OM Ep. 130: Building Your Practice Dream Team Part 1 – Creating Core Team Values

Jill Allen: Hi everybody. Jill Allen here from Jill Allen and Associates, and I'm so excited to be here with Dean Steinman from Ortho Marketing. We are going to be doing a three part series called Building Your Practice Dream Team. We're going to be bringing you Part One Core team values.

Dean Steinman: Ortho marketing.com. 360 degree Digital Marketing solutions for your practice.

Hi everybody, this is Dean Steinman from Ortho Marketing, and we're back with another podcast for you and I'm so, so excited to have with me Jill Allen. From Jill Allen. We are here to doing a three-part podcast series about building your practice dream team, and today we're talking about part one, which is creating core team values.

Jill, how are you today, my dear?

Jill Allen: I'm good, Dean. I'm so excited to be doing this as well. I think this is gonna be a really fun three-part series and I'm just really excited to be, you know, really working our, our way through. Especially starting with core values because I think that is something that practices need, especially when you're, you know, kind of rolling that in with marketing as well.

Dean Steinman: It's, you're right, it's, it's so important, you know, and it's, it's funny. When I talk to a practice and I initially speak to them, we say, what makes, what's your differentiator? What makes you different than anybody else in, in, in the market? And you know, they, everybody said, well, I'll give you, we give you great results and this and that.

But, you know, at the end of the day it's, it's the values of the, of the, of the practice and the way they interact and, and you know, the way they, they get the day going. So let's talk a little bit about how do some, how do you build up core values and what. Is it, we'll start the very, very beginning. Yeah.

As, as the, as the song goes. We'll start from the very beginning, . Absolutely. So Gerald, tell me, how do you define. Core values.

Jill Allen: Yeah. So, you know, I think when you, when we think about core values, sometimes, you know, it seems like this really big concept and it can, it can feel a bit overwhelming, I think for doctors and practices, whether you're a small practice or a large practice.

It can, it can just feel like this really, really big. un un. Like it's hard to put your fingers on, you know, it really untangible thing, but when you really break it down, what we're trying to do with core values is, you know, get five to seven things that define you as a doctor and then you as your practice.

And when I think about this, I, I, you know, I always tell my, you know, my, my teams what we're looking for. What is your perception of how you wanna be perceived by your patients, by your online presence, by you know, your community. And if we can, you know, pull that back to core values, I think that really helps us define that.

That makes

sense.

Dean Steinman: It does. But now the question is how does someone even know what to even look at? Because as you know, as somebody who is an orthodontist, they're a specialist and they're focused on their, their main tasks and their, and their main training. So how do they even get them to think outside the, those, those parameters to even know what a core value is?

Cuz they're, at end of the day, they just want to get people straight of teeth. Yeah. Okay. So how does somebody even know? A core value is, and how do they figure out how they want to position the practice? Cause at the end of the day, sure, they wanna be part of the community and they want to. They just want to get people straighter teeth.

Yeah. Yeah. So how do you figure out a pool of what core values are in choosing your best ones that, that, that would define you. Right,

Jill Allen: right. So I think a, a really great exercise that you can do, and we're gonna have this as part of this white sheet that you can, you know, download. But one of the things that you can do is just first start by self-reflection.

So as, as a doctor what, what are things that I want people to. In, in my business or about me that are reflected out through my business. So I think starting there first, writing down what do, what do I perceive myself or what do I perceive that people see about me? Then I think the next thing is going out to your peers or your team or people who know you best and saying, okay, now I, I have my list of what I think my core values are, but how do you perceive me?

What do you see in my business market research? Yes, exactly. And, and you know, I, I would, I would pick, you know, eight to 10 people to do this for you and give them all the same list. And again, I've, I've got a little worksheet. We've got a little worksheet that we put together to help help with this, but let them choose and then go back and say, okay, do what I see as my core values.

are they what other people see as my core values? And then from there you kind of have two starting places to put together to then really flesh out what those core values are going to be. And then that's kind of becomes your building block of what you're gonna build on from there.

