From PPO Pressure to Practice Freedom (E.172)

“When I hear investment grade practice, I equal that with freedom.” – Dr. Justin Villafane

Brief Overview of the Episode

Dr. Justin Villafane is back with Victoria Peterson for part two of his practice growth story.

After hitting a low of $50,000 in one month, his practice recently reached $135,000.

The bigger story is what changed behind the number.

• He stopped trying to solve everything with more production
• He started building better systems
• He learned to schedule with more intention
• He delegated more to his team
• He began making decisions through the lens of freedom

This episode gives dentists a real look at what happens when the practice gets direction.

What This Episode Reveals

• PPO dependence can feel safe while quietly draining the practice
• Insurance write-offs can become an invisible marketing cost
• Marketing works better when the practice is ready for growth
• Strong systems create better flow and less stress
• A clear philosophy of care changes how the doctor leads
• Delegation gives the doctor room to focus on higher-value work
• An investment grade practice is about options, not just a future sale

What You’ll Learn

• How Dr. Villafane grew from a $50K month to a $135K month
• Why PPO write-offs cost more than many dentists realize
• How scheduling for production helped improve practice flow
• Why systems should come before more marketing
• How delegation reduced stress for the doctor and team
• Why patients respond to care, not just technology
• What practice freedom looks like in real life

If This Sounds Familiar

• You are producing more, but keeping less
• You are booked, but still feel behind
• You are writing off too much and calling it normal
• You want more fee-for-service patients, but the practice is not ready yet
• You feel like every decision still has to run through you
• You know the practice can grow, but you need a clearer path

This episode shows what can change when a dentist stops carrying everything alone and starts building a practice with direction.

Next Steps

• Listen to the full episode with Victoria Peterson and Dr. Justin Villafane
• Take the Money Leak Assessment to see where revenue, time, and energy may be leaking out of the practice
• Start looking at growth through the lens of freedom, not just production

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Patients do not always doubt the dentistry. They doubt what they cannot feel yet.

At Unrestricted, you will step back, look at the quality of your revenue, and build a more intentional path forward for your practice. Because when your diagnosis, communication, and team alignment are clear, patients can make confident decisions before pain becomes the reason they finally say yes.

Learn more and reserve your spot: Attend Here

 

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TRANSCRIPT

00:05:39:04 – 00:05:54:04
Victoria Peterson
Welcome to another episode of the investment grade practices. I’m Victoria Peterson and today I am joined by a repeat offender. This is Doctor Villafane, second time with me on the podcast. Welcome, Justin. How are you doing?

00:05:54:06 – 00:05:57:02
Dr. Villafane
I’m doing great. Victoria, it’s great to be with you again.

00:05:57:04 – 00:06:12:01
Victoria Peterson
Oh, it’s great to be with you, too. I’m bringing you back because the last podcast we did with you turned out to be one of the most wildly popular ones that I’ve ever recorded. So I’ll put the link in the show notes. If you didn’t hear part one of this, you’re going to want to go back and listen to that.

00:06:12:01 – 00:06:38:12
Victoria Peterson
But I really wanted to follow up with some things that we didn’t get to last time. So, listeners, I want to start out, I promise my book is coming out this on my 29th revision of the 29th revision. And Dodgeville story is featured in the book. So hang in there, Justin. I know this might make you blush, but I want to read the opening to your story if I might.

00:06:38:16 – 00:06:39:21
Dr. Villafane
Of course.

00:06:39:23 – 00:07:05:06
Victoria Peterson
All right, so picture this is straight from the book picture an epic film set and the Plains of Nebraska. And I want you to think about Keanu Reeves walking towards the camera. And as he comes into focus with each step, you can see he’s exhausted from miles of of that. He can’t even count. You know, it’s his whole journey has been marked from what he’s been running from, and you can see it on his face.

00:07:05:08 – 00:07:37:06
Victoria Peterson
You see both kindness and cold hearted steel in his eyes. And, Justin, you carry that energy, that scene, quiet intensity. And you have you have unlimited reserves of resilience. That’s what I see in you. And your story kind of opened that way. When we first met you, you had been walking a hundred miles in the wrong direction, being 100% PPO driven, using insurance as your marketing.

