Episode 787: Are You Making Worthwhile Investments?

 Kiera was recently asked what the most worthwhile investment she made to get where she is now. In this episode, she talks about her answers, as well as what she’s heard from other people. 

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01.122)

Hello, Dental Team listeners, this is Kira, and oh, today's a great day. I hope you're having an awesome day. I'm having a great day. I hope you are too. Today is just a fun day. It's a podcast day for me. I have not felt very well for the last little while, so to be back and at it is really, really fun. So today, I just wanted to say thanks for being a part of the Dental Team podcast. Today, I'm gonna do a quick nitty gritty one for you. But as always, you guys know this year, my goal is for you all.

to help us get this podcast into the hands of every single dental office. Why not? How fun would that be to just have a movement where everyone is a little happier, a little more positive with tactical practical tips? Why not? So please share this with someone if you haven't already this month, just share it with someone, tag us on social media. I would appreciate you guys doing that. And let's kick it off today. So like I mentioned, there was another podcast I did and someone...

I went to an event and they had people meeting the sponsors, if you didn't hear last time. What they did is they had each person come and ask us some questions. They would choose the sponsor that they wanted to have the answer to. I just thought this would be a fun podcast one, a quick down and dirty one for you guys. The question was, they asked me, Kira, what was the most worthwhile investment you ever made? All right, let's talk about worthwhile investments. I want each of you to think about that question. What is the most...

worthwhile investment you have ever made. I actually gave, I felt like I was a little cliche. I'll just walk through my most worthwhile investment and then talk about some worthwhile investments that I've heard of people doing. My most worthwhile investment, I have two of them. One of them was when I decided to invest in consulting. I was a brand new business owner. I mean, I was what? It was 2019, so I was three years in.

and I invested in Liz who was my business coach for years. And then a few years later, I invested in Tony Robbins and my coach, her name's Karine, and she is truly incredible. So Liz is great for me because she did all things business and Karine is great because she does all things like personal development. I love because I come from both worlds that I do business and personal development. My background is marriage and family therapy. And I believe that business is 80% you know, like mindset and 20% skill.

Kiera Dent (02:22.846)

So 80% coming from that psychology, having my mind right, having those different things in my life that are just right for me to make sure that what I'm doing is actually benefiting my mindset. Because if I have the psychology, if I believe in the skills, if I believe in these different things that I can do, I know I'm gonna actually go further in my career. So having those two different coaches, they were so expensive for me.

Liz cost me $50,000 and Kareem with Tony Robbins cost me $80,000. I kid you not, that's how much it was a year. I literally felt like I wouldn't be able to afford it and it was terrifying. But what's crazy cool is they both more than quadrupled their investments and the business grew exponentially. I grew exponentially as a leader. I still pay for coaching and I know it's cliche because I'm a consultant, but I eat my own cooking. If I'm going to recommend a

I need to do it myself. And what I found is a coach sees from a bird's eye view. They're not in it with me. They're not having the day in day out struggles. They're not emotionally charged like I am. So when I'd call Liz and I would say, I'm super frustrated with this, she's not in the moment with me. She's not dealing with the team turnover like I am. So she's able to give me much more sound advice, much calmer advice than what I would normally do. She's able to see the long-term picture that maybe I can't see. And from her experience, like I hired Liz because Liz worked.

for a consulting company. And I wanted someone who's been there, done that, and done that successfully. I went to Tony Robbins because I believe he's one of the greatest coaches in the entire world. And if I can learn from him, learn how to be a better consultant and coach myself for our company, that's who I'm gonna go to. So for me, I was really particular on who I hired for a coach. I wanted someone who's been there, done that, done that successfully many times. Have you grown a successful consulting company? Yes, LizGrew1 that sold.

and she was able to help me navigate through that. What things do I need to do? How can I hire consultants? How can I make better curriculums? How can I do better coaching without it morphing into something I didn't want it to be? But she's got a lot of reps and experience that I didn't have. And so utilizing her and then using Tony Robbins for the coaching, how do they coach? How do they do their agendas? How do they make it so it's a great experience that you get these incredible results? Really for me was something that I was obsessed with. And that's why we made

Kiera Dent (04:39.942)

I have successfully grown hundreds of practices from startup to multi-practice to DSOs, adding multiple millions to the schedules, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars, reducing their stress, increasing their profitability. And so that was truly one of the most worthwhile investments. I have to show up though. I can't blame that coach. I have to show up. I have to do the work. I think Denali team were really nice to you guys. We write notes for you and we send you recaps and we follow up with you.

None of my coaches have ever done that. None of them have sent me a recap email. None of them have taken notes from me. None of them check in and follow up with me. I'm responsible and expected to do that. And so I think in dental team we're a little bit nicer and none of my coaches have ever coached my team. And that was just something where I felt like as an owner it was really hard for me to take it back to my team. And so some of the things I learned from coaching was how I felt like in a dental practice and what our owners want and need.

is you do need that help. And I found if I could help coach the doctor and then coach the team from that perspective, how much easier will it be for all of us to grow together? And so really, if you've considered it, check to find a consultant or a coach that has been there, done that, and done that successfully. Like I said, I have hundreds of dental practices where we've taken them from where they are to where they want to be. Hundreds of dental practices where we've reduced their overhead, increased their profitability, had a happier team, fixed the communication.

all those different things and we've done it virtually and in person. And I'll tell you that our fees are not what Liz or Kareem charged me. And so definitely the ROI, the bang for the buck, and we can literally put dollars on your books from what we do. And so to me, that was one of the most worthwhile investments that I've ever made. And then I will say, moving to a personal side, my other most worthwhile investment was the investment in my relationship with my husband. For a while, I didn't feel like...

investing in my marriage was worthwhile because I love to invest in things with an ROI and relationships don't have a monetary ROI per se that I can see my little like love moments being then output to me. It's more of a, it's very subjective instead of objective, right? How do I know if the things I'm doing day in and day out are really making a difference for Jason? How do I know that this is actually making an impact and changing lives?

