Hello, 2021: Full Steam Ahead

Auto-generated transcript: Hello, 2021: Full Steam Ahead

You are listening to the dental practice owner's podcast. Brought to you by Prosperident. From our unique perspective as dentistry's and bezel-lit experts, Prosperident's team can bring you the information that is important to practice owners. The dental practice owner's podcast brings you strategies, tools and tips that you can use, and dentistry's thought leaders as guests.

So sit back, relax, and listen to Prosperident's Amber Weber. Wendy Askins and David Harris. Talk about the issues that matter to you.

Friends, I am so honored to be the first Prosperident representative to tell you happy new year. I hope you're all doing well, and thank you so much for joining us this evening. My name is Wendy Askins, and I'm the supervising examiner for Prosperident. My co-hostess is Amber Weber, and she's also a fellow Texan of mine. Amber is the Senior Fraud Examiner, and then we are joined by our fearless leader and CEO of Prosperident, David Harris from Halthax, Canada.

We're thrilled that you have joined us this evening to go full steam ahead in 2021, and we've even got a special guest joining us this evening. So Amber, why don't you get us started? So, both of them have had 2021. We want to give you some great information about moving forward this year. As a company, Prosperident is best known for investigating and development, and we love the opportunity to help owners establish protective systems for their practice. So we want to help you even if, and development isn't occurring,

we have decades of experience, and all of our great experts, we come from many different fields of dentistry. So we have a lot of background and expertise that we can, we come together and help you as the practice owners, people who work in practices, people who have interaction with dental practices, we want those practices to be as safe and protected as possible, because we truly do love the field of dentistry. Our background and experience with many different types of specialists and different people in the dental industry has given us so many opportunities and windows into hundreds of successful

practices annually. So we want to be able to deliver as much information to those of you that we haven't got to work with yet. And now let's introduce our special guest for tonight. His name is Kirk Barron. Kirk is a lot of things. He's the CEO of a company called Act Digital that provides terrific consulting to people. He also hosts something.

I've been privileged to be on a few times called the best practice as show. And I did an episode with Kirk the other day and it was fun. We just laughed and carried on and it was a ball. So we are so honored to have him with us today. He's got amazing ideas about how to make your practice the best it can be. And I really look forward to what he has to say. So let's talk about the state of the world that we're in right now. You know, this past year was so bad.

I just feel like I'm blessed even if I'm alive. And I still have a roof over my hand and I have a job that I love. Sometimes you just have to get down to basics with gratitude and like gratitude, your heart. But anyway, let's talk about what the ADA says the state or the financial state of dentistry is as of about the middle of December. Now the health policy institute of the ADA conducted polling for several months last year after the COVID crisis began. And they actually had two parts of polling.

One was the recovery and renewal polling for the business of dentistry. If that's what you want to call it. And then they also had a consumer poll asking just regular everyday consumers of dentistry. How they felt about the safety of being in the dental office. And what they found out and what they published as of the middle of December is that the good news is that the 99% of dental offices are now open. A little bit less than 40, I'm sorry, a little bit less than half of the business is recorded business as usual. Ironically, as far as patient volume is concerned and adonics and oral surgeons reported the highest patient volume.

And we're going to do something a little bit different in this webinar. And since we have our gas curve, what we're going to do is we're going to have a little discussion at the end of each slide. So that we can have some other ideas about the points that we're trying to make. And one thing I'd like to hear is what you guys on the panel think about why endodonics and oral surgery happened to be like, I'm not a patient volume, that seems a little odd to me, but we'll get around to discussing that in just a moment. Anyway, there were major enterprises that responded to the polling. And commented that they were about 22% down from pre-COVID patient volumes, which honestly, if you think about what we had to go through last year as an industry, just being down 22% is not that bad. I've heard, you know, some estimates of 40 to 50% down, but thank God, it's just 22% of pre-COVID volume.

Now on the consumer side, what we're seeing is 86% of pollsters said that they had either number one, then an adonol office, since COVID started happening, or number two, they would have no hesitation into going into an adonol office. So that's 86%. So we're doing pretty good there, but there are still those patients who are concerned with their health about 14%. And they're going to hold off until a vaccine is readily available to them. And then as employers and employees, what we see is that employment is at almost 100% of what it was pre-COVID, which is awesome as well. So for our panelists, some of the questions that I have, and you guys can just answer randomly about what you think about this, in the report, it also stated that only 1% of the practices are offering point of care, rapid COVID testing. Do any of you happen to think that that's going to be an issue for... for dentistry, are we gonna have to start offering that? Wendy, I think it's the vaccine rolls out

that's gonna get less important. Do you mean what comes across from some of this, is that most people rightly believe that dentistry is safe that they can get dental treatment. And I remember when COVID first flared up, you asked about the oral surgeons and the endodontists. And I guess my theory is there sort of the least elective end of dentistry.

Usually when somebody needs the endodontists, they either need the endodontistory or paintails. So I think that's why, but I think dentistry's done a great job of reassuring the public that you're safe in our care. Yeah, another question. And I hope the endodontists and oral surgeons in our audience don't take offense to them.

But I totally get what you're saying. Another correlation that I've made, which is interesting is a possible opportunity with the fact that we're almost at 100% employment, pre-COVID employment, but yet we're still at 78% of patient volume. What type of opportunities do you think that's ringing? Yeah, can I chime in here just a little bit?

Because I have a little bit of a different vantage point because I think this is the greatest time ever. Now, while COVID sucked, it just did for all of us. It was horrible. I'll tell you, I had a full-out panic attack in March 17, 18, 19, but as we came out of it, the thing we've known our whole lives is that out of adversity always comes an opportunity.

No matter what it is, and the people that find the opportunities do really well. Now, we used to joke as practice consultants that we could double people's production by doing this, by taking everybody out of the schedule in your practice. And then only if we sorted it in a man, red bricks, yellow bricks and green bricks, obviously,

the green ones were productive procedures, patients you liked. You could easily just put back the green ones for the most part in no time and double your production within a month. Now, the joke was, you couldn't really do that, because it's stupid. Well, now you really could.

So some of our best practices that had money saved had a culture in place, had systems ready to go, they literally, and some of you listening to this, that's exactly what you did. You only called back your green bricks. You didn't call back the red bricks, or the yellow, you called back the people that needed to get the industry done,

that were great patients, and you put them only in your schedule, and you called us, you're like, this is crazy. I mean, I hate wearing all this stuff, but we produce like 50% more. And then like, go for it. Now, so many other things in place here. You gotta take this in consideration. This is the opportunity more than ever.

So when you're looking at the screen, and you see the averages, the last thing I'm thinking, you guys are watching a webinar on a Thursday night. Okay, that makes you not average. All right, the average dentist is not watching this. They're not. They're like, they're watching reruns of the bachelor, or whatever, I have no idea what they're doing,

but the thing is, is that like, the average, you shouldn't even be concerned with this. Think about this. Right now, in this world, there is very little competition for discretionary dollars. Let me explain. I live in white fish bay with sconson. They're currently five dumpsters on my street five,

in which people are ripping up bathrooms, redoing kitchens, living with none of us are spending all the money on vacations. There's no mortgage payments here in this town, yet unless you want to pay your mortgage, you know, type of a thing. So people have cash to spend right now, and it's an awesome opportunity.

Now that's gonna go away. That's why I talk about this is the window. It sucks, but some of us are making lemonade at incredible rates now. Here's the other. If you had a large team of like 15 people, you probably thought to yourself, you know, two of them, that's sure about.

