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This Episode is Sponsored by: Dandy | The Fully Digital, US-based Dental Lab
For a completely FREE 3Shape Trios 3 scanner & $250 in lab credit click here: https://www.meetdandy.com/affiliate/tdm !
Guest: Angelica Seto
Practice Name: Seto Family Dentistry
Check out Angelica's Media:
Instagram: @seto_family_dentistry
TikTok: @setofamilydentistry
Other Mentions and Links:
Wells Fargo
Disney+
CEREC - Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramic
TDM Instagram: @thedentalmarketer
Yelp
Amy Murray - The Dental Practice Management Agency
DAT - Dental Admission Test
Host: Michael Arias
Website: The Dental Marketer
Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/
Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society
My Key Takeaways:
- Having income from an acquisition allowed her to go 100% fee for service on her new startup.
- Even though business consultants are expensive, a good one will bring you even more income than their cost!
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help in the beginning. You don’t have to wear all the hats in your practice.
- If you are firing a team member, it should be for the good of the team. Don’t think of this as a personal attack!
- Leave room to have fun in morning huddles. Chatting and building team culture can be just as important as the day’s plan.
- Don’t beat around the bush when letting a team member go. Start with “I’m letting you go” and then follow up with the reasons.
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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)
Michael: Na Angelica, how's it going? I'm doing well. How are I'm doing pretty good. Thanks for asking if you don't want me asking, where are you located?
Angelica: my practice is located in Denver,
Michael: Colorado. Oh, man. how is it like that?
Angelica: It's uh, pretty cold, but it was nice to escape the winter of last week on vacation. . It dropped down to negative four degrees while we
Michael: were gone. Right. So it's, is it snowing right now over there? It's
Angelica: not snowing right now. but we do get snow on and off again, during the Winter Monks. Hey,
Michael: real quick, how long have you been open for your practice?
Oh,
Angelica: this practice I opened in August of 20.
Michael: Oh, okay. So it's been about, cuz I. I thought for some reason you might've just opened and you took a vacation. I'm like, man, you're doing fantastic. You get it, you get life like . Where'd you go on vacation?
Angelica: We went to Hawaii.
Michael: Nice. Then what'd you guys do over there?
Angelica: we went to the Disney resort called Elani in Oahu. And we spent time with our daughter who's 15 months old. her name's Nora and my in-laws, my brother-in-law. So it was just a nice family
Michael: vacation. , how was that opening up a practice and then having a child? Oh,
Angelica: that was tough, . Cause my husband and I actually had trouble getting pregnant, so we, had to do I V F mm-hmm.
So when I was building my practice, I was going through egg retrieval and all the hor hormone injections. So that was wild just trying to, Stay nor somewhat normal while building a practice and, and being on all those hormones.
Michael: Yeah. Did you ever feel like. Maybe I'm gonna take a pause right now with one or the other, you know what I mean, or no?
Angelica: So actually I owned two practices. I purchased a practice I had been working at, since June of 2019, and I purchased that practice. In January of 2020, I was running two practices and then the shutdown happened. I was trying to get pregnant, and it was too much. I just hit a breaking point December.
of, 2021. I had just had my daughter. I had a pretty traumatic delivery and I, I couldn't do it anymore. And so I sold my practice within 24 hours, my second practice. and it life has been good since it, it's all about balance. ,
Michael: yeah. No, yeah. What, can we dive into that a little bit? Like so you had two practice.
And you just sold one or you sold both of them? I sold one. The second one. Why'd you sell that one?
Angelica: I acquired that practice. the dentist I acquired, well the dentist passed away unexpectedly. it was very, tragic event. And, was working with a couple of his friends colleagues of ours who.
trying to help his, wife or widow, uh, get rid of the practice. Mm-hmm. . And so they purchased the practice for me, because I couldn't get another loan after getting a startup loan. and they're, older dentists and so they helped me quite a bit. I learned a lot from them. they were great mentors.
And they practiced further down south. So I purchased the practice and anytime I had questions, I would email or call them, and they would help me out quite a bit. and it was great because the practice was producing quite a bit and it was helping to pay the bills for my fee for service startup.
so I was funneling money from one practice into another to make ends meet, and that's really why I was able to start out 100% fee for service. I've never accepted insurance at my startup practice. and it was because I was fortunate enough to have met. These people, who helped me purchase a secondary practice while I was building and who taught me quite a bit about the business of dentistry and, some clinical, and gave me quite a few clinical tips as well.
Cause I was a fairly new dentist and owning two practices at once was, was a lot to bite off so
Michael: soon. so the, the fee for service startup was the one in 20. Yes. Okay. And then like couple months or a year later you acquired the second practice?
