Dental Unscripted | Getting into Ownership and Practice Management Insights

Welcome to Dental Unscripted,

where Mike Dinsio and Paula Quinn break

down the practice ownership journey,

one episode at a time.

Starting up, buying,

and running a successful dental practice.

What up, what up guys?

Welcome back to another episode of Dental

Unscripted.

This is Mike D'Inzio and Paula Quinn.

We are live and we are doing a

series of podcasts today.

I hope you are all logged in,

buckled up.

I'm sure you've got nothing else to do.

But to listen to us from from nine

a.m.

to wherever we're going to land on this

day.

But the topic today is a good one

because it's a popular one and it seems

to be a topic that is always kind

of like a signature banner headline.

at all the trade shows,

and it's always full every time I walk

by this amazing presenter about this

topic.

And so we're really excited to be talking

about all things burnout today.

So burnout is the topic.

And we have some theories on why dentists

and team members are burned out.

Be curious to hear your comments on the

socials.

If you guys think that there are other

reasons, chime in, log in,

let's make it a conversation.

But today it's just me and Paula,

just me and Paula,

which I feel like is enough,

but

Um,

we are excited to get into this just

a little, um, housekeeping, you know,

guys look like there's a lot of followers.

Please follow us.

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We don't get anything out of it other

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Sometimes

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But how are you doing today, Paula?

It is podcast day.

Are you ready to go?

Are you excited about today's agendas and

all the things we're going to talk about?

I'm so excited.

I'm in a different room because it's

Arizona and I think it's going to hit

a hundred and ten or so today.

So I don't know.

I don't know the sound quality.

I woke up and took my dog for

a walk this morning and it was ninety

two already.

So I

Oh, my God.

Is your dog still alive?

Is Koda still alive?

Did he survive?

Ninety two degrees.

I wouldn't survive.

Well, the sun's not out yet,

so it's survivable that early in the

morning.

Knowing you,

you probably put your hands on the cement

to make sure his paws were OK.

And I'm sure Koda is fine.

I'm sure Koda is fine.

No, he's totally

Well,

I don't know what my sound quality is

because I'm in a different location.

You sound great.

You sound great.

Well, then let's get cracking.

You guys only have about twenty minutes of

work drive time.

And so without further ado,

let's get into this.

Paula,

like when people talk about burnout,

when people are

stressed.

And we see it with our clients.

I sometimes think that they hire us

because they're burned out.

And it's really challenging to coach

someone that's burned out.

If you've been going to the gym and

you're just exhausted from the gym and you

don't want to go to the gym anymore,

But you decide, hey,

maybe a coach or a trainer will help

me get out of that.

But no, it doesn't work.

You don't give more effort when you're

burned out.

You just are at max capacity.

You can't give anymore.

Even if someone's nagging, dude,

do another pushup.

You're just like, I don't.

really want to be here dude right so

like consultants get a bad rap because we

can't get any uh results we can't get

any roi but it comes down to the

the offices actually putting in the work

So the time to hire a consultant is

not when you're burned out.

The time to hire a consultant is when

you're motivated and ready to kick some

ass.

And then we're going to have some fun

with that.

But don't hire a consultant.

Don't hire us or any consultant if you're

burned out.

I disagree with that a little bit.

Oh, how do you?

OK,

so maybe it's because you're the burnout

queen.

Let's let's identify how what signs of

burnout that we see and maybe what things

we can how to fix it.

But the thing we discuss when preparing

for this, this one is not unscripted.

We actually prepared this one.

So not not not big time,

but but staffing mismatch is is.

was one of the things that we talked

about and what staffing mismatch that's

that's when the team is um you know

we either have uh your we like have

too many team members or high wages or

not enough team members and that creates a

crazy kind of dynamic within a business

where

a dental office relies on every team

member in the office.

And so if you're over overstaffed or

understaffed, it can create some burnout.

So Paula,

what ideas and thoughts do you have about

that with the team kind of mismatch?

Yeah,

so I think we're going to probably talk

about this in every topic we bring up,

but I think people's mentality of work has

drastically changed and

I can attest to that.

I'm a Gen X.

And if you study Gen X in any

way, shape or form, we're like workhorses.

We just, I don't know, it's, you know,

our parents,

the way they were and how they raised

us, but you just go to work.

your arm gets cut off on the way

to work.

You just show up for work.

You just do.

It's just not okay not to show up.

