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