Surprisingly Effective Ways to Communicate with Your Staff – Episode 135

Are you getting through to your staff? Learn communication skills that deliver rapid results. Katherine Eitel Belt is CEO of LionSpeak, a communications coaching company, and she is Reese’s guest on this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show. An international keynote speaker, author and coach, Katherine is known for her non-traditional approach to leadership and team building. Listen as she shares her unique viewpoint — one that can help you become a better leader and get you on the same page with your staff and patients. More importantly, you’ll find out how Katherine’s suggestions can help you put your business on a solid growth path.

Podcast Transcript

Reese Harper: Welcome to the Dentist Money™ Show, where we help dentists make smart financial decisions. I’m your host Reese Harper, here with a long-time friend and personal mentor, Katherine Eitel. Katherine, welcome to the show.

Katherine Eitel Belt: Thanks Reese, this is fun! I’m so glad to be on; thanks for inviting me.

Reese Harper: Yeah! We are super excited that we have you, because you have had a big influence on a lot of my clients, and in my own life as well, and you have just been a real big advocate for the industry, and super motivating, and you’re just one of the kindest, nicest people. I have even spent time at your place out in Temecula, and it’s a beautiful ranch out there. I still remember that day; it was just an awesome time to spend with you at your ranch.

Katherine Eitel Belt: Yeah, we loved having you! I love having clients out at the ranch; it’s a peaceful, creative setting, so it’s worked really well for us, and that was a great, fun day we spent together.

Reese Harper: Yeah, it was awesome. Well, you have a lot of experience as a master speaker, trainer, and coach. You obviously have a lot of corporate sponsors that help you with a lot of issues in dentistry: you tackle phone skills, you tackle leadership… you tackle a variety of topics. I guess I was really excited today to be able to dive into a few areas around growth and practice management, leadership, team building, challenges that different demographics of dentists are facing, and challenges that office managers might be facing that dentists can help their office managers with… so, I’m going to jump right in and ask you the first question that I thought about. When we talk or read about growing a business, a lot of times we hear words like, “passion, vision, leadership, and culture” get thrown out quite a lot, and I’m kind of curious: from your perspective, are these just buzzwords that people are using a lot right now? Are they really important and essential? Should I overlook them as a dentist? I mean, not overlook them, but do I need to pay as much attention to them as it seems, or are these just soft skills that consultants and people throw around that really don’t have a big impact on the practice?

Katherine Eitel Belt: So, I would say yes and yes (laughs). I like to think I live in a world of a lot of right answers. So, yes these are buzzwords, for sure. You hear trainers, speakers, consultants, and coaches throwing these terms around left and right. You could probably google those words and get a bazillion books on those subjects. So, buzzwords for sure. And that is part of the problem, right? It’s like, how do I create– I mean, who wouldn’t want a company that is filled with passion, passionate people who are excited and committed to what the company wants to accomplish? Who doesn’t want to have clear vision and great, strong leadership, and a great culture? All those things are things we want, but with so many different perspectives and opinions on them, it can be pretty muddled, and it can seem like a nearly impossible task to try to sort through it. So, I think they are important. I don’t think– and this is going to fly in the face of a lot of common wisdom– I don’t think they are essential to running a great company. I think there are lots and lots, probably thousands of companies, that have never written statement, or a mission statement, never written down their purpose, never organized their culture, and maybe don’t have great clarity from the top, and they still are successful businesses! So I think for us to say that they are essential in terms of “you can’t have a great business without these” I think is silly, because I think there’s a lot of evidence that flies in the face of that. However, I do believe strongly that if an owner or a manager wants to get from point A to point B faster, I think these are pretty essential tools. They are very essential tools, because people get from a certain spot to another, whether that’s productivity, creativity, you know, if maybe we’re wanting stronger leadership so we can get more done with the people we have, those kinds of things… if that’s what we’re wanting, to move from where we are to that space, then creating great clarity about what the endgame is and how we will do it, and how we’re going to be together along the way, can shorten the journey; it can just shorten the trip. And so, I think it’s essential if you want to get there quicker, because what happens with these other companies that are successful without it is that they meander along and they sort of come to their success accidentally, and they have these huge peaks and valleys. So overall, over time, they’re successful, but they have huge peaks and valleys, and when something happens like what happened in 2008 with the downturn in the economy, or the market reacts in a certain way because Trump does something, or, you know, some other world leader does whatever it is, they tend to be very reactionary to that because they don’t have the same thing in place. So, do you see what I mean? It’s yes and yes. Yes, I think they’re buzzwords, and I think they’re not essential to being successful, but I do think that if you want to get some place that you’re not… there are some goals you’re trying to achieve, there is a position in the marketplace you’re trying to grasp, and you want to get there quicker, I think getting these straight is a really essential tool. Does that make sense?

