Episode 690: High Level Office Success Revealed 

 Kiera gives a sample of the top takeaways from the 2023 Dental A-Team Summit! She reviews the breakdown of the multi-million-dollar practices who shared their secrets, and all the other speakers who chimed in with their insight.

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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 had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants, where we have traveled 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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0:00:50.1 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And you guys, I hope today is an awesome day for you. I hope you're having a good time. Today, I just wanted to pop on and do a quick podcast about Dental A Team's 2023 Summit. You guys, it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. And if you missed it, I wanna just do a quick highlight reel of what Summit 2023 was all about for you. Some of the key takeaways, some of the cool things that we were able to do, and for those of you who enjoyed, this will be a fun recap to see how you're doing on the different things that we did, because I really, at the end of the day, believe that the success tip is to implement.

0:01:31.5 KD: So this year, our theme was the secrets of the multi-million dollar practices, because we work with so many, and I'm obsessed with patterns and obsessed with giving you guys great resources that we decided to have that be our theme. And so every one of our guest speakers that came on, all of our presentation were all about the patterns and themes that come from successful practices. And so what's really fun is, typically when you think of a summit, you think of all these speakers showing up and you just listen. And I'm not about that. I think that that's great for some, but for Dental A Team, where we are all about team and doctors and implementation and execution, I wanted this to be a team building experience. So Friday was all-day team day, and Saturday was all-day leadership doctor day. And it was so fun, because offices who have never worked with us were emailing us and saying, "Oh my gosh, my team had so much fun. They're asking if they can come on Saturday," which that's a huge win if your team actually wants to show up for more than what they were asked to do. But we have it as CE. But this year was just really fun.

0:02:35.6 KD: So we kinda kicked the day off of base-lining all the practices, and so really base-lining of where are you at based on... 'Cause I don't believe that being a successful multi-million dollar practice is just a revenue number. Yes, that's great, and yes, that's something that we can all "compare" and see how we stack up as a revenue number, but there's a lot of other things that come into that. How happy are you as a person? How successful are you on your profit? Like, I don't actually care what people's top line revenue number is, I wanna know their profitability. 'Cause you could say you're a $1 million business, but yet your profitability is only at a 2% or a negative. I don't want your business. Or we could say it's a $100 million business at a 1% profit margin, versus a $1 million practice who's at a 50% profit margin. Which one is actually going to be the better practice? And so that's something that I really love.

0:03:28.0 KD: And so we base-lined all of the practices of where are they at personally. And we did this for teams and doctors, because I wanted everyone to look at their financial standing, where are they at in different areas in their finances? Where are they at as them as people? And where are we at with the 12 systems that we've come up with at the Dental A team of what I think a systematised practice should have? And so we started out base-lining every single person, which was super awesome because it set the tone for the rest of the summit. And then we took them through and we had them, as a team, decide and develop why do they actually wanna be that multi-million dollar practice? Why? What does that look like? What does that feel like? How does that act? And what are we willing to do to get there? And honestly, of all of Summit, I feel like those first three things, four things, were really what set Summit on the right foot, because I think when people take a good inventory, they're able to then assess themselves to see, "Where am I lacking, and where am I strong?"

0:04:29.9 KD: And what's super cool is when we did the 12 systems and people went through all the 12 systems and ranked themselves and they saw... We had them build this cool little flywheel to where you visually could see how you were stacking up on your systems, it became a visual, almost like scorecard, to say, "Wow, we're doing really awesome on our patient experience, but our billing, we could improve on." And so that way, it helps to identify to where then through the rest of Summit, I had people looking for themes and ideas around the areas where they weren't as strong. And it was really awesome because for our team, we set up like, "Why do we wanna be the multi-million dollar business?"

0:05:05.1 KD: And what I mean by that is, is again, it's not just revenue, but it's the themes of we wanna be successful and not burn out, we want to serve other people at the highest level. And so for me, that dollar, that multi-million is not just revenue, it's about how many people we're able to serve and impact. And so we actually have that board up at our office. All the offices who were with us were able to make this really cool board and we're able to put sticky notes all around it of multi-million dollar ideas in the hope that people would take those ideas off, they would go implement and execute, and it was a tangible way to get this idea of Summit infuse into your practice so it wasn't just a weekend hype pep rally, but something that on Monday you could actually go implement and execute on.

