Episode 657: Take Away Fears of Overhead and Recession

 This is a crossover episode with The Making Of podcast! In it, Kiera talks with cosmetic dentist Ashley Joves about how to overcome high overhead and navigate the economy. Topic discussions include what overhead is and what your goal should be, how to know if you’re disciplined as a business owner, how to work with emergency savings accounts, and loads more.

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Transcript: 

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0:00:05.8 Kiera Dent: Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent. And I have 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.

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0:00:51.2 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I'm so excited for today's podcast. So I was actually in a Facebook Live of The Making Of with Ashley Joves. And guys, this is the Facebook Live. I wanted to pull the audio and create it into a podcast for you guys because we talked about overhead and the recession. And guys, I feel like it was one of the strongest, most powerful episodes that I've ever put together, and I'm so excited for you guys to enjoy it. So here you guys go. I hope you enjoy it. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

0:01:22.4 Ashley Joves: So we're back in the group, so back to overcoming high overhead.

0:01:27.6 KD: So basically, we were talking about how do we navigate through this high overhead, how do we navigate through the economy. And I will just reading you guys a little quote that I've got on my desk that says, "No matter what, decide to live in a beautiful state. Why wait until the final moments? Life is short." And I think it's a good way to just kick this off because at the end of the day, guys, business has ebbs and flows, like I am... Someone taught me once like, "Kiera, the business is like ice cream flavours," and all these different things coming, so like high overhead, the economy, staff turnover, like there was the great resignation, then it was COVID. These are just flavours of business, and this is what we signed up for when we decided to be business owners.

0:02:08.8 KD: So I want you guys first of all, let's get into a really healthy state of mind because when we sit here in this scarcity, "Oh my gosh, my overhead is so high," that's just gonna perpetuate negative momentum. And so I know that sounds like woo woo hippie status when we're talking business numbers that are not woo woo, they're tangible things. But I feel like you've really gotta get into a state of like, "Okay, this is a flavour of business. This is what I signed up for and I'm going to still love my life and things are still gonna be great and I'm gonna figure out how to solve it." So that's number one. And then second with the overhead, I'm gonna say, "Are you looking at your numbers all the time?" So for those of you new, I know this is The Making Of. I love this group. I love Ashley. And so I didn't even know what overhead was. So if you are a business owner on here and you don't know what overhead is, high five, I'm proud of you for being here. Let's figure this out.

0:02:58.3 KD: So what overhead is is we've got our production, okay? So, and we're gonna go off of collections 'cause I don't care what your production is. Production feeds the ego. Collections feeds your family. So we've gotta get it on our collections. So let's say we collect 100,000, what it costs to run the business, so our payroll, our pay for us as doctors. I actually put you guys in overhead 'cause I need you guys confident, otherwise it'll be stressful. The rent, the utilities, our supplies, all of that, everything to run the business, that's our overhead, okay? So this chunk.

0:03:30.7 KD: So let's say on 100,000, the goal I like you guys to be at is, if you don't include doctor salary in there, a 50% overhead. If we include doctor salary in there and everything there, I'd like you to be at a 20% profit margin, okay? So either of those numbers. And the reason I've started kind of moving into profit margins is because that's easier for me. I like doctors to get paid, I think Ashley would agree, we want our doctors to get paid, we want you guys paid 'cause then you're gonna feel more confident. If you're not quite there yet, in startups, sometimes that's not the case, but let's try and get there. And then at the end of it, we want 20% profit. So on this 100,000, that would mean I'd want 20 grand at a minimum left over at the end of the month as your profit, okay? So you are paid, business is paid, all of that. There's a whole different side of taxes that I'm not gonna get into right now, but that's how we want you guys to operate, okay?

0:04:21.5 KD: And then within all that there are set parameters. So when you look at your P&L, yes, a normalised P&L, excellent, and you guys can ask your CPAs for this. So tonight, it's gonna be about, make sure that your CPA is working for you. I think as dentists, you guys are very kind and you're very loving and we sometimes forget that these CPAs work for us. So if you're not getting your numbers, if they're not coming to in a timely fashion, if it's not standardised, you might wanna look for a different CPA or ask them to build what you want.

0:04:51.7 AJ: Sorry. I'm trying to get the comments on 'cause I don't see it on this.

0:04:58.5 KD: I see 'em.

0:05:00.6 AJ: Okay.

0:05:00.7 KD: I'm good. I can see 'em.

0:05:00.8 AJ: Okay, cool.

0:05:01.0 KD: So with that guys, I want you guys to just realise... And there's some great CPAs out there, like I love Morgan with HDA Accounting. I think he actually has one of the best P&Ls that I love. It's very dental specific and he's got all the benchmarks for it. So, for example, they're gonna be set benchmarks for you guys. So like payroll, I like it to sit between a 25 and a 30% of your collections. So let's use that analogy again of a 100,000. We would want 25,000-30,000, that's gonna be our amount that we're gonna want for our payroll. That includes our fringe benefits, our overtime, any of those things that's in our payroll bucket, okay? And this can get a lot, lot deeper. I'm gonna keep it a little more high level and if you guys need more help, we can dive into that too.

0:05:47.8 KD: Please ask questions. I am watching that chat. So I can multitask for you guys, so ask the questions. Our supplies, we want our supplies to be between 3 and 5%. We want our labs to be between 5 and 9% depending upon what you're doing. So when you have these percentages, we go down and we look at every single category, and we need to make sure it's categorised correctly. So when people freak out about overhead, my first step is like number one, do you look at your numbers? Do you right now... And I'm gonna ask you guys, do you know off the top of your head how much your payroll is? Do you know how much you're spending on supplies every single month? Do you know what you're spending on labs? 'Cause if you don't even know that information, I would rather you figure that out.

0:06:31.1 KD: There was a study that I really loved that I think just shows us up really well. There were these people and they were in this test group. So they were sitting there and it was kinda like this computer game and they had to select rocks in this computer game. And there was a way for them to actually start to figure it out. So like they'd click on a rock and if that rock had a rattlesnake under it in this game, they would actually get jolted and it would zap them. And then they'd pick another one, there's no rattlesnake and they're watching people's heart rates, okay? So what they found is you could figure out the patterns. And so when you would click on a rock, before you knew... If you knew that it was gonna be a rattlesnake under there, people's heart rate was actually less on the one when they knew that they were gonna be zapped versus ones where they didn't know what was going to happen.

