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  • "If You Don't Track It, You Won't Improve It": Why the DSO Model Failed and How Dental Partners Can Find a Better Alternative with Ian McNickle

    "If You Don't Track It, You Won't Improve It": Why the DSO Model Failed and How Dental Partners Can Find a Better Alternative with Ian McNickle
    2026/06/23

    What happens when a mechanical engineer spends 10 years in high tech, quits cold turkey in 2005 with no great plan, builds a small consulting firm with his grad school roommate, pivots to start a dental marketing agency in 2009, focuses exclusively on dentistry by 2011, works with a general dentist who built a traditional corporate DSO from 2005-2015, watches that doctor exit and get bombarded by other doctors asking him how to build a group, becomes partners with that doctor's consulting company in 2018, spends years learning the DSO model inside and out, and comes to a profound realization: the DSO model is fundamentally broken—like a taxi service where the customer experience is terrible but the incumbent dominates because there's no alternative?

    Ian McNickle does exactly that, and by 2021-22, instead of building another DSO, he interviews over 200 doctors across an 18-month period, asking them what stresses them out about private practice, what they'd like to delegate, what would attract them to join a group, AND crucially, what horror stories they've heard about groups. He also talks with investors, attorneys, accountants, and investment bankers to understand how to build something legally compliant, attractive to capital, and actually good for doctors. In 2024, he officially launches Icon Dental Partners as a DPO (Dental Partnership Organization)—not a DSO—with a radically different structure where the doctor's clinical autonomy, team employment control, work schedule flexibility, and branding all remain completely in the doctor's hands, while Icon handles HR, payroll, recruiting, IT, cybersecurity, marketing, financials, bookkeeping, accounting, leases, and legal.

    In this eye-opening conversation, Ian reveals why DSOs concentrate too much power at the holding company level (where investors can change agreements and eliminate autonomy), how he decentralized Icon's structure so that what defines a doctor's control is in individual agreements that NO board change can touch, why he made his board majority doctors so they have a real seat at the table, and how Icon offers doctors the best of both worlds: the culture, control, and branding of private practice PLUS the negotiating power, expertise, centralization, and potential financial upside of a group.

    Ian McNickle started his career as a mechanical engineer in high tech, spent 10 years there enjoying the work and management positions, but felt an itch to be an entrepreneur. Around 2005-2006, he quit his job cold turkey without a great plan—he admits in hindsight it was a dumb move, but when you're young and ambitious, you just go for it. He and his roommate from grad school started a small consulting firm in the northwest for a few years, then in 2009 partnered with another person to start a marketing agency. By 2011, they decided to focus exclusively on the dental industry. He built that company for many years while also getting to know dental practices as clients. One of his former clients was a general dentist who had built a dental group using a traditional corporate DSO model from 2005-2015. When that doctor exited his group, other doctors started asking him how to build a similar group. That doctor started a consulting company and approached Ian to be his partner in 2018, knowing Ian was an entrepreneur who understood the dental industry. From 2018-2021, Ian split his time between the marketing company and the group consulting company, learning deeply about the DSO models. What he realized was that the DSO model is fundamentally flawed. Doctors don't typically like it, it's not necessarily better for patients, and team members don't like it either. He compares it to the taxi industry—a terrible customer experience dominated by an incumbent with no alternative. But whenever you have that situation where customers aren't happy, there's an opportunity for disruption and innovation.
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    29 分
  • "Stop Asking Who Made the Mistake and Start Asking What System Allowed It to Happen Again": Why Your Unicorn Team Member Is Actually Your Practice's Biggest Vulnerability

    "Stop Asking Who Made the Mistake and Start Asking What System Allowed It to Happen Again": Why Your Unicorn Team Member Is Actually Your Practice's Biggest Vulnerability
    2026/06/02

    What happens when you're born into dentistry (literally—dad's a dentist, mom's a hygienist), grow up stuffing envelopes and licking stamps, travel with your parents on humanitarian trips to serve orphans in Guadalajara, Mexico right after your first baby is born, and realize that patient experience and service is what lights you up? Rebecca Herring becomes a college professor of ballroom dance at the College of William and Mary, teaches kinesiology and dance majors, realizes after 15 years her body is done but her mind is not, goes back into dentistry with her passion for coaching and working with teams, works with private practices and small DSOs on the West Coast helping them grow multiple locations, takes a break to work in the veterinary industry's HR business partner role managing huge teams and C-suite leadership, then comes back to dentistry with a completely transformed understanding of compassion, empathy, tough conversations, growth, and development.

