Just a Couple of Dentists

Ask three team members how to complete the same task.
If you get three different answers, you don't have a system...you have habits.
That's why Alex created Milo...to help out dental offices standardize checklists, recurring tasks, and workflows so everyone is on the same page.
Learn more at https://go.startmilo.com/jacd
This Week's Episode
What happens when you get three people together and start pitching half-baked dental business ideas?
Reuben Kamp joins us to see what we can come up with. An AI schedule optimizer. “Game film” for dentists. Dentist-only vacations. An Apple Watch app that shocks you out of bad habits. Foot massagers built into dental chairs.
Some are terrible. A few we might actually be onto something with.
We also get into what Reuben has been doing with AI at Darkhorse. He’s built more than 100 AI-powered workflows and says he’s eliminated roughly $15,000/month in third-party software costs by building a lot of the tools himself.
Which brings up an interesting question: If you can build your own version of a $2,000/month piece of software in a few days, what happens to all these software companies?
We also talk about employees using AI without the doctor knowing, automatically grading every phone call, APIs, and just how quickly all of this is changing.
In this episode:
• Our best (and worst) dental business ideas• An AI schedule optimizer for building a $10,000 day• “Game film” for dentists• An app that literally shocks you out of bad habits• Dentist-only vacations• Reuben cutting ~$15K/month in software costs with AI• Using AI to automatically grade phone calls• Why some dental software companies should probably be nervous
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly.
JACD listeners get their first month FREE. https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions. 🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments!
https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

Ask three team members how to complete the same task.
If you get three different answers, you don't have a system...you have habits.
That's why Alex created Milo...to help out dental offices standardize checklists, recurring tasks, and workflows so everyone is on the same page.
Learn more at https://go.startmilo.com/jacd
This Week's Episode
 
What if one weekend and $2,000 worth of free coffee could bring 30 new patients into your dental practice?
Dr. Cody Boals joins us to talk about the grassroots marketing strategies he used to grow Kissing Camels Family Dentistry from a startup with zero patients. He breaks down exactly how his coffee giveaway worked, why some of his other marketing ideas completely failed, and how he thinks about deciding what’s actually worth trying.
We also get into free athletic guards, community events, working with marketing companies, tracking ROI, and why dentists shouldn't completely outsource responsibility for growing their practice.
Plus, we brainstorm a few increasingly questionable marketing ideas of our own.
In this episode:
00:02:47 – The $2,000 coffee marketing idea00:06:05 – How buying coffee led to 30 new patients00:10:50 – What the coffee campaign actually cost00:13:33 – Grassroots marketing ideas we tried at our startups00:19:26 – When grassroots marketing is actually worth your time00:22:21 – Cody’s marketing idea that completely flopped00:24:03 – Getting new patients by giving away free athletic guards00:26:13 – Why most dentists don’t follow through on marketing ideas00:31:40 – Marketing ideas Cody still wants to try00:45:16 – Why you sometimes just have to try the dumb idea
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly.
JACD listeners get their first month FREE. https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions. 🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments!
https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!
 

One of the easiest ways to find holes in your systems?
Ask different team members how they complete the same task.
If every answer is a little different, your systems are living in people's heads instead of your practice.
That's why Alex created Milo...to standardize checklists, workflows, and recurring tasks across your entire practice.
Learn more HERE.
This Week's Episode
How good is your team really at answering the phone?
In this episode, we put Stacy DiDonato, a practice performance coach with more than 30 years of dental industry experience, to the test with real calls dental offices get every day.
Eric plays the patients. Stacy has to get them scheduled.
We role-play everything from the easy new patient looking for a cleaning to the price shopper asking, “How much is a crown?” Then we stop the calls along the way to break down exactly why Stacy says what she says.
We get into how to take control of a call without sounding scripted, why you shouldn’t lead with insurance, the questions your front desk should be asking, how to handle out-of-network patients, and the small language changes that can completely change a conversation.
We also talk about where AI receptionists fit into all of this, why complicated dental calls are still difficult for AI, and how AI can actually be used to train your team on phone skills.
This was one of our favorite episodes to record and we hope you enjoy it!
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly. JACD listeners get their first month FREE.🌐 https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions.🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments! https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

