Experiencing the Fruit of a Fulfilled Vision

Dr. Smith is back in the studio today, and he shares the beauty of a fulfilled vision. Fifteen years after he took over his practice, he is still experiencing the fruit of his mission and is even able to pivot to be away from the practice more than he ever has been before. He and Bethany discuss the importance of documenting the vision and discussing it repeatedly with the team. Dr. Smith even shares his vision and mission with listeners so that they can get a sample of a documented mission. Enjoy hearing from a doctor who has put in the hard work and is experiencing the joys of that hard work. 

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Previous Episodes Worth Revisiting:
 Meet Dr. Smith!
Branding Revisited – Real Branding Examples 

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Transcript

0:36
notes you will be able to go down click a link to our subscription and it will
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take you to one of three member models you can become a level one member which
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membership you get direct access to myself and Dr Kuba once a quarter every
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third month you get a phone call with myself or Dr Koopa to ask us your
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questions talk through drama whatever way we can support you so guys one week
1:25
from today look at the show notes don't forget to sign up I've got so many wonderful amazing listeners I expect for
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every one of you to be a part of our community okay I'll let you tune in to today's
1:38
episode Dr Smith it's been a year can you believe that has been a year yeah a
1:43
year since you've been on this show yeah so it's time for you to be back and now we get to glean all your wisdom I
1:49
already told you that I've got topics picked out for you because this month I started the podcast with my dad talking
1:58
about vision and I literally as we were recording I was like okay Smith I got to
2:04
I got to tag him in on this and so here we are end of October and we started the
2:11
month talking about Vision uh I spent some time talking with Dr Kuba about how
2:17
a rotten apple on the team can kind of sway the vision in a negative way or can
2:23
kind of get us off track with vision and then um we've talked about pivoting on
2:29
you know major life things that come up that can cause us to Pivot and so I'm really hoping you'll help us round out
2:36
this month and talk to us really kind of about all three of these which I want to
2:42
start with vision because I feel like from the first time that I met you which was over a decade ago you had a very
2:50
clear Vision about what you wanted from a patient care standpoint a patient experience standpoint so how did you how
2:57
did you pick out that Vision what what made you you go in that direction yeah I think that's a great question and uh
3:03
looking back um I started out working for corporate and um was basically told
3:08
what I was going to do and I learned really quick like the things I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do and you
3:14
know watched how practice the practice run it was a really good experience um to to work in a in a corporate office
3:22
where all I had to do is go and like get better at industry um but I learned a lot about insurance learned a lot about these other things just from paying
3:28
attention and watching and um how I wanted to treat people and how I wanted the practice to run and how I wanted things to go and so when I decided to
3:35
leave there and start my own practice it was very much I wanted to leave the corporate part of side and focus on
3:42
patience and I always felt like if you treated patients well you treated them you know with respect you treated your
3:48
team with respect that everything would be okay and everything would come and I
3:53
don't mark it towards certain things or do you know try to do certain procedures it's you know I mark it towards people
4:00
and try to bring people into the office and then try to retain those people and that's always been my biggest thing
4:05
getting the people in and retaining them what can we do to retain them and it was funny like I was listening to your dad
4:11
talking about um Vision which was great um really enjoyed meeting him at the uh at your Bethany lunch which I want to
4:17
also say was also a great time we had a great time doing that um but um you know
4:23
one thing that came to mind when he was talking about the vision is also your values and getting your values right off
4:30
the bat um I think is probably one of the most important things and then you can build your vision and your mission
4:35
off of those values and uh so I put together my values which I don't compromise at all and I think that's
4:41
what's kept through is by not compromising these values we went through these storms and ups and downs
4:47
and all this stuff and it was like it'll be okay on the other side just keep moving forward and I made changes we
4:53
pivoted we changed things we had to change things sometimes sometimes I changed things for the better sometimes it didn't work out um but at the end of
5:00
the day it was as long as we could do that without violating you know my my go my values which are very simple which
5:07
I'll tell you you know we we have six six words basically it's Integrity respect quality compassion welcoming and
5:14
appreciation and um what I tell the girls is you know we always practice with Integrity uh we always respect
5:20
others we always provide quality treatment we always treat with compassion um we always always create a
5:28
welcoming environment to to everybody and we always appreciate the good that comes from the practice which I think is
5:34
very important um to appreciate things because we always focus on the patients and the meltdowns and the things that
5:40
didn't go so well but a lot of really good things come from the practice as well we help a lot of people we do good
5:46
things for the community um and it's it's a really important that we focus on those and you know sometimes it's just
5:51
as simple as making sure we we tell the whole team that somebody had a great day then said great things about us maybe
5:58
they wrote us a really good review um maybe some you know brought us Donuts or brought us something you know and
6:03
everything and it's just making sure that everybody is a part of of that and appreciative of those things and so we always make sure when somebody brings us
6:09
something we always send them you know a thank you card and we always do something to like appreciate that um and
6:16
so by by building those values then I built my vision and then I built the Mission and kind of you know have kind
6:21
of it's so important I'm so glad you brought up values because I feel like we can dream big dreams but we do have to
6:28
have this found found AAL component of even in these Big Dreams no matter which Twist and Turn we decide to take from a
6:35
vision standpoint we don't want to compromise on the values and so I think that's a key distinction that is
6:41
important as we talk about Vision because your vision should be built on your values and even these word people
6:48
sometimes will be like well what do you mean from a value standpoint but saying like we're always committed to Quality
6:54
Dentistry that's when you think about that it's like no matter what change we make in the practice even some something
7:01
down um as simple as you and I gosh I want to say it was a couple years ago we
7:06
were standing in your storage closet looking at supp because obviously we've had these huge swells and supplies and
