When was the last time you cleaned out your junk drawer? For those of you out there, odds are, you have one, and it is a mess!

Why we keep some of the things we do in that space often has me asking myself – what is this and why in the world does it sit anywhere but the trash? Random things like felt furniture protectors, pencils without points, dried up markers and, of course, tons of tiny flashlights that have not worked in years.

Then there is the feeling of completion. The recycle bin is full. The Goodwill donation pile is bigger. The junk drawer is organized! WHAT A FEELING.

What’s in your junk drawer?
So, all of you out there, what does the junk drawer in your practice look like? Does your business have items within its walls that are redundant, do not belong or that are just there? Is the junk drawer of your business messy, unorganized and flatlined?

AMP can help! Our specialty is not your streamlined consultant. Our team consists of life coaches with dental backgrounds. If this catches your interest, read on!

Compared to our colleagues in this space, we differ tremendously. Our drive is your success, although like our counterparts, here is how we differ. This approach is vastly different. Our goal is to teach everyone on your team to fish for a lifetime! This may sound cliché, however, the service we provide allows sustainability in your own future growth, even after we have completed our time together.

We do this by addressing the drive behind the individual. If Sally is your office manager and going through a divorce, how effective will she be in her day to day during this hardship? What about employees who are distracted by their phones? Think, what is that costing your business? Although these may seem like trivial things, distractions cost your business, making it less productive, messy, and reflective of an overfilled pile of junk in a proverbial junk drawer.

AMP comes and begins to clean the drawer by addressing human issues first. Course correcting as we go resulting in the business behavior being empowered by the doer. When self-empowerment is evident, the business skyrockets in production, behavior, and sustainable success.

Allow us to look at the junk drawer of your business. We will address one messy item at a time!

Contact us at acceleratemypractice.com or our CEO directly at 719-357-9564. We make ourselves available.

How are you and your team getting through COVID in the dental office? I mean REALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC? Are you experiencing the lull in your schedule six months post COVID?

Why is it some offices we serve are closing days in October and November and some are completely full with business as usual?

Stephen Covey’s, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, focuses on the human relationship while understanding human behavior. These habits provide clarity in and for your audience. Although these habits are relational, he says IT MUST START WITH YOURSELF.

Using COVEY to get through COVID in the dental office

Habit 1. Be Proactive

• How many of you out there planned LAST MARCH AND APRIL for today? Or, did you focus on immediate needs?

Habit 2. Begin with the end in mind

• What is your goal through this pandemic? Have you reverse engineered to get there? Did you think of this last March? If you did, what did you do about it last March?

Habit 3. Put first things first

• Back in March, were you panicked or calm? Where are you today? Still panicked? What is the most important thing to act upon now?

These three habits, 1-3 are dependent as Covey describes. They are introspective.

Habit 4. Seek first to understand, then be understood

• Way back, last March, did you happen to try to understand the craziness of a pandemic? Did you act upon the near future (October and November) to try to understand the impact this may have on your business? Did you stop long enough to “HEAR,” really hear? Or did you ignore and just provide opinions? Once one stops long enough to listen is when that person is ready to really hear.

Habit 5. Think win-win

• Our brains are programmed for war! I win, you lose. A great example of this is sports. One wins, one loses. This concept permeates throughout our lives – IF WE LET IT. How can we approach situations to win/win? Think about that. How can we approach October and November for a win-win? Can we provide dialogue for our hygiene team to offer another prophy to those overdue recare patients who look like it will take 4 hours to clean their teeth? Offered effectively, patients generally will very willingly return and pay for another appointment to get them back to health.
  
  How does this relate to win-win? The patient wins/ better health. The hygienist wins/better patient care. The office wins/fuller chairs. The antithesis of this is – say very little clinically to the patient while thinking – I will never get all this build-up off, but I will work really hard, begrudgingly, not accomplishing a potential health state for the patient. Who wins? NO ONE. This is a win lose scenario. 

Habit 6. Synergize 

• Covey says the energy rises using habits 4 and 5! This is results oriented positive energy. It is win/win. It is mutually agreed upon end in mind! A disciplined process. How disciplined were you last March? Did you have the end in mind….. October and November hygiene?

