#901: How to Have the Perfect Quarterly Meeting

Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera is a guest on the Dental Lighthouse Podcast with Jason Tanoory to talk about the power of quarterly meetings. They discuss the benefits of a third party, how to have healthy conversations, and why there needs to be an atmosphere of trust and vulnerability to have good communication.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02.151)

Dr. Jason here, welcome back Dental Lighthouse podcast. On today's show, I have the one, the only, Kiera Dent. And hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I have the one and only Jason Tanoory. This is seven years in the making. seven years I've been trying to get on Kiera's podcast. And after begging,

for the last three days, because Kiera and have been together nonstop for the last three days. She has finally allowed to give me a six minute window of recording time. Not true. We had to extend this longer because we only had 30 minutes originally. you said, no, no, need more time to unpack this. I have so many issues that I need to unpack that doing it in six minutes was not going to be a window. It's true. But honestly, I do feel like it was

It was a missed opportunity. I've podcasted with Amy many times on the podcast, but for Jason and I to get here, I mean, think this is the most we've hung out at any time I've come to these meetings with you. And so maybe that was what, how it happened this round, but truly, think honestly, in the seven years we worked together, it's been really fun to watch your practice evolve. And so I'm super excited to rift on this. I mean, I can ask questions. We didn't know whose podcast we were basically hosting from, cause we now are both hosts.

But I think there's just been some really incredible things that have come out in seven years. I watched your practices grow exponentially over the years. I watched you grow. I watched Amy grow. I watched your teams evolve. And being able to do these quarterlies, everyone says, Kiera, you still consult. And I'm like, I do consult still. But honestly, Jason, and this is not me trying to boost your ego for any stretch. I continually have come out here. It's so far away. You my furthest office.

The Dental A Team (02:19.946)

I even got COVID here one time and stayed at the holiday for like a week. But I just learned so much. I think you're an incredible leader. think the world needs more of you and what you're doing. And so it's just really fun to have you and me kind of have this rift of a podcast today and share the things that we've learned possibly over the years. Wow. So I was not expecting that. Maybe we should have practiced before we hit record. But thank you so much for saying that. I really appreciate it.

Let's give our listeners a little bit of context here, right? So you guys know my story and you obviously, if you're a listener of Kiera's podcast, you know her story. Our story is that about six or seven years ago, we were starting to scale at a level that I was worried about controlling it. I was worried about how to get out of the weeds and

work on the business instead of being stuck in it. And I was worried about having someone to basically MC our leadership meetings, facilitate them, run them, make sure we stay on track. And the first person I thought to help me with that was Kiera. And she has been doing that in some capacity for us over the last seven years. And it's just been...

such a blessing for us to have her to lean on over the last seven years as we've continued to scale. And that's why we're together today. We're basically wrapping up our final quarterly meeting. this week had two quarterly meetings every day lasting anywhere from two to five hours, depending on the size of the office. We're just about to roll into our final one in about an hour or so.

So maybe we talk about this week, maybe we just talk about, well, I'll talk about anything. What do you think? Yeah, I think talking about this week since it's so relevant and I think it's actually super interesting to know something as I watched, you asked me to come in and help. We were kind of building off of the EOS model. Traction was where we started. I remember I had no clue what you were talking about and you said, don't worry, Kiera, you know dental, we know traction. We'll just work together.

The Dental A Team (04:42.606)

But I think that that's something I've always loved about you and your practices is you guys will try anything. You're great implementers, you're great executors, you have a really beautiful vision. And I even think back to our first meeting, what your vision was to what your vision is today and the way you've been able to explain that to your team. so yeah, I think, and then I remember Amy called me one time and said, Kiera we're not just gonna have you work with one office. We now have four offices. So that felt like, let's try and figure this out. And then it's like, now we've got five offices and now we have six offices. And I think we've done a really good job of

figuring out what are the best things to implement, what do we want to do for these offices? But what I love is that you are so obsessed with making sure your entire teams are bought into the vision, bought into the pieces. And it's been really fun this time, you're no longer clinical. So you actually get to like come around and be a part of all of it. And I think it's been a really, it's been a fun yin and yang this round that we've never experienced. This was our first time doing it together fully for all of the practices. Yeah, I think.

So yeah, a hundred percent everything that you just said. You know, we started with EOS and the Gino Wickman model from the book Traction. And if you guys haven't read that book and you feel lost in as far as how to facilitate growth in your business, I think that's a great place to start. And then we've used that as a core and then incorporated some, some Lencioni principles into there. And basically by sprinkling in a little bit of this and sprinkling in a little bit of that, coming up with our own.

secret sauce that I feel at least at this moment serves our purpose and our intentions really, really well. And your point about me not being clinical and being able to actually be at the meetings and be engaged in the meetings, it's bittersweet because I think leaders or let's call them owners, owners of dental practices would

probably rather abdicate the responsibility of having these meetings. And there was definitely a part of me that said, well, we'll just bring Kiera in to do it. So I can, you know, dot, dot, dot. And really the self-talk that I was, I was saying to myself was, I don't want to do it. I don't want to have uncomfortable conversations. I don't want to work hard on trying to create clarity of vision and where we're going. So I'll just go work on this crown while Kiera does it.

