“There’s a Difference Between Busy and Productive”: How Lana Rivera’s Inside-Out Framework Reveals Why Practices Stay Maxed Out and How to Fix the Leaks in Your Bucket
What happens when a girl falls into dentistry completely by accident starting in a dental lab (learning the prosthetic side and how quality impacts smiles), moves into dental offices, works in oral surgery, manages clinics serving developmentally disabled adults (learning the critical importance of trust and empathy), and finishes her clinical career working for a maxillofacial surgeon doing complex jaw resections and implant cases—always in management, never clinical, but always asking “why, what, how, and when” so deeply that she can train clinical staff to help doctors become more efficient?
In this incredibly practical conversation, Lana reveals why her approach is “inside out” (the opposite of consultants who come in with clipboards saying “do X, Y, and Z like I did elsewhere”), why financial pressure is almost always the first pain point doctors mention but rarely the actual problem, how case acceptance is often a massive untracked leak that doctors think is happening way better than it actually is, and why the single most important position most practices don’t have is a dedicated Treatment Plan Coordinator—someone whose job is literally to close cases by understanding both the clinical reasoning AND the psychology of the patient, by having a healthy relationship with finances themselves so they don’t project their own money anxiety onto patients, and by having the doctor’s back completely so patients sense the confidence and commitment.
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Key Moments
- 02:06 – Lana’s path: Dental lab → dental office → oral surgery → general dentistry (developmentally disabled patients) → maxillofacial surgery, always in management, asking “why” to transcend knowledge to clinical staff
- 05:02 – NMG stands for “no me gusta”: Spanish for “I don’t like that”—the family joke that she creates solutions for problems doctors don’t like
- 06:05 – The universal pattern: Every office is maxed out, stressed, with terrible team culture, unclear referrals, financial strain—but working harder won’t fix it; there are leaks in the bucket
- 09:16 – The constraint principle: Doctors hit ceiling where they’re maxed out; unless they fix the actual constraint (usually systems, not effort), they stay stuck at that level
- 10:15 – Finance is the symptom, systems are the disease: Doctors think working harder fixes financial problems, but money is leaking through broken systems elsewhere (delegation, case acceptance, efficiency)
- 11:31 – Case acceptance is a massive untracked leak: Most doctors guess at their number; when actually tracked, it’s often 40% or 20%, not the 95% they thought
- 13:15 – The Treatment Plan Coordinator role: Single most essential position most practices don’t have; dedicated coordinator bumps acceptance rate immediately through hands-on relationship with patient
- 15:46 – Lana’s working model: Virtual monthly meetings with multiple touchpoints, in-person quarterly visits (customized to each client’s needs), she’s an extension of the team, not just a consultant
- 18:33 – Her “jam”: Fixing unspoken tension and communication breakdowns on teams; bringing people back to neutral ground where they understand why they’re there and what they need to do
- 21:13 – Golden nugget: There’s a difference between busy and productive—fixing structure, eliminating pain points, and delegating what you don’t need to do yourself is what creates actual productivity
Episode Summary
Lana Rivera’s path into dentistry was completely accidental, but it set the foundation for everything she does today. She started in a dental lab where she learned the prosthetic side of dentistry and how quality impacts smiles. From there, she moved into dental offices, then oral surgery, then general dentistry working with developmentally disabled adults (where she learned the critical importance of trust and empathy), and finally finished her clinical career working for a maxillofacial surgeon doing complex jaw resections and implant cases. Throughout her entire clinical journey, she was always in management—never technically clinical—but always asking “why, what, how, and when” about everything so deeply that she could translate that knowledge into training clinical staff to work more efficiently. She describes her approach as “inside out” because that’s literally how she fell into dentistry. When she decided to leave clinical practice and build her consulting firm, she named it NMG Practice Solutions. NMG stands for “no me gusta”—Spanish for “I don’t like that”—which came from a family joke that she creates solutions for problems doctors don’t like. It’s her brand: fix the things that are broken, frustrating, and holding the practice back.
