Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera gives insight into how CEOs and office managers (or dreamers and task-drivers) can effectively work together to run the ideal dental practice — without stepping on each other's toes. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.646) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so excited to be on the podcast. I'm excited to be podcasting with you. I hope that your new year is rocking and rolling and I hope that you are just enjoying your time working in dental practices because remember, we are so blessed and so lucky to be working in an industry that literally changes lives. I believe that dentistry is the best possible industry for us to be a part of and you get to make people's literal smiles come true. So as always, Thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team family. Please be sure that you are always leaving us review, sharing us with other people. That is how you keep us as the top dental podcast out there. And I just want to say for every one of you that has done it, truly thank you. Thank you for sharing this podcast with others. Thank you for being on our journey. And for those of you that are new, welcome. I want you guys to remember we are getting up there on our numbers of podcasts. So we are in the 900s, almost breaking about a thousand episodes. I cannot believe I have made that many episodes. That's a lot of episodes. And sometimes it might feel daunting or you might forget that this is a resource in your back pocket. So always head on over to TheDentalATeam.com click on our podcast page and you are able to then go search every episode. So if you have like, wanna know information about cancellations or I wanna know about partnerships or I wanna know about buy-ins or I Kiera talked about Pearl AI, but I can't remember where that was at. go search our podcast in any episode that I have ever recorded for you of all those thousands of episodes, because there'll be more coming, you will literally be able to go find any one of them. So just be sure put that in your resource pocket. A lot of people want to know like, how do get our hygiene? How do we do perio? How do we do fluoride? How do we run effective meetings? How do we run quarterly meetings? Any of those things literally, I want you to think about this as your Google or your AI for you. It's all there. There's a ton of it. have verbiage for you. I have information for you. So be sure that you're always using those as resources for you because I believe in working smarter, not harder. And I'm always here committed to sharing the top tips and tricks for you. So today I just wanted to dive into a really fun topic that I think is great for you guys. I think it's something that I get asked a lot. It's something that I'm excited about and really helping you understand kind of what a CEO visionary Kiera Dent (02:14.816) and an office manager, implementer or integrator role should look like and how you can have this in your practice. Because as I'm watching offices and as I'm coaching practices, I'm noticing that dentists, when they start to move into this CEO role, they actually don't know what the heck they're supposed to do. It feels very weird. It feels very awkward. It feels like I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing. And so giving you guys some tips of what does this relationship even look like? So. There's a great book. guys know I'm a huge faction, a huge fan of traction. Merged those together and had faction come out. Huge fan of traction by Gina Wickman. We help a lot of offices, Dental A Team's version of traction where we actually help you build leadership teams. We help you get quarterly goals in place. We help you with accountability, tracking data, scorecards, write people, write seats. So if that's something you're interested, be sure to reach out. [email protected] Super, super, super fun and very effective. We have a lot of offices that we've worked with for years on this and being dental experts, we're able to help solve a lot of the problems that come up. Whereas some of the other implementers or integrators, they really can't help with that. So it's a really fun niche that we're a part of that I absolutely love. So if you're interested in that, how do I set up these leadership teams or quarterlies, be sure to reach out. I'd love to help you. But in doing that, Gina Wickman wrote another book called Rocket Fuel. And Rocket Fuel, I think is a really lovely book that kind of splits apart this visionary role. and this integrator role. And not all CEO doctors are visionaries and not all office managers are integrators. And so really figuring out and dialing in, what does this relationship look like? Like what should a CEO do? What should a doctor do? What should an office manager do? I think this dynamic can actually get really tricky and it can get really hard for people. And you might not know exactl

Tiff and Britt give tangible tips for creating a wealth plan of action. They cover everything from knowing what your ideal work-life balance is, when you hope to retire, the right systems you can create now to set you on your path, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.504) Hello, Dental A Team listeners and welcome back. I am here again with Miss Britt. Brilliant Brain Britt is what I've dubbed her today on some awesome business tips and insider tips, things that we've learned along the way, things that Britt has actually gone to school for. So welcome to that. Thank you, Britt. Britt (00:19.787) Real life is cool, Cliff. Real life is cool, too. The Dental A Team (00:25.935) Fair, fair. But I do love picking your brain for it on these pieces because little do many people know you do have a degree in healthcare management. I think it's really, really freaking cool. And not just any degree, like you have, you know, your master's degree in this and it's really freaking cool you guys because It means not only do we have, you know, the knowledge that we've all picked up along the way and we've taken courses and CE and all these things and learned and learned how to use freaking Excel and things like that. But Britt also has that side of it that I get to pick her brain on things that just really, really helps you guys learn how to manage your business. So we all do have the real life training, but Britt, I think it's really cool when we get to utilize your degree and you get to utilize it in our company, I think. I assume you do, but it's really cool when you get to do this stuff. So thank you for being here with me today, Britt, letting me pick that beautiful brain of yours. And just for always being here for us, you are an amazing human being and anything that I need, you're like, yep, we'll figure it out. So thank you for recording with me. How are you doing today, Britt? Britt (01:15.638) Mm-hmm. Britt (01:34.127) I'm doing well, thanks Tiff. These are fun combos because one, like we both have years of experience in dental and so, and worked with a lot of clients. So it's fun just to kind of talk about ideas and cool things we've seen and what we've learned along the way. The Dental A Team (01:49.156) Yeah, I agree. I agree. And today is one of my favorite conversations. I love nothing more than to help a doctor and a business owner of any caliber and degree learn how to make their business work for them and then not spending so much time working for their business. Like you guys became business owners, you became practice owners so that you can have your own business, you could make your own hours and you get into it and you're like, gosh dang it. Brit, this sucks, I'm working all the time. And it's like, yeah, you will do that for a little while for businesses and it'll come back around every now and again as well. But really looking at how we can plan and project for the future so that you can make that switch at some point and it flips to where the business really is creating the lifestyle of your dreams. And that's something that we work really hard at. I know we work with mostly entrepreneurs, which means. We work with visionaries, we work with the people who have the big dreams, and then we get to help implementers, office managers typically, right? And doctors learn how to be an implementer from a visionary, but we get to work on the implementation side of really finding the strategies and keying in on the pieces that are going to help us get to that big vision that you want, doctors. So we have other podcasts, a ton of podcasts that'll talk about how we've helped other doctors do those things. I want you to listen to those. I want you to never feel like you're alone. We are here for you today. I'm actually really excited about this one today strategic wealth management and really planning for that in the future. And Brett, this is going to be a lot of conversation from you. So I hope you're ready. I hope you've got all your words ready to be used today. I know I use a lot of words in a day and I feel like I never run out, but you might run out. I don't know. But I hope you're ready for this because this one is this one. I'm letting you take over quite a bit here on the strategic planning because I think you do above and beyond look further than a lot of people even look, and look further than maybe some of our listeners are even thinking about. A lot of our doctors are younger, you know, they're 50 and under, and these generations right here, and these two, know, generations, the 30 to 50 generations, we're not always thinking of our retirement. I don't know what happened to us, but we kind of forgot that piece was going to come one day. The Dental A Team (04:08.186) for a lot of us. So really looking and making sure that we're considering those pieces and you do that well. You go

Kiera points listeners to where opportunity for hidden savings or additional value could be lurking in your profit and loss statements. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.942) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just want to have a really fun podcast with you. I want to talk about some possible ways of hidden value, how to trim some fat in the practice. think these are just some fun things that I don't think we often think about that really can actually add pennies, dollars, Benjamins, thousands into your pocket with minimal effort. As always, thanks for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. I adore you. I appreciate you. If I was with you right now, I'd be telling you, you're doing way better than you think you are. And my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. Life is my passion. Dentistry is my platform. And I am here to infuse you with positivity of tactical tips of sharing how you can be living your best life. Life, the life you were destined and meant to live and doing it through dentistry because I'm obsessed with helping you guys give back to people, share with people and become who you were ultimately meant to be. With that, you're loving this podcast, Go leave us the review, share this with someone because for me to get this into the hands of every single person, every single dentist in this world, I need your help to do it. So please truly go share, share this with someone. And today let's start talking about ways that we can trim the fat, find the hidden value of just little things that we might not be thinking about. My husband does this. He is the guru in our family of looking at our expenses and figuring out what things are we not doing. of just little tiny things of hidden fees. So you can do this in your personal life and your professional life. And something my husband and I were talking about is we don't have this on a set cadence, right? And so how can we set this on a set cadence? So if you're using a software, our company uses ClickUp. I would not recommend it for most practices. I usually recommend Asana or Trello or Basecamp. Asana is my go-to. Monday.com is another great one. Those are all really good ones, but put this as a reoccurring task. So every year we actually look at these things. And then I do set as a reoccurring task. every single quarter. My bookkeepers know, so email your CPAs today. Hello, CPAs. Super excited to talk to you. I need you to send me a detailed P &L at the end of every single quarter. I set up myself reminders in my inbox. You can set it up in your project management software, whatever it is, but have a reminder to review your P &L. And I think review your business P &L and your life P &L every quarter. And if you go through every single line item, you will find little areas, but a few things for you today of hidden costs, hidden value, things that you could be doing. Kiera Dent (02:20.834) Number one is your insurance. My husband, he's a pharmacist and we have disability insurance, we have life insurance, and there will actually come a point in time, potentially, that you actually no longer need this insurance. For dentists, I'm strongly advocating for you to always carry your disability insurance in case anything happens. I've had so many dentists actually have fluke weird things, like I had a dentist in their 30s have a stroke, I had a dentist in their 20s get cancer, I had a dentist who had tingling in their hands and they actually have something in their neck, you never know when something weird is going to happen in dentistry. Your hands are really what are going to be able to make it to where you can be successful in your career. but assessing it. I know for us with our our insurance, it's usually we do a lot of research when we buy our cars or our house or our practice or we're getting out of school, but then we never go and reassess it. And so check to make sure are we really like are we paying more than we should be? Is there a better carrier out there? Are there new people on the market that could be better for us? And just go check instead of just paying that premium every single month, go and look, can we trim the fat? And I know this sounds annoying and you're like, gosh, I don't want to do it. Delegate this to someone, have your managers look into it for you if you want to. But the point is look to make sure that we're not just passively paying our insurances, but we're actively looking to make sure, are we getting the best rates? Are we getting the best fees? Could we negotiate our lease and our rent? That's another zone. all the different areas that we've negotiated, let's make sure we're looking back. And I think insurance is a really, really big one. The next one is internet. Internet goes up on us, cable, our subscriptions. Can we get those discounted? I know a lot of t

Tiff and Britt provide a play-by-play of what one practice did over the course of one year to go from producing $1.2 million to $2.5 million. This includes having the right systems in place and the right people in the right seats. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02.09) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. We are doing something really exciting. I have Brilliant Brain Britt with me today. I'll say that three times fast. I love it. It's sticking today. It's sticking. But I'm super excited to do this podcast today. This is something we don't always do. We're just trying to mix it in for you guys so that you guys can really feel a connection to other Britt (00:14.852) Thanks. The Dental A Team (00:30.767) human beings. That is something that Dental A Team works really hard on and this year in 2025, it's a really, really major focus for us is to have all of our doctors that are a part of Dental A Team to have other doctors and other practice owners and leadership people to communicate with because I think sometimes we feel like we're on our own little island in dentistry and there's a dentist on every corner in most cities and states but we still feel like we're alone. We really want you to have that connection piece that's really big for us this year and always has been. And Britt and I, Britt, I have you here today. We are going to talk about a practice transformation. This is a client that I think no names used, right? But I think this is a client situation and the statistics is something that we see a lot. This is a very common practice that came into the Dental A Team and then... Britt (01:13.221) you The Dental A Team (01:24.237) Honestly, the results that we saw were pretty common as well. Like this isn't something that I think preface this with that everyone gets the same results every time. It definitely takes a lot of parts and pieces moving together at the same time to make sure that the results are there. Everyone sees results, but. really looking at the transformation of this practice and I want you guys out there to think how can I see myself in their shoes? How can I see myself in what they're doing or what they're looking for? It's gonna be really huge today. So Brett, I'm excited for this one. How are you doing? How excited are you? What's life like over there? Britt (02:02.821) Good, you know, it's always fun. just think of right recently we wrote a bunch of cards to clients and it's just a fun time to sit back and think about, oh, look at, look at all that we've accomplished together. Look at how much fun it is. So I kind of feel like that's like this transformation day is talking about, oh my gosh, it's so fun to think about all that can be done and all the fun things we've done with our clients. The Dental A Team (02:23.888) I totally agree. And those cards were so much fun to hear, right? I love thinking about, I was thinking about them the other day. I'm like, gosh, I can't wait for them to like, I'm sure you guys have gotten them now and opened them and I've heard from a few clients, but I love bragging on results and I love bragging on people. And one of the biggest pieces that we work really hard with our clients on, I've said this a million times, but it's making sure that the business is working for them and not just them working for the business. a lot of... clients, a lot of potential clients, know, the clients that are coming in and doing practice assessments with you guys and looking at what could my life with the Dental A Team look like and what should I be focusing on within that practice assessment. Our clients that we have now, future clients that will come and a lot of you guys out there listening are really looking for very similar things. And the practice we're going to talk about today, that transformation today is, gosh, this is somebody who we worked just. so close with and we love them to pieces and in 12 months, so you guys know, we were able to take this practice, this practice and their consultant, they went from 1.2 million and their practice they were doing okay, right? 1.2 million is not bad, but they were kind of tired, they were exhausted, they had two young kids at home that they wanted to be at home with and they were working a lot of hours, they were trying to implement the systems, trying to get everything going. and just putting a lot of work into this practice to really get it to where they wanted it. What they wanted, you know, was more income. They wanted more profitability. They wanted to be able to take some time off clinically to be with their family and build a life outside of the practice. And I think a lot of the people we talk to, that's the space you guys are in too. Whether you've got littles at home, graduated kids at home, no kids at all, future family, no future family, like no matter what. I think

Kiera lists a series of questions listeners can ask themselves when they're feeling a lack of passion for their job, life, relationships, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.994) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today is just a great day for you. I hope that you're loving your life. I hope that you are enjoying being in dentistry. And if you're having a bad day, well, let's chalk it up. Hopefully you only have like 10 % of your days that are bad and 90 % of your days that are good. I believe that we are truly in the best profession. We get to change people's lives. We get to do dentistry for people. We get to help people in ways that they didn't know. The smile is the universal hello. And we're able to give people confidence where they didn't feel like they have. We're able to give people a way to give nutrients to their bodies, a way to communicate with people. And we're doing that through dentistry. So I'm just excited for you and I love it I hope that you do too. And remember, Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so if this podcast is serving you, blessing you, sharing, you've taken any tip, please share it with somebody. Please help us get this podcast into the hands of every single dentist, every single practice. Because I believe that that's how we'll be able to achieve our mission of impacting the world in the greatest way possible Today I wanted to dive in to just a fun topic of how to recreate passion I think it's very easy to lose passion. We've been doing things for a long time. It's day in day out We've been working hard. We've been taking on the challenges. We're on opera like smooth operating wherever you are How do we recreate the passion in our lives? How do we get that passion back? And I can speak from personal experience on this. I lost my passion. I truly did. It was a grind for me. Work was no longer fun for me. And not to say I didn't enjoy my clients, because I always loved my clients. And I love podcasting. So those were still really fun things for me. But overall, being a CEO and dealing with the struggles, I had some really, really hard things in the business. And I think that's oftentimes when it like kind of sucks the wind out of us and we lose passion. We can lose passion when family life is hard. We can lose passion when it just feels like it's Groundhog's Day. Go in, say hello, do the same thing, leave. And so just trying to help you think of how can we reignite that passion? And I put on here, there's lots of different ways, but today I wanted to dive into the art of play. Kiera Dent (02:19.59) and bringing more play into our lives and realizing that I think sometimes we make our jobs and our careers be a one-stop shop for everything we're doing. We literally are sitting here saying like, needs to be my fulfillment piece. needs to be my significance piece. It needs to be my challenge. It needs to be my financial piece. It needs like, it needs to be the space where I feel loved, all these different things. And yet that's a lot to put on one space. I understand that we spend a lot of our time there, but when we lose the passion, One, I would ask, are there things that we could delegate off? I made a whole list over here of the things that I just don't like doing anymore and where I was getting like into the suck of losing my passion and realized could those things be delegated? Could I hire somebody for those? Could those things get off of my plate successfully? And the answer was yes. So we hired somebody new, we delegated some tasks and I got really, really super clear on what things do I absolutely love doing day in and day out of my life. I love working with my clients. I love doing numbers. I love the podcast. I love doing events. love speaking. What I don't enjoy doing are like all the little like nuances around all of it. And I've got a team. And so that was just also me realizing I'm in the wrong spot. I've been staying there with my hands in the pot for so long and I need to trust my team and I need to truly empower them that they are brilliant. They're more brilliant than I am and to remove myself. So that's one big passion suck is. Are we maybe doing things that don't bring us the passion that suck the passion that someone better than us who loves to do it could actually take on. that's step number one. Step number two is what are we doing outside of work and where are our hobbies at? And I remember sitting in therapy trying to figure this out. bought Simon Sinek's like, find your why. My why was there. It just got buried. My why has always been there is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And it's through expert consulting for dentists and teams. Like my why is still there. I still know exact

Kiera summarizes a practice that was struggling with cash flow. She breaks down what the Dental A-Team did to pull back the curtain and find out where cash was hiding, and what was done to fix the flow. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.814) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today's incredible for you. I hope you are having the best life. I hope you're just enjoying everything and more. I really truly hope that things are just going so well for you. Don't forget guys, we truly live in the best industry, the best time, all the things are here for us. And so let's not forget how great things really are for us. As always, thanks for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. I adore you. I appreciate you. I respect you. I look up to you. I want to be more like you, all the things. And I'm so, so, so, so, so happy that so many of you are a part of our family. If you guys remember, my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so if you can share this podcast in a Facebook group or on your drive, us, share this with a colleague, share this with a coworker, share this with someone. Today's going to be an office autopsy. and leave those Google reviews, those five star reviews on whatever streaming platform you're on. That helps us stay top ranked so more offices and more teams and more doctors just like you can be infused with positivity, tactical tips that are going to make your life, your practice extraordinary, easier and happier and more profitable. So I think it's a win-win-win and that's what we're all about at Dental A Team. That's what our consulting's about is how to help you create and achieve that extraordinary life that you've been looking for. and do it with ease. Kiera Dent (02:06.531) If you are new to the Dental Inn Team podcast, my name is Kiera Dent. Dent really is my last name and I do love what I do. I started this consulting company wanting to help the students of Midwestern University's dental college in Arizona. And I took a practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million with one of the doctors. She was incredible. We did incredible work. And I thought, man, if I could help her. Maybe I can help other doctors too. And that's actually how Dental A Team started. I had never done consulting before. So everything you get within Dental A Team are things that I wish I would have had things that when we were scrambling, when we couldn't get our team bought in, when we couldn't hit goals, when everything seemed so hard, I wish I would have had these items. And so that's actually what the consulting company has been built upon has been created on is all of that. So that's what Dental A Team's about. And so for those of you who are new, Every so often, I will do what's called an office autopsy, where I take you behind the scenes of one of our consulting clients. Yes, I do keep them anonymous. And sometimes I will mix and mingle so you can't quite figure out exactly who I'm talking about. And that's just to keep the practices anonymous. I do have permission to share. And these are just things that we've done with a practice. So today, and I love to walk you through because When I was an office manager, when I owned my practices, we were just in our own silo place. And yet if I can share information with you, help the best practices win and thrive, that's what I'm about. Because I believe that we have a moral obligation within dentistry to help practices that are the best, provide the best dentistry for more patients and to help patients have the best experience. I really, really truly do believe that that's our moral mission. And so, and it's our ethical code and that's what we're here for. So with that, there was a practice. They were an amazing office. And I remember this doctor called me, I was sitting on an airplane. I used to fly a lot more than I do today. We fly to our practices. We also have offices come together and we meet together for business and leadership events that are so fun. And we basically like get naked on our business in front of other people. And I think it's one of the most beautiful things. They're not physically naked. I feel like I need to like have a massive disclaimer on there. But basically, like we stripped down your business to the bare bones of Kiera Dent (04:13.889) what is going on in your practice and what are the real things and what are the roadblocks with no nonsense. Like let's actually figure it out and then let's not spend our time fixing the 500 things that we could fix. A business will always have opportunities to fix and that's why it's a business. But the reality is I think as business owners and as leaders, our job is to sift through all the opportunities and pick the one, two or three items. that are going to exponentially move us forward

