Feb 25 2025 30 mins 2
Tiff and Kristy talk about how doctors can get to that point where their practice can function with and without them, including taking a good and hard look at your numbers, dialing in your BAM, encouraging delegation and accountability, and more.
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Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:01.676)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. my gosh, I'm so excited for today. I know you guys diligently listen constantly that you're here, that you're here for us, and we just love you and we value you and we appreciate you. We recently had some virtual events and it's just been really cool to see the masses show up in such incredible support for who we are, what we do for this community, and just all of the outpour of love. So we want to say thank you guys for
being listeners for always showing up for us. We hope we do the same for you, that we always show up for you. And I'm just so excited for today. I have with me today the one and only Miss Kristy. She is a consultant here on our team. If you have not gotten to meet her yet, you are doing yourself a disservice. I'm excited for you to hear from her today. We've got a really great conversation we're about to have. And honestly, guys, Kristy is just this incredible wealth of knowledge. She has been such an asset to our team.
such an asset to the consultant team alone and her clients that she works one-on-one with are just already raving about her. So we are so excited. Kristy, welcome to the platform. I know this is our first podcast and you came in, you know, late to the podcasting game, I'm going to call it, where it's video too. So it's like not to be, you know, overwhelming or put you on a pedestal or anything here, right? But I'm just super excited to have you here. And I know that the
Doctors who are listening today are just going to get so much valuable information. So, Kristy, thank you for being here today. Thank you for carving out the time in your schedule for this. And gosh, how are you? You're in Idaho right now, but soon, guys, she will be with me in Arizona, don't you fret. It is down the pipeline for her, but you're in Idaho right now, so what's the weather like? You know, it's drastically different from here. What's the weather like? How are you, Kristy? How are you on this fine recording Friday morning?
Kristy (01:38.274)
Yeah.
Kristy (01:52.95)
Love it. I'm happy to be here with you. Nervous for the first podcast, but we're going to do it because it's all about serving the doctors. actually, I'm excited to get to Arizona. It's snowing this morning. So yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready for some warm weather.
The Dental A Team (02:11.754)
Good. I'm excited for you to be here too. Phoenix has no snow. I don't know that Flagstaff even has real snow right now. I have no idea. But Phoenix has no snow and it's a brisk, like, I don't know, probably 60 degrees. It was 38 this morning though. Anyways, I'm excited you're here, Kristy. Thank you. And doctors, team members who are listening, leaders, office managers, today is going to be super fun. I've probed some tips and probed Kristy's brain today.
on a subject matter that I think she's actually really smart on. I think we all work really hard with our doctors to help you guys work yourselves out of the business. Like that's the ultimate goal. Whether you work out of the business or not, whether you're like, gosh, no, I actually really love this stuff, Tiff. I want to do the admin stuff. I don't care. But I want you to have that opportunity to be able to say yes or no, I want to do those things. So building and creating a business that can work without you is our ultimate goal. Like a profitable...
survivable business that works for you, that you can take a step back and say, gosh, you know what? I want to go to Aruba for a month and I think my team's going to be fine and my business can survive. I want you to be able to make those decisions. So today, that's what we're going to be talking about you guys. How do we create a sustainable business that can survive with and without you? Not or with and without you so that you get to make that decision. And Kristy, I know we
have a ton of clients that we work with this every single day. And I think both of us, both you and I kind of have that mindset of like, cool, these are the places that we're going, but forever more, like I want you to always be thinking.
Forevermore, I want you to always be thinking, how do I work myself out of the business? Like, how do I make sure that I'm ready to go and I can take that vacation or whatever? So I know, Kristy, that's something that we work on a lot. And I have some ideas, and I know you do too, and I want to pick your brain some today. So first and foremost, I think one of the spaces I want to start with is really the overhead and the profitability. That's a huge focus of DEML-A team for
The Dental A Team (04:15.605)
all of the consulting that we do. I know we do a ton of team training and I know that's what a lot of people come to us for is for that team training for the systems. But you guys, the reality is if we're not focusing on your overhead, your profitability and the metrics of your business, there's no telling if that training is even beneficial for you guys. I could train somebody to do something, but is it actually making a result in your practice? And are you able to pull that back into that profitability space? So as your...