Covey calls habits 4,5 and 6 Interdependent or involving you and others

Habit 7. Sharpen the Saw

• One area Covey focuses is to be strong in the hard moments. This predicates this habit. He says growth, or sharpen the saw, occurs when you are able to contribute to others regularly. He uses 4 dimensions; Physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual. Self-evaluate. How well do you participate in improvements in these areas?

Moving forward,  how can you use these habits?

• With yourself
• With your team
• With your patients
• With your family
• With your relationships

Give is a call after reading this, let's talk about how to use these tools in your dental office to overcome COVID . This resource paired with a great coach, is a recipe for success.

It’s that leaf dropping, pumpkin spice flavor, sweater wearing time of year that’s upon us. Fall is in the air as well as using your end of year dental insurance benefits. 

Dental insurance companies hang this theme over the insured heads – you pay us to have insurance, we will pay back minimally AND if you don’t use the present benefit, we will take all the remaining and you will lose all remaining benefits for the year! It sounds daunting, yet it is how the insurance companies actually work.

AMP teaches by late summer or early fall to reach out to all active patients who could still benefit from using their remaining balances before they are irrecoverable at the close of the calendar year. Specific narrative training is important to put needed dentistry on the books. Most teams do this quite successfully.

Dental Insurance food for thought

For those patients in network with their PPO and struggle to get their needed dentistry completed because “they ran out of benefits” are the very patients STILL COVERED. Here is how this works. Once the maximum benefit is used, the patient still enjoys a discounted fee on all procedures if they are insured. Let us say that again. The patient has benefits after their maximum. 

Example – the UCR for a prophy is $100. Your PPO discounts this prophy fee to $70. That’s a 30% discount! YOU CAN HAVE YOUR TEETH CLEANED 10 TIMES OR MORE A YEAR FOR $70 each with the first two covered by insurance. Do this math – Your first two cleanings cost you nothing (not really, you must pay to have the coverage) although your out-of-pocket expense is zero. The next two cleanings cost you $70 each, or, $140. Take the $140 you spent over a year of 4 cleanings. This averages out to $35 per cleaning. 

Why would someone want to do this?

Here is why -

• The patient benefits by maintaining a healthier periodontium because they are seen more often
• The provider benefits from a more frequent interval, allowing the patient to maintain a better health standard AND the provider doesn’t ‘push’ to do more than intended for the time allowed
• The office benefits from future chairs filled more often. Hygiene tends to grow faster with this model.

Although we have mentioned two dynamics here; 1. Use your insurance or lose it, and, 2. Your in-network provider will continue to offer you a discounted fee as long as you are insured. Why both?

If your dental health requires repair and you choose not to address this ‘until next year’s benefits,’ you could cause bigger and more expensive dentistry to be done. Dental decay NEVER heals itself. It is always best to fix a tooth at the earliest possible time; when the decay is small and the tooth is still strong. Delaying treatment for insurance reasons, or, any other will cause decay to grow. These costs the health of your tooth and a deep dig into your wallet. 

Use your benefits up.
And remember, get all your dentistry done at the earliest time possible. Your next steak meal will thank you!

It’s the New Year! Which means, new habit making time. This time of year test to see how long our new habits will secure. We are going to lose weight, stop bad habits, create new habits, do all new stuff with the new year, right? 

JANUARY 10TH HITS

Reality sets in. We have curved off our goals already because we are not getting instant results. The poundage is barely less, the workouts are more, temptation sets in and BOOM, weakness overshadows our newly made dreams.

Do you ever think "I thought I’d be further along by now. How did I get to where I currently am? How can I get to where I want to be?"

Life is the sum of all our decisions. The cumulative effect of all the small decisions define who we are today. All those thousands of decisions we make daily are in front of you right now. But, do you ever ask yourself – How did I really get to where I am today, asking, are the results in my business where I thought they would be?

Do I lead my team with humble strength?

Does my team see me as an effective leader and manager of a business?

If any of those answers are no, this blog may be for you! Accelerate My Practice focuses on incremental growth using small, sustainable changes to provide empowerment within all members of the dental team. ALL. 

SMALl... INCREMENTAL CHANGES.. WITHIN THE ENTIRE TEAM...