Loneliness and social isolation are factors in an epidemic across the United States. Kiera takes the time to talk about ways to fight back the loneliness in our everyday lives. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.9) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope you're having a great day. I hope things are going so good in your world. I'm so grateful you're a part of the podcast family. I really enjoy podcasting. enjoy, gosh, we're coming up on what is it? Our fifth year. gosh. I think even maybe our sixth year. The podcast is released in 2019. So yeah, we're coming up on its sixth birthday this year. my gosh. I'm gonna have to fact check myself. Let's just say, Dental A Team is gonna be six years old. That's insanity to me. Maybe it's five years. Might be five? It's gotta be six though. Happy birthday Dental A Team podcast. But if you've been with me, I've enjoyed it. I enjoy the time. I'm so grateful for each of you. And I hope that I've been able to give you tactical practical tips and infuse your world with positivity, truly, because my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And I currently do that through consulting, expert consulting for doctors and teams. So today I wanted to talk to you about something that I think a lot of us are seeing. It's interesting because there is something we have leadership, we have solo practices and loneliness. And there's some studies that have come out. So this one's from The Guardian, just recently released. And they're talking about how loneliness, it says more broadly, lacking social connection can increase the risk of premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. In addition, poor or insufficient social connection is associated with increased risk of disease, including a 29 % increased risk of heart disease and a 32 % increased risk of stroke. That to me is astronomical. And so I was thinking about it, like literally they're showing that loneliness is actually worse for us than 15 cigarettes a day. can kill you faster than that. And yet like smoking was one of the greatest like killers of the world. And so thinking about this of like, what causes this and like, you know, leadership is lonely. Owning a practice is lonely. Being a CEO is lonely. I'm sure hygienists and dental assistants, we can feel it's lonely. And yet we're working with so many people, but yet it's a lonely space. so realizing that loneliness is such a prevalent piece and it actually is shown to kill more people. What do we do for this? And they say loneliness is as bad for our bodies as it is for our minds. There's doctors Kiera Dent (02:27.95) The US top doctor surgeon general Vivek Murthy is so worried that last year he issues an urgent warning about the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation. These are not quite the same thing though there is a big overlap. Social isolation describes an objective lack of social connections while loneliness is all about perception. You can be lonely without being socially isolated and if you're lucky, vice versa. And so just looking at this like we used to be in a society that was so connected. Right? Like you think about communities and you think about tribes and we think about going back to even archaic times where people were in tribes and there were cavemen and cavewomen and we all hung out. And then you think about like when my husband, I went to Bali, families live together in these communities and you don't leave them and you stay with them. And there's such a community and camaraderie and everybody knows what's going on and you're there. And I think in, in the U S especially social media came out. Right? So we're We're more connected, but we're actually more lonely than ever before. And they also were talking about in this article that people are actually afraid to admit. It says many of us struggle to admit we are lonely. There is a tremendous stigness, says Mark Rowland of the Mental Health Foundation. And so looking at this, it's like... Kiera Dent (03:47.214) How do we combat this? Leadership's lonely. Owning a practice is lonely. And on this one, says, like, loneliness is not insurmountable at any stage of life. But it's very difficult when it's, let's say, rusting away at your mental and emotional life without you even naming it. Bringing it into the light and sharing with yourself and then with others is really the first step of breaking the cycle. And so today, I just kind of wanted to talk about What can we do to combat loneliness? They have some ideas in this article of what you can do. They say, you know, try to keep busy, have hobbies like gardening, jigsaw puzzles. They also said it's important that these things are fun or fulfilling. Be careful about working too hard or watching TV shows simply as a distraction. They will only delay or suppress your feelings and could actually ma

When it comes to owning and operating multiple dental practices, not everything runs the same. That's a common surprise for those overseeing multiple practices. In this episode, Tiff and Britt discuss where practices often fall short in keeping things running smoothly across all offices, and how to set yourself up for success. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.134) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am back today with, I've got a new nickname, brilliant brain Britt, triple B, brilliant brain Britt. I like it. I'm back here for some fun business talk today. are working hard, Britt and I, I hold her business brain for a few different podcasts today and we're working hard to make sure you guys that you've just got some really, really successful business tips and tools early on in the year. Britt (00:09.18) I'm going get some The Dental A Team (00:28.014) going to be all year long that you're getting business tips. Like always, we love the business side of dentistry because we really, really want your business to work for you, not you work for your business. So we work really hard with all of our clients and all of you listeners to make sure that you have the tips for success there. But today I've pulled Britt on a few different items. We just got done chatting some about really starting your 2025 off right, which was a little bit of a review of how to end Q4 and get prepped for 2025. but I wanted you guys to have all of those goodies. So if you haven't listened to that yet, you don't have to do it before today. Listen to today, but they can go backwards and listen to that one as well. Today though, Britt, you have, this in your background. Like this is something that you've done. We've both had our hands in it, but you have like honestly and truly just managed multiple practices and really helped set them up for success. You've done transitions, like you've done it all. So I really wanted to bring you on today to pick your brain on some of the pieces that. are super important and paramount in learning, maybe prior to would probably be, you know, helpful, but a lot of us are not in that situation. A lot of, a lot of doctors listening today already own multiple locations. And so really knowing what they can do and what they can learn and what they should be looking out for is kind of what I'm interested in today for multi-practices. Before we pop in though, how are you today? How is, how's Britt's beautiful brain doing? Britt (01:53.724) It's doing good today. It's it's not too early. Britt's brain super early is not always the best. I gotta have a little time to warm up with the day. That's that's how I work or late nights. That's that's my brain time really. So everybody works a little different, but I'm good. It's not too early. I get to sit here and chat with you about I don't know this kind of stuff is fun. Growth is fun. Different ideas are fun, so it's going to be a good time. The Dental A Team (02:18.394) I agree. I agree. And your brain just works like this, like numbers, the black and white of it all. Like I've given you kudos before, know, you do really well at seeing the gray too and working through the gray to find the black and white, which I think in business is incredibly, incredibly paramount to success. Working with people is not always the easiest thing in the world. I tell all of my doctors and my office managers that the hardest part about your job is going to be managing the people. But you do really well with it because of that aspect. So I think it's really, really important to say that now because I think doctors listening and managers listening, whomever business owners are listening, that's a space for you to learn to utilize that black and white data, but to bring in that personal side and to bring in that emotional side without letting the emotions take over the results, I guess. so, Britt, that's something I really want to pick your brain on, but From the tactical standpoint, what are a few things going into multi-practice ownership, or maybe they already own, right, but hopefully going into, what are some key pieces that they should really be prepped for, looking for, tracking, to know that they're on the path for success for both of them, and what should those look like? Should they be the same? What's the easiest way to go about this when you're taking on a new practice? Britt (03:43.098) Yeah, number one thing is have a practice, have your flagship running really well and strong systems in your flagship before you start taking on another one is the ideal way to do it, right? Learn how to manage what is one location before you start multiplying that stress or management of all the locations. And with multiples, it's a different mindset. And I think that's where The Dental A Team (04:01.624) I agree. Britt (04:09.562) We work with a lot of private practice and even multiples

Kiera is joined by DAT Consultant Dana Morsell to talk about common leadership pitfalls, and how you can overcome them. They discuss such points as: Thinking you have to make all the decisions Navigating a lack of creativity or problem-solving Being too focused on goals, and not enough on happiness And more Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.758) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a great day. I have the one and only Dana Morselle on the podcast. Everybody who works with her loves her. She won our review challenge. If you want to help Dana out and you love her on the podcast, go leave us a Google review. Make her even the more triumphant winner. But really, like it would be awesome. We have a goal to hit 100 Google reviews before the end of the year. So you guys do it for your practices. We're asking you now help us out. If you love this podcast, go leave it. Dana, how did it feel to win the Google review? Like most loved consultant apparently, according to those reviews, how did that feel for you? Dana (00:34.995) It was awesome. It felt really good. I wouldn't say most loved. I think that I have some viable competitors that are amazing. And it just felt good to see the love, not just for me, but I think for Dental A Team and all the things that we bring. I think being able to make an impact is so special to me. so, you know, seeing it in words just brought a lot of joy. Kiera Dent (00:40.836) you Kiera Dent (00:57.732) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (01:01.856) I agree. It was actually so incredible because I think that that's the proof, right? That's the proof of what we do. it's the proof of our clients showing up as well as the proof of our consulting works. Our consulting gets results. Our consulting changes lives. Like I say often, life is my passion and dentistry is my platform. so helping people have their most dreamy lives and doing it through dentistry and helping the systems and the pieces and helping evolve these leaders and Day in day out loving them. I'm so excited 2025 we are doing in person events for business and leadership and I'm so excited to meet people more face to face and to have more collaboration and to have these brilliant offices and Offices who feel like they're not doing so well All of them are brilliant in their own way and helping them see that they have a special sauce even if they feel like I'm less than I know when I go to groups, I'm like, what the heck do I have to bring to the table? And I think that that's just so unfortunate that as humans, we've trained ourselves to think that we're less than when as children, we were brought into this world believing that we're more than and so helping people realize they have something to bring to the table and what do you have to give and what can you share to help these other offices flourish? Gosh, this is what I'm here for. This is what we're about. So bring it on. If you want to be a part of our inner circle, reach out [email protected]. All of our clients were super pumped to have you, but yeah, reach out. is limited spacing. And so our venue has been booked. It's in Scottsdale, Arizona. And so if you want to be a part of that, reach out. [email protected] have virtual and in-person, so be sure to check out. But Dana, on the topic of leadership, so business and leadership is really what we're focused on. You had an interesting point of on-call that we're always talking about, like leaders, leaders, leaders, and what should leaders do? But Dana, brilliant. Bring in the topic for today and let's dive right in. Dana (02:49.661) Sure, so today I thought it would be fun to take a look at the flip side and like what are things that leaders commonly do that they should stop doing or are barriers or are holding them back? Kiera Dent (02:59.536) I love it. Like the flip side of leadership, because you're right, like, leadership can feel like you've got to do, do, do, do, but actually, there's a lot of don't do and stop doing. So Dana, take it away. Let's get into this juicy. I'm really excited for leaders to hear. I actually think it's a breath of fresh air for leaders. Like, there's something I can stop doing. Amazing. I'm like pen and paper in hand. Let's go. Dana (03:22.781) Yeah, yeah, and I think number one is stop feeling like, for me, that I've been talking about lately, is stop feeling like you have to make all of the decisions. And I think that as leaders and as practice owners, we feel like I have to be the one to make all the decisions. I have to be available for everyone to come to me with everything. And I think that going in with the mindset of stop doing that. because you have capable people around you. That's why you hired them. That's why you brought them on. And so I've just been talking about it so much lately and it is understand that your team has the potential to make decisions and to fi

Figuring out how to drink from the firehouse of the new year can be overwhelming. Tiff and Britt give suggestions on where to start your journey to improving your practice's growth, or perfecting your scheduling, or addressing high cancellations — or whatever your goal is in 2025. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.983) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I have pulled in the one and only Britt. We still need a really strong nickname for you, Britt, but I'm just excited to be here with you today. And I love Britt. People call me Tiff. I love Britt. I feel like it's just like rolls off the tongue. So we'll just, we'll stick with that for now, but we're here in the new year. I'm excited to have these conversations. I've pulled you for a few podcasts today and I just think that you are going to be so stellar. at the content that we're gonna talk about. And doctors, I hope you're here to freaking learn. Britt, one of her nicknames is No BS Britt. So welcome to that. And I say that today because we're gonna be just talking a lot of business in a lot of the podcasts that we're recording today, but especially this one and some planning for the year. We're in 2025 now. So I wanna make sure you guys are just totally prepped and planned for it. So Britt, how are you on this fine, beautiful morning in Arizona today? Britt (00:56.718) mean I'm great. It's a sunny day every day pretty much here. So you got to love it. I love that. I'm like, I mean, there's a few nicknames out there, but I don't like spiffy Tiffy is such a good one that like, I don't know if the rest of us will get one that's like that same level, which is deserved. But yeah, so I've got a few but nothing quite like spiffy Tiffy. The Dental A Team (01:09.455) I know. The Dental A Team (01:17.303) I know, you had to come in early, you know? The nickname game started earlier than everyone else got here. That must be what it is, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. think things just, my grandma called me Tiffy my whole life growing up. I was Tiffy. And so I think things just rhyme with Tiffy better, you know? It's like a hard end at Britt or Tiff. So it was easy to, it was easy to monopolize on that one. But it is. Britt (01:19.266) I know. Britt (01:24.137) It just takes some years. Eventually we'll get there. The Dental A Team (01:45.709) It is always sunny. I feel like this year I decided, or not this year, I guess last year, I told my son, I said, I think we just need to stop pretending like we live in a state or a space of life that actually has a winter. People who live in the tropics, they just realize, guess what? It's just going to be tropical. Like we're not going to get a winter and that's okay. And I think in Arizona and Phoenix, at least, like that's the life we need to start living. Stop pretending like it's going to be sweater weather. It's not going to happen. So here we are. Yeah. Britt (02:15.414) saying, it's warmer this year. Every year we say like, it should be cooler. Like exactly, like it is what it is and you know what? I'm happy for it. I am perfectly fine not having freezing weather. The Dental A Team (02:21.603) Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:27.672) I agree. I agree. The 70s in December, I will take it. It's fine. We'll just see what the summer looks like. So we'll chat back around on that when the summer comes. Britt (02:32.161) Absolutely. We'll sound a little different then, but it's fine. It's short. It's short. The Dental A Team (02:38.928) Yeah, yeah, I love it. this kind of, honestly, all of it kind of goes into itself and the plans and the prepping and looking forward. And we are in the business of constantly looking at where we're going. But you also have to look at where you've been. And so in order to make sure your 2025 is super, super strong, you guys, we kind of wanted to revisit some of the pieces that we chatted about towards the end or towards the last quarter, Q4, of 2024. some of those strategic planning tips and tricks that we had given you back then. We want to make sure that you guys actually implemented them and then look at, okay, implemented, now how do we use them? So I brought Brett here because Brett, think your business brain is brilliant and I want to make sure we don't miss any of the pieces. So guys, I know we chatted about this. It might be a review. But I really want you to dig deep sometimes when you re-listen to a podcast or when you listen to something that has similar information, you're like, gosh, I didn't hear that last time or this means more to me today than it did when I listened to it three months ago because I'm in a different space. So I really want you to dive deep. I want you to listen in. One of the biggest pieces I think practices can miss is the opportunity to look at the stats and really, really look at where you've been. where you're trying to go,

"Humans want to move, and life gets in the way." Those are the words of Laura, Kiera's personal trainer, who's the guest for this episode. Together, Kiera and Laura discuss overcoming the often quite sedentary life of dentistry professionals by bringing on a source of accountability. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.9) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I am so freaking pumped to introduce you to one of my dearest friends, someone who has transformed my life and that I just cannot wait to introduce to this audience. Welcome to the show, Laura, my personal trainer, macro guru, the one who knows all the things, who's helped me through so many personal injuries and actually has been able to like make a busy life, work with working out. Laura, welcome to the show today. Laura (00:04.089) And so, we're going to end it here. Laura (00:27.021) Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Kiera Dent (00:29.614) I'm so happy you're here because I think that you have changed my life and you and I were chatting at the gym the other day and we actually talked about, well, I work with dentists, dentists are very busy, entrepreneurs are very busy, office managers are very busy and yet figuring out how to fit in this working out, eating healthy, taking care of ourselves. And you made a comment, you said, Kiera, they invest in their businesses, but their businesses require them to be their highest self like. Let's do a podcast and talk about that. So I'm super jazzed to have you here today. Talk about all things. And as a fun side note, I did look up some data and believe it or not, if you work out, you make more money. So let's just add a little plug there too. But Laura, like let's kind of tell our listeners a little bit about you. How did you get into working out? How did you get into being this macro fitness guru that you've become that's changed the lives of so many? Kind of just walk us on your journey today. Laura (01:00.461) Yes. Laura (01:09.049) There we go. Laura (01:21.921) Yeah, I would love to. My journey started in college. I, like many other women, grew up insecure, like judging myself, comparing myself to other women. And I just came to a point in college, I remember the moment where I just realized I don't want to live my life this way anymore. I want to feel confident. I want to feel strong. I felt disconnected to my younger self in a way. I grew up not necessarily in high school, more like actual elementary school. In my childhood years, I was very active. I did sports, I did gymnastics. And then you get into high school. I didn't do anything in high school. And then comes college and I just felt very disconnected to myself. And I wanted to get back to that playful, confident, able person, able to do the things I wanted to do. And so I started going to the gym, had no idea what I was doing. I would just climb the StairMaster the whole time. And slowly, the gym I was working out at was kind of the StairMasters where upstairs and you could look down into the rest of the gym. And I would just see at that time, this was like a decade ago or more, there were no women in the gym and all the girls were upstairs on the ellipticals and the stair masters and then all the dudes were downstairs. And I don't know, I just, started to see what they were doing and copied a little bit, you know, did a couple of the machines that I knew how to do, started to get hooked. and was like, you know what, what if I made this a career? And I got certified in 2014 and the rest is history. mean, there's actually a lot more to it, but that's basically how it started. And fast forward to now, I feel extremely connected to my younger self through my movement. I have created a beautiful life that I'm able to do what I love and... Kiera Dent (03:13.978) you Laura (03:29.613) And yeah, help other women connect to their own bodies and their younger selves as well. Kiera Dent (03:33.914) I love it. And I love that you went through this journey because I think so many of us, well, I'll speak for myself. I'm not gonna speak for all the listeners. I feel like an idiot at the gym. They have reels about people at the gym of like idiots using like equipment so many times and we're at the gym. Laura was originally virtual. We started out virtual and I actually wanna get into like virtual versus in-person training and if there's a difference because when people are busy, there's solutions that way. Laura (03:43.629) Thank Kiera Dent (04:01.028) but I felt like such an idiot. And I think something that you've done for me, and that's why I wanted to bring you on here is because I feel like I was the worst workout person in the world. Like honestly, I feel like Laura should have fired me as a client. So we had a really rough start and I think it was honestly fear of my, like where I was at, fear of not knowing what I'm doing. Also, I d

Tiff and Dana start their first episode of the 2025 focused on getting the entire practice team on board with goals. This doesn't mean just the numbers or just the patient experience, but all the pieces of the puzzle. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.926) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be back here today. We are recording quite a few podcasts today, Dana and I, and this is our second up, so we should still be super fresh for you. Just kidding, we're always fresh. Dana, your hair looks amazing. You guys know it's hair and leggings and workouts, apparel and... protein bars for me. Like she is my girl who shares all of my same hopes, dreams, wishes, and desires in life. So Dana, your hair looks amazing today. I love it. Yeah. I used my... Dana (00:33.454) Well, you know, I'm podcasting with Tiff. I had to put a little effort in. The Dental A Team (00:38.46) Well, thank you. went and straightened it real quick, but I used my my crimper thing yesterday. I've used it quite a few times on my new haircut. I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but it worked. For all you male dentists out there listening, just give me a stitch. I'm sorry. Dana (00:43.854) Let's go! The Dental A Team (00:51.26) Dana, made her, this is like a year and a half, two years ago now, something like that. I made her give me a tutorial because she was doing this weird thing with her hair and I was like, my God, it looks so good. I need to know how to do my hair like that. She's like, just get this thing. I'm like, yeah, but I don't think you understand. I need a tutorial. So she literally did a tutorial for me on how to wave my hair. And it is actually really cute with my new cut. So thank you, Dana, for stepping up my game, my hair game. and all of the other games. Your Tip Tuesdays, I'm always like dying to see what it's going to be. I have protein bars because of you. I have so many things. So thank you, Dana, for having all of the tips and the tricks in your back pocket every single time. Dana (01:36.022) can't take credit for it, I'm constantly asking my girlfriends, hey, what are you guys doing? Give me all the products too. So a lot of them are tips that have been shared with me that I just pass on. The Dental A Team (01:46.182) That's what this world is about, right? Everything we share on this podcast are things that we've learned along the way, either on our own from exploration or because we learned it from somebody else. And that is the beauty, I think, of life and really being able to have that community and that camaraderie where you can share those things. So you have your girlfriends, our doctors here at the Dental A Team have each other. We have a... An amazing doctors group that I feel like is just like that, Dana, where I see things go off all the time on the little texting app and they're like, my gosh, what do you guys have for this? Or what new bond are you using? My bond sucks. Or cosmetic stuff. So I think that's... That's how we do it. That's how we move along and that's how we were meant to do it. We were never meant to do life solo. We were meant to do life in groups with incredible, amazing people. And we are here for it every single day. We love our clients. We love you guys who are our clients and we love you guys who are not yet our clients. And we have those communities for you. So look for them. Instagram, Facebook, we've got all kinds of communities there for our clients who are listening. If you don't know what I'm talking about with this doctor, collaboration sucker, you better be texting me right now. Same with Dana. If you are our client and you don't know what I'm talking about, you better be texting me right now. Let's get you in there. Awesome. Dana, today I really wanted to talk about teams and how doctors and leaders, so doctors and probably office managers, business administrators, can really utilize the team to help push goals. I think oftentimes we have clients that come in, they onboard, and I hear a lot of the time, and Dana, I think you might as well, I don't talk to my team about numbers because I don't want them to think that I'm numbers driven. And I think it's super freaking common in the dental world because we have a really hard time differentiating black and white numbers and emotions. And The Dental A Team (03:44.13) I always like to say that emotions are fleeting, the way I felt when I woke up this morning, drastically different than how I feel right now. And that was like six hours, seven hours ago. Like within a day, I've had so many emotions come and go that if I'm constantly weighing out if something's working right or not, or if I'm growing or if I'm happy, if I'm sad, I'm just constantly trying to weigh out what that looks like based on my feelings, it's gonna be very difficult. But dentistry, we are in the care profession and we are saturated, luckil

Happy New Year! Instead of setting resolutions to start off 2025, Kiera tries a different route: identity changes. What fights can you stop starting in your personal or professional life in order to become the best person, the best dental hygienist, the best doctor, the best _______ you can be in the new year? Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.878) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy 2025. I feel so honored to be with you on New Year's Day today. I mean, I'm calling 2025 the year to thrive and no longer survive. Like, let's get real. Let's get on this. Let's stop surviving and let's start thriving. And so to kick off New Year's today, I was thinking about it. And usually on New Year's around this time, we're all setting our goals. We're setting our resolutions. And I actually want to give you a different spin. Are you open for it? Like, let's start 2025 on a different note. And that is maybe instead of setting resolutions, let's set identity changes this year. Resolutions are fighting. Let's change that verbiage and change how we think about that. I'm so excited. I love this podcast. I love all of you. And I was thinking about resolutions and resolutions are like, you know, I want to lose weight or I want to be this leader or I want my practice to be there. And I think resolutions are different than goals and changing an identity is actually the fastest way to do it. One of my favorite quotes of all time is the need to stay like the greatest, like the greatest driver within the human being is the need to stay consistent with who we believe we are, not who we actually are, but who we believe. And so changing identity, is actually the fastest way to grow and to evolve and to hit the goals and to hit the resolutions. It's not just setting a resolution like up like a sticky note on a wall. Like I want to be this. Okay, great. But if we don't believe we are so like there was an example and they said like, I don't know if I can stop smoking. I've been a smoker. I am a smoker. You know, I'm gonna try really hard. Well, in their mind, they're still a smoker. So trying to put it up there, I'm gonna stop smoking is actually fighting against who they believe they are. And that's a fight rather than a flow versus saying like, I'm not a smoker. Like I'm an identity. I don't smoke. I'm not a smoker for me. I've never smoked in my life. I'm not a smoker. That wouldn't even be a thing. Like, but I take it on of I'm not a smoker. And so oftentimes I love the book by James Clear, Atomic Habits. There were things I liked about things I didn't like about it. The overall piece that I really, really loved though, was when he talks about sometimes getting to these resolutions means we need to start thinking as that person. Kiera Dent (02:20.942) So if maybe today I don't feel like I'm not a smoker and I'm trying to get there, it would be like, what does a person who doesn't smoke do? And we start to act like them. And I have a really great example of my mom. My mom, she went and met with her doctor and her doctor said, you've got to start having more exercise in your life. You're not getting enough steps. You're not having any of these things and you need to start hitting 10,000 steps a day. Well, my mom, I was watching her and her and I started doing it. I had like, I'm just... I enjoy a good challenge. And so when we were in Tokyo, I got several days in a row of hitting over 10,000 steps and there was a badge of hitting 30 days in a row. And so I was like, sweet, I'm going to hit 30 days. Like I'm to hit 10,000 steps. Like we're just going to do it. And my mom was doing it. I'm like the doctor told her she needed to do this. And it was really interesting. I remember meeting up with my mom one day and she's like, Kiera, how are your steps? And I was like, great. I've got like this, I did this earlier today. I set up my schedule. Like I went for my walk or whatever it was. I was like, well, you know, maybe I'll get it tonight. Maybe I won't. And in that moment, I thought like, my mom has this is just like a hope and a wish rather than an identity. And not to say I was better than her. It was just for me, I had already decided like, this is what I do. This is who I am. And I'm going to hit this like, period. I don't care what I've got to do. If I've got to walk at midnight, I'll do that. In airports, I'm like rolling my suitcase up and down and walking just because it was something I was committed to. I remember my mom and I were talking and I said, mom, Like I pulled James, James Clear into the equation. said, mom, like, what would a healthy person do that would hit their steps every day? And I said, maybe just consider that. And so my mom started actually asking herself the question. She's like, well, like, what would a healthy person do? They would start taking a walk on their lunch break. And I was so proud

