Episode 31 – Shannan Cottrell with Arkansas Family Dental

Jordan Smith  

Hey everybody, welcome to the iProvmade Podcast where we help you build a more profitable successful healthcare practice. I’m Jordan Smith, VP of Sales and Marketing at I prom, your host, as always, and I’m very excited to bring you guys a very special guest today, a personal friend of mine and a client that we’ve been working for the marketing side for many years, which is Shannon Cottrell, the COO of Arkansas Family Dental. You know, so often on this podcast, we bring you guys, the listeners, different vendors or different viewpoints that that can help out from a broader kind of operational perspective. And we wanted to make a very conscious effort, based off of feedback that you guys have given us. We’d like to hear from more people that are in the trenches, the people that are that are, they’re working for practices, the people that have helped, grown and develop different practices. So I’m very excited bring you Shannan. Today, we’re gonna talk a little bit about culture a little bit about her perspective on how to run a healthcare practice, as a business and an organization and something that she mentioned, which is, I think, a golden nugget that I’ve never heard anybody talk about before, which is running it the same as you would kind of a little mini-economy and also making sure that you convey the importance of running it like that to everyone in the organization. So she explains it a lot better than I do. So I’m excited to bring you guys today’s guest, Shannon Cottrell with Arkansas Family Dental, you guys are in for a treat. 

Jordan Smith  

Hey everybody, welcome to the I probably made podcast where we help you build a more profitable healthcare practice. As always, I’m Jordan Smith, host of the show. And I’ve got a very special guest like teed up in the introduction just a second ago, a personal friend of mine that I’ve known for years, that I’m always in awe of as far as how she runs operations, for their healthcare practice. And by no small feat have seen it grown exponentially in the in the five or six years that I’ve known her. Shannon Cottrell with Arkansas Family Dental. Hi, Shannon.

Shannan Cottrell  

Hi, Jordan, thank you so much for having me on today. It’s such an honor to be here with you. 

Jordan Smith  

We’re excited. And it’s a it’s an honor to finally have you on. For all the listeners out there. I’ve been bugging Shannon, probably for a couple months, trying to get on here. So I am happy that I finally got a hole in in her schedule. So Shannon is the CEO of Arkansas Family Dental. And I know just from feedback from the listeners from a couple other episodes that we had before that you guys are really want us to focus more on talking to operators and people that are on the kind of the ground floor and leading different practices. So that’s why I’ve been so adamant about getting Shannon on the podcast. And Shannon, before I kick it over to you and start kind of asking you some questions about how you operate the practice and, and how you guys have grown into different tips for the listeners out there, which I know are both made up of, you know, not only physician practices, but also people just like you CEOs, COOs, and even Office Managers or front desk folks that that are trying to figure out what the next evolution in their career is so but before we get to that, I always want to start with the basic framework on how we talk about successful practices, which is the very first part is establishing a really clearly defined vision from there, making sure that all of the strategies that you’re implementing align with that vision, right. And that only happens if that vision is really clearly articulated from an ownership level down, or an operator level down. From there, you can identify problems a lot easier and define tactics that will help you achieve not only that strategy, but the long term vision. And that’s where a lot of practices, in our opinion, fall short shine. And as they start with tactics first. You know, it’s it’s it’s tactics, tactics, tactics, they switch those whenever something’s not working. And there’s just not anything tied back to a bigger picture. And from there, all of those play into the alignment, making sure that everybody in the practice is speaking the same language. They’re all pointed in the right direction. And I know this, everything that I just went through really quickly. It’s something that you passionately believe in. So I want to dig into each one of those and how you’ve implemented those with Arkansas Family Dental, along with the docs that we know and love over there so well. But before we get into that, that tell us a little bit about your background. How did you get to this point? I know a lot of our listeners are always fascinated about you know what the evolution up to a COO or CEO of a specific healthcare practice is so Shannon, tell us a little bit about you and your background and how you got to where you are today.

