Full Transcript

Dr James: 0:47

Hey team, welcome back to the Dennis Universe podcast. This is one of me looking forward to a while with my good friend, justin Leigh, who I keep bumping into you on a transient basis and we keep saying we’re going to set ourselves up to make a podcast and we’ve just got around to it today. Something super engaged and super exciting how to grow your practice and also how to be more profitable and associate as well, and a lot of the misconceptions that are out there about those subjects. Justin, how are you, my friend?

Justin: 1:12

I am brilliant. Thank you, James. I am absolutely brilliant. Thanks for inviting me on. I’ve been looking forward to this for some time as well. Appreciate the invitation.

Dr James: 1:19

Dude, my pleasure First of many. And actually you’re putting me to shame because for people who can’t see the video on this podcast, justin’s podcast setup is much better than mine, so I really need to up my game. You’ve got all the bells and whistles and microphones there and books in the background and what’s that? What are those things called? What’s the name for those stand up advertisements that you can roll out?

Justin: 1:38

The roller banner.

Dr James: 1:40

Roller banner. Roller banner. I didn’t even know it was flipping called. Okay, i really need to up my game.

Justin: 1:45

Anyway, you can go anywhere with you, James. That’s what I love about it. I can take it anywhere.

Dr James: 1:50

Awesome, awesome, awesome, justin. So there’ll be people on this podcast who have listened to this podcast, who have heard of you, and there will be people who have yet to meet you One of those categories. So, for those people who have yet to meet you, maybe it might be nice for you to do a little bit of an intro.

Justin: 2:04

Yeah, sure, yeah. So I’m Justin Lee. I’m the founder of a company called Focus for Growth and we are a sales and leadership training and coaching company specializing in the dental market. I really potted history, james. I’m going to do it super quick. My background originally I was a dental technician and then I left dentistry, went into sales, worked in sales for quite a while selling into dental practices and dental labs and then kind of worked up to a key account manager that had lots of different roles within different organizations, then became a sales manager and then I ended up as a business manager at 3M and managed lots of different businesses in and outside of dentistry. And then in 2017, i realized I wasn’t enjoying the corporate world as much as I had been, and then retrained as an executive coach. So I became an accredited coach, started working with different clients combination of one to one and program based And 2019-20, a lot of my clients, just through my network and relationships, happened to be in dentistry. So from then, i’ve really specialized in the dental market for the last kind of two, three years and worked with some of the suppliers to the market and with some of the kind of large practices and dentists who are really looking to, as you said, grow their practices and increase profitability.

Dr James: 3:22

Lovely, jovly, and we were talking just before we pressed the record button this podcast and we both agreed that we were going to call this podcast the true path to wealth. We were thinking about a title beforehand and that’s because one of the things that we mentioned before we hit the record button was, if you want to get to the position where you have more freedom in your life, then quite often that is a money thing. Quite often that is the thing that’s holding people back, because if you ask most people why don’t you drop a day in work or you drop a day in your business, most will say, well, i don’t want to lose the turnover. Most will say, well, i don’t want to lose the money. So then I say, ah, okay, so what you’re telling me is that if you earn X amount in five days a week, that if you could earn X amount in four days a week, then actually you could have the best of both worlds. And most people struggle to conceptualize that until I put it in those terms, because who the hell would say no to that? But most people would say that actually they’re not that keen on, or they’re not necessarily focused on, increasing profitability in their business. That’s not a priority for everybody, but more freedom is a priority, because who the hell would say no to that? So working backwards and, by extension, actually increasing profitability is a priority if you wish to have more time off and have more freedom in your life, which is why this stuff is going to be flipping interest in the day. Thoughts on that, what I’ve just said.

Justin: 4:43

I love the way you’ve described it, james, because you and I beforehand talked about that being a mindset issue. Actually, if somebody doesn’t believe that’s possible in the first instance, then won’t even attempt to achieve it. And actually it’s not until you’ve explained it where people I’m sure people listen to this are going to think I’ve not really thought about it like that And I know this is something that you work with your clients on and you talk about a lot, but until you embrace that as a principle, there’s no way you’re going to go about achieving it. And I’ll tell you the other thing that’s interesting as people start to grow their practices, they don’t always think, actually, if I can grow to the level that I’d achieved in five days, in four, or I could take a day, they tend to take the growth and keep working the five days. That is the challenge. That’s the challenge, i think.