7:14
all of that and you had made it a mission you and your assistant to find
7:20
some key products but at lesser prices and I remember you saying even at that point like look at the Quality like this
7:27
is from this particular company that cost three times this I ordered the same
7:33
thing look at and you're like showing me I think it was like impression trayes you're like showing me these impression trades you're like it is the same thing
7:40
and so even that it's like you can decide like you can pivot with the times
7:46
and go okay we've got these Supply costs but I'm not going to compromise on quality and So you you're going and
7:52
you're shopping this but you're comparing it to go is this the same quality D can I provide the same quality
7:59
d with this impression tray and so I think those those values are really
8:04
foundational to everything yeah and I think you know going to that example is
8:09
um one thing that was important to us was things that just went in the trash you know so like suction tips air water
8:15
syringes as long as it shot water out of it then it was fine as long as it suction spit then you know it was good
8:21
as long as it was you know it looked good it didn't look dirty you know things like that um and it's funny cuz
8:27
um a lot of the things we found were on Amazon at that time because we couldn't find things and a lot of the even you
8:33
know Henry shine was behind on stuff burkart was behind on stuff midw like all those people and I was like where do we get this stuff and my assistant found
8:41
almost the same exact stuff where you it looks the same and I still use a lot of that stuff because we bought so much of
8:46
it back then um but it was a quarter of the price and it was just as good and my thing was is okay we're going to get
8:52
this stuff in and then like half of them are going to break or half them and uh you know what we didn't have any more
8:57
than when I get the hinders shine ones and um you know kind shine still going up and we still get some stuff from
9:03
there but like impression tray so plastic I mean it's not anything but like composite I won't compromise that
9:09
that you know I use one of the higher higher composits I use higher impression material um one trick that we started
9:15
doing though which has worked out great for me is I use a very expensive um light body but I use the hen shine brand
9:21
heavy body and so we mix those together and so saving the money on the heavy body allowed me to use a more expensive
9:28
better quality um light body which is where my crown margin comes from and everything so and yes I still use an
9:34
oldfashioned Impressions and do it the oldfashioned way and it still works really well well but again I think that
9:39
goes back to from a value standpoint you're 100% committed to Quality Dentistry but you're willing to kind of
9:46
play around with some of the materials you might use to provide some savings or
9:52
something disposable that you're like okay I can compromise there to keep my profit margins the way that but I'm not
9:58
going to compromise on the quality I'm not going to cram a bunch of patients into the schedule in order to make my
10:05
profit margin where it needs to be I'm not compromising on that so I've got to find other ways where I can kind of
10:11
close that Gap so that I'm not compromising on the quality Dentistry aspect so I think I'm so glad you
10:18
brought your your values in today because I think those are pivotal in I think they've been a guiding force for
10:24
you even your team we recently reviewed these and we're like remember this is is
10:30
not only what we do but this is why we do what we do so I think those have been
10:35
pretty critical yeah and I think it's very important anything we change anything we do you know I I always
10:40
mentally kind of look back and say would it violate anything that's from from this list and as long as it doesn't then
10:46
hey let's go for it if it does then it's like hey we need to rethink that we need to do something different so um and so
10:54
from those values then I got my mission and my vision you know statement and everything and I think if uh if I have
10:59
any advice for the listeners is is just start with a core value of like what you want and what you see you know you going
11:06
for and I think you mentioned in the last podcast sometimes you just need to do shortterm like you don't need to look
11:11
at 15 years in the future what's shortterm so like what do you want to do right now and that start building from
11:17
that and it's not something you're going to do tonight like it's going to take some time to really think through it um but it will
11:23
benefit significantly it helps the team because they know exactly I mean there's
11:28
there's surprises they know this is this is what I believe this is how it will stay I will not violate those and um
11:36
they they know that and it makes it a lot easier when they ask me to do something or why don't we do this or why it's like well that doesn't fit with
11:42
what I want to do that's not how I do business so it makes it clearcut it's like it's not just an opinion their
11:48
opinion versus yours you can point to well this goes against something on my
11:54
values or something against my vision vision and I think that can clear things up quite for team MERS I think important
12:00
to keep it simple I mean that's why I kept it simple with just a few things you know and then we went into our vision and then we went our mission and
12:06
neither one of those are very long as well I don't have this whole page long you know Vision it's like couple of sentences my mission is one sentence um
12:14
it's just like you know just keep it simple and not try to to do too much um it's a lot easier to follow it that way
12:22
and it's a lot easier to to explain that to the team and it's a lot easier for them to follow yeah so coming out of
12:28
these strong values that you secured a long time ago how do you feel like that
12:34
has led you to the vision of the practice that you function in
12:41
now um what do you mean so obviously these are fantastic values to have but I
12:48
see these at play when I'm in your practice I can see these very evidently at at play so how do you feel like
12:54
obviously we talked about quality Dentistry but something as simple as respect and int Integrity like how do
13:01
you feel like that's become a part of your vision for the actual patient experience yeah so I I think we started
13:07
with these six to be kind of you know that's my core values that's where that's where we're going um and then to
13:14
give you idea my vision is just to have a practice with firm foundations to build upon and continuously strive to
13:20
grow and improve to provide for the dental team and patients a good comfortable safe and welcoming
13:27
environment based on respect compassion and Integrity to continue to build strong relationships with the dental
13:32
team and the patients of the practice so I think one thing in that whole Vision
13:38
there is the it it combines both the team and the patients yeah um so the
13:44
values were not just you know as a thing to do for patients I use that with my
13:50
team as well and you know we don't we don't violate these against each other we don't violate these you know I don't
13:55
violate those against them um and so it was just important for me to have them have those values and to see those
14:03
values that play and to treat people well and then also to show it as an examp like to lead by example you know
14:09
continue to treat people well and keep doing those things um Good Times bad times hard days good days you know
14:16
