Episode 595: You Actually DO Have the Time

 Kiera is cutting through the chatter and getting to the root cause of the phrase “I don’t have time.” She dives into how prioritization and discipline play a role in getting tasks done, why not having time is just an excuse, and the two options you have to get everything done you need to.

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Transcript:

0:00:05.6 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.

0:00:34.3 KD: 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.

0:00:51.3 KD: Hey, Dental A Team, listeners, this is Kiera. And you guys, I am beyond giddy about the fact that we are having a way for you guys to kick off your 2023 in the most epic way. That's right. I want you guys to go into 2023 with direction, with a plan and to actually get something done, done and done.

0:01:09.5 KD: If you've been looking at that operations manual, it is time guys. For three months, every single week, I'm going to be doing a workshop with you and your team in January to get that operations manual done in three months. Guys, this is a value of over $10000 that I know you're gonna freaking love because you're actually going to get it done.

0:01:30.4 KD: So if you wanna get your ops manual done in three months and kick off your January ultra strong head on over to the dentalateam.com/opsmanual, and I will see you January 5th for our kick-off.

0:01:45.9 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I'm on a podcast high right now. I hope you can feel it. I hope you're living it. I actually, had a funny sales call the other day. Someone who wants to become a Dental A Team client. I'm talking to this person because they will be a Dental A Team client. And he said, "Kiera, it's really weird to hear you talk normal. I'm used to listening to you at 1.2 to 1.5 times the speed."

0:02:10.1 KD: Guys, you and me both. When I listen to the podcast, I put myself on two times the speed. I think I talk way too slow. So I would love to actually have you guys email in [email protected]. This is important information. All of you have a moral obligation to give me some feedback. Alright. I need to know, do I talk too fast or too slow on the podcast. Send it in. Kiera, you talk way too fast. Kiera, you talk way too slow. I want to hear the healthy debate between the listeners to see which one it is.

0:02:40.4 KD: And on that note, guys, if any of you are like this fellow podcaster that I was chatting about... Guys literally, running a dental practice can and should be easy. It does not have to be hard. And we have different options for every type of practice, whether it's do it on your own. So like our dental academy, our dental university, which is our Virtual Academy, lots of online training tools for you. Or we do it with you, which is group calls and we help you with a lot of the systems and do it virtually. Or we do it for you, and we physically fly to your practice.

0:03:14.4 KD: So if you've been thinking, "Hey, I think I wanna make my life easier. I know I could run a dental practice much easier and more efficiently." Give us a call. The answer is, guys, you can do all these things on your own. You do not need me. You do not need our team. It's just a matter of how much time and effort do you want to put into it, rather than what you wanna get out of it.

0:03:34.8 KD: For me... Hey, if there was an easy path, guys... If I listened to a podcast and someone said, "Kiera, I could literally, show you the shortcuts to writing a dental consulting company quickly, efficiently, and grow you exponentially and you would be less stressed," I would sign up in a second. Especially, if they had a proven track record of hundreds of offices where they had success and successful results.

0:03:56.3 KD: So guys, reach out. I'd love to hear from you, [email protected]. We have hundreds of happy customers, people who have reduced their stress, lowered their overhead, increased their profitability and had happier teams. So email us, [email protected].

0:04:10.3 KD: And today, guys, the topic burning on my heart and soul... The reason I'm on a podcast high is because I have been hearing this thing of, "We don't have time." And I did a lot of pieces on time in the past. A lot of it is mindset. But I think I need to come in with another portion to this. Because guess what, my team actually hit a spot where they were telling me, "Kiera, we don't have time."

0:04:35.7 KD: And what I picked up from... From the years of consulting, from the years of being a business owner is the reality is we always have time for the things we want to do. For example, I have a book that I'm trying to write. I do not quote unquote have time to write that book. The answer is, I don't want to prioritize it. It's not that that I don't have time, it's truthfully, the fact that I don't wanna prioritize it.

0:05:01.3 KD: And so therefore I use the excuse of I don't have time. So I really want you to ask yourself, do you really not have time, are they projects that you don't wanna do, or have you just failed to prioritize. And then this is the big piece I wanna drive home today. Have the discipline to follow through on what you set aside. Guys, it's super, super, super, super, super easy and will always be easy to take care of urgent things rather than important things.

0:05:24.9 KD: That's life, guys. It is life. We are going to go to the bathroom before we write a book, because we urgently have to go to the bathroom. We will make that happen. But prioritizing bigger things, we won't always make it a priority. So I want you guys to really think about all these options that you say, "I don't have time for."

