Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? It’s morning! In those few moments before your alarm clock goes off, before the sun rises just above the horizon and you are nestled under the covers, snoring away in blissful ignorance, the whole world holds its breath in anticipation for the start of the day. Truly a picture perfect scene of peace. Unfortunately, it’s all about to come to an end. There’s something waiting for you, lurking all around, ready to spring when you open your eyes. What is it?Decisions. From the moment your alarm clock goes off to the moment your head hits the pillow again at night, you are bombarded with the daily decisions that dictate your life. Should you hit the snooze button or roll up and out of bed? If you’re like me, you’ll also have to decide whether you want to hit that snooze button a second time. Maybe even a third. When you finally decide it’s time to wake up, do you immediately check your phone or wait until later? Do you check your text messages? Your email? Facebook? Which requests need immediate responses? How should you respond? When should you finally put the phone down and get started on the rest of the day? Already, you’ve made more decisions than you can probably count and you haven’t even gotten out of bed yet. As the leader of your practice, the CEO, or whichever title you prefer, decision-making is quite literally a part of your job description. It’s likely that as your day continues, the number of decisions you’ll have to make is only going to increase exponentially. When those decisions pile up, your brain gets tired of making them: a phenomenon known as decision fatigue. Decision fatigue hinders your ability to make decisions that are really important to you and your business, like, should you have another child? How do you tell an employee that they’re not a fit for your business? Should you open a second location? The bigger the decision, the more you’ll struggle with it, because you’ll know that the consequences are going to be far reaching and life changing. Grappling with those consequences only increases the difficulty of making the final decision, paralyzing us from making them at all. So how do you overcome the issue of decision fatigue and remove the fear from decision making? The truth is, you probably won’t be able to. At least not completely. Making a decision without knowing what will happen will likely always be a stressful endeavor. However, there are a few ways you can mitigate the effects. First, don’t be afraid to delegate and regulate. If you’ve built a strong team, chances are you trust at least a few of your employees to make the day to day decisions for the business. Not everything will need to get cleared by you before it happens. This action can keep you focused on only the most important decisions, helping you make better judgement calls when the time comes. If you already take those steps, but still struggle to make those big decisions, you’re not alone. When that mental block of anxiety or uncertainty happens, I like to take my anxiety supplements and return to what’s important – my reasons for starting my business. For you, this may be your desire to improve people’s lives, or your commitment to patient care. If your focus is something like creating the best possible patient experience, don’t just write it on your website, or above the door. Prove it. The core values that you created when you first thought of owning a practice should be the same values you use to make your decisions. If you’re debating about whether to add another doctor or location to your practice, think about how it will affect your patients. Will the quality of care suffer or will you be able to provide great dentistry to even more people? Those answers are unique to your circumstances and will be able to tell you if it’s worth the risk. Sometimes however, the biggest decisions require a little help from an expert. When it comes to your marketing or strategies for growth, that’s something that we can help you with. If you’re looking for extra help with those important decisions, schedule a complimentary marketing planning session at https://identitydental.com/cmps/ and talk to me about what concerns you have. We can work through them together, and find a solution that fits your needs.