Dean Steinman: It's so hard to step back and see the big picture and or see the forest through the trees cuz you're focused and you know, and I see.

Business one way and other people might see it perceived as another way. You, you the same in a practice and you might practice my position to think that we're the best and we've got the best experience, but people might be thinking that, no, not even close. Cuz that's not how it, my experience is there.

So it's great to get feedback, you know, from the you know, from your patients and from your peers and, and your staff. Mm-hmm. . And you know, when, also when it comes to, to core values I, I say this to people all the time, you know, you could crow. , do the crowds come home? How great you are about your core values.

But that's not what you want to you, you really want other people to say how great you are, you know? Yes. And that's where there's a term that came up, came out recently called Social Proof. Mm-hmm. comes at the blight. Yeah. You know, and that is important is, as I said, you could, you know, you could sit there and say, we are the best and we deliver this and this and this, but No, no, no.

The public wants to hear from, from their peers. What your core values are. So, you know, where does a practice, you know, go wrong in creating their, their core values and how do they avoid some of the pitfalls in doing so? Cuz if they're gonna position themselves, they don't wanna be too cocky, I guess.

Right? They don't wanna do this and, you know, so what are a few, you know, case studies or things that you just throw peoples go down the wrong path and it's a train wreck and, you know, and how do they, and how would they, somebody on the future avoid? . Yeah.

Jill Allen: So I, I really think that this comes back to you as the doctor and if you are saying, well, I'm gonna have my office manager come up with our core values, or I'm gonna have my team members come up with my core values.

that that isn't gonna go the long haul. Right. That that's their core values. That's, that's, that's them putting their input and, and you know, and I think there's this big differentiator between what they see as you as a doctor, as my core values or what they. perceive as what they think the core values should be.

Mm-hmm. . So I think that that's a big pitfall, is putting it in somebody else's hands when it, when it comes to that. Another, another thing that I see is not. You know, talking about it like, like I have core values that are set within my own business and we review those every single time we have a team meeting and, you know, that, you know, kind of leads into it also.

Because we review them so much, it allows my team to you know, talk about decisions and how they make decisions within my company because they are based on the values of, of, you know, what, what we have our, our core values. And so I think when we don't, you know, sometimes we pick it, we stick.

but then never talk about it again. And I think that that is, that is our big, our big pitfall is not keeping it in front of us and it's not enough to have it on a wall that we walk by and it becomes like the, you know, the fake plant in the corner. Sure. Nobody pays attention to, I mean, like, it, it, it is living it, breathing it, talking about it all the time.

Dean Steinman: Let's take one step back so people might not even understand what a core value is. What, what, what are a couple of examples of. A core value is, you know, to cause how do they even know what, how to define it? Sure. You know? So what, what is example of, of a, of

Jill Allen: a core value? Yeah. Yeah. So like, when, when I think about core values you know, I think they're like one word, you know?

So I'm gonna say a core value in my business. One of the words we picked out was, and then I incorporated, incorporated that into, we will be honest with our assessment of situations that

Dean Steinman: we're in. Right. So when, when you're coming up with, with the core values and honesty is, is is obviously one that you've mentioned there.

How do you, what do you, how do you think that's to the next level? What do you do about that?

Jill Allen: Yeah, yeah. So, so for instance, you know, honesty being a core value in our, in our business, the next thing we do is we put it into kind of a, a. . So here would be an example of o of one of mine. We are honest with our assessment of situations and what that, what that does is it takes that one word, that one core value, honesty and then puts it into perspective for how my team uses that core value.

When we're working day out,

Dean Steinman: I always have a problem getting people to buy into it cuz this is my core values, but not their. So I'm sure that is a big issue that you have with your, maybe your staff or hopefully you're good at, at getting them involved. But how does a team, how does a a, a practice get the team involved with it and enforce it?

