About Our Company
“MILESTONES” by Linda Miles
Rarely as a child has a professional speaker aspired to choose speaking and consulting, as a lifelong profession. As with my career, it just evolved over time. Having started my career at age 17 as a dental receptionist and assistant in my hometown in 1961, I then looked at dentistry as an interim job until I found a better one. Going to college seemed out of the question in a small town in S. West Virginia. Seeing my parents struggle to make ends meet gave me the strong work ethics that have served me well in my career. As we all know, this is not a 9-to-5 job!
Traveling for 21 years with my Air Force career husband allowed me to transfer my career in dentistry along with our many moves. In 1976, I was lucky to start a practice from ground zero with a very smart dentist who is responsible for my past three decades as a speaker and consultant. Moving from the clinical assisting position to the practice administrator role called for skills I didn't possess. My doctor and I both knew one of us needed continuing education on how to manage his practice.
In the late '70's there were very few systems of scheduling, collections, insurance management, or team development. I began to create these systems, which later led to several of his colleagues asking me to come into their practices to teach their staff these concepts of practice management. One of those dentists said, "You have many great ideas, and they work! Why don't you hold a seminar and invite lots of people?" My response was, "Do you really think I can talk ALL DAY?"
I borrowed $500 from the bank to make a first brochure, sent it out, and forty-six dentists and team members attended the seminar. That was in 1978. In 1980, I started speaking and consulting on a full-time basis when my husband's last assignment with the Air Force took us to Virginia Beach, VA, where we still reside.
THE INFANCY STAGE
Working from one bedroom of my home with a 10-hours-per-week marketing person, I did public seminars only until 1982. Being invited to speak at the largest dental meeting in the SE (the Hinman) allowed me to switch from personally sponsored seminars to association or dental meeting sponsored seminars, as the scouts from the other major meetings were at the Hinman.
The hours involved in mail-outs for public seminars were tremendous. Back then, we didn't know about made-to-order labels and mailing services. We typed each label ourselves! That same year, I joined NSA. and the rest is history.
I moved into a real office when my high-school son felt he could no longer bring his friends home due to my running a business from not one, but several rooms by 1983. My daughter was in dental hygiene school at the time.
During the first years at NSA, I learned to hone my skills as a speaker. Timing was and continues to be my biggest challenge. The creative side is easy for me. I can whip out a title, topics and synopsis in two hours, an article in three hours and a book in five months, all the while running a successful consulting business and maintaining a close-knit family of four generations. NSA was the single best thing I've ever done in my business over the 30 years. There I met and have continued to network with some of the finest speakers in the world. Professionalism, writing, marketing, product development, speaking skills and stage presence are a few of the shared competencies I've learned from my fellow speakers.
THE GO-GO (GROWTH) YEARS
Looking back to the second seven years of my career, I realize the infancy lasts about seven years, the
growth years about seven and the plateau about seven, then the sale, decline, or future growth. The Go-Go
Years were definitely the most hectic and the most productive - but not necessarily the most profitable.
Moving from a home office to a small office of 675 square feet and rent of $700 per month in late 1983, was
a good move. In 1988, our tenth year, we moved into a 3500 square foot office with a $4800 per month rent with ten corporate staff and a fabulous feeling of success. What were some of the factors for this phenomenal growth? A toll-free number in the mid 80's, a monthly column in one of the leading dental journals for years, a supportive family, dedicated hard-working staff, loyal clients who referred me to other clients and meeting planners, six consultants, and twelve years of non-stop travel. You must love the travel! I was lucky as my husband traveled with me about a third of the time.
In my 20th year, at age 55, with another good ten to fifteen years to go, out of a clear blue sky, I ruptured the L5/S1 disc in my lower back. After consulting with three neurosurgeons, I soon realized that my career must change dramatically or I would be back in the hospital for the other degenerative discs in my lower back, which had also deteriorated over the years. I restructured my business and my life. Right in the middle of my Plateau years, I was faced with selling my business, which I seriously considered doing, not knowing how I would function after the surgery.
Eleven months after the ruptured disc, after having tried the conservative route of physical therapy while maintaining 80% of my schedule, I had no choice except to cut back and give six of my loyal staff a six months' notice that they would need to find another job by October 31, 1999. I was advised to medically retire, as I had a good disability plan that covered me until age 65. I opted instead for part-time speaking (30 lectures per year and working with only 10 clients).
PLATEAU STAGE
The Plateau stage started early at the 10-year mark for me, (1988), not the typical 14-15 year level (the highest volume attained and sustained). This lasted 12 years, not the normal 7 years, as in most businesses.