Dr James: 5:32

Yeah, well, this is the thing right, and the beautiful thing is that you have the option to do that, yes, other than you feel like you have to because you want to hit a certain level of income. Yes, agreed, agreed, boom, and you can continue to. Some people, no matter how much they earn, they’ll always work seven days, and that’s cool, okay. But the point is, you shouldn’t feel that you have to out of necessity. Ah, that’s a different thing. I don’t feel any. 22 Totally should be a choice. Flipping hairs in the back of my next stand up, bro, honestly. oh, that gets me so fired up, right, and I keep off. No huge Tangent monologue about that, but it’s a 50-50 podcast. Today It’s not the GM show, it’s the gym. So in that spirit, justin, in that spirit, let’s talk about some of the Misconceptions, i suppose, that you experience on a day-to-day basis. So the dentist, the things that hold people back, maybe the limiting beliefs, or the the technical know-how that dentists need in order to boost their profitability.

Justin: 6:34

Yeah, yeah, let’s start with the first one, james. We have talked about this before the podcast. So there’s this huge misconception and it’s not I have to say it’s not unique to dentistry. The huge misconception is that people think the more clinically and technically competent they get and then the more they’re able to Explain that clinical and technical competency to someone else I either patient in the instance of dentistry, but in other businesses it might be to customers. You know, the more I know about what we do, the more I could, the more I can explain it in in graphic detail. There’s this misconception that that’s going to convert and influence people more effectively and actually what it does is, as the reverse effect, it starts to tune people out, because not everybody wants to know the finite detail of everything. So you have to really understand the person in front of you, be that patient or a customer. What level of information do they need to make the right decision? And then you have to match that level of information with what you deliver And if you’re giving people too much actually sometimes it can it can be a real turnoff And it’s a huge problem, as I say, not just in dentistry but particularly. I’ve noticed the indentistry with the clients are working. I.

Dr James: 7:44

Believe that 100% and the reason that I believe that is because I 100% used to be that guy and my mindset was more is more when it comes to What a terrible belief system, what a terrible belief system. And I look back on it and I think, wow, you could have because here’s the thing, it’s about serving people right and you could actually have, sir. I could have served those people to a higher standard By being more deliberate about the information that I gave them, rather than the bundle blunderbust That’s what those guns are called right, you know, the scatter gun, the shotgun approach.

Justin: 8:19

Yeah, yeah.

Dr James: 8:20

Yeah, Yeah awesome. All nuts. Naturally, you’ll observe dentists doing this a lot. What are the key Mistakes or areas that they can improve on that you observe frequently, like what is, like this specific know-how or details, like the actionable take-aways that listeners could take? Yeah on its podcast and implement.

