They're all over.
Okay.
Got it.
And that's the name of the location?
Which one?
So, it's the name of the management company that runs them.
Each location has a different name.
The branding is different.
So there's Blitz, Family Dentistry, there's Smile.
I forgot what's our brand for ortho.
There's a few brands out there.
Smile Life is our brand for ortho.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I can imagine you got 82 dental practice locations to keep up with.
So that's a lot of names.
I know people who struggle naming their children when they've got five or six kids.
So the good news, there's about, let's say, 30 names because they're different brands
and one brand could have multiple offices.
Yeah.
Very good.
Okay.
And before we dive in too far, I'd love to know for visionaries out there listening,
what are three resources that you recommend?
Three books they should be reading or resources they would benefit from taking a look at?
There are plenty, a plethora of knowledge out there.
Some of the books that really stood out to me was Start with Why by Simon Sinek.
If you know the purpose and you know why you're doing things, you tend to perfect it.
That one I really highly recommend.
Another one is if you are a systems and processes freak like me, The Checklist Manifesto by
Atul Gawande was a good one.
It really taught me to be disciplined and to have everything in a process and a system
so that it's consistent and scalable.
So that was a good one.
Another one is called The Lean Startup for entrepreneurs and visionaries.
That's a good one.
I highly recommend.
Great choices.
Those are awesome ones.
All right, Dr. Tarek, we're going to dive in right after the intro.
Everybody be ready for this.
We're going to be talking about systems and processes that'll make you smile and scale
with dentists, periodontists, Dr. Tarek Alley.
We'll be right back.
All right.
Welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm Dr. Jackson Calame, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic
visions out there.
Hey, what's up, everybody?
Welcome in to another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, founder and CEO of first class business, Jackson Calame, and I'm here
with Dr. Tarek Alley.
We'll be talking about how he's gone about scaling and providing for dentists as a doctor
himself.
Scales and scaling systems and processes.
Systems and processes, they apply to all sorts of business models.
Now I won't say every business model because I haven't helped every business, but one of
the early, early businesses I took on when I first launched JCal Digital was a dentist
in San Antonio.
And yes, the systems that we use at Restaurant Connect for SaaS, the systems that we use
at Video Power Marketing for scaling global viral video campaigns on YouTube, the systems
that we use at Own Local helping the newspaper industry move into the 21st century and adopt
digital revenue streams.
Every single client that I consulted with, I would ask almost the exact same questions
with just a tiny spin on it.
Such as, for instance, what types of patients do you serve versus what type of clients do
you serve versus what types of customers do you serve?
It doesn't change.
It's all about service when you work in, so maybe we should narrow it down to this, the
service industry.
So if you're in the service industry, if your product or your service is designed to help
people, then I highly recommend tuning in and listening to what Dr. Tarek has to say.
Before we go onto that though, I also want to empower you with a few more tools in the
form of people that we work with and I highly recommend.
We include them in our sponsors.
First, we're going to talk about Sean LeChuga of the Wellness Shop 365.
Sean's vision of the 365 will of life assessment as an integrative nutritional health and coaching
consultant, it really caught me off guard when I saw it because I was like, man, I've
never seen a naturopath or someone in health dive in so deeply about my life choices.
Not to be pervasive, but to make sure that we're in harmony holistically for our health,
joy, spirituality, our home environment, what's your relationship look like?
What about your volunteering and giving or helping others?
Rating yourself on a scale of one to 10 on that.
And Sean and Julianne, as I got to know them and meet them now, it's been seven or eight
months since I've been associated with them.
Sean's actually helped me on the Vision Pros Live show as well.
And the way I've seen him show up as a dad and as a husband, the way Julianne has showed
up to support him in his roles as well and also as a magnificent nutrition coach, it's
just amazing to see their growth and what they're providing for themselves as well as
what they're capable of providing to others.
So if you're looking for somebody to help with health, then I highly recommend including
them in your research.
Then there's Melissa Gray with The Law Spot.
Melissa Gray is an attorney who I brought on the show.
And I was amazed at her capacity to nurture in addition to, of course, her knowledge as
a lawyer.
You don't see that combination very often.
She understands that law doesn't have to be complicated.
And she specifically practices legal for small and medium businesses.
I know that 90 to 95% of the clients I've worked with, and I've worked with a few thousand
clients at this point, did not have legal counsel on hand.
The challenge is when they finally do face a lawsuit.
