Ep. 59: From Burnout to Three Days a Week: Allison Hale's No-Hustle Practice Revolution
Allison Hale built a thriving orthodontic practice from the ground up, helped grow it through devastating loss, and then made the bold decision to walk away from bigger in favor of better. What she discovered on the other side will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about success.
Allison Hale started her career as a middle school science teacher before her father, an orthodontist known as the "P.T. Barnum of orthodontics," handed her a job at the front desk. She had no formal business training, but she had eyes sharp enough to spot what wasn't working, and she got to work fixing it. By the time her sister joined the practice, Allison had overhauled everything from paper charts to digital systems, designed a brand-new flagship office alongside her dad, and built a team of 30 across three locations. Then, less than a year into that beautiful new office, her father died suddenly on a Wednesday night. By Monday morning, they were back at work.
Allison and her sister spent the next year grinding through grief, growing the practice by 25% in the year they lost their dad, while quietly suppressing everything that needed to be felt. Looking back, Allison is candid about what she wishes they had done differently, and what she would tell any high achiever using work as a way to outrun loss. Her message is direct: you cannot outrun grief. It will wait for you.
What followed was a decision that went against every assumption in the orthodontic world. Allison and her sister sold two of their three locations, cut down to one office, three days a week, and rebuilt the entire practice around what they actually wanted their lives to look like. Within two years, they matched the revenue they had been generating across all three locations. No extra hours. No hustle. Just intention. Now, through her consulting business Practice Perfect, Allison is helping female orthodontists and dental professionals do the same thing, design a practice that works for their life, not the other way around.
What You'll Hear
✔️The practice grew 25% the year Allison's father died, and she now says that growth came at a real cost that took years to fully reckon with.
✔️Allison and her sister went from three locations and 30 team members to one office, three days a week, and matched their former revenue within two years.
✔️Most orthodontists never stop to ask what they actually want their practice to feel like, and Allison breaks down exactly what happens when they don't.
✔️Allison makes the case that "lifestyle practice" shouldn't be a niche category, it should be the standard.
"You're going to hit those feelings no matter what. You're not gonna outrun the grief. It's still gonna be there until you take the time to let them surface, feel them, process them."
— Allison Hale
Ready to stop performing and start building something that actually fits? Let's talk.
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Links and Resources
Allison Hale on Instagram: @practiceperfectortho
Practice Perfect website: https://practice-perfect.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-hale-817038191/
Pivot Point Podcast: https://www.leadintact.com/the-pivot-point-podcast
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@leadintact
Freebies: https://www.leadintact.com/freebies
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You made the move, or maybe you're about to, or maybe you're still in it, showing up, performing, delivering, while something quiet in the background keeps saying, "This is not it." Either way, something has shifted, and you can't unknow it. Here's what nobody tells you. The landing strip is a little rocky once you come down from the high of accomplishment.
There are moments of real excitement, real clarity, like, "Yes, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be." And then night comes, and the anxiety rolls in. The what ifs, the what am I actually doing? Not because you made the wrong choice, by the way, but because you're standing in the space between who you were and who you're becoming.
Done pretending this is enough, done pushing through, done ignoring the thing that keeps pulling at you. That's exactly where this podcast lives. I'm Laura [00:01:00] Dionisio, founder of Lead Intact, and I've been exactly where you are. The corporate success that stopped feeling like success, the leap that was equal parts terrifying and necessary, the messy, non-linear process of building something that actually fits, and learning to trust yourself through all of it.
This is the pivot point. Real conversations about what's actually happening beneath the surface, and what it takes to build a life that feels as good as it looks. Not just the wins, the attempts, too. Because I'm not here to romanticize the journey. I'm here to show you what it's really like. Let's get into it.
Allison, welcome to the Pivot Point Podcast. I am so happy to have you here. Listeners, Allison is a really good friend of mine, and I'm [00:02:00] really excited to have her on here. Welcome to the show
Thank you, Laura, for having me. I've been anxiously looking forward to this
I love it. Now, just so the listeners can get to know a little bit more about you, they don't have the privilege of knowing you personally like I do. I'm gonna start off with reading your very impressive bio
Great
With over 20 years of experience in practice management and business expansion, Alison Hail partners with female orthodontists to unlock their highest potential.
