Episode : #1,222: The 90-Day Culture Turnaround Challenge

Podcast Description

Did you know you can change the entire culture of your office in three months by leaning into consistent leadership and clear standards? Kiera shares how to know what truly matters for your practice, including returning to the basics of leadership, future visualizations, and core areas to focus on.

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am so excited for today. I am hoping some of you are going to join me. I am on a 90-day like comeback challenge. And so I thought it’d be really fun to share something that I’m doing in my company and in my life right now in hopes that it can benefit you guys because truly in 90 days we can change how our entire feel of our practice is, our business is, how we are. And this isn’t like a retreat, it’s not a pizza party.

It’s just consistent leadership and clear standards. And I want you guys to remember that like culture is not a place where everybody gets along. Like that’s not what this is. But culture is where our team experiences every day, how people communicate, how we solve problems, how we handle accountability, and honestly how we treat each other. So we’re gonna go through a 90-day challenge. I’m in the middle of it. So I don’t have like, this is what happened. Don’t worry, we’ll have a part two to this podcast of like how it’s going. but I just recognize within our company and our culture.

Sometimes instead of adding more, it’s the need to cut. So what have we been doing? What things should continue to maintain and sustain versus what is really necessary to get rid of? And it was interesting because I had a call out of something like, Kiera, I don’t think you’re having a good time anymore. And I’m like, I’m not. I’m drowning. I’m dying. I feel like everything’s being piled on me. We’ve had a lot of crazy things happen in the company this year. So I don’t feel it was a like overnight sensation. It was just the stack of a lot of little things. And

So what we did is we just all band together, right? We had somebody leave on maternity leave. Then we had a second maternity leave. And then we had some different pieces come up and we had some team turnover and some team additions, like normal day in, day out of business, right? but what we noticed is we just kept going. We kept operating as full steam ahead. So it was like, all right, this person’s out. Britt, you’re gonna take this, Kiera’s gonna take this, Tiff, you’re gonna take this, Dana, you’re gonna take this. And it was dispersing of tasks. Well, then what happened is everybody kind of felt like they were.

Just like piecemeal together. I’ve said many times in our company it’s felt like Willy Wonka. And I’m like, I only have half a person for this, I got half a person for that. Like it just has felt a little messy. And so when we work with this, it’s a space where then communication starts to break down, culture feels heavy, like the owner doesn’t know if they want to be here or if they don’t want to be here. and you’ve got to change leadership first. So it was a couple of days ago, and I was like, all right, that’s it.

I am setting up a 90-day comeback challenge where we are going to love where we work. I’m going to love where I work again. And I have been the like yes girl saying yes to so many things in the company, thinking I’m helping our team out. Well, what I realized is I’m not being buried. I’m running lead consultant. I’m running sales operations. I’m running the marketing. I’m running podcasts. I’m running, I got a pretty large client load. and in saying all the yeses, and it’s cra fascinating because I have a bracelet that says no on it. And I I failed to say no.

But again, we’re doing it out of like necessity, right? Like these things come up. You can’t like maternity lease going to happen. People are going to be out. People are going to get sick. People are going to turn over. But what we don’t have to do is keep running at the same speed. And so what I started doing is I’m like, all right, I feel like there’s that that corny analogy of the gardener. And what does the gardener do? They need to go out and they need to prune. And my husband and I were

Working the other day in the yard and I was it was just a day and I took the pruning shears and man, my husband said, like, I he felt sorry for that bush. Like I just whacked that thing down to nothing. I was out there just chopping away. I had my music blaring. And I realized that sometimes we need to cut in our companies as opposed to continue to add. I think a lot of times on the podcast, like, well, let’s implement this system, let’s implement that. But today I really wanted to talk about like what do you cut and how do you cut? So number one, I had to get my mindset right. So

Things that are non-negotiable for me are working out. Like I gotta work out because I gotta exhaust the body, tame the mind, as Dan Martell says. Like we gotta make sure that this pent of energy gets out somewhere. So I know I’m a better boss when I’m going to work out. So that’s my first box that goes in. I am getting back on track with those things that I know are going to protect me. So phone goes on silent at 5:30. I don’t answer any more text slacks or emails. That’s out because I got to create some mental space for me that I have some shutoff time.