This is your opportunity for allowing people is never fun. It sucks, period. But people that were on the fence, you're like, I don't know, it was your opportunity to thin the herd to only the people that you really wanted to be there, and they're like, I don't know why,

but we can produce just as much with these people, then we did with two more. How did that happen? We actually had addition by subtraction here. So, you know, I think this is only gonna last for so long. The other thing we're noticing which you guys aren't probably gonna talk about is the DS those are struggling,

because they couldn't come back as fast as the private care practitioner. Some of the DS those in our town still haven't opened a full capacity, which presents an incredible opportunity to the private practitioner. This is the time and the hate-a-t to do it right now. This is gonna go away.

But like, like everything, the reason you're an entrepreneur is you made an opportunity, and I would just say this. Whatever you're at, you can look at it two ways. There's nothing here, or there's a lot here, and that's the growth mindset. So, I don't know, I'll be quiet for a little bit, but I just tell people, if you're gonna go into me, let's move on for a minute,

and then let's get to work and make something happen. Let me add one more thing to the very profound things that Kurt just said.

When you look at the slide, when you see that average patient volume is down about 22%, most of that is more deferral than it's never gonna happen. In other words, people's need for dental treatment, in general, doesn't go away. And if they didn't get that treatment in 2020, they still need it,

and they're gonna catch up in 2021. So I'll just kind of pile on to what Kurt said. You have a combination right now of people with discretionary dollars and postpone dentistry. And if you think about this in the positive light, that's a great place to be. Right now, I could fast. Like I'm actually a little scared.

I spend so much money on DoorDash, and all these things, like we are spending money, like our biggest expense is food. And like that's gonna go away too. We're just, it's crazy, but I wake up every day. I got money in my account. It's never been flying out so slowly.

So, and I think the rest of the world is like that too. And David, let me just pile on that too. People think dentistry is going to dry up or go away. No, it is not. The single biggest problem this world has is not the economy, it's not healthcare. It's the aging population. We are getting so old so fast as a world.

There are gonna be people everywhere. One in three babies born today will actually live to be 100, okay? Right now in Japan, adult diapers are outselling children's diapers. Now, we don't need to talk about that, but you can get a sense of the world and where it's going, people are gonna, you're just gonna be people everywhere,

and they all gotta do one thing. They all gotta eat. My mom is 20 years older than me. When she fractures the tooth, world, It's common to an end, because when she's making lunch, she's only talking about one thing. What we're gonna have for dinner. So she goes to a dentist,

he's the greatest thing in the world. So I just think, you know, dentist, we panic too much. There's so much opportunity in this world. And the coolest thing, here's the cool thing. Come on in here. There's no rules. You can create whatever kind of practice you want.

I have dentist that we're three days a week. They have a financial model of support to have a great life. I have most of our dentist for four days a week. You don't have to work crazy hours, crazy to you can make the rules. And you don't so cool if you make the rules. It doesn't work. You can change them. The board and Halifax does not say,

no, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What these hours are nuts. You can't do this. You can do whatever you want to do. How cool is that? Yeah. And one thing I'd like to add to with my experience as a hygienist. And I'll pass you once I've helped with some of this.

It's quantity versus quality. So I know there's a reduction in patient volume, but I feel like you have more time now to produce a little more quality, develop better relationships. And I think as an end result, I'm seeing patients wanting to be more long-term patients and come back on a more regular schedule. So now moving forward in 2021, let's talk about full steam ahead. The turn full steam ahead comes from putting steam in the boiler to get that engine roll and for steam engine.

So let's think about that direction forward. Obviously with what's happened in our world with our COVID and everything, the main thing that we focused on in the country and as a world is to be safety oriented. We've talked about this in the past, but the less contact social distancing, this is your opportunity as a practice to take that downtime and really become safety oriented for you, your staff, your patients, you know, how you accept payments, completing all of your paperwork online. The less contact you have and interaction with paper, this is your big opportunity to

have that full steam ahead culture. And the other thing is, you know, no more cash. The less we can integrate and have that virus be passed along between people. This is your big opportunity to establish that new system on being safety oriented and really promoting your practice that you are being safety oriented. We're going to talk about this more next month, but the other thing, this is give you opportunities to really get the team that you want, whether it's members that are already within your practice or bringing on new members as your practice grows or your team members

change. So we're going to go into detail on that next month. So definitely soon in for that. But all these areas where people are like, oh, I've got 78% left patients, these are your opportunities with your full steam ahead. The other thing is marketing and communication makeover. Our world has really changed with COVID and how we communicate. We don't have as many social gatherings.

We have a mask on when we talk to patients. And so really looking at how, what can you do to set yourself apart from other practices and this realm to keep those patients, to keep your patients coming in, to make yourself really stand out. And aside from that, looking at all the little missing opportunities that even before COVID you're missing, where are the things that vary treasure? You know, it's like, can you put on your pirate cap and go looking for that very treasure and see what maybe you could have been missing, educating yourself and your team on how

to find some new opportunities. And the main thing that we feel moving forward is really utilizing technology as a resource to be efficient and orientate the safety that we talked about and use all of that as big tools for your practice moving forward. Let's talk about one of my pet peeves, which is dentist websites. I think we all know that people's buying patterns over the past 20 or 30 years have changed a lot and that online research is a huge part of it. And there are a few things that I think a lot of dentists could do better on.

The first is a lot of people kind of outsource doing their website and they end up with a generic kind of cookie cutter website and what gets lost is their personality. Dentistry is a very intimate personal service and the people who choose to get it from you want to know a bit about you and what's important to you. And a lot of times it just kind of disappears into the sort of generic wording that the company supplying your website gives you. There are things that are important to you. There are things that you're passionate about in dentistry and may need to come across

if your marketing is going to be effective. I can't overemphasize the importance of video. You know, 20 years ago, video didn't really have a place on websites because a lot of people were using dial up and it was slow and there just wasn't the bandwidth for video. Well, that's not an issue anymore. And this is the chance you have to put your personal stamp on things to make your personality emerge and to do a lot to make a prospective patient feel like they belong with you. And I'm just going to show you a little piece of video just to show you how effective it

can be. This belongs to a client of ours, a period honest and I've taken this from our website. The video goes on a little bit longer. I'm just going to show about a minute of it. Just picture yourself as a patient and ask whether you would feel comfortable in this practice. I drive an hour every day over the mountains to come to work every day and I want to space to be different than a dental office. Here at the Wagner Center, our goal is to improve your life by achieving optimal oral health.

Well, after the first procedure, I was very comfortable with Dr. Wagner. I was comfortable with the procedures. I don't even remember how many procedures I had. I did not hesitate coming into the office at all. The level of care she offers is just phenomenal. I'm different because I connect with my patients and I listen to them and hear what they're saying. And so based upon that, I can come up with a treatment plan that's individualized for them

that allows them to be able to achieve their goals of being healthy and having them out this long. I had no questions and she was done with me. She answered them again. It's important to have a really good leader and a good leadership, but without having the team that follows and believes in our mission statement, we don't have anything. So, they're amazing. They just make me feel so comfortable.

I can talk to them about anything. Now, that wasn't an expensive video made by a Hollywood producer. They spent a little bit of money on it. But I think that is so effective. And again, you feel like you know Dr. Wagner and when you decide to get your mouth done at $40,000 from a period honest, you feel good about it. Just taking this one step further.

