Episode 829: Book Club: What to Take Off Your (Work) Plate

Kiera and Britt are discussing the April book club selection, Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire by Dan Martell. They share their top takeaways about treating time valuably, how to best go about starting to delegate, where an assistant can fit in, and more.

Find the full book club rundown here!

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.782)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am so excited for today's podcast. I have the one and only Brittany Stone back on the podcast. Britt, it's been months. How you doing?

 

Britt (00:10.928)

doing great. It feels like it's been a while since I've gotten to be on a podcast. So it's fun to be here.

 

Kiera Dent (00:16.11)

It has been a while. Britt is so busy running our company and I sit over here in podcast, but this one I felt was very appropriate because it's book club day. And yesterday Britt and I were actually talking about this and I told her I was getting ready to record and she said, oh, that was a good book and very timely because I didn't know if I wanted to read it. Guys, I was feeling a little schmucky about the book club. Don't worry. We've just been a smidge busy at Dental A team right now. And Britt said,

 

Kiera, this book is very timely. So I started listening to it last night, woke up at 2 a .m. to finish it so that way Britt wasn't having to carry this one. And needless to say, I think it's very timely. So we're excited. It's Buy Back Your Time, Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire by Dan Martell. Wow, Britt. I mean, I think for two people sitting in leadership and in operations, dang, did you feel like we kind of got our like, we got a licking, I felt. I was like, okay, we have a lot that we could improve on.

 

and but yet so empowering at the same time. That was kind of my take from the book.

 

Britt (01:19.296)

I agree. I think there's those times where kind of you need someone to pull you out and I feel like sometimes we do that for clients, right? I'm like, all right, let's talk about reality a little bit. And I felt like that's what this book was for me is like, all right, let's talk about some things and it just hit on some important things that we're working through that are going to be helpful.

 

Kiera Dent (01:39.084)

Mm -hmm, absolutely. And so I just feel like as I was listening to it, I mean, I'm taking notes at 2 a .m. in the morning, figuring this out. I'm like, okay, Britt, like this is something that I think is so pertinent. So hopefully you guys read the book. If not, Britt and I will kind of do book club style between the two of us for you. Coming from, Britt, if you will, in an office is like your operations or office manager. I will bring in your doctor CEO perspective.

 

But gosh, like Britt, what were some of your top takeaways from reading this book, like just high level without going into it? What were some of the high level things you loved from this book?

 

Britt (02:14.512)

Yeah, I think some of the big things are like the drip matrix, right? Figuring out what are the things that you really should be spending your time on? What are the things that are better to pass off to someone else? I think that was super important. I think figuring out kind of the value of your time and what's worthwhile to like hire out or pass to someone. Always looking for the opportunities to be able to like the.

 

title says like buy back your time right what are the things that you can delegate to someone else and then like tips to be able to do that and to delegate and to add those people so honestly I was like oh there's so much within this book that's super helpful there's some things that I'm like awesome we're doing that thing and some that it's like yep that's a great reminder and some that it's like oh that's a beautiful idea.

 

Kiera Dent (02:59.886)

And I'm so glad you said that because I had a moment as I was listening to it and I'm like, I wonder if people feel this way when either they like come into consulting or they listen to the podcast. I'm like, there's all these ideas, but you have to remember like people who write books or give podcasts, they've been doing this for a while and that's why they're an expert. If you're just listening, like the biggest thing I think you can do is take one idea and implement it as opposed to just consuming knowledge and never executing. So that was surely like my take from it, but agreed. I think.

 

Some of mine were, I loved his audit transfer fill. Audit transfer fill, like that's on repeat in my mind. And I also thought it was really interesting because I felt like I was sitting in a doctor's office with Dan in my ear, diagnosing my problem of where I'm at. And he said, when we get to this burnout level, you GSD, and I love how he's like, get rid of the GSD mentality. And I'm like, hallelujah, thank you. Get stuff done all the time.

 

No, it's like get stuff done that actually like lights your fire and moves it forward. And it's actually high dollar because I think it can be so easy to go into this like busyness mentality thinking we're getting so much done, but actually we're not. And I mean, I'm talking 2 a .m. this morning. I'm sitting there figuring out my dollar per hour that I can outsource. And I was like, wow, that was actually a lot more than I thought it would be, which was interesting. And I think also in running a business for so long without even having this.

