Karen Braswell-Winkle, President of Phoenix Dental Consultants, has over 30 years of experience in the Dental and Business Management industry. She has been in hundreds of dental practices across the United States, consulting and coaching dentists and their teams to achieve their desired results. Karen’s Dental career began at the University Of Louisville School Of Dentistry, as she held the “lead clinical assistant” position to the private practice division of the University.
With thousands of hours of clinical chair side experience, corporate training, public speaking, retail and business management, Karen expanded her industry and Business knowledge to begin a career in practice management. She contributed as a consultant, coach, editor, and faculty member for some of the most respected dental practice management firms in the world! The mission of Phoenix Dental Consultants is to guide the dentist to enjoy dentistry again, and to dominate practice management by custom design.
Karen’s favorite quote and why:
“10% of conflicts are due to differences of opinion and 90% are due to the wrong tone of voice.” – (click to tweet!)
“In the dental profession, a lot of times, doctors have great abilities in dentistry, but they seem to be limping along a little bit because of their team or maybe their team’s lack of maturity or ability to resolve conflicts. So the dentist sometimes seems to just be very much held back in business because of all of these “hallway management” that they have to do.”
What she does for the dental profession:
“I am a coach and a consultant. And they are not the same thing; they are interchangeable. Lot of times, dentists might shy away from the “consultant” word, but they are okay with having a coach. A coach is somebody that needs to be in your back pocket arsenal. Those people that are doing their absolute best and succeeding from one stepping stone to the next have coaches.
The consultant side of me will go into a dental practice, and I analyze the numbers: profit loss statements, the retention, their overhead expenses, etc. I look at a lot of different things and asses if there’s any opportunity within that practice. And not only opportunity for growth, but opportunity for organization.”
Her difficult time story:
Karen shares with us two stories:
One is about her friend that has an infant child, who was going through a difficult divorce . Karen helped her through the process. Her dentist friend nearly lost her practice while she was distracted in the process of what she was going through personally. She says she is a very strong woman, and she was able to turn the situation around. She didn’t blame anybody and just decided to move on.
The second story is about her 9 month old granddaughter named Ivy Rose, who wasn’t developing well. They later found out that she had a very serious heart condition where her veins in her left ventricle were not connected. So an open heart surgery was performed and the baby was eventually released from the hospital less than a week later. She says this experience made her realize how amazing the power of the human body is. She believes that everybody is created in God’s image and that God’s image is good. This gave her a lot of faith in humanity. Her granddaughter is now healthy and doing great.
What is concerning or exciting her right now in dentistry:
She says she is very concerned at how difficult it is to combine the dental community and the medical community together with the oral-systemic health issue. She’s concerned that it’s taking longer, although she’s seeing some bright spots here and there in the media that are showing cardiologist speaking to the oral systemic issue and a lot of them are now beginning to ask, “DO you have periodontal disease,” on their patients.
She thinks the dental community can do a much better job speaking to hygiene patients about that infection in their mouth, rather than using terms . really making the patient understand and then to take ownership for their oral systemic health. And she would love to see the medical profession get on board with it and support each other.
The best advice Karen has ever received:
“Work is happiness.” – Find something that you love to do, and earn a living at it.
“Don’t be a blamer. You make all of the choices in your life. Everything you have experienced is based upon the choices that you made. Good or bad, you are the one that made the choices.”
The one habit that contributes to her success :
Karen says she’s been a feracious information gatherer all her life. She has hundreds of books and she reads constantly.
Her book recommendation:
“Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 10 Powerful Tools for Life and Work” by Marilee Adams
- Paperback edition can be purchased on Amazon here.
- Audiobook edition can be purchased on Amazon here.
- Kindle edition can be purchased on Amazon here.
Management or marketing pearl (tip):
Appointment retention. Make certain that you have a head person who is constantly following up with the patient who cancels or no shows.
What is exciting Karen right now in her consulting firm:
Karen says she gets excited when she sees results in the dental practices that she helps get organized and put their systems in place. She says she doesn’t go in just to be a cheerleader; she wants to see some results.
Internet / App resource that Karen feels is awesome:
Dental Town – an interactive healthcare community working to connect dentists to their peers, dental service providers and manufacturers.
Karen’s recommendation for those who are about to start new or restart:
“Get a trusted advisor. They need to find someone that they can utilize as a trusted advisor, to help them along every decision that they are going to have to make because a startup is not an easy thing to do. Somebody that can help them create a business plan and marketing plan, that will be precise and step by step oriented.”
Dr. Karen Braswell – Winkle can be reached at:
- Website: https://www.phoenixdentalconsultants.com/
- Email: Karen@phoenixdentalconsultants.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.braswellwinkle?fref=ts
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhoenixDentalCo
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/118097262387735290854/
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