0:05:46.6 KD: Because if you look at your day, guys, and I were to come to you and say, "All right." And whatever your motivation is, I'm aiming that towards you. If I was writing you a check for $10000, if I was sending you on your dream vacation, but by the end of the week with no extra hours, you had to be out the door by 4:00 o'clock, not just 5:00 o'clock. But you had to get all your projects done this week. Could you get it done if on Friday, I had that check or your dream vacation and you would get to walk out the door and go, but all these tasks had to be done in the time frame.

0:06:15.6 KD: The answer is yes. You would be looking for it because you want to go on that trip, or you want to get that $10000 check, or whatever your motivator is. Maybe I'm gonna like, watch your kids for you, not as a creep. So you can go and have some alone time. Whatever it is. But that's your motivator. And so if that motivation was at the end of the week, you would do it. I know when I'm about to go on a trip, guys, I can get all my work done. I'm like flying high. Yes, it feels a little frantic, but I get it done 'cause I wanna go on that trip.

0:06:43.2 KD: So my question is, what do we need to do to help you guys realize that there actually is time and time is just an excuse and a story that we've been saying for years and years, and so we're making that real. That's my first point to make. Is you're making that real. You're living that truth. And so therefore, that's becoming your reality. So that's number one.

0:07:03.0 KD: Number two is, "Okay, great. So how do we fix that?" The solution is simple. Most of the time, things are actually very simple, we just choose not to implement or execute. The answer is very simple. You block specific time for you to work on those projects. I don't care what team member department you are... Dental assistants, hygienist, front office, office managers, regional managers, doctors. Blocking time.

0:07:27.4 KD: If I look at my entire week and I work, let's say, 32 hours a week. If I took one hour a week. So that would mean, I would only get to work 31 hours in that week, I promise you your production is not gonna go down. Your productivity is not going to go down. There will not be a fire burning and your team will be okay if you took that one hour off. But yeah, we often make ourselves, in the most respectful way, maybe a little holier than though.

0:07:54.4 KD: Maybe we give ourselves too much credit. Or we think, "Oh no, there's no way I could step away from the front desk. My team would hate me." Guess what? They actually won't. It's one hour. You have to go to doctor's appointments, you call out sick. You have to take time off, you're gone. You have to take lunch. These are things that you already are leaving for and your team doesn't fall apart, so why don't we consistently do that.

0:08:19.5 KD: So that's the easy solution, is we block admin time, CEO time. For me, it's called business development time. My business development time is Wednesday mornings from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Don't you dare touch that spot, block that spot, put anything in that spot unless I'm traveling to an office. That is when I work on the hard pieces of the business. But I know I have a spot dedicated to business development time where I'm working on these important projects that really have no space in my urgent days.

0:08:46.4 KD: So with that said, the next piece is like my team, they all have admin time, client follow-up time, but I guess this is the next piece, and it is my favorite quote. It literally sits on my counter in my kitchen. I stare at every single day... When I'm headed to the fridge and I see this sucker and it's like, "discipline equals freedom."

0:09:03.1 KD: And I'm like, "Ah, just kidding. I don't need to eat that, I'm just bored." Okay, I purpose to stick it in there to remind myself that in all of my life discipline equals freedom. And so often we make these blocks, but what do we say, "Oh, but this patient called in." And, "Oh, I have to take care of this." BS guys. You just don't wanna have the discipline to actually, follow through on your commitments.

0:09:25.4 KD: So that's where I've got so much fire and passion is because if we can actually, own it, we can say like, "Reality is I don't want to do this project. So therefore, patient and fires all feel more important. They feel like I'm doing something better." But the bottom line is we're not disciplined enough to stick to the commitments we make.

0:09:43.7 KD: Dang, I'm coming in hot guys. How you feeling out there? I just think I wanna cut through the chatter and get to the root cause of what really is causing this... I don't have time. I know every person has time. I know every person is not a robot. Nor are we expected to be efficient and on... Like top notch and running at high speed all day long. But what we are expected to do is to keep our commitments.

0:10:11.6 KD: One hour, two hours a week, will not destroy your practice. It will actually, enhance and elevate and expand your practice and all these other pieces. So I would just ask the question of, where are you at on this? Are you the one who is not making time and finding the time and blocking the time? 'Cause if so that's an easy fix. You gotta stick that in your calendar... Right. Easy fix that you're gonna be committed to and you'll execute on.

0:10:39.2 KD: Or are you the person who has it blocked in your calendar, but choose not to follow through on those things. Guys, that is discipline. That is work. That is a personality, and that is something that you can actually develop. That is a culture. That is having integrity with yourself. That is following through on the commitments you make with yourself, which I often times think are sometimes harder. Because guess what, it's just at the end of the day, you yourself and I... Not Kiera, but you... Like I'd say, "Me, myself and I."

