The Dental Marketer

What if the brand that helped you grow is now holding your practice back? In this episode, Dr. Brittany Dickinson returns to share the honest evolution of her Chicago fee-for-service practice, from the success of Sugar Fix Dental Loft to a more refined identity, using her name. As her work shifted toward serious cosmetic and aesthetic dentistry, she realized her old branding was still pulling in h...

Your most powerful marketing move this week may already be on tomorrow morning’s schedule. In this Monday Marketing Move, Dr. Jennifer Haddad shares a simple but high-impact system dental practice owners can start using right away: turning the morning huddle into a strategic review of every patient coming in that day. Instead of treating the schedule as a list of appointments, your team can look a...

What if the strongest growth strategy in dentistry is knowing when NOT to treat? In this episode of The Dental Marketer Podcast, Dr. Jennifer Haddad shares how she built a small, referral-based practice in one of the most saturated dental markets imaginable: a medical building with 52 dentists on the border of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Instead of seeing nearby dentists as competition, she...

The best referral strategy in dentistry may be the one patients feel before they ever talk about it. In this Monday Marketing Move, Dr. Delaney Spaulding shares how her practice earns word-of-mouth referrals by creating a patient experience built on trust, consistency, and genuine care, especially for people who come in with dental anxiety. Rather than relying only on online marketing, Dr. Spauldi...

What if the benefit your team values most isn’t a raise, a bonus, or a 401k? In this episode, Dr. Delaney Spaulding of Ross Bridge Dentistry shares why keeping great team members can be just as powerful as attracting new patients. When your team stays, patients stop “meeting strangers” at every visit, trust builds faster, treatment conversations feel more natural, and word-of-mouth becomes easier...

If patients keep stalling on bigger treatment plans, the issue may not be the dentistry. It may be the way the conversation is structured. In this Monday Marketing Move, Dr. Jerry Burns shares a practical way to improve dental case acceptance by auditing how you present treatment, especially larger, higher-cost cases. He explains why recording consultations, with permission when needed, can help y...

Low case acceptance may have less to do with your treatment presentation and more to do with everything that happened before it. In this episode, Dr. Jerry Burns explains why case acceptance should be viewed as the amount of diagnosed treatment a patient schedules at the time of presentation, not simply whether they schedule anything at all. He breaks down how trust is built through every touchpoi...

A big marketing budget can bring patients in, but active patient count tells you whether your practice is actually growing. In this Monday Marketing Move, Dr. Blake Hamblin shares why the number he watches most closely is not ad spend, new patient leads, or even monthly production. It is active patient count. For Blake, growth starts by building a “snowball” that gets bigger over time: more patien...

Scaling a dental practice sounds exciting until it starts testing your leadership, your identity, your team, and the freedom you were trying to build in the first place. In this episode, Dr. Blake Hamblin opens up about his choice to “build in public” while pursuing a $10M–$12M vision, and why growth is about far more than top-line revenue. He shares how his real business education came from worki...

Sometimes the push you need does not feel like courage at first. In this Fail Forward episode, Brian Hanks shares the honest story behind starting Dental Buyer Advocates and the fear that kept him from entrepreneurship for nearly eighteen years. After walking into a meeting expecting to ask for a raise and leaving without a job, Brian was forced to confront the delay, self-doubt, and avoidance tha...

What happens when the practice you built is forced to stand without you? In this powerful reunion episode, Michael reconnects with Dr. Ashley Joves nearly 10 years after her startup journey began with Smile & Co still in the dream stage. Ashley reflects on how her definition of success has changed from building a standout dental brand, hosting events, creating unforgettable patient experiences...

If patients leave unsure about the plan, treatment acceptance has already started slipping. In this Monday Marketing Move, Dr. Sachin Soni breaks down one of the most overlooked moments in the treatment conversation: making a clear recommendation, then giving the patient space to respond honestly. Instead of asking narrow questions like “Do you want to go ahead?” he suggests using more human langu...

