Re-releasing a DAT listener favorite!
News flash: Setting goals for yourself isn’t selfish! In fact, Kiera encourages you to set personal, then professional goals. In this episode, she talks about why it’s important to think about yourself a bit more, why taking personal time helps you AND your team, and the best way to actually set those goals.
Say the things you want to have; be clear about the life you want.
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we are bringing you something so special. I am so excited because this is one of our most popular episodes from the archives. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or catching it again, I am so excited because it's jam packed with a ton of takeaways that you can start using right now in your practice. We have released thousands, literally thousands of episodes. And I wanted to start bringing a few of these amazing episodes back for you. So I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.
on the Dental A Team podcast.
The Dental A Team (00:31)
You guys, I hope today's an awesome day for you. I hope you're doing something great for you. Hope you're loving on your teams, giving them compliments, telling them how great they're doing, being very specific and intentional. And I hope you are just remembering that you are working in the best profession, in my opinion, that you could ever, ever, ever ask for. That's right. I believe that dentistry is the greatest profession any of us could ever work in. And I feel truly blessed and honored that we get to work and serve and
Give back to a community that I am obsessed with. So with that said, guys, please be sure to leave us a review if you have not done so. Yes, I'm talking to you. I don't know your name, but I'm talking to you. Please go leave us a review. I know you've been a podcast listener for so long. Please help us out. Help us grow our podcast and serve and give to to more people. Guys, it's very simple.
Whatever device you're listening to you scroll down to the bottom. There's a spot where you can either write an actual review or just leave the star rating. So please help us out. Keeping us at that five stars and giving back has been really, really beneficial. And then we're able to rank higher on the dental. When people search for dental podcasts, we're able to rank higher and help and serve more people. With that said guys, I want to talk about why as teams and owners, it's important for you to set goals for you.
That's right. I think oftentimes we get so obsessed with setting goals for our practice that we forget that it's okay to set goals for the life that we want to have, for the life and the practice that we want to have. Not the one that we think we should have, but the one we genuinely want to have. What happens with that is so often I was actually just talking to a doctor and he said, you know, I really, really, really want to have where I only work three days a week.
but I'm concerned that that's going to impact the team's goals of being able to grow and produce more since I'm such a strong producer. Okay. Number one, kudos to this doctor for loving on his team so much that he wanted to make sure his team was successful. Also with us Ed, I have found that when you are setting goals for yourself personally, you're much happier and you want to work harder. And also docs, if you just tell us what your goal is, we as team members get to become insanely. Yep. You got it.
innovative. So we get to come up with it like this office. The office manager said, Hey, that's fine if you want to do this, because guess what? That gives us an opportunity to come up with different ways to change our insurances, to look for ways making sure that we have our fees exactly where they actually should be. It's going to eliminate patients who don't want to be paying for the services that we're offering. I love that this office manager took it on as a challenge.
of how she could actually reach the goals that the practice is set while also reaching the goals that the doctor had for themselves. So for you guys, it's really that thought process of how can we actually achieve the goals that we want? Want? Yes, I said it, want. I want you to achieve the goals that you want. ? And so with that said, making sure that you're setting goals for you. Now, sometimes I think that we feel selfish. We feel like, well, who am I to deserve this?
But the answer is you're a person. You're a person of worth. You're a person who actually deserves to have the life you want if you want to have it. Or you can sit in a victim mentality and say, well, this is just the life it's going to be and I have to do this and I have to do that. Well, fantastic. You're welcome to stay in that mindset, but that's actually not true. You don't have to do anything. You get to choose the state of life you live in. You get to choose the state of being that you come to work every day in.
You get to choose those things. Those are things that you have full control over. You also get to determine the goals that your practice sets together. Doesn't mean you'll necessarily reach them, but guess what? You get to set that. You do. You do. And so because of that, make sure that you actually are setting goals that you want to achieve. And don't worry about being selfish. We often have these stories in our head that aren't real. Guys, if you're a doctor who only wants to work two days a week,
Please just say that. Say that because that way we can actually work and create something. We could hire an associate. We could do a lot of different things for you. We just need to know what you actually want. So I recommend setting three personal goals and three professional goals. Yes, tis the season guys for goal setting. I'm obsessed with it. I was just talking with my younger sister and she said, Kiera, I don't know how you have so much passion for setting goals. So if you feel that way too, that's okay.