Justin: 8:39

Yeah. So the big thing is And I have a I have a really nice visual for it that I’ll send you as a screenshot afterwards, james. You can share it with your listeners. I have this visual that just talks about the patient journey and the stages they go through as they make it a decision, and Then the stages of the consultation and how you can align those with where the patient is in their decision-making And early on in the conversation with the patient about potential treatment options. You’ll see that the patient kind of has this spark of interest in the discussion and That interest is is a really good indicator. It’s like your early buying signal, right. But when you meet that spark of interest, your job then is to say to the patient okay, so you’re interested in this type of treatment. Before I tell you about it, let’s just have a conversation about you know what you’re looking for in terms of you know the, the treatment outcome, what, what’s your current situation, how long have you been thinking about it, what’s important to you as you consider treatment and Asking really good questions. So the patient has this space to open up and tell you all about what they’re looking for. And the reason that’s so important Is because at the same time as explaining it to you, they start to process it and as they’re processing it, they get clear on what they’re looking for and you can you know, listen, clarify, sense, check. If there’s a mistake, then you can say okay, so you think it works like this. Okay, let’s just talk about how that, how that actually works in practice. But you don’t have to do that until they’ve articulated everything that’s on their mind. But the other really important thing that happens is the patient starts to convince themselves It’s something they want to do through that conversation And if they don’t get the chance to explain it, then they don’t get that opportunity to convince themselves. And then you’re the one that’s got to do all the convincing and the pressure sits with you to do that. So the big mistake of you know, almost over making things overly technical and explaining in too much detail, actually, that the antidote is to pause when the patient’s interested and, instead of talks to them about treatment in too much detail, just ask them questions about what they’re looking for. And when you craft those questions and we, we use this principle, we call them must ask questions. What are your must ask questions of the patient, depending on the treatment, depending on where they are in the inquiry. Then we make sure those questions are asked. The patient gets to process it. They move themselves through that kind of almost you know convincing themselves of what they’re looking for. You get the information you want and from there, once the patient’s had the chance to explain it, there’s much less pressure in the consultation and you can then explain what it is that you that you’re proposing, because you know the questions of the diagnosis right. The proposal is the treatment option, so you don’t treat until you’ve diagnosed. And through that diagnosis process, through the conversation, you’re then much more well equipped to have a conversation that’s directly relevant to the patient And it’s and that actually prevents you from being too technical, because you’ll start to use the language the patient uses. You’ll start to have a much better understanding of what they’re looking for And you can tailor the conversation to what they’ve told you. It’s quite simple, but you’d be surprised how, how often it’s overlooked or missed.

Dr James: 12:04

And it’s just about doing the simple things. Well though, isn’t it, you know? because, inherently, this is communication. The fact that this is communication and communication to conceptualize is a simple thing, but to do it extremely well, the devil’s in the detail. Let’s say that, and you’ve got to know this stuff right, and here’s what. Here’s what I could hear when you were talking as well. Right, when you ask loads of questions, it allows you to, number one, understand how that patient speaks, and also allows you to understand loads about the outcome that you desire, that, sorry, the outcome that they desire. Right, because, remember, it’s about them, not you. You’re just a vehicle to get them to where they want. Right now, if you’re the right person, you say yes, right, but you have to establish that first of all. You have to establish what they want, right? I’m a big fan of this conceptualized benefits. What do I mean by that? features. You’ve got the features of your treatment and you’ve got the benefits right, yeah. Then you’ve got conceptualized benefits. Right. What’s a conceptualized benefit? So a feature would be the crown is white, yeah. A feature would be the filling is white, and then what that means is that no one will be able to tell that we have placed a filling in this tooth. This tooth will be returned to its natural beauty. Key line that comes next, and what this means for you is that you can smile and laugh at your daughter’s wedding and you’re going to look great in the photos and you will remember that day forever, because everything was wonderful and you had the perfect smile. Wonderful. Oh, the last line was what really set it off. Right, because now they can see that. What are they doing in their head? they’re like, oh, yeah, geez, i’m conceptualizing it, i’m imagining it right, but you know, to make that last little bit extra powerful, what you can do is listen to the patient, ask them why they want the smile, why they want the white fill in, why. Now, what is it that you’re hoping to achieve? is there, is there a reason that you saw this at this very moment in order to undertake this procedure? great question, by the way, i love that question. That’s where you get so much info. Okay, because they’ll. You know specifically. Why did they come at this moment? right, maybe it’s because they’ve got an event coming up that they want to look good for? right, and you know whenever they tell you that in their words. Right, remember, people don’t use words, people don’t. People use words unintentionally, very deliberately, and it’s because those are literally the words that they think in. So if you take that explanation and adapt it to use the words that that person has just used to explain the same situation to use, so easy for them to conceptualize and imagine.

Justin: 14:51

You’re literally talking their language. You’re literally talking their language.

