Outside of my family, the two things that I’m the most comfortable and passionate talking about are dentistry and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Today I want to share with all of you a few thoughts on the lessons I’ve learned after losing a match during the jiu-jitsu tournament I had signed up for.
My experience there taught me a few important things, and I later realized that these things can also translate well to my practice. So I will use these lessons in the future, both on a business and a jiu-jitsu side.
When you have something go wrong, I strongly encourage you to not just quit on the first try. It may be something that will work in the future. Reorganize, regroup, come back and try it again.
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Today I have a very short episode for you. It’s all about rekindling the excitement and the fire by trying something new. I know that I haven’t posted anything in awhile, but I needed some time in order to breathe, recharge, and think deeper. Now I’m back and I’ll be having some pretty exciting guests coming on the show, so stay tuned!
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Reese Harper is the founder of DentistAdvisors.com. He started working in the financial service industry in 2003, and had several business owner clients. Over time, he realized that dental practice owners were really different from the rest.
Compared to his other clients, dental practice owners had a lot more financial questions, and seemed to be carrying more financial anxiety and stress. So Reese figured out that the generic solutions that the financial planning industry were providing to dentists were just not meeting their needs. Dental practice owners had a more complex financial picture, and that made him choose to work exclusively with them now.
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This week I’m flying solo again. I share some practical tips that have helped me in my practice in the hope that you will feel prompted to make some changes as well.
First I talk about why I find documenting my protocols very important. All these steps are very intuitive now, but I got a lot out of just writing them down and sharing them with other people.
I also really think you should take a look at your credit card statements once in a while, because you might discover automatic payments that you completely forgot about.
Finally, I am currently looking at implementing the agile methodology in my practice. If you’ve already done that, I’d really appreciate your feedback. You can email me at drkirk@businessofdentistrypodcast.com.
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As promised, my guest this week is Mr. Chuck Blakeman, the author of Making Money Is Killing Your Business and Why Employees Are Always a Bad Idea. Join us for a very captivating show where we touch on some very important strategic aspects that we all tend to forget too often.
Today’s lesson is that your business can really take off if you understand and apply some simple concepts. Too often we tend to get in our own way when it comes to our practices because we’re too busy trying to make money. The tyranny of the urgent wraps itself around us, while the priority of the important quietly sits in a corner waiting for us to pay attention to it.
There are two types of business owners: the income producers that always need to be in their practices in order for everything to function properly, and the true business owners that can take a month off to go on holiday while they keep making money even when they’re away.
After reading Mr. Blakeman’s book I re-evaluated my own situation. And after speaking to him, I found yet more hidden practical gems that I can use in order to bring my practice and my life to the next level.
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Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
This week I want to touch on a few more things regarding the book I mentioned last week, Making Money Is Killing Your Business by Chuck Blakeman in the hope that you might get a bit of practical inspiration that you can implement in your daily life.
First things first, I have some great news: I have been contacted by Mr. Blakeman’s team, and I am going to have him as a guest in a few weeks. I’m very, very excited, and events like these are for me some of the hidden advantages of podcasting. So I’m going to keep you updated about that. If you happen to have any questions that you’d like me to ask Mr. Blakeman, you can send me an email at DrKirk@businessofdentistrypodcast.com.
In this episode, I also speak a bit more in-depth about the tyranny of the urgent, a concept introduced by Mr. Blakeman in his book, and one that I find truly thought-provoking.
So please remember that if you want to get somewhere in your professional life, it’s crucial that you always keep an eye on your overall strategy, and you don’t get buried in your daily activities. I started implementing a few things for myself, and I’m more than happy to share them with all of you.
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This week I want to give you a little bit of an update on what’s going on around here.
I read a book that got me thinking a lot, and I recommend it to every solo practitioner out there: Making Money Is Killing Your Business, by Chuck Blakeman. Reading it makes you really reflect on the state of your business, and your long-term objectives. Personally, I realized that I would like a few things to change, and I am most likely going to bring in another surgeon to help me out.
Blakeman makes some very interesting points on the so-called “tyranny of the urgent”. We can become so caught up in our daily activities, that we lose track of what we want to achieve in the long run. It’s something to keep in mind: be aware of what you really want to achieve and check yourself from time to time to see where you’re at.
Finally, I’m really excited to announce that we’ve started a new digital magazine for dental practice owners, ownR Magazine. Go check it out and let me know what you think, I appreciate every piece of feedback I receive.
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My guest this week is Travis Hornsby, the founder of Student Loan Planner, a student loan advisor company.
Behind every great man there’s a great woman, they say. In Travis’s case, the great woman is his wife, a physician in Saint Louis. When they first started dating, she had a lot of student debt. So Travis decided to help her out by making a model of how they can pay off her student debt.
He used all the knowledge he got from bond trading and modeling complex debt instruments and started researching what are the most advantageous choices you can make while repaying your debt.
His then girlfriend, now wife, started spreading the word about what he was doing, so he started helping more and more dentists. He advised about 250 dentists and dental specialists in the past 18 months.
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This week I am joined by Dr. Paul Etchison, host of The Dental Practice Heroes Podcast, and author of Dental Practice Hero: From Ordinary Practice to Extraordinary Experience.
Paul comes from Illinois, and studied in Chicago. After finishing dental school, he worked for a specialist who owned several practices. There he got the chance to learn a ton of things, and after about two and a half years, he started thinking about creating his own business.
The next step for him was taking Dr. Scott Leune’s Breakaway Practice Seminars and gathering as much information as humanly possible.
