Episode 463: Be Proud of Your Year

Whatever you celebrate, happy holidays! Kiera reflects on what this past year has meant, the wins she’s had, and thinks about what the new year will bring. She also encourages listeners to journal about their own 2021 experiences and beyond!

Take this holiday season to reflect and make goals to evolve into the best version of yourself. We’re so happy to have our Dental A-Team around us.

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Transcript:

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 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 can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A-teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:00:51.7 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. You guys, aah! I love the holidays. I love 'em so much, there's so much fun, and I hope that you are just getting ready for whatever you choose to celebrate, whether it's Hannukah, whether it's... Oh, Passover is in April, but that's okay. Christmas, whether it's just another day for you. I love holidays, guys. It's so much fun. This year, I'm so jazzed. You guys know I come from a pretty big family. There are seven kids in my family, and this year, I'm so excited because four of the seven will be getting together for Christmas. My little sister, she went and served a mission for our church, and she was in Palmyra, New York for part of it, and then in Colorado Springs for the other part of it, and she just got home. And so I'm super excited. We had two COVID wedding in my family, my poor mom, my poor family. It was kind of bananas last year, but I'm super excited 'cause we have new in-laws, and this year, we're all gonna get together and have Christmas together at my parents' house, which I'm super excited.

0:01:54.2 KD: My other three siblings have a lot of kids now: One has four kids, the other one has four kids, and the other one just had their second baby. So, you guys, I'm already up to 10 nieces and nephews. It's pretty crazy here. Who knows? And now I've got two other siblings married, so let the races begin. [chuckle] But I am just excited. I think it's fun. We have so many fun traditions. My little brother, who just got married last year, always has us do a Christmas program. And every year, it gets crazier and crazier and crazier, and I don't know why I continue to participate. So, typically, we have to do a talent show. Guys, oh, gosh, I get so stressed. So my talents that I have done, yes, Ariana Grande's Problem. I know that entire rap, if you ever wanna hear it, I will happily share you, because it took me an entire road trip across Canada with Jason to learn that. But we did that one year as our talent, this year, if any of you know BYU is my alma mater, Brigham Young University, and their rival is the University of Utah.

0:03:00.3 KD: Yep, yep, I just said it out there. It's cool, I might lose some listeners over it, and it's totally fine. But Jason, my husband, went to UVU, not U of U, but UVU, Utah Valley University, so he doesn't really have a football team, and for years, he and I have rivaled. He'll cheer for the U, and I will cheer for BYU, and it drives me bananas. So, this year, our talent, we'll see, but it might be me and Jason singing the BYU fight song, just because I think it'd be hilarious. Those are my talents. My other siblings are way more talented, my brother and sister-in-law were on a ballroom dance team, so they always have these adorable choreographed crazy traditions. My other sister is so talented and she has the cutest little videos. I don't even know, I don't know why. My mom and my dad, my mom is a phenomenal pianist, she writes music, like, guys, I think I just got gypped on all the gene pool of talents.

0:03:54.8 KD: So I usually try to come up with comedy. Last year, mm-hmm, I definitely gave a recipe for how to make homemade toffee, so, those tend to be my talents, but this year, it should be a good time for us all to get together, and I hope whatever you're doing, whether it's with family, whether it's friends, I know this time of year can be magical. It also can be really, really hard. So I hope wherever you are in your life, right now, you're just having the best time and that you are choosing to live your best life. I love this time of year, so yes, it's fun to be with all my family, but I also start to get the excitement bug of the next year's coming, and who do I wanna be? What do I wanna create? And I start thinking about this, so that way, I'm ready to go for New Year's, and so that's really what's been...

0:04:37.9 KD: As a child, guys, Christmas is real tricky for me, because I'm such a pain-in-the-booty child. I didn't really like toys much; what I loved was a ream of paper. Yep, 'cause I love to hear the sound of crinkling papers, and I still love to organizing things and put things together. My poor parents, they try to get me into books, they try to get me in the Legos, to try to get me into any computer game or dolls or Barbies, or you name it. My poor mom, I think she tried every single thing under the sun, and finally was like, "Okay, a ream of paper for my child. Great. Good to know."

0:05:10.4 KD: But I think it's one of those things of, I really look forward to the change of year, to looking back on how the year was, things that I'm really, really proud of. And I tend to journal, so if you guys want to join me this time of year, it doesn't have to be for Christmas or a religious holiday, it can literally just be this time of year. It's the last week before the end of the year, and it's time to take pause, if you will. And I love to look back, and like I said, I typically will journal on this, so if you, like I said, wanna join me, please do, I would love to have you.

