Dental A Team with Kiera Dent
Dentists, this is your playbook for building a practice that THRIVES rather than just survives! If you're ready to scale, streamline, or simply want to lead like a CEO, we're here to support you with our strategies.
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Dental A Team

This Is the Blueprint For Profitable Practices

10/8/2026 6:39:00 AM | Comments: 0 | Views: 8

Introducing the Dental A-Team YES Operating System — a framework created after looking at thousands of practices to help you have predictable growth, profitability, and freedom. Hear from Kiera about why this approach will change the way you do dentistry (and improve the way you live your life).

The DAT YES Operating System:

Y: You

E: Earnings

S: Systems and Teams

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

Kiera (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I just want to talk to you guys about how we can say yes to more things. I call it the Dental A Team Yes operating system. It's truly a blueprint for profitable practices. And we've talked about it a few times, but honestly, it is just like what's a different operating model that we can go off of to have this profitable practice, but also to feel fulfilled, to have it more easy. Like great, let's do this. So I want you to know that this is a framework we created looking at thousands of practices, coming up with it, because I don't believe they're profitable practice.

is created by luck. I don't. I think that you can have it and you just need the right framework, the right operating system. And then you're gonna be able to to align, to guide, and to be able to truly say yes to everything you want. So I'm gonna walk you through our YES operating system. The Y stands for You. It's all about you first. That's the very first step. E stands for Earnings and S stands for Systems and Teams. And these are three pillars that are gonna help predict have predictable growth, profitability, and freedom for you. So I hope you're excited for it. I hope you're excited to say yes to more in your life. And hey, if you're new here,

Hi, I'm Kiera. Super nice to meet you. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry, so much so that my last name is actually Dent. Yep, I really am Kiera Dent. I love dentistry. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, you name it, regional manager, consulted hundreds and thousands of practices across the nation and the globe. And we are so committed to helping dentists truly reach their highest potential, empower teams, and make life and running a successful practice easy and fun again. That's what we do. I'm obsessed with it. We do startup to multi-million dollar organizations, no matter the practice size.

Things are still the same. The YES model works for all of you. So I want you to know that a lot of times we're focused on production or marketing or this or that. But a lot of times if we just get our whole team aligned, everything falls into place. And I'm not saying that you have a vision and everything works. And we to put in the action. Like we got to put in the effort. Your practice does appreciate effort. But I want to help you build a very successful business that's going to support both profitability and lifestyle because you don't have to have one without the other. So the Y stands for You. This is your vision. This is you.

And I think so many people skip over this and dive right into the numbers. And I purposely put it in this model. You are not going to say yes. You might say say S-E-Y. Guess what? You're not going to get everything that you want. You won't. Because if you focus on you first, like it took me forever to come up with this acronym. I kid you not. We're going to do the SPF, then we're going to do the this or that. I was like, what is it? Like, what order do these need to And then I was like, my gosh, it's YES. You Earnings Systems. Because we got to make sure that you are dialed in. And I tell everybody when you start with us as a new client.

We focus on what is your vision, personally and professionally, because your business has to have it. I don't care. Like I just had a dentist I was talking to yesterday and she's like, I want to work three days a week. And I'm like, great. Let's put it on the board. Math can math. That's why Earnings comes next. But if I don't know where our North Star is, if I don't know where we're going, then we're constantly changing our goals. Growth doesn't feel fulfilling. You're running around like a crazy operator rather than running the business. This is what's happening. Like I want you to own your business, not be owned by the business. So number one is you gotta define what success looks like for you.

Two, what do we look like? What's our one, three, ten year vision? We work with this, like I pull off of traction. What is it? Nothing is off the table. I don't care what it is. But you also have to realize that, like, hey, if I want to cut down to three days, are we also okay to make less money? Or is like, no, I want to work three days and make the same amount. Okay, well then maybe we need to change up our procedure match. I can't just be like, I want to make two million and work two days a week. Okay, great. Like you're doing bread and butter dentistry. Like math has to still math. So let's figure out how we can get there. Maybe you gotta get some side hustles, maybe gotta get some real estate. I don't know.

