Episode 166 – LEAKED! The Weird Hack that Will Boost Your Productivity

“One of the great myths that floats around online that in order to be more productive you have to bring in more services.” ~Regan Robertson

We know that revenue is only one driver to success. So clearly there’s more to the story than just adding services.  

So what do you do? How do you make the decision to add services? Do you have the skills? Do your patients want the services? Will the services actually be profitable? How do you know?

If you’re asking yourself these questions in an effort to make your dental practice stand out, improve your treatment plan pitch, and boost your productivity, then this is the podcast for you!

We love to help you set yourself up for success. So join us today as we explore the decision-making processes you can use when considering a service mix expansion, including

• Unique service mix ideas (and the reasons behind them)
• Balancing personal passion vs. profit
• 8 questions to ask before adding a service

Check out Chad’s service mix at www.verandadentistry.com

Never miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes & Spotify. Visit us at http://www.everydaypracticespodcast.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:00
Dr. Are you finding it hard to get your entire team aligned into a productivity workshop, but you know, you deserve growth just like everyone else? Hi, I’m Regan Robertson CCO with Productive Dentist Academy and with over 30 team members myself, believe me, I get it. That’s why our co-founders Dr. Bruce B. Baird and Victoria Peterson have put together a productivity bundle designed to guarantee your growth in 2023. All you have to do is register to attend a 2023 productivity workshop and if you do so, before December 31st, you will receive 12 months of PTA on demand. That is our entire productivity workshop including breakouts recorded at your fingertips for a full 12 months after you attend. This is ideal when you bring on new team members if you add an associate and to make sure that you have mined every nugget of gold from our award-winning curriculum, you will also receive a 90-minute one-on-one session prior to attending the workshop with a PDA business advisor. This is to help you get the most out of your time before during and after your experience so you can customize it and hit your specific goals. We offer this only once a year and due to capacity, especially with the hands-on attention we provide each attendee we only have 50 available it sells out every single year. You can grab yours right now go to www.productivedentist.com you can clicking on the Cyber Monday link or go to www.productivedentist.com/workshop/ If you feel you need it right now, email Brent brent@productivedentists.com. We probably don’t even have 50 left at this moment. So I hope to see you we can’t wait and have a wonderful new year. Welcome to the everyday practices Podcast. I’m Regan Robertson and my co-host Dr. Chad Johnson and I are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical proven methods you can take right into your own dental practice. If you’re ready to elevate patient care and produce results that are anything but ordinary. Buckle up and listen in.

Regan
Regan Robertson here host of the Everyday Practices dental podcast, Dr. Chad Johnson, and I believe you deserve tips you can use to grow your practice and that’s why we began this podcast. Last year we were honored to win the Best podcast of 2021 award by dental podcast.org and we are so excited to announce that we have been nominated again. If you have found value in hearing our podcast, we would sure appreciate your vote, head on over to www.dentalpodcast.org to vote for Everyday Practices Dental podcast so others have the chance to learn about us. Thank you for your support. Now let’s get to our latest episode. One of the great myths that I read online is that in order to be more productive, you have to bring in more services to the practice. We know that revenue is only one driver of success in practice. So clearly there’s more to the story. Dr. Chad Johnson and I are here today to share with you the decision-making process he uses when he considers a service mix expansion. Welcome to this episode of the Everyday Practices Dental podcast. As I mentioned, I’m here with my co-host, Dr. Chad Johnson. Hey, Chad, how are you doing?

Dr. Chad Johnson
What’s up, Greg? And I’m doing well. How are you?

Regan
You sound so chill.

Dr. Chad Johnson
Well, I’m in my sweatpants and sweatshirt. So yeah, you know, and you know why? For context in the recording. Four hours ago, I just finished my last day of the year tomorrow in the Midwest is Snowmageddon. 2022 and so yeah, like we’re supposed to get a big dump and I don’t think Des Moines is going to get that big a deal but like five inches and negative 40 below, or what will 40 below and you know, who knows how many miles per hour winds? It’s like ridiculous, so it’s supposed to be like everyone’s just closing stuff down. So yeah, I’m done for the year and it’s time to chill with Reagan.