0:07:18.1 KD: And I think that's really interesting because if I know I'm about to click on this, but I know there's a rattlesnake under there, I know I'm about to get zapped, my heart rate was less than if I don't know if this rock is gonna zap me or not. And I think that that's the same and that's most of the stress with overhead, is if we don't even know what our numbers are, then you're going to always feel like you're panicking. You're always gonna feel like, "Oh my gosh, I don't know what's going on. I don't know my numbers, I don't know if I'm green or if I'm red." And if you don't know that, that's gonna create more... So there was a user that said, "How do we figure out our specialty, Pedo versus general overhead? And these numbers are applicable for all."

0:07:54.6 KD: So pediatric is a little bit different 'cause pediatric, if you don't have hygienists, you actually should run a lower overhead. So pediatric should run at say a 30% profit, maybe even a 40% profit 'cause you don't have as high of salaries in there. HDA, they've got some love out there, they're really good at these specialty practices. I do have my benchmarks for those, but those numbers I listed off I think are good for pediatric.

0:08:18.2 KD: Just note, typically I see you guys' payroll especially maybe sitting between that 15-20% benchmark because you're running basically on dental assistance and front office not all the time. And if you have hygienists in there for pediatric practices, run it with the same benchmarks. Every consultant's gonna be a little bit different, but what I want you guys to do and if you're not doing this with overhead every single month, guys, like if you haven't read "Extreme Ownership", read that book, because one of my favourite quotes and I literally have this sitting up in my kitchen so every time I eat, my favourite thing right now are chocolate, covered caramels with sea salt. Guys, it's like a sick addiction. I walked through the candy aisle last night. I'm like a druggie guys. I literally went in at like nine o'clock at night, snow outside and I'm like, "Jace, I gotta get these." And then I'm sitting there eating them, I don't know what's happened to me. I don't even know why I went down there, but this is where you've gotta get down into this. You've gotta figure it out.

0:09:12.8 KD: I honestly don't know why I just told you guys about chocolate or why I'm obsessed with this and how that has anything to do with P&Ls. I know there was a connection, but clearly, I started thinking about it upstairs right above me and I'm just obsessed with it. So with that... I don't even know where I was going with that. But what I am gonna tell you is [chuckle] with your P&L... Ashley, because look at my numbers, this is sick addiction. Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Whomever just said that.

0:09:37.4 AJ: Oh yes, yes.

0:09:37.6 KD: Another thing is, I have the quote sitting right by my chocolate where it says, "Discipline equals freedom," 'cause every time... This is why I feel like it's a sick addiction, 'cause as I'm eating my caramel, I'm looking at that like, "Kiera, discipline equals freedom." Well, when you actually have discipline and you look at your numbers... And I'm talking every... I check my bank accounts every day. I look at my P&L every week, minimum, and then I really assess it every single month. So there's a question right there of, "As a startup, do you recommend paying ourselves right away?" Great question. I'm loving that you guys are asking and I'm loving that you're helping me and Ashley out tonight.

0:10:17.1 KD: The answer is, I would also recommend another book called "Profit First", and in "Profit First", guys, if you're not paying yourself, why the heck did you take this risk? You might as well have stayed an associate. You might not make as much, but like why do we not, as business owners, ever put ourselves on the P&L line item? It's like you guys would never, ever, ever in your wildest dreams ever go work for someone who doesn't pay you. But yeah, why are you the jerk of a boss to yourself that doesn't pay yourself? That is a great way to have burnout. And I know we're all like, "But it's okay, Kiera. I can slay and and work all day and not get paid." And I'll say, "You absolutely can do that, but I'd recommend you at least put in a reasonable salary."

0:10:58.3 KD: Like let's pretend you even just paid yourself as if you were an associate. So maybe it's, let's pay yourself 30% of your production, that has two benefits. One, you're getting paid and two, if you ever need to replace yourself with an associate, you actually know your numbers so you could work yourself out of this. So, yes, I would say as a startup, pay yourself a little bit. Yes, of course, you guys can go for a couple of months, but you've gotta have a deadline. Otherwise, you're creating a habit and a pattern of, "I don't need to be paid, I don't have to pay myself."

0:11:29.2 KD: And what my husband told me, and I'm gonna tell you guys this, Jace, my husband, those of you who were at Napa, you've met him. It was the first dental event, Ashley, I've ever taken him to, so kudos to you that the hubs came with me. But when I started Dental A Team, Jason gave me one rule. My husband does not like nothing. And I think that this is one of the best things he ever said. He's like, "Kiera, I don't care what you do with your business, " he said, "But I'm gonna tell you one thing, don't lose money, otherwise it's a hobby, it's not a business." And I love that he has told me that. I know we go into debt, I know there's different things, but I feel like if you guys aren't paying yourself, you get real cranky, you get real angry and then the thoughts start coming, "Why did I do this? I hate being a business owner." And I'm like, "You don't actually hate being a business owner, you hate not getting paid." So this is where I feel like, I haven't paid myself yet and we've been open since July, gut wrenched.

0:12:19.8 KD: Why would you be working... You would never work for that. So I also ask people a lot of times when I coach them, "If you were an employee, would you wanna work for yourself? And if you're not then we need to fix that." So when we're looking at our overhead, so action items, so I get you guys tangible 'cause this is the discipline part. Instead of sitting there guilty eating your chocolates, I want you to be disciplined to where no matter what tonight, I don't care what phase of business you're in, you're gonna commit that you're gonna check your numbers every day, you're gonna look at your P&L. I don't care if it looks like freaking Chinese to you or whatever language you don't speak. You need to learn how to read a P&L as a business owner because this is gonna take away the fear of the economy, it's gonna take away the fear of overhead and it's gonna help you figure out which levers you can turn to make your business grow.

0:13:07.6 KD: So somebody wrote in saying, "My staffing is the highest overhead and I'm over the recommended percentage. How would you deal with it?" Fantastic question. This is the awesome economy flavour that we're in right now where our staffing costs are probably gonna be higher than what they were before. So how do we combat that? Well, you got a couple options, but if you don't know your numbers, you don't know which levers you can turn. So what I like to do is I actually like to run scenarios. So, "Okay, Kiera said 30% is where I should be with my overhead for my payroll." That is true. That's where I want you to be. But guess what guys? The biggest cost on your business is team turnover, 'cause if you lose a hygienist that you're paying X amount and you gotta bring someone in who's more, well, there's a gap and they're probably not gonna be producing that much more.