Over 20+ years of experience, Lana noticed an unmistakable pattern in every single office she walked into: the doctor was maxed out, completely taxed, stressed to capacity. Team culture was terrible, referral patterns unclear, finances overwhelmed. Doctors thought the solution was to work harder, but Lana could see the real problem: there were massive leaks in the bucket. Systems were broken, money was hemorrhaging, and effort alone couldn’t fix it. This connects directly to what Alex Hermozzi describes as “the constraint”—the ceiling that a business hits where it can’t grow beyond without fixing the actual limiting factor. Most doctors blame themselves and work harder, but the constraint is usually something systemic: unclear roles, broken communication, poor delegation, lack of case acceptance tracking, no dedicated treatment coordinator. When Lana starts working with a practice, the first pain point they mention is almost always financial. “Lana, I’m having a problem with my overhead. I don’t understand my numbers. I don’t know where my patients are going with their treatment plans.” But finance is rarely the actual problem—it’s the symptom. The disease is broken systems elsewhere that are leaking money and creating strain.
One of the biggest leaks Lana sees is case acceptance, and it’s rarely tracked accurately. She had a discovery call with a practice owner who had no idea where their case acceptance actually was. They thought they were doing fine, but they hadn’t measured it. When you actually start tracking case acceptance (instead of guessing), most practices discover it’s 20-40%, not the 80-95% they thought. That’s a massive leak. How do you fix it? Lana’s first question is always: “Do you have a dedicated Treatment Plan Coordinator?” And the answer is almost always no—even in specialty practices. The treatment plan coordinator is one of the most essential and important positions a practice can have, but most don’t. They might ask an assistant or office manager to also do it, but someone needs to be dedicated to the treatment plan coordination process because that immediately bumps case acceptance. Why? Because it’s a dedicated hands-on touchpoint, and more importantly, because the coordinator understands both the clinical reasoning (why this treatment is necessary) AND the psychology of the patient. The coordinator has to have a healthy relationship with finances themselves—if they feel $1,000 is expensive for tires, they’ll project that money anxiety onto a $3,000 crown and the patient will feel that hesitation. The coordinator needs to understand the diagnosis as deeply as the doctor so they can translate it into language the patient understands. When patients ask “Do I really need this? It’s expensive and we have a Disney vacation,” the coordinator with the doctor’s full backing can say “yes, you do, and here’s why” with complete confidence. That transcends to the patient.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
- NMG Practice Solutions: Lana Rivera’s consulting firm specializing in inside-out practice transformation, team communication, case acceptance, and breaking through growth ceilings
- Marketing 32: Performance-based dental marketing with accountability to growth metrics
- Alex Hormozi: Business coach/strategist known for “business grows to the next level constraint” concept (mentioned by Brett)
- DISC Personality Test: Lana uses personality testing (DISC, Myers-Briggs, etc.) to help teams understand communication differences
- Previous Episode: Connor Ludlow / Hello Annie (AI digital coworker for dental practices)
Quotable Moments:
“Every single office I walked into, the doctors were always stressed out, maxed out at capacity. They didn’t understand why team culture was terrible or why admin and clinical couldn’t get along. But the real problem was they had fundamental leaks in the bucket—systems weren’t working.” – Lana Rivera
“It’s not them working harder that’s the problem. It’s their systems behind it that is basically leaking the money, which is causing the strain on the financial aspect of the practice.” – Lana Rivera
“I work from the inside out. I get down to the foundation of the problems, find high-level where the pain points begin and where they break down later on down the road.” – Lana Rivera
“The most essential position that most practices don’t have is a Treatment Plan Coordinator. Having someone dedicated to treatment plan coordination is going to bump up your acceptance rate automatically through hands-on touch points.” – Lana Rivera
“The person presenting treatment plans has to have a good relationship with finances. If they feel $1,000 is expensive for tires, how are they gonna feel about a $3,000 treatment plan? That anxiety transcends to the patient.” – Lana Rivera
“The coordinator needs to understand why the person needs this treatment because that transcends down to the patients. They’re gonna ask—do I really need this?” – Lana Rivera
“Doctors struggle with understanding what to delegate, when to delegate, and who to delegate to. So nothing gets delegated and they stay stuck.” – Lana Rivera
“I love going into offices with unspoken tension and breaking it down. When you bring everybody back to neutral ground and help them understand why they’re here and what each person needs to do, everything shifts.” – Lana Rivera
“I’m an extension of the team. I’m here to help. I’m here to facilitate. I’m here to work through problems with them and keep the relationships in the office strong while we fix issues, scale, and grow.” – Lana Rivera
“There is a difference between busy and productive. We don’t want to be busy. We want to be productive. Looking at structure, eliminating pain points, and delegating what you don’t need to do yourself—that’s what creates actual productivity.” – Lana Rivera
Key Action Items:
- Assess whether you’re busy or productive: Track how many hours you work versus actual results produced—are you slammed but stalled, or are you making progress?