00:07:37:06 – 00:07:44:03
Victoria Peterson
And I think it’s fair to say that you were fairly worn out at that point.

00:07:44:05 – 00:08:13:12
Dr. Villafane
Yeah, absolutely. And first of all, I’d just like to thank you for comparing me to the great John Wick or Neil from The Matrix, if you will. I’m a big Yana fan, so no, I appreciate that. But yeah. No, I think that’s yeah, that’s kind of where I was. And and you know, I’m feeling a lot better now with all your guys’s help and, you know, your guidance and then, you know, ultimately it comes down to implementation on my part.

00:08:13:12 – 00:08:16:08
Dr. Villafane
So yeah, you hear now.

00:08:16:10 – 00:08:40:03
Victoria Peterson
Well, you know, and it’s been not even a year. And and we told your story in the first podcast how you, you first thought you had a marketing issue and went to Sarah and were underwater. You know, you had dropped a lot of revenue because you dropped POS and kind of bounce back from a 50,000 a month low to 115,000.

00:08:40:03 – 00:08:43:07
Victoria Peterson
I haven’t even checked in with you. You may have broken that record by now.

00:08:43:12 – 00:08:44:08
Dr. Villafane
We did.

00:08:44:11 – 00:08:46:22
Victoria Peterson
You did. Of course you did. Where are you at now?

00:08:47:00 – 00:08:56:02
Dr. Villafane
I think we I think last I think last month we hit 135,000. So that was our that was our best month.

00:08:56:03 – 00:09:00:20
Victoria Peterson
And so you probably, what, tripled your fees. How did you do that?

00:09:00:22 – 00:09:24:00
Dr. Villafane
I mean, yeah, like we talked about in the last podcast, we had increased our fees, but we’re still pose for two big insurance companies, so easier to produce. You got to write off a lot more. And so no, it’s just scheduling for production like PDA teaches and kind of stacking your schedule not to be crazy, but to be productive.

00:09:24:03 – 00:09:51:13
Dr. Villafane
Yeah. And so it’s just being efficient and, you know, having comprehensively treatment planning and, you know, doing quadrant dentistry and you know, and then I do a lot of the thing that helps, even though I still in PPO with the two insurance companies is I still do several fee for service procedures. So I, my tongue tie releases that I do or fee for service.

00:09:51:13 – 00:10:10:14
Dr. Villafane
And then my sleep sleep appliances that I make are fee for service. And so, you know, if you get kind of a bunch of those in one month and they kind of come, it’s like feast or famine, usually with tongue ties and sleep appliances. But if you get a bunch in one month, like that’s, I mean, it’s all there’s no write offs on those.

00:10:10:14 – 00:10:22:04
Dr. Villafane
So, yeah, it’s just just efficiency and putting systems in place. And I mean, you can anybody can do it. I’d trust me if I can do it, I anybody can do it.

00:10:22:07 – 00:10:43:21
Victoria Peterson
I love it, I love it. Well there’s two paths I want to explore on this podcast. One is I’ve talked to so many dentists recently and and I know it’s scary. I’ve sat in this place too, and on paper it makes sense. I was analyzing one of our clients and I said, right now you’re literally writing off $30,000 a month.

00:10:43:23 – 00:11:14:01
Victoria Peterson
And and I think you were in that spot. I said, and, and Sarah’s proposing that you spend 3500 a month in marketing to bring in fee for service patients. Talk to me about that space, because psychologically, I could see that it was scarier to spend money that you’ve not ever done marketing before. And it’s that versus like it was almost safer to just do the work and write it off.

00:11:14:02 – 00:11:19:01
Victoria Peterson
Have you ever experienced that? Because I could see the angst on on his face?

00:11:19:03 – 00:11:47:12
Dr. Villafane
Yeah. For sure. You know, I think we’re starting in dental school, unless you walk into a well-established practice that is already doing fee for service, which I didn’t. I mean, you’re almost indoctrinated into, you know, you got to take insurance, you got to take everybody’s insurance. And when you boil it down, being a PPO for insurance company is literally just paying the insurance company to advertise for you, and they don’t do a great job.