whatever it was it's like it's not acceptable that we had a really bad morning so you take it out on a patient later in the day or a patient's very
14:23
difficult well some people are difficult you don't know their experiences at home and so let's give them the benefit of the doubt and let's still just take care
14:28
of those people and it's funny some of those people turn out to be your best patients and they turn out to like send
14:33
you stuff in the ma you know and things and you know and it's like um you know and the girls know like if we have a
14:39
patient we we've had this several times lately of patients that have had kids you know have gotten pregnant or have
14:45
had surgery or have had unfortunate deaths and um the girls know there's a note on the calendar and they go and
14:51
they put it in there and we send them flowers or cookies or something based off of um you know based off of the the
14:58
situation um that's not a marketing Ploy it's not trying to it's just for us to you know tell people that we care about
15:03
them and we're sorry they're going through this or we're happy for them that they're going through it for the good things right um you know and that
15:09
we're just here and so it's not uh it's not an attempt to gain a patient it's not a it's just a value that we have
15:16
that we want to take care of people and we want them to know it's more than just inside these walls it expands out right
15:21
that well and again I think that that not only the value and the vision it
15:26
becomes like you said it's a disting pushing factor to go we're going to do those things for the sake of growth MH
15:32
or we're going to do those things for the sake of respect and integrity and welcoming and all when that's the
15:39
intention behind what you're doing is really the vision and the values so it's
15:45
like you there could be plenty of practices that send a congratulations baby gift but it can be done for
15:50
multiple different reasons and so for your team to understand no the reason we do this is not just a marketing employee
15:57
it's actually built off of these Vision the vision and the values that we have as a foundation so I think even
16:04
something as simple as that is built off of value and Visions right you know so
16:10
no so one of the things I've got to ask you because I feel like there's been so many times we've gotten together where
16:17
either I'm pushing you to go in a different different direction would you love you promised me easy
16:24
questions you you love when I push you on things um but I also also think
16:30
you've really made some cool changes from what I would call a pivoting standpoint you haven't changed on your
16:37
values you have not changed on your vision those things have been unchanging but I think that actual technical
16:44
application of those has changed when I think through the years like we're just coming out of one of our quarterly
16:51
meetings and we're talking about how even the nature of your practice has
16:57
changed to be more heav heavier hygiene not quite as much treatment we talked
17:03
about how that's a natural thing that happens in a nice solid maturing practice and so we're seeing changes in
17:10
your practice which are really cool but I think we've done a lot of pivoting
17:16
Through The Years so I'm going to give you an example of wanting to take you back a little bit um so pandem we were
17:23
we were just laughing about this pre pandemic we had we spent this hours just
17:29
building this really ornate marketing plan that was a dang good marketing
17:36
plan because you came up with it so perect it was perfect it a perfect plan
17:41
and so we had spent all this time coming up with this marketing plan because at that particular time that is what we
17:46
felt like your practice needed we wanted to really push growth and and so we were
17:52
coming up with marketing ideas and then literally I think the next month or the month after yeah it was January or
17:58
February and then March the world ended yeah yeah pandemic hit and we laughed and we're like we've never had to go
18:04
back to that because there was something very natural that happened in your
18:09
practice post pandemic which did not necessarily happen in all practices and we talked about that a lot you were one
18:16
of my offices that tend tended to defy the trends as as we walked in the post-pandemic world and so one of the
18:24
pivots that I feel like you made mentally was this mindset that we called
18:29
feast or famine because you and I kept thinking the bottom was going to fall
18:35
out at some point the rest of the dental world was experiencing kind of this lull or this this slow rebound from the from
18:44
the pandemic and you did not experience that um you bounced back maybe more
18:50
aggressively that I know it was more aggressively than I anticipated and so you shifted your mindset to what I
18:59
called a feast or famine mindset you were willing to run a not an overly busy
19:04
schedule but you were making a lot of schedule accommodations to take care of the patients because we really just
19:11
didn't know when that was going to end so even in that you have this Vision the vision didn't change the values didn't
19:17
change it's just the actual execution of it became different and you became a
19:23
doctor that was willing to um it wasn't work harder it was just there was a lot
19:29
more patients that you took care of during that period of time can you kind of walk me through what you remember
19:36
from that period of time yeah I think I think you're exactly right like I think every single month we talked about well
19:41
it's not this month so it must be next month that this is going to fall apart and it's like you know take advantage as long as you possibly can and I think
19:47
that's what we did but you know without you know uh violating the values we still like got people in um we changed
19:54
the templates multiple times probably more times during those two years years right after covid that I had all of my
20:01
career yeah um to start accommodating people because we still didn't want to have so many people coming in that
20:06
people had a bad experience right and so I was like how do we still treat people great how do we still take really good
20:12
care of them how do we produce this environment and I think a big part of it was the groundwork we laid before Co
20:18
kind of came back to us afterwards that we had like this is a safe place to come
20:24
this is good people here that are going to talk to you that are going to take care care of you we're not going to push
20:30
you in and out of the door I mean I remember little ladies coming in here and just sitting in the waiting room
20:35
talking to people you know and I'm like you really can't do that but okay you know what am I going to do tell you to
20:41
go home like they had nothing else to do their highlight was coming to see the dentist and going to Walmart you know
20:46
and so you know I think we did we as you know as long as it wasn't creating an unsafe environment we allowed people to
20:53
come in and just treated them just like we did beforehand I mean before Co we took care of people we you know made
20:59
sure we washed our hands we made sure we wore gloves and mask and you know took you know took all the precautions that you're supposed to and we just did the
21:05
same things afterwards and so nothing really changed there wasn't a big difference there but I think people just
21:10
noticed it more and were more um kind of like we were talking about earlier I think they were they were more um it was
21:17
more at the front of their mind of not just getting treatment but being in a safe environment um that would take care
21:23