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, so I have always had an interest in dentistry even at a young age. And so whenever I first got into the field, I was an assistant. And I was a dental assistant for about 10 years. And then I moved to an Office Manager position. And then I’ve just continued to grow and advance and learn and learn and learn. And I’ve been so fortunate to work with some amazing dentists that taught me so many different things and have really invested in me, so and that’s why I, here at Arkansas Family Dental and working with the doctors here that, you know, it’s just such a great thing to be able to work with people that really want to invest in their team, because they understand that investing in their team really mean that their business is going to be successful.

Jordan Smith  

Tell me, let’s dig into that a little bit more, because that’s a that’s an interesting concept, right? Investing in your team. Tell me what you mean, when you say that?

Shannan Cottrell  

Well, I think, probably, in my opinion, one of the ways that a lot of offices fall short is that they always think that things are just happening. And so they’re always acting or reacting instead of being proactive. And so we, what we do is we just get everything planned out, we make sure that everyone knows the direction that the process is going, and they know what the goals are. And I’ve known some practitioners that are scared to tell their team, where they’re going what direction what they want their goals to be. And it’s like, they’re, they’re afraid that telling them what that number is going to be is, is going to make them feel maybe uncomfortable, because it’s a big number. And they think that it might scare their team. And so, but actually, the opposite is true. Whenever you tell your team which direction you’re you want to go in what you’re working towards, you all get on the same page, and you start rowing in the right direction, all in the same direction, instead of everybody trying to go in a different direction.

Jordan Smith  

I love that that’s, you know, as an owner, I totally get that fear, right? Because not only Oh, I don’t want to scare them off, but also, what if we fall short, then I look like a failure? You know? Or I look like I’m the one that setting too high expectations. And nobody wants to, you know, everybody wants to be seen, like they they’ve got it all figured out. So many practices. Whenever you you, you look at them, it’s we always talk about kind of not only creating a vision, but selling the vision to everybody in the organization. And clearly communicating it is just as important. So tell me what your involvement is as COO, as far as not only helping the doctors, great division, if you’re a part of that, but also, how do you sell it to the rest of the team to make sure that it’s communicating effectively?

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, so our doctors are visionaries of the practice. And it’s my responsibility to take their vision, and be able to present in a way that the rest of the team understands and is motivated by. And so that is a lot of the system that we put in place. But also, it’s really getting to like the core of the person on your team, to find out what motivates them personally. Because if you can tie what motivates them personally into the result of the vision of the CEOs, then you are going to take off like a rocket. And I think that a lot of times, business owners are scared to let their teams know what their goals are because the numbers are so big, that they think that it’s going to be like, well, what’s in it for me, let me get let me get a raise if you want to do $5 million a year or whatever it may be. But I think that it’s so important that you let your team know that because when they know that they will excel, they want you to succeed. Your team really wants the owners in the business to succeed. If you put the right people in place, they will make you superstars.

Jordan Smith  

No, you know, I love that because there are so many different personalities and everybody’s kind of got their own vision for what their personal success looks like. So, you know, depending on how large your staff is, and I know you guys have a pretty sizable staff, trying to figure out how to clearly articulate that and get everybody rowing in the right direction, which I’ve heard you say before is, is is important. How, how important is it in your opinion to make sure that you tie kind of the organization’s vision to that individual personal vision that that person has, because you’re right, as a business owner, sometimes it’s oh, if I tell them, we want to be a $5 million, or, you know, me, Jordan, hygienist, or front desk person or whatever role I have, how important is it to kind of communicate to me what that means for me personally, if we get to that point?

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, so I think it’s really important to set your team understand that if a business is a $5 million business, that does not mean that the owner of the business has $5 million. Yep, that just means that the business is its own $5 million economy. So if you are collecting $5 million a year, and you’re putting a big portion of that back into your team and your business, you are helping the economy of the lives of your team members, and your local community, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And when you’re able to communicate that to your team, in a way that they understand. They are less likely to be like, well, what’s in it for me personally, and say, you know, this is awesome, this is an amazing, you know, I know, I’m gonna be rewarded for this. But how great is it to work for this company that has such a big impact on my community. And a lot of people don’t communicate that in a way that their teams understand. And so you have to find out what’s their personal goal? Is their personal goal, to be able to spend more time with their family is their personal goal to be able to make an investment in, you know, a stock market or something? Whatever their personal goal is, if you can say, Okay, listen, this is our goal for the year. If we meet this goal, this is what I will do for you. And that doesn’t mean I mean, if you fall short of your goal, and you are you did better than you did the previous year, you were still successful. And it is fearful to like, think about setting a goal that you might actually fall short of. But if you’re setting goals that you can make all the time, you’re not challenging yourself, and you’re not challenging your team, you’re actually just settling for what you’re already doing. So you really kind of need to make your goals, something that scares you a little bit. And, I mean, we are so that is one thing that we are so good at is, you know, setting these goals that you think are just so out of reach. But then when we tell our team, our team gets excited about it, and they’re like, look at what we’re going to be able to do for our community, if we meet this goal or not, even if we meet this goal, on our pathway to meeting this goal, we are going to change so many lives, and they get excited about it.

