Dental A Team Podcast

Many Dental A-Team clients have been able to successfully pull back on days worked while maintaining practice success, and Kiera's here to tell you how they did it (without feeling guilty). Kiera touches on multiple ingredients to scale back successfully, including developing current associates or bringing on new ones, picking a date and making a plan, knowing the ins and outs of your numbers now and in the future, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and today is a great day. I am excited to talk about how to create more and do less. so many dentists want to scale back, they don't want to work as many days. And we have several clients that have successfully been able to go from where they were to where they wanted to be and be able to do it really successfully and not kill the practice. Some do, some genuinely do.   But today I want to work with you and talk to you about how you are able to do this successfully and not call like slow down completely your practice. So I hope you're excited for it. I'm excited for it. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. If you're new here, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent. I love podcasting and I love all things dentistry. If you're an OG and you've been here for a long time, thanks for hanging out with us. and for all of you listening, thank you for sharing our podcast and making it one of the top most elite dental podcasts out there.   I come in and I give you guys the best of the best. You go out and you share it. You like it, you review it, you share it with your friends and colleagues. And I just want to say thank you because you know our mission is to positively and measurably, I added a new one, everybody, positively and measurably impact dentistry in the greatest way possible. And our clients tend to see a 10 to 30% increase in production. we just had an office and like their numbers weren't as high as I wanted them to be. I was a little disappointed in it. However, we were doing multi, multi-millions.   And we were able to still grow them 1%. Now you might be like, 1% here, that's not something to brag about on podcast. No, and we're in the upper, upper, upper millions, 1%, and increasing their collections by 3%, and increasing across the board of multi-locations their diagnosis on an average of about 15 to 20% per location and increasing their case acceptance. Those things, well, yes, my first year was not sexy.   It was still in the upwards of 500,000, all in of how much they were able to grow in one year, which is very impressive. but what's super rat is I feel like we gave them the diet, the exercise, and they don't quite have the six pack yet, but they're on their way. So just so you know, our clients tend to see massive results. and also they do that in their life, not just their business. So I guess I care about your PL and your numbers.   I also care about your life PL and how are you living and is this the best life you've got, which is why today's podcast is so fun for me because how do you actually scale back and work less days without destroying it? And like I said, I have a dentist, he's working three days now, about to go down to two days, and the practice is growing exponentially. I have another dentist who's down to two days because that's what she wanted to work, and her practice maintained what she did last year working five days. So, just so you know, she didn't grow.   But she also didn't lose. And so there's ways to do this and there's ways to do it successfully. So I just want you to know that you've got to be preparing for this. We can't just say, like, my gosh, I want to do this because we can't just like delete a day. But I will say that there are a lot of ways that you're able to do it. A lot of times it's developing a doctor, sometimes it's maximizing your schedule. So I want you to know that, like, also when you scale back and you want to step away, please get rid of that like mean girl, mean guy on your shoulder that's saying, like, you're just not gonna care about your practice. Like, no.   You still care about your practice, you still love your patients, you also care about yourself and you want to have the best life. You built a business to have your best life. Your business should be serving your life. And I want you to just keep that as a mantra. Whatever life you want is totally doable. There is no playbook of how to run life. There's your playbook of how you want to run your life. So let's make this business serve your life. So there's a few things that I want to go over today. I want to talk about like the timeline and how you reduce clinical days.   How you can develop current associates if you want to. You don't always have to. Like I mentioned, there's another dentist and she just cut back days and we were able to maintain her same production. And how to like look for other future associates if your practice is not there yet, because there might be certain things that you want to do. So I am so excited for you. I really do like to help dentists become CEOs of their practice, help them become the business owners that they were meant to be, not the business operators, and really truly obsessing about the life that they're living, not just like the paycheck they're taking home.   I think you can have both. I don't think it needs to be an or my paycheck or my life. I think it can be my paycheck, my practice, and my life all together. So let's build this backwards so that way stepping away becomes a planned transition as a so de instead of like it being a production emergency. So number one, I want you just to kind of put a date on the on the calendar. So we love to work with our clients. I follow the traction model, one, three, 10-year goals. What are we looking at? How are we building that? What is your future? And what's that date? this year I said I wanted to be.   Fully in the CEO seat by September. Well, guess what? It's past September and I'm not fully in that seat. So just because I put it on the paper doesn't mean that it's automatically going to happen. However, that is the goal that is the star that is the lighthouse on the hill that helps us get closer and closer. Am I closer today than I was in January when I set that goal? You better freaking believe it. Am I perfectly there? No. Were there setbacks and unexpected things? Of course.   