Shelly VanEpps and Alex Nottingham JD MBA discuss team buy-in, culture, and accountability, highlighting strategies for boosting team engagement.
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About Shelly VanEpps
Shelly is the VP of Business Development & a Mastery Coach with All-Star Dental Academy. By aiding in the growth and expansion of All-Star, Shelly’s passion for dentistry allows the company to focus on guiding dentists and their teams towards achieving their vision of a successful dental practice. Because each office has their own definition of “success” Shelly focuses her attention on customized coaching by applying her 21 years in the dental field to each department within the office. In addition, as a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Coach, Shelly enjoys working with doctors and office managers on shifting their approach from a managerial approach to a more effective leadership style.
About Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Alex is the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy®. He is a former Tony Robbins top coach and consultant, having worked with companies upwards of $100 million. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. Alex received his Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University.
Episode Transcript
Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:02
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management, and training. Welcome to Dental All-Stars. I’m Alex Nottingham, founder and CEO of All-Star Dental Academy. With me is Shelly Van Epps, the COO and lead coach at All-Star Dental Academy. And our topic is team buy-in. Team buy-in, Shelly. Yes. Look at the top one. This is…
00:26
This is one of those topics that I think is really hot right now, because so many people, I mean, our hiring service, we’re getting flooded with doctors and office managers and teams just looking to find that right mix within their team. And a lot of it comes back to buy-in and culture and just having the right people on the bus. And so wanted to definitely talk about it because we’re seeing it.
00:54
big picture across the country. It doesn’t matter where you are. This tends to hit you at some point in your practice career. And so, yeah, we wanna talk about buy-in. It is an issue. When I’m doing strategy calls and when you’re talking with the coaching clients, it will eventually come up because you’re like, I’m bought in, I get it. I watched your webinar. I’m doing the membership. I’m doing coaching and all these things. My team, I wanna go to an event and my team’s like, I don’t wanna go.
01:23
I’m paying for everything. All expenses pay, nah. Or a new training program, they’re like, I’ll just wait for the doctor to give up because it’s something new that they’re doing again and eventually they’ll stop and I’ll go back to what we’re doing. We did another edition of our Shelley and Alex show, Alex and Shelley show, vote for us, which one do you want? And we talked about the law of the rubber band. And I think a lot of people don’t want to stretch. And so that’s a problem.
01:51
because you have the visionary of the practice, the dentist that wants to do all this great fun stuff and it’s in the team that does it. And it really, it’s a downer. I mean, when you don’t have a team bought in, it’s like your enthusiasm just gets sucked. You know, you get drained. When you have people that you love in a class, they love, you can love them, but you like them and you enjoy working with them, that your energy goes up. Are you an energy expander, right? Where other people grow and improve or do you diminish energy?
02:21
And so the question is, how do we build team buy-in? How is it an issue? So tell me, Shelley, I like a few perspectives from you as a, so you were in the dental office, what a resume. I mean, you were in operations and engineering at one point, and then you started working in a dental practice for many years, and so you were office manager, wonderful, and then became a coach. What has your experience been in terms of seeing the buy-in issue? What you saw happening out there?
02:51
I mean, over the 20 plus years, different teams, different makeups, different personalities. I mean, all over the board, I do hear the difference in age gaps and different things like, well, this generation, this, this generation that I don’t like to put a title on that. I think that’s unfair. However, some of the different mindsets that are out there of I go to work to work and then I’m done and I’m just getting a paycheck.
03:20
That’s what we want to avoid. And I think that’s the mentality that a lot of doctors, I know for myself as an office manager, that was one of my biggest challenges was the team members who were just like, just give me a paycheck. I clocked in, I clocked out, I did what I was supposed to do while I was here to the minimal that you helped me to. Like if you didn’t hold me to a higher standard, I’m not gonna give any more or any less. I’m just gonna make sure to get my paycheck. And they would…
03:47
They would do that and that was okay. I can appreciate that, but your practice isn’t going to continue to grow. And the doctor is going to have more and more frustration. The more team members that we have like that. I like to think about the 80 20 rule and you generally are going to have 20% of your team, giving you 80% of the results. Right. So think about that. Most dental practices around 10 team members, roughly for a single doctor.
