Attaining the Next Level in your Practice

Welcome to Million Dollar Dentistry with your host Gary Katie, brought to you by Next Level Practice. Next Level Practice is the leader in dental practice management. In fact, they are the best in the world at creating happy teams that implement sustainable results. Your host, Gary Katie welcomes you to this podcast as he discusses the common concerns, challenges and shares his decades of experience in empowering dentists and dental teams to go from good to world class. Gary Katie is the visionary voice of Next Level Practice and has for the past 20 years interrupted the status quo of the dental world. He continues to bring national attention to the oral systemic connection and and believes in the complete health dentistry model. He is a powerful educator and advocate for dentistry, dentist and dental teams. He is inspired every day by the courage and personal successes of the doctors and team members he has the privilege of working with.

Today we're going to talk a little bit about a secret sauce. We were talking last time you were sharing about how the new patient treadmill is not the ideal way to achieve optimal practice profitability. Today I want to discuss how to create sustainable results. And I understand that you have a secret sauce that's not included in the book, so I'm looking forward to unpacking that in the next few episodes. But let's talk about the three major shifts that happen when clients install the next level systems, processes and platforms and their practices. That first distinction is that most patients perceive or believe that dentistry equals pain, but we say dentistry equals health. How does this shift happen? And where does the patient begin to see the office differently?

Yeah, it's a really important one, Amber, because most dentists are bumping into the same reoccurring problem, which is they are having the patient say, do whatever my insurance covers, or saying no to treatment if they're a fee for service practice. And what happens here is. And then you have to. It puts you in a position of having to sell people on an idea versus what about removing the barrier on the front end so that there's no barrier that exists and patients want what you have. Isn't that an interesting concept? Yeah. So let's deepen here. Let's deepen it. Let's look deeper. Let's go beyond what I just established as a possibility for. Imagine that the patient sees you, hears you, understands you as a practitioner in a way that allows the opportunity for them to get what they need because, you know, it's like they come in, they want whitening and they want, you know, aesthetics and they want that kind of thing because it makes them feel good. But imagine having Them want what they need as well. And so, you know, the first distinction here is really being open to that dentistry does equal health. And with all the science and all the oral systemic agreement now, not just in the peer reviewed journals, but in lay people's worlds. You know, I was driving in a taxi, the guy asked me what I did and then he goes, well, I know Mac, you know, if I don't floss, I'm going to get a heart attack. Like that's a New York City taxi driver. Okay? So the public, it has a higher level of awareness in the 2020 decade than they did even five years ago. Just because it's become more mainstream about the mouth body connection. And what's missing is that the dental practice hasn't evolved. You know, if I ask a dentist who graduated a bunch of years ago if they're using any of the, any of the materials that they use when they were in dental school, they're like, none. But the dental practice hasn't evolved. And that's the problem. This is the gap between a highly successful dentist who has great hands but has also has a great business. You know, a lot of dentists define themselves by their cash flow or their production and collection, and they just haven't evolved. That's, that's the only thing missing. They're not bad or wrong. They just haven't tended to, you know, the business side of their business. They spend time in getting more C.E. and that's okay. You should really always develop your clinical abilities and knowledge, but really developing your business so that you can have a patient education system and watch this. The dentist decentralizedness needs to come from the team. So the team just needs to understand what we call complete health dentistry is. And you know, we've been doing this for the last 15 years where my dad had a heart attack. I walk into a hygiene coaching session and I told the ladies I'm having a bad day because my dad had a heart attack the night before he survived quintuple bypass. They said, well, how is this perio? And I'm like, my dad had a heart attack and I was in dentistry for 10 years prior to that. Never heard about the oral systemic connection and the mouth and the body connection. And they educated me and they changed my life and really changed the life, the thousands of practices and probably not probably, I know millions of patients who now understand the oral systemic connection and are taking a preventive stand against disease. The villain is the disease, Amber. And we haven't, we haven't gotten on the Same page with the patient to know they are not the villain. They're not bad people. They just don't know the real villain is inside their mouths. And together we want to attack the villain. And when we can get them on that same page, because when we are the guide and they're the hero, the hero and the God attack the villain, which is in the patient's mouth.

I love that. That is amazing. So when we're talking about that second distinction, we're going right into that, that pre, previously, patients perceived the dentist as a commodity. Now the office is providing an experience like the Ritz Carlton level of care with a real touch. And I think that's where we're talking about also that we're speaking to them in a way that they can hear.