Jordan Smith  

I love that I mean that, that just that ties back into having, you know, the right, the right people on the boat, right?

Shannan Cottrell  

That’s exactly right. Yep, exactly right. Because if they’re all rowing the direction of their own, you know, their own direction, you’re not going to go anywhere, you’re just gonna sit there and you’re not even really going to turn in a circle, because then a circle almost would be some sort of success that really, you’re just going to be fighting each other all the time.

Jordan Smith  

Well, and I want to make sure that the listeners out there heard something that you’ve said that I haven’t heard too often, but excited me and my my ears perked up, which is think of it as the economy, you guys are building your own little business account. And if the economy in general is doing well, right, that means lots of different things to lots of different people that rely on that economy. And that’s the same way within a practice like your so I love the idea of kind of kind of the teaching that financial acuity to everybody in the office and thinking of it like an economy, right? If the economy’s doing well might mean something to one person, but something completely different to the other one, so I want to make sure and kind of that that was a sticking point. It was one thing that he said, but it was something that made my ears perk up was, you know, communicate it like the health of your practice is really this little mini-economy that you’re trying to build. That means lots of different things to lots of different people doesn’t automatically mean that you’re going to see an 8% raise year over year if we hit our goals, it’s going to mean different things to different people based on where they are in the economic structure. So I like that point a lot.

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, that’s exactly right. And not and it might not always mean something monetarily, it could mean more time off. It could mean more education. It could be you know, where they’re just providing these services. One thing that we actually did as a practice was do a financial stewardship training for our team. That was really interesting and it really put into place Fact of a lot of the things that, you know, if you’re someone that loves numbers, like I love numbers, I’m always looking at numbers, even in my personal life, there are a lot of people that don’t do that. And they just, you know, they balance their checkbook, and they pay their bills, but they don’t really know how to get further. And so our doctors invested in the financial stewardship training. So these trainers came out and really talked to the team about their personal goals. And it really helped them see how the success of the process was right alongside of their success, and that we were going to do it together. Because if the practice was successful, the team is successful.

Jordan Smith  

I love that, you know, there’s, there’s a ton of practices that would never even think about investing in that. But you know, you’re only as strong as your weakest link in any organization, but especially in a healthcare practice like this. So I love that idea of bringing in experts and teaching people about financial stewardship. I mean, that stuff that they can take outside into there because you’re right, a lot of people are, you know, paycheck to paycheck, they just balance the checkbook. And that’s the extent of the financial kind of acuity that they’ve got. So that’s a great tip. Well, so you talk about goals a lot. We’ve talked about vision, right? I’ve sat in on a couple of ya’ll’s, kind of morning meetings. So I know how you do some of this, but I want to talk a little bit, make sure the listeners understand about how you guys are tracking progress. You know, we always talk about, you know, outcomes, and then then tactics to make sure that you hit those outcomes. So tell me a little bit about kind of how you guys track progress, because there’s the obvious ones, right? There’s revenue and collection percentages. And you know, how awful the the doctors calendars and the hygienists calendars are. But what are some other kind of kind of progress metrics, because you talked about also being proactive, as opposed to reactive all the time. So tell me a little bit about your thought process with how you guys track progress, and then give the listeners out there some some kind of specific examples are some specific metrics that you guys use?

