Podcasts about dso

Four dentists building a national DSO, unfiltered. Matt Ford, Matt Guarino, Alex Sharp, and Austin Davis on the real business of Shared Practices Group — deals, dental news, markets, and everything from parenting to politics. Business and banter, weekly. Questions? bdppod.com.

In this solo episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Dr. Andrew Clingan tackles one of the most insidious threats to sustainable dental practice growth: a lack of clear vision. Using a real-world example of a highly successful but directionless young practice owner, Andrew explains how relying purely on talent and willpower eventually leads to spinning in circles. When you lack clarity, it becomes impossible to make sound decisions about marketing, PPOs, or multi-practice expansion, ultimately stunting your long-term success.To excel as a dentist today, you must understand that the "floor" has risen; succeeding requires more intentional business strategies than it did a decade ago. Andrew emphasizes that you cannot simultaneously optimize for elite clinical mastery, aggressive scaling, and perfect work-life balance. Achieving sustainable dental practice growth requires picking a path and maintaining a disciplined clarity of vision.Here is your guide to finding focus for your practice:Ignore the Extremes: Do not let social media highlight reels push you into building a 30-practice DSO or becoming an elite cosmetic dentist if those paths do not align with your true desires. The "middle of the road"—such as a profitable group model with two doctors and four hygienists—is often the sweet spot for sustainable dental practice growth.Audit Your Time: Regularly sit down and write out everything you do throughout the week. Identify the tasks you hate (like managing staff drama) and delegate them to leadership, while doubling down on the things that actually fire you up.Build Optionality Early: Be highly conservative with your personal finances early in your career. Living below your means and aggressively investing in your clinical and business skills provides you with the freedom to pivot your career path in your 40s or 50s.Read "Traction": Implement the principles from Gino Wickman's EOS framework to align your team and ensure everyone in the practice is rowing in the exact same direction.Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

Join dental entrepreneurs George Hariri, Matt Guarino, and Matt Ford as they break down the realities of running their national DSO, Shared Practices Group. They tackle the triumphs and tribulations of scaling a business, answer your burning questions (submit yours at bdppod.com), and delve into life's other adventures - from health and parenting to sports and politics. It's business, banter, and everything in between. Tune in and join the BDP community today!

In this throwback episode of the Group Function Podcast, Alan Mead sits down with two titans of dental podcasting: Dr. Mark Costes and Dr. Paul Etchison!  Together they decode the rapidly evolving world of Dental Service Organizations (DSOs). They break down complex industry jargon like EBITDA, recapitalization, and same-store growth, making it easily digestible for independent practice owners. The trio explores the transition from the initial wave of practice consolidation to the modern, highly discerning private equity landscape. Between dropping heavy business knowledge, they also take a nostalgic detour to reminisce about feral 1970s and 80s childhoods, riding bikes until sundown, and the ultimate debate: Star Wars versus He-Man. Mark and Paul use quite a few terms that you might not be 100% familiar with. I had heard them kicked around, but before the conversation starts, I list a couple definitions that you might find helpful: DSO: Simply put, DSO stands for Dental Service Organization. A DSO is a company that helps administer the business aspects (management, marketing and business administration) of the dental practice. EBITA: EBITA stands for "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes and Amoritization." It is a measure of profitability that a potential investor can use to evaluate a potential company or practice. It's used help make "apples to apples" comparisons between potential investments. EBITA is calculated from financial data reported by a company. Many DSOs valuate dental practices as a multiple of their EBITA. same store growth (or same store sales): a measure of growth used by a DSO to know how well an individual practice within the DSO is doing. A DSO will want to know how well the individual practice is doing vs. the entire DSOs growth. The idea is to invest in a practice that has potential to grow in it's own location separate from its relationship to the whole DSO. Private equity (or PE): a type of investment where investors buy shares of privately-held businesses. Private equity is the money supply that has driven the DSO revolution in dentistry (and many other industries). Private equity money expects a return on their investment much like any investor would.  Recapitalization (aka: recapitalization event): "the second bite at the apple" according to Mark and Paul. Recapitalization is the restructuring of a company's debt and equity mixture, and/or financing. This is usually done to stabilize a company's capital structure. In the context of a DSO, recapitalization might be the sale of a smaller DSO/group to a larger one and/or the buying out of dental owners. Some links from the show: Dental Success Network (Mark's stuff) Dental Practice Heroes (Paul's stuff) Join the Very Dental Facebook Group using one of these passwords: Timmerman, Paul, Bioclear, Hornbrook, Gary, McWethy, Papa Randy, Frank or Lipscomb!  The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you'd like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us! We're proud to be supported by the folks at Net32! I'm a big fan of the Bioclear Method! I think you should give it a try and I've got a great offer to help you get on board! Use the exclusive Very Dental Podcast code VERYDENTAL8TON for 15% OFF your total Bioclear purchase, including Core Anterior and Posterior Four day courses, Black Triangle Certification, and all Bioclear products. Crazy Dental has everything you need from cotton rolls to equipment and everything in between and the best prices you'll find anywhere! If you head over to verydentalpodcast.com/crazy and use coupon code "VERYSHIP" you'll get free shipping on your order! Go save yourself some money and support the show all at the same time! The Wonderist Agency is basically a one stop shop for marketing your practice and your brand. From logo redesign to a full service marketing plan, the folks at Wonderist have you covered! Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/wonderist! Enova Illumination makes the very best in loupes and headlights, including their new ergonomic angled prism loupes! They also distribute loupe mounted cameras and even the amazing line of Zumax microscopes! If you want to help out the podcast while upping your magnification and headlight game, you need to head over to verydentalpodcast.com/enova to see their whole line of products! CAD-Ray offers the best service on a wide variety of digital scanners, printers, mills and even  their very own browser based design software, Clinux! CAD-Ray has been a huge supporter of the Very Dental Podcast Network and I can tell you that you'll get no better service on everything digital dentistry than the folks from CAD-Ray. Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/CADRay!

"I'd only sell for a stupid multiple. Thirteen, fifteen X." A five-practice owner from Dallas calls the hotline with the question every group owner is quietly asking: when do I sell, and what's the highest multiple anyone has actually gotten? What follows is one of the most candid breakdowns of the DSO economy you'll hear anywhere. Zombie DSOs, zero interest rate policy, bridge loans at 18 percent, dilution that sellers never see coming, and why a headline multiple is not the same as a check. Peter and Craig make the case for a different scoreboard entirely: do the honest math, optimize for cash flow, and build a life you don't want to sell. Dr. Cary Brown returns with an update on his My Story journey from February: Google reviews doubled, revenue consistently up, and a self-graded report card that Peter and Craig immediately push back on. The real lesson isn't the tactics. It's the psychology of giving yourself credit and the power of consistency over intensity. Plus, a milestone to open the show: the Bulletproof Summit 2026 is officially sold out, and Craig records his final podcast from his current office before breaking ground on a 3,000 square foot expansion that takes his practice to 26 operatories. At 55, he's stepping on the gas again. Got a story or a question for the guys? Call 561-933-5575. www.bulletproofmastermind.com www.bulletproofsummit.com  

What if I told you that much of what you're hearing about OSOs, DSOs, private equity, and debt is missing the context you need to make an informed decision about your practice?In this episode of Five Minute Friday, I break down some of the fear, misinformation, and clickbait surrounding private equity-backed orthodontic organizations. After receiving dozens of questions about the financial health of OSOs—particularly following a recent article—I want to explain how debt, refinancing, equity, and partnership structures actually work in the private equity world.This episode is not an argument that every orthodontist should join an OSO or DSO. It is a call to educate yourself, understand the structure of the deal, and stop allowing fear or industry rhetoric to make major financial decisions for you. My goal is to give you context so you can evaluate whether affiliation is right for your practice, your family, and your long-term goals.

The Deadcast points to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York, set inside the lush green of a state park & home to some of the wildest Grateful Dead shows of the mid-1980s, with a look at the 1985 parking lot scene.Guests: David Lemieux, David Leopold, Johnny Dwork, DNA, Ken Schneider, Andy Perrine, David Moran, Corry Arnold, Nicholas Meriwether, Annabelle Walsh, Donick CarrySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today's episode, Dr. Mark Costes sits down with Dr. Lou Graham live from Thrive Live 2026 in Las Vegas. Lou shares the story behind Catapult Education, the independent education-based company he founded 23 years ago, and how it has grown into a powerful platform with speakers, evaluators, and tens of thousands of subscribers.  He and Mark discuss the evolution of dental education, the growing demand for hands-on learning, the challenge of keeping teams engaged in a distracted world, and how technology, AI, digital workflows, and customized education are shaping the future of the profession. Lou also opens up about transitioning out of clinical dentistry, selling to a DSO, mentoring younger doctors, and building a career around leadership, communication, and helping dentists continue to grow. Be sure to check out the full episode from the Dentalpreneur Podcast! EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.catapulteducation.com https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast

You might think the secret to more case acceptance is all about your fees, your marketing, or amazing treatment presentations, but what if it's actually about the way you make patients feel during your conversations? In this episode, Dr. Sasha Rutnam, with over 30 years at the chair (including 25 as a practice owner in Sydney) breaks down why trust and genuine connection are the real drivers behind patients saying “yes” to your recommendations. Dr. Rutnam shares candid lessons from both private practice and transitioning to a DSO model, emphasizing that patients can instantly sense sincerity, and that pressuring them or relying on polished sales scripts only creates distance.Dr. Rutnam explains that quality patient communication is the foundation of everything: retention, referrals, and deep, multi-generational relationships. Using practical, real-world tactics, she details how gentle reassurance, listening to fears, giving patients control, and allowing treatment to unfold at their pace transforms outcomes for both patients and clinicians. She talks honestly about the mental load of delivering complex care, why rushed consults often lead to misunderstandings and complaints, and why separating the money conversation from clinical advice builds trust. Packed with actionable strategies (especially for anxious patients) this conversation will reframe how you approach both new and long-time patients, and why honing your communication can be your most important clinical skill.What You'll Learn in This Episode:The biggest factors influencing case acceptance and why it's NOT just about the treatment plan or priceSigns patients trust your intent (and how they spot inauthenticity)Practical ways to communicate care and earn trust, even with anxious patientsWhy longer and unrushed consults lead to better outcomes and fewer complaintsHow to separate value discussions from financial talks to maintain perceived valueStrategies for handling “I need to think about it” without feeling pushyThe importance of continuity and personal connection, even after team handoffsWhy acknowledging patient boundaries and choices leads to stronger relationshipsKey phrases and behaviors to avoid that can erode patient trustHow investing in communication skills delivers lifelong benefits for your clinical and business successListen now to discover how transforming your patient conversations can set your practice apart and create lasting relationships!‍Sponsors:‍Net32: Founded by a dentist, for dentists. Net32 is the leading online marketplace for dental supplies, helping dental and medical professionals save on high-quality products for over 25 years. Start saving today at: https://www.net32.com/dentalmarketer‍Click here for a special offer!‍CallRail: Call tracking + AI that turns calls into campaigns that convert, quality patients, and cost savings. Click our link to start a free trial today! https://sta.mx/vz69Click here for a special offer!Guest: Dr. Sasha RutnamCheck out Sasha's Media:Website: https://drsasharutnam.com/Sasha's Book "Dental Patient Communication Made Simple": https://a.co/d/08yyHc0y‍Host: Michael AriasJoin my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍Love the Podcast? Follow on Your Favorite App! https://lnkfi.re/TDMPod

What if the reason you're still buried in emails has nothing to do with how many hours are in your day? Jordin McEntire sits down with Jackie Brown, Global Head of HR at SupportDDS, who spent years working alongside doctors at a DSO with 75 practices and 200 clinicians. She kept seeing the same thing play out. Owners were still managing their own schedules, still answering their own emails, long after they'd outgrown that job. Jackie explains why she built the Executive Excellence Academy to train executive assistants who think ahead of problems instead of just reacting to them, and why SupportDDS holds turnover down to 6.2% when the industry average runs far higher. She breaks down what real support actually looks like, from protecting an owner's priorities to running daily check-ins that keep the whole day on track, and what changes for a practice once that kind of support is finally in place.  

Late last month, John shared two theories about the Cormoran Strike series of novels, both from Katya Slonenko, a member of the Reddit r/CormoranStrike online fandom: Dementia, Jewelry, and a Nine Inch Cock: The Mystery of Shanker's ‘Old Man,' His Given Name, and Why He's Never Killed Jeff Whittaker and Katya Slonenko: Leda Strike's 'Mistress of the Salmon Salts' Pudenda Tattoo. John corresponded with Katya while preparing those posts and invited her to join him and Nick for a discussion of her ideas, of life as a Redditor, and her thoughts about Rowling's artistry and meaning. She accepted the invitation but said she wouldn't be free until July to talk. Hence the wait! As expected, though, speaking with her about her own journey to expertise in Rowling Studies, her ideas about the clues Rowling has embedded so carefully within the first eight books and especially in Hallmarked Man, and the Reddit posts of which she thinks Hogwarts Professor readers need to be aware was well worth the wait.You'll want to read those posts from June before listening to get the most out of this conversation, but, regardless of your preparation, John and Nick believe that every Serious Striker and Rowling Reader will be charmed and challenged by Katya's remarkable insights, generous spirit, and winsome personality. The conversation includes three other Reddit community posts — about Leda's ‘Carnival' dress (Arachulia), about the real name of her first husband, and about the Harry Potter tattoo Rowling-Galbraith hid on a Strike novel character's shoulder — which took the discussion above and beyond the two Katya theories in the June posts.Nick and John close the conversation by inviting her back and they hope readers here will share the questions they want us to be sure to ask her on her return visit in the comment thread below. Or just ask her yourself! As she demonstrated on the threads beneath the June posts, she is generous with her time in responding to other Strike fans.Can't wait for more Katya Slonenko? Follow her at r/CormoranStrike, on Instagram (Tattoos!), on FaceBook, and check our her older, longer posts on Medium…The Ten Plus Questions with Links1. Welcome, Katya, and thank you for joining us! The serious readers at Hogwarts Professor have been buzzing about your Shanker and Leda r/Cormoran Strike Reddit posts and we're thrilled to be able to talk with you about those ideas. First, though, tell us about your first Rowling reading experiences and how you started posting on Reddit about the Strike series.2. I'm guessing that Reddit Strike fandom may be as unfamiliar to Hogwarts Professor readers as it was to me. What is it about the Pelican_Girl and TopRequirement670 moderated posts and that international community that you love the most?3. Shanker! I confess -- I hadn't given him a thought really beyond a doppelganger twin for Strike before Fiona from Adelaide introduced me to the ideas that he had to be involved in the death of Leda Strike and that the Riccis were also somehow party to it. Ed Shardlow shared your Reddit post on the subject and my mind was blown; you made a compelling case soon after the publication of Hallmarked Man last year that Shanker is a Ricci, the illegitimate son of Nico ‘Muccy' Ricci, but to avenge Leda Strike's death he has become a Met or MI5 informer. Let's start with the four pointers that Shanker gave Strike in one conversation that he is a Ricci-by-blood and what made you think of that connection:* Shanker's statement that his father had dementia or was senile;* Shanker's report that his dad taught that jewelry was the way to a woman's heart;* Shanker's claim that his ‘old man' was said to have a “nine inch cock;” and* Shanker's saying that his begetter “‘ad kids wiv abou' ten diff'rent women.”4. I see the trigger now that you've detailed it but you dug and made four more connections that were buried in the texts of the series' other books:* Shanker's knowledge of the Ricci clan, especially Mucky,* his Strike-witnessed working with Mucky in drug deals,* “he deals cocaine and is good with a knife;” and, best of all,* the reaction Robin had to both Shanker and Luca at their first meeting, the fun-house mirror upside-down reflection of the attraction half-siblings feel for another intuitively. Robin is viscerally repulsed and afraid of the half-sibling Ricci boys.We cannot not see these connections after you point them out, but they're nigh on invisible until they're pointed out! Why do you think you saw them when we missed them -- and why do you think Rowling has taken such care to make them invisible in plain sight?5. And Shanker is an MI5 informant? Where does that come from?5.5 Let's not forget that you also make an intelligent guess, the first one I've heard, about what Shanker's given name really is, one based on the names of Nico Ricci's two children out of ten for whom we have names.* Katya shared not only her reasoning about why Shanker's name is John or an Italian variant of the Evangelist's name but also her theory about the parentage and name of the other remaining character in the series who also remains nameless: the mysterious ‘Strike' with whom Leda ran away from Cornwall! (Be sure to read the comment thread for Redditor conversation about other possible Ricci children…)6. Your thoughts about Shanker all feed into theories about Leda Strike and her mysterious death in the end, which brings us to another aspect of her life and death about which you've brought an important and unique perspective. I'm talking about the Mistress of the Salmon Salt tattoo. Did you know anything about tattoos, Katya, before writing this piece?7. As a tattoo artist yourself, what do you make of Leda's tattoo placement?8. Tattoos are meaningful, powerful reflections or revelations of the person's interior life or self-understanding (see the post about Katya's ‘Salmon Salt Tattoo' theory for much more on this). What do you think this tattoo communicates about Leda? Is it another example of Rowling's text-within-the-text or a variant of her using cryptonyms to signal important information about a character's inner life?What Tattoos Mean in Cormoran Strike and a Catalog of Examples* From Katya's 2023 ‘Mistress of the Salmon Salt Revisited:'I hear you asking - why can't Leda's be just a tattoo, without any deeper meaning to it? That's because all the other tattoos in the Strike books have meaning and provide a clue to their wearers' characters.Here are some examples:* Kelsey Pratt's One Direction tattoo is an obvious link to her being a One Direction fan. (How Leda's tattoo is different? She chose the name of the particular song, not the more generic name of the band, to be tattooed on her)* Laing's rose pierced with a dagger bluntly means violence to women. Rose is a woman in the language of symbols, while the dagger is… well, a dagger.* Polworth's St Piran's cross means he's a Cornish patriot. I'll be surprised if it also doesn't mark him as The Hanged Man (a symbolic bearer of a cross)* Portia Bayliss's trident refers to her Caribbean roots* Edie had a small black heart on the knuckles because she was the creator of ‘The Ink Black Heart' cartoon.* Zoe's tattoos are of ‘The Ink Black Heart' characters she identifies with.* Pez Pierce has The Beatles quote around his neck - Strawberry Fields was (is?) a place in Liverpool.* Union Jack, a skull, and a Nordic “Chaos” rune give a good impression of what the Turisaz character will be about (all tattooed on visible spots like head or neck - he wears them proudly!);* Same with Algiz and Uruz, sans the Union Jack and the skull.* Noli Seymour's tattoo stands for “Golden Prophet”. It denotes her connection to the Universal Humanitarian Church and her status there as the current Golden Prophet.* An ace of spades was inked onto his left cheek, and a tattooed tiger covered his throat. - Jordan Reaney's tattoos are pretty telling, too.* Not a character, but still - JK herself has a tattoo, “Solve et Coagula”, which means - “I'm a writer of an alchemical detective series!” :DSo you see, all these tattoos are chosen to reflect their owners' personal histories. That's generally a feature of Rowling's writing: if she describes a character, every little detail works for the portrait she wants to paint. There are no details put there “just because” - everything is important. How the characters dress and speak, what they eat and drink, what music they listen to, and what tattoos they have tell us something about the character.What does Leda's tattoo contribute to her portrait?Nothing!In Career of Evil, when we learn of its existence, the tattoo adds literally nothing to Leda's portrait. Why is it mentioned in the story to which it makes zero contribution, except for serving as a plot device enabling the killer's obsession?Because it will be important later.* Katya shared in her answer her theory from experience that Rowling-Galbraith had secretly marked a character as a Harry Potter fan by giving her a shoulder tattoo that Potter-heads would recognize!9. Rowling's Solve et Coagula tattoo: what do you think she is telling the world about herself? Is there a correspondence or tie between the author's tattoo and its placement and Leda's?10. Whittaker quotes a line from the Salmon Salt song by the Blue Oyster Cult — “She was the Quicklime Girl” — while testifying at his trial on murder charges; what do you think that tells us about her death? Does it suggest it was suicide or murder? Do you think Whittaker did it? 11. And another one to make eleven! You thought at one point because of the meaning of ‘Mistress of the Salmon Salt' that we had to take seriously the possibility that Leda herself was a serial killer. But you've changed your mind. Why is that? * In addition to her own thinking on this subject, Katya shared yet another Redditor theory, this one from Arachulia about The New Dress that Aunt Joan said was the real reason that Leda had left her Nancarrow home in Cornwall with the mysterious ‘Strike.' Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Lisa Arciga, Procurement Manager at Pearl Street Dental Partners, Tim Otto, CEO of Alcan Dental Cooperative & Riley Berg, Business Development Manager at Dental City discuss: Standardizing Procurement AI in Purchasing Last Minute Ordering To connect with Dental City visit: https://dentalcity.com/ or contact Riley Berg at rberg@dentalcity.com Connect with Lisa Arciga at lisa@pearlstreetdentalpartners.com or visit https://www.pearlstreetdentalpartners.com/ You can also learn more about Alcan Dental Cooperative at https://www.alcandentalcooperative.com/ . Subscribe to our channel for more episodes and stay updated on the latest DSO news, insights, and events! If you like our podcast, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on iTunes https://apple.co/2Nejsfa and a Thumbs Up on YouTube.

