Anne: Hello everyone. It's Anne Duffy. Welcome to Dental Entrepreneur, the Future of Dentistry's podcast. I'm so glad you're here with me today. And I've got a special guest, someone that I, met just recently over the internet. His beautiful team reached out to me and, because he works with a lot of Dentist in our industry, and especially female dentists right now.
I thought, Oh, let's bring Ken on and have him give a couple of words of wisdom and some takeaways for you. in fact I'm going to let Ken tell you a little bit about that.introduce himself to you today. So Ken, tell us a little bit about you because I don't want to get it wrong.
I know that you've got this beautiful program that you run. tell us about it to start us off.
Ken: Thanks, Anne. by way of introduction, I'll tell you where I came from. So you know how I got here. career was financial services and I spent about 20 years.
Working my way from entry level up to executive leadership and came to realize that there were a lot of aspects I loved about being an executive leader, running businesses and elements of corporate life I wasn't a fan of some of the bureaucracy we all know some of the things that are just a lot harder than they need to be.
And so I did several conversations over several dinners where it's like, well, what do you like to do? And I thought, you know, the thing I loved to do was helping people develop their own skill set, the things that they're just natively really good at leaning into that and bringing that to the surface and seeing what they, become.
Thus was my executive. Leadership coaching practice launched in 2018. And one of the very first clients I found through my involvement at CrossFit is a dentist, a practice owner. right away I got into the challenges that professionals face when they own their own businesses and developed frames and processes for helping business owners make the most of running their business understanding business owners really kind of have three main issues, money, time, and people the business might not make the money they thought it takes a lot more time than they thought.
People take a lot of TLC. They didn't realize they take
Anne: yeah.
Ken: That's a tight market. Yeah. Every business owner wants to find and keep the very best people. And working with the dentist, what I realized right away, as she helped me understand, was there's the practice of dentistry, and then there's running a dental practice.
switching those hats all day long. She walks into an operatory and she's a dentist. She walks out of that to her office and she's the CEO. So really important to, build out that clean process. while leaning into owner's own core values. And that's the kind of work that I do, working through both people process and getting the profit the way they like it to be.
Anne: So walk me through this. like, I love how you met her through CrossFit. And so You got to know somebody and then how did the conversation end up going to the part where you actually are coaching her, where she's like, I'm just, I don't know what to do. Or was it just over a period of time?
give me a little thumbnail sketch on that.
Ken: Sure. she knew who I was and what my professional career was. I knew what hers was. We were part of what we call the 530 club. that very first class of the morning, a pretty exclusive group for those of us who wanted to be up that early.
And so when I announced launching a practice, she says, I've got to have coffee with you. And she's a very successful dentist. So I always tell people, you know, my coaching practice is not kitchen nightmares. It's not Tabitha's salon takeover. That's not what I do. What she was at was she had built a very big and successful practice.
And was wondering what those small things were to then continue to grow and prosper. And that's a lot of the people that I work with. They're not broken. They have simply built to a position where they know there's some tweaks that need to happen for them to continue to prosper and grow.
Anne: like very good to great, right?
It's like, you're even better than good. Right.and that's really. Very humbling as a leader on her part that she knows that she doesn't have all the answers, right? And I think sometimes women especially have a hard time reaching out, asking for help. And it's great that you can actually see some of the things that she might be missing that she doesn't see herself.
you sometimes need somebody from the outside to look in and give you those pearls, right?
Ken: And what I learned in my 20 years in financial services, because I was a financial planner before I ran the businesses in terms of, how do the genders consume and process information differently.
What I knew to be true was women will ask more clarifying questions, They'll just ask until they understand it. A guy will nod along, because he doesn't want to admit he doesn't know. So I would say women are far more likely to seek information and when they get it, they'll make a decision.
But when they don't, they'll move on until they find the information. I found that to be true for her especially. she knew the outcome. She just knew she needed a coach. And that's, that's CrossFit connection was Athletes know what the importance of a coach. They know coach isn't telling us how to play the game. They're telling us how to play better
Anne: they're
Ken: leveraging our skill So I wasn't fixing anything. She's a phenomenal business owner. From what her patients say. She's a phenomenal dentist so for example one of the first numbers I remember her telling me, I said, what's your, show rate appointments to who shows?
She said, the industry's about 95. She said, my practice, we push for 98. And again, she knows her numbers. And what she was looking for was a little bit more nuance around taking some of the information she had. So she uses uh, CPA, okay. Here in Arizona that specializes in dental practices.
So therefore he has a lot of Information about the industry. average dentists spend about this much on this category of expense on the surface, it wasn't a matter of, Hey, you should cut because you're spending more than others or less than others. It was making really proactive decisions about where she wanted to invest.
she invested more in people and she had better turnover numbers. So one pays for the other, like making those really smart decisions. And she had been looking to expand and grow for some time. it was digging into operations and getting that objective point of view of how might she be smarter?