Angelica: no. So the January, January before, so January of 2020 is when I purchased the secondary practice.
my startup opened in August of 2020. Oh, okay. So just eight months later, I was actually supposed to open, much earlier around the time I purchased a secondary practice, I was supposed to open my, my startup, but as you know, covid hit everything shut down. It was really difficult to get materials during that time.
and it delayed my opening quite a bit, which was unfortunate because I had bills that were starting to come in for my. Startup and I wasn't even able to practice or open my doors because of the shutdown. Mm-hmm. . Uh, And so having that secondary practice really, helped me out during that time.
Michael: So, real quick, how much was your, the loan process when it came to your startup?
Was that what, what bank did you go with? I went with Wells Fargo. Okay. How much was a loan for?
Angelica: it was four 500.
Michael: 500. Okay. What was the terms on that, do you remember?
Angelica: I had to start, and so that was, I had to start paying, there was a certain time after construction started that I had to start paying that loan back and because of Covid that time was, longer than I was planning for it to be, and that's why I had to start paying the loan back
Michael: early.
Gotcha. Okay. So 500. . And then did you get another loan for the acquisition or
Angelica: So, the dentist who passed away, his, his one of his best friends, the power of attorney for the practice. He, bought the practice for me and I was just making payments toward, for like, to him personally. So we had a personal, like, personally financed loan.
Michael: How did, can I ask, how much was the.
Angelica: I bought it for 220,000.
Michael: Okay, so he bought it. He was a partner or
Angelica: he just stepped in as a power of attorney? when the car accident happened, to help his wife get rid of the practice, because we knew pretty early on that, the dentist who ended up passing away wasn't going to practice again.
Michael: Yeah. Okay, man. So then he ended up purchasing it for you and then you just made payments. Was there like a, a schedule or was it just like on a handshake, like, Hey, we're gonna, oh, I got you.
Angelica: It was cut a little bit of both. Uh, He was very laid back. He purchased it. Everything was in my name. he put a lot of trust into me, and I barely knew him.
He's one of the nicest people that I now know very
Michael: well. Man. after this, gimme his. No, I'm, I wanna be friends with him. . Ok. He's great. No, that's good. That's, that's, that's interesting. Okay. So then that happened, you decided to go fee for service right? From that point on, I'm assuming it wasn't an easy startup process.
Angelica: No, it was not. It was a very slow burn in the beginning. But that allowed me to work at both locations. I was working full-time, so five days a week, and splitting my time between both practices. so I was producing at a. , you know, my secondary practice, which was producing really well, I was running three columns.
It was a very busy in-network, partially Medicaid practice. Mm-hmm. . So I was running around like crazy at that practice. We were just, our schedule was packed and then I'd come to my, my fever service startup and it was very slow. . Yeah. so I would alternate days, at both
Michael: Gotcha. So how much were you producing in the second practice or the one that you.
The one
Angelica: I acquired. Oh. when I acquired it, the first year was right at a million.
Michael: Okay. And so you would use that to help you with the startup for fee for service? Yes. Gotcha. Okay. And then that's when you were like, this is too much. When you started going through, birth,
Angelica: so when I got pregnant, You know, hire and going through Covid, hiring new employees.
I had two associates at one time. it just became too stressful, managing that many people. I think my biggest downfall was one, COVID. and two, I didn't ask for help soon enough. I wish I would've asked for more support. instead of trying to handle everything on my. What
Michael: do you mean?
Like, gimme more detail on that.
Angelica: so I was doing all the interviewing and hiring and managing of both practices. and you know, I, I love dentistry and I, I feel like I'm a great dentist, but I, I am not a very, I'm not the best, I wasn't the best businesswoman and I. , wear my heart on my sleeve. And so, you know, I was interviewing these people and I felt like they would be a good fit, but I wasn't really going through the right motions to find the right people, the right, who would fit into my practice.
So I ended up hiring a practice or a business, consultant. And I, I love this woman. She has helped me out so much and has, Saved me more than once with hiring, filling voids taking so much off of my plate. I think, being a new mom and owning two practices, And just trying to do it, you know, keep I'm, I'm a workaholic.
I love, I stay at work late. I um, I'm going to the practices on the, over the weekends and it was just, it was too much. I was burning the candle at both ends. And so when Amy, my, my business consultant came into the picture, she really took so much off my plate. I didn't meet any, Candidates for any job position until they had gone through Amy first and she vetted them and she would have them take a personality test and I thought that was really cool.
She would do a disc assessment with every, candidate and see if they would mesh with me and with other members of my team before even introducing them to me or anyone else in. and that saved a lot of time and, and heartache for me. .
Michael: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Definitely. Well, who's the business consultant?