Regan
You know, we have snow up here in Little Anacortes, Washington and my husband sent me a photo. There were three deer out at our pond all snuggled in with the snow randomly it was very idyllic.

Dr. Chad Johnson
Oh, yeah. That’s cute. So in the vein of more than

Regan
that so far, but it’s coming your way it is. Well, in the vein of reflection. Yeah. I thought we were going to have a lot of fun today. So let’s start off with sharing what you have decided to bring in-house so that listeners have an idea of what your practice provides.

Dr. Chad Johnson
Yeah. So if you ever were interested to know you could check out my PDA forever site. So productive dentist Academy does a forever site for us of Aranda. dentistry.com V. Plug, we’re gonna No, stop it, because I don’t get paid for that. That’s nothing you know, like so I’m just I’m just letting people know that it’s not just my website look at me to do but also liquid the PDA marketing can do. So on our website, you can see the services but stuff that I just thought I’d highlight. Lately, we’ve brought into our oral surgery mix IV sedation. Now, I don’t do that yet. I’d like to eventually, but I have a buddy that comes in so we insourced that. We I’ve also done you know, like so he does wisdom teeth under IV sedation, I do oral conscious sedation or anxiolysis with Halcyon or Valium and you know I do wisdom teeth. I do implants I do all on x. Although that Oral Surgery stuff I do Invisalign, I’m a one trick pony for for ortho. So I just do Invisalign, if people want edgewise old school brackets and stuff like that they can go to our orthodontists, which I love and I love referring to but people also are going to be more apt to choose in house when I’ve got it in house. Well, no or March to choose to do it all together versus going somewhere else and having it done. So I really don’t feel like I’m stealing away from the orthodontist a lot more than I’m just picking up people that only are comfortable to only get it done in the office. We also have been doing Sirak for over 10 years. I do Botox something that you’ll see on our website. I do not do massage, but our office has a massage therapist licensed massage therapist that does massages. The goal is to offset the the anxiety that people have from coming to the office, you know that they could get a massage before or after. So that becomes a marketing tip that I’m trying to share. Thank you, Reagan, your thoughts?

Regan 7:03
That is such a great idea. Well, you’re on a roll and I didn’t want to interrupt. Well, I’ve got follow up questions around some of the unique services that you brought in Bo Tex is not a surprise. But massage when I saw it listed on the website today, that was a surprise. My initial thought is as marketers, we are always battling against the fear of the dentist, it’s an uncomfortable environment. Why would I want to go get a massage when I’m hearing the drill around there. But you’ve switched that and actually taking control of that messaging by handling as Bruce would say, as Dr. Bruce B. Baird would say handling an objection before it’s an objection injection, schedule it before schedule it after I happen to have friends that are terrified of going to the dentist that probably would do that. Yep. I think

Dr. Chad Johnson 7:48
honestly, in Iowa where we have to be the only practice in the state that does it and I’m not making a bold claim that we are have to be but I’m just saying it’s most likely that if I found another dentists in Iowa that was doing that, I’d be like, no kidding. I’ve never heard of anyone else but me doing that I could be really the only one in the Midwest, I don’t know. But I know that other people do it. But it is very rare. It’s actually a very AACD thing kind of to do. So. The high end ACD Doc’s do that and then there’s me I do it too, but uh

Regan 8:22
so that you too can schedule a massage. Do you just make that part of your workday?

Dr. Chad Johnson 8:28
Do I get them? Yes, I do get an occasional massage not often enough, because she, Ella is their name and she’ll always be like, Chad, you need to get in and I’m like, I know and I love when I do and I’ve just never gone so far as to pamper myself to be able to like get it on the books once a month. But yeah,

Regan 8:45
when PDA had out, like the majority of employees in one location, yes, this was my seat. Oh days, I talked about that a lot, bringing someone in to give it as an office perk. I thought that would be really nice. It wasn’t it’s not really very fair, though, to all of our remote people. We never ended up doing it. But I just I thought if I was a business owner, and I was in your shoes chat, I’d be like, Yeah, let’s bring in massage underneath. I’d be like, so I can get one three times a week.