 

I also love the replacement ladder. And I felt like shockingly and ironically, naturally I think I followed that replacement ladder, which I'm super grateful for, but it was so telling to me. And I'm like, wow, I can just diagnose right where we are. I can see why I'm frustrated. Like I'm sabotaging. I think Britt would have says, even yesterday, we were talking to like, I'm just freaking sabotaging right now. Like get rid of people. I'm sick of this. Like, I feel like I'm like hypothetically like throwing dishes. Like I'm not yelling at anybody. It was like, I don't care about this anymore. I don't want to do this anymore. Like.

 

Caution to the wind. But I'm like, I'm sabotaging because it's scary for us to grow. And that feels out of my control and out of my management. And then like, Britt, that's why you have the job. Like you should do that and I should get in my lane and stop trying to like buddy buddy up on everything. I don't know if you felt that, but I was like, wow, we probably could be a lot more effective by like getting into lanes, having people take true ownership. And so then I'm not sabotaging, you're not sabotaging.

 

Kiera Dent (05:19.406)

We're not both feeling like we're underwater. It really is a way to, I think, elevate our company as well.

 

Britt (05:24.336)

And I think I saw it right from the flip side in my role to where I'm like there's things that I like I can do and step up on that you don't have to be involved in and sometimes it's just easier to have you involved in it and so I think for me on the other side like doctor and O .M. some things will need to happen together so that we're in alignment right that's gonna happen but where can I kind of take on a few more things independently to free up your time because your time is better spent on the creativity.

 

the really sitting in that visionary seat.

 

Kiera Dent (05:56.342)

Mm hmm. And man, I'll tell you my like, glimmer of freedom was hearing about Oprah Winfrey's day. I'm like, what am I doing here? So if you didn't read the book, she talks, he talks about how Oprah Winfrey is this like multi billionaire woman, she's built these incredible companies and realistically in her day, she spends two hours of her whole day actually working on the business of the things that she truly needs to do. And the rest she's had people do, she's got systems in place.

 

Britt (06:03.896)

I'm sorry.

 

Kiera Dent (06:24.558)

and she's really working in her almost zone of genius. And I just thought that was so amazing because I'm like, I work all day long, but honestly, if I like cut down to the things I really specialize in, I think if you cut down to the things you really specialize in, I think that there's actually a lot more free time in our schedules to allow us to be these humans we want to be. But I feel like I'm just like on the grind of like, no, I work eight to five every day. And that's just what I do versus being much more intentional of the things that light my fire, the things I'm really good at.

 

And like he said, audit our schedules, AKA like time audit, transfer tasks to other people, and then fill it with more high value, high dollar things that would actually move the company forward. And I just thought like, I miss the creativity. I miss being able to like go solve big problems, because I feel like I'm in meetings. I'm in, and I'm just like, that sucks the life out of me. I'm on sales calls and I'm like, oh, I love talking to prospective clients, but I don't like being the person who has to do it all. And so just being really honest, I think back to you when...

 

We are shifting your position and we found out like what were the things sucking the time out of you? Gosh, like audit transfer and fill. There's people to do this. You'll be happier. I'll be happier. The company will probably move at a much faster pace. But gosh, I think like it was just such so eye opening for me of I'm bogging down and slowing my runway and burning myself out not because of the amount of work to do, but because of the type of tasks that I just don't enjoy doing. How can I pass those along?

 

And then also realizing that there is a space, like he said, like sometimes you, like as founders, you do the sales of the company for quite some time until you can hire people to replace you. But like just seeing, I think like the future and being able to get out of it, instead of like having to sell the business or sabotage it or stall it and completely destroy the company, just because I'm in a space of, I don't want to do all this like work for me that isn't thrilling. But like, how do you balance? Cause I think that this is where I got confused of.