He then started looking for a location for his office, found the perfect spot and grew the business really fast. Fast forward to six years later, they now have almost 3 million visits every year and still counting!
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Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
My guest this week is a self-declared Nebraska farm boy whose first career pursuit was athletic medicine. He later realized that athletic trainers are really married to their job, and this wasn’t the lifestyle he wanted for himself.
Dave Maloley then switched to dentistry and never looked back.
Today we talk about why it’s necessary to keep an eye on your vision, and why you should constantly remind yourself of what’s important to you.
We also touch on Dave’s 16 life categories that help him be more focused on his goals, on how he discovered high-performance training and how it completely turned his life around.
Finally, it’s useful to remind you that you can always sign up for the Dental Success Network, whenever you have questions, or if you need to double-check something. It’s an enormously valuable resource.
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Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
This week I speak about two things that have helped me improve my practice and my wellbeing.
The first one is treating myself to a buffer day before jumping back to work on a Monday morning. I realized that by doing so, I was more relaxed, and I could tackle the everyday problems better. I strongly suggest you give it a try if you’ve never considered it before.
The second thing that I truly benefited from is painting a whiteboard in front of my desk. So now every time I need to add something to my schedule, I can just add it to the list, and I will have it in front of my eyes until I solve it. This small trick has helped me be more organized and it took away the stress of having to keep things in my head.
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This week I touch on a few things I’ve noticed in my area lately. Consider revisiting some policies and protocols from time to time, to make sure you are in compliance with state and federal regulations.
I found out from my Marketing Director that OSHA has been paying some visits to dental offices in Tennessee, checking if our business is up-to-date with their requirements.
As you might be aware of, we have a problem here in Tennessee with opioid prescriptions. The state legislature is trying to tackle it by passing a new bill, which I’m not so excited about.
I also speak about a new credentialing organization we recently switched to, and some DEA visits I heard about from an oral surgeon friend of mine.
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This week I speak about the challenges I’m faced with as a small practice owner. Sometimes the administrative tasks that I need to solve stress me out, and I am still working on improving my problem-solving skills and coping mechanisms.
I often get complaints from my patients about the fact that I sometimes step out of the practice. It’s impossible for me to always be there, sometimes I need to take care of certain things.
I also recently remembered how important it is to observe your office from the patient’s point of view. I strongly suggest you give it a try and do so periodically.
We’ve been having some problems with the dental camera and with the website. If you know a good web developer or a long-lasting, top quality dental (video) camera, get in touch with me at drkirk@businessofdentistrypodcast.com. I really appreciate your help.
The challenges we are all faced with in our professional careers are part of our journeys. And I’ve learned to care more about my journey than about my destination.
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Full show notes at http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
This week is all about the strategies I’ve used in order to set boundaries in my professional life. These helped me handle my burnout and ended up being a valuable tool for everyday use.
In December 2011, I was a bit of a mess. I was endangering my personal and professional life, so I took my wife’s advice to go and seek professional help.
I went to see five different specialists, and they each gave me their advice. I started implementing it, and slowly, but steadily, I started improving.
This episode is a heartfelt testimony of my journey. I share the three types of boundaries I’ve set that made the biggest difference for my well-being.
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Join me for a talk on some important strategies to use in order to overcome your burnout.
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Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
Full show notes at http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
Kevin Donlin, doctor, and manager of We Care Dental and member of the South Dakota Army National Guard, shares his challenges and solutions to being a small town practice owner.
When you’re living in a small town, you will most likely end up being either the only dentist in town or one of two or three others. This situation poses challenges if you are considering expanding your practice. Kevin shares his opinion on what your options are and how to best tackle this situation.
Apart from managing his practice, Kevin is also involved in the National Army Guard. This means that his schedule is most of the time full, leaving him little time for other activities. Kevin speaks about how he copes with being away from home for extended periods of time.
Are you a small practice owner in a small town? Then this episode is just for you.
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Join us for a conversation on the advantages and demands of small-town dental ownership.
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Full show notes at http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
Boomcloud founder, Jordon Comstock, is no fan of insurance companies. He is convinced that dental practices don’t need a third party providing them with clients, so he developed a software that enables practitioners attract and retain customers through in-house membership plans and financing.
He is not alone in this venture. More and more dental and medical offices become tired of having to deal with insurance companies and develop plans of their own.
If you’re a dental (or medical) practice owner thinking about making a change and reducing or renouncing your insurance dependence, then you’re in for a treat, as Jordon carefully lays out the steps you need to do in order to become more independent. As a bonus, you should know that generating recurring revenue stream will increase the valuation of your practice.
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Join us for more information on how to create recurring revenue stream through membership plans or in-house financing.
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Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/
Brian Colao, Director of leading US law firm Dykema, shares with us his expertise on how to get started with expanding a solo practice to a DSO or securing a private equity deal.
The dental industry is currently heading towards more DSO affiliations from solo practitioners. Getting affiliated with a DSO or doing a private equity deal can result in a much higher ROI over time, so many practitioners choose to expand.
What are the first steps towards restructuring to a DSO, or doing a private equity deal? What questions should you ask yourself and how much money would you need? What should you know beforehand when deciding between a DSO and a private equity deal?
Brian Colao comes to the rescue with answers to these questions and more.
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Tune in to hear more on how Brian Colao’s company is helping solo practitioners get the best investment return out of their business.
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Full show notes at: http://businessofdentistrypodcast.com/