Bulletproof Dental Practice

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 28 Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak Guest: Dr. Chris Ramsey / Co-owner of Ritter & Ramsey Watch the full video of interview by clicking here!  Key Takeaways: Take care of your team. Your team will take care of your patients, and your patients will take care of our profits. Strive to be the best. You don’t have to be the best in the WHOLE world, but be the best in YOUR world. Success isn’t the same for everyone. Define what success means for you. Make sure you can answer the question “Why do people choose to come to your office?” Make sure you define your answer and clarify that vision with your team. Achievement is not always related to fulfilment. Chris Ramsey created a lecture program called M.A.S.T.E.R., dedicated to teaching people how to be great at what they do and do more of the dentistry they love. Mindset – The conscious, unconscious, and subconscious parts of your brain. Your brain is working like a hard drive, storing information randomly. Typical dental experiences are usually TERRIBLE. It’s uncomfortable, can be painful, and is filled with bad news. You have to make the dental experience positive – start with a positive, and end with a positive. Addressing Choice – dentists have to stop overwhelming patients with too many options. When it comes to choices, more is not better. Influence people so they feel like the decisions they make are their own. Use body language for subconscious influencing. People remember most the last thing you told them. The sequence you use in presenting options matters. Storytelling – Approach as if you’re getting ready for a TED talk. There is an art to storytelling. Craft a message map. People make decisions based on emotions. Use a voice recorder to really listen to what you say and how you say it. Dentistry is not a commodity, it’s a service. Training the Eye – Learn how to read body language. Women are innately better at reading body language than men. Strangers read each other at an accuracy of 20%. You can’t guess people’s reactions solely by first impression. Scratching the neck indicates “I don’t really agree.” Playing with hair is subconscious calming tactic. Arms crossed could mean a million things, don’t assume it’s nervousness. Look at their hand position. If fists are clenched they are defensive. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; touching their mouth/face, rubbing of eyes, rubbing/touching their nose, or touching of ears indicates anxiety or covering of truth. Someone turning their torso towards you invites you into the conversation. If they turn away it’s a cue they might not want to talk to you at the moment. Don’t rely on people’s faces to tell you the truth. Read their body cues instead. Pay attention to the clues and craft your message accordingly. Look for pacifying behaviors, assess what made them nervous, alter the conversation and move it back to neutral. Once there aren’t any more pacifying behaviors, stop talking. Expectation – Why do things cost what they do? Is your product worth what you charge? It’s all psychological, it’s all about the experience. Trigger effect is something intangible that triggers you to say something is valuable. Attention to detail is important. Recognizing Persuasion – Social perception and influence is incredibly important to your business. Search out the easy & right things to do for people. Those things go far to prove your value and create customers for life. Reciprocation rule; do unexpected things for people and they will reciprocate. Why spend money trying to get new patients who you don’t know rather than spend money on patients you already have? Invest in your patients. Every person that comes through your door wants to feel a connection. You and your team should do everything you can to foster that connection. Make it about them.  References Digital Smile Design (DSD) The Dip by Seth Godin Purple Cow by Seth Godin Poke the Box by Seth Godin Linchpin by Seth Godin Blink by Malcom Gladwell TED Talks Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. Influence by Robert Cialdini How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie  Tweetables: I don’t think anybody listening to this podcast ever wakes up, stretches, and says “I can’t wait to be mediocre today!” – Dr. Chris Ramsey Success isn’t the same for everyone. Define what success means for you. – Dr. Chris Ramsey Take care of your team, your team will take care of your patients, and your patients will take care of our profits. – Dr. Chris Ramsey If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. – Albert Einstein It’s time to start trying new things, and start failing. – Dr. Chris Ramsey Failure is just a seminar. A mistake is just a learning experience. – Dr. Craig Spodak Your practice is not stagnant, that is a myth. You’re either growing, or you’re dying. – Dr. Chris Ramsey Every person that comes through your door wants to feel a connection. – Dr. Chris Ramsey

