Bulletproof Dental Practice

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 14 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden / Atlanta Dental Spa Guest: Charissa Wood / Atlanta Dental Spa  Key Takeaways: Create an appointment flow that will ensure consistency Consistency is one of the biggest reasons for her success Give customized care to every patient Find the balance between consistency and tailored care Educate patients about the process and the value you offer Be aware of your patient's situation and empathize where they are Be open to change - either new technology or new processes Assess your hygiene department and be willing to make changes if you're not happy with its production Fuel the fire by exposing your hygienist to further learning Create a plan together with your hygienist and be collaborative Hygiene can be a standalone income source and not just a "loss leader" / necessity In every hygiene step you do, help the patient understand where they are so they can make the best decisions for themselves Tweetables: "We're not there to fix teeth. We're there to help people." - Charissa Wood

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 13 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa  Key Takeaways: We have to be very strategic with our goals and reverse-engineer them. Writing down your goals is exponentially more effective than not. Strategically measuring your goals is reverse engineering your written goals. Reviewing your goals on a daily basis ensures a higher chance of achieving them. Qualifying your goals with a "why" purpose makes them more attainable. Get in the habit each morning of doing the 5-minute miracle: Write 3 things you are grateful for. Gratitude is super powerful in your life. Spend a few minutes sitting in a quiet place and focusing on your breathing. Visualize your agenda for the day in your head including what you feel. Review your goals. Tip: Fill out a personal balance sheet. Tweetables: "Gratitude has been proven over and over to be super powerful in your life because anxiety, scarcity and fear cannot exist in its presence." - Dr. Peter Boulden Resources Mentioned: The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod Pranayama breathing app Headspace Personal Balance Sheet

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 11 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa Guest: Dr. Steven Rasner Realizing the Dream Key Takeaways: If you're young, you should invest first in yourself by mastering a specialty. Meet with the top people in your top department regularly and discuss your company's challenges and strategies. Create something that will inspire people to come to you Build relationships with your patients Get your oral sedation certificate in your local state Two skills to learn: (1) atraumatic extractions and (2) implant dentistry Create an atmosphere where dentistry becomes easy Do a 5-point exam than a comprehensive exam Offer dental x-ray for free if you can to be able to get them to agree to a complete exam Give people a chance to see how it is to have complete dental treatment Increase acceptance by requesting the significant other to be at the first visit Speak honestly and sincerely to patients Create scripts that work and memorize them Treat all patients equally and with respect Don't beat yourself up as a dentist and work in as many places as you can to gain experience Resources Mentioned Book: Success Principles by Jack Canfield Tweetables: "Be good doctors and be right with people. Treat your patients with respect." - Dr. Steve Rasner "Every successful person in the world has mentors." - Dr. Steve Rasner

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 11 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa Guest: Dr. Steven Rasner Realizing the Dream Key Takeaways: If you're young, you should invest first in yourself by mastering a specialty. Meet with the top people in your top department regularly and discuss your company's challenges and strategies. Create something that will inspire people to come to you Build relationships with your patients Get your oral sedation certificate in your local state Two skills to learn: (1) atraumatic extractions and (2) implant dentistry Create an atmosphere where dentistry becomes easy Do a 5-point exam than a comprehensive exam Offer dental x-ray for free if you can to be able to get them to agree to a complete exam Give people a chance to see how it is to have complete dental treatment Increase acceptance by requesting the significant other to be at the first visit Speak honestly and sincerely to patients Create scripts that work and memorize them Treat all patients equally and with respect Don't beat yourself up as a dentist and work in as many places as you can to gain experience Resources Mentioned Book: Success Principles by Jack Canfield Tweetables: "Be good doctors and be right with people. Treat your patients with respect." - Dr. Steve Rasner "Every successful person in the world has mentors." - Dr. Steve Rasner

Bulletproof Dental Practice Episode 10 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa  Dr. Dick Reid spend most of his career focused on NOT growing a large practice.  Nope, he knew that is wasn't how MUCH you collect, but rather how much you KEEP of that collections.   Over his career, Dick was able to drive his overhead to around 43%- as general practicioner.  This is pretty much unheard of, so when I did catch wind of this I wanted to find out his "secret sauce" so that maybe some listeners could gain insight on how to emulate that - to a certain degree.   By keeping such a low overhead to his practice, Dick was able to retire early on his timeline.   Guest: Dr. Richard (Dick) Reid DentalTown article Contact:  630-800-6191 or rjrdds50@gmail.com   Key Summary: Dr. Reid spent only 43% overhead in his dental practice. Read and understand how the dental economy works. Listen when smart people speak and use them as mentors. Save 20% from your practice and do not live above your means. To maintain low overhead expenses, keep your office small. You can analyze your numbers by simply looking at your patient schedules. To start minimizing overhead, you should “cut the fat” everyday. Tip: Move patients around so you don’t have any gaps in your patient schedules. Tip: Only have 1 front desk personnel. Tip: Ask patients for referrals. Ask for new patients. Don’t be shy. Keep adding money in your pension fund in order to build it. Advice: Start modestly. Try to stay modest. Streamline your personal spending so you can save for your pension. How to reduce an already high overhead - consider starting over or letting people go Pay attention daily and continuously to your practice to make it healthy Get business experience from reading business-related articles and pay attention   Resources Mentioned: Dental Town - Doug Carlsen DDS Lean and Mean - Rick Kushner WhiteHall Management - Greg Stanley Dental Economics - Brian Hufford   Tweetables: “Our patients love us because we love them first. - Dr. Dick Reid” “There’s nothing more encouraging than seeing the money you plough into your pension fund grow and appreciate and see the light at the end of the tunnel. - Dr. Dick Reid” “Make it. Save it. Then keep it. -Dr. Dick Reid”

