What happens when a 20-year-old college student loses her banking internship to bankruptcy and ends up stringing wire through ceilings to install computers in dental offices? For Dayna Johnson, that unexpected detour in 1989 launched a 35-year journey that would revolutionize how dental practices use technology. From working with DOS-based software and paper charts to becoming a certified Dentrix trainer who has delivered 187 podcasts and transformed countless practices, Dayna has witnessed—and driven—the evolution of dental practice management. In this eye-opening episode, she reveals why 60% of patient appointments are booked after hours (and what you're missing without AI receptionists), how redundant software is quietly draining your budget and efficiency, and why that "we're booked six months out" excuse is actually a scheduling problem, not a marketing victory. If your team is still using three-ring binders for unscheduled treatment or hunting for notes in 12 different places, this conversation will change everything.

Dayna Johnson's path to becoming a dental technology expert began with an unexpected crisis. As a 20-year-old college student in Washington state pursuing marketing and business, she was six months into a paid internship at a local bank when it filed bankruptcy. Suddenly jobless with a mortgage and bills to pay, she went to work for her uncle Dave's computer company that installed computers, networks, and software into medical and dental offices. This was 1989-1990, and Dayna found herself literally building computers and stringing wire through ceilings and floors with screwdrivers. Her introduction to dentistry came through the technology side, and she quickly discovered she had a knack for it. After working at two dental practices in Washington, she encountered a practice in 1994 that felt like stepping back in time—only two computers (one in the doctor's office, one at the front desk), DOS-based software requiring colon backslash commands, and file cabinets full of paper charts.

Dayna made it her mission to upgrade that practice with modern computers and software, but the doctor resisted for nearly a decade. Finally in 2003, he agreed to upgrade and put Dayna in charge of leading the transition. They purchased Dentrix, but Dayna struggled enormously due to complete lack of training, onboarding, and resources—something that simply wasn't available at that time. Determined to master the software, she became a certified Dentrix trainer in 2005, originally just wanting to be an expert in her own office rather than planning to train others. But what transpired changed her career trajectory entirely: she started the Dentrix Office Manager blog, began speaking from stages, and trained offices on transitioning from paper charts to electronic health records. By 2014, she left the dental practice entirely to focus full-time on software onboarding, workflow optimization, live events, and speaking—a career that has now produced 187 podcasts and transformed countless practices nationwide.

The challenges Dayna sees today mirror her own early struggles but are amplified by massive industry turnover and staffing shortages. New team members—often from outside dentistry—are told to "just start doing it" with no real onboarding process, leading to persistent use of manual systems like Post-It notes everywhere, three-ring binders for patients wanting earlier appointments, and notebooks for unscheduled treatment follow-up. Practices are also bleeding money on redundant third-party software that overlaps functionality, forcing teams to log into multiple dashboards when their PMS could handle much of it. The data entry inconsistency creates legal vulnerabilities (the PMS is a healthcare record that must withstand audits and subpoenas) and breaks marketing attribution when notes are scattered across Dentrix's 12 different documentation locations. At the Greater New York Dental Meeting, Dayna witnessed AI's explosive integration into 60-70% of daily dental tasks—from insurance verification that contacts carriers and syncs benefits automatically, to AI receptionists capturing the 60%+ of appointments booked after hours, to five-star x-ray ratings that prevent claim payment failures, to transcription services that convert dictation into polished SOAP notes. Her golden nugget for office managers clinging to paper systems and manual appointment control: embrace automation and technology. And for practices claiming they're "booked six months out" so they don't need marketing—that's a scheduling problem requiring block scheduling for new patients, perio maintenance, and SRP appointments, not an excuse to stop telling the world what makes you different.