So I think it's, you know,

generation after generation.

And I think it oscillates, you know,

it's not, Oh, it's the millennials.

Oh, it's the, the Gen Z's it'll,

it'll come back around.

It's, I think, you know, it,

you know, similar generations happen,

but they skip.

So I think a lot of, you know,

today's workforce is they need to be

heard.

The loyalty looks different.

The mentality is different.

So when you said,

I don't think there's a lot you can

do about it.

I think sometimes it's just talking it

through and pinpointing like what is

actually making you feel burnout?

And I'm jumping ahead a little bit,

but my biggest thing that I want to

make sure we add to today is if

you don't have the systems and you're

always just putting out fires,

you're going to feel burnout because the

next day something's going to happen

similar or different.

And you're not,

you're going to have to like reinvent that

wheel on a daily basis rather than

if this happens,

this is how I handle it.

I feel like the more organized you are,

the more systems you have in place, it's,

it's just sort of like, this is easy.

I'm prepared for this.

So I think that's kind of the first

thing.

So I think it's a lot of it

is just, you know, the,

the reactiveness of a dental practice.

Um,

The staffing mismatch again is kind of

like, for me,

one bad apple can ruin it for the

good ones.

So when we see

a leader, a dentist,

an owner entertain bad habits,

all of the ones who have the good

habits start either saying, why am I here?

Then fine, I'll do it too.

Or they're constantly just judging the

leader, the dentist, the owner,

because they're like,

why are we allowing this?

And it creates a very frustrating

environment.

I just had an office yesterday where

the team member has not been there for

several days and then called out again.

And the whole team has to reorganize

Patient experience suffers.

You know,

it's just it just really changes things.

So I think entertaining a bad apple and

there's different ways you can be a bad

apple.

But when reliability and attendance is the

one we're going to talk about today,

I think that you are underestimating what

it's doing to the rest of the team.

And that can create burnout for a couple

of reasons.

Now we all have to jump and,

and make up for that, but it's,

it's us watching them entertain that.

So I would say, you know,

that is quite a bit of it.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, I mean,

And so like the root of that,

to get a little deeper in that exact

thing is like, okay,

so why are we entertaining it?

Well,

it's because we can't find a lot of

great employees.

So it's like the devil you know is

better than the one that you don't know.

So it's like our doctors just get

paralyzed by making the right decisions to

protect their culture.

because they're fearful they're not going

to find the right person or they're

already overstaffed or over their

percentage of wages they're maybe

overpaying the team by hours or rates or

whatever and they can't hire someone in

fear that it's going to screw up their

profitability so it's almost like

let's just keep doing the same crap that

makes us feel bad, overworked,

have bad performance because of all of

that.

And it's like, you know, as coaches,

you have to, again,

not a good time to hire us and

burnout.

If you don't have,

the ambition to make hard decisions and

deal with the consequences of those

decisions to overall win the fight,

you know, during the battle,

you're taking slugs,

but knowing that you're going to win the

fight,

you have to take a couple of hits.

And, um,

um i think when the doctors are let

this go on too long then they get

burnout then they don't make good

decisions then it burns out the team and

it's just like kind of this vicious cycle

you cannot get out of but you have

to make consistent good decisions and take

the blows to get out of that cycle

And it's hard to recognize in the moment,

I think.

Oh, I don't think it is.

I think they recognize it a lot.

Well,

then why don't they make the decision?

Because the pain of the decision is

greater than... They're fearing the punch.

They're fearing the punch.

They're fearing a lot of things.

They're fearing like,

what is the next person going to cost

me?

Is the next person going to be worse?

Are they going to fit into my culture?

Are the patients going to wonder where

this person is?

Is it going to hurt my business?

Yeah.

Is the rest of the team going to

quit because this person,

everybody likes this person when really

they usually just fear the person,

but they think it's everybody likes them.

They think the patients like them.

I would say, you know,

when you hire us because you keep bringing

it back to that,

I think you have to have you have

to be ready for even more discipline and

more work as an owner.

Like you got to be ready.

to be disciplined and put in the hard

work.

I think that where most dentists fail,

I talk about this all the time with

them.

You go to dental school,

you don't go to business school and you

don't go to management school.

Or leadership school.

Leadership school.

People are not easy to manage.

They don't own the business.

It is a job most of the time.

Some more invested than others,

not saying that people don't care because

I know they care,

but they're never going to care like you

do.