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0:05:43.9 KD: As you guys look back on 2021, how was it? Was it your best year? Was it a year you could have done a little better? And as you're looking forward to 2022, what type of a practice and a person do you wanna be? Well, guys, now is the time to take massive action and to have the life and the practice you've always wanted. Dental A Team Platinum is where it's at, guys. We focus on system development. That's right, top to bottom. Team development, growing leaders, growing you as a person, making sure you're balanced, that we have happier teams. And we also ensure that your practice is profitable, teaching you how to be business-savvy. So if you're looking to enhance your practice, take it to the next level, you yourself wanna grow, now is the time. Dental A Team Platinum, we fly to your practice. Most of our offices see a 10 to 30% increase in revenue, reduction of stress, happier teams, better patient experiences.

0:06:31.2 KD: So if you know you wanna rocket-launch yourself into 2022, don't wait, guys. We are only taking on so many Platinum practices, because we physically fly to you. So email us today, [email protected], and you better believe, we have something special for you, end-of-year offices. So be sure to reach out, [email protected]. Remember, you're only one decision away from a completely different life.

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0:06:53.0 KD: So I journal, what were some of my wins from this year? What were some of the things that I'm really, really proud of? I actually write about this every single month, so I like to go back, look at this. There's a new journal app I'm using called Day One, and it's a picture and a journal entry that you can use. I just started it, shout out to Ryan Isaac, with Dentist Advisors, who told me about it, but these are just some different ways that I kind of journal my year out. So when I'm reflecting back, I go back through and I literally look at it. Also, one of my gifts that I give my husband every year is a year in review, so it kind of helps me out to be able to have my whole year in a review in front of me, 'cause I just did that for him for the holidays, and then I'm able to look back on what my personal wins for the year, personally, professionally, family, spiritually, health-wise, wealth-wise. I like to kind of look at all the categories of my life and what were some of the things that I'm really, really proud of that I did.

0:07:48.2 KD: Like this year, I'm really proud of our consulting team. It was a struggle, it is a struggle to hire amazing traveling consultants. And we have them, and they're awesome, and I'm really proud of that. I'm also proud of our marketing team that we were able to develop and build. It was not an easy struggle. I had a goal to become a marketing master this year, and I had it set out of what I wanted that to look like, so that way, we could help more offices, and I will say, Sissy, Sissy was was a huge win, something that we did insanely well this year that I'm so proud of our team for doing. Also, our HQ team, bringing Shelby on to become our Operations Manager and Executive Assistant. She has done incredible at taking that role on and growing into it, and our HQ team is getting much smoother, our marketing, and all of our client communication. It's still a work in progress, but that was a huge win. I felt that we really stepped forward and grew.

0:08:43.3 KD: Also, I'm really proud of all of our client successes this year. When I look at that and I see about a 10 to 30% increase in revenue on average across the board, sure, some offices didn't see that, other offices saw more than that, but on average, that's what they're seeing, I'm super proud of that. I'm also proud of the offices that are way less stressed, that took it on, that really, really, really grew and navigated this insanely well. Those are just some of the things. I'm super proud of my husband, we made it to 10 years, guys, it's a decade of being married, and I felt like I really worked hard on my personal relationship with him and making sure that we really were a solid unit. Those are some of my wins.

0:09:23.7 KD: And then I look to see, alright, if I could become anybody, I'm talking no bounds, nothing, if I could dream as big as I ever wanted to, what would I do this next year? Who would I become? And I literally write that down. I give myself some quiet time, this isn't around everybody, it's usually when I'm sipping cider, the non-alcoholic kind. Come on, guys, you know who I am. Otherwise, this could get a way more exciting exercise, [chuckle] but usually, my mom makes like a hot cider or a wassail, and I'm usually just kind of by myself thinking about these things. There's so much family and buzzing around me, but I also like that quiet stillness of just the magic, or I'm sitting by the Christmas lights, by the fire, just kind of in my own pondering of, who would I wanna be? And it doesn't always come just in one day, that's why I like it to be that week time before the New Year flips over, so I start to prep to think.