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Karl Frye, Principal Broker and owner of Frye Practice Sales, a Scottsdale-based practice and commercial real estate brokerage, and current President of the National Association of Practice Brokers. Before founding his firm in 2015, Karl spent more than a decade in commercial banking serving the M&A needs of doctors — financing the startups, growth, sales, and refinances of dental practices nationwide. That credit background gives him a distinctive, outcome-focused perspective on what's actually realistic in today's healthcare acquisition market. The conversation tackles the questions on every practice owner's mind: whether the private-practice buyer is truly a thing of the past (Karl says not so fast), and whether dentists should simply say "no" to the DSO (his answer is more nuanced than you'd expect). Howard and Karl walk through how sellers should navigate a shifting market, what buyers should be doing right now, and a recap of where the lending market stands. They close on a decision many selling dentists overlook — whether to sell the commercial real estate along with the practice or hold onto the building and collect rent.   Episode #1719 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Karl Frye — Principal Broker and owner of Frye Practice Sales and current President of the National Association of Practice Brokers — for a straight-talking look at the dental transitions market. With 12+ years financing healthcare M&A before becoming a broker, Karl brings rare credit-side insight. Is the private practice buyer a thing of the past? Should you say no to the DSO? And what should you do with your building when you sell?

What happens when the F-1 "duration of status" rule disappears overnight — and how many employers are actually paying the new $100,000 H-1B fee? On this episode, host John Q. Khosravi talks with Anne Rowley, Esq. of Grossman Young & Hammond about her path into business immigration law, the newly finalized F-1 duration of status rule, the real-world impact of the $100,000 H-1B fee, and a behind-the-scenes look at planning the AILA California Chapters Conference (San Francisco, first week of November). Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:33 Intro 01:24 Sponsor: E-Immigration Hero Spotlight 02:17 ILT mentorship & courses 02:57 Disclaimer 03:04 Anne Rowley's Path Into Immigration Law – Wisconsin to LA to San Diego 05:10 Grossman Young & Hammond's national presence 05:48 Current immigration "insanity" & hot topics 06:09 F-1 duration of status rule explained 06:43 Advising students before the rule change 07:14 F-1/OPT/CPT nuances & DSO challenges 08:15 Community & sponsor reminders 09:37 More on the new F-1 rule (English limits, PhD students) 10:30 Firm growth – DC, Miami, San Diego expansion 11:07 Keeping corporate H-1B clients informed 11:54 The $100K H-1B fee: client experiences 12:58 AILA California Chapters Conference preview 14:11 Getting involved with AILA committees 15:40 Firm operations, KPIs & forecasting 16:55 Closing thoughts & CCC reminder 17:14 Outro Spotify | iTunes | YouTube Music | YouTube Follow eimmigration by Cerenade: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn Start your Business Immigration Practice! (US LAWYERS ONLY - SCREENING REQUIRED): E-2 Course EB-1A Course Get the Toolbox Magazine!  Join our community (Lawyers Only) Get Started in Immigration Law! The Marriage/Family-Based Green Card course is for you Our Website: ImmigrationLawyersToolbox.com Not legal advice. Consult with an Attorney. Attorney Advertisement. #podcaster #Lawyer #ImmigrationLawyer #Interview #Immigration #ImmigrationAttorney #USImmigration #ImmigrationLaw #ImmigrationLawyersToolbox  

Join dental entrepreneurs George Hariri, Matt Guarino, and Matt Ford as they break down the realities of running their national DSO, Shared Practices Group. They tackle the triumphs and tribulations of scaling a business, answer your burning questions (submit yours at bdppod.com), and delve into life's other adventures - from health and parenting to sports and politics. It's business, banter, and everything in between. Tune in and join the BDP community today!  

Talisker Resources CEO Terry Harbort discusses the company's rapid progress at the Bralorne Gold Project, including a 3.36-million-ounce resource, high-grade underground development results, and the rollout of an ore-sorting system designed to cut transport costs and improve payable grades. Harbort also outlines the company's $11 million equipment financing, expansion of its land package through the Ben Nevis acquisition, and plans for a hybrid DSO-to-mill strategy. The conversation also covers permitting, production ramp-up, upcoming quarterly results, and a preliminary economic assessment expected this fall, as Talisker advances its district-scale growth strategy.

Private practices — ever feel like you can't win against the DSOs? Kiera talks about what your practice can continue to produce that DSOs, with their multiple locations and bigger budgets, can't replicate. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am excited. Today's gonna be a fun rift of a podcast for you. It's gonna be like, can independent practices like private practice still beat DSOs if you want to? This isn't a rag on DSOs, it's not a rag on private practices. It's just can private practice, independent practices still win against the DSO? Because I think a lot of people are losing faith and confidence and feeling like if I'm not a part of a DSO, I can't win. So I wanna just tickle our brains today.   Think about it in a different way and let's have a fun rift because you remember this is the best place. Dental A Team is the place where we are obsessed about helping you have your best life. We call it the Yes Success Model, where we focus on you and your vision, earnings and profitability, and then systems scale and structure for you. So that way you've got the systems, the structure, and the scalability for long term. I'm obsessed with helping teams and doctors align. I'm obsessed with dentistry. My last name's Dent for crying out loud. I love this. So let's do a good rift. Let's talk about.   Can we really still win? It feels like DSOs, they got so much money over there and like they don't have to worry about margins. But I don't think that that's necessarily true. And I do believe last year, now I believe I know, DSOs had their first down year last year. So like I said, there is no I don't have a dog in the fight. My dog in the fight is which I don't even know where that phrase comes from. So if someone wants to pen pal me and tell me about this, I mean I could sure I could look it up. But like if you know, send me an email, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'm Kiera. It's fun. It's fun to have a good pen pal over there.   But I I think my dog in the fight is what's gonna be the best for dentistry long term. That is my dog in the fight. I wanna make sure that we as a population, money talks. I don't blame you. Getting a good multiple for your practice, like, why not? You're in you're in the golden era of dental practices. Or so they make it put on paper. Make sure it really is the golden era for you if you choose to go that route. and a lot of people have been very happy. A lot of people have also had the shorts burned off them. Tell me why that's a thing too. Like,   How does someone get their shorts burned off them? I also want to know that phrase. I'm here for the phrases today, too, on the rift. And also, I'd love to know your opinion on this. So I'm gonna rift on my side and then shoot me an email. I'd love to hear. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com so okay, the rift today. DSOs are all like, okay, let me just go back, backing it up. Ultimately, I hope that we preserve the sanctity of great dentistry for patients forever.   That's my hope. I don't care if it's DSOs, I don't care if it's private practice, I don't care what it is. But I do not dental practices are businesses. I also work in dentistry as a clinician. And I'm not okay with us squeezing margins and compromising care to hit margins. To me, that's just unfair. It's unfair for patients. I look at a lot of things in our healthcare system and I don't love it. And so I think that dentistry has been kind of the wild, wild west, and we've stayed out of a lot of it. And so I just hope that while we make   Decisions financially and personally, I hope that we think about our long-term consequence. And that comes for a lot of new ones. I think that there's more senior doctors who have been in dentistry for a long time. Like they're not as worried about the multiples. I think a lot of our newer doctors who have a lot of debt on this, there's an easy cash payout. I would just say and a caution and an ask is let's just remember that we've had pioneers ahead of us who have paved the way.   Let's continue to be those pioneers that are able to preserve and sanctify dentistry, whether that's through DSOs or private practices. So that's Kiera's dog in the fight. And I hope that you agree. And maybe you have a different opinion. So like let's have a good conversation. This is what we talk about in our monthly masterminds. So come chat, hang out. I'd love to have you there. okay. So can we win? Here are some thoughts of how private practices can still win against DSOs. So like DSOs, they do have more locations. They got bigger budgets, they've got bigger teams.   But I do feel like there's still things in private practice that DSOs can't replicate. So I think the biggest threat is if you feel like you can't compete and you give up because there are ways and you can still win. you don't have to outspend a DSO. You don't need to out execute them. I do think that there's still competitive advantages. And so really leaning into whatever is going to be best for you. And again, remember, my my long term opinion is let's just make sure that we protect and sanctify dentistry for the health of our patients. And yes, I want you to be a profitable business owner.   I think you can have both. I don't think it has to be one or the other. DSO or non-DSO. Now, private equity. I do have my opinions about private equity and I don't believe that they're always there for ethical reasons. and so I just say like make sure that the decisions you're making with your practice and your patient is going to help long term, the greater good. So those are my two cents on it. So anyway, just we work with a lot of practices. So I think that there's still ways that you can still compete against large corps, corporations. So number one.   I think is independent practices, private practices, they have a connection that I think a lot of DSOs lack. DSOs tend to have a burn and churn model. So patients actually knowing their doctor, trusting their team, feeling remembered, feeling valued, and making sure that it's not a constant churn. Now I will have a call out. There are a lot of private practices that I know that are also on a burn and churn. They're churning associates left and right. They're turning team members. I get that it's hard right now, but I will say that if that's your practice, you are not competing against those corporate organizations that have.   run of the mill doctors. So I think that private practices can have a consistent provider relationship. I absolutely hate going to the dentist. I actually have transferred away. Like I can get multiple doctors across the road, guys. I don't know if you know what I do for a living, but I work with a lot of dentists. So if I want sporadic care, aka I go into one practice, but I see different providers all the time. And I know we have the whole phrase of they're provide their patients at the practice, which is not wrong.   But I'd say the more consistent you can have of team of providers that's going to help you win. I'm not saying to keep team members just because of longevity. I am here to say though, consistent provider relationships I do think will outshine. Just like I hate getting a new hair person, I hate getting a new nail person. People don't like to change that. So I think that that's going to be a zone for you. So personalized experience and long-term patient loyalty. Those are going to be   key places that I think private practices can win. Now, DSL is listening, guess what? This is your edge as well. Like this is how you can have an edge. And ultimately we're all here for it. But these things need to stay and maintain. so I do believe that patients who see the same doctor, the same team for years are much less likely to leave based on price or convenience. Like they're going to stick with you. Why why? They don't want to change that up. I don't want to go show someone else my mouth and have that awkward moment where I just   Don't like I don't have this, so just know that it's a space where like you gotta you gotta be connected, you've gotta help them feel seen and known. And I do believe that that's that is a zone. Daos are gonna scale systems, but like being able to scale genuine relationships, I do think is a harder thing. So in private practices, watch yourself. Look to see do you have those genuine connections? Are we scaling genuine relationships? Is that something that we're doing in those personalized pieces? You can stand out and still scale and still be profitable. So   I just think maybe like if you're looking at this, looking at your team, wanting to have a reflection, what's a way that we can connect and create more personalized patient experiences? How can we keep like, if we want to keep a patient for life, what's gonna make them want to choose us consistently? If there's a competitor of price, if there's a competitor of convenience, how do we make sure those patients stay loyal to us? another thing I think that private practice can win on is believe it or not, in private practice, you can typically move faster.   So I know a lot of people when they interview coming to Dental A Team coming from large organizations, like, I love that there's not as much red tape, Kiera. I love that you can move quicker, that we can make decisions faster, we're more nimble. And I think that that is a a huge selling point for private practices to be able to out outpace. You can have faster decision making, you can have faster implementation, you have less red tape, you've got greater flexibility. That can also create chaos. We gotta make sure that we don't we don't flex too much. But   If patients are wanting something, we can usually make those calls. We can have a more personalized experience. We can have like great water bottles. We can have different things that make patients have it. So, like you can change scheduling systems, you can change patient experience protocols, you can have like different pieces that your patients can recognize and see. Where in large organizations, a lot of times it does take like months to implement these items. So I do think agility does create opportunity. And so for you to just look at this and think like, all right, what ways can we be more flexible, more adaptable?   Like you don't have to have permission to improve things. So if you don't have to have permission to improve, what are we waiting to improve? What things could be improved upon? How can we make a better patient experience? How can we make a better team experience? there's a doctor that I was talking to the other day, and he said, Kiera, I have like a lifestyle practice and I want to attract team members for that lifestyle practice. And I just thought, like, how crazy cool is that? Because I think like that is the agility, that's the flexibility of a private practice that also makes it a great working place.   For team members. Like it's not just about patients, it's also about team and attracting those. So that's another zone where I think private practice can still outpace a DSO for sure. and then I do think that systems can win more than size in a lot of ways. So a lot of times we think bigger is better. And I know a lot of times I'm intimidated as a smaller business, if you will, smaller, medium sized business compared to large organizations. You're like, they just have all of it, but it's not true. So   I've seen in a lot of our practices very profitable independent practices, really strong leadership, great patient experiences, clear accountability. And you actually can have scheduling protocols and case acceptance systems and leadership systems and financial systems. Smaller scale practices can actually have great, incredible systems in place. So I do believe that a well-run single location or maybe two or three locations oftentimes will outperform on profitability than larger organizations because of.   execution is a lot stronger. So it's having those systems that are clear, having those and I know a lot of people are like, but what systems? And our team kind of boiled it down. There's about like 10 to 15 core systems that every practice that they'll implement and execute on, they're going to thrive. And it's scheduling case acceptance, leadership, like our billing protocols, things like that, morning huddles, very basic, non-sexy, but having those systems is going to be much grander than size.   And the larger you get, yes, they try to implement these, but I do still feel like those systems can create those predictable experiences. They can have a more customized experience. And then if we don't like it, we can pivot that system, we can refine that system, we can make it better. So I just think it's like, how do you have the best run practice? Not necessarily the biggest practice. And so I would look at your practice and what are the systems? What are the gaps? Where do we slip? Where do patients maybe fill that? Where does our team fill that? Let's fix that. Let's organize that. Let's let's have that. That way we're able to.   To be able to outpace. And so there's lots of ways. I think having those genuine connections, making sure that we've got systems that grow with us, having strong leadership teams, having a great, like, I don't know, community feel. There's just something different. Think about it. I have a fee-for-service chiropractor versus corporate chiropractor. I've gone to both. And one is like run of the mill. I come in, I'm out, checked in, checked out, it's cheaper. But they don't know me. They don't have an experience. They don't spend time with me. I do think time that doesn't mean like,   10 minutes, it means genuine connection time. Those things you still can win. And believe it or not, a lot of our practices are sitting at 20, 30, 40% profit margins. You can still be very profitable and not need to be in a DSO. They have a ton, they can scale a lot, but I also think there's an autonomy piece, there's a creativity piece, there's a branding piece of you being able to brand your location as you, to be able to give an experience that is very custom to you, to your audience. So I do believe that there's still a way that private practice can.   win against DSLs. I think there's space for both. I don't think one's right or wrong. But again, like I said, my dog in the fight is whatever we choose to do, whatever pieces we're doing, let's just remember to keep the sanctity of dentistry pure. Let's make sure that we're doing what's in the best interest of our patients. Let's make sure we're not cutting corners on dentistry. We're not trying to fit people in to hit production goals just to hit production goals. We're not compromising the the products that we use to be able to to hit the right profit margins. I believe that   being the best for our patients will always, always follow profitability. So with that, right now, let's remember, like relationships, you get it. You guys also have speed and flexibility and agility. And you also do have systems that you can put into place that will like beat size. They have other things. They've got billing, they've got it, but think about it, you're gonna sell to them anyway. You might as well get those things in place and you might as well try on your own. So   You think they're gonna take over all your problems? You can do this on your own and you don't have to sell your practice. I had a dentist who was wanting to sell his practice. He's like, Kiera, I'm gonna sell to a DSO. And I said, Great, like I'm here for it. Let's rally. And then he's like, I said, let's just think through. Like when they buy you, what are they going to do? He's like, they're gonna expand the practice and they're gonna put systems into place. And I said, Well, do you wanna do that? And he was like, Yeah, like I'm gonna sell to them and they're gonna make all the money on the things that I could just do. And I was like, I'm really proud of you because you're exactly right.   So if they're gonna do that anyway, why not do it yourself and reap the rewards? We're here to help you. I helped that practice. We went took them from eight eight ops to 15 ops. They're doing amazing. They're on track to be a five million dollar practice this year. All those things the DSO would have done. We were able to put the systems in place, build the leadership team, expand the practice. They're crushing it. They're doing incredible over there. So again, flexibility, agility, great patient care. And where they go, because people are like, well, a DSO is the only person who's gonna buy me. That's not true. Stop limiting yourself.   There's lots of people. There's lots of options. Do you know how many people come out of school wanting to buy? They come out and they do want to buy. So don't limit yourself, you guys. People are like, they can't afford homes. That's not true. There's a lot of people willing to there might now need to be two partners instead of just one partner. It's okay. It's gonna look a little different, but that doesn't mean that that's the only option. So I really do think that private practice dentistry can absolutely thrive. I do believe that the practice is winning today, DSO or private practice.   Aren't the ones with multiple the most locations? They're the ones with the strongest leadership, strongest systems, best connection, best patient care. Those are the ones that are winning. So look at it. Do we have the best leadership? Do we have the best systems? Do we have the best patient connection? Do we have the best experience? And if so, fantastic. Make sure that all your patients know it. Make sure that people are talking about it. You guys can do this. I love helping private practices. Whatever your dream is, whatever your goals, if it's DSO or not, I don't care. I just want you to have your best life. And like, hey, before you sell, maybe let's chat.   Let's talk about it. Let's see if there's a way that we could actually take that load and that stress and that annoyance off and you reap the rewards before you go and sell. there's so many ways that we can do this. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