00:11:47:12 – 00:12:15:24
Dr. Villafane
And then you’re taking a, you know, anywhere from a 30 to 50% haircut on everything you do. And, you know, starting out, you know, you’re just trying to get patients in the door that, you know, that works. But as you get busier and busier like it, it starts not to work. And then, you know, I think that’s where a lot of dentists get burned out, because in order to make money and pay bills, like you’ve got to work all the time, you have to be running around with your hair on fire.

00:12:15:24 – 00:12:33:14
Dr. Villafane
And, you know, I think that’s well, like we talked about in the last podcast for, you know, listening to other dentists of all ages, you know, everybody’s kind of burned out and they’re just kind of in it. I think it just mostly boils down to that business aspect of it. And I don’t think it has to be that way.

00:12:33:15 – 00:13:04:22
Dr. Villafane
I know, you know, that I’m starting to find that out. But yeah, I know the the advertising that makes total sense. And Bruce talked about it all the time. Like he, you know, there’s a certain percentage that you need to spend on, you know, as compared to your collections. And so as your collections go up, you’re spending more and more on advertising because, I mean, he was totally fee for service so that people aren’t finding you on their insurance websites, you’re going out and finding them, and that’s how they’re finding you.

00:13:04:22 – 00:13:30:19
Dr. Villafane
And so I think I am scheduled to start back up with Sarah and Kate, I think, in July. July 1st we’ll start again and then yeah, I’m I’m really looking forward to working with working with them again. And I kind of told you that I had kind of started I contacted Sarah and she was like, you don’t need me right now.

00:13:30:19 – 00:13:53:23
Dr. Villafane
You need me to coach first because, you know, if you’re not ready to handle the inflow of patients, like, doesn’t matter how many we send you, it’s not going to work because you’re not going to be ready for them. You’re not going to know how to handle them and talk to them. And then kind of like you said, then the dentist thinks that marketing doesn’t work and, you know, that kind of stuff.

00:13:53:23 – 00:14:04:12
Victoria Peterson
So yeah, Sarah’s pretty special. I don’t know of very many marketers or marketing companies that say, now keep your checkbook. Let’s okay, let’s go get your systems fixed first.

00:14:04:13 – 00:14:10:05
Dr. Villafane
She’s highly regarded in in in my office. So yeah, we really love Sarah.

00:14:10:07 – 00:14:35:09
Victoria Peterson
That’s awesome. So it sounds like like there I think the hesitation like you see it and you know it and logically you’re like, dang, I’m working for the insurance company. Like I’m. But it’s still it doesn’t click like I’m spending 40% of my revenue on marketing because it’s so invisible in our labor. You know? And like you said, you’re indoctrinated in this mindset.

00:14:35:09 – 00:14:52:02
Victoria Peterson
So there is a huge mindset shift. And then once you get on the other side, you’re like, oh, well, that was I should have done that. Like it’s easier than you think. It’s it’s like a kid on a high dive, like it’s scary the first time. But then once you get into it, it can be really, really fun.

00:14:52:04 – 00:15:10:24
Dr. Villafane
Yeah. I mean, that’s a great analogy because, you know, like you’re surrounded by everybody else is doing it to everybody else is a PPO for all the insurance companies. And if you don’t take it, they’ll take your patients. And so yeah, it’s a great analogy. Like all your friends and your friends might go off the high dive and it just, you know, okay, I guess I’ll do it.

00:15:10:24 – 00:15:22:12
Dr. Villafane
And then once you do it, then, you know, I think a lot of your friends are going to follow suit, like, I, I have no doubt that, you know, when I come out the other side of this, I’ll have friends that’ll be like.

00:15:22:14 – 00:15:23:09
Victoria Peterson
How’d you do that?

00:15:23:10 – 00:15:25:22
Dr. Villafane
How did you do that? Like, I want to do that.

00:15:25:24 – 00:15:47:10
Victoria Peterson
You’re. I’m so glad that you brought Bruce into this, because I worked with him for so long. Like, he will always occupy a part of my brain. And I remember his slide that he had in live events and it said, don’t follow the masses. And he had brackets around the M, and he goes, just don’t follow the masses because you’ll you’ll end up in a place that you don’t want to be.