0:10:19.1 KD: I've already... You guys, I'm so jazzed, I've already come up with a word for next year, I'm so excited, and I can't wait to roll that out every year. I create a word for the next year. This year, my word, I was really bitter when I came up with it, but it has been the best word. And it was "love me," so it's more of a phrase, not one word, but love me. I felt like I wasn't giving a lot of love to myself, I wasn't caring about myself, taking care of myself, internal dialogue on my physical health, on prioritizing me and my needs and the things I needed versus always giving to other people. And I will say it was a magical journey this year. It was pretty incredible to see the person that I was at the beginning of the year to the end of the year with that phrase.

0:11:02.3 KD: So next year, I'm so excited, I'm refining that word of what it's gonna be for next year, and I really just look at who I wanna become, what I wanna do. There's also a really cool company on Etsy that you can actually make a bracelet with that word on it, it's very cool, so if you guys want that, I'm happy to share who I used last year, she's fantastic. But just kind of taking a personal in-depth dive, it can also be a professional one. For our New Year's podcast, guys, I'll be going to to kind of some of the things to do as you roll into 2022, but between that, this holiday and rolling into New Year's, really just take time to reflect, take time to look to see where you felt like you really shined and dazzled, and then start to process and to ponder who you wanna be next year, what type of a practice you wanna do.

0:11:47.1 KD: I'll be honest, this next coming week, what I always do is I start to map out my three company WIGs, wildly important goals, and I also map out my three personal WIGs of what I want to achieve. Yes, believe it or not, I did create a business and a personal vision board on Canva. It's very easy, it's $8 to print a huge board. I have one in my bedroom, and I have one in my office. Two different vision boards running simultaneously. My personal vision board, I did it in one year, three years, and five years of what I want to accomplish. I put my age, of, by age 36, by age... I think it's 37, and then by age 39, I think, or 42. Who knows? I can't remember, I clearly haven't been looking at it, I just got it about a month ago, so give me a little... By next year, I should have it memorized. But I created those vision boards, and so I started writing those out, what is the big WIG that I want? Then I start breaking it down by quarter by quarter by quarter, what needs to happen? What do I need to accomplish? What do I need to do in order to achieve those goals?

0:12:47.2 KD: So I want you guys to just... You can do it today, you can do it between now and New Year's, but I really start mapping it out quarter by quarter. I also, depending upon what year I'm turning, so this next year, I'll be turning 36. Guys, I'm definitely having a mid-life crisis, so if anybody wants to send me some nice holiday cheer, send me Christmas cards, I would love it, send me New Year's cards, and send me tips on how to avoid a mid-life crisis 'cause I'm definitely in it already. But I will write down 36 fun things that I wanna do next year. So I call it 36 by 36, and that is what I start working on. So, I create fun goals, like maybe I wanna go scuba diving in the Caribbean, maybe I wanna watch the fireworks at Disneyland. Maybe I wanna learn how to make macaroons. Maybe I wanna do calligraphy. Maybe I wanna take my family on a trip. Maybe I wanna donate 100 coats, like we did this year for our coat drive. Whatever it is, I start to build those. And guess what? Not every year do I hit them, but at least it gives me a lot of fun things to do.

0:13:44.1 KD: So whatever you're choosing to do today, whomever you're with, take some time to reflect on you. Take some time to think about who you wanna be. Take some time to celebrate you, to celebrate who you were, the journey that you went on. Take time to celebrate your team. You didn't just get there by yourself; you got there with the team. They definitely helped you. And you guys, go have the most magical day-to-day. I hope wherever you are that you just feel loved, and if by no else but me, hey, that's fantastic. I love and adore each of you. I might not know you personally, but hey, you're here, so I know you're a good soul, you're a good person who wants to just influence and impact this world for good. And I'm so grateful you're here. So go have the most magical day, reflect, feel free to journal with me, maybe you have your own traditions of things you do. Share it with me, I'd love to hear it. Truly. Genuinely. When I say that, guys, it's not just a... You guys, I get a lot of emails. So when I ask for things, it's 'cause I actually wanna hear.

0:14:40.6 KD: This is how I get to learn from you. I get to give back more, in a grander, greater scale. I get to become a better person because of you. So I'd love to hear from you. Any tradition that you have for the end of the year. How do you set yourself up for success? What are your holiday traditions? I would literally love to fit like jolly old St. Nick, sitting there reading Christmas cards from all the children across the world of what you do, who you're going to be. It would just be one of the most magical experiences, so I hope you take me up on it. [email protected]. And as always, go have an incredible holiday, and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:15:18.6 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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