Christine Hoxha – Success and Service Go Hand In Hand | Conversations with Coaches | Boxer Media

Kevin Stafford 0:01
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast. I’m your host, Kevin and I just actually use the words Let’s rock and roll right before I hit record in zoom. So that’s, I guess my mood today, hopefully, you will be in a similar mood. And I know you will enjoy getting a chance to meet Christine HOXA. We’ve got to talk for a few minutes, and I’m excited to get to know her a little bit better and to introduce her to you. So let me give you a little mini bio before we get cracking. Christine is a highly skilled practice management coach with over two decades of experience specifically in the dental industry. After graduating with a degree in Hospitality Management, and having spent some time working for Walt Disney World, Christina acquired a true customer focused approach, which is evident and permeates all of her business interactions. Christine, thanks for being here today. I’m glad to meet you. I’m glad to get to know you a bit better. And I’m just excited to chat about you know what you’re passionate about in the world the work you do. So, thanks. Hi.

Christine Hoxha 0:54
Thanks for having me. Hello.

Kevin Stafford 0:56
Let’s, uh, whenever I’m about to ask this question, I always in my head, I’m just like, okay, come on, Kevin, reel it in. So I always want to preamble it with let’s go back to the beginning. And in my head, I was like, That’s the beginning beginning we don’t need to go back to I was born in a you know, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But I do like to start with the origin story of a coach. And by origin story, I almost mean, like, in a superhero way, like, how did you get your powers? You know? How did you realize or discover or maybe you were told by the right person, the right moment, that coaching was right for you that coaching was the best way for you to have the kind of impact you wanted to have in the world and to operate the kind of business and serve the kind of people you want to serve in the way you want to serve? And what was what was that realization? Like, when did that happen for you? And how did it start? Yeah, sure. So

Christine Hoxha 1:42
obviously, going to college and didn’t have a clue what dental business coaching was, or even business coaching was, I went to school to be a travel writer, believe it or not, and I wanted to travel the world and write for magazines. And in the 90s, there wasn’t really opportunity for that, or it was hard to find opportunity. So I landed a role in commercial property management, working downtown Boston, and realized that I needed a better work life balance. I was traveling, had babies, you know, I needed to be home, the traffic wasn’t working for me. So I went to a headhunter, because that’s what you did back in the 90s. And I said, I need a job that’s closer to my home, that I can make more money that offers me a better work life balance. And they sent me on a job interview. And it was at a dental office. And I was like, What I hate the dentist, I have total debt as a kid, like, what am I going to do at the dental office, but they were offering me a fabulous schedule four days a week, I would have my Friday’s off. It was 15 minutes from the house. And it was a better pay. So like, how do you turn that down? And yeah, so I started working in the dental industry. And I worked for this doctor who’s who is very challenging. And what I fell in love with about the industry is a little bit different than most people, most people go into medical and health care because they really love helping patients. And I went in with a real business focus. And when I found out that I really loved was helping the team, the team didn’t have a manager before. They didn’t have anybody that have their back, it was the doctor against them. And there was no middle ground. And the business itself was really suffering, we they were actually using a paper scheduling book back in the day with different colored pencils. So it was really old school and I had to bring in all the new systems and really support the practice and the team and I fell in love with that. So I stayed with them for a few years. And then I continued to move on to different practices bigger and better practices, eventually went to Mass General Hospital and opened up their specialty dental clinic. So that part I got to be part of the project management and being part of a project pre walls. And then from there, I was like in deciding that, you know, I really loved opening practices, I like to be part of that kind of startup. And an opportunity fell in my lap for coaching and I started coaching ortho and Peto practices, and they did a lot of de novo practices. So a lot of startups and helping doctors just kind of get up off the ground operationally. And I fell in love with that. And with the numbers behind it, there was a lot of you know, I’m a big believer that your p&l tells the entire picture of your practice. And so utilizing numbers to really derive a practice growth and became very successful I primarily now right now only work with no practices and an audit practices. But I do I have coached in every specialty before and yeah, I just I realized that I love teaching and I loved educating and inspiring and and I really felt like once I left basketball and I kind of knew my stuff. I knew what was going on. I knew what it took to to make a practice successful. So that’s, that’s kind of my path to dental business coaching.