The picture on the screen, I'm guessing most of you have seen somewhere. This is a stock photo and it is in all kinds of places. In fact, I did a Google image search on this photo. And it came up in over 150 dental practices. And the question we have to ask ourselves is why the heck are we using this stock photo? When we have a real office with real people, and I'm very sure it accesses to a camera somewhere. This again is the kind of cookie cutter version of you.

And let's get the real one out there. Another thing that I see in a lot of websites is that it's hard to find a phone number. And the marketers have a saying about where the phone number belongs on your website. And the saying is big, bold and above the fold. And what that means is that when somebody first goes to your website and you know, there's a certain amount of the website that your screen of your device captures, the phone number needs to be on there. It shouldn't be that you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Which can be a long way if you're on a smartphone or a tablet. It shouldn't be that you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to get to that phone number. It needs to be there on whatever comes up first when somebody goes to your website. Big, bold and above the fold. The second thing in this bullet point is what's called a tell link. And this is a little technical thing. What it does is it makes it so that if somebody is on a device with a touch screen. And they touch the screen, that device will dial that number.

So if somebody's on a smart phone, for example, or a tablet that has telephone capabilities. And they touched the number, it'll dial it. If you don't do that, you make it a little bit hard for people to dial that number from that device. I mean, they have to copy and paste, which anybody over about age 55 can't figure out. Or they need to write it down somewhere so that they can enter it back into the phone. And I'm sure we all understand that the approach on the screen is a little bit simpler. And the final exercise on your website and Rebecca Wagner, the Perry Donis, who's video you saw, did this beautifully. What's called social validation.

In other words, ask consumers. We're very influenced by what people think. Amber does a lot more about this than me, so all that her talk. Yes, definitely. So the true definition of social validation is when individuals follow or conform to the actions of others within the group. So I think the important thing to remember, especially now in 2021 is as a group we've all had to be aware of our surroundings. And so we've all had to be aware of our safety and everything like that. So this has become very, very important in where people are going to go eat dinner where they're going to go to the dentist to they're going to choose for the doctor.

Everything's become about as a group who who today want to choose out of the group. My experience growing up, I grew up on a cattle ranch and Wyoming, so you know, it's all about her instinct. I grew up in that environment where as a group, whatever your group of cattle or your group of livestock, they would go where they felt it was the safest, the safest. They could eat, they could drink and life was happy for them. So we have to look at social validation kind of a not perspective. I know that's a very simplistic way to put it, but if we really look at the true statistics, 87% of research begins online before somebody purchases anything. You know, a lot of a shop on online for on Amazon, Walmart, different things like that. I don't know about anybody who's attending, but before I buy something on Amazon, I always look at the reviews and I want some feedback on it.

So 87% of the population we're going to look online before we purchase or we choose to come to you as a dentist or I choose to go get my hair done at this salon. So we got to remember those those are true statistics that have increased in our society. 92% of those are trust recommendations, other types of advertising. So realistically, as a society, we're really researching and figuring out where we feel the most safe, when we're going to be, so like we are concerns or what we're going to have as a service is going to be the most trusted. So those are big statistics that we have to remember when you're trying to accomplish this within your practice. And as I said earlier, there's 10 online reviews before making a decision. So if I'm looking for you as a dentist and you only have a couple reviews that say a few different things about you, I'm going to continue to research and really look into where I get the most feedback from you. Definitely from word of mouth from other people who want to your practice, but you want to make sure within the social validation that you become well rounded.

You utilize the technology, become socially valid. You have great word of mouth through your patience and you know you've got stuff on your website, everything is like that. So everything is the sort of go through your website, where the minute I want to look up doctor Jones, I can see all the information I need from him. Then I can look on other areas and look at reviews and then also word of mouth. So you have to be well rounded and when you're thinking about social validation. I remember when I first entered dentistry, a lot of it was just you know refer your family and friends type situation and that's what you really did a lot of interim marketing. That's definitely still very important, but the way we create this culture for people to see us as a society has definitely changed. We have a great example, we've made it easy for people to review us. So you want to have that directly on your website also where they can go instantly. So you want to have that link and they don't have to directly make it difficult. There's definitely software out there that we recommend you look into for instance a bird eye that can help help you facilitate getting better reviews and all of that.

So you need to really look at those statistics because almost 90% of the people that are coming to your practice have found you or have researched you through technology and make sure. Can I trust you is this somewhere that I think I'm going to be well taking care of and they have my best interest as interest at heart as a patient. You know, buying patterns have really changed. Twenty-five or thirty years ago, word of mouth meant exactly that. Now, and Amber used the phrase amenity, word of mouth means reading online what people say. And the statistic here, Amber, that stands out to me is the one right in the middle that 92% of people trust non-paid recommendations. Much more strongly than other advertising. And when we see Dr. Wagner's video, and I'm just thinking back to when she put her hand on a patient's phone.

So, clearly, this is a pre-COVID video. But when we saw that, you know, it's a main point of including some patients who had very good things to say about her. And that's the most credible per-negative video. Right. Can I add a couple of things like, this is so good. I'm so glad you guys are here because obviously you've already know this. If you're around the prosperity group, it's a sharp group of people. I've never met Dr. Rebecca Wagner, but people always say the secrets of photography or videos, not the words, it's the eyes.

So, like, here's what I would say about that. I already know if she's successful. I don't even need to go to the practice because the eyes tell the whole story. You can't get team members to look like that in the eyes by asking them. They either have it or they don't. And I really think that's an important thing. You use the words in the previous slide, your personality gets lost. I think the most important thing.

I'll tell you guys a little story. 10 years ago, I was super stressed out trying to build this company. I was doing everything fancy. I made every mistake you could have, I've wasted more money in marketing than anybody I've ever met. We had a conference and a guy by the name of Chris Savage from a company called Wistia came out. Look him up. He's awesome.

He runs a company that does over $32 million a year. It's just a little video company. I had him come on him. Like, you're a genius. I go, can you speak at our conference? So he's speaking, and of course I have him over. I have sushi across from my office. And I go, can you come over to my office?

How many of you'd help me with marketing? He's like, I love to. He's like 30 years old. He's a multi-million. YouTube is offered to buy his company for an insane amount of money. I would have said, years ago, he's like, I don't need the money. I'm like, who the hell are you? This is so great.

I loved him. And I explained my whole business plan for half an hour. He goes, this is too hard. I'm like, you're telling me, he's like, Kirk, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. You're making marketing way too hard. Do you want the secret to marketing? I'm like, yes, he goes, listen to me. I go, what?

He goes, the secret to marketing is always talk about what you care about. I'm like, that's it. He goes, spend the rest of your life talking about what you care about. Because when you talk about what you care about, it's going to attract other people to care about the same things. You're least favorite people. You guys know this is a dentist. You're least favorite people.

We don't line up. You're trying to talk to them about something. They don't care. They don't have the same values as you. The part of it starts with core values. Now I joke. I wear this shirt almost every single day. It's the core values of our company.

And I've been through hell and back. I actually am 50 now. And I feel like I'm one of the Avengers. I kids maybe watch the Avengers. I'm not even the big, but rather down in juteer takes that battery pack. I feel like I'm super hero when I put this on. Here's why it's everything that matters. Nothing else matters.

So when it comes to what you say in your marketing on your website, people try to get too tricky about this. They try to come up. They try to spend all this time in energy being somebody they're not. And it's a waste of time. It's a waste of energy. I don't know who said this. Years ago, somebody came to one of our conferences and said there's three selves.

