Episode 668: 4 Easy Steps to Success

This episode is all about what Kiera has done to elevate both the Dental A-Team as a business, as well as the practice she and her team consult in. The difference-makers that she explains are:

1. Profitability

2. Relationships

3. White noise time

4. Systemization

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

0:00:00.6 Kiera Dent: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and you guys, I hope today is just a magical day for you. I hope that you are feeling so happy, so fulfilled. And if you're not, just know I'm there with a big hug for you. But guys, I truly hope that you are living your dream of a life, and if not, you are actively committed to changing it. That you're like, "Hey, I'm worth it. I deserve to have the best freaking life there is. I deserve to be super happy. I deserve to be profitable. I deserve to not have stress." Guys, that really can be your reality. I truly do say it, and I mean it. Like, what if running a business, a dental practice could be easy? Because with Dental A Team, it truly can. So guys, there are solutions, it's just a matter of are you gonna execute, and are you gonna act. So on that note today, I wanted to share with you guys, some secret. This feels a little awkward, it feels a little pompous, and please know it's coming from a genuine just love place. This year, our virtual summit is on April 28th and 29th and our theme this year is, The Secrets of the Multi-Million Dollar Practices. So again, multi-million dollar practice is not the dollar amount. That's not what I'm wanting you guys to come away with.

0:01:06.0 KD: It's the multi-million dollar goal. Like, what is that stretch goal? Where do you want to grow and evolve? And I'm bringing in really, really, really elite practices to share what they do differently. So what I thought, as kind of like a tease for some, and to get you and your teams excited, I'm not actually gonna be speaking on Kiera's secrets of what I do. I'm actually bringing in doctors and offices and their teams to share with you guys, because I wanted you guys to have a peer group that you could lean on of people just like you. I'm not a dentist, guys. I have our own practices. I was a team member, but today I'm just gonna come to you as Kiera Dent. Today I'm gonna come to you as the person who's behind the podcast. And I'm gonna share a couple of the secrets that I feel that have really helped me elevate to grow our company and to grow other's practices, okay? So that's what today is gonna be, is Kiera Dent's secrets of her multi-million dollar dream. This is on the rift, guys. I haven't thought about it. I literally had this topic come to me, and I'm like, "I'm just gonna go rift." So we're gonna find out what's just on the top of my mind and how the things that, and I purposely wanted to rift this one, because I didn't want to sit and think about, "Kiera, what was it?"

0:02:12.5 KD: Because I feel like that wouldn't have been genuine and authentic. But I feel like me coming to you now and saying, "These are some of the secrets. These are some of the highlights. These are things that I feel I did differently with our practices and with our own company that have made a difference." So number one, I think one of the biggest things that I did early on was I committed to always being profitable. That didn't just become a wish. It became a must. Guys, I refuse and I will not ever have a negative month. Ever. Like, I don't care what it takes. I will scrap. I will save. I will be on the street corner. I'll be throwing hot dogs in the air. I don't know what I need to do, but I will not be negative. And that became a standard and a must for me. Because at the beginning, I was like, "Holy cow, cashflow is really tight. This is really hard." And I'm like, "This is insanity. And if I'm going to do this, I might as well go work for someone else because this stress is not worth it to me." And so people are like, "Well, how did you do it Kiera? That seems like really fluff and nice." Guys, I feel like I had just got a huge compliment for my financial advisor. He said, "Kiera, you were a person who does profit first to an extreme and is truly disciplined."

0:03:18.2 KD: So I started up a habit where I figured out what was the cost of my business. What was the cost to run this? What was the cost, guys? You have to remember I started Dental A Team from literally zero zilch scrap, nothing. I don't even have anything to build off of. I've never even worked for a dental consulting company. I don't even know what they do. Never once have I worked with a consultant, guys. This was made up from my brain of what I wish I would have had when I was in a practice. That's all. And then it's watching offices and figuring out what they need and creating that and creating that and creating that. So with profitability, I decided, "All right, what I need to do is number one, I need to look at all of my finances and figure out what is my bare minimum." And then I started thinking about that. I'm like, "Well, my bare minimum, should that include paying me or should it not?" And I thought, "Well, if I was working for someone else, I wouldn't go work for them for free. So why am I willing to treat myself that way?" So that was number two. A tip number two was, I decided and committed. I'm going to pay myself. It truly did come from reading Mike Michalowicz's Profit First, because I thought... When he said like today, you can be profitable and pay yourself.

