james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

Finding Flow in Dentistry: Procedures You Love

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

What is flow and how do I find it in my dental practice? Flow is that state where you are so focused on what you are doing that time just melts away, and at the end you are tired but deeply satisfied. You have already felt it. Think of the procedures in your practice where the hours vanished and you walked out thinking it was a great day. Those are your flow procedures. My advice is blunt: find them and multiply them. Build your schedule and your case mix around the work that puts you in that state, not the work [...]

Finding Flow in Dentistry: Procedures You Lovejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Money and Happiness: The Truth for Dentists

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Does making more money actually make a dentist happier? Not the way most people assume. Everyone believes that more stuff equals more happiness, but the science does not back that up. We are each born with a happiness set point, and a landmark study showed that no matter what good or bad circumstances hit us, we tend to drift back toward that set point over time. Some people are born high on the scale, some average, some low. So the dentist who thinks the next jump in income will finally make him content is usually disappointed, because he migrates right back [...]

Money and Happiness: The Truth for Dentistsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

The Happiness Formula Every Dentist Should Know

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Is there a formula for happiness a dentist can actually use? There is, and I find it genuinely useful. Peer reviewed research landed on this: happiness equals your set point, plus your conditions, plus your voluntary activities. The set point you are born with and cannot move. Conditions are partly fixed, things like circumstances you were born into, and partly changeable, like where you live or your relationships. The third term is the one that should grab your attention. Voluntary activities are everything you choose to do or not do, and they are where you hold the most power. So if [...]

The Happiness Formula Every Dentist Should Knowjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Voluntary Activities: A Dentist’s Path to Happiness

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why do voluntary activities matter most for a dentist's happiness? Because they are the part of happiness you have the most control over. Your set point is fixed and many of your conditions are stuck, but voluntary activities are wide open. The research is clear that these move the needle: physical exercise, anything from a walk around the block to an Ironman, learning new skill sets, picking up a procedure or rebuilding a car or learning an instrument, meditation, volunteering, and real face-to-face social time. Even vacations count, though the surprise is that planning and anticipating a trip can deliver as [...]

Voluntary Activities: A Dentist’s Path to Happinessjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Adjust Fees for Financing So You Keep Your Margin

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How do I adjust fees when a patient will likely use financing? Build it in ahead of time. Third party financing isn't free to you. The lender takes a cut, and if you ignore that, the discount you're effectively giving comes straight out of your margin. So if the credit report is strong and you have good reason to think this patient finances the case, set the fee to account for it before you ever present. Same logic applies to the patient who is unusually difficult, chronically late, or eats extra chair time. Those are real costs. Build for them while [...]

Adjust Fees for Financing So You Keep Your Marginjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Patient Compliance: Why Reasons Get You a Yes

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why does giving patients a reason make them more likely to say yes? Give a patient a reason and your odds of a yes jump, even when the reason is thin. There is a famous copy machine study where people let a stranger cut the line far more often once the stranger added the word because, regardless of how weak the actual reason was. The word itself carries weight. I am not telling you to manufacture nonsense. I am telling you that humans are wired to comply when a request comes attached to a justification. So in every step where you [...]

Patient Compliance: Why Reasons Get You a Yesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Selling Skills and Happiness for Dentists

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Can selling and marketing skills make a dentist happier, not just richer? They can, and this surprises a lot of doctors. You run a professional services business, and the way you sell and market is how you adapt as the profession shifts under you. Patients' wants and needs change, technology changes, the market changes, and the practice that adapts successfully is the one that keeps finding fresh ground. That ongoing adaptation is exactly where the science says happiness lives, in the change itself, not in some fixed destination. So when you sharpen how you present cases and attract patients, you are [...]

Selling Skills and Happiness for Dentistsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Operational Traits: Build Your Practice on Reality

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Do operational traits change between work and home for a dentist? No, and that is what makes them so useful to plan around. Operational traits are not personality and not intelligence. They are how you instinctively approach doing things, and they hold steady whether you are in the operatory or in your kitchen. Personality can shift with coaching, environment, and the people around you. These deeper traits do not. You can override them under extreme duress, sure, you can force yourself to work against your nature when the pressure is on, but the moment the pressure lifts, you snap right back [...]

Operational Traits: Build Your Practice on Realityjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Is Dentistry a Healthy Dental Field to Work In?

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Does dentistry count as a healthy field to work in? Parts of it are, and parts of it are not, and you get to choose which side you stand on. A field is healthy when you provide something people genuinely want and need, you do it at a high level, and that good work also rewards you with career advancement and real economic security. When those two things line up, you are in a healthy field. Plenty of professions let you make an enormous amount of money while you struggle to find anything good in what you actually do. That is [...]

Is Dentistry a Healthy Dental Field to Work In?james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Anticipation Brings More Happiness Than the Event

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why do I feel happier planning a vacation than actually taking one? Because anticipation is its own reward, and the science backs you up. People often pull as much happiness out of planning and looking forward to a trip as they do from the short window they spend on it. That is not a flaw, it is something to use on purpose. So stop treating the planning as a chore to rush through. Stretch it out, savor it, talk about it. The same idea carries into your practice and your life. Build things you get to look forward to, not just [...]

Why Anticipation Brings More Happiness Than the Eventjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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