We faced a lawsuit, well, we faced a trademark battle when I was at Restaurant Connect and
we spent over $20,000 trying to protect our own brand name, even though we had it first.
That wasn't the best use of funding for a startup.
Had we been in a better position with the right type of attorney who wouldn't have cost
an arm and a leg, I don't think it would have gone to the $20,000 mark.
I wish I had known Melissa or somebody like her previously.
So there's this, and we've suffered worse, by the way, at the pivot point, we shut down
because of a non-compete lawsuit that we first lost.
A year and a half later, we reversed it and CZR was able to win, but the company was already
gone by that point.
So when you try to use LegalDoc and Crocodoc or LegalShield and you find out that those
don't have the adequate support that you need as a business owner or you're paying for a
really expensive retainer, you kind of leave yourself susceptible to challenges.
And I would say it puts you in a position where you're not really a wise steward of
your brand.
So I would start interviewing legal counsel sooner than later.
That way you know who you feel comfortable with, who you can turn to, and again, include
her in your lineup.
That means make sure to interview four, five, six different options while it's not stressful,
while you're not under the pressure and heat of the battle, and find out who you're going
to turn to when you do come across something that you need.
In addition to that, we're going to also, of course, mention the water project.
The water project is something I don't ever want to forget.
I'm so fortunate to have access to clean drinking water, as is pretty much everybody listening
to this show.
There are millions of people out there, though, who have to walk miles to get water for the
day and throughout the day.
And these are parents also who have to go and instead of providing for their kids and
going to work, they might have to go get water.
Their grandparents, who literally, their spine adjusts the form.
It's an unnatural form now because they've had to carry water for so long, for so many
different years.
We have the opportunity to make impact on this.
The water project allows you to see which community you're supporting and allows you
to see the outcome as well.
They'll send you social media updates about the projects that you know that your money
was put to good use.
Now, if you have another cause that you'd like to see us contribute to, something that's
on your mind or on your heart, please drop the cause in the comments because we're not
exclusively giving to the water project.
We're also happy to promote and share and contribute with other resources that are out
there, other needs.
There's 8 billion people in this world who need help.
We're really all about making sure that we can raise as much awareness and do as much
as possible for those who have greater needs than we do.
With Dr. Tarek Ali, he's a periodontist.
He has a marketing diploma, master's of business administrator, certified valuation analyst,
pilot, traveler, and triplets father as well.
He's a co-founder of Modern Smiles.
He has 10 dental practice locations, primarily throughout Texas, partner at Community Dental
Partners where they have 82 dental practice locations, and a co-founder of OrthoDent Management,
12 dental practice locations, and the founder and president of Precision Advisory LLC.
I promise you, it looks like he sleeps too.
He's a versatile professional who combines his background in dental and general dentistry
and periodontal surgery with a robust foundation in management and leadership.
A graduate in dentistry from Alexandria University in Egypt.
Let me know if you know anybody who graduated from a university in Egypt.
I think that's cool in and of itself.
He's also earned an MBA from Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, obtained a CBA
certification from the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.
The man loves to study.
Without further ado, I can't wait to bring him on stage.
Dr. Tarek, thank you for joining us on Vision Pros Live.
Hi, Jackson.
Thank you for being on your awesome stage.
Yeah, I love that.
Call me off guard on that one.
Let's talk about your vision for those that you serve.
You got a lot of people you're already serving.
Maybe you're expanding this kingdom as well.
We'll talk about your vision in just a minute, but for those that you serve, what is it that
you hope they accomplish or they achieve on their horizon?
You know, Jackson, I realized early on when I was in dental school that there are a ton
of underserved dental patients out there.
Millions and millions of people can't afford to go to the dentist or they get subpar dental
treatment.
I realized that in school, they teach you how to be an amazing dentist, but they really
don't teach you how to scale, how to actually help more people, how to make your services
cost effective, spread the word.
I really noticed that and I made it a mission to actually spread oral hygiene awareness
and also help dentists grow their businesses while serving their communities.
So I saw that gap and fortunately, we've managed over the years to make a huge impact on so
many communities and so many dental professionals and dental groups out there.
Awesome.
Okay, and your focus on that reminds me a lot of why Caesar and I had built the pivot
point and specifically we're working with naturopaths and chiropractors and it was because
we saw the same thing.
They went to Parker College of Chiropractic or similar.
They learned so much and, you know, it never took away from the studies that they did do.