Sleeping eight hours every single night. So we’re working on sleep hygiene and making sure that I’m eating and getting the like physical exercise. Like that was part of my reset. Was I was like, I gotta get back to human basics. I’ve been running for a long time on this. So check yourself. Are you as a CEO putting your oxygen mask on first? Are you having that? Number two is gratitude bookends. I realized like

I can sit here and complain a lot about things, right? When things are just chaotic and mayhem, it’s easy to be like, my gosh, our schedule’s not full. my gosh, this person, this, my gosh, this. but what we what we say and what we focus on, we create more of. And I realize like, I don’t want create more of this. So I need to bookend gratitude. Like I’m okay to have issues, but I can say like, my day is outstanding. We have this issue, and I’m super grateful for an awesome team.

so that way what I’m starting with and what I’m ending with are always positive. And again, I’m a few days into this, I’m about two weeks into this, and I’ve noticed it’s just forcing me to spin for like what am I grateful for? I have a bracelet on today that says find the joy, and another one that says grateful. And so, how can I be more grateful, even going through the quote unquote suck of success? How do we maintain that gratitude space? Number three, meditation every morning, money and journaling, mindfulness.

So every single morning I started it. If you guys want to join me, I do Joe Dispenza as a meditation. I’ve done a lot of different meditations over the years. I really have loved Joe Dispenza. I went to one of his courses. I’ve just found that it helps me like laser focus in on the life that I want to achieve. What are things that I don’t want to be doing right now, and how do I actually maintain that for myself? So every single morning I throw on a 15-minute meditation, literally the second I wake up, it’s a visualization, it’s a creation of what’s the life in the business and the company that we want to create.

I really believe it’s it’s easier to get above the clouds and to think about this. So it’s like perfect, we want to have this, we want to have this. And that way I’m priming my mind, I’m priming what I’m looking for. I’m turning on that reticulated activator. Like, let’s go look for these items in my world. Like, if I keep saying, my gosh, team’s turning over, my gosh, we’re stressed with this, my gosh, we’re cash flow low, like we’re not. But if I say that I’m going to create that, so I don’t want to create that. So be really careful with the words we’re saying as well to ensure.

We’re creating the life and the practice that we want to have. After that, I go through a journal. I have it. I threw it on my nightstand, so I can’t pull it on the podcast and show you. I like these adorable little notebooks. I think that they’re really pretty, and I like to write in pretty notebooks. So I have a notebook, it’s the same one I write in it every day. And today, like I literally have written like we’re on day six of our 90-day comeback challenge. I’m on day seven of my 90-day comeback challenge, and I’m going to be consistent with it because I believe consistency, focusing, and forcing myself into a 90-day comeback challenge.

Like I like a good challenge and I like to stay consistent with it. And I know it was great. I started on the first of the month. So it’s helpful for me to know what day I’m on. But hey, you don’t need to do that. Let’s just start today. Let’s get into our 90-day comeback challenge. And it can be for your physical weight, it could be for a relationship at home. It could be of your company and team. It could be on building the next level. I don’t think that I’ve done a quote unquote cut reset in a really long time. And so for me, it’s like great. What are the simple things? And let’s boil it down.

the four core basics of the company. So for me, it is our profit margins. It’s our like case acceptance would be an equivalent for you guys. And then it would be on like our like new patient bringing them in if you want. and then like whatever it is for you, like those are kind of the core four of our company. Like what are the core four true functions for you guys and your practices? I’d say it’s your production and your collections percentages, which is going to tie to your overhead if we keep that in a solid space. I track your case acceptance, your new patients and your hygiene production and perio. Like

That would be my core four or five if I’m trying to go into a cut lean what needs to be removed. And I’d really be assessing what’s truly working in our practice. Like, are we just working because we’ve always done this? Or are we like needing to continue this on? For us, marketing, I feel like that has become this like gumball where we just keep adding and snowball is probably a better way. I don’t want you thinking I’m like, like, could you imagine somebody who keeps their gum and just adds to it every time? Like, please know, like, let’s do a snowball, that’s a better analogy.

But it just keeps snowballing, right? So we’re just keep adding and adding and adding. Well, all of a sudden our marketing department got so heavy and overwhelming. Like we could not lift that giant snowball that we’ve created. And instead, like let’s cut that down to a more manageable. Like what things really need to happen? What things could we automate? What things could we make easier in our practice and our lives that would actually make this easier? So back to my month, my morning. We meditate, we write in the journal. Every single day it’s what I’m grateful for, what my accomplishments were from the day before.

