The Dental Billing Podcast

Episode 84: Systems Saved Me: My Burnout Recovery Journey

• Ericka Aguilar • Season 11 • Episode 5

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After rebranding my company and going solo without a business partner, I discovered I needed to get intentional about how I showed up, leading to 10x growth for Fortune Billing Solutions in just one year.

• Tracked every minute of my day for two weeks to discover I was creating chaos for myself and my team
• Implemented structured timeblocking for client meetings, discovery calls, team one-on-ones, podcast recording, and CEO strategy
• Created a daily "miracle hour" focused on follow-ups, marketing, outreach and business development
• Organized my week using theme days: Mondays for admin, Tuesdays for client strategy, Wednesdays for creative work, Thursdays for business development, and "Follow-up Fridays"
• Turned off all notifications during deep work hours with only my daughter as a VIP contact
• End each day with a shutdown routine to check accomplishments and set tomorrow's priorities
• Dental billing insight: High patient AR often stems from improper co-pay calculations upfront and improper adjustments on the backend
• Color-code your calendar to make patterns visible: blue for client work, green for business development, yellow for admin, red for distractions

Book a free billing audit with us. We'd love to help you find the billing opportunities hiding in plain sight.


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Speaker 1:

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the Dental Billing Podcast. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to share something really personal that I haven't talked about much publicly. This past year, I went through a complete rebrand of my company and for the first time in my entrepreneurial journey, I went solo no business partner, no safety net, just me, myself and I. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. It felt like all eyes and all responsibility were suddenly on me and while the rebrand gave my company a fresh identity, it also forced me to do something even more important, which is the inspiration for this episode. I needed to get intentional about how I showed up. Before I go further into this episode, I want to give a big shout out to my biz bestie, jen. For those of you that have been longtime listeners of this podcast, you have heard Jen and I talk about hygiene and billing and how the two correlate. We're really passionate about those two topics, but Jen was my sounding board through this process. She was there for my moments of weakness when I did not want to follow through, I didn't want to pull the trigger, and she kept reminding me that I had to do this and that I got this. She kept saying you've got this, and I'm so glad that I listened, despite all of the fear I was facing inside my head. Since the rebrand, my company Fortune Billing Solutions has 10x'd in growth and we're on track to hit our biggest annual goal ever. The name might be new, but we have been around since 2011.

Speaker 1:

I've been helping practices reclaim revenue and reduce chaos since my early entrepreneurial career began. One of the ways that I've started with that process is in offering free billing audits. Sometimes, when you're buried in the day-to-day, it's hard to see the billing opportunities that are hiding in plain sight. We can step in and help you find them. We do this without judgment and without any pressure. Because we've been there, I have a lot of empathy for offices that sit in my office and just think to myself when is this going to end? As a new biller to a long existing practice, you step into other people's mess if you will, and that creates chaos, because when you have good intentions and you come into a new practice and you want to make things better, you want to increase collections and you want to clean up the AR, it becomes an overwhelming task that literally just doesn't let your mind rest, because you want to get through this. It just feels like you're never going to get this task done. Today's episode was inspired by my journey in going solo, rebuilding from the ground up and finally learning how to protect my time, energy and sanity.

Speaker 1:

After the rebrand, I knew I had to get real about how I was spending my time. I wasn't doing daily billing anymore, because now I'm running the company, but my days still felt chaotic and my brain was still always buzzing. So I had to go old school and figure out what I was doing with my time. I just went to the dollar store, I grabbed a notebook and for two full weeks I tracked everything I did Every email, every phone call, every minute scrolling on social for quote unquote marketing ideas, all the unscheduled lunches, all of the interruptions, random check-ins with my team. What I discovered is that I was the bottleneck. I was creating chaos, not only for myself, but for my team too.