 

how much do you need to do to grow the business to gain the cashflow that you need to do versus like delegating it out? Cause I think some people will delegate it out, hire people and then they get into cashflow issues. And that's honestly my sphere. Like I'm going to do all these things and then I'm going to be in this cashflow frenzy. But I also feel like I'm a smart business owner. I don't think I'd ever let my business get to a cashflow frenzy. Like, so that's like my like angel and devil sitting on either side of my shoulder. I'm like, no, care you're like.

 

Kiera Dent (08:47.726)

hire the people, you'll never get into that space. But that's the space of like holding me back of thinking I'm not being, I mean, maybe I'm in the saver zone in the book where it's like, I'm just going to keep saving the nest egg and not hiring people up because I'm so scared of it. Wow, that was a therapy session, Brit, you take it on.

 

Britt (09:03.568)

I think you hit it on the head where you've still got to be a smart business owner, right? So at the end of the day, you've still got to look at numbers and that's where even like your time and value, how much can you spend, right? Because you're going to go use that to create more value. So there's a trade off there and it's not like we can go hand off everything and be like, great, and I'm just going to transition it all at once. And sometimes we try to do that and it doesn't work out super well. And so...

 

taking those steps and figuring out what's the biggest pain point, what can I pass off, like great, pass those things off. And then there will be other things that aren't as painful, right? It's like, all right, I got rid of the level 10. Like now I'm gonna get rid of the level nine pain. I'm gonna get rid of the level eight pain and slowly start to pass those things off to where you can truly sit mostly in the world where you wanna be. And that's even like the Oprah example of spending two hours.

 

making the big decisions on things. There's gonna be, I'm sure she's got it down to a small percentage of time, but I'm sure she would love to not have to do any of that, but it's at least down to a small enough space where she just does it all at once, makes those decisions, and then can get back to the things that she needs to do.

 

Kiera Dent (10:08.086)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (10:15.534)

Totally. And I do think that there is a guilt and he talked about this. Like there's a guilt for me of feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm not working the same as my team. And like even Brit for you as an office manager, I think about it, I'm like, there is time where you shouldn't even be clocking in. You need to go like get out of the company. I know your brain will get way more fresh if you go for a bike ride and you'll come back and you'll be able to hit it really hard later on. And so.

 

There is a guilt piece, but I think it's just a self -inflicted guilt. I don't think it's a team guilt. I don't think it's a management guilt. I think it's self -inflicted and realizing like, no, I'm going to work at my optimal level. But how do you set the standard for a team from your perspective? Do you think so that way? Because like our teams do need to be there. They're not maybe not at the, or maybe that's just false and they don't like let them work or whatever hours they want. I don't know. Then it really feels like I'm throwing caution to the wind. Like, let's just throw everything out the window.

 

Britt (11:06.96)

I think everything within reason, right? There's a lot of things that a management role and an owner role that get taken care of outside of business hours that team members don't have to deal with. Like, thank goodness that's not their role. They don't have to, but there are different responsibilities with different roles and there's an understanding of even like the time.

 

Um, cause we know even office managers, like they're dealing with people calling out, figuring out solutions, the office is flooded, the power's out, all those things. And there should be a degree of trade off for that. It's not like it's going to be a straight thing, but there's a degree of flexibility coming along with that, with a person who's able to handle it and be responsible and not take advantage of it.

 

Kiera Dent (11:52.684)

Mm -hmm. Okay, Brit. So let's go down. I'm going to take like CEO seat, you take office manager seat, and let's do like the top one or two things we felt for our position from this book would make like the greatest change or would be something that we probably should implement. And again, like you guys, we are, Dental A Team is not a startup business. Like we have a lot of things in place. So also keep in mind, like we're speaking from a pretty seasoned company. We're on growth mode right now.

 

We are evolving. We have a pretty substantial team. We've got the revenue there. We've got the cash flow there. We've built up a lot of systems and processes. So like as Britt and I give this, it might not be the same for you if you're a new startup practice or you might not need this and this might not be the same for you if you're a seasoned practice and you like, it's just like burn and churn. Like you just have it. It's going, you're not really going to innovate or grow, but where Britt and I are, I think there are quite a few practices listening that are kind of where we are as a business where it's like,

 

You've got things dialed in. I get bored, Britt gets bored. We're going to grow. And he did talk about this. Like if you don't grow and you don't innovate, you actually will lose a lot of key team players because like there's nowhere for them to grow. I think if Britt, I was like, all right, Britt, we're just going to do what we've been doing. I don't think you'd stay with me. I think that that'd be very boring for you. But on the flip side, we're like growing at a million miles a minute right now, which also is quite thrilling. So from like, let's say an OM operations perspective, what was maybe like the one or two items that you either.