But that's not what, like again, goals are stars to guide by, not sticks to beat ourselves with. And I really want you to take that. I want you to hear that. And I want you to take that mantra on. So we're gonna set the day of where we want to have it. And then all we have to do is work backwards. In our in-person Doctor Mastermind, yes, we bring our doctors and our leadership teams together twice a year. And it is freaking lit, guys. Like I am obsessed. Doctors are telling us it's one of their favorite things Dental A Team's putting on. We just did one of these in September and had almost a hundred people in the room. Like it was just an epic.   Like I love a good brainstorm mastermind think tank version of people that are just there. Like not everybody's at the exact same level. There's so many different people there. But to just learn and obsess and to walk out of there as a better person and to rub shoulders with really smart people and to be one of those really smart people rubbing shoulders as well, like our clients are the best. So that's something that intrigues you. reach out. [email protected]. Come be a part of it. If you think you're one those awesome people.   And even if you're curious or you're doubting yourself, that means you actually are an awesome person. So come reach out, [email protected]. I'd love you to be in the room with us. but while we were there, we were talking about like what their goals need to be and where they need to get to. And it was fascinating because people get so obsessed about their goals and their pieces, but then they have the the how, right? So they're able to talk to other people, they're able to ask other people how they did that, what's the steps that they took.   So that way they're able to learn from other people's decisions as opposed to just needing to do it on their own. So when you're looking at this, put the date on the calendar. What's the date? And we're gonna work it backwards. And that was something I was meaning of at our mastermind. We literally just took this of like, what hours do people want to work? How many vacations do they want to have? What's the production we need to cover our costs? We do this with our clients. We actually build you an annual plan of what is our what do our costs? How much does it cost to run our business? How many days do we want to work?   Got a lot of doctors that want to take a week off every quarter. By all means, let's put it in there. It just changes what we got to produce per day. But that's very easy. Like it genuinely is easy. I said this on the podcast a few weeks ago. if you want to add 10 grand to your practice, you need to add an extra 600-ish. 625, I think is the total dollar amount per day if you're working four days a week. That's it. 625 in dentistry is a couple fluorides, an FMX, doing an extra filling here or there.   It is not a lot. And that's what I just want you to realize is dentistry is so incredible on how you're able to do this. So stepping back can actually be sooner than you thought it was. So I want you to put a date of where do you want to be? Do I want to be down to three days? Do I want to be down to four days? And let's be realistic. Like for me, saying going from like all in to just being in the CEO seat, like that was pretty aggressive. And I didn't stair step it back to say like what specifically needs to happen and when. We have been pushing hard, we've been interviewing a lot of people. And guess what? S

This episode is about decision fatigue as a leader, and how to inspire your team to answer their own questions. Kiera talks about why practice owners so often create dependency with their teams, and gives specific steps for how to about-face those problems so that they're being solved without your input.  Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today, I hope owners I'm speaking directly to you. If this resonates with you, hype five. You're not alone. it's the owner interruption problem. Like, why the team keeps pulling you back in when you're like, listen, all of you could solve these problems. And teams, this is for you to figure out like what are we doing and how could we actually fix it so we're not reliant on our doctor because I know you don't want to. So I think that this is something we're like.   Doctors and myself included, CEOs out there. I feel like sometimes being a CEO is death by a thousand cuts, aka being pecked to death by the number of questions people want you to solve on a daily basis. It's called decision fatigue. Like literally, there are studies out there that, like, if you're going into the judge, like if you ever have to go have a judge like determine your fate, you don't want to catch them right before they go to lunch, nor at the end of the day, because they've had all these decisions, they're actually angry and they do worse sentences. Like, truly, there's a study on this.   versus the judge at the beginning of the day or right after lunch, they do nicer sentencing. So if you ever have to get in there, I hope you never do. But literally it is statistically proven that there is decision fatigue. And so if you've got like 50 questions coming to you, you're exhausted, you're like, my gosh, like Jason sometimes is like, hey Kiera, what do you want for dinner? And I'm like, I just look at him, he's like, got it, decision fatigue, I'll figure that out. Like that is part of the game. But if we're getting all these questions, it might not be our team's problem. It might be that we've actually unintentionally trained them.   To follow this process. So a lot of times we think like, hey, this is just normal leadership. Like, I need to be an example. I always need to be there for my team. And the answer is like yes and no. Like there can be both. if we're constantly having interruptions, constantly having little questions come to us, it might be that like leadership systems are missing for you. And so I want to give you guys today like why our team keeps pulling back into these daily decisions where you're like, honestly, you know what type of gluma to order, order it.   