2504: The Conversations That Save Associate Relationships

[Music] What's up, Donald Pranorz? It's that time again. We're excited to announce the 13th annual dental success summit happening June 11th through 13th, 2026 at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort and Spa in Frisco, Texas. This year, we're thrilled to welcome Gene Whitman, best-selling author of "Traction" and creator of the entrepreneurial operating system as our featured keynote speaker. If you care about clarity, leadership, and building a business that actually runs without chaos, this is going to be a game changer for you. We're also bringing back the expanded breakout sessions for both doctors and team members, with focus tracks for clinical leadership, operations, front office, hygiene, and assistance. These were a huge success last year and we're leveling up even more for 2026. You'll learn 14 CE credits, get out of the practice, spend intentional time with your team, and walk away with strategies you can actually implement right away. DSI and DSN members receive additional discounts so be sure to check DSN on workfivo for your codes. Just search, dental success summit to secure your seats today. See you in Frisco. Hey doc, quick question for you. What happens to your schedule and your profitability when restorations, lab communication, or implant workflows, slow things down? That's exactly the kind of friction Glidewell has spent more than 20 years solving. They were the first to accept digital scans, first to bring AI into crown design, and today they process nearly a half a million restorations every month through a fully digital AI powered ecosystem built from the ground up. Everything Glidewell does starts with protecting chair time, with faster workflows, consistent quality, and one trusted partner behind your restorations. And right now they're offering something pretty unique. The Glidewell No Charge Implant Program. When you restore Glidewell HCM plant cases through their lab, you earn credits towards no charge implants, no limits, no hoops, just a smarter way to reduce overhead and grow your implant workflow. To learn more, just go to promos.glidewelldental.com/dentalpreneur. Once again, that's promos.glidewelldental.com/dentalpreneur. The Dentalpreneur podcast. Okay, doctor, it's time to put down that hand piece. You're listening to the show dedicated to helping dentists get their lives back. It's time to decrease your stress, increase your profitability, and regain your passion. Now introducing your host, Dr. Mark Costas. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Dentalpreneur podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Mark Costas. Hey guys, it has been one of those days. It's been one of those days. I have been on the microphone or on the phone or on a Zoom call for seven of the eight hours of today. And it's been fantastic because I've had a great opportunity to catch up with a lot of friends. I've had some really compelling podcast episodes. Sometimes they just stack up in a day. This is my third one. And I couldn't end the day with a better person. One of my favorite guests of all time. One of my favorite people of all time. Welcome back to the podcast, Dr. Summer Kasmel. You guys all know her and love her. What's up summer? How you doing? I am so great. I agree. What a great way to end the day. And I always love getting to joke and catch up with you. Even if it's in this form, it's just so fun to get to always see you and chat with you. Yeah, I mean, you're one of our repeat guests. I mean, if you include the Lady Leader's episode that we've put on, you may be a front runner of the number of episodes that you've actually appeared in our 2500 episodes of the Denial Penalty Podcast. And you're always a favorite. Wow, 2500. Wow. That's incredible. Isn't it great? So check this out, Summer. So we did the math at Voices of Dentistry for my presentation there. We started this June 15, 2000, 2015. And now it is whatever. It is April of 2026. So 11 years. And we have done five episodes a week for that amount of time, which is 10 years and however many months and almost 11 years. And we have never missed a day in 10 years. That is that is incredible. I mean, I even know what the monthly webinars I do, the amount of work and time and you know what I mean? So I tell everybody who does podcast consistently, I commend. I was on someone else's podcast and I was like, I commend all of you for giving free content, doing all the work and energy around it. Like it's such a gift to everyone. There's like so much information out there, but for the people who are doing it consistently, it's so much work. So kudos to you and thank you for all of it because it helps. That's how I first originally even found you, you know. Well, thank you. And that's what keeps me motivated because that means a lot. I appreciate the kind words, but that's what keeps me motivated because it's been the biggest, most fulfilling thing that I've done in my career because it's broad. Basically, everybody that I that I love and connect with into my life. Yeah. Like basically almost everybody inside DSI took a toe dip into the dental prognor podcast ended up at a live event ended up being a coach. So that's that's basically the flywheel that has never stopped and I love it. It doesn't feel it doesn't feel heavy to me. It feels like it's just one of the things that I get to do and not have to do. So hopefully that that stays with me, but almost 11 years of doing this. Yeah. We did it up and to continue having topics and people and things that are relevant, like, isn't that incredible? Like that's how much dentistry changes upgrades needs. You know, there's just always new topics that become relevant, you know, at the speed of light sometimes. For sure. And you know, like there's there's like dentistry from 2002 when I graduated all the way up until 2019 when COVID hit. And then since COVID hit till now, it's like, it's like that last point two miles of a marathon. Like the last point two miles feels like the first 26. So like so much has changed from from hygiene to humans to personnel to technology to everything in the last six years. It's unbelievable how much things have changed. So the topics never cease to come across my desk that are completely different. And which reminds me