 

feel like every office manager should do or things that you want to implement into our company from your perspective.

 

Britt (13:24.366)

Mm -hmm. I think one cool takeaway was we're big on systems, right, and documenting systems, and we've got a lot, but we're expanding, which means bringing in new roles or new positions and bringing on new things. And so the four C's of Camcorder, Course Cated's checklist for systems, I think, was a cool takeaway to be able to do something quickly, right? So if I'm doing it, I can do a video first, right? Like,

 

Kiera Dent (13:49.742)

Mm -hmm.

 

Britt (13:53.648)

just even getting a video down of how to do something is step number one that's going to help to get those systems into play. So I think that was a big one. Shout out for Loom. Loom is a great resource. We do use video, but I think we could do a stronger job of that. And then I also think that a like definition of done. I think that that one was a really big one, which is making sure that when something is delegated, that it's defined and they know what done.

 

Kiera Dent (14:09.942)

Mm -hmm.

 

Britt (14:23.408)

like and we're big on due dates right to make sure there's a date but I think sometimes the definition of done could be a little bit clearer.

 

Kiera Dent (14:31.626)

Agreed. And I think like also that definition of done between doctor and O .M. really makes it clean and clear between the two of us of what does that look like? These are the deadlines. And then there's no gray or I love that his team is asking for like, hey, what's the D .O .D.? Like, what is it? What do I need? Like, this is what I think it is. Is this accurate? I thought that was a beautiful way that it circled around. So agreed with you that camcorder. It's funny because yesterday as we were prepping for this podcast, Britt's like,

 

Britt (14:54.224)

Thank you.

 

Kiera Dent (15:00.948)

Camcorder that's a part of the book and I was like, oh you're like you should record when you do that I was like that's a good point and it's funny because back in 2020 we had our whole team make our operations manual We have recorded videos But I think the way he described it feels more simple and more tactile and I love that what he said with those four C's is When you build them the expectation is whomever is a new trainee is expected to have that document and that video Open while they're going through the system always

 

So that way they can adjust it, they can refine it. And to me, I was like, oh my gosh, that's how you keep an ops manual up to date because you're constantly using it. And I felt like then your work is actually transpiring into people using it rather than just busy work as well.

 

Britt (15:43.64)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (15:45.358)

Okay, the flip side, my side, things that I took away from here. Number one, I agree, and I hope every person listening, and if you read the book or didn't, the need for an admin assistant, I think, is clutch. I didn't realize, and that was on the ladder of replacement. But what I loved, because I've hired admin assistants, it was very awkward for me when I first hired, but gosh, I would never, ever, ever go back. And like he said, you couldn't pay me enough not to work with an admin assistant. And I'm literally there at this point in time. And...

 

Britt and I were actually talking of at what point does Britt as an office manager also need an admin assistant? Because there's so many things like when we actually just did a time value, how much time Britt's spending on tasks, so much of it is on admin that could be delegated out to somebody else, freeing Britt up for those bigger projects. So that's something to like just pin and to think about, but I loved, loved, loved.

 

the GPS for emails because I'm so done going through my inbox. All you who pen pal me, don't worry, Shelby does send them to me and I will respond to you. So don't stress about that. But like one, creating a system of how urgent I need things scheduled, I thought for Shelby, that would make her life so much easier. This is a one, two, three, or four. So she instantly knows like I need to move things and make this happen or I need to just go forward. Cause I have a perfect day scheduling, but I don't feel like we use it super well. Like I have it, I've built it. I know where I maximize and optimize my time.

 

but I don't feel like I like enforce that with Shelby, which would then lead into the sink. I was obsessed with the sink weekly meeting and where we just talk about and we just get on sync every other week or every other day. I just thought that that was such a beautiful thing. So that way she just knows exactly like, let's get on the same page of how's my schedule doing? What are the calendars? What are the things she needs me to respond to?