The Dental A Team (07:07.287)

And that served me well, selfishly, for a year or two. But then you start to realize, if we're going to scale, the founder, the owner, has to be an integral part of the process. Now, they don't necessarily have to lead the meetings, per se, but they have to be there. They have to chime in when it's appropriate. They have to even give someone like Kiera, who's facilitating these, clarity on the vision.

And I feel like this week was really great where we could play off of each other. You did just a phenomenal job of running the meetings, going through the agenda. And then you leaned on me if there was a specific part of vision, you know, where are we going? What do we mean by this? Jason, can you speak to that? And I think it ultimately benefited each of our teams. Definitely agree. And I think like, just to help listeners see,

You didn't start here, right? And I think so many people, when they look at where your practices are, they're like, well, Jason's not in them. He's running all these meetings. But like, let's back up. There were a good five, six years where you were at the core one. You and I would always chat before every quarterly. So I'd at least understand what you wanted. And I would go with Amy, who's just incredible. Amy makes my life easy. I love you, Jason. And I love Amy. Like, is really, they're an incredible group. They make my job easy.

But there was always clarity before everyone. So if you are a practicing clinician still, don't feel like maybe you have to completely remove yourself clinically to be able to do this. Jason scaled up to this and it was always within the goals. We knew that he wanted to eventually get out of clinical. So I knew where he wanted to go. It was always working the practices up to that. But I think to your point this round, what I think has been so powerful between both of us is, I think sometimes when you're the founder, it's great to give vision, but sometimes it's hard to

be the only person, at least for myself and my team and in other teams I coach, sometimes having to be all of it is hard. And when they hear it from a different perspective, like, love that you're a male, I'm a female, we bring two different energies to the table. When we're going through the meeting, I rally them up and then I ask Jason to share about the vision because I think it's so important for teams to really get behind you. You set the North Star for it.

The Dental A Team (09:24.354)

But then it's also, they're hearing it from multiple facets as well, which I think helps the team. Like you'll hear things that I'm not hearing. I'll hear things that you're not hearing. We're coming together. Cause at the end of the day, we want these teams to win and flourish. but I also think the relationship we've built over the last seven years helps us really jive on that. And I think coming to the table, we were very aligned on, on values already. And so I think when you're looking at coaches and doctors, like, are you aligned? Because I think it would have been hard if I'm always pushing production and you're pushing culture.

that's not gonna mesh. And so making sure that you two are aligned, I think when you're guiding a team and we've really ripped it off of each other, I think in a really great way, because I know where you wanna go. And honestly, I love your team so much. mean, they've had babies, they've grown, they've evolved. And it's really fun for me to see these cultures and these teams talk about numbers and get an ownership mindset, but they didn't start there. And we've like really grown them through. But I mean, even today we were talking with a team about profitability and to teach them.

how to look at P &Ls and teach them about numbers and to think like owners. I think the light bulb moment was when our first meeting this week, you have an office manager. How long has Megan been in her role? She's been with me for, it's gotta be almost 15 years. And she's been the office manager of our flagship office, our biggest office for gotta be seven, eight years maybe. Megan.

if and when you listen to this, I'm very off in those guesses, I apologize. That's why I write things down so I don't have to remember them. But the reality is she's just an amazing key part of what we're trying to do. Totally. And what I loved about Megan this meeting, because I watched her when she came into the OM role, was she said, hey,

what about this? This is me thinking like an owner. And she questioned something that was going on within their practice of how is this going to hit my PNL? How's this going to impact her profitability? And honestly, I felt like both you and I probably saw like fireworks go off because she gets it. She understands that she thinks about the numbers. She thinks about the profitability. She thinks like an owner. And I think her decisions are much stronger and much sounder because she's coming from that viewpoint. But like, again, it took time.

The Dental A Team (11:36.088)

But I really love Jason that you are so passionate about growing your team into these incredible leaders and they know where you want to take them. And I love that in all the meetings you've said, this is our reason, this is why we exist. This is selfishly what I want to do. And if that doesn't align with you, that's okay. And I think giving teams permission of if they're not aligned with you, you'll help them find another job, but this is what we're doing and we're really passionate about it. And it's been really, really awesome to see the teams gravitate towards that and learn and ask the questions.