Reese Harper: What does it mean to have leadership versus not have leadership, right? Or, maybe before we talk about that one, what does it mean to have culture versus not have culture? What does culture look like to you?

Katherine Eitel Belt: Yeah, you always have a culture. It’s like when you hear, “you know, you’re always marketing: you’re either marketing on purpose, or accidentally.” Same with culture: you have an accidental culture, or you have a curated culture, right? You have one that you have really put in place, and have been super clear about. What does culture mean? For me– this is probably not the end-all definition, but for me, it is: what is the environment in which we do work together? What is that environment? And so, when people– if you want to attract top talent, most top talent wants to work or is drawn to a particular type of work environment. And so, being clear about what that is– and I would say if you own a company, there are certain types of environments and conditions in which you play at work that make you happy, and there are conditions that don’t make you happy, as an owner, or as a manager. So what we’re trying to do… I think what we’re talking about, really, when we say that, is “how do we develop an environment that feels fantastic to the owner to come to work at, and they get to go home saying, “I’ve created a company that I love! I love how we are together, how we work together, make decisions together, and create plans together, and implement those plans; I love it. And the culture that I’ve create attracts the people that I need, and the kind of talent that I want.” So, I think that we always have a culture, but do we have one that is on purpose, and is in alignment with our–

Reese Harper: Curated, like you said, or conscious versus just reactive. What does that mean to develop an instinctive and, you know, a leadership quality that’s really natural?

Katherine Eitel Belt: You know, it’s back to that, “are we born with it, or do we learn it?” And I think it’s a little of both. For me, as I’ve developed my own leadership skills, as I have helped other leaders developed theirs, I think what leadership is is the ability to create clarity around some initiative, whether that’s developing a company, or whether you’re a manager, or a front line leader, and you’re creating a path for people you work with… whatever that is, it’s the ability to create that where your people trust that you can make a decision, and that most often, the decisions will be good, and that you are the shining example and the model for how you want people to behave, and how you want them to interact, and you empower them to do it. So great leaders, in my opinion, are those that have really clear vision, they know how to make decisions, their people trust that they will make decisions, they know that they can count on them to model with integrity the values and the behavior that they want, and they empower their people to do their jobs and to grow.

Reese Harper: So, could you give me some examples of leadership qualities that you feel like are maybe not the healthiest that maybe detract from culture that you’ve witnessed in interacting with different dentists? Maybe some attributes that you just say, “look, generally these are things I’ve seen that probably are not healthy.”

Katherine Eitel Belt: Well, I think we named one already: that’s the inability to make a decision. I tell my teams that in my company, part of a culture we’ve created, and I set that forth when we interview new people, and we talk about it frequently… so I have a couple of points that I always hit before we ever even look at an applicant’s application or resume. So, we describe the culture so that we don’t even need to go forward and look at their application– if they’re not going to be comfortable in the cultural environment that we’ve created, or that I’ve created, then there’s no reason to go forward; I wouldn’t want to put them in that position, and I certainly don’t want to be in that position. So they’re really clear. So, one of those as it relates to making decisions is that at LionSpeak, if you work for LionSpeak, we encourage you to have a voice. As a matter of fact, if you don’t have a voice, it’s probably not going to work out. So I expect people to speak up with ideas, with contributions, with suggestions. I expect them to challenge my ideas, and we have truly open discussions where people feel safe to do that. And I promise them that after I’ve heard it all, I will make a decision; that’s my job. My job, as the leader of this company, is to listen, to get ideas from really smart people, to think on my own, and then to make a decision, and I tell them, “I don’t have any guarantees that this will be the right decision; I could regret it. But I’m going to make a decision because that’s my job, and we’re going to go forward, and then we’re going to circle back around and see what the results of that decision are, and then I may change my mind.” And what I have found that has happened with that is that I don’t have people who even disagree with my decision. By virtue of the fact that they feel heard, they feel like their ideas were thoroughly and objectively considered, really considered, then they feel like– they understand that I have to make a decision, and it’s not always going to please everyone, and I find they still get on board to see if it will work, and then if it doesn’t, we circle back around, and of course, we make a different decision. But, that has created a great culture of people unafraid to speak up and contribute, which is what I want, but it has also developed trust in my employees that I won’t wait forever; I’m not going to vacillate forever until we reach a full consensus, because it is nearly impossible with really smart people, so you know, they underst–