 

but then me not responding, but teaching her what my response would be. So that way she can actually be more efficient without me. And same thing with you, Britt, of like not doing it and syncing up with like an admin assistant and an OM. I just thought those were such clutch things because then it, and also like when he said an admin assistant, it doesn't have the guilt. Like Shelby doesn't have the guilt of saying sorry to someone when my call runs over. And.

 

Kiera Dent (17:57.678)

I feel like, oh my gosh, they're gonna hate me. And she's just like, hey, Keira's running over, let me get you rescheduled. Here's the times I have available. Like, holy cow, that's so easy. And so I feel like for doctors, having that admin assistant who just like manages your email and your calendar, it has been life -changing. And I felt like I could even step that up. And agreed with you, Britt. It was definitely the four Cs. And then if I'm not allowed to do yours, I would say it was the hiring. And I thought the, which I think in dental they do,

 

But I think for a lot of our admin positions, we don't do it as much. Using that, like, I don't hire you until I've worked with you. How can we get them to actually do and pay them for it? No problem. But to see, are they actually going to be the person? Because Britt, I think you and I, especially with new positions we've never worked with, I have no clue like what they should do, how they're even going to respond. And so when you're looking to possibly hire an admin assistant, I literally have them go through book schedules for me, book a calendar for me, respond to emails for me as part of their working interview.

 

to see is this person the person I wanna hire and will they respond like I did. So I feel like those are just like from an OM and a CEO's perspective, I think some of our key takeaways. Britt, anything you wanna add to that?

 

Britt (19:03.408)

Yeah, and I think within hiring, one thing that's been a game changer for us, it was interesting that they said, have them record a video. We definitely use that for consultants when it comes to hiring. It's a screening process. So I'm like, all right, that's a cool thing that we found has been super helpful and it's neat to see that it aligns. And then with the assistant, I know a lot of our clients, right, that have...

 

hired those assistants. So dentists, it's not something you may traditionally think of, but it's been life changing for some of those clients who have added it on. Even if it's a part time, there's companies out there that have virtual assistants that they can help you hire someone. And it's a certain amount of hours, you know, each week or each month that are available for them. And it really can help. And then it's just knowing what to direct them. So kind of putting the pieces together on like, all right, what are the things that are super, super painful for you to do?

 

Kiera Dent (19:42.062)

Mm -hmm.

 

Britt (19:57.988)

that you don't enjoy doing, can you hand it off to someone? Great. Those are the things to start with taking off your plate so that you can go focus on more important things.

 

Kiera Dent (20:06.35)

Amen. And I still remember when I first hired my first assistant and I was terrified. Like, will they respond to my emails correctly? Will they book my flight? And the answer is you're going to have some hangups. But like he says in there, 80 % is freaking awesome out of 100%. Like if I can get them to do 80 % of it for me, that's freaking awesome. And to just almost change our mindset of like, they're never going to get it 100 % right. And that's okay.

 

I just thought like, gosh, there's so many ways that we can leverage. And for me, I come back to what you've said, like you guys go back to Britt's podcast. I think it was one of the first ones you and I ever did. And it's like, choose your hard. Is it harder for me to hire and delegate these tasks out? Or is it harder for me to continue on this like hamster will? Sure, I can grind it out and I can GSD and get things done, but at what cost and when is my passion? Like he says, what is it like the pain line? Like we're going to hit the pain.

 

threshold at some point and at that point you either are going to sell, sabotage, stall and that's going to happen to your business. And so knowing that choose my hard, I think Britt, you and I both were like, all right, let's start doing the four C's. I mean, I thought about it. I was like, all right, we can do that. That's pretty simple. We can start doing the meet weekly sync meetings with Shelby. Like that's a simple thing. You and I can do a weekly sync meeting. Like that's very simple to do. We can cut down where we both don't need to be in it. We can audit our time and like,

 

audit transfer and fill, like those are simple things. And for me, like, you know how I work, I put things on the cadences. So I'm like, all right, when do we audit transfer and fill? Maybe we do that every quarter around our traction meetings. Like that's very simple for all of us to do. Come, we delegate, we shift things up, use our team in a better way. But I just felt like there were so many things. It was a little overwhelming. But I think like, we're not here to eat the whole elephant today. We're here to take the one or two pieces that will really leverage our time.