Jill Allen: Yes, so I think, again, this comes back to, it is up to you as the doctor, you, as the office manager, to really make sure that your team. Yeah, over and over again what your core values are and then understands how to use them in their daily work life. So if you have your five to seven core values, and then we are constantly talking about how do we use.

You know, these different words, how do we put 'em into a sentence? How do we put 'em into, into practice? Then it just becomes the fabric of your daily work, your your daily you know, workday workforce. And then again, what we're we hope for is it bleeds out into everything else that we're doing. Our social presence the way we interact with the community, the way we act with our dentists, the.

You know, our business is perceived, should, should, you know, kind of start from where those core values are and how they are acted upon with, with your team members.

Dean Steinman: How, how, but how do they enforce it so they could say it and say it, but. How do they make sure that it's actually done? Because, you know, they're not, they're not there, you know, micromanaging or, or watching, you know, the front staff who are watching this, the tc, you know, communicate.

So how do you know? You have to just hope and pray that they just follow your, your leading goal or. Or what, what, you know, what, what would, what would they put in place? You know, to make sure that they're, cuz this is their, their name, it's their practice, their reputation that's out there. You know, staff comes and goes, you know, but you're building up a business and you're part of a community.

You wanna make sure that your values are presented the right way. So, How do you ensure this?

Jill Allen: Yeah, so I think that it's being aware of what your team is saying and doing and correcting behavior or cre, you know, correcting communication that may not be align in, in, aligned with the, with those core values.

So if, if our core value is helpful and we are. You know, answering our, taking the time to answer our patients questions to the fullest of our ability or you know, and, and, and we notice that a team member is constantly cutting people off and being short and not listening or this, that and the other. I think as doctors and as you know, team leads or office managers, we have to kind of correct that behavior and say, you know, that the way you're handling this situ.

Doesn't align with the core values, with the way we want to treat our patients. And so we're gonna coach you and counsel you on how to do it better so that when you are in this situation again, you're gonna be reacting in the way that, that we are hoping that, that aligns more with that core value.

Dean Steinman: I'm laughing because, you know, I had a conversation with somebody today and. In, in my company about this, and they got very, very defensive. And I, this was not meant to be picking on them at all. This is the way I want my company presented and the way I want you interacting with the clients. And they got very, very defensive.

And as you know, we're in a very different world than when you and I grew up in, you know, and then if you're, and if you're a more seasoned practice or seasoned. You know, doctor, you grew up in a different world. So now you've gotta balance so delicately at your staff. So how, you know, how much, how far do you push somebody in order to make, to make sure they do it here to your, your, your values enforce it.

Cuz there's always staff turnover. So now you have a new person and they're not hearing, hearing, you might have to get rid of them or, or train them. And so how do you do so with kid gloves? You know, because last thing you want, you know, I don't like turnover in my, in my company, but it. And, and, and you, as you know, the biggest issue that a practice has is their staff.

You know, keeping them there getting the right people. So you know, let's talk about that. So, you know, with increasing in, in staff turnover, you know, what do you do when a staff member is not adhering to the practice? Poor values. Cuz you really don't want to have them leave because of that.

People might have a. So where do you, where do you draw the line?

Jill Allen: Well, I think it's, I think what you have to do is self-reflect as a doctor and an office manager and say, how important is it that my team. You know that the, the team culture that we have in our, in our, in our offices, how important is it that, that they adhere to our core values?

And if core values are important to you, if it's something that you guys are constantly talking about and going over, I think just naturally, if you have a whole team of people who buy. to the culture of the, of your practice or your business, and you have the one person that does not, it's very easy to see the, to see the answer.

It may not be what we want. Right? And this isn't, this isn't, you know You know, a a, a, this is kind of a pinch, but the answer is send them away with love. Let them find another practice, another business, another place that maybe fits and aligns more with their own core, core values. But you're just not gonna, you know, keeping that one person on.

that rubs the whole team or that doesn't align with where the whole team is going is not fair to the team that is on board and going where you're going, but it's also not fair to that person. If they can't, if they can't get on the culture train, then send them away with love. They're not meant to be part of your part of your practice

Dean Steinman: part.

