Episode 528: A-Team Practices Do This

Question: Are you a CE junkie or CE rookie?

Continuing education is a great way to motivate your team to do and be better at their jobs! In this episode, Kiera talks about the best ways to pursue CE both as an entire office and individually. She shares how the Dental A-Team does CE and gives great ideas for how you can get started now.

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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 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 could help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress and create A team. Welcome to The Dental A Team podcast.

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0:00:51.0 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope today is just an epic day for you. I hope you're having a fantastic day, and at the end of it, I hope you just remember how blessed we are to really be able to just be a part of dentistry. I think it's incredible, I think it's really fun for what we get to see. I think dentistry is advancing, I think it's changing, I think we're able to just come up with new ideas, and so I think it's fun to be a part of a ever-changing, ever-evolving industry. And [chuckle] we get to help patients smile, and for me, a smile is truly the most most important part. I know my body and my health and my heart and all of that, but my smile gives me the most confidence. My mouth is where I get to do all of my talking and communicating, and I feel it's just something that we are so blessed to get to be a part of, so I hope you just remember that and take that in that we really are in the best profession in my opinion. Guys, alright, here we go.

0:01:55.0 KD: Are you ready? Are you ready for today? I hope you are. Because today, I wanted to talk about CE. I think oftentimes, CE is something that we were... One of two boats I've kind of found with the offices I work with, and that is we are either a CE junky, where we CE all day long every day and don't implement, or we might be a CE rookie where we don't really do much CE. And as team members, I think we've got our hygienist who do CE for their licenses, and we have team members who don't often do CE. I kind of wanted to talk about how can we do CE as a team for the year, so kind of a different spin and approach. And the reason why is because I feel when we're all connected and we're all focusing on the same goals and objectives, well, guess what, we're gonna be able to go a lot further together, be able to accomplish a lot more. So let's say, for example, we have an office where the doctor is wanting to do CE on sleep apnea, the hygienist is wanting to learn about lasers, the front office is struggling, so they wanna find out about billing CDT codes.

0:02:57.9 KD: And all of us are just kind of in our own boat. Okay, that's one office, and we have another office where we all decide this year we are going to successfully implement sleep apnea, so doctor's gonna go take a course with Erin Elliott. Kudos to her. She's probably my favorite sleep apnea girl. If you don't know her, email is [email protected], we'll get you connected to her. And the hygienist is going to learn about sleep apnea and how to present that, and the team is gonna go to the entire course and we're going to learn, we're gonna learn the billing, we're going to figure out how to do medical billing, and that is our focus this year. By the end of the year, we're going to have 25 sleep apnea cases completed. That's a rad CE. I get it, you can go do other things on your own that motivates you, I take personal development, but how cool is that to think about a team doing CE together and getting a lot of momentum. I think that that practice actually will execute and implement and really rock and cover sleep apnea compared to office number one.

0:03:55.2 KD: So that's what I wanted to talk about like, "Okay, let's figure this out." So doctors, I would say first and foremost, let's always set CE budgets for the year. For me, I set a CE allowance, as a team, we're going to do these CE things, a lot of mine are retreat. And for us, a lot of ours is on personal development. As coaches, we do talk about dentistry, we also talk about a lot of life and conflict and how to resolve hard conversations and how to have direct communication and listening skills, so a lot of it is just personal development and coaching development, as well of our coaches. We also have business development, so being on the cutting edge of business and finances, also dental-specific, so trying to always be on the cutting edge of new softwares and technologies out there that could really help our practices. So I do team ones, and then I also give all of my team members a CE allowance every year. I truly budget CE into my forecast every single year. So docs, if you're not doing that, I do the profit first model, and I actually have a bucket set aside for CE, that's right.

0:05:00.1 KD: For myself and for my team. And then I don't truly think I've actually done as good of a job, so that's why I'm giving you guys the things that we are implementing and executing on this year. I signed up for Tony Robbins, I'm obsessed with him. If you guys do not know Tony, go do a quick YouTube search for him. He is the person who literally pulled me out of the ashes of my life, and his quote "Life is happening for you and not to you" rings in my ears. Last night I had some unfortunate news, we're going through a personal journey on my side, I may or may not share about it, I haven't decided, 'cause it actually has been tugging on my heart a lot. I might start another podcast, guys, so we'll see. Stay on the look out for that. It won't be on dentistry, it'll be on personal life, guys. But last night, I was sitting in my office, lights were off, it was about 11:45 at night, just tears rolling down my face. Just got some devastating news that really just hurt my heart, and I feel like I'm on a pendulum swing of hope and devastation all within a matter of seconds.