On this final day of 2024, Kiera gives listeners a series prompts to reflect on the past year — personal, professional, and many stops in between. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.964) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy New Year's Eve. I cannot believe 2024 is wrapped up. We're done. Like chalk it up. We're done. Can you believe that it is 2025 in less than 24 hours? You'll be ringing in that new year and I hope you do it with Dental A Team. Of course we'll be there celebrating with you. But 2024, 2024, can you believe it's wrapped up? It's done. It's packaged up. We can't go back in time. We can't change things. All we can do is reflect and celebrate and look forward to next year. And so I'm so excited. I thought I'd just pop on quickly today of let's do a quick reflection. Let's think about how it was. I love New Year's Eve. And this is probably 1 of my favorite holidays because gosh, like a few, man, this is before I got married. So we're talking 15 years ago. I only been married for 13 years. So I'm guessing 13, 14 years ago is how long ago it was. But I remember. sitting there and I said, I love new days because new days are brand new days with no mistakes. And I thought about that with new years and like how much excitement is there of like, it's a brand new year with no mistakes. It's a brand new year. It's a clean slate. And how beautiful is it that we get to have this every 365 days most years to be able to clean slate, to be able to say, all right, that's who I was in 2024. And this is who I'm going to emerge into in 2025. And I think people who really are very consistent on doing this and Spending a little bit of time on today New Year's Eve where we sit and we actually journal So I'm gonna give you a few journal prompts if you want To reflect back and I know I've had a few podcasts over the next couple over the last few months about reflection But today's like the pinnacle day of it So if you've already done this amazing if not, I'm also gonna give you some personal things to think about too So of course technical and life life and dentistry like I said life is my passion dentistry is my platform and so Let's just think about today as we're going through. Number 1, I want you to think about your personal life. I want you to look at your physical body. I want you to look at your health and I want you to rate yourself on a 1 to 10. How is your physical body? How is your health compared to where you would like it to be? Is it a 10? Like I'm 10 out of 10. I'm perfect. I'm a nine. I'm an eight. I'm a seven. If you're on the path there, be generous with yourself. Don't be too hard on yourself. But let's look at our physical bodies. Okay. So 1 to 10, how are you doing on your physical body? Kiera Dent (02:24.33) 1 to 10, next 1. How are you on your personal relationships? Like, let's start with like your marriage or your intimate relationship. 1 to 10, is that like, if I were to go talk to your spouse or your boyfriend, girlfriend, whomever it is, your significant other, if I were to ask them how, like on a 1 to 10, how are they showing up for you? What kind of a relationship do you have? Is 10 like, it's off the charts. We have incredible, incredibly passionate relationship. I feel like they support me, they love me. Where are we at on a 1 to 10 with your, and that's how are you showing up for them? And also like, how are they showing up for you? But we really, we can only control ourselves. So let's rate ourselves on how are we showing up? How is our relationship compared to where we want to be? If you're not in a relationship, great, it's not a 10. How are you on that? 1 to 10. Next up is how is your personal relationship with yourself? What's your self talk to yourself? Is it positive? Is it negative? How do you view yourself? Are you proud of yourself? Are you someone that you would want to know? Are you not? How is that? 1 to 10. Next, how is your mind? What do you do for your mental health? From meditation to mindfulness to stillness to having control over the thoughts that come your way. 1 to 10, how's your mind? All right, let's move on to how is your fun in life? We'll put travel. I think travel is an easy 1. 1 to 10, how did you do on your vacations and the travel you wanted to take this year? 1 to 10, was it 10? Like it was off the charts for me and Jason, it was a 10. We had an incredible year this year. We traveled, we saw so many incredible things. We made so many memories. It was amazing. 1 to 10, how are your hobbies and things outside of work? How is that? 1 to 10. For me, it's like a five. Do a lot of hiking, but not as many hobbies as maybe I would like to do. Okay, so we've got quite a few things on your personal life. How is that, we can also put in there like your expansion, your growth, so like reading books and expanding your mind, listening to podcasts, m

Did team members in your practice have to have any hard conversations this year? Maybe about dress code or drug testing? Did that new PTO policy work? Were there uncomfortable topics with patients? Tiff and Dana give advice on how to go about updating your handbook as 2024 comes to an end, so you can be more ready than ever when 2025 begins. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.422) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have Dana. You guys know I love podcasting with Dana. She's my girl. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. know we have, it's Friday, and so we're super excited about that. We have fun things in our lives coming up and we have so many podcasts to get recorded today for all of these people and I'm so excited because it means I get extra time with you. Dana, how are you today? Dana (00:27.746) Doing good, doing good. I'm just as excited to be here. I love this time too. The Dental A Team (00:32.202) Awesome. Awesome. And we just sprung on you guys, only asked for your permission, but we sprung on you a little meetup for the consultants here in a few weeks. And I am so excited. You guys, you listeners, I know you guys know we are all kind of like super close by. Some of us are further away in other states, but we're a fully remote company. And so we don't get to see each other a lot. And so the culture that we're able to build with our company, in my opinion, is freaking incredible because we're rarely ever together but we are going to do a consultant meetup in a couple of weeks and we do a Live To Give every single year where Dental A Team just kind of goes back to the the communities as best we can and we do angel tree shopping or one year we dropped off coats for homeless shelters and women's shelters and kids shelters and all these different things. We just really love to give back and so we do a live to give shopping spree basically. So in a couple weeks Dana, I'm so excited. You're gonna be here. Kristy's gonna be here. Britt is here already, but I actually will see her. Kiera's flying in. It's gonna be such a huge event and I'm just so excited to get some time to crunch some things, figure some things out for the future for us. and do the Live To Give and get some shopping done for some kiddos. anyways, how excited are you for it though? We sprung that on you like yesterday. Dana (01:57.814) You did. I'm truly so pumped. Anytime I can, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, get time with my consultant crew. It's some of my favorite time and they're some of my favorite people. So I would have moved heaven and earth to make that work. The Dental A Team (02:14.302) No, thank you. I agree. It's so much fun getting all of us together and Just getting some fun out there and getting some brainstorming. I feel like we brainstorm the best when we're side by side and I'm excited for it. Well, on that note, it's kind of our end of year wrap up is what our meeting is about. Like what is next you're going to look like and part of those this is HR Britt is what I like to call her. in our company, she handles our HR pieces and part of what I want to talk to you guys about today is really the employee manual and towards the end of the year making sure that it's wrapped up and ready to Dana (02:28.972) Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:50.132) to go for next year. So Dana, you had some really great ideas, you always do, on updating the employee manual and where to go about those things. And one caveat I have, number one, I love talking about companies like CEDR. They're fantastic. C-E-D-R, you guys. If you need an employee manual, if you don't know what needs to be in there, like we have options, we have ideas, we can definitely help you through with that. But CEDR does a really great job at pulling all of your state's laws, all of those little pieces that we don't necessarily always know you might not know. So I'll always say that. Reach out to CEDR if you use them or if you need one from scratch. Updates wise, same thing. Like what does CEDR have for your state? Right now towards the end of the year, we pretty much know what the new laws are going to be coming into effect for the next year, this next year, I know what year you're listening to this in right now. But this next year is 2025. So most of those state laws have already been passed or any federal changes or laws to employee sanctions and different pieces have already been passed. So they're already there, you just got to find them. And you've got to make sure that they're all encompassing that you've grabbed all of them. So CEDR does that for you any employment lawyer, Most of the lawyers you guys retain for most of your business pieces can usually snag that information for you too. So just double check. know, states like California and New York have really strict employee policies, so you

Kiera invites listeners to consider what gift(s) they provide others — whether it's patients or team members, or in a more personal capacity. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.422) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and Merry Christmas. If you don't celebrate, well, happy December 25th. If you do celebrate, Merry Christmas. I love the holidays. I truly do. And this year, my husband and are celebrating with his family, which is so fun because we got married 13 years ago and I'm the second oldest of seven. And so my siblings were very young. I have one sister and she was born... when I was 12 and another sister born when I was 15. so I really, when we got married, my husband's the youngest of five and I just really, really, really, really wanted to spend holidays with my siblings because they were so young when I got married. And so for the last 13 years, we have been with my parents and my family except for one year. which was when my brother got married and we were with Jason's parents. And so super fun to be celebrating with his family today. I just hope you guys are with something, someone doing something fun, whether it's family or it's friends or it's by yourself, but that you are just taking this time to celebrate. I think holidays are especially beautiful. And in Christmas, I think Christmas is just a magical holiday in the sense that I feel like. We give gifts to each other and we give of ourselves and also Christmas is like right before the end of the year and so you might be headed back to the practice to produce or you might be just completely done, but wherever you are today Merry Christmas, and I hope you have just fallen in love with two things number one is Being in the spirit of giving I think that that's something that's so important and parent mount for us that we are truly giving. I think I've shared this on the podcast before, so some of you may have heard this. For those of you that are new, welcome. I went to a conference and our group's name was Live to Give. And I remember hearing the thing that the secret to living is giving. And so in this holiday season, I know it can feel bustly, I know it can feel crazy, but I think when we take a step back and we look at what is ultimately the season, it's the time where we all give gifts to people. give holiday parties and we give gifts to our team, we give gifts to each other. Kiera Dent (02:15.23) We're looking for those perfect gifts, but the reality is, what is our gift that we're giving of ourselves day in and day out to our team and to our patients and to our communities and also to ourselves? And so maybe today you take some time to think about what is that gift? What is my gift that I bring to this world? And I know that that can feel awkward for some people, but I would really hope that I can encourage you to love yourself a little bit more. And what is something incredible that you bring to your team? In some teams, what I have them do is I have everybody draw. Don't worry, they can write words if they desire. But I have them draw who they are and what they bring to the team. And then Brittany Stone, she took it a step further with a team where inside I have them draw. I remember one person drew a visionary. So it's an eye with a cast of a vision. Another person drew Gumby because they're very flexible. But whatever it is, you draw that. And then what we had our teams do is actually, Britt did this. And she had people actually write what that person brings to the team outside of it. So for example, in a circle, you could put what you bring to the table. And then on the outside of the circle, your team tells you like what you bring to the table and how you benefit and like what your gift is to the team. And it's crazy because inside the circle, we often are so hard on ourselves and don't give ourselves credit of what we bring to the table. I understand that we're trying to be humble most of the time and not egotistical. But then when we have teams do this, how much they actually share of what everybody's bringing to the table. And it's just such a lovely experience because people are able to see themselves in a different light. And I think that that's actually like, as you're reflecting today, you're spending time, you're opening presents, you're doing whatever. What is maybe the gift that you bring to this world or maybe the gift that you want to bring to this world next year? Maybe you want to bring more kindness. Maybe you want to bring more humility. Maybe you want to bring more patience. Maybe you want to bring more vision. Maybe you want to bring more fun. Maybe you want to bring more energy. Maybe you want to bring more balance. Maybe you want to bring more gentleness. Maybe you want to bring more positivity. Whatever it is, what is your gift that you can bring to this world, to your team, to your family, to yourself?

Merry Christmas Eve! Kiera talks about how dental teams can apply the excitement and anticipation associated with holidays to their practices and work spaces. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.856) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and Merry Christmas Eve. If you celebrate that, otherwise, happy December 24th. It's so fun to podcast with you on holidays. I love the magic. I love the anticipation. I love Christmas Eve. In my family, it's always been these fun traditions that we have. We do a big breakfast in the morning and then we all go shopping for cereal. It's been the tradition since I was little and we would always, always, always go get a... cereal and being in a family of nine people our own box of cereal that we got to choose was like the greatest gift my parents could ever give us so and also kudos to my mom that meant Christmas morning it's cereal for breakfast like talk about a smart mom I've got so we'd always go to the store we pick out our cereal and then we would do like sometimes we'd go shopping for last-minute Christmas gifts and then we'd usually go home and it feels like an eternity of countdown of time from that like 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. And I remember as a kid, it would snow and my dad was very proactive of giving back to the community, which I really love and respected my dad. And we would go and we'd shovel snow at all of our neighbor's houses. And I remember my brother and I were two years apart. We were super tiny. So we were probably like, I was probably eight and he was probably six. And we were shoveling all these yards. And I remember we were laying behind our house after we were done making snow angels. and we're both in our little snow suits and we look to each other and we're like, it's gonna be forever before tonight happens. I think that that's the reality of how we feel. And then for my family, what we'd always do is for Christmas Eve, we would make waffles, Belgian waffles. My parents again got smart. So it was like, they could feed a lot of boys very quickly. And then we go into like a Christmas program, which over the years, my siblings have definitely like made. crazy. It's now turned into a talent show and I absolutely hate that part. And if any of them listen to the podcast, I just want to put it out there. I think we should not do this is my trust conversation with my family. I hate the talent show, but they love it. So Jason and are not as talented. So last year we talked about how we do Disney because I love Disney. But like really, it's just this funny thing. But we all get together. All my family spread out with seven siblings. We none of us ended up close to each other. My older brother's in Alaska. I'm in Nevada. Kiera Dent (02:21.038) The brother below me is in Ohio, brother below him is in Texas, brother below him is in Utah, sister below him is in Missouri, Kansas City, and then the youngest sister is in Utah, and my parents live in California. So literally, I feel like we just spread all over the nation, but just a fun time of year. And I hope today I wanted to just pop on real quick and give you guys like a quick little noodle thought for you as you're probably getting ready for the festivities or time away from the practice. But during this time, and I've got something fun for you guys for tomorrow for Christmas as well, but during this time, I think about the anticipation that we have for Christmas and the excitement that little kids have. And my question is, how can we bring that excitement and anticipation to our practices? Maybe not the same, but are we actively anticipating? Are we having countdowns to something so magical and special? And how can we actually do that within our practices? And so a couple of ideas are... What do we do monthly? And do we celebrate when we are hitting our monthly goals? Or are we just like nonchalant, like it's fine. And there's no magic. Like think about children with Christmas and how like blissfully magical it is to watch a little kid so excited and telling Santa what they want and circling in the magazines what they're hoping and wishing for. And then the like utter anticipation of sleeping through the night and waiting for the next day. Like how can we create that as adults for us within our practices, within our businesses, within our lives? Like what are you anxiously anticipating waiting? Because I feel like the holidays and the magic that we have right now is what we can actually produce within our practices. So whether that's through bonuses or whether that's through a community outreach or it's adding in new services. I know an office like literally are counting down the days to add in sleep apnea to their practice and make a sleep center within their practice. But like, are we allowing ourselves to get excited about our practices and get excited about the magic of what we're able to do for patient

It's Dental A-Team's last book club episode of 2024! December's book is Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Kiera dives deep (heh) into what it means to work with such intensity in a world overrun with distractions, including layers of cognitive focus, an increase in the ability to master topics, the power of routine and ritual, and more. Episode resources: Find the full book club rundown here! Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.124) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the book club. This is the last book club of 2024. Can you believe it? We are to the last book club of the year. And just as a fun little book club, let's do a year in review of all the book clubs that we've done together this year. So in case you didn't read these books or you need a book or you need to remember the book clubs we did, January, we did the Go Giver. February, we did Crucial Conversations. March, the Noticer. April, buy back your time. May, high output management. June, come up for air. July, you can heal your life. August, your next five moves. September, die with zero. October, the power of fun. November, who, how. And December, deep work. This is our last one. And like talk about a really fun year that you guys have actually gone through of all these different books. And I hope you've enjoyed them. I hope you've read them. I hope you've enjoyed the book club. I'm excited to... like, you know, we're doing in 2026, it's still TBD or excuse me, 2025 still TBD. But talk about how many incredible books that you guys have read this year. and just think like that's so much wisdom brought into your life. And I hope you're implementing these ideas. Like I think back to, as we look back, the go-giver remembering to do those simple acts of kindness for people and to notice and to give more value than people expect. Crucial conversations, saying what needs to be said, not like dodging and beating around the book. or the Bush. Wow. the noticer just noticing people. remember the, the, was either the beach. He was sitting on a beach and eating seafood and was like, I'm on this crummy beach eating this like day old food. And the noticer said like, I am eating surf and turf with a view and just looking at things differently. thought was it such a cool perspective, April, buy back your time. You guys know, I'm obsessed with this. What's your dollar per hour? how can we buy back more of our time and do more of what we absolutely love? High output management, figuring out how we can actually maximize and be high output consistently within our management team. Really lovely book. Come Up for Air. You guys know I love this one. This was like leveraging systems and teams. I made my leadership team. I didn't make, I had our leadership team read this book. There was so much goodness with Come Up for Air that I loved. Systems and tools, we've implemented so many of the things from that book. Definitely is gonna be on my consistent books to read here over here. Kiera Dent (02:23.552) The next one, you can heal your life. This one was such a unique one of diving deep into our own personal lives and how can we heal ourselves and heal from the past and letting go of things that are holding us back. Your next five moves, looking at the business strategy and thinking of what do we need to do next and what are the next five moves in our business. Really incredible. Die with zero. I loved Die with Zero. Another book where you literally like live life now. And it's such a controversial book compared to Profit First. I love the controversy. I love thinking of it, but really die with zero and how can we have more fun in life? The power of fun. you know, remember how to feel alive again and the different areas of how we can make fun and play more a part of our daily life. Who, not how. It's going back to buy back your time. Thinking of who can do this, not how can we do this? Who can we leverage? Consultants, team members. Delegating collaborating all those different pieces and now today deep work This book to me is such an incredible Like I love it. I love it so much It was recommended to me by a doctor that I'm obsessed with and their team and he's just someone this doctor I feel is able to get so much done and I was like, what do you do? And he said deep work is one of my biggest things and he goes and hides in the library and he Will consistently like this doctor is someone that I feel is such a high output constantly and just keeps doing it. like his secrets are he's great with time management. He has none of the apps on his phone. So there's no Slack, there's no text messages or excuse me, there's no emails. It's literally just used as a phone. And then he has, he blocks his time. He's very disciplined. He's disciplined with his spiritual life. He's disciplined with his kids life. He's disciplined with his physic

Tiff and Dana are here to gameplan your goals for 2025 by starting big and breaking it into smaller and more attainable pieces. They discuss aspects to consider, such as profitability, time management, tracking systems, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.106) Hello, Dental A Team team listeners. We are back here today. I've got Ms. Dana with me and we are here to talk to you about numbers today. I'm excited for this one. Practice owners, doctors, dentists, all of you guys out there, this is a really important one and Dana and I have some awesome information to really hand out to you. But before we dive in, Dana, how are you doing over there? How are you? We're wrapping up the end of the year. I know I've seen a ton of successes in so many of our clients. How are your clients doing? What are you working on right now with your clients? Dana (00:34.404) Yeah, it's great. 2024, I think was an interesting year for a lot of practices. I think different than some of the more recent years. But I think in all of that, practices are still coming out with huge wins, lots of growth, and getting patients to accept treatments. So I call that a win for 2024 for sure. The Dental A Team (00:52.836) Yeah, I agree. think there was a lot of... gosh. unknown uncertainties in 2024. I think 2020 we had some uncertainties too, right? We walked into the year with uncertainties, but then it kind of grew from there. And we've had just this massive growth in dentistry, I think since 2020 and COVID shutdowns. And this year, was kind of like, wait, hang on dentistry still doing fine. we're in a, we're in a recession proof industry, but what the heck is going on? And so there were just so many questions I think in outside of of dentistry and financially that it did lead to some oddities that we haven't seen in recent years, like you said, within the dental world. know a lot of my practices have been, I think they're coming out of it now, but we had some issues with confirmations or patients coming to appointments or pre-collecting, kind of making sure that those pieces were really dialed in and locked in, because I did feel as though here in the recent months, kind of September, October. some August really was tough for some practices in case acceptance, but then November hit got a couple weeks into November, how we'll say it and things just started to really turn around again. And I think again, there's so many uncertainties of the world translated into uncertainties within the dental industry and and Dana, I think you saw that too. Yeah. Dana (01:55.438) Thank Dana (02:15.363) Yeah. The Dental A Team (02:16.56) Yeah, well guys, we're on the other side of that. So this is the exciting part and this is one of my favorite times of year. I'm really looking forward to what's to come and we have to look at what was right to know what can be in many cases, but this is the time of year where we really get to dream up what next year will look like and what it can look like and it's just so much fun for me. I love building out goals with practices. I love seeing what it's going to take to get you to that goal and really working backwards. So dream big and then work backwards and make it smaller and smaller and smaller. So today, I wanted to chat about that and Dana pulled in to help me just really discuss how we go about increasing goals every year. And we do this with all of our clients. We look at what does an increase look like for next year? What is it going to create for you? So a lot of our clients will say, you know, I want to have more time at home with my family. We're having a baby this year. We want to take a maternity leave. I want to take a vacation to Europe for two weeks. I had a doctor that took her family to Paris this year. Like, how are we building that into the goals? And realistically, how are we making your business work for you so that you can have the personal life that you want? And so your team members can as well. But really what does the business have to do to afford you those pieces of life that are really, really valuable and important to you? One of those things that we look at is your profitability. And your profitability is key, you guys. That is the extra money on top, that's the kush, that's the, this is really what my business is able to create for me within that. So we do look at that when we build out your goals, but just on average, we wanted you to know what an increase, an annual increase looks like. her practice majority of the time a practice that's already been working off of their BAM. So their bare ACE minimum, right? Your, this is what it takes to pay my bills. This is what it takes to survive plus a percentage to get that profitability. So we typically look at, I Dana and I talked about this this morning, we're usually looking at what's your BAM. So what's your baseline? This is my