today, we want to talk about something that is one of the most common things that you bump into in your coaching calls. You do more coaching calls than anybody else in inside a DSI. So you have your finger on the pulse of what's frustrating people, the common themes, common topics. One of the most common things that I come across is hygiene and humans, of course, culture and motivating people and recruiting and retaining people. Hygiene especially because because you and I talked about this off air, but there's such a shortage of hygiene right now that the supply and demand curve is greatly favoring hygienists. We should be one to two doctors to hygienists as far as the number in the workforce. We're not even one to one. We there are more dentist practicing right now than hygiene practicing. And if you're going to follow kind of our formula, ideally there's two hygienists, full time hygienists to every doctor. So it's very, very difficult out there right now as far as supply and demand. One of the things that you said you're noticing in your coaching calls is this disconnect between associate doctors and owners. So I wanted to kind of dig into that because I know this is going to resonate with a ton of people. So specifically, how does that manifest? Yeah, I think because a lot of people do listen to this podcast, you and I did a podcast maybe a year ago in regards to is it time for an associate. People listen to those, which by the way, that's a great one. If you think you're in need of one, we really break down on that episode. When do you need one? What to look for? Things like that. We've done a ton of information around it. So more and more doctors are starting to notice the signs of, "Ooh, I think I'm ready." And it's not just, "I feel busy." It's like, "Here's the signs. Here's the numbers. Here's the metrics. Yes, I'm looking to need an associate." So people are starting to recognize that sooner. I think where sometimes people aren't as prepared is, and nobody prepares for this in dental school is your first associate, of course. They don't necessarily always know when they're hiring them. They're setting them up for expectations. They're onboarding them. They don't know how to always set up that doctor really successfully. Honestly, transparently. And without shodering the whole burden of, "I need to make that associate productive." Because then what happens is sometimes the lack of clarification or expectations, what I find is these owner doctors end up with doctors that underperform, you know, in reproduction wise. They don't see the right number of patients. They don't know how to even run multiple columns of anything. And, you know, sometimes that's a doctor who's new, sometimes that's a doctor who's two or three years out. Regardless, I sometimes end up hearing, often I end up hearing because I do joke. I think I talk about associates at least, almost daily or at least a couple times a week. And that's usually around this topic of, well, I just don't understand why they don't hustle as much. I just don't understand why they don't seem as financially driven as I was. They don't seem like they want to put out that extra effort. And I tell doctors as much as I can, you know, all of that frustration is normal. That's a normal thing to feel like that. However, depending on where that doctor came from, and I don't care where that is, that could be school, that could be a DSO, that could be private practice. Wherever they came from, they had a certain level of education and mentorship bestowed upon them. Some of it was good. Some of it wasn't. And we're having to overcome wherever they came from. And our responsibility is no matter what strategies they're coming in with, we have to educate them and link them together with their own causes, effects, and what are the end up result? What's the result at the end of this? And that's where usually there's this disconnect. Just we don't realize it's our responsibility to help them understand, you know, if I do A, then I get B. If I skip this, I'm going to do, I'm going to see this. It takes more time and energy on the front end to set that up correctly from the get go. And that's where I know I can say, I'm very, very wrong. And I, I'm doing a presentation later on in regards to this, but I, my first, you know, a sociator too. I set up so poorly. And then I was chronically disappointed. And I'm sure they were disappointed in me. It didn't end well. And I ended up having to hire a new one. Thankfully, I just created better tactics, strategies, hiring and onboarding that made it to where I tell people now a successful association is always going to be a 50/50 relationship. The problem is, associates don't come in knowing that. But yet we expect that. And I would say, don't worry, they have unsaid expectations in their head too. So that's where I see a lot of times this disconnect and owner doctors being frustrated and associates being frustrated along with them. Yeah, I think just in general with relationships and interaction with people in general, you're destined for failure if you impart your own personal principles and philosophies onto somebody else. Right? So if you have a certain worth, ethic, or you see the world through certain lens, that all has to do with all the past experiences and all of your past, you know, traumas and all of your past victories. And that creates you as a human being. So you're seeing things through a very particular lens. When you try to impart that or you expect that from anybody else, that's a huge, huge potential point of failure. Right? And most definitely a point of a potential point of frustration. So how do you overcome that summer? So like putting that all aside and not implying and trying to place all of your expectations and the way that you view the world onto this other human being, how do you avoid those those misalignments in, yeah, in expectations? And you know, people ask me all the time, like, you can't, there's no way you're going to hit it all prior to signing the contract. Right? Now, my goal is to have as many of these conversations prior to ever hiring them because the conversations are way easier than. There's so much harder when they're already employed and it's 60 days later and now you're like, yes, they come to the team meetings late. They want to be paid for