So the analogy I would use is, world class elite golfers that win these championships and millions of dollars, have Not just one coach, but multiple coaches. So there's a putting coach there's everything. the putting coach doesn't tell the golfer how she should hold the club.
He describes how she is holding the club and what the outcome is. And if you move your elbow, try that shot and do it again. And all of a sudden, shave a stroke and you can win a championship.
Anne: Yeah. It's like a one degree shift, right?
Ken: Yes, ma'am. It is a one degree shift. And that's what my very first client was looking for is the one degree shift.
She knew she was a good operator because she'd been really intentional about it. And she also knew there were probably some things she wasn't seeing because she's in it every day.
Anne: Yeah. So was she wanting to bring on an associate, uh, build out operatories, sell the practice? did she start with her end goal in your conversation?
Ken: Yeah. The end goal was to move the practice into a larger ability so that she could add She already had one associate dentist wanted to add at least one more she wanted to build on her hiring practices for her team. And that came down to she'd gotten it right.
But then digging in of how did you get it right? Sometimes we do things correctly and we're not entirely sure how we did that.
Anne: Well, There's a little luck to it too, right? There's a little
Ken: luck.
Anne: Yeah. What does it say? We sometimes you have to be lucky, but we also make our own luck.
And
Ken: she is certainly an example of, that is she works very hard. she and I spent enough time in gyms together trying to get better and shave seconds off here and there. And the whole notion of business coaching is creating Every single day that produced much more substantial results. That's what we do with any clients, but for her practice in particular making sure she was also differentiating with the team of Thanks. When she's the dentist and when she's the owner, because those are two different people speaking.
Anne: Yes. And sometimes you have to set those guardrails up, right? In a very logical way I can't be talking about the business when I'm, building a crown or, doing an endo procedure. you've got to be able to switch the hats off, but the team has to recognize that as well.
Ken: Right. Yes.
Anne: Yeah.
Ken: Yeah. They have to know when it's her. Administrative day. And is that the proper day? for her to also make sure that she has leadership components in the practice? A lot of entrepreneurs get their business going through sheer grit and force of will. And then there's a place where now we need to memorialize all that wonderful work.
value and process and vision and mission that's their head needs to come to paper so that others can access it without coming to them, So if she's in the middle of an endo procedure, that's not the time to ask about posting for a new dental assistant.
Yeah. it's a, take a look at all the roles and responsibilities.
Does she have the infrastructure? To grow a practice by 50%.
Anne: then did you work with the team as well? Do you work with the team as a whole? And then with her,your main focus is working with her and her leadership. Yes. Change your team members. can release some of them and hire again.
But, you know, you really have to manage yourself I think in those situations.
Ken: Yeah, the one way that I have consistently worked with clients, her included, was I always start with the owner. It starts as a one on one engagement, just the way the process works. And then often I'm then brought in to speak to the next tier of leaders, and we start to use some of the same tools.
profiling bringing some awareness of What are native strengths are as leaders, how we're different and how we leverage the difference to run the practice also where some of our blind spots could be if we surround ourselves with people who are exactly like us, which has happened here and there.
For example, you know, a left brain that surrounds themselves with left brains. Will start to miss some of the people component.
Anne: Yeah, it's a very quiet practice and they don't get a lot of new patients You have to have somebody out there wooing them in if you will well, tell me a little bit about you also talked about balance giving the confidence to especially a female owner because as a female myself, you know We do spin a lot of plates as women is the household and in the business Tell me how you you address that with her and gave her another opening of time and her mind to like, this is possible.
Ken: actually, some of the mentor work she also does that I've been perpetuated out as I've worked with other women in dentistry, women in business ownership, that notion that if they have a family, if they decide to have children, if they're also married, women's Participation in the household.
I mean, well Documented is usually more than even when they're married or have a spouse to support them. It's much higher. So sometimes women tell themselves there's no way I could own my own practice
Anne: I
Ken: have to work for a corporate dentistry. arrangement in order for me to create space for home.
What I would share with them and having worked with executive leaders across many industries is there's never a time where I'm going to feel like I have balance one of my mentors, she would say, look, when I'm at work, I think about my kids. And when I'm home, I think about my work and I've just decided that's okay.
Thank you. the whole notion of work life balance It's still up for definition. What is balance, right? It's a matter of priority and something that my client and I learned in CrossFit is we start to create some limitations. So in CrossFit, there's two kinds of workouts.
There's one where I. complete a quantity of work as fast as possible. Here's the work as fast as you can do it with proper form. That's the rating. And the other is I have X amount of time to complete as much work as possible. And that's my score. We're taught very quickly.
We know what we're going to be doing. We set everything up to maximize that. And then we get it done. So we're, focused on the efficient and proper completion of the work. And that creates a great metaphor for work, right? Sometimes what we do is, We treat time is just this variable thing you know, I need to do some more stuff.