To inspire the most effective team for your practice, Kiera shares three key attributes that need to exist among staff members: Trust and vulnerability Healthy debate Peer-to-peer accountability Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.05) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited for today's podcast. This is something that I've been working on with tons of teams and within our organization and just a lot of different fun things for you. So I hope you guys are having an incredible day. I hope you're ready for just some magic here. I hope you're ready for some podcast magic. I hope you're ready for some life magic. And I hope you just remember we are truly so blessed because we get to work in the incredible profession of dentistry. So I hope you just remember that. And as always, thank you all for being podcast listeners. Don't forget to download, like, subscribe, share this, leave the reviews to keep this dental podcast serving all of you practices for free. That's how you guys can help us out is to go and share this with someone to give us those reviews, to share it in those Facebook groups because my goal is to have this podcast in the hands of every single Dental A team listener, every single dental, we need an edit. 52. My goal is to have this in the hands of every single dental practice out there and so you can help make that dream a reality. So please share it, love it, like it, leave the reviews and just know I'm giving you a high five, a hug as appreciation and thank you. So let's get going today. Today I wanted to go through, I've talked about it a couple of times before, but there is a book by Patrick Lencioni called The Five Dysfunctions of Teams and I've talked about it before. It's one of my absolute favorite books. on the podcast. have not booked Club This and I honestly should book Club This, but it's a really great one. And I was introduced to this book and I was told to literally use this book in like partnerships and different things. And if we don't have the core five layers of this, we actually have dysfunctional teams. And so me and some of my offices, we've been working on it and we realized that we don't want to have dysfunctional teams. We want to have functional teams. And what's another word for functional? It's a winning team. And so if you're not familiar with it, I'll give you a quick rendition. I coach this with lots of offices and I think being an outsider, that's honestly why I love being a consultant. We are having the same thing within our company because sometimes just that outsider perspective can really, really help you and your team get on board and get into those levels that you need to have it. And so with Teams, I'll just introduce you to the five dysfunctions of a team or as we call it, we flipped it around of how to have the five elements of a winning team. Kiera Dent (02:20.186) So it's in a triangle and at the bottom, it is actually with the bottom portion of the foundation of this triangle is called trust and vulnerability. And so if we have trust and vulnerability and it's not trust of like, if I delegate something to you, I know you're actually going to do it. Like that's one element of trust, but there's the other element of trust where I trust that I can say whatever needs to be said to you and know that there's not going to be backlash. There's a really great example think about in sports. The quarterback is getting sacked and they go to the blocker and they say, hey, you've got a block for me. I need you to block. And the blocker is not like, the quarterback's so mad at me or the quarterback's feeling this or that because they have the conversation. But we have permission to give feedback and receive feedback. And I think really setting up your office to have those permission to play, permission to give the feedback, permission to have the conversations, permission to say what needs to be said so we can ultimately make our practice grow. Now, of course, within trust and vulnerability, the way we say things and the way we present things will oftentimes make it so much better versus just saying what needs to be said. So I do believe that trust and vulnerability is an art more than it is a science. But if you can get your teams really having that trust and being able to call the shot, if you will, like in sports, because in sports, they're able to do that because they know how to win and they're willing to call each other out. They're willing to say what needs to be said because they want to win. And in Patrick Lanzione's book, it really does give the formula of how we're able to win as a team. And so if we know how to quote unquote, put points on the scoreboard, and that doesn't necessarily mean revenue, it can, but if we know what winning looks like within a practice, then it's easier to have the trust and vulnerability, have the conversati

Dr. Brian Harris is back once more, this time talking about how he continued the practice after his father left. He touches on financial considerations (like selling to a DSO), growing pains being part of a first-of-its-kind DSO, and more. Episode resources: Learn about Smile Virtual Listen to episode 840: Easy Way to Get More Patients Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.214) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so pumped that you are back for day two with me and Brian Harris. We talked yesterday about partnerships and the different pieces about it. And now today we're actually going to talk about how to have a successful practice after the buy-in, which I think is so important and is not talked about. So get ready and as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. And one other thing I want to talk about really quick is after you buy in. Yeah, let's talk about that. Well, I just, you know, come like 2014, 15, 16, like, I don't have to practice for long time. And then I start getting to that point where, you know, you're like, I just want to, I want to have full control, you know, and you start thinking like, man, it'll be nice when this is just all mine, you know, and I will tell you, that's the one thing that I did not appreciate that senior doctor that's been there for so long. They're the ones that have all the trust with the patients. They're the ones that they're the they're they're your most predictable producer that you're ever going to find is a doctor. Like you want them as your partner for as long as possible. And when they're ready to be bought out, you want them to stay on and continue to work for you as long as possible. There's that selfish side of all of us that I think we're like, I just want to call this all mine. I just want it to be mine so I can make all the decisions. But it's really, really hard to replace a family member, especially if it's like your father that you're working with. It's going to be really hard to replace them from a production standpoint with an associate doctor, but also the stress of having to worry about somebody else's work and are they doing a good job? Are they being fair? When you have someone that you trust, especially when it's family, you don't ever have to worry about that. You don't ever have to worry about them pissing patients off or saying the wrong thing to staff or, know, it's like, I think that's totally undervalued that there's so much value in having, you know, a long trip partner continue as a partner in the practice and continue as an associate after. Yeah, no, that's brilliant. And also just thinking, as you were saying it, I don't think that we value the wisdom and the mentorship of that senior partner. You can't put a price tag on it and you can't even realize, but I guarantee you. The Dental A Team (02:20.683) Your dad taught you a lot about how to run a practice from a successful standpoint. He'd gone through a lot of things. Like you said, like trusted with the patients. That's what's built a lot of this foundation for you that I think like, yes, agree. I think it's good that we have egos to a point because they drive us. But at the same time, realizing how much you can learn from that doctor, that senior partner before they leave you. Now, of course, there's some senior partners that aren't as great. understand that, so, depending upon your partnership. But if you have a good business partner, if they're good with the business, if they're good with production, if they're great with patients, if they've built something of a legacy, if they want to leave a legacy, I think those partners are just invaluable. And so kudos, thank you for bringing that up because, yeah, I think it is easy to wanna like move on. Like, I wanna take this on, but gosh, there's a... There is a lot of wisdom in that. And also for, I'm sure for your dad and for those senior partners to have a place that they also trust, like to pass it to you and to see it flourish and to be able to continue to work and do their passion for as long as they want, I think is also a gift you can give that senior partner for building a practice that you were able to buy to grow, flourish, just allowing them to finish out their career in a way that they want to, I think is also pretty incredible. Yeah, I agree. How do you navigate the DSO world now? I'm just gonna like dive into like all the like, juices, like, what do do? Because like, you can hold it for a legacy. How do you navigate legacy dental practices versus selling to a DSO that's paying top dollar right now? I just want to ask all the questions, Brian. I'm here for you. Do you know my story, right? Yeah, tell our listeners. Yeah. So I mean, I think it's, I think it's absolutely a conversation needs to be had. One of the things I didn't recognize And I don't even think Scott and I reco

Dr. Brian Harris of Smile Virtual gets real and raw with Kiera. The topic: burnout, and how Dr. Harris navigated it to boost himself toward success. He talks about what that meant personally, professionally, as well as tackling the reality of finances and production with a practice partner, and more. Episode resources: Learn about Smile Virtual Listen to episode 840: Easy Way to Get More Patients Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.536) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am super pumped to welcome back one of our top guests that's been on the podcast, Dr. Brian Harris. I hope you guys caught his last podcast where we went into all things for Smile Virtual, how we can increase your practice by doing virtual consults. And today he's back to chat, case acceptance, and I'm going to geek out and ask him my own personal selfish questions, but Brian's incredible. Welcome back, Brian. How are you today? Thank you. It is great to be back. I loved the conversation we had last time and I feel like we started to to get into some really cool topics and then we ran out of time. So this is great. I'm excited to be back for sure. I love someone who can geek dental with me for as long as we were to where we run out of time because we're just so in the thick of it. And so welcome back. I love it. Tell us though, for those who might have missed the last episode, kind of just give them a quick rundown of who you are, how you became the Brian Harris, how you're helping dentists across the nation. I love what you do. I think you do incredible work. And we even have actually had, this is random. I have friends that have worked for you in Arizona that I just put the connection together last night. I was like, wait, Trista worked for you. And so it's kind of a fun time, but kind of for our audience, if they don't know you, give them a quick intro about you and what you do and how we even got here to then tee up our stage for today. Yeah, that's always scary when you have friends that have worked for somebody or worked for me because then you're like, shoot, they know like, they know the real me. So, You know, I will I'll give you a background. You know, I feel like I've got, you know, a pretty common story in dentistry, but then also like a pretty interesting one, too. You know, I grew up around it. My dad was a dentist. I've got two brothers that are dentists. My father-in-law is a dentist. I mean, it's it's just kind of always been part of my life. Joined my dad's practice 2005. He was doing a ton of cosmetic dentistry at that time. And so you know, naturally was able to mentor me and allow me to do a lot myself. And we have a, you know, just a great family cosmetic practice. And we built that into five different locations throughout Arizona. And then probably like 2016 was like the real pivot point for me because I was, you know, we were cruising along, we had the five locations, but I was burning out and The Dental A Team (02:29.088) And I kind of was just like, man, I just want to do what I love to do. And I don't necessarily want to be going to all these offices. I don't want to be working the hours that I was working. And so I had an experience with my wife kind of urging me to push and post more on social media and kind of show the world the type of dentistry that I do. And everything just kind of took off from there and started to build a brand and started to to have patients flying in to see me. because of that, launched a software platform called Smile Virtual. talked about that last time and it's the top tele-industry platform now in our industry. And I still am seeing patients three long days a week and loving what I do with Smile Designs and probably about 70 % of all my patients fly in from out of state to see me in two visits. That's my story. It's been pretty remarkable and I've been able to take the things that I've learned and I'm just passionate about sharing that with other doctors and helping them do the same in their own practices. I love it. Thank you for sharing that. And it was interesting because my husband and were talking last night. I told him, said, hey, tomorrow's podcast day. I'm really excited. We were chatting about your podcast. And my husband actually asked me an interesting question. He's like, Kiera, I think this would actually be a really good podcast topic. And I said, I don't know the answer to it. So Brian, maybe you can actually help. Because as you were talking about your story and having the locations, I think there actually becomes this pivotal moment where we're on this path. And so my husband asked me, he said, what's the difference between settling, failing, and living in the moment? And I'm curious if you have any insights on that. I know I didn't prep you up for it, and I didn't even plan to talk about it with you. But I think you kind of hit that level, right? You could have k

Tiff and Dana discuss updating your operations manual in a way that doesn't completely stress you out. They dive into details about each of the following steps: Establish an ops manual point person Schedule regular updates Delegate sections Set due dates Just because it's a big deal doesn't mean the process can't be fun and effective. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.615) Hello, Dental A Team listeners I am so excited to be here with you again on this beautiful day. I have Ms. Dana here in the house with me. That literally feels like she's in my house. I wish she were here, but we are houses apart. Dana, how are you today? Dana (00:18.36) Damn pretty good, how about you? The Dental A Team (00:20.703) Good, good. We are over here at the time of recording this just getting prepped for the holiday season. Like we're well into it at this point. I feel like holidays have began and parties and gosh, I feel like everything, so many things are going on and I only have one kid. I see this all the time. Dana's got a slew of children over there in her household and her husband and all of these things and Dana, you have just been running around like crazy. You went to a... a recent event where we were very excited for you. Tell us how that went and we did you did was it PBR the bull riding? How did the kids how much do the kids love that? Dana (01:00.131) Yeah. Well, they loved it. It's something about too, I think of bull riding, right? The goal is to say it on eight seconds, right? So my kids can all pay attention for eight seconds, even the littlest one. So it's something that they will like, we'll all enjoy it. They all pay attention the whole way through. Sometimes it requires snacks for the littlest one, but it was great. The Dental A Team (01:11.591) Yes! That's fair. The Dental A Team (01:22.959) I love that. That is a very good point. I feel like we all need to remember that because I don't know how much better our attention spans really get. I know they say like for anything that you post on social media or for for you guys for doing marketing engagement, things should be able to grab someone's attention and hold it within that first like three to five seconds of looking at something. And so I just don't know that our attention spans have gotten any better than that eight second, you know, time frame. So I think the PBR is for everyone. I think that is such a good point of view. I know when we went before my sister and I had gone and I was like, holy cow, they were only up there for like three, four or five seconds. I'm like, it felt though like a long time watching it. I'm like on the back of this crazy animal. Like this is this feels like a long time. So kind of plays into that too, where I know I have practices that I'll work with and I'm like, you know, you've got to be on time. You to your patients back on time. Like if they're here 20 minutes early and you're taking them back on time, if you haven't notified them they were here early or kept them engaged while they were here, they feel as though you're late. And so if they've been here even five minutes earlier on time and you're five minutes behind, it makes such a difference. And sometimes I'll have... practices where we're just so heavily focused on that patient interaction, that patient experience that I will make them do wall sits. They'll be like, yeah, whatever, Tim, you're crazy. And I'm like, cool, let's do this. We're going to do some wall sits. And I don't know if anybody's done a wall sit recently. They are painful. that really puts into perspective how long a minute is. think normally we get to like 25 seconds and people start dropping out. It's a difficult one. So I love that you said that, Dina. That was such a good perspective to add there. PBR is so much fun and it's just the time of the year where we're just like prepping for everything and having so much fun with our families and our friends. And we have our holiday party for Dental A Team coming up, our virtual party. And it's just such a time of year to really The Dental A Team (03:24.851) look back on all of the things that we've accomplished and we've done so far. I know for me, I've been looking at okay, what did what did I set out to accomplish? What did I actually accomplish? And what did I miss along the way? And a lot of those pieces, I think we miss those goals along the way, because we really didn't have a good plan. I know for me, I miss personal goals or work goals constantly, because I just didn't have enough plans set in motion. I didn't have enough trajectory and I didn't have enough laid out of responsibilities and like really how I was going to accomplish that thing. And today talking about Dana, I pulled you in always for operations manual, but really looking at how we can update the operations manual next year. And when we were prepping for this today, you

In this powerful episode, Kiera is joined by John Jackson, executive director of Defy Ventures, Utah. John shares his history as a criminal, the time he spent incarcerated for his crimes, and how he found the power to change. Kiera and John met through a Tony Robbins' Business Mastery earlier this year, and Defy Ventures is one of the nonprofits the Dental A-Team is donating to through its Live to Give program this year. About John: Correctional officials once labeled John "the worst of the worst." As he served 18 years in prison, John rose through the ranks of his gang by honing his leadership skills. After four years in solitary confinement, John realized that building his criminal resume would only lead him to life—and death—in prison. He made the dangerous and unpopular decision to step away from criminal activity while incarcerated at Pelican Bay, a notorious supermax prison in California. Since his release from prison in 2019, John served as the director of sales and fundraising at Hustle 2.0, helping to scale the organization from two prisons in California to 700+ jails and prisons in 47 states, serving 13,000+ incarcerated men, women, and youth. He co-authored 11 books. The curriculum provides holistic rehabilitation and healing for people in America's most dangerous prisons, offering a pathway to college. John delivered a TEDx at Cornell University about ending the generation cycles of incarceration. Today, John serves as the executive director of Defy Ventures, Utah, leveraging entrepreneurship to help incarcerated people transform their lives. He uses his story of courage and transformation to create hope for those who have been written off and forgotten by society. Episode resources: Learn more about Defy Ventures Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.234) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. if you don't know, Dental A Team has a portion of our company called Live to Give. And every single year, our company goes and looks for organizations or places that I believe in that I feel can give a greater impact in this world. We've done a Make-A-Wish for a child who had stomach cancer one year. We have done Stuff for Santa within our communities. We have done scholarships for people. And every single year we did a coat drive with all of our clients and we were able to give so many coats to cold families. And this year I met an incredible man named John from Defy Ventures. And John was an incarcerated criminal for 17 years. He was at maximum security. He was in solitary confinement for four years and he was sent to Pelican Prison, which is the number one like federal prison in California where it literally is like a resume builder for prisoners, but that is like the top of the top. He was in gangs and he has actually come out of prison and his five years since his release date. And he has a company called the Five Ventures where literally they help incarcerated criminals turn their skills that they've learned in prison into something good and to build businesses. And it's such an incredible company. It's probably not the one that I ever imagined that I'd be recommending or talking to you about, but. I'm bringing John on the podcast. John is a dear friend. met him and I just was so inspired by him of who he is as a person. And then also if you want no affiliation with our company with them, but just a cause of Live To Give where we donated as well. But you are able to sponsor an incarcerated criminal if you want to be able to give them the entrepreneurship skills and you're able to give back to an organization that I believe is trying to stop generational crime. The US has actually more in cart. our 5 % of the world's population and yet we have 25 % of the world's crime. And just watching how our world is going, if there are people like John who were incarcerated themselves and have been able to turn and become a force for good and to be able to do incredible things for this world, it might be something incredible for you. I am literally so excited to bring you guys today's guest. This is someone that I met a couple of months ago at Tony Robbins Business Mastery. The Dental A Team (02:19.04) little plug we did freaking win john so we are the winners will show you our trophies. Yeah, bring the trophies up. But john was actually the reason that we won and we were helping support his company which is defy ventures. But john has such an interesting story. And literally I had the most life changing experience talking to john and so I'm so excited to welcome john I there's like so much more I want to say about your intro but I'm let you tell your story more than me enjoying you. But welcome to the show john how are you today? I'm doing awesome. I have a huge smile on my face because I'm really excited. First is good to see you a

Kiera lays out a ton of ideas on how practices should be looking ahead to 2025, including the right percentage growth to aim for, why you actually can take time off for vacation, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.994) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope today is such a magical day for you. I hope that you are having such a fun time and I hope that you are wrapping up 2024, getting ready for 2025. I am so excited for you guys as you're wrapping up the year. And I just wanted to take a minute of let's not forget how to maximize and optimize our schedules for 2025. I know it can sound funny, but really if we take the time now, to project out, prepare for our year. You are gonna have such a better year in 2025. So welcome to projections with the Dental A Team podcast. As always, if this podcast has changed your way, your life in any way, if it's shaped you, if it's molded you, if it's helped you, please leave us a review. Please share this podcast with someone because my goal is to have this podcast in the hands of every single dental practice to be able to positively impact and influence giving tactical practical skills and solutions for free. So that way we can rise and elevate the world of dentistry. And that's my mission and my goal. And I can only do it with your help and your support. So leave those reviews, share it with somebody and let's make the world of dentistry realize how incredible it is that we're a part of it and give you practical tactical skills to take your practice to the new, to the next level. All right. So as you guys are preparing for production, the big thing you guys need to be doing right now, and I'm hoping that you do this before end of year, that would be optimal. is let's start building out our schedule for next year. And that means we're looking at the number of providers we have, the number of providers we might be adding in, number of hygienists. And then also let's look at our vacation time we want off. So often I hear, Kiera, I just can't take time off of my practice. And I just say, that's actually not true. You totally can. We just need to plan and prepare for it. And then we need to set our goals accordingly. So you need to be looking at your practice now and it needs to be a minimum of a 10 % growth. So we did a million this year, we should be doing 1.1 next year. So once we know that, we then go through our schedule, we figure out, all right, how many providers, how many hygienists, how many days off, how many holidays, let's look at all of that. Also, I would strongly recommend that you are actually looking at trends. And doctors and office managers, this is a phenomenal exercise to do together. So what we wanna do is you wanna look at trends. Historically, is our February always low? Kiera Dent (02:19.648) And I usually look two or three years back, you can make spreadsheets about that. That's how we do it. So we can historically look, all right, how was our December? How was our September? Was it slam dunk timber or was it suck timber? What about our February? Was that low? Was it high? What about our December's? Historically, how are those doing? And once you can get the trends, we can also make our goals and our, like everything way more realistic for us. So then you're gonna wanna look through, and we actually have spreadsheets for this for our clients where you go through and it's going to be, all right, in January, how many? days do we have available? How many days are we going to be off? What is our doctor out hourly? How many hours are they working? How many columns do they have? What about for our hygienist? And then it actually spits out a monthly goal for you based on the number of providers you have, doctor and hygienist based on what their hourly trends have been, which you can look back three to six months to see what have their, what are they historically doing? Then we can increase that. So maybe if our doctors are producing 500 an hour, maybe we bump them to 525 or to 550. But really figuring this out so that way we can make sure all of them are hitting the levels that they need to be hitting that then projects you your monthly goal because based on the number of days providers that hourly we're able to do that. Hygienist as you know should be doing at least three times their hourly. Hygienist that's the standard across the board. I know insurances can be tricky and that's where we also look to see, okay, what do we need to add to our appointments? Are we doing our fluoride? Are we doing our laser? What about our FMXs? Are there things that we could be doing because guess what? So many practices are able to hit this. And so I know that you're able to do it as well. It also means we've got to work