How sometimes owners accidentally create dependency, like unintentionally, and like being a founder-built company, I can relate with the best of you all. This is Kiera not coming in here with judgment. This is Kiera coming in with a giant hug and saying, Hey, I see you, I hear you, and let's get you out of that because there is a path out. And then just like some ways for you to stop being the bottleneck in your practice. So, just so you guys know, we're the Dental A Team. We started about 10 years ago. Can you believe it? That's wild. And I was obsessed with all things dentistry, being a team member.   To a practice owner, to a CEO of multi-million dollar businesses, I realized there was a complete gap in the industry where I needed like team members, like what teams need versus what owner doctors need. Like, hey, let's bridge that gap. And so we created a Dental A Team. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry. I'm obsessed with helping doctors and teams live their absolute best lives, learn the numbers, be able to say yes more to the things they want in their life, having your business work for you rather than the other way around. I genuinely believe and I've seen that running a successful practice can and it should be easy for you.   So if you're struggling and you're like, practice ownership is the worst part of my life, reach out. [email protected]. I'd love to talk to you. I'd love to give you guys like free analysis of your practice, like what are some quick few quick things? because a lot of times you probably know the path, but it just sometimes feels like this overwhelm of like, gosh, there's so many things. And sometimes you just need somebody who's not sitting in the practice with you every day, who's been there, done it, done it successfully so many times over to kind of pull you out and say, this is what we actually need to work on. Let's focus on this. So reach out.   [email protected]. I'm obsessed with our practices. We meet in person. We fly to your practices. We do it virtually. You name it. There's probably a different way that we could coach you in your practice. And we do it with fun. Lots of confetti, like not real confetti, but ultimately I believe that life is meant to be fun. So let's have fun. Let's get you successful. Let's help you have the best practice. And realistically, I'm so glad you're here listening. If you're obsessed with this podcast like I am, leave us five stars, share it with a friend. That is the way you're going to help us get into the hands of every practice out there and just know.   That is a massive, massive, massive thank you from me for all of you that have followed us that have been a part of this journey. And if you're new, welcome. If you're an OG who's been here since the get-go, welcome. I'm obsessed with you and I'm rooting for you, and I'm your biggest fan, and I hope you know that. All right, let's get into it today. We are not going to be having every decision land on your desk after today's episode. All right. So, step one, I think back to this. I remember there was a girl named Ashley that I used to work with. Ashley was awesome.   All I did, like she'd given the information out, but I knew if I just texted her or emailed her, Ashley would get it right back to me so fast. Fun fact, you probably are the Ashley in your practice where your team comes to you, Doctor, you're the best, you're the fastest, you're the easiest answer. I know if I come to you, you're gonna give me an answer. I know that you can have it. I don't have to like wait and wait and wait and remember to follow up with you. So we've created this dependency because the problem is that speed creates dependency. If I know you're the fastest path, I'm gonna go to you. Just like when we were kids, am I gonna go talk to mom or am I gonna talk to dad? Who am I gonna get the best answer from?   That's who I'm gonna go talk to. Same thing with your team. They're going to like so what it looks like is a team member comes and asks a question, doctor immediately gives an answer, team member returns tomorrow with another question. Does anybody like you feel like you're on freaking psycho? And you're like sitting there trying to do your notes and like hey doc, what about this? And you're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're just doing your notes like you're on autopilot. You think that you're doing the best for your team I'm getting them the answers. Absolutely not. Because now your team stops critically thinking.   confidence decreases. They feel like they always need your approval. You are the one who knows all the answers. And owner becomes a solution to every single thing. Trust me, I've been in this boat. Sometimes I'm still in this boat so much. So one of our team members, literally this week, she sent me a slack and she's like, Kiera, I feel bad bothering you about this. What color of pens do you want? And then she slacked me again and was like, I don't know why I'm bothering you about pens. You're the CEO. Stay out of the weeds. I got this. And I was so proud of her and I was so proud of myself because guess what?   