Episode : #1,004: How to Actually Implement That CE You’re So Jazzed About

Podcast Description

Tiff and Britt dive into the nitty-gritty details of turning all that CE energy you have into an implementable system in your practice. They give insight on establishing a point person, training the team, identifying patients, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Thank you for being back here with me and I have Miss Brittany Stone. What is it? No BS Brit. Miss BS Brit. I don't remember what Carrie calls you. This is one of them, right? One of them. But also soon to be Grand Canyon champion. If you didn't listen to our case acceptance one, go listen and hopefully soon we will have some results from Brit killing it. Yeah, you will be a survivor.

Britt (00:10)

What fun of them!

Winner survivor. One of the two. At least one.

The Dental A Team (00:29)

but then I wanna know how much you sleep on Saturday when you're done. So that'll be the big question. Exactly, yeah, how long does it take for you to get back on the bike once you're done? But thank you for being here with us today, Britt. I think we've gotten, I love podcasting with you, your hygiene brain, like Dana's hygiene brain, you guys just kind of come at it from a different angle. I know the rest of us all have dental assisting backgrounds and.

Britt (00:32)

Yeah, like that. I if I can reach my legs or not.

The Dental A Team (00:55)

you know, hygiene assisting, but that hygienist brain just shares a different section. ⁓ And I think you do really well relating with the doctors and kind of that support team space like we spoke to on the case acceptance one. So I'm excited for today, Brett. Thank you for being here. ⁓ You've got the Grand Canyon, but like, gosh, what else is what else is new and exciting? You just went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants not too long ago. So that's true.

Britt (01:21)

conferences, I went to PNDC, that

was a good time. Luckily it was gorgeous weather there. mean, podcasting today is special. I wear my tooth earrings for us today since we're podcasting, know, just lots of fun things.

The Dental A Team (01:35)

Getting a little fancy. I like it. And you guys, so you just went to that conference, you went to the Arizona Dental Convention that was in March, right? I think that one's always March for like the last, I don't know, 50 years. It's always been in March. ⁓ And then you just went to the other one and then you're heading out again in a couple weeks to dentist advisors. Yeah.

Britt (01:55)

Yeah, Dentist Money Summit

is by Dentist Advisors, which will be in gorgeous Park City, Utah. So, you know, it's a rough life over here.

The Dental A Team (02:01)

Yeah, I

know, right? And actually it's perfect timing because they, I think we've all like our, our seasons were a little bit off this year. So we are barely getting hot, which normally we're at like 110 already, um, which has been fantastic in Arizona, but that meant that Nevada and, um, Salt Lake area, both Reno and Salt Lake area have had snow longer. So I think you're going to hit Salt Lake for Dentist Money Summit right as the like peak.

summer season starts. So you're gonna get some beautiful weather and I'm a little jealous. I will be in California or something like that. But anyways, somewhere.

Britt (02:36)

somewhere else. It'll be great.

And my second, my nephew, second of my nieces and nephews graduate. So I won't go to graduation, but I'll get to go. I'm like, I'll be coming like a couple weeks later to see you. So I'll go get to see them while I'm up there too.

The Dental A Team (02:50)

Okay.

Okay, good, good. I was like, wait a second, how do we get you there? That's good.

Britt (02:55)

I'm not fighting the crowd up there for graduation,

which he's like, mom, everybody graduates. I'm like, no, it's still a big deal. We'll just celebrate when I come see you on my own instead of along with everybody else.

The Dental A Team (03:06)

gosh,

that's funny. I was just talking over the weekend, we had a graduation party that we had to drop in on yesterday. So was like, gosh, I'm gonna have to, which is, I don't like thinking about it, but I have to start thinking about it that Brody's in a year. So was like, Aaron's like, is he gonna want a party? And he, said, no, he's gonna be the kid that's like, everybody graduates. It's fine. Like it's no big deal. But it is a big deal. same, Exactly.

Britt (03:26)

But they still want it, even though you know it, even though they're like, they're

disappointed, it's like, oh, come on. But like, they want it.