Why Transparency Is So Important To Your Business Recently, I had some unexpected time on my hands and thought I’d check out the corporate optometrist near me. I was curious what kind of shenanigans I’d get to witness. After seeing specials for $35 eye exam, I didn’t have much to lose. Of course the exam was next to nothing and the eyeglass section was abundant. Since they were 15 minutes late for my appointment (no biggie), I picked out my glasses before my exam. The process was smooth, the doctor was very nice. All was well. I picked out frames that were $190 and on sale 40% off. I went to pay it was just shy of $400. I paused, asked again the cost of the glasses and then again asked the cost of the exam. She said the glasses and exam were on sale. Now the basic exam was $50 (not the same as the sign outside) and the glasses were on sale from $190. I then asked to see an itemized breakdown. I’m no mathematician but $190 + $50 doesn’t equal $400. It equals something less than that. 😂 It was all digital and presented on an iPad. The descriptions of items were not things I recognized. I noticed the $300 coating on the lens and said “well we can definitely remove that”. The price didn’t change much. Everything else just adjusted its price to equal almost $400 again. Again, I’m not a mathematician but $400- $300 isn’t $400. I was then given a discount for having medical insurance (Weird! Especially since it didn’t include vision.) Now my price was down to around $350. The math still wasn’t clear. I decided to take my now $59 exam and leave. I said, “this pricing just doesn’t make sense and I’ll have to take the prescription and move on.” After I paid, in a last-ditch effort to sell me the glasses the woman said, “just so you know, the price of the frames is $190. The lens’ are not included in that price.” Now I know anti-glare coating and some other options cost money— but this was just crazy. There was a lot of clever and somewhat sneaky things happening in that optometrist’s office that day and I know it’s very similar to how some dental offices operate. While I’m sure that some people may go along with the trick and get taken advantage of, I have to believe that most people would take the same course of action that I took. What could’ve been a higher sale and perhaps even a loyal customer, turned into much less because of their attempt to pull one over on me. The same lesson goes for your dental practice. If you’re willing to lie and offer anything just to get patients in the door, you’ll lose something more valuable than business. You’ll lose your reputation and you’ll lose the trust of your patients. Transparency, honesty, or even just being a decent human being are critical components of your business. Without them, there’s simply no way you’re going to experience continual growth and success. While it hopefully seems like common sense to most of you, I’ll reiterate for those who rely on false advertising – patients go to health professionals that they trust more readily and more frequently than they will ever go to someone who lies to them. Later that same day, I took my prescription to a website called Zenni Optical and purchased SIX pairs of glasses for under $200. It wasn’t that I was unwilling to spend. It was that I was unwilling to spend with a company that wasn’t transparent. Your patients are going to be the same way. If you want to work with a marketing company that places the same emphasis on integrity and transparency as you do, contact Identity Dental Marketing. We’ve been helping dentists create honest, ethical, and effective marketing for over 10 years and we can help you do the same. Schedule your complimentary marketing planning session with me online at https://identitydental.com/cmps/ and let’s have a conversation about you, your goals, and your transparency.
The Recipe For Successful Relationships Have you ever met someone who is incapable of admitting when they made a mistake? Whether it is from fear of punishment, or a simple unwillingness to believe that they could be wrong, this inability to apologize is a serious hindrance on your business growth. No one likes to mess up and admitting when you made a mistake can be difficult. However, doing so demonstrates an invaluable quality for any employee, or for that matter, any person to have: a strong commitment to integrity. Integrity is the foundation of true growth and success. When someone possesses integrity, it allows you to depend upon them to get the job done, correctly and completely. That level of trust allows your business to do more and operate more efficiently. Like any house, your relationships are built upon a foundation of integrity. When someone fails to honor a commitment, or doesn’t own up to their mistakes, it’s like taking a hammer and chipping away at the foundation you’ve established, bit by bit. No, the house won’t fall immediately with a few chips in the foundation, but if these chips continue to occur over a long time, there will eventually, and inevitably, be a destructive failure. Similes aside, the little promises we make to people throughout our day can add up. Whether this is in employee exchanges, a business partnership, or a marriage, all of your relationships are built upon your ability to trust that the little promises people make to you will be honored. If they are not, then you should also be able to trust that the person will be open and honest in their communication about their failures. When looking at your own team, make a conscious effort to gauge the level of trust you have in each person. Who are the people you trust to see things through? Who are the people who could use some time to develop into a more dependable person? Determining these answers is a big step to ensuring your team is a powerful and cohesive unit. When you count on your employees, you can delegate more responsibilities, freeing up your time to work on big picture business growth ideas. If any member of your team seems to be incapable of moving up on that meter, it may be a sign that they are not a fit. The Identity Dental Marketing team is here to serve you with honesty and integrity. Made up of trustworthy, ethical members, you can rely on us to honor our commitments and get the job done with the highest level of quality. Schedule a call and tell us what you need help with at https://identitydental.com/cmps/.
