Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy Thanksgiving. You guys, if you are new to the podcast, welcome. I’m so happy you’re here. If you’ve been with me for a while, you know this to be true. I love holidays. I love holidays so much. I am so appreciative of holidays because I feel like it’s just the time that like takes our autopilot life and puts it actually on pause and.
Thanksgiving is honestly my favorite podcast of the entire year. I have so many amazing things to be thankful for and it’s always just special of what I’m able to celebrate with our team, celebrate with all of you and just give gratitude and thanks. And every year on Thanksgiving, my husband and I have it as a tradition. We listen to the podcast as soon as we wake up. And I really think it just centers me. It centers me of the gratitude that I have for each of you being a part of the Dental A Team family.
Whether you’re an active client with us, you’ve been a client with us, you’re a podcast listener, soon to be client with us, my gratitude for you is immense. This was just a girl’s dream to be able to help dentists across the nation and their teams. It was a dream for me to help the dentists from Midwestern to be able to live thriving lives and to have their teams flourishing and living thriving lives as well.
for people who trusted me and took a risk when I didn’t know what I was doing. even today, let me practice on them and make things up and bring things to them and to be open and humble and have fun and make me laugh and challenge me and encourage me is just truly a blessing. For you guys on the podcast to listen and to be raving fans and to share this with people, I don’t take this for granted.
I know how blessed I am. I dreamed of having a consulting company where it was spanned across the nation, where we were able to serve and help people on this higher level. And it’s the reality of the life that I’m living right now. And I don’t take that for granted. And I’m so grateful and appreciative of all of you. I also hope that you today take time to thank your team. I think so often we can just go by the wayside and we can not necessarily give out that gratitude and that thanks for what we have. I realized that
Kiera Dent (02:04.902)
You can either see teams one of two ways. You can either see them as an asset or a liability. And I choose to see my team as an asset. I choose to see that they’re brilliant, that they’re smarter than me, that they’re the ones who make the magic happen. They’re the ones who love our clients so much. They’re the ones who come up with the brilliant ideas. They’re the ones who make the marketing. They’re the ones who do the customer service calls. They’re the ones who talk to potential clients. They’re the ones who are figuring out the partnerships. They’re the ones who make all this dream become a reality. They say teamwork makes the dream work. And I say teamwork.
and teens also make the dreams become reality. And so just having maybe a moment of pause and reflection today and maybe sending out some little love bombs to your team and to the people that make your life incredible. I believe that the secret to life and fulfillment is giving and gratitude. And if we can have that sense of gratitude, like today my bracelet, it’s the grateful bracelet here. And to have that gratitude, to show gratitude in all that we have, I mean,
We are just truly so blessed to be alive at this day and age. We’re so blessed to be able to have the technology and the teams and the resources and the life that we get to live. mean, gosh, life is just so magical. And I hope that you see it as magic. And I hope that today of all days, like you take that pause and be grateful for your family, for your health, for your friends, for your team, for your patients, for your community.
all these things that make you a person, all these things that make life magical, all those things that add fairy dust and sprinkles to your life. But just to maybe take a moment, maybe reflect, maybe write in your journal, I would encourage you and challenge you to write maybe 100 things that you’re grateful for. If you guys want, if you’re listening to this before Thanksgiving dinner, you can do it. I’ve done it in some teams and it’s very fun where you put your name on the top of a paper. Shout out to our marketing gal, Eve. She gave me this brilliant idea and I’ve done it in teams and they absolutely love it.
But what you do is you put the person’s name at the top of the page and then you send it around the table and everyone writes something that they’re so grateful for that person for or something that they love about that person. And then it comes back to you you’re able to read this little love note. I’ve done it in leadership teams. I’ve done it in full teams. And it’s interesting because every time I do it, this is the piece of paper that is stuck up on the walls. This is the thing that saved. This is the thing that’s on people’s phone savers because to be reminded of that we’re loved.