So here you hire these people and your

first mistake is

You don't set like HR.

You don't set your vision and your

expectations and your consequences very

clearly.

So having your HR organized of if the

team is late, if the team doesn't show,

what is that going to look like and

how long am I going to entertain it

before I ever hire anyone?

Because we hire someone and we like them

and we're like, this is great.

And then it's not.

So that's like it's like super optimism.

It fogs their judgment.

Well, because especially the front,

because I'm a dentist, I'm clinical.

I don't want to know the front.

I don't want to touch the front.

I don't even know what that means up

there.

Oh, my gosh.

I have Susie Jo.

She's been in dentistry for ten years,

fifteen years, twenty years.

Take it, please.

Help me.

I don't know how to do this.

So, of course,

most front office people I meet are very,

very confident.

Yeah.

Very confident.

I very rarely meet any that aren't.

And therefore, when they're talking,

the dentist is again like, whoa, yay.

And then they're the ones, not always,

it can be a hygienist,

it can be a dental assistant,

but I feel like they get the most

paralyzed when it's the front because

they're like, I lose them.

I can't bill.

I can't collect money.

I know nothing about insurance.

So I think it all starts with

You're a dentist.

You're buying a practice,

startup acquisition,

or you own a practice.

Hit reset.

How do I reset my culture,

my HR area,

the expectations I want of my team?

How do I do that?

So I think people can call us when

they're burnt out because really that's

what it is.

It's exhaustion from burnout.

Like the unknown, the disorganization,

the lack of control over your business.

And for the team, it's, you know, again,

we'll keep getting into team.

So I think having that is going to

be number one.

I think number two is systems themselves

of the rest of the process.

It's repeatable systems,

systems that you can count on,

checks and balances that you can.

Because I think when a dentist can gain

control and have knowledge,

it becomes a lot easier to now hold

people accountable because you feel

confident that, hey,

if this person leaves,

I at least know what I'm doing.

This person leaves.

Here's my ABC backup plan.

It isn't ideal.

I don't want to lose this person.

But now I can start holding somebody

accountable rather than just feeling out

of control.

So that's dental burnout.

We'll go back to team.

So I think we talked about entertaining.

I think another thing is like it is

kind of funny.

I look at it and I think, oh,

my gosh,

we have more and more technology than we

ever had before.

When I was front years and years ago,

I was more recently and I had digital.

But when I was front years and years

ago.

I had to carry, you know,

the appointment book from room to room.

I took me sometimes it was like,

you had to have this piece of paper,

this book with you to schedule,

you know what I mean?

And having forbid somebody forget to put

somebody in the schedule or what it was,

like there was no recourse.

You had to pull a thing,

look back and written clinical notes.

You could read people's handwriting,

though, and you'd know that's.

Oh, no, you couldn't.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

That's true.

I think that, you know, confirmations,

I had to personally call everybody on the

schedule to confirm more than once.

Call, pick up the phone, dial, call.

Manual, manual.

Manual, manual.

Medical histories, forms.

I couldn't send them ahead of time.

They didn't come back digitally.

Now offices will complain, oh,

the patient came on time and they didn't

fill out their forms and I had to

wait ten minutes.

Guess what?

We had to do that with every patient.

Yeah, exactly.

We couldn't even fill out the medical

history at a time.

So it's always interesting to me that

people with more technology and more ease

and almost kind of like a second hand,

people are more burnout.

And I don't know if they're expecting.

It's almost like when we're on a plane

and we have Wi-Fi and then the Wi-Fi

shuts down.

We're like that.

I almost feel like they rely on it

so much that when they actually have to

manually do something,

it's like what it puts me out.

Oh my gosh, she didn't confirm.

Now I have to call or I'm not

calling.

I'm not going to call.

When it used to be your everyday job,

which by the way,

kind of leads us to the next topic

of this.

And that's like a good segue because here

we have technology and you have to deal

with

training them and we have higher

expectations for their ability to handle

tech and training and all of that.

But like,

I'm going to call it like the CEO

effect.

I don't know a better way to say

it,

but like dentists are trying to become a

CEO and they're listening to this podcast.

They're on chat GPT.

They have unlimited resources.

unlimited resources too many resources too

many resources and they're trying to run

their business they're trying to run their

practice more like a business where

historically dentists just kind of

serviced patients

Service basins.

They didn't even know what they had in

the bank most of the time.

