The 4 Pillars of Practice Growth – Part 1

Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:00
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management and training.

00:13
And team members time and time, good valuable team members will say time and time again, I just want to know what you want from me, what you expect from me. That’s where the saying, what is it? Clarity of expectation creates excellent execution. That’s where that came from. It’s like, okay, now doctor goes, but I don’t have time. I’m seeing patients all the time. So where do you find time to make this happen? And then what they’ll do is the doctor will say, well, I’m going to hire an office manager. I’m going to delegate this. And the team goes, well, she didn’t hire me. I want to get it.

00:43
straight from the leader. I don’t want to get it from her. And it creates just a chaotic dynamic that isn’t functional without clarity. And you have to speak through this. You have to set aside time. You have to have team meetings that aren’t just complaint sessions. You have to have layout like write out and post and put up and be visual and continue to communicate. What are your core values, your culture commandments, the things that drive you and who you want to be. Welcome to Vinyl All-Stars. I’m Alex Nottingham, founder and CEO of All-Star Vinyl Academy.

01:10
And with me is our executive team, leadership team. have Eric Vickery, the president of coaching of Ulster Dental Academy. Sheryl Lee Van Epps, the chief operating officer at Ulster Dental Academy. And we are talking about the four pillars of practice growth. And because there’s four and we want to go into detail as much as we can in these shorter podcasts, it’s gonna be two parts. Part one, the first two pillars. And part two, the next two pillars.

01:39
in no particular order. So welcome guys. Thank you. Super excited to be here. It was difficult. evening. Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon. I don’t know where Roy is. You roll over the country and where is everyone here? Well, this is evergreen, right? California, Michigan, Florida. Okay. So the four pillars of leadership or of growth, excuse me, because leadership is one of them. The four pillars are culture,

02:08
leadership systems communication and so We we built these we focus on these pillars because these are the pillars that we we will be covering at our May event every year, which is our all-star growth summit and So the content changes every year, but we want to make sure that we are covering these four pillars So as a way to kind of introduce the these

02:36
uh Shelly, Eric, why do we come up with these pillars? Why are they important versus a whole bunch of other things? So why culture? Why leadership? Why systems communication in a nutshell? I want hear from both of you just quickly about that. I think they make the biggest difference in a business. These are the four things that if you were to choose from, like how do you pick what’s going to determine growth, what’s going to determine the number one factors of

03:05
implementing things that work and change outcomes. That’s, that’s my thought, Shelley. Yeah. It’s funny because we went around and around before we came up with and landed on these four pillars, because there are so many different things that impact the practice, impact your patient experience. And when we started listing them out, we started putting them into categories. And that’s where we landed on these four that they encompassed in some way, or form, basically

03:34
everything that we were listing that you needed to have, whether it’s talking with your team, talking with your patients. Okay, that’s communication. Great. It also focuses a little bit on your leadership. It also falls into the culture of your practice. So pretty much everything that we teach, everything that we focus on lands in one of those four in some way, or form. So it was exciting to actually put it to play and say, Hey, this is going to work. So, we, we have

04:03
We’re known for our online training program. We’re known for our coaching program and we’re becoming known quite a bit. We’ve been doing this for over five years. Uh, plus depending on when you’re listening to this, uh, we’re doing live events and I was always hesitant to do them, even though Eric, you have tons of history doing them because they’re work and they’re expensive, but you’re like, the clients need them. I’m sure sure as heck they do. And

04:30
What I wanted as CEO is I wanted to make sure that it’s a predictable experience every time that you know that you’re coming to this event and you’re going to get value. You’re going to learn. You’re going, it’s not going to be repetitive. It’s going to be insightful. You’re going to have fun. And it’s going to be something every year that I could do if I have the time to put towards that. And then our COO make sure that that happens and the details are revealed with respect to that. And so that’s why we do it.

04:59
is predictability in any great brand. You need predictability that year after year, it’s going to be a great show because our president of coaching is, our, our, our MC masters ceremonies are amazing speaker. And then we have other all star, uh, wonderful speakers, Shelly, myself, Larry, Robin, and then other guests that come in. So it’s, it’s it’s a great experience. And I think in anything, and this goes to also dental practices that you want to be able to, whatever you do, have a predictable experience.