Reese Harper: So, you listed a couple of things there: you said that a dentist is decisive, right, that they’re not indecisive, that’s a big detractor from setting the right culture. You also are articulating another concept that I’m going to clumsily label “creating an open culture,” where other people are also encouraged to be decisive, and contribute, and put their thoughts out there, and creating a safe space for them to be able to be validated, and at least have their ideas heard and not– one of my close friends, when we’re in executive meetings, he’ll always say, “no edits,” which means, don’t tell people that they are bad ideas the minute that you hear them. And I know in my own experience, sometimes that’s been a challenge. Instead of letting an idea just float out there, and giving it a few days to sort of ruminate, or even a few minutes to just be processed, I’ll sometimes quickly counter that information or advice and say, “this is why it wouldn’t work.” And I have found that for me that that wasn’t healthy, and I’ve had to learn to sort of let other people’s voices be heard and be validated.

Katherine Eitel Belt: No question about it! Some of our best ideas have come from that. What I’ve often done is listened to the idea until they’re completely done explaining it, and then I’ll say, “I think that’s an interesting idea, and I have some concerns. So, here are my concerns, and want I want you to do–” we’ll form a little group, and I’ll say, “go off for fifteen minutes and come back with your idea. Now, through the filter of my concerns, how would you handle those? What would you do if it goes this way?” You know, “here’s why I think it’s got some issues, and so come back to me if you want!” And sometimes they’ll go, “no you’re right. Never mind.” And so, giving them a chance to have a mature, high-level conversation about that… I can’t tell you how many great ideas have come from people contributing. As a matter of fact, they’re not allowed to contribute, but they’re expected to contribute. And that’s a culture we have created over time. People come from all different kinds of cultures, either familial cultures where speaking out wasn’t really accepted sometimes, or they come from past work experience where it wasn’t valued, and so, sometimes it takes people a little bit to really trust that this is the expectation, and it’s good, and it’s safe, and she’s going to make a decision, and she may or may not pick my idea, but I trust that she’s going to make it after she has heard our ideas. And really, we talk through them. So that’s an example of– you know, LionSpeak, my company, is a communications coaching company; that’s the big umbrella. And under that umbrella, we have three different “lanes,” if you will. So, one lane is that we coach and teach on patient-facing or customer-facing communications, and that’s where we do the work on telephone skills and financial conversations and things like that. The middle lane, we like to say, is team-facing. So, it’s all of these conversations; it’s crucial conversations and conflict resolution; it’s creating these kinds of cultures that are a little, I believe, higher level, and mature; it’s coaching people into this level of emotional intelligence, because they don’t often come to the table with it.

Reese Harper: It’s very challenging, and it’s not a natural thing for people to develop throughout their lives. I want to dive more into some of these patient-facing insights that you have, but maybe just wrapping up here on this internal and team-facing communication… from a dentist’s perspective, from the owner, even from the associate who might be conducting some kind of a team meeting… I just want to continue from that perspective a little bit more. Are there any other attributes of leadership– you talk a lot about unscripted communication: help me understand why you chose to call it that.