Dr. Chad Johnson 9:11
Right? Well, you know, I actually I give it to my employees too. So like, we kind of rotate around where they can get it because I’m not going to use it. I actually feel like we’re like five or 10 massages behind and we just, you know, because everyone’s busy and blah blah blah. So you’d think we’d get it all the time. That’s not the reality that was right. That’s what I’m saying. So like we just and someone could say is that make does that make you a lot of money? No. If you don’t have room in your office, this is not going to be you know, like a profit center where you’re going to be like whoa, dude, shut down dentistry. We’re doing all massages, you know, like put in a tattoo parlor and massage and it’s like, no, it’s not that this is a nice amenity that we’re adding in and like you said, Botox, and then of course Sirak I think I had already mentioned that, you know that I had done that for the last 10 years. surgical guides, you know, making those in house. Dentures I do not make in house, but we keep those, we do not send those out. Now, there’s a story behind that Reagan. I couldn’t wait until I could become profitable enough to get rid of dentures and when I started productive dentist Academy in 2014, going into 2015, and then I think maybe by 2016, we’re like, man, you know, what would make our dreams come true is to get rid of removable prosthodontics. Let’s get rid of dentures and partials. Wouldn’t that be sweet? And then I made an exception, where it’s like, yeah, I mean, if we pull a tooth, we’ll make you a little flipper tooth or something like that, you know, that you can wear in the meanwhile, or something. So we’d have that. But I’d be like, but don’t tell anyone because I don’t want people you know, so if anyone says it looks really good, just don’t tell them. I did it, you know, almost like a joke secret and then I went to an ACD conference, and Carl Mitch, the late Carl Mitch was speaking there and he said that in order to get good at aesthetics, and you know, because he goes into canine positioning as the key to maxillary aesthetic setup, and that, that is a key to, to making all on X, you know, hybrid cases. So you have to be able to set a good denture smile and I thought, Oh, crud, he’s right. You know, so I thought I saw, I went back to the practice, and I was like, if we’re going to do more all on X cases, we need to be able to make a denture for the patient, because what are they going to do go without the denture, or, you know, whatever and now the answer, the more digital we get, the answer is, yeah, you can just switch to an immediate all on the implants and stuff like that and it’s like, that’s true. But especially when you’re starting, or especially eight years ago, you put in a denture, and I have to admit, I do that a lot of times, even right now. So I hated doing dentures and then I taught myself to appreciate a denture again, even after I had got rid of it, I reintroduced it into my practice and it still might be the bane of my existence, but it allows for me to do all on X cases. So those that’s my list, and it’s probably not comprehensive of the things that I keep in house what I keep or what I send out. CB CT radiology reads. So that kind of stuff, you know, I send out when you first get a CB CT, you’re going to be sending to something like beam readers.com and sending that off for I don’t know what it is $75 or $100, a read something like that and at first, you’re going to send it off all the time. After a while you decide, do I need to send you know this because the last two times he said it’s this and that and you start to learn from it right. It’s an education on the job. I also have an associate starting soon, who is going to knock your socks off and she’s moving back to Iowa from Colorado, Tracy Hughes, and so shout out to Dr. Tracy. But she does LANAP when we regen we earlier had a discussion about whether because it is all caps. So whether it’s a word or not Lin nap or LANAP I mean, whatever. LANAP

Regan 13:17
I love LANAP because that’s not what I was expecting.

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:21
Right Lanap and then there’s lip to lap. I don’t know if they say lap EP, so it’s lip and limb AB Lana, whatever and so the lip lip is the peri implant Titus protocol as opposed to tooth born, it’s implant born and first of all, on the list, like number one on the list is I refer out Endo, I’m 17 years into practice. I refer out my Endo and you could ask why? Well, there’s a historic reason in 2005 When I opened my practice, I started on all digital that was a newer thing in oh five not groundbreaking but newer to be all digital from the beginning. No charts, no paper nothing and I

Regan 14:02
still dentists plenty of dentists. Oh, yeah. Alright, so Oh, yes.