Kevin Stafford 4:45
I really I really love that. It’s like, I love and this is it’s, it’s I have this response fairly often, but it just keeps being true. I love the specificity of your journey like it’s very specific ways in which you found yourself in the position you are today. And yet there is such commonality there, like the first thing that sprung to mind is like you saw a need a gap, a place where there, there was just help required, like people were in need. And you put yourself into that position, you put yourself into that gap, and you tried to help those people tried to help the helpers. And I think that’s, that’s something that’s very easy to overlook, particularly in professions that are like largely fixated on service or helping, like when it’s whether it’s hospitality, or medical services, or anything like that, you’re often thinking about the patients, or you know, the people who are the customers, or whoever’s there, coming to receive that service. And it’s very easy to overlook, or allow it to be overlooked to the people who are doing the help, who are, you know, on the ground, you know, trying to like work with maybe shaky foundations or clearly traffic in a problematic perhaps troublesome challenging, I think is the word you use boss. And just being able to be like, you know, what we need, we need to lay a better foundation here, this could be so much better for everybody involved. If we get people get people on even footing, you know, I love the way that you put yourself into that. And you’re like, This is how I want to serve, this is how I can help. And you just kept finding that as you went through and you acquire the experiences, and really got to like cut your teeth and like flex your muscles on like larger and larger kinds of projects to the point where you go, like, you know, I know how this is done. Now, I’ve done it enough different ways, and enough different locations, and enough different like our frameworks and environments where it’s like, yeah, I know how this is done, I’m gonna start my business and I’m gonna, I’m gonna teach other people how to do it, I’m going to coach people through it, as I love, it’s it’s such a specific journey again, but also like this, that common thread of, I see a way in which I can help. And I have the skills that I can apply to help people get to a better, like, raise the floor and get to a better position in their practice and start, right. So they don’t have to come in and maybe tear things down to the studs in five years, because nobody was there to coach them through those early, you know, those early days or building the practice. That’s just I find it all very fascinating too, because I get to like dive into the specifics of something I know nothing about.

Christine Hoxha 6:58
Yeah, and it’s usually, you know, I take clients, I have clients all over the world, recently had a client in France, it’s funny, because my job has basically taking the full circle, because now I travel and I write reports. So now, that’s awesome. And I get to, you know, documented on my Instagram and all that stuff. So I do get to do what I love, which was the travel part of it, but then I found something that I’m really good at as well, which was, you know, helping to support teams looking for areas of opportunity to increase efficiencies and, you know, just be more productive and successful. And along my journey, I’ve had to take a lot of, I’ve had to bring a lot of kind of life coaching to, to my my role and to my clients. Because as we know, in business, a lot of times, the one thing that’s holding people back are themselves, and they don’t realize that and so when you’re dealing with an individual practice, sole practitioner, one doctor and his team, and he’s or she is the one who’s you know, holding the success bag, I have to kind of break that out of them and, and let them know that they’re worthy of the success and it’s okay to be successful. I think in healthcare, especially, there’s a big stigma about being successful and, and almost kind of feeling not, you know, they’re just kind of afraid to be successful, because they think, you know, we’re here to serve, and you can be both, you can absolutely, you can be the best at what you do and be paid appropriately for it. And be successful.

Kevin Stafford 8:28
Man that that conversation comes up so often, especially in the context of coaching, but it’s really true for so many, so many businesses and so many just any any, any business that’s trying to serve their customers, which should be pretty much all of them. But like, especially with coaches, it’s like how, how do you sort of navigate being successful and charging, you know, a correct amount of money for the services you’re providing. And also keep yourself very grounded in the service, you’re trying to share the help you’re trying to provide. And it’s always everybody’s struggled with that. And it’s like, I feel like there’s not, I’m highlighting it because I feel like there cannot be enough light on this because of how much people struggle with it. It’s like, it is okay, better than Okay, way more than okay to be successful. And serve. Like those things are not mutually exclusive. You don’t have to, like partition your life and have like business mind. And then like service mind, it’s all meant to be of the same piece. It’s all meant to be a part of the same process. And it’s also and this is something I know that a lot of coaches in particular, but a lot of people just don’t think about, it’s like charging an appropriate amount for your services. Just kind of as like a blanket statement is really important for the people you’re serving as well. Because you get and I use this term actually just yesterday in a conversation, you get the kind of buy in literally and figuratively that you require in order to serve the people you want to serve. You have you have their investment in you. And so you have their attention as well as their you know, their investment of resources and it’s set so important to actually having the kind of impact you want to have.