00:15:47:12 – 00:16:22:06
Victoria Peterson
I actually did the calculations on like a $1.2 million practice. You know, you’re doing 100 grand a month at a 35% right off. You’re actually working 62 days a year for free. Like, that was like, I checked that math three times and I was like, wait a minute. What does that mean? It’s like, if I started January 1st and the first 35% goes back to the house, I’m working until about mid March free.

00:16:22:06 – 00:16:25:09
Victoria Peterson
That’s how much free dentistry I did.

00:16:25:11 – 00:16:35:21
Dr. Villafane
Yeah. And I mean, if you don’t, if you don’t sit down and really dig through your numbers, you’re right. It’s invisible like and nobody talks about it because everybody else is doing it. Right. Right.

00:16:36:01 – 00:16:56:17
Victoria Peterson
Yeah. But it adds, I mean, you’re writing off like 2800 a day and your goal is six grand. So it’s like in the beginning, though, as you said, it’s the way to scratch start. It’s the way to get volume. Now you’re in this path of value. How do I add more value. So you talked about tongue tie, sleep apnea things like that.

00:16:56:17 – 00:17:26:18
Victoria Peterson
I want to talk about I want to I want to bounce something off you. We we start with a philosophy of care. Right. And we’ve been very general like what’s your philosophy of care. And what I noticed was that everybody sounded the same. We do high quality work with excellent technology in a caring environment that’s our patients deserve the best, but that best isn’t really defined.

00:17:26:18 – 00:17:46:11
Victoria Peterson
So I tried to sit down and say, if I were a general practice and I was looking at the loss of care, how does this develop? And so in my mind there’s like seven levels. There’s emergency care, which is about what you’re do when you come out of school. Right? I can do single tooth dentistry, I can do a root canal.

00:17:46:13 – 00:18:13:24
Victoria Peterson
Might take me a long time, but I can do it. I can do extraction. I could do some partials and dentures, emergency type care. Then you get proficient in a general family composite, one crown setting, and then you sort of bifurcate either into a statics like Invisalign, veneers, whitening, things like that, or surgical implants, lasers, tongue ties, things like that.

00:18:13:24 – 00:18:41:08
Victoria Peterson
You go one of those two paths first. Eventually those two might merge and you’re doing really pretty surgical, functional implant work. So that’s a level in itself above general. Then there’s comprehensive which is risk factor based by we’re looking at the biome and the oral systemic risk factors things like that. And then the top of the food chain I think for general practice is biological.

00:18:41:11 – 00:18:53:19
Victoria Peterson
Where we’re really looking at is it all natural and safe mercury removal and things like that. Do you see that that parallels your career arc in some way?

00:18:53:21 – 00:19:13:23
Dr. Villafane
Yeah for sure. You know, when you get out of school, you just want to learn everything that you and do everything that you didn’t necessarily get a chance to do in school. And so you’re learning everything and you want to do it all. And then, you know, you you try things and some of those things you don’t really dig and like doing as much as other things.

00:19:13:23 – 00:19:36:05
Dr. Villafane
And, you know, I was I was actually telling my wife the other day, like, I, I’m almost I’m almost 40, I’m almost 47. And so I was telling her, you know, like I finally feel like I’m, I’m, I’m in my prime as a dentist. Like, I don’t feel like I’m fresh out of school and I don’t know anything, but I feel like I have room to grow.

00:19:36:05 – 00:20:05:01
Dr. Villafane
But I also, I know what I like to do, and I know what I’m good at. And like, I’m known for those things and I enjoy my work. And so kind of what you said, like we kind of veer off into, you know, cosmetics or surgical and, and then they can kind of come back together. And I feel like that’s kind of where I am now because I’ve, I was doing a lot of cosmetics and then I still do, but then I like doing surgery to and so like it is kind of a merging of things.

00:20:05:01 – 00:20:35:04
Dr. Villafane
And I’ve always been kind of a my, my Henry Shine rep calls me a unicorn because he’s like, you’re always doing these things that, you know, nobody else does. And and like, I yeah, I guess I guess so. And I but I enjoy doing them and so, Yeah, absolutely. Like, I think we all have this arc and in terms of philosophy of care, like the biggest compliment I can get is like, people basically consider me family.