However, they did not know a lot about the business growth aspect and a lot of them were
stuck with $60,000 salaries if they were lucky.
You know, most of which, you know, had families to support, they had growth, but they had
the same types of malpractice issue.
They had insurance that they needed to get.
They had to open a location and hire people and the administration and the system side
of their business, that's not their passion.
That's not what they wanted to be doing.
They wanted to be caring for people.
Dentistry having a very similar reality.
So with that said, what does the outcome look like on the other side of making that flip?
You know, is it that the dentist can now charge more and have more profitability?
Is it, you know, what does it look like if they want to expand and scale?
Feel free to go any direction on that.
You know, it's actually a win-win-win.
The patient gets the ultimate treatment, the best treatment they can ever get.
The cost to them is significantly less.
The dentist makes more money and you're able to see more patients, be in more communities,
grow instead of having one location, you can be five or 10, make more money, work less,
have more impact on patients every day.
So it's a really win-win-win.
Everybody wins in this scenario.
That's great.
Okay.
So it sounds like there's, there's a lot of choice, you know, involved with that, which
that's the ultimate, you know, that's one of the ultimate words to describe freedom.
Absolutely.
And think about it as in scaling up in general, the goal is to be more impactful with less
work on your end.
So it's efficiency.
Your family deserves more time from you.
Your friends deserve more time from you.
Your the holistic approach to life, your health, your spiritual needs, your physical needs,
all that.
And a lot of times business owners are slaves to their businesses.
And at the end of the day, the patient or the client or the customer suffers and the
provider suffers.
Yeah, it's true.
The dentist that I worked with, it was one of my first consultations at J-Cal and I completely
set the wrong expectation with them.
I told them that my job was to get them in a position where they wouldn't need me anymore.
And not a bad thing.
You know, it wasn't about me, but I was trying to tee them up so that they wouldn't need
a marketing director at all.
And I hadn't read the E-Myth yet.
You know, I hadn't realized the hole I was going to eventually put them into where, you
know, everything would fall on them from a marketing standpoint, even if they did have
the systems, procedures, et cetera, that we built out.
I know a lot of business owners that have that mentality, right?
They want the marketing to be a done thing, a finished product, so they can just maintain
things from there.
Once that's done, let's stop writing this person a paycheck.
Let's move forward.
Do you see that commonly in the dental industry?
Is that a challenge that dentists face or was that a one-time experience?
Well, so everyone thinks there's a magic pill that you just take and life magically works
its way, but it's really a lot of effort put into this.
You have to build systems.
You have to read KPIs.
You have to train your team members.
You have to get the feedback loop and do that.
So it's not an easy process, but once it's set up, your life significantly changes.
You become a completely different human.
And also, we have to do a paradigm shift of like, hey, I'm the solo from the solopreneur
that does everything to an executive in your business, to someone who has one role in your
business and delegate and have the system, trust the system to let do its work.
The quality of care is better and you will be significantly more impactful with less
time because let's face it, the worst trade you can ever do is trading your time for money
because this is the most valuable asset you have in your life, your time.
So why don't you trade know-how and systems and knowledge for money and growth and scaling
up?
And that's what we typically coach on.
You really need to build a system that you trust and that system will take you there.
I love that.
The worst trade you can ever do is trading your time for money.
And Robert Kiyosaki, Ridge Dad Port, had one of my favorite principles from his book, similar
concept is Ridge Dad tells him, Robert, never become a slave to money, understand the value
of work itself.
So I love that.
What's your vision for you, Dr. Tarek?
What do you see on the horizon?
Oh, for me, I love what I do.
I wake up happy every day.
I love the ability now to impact many more professionals with less of my time.
I would really love to help more communities.
I'm a world traveler.
I go everywhere and I'm involved in the dental world in many different countries.
So my vision is to keep expanding that.
And as long as I live, if there is one person that benefited by having better health care
because of me, that will make my life.
I'm happy with that.
I like that.
It reminds me a little bit of that country song, My Front Port's Looking In.
And that song's really about being aware of the greatness of the present.
And yeah, there's certainly awesome opportunities that are ahead for this family.
And instead of looking at the horizon, he's looking at how beautiful his family is.
But that ability to be present, to know that there is perhaps one more opportunity on the
horizon, but you're not chasing it.
You're not riding off into the sunset blindly forgetting the value of what you have right
now.
I think a lot of entrepreneurs, especially at the three to five year mark, it's like,
man, that's what they want.
Absolutely.