- Identify your current constraint: What’s keeping you from growing to the next level? (Usually it’s finances, delegation, case acceptance, or team communication.)
- Start tracking case acceptance: Actually measure it (not guess). You’ll likely discover it’s lower than you thought—that’s your first leak to fix.
- Evaluate your Treatment Plan Coordinator role: Do you have someone dedicated to this? If not, that’s probably your biggest case acceptance leak.
- Audit your delegation gaps: What are you doing that someone else could be doing? What decisions are you making that should be delegated? Start there.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is brought to you by Marketing 32—the only dental marketing team with a performance guarantee where if you’re not growing, you don’t pay. Marketing 32 is truly invested in adding value to your practice and working with doctors they know they can over-deliver for. Marketing 32 helps you build the patient acquisition piece of that vision through strategic online presence, content creation, and growth campaigns. If you need help with marketing and growth, reach out at marketing32.com for a quick 15-minute discovery call to see if it’s a good fit.
Episode Transcript:
Brett Allen (00:23)
Hi, Brett Allen here, host of the Marketing32 show, where I connect with leading dentists, dental influencers, and industry experts to uncover the latest and greatest to help your practice grow and thrive. This episode, as always, is brought to you by a team here at Marketing32. We’re the only dental marketing team that I know of that we help you grow or you don’t pay. So we have that performance guarantee and we only work with practices we’re confident we can help lift and provide value for. So
If you need help with growth, if you’re needing help with marketing, head over to marketing32.com, schedule a quick discovery call, we’ll have that conversation and we’ll see if this will be a win f win-win to work together. Quick shout out to Connor Ludlow. Recently had him on the show. He’s the founder of Hello Annie, which is an AI employee company. a little different than AI receptionist, but really cool conversation about how AI
Can be leveraged to do lots of different things in your practice. check out that episode to learn more. Excited to have a new friend of mine on the show, Lana Rivera. She is the founder of NMG Practice Solutions. She’s an international speaker and the strategist dental practices call when they’re ready to stop surviving and start scaling. Excited to talk more about that. With more than 20 years in dentistry, she’s known for asking the hard questions, challenging outdated thinking.
and turning overlooked opportunities into measurable growth. She believes the future of dentistry belongs to practices that lead differently, and she’s built a proven framework to help them get there. Welcome to the show, Lana. Excited to have you on.
Lana Rivera (01:54)
Thanks, Brett. I’m excited too. Thanks for having me.
Brett Allen (01:56)
Yeah. So talk to us more about who you are and how you got into dentistry. I’d love to start with background and walk people through your journey and how you got to what you’re doing with NMG.
Lana Rivera (02:06)
Awesome. I would be delighted. like many people, I actually fell into dentistry on complete and total accident. And how it all kind of happened is basically what I implemented later on in life. I talk a lot about building practices from the inside out. So I fell into dentistry from the inside out. I started in a dental lab. Oddly enough,
Brett Allen (02:27)
okay.
Lana Rivera (02:27)
yeah.
And so I learned the prosthetic side. I learned the importance of quality prosthetics and how it impacts and affects individual smiles. And then from there, I went on into working in the dental office itself. So kind of an interesting perspective, right? when you talk about that, not many people have that initial experience, let alone just that in general. from there, I went off into oral surgery.
Brett Allen (02:48)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (02:53)
I went into also general dentistry working with developmentally disabled adults. I was always in the manager seat, if you will. And so I had a lot of experience
Brett Allen (03:05)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (03:06)
looking at practices from a high-level functioning aspect.
Brett Allen (03:09)
Yeah, it’s fine.
Lana Rivera (03:10)
And then with the practice that I worked with, developmentally disabled adults, I learned
The empathy side of dentistry and the relationship side of dentistry because they’re a very sensitive group to work with, and just how important it was
Brett Allen (03:23)
Mm.
Lana Rivera (03:25)
to build that trust in order for those patients to come back. So in my final veteran years, as I will call it, working in office, I worked for a maxillofacial surgeon surgeon who did very complex procedures, jaw resections, aid overs.
Brett Allen (03:44)
wow.
Lana Rivera (03:44)
implants really, really heavy into surgery. So and then from there I was like, I’m ready to be released out into the world and help more doctors and and scale and grow as as we say.