I think that's something I've learned from you over my years. You do a good job of making a safe space for them and we work on that every time of trust and vulnerability, saying the things, asking the questions, giving the clarity so that way they can really be empowered to make decisions and grow their own practices. And truth be told, of all six of them, no meeting is the same. No teams winning statements are the same. No teams objectives, the rallying cries. None of them are the same. None of them have the same metric issues. Like they all are very individualized and giving them the empowerment.

to figure out what they want and guiding them. But really they set the stage and I think that that's what buys them into the culture and also to the practices. Yeah, so much to unpack there. So we're here. That's why we have you now all the time in the world, Jason. We could not do this earlier. He was stressed. I could feel it from him. like, let's go. He's like, hold on, hold on. Yeah. need more time. Yeah, I can't stop me sweating, right? Man, where do I start? There's so much.

So much wisdom in what Kiera just said. So first off, I do think that there's a tremendous amount of value in having quarterly meetings and figuring out a way to get out of the whirlwind and work on the business and set it in it. I also think there's value in bringing in a independent party for lack of a better term, because they get to see it with a new objectivity that

maybe you are not seeing it with because you're constantly caught in the storm. Now you might be at where you can't afford something like that, or you may be at a point where you feel like you can do it better yourself, whatever it is, you're going to ultimately work through those pain points and those issues. And I would suspect that you come out the other end realizing that I need someone to help facilitate this, someone that's not so attached to it personally. Yeah, I'll never forget.

The Dental A Team (13:59.962)

you know, we'll go on a little tangent here. So we used to do, anonymous surveys with the team. This is one of the first times that Kiera ever came to our, one of our quarterlies to help us. And at the quarterly, we used to unpack the results of these anonymous surveys. And this was an anonymous survey for a particular office. And we were getting a lot of what back then I would call negative. Nowadays I would call constructive feedback regarding a specific employee.

And everyone at the table was trying to spin it in a way where, yeah, but she's still able to do this or she's still able to do that. And we were like basically lying to ourselves about the situation. And Kiera would just be, you know, in the corner, just listening intently, not saying anything. And then after everyone had a chance to kind of sell their side of the story, Kiera's like, look, guys, here's the deal. Like, and I don't know this person and I'm not attached to this person.

But based on all of the feedback that you guys are giving me and based on what I'm hearing other people in the practice say, this is a horrible culture fit and you need to let her go. And we're like, you're right. But we were like, we all have this story that we were like telling ourselves because we were like in the situation. It's like the forest through the trees analogy. And to have someone that really has no, now Kiera loves us and has ties to us, but really has no like.

like emotional ties to what we're doing that can just give her wisdom with a level of objectivity that just we were lacking at the time. that's the first point. Like whenever you can bring someone independently in, just think it resonates better. And it's kind of like the classic parenting situation that my wife, Karen and I are always talking about. So I can parent my teenage son till I'm blue in the face and telling him life lessons and what to expect and what have you.

and he can just ignore me for a litany of reasons. But my next door neighbor will say the same thing to him and he's like, that's a good point, I'll consider that. And I'm like, what? I've been telling you that for a year. And so sometimes your team just needs to hear it from a different source. Yeah, and I think that I remember that meeting too. And I think my role, I take it very seriously, of like my job is to not come in and fire people or.

The Dental A Team (16:24.283)

do anything crazy like that. But my job is to truly be that person that isn't in it day in and day out and to give that perspective that ultimately is gonna help them win. And I think that's defining what winning looks like and really knowing that I care about all of them as people and as a business and as an organization that I know is doing great things. I think you also have to have somebody who's willing to speak up like that too in a gentle manner that really gives them the clarity and the guidance. At the end of the day, they get to make the decisions and I might be off base, but.

I think it really has been this building of being able to say, is this maybe a paradigm shift that we could look at? And I know we did quite a bit of that this week with the offices, which is really fun with Jason and I being able to riff with each other because again, maybe they've heard it from Jason so many times in the organization, me parroting it or saying it in a different way. It just sometimes will click with people. And sometimes what I say, think resonates. Jason, again, our ultimate goal is to help them win. And neither of us, mean,

I think both of us do a good job of not having the ego. We just come to the table. What I mean, it's been worked on. I remember when I first came in, I felt like I had to just be the best for you guys and I had to be this incredible consultant. like, I needed Jason to tell me I got all my gold stars. And that was my ego serving rather than coming in. And my job is to just do the best for this team. Your job is to come in and do the best for this team and to help this team flourish. There's no ego associated with it. It's really...