04:16
That means two people are giving you 80% of the effort of the entire team. Then you’ve got the bottom 20% down here, pulling all of the energy, the resources direction, pulling all the resources, being the trouble, being the ones that are causing all the problems. And then you’ve got that middle 60 who are like just hanging out, waiting to be influenced one way or another. And they could be influenced towards the positive or they could be influenced.
04:45
towards the bottom, you don’t know. And if you’re not in tune to it, they’re going to likely be influenced towards the bottom, not because they want to be. It’s just, unfortunately, human nature tends to head in that direction. But if you can overpower that, I like to use Nemo. Whenever I’m coaching, I’m like, think of Nemo and he’s in with all these fish and they’re like, swim down, swim down. And he’s pulling against all the negative fish and he’s like, no, we’re going to go and he finally gets people to.
05:15
swim the right direction and poof, it’s like an explosion of excitement, right? That’s what we need our team members to do. So if you can find those really good, strong leaders that have strong influence, the doctor being one of them. That’s when you start to see that. That explosion of excitement. And when you don’t have it, it is draining, exhausting, and you just can’t see the other side of the hook. It’s like, you just can’t see.
05:44
The other side, it’s like, oh my gosh, how am I going to get past this? Cause it’s not like you want to release all of your team members because they’re doing their job, they’re doing an okay job. It’s just not living up to your standard. They’re not bought in. They’re not looking to do anything above and beyond. And so it’s really frustrating. And I’ve seen it myself as a, as an office manager, I’ve seen my doctor go through it when I was working in the practice, I see
06:12
of doctors doing it now as a coach and working with All-Star. And it’s just, it’s something that we need to be able to put little things in there to help. And it’s not a one and done fix. Unfortunately. No, it’s an ongoing process. When you’re working with people, there’s not a one and done, unfortunately. Yeah, I was thinking as you were saying, I’ll ask you to comment about the All-Star piece because you’re saying you experience it as an office manager, you see it with the coaching clients.
06:42
At All-Star, it’s funny, just was it yesterday, we’re looking to bring on someone to help out with events and hiring, and we’re talking about buy-in. And even today, we’re talking about it. We want people that wanna be here, not just collect the paycheck. There’s nothing wrong with that. People have to get paid what they’re worth, but we’re looking for people that are all in. And in the genesis of hiring you, I won’t go into it. That’s a whole nother story we can talk about. Be a great discussion, but.
07:11
Kind of in a nutshell, I had someone who was not completely bought in and then I met you and I’m like, wow, everything you do, you’re all in. And I’m like, Shelly is a standard. And then, and you’re not the only one, Heather, co-owner, the, I mean, the VP of training, the phone skills instructor. I mean, we’re talking all in. She’s at midnight answering emails. Not that that has to be the standard. I’m just saying it’s like, everybody looks like it’s their company, right? And everybody we bring on.
07:41
coach, support, whatever, they go at their level, but they feel a part of All-Star. And we talk about with the clients. All-Star is not about the Shelly, Alex, Heather show, whoever, it is about you. We’re all in this together, we’re building a movement. And I remember Tony Robbins would talk about that too with us when I used to work for him, is that you wanna build a movement. And the same thing in your dental practice, you build your movement as serving patients. And we’re all on the same page for something bigger than ourselves.
08:10
So All-Star is bigger than ourselves. It’s about serving dentists, serving the team, and everybody’s all in, wanting to make a difference. And again, it’s not wrong to say you come in for a paycheck. Some people do, but we have a vision or standard that we want, so we’re gonna bring on people that support that vision or standard. Does that make sense? And so it takes a lot of work. It takes us repeating ourselves about what it is, making sure they’re there, hiring for that, and looking.
08:40
What’s amazing is everybody then what happens is your culture takes care of itself. And so those that are listening, part of that is when you are bringing people on, when you put that into place, they take care of themselves. Okay, so that’s the issue and big picture of Team Byin. What is our coaching hack or tip to be able to resolve or help this process? This one is multifaceted. So number one, you kind of just alluded to it.
