? "Well, because it's there." Okay. If it's there, then that's active disease. Shouldn't we take care of it? You get to decide. You can tell me every patient wants Invisalign or every patient does not want Invisalign. Who's right? Who's right? The crazy cool thing is both people are right.

            I have an office. They present Invisalign to almost every single patient. Doesn't mean every patient accepts it today. But most of their patients accept it within six months to a year because they were talked about it. They were prepped. That office believes in giving the best treatment and offering what they believe is the best for every patient. You guys, I have straight teeth except for one of my laterals drives me nuts. Do you know how many offices have offered me Invisalign? None. That's a big fat zero. You guys are creating this. And so the stories we believe create our reality.

            I was talking to a doctor. You have to be really careful of the words we say because we make those true. He said, "Kiera, I'm not a very good leader. I feel like I come in and I really rip my team apart. I get really nervous to do that." And I said, "Is that actually true?" He said, "No, but that's how I feel." And I said, "Well, the cool thing is, you're going to keep making that real until you change it." So I said, "What do you actually want to be?" And he said, "I want to be a leader that is trusted, that is respected, and that feels that they can give feedback to their team." Fantastic. Let's start having you tell yourself that that's the kind of leader you are and let's make it real.

            I've been checking in with this doctor. This is about, Oh gosh, a week ago, two weeks ago. And I've been checking in periodically to find out how is it going for this doctor? Is it working? Is it not? He's been working on changing what he tells himself about how his leadership skills are. And he said, "One day, complete train wreck." Guess what? That also happens. Don't worry. Just because we want to change an attribute or we think we can change it doesn't mean it's an overnight change. But what it does mean is we're going to start changing the stories that we believe to bring them into existence.

            Guys, I used to be really mean, really mean. Oh, this is embarrassing. I don't know why I tell you guys this. I must believe that on the other side, people are listening, but you guys are nice and you accept me for who I am. I don't know what I believe. I think what I do is I feel like if I'm willing to share my struggles or the things that I was, that hopefully, someone out there will have the courage to see that they can change. That they can hear in my stories something that will impact you.

            So I was a really mean little girl. I don't know. I can't blame it on anything. I think it just liked to be mean. I think there was parts of me that just wanted to be bad and I don't know why. I was like, "I know I'm being bad. I just don't know how to change it, mom. I'm being naughty. I'm spitting on my brother." So I used to spit on my brothers. I used to get my mouth washed out all the time.

            In elementary school, I would claw the boys so they wouldn't get on the monkey bars. I just had all this aggression. I don't know what the heck happened, why I was so angry. I used to kick people. I used to bite people. My poor mom. She was so excited to have a girl, and then she got this little demon child that was so raunchy. I was a little brat a lot. And I remember I was mean. I was really, really mean to people. I think back, and that's not who I am today. But as a child, I usually think I was a mean little brat. My parents never called me a brat. They never told me I was mean. I just wanted to be mean. I think I wanted to have power. I think I was mad that I was a second sibling and I thought I should be an oldest sibling.

            But I share that story because that's not who I wanted to be. I started noticing as I was getting older that it didn't like how it was. I didn't like being mean to people. Boys were afraid of me on the playground. I had a guy. Oh, man. I knew him through seventh grade and then I came back when I was in high school. He's like, "I have a scar from you from first grade." And I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." I was just mean.

            I remember, I don't even know, it was probably a middle school, high school, where I decided I didn't want to be that person anymore. I didn't want to be this mean little tyrant. Maybe it was sixth grade, hopefully, before I got into middle school. I want to be somebody different. I want to be nice. I want to be kind. I wanted to be known as a kind person, but I still liked my spunk and my fire in me. So I started telling myself that I was nice and that people liked me.

            I remember I used to not be great with my words. I just had a doctor the other day. Tell me, "Kiera, you have a gift for being able to speak really well and convey things to people in a way that's very easy." You guys, that was not who I was. I used to be mean. When you would say things to me, I would come at you. I would rip you in half. I was not nice. I didn't have a polished tongue. I was snappy.

            I only share with you these examples because I was telling myself that I was that way. And yes, there's a part of my characteristic that was that way, but I was able to change it. It wasn't lying to myself. It was something I really wanted to be. So I would say, "I am a really nice person." And I'm like, "Kiera, you can't lie to yourself. So you can't go do something and tell yourself you're something else." I can't go spit on people. I can't go bite people. I can't go claw people's arms and tell myself that I'm a really nice person. That contradicts and I'm constantly lying to myself. So I had to start morphing into that person. I had to start becoming this nicer person. And over time, it did come.

            I tell you guys that for treatment plans. If you walk in there and say, "This person has no money." Guess what? You just made that a reality and you're probably going to prove yourself right. They probably aren't going to have money. They're probably not going to be able to afford treatment because you just put it out there and you're going to create that. If you say, "Oh, all my patients don't accept Invisalign." Guess what? They might if you would just change your verbiage, if you'd change one word, if you'd change your thought process on it because you're going to be more confident when you present your treatment plans.