Working yourself out of the business, air quotes were there for those of you who are listening, not watching. As you're working yourself out of the business here, I want you to really sincerely be focused on the numbers and the metrics of your practice. What is your overhead out? Where is your true profitability? And Kristy, I think we can both agree, true profitability is like such a vague statement in dentistry because...
Everybody says your overhead should be like 50%, right? 50 % or less, and your profitability should be at least 20%. Well, guess what, guys? Nobody talks about the loans, paying yourself, the taxes. Like, all of those extra pieces aren't always talked about. So, Kristy, know this is something, forecasting is something that you're really fantastic at and you work really hard with your clients at.
Within that world of trying to make sure that we're prepped to exit the practice at some point, how do you implement with your teams and your practices that overhead profitability piece so that your doctors know what to look for so they can say, hey, I think I'm ready for that step?
Kristy (05:45.718)
Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, I think it's obviously projecting out, looking at what is it gonna take? What do I need to make this happen? And then reverse engineering it from there. Really dialing in to what will it take every single month for me to be away from the practice? What is that number that I need? And then working it backward to find that goal.
The Dental A Team (06:07.103)
Thank
The Dental A Team (06:15.978)
Yeah, I actually love that you said that. That's a beautiful, beautiful way to look at it because you guys, if you know what your BAM is, right, your bare ace minimum is how we say that at the Dental A Team, your bare ace minimum, how do we get to what that overhead needs to be? So if you know at X amount of dollars, your overhead, your true overhead, so that true overhead, right, is anything above the line. So anything that if someone were to purchase your practice today, they'd take those over. That does not include your owner pay.
Okay, your loans and your taxes, those are after bottom line, right? So your bottom line, if you say, okay, if I make Epsilon dollars, that's gonna get me to 50 % overhead, how much of that production or collections, right? Production turns into collections. How much of that money is coming from the treatment that I'm providing for my practice right now? So if you're the owner slash doctor and you're still clinical chair side, you need to take a look.
then at how much of that overhead piece is within your control as a provider. Because if you're looking to work yourself out of the business, you want to just be the overseer, you want to go on vacation for a month, you have to replace that production slash collections somehow. So then if you know what that bare ace minimum is to get to that profitability that you want and keep your business thriving, now you can look at what Chrissy is saying, like projecting and looking at every single month.
How do we replace that income? How do we replace that production and collections to ensure that the business is still moving forward? Now, in order to get that number, which is step one, I believe, in working yourself out of the business is knowing your freaking numbers, is really to look at where are you now? What's your overhead now? What is it after you pay yourself, et cetera? What's your true profitability? And where do you actually want it to be? So if you have an overhead of, I don't know, 60%.
Right? It's not horrible. Honestly, 55 to 65 % for people who aren't always like looking at it, don't know their numbers is pretty common. 55 to 65%. So maybe you're at 60%. Maybe you're at 80%. Okay, great. Well, I got to 80 % by collecting X amount of dollars. So if I want to lower that percentage, right, there's things to play with, right? Within your metrics, there are things to play with. Maybe you've got areas that we can slim down. But also if I were to increase my collections,
The Dental A Team (08:38.078)
with that decrease my overhead. So that's what Kristy's saying there, like really looking at what is our various minimum and then how do you now create that into someone else's schedule so that you're not the main provider. I love that Kristy. I think within that same conversation is really bringing in the leadership aspects of the practice and so you know your numbers, you're learning your business, you're you pedal to the metal, you're freaking figuring it out and who's supporting you.
Do you have an office manager who's trained to support you in those pieces? Are you still doing all of the admin work that an office manager truly could do? And do you have a leadership team set up within your practice who can create those spaces for you? And Kristy, you work a lot on leadership development, just like as a person for yourself and then as a person for your doctors. And then within that office manager and leadership positions too, how do you see an office's
You know, square one, no leadership, just a doctor thinks they might have somebody for an office manager compared to, I don't know, six months a year down the road, that doctor made the decision. They've got the rockin' office manager and they're making the leadership team. How do you feel that helps in the doctor's personal life? Like, how does that relieve stress for the doctor? You know, how does that relieve pressure from the doctor? What does that lifestyle change like once they implement and truly just go for it on a leadership standpoint?