Tiff and Dana spell out how to avoid the crunch-time that always seems to crop up each December. They give advice on how to find the just-right daily metric for your practice, the power of adding procedure codes, how to get the whole team rallied for the cause, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.174) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Dana and I are back at it today. We are bringing you some fantastic information today, if I might say so myself. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. I know we both had calls. You've had a million calls. a ton of clients and you had so many calls already this morning and you pop it on podcasts to just give away more information. So thank you for being here with me. Thank you for giving me this time this afternoon. What do you have going on this weekend? It's Friday for us right now. I don't know when this is dropping, if it'll be a Friday or not, but what do you have going on this weekend? Because I think the world needs to know. I was very excited and I'm going to need a picture of your outfit. Dana (00:41.026) Thanks, I'm super excited. We are going to PBR tonight. It's one of my kids' most favorite things and I will say in Tucson they do it up. They do get a lot of the top bull riders across the country. So my kids are pumped for that and indoor fireworks and country music. so we are pumped. I know, was like in my morning Friday five, like, yee-haw everybody, I'm super excited. The Dental A Team (00:56.384) Dang! The Dental A Team (01:03.222) Yeah, I'm excited. My sister and I went to PBR a couple years ago. It was up here in Phoenix and it was fun. We were honestly we went as like, I don't know, it's something to do. But we were like hyped by the end of the night. It was like two hours like 10, 11pm. And I was like, what else are we doing tonight? Like, where are we going? So I was like your kids so I get it. And my feet hurt because I wore her boots and that was the wrong idea. So it's fine. It's fine. Well, you have PBR. I have my Dana (01:22.946) Yeah, super fun. Dana (01:27.746) You The Dental A Team (01:31.946) tonight. You didn't get to hear that. I know. Mariah Carey's Christmas concert and I told the team this morning this is not meant to be political or offensive to anyone. This is just true from my heart. Mariah Carey is to me what Taylor Swift is to all the Swifties of the world. I am not. I I think Taylor's would just be fantastic. I do love her music. I think she's great but to me Mariah Carey is is that. So I'm excited. Dana (01:49.584) Yeah. Dana (01:57.614) I'll exchange pictures then. The Dental A Team (01:59.958) Yes, yes, we'll exchange pictures. You got PBR, I Mariah Carey, we've got it on lockdown. This is going to be fantastic night. I hope all of you are doing something fun, whatever day this might be, that you're listening to this. I hope that the weekend that we recorded this, you did one of those two things if you're here in Arizona. And really, we're looking at, I mean, we're looking at fun things towards the end of the year. This time of year, is wild. I feel like this weekend specifically I've had like 16 different things come up that people are like, can you do this, can you do that? I'm like, my gosh, plus I fly on Sunday and I'm like, I can't cram anything else into the amount of time that I have remaining for the year and this is the crunch time, the end of the year. where things just get really, really, really wild. And we really try to cram as much as we can into the time that we have. So personally and professionally, we start doing this, we start seeing practice, you know, schedules get a little wild. And I really want to talk about today, how to make the most of that. So end of year crunch, end of month crunch, but also Dana and I were talking and I want to not just talk about it for December, for the end of the year, I want to talk about it for forever, for every month. How can we make sure that it doesn't get to the end of the year, the last two months of the year, that we're like, holy cow, guys, we've got $60,000, we've got to make up, we're behind. And I don't want you guys to get there. I don't want you to feel that crunch. I want you to be looking at numbers more succinctly throughout the year so that you don't feel that stress, but. We do get there. We do get there sometimes during the year, during other months. And I want you to also be prepared for what that can look like. And Dana, you had just this really fantastic plan. The Dental A Team (03:45.908) that you've laid out that we use for a lot of our clients, all of our clients are doing it, where they should be. If they're not, slap on the wrist and talk to your consultant. Make sure you get it implemented. But I really want to hear, in your words, Dana, h

Here's to the people who make your life incredible. Happy Thanksgiving! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.856) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy Thanksgiving. You guys, if you are new to the podcast, welcome. I'm so happy you're here. If you've been with me for a while, you know this to be true. I love holidays. I love holidays so much. I am so appreciative of holidays because I feel like it's just the time that like takes our autopilot life and puts it actually on pause and. Thanksgiving is honestly my favorite podcast of the entire year. I have so many amazing things to be thankful for and it's always just special of what I'm able to celebrate with our team, celebrate with all of you and just give gratitude and thanks. And every year on Thanksgiving, my husband and I have it as a tradition. We listen to the podcast as soon as we wake up. And I really think it just centers me. It centers me of the gratitude that I have for each of you being a part of the Dental A Team family. Whether you're an active client with us, you've been a client with us, you're a podcast listener, soon to be client with us, my gratitude for you is immense. This was just a girl's dream to be able to help dentists across the nation and their teams. It was a dream for me to help the dentists from Midwestern to be able to live thriving lives and to have their teams flourishing and living thriving lives as well. for people who trusted me and took a risk when I didn't know what I was doing. even today, let me practice on them and make things up and bring things to them and to be open and humble and have fun and make me laugh and challenge me and encourage me is just truly a blessing. For you guys on the podcast to listen and to be raving fans and to share this with people, I don't take this for granted. I know how blessed I am. I dreamed of having a consulting company where it was spanned across the nation, where we were able to serve and help people on this higher level. And it's the reality of the life that I'm living right now. And I don't take that for granted. And I'm so grateful and appreciative of all of you. I also hope that you today take time to thank your team. I think so often we can just go by the wayside and we can not necessarily give out that gratitude and that thanks for what we have. I realized that Kiera Dent (02:04.902) You can either see teams one of two ways. You can either see them as an asset or a liability. And I choose to see my team as an asset. I choose to see that they're brilliant, that they're smarter than me, that they're the ones who make the magic happen. They're the ones who love our clients so much. They're the ones who come up with the brilliant ideas. They're the ones who make the marketing. They're the ones who do the customer service calls. They're the ones who talk to potential clients. They're the ones who are figuring out the partnerships. They're the ones who make all this dream become a reality. They say teamwork makes the dream work. And I say teamwork. and teens also make the dreams become reality. And so just having maybe a moment of pause and reflection today and maybe sending out some little love bombs to your team and to the people that make your life incredible. I believe that the secret to life and fulfillment is giving and gratitude. And if we can have that sense of gratitude, like today my bracelet, it's the grateful bracelet here. And to have that gratitude, to show gratitude in all that we have, I mean, We are just truly so blessed to be alive at this day and age. We're so blessed to be able to have the technology and the teams and the resources and the life that we get to live. mean, gosh, life is just so magical. And I hope that you see it as magic. And I hope that today of all days, like you take that pause and be grateful for your family, for your health, for your friends, for your team, for your patients, for your community. all these things that make you a person, all these things that make life magical, all those things that add fairy dust and sprinkles to your life. But just to maybe take a moment, maybe reflect, maybe write in your journal, I would encourage you and challenge you to write maybe 100 things that you're grateful for. If you guys want, if you're listening to this before Thanksgiving dinner, you can do it. I've done it in some teams and it's very fun where you put your name on the top of a paper. Shout out to our marketing gal, Eve. She gave me this brilliant idea and I've done it in teams and they absolutely love it. But what you do is you put the person's name at the top of the page and then you send it around the table and everyone writes something that they're so grateful for that person for or something that they love about that person. And then it

This one's for the doctors and hygienists. Tiff and Britt discuss why perio calibration matters, how accountability on top of that improves practice-wide success, the right percentages your hygiene department should be reaching, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.302) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am excited to help with you today with me, with us. Britt Stone, Miss Britt is one of our hygiene queens. You know, we have a couple of them on our team and occasionally I like to bring them in for some hygiene flow and some hygiene spaces. Now, Britt, today we are gonna talk hygiene, but I wanna do hygiene from doctors. perspective and like doctors really getting a lot of value out of that space. So today's hygiene is a little bit different. Your hygienists can listen to this always as well. Obviously there's gonna be nuggets in there for them, but doctors, this is for you. Before we jump into my hygiene, I'm so excited for this one, my hygiene stuff, Britt, how are you? You just went on vacation and it was a little chilly, I agree, because we're from Arizona, anything under. 80 degrees is a little chilly. I get it. Tell me, where did you ladies go and how amazing was it? Britt (00:56.382) That was true. Britt (01:04.513) It was amazing. One, thanks for calling us Hygiene Queens. I think all the hygienists out there appreciate that. So we love it. But I went up to Washington, Seattle area. So out to Woodby Island. So a little island out there. Took the ferry over, enjoyed it. It was great. I mean, we're all Arizona girls that went. It was like a high school crew, all my high school friends that went for a vacation once a year. And so we went out of town, enjoyed some fall, enjoyed some cooler weather since we don't... The Dental A Team (01:17.913) Super cold. Britt (01:32.695) get as much of that here and had a great time. The Dental A Team (01:34.351) No, that's awesome. And you froze, because you were like, those islands, they get really cold no matter what time of year it is. They're chilly, because they're way up there. You're almost Canada in those suckers. Britt (01:46.497) Yeah, and it's windy and it was rainy because it's fall time, but I mean, yeah, it's, yeah, which makes it nice and green and it was gorgeous. We saw like a bald eagle. Amazing. So it was. The Dental A Team (01:52.333) in Seattle. The Dental A Team (01:58.028) to. that's really cool. Well, I am excited that you got to go and I think that's super cool. I know you guys do your once a year trip and it's always something really, really fun and you get to just disconnect for at least a weekend. So I was happy to see you're out there. Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I love, I do love my hygiene queens and I think hygiene is obviously an imperative space. for dentistry and today's topic, it's actually, it's serendipitous, know, things always happen and come up. But the other day, my partner was asking me, he said, because he's a financial advisor, so he's always thinking numbers and he advises a few dentists. And so he's like picking my brain for things. And he's like, how much do dentists actually make? off of a cleaning, because like he'll go in for his cleaning and then come out with like all of these financial questions for me and I'm like, I'm very smart, you like I'll walk you through it. Yeah, so I'm like, nothing. He's like, what do you mean? What do mean they make nothing? And I was like, they make nothing. Like you're not, you are not going to be profitable off of strictly re-care appointments. And so I literally like, that was my initial response was like nothing and like walk away, right? And he's like, no wait, tell me more. And I'm like, Britt (03:22.275) all the things and then eventually nothing. The Dental A Team (03:25.539) Yeah, and so I was like, okay, fine, I'll break it down for you. Let me tell you all the things that go into a hygiene appointment and that cost analysis per hour and why it's so important that a hygienist does 3.3 times his or her rate of pay and can produce 30 % of overall production for the practice because if they're not, that department is not profitable for the company. And the non-profitable space of the company is an issue, right? And it's not to say hygiene that, know, we're never gonna say do things you don't wanna do or squeeze your appointments or do more. And like, that's not who we are. It's really just about finding the spaces where we can create more value for our patients utilizing the tools at our fingertips and creating more profitability for the company because for Dental A Team we believe that the profitability leads to reinvestment back into. the patients and the practice. So we cannot reinvest back into our patients' experience and all of these, you digital workflows th

Kiera and Britt review Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan. The theory is to consider how much time you're spending on tasks that would be done better and cheaper, and give you more time for other tasks that only you can do. Kiera and Britt give examples of how this can work in a dental practice as well as your personal life. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.92) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am pumped. I have the one and only Brittany Stone on the podcast with me for our book club. Britt, how you doing today? Britt (00:10.986) I'm doing great. book club day is always fun. tell you, I know people like wish they could be part of our actual live book club with Dental A Team. I've heard it from clients before, but we've got a pretty good one. Kiera Dent (00:18.711) you Kiera Dent (00:23.638) We do. And Britt, we are thinking of shaking up our book club for 2025 of adding in a little more fiction. I'm not sure how you guys feel about that. So be sure to email in. Do you want us to solely stick with dental books? Do you want us to cut the book club? Or do you want to roll into our fiction? Britt has been banned from choosing the ones Britt and I book club on, which are very dicey topics. We will not even share the ones we book club on. They're not bad. They're just very very very charged of I don't know it's not even like politics Britt (00:55.114) They make you think that there's some of those like ethical or different things that you're like, hmm, what do I think about that? So it's more of like stretching the mind on things, not like bad books. Kiera Dent (01:03.241) Exactly. Kiera Dent (01:07.608) Exactly. No, no, I should clarify that it sounded like you were like reading these steamy books. No, we just like the ones that challenge our ethical minds and make us question. It's kind of like those like if you think about I remember there was a one like the dad, the train person and the tracks are there and he hears this little boy and it's like you could either save your child or you can save a train of 500 people. What are you going to do? Like I hope and pray I'm never in that position, but Britt loves to bring these juicy ones up like that. We're not even going talk about it because I would cry. Luckily, I don't have a child, so I wouldn't even have to make that decision. That is the one benefit of failed IVFs. We're fine. Britt (01:45.888) Hey, you know, you got nieces and nephews. It must be a family trait. I've got one niece that she was asking her mom at Sunday dinner when our family was together, would you save me or the dog? So, you know, she does love the dog. Kiera Dent (02:00.03) I mean, I would. Britt, would you save me or Bertie? Britt (02:06.128) So you want to know what I told my niece and here's why I just get like we'll get back to the book. Don't worry guys. It's a tangent. I Like I told my niece to give her a hard time and like well you couldn't walk and get yourself out of the house The dog might get lost you're you're smart enough to help yourself, but the dog may not so Kiera Dent (02:11.478) sorry. Kiera Dent (02:24.413) What if I'm like stuck in bed Britt like decrepit I can't move and birdie is birdie who are gonna save then? Britt (02:33.781) Both. Pick them up. One in each arm, let's go. Kiera Dent (02:40.701) Well, on that note, that's how our book clubs usually shake out. So maybe, maybe one day, Britt, we might actually host a live book club. If you guys want that, let me know. We could do like a live webinar style and have you guys come give the book. Let me know if you'd be interested in that. I don't know if I don't know, we might do it. might not let us know if you're interested. Britt (02:51.231) Yes. Britt (02:59.625) I don't know if that's fun or not. It's kind of a nerdy thing. We know you guys like your dental nerds out there You're listening to us and you're reading books with us. So maybe it's interesting Kiera Dent (03:07.916) Maybe, maybe you'd want to. So let us know, email [email protected] Let me know. There's two things I'm dying to know. One, should we stick with business books for next year? Two, I lied, I want three things. This is how I roll. Britt knows it's going to turn to three. Two, should we keep the book club for 2025? And three, would you want to attend a book club live with us? Cause I could even do a live podcast. So let us know if you want to do that. One, should we change to fiction? Two, should we keep it going? And three, do you want to attend a live book club with us? Let us know. Email in [email protected]. If I hear from none of you, we're eliminating the book club and Britt and I are just going to do our own ethica

Kiera and Britt outline how to go about assessing 2024 for your practice. They give three metric areas and discuss questions for evaluating each: Profitability and business Clinician and dentistry skill Personal and team fulfillment Included in all that is the recognition of accomplishments. Don't forget to celebrate! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.812) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a special day. I have the one and only Brittany Stone, no BS Britt. What else do you have? What other names Britt? think bad. Britt (00:11.616) mean, you got my full name today. So like that's always, Tiff did that the other day on a podcast too. And I'm like, I always get worried when it's my full name that comes up. Kiera Dent (00:15.127) You Kiera Dent (00:21.158) Brittany's still back on the podcast. Don't worry. No fear there. It's just a good name. I mean you go by Britt. I only usually call you Britt every so often it comes through as Brittany Britt (00:23.542) you Britt (00:31.786) My mom did a good job. I'm happy with it. Kiera Dent (00:34.22) Yeah, and then BS. What's crazy is there's an office that I consult and their office manager is killer. She's incredible. And her initials are BS. And I was like, you and my BS are two good BSs. Britt (00:47.03) huh, it's true. They are fun initials to sign on anything when it's like a legal thing that you initial and you sign BS. I'll just say it makes me Google anyways. Kiera Dent (00:56.458) I mean, someone that I know, I won't say who they are. They have an account called BS Investments. So it's like they're just like nonsense investments. And we were transferring some money and the bank stopped us and they were like, are you sure you want to send it to this? Yes. So agreed. The legal, all the things. There's some good initials. But I thought they were very clever to have BS investments. Like those are just the ones that are like shot in the dark. You don't know what's going to happen. So with that, Britt and I are back on the podcast. thought it'd be fun to podcast today about like, let's just go through kind of what we do internally. Britt and I work, believe it or not, we're not just consultants in Denali team. Britt does all operations within our company and her and I really do yin and yang. And so I thought it'd be a fun podcast for us today of kind of like, how do we assess how our 2024 was for you guys to really like, let's go through how was 2024 for you? What things should you be looking at? How do you assess if it was a good year? if it wasn't a great year, because honestly, I think it's fair to say that 2024 was actually our hardest year as Dental A Team, like all the way around. And I think a lot of practices had a hard year. I think there were some who had like best years ever. But I think it's important to note that like ebbs and flows in business are normal. And that's okay. It's just how do we assess was it a good year or not? But shoot, I mean, we hired consultants this year, we hired recruiters this year, like we went all in this year. because there were a lot of things we were struggling with as a company and I think like struggling and also on the high ends, we also hire coaches then too, but it's like making sure you're really getting the need and the support you have. And like those were pivotal decisions you and I made throughout this year, yin and yanging off of what we both had and our different perspectives. Britt (02:41.949) Yeah, for sure. I think when it comes to looking at years, like even your tough years, right? Everyone's going to have them. That's welcome to business. Welcome to life. That's what happens sometimes. And even just looking back and making sure that we always look at the things that went well. I think sometimes when we get to end of year, you're like, my gosh, what are all the things? What do we need to fix? What do we do? And making sure to take a look back at what went well and the things that went well. What do we need to keep doing and not lose track of as we start to focus on maybe some areas or some other areas? Kiera Dent (03:13.248) I agree and I'm glad you brought it up because I think sometimes you and I are actually cynical and like it's like yeah, yeah, yeah, that was something good. So my question is, I mean, this is a real question. haven't, you guys, we don't script any of this. This is just me and Britt rifting in real life here. How do you not just like get complacent and be like, yeah, that was great, but we need to fix all these things. Like how do you really celebrate the good things going on and not lose sight of those? I don't know. Like I said, this is a rift. You and I have never really talked about this in real life. Britt (03:20.721) huh. Britt (03:41.378) I think it takes effo

Kiera breaks down need-to-know pieces of leadership meetings—ones that are regularly scheduled, have focused agendas, and require personal ownership from each person present. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.798) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope you guys are just having the best day of your life. I hope that you just remember we are truly so incredibly blessed to be able to be in dentistry. I say this often and I genuinely mean it. I think it's so incredible that we get to be a part of dentistry. We get to be part of all this evolution. We get to be a part of AI coming into our practices and being able to have all these fun things. We're able to help our patients with PRF and now there's laser that's helping with restorative treatments have less sensitivity and we're able to add it on and have literally patients healing like within three days after a full mouth extraction by using a lot of these procedures like it is truly mind-blowing that we get to be a part of this and giving people their smile. I was in an office this last weekend one of the the team members she's new to dental and she said you know a smile is the universal hello. And while, yes, I've heard that before, it just kind of hit me again of how beautiful of a work dentistry is where we get to help people with that universal hello of being able to smile and have the confidence and also be able to fuel and be able to eat the healthy foods that we need to eat. To my mother-in-law, she had an accident and she wasn't able to eat. Some things happened and just hearing like how hard it was for her to be able to eat and consume food and how hard it was for her body to heal. just thought... I think we sometimes forget how important our job and our role and what we're doing in dentistry is and the life impacts we're able to make for people. just wanted to remind you of what a great work you're doing and mass kudos and celebrate your team because we really are doing a work that changes lives. I understand we're not heart surgeons, but we are smile surgeons and we're able to give people the smile and the confidence of their dreams and make that a reality for them. So just wanted to remind you. Keep doing what you're doing because you're making an incredible impact in this world. So as always, thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If you've not left a review, please go leave those five star reviews. Be sure to share this podcast with someone. Just literally like send it to someone. I want you to think of one dentist or one office manager or one hygienist that you know. Just send this podcast to them because I really am here to inspire and positively impact this world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And the only way I can do that is providing great content. Kiera Dent (02:21.984) that you naturally want to share. So please share this with someone. And today's topic is going to be really fun for you to share. It's all about how to run effective leadership meetings. I know. Don't worry. I know how to give a good pitch and hook. How to run great effective leadership meetings. I just came in off the road. did nine leadership meetings in one week. That was my latest record. It's definitely something that I have not done before. And to say I was very tired at the end of it and What my favorite phrase is, came from Tony Robbins and he said, bone tired, but victorious. And that's how I felt. I was literally physically exhausted. I slept in four different hotel rooms in five different days. It was just very, very like I was running. I was sleeping on all different time zones. But by the end of it, my cup was so full from being able to help so many offices achieve goals and dreams and amazing leadership teams that they never believed were possible. And for me as a consultant, think my greatest success is watching my offices. Yes, I love numbers. I love hitting up sexy numbers. I love seeing offices who when I first started with them, like I have one office that I'm thinking of, when I first started with them, they were doing about 2 million. Incredible practice. They were doing a great job. And just over the course of a few short years, they are now producing, we're hoping that they end in the 5 to 6 million range. And so to be able to give that ROI of sexy numbers, those are always fun for me to throw out to you of true real life examples, other offices that are producing 12 million, other practices that started out as scratch startups that are now producing 1 million, 2 million, 3 million, and having very successful profit margins on that too, because I don't care what your top line number is, I care what your profitability is, to see offices that bringing on partners are able to