Top 5 Topics:- The Hidden Cost of Success: Working 7 Days a Week Doing Oral Surgery- The Cases Nobody Else Wants: Inside the Hardest Wisdom Tooth Surgeries- How One Investment Mistake Cost Over $500,000- Why Dental Insurance Is Breaking Dentistry- How Social Media Is Changing Dentistry ForeverQuotes & Wisdom: 9:36 — "Complications happen—even to surgeons who perform these procedures every single day. You're never the only one."1:02:26 — "That one Instagram story disappears in 24 hours. The same educational case on LinkedIn could help thousands of professionals for years."1:03:34 — "Use AI to organize your knowledge so you can spend more time teaching people instead of formatting posts."1:08:00 — "I never started social media to get likes or followers."1:08:08 — "I've been incredibly fortunate to learn from world-class mentors, so whatever knowledge was shared with me, I want to pass on to others."1:08:56 — "If I've helped someone else's career with my content by even 5%, I'll take that every single time."1:13:04 — "Even when you think you're avoiding the DSO model... sometimes you're still in it, whether you like it or not."Questions: 02:03 — "How many offices do you work at in a month's time?"29:50 — "You're working 7 days a week—how do you balance work, workouts, recovery, and the rest of your life?"34:54 — "What's your favorite investment strategy?"42:07 — "What's your local anesthesia protocol today, and has it changed over the years?"47:16 — "When you're taking out 4 wisdom teeth, which one do you remove first—and why?"52:02 — "What have you learned about preventing lingual nerve injuries that every oral surgeon should know?"Now available on:- Dr. Gallagher's Podcast & YouTube Channel- Dose of Dental Podcast #244My watch in this episode = Citizen Cal 2100 Limited Edition PandaDr. Amir's watch in this episode = Rolex Daytona- 6.2026

Dr. Marc Adelberg is a pediatric dentist and faculty member at the Workman School of Dental Medicine at High Point in North Carolina. He practiced for 25 years in New York and grew a six-location practice before exiting via a DSO sale. He shares his extensive experience in private practice, the challenges of scaling a dental enterprise, and his transition into academia. We explore topics like practice growth, team building, and the future of pediatric dentistry.Topics Discussed:Private practice startup and growthChallenges of scaling a dental enterpriseImportance of mission and core values in practiceRole of residency programs and education in dentistryImpact of insurance and Medicaid on practice managementTransition from private practice to academiaTeam building and leadership in dentistry

Dr. Peter Boulden, Founder of Bulletproof Dental Practice & Cory Pinegar, CEO & Founder of Reach discuss: The 61 AI touchpoints in dentistry A systems crisis in dentistry Human connection in the AI age If you are interested in learning more about Reach and their virtual assistant solutions that integrate with AI workflows visit: https://getreach.co/ To learn more about Bulletproof Practice visit: https://www.bulletproofdentalpractice.com/  To register for Bulletproof Summit on August 7th & 8th in Scottsdale, AZ visit: https://www.bulletproofsummit.com/ Subscribe to our channel for more episodes and stay updated on the latest DSO news, insights, and events! If you like our podcast, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on iTunes https://apple.co/2Nejsfa and a Thumbs Up on YouTube.

Join dental entrepreneurs George Hariri, Matt Guarino, and Matt Ford as they break down the realities of running their national DSO, Shared Practices Group. They tackle the triumphs and tribulations of scaling a business, answer your burning questions (submit yours at bdppod.com), and delve into life's other adventures - from health and parenting to sports and politics. It's business, banter, and everything in between. Tune in and join the BDP community today!  

Contango Silver & Gold president Shawn Khunkhun discusses why CTGO shares are down ~50% since January and how this presents investors with a buying opportunity. The company's current valuation is just three times next year's expected free cash flow, he shared. He explains the key catalysts investors are waiting for, why and how the company eliminated its hedge book. He outlines the DSO model shipping ore to Kinross's Fort Knox mill and how Contango is reinvesting cash flow into Lucky Shot drilling, Johnson Tract infrastructure/permitting, and a 40,000m Kitsault Valley drill program. He states that a mill acquisition is being targeted for longer-term needs. 00:00 Intro 00:33 Why Shares Are Down 01:05 Catalysts from Mahn Choh 01:54 Kitsault Resource Update 02:24 Lucky Shot Path to Production 03:06 Hedge Book Removed 04:38 Debt and Cash Position 05:53 DSO Model and Growth Plan 07:28 Lucky Shot Drilling Progress 08:38 Johnson Tract Buildout 09:11 Kitsault Exploration Strategy 09:55 Management Versus Geology 11:52 What the Market Rewards 13:33 No Dividends Near Term 14:15 Mill Acquisition Strategy 15:29 Jurisdiction And M&A Focus 17:07 Re-Rating and Share Structure https://contangoore.com/ NYSE & TSX: $CTGO Sign up for our free newsletter and receive interview transcripts, stock profiles and investment ideas: http://eepurl.com/cHxJ39 Sponsor Contango pays MSE a United States dollar seven thousand per month coverage fee. The forward-looking statement disclaimer found in Contango's most-recent company slide deck found at www.ContangoOre.com applies to everything discussed in this interview. Mining Stock Education (MSE) offers informational content based on available data but it does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. It may not be appropriate for all situations or objectives. Readers and listeners should seek professional advice, make independent investigations and assessments before investing. MSE does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of its content and should not be solely relied upon for investment decisions. MSE and its owner may hold financial interests in the companies discussed and can trade such securities without notice. MSE is biased towards its advertising sponsors which make this platform possible. MSE is not liable for representations, warranties, or omissions in its content. By accessing MSE content, users agree that MSE and its affiliates bear no liability related to the information provided or the investment decisions you make. Full disclaimer: https://www.miningstockeducation.com/disclaimer/

Jader Bignamini conducts the DSO and WYSO this weekend in two concerts on Saturday and Sunday. Tune in for live broadcasts 7 p.m on July 18 and 19.

Set the controls for the heart of 1985 and the Dead's 20th anniversary shows at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, with a look at the band's very busy year, plus Dead Head adventures aplenty.Guests: Dennis McNally, Len Dell'Amico, Rosie McGee, John Leopold, Dave Leopold, Johnny Dwork, David Lemieux, Nicholas Meriwether, Dave PerlisSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marketing is different than it was five years ago, especially now that AI is firmly entrenched in so many communities. Kiera talks about how AI, online reviews, and local trust are more important than ever, and what you and your practice can do to keep patients coming your way. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I hope you're having a great day. I am having a great day. I love being in office with offices. I love working with practices. I love being with our team. I love seeing my team elevate and grow. I love watching and seeing just wins. I love hearing how our clients are doing. I love to see the wins our clients are getting. Honestly, dentistry is so great and it's fun. It's fun to see the evolution of the Dental A Team. I remember when I started this, there is no way, shape, or form that I honestly thought.   That we would have this many clients that I get to celebrate and love on and just rally to see them hitting production goals that they never thought they'd do, having profitability, working through leadership team issues, ⁓ revamping what they believe is their why and their power. very invigorating to see offices wanting to possibly sell to a DSO and then finding other alternatives, having offices sell to DSOs, having offices bring on partners and associates. To me, that is one of the most like   rewarding parts of owning Dental A Team is to see so many people and to get to be friends with so many of you and to truly watch I would say like the good guys and girls win. And ⁓ my job and our company's mission is to truly like your success is our passion. So I'm excited. I hope that you're excited. I hope you remember the dentistry. We're so lucky to be a part of dentistry. We get the most incredible job and it's it's not just a job. I think it's a life changing experience we all get to be a part of. So today I just want to kind of like dive into like   AI reviews and ⁓ trust are genuinely kind of changing how patients choose their dentists. And I've been watching this and we've been talking about it within our private doctor communities and ⁓ just recognizing that the world's changing on how people are picking dentists now and how are they finding you? And this is a little ⁓ I feel local. So some areas are gonna have more AI influence versus other areas are possibly going to have less AI influence.   But I think for all of us to just kind of figure out like how are patients choosing to go to the dentist? How are patients coming and picking dentists? Cause I do believe that marketing and the AI, it's different than it was five years ago. So I'm also finding that patients truly have already figured out who they're probably gonna call before they even call you. So like they're gonna determine do they trust you or not before they even make that first phone call. And before I used to feel like we could win them over, and I still believe we absolutely can, but a lot of it's already coming. And so it's coming before they talk to you.   And it's more than just having a website. It's you gotta be able to build that trust online with your patients before they even walk through the door, before they even want to make a phone call with you. So I just want to talk about like how is AI changing behavior, why our reviews like genuinely matter, how things are changing over there, things are shifting. there's some new algorithms if you're not familiar with how Google is switching it up for us, and really just trying to give you guys some preps because I believe that there are maybe some possibly three areas for a practice to focus on to really like   be the choice of your community. So we're big on making sure that we work. We work across the globe. We work across the nation. So seeing practices and how patients are making decisions from small boutique country villages to very metropolitan cities to places where there's not even like more than like five team members to choose from, to little isolated islands out in the Caribbean, you name it, we've seen it all. And so just really trying to help offices ⁓   look at things differently and to be observant. And so I want you guys to to realize that there's still ways to stand out. I think there's still ways for us to make big influences. And right now, AI is so new that we don't know all the ways of how it's working. And so just giving some tips and ideas to kind of have that healthy conversation of what is the innovative way for practices as of today, knowing that it could shift and change. But I believe that when we're on the cutting edge and we're being attentive to this, we're trying to stay   as up to date as possible without like killing ourselves off, I think is very important and very astute as CEOs. they have the phrase innovate or die. And I believe the practices do need to innovate. We do need to be on top of this. Otherwise we will get ⁓ dated very quickly. So ⁓ I think what was happening is patients are they used to rely a lot on referrals and I still think that that is a piece of it. But I will say it's a referrals and then it's a verify.   So they're verifying referrals. They're looking to see, hey, my friend told me this dental office. I'm gonna go double check it. And the way I'm gonna double check it is I'm gonna go read the reviews. I'm gonna check their website. I'm gonna look at social media. I'm gonna search online. Do you how many people are looking? Like you guys, I just went on a trip. I asked Chat GPT. I said, build me out the best hotels, the best locations. So people are starting to use AI. It's not all algorithm from the reviews and different pieces. It's pulling from that, but it's also not there. So we're kind of all looking like AI tells me this and I'm gonna go check the reviews. So   We're starting to have a lot more pieces to that. And so I really do believe like your online presence is a lot of times the exact first impression. And we're looking at evaluating trust before they come in and they're going to like evaluate your treatment. So can I trust this? Do they have a good online presence? And I know that that's annoying because not all the best practices are the ones with the highest reviews. However, society and for years of training of five stars, we're starting to learn that that's what we trust.   So I believe that there can be two practices side by side, similar services. One has recent reviews and online engagement and like very clear online presence. The other one hasn't updated anything in years. Patients are gonna look at both of those side by side and they're most likely probably gonna choose the one with the great reviews. Even if they're identical practices, even if they do the great same dream, even if the one who doesn't have a strong online presence is better, people don't know that. And it like you have to be present, you have to be winning online in order for people to want to come and work with you. So   For me, it's you've got to make sure you're building that trust online. You've got places where people can see you. And we have to remember different types of buyers are going to look at this differently. So if your demographic and population is going to be a more senior patient base, you might still be newspaper flyers, ⁓ having webinars, CE, things like that, where you're in person with them more. If your demographic is anything of like 60 and younger, they're probably online. not all the 60, like from the 50 to 60 range, that's still variable.   But anyone pushing that 50, they are in that realm where they have been trained with reviews and looking online and things like that. So, and regardless if your patient base is older, you have to remember that next wave of patients coming that are probably going to be your patients long term. They are that younger generation. So people don't want just recommendations anymore. They want confirmation. Like I want to trust. I think that in the world of AI where people are really questioning what's real, what's not real.   We're asking for referrals. We're verifying online. We're trying to put all the pieces together because we're inundated with so much noise that people are really trying to sift through the noise to figure it out. So ⁓ I think if you one one call to action on that is like re review your online presence this week as if you're a brand new patient. What's our social media look like? What are our reviews saying? When was our most recent review? What's our worst review? It's okay to have a bad review. Like it truly is. How you respond to that bad review is actually going to weed out patients and it's also going to show people a lot about you.   It's okay to not have the best reviews. It's not okay to have a lot of bad reviews, but it is okay because guess what? Everybody goes on there and the first thing we do is we look for the newest and then we go for the worst. We want to see, we want to see what happened. That's what's also going to make you stand out is real. I don't want you having a lot of bad reviews, but it's okay if you do. It just depends on how you respond and also pay attention. Are there things that you can fix and change with those reviews? Sometimes even calling those patients can help with those reviews. But look at that, see, go ask people to like type into Chat GPT.   Go do it on your own. See if you pull up, see where things are at. Are you the most recommended dentist? Look at those items. If you're not pushing like five, six, seven, eight hundred reviews right now. A lot of people are going to gloss over because there are other dentists that are going to whoop you because they've got like they're going to beat you in the race because they have more reviews than you. So that leads into our second thing of reviews really are becoming word-of-mouth marketing. And they're not just nice to nice to have anymore. They truly are like part of the patient experience. And so   You've got to have consistent review generation. You've got to have reviews that are talking about patients' stories. You got to have team involvement asking for feedback. Now, a latest update with Google algorithm is if they have the team member's name in there, they're starting to like disqualify some of those. I did have a practice tell us that they lost like 15 reviews in one day. Now, this feels a little weird to me, and I hope Google's listening. Not that I think they care about Dental A Team podcast, but I hope they do. Because to me, I'm like, I actually want patients to talk about.   their team. I understand that there's ways that we can gamify the system and we can like have our team members try to get their names and reviews. However, a lot of people are going to talk great about it. So in our mastermind, we were talking, we do have a dentist who has over 1500 reviews and she said where she's actually getting the reviews is right at the end of the appointment when they're checking out. They are asking for reviews right then and there and the text message is going to that patient while they are still in the practice. And people are like, we don't want that. Like they're busy on that. And I was like, guys, she has 1500 reviews.   I think she's got something going really, really well for her. She's figured it out. She's doing an incredible job and they're going for it. So this is something where like mistakes on reviews are where we only ask occasionally. You've got to be very consistent. We've got to be asking every single time. ⁓ we don't want reviews to be an extra task. Like, we don't want to ask for reviews when there's a problem. We're like once in a blue moon. You've got to have a steady stream of consistent reviews coming through. I love Swell. Swell's been one of my best best.   Review generators across the board. I've tried tons of them. I personally love Swell. You guys can tell them Dental A Team sent you. We still get like OG back at the very beginning when Zeke and Kiera met when we were just babies building our businesses. And Zeke still honors that pricing over there. So definitely would recommend them. It's Swell ⁓ dot I think it's CX. It's been a while since I've said their website, Swell dot CX. sorry, Sw Swell CX.com, I believe is their website. And   Head on over there, the SwellCx.com, let them Dental A Team sent you. It is truly one of the absolute best review places, but putting it right then and there, asking for it, having them go through. Some people use their computer softwares. Regardless, you need to be attracting and getting reviews on a consistent basis. And I'm talking like one, two, three, four, five a day. Yes, I said a day, because think about it. If you have two hygienists, if you've got four hygienists, if you've got six hygienists,   We are seeing eight patients a day. So minimum you're probably seeing 16 patients a day on hygiene side. Doctor side's probably pulling in at least eight more. You're seeing like 30 to 50 patients per day on a low end, up to like 100, 150 on a high end, even up to 200. Pediatric, you're seeing a ton. So think about if we're only getting like even 5% of those patients are leaving a review. That's a very small amount that I believe that we can all get trickling in there. So reviews.   At scale, they are going to build trust. So think about it: the best restaurants, the best thing, but be a practice that's review-worthy. We've talked about this on so many other podcasts. We can link some of those for you. But make sure that your practice is doing an incredible experience because you want to have a consistent review process instead of hoping that reviews will happen naturally. You've got to be asking for it. And I know that that's annoying, I know it's awkward.   Do believe me. Do you think I like coming on here and be like, hey guys, leave us a review? So if you want to feel good about a review, go leave us a review. Give five stars on Dental A Team, give five stars on our podcast. It feels good to leave reviews. And so that way you can also feel good asking for it. And it's something where just like working out doesn't feel good at the beginning, but then it feels real good. This is just asking people to like share their great experience with the world about you. There is nothing wrong. If you've done a great service, ask those people to share about it. It's a great way for more patients like them to find you.   So that's gonna be like step two. And then step three around that is going to be like, I do believe that local trust is becoming a very big competitive advantage. So technology is growing, AI is growing, but I still believe that like trust still wins and having local people and consistent people like building that local trust. So having those reviews, having those referrals, having raving patients. I just came from an office. I'm so proud of them. They've grown from four ops into 15 ops, and now they're looking to add on to 25 ops. So   it's only been a couple of years. I think we've been together about four and a half years. So really fun. And to see them, they're getting patients looking at their reviews, having people tell them that they're a great dentist and they want to go. But it's just a consistent patient experience. It's community involvement, strong referrals, team consistency, follow-through. And I'll say just being good humans, like treating patients like humans. ⁓ patients, I believe they want confidence, they want connection, and they want credibility and they want to know that you're you're authentic.   Again, we talked about there's so much out there that's not authentic. We've got so many people and it's like, what's real? I went, I was doing a gym photo shoot and they're like, pick photos that you like. And I showed my trainer which ones and she's like, Kiera, you picked all AI photos. And I was like, Well, shoot, that's not even fun. Like, we don't even know what's real or not real. Things look so real and they're not. So people still want to know that it's real and authentic. And so having a great patient experience, having it where you're involved in the community, ⁓ being the dentist that the community chooses, being a part of things.   Being a human, having authentic connection to your patients, giving them confidence and having a team that really backs you is, I believe, a lot of great ways for you to still be competitive, even in spite of a world that's so, so advanced in technology. ⁓ and I really do believe that private practices have a huge competitive advantage of treating people like people. ⁓ I think it's like the Ritz-Carlton's tagline is ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Like, what if it was like,   Dental professionals serving, like human beings serving human beings. We're just here to serve them and to love them and help them have this amazing experience at a place where most people don't even enjoy being. So I believe that technology might help patients find you. I believe that trust, connection, consistency, continuity is what's going to help them continue to choose you long term. And I want you to remember that just because a patient's been seeing you forever doesn't mean that they're with you forever.   I do believe that every time they come to you, it is an opportunity to rewin their trust to bring them in, to help them, to help them see that this is ⁓ the the best decision that they could ever make. So really truly you've got to be visible because visibility gets attention, the trust, the connection, the community, it keeps the patients with you. So look at your practice and see like, what are we doing every week to build trust with our patients? How are we making sure that we're genuine and authentic? What is that our culture? Is that what we preach?   go read the reviews, see what people are saying about you, ⁓ look to see where people are referring and just be good humans. Like I I know that seems so silly, but be a great human goes a long way. I think it's starting to become the currency that people are looking for of being kind, being considerate, being connected, being authentic. ⁓ so again, remember patients are looking for that proof before they even make the phone call. So you've got to be visible, you've got to have reviews, you've got to have things out there. ⁓   Reviews are like your modern word of mouth. So they're gonna read, people are gonna look at it, they're going to see. And then having that local trust, that community connection can be a great differentiator. So that's a great way to stand out. It's a good way for people to talk. Have your care to share cards, give them to people. We had podcasts on that. Like remind people to share you with their friends and their family because I still believe that referrals are one of the fastest ways to grow your practice and be the dentist that people want to refer. I think that that's probably my like final line. Like   Be the dentist, be the dental practice that people want to refer to. And I think if that's your mantra, that's your mindset, you're gonna win every single day. I wanna be the dental consulting company that people refer to. I wanna be the consulting company that when you need help, you think about us. I wanna be your best friend in the industry. I wanna be the person that you can count on to always give you non-filtered advice to truly give you the best of the advice. I will constantly be elevating myself and I wanna be that person for you. I wanna be the dental consulting company that dentists choose and the teams choose, ⁓ that they trust that they know that are gonna take care of them.   And I hope that you want to be the dental practice that your community chooses. So go out because really you can continue to win patients over. AI is coming in, technology's coming in. You've got to be visible. It's non-negotiable. You have to do it. It's just what it is. You got to check yourself there. You've got to be present there first. And then you got to make sure that that what we say online is what we really do. And in person is actually better than out there. If we can help you guys, this is what we do. We improve patient experiences, we improve.   How to ask. We help get your teams on board to ask for those reviews. we help make it very fun for teams and for owners. So reach out. I'd love to help you out. As always, guys, don't fall behind. Innovate or die. Be the dentist that the community chooses. Be the dentist that you're proud of. Be the practice that you're proud of. ⁓ be authentic to you, but make sure that you're visible because I would hate for somebody who's not as great as you.   Just because they have a stronger online presence, patients are going to them when I know you're the better dentist. I know that you have the great hand skills. And I'm not here to pit dentists against each other. I'm here to say, I want the best dentist, which is you listening, to win. You're the best dentist, you get the best treatment. Patients only have 32 teeth, and most of the time they only have 28. And I want those 28 teeth to be taken care of for as long as possible from the best dentist. And that's you. So get yourself visible. You have an obligation to share yourself with other people because they deserve to have the best clinician. They deserve to have that.   Get the review so people know about you, post on social media, and then make sure that you've got a great connection and a great community. If we can help you out, reach out. I'd love to help you. Like I said, I want to be the dental consulting company that you choose, that you share with. And I believe that that's how most of our practices feel about us. So come be a part of it. I'd love to have you be a part of us. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

