The Productive Dentist Podcast

Truly legendary leaders mentor others to greatness. Join Dr. Bruce B. Baird as he shares the impact of mentors in his life, and shares advice on where to find mentors and how mentoring others will rocket your own leadership to new levels.

When you start focusing on others, you'll notice your job satisfaction and team communication gets better. Legendary Leadership isn't about making money, it's about focusing on the team. Join me as I look back on some of what I've learned from Legendary Leaders in my life.

"Dealing with my associate is difficult." I hear that complaint a lot. The problem is, most of us don't approach our dental partners from the mindset of relationship. Today, I'm sharing my experiences with associates and some strategies for open communication.

How do you approach dental CE? Do you view it as a checkbox forced on you by your state board, or is it an opportunity to make your dental practice better? Today, I'm talking about the mindset and strategies you can employ to get the most out of your CE experiences. 

Leadership is a lifetime endeavor. It's not something you just know. But there are a few keys to making it much easier. Today, I'm talking about the 4 Keys to Legendary Leadership and developing a supportive, advocacy-focused team.

If we want independent dentistry to be successful in the long-term, we need to be mentoring young dentists. Today, I'm talking about why this is critical to our industry and what you can do about it. 

Today, I'm answering this great question from a listener: I am a 44-year-old solo doctor. I built my practice from scratch and my associate, who has been with me six months, wants to buy in. But it seems so early. I can't imagine asking a 50/50 partner for permission on business decisions when I built this practice from scratch. So what do I do? This is a loaded question. A great question! But a l...

Last podcast I shared a little bit about my experience with divorce and dentistry. Today, I want to talk about some of the things I've learned and am doing now that make all the difference in the world.

This is probably the biggest thing that leads to loss of revenue and the ability to retire when you want to. It's divorce in dentistry. This is a tough one to talk about. But in this episode and the next, I'm going to share my experience. This is very personal, but I hope my story can help someone in the future.

This is something no one wants to talk about: selling to DSO networks. I often get asked, "Is this a good DSO?" Well, that depends. They're good….if they're the right fit for you. Join me for a discussion of topics and questions that it would be prudent for you to understand before you sell your life's work.

If you've ever asked yourself, "How do I fix my team?" then keep listening. The answer is simple, but it's not always easy. I had to deal with this in my career, too. Early on, I'm almost embarrassed to tell you how horrible I was. The better I got as a leader, the better my team got. So today, I want to look at some pointers and things that you can do as a leader that can help you end up with a b...

Today, I'm talking about the importance of educating patients on the why behind what I diagnose, not just the what of diagnosis. I'll share some secrets I've learned about communicating well with patients and why diagnosing on risk factors makes the whole process smoother and gets patients to say "yes" to treatment.

I've gotten a lot of questions recently from doctors struggling to find and retain good team members. So today, I'm going to cover this topic from my perspective and share some of my methods for finding and keeping good people.

If you're on a diet and not fully committed, the only person you're cheating is yourself. The same applies to your dental practice. Today, we're diving into what commitment really means as a dental practice owner. 

People are starving for exceptional service.  From the leadership, to the team, to the practice, how do we present service to patients in our dental offices? Is your service so excellent, that your patients leave thinking that you deserve a tip?

"I'd like to retire. Should I hire an associate?" I get this question a lot. And the answer is, it really depends. Today, I'm going to examine this question and cover several points you should consider before brining on an associate as part of your retirement strategy.

I was recently asked, "How can I simplify my schedule so it's not so 'willy nilly'?" Well, that's a loaded question. In order to really control your schedule, you have to have a scheduling philosophy. So today I'm dissecting this question so help you avoid common scheduling mistakes that are costing you time, stress, and money.

Today we're going to look at ways to improve your leadership strategies as I answering your questions about leadership.

If you want to produce at the highest levels in dentistry, you've got to have a team that is amazingly trained, and trained the way YOU want things to be done. So today, let's look at some strategies for training your team.

Your business is your greatest asset. So ask yourself this: Is your business something that is going to last? Is it a business other people would want to buy?  Today, we talk about how to build a business that is so structurally sound that anyone could run it an people will be lining up to buy it. 

This is the one thing that can make or break a practice: patient perception of the value of your practice. The fact is, people who see high value in a business are more likely to invest their money there. So join me today as we discuss ideas to elevate your office's value in the eyes of your patients. 

How mature are you in your practice of dentistry? I'm not talking about how mature of a human being you are but where are you as a dental practice owner and clinician. Here's an example: you can be the most highly skilled technician and not be able to get your patients to say yes to treatment. That's not a very high level of maturity. So today I want to talk about how you grow your dental maturity...

We all have two dentists warring inside us: the producer and the pretender. Dr. Jeff Buske - my business partner of 15 years - joins me today to talk about how you can manage the pretender inside of you so the producer has their chance to shine. 

My hope for you this year is you end up at the end of 2021 in a place you never expected you'd be able to be. I think what separates a growing practice from one that isn't growing is having an attitude of gratitude. So today, let's talk about setting the table for your success in 2021 with why gratitude matters so much, 4 topics to focus your intent on, and how often you should express gratitude.

Dr. Baird is taking a short recording break during the holidays, so we're bringing you some of his most timely, listened-to episodes. Mindset is the difference between success and failure. As we head into the new year, do a quick self-check: where is your mindset? Is your outlook one of gratitude and abundance? Or are you gloomy as you think about the scarcity of everything you need? Dr. Baird exp...