Shannan Cottrell  

Well, I think, a really important thing that we are, we’re actually newly implementing this this year. But it’s something that we’ve talked about before, but with the growth of everything we are, you know, we just want to add something new every year. So one of the things that we have done is, and some people think that this is such a simple concept, but to have a tiered program for each department. So when each person comes in, you know, they might not be as experienced. And so we let them know, okay, this is the expectation up until year two, once you’re at year two, that you’re at a graduated level, and in this industry, on the smaller privately owned business as you don’t see that as often. But to let your team members know, hey, if you’re checking all of these boxes, you are doing a great job, they don’t question they get much more confident in their abilities, they are making good decisions for the business, you can actually trust them to make good decisions for the business because you’ve you know, graduated them into another level every, every year or so. But also people want to grow. And they want to know that they are getting something out of it and not just coming to work every day. And at the end of the week, you get a paycheck and you go home, and then you have your weekend. What that does is it really helps people look into the future. Can I move forward in this company and in dentistry, specifically, there’s not a lot of ways to get more like, you know, you start out as an assistant, then you might go to an office manager, you know, but when you add peers of a paid this is an RTA one, and they are someone that has two years of experience or less, we expect them to do these five things really well. And when they become excellent at those things, we move them up to another tier level, and then add a few more things to their responsibility. And then that makes them feel good. It makes people feel accomplished. I mean, I know that whenever I have something to look forward to, I’m always going to perform at a higher level. And so you should always be building levels that your team members can graduate to or they’re going to go somewhere else.

Jordan Smith  

No, I love that you’re also you’re also helping them see a creative path for what their future career could look like. See, going back to the vision aspect of it, you’re helping them establish kind of their own their own personal vision for what growth within the organization could look like.

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, that’s exactly right.

Jordan Smith  

outside of just Here’s the org chart, here’s who’s above you, here’s who’s below you. And here’s on the same level, it’s a, here’s a growth path that if you’re interested, is available to you if you hit these specific metrics, I love that. So let’s talk a little bit about from the practice perspective, right? How do you guys track progress outside of the the normal numbers as a whole? Right? What what’s kind of the dashboard numbers that you guys look at? So that you know if you guys are on track or off track with those goals that you got to set every year?

Shannan Cottrell  

Well, the main I mean, we, our numbers, in, in dentistry, and in healthcare, sometimes people don’t want to talk about numbers, but how else do you grade your success? And so it’s really just our grading system. You know, the bigger those numbers are, the more people we’re helping. And so it’s, it’s sometimes challenging to get people to understand that yes, we are talking about numbers, but that also represents how many people we’re helping and how many people have improved their their health and their their quality of life, because they they have, you know, quality dental care, but we trust our new patient numbers we have, we practice about every statistic, how many, how many reactive patients that we have come in the procedures that we’re doing, we really want to make sure that our patients are receiving the highest level of care. So we always are looking at the newest technology. So that’s usually something that we add in every year is what what’s new, you know, in the industry, what can we add in that point to actually give our patients a better experience. And we recently added a few items of equipment that are going to that’s going to actually make our system easier, we added a scanner for for orthodontics, and things like that, and it’s actually going to make our patients experience better, because they don’t have to have those impressions down that are super uncomfortable, and nobody likes to do. But also it lets them see, you know, a before and after immediately. And so when patients can see that when they can see Oh, this is what my smile is going to look like, they get excited, and they start making the investment in themselves and improve their lives. But as far as things that we track, I mean, I, it would probably be easier for me to tell you what we don’t track. Because we’ve talked about it, you’ve been here, we talk about it every morning, we talked about what we did the day before, how many how many missed opportunities we might have had, because whenever it’s something that you’re always discussing, then everyone is always aware of it and constantly, like you know what, look, this is, this is a great case, look at this person, we could really change their lives, let’s figure out a way to help them. And as opposed to people that don’t talk about those things, because that person might come in, you might treat their complaint at their visit and never even mention, this great opportunity that we could, you know, transform their lives. And, and I know you’re in COVID, everybody’s got a mask on. But for the most part, we are looking at people’s face and their smiles. And you can tell when someone’s not confident about their smile. And so it’s really exciting to be able to make that change, because you can see this person, go from someone that’s super self conscious to, you know, really getting out there applying for that job, you know, getting out in public socializing, getting a spouse, whatever it may be, it just changes their life.