breaks. You don't mean whatever it is. It's so much harder to have that down the line. So sometimes you're going to know certain things that you need to prepare them for. Sometimes you're not going to know until it happens. And you just have to have the conversation as soon as possible. But you know, the first thing I recommend is, okay, doctor, owner, what makes your ideal associate? What does that look like? And I say, like, think about it even with logistics. Like if you walk through a day, I always say, if you notice them doing it, what would make you super happy? And what would make you, let's just be on this real grumpy. I have mine. I know mine. Like I said, mine are, you don't come to the morning how they'll just stroll in and late. You don't end up, you know, you don't come into the day unprepared. I'll be honest, I have certain dress codes and certain ways of appearance that are important for me just because I know the clientele. And here's the thing, it's not about me. I know it's going to set them up for success. I have certain non-negotiables. Things that I know are going to make them more successful and it's going to align better with who we are and how things work here. So first, you got to stop and identify what are those things that for you are like, wonderful, they would make you so happy. And what are the ones that you're like, this is like, I will be so frustrating. That's the first place to start. You've got to have that clearly spelled out in your head because then when you're hiring, that's going to be part of our questions and part of the things that we're going to discuss with them. Yeah, I love that. And you're so right about the timing. The timing is so, so important. If you think about like, during an orientation or during a pre-interview or during the final interview, if you're just like, hey, I just want to be super clear about what success is going to look like for you in this position. And I want you to be successful because if you're not successful, I'm not going to be successful. This has been a long process to turn somebody over and get somebody out and somebody else back in. That's expensive. That's frustrating. That takes a toll on morale. There's so many different reasons why I want you to be successful. So here's what success looks like. Here are my expectations. Here are my non-negotiables. Here are the things that that that from a flow perspective, here's what we expect. You know, time limit us is very important. All of these things, if you define that in the beginning, it is so much easier than trying to undo something even a week later, man. It's like in the beginning, it's like, okay, they accept it because that's just how we do things here. If you're going to accept a position, I understand what my expectations are. And if they don't live up to those expectations, the second conversation is much easier than than it would be if you never covered those things at all. And really, that's all you. It really is. And oh my gosh, so I've made this mistake probably for the first 10 years of practice ownership. Like I say this, like it's an easy thing to do. It actually is easier than trying to undo it and dealing with the ramifications of not doing it correctly. So take it from us. I mean, coaching is all about, hey, I'm going to help you navigate some of the huge mistakes that I've made because I know how painful it is if you make these mistakes. So let's talk about these mistakes right now. And that's what an effective coach does. Not like, here's all the things I did right, copy me exactly. It's more like, here's all the things I did wrong. Here's how you avoid them. Yeah. And sometimes I joke with people all the time. I'm like, sometimes you got to ram your head into the wall for yourself. Yeah. That's true. Can I get it? I mean, I've had to do it too. Sometimes people would tell me certain things and I'd be like, I hear that. And I still wanted to try to, you know, do it my own way. And so, you know, I think that's the very first thing is I've got to get really clear on what makes the most successful associates. And even if I've never had an associate, you know, because doctors have said, well, I don't know. And I said, you do know what's going to work in your office and what's not. You do know what your team is going to accept and what they're not going to accept. And yes, part of it can be characteristics, but part of it can be truly just the logistics of the day. How they chart rep, how they look at X-rays, how they utilize software. Some of these things, you do know, these are going to work. These things are going to work. Whether it be characteristic attributes, whatever they're going to work, these won't here. And I used to spend a lot of times trying to convince people, we're so great. Let me just spend all my time during the interview telling you how awesome I am in this place. I've made that mistake so many times. You're selling them. So great. You're selling them on our success and expect them to be so enthralled and so impressed by that that they're going to do everything you say from that point forward. It's it's it's futile. That's a waste of time. Yeah. And I joke like I don't know about you. Now I'm totally 180. I'm actually I'm going to ask the best questions possible and get them to really talk more because the more they talk, the more I go, hmm, interesting. Tell me more about that. Tell me where that come from. Tell me where did you learn that from? And the more I do that, the more I recognize everything that they are bringing with them from someplace else. And I've done some presentations on this that I think you've aired before that I kind of have an approach I walk through. But the biggest thing I would tell somebody is first start with, what do you want? What's going to make somebody successful there? What's going to help them win from the beginning? And what are the things just flat out that aren't? And when you're talking to them, I think it's good to have those. But I always say start with them first. You tell me, what are the things for you that really matter in practice? What are the things you're leaving something and hopes of gaining something? So what is it that you're hoping to gain here? And I want to hear specifically. And if it's really ambiguous because a lot of times younger doctors are