0:06:07.2 KD: And Tony's quote of, "Life is happening for you not to you", literally is ringing in my ears right now and was the only sliver of hope last night for me of just thinking that, "Hey Kiera, these hard things, these things you're going through are happening for you and not to you. That was the same thing earlier in my life, when I had another really, really, really painful experience and feeling like I was a completely broken vessel, not wanting to have another tomorrow, and hearing that life is happening for me and not to me.

0:06:37.9 KD: That's why I love Tony, guys. So this year, I decided in the vein of CE, I decided to join Tony Robbins' platinum consulting group. Guys, scared me out of my mind, I've never spent that much money in my entire life in one transaction. It was end of year. We do the same thing, a lot of people sign up for Dental A Team consulting, end of year. I think you get more bang for your buck if you're thinking about it now, but if you're waiting until end of year guys, we will happily have you guys then as well.

0:07:04.3 KD: So joined his platinum consulting group, and the reason I wanted to do it was for a few reasons. How many of you would just flip to DIY and get the secrets of people who have been there, done that on your own time, because I know for me, I love to learn from the best of the best. The people who have been there, done that and can give me the shortcuts. That's why we have created our Dental A Team Virtual Academy, where it's on-demand courses for you at your fingertips, where you literally can learn the secrets from all of my experience, all of Tiffany's experience, Britney, Dana, our entire team's experience at your fingertips. So stop taking the hard route, guys. There's a shortcut sitting there waiting for you, and it's also CE. Head on over to thedentalateam.com, and click on our virtual academy. Be sure to use coupon code, Podcast, and get started on that DIY and become the practice of your dreams. Number one, I wanna get my team elevated, I think Tony Robbins, the reason I sought him out was because I actually think he's one of the best consulting companies out there, and I thought, "Hey, if I'm going to build the best consulting company out there, I want to mimic and mirror, a mentor that I think has just done a fabulous, amazing job with what he does." He's very, very all-encompassing.

0:08:18.3 KD: I don't think we do as much, but we're growing into different areas, and I really just love to mimic and mirror. The other reason was I wanted to elevate my peer group and who I was associated with, so going to the events, talking to people, being a part of their chats, having coaches that are elevated, that can connect me with other people that are like-minded like I am, was another thing I wanted to do. And the third reason I joined it is 'cause I want my entire team to get on board, learn business, learn life, learn relationships, learn health, learn leadership, and Tony Robbins has all these events for the entire team. So my team, this year, actually gets to attend Tony Robbins events with me, it's part of what I paid for, and I really wanted to do it to elevate our entire team. So this year, our focus is on optimization. For me, it is on optimizing my health and my wealth and our team this year. A lot of my team members really wanna get more business savvy, so they're all attending Business Mastery One and Two and Leadership Academy with me this year, which I'm super excited to share this with them.

0:09:14.2 KD: And so the idea behind it is having team CE that we're all participating in. Then I also give them their own allowances, I know Cece is super invested in wanting to learn LinkedIn marketing, I know Shelby is wanting to do more things on operations. I know Tiff is wanting to do things on leadership development, I know Brett and Dana are super big on hygiene and HIPAA and OSHA, so I give them all an allowance, whether they choose to use it or not, totally fine, but that's their allowance for CE. And I actually budget it, I think so often, we just say yes to CE things without having them or without looking for what we really wanna grow in. I think it's so important to get people pumped up, rallied. I was just talking to an office the other day, and he said, "Kiera, I'm calling you because I want you to come in and rally my team like I get rallied." He said, "I go to CE for myself, for personal development, for clinical, for business. But yet, there's really not a lot out there for my team, which is why I want the A team to come do it, I wanna participate in you guys' events, I want you to run events for my team, and I want you to do leadership development for them."

0:10:18.5 KD: So I think it's so important, guys, to whatever you're doing, whether it's utilizing us to do CE for your team this year, and I don't think it just has to be for checking the CE box, but really to motivate and two, for me, it's the expanding of my team. I want people thinking bigger than who they are today. I want people innovating our company and innovating themselves. I want them developing themselves to be greater people for their communities, for their families and for themselves. And so whatever they wanna do, I don't care if they choose a personal development, they all come back and they report on it, but I want us to have a centralized focus, and this year, it is all on business optimization. So we're all going through business mastery together, we're all learning those things together, sales, marketing, you name it, from A to Z business development, so our team can go and implement more of that with you guys. No, we're not teaching Tony Robbins, but the idea is the principles, the mindset of business owners.