0:13:50.8 KD: So retaining team members right now is a great investment of your dollar because then you're not worried about, "Can I afford this person? Can I not?" So I'd say that's step two. Number one, is we're looking at our numbers, we're committing to that, we're gonna know it. Step two is we gotta retain our team members so we're not having to pay these high overheads. So we gotta build a really good culture, make sure we're talking to our team, figuring that out.

0:14:13.0 KD: But if you're already high, what do we do? What I love about numbers is there're always an equation that you can solve. So if our payroll's high, we got two options, we can either cut people and lower it or we can produce more to get it in line. Or we can decide, "Hey, payroll's gonna be high right now. We're in California, we gotta pay more for this. So can I find... Maybe I joined a buying group like Dental Well or Synergy or Scott Leune's group. Can I get my supplies lower? Could I use a different lab and reduce my labs? Could I... " And you, doctors, are not the person that you cut the line at 'em 'cause that's where you're, "Ooh, I just won't pay myself as much." But if you have to replace yourself, guys, that's not a good solution to do. So I really want you thinking of, "What can I do? Do I need to produce more? Do I need to increase my fees?" You don't just have to produce more. Have you guys raised your fees? I recommend offices raise fees two times a year. It's true guys. You gotta think about inflation, and you don't have to raise your preventative, you can just raise your restorative, so like if you have cash paying patients, maybe we don't wanna raise that as high, but you've gotta raise your fees.

0:15:21.4 KD: So we either produce more, we raise our fees, we drop insurances, not all of them, but you can drop insurances to get paid more. But if you're a startup, I would really caution heavily about dropping insurances right now. It seems glam, it seems glitz, it seems like a great way, but if we're trying to get more patients in there and you can't get patients in, don't drop insurance 'cause then you're gonna be just shifting that, yes, you're getting a write-off, but now you gotta pay a lot more for marketing. And whatever choice you wanna have, that's your decision. And I'm not here to talk you in or out of it, but that's what you can do.

0:15:53.0 KD: So yes, you can raise your fees twice a year. I recommend January and June. And I'm not talking 5% each time. We're not going like 5% then 5% and 5... That gets a little excessive. You could maybe do like a 2%, 2.5% then another 2.5%, you can raise 'em once a year. And again, if you've got a lot of cash-paying patients, make sure that like Profi and their fluoride and their... Those things that they're used to writing a check for, that stays pretty confident for them. So that's gonna be a couple of ways for you guys to mitigate that, to figure it out where we've gotta cut the fat. So this is where people don't like to do that, but I don't know if you guys have it. I have a cadence for how to reduce overhead, and I hate doing this.

0:16:35.6 KD: So this is like go up to that. I literally bought that sign. It's sitting in my kitchen. Discipline equals freedom every quarter. So mine falls January, then I'm gonna go in April, okay? So the beginning of every quarter, January to March is Q1, so then April, and then I've got May, June, then we're gonna start it in August, right? 'Cause we go January to March is Q1, April to June is Q2, July to September is Q3, October to December is Q4. So the beginning of each of those quarters, okay? So the second quarter, so each of those first months, I run every single transaction in my business. I hate this part, [chuckle] run it. Email your CPA, this is what I do, I say, "Hey Jill, it's that time." And I have this on our reoccurring calendar. So you can either use Boomerang if you need it in your email, you can set it up as a calendar task for you. I get every single transaction that's happened over the last quarter and I grab a highlighter and I highlight every single transaction, and what I'm looking for, are there subscriptions that I don't need to pay? Are there things that I'm overpaying for? Are there things in there that I'm not using? Are there things that I could consolidate?

0:17:43.4 KD: Like maybe I'm paying for two different membership services that I don't need to do. Maybe I could... Maybe there's another resource within the Facebook group of like, "Oh I could actually get this cheaper and I could get the same services but not be paying as much for it." I'm literally being a good student and I'm going line by line by line and I'm trimming any fat that's there, because what we often do is we just like keep stacking things on, that we don't need, that we're not paying for.

0:18:08.7 KD: Now as a consultant, sometimes I love my feet to fly under the radar and I'm looking for people who don't pay attention. #Netflix, #Amazon Prime, they're flying under that radar 'cause they don't want you to cancel them. That is not a good steward. And you guys are smart and you're here tonight. So I want you guys to set that as a cadence. Trim the fat, what can we be doing to trim that fat? Because I'm like, "Sure, you can outproduce it," which is what most dentists do. Most dentists say, "All right, this is the number I need to make. I'm gonna produce it." But they don't go for the easy low-hanging fruit of, "I could cancel that subscription." Like Jason and I, my husband, we rotate all of the membership. So we'll stick on Netflix for a while and then after we watch all the shows, then we switch over to Amazon Prime and then we'll watch those shows and now we're on Paramount Plus, 'cause I'm like geeking out on Survivor 'cause my team's gonna have Survivor this year for our retreat, so I'm watching every episode, I'm figuring out what challenges I'm gonna do, but this is where... Because at the end of the day I could have all of them running, but I'm probably not gonna watch all the shows and that's a way that I could reduce that cost. So right now, now I feel like as the economy's coming, as this gloom and doom is, you have so much control, but are you actually just being disciplined to do the non-fun work of being a business owner?

0:19:22.0 KD: So, Ashley, I've just like vomited all over people. We've talked about chocolates, we've talked about discipline, we've talked about P&Ls, we've talked about what overhead is, we've talked about ways to increase it. I want you guys to just feel really, really confident because then, let's say hypothetical, the next piece to this is staffing. I get that hiring people is so expensive. This is something I'm dealing with. So I'm gonna teach you guys a couple of tricks that you can do. Number one, if you know you need to hire a hygienist, I'm gonna recommend something, this is the profit-first model. You don't know what I'm talking about, it's okay, I'll just tell you how to do this. When I'm about to hire someone that's more expensive than what I've been used to paying, I actually create a slush fund for three months. So what I do is I start pretending before I hire this person, 'cause you should be looking a little further ahead. We can't always do this, but let's hope. So if I know I'm about... I need to bring in a hygienist. This hygienist is gonna cost me X amount. I pretend like I'm paying that hygienist for about three months before I hire them. What that does is it helps you see, "Can I afford to hire this hygienist? How much is it gonna cost? How much money is coming out of my bank account if I brought this person on?"

0:20:31.0 KD: And second, because you've been putting money in this slush fund, I'm not paying them, I'm just moving this money into a slush fund, that actually gives you a three-month buffer for if they're not producing, or if your business isn't as high, you have extra money that you can then shift over to pay for that person while they're in training. I hope that made sense. Ashley, did that make sense? I wanna make sure that that was clear of how you can hire people and you can adjust for these more expensive roles?