Tweak Your Mindset For a More Positive Practice As you may have guessed, we spend a lot of time talking to dentists here at Identity Dental Marketing. One thing we hear frequently from our clients is the idea that “people don’t really want dentistry”. Whether it’s their time or their money, many doctors are under the impression that patients don’t want to spend anything on dental care. In fact, many of our clients say these things so often that they even start to believe them. When this happens, it has a noticeable impact on their practice, their team and their patients too. Like a trickle down theory of negativity, your attitude is adopted by the members of your team, who lose motivation in their work. This, in turn, is felt by your patients who eventually stop returning to your practice. They do so either because they feel that their dental needs are not taken seriously by your team or they themselves start to undervalue your care in a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Needless to say, this is bad news for everyone involved. You know the importance of great dental care, and so do we, which is why it is so important to insert this belief into everything we do. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who hasn’t had regular dental care. It isn’t because they don’t want your care. We’ve never met anyone who wanted gross, rotten teeth. Have you? Instead, the reason they don’t seek regular care is likely because they don’t realize that they can afford it. These people want dentistry. They want to protect their teeth, they want to be pain free, and they want to be confident in their smiles. When you tweak your mindset to understand this, then you can truly make a difference in your life and the lives of your patients. Help your patients imagine a life where they don’t have to hide their smiles or worry about the damage they’re causing to their mouth. Let each patient know these three things: They deserve what you’re offering Your care is accessible and affordable You are there to support them and make great oral health possible When you do this, you stop putting yourself in a losing position and start creating an atmosphere that recognizes the positivity of dentistry. Identity Dental Marketing supports you in the creation of this atmosphere through marketing materials that express the positive value you bring to dentistry and attracts patients that need your care. Get started on your ethical, effective marketing campaign at https://identitydental.com/cmps/.
Your Actions Today Influence the Future of Your Business Last year, I hosted a live logo evaluation on Facebook. Doctors and clients would send logos for me to evaluate based upon my own personal preferences and my expertise in the field. The event went really well, with many enjoying the free guidance and fun atmosphere. A year passed and I nearly forgot about the event. The day to day workings of Identity continued on without any related changes. In other words, the energy I put into that event didn’t seem to deliver any return on investment. Just recently however, one of the participants in that live event (in case you were wondering, his logo was pretty good from what I remember) reached back out to me and introduced me to his team. He remembered the event and myself fondly. For some, this may not seem like a big deal. But for me, it validated one of my “Rizz-isms”: a belief I’ve held for a very long time. There is such a thing as “Business Karma”. The word karma and it’s meaning has been changed and disputed so many times by so many different groups that it may mean something different to you than it does to me. To me, karma, and especially business karma is not some kind of tit for tat mentality. Business Karma isn’t about doing good things just because you expect them to come back to you. It’s important to approach business with the understanding that positive intention means a lot. It should be implemented every day, into everything you do. Where your actions are coming from is just as important as what the actions are, because anything that goes in to your business, good or bad, is going to come back out. For my own business, this belief means that I sometimes dedicate a lot of work and energy without seeing an immediate and direct return on my investment. This doesn’t mean I invest carelessly, or ignore sound business advice, but simply that I have the patience to wait for my work to pay off. The moments when that input becomes success is one of the best feelings in the world for any business owner. I know it certainly is for me. However, that feeling only comes from consistent and well guided effort. Make inputting into your business a part of your life and a part of your journey. In time, you’ll see the rewards. Because I believe so strongly in the idea of Business Karma, I want to input into your business too. Schedule a complimentary marketing planning consultation, where we’ll have a conversation about how best to grow your business. https://identitydental.com/cmps/