Alison's mission is to streamline operations, ignite leadership, and implement innovative strategies that drive sustainable growth. She believes in building powerhouse teams, creating seamless patient experiences, and leveraging cutting-edge technology to transform orthodontic practices into thriving, high-performing businesses.
Through a blend of strategic guidance, actionable frameworks, and mindset shifts, she helps doctors and teams not only meet but [00:03:00] exceed their goals without overwhelm or guesswork. With a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the industry, Alison provides the tools, confidence, and clarity needed to optimize efficiency, increase profitability, and cultivate a practice culture that attracts both top talent and lifelong patients.
She's not just here to help practices grow. She's here to help redefine what's possible. Alison is here to elevate your practice to the next level. There we go. Welcome. Welcome.
Thank you
And Allison, what I love about learning more about what you do, and again, listeners had the privilege of listening Allison give an amazing 30-minute Ted-style talk. I just, you know, I go to the orthodontist, but I have, like, no insight into what it's like. And what I loved about hearing your perspective, and if you could, would please, let's start off here.
Share with the listener [00:04:00] what is the traditional orthodontics practice and what is the vision and, your mission, why this is so important to you?
I've been in orthodontics for, as you said, over 20 years, and I started a little bit on accident. I- my dad was an orthodontist, and I had just had a child And I was interested in moving back home to be closer to my parents. My dad offered me a job at the practice, as a little kid, he would take us there, and we would help him stamp charts or pick up trash around the office, and we were regulars around the practice. But for the first time, I walked in as an employee and kind of saw how things were running. At the time, it-- the practice was very much built around what worked for him, and he liked things to be different every day. So he... We had three offices, and he would go to a different office every day and serve a different patient base. And at the time, orthodontics was just [00:05:00] starting to pivot, to use your po- your word, from being a place where kids were afraid to go because they were fearing pain or discomfort or something It was starting to become where they could have fun. And this is now the norm. But twenty years ago, it was not. So my dad really considered himself like the P.T. Barnum of orthodontics. He had video games in his office. He had a big fish tank in the wall and fun characters painted all over the office, and he even allowed patients to their signature and a message on the ceiling when they finished with their braces. So there were lots of elements of fun that were coming through. And today, orthodontists go all out. Their offices are bright, lively, [00:06:00] fun, somewhat chaotic. So there is a very large distinction between going to the dentist to get cleanings, fillings, that type of routine maintenance, going to the orthodontist, where you're going for straight teeth, healthy bite, using either traditional braces or Invisalign clear There's so many different modalities for treating cases nowadays. I would say that the typical orthodontic experience should be something that is fun, enjoyable, easy, and without a lot of friction. Yet I still meet doctors who maybe they're infusing some of that into their practice, but they're not maximizing what they could be doing in terms of ease, scheduling, streamlining.
So they might be working five days a week from eight to five when really If you're [00:07:00] running a single practice with a single doctor, you could do the job very well in three to four days a week. So when I go into practices, I'm looking at working, what's not working, specifically for the doctor. Because I worked for my father and now my sister,
can see the practice through the doctor's lens. a lot of other consultants and coaches in the space are really team-focused and at the team and trying to c- give the team a shot in the arm to, have a better team culture. But what I've found is it really starts from the top down. So regardless of who's filtering through your practice as a team member, if the doctor's got a very clear vision for what they want their practice to be, then the team is gonna buy into it.
it does start at the top
And as somebody who has really very little exposure to really what goes behind the scene [00:08:00] with orthodontics, so like I'm not really familiar when you say that most of the time it's a very team-focused versus top-down. What does that mean?
So orthodontic teams can be, depending on the size of the practice, can be, sometimes up to 20, 25 team members. And a lot of times what I'm hearing doctors say is, "Oh, I can't get my team to do what I want them to do," or, "I've got a team member who just is really pulling down the vibe, who's really not participating or not carrying out the vi- doctor's vision." And human resources i- in any kind of business is tricky. Hiring is... The people part is the hardest part. so finding the right people, hiring the people that are going to fit your vision is super important. And a lot of times, especially now, where it's pretty difficult to find experienced, team members, a lot of doctors are just hiring whoever comes in [00:09:00] the door and then hoping that they can s- put them in a seat where they're going to mesh with a team. That rarely works. someone that very strongly fits the vision that you have for your practice and your standards and how you want things to run is very important
Now I'm so curious 'cause I can tell just in talking to you, like in the past eight minutes, that you are very familiar and I would say even an expert in the field. And when we started the conversation, you mentioned that you started off 'cause your dad gave you a job. So can you walk us through, like at a high level, what was your journey?