What happens when a chemical engineer accidentally stumbles into dentistry, becomes a university professor for 18 years, then crashes and burns in private practice—only to rebuild and scale to eight clinics, 80 DSO locations, award-winning restaurants, and a hotel on the beach? Dr. Arun Garg has lived one of dentistry's most remarkable entrepreneurial journeys, going from earning $50,000 annually at the university to collecting $500,000 per month in private practice—a literal 52X transformation. In this powerful episode, Dr. Garg shares the hard lessons from his "school of hard knocks" crash, why today's younger dentists face different challenges than the 40-55 year-old avatar of a decade ago, and how he's trained more general dentists on implants than anyone in the industry. Whether you're considering adding implants to your practice or looking to scale beyond your first location, this conversation delivers the real-world wisdom only decades of entrepreneurial battle scars can provide.

Dr. Arun Garg's path to becoming one of dentistry's most successful entrepreneurs started with an unlikely detour. Growing up around medicine with a physician father, he was told to avoid healthcare's long hours and pursue engineering instead. After completing a chemical engineering degree and realizing it wasn't his passion, he tagged along with a friend applying to dental school—and discovered he actually enjoyed it. For 18 years, he rose through academic ranks at University of Miami, eventually becoming one of only two full professors in his department. The university handled everything—hiring, firing, legal issues, marketing—while he focused purely on clinical work and educating residents. When he finally left for private practice, he collected $500,000 in his first month, a staggering 52X increase from his $50,000 annual university salary. Then everything came crashing down.

The crash came because clinical excellence doesn't translate to business knowledge. Dr. Garg admits he was "atrocious" at hiring, joking that he'd recruit cashiers from grocery stores. He didn't understand systems, software, or the operational side of running a practice. After six phenomenal months coasting on pent-up demand from patients who had been waiting for him, reality hit hard. He responded by taking every practice management course he could find—industry-specific and general business alike. While 80% was repetitive, each course offered nuggets of wisdom. It took 18 months of implementing and ingraining these systems before the practice stabilized and began growing again. That's when his latent entrepreneurial streak emerged, leading to eight fee-for-service clinics (half built from scratch, half acquired), an equity position and CCO role in a DSO now spanning 80 locations across half the states, award-winning restaurants with Michelin stars, a James Beard-recognized bakery, and a beachfront hotel in the Bahamas.

Through his education company—now rebranded as Garg Institute—Dr. Garg has trained over 20,000 dentists on implant placement, more than anyone in the industry. But the audience has fundamentally shifted: a decade ago, attendees were typically 40-55 year-old practitioners with established practices looking to expand services. Today, they're 30-45 year-olds still carrying massive student debt. In response, he condensed the program from 11 weekends to 4, slashing both tuition and travel costs by 65% while maintaining curriculum quality. For those wanting to dip their toes in, he offers two-day introductory courses and $99 symposiums featuring 16 world-class speakers in vacation destinations like Hawaii and Las Vegas. His mission remains consistent: empowering general dentists to safely and profitably expand their scope. As Dr. Garg powerfully summarizes his golden nugget—channeling Nike's famous slogan—the biggest regrets come from delayed decisions. Once you've done your due diligence, just do it. Those two years he spent mentally ready to leave academia but physically staying are his only regret from an otherwise extraordinary career.

What if the difference between a patient saying "yes" to treatment and walking out the door came down to one simple question? After 30 years connecting with patients—from embarrassed adults with missing teeth to nervous kids dreading expanders—Dawn Scott has discovered that authentic human connection isn't just nice to have, it's the X-factor that makes patients choose your practice over the dentist on every corner. In this powerful episode, Dawn reveals why talk-through-the-walkthrough matters more than your clinical skills, how to "read between the lines" of patient body language and health histories, and the psychology-backed techniques that make going to the dentist feel comfortable, safe, and truly positive. Whether you're competing with DSOs on price or struggling with case acceptance, this conversation will fundamentally shift how you think about the patient experience from the moment they find you online to the moment they enthusiastically say "let's start."

Dawn Scott never intended to build a 30-year career in dentistry. As a teenager working at a furniture store credit department, she planned to work for Coca-Cola, travel the world in international business, and eventually get a PhD to teach college. But when her dentist came in to open an account and later hired her for the front desk, dentistry began its persistent pursuit. What started as a means to pay for school evolved into a seven-year journey earning her bachelor's degree while learning dentistry "by default" to manage scheduling effectively. Even landing her dream job in business intelligence at Brassler USA—teaching sales reps how to use customer data to grow dental practices—couldn't keep her from dentistry's gravitational pull. After her husband's deployment to Afghanistan, life shifts and four children later (including surprise twins), Dawn found herself as an orthodontic treatment coordinator, finally embracing what had been calling her all along.