? but my little sister also told me a few days later, said, Kiera, you ignite thoughts in my mind. You make me think of, should start setting goals. I want to set goals. What am I doing? And she said, so by you saying this, you're actually giving back on such a greater level because she said for me, I don't think like that, but you do. And so if I can actually benefit from listening to you and hearing your passion, I'm then able to set and create goals as well. When that's something that I just don't even think about often.
And I loved that. So I thought, okay, let's talk about this, but really getting into the nitty gritty of being okay, setting personal goals ? of what you really want. So number one, I set three personal and three professional goals every single year at a minimum. This last year I had five of the five, I hit four of the five. The only one I didn't have hit was having a baby. ? we can't get pregnant guys. And it's so irritating to me, but I probably shouldn't have set a goal around something I really don't have full control over.
So, ? but beyond that, I did hit all the goals that we have and it's actually pushing us to go and start on a journey of IVF. If any of you have tips on that, please email me personally guys, it's not professional. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'm super excited. That's our 2022 journey. ? The bottom line is setting those goals. So because I had a goal of having a baby last year, guys, and even though I didn't,
? It forced me to think of the company differently. It forced me to have our entire company work on getting our SOP manual done, of having people learn to run the business so it wasn't completely dependent on me, of getting it more internal and having a team that could do this for me versus it being dependent on me all the time. It was one of the best goals that I set because it forced the company to innovate, create, and go into a different realm than it's ever been before. So that's why it's a paramount, guys.
I hope I'm like drilling this into you to set goals that you actually want. Now, what do you do if you don't know what you
Well, let's just go do a dream session. All right. Let's have you go just dream and imagine of anything and everything you've ever kind of even wanted. I'm talking like silly things. Like I've wanted to have a home cooked meal every day. Like silly things.
Because what it will do is it will start to generate. an activity that I did that you guys can try is I'm going to give you three minutes, one sheet of paper, only one sided. Yes, you heard right. One sided. You can't write on the backside, only the front side. It has to be at eight and a half by eleven. I can see you guys getting huge poster boards, you overachievers. You got three minutes. You can even do it faster. Do it on two minutes. Set that timer for two minutes. Anything that's written on this paper, you will achieve.
If it's not written on this paper, you will not get it for the rest of your life. Yeah, I just made that real serious. The rest of your life. Okay. So it's forcing you to think, I will only get these things if they're written on this piece of paper and I have two minutes to write down what I actually want in life. I don't care if they are materialistic. I don't care if they're relationship. I don't care what the heck they are, but you have two minutes and you get nothing else on this list for the rest of your life.
That's a really good way to get you guys to think about what you actually want in your life. Okay, try it out. Then after that, go around and write one three or 10 years next to this. What is it going to be? Are you going to achieve this in one year, three year, five year, 10 year? Because some of those goals might take a little longer to achieve, but that's a great way to really see what do you actually want. Again, like really play by this. If this is all you are going to get for the rest of your life, the rest of your life, some of you might have a few years left. Some of you might have less time.
or more time, but this is all you're going to get. That's how you can start to see like, do you actually really want in your life? And then from there, that's how we can start to create these personal goals. I write silly goals. I write awesome goals. I write goals. you guys, every year I get better and better and better at this. I haven't always been good at it I don't think I'm great at it today. I just think I'm willing to consistently do this year over year over year. But I write things that I actually want. This last year.
You guys, I love to have savings accounts. You can ask Jason. I've got about like 12. My bookkeeper hates me. Not like hates, hates, but just drives him nuts. And I've got so many bank accounts, but I like to have these because they give me security. I've got my company bam. I've got my personal bam. I've got a fun from traveling. I've got a fun for my house decorations. Like I get crazy guys, but it gives me security. And so I oftentimes will write goals around how much money I want to have in my savings accounts. Guess what?