Dr James: 14:55

We’re all talking English, even though it doesn’t feel like it sometimes. Right, this is like next level, how we can yeah yeah and that is beautiful and you can. You know what you know when you can really see someone, just like, you can tell that you really engage someone because they’re literally looking, you live like wide eyes, like that, yeah, and then you know you’re like, okay, me in this person, we’re communicating right To a really high level. But you only do that when you genuinely believe you can serve them. Right, that to me, that if you don’t think you can help them, then I would say listen, i don’t feel this is for you. Perhaps you need this person, perhaps you need that person, right, but we can only go, we can only, we can only use that effect and we genuinely think we can help someone.

Justin: 15:38

Yeah, and you know the point you’ve raised is so, so relevant to it, really does talk to it. Because If you haven’t asked those questions, then when you come to talk about whether it’s features, advantages, benefits and I love the idea of conceptualizing the benefit actually you want to get them to think in their minds of the outcome and the result they’re looking for and what, what’s the occasion. But if you haven’t asked the questions, you don’t know. So you’ve got you’ve got to ask those questions so that you can do that conceptualizing of the benefit and I love that as a term really really good, really useful, and that that, for me, is that that’s the big miss for a lot, a lot of clinicians and I think partly it might be because you know we talked about the desire and the need to want to be as clinically and technically competent as possible. I think that’s an admirable thing for most dentists to want to get to, and therapists and associates principles, but actually don’t let that get in the way of you being able to communicate effectively with your patients, taking the time to understand what they’re looking for, really exploring their needs, understanding why now is the right time and you know, the other thing I think is that’s impacted. This is, if you’ve got clinicians that have been used to performing NHS treatment, you tend to find that there is a there’s a rush in every procedure and every patient interaction and as you make that migration to private practice, you’ve really got to factor in that that time, slow down time, create space for the consultation and the patient conversation. That’s so important and it doesn’t come naturally when you’ve spent a lot of time almost on the. You know that, the hamster wheel, i guess you might call it.

Dr James: 17:24

Well, speaking as someone who went through that process, that was literally what I thought dentistry was okay. I was like it’s supposed to be fast, it’s supposed to be for an attic, you know. Therefore, if that’s my belief, then I’m going to behave like that. I think that that’s how it’s supposed to be Right, but actually it was my beliefs that need to change, and then they can only change in the face of new evidence, yeah, when I, when I observe that. But anyway, listen, i’m very keen to hear more about the observations that you have through working with dentists. So communication is up there with the thing that everybody can improve on other areas. That will help Dennis be more profitable.

Justin: 18:04

Yes. So I mean the communication is all about, but for me it’s all about actually starting to do more of the dentistry that you love. So if you want to focus in on the right treatment areas, let’s say a couple of big areas right now and I think they will continue to be in the future. Clear line of therapy Invisalign is the market leader, but how do you make sure that you’re able to make the right treatment recommendations for Invisalign patients And, a lot of the time, actually, people who will benefit from in clear line of therapy? it may be an aesthetic thing, it may be a function thing, but actually there’s a lot to be said for helping the patient to understand that’s even an option because, believe it or not, even with all the PR and marketing that’s done, not everybody is aware that clear line of therapy is something that’s possible for them. And then you think about composite bonding and those kind of more aesthetic treatments. Actually there’s huge demand for that in the marketplace. It’s whether or not, as a practice team one, you’re giving patients confidence that you’re able to complete those therapies and two, whether or not you’re having the right conversation with the patient so they understand that you’re capable and able to provide it. And I think that is the key thing. If you have certain therapy areas you really want to become a specialist in and you know they’re going to be more rewarding for you, more rewarding for the patient and more profitable for your practice. It really does give you a sense of momentum and kind of clinical freedom, but you have to have the communication skills underpin it as well as the clinical skills. That’s the combination that really does make the difference.

Dr James: 19:43

Totally hear you because, even though you might be technically superb, if someone doesn’t actually know that you offer these things or doesn’t know why they’re relevant to them, then how can they ever proceed on that path of treatment, how can you ever serve them in that way, awesome. So on that, specifically, the juicy, actionable, tangible things that a dentist can do to allow the patient to understand the benefits that may be offered to them through delivering that service, or even just, i guess, marketing, i suppose raising awareness that the dentist offers those services. What could dental practices do, what could dentists do, to facilitate those conversations?