Yeah. And I want to distinguish something here. An experience versus a commodity. An experience occurs in a practice intentionally when the practice understands how to use their services as a stage. You know, you're hearing in our podcast about the guide and the hero, that's the characters in the story. And then when you create your practice as the stage and you use services as the stage, and then the goods that you offer as props, that's key. You have to offer these goods as proportions, props, not the thing you're selling, like crowns and fillings and stuff like that, to engage the individual patient in a way that creates a memorable event. See, people don't remember what you said, but they remember how you made them feel. Commodities are fungible. The goods are tangible, the services are intangible, and the experiences are memorable. And buyers of experiences, they buy experiences, and they'll pay more for that. And they follow like, you know, I always think the experience pioneer is Walt Disney. You know, he calls them guests, right? And the value of what the company reveals over a duration of time. But like, you know, while like prior economic offerings, like, you know, commodities, goods, services are external to the buyer. Experiences are inherently personal and internal to the buyer. And then it exists in the mind of the individual versus, you know, like, where you're engaging them on an emotional, physical, and intellectual and even like a spiritual level. Thus, you know, we believe that no two patients have the same experience because each experience derives from the interaction that happened on a stage, event. And if, you know, like Disney, it's all about being on stage. And in a dental practice, it's not about being staged, like as an actor or actress, but one that authentically and genuinely delivers a clear experience because their authority and empathy, simultaneously delivered, creates an experience that a patient can't get at a dso that's so true.

And you know, I was thinking about this. There comes with maturity as we, as we get a little bit older, I think we start to realize that we don't want things that we want experiences that will, we're willing and we're actually willing to pay more for the right experience as opposed to just a service that's, you know, it's kind of like, and I'm not going to mention names but it's kind of like going to the, to the fast food restaurant of massage therapy which, or going to a real true spa where you're going to get a totally different experience. And to me, I'm willing to pay that higher price. I'm willing to pay a little bit more. I'm willing to go there because I, I know there's going to be cucumber water as opposed to a bottle of, you know, off brand water handed to me, if any at all or in a little paper cup. So is that what you're kind of talking about with the dental practices and their experiences?

Yeah, there's no doubt. And you can turn anything into an experience. You know, we moved in 2013, you know, over eight years ago. We moved from going into offices because we, that was an enabling issue. We would fly to an office, we'd tell everybody what to do, they would say yes, we would fly away. And so was everything that we delivered. Now we deliver from an empowering standpoint using video education that makes the consultant be the person who's the right person to be the consultant, which is the team leader and we become their advisor and we create experiences in video, in our video education that it's, you know, people say it's even better than having you here. And in fact we don't want any consultant coming here because we want less traffic, number one. And number two, we just want to know what we need to do. And you can go away, you know, you're our advisor. We don't need you hanging out here, you know, putting your ego on this, this practice. That's not what we're looking to do here. We just need to know what we need to do, how to do it, when to do it and then how to make sure it stays in place and then you can go in your merry way. There's no, it's perfect. It worked out great. You know, all of our live events are done virtually now and you know, we, you know, we create experiences that are interactive and people go I when you said we were going to do a six Hour, event online. I'm like, there's no way that I'm going to keep my attention, you know, present. And it felt like an hour long course. And it's just because we're creating emotional internal experiences for people and they trust and they understand and it's valuable and relevant to who they are and what they need to do. And when you do that really well, you know, you can, you know, really have a business that, that people can't wait to interface with you, that your brand is like, I can't wait to go to the dentist. You know, we're just, you know, consultants. Back in the day we were like that, like, oh geez, the consultants coming in the same feeling. That's why we had a lot of empathy for you going, oh geez, I got to go to the dentist and I don't want to be here. We have people that can't wait to experience an event or an interaction because first, we make it safe, second, we add value. Third, it's an experience that they can't get anywhere else. And not only is their work life better, their home life gets better. And see, we eliminate why the team member was unwilling to take direction once it's gone. It's a clear path. And how I know this works with the dental practice and the patient is because it works with, you know, us as next level practice and our community of amazing practices across North America.

I love that. And you know, our third distinction that we're talking about, you've hit on this a little bit and it's, it is in about, in the way that we.

Actually.

We treat our patients because we're looking at their welfare and their welfare and their loyalty becomes the first and top priority. This is where we're changing from just dental care to complete healthcare. And you mentioned that a little bit earlier. Can you deepen that a little bit about the difference between just dental care and really complete health?