The transformation came when Dawn realized the profound impact of authentic human connection in dentistry. Patients walk through the door carrying shame about missing teeth, fear about costs, or anxiety from decades of bad experiences. Traditional treatment coordinator approaches felt directive and inauthentic—"this is us and this is what you need"—rather than meeting patients where they are. Dawn developed a different paradigm: "I sell hope. The dentistry is yes by default." Her "talk through the walkthrough" technique eliminates surprises by narrating every step—from adjusting the x-ray machine before they bonk their head to explaining what the black spot on their scan actually means. She reads health histories to understand if she's talking to a radiologist or someone with virgin teeth, adjusts her language accordingly, and creates space for patients to unpack their baggage, whether it's "a little box" or "a U-Haul truck beeping at the door." The science backs this up: Robert Cialdini's research shows even small touches like offering a warm drink creates warmth toward the person you're with.

In an era where DSOs compete on price and there's a dentist on every corner, the X-factor is how people feel when they're in your office. Marketing gets patients to the front door, but what happens when they walk through determines everything. Dawn's golden nugget—the question that unlocks every door of doubt—is deceptively simple: "How do you feel about today's visit?" Nobody asks how patients feel, only what they intellectually understand. This one question creates the platform for vulnerability, addresses hidden objections before price is even discussed, and transforms the patient experience from transactional to transformational. As Dawn powerfully states, when patients know you want their treatment as much as they want it, when they feel you're on their side navigating HSAs and FSAs together, when they experience genuine connection—they say yes all day long, even if you're more expensive or less convenient, because feeling safe and comfortable is worth everything.

Did you know that 85% of dental practices get embezzled from? That's not a typo—it's a crisis. And the worst part? Most dentists have no idea it's happening until thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars have disappeared. In this eye-opening episode, Marissa Krugov and Chris Hammelev—co-founders of the Dental Practice Management Agency and known as "The Velvet Hammer and The Spicy One"—pull back the curtain on the embezzlement epidemic plaguing dentistry. From Robin Hood write-offs to fraudulent insurance billing schemes, they reveal the shocking ways team members manipulate systems right under doctors' noses. More importantly, they share their proven framework for protecting your practice, what to do when you discover theft, and why dentists can no longer hide behind the excuse "they didn't teach me business in dental school." Marissa Krugov and Chris Hammelev didn't set out to become embezzlement experts—but when they caught their first embezzler in 2023, it changed everything. Despite praising an office manager for clean accounts receivable and stellar KPIs, Marissa spotted one weird write-off that unraveled an entire scheme. That sobering experience led them to spend an entire Christmas vacation developing continuing education specifically to teach dentists how to embezzlement-proof their practices. The statistics are staggering: 85% of dental practices experience embezzlement, making dentistry the most embezzled-from profession. The reason? Dentistry is the only small business where owners have no idea how to bill for or collect the services they provide—they're completely blind to what happens administratively. The methods embezzlers use are both sophisticated and shockingly simple. "Robin Hood embezzlement" involves hiding uncollected patient balances in insurance write-offs to avoid confrontation and cover mistakes. Some team members bill insurance for fake patients—often friends with insurance coverage—and split the payout. Others refund credits to their own credit cards or manipulate production numbers to match the comfortable bank balance doctors expect to see. The red flags are there: collections in your software don't match collections in your bank account, excessive write-offs that never get audited, mounting patient credits nobody wants to address, and claims that aren't being submitted regularly. But most dentists operate in a dangerous comfort zone—if there's enough money to cover payroll and overhead, they assume everything's fine. The solution starts with a systematic audit process: adding a submitted claims report to daily paperwork, conducting monthly 10-patient audits comparing EOBs to write-offs, converting all EOBs to digital records for easy access, and reviewing software audit trails for deleted or modified entries. When you do discover embezzlement, the next steps are critical: tell no one while you build your case, contact your liability insurance about the dishonest employee clause, engage employment lawyers to avoid wrongful termination suits, and decide whether prosecution (costing $7,000-$35,000 for forensic accounting) is your end game. As Marissa powerfully stated, dentists can no longer hide behind the excuse that business wasn't taught in dental school. Your practice is your retirement—protect it with the same diligence you apply to clinical continuing education. This episode is brought to you by Marketing 32—the only dental marketing team with a true performance guarantee. If you're not growing, you don't pay. Period. Marketing 32 is committed to being the most ethical, value-driven marketing partner in dentistry, tracking every metric and demonstrating real results. They specialize in helping dental practices break through growth plateaus with proven digital marketing strategies, SEO optimization, and patient acquisition systems. If you're stuck in your growth or aren't sure how to take things to the next level, head over to marketing32.com for a brief discovery call to see if you're a great fit to work together.

