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Joining me this week are the co-founders of Growth into Greatness, Mark Battiato and Deb Castillo. Together, they have created a team with a combined experience of over 280 years in business, personal development, practice assessment, staff development and wealth accumulation.<\/p>\n
Working with dentists worldwide to build up the strengths of the practice, Mark and Deb have developed a proven method to enable change. Their model encompasses the education and motivation of dentists and their teams to come together to create a profitable practice.<\/p>\n
Today, Mark and Deb explain their extensive work with practices and dentists that have challenged the traditional views on practice management nationwide. With their help, you too can take advantage of their knowledge and tools to ensure the financial success of your practice and life.<\/p>\n
Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. Allison believes that there are four pillars for a successful, fulfilling dental practice: clear leadership, sound business principles, well-developed communication skills, and clinical excellence. Allison enjoys helping dentists and teams excel in all of these areas. Each episode she brings you an inspiring conversation with another leading expert. If you desire to learn and grow and in the process take your practice to the next level, then this is the show for you. Now, here\u2019s your host, Dr. Allison Watts.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> podcast. I\u2019m your host, Allison Watts, and I\u2019m dedicated to bringing you masters in the field of dentistry, leadership, and practice management to help you have a more fulfilling and successful practice and life.<\/p>\n Okay, the recording is started so I\u2019ll go ahead and officially introduce our speakers tonight. We\u2019re going to have two tonight, so we have double the\u2014I want to use the Doublemint commercial, \u201cdouble the pleasure, double the fun.\u201d Is that what it is?<\/p>\n Anyway, we\u2019ve got Mark Battiato and Deb Castillo, they’re the co-founders of Growth into Greatness. Mark started his own national marketing firm upon graduating from Arizona State University in 1979. He then positioned himself with the 3M Company for five years in the national advertising division where he received several awards for his sales and marketing performance. Later recruited by the Center for Professional Development, he analyzed over 300 dental practices in the northwest and helped position dentists for a private care practice model.<\/p>\n As CEO, Mark\u2019s primary responsibility is to provide one-on-one coaching and practice development in areas of profitability, financial management, and staff development. He also conducts small retreats for students engaged in the developmental process and through his commitment to his work, Mark is passionate about helping others to achieve their own greatness and aspire to levels of growth and excellence they have never thought possible.<\/p>\n Then, Deb, she comes from a different background. She\u2019s actually got varied backgrounds in dentistry and outside of dentistry. She was a graduate of California Polytechnic University. Her career began in management with a leading retail department store. Later, she oversaw a private care dental practice in San Diego and upon the introduction of computers into dental practices, she joined a dental software company where she eventually became national director of training.<\/p>\n She later joined a leading dental practice management company as a key member of the faculty. As co-founder of GIG, Growth into Greatness, Deb has been working with the team since 2000 as a Generative Coach. Deb understands the components that allow a team to succeed and possesses exceptional communication and motivational skills enabling her to infuse her clients with a positive attitude and empower them to embrace change. I know, Deb, you also have some history in banking, right?<\/p>\n Deb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I do. I do, I worked with a national lender. So that has brought a different aspect to how I see practices as well because we worked primarily with\u2026<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is that the same company that I knew you from?<\/p>\n Deb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s how we met, Allison.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, yes. So I’ve known Deb for like almost 20 years, in and out over the years, because she came and helped me start my practice in the very beginning. So it\u2019s kind of funny we\u2019re reconnecting now. And Mark is a new friend but I’m happy to have you both here. I know, Mark, you wanted to start us off, but thank you both for being here.<\/p>\n Deb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, thank you, Allison. It\u2019s quite a privilege for us to be able to join you and your group.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wow, how old are you, Deb, then?<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Deb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you, Mark, in fact, I have a big day coming up this week, so we\u2019re not going to talk about it.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s right. You have a birthday coming up. Well thanks for having us, Allison. Actually when you were reading my bio it kind of triggered something I wasn\u2019t even thinking about but when you read the first thing, I started my own national marketing company. So if people want the truth, the truth is that that business failed. That was a really unbelievable learning experience.<\/p>\n I read something this morning that said, \u201cIt\u2019s always better to fail at doing something than to excel at doing nothing.\u201d After my business failed, I felt like doing nothing actually. One of the reasons why my business failed was I wasn\u2019t looking at the numbers because that\u2019s one of the things we\u2019re going to be talking about tonight. My role tonight really is just to kind of set a little foundation and share a couple thoughts, insights, and then I\u2019m going to turn it over to Deb to kind of get into the models, the financial models, we talk about.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just one piece of our work but I think it\u2019s an important piece because I was reading, I mentioned this to Allison the other day on the call, I was reading a little bit about Joseph Campbell who wrote the hero\u2019s journey. I remember a line in his book, he said, \u201cAll of life is a meditation. Most of it unintentional. A lot of people spend most of life meditating on where their money is coming from and where it is going.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m 53 and I\u2019m still meditating. I have two kids in high school and college and you know, the practices we work with, that we\u2019re blessed to work with, there\u2019s not one of them that is beyond the money issue to some degree or not. I think you have to be willing to look at that and money is very emotional. I was talking to my wife this morning about this. An interesting thing with the money part of it is, we recently took a Dave Ramsey course here in Medford, Oregon, where I live now.<\/p>\n You know, now my wife\u2019s looking at the books because we thought about moving back to Arizona where I worked for my father-in-law there and a lot of this for the business school, looking at the money part, that was really my father-in-law\u2019s. A lot of the stuff we\u2019re going to be talking about is kind of what Deb and I really started with looking at, was until you get control of money, people have heard this, it will control your life.<\/p>\n My father-in-law always said, \u201cOxygen to your life is like money to your practice.