Angelica: her name's Amy Murray.
She works for, the Dental Practice Management Agency. They have a very long name. .
Michael: I know. Yeah. Dental Practice Management Agency. Why do you think you didn't ask for help at the beginning? Like is it cuz like you just didn't know what you didn't know or more like it's my baby's like I.
Angelica: I think it was more, You know, personally, I, I wanted to do it all and, and say that I did it myself. I'm a hard worker. I, I worked two jobs when I was an undergrad. I babysat when I was in dental school, and I've always been a hard worker. And, and so I felt like I, I should be able to make this work on my own. I think the reason I waited so long was because business consultants aren't cheap.
and I. Bad spending so much money, you know, spending all the money to, for a startup. all the equipment I was purchasing and materials, you know, I was start, money was dwindling and so I was like, I don't have any money to put towards a business consultant, but I wish I had done it sooner because I mean, she has doubled my, production for my secondary.
within a year. So, if I had just hired her on sooner, who knows where I would be now.
Michael: Okay. Gotcha. So right, right now you don't have the other practice though, right? The acquisition? No.
Angelica: No. Okay. So I just have my fee for
Michael: service practice. Gotcha. Okay. So then, I mean, hey, you're, you're a hard worker.
We know you're a hard worker, , so where did that come from to wanna say like, Hey, I did.
Angelica: well, so my father's an immigrant, from Mexico and he, he came into the States, and he had a degree. When he was living in, in Mexico, he had a degree there, but it, when he came to the states in his early twenties, he wasn't able to use that degree here.
And so he had to go to school again. he had to learn English. He only spoke Spanish. So growing up we spoke English primarily in our household. , so that my father could learn enough English to go to school and get a job. he worked as a cook in a kitchen while going to school and eventually became an optical engineer.
And he has, I think three patents under his name, now, and he has just accomplished so much and started out with nothing to his name, no money. He didn't speak English when he came here, and he just built this beautiful. Wife, like he is the walking, living American dream. And you know, I just, I witnessed that growing up and, you know, if he can do it, I should be able to do it cuz I've had a lot more support, than he had growing up and financially and just a lot more.
it was, I had a lot more opportunities than he did.
Michael: Mm-hmm. . Do you feel more pressure cuz of that?
Angelica: I think so. ?
Michael: Yeah. Why?
Angelica: I just wanna make him proud. I know that he's worked hard to give us, a life, a good life. worked hard to help put us through school and, I want to show him that I appreciate that and that I can put the work in.
and make
Michael: him proud. Do you think he's not proud? Oh
Angelica: no. My dad's very proud. .
Michael: Yeah. So, okay. Yeah, so he's proud. I mean, like, you know what? He's proud,
Angelica: but I just can't stop. I have to keep going. .
Michael: I get you. I get you. Yeah, no, I think
Angelica: it's the dentist and all of us, you know, we're also competitive because we've just always had to prove ourselves with, you know, first d a t scores and then taking the boards.
And then I feel like in dental school we're all fighting for, you know, those top positions. And so I feel like our entire. education and the start of our careers is just very competitive. So we're kind of bred to be like that too, in a, in a way. Mm-hmm. .
Michael: Yeah, that's true. Yeah. You wanna kind of like, continue, continue, continue, right
Angelica: to, yeah, you already achieved this level, like what's next?
Mm-hmm. and have to keep, I feel like I just have to keep going. .
Michael: Do you feel like that right now? Like, cuz I mean, technically you've had two practices. You sold one, right? Mm-hmm. now a startup. Mm-hmm. . What was the whole reason for your startup?
Angelica: so I was an associate for a little under three months, when I graduated and moved to Denver.
I didn't really like how things were being done at the practice that I was at, but I really had no say. I had to show up and do my work and leave. And there were other procedures, other, things I was interested in, but I couldn't do those things cause I wasn't an owner. and this person wasn't really open to part partnership and so I decided well, , you know, I, I know what I wanna do.
I know what type, what level of care I wanna provide my patients. so why not just go out on my own and make it happen that way I can make those big decisions.
Michael: What were the level of procedures you wanted to do that they didn't want
Angelica: you to do? So, I'm very interested with sleep and airway. I am an airway dentist and I love cosmetics, so I love doing big veneer cases.
And at this practice, I, I was only being given what the other dentist didn't want to do. And so I felt like I couldn't get those big procedures. I, you know, I never got the big veneer cases or cosmetic cases that.
Michael: Gotcha. Looking back, if you found a practice that would let you do this, or if they told you, yeah, you can do this, would you still have opened up your own practice?
Angelica: I think I, I still would have opened up my own practice. Eventually, probably not as fast. But I eventually would've wanted my own, my own practice.
