Moving Day

The Business of Denstistry is moving. Our new blog has the ability to keep track of our readership opinions so that we can keep in tune with private practitioners' needs. Please feel free to peruse our latest article called ASPIRATION, INSPIRATION and PERSPIRATION and enjoy our new blog called:

The Business of EMPOWERMENT

Please feel free to send us feedback about this new endeavour. An exciting new improvement is the installation of surveys. Now you can see results of private practitioner peer opinions right at the click of a button.

Social Media: WOM for the 21st Century

As seen in TeamWork Vol.3 No.2 - March/April 2010

Many dentists have been convinced to have a website as part of a “marketing” plan. This was touted as the latest and greatest way to attract new patients. The reality is that a web site, in and of itself, does not attract patients – people have to know how to find you on the Internet, just as they have to know how to find your office. The fundamental question, “How do people choose a dentist?”, has broadened to our use of the power of the Internet. People are more influenced by opinions of their friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers – those that they trust and respect. We have discussed “Word Of Mouth” (WOM) and its value as a promotional tool in business. Used extensively by marketing-savvy major coporations including Coca-Cola and McDonalds, who pay individuals to talk about their products to their friends and even strangers. For professional services the power of WOM is invaluable to building and growing our business. The benefit of having WOM on the Internet is that we can see what people are saying about us. As we end this first decade of the 21st century, changes in how we communicate with others have made WOM a global opportunity and risk.

To read more about using Social Media for effective Word of Mouth marketing, visit our website and log into the Members Only to get access to the full version of this article and other articles written by Nadean. If you have any questions regarding this article or practice transitions, message us at info@empoweredbynba.com.

Opportunity Knocks

By: Nadean Burkett, as published in Spectrum Dialogue Magazine.

…Will you know when it’s calling for you? At this time of the year, we are contacted by those preparing to graduate, and practice owners dealing with career and business issues. Whether managing change or being the agent of change, there are rewards, risks and challenges that are intrinsically part of our leadership roles in all stages of our careers. Opportunity is usually disguised as challenge and the sound of opportunity knocking can be drowned out by the little voices in our heads – negative self-talk.

Those who have identified our strengths and limitations, acknowledge them and collaborate with a support team of those who balance them, are better positioned to act decisively when opportunity knocks. Those who do not give in to immediate gratification (short term benefits or rewards) and are focused achieving their own clearly defined success goals, are most likely to recognize these disguised opportunities.

What stands in the way of most professionals seeing opportunity is the haze of potential risk or imperfection that so often surrounds it. There are no guarantees in life – spending effort avoiding risk or waiting for something to materialize that is ideal obliterates our views of opportunity. The fact is that those who wait for success to arrive often miss the invitation because it has not come packaged as expected. As John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans…” Everyone’s opportunity comes wrapped differently. We must keep an open mind. We will have oru own set of challenges to manage and obstacles to overcome. Our ability to recognize opportunity as it passes by depends on our own life and career/business experiences, how we perceive ourselves, what we are prepared to do, or not, what you are willing to invest, or not and what our skills and talents are, or aren’t. Each of these individually and collectively will influence what our career or practice success plan looks like and how we make decisions. These all define how and what we recognize as opportunity.
Opportunity is only one component necessary to achieve success. Many people think of success as a destination, if this is true then consider this-there is no elevator to success, we must all take the stairs! When past clients refer their colleagues and friends to us, often the caller’s first statement is that they want to emulate the success of someone they admire or respect. But, they are aspiring to be their friend rather than being inspired by what they have observed. This seems to be a subtle difference but in fact it is cavernous. Every practice and person is unique – every challenge is different and life is dynamic. If we spend our efforts focused on the success of others, we may be overlooking opportunities for our own success.

Nothing worthwhile comes easy. We all appreciate and get far more satisfaction from what we work hard to achieve. What none of us see are the obstacles, effort and sacrifices it took others to accomplish their level success. The outward signs of success are merely the material results of success, not the measure of it.

If you want this year and this new decade to be your time to achieve your dreams, we have top five steps to success. These steps along with many more of our full length articles can be found on our website http://www.empoweredbynba.com/ under the Members Only Section. Sign up now and recieve exclusive access to our resources and exclusive notifications.

Nadean is also available via email for any comments or questions you may have at burkett@empoweredbynba.com.

The Right Thing: Part II

Trust is the most important component to building relationships in our lives. Since professionals rely on the quality of relationships for success in their business (practice), developing and maintaining trust must be our goal. How successful we are in achieving this determines all other outcomes.

As we have discussed in previous articles, trust is a four-pillar concept. These are:

character

communication

competency

and last but not least consistency.

Actions speak louder than words – our behavior clearly communicates to those around us our intention, commitment to the verbal messages we send and how consistent we are to the values we espouse. These actions either support the opinions others have about our character, competency and consistency. We teach others who we are and how to treat us by setting examples for them.