Kiera Dent (04:24.98)
is one of the greatest gifts that we can give someone else. So maybe do that with your team, maybe do that with your families, but really truly just showing gratitude today. like I said, Thanksgiving podcast is always my favorite podcast of just giving you guys a tip of gratitude, but also to take this time publicly to thank my incredible team. And I always do a shout out to each of my team members.
of a thank you to each of them. And so we just kind of will go through, I go through them from like when they were hired. And so that way it’s just really fun. But shout out to the one and only Tiffanie Trader, the spiffy tiffy. has been with me for seven years and Tiff is someone that if you know her, you love her. Tiff just makes life fun. I feel like she’s a beautiful yin to my yang. We believe that we were twins in another life. We just happened to get separated this year by a year or this round.
Tiff and I actually share the same birthday. We’re just one year apart from each other. But I’m so appreciative of Tiff and the grit and the love and the determination she’s had to come into a company where there was just a girl with a dream and she bought into that dream and she’s run it and she’s done it and she’s consulted all across the nation and she served so many offices and she’s on the podcast with me and she writes the newsletter. She just she makes it fun and she’s been with me since the beginning and to have somebody that’s really gone through all of it with me.
This is something I’m so grateful for. think when you’re an owner, and a lot of owners will feel this way, when you have someone who’s a ride or die with you that you know you can count on, is something that I think we might take for granted. And it’s something that today especially, we don’t take for granted. We don’t take for granted those people that have made us who we are, that have helped us grow. Like, of course, we’ve had to bring ourselves to the table, but Tiff is someone who really has been there with me.
She’s been a rock through so many things. She’s been there through all of it with me. And I’m just so appreciative of her and her love and her dedication and her determination to be the best consultant she can be. She’s gone through so many growths throughout the company and to watch her just grow and evolve and morph into this incredible consultant is something I’m so appreciative of and just grateful for her going on this fun ride with me. We celebrated seven years together this year and just excited for the next seven and what we can create and make and serve more clients on another level.
Kiera Dent (06:37.176)
So that’s our one and only spiffy tiffy. And then gosh, like I think my next one is actually no BS Britt. Actually, I think I lied. I think it’s Shelbi. Sorry, Shelbi. My order is like, I shouldn’t have gone in order. I should just do you guys like in whatever order, but Shelbi, we’ll go to Shelbi next. Shelbi, if you don’t know Shelbi, you are missing out on one of the most incredible humans. Shelbi has the deepest love for every single person that comes her way. She makes me want to be a better human.
She loves our client so much. loves me so much. Shelbi has been my EA, our customer success, and literally the jack of all trades. Like that woman can fit into so many different areas. And to watch her blossom from when I first hired her by knocking on her door, she used to be my next door neighbor and she took care of my tomato plants when I was traveling so much to make sure they wouldn’t die, to now taking care of me and our entire team. Shelbi is someone that I am so grateful for, for her love.
for her ease every single month in our one-on-ones. We always ask our team who should we celebrate and who should we like give kudos to for going above and beyond and without fail, Shelbi is the number one named teammate of all of our team consistently. Everybody loves Shelbi. Every person that meets Shelbi loves Shelbi. Shelbi is just someone who has a heart of gold, who works hard, who is like this woman loves tasks. She is the person I know I can count on 150 million percent to always follow through.
and deliver more than I ever expect. She keeps all the balls in the air. She never misses things. She truly just has so much passion and love and commitment to our company and to our clients. And I am so like eternally grateful that this girl took my awkward knock on her door and then the awkwardness of living as next door neighbors and working together and has just really blossomed into this amazing woman who I trust implicitly with every single thing. And I know she will always be the best example. She will always show up.