Michael: For what reason? To just be like, this is my home, or this is for what?
Angelica: because it's something that I created and something that I worked hard to make.
And I've never been open to working for, I've never worked for a corporation. I don't really like that fast paced environment. I like to move at a slower pace, give patients more time with me, and yeah, and I like to buy the equipment. I, I'm a big tech junkie. I love my, my new equipment, so I wanna be able to buy what I want, when I want it and work with the people that I like working with.
And yeah, I don't, I just don't feel like you can do that as an associate.
Michael: Yeah. Too many like having to asks and things like that instead of just going to straight to it Right. Kind of thing. Gotcha. Okay. Okay, so then you opened up your practice, your startup. I asked that mainly because I don't know if you're like, I want more free time, or I want to spend time with, you know, your fam, or I don't know, which I'm sure you do, right?
Like everybody wants that, but Oh yeah. Do you feel, what are some things that have come unexpectedly for you in the startup process where you're like, oh man, like I missed just that paycheck and then going home and then that's it, kind of thing.
Angelica: Oh gosh. I mean, right now, right now. I have an amazing team.
I truly feel like they're my family. Like we all work together really well and do, would do anything for each other. But it, it took a long time to get there. And I definitely had some team members in the past who made me just want to quit dentistry altogether. just like get rid of everything.
. So I think finding the right team members and building that team, it takes a while. And but once you find the right people, it feels good. And, you know, this is why I went into dentistry. This is why I went into ownership, is to work alongside people who have the same passion that I do, and, they make coming to work enjoyable again.
Michael: Yeah. What were those team members doing, or why did they make you want to give up?
Angelica: They would either no call, no show um, oh really? They would call or they'd call the morning of and say, Hey, I can't make it in. I'm sick. Or I have this going on, and I'm pretty lenient with, with callins and people not coming.
As long as you give me notice. As long as it's not too frequent, but this was happening, happening very frequently. And so a lot of ti I bought an isolate because I just, I had to be prepared to work by myself, and it was very stressful turning rooms over breaking out the isolate and just being in the room one-on-one with the patient and having to, if I forgot something, I'd have to run outta the operatory.
It was just chaotic. , but it was difficult to find people and I know that a lot of my colleagues are still struggling with that. And it's stressful. So I think managing people and hiring employees is probably one of the hardest things for me right now. Mm-hmm. well was one of the hardest things for me.
Michael: How do you wish you would've dealt with it sooner? Even with the fear of like, oh my God, I can't find people.
Angelica: I wish I would've because it was difficult to find employees. So I felt like I let a lot of things go. I wish I would've set better boundaries earlier on.
because I was afraid to lose employees even though they were not so great employees. I was scared to lose them cause I didn't want to be by myself. And so I felt like I was bending over backwards to keep these people happy just so that I would have somebody helping me in the practice some employees would ask for different hours or they didn't wanna work certain days or they wanted to do a late start. And allowing some people to do that and not others is not fair. And I wish I would've just put my foot down and and said, no, these are the hours I hired you for these hours.
These are the hours I expect you to come in. Instead of saying, oh, I think we can make it work. And stressing out over trying to make it work for that one person. And that's just. an example of, of one instance.
Michael: Mm-hmm. . Okay. Was it easy to let them go?
Angelica: Oh you know, the first time I had to let someone go, I was sweating.
My heart was racing. It was uh, really difficult. But after, you know, being an owner of two practices and going through covid and the high turnover rate it has gotten easier to let people go. Don't no longer serve a purpose in my office or in my life. And I don't do it often anymore. I, I mean, I haven't let someone go in a very long time.
But when I do it, I know that. I'm doing it for the betterment of the team. You know, you don't wanna keep somebody on who is the cancer of the practice, right? And bring everyone else down. Also, you don't want to keep around somebody who. Is making you miserable, then you're bringing that home to your family and family is so important to me.
And so I wanted to make sure that my workplace is a happy place and I left happy, and that way I'm not coming home and bringing all the negative feelings home with me, cuz that's not fair to my family.
Michael: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. No, that's true. A hundred percent. How did you let them go? How did it improve from the moment you were like, Because I get you like Yeah.
Sometimes you're, you, you're negotiating in your head. You're like, that's not that bad anymore. You know what I mean? Like, I can, I can handle that, you know? But how
Angelica: the best advice someone gave me was you bring the person in and. , the first thing that comes out of my mouth is I'm letting you go for these reasons.
And then you list those reasons, but you don't beat around the, like I used to just beat around the bush a little bit in the beginning and it made things a little awkward, but I've found that if. , I'm letting you go. And here are the reasons. As the first thing out of my mouth, then they know already. And you give the reasons and it sets the tone.
