📍  Welcome back to No Silver Spoons, the podcast where I talk about leadership, business growth, and what it actually looks like to build something meaningful without having everything handed to you. I'm your host and I'm also the CEO of Dentistry support. I'm Sarah Beth Herman, and whether you are in dentistry or not, I want you to stay with me for this episode because what we're talking about today applies to any business.

Any team and honestly any person trying to grow into something better because at the core of it, every single one of us is trying to figure out, how do I grow what I have built without it falling apart? And if you've ever felt like you business is heavy, like you're carrying just too much, like things are technically working, but also kind of messy, then this episode is for you.

Today I'm talking about something that changed the way I lead, the way I build and the way I look at problems. It is improved efficiency over perfection, and I want you to really hear that. Not perfection, not a flawless system, not a team that never makes mistakes, not a business that looks perfect from the outside.

I am talking about something much more real than that. I'm talking about progress. I'm talking about tightening things up, if you will, I'm talking about removing friction little by little until things start to feel lighter, because perfection sounds really good, but it's actually one of the biggest things slowing businesses down today.

And here's the truth that a lot of people don't say out loud. Your business doesn't feel heavy because your people are failing. It feels heavy because your systems are just inefficient, and that is a very different conversation because if it's a people problem, you feel stuck. If it's a systems problem, you can totally fix it, and that should feel really empowering for you.

I also want to ground this in reality for a second. There is actually research that shows when teams are pushed toward perfection, performance doesn't necessarily improve in a meaningful way, but stress, burnout, and pressure absolutely increase. And I know those are buzzwords right now, and I'm sure you're probably a little bit annoyed hearing me talk about stress, burnout, pressure, but you've gotta hear it for just one more episode.

So what happens? You get a team that's overwhelmed trying to keep up appearances instead of actually improving the way they work.

And I've seen it over and over again. I've actually seen it in my own teams. People don't fail because they don't care. And I think that's a misconception that we get people fail because they didn't have clarity, they didn't have structure, and they probably didn't have support. And if that makes you feel like.

Maybe you wanna argue that point with me. I want you to think about every person who you think has failed you, because I promise you, every person that I think has failed me, I had a part in it. And in the next episode that you're gonna listen to the one right after this episode one 18. I'm actually gonna talk about me talking about all of my failures and why I do that.

So I, if that resonates with you, I want you to check out the next episode. Now let's layer something into all of these thoughts. This thought of perfection. Because we have to talk about it, and it's ai.

AI is everywhere right now, and it's being sold to us as this thing that's just gonna fix everything. It's gonna make everything faster, cleaner, more perfect exact right on top of it. And listen, I use ai. I believe in it. It's powerful. But here's what we have to be honest about. AI does not remove complexity.

Especially in dentistry, dental insurance is not perfect. Coverage is not consistent. Breakdowns happen. Patients don't always follow predictable paths. You see, you can automate a process and still have it break. You can streamline a system and still need human judgment. So if you're sitting here thinking, once we get this system in place, everything will be perfect.

I want to gently challenge that. That's not how this works. The goal is never perfection. The goal is just better, and that's exactly how we think inside of dentistry support. We don't chase perfect. It's impossible. We build systems that actually work in real life systems that hold up when things aren't ideal.

Systems that support teams instead of overwhelming them. Systems that. Create consistency even when variables change. Because in dentistry, things always change.  Let's talk about where that heaviness actually shows up, because I know if you're listening, you have felt this.

 your phones aren't handled well, it doesn't just feel like a small issue. It feels like missed opportunities. It feels like a schedule isn't as full as it should be. It feels like patients are slipping through the cracks. It feels like you're working really, really hard, but you're not seeing the growth match the effort, and that disconnect is exhausting.

If eligibility isn't consistent, everything downstream just gets harder, and now your front desk is explaining things they don't fully trust. Now your patients are confused before they even sit down. Now your team is reacting instead of leading.   dental insurance is already complicated.

So when your system isn't tight, that complexity multiplies. , Let's talk about billing. So  if billing isn't controlled, this is where the real weight hits, especially if you're the owner. You're producing dentistry, but the money isn't where it should be.

You're checking reports, but you don't feel confident in what you're seeing. You're working harder, but you're still wondering where things are slipping, and that creates pressure that doesn't go away at the end of the day because it's surrounded with a price. It's surrounded with a dollar amount. It's surrounded with revenue.

It's surrounded with bills that have to be paid and licenses that have to be renewed, and CES that have to be done and all the things that happen with a business ownership like payroll and taxes and benefits and time off and supplies , and all the things. And it makes you crazy. And so again, I want to say this clearly,  that does not mean your team is failing.

It means your systems are asking too much of them. And when systems rely on people to be perfect instead of supporting them to be effective, that's when things start to break. Because perfection says, just don't mess up. Whatever you do, don't mess up. Efficiency says, let's fix why this keeps happening.

And hey, if it happens, tell me it happened. And we're gonna find a way forward. Perfection. It creates this pressure, but efficiency, it creates progress. You see, in business, the only thing you can count on is change. Something's always going to be changing. Someone's always going to be evolving. There's always gonna be something new.

And so with that comes the challenge of keeping up the challenge of rolling with the punches as they come in. So this is where leadership comes in because leadership is not about holding people to impossible standards. Leadership is about creating environments where people can succeed consistently, where expectations are clear, where communication is normal, where problems are addressed early, not hidden.