\u201d Without the money, you cannot continue to run it. You can, like I did with my business and it failed. But it\u2019s not a very fun place to be. This is kind of off the subject, but when I was reading something yesterday, I got an opportunity to go to breakfast with my daughter early this morning and there\u2019s this one line that I read yesterday that said, and I don\u2019t want to get all spiritual or anything, but it kind of hit me because I had never heard this before. It said, \u201cRefusal is the path to heaven.\u201d I never heard that before, so I was thinking about that.<\/p>\n So this morning, my daughter is 16, I was in the car, and I said, Sofia, means wisdom, so I said, \u201cHey Sofia, let me throw this line out. What do you think this line means? Because I’ve never heard it before. What do you think about it?\u201d I said, \u201cRefusal is the path to heaven.\u201d Of course, I was thinking about other things like refusing not to date because she\u2019s 16. Refusing not to go out with a boy.<\/p>\n But she said, \u201cWell you know, not doing things that you are not good for you.\u201d I thought, yeah, I said, \u201cYeah, not lying, cheating, walk with integrity, not to gossip about people, and refusal is the path to heaven.\u201d Then I thought, wow, that\u2019s\u2014so when I was thinking about that, I was thinking about some questions, because my wife said you should really ask questions. I was thinking of some questions with that as it ties into your practice, your life, money, some of the questions I thought of was or statements, to let money run my life, or my mediation, which I just said.<\/p>\n I refuse not to be blind sighted another year by not understanding where the money is going. I refuse not to let money dictate the treatment plan I recommend or not. How about this one? I refuse to pretend money doesn\u2019t matter. That\u2019s a good one. That\u2019s a good one for me because I used to tell people, \u201cYou know what? Money doesn\u2019t really matter.\u201d I was thinking, oh, I\u2019m so above it. I remember a line Zig Ziglar said one time, I know he\u2019s passed away, some of you might remember him, a motivational speaker. I\u2019ll never forget this. He said, \u201cIf you lie about money, you lie about other things as well.\u201d<\/p>\n I was like, wow. I mean, that hit me because it\u2019s like, why pretend? And I think a lot of times money is very emotional. It\u2019s hard to talk about it because we tie our worth to it many times. I remember my mentor one time said to me, \u201cMark, money only makes you more what you are. Don\u2019t be afraid of it. If you set your goal to make a million dollars, then money just makes it so if you’re greedy, you\u2019ll just be more greedy. If you’re giving, it will just make you more giving. So try to make as much you can, earn as much as you can, try to help as many people as you can, try to give as much away as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n I remember Bud Ham on one of your calls, I remember he said, \u201cIf you want have an open receiving channel, give away as much as you can.\u201d Then I remember, I always remember some of the other speakers you\u2019ve had, Mark LeBlanc, I remember one of the lines he said on your call, Allison, back in November, he said, \u201cOur dream is to deliver our work. Not to run a business.\u201d I wrote that one down because it was like, wow, that is so true. We don\u2019t run to run the business many times. We don\u2019t want to look at the numbers. I still don\u2019t even want to look at the numbers.<\/p>\n I mean, that\u2019s why Deb is on this call because she\u2019s\u2014and she\u2019ll tell you\u2014she\u2019s not like a big numbers person but if you don\u2019t look at the numbers, then you’re always asking the question, \u201cMoney, may I?\u201d Or, \u201cHow\u2019s this going to come together? Can I do this?\u201d Or, \u201cWhat if that?\u201d Or, \u201cCan I pay my people more? Am I going to be able to survive another year? Is the tax bill going to get me? You know, April 15th<\/sup>? Do I owe more taxes now because I didn\u2019t put in some systems or structures to prepare for that?\u201d We all deal with this. We\u2019re all business owners.<\/p>\n So when I was thinking about some thoughts, one of the things I thought of the other\u2014I like Mark Twain\u2019s quote, he said, \u201cInherently each one of us have the substance within us to achieve whatever our goals and our dreams define.\u201d He said, \u201cWhat is missing from each of us is the training, education, knowledge, and insight to utilize what we already know.\u201d I love that quote because I don\u2019t think anything Deb and I are going to say is going to be anything revelational today or anything new. I think the teacher, a great teacher, just reinforces things you already know and things we maybe need to get back to. Some of the basics and some of the principles that are universal truths.<\/p>\n Like a lot of your probably on this call have read Richest Man in Babylon<\/em> and Eight Habits of Economic Freedom <\/em>and that book. One of the principles, three principles in that book, the first three are learn to create value, save ten percent, and try to eliminate your expenses. Which Deb is going to talk, how do you do that? How do you decrease your overhead? How do you get control of the money in the practice? How do you get your team understanding these things so they can help you with that? This narrow focus of money tonight.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s some questions I\u2019m just going to throw out. If you have a pen, you want to write down one of these that hits you. Here\u2019s some questions to maybe think about. The first question is, do you have enough money? Most people say, just a little bit more and I\u2019ll be happy. You know, \u201cShow me the money\u201d in Jerry Maguire<\/em>. The second question, are you spending enough time with your family and friends? If anything, I think one of these hits you just right at the out seek and maybe think about it. Do you come home from your practice full of life?<\/p>\n Question four, do you have time to participate in the things you believe are worthwhile? Next question, are you satisfied with the contribution you\u2019ve made to the world? Next question, are you at peace with money? Does your practice reflect your values? The last three: Do you have enough savings to see you through six months of normal living expenses? I\u2019ll leave that one for Deb in a little bit to talk about. Is your life whole?<\/p>\n The last question, do all the pieces, your practice, your relationships, your expenditures, your recreational activities, your values fit together? I mean, that\u2019s some pretty deep questions. Those are questions that we probably all are still working on, struggling with or trying to improve as we all work together on these. I was reading\u2014remember, Allison, tell me when eight minutes comes up.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, it\u2019s been eight minutes.<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, but I think one of the\u2014and I know everybody has heard this before\u2014but I was reading a little article by Ken Runkle who calls himself America\u2019s Profitability Expert and someone you might have heard about before, but it\u2019s kind of interesting. He calls himself that because that\u2019s what Deb and I are going to talk about. Or Deb is going to be talking a little bit more tonight on profitability model, not a production model.<\/p>\n How do you get out of the production model and what we call a profitability amount, that\u2019s what my father-in-law talked about for 35 years of his life and still does. How do you do more with less? How do you see less patients and do more? How do you get control of overhead? Part of that is getting control of money, the money systems in the practice.<\/p>\n One of the things you said, and one of the misconceptions and we all know this, because his article was called \u201cHow do you achieve the wealth you desire?\u201d and the great misconception, the first one was, \u201cIf I\u2019m a great dentist, then wealth and success will follow.\u201d I thought that was interesting because I always thought that too.