This week, the Dental Amigos welcome Alex Nottingham, founder and CEO of All-Star Dental Academy, for a dynamic and thought-provoking conversation about what it really takes to build and lead a high-performing dental team. Drawing on his experience as a business leader, speaker, and coach, Alex shares practical insights on reducing costly staff turnover, improving team training, and creating a culture of accountability and care.

Alex breaks down why dentists often get in their own way when it comes to leadership—and how shifting from manager to visionary can transform their practices. He also talks candidly about the value of coaching, what makes dental events impactful (or not), and why most dentists are surprisingly great on the phone.

From building onboarding systems to getting buy-in from your team, this episode is full of real-world advice for practice owners who want to work smarter, not just harder.

To learn more about Alex and explore All-Star Dental Academy’s free resources and training programs, visit https://www.allstardentalacademy.com.

Listeners who want to reach Paul can do so at Paul@DentalNachos.com, and those who want to reach Rob can do so at Rob@RMontgomery-law.com.

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

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Bumper  

Welcome to the Dental Amigos podcast with Dr. Paul Goodman and attorney Rob Montgomery, taking you behind the scenes of the dental business world— all the things you didn't learn in dental school but wish you had. Rob is not a dentist, and Paul is not a lawyer, but since Rob is a lawyer, we need to tell you that this podcast is for informational purposes only and shouldn't be considered legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not, and will not, create an attorney-client relationship. As is always the case, you should formally consult with legal counsel before proceeding with any legal matter. Learn more about the Dental Amigos at www.thedentalamigos.com. And now, here are the Dental Amigos.

Rob Montgomery  

Well, everyone, I'm Rob Montgomery, and I'm joined by the Head Nacho himself, Dr. Paul Goodman. Great to be talking, Rob. It's good to be talking to you, Paul. And welcome, everyone, to another episode of The Dental Amigos podcast — the only podcast hosted by a dentist and a lawyer. Very special. Yes, we are special. We're gonna keep telling ourselves that, Paul. And today we've got a cool guest — Alex Nottingham of the All-Star Dental Academy is joining us and talking about what he does for dentists, and hopefully give some people some actionable items and some things to think about that can help, help them with their ventures in the dental world. Alex is the CEO and founder of the All-Star Dental Academy. He's a former Tony Robbins — Robbins' top coach and consultant — having worked with companies upwards of $100 million in revenue. Alex received his law degree and MBA from Florida International University. He's authored the dental practice game changer book, Dental Practice Excellence, and co-wrote a best-selling book with Brian Tracy. Alex has also shared the stage with Michael Gerber, who we all know is the author of The E-Myth Revisited, and lectures nationally and internationally to prestigious dental organizations. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. And now, without further ado, here's Alex Nottingham. Welcome, Amigo, and thanks for being on the show.

Alex Nottingham  

Great to be here. Thanks Rob; Paul are you here?

Paul Goodman  

Say, to chat, Alex, our first question is very hard-hitting. If we were in your area, where would you take us for nachos? And what is your favorite topping?

Alex Nottingham  

I'm on a sushi kick right now. So, we have a lot of good sushi in the Fort Lauderdale area. There's one location right on the water that's really nice. And we're going there tonight, actually. And we—it's funny—we went there. My wife and I went there for a date. My wife is also the co-founder as well for Also Dental Academy. She did our phone—our phone course. That's part of our history of how we got here. But we actually went to this restaurant Friday evening. We liked it so much, we went the next day for lunch. Wow, so yeah.

Paul Goodman  

And they have nachos and sushi place?

Alex Nottingham  

Oh, you're asking about nachos or just good places?

Paul Goodman  

Well, I like good places, but I also I'm very self centered, so I want to make sure..

Alex Nottingham  

You want nachos. Okay.

Rob Montgomery  

It's all about nachos here. Alex, know your audience here, who you're talking  to.

Paul Goodman  

My wife would like that sushi place, but I would like it. That sushi place sounds wonderful, but I like an additional place for nachos.

Alex Nottingham  

You like do you like popcorn? They give you popcorn.

Paul Goodman  

I like popcorn too, but um...

Rob Montgomery  

He likes nachos.

Alex Nottingham  

You want nachos? We have a chain across the street, any one of those chains that give you nachos, so.

Paul Goodman  

I don't know you didn't sell me on that one, Alex, but when it comes to the next event, I'll see.

Alex Nottingham  

We don't have very impressive nachos down here. Just pick your chain and we'll get you some nachos.

Rob Montgomery  

Though, I was in South Florida last week and I had, I had some tuna nachos, which was pretty cool. It was like sushi, great. Tuna was pretty cool. So you can combine those experiences,  Alex.

Alex Nottingham  

That's what they call fusion, I guess.