Well, it really goes to like what we've been talking about. It's like if you're selling widgets, you're selling drilling, filling and PPO milling, right? It's like this, it's like this transactional, you know, you have this problem, I fix it with this, you pay me with that insurance or your, your credit card. It's like transactional back and forth, check the box, come in, it's sort of like a machine. Whereas complete health dentistry takes care of first, the dental team, because you can't give away something you don't have for yourself. And you know, the first one is if your money ain't right, you can't join the fight. If your money ain't right, you can't join the fight. And that was screamed out from a big Texan 65 guy. You know, he's got to be about 272, I'm going to be kind 250. And he's a big guy and he's loud and he's like, Gary, what you mean is if your money ain't right. And this is a bad southern accent, y'. All, Money ain't right, y' all keep. Can't join a fight. Oh, man, I'm a bad Southern dude. But anyway, you got the picture.

I'm gonna say that's not how we sound. Thank you.

Yeah, I know I'm horrible and I'm. Yeah. And you know, here's the deal. This guy. Yes. There's five domains of complete health. If your attention's on your money, you can't be purpose driven because you're in fear and scarcity. Fear and scarcity doesn't allow you to be in your purpose, which is abundant and contributory and difference making. And you know, that world, two things can't hold the same space at the same time. So the first thing, first thing we have in complete health dentistry is we make sure that the practitioner doesn't live in fear around. Money goes away, economic insecurity is lifted and they can then get into purpose number two, physical health and well being. A lot of our practice practitioners, we have once a month education around how they take care of their own health and wellness. You know, some of the worst people, you know, taking care of their health and wellness are doctors and, you know, nurses and you know, and you know, it's to be the best. It doesn't mean you have to have a six pack, but you have to tend to your health and well being. The next is socially, if you're arguing with people all day, you're fighting with people. That was me. I was brought up, I'm a street kid from Jersey. The only way I survived is by fighting. And I've learned to on how to eliminate the fight and so that I can be a space of love and peace and contribution. I used to be, you know, angry, justified anger, resentment and, you know, fisticuffs, haymakers. And that type of existence, you know, can be transformed. The next is mental health. I had a couple of years of depression and my wife helped me see it was really wasn't depression, it was desperation. I was desperate to leave the old me behind and reinvent myself and really have mental peace and mental health issues run in my family. Long lineage of that. And so I've really been diligent about how to get connected spiritually. I used alcohol to numb my mental health and wellbeing. And I'm 12 years old now, and I got underneath why I needed alcohol or whatever you might be using. I believe that we're all addicted to something when we feel uncomfortable, whether it's Facebook or food or shopping or whatever it might be. That's my own belief.

Working, working. Overworking. Absolutely.

That's. That's me. Because I didn't want to be present with myself. I actually hated myself. I didn't like myself. And so I had no compassion for myself. I had no empathy for myself. I was hard on myself. My self talk was so belligerent to myself that what happened was whenever I tried to interface with somebody else with love, how I talk to myself is how I talk to other people. And what I did was I created separation. And so, you know, really the opposite of addiction is connection. And so really, in dentistry, it's so important to be connected and be present. And it's possible, you know, it's totally possible. And you can move the needle into a peaceful place and these domains and it's really, you know, the fifth is, I call it being connected to the universe and, and, and having like. You know, some people call it spirituality, some people call it nature, some people call it the universe, some people call it. You know, I don't know what they call it, but what I call it is connection to a greater good of humanity and life and earth, whatever that is for you. And what I've learned is if you're not connected, being disconnected, you can have all the money in the world and be disconnected, and you'll never be fulfilled. And so this is where fulfillment lies. And you know, we, you know, in our methodology, we instill. And by the way, I want to make sure spirituality is not religion. This is not a religious cult over here. This is about, you know, you just like being related to human beings and the world around you. That's what it's about. And you know, when we put these five things in, people have an experience that their mind's blown because now they have a guidebook of operating in the world in a way that really tends to the things that stop people having abundance and joy and fulfillment and fun and passion and all the things that we all as human beings want. But we were never given an instruction book on how to get. And when you get connected to your purpose, why you're put here. And you live from a place of purpose and you put integrity in. And you learn how to communicate effectively with people when they're not following your direction and give them an opportunity to choose to participate and stop enabling and start empowering. And when you learn these distinctions about ants and filters, automatic negative thoughts are. Ants and filters are. When you change how you're looking at things, the things you're looking at change. And what it does is it stops blaming. You know, blaming is pointing the figure one way. Three fingers come back to you, one's going upstairs. And you know, when you blame, you lose your power. Blaming it on the pandemic. Blame it on the rain. Blame it on the rain. Do you know who sang that?

I do not. Who did?