What if the most valuable dentist in the practice isn’t the highest producer, but the one patients trust the most? In this episode, Dr. Sachin Soni shares a powerful way to rethink value as a trusted dentist who earns loyalty, drives referrals, supports the team, and strengthens the practice. Sachin argues that dental school often teaches clinicians to chase clinical excellence, while the industry...

What happens when a busy, productive practice still can’t pay its bills? In this Fail Forward episode, Dr. Rasheeda Johnson shares the hard lesson that changed how she runs Dentcare Now: never let one person hold the entire revenue cycle. After discovering delayed claims, missed billing, and broken cash flow, she and her partner rebuilt the practice around documented workflows, specialized support...

Choosing between a startup and an acquisition is not just a business decision, it is a vision decision. In this popular rerun episode, Michael sits down with dental consultant and former Bank of America dental-division banker Mike Dinsio to unpack what it really takes to step into practice ownership with more clarity and fewer surprises. Drawing from thousands of dentist financial reviews, hundred...

Identifying the correct problem and implementing a sustainable solution is often where practices fall short. In this Fail Forward episode, Sandy Pardue shares a lesson every dental practice owner and leader needs to hear: knowing the answer is not the same as creating lasting change. Reflecting on her early consulting years, Sandy explains how she once believed that identifying the problem, giving...

What if the biggest barrier to treatment acceptance isn’t your clinical skill, but the way patients feel before they ever meet you? In this episode, Dr. Kevin Faist shares how his background in psychology shaped the way he thinks about dentistry, trust, and patient behavior. After graduating at the top of his class and entering a Chicago DSO, he quickly learned that great dentistry doesn’t matter...

Sometimes the biggest threat to cash flow isn’t empty chairs, it’s not believing in the value of your services. In this Fail Forward episode, Sadie Stewart shares the story of a dental practice consulting engagement that felt, at the time, like a painful professional setback. Despite improving collections, tightening systems, and supporting the team through serious cash flow challenges, one deeper...

When dentistry slows down, patients open up and better care becomes possible. In this episode, Dr. Brett Kessler shares how recovery reshaped his identity, leadership, and approach to dentistry after getting sober in his third year of practice. He opens up about the core values, mindfulness, coaching, and preparation that helped him face fear in every arena, from starting a practice from scratch t...

What if the setback that feels like the end is actually the opening you needed? In this Fail Forward episode, Aaron Boone, CEO and owner of MVP Mailhouse, shares how being cut from an NFL Europe roster almost ended his football career until one unexpected call put him back on the plane and eventually led him to become team captain, lead the league in touchdowns, and win the World Bowl. He connects...

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 behin...

Struggling with staff productivity and morale in your dental practice? It might be your micromanagement that's causing it. This episode of Fail Forward features Nishant Pandit, who candidly shares how his overbearing approach to management eventually dented his dental practice's performance. Discover how shifting from micromanagement to empowering staff created happier employees and increased effi...

What if your practice could add $30K or more a month just by giving patients the confident smiles they already want? In this episode, Rachel Hicks reveals how this overlooked service could be a sleeper profit center in your practice. While most practices chase expensive ads, add more operatories, or focus strictly on big-ticket treatments, they miss the chance to turn empty chairs into steady reve...

Have you ever questioned the traditional drill-and-fill mentality in your dental practice? In this Fail Forward episode, seasoned dentist Dr. Ankur Gupta reveals how he broke away from the traditional "drill and fill" approach engrained at dental school, after seeing his teenage daughter multiple cavities. Reflecting on the long-term effects of extensive fillings he performed on his patients, Dr....

Scaling a dental practice sounds exciting until growth starts to feel like extra weight on your shoulders. In this episode, Dr. Brinda Patel of Smile Select Dental unpacks the real costs and lessons of scaling a dental practice across multiple states. You’ll hear how her family’s journey from four to twenty locations came with tough calls: when to expand, when to consolidate, and what it actually...