872: The 3 Biggest Lies Dentists Tell Themselves – Miranda Beeson

You’ve added more patients, more providers, and more time in the office. So, why isn't there more money in the bank? In this episode of Practical Solutions Day, Kirk Behrendt brings back Miranda Beeson, ACT’s director of education, to uncover three of the biggest lies holding you back from a better practice and better life. Start working smarter, not just harder! To learn how, listen to Episode 872 of The Best Practices Show!

Learn More About Miranda:

• Send Miranda an email: miranda@actdental.com 
• Follow Miranda on ACT’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actdental
• Send Gina an email: gina@actdental.com 

Learn More About ACT Dental:

• ACT’s webinars: https://www.actdental.com/136
• ACT’s website: https://www.actdental.com
• ACT’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actdental
• ACT’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/actdental
• ACT’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actdental
• ACT’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3137520/admin/feed/posts/
• ACT’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/actdental

More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:

• Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listen
• Join The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpa
• Download ACT’s BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360
• Download ACT’s BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_US
• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/ttt
• See the ACT Dental/BPA Live Event Schedule: https://www.actdental.com/event
• Get The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazine
• Please leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218

Episode Resources:

• Register for ACT’s To The Top Study Club (April 11, 2025): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climb-with-us-register-for-april-11-2025-ttt-study-club-tickets-1012966789937
• Register for ACT’s To The Top Study Club (July 25, 2025): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climb-with-us-register-for-july-25-2025-ttt-study-club-tickets-1205497959849

Main Takeaways:

• Hard work alone won't fix your problems.
• Stop feeling that you need to have it all figured out.
• You are not the only one who truly cares about your practice.
• More patients, more providers, and more chairs doesn’t mean more profit.
• Focus your time and energy on doing the right things, not on trying to do everything.
• If you're spending the bulk of your time in your practice, you're not living your best life.

Quotes:

“For everyone that's listening, if you have ever felt like, ‘I should have all this figured out by now,’ no, you shouldn't. Again, these aren't the lies that we're going to talk about today either. But that's a self-limiting belief. You don't need to have it all figured out just yet. You're a high achiever — I get it. Dentists are high achievers. It can be frustrating to feel like you're spinning your wheels, especially when you see others doing something that maybe you wish you were doing already. But again, if you feel like you should have had this figured out by now, if you feel like the weight of the practice is completely on your shoulders — you care about your team, you care about your patients, but sometimes you feel like you're the only one invested in making things work — this podcast is going to speak to you.” (3:42—4:23) -Miranda

“Lie number one is, ‘If I just work harder, everything will get better.’ I know, Kirk, you have a line for this. You often talk about bigger isn't always better. Work smarter, not harder. That really is the truth. Hard work alone does not solve business problems — it just makes you more exhausted.” (5:06—5:25) -Miranda

“The self-limiting belief or lie we tell ourselves is, ‘If I just work harder, everything will get better.’ What this looks like in your practice is working longer hours, adding extra days, taking on more cases but still feeling financially strapped, doing everything yourself because you don't trust other people to get it right — that one is a big one with our coaching clients — and also feeling like you have to earn success through your sheer effort versus stopping and looking at, ‘Is there a smarter way to do this? Is there someone else that might be able to help?’” (5:54—6:27) -Miranda

“You have to step back and analyze your time and your energy. So, we say all the time that time is the new rich. Time is a commodity. Your energy and effort is a commodity. So, instead of just doing more, taking more time that maybe is even being taken from your personal life — like you mentioned earlier in your family — and instead of taking more energy and effort that you don't have because you already feel depleted, instead, focus on doing the right things in your practice — not just doing everything, but doing the right things. And how do you know what the right things are? Really, you have to start with, what do you want your practice to become, and what do you want your life to become? Once you have a clear vision for what you want your practice to be and what you want your life to be, it's a lot easier for you to filter things through the lens of that vision and get a better idea of, is this the right thing for me to be doing? Once you know that, you can start to delegate and automate and systemize the things that are going to help you get to that vision and hit that goal. And now, you're focusing all of your time and energy on the right things.” (7:35—8:54) -Miranda

“Lie number two that dentists tell themselves is, ‘I'm the only one who truly cares about this practice.’ I think there are times, sure, when there are team members here or there that aren't the right fit — right person, right seat. But I also think that your team may not care as much as you do because they don't own it. They don't have as much skin in the game. It's not their baby that they started from scratch. But that doesn't mean that they don't care at all. What I find in working with teams and having been on teams for my whole career is that team members do genuinely care. When they stop caring is when they don't understand their connection to the vision and the outcome. They really need clear expectations, strong leadership, accountability, and at the end of that being able to see, how does what I do showing up every day actually bring meaning and value to where the practice is going?” (13:36—14:43) -Miranda

“The other thing you might feel in your practice is struggling to motivate your team to go above and beyond the basics. Like, you say, ‘We're in a team meeting and no one ever talks. No one speaks up. I'm talking the whole time. I don't even know why we're having team meetings.’ Or you show up to morning huddle, and three people show up late, and only two people have done their chart prep, and you're frustrated that they're showing up on a regular basis just checking the box but not really doing the work or going above and beyond. And what I would like to say is it's a self-limiting belief. It's a lie, in a way, because it could be different. In practices all over the country, probably all over the world, there are team members who care, and they show up, and they go above and beyond.” (16:19—17:00) -Miranda

“The patient doesn't come first. Your team comes first. When your team comes first, and they know that, and everyone knows what we're here for and what we're doing . . . we know what our core values are, we know what we're trying to create as a patient experience, you don't have to worry about putting the patient first anymore because the patient is going to have a paralleled experience to the culture that you're creating.” (19:26—19:52) -Miranda