Tiff and Dana discuss the ideal ways to utilize expanded functions dental assistants (EFDAs). They provide different ideas of how an EFDA can effectively fill in gaps, address scheduling SNAFUs, why state regulations need to be taken into consideration, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.464) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back at you. Dana and I, Dana, thank you for being here with me today. I'm so excited to see you. How are you on this lovely, lovely, still morning? Yes, morning. Dana (00:14.474) God, I'm doing pretty good. I'm excited to be here. I like this. I know you're always like, I love my time with Dana. It's equally reciprocated. So I'm excited to get a little extra Tiff time today. The Dental A Team (00:21.101) Thank you. Thank you, me too, me too. We really need to, I was thinking this morning, as I was getting ready for work, I was like, my gosh, we need to schedule the Seven Falls hike in Tucson because it's getting cooler, we'll say. So yeah, we need to find a weekend that we can get down there, you can get up there, and we meet, it's almost in the middle, right? So, awesome. Okay, hiking is my jam, you know that, we'll get that scheduled and... Dana (00:42.731) Yes. The Dental A Team (00:49.771) We're going to spend some time together today. We've already recorded one podcast and I cannot wait for that one to release. I think it was fantastic. Doctors. was really good. We just did it about coding and making sure that systems are accurate and billing is accurate and billing representatives, making sure that you're getting the support you need from your doctors within that coding accuracy department. So go listen to that. If you haven't listened to it yet, I do love all of our podcasts. I think that they're all fantastic, but We like to hear it from you guys too. So whatever you think, whatever you need, if there's ever ideas that you guys have too that you're like, gosh, I would love more information about this. Do you know anything? One, ask us at [email protected] We're always here to help answer questions or give ideas. But if you've got podcast ideas, like we are open to them. literally, the consulting team goes through and we pick the topics and we try to think of the things that you might like. And I honestly think sometimes we might miss the mark on something. So. Let us know if there's things that you want more information on or things that we could dive into further for you, because we're here for that. Also drop a five star review. Let us know what you think down there as well, because we do love hearing about it. I love sharing podcasts, Do you ever share a podcast with your friends? I have a very specific friend group that's podcasters, and we very specific podcasts that we share. Do you have one of those in your life? Dana (02:10.75) Yes, I do. And I always joke around and say, if I start sending you podcasts or even sometimes like funny Instagram things, like you've made it to my inner circle. The Dental A Team (02:18.672) Yeah, I totally agree. I saw a the other day that was like, it's a full-time job. I'm here for it. You're welcome. And it was like sending memes all day to my best friend or something like that. And my best friend is a stay at home mom. And so I sent it straight to her. She's like, You're welcome. I'm gonna log on at the end of the day and I'm like, my gosh, got a lot of things in here. Yeah, but I do, I love sharing the podcasts and sometimes I'll share a podcast and they're like, gosh, I can re-listen to this. I'm like, I don't know. Like sometimes I just re-listen to podcasts and I get nuggets and tips that I didn't catch before or it hits a little bit differently. And I know I've gone back and listened to years later a podcast and been like, wow. I didn't even realize it could have meant this or now I'm in this space of my life and it's completely applicable. And I think about that on my free time, I listen to much different, I listen to leadership and life coaching style podcasts and I do sprinkle some dentistry in there just to stay up to date. But it made me think this morning too, these podcasts that we do. Sometimes we've got startup doctors or two years into owning the practice or associate doctors who maybe don't own their own practice yet or maybe they don't want to own their own practice but they're super new, listen to a podcast and then fast forward five years, we've been doing this podcast for a long time you guys, going back and listening to it from a different perspective. Today I'm a different person than I was five years ago when I first listened to it. It made me think about that this morning. I love podcasting, I love pulling you guys into the podcasting world and getting this time with you. And it really made m

The more engaged your team members are with your practice, the happier everyone (patients included) is. Kiera shares four questions to ask employees in connection to their engagement, then breaks down how to interpret the responses and what to put into place for improvement. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.75) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm so happy you guys are here. I hope today has just been an incredible day for you. And I hope you guys just remember that we are so lucky and so blessed to work in this incredible industry of dentistry. We are getting ready to roll into Q4 and I hope you guys are just feeling good about it. Like Q4, end of year, here it is. And I hope you guys are just loving it and enjoying it. And you just feel like you are completely and utterly prepared for the greatest time ever. As always, thank you for listening and please, please, please go leave us that five star review. Please share this in other groups, tag this, snag this. You guys are gonna wanna share today's podcast. I know you will, but you guys downloading these episodes, sharing them with other people, that's how you keep us as the top dental podcast. And you know our mission is to get this podcast into every dental practice out there because I believe that if we can positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible, we are gonna make the greatest good. We're gonna be able to help teams. We're gonna be able to help owners. We're gonna be able to help patients have the best lives, the best experiences, the best communities. And that's what I'm here for. So today I wanted to go into a topic about how to get better employee engagement. All right? Anybody here for it? Are you here for employee engagement? Because if you are, I am here for it. I think having employees is some of the like hardest and most rewarding part of owning a business. And so today, I just wanted to give you guys some amazing tips of how can you guys get your employees engaged. So my husband, actually is overseeing several, several, several physicians and people within his hospital. And we were talking about employee engagement and I feel like there's a space of like, we, do we survey our teams? Do we not survey our teams? What do we do with this? And he mentioned that at the location that he's at that they actually hide. four questions within their survey to find out how employees are engaged. And so I will read them to you. Number one is, my work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment. Number two is, and you guys, I'm definitely looking and I'm reading this right now. I would recommend your company as a good place to work. I intend to stay with your company for at least the next 12 months, and I am proud to work at your company. Kiera Dent (02:21.742) So those four questions, my work gives me a sense of accomplishment. I would recommend this place is a good place to work. I intend to stay here for the next 12 months and I'm proud to work at this dental office. And as we were talking about this engagement, my husband has, with all of his team members, he has several, several team members and he just came in getting tens across the board of his employee engagement. And so I was asking him about it I said, what is it? And he said, these are the four questions that at their hospital that they're the most concerned about knowing. How are they at? And so I asked my husband, said, okay, tell me more. I want to like do some information research outside of dentistry. What are people doing in other healthcare professions? What is that? And he said, I asked him, said, what are the things that really helped for your organization? And he gave me a pretty good list of as a manager, as a leader, what is he doing for his team to make sure that they're taken care of? And one of the things that I thought was crazy interesting is he said, the first one was that they're never alone. that everybody helps each other out, that they feel like that they're a part of a team. He said that all of them actually talk about getting a lunch break and being able to have that time away from patient care and that they are fulfilled by their patient care and that they're like what they're doing is something they're very passionate and fulfilled by. They're compensated well. They have great hours that they're working and we're talking, this is a hospital setting. So it's stressful. It's hard. They have a lot of cases there and patients that they're responsible for. They see patients every 15 to 30 minutes. like Just think about dentistry, we're not seeing them that often, at least we're hopefully, unless we're pediatric or ortho. But just thinking about how can we get our employees more engaged? And I've kind of had

Tiff and Dana discuss the importance of coding accuracy in dental practices. That includes universal codes everyone can understand, how to stay up-to-date on resources, the best way to know team members are getting paid for all their work, different codes across specialties, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.11) Hello Dental A Team listeners, we are back at you today. I have the one and only Miss Dana here with me to podcast. I love pulling Dana in. I love pulling all the consultants in, but I truly love pulling in Dana. think I shouted you out this morning. do. Wednesday core value shout out in our. I know that we've done some podcasts on that. So if you're not already doing a core value shout out every day or every week, please by all means go listen to those podcasts because it's freaking incredible and Dana you truly are the epitome of ease within our company and for your clients and I just think you need to publicly shout it from the rooftops be Just recognized for that aspect of your personality. You truly do make life easier I know a lot of your clients feel the same way you are so good at finding the easiest path for the systems implementation for whatever it is that needs to be done for us as a company. So Dana, welcome today. I'm so excited to have you here with me. Thank you for joining me on this beautiful Wednesday. I don't know what day this is gonna air, but it's a Wednesday today. And it's absolutely gorgeous here in Arizona. How are you, Dana? Dana (01:08.193) doing good, Tim, doing good. love days like today. The Dental A Team (01:11.629) I do too, I do too. It's starting to get fallish in Arizona, which means 85 degrees instead of the 105 that we had last week, least up in Phoenix. I know you get a little bit more fall down where you're at, but I'll take the 85 over the 105 for sure. Today, Dina, I wanted to pick your brain. I've got some information today I wanna share with the doctors. It's also for billing departments, for treatment coordinators, for whomever wants to listen to this. But I really wanted us to shout out our doctors for really, really just knowing everything about their businesses. I know that you guys are all here listening. I know you're watching, whatever it might be, to really learn more about the business side and about what the team is doing to help support your practice. So I wanna shout you out for that. And I just think it's a really incredible tool. and resource to have to truly know what it is that's going on, the inner workings behind the scenes of your practice, aside from just the dentistry that you're performing. So shout out to you guys for being here, for listening. Team members, if your doctor's not listening yet, please share it with them. Dana, today I really wanted to pick your brain and go over some coding information. I know it sounds super boring, you guys, but stick with us. We've got some great tips and tricks and some tools, especially for you doctors who are out there to really focus in and pay attention to the things that are being input into the system and sent off to insurance companies, or if you're fee for service, you still need to be insanely accurate within your system and making sure that we're using the right tools. So doctors, again, this one's for you as well. Billing representatives, treatment coordinators, front office representatives, office managers, whoever you might be, whoever might be touching a ledger or an account or a code in general dental assistance, hi, Genes, you guys. This is all gonna be really great information for all of you. Coding with Accuracy happens to be a book, by the way, you can purchase that. But honestly, coding with accuracy is incredibly important and valuable to your system, not only for the billing portion to ensure that we're accurately sending things off to insurance companies, accurately getting paid, but realistically to show super accurately what you've actually done with your patients to your patients. That way, if anything were to ever come about and anyone needed to look into it or The Dental A Team (03:28.327) your patients had questions and they asked for the account, it makes sense to the next person who's looking at it. And you can say, yes, I did that, that was me. I did that filling, I did that crown, I did that crown seat, I did those pieces. I know a lot of practices, and Dana, I think you've probably seen this too, a lot of practices will overuse, in my opinion, an office visit or a palliative treatment, to certain codes like that and unspecified, because they're just not sure. what to use. And so they throw one of those, especially office visits, and I'm like, what is this office visit? How many, this patient's been in for 20 office visits. They're like, most of those a

Josh Scott of Studio EightyEight is back for more! He joins Kiera to talk about the marriage of creativity with performance marketing for dental practices, how to pull meaning from conversations when talking about dentistry, why putting yourself out there actually helps your patients, and more. Episode resources: Learn more about Studio EightyEight Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.526) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera And today I am so jazzed. have one of my dearest friends and I don't mean that like as a podcast intro, like truly this person is someone that I just count as one of my greatest friends. And I'm so excited to welcome Josh Scott, CEO, founder, Studio EightyEight Marketing. They have the best swag. I was just telling Josh, I wore their sweatshirt all summer long. I am a terrible ambassador. I don't take pictures and post, but I love your swag. So Josh, welcome to the podcast. How are you today? Hey, I'm great. It's always good to be here. looking forward to this all week when I see it show up on my calendar. And yeah, you know, I don't know that I believe you, Kiera. You say you wear the flag, but I've never seen proof of it. So we can talk like that on a podcast, but just saying I've never seen it. You know, I should like stop this podcast right now and run upstairs and go grab it. So then we have the, all the social proof, which I think I'm going to do. So we're just going to hit stop. All right, Josh. So, like I said, we were going to hit stop and for the world to see. All right. It exists. It exists. All right. I love this sweatshirt so much, truly. And I love you guys so much, but like your swag this year was my favorite swag of all because the sweatshirt just feels like a nice hug and I appreciate that it's your company, but it doesn't feel like I'm just wearing like swag, like EightyEight You've got the nice like sports attire to it. So it felt good that I wasn't like. Studio EightyEight I need to work on our Dental A Team. Cause I'm like, when I send you swag, it's like be Dental A Team today. Of letting me still be a human, but also that. So it does exist. I hope that my marketing team takes this crops it. It's on here. We'll tag you. We're going to use this clip for like the next three years. That's what's going to happen. Yeah. No, it's fun. Our team, they, so, so first off with swag, it's like, try to give people stuff that they would actually wear. So it's not just like, blatant, you like you look like a team member of ours when you're wearing our stuff because you're just all EightyEight out. But, and they have a theme every year. So this year was this whole athletic company kind of vibe, which was a ton of fun next year. We're already like in concepts for, we do it in Q1 every year. So already in concepts, this whole like camping, kind of like modern camping theme. It's kind of fun. Like, they're, they're all geeked out about the videos. They're going to shoot around it. The, know, we're looking at like little tin mugs and things like that. The Dental A Team (02:22.413) So it's fun, but I always encourage, this is a good segue, because I encourage dental practices, like when they do swag, sometimes it's just like their logo, really big on the shirt or the hat or whatever. It's like nobody wants to wear a hat that says XYZ dental. But dentistry is so easy. If you just put, get a trucker hat, put smile on the front of it, put your logo on the back, smile more, smile bigger, let's all smile. That message is so... awesome to like wear out in the world. And people love that. I've got this one sweatshirt from a dental practice to smile more on the back. And what's funny is when I wear it's a really cool hoodie. When I wear it, like people talk to me. They're like, yeah, I love that. You know, like, yeah, the world needs a smile more. And sometimes like when I'm traveling, I'm pretty introverted. And I had this on one time. It was like eight people kept talking to me and I was like, okay, I remember to never wear this again when I'm traveling because it actually creates conversation. And I'm trying to like check out from. So I love it. And I think like good call to that because it can be so easy. And that's what I actually love about you guys with your marketing is your marketing is so very intentional. And I think dental practices can have it be very intentional, but it's very easy and it's fun. And I think you guys make it fun. And that's actually why I love you guys as marketing people that I recommend you guys do so many great things, your rebrands, your websites, your marketing. So Josh, we were talking before about how there's kind of like these two parts to marketing that practices have really struggled with up until now within marketing. let's kind of like just do some chit chat on marketing

Kiera is a guest on Dr. Gallagher's Podcast in this crossover episode! There is a lot of important ground covered here, including how to establish the ideal practice flow, the differences in consulting between speciality and general practices, why being a human being feels like a lost art, how to hire the best people, and more. Episode resources: Listen to Dr. Gallagher's Podcast: Apple, Spotify, YouTube Reach out to Tiff, Britt, and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Brendan (00:02.346) Of the Dental A Team, this is Kiera Dent, right? So this is, I love that it's dent because there's dental dentin, part of the tooth and stuff. So it's just perfect. It really worked well. And you have a consulting agency, right? Dental A Team. And how many years have you been in around? Kiera Dent (00:16.95) Yeah. Kiera Dent (00:25.494) Thank you. Kiera Dent (00:30.976) Yeah, so we've, the company is almost eight years old. She's about to have her eighth birthday in November, but yeah, it's been fun. It was a complete random idea that I came up with to start it, honestly, to help a bunch of dental students and here we are. So it's been a really fun place to be. Brendan (00:49.738) Two more months and eight years, congrats! Kiera Dent (00:51.796) I know. Thank you. Thank you. It came from, I worked at Midwestern University's Dental College for three years while my husband did pharmacy school. And one of the students straight out of school said, hey, Kiera, I want you to come help me start my practice. And I said, my gosh, like, absolutely. I've always wanted to be a practice owner. I was a dental assistant and a treatment coordinator and an office manager prior. And so I went and I helped her start her practice and We took our practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. And then I thought, my gosh, like if I could help her do this, there's all my other like favorite dental students. Like I'm sure I could probably be a resource and a help for them. And so that's really what spurred the consulting company. I had never worked with a consultant before. And then I started helping practices and adding, you know, 25,000 of production to their schedules very quickly. I was adding, increasing case acceptance to a hundred percent. within one day and I just thought, okay, there's something about this and it doesn't have to be hard, but I'm gonna be a resource for all those dentists in school because you guys go to school and you're so passionate about what you're doing, but then there's the business side of it. And so if I could be a resource, a trusted resource, knowing what you're learning in school, so that way you guys can be so successful, positively impact your world, help your community, help your team, help your patients, and you guys are living your best lives. That really is what spurred me into being a consultant. So here we are all with the love. have no clue what consultants should do. I just keep making up what I believe my students from Midwestern would want to have and just keep coming from love of you guys, just doing the best to support dentistry and us supporting you in that vision. Brendan (02:30.004) Excellent. And so you're not at Midwestern anymore. That was only in the beginning for those years. So roughly eight years ago. Kiera Dent (02:33.068) Mm -mm. Yep. Yep. I worked there for three years. No, so three years. And then I went and I worked in Colorado for two years. And then I started the company in 2016. Yeah, 2016. So it was great. It was a good time. And here we are now, eight years later. Brendan (02:48.904) And in Colorado, that was the practice that you brought them from X to that would be roughly five X. Wow. Well done. Well done. So they started for a year there. You knew them. You had a good rapport, good relationship with them over a year or two. You grew it from that. then you're like, and that's when you decided, OK, let's scale. How did you take that next step from there? So it was just you working at her practice. Right. And then from there, you said. Kiera Dent (02:55.008) Mm -hmm. Yeah. Thanks. you Kiera Dent (03:08.384) Totally. Kiera Dent (03:13.344) Mm -hmm. Yep. Brendan (03:16.136) So you don't work with her anymore. was like a see you later. I'm going to figure it better. Kiera Dent (03:18.072) No. It was incredible. And we had such a good run. And I have to give mad kudos to her as a dentist, because I think we were really a dynamic duo. I came in with amazing like management and TC skills. We both didn't know what we were doing. And I think that that's part of doctors opening practices. But kudos to her for bringing me on because she knew I knew pieces she didn't know how to do. but yeah, it was, I think more her vision. We both were very gung -ho. We wanted to serve more. We wanted to have a bigger impact and f

Kiera gives listeners advice on what they should be checking in on with their practices as 2024 begins to wind down. This could be finances, operations, staffing, or personal health. She also encourages setting strategic goals as you begin to forecast 2025. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.842) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera Welcome to the podcast. I hope today is just an incredible day for you. I hope you're loving it. I hope you just remember, hey, we're in dentistry and dentistry is the most incredible thing that we can ever be a part of. You guys, just think it's absolutely magic of what we get to do. It's absolutely incredible of the lives we get to live. It's absolutely incredible of the lives we get to serve and to help every day between our teams and our patients and our community. Like it is just magic. that we get to be here. And so I hope all of you today, just like write maybe a little letter of gratitude of how grateful you are for this life that you get to live, for this practice you get to be a part of, for this community that you get to be a part of. Maybe journal it, maybe text it to somebody, because I truly do believe that we build momentum and seeing the good in our world is truly, I think, a talent. I think it's a muscle that we have to strengthen day in and day out. And that's really what I try to do on the podcast is bring you tactical while also positively impacting your world. And so please share this with someone, leave us those five star reviews, download this podcast, put it in the Facebook groups, tag us while you're listening, whatever feels right to you, because you doing that helps other people see this and other people who might be in darkness or not knowing where they're going or maybe not feeling as optimistic about where we're at in dentistry. This can be a great resource and a gift for them. So please share and just thank you for all of you that have shared and made Dental A Team Podcast the greatest podcast out there for dentistry. All right, today I'm excited because it's end of year. And end of year for me is like exciting and exhilarating and sometimes daunting. So I really, in our private consulting within Dental A Team, we actually do this where we prep our doctors and our teams to look at the next year and to really go through a deep dive review. This is actually my favorite time of year with our offices to deep dive them through. What should we be looking at with it being end of year? So today on the podcast, I'm going to just take you guys briefly through it, but just know if you want that deep dive, please come join us on TheDentalATeam.com book a call with us, reach out. [email protected]. I am obsessed with planning and preparing and making sure our offices are thriving without worry. That doesn't mean that every day is a great day, but it does mean that they always know the Dental A Team is going to prepare them and be planning ahead with them and looking down the line with them. Kiera Dent (02:21.346) because that's what I feel like we need to do. And so often we're very reactive because we forgot to be proactive. And so that's what I'm obsessed with doing with our offices and doing it with ease. And so every quarter having a way to check in on these things, every quarter we assess where we're at and where do we need to go and really being able to do that within our practices. So today, just thinking about end of year, a few things that you guys should be looking at as a quick highlight, like this is a very high level. I spend a good chunk of time preparing this for our doctors. We do it in our private doctor. mastermind that we have every single month together. And then with our private clients, definitely working on this. just did it with my clients prepping for end of year. and like I said, I will give you a high level so you guys can have a taste of it. And then if you want to go deeper and one -on -one with your practice, be sure to join us. It is never too late to join. It's never too late to take the step to a different life. It's never too late to reach out for an expert who can guide you. And I would just encourage you, if you've been on the fence or you've been thinking about it for a while, do it, give yourself the greatest gift to have. resource in your pocket. We never know when things will be hard for us. We never know when those days will come. This year, I haven't shared this publicly, but I had a really, really hard year this year, probably the hardest year I've ever had in business. And I just think about what did I do to be prepared for that? I could never have planned for that to happen in my life. It happened so unexpectedly. It kind of came out of left field on me. And I think about how did I get through that? got through that

Often when scheduling appointments, it's all about the patient. But what about the doctor or team members? Britt and Tiff give tips for scheduling while keeping efficiency and quality in mind (for both parties). Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.057) Hello everyone out there listening. I am so excited to be here today. I have snagged the one and only Britt Stone again today to do some podcasting with me. Britt, how are you today? Britt (00:13.087) doing great. I mean, we're cooling off a little here in Arizona and it's a great time of year. Fall's beautiful. The Dental A Team (00:19.89) I agree. I loved the weekend weather. I know you weren't here for all of it. You had an awesome vacation, but it was really truly beautiful. And then I saw, well, Sunday got a little bit warmer. We went for a hike and we were like, well, this is a little bit warmer. And then I saw, gosh, by Thursday we're supposed to be like 95 again. So it's only here for, I think the heat's only here for a moment again. And then we'll drop back down, but it has been a wild. summer, like it's still summer here. I don't know how we're still experiencing summer. And I know, Brett, you and I both grew up here and I think people always ask us like, how do you do it? And we're like, I don't know, it's like three months of heat. And I think this year they challenged us and they were like, the universe was like, I'm gonna give you six months. And then their nature said, no, we're gonna like see if you can handle this. I feel as though I've never experienced anything like this in my life of living here. Britt (01:10.389) I mean, we broke some records. Sometimes that's an exciting thing and sometimes that's not an exciting thing to say. The Dental A Team (01:16.857) Totally agree. Not the records I wanted to break, but that's okay. We're still alive. You guys were still surviving. and I think we both probably, yeah. And I think we both probably can still say that we love where we live. So I love it. Love it. Love it. Thank you for being here. today I really wanted to pick your brain on some efficient appointment, scheduling, tips and tricks for the doctors out there. I really want to speak to, we always speak to both doctors and teams, but I really wanted to speak to doctors today and I wanted to Britt (01:23.351) I'm not trying any place. The Dental A Team (01:46.223) pick your brain a little extra because I you've really, really hard on some efficiency tips within the, you know, cost world as well. So we'll dive more into that. But Britt, from hygiene perspective as well, dental assistant perspective, we've got all of those different spaces. I'm really, really looking at efficient appointment scheduling. And for me, I'm constantly reminding teams, team members and doctors because I think doctors will stick their foot in their mouth sometimes too, to really, really look at what's working well for your practices flow. Like what's going to work best for you. And as the doctor of the practice, like when do you want to do these appointments? Do you want to do a root canal at 8 a.m.? Maybe possibly like do the root canal at 8 a.m. Right? Do you want to do a root canal at 2 p.m.? Would you rather do it, you know, after lunch, before lunch? Like where do you feel the most yourself? and the happiest to do these procedures because if we're just constantly looking at where the patient wants to come in, what's convenient for the patient, that's not always going to give them the best experience. So in that moment of scheduling. The patient might be excited and happy because they got the appointment that they wanted, but when they get there for the appointment, are they getting the best experience that they possibly can based on the flow and energy of the practice? Or did we just schedule you something super late in the day when you're exhausted and tired and you've been working so hard or you had pizza for lunch and you're like, I don't want to do this freaking root canal. Like, I don't know. know my doctor that I worked with side by side for years, hated nothing more than coming back from lunch and having fillings, like interproximal fillings and crown seats for three hours. He was like, this is going to be the worst three hours of the day because it was so much movement. It's like, just want one crowd, like, or one long appointment, right? Like I just needed one patient with three crowns. Like I just want one something long that we can just sit down, dig in, be done. All of that like crazy running around and like sporadic energy. The Dental A Team (03:48.869) for him needed to be earlier in the day when he was more like spry, right? He's just like ready to run. And I could appreciate that too because I felt the very same. And so when we figured that out fo