For so long I have been the answer person. Being a founder who starts something, like you're the one, you're like, you gotta be the scrap who knows how to do everything. But morphing into the CEO, like, you want to become the CEO of your practice, get out of the weeds. Get a team that can make these decisions for you. And a good way is to push back and to say, like, hey, what do you think is the best answer for this? Because when I stop becoming that fast answer, they don't wanna come to me. And I like, if Ashley would have just put up a little wall and been like,   Well, she did. She did one time. I remember I was like, Hey, Ashley, can you send me this stuff? She's like, here it's in an email. Never went back to Ashley. I was let me go check my emails first because Ashley's gonna make me go check my emails. She trained me, just like you, doctor, to like, hey, what do you think? Or hey, is this in our operations manual? Or hey, I trust you, you've got this, go make the decision. It was fascinating because there was another office that I just worked with and I was on a call. So like they were talking to us about working together consulting and   It was an office manager and a lead hygienist, and they were on the call. And I was like, Hey, does your doctor need to be here? Because I know most of the time team members can't make these kind of decisions. And they're like, No, our doctor's worked with us for 18 years. We know we got this. He trusts us to make this decision. I kid you not, later that day they came back to me. They're Yep, we're signing up. I have not spoken to that doctor one time and they have signed up. They're working with us as a client. And I thought about how crazy cool that there's a doctor who's given that much autonomy.   trust in their team. They didn't even go ask, like they talked to them a little bit, but they were able to make a very large decision for their practice. And I've never met the doctor. So my question for you is like that team knows how to be critical. They know how to ask the best questions. They know

Feeling a too-light schedule load lately? Tiff is joined by DAT podcast first-timer Diana to share the secret sauce for killer referral systems, and how to design one that works for your practice and grows from the patients you already have.  Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are here with you. You have me, Spiffy Tiffy, that is one of my favorite nicknames that Miss Kiera Dent has ever given me uh with you today. And I'm so excited to bring someone new on with me. We actually, I just realized this morning that I haven't had Miss Diana on with me yet today, or yet at all. So today is her first recording. I want you guys to give her a giant welcome. I hope you're hooping and hollering in your cars.   or your offices or your bedrooms or your shower, wherever you're listening to this podcast, because it can be done anywhere. I hope you are giving her the warmest welcome. Diana is fairly new to our team as of 2026, but she's been a consultant for a while and she's been in the dental industry for long enough to um know way too much about dentistry. So   Diana (00:49) Yeah.   Tiffanie (00:50) I'm excited that she's a part of our team. I'm excited that she's here with me today and personally, Diana   is like super close to me, so hopefully one day we actually make it to get together. She is here in   Diana (01:01) Yeah.   Tiffanie (01:02) Phoenix. Diana, I would love it. I love you dearly and I'm just so happy you're here. So Diana, thank you for being here. How are you doing today?   Diana (01:10) Thanks for having me, Tiff. I'm doing really well.   Tiffanie (01:12) Yeah.   Diana (01:12) How are you?   Tiffanie (01:14) I'm wonderful. It is beautiful outside   Diana (01:16) Okay, good.   Tiffanie (01:17) and I can't complain. I feel like it's getting hot again though. I know. I know.   Diana (01:19) We've got great weather today. Uh let's hope that doesn't happen. We are at like   a really good place right now with our weather. So let's not let's not make it mad.   Tiffanie (01:29) I know. And there's like ants outside, you know, we go on our little walk and there's like I'm like, what the heck? There's so many ants. My fiance's like, Yeah, because they think it's spring. I'm like, that's fair. We did just get so much. Yes.   Diana (01:37) My daughter saw a worm on the ground the other day. She had   never seen a worm before 'cause it never rains in Phoenix.   Tiffanie (01:43) Yeah.   Diana (01:43) And she was like, my gosh, it's a worm Like, Yeah, those are that's normal.   Tiffanie (01:49) For those of you listening who are not in Arizona,   Diana (01:51) Mm.   Tiffanie (01:52) It is November right now and most of the country is experiencing beautiful fall weather. The leaves are changing colors, you're like snuggled up in your cozy clothes and you're just loving life. And we have flowers blooming and worms coming out. And we have our second spring of the year. So   Diana (02:12) Right.   Tiffanie (02:12) and then it's gonna be dead cold. By dead cold I mean like fifty six degrees. So that's fine.   Diana (02:18) Mm-hmm.   Tiffanie (02:18) Anyways, cold for us is   cold for us. Anyways, Phoenix is amazing. If y'all want to come visit, come visit. We do as of the recording, the time of this recording, um, we do two masterminds here in Phoenix where our doctors and our office managers come visit with us. You get a full day and a half revamp of all kinds of stuff. There's so much stuff that we do. So if you're interested in visiting Phoenix as of right now.   That's where we're hosting them. reach out, [email protected]. We'll be happy to have you here. Diana, I'm excited about today's topic because for me personally, selfishly, a lot of my clients this week, this week um is call week. A lot of my clients have been down in new patients very like for months. Our new patient trend has been down. And a lot of my clients have been experiencing like lighter schedules.   October, September seemed to be fine. So September may not be a thing anymore. It might be a thing of the past. But October, I had some offices that really struggled and specifically my pediatric practices seem to be struggling. But so today I'm excited to pick your brain. I know that you've worked with a lot of clients, um, not just in Dental A Team. I know you have a lot of clients with us. So if you're lucky enough to work with Diana, you're welcome. Um   But also outside of The Dental A Team, you've worked with a lot of different practices, different types of practices, a lot of dentists and teams. So I really wanted to pick your brain today on some things that you've seen work that we can share with the listeners here on really building and designing an awesome referral system. And I think marketing chooses our topics, just FYI. And I love how they worded it today.   