“Is it worth it?”

That was the question on Dr. Robert Camenzuli’s mind when, just a few days before Christmas, his office manager abruptly quit without notice.

It was the latest in a series of staff and management turnovers at Dr. Camenzuli’s New Orleans practice. Even worse, the manager’s notice came out of the blue after he had spent the previous two years training her. With a career spanning over two decades, Dr. Camenzuli’s journey through various roles, from an associate to a practice owner, left him wondering if he should give up his practice and just work as an associate for someone else. Because while his practice was making money, it wasn’t always as profitable as he wanted, especially when considering whether he made enough money to justify the stress.

However, the desire to work smarter, not just harder, and to offer more than just financial stability to his family (particularly his daughter who is pursuing a path to dental school) kept his entrepreneurial spirit alive.

“There was a lot of knowledge that only the office manager had—and she took that knowledge with her,” Dr. Camenzuli said. “I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ I was really frustrated with the management headaches and staff turnover. The point of owning a practice is to make a lot more money than I would if I just worked for someone else. Otherwise, why else do it? That’s the question that I’ve been asking myself for many years. I knew I needed to figure out how to work smarter instead of doing all this work myself. I was training staff up, but then they were leaving, forcing me to start all over with someone new. And I didn’t even know if what I was telling them was the right thing. I knew it worked, but I didn’t know if it was the best way to do things. When my daughter began her studies to become a dentist, I knew I wanted to be able to provide her with the opportunity to come to work for me. This meant I needed to create a practice that would support that vision. I just wasn’t sure how to make it happen.”  

After reading real-world success stories in the Diamond Report from fellow dentists that didn’t sound like lofty, unattainable ideals, he reached out to The Team Training Institute.

“I was reading these Diamond Reports about other dentists, and I kept thinking, this is real stuff,” Dr. Camenzuli said. “These aren’t some pie-in-the-sky ideas or grandiose things that seem out of reach, like some of these other consulting companies out there. My goal was to figure this out instead of just making things up as I went along, so I got on a call with TTI to find out more about what I could expect and how their process worked. After speaking with them, I went all in and became a Blue Diamond member.”

With TTI’s help, Dr. Camenzuli transitioned from being a reactive dentist to a proactive dentist. His team now understands the WHY behind what he is doing—which has made them more invested in helping him grow the practice and achieve his goals. This extra support has lifted some of the weight off his shoulders as team members pitch in and volunteer to help whenever they see the opportunity. Although it’s been less than a year since he started working with The Team Training Institute, Dr. Camenzuli has already seen a 45% increase in hygiene production, a 24% increase in gross production, and a profit increase of 15%.While he expects he’ll always experience some frustration with running a business, the level of frustration has decreased.

Most importantly, he feels confident in the path laid out for him to achieve his vision of bringing his daughter into the practice in seven years. This helps him sleep better at night knowing what the vision is—and helps him make sound decisions on how to get there. Below, Dr. Camenzuli relays what impacted his growth the most over the past ten months working with The Team Training Institute:

Optimize Patient Care

Dr. Camenzuli’s first initiative was to do Hygiene Explosion with The Team Training Institute. The results were immediate and profound. Learning how to educate patients on preventative services and adjusting his fee schedule contributed to a remarkable 45% increase in hygiene production. Furthermore, the ability to protect 2,000 more teeth than in the previous year is a testament to the effectiveness of the strategies.

“At first, both of my hygienists were very apprehensive,” Dr. Camenzuli said. “They thought it was just some gimmick and said, ‘What are they going to tell us that we don’t already know?’ But then, when they heard what TTI had to say, they said, ‘Look at the science, that makes sense. I like that idea.’ They were also surprised by the patients’ reactions. After speaking with the patients, I remember my hygienists telling me, ‘I didn’t even discuss how much it would totally cost. They just said, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ Given the choice, many patients elect the best treatment for themselves, which was a big aha moment.”