really ambiguous. I want a great culture. I just want to be with a team that supports me. Now I know I'm going to say something more like, tell me what that looks like. Well, I just want a team that like, you know, when I do this, they can do something more like this. And I will say over and over, huh. Tell me more about that exactly. No, exactly what does that look like? Because a lot of times, they don't actually have clarity. That's right. So they'll say, I want a great culture, but they can't specifically say what that looks like. That's okay, but that's a red flag to me. Not that it's a bad candidate, but that they don't know exactly what makes great clarity, you know, or a great culture. So good. So I might have to help them. This is what we see for great culture here. This is what matters to us. So I always let them talk first. I lead them with these questions of, tell me what your non-negotiables are. A lot of times I'll have younger doctors be like, you know, I don't think I have any. And I say, no way. Cool. I'm booking you on Saturdays. Oh, no, I don't want to do that. So cool. If you had no assistance, you'd be totally fine. If you had to do hygiene, you'd be fine. A lot of times, I've I start because a lot doctors don't always think about what are my own non-negotiables. So I always lead them with questions more like that to try to figure out who are they, where do they come from, where their belief systems from, what baggage do they bring in, what are their non-negotiables, and the more I ask them questions, the more they tell me, well, then I can either help them gain specificity of what they want and or tell them, this is what that looks like in our office. Either way, I'm going to end up making certain that they know with clarity, what we expect, what non-negotiables are for us, and what success is going to look like, but I'm always going to wait until they they go first. That is so good. I just wrote that down. Tell me more about that specifically. Oh, tell me a specific situation where that came about. Tell me, you know, just leading with questions, I feel, from a coaching standpoint, too, instead of, instead of like preaching from the top of a mountain, it's just like, well, yeah, tell me what, tell me more, and why, and tell me more about that and why. And I mean, if you, I mean, coaching is a lot of therapy, right? If you look at a good therapist, they're asking questions and they're making very few definitive kind of prescriptive, they're not they're not giving solutions. They're asking you to walk down a certain path in order for you to determine what the solution is. And there's something there's something to a great coach that leads in that way. Okay, so these are things in an ideal situation that you're thinking about before you bring somebody on. But what you're facing and what a lot of people that are listening to this are facing is, oh, shit, I didn't do that right from the beginning. Now I find myself seriously frustrated. I can't get through to them. I am like, okay, you told me not to kind of impart my principles and philosophies into them as a human because they're seeing things through different lens. I get that. But what do I do now? Like, it's too late to rewind and start this relationship off on a better foot. I want to try to save this. Where do I go now? Yeah. The great news is I tell everybody it's never too late. I have that same feeling of like, oh, no, I've already messed it up. All these bad habits. It's never too late because regardless, you're going to need to learn to, you know, have these conversations at some point. So whether it's you have it with this doctor and it turns out well or it doesn't turn out well, either way is going to be okay. But you have to learn how to have these conversations. And I always tell people the way I do it is I always take responsibility and I'll say, Dr. Sohn, so I'm going to be honest with you. You know, one thing that I've really recognized I feel to do is to meet with you on a consistent basis and discuss X, Y, and Z. Whatever that may be, non-negotiables, what matters to you and really what your financial goals are and how do we reverse engineer that? Everybody knows I have some documents where I kind of work through a lot of these things. I call them the vision documents with my doctors. It's never too late. And I joke even if it's July in the middle of the year and that person's been there six months, 12 months, two years. I will always go in and say, gosh, I'm sorry, I failed to do this. I failed to do this because I didn't really realize then what I realized now, which is, gosh, I can step up and really try to support you and be successful and achieve the things you're looking for. So here's some tools and resources for questions that I have for you. That's where you can then create, like I said, one of my the biggest things I do is I want to find out, okay, how much are you hoping to take home this year in a 12 month period of time? It doesn't need to be generated through December. I don't care if it's July through July. How much are you hoping to take home? And I learned this, we both know Alex from McDonald who just comes up with some of the best questions ever. The question he always asks is, why not more? Why not less? And I love that because what I have found is, and you hit this on the head previously that I wanted to attach to this, is if a doctor tells me, I want to take home 200,000, I have a choice. I can hear that and instantly make up a story. I don't even understand why they don't want to make more. They're shooting so low. What the heck is wrong? Don't they have student loans? I was way more of a hustler when I was at that point. Yeah. Or, or I can say, huh, tell me more about that. And either you's answers question of why not more? Why not less? But the problem is, is most of the time what I find with doctors, and this so goes back to like you said, it's where they came from. The family they came from, what finances mean to them? Are they scarcity minded? Are they abundant minded? A lot of times they're just shooting out a member. I don't know 200,000 because it doesn't sound greedy. Or 200,000 because I think that's enough to pay everything off. I do know more doctors than not will say, I don't know that seems reasonable. Or I did 180 last year. So 200 seems like a good stretch. That's it. So the more I actually ask questions around, ah, great. So what I'm hearing is you don't necessarily have a reasoning behind it other than what you think you did last year. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Wonderful. Great. It's our way that I can work through this with you to challenge you to actually hit bigger goals that are going to support what you're wanting to do even more without doing more work. Is that something you'd be interested in? Yeah. I'd love what do you mean? That's where then I can have better conversations of great. I can, that's part of why I need to be here is I have learned a couple things. And I think that's what you've been looking for is mentorship. I've learned a couple things that can help you do more dentistry without seeing more patients, right? You and I both know this. I joke like there's always a low road and medium road and a high road for associates. And I try to teach them this along with those financial goals. The low road, high quantity, low production, lots and lots of patients, low production, middle road. That's actually potentially doing more dollar per exam, a little more comprehensive quadrant dentistry type treatment planning. You see less patients but make more at the end of that day. I find a lot of doctors end up sitting here. Now some doctors 25% are higher, you know, the curve more or less. They choose the high road. These are the doctors who actually do quality over quantity meaning they actually grow their skill sets. They might add just a couple specialties whether it be endover extractions or something like that. They trim up plan the highest dollar per exam more comprehensively. They actually end up seeing less patients and how the highest dollar amount. There's all different roads. What I will say is when I link that financial goal, I hear you saying this. I really feel like you're actually more trending towards the middle of the road. I can help you there. I apologize that in the past, I didn't realize that I could help influence impact whatever you in these areas. How does that sound? We can meet weekly and kind of walk through this. And I guess what I'm saying, Marcus, that's kind of more of the financial side of a disconnect. If it's non-negotiables, they're late for meetings. That's a much more simple one meeting type thing. You can say, I failed to even be really clear with you, of this is a non-negotiable and how much it means to me. And here's why. I observe this behavior, you being late. This is the impact that it's having on the team and other people and patient care. And doctor, I know you don't want that. I know you don't want to have that impact. So moving forward, this is what I needed to look like. You'll be here, seats and seats, 745, prepared. Let me know if you need any support, help anything to keep that consistent. Is there anything I'm missing? That's the other side. If it's really just kind of an observable behavior attribute that you're like, yikes, I haven't said anything, you can always go back and just say, I totally failed to make this clear. And I know that I observed the behavior. This is the impact it's having. And I know you don't want that. Moving forward, this is what I'm going to need. Are you on board? Hey Doc, question for you. How much time is your team currently wasting on insurance billing? If you're still manually posting eobies, chasing paper checks or buried and unpaid claims, it's time to meet Lassie. Last This is the AI built specifically for dental practices to automate your insurance workflows. Free EFT enrollment, accurate EOB posting with correct write-offs, catching appeals, and handling reconciliation. So nothing slips through the cracks. Last, the Automate's insurance posting better than any person so your team can focus on high value work and grow without adding headcount. Say bye-bye to manual data entry or payment stuck in limbo. Hello to fast-repayments, streamline collections, and more time with patients. Are you ready to join the over 1000 Ford Thinking Dentists that rely on Lassie everyday? Just go to www.lassie.ai/dsi fill out the intake form and get on the wait list. Recurber that uncaptured revenue, get ours back and spend time with patients starting now. That's Lassie. L-A-S-S-I-E. Lassie. Lassie. Lassie. Lassie. Man, you're a word ninja. That's beautiful. That's beautiful stuff. I think that you disarmed people when you, and this is something that I did subconsciously throughout my entire career. I tried to always lead with something that's self-effacing. Here's what I failed to do. I am so sorry. I must apologize to you because I failed myself as a leader. I failed myself as an effective communicator. I didn't think through this the right way before we started this relationship. I still think that we have a great thing going here, and here's some of the things that I want to talk to you about. That just removes the defensiveness from, and frankly, the tendency from an actual conversation. It gets people to open their mind and start listening to you. Like, okay, they've already agreed that they did something wrong. Now I'm going to reciprocate by saying, you know what? You're right. Here's some of the things that I could have done better. That just starts the conversation off in a great way, but you have to be in the right frame of mind. If you go in there super huffy, puffy, and angry, that is going to exacerbate this frustration and this problem. You might lose that person. You might be just a viably frustrated. Give yourself a sec. Maybe schedule it for the next afternoon. Allow yourself time to breathe and think about the best way to approach this. And go in there calm with a sense of humility and what you could have done better and lead with that. I think that's a huge part of what you're talking about here and your style. Yeah. Well, and I will say, like, really want to come down to it. And that's one of the first books you have everybody read in DioSai is Extreme Ownership. And when it comes down to it, and here's the thing is I'm not going to sit and slog myself and be like, I'm the worst. I'm so sorry. I'm just a horrible human. It's like, no, I failed to do this. And that's okay because I always say like we're just modeling for them what we want in return. And I want them to not sit there