Brett Allen (03:56)
How were you were when you were in practice in clinic, what role were you playing? Were you a assistant or how were you working with them just
Lana Rivera (04:05)
I was actually
always in management, never technically
Brett Allen (04:08)
Okay.
Lana Rivera (04:09)
speaking, clinical. but part of
Brett Allen (04:11)
okay.
Lana Rivera (04:11)
my role in managing is or was to help everybody work more efficiently, right? Help the clinical team work more efficiently, the
Brett Allen (04:20)
Operations.
Lana Rivera (04:21)
admin team, right, on an operation operational level. And I am very much so a Y person. So
Brett Allen (04:28)
Okay.
Lana Rivera (04:29)
Even though I was not clinical, specific specifically on the sedation side, I wanted to know why, what, how, and when and what are you doing and why are you doing it. And
Brett Allen (04:41)
yeah.
Lana Rivera (04:41)
what that did is that helped me transcend that that knowledge into training opportunities on a clinical level with clinical staff to help the doctor be more efficient.
Brett Allen (04:51)
Awesome. So you decided to go off and do your own consulting and create N G. What is
Lana Rivera (04:56)
You said and I’m changing.
Brett Allen (04:58)
N is that is that acronym stand for something? N G?
Lana Rivera (05:02)
It actually does stand for something. So clearly my last name is Rivera. So in a previous life, I was married to a Spanish gentleman. And
Brett Allen (05:09)
okay.
Lana Rivera (05:10)
the the joke, the family joke was I created solutions for problems that doctors didn’t like. So the Spanish term is no me gusta, and that means I don’t like something.
Brett Allen (05:21)
No me gusta.
Lana Rivera (05:23)
So NMG legitimately stands for no me gusta. So I create practice solutions.
Brett Allen (05:27)
I don’t like
these problems. I want to fix them. So
Lana Rivera (05:29)
That’s right. Yeah.
Brett Allen (05:31)
a little known fact about me is I for for two years I lived in Santiago, Chile. And so I
got I I learned Spanish. I was on a church mission trip down there.
Lana Rivera (05:40)
Awesome.
Brett Allen (05:41)
And yeah, awesome time, great people. But yeah, no me gusta. I got you. I understand. Yeah,
Lana Rivera (05:47)
Everyone loves it when I talk about it.
Brett Allen (05:49)
I think that’s great. So a great brand. Let’s fix the problems, things that you don’t like in your practice. So walk us through kind of
How did you start NMG? Where what pain points did you see in practices that you knew you could help with? And and some of your methodologies, your your principles?
Lana Rivera (06:05)
Okay. Well, every single office that I had walked into on an employment side of the table, right, they’re always the doctors were always stressed out. They were at their max capacity. They didn’t understand why, you know, team culture was terrible or why front desk and or admin and clinical couldn’t get along, how their referral status working in the the specialty field, where the referrals were coming from, how to make things stronger.
financial they’re just they’re they’re maxed and they’re completely and totally taxed out. So every like I said, every office that I went to went into had a fundamental overwhelm maxed out problem where they just couldn’t
Brett Allen (06:47)
interesting.
Lana Rivera (06:48)
take on any more capacity. you it’s insanely
Brett Allen (06:51)
You can do this.
Lana Rivera (06:52)
difficult and I’m sure you’ve seen it to be a clinician to put your all into your patients and then operate on the business side, let alone dealing with the HR side as well.
So when I decided to make my grand exit out of in office, that was my whole goal. I wanted to help and still help doctors that are at their max capacity, that want to be able to do more, come to a resolve of their problems that they’re facing, but still be able to practice dentistry that they loved initially when they got into it. So I’ve coined the phrase, I work from the inside
out.
Which is again how I fell into dentistry, right? And what I like to do, my my approach is I get down to the foundation of the problems. whether that’s, you know, I have my set reports that I like to look at. I like to look at the overall flow of patient care. and I get down into the nitty-gritty.
And what that helps me see high level is where the pain points are beginning and where they are breaking down later on down the road, right? Kind of kicking kicking that can with problems. And so I am not the kind of doc not the kind of consultant that walks in necessarily with clipboard and say, check, check, check. We’re gonna do X, Y, and Z exactly the way I did it with so and so’s office. Well, they have similar pain points.
Brett Allen (08:17)
Mm.
Lana Rivera (08:20)
The approach, the implementation is completely customized and tailored to each individual client.
Brett Allen (08:26)
that’s awesome. Yeah,
Lana Rivera (08:27)
Yeah.