The Dental A Team (03:33)

Exactly. It's like my birthday where I was like, it's fine. Like just a dinner, but like, had they not done a big deal for my 40th, I probably would have, you know, been in shambles. So when it comes, he's surely going to want it, but graduation season is upon us and it's wild that we are in the space of life that we're experiencing it with them. think that's crazy. And anyways, you've got some fun travels. if you guys aren't heading CE events, make sure that you do and make sure that you check out.

a lot of RCE events. So if you're a listener, if you're a client, whatever, you're a listener and a client, like whatever you guys want, we have, what is it? Every third Wednesday, we have a CE webinar. We've got a really cool webinar coming up in August that we do. ⁓ Every year the content shifts and changes, but.

Britt (04:20)

to like check out our Instagram if you don't follow us. If I'm there, come find me. Let me know, message us. I got at PNUC to see a few clients which is really fun. It's always nice when we get to meet up in person. So, whether you're a client or just a listener, come find me.

The Dental A Team (04:22)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

especially in Brits position because you have a handful of your own clients, but you oversee a lot of the company. So you know all of the client names, but you don't get to see them and meet them. So I know I have a few clients that are asking if I was going to be there and I'm not. I was like, you got to go find, seek out Brit, like go meet Brit. So definitely, definitely follow the Instagram, make sure that you reach out to Brit.

If you're there, look for her, say hello, take a little picture with her, and then make sure you're hitting those CEs and make sure you're hitting all the free ones, you guys. We put out a ton of free CE and why not? Because I know you need to stack those hygienists and doctors. You guys need to stack those CE credits. So do it for free wherever you can. And then, like I tell one of my prized clients, set up a CE bucket so that you're saving money for the CE that's not free. And on that note...

I think, ⁓ we were actually just talking and I think it's funny because I do think this was like super high thing and right now it's like, I think it's kind of stabilized. It's not quite as sought after as heavily as it was, but for the clients that are doing it or still trying to implement it, there are still some really great CE avenues out there. Today we wanted to talk a little bit on the sleep apnea avenue, systems wise, not to sleep apnea. That's not our genre. You can go take CE for that, Britt can probably tell you a ton.

medically, but you know, that's not our genre, but our genre, our space, our niche is the systems behind it. And so on the note of CE and implementing, do think even if you're not doing sleep apnea, or you're not considering sleep apnea, a lot of what we talk about today is copy pasteable, like systems are systems, you guys, and we we overcomplicate it in life. And what we say for one thing can easily be duplicated and slightly altered for something else. So if there's CE that you're doing, which doctors we love you.

so much. And when you go to CE, you come back just like ecstatic. And if you didn't take team with you, you're the only one. And it's so hard sometimes to get that generating. Typically, it's that there's not, it's just all a fun idea. There's not a really good system behind it to get that momentum. So taking these systems, even what we talked about for sleep apnea, whatever CE you do, apply it to that. And like you said with the sleep apnea, if they're not taking team members, like it can be really hard to implement. And that's a space too.

if you can bring team members to any of that CE or sign them up for the webinar and get them included in it, I think that's a great space too. anyhow, sleep apnea side and system side, Britt, you've worked out the hygienist. So I know that this is some of the stuff like the questionnaire style and that stuff. Like what do you see and what you've actually helped practices implement the systems for sleep apnea. So what do you see as?

Britt (07:10)

Thank

The Dental A Team (07:24)

the biggest ticket items of implementing sleep apnea or just CE style in general that is easy, that's duplicatable like that.

Britt (07:34)

And I think sleep and my yo that's coming in pretty strong for a lot of people too. I think you can similar areas when it comes to looking to implement something successfully. I think that you would look for. So if you're doing one or the other, ⁓ number one, I think is making sure that our team knows what it is. Like Tiff said, doc, you can go to a CE and you get all excited and you understand all the things behind it to see all the dots connect and why this is so important.

because it is, but the team often is behind. So whenever you're looking to do something, you might just take a course as like an exploratory, right? And then you're like, no, this is something I really want to do. When you start to get into that phase of like, no, I really want to work on implementing this. I want you to look for things that are going to help train your team because your team is going to be needing to have 90 % of these conversations with patients and you're going to

Goal is for you not to have all of the conversations with all of the patients. The goal is for the team to be able to help support you, identify patients and start to educate patients and warm them up to the idea. Because just like for your team, it's kind of a newer thing or a different thing or something they don't know all the details about, it doesn't come easily to them. Patients even more so. So that's why our team needs to be really confident in knowing what it is, the reasons why, and being able to talk about it.