Jordan Smith  

You know, I love that. And, and I want to make sure that because I think this would be something great for the listeners to hear. Because like you said, I’ve, I’ve seen a bit of it. But talk a little bit. Before we get into what we call our final round of questions about you know, we always talk about engaging your team is important. And you mentioned something in there, which those kind of morning meetings. So one of the questions that I always like to ask folks that actually operate a practice is kind of, kind of what is the cadence? what’s the what’s the what’s the structure of those meetings? How often are you talking or communicating about those numbers? And you talked a little bit about that. But I’d like to dive deeper into the the listeners who might be in your position or trying to get to your position and figure out well, what what are what are one of the simplest things that I can implement today that will make a difference. And I think something that you talked about is a really good easy first step, which as far as just getting everybody in the room and, and but but I’m gonna stop putting words in your mouth. Tell us a little bit about kind of what that what the meetings look like, how often do you have them? Do you have them daily, weekly quarterly yearly, all the above and what each one of those meetings look like.

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, so we do have our morning huddle is our morning huddles are a lot of fun. We don’t just come in and go over numbers, they’re actually only about five to seven minutes when you’re in the room, but we have a game where, you know, it might be as simple, you know, trivia game, but it also might be a dance off, it just depends. And it will get music going. And people start having a really good time. And they get excited about the day instead of you know, just kind of dragging in. And then we go over the numbers from the previous day, the the numbers for the current day, any possible barriers that we might have. So I think that that’s really important when you’re looking at your schedule, and you say, okay, at two o’clock, we’ve got three new patients coming in, that’s going to slow down, you know, the front desk and the insurance department a little bit. So what can we do to make that experience for our patients better, and so we will address those issues there. And then everybody kind of wraps it up, move on to the day, then we have a weekly leadership meeting where the leadership team will meet and go over where we are with different things, if we are having some issues reaching some of our goals. And what can we do to be proactive to do it. So instead of waiting until you missed the goal, you are constantly tracking it and making sure that you are, you know, on track to meet it. And then we have a monthly all team meetings that we have, everyone gets together, we go over all of our numbers, we go over ideas, if someone has an idea of how we can improve our patient experience, we take all of that in. But we also engage the rest of the team. So we have people, it’s not just me or one of the doctors in the meeting, leading it, we will we are very interactive, we want other people to chime in, give us their opinion, we’ll talk it out. It’s a really fun thing. After that monthly meeting, we break off into monthly departmental meeting, where we have about 20 minutes where they will discuss any departmental issues. And then we have quarterly leadership retreats, where we, you know, we’ll set goals, we’ll make sure that we’re on track again, and you just, it’s just like, you know, whenever you have this really big number, you have to you have to you have to take it in baby steps to get there. And so we are always making sure that we’re moving in the right direction. So we have weekly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly meeting. 

Jordan Smith  

Nice. Well, you know, that’s important. And I don’t want to make sure that the listeners heard that too. Because you’re right, you know, so often it’s okay, here’s the goal, everybody knows the goal. You know, let’s, let’s, let’s go get to work. But, you know, we all know that the most successful businesses and practices, especially as, you know, systematic, predictable and repeatable process, you know. And it’s making sure that we’re putting all of those things in place. So well, that’s great. I love that. So again, we’ve got our morning huddle, which are five to 10 minute, just check in where everybody’s reporting numbers. We’ve got weekly leadership meetings, you got monthly, kind of all hands meeting, but also monthly department, all meetings, quarterly leadership, and then then the big kind of yearly planning retreat. You know, it’s a, it’s a lot of meetings, but again, getting everybody on board with what the vision is and how they play a part of that. That time is more than well spent, you know?

Shannan Cottrell  

Yes, exactly. And, you know, it isn’t, it is a lot of meetings, but we are we have gotten so efficient at these meetings, we are able to get all of that information in there and then still have a little bit of fun and it’s up to everybody. Our team gets so excited about our meeting. And I always I always find it interesting because most places are like Oh, I’ve got this meeting, our team gets super excited about the meeting. Like a little buzz that Gods you know what’s gonna happen at the meeting. We’re so excited so always have some sort of little surprise or something in there for everyone. So I think it’s really important that you make it fun as well.

