The Backstage Pass Podcast: Dentistry’s Playbook for Scaling Private Practices & DSOs

Ever feel like your practice is a ship fighting headwinds with frayed ropes and a tired crew? We sat down with Cole, a young dentist shaped by a grandfather’s example and hardened by real-world trials, to unpack a simple idea with powerful outcomes: mentorship is the operating system of a healthy practice. Not supervision. Not micromanagement. Mentorship—deliberate, measurable, and mutual. Cole br...

What if continuing education felt like your team’s best memory of the year—and also moved your numbers? That’s the energy Dr. Devinn Geeson brings as she shares how she climbed from dental assistant to hygienist to dentist to owner, built four locations on systems and culture, and then doubled down on a bold idea: make learning joyful and watch retention soar. We get into the real origin story—eig...

What if growth didn’t require going viral, dancing on TikTok, or burning out on trends? Dr. Catrise Austin—widely known as the Queen of Smiles—joins us to show how real momentum comes from visibility, authority, and clear positioning. We trace her journey from celebrity cosmetic dentist to the founder of Celebrity Branding, and we get practical about turning expertise into books, podcasts, PR, and...

Think dentistry automatically equals easy money? We pull back the curtain on the financial reality most owners face: heavy student loans, acquisition debt, rising payroll, and taxes on income that often goes straight to repayments. Stephen Nance, a CPA who started his career auditing on the state side, joins us to explain how those early “painful but correct” tax adjustments inspired a new mission...

A kid who hated brushing grows up to teach cosmetic dentistry with a system anyone can follow—that’s the unexpected arc behind our conversation with Dr. Tyler Brady. We open by tracing how curiosity, not bravado, carried Tyler from a mouth full of fillings to a practice focused on life-changing smile design. Then we get practical. If you’ve felt the gap between rising tuition and shrinking hands-o...

What if the biggest break of your career is already within reach—hidden in a small opportunity you’ve been overlooking? That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with Dr. Glenn Vo, whose path from immigrant beginnings to dentistry’s super connector proves that resourcefulness, service, and timely yeses can reshape a life and a profession. We dive into how Glenn’s early years forged a mindset that t...

A near‑bankruptcy turnaround, a childhood spent in a dental lab, and a blueprint for getting paid faster—this conversation with Devon Banks brings rare honesty and hard-won tactics to every dentist fighting denials and aging AR. We pull back the curtain on revenue cycle management, starting with verification of benefits and clean claims, then moving through payment posting, strategic appeals, pati...

Burnout doesn’t happen because you forgot another metric. It happens when you carry the whole practice alone. We sit with leadership coach Leah Roling to unpack a hard truth many dentists secretly know: your practice can’t outperform your inner life. Leah shares how growing up with a mother who modeled unconditional love shaped her approach to coaching, and why the most valuable investment in any...

A childhood shock can hardwire a lifetime of choices. When both of Eric Roman’s parents lost their airline jobs at the same time, an eight-year-old decided he’d build a life he could control. That thread runs through everything we unpack here: the grind of building and exiting dental groups, the humility of losing a practice in a regulatory fight, the resilience to rebuild to $40 million in revenu...