DEO's Growth Secrets Podcast for Dental Organizations

In this episode, Emmet Scott hosts Dr. Tarek Aly and Dr. Dustin Roden-Johnson Co-Founders of OrthoDent Management LLC & Modern Smiles. They discuss the integration of specialties into dental organizations: the pros and cons, what to consider, and more. Dr. Aly and Dr. Roden-Johnson share the challenges, mistakes, and successes OrthoDent faced when integrating specialties. Emmet and Drs.' Aly and Roden-Johnson agree the key is thinking from the consumer vantage point first: patients value convenience above all else, "a one-stop-shop". Jumping off from here they evaluate the opportunities: why not maximize the real estate, the potential, and the skills of your team to see more patients and provide more quality care? Listen to this episode to help you determine if integrating specialties is right for your dental organization.

In this episode, Emmet welcomes Sarah Sharfstein, Vice President, Category Development & Strategy at Aspen Dental. They discuss how to scale in multiple areas simultaneously — what's needed to support both clinicians and at the practice level to be successful. Sarah gives an inside view into the strategies Aspen is using to scale. She and Emmet dig deep into the challenges, potential solutions, and opportunities that come with adding specialties to any dental organization. Before joining Aspen's leadership, Sarah spent about 12 years at Invisalign in a variety of different roles. From her experience, it was a natural transition into her role at Aspen to help develop their orthodontic category, driving its utilization in a scalable way to deliver good clinical outcomes.

In this episode host Ken Kaufman, CFO of Community Dental Partners is joined by dental fraud experts from Prospiderent, the world's oldest and largest dental embezzlement investigation firm. He speaks with Prospiderent's Founder and CEO David Harris; Supervising Fraud Examiner for the Orthodontic Industry Wendy Askins, BS, MBA, CFE; and Senior Fraud Examiner Amber Weber. They discuss the unique and different fraud vulnerabilities inherent in hiring for the DSO industry. From their discussion, Ken uncovers ways the industry can do a better job of background checks (including Google and credit reports), how to handle these issues in the face of the current hiring shortage and more. As the DSO industry grapples with an "employee'market" David, Amber and Wendy remind listeners to not take hiring shortcuts! Listen to this episode for all the recommendations and timely advice.

In this episode, the roles are reversed and Emmet Scott is interviewed by Garrett Beedle, a student studying accounting and finance at Brigham Young University-Idaho. Garrett goes deep, covering Emmet's entrepreneurial journey. They discuss the college experience, value of education, making an impact, technology and business, innovation, marketing, business financing, the entrepreneur mindset, and much, much more. Check out this episode to get to know DSO Secrets host, the illustrious Emmet Scott!

In this episode, Ken Kaufman hosts Hollie Williams, CFO, Rodeo Dental and Orthodontics. Previously Hollie was CFO of Choice Cancer Care for over 10 years and held several CFO roles prior to that. She has been a CPA since 1994 and was an Audit Professional at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, LLC for 6 years. Ken and Hollie discuss "all things" DSO audits including what to expect when being audited, how to prepare, the transparency needed for banking audits, what challenges DSOs may face for a successful audit, and much more.

Emmet hosts Danielle McKinley, Director of Partner Relations, PCIHIPPA, a leader and compliance and patient data protection with a focus on preventing catastrophic losses caused by regulatory non-compliance, data breaches, and human error. Emmet and Danielle discuss the dangers and contingencies around planning for ransomware, data breaches, preparing for compliance and more. Danielle shares her expertise on how to handle the big compliance risks inherent in dentistry as well as steps to take to mitigate them.

In this episode, Ken Kaufman hosts Ben Hernandez, Founding Partner at Skytale Group, which specializes in high-level financial management and M&A Consulting, primarily in the dental and med spa spaces. They discuss "all things" PPP loans: Round 1 forgiveness; Round 2 funds utilization and forgiveness; and how unforgiven PPP loans can complicate your M&A strategies. Ben emphasizes that the forgiveness rate is tremendous right now if you apply correctly, and how banks can help guide you. Listen to Ken and Ben take a deep dive into all you need to know about PPP loans.

Ken Kaufman hosts Justin Miller, VP of Employee Benefits, USCI Insurance Services, to discuss the key issues and items DSO leaders should consider when setting up their employee benefit plans. They touch on strategies for making benefit plans competitive in the employee marketplace. Justin shares what benefits offer the biggest ROI for employee recruitment and retention. Together they address the complexities and rewards of all things benefits related to successfully scaling a DSO.

In this episode, Emmet hosts Tarek Aly, COO, CFO, and Co-Owner, OrthoDent Management LLC; and Co-Owner, Modern Smiles LLC. They assess the pros and cons for a smaller/ emerging dental group to partner with a larger dental group to scale. Tarek discusses what to evaluate when approaching this decision, breaking the process down into 4 parts: 1. strategic aspect to assess alignment; 2. the resulting change and evolution of leadership and team roles; 3. the finances, both business and ROI; and 4. the feeling/emotions behind the decision to partner. If you are considering partnering with a larger group, this is the episode for you!

In this episode, Ken Kaufman hosts Mike Montgomery, VP of Healthcare Middle Market Lending and Sponsor Finance, Live Oak Bank. They discuss raising debt financing including the dichotomy between debt and equity: when you're financing growth with debt, it means you get to keep your equity. Ken and Mike deliberate the limitations and restrictions of debt and when it's time for private equity. They discuss strategies to make your DSO look more favorable in the eyes of the bank so you have more opportunities for financing and much more.