So somebody's been with you for 10, 15, 20. It became, but almost your family. And it's how do you get rid of a family member? But at the end of the day, this is your business. It is. And if you can't get on, on board and adapt, I mentioned this many, many times in my previous podcast and I quote, the great Billy Bean baseball executive, adapt or die, you know, for your business, have, your business does not adapt and change.

you know, your core values might be here, but that also might be the core values of Archie Bunker. Or if anybody who knows, doesn't know who he is, you know, or Al Bundy doesn't know who he is. , you know, I'm just some not old, old school TV references here. So how do you, you don't want to be associated with that anymore.

You know? You want to be, you have to be very you have to be socially, socially c. You know and one word gets out there that you don't support this or this, or blah, blah blah. So you have to make sure that, that, you know, it's kid, kid gloves. Yeah. You know, so now the next question is you know, and I, we can talk about this when it comes to, you know, marketing your practice, all right, what would you suggest as a couple of ways to incorporate your values in it?

Now let's take, before I answer that, let's take a step. There's a difference between your image and your brand and your values. Yes. Okay. Values is the way that you, I guess, want to position a, you know, to be a really, to be a cool hipster office. It's not a value. Okay. It's a, it's a perception. It's an image, but it's not a value.

So what would you say are, are a few ways for you as a practice owner or who's listening practice owner to Inc. About one or two of your values into your marketing. Sure.

Jill Allen: And I, and I'm sure you will be able to answer this, you know, I, I, I can't wait to hear what, what you say about this, but here would be like a couple examples, let's say.

You picked out that you are a practice that wants to really educate your, your patients. You want, you know, you, you really wanna stand on the pillar of, you know, we, we wanna be educational. Not only good at what we do, but we wanna make sure that our patients understand what we're doing well, I'm just gonna use an example of.

Social media posting maybe as part of the pillars that you're picking, and, you know, and I always suggest that offices pick, you know, two or three pillars that they're gonna help build their posts around. Well, if education is a core value, and education can be built into a pillar, that you're going to use.

Let's just say in some of your social media posts, maybe you're gonna make sure that at least three or four times, you know, a month, you guys are gonna have a post. That helps. , educate, whoever is out there watching, following your patients your, your audience out there on something that maybe they don't know or should know about your practice.

Orthodontics, you know, whatever your passion is. So that's, I think that's just like one example. Very, very small. And when we look at marketing, you know this better than I do. I mean, That's like one, one little cherry on the big, big tree, right? Mm-hmm. . But I, I feel like that is, that's a, a easy, I think, example to think of how could that roll into something super simple?

Like, like social media posting, let's just say.

Dean Steinman: So my response to that, or add on to that, You have when you put a post up and before you hit, before you even hit the word post, you have to think of my favorite radio station, w I I f M, what's in it for me? And what's in it for me is from is the person who was seeing your post not.

From your perspective as the doctor, because at the end of the day, that po you want that post to be shared. You want your patients or the community to, to spread the word and share it with their friends. And that's how you build up your practice and the brand there, there's nothing worse than having a, having a catch and throwing it.

The balls will come back, alright? That's like putting a post up and nobody sees it goes into a black hole. So by educating and putting a post up and by having your values in it, make sure the one bit of advice that I would say, what's in it for me as the person who sees it and, and why would they share it?

Yeah. Make sure they would care about it, not you. So you have to, so you have to really think, so if your value is education, you wanna do it well. Don't educate people the way you want to be educated. Think about it from their perspective, and give them a reason to respond to it, to comment on it, to share it, to have some sort of, of action on it.

Otherwise, it's, it just falls flat and it doesn't do any good. And that. By far the only way to really expand your reach in the community and to get what I mentioned before, social proof. Social proof is, is. letting other people say how great you are through social media, not you doing it. And nothing stands better than somebody who is willing to share your post or comment on it and tell their friends and, Hey, here's a great poster.