Christine Hoxha 9:59
For sure. Absolutely. And oftentimes you’re having the discussion, I’m having the discussion with my clients about about fees and setting their fees and being appropriate. And oftentimes, I’ll get pushback, and they’ll tell me, Well, no, I need to lower my fees, because the guy down the street is charging less. And I said, you know, but But you have something different and something unique, I can’t train, I’m not clinical, I can’t train an endodontist to do root canal, you know, I can give them some pointers and suggestions, but that’s not my, that’s not my scope of work for them, I can train the team to support the doctor. So they can focus on what they do best. And when they focus on what they do best, they tend to do more of it, and they tend to do better at it. And all the other systems trust that I will help support your team to make sure they’re taking care of everything. And that’s where the true success comes from. So oftentimes, it’s giving providers the, the permission to let go of all the other stuff, and focus just on what you’re good at, because you went to school to become an endodontist. And that’s what you’re great at, you’re not great at doing payroll, you’re not great at the schedule, you’re not great at all these other things, focus on what you’re really good at. And then let’s, you know, I’ll work with your team to really train them up so they can support you 100%. And that’s, that’s where I see the biggest growth and success with my clients is when I give them the permission to let go. Because oftentimes, I think is sold providers, or practitioners, they feel that they need to have all control. And so sometimes just going in saying, I got this for you Don’t worry, let’s just you know, just, I just want you to focus on patient care and treatment, because I can’t fix that if you do a bad root canal, I can fix that. So focus on what you’re good at, and then I will help you, I will help your team and everyone else support you 100%. So that you can be successful.

Kevin Stafford 11:45
And be and really put your best foot forward being the best position to do the best work in the right way for the all the right kinds of people who need it. It’s like it’s, it’s so when you lay it out like that, which is the way it should be laid out. It’s so simple. It’s like, Hey, you learned how to do a thing very, very, very well, to the point where you’ve decided to start a business to do that thing. Now, do you want to do that thing? Or do you want to run the business that does that thing, because running the business is a whole different can of worms than the thing that you now have a business that it provides. And so it’s like, and I just I love, love, love that gap that you move into, because I find so many really like 50 genuinely talented, committed passionate people who get stuck in that position where they’ve got, you know, they have the control, they needed to have at the beginning to kind of get things off the ground, whatever industry it is, and then they get to a point where they’re they want to grow, they want to scale or they just want it like they want to do the thing that they started this business to do in the first place. And yet they find themselves you know, up at all hours, you know, trying to trying to be their own bookkeeper or trying to figure out workflow for the office and try to figure out how to manage a team and all the little details that come with the business side, that’s just taking them away from the thing that they care the most about, and the thing that they’re best at. And that always makes me that’s always makes me sad when I see that. And it always makes me inversely happy. When I see someone who is there to help was like, I see exactly where you’re stumbling, let’s talk I’m gonna I’m gonna coach you a little bit of life coaching, a little bit of business coaching a little bit a little bit other kinds of stuff, we’re gonna get you to a place where you can release the things that ought to be released, I’ll help you do that, I’ll be here with you. While you’re doing that, so that you could see that the world is not going to fall apart. If you pry your pride your fingers off of one part of your business, it’s gonna stay together. And you’ll be amazed, I’m almost like doing a sales pitch for you. And you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel and more work you you get done on the things that care you care about the most. It’s like, it’s it really is like, it’s I get passionate about it when I talk about it.

Christine Hoxha 13:36
When I do too, and it’s hard, you know, we are kind of questioning should I coach should I not coach, I’m so confident now in what I do in the success I’ve seen, I just told me we’d be stupid not to coach, you know, like, unless you know it all. And if you do, that’s wonderful. Unless you’re able to go out and coach another prac, then that’s what great. But if you’re not at that level, let somebody come in and take that, you know, take that burden off of you and do what you want to do do what you love. And that’s what you went to school for. So enjoy it. So yeah, it’s it’s amazing that people struggle with the idea of coaching and whether they should be coached. And there are definitely some people out there who cannot be coached, I’ve had to fire some people that you know what, they just couldn’t be coached. And that’s okay. It didn’t work them. But if you’re open to coaching, and you’re willing to kind of let somebody really help take the reins with you. It’s amazing the amount of success that you can have.

Kevin Stafford 14:29
Yeah, I’m really glad you acknowledge that too. It’s not always, it’s not always the right time for a coach for you. And you’re not always coachable. And you could do with that what you will but it’s also it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a shot and it’s like I really love how committed pretty much every coach I’ve ever spoken to every good coach I’ve ever spoken to is committed to that fit. This is like you know what, this isn’t quite the right type for whatever reason, there could be a number of reasons but like, you know, this isn’t working. Gonna have to you know, I don’t I don’t think this is the right time for this kind of relationship. But you know, it can either be a A Goodbye and good luck, depending on the person or it could be a, you know, let’s circle back and mean six to 12 months, and let’s see where you’re at then and see where we’re at. However it happens to go. And I love that commitment to fit, I think speaks very well to the integrity of good coaching and why it’s so valuable, because like, I’m not gonna waste your time or mine, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Let’s, let’s, let’s, let’s start on the same page, and then we’ll move forward in the in the story so to speak, you know,