Jordan Smith  

I love that. And for the listeners out there have been a fly on the wall for just two of them. And it legit is like the hypest room of individuals have ever seen at seven in the morning on a But you’re right, it’s fun and everybody has gainful. And that ties into something that that, that we don’t talk about with everybody but but i think is important, which ties in kind of, to the culture of the practice, you know, we can, we can lay out visions for people and tell them what goals are and the career path and make sure that they understand what the numbers mean and what they are. But if you can’t create an exciting environment, right, Work is work, right. But if you can’t create some sort of culture, and excitement and fulfillment, and in community, then you know, you’re doing everybody a disservice. And you’re also probably not going to hit your goals, not at which the right or the, or the way that you want to hit them, right. So tell me a little bit about expand a little bit on some other different ways that you guys kind of build culture in the practice, because I know the morning meetings are a big part of it. I know you guys always do great, really cool incentives and rewards for folks. But tell the listeners out there, if there’s somebody that’s listening, that’s like, man, we were, we’re doing good. Economically, we’re good business. But, you know, I just want to make sure that we’re always doing the right type of things from a cultural perspective, how, how do you guys kind of focus and build culture there at Arkansas Family Dental?

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, that’s a really good question. And it’s, it’s scary sometimes to think about building this culture, like, what do I do, I don’t even know where to start. But literally, everything that you do reflects the culture of your process, it’s going to either happen organically or intentionally. And we choose to be super intentional about it. And every day is not a perfect day. But most days are really fun, and really awesome. And I see people high-fiving each other in the hallway. And that’s always super exciting, because they are excited excited about their success. But we do we, we want to have a fun atmosphere. So we start off the day, like I said, with music, we want to make sure that our team is, you know, getting the energy that they need, we we do little things, we have a snack bar, they can come in if they just need a little snack, things like that. But also we put them in charge of culture to like, see it, did we Is there a patient that celebrating a birthday or something, our team is always looking for opportunities to celebrate our patients, they love to be able to give them a little gift. Anytime we’ve got a patient that comes in that celebrating something, we have a little gift that they the team member can come get, and they can present it to this patient. And it’s really exciting to be able to be a part of that, because they feel so good about being able to give this little gift to the patient that celebrating a birthday or an anniversary, or a new job, whatever it may be. And so whenever you really get your team on board to doing that, also, it will set the course of your you know your success for you a lot of times.

Jordan Smith  

No, I love that. I love what you said to, you know, for all the listeners out there, you know, we say it all the time. And you just said the same thing, which is cultures either by default or design. So you damn well better make sure that you’re you’re putting some best practices in place to design a culture in which you’re proud to be a part of because if not, you’re just going to get the one that that you get. And that’s usually not a very good option, you know. 

Shannan Cottrell  

Right, exactly. And the other thing that’s really important to culture is having core values, and making sure that when you hire you hire based on those core values. And so whenever we are doing an interview, we will always tell the interviewer These are our core values. Is this something that you feel like you are aligned with, because if you’re not in alignment with those, then we’re probably not a good fit for you.

Jordan Smith  

I love that we, you know, I’m so happy brought that up, because I know that that’s super important to you guys. And it’s important to us to in our, our companies that that we run which are you know, you hire for core values first, then, you know, you you go from there, it’s the same as you know, I can teach people a lot of different skills. But if you don’t have empathetic guidance, where you’re not passionate about learning, or you don’t have that servant’s heart, well gosh, I’m probably not gonna be able to teach you that because at this point, either have it or you don’t it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person. It just means you’re not suited for the type of culture and environment that we’ve got here. You’re probably a perfect fit somewhere else but just not here. So I love that thought and I wouldn’t, I would not stress that enough hire for core value, or not only have but look for core values for And if they meet that criteria, then move on to the specific atmosphere.

Shannan Cottrell  

Yes, yeah, having the right attitude in your team, you know, you can, you can train the rest of the stuff, like you said, but if you have someone that you know, reflects the core values that you want your business to reflect, and has a positive attitude, the rest is the easy stuff. Because you can’t train a good attitude, like they either have it or they don’t.