<\/p>\n You know, I started my business that failed, I thought, \u201cWell if I work hard, do the right things, then success and wealth with follow\u201d and tried to do the right things the best I could. I tried to do the things that I thought were good. I worked hard. I worked three jobs. I worked late in the evenings. But that didn\u2019t bring the wealth and success. I was like, \u201cWow, just because you think that, just because you’re a dentist or a great person, doesn\u2019t mean that great wealth and success will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n He talks about that\u2019s a great misconception. He said you must become a great business owner, leader and manager. Continually learning, implementing proven business systems, and wealth strategies. He said this is key, it says, they don\u2019t teach you this in dental school, we know this. The most successful doctors I know aggressively pursue continual learning in their quest to become great dental business owners. I love that last word, the quest, because many know that the word quest comes from the word question. And we continually ask questions.<\/p>\n Am I doing the best I can? Can I improve where I am in my life? Can I become better at controlling my money, expenditures? Can I help others around me to understand these principles? I love that quest quotient because Eugene Wilson once said \u201cOnly the curious will learn and only the resolute will overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than an intellectual quotient or the intelligence quotient.\u201d I love that quote because a lot of dentists I talk to, they’re not really understanding a lot of these things that maybe Deb is going to bring in tonight on the percentage budgeting and overhead percentages and money.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like, hey, we\u2019re all in the same boat. We\u2019re all on the same path. 99 percent of the dentists I see, I\u2019m blessed to do audits for and assessments, they didn\u2019t have a business plan in writing. It\u2019s like me, they didn\u2019t have the numbers all laid out perfectly. They didn\u2019t understand all the money flow, where it was going and coming. I think that when we understand, like my wife said this morning, this is not for the outliers, the people who are intellectually gifted in all these areas. Most dentists are not, we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n We\u2019re maybe gifted in one area. Maybe we\u2019re gifted at being the technical side or maybe communicative. So to have other people come in, share ideas, learn, is really the key. I like this, and I like, I\u2019ll share two other things, but I like, if anybody reads Dilbert, I saw this this morning and Dilbert is walking with his little friend. I don\u2019t know what his little friend is but he\u2019s on the sidewalk and Dilbert says, \u201cStudies show it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be great at anything.\u201d His little friend says to Dilbert, \u201cI would think a willingness to practice that same thing for 10,000 hours is a mental disorder.\u201d Dilbert says, \u201cWow, that makes me feel a lot better about my mediocrity.\u201d His friend goes, \u201cWell, you\u2019re welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n I like that because I think a lot of times we\u2019re self-conscious or maybe we feel bad because we don\u2019t know these things or maybe we ask for help. It\u2019s like, well, I should already know these things. It\u2019s like, no. We\u2019re not designed to know all these things and people have certain gifts and certain things that they do well with. I think the part about the money that even like doctors that we work with, they don\u2019t really care how old we are. I always kid around with Deb, you know, what\u2019s your age?<\/p>\n They don\u2019t care how old Deb and I are. They don\u2019t care what school we went to. They don\u2019t really care how many employers or people we have on our team or what we do. They don\u2019t care how much we earn. They just care about a process. They care about whether the process can get in their head, challenge their thinking a little bit, amplify their strengths, possibly break through their blocks. Maybe unleash some potential, some power, some influence. That\u2019s what they care about. They’re looking for a process.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying that our process is the only process. This is the only one that Deb and I know. This is the one that we\u2019ve looked at for 20+ years and try to get better at and still trying to refine it and work on it. But that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be looking at tonight maybe, is a process, a tool.<\/p>\n At the end of the call, I know Deb is going to be throwing out some systems, some percentages. If anybody on the call wants the tool, we do have a disk that at the end of the call if you email Allison and you want this disk, we\u2019ll send it to you. That you can take your numbers and kind of look at what Deb is talking about and look at these things because I\u2019ll just share this last thing from my father-in-law. He wrote this article in Dental<\/em> Economics<\/em> a few years ago. He said, you can\u2019t run your practice on an accounting statement.<\/p>\n I know people have heard this before but in that article, there\u2019s a couple key points. That running your practice on an accounting statement he said assures you’re disconnected from reality. Because the accounting statement provides a history of what happened last month but it doesn\u2019t give you real-time, like Deb\u2019s going to talk about. Accounting statements don\u2019t give you the truth about your practice. So it\u2019s difficult to make good decisions with information you can\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n Then he says you\u2019ve got to run your practice on percentage budgeting system, it\u2019s the heart of your cash flow system. You have to manage your practice on your real collections, the cash that you have at hand to pay current payables and taxes and fund your lifestyle and savings plan, with a cash flow system. That\u2019s what Deb\u2019s going to talk about, you know precisely what your costs are. You also know exactly where your revenues are coming from and you know your costs to create revenue streams. Alone, the P&L is not an accurate measurement of this. It\u2019s the accurate state of your practice health.<\/p>\n He says you\u2019ll never create wealth on depreciation or write-offs. You need a simple and exact cash flow system. Without a percentage budgeting system, you don\u2019t know where your fees should be for the individual services you provide or how to price total case fees or charges. You can’t master money unless you have a percentage budget and cash flow system.<\/p>\n Without a cash flow system, that includes a fee-setting system, a compensation system, a financial arrangement system, a payables system, a receivables system, you spend your life chasing your expenses. You become a production machine trying to keep up with your expenses.<\/p>\n Without a cash flow system, you never have control of money so no matter how much you produce, you’re always a slave to the money. You never feel free of money. This is the single most important reason why dentists live in a survival mode in search of safety and security, maybe sometimes their entire careers.<\/p>\n He ends this by saying if you don\u2019t have a cash flow system, you can’t be in control of money. If you aren\u2019t in control of money, you will live in fear, insecurity and doubt. If you live in fear, you will never reach your potential as a dentist and your life and practice will be centered on you and not the well-being of your patients.<\/p>\n Those who live in fear never move up to provide higher levels of dental care in spite of spending thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, on advanced technical training. The vast majority of dentists never actually do what they know how to do because they’re trapped in survival mode. The surest way to get trapped in a commodity, single-tooth practice is not to have control of money in your life.