While Dr. Camenzuli’s team already had a reputation for giving superior care, the new level of care is reflected in the reviews and feedback they now receive from patients. “The common theme is that our team works together, and we know what we’re doing,” Dr. Camenzuli said. “We really didn’t have much negative feedback. I’ve only had two patients give pushbacks and say we’re just trying to upsell them. And that’s their perspective, no matter what I tell them. In the past, I would have taken this personally, thinking that they were accusing me, but now I come from the perspective that I’m offering what’s best for them. If they think I’m just trying to upsell them, then they don’t trust me. It may seem harsh, but now I suggest they find a new dentist that they do trust because that’s what’s best for them.”

Build a Resilient Team and Sustainable Systems

A major transformation Dr. Camenzuli made is in the way he manages his practice. “I’ve always managed from a reactive standpoint,” Dr. Camenzuli confessed. “Something would happen, and I’d think, ‘Okay, what do I do? What’s the best way to handle it?’ TTI has helped me switch to a more proactive type of leadership and management, where I create systems so my team knows what to do when a situation does happen. Also, systems for what you do to prevent problems from happening.”

While he’s still in the process of system development, he likes that the recommendations from The Team Training Institute aren’t cookie-cutter. He now knows where he can improve and has ideas on how to do that effectively. He can also make decisions about how he wants to implement based on what is best for him and his individual practice.

“The TeamTraining Institute isn’t coming here telling us how to run our practice,” he said. “They give you general guidelines of what works best so you can then put systems in place to improve areas and do it in a way that aligns with how you want to operate your practice. We are working on systems for our treatment acceptance. We’ve also implemented a system for reappointments, and I’m really happy with the number of visits from that. More importantly, we are laying the foundations for building the systems that, eventually, anyone will be able to look at and replicate.That detail isn’t there yet, but part of that foundation is getting the team onboard, which has happened. They are open and understand that there should be a system that we develop that also measures what that system is in place for—those bigger ideas and business planning are extremely beneficial.”

While Dr. Camenzuli doesn’t have all his management in place yet, he’s educating his team to grow into those roles. Plus, not only has he created a functional team, but he’s also learned how to empower them to understand and participate in the practice’s growth. This approach has fostered a sense of ownership among the staff and encouraged them to be proactive.

“My team is realizing that their job is not just what they’re physically doing,” he said. “They understand that there is a reason why we do things a certain way. Bringing them to a Team Training Institute retreat was very beneficial because they were able to understand where I’m getting the ideas from and that I’m not just making them up. I’ve seen that they’re starting to think differently. They’re starting to see the bigger picture as to why we do it a certain way. They are finding the holes and saying, ‘Maybe we should have a system for that so we don’t have that happen again. I already see staff members understanding the decision-making process and implementation I must do—and how I then must get everyone on board to actually do it. They understand it’s a lot of work for me to do all that and are offering to help. They are stepping up doing things such as helping their teammates and growing new employees, so they understand not just what to do but WHY we do things the way we do. They are realizing that I’m not the only leader in the practice and that they can lead as well.”

Create a Culture That Team Members Want to Defend

Dr. Camenzuli is seeing the culture of his practice develop into something his team wants to protect. In one instance, he had a team member who decided to leave. Once she gave her notice, she became disconnected and stopped doing things the way everyone else on the team was doing them. “She gave me a full month’s notice to help give me time to find someone, but she kept staying,” Dr. Camenzuli said. “When she was no longer doing things our way, my team came to me and said, ‘Why are you even keeping her? She’s working against us. Even though you think her being here is helpful, it’s not.’ At first, I thought it was better than hiring a temp employee. I thought at least I have someone who knows a little bit about what we’re doing here. But it’s a good example of how sometimes we put off short-term discomfort.”

Know Your Vision and Communicate It

Taking part in TTI’s Executive GPS workshop and bringing his team along helped Dr. Camenzuli figure out a plan to reach his goals and made his vision clear to his team.