Identity Dental Marketing Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary Identity Dental Marketing Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary One of Dentistry’s Favorite Businesses Thanks Its Loyal Clients for Entrusting Their Internet Presence with Identity Dental Marketing September 22, 2019, CHICAGO, Illinois, Sept. 22, 2019 Identity Dental Marketing, a well trusted, custom dental marketing agency, announced today its 10-year anniversary. Having had the privilege to create more than 1,500 custom dental marketing plans since its inception in 2009, the team at Identity Dental Marketing is optimistic for what’s the come in the next decade of serving the great profession of dentistry. “Our mission from the beginning has been to provide ethical marketing solutions for ethical dentists. It’s our goal to grow the business of the dentists that we’d trust with the care of our own families. It’s important to expand the businesses of those who care about serving their communities and providing quality care,” said Grace Rizza, founder, and owner of Identity Dental Marketing. “While the business has expanded significantly since our start in 2009 to serve dentists in all 50 states, we haven’t strayed from this mission as we are fully committed to providing only the services needed to help each of our clients reach their specific practice goals. It can never be a one-sized fits all approach.” “We also remain committed to developing trusting relationships with our clients. By never mandating long-term contracts we know each of our clients is with us because they are happy with the results. With dozens of 5 star reviews and excellent retention, we know our hard work has paid off for our clients,” said Grace Rizza. In addition to website and SEO services, Identity Dental Marketing also offers its clients custom Google Ads campaigns with optimization, management and retargeting. Paid and organic social media marketing is also offered and proving a strong return on investment for Identity Dental Marketing clients. Custom designed print materials allow dental practices to make a strong and lasting impressions on existing and new patients. In 2017, Identity Dental Marketing began offering custom photography and videography to further strengthen all digital marketing campaigns. About Identity Dental Marketing Identity Dental Marketing is a full service dental marketing agency, serving ethical dentists with the creation and implementation of custom dental marketing plans. Join Identity Dental Marketing on Social Media Twitter: https://twitter.com/marketingwithg Twitter: https://twitter.com/GraceIDM LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/identitydental Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IdentityDentalMarketing/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dentalmarketingwithgrace Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/identitydentalmarketing/
Get More From Your Team Dental Team Training It’s clear some people go through life overwhelmed, unhappy and frustrated. It manifests in how they communicate with others. I’ve had my fair share of frustrating days, even weeks and maybe even years. The point is, we’ve all been there. I’m not pointing this out from my ivory tower. I promise you that. Running a business is no easy task. Pair that with the emotional toll of patient care and you have an environment perfect for storms. Somewhere at some point in time, advisors, speakers or educators told the doctors they should “only be doing dentistry.” Some took that to heart and anytime their business requires them to roll up their sleeves, they feel resentful. This creates a very difficult work environment for the team. Let’s face it, as a business owner, you are always going to do things that are outside of your role. Even 10 years into business with 3 graphic designers, I will occasionally fire up Photoshop and finalize some creative work. I won’t however, spend the rest of the day angry because I did a task that wasn’t “the highest and best use of my time”. If you want your employees and business advisors (you may even call us vendors, which is highly offensive) to do more for you, do these three things: Talk to your employees the way you talk to your patients. Show them appreciation. Ask them questions. Lead with respect always. It seems in business we have no problem putting our best foot forward with clients, customers, and patients, but we show our ugliest side to our team. Talk to your business advisors with the same respect you use when talking to patients. They’ll want to talk to you. They’ll want to be sure you are well cared for. People think the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Maybe that’s the case sometimes. In more cases than not, if you aren’t kind and respectful to people, they won’t want to go the extra mile for you. Get happy. Embrace the fact that you are a business owner and sometimes you need to do things that are outside of your dental degree. Learn whatever you can. Hire the right support team (both internally and in advisors). Work to get everyone else set up so that they can succeed. Know that at some point you may be able to primarily do dentistry, but it may take some time to get there. If you are miserable in your practice and feel that things have gotten out of control. It’s time to hire professionals to help organize, streamline and reenergize your business. Contact me at Grace@identitydental.com and I can help you find the right advisor. It’s never too late to make a positive change.