On today's episode, this Part 2 conversation features Jake Conway continuing his April 2026 Mastermind presentation with a deeper look at hygiene performance, owner compensation, cash flow strategy, and practice valuation. Jake explains how hygiene production impacts payroll, fixed costs, doctor production, and overall profitability, while showing how KPIs like perio percentage, fluoride, open hygiene time, exam mix, and production-to-pay ratios can reveal the true causes behind underperformance.  He also outlines how owners can think about paying themselves as both clinicians and owner-operators, including W-2 salary, distributions, gap pay, break-even targets, and capital reserves. The session wraps with a practical look at practice valuations, adjusted net income, EBITDA, doctor-to-doctor sales, and how owner production can directly influence the value of a practice in a DSO or private equity transaction. Be sure to check out the full episode from the Dentalpreneur Podcast! EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast

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In this episode, Stan Kinder, President of EverythingDSO,LLC and publisher of the Dental Growth and Exit newsletter, discusses the evolving DSO landscape, the growing role of AI in dental practices, and shifting trends in payer participation. He also shares why successful dental organizations will be those that prioritize providers, patients, and strong business leadership.

Join dental entrepreneurs George Hariri, Matt Guarino, and Matt Ford as they break down the realities of running their national DSO, Shared Practices Group. They tackle the triumphs and tribulations of scaling a business, answer your burning questions (submit yours at bdppod.com), and delve into life's other adventures - from health and parenting to sports and politics. It's business, banter, and everything in between. Tune in and join the BDP community today!  

Basil and I talked about his native language Shona and his transitions from Zimbabwe to the U.S. as an international college student. What did he think about the food and other cultural differences? Why does he choose to stay in the US after his education? Contact Basil basilmasaisai@gmail.comIf you enjoy this episode, I recommend...➡️ Ep117 Between Two Worlds: Zimbabwe to the U.S. ft. Vongai Chokuda➡️ Ep99 After Graduation, Now What? ft. Celine➡️ Ep109 I Got Kicked Out From DMV ft. Suman Sirivella (1)➡️ Ep73 A Story & Tips from a DSO ft. Lindsey Hobson➡️ Ep83 A Ghanaian and Her Hair ft. Hayil

In this episode, Stan Kinder, President of EverythingDSO,LLC and publisher of the Dental Growth and Exit newsletter, discusses the evolving DSO landscape, the growing role of AI in dental practices, and shifting trends in payer participation. He also shares why successful dental organizations will be those that prioritize providers, patients, and strong business leadership.

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Accounts receivable is still more manual than it should be, with teams juggling inconsistent payment data, slow processes, and limited visibility into what's actually coming in. In this episode, Jamie Delmedico talks through why reconciliation takes so long, where ERP systems fall short, and how AI is starting to change the way AR teams manage cash flow. For CFOs, finance leaders, and AR teams, it's a practical guide to reducing DSO, improving visibility, and removing unnecessary complexity from the process.

In this episode, Howard Farran reconnects with longtime friend Dr. Ben Wachter, a Mesa, Arizona native and 2017 graduate of A.T. Still University whose career has been shaped by service, perseverance, and a passion for caring for the underserved. Ben opens up about the mentor who changed his life — the late Dr. Tim Lukowski — who inspired him to leave a path toward medical school, took him on his first mission trips to Mexico, and believed in him through three rounds of dental school applications. The conversation moves through Ben's remarkable commitment to charitable care, including 10 dental mission trips to Mexico, his work with Arizona Sunshine and the Arizona Mission of Mercy, and his role in helping create clinics that serve those who need it most. He also reflects on training under implant and sedation experts like Dr. Richard Feldhake and Tom Mattern, launching the first special care clinic with Pacific Dental Services in Scottsdale, and building his skills across oral conscious sedation, IV sedation, and general anesthesia for patients with special needs. Howard and Ben also get candid about the realities facing new graduates — how to read a DSO contract, why the "owner doc" model can be misleading, the importance of looking closely at the numbers before taking a job, and the staffing and hygienist shortages that make rural practice both rewarding and challenging. The episode closes with Ben sharing the story behind his invention, the Nova Flow Adapter — an affordable, autoclavable, Arizona-made alternative to pricey isolation systems — and a shared reflection on why missionary dentistry has a way of resetting a burned-out clinician's soul.   Episode #1710 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with friend and fellow Arizonan, Dr. Ben Wachter — a Mesa, Arizona native and general dentist whose career has been built on service, grit, and a deep commitment to underserved patients. From applying to dental school three times, to 10 mission trips to Mexico, to launching a special care clinic and inventing his own affordable dental tool — Ben's story is a reminder of why so many of us got into this profession in the first place.

Join dental entrepreneurs George Hariri, Matt Guarino, and Matt Ford as they break down the realities of running their national DSO, Shared Practices Group. They tackle the triumphs and tribulations of scaling a business, answer your burning questions (submit yours at bdppod.com), and delve into life's other adventures - from health and parenting to sports and politics. It's business, banter, and everything in between. Tune in and join the BDP community today!  

We explore the very high times of the Grateful Dead's 1966, touring Rancho Olompali with Rosie McGee, swan-diving into Owsley's magical banana box of mystery reels, and celebrating the feral young Dead heard on the new July 3rd, 1966 Fillmore Auditorium release.Guests: Rosie McGee, Ron Rakow, Bob Matthews, David Freiberg, David Lemieux, HawkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bill Powers and co-host Brian Leni sit down for their monthly Junior Mining Insights chat, recorded amid a sharp pullback in gold (down to ~$4,000 from a ~$5,500 high) and broad weakness across junior mining stocks. Topics covered: • Handling portfolio drawdowns — Bill shares being down 43% on a recent junior mining buy, and the two discuss how pre-assessing downside/upside risk (and tranche buying) helps investors stay rational during volatility • Bear-market psychology — why uncertain, quiet markets (especially summer) can be the best time to pick off quality companies with less competition • Rick Rule's "market as a facility" philosophy and how price action, while not predictive, still reflects real-time sentiment • Building and using a watch list — assigning value targets ahead of time so sell-offs can be acted on with discipline rather than panic • Discerning a real capitulation bottom — separating share-price drops tied to company-specific issues (management departures, forced sellers) from broader macro noise • Red flags from management meetings — Bill recounts recent CEO conversations from the Mining Event of the North (Quebec City) and Zoom calls, including executives running multiple companies and weak articulation of "undervaluation" • CEO archetypes — technical vs. promotional leadership, and why a mix of credibility and communication skill matters most at the sub-$50M market cap level • Direct Ship Ore (DSO) as a sector trend — both hosts express skepticism about companies leaning on DSO/bulk-sampling narratives without offtake agreements, permitting groundwork, or community buy-in; Bill outlines his go-to due diligence questions (offtake LOI status, trucking/permitting feasibility) • Canada's new semi-annual reporting pilot for smaller junior miners and mixed views on reduced disclosure requirements • Listener feedback segment — a note about industry jargon (e.g., "geos") prompts a discussion on why learning sector terminology is part of the investing process 0:00 Market Volatility Reality Check 1:36 Tranche Buying in Uncertainty 3:39 Reading Price Versus Narrative 7:17 Watchlists and Patience 9:30 Timing the Next Bull Run 12:13 Spotting Capitulation Bottoms 16:53 CEO Credibility and Financing Plans 23:17 Technical Versus Promotional CEOs 28:51 Bear Market Strategy and Niche Metals 32:38 Trading Not Investing 33:57 Marketing Premium Setup 34:30 Semiannual Reporting Debate 37:46 CFO Role Questions 38:41 Conference Takeaways 39:44 Direct Ship Ore Trend 42:09 DSO Hype Warning 44:49 DSO Due Diligence 51:30 Bigger Beats Faster 54:33 Learning The Jargon Brian's website: https://www.juniorstockreview.com/ Brian's YT: https://www.youtube.com/@FIELD_NOTES Bill's Twitter: https://x.com/MiningStockEdu Sign up for our free newsletter and receive interview transcripts, stock profiles and investment ideas: http://eepurl.com/cHxJ39 Bill and Brian are not licensed financial advisors. Mining Stock Education offers informational content based on available data but it does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. It may not be appropriate for all situations or objectives. Readers and listeners should seek professional advice, make independent investigations and assessments before investing. MSE does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of its content and should not be solely relied upon for investment decisions. MSE and its owner may hold financial interests in the companies discussed and can trade such securities without notice. MSE is biased towards its advertising sponsors which make this platform possible. MSE is not liable for representations, warranties, or omissions in its content. By accessing MSE content, users agree that MSE and its affiliates bear no liability related to the information provided or the investment decisions you make. Full disclaimer: https://www.miningstockeducation.com/disclaimer/

Scott Graversen, Director of Facility & Dental Equipment Management of Smile Brands shares his insights on: Update on Smile Brands Managing facilities and equipment at scale Procurement & vendor partner strategies To learn more about Smile Brands visit: https://smilebrands.com/ You can connect with Scott Graversen on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-graversen/ Subscribe to our channel for more episodes and stay updated on the latest DSO news, insights, and events! If you like our podcast, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on iTunes https://apple.co/2Nejsfa and a Thumbs Up on YouTube.

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What happens when the weight of practice ownership gets too heavy, but partnership and selling don't work out? In this Fail Forward episode, Dr. Michelle Jorgensen discusses her challenging journey in dealing with practice partnerships and selling to a DSO (two major choices that didn't pan out as expected.) Listen as she shares her revolutionary "ecosystem of a dental practice" concept that categorizes ownership duties, establishing clarity in responsibility, and fostering effective partnerships. If you're struggling with managing your practice's growth or considering partnerships, this episode provides valuable insights you won't want to miss. Discover the wisdom behind Dr. Jorgensen's story and persevere toward better practice leadership today!‍‍Listen to Michelle's Other Episodes Here:480: How to Create a Practice Focused on Your Team and Patient's Wellbeing | Dr. Michelle Jorgensen – The Dental Marketer Podcast‍Host: Michael AriasJoin my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍Love the Podcast? Follow on Your Favorite App! https://lnkfi.re/TDMPod

Join dental entrepreneurs George Hariri, Matt Guarino, and Matt Ford as they break down the realities of running their national DSO, Shared Practices Group. They tackle the triumphs and tribulations of scaling a business, answer your burning questions (submit yours at bdppod.com), and delve into life's other adventures - from health and parenting to sports and politics. It's business, banter, and everything in between. Tune in and join the BDP community today!  