    In this incredibly practical conversation, Rebecca reveals why the moment you have a "unicorn team member"—that one person who knows everything, knows where all the passwords are, knows how to schedule correctly, knows how to present cases, is the one everyone goes to for insurance problems—you've actually created a practice that ISN'T a system but a dependency that puts catastrophic stress on your strongest people. She shares what happens when that unicorn gets sick, has a family member pass away, or just burns out from being everyone's safety net: the whole practice collapses because you realize you never had a system, just one person.

    She walks through why teams don't need to understand every clinical detail or every revenue cycle nuance, but they DO need to understand how their role connects to everyone else's (when the clinical team forgets to mark "procedure complete" in the back, the front office can't collect the full amount when checking out the patient), why you should stop asking "who dropped the ball?" and start asking "what part of our system allowed this to happen again?" (one question changes everything from blame to problem-solving), and why the most commonly missed systems are the ones that exist but haven't been detailed out enough that everyone truly understands every touchpoint. She explains how to implement a cadence for reviewing processes (revisit every six months), why you should assume every system has never been taught to anyone even if it has (because people make different assumptions), and how the EDGE method (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable) transforms how teams actually learn and own their roles. Most powerfully, she reveals that when team members feel valued and appreciated, they will give you more than you expect—and the opposite is also true: when brilliant A-players get stuck being the unicorn, they withdraw, get quiet, start calling out sick, and eventually leave. If you've ever felt stuck at a certain practice production level, wondered why team members who started great suddenly become disengaged, or realized you're completely dependent on one or two people holding everything together, this episode will completely transform how you think about systems, culture, and what it actually means to build a scalable practice that doesn't collapse the moment your best person has a bad week.

    This episode is brought to you by Marketing 32—the only dental marketing team with a performance guarantee that if you don't grow, you don't pay. We are truly invested in your growth and making a positive impact in the industry through ethical, honest marketing. As Rebecca powerfully illustrates in this episode, you can spend all the money you want on marketing and create all the demand in the world, but if your team doesn't have systems in place, if your front office doesn't know how to answer the phone or explain what you do, if your clinical team doesn't understand how their process affects collections, if you're dependent on a unicorn employee who knows everything—you will never feel the ROI. We don't work with everybody, but if you need help with marketing, head over to marketing32.com. We'll have a quick discovery call and find out if it's a great fit to work together. The best marketing in the world can't overcome broken internal systems, lack of clarity, and team dysfunction. When you combine smart, ethical marketing with solid operational systems, clear processes, and a valued team that understands how their role connects to the whole picture—that's when practices truly thrive and scale beyond their ceiling.
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    28 分
  • "We Tend to Work IN the Practice, Not ON the Practice": Why Your Team Already Knows the Solution But Doesn't Know How to Articulate It