Christine Hoxha 15:25
right? No, exactly, exactly. And, and you do get very emotionally invested in your clients. Succeed, if you’re a good coach, you just want the best right for your team. Because ultimately, that’s your reputation is how well you were able to coach your clients and how successful they were able to be. So of course, when you have to let go of a client, because for whatever reason, it’s not working out, it is hard, it can be a blow, but it is in everyone’s best interest. Because you’re gonna either spin your wheels, you get burned out as a coach continuing to try to work with a client that’s just not going to move the needle, or the client is not going to be happy. And we don’t want that, you know, so it’s important to be able to make that break when when you need to

Kevin Stafford 16:07
know exactly. Now, obviously, we know very much who you coach, but I wanted to give you a few minutes to talk about if you want to get into a little bit how you coach your clients. And that by the how it’s kind of the nuts and bolts like obviously, it’s probably a mix of like one to one work and like Team workshops, obviously, because you’re working with teams and these established or at least early early stage practices. But yeah, how do you coach? How is your coaching approach work? What do you have any like courses that you run people through? Do you have like, you know, maybe not like a book, I’m thinking like a 300 page, like here, read my book on how to launch your practice? Maybe not quite like that. But like, how do you go about moving people through your coaching program?

Christine Hoxha 16:48
Sure. So there’s no canned solution, obviously, in coaching, because every practice is different, and every client is different. It all starts with data gathering. So gather as much information you can about the practice, really kind of dive into the numbers dive into the history of the practice. And then having a long conversation with the doctor about what they think their goals are, and then asking them are they willing to consider other goals, because oftentimes, their beliefs can be limiting. And I know that they could potentially be doing a lot more, but I don’t, I don’t want to scare them off too early. So it’s all about that gathering it first interviewing with a team starting to build the relationships, coaching is all relationships, they have to trust you and, and they have to be able to be willing to listen and take your advice. So building that, you know, first month or so it’s really just doing that data gathering, building relationships connecting. And then there’s an on site. So I go out and visit the practice, I spent a couple of days observing and taking my notes and doing timings and really diving deep into the practice. And then after I’ve done the whole observation, I sit down with the entire team and we take a four hour meeting, we lay out our plan for the year, I follow up that visit with a 35 page report. It goes through everything. So they have their roadmap for the year. And then each month we will meet and I will either have a coaching call with just the doctor or the office manager, marketing coordinator clinical leads depending on what the need is. But once a month, I’m sitting down at least with the doctor, we’re reviewing numbers, reviewing practice performance, and talking about stress points. And so it depends on the practice needs. Sometimes I’m coaching multiple people within the practice, sometimes it’s just the doctor, and then we carry on for the year, oftentimes when doctors become very successful to the point where they need to bring in an associate. So that often brings us on to multiple years of coaching because that’s a whole nother process. And then how do we keep moving? I find a lot of clients who do stop coaching are like great, we got it, we’re doing so good. They always come back in a year or two away, and it’s not that, you know, they need to be handheld. It’s just that having that other set of eyes on the practice, who is giving you a you know, it viewing opportunities that maybe they can’t see because they’re in the trenches in the middle of it. It’s it’s priceless. And so we’re constantly continuing to able to move that needle if they continue coaching. So that’s kind of my coaching program. In a nutshell. I

Kevin Stafford 19:23
love it. It’s very, very, I mean, thorough. and robust. Were two adjectives that popped into my head as you were talking, I was like, Ah, I was almost feeling like I could feel like the weight of any PDF or whatever but I could feel the weight of 35 page report in my hand and I’m like, ah so much lays a golden here for everything that she’s she’s learned and gathered and all the insights he’s teased out. I also I really love the way that you spoke very eloquently and directly to the real heart of the value of coaching because it’s like as you are successful, you will continue to successes like you’re growing, you’re changing, you’re evolving and that is coaching. Obviously you come with you have gathered the data You come to conclusions you build out the framework, the roadmap, you have the system, that’s, it’s, there’s a lot, there’s a lot there to really get your hands on. And there’s also that act of guidance, as you know, you hit bumps in the road, or potholes, or, you know, attain wild success that can be its own kind of obstacle where like, Oh, we’re all of a sudden, like, three, four or five times larger than I expected us to be even, like, you know, succeeded beyond our wildest dreams, here comes a whole different set of problems that I’m not quite sure how to deal with. Enter Christine, or enter your coach. It’s like, that’s exactly why having a coach around is so valuable. And I just love I knew you were gonna say before you said, it’s like the the people who are like, Yay, we did it. And they like, you know, they like thank you for art, thank you for your coaching. And then 612 18 months later, they’re back on the phone, they’re back on the Zoom. Have you been like, Christine? Um, so I was wondering if you could come back in, I guess I’m imagining how that call goes, and how many times you’ve been on the receiving end of those calls.

