Tune-In to the Dental A-Team Podcast!

Kiera’s met a lot of stellar people in her world travels, and as listeners know, she likes to get ‘em on the podcast to share tricks of the trade. In this episode, Kiera’s joined by Jennifer Abshier, practice administrator for The Dentists at Hillsborough in Omaha, NE. Jennifer rose through the practice ranks, starting as a dental assistant and now overseeing four different locations!

Jennifer shares the advantages (patient accommodation and internal referrals) and disadvantages (communication and navigating lots of opinions) of having such a large practice, and really emphasizes the importance of systems (see episode #73, Copying McDonald’s Systemization). She encourages staying humble, networking, making things fun, and recharging during the hard times.

Jennifer is a big-time Dental A-Team listener, and you should be too! Head over to www.TheDentalATeam.com for lots of dentistry goodness.

The REASON for Kiera’s consulting success is in this podcast episode. Meet Doctor Justin Schmidt out of Hood River, Oregon. Dr. Schmidt introduced Kiera to Mark Costes and let her practice her consulting in his office three years ago this past October.

Dr. Schmidt is both an exceptional dentist and amazing boundary maker. He’s very meticulous with his personal time, and talks with Kiera about why he’s that way, how he manages to keep his work and personal life separate, and how having boundaries means standing up for yourself.

When you’re authentic, others are, too.

More on Dr. Schmidt: Dr. Justin Schmidt took a longer route than most before finding his true calling as a dentist. From building homes to self-professed ski bum, Dr. Schmidt has had many jobs, and lived all over the United States before settling in Oregon, his forever home. Dr. Schmidt is committed to continuing education and takes many advanced courses each year to enhance his skills to better...

Financial advisor Ryan Isaac is here again to talk dollar signs, and this time he’s addressing the most common question he gets from new dental graduates, those in ownership for one to three years, and associates: How do I pay off my student loans?

His advice: Wait. Sure, make your minimum payments and all that jazz, but the *main* thing you should be focusing on right now is your career. Invest in your career now and you’ll grow your practice faster, thus having more money to pay off loans later.

Ryan shares experiences of seeing people attack debt like crazy right after school is done, and they’re still living like poor students decades later. Take advantage of free resources (ahem, like The Dental A-Team and the Dentist Money Show) to understand processes now, and how to best implement them later when your practice is thriving. This is a great episode with a TON of gold.

Ryan is a co-host of the Dentist Money Show and a senior financial advisor with the Dentist...

The fabulous Kristen Shepherd (from episode 92) is back, and sharing more goodness. Remember her 37 to 97% fluoride acceptance in three months? In this episode, she discusses calibration with her dentist, and how it helped her become more confident in her position. Nowadays, she’s an expert a teeing up each new patient for a doctor and letting the patient know what the doctor will be recommending for treatment.

Not only does Kristen share her proactive methods and how to best perform hand-in-hand with her doctor’s needs, but she also walks listeners through her expert time management, and how she gets new patient appointments down from the allotted 90 minutes to 60 minutes (including probing, which you should always, always do!).

Kristen is a bigtime Dental A-Team fan, and you can be just like her by listening to more podcast episodes at www.TheDentalATeam.com.

In this episode, Kiera takes a look at dental practices through the eyes of Debbie Dodson, practice director for Castle Peak Dentistry. Debbie has been in dentistry for 20+ years, practicing hygiene for 10 of those before moving on to office management.

Castle Peak Dentistry (home to Doctor Summer Kassmel, long-time buddy of Kiera’s) is a Dental A-Team-approved practice. Debbie has guided her team to be incredibly accountable. How did that happen? From the top down — looking at the practice’s core values and committing the team to align with those every. single. day.

Another topic of note is Debbie moving from office manager to practice director and removing herself from the front lines. Was she able to maintain respect from her team members? How was that transition in the first place? It’s all here for you in this episode — just hit play!

Psst, more great information like this is available at www.TheDentalATeam.com.

In Kiera’s time as a coach and mentor and guiding hand in the dental world, she’s found that a lot of the people she looks up to are big into reading. So she started to get into it and currently has a goal to read two books each month. In this episode, she’s sharing with you some past, present, and future books that fueled/will fuel her fire. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting … Kiera’s book club recommendations:

• Girl, Wash Your Face (Rachel Hollis)
• Girl, Stop Apologizing (Rachel Hollis)
• The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea (Bob Burg)
• * Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds (David Goggins)
• * As a Man Thinketh (James Allen)
• * The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself (Michael A. Singer)
• * Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Cal Newport)
• Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex (Aubrey Marcus)
  Traction:...

Kiera’s back from a 10-day trip and she has some awesome takeaways. First, it turns out Kiera is not immune to jetlag (bummer). But on a more serious note, those 10 days away were 10 days without a phone and 10 days without touching base with her team. Normally panic-inducing, Kiera found out that she wants to ultimately be an owner, not an operator of her businesses.

This episode talks excelling as a leader not just personally, but as a team. Other takeaways include:

• Giving yourself 30 minutes a week (eventually 30 minutes per day) to just sit and think about your work, your life, etc.
• Finding a way to push inconveniences onto your team so they can grow and excel. Find the breaks in your system and fix them.

Thanks for tuning in to another Dental A-Team episode! Make sure you check out any you’ve missed or want to hear again at www.TheDentalATeam.com!

Kiera is fresh off a visit from a multi-practice, and she’s giving a quick autopsy. This practice currently has 5 doctor operatories, 6 hygiene operatories, two satellite locations, and is about to bring on another. Oh, and they’re planning to expand their current location to a 19-operatory practice. Whew!

Some of the topics addressed in their quarterly meeting were…

• A lack of focus on the flagship practice
• Establishing co-leads
• Becoming idea-generating machines
• Defining your flagship’s 1-, 3-, and 10-year goals

This multi-practice had its best two months EVER during quarter 3, but in order to keep momentum, they have to keep pushing the envelope. What can you implement from this episode? What is your battle plan? This episode will help you become that A-Team practice.

Other helpful episodes full of tricks of the trade are over at www.TheDentalATeam.com!

Ashley Keith is back for part 2 of her case study! (Missed part 1? Check out episode 87, Case Study: Untangling the Ball of Yarn.) After discussing building processes around positions, not people, Ashley moves on to developing 5-star experiences for both patients and team members. An example from her office: The team is stressed over prioritization of answering phones versus greeting live patients. Ashley’s solution? Move the phones with incoming calls to a back room!

In this episode, Ashley talks with Kiera about whether or not the idea worked, and how she utilized her tenured team during the transition.

Other talking points include getting some quick wins for your team after making a change, creating a “parking lot” list, and having team members fill in what’s missing for their positions.

Ashley Keith works as office manager for Keith + Associates Dentistry in the Kansas City Metro Area. Prior to her current position, she received a degree in marketing from...

Friend and Ryan, two dental students at the University of Kentucky, are curious about what they should know about billing! Kiera happily obliges, and in this episode, walks the two through how billing starts, where billing ends, and where the dentist should be attuned. Their conversation includes credentialing an office, maxing out insurance, and the best way to fill out narrative forms. Billing is a BEAST, but it’s totally helpful to understand as a dentist.

And don’t forget, the Dental A-Team has an entire billing course that explains the nitty-gritty in detail. Check it out over at www.TheDentalATeam.com!