A practice won’t truly thrive until its team members are aligned and attached to your company’s purpose. Tiff and Kristy go into what it takes to gain collective buy-in from those who keep your practice humming, including being reminded of fundamental desires, embracing vulnerability, understanding motivators, and a ton more.
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Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:00)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I'm so excited for you to be here today. You know, I'm
always excited. I love podcasting. I have loved doing this over the course of all of the years that Kiera and I have been putting these out. They are so much fun. It is so cool to reach you guys and it is amazing to get the time in with our consultants. And I'm bringing her live to you, well not live, I guess. It's live for me. It's recorded for you. But I'm bringing her all this month for you because...
We just busted them out in one day, if I'm honest with you, Kristy. Thank you for being here. Thank you for blocking your afternoon for podcasting with me. And I'm excited for this topic. How are you and how excited are you for this topic?
The Dental A Team (00:41)
Excited and I'm doing well. It's not 49 degrees in the morning. It's actually 71 here Oh 72 now, so know that's a little chilly to us, but I'm excited the sun's shining and We get our time together. So I'm excited
The Dental A Team (00:49)
?
That's fair. I love walks and I was doing morning walks until like mid December and I was like, I can't, I don't know if it's because I'm an Arizona girl or if it's because I have, you know, thyroid stuff and Hashimoto's, but that chill, as soon as it hits my body, I'm done for. You don't want to be around me. You don't want to know me. And so I have not been going outside in the morning nor later in the evening because that Arizona desert does something
different when that sun goes down. So very happy to hear 71. Those are my, I really, think my sweet spot is like 73 to 76. That's my ideal. So if we can find a place that's always 73 to 76, I say we jet. That's where we're going. We just stay there.
So I love this topic today because, I mean, I love every topic we go through, because you tend to really spin it for me and make everything fun. ? But I love the emotional side of life and the buy-in side, and today really talking about how to get teams bought into your big why. And I like that because I love purpose. I like everyone to have a purpose. And I think when a practice owner
knows what they're after, they have their purpose, it allows the team to then see their purpose within that that why within the owner's purpose. And we actually talked about this a little bit. Now that I say that, it's like I've repeated that we talked about this at the Mastermind in September. And it was actually fun. Anyone who was there will hopefully remember maybe recap will remind you. But Kira was talking we were talking about
writing their why's like what are they doing? What's their purpose? And Kiera spoke about hers and it was really really emotional because Kiera and I get emotional
it was fun to see for her how her
purpose and her why came to life when she spoke about it because I think it morphed a little bit as she was saying it but then it was really fun because she was able to see how my purpose
is fulfilled within her purpose in that I think for owners, it's scary to think that your team has a drive or a why or a want, and it can feel like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. And if they have their own thing, they're gonna leave. And some of them will, that will happen. I've seen, I had a practice.
The Dental A Team (03:34)
Hmm.
The Dental A Team (03:39)
She was there in September. She'll remember, she'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I had a practice, I went, we did a stellar meeting. ? it was so much fun. So much fun. She has the best practice, she has the best why. She's just an incredible human. Two days later, ? she had a team member quit because she wanted to open up her own business and she wanted to do hair. And the inspiration from talking about why's and talking about what are we doing with our lives.
prompted her to quit and start a hair salon. She just, I was like, I am sorry and not sorry at the same time. So it can happen. And I think that's the fear for a lot of people. But watching Kira open up and then watching Kira get so emotional over how my why and my purpose is fulfilled within what I do, within my position.
The Dental A Team (04:15)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (04:33)
it was like something morphed and changed for her and we all got to see it as like this butterfly effect. But I say that because I can't, I can have my own purpose and my own why, we all do. But when you can see how it aligns with the company that you're working with and how you can serve your purpose and your why within the job that you're in, that's really cool. And I think Kristy, for me at least,
personally as a team member, that helps keep me tethered to the job. Because if I don't know what the why is, where we're going, what are we growing for, why are we tracking these numbers, like what's the big deal, and I just wanna help people, I'm gonna move on until I find my place. And the find your place is being in alignment and being attached to the purpose that your company is serving and driving.