05:28
I think that’s why All-Star stands out in general. You know what you’re going to get every time. So let me really content to Alex. It’s not all about hype and pitching and things like that. There’s, there’s, there’s actual meat that you can go home to your practice and take away and, start applying immediately. So that’s what in its personal development and professional. So, man, it’s just, it’s just amazing. love what we’ve got with the.

05:55
with the Growth Summit. I like what you said and I want to just put a button on that because great point is that what we say and also our materials is this is content. This is an experience, but it’s not like over the top where it’s all experience and no content or boring content and no experience. And this is not a sales event. I hate to say it, but some events are there to pitch you and sell to you. This is, there’s no selling. This is not what it’s about.

06:24
This is about fraternity. This is about coming back every year and growing and improving great people that want to be here. So we talk a lot about that on our website, but that I’m glad you brought that up because that’s a key differentiator to events. We have events that are all hype, no substance, and there’s, hate to say it, but they’re still out there even in dentistry. And this is about content, great experience. We’re in maniacal when it comes to that.

06:52
Let’s say when you say something. we focus, we make sure that we focus so that the team doesn’t feel like, this is only for the doctor or the doctor’s thinking, why am I listening to this? It doesn’t apply to me. It’s only for my team. So we, we really focus very pointedly to make sure that we’re encompassing all of the people, the entire audience in our presentations. And so it’s, it’s really fun. I’m give you the last word on this, Eric, and then we’ll get to the first two pillars.

07:21
I’m ready. You look so you want to get out there. Okay, then I’ll read this. All right, then you’re right. Like enough of the jibber jabber CEO and CEO. Let’s get right to it. Right. This is our artist, our, our president of coaching. Uh, you’re, you’re smiling. You love it. All right. So we’re going to talk about this because it’s an order of the way I see it. We’re going to do culture and leadership, and then we’ll do systems and communication. Is that okay? No percent agree. All right. So tell me about culture and leadership. Uh, get us started there, Mr. President. So, know,

07:51
If you think about these systems, leadership establishes culture. And yet culture creates leaders in your practice. So sometimes people think, oh, leadership, that’s just the doctor. What starts there, when the leader is growing, when the leader is improving, it creates space for the rest of the team to grow and improve. And what we want is to develop a team of leaders who are the ones that are establishing and focusing on culture that creates the space

08:21
where teams are getting along. I laugh when I say that because that is a loaded statement because we are not always a hundred percent all of us going to get along and that’s okay. But if we are working on ourselves and working on leadership and working in culture, we know how to navigate through that. And we’ve got lots of systems and language around how do you create a culture that lasts? How do you create a culture that makes people want to come to work?

08:51
The stats continue to worsen. Gallup just released their newest numbers and it’s down now to 30 % of the workforce is actively engaged, which means disengagement and active disengagement continues to rise. People are, they’re saying things like, and not to pick on a generation, but especially Gen Z, they’re saying things like, this job is soul sucking.

09:21
this is a quote. And because the word job, J-O-B, is at the front of that sentence, it all makes sense to me. Not only are they looking at a job, a paycheck, they’re not even looking at it as a career to improve in, let alone a calling. And what we want to do is help leaders develop a culture that makes a team go, oh, this is where I want to be. I graduated with business degree, I had no idea that dentistry was going to be something that I would be excited about. I didn’t…

09:50
think that was gonna be it. And a lot of us end up in here on accident, except for the doctors and the hygienist. And we have to find ways to be passionate about what we do. When we do that, we can then even begin to talk about systems and communication. It baffles me when doctors wanna talk about case acceptance and systems and standard operating procedures, and they can’t even keep team members longer than six to 12 months. So.

10:18
This is why it’s foundational. So glad Alex, you said we start with leadership and culture. It is the foundation for everything else falling into place.

10:29
Yeah. One of the things that I think about is in terms of culture is a motivation theory. have, um, different, again, different ways to motivate. And the ultimate way to motivate is the intrusion, the environment. And as your environment changes, it pulls the people around it. I mean, just like I was on a cruise and the cruises, there’s tons of food over there. And so I can’t stop eating. So that’s the culture of a cruise, right?

