This podcast discusses how to become a dental Jedi Master in your practice. It begins with a discussion by Alex Nottingham JD MBA on the forces that are facing dentists in their practice, which was the topic of the prior podcast. Alex then outlines the five steps to success in order to become a dental Jedi Master. Alex stresses that everyone in the practice, including the admin team, hygienists, assistants, and doctors, must contribute in order to reach success. He then goes into detail about the steps.
Highlights
[00:00] Conversation on Becoming a Dental Jedi Master
[02:08] Developing a Burning Desire: A Reflection on Luke Skywalker’s Courage in Star Wars
[04:05] “The Power of Desire and Mechanism: Achieving Business Growth Through Incremental Improvement”
[07:38] Heading: Strategies for Improving Phone and Scheduling Efficiency in Dental Practices
[09:10] “The Benefits of Training and Staying the Course”
[11:14] Discussion on Developing Enthusiasm and Belief for Success
[13:38] Conquering Fear and Achieving Success: Strategies for Overcoming Fear of Failure and Fear of Success
[15:04] Heading: Overcoming Fear and Self-Sabotage with the Jedi Mind Trick
Resources
Free Training Webinar: Dental Practice Excellence – 3 Steps to an All-Star Practice
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
Transcription performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:28 – 00:36
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
And everyone, it’s Alex Nottingham, founder of All-Star Dental Academy. And welcome to Dental Allstars. We are beginning Part Two of this two part series.
00:37 – 01:05
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Yesterday was May 4th and we talked about the dental force Awakens, the forces facing you in your dental practice. And in this episode we’re talking about the five steps to become a dental Jedi master in your practice, and I’ll put in the show notes the link to the prior podcast. So let’s begin the dental Jedi Master presentation.
01:06 – 01:10
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
I trust you will enjoy this podcast.
01:15 – 01:40
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
So how do you become a dental Jedi? Everyone in your practice? Admin team, hygienists, assistants, doctors. Everyone has to be contributing. Everyone has to be a master of these internal forces to make this work. It can’t just be a few people that are doing it. Now here are the all star five steps to be a Dental Jedi master or keys to success.
01:41 – 02:08
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
And we’re going to go through one in detail. So we have develop a burning desire to use the mechanism, do the work, cultivating through zazen and receive the benefits. So to develop a burning desire, what is a desire? A desire is not a wish. It’s not a hope. It is a burning desire. It is an obsession. So if we look at the Star Wars movie.
02:08 – 02:33
Movie Dialog
Size attack in that battle station eight, my idea of courage, it’s more like suicide than Luke. The force will be with you. Look at the size of that thing.
02:33 – 02:48
Movie Dialog
When you used the force, Luke, you breaching.
02:48 – 02:53
Movie Dialog
That was one in a million. Now, remember, the force will be with you always.
02:55 – 03:20
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
So what we learned here is that there’s Luke realized and accepted. No retreat, no excuses. He had faith. He said, I’m not creating excuse that I can go back. I’m going. And that’s it. That’s the level of desire you need, is you’re going to go straight. You’re going to just commit to amazing customer service. You going to commit to amazing skill, and you’re not going to find any excuses to go back, whether it be you or your team.
03:20 – 03:41
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
It doesn’t matter. That’s a level desire. Now there are six steps that create desire, and this comes from a wonderful book, Thinking Grow Rich. The first is you’ve got to fix in your mind exactly what you want. You want to determine what you will give for it. Nothing’s free. You have to give something in return. You have to set a definite date.
03:42 – 04:05
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
You have to create a specific plan. You have to write this clearly and concisely, and you have to read it out loud to yourself often and feel it. It’s kind of have emotion or force behind it. Otherwise it’s just words. Now, here’s an example of a desire statement for a dentist. You can say, I will have the top customer service practice in my state.
04:05 – 04:26
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
I will give for it time and treasure. Am I 100% commitment? My entire team will be trained with our vision and the specifics of the plan will be laid out. You’re basically writing your desire, clearly, and you’re read it often, feel it with force. So that’s just the kind of idea about these steps and how to do it.
04:26 – 04:39
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
I encourage all of you to write it on your own and and all team members. I encourage you to do the same and compare and talk about it and read it out loud with force. The next is the mechanism.
04:40 – 04:53
Movie Dialog
The force, the forces. What gives a Jedi is power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.
04:53 – 05:14
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
The force is the mechanism. With respect to the Star Wars movie, we need the right mechanism for growing a dental practice. And you can have the best desire, no retreat. But if you’re heading north and your goal is south, I don’t care how much you desire is you’re not going to get there. Let’s look at the all star business growth formula.
05:14 – 05:36
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
This is the mechanism for growth. There are only four ways you can grow your practice. You get marketing, insurance comes in. That’s the fuel. It can be internal marketing, internal marketing, insurance, whatever it is, you have to convert the phone call. You have to make sure the patient shows up. You have to have them accept treatment, possibly refer, and that creates revenue.