Rob Montgomery  

That's right. So I know Alex, you've, Paul has said that he worked with you, and you've helped him in his office immensely. And Paul, if you can.

Paul Goodman  

Yeah, well, I want to share up front that, you know, I, Dentist Job Connect, helps practices hire associate dentists. But when we talk to practices, they say, well, I need a hygienist, a dental assistant, a front desk team member. And for years, we were struggling. But when All Star became a sponsor, your magical team has—we have not one, not two, not three, but six team members, thanks to All Star in our practice: hygienists, assistants, and front desk. So, tell us a little bit about that arm of the All Star.

Alex Nottingham  

Well, well, you know what I might do? If you allow me, I'll give you like a quick kind of backstory about All-Star and how we got to the hiring part of it, because it's kind of a bit of a journey. So, for those that are listening, I'm more similar to Rob over here, a lawyer, than you, Paul, a dentist. So, how does that make sense?

Rob Montgomery  

Two on one, this is a rare occasion, Alex. I appreciate that.

Alex Nottingham  

Yeah, right. Usually the dentist. And so, my father's a dentist. And so, you heard my story with Tony Robbins. I never intended to do anything in dentistry. My father, in fact, told me, "Don't do dentistry. Be a lawyer. They're the ones who make money. And no business, not dentistry." And back then, insurance companies were becoming stronger. Corporate dentistry—he just saw the writing on the wall. So, went to law school, got my MBA, did the Tony Robbins thing.

But what's interesting is, after finishing work with Tony Robbins—well, I was working with him—my father's business was in trouble. I mean, he was a great dentist. Thank you. Trained AGD, fellow, top producer for the Extreme Makeover lab, Da Vinci Studios. But he couldn't run a practice—wrong people, wrong management—and so he was facing bankruptcy. And I offered to help his practice, and I was doing really great with marketing, helping us send a lot of business to his practice, but they weren't converting.

So, my girlfriend at the time—now my wife—she was a Bloomingdale's trainer, sales manager. And so, I took her from there, asked her, "Hey, can you leave those terrible working hours at Bloomingdale's but work at the dental office?" And I brought her to the dental office, and her customer service skills—she was able to adapt that for the dental office. And we took a $1 million struggling practice and brought it to $2.3 million within 18 months.

Paul Goodman  

That's awesome. Tell us, actually, your—your father, clinically, was excellent. And then, you know, you said he was facing bankruptcy. What were the top three things that were causing him to face bankruptcy? If you could go back and sort of, you know, do an assessment, what were the top three things, when you walked in, that were causing him to face bankruptcy—even though he was an amazing clinician.

Alex Nottingham  

Number one was the mismanagement. Well, first, I would say that the phone skills and customer service skills — it was just, you come in. It wasn't anything. He was great, but they weren't trained. And then the other issue was the management. They ran up credit cards and debt. They didn't know what was going on. He had a problem with his associate that wasn't producing. It was just chaos. He's non-confrontational, right? And he just — and I think the third is this lack of enthusiasm from him, the dentist. He wasn't loving it anymore. So all that just led to a very poorly situated practice. I would probably pose.

Paul Goodman  

This, even though you're more like Rob, me, is that I totally understand where he's coming from. Because in dental school, they tell you, "If you are a good dentist, you're going to be successful." And they don't really tell you that you have to train people on customer service and figure these things out. So it can be frustrating for dentists to have to adopt a whole skill set that they never knew was going to be important to them. And I've met many dentists like your dad, and I feel it's—he's lucky he had you and your wife, or girlfriend, to turn that around. But not everybody has that.

Alex Nottingham  

That's right. We have to get this right. She was my girlfriend at the time. Now she's my wife. She wants to make sure I'm very clear on that. But yeah...

Paul Goodman  

How she became your wife? You said, "Hey, we're going to fix a failing dental practice together." And, you know, that was the...

Alex Nottingham  

Yeah. And it turned out, yeah, there you go. But years even before—I mean, you're a younger dentist than my father—before the insurance companies and corporate dentists who became as powerful as they are today, you really could open up a practice, and everybody wanted to work for a dental office. It was out of pocket. It was great. But then it just became commoditized, and more competition, and more complexity. And I think what happened is, corporate dentistry in particular, they're like, oh, man, these dentists don't know how to run a practice. We do, and so we'll monetize them. However, the good news is, what I'm seeing a lot is, dentists are getting smarter. You know, they have so many great resources at All-Star, at Nachos, and others to be able to compete now, and they're starting to take market share away from corporate dentistry, which is nice to see.

Paul Goodman  

Alex, I promise I’ll get back to the hiring question. Also that—Rob—but since, since we're here, and you're on the ground with these dentists, and this will be for listeners that just don't know what makes a dental practice so complex to run... Is it just the dentist being nice, doing some fillings, collecting money, wires? These are such complex businesses to run.