How can we give them the guidance and the clarity they need to be able to truly flourish and have fun doing it and to be successful? it's, I mean, you guys have rolled out. What I love about you guys is you will constantly change and evolve and we're asking questions. So post meeting, like, how did that go? What did we learn? What did we learn about the organization? And mad kudos to you and Amy. That's why I think I love coming is you're never die hard. This is what we're doing. You'll have, we'll have the healthy conversations. We'll have the debate. We'll go back and forth, but.

end all, be all, you'll try things and see if they work because you want everybody to win. And I think that that's something so powerful that I think if leaders can learn that and they can learn to set their egos aside and they can learn like there are things being said that we need to take on and try or do things differently. I think it helps a lot. And honestly, I learned so much in all these quarterlies listening to you, listening to your team. I'm constantly writing little notes for myself. But I think it's just being around people that elevate you and lift you up and

The Dental A Team (18:45.206)

bringing the best out of your teams just is such a fulfilling experience. And I think that's why we love doing these quarterlies because you see the teams evolve quarter after quarter after quarter and just get better and better. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think one of the common themes with this last round of quarterlies was just an emphasis on communication, an emphasis on what we call going into the storm and

you know, having each one of us give permission to the team that we want feedback. We want to be told that we're doing a good job. And if we're not doing a good job, it's, it's not that we're intentionally trying to do a bad job. It's just, I'm doing things how I thought they were supposed to be done, either based on my experiences or my training or what have you.

And if I'm not doing a good job, like, let me know. Like, I deserve to know, I need to know. And the only way that this practice is really going to win is if you give me that feedback and I'm receptive to it and I can grow from it. It's such a paradigm from where I think a lot of dental practices are maybe that are not as far along the journey where the founder or the doctor is so worried about new patients and production and we got to do this, we got to do that.

Which is all important, don't get me wrong, but like it's crazy because we're bigger than most organizations and over the last year we just been doubling down on communication. it's, it's, we're having our best year ever, our most profitable year ever. And it's without a, like this crazy emphasis and well, you have to do this for new patients and you have to do this for turning over the room, like all important. Don't get me wrong. But when, when you just double down on

the communication and just making sure people feel heard and making sure that you're giving honest and sincere feedback, making sure you're going into the storm and having these conversations. Like from that mindset, we have exponentially grown. And this is the first set of quarterlies where it was literally discussed at every meeting and not necessarily us bringing it up. Like team members bring it when, when creating an issues list, the team will say,

The Dental A Team (21:01.496)

I wish someone would give me more feedback. I wish that I had more clarity on if I'm doing a good job or we didn't hear those things a couple of years ago because we weren't making it nearly as much of a point of emphasis as we are now. I agree. I think like if I go back to a few quarterlies, I remember I came to the meeting, Jason and I had not prepped this. I knew kind of the direction he wanted to go. I always try to bring something that I think will facilitate opportunities.

And I remember talking about Patrick Lencioni's five dysfunctions of team and you started giggling and the whole team started giggling and they're like, did you two talk before? And the answer was no, but we both knew like this is how we build it. And as it's morphed over the years, I think your winning triangle is a beautiful way. But what I think we've done really well and mad kudos to you guys is you talk about going into the storm. And I think when people look at that pyramid, they feel like, yeah, yeah, trust and vulnerability is important.

But like we want to win. And so we spend a lot of time up here like winning in the metrics where we really hit an emphasis of like, how do we get that trust and vulnerability? And like every quarter, it's a constant conversation of how do we develop more trust and vulnerability? How do we get more of those conversations? And something that I thought was so interesting that's come up in a couple of the meetings this round are the team says that, yeah, but this like, this wasn't the culture and other practices.

and that's why I'm afraid to speak up. And I started thinking about that and ruminating on it as we've been going through each office, realizing that society kind of trains us to like, don't speak up. I was even talking to my husband last night and I just noticed like, he gave me an example from his hospital and I was like, like what, you can't really coach your spouse all the time. You gotta like make sure you do it delicately. And I just, thought, gosh, this is a great opportunity for you to go into the storm and have that.

But when teams aren't taught that, that's what I love about doing it with the teams and coaching the teams and helping them in the smaller practices, is they're all hearing the same thing. We're all giving each other permission to have feedback and to have trust and vulnerability and teaching them how to have the conversations and how to receive it. Because at the end of the day, Jason, I'm sure you will say the same thing of all the practices we coach, the number one thing I hear from every practice consistently is communication. Like that is the number one issue that comes up. And so if you can teach them how to have

The Dental A Team (23:18.746)

trust and vulnerability, go into the storm, have the conversations and have it be something where we're not confrontational, but truly it's a conversation to get like, we're on the same team, let's figure this out. I love the analogy you had of the sports team and how they call out the shots, they call out the plays to make us so we can win and helping teams realize like in a day-to-day basis, we do that together and making that their daily life and they're like building that skillset for them.