Dr. Marc Faber, CEO & Founder of Edge Dental Management joins the show for his second appearance. Dr. Faber discusses: How Edge leverages clinical efficiency to create successful practices NYC's newest dental school: Yeshiva University College of Dental Medicine  Using solutions like Isolite for efficiency & patient satisfaction More To learn more about Isolite Systems visit: https://www.zyris.com/ To learn more about Yeshiva Unversity's 3 year dental education program visit: https://www.dental.yu.edu/ If you'd like to connect with Dr. Marc Faber you can find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-faber-a63706196/ Subscribe to our channel for more episodes and stay updated on the latest DSO news, insights, and events! If you like our podcast, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on iTunes https://apple.co/2Nejsfa and a Thumbs Up on YouTube.

The Deadcast explores Steal Your Face's iconic artwork & visits the Grateful Dead's June 1976 return to the road, including a tour of the Dead Head culture that bloomed in their absence.Guests: Richard Loren, John Scher, Ron Rakow, Eugene Dolgoff, Pat Lee, Johnny Dwork, Dave Davis, Rob Bleetstein, John Brackett, Starfinder Stanley, David LemieuxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, the Dental Amigos welcome Thad Miller, Founder, CEO, and Dental Transition Advisor of DDSmatch. Thad is a nationally recognized dental industry leader with more than 30 years of experience helping dentists navigate practice ownership transitions. Through DDSmatch, he has helped facilitate over $1 billion in practice sales while building one of the largest dental transition networks in the country. In this episode, Thad shares his journey from dental industry veteran to founder of DDSmatch and discusses why successful practice transitions require much more than finding a buyer. He explores the importance of early planning, understanding all available transition options, evaluating DSO and private buyer opportunities, maintaining clean financial records, building trust throughout the process, and creating a legacy-focused transition that benefits sellers, buyers, teams, and patients alike. To learn more about Thad Miller and DDSmatch, visit [www.ddsmatch.com](http://www.ddsmatch.com). Listeners who want to reach Paul can do so at [Paul@DentalNachos.com](mailto:Paul@DentalNachos.com) and those who want to reach Rob can do so at [Rob@RMontgomery-law.com](mailto:Rob@RMontgomery-law.com). Links Mentioned in This Episode: • DDSmatch: https://www.ddsmatch.com • Match Play Podcast: https://www.ddsmatch.com/match-play-podcast

Join dental entrepreneurs George Hariri, Matt Guarino, and Matt Ford as they break down the realities of running their national DSO, Shared Practices Group. They tackle the triumphs and tribulations of scaling a business, answer your burning questions (submit yours at bdppod.com), and delve into life's other adventures - from health and parenting to sports and politics. It's business, banter, and everything in between. Tune in and join the BDP community today!  

In this episode, we unpack the consolidation of private practices and the growing influence of Dental Support Organizations. While many independent dentists view consolidation as a threat, Peter and Craig argue it may actually create one of the greatest opportunities the profession has ever seen. They explore the economic forces driving DSO growth, including insurance arbitrage, private equity investment, rising operating costs, and changing ownership models. But beyond the numbers, the conversation focuses on something much more important: what independent dentists can offer that large organizations often cannot. Peter, Craig, and Ian discuss why personalized care, strong patient relationships, community, and entrepreneurial freedom remain powerful competitive advantages. They challenge the idea that independent practice is becoming obsolete and explain why dentists who embrace leadership, innovation, and business education may be better positioned than ever before. The discussion also explores AI, technology, customer experience, insurance dynamics, and the future of practice ownership. As dentistry becomes increasingly consolidated, the question isn't whether the industry is changing. It's whether practice owners are willing to evolve with it. The golden era of dentistry isn't behind us. It belongs to the dentists willing to build it. If you've ever wondered what the future holds for independent practice ownership, this episode is for you. DESCRIPTION The Bulletproof Dental Podcast Episode: 445 HOSTS: Dr. Peter Boulden, Dr. Craig Spodak, and Ian de Jongh In this episode, Peter Boulden, Craig Spodak, and Ian de Jongh explore the rise of DSOs, the accelerating consolidation of dentistry, and what these trends mean for independent practice owners. The conversation examines the economic realities driving consolidation, the advantages and challenges of private practice ownership, and why community, leadership, technology, and patient experience may become the defining factors separating thriving practices from struggling ones in the years ahead. TAKEAWAYS DSO consolidation continues to reshape the dental industry Insurance arbitrage remains a major driver of acquisitions Independent practices still possess significant competitive advantages Personalized patient care is difficult to replicate at scale Community creates resilience during periods of industry change Leadership and business education matter more than ever Technology and AI will accelerate practice evolution Customer experience can become a powerful differentiator The future belongs to adaptable practice owners Consolidation creates both risks and opportunities Dentists must actively choose their path rather than react to industry trends The golden era of dentistry is still available to those willing to build it TIME STAMPS 00:00:00 - Introduction and Welcome 00:00:43 - Discussion on DSOs 00:01:34 - Statistics on DSO Growth 00:03:07 - Impact of Interest Rates on DSOs 00:04:21 - Historical Perspective on DSOs 00:05:15 - Comparison with Dermatology and Veterinary Practices 00:07:05 - Relationship-Based Nature of Dentistry 00:08:33 - Business Coaching in Dentistry 00:10:02 - Pause in DSO Consolidation 00:10:17 - Example of DSO Unwinding 00:12:09 - Financial Distress in DSOs 00:13:01 - Rollover Equity in DSO Sales 00:14:47 - Importance of Upfront Cash in DSO Deals 00:16:00 - Independent Dentists Thriving 00:18:20 - Personalization of Care 00:18:49 - Example of Personalized Service 00:20:52 - Customer Service in Dentistry 00:22:46 - DSO vs. Independent Practice Quality 00:24:02 - SOPs in DSOs 00:26:06 - Moats for Independent Practices 00:28:28 - ADA Statistics on DSO Affiliation 00:29:01 - Macro Factors Affecting Consolidation 00:31:14 - Insurance Arbitrage in DSOs 00:33:01 - AI and Service Businesses 00:34:27 - Future of Independent Dentistry 00:36:09 - Importance of Community 00:37:03 - Power in Numbers for Independent Dentists 00:37:34 - Personal Experience with DSO Sale 00:39:09 - Paycheck Advance Analogy 00:40:15 - Summary and Closing Remarks 00:42:27 - Outro and Call to Action