And that was a really long-winded way of introducing the topic. But I thought as soon as I said those things, I was like, oh my gosh, the September event. And so I hope all the doctors listening who were at the September event remember, because it was a really magical time for Dental A Team. And for those of you coming to future events, just buckle up, because there's always something really cool attached. But Kristy, passing the mic over to you, what are your thoughts? And really gaining team member buy-in, what do you?
What did I prompt for you in all of those words I just spewed?
The Dental A Team (06:02)
Yeah. Yeah, and
all those words.
Tiff,
I know we were talking numbers earlier, so hopefully they were listening to that too, but the numbers are our gauge, but the buy-in has to be emotional. It's gotta be vulnerable and it's gotta go back to why you do what you do. Like, why'd you get into dentistry? And doctors why maybe, I mean, you said it, doctors why may be different than team members, but.
I venture to say almost every one of us that got into dentistry have some sort of passion for caring, you know? And we gotta get back to the root of that. And we even talked about ? finances and getting to the emotional why. It's no different. If you want our teams to be bought in, you've gotta get to your emotional why. And you doctors have to be the North Star in that.
You can have leadership teams, right? But they've got to be very clear on the why. And it doesn't mean that our direction won't change, because it could change. But that intentional, why do you do what you do? Why do you wake up and get out of bed? We have to identify that.
The Dental A Team (07:17)
I love that. You're spot on. And something shifts and changes, I think, for a person when they key in on that. And it's not just going with the motions. We can go through the motions in life very easily. And I think you finish high school and you go to undergrad and you go to school and you go to whatever. You go through dental school. You become a dentist. You do the thing and then you buy the practice. And it's like you get there and you're like, why did I do all that?
Right? They forget. They forget why they did the thing. And I listened to a Simon Sinek thing not too long ago. Well, you know, I love listening to him, his speeches. But one thing that he's been able to key in on for purpose is going back to your high school self. Because in high school really is when we decided what we wanted to do and we tagged it to a work.
like to a physical thing, like what is the job we're going to hold? But somewhere in there, our high school self wanted to serve a purpose and we attached the job to that purpose. So if we can kind of think back to our high school self and really think what did we love? What inspired us? What did we like doing? Where did we feel the most fulfilled and satisfied at that age?
that helps figure out what it was that you're intending to do in life. What is that purpose? Because the purpose isn't, this might rock a few of you, the purpose isn't to do the best dentistry in Kentucky and have smiles that last forever. That's not why you're here. You were not put on this earth to.
Do fillings you might be doing fillings, but that's the actionable piece. That's the what? but what's the why and We actually Kristy shared this recently with a client and Really like I feel like this kind of work on your purpose your your emotionally driven purpose is What can? re-inspire dentists
who might feel like they don't know what they're doing anymore. Why am I even here? Why did I become a dentist? Or teams that are like, what are we doing? Why are we pushing? What are we even after? But that emotionally driven why you can see where in your purpose, the what that you're doing, the job that you're doing, might be satisfying and fulfilling that space.
The Dental A Team (10:05)
Wow, that was big. And yeah, you're absolutely right. We just went through this exercise and when you start feeling burnt out, it's great time to go back and revisit that why to reignite that fire and remember why you're doing it because you are going to go through the ebb and flow and the hard times to get there. But when you can let that be your burning desire in your gut, the rest of it's going to fall back into place. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (10:33)
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you. I love all of this work. It's part of like who I am as a human is to help people figure out the inspiration that makes them love what they do every day. That is what I said in September. is my purpose is to inspire people to love what they do in life. So this stuff lights me up. Like I know I'm in my purpose when I get to talk about this stuff. So that's very easy. But how do you
Once we key in on that, Kristy, how do you suggest or coach doctors in sharing that with the team? Because it is incredibly vulnerable, especially when you figure out that your purpose has nothing to do with dentistry. Dentistry is the engine behind the purpose, a lot of, we talked about this earlier too, a lot of people are afraid to share those kinds of things. They're afraid to share the numbers, they're afraid to...
The Dental A Team (11:13)
it is.