I'm excited because yes, it will help the practices flourish, but also these team members are elevating to levels they didn't even know because now they can communicate better in their personal lives. They can communicate better with their family and their friends. And it just elevates them to this whole new level of life. I know when I started learning, like have those uncomfortable conversations, have those growth conversations, like have them quicker and not delay them. Cause as you've mentioned multiple times this week, when we delay those conversations, it's truly not benefiting anybody. The dental system doesn't hear it.

the front office isn't here, the patient didn't have a great experience. The only person that benefited was realistically my ego, which ultimately is selfish. And not that I'm doing it intentionally to be selfish. I think we do try to have it in the realm of being kind, but being kind is also clear and having those conversations so people don't feel like they're on eggshells. It's really incredible because if teams can learn to communicate with that, so many things get fixed very quickly because now we're all focused on the same thing.

and having permission for that. Yeah, one of my favorite Ramsey quotes, my listeners will know that I have a man crush on Dave Ramsey. I a lot of it. To be unclear is to be unkind, right? So I think we fool ourselves into thinking like, okay, we just observed so-and-so do something incorrectly, but I don't want to hurt their feelings. So I'll just...

I'll mention something later or you'll, I'll never, I'll sweep it under the rug or I won't, I won't deal with it. And to your point, when you choose not to deal with it, that person doesn't get any better. The business doesn't get any better. The patient experience doesn't get any better. The only person that really experiences, the only person that really benefits from you not having that conversation is you, because you can choose to be selfish and not have to develop the courage to go have that conversation. And when we say,

The Dental A Team (25:38.372)

going to the store and develop the courage to have that conversation. We're not talking about guns blazing, you know, screaming at someone. We're talking about going into that conversation from a position of empathy and curiosity, asking questions with the intention of trying to grow that person. so the business can ultimately get closer to winning. I think it's been fun to give real life examples for practices because handoffs, handoffs are a constant theme that comes up in all practices.

and to show them that like, if we can help them go into the storm and when that handoff doesn't come perfectly to you, that you're then able to ask that person for the feedback you need. And it's crazy, there's one office that you guys have and the office manager is really good at, if it's not a perfect route, slip in a perfect handoff, they don't accept it they do it with love. But that office knows, and we were even talking in your flagship practice, like when the office manager sits up there, everybody brings perfect ones in.

but maybe for other team members, they're not doing that. And giving the team the power, the permission, the ask for it, and helping them just get one or 2 % better, that's one or 2 % better across an entire organization, which elevates us so much more. And I think that that's something I've really loved. Every single quarterly, we really focus on that trust and vulnerability, then the healthy debate, bringing up the issues. And I love, love, love.

when we have new team members that feel safe enough to do it, when we have existing team members that have been with us for a while, but to start to watch them find their voice and realize it's not a problem, it's not an issue. We're just bringing it to the table so we get the data to really make the best decisions. Some of the best things, I think about our meeting last night, I just was adamant, I'm like, I wanna do assisted hygiene. And it's like, where has this been for months?

but she had the voice, she knew she could bring it up and now they're going to hopefully be able to roll out something that hadn't previously been an option for them. And so again, we want that every time, but I think just encouraging that one or 2 % more vulnerable, more trust, more going into the storm, more healthy debate. Jason, I think you guys have done an incredible job in your organization as a whole. And I know that starts with you and Amy, right? You and Amy and Jen, you guys have it consistently. So you're building those muscles. You roll it down to the regionals. You roll it down to the office managers. We roll it down to the teams. We're teaching all the teams.

The Dental A Team (27:52.078)

this is how we communicate here. And somebody have said like, but this wasn't how it was at other offices. And that's where I love when you like, asterisk it and say, at Finger Lake Cental Care, we want it to be a different experience for our team, our patients and our community. And this is what we're doing that's different. Like if this is your vision, join us, cause we want you to be a part of it. Amen. Preach sister. I mean, we've been doing it for like what, three days? So we're pretty, pretty aligned. But Jason, I have a question because-

Selfishly, I'm a caller. Hi, my name's Kiera Dent. I own this consulting company. I coach a lot of dentists. I hear this. But how did you get so crystal clear on where you wanted to go? Because I think I've watched you over the years more and now you're so clear. Why do we exist? It's to serve. I obviously know that that's a piece of who you are and that's what it is. And you can rally that to your team and you can give them the clarity around it. But like,

I think a lot of people go into business because they love dentistry. And then they build these practices because they want to help more people. They're maybe entrepreneurs, they want to do that. But like helping some of the listeners, they might not have the clarity and the experience. Like how did you almost go through that journey to figure out like, this is my legacy, this is where I want to go? Because I'm sure there were times it was hard and you're like, well, maybe this is it. Maybe we sell, maybe I'm done. Maybe you've always had the desire of I want to go. But I even know when I first met you, your goals.