Jordan Smith  

Mm hmm. Same thing with vendors, we always, we always tell folks look for those same core values and sounds silly, but your phone person or your IT group, or your marketing people, or your if you’ve got an outsource collection or billing, like, you should look for those core values, and anybody that’s associated with your business, because, you know, it’s just, it’s gonna, it’s gonna work to either improve or bring down the culture of the organization. You know, if you don’t look for those things, so well, this has been great, I want to get to what we always call the final round, where I turn some questions back on to you, personally, a little bit and ask about kind of your recipe for success or certain ingredients that may have helped you out along the way. So the first question that I want to ask is, if there’s kind of a magic reset button, and we’ll start with the organization, first, we’ll start with AfD. If there’s kind of a reset button that you could push and start over, or maybe even start something sooner than you guys implemented there. What would it be? What would kind of be that magic one time machine that you would go back and say, If it was up to me, we would have started this way earlier than we actually started doing it.

Shannan Cottrell  

Definitely hands down just being intentional about the culture. Because, you know, we, we were in such a period of growth, and we still are in, we’re growing so quickly, that a lot of times that that culture, you think, oh, okay, well, we’ll get to that. But if you are intentional with it from the start, it will prevent a lot of issues that you have coming on board, because you won’t have the people that aren’t excited about change and excited about doing new things and excited about finding new technology and ways of doing things. So when you really, when you put that as your foundation, instead of just doing it later, that would be my reset button, we would have we would have been super intentional about that at the very beginning. I love that.

Jordan Smith  

Well, what is kind of one, one strategy or recipe that somebody that’s listening to this that’s in, you know, the operator of a practice, a COO, a practice manager, you know, whatever they want to call it, if there’s one thing that you would tell them to start today, that would make an impact in the organization? What would it be? What’s one actionable thing that you say you could walk into your practice on Monday, and start this and I believe it would make a real difference over the long term?

Shannan Cottrell  

Oh, one thing, one thing to start, you know, in to invest in your team, because from my experience, whenever I’ve been in other dental practices and dental practices that I’ve worked in, there’s usually one or two people that, you know, you’re, they’re just there to, you know, they’re going to answer the phone, they’re going to do exactly what you asked, but nothing more. And they’re not bad people, they just have this idea of work. But when you really invest in your team, and you make them understand that they have a lot of influence on the business itself, and it’s going to improve their lives. You know, it will, it will propel you to levels that you never realized you could achieve. So really investing in your team and providing them resources that that they see as value in and that might be different for you than it is for my team, find out what they want, and find a way to deliver it to them. And most of the time, I know that that’s terrifying to think but most of the time, it’s something that’s so easy to provide. I mean, it might just be you know, having having food in the refrigerator so that if we work through lunch, I have a quick bite to eat or, like we said the financial stewardship class, whatever it is, most of the time it’s something that is such a small, small price isn’t even cost anything. Yeah, that will, like make their life so much better.

Jordan Smith  

Or pull somebody aside. You know, I know we’ve talked about this the value of just grabbing somebody and saying, Hey, I see you’ve got to hold on In your schedule, let’s go get coffee and just talking to them and you know, getting to know him a little bit and digging in about what’s going on in their lives. And you know, at the end of the day, be a person, right? Just you know, so many people ask us stuff, and I’m like, just start with being a person first, and then we’ll you know, so I love that.

Shannan Cottrell  

Learn about your team, exactly. Learn, learn what motivates them, and, and then really just focus on it. Because if you can find a way to make them successful, they will make your business successful.

Jordan Smith  

Yep, absolutely. Now, I love that. So. Okay, last question, right? I know that you are, like me, where you’re always kind of a connoisseur of content and information and different ways to improve. For listeners out there, what, what, what websites, should they be going to what podcast or books? or What are you reading? What, what do you do on a regular basis to make sure that you’re always improving? Or you know, what’s coming up? Because especially in y’all’s, field, things are moving so quickly, you know? So what do you do to kind of, you know, we talked about the culture team and improving kind of their, how they think about different things. What are you doing kind of on a consistent basis? And what are some places that maybe some listeners, what are some tips that they could garner from you, as far as some different places you go to make sure that you’re staying on top of things?