0:20:56.0 AJ: Yes, no, very clear. I do have a question about associate-driven models. What is a realistic profitability for associates? 'Cause you're not including them in the overhead or in the staff costs?

0:21:13.5 KD: Okay, so yes. So it's depending on which model. So I'm gonna go up like a 50% overhead, okay? So here we have 50%. This is what we're aiming for. If you're at like a 60 or 65, this is excluding doctor pay, so there's no doctors being paid in this. We've got this tops. We've got 100,000, we got about 50,000 right here that we're paying for rent, for staff, for CE, for all the things, okay? Then after that, 30% should be for doctor pay. So in here is your doctor and your associate doctor, so we've got 50% here, plus 30%, that leaves you with a 20% profit. Then we take out our debt services, things like that, and whatever is remaining out of that 20%, that is your true profit, okay? So that's where the associates come in. Now, if you're like, "Kiera, I hated math. That's really hard for my brain to think," [laughter] I'll smash it all up into the top, you pay your associates 30%, you pay you 30%. If you're being a real smart, savvy business owner, you pay yourself as a CEO as well, 'cause if we've gotta replace you, and you smash all that up into this top and all of this, so we've got 100,000, $80,000 right here would be how much? 'Cause that's gonna leave you a 20% profit margin at the bottom. So I don't care how you choose to run this, I don't care how you plan to do it, but if you wanna smash it all up in there, you can, or if you wanna pull it out, that would be how I recommend.

0:22:32.6 KD: Now, that doesn't always happen. Sometimes our associates are at 40%. Sometimes we are at like 90%. You don't want your collections to ever not be enough to where we're negative. I don't want you guys seeing, and I see this often, of, "Hey, Kiera, we collected 30,000, but our expenses are 40,000." Guys, that's bad. That feels yucky. That's not gonna work out, and long-term is not sustainable. Maybe for a few months, we can do that, we can have that negative while we're trying to build it up, but we've gotta be strategic. So when you figure out what that base number is, it's like budgeting, guys, for a business, so how much is our payroll? How much are doctors getting paid? And if doctors are paid off of production, it's pretty easy 'cause we're only paying them 30%. You know whatever they make. You're going to have a 70% margin, so you're good on that. Then we know how much our rent is, then we know how much our utility should be. There are some variable differences in there, but when you get those numbers, that then helps you know what you need to have for your production number and your collection number, go off of collection.

0:23:31.8 KD: Oftentimes offices are like, "Kiera, we produced enough, but we're still negative in our numbers," and I'm like, "It's because we're going off of production, we're not going off of collections, and if your collections aren't at 98%, your overhead is gonna tank you guys. It's gonna hurt real bad 'cause bills don't care if you collect money or not, they just need to get paid." So we've gotta also make sure we're collecting really well, 'cause that's the number one number that's going to happen for you. So did that help, Ashley, with the associate-driven model and how to do that?

0:24:00.6 AJ: Yes. Yes.

0:24:00.7 KD: Okay, good. So there's some questions about, if we do the three-month slush fund, that's an additional slush fund on top of the emergency slush fund? The answer is it can be either or. You can have it... Guys, I'm a weird person. My financial advisors think Kiera Dent is a squirrel with acorns on steroid. Guys, I have a savings account, upon savings accounts, upon savings accounts, upon savings accounts. So for me, I have my emergency fund, and I also have my slush fund. I oftentimes will use this slush fund that I will then push into my emergency fund later on because guess what, when I hire a new employee, guess what this number that I have to have for an emergency gets bigger, so if I don't need this slush fund, stick it in here, and I should be good to go. Because I've already prepared for, I can put it in there, 'cause as you bring on more people, your emergency fund is there. So I am not a CPA, I'm not an accountant, I'm not your financial advisor, I'm just Kiera Dent from the block here to teach you guys real life dentistry and business. So when someone asks, "How much should my emergency fund should be?" I'll give you answers of what I hear for industry standards, and then there's another piece to it that I think is the bigger piece. So I've heard three months, it was pre-COVID, four to five months of an emergency fund is what people are now having.

0:25:17.9 KD: I'm gonna give you guys a hint. If you're not using something like... I use a third party, like a bank... I don't know I'm trying to say. It's like a external savings account. So I use a company called Ally. Ally is liquid-able, but it's a high-yield savings account, so all of my emergency fund for the business actually sits over in Ally. The reason it sits in Ally is because I want it available, I don't want it in the stock market. And Ally right now is 3.4% return on the money sitting there with no minimum you have to have in there. So if you put your emergency fund over there, it's actually making you guys money. The only catch with Ally is that it takes two days to transfer, okay? So two days over there, two days back. So I can't be like, "Oh my gosh, I need money for payroll tomorrow," it's not gonna get there in time, but your emergency fund, hopefully you're not needing to use it, stick it in a high yield. Right now Ally is coming in as the top one. There's Ally, there's Capital One 360, there's HSBC. I've loved Ally the most. I think it's the most user-friendly, but you can have it there. So three months is the typical recommendation. Post-COVID people are recommending a little higher. For me, that emergency fund, you guys can do it one of two ways, you can either have it where it includes your salary, or you can have it not, like are we talking bare minimum.

0:26:35.0 KD: And also for me, let's pretend your expenses are 40,000 a month, that is like you're paying all your teams high, you're paying your external people, you're paying for your CE, that's all your costs in there. Guys, if you come to the wire, you're gonna be cutting people, you're gonna be slicing people. It might not be 40,000 as your bum, your bare ace. Guys, we kept it clean. Your bare minimum, okay? But that 40,000 might be able to stretch a little bit further, so you guys can decide. And on there, there's the second piece that I told you, and that is your emotional ROI. What is going to help you sleep at night? Is it having three months where you're like, "Okay, I feel good. I know I could stretch that 40,000 a little bit further. I only need to have 120,000 in the bank," or are you like, "Oh my gosh, I feel like I can't breathe. I'm not gonna be able to take care of my family. I need to have more in there." That's a number you have to decide, and there is no right answer on there, it's what's gonna make you feel confident.

0:27:33.4 KD: For me, the way I look at my emergency fund is I'm like, "Alright, Kiera, you're a scrappy girl, you're gonna be able to figure this out." So I have three months in there for my team of lavish expenses, because I know 'cause I'm not gonna be paying myself my full CEO salary if everything goes to pot. We're gonna be slashing that, I'm still gonna pay myself, don't worry, 'cause then I'm gonna get real weird, and I know I could stretch that dollar a lot further, so for me, three months feels fine. I sleep well at night, I've got my pieces put up. So if that helps you guys, that's what I would recommend for this emergency fund.