00:20:35:05 – 00:20:59:23
Dr. Villafane
Like, you know, like, I feel like when I come here, like you’re asking me about my kids and you ask because you care and you remember what my kids names are, or at least you know what they’re into. And so that’s that’s really what I’m, you know, about because, you know, anybody can do your cleaning and anybody can do your filling and and Lincoln, Nebraska, there’s a lot of good dentists that and I’ve said that before.

00:21:00:00 – 00:21:23:22
Dr. Villafane
And you know, it really boils down to like interpersonal relationships with people. And, you know, like people will stay with you if you know they love coming to your office. And so that’s kind of what we go for here, on top of all the stuff you kind of mentioned, you know, everybody is like, oh, we got the technology and great care and you know, all all that stuff.

00:21:23:23 – 00:21:24:20
Dr. Villafane
Yeah, of course.

00:21:24:21 – 00:21:27:14
Victoria Peterson
The technology would mean nothing though if you didn’t care.

00:21:27:19 – 00:21:47:17
Dr. Villafane
Exactly, exactly. It’s and then like, I care they know that. And then like just they love the scanner and they love the, the mill. Like they love going and seeing their crowd and getting made. And they’re just like, this is so cool. Like, you know, it’s just fun. Like, I we’ll leave the door open to the lab and be like, see me to start hearing that high pitched whining back there.

00:21:47:18 – 00:21:52:08
Dr. Villafane
Go, go take a look and see what’s going on with your crown. So people love that stuff.

00:21:52:14 – 00:22:09:18
Victoria Peterson
Oh yeah. Bruce and my husband’s a full upper arch in one visit, and he’s on Halcyon, but he’s still up and walking around like, I don’t even know how he did it, but he was like, yeah, I got to see the Miller and I got to see all this stuff. And it was so cool. I was like, you were stoned, man.

00:22:09:22 – 00:22:12:00
Dr. Villafane
I it’s amazing that he remembered.

00:22:12:04 – 00:22:32:17
Victoria Peterson
Yeah. He’s walking around the dental office kind of sleepwalking, looking at his milling. Yeah. Patients really love that stuff. They really do. So, how does your philosophy of care inform how you lead your team? What you expect of them?

00:22:32:19 – 00:22:57:02
Dr. Villafane
You know, I think my team is well aware that I’m very obviously very compassionate. Sometimes too compassionate, maybe in terms of sometimes doing some stuff for free. But they know that I really care about, you know, my patients. And, you know, if sometimes people like, they’ll call and they’ll be like, oh, I don’t want to bother them on the weekends and stuff like that.

00:22:57:02 – 00:23:16:22
Dr. Villafane
And like, I’m going to call you back and figure out what’s going on with you. And they know that, you know, they know that we don’t want to. If somebody calls like, last thing you know, before we leave, you know, some offices are going to be like, oh, you’re going to have to wait till or I’m not answering the phone, like, right, I got to leave in two minutes.

00:23:16:22 – 00:23:41:14
Dr. Villafane
I’m leaving it there. Like, they know like I just like no answer the phone. Like, you don’t necessarily have to stay, but I’ll stay if they need something or I’ll just answer the question. This is just a very caring office, and I feel like the way that kind of health care specifically and then a lot of dental offices, if you’re kind of running that rat race or headed, it’s it’s just a numbers game, right?

00:23:41:14 – 00:24:01:11
Dr. Villafane
And you’re just moving people through and you’re just a number. And, we really like to have that personal touch. And so they know that and they know. And I’ve always told them, you know, if if you ever get somebody that’s rude to you or, you know, whatever, they’re not treating you with respect, it is not your job to take care of that.

00:24:01:12 – 00:24:25:00
Dr. Villafane
Right. Like I want you to be respectful. I mean, you know, to a certain extent, if they get, you know, super abusive, you know, which never happens. But, you know, to a certain extent, I need to take care of that. If they’re being rude to you, like, you don’t do it because like, I’ll be the one that will, like kind of decide, you know, like what’s going on because most of my patients aren’t rude.

00:24:25:00 – 00:24:47:17
Dr. Villafane
So if there’s something going on. There’s usually has nothing to do with us or me. It’s a bad day. And, you know, like I think also too, like just giving them permission, like, hey, be nice. Come. Tell me about the problem and I’ll take care of it. And then they feel like you have their back. And then also then you don’t have the, you know.