Happy Halloween! In this episode, Kiera lists four "tricks" in dental practices that might scare a practice owner off, and gives advice on how to turn them into treats. Leaking revenue A team that doesn't care about company goals Untapped potential holding you back Low case acceptance and high overhead Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.09) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy Halloween -y. man, I love Halloween. This year, I'm so excited. We have some really, really, really special neighbors and they have two kids and they have definitely allowed us to be a part of their family. And so they're now six -year -old son. They have a six -year -old and a two -year -old. Their six -year -old plans our Halloween costumes for us. If you know anything about Kiera Dent or if you don't, my mom was very much not. pro having her kids trick or treat. My mom is very, very, very conventional and she did not want to teach her children. She felt like trick or treating was slightly like begging and she did not want her children to be that way. And so I do not, I do not endorse that nor agree with that. And my mom has since changed, but that was her beliefs as a young mom. so trick or treating, she had us go what's called pick a treat where we would actually take treats to our friends instead of trick or treating. And so Actually last year, 2023 was the first time that Kiera Dent actually went trick or treating. And it was with this family that takes us with us. Last year we were Incredibles. And this year he has given, this little boy has given all of us the assignment of something from Toy Story. He plans every one of us who we're going to be. So this year I get to be Little Bo Peep. My husband's Woody. Don't worry. We'll definitely post up some pictures for you guys, but happy Halloween. I hope you have the best time. I hope it's fun, but. What I wanted to do today is one, thank you guys for being a part of our podcast family. But two, remind you, please share this podcast with someone fun. Today's gonna be a fun one. These are things that should scare you as a dental practice owner. Our goal is to help you learn to overcome them and running practice does not need to be scary. So come and join our consulting with us. There's no tricks, just treats for you guys. And I'm gonna give you guys four little things that probably do scare you as practice owners and ways to overcome them. We're going to do a little trick or treating here where I might trick, I might treat. Of course I'm going to treat guys. Here we go. but please share this podcast with those around you. And thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If I could give you a giant hug right now and just tell you how much I love and appreciate you for who you are and the special things that you bring to dentistry and to this world. And, just you being here, no matter what you do or don't do is a huge blessing to those around you and in my life as well, even though I might not know you personally. Kiera Dent (02:26.07) I feel you, I feel your energy and I'm so grateful for you. just share this with someone that you feel could use that huge giant hug of love and appreciation and probably just like some fun and some support. with that, right. Number one possible scary thing in a practice is revenue leaks in your practice. So what are some of those things that are leaking out revenue that if we just were able to patch up that hole might actually be able to help you. So things such as inefficient scheduling, billing errors, uncollected payments. So I want you guys to look at your practices and see where are our revenue leaks. I think this could be a really fun almost scavenger hunt for you and your team to think about like, where are all the ways that we might be losing money on imperfect handoffs, on not billing out all the procedures that we do, on not having the correct dollar amounts attached to those. Keir Dents practice definitely sent out a $0 crown. We billed it straight to insurance. You better believe they were so happy to send me the EOB on that. That is a revenue leak in our practice. so, on our inefficient scheduling? Have you built in the block schedules? Have you created a perfect day schedule? Are we working and role playing on how we can get people perfectly in there? Are we looking for same day treatment opportunities? That's a huge revenue leak within your practice. Looking for those same days, you get raving fans out of it and you're also able to help a ton of people with it. So can we actually help you guys close up that revenue leak and make it even better? What about the billing errors? Like I mentioned, attaching the correct things to our procedures so we get our money in within those. 20 to 30 days the first time and we're no

Tiff and Britt are here to give advice on how to maintain consistency during the busiest times. They talk about keeping a positive mindset when things become stressful, how to avoid getting stuck in "fix mode," how to find what tasks you can automate, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02.11) O my gosh, Dental A Team listeners, I am here today with the one and only Brittany Stone. I am so excited. I bring you Dana a lot and Dana is freaking fantastic. You guys know how much I love my time with her. But recently, I have been mixing it up a little bit and I love it. I get my couple hours a month of just one -on -one solo time with you, Britt. So thank you. I love having you here. I love that we're in different colors today. I think it spices it up a little bit. How are you on this beautiful Friday when we're recording right now? It's Friday and it's freaking beautiful outside, right? Britt (00:38.059) I know Arizona, it's like the end of summertime where it starts to break a little bit in the heat. We're like, my gosh, this is why I live here. yeah, that's right. This is the reason why. I like that I got a full name today. It's always fun when that comes out and I get called by my full name. So I'm excited to be here. know, anytime I get with you consultants, anyone on our team, especially one -on -one, it's my favorite. The Dental A Team (00:49.495) You got it. The Dental A Team (01:01.005) I love it. love it. I had I had a client today actually on our coaching call say, what's the weather like out there? Like, are you is it cooling down? And I was like, no, it was like 101 the other day, I think he got down to like 95. But there was 99. And like, we're all over the place. And I told my friend the other day, she's like, gosh. it's supposed to be fall, like where's our fall? Where Arizona is, and we don't get fall, we get ideal hiking weather. So we are walking into ideal outdoors weather in Arizona. There's no fall. We just get our hiking season until now May. So here we go, ready to hike. Britt (01:36.779) we can get back outdoors. know Tiff today is like, should I go for a run? And I'm like, should I go for a ride tomorrow? Probably. Like now we can liven back up and be outside. The Dental A Team (01:46.702) I was actually thinking that last night when I was like, gosh, dang it, what do do? And I was like, Britt would totally be on a ride right now if she could. I love it. I love it. Well, I want to hear from you guys. What do you do when it's nice outside? And I hope that some of you are in some beautiful weather as well. I know we've got some Arizona listeners out there for sure. But we've got listeners all over the country. And honestly, we have listeners outside the country. So I love hearing about the weather. I love thinking about that. And I love just making sure that Britt (01:52.384) -huh. The Dental A Team (02:12.777) No matter what your experience with Dental A Team is top notch and we are here for it. So you guys today, I really want to talk about busy season because with fall coming, with winter coming, being in fall, all of these pieces, your busy season is about to really, really hit in the dental practice. I know for a lot of pediatric practices that summer. So sorry guys, you're coming out of your busy season, but for majority. Britt (02:38.145) Congratulations. The Dental A Team (02:38.89) Yeah, they were crazy, right? just did analysis with my Peto practice this morning in July and August were freaking bananas for them, but September is starting to slow down. So with October coming as well. So here we are in the middle of it all in the thick of it all and hopefully you guys have already done things to ramp up that schedule from September to October now looking freaking amazing and really just getting into it maybe within the year benefit letters things like that. I know we put all the suggestions out there. But as it gets busier, I know me and I think you know me. I you probably know me better than most people in my life at this point. I tend to, as it gets busier, get more and more and more forgetful. And I don't know if I'm the only one out there, but I'm forgetful by nature just in general. a very forgetful human being and I don't mean to be, but it's just who I am and I have to love myself for it. But as things get busier, especially when I was in practice, this time of year where it's like that end of year rush, get the end of your benefits done, prep for the new year that's still busy, we tend to forget to focus in on that ultimate patient experience. And those pieces that we do that really set us apart from other practices, they get forgotten. Those are the first things to go. It's kind of like forgetting the chocolate chips and the chocolate chip cookies and you ended up

Kiera and Dana download the latest Dental A-Team book, The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price. Specifically, the two discuss why it's so important to strive for playfulness, connection, and fun even in the workplace, as well as a new DAT project — coming March 2025! Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.026) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and I am so pumped. I got the one and only Dana with me, usually Tiff and Dana podcast. And today Dana and I are gonna podcast. How are you, Dana? Dana (00:11.532) I'm good. I'm excited to be here. I know it's been too long and it's a fun space, so I'm glad I'm here. Kiera Dent (00:17.514) I agree. told Shelbi, I was like, record. Can we start getting the consultants on with me too? Like I enjoy solo casting, but it'd be fun to hang. So I'm super glad. And today you guys, Dana and I are bringing you a special treat. We are going to book club podcast. Dana, Britt and I are probably the ones who actually book club in our company. So we're the constant three that do it. And I, as Dana this morning, I was like, did you by chance read that book? Because if so, I'd love a podcast guest with me on it. Thank you, Dana, for coming to the rescue with me. But I think it's gonna be great. Our podcast, our book club for this month is The Power of Fun, How to Feel Alive Again by Katherine Price. And honestly, Dana, I think you might know this, but maybe you don't. The reason I chose this podcast or this book was because the confetti was on the front. Like, that was why I chose it. On the book cover, there was confetti. Ryan Isaac and I were talking about it, because I think I sent him the book of like, Probably Die with Zero or profit first, like some like hard book and he's like, why don't we have more fun books, Kiera? So that's actually where it came from. But I'm super curious. Kind of let's dive into this book. If you guys didn't read it, totally fine. If you did, I think it's a slower read. I think Dana felt the same, but I think that there was a lot of good nuggets for now. And I'm all about how we can create more fun because I think adults forget how to have fun. That's I think my biggest takeaway is like, we've forgotten how to have fun. And she gave some good tips on how to have more fun in our lives. What about you, Dana? What do you think? Dana (01:46.936) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot for me to take away. I don't think I've ever like, categorized my fun, or like, thought about creating space for fun. Like I think I'm a person that has a lot of fun, and I laugh a lot and there's a lot of joy in my life. But I did definitely like reframe my like, okay, well, what level of fun am I having and prioritizing that higher level of fun or what she calls true fun in my life. Kiera Dent (02:14.752) Yeah, absolutely. And she kind of talked about like, well, I loved a lot that she talks about is how much of our society has actually shifted us to not have as much fun. And I think one of my favorite takeaways in the book was when she talked about how like, our cell phones were actually designed to be like slot machines. And so like slot machines are intent, like, so much study has gone into keeping people like in the slot machine mode. And yet if we're doing that with our phones, gosh, like our world is crazy to think about. And so helping us find ways to minimize distractions. And something she said is like, when you're not fully present, you're not happy. And so how can we be like in the moment having fun and like we're spending so much time consuming, but she said like, phones are actually causing constant stress and higher cortisol levels. And so playfulness, connection and fun are the things that we should be going for. And that's like laughing, being in nature, being purposeful and being present. And like times when we feel most alive are when we're actually playing. And I just thought it was such an interesting mindset of like, great, my phone's a freaking slot machine, which we all know. It's a heavily addictive, we're constantly wanting to go to it. And yet that's actually what's causing us to not have as much fun, which I don't know, like to be debated, like is it true? Is it not true? And this is where Dana and I love to book club. This is how we actually book club is we talk about like, well, what do you think? How do you feel about that? What are like your thoughts? So Dana, tell me your thoughts. Let's have a real book club, Denali team style today. Dana (03:34.574) Yeah, I mean, I do think that like, I can admit my phone can be a distraction and I can think that I'm enjoying something but if I put it away and I do something else, like, I can definitely see that I enjoy that other thing more, right? And so I thin

Kiera speaks with Drs. Nick and Whitney Forsythe about their journey of being married and buying (then growing) a dental practice, and where they are now. Points include not letting work ruin a personal life, laying the groundwork for a good reputation, managing schedules, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.634) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so giddy. I had this grandiose idea that I wanted to start bringing on some of my favorite people, my favorite doctors, and I could not be more excited to bring on these two doctors, Dr. Nick and Dr. Whitney. Our story goes so far back. I actually knew both of these two in dental school. I watched them fall in love, get married, have a baby, like all the things. They have two babies. They've got their practice and I just thought it'd be really fun for them to come on. because I think they have a really magical story of their practice and their practice journey and the things that we've gone on. So Nick and Whitney, welcome to the show. Two of my faves. How are you today? So good. for having us. Of course. It's so fun because we talk every single month and you guys are for years. Like how many years? About five, six years we've been doing this and you guys are my 6 a.m. call. We have had that call for years. And to just see where you're at now just makes me so happy. when I don't have my 6 a.m. call with you and I start calls, I'm like, well, my day started funny because it's all good. But it's been so fun over the years. We've just done a lot of fun things. And so I think you guys just have a very fun, like practice journey that you've been on. And I think like, let's just share some of the things as much as you guys want to. But really, I mean, I think you guys need to just share how you fell in love in dental school. Like who saw each other first? Because I don't even know this, Whitney, you were a year ahead of Nick. And it's just been fun for me to watch you like in the tooth lunch. Like I was the lunch lady. I just watched everybody fall in love and you guys were the cutest couple. Like who noticed who first? How did you guys actually meet? I need to know that. I was the cougar. It was just welcome week when they had all those like freshmen events. And then I was like, you're together so much too, that like everyone's kind of like, man, like you guys should meet up. And we, I got her number after a test, like a basic test. test no makeup. I remember walking you know we'd walk back and forth to the class and seeing you and you're like my gosh you guys you saw the progression. The Dental A Team (02:16.637) Whitney was a year ahead of Nick and it was just fun to watch like because Whitney you're a little more reserved which I'm shocked and so happy that you are on the podcast. Nick is the social butterfly in the relationship but still like you've got your reservations and whatnot but I was like watching Whitney like fall in love Nick was so cute and I just loved watching both of you and two of you. You two are I mean I think everybody finds their perfect match but you two are just like such an incredible couple and then I remember Nick you reached out to me you know so we're thinking about buying a practice Kiera what do you think and I was like Well, I think you guys should do it. And then lo and behold, move back up to Washington. You got your practice there. You bought a fee for service practice. I was scared out of my mind and I'm like, whoo fee for service practice. Everyone's kind of scared. Yeah, we get checks. would definitely say, I mean, you have to go with what you feel and you helped us look, we looked for. I was still in school. think we looked for two years. think our main issue was just finding a big enough practice or at least that we can grow into for both of the banks. And I think a lot of people were checking us on like, it's not going to be enough or there's a lot of things. we found, you know, after a while, I think if you look at enough deals, you finally get a sense of what feels good. And it did feel good. And we... Yeah, I mean, at the end, even at the final hour, people were still kind of like, should you do this? it worked out really well. You were with us every step. I mean, it's been an honor and it's been fun. And I just thought like, it's fun to share stories because I mean, even on a coaching call we had the other morning, it wasn't planned. And I didn't even realize we had the podcast coming up when we kind of went like on a little memory lane journey, which is what spurred the idea for this podcast of like, what you've been through to get here. And I mean, for full transparency, it was two doctors and a four-op practice that was fee for service. To say I was a little nervous is an understatement. was like, y

Did you know? Practices working with the Dental A-Team tend to see a 10 to 30% increase in revenue and at least a 5 to 10% decrease in overhead. In this episode, Kiera talks about key ways hiring a consultant for your practice will boost your success. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.038) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I am so excited because as things are coming to a wrap up at the end of the year, I know a lot of you are possibly talking to your CPAs, financial advisors, looking for all those different areas where you're possibly like, gosh, like maybe your practice is freaking thriving and you're looking for, it's end of year. What can I do? How can I maximize my practice? What are some options? Or maybe you're on the other end where you're like, gosh, 2024 was such a hard year for me. And so just wanted to pop on and let you know. three ways that a consultant can help your practice either thrive or come back from surviving into thriving. Because oftentimes we don't realize that consulting can actually propel our practices forward. It's also a complete tax write-off for most practices, which is great if you're thriving and you need to find ways to spend cash and be able to get through the end of the year. Consulting is actually a great option that a lot of offices do, whether it's a pay-in-full option or whether it's monthly payments or even some offices will pay 50 % end of year. and then 50 % throughout the rest of the year. So a lot of great options, but the reality is that I love about consulting is I like to invest in things that move me forward. So at the end of most years, I'm looking for what's an area or a gap that I have in my business, whether that's in my marketing department or my sales department or my dentist, like what dentists things can we bring to the practice? But every single thing that I'm adding into my practice, I want to make sure. is going to give me an ROI. So an ROI is a return on investment and I don't like to buy things that are just cash. So looking at like, if we were for example, to say buy a car, well, what's the ROI that that's gonna bring and bring money into my practice? Probably nothing. In Dental A Team, our clients tend to see a 10 to 30 % increase in revenue and at least a five to 10 % decrease in overhead. Now it is a two way street. We can give every tool and resource but if clients don't execute, then they're obviously not gonna see the same results. However, clients who do see the, who do implement and do receive the results, they actually see incredible value. So we have offices like this year that have added 10,000, 50,000, 100,000, 250,000, multiple millions to their schedules by working with us. We have other offices that have decreased their overhead. I had one office at the beginning of the year start out at 75 % overhead and they are now down to 53 % overhead with intentionality. Kiera Dent (02:20.43) leadership put into place where their team is actually looking at the numbers and viewing the practice in a way of as a business, not necessarily just as a practice. And so being able to find something where if we spend, say 20,000, can they give me at least 20,000 back and or more? So 40,000, 50,000, can I get a return on my investment is a really great thing to look. Other examples are like CBCT scans. Like, can you add that in and how many CBCTs could we do and give better patient care with purchasing these items? Maybe looking for an implant course that we could attend. Maybe looking for CE, but really doing something that's for our team and for every person on our practice to elevate. And that's actually something I love about Dental A Team is we aren't just focused on the doctors. I think going to all these events as business owners, I found that the hardest thing for me is when I show up to an event and then I have to come home and bring it back to my team. And it's like, I'm all ramped up and amped up, but the team didn't necessarily get the same excitement that I did. The team wasn't in on all those meetings and different pieces with me. And so therefore I feel like, gosh, like this is sometimes hard to get the buy-in. And so when we built Denali team, I said, hey, what we're actually gonna do is we're gonna build a company where we coach the doctors and we coach the team together. So doctors, we hear your plan of your vision. We help you build that vision. And then team members, help you implement and execute and build leadership teams and train your team on the billing and the tactical and all the systems. But we're helping you build the business, the practice of your dreams to be able to give the patient care and the team experience that you desire. And so thinking of those things, and that's kind of where I just wanted to pop in o

Tiff and Britt discuss what the end of 2024 should ideally look like as far as fee schedule analyses and negotiations. They touch on comparisons within your area, the right percentile to aim for, when to send out negotiation letters and requests, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.871) Hello, Dental A Team We are back at you again. I have Britt back with me today. We have some fun stuff to talk about and I'm excited for it. Britt think you are fantastic. You're a fantastic brain and I love picking your brain. So thank you for allowing me to do that. And we talked a lot of clinical recently and now I'm like switching your brain because I want to talk business side. Britt (00:02.536) you The Dental A Team (00:29.684) great at everything, but those two are like your powerhouse specialties. Always hygiene because you're hygienist by trade and by heart. But the business piece comes still naturally to you too. So I'm excited for today's topic. But what is something I'm totally making this up you guys so it's nervous now. Britt (00:48.887) I'll say one while you think about it. I'm like, Tiff is very generous. Tiff has a brain too. That's why we're nerdy consultants guys. Like these are the things we talk about with each other all the time. The Dental A Team (00:59.801) That's so true. That's so true. Thank you. That was very true. We're like, guess what happened? Did you know? What is something that you're excited for, for yourself or Dental A Team, like in the professional world we'll say, for this quarter? What's something you're excited for? Britt (01:03.189) you huh. Britt (01:24.503) excited. I'll tell you what, I love our group that we have going. One, we've got quite a few people that are hitting their best months ever. So that's super fun. And I'm just excited for that group over there and all the things they're going to accomplish over this next quarter. Because it's just fun. It's a fun, like I get to interact with them every single week. And it's just such a good time for me that I'm excited for them to end their year super strong over there. The Dental A Team (01:54.958) I agree. I agree. I think the doctor community in general that we've been able to create this year and the momentum that they've got going on over there has been so incredible. We've got the two different communities. For those of you who are with our, I'm going to say practice with our company on the group coaching level with Britt that you guys are thinking that you're speaking of now, it's freaking exploding over there. And those doctors are seeing some massive improvements and it's just so cool to see them. talking to because I think that's something just in nature that we need naturally as human beings is we need that like family space and they say it takes a village, right? They tell you it takes a village to raise a kid. It takes a village to do anything. We are meant to be in groups and not siloed. And in dentistry, it's so easy to silo ourselves. And I agree. I agree. I think that is a space of excitement this year. I love it. I wanted to see what you would say. I'm excited for that as well. And I'm excited to see what's on the horizon for 2025 for the Dental A Team and excited to see who's going to come on that journey with us. And hopefully all of you guys are coming on that podcasting journey with us. You can anticipate that this podcast will forevermore be here as far as we can see. We love delivering this content to you guys. We love being able to reach you in this way. And we hope that you have found benefits in it, that you share it, that you tell your friends, because we know, again, it takes a village. we love hearing stories of sharing. We love hearing stories of this podcast. Help me so much. I sent it to my friend. And just to remember you guys, like our mission is to get as much information out into the dental world as we possibly can and reach as many of you as we can. And it takes you to help us with that. So share these as they become. your favorites and so helpful in your lives and then share with us too anything that you feel like we could do more of anything any topics or things that you want more of we do pre -schedule these and that is on my to -do list so if you've got ideas I'm here for them. Britt (04:04.267) you know who to tell you say, Tiff, we want more of this. And she will, with consultants, help us pick out some awesome topics. The Dental A Team (04:07.649) Yes. The Dental A Team (04:11.694) Yes, yes, it's one of my favorite things to do. So I'm super excited. Today, I really want to talk about rounding out the end of the year and what that could look like as far as fee analysis, fee schedule analysis, negotiations, all of those pieces, we're getting asked to kind of those questions r

