Episode 126: Leading From the Heart

“My team is incredible. I am so spoiled to have them around me, the way that they care about me, the way that they listen to me.” ~Dr. Maggie Augustyn

In this captivating new episode of Investment Grade Practices Podcast, host Dr. Victoria Peterson sits down with PDA friend and faculty member, Dr. Maggie Augustyn. Together, they explore the fascinating world of leadership with a focus on innovative strategies for effective team management.

As Productive Dentist Academy gears up to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Dr. Victoria and Dr. Maggie reflect on the profound impact of leadership styles and team dynamics. They discuss how putting your team first can elevate not just the workplace environment but also drive exceptional results. From Dr. Maggie’s compelling keynote plans for the upcoming conference to her insights on creating a cohesive and empowered team, this episode is packed with wisdom and practical advice.

As you listen to this episode, we want you to think about the following questions:

• How can I better empower my team?
• Am I leading in a way that fosters collaboration and empathy?
• What steps can I take to improve my practice’s culture?

Episode Transcript 

[00:00:00] Intro: The Productive Dentist Academy Podcast Network.

[00:00:02] Regan: Doctor, are you living the dream or just dreaming of living? It is my honor to announce the PDA 20th Anniversary Special Conference this September 12th to the 14th in Frisco, Texas, the nation’s leading course on dental practice growth. If you feel isolated as a leader who is frustrated that your schedule is unproductive, maybe your team is disjointed or your systems are inefficient.  This is the conference for you. The PDA 20th anniversary conference has all new features, including keynote speaker, Emmett Smith, who is a pro football hall of fame, running back and entrepreneur. You can choose your own educational track to customize your learning experience. Go to www.productivedentist.com and click the pop-up or select Productive Dentist Academy Conference under the dental CE and events tab. That’s www.productivedentist.com. Seating is limited. Register today and we look forward to helping you make your dreams become reality.

[00:00:53] Maggie: My saying is always people that are givers don’t have to worry about giving.  Being given onto, right, because the world will take care of you when you give.

[00:01:02] Intro: Welcome to Investment Grade Practices Podcast, where we believe private practice dentists deserve to get the lifestyle today while building an asset for tomorrow. Join your host, Victoria Peterson, to design the practice of your dreams and secure your financial independence. Let’s get started.

[00:01:21] Victoria: Hey, this is Victoria Peterson with Investment Grade Practices here with faculty member and awesome friend, Dr. Maggie Augustine talking about why can’t you hear me?

[00:01:32] Maggie:Can you hear me now?

[00:01:33] Victoria: And other fun leadership tricks. We’re weeks away from celebrating the 20th anniversary of Productive Dentist Academy and for anyone who is considering coming to this event, it’s not about us. It’s not about Bruce and I. In fact, we have 41 speakers. We have marching bands. We have Emmett Smith doing a keynote speech. There’s so many great things. We have our PDA hall of fame where we’re inducting amazing doctors from around the country who are just living, doing good while doing good and Maggie and I were talking about her keynote, which is going to close out the conference on Saturday morning. Maggie, give us some insight. I started as a dental assistant who became a hygienist, who became an accidental office manager, who became an intentional consultant, and you’re going to talk about your team’s journey.

[00:02:21] Maggie: Yeah. We’re going to put teams front and center. We’re going to open up our hearts and we’re going to show them how much they matter and how much, how integral they are to not just our practices, but to our lives and you and I talked about this and you happen to agree because I sometimes feel uncomfortable when I tell people I put my team ahead of my patients. I feel like that’s not something that the doctor should be saying and we talked about this too, when you claim to put people first, right, and you claim to put patients first, its really is no different than putting your team first. You’re there to serve people, whether they are paying you or whether they’re people that, um, are there to help and support you and build you up and are there. My team is incredible, incredible. I am so spoiled to have them around me, uh, the way that they care about me, the way that they listen to me, the way that they lift me up, the way that they can notice when I need a hug and my sincere hope is that they feel as supported by me as I feel supported by them. So we will turn the tables just slightly in this part of the tech talk, and we will start to talk about how to create cohesion within a team, how to empower the people that work with us. I don’t like to say for us, they work with us to create this unique and caring dynamic in, in what we do, how to empower them to succeed, how to find their own purpose and passion as a reason for them to get up in the morning, because doesn’t everyone deserve that, right? It’s not just about whether I, as a doctor, am fulfilling my destiny of fixing teeth, it’s about whether or not they’re waking up fulfilling their destiny. Actually, this reminds me, there’s a really interesting study about janitors. They, they rated how happy janitors were, and it was found that it was pretty low. They have janitors in the hospital, and then all of a sudden they had this meeting with the janitors, and they presented to the janitors how extremely important they were in making sure that patients were well taken care of, that they didn’t get infections, and the hospital was safe, and they presented to them information that what they did really affected how people healed and so several weeks after dispenses knowledge to the janitors, they have found that once the janitors realized that they were an integral part of taking care of the patients, their happiness significantly increased.

