GARY KADI, AUTHOR OF MILLION DOLLAR DENTISTRY, TAKES TOP DENTAL TEAMS BEYOND SUCCESS.
You have already won the game. You have done it all. You are a successful DDS with a BMW, have a black AMEX, kids at BYU, MIT and NYU. You are an overachiever with an 8,000 square foot home in the best gated community.
You are a top One-Percenter… and you know there is winning at a higher level. You know there is another hill to climb beyond where you are now.
You’ve achieved more than you or your parents could’ve ever dreamed of.
You should be feeling like you are on cloud nine but you realize something is missing.
Success is not success until it is complete. So many dentists who have practiced for decades and have reached the top one percent category are asking themselves the same question, “Now what?”
All the money you have made has gone toward good causes – back into your practice, your kids, great experiences and some fun toys. Oh yeah, maybe some of the leftovers went into your retirement too.
It is like you have won the game, but you have stopped winning.
Being successful can be a very lonely place. The more success you achieve, the lonelier life can become. As a former “successful discontent” myself, I too had to overcome the daily funk that I was living in. To the outside world, I had it all, but inside I was living in an empty place. I got on a mission to break out of it. I had won the game yet was wallowing in the locker room of life. I had stopped playing and dreaming, and therefore had no wins.
After my personal bout with not knowing life after success, I set out to unlock the opportunity of experiencing sustained fulfillment and satisfaction.
Over a decade ago, I decided to establish a very unique dental practice management firm. Our organization focuses on creating amazing experiences for patients and provides the ultimate lifestyle for doctors and their teams. Instead of focusing on the means, like handling A/R and BA/CA we provide tangible end results. In other words, we ask our clients to imagine their ideal practice and lifestyle then we design a custom solution implemented hands-on in their office.
Dr. Kathy Jacobsen of Gilbert, AZ is a great example of a doctor who has dramatically transformed her life, team and bank account in one year. We had the privilege of working with Kathy in 2005. She was at the same production and collections for several years and was looking to have it all. She wanted to have a great partner to share life and a practice that supported the type of lifestyle she deserved. After installing our customized patient education system and our team accountability process, Kathy increased her practice over $30,000 per month and has sustained this increase until this day. This has allowed her to structure her time so that she can do the things she loves. Kathy decided to have her third child and wanted to work three days a week with five weeks vacation while sustaining her new production level. Kathy learned how to no longer tie money and income to time. She now knows they are mutually exclusive and can be controlled by her and her team. Time and money no longer control them. Dr. Jacobsen’s team is fully self-sufficient and responsible for their actions. They have clear boundaries and zero tolerance on gossip and destructive actions. Kathy’s team highly respects her. She no longer has to micromanage because her practice is set up like a small business machine. Kathy and her team are living their dream of having it all. They are balanced, happy, prosperous, and fulfilled.
Dr. Jack Von Bulow has enjoyed being a dentist for over 30 years. His practice has allowed him to do the things he enjoys most in life – contributing to others, having a fun work environment, enjoying the camaraderie of a great team, talkin’ Trojan football to a sometimes captive audience, being truly involved in the Pasadena community and delivering great dentistry. He’s even managed to write a couple of books.
Before I met Jack he had been looking at his future, making sure he left nothing on the table. That’s when he had to come to terms that there was this one missing element, his practice scoreboard.
Jack explained, “I think we are tops in all the other areas but not in terms of production and collections. It’s not all about the money, but the score. The score kind of tells you whether you’re a three-hundred hitter or just acting like one. Top practices easily do over a million a year and we haven’t. It was time for us to win the Million Dollar Game. I wasn’t going to start the fourth quarter of my career with our current score.”
In five short, illuminating, and very eventful months we reached the magic million.
“Gary’s straight forward, down-to-earth style really worked for me. I read his book, Million Dollar Dentistry, and really connected with his philosophy. (It’s the best book you’ll ever read tying together systems and behavior to the business practice of dentistry.) I also liked that he and his team worked onsite and incorporated much of the great work we’d taken from so many respected consultants over the years. I’ve really learned so much about myself and my team. I’ve learned about blind spots that
I’ve carried around that have stopped my team and me from achieving top one percent scoreboard status.”