You keep it short. So there's a beginning, middle, and end, and you don't what's the word? You don't dilly dolly, you know? Mm-hmm. just very straight into the point. That's what they. You know, they don't want to sit around and listen to how they were so great, but you have to let them go and that sort of mess, just, I have to let you go.
And these are the reasons why.
Michael: Wow. Okay. That's a, that takes some, you know what I mean? Like some guts right there to just be like, I'm gonna let you go and here's why. Cuz in my mind, hell, if you were to tell me that, you're like, Hey, I'm gonna let, I need you to do this, Michael. And I'm like, okay, but what if they get angry?
and they don't even let me have my time to explain why, you know what I mean? They're just like, what if I just tell them immediately? Was that any of your fears or no?
Angelica: Oh yeah. And, you know, I was just prepared if, if things got emotional I was just prepared to, or if there were any, if there was any, Arguing.
Then I was just prepared to say, you know, this conversation is over. If you have any additional questions, you can email me at my email address. But I need the keys and your sensors and I'll walk you out. We'll gather your things and I'll walk you out.
Michael: Was there ever any arguing or angry or No.
Or ?
Angelica: No just keeping it short and being very straightforward has been helpful. It doesn't really give time for people to get emotional. You know, the only negative thing I've had happen was, you know, after the fact after they were able to think about it. I got some mean messages from one person, but that's about it.
Michael: Like Text messages, you mean? Yeah. Oh, okay. Gotcha. You gotcha. Yeah, after that, after the fact that if it was a text message, I'd be like, I, you know what I mean? Yeah. It was, yeah. All said and done. As long as you're not, no wonder I let you go, kind of thing. Right. You know? Yeah. Just kind of, okay. But like that.
So if you could real quick, break it down for me. What's the beginning, middle, and end of this process for you? .
Angelica: So the beginning is, I'm going to let you go. The middle is these are the reasons why. And typically when I let somebody go, they have already been write-ups filed. And so I'll have those write-ups on the desk.
And then after I give him the reasons, I ask them, what questions do you have? Typically they don't have any questions. And then I ask them, so that's all the middle. The end is, okay, I need your keys, your sensor. Let's walk through the office and gather your things, and I'll walk you out the back door and that's the end.
Michael: I like that. Okay, nice. Awesome. So would it be okay right now if we kind of dived into your startup a little bit? The business side of it? Sure. Okay. So you said the build out was, or how much your loan was? 500, right? Yep. Mm-hmm. . Okay. And then how much was your build out?
Angelica: Oh, so. , my buildout. It's hard. I, I don't really have like the complete breakdown.
It's been, it's been a little bit, but I think my buildout was around three 80 or
Michael: so. Okay. Three 80. Mm-hmm. . How was that process? Was it pretty smooth? Not so smooth, really hard.
Angelica: You know, my contractor was great.
we had done all the planning for my build out in 2019. We had all the permits in place. and then Covid hit. My contractor was pretty busy cuz he is a popular contractor in this area. And so I felt like in the beginning it was kind of slow because he was working on so many different projects.
But then the city of Denver shut down and they weren't issuing any new permits. And so some of the oth these other projects were. Permanently put on hold and they really couldn't move forward with anything cuz the permits weren't in place. Whereas with my practice, my project everything was in place and ready to go.
And in my head I knew, you know, everything shut down, but my construction ramped up and I was like, oh no. Like before I was like, let's, let's speed it up, you know, this is moving really slow. And then when it started to speed up really fast, I was like, oh my gosh, like, let's slow down . Cause things were shut down right now.
So that was stressful. How fast everything started to move because we had already done a lot of the leg work. In preparation for the build. Another thing that was really difficult was materials. All the materials that I picked out from my practice. I think I picked out maybe 10 different tiles from my bathroom floor and five different sinks for my operatories because I would pick one outfit was aesthetically pleasing to me.
And then it was no longer available because manufacturing was down. Hmm. . And so, that was really stressful. Like everything in my practice, I feel like every single material had to be replaced so many different times because it, we just couldn't get our hands on the materials.
Michael: Wow, okay. So that's the part that was holding it back?
Yes. Okay. Okay. And then you officially opened when?
Angelica: August of 20.
Michael: Okay. And when you, in the process of like, about to open, because it was in March, right? March when it hit like really hard in the US Covid.
Angelica: Yes. I closed my prac, my secondary practice on March 17th, and I reopened on May 5th. Okay. So like I have those dates burned in two line
Michael: So any, any of that time were you ever kind of. A little scared or just be like, Hey, you know what, just kidding with the startup part. I don't know if I wanna do this anymore. Or were, were you just like, no, we're gonna do it. We're gonna go through all this and,
Angelica: oh, I had come so far. I was, I was ready to keep going and I wanted it to be finished.
