Anne: Hey everybody. It's Anne Duffy and welcome to the Just DeW It podcast. I'm so happy you're with us today. And I've got a new do, a new friend with me today. And let me tell you a little bit about her before we get started. Christy Hulin.
Has over 30 years of experience in the dental and healthcare sectors, specializing in operational leadership with a diverse educational background. She provides valuable guidance as a fractional COO and C R H O helping clients succeed in a competitive marketplace. Some random fun facts. I love home.
She says she's an avid animal lover and rescuer. And was on the water ski team in college. Oh my gosh. That is super cool. Hello, Christy. Welcome.
Christy: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
Anne: Yeah, that's pretty cool. first of all, the water ski team, where did you grow up
Christy: in Texas? Yeah. My parents had me on the lake when I was probably five, I was on two skis.
And then by the time I was, I think seven, I was on a slalom ski. So yeah, I grew up skiing. So random. People are like, you skied in college. I'm like, I know. Right. not your typical sport. But yes.
Anne: But it's cool. It's very cool. And you must have strongest abs ever because I've been on skis like maybe once on water skis.
I got up, but that was about it. You got to have such a core to do that. Where'd you go to college?
Christy: It was in San Marcos Well, Back then it was Southwest Texas State and now it's Texas State.
Anne: Oh my gosh, that is so cool. It's amazing what you can do in college as you know, you've always had a couple of side gigs.
That's why you're a fractional COO and and a fractional CHRO. Tell us what those
Christy: COO is Chief Operating Officer and CHRO is Chief Human Resource Officer. I have a background, mainly in, operations. I'd also had gotten my master's in healthcare human resources while I was doing operations.
And so I can, you know, Kind of venture into each area they very well, interlink, but have knowledge of both areas.
Anne: It's wonderful to be able to bring both of those areas and then your expertise to any company because, as we know, I think in dentistry today it's, It's so relevant because people need HR because they can't keep employees happy, right?
And you can't have operations if you don't have good employees. So could see how that would intertwine. and so did you work full time before? Tell us a little bit about it because all the gals that are listening to this podcast usually are, working a couple of different areas.
They have a couple side gigs and some of those side gigs turn into be something big like this fractional CEO in your own business.
Christy: Yeah. So grew up doing dentistry to get through college and school and went and managed nursing homes, assisted livings and Alzheimer's units. And so kind of fell back into dentistry after that.
And with all my operations experience and the management side of running nursing home, I took that knowledge and married it with what I knew in dentistry, ended up doing some group practice management. was a COO of practices. And we ended up growing and creating our own DSO.
Grew that to a point where we were attractive to a private equity group and we sold out. So then. It sort of just organically happened that I started to do a fractional work because right when we were finished when sold in 2019, I was like, what am I going to do now? Because they brought their own people in and we knew that I was transitioning out.
And so I their new people in and transitioned out. And so I was like, what am I going to do now? And. people, come and like, hey, are you interested in a job? And at the time I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. So I was like well, no, but I'll help you until I figure it out kind of thing.
And so it just happened where, you know, I'll help you with this project, or I'll help you for a little bit, And so there was the fractional COO that was born and so was the HR piece of it too that I, do for some practices as well.
Anne: Well, You studied it as well. So, I mean, it's, cool to be able to bring that knowledge and your experience, in the nursing home, that's great experience to bring into the dental arena because you understand all sorts of different people. And different ways of, operating,
that's a wealth of information. do you work with single practices or is it, you're mostly, I believe in the DSO arena, is that right?
Christy: Smaller DSOs and I've worked with a couple of larger ones just on an as needed or project basis, but usually it's mid to small size DSOs or single practices or individuals that will seek out.
My systems and, whatever they're looking for, we'll do anything from, projects to sometimes, co-working with their management or COO on, something in particular that, they meet you maybe a second set of eyes or, someone in to try to help with certain pieces of, issues or problems that they just kind of need extra set of hands.
Anne: And somebody from the outside, right? Because sometimes when you're working in it every day, you kind of need somebody to come in and view the whole outside without any preconditioned ideas or perspective. I could see that would be really helpful as even a consultant to come in for like maybe six months and help their team, pivot just a bit.