“The Executive GPS retreat was a chance to spend time with Dr. Meis and his team,”Dr. Camenzuli explained. “We discussed what it would take for me to get the practice where it needs to be from a financial and physical standpoint of the facility to bring my daughter on to work for me. It was beneficial to bring the team because now they know the destination and what needs to happen over the next five years to make that dream a reality.”

Further training led to the team identifying opportunities to help make that vision a reality and also celebrating their successes regularly.

“TTI’s Shared Mindset training helped the team understand each other’s strengths and where each person is coming from,” he said. “I involve the team and The Team Training Institute helped me with a more defined template for our morning huddle. We do things such as identify opportunities in the schedule and celebrate the wins from the previous day. All these things have helped my team grow.”

Make Sure You Are Fully Staffed

Hiring extra staff is another way Dr. Camenzuli has better positioned his practice for growth. This protects his ability to keep the practice running smoothly and profitably if any surprise events occur, such as a team member leaving or illness.

“Dr. Meis talks about tiger-proofing your practice—that’s basically what happened to me,” he said. “I suffered a tiger attack when my office manager quit. It was extremely frustrating. TTI helped me realize that we were understaffed, so I’ve done extra hiring to get us up to full staff. While some might consider us overstaffed, I now see that extra assistance is better for the patient and the practice’s profitability. It’s allowed me to increase production when we have the capacity. It keeps me prepared long-term because if one person has to take off for some reason, I’m still okay. It’s laying the foundation to give a more experienced person the opportunity to grow and move up if they want to.”

Understand Your Numbers and Share Them

Not only is Dr. Camenzuli looking at his numbers more closely, but he now understands them better, knows what to look for, and is more aware of what is happening in his practice on a day-to-day basis. This has helped him increase his profit by 15%and head off problems early should they arise.

“I’ve always been interested in the numbers of my practice but didn’t always know what I was looking for,” he said. “Now I realize what I’m looking at and see myself learning more and more about them. I can see when something doesn’t add up right, too. I’ve also started sharing the numbers with my team and setting activity incentives. My team has a chance to see the impact they are making reflected in their take-home pay and the increased production numbers. They also get to pick items from a bag, including a hundred-dollar chip, whenever we achieve a goal—which excites them. This year, I showed them how much we needed to increase year after year to hit our five-year target and explained how to calculate it. I could tell this was starting to mean something to them. That’s inspirational and motivating when they understand they are part of something bigger. They’ve become more invested.”

With his team more invested, he is less overwhelmed, less stressed, and sees a future with more autonomy, success, and choice.

“The TeamTraining Institute pays for itself in the first year,” Dr. Camenzuli said. “With the other consultants I used, I either broke even or had an extra expense where my profit went down. But with The Team Training Institute, my profit increased by fifteen percent! I’m no longer doing it all alone because I’m working together with my team to find solutions.  I can also see how more freedom and autonomy are possible, reasonable, and easy to achieve. In the past, I’ve never been able to take off more than a week. Now, I have a long-range vision to work less in the future and work by choice—deciding how many hours I want to work or which patients I want to work on. I now know I can have a practice that is much less dependent on me, giving me the choice to work a couple of days per week or take a couple of weeks off.”

“It’s powerful to think about the paradigm shift I’ve had this year working with The TeamTraining Institute,” he continued. “I don’t think I would have gotten the increased profitability we’ve had this year without them. Without that increase,I would have had more self-doubt about why I was doing this. My patients wouldn’t be getting to choose what’s best for them. I’m glad that after 21 years of practicing dentistry, I can offer my patients the best choices. The return on my investment and increases in production are great, but even better is getting the vision with the end goal and figuring out the steps I need to take to make that goal a reality. I no longer wonder if I’m doing something wrong. Being apart of The Team Training Institute allows you to be a part of something bigger than yourself. It helps you to continually keep growing by teaching you different ways of doing things. And that’s how I measure success: Constant growth of knowledge that not only helps you grow financially but also from the point of letting go of things that no longer serve you—and maybe even hold you back from seeing possibilities of ways to do things better—and being open to change to doing things differently again in the future."