'Cause I, I noticed that you mentioned there was a wi- you witnessed a shift in the culture that your dad said, right? You brought in fun, et cetera. And then now you work for your sister. So walk us through Alison Hale's journey. Like, how did you come to know this, and why are you so passionate about helping practices thrive?
Oh, I love this question. Thank you for asking that. I was trained to [00:10:00] be a teacher. I went to college and have a master's in education. I was in the classroom before I had my first child, and after I had her, I was like, "I just don't know. I don't know if I can go back in the classroom." Because I was a middle school science teacher, and it was fairly challenging. when my dad offered me this job, I jumped at the chance. My husband and I moved back home to my hometown, and I began work at the front desk right away, just answering phones, meeting and greeting patients, checking them in, checking them out doing kind of the basic stuff. It wasn't very long before I started to notice things that I was like, "Ugh, are we doing things like that?" now I know that's just part of my sort of identity, is I can immediately spot things that don't seem right. Before I knew it, the current manager of the practice Left, and my dad looked at me and was like, "Okay, kid, you're up. You're in charge." And I was, [00:11:00] number one, terrified, because I was the newest team member. A lot of the girls that worked there had worked on me as a patient, and now I was to be in charge of all of them.
My sister at the time, my younger sister, was in her residency to become an orthodontist, and she was, like, two years from joining. So she had a couple of more years of schooling, and then she was gonna be moving back home to join the practice. And my dad, it was very important to him that we put her name at top billing. We welcomed her in and basically transferred that trust to her so that she would come in and be able to step right in and take the reins. Knowing that I was readying things for her was also a big motivator. And she said to me, Allison, you have a really good opportunity here to kinda make this job work for you and me and, let's go. Get this place shipshape." So I did. I-- we were [00:12:00] writing on paper charts at the time. We quickly moved to digital charting. We were using digital imaging, but not X-ray, so we upgraded all of those systems to be digital systems. Really just got the, everybody in the right seat. I figured out what everyone was doing, what everyone-- what they weren't doing, and filled in the gaps there. I really made it my job to be the absolute best manager I could possibly be. I read every book on management. I went to every talk, every conference my dad would let me go to, and I just became a student of management. So by the time my sister got there, we were ready to roll, and we had a lot of fun in those years with the three of us working together. We brought in another associate, so we were running three offices, three doctors, it was just a big operation. I think we [00:13:00] had 30 team members at the time. And my dad also decided during those years that he wanted to build a new flagship office to take the place of one of our smaller ones. So he and I designed and built that together. It took over a year and a million dollars, but we did it, and we moved into this beautiful, brand-new, shiny practice that was cutting-edge, top-of-the-line technology everything.
long story short, we were in there a little less than a year and my father passed away suddenly. my sister and I were literally handed the reins to the entire operation, the three locations, the now two doctors, we did that for a while. We things together without my dad, and it wasn't too long.
It was probably a year into it. My sister was like, "What are we doing? This is miserable." Like traveling all around, trying to manage all these team members and all these doctors. By then we brought in [00:14:00] yet another associate, so we had the three doctors, three locations
and...
you for a moment there?
So you went, you brushed past it a bit and I wanted, to your comfort level, I wanted to talk more about your dad decided to have a flagship office
And then not long after he passed away and suddenly you and your sister are handed the reins.
What was going on at that point?
Oh, that was, the worst time of my life for sure. Our dad was like the rock of our family. He was the sun, and we all just were in his orbit. we spent a lot of time in those first... He passed away on a Wednesday night. Monday morning, we were back in the office, and I think I spent six months at the front desk hugging patients and just com- comforting them because it was such a devastating loss. It was tough. It was really tough, [00:15:00] and my sister was pregnant with her first child at the time, and we just kept going. We didn't really-- And now looking back on it, I see more clearly that we didn't really allow ourselves to grieve. We just threw ourselves into work and knowing that our dad would want us to keep going, just keep going. It was so weird because our practice actually grew by 25% that year that we lost our dad. And if you had asked him "What would happen if you weren't here anymore?" I bet you he would've said, "Oh yeah, this place is gonna have to close. This place is not gonna-- wouldn't work without me." And I'm glad and proud to say that we have kept it going now for 11 years post, his passing. And and th- I gotta say, there were many days walking through those halls of that brand-new office that I swore I heard his voice, and it was-- It's a huge office [00:16:00] I would think I'd come around the corner, and he would be there.