of them and that was very important to continue that with the team of like hey this is what we're doing we're going to
21:29
keep going at some point this falls out and then we'll you know we'll we'll address that when it comes but until
21:34
then we need to get people in we need to make changes so that we can accommodate people um the best that we can and on a
21:41
on a daily basis we kind of change that to something else and you know I'm like the last person that wants to change
21:46
anything I love the way things are going I love autopilot just keeps going going and life is good and um you know we had
21:52
to change a lot of things during those times and then we have people leaving and you know I what for almost a year I
21:58
was cleaning teeth because um we didn't have a hygienist and you know we could have shut that down and you know not
22:05
seeing those people but it was really important that we continue to see these people um because I feel like it would be an injustice to them to not see them
22:11
to take care of them so when they did come in though we were very honest with them like Hey we're short of hygienist
22:17
Dr Smith is cleaning teeth today um but he's also seeing other patients too it may just take a little bit longer and I
22:22
think as long as we were honest with people right from the front um right up front then it changed the dynamic of the
22:27
questioning of like oh what happened oh well I'm so glad that you're still seeing us today you know cuz a lot of
22:34
people were having to cancel people and say like I don't have enough room to see anybody because we didn't have any team
22:39
members because we were short hygienists we were short assistants we were short everything um and we just made it into a
22:44
point like hey we're just going to have to work a little bit harder um to do it but it'll pay off it'll work and what we
22:49
found is like we never hit the bottom never fell out we we stopped saying that
22:55
anything else it just kind of cute and you know now you're like how do you grow more and even though I don't want to we keep keep doing
23:02
it yeah well and I do think it's interesting to when you think of it
23:09
retrospectively I do feel like all the effort that you put in from a value standpoint from a vision and Mission
23:15
standpoint I do think that created a space for patients to come back because
23:21
they even in a time that people were very scared about what was going on in the world they there was a trust here
23:28
mhm there was a foundation of trust here that they knew they could come here and they were going to be well taken care of
23:33
they were going to be safe there wasn't going to be anything that you were going to do that that uh they didn't trust you
23:39
know and so I I think that Foundation served you really well and then despite
23:44
all the crazy Staffing changes that you went through during that time you we were in this Feast famine mindset and so
23:52
you kept the schedule open you kept seeing patients and taking care of their
23:57
needs when a lot of other offices weren't and so I think it was like this
24:03
perfect storm in a good way because you had this Foundation of trust people felt really good about coming back but then
24:10
there was also capacity for them to come back and so because we created that
24:15
initial space it served you really well it kept serving you well like we just
24:21
kept anticipating that it would stop at some point but I think it just continued
24:26
because it it worked um that Foundation of trust was there the values were there and didn't change and then you had
24:33
capacity to serve these people so I do think there was so much pivoting that happened even for you just
24:39
psychologically I feel like you flipped a switch that was like no we've got to accommodate these people and and oh I
24:45
remember I remember at one point telling the girls today is the day we will not change anything and um I say that a
24:50
whole lot and it just kept going and kept going and kept going um but it was you and and during that time I was super
24:57
impressed with everybody like everybody adapted so differently and came up with all these ideas and different things to
25:04
get around all the stuff that was going on during Co um that like we kept a lot of those things when we moved forward
25:10
and got away from you know all those rules we had to follow and all those things it was like well some of these things were pretty good and the template
25:17
was better by making us have to do some of these things and making us recognize you know all these spots that we needed
25:23
for post-ops and the spots that we needed for these other stuff that were before just kind of sprinkled into the schedule and it was like no no we need a
25:29
spot for every little appointment which sounds super tedious and it really is um
25:34
but it's worth the time and but you just have to be willing to change it and adapt to it and when this doesn't work
25:40
or these things are still are coming together and it's like it's causing an issue again breaking the like taking
25:45
care of the patient if this patient's staying too long because you can't get to this patient um you got to change the
25:51
template you got to do something different and so we did that a lot I think the template was the biggest thing during that time and then just taking
25:56
care of people making phone calls to people people and you know it wasn't a way of like we're trying to get we just wanted them to know hey we're here we're
26:02
open you know we're here for you when you're ready and I mean was it two three you know I mean I've still have some
26:08
patients coming that have not been in since 2019 um but they're still coming in because they're finally feeling comfortable or chaos happened you know
26:15
jobs got lost and things like that right um but they still remembered us and still came back and I think that was you
26:21
know a big important part I think it served it was a foundation that you had built not knowing that there was a
26:27
pandemic future but I think that Foundation served you really well because y'all were
26:33
so focused on the patient experience and what you wanted you wanted them to feel
26:38
welcome and welcomed and cared for that that carried you through a lot of changes and it's funny this kind of aite
26:44
up but at the at the brunch I was talking to your dad and he was telling me a story and I won't tell it because it's his story um but basically he had
26:51
come out of dental school gone to work for somebody and um this person wanted
26:57
to do certain things and wanted him to stop doing some things and you know it went on for a little while and finally
27:03
they you know he's he was like this is who I am and they parted ways and he started his own practice and so he's
27:10
telling me the story and I'm like yeah but do you feel like when you got to that point you attracted people that
27:16
were okay with the way you were doing things and you attracted patients that were okay with the way you wanted to do things and not forcing you to kind of do
27:23
all those things and I was like that kind of that that's kind of what I was looking for is
27:29
I wanted to do things the way that I was going to do them and not compromise those things and I've attracted team
27:35
members that are okay with that if they're not they're not here anymore they've left um and I think that's
27:40
really important too I I've heard Dr Kuba talk about it and so like like they're so afraid to fire people and they and like I was like I hate it like
27:47
it makes me want to throw up to take somebody's job away from them it's like the worst thing um but at the same time
27:53