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:06
But I mean, you know, like, if someone’s hearing this going, Oh, big deal. Your digital, it’s like, well, I mean, 17 years ago, it kind of was it was actually something that we mark is like, we’re digital, and like all digital, and, and why? Because I started it from scratch right out of school. So I was able to start with, you know, no, paper charts, no, nothing, just all straight to digital. We had bulky sensors that I couldn’t get the apex and I also didn’t have an apex locator. I didn’t have a touch and heat and I didn’t have Rotary. In fact, Rotary was just something that was taught for a couple of weeks in school. I mean, it really wasn’t gone into much and it seems like the following classes learned more about rotary Endo, but that made it a breeze. So basically, I end Oh, man, if it takes me two hours, they’re still gonna come back and complain that it hurt. I don’t want that liability. So forget this. So I’m just gonna refer out the Endo, I’m in a bigger town, believe it or not, Iowa has cities and we, we have, you know, endodontists that we can refer to, and they love me because I send out all my Endo. If any associate wants to, you know, keep the Endo, they can, but, you know, so they dibs then off to the endodontist. For root canal treatment, why do I refer that out? My schedule is busy enough. I don’t have the love to, you know, to learn it or really, at this point, the comfort level, and I don’t have the equipment for it. So I’m not passionate about it and you know, the patient demand, they’re not like super demanding that I do it. I I’ve heard in small towns that people will be like, No, you have to do it, or we’re just going to hold it to Fair enough. Good point. But I just thought I’d go through my specialty services, and to talk about, you know, like what I’m looking at, in order to hit my office KPIs, like, you know, like my production per hour, or my production per month, and whatnot. I was just like, you know, I just, I can’t do this efficiently. Unless I really worked at it. Because like, someone could be like, Chad, you’re just being lazy. Fair enough, call it efficient, or lazy. Reagan is something I thought about this is a side note, but efficient and lazy are almost both the same thing. It’s just one is the derogatory word for it and the other one is the flattering word for it. But they’re both the same thing the brain

Regan 16:28
is trying to do two things survive and thrive, right? So it’s going to cut calories whenever it can, and get through to that path of least resistance as long as you’re surviving. So you write efficient and lazy, that’s a that is a slippery slope, isn’t it?

Dr. Chad Johnson 16:43
Yep. So just point that out. You know, it’s like, when people go, why is that person so lazy? I actually, a lot of times, I’ll reply, because they can. I mean, they get away with it. So why wouldn’t Why wouldn’t they keep it up? I mean, you know, so that’s a whole sidebar, let’s talk about Botox. Botox is an in house service and I did training, I don’t know, 2018 2019 2018, something like that and it was newer to be licensed in the state of Iowa. So check your state board for whether it’s acceptable in your state. If it is, I know it sounds like it’s kind of like Fufu. But the TMD problems that I can solve for people, I would, I would spit ball that I probably help 80 to 90% of my Botox, I’m sorry, of my TMD patients, when I use Botox, like, in other words, I don’t think it helps 100% of the people. But this isn’t, this isn’t me trying to get rid of crow’s feet on people’s eyes, in their smile and stuff like that, it’s actually advantageous for them to put it in their masseter put it in their temporalis and who better to find the master and temporalis though it’s not rocket science, but who better than a dentist, so you guys can palpate and find those muscles, inject in you know, you know, let’s just hypothetically say like 10 units of Botox into each site and the cool thing is within five minutes, or let’s say five minutes of how do you do it, you know, how you doing? And five minutes of of injection because it really takes 30 seconds. So in 10 minutes, I can have a profitability of I’m just, I’m just trying to think like, if I did 40 units on someone, and I was getting, I’m just gonna throw it out there. Like, let’s just even say 400 bucks. In, in in 10 minutes. I’ve got, well, no, I it’s even more than that. Let’s just say 500 bucks for 2022 reference, just a number. I mean, it’s kind of close to what I took the 500 bucks for those 40 units and this is where

Regan 18:56
I love your brain. I love I love it when you start to work that well you did you start to work the puzzle of it and and you’ve just highlighted that, that when you’re considering the the dental office KPIs how you’re going to bring this in, you mentioned the passion, you have to feel passionate about it. So there has to be that tied to it. But also on the other end. Is it a profitable service mix for you to do and it’s clear to me because you mentioned massage, and I’m venturing to get the massage. It’s not something that’s profitable for your practice. But how do you measure right? How do you measure profit? Is it Is it money in the door revenue profit or is it the experience in the brand build that comes from bringing in service