    "We Tend to Work IN the Practice, Not ON the Practice": Why Your Team Already Knows the Solution But Doesn't Know How to Articulate It
    2026/05/19
    What happens when a 1992 Alaska Airlines flight attendant moves from Seattle to Eastern Washington, decides she can't leave her kids for four days at a time, falls into dentistry through a friend of a friend, and spends the next 30+ years discovering that every dental practice has essentially the same challenges but solves them so differently that results vary wildly based on culture, engagement, and systems? Callie Ward stayed with her first practice for 10 years, went back to school for a master's degree in education, taught for 3-4 years, then realized dentistry was where it was at and came back—managing single locations, multi-locations, teams from 4 to 30+ members. When her youngest graduated high school, she'd done every report for that practice and cleaned up everything, got bored, wanted more, and started understanding "the game of dentistry" beyond the day-in-day-out routine. She spent about eight years with Productive Dentist Academy, then took the entrepreneurial leap herself (because you have to walk the talk), worked with Support DDS during her non-compete year, and opened her own consulting firm. The name? Dash Dental Consulting—named after her grandma name from her grandson (who turns nine next week) because we're born, we die, and what's in the middle is our Dash—what do we do with that Dash? In this deeply practical conversation, Callie reveals why morning huddles must start with positivity and celebrating yesterday ("who can we shout out?") before unpacking opportunities (because neuroscience supports that we're more likely to try differently in safer environments), why the year you took technology from paper charts to computers you were taught "do things this way" but never told WHY (so you never questioned whether a different way might work better), and why the most successful practices aren't the ones with perfect systems but the ones willing to experiment and celebrate what they're learning as they're learning it. She shares why hiring "really nice people who are good with people" for front office doesn't mean they're great at collecting money or training patients to show up for appointments, why nobody told her at 25 that the goal of a shopper call is to get them on the schedule (basic, right?—but nobody said it), and why you can produce $3,000/hour but if you're not collecting and you've got $100K in the over-90-days bucket because Mary's been doing collections for 30 years and she's friends with everybody so it's uncomfortable to call, you'll never feel the ROI from marketing. If you've ever wondered why some practices with the same business model thrive while others struggle, how to create a culture where team members catch each other doing jobs well done instead of only focusing on negative, or what it really means to work ON your practice instead of just IN it, this episode will completely transform how you think about leadership, systems, accountability, and what it takes to build a practice where people actually want to show up. Callie Ward never planned a career in dentistry—she was an Alaska Airlines flight attendant in 1992, moved from Seattle to Eastern Washington, and realized she couldn't leave her kids for four days at a time. A friend of a friend had a dental practice looking for somebody to hire, and Callie fell into dentistry. What she absolutely loved was the heart—the people. In a small town in Eastern Washington, patients became your family, you knew their families' families, the circle just got bigger with connections. She stayed with that first doc for about 10 years, decided she needed to go back to school, got her master's degree in education, taught for 3-4 years, then decided dentistry was where it was at and came back. She's managed single locations, multi-locations, teams as small as 4-5 members up to 30+ members. She transferred into consulting when her youngest child graduated high school—she'd done every report for that practice, cleaned up everything she could, and was bored. She wanted more and was starting to understand "the game of dentistry." It wasn't just the day-in-day-out routine; the business side was intriguing, and she likes to gamify things. She fell into consulting, had a friend doing it who made it look fun, and spent about eight years with Productive Dentist Academy. She loved her time there but knew she always felt like we need to walk the talk—if she's working with entrepreneurial dentists, she should be more entrepreneurial herself. She took a year off, worked with Support DDS during her non-compete, then opened her own consulting around 2022-2023. Dash—her company name—is actually her grandma name. Her grandson (who turns nine next week) named her Dash, and it really fit into something she's passionate about: we're born and we die, and what's in the middle is our Dash. What do we do with that Dash? Looking back at being in the trenches, it was a great job, consistent, she loved it—but it wasn't feeding her...
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    32 分
  • "I Reduced My Overhead by 20% Just Like That": Why Private Practices Are Paying 60% More Than DSOs for the Exact Same Supplies

