We are a group of Dental Consultants who offer, improved practice morale; a happier, more profitable patient base;and improved home life; increased collections. (And yes, our average is 35% in year one.)

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Fixed mindset accomplishments














If you have been following our posts about mindsets you may be asking yourself, "I have a fixed mindset and I'm just fine." However, stop and ask yourself what have you been missing? Or what are you missing out on now. It is the belief of Mindsets author, "Carol S. Dweck, that people with a fixed mindset you are comfortable when you are safe. If things get too hard you may tend to loose interest.

If you are in business this can be an everyday occurence. Things don't tend to be stable. You can enter a meeting where you have to look at the numbers, this may be uncomfortable. Next, you step into a meeting where an employee has an upset patient, you maybe uncomfortable or not have all the answers there either.

How do you know where you stand? Ask yourself, when a puzzle is hard is it fun? When you are presented with a challenge do you thrive or do you run?

Furthermore, when do you feel successful? Do you have to achieve right now or do you achieve when something is hard and you figure it out? Do you have to have, "immediate perfection?" Or can you have flaws?

No worries, because either way you can change your mindset. But first you have to be aware of what mindset you have. To start changing your mindset, when you your not perfect right away, push through and tell yourself, "it is okay, because you are learning."

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Change your title, change the game, what does your title say about you?



When you first start a new job the boss usually assigns you a new title. You may be an administrative secretary or a registered dental assistant. However, you may be the boss. Your title determines a list of responsibilities that you may have to do. But, does it describe who you are or the extra's you complete in the office?

Last weekend when I was at the CDA conference I met a young lady who was a front office receptionist. However, Debra Quarles the consultant that was working with the office, introduced her as the, "office genie." When she heard the consultant introduce using this title,  a smile spread across her face.

She had transformed her job and herself from a front office secretary to someone who makes things happen. She is not someone who just answers phones, or schedules appointments. She is someone who get's the job done. She is energized when she comes to work because she is running a front office and she is moving the office forward.

Who can you change and become today?

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Kelli VRLA's suggestions for how to listen better

Communication is not a one way street and many of us may need to practice our listening skills. Sometimes, I catch myself in conversations coming in and out as I focus on the next point I want to make, not what information the speaker is giving to me. Kelli VRLA this weekend at CDA conference in California suggested four simple things you can do to improve your listening. Better listening equals better communication and stronger teams.

1. Silently repeat speakers words

2. Act as if it's interesting

3. Put both feet on the floor

4. Alert posture, don't lean

You can become an 86% better listener by simply repeating the speaker and not planning your next response. 

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Monday, April 15, 2013

How to start your day?

This weekend I attended CDA's conference and listened to the keynote speaker Kelli VRLA. Her lecture, "Teamwork Coaching: Getting Your People to Play Nice in the Sandbox and Own their Jobs," was truly uplifting and enjoyable. It was a true reminder of what it means to have fun at work.  Although, not everyone has the same approach, it is important to bring humor to your office.

So, if you aren't the comedian find someone in your office who is and I have to suggest to stop, and just get up and dance sometimes.

Here are some quick and easy moves that Kelli had us do. This way no one has to feel silly because you are all doing the same thing.

1. 15 fist bumps
2. 10 hand flicks
3. 5 lasso's
4. 2 gun pulls


Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Stretching, What can you accomplish?
















It is easy to look at your ability as a dentist and believe you have learned it all or seen it all. You may go to a conference and think, "I can't learn anything more." However, stretching is an important part of the growth mindset. Subsequently the book devotes an entire chapter to discussing the one place where people seem to stretch themselves the most, "sports." How many line backers or quarter backs have accomplished the unreachable. Or how many swimmers have pushed themselves beyond where they thought they would ever go?

This mindset isn't something only for our athletes it's for dentists, your co-workers and your family as well. The book, "Mindset, The New Psychology of Success," talks about Mia Hamm, ""All my life, I've been playing up, meaning I've challenged myself with players older, bigger, more skillful, more experienced-in short, better than me.""

This is an amazing story. A young girl who early on saw if she wanted to be great in her field she would need to constantly challenge herself. You will also need to find people in your field that are better than you, have a greater technique and are willing to share this information with you. The people you chose to have around you, not only should they want to help you grow but you should also help them.

At some point you have to stop though, analyze where you are at in your life and ask if you are stretching yourself. If you are, great job. And if you aren't it's time to figure out why and how you can change it?

 Stop! Are you where you want to be in your life? 

We don't have to make big drastic changes to stretch ourselves, we can eat fruit for breakfast everyday. You can subscribe to a new organization and read an article every morning or we can ask the people around us. However, you chose to do it. Make sure it is something that works for you, otherwise it is easy to let it go to the waste side and not go beyond what you thought you were capable of.