Dr. Chad Johnson 19:37
a loss leader for for all I care I mean, that’s uh, you know, that’s a term you can Yeah, you know, so yeah, with Botox if it’s 500 bucks and I’m paying $200 worth of material and so I cleared 300 bucks in I mean, that’s, that’s profit that’s not production. That’s $300 profit in 10 minutes. Yeah. So you know, it’s A nice quick little intermediary and the patients freaking love it. So I mean, that is a great way to market

Regan 20:08
alleviating TMD symptoms like, Are you kidding me? Of course they’re going to love it. That’s, yeah, they

Dr. Chad Johnson 20:15
come back at the three month mark. So I do have a plug, even though again, I’m not paid by them or, or do I represent them? No, but the A F E is a fantastic educational group to learn and they, you know, go around and go to different towns and stuff like that. It’s relatively inexpensive for a course like that, I don’t know, let’s say 2000 bucks, maybe 3000, or something like that. But I think all dentists should take it. Or at least three quarters of dentists should take it, you know, and it’s just like, it’s a really nice service to add. So with all that said, Reagan, those are my ins my outs and, and kind of the history of why

Regan 20:56
thank you for that. I when you are considering bringing in a new service and expanding your mix to me, this is the productive Dennis tack, what questions do you ask yourself, when you are considering bringing in another service?

Dr. Chad Johnson 21:13
So question number one, and all this can change, but it’s stuff that you have to consider. Number one, do you have the equipment for it? That can change overnight, you can you know, overnight it from Amazon or whatever it gets, get what you need to if you have the money for it, but you know, do you have the equipment for it? Number two, we’ll make this What 2468 I’ve got an eight list. Number two, a comfort level, you know, training, do you have the training for it? Naturally, you need to figure out, you know, you I don’t think you know, doing just a quick one hour course on something is going to make you an expert. So you know, being able to find two or three different venues that you can learn something from, even if that’s implants, it’s like, even if you go to a four weekend kind of implant course. So that’s a lot of training. It really is, you know, to have four weekends that you’ve done, a you know, what, 6070 hours worth of training on it. That’s a lot of training of of one subject, but to also, you know, check out journals, check out webinars, check out, you know, other stuff where you can learn different angles, because the more you’re processing it from different communication styles and stuff like that, you’ll learn different stuff. So learning from one group is good learning from one group and then supplementing it with other stuff as well is even better. Next, liability versus profitability, you want to be profitable. So you want to pull wisdom teeth, right? Well, wait a second, hold on. What if the last time the last 10 times you’ve pulled teeth you’ve cracked, you know, the crown off and you’re no good at pulling teeth? Well, then you probably shouldn’t pull teeth, let alone wisdom teeth and so that’s what for you to determine, you know, is this a liability? Or do you have the touch and the skill and the patience and the guts and the sweat on the forehead kind of thing? You know, to do it. Go ahead, you

Regan 23:12
make pulling teeth look easy. Like, you know, when you see an Olympian, a figure skater or a speed skater, and they make it look so easy. Yeah, yeah, I don’t think about how difficult it can be like breaking off the crown because it was like butter. Watching your teeth.

Dr. Chad Johnson 23:29
Yeah, you know, Reagan and I, Reagan assisted me down in the Dominican Republic for pulling teeth in a clinic and so we did some volunteer dentistry together. That was awesome. But I explained to her this is for the audience’s whatever, this is self aggrandizing I apologize. But you know, like, there came a point where five to 10 years ago, somewhere in that pocket, where after about 10,000 teeth I started stopped counting and other people might have 100,000 I mean, that’s awesome and I’m not saying I’m the best ever but there comes a point where at 10,000 teeth you’re, you’re, you’ve got

Regan 24:08
like 10,000 hours. It is to expert status. Yeah, so

Dr. Chad Johnson 24:13
at that point in I kind of stopped counting how I worked at a denture mill back in when Gabe was born, so it was Oh 809 You know time period until the economy kind of crashed and and they changed the compensation package so I was like I’m out but at that time I was pulling 200 teeth every Friday and and so you get you get pretty good and at that and you better love it. But you know that decreases my liability at the same time every tooth is a different little trick and and you know you do have liability in there. I can’t say I’m always perfect you know there’s that one where that route was like curled. Oh, I see and I don’t even remember