Brett Allen (08:27)
I as you were talking, I was thinking of mentor slash friend of mine from a networking group that I used to be a marketing group I used to be part of. he’s actually a pretty big name now, Alex Hermozzi. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. he has this concept of you’ll grow to the the business will grow to the next level constraint. So whatever that ceiling is, unless you figure out how to break through that ceiling or create a process or put somebody in place to help you fix
that.
problem or manage that problem, you you’ll always be there. You so figuring out what that constraint is and fixing it, that was coming to mind as you were talking. So walk us through like what are some common constraints or where they feel maxed. What what are some of these things that you help them unlock? Are are there common things that you see over and over?
Lana Rivera (09:16)
That’s a great question. So number one, you’re always going to see the issue with finances. That’s always
Brett Allen (09:23)
Okay.
Lana Rivera (09:23)
that’s always going to be at the top of their mind because ultimately, if you’re feeling the pressure of the finances itself and you’re not understanding not necessarily the flow, but where the hangup may be, it’s going to impact literally everything else. So
Brett Allen (09:39)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (09:40)
oftentimes that’s what initially they come to.
with hey Lana, I’m having a problem with my overhead. I don’t understand my numbers. I don’t know where my patients are going with their treatment plan. So it’s typically always financially based where they’re feeling that pressure. They think if they work harder, that it will automatically fix that problem.
But what they find is that there’s a leak in the bucket elsewhere. It’s not them working harder that’s the problem. It’s their systems behind it that is basically leaking the money,
Brett Allen (10:15)
Mm-hmm.
Lana Rivera (10:17)
which is causing the strain on the financial aspect of the practice.
Brett Allen (10:20)
Yeah, so finance is starting there as often a big that must be because it’s easy to kind of measure. There’s a quantifiable number that we’re looking at. And what do we
Lana Rivera (10:28)
Right.
Brett Allen (10:28)
need? What strings do we need to pull and levers to pull to to fix that number? I can
Lana Rivera (10:34)
Yeah.
Brett Allen (10:34)
totally relate to that though, of like, man, if if revenue’s not where I want it to be, or if profitability is not where I want it to be, this is a financial thing that needs to be addressed. when there’s other underlying things that relate to that.
that need to be diagnosed and and treated, right? are there other things that you common commonly come across that are are hang ups and bottlenecks or frustrations in the practice?
Lana Rivera (11:00)
Yeah, I mean there’s there’s a ton. There’s
Brett Allen (11:03)
Ha ha ha.
Lana Rivera (11:04)
a ton. I mean you name it, we come across it. a lot
Brett Allen (11:07)
Right.
Lana Rivera (11:08)
of a lot of things that we come into, I think in dentistry, what one of the problems that we come across oftentimes is delegation.
Doctors, because of their overwhelmed in their tax, understanding what to delegate, when to delegate, and who to delegate to. So that’s something that I work very closely with, specifically in the pediatric realm, what
Brett Allen (11:31)
Mm.
Lana Rivera (11:31)
can be delegated out. The other thing that we I I focus a lot on because it’s measurable is case acceptance.
Brett Allen (11:39)
Mm.
Lana Rivera (11:40)
Where
are you at with your case acceptance? And it’s kind of interesting because I had a discovery call yesterday with somebody about that. And it was like you could see their little light bulb turn on where they’re like, I’ve been so busy working on my patients, I don’t know where my case acceptance is. And so we want to talk about like little leaks in the bucket. That’s a big leak
Brett Allen (12:01)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (12:01)
oftentimes. And so bringing the awareness number one.
Not for the sake of shaming anybody, but bringing awareness. They need to know where they’re at and then implementing a system, a trackable system that’s easy. It’s not stressful
Brett Allen (12:15)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (12:16)
for the staff. So then everyone becomes more aware. And that’s an automatic thing that helps significantly.
Brett Allen (12:22)
Yeah, I want to dig deeper with you there on case acceptance. That’s a big one. And I can totally relate when we talk with practices, talk with docs all the time, that I think they have an a a pulse, an idea of what’s happening maybe at the front desk and what the booking rate is, or or what that case case acceptance rate number is. But they it’s more of like a gut number and it’s not truly a a number that’s being tracked.
