In 2023, Dr. James Whatley had lost all enthusiasm for his dental practice. Despite being profitable, he didn’t enjoy going to work and was so exhausted upon returning home that he would eat and go straight to sleep.

“I hated it,” Dr. Whatley said. “Dentistry, in general, was miserable to me because it was so stressful. I was so frustrated I couldn’t let my work go. Even my weekends were spent wasting my energy thinking about work and the problems. That went on for years.”

After buying his practice in 2002, Dr. Whatley grew the practice from two operatories and $22,000 a month to $75,000 by 2004. He then moved to a new building with eight operatories where he took on a partner. After five years, the partnership dissolved, and Dr. Whatley eventually bought his partner out. Growing the practice to generate $150,000 to $170,000 each month, Dr. Whatley started working with an expansion consultant with the intention of buying additional practices.

However, despite working with three different consultants over many years to improve his practice, he continued to be massively stressed out. A culture problem in his Alabama Family Dental practice simply wouldn’t go away, and as the practice grew, the problems magnified.  

“We had team members fighting and all the issues that came with it,” Dr. Whatley recalled. “Our growth had been good. We were always very productive. The problem did not change much along the way. The problems just got bigger as we got busier. When I went home, I felt worse than I did when I was doing $75,000 a month with way less happening.”

But no matter how much money he threw at the problem, he couldn’t make it go away. “Money didn’t solve a thing,” Dr. Whatley said. “It made things worse. Quality of life is a big deal, yet my business and personal life ran together. I spent 95% of my time, whether at work or home, worried about the business. It affected my family, my life—everything. None of that went away. My quality of life was worse than it was before.”

While working with yet another consultant, Dr. Whatley attended a dental convention where Dr. John Meis was speaking. After the meeting, he had a conversation with Dr. Meis and The Team Training Institute’s hygiene coach Bert. “It’s hard not to love the two of them,” Dr. Whatley said. “I joined up with them on the spot. Then I canceled that other consultant.”

“BIG change”

Today, Dr. Whatley is happy and “loves going to the office” with a culture that is better than ever. He continues to grow, but without the stress. Projected to hit $2.8 million this year, his practice is up from $2.2 million last year. Profitability also increased. Pre-TTI, overhead ran between 75-80%. Now, overhead is 65% and is still improving. “It’s a whole different world,” Dr. Whatley said.

The Team Training Institute (TTI) became the fourth consultant Dr. Whatley worked with, creating what he describes as a “big, big change.” “The difference is that everybody at TTI that we work with, whether it’s Karleen, Bert, Heather, or Dr. Meis, has all done this,” Dr. Whatley said. “They’ve literally walked the walk. They’ve all worked in practices. They’ve all been where my team is. Other consultants I had, even the owners of the consulting companies, had never been a dentist, worked in an office, or done any of the work themselves. They were more businesspeople versus actually having walked the walk. I knew it was the right place, and that’s how I got with TTI. Now, we’re doing about $240,000 per month over the last six months. Big change.” 

How To Create Big Change Like Dr. Whatley:

Get Your Team on The Same Page

Before TTI training, Dr. Whatley found himself micromanaging. Because his team wasn’t on the same page, “most of thework wasn’t getting done.” Now, he gets out of the way and lets his team run the office without worrying about it.

“The first TTI training we did was Hygiene Explosion,” Dr. Whatley said. “It was phenomenal. It got my team all super-bought in. They love this stuff! Day one, they were ready to rock and roll, and the hygiene system was good to go. We’re 95% there. We no longer have the issues we used to have with trainings and installations, where people fought back, didn’t want to do anything, or didn’t like the change. That always drained everyone. Now I don’t worry about that anymore.” 

While the patient experience has always been good, Dr. Whatley said, it’s even better now. The difference is that theyare “hyper-focused on it,” reflected in the surge in 5-star Google reviews over the past year and the increase from $170,000 to $240,000 per month.  