Our business mantra is to teach you how to fish, providing tools to accomplish your goals. This may sound cliché , however, ask anyone of our former clients on their sustainable growth rate long after our services are completed. We start with the end in mind, reverse engineer your specific goals, breaking it down to small, manageable change. Once a single new task is mastered, we move to the next, adding tools for your tool belt of success. 

How long do you wish to say, ‘If I did this differently, I would have that’ or ‘I have been doing this for so long, I don’t know where to begin to change.’ If you are new to dentistry and want to carve your business trajectory of sustainable success, now is the time to learn new, small, effective sustainable business habits that not only last a lifetime but allow you to choose to work when your colleagues are mid-career and struggling. 

How can you apply the NFL Mindset to your dental business?

Sitting here on a Sunday afternoon watching typical Sunday afternoon football. It is amazing how these athletes excel at their craft. This is team play at its best, doing their best for the ultimate win. 

Although the ultimate prize is the super win; Super Bowl, the reality of a team sport is this – play your best, every game every time. Do your best, every game every time OR You are cut or ultimately, traded. Pretty simple concept. 

Quarterback, Tyrod Taylor's first three starts for the Cleveland Browns wasn't an impressive one. Baker Mayfield stepped in to take Taylor's place due to a concussion. Taylor's last appearance for the Browns was in Week 9, and threw for 11 yards. Since Mayfield stepped in, Taylor has been traded to the Los Angeles Chargers

Wide receiver, Kelvin Benjamin he was released by the Bills due to lack of performance.

What would this concept look like in your dental office?

Imagine, your front office not filling the schedule effectively, they're facing a trade. The Hygiene department isn't treating patients to the ADA Standard of Care, they're facing a trade. Imagine any employee during the day using their cell phone or smart watch causing work distraction. Set the performance expectation and your roster will be full of reliable, top performing team members.

How can one bring this type of mindset into the dental office?

Coaching! Coaching challenges and guides athletes to be the best they can be, well beyond their comfort zone. Tough lessons are continually learned to stretch these young athletes, challenging their performance to peak at levels that even surprise them.

Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.

John Whitmore ; https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/coaching.html

Coaching in your dental office can have similar effects on your team. Accelerate My Practice provides mindset opportunity change through consistency, with small incremental steps, creating sustainable growth. 

Here is a Doctor that shares his coaching experience using AMP mindset coaching.

Coaching with Accelerate My Practice changed this man’s life. It challenged and built his leadership within his business he previously felt “deflated.” 

Do you feel like everyday is drill, fill, go home, repeat? Do you feel deflated? Are you willing to be coached to success? Reach out to any of us at AMP.

Coaching matters!

Do you remember when you were in Dental School training? The excitement of that first cavity prep or the first time you provided anesthesia? Did you sleep the night before your first crown prep, wondering how you were to get the entire procedure done before clinic was over? 

Fast forward where you are today. Do you have sleepless nights wondering how you are going to approach a key team player who’s head in not in the game at work? Ever have thoughts of firing someone who is totally insubordinate, yet you don’t have the guts to do it?

Has the technical side of  dentistry suddenly become really easy?

The Business of Dentistry

Our coaches at Accelerate My Practice are specifically training in the management of people AND the business of dentistry. If a team member’s mind is not in your game, we coach through this. Consultants, on the other hand, tend to be quick to change, fire or pull the trigger without addressing the why of the topic on the table. 

Our CEO, Darren Kaberna, has created a masterpiece of sustainable change (Doc’s -that’s change that continues to provide results long after we are done) through the paradigm of NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming), coaching folks like yourself to understand why you make the decisions you do. We also focus on what drives a business (any business) to success. 

Dentistry is still a profitable business that seems to be driven downhill by PPO’s or late cancellations or even non collection of patient portions, etc. Stress escalates to a 24 hour a day problem, often taking home the stress of the office to your family and sometimes in all you do.

Remember, the bigger the pain, the more potential gain. Muscles grow from resistance and force or pain. Weight is lost from perseverance, or pain and commitment to the process. Are you ready to commit to a process unlike what you have done before? Do you want to go to work singing in your car and dancing when you get there? AND, have your team join you?