0:05:49.2 KD: So it was really awesome. And I would say for you guys to maybe assess. And yes, we've got the questionnaires, and yes, it was a part of Summit, so if you missed it, I'm sad you weren't there, and definitely join us next year, but really assess yourself financially. I asked about 10 questions financially of Where are you at in that area? And then you as a person with your relationship, with your health, with working out, with being fulfilled in life, feeling like you've got your passions that you're expanding you as a person, how do you rank there? And then how systematised are you with your practice? And really looking at those three areas, 'cause I believe those three areas build my systematised practice, so M is for money, the Y for you, and S for systems and team development. 'Cause if we have those three areas really in sync, your practice is going to be a multi-million dollar success, and that was really what we're looking for.

0:06:38.4 KD: So it was super fun. We brought in Josh Scott with Studio 8E8, definitely talking about marketing trends that he sees of multi-million dollar practices versus none, and what are they doing? And honestly, throughout the entire time, all the speakers, all the pieces, what I found was a big pattern was consistent execution, hiring a coach, having an amazing executive board around you, and then really building team culture. Like, if I were to sum it, like, do a summation of all of that, those would be the five key takeaways that I heard consistently. And that was coming from marketing to financial advisors, to Zeke the CEO of Swell, who I believe is on his mission for Billion or Bust, to... We had Dr. Paul Goodman with Nachos.

0:07:22.6 KD: And I had a bunch of different people come in and speak. We had three doctors, just like you, share about what they did differently from their teams to their leadership, to their coaching style, to what they do, and it was really awesome because if I look at all of them again, the reason this year I brought on all these different speakers from all these different industries and doctors, just like you, and marketing was because I wanted to paint a picture that success is not limited. Success is there for everyone. And there are patterns. Like, I love the quote, "Success leaves clues." And so I wanted all these different people from all these different industries. Like, I brought on Big Life Financial and HDA Accounting and Dentist Advisors to talk about the secrets that they see within multi-million dollar practices. Like, what are those practices doing differently? Because they see hundreds, we see hundreds, Josh with marketing sees hundreds, all these different speakers, Zeke with Swell. We're talking thousands and thousands of businesses, and there's patterns. And so what are those patterns? I brought on the three different doctors. Like, what are the patterns? So people could actually start to identify those patterns, and especially in the either money, you, or systematisation buckets that you know you're lacking in.

0:08:40.8 KD: So for you guys today listening to the podcast, it was so fun, you guys. Shout out to Dentist Advisors. They sponsored our prizes. We were giving away plane tickets and Lululemon, and just a good time for our teams who were actively engaged and involved, but it was really, really awesome to see that. And mass thank you to all the sponsors. We had so many cool sponsors there for us, and they were just really incredible. All of our sponsors, they were just so kind, and I just appreciate them so much, because at the end of the day, those sponsors are who made Dental A Team Summit a success. But I purposely choose sponsors that are in alignment, that have seen it, that are gonna bring value. So Studio 8E8, if you guys don't have a great marketing company, definitely check them out. Dentist Advisors, if you need a financial advisor, they're my personal one. HDA Accounting, if you need an awesome dental-specific bookkeeper, 100%, I would definitely use them. Pearl, they're AI, and it was so cool to talk about them with case acceptance and like what the secrets are and what the new innovations are.

0:09:43.9 KD: We had Big Life Financial come on talking about ERC, and R&D is a great way. Like, they're looking at these multi-million dollar practices. They've done over 11,000 of those. And so it's a great way to build up a cash flow for the future. And that was one of the secrets of, those practices do have cash reserves on hand, and they're maximising the benefits available to them while reducing taxes. So super cool that way. Dental Warranty, they were incredible because they helped out with helping with case acceptance and giving that peace of mind to patients to boost that case acceptance. Dental Menu, they're incredible for membership plans, and we talked about how utilising different techniques in the way they do it, of whitening or Botox or other types of memberships to give your patients another opportunity was really awesome, and talking about how these successful practices actually incorporate membership plans into their practices as a way to decrease insurance and increase fee-for-service while retaining those patients to the practice. We had Paul Goodman with Dental Nachos coming on and sharing how to bring on these multi-million dollar associates and what to do for them, and also giving our listeners an ad because Dental Nachos actually can help you hire an associate. And he really talked about... Broke down like what do you need to do with an associate? And is it a need or is it a want? And sharing those insights.