But hey, everything's there, nothing's off the table. We do need to make sure we back it up with realistic numbers. I remember my financial advisor gave me a crazy goal and I was like, there is no way. Like, I don't know how I'm ever gonna do it. Guess what? You chip away, we chip away. We have that as our north star, guiding star. Everything will come into place. So I want you to know that like this works. If you're if you don't have a vision and you're not anchored of where you're going, and then second to that, your team knowing where we're going.

All of this doesn't work. We are working for nothing. We're working for ego. We're working for stress. We're working for shoulds. We're working for what everybody else is posting about that they're doing. You're not working for what you actually need to do. And so I want you to know you is number one. You being fulfilled, you being taken care of, us knowing what you actually want it to be. And then I need that like tattooed on your shoulder. I need it to be put on a mirror. You've got to look at this freaking vision every single day because where we focus our attention, we're actually going to achieve it. So we can't build the right practice unless we actually know what we're building for. So

I need you, if you're gonna have a profitable practice, we gotta know where our clear vision is. What does profitable mean for you? Then we're gonna back it up and make sure that it's realistic. So I want you today, if you haven't, go on a little vision building adventure with me. Let's go right. What's your one year? What's your three year? What's your ten year? Ten years from now, how old are you gonna be? Wow, that feels like a moment. Just think in 10 years, it's gonna slip by. You either can actively create it or you can passively manage it.

Your choice, but I'd highly recommend that you create it. Step two is Earnings. I know, I know, you're waiting for me to get to this part. You just want to talk about this part. Don't skip step one. So Earnings. This is our profitability. So revenue alone isn't going to create your wealth. Profitability does. I don't care what your top line number is. I care what your take-home pay is. I really do. I want you to all your expenses, including paying you. I want you to have 20% left over after we pay tax and everything. Okay? So if we can figure that out, great. That's our ideal. That's our benchmark. That's what we're striving for.

So what happens oftentimes is people are so obsessed about not looking at the numbers so they don't look at anything, or they're so obsessed about like just only focusing on their production number. Like I had a doctor tell she's like, I'm at two million, but her collections are at one million. And I was like, yay, I gotta be the person that tells you you have a $1 million practice, not a two million. Hi, I'm Kiera. Nice to meet you. the reality is, like, I know you don't want to hear this.

But I also know that we've got to know what our true numbers are and what we're going towards. So once I know your vision, we then break it down. This is what we do with our clients. We break down what does that actually cost us? What does it cost us to run the business? What does it cost us for you to live? What is our debt services? What's the vision we're working towards? You're not gonna be there today. We know in 10 years you wanna be making three million, fantastic. We you know you wanna be at five million, fantastic. Break this down production-wise. Now it's easy for a practice because I can just plug and play, put that in there. But if we're building your personal life too, we need to know what that has. I will also say.

If your business can't support that, it's not your business's fault. You either need to readjust or produce more or have another side hobby that brings income. All of it's true, but we just we gotta make sure. I had a doctor once tell like, here, I need to make more. Well, they weren't willing, like 50% of the revenue coming through they were spending on personal items. Yeah, that practice couldn't support it. Like they their lifestyle was too expensive for the practice that they were doing, and they weren't willing to do more work, they weren't willing to bring in more patients, nothing. And I was like,

Okay, the math doesn't math. Like I know you want to spend this much, but like you're you're out of your budget. So and you're not willing to make a bigger budget, like we either can cut or got to produce more. It's one of the two things. or we gotta collect it. So when we look at this, I really want you to dive into knowing our numbers. We're talking our our net, not our gross production. What are our collections? You should be sitting at 98%. What's our overhead? Ideal, like I said, ideal is 50% overhead, 30% doctor pay, 20% profit. That profit then pays our debt services, leaving us at the end.

I would love, love, love for you to have 20% profit, profit, profit at the end. Like that's our cash flow after everything's paid, all of it, have that hanging out. That's an optimal practice. Not all practices can achieve it, but that'd be optimal. What's our payroll? What is our our hygiene period production? What are those items? Like, let's look at this. What's our case acceptance? Sometimes it's not even an issue. Maybe we're just not diagnosing enough. But what does it tell us? So, like if I know that we need to build a $3 million practice, I then need to make sure that we're producing enough.