There were just not any more days in the month to add, or hours in the day. Being the workaholic who never gets sleepy, I can work hard for 18 hours each day to enjoy a week off with family and friends. With a sustained production of well over seven figures during this time, I felt I was the luckiest speaker, consultant, and writer on earth. Why then should I have this debilitating back problem in the prime of my life? Looking back over the past ten years, it was a true blessing in disguise. In fact, I know the ruptured disc saved my life! There was no way I could have continued the 300,000-miles-per-year, 12-hours-per-day speaking and consulting assignments and preserved my health the way I was working. It was about this time I decided the "tail was wagging the dog!" My first thought was, I must get off the roller coaster and back on a productive Ferris wheel.
DECLINE, NEW GROWTH EXPANSION, OR SELL
At the end of June, 2001, my husband and I built our dream retirement home on the third fairway of an Arnold Palmer golf course in one of one of the most beautifully planned communities in the southeast. We closed our large corporate office and opened a small office for storage and shipping of products. Don spent mornings in his office and played golf many afternoons. I worked in our home office while we outsourced the new projects to our loyal SMALL staff who are more like family. Lee Tarvin, Executive Coordinator, who has been with me since 1984, handles the accounting and my travel. She also works with meeting planners to stay on target with the needed seminar materials. I'm only traveling about 60 to 70 days per year. I use slower months in the summer to do my creative work. In 2005, I finished writing my third book, created four new seminars, updated my website and edited two new audio CD tape series.
My Annual Speaking/Consulting Network was founded in 1997 to satisfy the request to mentor new consultants, speakers and writers in dentistry. We started with 15 charter members and have had over 300 "Net-workers" over the past twelve years. Some have attended once or twice, but others come annually to "drink from the well" as well as to give back. Cloning myself in my own business has been a mixed blessing. Many speakers feel it is impossible. Over the years, I have trained a minimum of 15 consultants or LLM&A Speakers with good and not so favorable results. Many people think our business is glamorous and they come in for the wrong reasons. Others, over the years, came, learned and started their own businesses. This is a natural "happening" and I've always wished them well because I knew they were smart and would eventually want to do their own thing.
Actually, our business never missed a beat, no matter who came or went or how the business was restructured. When one door closed, two more opened. Having a strong foundation of management was a key factor. Some of these keys include: Earmark the budget to prepare for the slower times. Spend and save a third (your salary/retirement), save a second third for a rainy day (all speakers and consultants have them) and taxes. Use a third for operating costs. Don't be afraid to spend money to make money, but spend it wisely where you get the highest return on investment. Have a generous and abundant spirit; it does come back ten fold. Hire good people with skills that compliment your own. Hire, train, trust and praise your staff, as they are your greatest investments. In spite of the ups and downs, I can honestly say the ups far outweighed the downs. Every day is a learning experience, and each lifecycle is a stepping-stone to something better.
THE SALE
In April of 2007, after having given up on selling my business, I had the best call of my career. I had spoken to several competitors about blending my company with their own, and I met with some very fine folks in the process, people I admire and respect. For some reason, however, it was not a fit. Most wanted me to abandon my model of consulting and adopt theirs. One of my main reasons for wishing to sell was so my model could live on decades after I retired. I resigned myself that when I fully retired within a few years, my business would retire me with me.
Then the call of a lifetime from Rhonda Savage, DDS in WA, one of our most successful consulting clients. She had rotator cuff shoulder surgery three times on her right shoulder and was forced, at age 48, to retire from that which she was most passionate (clinical dentistry). After selling her second successful practice, she had two options….go to law school or buy LLM&A. The timing was good for both of us, and in a million years, I could never have hand-carved a better successor than Rhonda Savage. She is very creative, professional, a wonderful speaker, and works harder than I do. As for her consulting skills, she adds a totally different value to the in-office work. Besides teaching the systems of management, overhead control, leadership, communication, empowerment, and all other aspects of practice management consulting, her clinical expertise and case presentation skills are beyond excellent. It is amazing how our newest clients as well as many long-term clients have accepted her as their coach within months of her ownership.
Everyone who sells his or her business after thirty years hopes for a good match. Very few of us are lucky to have a perfect match. My new goal for the next few years is to assist Rhonda, our team of consultants and corporate support team in taking LLM&A to a whole new level both nationally and internationally. The journey continues….and what fun with Rhonda as the CEO/Owner and me as the Founder/Ambassador!