“We never did protect teeth,” Dr. Whatley explained. “We never really did fluoride in the past, either. The Hygiene Diamonds system was pretty much non-existent in our practice before that. Now, it’s a 180-degree, big-time change.”

Replace Uncooperative Team Members

“Building a team that has the same vision and values that you want to live up to is important,” Dr. Whatley said. Previously, he had a lot of people problems, including people fighting against change, which created a toxic culture. Dr. Whatley replaced approximately half of his team with new people, including a new office manager, Rebecca Wade, and new hygienists.

“I was really bad in the past about keeping people around for as long as humanly possible, hoping for the best, and seemingly only getting the worst and repeating that cycle,” he said. “That doesn’t work. The Team Training Institute’s team works well together and has a great attitude. They’re all super driven throughout the entire company, which is really, really cool. You can’t teach that. Dr. Meis didn’t teach his team to be driven. He just guided them along. Now, I have really, really, good people whom I trustand who are smarter than I am at what they do. They are driven, which makes all the difference in our culture."

Involve Your Team

In the past, Dr. Whatley did not involve his team in decision making. Now, when developing the practice culture, he includes them, giving them opportunities to learn and grow, empowering his team and bringing them closer together.

To create a team mission statement, everyone on Dr. Whatley’s team was asked to submit ideas. “We’re going to pull ideas from each individual mission statement and then create one that fits us the best,” he said. “We also do a lot more as a team that has nothing to do with dentistry. This is reflected in our culture and is something we didn’t do in the past. We have a charity that Hannah oversees—that’s big for me, probably bigger than anything.”

Eliminate Confusion

While production was never a problem, consistency was. Today, Dr. Whatley’s practiceis no longer on that rollercoaster. They have systems in place that reliably and predictably produce results he can count on. Training protocols which include checklists and daily routines clarify what is expected for each individual position and create accountability.

“The one thing I’ve always known how to do in this industry is produce,” Dr. Whatley said. “We were good at being really busy and had really good numbers from it. But there was no system in place to drive that. We would have really, really good months for a while, and then all of a sudden, it would drop off the map. We’d be like, “What happened?” We had no clue why. There were also absolutely zero systems for training. When you were hired, you came in and figured it out. I know a lot of stuff, but I’m not a great teacher. There’s never been accountability in our office, and there’s never been any good system that we followed, so lots of confusion was taking place. Now, we have a systematized training protocol so people know what to do. My team is living up to my expectations –what stands out is the accountability we have.”

Rebecca added, “I’ve gotten a lot of help from TTI’s outlines to create our own checklists that work specifically for our office. The TTI coaches are all sweet and easy to talk to, and they’ve been really, really great to us. They come in with recommendations, teach us how to put systems in place, and lead us in the right direction. We know what we need to accomplish, but then there’s follow-up to ensure we have followed through. We’re meeting all the time to make sure that we’ve made progress, that we’ve put systems in place, and that they’ve stayed in place. That helps a lot with the consistency. 

Develop Leaders People Want to Follow

Today, Dr. Whatley has an office manager, a hygiene coordinator and a clinical coordinator leading and assisting his team (15 total with two doctors, including Dr. Whatley). Before TTI, there was a leadership team but no direction, which meant everyone turned to Dr. Whatley for every little thing and there was “no accountability at all.”

“Nobody really knew what they were supposed to be doing,” Dr. Whatley said. “And with no support, things just fizzled out.” Now, there is accountability; people are doing what they need to do, and they no longer tie up Dr. Whatley’s time—they are going to the team leaders for answers instead.  

“Before, I had difficulty getting the team to follow some of my leaders,” Dr. Whatley said. “Now, with Rebecca, it’s completely different. Rebecca is 100% driven todo what she knows she can do to the best of her ability. That is something people will follow, which is crucial because people must have somebody to follow besides the doctor.”