I think is number one place to start. Along with that, would say have someone call it your champion, call it your lead of that thing, whatever title you want to give them of someone who is going to be that person who is going to make sure the team has all the things. We educate the team on all the things and they're going to be the one to really ⁓ kind of take point on implementation and keeping this going and getting it to where it becomes a program that's ingrained within our practice.

we need someone to be that person. So from the get-go, education, someone who's gonna be a point person before we even start on implementing anything with our patients. So that would be my number one thing, Tiff, to start with is education and identify as someone who's gonna be the point person, because they're gonna start thinking of implementation, what are all the things we need in our practice to get this program going.

The Dental A Team (09:54)

Yeah, and even like ortho, I have like the same I'm thinking the same thought process because anything that you're trying to grow that doesn't you don't put attention on isn't going to grow. So to your champion conversation there, whether it's sleep, my ortho implants, like anything that's not crowns, fillings, bridges, you know, and even I do have a lot of practices that even do it for crowns, whatever that champion making sure there's a

Britt (09:57)

Hmm. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (10:22)

a job description. And I love that you said the education piece because that I think even when I've seen practices implement the champion space, it's still the education piece falls back to the doctor. But putting that I think that's brilliant putting that on the champion of scheduling out the lunch and learns making sure that they're doing the role playing with the with the team and that they're having these meetings with the team on the education and the why behind it, so that they can take that information and

and tackle it with the patients. And then it made me think too, like KPI is their key performance indicator. So that champion is responsible for seeing, how many times, how many patients do we need to talk to about this to get our case acceptance where we want it or to get that many cases? I know like for ortho, we might do, we want five starts this month or 10 starts this month. So then you look at how many patients do we need to talk to about ortho in order to get.

that because your case acceptance might be like 25%. So you're doing the math for that. then, Brett, I'm thinking that champion is then responsible for collecting the data from the team on how many patients do we talk to, how many patients signed up, and kind of championing all of the results and then looking at how do I control and manipulate the results based on the education implementations, all of those pieces.

Britt (11:46)

agreed and that's I think probably you Tiff right with clients. Like you said, the new thing, right? Name the new thing that we're doing within the office and you know, they want to do more of that thing and I'm like, alright, well, what's going on? Why aren't we even getting it presented to patients? What's happening? Well, we're just not talking about it, right? Like it really comes back to that. That's one of the biggest hurdles to get over is just talking about it and making sure patients know what it is.

The Dental A Team (12:05)

Yeah.

Britt (12:16)

what benefit it would be to them if they're a candidate, if this is something that they need. So that's why I say, make sure we've got that foundation first. And then we go into, okay, we've got a team more comfortable talking about it. How do we identify opportunities with patients? And then that's where we move into what kind of screening do we want for this specific treatment for sleep apnea? Then all right, what kind of screening do we wanna incorporate?

across the board. So it's not reliant on a human thinking, this one would be a candidate. Like, no, what are you screening to where we know when these things are checked or we get this answer to this question, they are someone then that we are going to talk to about a sleep appliance or sleep apnea, we're working on getting them tested, whatever it may be.

The Dental A Team (13:01)

Yeah. And within that, asking those leading questions so that the patient starts thinking, because I think like back to, I think a lot of people do ortho. So back to ortho, you come in and you're hot and heavy. Like I got to get, I'm getting ortho cases and the patient has not had any like leading questions to make them start thinking that there's a problem or a solution needed for a problem. And then you come in and you're like, have you ever thought about ortho? And they're like, no, I haven't.

Right? Because we didn't make them think about ortho kind of the same. Like, do you, you know, ⁓ I hear you might be a snorer, right? Or just coming in and being like, Hey, you've got these weird scallops on your tongue and I think you might need this. And then we just go on this tangent of sleep apnea and they're like, I have no issue sleeping. But if we start asking those leading questions of, do you find yourself tired in the middle of the day? does your partner, you know, do you wake your partner up a lot? Do you toss and turn a lot?

night? Like, are you getting up to use the restroom a lot at night? Like different things that are preheating and leading into there might be something going on there, I think is a space that we kind of overlook sometimes. And we just jump into this is the solution. And it kind of gets lost in translation. And then right on to like layering on top of that, you've got your questionnaire, you've got your team, they're ready to go. You've got all of these pieces.

there, you know what your lead and lag measures are, then you set like identifying the patients, we're identifying the patients and then that layer, like it never stops, there's always the next layer. And that next layer is okay, if we can identify the patients, now we get to track and see, are we getting those patients? So then we say, okay, well, most of my patient base is 18 to 26 years old.

might not be getting like that might not be the patient base you need for sleep apnea or for implants or whatever it is that you want to specialize in. then you've got to look and see, do I need to determine something different in my patient avatar to fit what I'm trying to implement what I'm trying to get because there's only so much you can do with the patients that you're getting in. So it just like keeps layering but comes down to I love like step one it feels like Brit from what you're saying is

Find that champion and make sure that champion is thoroughly educated in what their job is and what the procedure is so then they can, step two, help you to train the team, get the team on board, figure out the why. Step three, find the patients. Step four, how do we get more of those patients?