Create that three million and then we need to make sure we're collecting enough. So, what are my levers in that? Well, levers are case acceptance, diagnosis, hygiene, and scheduling. Like those are pretty much it. And then obviously collection. That's really yeah, I can get marketing in there, but if I don't convert my new patients and we're not converting case acceptance, whoop-dee doo, like could be an issue, but can we maximize our patient base that we already have? That's a great question for us. So focus on these items so that way when we have it, we can actually make sure that the plan is leading up to our vision.

You don't feel stuck. And then we also got to build in our staffing, our payroll. Like if you're doing all the pieces and you're miserable with it, well, what's it gonna cost us to hire an office manager? Or what's it gonna cost us to hire two more dental assistants or another hygienist? Let's build that into our plan. That way our practice can produce it. We can afford it. The great news is dentistry's untapped. Dentistry's untapped. So this doctor has talked to you as like, okay, your cash flow, you just need 10,000 more a month. Let's break that down. You're working four days a week, 16 days a month, that's six hundred and twenty-five dollars a day.

That's a night guard. That's like a couple ceilings, couple fillings. It's nothing to make ten thousand more a month. You can do it. This is what is awesome. Like, so whatever your goal is, we just break down by your daily goal, get your team rallied, look to see where we could find this amount. You're back in business. So production is super important, but profitability gives you options. And profitability, we need to make sure that you're profitable. I don't care what your top line is. If you're not profitable and you're not paying for your life, you're miserable.

So that's why what is your top line? And then what is our profitability? And do we like do those match? So what we do with our clients is we actually put them through, we build out an annual plan with them. So excited. So excited. It's in the beta role. We've been doing it. And now we actually have it like really there. Shout out to Britt. She's been working hard on this. but we go through, we look at all your expenses. What does it cost for you to have it? What is your practice producing? What do we need it to produce every month? Maybe we need to get our doctors to be a little bit higher, a dollar per hour. Like, great, you can do that.

There's a lot of options. Maybe you don't want to. Great, then let's go cut. I always do it. It's like what is it? What can we really do? What's the cut? What's the actual production? Let's go. Let's live our best life. So I want you to truly like taking away from this, get your vision, then review your profit margins every single month. Get into it. Should review it every single day. But I want you looking at the profit margins, not just your production numbers. Then this leads us to the S, the Systems and Team Development.

This is going to be your engine portion of this, okay? So based on our vision, then what did the numbers tell us? Now it's our systems and team. Based on whatever our numbers tell us, that's a system we're gonna go put into place. It might not need to be all the systems. Everybody's like, well, what systems do I put into place? I'm like, I don't know. What's your vision? What do the numbers tell us? Put that system into place. I know you want it. I know you want all the systems, but why? You're probably doing so many things great. If our vision is this mount, our numbers tell us this, we can fix a lot through a morning huddle, we can fix a lot through handoffs.

We can fix a lot through just your hygiene department. We can fix a lot through your production. We can fix a lot through your leadership meetings and how you guys are doing it. We can do a lot through hiring and onboarding. I guess those are all important, but like what does it tell us? And then also what are your pain points? This is also where we're developing the team. I found that so many people focus only on the doctor. And I'm like, cool, that's fun. But why don't we focus on you as well? Like, let's make sure that the team is elevated so you, doctor, don't have to go tell that team everything to do.

We literally coach your team for you. We create office managers. We build leadership teams. We teach your team how to talk about hygiene. What do we do when we got a bloody period patient? Great. What do you do when your fee schedules aren't completely entered? Fantastic. Let's teach that person. Let's help your team actually be optimized based on what the numbers tell us, based on your pain points and where the ultimate vision is. I hope you can see that all this comes together. This is why it's called the YES operating system. It helps you say yes to more in your life. It helps us see what systems are broken.

A lot of people come in and they focus on systems hoping to get to the top. But I'm like, no, let's focus on the top. Where are we going? What your life is. Let's look at the numbers because they're going to tell us everything. I can just look at the numbers very quickly and tell you if you're diagnosing enough, if you're producing enough, if we're collecting enough, if our case exceptions there, just by looking at your PL and your KPIs. It's all there. And then let's go fix the systems over here. Sometimes you're overwhelmed. Well, that's not going to show up in your numbers, but what it will tell me is we need to fix that. We need to add.

