470: The Foundation of a Better Practice&a Better Life - Dr. Tito Norris - a podcast by ACT Dental

The Foundation of a Better Practice & a Better Life

Episode #470 with Dr. Tito Norris

To build a better practice, you need a key secret ingredient: the best people for your team. And to reveal how to find, hire, and keep a fantastic group of people, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Tito Norris to help you set the foundation for your best possible practice. From self-care to core values, he shares how he created his better practice so he could enjoy a better life. To learn how you can achieve the same, listen to Episode 470 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Core values are the foundation of your practice.

Don't get sucked into the growth mentality.

Care for your physical and mental self.

Balance your drive and your time.

Schedule a time to relax.

Quotes:

“It’s really easy to get sucked into this growth mentality and, ‘I've got to be bigger. I've got to be a better provider.’ There's competition with your colleagues and your classmates and your competitors, and all this kind of stuff. And all that stuff is good. It’s healthy because that's what drives us. Especially people who are in the dental profession, very often, tend to be very driven. They're very Type A. But you've got to balance that with sharpening the saw and with coming home at the end of the day and being able to give your family the best of you rather than just the rest of you.” (4:24—5:05)

“It’s really difficult to take care of everything else if you don't first take care of yourself.” (5:47—5:51)

“A lot of my friends ask me, ‘Tito, how do you do it? How do you take off that much time?’ And I say, ‘The answer is simple. I schedule it.’ I open up my 2022, 2023 calendar. It’s already done. So, all the meetings I want to go to, all the vacations I want to go on, it’s already done. It’s in the books. It’s in the calendar. And guess what? The time that's left over, that's when I see patients.” (7:41—8:07)

“Number one, take care of yourself. And part of that is the physical itself. But then, the other part is really taking that time off for your mental self as well and finding whatever it is that helps that mental balance.” (8:29—8:47)

“We whittled, and whittled, and boiled it down to seven things that are now the foundation of our practice. And I say foundation because now it’s like, ‘How on earth did we ever operate without them?’ Because now, we hire using our core values. We interview our new candidates, and we say, ‘Okay, does this person fit our core values?’ And we fire by our core values, and we discipline by core values, and we reward by core values. It’s a complete foundation of the people portion of our practice — which is our practice. Your practice is your people.” (11:27—12:12)

“Let me give you our [eight] core values: [I’M TO LEAD]. Innovative. That's the “I”. Mindset — having a positive mindset. Team before self. Having Ownership mentality in everything that you do. Being a Lifelong Learner. Being Efficient with your time, with your energy, with your resources. Attention to detail. And I would've said Disney-type service, but we upped it just a bit. It’s making Disney jealous.” (16:22—17:01)

“I love Tom Landry, the coach of the Dallas Cowboys. A legendary coach. And he used to always say, ‘Hire the athlete, not the position.’ That was his quote. So, if you can find someone who’s got the right stuff, whether that's a server at a restaurant — they're all over the place. You've just got to find them, and you've got to make them a better offer. Now, what does that mean? That's not always just money.” (22:34—23:02)

“The main thing is having the right person. If you've got the right person, they’ll basically find the right seat. Not always. Sometimes, they need a little guidance and direction and support. But that's the key, number one, because [you...

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