Britt (15:42)

Yeah, which I think then plays into marketing, right? Marketing at the end of the day is the number of times of exposure. So, right, when it comes down to it, then what are we putting out there? What do we have around our office? What, even if it's peripherally, are our patients seeing to know that this is a thing and that it exists? Because then it won't be as much of a surprise to them when we have a conversation or they're like, well, why aren't you know, I don't even know what that is. They at least, oh, I've seen XYZ about that.

thing in your office or on the TV out in the waiting room, whatever it may be, to start warming them up to it as well. And then depending on how much you want to grow that and be known for that thing, mean, Tiff is the marketing queen. Then there's like a lot more marketing that goes behind it.

The Dental A Team (16:29)

Yeah, I do love marketing. don't know why, but I really do. ⁓ But you're making me think of, because it's subliminal. I think that's why I love it. Because it's like, what can I do to make someone think this way, right? Like I love, I love the way the brain works. I love communication. That's why. So I'm thinking as you're speaking to that, like you're saying like have it off to the side and have it on a TV like 100 % because most of the time we're just being again, preheated.

to the possibility of needing something. So if you think of like a Doritos commercial, right? Like they don't just in the beginning come out with the, like they're not like Doritos, right? It's like, hey, we're grabbing some Doritos out of a chip bowl and all of the like tortilla chips, the unnamed tortilla chips over there is full, but the Doritos are like empty, but we're having conversation, we're having fun, we're in a party because now you're thinking about Doritos associated to fun. So that's how marketing works. It's like little snippets of

this thing and how it's going to benefit your life. Not just like, hey, have some Doritos. Because if somebody came by and they're like, hey, Doritos are amazing, have Doritos. They're just, they're so tasty, you're gonna love them. You're like, I'm okay actually, like, I don't need a Dorito, right? But if they're like, hey, like, let's have fun, let's have a party, let's get people talking, it's gonna be so amazing and you can have these Doritos over here that's gonna, everybody's gonna stand around the bowl and they're gonna socialize.

then you're like, yeah, let me try these Doritos. So it's kind of that same thing. Like how is this thing, this sleep apnea, this ortho, this Botox, these injectors, the fillables, how is this going to benefit the patient's life and speak to the benefits and the problem, not the solution? Because being like, Botox, Botox, Botox, Botox, right? Like Botox is cool, but like why do I want Botox? Because I wanna look 30 when I'm 45.

That's why I Botox. And when do I need to start? When I'm 28. Like, how do we get this subliminal messaging into different aspects of our practice and our speaking? And then what it also does is gets your team speaking that language too, because they're constantly seeing it. So they're constantly being reminded. And as you guys are checking on...

Britt (18:23)

Perfect.

The Dental A Team (18:44)

KPI is and how is it working and how is it growing? We're constantly coming back to this space that you're trying to implement and grow. Caveat of one at a time. Botox and color is fine. Sleep apnea.

Britt (18:56)

I was thinking the same exact thing.

The Dental A Team (19:01)

you can't come home and be like we're doing sleep apnea we're gonna ramp up our ortho and guess what guys I need five more implants and it's like I don't know which one to focus on so one major change at a time and let it sit let it ruminate and see how it goes I like six months at least for like a big implementation like that ⁓ but

Britt (19:22)

Be

good at that thing, right? I think that's when we do too much at once. You and your team, right? And the bigger the team, the more people you're trying to move. You're not gonna get good at it. And then let's be honest, if I'm not good at it, I'm not gonna do it as much. Let's just welcome to human nature again. Like it's a harder thing to do. It takes more effort. But if we focus on one and that one thing we get really good at and it becomes really easy, then that will stick and then we can move on to the next thing.