That's right.

And now with the DSOs and the competition,

and this has really become a thing.

I think it's rates are higher in general.

I mean, like, what we did...

you know,

when bread costs fifty cents and now it's

five dollars or eggs or ten dollars,

whatever,

we don't get the luxury of sort of

like, yeah, just kind of like, oh,

feed my family.

No.

Now we've you know,

we we need more money to survive in

this world in general.

So thank goodness they're shifting to

business owners.

I mean, they are.

And so the team is feeling the gravity

of that.

that movement,

meaning now Dennis are hearing on this

podcast that cancellation and no show

should be less than six percent in a

practice or twelve to no more than twelve.

We'd like to see it six.

And so now they hear this statistic on

this podcast or whatever.

They ask chat GPT.

And they have a hole in their schedule.

And then they freak out because this isn't

happening, whereas before they weren't.

But when you're paying your hygienist

seventy five dollars an hour these days,

you have to be a little bit crazy.

Yeah.

So that's what I said.

It's more it's more expensive.

Loans are more expensive per square foot

to build out.

No,

I'm saying it's a good thing they are

doing this.

It's just crazy.

That's heavy on them.

Profitability has changed.

It's heavy on the team because now doctor

is micromanaging the shit out of us.

Whereas before we just kind of showed up

and did our job.

It's very reactive.

And, and, you know,

reactive worked and it kind of in some

ways does if you're a big producer,

but if you're not a big producer, um,

the system's got to be tighter and every

penny matters, but,

but even if you're a big producer,

this is your end game at some point.

So you still want to maximize it.

No, of course you do.

But yeah,

just because I make three hundred thousand

a year, whatever it is,

doesn't mean I could make five.

Why not make five?

You know what I mean?

Like you want to, I get that.

I'm just saying like the stress is more

real to the doc that, you know,

has to count every penny, which,

which creates this,

drag to the team and creates an extra

amount of pressure.

And we get those clients that are uber

stressed.

Let's go back to systems because that's

when you get stressed.

If you don't even know your own system,

there's a cancellation.

You're up there.

Why is this canceled?

Where if there's a system,

not saying it has to work exactly like

this,

but you can see the patient canceled.

You can see why.

And you have a great system to fill

that hole very quickly.

So the systems...

having systems and understanding your

systems, whatever they are,

is always going to bring that stress down.

But I hear you like,

I'm a team member.

Five years ago, I just did my job.

We had a whole,

maybe not a lot of pressure.

There was just a hundred percent trust.

Now it's like, okay,

do you not trust me?

Why are you breathing down my neck?

I'm doing everything I can.

The expectations are higher.

So now,

I'm getting burnout because I feel like

nothing I do is right or I've got

somebody hovering over me now.

You know, we have a new technology.

I don't even know how to use it

to its fullest.

Nobody provided me the real training.

A lot of these companies out there now

don't even have training.

And if they do, it's minimal.

And they think they're covering what they

need to cover when they do train and

they kind of don't.

So I think it's new technology in general

is very helpful,

but it's also very stressful if it's new

to you.

So there's a learning curve there.

But I also think like,

if a doctor doesn't understand the system,

they're going to continually now hover and

bug, like you said,

and that's going to totally

percent create burnout and stress from the

team.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

So the the next one we kind of

thought was a was a catalyst or is

a catalyst of burnout is the reliability

of employees.

And I think any business owner can

appreciate that comment of

you know, this idea of,

and you kind of touched on it,

which is the generational,

generational issue or cause and effect,

but these employees, our employees,

are just a different beast.

And their idea of reliability is totally

different than what maybe their older

generation's idea of reliability.

So Paula,

you are a hygienist of thirty plus years.

Never once did I get a benefit.

I didn't get a vacation.

I didn't get a holiday pay.

I didn't get health insurance.

I didn't get a four Oh one K

I got nada.

Now it's like, I'm not taking the job.

If I don't get seven, an hour,

three weeks vacation holiday,

a four Oh one K and medical benefits.

It's crazy.

And these are small business owners.

They have so much other things going on.

Student loans, office loans,

rent is outrageous these days.

Forget technology and TI improvements.

You know,

you've had a practice for thirty years and

you want to invest in some technology or

an update to the facelift to the practice.

It's a lot of money and the team's

like, what about me?

What about me?

What about me?