Regan 24:57
you you actually broke a sweat it And and I remember thinking this looked easy and looked fun and then you got to that one patient and the route was curled, and you were sweating and it was so hard and I thought, wait a minute, how hard is this? This just takes and then I realized that that moment, you are very experienced at this and it was

Dr. Chad Johnson 25:18
you didn’t get it out and it was no big deal when it was tough. Well, that and with pulling teeth, you know, it’s like, it’s like pulling teeth and I love that. But yeah, let’s remember to that room was freaking hot and yeah, there are times when you actually have to use your muscle and I worked for a periodontist. That’s a lady as she told me, Chad, don’t pull teeth. So anyone in the Iowa area that might or Illinois area that has heard of an Romanovsky Dr. Romanovsky. Hey, how you doing? So she would say that, she’ll be glad to know that I still actually remember her saying this, Chad, don’t be a guy. When you pull teeth guys use muscle and they break off teeth. Women can’t use their muscle as often. So they end up her words, not mine, I’m gonna say, but you know, and so we have to learn how to finesse teeth out, learn how to finesse the tooth out and somewhere in between. I’ve found a way because I do use muscle and but at the same time I find a way to it’s you where it’s kind of like fishing where you don’t want to snag the fish’s lip with the hook, you know, and just rip it out. You have to pull it in, you know confidently and smoothly enough that you’re not losing the fish. But you know, what are you going to do take three days to pull the fish in? No, that’s old man in the sea. We want to we want to, you know, efficiently pull it out. So there’s times when I use muscle, and then there’s uncontrolled physics muscle and then you know, times that I use finesse and I try and remind myself be patient. Yeah. Next on the list, busyness, listen, if you do you even have time to do wisdom teeth? If so, I mean, like, is that something that you should add into your service mix? If all you’re like, if all day long, you’re doing class one composites on top? Do you have the diagnostic skills to diagnose more than class one composites and or class one caries? And, you know, do you even have enough time in your schedule? Are you booked out? 10 months for crowns? Maybe you’re the crown guy good. I mean, doesn’t sound like a problem. They’re, like, get really good at your crowns. Another question you might have the time but do you have the operatories so you know, I think something that necessitates with Sirak is how operatories to be like, if you’re like, man, we have stories, well, then you probably might not be well, you might not be able to fit Ceric into three operatories. But I have eight and one of my offices, I eight rooms and so my you know, I can fit a patient in and if someone says hey, I was hoping to get that done today. I was hoping you’d say that too. So we rock it out same day. Yeah and I just didn’t they’re all numb prep and you know, book it out, they start scanning and you know, stuff like that and next thing I know I’m in there, you know cementing an end and and the the appointment took a long time, but not me in that chair. Next on the list fee for service viability? Yeah and so you know, if you’re wanting to become more viable, so that way, you could eventually make like, drop some insurances or go to, to a fee for service 100% fee for service model, you need to have a good service mix. Next question, what’s the patient demand? So you’ve got all the time in the world, you’ve got 20 operatories. But you’ve got a town of 500 people that only whites silver crowns, stainless steel crowns are some Listen, it might be tough for you to put in Botox if no one wants it, or no one needs it. Right? So be thinking about what your service mix. Demand is. Because again, this is economics supply demand, you can supply a ton, but is your demand there. Dr. Bruce would tell a story about Zoom whitening and he overheard the front desk person saying no, we don’t have that and hey, what’s that call about? They we keep getting calls about zoom whitening? And really, and so what do you tell them? I say no, we don’t do white zoom whitening. They need to call down the street. Wait a second and so Dr. British said border Zoom Whitening habit, overnight shift and and anyone that calls from now on tell him you know, because he even asked, you know, like how many phone calls are we getting a week on this? I don’t know is it seems like it’s five or 10 a day what he is,