Kristy (10:04.48)
Absolutely, truly it's that trust, right? It's a transfer of trust and having a peace of mind that the people that are in the leadership are living up to the same vision and mission of the practice and...
really developing the team below them and elevating them to a level, if you will, to help them grow and sustain that mission for the doctor. But really, when you delegate that and you see them rising to that occasion, it gives you that personal satisfaction too, if you will.
The Dental A Team (10:47.076)
Yeah, yeah, totally. I agree. And that trust aspect that you're talking about, think it's just like trusting anyone in your life to do anything. you when you're a parent and you trust a friend or a family member to pick your kids up from school, like, how much stress does that relief from you not having to be the one that does it or you got a carpool situation like
Any of those spaces are going to correlate back to it. And I totally agree with that because I think when you can dig in, you can get that office manager fully trained. can get a leadership team that's rising up to the occasion and able to take some of that load off of your plate. You now have space and energy to do other things. And in my opinion, when you're a practice owner, your job is to create something really, really freaking cool.
You're creating a space that people can come and love to work. So you're creating an avenue and a lifestyle for people. I don't know if you realize that. Your team, your employees, you're creating a life for them by creating an incredible life for yourself. So when you open up those spaces and you delegate those things off and you trust your team to take them on with accountability, there's always accountability coming back. That's how trust is earned and how trust is maintained.
When you delegate those things off and that accountability is there, the pieces are there and you trust them to do it, it opens up the space to have time to ensure that what you're creating still lines up with your vision. It still lines up with what your mission is as a dental practitioner and having a dental practice within your community. So then having a leadership team and within that same vein, like having core values, mission, vision, those are clear for you. They're clear for your team.
especially your leadership team, those pieces give us a heading of where we need to go. And those pieces now for your leadership team are developing autonomy within the leadership team, autonomy within decisions. I want you guys to think about, want you to take like 30 seconds, doctors, and I want you to just think of all of the ridiculous questions that you have been asked in the last three business days within your office, that you're just like,
The Dental A Team (13:02.245)
Why is this coming to me? I had a doctor out in California that I worked with for a little while and he is so amazing and he is just like this knowledge factory. Like he just soaks it all up and he's constantly learning and learning and learning. And so he's got, you know, that's own aspect of stress of his own that he's consuming constantly and creating constantly. And then we'd get on a call and he's like, my gosh, they asked me, why isn't Dentrix pulling up? He's like, I
I'm doing a root canal. I know. hey, what are we getting for lunch for the meeting today? He's like, I don't know. I'm doing an exam. Like, the amount of questions that come to you guys when you're chair side or when you're doing the thing that only you can do, remember, only you can fill this tooth. Only you can do this root canal. When those questions come to you, your brain has to stop what it's doing.
restart on whatever the question was, catch up, maybe even answer it, or at least get frustrated, stop, restart, come back again. And not only does it take more time, but you lose that value of who you are, how you're showing up for the patient and for your team in those moments. So those are the spaces I want you guys to think about. What are the things that are coming to you that's like, why am I doing this? Or I don't want to answer this question, or I'm in the middle of something.
Is that something that if trained correctly and given the right boundaries for autonomy, someone else could do for you? Because I think that's likely something that Kristy's talking about here, that you delegate off and you build that trust with that other person, with that accountability coming back. And Kristy, know you actually, you've got a ton of amazing doctors under your belt actually.
I have to brag on Dental A Team. I don't know what we do. I don't know what we do, right? But we attract the most incredible people into our company to work for us and with us, and into our client base to work with us. So we really, really have some incredible people. And you guys listening, I think we attracted you as well, and that means you're freaking incredible too. So kudos to all of you guys. I don't know what we do right, but we are so happy with the people we get to work with. And Kristy, you've got a handful of
The Dental A Team (15:25.628)
two handfuls more maybe, of incredible doctors that you're working with and leaders. And what are some ways that you've helped them? Because you do have some doctors who are really kind of fresh into this idea of delegating things off and building a lifestyle within their business where they could say, I want to take vacation. How do you help them to really figure those things out that they can delegate off and then to trust the process and stick with it?
Kristy (15:52.066)
Yeah, well first and foremost, I always like them to create a list. Like sit down and really think about all of those things you're doing and divide them out. Like is it something you enjoy doing? Is it something only you can do? Is it something that maybe you don't like to do? You know what I mean? And really create those lists and start.
The Dental A Team (16:15.227)
Yeah.