So what do you think? Or editing it to a, to a abl a blog or, or something in, in, in a form. So that's important. So if you're thinking, take one step back guys, and if you have a value, let's say, you know, education is a big, is a big part of your life and you want to, in your passion of yours. Take one step back and you're not edu Your education has, you know, message has to be so simple, so easy to read.

Within three seconds, people have to be able to see your whole message. Nobody's gonna read four or five sentences. Okay? So how do you educate somebody in six, seven words? Okay. Anything more than that is too much. Okay? So it's, it's, you have to keep it really simple. , very visual. Nobody reads. So if there's a way to, for you to pass on your, your information, either through a video format or through very, very little words, that's the way to to, to pass on your core values and then ask the community to do so.

If you've got a very outgoing type, a patient who was, who is very out there and loves to be on social media, Ask them if they'd be willing to, you know, interact with you and can I ask you a question and do a quick interview? Would you mind, you know, talking about your experience here and how we're educated and let them do it and, and put it on their social media?

And if you don't ask, you're not gonna get, that's a great tip there is by asking for having a social media or an internal marketing program in place to ask your patients to do, to do so. You know, think about it, you have a captive audience for 10, 15 minutes every time somebody's there. What are you asking them to?

If you don't ask them to give you a review, they're not going to, if you don't ask them for a referral, they're not going to, if you don't ask them to, to be active on social media with you, they're not going to. So this here is part of building up your core values again, and make sure your staff buys into it and you're gonna get, you're gonna get pushback like, I'm so busy, I can't have time for that, blah, blah, blah.

Do you know how long it takes to say, would you mind giving us a review? Let's, let's, let's cut that again. Would you mind giving us a. four seconds. If they're on four seconds of their day, I think it's time to have that talk. Okay. Well, are you happy? Would you have anybody that might be interested in our practice give us a referral.

Five seconds. Hmm. Hey, you know, we're acting on social media now. Would you, would, would you be in, would you be cool with taking a video? We're asking or having, asking us, answering a few questions. Five seconds. That's. If you don't ask, you don't get, and you don't wanna do this constantly, but just pick a people, few people here or there, and will be a difference maker.

So you have to really have multiple, in my eyes, multiple steps involved. One is you have to come up with your, your core value and potentially have a visual or have it in a, in a you know, a triangle. There's a very famous triangle of values from. John Wooden, who was a basketball coach. I mean, if you've ever seen his Triangle of Success.

And it's, it's basically, it's like a pyramid of different values and how you build things up from, from your life and not even just basketball. Very, very powerful piece there. So you have a visual, you or you bring it up in your meetings, like you said. Then from there you don't just bring it up.

What's the next steps there, guys? You know, Trey told your staff, but what are they doing with it? Okay. You have to think outside your four walls. Okay? And right now with social media, , the world is your, is your office, not just your four walls. So by having a correct message, a correct team to develop, deliver that message and then a, the correct distribution of that message is the golden triumph.

My, my eyes there. Yeah. You know, and that's how I, in my eyes, from a marketing perspective, is how you need to do it. And you have to have your team involved. Okay. You know, and that's really important for when it comes to marketing. You know, marketing is by far the number one investment you will ever make in your practice or in anything.

You know, unless you bought, you know, Amazon on the ipo, you know, or you, or you bought Microsoft when, you know, when it was a. That marketing is gonna be your, your biggest, your, you know, investment and the biggest return on it. And you should see, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 x on your marketing if you do it correctly.

But again, you have to have what, as Jill said, the, the right message, the right, the right team, and the right program in, in, in place there. So Jill, one last question for part one here as when it comes to, but you know, building, you know, core, core values. , is there any type of information or resources that you could suggest to somebody?

To do so because we're at the end of this podcast, guys we're gonna, you're going, you, you can take a look at, at a link and we're gonna put in there at, at I'll, I'll mention it in a bit. If you go to or marketing.com/dream team, you'll see you will see some great downloadable worksheets, some, some good information on there.