Justin: 20:22

Yeah, i think, first and foremost, it is about making it visible in the practice, so ensuring that around the practice you have either marketing information or posters, or you can get some incredible technology now, some smile design technology tablets. You can do questionnaires before patients come in to see you. My dentist just my own personal dentist just recently started to use I think they’re using SOE and prior to every appointment they ask a mini questionnaire about what is it smile confidence? So I fill out a questionnaire and they ask what changes would you like to make? So actually, coming into my appointment, i’m only starting to think, actually, are there any things I want to change? What is it about my smile that I like? What is it about my smile that I want to change? It’s really interesting that that just is part of that influenced journey coming into the practice. And then, if you attend the practice and there are visual reminders, posters, testimonials from patients, perhaps before and after images, they’re really powerful. And if you, for dentists who haven’t, we’re talking about investing right, if you haven’t invested in the right digital technology yet, it’s definitely something that you should be considering because the ability to use whether it’s an intro or camera or a scanner, to be able to start to show patients what they can’t necessarily see for themselves and then be able to have that conversation to kind of demonstrate visually. Actually this is what we’re seeing. How do you feel about this? Let them talk about it and let them get interactive on a scanner so they can start to blow up the image, perhaps see it before or a potential before and after. There’s some great technology and tools to do that, and one of the things I advise clients to do and I’ve seen a number of clients do it and they do it so effectively is to build out a library of before and after images for the different cases that you’ve completed and start to think about how you segment them and categorize them so that you’ve got the right type of patient. So you don’t want to be showing a female, a male’s before and after, so by female or male. You then don’t want to be showing a younger patient and older patient’s details, so make sure that you’ve got them by kind of age, category And just simple things that if you put a bit of structure and a bit of a plan together, actually they become really powerful tools to help your patients become more aware of what you offer them, and actually it doesn’t take that much work. It just takes a bit of effort, with you and your team aligned, to get it right.

Dr James: 23:04

Thank you so much for that answer. There is some real flipping juicy stuff there which is really good. That’s awesome. I like that thing at the end about categorizing the first of all, bothering to take patient photos Yes, which is, which can be it can well let me be careful of my words here It can feel like a faff, but actually it’s well worth it And plus, you get the skills of photographer as well, which are very important. But then what it means is it facilitates all these conversations later and then increases treatment plan acceptance, which is the aim of the game. Right? You want every person to come and see you in the chair. Well, or ideally, as much as possible, to be someone who joins you on the patient treatment journey. Right, because otherwise, the chair time you know chair time is filled with exams is very you know, this whole podcast is about profitability and that’s not the most profitable use of your chair time, right, but of course, you know it’s only whenever you actually genuinely feel like you can serve someone, which is super important. Yeah, let’s talk about. Well, let’s super, super quickly just skirt over social media Just while we’re here. Justin, do you think that every dentist should be, should be, on the gram in 2023?

Justin: 24:18

Should be on the gram. Oh, great question, james, if they want to be.

Dr James: 24:24

Yeah, yeah, okay Yeah, that would be my advice.

Justin: 24:29

You’re comfortable with it and you enjoy social media, you enjoy sharing your, you know your successes with patients, then absolutely. But it’s not for everybody. You know some people absolutely kind of despise social media and and I mean I’m on social media. So if you haven’t followed me, justin Lee coach is my kind of name on LinkedIn, on Facebook and on Instagram. So I’m on it, i do quite a bit on social media I I quite enjoy it. But I’m also cautious not to let it kind of overtake my personal life and all the other commitments that I have, because it is one of those time drains that if you’re not careful, if you don’t manage it in a structured way, it can start to eat away at you know your professional and personal life, so you just be careful with it.