00:24:47:18 – 00:25:09:01
Dr. Villafane
Oh, your front desk or your assistant got snippy with me. You know, I don’t have to have those conversations because they don’t. And so it’s just and it’s all about communication. Like you have to communicate that clear what your, your your compassionate care like what your vision for the office is. And, you know, then they carry that forward.

00:25:09:01 – 00:25:15:02
Dr. Villafane
And as long as you’re kind of communicating it with that, then, you know, everybody’s kind of on the same page.

00:25:15:04 – 00:25:42:20
Victoria Peterson
I love that so much. And I can hear your leadership coming through that. Like there’s there’s there are a lot of offices that have a lot of drama and a lot of chaos. And and it does start from the top, I’ll have to say the leader sets the tone. So if as a leader, you’re highly offended and defensive and you know, I’m going to show you if that’s how you show up, that’s how your team shows up and then you’re combative with your patients.

00:25:42:20 – 00:25:58:14
Victoria Peterson
So it really does start at the top and come down. How does it impact your marketing? I mean, there’s internal and external marketing. How how does that impact your thinking about what you want the world to know about you?

00:25:58:16 – 00:26:34:05
Dr. Villafane
I, you know, I’m blessed with the things that I ended up getting into and the services I’m able to provide. Like one of my favorite things is like, like for nectaries on babies, on with, like, infants and toddlers and stuff, with moms that are struggling. And then, you know, the families are struggling because it’s hard. And, man, if you help a struggling mom out with their baby like they tell all their friends, they, you know, tell their pediatrician, you know, they tell everybody and I, I’ve been doing it long enough now because I don’t market.

00:26:34:05 – 00:26:55:02
Dr. Villafane
I never had until I kind of got connected with PDA. It was always word of mouth and, you know, like if if they don’t come to me for a tongue tied, they’ve heard of me because of tongue tie. And it’s always good stuff. Like I, you know, I take really good care because I care about them and I want them to do better.

00:26:55:02 – 00:27:15:17
Dr. Villafane
And, you know, if you help them with a kid that’s struggling, like you help everybody, you help the whole family, you know, the the kid, the mom, the husband, the siblings, like everything’s better. And they, they, they speak about you in very high regard. And, you know, it’s just it’s just it’s just such a great feeling for me.

00:27:15:17 – 00:27:46:00
Dr. Villafane
So that’s great internal marketing. Like I said, I don’t do a lot of external marketing yet. That’ll be to be determined by Sarah and what she ends up wanting. But yeah, like, I think we’re we we’ve been kind of stabilizing my, my practice since I started, and I think we’re, we’re we’re kind of almost to the point now where we can start, like, actively growing because we have the systems in place.

00:27:46:02 – 00:28:11:03
Dr. Villafane
And the internal marketing kind of takes care of itself. Like if your patients love you and sometimes it’s all you have to do is ask, just be like, hey, like, I love working with you. And if you have any, any friends or family that are just like you, send them my way. If they’re looking for dentist or you know they don’t have one or they’re they’re not really digging where they are because like, I can work on patients like you all day long.

00:28:11:05 – 00:28:13:22
Dr. Villafane
I would be blessed to do that.

00:28:14:03 – 00:28:28:13
Victoria Peterson
Yeah, I love that so much. So you’ve grown almost two and a half times in less than a year. Did your stress increase or decrease over the last ten months? You and your team.,

00:28:28:15 – 00:28:55:24
Dr. Villafane
I definitely decrease. I mean, there are stressful times. We’re all doing new things and learning new tricks, but, there’s there’s a goal and, like, not an end point, but like a place, a direction you’re headed. And I was always missing that. Like, I’ve been in this practice since 2011 is when we opened. And I mean, I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t know how to be a leader.

00:28:56:01 – 00:29:22:24
Dr. Villafane
And you were talking about the the bad office culture and stuff like that. Like I did all that stuff, like I was not a good communicator, bad leader and know my like. And just knowing where you’re going and knowing that you have people like you and my coaches and Sarah like around me to help me and care about me as a person and care about me as a professional and care about my office staff.

