Dental A Team W/ Kiera Dent And Dr Mark Costes

Today’s topic is a listener-fueled answer! Yup, if you have a question, the Dental A-Team has an answer, and sometimes that answer is an entire podcast episode! Listener Amanda asked about how to determine whether you should write a fee off or not. Kiera shares her own opinion on the matter: Basically, don’t list $0! Posting a full fee and then writing it off from there with a certain discount shows the patient the value your practice and work is offering. Doctors, don’t discount your dentistry. By implementing this DAT idea, your office can gift patients the value of dentistry, inspire loyalty, and keep track of the dollar amounts that are being written off. Press play to hear all about it! And listeners, have your own questions or podcast episode topic ideas? Email hello@thedentalateam.com today!    

Wanna know a secret to moving forward positively in your personal and professional success? You immerse yourself in inspiring spheres of influence! This episode talks about proximity as power — utilizing mentors and coaches and consultants to expand your knowledge base and web of connections. Let Kiera warm you up with her own experiences of having coaches and mentors, then it’s time to take flight! The Dental A-Team can be that starting point, or we can give you ideas for other resources. It all starts at www.TheDentalATeam.com. 

It’s time for … book club! Yup, Kiera is back with her latest read recommendations. These books are just for a good time — they’re full of good ideas that you can instill in your own practice. (Pssst, we linked the audiobooks below so you can listen on the go!) The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn by John C Maxwell The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michaelowicz Fix This Next by Mike Michaelowicz Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis Get Out of Your Own Way by Dave Hollis The Untethered Soul by Michael A Singer Use these books to start your own book club in your practice! Assign, read, gather, then tell us about it! We want to hear your thoughts: hello@thedentalateam.com. 

Scenario: A key member of your practice goes completely out of commission … What do you do? This week’s office autopsy takes a look at that. Kiera shares an experience a practice went through recently, prompting her encouragement to all practices to have the following in place: Have a COVID-19/shutdown plan Create an operations manual for everyone in your practice Encourage team members to take time off not only for mental health, but so weaknesses are revealed and problems solved Listen up to how the DAT worked through having a key player (in this case, the doctor!) out of the picture. Not sure where to start in creating your own emergency approach? The Dental A-Team can help you! Visit www.TheDentalATeam.com. 

In search of some stellar programs to keep your practice organized this year? Kiera is sharing successful options the Dental A-Team has found like Basecamp, Trello, ClickUp (our current fave), and more. Have your own organization/communication apps that you love? Share ‘em with us: hello@thedentalateam.com! 

Kiera joins the gang at Commercial Real Estate Secrets podcast to share her journey through dentistry, how she purchased a practice, and lessons learned. Topics and experiences discussed include navigating partnerships, managing site relocation, and increasing revenue from $500,000 to $2.4 million in nine months. This episode is a great reminder of the experience and heart that is behind those in the Dental A-Team. We love working with our DAT fam, and hope you love working with us. Visit www.TheDentalATeam.com to continue to support our cause.      

The Dental A-Team is joined by Naomi Cooper, marketing and strategic advisory dental extraordinaire with 20 years in the industry! Naomi discusses with Kiera the difference between doing your job versus doing your career and how to muster resources around you, plus advice for having a work-life balance, three tips of which are listed below: Start out your career “with a clean house” Give yourself and others space to grow Find education opportunities on and off the clock Naomi also shares her best time management hack, tip for delegation, and how-to for team communication. You can find and connect with Naomi at naomi@minoamarketing.com.  Naomi Cooper Hochman is president of Minoa Marketing, a dental/medical marketing & social media consulting firm based in Los Angeles, California. She is a published author, a sought-after speaker, and a dental industry opinion leader.

Office autopsies — our listeners love ‘em! In today’s office, Kiera shares the background of an office with seven locations and 80 employees and the six-month journey to achieve a better leadership team. Listen to what this office has done and consider your own take-aways for improving your practice with best management practices. As a reminder with these autopsies: We’re showing you the highlight reels of these offices, not the low-lights (the turnover, the sacrifices), which definitely do exist. Make sure you consider that when assessing your own office’s progress. Want to hear about your own office autopsy? Let the Dental A-Team come to yours! Visit us at www.TheDentalATeam.com to contact us today.

Got 12 minutes to stop cancellations in your office? This episode is the one for you! Kiera shares tips on how to stop people from canceling their appointment. Especially if they’re not canceling for COVID-19-related reasons, there is a lot of wiggle room. Press play to learn the magic phrases to use to keep patients sticking to their appointment time and how to implement a 15-minute patient fill when it’s impossible to do so. Want to hear more about combatting cancellations? Listen to one of our first episodes: Don’t Break Up With Me - Controlling Cancellations at www.TheDentalATeam.com! 