And this is where a lot of businesses get stuck.  Scaling inefficiency doesn't create growth. It creates bigger problems. More patients, plus broken systems just equals more stress, more production, plus weak billing equals more lost revenue.

More calls plus poor phone systems just equals more missed opportunities. So before you grow, you've gotta get tighter in the processes. And that's exactly why I built dentistry support to step into the areas that feel heavy and make them even just a little bit lighter. I did this because I really wanted to create clarity where there was confusion.

I wanted to create consistency where there's chaos. I wanted to create communication where there is silence, and most importantly, I wanted to create relief. For dental office owners, for dental office leaders, for dental office teams, because businesses shouldn't feel like you're constantly carrying something uphill.

And if you're in dentistry, I want to talk to you directly for just a moment. You don't need to have everything figured out before you get support.  One of the most common things I hear from dentists today is I'm just trying to figure out how I can afford this. I'm just trying to figure out how I can make this all work out.

While you're trying to figure it out, while you're waiting, you're still losing money. We're still 10 steps behind. You're delaying forward moving progress. If you think you can't afford it, you're just losing more money, and I know it sounds like I'm insensitive to the fact that you're trying to figure it out.

But I promise you, you don't need perfect systems before you ask for help. You don't need to wait until things are bad enough. You can decide right now to make things better for you and your business,

and sometimes that means that you learn to lean on the experts that can help get things better, and when you come on board with dentistry support. We have 10 days of onboarding. That 10 days allows us a step every 48 hours to get to know your practice and build out the SOPs, the standard operating procedures, so that we can support you to the best of our ability right away during your Go live call, we're literally talking with you and talking through things with you to make sure that support aligns with you.

One of the first things in dentistry that goes overlooked when you have a staff change, is your AR or your dental billing or your accounts receivable, however you want to word that.

It's because people are not thinking about that. They think I need to fill the schedule. , When you come on board with us, our first priority is to make sure that your current AR is taken care of. Your old AR is important, but it's not the mess that dentistry support created your old AR is really important to us.

However, it's not our primary focus because we have to make sure that everything we're touching right now is going to be good. It's going to be solved. It's going to come in in the form of revenue for your practice, and we want it all organized. We want it tidied up. We're focused on filling your schedule.

We're focused on great breakdowns of benefits. We know that there will be challenges along the way because it's a brand new relationship with your team and ours. But we're here to guide you every step of the way with weekly meetings every week for 12 weeks to make sure you feel comfortable. 90% of our offices don't meet with us every week because they just love what we have going on.

They figured it out. We've weaved ourselves into their daily routine, and now we're an extension of their team.

You can decide right now to make things better. And because this episode is sponsored by Dentistry Support, I want to give you something that you can take with you right now, $300 off your very first six months of support. It's split evenly across those months.

You'll use the Code podcast in the onboarding forms, even if you're not sure, start the conversation with us. Clarity alone can change everything for you. Now I wanna zoom out for just a second, because this episode is not just about dentistry. It is about how you live. So many people are waiting, they're waiting to feel ready for anything.

They're waiting For things to be perfect to do, insert blank. They're waiting for the right timing. They're waiting for something that they can't even put their hands on right now or their mind to. They're just waiting.  Those around us don't realize is that that waiting is what's keeping you, me, everyone around us stuck.

You don't become a better leader by improving what is in front of you. One system, one conversation, one decision at a time and over time, that compounds sometimes in business and in leadership. It looks like taking the time to do that one thing that might take you 30 minutes, but it's not mission critical right now.

And you know, it eventually needs to get done, but you just decide to do it right now. You see, a long time ago I started looking at how I handle things that maybe aren't pressing right now, but if I've got a few minutes to do it and I just do it now, my future self will thank me. So I often use that same phrase.

Will my future self thank me? Will my future self be grateful that I took the time to do blank? The answer is always just do it. If you have a second, don't wait for perfect conditions or the last minute pressure. Even if you thrive under pressure, like most entrepreneurs will say they do, just do it now.

Don't give yourself unnecessary pressure. Don't wait for the perfect moment. Just do it  in every episode here at No Silver Spoons. I have a, that's good moment.  it's My favorite part of every episode.  If you're new around here, this is where we take everything we just talked about.

We bring it down into something simple, something clear, something you can actually carry with you after this episode ends because you're probably on your way to work or on your way home from work. Or you had just a quick 20 minutes to listen. So here it goes. If your business feels heavy, it's not because you're failing and I really want to help you see that, the truth is because something in your systems needs attention.

And that's actually good news because that means it's fixable. You don't need to be perfect. You don't need a perfect team. You don't need perfect conditions. You just really need awareness and you need honesty, and you need the willingness to improve because the moment you stop chasing perfect is the moment things start getting lighter.

And that's really good. Thank you for being here with me on No Silver Spoons today. This podcast is about real leadership. Building something from nothing. Learning as you go and choosing to move forward even when things aren't perfect. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who's building something new right now.

Someone who maybe feels like something is a little heavier than it should be. And if you're in dentistry and you're ready to clean up the inefficiency in your billing eligibility, or phones, or you're even looking to scale your current operation. Dentistry support is here for you. And don't forget to use the code Podcast in your onboarding forms for $300 off your very first six months with us.

Make sure you're subscribed because the next episode we're talking about what it really means to go first as a leader, even when it's 📍 uncomfortable. I'll catch you on the next episode.