00:29:23:00 – 00:29:53:04
Dr. Villafane
Like it? That’s a huge stress relief, because you don’t have to do it all on your own. And you you don’t have to worry about what you don’t know. Because if you don’t know, like you guys will help. And you know, we have a direction. We were going now. And even though, like, I’m super busy and super productive, like it’s done in a way that flows, and like, like I love just kind of talking about all the things that I learned from Bruce, and I never got to meet him.

00:29:53:04 – 00:30:23:09
Dr. Villafane
But, you know, I listened to all of his podcasts and we know we corresponded several times, but, you know, he always talked about, you know, just kind of knowing where you’re going and just like, you know, doing your best work and, you know, that’s that’s kind of what we’re all here to do. And, you know, you got to look at it in the mindset of, like, if you’re going to do see, is this going to make me a better dentist, more productive, or is this just kind of something you’re interested in?

00:30:23:09 – 00:30:38:11
Dr. Villafane
And you want to go to Orlando for three days and just kind of check out and get out of the office, which is fine if that’s what you want to do. And it is what I used to do. Like I was like, I was so stressed. I was like, I’m going to go learn about this and get out of here.

00:30:38:13 – 00:30:44:22
Victoria Peterson
And it’s and it’s totally plausible to the family. Sorry. Yeah. Mandatory. See?

00:30:44:24 – 00:30:47:12
Dr. Villafane
Yo, gotta go.

00:30:47:14 – 00:31:00:02
Victoria Peterson
And can you come? No, no. Sorry family. Sorry family. I’m going to be I’m gonna be tied up. It’s going to be very intense. You can’t know in time for the water park for, you.

00:31:00:04 – 00:31:19:11
Dr. Villafane
Know, and so like it’s now I view everything through the lens of if I’m going to do something, if I’m going to go to a see like what’s it for and is it going to make me more productive and is it going to add value to my practice. And so that’s what I view everything through now. And like I’m already kind of looking at what I’m going to do next year.

00:31:19:11 – 00:31:37:19
Dr. Villafane
And you know, it’s, you know, I’m going to go learn about oral sedation. And because if I’m going to be doing more surgical stuff, like that’s what patients want. Like they don’t necessarily need IV sedation, but they don’t want to be totally lucid when you’re doing it right. And then I’m going to do a lot of implant training.

00:31:37:19 – 00:31:52:06
Dr. Villafane
And so, you know, that kind of flows along with that. And so that’s kind of on the agenda for next year. And there’s a purpose to it. Whereas before PDA there was no purpose. It was just kind of wherever the wind blew, like that’s what I was going to do.

00:31:52:08 – 00:32:25:15
Victoria Peterson
I love it. Well, Jensen, it’s always so great to have you on the show. I’m going to have you again because you’re just embody you embody the spirit of of being an investment. Great practice. And I know sometimes doctors hear those words and they think, oh, it’s just about selling your practice, but it really isn’t. I chose a word investment very intentionally because vestment is like, if you think about, graduation ceremonies, you have the vestments and the robes and or clergy have the vestments.

00:32:25:15 – 00:32:56:06
Victoria Peterson
So it’s really about clothing yourself, putting on, putting on. Maybe it’s the word like take on this mantle of of care, take on this mantle of health for yourself and your team and your patients. And you’re such a great living example of embodied leadership like I’m throwing. We didn’t rehearse any of these questions. You had no idea what I was going to ask you, but whatever I threw at you today, you were like, yep, this is what I would do for myself.

00:32:56:06 – 00:33:21:02
Victoria Peterson
This is what I expected. My team, this is I’m not going to put my team in harm’s way. I’m the leader. I’ll take the upset patient like you really embody that spirit of care and the philosophy of care, being the driver, you know, through the whole practice. I’m imagining that. Well, here’s another question. That production is up, stress is down.

00:33:21:02 – 00:33:31:11
Victoria Peterson
Where are you on the micromanagement scale compared to where you were a year ago? Like how do you delegate, oversee, manage.

00:33:31:13 – 00:33:55:22
Dr. Villafane
So much better? And that’s we’re all control freaks in the dental world. But you do have to let go, like, if you want, if you don’t want to be so stressed and you, you know, obviously you have to have good team members around you, but you need to delegate things. And one of the favorite parts of my day is when something comes up and I’m like, before I would have been like, I’m gonna have to find some time to do this.