you can't be scared to do it you have to do it because it's what's best for the practice and it's what best and so you don't again you don't compromise these
27:59
things cuz if you have this rotten apple you have this bad person you know the other people need to know that you're
28:04
going to take care of them by removing the rotten apple from their environment right um where if you continue to let
28:10
that person they're all going to turn into Rotten Apples because they're going to be like well she's getting away with it why can't I do this they she doesn't
28:15
show up on time so you know and so when I put on I'm like you're required to be here on time all of my team members are
28:22
here on time every single day like it's just a culture that we have created um no one's l or if they're late like
28:28
they're calling every single person on the team like I I overslept I'm on my way I need this done like Dr Smith has
28:34
this patient here can somebody set that up for me real quick you know trying to and like I don't even ask them to do
28:40
that but they just know that that's that's their job and yes sir and things are going to happen and I of course make
28:46
a comment like hey you were late today not cool let's not do that again you know but you know unless it becomes a
28:53
habit I don't but it's like they kind of self- police themselves in that in that case yeah cuz again the expectations are
29:00
clear mhm they know like this is unacceptable or this is even I think good like the expectations have to be
29:06
clear they got to be you have to have clear expectations this is what's important to you this is what I believe
29:12
in so therefore get on board or you need to remove yourself yeah one or the other
29:18
and um and I think I have people every time I hire somebody Dr Jones did it this way or Dr blah blah did it this way
29:24
and I was like well this is not Dr Jones this is Dr Smith and this is how I do things and it doesn't change and then when the team backs it up of saying yes
29:31
this is how Eric does things he is very much plays rock and roll music all day
29:36
shows up on time takes care of patients we'll sit and talk to them forever in the room so we need a backup plan you
29:43
know but it's like I also give the team a lot of autonomy as well um with that and I think that's very important too
29:49
yes I I'm definitely not a micromanager even though I think they might feel that way sometimes um I don't go sit in my
29:56
office um get find anything in my office right now um I I hate sitting in my
30:01
office so I will wander around the office and I will talk to everybody and I'll do but it's also kind of reminding them that like I'm here like I'm paying
30:08
attention to what's going on but they also have a lot of autonomy and we had this issue today um I had a patient who
30:14
um has had a tough time she's been a patient forever and she was just talking she really was just talking to me and
30:21
you know they're not standing behind me like you know tapping their watch you know all stuff you know my assistant
30:26
went and got a room and put the hygienist patient in there the hygienist left me and went and did her x-rays and
30:35
started doing all this stuff something they came back in here and then I'm figuring out what's going on I figure out that we're running behind you know
30:40
we're getting really close to that and so I'm like trying to wrap this up and then I walk the patient out the assistant comes in and flips the room
30:46
and then the hygienist moves the patient from five into her room yeah you know and it was like I didn't have to tell them that they knew from that like that
30:54
patient that was waiting needed to be taken care of how can we take care of that patient well the best thing is to
31:00
get them back and then well they need x-rays so let's go ahead and get the x-rays let's do this um but it's because
31:05
we've done it so many times and you know before I had to tell them to do that now they know well this is what dr's going
31:11
to want us to do and so this makes sense then let's do that and I've done some things sometimes and afterwards I have
31:16
feel like okay I see where you guys were going thank you for trying but that was the awful way to do that like let's not
31:22
do it that way again so no self this is not a good execution of the plan wrong
31:28
but I'm really glad you were trying you know um I also am thinking of a time so
31:35
obviously pandemic time I feel like you definitely pivoted in so many ways but
31:41
also I guess it was I'm trying to think about maybe last year or the year before
31:48
where we were you know two years two or three years post pandemic and we're like well I guess this Bottom's never going
31:54
to drop out I think we're okay you know I think this is going to stay for a while I think the is the new normal and
32:00
so thankfully because everything was so stable the practice was in really good shape from a financial standpoint and so
32:09
in one of our conversations I started to really ask you questions about what you wanted out of the schedule and so talk
32:17
us through some of the changes that you've made at least from your work schedule um and how have you made
32:25
changes in your family life that have been beneficial with with um with recent changes so you're talking about taking
32:30
off more time yeah so um so Bethany has forced me to take more time off so she
32:36
she I needed a push off the cliff to get there and I think it was because and you come back to these values and it was
32:42
like I felt like I needed to be here I felt like that's my job I should be here it's not like I I neglected my family at
32:47
all like they were great taken care of um it's really great I always like to tell the the patients that are having
32:52
their first kid this old guy probably one of my first patients way back and they told me that this story about like
32:58
one thing that he did um he worked out of town a lot and he would set up um one
33:04
day a month with each one of his kids for a date night and I'm like that's genius I love this idea we still do this
33:10
me and Bailey go on a date night and me and my son and they're totally different date nights because Lucas wants to go hit baseballs or go do something like
33:16
that and Bailey wants to go to like some dinner and dress on a dress and you know all that stuff but it's um you know
33:22
those things have always been important to me but when we started the practice I had to work and I had to you know see
33:29
people and I mean there for a while I was working six days a week cuz I'd work here and then I would work in another office two days a week you know so I was
33:35
working Monday through Saturday and then you know it was a means to get to to where we wanted wanted to get but even
33:42
after that I think I really struggled with taking off because I felt like I neglected people um and then once you
33:49
kind of like you know talked me off that ledge and got me to do that um what I learned is when I did take off extra
33:55
time like oh the world didn't end everything was fine fine I like to say that all the time now cuz it's like everything is like the world didn't end
34:01
it's fine um but it was you know took I took a little extra time off at Christmas to start with I'm like oh this
34:08
was nice and I still produce the same amount of money that I did and everything kind of worked out because you just got to re resched or you know
34:15
redo the schedule change the template up again a little bit um to accommodate all those people to get them in before you
34:22
leave and same thing I took off Spring Break uh two years for the first time the whole week took it off last week too
34:28
plan on doing it again this week and I have not seen March suffer from it I mean I get some people complaining and