<\/p>\n That\u2019s just one path. That\u2019s one perspective, but I think, and I know Deb and I, it\u2019s been true because most of the dentists we work with, they’re very integrity-based people. They want to do the right thing. They want to take care of their patients. They want to provide the right type of treatment.<\/p>\n And money, all it does as Campbell said, the big problem in a person\u2019s life, Campbell says, is models to suggest possibilities. This model, all money is is concealed energy to release life\u2019s possibilities. That\u2019s what Campbell says. So money is just energy and if you release it in the right ways, the right vehicles, with the right systems, with the right monitors, they can release possibilities that are bigger than just looking at the money all the time.<\/p>\n Because let\u2019s face it, for me, looking at money all the time or looking at the numbers is not that exciting after a while. But if you can understand those and go a little deeper with them and you get over the fear of looking at them and maybe understanding how they all work, and that\u2019s hopefully what Deb is going to share a little bit on. Then you can go deeper into other areas that are just more vital in life. With that, you know, that\u2019s why as far as\u2014I think with Deb\u2014and have her take over.<\/p>\n Like Campbell says, all a teacher or a coach can do is suggest ideas. Campbell says a teacher or a coach is like a lighthouse. They say, \u201cThere\u2019s rocks over there, stay clear of those rocks.\u201d Then they\u2019ll say, \u201cBut there\u2019s a channel over here. There\u2019s a path. There\u2019s a light. There\u2019s an opening over here. Let\u2019s look at this direction.\u201d This profitability model is a model to suggest possibilities.<\/p>\n With that, I\u2019ll kind of release it, turn it over to Deb because she\u2019s definitely more on the intellectual wisdom side than me and just maybe talk about this a little bit and maybe go in a little bit deeper and share some ideas that we work with some of our doctors on. So, there you go, Deb.<\/p>\n Deb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well that was a powerful eight minutes. That\u2019s all I can say.<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Yeah, well you’re right, Mark, I am going to talk a little bit more about the nuts and bolts and all that sort of stuff. I\u2019m going to talk about overhead. I\u2019m going to talk about budgets and it\u2019s not, you know, as you said, it\u2019s not nearly as exciting as talking about marketing and internet marketing and some of that social media stuff and implants. But it\u2019s kind of plain. I always say it\u2019s kind of plain and tedious and it\u2019s not very sexy.<\/p>\n But it is a good tool. It is a tool that is a necessary tool and it\u2019s a necessary tool for the doctors that I’ve worked with and the owners that I’ve worked with and peace of mind is a real valuable thing. And team members like working for somebody that pays attention to the business, whether they’re always happy with the fact that the decisions are going to be business-oriented, they do want to work for somebody where they feel there\u2019s a long-term picture there.<\/p>\n Quite honestly, I think the reason that we put it as high as we do on the agenda of working with our doctors is that we believe that you have to have a sustainable business model and managing your money well is the key predicator to sustainability. I think that\u2019s all the dentist is about and dentistry is about is, how do we build a sustainable, healthy patient? How do we do dentistry that\u2019s got health attached to it? So it has to be predictable and it has to be long term. It has to have longevity. That\u2019s what the business side does.<\/p>\n It also does something, when you look at what\u2019s happening with dentistry today, we feel like it\u2019s somewhat unpredictable. We don\u2019t know what dentistry is going to be like exactly five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now. We figure it\u2019s going to be kind of a combination of different types of models in the dental structure. But I believe that one of the things that\u2019s going to give the owner doctor a choice as to which model he prefers or she prefers to work with is going to be how sound their business model is.<\/p>\n If their business model is pretty sound, then I think they\u2019ll still have choices. They can decide they want to be a sole proprietor or what their commitment is going to be like with PPO or non PPO or if it\u2019s going to be a group practice. Or if it\u2019s going to be a multi-discipline practice. Or how many days you’re going to work. All of that and the size of the team you choose.<\/p>\n All of that is going to be a choice if my business is solid. If my business is not solid, then it may be something that I do as a reaction to an outcome that I\u2019m not comfortable with. So Mark asked me, and you know Mark is, as you can tell, he\u2019s our philosopher. He said to me, he said, \u201cDeb, I want you to answer the questions, why? Why us? Why now?\u201d I said, \u201cWhy bother?\u201d And he said, \u201cOh yeah, that\u2019s a good one too.\u201d<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n They\u2019re all good questions. I said\u2014I think the \u201cwhy bother\u201d was something that Mark was talking about. The reason I embraced it to such a level when I was introduced to it, and I was introduced to it a couple of different ways. I was introduced to it, believe it or not, this business model was first introduced to me in 1983 when I was working with the original kinds of dental softwares that were going into dental practices. Uh oh, I think I just gave away my age again.<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Anyway, what we were doing was developing master dat, which is probably the basic structure for all the systems that you’re using out there with the exception of Curve, which is on a different master dat. We were trying to tell the dentists that we wanted to put in a business model, not only measuring the practice income but also measuring the practice outgo. And putting in a cash model for the doctors to use as payables. It was interesting because at that time, the doctors weren\u2019t interested in it. They didn\u2019t want to pay for it. That\u2019s why you don\u2019t have it. That\u2019s why you have to use an auxiliary software in order to get that information.<\/p>\n But I was, as Mark said, I was introduced to it again when we were working at the business school for dentists with Dr. Schuster and then introduced to it even at a higher level when I was working with the lender. My job was twofold, I had some nice calls that I got to go on, like going out to see Allison as she was just starting her practice and making sure that she had some key systems in place and some key models in place. Then I was called when our company, we\u2019d get a call from a doctor saying that they couldn\u2019t pay their practice mortgage and that they were going to go bankrupt.<\/p>\n My job was to go out to the practice and meet with the team and the doctor and say, \u201cHey, could we get this going in the right direction?\u201d The bank paid all my expenses to come out to the practice but there wasn\u2019t much altruism in that task from the bank. They wanted to make sure that the doctor could find a way to get back on track and pay the bill because of course they’re all about making money on lending money and not having to give it up.<\/p>\n So I would walk in and try to see where are the strengths right now? How can we put this practice back together? And all the while of course really kind of learning how did it get into this position? And how it got in that position was because it had no profit.<\/p>\n You know when you ask the question what does profit mean, I love my response when anybody asks me questions like that, I usually respond, \u201cWell, it depends.