0:28:05.3 KD: But if you're like, "Kiera, holy cow. I get that I'm supposed to be there, but right now, I'm barely getting by," start saving something now. I don't care if you even put $10 into an emergency fund right now every month, at least you're getting into the habit of putting money away. So we're going to one, look at our numbers, okay? So that's number one, look at your numbers every day, every week, and every month, you're gonna do a deep dive. Every quarter, you're gonna trim the fat. What fat can we get done? Then after that, what I want you guys to do is figure out what does your monthly number need to be to support this. If you look at your fixed costs, like payroll, rent, all these things, and it's 40,000, double it, and that's what your production needs to be. 40,000 is our cost, double would be 80,000. You would sit at a 50% profit margin or a 50% overhead.

0:28:55.2 KD: That's how you can then set your production numbers. Then you might be like, "Kiera, there's no freaking way. How am I ever supposed to get there?" Guys, this is where it gets fun. 80,000 is not that hard of a number to produce, break it down per day, and then break that down by procedure. So instead of being like, "Oh, I gotta make 80,000 'cause I've got 40,000 expenses," no, no, no, let's think in our days, let's think of production, let's create block scheduling so our team knows what they need to schedule to, that's going to give you guys this confidence in there. So that's a lot of different pieces around overhead, a lot of different ways that you guys can build it. I just think it's one of those pieces that what scares people the most on overhead is not knowing their numbers. They don't know, they don't know how much they're spending, they don't know... Guys, I didn't know. I sat at like 30,000 in my bank account for about seven months, and I kept making more money, but my bank account was flat-lined. I could never get over it, I was not paying myself. I found out I had a ton of money sitting in AR, so that's you guys's next piece. There is usually gold sitting in your AR. AR is your accounts receivable, and this is where a lot of people can actually make a lot of money.

0:30:03.5 KD: I talked to a client the other day and she said, "Kiera, I am broke. I'm not making any money." And then she gave me a little asterisk without realizing it, she has 190,000 sitting in AR, and I was like, "My consulting is paid for right there. All I've gotta do is teach you how to collect 190,000, which you should have in your bank account. We just haven't collected it." So a lot of times, especially startup doctors, you start to feel stressed, you start to feel like, "I can't afford this," but it's because your AR is not collecting for you. We're letting money sit out there, so you're doing dentistry today and you're not making... You're not getting paid for almost 90 days or longer before we get that money to your bank account. Well, that's really hard to live on, so we need to get our collections sooner, you need to be collecting money, following up on insurance claims, making sure your team is following up on this because we don't want that. I don't want you having more than one month's worth of production sitting in your AR, okay? So it's one to one.

0:30:56.3 KD: If you're producing 100,000, you should not have more than 100,000 sitting in your AR. That's a really good healthy number for you, so you can be like, "Okay, am I too high? Am I too low? What do I need to be?" That's how you're gonna be able to fix that for you. So that hopefully will walk you guys down through, we've either gotta produce more, collect more, gotta figure out what's going on here, trim the fat, figure it out, and then we gotta also prepare.

0:31:20.5 KD: So if you wanna hire more people as startup practices, as existing practices, you oftentimes have to like, "Phew!" I remember doing this. I remember being like, "Okay, my payroll is pretty high, but I know I need to hire that treatment coordinator, or I know I need to hire that hygienist. What am I supposed to do now?" And what I do is you go for the gold, guys. You hire what you think you're gonna grow into. I remember hiring a treatment coordinator. I could not afford, guys. I was like, "Phew!" I was sweating bullets when I hired this girl. I was like, "She seems great. She can close cases. I'm scared. This is terrifying." And I told her she had three months to pay for herself. That's it. I had a cut-off line of, "Hey, bottomline is I truly can't afford you. You have three months to prove to me that I can pay for you," and she did it. My production went up, my cases started closing. All these things started happening. So that is actually another lever you guys can turn. I said, "You either produce more, you can collect more, we can trim the fat, and another piece in this production is increase your case acceptance."

0:32:25.1 KD: A lot of doctors are like, "Kiera, I just can't make any money," and I'm like, "But I look at your case acceptance and your case acceptance is very low." You guys, if you're not doing big cases, and I'm talking like $50,000 cases, your case acceptance should be sitting between that 65, 75, 85%. If your front office team is not tracking that, if you don't have analytics tracking it, that could be a huge number right there that could increase your production of patients you're already seeing, because you guys are diagnosing it, but if we're not closing it, that's money on the table that could also help this overhead problem for you. So there's just a lot of these pieces that I really want you guys to have figured out, dialed into that you know like, "This is the overhead game." This is increasing your fees, making sure that we're trimming the fat, making sure that we're being good stewards over our money, and then setting up enough savings to where you have that emotional ROI that you're not scared. You know...

0:33:17.4 KD: Guys, I know if the economy tanked, my three months, I could probably stretch to six months. I guess think about it. In your storage cabinet, let's say the apocalypse happened, I know you could turn freaking Top Ramen into probably three meals. [chuckle] You might eating a few noodles, but you could do it if you had to. So that's where I'm like, "I know I could take these three months, stretch it to probably six months if I had to," but I'm also gonna have to fire people, that stuff that's gonna take mental stamina, but you know you could stretch to probably six months. I'm pretty confident in a recession, in a downturn, if I had six months where I could pivot, I could shift, I could be changing things. Six months is a pretty long time to recover to be able to figure it out, and that's what's gonna help you guys not be afraid of the economy.

0:34:00.3 KD: With the economy down-turning, my other piece of advice for you guys as we wrap up, of course, you guys can ask questions. Ashley, I'm sure there's things that are brewing in your brain. When we're looking at this economy right now, guys, the sun is shining, the economy has not dipped, it's starting to have a shift, but people still have money. Benefits just renewed. We are in March right now. These things have happened. So the sun is shining right now. Diagnose, produce, get your case acceptance up, start building these nests funds right now before the economy starts to shift because this is the time to be producing, to be sowing while the sun is shining and then have good memberships in play, have good retention, make sure your patients are coming back for re-care, have a good... You should have a 98% re-appointment percentage on all of your hygiene patients. These little systems that seem annoying are what are gonna keep you in business, because if patients keep returning, you've got good strong membership and if you want and you're in this high thing and you wanna drop insurances, by all means, there's a whole process, and I will teach you how to do it, but I don't think dropping insurances is always a solution.