“A lot of times, when a team member feels micromanaged it's really just a leader trying to motivate people to do something. And external motivation is never going to be as effective as internal motivation. We have to find out what internally motivates our team members. It might be a little different for each person. But in the end, what we do know is there has to be a connection to the work that we're doing, and them personally feeling like there's meaning behind it. That's going to be the only way to really get your team motivated.” (21:32—22:04) -Miranda

“Stop and say, ‘If I didn't have these people, would I still have this practice?’ No. Very few dentists are out there working by themselves in their practice — no front office team members, no assistants, no hygienist. It's just you and your practice. Probably not going to be highly successful. It really does take a team to get there. So, you have to stop every now and then — we talk a lot when we're with our To The Top Study Club community about gratitude, because people could show up and go anywhere, but they choose to come to your practice. And when they're the right people in the right seats, and you're making those connections, and helping to develop them within your practice, you're going to have this culture where everyone wants to show up.” (23:09—23:55) -Miranda

“When people understand why their work matters, then they're going to be more engaged.” (25:27—25:32) -Miranda

“Core values are key to culture. Your culture is what's going to ultimately show the behaviors that show up within your team on a regular basis.” (25:37—25:46) -Miranda

“You can get a lot of value out of your team members by making sure that you have really clear core values and that the people you bring on board also believe in those same things. Tied into that on the other side is the core purpose. What is our practice here to do? Why do we show up in this practice every day? What is the way that we want to make an impact on our community through this practice? When you can put that in front of your team over, and over, and over, your core values and your core purpose, your core values and your core purpose — be the chief reminding officer, really making sure that on a regular basis — weekly team meetings, morning huddles, monthly check-ins, quarterly planning visits, annual summits — every time you have an opportunity, connect with your team and repeat to them that this is who we are. This is how we behave. This is why we're doing this. You're going to make sure that everyone has that internal drive and motivation because they're going to believe in those same things.” (26:32—27:37) -Miranda

“Lie number three, and we hear this one a lot, ‘I can't make more money unless I keep growing.’ Doctors and dentists tell themselves this all the time. You alluded to it at the top of the podcast. ‘I need a bigger practice. I need another associate. I need more chairs. We've got to produce more. We've got to produce more. There's not enough money in the bank at the end of the day.’ And that lie that we're telling ourselves, that story, that limiting belief of, 'I can't make more money unless I keep growing,’ just isn't true. The truth is that more patients, more providers, more chairs generally mean more stress and more people that you're having to manage, which is already hard enough when you're in the chair clinically, most of the time. It doesn't automatically mean more profit. In fact, real profitability comes from differentiating yourself, keeping more of what you produce, and not just increasing volume.” (28:59—29:54) -Miranda

“Before you go down that path of doing more, adding more, managing more people and more space, stop and say, what's happening right now within our practice? Are we writing off too much? Are we not collecting everything that we could be? Are we spending more than we should be? Where can we start to squeeze on some of these gaps and shrink them down to where we might be able to put more money in the bank without adding more stress and more people and more chairs?” (37:56—38:22) -Miranda

“Stop equating hard work with success. Now, I know that sounds a little oxymoronic because we have to work hard if we want to be successful. And from a hyper-achiever like me, trust me, it feels weird to say that out loud. But what I mean by that is, work smarter, not harder. Success is going to come from doing the right things and putting the right focus and effort and energy in the right places. So, when we focus on the highest impact areas of our practice, we're going to have a higher level of success and we don't have to work harder to get there, which was lie number one.” (40:21—40:56) -Miranda

“Lead your team with clarity, not frustration. Like I mentioned, a lot of people feel very frustrated by their teams and what they perceive as a lack of engagement — or maybe there is a real lack of engagement there. They're not going to necessarily care to the level that you do, and it's probably not realistic to expect that because they don't have the same skin in the game that you do. But with the right culture, with clear expectations, with that consistent messaging of who we are, how we behave here, and what we're trying to create, they will start to attach to the meaning within what we're doing every day and be more invested in the success of the practice and in your success. They will be your champion, in the end.” (40:58—41:41) -Miranda

“Profitability isn't just about seeing more patients. Differentiating yourself, taking control of your fees and your write-offs and how much you're collecting is going to get you there faster. Stop relying on volume to grow your bottom line and decide what your bottom line needs to be. What do I want to save and put in the bank or back into my practice every month? Work backwards and look at those gaps and say, what can I do with what I'm already doing and with the chairs I already have to get more out of this practice rather than increasing volume, space, time, or providers?” (41:43—42:19) -Miranda

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

0:58 Why this is an important topic.

5:01 Just working harder won't make everything better.

7:26 Focus on the right things.

13:33 You're not alone in caring about your practice.

17:00 Your team comes first, not your patients.

25:15 Clearly establish your expectations and core values.

28:56 You can make more money without growing.

32:39 Define what “more” means.

35:12 Listen to ACT’s Metric Mondays.

39:48 Final takeaways.

43:00 More about ACT’s BPA and resources.

Miranda Beeson, MS, BSDH Bio:

Miranda Beeson has over 25 years of clinical dental hygiene, front office, practice administration, and speaking experience. She is enthusiastic about communication and loves helping others find the power that words can bring to their patient interactions and practice dynamics. As a Lead Practice Coach, she is driven to create opportunities to find value in experiences and cultivate new approaches.

Miranda graduated from Old Dominion University, and enjoys spending time with her husband, Chuck, and her children, Trent, Mallory, and Cassidy. Family time is the best time, and is often spent on a golf course, a volleyball court, or spending the day boating at the beach.