\u201d And it does depend. It means different things to different people. But ultimately in my mind it means really capitalizing on the potential of the business. If you’re profitable, you\u2019ve capitalized on the potential. If you have maximized profit, you\u2019ve maximized the potential of all the energy and the time and the money that you\u2019ve put into the practice.<\/p>\n It does another thing. It really gives the owner of the practice a feeling like everything\u2019s got a good tilt to it. The future looks bright. So I think it\u2019s a critical piece of the practice. As Mark was saying, the only way to find out if we\u2019re going in the right direction is to measure. To do the numbers.<\/p>\n I have found that owner doctors that take an active role in monitoring the numbers are often the ones that are the most profitable and often the ones that feel like they’re going in the right direction and that they’re the ones that at the end feel like they can retire with a lifestyle that they’re comfortable with. They’re proud of that and they should be proud of it.<\/p>\n So we\u2019re going to talk about overhead and we\u2019re going to talk about practice budgets. But I\u2019m going to tell you I don\u2019t believe that practices are profitable just because they have budgets and just because they manage overhead. There are lots of other key systems that have to be put in place and they have to be monitored if we\u2019re going to create that sustainable business model. One that the doctors enjoy and that the team enjoys and you can answer those questions that Mark asked at the very beginning of the call there in a positive way. So that\u2019s what it is about.<\/p>\n If a doctor or an owner is struggling to pay the costs of the practice, it\u2019s almost impossible to pay attention to those other systems that need to be in place. That that feeling of not being successful, of not having profits in the practice, is a terrible distraction. That fear and anxiety and scarcity, it dominates so you don\u2019t look in the right direction until you pull yourself out of it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s funny, I had a really interesting conversation with a specialty practice that we\u2019re working with. It was just last week. It\u2019s a practice that the owner just implemented his transition plan and now the associate in the practice has become a partner. When that happened, and often this is the time that you might be calling a consultant in. We were fortunate they called us in to kind of help with that first year of that transition. So we\u2019ve been working with the doctors for about twelve months. They\u2019ve got a great team, terrific office manager.<\/p>\n We were looking at the results of their year and noticed that they had reduced their overhead by 20 percent. Just so you know, that\u2019s not average, that\u2019s not a standard rate of reduction as they would say. This was really pretty special. It was interesting to hear the reaction from the two partners. One, the original owner, and the other was the former associate and now new partner. Of course, both were really pleased with the results that they had gotten. I was thrilled myself.<\/p>\n But it was interesting with the senior doctor because he was saying, \u201cGosh, how much have I been leaving on the table for the last 20 years?\u201d He did also add the caveat that he had a really good life and he was happy with his practice. But that would be an interesting thing after 20 years to look back and see, \u201cGosh, I wonder how much potential was just hanging around there because I hadn\u2019t managed it well.\u201d<\/p>\n So understanding profit is knowing how to work with the numbers and targets. When you do that, then you get the connection between your actions and outcomes. You know, dentistry has always been about, can we figure out what got to that particular outcome?<\/p>\n So it makes sense that we are open to managing those numbers and creating that awareness and really looking at what\u2019s happened to the practice. It\u2019s really interesting too because I think sometimes we get dramatic results just because we are doing that. We\u2019re creating awareness. We\u2019re looking at numbers. We\u2019re managing them.<\/p>\n Some of you, I\u2019m sure, have heard of the Hawthorne Electric Company, you\u2019ve heard of the Hawthorne effect. It was an electric company in the Midwest where a consulting company went in and they decided to tell the workers that they were going to be observing their work and they only changed one thing. They raised the lighting in the electric company.<\/p>\n As a result of that, performance went up. And it was only really a result of the employees, the workers, feeling like somebody was going to be watching what they were doing and they were going to be monitoring it. Therefore, it\u2019s called the Hawthorne effect, sometimes it\u2019s called the observer effect. It\u2019s just the idea that if we measure, if we pay attention to things, things change.<\/p>\n Peter Drucker said, \u201cWhat gets measured gets managed and what gets managed gets improved.\u201d I think really just that observer effect is often what I see happens in a practice. I see changes going in the right direction. It\u2019s minor changes that they\u2019ve made, it\u2019s just more that we\u2019re paying attention to it. As Mark was saying, we really only look at this particular part of the practice that the money side of the practice, we only look at it from the perspective of a cash flow.<\/p>\n A cash flow is simply money coming in from patient fees, only from patient fees, and money going out to cover the costs of delivering care. Obviously, with the intention of retaining a profitable remainder there. So we don\u2019t use the P&L as Mark said, and we don\u2019t use a balance sheet other than as a reference. The P&L and the balance sheet are valuable. I wouldn\u2019t get rid of them. But they’re really designed for the purpose of reporting profit to the state or the federal government in a way that mitigates the tax consequences for being profitable.<\/p>\n They were never really designed to manage the profit. One, because of the real-time aspect that Mark was referring to but secondly because some of the things that need to be measured don\u2019t appear there. If we\u2019re looking at your P&L, if we\u2019re, as Mark said, obviously, you can’t\u2014I don\u2019t know how you said that\u2014depreciation, can’t do that. And oftentimes we\u2019ll see a P&L that has an amortization schedule. That means that we\u2019re looking at monies that are going to be committed to be spent over a twelve-year period.<\/p>\n So your P&L is going to report monies that you’re committed to spending but you haven’t actually removed from your operating account unless that amortization schedule also has an escrow schedule that\u2019s attached to it. Usually it doesn\u2019t. So it doesn\u2019t really paint a picture of what\u2019s happening in the practice.<\/p>\n The key one I think too is most of the practices I work with are in some position of retiring debt. So if you’re retiring debt from the practice, your P&L is only going to show the amount you paid for interest. And the amount that goes toward the principle is going to be over on the balance sheet, they call it a rate of change. Once you\u2019ve paid down the interest on a loan, you might still be paying the principle on the loan but that loan payment won\u2019t show up at all on your P&L because you can\u2019t deduct that payment anymore from your taxes once you move out of interest.<\/p>\n So now you\u2019ll pay taxes on the dollars earned but you won\u2019t get any relief tax-wise when you use those dollars to pay down debt because paying down that debt is really moving you up on the balance sheet as far as increasing your equity position or the equity position of the practice.<\/p>\n So anyway, all that kind of sounds convoluted, I know, if you’re not a numbers person. The point is you need a tool to manage the practice. The tool you need is the cash flow money, cash flow tool. What\u2019s coming in? What\u2019s going out? And how does that move me toward the direction of my goals?