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 27 Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak Guest: Fred Joyal / Founder of 1-800-DENTIST  Key Takeaways: Many dentists still struggle with basic ideas of effectively promoting and marketing their practices. Patients judge you by their experience, and 90% of the patient experience is non-clinical. Developing clinical skills is important, but success is determined by the office’s culture. Building better relationships with your team and patients will make you wildly successful. A good patient who you treat well will earn you five new patients. The best marketing strategy is to CARE. The new economy is centered around caring and convenience. Dentists obsessed with adding value for patients are those who are killing it. It’s not about you. Everything the patient experiences (sees, touches, tastes, hears and smells) affects case acceptance. Most of our decisions are not rational, they’re based on feeling. If you don’t trust the doctor it doesn’t matter how much pain you’re in. Patients should feel in control of their decisions based on your communication with them. If you put people in a better mood they’re more amenable to accepting treatment. You can’t always compete on a macro level, so deliver experience on a micro level. If the dentist isn’t comfortable communicating benefits to patients find someone who is and have them present treatment options. The dentist only has to be good clinically, have remarkable personable people around who can’t resist upselling dentistry. Assess the personalities around you and find people to complement your weaknesses. If your business is making time AND money for you, that’s a business. If you work hard and it makes money because you put in more time that’s a job. Create freedom for your team to make you aware of where you can do better. Learn how to build rapport with your patients. Keep focused on your mission to help educate the patient and prevent future pain, not on closing a sale. Learn public speaking skills, study neurolinguistics. These skills will catapult you to the next level. The whole environment has to support your mission; whoever is presenting the case needs to listen, watch body language, empathize with their position. BUILD TRUST. Express appreciation to your team members. That’s where real motivation comes from. Exercise: for the next week, express appreciation to everyone you encounter, to an absurd level. At the end of the week, gauge how you did. You’ll see the reaction and see how it makes such a huge impact. Work hard to make the people you encounter feel better about themselves. References Everything Is Marketing by Fred Joyal Becoming Remarkable by Fred Joyal Get Fred’s books for $10, including shipping, by using code FREDJOYAL Tweetables: Don’t be obsessed with you, be obsessed with your patients and adding value for them. – Dr. Craig Spodak People want to buy but they don’t want to be sold. – Dr. Craig Spodak You’re not on an island, surround yourself with people who can fortify your weaknesses. – Dr. Peter Boulden Nobody is great at everything. If you do everything, you’re probably average at everything. – Fred Joyal Feeling gratitude without expressing it is like wrapping a present and not delivering it. – Fred Joyal Trade your expectations for appreciations and your whole world changes in an instant. – Tony Robbins The business doesn’t serve you, you serve your people. – Dr. Craig Spodak

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 26 Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak Guest: Stuart Faught / Founder of PatientSnap.com Key Takeaways: Online reviews are crucial to the success of your dental practice, they can also be very hard to obtain. Make sure every patient receives a text message right after their appointment asking for review and giving links to post a review. Key platforms are Yelp, Google, and on your website. 88% of patients are currently checking online reviews before going into a practice. There’s a democratization of small business; people have a much greater power to make or break your business. Shoot for getting the most stars and the best reviews. Cadence and consistency are important. Look at your review request process as an evergreen strategy and not a quick fix. Respond to every negative review, and at least some of the positive reviews. Every review response is another marketing opportunity. Even the best practices will eventually get a bad review. An occasional bad review actually authenticates all your positive reviews. Use bad reviews as a way to get patient feedback and an opportunity to keep them as loyal customers. Reviews translate your culture, can add value to the business’s sale price, and attract top-performing talent to your office. Best practice: Doctors have say-so on which patients should get request to review Have one person accountable for actually sending Use technology to send a text Ask screening questions first; ask if experience was positive or negative If they’re positive they’re sent links to review on Yelp, Google, or website If negative they are sent to feedback comment box and assure them you’ll work to make things right It has to be easy or they’re not going to do it. Target conversion rates is at least 10% of requests. Don’t spam, patients shouldn’t be asked to write a review more than once every six months. Make reviews fun, get your team excited and reward your team and patients for their efforts. Review add-ins are also key; work to get patients to check in, add a picture, and interact with the review platform as much as possible. We’re just barely scratching the surface with “social proof.” Everything is moving toward video and authentication. PatientSnap.com is offering a 30-day trial to listeners who try out the demo. Tweetables: Online reviews are the modern day word of mouth. – Stuart Faught People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. – Dr. Craig Spodak

