If there is one thing that has been consistent with me, it is that I am always doing a lot of things. I run my dental practice. I see patients. I run Delivering WOW. I do Facebook marketing.
And I want to do my best in all those areas. I work hard to be the best business owner, dentist, and marketer I can be. I implement best practices, hire coaches, outsource, delegate, join mastermind groups, and more.
But at the beginning of 2018, I decided to take things to a whole new level. I set a big goal to grow my dental practice by 40%—in just one year—and all while working only one day a week.
I knew it would be hard, but I also knew it was possible as long as I applied the best business lessons I have learned. Here are those lessons.
Shifting to a “How Can It Be Done” Mindset
Had I asked myself, “How can I grow my practice by 40%,” I would be looking for ways that involved me working harder. That was not my goal. In fact, I wanted to grow by 40% while working only one day a week. So, I shifted my thinking from “How can I grow my practice by 40%” to “How can growing my practice by 40% be done.”
That simple shift took the focus of achieving the goal off of me. That mindset was important for me because I have a history of wanting to do everything myself. I wanted to be in charge of everything myself. I wanted things done my way.
But I realized there was only so much I could do. If I needed to have my hands in everything, much less would get done. When I shifted to a “how can it be done” mindset, I started looking for things my team could do to achieve that goal. I also started focusing on what processes I could create to make it easier to empower my team to help achieve that goal.
How the “How Can it be Done” Mindset Helps Make the Impossible Possible
Another benefit for the “How can it be done” mindset shift is that it makes the impossible seem possible. If I had asked, “Can I grow my practice by 40% in one year while only working one day?” a perfectly natural response would be “no.” But a yes or no answer to “How can my practice grow by 40% in one year with me working only one day?” feels unnatural. Our brains do not respond that way.
Asking, “How can my practice grow by 40% in one year with me only working one day?” tricks your brain to assume what you want to achieve is possible for just a moment. That is often all we need to get our creativity working for us.
In my case, when I asked, “How can the practice grow by 40% in one year with me only working one day?” my answers became clear:
- I would have to be very strategic about making having team members know what they needed to focus on to grow.
- I would need to get accountability tools in place.
- I would need to identify the key metrics that result in massive growth.
- I would need each team member to take ownership of one key metric.
My mind filled with answers that made the impossible seem possible. Once I wrote down all my ideas, I started implementing. I explored how I could create processes and use the people on my team to be able to achieve the growth I wanted.
I committed to getting out of the way, becoming a true leader in my practice, and empowering my team to perform. I put accountability tools in place to help people stay on track. The impossible suddenly became very possible.
The Results of My 40% Dental Practice Growth Challenge
Many people who hear about me wanting to grow my practice by 40% in one year while only working one day per week think I am crazy—at least until they hear the results. So, how did it work?
We did it! Some months were better than others. Some months were incredible. But after shifting from my instinctive “how can I” way of thinking to “how can it be done,” the seemingly impossible became possible—and then got done.
Are you ready to grow your dental practice more in the next year than you ever dreamed possible?
While my results might seem extreme, I was not alone in achieving massive growth last year. While putting my 40% growth plan together, I challenged my Inner Circle mastermind members to do the same. Throughout the year, we walked alongside each other, step by step as we all worked to grow our practices by 40%.
We shared systems, processes, tools, and strategies to produce more while working less, without losing sight of our culture and practice vision. And we were excited to celebrate with many of our Inner Circle members who accepted the challenge and achieved similar results.
Remember, when it is not about “Can I” but “How can it be done,” the answers appear and the impossible becomes possible.
To learn more about implementing systems and processes to boost productivity in your practice, check out the leadership and tools tracks in Dental Profit Academy.
You can also join my free Dental Marketing and Profits Facebook group, where thousands of dentists and I help each other build better practices.
This article originally appeared on DeliveringWOW.com.