The Dental A Team (19:52)

Yep. Yep. And always come back again to everything else too, because I've had clients that I've done, you know, let's focus in on implants. we're getting we're talking about it this many times, we're getting this many, we're looking for this many, you know, whatever all the pieces so

we're speaking to implants, we get really good at that. And they're like, cool, like, I want to do more ortho. It's like, okay, well, now we're laying on ortho. But then they're like, hey, wait, I haven't done an implant. I'm like, well, why? Because you lost focus on the implants, because you're so focused on the ortho. So you've got to just layer it in there and be like, on top of like being good at this, we also need to become good at this. So don't lose sight of it or stop tracking the one because you layered on something else, you literally just layering another level to it. And now you're doing both because

honestly, just those two, right? Implants and ortho go hand in hand, you know, do ortho before you place the implants or do ortho so that you can place an implant because the space is too small. Like how are you, how can your team help layer those together and support you in getting those things done? And firstly, Baphne, it's exactly the same. How can your team support you in getting it done? Because you've got what? 1500 to 3000 patients. You've got a team of five to

25 30 you cannot do it all you've got to have at least one champion who is helping you and when you do have those spaces to Britt's point of not doing too many and losing sight if you have a champion of each your phone you they are focused on that thing and so they're ensuring their thing their needle is moving so you've got your

champion of sleep apnea that's like, hey guys, nope, we lost focus, don't forget. And you got your champion of ortho that's like, cool, I've got my metrics over here and making sure that those are staying in line.

Britt (21:41)

And I think once you start doing some cases, especially things where there's more of a knowledge gap, even in Visalign, right? Make sure you're getting results. So like you're getting testimonials, you're getting pictures at the end. Whenever there's a big investment, people want to know like what that means for them. Like what can that be for me? And so that's where

Having something to look at to see before and after and having testimonials for people goes a long ways, especially on things where there's more of a knowledge gap like sleep apnea. Because those patients are gonna really highlight what is important to them, which then is gonna be most likely what's important to all of your people that are in their same seat.

The Dental A Team (22:22)

Yeah, I love it. love it. one, step one, figure out what you're going to do. If it's sleep apnea, it's sleep apnea. One thing, choose the one that you're gonna focus on right now. Step two, figure out what your champion's position looks like or lead or whatever you wanna call it. Quarterback, I don't care what you call it. That position, what's that job description? What are the metrics? Like what does that person need to do? So step one, figure out what you're gonna do. Step two, find your champion.

Britt (22:26)

One thing, one thing.

The Dental A Team (22:52)

figure out what that champion's gonna do. Step three, train your team. Step four, do the thing and track the results every time. I think really easy duplicatable systems that we tagged here as like Sleepapnea, Myo, whatever you wanna focus it on, but literally this system can be duplicated for any major change you're trying to make in procedures within your practice. And then I think the last layer is

within your metrics, watch your marketing and figure out what needs to shift and change there. Brit, brilliant. Brilliant Brit. That's the one. Brilliant Brit. Brilliant Brit.

Britt (23:27)

That's the one I like

more. That's the better one.

The Dental A Team (23:32)

one

I'm gonna use. Brilliant Brit. ⁓ thank you or brainy Brit right but anyways thank you ⁓ for being here with me today for doing this. I knew ⁓ with the implementations you've done before with Sleep Apnea and Mayo you've worked with the you've worked with that before so I knew that you would have some great ideas so thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to hear from you on Saturday that you survived the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim happily and you're still smiling and you're just sleeping.

Britt (24:02)

Maybe I'll stream my before and after. We'll see. Maybe even with Dental A Team. We'll see. It depends on how bad it is afterwards.

The Dental A Team (24:08)

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that's fair. Yeah, that's fair. You can at least share with me and then we can decide. everyone, go find your thing. What's your one thing right now? What are you going to put? This is something I've been living by. You guys, we can talk about the book. can [email protected] and ask me for it. But what are you putting a 10x effort into? What's your 10x problem that you're putting 10x effort into? Choose that thing. Focus there. Go do it. Duplicate.

create a system that can be duplicated and have so much fun doing it. Again, if you need help with it, you have questions, you want recommendations, [email protected]. We are all here to help. We all help answer those questions. So reach out and as always drop us a five star review below. We love to hear that this was implementable for you, that it was helpful and any ideas you guys have for future ones, we're always open to those. So Britt, thank you for being here. Listeners, thank you for being here and we'll catch you next time.