Katherine Eitel Belt: Well, this will dovetail into both of those lanes. Actually, all three of our lanes. That third lane is audience-facing, which is what you and I have worked on with speakers coaching, and Train the Trainer programs, and it actually affects all three of those. So, here’s our take on it: I think business developed the idea of scripting, and I understand why: they developed it because we needed consistency. So, if you own a good-sized company– let’s say you’re a dentist who owns a multi-location practice or business, or you are an internal manager who is managing lots of people– we developed scripting because we didn’t want one internal trainer teaching it one way and a different trainer teaching it some other way, or we didn’t want a hygiene team lead describing the vision in one way, and then someone, you know, an office manager, teaching and training on that vision in a different way, so, we developed these scripts. The same things is true for let’s say telephone skills: you don’t want one person answering your phone and answering patients’ questions in a particular way, and they someone else answering your phone completely differently and giving different answers. So, I think the reason they were developed was to create some level of consistency across lines of communication. So, that’s a good thing! I think that’s something we all strive for, and it makes sense. The downside to adopting really strict scripting, which is what a lot of trainers– it’s much easier to teach, because everybody is going to say it this way. But the downside to that is that what you lose in the process is the ability to flex in the moment, still keep control of the conversation, and be authentic.

Reese Harper: I think a lot of times in life, people can sense whether communication is authentically you, or if it is scripted or a little bit constrained. And we hate the way that feels. I mean, when you’re on the phone, you just don’t like it! It doesn’t feel authentic. It’s like, “break away from your mold! Please. Just be real with me for one minute, please.” Right?

Katherine Eitel Belt: Right. I for sure know patients and customers know when they are being read to from a script, and you’re right: they don’t like it. Similarly, your team– we certainly do coach owners, and I believe the owners are the only one who should and could do this, to write their vision and their values and all of those kinds of things for their business; that’s something we coach frequently on. And I make sure they understand that the only reason we’re doing this is that we get to as the owner. It’s a document, now, from which you will form an authentic communication, because through the writing of it, you get clarity, and… there are only two things that great communicators need to do. Only two. One is to create clarity of their message, rather than confusion, right? I don’t care if you’re talking to a toddler or to a teen or to a patient, it doesn’t matter: you don’t want the toddler or the teen walking away from the communication feeling confused about what you’re asking or what you’re saying. And so, clarity is one thing. The second thing is inspiration, because we have been clear from some people who have communicated with us, but not the least bit inspired based on how they communicated with that clarity to us; we haven’t been the least bit inspired to do the thing. So, I think that great communicators do both: they have an incredibly clear message, and in the process, they are inspiring for people to want to get on board. In that light, the script becomes the written vision, and I think a lot of coaches have first of all taken an erroneous approach, in my opinion, in trying to get an entire team to come up with the vision; I don’t think it’s there’s to write. I don’t want my employees coming up with my vision for my company; this is my company, right? There is only one person or group of people who should write a vision, and that’s the owner, or whoever is in the ownership position. It’s their job, I think, to turn around to the team, and stand up before them, and speak that vision, now with that clarity, from their heart, in their own words! So, we coach owners to take the written vision and now rehearse it in a way that they’re just conversationally saying, “hey guys! For the first time in a long time, I have clarity that I have not had about what I want to create, and where I want to go, and what I want to be on the way, and I want to tell you about that! I want to tell you that I don’t know how we’re going to exactly get this done… that’s where we’re going to come together, and we’re going to brainstorm, and figure this out with our advisors and with all of us, but I do know where we’re going. I do know what my dream is, and I want to tell you what it is, and I want to ask for your help in helping me create the path to get there. Most teams will tell you they’re dying to hear that clarity and inspiration from their leadership. I’d say children want it from their parents, students want it from their teachers, I think nations want it from their leaders, I think teams want it from their owners and their managers, and we can learn to do that.

Reese Harper: So, I’ve noticed in a lot of your communication, you seem to maintain a similar tone and voice– I mean, you’re a relatively relaxed communicator. That might be some of your Southern California personality coming through, but you’re also I think a Midwest girl, if I don’t recall correctly, is that right?

Katherine Eitel Belt: I’m from Texas! I’m a Texan.

Reese Harper: Okay (laughs) yeah, that’s what I thought!