Or I'd walk in and expect him to be sitting behind the desk in his office, and
So it was a really tough time. But back, it was, again, an opportunity for us to look at the practice, look at how it had been running, and make some changes. And they were slow, but really it was my sister saying, "I don't wanna do all this travel to three different locations. I don't wanna manage two other associate doctors. What if we did it me, just here in the new location?"
and you mentioned it took about a year, right?
After and I'm curious with who you are today and knowing what you know, because I heard you say that for the first six months you spent time hugging patients, and at first I thought you meant that patients were comforting you because it was your dad that had passed, but it was actually you comforting [00:17:00] patients.
So, you know, at least from like, like my lens not being there, what I see is a practice that just... And people who were grieving and didn't want to... Well, m- maybe not didn't wanna take the time, but rather than face the grief, just worked even more. So it doesn't surprise me that it went up 25%. And knowing what you know now and what you probably actually needed at the time what would you say to the you of, I guess, 11 years ago and to your sister?
And, and by the way, I'm saying this because there's probably a listener out there who is in the middle of grief, whether it's somebody passing, marriage ending, something happening, and they probably are doing exactly what you did,
keep moving, keep going.
Absolutely. back, I wish my sister and I, and we have a younger brother as well who works in IT, and he supports the practice and with those needs. Looking back, I [00:18:00] wish we had taken more time to s- with those feelings, care for each other with those feelings, and our mom. we waited three months to even have a memorial service.
We didn't do a funeral. We waited three months, and I think it was just because we could not bring ourselves to, to face it. And memorial service was beautiful. It was... people from all over came. Patients, past employees came there's a part of me that wishes we had done that a little bit differently, that we had a chance to, you know- greet people at that memorial service.
We didn't do that. We just kind of-- We didn't do a receiving line or anything. We just After the-- it was over, we went into our private room, and we didn't really meet with anyone. We had some guests at the house afterwards. But I really do wish that we had just been more gentle with ourselves maybe not immediately into work, [00:19:00] suppress the feelings, push them down, numbing oneself with work.
I wish we'd been more gentle with our, with ourselves
And if you were working with a client and you're doing consulting work who's going through something similar, a grief, whether, again, like if it's someone's passing or something, some other ending cycle and they say to you, "But Allison, I have to keep going. This is all I have left." the person that I did this for, or like say they had someone who passed something similar, they'd be disappointed if I didn't keep going.
They would want me to keep going. What would you say to that client?
wow, that's a really tough one. But I-- What I think I would-- wanted to let them know is that the person who they are at that very moment, their loved one is proud of them regardless, and their loved one loves them and is proud of their achievements and what they've done. And leaning f-even further [00:20:00] into work and pushing through pain is just going to prolong the inevitable. So you're going to hit those feelings no matter what. Even if you do push and you do keep throwing yourself into work, the feelings are not-- you're not gonna outrun them. They'll-- They will-- They're still gonna live inside of you until you take the time let them surface, feel them, process them. So no amount of numbing, whatever it is that you're doing to push through, you're not gonna outrun the grief. It's still gonna be there you let it, the wave come over you because that's truly what it was like. It was like a wave some days would be amazing, other days the grief would just overtake me, and I would literally put my head down on the desk and just be like, "I don't know how...
I don't know how I'm gonna do this." [00:21:00] And yeah, it come out and getting help if you need help. But yeah, it was a tough time. I don't wish it on anyone
Hmm. Thank you so much for being open and sharing that because I, I know that there are many high performers, high achievers who are experiencing some level of grief and, and I mean, I, I was one of those, and whose answer is, "Let's just work harder."
Yep. And that was my dad. I can recall, I think, it was a few years before he passed, but his father passed away, and I can remember sitting around the table with his sisters, and his younger sister was like, "But when are we gonna get to grieve for Dad?" And my dad looked at her and said, "You don't." that to me was like, "Oh, wow, okay." So I think it was definitely in our DNA do what we did because that's what he did, and that's what he demonstrated to us, that there is no time [00:22:00] for crying or grieving, and in reality, you have to acknowledge those feelings. You can't just keep them down and pushing them down and
Hoping for the best.