Dr James: 25:18

Bro, you’ve made such a good point. You’re going to use it in a business sense. You have to treat it like a business. Yeah, you have to treat it like a business. How does it look? whenever it’s a business, it has to be systemized and structured and not just scrolling. And actually I actually you’ve actually made a really good point there because naturally, a lot of what I do is on social media. So whenever I’m using it in the sense that I’m going on there to post something for the group or the community, then it’s. it’s so important to have the mindset that you’re going in there to be focused and do that one thing and then go back to whatever it is that you’re doing that needs to be productive, or even do it in certain hours of the day.

Justin: 25:57

Yeah, so, so important. You have to bookend it because if you don’t, it can really take over without you even realizing, because it and you know it’s interesting I was. I listened to a podcast. It wasn’t a dental podcast, i can’t remember which one it was, but they were talking about. You know, back in the day, if you look back to the 80s and 90s, before social media existed, some of the most intelligent people on the planet were designing rockets to go into space or try to create the first computer. And nowadays some of the most intelligent minds on the planet work for Facebook, work for Instagram I know it’s all meta. Now, right, work for LinkedIn, trying to figure out how do they keep you scrolling and on the platform. So you’ve got some incredibly intelligent people doing some amazing work in the background that makes you almost unconscious and turns you kind of into a part-time zombie. When you’re on social media, you have to be so alert to it, otherwise it will draw you in and you won’t even realize. You’ve lost 45 minutes And you went on to do one thing and didn’t get it done, but spent a lot of time scrolling. So I would say you know, exercise some caution, be really clear, and your advice is really good, james Go in to do something and know that you’re going to get out to carry on.

Dr James: 27:09

And you know what, not to be too dystopian, but let’s take what you’ve just said to the next level and imagine what about whenever there’s AI that’s created on demand, continuous content that is user-specific to you, to Justin, to James, to John, jim, all these people, yeah, that is created constantly the second that you log on to the app. Oh, my goodness right, it’s going to be a crazy world. Let’s hope that that’s a flipping long way off, if you ever. But yeah, man, it was chat GPT. This could be the eventual progression of chat GPT, and I was listening to a podcast all about this the other day and I was like, wow, i really hope that that doesn’t happen any time soon. But anyway, straight back to this podcast. Actually, actually, one more quick tangent, because this just popped into my head when you were talking Favorite podcast, justin.

Justin: 28:06

Oh, it’s a tie. Obviously, Dentist to Invest podcast is up there, obviously, that’s up there right, that goes without saying. But because we’re on that platform, i should give someone else a shout. I love two podcasts that I go forward and backwards The Diary of the CEO, steve Bartlett, and High Performance Podcast with Damien Green. And sorry, damien Hughes. And Damien, is it Professor Rob? You know who? I mean The High Performance Podcast, damien and Rob. I think it is Rob Hughes. It’s brilliant. It’s a brilliant. Those two podcasts are absolutely amazing.

Dr James: 28:44

Interesting. I’m going to say I’m going to share my favorite podcast, but I’m going to caveat that and say it’s my favorite non-dental podcast, because if Dentist you was in there, i don’t want to step in and he told you it might be too controversial. Who knows? Anyway, favorite non-dental podcast. I really like the game by Alex Ramosy.

Justin: 29:04

Oh OK, i know Alex Ramosy, i haven’t listened to the game.

Dr James: 29:07

Very cool podcast. So the guy’s like 32, and he’s hit 100 million in wealth, yeah, and he’s learned some real wisdom about business and philosophy along the way. He’s quite a philosophical dude. I just resonate with him a lot. He’s got a phenomenal ability to articulate himself. He’s got a phenomenal ability to articulate himself. It’s really, really, really impressive. Very cool podcast.

Justin: 29:30

For anybody who hasn’t listened to it Well, he was a guest on the Diary of a CEO recently. That’s where I heard it. Yeah, so he’s been on.

Dr James: 29:37

He was actually, yeah, 100%, because I heard it on Diary of a CEO And then he actually published it on his two days ago. So that’s actually. you’ve just reminded me of that. So thank you. Anyway anyway, anyway, anyway, straight back to this podcast. So let’s talk about outside the chair, very briefly, merely more along the lines of communication and teamwork and the top things that you feel dentists could do better in order to become more profitable.

