by Karah Karah | Jun 27, 2018 | Legendary Leadership
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As a young dentist just starting out, it can be hard to know which direction to take your career. But thanks to people like Dr. David Rice, the next generation of dentists can get access to tools that will help them succeed on both the clinical and business side. Not only has David achieved success in his career, but he’s also done—and continues to do—amazing things to help dental students along their own paths to success.
The founder of igniteDDS—a free continuing education community for dental students and young dental professionals that provides live local events, online webinars, and more—David is passionate about helping younger dentists navigate their early years in the industry. In this episode, he shares the wisdom he wants to impart on up and coming dentists, the mantra that helped him get to where he is today, and inspiring insights that both new and seasoned dentists ought to take to heart.
Key Quotes:
- “Sometimes we’re worried about the tactic, or the strategy, or the meeting, or the conversational skillset to get our team to reach higher levels, but oftentimes we’re not treating them outrageously well.”
- “I highly recommend some kind of postgraduate program to everybody. It was such an instrumental year for me, not only to pull all the concepts that didn’t quite make sense to me in dental school together, but confidence and speed and the ability to know … if someone else can do it, so can I.”
- “I’m a huge fan of young dentists to choose mentorship over money whenever possible because those first three to five years are so, so important.”
- “We’re so conditioned throughout our formal education to tell somebody the answer … but it’s easy to make a mistake when we try to just talk at people as opposed to really listening to what they have to say.”
- “The more you invest in the person sitting knee-to-knee with you, the faster you’re going to grow and be successful.”
- “We’re really not a patient-centered practice; we’re really a team-centered practice. And when our culture is firing on all cylinders, the patients just come in, and they feel it, and they respond.”
- “Spending time working on your business is really, really valuable, and it’s easy to lose that time because you’re so busy trying to produce dentistry.”
- “Challenges are a part of the game, but you can get through it on the other side and sometimes—if you play it right—come back stronger.”
- “Take the leap. Don’t be afraid to jump out of the plane and figure out how to open the parachute on the way down.”
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by Karah Karah | May 9, 2018 | Legendary Leadership
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It’s one thing to have a vision for your business and it’s a whole different thing to be able to cast that vision in a way that it is taken on and carried out by your team. Dr. Jesse Green drops by the show today to share his journey through practice ownership and how it has evolved into a passion for the dental entrepreneurial community. He gives us some great actionable advice on how to improve your leadership and entrepreneurial skills in a way that will take your practice to the next level.
Jesse really emphasizes the importance and value of not just having a vision but making sure you are communicating it effectively. He also discusses hiring and how there should be systems in place that make things easier for day to day tasks but don’t take away from the personality and flexibility of the business. Jesse also gives us great tips regarding leadership, financial intelligence, case presentation and marketing techniques.
Key Quotes:
- “I really applaud the people who get out there and give it a red hot go because running a business is not for the faint-hearted.”
- “Being a great dentist is, I think, an important part of being a good business owner but it doesn’t guarantee success.”
- “I found myself running a digital marketing agency for dentists which was fantastic. I learned so much about true business that I never learned through traditional practice management programs.”
- “Some of the best lessons I’ve ever learned have been outside of dentistry.”
- “We sometimes think the dentist industry is somehow different or special to other businesses but the same principles apply.”
- “People say you hire for attitude and you train them on the job but if that’s true, you need to have some dedicated training processes in there as well.”
- “The really important thing when it comes to leadership is: Creating a clear vision, enrolling people in that vision, holding the standard, and living the standard.”
- “The growth of the business will never outstrip the growth of the leader.”
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by Karah Karah | May 2, 2018 | Legendary Leadership
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In this episode, you’ll get to listen in to Dr. Dave’s recent interview on the Business of Dentistry Podcast. He shares personal stories of his own challenges and the valuable lessons he learned as he built his career. Listen in to hear his inspiring words about finding clarity, what it takes to be a great leader and more.
Key Quotes:
- “Life moves fast. I used to think about five-year plans and ten-year plans, and now a quarter goes by, and I’m like, I don’t want the same things I wanted 90 days ago.”
- “That’s, I think, a struggle in society, but certainly in dentistry as well, is like you start living out somebody else’s dream and then realize it too late. If you can always be course-correcting, I think that’s probably the best advice, to have a beacon, which would be like your annual plan or even your life plan.”
- “It takes some serious time alone to reflect and design [a life plan, but] otherwise your schedule will get full of other people’s agendas.”
- “My theory was in 2017 that if I did nothing else but worked on myself, that I could make my practice grow, and I didn’t need to be constantly turning all these knobs like hiring somebody or a new marketing tactic or new phone skills.”
- “If you’re the CEO of a dental practice, if you’re the lead producer in a dental practice, you’re the racehorse, and so you have to create ways—whether it be through delegation and leadership or just flat out automating or eliminating things from your life—so that you’re not feeling run down at the end of every week.”
- “What are you doing to take care of yourself so that you can serve? It’s kind of a paradox like you need to be selfish to be selfless is really something that we have to come to comfort with.”
- “Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s doing the things that you’re scared of because you know that gets you to the destination that you want.”
- “Sometimes we use perfectionism as a badge of honor because it sounds really good, but sometimes it’s just fear and excuses packaged in a nice little wrapper with a bow on it.”