Are you avoiding those tough team conversations? You're not alone. Most dental leaders never learned how to navigate confrontation effectively—but what if you could transform conflict into clarity and build a team of superstars in the process? In this powerful episode, international speaker and leadership communication coach Katherine Eitel Belt shares her proven framework for having courageous conversations that strengthen relationships rather than damage them. With 35 years of experience, Katherine reveals why scripting fails, how to create an intentional culture by design, and the secret to making every team member want to say "yes" to your vision.

In this episode...

Katherine Eitel Belt's journey from a struggling 19-year-old dental assistant to one of dentistry's most respected leadership communication coaches began with a courageous conversation that changed her life. When her boss told her he needed "something different," he didn't just criticize—he invited her to step into a higher version of herself. That transformational moment became the foundation for everything Katherine teaches today about having difficult conversations that strengthen rather than damage relationships.

The core of Katherine's approach is the Leadership Conversation Trifecta: a three-part framework that starts with an Invitation Conversation from ownership, followed by regular Coaching Conversations with managers, and finally Courageous Conversations when boundaries must be held. The key distinction? Great leaders don't demand compliance—they invite commitment. When team members walk through the door each day, they're choosing to accept the invitation to work within the practice's vision, values, and standards. This paradigm shift transforms confrontation from something leaders dread into an opportunity to build superstars. Katherine emphasizes that managers often misunderstand their primary role, believing it's about coverage, problem-solving, or resource management. In reality, the number one job of any leader is to build other superstars—critical thinkers and mature communicators who will naturally solve problems and implement systems effectively.

The impact of mastering these conversations extends far beyond individual interactions. With 65% of performance issues and 50% of resignations tied to unresolved conflict, the financial and cultural costs of poor communication are staggering. Yet Katherine has seen teams completely transform when given proper training, becoming the place everyone fights to work and nobody wants to leave. Her golden advice? Before any important conversation, check your judgment and limiting beliefs. Approach with clarity about boundaries and inspiration about possibilities, but always from a place of "flow" rather than "mud"—meaning from optimism and respect rather than fear and frustration. As Katherine reminds us, leadership is an inside-out game, and you don't find great team members—you build them.

In this deeply personal episode of the Marketing 32 show, host Brett Allen welcomes Tija Hunter, a seasoned dental professional whose four-decade journey began at rock bottom—a 19-year-old single mother signing up for Medicaid after her high school sweetheart husband left her. What started as government assistance leading to dental assisting school transformed into a remarkable career that earned her recognition as one of the top 25 women in dentistry by Dental Products Report in 2015, Master status in the American Dental Assistants Association, authorship of "Rockstar Dental Assistant," and now the revolutionary Karma Calendar that's changing how practices manage compliance. Tija's transparent story reveals how mentors like Kevin Henry and Linda Miles (the "grandmother of dentistry") helped her overcome writer's block to complete her book in just three weeks, while her practical frustration with writing the same Walmart calendar compliance notes for multiple practices sparked the creation of a comprehensive digital resource launching November 1st. From traveling weekly between Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and Dallas teaching OSHA compliance to owning a cafe where hidden Jesuses remind patrons to slow down, Tija embodies her golden nugget wisdom: you're absolutely more capable of doing things than you ever thought possible.