Speaker 1:

That two-week time audit was a wake-up call, and it was the beginning of a new way of working for me. So here's what I changed when I realized that I had no control over my day. This is how I was able to get back in control and not allow my day to run me, but I run how I spend my time. I put everything on my calendar. I stopped winging it with task management and my days became very structured. My days now include time blocks for client meetings, time blocks for discovery calls with new practices so this is typically when I'm talking to a practice who has engaged with our company to conduct a billing audit. So those discovery calls are really us delivering the results from the audit Team one-on-ones. I have a block for podcast recordings. I have a time block for CEO time for strategy and reviewing financials. I have a time block for content creation and marketing, and I even have my meals and personal things on my calendar so that it makes it easier for my team to know when it is the best time to approach me, because if you approach me at a time where I am in the middle of a block, you're probably not going to hear back from me for a few hours. So this gave structure to my day and also it gave my brain room to breathe, right.

Speaker 1:

I also created on a daily basis what I refer to as a miracle hour, and for me as a business owner, my miracle hour is important because it is for follow-ups, marketing, outreach, new business development. It is intentionally designed to fill my pipeline and follow up with any interest with offices that are interested in billing services with my company. So I focus on that. I set the timer, I put my head down and when it's done I move on. It's focused, intentional and, you guys, it's insanely productive. I really can't begin to tell you what a game changer implementing the Miracle Hour into my business has been.

Speaker 1:

I also use theme days. So I've organized my week by each day having a theme. So Mondays are my admin and internal team connection. So communication If I need to follow up with a team member, I will schedule that on a Monday in that time block. Tuesdays are client strategy and billing reviews. So these are the days that I'm typically reviewing the work of the billers and also looking for opportunity, any coaching that might be necessary, from the patterns that we're seeing through the billing process and sometimes actually a lot of times I'll just share this tip with you A lot of times when we find we take on a new client and the patient AR is insanely high.

Speaker 1:

Typically the root cause of that is that we are not properly calculating co-payments or collecting co-payments on the front end, and this is because typically we don't have the strongest person in the front that knows how to do this, and what you will find is your patient AR will continue to grow on two levels. So, one, we're not calculating co-payments on the front end and two, when we're posting payments, we're not making proper adjustments on the back end. So what happens is this creates an unexpected or surprise balance for the patient or a credit that they're not entitled to. So when I am reviewing clients for client strategy and billing reviews, I'm looking for those types of patterns in the billing work, because it does show up when our billers are posting payments and there are several patients from that batch, that daily EOB batch, if there are several patients in there with surprise balances, because we do have to go back and see what was collected on the date of service, right. So we go back, look at the treatment plan, see what was collected on the date of service, right. So we go back, look at the treatment plan, see what was collected. Was that accurate? And usually it's not in the instances I'm not saying for all of the offices. So if you don't have this problem, this is not you, this does not apply to you, but I do see this often enough that when I am looking through my clients' accounts for strategy and opportunities for coaching, this is typically what I'll see. I go back to the treatment plan, I look at what was collected. I look at all the things and then when we're posting payments, are there surprise balances because we didn't accurately correct or was collect, or is there a surprise credit? And when I see that happening on a regular basis, that's cue for me to reach out to our client and say let's talk about a coaching session that's going to improve this challenge that we are currently having, because we are sending surprise balance statements to patients and that's not a good way to build trust with your patients, right? We want to make sure that we're calculating and collecting accurately on the front end so that we don't end up with a patient mess, patient AR mess on the back end.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so Wednesdays Wednesdays are my fun days, so Wednesdays I have reserved that theme day for creative work, podcast content, writing my book I'm still finishing my book, I'm just the biller. Get dressed up and get dolled up. My daughter just started her photography business, so she is now also helping me with content creation through video and photography. So you'll start to see a lot more of that. But that's what the theme of Wednesday is. So we're not going to talk to clients, we're not going to be doing any trainings. I'm focusing on content, creative work.