Alex Nottingham  

Because they are. I mean, they, they, they are. Because what's happening is you have multiple modalities, right? So you have a clinical aspect, which requires a level of focus, and also a level of liability, right? Rob, if you don't do it right, you get a lot of lawsuits coming your way. And there are lawyers — not Rob — but there are lawyers that are specialized to go after dentists and medical practitioners for that. So you have to, be careful. You got to be great at your clinician. And dentists love being clinical. That's what they went to school for. So you have that going for you. But it's also a business. It's got to make money. And you have staff — you, which both Rob, you, and I help people find. And so that is another area.

Now, is that not enough? We're staffed or clinical, right? But you still have to market now. You have to compete. People are asking you price questions, insurance questions — it's a lot. There are multiple businesses within a business of a dental practice. It is a complex machine, and that's why dentists who say, "I'm just going to do it myself" — good luck, right? But those that partner with the right companies and support can, can do well. And they have to be focusing on what they know, and then having support there. So you have to have a great team.

It's a lot like an athlete. You go, "Oh, what is it to just hitting a baseball?" I know you love baseball, Rob. Well, my dad would say — because he's a big baseball fan like you — but hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do, right? In any athletic endeavor? Okay, we can argue with that. But the point is, is that it's a hard thing to do. That athletes have tremendous amount of people around them to be successful, and a dental practice is no different. Dental practice is much more complex. So the point is, when I start laying out these multiple modalities, it can be very overwhelming, right? And that's just the way it is.

Rob Montgomery  

I think it's challenging too, that, you know, we talk about this a lot, and it's been a while since we've talked about it on the show. It's the challenge of being a professional practice owner, that. And if you are the one that is still, quote, unquote, "making the donuts," practicing the profession while you're trying to run a business on the side, or you're running a business trying to practice the profession on the side—whatever it is—it's really hard to do those different things. They're not—even though it's all under the same roof—they're very different jobs, and each one of them has multiple jobs under, and that's the problem, I think, with any small business, especially professional practices, that you have to have your hand in so many things. But then, you know, talk to any consultant who's going to tell you, you have to delegate and offload all these things. But it's not that easy, you know, because the stakes are high with a lot of this stuff, and it's liability.

Alex Nottingham  

And that's precisely why we created All-Star Dental Academy. Because, I mean, that wasn't my goal. I mean, I was working with Tony, but a lot of the systems that I've learned can work in any business, and it's not just Tony. Many of the greats we mentioned—Michael Gerber and others—but my thinking is, how can I simplify business systems and marketing and support for our practice, be able to tackle these things?

So we started with—we always started with an online training program, which we still have in our, you know, the top when it comes to that. We're partners with the AGD, AACD. But our online training system focuses on those phone skills, broken appointments, case acceptance—everything you need to train your team to be able to be more productive for you and running a business. Then we also add the coaching component, to be able to understand your, your, in your key performance indicators—how to support your practice. And so you have to start to add these features.

And then later came, about five, six years ago, we added the hiring component. Because what happened is we would say—dentists were like, “Listen, I love your program. I’d love to do it, but I don’t have a team.” And so we said, “All right, well, let’s start hiring team members for them.” And it was more as a way to get them to be able to train, right? So in our philosophy, you should be training regardless. You know, team is going to come and go. Things are going to go up and down. You gotta stay the course in any level of success.

So in terms of this, I love how you guys laid out this complex machinery that is a dental practice. That is part of our goal at All-Star—is how can we support most of the week? Many of—much of it we can do ourselves. We also partner with other people, be able to support dentists to be able to get it done in a way that is highly ethical and a way that also brings more joy to the—to the dentist. Because I think this is also very important.

I talk about—there’s a lot of things we can talk about. One area I talk often about: the five steps to an All-Star practice. And the most important step is the vision. It really is. And it—and it sounds like so simple, but if you don’t know what you want—and what I mean by vision is not some crap, funky crafting way of putting it out so it sounds good—but what do you want in your life?

If you don’t know what you want, then everything around you is going to start telling you what you want. Some people want to be enterprising. They want to open up multiple practices. Most of my dentists I work with—they don’t. They want one practice, maybe an associate, and they want to live their life. And they want to—listen, I tell a lot of our dentists, “I wish for you to have a boring life.” I really do. I want you to go to your practice. Love what you do. Make plenty of your money—money. Your team is happy. Every—your patients are happy. No drama, right?