In this episode...

Tija Hunter delivers a masterclass in resilience and resourcefulness, beginning with raw transparency about her origin story as a 19-year-old single mother at her lowest point. Her high school sweetheart husband had left her, and she found herself signing up for Medicaid with a baby, facing an uncertain future. The government assistance program offering school for single moms presented dental assisting as an option, which she chose based on positive experiences with her dentist and orthodontist. This seemingly simple choice launched a four-decade career that would eventually elevate the entire profession of dental assisting through education, advocacy, and practical tools. Her journey demonstrates how mentorship and relationship-building create exponential growth—working with amazing dentists who taught her what to do and challenging bosses who taught her what to avoid, all while building connections with industry legends like Kevin Henry and Linda Miles.

The Karma Calendar's origin story exemplifies practical innovation born from frustration. After spending three consecutive weeks handwriting compliance notes on Walmart puppy calendars for different practices—documenting when to test water, check plaster traps, and perform various maintenance tasks—Tija asked her girlfriend a "stupid question": Can I print a calendar with all this stuff on it? The answer launched a trademarked, copyrighted product that evolved from paper-only in 2022 to the comprehensive digital platform launching November 1st. The calendar addresses a critical gap in dental practice management: the beautiful aesthetic practice with perfect front office protocols and full schedules that unknowingly has a back office falling apart, creating ticking time bombs that could result in the nightmare scenario of appearing on the 5 o'clock news with patient infections or regulatory violations.

The calendar's evolution into a subscription-based comprehensive resource platform demonstrates Tija's commitment to continuous value delivery. Starting at just $159 annually, subscribers gain access to OSHA, HIPAA, and infection control checklists, maintenance protocols, front and back office resources, consent forms, morning huddle frameworks, insurance verification processes, and specialized content like waterline treatment protocols and the $40 spore test log book. The digital format enables dynamic content addition throughout the year as Tija encounters new challenges in her weekly travels between Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and Dallas teaching practices. Her closing golden nugget—that we're far more capable than we give ourselves credit for, rooted in faith in both ourselves and God—perfectly encapsulates how a Medicaid recipient single mom became a Master in her field and industry change-maker.

In this inspiring episode of the Marketing 32 show, host Brett Allen welcomes Anne Duffy, the unstoppable founder and CEO of Dental Entrepreneur Woman (DEW), whose 45-year dental career has been defined by championing women in leadership and creating opportunities where none existed. What began as a righteous anger response to a friend's devastating 360 review—where her smile was called "insincere" and accused of plotting against the company—transformed into a movement that now brings 250 women together annually for personal and professional development. Anne's journey from Ohio State dental hygiene graduate to corporate wife moving 10 times with three kids to accidental entrepreneur building the largest female dental professional network marketing group, and ultimately to media mogul with multiple publications, demonstrates her core principle: "Just do it—you don't need to know everything before you say yes." Her story reveals how a martini-fueled back porch decision to create Dental Entrepreneur Woman became the seventh annual retreat at the Ballantyne Resort, serving women across all dental career paths with the foundational pillars of love and leaning into God-given strengths through Gallup StrengthsFinder 2.0.

In this episode...

Anne Duffy delivers a masterclass in purpose-driven entrepreneurship, revealing how authentic anger on behalf of a friend became the catalyst for building one of dentistry's most influential women's communities. Her journey defies conventional entrepreneurial planning—from graduating Ohio State dental hygiene in 1974 to moving 10 times as a corporate wife while taking 6 state boards and raising 3 kids, to building the largest female dental professional group in OxyFresh network marketing, to buying and rebranding Dental Entrepreneur magazine, and finally to the martini-fueled back porch decision that launched DEW. This trajectory demonstrates her core teaching that waiting until you know everything guarantees you'll never start, while taking action before you're ready creates opportunities for growth and discovery.

