Robyn Reis discusses the common slowdown during the summer – she explains that this period, while challenging, presents an opportunity for practices to maximize their time by training, reviewing systems, and refreshing team dynamics.
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About Robyn Reis
Robyn began her dental career in 1998 as a marketing and communications director for a large group practice, and instantly fell in love with the world of dentistry. She has spent every waking moment since learning, growing and collaborating with dentists and their teams utilizing her expertise in all aspects of dental practice management, marketing, communications, HR, continuing education, and laboratory sales. Robyn’s personal goals are to make a difference in someone’s life every single day and to give the best of herself to those around her.
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 Robin Reis, the director of the All-Star Hiring Service. Our topic is the summer slump. Please welcome Robin. Thanks, Alex. I am so happy to be here. Happy to have you, director of the All-Star Hiring.
00:31
service, summer slump. This is an issue that I keep hearing about. Perhaps it’s somewhat self-inflicted, but there’s some truth to it as well. So tell me a little bit about what is this? Does it happen every year? What’s going on in the summer? Because it seems like every business is slow, to some extent. And what’s going on, Robin? Help us.
00:57
You know, I want to say the trend is for sure summer is always a time where doctors take vacation, team members take vacation because their children are off of school and they want to capitalize on the time to spend with family. And that’s all true. Same thing with patients, right? So a lot of teams will find themselves on a skeleton crew, short staff, because multiple people are out. And also, you know, summer sickness, that happens too.
01:27
And we have found that lately in some conversations with teams is how do you overcome that, how do you take the time that you have that maybe the schedule is slow is how do you maximize the time together with your team and several of the teams I’ve been working with have really taken time to go back and kind of reset themselves, reboot, refresh, go back to basics.
01:54
find ways that maybe there’s a challenge or there’s a gap, or maybe they’ve gotten away from some of the systems and practices that they’ve been doing because it’s just been on autopilot. And it’s been so rush, rush, rush. The spring was super busy for a lot of practices and now they’re finding it’s kind of downturn. And we know that repetition is the mother of skill, right, Alex?
02:23
I said that a few times there. You’re a big proponent of that. And that truly is, it’s just going back to, let’s revisit our systems. Let’s bring out our job descriptions. Is everything up to date? Because we know we’re rounding the corner when August is almost here. Schools are going to start getting back up. Our schedule is going to start getting full again. Now is the time to really spend training, concentrated training time.
02:52
We know that All-Star is a huge proponent of, you know, always be training, always be training. And summer is a great time to do that. And it could be one-on-one training, it could be divisional training, it could be an all-team afternoon training. Let’s bring out our systems book, let’s bring out our job descriptions. What new equipment has been brought in? What’s still serving our patients and our patient experience? You know, what…
03:20
can we get rid of, what can we refine? And we are also, from the hiring team standpoint, is we’ve been making a lot of great connections and hires for dental teams. So what a great time to onboard people too, when it’s not in the throes of a busy time. So really taking summer, enjoying the summertime and maybe enjoying a slower schedule.
03:50
Uh, but also maximizing the time, uh, together, helping teams really refine and refresh, um, what they’re there to do. And that is to serve the patients, but also to serve each other. Yeah. It’s, I remember my father in his practice where he would be so busy and then he would complain that he’s too busy because he couldn’t get rest, then he’d have a slower month and he would complain that it’s slow and.
04:19
And I think it’s, we want to work with what is given to us. If it’s a little slower, there are some things that we do. I released a podcast recently working on your business versus in your business, a classic discussion from Michael Gerber, he myth revisited. We want to be working on our business besides just the day-to-day operations regardless. But when we have a slump of activity, it’s a good time to do it. Heather was like, it was funny. She was like, oh, we haven’t,
04:49
that many sales in a week and she was freaking out and it’s slow. And then Shelley said to her, just you watch the week or two after is going to be crazy. And sure enough it was. But was unfortunate. I was upset that we got all those sales and because of this, I wanted Heather to work on the business. She had time now to build things that could build for other stuff that we can grow from. And then we’re going to go on vacation, which is nice.
05:17
And of course, when everyone on vacation, there’s a lot of business that comes that happens to work that way. But the point is, is that it reminds us there, there are reasons that we have these ups and downs, it’s good to have that and to be really taking time to step back and say, how can I make my business better? Um, the hiring service that you provide is a wonderful service and it is usually, uh, over demand. We’re working really hard to create supply to help do that.