Paul Goodman  

Tell us this. When I came to your event, which was a lot of fun, I saw how emotional some of the dentists were about what All Star had done for them, right? But very similar to how patients—while the majority of them say they hate us, that’s still true—there are some magical stories where people break down emotionally because they can keep their teeth in their mouth when they go to eat at their family reunion for the first time ever. Or they don’t feel embarrassed to smile. And kind of walk us through, you know, who is the dentist reaching out to All Star? If we treat them like a patient, what... what pain are they bringing to you? And then, like, what does the program do for them?

Alex Nottingham  

Often, which is interesting. Often, when people reach out to us, they're not—so the word I'm looking for, like, it's like, thoughtful. Like, you're talking about, like, so deep. It's like, I need to train somebody. I'm not—my phone skills aren't good. I'm not off case acceptance. I know I can get better, you know? Because we have—we offer a webinar that I can tell your listeners at the end. It's a free webinar. I would encourage them to go to that. Kind of outlines a lot of the pain points and how to overcome them. And I give them a lot of free tools. It's a free webinar, but often it's something like that. They get the vision, the big picture, but they're—they're looking for a specific thing to fix.

Paul Goodman  

And what I'm saying — jump in and help, Rob, too — is, like, as dentists, we often have someone... I see someone on a schedule that says, "My tooth on the lower right broke," and they say, "I'm just here to fix this tooth." And then they open their mouth, and they have 47 problems.

Alex Nottingham  

Exactly, exactly. That's what happened. Yeah, they, they start to learn more of who we are, our story, what we actually do beyond just fix the one problem. But we don't. We're very anti-sales. You know, there's a lot of that out there, like pushing, like they see what they need. You build rapport, and they see that the problem is, like, in this case, not the tooth—well, yeah, the tooth—but the problem is not necessarily just case acceptance, and something deeper. And that's why you see those experiences, like, you'll see these 180 turnarounds for dentists. And I know Tony Robbins, for example, is in that business. We're not. We are a personal development company, but we're not going out there, "Hey, let's fire walk," right? We're like, "Let's get to work."

But what we find is, in order to solve, systemically, a problem, you help to develop the person as a whole—the dentist. And the biggest transformation is when they change their perception, where it's not a chore coming into work, where they look forward to actually getting better as a leader and managing and empowering their team. And they realize that doesn't mean it's more work. It's just a different way of doing things.

And then what happens is the tactical aspects—case acceptance, phone skills, broken appointments—that becomes the secondary. That's what we're going to do. But the primary is going to be their leadership skills, their, their vision, their how they feel about themselves. And that's, you know, our goal. To kind of wrap this, this sentence up, our goal, and we say with our team—I don't put it out often—but we want, we would love, for transformation of people to be able to, to reach what they truly love. And I think you mentioned at the end of the bio, is, like, it really—as a company—we're so happy when people, beyond just some people, double their business. That's great. But they're happier. And that makes us really happy when we see that.

Paul Goodman  

The thing I'll share—and Rob and I talk about this, and Rob would, Jim, anytime—is that coaching to dentists… some believe—I saw this in my own group—it's like, some can't believe that everyone doesn't have a coach. And then the rest of the people think, why would anyone have a coach? Because it's a giant scam, right? It's pretty polarized.

But what I kind of saw with All-Star—and I know them now personally—is they're… I don't know… you can… they're paired with these coaches, you know. And Rob gets clients who connect with him and have problems.

Tell us just a little bit about… is this often their first coach they've ever had? Are they resistant to coaching? Do they think they don't need one? Because I know the results are that they were so bonded—to use a dental term—to the coaches at these events who presented with them, their stories, to use it. But tell us a little bit about that. Our listeners are like that—like, you know, why do I need a coach? Don't I just know how to do it all myself? Or, coaches… means you're weak-minded?

Alex Nottingham  

Great question. That's a great question. So, first of all, with All-Star, we do not mandate a coach. So, most people start with our online program, get to know the process. We will, we will talk with them and see if it's appropriate. Our philosophy is for coaching—it's what we call self-funding coaching. This is something that Tony Robbins taught us years ago—actually, Scott Hallman, one of his consultants—and the idea is coaching should pay for itself within 90 days.

That's what we tell them. Look, it's not going to be this—unfortunately, a lot of coaching where people get a bad case in their mouth—it's going to end up being $50,000 to $100,000 a year. It's a long-term commitment, and it was like most people can't stomach that. So, with coaching, with self-funding coaching, we look to developments—very affordable—that we can get wins within 90 days. And when that happens, then they go, "Oh, this is working." And we don't—that doesn't mean they have to buy more coaching.

We only recommend two calls a month. That's enough. But then they come to an event, and they see great speakers like you, Paul, and your other, other Paul—your buddy—yeah, right. And the other speakers. And then they start to build on their experience that they feel is going to enable them to become more successful.