    "I Reduced My Overhead by 20% Just Like That": Why Private Practices Are Paying 60% More Than DSOs for the Exact Same Supplies
    2026/04/28
    What happens when a dentist who's been talking about becoming a dentist since he was eight years old (literally playing a dentist in a school play) builds a multi-practice portfolio, gets incredible vendor discounts due to economy of scale, then sells off practices one by one and watches those discounts dwindle—and realizes private practices are getting crushed while DSOs thrive on pricing advantages that shouldn't exist? Dr. John Montoya has been practicing dentistry for over 25 years in Boulder, Colorado, and after owning multiple practices throughout his career and experiencing both sides of vendor pricing (the economy-of-scale benefits and the single-practice penalty), he founded Dental Purchasing Partners to level the playing field. His revelation was brutal: single-location practices might think they're doing great with a 5% discount on supplies, but DSOs are getting 10-60% discounts on the exact same products—and the company is still making money at those lower prices. When he scaled down from multiple locations to one practice, his discounts disappeared, and he thought "this is insane—why is the private practice paying the most out of anybody in dentistry?" So he approached his vendors, asked what he needed to do to get those discounts back, built a formulary, and started Dental Purchasing Partners to help doctors stay independent while getting the same pricing as big corporations. In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Montoya reveals how he reduced his own overhead by 20% with just a couple simple changes (money that immediately hit the bottom line), why practice brokers have to deliver devastating news to dentists producing $1-1.8M with 80% overhead versus 60% (the guy with 60% gets way more value at sale), and why dental schools desperately need to provide MBA-level business education since the lion's share of dentists graduate and open small businesses with zero clue how to run them. He shares how DSOs buy practices producing a lot but then strip out costs (supplies, credit card processing, payroll) to make investors happy by revealing the profit that was always there but hidden, why you could run a successful million-dollar practice with 80% overhead and still take home a paycheck but miss the much bigger paycheck waiting at 60% overhead, and why Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods both have coaches despite being at the top of their game—so why don't you? If you've ever wondered whether there's a better way to negotiate vendor pricing, how much overhead is really too much, or what it takes to compete with DSO buying power without selling your independence, this episode will completely transform how you think about supply costs, profitability, and what it really means to run a lean, profitable practice that's worth more when you retire. "I Reduced My Overhead by 20% Just Like That": Why Private Practices Are Paying 60% More Than DSOs for the Exact Same Supplies What happens when a dentist who's been talking about becoming a dentist since he was eight years old (literally playing a dentist in a school play) builds a multi-practice portfolio, gets incredible vendor discounts due to economy of scale, then sells off practices one by one and watches those discounts dwindle—and realizes private practices are getting crushed while DSOs thrive on pricing advantages that shouldn't exist? Dr. John Montoya has been practicing dentistry for over 25 years in Boulder, Colorado, and after owning multiple practices throughout his career and experiencing both sides of vendor pricing (the economy-of-scale benefits and the single-practice penalty), he founded Dental Purchasing Partners to level the playing field. His revelation was brutal: single-location practices might think they're doing great with a 5% discount on supplies, but DSOs are getting 10-60% discounts on the exact same products—and the company is still making money at those lower prices. When he scaled down from multiple locations to one practice, his discounts disappeared, and he thought "this is insane—why is the private practice paying the most out of anybody in dentistry?" So he approached his vendors, asked what he needed to do to get those discounts back, built a formulary, and started Dental Purchasing Partners to help doctors stay independent while getting the same pricing as big corporations. In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Montoya reveals how he reduced his own overhead by 20% with just a couple simple changes (money that immediately hit the bottom line), why practice brokers have to deliver devastating news to dentists producing $1-1.8M with 80% overhead versus 60% (the guy with 60% gets way more value at sale), and why dental schools desperately need to provide MBA-level business education since the lion's share of dentists graduate and open small businesses with zero clue how to run them. He shares how DSOs buy practices producing a lot but then strip out costs (supplies, credit card processing, payroll) to make ...
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    24 分
  • "Google Started Indexing Social Media in July 2025": Why Your Dancing Videos Won't Help AI Understand Your Dental Implant Expertise