05:46
But as we were talking about this, the hiring service is one aspect of it, hiring. But you also want to make sure your people stay. You want to put in the systems that your office stands out. And it’s also a place, and we do this at All-Star, people that come work for us, we want them to be part of the movement. Recruitment, we did a whole video, you and I on recruitment versus hiring. And
06:15
We want to bring them to our cause. And bringing someone to your cause is not just, hey, we have a cause and you’re just gonna do dentistry work all day and then go home. You’re spending a lot of time with people. And so what we advocate, and I know you love this of balanced life, is bring your team to events. We do events. You are teaching the phone skills program, our hiring service director, who’s very well known about hiring.
06:45
as a multitude of skill sets. So you’re teaching phone skills, it was so needed. But it’s fun to get outside of our daily routine, make those investments in your team that they never want to leave. So they don’t need a hiring service as much, right? Or it becomes, or you’re just growing, but you retain a lot of people. Well, and you also have to be reminded on occasion of, why do I work here? Why did I choose to work here?
07:15
Right. Why do I make the choices that I make? We talked about this at the Practice Growth Summit. Change is inevitable, but growth is a choice. And we could look at this slump and think, oh my gosh, we have all these patients, we have to fill the holes, right? The whack-a-mole approach, which isn’t a long-term solution. I can tell you that.
07:40
So taking that time and especially if they’re calling you 10 minutes before they’re supposed to be there and they can’t come, how do you utilize that time? Well, what a great way to reorganize your inventory, to do a deep cleaning in an operatory, to do follow-up, reach out to patients, call new patients who are coming up, do the things that we really want to do but maybe we can’t find the time during our normal workday to do it.
08:07
And as you know, I preach this a lot. You’ll never find the time. You have to make the time. So building it into your schedule is really, really important if you want to accomplish the things that you say you want to accomplish. And that also goes hand in hand. Well, what we’ve talked about before is being, are you interested or are you committed? It’s great to want to write all these, 30 thank you notes a week or whatever it might be, but…
08:35
And that’s interesting to me and that’s something that I would love to do. And then if I’m committed, I’m going to build time every single day to write five a day, to achieve my 30 a week. But there’s a difference. I can talk about it, but unless I actually commit to it and put it on my calendar, most often it’s not going to happen. That’s right.
09:04
you have to make the time for what’s important. And I think training is so important and engaging your team is so important so that they do feel a part of that greater whole and what’s greater good for the business and for the patients that you serve. And summer is always a great time to do that, especially if you find that you’re able to do that. Now, there might be orthodontics listening
09:33
or other specialty practices, pediatric practices, that summer is absolutely the craziest time for them because all the kids are home. And for them, it might be the fall or it might be the spring that is their summer where their schedule dips a little bit. And if there’s consistency and predictability and steadiness in your schedule, then for sure, you absolutely have to make the time and build that into your schedule.
10:01
What’s come into my mind is audits and systems, meaning it’s a good time to audit ourselves and say, okay, it’s a little slower. Now I have time to go back to what do I stand for? So we have these five steps to an all-star practice. And I’ve said it many times, so repetition is a mother of skill. And imagine how many times I’ve heard it because I keep talking about it. So you have the five steps and it’s always good to go back to it. Because…
10:29
I built this based on what do the best businesses do. So first, go back to your vision, your mission. What do you stand for? Make sure you’re committed to that. And see if there’s any way you’ve deviated. What are you looking to build? Then see, does your team reflect it? Does your team reflect what you’re looking to do that’s beyond just yourself? And then you wanna make sure you’re training your team consistently.
10:57
on clinical as well as customer service skills. And All-Star Dental Academy, our membership includes the online training, it includes a, we have a buying group included, we have many discounts and stuff, it’s a great membership. The highlight is our online program, but you’re doing that 20 minutes a week. And then on top of that, are you working with a coach or consultant, whether it’s All-Star or someone else? I mean, it’s great to have coaching. That’s one of the fastest ways to grow your business. And then finally, the mastermind effect.
11:25
Are you in a mastermind or you go into events or are you a way to think outside the box? Dentists often say, I feel like I’m on an island. Right. In a silo. Right, in a silo. And you want to elevate yourself and elevate your team where they’re rubbing shoulders with other people. They’re getting that mastermind effect. And so it’s a good place to stop and say, how am I doing in those five steps? How am I doing in what I’m looking to achieve?
11:53
And you could be doing great, but it’s also good to kind of say big turn, because you know the summer will improve the slump. It always does. Temporary. But it’s good to then, this is the time we have to work on our business. And then also look at our systems. You are the mecha guru of systems, we’ll say. System queen. The system queen. I was thinking queen. You go queen. With the system, so critical. Your HR manual.