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 25 Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak Guest: Erika Pusillo / Practice Optimizer @ Spodak Dental Group Key Takeaways: Running a 4-person office is quite different than running a 40-person team, the key is having the right leadership for your team. Every new stage in your life requires a different version of you. Seek areas that need improvement and try to optimize those areas. Leadership is essential for practice growth, having one person running the whole show can lead to breakdowns. Leadership is bringing other people around you up and into ownership. Nothing will ever be perfect. Start and try, if it doesn’t work the first time then identify what that is and change it. If it does, then multiply those things that work great. The goal is to allow team members to think for themselves, with leadership’s guidance on best practices to get results. Writing down your vision and sharing it creates a snowball effect. Your whole team will be inspired and empowered. Any relationship that is transactional is not a good relationship. Raises should be based on contributions to the practice and producing results, not simply showing up and doing your job. Any practice’s greatest asset is its human capital. The first step in making sure everyone is aligned with the practice’s values is to define your vision and include the team in your goals. Have the team be a part of the decision-making process. Set goals and attach a metric to them. Make sure your team is motivated and ahead of the game to achieve those metrics. Drive your team to be hungry for knowledge and give them leeway to seek knowledge in many different forms. Is there one person already in your business that thinks and acts like a stakeholder? Help them develop their leadership skills. Mastermind with your team. Reward and recognize when the team is doing things right. Great leadership isn’t when the leader has all the answers, it’s when they recognize they need other people and their experiences for the greater benefit of the team. Resources Mentioned: GOTT Summit Bonnie Hickson – The Progressive Dentist Chuck Blakeman – Why Employees Are Always A Bad Idea Chuck Blakeman – Making Money is Killing Your Business Dave Logan, John King, & Halee Fischer-Wright – Tribal Leadership Napoleon Hill – Think and Grow Rich Jim Collins – Good To Great Liz Wiseman – Multipliers Tweetables: Management has to happen; it just has to come from inside. – Dr. Craig Spodak Managers are focused on the process; leaders are focused on results – Dr. Craig Spodak The leader’s job is to ask really good questions, if you’re not getting the answer you want, change the question. – Erika Pusillo Work is not just for money, it’s for fulfillment. – Dr. Craig Spodak We don’t get where we are as individuals by ourselves. – Dr. Peter Boulden Everyone wants to work for a company that is not plateauing, but growing. – Dr. Peter Boulden Employees are all stakeholders in your business. – Dr. Craig Spodak The lives of a lot of people are attached to the decisions that you make. – Dr. Peter Boulden You get more of what you praise. – Dr. Peter Boulden A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. – Lao Tzu

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 24 Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak Guest: Bruce Johnstone / Apex Design Build Key Takeaways: It is better to have one team handle everything rather than having separate contractors handle your renovation. In a Design-Build Model, the liability and risk is lower because you talk to only one supplier committed to finishing the design. Look at dentistry as a retail function than a health care function in order to learn how to utilize space in new ways. Dental offices can become like retail stores by looking at ways to make patients comfortable while they wait. No one goes to a dental office thinking they’ll have fun. Dental offices have to shift their space so it is more engaging for customers and makes them excited to visit. A lot of things affect your patient’s perception like the lighting of your clinic, the color, the upholstery of your furniture, etc. The best source of new customers is from internal referrals. You get more referrals if patients like your practice. You can put some of your marketing budget into creating a better and patient-friendly clinic. Tweetables: “People don’t mind waiting as long as there is engagement.” - Bruce Johnstone  “Dentistry can take a cue from retail.” - Bruce Johnstone  “The easiest way to market is to make your practice marketable.” - Dr. Peter Boulden  

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 23 Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak Guest: Josh Robbins / America's Best 401k Key Takeaways: The 401k is a massive liability for any business owner. As the business owner, you are in charge of setting up the account for the sole benefit for your employee. The providers of 401k are broken. There are too many so you need to choose the right one for your team. There are many funds within a 401k plan. You need to know what and why it is being offered and what fees are being charged. The best scenario is a level playing field where there are no middlemen and you get access to all funds regardless of how big your plan is. You can hire a fiduciary to handle your 401k liability for your employees. Investigate the fees being charged to your 401k plan. Most can be cut off. Dentists are easy prey for 401k brokers because of several factors: high income, recession proof, want to look out for their teams, etc. Brokers don’t earn from startup 401k plans so they give a different kind of plan that will earn them a lot. You can save on these fees by going to a fiduciary company. The earlier you start your 401k plan, the better – you’ll save more for less equity / contributions. Auto-escalate your contributions to your 401k fund. Resources Mentioned: www.freetonybook.com - Unshakeable by Tony Robbins Tweetables: “The 401K is a good thing. You just need to have the right one.” - Josh Robbins