So I guess I'll just stay at work and by definition that then pulls away from any amount of time. I'm going to be able to spend with the family. But if I create a frame in my head of, hey, I have to have all of my priorities complete by 5 p. m. So that I can be at home, so that we can all be at the dinner table by 6.
30. Then that changes what I give my attention to. that's how we get to that element of Stephen Covey. Putting first things first, establishing a rock. I focus on the rocks, I let the other things fall aside. Leadership skills of communication and delegation. Those all become really important.
Not only so I can find balance, but also so my team understands I'm going to teach them how to do other things. So that they can keep growing with me too. It all serves the same ecosystem. Women are better at getting the notion of balance. Where men, I think, are often we're just supposed to work a bunch of hours.
we're extra proud of our 70 hour work week. That's really inefficient.
So you got to get a framework, right? Yeah. and here's one of the frameworks that I call it mommy leadership. My sister helped me understand when she had my very first nephew.
I could almost identify someone who has baby versus someone who has not had a baby because the in between time the naptime when my nephew would go down for the nap. All of a sudden my sister was this Tasmanian devil getting all the most important things done before he woke up.
again, it's a native skill. the very interesting people development skill that I observed from moms is, babies are dependent on mom for life by definition in the womb and even beyond, for at least that first year. Mom is life. That's just the way it is. Dad's close, but mom's life.
And so moms have a native instinct to preserve the life to do for when the kid can't do for themselves. But eventually your kid grows to be a teenager and that's where moms have to make that shift of Oh, they don't even know how to do it because I'm doing it for them and they have to do the consequence shift.
So I see that perpetuate in businesses all the time of when you start your business, you're doing a lot of the things and then you're doing a lot of things for others and then you have to make the mom leadership shift of letting them know what the consequences are if they don't do it how to fail forward.
All those sorts of elements, it's just different skill sets that come with women in leadership, much stronger ability to nurture, develop, collaborate, bring everyone along.
Anne: I never thought about it like as a family, like when you think about it, as a female dentist versus a male, you really are going to.
feel a little bit more like you're nurturing the team, which I really love because that's going to build dentistry. So often, I've worked in offices where the owner, and I've only worked for a male dentist as a hygienist, didn't really pour into me. So I had to seek that on my own, a female dentist would be more like pouring into the team because you pour into your family and you help them grow and you help them make their own decisions and get a good leg up on life, right?
And that's only going to help your practice grow. So I think there's a fine line between Owner and friend all of those things also because everybody wants to be your friend and I like everybody. I don't know I'dbe interested to see how I would be in a dental office even though I run a team in my business.
So it's very similar to be able to see those traits come about. We can have fun, we can hear about the kids what they did yesterday and move on with our business life, but I do see the sport and the CrossFit kind of really fit in here because it's a discipline, isn't it?
Ken: It is. There's a white paper that was written. They use CrossFit because CrossFit has standardized workouts, but they were framing and actually the dentist turned me onto the white paper, of course. the premises. That the discipline of fitness helps us in the discipline of business and leadership.
Yeah.
Anne: Oh, yeah. I, you know, that's just something that for you and you start your day like that. I'd love to get that white paper. We can put that in the, show notes for our listeners here today. And so is. She's still using you as your coach.
Is it just you just drop in occasionally? How's that looking right now?
Ken: Yeah. I don't work directly with her any longer. We worked for a couple of years together and really got to a great place. But I do check in with her from time to time. We don't go to the same gym anymore because I don't live near where I met her.
But we do Stay in touch and we are still friends and we do still text
Anne: so that's cool because I think again It's nice. There's a coach for every season, right? And I think that sometimes You've got to figure out who that best coach is at the right time and then stick with that coach to see the results and That's right. You know, Release them, move them on and, and see how they can, pivot again, because there's a lot of good advice out there and good coaching out there. and it sounds like you've got a good spot. I like that very good to great because we need that. And there's just, again, so many little things that if you just don't see when you're on top of it every day, that you need another, set of eyes.
And it's, it's, It's, helpful when someone knows you, as well as you guys knew each other's work ethic. How do we find you, Ken? you're going to write for us, for Dental Entrepreneurs, so keep an eye out for Ken's article coming up. But how would our, audience find you?
Ken: Yeah, they can find me at kenkilday.com K E N K I L D A Y. com.
Anne: That sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing a little bit. If you're out there and you're dentist, male or female, and you're struggling or stuck that might be a good person to call is Ken or someone in your CrossFit group that you admire and has some good insight for you and the rest of your life.
So kudos to you, Ken. I love it. I'll get that white paper for our audience as well. And I hope to see you again soon. You've got a lot inside of your coaching, classes and your business of Leaders Cut. It's wonderful to get to know you and thank you so much for being with me today.
Ken: Thank you, Ann. Thanks for having me.
Anne: If you're listening, don't forget, the most important thing is to keep doing you. And I like what you said, Ken. Find out what you're good at and lean into those strengths. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.