Right this down. There's who you think you are, who others think you are and who you really are. The least amount of energy is spent with people that those three line up most. When you are just who you, everyone thinks you are. And you don't have to like it's just easy. You are a dentist for a reason. There's something you care about that makes you happy. When you bring that to life, all this other stuff, like your website, your videos, all

that stuff takes the shape you could never shape. And I'll tell you, it's fun just being you talking about what you care about. So in the next time that you're in a chair or you have a patient in a chair and they don't line up, go, something's not working here. Either I'm not talking about what we care about, how did this person get into my life? They're not bad people. You just want to make sure you attract people to care about the same things. Yeah.

Another thing to think about in terms of website and putting your best foot forward electronically, we've all heard this expression, SEO, search engine optimization. And I don't know about you, but I get emails about four times a day from people who offer to move me up in the Google or in-games and stuff. There are two kinds of SEO. There's stuff called White Hat. And what White Hat means really is doing things that conform to the expectations that the Google has for your website.

For example, one of the things that Google rewards is websites that load quickly, a site that loads more slowly will be penalized by Google. So White Hat SEO involves doing the little technical stuff and it's some of it's pretty picky and detail oriented. But doing the stuff that will make your website load more quickly, Google's targeted by the way is 0.2 seconds. So if your website, if the front page, your website loads more slowly than that, then you get PMI.

That's what I'm talking about with White Hat SEO. The other kind is Black Hat and Black Hat involves doing things to try to trick Google into rating your hire. And a lot of the companies that are selling SEO really, they claim to understand what Google is secret formulas. I will tell you that they don't. And that Google's formula changes very quickly and that Google is continually policing for people who try to do this Black Hat stuff.

So White Hat is a great idea. It's a technical exercise mostly with your website, Black Hat, save your money. Don't waste your money on that. The other thing about websites that are a really good thing to do is that your website should be built in something called a content management system. So there was a day when somebody who did your website had to write code, they had to write it in things like HTML and Java. Now there are these content management systems.

They have names like WordPress and Dhumla if that helps you understand. Really what this means is that there's a program that writes the code for your website. And you can enter stuff into the content management system, and it's so harder than designing a document in Microsoft Word. What I'm trying to do is make your own website accessible to you. There was a time 15 years ago when I was... wanted to change to my website. I had to call somebody and explain to them what I wanted. And then they would do it. And a lot of times they wouldn't quite do exactly what I wanted.

And then I would call them again. And you know, this went on and on. And what it meant was that our website was very static. You know, it was such a pain in the ass to change anything that we just did. So when we got the website to have a makeover a couple of years ago, the thing I said to the web designers is the the one non-negotiable here is once you guys are done, if I see something I want I want to change. I want to be able to do it myself from my desktop. And that's where these content management systems coming because now I can just log in. And if you know, I see a grammar mistake on the website or something. I can fix it right then. We can post stuff easily. You know, we don't have to go to some third party to put in a basic post, you know, we, I posted one last week because Amber's involved in a case and

the case made the newspaper so we posted that on the website and it's something we could do ourselves. I'm not saying you have to be your own web master, but it's sure nice to have the flexibility to make small changes or to make blog posts on your own website. And that's where these content management systems come in. Kirk, you're up. All right. So, you know, as far as social networking goes, I like this about as much as you do. Now, I feel like I'm kind of in the middle of those be honest with you. If I could take this phone and throw it in the ocean, I think it'd be happier person. And I recently watched social dilemma. So if any of you guys have seen that movie, it makes you want to vomit into a, you know, a plastic bag because now I know what their game is on the other side.

But I also think it's an inevitable part of the future. So when I see people do really well, here's what I see what people do best when it comes to social networking. Really what they do is their people are their best marketing, whether it be patients or team members. So don't ever lose sight of that. Your single greatest marketing asset is not billboard. It's not your website. It's not social media. Those are important. Don't get me wrong. But it stems from your people. When your people say darling, they say honey, I'm so glad you came here. You're going to meet an incredible dentist back there. She's not only a great dentist, but she's an even better human being. That takes on more power than anything a social post could ever make. Now I'll tell you, it's also fun,

taking a little video of that same team member talking about why she loves working in the office. Because when you see that and you feel it on social media, it's powerful. Our best practices, even the young ones, young dentists getting started, they're just expressing themselves in a fun, positive way because while people can light you and trust you, they got to get a sense of how these people are authentic. I honestly feel like there's a crap detector that everyone has and we've downloaded the latest software and I'm always cautious of people who are not authentic. Actually somebody called me and tried to get my business like yesterday. I was like, tell them my story and they didn't even really listen to what I said and then they

went to pitch. I'm like, did you hear anything I said? And they're like, no, well, he we can, I'm like, I don't know. So I feel like I'm when all things are equal. We want to do business with our friends. Even when they're not equal, we still want to do business with our friends. People we like, trust and value. So I think once you get that piece in place, anything you express yourself, whether it be in social media or YouTube, I see young dentists just shoot little amateur videos and post them on YouTube from questions that patients ask and they're authentically answered. It's powerful. So when you talk about video, it's true. Video works. It's weird, but it works in ways that you'll never really understand. So I really feel like the social media pieces also,

like I said, inevitable piece of the future, but it's a game that's going to be changing a lot. I don't even know how to TikTok. My kids are TikTokking every day. I think it's crazy, but that's how people are communicating. I try this. Ask your children that have phones when was it the last time they actually used to make a phone call. That'll blow your mind. My daughter's like 45 days ago. They don't use them for phones. They use them to communicate differently. It just is what it is. But I would say the biggest piece is, however you express yourself, don't be showing cartoons of teeth out of the mouth. Show something that matters. Something matters to you, matters to the practice, or matters to patients.

Yeah. There's one great thing. I'll do that all mentioned because I think that was the point I put on the slide. This tool's called buffer. What buffer, let's you do, is it let's you take the same content and post it to different social media. You can set something up in buffer and then post it to Facebook and to Instagram and to Twitter. You can also set up time posting. So if you have a staff member doing your social media, they can sit there for an hour at the beginning of the month and kind of set up the whole month's postings more or less. It just breaks the back of the workload of maintaining different social media. Sadly, at this point you really need to be on

multiple social media. You can see on the on the slide, Facebook users are predominantly over 40.

Instagram is millennials. TikTok is younger people. Assuming you want to reach all audiences, you have to be in multiple platforms. I'm sure you all feel the same way I do. Whenever somebody says to me, oh, there's a great new social media that's emerging. I just grown because I want that like, you know, like I want five wisdom teeth. Yeah, I'm still in my space, but nobody's responding to any of the things I'm posting. It just me even though my space was still around. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's an evil that a necessary one. Absolutely. I think every business owner, and I'm sure most of the audience feel the same way. They just kind of wish this all would go away.

It's not better. Yeah. And David, I want to piggyback on that buffer is an incredible service. These aggregators are awesome. There's a gore pulse. You've got Hootsuite. A tool like buffer is great, because not only can you post, you can also put all of the responses in one place. It's a mobile app. So you don't have to jump from things to things. You can literally have a team member, monitor one source through buffer, the end and the out, which is so super time consuming for the most part. Yeah. I mean, that's a good way to put it. Really what it does is it condenses all of the different social platforms you're in, you're on, really down to one that you can you can work with. Absolutely. So it's awesome. If you haven't, if you haven't gotten whoever's doing your

social media into that, you should. Yeah. So this is something that's near and near. My heart, I want to talking about the very treasure in your practice. So, you know, with COVID in the down time, there's probably little things that you could be looking for. Going back to a way we talked about, we have a 78% patient reduction in patients coming in. But our staff members are still at 98%. So, one of the biggest things, because I was a practicing hygienist for 15 years, is find your very treasure in your hygiene. So, if you don't have a consistent busy hygiene schedule, it's going to overflow to your doctor's schedule. And even those people are nervous to come in.