Cause I think sometimes it feels like, and I don't know, Maybe you could weigh in on this. It's not like they have to change everything. They just need like a one degree shift that they just can't see. It's literally right in front of them, but they don't see it. Do you see that happen often when you get into office?
Christy: Yeah, for sure. It's better people when I do start to work with them, if it's more of Hey, we just want a second set of hands for like a health check or, what you're saying, like a fresh set of eyes, a new perspective, and kind of navigate any kind of blind spots that they didn't see.
So that's helpful, but a lot of the times what I get is that, you know, it's like going to the doctor right, for your checkups you're ahead of the game versus, oh, I have this pain, now I have to go to the doctor, what's kind of the same thing I get on when they have the pain versus, Hey, we just need the checkup.
So sometimes. If I can get in there soon enough, I can head things off or see things that maybe they hadn't seen yet before it becomes an ouch.
Anne: Yeah. if somebody is sensing it and you know, I think women especially are listening to this, we have that intuitive nature.
It's just, natural. And so we can tell things aren't going great and maybe I need a checkup or maybe I need a second set of eyes to your point instead of getting into the, muck of it where people can't change. think It's such a good idea to be able to have somebody that could actually dip in and not necessarily stay forever because that's not what they need at the time.
they're looking for something, but how great to be dental oriented know exactly how a dental office works. Have you seen your operational perspective change over the years? In your career?
Christy: Yes. And, you probably will appreciate this. For a long time ago when I started in dentistry, it was very much patient focused and it was the patient is always right.
And everything was patient. And I'm not saying that I'm not patient focused, but my perspective, especially after going back for, my master's in human resources is that. It became employee centric. And so my shift in, not just if I'm doing HR, obviously I'm all about the employees, right. but when I'm doing operations where it used to be so focused on the patient, I'm now in my decisions, very focused on the employees and everything, the decisions and systems, everything that we do it's around the employee, what's the wellbeing, what is, their experience.
Um, And, we meet the needs of the employees and they're happy, then the patient focus just happens. And you feel it when you go into places, you can tell somebody likes their job, wants to be there. They're happy. they give you good customer service. And it is patient focused. If you take care of the employees, you're usually going to take care of the patients.
Just by safe in nature, you know, in healthcare and dental industry, there's I've noticed that naturally everyone's very nurturing. or they wouldn't be in the industry if they're really there and they're there for the right reasons they're nurturing and they have a sense about them.
So if you take care of them, they're going to carry that over to your patients. And it's going to be completely full circle. you know, When people are like, Oh, we're about the patients. Yes we are. Bye. Let's take care of our employees who will then take care of the patients.
Anne: Yeah. So what comes first, the chicken or the egg?
And you know, it's so funny, Christy, because I retired after 46 years, but I don't think I ever really worked in an atmosphere where the patients weren't always first of mind. I love this Reversal here because you're right if you have a good team and I say this about women in dentistry, they're caring they love beauty to your point they wouldn't be here and it makes so much sense, not just because we're losing people they're leaving in droves, but because it the right thing to do.
And, doctors need to treat their employees, not necessarily, I don't think that'd be their family, but in a way, yes, you gotta treat people with respect and with friendship and all those things that, you know. Are new. That's new age. I think I mean in the past, unless you had that naturally in your practice, it is something that can be learned.
Do you agree with that?
Christy: Yeah, for sure. I tell a lot of people, especially in a lot of the larger organization, not so much small because they don't necessarily have somebody who is overseeing HR functions, but in some of the larger ones are, midsize ones when I've been in there and, you go into a. you know, An executive meeting and you sit in there and you're like, where's the person who is responsible for the human resource piece. And they're like yeah, she's not here. I'm like, okay, well, that's a problem. that person needs to be invited to the, executive table.
They need to be in here. They need to be part of all of your decisions, because they're going to be the advocate. Even if you get off track, cause it's very easy to think about, you get in a silo of fixing a problem and your focus hasn't been the employees.
You have that HR person there who hopefully is strategic and, you've hired them to be strategic, not just, you know, do the administrative tasks. Of hr, you want them there to, in insert themselves when they're like, Hey guys, you know, have you thought about that may not be the best, result with the employees if we roll that out that way.
it starts to have everybody getting on board to start thinking in that direction. Historically, a lot of the people in HR have been more administrative and have not been a part of the strategic planning.