Every year I hit these goals. I write goals. I love cars. love fast cars. I did just buy a Tesla Model 3 performance. So zero to 60 in three seconds guys. And I freaking love it. It's so fun. I love fast cars. So oftentimes I write goals around cars. I also this year my goal is to be in the best shape of my life. So I hired an in-house chef. Guys it's actually cheaper than going grocery shopping. Just so you know I did the math on it. It is cheaper.
than grocery shopping to have an in-house chef. I don't know how I found this guy, but it was something that I wanted to have. So I'm hiring somebody. They're going to come cook for me one day a week. They make me three meals with eight servings each. That's 24 meals for me and my husband. They will put it into containers for me. Bada bing, bada boom. I've got dinner, lunch for an entire week and they come in once a week and they go grocery shopping for me. And it's cheaper than if I were to do my own grocery shopping. So things like that.
I want to be in the best shape of my life. You guys, I'm terrible. I love to cook. I just don't make the time for it. And then when I do cook, I go to, it's too quote unquote hard for me right now to eat healthy meals. So I said, okay, if I'm going to be in the best shape of my life, what do I need to do about it? So those are some fun goals that I do just so you guys know, I have a goal to not work Mondays and Fridays. I love to have Fridays as my own personal day to do Kiera's things. Monday, I love it to be business dream day.
that's not quote unquote work. I just don't want to be scheduled in meetings. I want to have a day where I can dream about the business. And if I want to work, I can. And I can start when I want to start. And I don't have meetings that are scheduled. That's something I want to do. So writing those things, being OK to say the things that you actually want to have. ? In years past, it was that I wanted to travel out of the country one or two times. This next year, it's probably going to be that I have at least
four weeks off throughout the year where I can actually just go on vacation with my husband and we can go have a great time. Whatever it is guys, you can create these goals. So really making sure that you write your personal goals. Then you go to your professional goals. Notice I do personal and then professional. Reason being is because if I take care of me, it's just like on an airplane guys, you got to put your oxygen mask on you first. Then you find a way to create it within the business.
If you're clear of the life that you want to have, if you're clear about who you want to be, and this goes for owners and team members, guys, this is not just reserved for owners. This is reserved for everybody. Everybody, everybody can have this, you guys, every single person. So with that said, you guys then go to professional. If you want to have this life, what needs to happen professionally? What are the growth goals that the company needs to have? Now you might need to scale it back. It might be unrealistic for you to take four weeks off this year.
Maybe it's that we start this year at two weeks and then next year we go four weeks. Just know because you write it down, it does not mean it's written in stone. It can be adaptable. One of my new values that I've created for myself is flexibility. Cause I was like, no, I said four weeks, I will find a way for four weeks. Well, flexibility can really change my life. It can help me be happier and more content with it out of being as hard. So giving myself that permission to have flexibility is something that I really valued. And so.
Maybe I'm gonna change it. Maybe two weeks is still gonna give me that excitement and that happiness. But being able to start working towards the life I wanna have. I'll tell you guys, three years ago, I said I wanted the company independent of me. Took me three years, guys. And the only way we were able to actually find out if it was is because I got COVID and I was out for a week. Like down for the count. My head was spinning like a top with helium in there. Like that's literally how I described it. I couldn't do emails. I was stuck in New York. It was crazy.
Tiffanie was doing presentations for me. Sissy was running the podcast. Shelbi was running all the meetings. People were talking to sponsors for me. I wasn't around. I wasn't creating content. The other consultants have started to do podcasts where we get consultants information so you guys can hear from a different perspective. Like those were innovative things. Innovative things that took me three years to actually achieve. So don't be afraid if these things don't get done right away. But the biggest piece I wanted to drive home is
Be okay setting goals for you. Be okay taking care of you. You've worked hard. You deserve it. You guys trust me. feel selfish often. And then I started thinking, I'm willing to give everybody else their dream life. I care about my team members and I hear about what they want and I work really, really hard to create the life that they want to have. How come I can't be a great employer to myself? How come I don't care about myself as much? How come I don't allow myself
the opportunity to succeed and win. Guys, I bust my buns. Why am I not a good employer to myself? I've thought about it. If I was an employee for myself or let me rephrase that. If I was an employee for somebody else who treated me like I do myself, I would probably quit. Think about that. How do you treat yourself? You probably work sunup to sundown. You probably don't get many vacations.
