8 Habits of Highly Performing Practices

Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 30

Hosts: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak

Watch the full video of the lecture by clicking here!

 Start with Why

• Born & raised ATL
• Buckhead - flagship practice
• “To use my God-given talents to provide for my family, friends, and team. To use dentistry & business of dentistry to create a legacy. To enjoy my finite life and to know I maximized it and I mattered.”

My Practice Evolution

• Start, today, where I’m going?
  • 2002 - Graduated dental school
  • 2005 - Started FFS practice
  • 2009 - Opened 2nd location (Buckhead), added 2 associates (during recession)
  • 2016 - Acquired PPO practice (investor not clinical), multiple real estate acquisitions
  • 2017 - Building 3rd location, 2nd acquisition, 5th property acquisition, 2 more associates
  • 2020 - Consulting, Exit (roll-up) EBITDA
• Struggles like anyone…
  • 2015 vs 2016
  • Failed partnership
  • $560k embezzlement
  • Extreme clinical burnout
  • Family demands
• The lesson it taught me - KEEP GOING
  • The difference between success and failure can be just one more step
• Re-engineered my life
  • Purpose of work is to provide for our life
  • Work to live, don’t live to work
  • Changed my work schedule and moved to 9 days clinical / month
  • Take off one week per month
• Got balance and focus back
  • Balance circle
• Exciting times in dentistry
  • Dentist listed as #1 of 100 Best Jobs by US News & World Report
  • Digital technology convergence
  • Technology is exploding with digital convergence
  • Digital impressions
  • Dentistry caught Wall Street attention too!
    • Valuations can be excellent if you get large enough
    • 10 - 20X EBITDA is not uncommon
  • Podcast launched late 2016
    • All about systems & marketing
    • Why start a podcast?

Habits of Highly Performing Offices

• These are not just my habits, not claiming to have it all figured out
• You are the average of the 5 people you spend time with

• EXCEPTIONAL & contagious culture
  1. Realize you’re not the most important person
  2. Get an awesome team and then get out of the way
  3. Team will protect your environment
  4. Value of having a morning meeting, covering:
     1. REVIEW DENTAL INTEL
     2. Production / Collection / Goals

• Same day opportunities

1. Actual monthly growth (NP - attrition)
2. Outstanding treatment?
3. Outstanding balance?

• Marketing opportunities?

• PRIDE in physical space
  1. Team loves their offices
  2. Spend more time there with family
  3. Your practice has guests all day long - be proud & invest in it
  4. Focus on patient experience
  5. Rehab? Do it. Build? Do it.
• Clinical excellence & patient education
  1. Lots of lip service but few execute on communicating excellence to the people who matter
     1. What good is clinical excellence if you can’t use it
     2. Become a marketing master
        • Storytelling
        • Video, video, and more video

• Addicted to social media
  1. Not outsourced
  2. Not spewing dental, but creating entertainment
     1. Examples
  3. Marketing on social media
  4. Follow trends, look at the app store
• Online reviews & process
  1. Why is Amazon the leader in consumer?
  2. Our process
  3. Time is precious so incentivize
  4. Google & Yelp are the leaders, Facebook is a far 3rd place
  5. Yelp hack
• Number obsessed
  1. Monitor numbers daily (morning meeting)
     1. DENTAL INTEL
  2. What you track & focus on naturally increases
     1. Pearson’s law: That which is measured, improves. That which is measured and reported, improves exponentially.
  3. Focusing on WRONG metrics...
     1. Not just NP
     2. Not just collections
  4. Better metrics…
     1. # patient visit
     2. $ per patient visit

• % overhead

1. ACTUAL monthly growth

• Value creation
  1. Video / education
  2. Patient experience
  3. Website / marketing
  4. Law of reciprocity
• INVEST IN YOU
  1. CE, podcasts, meditate, enhanced food & nutrition, personal trainer, personal coach, executive assistant, complex physical w/physician, Bulletproof coffee
  2. You better be GOOD first, lots of peeps depend on you
  3. Set goals & review them daily
     1. Balance circle
     2. What’s going to move the needle forward TODAY
  4. BE EPIC as a goal, in all areas of your life
  5. We get one ticket on ride called planet Earth

Resources:

Dental Success Summit