Darren Shaw, Founder & President of Whitespark, discusses optimizing local dental SEO presence. Topics include: local SEO strategies, mobile-first design for dental websites, the distinction between regular SEO and local SEO, implications of canceling listings with service providers, citations and reviews in local SEO, and creating relevant and detailed website content for local dental SEO.

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 8 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa   Title: Top 7 Tips for SEO in 2016 / 2017 Subtitle: How Dentists Can Grow Their Practice Through SEO Key Takeaways: SEO is now based on the user experience, the freshness of your content and the authority Google gives your site. In the past, people can gamify SEO using spammy link building that creates no value in the Internet. This has changed. Google has become smarter with their algorithms and has focused on content that is actually relevant to consumers. Tip 1: Focus on social media strategy. Think outside the box. Social content will become more prominent for Google to quantify who is relevant. Becoming social and getting mentioned all the time online by legitimate people will increase your search engine rankings. Tip 2: Maximize the use of video. Videos will become increasingly powerful and will become the mainstay. People are captivated by videos even by strangers. You can even use your iPhone to shoot videos. Tip 3: Optimize your websites for mobile. Mobile optimized websites will become crucial. The dominant device of consumers to view websites are now mobile phones and tablets. Also, check also how fast your website loads. Design beautifully for mobiles first then desktops next. Tip 4: Use long tail keywords. Voice search functions will soon become the norm due to the advent of Siri, Cortana etc. Long tail keywords are normal sentences people will speak when searching for something online. They are very, very specific to what you are selling. Tip 5: Learn about local SEO and the things that drive it. Local SEO will become more important. There are many ways to drive local SEO - citations, reviews, direction guides, etc. Aim for Google to show a map listing of your site when someone makes a local search. Tip 6: Focus on the user experience. This is at the core of Google’s algorithm changes. Make your website useful for your visitors with good design, videos, useful content and engaging social content. Decrease your bounce rate and try to increase the time of your visitors on your site. Tip 7: Create good and substantial content. Go deep with your content by including pictures and videos in the topics you discuss. Go deep before going wide (having a lot of pages). Become knowledgeable with SEO or enlist a company to do it. But it’s better to become knowledgeable and then collaborate with the company you enlist to handle your SEO. Optimizing your website for SEO takes time but it’s rewarding. SEO is the new norm. If you want to grow your practice, invest in it or else you’ll be left behind. Resources Mentioned Page Speed Tool by Google Google Analytics  Tweetables: “You need to be intimately involved in the creation of your content. It can’t be outsourced but it can be a collaborative experience.” “SEO is the new norm and if you don’t do it, you will be left behind.”  

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 7 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa   Guest: Rob Bay President, Dental Intel   Key Takeaways: Dental Intel is a cloud based software which can be used as a practice management and financial management system. Dentists are busy with their practice so they have no time to pore over the data presented. So Dental Intelligence learned to take the data and turn it into reports that dentists can easily understand. They provided action items on the things dentists can do in order to improve. Causation data is understanding what is causing the managerial data being measured. The next and deeper level of data is called action items. It tells you what you need to do with the data you have. It tells dentists specific things that needs to be done in a specific time to specific patients. Dental Intel takes the data and processes it into actionable items that can be assigned to other people - not necessarily the dentist himself. Caring about your patients and understanding the numbers should not be mutually exclusive. They can blend together and go hand-in-hand. Dental Intel measures things that allows dentists to provide exceptional care for their patients. Patients, on average are only accepting 25% of what is being presented to them. Usually, this has to do more about the practice and the systems than the patients. Dental Intel can help by measuring this data in order to increase cognizance of the issue. This leads to improving the issue. Understanding data increases awareness of what your practice is doing right and wrong. Do not focus on the negative but rather view them as opportunities within your practice. It is not an emotional decision, it’s a binary decision. It’s just data. Utilizing data and information to make decision can make you a better business owner and help you provide better care to your patients. Ask why the numbers are where they are even if the numbers are good. You want to replicate the good thing that is being done. Dental Intel, or a data analyst, can help a dentist become accountable with the data being measured. Dental Intel provides correction but with recommendation. They make it optimistic. Dental Intel Rule: Find 3 good things (celebrations) before giving a helpful observation (correction). Highlight areas of success and build up on them instead of focusing on the terrible things someone, who was never measured before, is doing. Let the number do the talking instead of pushing down a person. Dental Intel Goal: Help individual dentists become successful in the midst of corporate dentistry boom.   Resources: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Glip - by Ring Central Intercom   Tweetables: “In measuring and tracking things, you can modify things.” Rob Bay  “Using data and information to figure out how systems can be improved is a replicable skill.” Rob Bay “There’s nothing more powerful than having everyone in your practice do one little thing everyday to bring in more production.” Rob Bay “If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business. If you don’t know your business, you’re putting everyone at risk.” - Dr. Peter Boulden “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates. - Thomas Monson.” - Rob Bay “It’s not emotion, it’s just a binary decision about changing x to get to y. It’s just data.” - Dr. Peter Boulden