0:35:07.7 KD: Have you done every other piece to make sure that these patients are maximised, that we're utilising them? Insurances are junk, guys. It is pure junk. Those reimbursements are terrible. But have you added on service fees, AKA like materials fee? You can add that on and actually get paid more on the insurance plans you're on. You can tell insurance companies you're considering going out of network, and I've seen like Cigna, Blue Cross, all of these, they are literally increasing their reimbursement so you don't drop them and go out of network. A lot of things can be done. You can go to like Unlock The PPO. They'll negotiate your fees for you before you decide, "I need to drop out of network." So those are just a few things.

0:35:46.4 KD: There is a question of, "What software do you recommend to keep track of reappointment numbers?" There's tons of dental analyticals out there. So Dental Intel, Divergent, Practice by Numbers, any of those softwares are going to be really good to tell you your reappointment, but if you're like, "Hey, remember that time I'm trying to keep my overhead low?" You can actually have your hygienist track the re-appointment by hand. Did they schedule each of these patients back for their six-month cleaning? That's an easy way to do it. In that same breath, I'm gonna tell you guys, don't be the office that's so cheap that you penny pinch and you're not actually using software or things that will propel you forward. 'Cause you maybe like, "Oh I gotta keep my overhead low, I'm not gonna get my analytics." Well, if that tool will actually propel you forward, help you see your case acceptance, help you see your re-appointment, and it's costing what? 250 a month, maybe 500 a month, whatever it is. Divergent, I think is $99 a month. Practice by Numbers, I think is like 500. They're all over the map right now. They're changing their fees. But you can get Divergent for $99 a month. To me, my hygienist tracking all this, I'm probably gonna pay her more than I am $100 a month. That's a smart decision that's going to give you the optics of your practice and very much worthwhile for that.

0:37:00.0 KD: So Ashley, I'm gonna pivot it to you, I've got... I could talk about this for days, but what questions you have or what you want clarity on as well.

0:37:07.4 AJ: So, the timing is impeccable because Judy, Collin, Brian and myself, we were just in our leadership meeting and they... So we have our second office opening, so another startup, and my whole plan was I was going to take half of my team and split them. So, basically, I want to keep my overhead low for as long as possible. And it's scary, it's scary not knowing what the economy is gonna be like, we're starting out of network with the biggest insurance in California. So, yeah, it was almost like an intervention, I would say, in a nice way. They basically said, "No, you... " And they said exactly what you just said, which is, "Hire where you want to grow to." And, yeah, you just solidified that. It's terrifying. Even if we already have the smiling code brand name, we're starting in a different city. I have no idea how fast or slow our office is going to grow. Can I continue to pay for all this overhead and then add more team members to the mix? So it's a lot of unknowns.

0:38:41.0 KD: I think it's one of those things though, Ashley, I feel so many people can resonate with that. And I appreciate you saying that. Like myself, personally, I feel the same way. Guys, I can sit here all day long, talk to you, podcast with you, be like, "Rah rah, I can do this." Guys, down the line myself, I sit here and I'm like, "Holy moly, how am I ever gonna do this?" So this is a zone where, number one, I wanna remind you that fear begets fear. So we're sitting in this fear state, I'll teach you guys how to get out of it. So you guys ready for an exercise? 'Cause I think this is one that's really helped me. So let's say, 'cause we sit up here in our mind, our mind's job is to teach us, and it's a survival mechanism. So our fear is... Ashley, you can't afford that. And then I want you to just ask a question, "Okay, and then what?" So let's pretend you overhire Ashley. Okay? We're just gonna...

0:39:32.2 AJ: This is what I'm known for. I am known to keep my overhead around or my staff costs at 40 plus percent.

0:39:42.1 KD: It's fine. You don't have to keep it this low. You don't have to get it to 30%. And again, you know you can either keep it, you can increase your production, increase your fees, or you can trim the fat, whatever. 'Cause if you wanna pay 40% for payroll, rock on, do it, cut some other places, or just realize you might only take home 10% profit. That is fine. But my thing is, you have to be profitable. You might not be profitable right away. So, Ashley, let's just go down this path. We're gonna play this game that all of you guys can do. And I want it to purposely be a game. I understand these are real numbers and I'm not trying to mitigate or minimize what you guys are feeling. What I'm trying to do is help you realize that we can actually trick our mind to get on our side. And then we realize that this is just fear talking and we need to go to work from our strong self side. So, Ashley, let's say that you overhire and you over-leverage. What's gonna happen then? Just go down this path with me. Let's go to... Just keep going with me.

0:40:38.5 AJ: Then I stopped sleeping at nighttime.

0:40:41.4 KD: Okay. So we stopped sleeping at nighttime. Then what's gonna happen, Ashley? What's our worst case scenario? Keep it going with me. Then what? So you stopped sleeping at night, then what's gonna happen?

0:40:48.3 AJ: And then our PNLs keep looking very scary and not profitable. And then I reduce my income. I'm already not distributing as a practice owner. I put myself as a CEO, but not as the actual dentist. And then I feel more pressure to close cosmetic cases to cover overhead. But then in a down economy, the first thing to go that people think is cosmetics, it's... But I also know that women will still pay...

0:41:27.0 KD: But stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. So did you see how she went to that to try and fix it and be like, "But wait, there's a solution." No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're gonna play the Ghost of Christmas Path right now. So let's say economy goes down. No one pays for cosmetic cases. You're not paying yourself. We've already... Then what's gonna happen?

0:41:42.5 AJ: Then I start firing people.

0:41:44.6 KD: Okay. So then we start firing people. So you've fired everybody. Then what happened?

0:41:48.3 AJ: And then I cry in the corner. [laughter]

0:41:54.4 KD: You cry in the corner. 'Cause then what's gonna happen? Keep it going, Ashley. Then what's gonna happen?

0:42:00.3 AJ: And then I have to work more to...

0:42:04.5 KD: You have to work more.

0:42:05.5 AJ: I have to work more to cover all my expenses for the team that I have left.

0:42:09.7 KD: But let's pretend that you actually can't. No one's buying from you anymore, Ashley. You fired all your team... 'Cause what I want you to do is, did you see how she stopped there? She doesn't wanna go to this next level. This is where you're scared, Ashley. This is truly the fear you've got hanging out there. 'Cause you're like "B... B... No, no, no. I don't wanna fire people. I've kept some people, I gotta work more." Let's pretend you can't, economy's down. No one is buying dentistry. COVID's shut down everything's there. Government's not helping us out. What's gonna happen? You fired everyone. There's no money coming in. What actually has to happen right then?