Some good ways to build up the core values to, things to include on that. So Jill, let's talk a little bit. The information or, or you know, resources that are, will be, will be available to somebody for your core. .

Jill Allen: Yeah. Yeah. So I think part of this worksheet that, that we're gonna be, you know, that, that they're gonna be able to access is, you know, really helping, you know, doctors really, like we talked about, go through and define what those goals are, how did they interpret their personal goals?

Then a worksheet on how to give that out to friends, family, team members to establish it and then to really help you guys bring it all together. So I think that that, that tool in and of itself is gonna be, you know, super, super valuable for anybody who's listening. And, and the one thing I wanna say is it, this doesn't matter if you did this, you know, if you're a, you a more established practice, maybe you did this 10 years ago.

And, and here's what I, I know is. Like you've said before, if you're not, you know, we're always evolving and I think even our core values can change and evolve as our businesses course. Yeah.

Dean Steinman: As a person, you, you have different, different value now than you did when you were 18 and different. You were 25 and 40 and whatever, 50, you know, your, your values always change and, you know, so, and the practice values cha changed.

So. , you know, you always have to update your, your, your

Jill Allen: information. Yeah. Yep, yep. So I think that, you know, going through this exercise I think might be really good for a lot of, a lot of people out there. You know, for, for helping them. Just, you know, just kind of reassess are my core values that were in place, still in place.

Does my team, and I'm, I'm gonna point this out because we all know, we all have new team members post Covid. We all have new team members. But does our post covid team members know what was in place pre covid? , potentially. Maybe, maybe they do, maybe they don't. Maybe this is a perfect time to just say, clean slate.

Try again. Let's start again. Let's implement some new, some new values. Let's implement some new ways to keep it in front of my team and my team meetings and whatnot and, and move forward. So I thi I think that this. Little white sheet that we're gonna have is gonna be a, a wonderful tool that we've created to help people start with that.

Beyond that, there's lots of, you know, books and you know, different podcasts and stuff out there that, you know, people can, you know, it's all about core values and different things, but I feel like this is gonna be just a great, just a great tool that people are gonna wanna download and and incorporate into their, into their.

Dean Steinman: Right. So again, go to ortho marketing.com/dream team and you'll be able to see all the, all this great information resources, work, worksheets across the board there. So guys, this was part one and remember this, we got two more to go. So, so stay tuned. The next episode that Jill and I will talk about, which will be coming up soon is drafting a winning team.

All right. And you know, in. You know, let's talk a little bit of a preview there. What would, what, what have been some of the highlights of people who look forward to, when it comes to drafting a winning team?

Jill Allen: Yes, so I, you know, I, I'm super excited about this one because we're gonna really be talking about how we take these core values and you know, and build that into value-based decision making.

So how do we. , how do we work with that and then move, move it into you know, making decisions with that, but also really thinking about we've got this great team, but how do we make sure they're in the right place and, you know, with, within our office. And then how does that work into our, our marketing as well?

And, you know, we can, we can look at that from the initial phone call to the treatment coordinator, to the leads that come in. So we're gonna be talking about all of that in this. In this next session.

Dean Steinman: Great. So Joel, thank you so much. Thank, this was so much fun. Very educational. Guys, listen, this is so important to do.

You have to have the right program in place. Think about it when you are putting aligners on somebody, you have to have a game plan. You, when you put somebody in by liner one, then two, then three, then blah, blah, blah. You don't put 'em in 17 and into four, and then nine and then eight. There's a right practice in place and when building up your, your, your practice building up your team.

building up your marketing, building up your business. You have to have a right roadmap in place. And that's kind, hopefully this will give you a little bit of insight in how to do so. Yep. So Jill, thank you so much. Welcome everybody. Thank you so much for listening. Remember, go to author marketing.com/dream team for this information.

Stay tuned for part two and everybody enjoy Happy marketing, happy smiles. Be safe. Wash your. And enjoy. Life is short guys, so make it fun. Thanks everybody. Baba

ortho marketing.com, 360 degree digital marketing solutions for your practice.