She will always love, she’ll always care, and she literally will make everything beautiful, seamless, and smooth for every single person, and I’m so appreciative of her. Next up is Brittany Stone, no BS, Britt. Brittany is someone that has just truly grown and blossomed, and I love that she is my yin to my yang in the business. She’s a consultant, so those of you who get her love her as a consultant. Britt also is our operations within the company, and to have somebody that I can rally with who is not afraid to…
Kiera Dent (08:55.64)
give me her opinion and to make sure in the most respectful way that we are really working on what’s most important in the company. She’s the brakes on the company. She tells me not to do things. She tells me to do things, but to know that I can be on the road and that our team is being led and guided and directed by somebody that I trust and respect in like beyond the beyond is something that I think is such a magical gift that a lot of people I don’t think get to experience. And I’m so grateful for Britt. love her, her sass. love her.
her thoughtfulness, I love her directness, I love how she communicates to our team, I love how she thinks and processes, I love how Brittany is just someone who everybody loves, everybody wants to get to know Britt and she has such a quiet, gentle nature about her where she genuinely is just so loyal, she’s so curious, she’s so just wanting to be her best at all times, wanting to make our company just be the best that it can be and I’m just so.
So grateful to have somebody like that on my leadership team, personally and professionally, to have her work so closely with me, hand in hand, day in and day out, to have the conversations. She has grown me so much and just helped me see how great she can be in this role. And I’m so appreciative of her and just where she will fill in the gap. She’s an incredibly brilliant consultant. She’s a brilliant business and just someone that I feel so lucky to know. We have Ms. Dana is, gosh, Dana.
She just is incredible. She is that employee that you never have to worry about. never like they’re always just doing more than you ever expected. Dana is such a steady Eddie for me. And she also has the freaking funniest stories of anybody like that girl does not travel as much as the rest of us do. And every time she travels, I don’t know what it is. She comes back with the craziest travel stories of all of us and Dana with her consistency and her commitment to clients and her love and her true internal growth. Dana is a warrior.
And I just love her. I love her so much. I love who she is. I love her drive. I love how she makes me want to be a better person. Dana loves so deeply and she will forever continue to grow herself. She’s the person that’s the easiest for me to have uncomfortable conversations with because she just takes it. She gets it and she executes and implements. She’s also the person who is constantly behind the scenes making things happen. She always wants another project. She wants to grow. She encourages me to work out. She encourages me to love my clients better. Dana is just someone who has this heart of gold that I feel.
Kiera Dent (11:20.15)
so ridiculously blessed is on my team, is an example to me, is someone like, and I don’t get to talk to Dana as much as others, but I’m always watching Dana and I’m observing her and I’m watching how incredibly talented and gifted this woman is. And I’m just so grateful for her. We can not go without talking about Miss Eve. Eve is a, gosh, I think Eve, if we would not have met through Dental A Team, we would have found each other in some way in this world. Eve is one of the most incredibly talented marketers.
I’ve ever had. She’s come into this company and she gets my vision and she delivers to me impeccable work every single time. I can tell Eve this is what my vision is and Eve makes it magic. She does it with so much grace and ease and she’s so freaking funny. Like you should talk her about her hobby horse. This is a real thing. You should talk her about like all the fun things. She makes us laugh. She’s like entertainment within our company and she’s also somebody where I just love who she is. I love her outlook, her outlook on life. I love who she is as a person. I love what she stands for.
I love her journey. I love the humor she brings. And honestly, we call it the Eve adds her pixie dust, but we’ve made it marketing where it’s the pixel dust to everything. So when you see beautiful things everywhere, Eve just puts her heart and soul into it. She’s an incredible artist, an incredible designer, incredible marketer, comes with great ideas and her passion and love for marketing, for her family, for our company, for our clients, for our team.
is something that I am just awe inspired by and so grateful. She’s in my life personally and professionally and that you guys all get to experience Eve through anything. She’s at our monthly webinars. If you’re not attending those or the Thirsty Thursdays, the third Thursday of the month, be sure to join us. Eve has taken that on. She grows herself, but gosh, this woman is just chef’s kiss of beauty that she creates for our company and does it with so much grace and ease.