14% of our population is nervous to come in. You know, I'd your team to really get that hygiene and foundation of your practice in it really up and running. Because 30% of that production of your hygiene needs to come from hygiene for your dentist to stay busy. So, this is one of the biggest things that's near and dear to my heart is to making sure, it starts with hygiene. Get your patients educated, use your technology, use your staff to reach out to your patients and really find the missing opportunities. Even people who didn't necessarily just miss their appointment during COVID reach out to those who haven't seen for a few years and get them in here and educate them on. Here's the things that we've done to make sure your safe with what's going on with the virus.

And so paperless contact we've done all of these things. So that's the biggest, very, very treasure in his opportunity that I think is a practice you can find. The other thing is the same day that's ministry opportunities. People are going to be a little bit nervous to take more time off work when they need more treatment than, and Wendy, I know you have a lot of first-hand knowledge in the orthodonic world about this. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting to me. We've been doing same day starts in orthoronics. I mean, since the 90s, that's how long I've been in dentistry, where, you know, the new patient comes in that day.

There if it's an easy case, it's diagnosed. Records are taken, financial agreements are signed, and braces are put on the same day. It's called same day start. And I think a lot of people, like I said, are nervous to come in, and if they don't have to take as many tricks to you, and you can do it as much dentistry that is possible for them. I've seen this firsthand in some practices, the last couple months, because I've been in some practices. Patients really appreciate that. I've been doing this for a long time. I've been doing this for a long time.

I've been doing this for a long time. I've been doing this for a long time. The last couple months, because I've been in some practices. Patients really appreciate that opportunity. If you have the time and the availability to try to do more for them, where they don't have to miss work again, they can come back. They've created that safe environment for, for a long-jovity purpose. You're really going to get a lot of good feedback. Good social validation from being able to do that for patients.

When time allows and when it permits. The other great thing you need to look at that year to find ahead of opportunities. Patients without schedule appointments, so over due treatment plans, you have more downtime with your staff. Really research. Okay, we're going to work on hygiene, but there's other things that patients that we talked about made. They need a crown. They need a root canal. Try to get them back in and use that time to educate them and get those patients to you miss during the COVID world.

And even Greek COVID world come in there. This also integrates with unsolved treatment plans. Making sure you're going through and make a trip balance and use your team. Create lists. Have a little events with your team and say, hey, let's call this many patients. And if we, we can get some overdue treatment plans in here, we get a prize as a team. So I've seen some offices doing that. And if your hygienist has good downtime, you know, as a hygienist because I practiced for 15 years, we build great relationships with patients.

So even as utilized up hygienists to use that time to reach out to those patients and and re communicate use that relationship. Establish more trust. You know, so it gives your hygienists a really good opportunity to reach out to patients and continue to build that relationship. So that as time goes on those patients know, you know, Amber or Jill or whoever their hygienist is just a time to reach out to me and say, have you been doing I haven't seen you for a while. I love to bring in. I love to check on make sure everything's stable and healthy. Do you have any questions about what this visit will be like when you come to see me. So as a hygienist use those hygienists and use that as an integral role. So they can re establish that relationship. They haven't seen that patient for a while. They haven't talked about patient for a while.

It doesn't all have to be hands on preventative work that they're doing to keep their schedule full and build a great hygiene program back up. And the other thing is utilized technology. There's so much great technology out there that will help you find all these little hidden treasures. So that you can be more efficient with your team and your practice. Okay. I'm going to utilize technology. How many people are really overdue for their recall? How can we contact them? We have weight several different models to contact and text email phone calls. So really look at the software and the technology that's available to you and research what you think is going to say you and your team the best. So that you can find all this hidden opportunity and get it in priority and set goals. You know, it's great to have all these opportunities.

But start setting goals. How many people are there? We're going to contact. How are we going to measure this? Let's try to get this many unscheduled treatment plans in. And you know, and my guy said, how have a really fun make it a fun event with your team. So that at the end it's not just like a strategic statistical thing. It's something fun and rewarding for your team a big sense of accomplishment. Amber, I might say a little bit more about some of the technology stuff that you you mentioned there. You know, we I think we all should realize that practice management software and you know, we're talking about metrics or eels after open dental or orthotrack. Or oMS vision. They're all there to do the basic stuff to record treatment to keep track of how much patience. Oh, you to keep the appointment book, things like that. Most of them don't do a really good job though of generating what all call management level information. In other words, this stuff you need to to run the practice and.

spot the opportunities. And that's where these add-on companies. I've mentioned a couple here, but there are lots of other ones as well. That's where the companies that sell add-on software are really shiny. So if you want to find out, for example, if you want to generate a list of patients with phone numbers, who are patients of the practice and have been in in the past two years, let's say, and don't have an appointment book with you right now, that's where these guys are fantastic or you want to find the unfilled treatment plans. They've really made it their business to take the information that's in your practice management software and harvested in a way that you can use. So if you're not using add-on software, it's a really good time to have a look at

it, because it will come through your basic information and just find all kinds of opportunities that you didn't know over there. Totally agree with that. So hey, Amber, this slide. So if you guys listen to this webinar, you should change the title of this slide from Barry Trezzard to Mountains of Cold. Because like this, if you're waiting for what you have listed here, Amber, there's probably a million dollars or more of opportunity. Some of you might be thinking, well, how do I grow my practice? Okay, take a screenshot of this slide, please, for yourselves, because this is literally a phenomenal treatment plan. And let me just say this, it all starts with hygiene. Totally agree. I mean, every expert in dentistry now agrees that hygiene reappeiment

so it's a single most important metrics. I can take a young dentist who doesn't know anything, and if we get their hygiene reappeiment, which is people are scheduled for the next appointment during their current appointment, about 92% they have no place to put patients in six months. You will literally call me and go, I don't know where to put these people and I'll go congratulations. Now, you can do one of two things. You can either grow in size or you can be more selective. I like being more selective than just adding up, but you can do whatever you want to do. Number two, same day opportunities is everybody knows that looks at metrics. That is one of the biggest opportunities. Now, I know you're saying, I don't know. When you're subscribing to the

seven most expensive words in business, which are that's the way we've always done it, it causes problems. So showing up on a webinar like this and having your mind bend it a little bit, people are learning how to do this in their great restorative dentists and they know how to schedule it. Once you're not a schedule it makes total sense. You're like, I totally get it now because you were trying to take what you thought same day your denture was and plug it into the hole that you have and it's not fitting totally get it. So make sure you figure out how it's scheduled and then your mind will go, oh my gosh, patients without schedule appointments, David, like you said, I love dental until every practice we coach across the, you know, entire United States and

whenever we can wherever they are, I want them to have dental until it because I can see exactly how many patients that are active that aren't scheduled. Here's a great metric. Run a report, weekly of how many patients you have that are active patients that don't have an appointment. It will freak you out, okay? You should probably have a stress test after you look at that number because you're going to see why I have 1800 patients, 732 of them are active and they don't have an appointment, what a great opportunity that you put a champion on that and you're not trying to get all of them. You're trying to take it from 762 down to 700, then to 650, then to 550. Well, then you're going to find holy moly and our production skyrocketing and I don't know if you