I wanted to open and start practicing in my new practice.
Michael: Hmm. Okay. That's good. That's good. Really, really great mindset. So then, what type of practice do you have? I know you mentioned it was,
Angelica: So we do airway, we do, we're, I'm a general dentist. Um, So we do a lot of your basic restorations. But we really, my team and I really love working on cosmetic cases and airway.
Okay, cool. That's nice. My hygienist is uh, myofunctional therapist as
Michael: well. Oh, really? On purpose? Mm-hmm. , that's what you were looking for on.
Angelica: Well, she came in as a hygienist and she had a passion for airway and wanted to learn more. So I sent her to finish an airway training course.
So she became certified as a myofunctional
Michael: Nice. That's really nice. Okay, so then how many employees do you have?
Angelica: I have not including myself. Four employees.
Michael: Okay. And then they are, The roles.
Angelica: I have an office manager. I have a hygienist slash myofunctional therapist, and then my two dental assistants are both cross trained for front desk and being in the back with me.
Michael: Okay. And they all were part of the process of your business consultant hiring them?
Angelica: They were all hired by my business consultant, Amy.
Michael: Right? Yeah. Okay, nice. So that really did stream. Oh
Angelica: my gosh. We we love doing, I don't, you can't see my office, right? I took down the balloons, but it was just my birthday and they surprised me by decorating my office.
And we, and they're just very sweet and thoughtful and we all do that sort of stuff for each other. I've never worked with a team that has, that is so thoughtful.
Michael: Yeah, that's beautiful. That's really, really nice. Okay, so then total production and collection, what does that look like? So like last month?
Angelica: Last month? Well I was on vacation yeah. So then the month, but, but, but we still did, well we were at 70,000. Oh, for the
Michael: month. Okay. And then, so how many ops do you have?
Angelica: I know I have four working operatories. I started when I built my practice. I plumbed for four. I built out two. Because I knew it was gonna be a very slow start with my fee for service startup.
Just last week I had the final two operatories equipped.
Michael: Okay. And then how many days
Angelica: are you open? Four days. Monday through Thursday.
Michael: The hours are
Angelica: are what? 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM Okay. So it's
Michael: pretty
Angelica: good. Our morning huddle starts. We everyone is ready for the morning huddle at 6:45 AM.
Michael: Okay. What does your morning huddle consist of?
Angelica: So my office manager starts the morning huddle. And there's typically three people who speak during the morning huddle. My office manager, my hygienist, and then one of my dental assistants. And they each fill out a day sheet outlining new patients. So my office manager starts with the numbers for the month we're currently scheduled at.
you know, $50,000 of production for this month. Here are the opportunities for this week. We have openings today for an emergency here. We could do a bigger procedure in a couple of days, so think about that. We need to fill this hole. And then she goes over the production, what we're scheduled for, for the day.
And of course, you know, just going over where we can increase that production, how we can increase it. , then it moves on to my hygienist. My hygienist will say, we have, you know, today we had six new patients, which is great. So she goes through the new patients and we talk about how we're going to make that appointment special for them.
We have a relaxation menu, so they always get offered that, and we make sure that we have all of that stuff laid out and ready when they enter the operatory. We'll go over. Existing patients and if there are any medical alerts that we need to be aware of any outstanding treatment mm-hmm.
and then it'll go to one of my dental assistants. They'll go over lab cases that we have in if there are any emergencies, new patients in their column. Any outstanding treatment that could be scheduled that hasn't been scheduled. So that we can take advantage of getting that scheduled.
Michael: Okay. And that all roughly takes about 15 minutes.
Yep.
Angelica: Well, and uh, then if I have any questions, I'll, I'll ask some questions. If things were scheduled a little wonky, I'll ask why someone's coming in for a consult, whoever spoke to them on the phone. I'll ask, well, what was discussed? And then there's, it's fun. Is then we all kind of chit chat at the end and there's a lot of laughter.
Patients come in and they're like, it sounds like you're having so much fun back there. . Mm-hmm. . And sometimes we'll have like some we'll take turns buying coffee for each other. So, we have our Starbucks order taped up on the refrigerator. So like, if somebody wants to treat the team to coffee, they know what we all like.
And so if someone brought coffee in, we'll sit around and drink coffee for a few minutes. Eat bagels or donuts, whatever we have. So it's just fun because we really bond during that time.
Michael: Yeah, that's nice. I like that. That's really good. Like having the. Coffee thing,
Angelica: you know? Yeah. Like, cause it got to the point where people were like, oh, I wanna treat everyone to coffee.