34:34
whining oh why don't you take all you know but it's really not very many people it's really not and those people
34:39
still come in on other days and we're still booking people six months out so you know it's like well if you still
34:44
really want to come at four like we still have one the next week when I'll be back or this week this year is even
34:49
better because my wife has spring break one week and my kids have spring break a different week and so that's been challenging um so I'm taking like
34:55
Wednesday Thursday Friday off one week and Mond Tuesday off the next week um to kind of give me that break there um but
35:01
the hygienists are still going to work some of that but then we're going to take off some of it um but I find that it's just so far it's been it's worked
35:08
out well and it's really great um we were talking about it today um I just got back from Disney this weekend yeah
35:14
and we got back on Monday but my kids still had today or Tuesday and today off
35:19
and so um I took off yesterday and um yeah I could have come in I was sitting at my house but um I didn't and um they
35:26
handled everything fine and that's a big part of it too I trust them to handle it right and take care of things and do
35:33
things because that's what we do on a daily basis and if I see that not be the case which has happened before which had
35:38
you know stopped me from letting them work on days that I was out um because I found out that they mov patients around
35:44
and they did things and two people lost their jobs off of that and number one they learned real quick like don't don't
35:49
break the rules um but also you know was like this this is important and then I took that away and didn't let them until
35:55
just lately and really toac problem right we don't have enough take off this much time I don't have enough spots for
36:01
people so I have to let the hygienist work um but yeah I mean I got here this morning and they were like oh yeah
36:07
everything went great yesterday you know I need you to look at XYZ patients and you know these kinds of things and um
36:13
yeah we just kept kept the day going and it was great today was a busy day but it was uh it all worked out fine so so I
36:19
think it's important and I do tell other people it's like you know I was I was afraid to take these off because I was like I'm going to lose patience oh you
36:26
know people are going to think I'm just always playing golf which I don't do um but it like no it's been fine and people
36:33
understand and you know I think I think again building those relationship with those people you know it's funny how many people told Stephanie that we like
36:39
oh I'm glad AR has taking some time off you know instead of like oh why is he gone you know so it's always it's always
36:45
good to hear things like that that like you know these these these foundations that you built on like really will come
36:51
back at some point and of course we've been doing it for 15 years now so it's not like it happened overnight um but
36:57
from day one that's what I started to build um and now I think going through the pandemic we really saw how important
37:04
that was and then you you reflect back a little bit before that and there were things there too that you just didn't pick up on as much but the pandemic was
37:11
such such a a a influence on everything that you saw how like thing way we had
37:17
done things um I think last podcast we talked about a hygienist that I brought in that you were like I don't think
37:22
she's gonna work out um and I was like well you know let's see if she sinks or swims and let's try her out and you know
37:27
she had a lot of upside but she had a lot of downside and um there were a few little things and after a few little very
37:33
pointed conversations like she jumped right in and she actually like loved working here and actually told me that
37:39
this was her favorite office that she ever worked at um but she had never done any of the other stuff that like we were
37:45
asking her to do right um and I think the team being so you know they all just
37:50
naturally did it that that she came along and did it so she calibrated relatively quickly relatively quickly
37:56
within within about month yeah so it just took her change of my radio station one
38:02
time should we add that to the values my radio station yeah probably
38:07
should oh I do think you know it's interesting when we think about these different phases of life that we go
38:13
through that you you know we can look back like you said and see real clear
38:19
moments in time where we see clearly the the practice the values the mission um
38:26
we can see these pivotal moments that kind of change the trajectory of the practice um or at least the mindset like
38:33
I feel like before you really were such a a solid straight line person like this
38:38
is the plan we're going to follow that plan and not that Co broke that with you
38:43
but it's like you had to harness a different power in yourself which is this mindset of like it's going to be
38:49
okay and we're going to Pivot and we're going to make this change and and that it's all going to be okay and then that
38:57
I feel like LED you to this point where you could start to Grapple with this idea of not being here as much and
39:04
really affording yourself the luxury of more time with your family and then even
39:11
now you know probably a couple years into this you're like and that's working out just fine you know so it's it's like
39:18
all these little thing these fears that we have of is it going to be okay if I do
39:23
XYZ and I would say in most cases when you've got a good plan you really can
39:29
make changes that work out to be favorable and not that you'll always
39:35
stay with this particular phase of life you know your kids are are are young and
39:40
growing but they're not going to be in the house forever you may reach a point where you're like okay you know what I
39:45
don't need to take off every spring break and every Christmas break you so it doesn't necessarily mean that that will stay forever for but at least for
39:52
this period of time you've really given yourself the freedom to have the same
39:58
values the same vision you're just executing slightly differently during
40:03
times of of the year and that's been really fun to see that change for you yeah and it's been great to and it's
40:08
great to get away and I definitely had more fun going to Disney this weekend than being in my practice for sure but
40:13
you know and today was a tough day but it was great because I've had a couple of days off and it's energizing it's good it's it's really good for the soul
40:20
it's really good good to get away some too and I think it's easy for me to Monday Morning Quarterback and go back
40:25
and say man I should have done this a long time ago ago should but I also get the reason why a lot of people don't
40:30
because it is it's hard it's hard to do it it's hard when handpiece isn't running you're not making money and it's
40:37
you know but at the end of the day yeah it all turned out okay it was all good and well and I would say you know a
40:43
fascinating phenomenon from all of that is the practice hasn't gone down and we
40:48
we were just sitting and looking at numbers together and despite these changes the practice has stayed more
40:54
profitable year over year even with the time off which is always
41:00
like mindblowing you're like how can that be that I would you know in 2024 take off maybe five or six more days off
41:08
compared to 2023 and yet it produces the the same amount but it's because we know
41:14