You gotta let it come up
Yeah.
And then going back to what happened afterwards, it sounds like you were grinding for a year there, and then what happened after that year? You mentioned your sister
Yeah. So she s- pitched me this idea, and it's so funny because usually it's the other way around. I'm trying to convince her to do something. But she said, "Hey, do you think that we can do this?" what if we just take these two other locations, we had two really great associate doctors working moving around between the three, but w- who were positioned to potentially assume, ownership over those two locations.
She said, "Do you think that we could make it work in this [00:23:00] one office?" And it was big, the one that my dad and I built. It was built for two doctors to be working side by side at the same time. So it was huge and, like Still, we have not reached capacity for that, for that location. And I said yes, because I like a challenge, and I am a yes person.
So I said, "Yes, we can do it. We can absolutely do it." And we did it. We, the, we sold one of the practices in twenty eighteen to one of our associate doctors, and then a, a year later, we sold the other location to the second associate doctor, and they are both doing great and, you know, doing great work in orthodontics.
And now we've been here in this one location, she and I, running it exactly the way we want to. It works for her because she has a young child, and she is able to leave at five o'clock every day, sometimes earlier. She [00:24:00] gets to take a one-hour lunch break. If she needs to run across the street to her son's school to have lunch with him, she can certainly do that.
Um, but we have really created an amazing three-day-a-week schedule for her, where it's extremely predictable. She works Monday through Wednesday, and the rest of the week is hers for her to spend time with her family and do the things that she loves to do. And it's really been a great a great move for both of us because I have two children, and I happen to like to take an hour-long lunch break myself.
Who wouldn't? So it's really been a labor of love for me, but it really showed me that the practice that you own can be whatever you want it to be. And we have a saying in the orthodontics world that... In fact, I was talking to a consultant friend of mine recently at a [00:25:00] meeting, and I was describing our practice to her, and she said, "Oh, so you have a lifestyle practice."
And I was like, "Hmm. Hmm." I didn't wanna say yes because I felt like, what does that mean, a lifestyle practice? Shouldn't all of our, all practices suit the doctor's lifestyle? So I think that's really where I had sort of this light bulb moment where I was like, I really feel like if your practice doesn't work for your life, then what are you doing?
You're going to work and grinding and grinding and being miserable, and then you go home, and you carry that into your home life. I don't like that idea. I think every doctor should be able to have a practice that suits their lifestyle, and that's really what I'm, what I'm helping doctors do.
when I was working for-- working with my dad there's this... I think there was a sort of a notion at one-- and I think it pervades still that [00:26:00] you've gotta be big. You've gotta serve as many people as you possibly can. So it's not uncommon for orthodontists to open up. Maybe they have a main office, and then they m- go to the next town over and open up an o- an office.
And then they've got another office in another town, and they're, they're b- going back and forth because they can. So you can see, because the patient's rotation schedule is, you know, anywhere from eight to 12 weeks in between visits, you can do that. A doctor could open three locations and do that by himself and then s- maybe bring in an associate and open more locations.
So this notion that you've gotta be bigger and more complex and larger teams, I think was really... And I think it's sort of a masculine thing too, where, you know, "I'm gonna open another office, and I've got a de novo over here." And I... That's what my dad was doing, and it was n- it's not uncommon.
[00:27:00] I also talked to team members who come from other practices to work for us, and they're like, "Wow, you guys get lunch?" And we're like, "Yeah, we get lunch." And they're like, "Oh, yeah, no, we never, we never had time for lunch at my other practice. We were just go, go, going." And most of the time, that's a function of a poorly constructed schedule where the patients are making demands on the practice of when they wanna come in, and then the practice is constructing their schedule around what their patient needs, when in reality, you've gotta create the structure, and then your patients will come when you ask them to come.
But I do find that most practices do not have a schedule where they're maximizing their most popular times of day for appointments, and they're just kinda throwing, throwing patients anywhere. And that's how it was with my dad's practice when I came in. It was, you know, you never say no. You [00:28:00] never... You-- Whenever a patient wants to come in, you let them come in.
You never turn anyone away. Doesn't matter how late they are. So it was very chaotic. And a lot of doctors I talk to report the same thing. "I just can't say no. My, my patients wanna come in after three thirty, so I end up staying till six." And some doctors work till seven. They come in on a Saturday.