And going back to what is success to begin with, it's these six factors, family life,
love life, health and fitness, social life, spiritual life, and reasonable financial prosperity.
So when we in the Western world, going from the Middle East to the West, I realized that
the definition of success in the Western world is always been related to material wealth.
You say this guy is successful.
Most people think that, oh, he has cars and houses and money in the bank and all that.
But in the Eastern world, I've noticed that successful is more, it's more encompassing
of family life, health and fitness, physical health and mental health, social health and
so forth.
So that's why that mind shift for me was like, oh, interesting.
I need to do the paradigm shift here.
I love that.
I had a world religion teacher who kind of opened my paradigm to that.
One simple phrase, he said, you know, he said, I love how much the Eastern religions meditate.
We could learn so much from that.
That was it.
That was the only thought.
But I was like, huh, what if I did just try to learn about the virtues and values of different
cultures and their different balances for how they go about worshiping or in other words,
how they go about living their life and prioritizing.
So we can learn so much when we get outside of our pigeonhole viewpoint.
And you are very worldly yourself.
You speak multiple language.
You've been in many cultures.
So that's amazing.
I respect that about you.
Thank you.
I it's, you know, it's such a value.
You know, it's one of the greatest blessings of my life, you know, to be able to see that.
You're growing up with without a dad as a, you know, I have a dad.
He was my hero.
And you know, he did he did some good things, some great things.
But I was constantly looking outside my home for that example of what does a father do?
How do I want to show up?
And I think that's one of the things that led me to be much more open about looking
at different cultures and broaden my horizon and realize, OK, I'm not just stuck.
But the examples I have in this home, I've got lots of examples I can learn from.
So yeah, if you if you have been stuck or you've been blessed with a nuclear family,
that is one thing to consider is is, you know, do I have opportunities for growth outside
of of what I've seen in my my current present?
But I'll also detract on that.
I also love that you talked about knowing the value of where you're at.
Right.
Maybe you don't go to extremes on that.
Perhaps visionaries.
It can be very easy to get lost in the shuffle of worrying about a billion other ways of
doing things.
Yes.
You're not a tree.
You can always move.
And remember, you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
So do something.
Make a change.
Louder.
Absolutely.
Let's dive into a dark subject.
What is your worst leadership experience ever?
This can be yours.
This could be another leader.
So I in the beginning of my leadership career, I didn't have the science and art of leadership.
And for me, it was struggling dealing with many different types of personalities of humans.
Machines are predictable, zeros and ones easy.
But anytime you deal with humans, it is very, very hard.
I I faced numerous challenges.
One of them was that we've had team members from dental practices steal from the office.
We've had many different obstacles like that.
Like you have compliance issues.
You have controlled substances in your own your offices, you know, whether it's drugs
or whatever it is that we prescribe for patients.
There are some things that you just don't know.
Oh, my gosh, I didn't know that humans were capable capable of doing that.
So it was a challenge for me actually to understand the different personality types and start
doing personality testing, the enneagram, the disc, the Colby and all that fun stuff.
And then realize that I'm defective.
So at one point I looked in the mirror and I said, you suck.
I really did look in the mirror and I said, you suck because it's OK to suck.
But what is not OK is to keep being in that hole.
And that's when I started being a professional student and trying to learn and understand
about what leadership is.
And I hope I made a comeback.
Very good.
What more resource or resources did you turn to, maybe the first or maybe the best?
So some of the books that I've read was Rich Dad Poor Dad and made a huge difference in
just my financial perspective.
But also I followed a lot of leaders books.
And there are the biographies of leaders are interesting because it's not always rosy and
happy and it's not always filled with good values.
There's a lot of dark side in it.
Have you ever read the book 48 Laws of Power?
No, I have.
Well, it's a very interesting read because it's very controversial.
It has a lot of dark.
I like controversial.
It's very controversial.
You're going to you're going to call me and say, hey, man, I love you for recommending
this.
And I'm not recommending to follow the things in the book because a lot of it is really
dark.
It's actually not good to follow.
But it taught me how people function, how leaders get to the top.
And so I learned what to do and what not to do.
Right.
Yes, there were plenty of resources and of course, mentorship.
Coaching is very important.
Let me ask you this.
How many workout routines did you download from the Internet and never done?
How many cook cooking instructions and recipes you downloaded and never done?
So it's really not about the know how it's about having the coach to take you there with
holding your hands and accountability.
So coaching helped me a lot as well.
Nice.