0:04:20.6 KD: I literally sent him an email that said, "Mike Michalowicz, I draw a line in the sand and I'm going to be profitable from here on out." And so that was just a must that became something that I had to do. It wasn't an option. It wasn't something that I thought this would be really fun. It was literally, "I must be profitable." So figured out what it was, figured out what I needed to make, and then did the numbers backwards. For you guys in a dental practice, it's literally, what are our expenses every single month? What do we need to produce? And how can we ensure our collections are there? Guys, I was the same way. I didn't have great collections. I literally had $50,000 on a $25,000 income, 50,000 sitting over in AR. And I was like, "Why do I always feel poor?" Well, because I didn't have any money coming in. That was a problem. So I realized, "Okay, I need to have a system for that. I need to fix that. I need to find a solution for that." And I pivoted and I innovated to ensure that this would be successful. So that was one of the tips that I just wanted to share with you guys is, make it a must that you'll be profitable and that you'll pay yourself.

0:05:18.7 KD: Otherwise go be an associate, go work for someone else, but commit. And it's team members, commit that you're not going to be in debt. I understand that life happens, guys. I've been in debt. My husband went to pharmacy school. There are a lot of different things, and I'm not saying that debt is not the piece. This is just something for me. And this is Kiera's secrets of how she's created multi-million dollar practices and multimillion dollar dreams that have come to fruition. And I would say, honestly, knowing my numbers, committing right then and there, I have an affirmation that I say, where I say, "I live below my means to create financial wealth and freedom for myself and security." So I remind myself that I can live below my means, I can live below, I don't have to spend every penny my paycheck is. And the reason why I do that is because I want to have long-term wealth and financial security. Those are important to me. So that was one of the big pieces. And I feel like because I've had that thankfully, even through COVID, I knew I had enough buffers. So that was the next thing is I actually have set up... I'm crazy. I don't think you need this. My financial advisors tell me I'm way too crazy, but I actually have a five month BAM on our company.

0:06:27.1 KD: So how much money do I need to live for five months? And the reason I did five months is because I do feel I'm scrappy and I'll figure it out before I could squeeze those five months into probably 12 months if I ever had to. So I now I have a 12 month buffer on the business to where I could pivot, I could change, I could evolve. And if I can't figure it out in 12 months, then yes, throw in the towel. I'm done, but I've at least given myself that buffer. So those were some of the pieces financially that I feel really have helped me.

0:06:53.3 KD: The next secret that I want to share is prioritizing my marriage. I didn't always do this, guys. I was on divorce row. My husband, he was on the podcast for Valentine's day. That's the first time, and it was fun to have him here. But we were truly on divorce row. And I don't think all couples are able to come out. I feel really thankful and blessed that we were. But it wasn't because we had to is because we chose that we wanted to. And I think that that's been a secret of my life of thinking about, is my husband a raving fan? Like, have I made him a raving fan? And do I believe that his needs are my needs? And instead of having this like jockeying of, "Okay, I did this for Jason. So he should do this for me."

0:07:36.7 KD: I don't keep score. I don't want to keep score. I don't care if I've done the laundry 200 times and he's done them one time. I actually don't even know. I think he actually does the laundry more than I do. But at the end of the day, it's, is my husband a raving fan? And do I like prioritize his needs over mine? I think because of that, it's created a stable relationship for me. It's made it to where as a business owner, I don't feel stressed and I know that I'm going to invest time in him. So it's not all the time and it's not perfect, but I think that that's been one of the secrets of success of, of being able to have my husband feel like he's important. I think so often as business owners, we let our spouses just kind of go by the wayside and we let our relationships dwindle. And so we decided like, guys, as another part of that to Thursdays is our date nights. And it doesn't always have to be something fancy or formal. This is really silly and kind of embarrassing. I'm putting it on the podcast, but I decided it'd be... My husband calls it the poop board, which is like really not what it's meant to be. But I did put this like chalkboard in our bathroom. That's just ours.