They start their morning at six AM so they can get as many patients in in the morning as they can. And I'm just here to say that it doesn't have to be that way. It just does not
And I work with general dental practices as well, so not just specialty, 'cause ortho is a specialty of dentistry. So the same thing happens in general dentist practices as well. And I'm... And I, you know, and I know, we've been to the doctor. we go to the doctor's office, and how many, how many people just dread it?
Because they know they're gonna be sitting and waiting, then you're gonna get in the room, and you're gonna sit, and you're gonna wait, and [00:29:00] it's just, it's un- untenable. I
So Again, that notion that you have to-- because with orthodontics, it's very cyclical. So treatment lasts anywhere from twelve to thirty months, and after that time, the patient moves on, and maybe they come back in the future for a touch-up or another service. But every two years, roughly, the patient base is gonna turn over.
So we are constantly having to see new patients. Now, you don't see that as much in the medical and the general dentist, dentistry area but it's definitely the case for us. What I'm-- and I think m-medicine can do this too, but knowing that serving more, bigger, better does not necessarily mean that you're providing the best possible patient experience.
So the more people you're treating, um, within the same finite schedule that you've [00:30:00] s-set, the worse the experience is gonna be as, as you try to insert more and more people into that schedule. So recognizing, hey, when are we at capacity, and what do we need to do to preserve our schedule and make sure we're seeing people on time?
You have to be in-- super intentional about that. And I don't think that that's top of mind for most doctors is seeing patients on time is like, "Yeah, no, we're-- that's not possible. It's not possible." People are late. Um, you know, we're human, so it's the human condition. We're subject to the comings and goings of other people in the practice.
But once you s-set some foundations for, "Hey, look, somebody's ten minutes late, we're reappointing." Somebody no-shows, well, guess what? Before-- We're not gonna give them a, a peak time next time they wanna come in. We're not gonna give them one of our most sought-after times if they're gonna consistently no-show for their appointment.
[00:31:00] So setting up some boundaries around your schedule and what you will and won't do, not every patient is gonna love it, but in the long run, adapting your schedule to accommodate one person is going-- is not going to serve the rest of your practice. So if you bump one person to serve another person, then now you've got multiple people that are unhappy.
So we just have it as a foundational principle of our practice that we run on time. And sometimes that means having an extra team member that's a floater, that's picking up patients that maybe came a little bit late or maybe showed up a little bit early. So it's doing things super intentionally to make sure that we are preserving the patient experience at all costs.
Now, do we have to say no sometimes? Yes, we do. Um, w-we can't always accommodate you at the time that's convenient for [00:32:00] you. But guess what? Most of the time we can
having the smaller team is definitely more manageable. When you have three different teams across three different offices, we found that it was very hard to keep the same level of care that we wanted. Um, so that was one reason why it was an easy decision because with a single provider in a single location, you just have more control.
And I personally think until you've maximized that single location with a single provider, I would advise a client, "Don't do it." Don't try to grow outside of your market until you have absolutely saturated that office, that location because it's definitely gonna bring on more overhead and more headaches.
Yes, the pleasing part in orthodontics is huge. My dad was definitely that way. I worked with a client in St. [00:33:00] Louis a few years ago female provider, amazing, amazing gal, but she couldn't get it into her head that she could say no. And my advice is if you know as a provider that you're a yes person, then you need to have somebody in your practice who's the no person.
So I kinda take after my dad. I would be like, "Oh yeah, we can, we can sneak you in." And my sister's like, "Uh-uh. No, we're not doing that." So I have to have someone at my front desk... And I will tell you, Paula is a unicorn. I-- She's the most amazing front desk team member I've ever had in my entire years of, of working.
She is amazingly warm. She is beautiful. She stands up. She greets these patients. She knows something about them. She hugs. She gives them a little tour to orient them. But if you are [00:34:00] late or you owe a balance, she will bring it up, and she will do it so beautifully and so kindly that these people cannot be upset.
So you have to have someone who's Mary Poppins at your front desk but who can also put the hammer down. When the patient is late constantly, she'll say, "Oh, I've noticed, you know, this is the third time that you've been late to your appointment. Next time, you know we're not gonna be able to see you at this time.
We're gonna have to put you at our ten o'clock hour." And the patients are like, and sometimes it's just a matter of acknowledging that they're late or that they missed an appointment. And if you're a yes person as a doctor and you know you're not gonna be able to set those boundaries like my, my gal in St.