The DEW community's explosive growth from 100 first-retreat attendees to consistent 250-person sellouts reveals the desperate need for women-specific professional development and peer support in dentistry. Anne's insight that even successful practice owners feel isolated—unable to call competitors down the street to share struggles or celebrate wins—explains why word-of-mouth organic growth sustained seven years of retreats without traditional marketing. The community's founding principles of no scarcity mentality, no gossiping, giving benefit of doubt, and the newest addition "the answers in the ladies room" create psychological safety for vulnerability and authentic connection across all career paths from hygienists to lab owners to marketing professionals to interior designers, united only by current or past dental industry connection.

The retreat format itself represents innovative thinking about professional development, eliminating traditional breakout sessions in favor of table-switching that ensures participants meet maximum people while keeping sponsors integrated as full participants rather than isolated vendors. The foundational pillars of love (in response to Anne's friend's devastating review) and Gallup StrengthsFinder 2.0 (which changed Anne's life 17 years ago) provide structure for personal and professional growth without pursuing continuing education credits until recently. The addition of Dress for Success partnership for donating suits and purses demonstrates how DEW extends impact beyond members to support women reentering the workforce, while the inclusion of 219 "DUDEs" (men supporting women in dentistry) acknowledges that transformation requires allies across gender lines.

In this game-changing episode of the Marketing 32 show, host Brett Allen welcomes Ryan Corby, CEO and co-founder of Smile Advantage, who reveals how the traditional per-patient pricing model for membership platforms has been silently draining practice profitability while claiming to help reduce insurance dependency. Born from the frustration of two practicing dentists who realized their successful membership program would cost them a fortune with existing competitors, Smile Advantage represents a fundamental reimagining of how membership software should work. Ryan's unique position as both platform developer and active practice owner provides real-time feedback loops that drive continuous improvement based on actual daily usage rather than theoretical assumptions. From deep PMS integration that eliminates workflow friction to proactive card expiration management that slashes payment failures, Smile Advantage demonstrates how technology should amplify success rather than nickel-and-dime practices as they grow. This conversation exposes the hidden economics of membership platforms, reveals why team buy-in matters more than software features, and provides actionable strategies for positioning memberships as the primary offering rather than an insurance afterthought.

In this episode...

Ryan Corby delivers a masterclass in how membership platforms should actually work, drawing from the unique perspective of being both software developer and active practice owner. The Smile Advantage origin story reveals a critical inflection point in the industry: as membership programs succeed and grow, traditional per-patient pricing models punish that success by exponentially increasing costs. This perverse incentive structure led Ryan's dentist partners to build their own solution after discovering their already-successful membership program would become prohibitively expensive with existing competitors. The flat fee model they chose instead represents a fundamental alignment of interests—every new member increases practice ROI without increasing platform costs, encouraging rather than penalizing growth.

The technical innovations Ryan describes transform membership management from administrative burden into seamless workflow integration. The "Today's Appointments" dashboard exemplifies this approach by pulling real-time schedule data from practice management software and overlaying membership status, insurance information, and renewal alerts directly onto the day's patient list. One-click enrollment eliminates the friction that prevents front desk staff from capitalizing on patient interest, while proactive card expiration management addresses payment failures before they occur rather than playing catch-up afterward. The timeline visualization showing patient spending before and after membership enrollment provides powerful data demonstrating that membership value extends far beyond subscription fees to include all subsequent treatment acceptance.

Perhaps most importantly, Ryan's closing emphasis on team buy-in reveals that technology alone cannot drive membership success. Practices where assistants, front desk staff, treatment coordinators, and doctors all mention membership at every patient touchpoint achieve dramatically better results than those relegating membership discussions to a single team member. This whole-office approach transforms membership from insurance fallback option into primary offering, fundamentally repositioning how practices present value to patients. Combined with strategic timing around open enrollment periods and internal marketing through custom branded materials, this comprehensive approach turns membership programs into powerful tools for reducing insurance dependency while improving patient loyalty, treatment acceptance, and practice profitability.