Christine Hoxha 20:57
And it always happens, and it’s like, and I tell them in, you know, when they when we part ways to it’s a very much, hey, I loved working with you, I am here for you. If you ever need me again, it’s not you know, there’s no hard feelings if you just decide not to continue coaching, I wish them luck. And I wish them well. And you know, when they think about my clients, I think about all my clients that I’ve worked with, and I hope that they are all doing successful and well, and yeah, when they call me back, I’m like, let’s go, you know, I know there’s more to do. And it’s, you know, I’ve got one client who I started with, and he is he’s amazing. He was doing fine. He was doing well started coaching with us. And he attained a level of success that even today, he’s like, I just, I can’t believe it, I cannot believe it. Every time I talk to him, I can’t believe it, because I will coach for the rest of my life and like perfect. But he just sees the value in it. And he really understands that there was no way he could have got to where he was by himself. And, and he’s enjoyed the experience. And his team is happy and everyone is happy. And is that’s just that’s the best feeling in the world when when you know, someone has reached a level of success that they didn’t even think they could. So it’s pretty cool.

Kevin Stafford 22:06
I can’t think of a better a better place to leave it. But I do want to make sure before I let you go and I warned you that I would like get really sucked into like the subject matter. I’m looking at the Zoom clock. I’m like, Alright, time to be a good podcast host, Kevin, Christine, where Ken and this is a little two part question, because sometimes they’re a little bit different of an answer. Where can people find out more about what you do about you about about your your coaching practice, how they didn’t like how they just learn more about everything that we talked about today? And also, if it’s different, where can people best connect with you? How can people best reach out to you to find out more about you to get to know you better and to see if maybe you’re someone they want to bring on as a coach for their for their practice?

Christine Hoxha 22:42
For sure. So if they are an endodontist, and they’re looking for endodontic support, they can find me through endo mastery.com, I work under that umbrella with other great coaches, if they were looking for another specialty, if they’re an ortho, a pedo, Oral Surgeon, Periodontist, they can find me on LinkedIn, that’s probably the best, I’m pretty active on LinkedIn, I try to stay very relevant in the community on LinkedIn. So that’s a great place to find me. as well.

Kevin Stafford 23:09
As the usual one two punch, I find that to be to basically cover all the bases like I got the website with a specific focus. And then you know, if you want to do anything else, let’s talk on LinkedIn. I’m there, you’re there, let’s let’s let’s connect, it’s become much more attached. I feel like I say this every other day. It’s much more of a relationship building platform than I ever expected it to become, I’m actually able to like, really, like, Come professionally and get real work done with people and make real connections but also like have it be relatively meaningful and personal. I mean, we’re doing the things we’re doing because we care about the people that we’re trying to work with. And so it’s it’s refreshing, I have to say, to be able to interact, have those kinds of interactions on LinkedIn. All right, well, I should get you out of here. Thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for sharing a bit about your about your approach and about your journey to discovering that approach. And I’m just I’m at say I’m just like I had, I think the word that’s coming in my head and I don’t want to blow smoke up your butt. But I’m gonna go ahead and do it anyway. I’m just impressed. You’re we have a very impressive approach. It’s very, it’s very thorough. I love how your confidence comes very clearly from your experience. And you know, your stuff, you know, well, and I just love your commitment to two serving in the way that you know that you can serve best. I just love to see them. I’m incredibly impressed and delighted. I’m glad to I’m glad to get to know you a little bit.

Christine Hoxha 24:20
Thank you. Thank you for having me on your podcast. I really appreciate it. Yeah, it was

Kevin Stafford 24:23
my pleasure. And hopefully it was the audience’s pleasure well as well. Obviously, it’s a very specific kind of coaching practice. But if you or anybody that you know has anything like this, like you’ll you’ll you’ll know as you’re listening to this you’ll someone will pop into your head, someone you know someone you’ve been do. Whatever happens to be either yourself or whoever that is, send them Christine’s way. I’ll have links to where to find her basically her LinkedIn profile and her website down in the show notes and, hey, we’ll get a chance to talk to you again here real soon.