Regan 29:53
he is the king of understanding demand. That is one of the the hallmarks and for anybody who’s new to listening to every He practices we also have a podcast that features productive dentist Academy’s co founder, Dr. Bruce B. Baird called the productive dentist and yes, I love what you just called out here. So Jean at seeing the demand and going after that he’s an entrepreneur at heart. So good,

Dr. Chad Johnson 30:16
right? Which is why I really took to him I, you know, because I am too, I might not be as good as him. But I, I sure have a heart for it, I have a passion for that. Because I normally tell the people in jest, but telling it truthfully, you know, in my office, I say, you know, if someone has, like a wish, or something for our office, like as a customer, and I’ll call it a customer, not just a patient, but if a customer has a wish, it’s like the answer is yes. Now we just need to figure out how to make it work, you know, and for it to be profitable. So the answer is yes. You know, hey, welcome, new admin person. Remember, if the patient has a question, the answer is yes. Now let’s find a way to make it happen. You know, yeah, this conversation. Yes. Do you guys have Saturday appointments? Yes, one moment, and then put on hold? Hey, do we have Saturday mornings? No. But it’s Tom, it’s an extra $1,000 an hour? Because you could say no, absolutely not. But if someone’s like, well, it’s actually a surcharge of 1000 an hour. It’s like, Oh, good. So I’m the manager for for Paul McCartney. He’s coming into town and he needs a crown done on, you know, right before his concert and so you have to get it done. We looked you up? We’d like to come in at 4am. Who? What’s the answer? Yes. Okay. So the answer is yes. We’ll see. Paul, you know, and at 4am on Saturday morning, it’ll be $4,000 Cash, would you like to put that on a card? Or, you know, it’s just like,

Regan 31:44
bonus tip? That is a bonus. Bonus tip, right? Because it is, but it’s a shift in mindset. So you’re talking about a shift in mindset for the team so that they can expand their horizons, because Zoom whitening, if it’s not offered in, it’s not offered in so of course, and you’re trying to be the advocate for the patient, you’re trying to help them and do your customer service by connecting them with the solution, which is probably why the practice referred out to the practice down the street. So that shift in mindset that the answer is yes and can really change the opportunities in your practice.

Dr. Chad Johnson 32:18
Correct. Okay, so listen, I’ve been long winded this episode, I apologize to the listeners, number one and Reagan to you. I hope that’s not a big deal. But like I, I really wanted to fill you guys with a lot of information that I had, basically, I’m a mid career kind of guy that has some experience that a lot of people could learn from. I know, Reg, and you were wondering, like, if there’s anything that I would have done differently. I think, for example, I think I would have picked up Invisalign quicker. My recommendation to a lot of doctors, I picked up implants real early. I mean, I’m talking, I went to my first CE course, two months out of school to learn more about implants, because you learn about implants in school, but to really, you know, learn the mechanics of it, and just in the biology of it and stuff like that, going to extra courses and so, you know, six months in I was placing implants, and it wasn’t all the time, but that got me started and something else you know, laser is an interesting thing to check into, and we already talked about it. Botox, you know, is a great thing to get on. But Invisalign, I waited until I think I was about let’s see, 588 or nine years into practice before I started introducing Invisalign. Do you think you could

Regan 33:46
have brought them in earlier? Yes. So you did you feel like it was a bit of a moment where you could have course corrected there so you feel like that’s a true Okay.

Dr. Chad Johnson 33:56
Yep and the reason why is at the time, I was pursuing so much other CEE that, I didn’t think I really had time for it, but once I, once I gave it a go. Invisalign has awesome courses to get you like, elementary started and then, you know, they have basically 201 classes that don’t teach you how to not do interproximal reduction IPR stuff and that’s where I started going. Okay, now I’m on board because I just hate to do an IPR, just for the sake of it and you know, collapsing the arches. Then the next guy, actually Mirabilia out of New York, he said, expand the arch out and give their airway room and I was like, yes, now we’re talking. So it was cool, because then I think that started helping me understand full

Regan 34:43
arch stuff to better.