Justin: 30:03

It’s interesting. I mean again, a lot of the work I do with practice teams, with leaders in practices, is similar to the leaders in business. So in my leadership career one of the big mistakes I made was being overly directive, and I learned the lesson in the hard way. Because if you start to give people too much direction or you’re far too management-orientated in your practice or your business, you will find that it’s almost like a vacuum. So people take as much direction as you give And before you know it you’re trying to do your functional clinical role and you’re trying to make sure the whole practice runs. Everyone knows what they’re doing And you find yourself torn between far too many tasks and far too much direction. The big light bulb for me was when I was given this leadership development opportunity kind of midway through my management career and I was taught how to coach. So I went on quite extensive coaching program and that changed my entire perspective. I started to see the opportunity to really really, instead of give people information, to kind of challenge them with questions and get them to start to think for themselves, particularly when people are coming to you for decisions. What should I do about this, justin? What should we do in this situation? And when you’re first in a management or a leadership role, you’re a practice principal. People come to you for answers Early on. You think, okay, that’s easy, so you give them the answer. Give them the answer And you know the old saying give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for life. Right, coaching is very much like that. It’s about helping people to find their own sense of resourcefulness And you can do that really effectively through a coaching style. So creating a pause between when someone comes to you with something and you’re tempted to just go okay, do this because you know exactly what to do. You know the answer you’ve been there 100, maybe more times And pressing the pause button and saying, before I answer, what do you think you should do? And give them the space to think about it. So they start to create the and it’s really the. Neuroscience is interesting here because if somebody never makes that judgment, they don’t make that leap. If I keep getting answers, then my brain I literally don’t hardwire my brain to look for the solutions, i just look to you for answers. The minute you stop me and get me to think there’s a neural pathway that forms in my brain, that starts to make decisions, that starts to figure out problems. But when I’m reliant and dependent on someone else’s answers, that never happens. So in coaching and in coaching as a leadership style, that’s one of the big things for me. If you start to think about how do you create a high performance team, how do you start to elevate your practice team? You have to do it one conversation at a time, through a coaching approach, so you start to see the direction and expectations have to be clear. That goes without saying. People have to know what to do. But then, as they start to think about their development and they come to you for new challenges problem solving you’ve got to stop solving people’s problems and get them to start solving them for themselves. And that really is the transition to a high performing team, because it becomes almost self managing and self directing. That is the goal. Set it as the goal and start acting in that direction. That’s the important bit for me.

Dr James: 33:30

That is cool. Thank you, that is cool and very important. It’s like a self awareness thing as well, because oftentimes, until somebody points out that there’s probably a better way of doing what you’re doing, you don’t know that it exists even until someone tells you On that exact thing that you said a bit of CEO advice, and I can’t remember where I heard this from, but basically it was talking about unbezying yourself And, past a certain point, your organization or your enterprise gets big enough, or even if you’re an associate, you’ve just got so many things to do and you just have to think about how you can basically delegate things in a fact, and what you’re talking about is delegating decisions, which is cool, great, wonderful. So here’s the thing how do you start that process? What’s like a practical method that I’ve used in the past and still do use. You just write down five things that you did throughout the course of the day, the five things that took the most of your time, and you see to it, and you can do this at the end of every day. It’s like a reflective, iterative process Write down five things that took all your time And then, in each one of those things, think about part of that that you could delegate or eliminate. And then, guess what? Pretty soon you start finding that you have more time because there’s only so many times that you can do that. Yeah, or you can continuously do it, and then you can find ways to spread the load Very practical method that one can use in order to reduce how much time they’re spending on things that realistically could be done by someone else. Love that.

Justin: 35:00

I love that.

Dr James: 35:02

This is what I always say to people right, and even if you can’t delegate all of it, even if you can just do a component of it, yeah, yeah, and you have to get really granular on it, because you can’t just write being a dentist in the dental chair, right, you literally have to do that, right, yeah, but what you might do is you might say, hey, like developing the X-rays. Or what you might do is say like, hey, having fun conversations, or something like that, you know. So the more granular you get is, the more able you’re able to identify what tasks are going on and then also figure out how you can delegate those or give them to someone else, or eliminate them because they might not be necessary, or automate them Delegate, eliminate, automate.

