Well, how did you do? Did you go to work on your own mentality and fight the good fight? Did you search the inside of yourself to see if you can find those ideas, thoughts, actions where you are working against yourself and sabotaging your own efforts?
I sure hope so. Because nothing is more valuable to Peak Performers than their own honest assessment of their thinking, attitude and behavior.
Now, let’s go to work on the inside of your practice.
I’ve been called a lot of things and most certainly not all good. I was just sent a quote by one of our successful Super Dentists that was from Steve Jobs about “if you wanted to please everybody you shouldn’t become a leader, better to sell ice cream;” and heavens these days with the dairy-free craze even ice cream wouldn’t make you liked by all.
NOTHING will. If you want to be successful in the BUSINESS of Dentistry (and you wouldn’t be here reading this if you didn’t), then you must come to terms with the fact that business isn’t about pleasing all the people and it’s not about being liked by everyone (not your patients, not your team and believe me not your peers).
Leaders LEAD going in the direction that THEY CHOSE in pursuit of the MISSION they determined worthy of the goals they set. As you journey forward on this mission you will find that you as a leader, owner, Doctor must evolve AND SO MUST your practice as a business.
And that is what I mean by ‘making room for growth.’
Very few Doctors or Team Members would say that they are “not busy.” All the time gets used up every single day even if you don’t have as many patients as you’d like.
If you want something to change – more money, less time, less effort, less stress – then something inside of your practice and usually multiple things must change, adjust, adapt – evolve for growth.
That seems like common sense and then there is the questions that follows: WHAT and HOW?
What must change to allow for growth? And…
How do you make those changes painless, sustainable and successful as quickly as possible?
These are questions smart Doctors ask.
The answers, of course, vary on a multitude of things. That is because of all the variables that exist in one’s life and those variables are multiplied by a business and all the other people’s lives that are inside of it.
This is why I tell you all the time: if someone says they have a one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter answer to your problems AND they act as if EVERY practice, doctor, team, dentistry, city, area, patients ARE THE SAME you gotta run the other way as fast as possible, cover your tracks, burn the bridge and lose ‘em because it just isn’t so.
Therefore, we have to look at each component within your practice and assess what needs to be improved, changed, done differently in order to accomplish and achieve the results you want.
Making room for growth IN YOUR practice is as unique as is the diagnosis for each individual patient’s mouth and problems (not to mention their goals, objectives and values).
Let’s take a surface level look at each of the components that do exist in every practice and talk about why and how they are so completely different.
No two schedules are the same.
No two patient experiences are the same.
No two treatment presentation methods are the same.
No two team leadership and communication structures are the same.
No two growth, profitability and future business development plans are the same.
And they shouldn’t be because they are based for and around You.
But some ask, “How can this be? Just give me the template, the shortcut, the easy button that makes everything work consistently… like McDonalds.”
And I say to you, “Really? McDonalds?” How could you compare food service to life changing healthcare? No corporate chain is fully dependent on ONE person to be the key producer of the majority of the revenue… YOU – THE DOCTOR.
This is ALL good news if it’s done right because there is also very few businesses of ANY TYPE that can provide the autonomy, the fulfillment, and the complete lifestyle control where you can be a seven figure earner. And that’s the way it should be.
The problem is when you fall out of alignment with your purpose, you experience plateaus, you have modest or gradual growth, you lose focus, your passion fades, or you are working too much to be paid beneath what you know you are worth.
Truth is, you are making what your business is worth right now because if it were worth more you’d be making more. Assuming you are deserving of the goals you want, there is only one way to make them reality…
We must build a better business and make room for growth in your practice so that it becomes more valuable to you and to everyone it serves (which also means making you more valuable to yourself)!
That’s where we’ll pick up next week. On Black Friday, we’ll begin your ULTIMATE PRACTICE PROFIT PLAN. I’ll show you how to finally get your practice to work for you instead of you constantly being stuck working for it.
Remember, it doesn’t matter what you do compared to others (someone is always doing better… and worse). It only matters what you are capable of and whether you are always falling short of what is ultimately possible.
That changes next week.