and just slog themselves every time they make a mistake. All I care about is, all right, great. We own it. We see it. What are we going to do next time? Make it better. And so, you know, when I see this disconnect between owner doctors and associates, a lot of times, yes, it starts with hiring. Yes, it starts with the questions, how we set things up. But a lot of times we do think it's too late. And like the great news is, it's never too late to better that relationship or at least try. And then regardless, I tell people, let's say you do these things. And you go in, you do all those things. You've talked about financial goals and vision and yeah, reverse engineer. And this is what it is. Yay, we're excited. And two weeks later, I hear it all the time. Nothing's changed. Great. We've had the conversation once. Now we get to follow up with, okay. And everybody knows my little five Cs that I talk about. But for me, like, I don't know about anybody else, but like when it comes to human relations, if I don't have a system to go through, I'm going to miss something and end up potentially emotionally speaking. Maybe that's me. But that's me too. Yeah. I'm going to come in and I'm probably not going to state the facts. I'm not going to be neutral. I'm going to be a little bit triggered potentially. And that's why I created the five Cs. And I did it really from my leadership team, more than anything. Can you go through? And I did this. I'm sorry. Can you go through them? Yeah. So and I did this at the summit last year. And so I'm certain it's it's somewhere on your your amazing podcast. But so the first one is clarity. So I will always go back to the doctor and say, OK, help me understand what wasn't clear. There was something that I left out. I'm sure of it. Was that did I mess up there? Was there something that was unclear to you? Now, sometimes there was. I will tell you this is why I like it is because sometimes people have been like, I really didn't understand it honestly. I was too afraid to say something. Yeah. Or which is I didn't speak up. Yeah. Yeah. So clarity is number one. I'm going to always go back to was it clear? And I don't come at it like, did I not make it clear? You know, because tone is everything I say. Like I just like you can say one thing. But let's be honest, how you say it is going to have them either be defensive or not. So I always try to make sure to be like, gosh, like was it clear? Because sometimes I know I'm not clear. Help me know was that clear? Was there anything I left out? That's sometimes where it stops. And then the second is the second C is, do I have your commitment to this? I used to bypass this all the time because I would just vomit. This is what it is. This is what we're doing. This is how we're doing it. Do you get it? Yes. Great. Move on. And then nothing would change. Well, I now stop and go, is this important to you too? Is this a big deal? Do you see it the same way I see it? Do I have your commitment? Can I count on you for this? Yes. Great. I've got to answer the question. I want you to tell me all the dumbest reasons ever. Like if it's, I go to the gym and then I love to stop at Starbucks. And so I'll be honest, that is my routine. And I don't even careful be late. I got to do it. I would rather hear that everybody than some sort of, you know, no, no, nothing's getting in the way. And then they keep being late. Let's just be honest. What is keeping you from being consistent? Whether that be preparation, being on time, addressing patients, a certain way, verbiage, whatever it may be, what's keeping it from being consistent. And once again, it's so much in the way, like if I give time space, I'm not doing anything else, I am so engaged in, help me understand this. Because I'm here to like really work through this. That's going to be a very different thing than I tell my team those like five minute flybys. Five minute flybys. They're going to be like, uh, yeah, I'm committed. Okay, no, I'm good. I'll keep working on it. Like if it's a big deal to you, then they need to see it's a big deal. And that means time and attention. And I mean full attention. And so I'm going to work through what's keeping it from being consistent. Then the magic, and I did get this from Alice for two, is I'm going to discuss the consequence. And that's the fourth C. I'm going to discuss that right then and there. And that's that whole impact that I was just saying with that kind of like a lot of times, doctors don't understand they don't link cause and effect because nobody's walk through any of this with them. So they keep saying, I need more new patients. I don't have enough exams. I don't have enough insert whatever word I hear. They're not linking necessarily that cause and effect. So here's the consequence. If we don't do blank, gosh, doctor, I don't even know if you realize what happens is Debbie at the front office now has to call the patients. She has to move this. She has to do this. I bet you didn't even know that. And by the way, that is what I say. I just give benefit of the doubt. I bet you had no idea the impact it was having on patient, team, other doctors, whoever. A lot of times I find owner doctors kind of can sit in resentment. They can start to get resentment because they're like, well, don't they know what I'm doing for them? Don't they know they don't all the time? They don't know. They don't know. Nobody really walks through this. Nobody spends the time with these doctors. And I think we think they come out of like a box. You wind them up. They can just go. And I'm like, they don't come pre-programmed. They come with who knows from whatever place they were just at. We have to sit down and do this exercise with them. So I do step back and I walk through those first four seats. I bet you had no idea. So moving forward. This is what's going to make you the most successful. successful, had the best results, and hit everything you want without any of that impact. How does that sound? Great. Awesome. Is there anything I left out here, doctor? No, I think I'm good. Great. Is there anything I can do to support you better with this? Besides our weekly meetings, things like that. Because once again, associates might say, "I want great mentorship." We hear that. We never actually ask, "What does great mentorship look like to you