Month: June 2025

As a coach, one of the most common things I see at the beginning of a coaching journey is a doctor who is excited and motivated to implement new strategies, but the team hasn’t yet crossed that motivational bridge. As a result, they are hesitant and sometimes doubtful about embracing change.

For your team to buy into your vision, they need more than instructions and goals. They need to understand why the doctor’s vision matters—both for the practice and for themselves personally. In other words, they need to see that they’re not just employees helping you reach your goals—they’re people whose own growth and success are part of the bigger picture.

It’s not enough to manage a team well. You must lead them. And leadership starts by recognizing that each team member is a human being with hopes, challenges, and dreams of their own. When you take the time to connect your vision to what matters to them, it becomes real for them—not just another change or set of expectations.

When a team feels like they’re part of something meaningful—something they can believe in and contribute to—they show up differently. They take more ownership, engage more deeply, and care more about outcomes. That’s when your vision really gains traction.

In coaching, we often help doctors make this shift by guiding them to share their vision with purpose, empathy, and clarity for the team to understand their role and contribution. When your team feels seen, supported, and inspired, they’ll stop working out of obligation and start working out of commitment.

That’s when your practice truly begins to thrive—not just because of what you’re doing, but because of who you’re doing it with, and why you are doing it together.

Most endodontists average around four cases completed per day. When I tell them it’s possible to complete six, eight, or more cases in a single day without compromising quality, the first reaction is often one of doubt. “Maybe six,” they might suggest tentatively.

But doctors who have experienced this level of performance know the truth: once you’re doing six cases efficiently and predictably, eight becomes realistic. And when eight becomes your new norm, more than eight no longer feels out of reach. 

For most people, there’s an invisible limit that defines what you believe is possible based entirely on where you’re currently standing. Your systems, habits, mindset, and past experiences all shape that view. But as your capabilities grow, your perspective expands—and suddenly, what once seemed impossible becomes visible, within reach, and eventually a natural part of your daily reality.

The key is that this isn’t about working harder or longer. It’s about building a smarter, more optimized practice. With the right clinical systems, refined scheduling strategies, a well-trained team, and a commitment to efficient workflows, you can elevate both your productivity and the patient experience. A high-performance practice isn’t just about numbers—it’s about delivering great care productively with less stress and greater satisfaction.

It’s also sustainable. In fact, doctors who make this shift often find themselves with more energy, more time for leadership, and a renewed passion for the specialty. The growth of the practice becomes aligned with the growth of the doctor—professionally and personally.

But growth doesn’t happen by accident. It requires vision. At least once a year, you should ask yourself: Where do I want to be in five years? What do I want my practice and my life to look like? What specific goals will I pursue in the next year to get there? These questions are essential for intentional, meaningful progress.

To answer them powerfully, you need to step out of your current daily routine and into a journey filled with clarity, inspiration, and support to reach your next level. That’s the great advantage that Endo Mastery gives our coaching clients: Your next level is not only possible, but also achievable when you believe it and commit to it. 

As an endodontist, your schedule is carefully constructed to achieve practice and financial goals. But occasionally, life intervenes – a family emergency, unexpected illness, or an urgent commitment – and you need to cancel a day that was previously dedicated to treating patients.

At first glance, it may seem like the cost of that missed day is simply your average daily production. For example, if you typically produce $10,000 per clinical day and work 160 days a year, the immediate production loss as a percentage is:

• Daily production lost / planned annual production
  = $10,000 / ($10,000 x 160)
  = $10,000 / $1,600,000
  = 0.625% of your planned annual production. 

A little more than half a percentage point doesn’t seem like much, but that figure doesn’t tell the whole story — especially not in a procedure-intensive specialty like endodontics. Let’s break it down more accurately.

Your fixed costs — rent, staff salaries, equipment leases, insurance, and most administrative costs — don’t disappear just because you cancel a day. The only expenses you avoid are your variable costs, which in most endodontic practices are minimal and well under 10% of revenues. Even assuming a high rate of 10% for simplicity in this example, that means roughly 90% of the day’s lost production comes directly off your net income.

Here’s how the numbers look in terms of actual profitability, assuming your overall expense ratio is 50%:

• (Daily production lost – variable costs) / planned gross profit
  = ($10,000 – $1,000) / ($1,600,000 – 50% overhead)
  = $9,000 / $800,000
  = 1.125% of your net income 

So even though you’ve lost only 0.625% of your annual production, your bottom-line income takes a 1.125% hit — nearly double the impact.

In other words, if you miss two or three clinical days without making them up, your total production may look only slightly off at year end, but your take-home income will feel the difference. It’s the financial equivalent of practice-wide inflation. 

Every endodontist who’s partnered with Endo Mastery knows this: tracking practice performance is vital. It isn’t just about numbers—it’s about momentum, clarity, and realizing your vision.

In every thriving practice, there’s a rhythm—an energy that moves the team forward with purpose. Tracking is what gives that rhythm structure and focus. It’s how we stay connected to what matters most: patient care, team alignment, referral relationships, and the fulfillment of your professional goals.

Tracking empowers your coach to pinpoint what’s working, uncover what’s next, and align every effort with the path you’ve chosen. Over the years, I’ve seen practices of every shape and size. Without exception, all of them have potential waiting to be unlocked.

Often, just the presence of a coach sparks a wave of positive change—renewed focus, heightened morale, and small wins that feel big. But that energy can diminish without consistent tracking. Practices that continue beyond coaching sometimes make the mistake of stepping away from tracking, thinking they have “arrived”. Without tracking as a compass, it often leads to practices that either drift or circle back to old habits.

Growth and success are never a destination—it’s a discipline. It’s the daily decision to keep your vision front and center, to stay curious about how far you can go, and to challenge your status quo with continual efforts to improve teamwork and results.

Tracking is what keeps you moving forward, one clear step at a time. It keeps your team engaged, your coach in sync, and your practice evolving. Most importantly, it ensures that the success you’ve worked so hard to build isn’t just a peak—it’s a platform for the next level.

This is a great idea from Dr. Goerig’s own office! Fresh strawberries, crepes, Nutella and whipped cream, or substitute your own local fresh favorites!