An office manager or somebody to this plate, or we need to grow your office manager into the person they need to be in order for you to have the successful life that you want to have. I really truly want you to know that like your systems and team development can happen when we know what the vision and the numbers are. You're probably doing it in the reverse order, and that's why you feel like you're trapped and stuck. Because you're trying to focus on systems, you implement the system that you heard on the podcast that doesn't get you the numbers that you want, and it doesn't ultimately get you to the vision you want. So then you're frustrated and you're like, well, the systems aren't working.

So then you put in another system to try to get the numbers you want, to try to get the per the vision that you want. Instead, let's rework this. I would like you to have your vision, look at your numbers. Wherever your numbers are down, let's put that system into place and see if we get closer. Teams don't want to be micromanaged. Teams don't want more systems on top of system upon system upon system. Teams want to be like why. They want to understand the why. And then they're gonna rally with you. So look at that. Look at your vision.

Look at the numbers and identify one system that needs to be improved. Go listen to podcast on it. I promise you, I got the how-to for every freaking system that you've ever wanted to put into place. Systems are not your issue. Your issue is that you don't have a clear vision and that you're not looking at the numbers. So you're scrambling at all your systems. This is why, if you put it in the YES success framework model, go from You to Earnings to Systems. You literally can say yes to everything you want. So, what I'd love for you to do is to focus on all three of these. Most people just focus on one, do it in that exact order.

You're going to be able to say yes to more. Because when your vision and your profit and your systems work together, growth becomes predictable, stress becomes less, happiness becomes more, team morale improves. This is where it's at. This is what I love to do. This is something of like, how do we help you say yes? This is what Dental A Team is built upon. This is our framework. This is our foundation. And so many people struggle because they're not willing to do the vision. They're not willing to look at the numbers. They only want to focus on the systems or the team development or say it's my team or say it's my system. Or if I just had something better, well, here is something better.

And I hope you take it. I hope you execute it. I hope you implement it because I know that you deserve to say yes to everything you want and more in your life. I think back to where I was six years ago. Wow, company was so small, so tiny, like so many things. And I look to where it is today. Yeah, it's so stressful. But guess what? I'm able to say yes to a lot more in my life. I've aligned my vision. I've hit pieces off of my goal board. I'm living the life that I dreamed of living like not too long ago. You can have that too.

So come be a part of it. Come be a part of our community. Come hang out with us. Be around people who truly say yes to more in their life. You deserve it. So the good news is this is available for all. You don't want to be a certain size practice. It's available for all. So put it into play. Align your vision and we help you. We help you identify what your vision is. We help you look at your numbers every single month. Sometimes you just need a freaking accountability partner. I need that like, hey, be my bestie. Hold me accountable. Sometimes that's all you need.

And also that bestie who's been there, done it, done it multiple times over and successfully grown practices. That's who we are. That's what we do. And this is what we do all day long. So let's help you say yes to more in your life. Commit to saying yes and living the life that you absolutely deserve, not just the one that you think you should have. I promise you it's there for you. Follow our yes success model, and I guarantee you you'll be so much happier. And I can't wait to help you. Reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Category: Ethics, Jurisprudence and Malpractice, Financial Planning and Investments, Marketing, Office Design, Practice Management, HR and Accounting

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Dental A Team with Kiera Dent
Dentists, this is your playbook for building a practice that THRIVES rather than just survives! If you're ready to scale, streamline, or simply want to lead like a CEO, we're here to support you with our strategies.
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Dental A Team with Kiera Dent Dentists, this is your playbook for building a practice that THRIVES rather than just survives! If you're ready to scale, streamline, or simply want to lead like a CEO, we're here to support you with our strategies. Blog By:Dental A Team

This Is the Blueprint For Profitable Practices

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Dental A Team with Kiera Dent
Dentists, this is your playbook for building a practice that THRIVES rather than just survives! If you're ready to scale, streamline, or simply want to lead like a CEO, we're here to support you with our strategies.
Blog By:
Dental A Team