It's not mandated. It's not a one-size-fits-all. So, I think part of the reason there's a lot of skepticism for coaching is people have been burnt, right? It can be very expensive. They're not getting results. So, part of our philosophy is keep it affordable and keep it something that they can stay with for a long, long time.

Now, the ones in Nachos that are saying, "You're stupid without a coach," are the ones that finally found a good coach and have stuck with them and are like, "Oh my gosh." Like, for example, I work with a personal trainer, and I think, "You know what? I'm just going to take a couple of sessions and I'll then do it myself." And I'm like, it's so much better working with her. And so I'm like, "All right, we're going to work every day because it's important. My health is important." It's like, we don't want to step over dollars to get pennies, right?

What's my health worth? What is your multi-million-dollar practice worth? Having a coach that's affordable, right, and pays for itself? It's like an annuity. It's like an investment, and it's a small price to pay to grow your practice.

So, I think I understand the skepticism. Some of it absolutely is true, and I think people need to find out for themselves. And then, if they still don't get it, then I just—the always get a few of those. It's just nothing. Even though it, it makes sense, it doesn't for them. And you know.

Paul Goodman  

I have a question, Rob. How many of your new clients call on the phone versus email? You guys, do you think—would you say, out of 10—call up and say, "I need a lawyer," versus...

Rob Montgomery  

Maybe.. one?

Paul Goodman  

Right? So what's interesting is, it'll help you with—because I've, you know, I've met Alex's awesome wife, so you don't have probably a lot of phone skills training here. People answer the phone. They get them to the right attorney. They might hear them, but...

Rob Montgomery  

Yeah, no, not a whole lot. Yeah, sure.

Paul Goodman  

But I would say, for Alex, what would you say for dentistry, it's like nine out of 10. The other way that people are still calling.

Alex Nottingham  

Yeah, a lot of people are calling, and, and here's the thing — they're most, and this is what we have to understand: patients, when they're looking for a dentist, they're in commodity mode. And dentists ask me, "What does that mean?" Well, they're going to look for the best price, who takes their insurance, and they're going to call, they're going to go, they're going to look — it's pretty simple. They're going to go to Google reviews, and they're going to see who's in your area. So, you have to have good marketing, and then they're gonna start calling. If you don't answer, they're on to the next — right?

Paul Goodman  

So, what does—tell us, your insurance, this Phone Training Success Program. I've shared that on Nachos. It's been very popular. You guys are a great sponsor. If a dentist is like—or even just, you know, Rob does a lot with transitions—people take over a practice, now they have to hire new team members. Maybe just give us context. Why is it so important that we pay attention to this, instead of just, say, go up and answer the phone, say, "Pennington Dental, how can I help you?" Why is that?

Alex Nottingham  

I'll give you some—I'll give you some numbers. You ready for this? This is going to blow your mind. So, about when it comes to phone calls—this is from call tracking research—the average practice gets 136 opportunities per month. Phone calls. They only book 48. That means—that means they miss 87 opportunities a month. The average office—some have more volumes—are blessed, but let's just say that you only miss one call a working day, and four days a week, and what have you. You might miss a call. Not that you just missed it—well, you might have missed it—but you didn't handle it right.

They said, "What do you charge for veneers? Do you take my insurance?" And you answered it without building any rapport, right? Now, we believe you're going to answer their question, but first you want to build rapport and get to know them so they're not a pure commodity, right? So, we have a whole process for that. You're not going to win all of them, but you win a lot of them.

Now, if you miss those—one per working day—that's 16 days a month. That's only 16 patient opportunities you missed. Now, the average patient value—and this was a couple years ago, it's more—is about $642 per year, all right? And what we find is that one month, if you miss that money—that $642—times 16, is about $10,000, okay? In missed opportunities that one month.

Now, the lifetime value of a patient—that patient's not coming back, they're never coming to your office—multiply that by 10 years. The LTV—lifetime value of a patient—you're looking at $100,000, all right? In total lifetime value of revenue missed by just missing one per working day of training in terms of answering your phone. They go, "Oh, I missed a phone call. Oh, no big deal." Or the patient didn't show up. It is literally—you're bleeding money in your practice.

And I talk more about this in the webinar Dental Practice Excellence on our website. But that's one of the silent killers—is phone calls. So we have to appreciate first—we're not going to pay attention to it if we don't see it's costing us money. It's costing us a lot of money if we don't answer the phone correctly and we're not prepared.

You can be nice and answer the phone, but if you don't engage the patient, if you don't get to know them, if you have no plan, right? Because often, for insurance, for example, you may be out of network, but you're not communicating that to the patient, right? And how great Dr. Nacho is, right? That Dr. Goodman is—and why he's different than all these schmoes out there, right? You have no chance to tell them. All we did is we commoditized Dr. Goodman—that he doesn't take your insurance—so we're out of there. Which he kind of does through out-of-network, or he doesn't do it this way. You gave them a price.