exactly?" Yeah, what does that look like to you? Yeah. That's a big one. Exactly. Is it weekly, daily, minute by minute? Do you want me in the office with you every moment? Because someone or doctors think mentorship means once a week I'm going to check in on you, but I'll be gone three of those days. I'm not saying that's right or wrong. I'm saying we don't know until we've asked. So, if I've had all of these conversations, I've walked through those first four C's. The last C, and remember I just had to make it a C, was cut the cord, which means letting them go. But I joke, call it what you will. It's, yeah, cut the cord. Let that person go. But I say, ideally, you've walked through those first four at least twice. And if it is a non-negotiable, you get to decide at that point. Is it something that I'm okay? Do I want to sit and tolerate it? And usually, doctors get really scared at this point. That's your choice. If you're going to be with people all the time, you know what matters to you the most. And I always joke, if I'm getting resentful over and over again, I'm harboring any sense of frustration, ill will around it. It's probably something that I've got to just decide I can't tolerate. I'm going to need to probably look for somebody who can get aligned with all of this. So hopefully I answer the question of, for me, it's always a good time to have these talks with associates. If you feel like you failed it in the beginning, you could always have it. But a lot of times, it's going to look different if it's financial production goals versus character and attribute type of things. Yeah. What is non-negotiable for you as far as if they live up to all of your cultural expectations, they work great with the team. And they're just a slowpoke. And they never get to where they're making a real contribution from a production standpoint. Say they're like that perpetual $58,000 associate, but they're just great. You like being around them. The team loves them. What decisions do you make in cases like that? I know. I've had this before. And this one's tough. I do tell people, you know the overhead and financial freedom that you are hoping to have. It's your practice. It's your results. So if you're looking for financial freedom, time freedom, you should know your numbers. You should know, okay, if this doctor is contributing 40, 50,000 a month and my overhead is still hovering around 62%. I can never take off. Am I okay with that? And that's where I tell doctors, that's that point where what I will tolerate may not be with somebody else will tolerate. I've heard it over and over again. You know, like for me, I do. I run the numbers to figure out, okay, my doctors know this is the level of where you'll start. There's not quotas or anything like that. We'll grow you and things like that. But if I'm not seeing a momentum trending positively on a consistent basis, we're going to be having a conversation and it will go around some sense of, gosh, we absolutely love you. Let's walk through again, starting with clarity. What's going on here from a production standpoint? You're not meeting the goals you said you wanted. And I'm bummed for you. I'm yelling bummed for you. You're not hitting them. I know that's not. And some people will be like, no, they said that that's fine for them. I said, well, then you've got a problem. If that doctor is fine producing 40,000, but it's not fine for you, well, you've got an issue. We've got to have a discussion around that. So I think we've got to know that a doctor is striving to do more because they genuinely have a sense of understanding, like I said, of what those financial goals mean, the low road, the medium road, the high road. They get it. They want more for themselves. They're just not there yet. If I see progress momentum, I'm cool with it. But my doctors know there is a threshold where we just can't go under consistently. Everybody has bad months. Everybody has bad weeks. That's normal. Things happen. And I always say, my 50% of this successful equation, I list out, this is everything I'm doing behind the scenes to set this up as an environment to be as successful as possible. But this is my expectation of your 50%. If they're missing the target, missing the goals from a number standpoint and not doing that, I don't care how much I love them. I'm going to have a conversation. I love it. So good summer. Man, you brought the heat today. That was good. I hope it's helpful. That's all I ever care about. It's hopefully it's helpful. So good. So good. Thank you so much for taking the time. You will be speaking at our upcoming match for my meeting and then at the summit, July 12th, 13th. I'm really excited to watch you on stage again. You always bring like a really cool major topic to the summit. I'm not going to ask what your plan is. I want to be surprised. But it's going to be a great event guys. If you haven't signed up yet, just go to true.com. Click on the events tab and sign up. And we have the beautiful gala afterwards. It's going to be an incredible night. It's so fun. It's so much fun. I mean, I invite everybody like the gala is so much fun. It's cool to get to see people dressed up. And then it's just such a huge cause that's making such an impact. In the summit, I'm like, gosh, there's some pretty incredible speakers. So I'm like, I'm stoked to be in the audience and listen as well. The last thing I do want to tell people about is, you know, if you're not a part of DSN or you don't know about the webinars and the CE that's on there, I tell Ashley all the time, they're such incredible. You know, CE just available at people's finger tips that talks about every topic. Practically you could think of. And so I, you know, I have a webinar every month that tries to talk about really practical things that help offices. But there's so much I see all the time. There's such great content on there for people who are looking to either grow clinical skills, business skills, leadership skills, whatever it may be. So that's my last little plug for our Lady Leaders webinar every month because it's not just for women, of course. Well, I'm going to make you plug something else. So you also do have dental career academy. Can you plug that quickly because that is a really, really needed resource for a lot of people that don't know it exists? Yeah. And, you