I think it's. Is it Terence Trent? Darby? No. Or it's no Manili Vanilli. That's what it is. The guys who singers. That's it. Not bad, not bad. My boomers, my fellow baby boomers are going, that's badass. And my millennials are going on apple music going, how do you spell Manilli? Who was that? I'm gonna listen Blame it on the Rain. I'm gonna be. I'm a bad singer and I'm a bad Southern guy. But you know what? I got good dad jokes. Amber Keith Lee.

Yes, you do.

Oh, man. So anyway, where the hell was I? No, we're talking about like complete health and then that's complete health for the practice. Once you have that set, then we put the complete health patient education system in. And this is where you read the medical history form. You don't just say, what change? You go, how do you feel about your medical history form? Then you have these amazing oral systemic health cards that once you see the chronic disease on the medical history form, they're, you know, dumbed down. Simple tools that sit in the operatory and you pull it out if they have, you know, whatever is going on, obesity, sleep, whatever issues they have. And on the front it says what it is and on the back it says how it's connected to the mouth and the science associated to it. Because everything we do is science backed up. And people love that when you give them research, especially the fact finders, they love when you give them where to find the detail on this. And it's all done for you. We realized that we don't want dentists and dental teams having to go to medical school. We just simplified the whole thing. And then the next part of the complete Health education system is the healthy mouth baseline. And the healthy mouth baseline is up on a screen post pandemic. We used to have it laminated in an eight and a half by 11. And it sits up there and patient walks in and says, you say to them, we understand. Our patients don't understand what's healthy and what's not. Here's what's healthy in your mouth. And you walk them through the report card and then you do the tour of the mouth visually, and they see the intra all pictures versus what's declared healthy in your practice. Then they see the gap, and then they're coming to you. And it's a completely different experience of people buying versus you having to sell. It is awesome. And then the other thing that it does is it dramatically affects your case acceptance, retention, and the experience for the new patient. New patients leave. They go put a review saying, I've never been educated in this way in my life. I feel like I am now empowered to take on my health. That is what happens with a complete health model. It is a game changer.

I love that. That is amazing. I know that we have assistance and we're just going to briefly kind of, you know, talk about it, but we have a system of what we call our secret sauce that really helps people get in the mindset for this. Do you want to, like, go over that really quickly? Just give us a rundown of what that is, and we'll really unpack it deeply in the next few episodes.

Oh, Amber, you like giving away all this stuff, secrets, don't you?

I do. I love to tell this. I like to tell them secrets. I think they like this.

Yeah, no, it's. It's for sure, like, you know, Coca Cola has its secret sauce and KFC has its secret sauce on that crispy, you know, chicken they offer. And, you know, I developed this over the years because I like working in process. I like working in understanding the root cause of things and seeing where the inefficiency lies. I developed this for our coaching team, and then this past year, we unveiled it as a system for our dental team so that they know how to course correct when something. Something isn't happening to the degree that they wanted to. So there's a process here. And, you know, step number one is enrollment. That is, you know, the difference between buying and selling. It's. Isn't it nicer when your team buys in? Isn't it nicer when your patients buy in? That's enrollment. It's speaking to the person in such a way that they get inspired and they take actions. No more pulling patients and team members up the hill. If enrollment's out, you're going to have to do that. And most people are telling people what to do. Nobody likes to be told what to do. And enrollment is the complete, complete opposite of that. And then registration. Registration is okay. I'm excited, I'm motivated. But now there's an agreement in place of who, what and by when. And now you manage facts, not emotion. That's what the enrollment is. But then what happens is if a person, you know might have been enrolled, they might have made a who, what and by when agreement, and now they're not doing it. You have to interrupt. Interrupt is something that people pleasers like myself didn't do. Interrupt is, you know, coming from a place of caring about the person you're interfacing with and saying it's not going in the direction like the patient's not getting healthier, the team member is not following through, and you as their advisor, are not allowing it to happen anymore. So you interrupt. Then what happens after interruption is something called surrender. And I learned this from alcohol, the alcohol program I'm in because I wanted to fix my alcoholism my way, not the way that's been proven. And so I didn't surrender to a successful thing. That's the thing. This is a interesting word. It's actually a positive word, not a negative word. Surrender means to move to the winning side, meaning give up your self righteousness that you have it all figured out, and follow a system that is proven 6,000 times irrefutably, that's what surrender is. And you know, you have surrender when the person is getting results. You know, it doesn't mean that you don't learn and listen from somebody else. It just means that if you've been doing something for 25 years and 6,000 practices, and it works 100% of the time, and if you're getting defiance or resistance, you've got to interrupt and look for the surrender. If the person's not willing to give up being right, then you must decide whether it's a fit to be a patient or a team member. Then what happens is the next is transformation and ooh, baby, autumn. This is like, this is where your work and enrollment, registration, interruption, surrender. This is where that work, staying in that and seeing where the inefficiency is or the breakdown. This is where the person becomes your best advocate. They. They gave up their old way. They stayed, tried yours, it worked. Now they are like missionaries for everything that you got a fully trusted because you stayed in it with them. When most people gave up, especially the stronger personalities, you know, most people like bite on the bark if you will. Like they go in their cave when somebody barks back. But the loudest barks are the scaredest people. So when people are really like New Yorkers like in your face, they just, they're so scared of like dealing with BS that they know that if they bark loud people will go away. And so that's why this is where you get the biggest dedication and commitment. Because you show the person that has the biggest fear a new way to do something. And they are so grateful for that because they're really just become very lonely and they hate that. So this is really, you know, a transformation of like oh my God. You know, I can't tell you how many times I hear doctors going I never thought that that person would get on board. And I'm not kidding you. Like this happens like 7 out of 10 times. Like that's a big batting average of 700. When you just come face to face with the person, give them love and say this is how it's going to go. Do you want to play on this team? If you do, this is how to play. We want you here, we love you, but you can't be playing that way. And the same is true with patience. And this is how you get you clean up in six, you know, in a practice that's cleaned up in eight weeks. And I mean when I say it's like on a team, the team gets cleaned up in eight weeks because if they're, if they're invited to play on the new game and if they don't line up, they're going to decentralize or deselect themselves. And then there's a way to put the new team member who's willing. And when you have 100% willing team members, you can implement everything. And then you do this with patients as they run through your hygiene department, you interrupt them and you re educate them. And then once they go through in a six month cycle, you have a whole new set of patients that are the same patients. But how they relate to you, dentistry in the mouth, very differently.