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 22 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden / Atlanta Dental Spa Guest: Craig Cody Key Takeaways: Mistake 1 - Failing to plan. Like buying a car or a house, you need to make a plan how you’ll pay off your taxes. Mistake 2 - Choosing the wrong entity to operate. You need to understand the different types of entities available before deciding which entity you would choose. Mistake 3 - What-if Paranoia. Do not be afraid of the questions of the IRS as long as you follow the tax codes and everything is documented. Don’t be afraid to take a legitimate deduction. Mistake 4 - Getting the wrong retirement plan. Understand the different plans available to your employees and those that they’ll resonate to. Ask for advice from your CPA. Mistake 5 - Missing family employment if you have kids. Kids can become employees of your business and you can pay them wages to cover other non-deductible expenses. Mistake 6 - Not implementing a medical expense reimbursement plan. This works for some entities and can be used to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses. Mistake 7 - Missing legal deductible items such as: a health care facility for your home office like a pool or a home gym vehicle expenses when the vehicle is used for business meals and entertainment Mistake 8 - Failing to rent out your home for business meetings. Just be careful not to go overboard. Mistake 9 - Not depreciating properly all the costs to set up your practice. Mistake 10 - Not consulting with professionals. Be proactive and ask for advice. Choose a CPA who is proactive.  This episode is not intended to replace the professional advice of your tax preparer or CPA. Resources Mentioned: 10 Biggest Tax Mistakes That Cost Business Owners Thousands - by Craig Cody - www.craigcodyandcompany.com/bulletproof - Receive a free copy of the book! Secrets of a Tax-Free Life  Tweetables: “If you’re doing something and it says you’re allowed to do it in the tax code, let them (IRS) ask you about it. As long as you’ve documented why and how you’re doing it then you’re ok.” Craig Cody “Tax evasion is blasting through the toll booth and not paying the toll. Tax avoidance is taking side streets around the toll legally to get to your destination.” Dr. Peter Boulden

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 21 Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak Key Takeaways: Find fulfillment in helping others. Today is the golden age of dentistry. To create a raving fan culture, your team must know how to make creative solutions within a given paradigm. Self-managed teams - they know what to do and they manage themselves. This results in more fulfillment. Tell your employees the WHY of the job. Make it results and performance-based. Learn to be self-sufficient first then learn to delegate the job. Referrals happen organically. Recognize your culture and explicitly define it. Self-managed team can hire their own people. You have to talk about your culture and give examples about it daily. Talk about the most important thing to your people outside their annual review. You’ll find out it’s not really about the money. Concept of peer-to-peer rewards. Focus on giving your people experience. Customers mostly review the culture. Make it a safe environment for your team and customers to give you honest feedback. Own the honest feedback you get.  Tweetables:  “You don’t get burnt out because of what you do. You get burnt out because you forgot why you do it.” - Dr. Craig Spodak  “Insurance is the penalty you pay if you do not build a raving fan culture.” Dr. Craig Spodak  “If we are not creating the millennial experience, the millennials won’t be our patrons in the future.” Dr. Peter Boulden  “Be dynamic. Don’t think that what worked 6 months ago will work again today.” Dr. Peter Boulden  “Everyone has a culture. It may not just be the one you want.” Dr. Peter Boulden Resources Mentioned: Books: Making Money is Killing Your Business by Chuck Blakeman Why Employees Are Always a Bad Idea by Chuck Blakeman Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 20 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden / Atlanta Dental Spa Guest: Michael Levin  Key Takeways Dentistry is a crowded marketplace. You can distinguish yourself by writing a book. You can target niche audiences using a book and build your credibility in that niche. Writing a book is easy using the right resources. You don't even need to write the entire book. You can hire ghostwriters to write it using the knowledge you have. Patients who buy your books and become fans can be your sales force. They become advocates of your practice. You can market your books by giving them as giveaways. Write books that will educate your market. This will create value for your customers. You can write books about your legacy as a dentist. Resources Mentioned: Books: Sober Dad by Michael Graubart River of Doubt by Candice Millard The Hundred-Year Marathon by Michael Pillsbury App: Headspace Tweetables: "People are grateful to the educator." Michael Levin "If you create enough value in the first 95% of the book, you are entitled to a call-to-action at the end of the book." Michael Levin

This is a republished interview from The Relentless Dentist. I met Dr. David Maloley of Avon, Colorado - at the Voices of Dentistry conference in Nashville, TN this February.   His energy and story that I heard during his presentation  almost compels you to live that EPIC life....and the relentless pursuit of it.   It was an incredible conversation-  check it out!