Regan 34:46
Chad, this has been a very productive podcast and I appreciate you sharing your insight you did I appreciate the thought you put into it. What I caught top of mind was if I’m considering bringing in new services, I’ve got to evaluate waited from multiple angles. I heard from you, Chad, passion, passion for the actual service itself and always I’m gonna say this forever. If that’s not your driving factor as like the core, you won’t enjoy it long term and we’ve all seen what happens when we go down that path to time, do we have the time available? Do we have the equipment available? Or can we get the equipment, what’s the investment going to be if we do is your skill set aligned. So you might think that pulling teeth is a great idea until you realize that you really aren’t that skilled at it. So just be real with yourself on it and then you know, what I would add to that Chad also be a bit brave. So I’ve also heard tales from doctors who decide to outsource because they’re kind of like, on it and then they’re disappointed when they outsource it too. So I think I think, you know, evaluating your skill set, honestly, but also asking yourself where you can stretch, and you called out a couple of good groups for that. So you know, lean into your CEE and if you’re gonna make that investment, you know, give yourself some space. Yeah. operatories Do you have enough of that? Yes, fee for service viability all day, every day that that’s a shift and, you know, there’s dental consulting services out there, there’s different programs that can help you make that shift into fee for service but

Dr. Chad Johnson 36:17
that because let me explain if all you do is class one composites and a crown here and there, and, and a polling upper premolars or something like that, you’re gonna have a tough time, prove your patients that you’re worth charging more for a fee for service. That’s just a quick point. But you’re you’re gonna stay a PPO doctor, if all you’re doing is is the stuff that the PPO is want you to do.

Regan 36:44
That’s right. For you.

Regan 36:50
patient demand, which you and I chat are going to do a part two to this series to talk about the marketing implications of expanding your service mix. So knowing your patient demand, and my favorite bonus tip, thank you, Chad, don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. I have had texts from doctors personally, and who ended up kicking themselves because they didn’t make a decision and they sat in that space of indecision. So if

Dr. Chad Johnson 37:18
you’re CTE, go to C E, and then implement it. I mean, on the plane ride home, you should be sending an email to your office manager. Hey, order this. Set up a lunch on Wednesday for us to talk about this. By the end of the month, I want to have the first patient scheduled for socket grafting.

Regan 37:38
You know, stuff like that. Perfect. Sorry. More. I’m on a roll. Well,

Regan 37:48
I think this concludes our beautiful episode and happy new year to you.

Dr. Chad Johnson 37:53
Yay. Happy New Year to you and everyone else can we announce the productive Dennis Academy?

Regan 37:59
spirit animal? Oh, of 2020?

Regan 38:02
Yes, we certainly can. Is it? Go ahead? I don’t it is under. So for anybody who is into the productive dentist, Academy, mindset philosophy, part of our alumni, one of our members, we have a spirit animal of the year and it’s something new that Victoria our CEO chooses and this year it’s going to be the mythical bird

Regan 38:23
the Phoenix.

Regan 38:27
One of my favorite cities. Also oh my gosh, yes, wood and also a great city, also wonderful city and as we wrap up speaking of that, and rising to new heights and looking forward to a bright future, Chad and I were very, very honored this past year to be named the best dental podcast in 2021 and for 2023. Right, thank you. Thank you so much. We are up for it again. So voting is open right now and it’s open until the end of January 2023. So if you head over to dental podcast.org You can vote for us you can also vote for our sister podcasts investment grade practices with Dr. Victoria Peterson and the productive dentist featuring

Dr. Chad Johnson 39:09
Dr. Bruce B. Baird, which would be our brother podcast maybe it

Regan 39:13
would be yeah, definitely not our sister podcast podcast if you have any feedback for us on how to make our podcasts more relevant to you efficient for you whatever if you say hey you guys are too long way to talk shorter or you know what we like it when you to get chit chatty. Send me an email Reagan, ar e g a n at productive dennis.com or Chad ch ad at productive dentist.com We wish you all the best, the brightest, the most beautiful future, and we’ll see you

Regan 39:43
in the new year. Thanks, everybody.

Regan 39:48
Thank you for listening to another episode of everyday practices podcast. Chad and I are here every week thanks to our community of listeners just like you and we’d love your help. It would mean the world if you can Help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share? Or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome? Drop us an email at podcast at productive dentist.com And don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from productive dentist Academy at productive dentists.com/podcasts See you next week.