0:11:11.6 KD: We also had Eide Bailly, another phenomenal CPA bookkeeping company, where they are really for like those multi-practice businesses. I love them. They're incredible for it. And they were there as well. Reach, which was originally CallForce, they're just awesome because for insurance verification or for answering phones for you, just being a part of this, and honestly, if that's an issue, I'd surely reach out to them. Paragon was super awesome because they are for all things billing. Like, if you're struggling with outsourced billing, Paragon is one of the top outsourced referred building companies that I have found. And they do incredible work. And so for offices who are struggling with some of those outsource things, that was one of the great themes, was they leverage the resources around them to maximise the employees in their practice and create a great culture. So shout out to Paragon on that. And then Verifixed, just an incredible another insurance verification company.

0:12:07.9 KD: So it was really fun for us to have all these secrets, to pull in all these sponsors, to have them be there, but really for us to just break it down and see these themes of all these multi-million dollar practices. So, massive appreciation for our three doctors who got on. And just to quickly give some highlights of them, we had one doctor talk about... He had like five tips, and the ones that I really remember... I took, like, legitimately... I don't know if you guys can see this. I was taking so many notes from all of these speakers. So just a couple of quick notes from our doctors that spoke, he talked about really building a team culture and having a really strong leadership team was one of the things that really made him super successful in his practice. Another one of our doctors talked about the core values are the guiding lights that creates the lens to attack each decision through, and I just thought that was such a beautiful way to think about using your core values, talked about the culture, investing in people, making your team really feel valued. And all three of our doctors and all of our speakers, all of them talked about the team and investing back into the team. And shockingly, all of them, from Josh Scott to Zeke with Swell, to all of our doctor speakers, every one of them said that they had a coach and a mentor, every single one of them, which was quite interesting.

0:13:28.3 KD: Another cool thing was, remember to be kind. And I love what this doctor said at the end. They said, "Don't be afraid to be bold." And this doctor talked about how they were afraid of being bold and making strong decisions, but really, it's the decision and then the execution was what really helped him succeed. And then we had another doctor who was a startup practice and has been in business for a couple of years, and this doctor really pulls in... The reason I had them come on is because they're all about unreasonable hospitality. And so the profit margins of this practice and how high their profit is while doing weighted blankets for their patients, for giving them little gifts for the surprises in their practice, for scented air plants, hot towels, hand towels in the bathroom and set of paper towels, ice cream after an extraction. Like crazy, cool, amazing things that made an experience while still being insanely profitable. He said, Push your associates more. Fail fast, fail forward and fail often, which I really thought was super cool.

0:14:33.5 KD: So just as a quick overall, when I left Summit... And we were shooting off confetti poppers, we sent out swag boxes. So our practice's gotta shoot off confetti with us, and we gave them blue fizzy drinks and chocolate bars to enjoy the experience with us. But as we were shooting off the money guns and shooting off the confetti, what I thought was the real differentiator is people decide and it's a must for them to be a multi-million dollar practice and life, as opposed to a want. They believe that they're that practice, they know that they're that practice, and they're going to do whatever it takes to become that. And that doesn't mean shortcuts or doing poor patient care. Every one of these had amazing patient care, amazing team care, and they also all executed consistently. So for you guys, if you missed it, I'm sad you missed it. Next year, be sure to join us. But if you were there, I also hope you're thinking about What are your million dollar ideas, and what is a plan for you to execute consistently? I truly do not believe that success and failure are radically different, I believe it's a decision that we make, and the fact that we stay consistent or inconsistent, that will make you successful.

0:15:45.2 KD: And then surround yourself with people smarter than you. I have a quote over here that says, "Surround yourself with people who reflect the person you want to be." If you wanna be a part of those multi-million dollar practices, be around them. That's why I created our doctor Mastermind group, because I wanted us rubbing shoulders with the brilliant people to become like them, to elevate the entire group together. So I want the brilliant office managers all hanging out with the new office managers, 'cause both of them are gonna bring different things to the table, and both are gonna elevate each other. And so it was just a beautiful experience, and I just wanted to share some of the top highlights of the multi-million dollar practices, encouraging you and inspiring you that that can be you as well. And if we can help and serve you, reach out [email protected]. Come join our community. Come join and be a part of those people. Rub shoulders with the people that are gonna elevate you to live your best life, to be the best version of you, to have the best team experience, because I believe that success is unlimited at the top and there's room for everyone, and I hope you and your practice choose to be a part of it. As always, guys, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:16:48.3 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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