What are you willing to commit to and persevere through? Want to love Dentistry again?

Check out our website, AccelerateMyPractice.com. Any of our team members would be happy to chat with you.

Memorial Day weekend, traditionally marks the beginning of summer! Which as you know kicks off the summer schedule chaos. Often, we hear as coaches in dental offices that the summer schedule lends to holes in the schedule and late cancellations.

"Susie forgot she had graduation"

"Mr.Smith forgot his family was going on vacation."

Are these reasons or excuses?

Approaching situations proactively will lessen the burden of stress in scheduling. What exactly does this mean? If May had lots of gaps from cancelations, what value did we leave the healthy patients back in November, 6 months ago? Knowing we can't "shoulda," we can start a new path of value TODAY!

Let go of all excuses and add value to who you are and what you do. Whether it be in the hygiene chair or on the phone, what can you do to add value to the cancelling patient?

Adding the VALUE

• In the hygiene chair - Mrs. Jones, your mouth is healthy today. It is healthy because we partner together, by you doing your part, daily; brushing and flossing and us doing our part professionally in evaluating your oral health. If you keep your maintenance appointment at a 6 month interval, not extending it or late cancelling, your dental costs will be minimized. Add preventative fluorides daily and your decay rate will hover around zero!
• In the restorative chair - Mrs. Jones, your dental work is all done! Our notes say you are healthy with a recommended 6 month re-care. Keeping your 6 month interval will minimize your dental costs. Add preventative fluorides and your future decay will be minimal or non-existent. Extending your interval or late cancelling could cause periodontal disease.
• On the phone - Yes, Mrs. Jones, the interval of time to keep you healthy is 6 months according to your chart. By keeping this interval and not extending it or late cancelling your appointment, you can stay healthy and keep dental costs to a minimum. Add preventative fluorides and the chance of getting decay is minimal to none!

Reasons rather than Excuses

We can't change today, but we can use reasons rather and excuses in providing the best health, the correct interval of care and explain to the patient why this is. There is no excuse today for decay or ill care. We can choose to be proactive with our patients and share what we know, honestly and forthright. The results will drive health, fill your chairs and patients with value for what you do.

"I don't like confrontation," are the most common words we hear when coaching Dentists. Who really likes confrontation? Wouldn't we all like to know how to minimize or even eliminate confrontation? The solution seems rather simple, the follow through is the touch part. Confrontation between Dental Team members, Front Office and Back, Patients, etc.

Avoiding confrontation

Are you the business owner that hates confrontation so much, you avoid rather simple issues, compounding negative results? Avoidance only lasts so long before an explosion can occur. We can only pump a balloon with so much helium before it gets to the point of popping.

Boundaries

Boundaries for employees are very similar to boundaries we give children. If boundaries are defined, kept firm and entwined around accountability, confrontation will be minimized or even eliminated.

Example: Five-year-old Johnny wants another cookie. Mom is busy cleaning the kitchen. Johnny insists on another cookie. Mom says no, you have already had one. Johnny continues to push. Mom; no. Johnny becomes relentless in his five-year-old clothing, insisting on another cookie. After unscathed determination, Johnny continues in his pursuit for another cookie. Mom, at this point, is escalating in her agitation from Johnny's persistence, but instead, chooses to give Johnny a cookie to keep him quiet and to calm herself. BOOM. Barriers are lifted, accountability is out the door and Johnny is brilliantly successful in taking charge of a situation.

We refer to this example as the "Inmates running the asylum."

Compare this to Employees

You make a new rule, say, no phones or smart watches while on the clock.

1. You publicly declare this new rule with accountability standards. Those standards may look like this – if I see you on your phone or using your smart watch while on my clock, I will assume you are telling me you don’t want to work here. 
2. Same as #1, however, the phone use continues during office hours, yet you are unwilling to “confront” what you have just created, allowing those under your leadership to now lead your business. Your lack of confrontation breaks all the rules you just put in place. Now, the next rule you try to put in place can, and likely will, be frivolous. 

How many times has this happened to you as a business owner? Want to change that? Want to avoid confrontation through elite coaching, implementing measurable standards that are based on entire team accountability? Call us!