<\/p>\n Mark and I do have overhead targets. This means the target that the percentage of the practice income. That\u2019s it. Just the income. Paid out every month to pay for the costs of a healthy practice. Percentage-based expenses are organized\u2014we organize them into seven categories. What you\u2019ll find when you see these categories is they don\u2019t mimic the P&L because as we said, the P&L, the profit and loss, is really not designed to manage the practice. Some categories will reflect expenses that are fixed and some will be variable.<\/p>\n A fixed expense is one that does not vary. I think you know that. It\u2019s one that we\u2019ve committed to be honored, whether or not we\u2019re working in the practice. So my rent or my mortgage payment on my building, my equipment debt payment, is a fixed expense or the debt payment if I’ve done a remodel, that\u2019s a fixed expense.<\/p>\n At some degree, actually I put staff as a fixed expense because including the benefits that we offer because we\u2019ve negotiated this compensation package with each team member. If you make changes in the package, at the very least, you\u2019re going to risk a morale issue. So if we are to lower the cost and we do so really by increasing the effectiveness of the team member and possibly looking at how we\u2019re using the hours that they\u2019ve got and sometimes by looking at that, we find that we have some dual things that are going on. By that, we can kind of reduce the cost of staff. But you can’t tell somebody you’re going to lower their salary and you can’t take their benefits away very easily. So it\u2019s a pretty fixed cost.<\/p>\n I think marketing is a fixed cost. Marketing is definitely fixed for the length of the contract that we have for the marketing event that we\u2019re going to be doing. Marketing is something I’ve really been observing a great deal more since 2009 and the little hiccup that we went through.<\/p>\n I think this is one you really have to have good internal systems to measure a couple of things, not just measuring how many new patients came in and not just measuring what this did to the production that came into the practice. You also want to measure, is this campaign taking my practice in the direction of my vision? That\u2019s a critical piece because if it isn\u2019t then the longevity of the outcome of that is going to be relative I think.<\/p>\n So fixed costs remain present in the practice whether or not you’re working. Because this is true, whatever we\u2019re entering into as fixed cost, we really want to think it out before we commit to it. So if you\u2019ve got a fixed cost that you’re thinking of committing to, say you’re going to be doing something. Add that, that\u2019s going to have a cost to it. It\u2019s going to have debt attached to it over a long term or it\u2019s going to have a \u2026 attached to it over a long term, ideally, I want you to add that expense to your practice expenses. It would be great if you did that.<\/p>\n Then save it and see if the practice can actually support the increase. An example of this if you’re considering a move. You know that relocation is going to add debt service because you’re going to have tenant improvements or it\u2019s going to be an increased rent or maybe I\u2019m buying a building, there\u2019s going to be a mortgage on it.<\/p>\n I would have you, especially if you got the opportunity to do something like that, for a twelve-month period, add that increased cost to your expenses that are going out every month and put it in a savings account. You can’t touch it. You will know then at the current level of cash flow that I’ve got coming into my practice, I could cover that cost. Even if nothing changes, I don\u2019t have an increase in revenue based on move. I still can handle it.<\/p>\n Of course you get that wonderful thing, you\u2019ve got this savings account built up now. When you take the move, you\u2019ve got a little money to take the move with. And you\u2019ve also got a lot of confidence. In fact, one of the things that we encourage our doctors to get involved in is something called solvency. That was a term that we got from a mentor of ours. But really it means that I\u2019ve got a rainy day account within my practice.<\/p>\n I’ve got reserves in my practice and I can use those reserves or save those reserves. We encourage the practice to be saving a percent of the income that comes in every month and that goes into this reserve account. It\u2019s not to be used for anything other than something that\u2019s unexpected. You can call it a reserve account, a solvency account, you can call it a peace of mind account.<\/p>\n But you set a percentage up, let’s say it\u2019s going to be 1, 2, 3, ideally 7 percent of the money that comes in every month gets set aside for this savings. You know, some costs, we talked about fixed costs there. Other costs that we have are kind of variable costs. You\u2019ve got lab, which is a variable cost. Supplies is a variable cost. Implants, if you’re doing those, those are variable. A staff bonus would be a variable cost. A variable cost is that one will change based on how much dentistry we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n Of course, a variable cost then oftentimes we want that cost to go up because if that cost goes up, then it means we\u2019re doing more of the things that we have a vision about. When we set our targets and budgets and the percent of income that we\u2019re going to be using for each cost category, I want you to remember that it will vary based on your vision. If you have a vision to be a reconstructive practice or if you have a vision to be a family practice, seeing lots of children, those two practices would have different budget targets for different categories.<\/p>\n So your vision and we\u2019re really not going to talk about vision tonight but your vision is certainly something that enters into creating your practice budget. When you’re creating a practice budget, it has to be just like any other goal that you\u2019re putting in place. It has to meet that criteria, that acronym for smart. It has to be specific. It has to measurable. It has to be assignable, realistic. Has to be time-bound.<\/p>\n I really like the acronym, instead of smart, I like the acronym smarter because it has to be also evaluated and reviewed. That\u2019s what happens with the budget. You have to evaluate it and review it. So after you set your first targets, you’re going to go back and you’re going to look at it over the first three months. Then you\u2019re going to average that first three months to the average of what happens over a year. During that period of time, you’re kind of going to be tweaking it. So it is a process that takes time.<\/p>\n You’re going to start the budget with knowing what twelve months of expenses are. So you’re going to look at your P&L and you’re going to try to untangle that. In fact, as Mark said, we\u2019re going to offer you a tool to use at the end of the call if we get your information he\u2019ll send you this disk that has an Excel program on it that will convert your P&L into percentage of overhead targets.<\/p>\n Out to the side of each of those targets for those seven categories of staff, and occupancy, or facility, and your capital reinvestment we call it, it has a slightly different name for us, but it\u2019s really capital investment which would be equipment and that sort of thing. Then looking at supplies and lab expenses and marketing expenses and administrative expenses.<\/p>\n You’re going to have targets out to the side of those. This little diskette will allow you to take your numbers off your P&L and convert it into that. So those twelve months gives you a basis for what your budget is going to be like. Then, with that, we\u2019re going to emphasize also knowing what your revenue targets are.