They didn't say like how to get new patients. It was like a referral system because no matter what, our patients are coming to us by referral of some way, whether it's internal, external marketing. So I just I really appreciated that. So how do you suggest and how do you work with your practices, Diana, on really designing that referral system to generate those new patients back in the practice? What are some tips you have?   Diana (04:30) Yeah, absolutely. So I am a I'm so big on how a referral should be a byproduct of an exceptional experience at your practice. Um and I compare that to really anything in life. If I'm driving down the road and I see a billboard for a new restaurant, yeah, that restaurant looks really great. Um and I might see an ad in a magazine or an ad on TV or an Instagram. Um, but the best restaurants I've ever been to have come from someone.   Saying, hey, you've got to go try this new place down the street, right? Or   Tiffanie (05:02) Yeah.   Diana (05:02) my favorite steak is from this one steakhouse here in Phoenix, right? So referrals come from a another patient having a really great experience. And so, you know, my number one focus when looking at referrals is looking at your internal referrals. And I do think a majority of your new patients should be coming off of internal referrals. Um   And so I've made a couple notes about like the top four, four to five things really um that are really gonna make that system work for you. And the first one I love to talk about is like just look at who you already have. Who are those top 25 to 50 patients in your practice who love your practice, who show up on time your appointments, right? They pay for the services you give them.   They're always like chucking in with you. Oh, how was your day? Like you guys are having honest conversations. They've been patients with you for a long time. Their families come to you. Those are the patients that we want to work with, and those are the patients we want to build off of. So use what you have, use those patients, get to know them better, get to know where they go golfing, where they frequent um, you know, what restaurants do they go to, what schools do their children attend.   Those are the kind of things that you wanna take. So you're actively listening to them and you can have honest conversations and you can relate and you're building that trust, but also you can use that in the future to kind of build off of that. Go to those schools, right? Sponsor those schools, go meet to those, go to that restaurant, drop off some new patient referral cards, right? Work with those businesses and find find a way to connect with those patients and honestly.   Just asking them for referrals too, right? Those kind of patients are the ones that you want and you want more of versus the patient that might be late, you know, chronically late, never pays, never, never shows up on time. You're constantly have having to reschedule. So my first, you know, the the first thing I would say is look inside your own company. Who are those patients and build off of those? Um yeah.   Tiffanie (07:07) Yeah, I love uh we had a   um I don't know if you probably remember this. We just actually spoke about it last night on our doctor's only mastermind, which everyone should know every Tues every first Tuesday of every month. If you're a client of Dental A Team, we do have a doctor's only mastermind. So I hope that you're joining that doctors. if you're not, reach out [email protected] or your consultant and we'll make sure you get that link. Anyways, we talked about it last night, so I'm sure you remember. There was a doctor who came to our   in person mastermind in September who said that she takes this like giant cookie. I think it was to the person who referred or it was to the new patient. One of the two, either way is phenomenal. But she takes this giant cookie as like a thank you and it has the um office information on it, but it has like a thank you so much for referring to our practice, like we're whatever it is to the person who had referred or to the new patient. And I thought in conjunction with what you're saying, like target those people   or highlight those people that you want and those people who are already referring to you and do something that's like grandiose and exceptional that makes their their experience even better. Because I   Diana (08:16) Right.   Tiffanie (08:16) think to your point, Diana, that helps promote their uh desire to recommend it. Because again, places that I've loved came by recommendation. And Diana makes me think, and we'll get to your other ones, I promise you. Um   But you like sparked some thoughts. It makes me wonder how much of our affinity towards that service or that restaurant, like wherever we were referred to, I wonder if part of the affinity towards that place comes because a trusted person in our life recommended that place. So we're already going in with the filter that this place is going to be great. So

Special guest Sheela Roth, director of clinical operations at Pearl AI, is on the show! Sheela talks with Kiera about how practices can best incorporate AI into the patient journey (as a co-pilot, not a human replacement). Whether you're hesitant or gung-ho about using AI, there are areas in your practice that can only improve with automation, and Sheela and Kiera talk through the pros and cons of them. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and today is an exciting day. I'm obsessed with this company. I rave about them. They are coming in with even more force and vigor, and it's great. I'm obsessed with Pearl. They are doing so many good things. They have been on our podcast before, and I'm so excited to have Sheela here. Sheela has a very strong clinical background, so I'm excited to chat shop on all things clinical with AI coming in. Pearl AI. You guys know them, you love them. And if you don't know them, it's gonna be a great time. So, Sheela, welcome to the podcast today. How are you?   Sheela Roth (00:29) Excellent. I'm doing great, Kiera. Thanks for having me. excited to be here and and talk to you and your your audience about where we're going in AI today.   