The Deadcast tells the dramatic story of when the Hells Angels put ex-Grateful Dead Records president Ron Rakow on trial for walking away from the Dead with $225,000 he believed the band owed him.Guests: Ron Rakow, Steve Brown, Terry Haggerty, John Scher, David Lemeiux See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Part two of Kiera's conversation with Howard Farran on the Dentaltown podcast. As a business owner, the greatest gift you can give yourself is to get systems in place so you are not dependent on core people. This second part of Kiera's conversation with Howard is about determining your weaknesses as a practice, building systems to fix those weaknesses, and letting your practice hum regardless of who's sitting in the seats. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and quick heads up, today's episode is a special repost from a podcast I joined as a guest. It is a great conversation for practice owners who want to progress without carrying everything. I cannot wait for you to hear it. Let's dive right in.   speaker-0 (00:16) And you know, I was doing a million dollars in the eighties, a million dollar practice, and I went to two and and I I thought I actually think I had a higher treatment plan acceptance rate than my buddies on just measuring the same day. My clothes is always like, you don't want to come back. I mean, we could you know, I'm when I'm doing the hygiene check, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna leave. The hygienist gonna Denise Missy, they'll numb me up.   speaker-1 (00:21) They're like eight million now there, Howard.   speaker-0 (00:44) And and then and then move her to room eight and we'll we'll we'll knock this out in 30 minutes because you don't want to drive all way from work and then kid and school. You just pulled your kid out of school, now you want to do it twice. It I just always s insisted on just the same day because if we do this because from my perspective, if we do this filling a day, it's two fifty. If you walk out that door, half of you never come back until it hurts, and then it's a twenty five hundred dollar root connected crown.   speaker-1 (00:50) Amen.   speaker-0 (01:12) It's only one tenth the price to do the filling. I got a room. The hygienist can numb you up. And then I always hit the hygienist on the show and said, You should have numbed her up before I got here and I could be doing it right now. And she laughed and she said, but that's illegal. I said, I'm not a lawyer. I'm a dentist. Let's get this done. But just by really leaning on same day. And I really think that was a huge part of our success.   speaker-1 (01:37) Well, and Howard, I think what you said is like going back to the COVID crank, I think so many business businesses right now have lost that like customer service and let's make it easy. Like, as you said, one of our core values in Dental A Team is ease. And I'm always like, How can you make it easy for everybody? Because that's what people want. Like you said, like no one wants to take time off for the dentist. I'm switching dentists right now and they're like, So you're gonna come in for a hour appointment and then we'll bring you back in like three months for your hygienist. And I told my assistant, I was like, just call them back. I was like, tell them no, no, no, like   Make it easy. I don't want to come back. And so I think when offices take on the mentality, I have grown practices 10, 20, $30,000 a month just by same day treatment. Like just get it done. Let's train our team. Like, let's be quick. Let's have that quick turnaround time. Now, of course, doctors, you've got to be like Howard can get that done and he can rock it out and he's great. If you're a dentist that is not quite that quick, like we do not want to scale back all your patients. So maybe you do like add, add on an extra filling that's already in the quad that you're getting numb.   Like, where can we do it? Can we add that fluoride in today? Can we add in this thing? Can we take the scan today? Because you're right, no patient wants to take time off of work to come to the dentist. So like let's just rock it out, make them a raving fan because we went above and beyond to make them happy.   speaker-0 (02:49) And and and it also is a good variance counterbalance to no shows and cancellations. You know, she said yes, and then your next patient didn't show up as opposed to reschedule this one a week from now and then then this doesn't show up. But hey, I want to ask you, I'm gonna hold your feet to the fire on this. True. Would you rather build a dental office on rock star employees or rock star systems?   speaker-1 (03:16) ⁓ this one is I think the this it's ⁓ it's interesting because I think that there's space for both. However, Rockstar employees can walk out that door and then you are left. And I say that this to me is where as a business owner, you're shackled and you're always going to feel scared. You're gonna feel scared to hold accountability, you're gonna feel scared to ask people to do their job because you're so afraid of them leaving. Whereas if you have systems, I'm not here to say be a jerk, like that's not what we're here for, but it becomes so much easier to just   plug and play. And then also for team members, they tend to stay longer because they understand they've got clear systems. And people get really weird on systems, Howard. And I think they feel like systems are so hard. And it's like, I'd rather just bring someone in who knows what they're doing. And I'm like, but make that repeatable. So if they're out and I make my rock stars go on vacation for a week. I'm like, absolutely. And people are like, no, no, no. I don't want them to leave. And I'm like, you need them to leave because you need to see where it breaks down and you need to build systems. But I will say as a business owner, the greatest gift you can give yourself   is to get systems in place where you are not dependent on those core people. Like I want great team members that love my patience and do what they have, but I want it to be a repeatable process that every time, no matter if I've got Susie, Sarah, Jenny, Mike, John, anybody, we're giving the exact same experience. Like I look at Chick-fil-A and it's the same amazing experience. Every time I walk in there, they say the same thing and none of us are annoyed by that. And teams are super happy and thriving. I interviewed a guy who's a big wig in Chick-fil-A and I was   Fascinated by the culture. I was like, tell me more about this. And he's like, we have systems. We have buddy systems. We have it built on systems. That is the core to great success. And it's the core to like less stress in your business. Like obsessively, I am so obsessed about simple systems. I've been called the Dr. Seuss of systems. Make it so simple that anyone can do it. And then hire amazing talent that treats your patients with the great culture that you want.   speaker-0 (05:08) Yeah, and if the systems are so good, they don't even have to have dental experience. I mean, I the best receptionist I had was the the teller at Chase Bank next to me and I absolutely said her, I said, You are so dang good. You're always happy, always you remember my name. I said, What do I have to do to get you to work for me? And she she told me and she's been here for you know, over a decade. just the same things.   speaker-1 (05:36) Howard, I want to highlight, I hope dentists listen to you. ⁓ there are not a lot of dentists that are scrap like you. And that's something I love about you. And this is just like a little, it's not intentional, like boost your ego, but like please take it. Like it's a good boost. You are so scrap, right? It's like, let's just get that done. Like again, like let's do same-day treatment. My best employee in the company was my next door neighbor. I knocked on her door. She like took care of my plants when I traveled. She's like, those things are gonna die. I was like, the fact that someone as a neighbor just watered my plants to be nice to me.   She's been amazing. She's been with me five years, best incredible EA I've ever had. You ask the bank teller. We look for great talent. You build on systems. And I just hope the dentists realize like, just saying yes and GSDing, like, let's just get it done. That is something that I think so many people have like lost that art. And truly, that's what impresses me with your podcast, with who you are. And I just hope that people here, you don't have to go for perfect. You don't have to find this perfect person. You just gotta be scrappy and gritty.   And your practice will grow and you'll have great team members with you. Like it's not actually hard. And I think we make it hard, but just hearing your examples, I hope people listen as a dentist, this is what makes successful dentists in dental offices and great team culture as well. That is the core vote values that he's got. And it is why he's so successful. And I hope dentists can learn from that.   speaker-0 (06:53) Well, thank you. And I got did I ever tell you a story about the third hygienist they hired? I I already had my two full time hygienists, everything was great. And ⁓ this ⁓ young girl walked in, just graduated straight out of hygiene school, and I could hear someone giggling up front and they said I was busy, you know, she wanted to talk to me and then she just took it upon herself just to just to walk through the office and I I er and anyway, long story short, I finally got done. I broke, I met her.   speaker-1 (06:57) Tell me, I'm ready.   speaker-0 (07:20) And had no opening for hygiene, and she was so into the office, and she's asking all the right. I can just feel her energy, she's like sucking out my soul. And I and the first thought I said is she's from Alwatukee, she lives in Alwatuki. Do you want to compete against this girl for the next 40 years? Or you know you want her on your team, you don't have room for her on their team, but she ain't gonna end up across the street. I hired her and told everybody we'll just have to figure it out because this is a rock star personality.   I mean, you know, she just walking through like she owned the place and probably probably one of the top two or three, her and Jan, probably the best employees I ever had. I mean, unbelievable. ⁓ how do you get the dentist to stop being the limit to his own growth? I mean, it's it seems like I don't know about dental school curriculums, and it seems like shooting yourself in the foot has got to be the first and the last course they teach you there. How do you get the dentist to quit being the ceiling to their own practice?   speaker-1 (08:21) Think it's a I actually want to just like shout out a lot of the dentists. I feel that the new generation of dentists coming through actually are very prone and open to understanding business and recognizing there's so many books out there that talk about like CEOs and owners of businesses are the bottleneck to their success. And so I just want to say, like, I think a lot are starting to recognize that, but I think that there's still a lot that don't. And I I usually help people say, like,   When the pain is bad enough is usually when people change. Or you can recognize that you need to get yourself out of the weeds. You need to become the CEO of your business. You need to be working at the highest level of your ⁓ license. And everybody in your practice needs to be doing the same. And if you're not, like I do a delegation exercise. I just did it with our doctors on Tuesday. I was like, write down everything that you're working on right now, everything on your to-do list, everything there. And then I want you to go back through it and I want you to literally look at that and like only things that you can do. And like, please don't like   Boost your ego, but what are the things that only you could do? And I had a group of 50 doctors the other night and they were like, really, it's like vision, culture, and profitability. Like everything else can be someone else can do. And so when doctors recognize like that is your sweet spot and no one else is doing that, you need to have other people in there. Like you're welcome to hold it all yourself. But there's also another path where you can elevate people around you. You do great dentistry and you own the visionary and the CEO seat. Be obsessive in there.   But I think so many of them want to just do everything. I'm like, that's great, but you're gonna run right into burnout really quickly. So it's a helping them realize, go look at your to-do list. Honestly, of that, who can you delegate this to? Who can do it better than you? And who's gonna be somebody that's gonna light up and be excited about it and get yourself continually moving towards that CEO seat? I think so many dentists don't realize that they are a CEO of a multi-million dollar business. And I think, like, look at Jeff Bezos, look at some of these really prominent people.   That are great CEOs. What are they doing all day long? They are not answering emails. They're not responding to these things. Like they're not doing any of that. They've got teams around them that are incredible at that. How can you get yourself closer to that? Because that is where the practice flourishes. But if you're sitting there doing every single thing, you're stopping it constantly. It's truly a bottleneck. ⁓ and I think that's when people are ready for it, when people actually recognize that, there's there's two types of dentists. There's the one who calls when they're absolutely burnout, exhausted, and they can't see like past like one foot in front of them.   There's the other dentist that realizes I don't want to be that. I've seen too many dentists like that. And I want you to coach me into how to become like not there. And I say, like, life's so much easier. I have a dentist hired us two months before he started his practice. As a brand new practice owner, this year he should be clearing 2.5 million. And I'm like, why? Because he recognized, get out of the way, have these other people do it, train my team. I'm going to bottleneck this. I don't want to be burnt out. I want to be present for my kids.   Teach me how to be the CEO of my practice and empower my team. And so I'm like, again, it's choose your hard. Which path do you want to live? It's all in Wonderland. There's both, there's paths. It's just what path do you want to go on? And also what mentors and what people be the CEO of your practice. Do not be the operator that's doing it all.   speaker-0 (11:35) You know, I always call a great idea is I always call them a giraffe. I'll never forget when I took my kids ⁓ to a ⁓ Serengeti and the guide was so funny, he would he would all of a sudden he'd stop. Well he stopped for a reason. He's giving us a guide and and it was one of these long tour to trucks where you'd stand up in the middle and you look out, and after about five minutes, we just said, What? What? And he's like, It's right in front of you and we're just like, Well, we're looking all around, my boy, everybody's gonna find it.   And he says, Are you kidding me? Look at that tree. Look at to the left of that tree. And it was a giraffe standing right next to the tree. Totally camouflage. And that that's what I mean when I say, you know, they can't see the giraffe. And here's a missing giraffe for 40 years. Remember the great Jennifer D. St. George? She's still out there. I love her to death. And she had this lecture on schedule. It's called Rocks, Sand and Water. She goes, You gotta schedule your rocks first. Do all your rocks. And then she'd fill up a glass with rocks.   And then she say, Then you can do your sand. And she'd pour like a half glass of sand on top of the rocks and you still didn't have a full. And then she'd say, and then the water, then she'd take like a full bottle water and pour it in the sand and and it was still full. And I already know when you talked about block scheduling, I already know that at least fifty to a hundred and fifty percent of the dentists said, ⁓ I don't care if I do a root canal in the morning or night. I they they don't understand block scheduling.   They don't understand rock, standing water. They haven't for 40 years. Jennifer lectured for 40 years and and I still don't think anybody saw the giraffe. Can you just slow down and talk about you just made the example about how all you did was change the scheduling and you got the it up. So show that giraffe. What what does that giraffe look like?   speaker-1 (13:23) Well, thank you, Howard, because I do love giraffes. I do have freckles and have I've definitely been like and have a very long neck and I'm very tall. So I do love giraffes in and of itself. So thank you. Like let's just talk about it. ⁓ but I I agree. It's so I don't know. I think as a team member, you just get obsessed with making puzzles. And like for me, I'm like, how can I maximize and squeeze more juice out of your lemon tree? Like, let's just do it. It's gonna be a great time. ⁓ and so what I love to do is.   Like, let's just go through and build you a perfect day. And I love to build my rocks. And I used to do like high production. And then I learned it was even more fun if I put a dollar amount on those high production blocks. Because as a team member, like, hi, Kiera, I'm Kiera. I sit up front. I am now looking for puzzle pieces that are coming through my puzzle. And instead of just filling your day with a bunch of water, aka no production, I'm actually able to like fill you full.   Make sure I've got you up to production and then I move on to my next day. And then as I have my little water that comes through, I just fill in the gaps. And you, doctor, are so happy. And I did this with an office and the doctor was like used to making five, seven thousand dollars a day max. We got him to a twelve thousand dollar day and he walked out the door at four o'clock. And normally he was there till 536. And he's like, Here, how'd you do it? And I was like, Because we actually put in blocks, we actually scheduled it of what's the most efficient way to use your time.   And it's playing seduco in a schedule is how you really do it. It's like perfect. Where is the doctor? And then where does doctor need to be for hygiene exams? What does my hygienist need to be producing? How much period do I have? How many new patients do I have? Let's block those so I can get those people in on our schedule. Make sure my hygienists are up to goal every single day. So, like, what are they supposed to be producing? Usually three times their pay is typical. And then on the doctor side, doctors, what do we want to be producing for the year? What do we need to be producing per day? Let's build in those dollar amounts.   That is going to make you feel so easy to get through to get to exams where you're not running behind. And now let's figure this out. And when we go through, and I look to see how much procedures cost, how much like on average, how many new patients we need, how many SRPs we need, how many perio maintenance we need. And then you take those pieces, those are your rocks, and I'm gonna go build a schedule to where it actually flows really, really well. And then from there, I'm gonna duplicate that over every single week.   And what's crazy about it is when you do this, people realize they're gonna be walking out with $10 to $12,000 days, getting out on time. We're doing the easy stuff in the afternoon, the harder stuff in the morning or whatever you like to work. I don't care. And when people see how much they can produce with minimal effort, no extra patience and no extra time, like usually that's how it builds. You're able to, like you said, see the draft, but it's crazy because you're a happier dentist, you're not running behind all day long, and you're actually profitable. We hold those blocks, I usually say for 24 hours as team members.   And me as a treatment coordinator, I am scanning my canvas, I'm scanning my own scheduled treatment to find something of that dollar amount or that rock to fill in my blocks. And I'm not gonna put multiples in there. We're gonna make sure if you only have one root canal system, we're not putting two next to each other. If you have one implant system, I'm not doing two back to back. Like you just have it to where the day flows and 85% of your days will be great. And the other like, you know, 15% are like, shoot, we couldn't get anybody in it. We just fill it with whatever we can, get you up to that, put emergencies in there.   But that's how you do it. And it's so, it's so satisfying. I've got an office that they lost two doctors. So I've only got two doctors. We are producing as much as they were on four doctors with better blocks, better scheduling. And it's just incredible to see how much more efficient you can be with your time without more patience, more effort. And it's very, very fun and fulfilling. And when people follow it, they're shocked at how much their practice grows without any, like hardly any extra effort.   speaker-0 (17:07) Tell me, tell me this. Why do my DSO buddies, who have hundreds of office locations, tell me that that when someone calls their office, they can convert 70 to 80% of the people on the phone to getting their butt physically measured in the chair? And that in private practice, it routinely shows up at about 42%. How can Heartland   close seventy to eighty percent of the callers as measured by you called on the phone and now your butt is sitting in a chair in private practice forty two percent. What do you think explains that the most?   speaker-1 (17:44) I think Howard, it's they're obsessive about numbers. I have an office that works for Aspen and I've just watched like they are obsessive about KPIs and tracking and measuring. And I feel like in private practice, we don't track and measure nearly as much as they do. Like they've got metrics, they've got numbers, they're looking at it. And so what they do in Heartland and corporate, they're smart businesses. They look to see where is our leaky hole and how are we going to fix it. So I know what they're doing is they're watching their call conversions.   They're talking to their offices and they're setting this of like your goal is 75%. And this is the training and the verbiage. And we're going to track this and we're going to measure it because what we track and measure improves. And I like tell me a private practice out there that's like, we know our call percentage rate. None of them could probably tell us, but you ask a DSO and you better believe they're going to know all their metrics. And that's where I love like so many offices are obsessed about systems and what system do I put into place and how do I grow my practice? And I'm like,   Number one, let's figure out where you want to go and what's your vision. I call that why. And then E is earnings and profitability. Like based on those two things, based on where you want to go and what the profitability and our our numbers are, then you determine the systems. And then we look at those metrics of the profitability and our KPIs and the metrics, and you put systems into place for that. So these DSOs are so good at tracking and measuring. And like I've got a practice doing 29 million. And what we do is we have a scorecard. They know.   We just hit the most important things that are going to drive the needle forward and we watch those numbers like a hawk and that's all we coach and focus on. You coach and focus on those items, your practice will grow. But I promise you it's because they're tracking, measuring, and training to that and having metrics of what they need to hit. They're not better than us. They're just better at measuring and then improving those numbers.   speaker-0 (19:24) Well, they they say that just by weighing yourself at the same time every day will start bringing your weight down just because you're focusing on it. Totally. And things like that. ⁓ I want you to do the same thing to treatment plan. Why do you think most patients are saying no? And what's the draft that one of my homies could listen to right now that could help him increase his treatment plan acceptance rate?   speaker-1 (19:46) I think the no is just surface level. And what you gotta hear is what they're not saying. And I also would say a lot of people, they're like, it's about money. And I'm like, again, you're looking for reasons and you're gonna continue to find that. So for me, my mantra, and this is a great thing for the homies out there, my mantra is everybody says yes to me and everybody loves me. Like, no joke, I say that every time I'm going into a treatment plan. Why am I sitting here thinking about my gosh, they can't afford it or they can't do this? You're creating more of that.   Rather than going in with a confidence, they're buying your confidence. Like hands down, I can I can close a fifty thousand dollar case same day. Let's swipe a credit card, like let's buy a boat. But it's confidence. And I'm walking in there of like, we're doing this, we're doing it now. My job is just to figure out how you're paying for it. And so when we look at that case acceptance, I've coached an office and we've added, I've got five locations. All I do is train their treatment coordinators. I just rep them. We are constantly going through reps. We add   One to two million annually amongst those five offices just by focusing on it. And I'm like, it's 80% psychology. What are you thinking about? You walk in there, everybody loves me, everybody says yes to me, and let's make this happen. And I do it in a way where I love them. I give them like a warm virtual hug, like I'm not actually hugging. I want them to feel so comfortable, so confident. But then I also say, like, watch out. How are you using words? Words are free, Howard. Like, I'm not going to lead with, do you want to get this done? No, I'm going to assume they want to get this done.   Hey Howard, let's get that treatment done. So I'm gonna schedule you. Doctor is really busy. So I'm gonna do Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. ⁓ Kiera, I want to talk about fees. Howard, absolutely, I'm gonna talk about fees. Let's just make sure we get this time locked in. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which do you prefer? We schedule you on Wednesday. You're already halfway there for me. I've got you scheduled. Perfect. So treatment's gonna be this amount. This is what the total will be. This is what our insurance estimates are, this is what our total will be when I see you on Wednesday. What questions do you have for me? Howard then asked me. I'm not gonna say I'm like, so do you want to talk about money? Do you want to get scheduled?   Like, why? Why am I bringing this up? Like, let them come up with it. Give them the time. Have the things. Don't bombard them, but be so confident. If I've got a great dentist that I know has great dentistry, they diagnose my job is to close and let's have that type of attitude. Walk in their doctors, don't be like, I don't know if they want to do this. Like, what if they can't afford? No, be the freaking clinician that's like amazing and like they all love you. They say yes to you. Diagnose them. Stop scrimping on them. Like morally, that is your job is to tell me what's going on.   Your job is to diagnose for me and then I get to make the decision from there. But truly it's eighty percent psychology. What are you thinking about? What's your mantra? And then twenty percent is skill, but get that confidence because they're buying your confidence, they're not buying dentistry.   speaker-0 (22:18) Then I want you to pontificate on ⁓ this. ⁓ I watch this in my own eyes. ⁓ every American I know that's as old as me, ⁓ or by the time they die, has bought one new car in their lifetime. Am I right? You know any do you know anybody that lived to be 80 that never bought a new car? Yeah, yeah. And right now the average new car is 50,000.   speaker-1 (22:41) They all do it.   speaker-0 (22:45) And I would say ninety-five percent of all the dentists go to retirement and they never sold one case for the price of a new car, which would be fifty thousand dollars a day. And then I watched Clear Choice, my favorite DSO, because they rolled out a hundred locations, and the only thing they sell is fifty thousand dollar two arcs all on fours, twenty-five thousand dollars an arch. They rolled into Phoenix and all the world surgeons and paradox, like, I don't know, I don't know if I like this.   And they start doing all these infomercials. Remember, remember, orthodontists have always been ahead of general dentists in advertising. All the orthodontists were advertising before 10% of the flipping general dentists were. And when the general dentists finally got to like two or three percent, the orthodontists were at five. And now all my two million dollar dental orthodontist offices on up are spending eight percent on marketing. Here's clear choice.   You go through the channels, they got all these 30 minute infomercials and and all this stuff like that. No, I never I never had heard of an all on four until I heard it on a clear choice deal. And then all my paces were coming in saying, Do you do all on four? I'm like, what are you even talking about? Then then they tell me, and then because I I would have called it a you know, four implant. You know, I didn't think of four, say whatever. And and then the next thing you knew.   Every oral surgeon and peridonist in the valley of Arizona was doing more cases because they were selling it to so many people that our pace that we were benefiting from it. So I just want to hold your feet to fire. How come ClearChoice with a hundred locations? Don't tell me it's demographics. They're in the hundred biggest cities in America. And and in each one of those cities, 95% of the dentists will retire without selling a single $50,000 case. And ClearChoice is doing it in their backyard.   Every single day of the week. Explain that to me.   speaker-1 (24:42) gosh. I I don't disagree with you. And I think there's I I ⁓ to me it's kind of like the four minute mile, right? Like so many people did not think that they could do it. And then once the four minute mile broke, it was like, my gosh, now all these people can do it. I still cannot run a four minute mile mark. Like I'm still working on that, Howard. So I get it. There's like limitations still. But I think a lot of dentists I watch, a lot of them get weird. Like they get uncomfortable. They feel like, well, do they really need it? Should I really offer this? Like   They get into this weird space in their head rather than just like, why don't I just offer it? Like I have a dentist who literally presents $250,000 treatment plans consistently. And they do all like full cosmetic. I have another doctor. It's 75 per arch, 75k per arch, and they're closing them consistently. And I think there's a space of like, why are we not doing this? And like you said, clear choice is doing it in their backyard. I think there's a   My background's marriage and family therapy as well. So I studied that when I was in college. And so I love the psychology of it. And I think so many people are truly afraid of rejection. And so they're like, I'm just not going to offer it. And they like justify it in their brain of why, like, I don't need to do that. Like other people can do that. Like, I want to make sure I'm taking care of my patients. And they live in this world that's their own reality. And I think that we all create our own reality. And clear choice is like, no, there are patients out there that do this. My client that does 250,000 consistently.   My other client who does 150,000 consistently, that's just their level of comfort, right? And so, how can dentists get to a higher level of comfort? I think one, be confident in your clinical skills. If you know you're the best dentist out there and you can do this, like for me, I feel like that's my moral obligation to make sure that patients are getting the best dentistry because they don't know if Howard or John or Sarah or Tom is a better dentist than you. So if you aren't confident that you are a dang good dentist,   Your job is to make sure that those patients know that. The second thing is get more confident presenting larger cases. and I tell all the offices I coach on these large cases, like please drop the mindset of a large case. I think we psych ourselves out by being like, ⁓ it's like a $30,000. Like, no, it's just a case. There's no big, there's no small. It's just a case. And I'm going to present what this patient needs and I'm going to present it to them. And I'm going to believe that they want this and I'm doing the best thing. And then we get to decide from there. And our job is to make this to where it's easy. We follow up.   There are so many people that want to do this, but I think people hold themselves back and they live in lies that they choose to tell themselves, but they believe are truth. But they're only the truth to you because there's other people doing it just like the four-minute mile, and you can too. So I think it's a matter of why not? And so when dentists are nervous about this, the way I usually am able to break it is like going from a $5,000 treatment plan to a $50,000 treatment might feel a little scary.   And so I'm like, perfect. Let's just diagnose one more thing or let's present one treatment that we normally wouldn't. And let's start to like build that confidence for you. And whether they choose to say yes or no, you just got to work on your presenting, like presenting skills. It's not like they're not saying yes or no to you. It's just how are we presenting it? How are we using the words? Are we assuming the yes? Are we assuming that they want to do it? There's so many ways that you can present treatment better. Like it's an art, it's not a skill. But I think people choose like Howard, they   They just want to live in this world and they believe that that's the world. And so I'm like, until you choose to get uncomfortable, it's like we've got a little thermometer in our world and in our world. Like if I say that I am comfortable at 75 degrees, if the temperature goes up to 78, I'm like, this is out of control. Get it back to 75. If it drops down to 70, I'm like, it feels uncomfortable. So how can we take it to where I can get comfortable getting out of my 75 degrees and move me to the next level of whatever that is, to where that becomes my new norm. And then I move myself up to the new norm.   There are people doing 35, 75, 150,000. And I don't say that for you to like belittle yourself, but to see that's possible. Other people are doing it. Believe in yourself. If you're the best dentist, be confident in that. And then truly, please, for the love of everything, I am a patient. No hygienist offers me fluoride Howard. No dentist offers me emphasizaline. I would say yes to both of you, but you are selfish. And I'm saying this with like love and respect. You are selfish by not giving me the chance to say yes or no to you.   And I would say give more people the opportunity to say yes to you, offer it, get better at it, check to see why they're saying no to you, refine that and keep offering. I love my offices that set it a 35% case acceptance because I know that they're presenting 50, 2000, like they're sending 10,000, 15,000, $50,000 cases consistently because they know that the more things that they say yes to with great dentistry and great confidence, the more people will say yes to them. But like get out of your own way.   nudge it up a little bit more, get uncomfortable, but truly do great dentistry, offer to patients and stop like holding back and assuming that they don't want to do it because more patients want to than you believe that they do.   speaker-0 (29:37) And you know, a lot of dentists don't like the blood and guts. They don't want to place implants. They don't want to play certain modes. I get it. But you know what? I know a handful of dentists, at ⁓ five at least. I think the sixth one might have retired, but one of the reasons they're probably so big, they didn't they didn't like blood and guts either. But they would always tell ladies, they go, Well, I'll tell you what, before you go back to your twenty fifth wedding ⁓ school high school anniversary or or whatever, I mean tell you what, you always remember   For 50 grand, the price of a new car, what we do here is we take everything out, every filling and crown comes out, we put it all back in in the most beautiful portion. You'll leave with a Hollywood movie star smile. I know it's a lot of money, it's 50 grand, but you gotta think about that. And he and they both tell me they say, Well, you know, if you say that 10 times a month, yes, someone always always says it. And they go, Really? I'd have a movie star smile, and I'd say,   Absolut flipping Lutley, man. We take all that old crap out and veneers, inlays, onlays. I mean, when you're done, you'll look like a movie star. And and and I got a a a couple that is in not so rich areas of town like Tempe and Chandler Mesa. And they say that they have to say that about 10 times ⁓ to get one or two to do it. And in North Scottsdale Paradise Valley, ⁓ boulder area, ⁓ they they they say it's about a one in three close rate. If they just say it right like,   Be because when when someone gets a new car, what do they do? They drive around, they show it to everybody, you know, they just they they just love it. So I we're over an hour and we try to keep it under hour. So I wanna ask you one question. But first you said your background's a marriage advice and I just wanna tell you the best marriage advice you can have. Just like you're saying, it's all in your attitude. You don't you know, you start every day. When you wake up, the first thing you do is you tell your wife, I love you. Not you again. And ⁓   speaker-1 (31:35) I agree.   speaker-0 (31:35) If you if if you just drop the U again and it's so last question. What are ⁓ the one or two KPIs that ⁓ you think every dentist should be reviewing every single week? And what should they stop tracking? That's my final question.   speaker-1 (31:49) Hmm, this is a great one. ⁓ KPIs for dentists to be tracking specifically. ⁓ I really feel like the things that are gonna move you forward on a weekly basis are we've talked a lot about them. Your case acceptance is gonna drive you fast, like forward the best. Like track that, look at that, review it, get really good with that. And then I also really like to look at my hygiene. How is my hygiene doing? What's my what are they producing?   And then if you wanna add a third, like look at your schedule maximization and optimization. Like those are gonna be like really big, like heavy hitters for you constantly. And then I'm gonna throw in one on a monthly basis because I'm really big on I prefer weekly, but I get most aren't obsessive with me. I call it like my mind and my money. So every morning I meditate and I look at my money. So that's like my mantra of how I do it. But if you wanna do it at least monthly, you've gotta be looking at your overhead and your PNL and like what you're producing, what you're collecting, and what you're spending. ⁓   Just if you look at it alone, you're gonna get better. So it's like weighing ourselves. Now things for them to stop tracking. Gosh, there's like to me, I actually feel like really I don't want to say everything, like keep tracking, but I actually think people over track on a lot of things that don't move the needle forward. Like we want to track on, I don't know, I just see people like, well, we're gonna track on this and this and this. And like it's just like it feels like it's such a smorgasborg of items. But I'm like, what really is gonna move your practice forward?   Production collections, new patients, case acceptance, our scheduling optimization or overhead. Like those things and like sure you can look at like dollar amount per patient if you want, like so our marketing ROI. But like that's like really the core. And the more you can simplify it down, the easier it is for you. Cause like you can get lost in data, like buried in it, and actually not be able to execute on what really is gonna move you forward. And I'm like, I've got offices and I'm just a broken record. I say profit and production, profit and production, and that ties to collections. If you focus on that, your practice will grow.   So those would be the things that I'd end with.   speaker-0 (33:42) Garrett, you are a gift to dentistry. Thank you so much for all that you do for dentistry and thank you so much for coming back on the show. You gotta promise you'll come back again before the dirt nap. Gonna come back on again.   speaker-1 (33:52) I will.   I will. Don't take a dirt nap anytime soon, Howard. The world needs you and I'm grateful to be a part of it. So thank you.   speaker-0 (34:00) ⁓ thanks for all you do. It was an honor to podcast you.   speaker-1 (34:03) Likewise, thank you so much.   The Dental A Team (34:05) And that wraps up today's guest interview. If you liked this style of episode, let us know and we'll be sure to share more of them. For more resources, events, next steps, head on over to TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