Louis, then you have to have someone in your practice who will
Absolutely.
And I think what happens is these doctors spend so much time in school and so much time learning their [00:35:00] skills, and nobody teaches them, "Okay, but now what do you want your practice to look like? What do you want it to feel like? What kind of what do you wanna walk into every morning?"
They don't think about that. They don't... They just get in there, they put their name on the door, and they go in there, and they start getting patients, and they go, go, go, go, go. They do the work. They do the work. And then Two, three, five years in, they're like, "Oh, wait. What am I doing? My team is unhappy. I'm working through lunch.
I'm staying late. I'm coming in on Saturdays to catch up with charting. What have I done? What have I created here?" And very few doctors, because of their m- mindset and their, their intelligence, they don't think about that soft part, that what do I really want? And before you know it, you're five, 10 years down the road, and you're like, "I've created this amazing thing, but I'm terribly unhappy.
And it's not serving me or my family. I'm making good money, [00:36:00] but I'm burning out, or I don't know how much longer I can do this." And I think taking that extra step, and that's one of the first things I do with a new client, is figure out, what are you-- what are we doing? Where are you going? What do you want this to look like?
And even down to, you know, I don't wanna do this type of procedure anymore. Like, my sister said, "I really kinda don't like doing braces." There's-- There are a lot of things about putting on traditional braces and maintaining that patient that she just didn't like. So we do more clear aligners now because it's easier for the patient, results are more predictable.
We plan everything up front, at the front end of the case instead of at every step of the way having to make a little tweak, and that's getting a little too clinical but, you know, deciding what do you really wanna do. Take an orthopedic surgeon, for example. We've got a really good friend nearby who's an orthopedic surgeon, and he's like, "Yeah, I don't [00:37:00] do knees.
I just don't do 'em. I do elbows. I do shoulders." And he had the wherewithal to say, "I don't like doing this specific type of procedure, so I'm gonna specialize in arms and shoulders or upper body stuff." And he then has a partner who does the knee stuff or does the foot stuff. So it's really about deciding, what do you wanna do?
What are you good at? What do you like? And there's a part of that that's what's gonna be most profitable for me as well. So there's so many other layers than just providing care where the doctor can come back to themselves and decide what they want and then go out and give that at a hundred percent.
So Alison, I'm curious because in your bio you mention specifically that you work with female orthodontists. Can you speak a little bit more to that?
.
I like to channel Elyse Archer from She Sells here a little bit. Like, men are [00:38:00] great. I love men. I'm married, I have a husband, and men are welcome. Men are welcome. But what I have found is that the mindset of a female doctor, they know... deep down they know what's wrong, and they, I think have more of a realistic sense of needing help.
I think a male doctor, in fact, I did a discovery call with, with one not too long ago who I asked, "Okay, tell me what's going on in your practice. Like, where are you feeling stuck? Where are you feeling like something's just not right?" And he's like, "I don't know. Our collections are pretty good.
Our production's pretty good. Yeah, our case acceptance rate is pretty good." And he's going through all this list of things that I typically hear like, "Oh, I really wish this was better." And nothing... and, and in his eyes, nothing was wrong. And if the client is gonna present to me in that way, then I'm not certain that it's gonna be a [00:39:00] fit for me.
If you think that your practice is all sunshine and rainbows and you're just happy, happy as a clam, great, good. You don't need me. And typically, I find that it's the gentlemen doctors that it's just part of their ego. They need to present that everything is good, and it's bigger, better, faster than, you know, the guy down the street.
With females, I find that they do have a sense for what's not working for them, and they're also not as apt to want to hustle and grind. Whereas that's part of the male identity is how hard can you hustle? How fast can you run? How long can you go? That's just the male, the male way. And I think with women, I feel I can tap into their emotions and their mindset a little easier.
So again, it's my [00:40:00] preference. I also know that there's not a lot of female safe spaces in dentistry and especially orthodontics. There are a couple of groups that are centered around women, but the, the culture of the group is still go fast, go, go hustle, grind, send your kids to the Ivy League school and just go, go, go, go, go.
Open an office, open another office, open another office. And that to me is not... it does not embody what I'm going for with ease and, you know, make it easy, make it fun, make it work for you. None of those things. Hustle grind is just not in the vocabulary.