12:23
You’re a consultant for Ben Erickson. You’re hiring processes, your support, all those things. Where can we improve? Those are good ways to do that. And worst case scenario, you could rest. It’s not a bad thing. Focus on your mental health a little bit. Go do something. You have to. That is not a reward for hard work. It’s a requirement. And you know that very, very well. You have to be able to rest.
12:51
and regenerate and rejuvenate yourself in order to be at your peak performance. Athletes do it. They do it really, really well. They have to get X amount of hours of sleep, letting their body recover. Same thing for dentistry. We have to do it. Team members, doctors, everybody. It’s so true. We’re seeing that becoming more insightful now with athletics and leadership of bringing back mental health. And the Olympics.
13:19
And the Olympics, yeah, there was a special on Simone Bile about how she had overcome some mental issues and how they pushed these gymnasts so hard. And it’s difficult because they have the pressure that if you don’t win, you lose out millions. But then again, you also have to take care of yourself. So money is fine. In All-Star, we really believe so much in that balanced life and that you have to be happy first.
13:49
You can’t give it up for money. It’s gotta be, because it won’t last. And your team won’t last. So you need, the whole idea is can we create a sustainable system and process and place that you wanna be and your team wants to be? That’s the whole idea. Make sense? Totally. So you also mentioned something about empathy and the role that plays.
14:19
with your team and yourself and self care. Tell me a little bit about that, Robin, because that was something that came up in our conversation. It did. And it was, I think, prevalent because of a book I’ve been listening to about empathy and leadership and how it makes companies more profitable, more productive. That’s the end result. It’s not the driving force, but it’s the end result because people are seen as people.
14:49
What I find in the hiring service, that’s one of the things that I think also is kind of our secret sauce is the fact that our team members, our hiring specialists have been team members, have sat in the seats and they can empathize and put themselves in other people’s shoes as to what makes a great dental chair side assistant, what makes a great compassionate dental hygienist, what makes an incredibly engaging front office team member.
15:18
Empathy, I think, shows up in so many different ways, not only our relationships and connections that we build with our patients in our practice, but also how we connect and build connections with our team members. Gallup, you know, they’re Q12 in talking about high performing team members. One of the questions is, you know, I have a best friend at work. And that really talks about the connection being part of something bigger than themselves.
15:48
and knowing that they have the love and support at work, it doesn’t mean that you have to always be best friends with people that you work with, but knowing that you tend to dig deep and help support the person next to you when you truly care about them and when they truly care about you and you’re not afraid to make that commitment and know that you’re working with people that have the same shared values.
16:17
And I know that my lighting is going really really bright. I see your lighting what you are you are illuminated I think somebody’s shining down on me. Oh, what is that like your window? It is my window. Wow And all of a sudden the sun came out the sun will come out tomorrow so, uh Let me ask you this robin because we like to keep these um, these interviews relatively short Sometimes I go over but uh to think couple announcements one
16:47
Next month, that’s the goal is we will have a whole day of the week. That’s Robin and so you’ll have some Some training from you five three to five minutes of some quick podcast So that’s gonna be it will be we’ll do some HR. We’ll do some hiring and I said I I gave you full range I say it’s a Robin show. You can go phone skills because Robin’s a full fledged practice
17:14
management consultant as well. So a lot of things that you can talk about in speaker, international speaker, great speaker. And so full range will be fun. And I think also you plan to have some of your hiring team on in the future, interviews and people like Ben Erickson and others to be on your show and your friends and consultants on there. So that’s something we haven’t planned. So the goal everybody is that we want to bring you five days of content. We have Monday, we have Eric Vickery, our president of coaching on inspirational Monday.
17:42
We’ll have… Awesome. Love those. Those Monday minutes. Love it. Yeah. And then we’re going to have Tuesday and Thursdays are going to be… One of those days will be you, Robin, the Robin Show. Another day will be clips from our practice growth summit and our other events from us as well as other speakers that you can get some cool content throughout the week. Again, short. Wednesdays will go a little longer. We’ll have an interview. And so that’s always nice. This will be a Wednesday program.
18:12
And then also depends actually as we’re speaking, this might have launched in August, so you would have already seen Robin. And then Friday is my podcast that everybody at All Star is mandated to listen to that one at very least. And so I talk about, I talk about on versus in your business. We talk about mindset, talk about health, we talk about leadership, we talk about wealth and some various issues. So there’s a lot that we can do. And again, it’s not just dentistry, anybody can benefit.