If I Were a Dentist… It’s been over a decade since I worked in a dental practice. Since then, I’ve used my own business to coach over 1,000 dentists in their growth strategies. As a result, I often find myself thinking about what I’d do in certain situations. Of course, I’m not a dentist, and it may be that none of my, “If I were a dentist…” statements matter. However, I’ve found that an outside perspective can often cause others to consider their work from a different angle. The reanalysis and improvements that come with this new perspective are why I’ve decided to share these statements with you today. Some of them may directly help you, and others may not, but they will all challenge the way you think about your business. If I were a dentist, I’d buy an existing practice from a retiring doctor. It wasn’t until last week that I realized this is not always an option. If you have a specific area in which you’re searching, there may not be many practices available. It may be a waiting game. The transition process to ownership may be less than ideal. I know financially, a start-up will almost always be a few years behind an established practice. Financially speaking, in my ideal world, I’d buy an existing practice as soon as possible. Also, this doctor would be retiring. That’s right. He or she would be “hanging up the shingle”. Whatever that means. I wouldn’t want to deal with him or her trying to take patients from his or her new location 10 miles away. If I were a dentist, I’d make it my mission to find a true manager. I’ve seen a lot of great office managers, but I’ve seen far more okay office managers. In order to be able to focus on dentistry whenever possible, I’d have to have an office manager that is a total badass. He or she would provide monthly reports, keep the team in line, handle payroll, and jump in to handle difficult patient conversations. I’d pay this person very well and they’d be a big part of why I remained sane. I’d provide leadership training and we’d make an awesome team. If I were a dentist, I’d market myself aggressively without shame. I’d market my business in a way that made sure every person in the community knew that I was an option. I’d have a monthly email newsletter and daily social media posts (done by my team) and I’d invest in SEO, PPC, Facebook, and Instagram advertising. I know that I can attract a new patient for $150-$500 and that once they’re a part of my practice, they won’t want to leave because I’d have some quirky amenities (coming later). If I were a dentist, I would not work with my spouse. I love my husband enough to know that if he’s my employee, it’ll have some damaging repercussions on our relationship. I know I’d have to maintain my position as CEO of my practice, and my manager needs to play a support role to me. I know our relationship wouldn’t support this. If I were a dentist, I’d grow to accommodate amazing associates and I’d spoil them. I’d make it very easy for a young parent to work for me. I’d give them the exact framework to fill their schedule and keep their patients happy. This would be because I’d have invested the time in creating systems for every process within my business. (For those saying this isn’t realistic, I hear you. However, I know it’s possible.) Once my business was running without me providing most of the clinical dentistry, I’d be looking to purchase my next practice. If I were a dentist, I’d host quarterly team appreciation days. We’d take a full day off 4 times per year just to get to know each other better. This single activity would create collaboration and openness beyond what you could get from an annual workshop. If I were a dentist, I’d carefully select CE events based on what applies to my annual growth plan or current pain points. I’d also do everything possible to avoid boring CE because it makes me want to punch myself in the face. If I were a dentist, I’d go live on Facebook every Wednesday to educate the community. I’d talk about things like oral cancer, the link between periodontal disease and heart disease, why your comfort matters when visiting our team, and anything that will educate. If I were a dentist, I’d dedicate one full business day every other week to work on my business systems and team training. If I were a dentist, I’d offer the following to patients: blankets, Netflix, kind welcome, office tour at first visit, to hang their coat, a bottle of water, a warm cookie when they leave (like Godley Station Dental in Georgia), my team would match and present professionally in stealthy scrubs. Most importantly, my team would act as a family, making it much easier to in turn treat patients like family. If I were a dentist, I probably would not practice clinical dentistry because I’m so deeply passionate about business. That’s likely one of the reasons I’m not a dentist. But because of that affinity for business, I can help you become a better practice owner. For help with the business support you need to create your ideal practice, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me: Grace@identitydental.com
Turnover: A Punch to the Gut Dental Marketing and Dental Consulting It’s Thursday afternoon and you get a call. Your employee that called in sick is experiencing mental health issues. She’s going to need to take a medical leave. You support her, so decide to pay her for some time off. She tells you that she should be fine to return in a week. One week turns to two. Two to three. On the fourth week she quits. Friday morning you hear that another team member is taking the opportunity to take over a family business. He is giving you two weeks notice. This decision comes after losing the team member above, when workload increases while hiring process begins. It seems like a domino effect. Friday afternoon, you find out a third employee is relocating for her husband’s job in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, you just introduced her to all of your patients / clients after she assured you a move was not even a remote possibility. Monday morning, a new hire decides she doesn’t like the type of work she is doing. She quits without notice. Her stifling perfectionism had her paralyzed and her contribution was minimal to begin