Kiera and Britt are joined by Dr. Renae Sweeney, a dentist in South Florida who put in a lot of work to make her practices stand out. The three discuss how she was able to effectively find her client base, the importance of staying confident in your goals, and more. Episode resources: Follow Dr. Sweeney on Instagram! Reach out to Tiff, Britt, and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.862) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is just a super fun day. I have two people on here today. I have Dr. Renae Sweeney. You may have seen her on social media. You may know Rafiki. You may know her birds. You may just see her as one of the funniest people on Instagram. And we have the one and only No BS, Stone coming on today. I'll start with Britt. How are you doing today, Britt? Welcome. Britt (00:24.645) I mean, I'm great. I'm excited to be here. I love when you share my nicknames now with clients since Dr. Sweeney is one of my clients that I get to work with. So you're welcome, Dr. Sweeney. Now you know what my nickname is. Kiera Dent (00:31.874) Ha ha. Kiera Dent (00:35.244) you Dr. Renae Sweeney (00:36.044) Yes, I love it. love it. No, super excited to be here with you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Kiera Dent (00:39.221) And dr. Sweeney welcome. Yeah, we're so excited Like I love you. I don't know as much about you because Britt has worked with you guys for so many years you and Soon to be hubby, right soon to be Dr. Renae Sweeney (00:49.033) Yes, yes. Dr. Renae Sweeney (00:54.355) No, he's so is that it's actually a little bit confusing. So we've actually been married for three years, but we are finally doing our wedding this year. So I know it's like a little bit confusing because yes, we're we're having our wedding actually in six weeks. Funny enough. But yes, we've been married for three years already, which is crazy. Kiera Dent (01:02.249) Okay Kiera Dent (01:09.398) That's amazing. Okay, so married we've been like Britt has worked with you and your husband we can now say husband but like wedding that's exciting. That's gonna be so fun. So I thought it'd just be fun to like bring both of you on. I want to know all about your bird like everybody I think I want to know some about your social media. But I thought it'd be really fun for you and Britt to kind of go on like a little walk of like how you guys were how you guys met Britt told me that she loves working with you and Dr. Renae Sweeney (01:17.706) Yes. Dr. Renae Sweeney (01:30.73) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (01:35.82) Dr. Molina because you guys are truly like a dynamite couple. You're willing to try everything. You guys have grown so much. You've gone from one practice to two practices looking for a third. So Britt, I'm going to kind of let you like jump in and guide and navigate on some ways too. But really, I think it's just going to be fun of like, let's go on like a walk down memory lane of what are some of the things you guys have done to get to this level. And Renae, you're so fun. Like you're so happy and so vibrant and yet you guys have a lot going on. So I will kind of turn it to Britt. Dr. Renae Sweeney (01:36.64) Yes. Dr. Renae Sweeney (01:43.478) Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Dr. Renae Sweeney (01:58.923) Thank Kiera Dent (02:02.348) Have fun, let's do a little walk down memory lane and of course I'm gonna interject because I'm gonna have a ton of questions. Dr. Renae Sweeney (02:06.879) Yeah. Britt (02:07.97) Well, the fun thing of the walk down memory lane, I think is that I worked with Dr. Molina first, right? And one location and Dr. Sweeney, you were still, think, working somewhere else, right? Dr. Renae Sweeney (02:14.547) Yes. Dr. Renae Sweeney (02:20.489) Yeah, so when we when we bought the first practice, I was still working actually like at a corporate office. So I've kind of been in my background, worked for a nonprofit, worked for private practice, worked for corporate offices all before I like we bought a second location, which is the location that I'm mainly at. So yes, you did start with kind of like him on the side. So I was like in that but kind of indirectly in it. But yes, so which is crazy, because I think it's been like over three years now, which is wild. Kiera Dent (02:49.068) I just remember calling Dr. Molina one day. Like we were just having a conversation. He's like, what on earth? Amazon just threw a package in our pool. Like that was literally like the conversation I had with him and it feels so telling of his personality. You guys are in Florida. You're in a very saturated area, which I love because you found success in a saturated area, but you've been behind the scenes. You bought a practice that was mostly Spanish speaking and I'm sure your Spanish was like not quite there yet. So. Dr. Renae Sweeney (03:00.545) Yes. Yes. It was. Dr. Renae Sweeney (03:11.73) Yes. y

Tiff, Britt, and Dana are on the podcast to celebrate those guiding dental practices around the country, including Dental A-Team's own, Kiera Dent. Let's give it up to the bosses who we know constantly have their teams' well-being top of mind. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff, Britt, and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.719) Hello everyone. Welcome back to the podcast today is a really fun adventure of a podcast for us today. I snagged both Brittany and Dana for today's podcast and this is super special to us. This is like so close to our hearts and we're so excited to be here. I don't think that we've done a threesome here in a while and that makes me excited. I hope it makes everyone excited. But today is. bosses day you guys this is national bosses day and this is a day to recognize our teams as well as most importantly today our bosses and we really just want to have some discussions around that so I snagged Britt and Dana today for this incredibly special and hit home hit our hearts podcast today ladies Britt so we don't all speak at the same time how are you today how is how is Britt's world Britt (00:56.812) mean, Britt's World is good. Whenever I get to spend time with you guys all together, I don't know that all our listeners understand how much we actually enjoy hanging out with each other. And so getting to spend some time together on the podcast, thanks for doing it, Tiff. The Dental A Team (01:04.62) That's true. The Dental A Team (01:10.856) Of course, of course it was Shelbi's brilliant brain came up with this idea and she's like, this is coming. I was like, thank goodness. I always miss these dang things. I'm like the, the, you know, thought that counts person. So I was just so happy she thought of it and Dana, Danie over there. How are you? Dana (01:29.574) I don't know if I'm gonna live that one down. I'm doing good. Again, just like Britt said, excited to be here, excited to just get a couple extra moments with you two. The Dental A Team (01:31.68) You're not. The Dental A Team (01:39.131) Awesome. I agree. I agree. And today you guys, I love having the two of you on here. It's so fun. And I'm just so excited to really pour our hearts and our souls into today's podcast for the listeners and for the world to hear but specifically right now in this moment from this care that to hear she is our boss, our leader, our you know, star finder and growth. grower, like she's our pusher, she's our everything that this company requires in order to keep going. She is the push that's behind us and the love and the heart and the soul that's behind us as well. And I think every one of us on the team could come up with 500 different reasons why she is the incredible leader that she is. But luckily for us, we're the podcasters. So we get to do we get to do the fun part today and love on Miss Kiera Dent and I think each of us will kind of chime in here and go. We're not gonna take two hours of your time diving into all of these pieces, but Ms. Kiera Dent, she's likely listening to this. At some point, she listens to all of them. And I really want to, from the bottom of my soul, recognize today just the incredible leadership skills that she has honed in over the years. Kiera and I, we've known each other for... seven, a little over seven years now. Gosh, I think we're like coming up on seven and a half years actually, which is a long time in the world that we live in. And I have had the incredible experience and the incredible opportunity of watching Kiera grow as a human, a real life person and as a leader. And within this company, I have seen her grow through so many stages. And I can't say all, because I know there's still more to come, but she has just become this incredible, invaluable. piece of all of our lives whether it's in the business and in the company or outside of the company and I hope that she Realizes that and I know she doesn't so I know As often as we can saying it out loud to her in a public platform or wherever it can possibly be She needs to hear those things and the culture that she has she has created and the culture that she has realized that we needed and that she realizes realized that she wanted to emanate to The Dental A Team (03:54.642) her team and to the world to massively impact the dental industry on such a high scale like we can is really, really, really key aspect of who she is for us. And ladies, I don't want to steal all the show. know I talk the most. It's just my God given talent here. But I want you guys to chime in too and just let's love on Kiera. And then you guys, we're going to dive into some stories and it's going to be going to be boss day story time. Don't worry, Kiera. personal stories, it's going to be a boss day story time for all of our clients too. So ladies, welcome to the show. Thank you

Is there a service in the dentistry field you're interested in learning more about — perhaps enough to add it to your practice? Tiff and Britt dive deep into how to go about expanding services. They give examples, how to tap into your creative side, hurdles that might come up and how to pivot, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.134) Hello Dental A Team listeners, we're back today. You've got Tiff and Britt and I'm using your Britt nickname today. Always, I said Brittany Stone last time and like you mentioned, like it's always a little weird. It's so weird to me when people say, this is Tiffanie. And I'm like, it's Tiff. Tiffanie is like so formal. It makes me sound, it either makes me feel like a child or old. Like there's no in -between. It's not my age right now. Whatever, whatever this in -between stages is Tiff. So Britt. Welcome back. I'm excited to be here with you today. I think we have a fun topic that is right up your alley. You love the clinical stuff and this one's diving into clinical. How are you this beautiful afternoon? Yeah. Britt (00:44.197) different crowds. don't know about you, Brittany or like Brett or if you're Tiffanie or Tiff for me, like it just it depends on what crowds and like kind of like what phase of life did I go by my full name or my short name. So but I'm doing great today. I'm excited to be here. Agreed. I love chatting a variety of things, right? So it's always fun. We love it with clients because you never know what they're gonna throw at us, which just makes our life super fun, which I think we love about it. And I think we've got a fun one for everybody today. The Dental A Team (00:54.293) Yes! I agree! The Dental A Team (01:07.628) So true. The Dental A Team (01:13.036) I agree. I agree. I do love I like have a love hate for it. I should say, right? Like I love being thrown curveballs. But then sometimes I'm like, Whoa, my brain. Like this is a big one or dang, I had 15 curveballs but five with five clients this just today like and sometimes it's exhausting but I do love it. I had a client yesterday. We were talking about Britt (01:22.03) That's nice. The Dental A Team (01:38.528) something I can't even I told the last podcast I told you I can't remember all that far. But we're talking about something and I was like, gosh, this is actually it was it's a different type of marketing. And it was two days ago. That's why I can't remember. But they're in a space they're in a they're in Texas. And they're in a community in Texas that is it's just oil fields like they're just it's the oil field industry. And Initially, they're like, how do we stop cancellations? I'm like, fantastic. Like, here's some pieces, here's some things. And then we're like digging through and we're realizing, I'm like, listen, guys, like, let's put these pieces into play for sure. But sometimes you're just in a place that's like, you're going to experience cancellations. These people are getting sent out at midnight for three months to go work in a different oil field. Like they don't have the flexibility. And so it was really cool. And the conversation, the point I say this is like, I had to really think outside the box and I said, you guys, your marketing, your systems, while I have systems that are tied and true and I know that they work, this is why doing it here is different. I may say this is why Dental A Team is different, because calling further in advance on your confirmations or telling them you're going to charge them or coming up with all of these solutions that work for many practices, let's implement those for sure, but you've got a different type of community. I think changing your marketing to we're here when you need us, because that's what you're hearing. And more of that like same day, let's get patients in, hey, call us, switching the marketing efforts is going to work in your area. And the reason that was so cool was because it was so drastically different than majority of other clients. And it was really fun to get that outside the box thinking and like, gosh, okay, let's put our hats on and we brainstorm together and the hygienist in that call was just like, she stood up at the end and she was like, I am so excited for this because at the end of every visit, when I walk them up and I do my NDTR, I tell them, if you need anything else between your appointments, we're here for you, please call. She's like, so this is expanding on that and I was like, you've already been priming your patients for it. The Dental A Team (03:48.199) This is exactly what we need to do. But it was so cool, Britt, because that just highlights like the differences and really getting thrown those curve balls and having fun with it and really diving in and figuring out where are you and how can w

Kiera is a guest on the Dental Lighthouse Podcast with Jason Tanoory to talk about the power of quarterly meetings. They discuss the benefits of a third party, how to have healthy conversations, and why there needs to be an atmosphere of trust and vulnerability to have good communication. Episode resources: Listen to the Dental Lighthouse Podcast Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02.151) Dr. Jason here, welcome back Dental Lighthouse podcast. On today's show, I have the one, the only, Kiera Dent. And hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I have the one and only Jason Tanoory. This is seven years in the making. seven years I've been trying to get on Kiera's podcast. And after begging, for the last three days, because Kiera and have been together nonstop for the last three days. She has finally allowed to give me a six minute window of recording time. Not true. We had to extend this longer because we only had 30 minutes originally. you said, no, no, need more time to unpack this. I have so many issues that I need to unpack that doing it in six minutes was not going to be a window. It's true. But honestly, I do feel like it was It was a missed opportunity. I've podcasted with Amy many times on the podcast, but for Jason and I to get here, I mean, think this is the most we've hung out at any time I've come to these meetings with you. And so maybe that was what, how it happened this round, but truly, think honestly, in the seven years we worked together, it's been really fun to watch your practice evolve. And so I'm super excited to rift on this. I mean, I can ask questions. We didn't know whose podcast we were basically hosting from, cause we now are both hosts. But I think there's just been some really incredible things that have come out in seven years. I watched your practices grow exponentially over the years. I watched you grow. I watched Amy grow. I watched your teams evolve. And being able to do these quarterlies, everyone says, Kiera, you still consult. And I'm like, I do consult still. But honestly, Jason, and this is not me trying to boost your ego for any stretch. I continually have come out here. It's so far away. You my furthest office. The Dental A Team (02:19.946) I even got COVID here one time and stayed at the holiday for like a week. But I just learned so much. I think you're an incredible leader. think the world needs more of you and what you're doing. And so it's just really fun to have you and me kind of have this rift of a podcast today and share the things that we've learned possibly over the years. Wow. So I was not expecting that. Maybe we should have practiced before we hit record. But thank you so much for saying that. I really appreciate it. Let's give our listeners a little bit of context here, right? So you guys know my story and you obviously, if you're a listener of Kiera's podcast, you know her story. Our story is that about six or seven years ago, we were starting to scale at a level that I was worried about controlling it. I was worried about how to get out of the weeds and work on the business instead of being stuck in it. And I was worried about having someone to basically MC our leadership meetings, facilitate them, run them, make sure we stay on track. And the first person I thought to help me with that was Kiera. And she has been doing that in some capacity for us over the last seven years. And it's just been... such a blessing for us to have her to lean on over the last seven years as we've continued to scale. And that's why we're together today. We're basically wrapping up our final quarterly meeting. this week had two quarterly meetings every day lasting anywhere from two to five hours, depending on the size of the office. We're just about to roll into our final one in about an hour or so. So maybe we talk about this week, maybe we just talk about, well, I'll talk about anything. What do you think? Yeah, I think talking about this week since it's so relevant and I think it's actually super interesting to know something as I watched, you asked me to come in and help. We were kind of building off of the EOS model. Traction was where we started. I remember I had no clue what you were talking about and you said, don't worry, Kiera, you know dental, we know traction. We'll just work together. The Dental A Team (04:42.606) But I think that that's something I've always loved about you and your practices is you guys will try anything. You're great implementers, you're great executors, you have a really beautiful vision. And I even think back to our first meeting, what your vision was to what your vision is today and the way you've been able to explain that to your team. so yeah, I think, and then I remember Amy called me one time and said, Kiera we're not just gonna have you work with o

So much of practice profitability comes from tracking supplies and overhead. Kiera pulls back the curtain on how practices can keep track of supplies, avoid shortages, and stay within budget. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.59) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the podcast. I hope you guys, it's crazy to think I've been doing this podcast for so long and I still get new ideas and that's thanks to you guys. So just so you know, the podcast is built for team members and teams, doctors and owners by team members and practice owners to give you guys the best tips and tricks to be able to share from hundreds of practices across the nation and across the globe to give you the shortcuts to success and to give you a community so you don't feel like you have to do this alone. I was at my, my gosh, I'm going to say the words on the podcast. You guys, you're going to find out how old I am. I went to my 20 year high school reunion. I kid you not. And I was terrified to go. none of my friends from high school that I hung out with in high school were going. So I was going kind of solo and, and by like none of my friends, did know people, but they weren't like the close friends that I'd hung out with all the time. None of them were going. And I was super stressed and I didn't know if I wanted to go. And I almost bailed about 20 times. And then I decided, you can always just leave. Just go say hello. You've already paid. It's right by my parents' house. It's not far away. And it was interesting because there was a girl that we weren't necessarily close in high school. I knew of her. She knew of me. But it was fun because she built a business. I built a business. And we were talking because when you're business owners, know there's not a lot of people you can actually geek out with all the time and talk to them about business strengths and weaknesses She said to me, said, know, Kiera I'd really love to get with you more often because I feel like as business owners, we need that community and we need people that are like us to help us know that we're going through it. And I just thought, I am so lucky because my dentists do have a community and the dentist I consult have a community and they don't have to do this alone. And they're like, I've literally been there, done that and done it successfully. And our team has been there, done that and done it successfully. And we're able to share with you all the tips and all the tricks and all the things. So that way you don't have to go through the hard things. If I could find somebody who has grown a consulting company, which I did, that's who I hired as my coach. but really just like leaning in. And then what I decided to do is our dentists, we actually meet the first Tuesday of every month. call that think tank Tuesday for our one -on -one clients. And then our group mastermind, which is so freaking fun. It's a really, really, really, really awesome community that I'm loving. And they get. Kiera Dent (02:21.448) way more access than they even do on one -on -one. But every single week they come together for Ask Consultants Everything. And then we also have a mastermind where they get to come together as well. And my biggest piece was I was thinking back to why did I join Tony Robbins? And I thought I joined it for Tony Robbins, but I realized I joined it for a community of people that push me, that I'm not the smartest one in the room, that people can help me run my business in ways that I don't even know because community is what we're all here for. And so for you guys, to just think like how blessed are we to have this podcast community to be able to come and share from hundreds of practices and get best ideas and to really get out there. Because what I found is in today's world, we don't have to be alone unless we want to. We don't have to do this on our own unless we want to. And I will literally give you every single piece of knowledge that I have anywhere and everywhere to make sure that you succeed and that you've lived the life you want. My goal is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. Dentistry is my platform and life is my passion to give you guys the life that you deserve, to give you the team and the skills for doctors and teams to flourish. So today I really wanted to just go through a quick tactical for you about inventory management, which is not my typical podcast style. Normally I'm more about life, but today I thought, let me give you guys some quick tips on how to do supplies and to keep track of your supplies and make sure that we don't have shortages, make sure that we're within budget. And kind of just helping you and your team get on that because what I found is so much of profitability comes from tracking o

Tiff and Dana are encouraging listeners to start planning for an end-of-year celebration now to show your appreciation for the team. Their advice includes ideas that cost money, and ones that don't! Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.756) Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Tiff I am back at it today with miss Dana and Dana I'm so excited for you to be here with me We've had a lot of time together like this recently and it makes me so happy. I love when we can do it and Gosh, we need to schedule that hike. I'm telling you it's getting to the fall So I can come down and see you soon. know that Aaron and I want to do that soon. So how are you today, Dana? How's life in Southern Arizona treating you today? Dana (00:31.429) doing pretty good like you said around the outfall although it's still in the hundreds so the thought of hiking sometimes is like you know what Tiff like maybe October you know what you're really good The Dental A Team (00:35.934) It's so hot! Yeah, maybe November. Yep. Good. Awesome. Well, Dana, today's podcast is your baby. This is something and I know I always give you like props for the operations manual and you guys yeah, she is our operations manual whiz but this this today is something that Dana's actually really fantastic at, she is fantastic at that too, but this is something that comes from her heart and her soul and something that we at Dental A Team gifted her as part of her position with us, just because it really, it literally comes from your heart and your soul, Dana. And you are so, so good at keying into people and what will make them happiest and how, how to make people feel appreciated and valued and with gifts and words for sure, but like celebrating other people and building out end of year celebrations. And I really want this podcast today. This is your baby. I want you to speak to one, how you do it and two, are some, what are some things that doctors and practice leaders and owners can really can do to celebrate the end of the year, whether we hit our goals, which I hope you did, or whether we didn't, we should still celebrate the work that we put in. But This is your baby and I want to hear from you, Dana, on how you think end of year celebrating should go for practices and number one, how you do it because you are so passionate about this space and we value and appreciate that. you guys, you clients get birthday presents, celebratory gifts, cards, flowers, any of those pieces, I want you to know that Dana is the person behind all of that. The Dental A Team (02:32.106) incredibly valuable piece of our company. So Dana, thank you for that. Take us away. This is your baby. Dana (02:38.251) Aw, thanks, Tiff. It truly is like one of my favorite spaces, just in life in general. I think I'm like this in my personal life too. And I think it comes down to being intentional. And I think for a lot of office this end of the year, like we don't think about it until the end of the year. And so I am going to prompt you that yes, while we are closer to the end of the year, be thinking about this. as much as you can, right? And so I think a great thing is knowing your team, right? Whether it's through one -on -ones, whether it's through a survey when they're hired, whether it's through just taking inventory and listening to conversations that you hear, but knowing the things that your team members like, enjoy what makes them feel appreciated. So I think it's doing purposeful things throughout the year to gain some of this information to be able to celebrate at the end of the year or celebrate throughout the year too. A lot of this information is super helpful for birthdays, super helpful for work anniversaries, super helpful for like you just did a fantastic job and I appreciate you. So I think it is getting to know those spaces and then the pieces that your team member really like they do get excited about and then kind of to feeding a little bit of like common interests. Are there things that when it comes to the end of the year and we're doing something for the team, are there things or common interests woven throughout the team that really would make it more special or more memorable? Or you know make them feel more appreciated because it is tailored to like their likes their goals their dreams those types of things and then I also just want to highlight like budget for this right because it's oftentimes we get to the end of the year and it's like man I've got to do this end of the year shebang and like I don't have any funds for it I wasn't thinking about it or planning for it so when you're planning for your year make that a part of if we can say hey if I set aside $100 or The Dental A Team (04:16.551) Yeah. Dana (04:30.813) $200 every single month in my little end of the y