going into it okay we're going to be disadvantaged this month because of spring break so how can we make up for
41:21
that on the week surrounding spring break so it's just a different mindset and the fact that you know I could pull
41:28
on so many of my clients that I've been like take more time off and they're like oh I can't and then they do and somehow
41:34
the numbers still make sense so it kind of is that leap of faith and I feel like you are a testament to not only having
41:41
to Pivot during covid and after Co and then this pivot I feel like that you
41:46
made a couple years ago of okay I am going to I'm going to take more time off and we're going to see what happens and
41:51
here we are just fine are and it worked out fine and life didn't end as I always say and it's great but I think it still
41:58
comes back to building the um building the culture you know and so which which I have spent a long time trying to build
42:04
a culture here um with the team and with everybody that's that's really great and I think you know you know one of the
42:10
things we've talked about before was uh when my dad passed last year I was out of the office for three weeks and um
42:17
when I came back like I didn't have to ask the girls to do anything I didn't have to like they just took care of things and I came back with multiple
42:23
stacks of papers and it was like okay these are the important things that you need to address now these are some
42:28
things that we had with some patients we need to take there here's your you know these are all the um you know notes from
42:34
doctors referral notes things like that and stuff and like we need you to go you know through these things but they were
42:40
like you know they they could have just threw all those together but they like you know they put them in a in a in a
42:45
way that made it a lot easier for me to come back and just start working again work through all that thing because
42:50
three weeks worth of stuff it was a ton of stuff oh yeah and I wasn't in the mood to do it anyway you know so they
42:56
just made it really easy for me but again didn't ask them to do it they just felt like they they should do it and we were kind of talking about at lunch
43:03
today of you know trying to get them to schedule their um their time off you
43:08
know when I'm gone and I'm like it's really not a problem because you know one we have a very small team if you
43:14
have if you haven't listened to my other podcast I only have two hygienists one assistant and one front office and so
43:19
it's a very small small team and so when one of them is gone it affects everybody
43:25
and so it's it's not just that affects me and so therefore you should not do it it's like it affects everybody your
43:31
friends over here are not going to they're going to struggle somebody's going to have to pick up the slack and
43:36
so I think they do make a conscious effort to try to take off you know when times are slower when I am gone or you
43:43
know Wednesdays afternoons when we don't work as late or anything like that and so it's almost like again coming back to
43:48
that like they have the autonomy and they kind of self- police themselves um because that's what I've worked really hard to make sure that they do and
43:55
people that didn't follow those rules I got rid of them and picked up somebody else until we got the core there and now
44:00
I think it's strong enough that when you bring somebody in they they come into the to the team and it's kind of like
44:06
sink or swim like because you need to do that for them not as much for me uh
44:12
which is really even a better dynamic in in my opinion to have that yeah well and again I think it gives hope to those out
44:19
there that may be early in their process of building a vision or a culture or even values just stick with it you know
44:28
it's it's like yes there's all these pivots that we talked about but when you've got this focus and you reiterate
44:36
that and you bring your team up on that you get rid of the rotten apples that won't acclimate to that culture it's
44:43
like there is this beautiful spot you can get to and not without problems it's not like you're walking in every day
44:50
without problems you there's plenty of problems that are going to smack you in the face but it's like you really can
44:55
get to this sweet point point where for the most part most days go well and your
45:01
team polices themselves and achieves the mission just stick with it like don't
45:08
give up on that I think thing is to have a plan and when something happens you step outside the plan you solve that
45:13
problem and then you come back to your plan um and like we were talking about I mean we' got great AC right now because
45:19
I just bought a new AC unit um and my two of my units in the back broke all in
45:24
the same month like you know it's like I think it ended up being 25,000 right
45:29
there that we had to break like I didn't want to do that not not on the heels of going to Disney also um you know and everything but it's
45:37
like you know that it happened and we needed to solve the problem we PID for
45:43
it we moved on and you know now it's you go right back to where we were and it's like you know so I think the pivoting on
45:50
those things but it's also these things are going to hit you that you're not expecting and things are going to happen
45:55
you can't control everything trust me I would love to but it's just not going to happen um but you can't let those things
46:02
affect you so much that you you lose control of what's going on for the rest
46:08
of the day or for the rest of the month or for the rest of whatever you know it's like it's one of those things let's fix it let's move on let's get back to
46:15
work you know kind of deal and um you know that's that's how it is it's like the the Google map route you know just a
46:22
a quick little detour and then you get right back on the same road and and you're fine you know so I think that's
46:28
so important to not lose track of the road that you're on the path that you've got in your mind there may be these
46:35
little wrecks that pop up that you have to reroute for a moment but it's like you get back to the same same track and
46:41
don't don't let those wrecks take you to a completely different town you know
46:46
keep keep going on the path that you need to get back on and and that there's hope you know you're 15 years into this
46:53
and I feel like the the practice and you as a professional you're just in a in a really sweet spot of enjoying the fruits
47:00
of of your labor so it for those earlier in the game or for those that have been like oh gosh I'm on the path to you know
47:08
Hades it's like you you can get back on track and go back to those values go
47:13
back to that Vision go back to your core and then rebuild from there and I think the biggest thing is just remembering
47:19
this is why you're doing this like we all went to dental school for a really long time we invested so much into these
47:25
practices you know we deserve to be happy we deserve to have and um It's Kind like I was talking to with your dad
47:31
it's like you know he said yeah you know like once I started my own practice like I run it the way I want to and and I was
47:37
like you know that's what I feel like I've really strived to do you know he's just many years ahead of me um but
47:43
that's what I wanted to do was run the practice the way I wanted to keep it that way didn't want to run it like a corporation I didn't want to run it like
47:49
you know numbers going through um and if that's your thing that's great like you know you have to have your thing and I
47:54
think that's the big thing is like don't take my value and you know try to build off with those
47:59