Kristy (16:19.338)
organizing them in that way so that you can start getting clear on the things that you want to delegate out. But then the other flip side of that TIF I would say is getting them to see that they're actually stifling the growth of the team and leadership beneath them.
when they are holding it so close to the vest. And, you know, when, maybe you can remember the saying, but we only rise as high as, do you remember the saying?
The Dental A Team (16:49.232)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, as we're allowed to, as we're given the space for. Yeah.
Kristy (16:52.834)
Yeah, yeah. you know, flipping it that way and getting them to see that, you know, by you hanging on to this so tightly, you're not allowing your team to grow and develop and support you in the way that they truly want to.
The Dental A Team (17:07.036)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that one hits home for a lot of people. That was a really great way to take that because I know, especially the doctors we work with, they are in the business of growing themselves and growing the people around them. I just had a conversation this morning with a doctor and his office manager wife who were like, gosh, dang it, how do I get them to want to learn more? And I'm like, well, they have to want it first, but then you have to allow the space. I think that's like nail on the head because
you're not allowing that space, you're not giving the opportunity, they're only going to arise to the limits that you set for them, that you allow for them. That's the boundary, right? Like that's the standard. You've set the standard to here and until you move that bar, giving them more opportunity, they're going to keep hitting that standard. And I actually, it's come up a lot this week because I had a conversation yesterday with the regional manager that was like,
How do I get this? How do I do this? And I'm like, gosh dang it. You have to pave the path, right? And it's hard. can be a lot of work and it takes a lot of consistency and it takes a lot of desire on your part to truly want the results. So what is the results you're looking for? Do you want autonomous leaders? Do you want this stuff off of your plate? Do you want a business that works for you that you can say, I'm gonna take a vacation? Because if you do,
You're going to pave that path and you're going to do the hard work now to reap the rewards and the benefits later. Because if you do that hard work now and you say, I'm going to raise the standards, I'm going to delegate things off, I'm going to give them the opportunity for growth, I'm going watch them blossom and I'm going to hold the accountability line so that I can continue to trust that it's being done. It takes consistency. My practice I spoke to this morning, I was like, don't give up.
The Dental A Team (18:58.643)
Just because you said this is what you want doesn't mean they're going to turn around and do it. It's just, it's likely not going to happen that way because human nature just doesn't work that way. I wish it did. I truly wish it did, but it doesn't. I forget things, right? Kira will ask me to do something. And if Kira doesn't stay on top of me or we don't create like a system of accountability to report back that it's been done or to report back weekly on certain stats, it doesn't get done because I'll forget. I will get inundated with so many other things.
and will forget. And she loves me. She thinks I'm an incredible leader, but it frustrates the heck out of her. So we've figured out how to make sure that those report back systems are there. So I love that because that growth space is huge for both of you guys. And like I said, the doctors that we attract, I know this is what you want for them. Even if you're like, I don't care, Kristy, don't care, Tiff, I don't need to work myself out of the business I just started. Cool.
Guess what? You're still going to work yourself out of the business, but you actually love growing other people. I know that that's a space in you. I know it's spark that lights up in you because I know that's the type of humans that we attract in the Dental A Team. So if that's true and if that's what you want, help grow those people. And that will progress this so much faster than you could ever imagine. And I think all of those pieces, right, put together overhead and profitability first.
Teach your office manager how to shoot for overhead profitability and the numbers that you need. Figure out what that looks like to work yourself out of the business. Build an autonomous as you can leadership team. Continue working with them and you guys make sure that there are plenty of meetings for accountability set up. Accountability and forward progress. Constantly looking at the pieces we should have done. So accountability and looking at what's to come. The forward progress. And you guys make sure everyone knows.
Core values, vision, mission. You have to know them. You have to be solid on them. Your leadership team has to be solid on them. They have to live and breathe them and the rest of the team will follow. That's why they're the leadership team. The rest of the team will follow them. I think this is huge and I'm so excited. Kristy, out of all of those pieces, overhead, office manager and leadership team, the meetings, core value, vision, mission, out of all of those pieces, I'm just like,
The Dental A Team (21:25.043)
wondering what is your favorite space to work with doctors on?
Kristy (21:29.883)
really... Ooh! Favorite space.