We also have Jacintha who’s part of our marketing team and Jacintha has come she’s from the Netherlands and I love Jacintha’s grit, her determination. She’s also super funny. She makes me laugh. But whenever we give you something a problem or a project, she is just like bloodhound on it and she will go she will drive, she will figure out how to do this. And I’m so appreciative of her grit and her stamina and the things that this woman does. She has come in with this
Kiera Dent (13:29.214)
unrelentless determination to be the best to figure out dentistry and when they present the two marketers never coming from dentistry, gosh, I am just amazed and wowed at the love, the passion, the grit, the desire to become the best and to be associated with two marketers. Eve and Jacintha, our marketing department is incredible. does all, Jacintha does all of our, all of our social media and so many of the designs you guys see out there.
That is you synthesis magic and she is just constantly making sure things are smooth and easy and I’m so appreciative of her. And then last but not least is Miss Kristy and Kristy coming onto our team and just being this amazing consultant that has love and dedication and determination and she just is so brilliant at what she does. She brings this sense of calm and ease and fun and I’m so excited for clients working with her and to get to work with her because this woman’s knowledge is unmet.
compared to all of the other, like she just has this knowledge and this love of dentistry. When I was looking for our next consultant, I made this little wish list and I said, I want them to just have so much passion and love for dentistry. And Kristy has that and she has the knowledge and she’s got the experience and she’s just this, she just ignites and exudes so much love for what we have. And I’m just so, so, so grateful for her on our team. Our team is incredible and our team has just.
morphed over the years and I’m so thankful for those who have been a part of Dental A Team that have made us the great people we are. I obviously would be remiss if I didn’t shout out my husband Jason. Jason’s just, he’s my ride or die. Jason has gone through so much. You guys should all be grateful the countless hours this man does with me early in the morning, late at night, letting me talk his ear off about the podcast and our clients and all the different things. And he’s just constantly there for me I just love him and I’m so grateful for him. My coaches, Liz and Kareen and
my trainers and like all the different people who make me who I am, all of our sponsors, all the people that make us great, all the people that we have affiliates with, all the trainers, all like literally every single person, whether you’re a client, whether you’re a sponsor, whether you’re a listener, whomever you are, you have this magic touch on my life that allows me to be able to be here to podcast with you, to do these pieces with you. And I’m so appreciative of all of you. I’m appreciative of you making.
Kiera Dent (15:45.274)
where we are in this world of dentistry, great. I’m so grateful that you love your patients and you love dentistry and you want to be the best you can be. And I’m here to say, go spread those magic love bombs, go do the magic today and tell someone, tell five people, thank you for what they do because it will not only fill their cups, but it will overflow you of just the love and the magic that you get to experience living this life today at this special.
specific time. with that, go enjoy your magical Thanksgiving. Go love on those family members. Go be grateful for the health that you have and to be alive in today’s world. And thank you so much for being a part of the Dental A Team podcast. So much love. All the kisses, all the love. And as always, thanks for listening and I’ll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
Recent Podcasts
Episode
#928: Maintaining Patient Trust After A Senior Partner Leaves
Dr. Brian Harris is back once more, this time talking about how he continued the practice after his father left. He touches on financial considerations (like selling to a DSO), growing pains being part of a first-of-its-kind DSO, and more. Episode…
#927: Navigating Burnout: “It’s Not A Dead End, It’s A Cul-de-sac”
Dr. Brian Harris of Smile Virtual gets real and raw with Kiera. The topic: burnout, and how Dr. Harris navigated it to boost himself toward success. He talks about what that meant personally, professionally, as well as tackling the reality of finances…
#926: Update Your Ops Manual Without Breaking a Sweat
Tiff and Dana discuss updating your operations manual in a way that doesn’t completely stress you out. They dive into details about each of the following steps: Establish an ops manual point person Schedule regular updates Delegate sections …
In this powerful episode, Kiera is joined by John Jackson, executive director of Defy Ventures, Utah. John shares his history as a criminal, the time he spent incarcerated for his crimes, and how he found the power to change. Kiera and John met…