to what your goals are today and like the vision, I actually feel like you shifted, you went away from goals to a vision and a mission, but like how did you go through that journey? Yeah, yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. That's Good thing we didn't have eight This is gonna be a three-part series. So I think whatever you pay attention to, whatever you spend time thinking about, ultimately,

drives behavior. So I got to a point in my life where I was through meditation, through journaling, I was like, well, what am I really doing here? Like, dentists are blessed to have, for the most part, a good lifestyle financially. And I was at a point where, you know, I'm making good money. Like I'm content with this. But I just felt that there was more, there was something more I could be doing.

The Dental A Team (30:17.532)

And where I was at, was struggling to use a metaphor, struggling to get out of bed, right? was like, you know what, like I just need something else to, to drive me. I want to be able to jump out of bed and just tackle the day. And I just currently feel that what I'm doing on a day to day basis is not motivating me enough to want to like really tackle this day through. So through a lot of, you know, books and

in meditation and talking to other people. I ultimately came upon this practice of what Ed Milet calls, who's a popular podcaster. calls his definition of hell and his definition of hell is going through your life, living it a certain way, and then you ultimately pass on to the afterlife. Now, depending what your faith is.

you would ultimately, after you die, you would meet your Maker. So my Maker is Jesus Christ. My faith is an extremely important part of my life. So I go through this exercise where I've passed on and I'm in the process. I'm walking up to Jesus Christ. I'm walking up to meet him for the first time. And next to Jesus is another person. So as I'm getting closer and closer to Jesus, I'm like, who is this other person? Who's this person that's sitting or standing next to Jesus? So I finally get to Jesus and

and we introduce each other face to face, and I say, know, hey Jesus, who is this person next to you? And he looks at me and he says, Jason, this is the person I created you to be. This is the person that when I created you, I expected you to become. And from my perspective, I'm looking at that person and I'm thinking to myself, how close am I to that person? Are we?

identical twins or are we like so unrecognizable that I almost have a sense of guilt for how I live my life. So just going through that practice, I think to myself, who did God create me to be? And everyone's going to have a different answer to that. And the answer that I got through prayer and meditation was God's created me to

The Dental A Team (32:30.69)

have a certain level of influence and impact to as many possible people as I can have. And I can use the platform of dentistry or our business to ultimately facilitate that. with that context and with that backdrop, I'm trying to grow an organization that is ultimately going to give just the highest level of team members, patients, and communities the ability to be influenced by good. So currently we have 150 employees.

And I feel like I'm trying my best to give all 150 of them the best possible job that they can have. Like an outlet to just serve people. And at the end of their day, you know, it's not gonna be perfect every day. It's not gonna be roses every day. But at the end of their day, they just feel a sense of joy and fulfillment that they get to truly serve other people. They get to pour into other people and they can drive home and think to themselves, man, I love what I do. What I do matters.

What I do allows me to take care of my family and all those things, right? So I would love to do that for 300 people. I would love to do that for 500 people. I would love to do that for a thousand people. And then the trickle down effect of that is those thousand employees can serve exponentially more patients at that high level. And then with the profitability of that, we can give back to the community in an irrational way. And I just love that mindset. you know,

Will I ever arrive? Will I ever finish that? Will I ever check that back? No, it's just a journey. It's like, I'm just going to keep plugging away, plugging away, plugging away. And when I do pass on and I do meet the person standing next to Jesus, my hope is he's pretty darn recognizable. My hope is Jesus says to me, you know what? This is what I intended you to do. This is what I created you to do. You know, good job. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that because

I think so many people don't know how to get there. And as you said that I have watched you and something that I really want to highlight is you have your vision, you have your mission. It's beautiful. And that's like actually why I've loved you and I being at the cordolese together. Cause you can say that and you can share that and a team hearing that from their boss, if you will, I think is very powerful. But I also want to highlight you set the vision. You're not doing all the pieces like

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and you really do trust and empower your OMS and the teams to do it. I think it's interesting, we're sitting here together in a podcast because Jason's almost like a ghost. Like he's there, you show up, and then all of a sudden he's gone and he just, he's just gone. Like he says goodbye and he's gone. And so I actually love that I wanna highlight that because I think so many people when they have a vision like this, they feel like they have to be the one to create it. And you realize I need to set the North Star.

I need to get the great people in place. I need to do my role and encourage and empower them to do their role and expect them to do their role so that way we can serve more people. And that's something I have watched you from day one be very good at. But you do it in such a gentle and direct way that I feel like people should really like, are, you set the North Star and then you bring all these people together, but you really do hold them highly accountable for what they need to do.