were to put these people. Our largest producing practice right now that I coach, the first thing you did when COVID hit like when he produces per month, you would just call me a liar. So I'm not even going to tell you. The first thing you did was he had a meeting with his team because culture is everything. It's not the money in the culture. Then his team members kept track of every single patient that was pulled out of his schedule and they were diligent to put every one of them back. So make sure you've got a plan in place and you know, I unfiltering a plan is no brainer. And then use of hygiene downtime, we have something called Parkinson's Law that every task will expand the time you give it. So if you have hygienist and they don't have a list of things to do,

while they don't have any diet type, you know what they do? They find something to fill it. And it's not what you intended for the time. People always are so busy. So make sure you've got a ton of you. If Amber came to your practice, she could come up with a list of 92 things. You guys should probably get done whenever there is an patient here because when you don't have a patient, it's not no profit. It's a negative profit. And so let's do something productive that fills that time and the technology is tremendous. So totally agree that Adon software is made our life so much better, whether it be dental intel, prex, by numbers weave all of them, for phenomena. Sorry, I just, I feel like this slide is the whole run right here. Well, hey guys, we have a, we have a question.

I think it would be a great place to insert it here. Elaine asked, are insurance companies giving breaks to get work done for the patients that were supposed to get work done in 2020?

I'm not aware of any. I think the insurance companies were just laughing all the way to the bank last year. Yeah, that's how I think too. Right. I've been around doing this too long. So don't listen to me. I'm a little teetit. But I think they're missing a little bit of hearts. You know, I don't know. I would never be one to just consistently damage insurance companies. But let's just say this. Insurance companies aren't going to have a wakening one day ago. You know what? We've been pretty bad at dentists. Let's give them some of this back. What do you think? Should we do the right? They're not going to do that. So I think you can't spend time doing that. It's on you. I tell teenage kids the world isn't getting any easier. You have to get better. And I tell that

to dentists all over like, don't sit there and damn insurance companies. That's a waste of time. You spend time getting better. Here's one more thing. I applaud you for being on a great webinar like this because most people don't want to invest the time or energy. I'll think about this. Your single biggest expense or cost or investment. What are you going to call it? It's called your team. It probably takes up 25% of your revenue going out. Here's a question for you. If you had a CBCT or a CERIC that took up 25% of your cash every year, would you get some training for it? Pretty sure you would. So why don't people invest in people? I would never do that. What if I spend all this money on these people and they leave? Why got a question for you? What if you don't spend

any money on them and they stay? You take the time to invest in your team to help them understand this. You know, it always comes back in space. Definitely. I want to add one thing to that two days with the ad on technology. One of the greatest things that I used to love is it really let your team see how they're improving. If you compare when you first get that technology and then a few months later, you start seeing because they're tracking their own metrics and they're really paying attention to it. They'll start to be. The people kind of get really excited about that when you have that add on technology. Like, well, look at all this that we're accomplishing, you know, so I think it's a great thing to research and figure out what work.

You're so right. And by the way, I just want to say hi to one of the attendees, Dr. Chad and we have from Medino, Hios who's on the call. That's an orthodontist, what a wonderful guy. Hi Chad, great to have you with us. We don't often do that, but he's a guy. I think I was a friend and I'm glad to see him there. Yeah, hi Chad. Okay. So, Kirk, talk about training employees. I have got the most incredible story to tell you. Like, I really do try to be my most authentic self all the time, but sometimes just the devil in me is so overbearing. I can hardly keep her quiet and this happened to me the other day. I was trying to make a new patient appointment, a new patient appointment at a new primary care physician for myself.

So I got a long line, you know, I've talked about other the website. I read about the doctor. Some of my neighbors go to the doctor. They just say incredible things about him. So I'm online reading about reading and reviews. And then I go to schedule an appointment, a new patient appointment. So I go on there. I look and I see that next week around Wednesday, they have an open appointment for a new patient. I'm so excited. But then I think, well, maybe I better call on because I have some insurance questions I need to ask them. So I do call them on the phone. I'm one of those oldies I like to talk on the phone sometimes. So I give them a call. You know, all my information, y'all, y'all, y'all, they connect me to the appointment coordinator. She gives me an appointment. I keep you not for five months out.

Now, it took everything within me not to blow fire and smoke all over her. But I said, I said, you know, okay, could I just ask I was on your website and it said that you have a new patient appointment next week. So what's the discrepancy? And this is what I'm talking about training. Literally, she says to me, oh, yeah, well, that's wrong. And people book appointments through the website. But then we have to call them back and we have to be scheduled. I'm telling you, there's not a new patient appointment until May. Okay, now some of you, like, your hair is probably standing on in like mine is. It's like, what the hell? What the hell? Anyway, when do you speak with data, right? Wendy, I feel you're fired. I'm really passionate about this.

If my mom was on this webinar, she would say this. She's sadist. Honey, you always know there's three sides every sort. It's a side to side. What really happened. You know, so I was thinking, you know, I always want to take a little bit of a step back because really that team member probably do in the best they could under certain circumstances. But really, if you and I went to that office, you go, it's not the team members fault. Like somebody is getting this wrong. So here's my question. This is where I would start. I would ask if you're a dentist listen to this. Right to stay up. Do you onboard team members or do you waterboard team members? That's great. You know, like some of you hire someone and you go go and they go, you go up for a go go. And you're in a hot at all day like, what, what's going here? You know, so like, really requires people get to know what's going on all that kind of stuff. So listen, I am certainly, I have not perfected that at all. I mean, we try to pair a champion to new people coming in. They have a mentor coach the whole time. So they can go to other than the owner of the business. But here's one thing I would say, you got to look at the whole thing.

You know this. Now let's start with the base. When you would you agree with this and David, Amber, when I would you agree, when you have the right people in the right seats, that's pretty much all you need in a dental office for the most part. When you have the right people do the right things in the right seats, it's going to change everything. Well, right seats implies and right things. I mean, they know what to do. So let's start with that. I mean, the right people changes you're having right chair site assistant changes your life in about 60 seconds. It says to you, get out of here. Let me do this and you go, where have your parents? I'm alive. Having the right hygiene. I'm alive. I'm alive. Having the right administrative person that's been through prosperity and best practices training and like they can change the financial landscape of your entire entire life in 30 days. Probably raise your fees. Not even tell you for six months. And you go, damn, I got a lot of money. I don't know where the hell is this coming from. So you know, I mean, so let's start with that investing in the right people put in the right seats, getting the right training changes everything. So you got to set it up so that people come in and they can succeed. You got to get them a clear line of sight on the other hand hiring is very imperfect. I've made more mistakes.

And I don't know what the research shows, but new hires less than half of a make it 18 months for a lot of different reasons. People are professional interviewers. I've had people sit right across from a table and go, blah, blah, blah, and I'm like, holy moly, we've hit the jackpot. I'm so excited to show up for work and I'm like, where's the person interviewed? Like, did you, did you, did you have an exorcism? Where is it? You know, like, oh my gosh, they can't even answer the phone. You know, so I like, I don't know who said this, but I doubt that this a while back there's something called the three three three system. This is great. I think one of the things you can do is just get your head straight about bringing your team members on give them the right training higher. And then have a three three three system here it is. In three days, you got to know this much about the practice. Doctors need where the doctor went to school. What the doctor specializes in the address of the practice. Do you know, like basic stuff that most people would go, I should probably study for this and figure this out three days. Then at three week or three days three weeks and three months three weeks they should have the basic competencies down boom boom you put them on a track where they self select. If somebody doesn't know the name of the doctor where the doctor went to dental school. Like, fam how many children the doctor has address the practice, but you know three days we can just say nice meeting you go by because if they don't know that at three days, they're certainly not going to be proficient at three months three weeks. You can check in say hey three weeks you got to pass these tests and then at three months you should be right here right here right here. It becomes the perfect way.