Justin: 35:43

I like it.

Dr James: 35:44

I like it. Those are the three eights I suppose. Delegate, eliminate, automate Yeah, If you apply that filter to those five things that you’ve written down, here’s the thing you might even be able to do that to all of them. But if you just keep doing it every day, right, What’s the best way? People will say things like I don’t have time to do that, right. It’s like, exactly because that’s the thing that you’re going to do to get more time, So you have to make time. You have to make a little bit of time to have more time. Right, You have to spend time in the right areas, which will give you more time. There’s always time for that.

Justin: 36:19

Yeah, and that really does speak to the investing principle, doesn’t it? You have to create something to make more of it right? Whether that’s time, whether that’s money, whether that’s building your practice profitability, you have to create some of it so that it can be used as fuel to generate more Time’s. The same right, boom. I like it. I like it a lot. That’s a great conversation, james. Thanks. I love the way you built on that. As you were talking through the kind of delegate, eliminate automate, i was reminded of the Eisenhower matrix. Ok, you know the urgent, important matrix.

Dr James: 36:57

Yes, i’ve heard of the model, but you probably know more about the specifics than me. It’s like urgent, urgent, non-urgent, something like this. It’s like this four, isn’t it?

Justin: 37:07

Yeah, that’s right, yeah, it’s a full blocker. You’ve got urgent, urgent and not urgent, important and not important, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you, basically, you know what you talked about, those five jobs, five kind of five things that are taking your time throughout the day. If you, if you, if anybody, googles the Eisenhower, urgent, important matrix, what it helps you to do, in each of those boxes, you’ve got. What do you do with it? So it’s not urgent and it’s not important. You eliminate it. Like, why are you doing that stuff? But that stuff is scrolling through social media, which we talked about earlier. Right, reading that AI copy that’s only going to keep reproducing stuff you love. So it’s not important, it’s not urgent, you shouldn’t be doing it. Eliminate it. Then you’ve got, you know, urgent but not important, that stuff. You kind of go well, that’s actually a delegate, right, someone else should be doing that, because it’s urgent for someone but not necessarily, not necessarily important for you. Then you’ve got important, not urgent, and that’s your sweet spot, right, urgent, sorry, not urgent and important. That’s where you’re going to make your money. That’s you’re reviewing at the end of the day, because it’s not urgent to do it, but it’s important that you do it. That’s reading, that’s your clinical development, your business development. All of that work happens. That’s your priorities. And then the final box which we haven’t covered, which is kind of not. So. It’s important, not and urgent. Sorry that you have to prioritize, just have to get on with that stuff And if you can automate that stuff, then that’s what that’s worth. A sweet spot.

Dr James: 38:38

Love it, justin. What a flipping awesome podcast episode. Thanks so much for giving up your Thursday afternoon, hopefully the first of many.

Justin: 38:46

Pleasure. That’s my friend. Yeah, thank you, James.

Dr James: 38:49

Dude, my absolute pleasure, anything that you’d like to say in conclusion.

Justin: 38:52

Just to wrap up, I’ve really enjoyed it, james. Thanks so much. Thanks, for I love listening to your episode as well. I’m really delighted to have been a guest. Anybody who wants to connect with me it’s Justin Lee LEIGH Feel free to reach out. I am active, as we said earlier, on Facebook, instagram and LinkedIn. Feel free to connect, say hi. One other thing, if you don’t mind, james, i also run a podcast called The Dentistry on Purpose Podcast, and James is going to be a guest on season four. Oh yeah, so I’d love it. If anybody hasn’t discovered it yet and you’d like to listen, then please feel free to look at that as well, and I’d love some feedback. So thanks very much, james. Been great.

Dr James: 39:29

Cool man. Yeah, feel free to head up Justin’s podcast. Justin, thank you so much once more. We’ll catch up again super soon.

Justin: 39:35

Yeah, look forward to it. Thanks, james, please take care.