Speaker 1:

Thursdays are the days when I'm going to deliver audit findings. Those are the business development days and I'm going to take phone calls of individuals who have expressed interest in billing services with the billing company and potential coaching, things like that. It's strictly business development. And for anybody that has worked with me, you've heard what I call Fridays. I call them follow-up Fridays and this is kind of my day to follow up on any loose ends, clean things up, spend a couple hours planning and then I'm typically calling it a day by about noon and then I take the rest of the day and the weekend with friends and family and I've just disciplined myself to not work on the weekends.

Speaker 1:

But this strategy, utilizing theme days game changer I am so happy with the results. It definitely keeps me on track and I also know when I have time to schedule personal things. Now, sometimes personal will override business, but that's rare. I want to make sure that we're putting the business first, especially with the kind of growth that we're experiencing right now. We're doing a lot of recruiting, we're doing a lot of onboarding of new clients, so we've got a lot of moving parts that I need to keep my eye on. So I try my best to stay on track and schedule my personal stuff on the weekends.

Speaker 1:

Here is another game changer that I have. I've used this for a couple years now and it did help. But using this in conjunction with theme days, my miracle hour, you know, just having intentional time blocks for client meetings and things like that, I turn off all notifications. So my phone unless I'm at lunch, most of the time my phone is on do not disturb. And the only text messages I receive during these deep work hours are from my daughter. That's it. She's my VIP and other than that, if you're calling me while I have my phone on, do not disturb. I won't see it until I check my phone, and I usually will check my phone in between task management, but I won't respond until I have allotted time to do so. And finally, I end my days with a shutdown routine. I check off what I accomplished and I set my top three priorities for the next day and I mentally clock out so I can recharge without guilt. If I leave anything undone, of course, it's going to go on to the following day and it will get inserted into one of the time blocks or where it is appropriate to address that task.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so where do you start? If you're a biller, an office manager or a business owner like me, I know feeling stretched and overwhelmed or constantly behind. I want you to do the same thing that I did Start with a time audit, track everything for a full week. You don't have to do two weeks, as I did. I want you to write down as you go. It doesn't have to be an elaborate sentence, it's just you know the time and what you're doing. Right, don't wait until the end of the day because you will miss things. Okay, so that's number one. Once you've tracked it, analyze it through these three lenses. I want you to identify time wasters. So what snuck into your day that didn't serve your goals? I want you to identify tasks that took longer than expected. Where are you underestimating your time or lacking structure? Number three I want you to identify high impact activities that move the needle what actually created progress in your day, and make these your MVP tasks, double down on them.

Speaker 1:

Here's something else that really helps me as I build out my calendar. I like to color code my time entries and I use these following categories to make patterns easier to spot Blue is for client work, green is for business development, yellow is for admin and operations, red is for distractions. When you are color coding and identifying things, color code your distractions. I mean, obviously red is appropriate, right, because it's red alert. Purple is for team communication, black is personal time, and I use brown for marketing and content creation.

Speaker 1:

This is going to be where a real shift happens in your day. When you stop working blindly and start working intentionally, burnout will lose its grip on you. Burnout, friends, it's not about just being tired. It's a sign that your system is broken and that you've become the system. You don't have to do it all, you don't have to live in chaos and you don't have to stay stuck, if I can go from fear and overwhelm to 10x growth. So can you so track your time, reclaim your rhythm?

Speaker 1:

I call it a drumbeat in your business or, if you are an office manager, a drumbeat in your day-to-day task management. And, while you are doing this, if you're ready to see what opportunities might be hiding in your billing systems in plain sight. Book a free billing audit with us. We'd love to help you. Okay, friends, so I'm going to wrap up this episode and I am going to encourage you to grab a handy dandy notebook and audit your time. This is, I promise, the best thing that you can do for productivity and attention, because productivity and your attention are a form of currency and we want to make sure that we are not in constant overwhelm because there's a never ending list of things to do. Thanks for listening and, if this episode hit home, send it to a fellow biller, office manager or practice owner who you think needs a little clarity and a lot more peace. Until next time, friends.

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Ericka Aguilar

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