0:42:39.8 AJ: Then I declare bankruptcy.

0:42:42.3 KD: Okay, perfect.

0:42:43.7 AJ: And close doors.

0:42:45.4 KD: Okay, so you've done that. And then what?

0:42:46.6 AJ: And then fire myself and become unemployed and just rely on Brian's income and then feel like a failure.

0:42:53.5 KD: Perfect. Okay. So it's you're gonna feel like a failure. So now you're relying on Brian's income. Then what's gonna happen after that? You feel like a failure. You don't have a business anymore. Then what's gonna happen?

0:43:02.8 AJ: Then I just continue to podcast. [laughter]

0:43:06.1 KD: She'll continue to podcast right there. So Ashley's greatest fear guys 'cause once you realize it and then you can like laugh about it. And I'm actually glad Ashley laughed about it. Her biggest fear is she's terrified to become bankrupt, close doors, because, sure, she actually, guys, if you heard, she has a fallback thing of her husband's income. Did you guys catch that? So Ashley's not gonna be on the street. That wasn't her worst case. For some of you might not have that. It might be like, "I'll be on the freaking street." Okay. So like there could be an even greater fear for you, for Ashley it's that she's gonna lose her purpose. She's gonna lose her identity, she's gonna declare bankruptcy and she's gonna feel like a schmuck sitting there on her husband's income.

0:43:41.2 KD: But that's the bottom of the barrel. That's it. So now you can be like, "All right, so I know when I take these risks, my worst case scenario is that I have to close doors and live on Brian's income. That's it. I'm gonna podcast, I'll figure something else out." But then, and also [chuckle] Ashley didn't say she'll be an associate. She's like, "Screw that. I'm not doing that."

0:43:57.9 AJ: True. And I'll never again. I am never looking for someone else.

[laughter]

0:44:02.2 KD: Okay. But that's hers. But I love that Ashley, and thank you Ashley for being vulnerable, I love that you and I will do this on the podcast. Reality is I just scaled you all the way down. For all of you, it's kind of scary. So do it with somebody because then you can look at it and be like, "All right, so I know my worst case scenario is bankruptcy, living on my husband's income feeling like a schmuck." That's worst case scenario guys. You can go become an associate again. You can build up another business again. You can buy another practice again. Bankruptcy's not the end all be all. It's not like you're doomed and dead forever. Ashley could literally go... She could become a consultant with me. Don't worry. That's my plug. [laughter] So Ashley, when everything else falls apart, you'll just become a consultant.

0:44:36.6 KD: Don't worry guys. And then she'll go help all these businesses grow and have a great time and it'll be fun. There's always a solution. And that's why I wanna bring this up because if we can really help ourselves see, "What are we actually afraid of?" That's what you're scared of. And even within that, you came up with contingency plans, you're like, "Yeah, but then I'll work harder." You guys, she's not gonna get there. Because there's also a flip to every story that's negative. I promise you. Economy shifts. There are still freaking wealthy people out there that wanna do dentistry. They're not sitting there being like, "Oh no, the price of gas just went up." They're like "Cool. And so what? I'm gonna drive my Ferrari and my Lambo and I'm gonna come here." There's people out there that'll still pay you to do services.

0:45:18.5 KD: There's people out there that still need dentistry done. And it's not like we're going into the great depression. And who cares? Even if we do guys, we're gonna be making potatoes together and we're gonna have a good time and we're gonna be saving teeth. I don't know what it looks like. I don't know what it's going to be like. And I love that someone said this turned into a therapy session. And I needed it. That's actually what we consult things for. People think only long...

0:45:41.4 AJ: And just... Thanks for that comment Sonya. [laughter]

0:45:42.9 KD: I teach people all the time of like, "Okay, here's systems." But I think the biggest piece that we need right now is strong mental stamina. You need someone in your court. You need to realize, "This is what I'm afraid of. And cool, if I can face that, if Ashley can be like, "All right, yeah. Bankruptcy is gonna be like no joke. Got it." If that's my worst case scenario, then I'm gonna plan right now. So that way I don't even get close to that. I'll find things, I'll pivot throughout. I will do these things there." This is where you guys can get safe. But I'm gonna tell you, know those numbers. Look at that P&L get real scrappy on it. I don't care how you choose to run your business, I don't care what you choose to pay your people, that is completely up to you. What I care about is that you're profitable and that you have an emotional ROI sitting there for you to where you feel safe and confident so you can go make decisions and then you have the mental stamina to get through. I feel like I want you guys to imagine yourselves being a buffalo in a storm.

0:46:37.7 KD: A buffalo is gonna keep walking. It does not matter how stormy it gets. If you guys go to Yellowstone, and maybe you guys all just need to take a quick trip up to Yellowstone, and watch those buffalo roam, they do not stop. They know where they're headed and it does not matter what's happening to them. They literally keep going. And so are you gonna be the bison that just keeps trucking along, no matter what storms hit you, and you know you're gonna make it. Because I also think being confident in yourself and knowing no matter what guys, like for me, failure's not an option. I will get scrappy. I will go out and I will be driving to your practices, giving you consulting services before I call it quits. There's a thousand things I'm gonna do before I close up shop. And I know that I'm gonna do that because I'm gonna keep going through this storm no matter what.

0:47:21.6 KD: And I know that millionaires and billionaires are made through economies and I'm gonna be one of those people and you are too. So this is the greatest time for us actually. But if you're prepared and you're checking your numbers and you know your overhead and you're making smart decisions and you're building your slush funds, you're gonna move through and you're gonna be that bison going through and you're not gonna be the chicken that's like, "Oh my gosh, it's freaking snowing and I can't get anywhere and I need to go dig in a hole and I'm gonna die." That's not you. You are the bison who's gonna keep going. You are the person who's going to make it. I don't care guys. People are always like, "It's a bad time. The economy's going down." Guess what? That's life. That's life every day. I don't care.

0:47:57.7 KD: It's gonna be the economy, it's gonna be COVID, it's going to be that you're sick. It's gonna be that you've got kids. There's always a reason for it to be terrible. But there's always a reason for it to be amazing. It just depends on which lens you're looking through because I promise you there is one great need in the human brain. And it is the need to stay consistent with who you believe you are. Not who you are, but who you believe you are. So if you believe that you're gonna make it, Ashley knows guys, she says that she's afraid. But this girl knows how to grow a startup no matter what. She's got a great reputation, it's going to happen. She's got a freaking good team. She's looking ahead. She's got her leadership team, she's building her contingency plans, she's moving forward through the storm. I am confident, I would bet money right now, I'd put up probably a million plus on Ashley that I know her second startup is going to be beyond successful. I know it. I would invest in her tomorrow. I would invest her her right now.