But it's like in a way, I think there's accountability that can be harsh and judgmental and there's accountability that can be direct and kind. And I think you've done a really masterful job. That's why I love learning from you. That's why I love being here. Because I feel like I get better and it's great that I can help bring something to the table as well. It's because I think that's true leadership mentorship. And I think you, you view yourself as a leader and also a very strong mentor to these people to become the best they can be. Well, I appreciate you saying that. That's the goal, right?

I just want to grow people to a level that they didn't even think possible. with that growth, they can continue this vision, right? And it doesn't necessarily have to be with me. They can do it in their church. They can do it in their kids' schools. I just want them to have the right mindset of like, wow, what I do matters and I can create so much influence and impact on my social circle.

So instead of putting my head in the sand, I'm gonna actually do that. I'm gonna try to create nearly as much influence and impact in my life and my circle as Jason poured into me. And then just the flywheel just continues to gain momentum. Which I think is just incredible and it's fun. I love something else I noticed that I think I would love to highlight because I feel like I get a really beautiful bird's eye view of being in the practices and watching you and seeing the teams come to life.

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I watch you in meetings and you will chime in and you'll paint the vision and then you sit back and you let the team do it. And I think that that is so hard for leaders that have great ideas, but I watch you because you ultimately want them to flourish. You want them to have conversations. And then there's certain times that I watch you and you come in pretty strong of like, well, here's this place or this is what I see or hey, can I give you coaching like in the moment? And I love that you're not afraid to do that, but you also know when to step back and when to jump in.

And I think that that's a learning piece that I've actually been able to watch you like refine over the years to really allow the teams to feel safe, to feel like they can have it. Cause for a long time, I felt like teams did rely on you. They did lean on you like Jason, what should we do? And now I think you've been able to guide them and coach them and teach them how they can do it on their own while also like inserting yourself in the right time when it's necessary for them as well. And I think that's a good leader to know when to speak and when to let them.

And some of them might flounder. I think we watch them set some of their goals and sometimes I'm like, well, I might have chosen something different, but they bought into it. Let's let them run the course and guide them throughout it as well. But truly trusting and believing they're on the right course all the time. 100%. And there's so many cliches out there, but the reality is that allowing people to make their own decisions, giving them boundaries, allowing them to make their own decisions. And if they fail, like,

That's where the true growth comes from. What happened here? What went wrong? And how can I grow from this moving forward? In my opinion, that's really the only way to grow people. So if you're gonna micromanage them and make all the decisions for them, then they're just gonna be a robot. And they're just gonna expect just daily micromanagement from their leader. And that's not what I'm trying to do here. It's so fun and I think people...

I mean, you keep saying, all the major, I care you've heard me say this four or five times. Like we do, we kind of have a similar thing. But we, think it's, you remember to love that office and those people and we give them as if it's our first time having this conversation because they deserve it. Even though you and I have heard it. I mean, we're about to have our sixth run through this, but to just constantly love and pour into them, I think is really amazing. that's kind of, those are my questions. Jason, you got anything for me? I mean, I'm open for whatever you want.

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I have so many questions for I'm ready. I we have like how much time? We've like five minutes. yeah. So our next quarterly is starting in five minutes. So this is real life here. This is real talk. Sitting in this amazing office, they're getting ready. We can hear the chairs right over there. So let me ask this question. And then, you know, we can always come back for a part two. You can be a VIP again on the podcast. I'll bring you back on, Jason. So the talking about vision, the

The Kiera that I met in 2017 was traveling nonstop, bragging is not the right word, but was very proud of the fact that she had been to every continent and in multiple countries. But the Kiera that I know now has a very different goal, very different vision, likes to travel to help people, but not nearly at the cadence that she was doing.

what has occurred in your life that has encouraged you to pivot on that vision. So you're still able to help a lot of people, but not nearly the way that you were to by constantly being in person all over the world. Yeah, great question. That is a lot to unpack. But I think when I started it, it was

I had a very strong desire to help as many people as I could and also want to get as much experience as I could. I felt like to be the best consultant and the best coach, let me go grab as much data and information as I could. And so that was really my goal. Like let me help and serve and be in as many offices. And then after it was at about 250, I started realizing what does our company need from me as a CEO? And the answer was I wasn't there. I wasn't there to set vision.