Now here's the other thing people can raise their hand when they know there's a deadline and they can go I need some help and you can go I like you because you ask questions. You know, so I think there's a certain standard that you have to have one last thing and this is probably the hardest one for people to hear. Please write this down. You only hire people for two reasons not three not four not five. You hire people for two reasons number one they feed your core about number two they get results. Don't hire people because they're nice because they're in your neighborhood. They're a friend of a friend that or they work certain hours. You are hiring people to get results people that are great in an office. they just know that, they get results. So I don't know if that helps, but we're all in the same boat, we all got a creative organization that has some stickiness to it, a place that creates a little passion, and then there's some work you gotta do as an entrepreneur. Don't don't waterboard people onboard them and give them a chance to succeed in the clear line of sight of how they

can see. Oh, one more last thing. Before you do the three three systems, ask them one question. Say, do you want to be successful here? If they say no, it's a bad hire. If they say yes, you can say I got a system that shows people making it through the system. It's our three three three system. They're very successful. Let me show you how it works and I know you're going to do really well. And I'll support you through the whole thing. So I don't know. I don't want to take up too much time. I could talk for an hour on that one, but just a couple thoughts. I'm in the same place as you. I'm wondering what in the world is going on in some of these businesses? Well, I'll tell you what, I'll give for the benefit of the doubt. And then I'll call you and let you know how my appointment

goes after a fit in there. In five months, let's know how it goes. Anyway, one of the points that we're talking about is being able to communicate effectively with your patients. You should be logged into texting with your patients. They reply the confirmation and the replies to that teledenstery is also something that I know has exploded in orthodontics. I haven't heard much about it in general. The industry may be when you guys can comment on that, but that's really big. And the patients should be able to book online. It still amazes me sometimes that we work in practices where the patient is commanded or demanded to pick up a phone and call us. I can book an airline ticket to a foreign country and pay for it and just show up on, I can do all of that

online. But I can't make a new patient appointment at my doctor's office just to go in for a regular check-up. And then Dave, I think you had some interesting points about what had happened with my experience, because the two, the software, the technologies were not intertwined with each other. And that's why one was not speaking to the others so they didn't know when they had appointments available. Do you want to comment on that? Yeah, I mean, whatever online booking engine they had, clearly wasn't talking to the actual appointment book, which was maintained in some practice management software somewhere. So somehow they had gotten, you know, they weren't communicator, they had gotten out of sync because the stuff that's available to you as a dentist interfaces directly with your practice management

software. So it goes to your appointment book and it finds the open space and when a patient wants to book online, that's what they're offered. So there was some disconnect if, you know, the poor woman in the physician's office when he was saying to you, yeah, that's not right, you know, that that that that system doesn't really actually know what free space we have.

And and let me know what I asked about you, you know, going back to have a good team is

trying to get a team member who will also say, hey, doctor or whoever's in charge of that, I think this is something we need to fix with patients because they're they're dealing with the repercussion of that. She's dealing with your phone call when the end of that's kind of a lot for your team members to take on too, you know, oh, no big deal. They're going to book online and we'll deal with it and call them. So, you know, I think I think your team members, you know, have that communication and try to as a team set that up as a practice, but they don't have to deal with that. And let's be clear too, not every patient wants to book their appointment online. There are some, you know, and I think there's an age demographic

at play here. There are some who really want to be able to pick up the phone and call somebody and they have questions and they want them answered. And then you've got millennials who would not dream of phoning somebody, just exactly what Kirk said, a while ago, would not phone somebody if they don't have to and if they can just get online and do it themselves. So, I think at this point we're sort of in a transition between those two groups and they're both big demographic and we just need to be able to cater to both. In other words, if there's no way for you to book online, you're going to lose some people who really are pretty insistent that that's how they want to do it. I'm that way with my card, you know, when I take a

current for service, I will only take it to somewhere where I can book the appointment online because I just can't be bothered. Talking to some grease monkey and the garage and trying to, you know, get them to write down my name and address and phoning correctly. I can type a lot faster than they can listen. All right. Yeah, I mean, oh, sorry going ahead. I'm going to say, you know, we have to have a really multi-faceted approach on how we communicate and going back to that slide-day. I just kind of wanted to point out, you know, when I was a hygienist, I used to get asked by other hygienists. Oh, what's your favorite tool that you use on patients and what's the most important thing that's made your hygiene department successful? And my number one most important

tool at that time, I used Yappy, which is a soft and directly text your patients. And myself as a hygienist, I could directly text my patients if I had an opening or I wanted to check on them. And my response could be less than three to five minutes if I had an opening, I could get them right in for that opening. And patients really liked that it came from me personally and I have my name or I'd have like a little joke about the patient, you know, how was the wedding last weekend with your, with your niche, you know, stuff that I knew was going on and hey, if you want to come into the day instead of tomorrow, we'd have more time to cling your teeth and talk about life, which is more important than I put my name on it and stuff. And honestly, as a hygienist, that was my

strongest tool for success was able to instantly communicate with my patients. Great to know. All right, well, we'll bring this to very back one more time. Kirk, we're kind of getting a little long time, but if you had to tell the audience one thing that they should do to me. I got two hours or the stuff prepared here to talk about. But I want to be respectful of everyone's time. And I'll just share with you this, you know, you talk about tools, I love what you're saying, the single most important tool, let me start with this. A lot of this is overwhelmed. Like, I get it. Sometimes it's a dentist, you're like, oh my gosh, this is just too much to think about. I mean, we're patient, like it's just a lot to think about. The single most important thing,

you've ever learned about dentistry that makes you a better dentist is your ability to diagnose, then treatment plan before you actually do the dentistry. You'll find, as you age mature and learn, how to do that, it's going to make it better and better and ever. time, you're going to plan three times before you cut once or four times. Whatever it may be, that principle applies to your business. The single most important thing I do it also you can just when I can do everything. Here's my back. So I carry my backpack into work and I have two things in it that are worth gold. The first one is a spiral notebook. So this is my, and I basically have them for the month

of January. So whenever I take a course, I have notes, I got them. This is January. So if I ever think of something or I got it right here and I can get to its thoughts out of my second one, this is my gold. I have a clear sheet of paper and it's called the one page strategic plan. These are goals. I won't show you what's on them, but like what we're doing this quarter, our core values, our plan, and our priorities. Now here's the key. The biggest companies in the world have used an operating system like traction, like scaling up, like the Rockefeller happens. You're talking about Fortune 500 companies. Most of them only have three to five priorities per quarter. Not 10. Now I'll tell you why that's important to me. I'm an entrepreneur. I think everything's