05:36 – 06:04
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Now, let’s assume and these are all researched, 35% of calls convert into appointments from phone calls. 85% of patients show up. 60% of patients accept treatment. 50% of patients refer. So our goal is about a million, right? So let’s see how this plays out. To get $1,000,000, you need about 5 million and opportunities. If you convert 35%, that’s 1.75 million.
06:05 – 06:40
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
If 85% show up, that’s 1.5 million. 60%. Accept treatment 900,000. If 50% prefer, that’s a million. So you see where you get your million. Now, what if we can improve these four areas by 5% net each? Now that 5 million becomes 2,000,040% conversion. 1.8 million 90% show up. 1.2 million. 65% accept treatment. 1.4 million is basically after. 20% refer.
06:41 – 07:09
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
That’s 1.4 million in revenue. So basically, we increase the practice by $400,000 or 40% by improving each of these four areas incrementally. These are not huge jumps. Now, what if we were to be bold and say, let’s improve each area by 12% net? So 5% opportunity, 5 million in opportunities. 47% convert. 2.4 million. 97% show up. 2.3 million.
07:09 – 07:38
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
72% of treatments want 1.6 million and 26. Refer 2 million. You just doubled your practice. You added $1,000,000 by increasing a net 12%. And when I hear doctors say I want to grow my practice or I’m having difficulty or whatever it might be, and they say we have to invest more marketing and more insurance. They’re missing how a business works, how a dental practice works.
07:38 – 08:02
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
That’s it. So the nuggets of wisdom here are incremental phone and scheduling. Training has a huge effect. That is your mechanism. You need to focus on financial scheduling first, because that’s the biggest impact. And then comes case acceptance and referring. They all fall in place. We love to get into case acceptance, but if you can’t convert a phone call and they can’t show up, you’re not going to get there.
08:02 – 08:25
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Certainly case acceptance is important. That’s the next step as part of the entire patient experience. But you need to really focus in on phone and scheduling first. That’s your mechanism. You can lower your marketing budget or you can get rid of it. You can take insurance or you can get rid of it, live up to you. But ultimately, you’re going to become more productive when you don’t have to work as hard because you’re being more efficient.
08:25 – 08:50
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Now what you want to look for and training in ongoing training are these steps. First, you need structured coursework in quizzes. I recommend online. It’s great because it’s easy to use it on the go anywhere. I would then discuss what you learned in the coursework, having team review meetings. I would have call evaluations or role plays to grade and see how you’re doing grade on a service based approach, not sales.
08:51 – 09:10
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Key to success, though, is of the coursework. Only 20 minutes of week of coursework no more. Because if you overdo it, that’s why I get from Dennis or too busy staffs resistant because you have 2 hours of training a week and they’re not going to stay with that. You’ve got to do something. 20 minutes is enough and you build on it.
09:10 – 09:21
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
If there’s additional time, you can do a webinar or seminar or whatever it might be. But you have your on board and you have your comprehensive training where you’re at. Next step is you need to do the work.
09:21 – 09:41
Movie Dialog
Master moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different. No, no different. Only different in your mind. You must learn what you have prepared. All right. I’ll give it a try. No, try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
09:41 – 10:08
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
What you’re talking about is the doer versus the dabbler. Now, for those that are Star Wars geeks, you’ll know that Darth Vader was once a Jedi. And he tried it out. He dabbled with it. It wasn’t sufficient. He went to the dark side. Luke, tempted by the dark side, stayed with the force. So the same thing I say to you, all of you listening is train.
10:09 – 10:34
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Stick with something, something you like and keep it going. That’s a doer versus a dabbler. Choose the right mechanism. That’s phone in, scheduling, training, focus on productivity, not busyness. Everybody’s busy. Every practice is busy. Even startup practices are busy. The question is, are you productive? Work smart, but don’t be afraid of hard work. Certainly persistence. And stay the course.
10:34 – 11:13
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Of course. No starting and stopping. No doing and dabbling. Just doing it. The fourth is you need to cultivate enthusiasm. So certainly you can look at friends and coworkers enthusiasm. And one of the things is very important is getting drama out of your practice and having because sometimes you can have coworkers that bring us down. We want to make sure everybody brings us up.
11:14 – 11:39
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
So what is enthusiasm? Doozie. Awesome is strong excitement. It’s motivation deep within. It’s enjoying what you do. It’s having fun. That’s enthusiasm. But what happens when you don’t have enthusiasm? How do you develop enthusiasm? Here’s what you do. Fake it until you make it act as if. I’m sure you’ve heard that this the science is sound. If you fake it sometimes you make it and you feel it and you become it.