10:57
So if you don’t want to be eating, then don’t go on a cruise, you know, uh stay at a yoga shop or something. So what you surround yourself with, and I think that goes hand in hand with leadership as well, is like when you have leaders and like you look at All-Star, we have a culture of leadership and then when you’re around leaders and you see what they do and there’s a certain culture that sits in, and this is important as well when it comes to culture, a culture will always happen. No company is avoid a culture.

11:27
The question is, the culture that you want. There’s a vacuum coach culture that will happen that if you’re not deliberate in creating the culture, it’s just going to happen to you. And typically it’s not what you want, right? It’s, it’s going to be whoever’s more dominant and it’s probably going to be someone of apathy and, and like you mentioned before. And so we have to be, we have to be cognizant of that’s why again, these two pillars, want to make sure that we have ample discussions and support when it comes to that.

11:56
So, I mean, like our, our H the director of our hiring service, Robin Reese is a, is an expert on culture, right? And HR and, um, understanding how, hiring works and all that. So that, that goes to that as well. Um, so what about, what about you, Shelley, when you hear the words culture, you hear the words leadership, what, goes through your mind? one of the things that Eric mentioned is that a lot of the doctors come and they want the results. They want the accountability and they want the results.

12:26
which if I’m looking at the five dysfunctions of a team by Patrick, I can’t. Yes, thank you. Um, by Patrick Linsioni, it’s, it’s at the top of the pyramid. They’re looking for the results. They’re looking for the accountability with their team and they’re, they’re quick to skip the base of that pyramid, which is building trust, having healthy conflict, being able to work through challenges together and then

12:56
buy-in and that commitment from your team and those three things the bottom of the base is Ultimately where the culture and the leadership land and so if you just try to skip to the top You might get a result for a short period of time But then everything falls one person leaves your practice and all of a sudden you’re not getting the same results anymore So you really have to have those foundation principles in place and very very strong in your practice so that you can

13:26
can continue to get the same result that you’re aiming for. We can train the systems, we can train the verbiage, but if the foundation isn’t there, the results aren’t likely to last. So it’s really important that that is part of the consideration when you’re growing your practice. And team members time and time, good valuable team members will say time and time again, I just want to know what you want from me, what you expect from me. That’s where the saying,

13:54
What is it? Clarity of expectation creates excellent execution. That’s where that came from. It’s like, okay, now doctor goes, but I don’t have time. I’m seeing patients all the time. I’m a tacticianer. And we know in our world what that means with visionary, we have our integrator and we have our tacticianer here today. So where do you find time to make this happen? And then what they’ll do is the doctor will say, well, I’m going to hire an office manager. I’m going to delegate this.

14:24
And the team goes, well, she didn’t hire me. I want to, I want to listen. I want to get it straight from the leader. I don’t want to get it from her. And it creates just a chaotic dynamic that isn’t functional without clarity. And you have to speak through this. You have to set aside time. You have to have team meetings that aren’t just complaint sessions. You have to have layout like write out and post and put up and be visual and continue to communicate. What are your core values, your culture commandments, the things that drive you and.

14:53
who you want to be because people will go, okay, I just did this with Timmy, long, long standing client. And I go, okay, we’re going to just, I just want to quickly run through your core values, your culture commandments, whatever you want to call them. And they go, we have those somewhere. We know what those might be somewhere. It’s like, okay, they need to be something that are posted. They’re up that you’re talking about weekly and they’re in constant communication about. That’s how we get clear because communication disappears. People forget what we talked about. And that’s the, that’s the balance of it all.

15:23
Well, what you were referring to, there’s a few model overlays that we look to to incorporate in our growth summit. So one is the traction protocol, which is you have the visionary, you have the integrator, and these two forces uh work to help grow and sustain businesses. I expanded a bit on the integrator into the implementer.

15:51
which is kind of a step down, different levels of implementation. So basically you have to have an idea, which is visionary and an implementer, whether it’s an integrator or not, that gets it done. And so those are, we talk about as well in our summits and are in terms of how, practical steps of how to do that. And again, you can have the idea, but now what? And can we cultivate the people to do that? So we also have coaching programs, mastermind programs, and intensives that are around these events as support leadership.