09:09
core values, knowing who you are, what you stand for, and making sure your team knows what that is. And not just what those core values are, but what that looks like in action in your practice. So you can’t just say, we are a family oriented practice. That can’t be your, that can be your core value, absolutely. But what does that actually look like in your practice? Because there are a lot of dysfunctional families out there and is that what you’re going for?
09:38
Or are you going for a supportive family, somebody where you don’t leave anybody behind, you’re always looking out for one another. Like what does that actually mean to you? It’s not enough to just set the core value out into place. Then you have the expectation, this is what it looks like. And the third piece to it of the three steps is accountability.
10:02
What do you do when you see somebody acting outside of those core values against your vision, against your mission? And then you have that team member who’s swimming the wrong way. They’re swimming upstream. Exactly. What do you do if all of a sudden they start telling people swim this way, swim this way, we want you to be in the dysfunctional family over here, gossiping and talking about one another. You have to have accountability and it is uncomfortable.
10:31
I get it, but it is an absolute must if you want a good culture where team members feel like they can have that buy-in because they’re supported as well. And part of this is having them help hold each other accountable. And when you set a really strong core value, team members have that authority. They’re not going to write each other out. They’re not going to do like disciplinary action.
11:00
But if they see a team member, hey, help me understand. I’m pretty sure Dr. So-and-so really wants us to focus on this. This is what I’m seeing. Help me understand where we’re off. Do you think that’s the direction that he would, he or she would want us to go? Just that type of accountability within the team.
11:21
helps to be able to take away the micromanagement culture that tends to happen within a lot of practices, where all of a sudden you just have a bad cop sitting up front as the office manager, the bad cop as the doctor. Nobody wants to be the bad cop. It’s like everybody just should get along. And it seems like it’s not a world of reality, but when you set these few things in place, it really truly can happen.
11:47
I’ve been part of teams where that was the case and we were truly holding each other accountable. The doctor could just sit back and say, all right, show me to the operatory, show me to the treatment room, please. You ladies all have this under control. And so it can happen. Does it happen overnight? No. Can it happen quickly? It depends on your team, but you have to be consistent. Very consistent. And that’s why
12:15
Everything we built at All-Star is to support offices to be able to do that. Our hiring service, our training program, coaching events are all there for a reason to be able to do that. Heather tells a very funny joke. You’re mentioning family. I think it’s funny at least. She says half my family are temperamental. Half are temper, half tempers. The other are mental. So.
12:39
Oh, nice. Yeah, a little family joke there. I hope you’re really not watching our little podcast. They’re sitting here going, which side am I? I know, which side are you on? Yeah, she’ll be like, oh, you didn’t say that joke perfectly and it was just a joke, so we’ll see. Okay, so what’s new at All-Star, Shelly? Yeah, so speaking of team camaraderie, this is something, I mean, every once in a while, do something fun with your teams. And we’re excited to have the Practice Girls Summit coming about again. It’s our annual event. It’s so much fun.
13:10
activities, personal and professional development. And this year we are shifting gears and we are going to Austin, Texas. That’s a new venue for us. We’ve outgrown, we’ve sold out the last three years in Fort Lauderdale at the La Gomar and there was another hotel locally in Fort Lauderdale that we used. Sold out every time.
13:33
And we had people having to stay off site that wanted to come. And we said, all right, we’re going to find a little bit of a bigger venue. And we did, and it’s in Austin, Austin, Texas, and it is May 16th and 17th of next year. And tickets are out there. Reserve your seat because yes, we have early bird. We have payment arrangements. I have team. Um, if you’re bringing your whole team, we have some courtesies. If you have.
14:01
certain numbers of team members coming. So breaks on bringing those larger teams, which is really nice because it’s so important. We have doctors all the time who say, dang it. I wish I had brought my whole team. And so we wanted to be able to make that happen for the doctors, but super excited about it. Starting to reserve seats and we went bigger, but we’re still gonna sell out. I mean, just knowing what has happened the last couple of years, we’re already reserving seats. Now we’re.