So, we have so many opportunities to get to build rapport with people. And as you can see, as I'm talking about it, you can see the influence of a Bloomingdale's person. My wife—like, when you come to the Bloomingdale's, it's not just, "Hey, what's the price of that?" You get to know the person. Great service.

And again, there's always going to be the price shoppers. You're never going to get some of them. But don't judge a book by its cover, because you have a great opportunity to monetize those—those potential potentialities—when it comes to the phone.

Rob Montgomery  

So, Alex, you mentioned that that the telephone and phone training, and success with answering and managing that, is one of the silent profit killers. I know that I commonly say there are three that you like to talk about. Tell our listeners what the other two are.

Alex Nottingham  

Oh, you don't want to see the webinar? All right. But I'll tell you that. I'll tell you what they are. But see the webinar. It's an hour webinar. Goes into great details.

Rob Montgomery  

Give us the give us the Cliff Notes.

Alex Nottingham  

Yeah, I'll give you the Cliff Notes. So the first Silent Killer, all right, is going to be phone call conversion. Okay, that's number one. The solution is our great call process. I talk about that in the webinar. Okay? I give it away for free.

The second is broken appointments. Broken appointments are another killer, right? Doctors, 500 plus an hour. Hygiene is 100 plus an hour. You're missing that. Again, in our calculations, you're gonna start adding another $7,200 a month. In this opportunity, you can't really replace that if the broken appointment is too soon, so you just lost that production and pay. And so our solution is we give you broken appointment version verbiage on the webinar.

And then the last Silent Killer — and this is going to be very near and dear to our hiring service, as well as Paul's hiring service for the Dentist Job Connect — is turnover. Turnover is immensely expensive. When it comes to turnover — the, the average — do you know what the average cost of turn— of a turnover of an employee is in a practice?

Rob Montgomery  

Let me guess, $100,000?

Alex Nottingham  

Well, that's very powerful. What about you, Paul?

Paul Goodman  

I'm gonna say $21,000?

Alex Nottingham  

Well, you guys are kind of both right. It's kind of somewhere in the middle. It depends. It depends on the employee. So, if you lose a hygienist, that could be 60, $70,000. If you lose your front office, it could be 20, 30. It's one to three times the cost of the salary. So, both of you could be right. It depends on the inefficiencies. And this isn't just me saying — this is Ben Erickson, the top HR research and provider when it comes to AIDs, when it comes to dentistry. They did this research. It's one to three times the cost of salary. And actually, it's not even just Ben Erickson. If you look at also, in the generic population of recruitment, of research, it's one to two, three times the cost of the salary, right?

So, it's very expensive when there is turnover. So, you want to hire, right? And that's where our hiring service helps. With respect to it, you also want to onboard and provide comprehensive training. So, we talk about some methods in the webinar to be able to — you can, you could prevent some turnover. You can mitigate some by taking care of your team, right, and being proactive about it. But you're not going to stop them all. So, it's like anything in life. Is, for those that are listening, is we want to make the — the, I guess, uncomfortable stuff — a lesson of its intensity, because we have contingency plans for that. We want to prepare for that, but we want to also look to be proactive, to be able to get more out of what we have, and keep and empower who we have.

Paul Goodman  

And also, we were just talking about delegation, and Rob could probably imagine, it's like, I actually am very good on the phone. I have a lot of customer service training. You are. I could walk into my team and teach them, but where's the time for me to say, "Now is the time that we're all gonna sit around, and Paul Goodman, the owner, is going through, so you need these resources," and then also, you know, training people. Everybody learns in a different way, and sometimes it's emotional. The owner says that, when you can give them these resources and other people, it just kind of goes with our whole theme of our podcast, Rob, of just like, delegating.

Rob Montgomery  

Well, you can't, but you can't because you can't do it all yourself, and you certainly can't do it well, it's just impossible.

Paul Goodman  

Yeah, you don't have the bandwidth of the time.

Alex Nottingham  

You know, what's surprising? I just wanted to comment, Paul — this is really surprising. We found dentists, believe it or not, are actually pretty good with the verbiage. They come in themselves with pretty good verbiage, and they study our training, and they're good at it. It's their team, believe it or not.

Paul Goodman  

Also, just—just—it's happened to me before in my, you know, 20 years of being in my office, but it's rare for me to pick up the phone, right? So, it's rare. Something has gone sideways. It has happened. Yeah, I'm here on the phone.

Rob Montgomery  

Yeah, come see me.

Alex Nottingham  

You shouldn't be, you shouldn't be answering the phone. But you know why the dentists are pretty good on the phone in general, the verbiage, any idea why?

Paul Goodman  

I don't know, actually.