0:11:06.1 KD: That's really who's at the end of my day. It doesn't matter. I can tell Jason... I can make up whatever story I want to have. Like, "Gee, I was so productive today. I like cranked it. I answered all these phones. I schedule all these patients." And he never has to know that I didn't take my admin time and I look like a rock star to him.

0:11:21.1 KD: The urgent things, the scheduling to production. I hit my doctor's goal. I closed all these cases. Those feed our ego, guys. Those are some nice endorphin pieces for us. Doctors are like, "I crushed it. I hit my production. I helped these patients. I served 20 patients today." Fantastic, high five. Are you making sure you're also serving yourself and your practice that's ultimately serving all these patients? Are you making sure we're taking care of those bigger projects that are actually going to move the practice forward?

0:11:51.4 KD: Things like planning out cases and getting those cases to your front office that way they can get those patients scheduled back in. Having training with our team and looking to see where the gaps are. Going out on the floor and listening to exams and hygiene appointments. Hearing how they're talking about [0:12:06.0] ____, rather than what we think they're talking about. Are you taking time to order and look for deals and make sure that we're staying below that 4% to 5% of collections every single month.

0:12:18.4 KD: Are you doctor spending time looking at your PNLs to see where am I at on my numbers. Where are we going? And am I being a wise steward over this business to ensure that our practice is moving forward. Office his managers, are you sitting your little booties in that chair and writing out all these protocols to make sure an onboarding process is efficient.

0:12:41.1 KD: I get it, you've gotta hire, but do you also have the onboarding piece to make sure that their onboarding is successful rather than just running the door of new hire turnover. New hire turnover. New hire turnover. Are you actually stopping the madness by having the dedicated disciplined time to execute on.

0:13:01.2 KD: Now again, it's an uncomfortable topic, that's why I'm coming in hot today guys. This is the loving coach consultant Kiera, coming to you saying, "I don't want the excuses anymore. Let's get past those excuses because excuses don't get us anywhere." And I have a fun quote from yesterday that I'll read to you guys... Tiffany got me one of the coolest gifts, it's a quote every day, and I love it. Yesterday's quote was, "The best way to get something done is to begin."

0:13:24.6 KD: And I think often we make all the excuses and we plan. Like today, I was trying to make pumpkin squares, guys. Like I love pumpkin squares. It is the season. It's fall. I've got the best recipe. If you know me and you've had them, you know that these are like crack cocaine. They're amazing. They're so good. But yet, the energy effort to get to the store and buy the things... I was like, "Gosh, I just don't have time to get to the store." That's not true.

0:13:48.5 KD: I'm prioritizing all of my work items instead of prioritizing my... That's not super important, but it is important. I have guests coming over and I wanna go see... My dad's coming in for his birthday tomorrow. Like, "Hey guys. It's the midnight hour on my personal life right now." But yet I was like, "Well, where's my time? I can quickly stay here. I can order their groceries. They can be delivered." That's something I could do. And I could have time to podcast. Right now, I would have been up to the grocery store, and instead I wanted to podcast. So I found a solution, but the answer wasn't that I didn't have time. It was, "I don't like to go to the grocery store."

0:14:24.3 KD: That's really my problem. And driving there and driving back... We moved and so the grocery store feels forever away. That's really my problem. It's not that I don't have time. It's that I don't want to make the time to do it. So I need to have the discipline to either execute on that consistently, or find another solution.

0:14:43.4 KD: Sometimes delegating is the solution. I delegated to a nice Instacart shopper right now, named Jeffrey. Thank you, Jeffrey, for making it so I can podcast. So we either delegate and leverage or we have discipline to take that time. During business development, I am not grocery shopping guys. I'm not answering emails. I am not talking to clients. Period. Ever. No. No. No. Because that biz dev time, my block time every single week is for us to grow the business.

0:15:11.1 KD: As an office manager, my admin time is for me to grow this practice, to create the protocols, to follow up on CDA, HR, the phone company. The things that I haven't had quote unquote time in my busy day. Filling a schedule, talking to team members, making sure we're hitting production that will move us forward to make our life easier.

0:15:29.0 KD: So I would encourage each of you to one, cut the excuses and realize you just don't wanna do it and let's be disciplined to block the time, because we have it. Unless we're changing our story from instead of, "I don't have time to. I have the time and I'll find the time." Or, "I'm a time master. I master time. Time doesn't master me."

0:15:49.3 KD: That's something I really thought about. Like, am I allowing time to... Am I allowing life to dictate my time, or am I actually creating my life. So I would just ask you guys implore those questions, enjoy those questions, and if you need help on it reach out, [email protected].

0:16:03.9 KD: Sometimes all we need is just an accountability buddy to hold us accountable to what we've committed to doing. And guys, I'd love to be that person for you. I've trained myself, I've taught myself, and now I get to help you guys. So guys, try it out. Email me, [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

0:16:23.3 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.