[00:04:48] Victoria: I love that. See, this wasn’t even on what we were talking about before. It’s just going to get better and better and better because you are an incredible leader. I loved like when you said earlier, like, I just fired myself as the boss. I’m not the boss. Our mission is the boss. This is a list of over the last,

[00:05:07] Maggie: This is how great of a leader I have been over the last 18 years. These are all the people, um, that have, that have come and gone.

[00:05:13] Victoria: Well, they say you need experience to have the job, but how do you get experience? You just make a lot of mistakes and then you learn and then you pull it. I mean, this is 18 years of wisdom, action pack, from you on stage a gift and I have to share this to like during the pandemic when everybody was leaving dentistry and having a hard time hiring people and you wrote a love letter to my next hygienist and I don’t even remember how many applicants you gained from that but it seemed extraordinary.

[00:05:44] Maggie: A couple people reached out to me and said that the screenshot of that ad went viral.

[00:05:49] Victoria: Yeah.

[00:05:50] Maggie: And I came from the heart and I said, “Look, I know you guys are getting disrespected and you’re being called divas and difficult and I am here to greet you as a co-provider. You are not working for me. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You are going to co-diagnose and you are going to be the co-provider and I am coming from a place of offering you a place. This is what I am bringing to the table and so this is what I am asking of you. These are not the hours that we’re working. Who cares, right? The hours are the same. These are not the degrees that I’m asking you for. Who cares? You already have them. Everybody’s asking for the same degrees. This is what I am giving. This is what I am bringing to the table,” and every ad that I have written since then has been very similar. I have a love letter to my future dental assistant. I even might have titled it a love letter to my future associate. It comes from a place of not what I want from you. It’s what I am here to give you and my saying is always people that are givers don’t have to worry about being given onto, right, because the world will take care of you when you give.

[00:06:55] Victoria: I love that. Oh, this is going to be so outstanding. I mean, thank you for doing this. We’re at the tail end of our planning session here today and it was just so juicy and wonderful. I wanted everybody to get a little backstage pass to the magic that we are creating in Frisco, Texas in September. So there are about 15 or 20 seats available left. We’re on the final countdown here on Saturday morning. The last day, sometimes like the last day fizzles out. Ours is like going through the roof. We’re kicking off a Dr. Eric Roman and then we have you. So Eric’s going to talk to and then we’re going to We have an unprecedented media panel where we have editors from the top five journals here, live broadcasting, talking about the future of dentistry and what they see. Never have I ever seen this type of talent on one stage. So 41 speakers, 20 Alliance partners, hall of fames, all kinds of fun stuff but your program, I am so excited about because I have watched you over even like the last five years or so and watch your leadership shell kind of crack wide open and you went from, I’m gonna tell you what to do, to, I’m going to listen and lead and guide and you’ve quadrupled your production because you invited your team in.

[00:08:21] Maggie: Yeah, it’s been incredible. I am very proud to say in June, my production was at $2,400 an hour. Um, that was pretty insane. I, I don’t know that I can keep it that high, but I have quadrupled, um, maybe five.

[00:08:33] Victoria: Like you started at 350.

[00:08:34] Maggie: Yes, less than 350.

[00:08:36] Victoria: This is amazing. Yeah. This is amazing. You are hope and inspiration to so many. Thank you for being part of our faculty. Thank you for being with us in September and thanks for doing a spontaneous, uh, This is always so much fun.

[00:08:52] Outro: Thank you for tuning into this episode of Investment Grade Practices Podcast. If you find value in this episode, help us spread the word by passing it along to a dental friend, subscribe and give us a like on iTunes or Spotify. Learn more about building your Investment Grade Practice at productivedentist.com today.