One of the things that stop dentists in achieving all they desire is what I call their “capacity to have.” This is not “smoke and mirrors” stuff, but just something we don’t know exists. We put a box around what we think we deserve and allow only that into our lives. I do not ask my clients to think outside the box but to remove the box. This have-it-all mindset opens people up to experiencing life to its fullest. We do not need to suffer to have all the things we want. They can come easily, but this is not how we were taught from our past generations. Especially since we have been taught by the people we love most who lived during the most economically depressed time in history. The mindset of lack prevails in the present time because it was ingrained in us by those who lived through it. We challenge teams to rethink this old school mentality and how it affects their practice and their lives. We work with the natural laws and fundamentals of business and people development – the often overlooked processes that are at the heart of having it all.
We have created the initiative – Healthy Mouth. Healthy Practice. Healthy Lives.
Healthy Mouth.
We believe there is a huge opportunity to make a stand to have all your patients achieve and maintain a healthy mouth. It is amazing to see how many of our clients are gun-shy about presenting all the care a patient needs. I can empathize. If I were told no or had gotten resistance in every interaction over so many years, I would be too. The reason this has happened and why we have become so insurance-driven is that there has been no system to assist the patient to buy dentistry. Think about it, when was the last time you bought something that you didn’t think you needed, was going to cost you thousands of dollars, was an uncomfortable experience and took lots of time away from the things you truly enjoy?
Healthy Practice.
Your practice becomes very healthy (and wealthy) because you are helping people overcome their misunderstanding and fears of dentistry. You will transform the millions of dollars of dentistry that is sitting in your charts and put it in your schedule.
Healthy Lives.
You and your team will lead very healthy lives because you will enjoy the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment knowing that you are making a difference for your patients and each other. Most importantly, living your ideal life right now, “not someday when _____.”
Once you are converting quadrant dentistry, you then have the control to design how you want to work – less hours or work the same amount of time and max out your profits.
Dr. Charlie Schneider of rural Burlington, Wisconsin took his one doctor, two hygienist practice from $1.2 to $1.7 in one year while seeing 25% less patients.
“I didn’t need to do anything. I reached a high level of success, I wanted to do more. After 32 years in practice you start to think that the day-to-day stuff we deal with as dentists is just a part of the game. I have spent thousands of dollars and countless hours learning how to develop my practice. I could have coasted and felt like I had done well. After I met Gary at a Crown Council event and he shared his have-it-all philosophy, I got intrigued.
The deciding factor to go for it was how his team rolled up their sleeves and really took the time to understand the nuisances of my practice – my patients, my team, my treatment philosophy. Then they got my team excited to make the necessary changes that were holding back the true potential of my practice. I thought I knew everything about my practice. They turned every stone and located root causes that were never addressed before. I never thought I could have my team take ownership like they now do. The amazing part is that they always wanted to be this way, but did not have the tools and understanding to do so. The contextual infrastructure we had wouldn’t allow them to. My team now thinks like entrepreneurs in their own small business.”
You have learned how to be successful. Our job is to have you unlearn some of the things that are holding you back from the most fulfilling and amazing adventure your career can offer. Once you relearn some key things about yourself and your practice you will enjoy all the joy, satisfaction, wealth and peace that goes along with the have-it-all mindset.
You are the author of your life and practice. You have choices every day, although some days may feel like life is happening to you. Your mind is designed to keep you safe. The fulfillment in practice and in life is swinging out and taking on new, exciting opportunities and challenges. Practicing dentistry has so much to offer for you, your family, your team and your community. Many of us easily get caught in the success trap and coast on autopilot. Whether you are at halftime or in the fourth quarter of your personal Superbowl, play like a champion.
Tags: dental, dental education, dental news, Dental Practice Management, dental team, dentist, news, office management, office staff, oral health, oral health business, success, team building, wellness
Great idea
excellent and inspirational letter