0:08:40.9 KD: So like, no one else is going to see it. I did put a bottle of hand sanitizer. Cause I felt like it was gross to touch like chalk sharpies there. But we like write little love notes to each other on this board and we put up our date ideas of what we want to do for that week. And I think by prioritizing that, no matter what, we go on a date and it can be watching Survivor together, making popcorn, it can be going to McDonald's and getting an ice cream cone. It doesn't have to be anything crazy lavish extreme, but I think by prioritizing my relationship, it helped me feel more secure. And it also gave me something to live for more than just myself. Some of you might not have that, but that's been something of creating stability. And then another secret, so I've got the profitability, I've got my relationship with my spouse. Another thing that I really felt like I started doing was creating whites. I call it my white noise, CEO time. I'm a very creative person. And if I'm just like tasked all day long, I get massive burnout, I get massive fatigue. And I started realizing that when burnout was hitting, it was because I wasn't taking time to give myself that white noise space where I'm not required to do any task.

0:09:48.2 KD: And I can literally be this creative bird that can just fly and evolve and create. That's what I need. So when I decided to make my Fridays, and it's not perfect, but most of the time, I take all of my Fridays and that's called CEO time. And I know if I need to go hiking, I can go hiking. If I want to go get a massage, I go get a massage. If I want to like dream up my next idea about the business, I will. If I want to figure out, like sit there and think, truly think, Keith Cunningham's The Road Less Stupid is a really great book that talks about thinking time. So I oftentimes will use that to like spur some ideas of, "Okay, Kiera, if you really wanted to do this... " And he teaches you how to ask better questions. So it's not like, why are our new patient counts down? It's like, what is really the root cause of new patient numbers being low? It's not just marketing, guys. What about our experience? How are we asking for reviews? Like, what is it below the surface level that's causing our new patient numbers to be low? And when I do those kinds of questions and I have white noise space. Guys, it's literally unstructured. I don't have to do anything.

0:10:56.3 KD: If I want to literally sleep my day away, I can. And giving myself that creative space, giving myself that space to work on the business. I also have that in conjunction with every single week, I have a two hour block that's business development time. So CEO time and business development time. And some people might be like, "Kiera, I'm a dentist. There's no way." I'll promise you if you use this time effectively, you will get further ahead than by running the mill. I think I see this and I hear it, and it's something that's so cliche, but when you really can actually get out and work on your business, give yourself, I call like CEO recharge time. Guys, we get asked a lot of questions and I do a lot of things. I need that recharge time. I need that time to be able to be off and do whatever the heck I want. But I also need time that's built for business development time. So I have those two things, business development, CEO time, admin time, whatever it is where you work on the business, your hard projects, things that you don't want to do. Like for me, we're writing a book for Dental A Team.

0:11:52.3 KD: Oh, it's taking me forever. I use that CEO time, or excuse me, my business development time to work on that. But my CEO time is whatever I want it to be. It's truly my recharge time. It's my reset time. It's giving me that creative space. And that's something that I've needed to have. So those are some things. And then I would say the fourth secret. So I've got profitability, knowing my numbers and creating that, then my relationship, then how I have time for just me. I think the fourth secret to share tonight that has really, I think, helped me and helped a lot of practices, is being systematized. And you know, that's a very overarching term. I have this grand desire and I think about this often. So two kind of creepy thoughts, which is fine. Think whatever you want. We tried really hard to get pregnant. We went through our whole IVF journey. So if you guys were a part of that, thank you for being there. So I always had this thought of, if I had a baby. I don't know that I would want to work and I want to create a business where my team is taken care of and work in the business.

0:12:55.3 KD: 'Cause I want to have that flexibility and that freedom if I want it. So it forced me to really systematize the business where if I wasn't there, like Kiera Dent is gone, she's not there anymore, how is this business going to run? And it's forced me to really systematize and constantly and never ending improvement our systems. Like, I just went through sales and I was going through our sales and our customer success experience. And I'm like, "Whoa, these are broken. We need to fix this, this, this." And it's a constant refinement of our systems to make them really, really, really great. And I feel like by having that, so literally it's the thought process of if I wasn't here, how would this business run and flourish without me? I often think like, if I were to ever die while I'm traveling around the world, how is my team going to be taken care of without me being here? And I don't think a lot of times business owners think that way. I think we think that we're going to be there forever. And so we can be relied upon, but that also forces you to be stuck in your business with no way to ever outgrow it or to go evolve into other things if you ever want to.