And then the ones who are getting it

still don't show up for work.

yeah exactly they still and and you

touched on the good employees and how the

bad employees affect them so then your

good employees start turning into bad

reliable employees yeah or they quit

because they're watching this or they're

just unhappy and that's what i think i

find most i when i talk to offices

it's they're there still and they want to

be there they love

The practice, they love their patients.

It's probably close to home or they've

already been there.

But they're miserable because they are

thinking, this isn't fair.

Why are we entertaining this?

Why is this okay?

This isn't okay.

And even if I wanted to be like,

even if I was like, well,

she's always late.

I mean, just in my blood,

I couldn't be late.

But then that makes me even more angry

because it's like, I can't do that.

I would never feel good,

but I'm watching this.

And team doesn't realize, you know,

you know what they should do is the

person that's always late or calls in one

day, everyone should just not show up.

when we know they're showing up and just

leave them in the practice by themselves.

And be like, well,

you got to answer the phone and take

money and dental assist and call all the

patients and cancel the hygiene patients

because there's no one there.

Hey, Karen,

we all had to take a personal day.

We didn't feel well.

Yeah.

We had anxiety today.

So Karen,

you're going to have to cover everybody's

job.

Yeah.

And then,

and then at the end of the shift,

everybody walks in the process and says,

see, that's what it's like.

That's funny.

So yeah, you touched on it.

I guess to your point,

there absolutely is a lot of things that

you can do to fix this.

But you're talking a lot about systems.

You also talked a lot about expectations

and job descriptions and holding them

accountable.

And the reliability part of this topic

really is solvable and is pretty easy for

you.

We always talk about children.

My children...

um you know i'm a good dad and

a bad dad all all in one and

and you know when i need them to

do something consistent consistently it's

my job to set the expectation hold them

accountable and follow through and

discipline and discipline's hard isn't it

it sure is

And then when they do something wrong,

you can take a look at yourself and

say,

I probably have been too flexible on that,

right?

Exactly.

Yeah.

You're like, shit, that's me.

I did that.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a direct reflection.

It's like, oh, well,

I gave in too quickly on that one.

I should have really made that painful.

So I think reliability,

the lack of reliability –

can be fixed if you are firm on

your expectations and follow through.

And by the way,

you don't have to be a tyrant.

Everybody acts like you got to be a

complete jerk to do this stuff.

Well, you do.

You do if you've let it – you've

entertained it way too long because

something's got to change.

And now you're at a point where –

Now they're saying,

why is this a big deal?

It's never been a big deal before.

So in a way, but no,

you don't have to be a tyrant,

but in a way to them,

you're going to appear to them.

Yeah.

You finally hit your, your max.

And look, you just, Hey, look,

this is on me.

Your behavior is on me.

I'm going to do better.

Yeah.

Just put it on you.

No, it's perfect.

Just put it on you.

But I will say that, again,

now that we've talked about like what we

could do and how to fix kind of

some of that reliability, which again,

fixes burnout.

If everybody was reliable,

that would reduce your burnout.

I hope everybody's making these

connections, right?

Yes, it would reduce the dentist burnout.

It would reduce the team members burnout.

All the way around, everybody would...

everybody would feel would feel great so

another thing and i think this is our

last one another thing that you can

control a lot of this is you can

control um

You know,

we talk about accountability and hold

people accountable and follow through and

all that leadership and systems,

but this is the easiest one of all.

It's free, takes absolutely little effort.

It just takes some caring and some

intentionality

uh but the next one is we are

as owners where we are slow to to

recognize and you know paula talks a lot

about this to our uh clients and trying

to figure out how and what the best

way to to make someone feel good an

employee feel good and it's

It's recognition.

And we believe that there's a lack of

recognition going to the employees when

they when they do do something well and

just like holding people accountable to

and to make them more reliable.

you also need to recognize positive

reinforcement when they're doing some

great things too.

And like, isn't this like, you know,

it's like almost everything comes back to

leadership, doesn't it?

It's like, it's weird that way, you know?

I hope you're hearing this driving to work

or whatever.

It's like, gosh,

Man, I suck as a leader.

I think we all can look at ourselves

and say, gosh,

we could be a lot better.

We could have better vision and

communicate what we're trying to do in a

softer way and give our team the support

and tools and training so that they don't

feel so crazy.

And then what we could do is we

could hire people and set expectations

sooner and follow through.

I could do that better.

And then now we're on recognition.