you sit down and think of what your values are and how you want to run the practice and how you want to do things and I have a different opinion on a lot
48:06
of different things and um you you may have different opinions than some of your colleagues um you know I always
48:13
tell you like I I don't have any friends in Feld they're all different things CU once I leave here I want to be done and
48:19
I want to go you know do other stuff um but sometimes I feel like I'm out here on this island and I'm always asking
48:24
you're like what's everybody else doing yeah like I have no no idea um because I
48:29
just don't I just don't know I don't get to go into a lot of other offices and so um but it's you know I I think it starts
48:36
with with getting those values getting your vision getting your mission statement um I also think it's very
48:42
important to build a culture and um like we don't have time to get into all that stuff but things that I've done to try
48:47
to build a culture here um with the personalities you've talked a lot about personalities that's really important to
48:54
me and make everybody do the personality test so I kind of know how to approach them um I approach people differently
49:00
based on on that because certain things work for some people certain people don't and there's certain things that I do on a daily basis to try to just let
49:06
them know like hey I'm here you know this this this and I think when you build a really good culture that they
49:12
want to be in um people want to be there and they want to work here and they want to come to work on time they want to
49:19
want to show up um and I always start with a with a story um every time I hire um hire anybody and then I tell the
49:25
story from time to time time just to kind of remind the girls of this has been many many years ago my daughter was 3 years old and she uh it was her
49:32
birthday and it was like one of those weird ones where the birthday's in the middle of the week and so you know you don't really have time to go do anything
49:38
so we had promised her we would take her to the Rainforest Cafe that's what she wanted to do she was three and but like
49:44
we wanted to do something for that night so we went to um another restaurant and um we got awful service like they took
49:51
forever get our food they just it was just awful right and so my wife said something to them and everything and it
49:57
was kind of like well well we just don't have enough people you know like was like super rude didn't offer anything
50:03
you know in Return of like us waiting forever for you know this restaurant that we should have been really fast and
50:09
then on the weekend we go to Rainforest Cafe and lo and behold the guy taking our order forgets to put our order in so
50:16
we are sitting there for I don't know 30 45 minutes which we really don't care cuz the monkeys are going off and all
50:22
this stuff and everything but even like I'm like it's been a while since we got our food the manager come by and he goes
50:28
you guys have been here a long time like you know where like did you guys order something I was like I don't know so he
50:34
went and found the waiter comes back to us and tells us like I am so sorry but something happened it didn't get entered
50:40
into the computer correctly so they didn't get it in the back um but I'm going to bring you guys some chips and
50:45
then we're going to get to order it in as fast as we can you know blah blah blah you know stuff and I was like oh well that's great you know um and he did
50:51
he brought us some chips and then we got our food and um somehow I came up that
50:57
it was Bailey's birthday and he's like I got you I'm going to get you we we'll take care of this and next thing I know he's bringing out the big volcano if
51:03
you've been eating up there it's this big giant brownie that's huge with a little sparkler on it and stuff and he
51:08
sits there and belts out happy birthday to my daughter right there singing to her you know and I always like to tell
51:14
that story because it's like you see one side where the customer service totally failed we I can't remember last time we
51:20
went to eat at that restaurant and my daughter was three and she's 14 now yeah um and like Rainforest Cafe it's like
51:25
yeah they screwed up but like they they they were honest they took up for and then they made up for it afterwards and
51:32
so I always tell the girls that story you know when they first start we always go through it in the morning meetings when we've had some tough times like
51:38
this is how we want to treat people everything is not going to turn to Gold everything's not going to be perfect we're not going to be able to make
51:44
everybody happy but we need to take care of people when it's when we can and when we do make a mistake when we do things
51:51
don't go as well whether it's our fault or not it's you know it's making up for it in some some way without again
51:57
compromising our values exactly it all goes back to that being the vision and
52:02
and repeating that story and making sure that the team is always on board with that and especially with those new hires
52:09
like this is what we're about I think it sets that expectation from the beginning
52:14
new hire gets to hear it right off the bat and you know my assistant who's been with me for five years has probably heard that story 10 15 times now you
52:20
know um but I think it sets the president like that's important enough to me then it sets up like today when we
52:26
we had the had the little meltdown we had some issues and we got behind and
52:31
you know they solved the problems and it turned out great and we were right back in and the patient didn't even notice
52:37
because at the end of the day she was out on time right right and so and that's really what she cared about was
52:42
you know she was not here late we started a little bit late on but she got out on time so she wasy she was none the wiser yeah so she was happy when she
52:48
left so well it's been a pleasure to have you back one year later so apparently this is going to be an annual
52:54
thing October's your month like this it's month I think of you pil for 2025
53:01
but I do appreciate you just again sharing your wisdom sharing your journey I do really I have no doubt that it will
53:08
be encouraging to people to just again get focused on that vision and stay
53:14
focused on it just don't don't waver it it it can pay off you're sitting here 15
53:19
years later I think experiencing the fruits of a lot of effort that's gone into it it will and there'll be lots of
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times it'll be really easy to Det T from it it'll be little really easy to move move on it and if you just stay on that
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path um every time it has benefited me and it's come back and sometimes takes a little bit longer but always comes back
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tenfold versus if I would have made decisions based on the times and you know what would have been easy at that
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time yeah because it wasn't always the easiest thing to do but it always it always worked out yeah don't compromise
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no I love it thanks for joining the conversation today we hope that you are
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comforted in knowing that you are not alone but we also hope that you're walking away with some really great tips
53:59
and tricks to try in your practice we value your feedback so
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rooting for you today as you manage your dental drama