0:48:48.4 AJ: Can I put that in writing?

0:48:50.8 KD: Yes, absolutely. Kiera Dent...

0:48:51.5 AJ: I'm looking for private equity. [chuckle]

0:48:54.8 KD: Excellent. Yeah, just only 1%. Ashley, it's fine. [chuckle] At least you have a consultant, 1% Smile & Co., whatever it grows into. Done. You don't ever have to pay me again. No. From there... She doesn't have to pay me anyway. But if you wanna give me 1%, I won't say no to it 'cause I guarantee you'll grow. Ashley's gonna do it just like you guys are going to do it. Is it gonna be freaking hard? Yeah. Are you gonna have really bad days? Yes. But it's really what do you focus on and who do you become? Because momentum feeds, it's either gonna go an upward spiral or a downward spiral. And sometimes you just need to get your freaking mindset right. Because what's wrong is available just as much as what's right is available and it depends on which one you're gonna look at.

0:49:33.3 AJ: Uh, so good, Kiera Dent. Thank you so much. Before we hit record or before we got on the air, I told Kiera that I wanted to invite you to Smile & Co and come check us out, come see our systems. And of course, I'm an open book if you guys haven't listened to the podcast. I'm an open book and I would love for Kiera to be the fly on the wall and then we can Facebook Live or podcasts about it because I'm always trying to get better. And I think you are so knowledgeable, Kiera, but also you're just, so... You're... We need to hear this. We need to not always be surrounded by the doom and gloom. Is that what it's called? I think, yeah, we definitely want more Kiera and I know you're hosting a virtual event, Kiera. Can you tell us about that?

0:50:32.6 KD: Yes, absolutely. And there were some people who commented... You wanna get in touch guys, I freaking love consulting. I love helping practices grow. I love making confident business owners, that's my passion. Because if you're not scared, you're gonna impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So if we can help you, if we can serve you, if you want me, my team, [email protected], just reach out, send me an email guys. No question's a dumb question. There were so many good ones in here tonight. So if I can help you, fantastic. And if you guys wanna come, this one's real fun because we're gonna put on a virtual summit. Now there's a little more summit on there, okay? People think of summits as like a bunch of speaker lineups. You don't know me if you think that's what I'm doing.

0:51:14.3 KD: This is full blown, full team retreat style. We are coming into your practice virtually. So we purposely do it virtual so your whole team can be bought into this because the hardest thing is getting a team on board. I'm a business owner, guys, I'm not dumb. I know exactly how this feels. So April 28th and 29th, we are doing this virtual in your practices and it's the secrets of the multi-million dollar practices. So we're talking case acceptance. I'm having CEOs come in from other industries that are talking about what they do. I'm having the top three financial people come in and say what are the trends that they see in these top practices. We're teaching you guys about case acceptance. I'm teaching you about the gap of where your systems are from where they need to go. It is going to be epic. I've got fun people coming in to talk about associates.

0:52:00.0 KD: We've got the financial people like I said, and we give away prizes. So like round trip airfare tickets, Lululemon, you name it, we just have a freaking party. Swag boxes come to your office, it's full team involved on Friday. So that's Friday. And then Saturday is leadership only. So it's doctors and we're going into numbers and I've got Zeke of Swell, the CEO. I'm having him speak about billionaire. Billionaire or bust 'cause I want him to talk about... I think Zeke is actually one of the most brilliant CEOs I've ever met. And Zeke doesn't speak publicly very often of who he is as a person and what he does differently than other people to make him successful because, guys, success is no secret, it leaves clues and if you follow it, you'll be successful. So right now, early bird tickets are going on sale on Monday.

0:52:44.5 KD: However, for the making of... For a full team ticket, it's 999. Early bird tickets are dropping to 699. But I like you guys, because I like Ashley and all of you here. So if you use the coupon code "Making Of", okay, so just "Making Of" in the ticket. So you go to thedentalateam.com/summit2023, put in "Making of", it's gonna be $400 off. So it's 599, 9 CE credits, your entire team, I don't care if you've got one team member, I don't care if you've got 10 team members, same price for all of you. So it's $400 off for the Making Of that's better than any other group, I wanted especially for you guys. So, and you guys can get direct access to those tickets because we're only having 50 spots at this early bird and I wanted to give it to you guys. Tickets go on sale on Monday, but you guys can actually get access right now before tickets go on sale.

0:53:34.6 AJ: Great. Yay.

0:53:35.2 KD: So the Making Of it's gonna be super fun even if you can't make it, it's okay, sign up for it. I only send partial recordings to certain people. So, usually, I don't send any recordings, 'cause I want you there, I want you live, I want you participating 'cause who's honestly gonna go watch two days of CE. Nobody's gonna do that. So be there, block your calendars, I promise you what you lose in production, I will make up for tenfold if you come in and you implement. So it's gonna be a blast. I can't wait to see you guys there, thedentalateam.com/summit2023. And you guys then could have me and our team in your practice without needing to pay for consulting right away. But for those of you that are like, "No, I need a plan, I need help," I'd love to help you.

0:54:13.6 AJ: Well, we appreciate you so much, we love you, we love the whole Dental A Team. Collin, can you make sure our office is already blocked for that, [chuckle] and we will be with you for your virtual summit. I can't wait. I'm looking forward to it. Yes.

0:54:27.5 KD: That'll be awesome. Thanks Ashley. Thanks guys. It was so fun tonight. If you guys have any more questions, there's a ton of things I will happily help out, email in. I love this group. I try to be in the chat as well. So if you guys post comments, I've been trying to be in there, personally myself in there as well. So you can always tag us, especially if you want our input insights. I'm happy to help you guys.

0:54:46.8 AJ: Awesome. Thank you guys for joining. And please come to the virtual summit, come hang out with Team Smile & Co, and Dental A Team. It's gonna be a party and you have such amazing speakers already lined up. And, yeah, we get two days with you, which... If you guys have found value, which I know you have in the 54 minutes since we started, they're really going to pump out some ridiculous content. So thank you again, Kiera. I just adore you and we'll see you guys soon.

0:55:23.1 KD: Awesome. Bye. Thanks guys.

0:55:25.4 AJ: Thanks guys.

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0:55:26.7 KD: And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

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