 

and implement those and then come back and like get the next drink of water and the next one and the next one rather than trying to drink the entire well today.

 

Britt (22:07.792)

Yeah, and I think recognizing with some of those things, like what the assassin is, right? I think sometimes GSD for sure can be an assassin. I feel like it's a stall tactic. Just doing it yourself instead of delegating 100%, it's just a stall tactic, because it's the control piece where I just keep doing it. So I think that was interesting too to see.

 

Kiera Dent (22:14.604)

Nice.

 

Kiera Dent (22:20.598)

Mm -hmm.

 

Britt (22:32.368)

how they all play together and what are the things kind of holding us back from that success and where does it, how am I using that thing that's holding me back? I'm using it to stall, I'm using it to supervise, right? Speed demon, self -medicator, saver, all those things that ultimately are assassins and sabotaging success.

 

Kiera Dent (22:50.444)

Mm -hmm. And I think just knowing what you're doing to me, that's what I love when I can assess. I'm like, oh my gosh, like I'm a speed demon and I'm a saver. Got it. Those are my two vices of choice. Let's fix that and not have that continue. I just think are really beautiful tools. So Britt, kudos to you for reading it and then telling me I should read it. So thank you. I actually think that.

 

Britt (23:13.2)

Well, we'll to it. We both audible. It's a lot faster.

 

Kiera Dent (23:18.926)

I mean, Brit, what were you at? What was your speed?

 

Britt (23:21.04)

I'm like at two and a half.

 

Kiera Dent (23:23.79)

This one I could only do it two and a half. I think it was because it was 2 a .m. and I had it like 2 .9 and I was like, wow. I was like, I can't like my brain is not quite there this morning to be up to that speed. I was like, we need to slow this down a bit. But agreed. It was a really awesome book to read. Taking notes on it. I think of the books we recommended. Maybe it's just because it was a newer one for us. We'd heard about this. It's one that I really dug into this time. It's probably one of my top books that we've read of just.

 

Britt (23:29.136)

Here's faster.

 

Kiera Dent (23:51.758)

tactical things that you could implement now. And if I was recommending this, I think I'd do Doctor and OM. I think it'd be a really good duo book club like Britt and I did. And then I don't know about you Britt, but I was planning to take the chapters about the SYNC meeting and send it to Shelby. And then of the onboarding, like the four Cs, and sending that to like all of our people that are in leadership and saying like, just read this chapter, this is what we wanna do.

 

Thinking about Tiffany bringing on new consultants, thinking about Matt and marketing, thinking about Shelby with our customer success team. Just an easy way to empower them, show them of what we want to do and then start building it with them. I think feels like the easiest way is to infiltrate our team in a very simple way too.

 

Britt (24:34.584)

I would agree. I think there's great takeaways. I think no matter what stage you're in as far as career goes for dental practices, there are some solid things that you can use and implement that are going to help to make your life easier.

 

Kiera Dent (24:49.134)

Absolutely. So I hope you guys enjoyed our book club. This is me and Britt doing like real time book club with you. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Definitely recommend Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. And then next month we're going to be reading, which I think is a great one, High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove. We've got pretty like three solid ones. The next one is going to be Come Up for Error, How Teams Can Leverage Systems Tools to Stop Drowning and Work. I'm super jazzed about both of these because I feel like buy back your time.

 

funnels into this management that's high output management and then using systems to leverage your team. So we've kind of stacked these in a good way. And then we go off onto like a very emotional book of you can heal your life. So get ready. But I think these ones will stack really well. So join us next month for a high output management. We're super excited to have you Britt. Thanks for doing the book club with me and being in this with me. It means the world to me that you will podcast with me.

 

You will present content with me. You will manage our team with me. Like you truly are a jack of all trades and I appreciate you a ton.

 

Britt (25:47.408)

Happy to be here.

 

Kiera Dent (25:49.164)

All right, guys, for all of you listening, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.