The Dental A Team (11:27)
It's scary to be vulnerable and it's scary, it can be scary to inspire a team to want their own purposes too, again, because you don't, you're like scared they're gonna leave or go start a hair salon. But what do you, how do you coach them on that and how to be vulnerable?
The Dental A Team (11:46)
Yeah. Well, I think it's funny that you said the hair salon, first of all, because that person can be a great referral source back to the practice. So it might not be all bad. That too. Yeah. And with that being said, it is vulnerable. And what's coming to my mind is how many times do
The Dental A Team (11:50)
I do too.
That's fair. I was thinking that was the opposite of you. ?
The Dental A Team (12:11)
And again, doctors, I'm not trying to pick on you, but how many times do they come to us and say, they're just here for a paycheck?
The Dental A Team (12:18)
Mm. All the time.
The Dental A Team (12:21)
And maybe we shouldn't make that wrong.
The Dental A Team (12:24)
Yeah, I say
that. ? my gosh, yes, drop the mic. I say that all the time. We are here for a paycheck. We have to pay our bills.
The Dental A Team (12:28)
Yeah.
Yeah, and doctors paying something too, which means I think my soft spot goes back to sometimes doctors are afraid to say they're doing this for a quality of life or a legacy of life that they're going to leave and it is tied to money. And I don't think we need to be shameful of that anymore. I truly don't. And I think we need to give permission because even if I am here for a paycheck, that doesn't mean I'm going to serve differently. Right.
? It's okay and let that be the motivator because if they're getting that, they may serve even better.
The Dental A Team (13:13)
Yeah, yeah, and you made me think of to speak to all the team members who are listening. For me, when I hear that somebody wants to a legacy or a legacy dental practice where their kids, if they decide to be dentists, can come be dentists, like this lifestyle, I want this lifestyle for my family. Well, I'm helping serve that I'm helping provide that. And in turn,
I'm also growing. I'm also reaping benefits of them succeeding. So I would much rather work for a doctor who's driven to keep going and keep growing than someone who's like, we're just here to do the fillings. Like cash your check, because I'm like, are we though? Are we going to be here in a year? Like is this stable? The doctor who's like, yeah, I want to build a legacy and I want to impact this community and my family in
XYZ ways. I'm like, cool, you're bought in. That means this is stable. I can get bought in on that because my family is going to grow as your family grows. And I can see myself here for a long time. And I think that's that team buying and that vulnerability of this is why I'm here because I'm here to serve my family. I'm here to pay my bills. I'm here to make sure Brody goes to college. I'm here to make sure that he has everything that he wants and desires. Ask my
The Dental A Team (14:16)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (14:42)
checking account. That is my goal. Brody is happy and it's served by doing things like this. And if I want my goal, if my goal is to leave a legacy and be the entrepreneur who leaves a legacy for my family, that people can pick up that business and they don't have to work for anyone, then that's going to look different. I'm going go open a hair salon. I'm going to go do that thing. But I'm going to do that regardless of you telling me.
The Dental A Team (14:44)
you
The Dental A Team (15:10)
your purpose and your why, it's gonna happen no matter what. So don't be afraid to share it, just know you're serving, you're providing a space where people can grow. Whether they grow with you forever or they grow to a place where they're like, cool, I can go do that thing that I've always wanted to do, that's incredible. You got somebody to a point where they could go fulfill their life dreams, holy cow.
That's really freaking cool. And hopefully in the meantime, in the middle of that, you guys built some awesome systems that somebody can come in and learn. Because not everything's a guarantee, but the way you said that, Kristy, is just spot on. That vulnerability piece and allowing the team to decide if that's what they're here for or not, instead of leaving in the shadows, never speaking of it, and hoping that they stay anyway.
The Dental A Team (16:05)
Yeah. How many times have you, I mean, I haven't worked at a lot of jobs, so I'm pretty loyal to my jobs, but for people that have gone, and I've interviewed people and hired people, so I'm speaking to myself in this too, but how many times have we shared our why in that process?