Anne: Yeah, I think billions changed our mind, right?
When they got Wendy in there. Have you ever seen the uh, I think it's Netflix or Amazon and Billions, and they brought in Wendy, who is the C H R O, and she takes care of everybody. But again, It's great for the owner to be able to step back and not have to do that and have the right words, not have to have those courageous conversations.
He could just, or she can just go and do the work and know that the team is going to run smoothly because everybody's in a pretty good mental state, that's what makes a happy team if everybody's in a pretty good mental state and taking care of mentally and physically.
but I think even you could help us with some of us have our own businesses and, it's not just a dental practice. Honestly, Christy, you could think about, like I have eight people that work for me and I know that we were on a call this morning and Laura Colatz was talking about how She went to dental school after I think 13 years of hygiene. Now she's a doctor owner. So that's a whole other aspect of her work and what she has to deal with. She's not trained for that. And so she could, see her eyes light up when you were talking this morning.
I think that's beautiful. And just to be able to pop in, What's the smallest amount of time you would go in, when you say fractional, is that like you sign a contract for like a year or can you do something for like three months? Or is it just depending on the client?
Christy: Depends on the client. And I usually just try to adapt to what their needs are and what they're trying to achieve. It could be project based. It could be like, so many hours a week. It's. It could be like a temporary like, Hey, let's come in for a certain amount of time. So it really, depends on what they need, which is more cost effective for people, especially if it's a smaller organization or a startup or somebody who wants that expertise, but doesn't want to pay for that full time person.
It makes sense to go. Okay, well. hey, I just need help with this. What would that look like? is that just maybe a couple hours a week, it could be that or, hey, we want you to come on, put this all in place. And then, back off.
had a whole range from, come on for a short amount of time to just a project.
Anne: Or please don't leave us. Please don't leave us. Right. got to spread yourself around. You know, What's so cool about that? And I think a lot of the young doctors out there both men and women are looking to maybe have, two or three practices and, They don't know where to start and again just so makes sense to start with someone like you as you start to build that and get bigger and bigger that you have the culture and that they can say okay we'll something might come up in the office and I can see them saying okay let's wait till Christy comes in and then we'll all discuss it and then everybody's can take a deep breath get back to work and know that you're going to come in and manage those conversations which is just huge for the team because it shows that the docs care about them.
The president or the leader or the CEOs of the smaller companies care about them. and they want what's best for not just the overall growth of the practice, but the growth of the people that are in it. And, That's, Super cool. And you, you kinda light up when you talk about that.
I love it. you also leverage data and so data and analytics, I don't like data and analytics.
I just don't care that much about data and analytics. But you use that and, you know the people that you're working for. They want to hear the analytics and they want to know, what they are to help them make good decisions. What do you see there?
Christy: I have clients, majority, some of the smaller ones. you know, A lot of people don't like it. And I find in dentistry, they're like, how does it feel? Right. When I go into an office or somewhere, they're like we feel like You know, We have some more no shows or, it seems like hear, you know, think feel seems and I'm like that's all great.
But do we have actual statistics? Like, how many people have canceled this week if I can't. Measure it. I can't manage it. So it's hard for, your executives to know like, we put something in place, what was the outcome of it? Can we measure the before and the after knowing their objectives and then measuring it to make sure is what we put in place working what system needs help.
I always tell everybody it's like your dashboard on your car. You know, When you're driving down and you see your gas gauge go into the red, oh, I got to stop and get gas. If I know one of my, KPIs, your key performance indicators, or some of your metrics, if they're trending into the red, you know, oh I need to do this to fix that.
Some people don't know they get all their statistics and they're like, I don't know what to do with this here. So that's another thing that I can help with. And it's okay, if this goes in the red, this is what we do. And if this goes in the red, we go in this direction. being able to tell your dashboard of, what are my systems that are working and which ones are not so that you can drive your car and it still functions.
And we're not, Oh, my gosh, what happened? My car is broken down. Oh you didn't change the oil. You didn't put gas in it. It's the same kind of thing. So it's getting that data and, analyzing it. A lot of our, software systems and there's so many tools out there now that can get the data.