- “Your teams need psychological safety, so they need to be able to ask their dumb questions or make their mistakes without feeling chastised; they need to know that you have their back.”
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by Karah Karah | Apr 4, 2018 | Legendary Leadership
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Sometimes life can throw you curveballs, but it’s how you deal with them that makes all the difference. Dr. Steve Markowitz is a third-generation dentist whose unexpected leap into learning the business side of dentistry firsthand came during his first year of dental school. After a tragic accident left his father unable to practice, Steve stepped up to help keep the business running and learned key lessons that drove him to where he is today.
Now in charge of three multi-specialty group practices just outside of Boston, Steve has accomplished a lot in his relatively short career. In this episode, he shares the ups and downs of his journey through dentistry, as well as his tips on team building and leadership that will help guide you to a more successful practice.
Key Quotes:
- “Just be the best version of you. Let your patients know, and your team know, that it’s kind of an act that we’re doing, but it’s really important to be the best version of yourself when you’re in the building.”
- “I saw the business of dentistry before I even ever saw dental patients, and that was really eye-opening to me because I knew that there was a way to make the business of dentistry successful at the same time while I was learning how to take care of people.”
- “Anything I could get my hands on or listen to that made me a better person or a better leader, I would try and get it in my system.”
- “Too often in our profession, [leadership] just gets flat out ignored or people deny that leadership is even a job for them.”
- “The grind is exhausting. Always try to take a step back and remember why we’re here, why we’re doing this, so we can take really good care of each other and really good care of our patients, and then it becomes bigger than the grind.”
- “If I were to point to one fault in my career, it’s that I was way too independent and I thought work ethic was the supreme value, and I didn’t rely on resources and friends.”
- “Your dental license is really a golden ticket, and you can choose your own adventure and take it wherever you wish.”
- “Never let a patient see you sweat. Never let your team see you sweat. It’s only going to get them worked up. You are the captain of the ship … and if you’re stressed out and if they know something’s wrong, it’s going to make everything more crazy than it has to be and the results will not be as good as you want them to be.”
- “Nobody has gotten to where they are without help from someone else, and the sooner you can realize that and reach out to people and be willing to accept advice, the quicker you’ll be successful.”
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by Karah Karah | Mar 7, 2018 | Legendary Leadership
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One of the most important aspects of running a successful practice is putting in the time and effort to be a good leader. Dr. Tim McNamara is a shining example of this, and his success in dentistry is a testament to the strong focus he puts not only on creating a great customer experience, but also on leading his team so they know exactly how to deliver that experience.
After more than seven years doing business consulting in the healthcare field, Tim went from helping hospitals mitigate risks to starting his own dental practice. His unique path into dentistry—along with his ability to see obstacles and turn them into opportunities—has given him a fresh perspective on the industry that we can all learn from. In this episode, he shares what it takes to be a great leader, the lessons he learned from his consulting career that still help him today, and his tips on how to shorten the learning curve on your own path to building your dream practice.
Key Quotes:
- “What you have in a business is risk, and how you control that risk is everything. And then how you lead your people to implement those controls will dictate what your revenue is.”
- “It’s funny to me because everyone talks about secrets in dentistry. … The secret is you. If you just spend some time on leadership and understanding your business, that’s the secret.”
- “When I opened, I did so kind of with this wild idea that demographics matter, but that the dentist and the systems probably matter a little bit more.”
- “The best way to grow is, yes, boost marketing, but turn the customer service experience on.”
- “What I’ve noticed in most dental clinics is lack of leadership.”
- “We need a place where people can ask real questions without getting beat up for it. And so what do we do? We create a community.”
- “I judge a lot of my practice and how it’s operating by how well I sleep at night and how little stress I have at home.”
- “All of my breakthroughs have come when I stopped being so frickin’ independent and realized that there is help out there.”
- “Your advice should be coming from people who are in your exact same situation, that actually stay awake late at night in the fetal position, and that have figured out how to get out of the fetal position.”
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by Karah Karah | Dec 20, 2017 | Legendary Leadership
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Dr. Karah Maloley, wife of Dr. Dave, joins on the podcast this episode to discuss and reflect the incredible changes in the practice over the past year. They go through the goals that were set for the past year and discuss the outcomes and how they worked out so well. One of the big things discussed was how they managed to go from four-day work week to a three-day work week while still growing and having a record year.
Dr. Dave talks about how taking more time off has improved his leadership skills and in-turn helped make his team and his clients happier. He also talks about the habits he has been working on and his obsession with high performance and sustainable growth and success. They emphasize the importance of accountability and leadership by example and they share ways to breathe life and passion into your practice.
Key Quotes:
- “I made the decision we were going to go from four-day work weeks to three-day work weeks.”
- “It’s about impact and intention and knowing what we’re there for and being hyper-focused to get results every day.”
- “Despite the reduction in days and hours, we grew probably more than we have in 6 or 7 years.”
- “A happy team creates happier patients.”
- “The extra time that I have, those days where I can work on different projects, have allowed me to I think, be a more focused leader and work a lot more on myself.”
- “Self-leadership always precedes great team leadership.”
- “A lot of turning points in my life have come from trying times and tragedies, what if I just engineer it this year?”
- “Most dentists are working in their practice, high level dentists are working in their practice and on their practice, the highest level dentists I’m convinced are working on themselves.”
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