Part one of Kiera's conversation with Howard Farran on the Dentaltown podcast. They discuss how many details a dentist should know about their business, what about the COVID-19 pandemic still haunts practices, the AI of dentistry and the human care of patients, hidden gaps draining profitability, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today we are sharing a guest interview I did on another podcast. And it was too valuable not to bring you guys here.   this episode, you're gonna hear this host lead the conversation and then I'll wrap us up at the end. I cannot wait. It was truly one of my most   episodes and I truly hope you enjoy.   The Dental A Team (00:17) It's just a huge honor for me today to bring back Kiera Dent. How are you doing, Kiera? my gosh, Howard. It's so great to be back. I remember my very first podcast with you. I was actually at an office in Alabama and I went like hid in this room because I was starstruck podcasting with you. So to be able to be back on the show with you ⁓ several years later is just fun. I love what you guys are doing. I love Dentaltown. I love your posts. so it's really fun to be back. So thank you. ⁓ the honor is all mine. Just remember Kiera likes Shakira.   And Dent is just her nickname. The full name is Dental Queen Goddess. So thank you. And ⁓ she is the founder and CEO of the Dental A Team, committed to elevating dentists and their teams to their highest level through customized in-office and virtual consulting and training. Her vast experience ranges from the front office to assistant, regional manager, and dental practice owner, giving her a perspective few consultants can claim.   She and her team work with hundreds of dental practices nationwide and confidently say we don't just understand you, we are you. Among her many accomplishments, Ciara has grown a practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million in just nine months with a doctor straight out of dental school. She's coached hundreds of practices, authored numerous articles, and designed a customizable operations manual manual that serves as a roadmap for systems and team success.   Her Dental A Team podcast has amassed nearly 2 million downloads, making it one of the most impactful resources in all of dentistry. Kiera lives every day by her core values. Do the right thing, ownership, passion for excellence, ease, grit, innovator, die, and fun. Her motto says it all. There is always a solution. And my gosh, I just want to tell you the truth. And the reason I was so excited to bring you on. It seems like dentistry has turned into two groups of dentists.   There's all the old farts like me who, you know, we had, you know, we had great practices, great lives, great careers. And then you got these younger dentists that look at us and say, ⁓ man, you graduated in the good old days. You know, you didn't have five hundred thousand dollars of student loans, you didn't have DSOs, Delta hasn't given us a raise in four generations, and and and they're mad at the ADA. I think they're even mad at their mom. I I they're I think so and they're not happy. Do you have any good news?   For these dental graduates with $500,000 of student loans, or did they make the wrong decision and should have become a plumber? I mean, you know, plumbing is always a backup plan if dentistry doesn't work. So I think you're like at least in that realm. Like, you know, there's always options. But I love dentistry and I actually, ⁓ I think we're actually in the best time of dentistry. And I know that yes, there's the good old days. Then Howard, those were great days for you. But I think like, how many options do people have now? We have AI, we have these innovations, and I mean.   Your my example of a student straight out of dental school, we actually had one million. So I actually called her 2.5 because we had $2.5 million. So from student debt to practice loan debt to buying another location, all within a couple of months of us starting the practice. And so I called her 2.5 every time I walked past her. I was like, get that back straight, girl. Like we got 2.5 mil of debt on us. but to be able to grow our practice in nine months was   Absolutely incredible. And I think that that's where dentistry is amazing. There is no cap, there is no ceiling, and you have a way to truly impact and change people's lives. And I'm like, you have DSOs as options. Like there were not the times where you were getting the multiples that you get today. You also have like there are so many avenues that dentistry can afford you. but I think it's a it's a matter of what you choose to focus on, is what you're going to find more of. If you want to sit here and say, ⁓ my gosh, it's awful. We have 500,000 of debt. And I'm like, Yeah, but guess what? My husband had   Not quite the same, but we had several hundreds, thousands of dollars of debt. And he's a pharmacist. And so I understand what it's like to come out of school and have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt on us. But guess what? He's making, you know, hundred, hundred and fifty. If we're lucky on a good day, we're capped out. It took us forever to pay back our student loans. But as dentistry, you have untapped and uncapped potential. And so for me, you get to change people's lives, you get to give them confidence, you get to help them have better health, and you're able to make people smile like.   I can't think of a better opportunity to be a part of. And I'm not just Pollyanna over here. I coach hundreds and thousands of offices. I've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in between. But I'll tell you, depending upon how you choose to view this, you can either find the good or the bad. And I'd recommend like, let's find the great because it's a gold line of opportunity if you want to see it. What what do you say to dentists who say, Mm-mm, you know, I I really don't want to complain really a bit. I mean, on paper my   My practice looks perfect. I got two hygienists. I do a million dollars. I do all this, but just internally it just feels chaotic and stressful. So it looks like on paper he's doing everything right. But she says, I still feel like chaos and stress. What's what's that about? I think like welcome to being a business owner. I think that there's two sides of success. In the word success, there's literally the word suck. Like there are parts of success that are going to suck. Like that's just how it is, guys.   And so that chaos and internal turmoil, I think I there I have lots of offices where you don't have to be that way. And I think going from like operator doing all the pieces, being stressed out into like a CEO of a business. ⁓ I think sometimes dentists are such gunners doers, they're so hands-on that they have this internal chaos. But there there are paths again that don't have to be that way. But I also think this is part of the game of business that we signed up for. And I think when you get to the level like Howard.   You've seen, I've seen over our career, we've got the gunners and the doers and the like zero to two year business owners. Like it's freaking chaos. It's psycho. Like you're learning these things just like you're back in dental school. But as you mature, you start to realize that the chaos is just part of the game. And the more you're able to learn to weather it, to see it, and to not do all the pieces, elevate your team, get great people, do like hire it out. You can hire, I mean, a practice is doing a million and you got great profitability and overhead.   You can hire a lot of great people to take away a lot of your problems. And so like, let's get some of those things done. And then you actually become happier and you make more money. So that you don't have to sit in that chaos. I think that there's a part of it that will always suck. but there's also a part that can really be the successful part too, that's fulfillment and enjoyment. But you got to make the steps and take the steps to do it rather than just sit and complain about it.   Love it, love it, love it. ⁓ what do you what do you say about the ⁓ the dentist who got out of school, goes and works for a major DSO, say say he's working for Rick Workman, Heartland, and he works there two years, and you know, he you know, he's working for a guy that owns eighteen, nineteen hundred dental offices, but he can't tell you the code for a profit. Can't he'll say, like, you know, are they paying my pay right? Really? You can't check at you. I mean, it it's like   It's like they'll listen to a forty hour lecture on the difference between two different composites, but they did I mean th they worked through two years, they don't know insurance codes, they can't check out a patient, they don't know the software. I mean, I had one guy tell me, ⁓ the only thing you could tell me about the practice manager software is the brand name. He couldn't tell me and then he's asking me, you know, it what which one you know, but anyway, do you think do you think a dentist doesn't need to know all the business details?   Or do you think that's a blind spot and you can't delegate anything till you can do it and master it? I think that there's two types of owners. And I think that there's some that are really great at hiring people that they are great at hiring people, knowing it, listening to podcasts, hiring coaches, training the team, and like having somebody spot check for you. Then there's others that like they've got to know the ins and outs. But I think that like Howard, there's   To me, there's also a middle ground where I think that you can go sit with your biller for one day and just like say, like, walk me through your process. So you have a general idea and an understanding of what they do. Go watch to see how they schedule. ⁓ I think when it comes to billing, I do think the dentists have a very big blind spot. And to me, that is like as a business owner, not to know how your money comes to you. To me, that feels like a pretty big blind spot of like even just understanding that knowledge. And so   If I were to say, I don't think you need to know the ins and outs. I love like I recognize this. I was a business owner of it. I own practices. I worked with hundreds of dentists at Midwestern University's Dental College. Like, I hear what you guys are taught. Plus, I'm a team member on the other side. And so I created a billing course and an office manager course because I just want a dentist to know like, what should I be able to expect? And I think like if you want to just have a general overview so you don't get blindsided, you you can have it. I think you can quickly within like a week.   Know the bulk of like everything you need to know in a practice very simply, very easily. So that way you can delegate. That way you can have it. You're not gonna be perfect. but I think just having a general awareness. And then I love to give doctors just a quick checklist, like once a month, go spot check, go grab an EOB. Even if you don't know what the heck that EOB is, go ask your front office for it, check it. And just the more you learn that language, just like the language of business, I think it doesn't need to be an overnight sensation.   But I do think the more you're aware of it, I don't think you have to do every single role though to be a successful practice owner. And I mean, shoot, if Heartland can do it, I think it's a good example. But I think who are you? And are you a hands-on tactical person? Are you somebody who's really good at hiring people, t trusting other people, getting the checklist and spot checking? I think you can do it either way. But my recommendation is like just like one week, go like sit in every seat of your practice and get a general awareness and educate yourself on the things that you don't know. I'm really big on money, understanding at least how insurance works. And then also how do we like   present cases, what are kind of the flow that way those big zones that really impact your financials, you can you can be aware of. So those courses, those online CE courses, your website is The Dental A Team. The Dental A Team. Now I think the A Team, you need that guy with the Mohawk and all the bling. I mean that's who I am in my like spare time. This hair is just a facade. Like, you know, I hang out as Mr T. Mr T. Mr T, Mr T, yeah.   That's why I was thinking the A Team, but is that on your on your website, the th those courses? Yeah, they are. So we have an online library, it's all C E. We've got downloadable checklists, we've got operations manual. You got it. That's exactly right. And Howard, in real time, I'll have our marketing team actually put together a code. If you guys put in Dentaltown, since you're listening, we'll make sure that you guys get a coupon code for that as well. Well, since it's my compass podcast IRS that you just put Fabio.   you want Fabio? Okay. well in that case. So ⁓ so is I also see you have a ⁓ Summit twenty twenty six is live on Friday, April twenty fourth. Grab your ticket. Where's where's that show gonna be? Is it Reno where you are? You know, that's actually virtual, Howard, and it's one of our like favorite comebacks constantly. And the reason I do it virtual, people have been asking me for years, like, why don't you do it in person, Kiera? And what I found is   Because it's so like again as a team member, I really struggle to get my team ramped up, amped up, and have it be financially affordable. So what I found is if we can have it virtual in your practice with your full team, you guys are able to get this boost and surge of energy and have a good time. So it's for leadership teams, it's for doctors. ⁓ we've been doing it for six years strong and we tend to have hundreds of offices. You get your whole office there, you have a good time.   But yeah, it's virtual and it's C E and it's a great time. ⁓ I attend a lot of Tony Robbins, a lot of Brendan Bouchard, Rachel Hollis. So we've learned how to do people have told me the online experience is so fun. ⁓ we just get continual people coming back year after year after year. So yeah, come join us. It'd be a great time. I love Tony Robbins because ⁓ you know, my boys they wrestled year round from age five to fifteen.   Yeah. Made our garage. I got two real wrestling mats from the manufacturer in Pennsylvania delivered by an AJ Miller. So I never ever parked in my garage ever. And we would we were listening to that Tony Robbins 30 day, 30 day personal power. Yep. And then I and then I bought my first laptop when I went to MBA school. And so I took notes on it. And then when I was done, I I ⁓ closed down Saturday and I went to a studio Saturday, Sunday, and I ranted out my notes.   And I said, this has got to be 30 hours because I mean it's still Tony Robbins 30 day personal power. And that was the 30-day dental MBA. ⁓ and it worked out to be about thirty hours. But I'm telling you, the pandemic changed everything. That was when ⁓ online CE at Dentaltown just went through the roof and it hasn't come back and dental meetings haven't come back. Cause why do I need to fly to Chicago to listen to you if I got a Zoom call or   or streaming video or this event. I mean, I mean, just think of the plane ticket, the hotel, the sitting and attending. If you're in Phoenix, you know, just to get to New York is a five hour flight. I mean, why I I gotta fly five hours each way when I could see you on YouTube or a podcast or or whatever. But I wanna but I want to go back to that pandemic because that pandemic, I really think the reason you can really do this so successfully today is because of that pandemic. That's why we realize   I don't have to be in the flesh to learn knowledge. And and like I I I feel fine talking to you. I me too. The only thing I regret is teaching my mother how to do that. I got her FaceTime and all that kind of stuff. And because she calls to tell me about ever every one of her exciting things is junk mail she has. She's eighty seven and she believes every piece of junk mail. I love it. She's always free freaking out on her junk mail. But but I want to talk about the pan the dark side of the pandemic.   And that is a lot of people think about 20% of the hygienists left to practice. Before, you know, when I got out of school, your labor was supposed to be twenty percent, your overhead was supposed to be fifty percent. And by the time it was it didn't even take 10 or 20 years, and and due to insurance, I think not keeping up, ⁓ overhead went to basically two thirds. It went to about sixty-five percent and labor went to about twenty five, sometimes twenty-seven percent.   I'm hearing thirty percent labor all the time. And I mean I mean I'm talking about serious dudes who know the business of dentistry. And I don't I don't want to get my buddy Rick Kirstram out of me. He owns a hundred comfort dentals and he said he can't he said he's got the mean and lean where labor is twenty. He says he's got mean and leans with labor at twenty-eight, twenty-eight and a half. So so the the pandemic is ⁓ it that was five years ago. Why do you think it   seriously impacted labor cost of the pandemic. I do, Howard. And I think I think we kind of have this perfect storm, right? Like I think we've got multiple waves coming at us that have impacted. I think the pandemic pushed out those that were like, you know, I'm done. Like, like I'm good. I'm at the end of my career. I don't really want to do that. ⁓ a lot of hygienists are female and I think a lot of them realize they did not need two incomes anymore. And so it's like, you know, I want to be with my kids. I want to be home.   And then hygiene schools don't pump out a lot of hygienists and it's usually like a two year span. So yes, I have actually seen like hygiene is it really did, and then it clicked up. So the cost of hygienist has gone up astronomically. I mean, I think the highest I've seen of a hygienist being paid was 85 an hour. And to me, I was like, at that point, that was up in ⁓ it was up in Washington, up by Bellevue, Mount Vernon, that area. And I literally saw the the posting for 85 plus a a bonus, and I was like,   Screw that at that point. Like in all respect to hygienists, I'm gonna hire a dentist for that cost. Like I truly will. And that's not being disrespectful. It's just like a dentist is a more multifaceted. I understand they are not great hygienists, but if I have to and I'm gonna be putting this number up, like we've got to get to a space where it does work. So yes, I do. However, there are more hygienists coming onto the market. I still know that this is one of the hardest things, but ⁓ I have a practice that's out in Maui, rough life, huh, Howard? I get to fly to Maui to go do work, like.   You know, shout out to that office. ⁓ but what we found is we were able to find a way to get the hygienist to be paid exponentially higher by doing assisted hygiene. And so I think I'm seeing people innovate. I think I'm watching them create. I think I'm seeing people do some more outsourced costs in the front office. And so they're able to then offset the costs of the clinical team. ⁓ I think that people are just getting innovative and creative. And what I want to highlight is while this feels annoying, this is also business. And if we don't innovate and if we don't continue to evolve,   We actually decay and decline as an as an organization and as an industry. And so I know it's annoying and I absolutely empathize. And you're right. Like for me on our payroll, we're at 30%. Like I've had that as our metric for our clients for the last five years because payroll costs have gone up. But I'm like, but just because they've gone up, like let's look at several other industries. I mean, we're not here to like love on or hate on McDonald's, but I'm like, they have kiosks. They figured it out.   I checked in at a hotel in downtown San Francisco. There was no person there when I checked in. It was literally a person on Zoom just like this. I clicked in, they said hello to me. They took my information, but they didn't have to have a physical body in the office. And I think with AI and technology, dentistry is going to evolve, but I think the art and the care of patients does not need to evolve. And so, like, let's put our dollars where that matters and let's be able to look and innovate in other ways that keep our costs low. ⁓ I still think dentistry, I mean, why is there a one percent default rate on loans? Like,   Banks are still lending. We had the first down year of DSOs last year and the first uptick of private practice last year. And so when I look at these things, like it is still a great business to be in, even though labor costs, like, guys, again, it's just another flavor of business. So like let's figure out how to innovate. Let's figure out how to do it. And like, yes, I'm gonna pay for great people. I see team members as assets, not liabilities. And I'm gonna cut and chop on other areas that I can, but I'm also gonna be smart with my labor costs and make sure each person hitting their KPIs, they've got numbers that they're driving.   We are running this as an efficient business while like loving and taking care of our patients at the same time. I'm glad you mentioned bank loans because it's less than one percent default rate. Yes. All the defaults have the same thing in common. They all had their license taken away. Right. Always. And and if it's for drugs or alcohol, they now treat that as a medical disease. And the dentists still say, Screw you, I'm not gonna quit doing biking. And then they run south of the border. And that's why whenever you find a dentist down there that looks like me.   