It's as easy as just saying, dude,

you crushed that list today and got twelve

hundred dollars on the book.

Like, dude,

like go take an hour off and treat

yourself or something.

I don't know whatever it is,

but like we can't afford an hour off.

Well,

we can't if they put twelve hundred

dollars on the book, you know, but,

you know,

it's it's it's I think I think recognition

is huge.

But I say this with speaking as an

owner myself,

I say this with with with the expectation

for you all to not over recognize.

It's it seems like we get a lot

of clients that protect us.

our employees or their employees instead

of holding them accountable when,

when necessary.

And so this, this idea of, you know,

trying to fix reliability and recognizing

gets very messed up.

Paula,

how many times would you like one of

our team members that we're coaching to do

something better?

And the doctor swoops in and, well,

we do that.

it's like well statistically speaking you

don't so let's eight out of ten times

so so so maybe maybe this number four

point is not warranted for our audience

because sometimes they over recognize but

this is the difference it's like i feel

i hear you but i think for them

that goes in one ear and out the

other because that's not the appropriate

time to do that

that's just kind of like enabling them.

That's not really recognizing them,

you know,

because in the moment they're also

thinking, well, I already do that.

And now you're reinforcing that.

So they're not even probably giving the

doctor the kudos that are deserved because

they recognize them.

Does that make sense?

It makes total sense.

It's kind of like lost in the fact

that that person's already probably

feeling defensive and then it just

reinforces that.

what they're feeling and it doesn't it's

not really like a end of day saying

thank you for today i really appreciate

you making that patient feel safe and

secure and i just want you to know

i know you do that a lot and

i probably don't recognize that so i

appreciate that that is completely

different than when i'm saying hey

statements haven't been sent out well this

is it and they're like well she does

do them like that's a totally that's not

really a record i i hear you and

i'm glad you made the point because the

point that you are making

It,

I think is a huge point because like

everything doctors should do and

communicate,

there's a time and a way to do

it to make the most impact.

And they mess that up all the time.

So if like,

you're going to give someone a bonus

instead of just kind of like baking it

into their payroll.

And it's like, whoop, just happened.

Like, that's great.

You gave him a bonus, but like,

maybe what you should do is like tell

everybody and, and,

and make a moment out of it.

Maybe hand them cash instead.

But like, so like,

so that's a positive situation where

you're paying someone for a good job.

Make it a moment.

Don't, don't.

Well, as I was saying, like,

if you let me,

if you let me say, Hey, look,

we need same as squat weekly.

Then you check the statement and they've

gone out.

you say great susie joe i'm so happy

that you and paul were able to work

out i've noticed that the statements have

gone out three weeks in a row right

now and i really appreciate that now

that's recognition so don't yes rescue on

something that we're not doing because now

we're not going to get the results we

want recognize back it up and then you

know that's why i hope you know even

this michael you said don't hire us when

burnout and hopefully i changed your mind

too

hire us at any point because I don't

think it's,

I don't think it's ever too late to

like you said,

I like what you said earlier.

Hey, look,

I've let this go on too long.

I'm ready to hit reset.

I want to feel positive as the owner

and I want to be a positive leader.

And in order for me to do that,

I have to cut the chaos.

I have to cut the unorganization.

I'm

Because I feel like we're, you know,

this isn't working.

So let's all sit down,

hit reset so that we can all really

enjoy work and our patients and, you know,

our day.

I think that's exactly right.

But I do want to say that if

you're thinking that a consultant is going

to do it for you.

and not put the energy into the reset,

it's a waste of money.

And I hope that sounds different when you

talk to consultants,

because when we approach our clients,

we want results.

We want an ROI.

And so you're right.

They do need us very,

very badly in burnout.

But what I don't want is someone to

hire a consultant.

They recognize it.

And think I'm going to tell Susie Jo

what to do while you rescue her.

Exactly.

And so it's not our job to hold

people accountable,

to give them recognition to all the

things.

It's your job as the leader.

And so anyways, I...

I think you guys get it.

I just want to drive home that last

one of lack of recognition is that,

you know,

we talked about when to do it and

how to do it and all of the

things and it's easy to do.

But Paula,

you always say team members leave because

they don't feel good.

It's not about typically pay.

It's about appreciation.

I think there's a lot of studies out

there on this.

And so recognize your team,

but just do it.