Honestly, think, well, there's two, getting them to dial into what they really want. You know, what is that number metric? Because so many people get afraid of the metric, you know, and the metrics only a North Star was here say North Star to guide us. so being very clear on that, but then also really develop developing their leadership, you know, especially when doctors are open to it, you know, most
The Dental A Team (21:48.576)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (21:52.989)
Yeah, yeah.
Kristy (22:05.134)
of them are thriving in wanting or desire, I guess it would be a better word, desire to grow their people. And you you even mentioned something earlier, even if they're not looking to get out of the practice right now, starting this early and developing the team early, my gosh, that just creates more success within that timeline, you know, so.
The Dental A Team (22:05.62)
Mm-hmm.
Kristy (22:30.498)
The leadership part is really fun to watch unfold, you know?
The Dental A Team (22:34.696)
Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I think I wanted to ask because I thought I knew I was like, I think I know. But I also feel like within that space, because I you and I are both similar in that we love growing people. We love growing the leadership we love when not we love nothing more than when we can help something on the business side that they're like, Whoa, actually, you just blew my mind. And that's my whole life. And we're like, yes, yes, your your whole life. So I know we're both
Kristy (22:58.507)
Thank
The Dental A Team (23:02.534)
like running down that road. But what I've noticed, and I think you probably have too, and the coaching that you've done for so many years as well, is like, that's a space that all of these other pieces fall into. Because you can't grow just that, in my opinion, without growing the other pieces. And you can't grow, you can grow, you can grow numbers, overhead profitability, and not grow leadership, but you're stuck. You're like, you're stuck in this space. You can't grow out of that stuck.
without that leadership development within yourself and within your team. So I think that's why we love it so much because it creates so much opportunity for everything else to fall into place when we can dive in and figure out our why, what are we even here for and how we're going to get there. So thank you for letting me pick your brain on that, Kristy. I loved it. Gosh, this was a really fun conversation, you guys. I, Kristy, thank you so much for riffing with me, letting me.
Pull out the big questions and just for being here with me. I truly appreciate and value your time so much. And you guys listening, gosh dang it, action items, here they come. I need you to evaluate where you're at. Like, what are your numbers? What's your BAM? What's your bare-ace minimum? Where do you want to go in comparison and create that roadmap? And if you guys need help with that, you know to reach out. [email protected] I don't know how many times I have to say it, we're here for you. So.
Create that number. What is that number? What does it look like? What does it need to look like? And when are you working yourself out of the business? Create that whole roadmap, you guys. Leadership. Develop yourself. You cannot develop leaders if you are not developing yourself. You can do them simultaneously, but you can't make other people become something you're not willing to become. So develop your leadership skills, develop your leadership team, create autonomy within that. Lots of meetings for accountability.
Mission, vision, core values, you guys, those are huge in my books. That's your heading and probably goes right back to that step one action item that I just gave you. So go to the things you guys, it might feel cumbersome right now. It might feel like, dang it, Kristy, you're giving me a whole lot of things to do this weekend. But guess what? You're going to do this now and it's going to take this X amount of time, maybe three hours, and it's going to save you time in the long run, because if you wait,
The Dental A Team (25:28.684)
you're gonna get to the end and you're gonna be like, I need out of this and you're not ready. But if you do it now, you can get to the end and be ready. It's gonna be so much more work if you're to a point where you need out and you're not ready than doing the hard work now and being ready when you get there. Kristy, thank you for your time. Thank you for traveling down this fun podcasting world with me. I truly appreciate you and I value your input. So thank you for being here.
Kristy (25:56.504)
Thank you for having me. And I would also say, Tiff, we're gonna come to that point, right? We're gonna travel down the line that you talked about, and we can either do it by default or we can do it with intention. So hopefully, it'll take your advice and we'll be intentional about it. So, fun
The Dental A Team (25:58.876)
Of course.
The Dental A Team (26:10.739)
The Dental A Team (26:15.871)
I love it. Thank you. You guys, I hope you picked up on the fact that Kristy has some freaking nuggets that she drops, and I am so excited for you guys to partake in these nuggets. Kristy, I will surely have you back on for so many more podcasts, and the world needs to hear them. I get them constantly, and I'm just like, dang, that was good. And so I'm excited for everybody else to hear them. Thank you for that. It was truly invaluable. You guys, go do the hard things. And while you're at it...
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