Kiera (00:37) I love it. AI, I think, is so I want to come up with like a catchy phrase and I   Sheela Roth (00:43) Okay.   Kiera (00:43) haven't like made it punchy enough, but like accelerated innovation or like already like people are either on the accelerated innovation. I need to like really make this punchy, or it's like this scared out of my mind and I'm not gonna touch it. And I don't have like quite an AI version over there of like anxious.   Intellect, maybe I don't know. It's not   Sheela Roth (01:06) Yes.   Kiera (01:07) intellect, it's like that, like anxious, like they're so freaking scared of AI, or they're like on this accelerated innovation and they're taking it with with stride. So I feel like we got two camps that are listening and I feel like so excited to educate them on what is Pearl AI. I mean, I'm we're on the road with you guys quite often sharing and talking about it. But Sheela, some of the listeners maybe have never met you. Tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into Pearl, and then I'm gonna work on my punchy AI analogy over here.   if people are listening to you on that.   Sheela Roth (01:35) Yes, it is a great   start though because you're right. You're you're in one of two camps. You're either embracing or you're, you know, resenting, if you will, or maybe a little curious. So maybe maybe artificial interest, right? That could be one. Yes. Yes.   Kiera (01:49) Hey, there we go. Or anxious interest. Maybe it's the anxious interest   and the like accelerated innovation. I like it.   Sheela Roth (01:56) I love it. Well,   yes, again, excited to be here. I am currently head of clinical education at Pearl. This is my sixth year here. I think the interesting part for me that's been so much fun is being able to see all different aspects of the practice. And as I still actually consult for my practice I've been in for 25 years on Saturdays, I have actually been able to work with different AI parts of the practice and   really understand how it's helping us. So as a as an assistant back in the day, moving into hygiene, what I learned as a hygienist was the true nuggets behind practice growth. So started a consulting company and then ended up working for Pearl. So I'm really happy to be here, but also really happy to share about the truth and the myths. That's really, I think, would satisfy both of those camps.   Kiera (02:49) Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I did throw it into AI. I think we nailed it. They said anxious interest and accelerated innovation. So I think that that's a fun, like we did it on our own. We didn't even need AI on that. The anxious interest is a really   Sheela Roth (03:01) Ha ha ha.   Kiera (03:02) good one and the accelerated innovation. and I really do think that that kind of bridges the two camps out there. I think I'm like anxious interest. I don't think I'm accelerated by any stretch, but I'm starting and I do agree that we need that middle of like already.   Interested, like maybe that's it, the anxious interest, the already interested, or the accelerated interest. Like maybe those   Sheela Roth (03:24) Yes.   Kiera (03:25) are the three we've got. because I do think it's gonna be really fun to talk. And I will say, dentists listening, please and team members, get on the bandwagon of AI. You are gonna get dated so freaking fast. Like I thought about it and I'm like, man, this is how business owners felt when the internet hit. Like, this is how they felt   Sheela Roth (03:42) Yeah.   Kiera (03:42) because they've been doing   like I was seeing this reel the other day and this girl was like, gosh, where was Claude when I did my last practice transition? And I thought about that and I'm like, can you imagine dentists? And some of you listening are those dentists, so please like let me know if I'm on track. But like working where yellow pages and billboards and like   Sheela Roth (04:00) Ha ha.   Kiera (04:01) commercials were the main shebang. And then the internet hit and you were like, yeah, that's never gonna take over. Like, we're just gonna stick to trying and true. And then you're like, wow,   Sheela Roth (04:09) Yes.   Kiera (04:09) nobody's finding me because everybody's on the internet. Like, what is that?   And now us we're like, well, we're on the internet and we podcast, we do this. And I'm like, yeah, AI's whooping our tish. Like, you got to get over there because AI, I mean, you're hearing 40, 50 million dollar companies have five employees and 40 bots. Now you can be a purist and say, Well, I only want employees, and I'm gonna say you're a purist that's about to go out. Like, I am not here to get rid of employees. I am very much here to say that like hashtag post-COVID hiring has been a beast. A lot of people haven't been working.   A lot of people don't want to work anymore. The industry shifted, like hiring people are Gen Z coming in who don't want to work all the time. Like, no shade to the Gen Z. It's just we are living in a completely unprecedented time with employees wanting to work in offices that I'm like, AI is here to serve, AI is here to help. And I do believe, like the other day, I'm like, I think I'm sitting in the day and age where yellow pages went to the internet and now internet has gone to AI. So welcome. I think it's fun. Sheela, though, you know a lot more than I do. So take it away.   Sheela Roth (05:13) Well, that's such a a great way to start as well. You know, we we talk about this in and I'm sure every dentist and hygienist, any   team member on the call has heard. Remember when we used to dip the radiographs and then we never thought we'd go to digital and here we are in AI, right?   Kiera (05:28) Yeah, so.   Sheela Roth (05:28) But I do think to your point, we don't really need to replace the humans, but repurpose the humans is really   Kiera (05:35) Mm-hmm.   Sheela Roth (05:36) I think the world we're living in, you know.   There's lots of different ways of AI, and it's beyond the radiograph. And I think that's the exciting point is how do we actually become more efficient with AI as our co-pilot, you know, throughout the   Kiera (05:49) Mm-hmm.   