important. I used to have a list of 92 things to accomplish. What I didn't understand was I used to exhaust everybody around me all the time because I had a new idea and they're like we're still working on the one you gave us three weeks ago. Now I've learned you just get laser focused on the three to five things you want to do for the next 90 days. It's 13 weeks guys, 13 weeks. Would you agree? It's better to get three to five things done over 13 weeks and watch a team celebrate. We got those done that trying to do 92 poorly. Now what happens is this? They believe in themselves. And I'll tell you the goals get bigger. When they go, we did it. They always go, I think we could do a little bit more. And then you go, really? What do you mean by that? It's so cool

when that happens. And I'll tell you why this is important to me. I'm an eye in the disc profile. I love talking to people. I've bright shiny objects are exciting technology. I love it. I'm all over every day. I come in take a deep breath and I tell myself just stick to the paper. Just stick to the paper and my team members when they want to put a knife in my neck because I'm like getting crazy or whatever that I'm joking. But like they're like, they always say just stick to the paper. So my encouragement to you is this. Break up your business in the small pieces. Over a quarter, all of us can work better on fewer priorities. And I also tell you the brain like simple. The things that I have on your my kids could understand. And you could all work together

better when you have three priorities instead of 92. So that and I've got a copy of it. I don't know where I would share it. But I could share a copy that's a template. You guys can use it. Just use it. Fill it in. You get stuck. It's the single most important tool I use every single day. If you ever see me ever in an airport, so go let me see your one page up all out. No go. You can look ahead for a minute. But I need a back because it's my passage to sanity. So thank you guys for having a wonderful have you here. Well, we've we've got a few minutes left and certainly if anybody has a question use the use the question for them on the on zoom and we'd love to answer them. And I'll just I'll if somebody wants to simply I'll just put it right here. You guys can have it.

I don't care. Okay. We usually do a we have a follow up message that an automated one that goes out of right now. You better. But I'll I'll be happy to send one to the participants. You know, it's more our next week. Kirk with how to get that perfect. That'd be awesome. Thank you. I'm kind of interested in seeing it myself. I pleasure. All right. Yeah. All right. You know, oh, I'm sorry Amber. Go ahead. Yeah, we just had a response from a I didn't an audience member that said they would love to see the one page. Okay. Now I don't show you what's on mine, but I'll give you the template you can spill it in the template. That's okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions that came up that we want to we want to know. I just have a comment. My friend Jerry was on the webinar and she was

texting me and she was pointing out to me that that so many offices were closed during COVID and they had to lay off their staff. A lot of the doctors or business owners were going through their books. Maybe just trying to figure out how they're going to survive while they're having no production. As well as just having the opportunity to examine the condition of their business and they've just found so many things that are messed up in their books and the doctors are aware of that. And you know, we were talking about very treasure and that one slide, what an excellent opportunity to go back and to find those areas where you can create production for that. And I will say one thing about prosperity is that during the closure of the offices because of COVID we had been so, so busy.

It's like we just ramped up because that's exactly what's happening. Clients were going through their books and they were finding things that just didn't make sense. And they were looking at transactions because they finally had the time to slow down and be attention to what's happening with their accounting. And they'd furloughed staff and they were they were doing things themselves that traditionally their staff would have had. Yeah, there was a lot going on and I mean we've spent most of today talking about how to make your practice better and how to bring in more money. Let's not lose sight of the other part, which is how to keep some of that. And you know it's great to move your productivity from

1.6 million to 1.8 million. That's a wonderful accomplishment if you can do it. However, if you have an ambassador and the ambassador says well great I can reach my hand a little deeper into the doctors. Okay now, I'm not sure what you really accomplished with all that. Right. And I want to add one thing too. I think what you guys do is phenomenal at prosperity. And if you're dentist you might be thinking, I don't want to do this because like, two of these have been up there at the front for like 30 years. I mean, I mean it's going to be like I don't trust her. And so we have to differentiate between what trust and verification is and as a business or anything just having to talk about it. Then let me just I can't help you with that conversation,

but I can help you with one piece. It's the term accountability. Accountability requires accounting. The best team members you will ever have ever love accountability. They love it. They enjoy it. The least favorite ones you'll ever have. They don't want to be held accountable for anything. Accountability is not trust. It's coal. It requires accounting. I have three teenage daughters. They say you don't trust, you know, I trust you honey. I'm just going to verify. I that you got home when you were supposed to be home. Does that make sense? Because if I don't verify, they'll come home a hour later,

or two hours later, or not at all, if I'm not that kind of a dad. So it's not bad, good or indifferent. I just want to help you understand as a business owner, accountability, extremely healthy. What if your kids went to school? And there was no accountability in your teacher goes, no, we don't do grades here.

Everybody gets a medal and a star. You'd go, I gotta get my kid out of the school fast. I need a great, you know, or need to believe so. I don't know. Kirk, Kirk, what you said was just so profound. And I'm gonna quote a dear friend of mine, whose name happens to be Amber Weber, who once said that accountability is the first casualty

of the investment. Tell me more, I want to know where that came from. Tell me a little bit more, because that's a very cool statement. Actually, I'm gonna write that one down. Yeah. Go tell me where you got that from. And tell me give us some context.

Where I got that from? Yeah, I love that. Here's what I think about me, Kirk. All of my things come from cows and horses. Okay. So there's a lot of great lessons there, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, so most of my stories come from, you know, where did the cow go?

Go, what neighbor stole it? It has my brand on it, like that's the whole verification. So that's where majority of that, my stories come from. It's interesting that you remember that day, huh? Well, that stuck with me like, glue. And I've quoted that many times. Because Amber says that you're going to an office and whoever's responsible for the money is fighting accountability.

And I think the other word Amber that you used at the time was transparency, you know, which those two probably are pretty tightly intertwined. Yeah, when you get opacity as opposed to transparency from somebody at the front desk, you know, that's when you really have to be wary. And I think that's where it was coming from. Well, and that really came from, you know,

when I was a kid, if we took our cows to the pasture, we had to be very, like, this is how many cows we turned out and right to the number and to the tea, you know, because if we went out there and it was off, I mean, I was accountable. I was like, well, you said you turned 42 head out here and there's only 41 or 39, you know, what happened to this one?

And so I had a lot of accountability in the header. Remember it right at all down for then it to him.

We're a lot of that. Amber, you are fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't think about that, cast of horses. It is a bow to our nose. Yeah. Yeah, you can learn a lot from that.

Those animals. Oh, my gosh. And I see our good friend Wayne Carr, Dr. Wayne Curry's Wayne's awesome. His on here. He is one of my favorite guys anywhere. And I hope I won't offend him when I say that he reminds me totally of the six-volt radio plugged into a nine-volt battery.

He's a senior citizen and proud of it. And he is such an energetic enthusiastic guy that you just have to love him. So great to have you on board. Great. We're at time. Let's see. I think one last question, Kate.

Oh, it's Wayne. Saying thanks so much. Yeah. You are in a gift to humanity Wayne. And I am so pleased to know you. All right. Well, I'd love to thank our very special guest Kirk. You.

I think if you hadn't met him or encountered him before, spending a little bit of time with him today, you understand exactly why we love him here. And he's one of our favorite guys. And thanks for spending some time with us tonight. And enjoy what's left of your evening. Goodnight, everyone. And thanks.

Thank you guys. Thanks for listening to the dental practice on our spotcast. Brought to you by Prosperidant. You can contact Prosperidant through its website, www.prosperidant.com or by calling 888-398-2327. If you have questions about this podcast, if you would like to discuss your practice,

or there is a topic you would like to see in a future podcast. We would love to hear from you. Amber, Wendy and David will be back soon with another episode.