00:33:55:22 – 00:34:15:17
Dr. Villafane
Maybe I’ll do it after I’m done. Right. Notes at 6:00 tonight, I’m like, I don’t have to do that. Like, I’m gonna have Jen, my office administrator, to it. I’ll just ask her to do it, and she’s going to take care of it for me. And that’s. And she would tell you that’s that’s what you hired me for, doctor vilifying, like, of course, have me do it like we want.

00:34:15:19 – 00:34:37:16
Dr. Villafane
They want me in the back being productive like they don’t want me, you know, doing things that they can handle. And also on your thing where you’re talking about investment grade practice. And when doctors hear that, they just think, oh, it’s about selling. I would I would say in my mind, when I hear investment grade practice, I hear I equal that with freedom.

00:34:37:17 – 00:34:55:08
Dr. Villafane
It’s, it’s freedom to do whatever you want. Like if you want to sell it, sell it. If you want to, you know, be profitable and do all the things that you want, whether it’s work 2 or 3 days a week, or go on vacation and still work like you have the power to do that. You’re not you’re not held prisoner by your practice like you’re free.

00:34:55:12 – 00:34:58:21
Dr. Villafane
Free to do whatever you want with it.

00:34:58:23 – 00:35:22:08
Victoria Peterson
Thank you for that reflection. As you work with Sarah, you’ll know one of the things we we always ask is, are your core values reflected back to you? You know, through your patients. And one of our strongest core values at PDA is freedom, freedom of choice and helping doctors get to a place where they have options, you know, and want to work more, work more one more.

00:35:22:09 – 00:35:34:09
Victoria Peterson
Less, work less. Want to do this procedure. That procedure is your life. It’s your skill set. It’s your community. And having that freedom to serve it well means a lot that you reflected that back.

00:35:34:12 – 00:35:35:21
Dr. Villafane
Yeah. Of course.

00:35:36:01 – 00:35:41:22
Victoria Peterson
Cool. All right. Well, here’s to you. And here’s to Keanu Reeves.

00:35:41:24 – 00:35:43:05
Dr. Villafane
I appreciate that.

00:35:43:07 – 00:36:04:07
Victoria Peterson
I think you’re just absolutely amazing. And thank you again for allowing us to spotlight your story through podcast. And also in the upcoming book that’s coming out. We’re going to keep an eye on you because you’re nearly tripled. I want to I want to have you back when you ring the bell at 150 a month, which I, I thought it would take you three years to get there.

00:36:04:08 – 00:36:08:23
Victoria Peterson
You’re knocking it out. I think you’ll be there within it. 18 months. So.

00:36:08:23 – 00:36:10:04
Dr. Villafane
So.

00:36:10:05 – 00:36:40:16
Victoria Peterson
That is for all of you listeners. If you’ve ever heard, like, The Million Dollar Practice or in a million and a half, you need to get an associate. I’m. I was one of the original pioneers in practice management. That actually bitch marked our entire industry for what should doctors produce and hygienists produce and things like that. And I can tell you that in the last 24 months and throwing out a lot of those benchmarks and reestablishing it, the the inflation has hit harder in dentistry than other industries.

00:36:40:16 – 00:37:06:20
Victoria Peterson
Labor costs just hockey stick up for a lot of the country, where reimbursements stayed stagnant and patients stopped following through, you know, with the plans. So now that million dollar practice truly is 1.8 to 2 million, and I believe most solo independent practice doctors can easily produce a million and a half, 2 million a year with a couple hygienist.

00:37:06:20 – 00:37:14:00
Victoria Peterson
And you’re just you’re just living proof of that. Justin. So we’re going to keep watching your we’re going to keep watching your path.

00:37:14:02 – 00:37:20:00
Dr. Villafane
Awesome. Thank you Victoria I really appreciate you guys. Everybody at PDA and you especially.

00:37:20:02 – 00:37:43:14
Victoria Peterson
Oh well thank you for being a role model for so many others. Again, check out our show notes. I’ve got some goodies for you this time. I’ve got a money league assessment that you can take. So if you think that you’re working too hard for the revenue that hits the bank, check out our new money leak assessment. That might give you some clues operationally where where things could be tightened up in your practice.

00:37:43:19 – 00:37:46:15
Victoria Peterson
Thank you again and we’ll see you in the next episode.