You know, and it all starts there. And you said something before, the what. The what may be getting to three million this year. And that's all we ever hear instead of the why. If we hear the why, then we can get behind the what. And then I like to say the core values just serve as how we behave to get to the why.
The Dental A Team (16:48)
Yes.
Yes, yes, I love that because oftentimes core values are how we like how they want the community to view us. And so, you know, where we have integrity and we do great dental care and we have your dental, ? your dentistry in mind and your dental health and is our is our heart. I'm like, I don't know how to show up to that. I don't know how to I don't know how to exude your dental health is my heart because it's not I don't.
I'm not here, I think dentistry is really cool, but I didn't go to dental school because I don't want to be a dentist. So that's spot on. It's hard to know what we're aiming for and what we're going for if we don't know the why or the what. A lot of times we're not trying the what either. So if we don't know what our goals are, if we don't know what our inspiration is, I tell people all the time, motivation is short lived. I can motivate you for a short amount of time, but if I can inspire you, inspiration lives inside of you.
Motivation comes and goes, it dies. It dies. That's why gym, you know, people who aren't inspired to go to the gym, they're not inspired by the change that the gym can make in their lives, like the steak, right? We talked about the steak and having ? an all-on-four so we can eat a steak. If there's not inspiration tied to the health, the motivation to get up and go to the gym will die. It will fade. Every January, you're gonna be re-motivated to start the gym again. But if there's not inspiration living inside of you,
to be healthier, it will die off. So if I'm not inspired by the work that I'm doing, which if I'm doing new patient intake forms, like give me something to be inspired about. that's, you know, this can get really boring. Insurance verifications, why am I doing this? What difference does it make? Give me some inspiration so that I can attach to that and then give me the path of how I show up and live it every day. Those are your core values. So you need your
your mission vision, your why, what are we, why am I here, your inspiration, and then how do I show up to that?
The Dental A Team (18:55)
I agree with you 100%. And I think you said something that we failed to realize. I wish I could remember the name of the book now, but there was one and he treats people that have heart attacks. And he's like, if you think I could motivate people, I should be able to motivate people because they're at best door, right? And I'm gonna try to get them to change eating or this.
The Dental A Team (19:06)
Okay.
Yes.
The Dental A Team (19:20)
they do for two weeks or two months because they remember what it was like to have a heart attack, but then they go back to the behavior. So even when we're faced with our own mortality, you just, I mean, it proves like we, it lives and dies. Yeah. Yep.
The Dental A Team (19:36)
We're complacent.
Yeah, muscle memory sets in and it's easier to stay where you're at even in uncomfortableness. And even if your life is uncomfortable, it's easier to stay here than to make the change because you don't know what's on the other side of change. It's an unknown. You can't quite even imagine it or what you imagine you can't guarantee is going to happen. So it's easier to stay in the uncomfortable because it's what you know. There's no questions. It's gonna stop.
It's uncomfortable. It's easier to stay here and even face your own mortality than to say, okay, I'm gonna do this thing and whatever happens on the other side, I'm okay with, because that's scary.
The Dental A Team (20:17)
Yep.
Well, I think the other thing, Tiff, that we failed to really tap into is you recognize it and you do it once. And how many times do we get with our clients and we're like, what is your what? Well, it's written down somewhere or it's in the drawer. Like you've got to revisit it and make it come alive or you just forget. And it's not front and center. And then that's when you get the burnout. And that's when you, you know, we've got to get back to that core and revisit it. So
I challenge you every time you have a team meeting, bring it up, talk about it. How are we living it? What are we doing that's in alignment with that and serving it? Because that's what's gonna inspire you to keep going. And so often, as a leader, that's one of my favorite things. How inspiring are you being in this moment? How inspiring am I being if I'm squatting, you're not doing this, you're not doing that. That's not inspiring change.
We talk about it all the time in hygiene. You say you're not flossing every day. Well, no, I just told you I'm not flossing. That's not inspiring me to floss every day. Right? So again, I just think putting a little spin and making sure you know your buy-in and then also revisit it. Don't put it in a drawer. ? I once learned, and again, I apologize where I don't have the statistic behind me.