Oftentimes when we dig into the weeds and we actually put systems in place to track that booking rate at the front desk or track case acceptance, that 95% confidence automatically goes all of a sudden goes down to, man, I’m only 40% or 20% booking rate at the front desk. I thought we were booking every call. It’s like, no, there’s things we need to fix and work on. So ta in talking about case acceptance, what are some of the things that you do to help work with the practice to improve that number and track it?
Like you talked about.
Lana Rivera (13:15)
So first of all, my number one question is always going to be, do you have a treatment plan coordinator? And you would be surprised how many offices don’t. And it’s not even specialty specific, right? Typically oral surgery is a bit stronger when it comes to that, but it’s a position that I feel is one of the most essential and important positions to have. So that’s the very first question.
If you don’t have someone who is dedicated to being a treatment plan coordinator, it doesn’t mean that they can’t be also an assistant or they can’t be also an office manager, but you need someone who’s dedicated to the treatment plan coordination process because that automatically is going to bump up your acceptance rate, right? Having that dedicated hands-on touch
Brett Allen (13:57)
Mm.
Lana Rivera (13:58)
point. And then from there, I honestly I dig into more of the psychology behind case acceptance.
The person who is responsible for that, number one, they have to have a good relationship with finances. If they feel that at in this economy, $1,000 is expensive for tires to get us to our our place of employment
Brett Allen (14:17)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (14:20)
or to just drive around in life, how are they gonna feel about a $3,000 treatment plan for two grounds?
Brett Allen (14:25)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (14:26)
So then the other side of it also
is making sure that the person who is presenting those treatment plans, their buy-in is just as strong as the doctor. They understand why the person needs this treatment because that transcends down to the patients. Oftentimes the patients are always going to ask that, you know, the coordinator, treatment plan coordinator or the assistant.
Do I really need this? I know Doc just said it, but it’s really expensive and I have Disney vacation or they open up a bit more. And so the individual who’s in that position really needs to have the doctor’s back, understand the diagnosis, and how to oftentimes break down the explanation of why it’s necessary a little bit easier. So those are
Brett Allen (15:10)
Yeah, yeah, that’s
Lana Rivera (15:11)
I go over.
Brett Allen (15:12)
yeah, I th I agree with you. I think having somebody that’s dedicated in that role of we don’t say it, but this is the salesperson of the practice, right? The treatment coordinator is the closer. They need to know how to walk patients through making the best decision for their oral hygiene and their health. Yeah, I think that’s important. Well, we’ve talked quite a bit about some good things. tell us more about
How you work with practices? Like what is your process like? what w do you have frameworks you work through? Tell us more about your process.
Lana Rivera (15:46)
so my process, like I said, I try to keep it as organic as possible, despite that I know specific pain point.
Brett Allen (15:53)
Okay.
Lana Rivera (15:54)
So I typically, as far as framework goes, I typically work largely on a virtual level. So I have
Brett Allen (15:59)
Okay.
Lana Rivera (15:59)
my monthly meetings with my clients. There, they have multiple touch points throughout the month where we can talk if something comes up in the middle of our meetings. And I’m very hands-on actually with the teams as well.
The word consultant does not necessarily have the most positive and exciting response from team members. And so one of the things that I felt has really been enjoyable for myself is helping teams understand I’m actually an extension of them.
I’m here to help. I’m here to facilitate.
Brett Allen (16:28)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (16:30)
I’m here to work through problems with them. And I’m here to keep the relationships in the office strong while we go through this process of fixing issues, scaling, and growing. So that’s a huge part of my my philosophy and everything that I think about implementing wise in my frameworks.
Brett Allen (16:49)
Do you ever do you ever go out and meet in person? It’s all virtual.
Lana Rivera (16:52)
No, I so I also do meet in person. So I have clients that want me in their office every quarter. They like the support, they like the morale, they like the ability to have that critical thinking with the team members, right?
Brett Allen (17:05)
Yeah, the in person vibe, yeah.
Lana Rivera (17:07)
But it’s not limited just to virtual, it’s not limited just to on-site. I believe in a healthy mix of both. So some clients may be like, Lana, I just want you here once every six months. I tailor it as much as I can.
to what their needs are and what helps kind of keep that fire burning and that excitement to keep everything on track.
Brett Allen (17:29)
Cool. Yeah. That’s great. I think I I think that in-person component is important, but w in the days of Zoom and how how we can do so many things virtually, it’s it’s great. all of our team at Marking There do works virtually and we do phenomenal that way. But we do get together twice a year to do in-person team building and training and pro planning and things like that. So we’ve got our
Our big team gathering coming up here in beginning of October. We’ll be getting back together. But so when you work with practices, is there is there one thing that tends to be like, man, this is my jam, like I am really good at this. When we have these kind of issues or this is the problem, may it be hiring or process or whatever.