Kiera Dent (06:59.426)

And I invested in my husband and we went and did a relationship course. And I'm not going to lie to you, it was very uncomfortable for me. It was uncomfortable to say the things that were holding me back. It was uncomfortable for me to say, and I think just communicate and communicate in a way that both of us were on the same page and listening to understand versus listening to be like to respond to him and hearing his needs and

not just saying, well, you need to meet my needs first, but me realizing that I needed to meet his needs to have my needs met and to make Jason a raving fan of me and to invest in consistent date nights and to put our relationship first and to put him first. People talk about it all the time. And I will say that paid far greater dividends than anything else I've ever done was putting him as the top tier priority to.

Text him in the middle of the day just because I love him and I'm thinking about him to tell him what I need as a spouse and for him to hear that, to make me my best self, to on Sundays ask each other, what can I do to support you to be your best self, to realize that I want Jason to progress and evolve as a human because I am so invested in him having his best life, to realize that my happiness is not dependent upon Jason and his happiness is not dependent upon me.

that our relationship is something that I think is a gift. Like it's not a guarantee and to show up differently for each other in the mornings. And when we're off of work and in the middle of the day and to learn to communicate in those ways, there were some things that we really did learn was to make each other our raving fans, to put their needs above our own needs. So it's not, I'm waiting for you to meet my needs, but I'm just there and no more of this trading. Well, I did this so you should do that.

because it's not this high level relationship. That's very much a transactional relationship. And I don't want that in my marriage because some days I'm going to show up 100% and other days I'm going to show up 20%. And that's just part of being human. But to have a relationship where it's founded on love, it's founded on making that person my top priority. And I'm not perfect at it, but to every year take time to invest in it too. I think it was the challenges of your intimate relationship.

Kiera Dent (09:20.438)

your communication relationship, your spontaneity relationship, the dates, the fun to navigate through finances, to navigate through family members and our external family and extended family to what we want our marriage to be and to build vision boards together of where are we going as a couple, not just as individuals and to get a joint vision and to just really, really be intentional would be by far one of the greatest worthwhile investments I've ever made in my entire life.

because I believe that the quality of your life is the quality of your relationships. And I can be the most successful business owner, but if I don't have an amazing relationship, that's just as good, if not better than my business. If I don't have relationships with my family and my friends, to me, that's a very shallow and hollow, I would say more hollow than shallow, but a hollow life that I was living. And to see that those, I think of like little hearts and I'm like dumping them into a little heart bank.

and to realize that those are going to pay undue dividends. And I'm not doing those little heart deposits, looking for a dividend, but just in loving other people, dividends come. To have neighbors and friends that have become best friends, to have team members that have become best friends, to have mentors across the nation. And it's like putting those little love things, but to really, really enhance my relationship with my spouse was one of the greatest investments. So for you guys,

What is the greatest investment you've made or what is the greatest investment you should make? Maybe it's that you do need to invest in your personal relationship. Maybe it is that you do need to hire a coach for your business. Maybe it is that you need to hire a therapist for yourself. One of the greatest things I ever did was go through EMDR therapy. I had a really, really traumatic experience in my life and to have EMDR free me from those shackles and those pains.

was something that I could never ever give enough grace and gratitude for. Maybe it's time to invest in your physical health. Maybe it's time for you to invest in your fun health. But look for yourself of what was the greatest investment you've ever made and then what's the greatest investment you need to make. For me this next year my greatest investment I need to make is for my physical health. I hired a personal trainer and I have a quote right here that says my body is a billion dollar bee with a B.

Kiera Dent (11:44.646)

a billion dollar asset and to treat it as such. And so that's my next investment to make is to really just have a strong body that will be able to serve me for the next 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years. We'll see how long it goes, but to really invest and be grateful for this vessel that allows me to have this life. And so for each of us looking to see where are the deposits that we need to be making in our life to get us the quality of life that we want, I would challenge each of you to think about your greatest investment you've ever made.

and then the greatest investment you should and want to make. What's gonna grow you, what's gonna evolve? And I think you can do different things at different times, but just being super intentional. And if you've thought about consulting, I'm not gonna lie to you, that was the first one I made. The scariest one I think I've made, like financially, my husband, yes, that was an emotional investment, but financially it was terrifying. But hiring someone that you trust, that you believe, that will know that they're gonna take you where you wanna go is honestly the greatest business.

investment I ever made and personally it was in my relationship. So hopefully that just gave you guys some insights. Like I said, it's going to be quick, tactical and practical, but really give you guys some tangible pieces to take. Look at those investments. If I can serve you, if I can be that person for you to help you like Liz and Karina have helped me, we've helped hundreds of offices. We have raving fans across the nation, people that would just literally tell you that we have increased their profits, decreased their stress, helped their teams have greater communication.

Just the love of clients that we have. I'd love to help you with that and reach out hello at thedentaleateam.com or go to the website, click on, I could book a call or schedule a consult with us. It's free, like honestly, I'm gonna give you free value, whether you work with us or not. And I'd love to be able to help you. So reach out hello at thedentaleateam.com and make sure you invest in yourself. We only get one life. So let's make sure we make it the best that we possibly can. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental Elite Team podcast.