That's that is an important one for those who have, you know, have a coach.
I recommend watching out for your own blind side on that.
I hear so many people say I already have a coach and the most successful people that
I know have lots of coaches.
You know, and so if you have a coach who's telling you, you already have a coach, one
consider you're working with somebody that might be very controlling to if you are the
one who's putting that limitation and doesn't realize that your coach doesn't know everything.
You know, you might need a coach for finances.
You might benefit from having a coach for fitness.
You might benefit from having a coach for marketing.
Again, expanding your ability to have great coaches by your side.
Multiples can help make sure that you're protected from more and more of the potential blind
spots that you'll have.
So well said, Dr. Tara.
Coaching is extremely important.
What's your best leadership experience?
My best leadership experience has been when I've watched the the the team that we built
become team leaders and expand.
My first aha moment was that I was on a train in Italy and I've been gone for about a week
or so or 10 days and I had not received one single phone call, which for us at the time
was insanity because you're you know, you're like always on the computer, always on your
phone and I had not received one single phone call for 10 days and I thought, wow, am I
not that important to my to my team?
And then I realized like, wow, this is the the true definition of success is that your
business is taken care of, your patients are being taken care of, your team is being taken
care of without and they didn't know I was gone without one single interference from
you.
And for me, that was my favorite leadership experience.
It may not sound much, but for me at the time, we had maybe seven, eight locations, about
maybe a hundred team members.
At that time, that was a very big aha moment.
And that was that's when I started obsessing about scaling up and and taking this to the
next level.
Oh, I like that.
That's reminds me of an aircraft carrier and how I was just talking to two leaders that
we brought onto the team recently.
They're executives in training and as an aircraft carrier that carries a lot of people, it's
my job to get on my airplane to leave the ship.
Right.
And the ship's supposed to progress while I'm gone, but I'm supposed to be going about
doing my own thing around the world.
And I've got to know where that ship is so that I can come back to it the right way.
But even if it was more like a train and I'm like on a horse and back in the old days,
like sometimes you're going to see me coming on like, wait for me, you know, but that's
a good thing.
You want your team to be moving things without you.
You do not want to control the train at all times.
That's not that's not true leadership or true power.
So I love this.
I love this example.
Yes, I've sometimes found myself on my horse trying to catch up with my team.
I'm pretty well for you, but I was just shot by never mind.
We'll keep going.
So entrepreneurship is hard.
My friends, you know, Elon Musk said, yeah, entrepreneurship is like eating glass.
It takes a crazy person to do it.
Absolutely.
And favorite quotes for entrepreneurship, because there's almost no point to it.
If you look at the actual like pathway or if you look at those biographies of great
leaders, you're like, yeah, that was like, that was so almost inhumanly possible what
they did.
So, absolutely.
I mean, it's like I like that example of like jumping off a cliff and building your airplane
as you descend.
Reid Hoffman.
Yeah.
He said he said entrepreneurship is like pushing a plane off of a cliff and repairing it while
it's going down.
Very true.
Both those I heard in the same exact article.
We must have been reading it together without knowing it.
Yes.
All right.
Let's see here.
So now time for a serious shift.
If this was your last chance to share a lesson with visionaries, what powerful lesson can
other visionaries learn from your experience?
What's the last lesson?
Number one, define your why.
Why are you doing this?
Number two, focus on what is the definition of true success, which is the six things that
we talked about.
Number three, empower your team.
And that's I feel that these three things have helped me significantly.
And if I go back in time, I would I would start with those.
I'm writing these because I want them.
Three was empower your team, correct?
Number three was empower your team.
Yes.
OK, awesome.
Those are those are I'm glad you gave us a recipe.
That's neat.
Out of one hundred and seventy eight episodes.
I think you're the first one to give a recipe like a step by step breakdown.
You like to cook?
Yeah, it's therapeutic, actually.
Yeah, very good.
I like to use the micro.
No, I like to cook, too.
So how like have you gone to cooking classes and all that?
Did you learn through the Internet?
What?
No, it's skills.
It's basically having an Egyptian mom.
Because, you know, the reason they have kids is to slave labor them, right?
It's like, hey, you cut the tomatoes, you do that.
No, anyways, I'm joking.
But yes, I learned a lot from from my mom, and I also learned that it's therapeutic because
it's it's also a giving act.
You're pleasing others when you watch everyone around you enjoy the meal that you've done.
That pleasing act gives you great satisfaction.