Katherine Eitel Belt: That’s like a country unto itself, right? (laughs)

Reese Harper: It is! Yeah, and so ultimately, I feel like sometimes one of the challenges for me as a manager has been maintaining an even temperament through highly stressful situations that I deal with on a day-to-day basis, and I think a lot of dentists can relate to that as well. Can you speak to that challenge a little bit, and maybe how you have addressed it in your own life as you’ve built your company, and as you have grown and had more demands, more pressure, more problems, more things pile up? Because I feel like that’s a challenge that can bleed over into creating potentially a negative culture if it is not tempered.

Katherine Eitel Belt: Well I have no idea what you’re talking about, because I have never lost my temper before, or been stressed, or– (laughs) no idea. No, of course. And I never want to put this out that I have become perfect at all of this, because certainly I haven’t. For sure, communication in leadership is a journey; I don’t think we are ever going to arrive at the perfect state of that. I actually enjoy– I believe that we lead, or the power of our leadership, is commensurate and a mirror image of our own personal growth, just as a human being. You can’t lead someone to a place you haven’t ever gone or been. So, that’s part of it. When I speak on this subject, the speech is basically broken into two parts: it’s how great leaders think a little differently– and I warned the audience that this initial piece is going to sound a lot like a personal growth seminar, because it is! I mean, that’s where it comes from is your internal, emotional intelligence, and your own ability to control and understand those emotions and desires. That’s what is going to form the words you’re going to say. I find the words actually come much easier when we’ve done the internal work, right? So, once we have done that, we are able to gain the clarity and the ability to inspire. So in those stressful– there are certainly some tools that I use. I actually teach three tools that I use to manage what life, and work, and the marketplace is going to throw you, or your team, or your patients are going to throw you from minute to minute. The first one is that I practice the art of taking responsibility for everything that shows up in my space. Everything. And that’s not a new concept, but in leadership, I think it is the number one concept, and it took me a long time to wrap my arms around it, you know? It makes sense, and you’ve heard it before, and you go “yeah yeah yeah,” but when you really say, no really. Everybody who acts out on your team, or drives you nuts, or doesn’t do what they are supposed to do, or doesn’t keep a promise, or every client that makes you crazy, or whatever shows up, if we take 100% responsibility for it, we have control. When we are not taking responsibility, we’re a victim. We’re a victim to everything that is showing up for us, and that’s a really disempowered place to lead from. I think it’s almost impossible, right? And so when I say, “okay, so this behavior continues to happen, and it’s driving me crazy,” I have a couple of choices. I am the one who hired this person, or maybe I inherited them, but they’re here because I allow it, and they continue to do this because I allow it, or I ignore it, or something like that, but it’s coming from me.” So they’re either not clear on how important it is that they do it a different way, or they’re clear, but they’re not inspired to do it, or they don’t know how to do it. So which one of those things–

Reese Harper: Yeah, you haven’t guided them with enough process, enough coaching, enough of a system for them to follow, and… yeah.

Katherine Eitel Belt: Exactly. And so finding out that is my responsibility, and helping them to either move on– and I love the work of leaving people whole as we have those inevitable separations from time to time– or helping them grow and get clarity and understanding. Sometimes, that’s all they need. Sometimes people just did not– and if I take responsibility that I must not have made it clear enough that this is important to me… you know, because people are going to show up late to work. They’re going to continue to make mistakes; that’s dealing with humans. We’re not dealing with robots, we’re dealing with humans, and so I look at it– I once saw a quote that said, “I never lose… I either win, or I learn. But I never lose.” And I think about that. I think, “okay, so this conversation isn’t going well,” or, “I thought I was clear about that, but here it is again. So okay, I never lose. I’ll either get this right, or I’ll learn what works and what doesn’t work. But I am the one who is holding the responsibility.” Now, some people might say, “well look, I’m not the one who is late for work every day,” or, “it wasn’t me who caused the downturn in the economy in 2008; I didn’t create that; I don’t have responsibility for that.” And that’s true, but we do have responsibility for how we react, and the actions we take because of the event, and we do certainly have responsibility for how we manage when people break our cultural boundaries and rules.