Absolutely. I love that. So, and then that just really honestly creates the sustainable results that, that we talk about a lot at next level.

And then around again then it goes circular. Yeah, it's circular because then you got to always your only job as a leader is re enroll them in the vision, purpose and values of the business. And then your team Leader is doing the interruption on agreements, whether they're following them or not, so you don't have to do all the work. It is awesome. The doctors decentralized. They get to be a visionary. They get to talk about what they love to talk about, do dentistry. And then once a week for an hour, the team leader comes and reports in on the measures that are happening inside the dental practice. It's a game changer.

I love it. This is amazing. Well, Gary, this has been a really great conversation again today, and I'm loving that we are going to get to unpack this a little bit deeper in the next few episodes because I feel like there is a lot of meat there that as keto people really like to talk about.

I thank God for keto, Amber. My information is next to zero. My weight is down, and I'm telling you, keto, my complete health. Dr. Chip Whitney put me on keto and I feel, my joints feel amazing and everything. Just my mindset, I mean, it's just amazing. So thank you for your support on my keto diet and thank you for the contribution that you make to so many people. Amber, I really appreciate you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you. Thank you, Gary. I appreciate that too. And you. It's amazing. And I really want people to know that if they've really been enjoying these episodes, to hit that subscribe button, make sure that they're giving us also a five star rating. We do love those too. And I would like to mention that, you know, in these upcoming episodes where we're going to really start unpacking this, we're going to start talking a little bit about story as well. You and I have been doing a lot of work with something called storybrand, which is Donald Miller's book on that subject. And I think we've really found a way to kind of implement it. And we'll talk about that. And then we just have so much to say. And I'm just, I just think that everybody should just be subscribing right now so that we can make sure that they don't miss an episode of our next fabulous content that we're going to be putting out there.

I'll tell you, Amber, like, this whole thing of starting a podcast, you know, it's like I wanted to start one forever. And, you know, I'm so glad we had one listener. I think it was my son or my wife. And, you know, now that we have two, I'm so pumped. Like, you know, we just doubled our figures and it's just it's so lovely to be able to speak to two people on these podcasts. So thank you for, for listening, those of you out there, and tell your friends, we want to help more people and we want to let people know that they, you know, in dentistry, pain is necessary and suffering is optional.

Absolutely. Well, thank you, Gary.

Thank you for listening to Million Dollar Dentistry with Gary Katie. This podcast is brought to you by Next Level Practice. Next Level Practice is the leader in dental practice management. In fact, they're the best in the world at creating happy teams that implement sustainable results. If you would like a copy of Million Dollar Dentistry, please contact Amber Keithley at Next Level Practice. You may call us at 212-388-1712, extension 119, or go to nextlevelpractice.com podcast and request a copy in our Ask a Question box. We look forward to brightening your smile.