What improvements I need to make coming up for that day? I’m only allowed to write three of each of those. Gratitude’s allowed to be whatever you want it to be and be very specific with it. Three accomplishments every day, max three improvements. It can be less than that. What was the joy that I had from the day before? Something that really just lit my soul on fire. What’s something that I love about myself as a leader or as a person? What are my goals for the year? I write that every day. And then what are my results that I’m going to get from today? That way I’m laser focused on the future that I want.

on my core four of where we’re going in this 90-day comeback challenge and how we’re going to get through it, making sure I’m taking care of myself first. Then as a leadership team, we boiled it down to these are the core four and every single new initiative, every single leadership meeting we have, if it does not apply to this today, right now, it gets cut out. We also went to the marketing department. We’re taking it to the consultant department. Like if this does not move us forward, we are cutting this out today. We’re cutting this down. We’re getting rid of it. Let’s reassess everything. It’s kind of like fall cleaning if you will. Like you look through and you’re like,

I’m not wearing these shoes anymore. I’m not wearing these shirts anymore. I’m not wearing these jackets anymore. Like, let’s cut that out so our closets are not overwhelming. I think in businesses, sometimes we actually need to have a cut season. And so this might be the call to you. What can you cut? What can we remove? What can we reduce? What can we repurpose? What do we need to just get rid of? We were looking at it and I’m like, all right, great. We could batch this. We could, we can have these other things so much simpler. But I think sometimes as leaders,

As important as it is to roll new things, it is equally as important to know when it says, cut laser focus my team and let’s get focused and dialed in on the things that truly matter and move us forward. That’s how you create a culture. That’s how you show up as a leader. That’s how you’re able to grow and innovate and be able to become the leader that your team wants. So in my 90-day comeback challenge, what am I doing? Number one, taking care of myself, getting back to the basics to make sure me as a leader, I’m set up to the highest level to lead and to grow at the level that I know is going to support and sustain my team.

Number two, I’m doing meditations of that future visualization of our company and of my life, of what I want that to be. So I purposely program my mind to look for it, adding in that gratitude bookends constantly. Then I’m writing my journal literally every single morning. Today is day one of my comeback challenge. Today is day two of my 90-day comeback challenge. Today is day three. And what’s fascinating is again, I’m a few weeks into this, the momentum’s building. And even though things aren’t necessarily better.

I see the end. I see that in 90 days, this is where I want to be. These are the core four areas that I’m focused on in our company. Lasered it. And was wild as our leadership team, we walked out of our meeting and they were like, Kiera, thank you for the breath of fresh air. In our marketing department, they were like, Kiera, thank you for the permission that we can cut these items. Now everything doesn’t get to be cut, but the things that are just busy work, like we need to get rid of the sweaters and the jackets and the shoes that no longer fit, it’s time to do that. So that way your business could elevate because I believe.

Just as much as new items and initiatives are important, eliminating the old cobwebs in your business are equally as important. So if you want to join me on my 90-day, I’d love it. Write me an email, [email protected] and say Kiera, I’m committed to a 90-day comeback challenge as well. Join me. I’d love for you to be a part of it. And for all of you, I would say look at your practices today and see where you can cut. As CEOs and leaders, look to see where are you getting like mucky in the brain because we’re not laser focused.

Break it down to the core four if necessary. Simplicity, simplify, simplify, simplify, and really see what truly is necessary and essential in the practice rather than is just busy work that we’ve always done. And could you cut any of those items as we’re headed into winter this year? I would really implore you to do it. I know you and your team will feel so much better from it. And hey, if we can help you, because sometimes I need an outside perspective. I call a lot of coaches and they help me see, Kiera, this is what’s really the core of your practice. This is what you need to do.

And sometimes having somebody with that bird’s eye view is so invaluable. I can’t tell you how much I lean on those coaches, especially when I’m down on myself as a CEO, when I’m down on our business feeling like I’m just not doing a good job. They’re there to boost me up, to laser focus me and ensure that we’re driving in the correct direction. If we can help you out with that, reach out. [email protected] or click on book a call. We’ll just have a free call with you and you’re gonna leave with your number one priority, whether you work with us or not, and we will give you a complete practice assessment. So there’s no no no stress.

Like, why not? Reach out to someone who’s been there, done it, done it so successfully, and also is willing to come on a podcast and tell you what she’s doing currently in her business. And I’ve done this multiple times. I just forgot the season of pruning and how while that might feel painful, it actually is what creates plants and businesses to flourish more because we cut out the mess, we cut out the misses, and we’re able to actually grow this into a beautiful build like a blossoming, more healthy business than we’ve ever had before. So tis the season to cut.

Tis a season to join me on a 90-day comeback challenge, whether you’re crushing it or whether you’re ready to reset, whatever it is, join me. I’d love to have you be a part of it. We can help you and serve your practice. Reach out, [email protected]. As always, thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.