Reese Harper: Yeah, I think that this has been a really great concept, talking about how people are affected by this. I think this idea of owning your space, and owning your team, owning your practice, owning the environment that you’re in, it’s just healthy. Like you said, it gives you control, and puts you in a situation where you can do something about it. I think we could go on for quite a while on this topic, but I do want to pivot for our last segment here towards this patient side of communication, because I do think that this is not an area that most dentists are– not often enough are dentists reaching out proactively to get help with either phone skills, financial conversations, and patient interactions, and I think it would be helpful for a lot of our listeners to be able to at least understand your perspective on maybe the top one or two, maybe three items as it relates to phone skills and financial conversations. So let’s pivot to that for just a minute, and I would just ask you to kind of go through a mental rolodex with me of the things– you know, if you had ten minutes to walk through this with someone at a high level, what would the bullets be?

Katherine Eitel Belt: The bullets would be this: don’t worry about a script; you don’t need a script, and as a matter of fact, I think scripts hurt you. Do implement a framework for all of the major conversations you know will happen day in and day out. So we know we’re going to handle new patient phone calls day in and day out; we know we’re going to handle cancellations; we know we’re going to handle reactivation calls; we know we’re going to present treatment; we know we’re going to discuss financial commitments. And the same is true, really, Reese, in the middle lane of leadership; we know we’re going to have disciplinary conversations with underperforming employees; we know we’re going to have team meetings. So, all those things we know are going to occur and reoccur… I’m a big believer in creating frameworks for those. And that’s what we teach: we teach a four-step framework for handling new patient phone calls, and what we know is when people adapt and adopt those frameworks, they can be in control of the phone call at all times, and still, within the framework, they can be authentically who they are and sound conversational, but they never lose control of the conversation. So if you want to have an employee review, and you don’t want to lose control of the review, you need a framework to be able to stay within and feel secure within and still be able to flew within. And so that’s what we teach, and same with financial conversations: we try to keep it really simple. We don’t want people– you know, you can’t have 39 steps to the framework, people people, in the heat of battle when the phones are ringing off the hook, they can’t remember 39 steps! They can remember four. So we keep it really high level, really simple… it’s not complicated.

Reese Harper: What would the most common– let’s go through one example. Let’s say it’s a new patient intake call… what’s the way that you would say these three or four bullets looks like for that situation?

Katherine Eitel Belt: So the framework we teach for a new patient call, we have four steps. The first one is to build relationship; we call it “relationship.” Within that, there are to ways they could do it: it’s either that they’re finding something personal to connect with– where they work, where they live, the relationship with who referred them, something. Something that communicates to this potential patient, “I see you as a human being, and not just a dollar bill; not just an appointment; not just a tooth.” Or they can connect with empathy; they can create relationship with empathy. So if they have an issue, if they have high urgency, whether that’s pain, or time, or whatever, we notice it, and we respond with empathy, but we teach them how to verbally do that. So the first step is get a relationship started. Second– and this is the one they most often stumble on– we call “discover,” and it’s a series of questions. The group can come up with their own– we make some suggestions– but our process is that we’re trying to discover two things: we’re trying to discover what appointment will be appropriate, not the appointment they ask for. It’s often not the appropriate appointment. We just say yes to that, but we are listening to what level of urgency they have, and which appointment will be appropriate. The second thing we’re trying to decide or discover is what else they care about that we can promote the practice back to them through that filter. So for example, if they’re concerned about affording the care they need, then we can begin to promote the practice’s financial options through this filter that we’ve discovered that is a hot-button filter, or whatever it is. And then step number three is that once we go, “I’ve got it; I know exactly which appointment would be best for this patient, and I know exactly what else they care about,” then we move into “solutions,” and in “solutions,” we promote or sell the perfect appointment for them, what will happen, and why it’s perfect for them, and then we also– I’m going to say it out loud, the four letter word “sell”– we sell the practice to them back through the filter of the couple of things that we discerned that they really care about. My feeling here is that it’s not the patient’s job to sell themselves on us: it’s our job to sell them on us. And so, we help teams learn how to do that. But you can see how we can’t script it; there are not enough reams of paper printed in the world to script out every way this conversation could go. But when we do calls like this, we do very differently from most of our competition. When we do the initial call, typically the administrators are not promoting their practice at all, and if they do, it sounds very stilted, and very scripted, and not authentic, and so they lose a lot of power. Then the fourth steps is one of the easiest one, and it’s another set of questions, but these are just detail questions. So it’s a set of detail questions about things we need to get from the patient: insurance information, contact information… and then another list of things we need to give the patient: directions, access to the website, directing them to a particular page on the website, forms, things like that.