with, but now the turnover hurts the morale of the rest of the team. More dominos fall. Even for a well-organized, positive leader, this 2 month span felt like a gut punch. That’s right. This happened to me last year. It happened right after I let go of a couple people that I felt were no longer a fit. We were almost completely restaffing overnight. At this time, I did have a couple amazing team members who have been with me for years and my husband, whose work experience is in recruiting. These three people stuck by my side and helped me make sure all the work was done and done well. Each of us had complimentary skills and worked together like I didn’t believe possible. We carried the workload and overcame one of the most stressful obstacles of business ownership. Maybe it happened because of karma. When I let go of a few people, maybe I should have invested more time in their development instead of letting them go. I definitely should have become more comfortable with difficult conversations sooner. I used to put off tough talks until I was beyond the point of return. Maybe it happened because I wanted to give even the most unqualified applicant an opportunity and hired with my heart instead of my head. (Thankfully, I’m no longer in charge of hiring.) Regardless, this time spurred intense introspection and growth. In the following weeks, we completely restaffed. With our systems, training and leadership team already in place, we made for a quick transition to building an amazing team. Not a task was forgotten or dropped and 4 people did the work of 10, and we did it very well. That doesn’t mean we loved life in those moments, but we got through it. Yes, the turnover was stressful. The restaffing was challenging, as some new team members were a fit and some were not. However, it was the most powerful time of growth I’ve ever experienced as a leader. It also made it clear that when you have loyal people who truly have the best interest of the business and your clients’ businesses in place, that you can get through anything. Perfection is not attainable. Growth has to be a daily pursuit. There’s opportunity in every situation, even those that feel like a crisis. If you can roll up your sleeves, make a plan and hire the missing support pieces, you’ll be strong and able to weather any storm. If you’ve never been through something like this, that’s wonderful. I don’t wish it upon anyone. I can say however, I wouldn’t go back and change it. When a person leaves, opportunities to improve surface, leaving your organization even stronger and ready for its next challenge. If you need assistance with staffing, recruiting, team training or system creation, please contact me at grace@identitydental.com. I can connect you with the right fit resource for you. I’ve had a couple business coaches that I adore and would be more than happy to connect you.
Parenting and Business Leadership Parallels Business Leadership Dental Marketing and Parenting More than 5 years ago when I first became a parent, I remember feeling a great deal of pressure to choose between business and family. I chose both and I’m so glad I did. As my family was growing, so was my business and I found that all too often the lessons learned at home actually made me a much stronger leader at work, and vice versa. When my eldest daughter needs to get dressed for school, get ready for bed, clean up toys, or do just about anything, I have to convince her. Sometimes she even says, “okay” and then goes back to playing. It can be frustrating, however, convincing my stubborn daughter to do what she needs to do has made my verbal persuasion skills strong. I’ve learned that if I don’t share a compelling reason as to why she needs to get something done, she won’t take action. This is very similar to interactions with employees. Once a person understands on a strong level why a (sometimes seemingly insignificant) step must be completed fully, they begin to deem it as important. Sharing your “why” can be enough for some children and employees. However, thanks to my first daughter, I’ve also learned that others may need more. Hearing what would happen if the given task is not completed turned out to be that “more”. Now, in business and at home I don’t like utilizing fear tactics. With my daughter, however, I would have never been able to get her to brush her teeth without showing her photos of rotten teeth. She had to see for herself what would happen if her teeth were not brushed. This holds true for some employees too. As leaders, both at home and at the office, we must share not only why a task or responsibility is important, but also that the consequences of neglecting that responsibility go far beyond a simple “time-out”, or professional disciplinary action. Even the smallest of oversights can have a monumental impact on the business I look back at feeding my firstborn when she was 1-3 and remember begging and pleading for her to eat. I remember bribing, making “fun” looking snacks and food, and implementing countless sales tactics that just didn’t work. It wasn’t until I let her become a part of the process that she would eat. I let her stir the pot of oatmeal or crack the egg. Whatever food she made naturally tasted better to her. She took pride in her work. When I sit down to recreate systems at the office or re-delegate responsibilities, I understand the importance of having each team member take an active role in the decision-making process. A similar idea comes into play when training employees in a new skill. Just like teaching my children to ride a bike, writing business manuals for seemingly simple tasks must include clear step by step instruction. I know that to truly learn a skill, the trainee must actually take the steps themselves, not just watch others. Everything we learn in life can be reapplied to everything else, and business is no exception. The next time someone questions how you’ll be able to run your business as a parent or involved grandparent, tell them it’ll only make you better, more compassionate, more loving, more forgiving and more supportive. From experience, I can tell you that these skills are much more important to the success of your business than some may think.