That is very much true with the grind culture, and I think it's, it's not just in the orthodontics or dental industry. It's probably prevalent if not all, then at least most industries. And I'm curious though because typically the hustle identity, the grind mindset comes because it, that's what we're [00:41:00] taught is how you make money.
So I'm curious when you switched from having multiple offices down to one and then you have a, what you don't like, a, as a lifestyle practice, if you will, how did that impact the revenue that was coming in? Because I think a lot of people who are so into the grind culture, it's not that they necessarily want to work to the bone, but it's more they're concerned as, "Well, I wanna make revenue, and
The only way I know how to make revenue is to just work harder."
well, so remember going back, my sister said, "Can we do this?" The other thing she said was, "And make as much money as we were making with the three." And I said yes, and within two years, we had made up the revenue from the two other offices working in one. And again, this is working three days a week, eight to five, and then one half day on a Thursday a month.
Um, so we did not do it [00:42:00] by adding hours. We did not do it by working longer or working harder. If anything, things have gotten easier and simpler for us because of the changes that we made based on what she wanted. So she was able to articulate to me what she wanted, and then I was able to use my skills to make that happen
Okay, so Alison, clearly you are an expert in your field, and if a listener is thinking, "Wow, I really want to get to know Alison better. I want to learn from her. I need help in my practice," how could they get ahold of you?
Well, I'll first start by saying you don't have to be an orthodontist. If you're a general dentist, oral surgeon, periodontist, endodontist, any female in the dental profession I would ... I love working with all specialties. Um, there's some nuances there, but you don't have to be an orthodontist to work with [00:43:00] me.
But I would advise them to catch me on Instagram. I'm at par- @practiceperfectortho. You can also find me online at practice-perfect.com. I'm on LinkedIn. Um,
I can't remember my LinkedIn handle, but if you search Alison, if you s- if you search Alison Hale, I'm in there. Facebook, I'm on Fa- Facebook as well. But yeah, check me out.
Don't worry listeners, I'm gonna put all of that in the show notes so you don't have to hit pause and rewind to see how you can connect with Alison. And Alison, I have a question that I ask all my guests on the show
Oh, you're gonna surprise me. Put me to work.
Don't worry, it's a fun question. So the question is, if your life were a book, what chapter would you be on, and what is it called?
Oh, okay.
So this chapter is gonna be the quantum leap chapter because I have...
Oh, [00:44:00] I love that
Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I've spent the last 10 years sort of thinking about and rationalizing around having my own coaching and consulting business, and it's been slow. And I have found myself being pulled back into my work at Parks just, you know, around every corner.
So a challenge comes up at Parks, I'm gonna abandon my own business and put my efforts there. And now I've really made the decision, I've decided that this-- that Practice Perfect is gonna go and it's gonna go big. And I've made some strategic changes in how I work. So this is my quantum leap chapter.
This is the chapter where I'm building this business. I want it to build quickly, and I really want to change w- how women operate in dentistry. I want to [00:45:00] create a space for women in dentistry. I want to help as many women as I can achieve that easy, fun, fulfilling practice that they maybe were dreaming about when they were in school, but they don't have.
So that's where I am. I'm so excited. Again, you and I have known each other for a while as we've been working through our, you know, our journey to having our own thing, and I'm just here for it, and I cannot wait
I love, love, love, love that. And how many pages in are you in this new chapter or in your quantum leap chapter?
Oh gosh, beginning, be-beginning, yeah, page 10. I, um, I'm really excited about what, what's coming up. I've have some new things on the horizon that I'm really excited to start this month. So I'm hoping with, with those new efforts that things [00:46:00] are gonna start moving very quickly Stay tuned. Yes.
Allison, thank you so much for making the time to be here. I have very much enjoyed our conversation, And I know my listeners have too
Oh, it was my pleasure. I always love spending time with you, Laura, and thank you again for having me
Big thanks to Alyson Hale for being so open and so real in this conversation. This is exactly the kind of story I created this podcast for, because when you hear someone else say the thing you've been feeling but couldn't quite name, something shifts. If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it.
You probably already know exactly who that is. And if you're sitting with something after this conversation, that feeling that good enough stopped being good enough a long time ago, I want to talk. Book a free 20-minute clarity call at [00:47:00] leadintact.com/booking. That's where we figure out together what's actually going on and what your next step looks like.
All of Alyson's details are in the show notes. Go show them some love. And with that, I'll see you next time