Alex Nottingham  

Rob?

Rob Montgomery  

Maybe because it's their business.

Alex Nottingham  

That's right, there's the businessman talking. Yeah, okay, so it's their business. They give a hoot, right? And so they are going to have... they're not going to give up. Oh, somebody calls, and let's say if—if Paul did answer the phone and they said, "What do you charge for veneers?" he wouldn't be like, "Okay, here's the price. Hanging up on you." Like, "Oh, well..." he would want to get to know you. He cares, because he's going to have to end up doing it. It's money, and it's also taking care of a patient. So, part of the goal, the big-picture goal at All-Star, we're trying to help both with our programs, as well as all of our free stuff, including our podcast, which—Paul, we've had you on quite a bit. Rob, love to have you on. Maybe we can have both of you—have the amigos on the call together. That would be fun. And you guys don't get to run away and do a telephone call—you're going to be on.

Paul Goodman  

We'll do video. We'll do our hair. I'll be ready for video. I'll wear something special.

Alex Nottingham  

I had this all set up. I had my studio set up. And they go, Hey, we're just calling.

Paul Goodman  

I told him, "You're a high-level pod." He'll—he'll experience—I've been on more than once—he'll experience when Rob does this video with you. But I agree with you, actually, that's—that's the hard part of an organization, especially one with dentistry that's moved so fast. I said something a couple of weeks ago, and it's not—I probably heard—but it's, it's impossible to train during the game. During the Super Bowl this weekend, they can't—Nick Sirianni or Andy Reid can't say, "Oh, hold on everybody. Let's all stop for a minute and review why that was intercepted." The game has to keep going. And in dentistry, I mean...

Alex Nottingham  

Actually, they're watching the interception on their tablet, by the way, yeah.

Paul Goodman  

But, like, in dentistry, you're just on to the next calm patient, and it's just so hard on the practice owner to find these resources to say, "Hey, everybody, how do we train you?" And then...?

Alex Nottingham  

But it's not just resources, Paul, it's their commitment to do something. Because, look, I think we have the best stuff out there, but there's a lot of other great consultants and coaching companies and others that are out there, can absolutely help, and are a force for good and maybe be a better fit for a lot of people, for sure. The problem is dentists — and this is for a lot of people — just get in their own way, right? And they, you gotta, I'm always stepping back when I say, okay, well, the ultimate goal is: how can the dentist become a better leader? Not necessarily have to be a better manager, but definitely a better leader, a better visionary of what they want, and be able to communicate that big picture. And second, how do we empower the team to resonate with that vision, to get it done and love what they do? I mean, and we use All Star as an example, so I'm the visionary of All Star. What does that mean? I just try to simplify things and come up with ideas. That's my job. But we have a lot of people that actually do the work, right? But what's amazing about our company — it's not about me — everybody, our coaches, our leadership team, they love people so much. Like, we heard — our president of coaching heard — that something happened to one of our clients that were sick in the hospital. It's like, oh, please send flowers. Like, he's asking for that, he's — everybody cares. Like...

Paul Goodman  

I have a question on asking. Like, I want to ask you — that hospitality thing seems to be your passion. If there was one book our listeners could, could pick up and read about hospitality or customer service that has served you well — through Tony Robbins or Bloomingdale's, because Heather's awesome — what book would you tell someone to look, pick this one up, read it, and you'll be better at customer service?

Alex Nottingham  

No. Stop reading. Stop listening. I mean, somebody does. What's the — I mean, listen, besides — besides the Dental Amigos and Dental All-Stars and a few other podcasts — stop listening. But what I'm saying is, and the reason I'm being provocative here is, I'm saying there's some amazing books out there, and I love books. You know, I get excited about books. But books is like — it's information. We've heard "knowledge is power." You've heard that, right? But knowledge is only potential power. It's how do we put it into action? So what I would caution dentists is, I can give you a laundromat of books. They're — they're dentists, and often are collectors. What's the next book? What's the next podcast? And they'll keep reading and listening and doing nothing, right? So instead is, I would say, I love what Tony Robbins says — model the best. Who's doing it right? Figure out what they did and just reverse engineer it. What dentists are crushing it, right? And what are they doing? They're probably coaching. They're probably training their team. They take their team to events. They do that, right?

Paul Goodman  

And what's the value, in your opinion, of taking your team to events? Isn't that expensive? That's so expensive to take your team?

Alex Nottingham  

Absolutely, it absolutely is expensive. And if I was in the dentist's shoes—listen, I, I have my mastermind group. I have a dental mastermind group, but I also have a group that I belong to, and the dent—one of our mastermind leaders—is a lawyer. He, he actually—you may know him, Rob, I don't know—but he, he's big for... he trains PI lawyers all around the country on marketing and management. And he says, "Alex, you're tight," you know, because I'm pretty frugal. But, you know, I could definitely sympathize with dentists. It could be expensive to get twenty grand to send your team.