11:40 – 12:04
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Get organized, clean out your desk, clean stuff up, reset your mind, focus on the positive, have gratitude. We’re alive. We’re here listening to this webinar. This is fantastic. We can apply things. We have choice, focus on solutions. Every problem that I hear, I always say, Give me three solutions. Be around enthusiastic people and certainly diet and exercise. You got to be healthy.
12:05 – 12:14
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Now, the last step is you have to receive the benefits. You have to receive, I guess.
12:15 – 12:29
Movie Dialog
Is to pick XYZ Nutrition Act. Look at me. That’s me by my size. Do you think I. I’ll believe it. Which way you feel.
12:32 – 12:53
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Look like belief. You have to have belief to make things work. If you do all the steps I gave you, you have the mechanism, desire, enthusiasm. But you don’t believe it is not going to work and it’s all in your mind. So here are some steps to develop belief. You have to talk to yourself. Whether you think it’s hokey or positive self-talk or whatever that might be.
12:54 – 13:17
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
It’s scientifically proving that self-talk will program your subconscious mind. That’s what you say out loud, what you say internally, what you watch, what you’re exposed to. So you need to start programing your subconscious mind with things that you want, and it’s important that you repeat this. Repetition is the only way this happens. Repeat it, repeat it. Repeated and repeated with enthusiasm.
13:17 – 13:37
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
With emotion. Emotion makes it stick in your subconscious mind. If you just say, I want to be wealthy, I want to have a great practice, I want to do customer service. Then whether the words are useful or not, it’s not going to work unless it has emotion. It’s got to have force in it. Not the dark force, the dark side.
13:38 – 14:04
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
And you’ve got to believe you already have it. You have to be so confident that is already in the back. That’s the level of belief you have to have. That’s how Yoda lifted the fighter jet and moved it. His belief was really strong. And this is the nature of fear, because you must face your fear to overcome. And there are two fears that we’re in.
14:04 – 14:26
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Talk about the fear of failure and the fear of success. Now, the fear of failure is really a matter of perspective. So sometimes when we fail, it can often be our greatest successes. So this is a way to look forward to failing because, you know, there’s some great quotes out there that some that have said I failed my way to success.
14:26 – 14:48
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Now, the fear of success is a little more kind of insidious here because you say, well, what will my friends think? My coworkers, you know, I see Dennis that they start their practice and they start seeing success. And we’ll talk about the moment they do something that messes that up because they don’t feel they’re good enough. We’ll talk about that right here.
14:48 – 15:04
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
They don’t feel good enough and they don’t want to get their hopes up for anyone and get us the point. Well, what if I try all this and I don’t? It doesn’t succeed. Well, you’re sabotaging it, and that’s what I was on. Talk about self-sabotage. I see it all the time. People don’t feel they’re good enough. They are comfortable.
15:04 – 15:21
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
They’re all my friends think and this happens a coworker’s. We went back here, we’re talking about coworkers. What if one coworker is doing well and the others are at a lower level? Well, that can be very scary if you succeed because they’re going to shun you. They’re going to they’re going to be uncomfortable that you’re not doing so well.
15:21 – 15:41
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
And same thing with certain friends. So you have to be able to eliminate those negative influences and to be overcome your fear of success or at least be able to overcome it in your mind. And we’ve seen lottery winners or singers or movie stars that get money very fast. They lose it all very quickly because they’re not used to it.
15:42 – 16:09
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
So how do you overcome fear? Self-confidence strengthens the force and weakens the dark side. So I’m going to give you the Jedi self-confidence creed. And this is adapted from Chapter five to think grow rich. It is as follows The Jedi self-confidence creed. I realized that success is built upon truth and justice. I will engage in no transaction that will not benefit all whom it affects.
16:10 – 16:30
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use. I will induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate dark forces of hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness and cynicism. And I will cause others to believe in me because I believe in them and in myself.
16:31 – 16:53
Movie Dialog
And I had these three or four seasons up for sale. If you want them, let me see your ID. You don’t need to see his identification. We don’t need the fans ID. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. These and the droids we’re looking for. You can go about his business. You can go about your business. Move along.
16:54 – 17:06
Movie Dialog
Ha ha ha. I can’t understand how we got by those troops. I thought we were dead. The force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.
17:07 – 17:39
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
The forces always going to be greater than the dark side. So when you are so clear on those five steps, the desire, enthusiasm, doing the work right mechanism, really believing in yourself and receiving the benefits. When you follow those five steps, everything bends to your will. All these external forces, dark forces, whatever you want to call them, they start to go to your force and you can use the Jedi mind trick on anything in your way.
17:39 – 18:09
Alex Nottingham JD MBA
When you follow those five steps and you can make the dark side practically irrelevant and until we meet again, go out there and be an all-star and also be a Jedi of success in your dental practice.