We may not be the very first, but we mean it fully: HAPPY NEW YEAR, DENTAL A-TEAM! Not to beat a dead horse, but boy are we glad to be out of 2020. In this quick episode, Kiera shares a dose of inspiration with some favorite quotes and a push to start doing instead of talking. Our challenge to you: Email us right now (hello@thedentalateam.com) and tell Kiera what your 2021 is going to look like. We can’t wait to respond :)

Yes, it’s time to reflect, but it’s also time to blast off into the new year! Kiera walks through the steps to take to prep your 2021 goals. Here’s what you need to do: Look back at your 2020 goals — did you hit them? Did you not? Why? Set new (personal and professional) goals and know why you want to meet them. Break down your new goals into a roadmap or benchmarks to meet your marks by the end of the dear. Whatever age you’re turning, come up with that amount of fun goals! Break up your practice’s departments, t-graph them up, and divvy up what each department is doing well and what they can improve on. Choose one or two things per department to help your practice reach its professional goal and pick action items to meet the goals. Decide: What’s your word for 2021? Keep these goals in a place where you’ll see them often. Actually print them out and keep them in your agenda or journal or on your mirror. Their presence will keep you honest through the year. Happy New Year’s Eve!

Cody Butler — business coach and marketing expert — joins Kiera to talk about all things marketing (and what your practice can implement to stop leaving money on the table). Cody has coached over 5,000 businesses, so he definitely knows his stuff and how to market the best dental practices to save patients from bad dentistry. The number one problem businesses have? They’re not following up enough nor staying in contact with a patient long enough. How to fix other mistakes? Ask for what you want (like for reviews) If you try to be all things to all people, you’ll be nothing to no one No doesn't mean no; no means not right now Other tips Cody shares include how to best utilize LinkedIn and the two most effective marketing practices you can adopt today. Learn more about Cody at www.codybutler.com and grab a FREE copy of his book at the90daymarketingplan.biz/freebook.

Want to bump revenue from $1.25 million to $2 million and drop overhead by 10%? Then listen to this office autopsy! Kiera shares a success story she’s had in an anonymous office and spills some of the beans on what steps she and the practice took to get from a pretty good point A to a very awesome point B. Revamp morning huddle Track your numbers! Train back office to be treatment planners (DAT’s signature move) Tip-out bins for ordering Order twice a month Negotiate fees And more! Reduce overhead Now, if your office can implement these steps on its own, full steam ahead, but the Dental A-Team is here for you if you’d like! We’re just an email away: hello@thedentalateam.com!   

Merry Christmas Eve! This episode is short and quick, but the Dental A-Team is here for you on all Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Kiera talks her family traditions and her favorite cereals, then looks back on the person she was when she started off 2020 and the person she’s become — the good and the bad. We love you, DAT fam! Enjoy your holidays :)

Picture this: A well-loved doctor whose practice is bursting at the seams, 100 new patients a month, and three hygienists. Something needs to change to accommodate the growth, but what will it be? Cut back on insurance companies? Expand your building? Add an associate doctor? Kiera walks through the choices this practice made and why they did or didn’t make those choices. For example, when do you need to expand your office? DAT’s answer is when you can’t get a new patient in within a month (at the very max; preferably within a week!). Learn the solutions this practice sought and see how their story fits in with your own! And as always, remember that we’re here to help you! Email us at hello@thedentalateam.com to find guidance for your own practice.

Office autopsies are back! In these episodes, Kiera explains the exact prescription applied by the Dental A-Team to an individual practice to get them to hero status! The practice shared (anonymously) in this episode was purchased by a first-time practice owner/former associate dentist and the annual revenue with four operatories was $350,000 per year. The DAT prescription got this practice up to $1.5 million per year by doing the following steps:  Trained the front office Started working on an operations manual Increased the new patient count Tracked numbers daily (and monthly!) Kiera walks through the details of each, so listen in with a notebook and pen! Interested in getting your own DAT prescription? Email us at hello@thedentalateam.com or visit our website, www.TheDentalATeam.com!   

If you want your practice’s leadership team to thrive, you’ve got to give them room to flex. Today, Kiera talks about setting your executive leadership folks up for success. Her tips: Build out a calendar (we have a sample!) Define the structure and parameters for each leadership role Block out one hour a week for these positions to focus on admin time If you aren’t giving guidance and time for your team to succeed, things fall through the cracks. Trust us on this. Let Kiera talk you into it by pressing play!

In this very special Dental A-Team podcast episode, Kiera is joined by Taylor James, host of The Waffle Shop podcast, to discuss mental health. Suicide and mental challenges is especially prevlant among dentists. Kiera and Taylor share their own journeys with mental health, what they’ve done, and why no size fits all when it comes to addressing your own mental health. This topic is incredibly important, and remember that so are you. If you’re in need of a helping hand or a nudge in a certain direction, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us: hello@thedentalateam.com.  Remember that your experiences don’t define you, but they do shape you — hopefully for the better rather than the worse. Reach out for help today. You can find Taylor on Instagram! www.instagram.com/waffleshoppodcast

Efficiency — we love it, we want it, and this episode is all about it! Kiera shares tips on finding those pockets of time that you can streamline to make patient visits go way more smoothly. The secret? Note templates! Listen up as Kiera spells out how this works. Want to get your hands on the Dental A-Team’s checklist for framing your patient visit, hygienists? We have the form! If you want to smooth the edges of your visits and get your patients out the door AND have all your notes completed at the same time, this is the episode for you.

WOW, we are 300 episodes into this journey! Thank you to all our Dental A-Team family members — old and new. As Kiera reflects on what it’s taken to be consistent with a three-times-a-week podcast, she invites listeners to think about their own life staples. What is it in your life, personally or professionally, that’s requiring you to show up? What could you do to enhance your life? Kiera shares her own tips for accountability. We love our DAT listeners. Missed one of our 300 episodes? They’re allll at www.TheDentalATeam.com for your binging pleasure :)