The Dental A Team (21:25)
Yeah. Yeah.
resource.
The Dental A Team (21:45)
They say, or resource, yeah, they say if you state your goal, you're a certain percentage ? to achieve it. Is it James Clear? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe give them credit with credits on it. With that though, if you write it down, you're even exponentially higher. And if you say it, write it down and share it with somebody even more so.
The Dental A Team (21:55)
I think so. Yeah. It might be atomic habits.
The Dental A Team (22:14)
And then if you revisit it frequently, those are the people that really hit their goals.
The Dental A Team (22:16)
Yeah.
And I challenge you to, you, meaning everyone and even myself, to consider goals that we're not willing to share with other people. It's much easier to tell ourselves that we're gonna do something and then not do it than to tell other people that we're gonna do something and then not do it. We will hold ourselves to a higher level of accountability if we vocalize it to people outside of ourselves, because we're okay to lie to ourselves. I'm okay. I'm okay to have.
low personal integrity until I can't take that anymore, until it hurts too much, but I won't do that public facing. So I encourage you guys to evaluate that to us there. Is there an unspoken goal that maybe if we just said it out loud and wrote it down and had some accountability partners around us, would we actually do it? Just like I said, I was gonna do a pull-up and let me tell you how many times Erin asks me if I've practiced for it.
The Dental A Team (22:51)
Yeah.
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (23:14)
You know?
The Dental A Team (23:14)
I love it. You know, Tiff, I had a client one time that ? she wrote, she was in a pretty tough spot financially and she wrote a check to herself, pulled it out a few years later and I mean, granted, visited through the way, did some of the things we talked about, but pulled it back out and it was like, holy cow, that she thought that was so undoable.
The Dental A Team (23:27)
Mm, I love that.
The Dental A Team (23:42)
and then it was surpassed. So challenge, I challenge our listeners.
The Dental A Team (23:44)
? Yeah.
Yeah, I like it. Thank you. This was a fun. These are my favorite. You know that these are my favorite topics and I love having someone who's of the same mindset and I guess path of leadership. We listen to so much stuff and so many people and read so many books. So I love bouncing this stuff with you, Kristy. Thank you. And I think if we summed it up, I would say the biggest the action item from today is to sit down.
and get in touch with your purpose. And no, I know, Kristy, we've talked to a few clients, but specifically a client we worked with together that we had to stress that it's not perfect. It may not be perfect. It may take you months to really dial it in, but just start. You have to start somewhere. And oftentimes we hold ourselves back because we think we're not ready for perfect yet. It's not done. I don't have it like...
formulated yet. It's not my brain hasn't finished. Well, your brain's not going to finish if you don't get it on paper. Once you get it on paper, it's out of your brain and your brain can then process other things and other things come to light. So that would be my challenge. and Kristy, thank you again for today, for the whole day. Thank you. And thank you for just all of the, all of the light that you shed on this topic in general. think we can.
We can see lot of brilliance in that. So thank you for being here today, Kristy.
The Dental A Team (25:15)
Yeah, thank you for ? having the conversation with me.
The Dental A Team (25:19)
Yeah, it's my favorite. I'll do this all day long. One care is like, what do you love? This is what I love. So how do we do that? But anyways, you guys, know, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. If you are looking for advice, you're looking for guidance. If you're a client, obviously reach out to your consultant. We all dabble in this stuff. We all do the leadership. We all have those paths. And if you're not yet a consultant or someone who's going to be a listener forever, that's
cool too, just know we're here, reach out. We love this stuff, we are passionate about serving the dental community in the best ways possible and reaching as many people as we possibly can. That's why we started the podcast years and years ago. So reach out to us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com Drop us a review below, let us know what you loved about today and honestly, Kristy and I would love to hear from you guys. Again, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, tell them, send this to Tiff and Kristy. We would love to hear from you guys on what is your why?
What is your purpose? What's your inspiration? And how are you gonna use it? I, truth be told, would love to see those emails. I know, Kristy, you would too. awesome. All right, guys, go do the things. Go be inspirational and check back with us. Let us know how your teams do. Thanks so much.