    "Google Started Indexing Social Media in July 2025": Why Your Dancing Videos Won't Help AI Understand Your Dental Implant Expertise
    2026/04/14
    What happens when a treatment coordinator at a startup Denver periodontist practice spends a decade helping grow it from one doctor and three team members to five periodontists, 20+ team members, and multiple locations—then starts writing a blog about social media for dentistry that takes off and leads to speaking internationally about Facebook when it was brand new? Rita Zamora is a dental social media expert, speaker, and author of "Get Found, Get Liked, Get Patients: Making the Most of Social Media," and as founder of Connect90, she helps practices increase visibility, build trust, and influence which dentists get recommended in today's AI-powered search environment. But here's what most dental teams don't know: Google started indexing public social media content as of July 2025, which means social media no longer lives in the silos of Facebook and Instagram where only followers see your content—now anyone using Google or Gemini can discover your posts, and that changes everything about how you should approach content strategy. The cookie-cutter stock photography posts that dental practices have been scheduling for $200/month? AI knows it's stock photography, so you're not helping AI understand who you are or what's unique about your practice. The dancing videos and dental skits that went viral and got 10,000 views? If they're reaching people nationally or globally through Instagram's algorithm, how many of those viewers are actually going to drive to your practice? In this eye-opening conversation, Rita reveals why the old strategy of 80% social content and 20% dental content is being flipped to 80% strategic dental topics (what you want to be known for) and 20% human/social content, why alt text is a powerful backend signal that AI can read to understand your Invisalign expertise, and why the one word that matters most for dental marketing success is "habits"—creating consistent processes to capture photos and videos that tell your practice story. She shares how one dentist grew clear aligner therapy by consistently posting team members and patients holding aligner boxes (an "old idea" that works because it creates visual and textual patterns AI can recognize), why you need to think of social media as a publishing tool for overall Google visibility rather than just trying to win over platform algorithms, and why James Clear and Arthur Brooks are right that habits are the most powerful tool you have. If you've ever wondered why your social media manager keeps posting content that doesn't convert patients, how to help AI tools answer "who's a good dentist for me" with YOUR name, or what it really means to create content that connects with patients while signaling credibility to AI, this episode will completely transform how you think about social media strategy in the AI era. Rita Zamora's journey into dental social media began at a startup periodontist practice in Denver, Colorado, where she started as one of three team members alongside a solo periodontist. Over a decade, she watched the practice grow to five periodontists, over 20 team members, and multiple locations while she worked in various roles: front desk and admin, case presentation for big perio and implant cases (treatment coordinator was one of her favorite positions), then transitioning into marketing with referral marketing and direct-to-consumer strategies. When social media entered the picture, she started writing a blog about social media for dentistry that took off organically. She got invited to speak at local meetings about Facebook when it was brand new, which led to speaking engagements across the country and internationally. That momentum led her to start Connect90, her agency that now works with clients across the US, Canada, and Australia. But social media has changed dramatically, especially with the advent of AI, and Rita believes things have "kind of gone off the rails" for dental teams. There's a tsunami of AI coming into the picture affecting online visibility for dentists, and most critically, there's a massive change most dentists are unaware of: Google started indexing public social media content as of July 2025. Marketers have known this for months, but it's a game changer because social media no longer lives in the silos of Facebook and Instagram where only followers see your content. Now anyone using Google or Gemini (Google's AI tool) can discover your social posts, which means you have to think about social content in a completely different way. The main reason dental practices spend time on social media is for marketing—converting patients, attracting patients, and letting AI know what your practice story is. As more people use Gemini and other AI tools to ask "who's a good dentist for me?", practices need to ensure AI systems understand who they are and what makes them unique. Rita's three core action items: (1) Ditch cookie-cutter social media if you haven't already, (2) Stop using stock ...
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    28 分
  • People Don't Buy Solutions to Problems They Don't Perceive to Have": Why 95% of Case Acceptance Happens Before You Ever Mention the Crown