<\/p>\n Sometimes you\u2019ll hear the starting point is production targets. I never want my starting point to be production targets. My starting point has to be income targets, revenue targets. It was funny, when I worked for the bank I went up in front of the board of directors. Allison has heard this story but I was telling them, they wanted to know what numbers do we manage when we\u2019re looking a dental practice.<\/p>\n I started out with production and net collection and one of the men in the room said, \u201cSo what\u2019s production? Is that income?\u201d I said, \u201cNo, no, no. That\u2019s not income because production, why that\u2019s, production is what we charge the patient or what we charge for the procedure that we do. Then we want to adjust it because of a contract that we have. Then, oh and we might adjust it again because of the payment arrangement that the patient has. So we\u2019re giving them a little incentive. Then we\u2019re going to post it. And we might expect to collect that. But then we might adjust it again because either bad debt or we underestimated what the third party was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cSo what is production then?\u201d I said real production we call net production. Net production is the number that we\u2019re kind of looking for except that we might have to adjust that as well. So he said, \u201cWell is it just kind of like projected sales?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, you know, it might be. Because revenue is where everything comes from and revenue is what matters.\u201d So you don\u2019t start with production. No, you do need to know what your production has been and what that has generated as far as revenue. And use that adjustment to kind of know what my revenues are going to be.<\/p>\n So I need to know that and I need to know what my debt is going to be. Am I going to retire debt in the next twelve months? Am I going to increase debt in the next twelve months? And is there going to be a capital investment? I\u2019m going to invest in software or computers or am I going to increase my staff? And can I raise my fees?<\/p>\n It was interesting when Mark was talking about using this tool to know where do I need to set my fees and some of my practices, they don\u2019t have a lot of flexibility there to set their fees. But certainly the budget will give us a tool and knowing how much the expenses of the practice are will tell us whether we can afford to have the fees we have.<\/p>\n Then you do something called zero sum. Zero sum means I go through every expense and I look at it and I say, \u201cIs this justified? Is this an expense that I need to have?\u201d That\u2019s called zero sum. Is it justified? Is it reasonable? Then you know, you have, I\u2019m sure most of the doctors on the call have something that fell to the axe of zero sum and it was your phonebook ad. Because you just looked at and you said, \u201cHey, is that really justified and reasonable?\u201d<\/p>\n And yet I’ve got a practice in Las Vegas that the phonebook ad is very justified, very reasonable. He likes it to be removable. His older patients are not going to the internet. They’re not going to social media. So for him, that\u2019s a very justified expense. So zero sum. And remember, zero sum, is this justified? Is this reasonable? Is it taking me toward my vision? Is it allowing me to do the dentistry that I want to do, the way I want to do it?<\/p>\n Of course, you’re looking at how many days you’re willing to commit to. Then you get that together using that tool, getting to what my costs were, what I expect my costs to be. Then I\u2019m going to start putting that basic budget in place. Get your team involved because they definitely can. There are certain categories such as supplies. With supplies, we set a dollar target and it\u2019s a percent of revenue.<\/p>\n In my practices, it\u2019s usually between four and five percent, which is really tight. We have four or five percent of revenue that we can use to buy supplies. So every month the person that\u2019s buying the supplies knows how much he or she has to spend. She has a little Excel spreadsheet and it works like a checkbook. Every time she spends money for a supply, the money available to spend for supplies is reduced. Works perfect.<\/p>\n It once again gets that awareness going. Very often, with my practices this is one of the areas where we see the first reduction is is the supply budget. You can do this with the same technique. You could do it, I\u2019ve got doctors that are doing a lot of implant supplies, we definitely use it there. I’ve got doctors, we use it for administrative supplies.<\/p>\n Just a simple little, this is how much we\u2019ve got. We\u2019re allowing this percent and that means out of this month, this is how much we collected, this how much we have available, this how much we spent, this is how much is left. And boy, that Hawthorne effect really steps up here because that awareness reduces that percent. Imagine if you’re reducing your overhead by one or two percent just in this one category. It\u2019s thousands of dollars by the end of the year.<\/p>\n So multi-doctor practices, I really especially like to see this happen if we have multi-doctors because we really want to have a high awareness for how we\u2019re spending supplies and what kind of supplies we\u2019re ordering and how much we can make sure that we\u2019re doing the same things. If your practice has a retail aspect to it. If you’re selling power toothbrushes or if you’re participating in Caries Free or something like that, then we want to have a way of not only measuring how much we\u2019re spending for that category but we want to know at the end of the year we want to know, how much did we spend for that and how much did we collect?<\/p>\n Are those by fees from the patient paying for those supplies? We want to know that every year so that we know, is it justified for us to have this retail aspect to our practice? Does it make sense? Not only from a philosophy viewpoint does it make sense from the viewpoint of is it sustainable? Is it something that we can do and continue to do?<\/p>\n So Mark will be coming back on the line here. He\u2019s going to tell you how you can get that little diskette and on that you’re going to see what we have set for targets for percentages, for costs, and they’re really pretty simple. We\u2019re pretty tight with our costs. We try to keep the overhead percentages for staff somewhere, depending on the practice and of course it really does vary a little bit with what kind of practice you have.<\/p>\n But usually we\u2019re looking at staff costing somewhere between 20 and 24 percent, could be a little lower if it\u2019s a specialty practice. I don\u2019t like to see it much higher than 25 percent. At 25 percent, you’re pretty much maxed out. A general practice, somewhere around 23 percent is about where that needs to be. Occupancy, that\u2019s all your facility costs, if they exceed six percent of the revenues of the practice that can be a burden for you.<\/p>\n We have to have capital reinvestment. We have to be investing in our plant, in order for it to have value over time. So we would encourage you to be looking at that and saying somewhere between three to five percent that you’re allowing to buy new equipment and the expense of computers, which are an investment.<\/p>\n As I said, dental supplies, we keep that on a pretty tight mark, between four and five percent. Marketing, it\u2019s going to vary depending on where your practice is but generally if it\u2019s an established practice, we like to keep it around one percent. Laboratory, no greater than ten percent of the income that\u2019s being\u2014ten can be a practice that does a lot of restorative or a lot of implants. Then administrative, somewhere around six percent.<\/p>\n If you do that, you’re going to have overheads that are in the 50s, in the mid-50s, which permits you to be able to take a reasonable salary, say around 24 percent just for a straight draw. You would then have about 10 percent of that income that you can be funding your pension with and making sure that that is an expense that is part of your practice and you\u2019d have a remaining 7 percent that you could use for that solvency account so that you’re saving for the unknown.