Reese Harper: It’s amazing how simple it is, but it’s very difficult to make sure you can execute all of these little steps if you don’t have a framework, and if that framework hasn’t been internalized, and if it’s not an unscripted, natural part of your relationship building. Just missing one of these items is really easy to do, and it really reduces the efficiency, and it really has a financial effect on your practice’s bottom line, i feel like– not having frameworks.

Katherine Eitel Belt: Yeah! And we see people coming to us who are spending– some of these practices with multiple locations are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing plans, and generating phone calls, but not converting very many of them. So, it has a huge financial impact! Or if they are getting them into the practice, they’re not converting large-ticket treatment plans, because they don’t have a framework to do it, and they don’t have the skill level to do it. So we want to make it easier, not more complicated. We want to make people feel good; they can be who they are; they can show up really big in that framework, and they can navigate within it with some expertise. And we layer on real life. I mean, through all those hard phone calls, asking if they’re a provider on the plan, or you know, shopper calls that ask the price of different things, we overlay that framework and teach people how to masterfully handle those real-life challenges that they’re really struggling with. And what we love most is that our administrators tell us that they feel more empowered than they ever did to show up bigger and way more professional in their careers because of this training, and so we love it. We absolutely love doing it.

Reese Harper: Well thanks so much, Katherine, for all of your insight. You’re definitely one of the communications leaders in not just the dental industry, but I know you get asked to do a lot of work outside that space. The dental space, I feel like, is uniquely in need of communications training, especially as team members rotate, and as time passes, I feel like it’s one of the more under-appreciated essential components to a practice’s efficiency and profitability. So, I think you’ve just given us a lot to think about, both from a leadership perspective, a team-facing, an internal, emotional control, and a patient-facing perspective, and I’m excited to edit this down. I really appreciate you taking the time today, and I just want to give you a chance to have any parting thoughts with listeners; we’ll turn the time over to you before we part ways.

Katherine Eitel Belt: Well, I’m so appreciative, Reese. Equally, you’re a leader in this whole financial, practice success, personal success part of the industry, and so it’s a great honor to be on the show. A parting thought would be, my husband is a recently-retired fifth grade school teacher, and when he heard me give my leadership presentation, as well as the telephone skills, and the financial conversation, he said to me later over dinner, “you know, I wish fifth graders– I mean, certainly teaching them math, and science, and history is all really important, but I wonder what kind of workforce we would have or what kind of society we would have if children learned these skills at an early age… how to communicate so clearly and effectively, how to handle and not avoid these crucial conversations that we all avoid, but actually learn to enjoy the process of taking those on and doing well with them.” And I said, “I totally agree. So, here’s the fun for my company: for LionSpeak, they didn’t learn it in fifth grade, or sixth grade, or twelfth grade, or anywhere. And so here’s a business with this huge workforce that hasn’t really learned how to uplevel their internal and external communications, and so it’s super fun for us to show them– that’s really the lioness principle for us; they’ve had the ruby slippers on all along; they actually instinctively know how to do this, but they have forgotten that they know, and so we come in and remind them that they can do this, and that it’s not as hard as they think, and they can definitely do better, and the results have been spectacular. So, you know, a great way to find out what we do and how we do it is to, of course, visit our website, which is lionspeak.net… we have lots of ways that we coach, but primarily, in all three of those lanes we have workshops, so we have a leadership workshop, we have speaker-in-training workshops, and we have workshops for telephone and financial conversations. And then we also do private coaching, either on site, or virtually. So, in any of those lanes, we have lots of different programs that help and pretty much fit any budget or time frame, and so we’d love to meet with you.

Reese Harper: Well, that’s awesome! Thank you so much, and we’ll put all of your contact information on our website. Pass my best along to Tom, and thank him for sharing you with us as well; we look forward to having you back on soon, and I look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Katherine Eitel Belt: I think that would be so great. Thanks for having me, Reese!

Practice Management