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, so I, I love podcasts, I listened to them all the time. And I noticed that whenever I listen to the podcasts, that are really geared at channeling the right thought processes, so the one one person that I listened to is Brooke Castillo, she’s with the Life Coach School, she’s really great. But she talks about how your thoughts, create your feelings, which cause actions which cause results, and how changing your thoughts can actually just completely change the result that you receive. And I’ve been trying to work on that with myself. But I’ve also been using it with my team, whenever they come to me, if they’re frustrated by something, I really will work on how their thoughts on that subject, is actually the reason why they’re having the results that they’re having. And we’ll just change it to a believable thought that might be something that’s true, but it’s going to get you a different result. So I love those. I have always, I always love to find out about new technology and dentistry. And not just that, but in the administrative part of it. So whether it’s, you know, our online process with, you know, getting systems in place where patients can do people want to be able to do stuff at home, and he don’t want to sit in a dental office and fill out the paperwork, why can’t I just do this? Isn’t there an app for that? You know, and so we’re always looking for ways to integrate new technology into our practice management software so that people feel comfortable. And it saves them time. And then they don’t feel like it’s a it’s a nuisance to have to come to the dentist.

Jordan Smith  

Yeah, no, those are, those are, those are perfect. And I love, I love the concept of the podcast that you mentioned to you know, you can’t always control what happens to you what you can control is how you react to those situations. That’s exactly right. Yeah. So so that concept is, is very interesting. Well, Shannon, I know, this has been great. Like I said, I know that there’s some lots of listeners out there that are that are always hungry, that we hear from there, they’re wanting to know kind of, you know, real life stories of people who are in it, and working the process and working in a practice every single day to make it as successful as you can be. And I know that you guys like I said in the beginning and I’ve grown leaps and bounds since since since you’ve been involved and help the doctors realize and, and, and, and operate the vision that they had. So if there’s listeners out there and they’ve got questions about about some of the things that you talked about, they might even want to reach out to you personally. How could they do that? How can I give them some information about you and how they might be able to reach out?

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, so they can go to our website at arkansasfamilydental.com and go to the meet our team or about us and and i’m down there on the list, click on my name and they can email me directly and I would be happy to answer any questions that they have. It’s shannan@arkansasfamilydentall.com

Jordan Smith  

Very cool, great looking web. Please go to the website.

Shannan Cottrell  

Yeah, we have an amazing, amazing website because we’ve got some really great people that help get us and up and going and really push us to the next level.

Jordan Smith  

Well, that’s very kind. We’re very lucky to work with a group like you guys that that can deliver once the once the patient gets there. So Shannan Cottrell. We appreciate it. So so much listeners out there if you do have questions or want to find out more about Shannon, she’s she’s very open she she’s, whenever she she says, Yeah, if you guys have any questions, be happy to talk to you. She’s not saying that facetiously. She’s always super helpful. She practices what she preaches. And Shannan, I very much appreciate you finally being on the podcast. I know that there’s some listeners out there that have a notebook full of information, like I do on YouTube, that they can take and start to work to implementing in their practice. Day one, Shannan Cottrell, Arkansas Family Dental, thank you so much.

Shannan Cottrell  

Thank you, Jordan. Bye.

Jordan Smith  

Alright, everybody. Like I told you, Shannan Cottrell. With Arkansas Family Dental great insight. We actually talked offline for a little bit too about some of the things that you brought up and I feel like we can almost do an entire series just based on how they operate, their individual practice and, and some of the best practices that they use. So a real tree if you want more information, please reach out to Shannan feel free to reach out to us to be happy to hook you guys up and visit arkansasfamilydental.com they’re doing some some really great stuff, not only for their employees and their patients but but also for the community. So as always, like, comment, subscribe if you guys have guests or topics that you want to hear about. Right? feedback from you guys is what helps drive us in this entire endeavor. So we would love to hear it. We’re going to do some different things coming up in the next few months, that I think you guys are going to be excited about some different formats and some different types of guests. So really open to what you guys want to hear and what you’re struggling with out there. So please feel free to reach out and let us know on our website. Leave us a comment on this podcast. Make sure and follow us on all the social medias, do all the podcast things until next time, we’ll talk to you guys soon. Peace Peeps