16:20
and case acceptance as well. So we’ll just put like a bookmark on that. You’ll see that on a website. I’ll just put, I’ll mention it later, but at allstradinalecademy.com click events, you’ll see all of our events, the growth summit and well, as well as these supporting events for these moments. Now, so that’s the traction. We also have the E-Myth Revisited, which is going to be Michael Gerber’s model where you have the entrepreneur, you have the manager leader, and then you have the tactician.

16:50
or the artist. so that’s another model that we want to be mindful of is that in our practice, we have a lot of people, dentists included, that are good at what they do. They’re an artist. I mean, all of us here have some tactician or artist quality that generates income, that generates creativity, and so on. Then you have those that have management capabilities that are kind of managing and leading the teams. And then you also…

17:16
have those uh visionaries or entrepreneurs that are taking risk. So at All-Star, for example, my main function is to do visionary work, right? Big picture, but all of us share in that. But then also I’m leading the podcast or I’m editing things or I’m working for the COO, the boss over here, right? So now Shelley is gonna be taking the example, our COO is taking more of the management load and overall leadership of the company.

17:44
but she’s still an artist, her graphic design and so on, you’ll see that in her coaching. Now, Eric is 90 % when it comes to artists. And that’s good because if everybody, I was just thinking about this guy, and this is an aside, but people love this in the podcast. But I marvel at our company because each one of you could lead your own company in terms of something like All-Star. But it’s great that we’re so different. And we talk about this at Case Acceptance, we talk about disc.

18:12
Okay. Uh, we teach that a little bit in the growth summit, more so in our, in our case acceptance program and in coaching, but we have a good variety of people who can do different things, but they’re choosing what’s best for the company. So Eric could be CEO. They confuse him sometimes, but he’s such a talented speaker and coach that he, he imparts that. That’s why our coaches are so good because of his teachings. He’s a high level of it. Uh, and then he also has visionary work he does in leadership.

18:42
uh, very high on leadership. Now I will say this, you say, Oh, your president of coaching is only an artist. Guess what Tony Robbins is. When, when I, was used to work for Tony Robbins, what he would say to the seminars, what do you think I am? Well, you’re the entrepreneur. says, no, I’m an artist. That’s Tony Robbins. So sometimes being a great artist and embracing it is powerful, but what we’re looking to teach you at our events and what we’re talking about here to give you the framework and

19:10
Repetition is the mother of skill. come back to the pillars. We save it a different way. Okay. And this is secret for all of out there. Nothing is really new. Nothing’s new. It’s you have to hear, but we’re human and we forget and we have to be here again. It’s not like I get my teeth done once. I have to go again and again. Success is repetition. Really what you have to look for. Do I, these people, do they have integrity? Do I like listening to them? Am I going to have a good time?

19:40
If that all works, the content will take care of itself. You’ll be successful.

19:46
Now this isn’t a course to say, I just want to get, you know, 16, 24 hours of CE. I mean, I think that’s great. That’s fine. But this is, this is a course, is a gathering, this is community that are in relationship for a common goal. How do we improve as humans? When the, when the individual is improving, the practice is improving. When you are growing, when you’re improving yourself and working on all the things that we’re covering here in these, these topics, you’re going to walk away a better human being. And that’s going to be.

20:16
with action, that’s gonna improve the practice. That’s what we’re looking for. Results, that’s what we’re looking for. So I wanna ask you guys uh one quick, have 15 seconds to answer this. And then I wanna go into to wrap it up because we have to, what, you have something you wanna say, Shelly? No, you’re asking two I personalities to- I know, I rein you in. I gotta rein you in. I’m so grateful I’m like the only D except for Robin. That’s why we, her and I are not in the same room typically, cause I always defer to her.

20:46
or little Heather because she’s, know, she, guess they away from her. She’s brilliant. Um, now the, okay, so here’s my question. Uh, I’m going to have, uh, Eric do leadership and she’ll you do culture. Give me one thing that you can do tomorrow, Eric on leadership and then Shelley, one thing on culture that your team can do tomorrow that can have the biggest impact. Okay. And then I want to talk about the event and where people can find more information. And then we’re going to.

21:15
wrap it up and we’ll start part two so that we can have those that can hear about that as well. So uh who would like to go first? Shelly. He’s first. Yeah. What’s the one thing? My favorite thing. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. So my favorite thing is to identify a core value. One of your core values. You usually have three to five of them that you lean on. Pick one. And for a week or a month, every morning your team is to report.