They're running for free Vicada. They they they said I'm not peeing any. So unless you, you know, do something just horrible. I mean, and you know, you have you have to get your it licensed in your way. But I w I wanna tell you about you know, there's just so many other things that you can focus on besides labor, like increasing their productivity. ⁓ I know dental offices. you can get a full if you pay a dentist in the Philippines five dollars an hour.   You get the best dentists in the Philippines. And I and there's dental offices that with Zoom and things like that are doing all their insurance and their claims and all that stuff. I mean, ⁓ so the with with with ⁓ with the internet, I mean you can literally have someone ⁓ be at the front desk ⁓ on a on a kiosk that's actually a dentist from the Philippines from five dollars an hour who when he's not busy can be calling your insurance companies all that. I I want to ask you another thing that's really hot on Dentaltown.   today. Everybody keeps talking about these dental insurance EFTs versus virtual credit cards. but basically everybody's reporting that major dental companies like even Delta are gonna stop sending paper checks and you gotta do it all electronic. And I guess that that electronic could be free, but it could be you know it could be another three and a half or three percent credit card fee on all your claims. Or what or what are your thoughts on all that? I'm hard on that   I have and I'm a hard no on the credit cards. Like, why? Why are you doing that? EFTs are so fast. Like there's absolutely no reason to be paying this. Explain to my home. A lot of them don't even know what a EFT. Mo I I bet 80% of the the dentists listen don't even know what we're talking about. Will you explain it? Will you explain it like I just graduated from dental school eight minutes ago? Of course. Well, I think that this is also where going back a little bit where you said, like, do dentists need to know the business? To me.   You don't even have to know that much, but I want to just challenge you that if you're getting a three, three and a half percent cut on your payments for quote unquote ease, that's a real big hit. And I would just challenge you to think about like for what and why. And so coming in, there's different ways the insurances are going to pay you. So they're gonna pay you via paper check, they're gonna pay you via EFT, which is a electronic fund transfer, or they've got this new thing where they're gonna pay you via credit card. And like honestly, to me, the credit card is so scammy.   And I've talked to so many people and like educate me, like, why would anybody do this? Like, I cannot comprehend. Like, I'm already taking a cut on insurance as is. Like, thank you for my marketing fee to be an insurance. Like, that's how I view that that write-off. Like, I know you hate it, but you're also gonna, you're either gonna have to do that, or you're gonna have to pay for marketing to bring in fee for service patients. So, like, again, let's just think about that. But I'm like, so I've already got a cut there, but I'm then gonna take another hit in addition to that for a credit card ease.   So as we're talking about that electronic fund transfers, they deposit straight into your bank account. The reason that some offices don't care for electronic fund transfers is because like trying to match it up is a like it kind of dumps and chunks into your bank account. So all you need to do is help your team members. Like there's ways that you can have it where it automatically emails your team when that comes through. So then they can go online and they can find out what the EFT was, so then they can balance and like enter it in.   I do think dentistry software is so dated because what happens is when we get paid from the insurance company, we get either like it's called an EOB, it's an explanation of benefits, and it's like batch checks. So when they dump this money to you, Delta's gonna give me like 20 grand. But like, who do I allocate that 20 grand to of all these patients? So that's I think where some people have like, well, electronic funds are so annoying and this and that. But I'm like, they're very quick, they're very fast, they're a lot safer than paper checks. Paper checks people do get embezzled on.   That I literally see no reason. Like, I don't care if you get it like one day sooner with a credit card, you are paying a huge hefty fee on that unnecessarily when electronic fund transfers are pretty much just as fast. Like maybe a like smidgey of a delay. But to me, that's a that's a very worthwhile smidgey of a delay. Because you're getting your payments so much faster. And as long as you're staying on top of it, you should still be able to maintain a 98% collections rate, even if you do checks or if you do electronic fund transfers. It just is so.   So dumb. I've yet to see a reason. But to me, I'm like insurances are so smart because it's just another way for them to take a chip out of what they're paying you and to have it come back to them. So again, think of the motive as to why they're offering. These people are not dumb. Those insurance companies, if you've ever gone to a business who's the biggest building in the entire city, it's your insurance companies. They're not dumb businesses. And I think we need to be smarter business owners that out think that. They always but Delta always says, we're   Yeah, so is Rolex Watch. Rolex Watch is a non profit. And and some of the CEOs of some of the anyway, we won't go there. But ⁓ yeah, ⁓ so what other ⁓ besides you know, when when someone tells me about their overhead, I tell them, look, I can't call the government and have my tax rate lowered. I can't call the nuclear power plant SRP or APS and tell them to lower my electric bill. I mean, something I i if the hygienists can   Wants a dollar an hour and if I say no, I'll give you 75 cents and she can go get a dollar across the street. I mean the market sets many, many prices. So the only way to fight that back is to ⁓ increase your productivity. You know, I mean if if if you have a dollar in labor and they do a dollar in dentistry, your overhead is a hundred percent. But if your dollar in overhead can do two dollars in dentistry, now it's down to fifty percent. So how so ⁓ are there other   ⁓ hidden gaps that are quietly draining profitability, or has it just come down to production? Or is it both I like I'm so glad you brought this up because I think like it's so easy to sit here and say, like, dentistry's not profitable. But I'm like, go find me another business that has a one percent fell rate that usually can run twenty to thirty percent profit margins if you run a business right. And this is not just Kiera sitting here fluff. This is like I got real clients running at these margins consistently. They've got large practices, small practices.   And so when I look at this and I'm like, okay, how do we make this more efficient? A lot of people want to go to the first thing of like, let's cut insurances. And I'm like, yay, pop the confetti, but be real smart. Because again, you're gonna then increase marketing fees, you're gonna lose a lot of your patient base. Like, let's just think through the ramifications. And so there's lots of different ways that we can increase productivity and not have to go for the cut. So I look at three levers that I found that can increase a practice. So one is we can increase our production. We're talking net production, not gross, like please feed your family, not your ego. So that's number one.   Number two is what's your collection percentage? Cause half the time doctors feel like they're broke and they don't have money, but your money's sitting in AR, which is your aging reports or your accounts receivable. We're not collecting the money and we don't have a good billing process. We got to get our collections up to 98%. And then the third thing is like we cut costs. And so looking at that, a lot of people want to go to just cut costs. I'm like, but in dentistry, let's break it down. If I want to add 10 grand more to my practice.   I love to help teams. Most offices are working four days a week. So if we're wanting to add 10 grand to a practice, working four days a week, let's do 10,000 and we're working 16 days a month. That's an extra six twenty-five a day. Well, how can we make six twenty-five in a dental practice? Let's think about our fluoride applications. Let's think about FMXs. Like I'm just talking, this is your lowest hanging fruit for you. Let's talk about could we add one or two fillings? Could we add like same-day dentistry, which is going to make more raving fans for our patients? There is so much ease in there.   Now, to increase our production, we can also look at our case acceptance. Doctors have so much case acceptance. And also, what are we diagnosing? I'm like, doctors, if you want to be producing 100 grand a month, the statistics are you need to be diagnosing three times that amount. And then we need to make sure our treatment coordinators are really good at diagnosing explaining treatment to them. They're not diagnosing, but they're explaining the treatment. They're presenting it in a way. We're not using insurance as our main driver. We're using it as like a coupon. And then we're really good at our follow through and our follow up.   Gotta have a right person, right seat in your treatment coordinator seat that's obsessive with hitting the right goals. And so there's like so many little ways. Like you can in I have added block scheduling, which I know is like a consultant's number one favorite thing to talk about, but like make it really make sense and easy for your team. I've added a million to a practice with no extra days, no extra work. We literally are just being more strategic with how we schedule. And so there's just so many little ways that I want dentists to realize like,   To me, I get really excited. This is where I geek out as a consultant. I geek out and I love to help that is because I'm like, how can I like squeeze more juice from the lemon you're already in? Like, let's just make more lemonade. Let's figure out ways to do it. And then let's make sure our costs are effective. So we teach your teams how to look at the business as a business. We teach each team member about their one KPI that's really going to drive it forward. We help them track. I just did this with an office manager this week and she's so lit up to look at her numbers, to look at her metrics, to see how she can do it.   And when they start to see how they can click it through, it's not you trying to push and drive more money. Like doctors, I tell everybody, every team member, you want your doctor to be so freaking profitable. Because if they're profitable and they're like they're secure, your life is so much better. So like I'm like dentists, we got to get you profitable, we to get the cash flow, we got to get you less stressed because you're gonna be a better dentist and a better business owner. But how are there's so many little easy ways where it's just low-hanging   Typically I'm able to add 10 to 30% of production in usually 90 days to an office, like very consistently with just small little reps, no real extra work. How are we doing our exams? Are we being directive in our treatment planning? Are we using like, okay, next visit I want to see you for this? And when do I want to see you back? And how much time is this going to take? Like, let's break down the barriers of treatment planning. There's so many little simple things that if you just implement, you can be very profitable very easily.   And then look at your P L. If you're not looking at your P and L every single week or month, like just being aware, getting into the language of business, that's also gonna help you too. So yes, cut. ⁓ but I found that it's always a lot easier to make sure our collections match, our production matches, and we use those little low hanging fruits. ⁓ and it's there. Like dentistry is such a magical, like, like it's a great lemon tree. You can make a lot of lemonade out of a dental practice. I want you to tell me if I'm right or wrong or or   I think I think there's two threes to double your price. Number one, if three people call your front desk, one is going to come in because they're smart and they need to they know they need to get their teeth clean. One isn't gonna come in for anything and you can hear them vaping and smoking and drinking beer and eating Cheetos on the call. But one out of three needs a little extra push. And if you train the person answering the phone, they can close that one out of three. And if they do, they doubled your practice. Then when they get in, you still got the now you got three people in chair.   One's gonna do what you say because you're a doctor and they've done their their author search and and you say they got a cavity, they're not gonna argue with you. One's not gonna do anything. In fact, in fact in fact I was like I had about a dozen patients that in the middle of my treatment plan, they asked me if they could just take a cigarette break ⁓ from my presentation and they went outside, had a cigarette, came back. They're gonna do it. But the other one in three needs some some closing skills. And so if you if you can close on the phone   You doubled your practice. You you got two butts in instead of instead of one. And if you fix your treatment plan presentation, you're gonna do two cases at one. And I think it's so funny now because the dentists have never let their hygienist or assistant, let alone receptionist, do any diagnosing treatment plan. But now AI, Pearl, and Overjet diagnosing all the cavities. So you wouldn't let your hygienist while she's in there for an hour.   Diagnose and treatment plan and sell the dentistry, the assistant while they're taking FMX, they they can't point out, yeah, see, that's a cavity, you don't need a filling and a root now. yeah, they couldn't do it because they were humans. But now Pearl and Overjeck can do it all day long and you're good with that. I mean, so so what how do you how do you double the close rate from one out of three to two out of three on the phone? How do you double the treatment plan acceptance rate from one to two out of three? Yeah. Do you do you agree those are possible goals?   Absolutely, Howard. I think again, this is the low hanging fruit that people are like, but that feels so hard. And I'm like, choose your hard. Like, is it harder to spend a little time with a front office and train them how to do this? Is it a little like, or is it harder to be cash flow negative? Like you choose what's your hard to me? Absolutely. Let's go after that. And I agree with you. Like teaching a team to preheat an oven, I call it what would doctor do. And so like, let's train our hygienist.   Like I tell all hygienists, doctor should be the second opinion, not the first opinion. And you got Pearl and you got Overjet. And so just spending a little bit of time with your team. So what we typically do for case acceptance, like let's go hit that one quick and then we'll talk about scheduling. Is I'm really big on let's get the whole team where we're talking the same language. So we recommend, like, what would doctor do? I recommend you run this over the course of six weeks, is typically how long it takes, anywhere from six weeks to maybe three months.   but we're gonna sit there and we're literally going to go through. We're gonna pull up an FMX. We're gonna do it one day over lunch. Hygienists, doctors, and if you want front office and dental assistance, rock on. But really, I want my like people that are seeing the bulk of my patients with doctor and hygiene. We're gonna look there and I want all of our hygienists to start like if we have an FMX up there and the interaurals, what is doctor going to recommend and how is doctor gonna talk about it? We're not just gonna sit here and have a nice little chit-chat. We're each gonna write it down because I wanna make sure every hygienist starts to get very, very comfortable. And the goal that I tell all hygienists is   Your goal should be at the end of this, what would doctor do training over six weeks? And if doctors are really consistent with it, I'm like six weeks of training to be able to double your practice and increase your case acceptance to me is a very good use of my time. So if I can do that, doctors and hygienists, you should be able to have 95% accuracy with your doctors at the end of this. And they do it. So hygienists get really lit up and they get very excited about it because now they're able to preheat the oven. They're able to talk to patients about it, use Pearl, use Overjet.   And then doctors, when they tee it up to you, and I say like hygienist, you've got to be the ones who first like introduce it, talk about it with the doctor as soon as they come in, but be real quick. So we introduce the patient, we compliment the patient on something, we recap the treatment that's discussed and we say something personal. Hygienist, you do that, your doctor exams will be much shorter for you and doctors will love it because it's very quick. If we can get that dialed in, and then doctors, you have a very like confirm the treatment.   then recommend exactly what needs to happen. And then we take that same baton up to the front office and front office, we schedule first. We then present the treatment. We use insurance secondary. I'm never leading with insurance. You do these little items which seem like, ⁓ no, that's like very quick, easy things. You're going to rapidly be able to help those ones. And then I do a two two two follow-up. So if they did not close for me and I'm going to go through it and I'm going to work through and I'm going to track all the people that didn't say yes to me and all the people that did say yes to me.   I'm gonna look for patterns. What are people saying yes? Like those are easy ones. Those are the gimme's. Those are the easy patients that Howard said. I'm looking for the people that say no and what's my pattern in there? And how do I change my verbiage? Because treatment planning is 80% psychology, 20% skill. So like what are you thinking? How are we presenting it? What are the words we're saying? One or two little changes usually will close that. What are the patterns and how can I get that number up higher? And I follow up with them in two days, two weeks, two months to make sure that they don't follow off.   People are like, Kiera, you really make your treatment coordinator do that? And like, yeah, I was your treatment coordinator that closed $50,000 same day. And this is exactly what I did. This is how I've trained co offices across the nation to do it. You just have these simple little things that help them out. And then you flip over to our scheduling. Like, I think scheduling's easy, Howard. I genuinely do. I'm like, half of it is just be nice. Like you got the COVID crank, and so many people are so grumpy and so like.   Annoyed when they pick up the phone, then I'm like, you can already leap your ahead by just being nice and being excited to welcome a patient. Then take like charge of that conversation. So let's take the ownership of that conversation. If someone's Do you take my insurance? I'm going to quickly redirect and say, my gosh, how did you hear about us? I'm going to answer that, but I want to find out how did they hear about us? If it's our Google reviews, if it's a referral, if it's somewhere else, I want to like say, my gosh, you're so lucky to be here.   We love our patients. We love our reviews. I can't wait for you to be a great raving fan too. let's talk about this. I can everything can be overcome. Please do not let being out of network stop people. It's a thousand dollar coupon and we're turning people away over that. No, no, no. We are better than that. And if we are the best dentist, they need to be coming to us. We need to win these patients over, make them feel so loved. Let's get them scheduled. Let's make this a great experience for them. Let's make them feel so excited. I did it with PT called like six offices.   And the office I chose, like so many people were annoyed I was calling. Can I put you on hold? Can I do this? And I was like, no one really wants my business. If you're just nice and you take control of that conversation, you can easily turn and transform your practice. So hopefully that was like not too much. I like I love these things. I love training treatment planning. I love training how to like take control of a phone call. I love helping teams overcome those little simple objections because it's very, very simple things.   that make massive leaps and bounds of change. And it's a great way to double your practice very easily, like you said.   The Dental A Team (36:13) All right, Dental A Team listeners, that was the guest interview that I absolutely loved. And I hope that if there was one idea that stood out to you, don't just agree with it, but actually go implement it this week. And if you need help setting this up in your practice or you need help just navigating or need a friend, head on over to TheDentalATeam.com and I'll be able to help you guys out. Click on the book of call or any way that we can support and serve you. That's what we're here for. That's what we're obsessed with. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.