And it's kind of addicting because you really want to do this more often, make people more
happy.
Absolutely.
So, do you cook?
Was that do you cook?
I am a quiet cook.
I grew up in a house with my mom and five older sisters.
And so I didn't really know what the kitchen looked like.
And I didn't really know what a bathroom looked like.
And I knew there was this device they had on their face, but I didn't know what it was
used for because they're always on it.
So it was a different lifestyle.
And granted, everybody thought I was super lazy, you know, and didn't and I didn't know
how to do things for a long time because I always took care of me.
So I didn't learn how to cook until my 20s.
And I'm sure the laughing joke in the family, they still know how to cook.
But I just won't cook for others.
So I cook for like one person at a time or for my kiddos.
My kiddos, they have their ups and downs with my meals.
But I never try the same recipe twice.
I'm always down with new things, putting new stuff in.
And yeah, so is it great?
I don't know.
I'll have to do a cooking exchange sometime.
So awesome.
Well, let's let's dive into systems processes that of course make us smile and make us scale.
You know, where do you want to start with that?
There's there's I'll gravitate towards certain questions and I'll play devil's advocate and
some of the things that you say too.
But I'd love for you to just dive in.
If you, you know, had five minutes to talk about scaling.
Yes.
And I'm going to I'm going to tie smiles.
Visionaries are listening to hospitality and service skills.
You know, it's not just about cleaning the teeth.
It's also about how to take care of people.
So we'll tag team this effort.
But go ahead.
You got five minutes.
Five minutes.
I'll color comment as you go.
So let's start with the the macro to micro.
What does a system mean?
System is a Latin word, sistema.
And it really means literally the whole concept made of several parts.
So you're you're you're building something based on parts.
If you think about the word standard of care, standard of care is not standard.
Every hospital you go to, they do different things.
Every dental office you go to, they do different things.
So there's no real thing as standard of care.
Let me let me remind everyone if you don't know this, but there's one hundred and fifty
thousand Americans die each year during surgery.
Half of those are deaths are due to avoidable human error.
So that means someone didn't wash their hands.
Someone got in the wrong blood type when the transfusion.
Someone didn't take a test to see the allergies.
Very avoidable human error that someone had just read a checklist.
Your mom or your aunt or you or your brother could have not died because someone just followed
a checklist.
So it's not just important in terms of productivity, but it also affects people's lives.
Do you know that the building failure rate is zero point zero zero zero two percent?
That means for every you probably walked into hundreds of thousands of buildings in your
life.
Did you ever think that they were going to fall on your head?
No, you didn't think about it.
Yes, even though there's tons of concrete and metal in front on top of you, but we never
think about that.
Why?
Because the failure rates are so low that it's we just feel comfortable and we trust
it.
Why do we trust it?
Why we doesn't fail?
Because they have systems.
Whenever they're building it, they say this goes first, this goes second, and the weight
bearing should be over this.
Do you know that the likelihood of you being killed in an airline flight is one to twenty
nine million?
So that means you're if you're going to die on the top on a day that you're flying, it's
probably going to be on your way to the airport in the car.
It's not going to be in the plane.
Why?
Because they have so much redundant systems.
I'm a pilot.
I fly.
We we read gauges.
We do checklists.
We do multiple, multiple things that are redundant and may seem stupid.
Why did why are we doing this?
We've done it seven times before because there's a system that makes sure that this is safe.
So now that we know the importance of systems, well, how do you actually do a system?
The first thing you need to do is look in the mirror and say you suck and it's OK.
Yes, I agree with this.
We suck at systems.
Good.
Exactly.
Yes.
We all suck, right?
It's completely fine.
But what's not fine is not doing something about it.
So step one, you suck.
Step two.
OK, KPIs.
Why KPIs?
Because I need measurable data to see where I am versus where I'm going without KPIs.
You know nothing.
You're driving a car without looking at your gauges.
You're flying a plane without looking at your gauges.
It does not mean anything.
So why do you talk about key performance indicators, right?
The indicators of performance that let us know we're doing the right things.
Go ahead.
Key performance indicators are measurable ways to assess the health of a specific task
or goal or business and then see where you are right now versus where you're going.
So step one, you suck.
Step two, let's measure KPIs to see where we are and find out where we need to go.
Step three is you need to actually analyze the data.
How many entrepreneurs are tracking KPIs and happy about it, but they never even look at
it, right?
I'm sure you face that significantly in your business.