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 6 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa   Guest: Kent Miller of Dentagraphics kent@dentagraphics.com    Key Takeaways: You can identify the specific place to best establish your practice using demographic data. Dentagraphics can provide the best place by measuring saturation of dental practices, income of the population and demand of the population. Dentagraphics can also help you identify the competition in the area and their profile. They have a proprietary software that verifies legitimate practices in the area. Rural, Town and City areas: There are opportunities in all types of areas but the best are in rapidly developing areas where the residential area has started to grow and commercial areas are starting to develop. Dentagraphics can provide reports that are customized based on your needs. You can login on your account and access an interactive report that you can adjust to your needs. Dentagraphics also gives personal recommendation where you need to establish your practice using the demographics they identify plus your business strategy. Resources Mentioned: Book: The Submission by Amy Waldman   Productivity Tool: Google Drive   Tweetables: “Competition increases when the median household income increases.” - Kent Miller “There will always be strength in the cottage industry, relationship-based dental practice.” - Dr. Peter Boulden

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 5 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa   Guest: Dr. Craig Spodak http://www.spodakdental.com/ Facebook: Craig Spodak Instagram: Craig Spodak Email: drcraig@spodak.com   Key Takeaways: Dental profession can be improved by sharing best practices with each other. Dentists go through the same things - there will always be bad times. It’s how you deal with it. Idea behind Spodak Dental Group: have a dental practice with everything under one roof rather than having a single practice all on it's own. In order to have the best practice and best resources, you need to share everything with other dentists. Idea about Spodak’s spacious area: in order to make patients and dentists feel more comfortable and add value to their visit / practice. You need to be conscious of the entire patient visit from their visit in your online channel to their visit to your actual dental clinic. On Social Media: Social Media is about engaging with your patient's’ social network. If you have amazing content but no one is engaging with it, then it becomes more spam than an effective ad. Think of engaging content for your social media channels which may even be non-dental. Balance it with what you actually do. How to manage social media in-house: Find the person who is in your office and who is already in the social media channels and tap them for your social media initiatives. Create an internal page where everyone posts something interesting and the designated social media person picks the best one to share to the external audience. Social Media Content will be hard to outsource. It is best to channel that budget to internal social media advocates. Social Media training is a better investment than outsourcing it. Tip: Ask patients to check in to your practice. It is good advertising. Incentivize them for doing this. Advertising Tips: Other advertising initiatives: selective seminars with catered food for affluent communities. Advertising Tip: A mortgage for a highly visible practice can make up for big advertising budget. Efficiency Tip: Consider mobile payments where the patient doesn’t have to interact with random people they just met for payments. Business should not just generate revenue. Learn to give back and do the right thing. Construction Tips Have a purpose behind it. There will be setbacks so you need to understand why you’re doing it. Doing so will help you pull through. Hire a dental design firm who can specialize in designing your big practice. Plan how your patients will interact with your office. Being LEED-certified is the right thing to do. It’s not just good for PR. Think of it as giving back. Going for LEED-certified building increases productivity in people and shows you care for the patients. Business Expansion Tips: Vision Tip: Write a vision you have for yourself even before it happens. Believe it even if you don’t know if it’s reasonable or not. Others will catch on the vision if you believe it really well. You can achieve so much and be unfulfilled. Achievement and fulfillment are not always related. Do something because it fulfills you not because you want to do more. Do not grow for the sake of growing and when it doesn’t make sense. Identify your why. It has to make sense and it can’t be selfish. Stay productive. Don’t run after retiring then consider it as the time to start living. Resources Mentioned: Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz   Books Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Mark Winters Multipliers by Liz Wiseman   Productivity Tool Calendar   Tweetables: “It improves our profession by being open and transparent to each other.” - Dr. Craig Spodak  “We can only elevate our profession by sharing.” - Dr. Craig Spodak “Social media is not about push advertising, it’s about pull advertising.”  - Dr. Craig Spodak “The most effective advertising available to us now is free. (This is social media).”  - Dr. Craig Spodak “At the end of the day if you’re blessed enough to be successful, you have responsibility to share it.”- Dr. Craig Spodak “When you push yourself way outside the comfort zone, that’s where the growth happens.” - Dr. Craig Spodak “If you risk something and you fall flat on your face, it is a learning experience.” - Dr. Craig Spodak “Achievement and fulfillment are not always related.”- Dr. Craig Spodak