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s the numbers game. I\u2019m going to let Mark come back on here and talk to you a little bit about the close on that. I do encourage you, if anybody has questions about when they get that tool, where does a particular expense go, I know you’re going to have my email. Don\u2019t hesitate to email me.<\/p>\n If there is a cell phone on there, go ahead and give me a call. You’re welcome to do that as well. I will tell you that I’m in practices and when I\u2019m in a practice, I don\u2019t respond to my email. I don\u2019t respond to the phone but I\u2019ll get back to you the following morning or the end of the day. So just tell me where to reach you. Mark, I think you’re on.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was just thinking, Allison, this will probably the last time you ever have two people on a call.<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t even ask a question. You didn\u2019t take a breath.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was fine. I mean, there was really no, it wasn\u2019t really\u2014what I didn\u2019t do though was I didn\u2019t put, I hope you guys can stay on a few minutes in case we do have questions. I appreciate you guys making yourself available and sharing your tool. That\u2019s awesome. That was a lot of information really fast, Deb.<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just wanted to kind of close something out and then if anybody has some questions for Deb and I, but when I was talking about this this morning or looking at all this the last day or two I kind of get a little, not anxious, but I kind of, because I was reading something out of a book called Legacy<\/em>. The one the guy said is look, \u201cYour legacy isn\u2019t a balance sheet. You’re not a balance sheet for crying out load. Your life is more than numbers.\u201d And I totally agree with that. That\u2019s not the measure of your worth.<\/p>\n And I read a proverb this morning that says, and this is kind of countercultural, that says don\u2019t wear yourself out trying to be rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit. I had a lady dentist talk to me, she goes, \u201cI\u2019m taking Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday off, Mark. I like that schedule and I like having those five days off.\u201d I emailed her back, I said, \u201cGosh, I need to get that schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n \u201cIn a blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle.\u201d I was like, wow, that happens in life. No matter how well prepared you are. No matter how well you get the budgets done. No matter how you have the numbers. Something could happen and boom, your money flies away.<\/p>\n But I think the other part of that is you have to look at this. You have to be a good steward, like Deb talked about Peter Drucker. It\u2019s not enough to be busy as the ants. He said the question is what are we so busy with? Part of getting control of the money is that we can be busy with the right things in life: your family, your relationships, things that are valuable in life. Not just the balance sheet but getting control over it.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll just end it with this because I like what this says, \u201cIt\u2019s not how you start the race.\u201d And people have heard it, \u201cIt\u2019s how you finish. It\u2019s not what you have, it\u2019s what you do with what you have.\u201d He said, \u201cWe should not be concerned about how much money we\u2019re starting with or currently what we have or don\u2019t have right now in our lives, wherever we\u2019re at, whatever position.\u201d He said, \u201c\u201dWe should always begin with a million dollars\u2019 worth of determination, with courage. A million dollars of commitment. A million dollars of hope. A million dollars of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n I like that. I mean, I like that\u2019s what we should\u2014yeah, get control. But also remember it\u2019s not all about the million, two million, three million. It\u2019s about if we can get the mindset, \u201cHey, wherever we\u2019re at, it doesn\u2019t matter. If we have faith, hope, determination, courage, commitment to keep running the race, having the faith, that\u2019s the key.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a lot nicer to run the race with other people. It\u2019s a lot nicer to be with other people on your team or other people that can run the race with you and understand or can go deeper with you. That\u2019s part of the journey. So that\u2019s all I wanted to say on that.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So you guys want them to just email me if they want a copy of the disk and I\u2019ll just\u2026?<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Perfect. Yeah, anybody who wants the disk, if you email me, I\u2019ll send out the disk. Just let me know if you’re a specialist or general dentist. There are different modules to that. I\u2019ll send you out that disk with a model and with also a visual of all the numbers so you can look at it too visually. Then you can put the disk inside your computer and look at it there as well.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay. So you need name and mailing address pretty much, and then whether they’re a specialist or not.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yep, exactly.<\/p>\n Allison: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll be glad to do that.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, awesome. Are you going to enclose, your guys\u2019 contact information will be on the disk? So that like Deb said, she\u2019s available for questions. It will be in that packet so that they can get a hold of you?<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019ll just have, if they have a question when you’re implementing the numbers, you have a question on it. Like Deb said, you just contact her and when she\u2019ll get back to her email or just call you and just look at that and how you can adjust it from there.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay. Awesome, well thank you, you guys.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks, Allison.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Deb. And thank you everybody for being on the call live.<\/p>\n Deb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s great. We enjoyed it. Thank you a lot, Allison, for your kind invitation.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Absolutely, we\u2019ll talk to you guys soon.<\/p>\n Deb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sounds great, Allison. See you soon.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Take care.<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bye-bye.<\/p>\n Mark: Bye-bye.<\/p>\n Thanks for listening to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists, with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. For more about how Allison Watts and Transformational Practices can help you create a successful and fulfilling practice and life, visit transformationalpractices.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joining me this week are the co-founders of Growth into Greatness, Mark Battiato and Deb Castillo. Together, they have created a team with a combined experience of over 280 years in business, personal development, practice assessment, staff development and wealth accumulation. Working with dentists worldwide to build up the strengths of the practice, Mark and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[303],"tags":[309,305,304,307],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Allison's-Button\"](\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010383\/Allisons-Button\/Allisons-Button.jpg?_i=AA)
<\/a><\/p>\nProfitability vs Production with Mark Battiato and Deb Castillo<\/h3>\n
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