Well, I think I think one of the challenges on that too, Dr. Tarek, is a lot of people
aren't as studious as you've been about analyzing data.
Most of us, I think most human beings, if not all of us, are really, really bad at understanding
the variables.
We jump to conclusions very quickly.
And if you don't study it, you will never know, right?
You will only have the capacity to jump to conclusions or follow your intuition.
But following your intuition without studying is like having faith in something without,
again, without studying.
Blind faith is not the same as faith.
One is a vice that will not serve you.
One is an action-oriented faith.
Oh, the same is true with numbers in our business.
We have to know what KPIs to track, and we have to know how to then track those and how
to determine whether that indicates a good thing or a bad thing.
And so there's a lot there, but that's also why you need a coach.
Why you need somebody to guide you on it.
Why you should be listening to what Dr. Tarek is talking about right now.
So this is a passion of mine because they need a lot of help.
Absolutely.
You couldn't have said it any more perfectly.
Oh, I get to commentate.
My part's easy.
Your part's pulling forth the clear knowledge without the prompt.
So go ahead.
So, yes, you're right.
KPIs are the standard way of doing, of assessing things.
If you're making decisions not based on scientific evidence, then you're most likely going to
make the wrong decision.
But also to know what to track, how to track it, what to do with it, you actually do need
some knowledge, which I agree with you 100%.
Having a coach will help significantly with that.
It'll just get you the shortcuts.
So all right.
Did you remember the steps?
What was step one?
Yep.
Step one, we'll start with why.
Yes.
And also, you know, in the building the system.
How do you build the system?
Is that what we're talking about?
Those steps.
Okay.
So the new recipe, the second recipe, the new recipe is how to build a system.
Yes.
And it's mid-I-stock at building systems.
And two, KPIs.
Got to get my KPIs in place.
And three, I got to analyze the data.
Exactly.
Yes.
So analyze the data.
Now that we analyze the data, now we have to do something with it.
You tracked it, you analyzed it.
Okay, you realize, oh, these are some things we're doing amazing and these are some things
that we saw.
Then you build a standard.
You build as...
I got to pause you real quick.
Everybody is hearing this thing about the I suck thing.
I want you to say it with me.
I suck at speaking Chinese.
Okay.
I suck at rollerblading with one roller blade on carrying a 50 pound anvil.
Right.
This is not about you attacking yourself and saying you are not a worthwhile human
being.
This is about recognizing that there are things that we are bad at and that is okay and healthy
to admit.
So when Dr. Tarek is talking about how I suck at building systems, that's not something
that most people should even be proud of being good at.
Most of us aren't integrators.
I'm an integrator.
I've learned how to do this.
So I don't suck at building systems, but I do suck at building new systems without proper
guidance.
So again, I think I've created enough context around this that everybody can finally sit
down and not cry.
Absolutely.
100% agree with you.
Go ahead, though.
The reason I say this is a lot of times our ego gets in the way.
When you have a successful business and it's growing, everybody around you is like, oh
my gosh, you're doing amazing.
You're fantastic.
But that gets in the way of progress because we always have to admit that we are defective
at some point that we need to improve and there's no improvement without acknowledging
that.
So yes.
You just hit me with something big.
A big little inspiration came in.
And so Simon Sinek says, start with why.
And I would say it's your ego that makes you cry.
Oh, I love it.
Right.
And I'm talking about good tears.
I'm talking about the bad.
It's your ego that makes you cry.
You get offended, right?
You get defensive, you know, and you're crying about it.
You're feeling it's because of your ego.
You know, and that we're going to, if there's a place for that.
All right, go ahead.
100% agree.
All right.
So step one, we, uh, there are some things we can improve on.
Step two, measure KPIs.
Step three, analyze the data.
Step four, build the SOP, which is checklists, systems, audits.
Every repeatable process in your business has to be written down in a standard form.
Whatever it is receiving the first date, we narrow these down to three, a first class
business and that's procedures, resources and templates.
Oh, love it.
Okay.
That's that comes from Dan Martell, SAS Academy.
Super, super great.
Procedures, procedures, resources and templates.
Um, I don't know of a system that goes outside of the bounds of those three.
Um, if you think of one, we might need to add a new letter to the equation, but yeah,
PRs and T's that's our indexing for our systems.
Love it.
And a hundred percent agree.
If you have a process that is repeatable, you have to have a system for it.
Otherwise it's not going to be, um, um, the quality of care is not scalable.