Is there one thing that it’s ’cause I I I talk with a lot of consultants, dental practice management consultants that and everyone seems to have kind of their unique sauce of how they work and and zone of genius. So do you have something like that where it’s like, this is these types of clients or this type of scenario, I I just crush it.
Lana Rivera (18:33)
that’s such a good question. I I like a challenge and I like
Brett Allen (18:41)
Okay.
Lana Rivera (18:44)
a honestly a personality challenge. I like to go into offices that there is this unspoken tension bec and and
bringing everybody together to you know, basically recenter, understand why that they come into, you know, to the office day in and day out. I get a lot of satisfaction in that because when we break down
Brett Allen (19:06)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (19:10)
the unspoken tension, and sometimes it’s spoken, and let’s be honest, the dental space of at the office itself is small. That impacts so much that teens don’t realize because they’re in the middle of working on it and in it.
Brett Allen (19:24)
Yeah.
Lana Rivera (19:25)
I love being able to I don’t want to say break
it down in a negative way, but basically bring everybody back to a neutral ground of where they’re at and why they’re here and what each person needs to do to contribute to the overall happiness
Brett Allen (19:39)
Mm.
Lana Rivera (19:41)
and ultimately the success of the practice. So that, believe it or not, is I love that. Yeah, I do.
Brett Allen (19:46)
You love that scenario.
Okay, so would you say that’s like a communication breakdown where people aren’t talking i on the team well or relaying information? Is that what
you would say?
Lana Rivera (19:56)
Yeah, so
it’s it’s definitely a communication breakdown. And I’ve taken I’ve been in the industry long enough that I’ve taken multiple personality tests and I’ve I’ve had
Brett Allen (20:06)
Okay.
Lana Rivera (20:06)
staff members right, so I’m really big on that. How you’re gonna speak to a businessman is going to be completely different to then how you speak to, you know, a housewife, so to speak, right? And so
Brett Allen (20:15)
Okay. Okay.
Lana Rivera (20:18)
where teams don’t understand is the same policy.
applies within the office, right? We all have different personalities. We all respond in a little bit of a different way. And so like I said, I think that they they work so closely. Doctors are tense. Patients are not thrilled to be sitting in the chair. There’s so much tension that’s going on that it’s very easy for everyone to kind of get caught up in that, so to speak. And creating a healthier way
Brett Allen (20:43)
Mm-hmm.
Lana Rivera (20:45)
to communicate, having boundaries, like I said, and and recentering. I do really like that.
Brett Allen (20:50)
Okay,
that well that’s good to know. well that’s that’s great. I think I I I’ve really enjoyed our conversation. We’re we’re about out of time. I I let’s close w this is kind of process for the show. What’s that golden nugget? What’s that one epiphany if we could help our listeners unlock this concept? what’s that one thing that you think would have a big impact for them?
Lana Rivera (21:13)
For s for team members and for doctors, there is a difference between busy and productive. And we don’t
Brett Allen (21:20)
yeah.
Lana Rivera (21:20)
want to be busy. We wanna be productive. So my
Brett Allen (21:23)
Yeah,
that is that is good. That is important. How do
Lana Rivera (21:26)
Yeah.
Brett Allen (21:27)
how do you help do that? If if we can dig a little in there.
Lana Rivera (21:32)
looking at structure, looking at the schedule, and easing pain points that maybe they don’t need to be doing physically themselves versus that delegation.
Brett Allen (21:41)
Hmm.
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Busy versus productive. Well, this has been great. Lana, thank you for coming on the show. If if we’ve got listeners who want to work with you or find out more about you, where do we send them?
Lana Rivera (21:52)
Check them out. check me out on my website, nmgpracticessolutions.com, and you can chat with me.
Brett Allen (21:57)
All right.
Okay. Your contact info’s there. Every everybody can reach you there. Cool. We’ll put that in the show notes. All right.
Lana Rivera (22:02)
Yeah. Awesome. Thanks.
Brett Allen (22:04)
Yeah, thanks for coming on the show today, Lana. It was a great time.
Lana Rivera (22:07)
It was fun.
Brett Allen (22:08)
All right everybody, until next time on the Marking thirty two show. Have a great rest of your day, great rest of your week. Take care.