Do it.

in a way that's going to make an

impact and and you know recognition i i

think everybody needs recognition any

relationship with your kids your marriage

your team uh even as a business owner

i think um

Like we need recognition too.

I was just going to say owners need

recognition also.

So,

so we're talking about burnout and

dentists having burnout and team owners

get burnout because they're not told

they're kicking ass.

Good job.

And you're being a great owner and you're

making really hard decisions,

but that's going to pay off.

And like,

you were a good owner this month,

you know?

And so I think it,

I think it apps a freaking Lutely.

Everybody just needs more recognition and,

take a moment, love on your team,

say the words,

do the things because it does reduce

burnout.

That's our team is watching.

We love you.

I know.

I know.

We love you guys.

Um, yes.

So, so I think, you know, I think,

I think that that's where we ended it

in our discussion internally, Paula and I,

I, you know,

there's a hundred other reasons.

Um,

you know, why people have burnout,

but I think we address, you know,

staffing mismatch and all of that.

The,

the CEO effect of you guys wanting more

and your team and you are not aligned

creates burnout reliability of employees

or the unreliability of employees.

And then the lack of recognition,

all of that, all of that.

I do want to say,

cause we didn't touch on a lot was

being understaffed.

And I do, I do think,

there is such thing as being understaffed,

but I also do believe, you know, that,

you know, you do have some control and,

you know, if you are truly,

truly understaffed,

maybe there's a time to talk about the

schedule and how you're scheduling,

whether it's too many people at once or

what have you.

So I do think there are true,

but most offices that we deal with are

not understaffed.

It again is the lack of organization and

systems because it's,

It's constantly reactive.

So you feel like I never get a

moment because it's like, oh, this,

then this, then this.

And listen, in dentistry,

I say this to team all the time.

You want to call it the eighty twenty

rule, the ninety ten rule.

Of course,

you're going to have exceptions.

You're going to have that patient that

doesn't listen or the patient that's late

or the team member that doesn't show up.

But eighty percent of it should still flow

pretty darn good if you really have true

systems.

So being down a person isn't fun.

But I've seen many, you know, me included.

I had one dental assistant, one hygienist,

one and a dentist.

And we did it, you know,

and we did it well.

And I don't think you always have to

have more bodies.

Now, if someone doesn't show up,

that's a little bit different subject.

But, you know, I just think

Amen, sister.

Amen.

I just evaluated a practice.

I did an appraisal,

evaluation of a practice.

And Paula, it was your practice DNA.

I call it the one, one, one,

one effect.

There's four ones.

One dentist, one front,

one dental assistant, and one hygienist.

And they did, guess what, seven,

fifty to eight hundred.

And let me tell you,

the profitability is fifty percent.

And it's just like, gosh, like, yes,

you can do it.

There's technology that makes everybody's

life easier.

So they absolutely can do it.

You might need some help here and there,

but to commit to a one, one, two.

When maybe one day you needed that too,

but you powered through it.

Again,

that recognition of your team really being

buried on a day and giving them lunch

and recognizing that, hey,

we were understaffed today.

Thank you for absolutely crushing today.

As an owner,

you made bank that day because you kept

your team tight and you produced a lot.

So freaking buy them a really expensive

lunch, like recognize them,

but then don't go and hire that second

person, a one, one, one, two, right?

Like get through it.

Um, it's okay to be profitable,

but now we're going on a holy,

a whole different tangent.

Yeah.

So, so guys,

I really hope that you like,

think about this.

If you're burned out, what could you do?

What could you do differently?

How could you rethink this?

What are approaches and strategies that

you can incorporate?

You know,

there's a lot of like personal things that

you should do to take care of yourself,

self care.

And that all matters.

Absolutely.

I've been burned out.

working out and and getting time away and

um spending more time with loved ones and

such and such like that absolutely will

help but then you're going to go right

back to the chaotic nonsense and you're

going to be burned out in a minute

so you got you got to work through

some of this stuff we're happy to help

you i guess that's a selfish plug for

next level i convinced you guys not to

hire us the whole episode and now i'm

saying now i'm saying you definitely

should hire us without further ado

I would love for you guys to reach

out and talk to us about maybe some

things you can do.

Burnout.

Burnout.

That's right.

Burnout.

All right, guys.

Thanks again.

And stay tuned to the next one.

We are rolling today on lots of different

topics.

So thank you.

Thanks, Paula.

We'll talk soon, guys.

Peace out.

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