It's just knowing what to do with it. So if you can, get the past data, it's important because it tells you, what's happened. To help predict the future, but I have a lot of people who are like I can't get the past and that's fine We just start from like, okay. Here's day one Let's see where you're at.
Let's see where you sit, especially with things like, you know You're counter receivable and your insurance aging and i'm looking where are you? Where should you be from industry standards? These are the areas those are usually Point me into knowing which systems need to be looked at.
It's how I can tell what's working and not working in an office. I can sit and watch and observe and get a good idea. But I can look at statistics and usually have even a better idea.
Anne: Yeah, that just strikes me. So that's your COO hat, right? That's the operations. And the funny thing about it.
not only do you learn what's not working, but I mean my team will share statistics and data with me and I'm like, oh my God, we're doing really well and I thought we weren't doing so well in certain areas. You know what I mean? Something, a lot of times I'm surprised on the, the data doesn't sound as good as I want it to be.
Like, we're not up a hundred percent a thousand percent this month, but actually it's really good and I need somebody that knows how to read it. To tell me that to give me the confidence. Okay, calm down. And it's going great. And just keep doing what you're doing. Or you might need to shift a little bit here or there.
But again, reading the data to me, I would need an expert to do that. And so that's where you could come in and give them, peace of mind, know they're on the right track or that there's a solution to fixing it just a bit to make those numbers, go the way you want them to go for success.
Christy: Correct. Yes, for sure. it's so helpful to have it, but I do find a lot of people, it's not fun for them. A lot of dentists, they don't like it. that you know, they're looking at their bank accounts and saying well, it's a good month or it's, bad month. And it's like, we need more than that.
Anne: Yeah. Yeah.
Christy: Also, I mean, that, yes, that is mostly what I just talked about was A lot of operational side of, but it, goes the same for the human resource side of it, that there's a lot of metrics on that side too, that, we monitor just to, see how things are going. So, there are some additional, metrics and almost anywhere in any part of the organization, there's, things that you can measure.
Anne: Before we leave, tell me a few things that you can measure with HR, like what kind of data do you look
Christy: for on that? I like to see depending on the organization, you know, what's their turnover rate, because that's going to tell me, what's going on sometimes with their culture.
And then there's a lot of statistics around how long is it taking us to hire people and what are our avenues that we're using, what's working, what's not working when we're putting out there for positions And I don't like it to take a long time. If we're trying to hire somebody everybody's been through those processes of, at least most of really, it took like six weeks for you to hire somebody, they're going to find another job.
You have to have your systems down to know like, okay, we're doing our interview. Let's get them in. Is it going to work? How long was it from the time that, we were able to recruit them until we were able to bring them on. And so that onboarding piece needs to be tracked.
Anne: Yeah, and then someone that knows the culture and the personalities in the office, again, looking from the outside in as a fractional C H R O, it would be very helpful to see what piece is missing because you don't want everybody to have the same strengths, if you will, and it's great to mix it up a little bit and make sure that that whole piece sandbox really plays well together, right?
you've given me a lot to think about today. I can see that you're so valuable in what you do. And I know that a lot of people that are listening would feel the same way. How do they get in touch with you, Christy? Can you tell us? And we'll put it in the show notes as well.
Christy: Mostly it's my email address, which was Christy C H R I S T Y H. At hulinco. com or you can find me on LinkedIn at Christy Hulin. So it gives a little bit about my background and can always private message me there too.
Anne: That's wonderful. I think that's how we found each other. I got a feeling that we reached out to each other LinkedIn, which was wonderful. Of course you're on LinkedIn and I just loved seeing you. at our do connects. It's on Wednesday mornings and sometimes on Tuesday afternoons.
It's always great when you hop in and your two cents. It's well received and well needed. So you take care. Good to see you. I want to do another podcast with you on dental entrepreneur, the future of dentistry, because I think a lot of what you had to say today would transfer over to that publication and audience as well.
So Thank you for being here today and I will see you at the retreat in November. if you're listening to this and you want to meet an amazing group of women that will help you grow yourself and your career and have a fulfilling and successful.
Life all the way around. So most importantly, if you're listening, don't forget to keep doing you. Thanks everybody. And thanks, Christy. Thank you.