Sheela Roth (05:49) entire patient journey. an example is, you know, in a practice I st I still work with, we have an insurance person who sits in a room by herself all day long, right? And she does like that. She does. I kind of envy that.   Kiera (06:01) I'm sure she loves it though. The insurance people loved their isolation. They're always   like, please don't make me go answer phones here. Don't put me in the front. And I'm like, I could never live back here. Like I worked,   Sheela Roth (06:12) I know.   Kiera (06:13) Sheela, this is funny. I know I'm going random to like off topic. I used to work for like an accounting firm. Like, I did one of those like   Sheela Roth (06:19) Mm-hmm.   Kiera (06:19) temp agencies. I worked in a lot of different jobs. And I remember walking in, they were in like audit season. There was no music. And I was like, all you heard was like, click.   Sheela Roth (06:26) yes. Yes.   Kiera (06:29) I'm like, how do these people live here? Like I would die. Like I'm clearly not meant to   Sheela Roth (06:33) I know.   Kiera (06:34) be a CPA. It was in college and I'm like, well, I'm surely not going the accounting route. I can tell you that's not my jam. Like, not for one minute. So I'm grateful there are people that way. I just know that   Sheela Roth (06:42) Yes.   Kiera (06:42) that's not like, know thyself and be free is what I would say. So go back to your billing person.   Sheela Roth (06:46) Yes.   No, it's it's true. I I walk in her office though and I'm like, so nice in here. What do you do? All this is great. There's little Granola bars and little coffee.   Kiera (06:56) Yeah.   Sheela Roth (06:56) I'm like, we're on the other side, man. We haven't eaten in eight hours. So but what I have found   Kiera (07:01) We haven't even gone to the bathroom in eight hours, Sheela. Like, let's be real.   Sheela Roth (07:05) I know it is true. Yes, when she was starting to use AI just to augment some of her insurance verifications and such.   She now gets to work forward-facing with the patients. And   Kiera (07:19) Yeah.   Sheela Roth (07:19) that I think for her, she's like, initially I thought that wasn't gonna be fun, but I really like this and I really enjoy working with patients again. So that that is the point of buying back some time to bring the humans back. You know, when you   Kiera (07:34) Mm-hmm.   Sheela Roth (07:34) look at simple things like adopting AI, chair side, that's one thing, right? And you look at the pa

Success doesn't come from attaining perfection. It comes when you're looking to improve each day. Kiera talks about specific ways you can improve your practice without expecting perfection every minute of every day.  Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00.792) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am so jazzed about today's topic because I think that this applies to practices. I think it applies to life. And fun fact, my husband and I were chatting about this the other day. So I'm very excited about it. And consistent doesn't mean perfect. And this is honestly how great teams move forward and have excellent results. And it's such like a fun, like little piece for you guys that I just think are gonna help you set your practices apart. So   I am really excited because I think so many people in their practices feel like I have to have this perfect practice in order to hit the highest heights and all the great things. And the reality is you don't actually have to have that. You just need to have a consistent practice. But we have to be good, consistent, not just consistent. So I want you to know that like perfection really does like have this high bar, unlike canny feeling about it, where I have to be perfect, I can't make any mistakes versus like, hey, if we're consistent, we're consistently good and we're consistently getting better.   That's really what this is about. So I hope that you guys take this. I hope you realize that this is a great way to become an elite practice. It's a great way to set you and your team apart. And I really want you to know that just if you are a consistent practice, it doesn't mean that things are going to go perfect for you. It does mean that things are still gonna have happens. Like I I want to just dispel that so many people feel like, my gosh, I need my practice to be perfect. I need to be at this level in order for me to hit this level of success. And I want to just dispel the A, that doesn't exist, B, you're never gonna get there.   And see, you can actually get there a lot sooner to a happy, successful practice without having to be perfect. And so some people are like, I want my team to be on autopilot. Well, guess what? You're probably never gonna get there. Like teams don't exist on autopilot. We can get them very systematized. and a lot of that's gonna start with consistency. So today I want to walk you guys through like how chasing perfection can actually slow your practice down, where consistency really matters most, and what are three ways to build a practice that ultimately gets better without expecting perfection.   So, if you guys don't know us, we're the Dental A Team. I'm Kiera Dent. Yep, Dent really is my last name. It just took me three fiances to get there. So it's a great time. I love my life. I love helping dentists have the best, most fulfilled life that they could possibly ever have. That is ultimately what we're here for. I do believe that building a successful practice should and can be easy. So ask yourself, like, what if this could be easy? Because with Dental A Team it can. So if you are wanting to get help and help your practice, we help practices across the nation. We literally have practices in almost all 50 states.   