What, what do y'all want? And then we, they'd have to wait for everyone to text back and we all pretty much order the same thing every time. So we decided to write it out and we all have a, like, a picture of it on our phone. So if we just wanna surprise the, you know, the office of coffee will, we'll do
Michael: that.
I like that. That's really, really nice. Okay. And then real quick, how many patients are you getting?
Angelica: We are getting about, I think our average is around 40.
Michael: Okay. 30 to 40, yeah. That's good. Yeah. And then what are you doing for advertising and marketing? So,
Angelica: my business coach really doesn't like me putting much money into marketing.
Uh, we actually get, a lot of our new patients come from internal referrals, which is a big one for us. Google and Yelp. We have you know, five stars on Google and Yelp. We have really great reviews from some of our best patients. , there's a local newspaper that I have an add out and I pay about 180 a month for that ad.
And really, we don't get many new patients from that, but I continue to support them because they're local. And we have some patients who work for the local newspaper and they come in and we chit chat. So I just keep that there just to support them. Other than that, I've done nothing up until last month.
I started Google Ads because I was noticing that my reviews weren't showing up. So I had people saying, oh, did you see my review? I wrote you a nice review, and I said, oh, I don't think I saw that. It's not popping up. And then they would show me on their phone that they wrote me a review. And it would show on their Google account, but it wasn't showing on our pro, on our business profile.
So I went through all, you know, I researched why, why would our reviews not be showing up? And I went through and, you know, there was nothing that would've made that happen. You know, we were a verified business. They just for some reason weren't posting our reviews. Mm-hmm. . And one of my colleagues said, well, why don't you pay for a Google ad and then you'll start seeing.
Those reviews pop up. I paid for a Google ad and that same day my review started showing, are you serious? It had been months like it had been maybe three months since we saw a review. . And so that was kind of crazy to me. You know, I don't know how I feel about it. It seems like extortion to a certain
Michael: Yeah.
dirty Google. What? Yeah.
Angelica: So, I mean, maybe it's not related in my mind. It seems like it is, but we are now getting reviews and we're paying for Google Ads.
Michael: How much are you paying for Google ads? You don't mind me
Angelica: I got a special, it's like a holiday special where you. $500 and you got two A, you got to post two ads.
So that's what we did. So we've only invested $500 in in that.
Michael: Yeah, man. But I didn't know that. I never knew that, that that's, yeah, I wouldn't, that sounds kind of, it sounds kinda like Yelp if you think about it. You know what I mean?
Angelica: Yes, exactly. Hmm. So, but I know a lot of my colleagues have been struggling with their reviews not showing up and I mean, maybe there is a correlation between the two.
Who knows?
Michael: Yeah. No. Okay. I get you. And then what system would you say is unique in your practice right now that you created or maybe you have adopted where you're like, it's either our handoff from front to back, or it's our new patient?
Angelica: So something that my business coach helped me put together was the new patient welcome, making them feel comfortable in the practice because I don't know if you've seen pictures of my practice, but it's very homey.
I didn't want it to be a sterile or very clinical setting. I wanted it to feel like I have a fireplace in my waiting room and like a stack of logs and I've decorated my office almost like a. . And so when you walk in, it doesn't have that dental office feel. And I think that's the biggest compliment that we get from patients is they just love how it has a relaxed feel.
It already puts them at ease when they walk in. But the one thing that we do that I really love is we give our new patients a tour of the practice. So when Reza, my hygienist, or. Margarita My dental assistants bring a patient back. As they're walking them back, they'll say, well, here's our restroom.
And they'll show them the restroom. And this is our really cool C B C T. It takes a 3D image of your face. And Dr. CTO will go into more detail on that here in a sec. But we'll, we'll be returning to this room to take an image later. Here is our sterilization room and as they're walking them back, you know, I have a very open concept design but everything is very clean looking, very aesthetically pleasing.
And so it's just nice as they're walking them back to show them where everything is and then they walk 'em into the operatory. And now the patient knows like, if I have to use the restroom, I don't have to ask anyone. I know where it is. It makes them more comfort.
Michael: I like that you give 'em like an office tour.
They make them, Hey, here's the rest of your home kind of thing. Yeah.
Angelica: You know what I mean? Exactly. Yeah. , I like that. You can place your things on, on this stand here and you can hang your coat here and let me take your purse for you and they'll hang that up for them. And they've already looked at our relaxation menu.
You, and so we'll have. You know, if they want essential oils an eye mask. We have Disney Plus we have TVs mounted above the all the chairs and we have Disney Plus on the screens. And so I'll ask them if they wanna watch something specific. We have noise canceling headphones. So yeah, we just trying to make them feel comfortable.