    People Don't Buy Solutions to Problems They Don't Perceive to Have": Why 95% of Case Acceptance Happens Before You Ever Mention the Crown
    2026/04/07
    What happens when a business degree graduate joins his father-in-law's dental practice expecting to learn entrepreneurship for a few years, hates it for the first four or five months, then discovers mentors who show him there's a better way to avoid burnout—and eventually doubles the practice to a million dollars by 2000 by focusing on communication skills instead of clinical expertise? Eric Vickery spent over a decade managing dental practices before becoming a coach in 2001, and he's since coached more than 250 dental offices nationwide through All-Star Dental Academy, where he's now president of coaching alongside 13+ coaches working with approximately 150 offices monthly. His core philosophy is simple but powerful: most practices are MAG-level, level-10 clinical practitioners, but their communication skills are level five—and patients only perceive value at that level. Dale Carnegie said 85% of your success is in your people skills, not your technical skills. So when doctors look in patients' mouths and rattle off dental jargon—"You have an MODL amalgam with defective margins, class five on the buccal, you need a crown buildup and a crown"—all the patient hears is "dollar, dollar, dollar," and the doctor walks out thinking they crushed it because the patient said "no questions" like Ricky Bobby talking to the smartest person in the room. Then the patient immediately turns to the hygienist asking "what did he say?" and tells the front desk "it's not bothering me, I'm gonna wait." In this revealing conversation, Eric unpacks the 95-5 rule for case acceptance (spend 95% of communication on the problem, condition, and consequences, only 5% on treatment), why an 80% new patient call conversion rate is incredibly difficult to achieve without pressure tactics, and why practices shouldn't pay insurance companies 42% of revenue (working four months a year for free) when they could invest that money in their team, retirement, and fair compensation instead. He shares killer words that crush case acceptance (little, tiny, small, kinda, maybe, possibly), the reverse-engineered math showing that 20 new patients requires 40 converted calls which requires 80 total calls including after-hours, and why the hero's journey matters—because the patient is the hero and you're Obi-Wan Kenobi, not the other way around. If you've ever wondered why patients say "I'll wait until it hurts," why recording calls and listening to AI coaching feedback is non-negotiable, or how an analogy about a sledgehammer splitting a log can replace confusing dental jargon and transform case acceptance, this episode will completely change how you think about communication, value perception, and what it really takes to help patients get healthier faster. Eric Vickery never anticipated a career in dentistry—he had a business degree and was climbing the banking ladder when his father-in-law, a dentist, made an offer: come learn how to run a business, be entrepreneurial, and then go do something else. Eric managed his practice for six of ten total years in practice management, and for the first four or five months, he hated it. He thought joining dentistry was a huge mistake, couldn't believe he'd left banking for this. But he was blessed with mentors early on who showed him there's a better way to practice effectively without burnout, without the hamster wheel exhaustion. They implemented systems from 1998 through 2000 focused on communication skills and human skills—the soft skill side of dentistry. His father-in-law was an MAG-D level, level-10 clinical practitioner, but their communication skills were level five. Because of that gap, patients only perceived value at the communication level, not the clinical level. They doubled the practice to a million dollars (incredible at the time) by recognizing that Dale Carnegie was right: 85% of success is in people skills, not technical expertise. You need to be an expert clinician AND expert at people skills so patients can get healthier faster. Eric got into coaching in 2001, met Alex and Heather at All-Star Dental Academy around 2014-15, became partners in 2021 on the coaching and events side, and now leads 13+ coaches across North America working with approximately 150 offices live every month on KPIs, leadership coaching, phone skills, case acceptance, stopping cancellations, and insurance freedom. Everyone should be recording their calls—there are only two options: growing or declining, and the only people declining are coasting. AI will coach you at the end of sessions telling you what you could have done better. The minimum is picking two calls monthly: one you crushed and one that didn't go well, then identifying the difference. All-Star offers call grading services where team members listen to new patient calls, grade them, and send feedback to you and your doctor. An 80% new patient call conversion rate is very difficult to achieve, and most people don't understand how hard ...
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    32 分
  • "If We're Not Failing, We're Not Trying": How Turning Dentistry Into a Trade and Celebrating Failures Built a Multi-Location Powerhouse