            If I told myself that I was nice and then I went and did the opposite, of course, I had days where I was frustrated, but it became less and less and less. I used to tell myself I wasn't a very good consultant and why would people even want to hire me? And guess what? I struggled. I struggled a lot. And then I was like, "Forget that. Do I really believe that?" And I'm like, "No, I think I'm actually a really incredible consultant. I change people's lives, I change their businesses, I help their teams, and I do incredible work." I truly started to believe that and I wanted to be that. That's what I wanted people to start saying about Dental A Team and it became real. It wasn't overnight. It didn't happen immediately.

            Same thing with treatment plans, I used to be like, "Oh, this person can't afford it. They don't have enough insurance." I created that. They could, I just was making stumbling blocks where there should have been stepping stones. Because I would say, "Oh, your insurance is maxed so it's going to be $5,000 out of pocket." Some people would say yes, but most would be like, "Oh, let's just wait till my insurance resets." "Oh, I didn't get another acceptance." It's because I was creating that. I was saying that their insurance was maxed. I created that. So the stories that we choose to believe are creating the results we're getting,

            I was talking to a hygienist about fluoride. She was saying, "Yeah. But Kiera, I don't think I can get my fluoride percentage up because I don't think all patients need it." So I just posed another side. I was a patient who didn't need fluoride, but no hygienists ever offered it to me. Had they, as soon as I was offered fluoride, I said yes, even though I'm a patient that you wouldn't even think or expect would need fluoride. But I wanted to be proactive and preventative so I said yes. We changed her mindset just a little bit and she's going to get different results.

            So yes, this is a little bit up in the clouds. Yes, this is a little bit different. The reality is change your mindset, change the stories you tell yourself, and get different results. Don't lie to yourself, but figure out what you really want to be. I tell myself patients love me, patients say yes, and patients want to do treatment. I truly believe that. I didn't always believe that. But with confidence, a hundred percent confidence, I truly believe that.

            I believe offices love me, that they want to get amazing results, and that they're going to work hard and stay accountable. That's what I tell myself with teams that I go coach because that's what I want to have. That's how I want to treat teams. I don't want to treat them like they're going to be babysat, that they're not going to get results. Because guess what? I'm probably going to have to babysit them and they're not going to get results. So I tell myself, teams love to work with me. Teams have a great time working with me. I am the best consultant and we're going to get incredible results together. I literally tell myself that and that's become my reality.

            So treatment coordinators, doctors, schedulers. I was talking to a scheduler today and she said, "Oh, our schedule just fell apart today." And I was like, "Stop that." She's like, "This is what happens every Tuesday." I was like, "Your schedule falls apart because you want it to fall apart." She's like, "No, I don't." And I'm like, "By you saying every Tuesday, this happens, you're making that real."

            Human beings have a great desire and need to make themselves right. So if you tell yourself, "Oh, every Tuesday, our schedule falls apart," you will find a way to make yourself right. So tell yourself, "Every Tuesday, we have a full schedule." You will find a way to make that right. Tell yourself, "Every patient only buys off of insurance." You will find a way to make that right. "Every patient pays in full and loves to pay me." You will find a way to make that right.

            That's the crazy cool thing about this which is why I wanted to bring it up. You get to decide what reality you want. You get to choose it. By the words you say day in and day out, you're making a world that you're living in, that's consistent with what you believe to be true.

            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. So 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've 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.

            You guys can decide to believe this. You can say like, "Kiera, you're up in the clouds." Try me. Try me for a quarter. See if it changes. Take the challenge. Look to see where you're struggling. Maybe your case acceptance isn't as high. Maybe your new patients aren't as high. Maybe your schedule's falling apart and you're telling yourself, "Oh, it's always just that way," or, "This is just how I was made," or, "This is what it was." Try it. Try changing it to something that you want it to be and see what happens. Worst-case scenario is you get the same results. Best-case scenario, something changes for the better. So try it out. Test me on this one.

            It's my last one I decided I'm going to do tonight and I hope you guys loved it. I hope that it was something that, for somebody out there, it's spun your mind. It made you think differently. Go try a different approach. Try fluoride verbiage is different. Try case acceptance that's different. Try presenting a treatment plan that's different. Maybe you always present it this way. Change up. Just like we tell patients who are getting recession. "Hey, you brush with your right hand. Try brushing with your left hand and let's see if we can change this." Do something different. Change that story. Look to see what it is.

            Maybe you believe that if they buy treatment, they're going to lose their house. Maybe you believe that patients only have money based on insurance because that's how you were. Change your story. Change your life. Get different results. You have a desire and a need to be consistent with whatever you believe to be true. Change those beliefs, you'll have a different reality. I promise you, I've done it so many times. Otherwise, I wouldn't get on this podcast.

            You guys know I hold this podcast true and dear to my heart. Whatever I put on here is stuff that I've tried out. And if I haven't tried it, I will tell you so you know I'm testing something and it's an idea. This one, I've tested a lot with a lot of different offices, a lot of different treatment coordinators, and I know it works. So test me out. Try it. Change your story, change your life. I can't wait to hear you guys' success. As always, thank you guys for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

            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.