21:44
how they lived within that core value the day before. So if it’s patient experience, I want you to share with me a patient experience that lived within that core value. It makes them remember it and it helps you to develop your culture commandments. Great. Eric leadership. Was it seconds? More than that. Eric leadership. I would say.

22:09
If you’ve taken the emotional intelligence assessment, take it again and see how you’re growing your ability to cover in all four categories, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management. How are you doing it? Recognizing that you’re in relationship with your team and growing with them and improving in that arena. Well done. I had to give you the leadership one, Eric, because you do an entire course on leadership. Shelly does, is your co-host with it.

22:32
But it’s, it’s, it’s one of your creation, is like, me, me, everybody wants in leadership. That’s, that’s another great event we do every January. Uh, so we have this, we have a culture here at all star in may as our, our growth summit in January is our leadership and typically October ish November is our master. So mastermind retreat. So we have, uh, again, routine, you see the best in sports and everything. They have these routines that they do over and over again, the same thing. Okay. So Shelley, the event.

23:02
For those that are interested, go to allstradenalacademy.com and there’s a link right up. You just click events. It’s very easy. And you can see all of our events, including like case acceptance, leadership, mask, what have you. But the big one, the highlight one we’re talking about here is our gross summit. Okay. And that’s right there. So for those that are interested in this, you should go there uh and they could. So what do they do from there, Shelly? Did they just check out there? Did they reach out to you? What do they do?

23:31
They’re interested. They can totally check out right there online. Um, the current pricing is there. If you’re early enough and you’re reserving your seats quick enough, you can get an early bird rate. So I would highly recommend reserve in advance. If you’re planning on bringing a team and you’re looking at, my gosh, that’s an investment. Yes, it is. I’m happy to help you with payment plans. Um, so again, the earlier that you start to reserve your seats, the more options that we have with regards to payments, but

24:00
You can email me directly at Shelly at AllStarDentalAcademy.com. I’m happy to help you get your seats reserved that way, ah if that’s easier for you or jump on a call and talk about it. Excellent. Yeah. So you can check out right there. And then as you mentioned, we have payment plans that you can reach out. There’s no penalty with it. We want to help make this easy for you to come. It’s a great event. And I guess last question I have is like, should, who should come?

24:29
Should it just be the doctor? Everybody. So an ideal role, everybody. So you can bring your entire team. I’m acting dumb here, but yes, I mean, we have people that bring their entire team. Sometimes just a doctor to come or a few key people. Sometimes the doctor doesn’t come, but they send some of their teammates. So it’s, it’s not when you start, that’s why we have to do these podcasts. You get an idea of like kind of, and you have, obviously when you have the experience, you see it, but it’s like to be exposed to this as much exposure as you can get. makes sense.

24:58
Uh, is, beneficial. Anybody who’s looking for personal or professional growth can come to this event. think personal business growth, but you’re changing it there. Yeah. Yeah. Is that professional too? Business. So this is a team member. more. Yeah. Well, either way business skills. They’re welcome to be there. We adapt the, the presentations to make sure that it applies across.

25:23
Cause I have a little secret that I always, I say, look, at the end of the day, we’re a personal business development company. That’s what we are. Right. And so I think we want to get to the heart of Harvard and business are, are the soft skills. Well, I mean, I guess personal development is the soft skills, but personal development, has to do with you. Business is you’re working with your, know, with your entire team. And then I guess the reason I use the word business is because we got to run a business. The dentists are one that’s really paying for it. So it’s got to make, that’s important too as well.

25:54
our self-funding coaching program, everything we do, we look to make sure it’s paying for itself, that you have a return on investment on not just money, money, time, energy, happiness, that you are going to get value. We wanna make sure you get value and this is one of those great opportunities. Okay, I’m gonna end it there. Thank you, Eric Vickery, president of coaching, Shelley Van Epps, the COO of All-State Animal Academy. And just to make sure that you all know about this, course, remember to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube.

26:23
Instagram Facebook all of it get the episodes as they released share with your friends and we’re gonna have a part two coming up shortly and until next time go out there and be

26:42
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at AllStarDentalAcademy.com