I mean, I was literally running around the country and having somebody else completely try to run the company. And we started talking in leadership and I'm sure you can relate to this. It just started to realize that while yes, I love consulting, I need to be very intentional with my time to make sure that our company grows in the direction that I want it to grow and our team needs it. And I had to really realize like what my role and responsibilities were to lead and guide our team rather than being constantly on the road. And so,

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I think it was a hard shift because my identity was so wrapped up and I'm this traveling consultant and this is what I do. And I think it was easy for me to stay there because I knew how to do that role well. Whereas being a CEO and setting all these things, that wasn't as, I mean, I didn't go to business school. I just built a business because I wanted to serve and love and help dentists really get the life they wanted and empower their teams as well. And so,

I think I stayed in it maybe a little longer than I maybe would have, but realizing that if I really want to serve an impact on a higher level, and that's in the middle of all my vision boards, it says massive impact, and my goal is to just positively impact and serve as many people as I can, me doing that one-on-one wasn't going to get me to that goal. And so I think similar to you, it's like, you've got to scale back, you've got to get more people, you've got to train more people.

And then also like truth be told lifestyle, traveling that much was really hard for my health. could like, it was hard for me to stay consistent with workouts. I was eating like cake pops. Like I was known as the cake pop queen for so long, like eating so much crap and my body honestly just started to really hurt. And I thought my greatest tool in my toolbox is my body. And if I'm not taking care of this body, it's actually going to limit the amount that I can grow and evolve and help more, more practices truth be told. And so

I think there's probably some wisdom, some maturity, some uncomfortability. mean, I still have the time to do something like, don't even know what a CEO is supposed to do. Like I really have no clue and it feels awkward for me, but I know if I sit here long enough, I'm going to figure it out rather than just doing what's comfortable for me. And so I think maybe I got older, I got a little bit wiser, but realized if I really wanted to go for where I wanted to be and to serve as many people, what I was doing was not serving my family. wasn't serving my health.

And while yes, it was so fun to do it, I felt like there was probably a better way to do it. Yeah. Well said. I've been in similar experience. Like I think as a dentist, it was easy, easier for me to just be in a treatment room, put an implant in, do a root canal. But the reality is I could train up other dentists to do that at a high level, just like you could and have trained up other consultants. And I've experienced them firsthand to do what you're doing at a high level where

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is the one unique ability to use some Dan Sullivan terminology is like casting vision, running a company. And once I decided that that needed to be my responsibility and I could own that, then everything changed. And I would assume that it's been a similar experience for you. It has, it feels rocky. I feel like I'm like a little toddler through that still. It feels shaky. And I also think that that's important to highlight that.

when you realize that's the role for you. I think as we mature in age, we often forget that we need to like fail and to grow and it's going to be uncomfortable and that's actually where we need to be. So many consultants come in and they've been top dogs, they've been regionals, they've been office managers. It's easy for them and they come to consult and it's hard. It's completely different. And I actually think that there's, if we can learn to love that struggle and to

fall in love with the process of becoming who we're ultimately meant to be. I think we go into that storm a lot faster and a lot sooner, even though it feels awkward and it's okay to say, don't know what I'm doing. I know you guys said that, Amy's like, we didn't know what we were doing. Last year was a little bit different of a year. Like we're all learning. But I think the more you encourage that, become that, get more comfortable being uncomfortable, and I know that's so cliche, people say that. The only way you get like comfortable being uncomfortable is get yourself uncomfortable. I think that that, I think that's why you and I jive because

We both know what we need to do. And I love coming and learning from you. You push me. My goal every time is to say something that makes Jason go, I had never thought that way. And I did it this time a couple of times, which I so I think it's like also surround yourself with people that are aligned, which is why I so continue to see you. I've cut back the people I see. I love them, but I'm intentional with what are the offices I'm going to go participate and consult.

because ultimately I want to keep growing myself and growing those offices, surrounding myself with people that I really admire and really respect on their leadership and come home so fulfilled to be a better leader. Because it's hard sometimes to stay that strong leader, but being around people like that's why I'm so happy you guys get to see us together. This is very rare that I actually podcast with a person in person. But to be able to see that, to be around it, I think fuels my soul and gives me encouragement because

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Every time I've met you, Jason, I'm not the same person. You're not the same person. Our lives are not the same of where they were. So even if we said the same thing we said six months ago or two years ago, we're different people. So we're going to pick up different gems and keep evolving. And ultimately my goal is to grow with you and with your organization, myself and also my skills to constantly be able to serve at a higher level and serve more offices as well. Amen.

All right, that's a wrap. That's a wrap. I don't know how you end yours. I usually let my editor end it. How do you end yours? just copy. usually say, I obviously like thanks for having the convo. It was fun. agree. I agree. I love I love in person. I love the conversation. I can share information on Kiera's contact information. I'll share it in the show notes, some links and stuff like that.

But yeah, thanks for listening. Yeah, and I'll share links about Jason and I told you I'm so glad you have a podcast the world needs more Dentists and leaders like Jason and so just thanks for being here and as always thanks for listening We'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast and the Dental Lighthouse podcast. Thanks guys