18:40
from what we talk about. It’s entrepreneurship, it’s leadership, it’s work-life balance. Our business model, we make money by serving dentists, but everybody can benefit, team members, and so on. So it’s a great podcast to share with your friends. Robin, tell us about the hiring service. What is it, for those who may not know, and make sure you remind people, because they may think that you just do hiring for All-Star.
19:11
dental offices across the country. Tell us about that a little bit. You bet. It is a service that we provide. We become an extension of the practice. So we represent the practice and we do all of the heavy lifting and all of these stress induced steps of the recruitment and hiring process. So we have a team of…
19:37
former dental team members, hygienist, dental assistants, office managers, front office. And we are working with a practice. We get to know the practice. So we understand the vision, the mission, the culture. We understand what’s important to the practice and what they’re looking for in a new team member. And then we go out into the world and we sift through many, many resumes to find the best candidate and the best fit for the practice.
20:05
We interview them on the phone, we interview them on a Zoom interview, and then we present that applicant to the practice and then they get the best of the best of the group to choose from. And they get to meet them in person, might even do a working interview. And then we help with the offer letter, the background check, the verification of employment, and really help with the onboarding. So once we help somebody choose a applicant,
20:34
add them to their team, then we’re going to check in with them at a week and a month’s time to see how’s everything going. Is everything aligning with what you learned before during the interview process? Is it coming true now that you’re working in the practice? And helping any hiccups that might come along the way. And that’s something we do in all 50 states in the US. We work with all different practices, specialty, general practice.
21:02
We recruit for any position in the practice with the exception of dentists and associate dentists and we have resources great partners that we can refer practices to But I just am reminded of a conversation. I was just speaking with in CPA an accountant who was helping his practices with the hiring. He’s like, yeah, it is way too much work It’s too time-consuming and I just don’t want to do it anymore
21:27
And I learned about you from one of our partners, Dental Nachos. And so he’s like, I’d love to help you, um, you know, help my practices and, and be your contact. And, and so I think it’s going to be a wonderful relationship. And that’s really what it’s about is we want to help practices focus on what they do best and that’s dentistry, um, serving their patients, um, not worrying about, you know, no shows of phone calls or no shows of interviews, um,
21:55
you know, just helping them choose the right person for their team. And that’s what the hiring service is all about. Yeah. I’m always reminded for me as an attorney, I like having a hiring service if I was a dentist. It’s nice to have someone else do it because there’s protections because you don’t say something stupid. It’s also really good from a business perspective. It’s a good use of one’s time. You know, a dentist is leading an office that’s making thousands of dollars an hour. Why do something that…
22:25
we don’t like to do and that we’re not really great at. And the other thing is we find that the team members that are hired, they love the white glove service. They like that they’re represented, that they have a… It’s not so stressful because there’s representation on both sides and we take really good care of applicants. And so it’s a really nice transition with respect to that. It’s a great feedback too that we get. We get a lot of applicants to say, wow, like I don’t…
22:55
interview with many offices or I’ve been interviewing with other offices, you guys really have it together. And, you know, I really appreciate the follow-up and I really appreciate you staying in contact with me. You know, again, practices are busy and it’s something that they have such a sense of relief that they know it’s being handled while they’re forward-facing with the patient. They know behind the scenes.
23:23
and offsite out of mind, right, that we’re screening, we’re having phone interviews, we’re doing Zoom interviews, and the process keeps moving forward throughout the time that we’re looking so that they’re not interrupting their patient care. And again, it’s the most time-consuming parts that we take from them. And what we can achieve in one hour worth of time is far more than what we can achieve in one hour.
23:49
somebody who’s working in an office because we’re not answering phones, we’re not checking in patients or checking out patients or explaining treatment. We are solely focused on interviewing, reviewing resumes, screening applicants, verifying employment, doing all the things that the practice needs to protect them. I hate that stuff. So I’m glad you guys do that. I know you do. And from a bigger picture, all the services at All-Star are, we’re designing to support
24:18
a private practice to be able to compete with the much larger conglomerates that have this expert support. That’s what we’re here to do. To learn more, go to alls and you can click on hiring and learn more about our hiring service. We’re happy to speak with you and take it from there. Robin Reiss, Director of All-Stars Hiring Service, thank you so much for being on the program. We’ll have you again, even though you’ll have… Maybe you’ll have me on your program one of these days.
24:47
Yeah, interview me. Okay. Thanks for joining us. Remember everyone to follow, subscribe with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube. Click all of them. Leave comments and we’d like that and tell us what you think and we can have a conversation. Share with your friends and until next time, go out there and be an All Star. An All Star.
25:12
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at allstardentalacademy.com