So many of you called me during the holiday season, which I freaking loved. It like just fuels my fire. I love talking to you guys. We all get, we all get jittery. We don't know what to do ourselves with that much time off. We, we love to create. We love to work. We love to do these things. So we're like, how can I improve the business? Well, let's work on that. But just think if you worked for somebody else and they had you do that, you'd be livid. But that's how we treat ourselves. So I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying be okay to also treat yourself really well.
Be okay to invest in yourself. Be okay to maybe spin the coin and say, hey, if I was truly an employee in this company and I was interviewing myself and I was caring about the goals and aspirations I have, what would I do for myself? How would I do it a little bit differently? How would I view me? Could I maybe show a little more kindness? Cause guess what? The kindness you show yourself, the investment you show yourself is the same investment you give your team. Don't fool yourself.
Guys, the kinder I've been to myself, the more giving I've been to my team, shockingly. The more I'm in sync with the life I want to live, the happier I am, and the more my team supports it. It's shocking, guys, because guess what? My team loves me. They want me to have an awesome life. They want me to be successful. They want me to have a family. Sometimes it's okay to accept that people love us. It's okay.
to accept that people want us to live our dream lives. It's okay to not want to work in the practice clinically every single day. Those are not wrong things. That's progression. That's growth. If you're not growing, you're dying. So be okay to set those goals. So I want you guys to take this, whatever stuck out to you in this podcast, I want you to go act on it today, not tomorrow, not in five days. I want you to grab a pen or a pencil, grab your phone, whatever you need to do, but write down, what are you going to do for yourself? Are you going to write personal goals?
Are you going to be kinder? Are you going to actually treat yourself like an employee and answer those same questions? What are your one, three, five, 10 year goals? Who do you want to become? Because guess what? You as an owner need to be growing and progressing just like your team does. You need to be investing in your success just like you do your team. And I will promise you your life, your relationships, your health, and your work life will all change for the better when you take care of you.
So guys, this is Kiera just giving you a big hug, high five, whatever you choose to receive of, it's okay. I want to give you permission, permission to live your best life, permission to be kind to yourself, permission to be crazy, permission to just live full out, permission to go off the rails, permission to be crazy. Guys, it was downright crazy to buy a Tesla. Do you know how much fun it is? Do you know how much I giggle? Going zero to 60, turning on Santa's sleigh and spreading holiday cheer?
laughing with my family, letting all of them drive it, going 115 miles an hour. shouldn't say that. Any of you cops, I did it, guys. It was so fun. I can't wait to take it to the racetracks. I can't wait to do these things. It's so fun. Is it any smart? No, but guess what, guys? I could die tomorrow. I'm not saying be crazy. I'm just saying make sure you're living and you're not waiting to live. All right, guys, as always, thank you so much for listening. I'm cheering you on. If I can ever be a help.
If I can coach you on these things personally or professionally, please reach out. I'd love to. This is what I geek out over and it just fuels my fire because if I can help you live your dream life while being profitable, while growing your teams and your systems, guess what? You're going to give back to your community, to your teams, to the people around you. And that's how we're going to massively impact this world for good. So please reach Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.
Kiera Dent (18:56)
I hope you all loved today's episode as much as I did. It is crazy to think that this many episodes have been released since we started the Dental A Team Podcast. And I started looking to say, my goodness, our listeners need to be reminded of some of the things they may have learned a year ago or two years ago or five years ago, because so many things in our practices weren't relevant back then when we heard them, but they are relevant today. And I would be doing you a huge disservice if I didn't re-release some of these episodes for you to remember, to refine.
to optimize and really truly if you ever need a topic or you're like, my gosh, I wonder if the Dental A Team has anything like this, go onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com, click on our podcast tab and you can literally search any topic. So whether it's overhead or hiring or firing or team morale or engagement or case acceptance or hygiene or associate onboarding or whatever it is, we have so many episodes for you. And so I am going to intentionally be
re-releasing some of the top best episodes for you, pulling back some of the ones that I needed to remember, some of the things that I feel for you to really, really relearn right now and to re-remember, or if it's the first time, welcome. I'm so happy you're listening to it, but I hope you truly enjoyed today's episode. I hope that you share this with somebody. I hope that you go and implement today because we only have one day. We only get today. And so making today the best that it possibly can be. If we can help you in any way, shape or form, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.
And as always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.