Kiera (02:19.918) and have worked across the globe and genuinely love to help teens, love to help dentists, just find their niche, find their happiness. I believe that your business should be serving your life and not the other way around. So let's help you have that same success. If you want to reach out, [email protected], be part of our family. We meet in person, we have a good time, we help flourish you and your team. So come hang out with us and just know our job is to truly make your life as easy as possible. So I want you guys to to just think about like what happens is   Like a practice is creating incredible results and they aren't perfect. And like when we're executing on fundamental consistency, we can have predictable outcomes. I love Disneyland so much. Disneyland is one of the core companies our company models after. And there was this great quote that said that they're able to create predictable magic with the systems behind the scenes. And I would venture to say that those systems are the consistency pieces that they have. Like you show up to Disneyland every single time, the grass is mown.   You show up and there's gonna always be flowers or decorations. There's never gonna be trash on the floor. They are going to make sure that they always have the right treats for you. people love Starbucks because of consistency, not because it's great. A lot of people just need consistency in our world. And so I really want you guys to just like see that there's some simple little shifts that you can help your team so that way you guys stop chasing this perfection model and you start building consistency. And Jason and we're talking the other day and we talked about how he said, Kiera, I'm really proud of you. You're very consistent.   And I thought about it and I was like, A, thank you. That's a huge compliment. And B, I wasn't always this way. I remember when we were at Midwestern, he was in pharmacy school. I had my goal board on the on the wall. I've always had a nice goal board there. And I remember writing a little sticky note and putting it there. And I said calm, consistent. And there was one other one. I don't remember what it was. but I did not feel like I was consistent with work, with my life, with my routine. and so just so you know, I believe that consistency can be not just born and built in. I'm a walking proof of that.   I believe like what can we put into place to make consistency easier? I don't like people to have to remember. So for example, like I'm always going to plan in my planner every Sunday. I just set that as a date. I never forget. I always do it. It's not super fun, but I'm going to do it because I believe that discipline equals freedom. Other things to be consistent on. At the end of every month, I transfer money like profit first. I have set like triggers in my brain so I don't have to remember. It's the atomic habits by James Clare. It's the stacking principle. So every Sunday, I plan my week. Every   Kiera (04:42.124) like 30th, 28th, 29th, 30th, before the last day, before midnight of the last day of the month, I transfer money for profit first. At the end of every quarter, I review my PL, review my goals. In December, I always set goals for the next year and I review them. Again, those consistent pieces are what your you and your team need. So I just want you to know of like when we're going through this, there's a lot of ways that you can just build this muscle and let's stack. So number one is like define what good looks like. So we can't ask for consistency.   If we don't even know what the standard is. So a lot of times, like, I want a perfect schedule. Well, great. Like perfect for you versus perfect for me versus perfect for this doctor. Like, what does a perfect schedule look like? So we need to make sure that, like, how do we all answer the phones? What is our scheduling process? What are our financial agreements? What are like, how does this doctor work? Like some large practices that have a lot of doctors, and every doctor works with different pr like different cement or different composite that like makes ordering really hard and very inconsistent. And then doctors are annoyed when   Different assistants come in and they don't know how to assist you. So, how can we get all of our doctors to be similar? How can we get all of our hygienists? Like hygienists, you want your doctors to get in and out faster on an exam, set up to where you guys all introduce the doctor the same. We all hand off our patients the exact same. That's going to exponentially help you all. So when you guys have successful, like to get that consistency, let's define our standard processes. And I look at it like, okay, well, we could define a lot of standard processes, but what are the main ones that are really going to give us bang for buck? One, how do we answer for new patients?   Two, how do we schedule? Three, what's our policy? Like how soon do I need to get people in? Do we have a block scheduling protocol? Like all that right there is just gonna fix your block scheduling right then and there. And if we all follow, then what are the rules of the game if we choose not to follow through? Also, what do we do for phone calls? What are we doing for hygiene? What's our hygiene period protocol? All of the hygiene need follow through on that. What do we all do for that? How do we set up our financial arrangements? What's allowed? What's not allowed? What's our treatment tracker? How do we follow up on treatment plans? How do we set up rooms for our doctors for different procedures?   That's like in a quick nutshell. And then there's business sides too of like how do we track our marketing ROI? When do we look at our PL? When do we review every business expense in the practice? Those different things, but like that's the core process of a business. And if you get those and we set standards of we always schedule to this, our hygiene's always here, our reappointments there. A lot of times these standards could also be considered the bulk of your KPIs within a practice, because then we're gonna be able to have set standards and rules of like this is what we expect. We expect 98% collections, we expect 98% reappointment.   Kiera (07:08.472) We expect 30% period protocol. We expect our schedule to be scheduled to goal every single day. We expect one or two openings every single day. That helps. Then we document it, we train it, we repeat it. It becomes like this is your SOP if you guys want, this is your operations manual. This is how you create consistency within your practice. And so just like simple litt