    "If We're Not Failing, We're Not Trying": How Turning Dentistry Into a Trade and Celebrating Failures Built a Multi-Location Powerhouse
    2026/03/24
    What happens when someone who didn't know what a prophy was—or even understand what a root canal really involved—answers phones at a dental practice, falls in love with the leadership piece, and eventually becomes director of operations for a growing group practice with a weekly executive cadence focused on celebrating failures? Denae Black has turned dentistry into her trade over 20 years, climbing from front desk to office manager to director of operations, learning that the key to scaling from one location to multiple practices isn't about having perfect systems—it's about having consistent systems that everyone follows the same way, giving yourself grace for the 20% that will be different based on team and patient base, and getting comfortable with difficult conversations. After her husband's Air Force orders relocated them from Arizona to North Carolina, she joined a practice where she sat on the executive level team with Eric Roman as visionary, working alongside directors of marketing, hygiene, and finance in structured weekly meetings where the mantra was clear: if you're not failing, you're not trying. Now as owner and consultant of Dental DNA Consulting, she takes clients through a three-phase journey—Dream It (define what you're building), Narrate (create a customized plan), Accelerate (roll up sleeves and implement)—partnering closely with practices navigating transitions like expanding locations, dropping insurance, reducing clinical days, or preparing for retirement. In this conversation, Denae reveals why leadership is the most common barrier holding practices back (you know the hard conversations you need to have, you're just not prioritizing them), why annual performance reviews are useless (you're really only reviewing the last 2-3 months anyway), and why communication isn't just important—it's the difference between being a proactive leader versus a reactive one who has no idea the hygienist was unhappy until she puts in her notice. She shares her trust tracker system for managing weekly check-ins without formal calendar blocks, the paper airplane exercise that proves consistent systems beat perfect systems every time, and why her biggest wins aren't revenue numbers—they're when dentists finally take month-long international vacations because their practice works for them instead of them working for their practice. If you've ever wondered how to transition from operator to CEO, why quarterly reviews replace annual ones, or what it really takes to build a practice with intention rather than just reacting by default, this episode will give you the clarity and vision you've been missing. Denae Black never imagined dentistry would become her trade, but when she started answering phones at a group practice in Arizona—not knowing what a prophy was or really understanding what a root canal involved—the practice took her under their wing and taught her everything: phones, check-in, check-out, treatment planning, eventually office management. She fell in love with the leadership piece. When her husband got Air Force orders to relocate to North Carolina, she took a director of operations position that unlocked her passion for the business side of dentistry. This was where she learned the foundation of systems, best practices, and what it takes to scale from one location to two to three and beyond. She eventually consulted with various groups before launching Dental DNA Consulting independently in May 2024, turning her 20-year journey from knowing nothing into a comprehensive trade mastery. Her background with Eric Roman and Josie Sewell taught her that growing a group practice isn't about perfection—it's about structure, consistency, and culture. She sat on an executive team of five (visionary, director of ops, director of marketing, director of hygiene, finance) with structured weekly cadence meetings focused on one mantra: if you're not failing, you're not trying. Getting uncomfortable and celebrating failures was essential. The key insight: 80% of what happens in a practice can be duplicated, but 20% will be different based on team, patient base, and flow—so give yourself grace while maintaining strong systems. The DNA approach she developed takes clients through three phases: Dream It (D), Narrate (N), and Accelerate (A). The Dream It phase locks in what you're building—defining your vision and ensuring team structure supports that dream. Many dentists have ideas but don't know how to communicate them, so this phase creates clarity. The Narrate phase builds a customized plan to actually make it happen, and the Accelerate phase is where Denae rolls up her sleeves and partners with the team to bring everything to life. Her ideal clients are practices navigating transitions: expanding from one to two locations, dropping from five clinical days to three or four, navigating dropping insurance, or preparing for retirement. These clients are goal-oriented, which aligns ...
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    27 分
  • "You Do Teeth, Not Brain": Why Your Competitor for Talent Isn't the Practice Down the Street—It's Papa John's Pizza