Paul Goodman  

Is it worth it, though? What's the impact it has when you do it?

Alex Nottingham  

What it is, here's how I say it. Events are worth it if they're done in conjunction with other things. I don't think an event on its own is going to be impactful. If you are training your team and doing some modicum of coaching, and at the event your coach is there, I think that can be an amazing experience, because now everybody sees everybody. And so, think about it—it's kind of like this mastermind effect. It's like, you know, same thing with us. We're talking, Paul, we've been on podcast, and then I got to meet you, and it deepened our relationship. So the same thing is—that is—the team can deepen with the relationship with the coach, and they're going to see other teams just like them. And I know, I assume all of you have kids, right? And how often do they listen to what we say they should do? My—this weekend—my son, we brought his friend out to lunch, and he was the most behaved I've ever seen him, because he's with his friend, he's got to act good, right? But without him, he's crying and making a fuss. So when, when your team is around other people like themselves, in that proper environment, you have this drinking of the Kool-Aid effect, right? If events didn't work, why would—why is Tony Robbins still in business, and there's a lot...

Paul Goodman  

I think it's a good point about that. Role modeling for the rest of team.

Alex Nottingham  

The point is, we must be intentional with events. Events for the team, I'm talking about. There are events for the dentist that are specific, like leadership and so on. But a team — raha ha — like, we do one every year called All Star Live, and we do it in a certain way that is designed to be productive, both on learning and experience, and, and so on.

I can go into — I won't do this time — but there's the six elements of six human needs by Tony Robbins. Check it out, listeners. But we try to accomplish the six human needs in every event that we do.

But my point is, I would not recommend going to an event unless you are, at the same time, doing some level of training with your team and potentially coaching, because it will deepen the — but just heading to your team once a year for an event, I think it's a waste of money. But if you do it in tandem, it is phenomenal.

Rob Montgomery  

Good stuff. Yeah, it's very impactful. Alex, this has been, been really cool—getting to know you and learning more about what you guys do at the All-Star Dental Academy. How can people reach you? How can they learn more about the All-Star Dental Academy, and, and how do they find the Dental Practice Excellence?

Alex Nottingham  

Yes. So, go to "allstardentalacademy.com"—all one word—"allstardentalacademy.com," and you'll see this big red button called "Webinar." Click on that, and that will get you into the free webinar that you can attend. I have multiple times that we do it, plus there's a bunch of information on the website. You can learn about what we do. We also are hiring. Service information—everything's up there. You could also—our podcast is there as well. You can, you know, watch or listen to some of the episodes. You can also find us on Spotify and iTunes, or Apple Podcasts as well. So, yeah, when in doubt, go to allstardentalacademy.com, and, and take advantage of all the free resources. I really—of course, we'd love to support you in whatever we do—but I also just love educating and providing, because I just know when you, when you learn and you're educated, that's a best position to kind of come from, in terms of making a decision on anything.

Paul Goodman  

Thanks, actually, thank you for helping me get six team members. Alex, you've created a great team, and the people work with you. I'm huge, huge fans of — from the Erics, the Shelleys, and the Jackies. They're great. So, thanks so much for being on with us.

Alex Nottingham  

You're welcome.

Rob Montgomery  

Thanks, Alex.

Alex Nottingham  

Thank you. Bye guys.

Rob Montgomery  

Good stuff there from Alex. I mean, I think, you know, coaching — it's, it's one of those things that it's, sometimes it's a big leap to make. But you work with the right people — it’s, can be an invaluable tool to help you run your business.

Paul Goodman  

And I think also I was thinking, as I was talking, you know, everyone wants team retention, and when you're doing things like that, you're showing your team that you care about what happens—not just with the customers, but with behind the scenes, or not just your patients. And I think that's important, right? That your team sees you investing in all aspects of it and giving them the tools. So, I agree.

Rob Montgomery  

Oh, you always talk about dental practices or people businesses. They're people businesses with the patients and the people that work with them, too. Totally. All right. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Thank you, Paul.

Paul Goodman  

Thanks, Rob.

Bumper  

Thanks for listening to another great podcast with the Dental Amigos. And don't forget to tune in next time to have the dental business demystified. If you're looking for more information about today's podcast, you can find it on dentalamigos.com. If you're looking for Paul, you can find Paul at drpaulgoodman.com, and if you're looking for Rob, you can find him at yourdentallawyer.com. This podcast has been sponsored by Orange Line Media Group, helping dentists and other professionals create content people love. Find out how we can help you take your business to the next level at www.orangelinemg.com. Till next time.