0:13:54.5 KD: And I always wanted to give myself those choices and those chances. So those are some things that I think about constantly of how can I make this better? And so it's forced systems, it's forced us to make an operations manual. Like, we actually have one done and it's updated every single year. We have systems where we've got set processes and set onboarding processes, and we have set ways that we do it. And it just gets better every single time we do it. Like, you can ask Tiffany, Spiffy Tiff, we've gone through the consultant onboarding probably 20 times, if not more. And every single time we're like, "Okay, how can we make this better? How can we make it better to onboard a consultant faster, more efficiently and more easy for them?" And it gets better every time we think about onboarding new team members, like, "What do we need to have? How do we have this system set?" So if Shelby ever left or Britt ever left or Tiff ever left, the business won't go down and it's not dependent on people, but on systems. And I know that sounds so cliche, but I literally look at all the systems every single year.

0:14:49.4 KD: I have a set cadence at the end of the year where I review every single system. Where are we strong? Where are we weak? Where do we need to improve? I look at the entire business as a whole. What about my marketing? What about my business? The finances? What about the profitability? What about my CPA? What about my lawyers? Go through all of them. Where are we strong? Where are we weak? And where do we need to improve? It takes discipline. It takes a lot of work to do it. And it's something that I just keep getting better and better and better and better at. And so this isn't something where I'm trying to come on and be like, Hey, I'm awesome. I do think I've got a lot of experience. And I do think the cool thing about this is what we've been able to create in Dental A Team and what we've seen in other offices. We're able to then go take and teach and share with other practices to make them more profitable, to make their relationship stronger, to make them better as CEOs and business owners, to make them more systematized. And at the end of the day, I really do feel shockingly and oddly, more balanced. That sounds cliche, but I do. I feel more... Like, I have the energy to fulfill all the things and still at the end of the day have energy for me.

0:16:00.1 KD: It doesn't always happen perfectly, but that's been a way that we've been able to do it. That's been a way I've been able to morph. And guys, I promise you in 3-5 years, I'll probably come back on and say like, All right, that's where Kiera was in 2023. This is where I am in 2026. These are secrets that I've learned. And I say it not because I'm awesome. I mean, I think I do well. I think I've got some good pieces. I think I'm a very disciplined business owner. But I think more than anything, what I'm hoping is that these secrets you can take and you can make your life and your business better. That's the goal of Summit this year of the secrets of the multimillion dollar practices is where they literally come in and tell you things that you can then go implement. Because my favorite, one of my favorite, favorite, favorite quotes is, "Success leaves clues." It leaves it everywhere. You literally just need to follow them because there's clues everywhere. And the fastest and easiest way to do it is to find someone who's doing it well and copy mimic and mirror them. That's it. And I want to share those secrets with you. I want practices to come in.

0:17:01.8 KD: I want amazing doctors, CEOs of amazing companies, people to come in and share with you what they do differently, and then give you a roadmap to implement it yourself. So if that resonates with you and you want to hear from some of the most elite people in the industry, businesses and practices that I don't feel are in the limelight, these are quiet everyday doctors, just like you. They're not the superstars. They're not the practices that are up on like social media all over. These are literally everyday doctors who have figured out how to do it and do it really, really well. And all of them are going to come with different strategies. And so I'm super excited to just share that their teams, their secrets. We're also doing tangible workshop style, but I wanted to just share today four secrets that I feel have helped Dental A Team and Dental A Team clients be successful. So if those are helpful for you, awesome, implement them. And if we can help you, if I can help you get these into your practice, email us [email protected] and guys join us, join us for the secrets this year. I'd love to see you April 28th and 29th. This type of stuff times like 5 billion is what you're going to get from this.

0:18:02.3 KD: And I hope you guys are there. Head on over to thedentalateam.com/summit and I'll see you guys April 28th and 29th, April 28th full team day, April 29th leadership doctor day. It's virtual. So your entire team can be a part of this. That way all of you can elevate and rise together. And as always guys, I'm just so grateful for this opportunity to be here with you guys, to be on the journey of life with you, to be on the journey of dentistry, to help remind you that you truly are doing better than you think you are. To remind you that this is an opportunity and a journey for you to evolve and grow as a person. I believe that business is a spiritual journey. I believe it's a journey of self. I believe it's a journey of growth. I believe it's a journey of service. And I'm so excited that I could be a part of yours. And if I can serve you guys in any way, please, please, please reach out. [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.