    "You Do Teeth, Not Brain": Why Your Competitor for Talent Isn't the Practice Down the Street—It's Papa John's Pizza
    2026/03/17
    What happens when a vet tech with a certification gets less PTO than their friend bagging groceries at Papa John's? Or when dental assistants realize they can make the same hourly rate clerking at a grocery store without spending money on a certificate or dealing with office drama? Kara Kelley, CEO of Clinical HR and nationally recognized HR strategist, has spent her career helping dental practices navigate the uncomfortable truth that the hiring crisis wasn't created by the pandemic—it was compounded by it. After finishing her bachelor's in business with an HR concentration back in 2012, she landed at a dental CPA firm doing marketing (of all things), spent seven and a half years wearing multiple hats, then launched her own HR firm in February 2020—right before the world shut down. She immediately pivoted to helping practices lay off teams, bring them back, and navigate the "alphabet soup of compliance" that followed. Now with senior-level credentials including SHRM-SCP and SPHR, she partners with dentists and practice leaders to reduce risk, strengthen teams, and build practices worth working for—not just practices that desperately hire the first person who shows up on time and sober. In this conversation, Kara reveals why hygienists are choosing temp work over permanent positions (spoiler: dentistry created this problem by treating them like second-class citizens for decades), why working interviews don't actually work (you're just throwing people into workflow and hoping for the best), and why your biggest competitor for talent in 2026 isn't the dental practice down the street—it's every work-from-home opportunity and gig economy job that offers flexibility without requiring a degree. She shares the one interview question you absolutely cannot ask (mental health), the safe script for reference checks (last held title, dates of employment, eligibility for rehire—flat monotone, repeat if needed), and why the future of dental hiring requires thinking outside the dental box. If you've ever wondered why Gen Z and Gen Alpha will change everything, why unlimited PTO actually decreases time off, or how to partner with your marketing company on recruiting strategy, this episode will completely shift your perspective on what it takes to build a team in the modern dental landscape. Kara Kelley never planned to spend her career in dentistry—she was finishing her bachelor's in business with an HR concentration back in 2012, planning to climb the corporate ladder at a Fortune 500 HR department as a coordinator. But serendipity and adaptability intervened. Because 2012 wasn't like today's hiring market where practices sometimes hire "the first person who shows up on time and sober," she needed something on her resume beyond self-employment. She landed at a dental CPA firm doing marketing of all things, and stayed for seven and a half years, wearing multiple hats: marketing, business development, HR advisor, and internal HR for the firm itself. Like most dental practices who are small businesses, she lived the "wear a lot of hats" mentality from the beginning. After getting tired of being mistaken for an accountant, she decided to step out and lean into the HR side, launching Clinical HR in February 2020—right before the pandemic hit. Instead of building her firm the traditional way, she immediately pivoted to helping practices lay off teams, bring them back, and navigate the alphabet soup of compliance that emerged during that chaotic period. Since then, she's focused on making sure practices are compliant, building cultures where teams treat patients well (because teams who feel treated well treat patients well), and helping practices enjoy the dentistry they do while ensuring compliance won't come back to bite them later. With senior-level credentials including SHRM-SCP (Society for Human Resource Management, Senior Certified Professional) and SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resources Certification from HR Certification Institute), Kara now partners with practices on internal HR assessments, employee handbooks, job descriptions, and strategizing around finding and retaining top talent—the issue of the day for the last decade and still dominating 2026. One of the biggest hiring mistakes she sees is culture fit mismatches that could be avoided with better upfront conversations. She recently worked with a practice that brought on someone from a fee-for-service practice with big bonuses and high paychecks, but the new practice was a mission-driven, heavy Medicaid, community-focused operation. The economics didn't align with the passion project mentality, and the employee wasn't a fit. This happens because practices hire out of desperation—they need somebody there to maintain the patient schedule, prevent burnout from understaffing, so they hire the first person with availability who'll take the hourly wage without deep-diving on fit. Then even when they find the right person, they're not ready ...
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    30 分