Continue learning from the book, Mindsets next week by following our blog. Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Monday, April 8, 2013

What Happens When Mindsets Collide














When I was twenty two I worked at a trucking company. I decided one night that dying my hair blue was going to be the perfect idea. I mean who at a trucking company wouldn't like some spunk in the work force. However, when I got to work I quickly found out not only didn't they like it but it was against company policy. I was quickly asked to get rid of the color in my hair. My view of their company drastically changed and it changed what type of worker they thought I was.  

What happens in your company when mindset's collide? How do you get the crew back on track and ultimately if you are of the growth mindset and others are of the fixed how does that impact the overall office culture?

Colliding mindsets can be the catalyst for downfall. It can create negativity, fighting among staff and a place where people don't want to be. However, it can also be what is needed in order for hard conversations to happen. 

A wise person told me once that you are the product of the five people you spend the most time with. If the people in your office are of the fixed mindset, they may bolster your ego, but they may not challenge you to grow and learn. Do you keep them around? Or do you become like them?

It is important that you take care and face the problems in your office, if you are trying to move forward by learning, taking on calculated risks and growing your office cannot afford to move forward with someone who is staying behind.


Your job as the boss is to set the tone of the office and if you go to work with new and innovative ideas your staff will begin to learn that it is okay to also take chances. The dental field is changing all the time, what works today in business may not work tomorrow and what patients want today could drastically change tomorrow. However, if you stay out of the mud you will improve with the times. Many CEO's have fallen because they are unwilling to change and the people around them do not challenge them they only boost their self-esteem. Don't allow a fixed mindset to ruin what you have worked to build.

Continue learning from the book, Mindsets next week by following our blog. Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The power of Mindset














Have you ever woke up in the morning and said, "Today is going to be a great day?" And it turned out that way. Everything seemed to be in your favor. The stars were aligned? Was it luck or did your belief that it was going to be a great day create the power of the day?

You can chose to believe how you want but I believe that you create the day you want by the mindset you have. Your beliefs although, small have the power to transform your life for good or bad. If you sit in a, "fixed mindset," you sit forever trapped in the belief that you must prove yourself everyday, because proving yourself is how you win the game. While a growth mindset asks you to evaluate your failures and turn them into successes.

When you first started your business did you know it all? Were you afraid of failure? Or did you take on the challenge as a learning experience? How you answer these questions tells you what kind of mindset you have and gives you the power to change it if you chose.

Visualize where you want to go and what you would do if you weren't afraid of failure? Well, you can. Start by visualizing your successes and being less afraid of your failures. View your future and the future of your business as a growing and learning experience.

A seventh grade girl in the, "Mindset" study stated, "I think intelligence is something you have to work for...Most kids, if they're not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand to answer the question. But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I'm wrong, then my mistake will be corrected." (Pg. 17) In the last view years of your business have you raised your hand and asked a question when you didn't know the answer. Or did you take a risk you weren't sure what the right one?

The choices we make can make us smarter or stick us in the mud. People don't wake up in the morning with a predetermined day, but they do chose the decisions they make that create or enforce their good or bad day. The mindset they choose, will help ensure growth or stagnation. You may chose to pass up an opportunity, "but it's another to pass up an opportunity that's important to your future."

Although, everyday you wake up and say today is going to be a great day and you are forging head with changing your mindset. You will have set backs, you will have challenges that drag you down. However, what you do with those setbacks do make or break the future you have.

Continue learning from the book, Mindsets next week by following our blog. Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Increasing our Intelligence




For years I was under the belief that my intelligence was a fixed number set mainly based on your genetics. I listened to individuals around me tell me they weren't able to complete a task, because their parents weren't good at that either. For example, in a conference one time a parent said to me, "I know my son can't do math, because I couldn't either."

However, then I read this book, "Mindset The New Psychology of Success."  It completely changed the way I looked at things. Don't get me wrong, I knew if someone tried hard they could achieve certain things, but I believed there was a cap on how high they could achieve.

A growth mindset let's you live your live not based on the genetics you were given but the abilities you foster and practice.

"A few modern philosophers ... assert that an individuals intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism... With practice, training, and above all, method we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgement and literally to become more intelligent than we were before." (Carol Dweck, Pg. 5)

The two types of mindsets are fixed and growth. A fixed mindset believes you can only achieve so much. It is grounded in perfection and proving yourself. While a growth mindset allows you to engage in situations because you are going to learn. You worry not about what how you look but what you are going to learn going through the process.

Some of us may have a little of both mindsets and some may be a fixed mindset in some situations while a growth mindset in other situations.  No matter where you are at in your life, you can change, because you have a choice. "Mindsets are just beliefs." They're powerful beliefs, but they're just something in your mind, and you can change your mind." (Pg. 16) Stop and visualize where you want to be.

In the upcoming blog posts we will continue to discuss this book and help you work through where you are in your mindset, strategies than can help you move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset and help you achieve the goals you have for yourself. Subscribe to our blog to keep up on this topic.

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