know, you can find us, I mean, we're everywhere if you look up dental career academy. But, you know, a lot of times it's hard to be able to train front office insurance coordinators from scratch. And a lot of times people have short stuff and don't have the time. So this is just an online resource that people can purchase, be able to go online, put their team members on and it really walks them through the platform as far as videos, quizzes, tests, keeps them kind of on pace. And a lot of offices use it really in conjunction with their onboarding. So it gives their trainers a little bit of time away from being, you know, right next to that person. They can put them in a computer, let them go through some of these modules. They can go back to the modules. Things that I think are really static, like dental terminology, surfaces, you know, things that they need to know from a scheduling treatment coordinator insurance coordinator standpoint. I think it's nice when they can go back to something that stays consistent. It doesn't change with the trainer. And it gives that trainer some time to focus on what their tasks are throughout the day. That's what dental career academy was, you know, made to do because I know for myself, we had quite a bit of a shortage for a long time post-COVID. And it's been really helpful for us. So. Yeah. So is that dental career academy.com? Correct. Yes. Check it out guys. It's a huge time. Say it's a huge value to your team. A lot of us, I mean, I love hiring people that fit the culture, but don't necessarily have, you know, a dental background. Don't skip over those people. Those people are worth investing some time and energy into because sometimes those end up being the best people on your team. Those are end up being the core people because culture first. And if they're intelligent, they can pick up on it very, very quickly. Yeah. And they'll never believe me when I'm like, that's actually almost all I hire. That's crazy. From office and believe it or not, even DA's. Like, we've just, we just have created some systems that make it to where we can find those really incredible humans who are just looking to build a different career and pour it into them. So for sure. All right, my friend. Thank you so, so much for being here. Yeah. Look forward to seeing you just in a couple of weeks. I got Fiji before Atlanta, but can't wait to see you in Atlanta. Yeah. It's Atlanta. Yeah. Can't wait to see you there. Thanks so much. I appreciate the invite as always. I appreciate you very, very much. All right, ladies and gentlemen, the great Dr. Summer, Casnell. This episode, being brought to you by our great friends over at Profi 2020 dental CPAs. Profi is a managerial accounting proactive tax planning and financial freedom advisory CPA firm created for dental entrepreneurs with a mission driven purpose to create life-changing impact in the lives of dentists. Practice is over $1.5 million in collections generally choose profile for their enhanced service and value desired for a more serious and Business Advisory Relationship. Profile's unique company, Guarantee of Monthly Investment Grade Financials, delivered by the 15th of each month or its free, is part of the premium CPA relationship it offers to sophisticated business owners who desire more tailored, growth-oriented, and financial guidance. Profile launched the awesome additional Phase 1 dental CPAs as a starter CPA relationship for first time practice buyers, startups, and practice owners trying to keep accounting costs low, but stay compliant and bank-ready at all times with investment grade financials and dental-specific accounting reports. On a personal note, I can 100% endorse Profile as my CPA of choice. The five years I've been with them have been the best in terms of organization and implementation of advanced strategies to decrease my tax liability, as well as offering top-notch IRS audit defense. To learn more about what Profile 2020 or Phase 1 dental CPAs may offer you and your business schedule a free financial X-ray by visiting profile2020.com. That's pr-o-f-i-2-0-2-0.com and take the 30-second challenge today. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) This episode was brought to you by Eckert Enterprises. Eckert Enterprises is the expert in helping dental professionals build and protect their wealth through direct ownership of oil and gas assets. Eckert utilizes a straightforward strategy that generates passive income and yields long-term growth while offering significant tax advantages with minimal risk. Imagine owning royalty generating assets that provide monthly distributions for the next 20 to 50 years. Distributions from oil and gas wells drilled, produced, and managed by some of the largest oil companies in America. This asset class has zero liabilities, zero capital calls, zero expenses, provides 12 distributions annually and has an economic life that can span generations. In addition to all of this, participation in low-risk development drilling opportunities offers unparalleled tax deductions and benefits on top of generating regular monthly income. Oil and gas assets, directly acquired, are truly legacy assets that generate income 24/7. Directly owning these tangible assets helps you create wealth in two ways, by protecting your hard earned income through tax savings and by building secondary income throughout your career. Even after you retire from the dental chair or sell your practice, your oil and gas assets will provide income for you and your family 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's time to harness the power of the shale revolution in your portfolio, take control of your wealth, and explore options beyond traditional investments. To learn more, just visit Eckertenterprises.com/dentalpranore. That's E, CK, ARDenterprises.com/dentalpranore. To learn how you can start building a future of financial freedom today, Eckertenterprises.com/dentalpranore. And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental Pranore Podcast. Look forward to reconnecting on the next episode. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Dental Pranore Podcast. Check out truedentalsuccess.com for full recaps of every show, a schedule of our live events, free video tutorials, and a whole host of practice building resources. (upbeat music)