Operatinging a practice is very, very different from owning a practice. Kiera walks listeners through what the path to CEO ownership looks like, including the difference between the clinical and business sides, how performing a time audit will get you started, the ideal approach to establishing a vision, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01 )

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a great day. I am so excited for this podcast. I am excited to be chatting with you. I feel honored. Where are we at? Are we hanging out? Are we going on a walk together? Are we getting ice cream together? Are we picking up the kids? Are we driving to work? Are we driving home from work? Are we sitting in traffic? Wherever we are, I hope it's a great day. And I hope that even if it wasn't the best day that you're choosing to make sure that today is going to be an epic day, that you're choosing yourself, that you're choosing happiness.

 

that you're choosing this incredible life. And you remember at one point, at one point, the life you're living is the life that you were dreaming of. And how blessed are we to be able to live this magical life that we get to. So today I just wanna walk you through how to go from a practice operator where you're doing all of it to a true CEO and what needs to change to be able to lead at the next level. So I think this is so fun because owning a practice is very, very, very different than

 

operating a practice, would you agree? And so like if you're still in the weeds, you're still doing the day to day, you're not yet the CEO of your practice. And so this is something where I wanted to kind of walk you through like, what does that even look like? Because for some of us, we don't even know what the destination looks like. So we're like, well, I can't even visualize it. So therefore I can't even like create it. And I want to make sure that I help you see what that path can be, help you understand what it can look like if you choose that you want to do it.

 

This is something where Dental A Team's mission is to truly help doctors stop running on survival mode and start leading strategically. So whether you want to be the CEO where you're out of the chair, whether you want to still be the operator where you do some dentistry, but you have the options because you know what that can look like. So that's what we're about. And today it's going to be going from busy operator into visionary, going from day to day to the big picture. And so fun because I actually was talking to a client this morning who actually it's been about a three year journey has now

 

rounded the bend to where they had their last day of clinical dentistry and they're stepping fully into the CEO role. And as we were chatting, we talked about how it's a mind trip. It's a full blown mind trip and how I told them, said, it's crazy because I'm actually doing this podcast today. I had already planned that I wanted to talk about this. It was so serendipitous that we chatted today. ⁓ But I said, isn't it wild how like what we dreamed of, like you go through dental school and you go through all these things. ⁓

 

to walk away from that, have associates, to have different people. Just like me, I consult, I still do some consulting, but I do a lot more of running the business, owning the business, and not as much in the day-to-day anymore. And I'm so grateful for the team of Dental A team that allows me to be in my sweet spot, the visionary role, to enjoy it and to allow them to be in their sweet spots. And this doctor and I, were chatting and he just said like, Keir, it's weird.

 

I don't even know what being a CEO looks like. And I have another doctor and he said, Garrett, it's so weird to go from being clinical all the time to working on the business, but it's so fun to work on the business and to be the CEO that can look. And as I was talking to the doctor this morning, they're thinking about doing a DSO and wondering what they want to do with that. And he's just like, you know, I don't even know. So we started talking and we were rattling off all these things. And he was like, that's what I need to be doing as a CEO. That's why I need to have the time not in the chair is so that way I can.

 

I can drive this business in the direction it needs to go. And so again, today's podcast is not to say that you need to step away from the chair. As you can see, there's one client who is completely out of the chair. There's another client who works one or two days clinically. Myself, I still do ⁓ a day of consulting and then I still do podcasting and I do the things that light my fire that I still enjoy doing. But there's a path of how do you get there? And it was kind of like when I used to be a treatment coordinator and a dental assistant and I became an office manager and I'm like,

 

I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. All of these are different layers. I almost want you to think kind of like the wifi symbol. Like you just, you go through different layers and it's different identities. And it's kind like you pop through and you look around and like, don't even recognize this neighborhood. Like I don't even recognize the neighborhood of CEOs. I don't even recognize the neighborhood of working two days of clinical. I don't even recognize the neighborhood of where my leadership team does the bulk of all the pieces that I'm doing. Like I don't actually have to do the hiring and firing anymore. I don't have to do all the one-on-ones anymore.

 

you pop your head up into a different neighborhood and it's a loss of identity and it's a taking on of a new identity and it's a morphing. I remember talking about this, gosh, this is like in the archives of podcasts. If you wanna go look, go to TheDentalATeam.com, click on podcasts and type in like sloughing and snake and you'll probably find it. But I talked about this years and years ago of how when you evolve from being this operator to this owner, it's kind of like a snake and you have to like literally like slough off.

 

the old version of you to allow space to become the version that you need to be. And so just kind of going through like, what does it even look like? And if I wanted to, or just maybe propose or think about, because I always believe like the more knowledge you have and the more, I think vision or maybe just like thought, right? Like I never even thought about it. Like I never even thought that my practice could make a hundred thousand. Like what if it made 200,000 a month or what if it made 300,000 or.

 

There's a practice doing 550 a month or there's a practice who's literally doing a million a month. I have an office that like all their offices are producing. They've got multi offices and they're producing between 350 and 450 a month. Every one of their offices. And I say this not for you to compare and to beat yourself up and say like, my gosh, I'm not even there, Kiera, I'm only doing 30,000. I want all of us just to say there are other neighborhoods, there are other visions. And I wanted today to just show a picture.

 

And then you get to pick up whatever you want or don't want from this vision. There is no right you have to get here. It's just, I want to show you and paint a picture in case you're thinking about it. So that way you look at life, look at your practice, look at your decision-making differently at whatever stage you are in your business. So there's no judgment. There's no expectation. That's something I love about Dental A Team is I've got clients that are producing 7,000 a month and I've got clients that are producing, oh gosh, like 1.2 to 2 million a month.

 

It's insane. I've got clients that are at 80 % overhead. Don't worry, they're brand new. All the way down to a 35 % overhead. All of us are in different journeys, we're on different paths, we have different priorities. And there's not a one size fits all in Dental A Team. It is a one size fits you. And then let's just make sure that we expand your knowledge base. That way you're making decisions educated rather than placed upon you. So step one, as you're kind of shifting into this role, is going to be..