Believe In and Empower Your Team
‍
Believing in your team and empowering them to make independent decisions is crucial for success. When team members feel trusted and supported, it creates a smoother work environment. Rebecca Wade, office manager, shared her perspective: “It makes my job seamless. It makes me feel trusted. I’m always going to have the best interest of this practice at heart whenever I make a decision. I’m not going to be perfect, but I feel that if I ever did make the wrong decision or mess up, Dr. Whatley would know that it didn’t come from a bad place.”

Effective Communication and Time Away from the Office 

To foster a deep understanding of Dr. Whatley’s thoughts and decisions, Rebecca spent time listening and “over-communicating.” Additionally, dedicating time away from the office to focus on ways to improve the practice proved vital.“The single most important thing you can do is to attend events together, ”Rebecca emphasized. “The TTI events bring up good points and give us the opportunity to talk about things we don’t have time to discuss during the day-to-day.

Provide the Tools for Success

Believing in your team is just the first step; providing them with the tools they need to excel is equally important. As Dr. Whatley pointed out, “The key is—and this is where I was really bad in the past—you have to not onlybelieve in your team, you must empower your team, and then you have to get out of the way. That’s what most doctors do not do. They do not get out of the way, which will literally sink your ship. I was that doctor. Now, I get the heck out of the way. It doesn’t bother me a bit because I have a team that Idon’t have to worry about.”

Invest in Training for the Team

Rebecca emphasized the significance of investing in team training: “I think sometimes dentists don’t understand how important it is for them to invest in the team. Just in the short time that I’ve been here and interacting with our leadership team away from the office, having those different perspectives helps us to think differently and helps us to grow. That has been huge for the three of us who are able to participate in training. It motivates us to be better, do better, and be a better example for our team because we are the ones they’re looking to for the answer or to set the tone. The accountability and how that can be handled is priceless for us.”

Don’t Build Your Office Around One Person

Several years ago, Dr. Whatley had a talented office manager who ended up with a lot of power over the practice. Because she was doing a lot of the work, she put Dr. Whatley in a dangerous position.

“My practice was built around my office manager,” Dr. Whatley recalled. “We spent most of our time fearing the day she would leave, so we catered to her for many years. She was good at what she did, but she wasn’t a good fit. She was making a lot of demands because she knew she was running the practice. Then, one day, she called and threatened to quit if I didn’t let someone go. I don’t respond to threats, so I said, ‘Go. I’ll see you later.” She turned in her notice.”

Today, offering opportunities to team members, putting systems in place, and cross-training are helping to make Dr.Whatley’s office more resilient. Now he feels confident there are backup team members in place should he need them.

Bigger & Better Than Ever 

By believing in his team, empowering them, providing the necessary tools, and investing in their training, Dr. Whatley has created a strong foundation for a successful and thriving dental practice.

He is currently looking to hire a third dentist and is working toward growing the company’s profits to have more to invest in the future. “There’s always something bigger and better, so we are always growing,” he said.

While an additional practice is still a possibility, he’s focused on maxing out the space he already has. “We’re going to go to 10 ops and still have room to go to 11. If we get to that point, we could probably do $300,000 to $350,000 a month with three doctors, so this space is much more ideal to expand than to buy somewhere else.”

Althought here have been growing pains and stress, Dr. Whatley said he’s glad he didn’t give up his search to improve his practice.

“Don’t quit,” Dr. Whatley said. “I could have stopped looking a long, long time ago. Even when all my friends said, ‘How many consultants are you going to go through?’ I said, ‘Until I find the right one, I’m going to go through the mall.’ If it weren’t for The Team Training Institute, I’d still be maxed out, miserable and frustrated that I couldn’t get anybody else to see the future I could see for the practice. The Team Training Institute helped me to see that Ihad really good people. I just wasn’t giving them the opportunity to show me what they could really do. Now, I love coming to work because of the people I have here. I don’t take work home anymore. My stress level is probably 90% gone from where it was back then, and I’ve got exciting things coming in my life. It’s a completely different world. If I can do it, anybody out there can do it. It’s not that complicated when you ground yourself with the right people and get with an organization like TTI.”