Michael: Yeah, that'd be nice. How cool would it be like to be the first Disney sponsor? Practice . It's my dream. It's everything I've ever wanted. , . Okay, cool. So then one of the last questions I wanna ask you is throughout this process, I guess, from the moment you sold your prac, your second practice, or your fir, your first one, your acquisition to, to now, today, what's been some of your biggest or your biggest struggle or fail or pitfall
Angelica: since selling my second practice?
Mm. You know, well, of, of course we've already talked about managing people and, and hiring employees. I'd say couple, there are two things that come to mind. Mm-hmm. for me. One is implementing new procedures, like when I started with airway, just getting that into the practice and setting up a system for that. It's really stressful. You know, training everyone on the, on airway, especially when you have a, when I had a higher rate of turnover training people to take those special images that I need intraoral photos and measurements, that was really stressful.
Retraining every single person who came into my office to do that. So implementing something new. And then we just invested in cic, so we have the prime scan, the prime mill, and the prime print. . And so going through all that training and making sure we were doing everything right anytime there's something new, it just gets a little bit more stressful.
And then I think it's all around people managing people, right? So the second thing would be patient management. As a new dentist, when I came out of dental school, I felt like I let people walk all over me. I was scared to stand up for what I. Was right. And, you know, my confidence level wasn't the best because I was so new.
So I think building that confidence, setting boundaries, even with patients not letting them because some people I feel like have been struggling with , you know, post covid, the post covid era. Mm-hmm. . Um, There are a lot of people struggling with personal issues and coming to the dentist. It's, it's no fun sometimes.
And so they show the worst parts of themselves when they're anxious or scared. some people can come off quite mean or rude to a team member or even to me sometimes, and not letting that happen standing up for myself. That has. The biggest struggle, but something that I've really mastered this the past couple of years is building that confidence and standing up for myself and setting those boundaries.
You get really good at setting boundaries when you have when you have children, because you'll do anything for your kid. Right. And it's sad because I was struggling and I didn't , I didn't treat myself very nicely. The things I was saying to myself weren't very good. And so I actually started going to therapy after around the time I sold my practice because I just, I needed help.
I was struggling personally and going to a therapist, she really helped me to set those boundaries. And she said, you wouldn't treat your kid this way. You're beating yourself up over something a patient told you or something negative a patient said about you. And you're just, you're saying all these mean hurtful things about yourself in your head.
You would never say that to your kid. And I'm like, you're right. I, I love my daughter. I would never treat her that way. And so then she was like, well, why would you treat yourself that way? And I just sat back, I was like, you're right. I need to be nicer to myself. I need to have more grace. Um, I need to set boundaries and don't let people get you down.
I mean, , you do dentistry for a reason. You went to dental school for a reason. You're highly qualified, you know what's best in the dental realm. So, you know, stand up for yourself
Michael: a little bit. Mm-hmm. , do you feel like you kind of slipped back into that sometimes?
Angelica: Very rarely now. But when I first started out, oh yeah, Someone would say, Make a comment like, oh, you're taking so long on this filling. And I'm like, oh my gosh, did another dentist do it like so much faster than I did? Was it more comfortable? Like, am I a bad dentist? ? Yeah. And I, my, I would just go into a downward spiral. But I don't let myself do that anymore.
Michael: Yeah, no, I get you a hundred percent. I remember one person told us, like, if you get on a train right to a Destin, And then you realize like the intercom guy or whatever is like, we're going here and you're like, crap, I'm supposed to be on the other train. Would you just say, I'm gonna go all the way to the very end of this destination, get there and then get off?
Or what would you do? I'm asking what would you.
Angelica: Yeah, I would change directions and, and reroute myself,
Michael: right? Like on the next exit, wherever it's I'm, get off, get on. Right? Yep. Same thing with train of thought. as soon as you feel like you're getting on that negative thought process, get off, right?
Like change that. Just, just cut it off immediately. And we have the power to do that with our thoughts, but sometimes I don't know what it is where we're just like, well, let's just see where this goes. in my mind. You know what I mean? If I keep going down this way, which it doesn't make sense in real life if we did that.
No . So why do we do that with our mind? Right? So he's like, get off on the next. I thought that was interesting. That is really interesting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah. Anyways, and Angelika, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure. But before we say goodbye, can you tell our listeners where they can find you?
Angelica: Yes. So you can find me@pseudofamilydentistry.com. My practice is in Denver, Colorado. We have a Facebook and Instagram page. My dental assistant just created a TikTok as well, all under cdo family dentistry.
Michael: Nice. Okay, so that's all gonna be in the show notes below, guys and Angelica, thank you so much for being with us.
It's been a pleasure and we'll hear from you soon. Thank
Angelica: you so much. Have a great day.