We judge and are judged every minute of every day. When our behavior is inconsistent with past behavior or is perceived to be so by those who interact with us, our trustworthiness diminishes and the quality of our relationships decreases exponentially. We must be true in demonstrating our commitment to our core values, vision, philosophies and standards.

Decisions are abstract until there is a corresponding action. To find out more about what effects our decision-making and how we are affected by the choices we make, visit http://www.empoweredbynba.com/ for the full length feature article and other practice management resources. This article is featured in TeamWork Magazine Vol 3 No. 1 – January February 2010. Further study options and interactive learning opportunities are also offered through our www.practiceempowerment.com or email us to find out more information about EMPOWERMENT™: info@empoweredbyNBA.com

Decision-Making: Our Ancestral Legacy

John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963) said, “We must use time as a tool, not a crutch.”

If you have ever regretted missing out on an opportunity, or were too late to take advantage of one you may be suffering from survival-based thinking. Timing is said to be 70% of success in business. If you make the right decision, but it is ill-timed, that is an opportunity lost. Reaching our long term goals for success takes vision, planning preparation, and discipline. In a recent article published in Psychology Today, the ability (or should we say inability?) to conceptualize and follow through on long term (more than 6 months) goals is partly determined by how much our brain has evolved over the centuries. That article kindled a spark on the topic of critical thinking and achieving our vision as professionals.

To read this full article & the result of the findings about long term versus short term goal thought process, please visit our website and sign up for our Members Only section for access to this article and much more. (http://www.empoweredbynba.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=registers&Itemid=42)

Please note: if you book a private consultation with Nadean at the Pacific Dental Conference before the end of March, you will automatically be entered into our draw to win a copy of The Exceptional Dental Practice - Why Good Enough Isn't Good Enough by William Lockard.

The Right Thing – Part 1

Featured in Spectrum Dialogue Magazine – Vol 9 No. 1 January 2010


Making choices that affect us and others – employees, patients, colleagues, partners, etc – is something that challenges all of us throughout our daily lives and careers. Our motto/philosophy in this regard is:

do the right thing,

at the right time,

for the right reason.

This doesn’t mean doing whatever is easiest, but making your decision reflect your core values and that fits with your vision and goals for your career and practice. Anything less leads you astray on your success journey.


Do what is necessary to bring you closer to your ultimate goal without harming others. Stray from the herd – the view is much better from the front than the middle or rear anyway!


The Pacific Dental Conference is coming April 15 – 17th 2010 at the new Vancouver Convention Centre and we have decided to stray from the herd. We will still be in attendance but instead of our traditional booth, we will be hosting private meetings hosted at a location within walking distance of the PDC.



Email us for more information at info@empoweredbynba.com or visit our website at http://www.empoweredbynba.com/ and sign up for our Members Only section for the rest of this article, announcements, resources and much much more.

If you book a private consultation with Nadean at the PDC before the end of March, you will automatically be entered into our draw to win a copy of The Exceptional Dental Practice - Why Good Enough Isn't Good Enough by William Lockard.

Exit Strategies & Estate Sales

Coming soon to a Spectrum Dialogue October 2009 Issue

Written By: Nadean Burkett

Practice ownership transition is challenging at every stage of one’s career, however it is truly a matter of degree. We’ve talked about successor planning in previous articles which focused on Associate buy-in/out options, partnerships, etc. as part of practice management. As humans we fear the unknown – transition issues are one of those unknowns which is why most practitioners choose not to deal with preparing an exit strategy. It is challenging for everyone to consider the underlying meaning of this – death or disabling medical condition. From experience, I can state that there is none more difficult than the posthumous transition. The truly unfortunate aspect of this is that it is the family, the survivors, who are left to deal with the situation at a time that they are also struggling with the loss of a loved one. Usually the surviving spouse has little knowledge of the practice or who to turn to at a time that they are most vulnerable.

There is a deadline to transition ownership of a dental practice – usually six months. That being said, as we all know the most valuable asset in any practice is the goodwill; represented by the people – patients and employees. The goodwill value may evaporate quickly when a dentist passes away or has a serious medical disability which prevents him (or her) from being a visible and active part of the transition. I say “may” because this is not necessary – there are strategies and solutions that can be employed by practice owners to mitigate the problem.

As we have discussed on many occasions the solution is simple, have an exit strategy. The problem for most people is that it is not easy. It’s not easy to confront our mortality. Age is irrelevant. Whether you are 35 or 75, we have to accept we can be victim to the one certainty in life - death. From day one of becoming an owner, there should be a realistic successor plan in place.

For the full length article, some helpful tips, suggestions and other articles, visit our educational website for more details on how you can prepare yourself and your practice @ www.edu-dent.com. Visit www.dentalbusiness.ca for practice listings, associate positions and much much more.