It's not going to be consistent.
So a patient comes in Monday morning, they'll have a different treatment than Friday afternoon,
uh, just because you know, someone's tired or someone had a fight with their spouse this
morning or you brought a dentist in who is practicing completely different at another
dental practice.
Um, right.
And I've been to multiple did this.
I know what it's like to try to search for a new dentist and the one who, you know, has
all the fancy smancy equipment and he's taking, he's got a DSLR to take pictures of your teeth.
And next thing you know, he's trying to corner you into paying for a ton of stuff.
And you're like, what the heck?
Like I've never been to a dentist who's this cutthroat about driving profitability, but
I think in some of marketing marketers, I know exactly what he's doing.
Oh, you know, like, like there are some crazy practices that are out there for a crazy differences
in terms of how people operate, which is why you don't want to bring in a rock star and
just let them loose.
Because their version of being a rock star might not be ethically aligned with, with
what you do and your absolutely.
So I was wondering, how do you know so much about the dental industry?
Did you work with dentists?
Do you, did you have, I did, I did, I did work with, but first my sister, um, married
a chiropractor.
So I read, um, you know, chiropractic first, but before that she also was studying dental
hygiene at, uh, in B-ville, Texas.
Um, and I was many times I was doing flashcards with her.
Um, and I go to her school as well and, and learn about the process, but I, you know,
I wanted to be a doctor.
Um, so I studied in the national leadership forum for medicine as well.
And, uh, was in the medical co-op program in high school.
So, uh, yes, I, I have a, a love for learning and dentistry is, yeah, anyway.
That's amazing.
You never fail to impress my friend.
Uh, well, it neither do other human beings that are out there.
You visionaries that are listening in, we're actually going to wrap up on that.
We're gonna leave it right where it's at.
Dr. Tarek, you gave us so much wisdom in terms of systems and processes, um, and systems
and processes that make me smile because I don't know a lot of coaches, uh, a lot of
trainers and consultants that can precisely dive to the depth that you did today as efficiently
as you, as you were able to do.
And I know that's proof of scale and scale was such a great attitude as well.
Um, you know, it's such a well-roundedness centered.
Um, I, I see in you what you talked about early on that definition of success from the
East that is about balance.
Um, you know, and, and, uh, so there's, there's so much I could say about you.
I'll leave the bromance where it's at.
Um, vision pros, those of you who are listening in, uh, you'll be able to find out more about
Dr. Tarek on the landing page, the action steps, action steps might be simple.
In fact, I'd recommend instead of just diving into people's online digital marketing assets,
one of the best things you can do is go to their LinkedIn profile, connect with them
and ask them if they're willing to meet with you.
Um, you know, actually go for the human to human connection.
Um, and then in addition to that, if you have a vision and you'd like to share it on our
show, then the top right corner, you'll see a button that says, be our guest.
We'd love to see you apply.
We want to extract from the world, the awesome visions that are out there and inspire other
visionaries to pursue their visions.
And that comes about by bringing different people of diverse backgrounds on the stage,
getting to know what great you're doing for the world.
If you have a question for Dr. Tarek, then drop it in the comments.
Um, you know, we'll be happy to tag him and make sure that he sees that.
And if you were blessed by this show and subscribing, um, sharing this with somebody else who comes
to mind, um, not another entrepreneur who needs systems processes or help from some
other kind, we've got 178 leaders who've already been on the show, who've shared amazing visions
for what they do.
Before we wrap up, Dr. Tarek, is there anything you'd like to share at the end?
Uh, well, first of all, I enjoyed being on your amazing platform.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Second is I love what you're doing and spreading amazingness to the world.
Please don't stop.
Uh, and then the third is for anyone out there that needs help or handholding or bouncing
off ideas, I'm definitely willing and would love to collaborate.
And the, the final word word is be happy, be positive, be active, and remember that
it, you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
I love that.
The cool thing about being happy, being positive and being active is all three of those things,
no matter what we face are truly in our control.
So I love that advice, um, because we do have the ability to choose to, to move towards
all three of those in most circumstances.
Um, and if you struggle with, um, the happiness side of that equation, um, then my hope is
that you will find peace, um, in the struggle and we'll pray for you in the meantime.
So vision pros have an excellent rest of your day and we will see you on the next episode.
Dr. Tarek, it's been an absolute pleasure and I'll see you right after the show.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned into vision pros live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time
and attention.
We hope you have an excellent time building out your vision.