0:11:06.3 KD: I want our team to know that, not because I want it, but that's what they want, and that's going to help us be better consultants for our clients. To relate this to you guys, let's think of what does your practice ultimately want? Where are we striving? Where are we going to? Could we do a team CE that's around that? Maybe you wanna get more systematized for ease, maybe you want to optimize, that's our team summit this year, where we're gonna do two days of optimization with you guys, but maybe you wanna optimize 'cause we're having a hard time hiring people, maybe we want to learn hygiene and getting more patients to be able to have better hygiene, maybe we wanna do better overhead and business, so we're taking home healthier paychecks and being able to grow our business, maybe we wanna add in adjunct services like sleep apnea, or you can do Invisalign or you can do 3D printing.

0:12:00.2 KD: There's so many things you can do, but I really do think on those big goals, so I would suggest build a budget for it, have a big goal that's going to take you closer to where you wanna ultimately go, and then maybe set up a smaller allowance of people just investing in themselves that they bring back and give to the team. That is a way that you guys can really add this in for your year. I like to map ours out, we have all of our Tony Robbins events mapped for the year, we know which consultants are coming to them, we know who are taking to certain events, we've got fun things around it, and yes, that was hard because there are so many events and there are so many things.

0:12:32.9 KD: But guess what? I'm 100% in, and I want our team to grow and flourish this year. Did I do it right? I don't know. We're going to find out. Did I do things that I could have changed? Probably, yes, but I would say one, the number one thing is investing in my team, because I personally believe that an investment in our team is the best investment you will ever make. Whether these people choose to stay with you forever or they're with you for the next year or two years, having the best, most brightest, most incredible people on your team that are constantly evolving, constantly growing, I think is the best investment you could ever make if you execute on it.

0:13:08.6 KD: That's a big if. And this is another Tony Robbins, we'll stay on that theme. He says that execution trump's knowledge every single day. So that's where I say we've got our CE junkies or our CE rookies. And whatever side of the coin, maybe let's get into the middle, maybe let's not be the CE junky that's going to all the CE and never implementing anything, feeling like we're actually making progress. And then the CE rookie who's not doing any CE and not making any progress either, both sides aren't making progress, one's just a cheaper route for you to go. But get into that, let's set a budget, I don't care what your budget is, let's create some CE and let's get some momentum as a team. I would suggest starting out maybe small, you guys are Dental A Team team summit for your entire team.

0:13:49.3 KD: One practice, five practices, 30 people, 50 people, 100 people. It was literally 597 for 12 and a half hours of CE this year. And we are in your practice elevating your team. That is really, really, really inexpensive CE, because I purposely did it for that price point to make it a no-brainer for your team to come. If you miss it this year, put it on your books for next year, 'cause we'll have you be there. That's easy CE that does not break your bank at all. I get that you're gonna have to pay for them to be there on Friday. I understand that, and I understand that could be a lost production day, so there is a moral cost to it, but just think, one day to rally your team, get them ramped up, amped up, and then they're super excited about life. They're excited about dentistry, they've come up with these exciting ideas, you're gonna have a killer quarter. Every office that we go see has an incredible month the next, usually two to three months historically. I can go back and track it, I can usually pick out when I visit practices based on their production numbers, every time.

0:14:45.0 KD: I can tell when I've gone to CE because our business is booming when I come back from it, always. 'Cause I'm elevated, I'm lifted, I'm charged up. So get a budget guys, get it out there, let's focus on a big goal together, and then if we want to, if we're already doing that, I would say the second tier to that is giving individual CE to your team to go and become better versions of themselves. So I have some office managers who reach out and just do coaching with us because they said, "I wanna be the best office manager." I have some people that have reached out, and taking our online CE courses. We have courses for every single team member. We have team training videos. There are so many resources out there, so pick something that's going to elevate and let's execute on it. So guys, that's how I'd recommend you get CE scheduled in. If we can help you guys or be a part of it, please email us [email protected]. If you're looking for some great CE courses or wanna know what we're offering, again, email us [email protected]. If you guys know of awesome CE courses that you have gone to that you love, that have just pumped you up, email us that as well.

0:15:46.1 KD: I'd love to be connected with more resources, I know that there's quite a few out there. Like I said, we're pretty good with a lot of the... Wow, adjunct services. There we go that could really, really help you guys if you're looking to implement that into your practice. So by all means, reach out, [email protected], and if nothing else, remember, expand yourself and execute on what you know to make yourself a better version of you. Alright, guys, thanks for listening, I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:16:17.3 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.