14:30
we’re getting closer and closer to that halfway mark already. And we’re talking nine months away or so. So, um, yeah, reserve those seats soon so that we can make sure that you are coming because it’s going to be phenomenal. Yeah. And I like what you said, personal and professional. That’s the idea of business growth as a person and as a business. And there’s, it’s a lot of fun. And so there are two ways you look at this first is learning. And again,
14:57
Every year, it’s something different on professional and personal. We break out into departments as well. We do breakout. That’s really fun where hygiene gets some time assisting for an office, doctors. And that was one of their favorite favorites. Yeah. The food is always amazing. You guys pay great food. The, we are going to have, we’ve, so that’s like the learning stuff that we have done, but then there’s fun opportunities.
15:26
We have the practice of the year competition. That’s a lot of fun. We have awards that we give out. So there’s a lot of camaraderie. And then it’s just team, you get to see, it’s kind of like this. I say with the kids, you want your kids to be excited about something, be around what their friends are doing. When you bring your team, you see other offices that are exciting. That’s not something you can put into a program. You can’t do it virtually. And you can’t just have a coach come in and do it either. You gotta be where others are at.
15:54
And so if you’re doing the coaching, you’re doing your training, you’re learning, and you want to make that invest in your team. So that’s what events are great to do is they have that experience and that turbo charges them. I find that taking team to an event, what it also does talk about this whole topic of buy-in, huge on buy-in because you see where they, am I going to go all expensive paid? Am I going to go? Am I going to participate? And the ones that do and meet that threshold.
16:23
There’s someone that would be with you for a long time and be more skilled. And it’s the energy, it’s the unknown. It’s that intangible that you don’t normally get. And you can attest to that. You would not be at a skillset you are at or be a coach potentially if it wasn’t for your doctor investing in you and the team and the payoff was huge because everybody gets better and they really enjoy what they do. Absolutely. A hundred percent. I can’t.
16:50
I couldn’t say it better. That was absolutely one of the. Kickstarts for my career was going to a team event. It was several years ago. It wasn’t all star quite yet, but you guys weren’t all star. Wasn’t born yet back in the day when I started, you tell people I’ve been in dentistry for 30 years. Yeah, I know. Right now.
17:14
That was one of the big things. I remember our team sitting around a table at an event similar to this and just the connections that were made. It just, it’s not all about the event per se, although I think ours is pretty phenomenal. We have amazing things bringing your teams together that helps with buy-in. Um, this year we have the practice girls summit. We have another amazing event.
17:37
right side by side with it that gives even more opportunity for practices that are looking to take their practice to another level. So we’re just really excited to be heading to Austin. Awesome. So to learn more about the event, go to alls for dental academy.com and you can click the events link and you can look at all of our events at the practice growth summit is our kind of cornerstone event and there’s other events that around that support.
18:04
what we’re doing. It’s a camaraderie. And I think I’ll end with this, Shelley, that’s just so nice to hear, not just as COO or lead coach, but you were a team member not much long ago, a year ago. And, and you’ve done it for 20 years and you can attest because look, I always say, I’m not the big fan of events because I have to go somewhere for me. Well, who cares what I, what I say? You’re saying Alex?
18:32
The doctors and team members, it’s life changing. You have to do it. And you’re the boss, so we do it. So don’t listen to me, listen to team members who have been there and have made a huge difference. And the whole point about buying, you want buy-in. You’re gonna get, as Shelley said, we covered a bunch of tactics, events, one of them, but you’re gonna get such a big return on investment from getting your team.
19:00
from operating at 20% versus 80 to 100% because the 80-20 rule applies to teams that are normal. You wanna be extraordinary. And then you have many of your people operating at a higher level of engagement than just a standard run-of-the-mill practice. Absolutely. So I wanna hear what all you have to think or say if you’re…
19:25
listening on YouTube or on social media, post your comments about Team Byin. What are you frustrated with? What have you succeeded with? Our entire coaching team are happy to engage and have some conversations there. If you’re driving, be careful. Just listen and make sure you’re subscribed and following and yeah, share with your friends. So thanks for joining us and until next time, go out there and be an all-star!
19:55
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at allstardentalacademy.com