Every office slowly drifts. Checklists get skipped. Processes change. Before long, nobody remembers the "right" way to do things. That's exactly why Alex created Milo, an app that helps your team follow checklists, complete recurring tasks, and stay accountable. Learn more HERE!
This Week's Episode
Clear aligners can feel simple… until you’re halfway through a case wondering what the hell happened.
Dr. Matt Standridge is back to break down one of the biggest reasons dentists get frustrated with aligners: case selection. We talk about why some cases are much more predictable than others and how understanding a few basic principles can keep you out of refinement hell.
We discuss:
Why aligners only work by pushing on teeth
What attachments are actually doing
The best clear aligner cases for dentists to start with
Why crowding, deep bites, and narrow smiles are often “green light” cases
How a hidden Class II can get you into trouble
Why beginners should stay away from Class III cases
When IPR makes sense—and when it might not
Why some 20-tray cases turn into another 20+ trays of refinements
How treating a deep bite can address more than simply giving someone a night guard
A simple green light, yellow light, red light approach to case selection
If you’ve wanted to do more clear aligners but aren’t always sure which cases you should actually take on, this episode gives you a much simpler way to look at them.
Special Offer for Our Listeners
Matt is offering our listeners $500 off his online Ortho course!
Use coupon code JACD26 at https://orthodonticxp.com/ to save $500.
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly. JACD listeners get their first month FREE.🌐 https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions.🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments! https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

Ask three team members how to complete the same task.
If you get three different answers, you don't have a system...you have habits.
That's why Alex created Milo...to help out dental offices standardize checklists, recurring tasks, and workflows so everyone is on the same page.
Learn more at https://go.startmilo.com/jacd
This Week's Episode
Dr. Mike Costa is on pace to do 500 full arches this year.
But he didn’t start out as an implant dentist doing hundreds of cases. Mike and Eric actually crossed paths years ago as dentists in the Navy. After leaving the military, Mike found his way into a fee-for-service practice in Knoxville, Tennessee, where a partnership with the right mentor helped completely change the direction of his career.
Today, Mike says he’s the #1 Yomi robotic implant surgeon by volume and has built a team capable of completing 6–10 full arches every week. We talk about how he went from doing bread-and-butter dentistry to becoming the dentist other dentists refer complex cases to, why working Fridays became an unexpected growth strategy, and how adding IV sedation, robotic surgery, digital workflows, and an in-house lab allowed the practice to keep increasing its implant volume.
Mike also walks us through what actually happens when a full-arch patient enters his practice—from the initial consultation and 3D facial scans to AI smile design, robotic implant placement, photogrammetry, and delivering a fixed set of teeth within 24 hours.
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly.
JACD listeners get their first month FREE. https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions. 🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments!
https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

One of the easiest ways to find holes in your systems?
Ask different team members how they complete the same task. If every answer is a little different, your systems are living in people's heads instead of your practice. That's why Alex created Milo...to standardize checklists, workflows, and recurring tasks across your entire practice. Learn more at https://go.startmilo.com/jacd
This Week's Episode
Signing a lease for your dental practice seems pretty straightforward… until you realize how much control your landlord can actually have over your business. We sat down with Stephen Strecker of Tower Realty to talk about how dental real estate has changed since COVID and where the biggest opportunities are for dentists today.
Stephen breaks down why personal guarantees have become so common, how the wrong assignment language can cause major problems when you eventually sell your practice, and why the rent you negotiate isn't even close to the whole story once triple nets and CAM charges get involved. We also get into why prime retail space has gotten so expensive, whether paying more for visibility is actually worth it, and the surprising opportunity Stephen is seeing in office space right now.
We cover:
• How dental leasing has changed since COVID
• Why landlords are asking for personal guarantees
• The lease provision that can create problems when you sell
• Why dentists are competing with restaurants and national retailers for space
• Retail vs. office space for a dental practice
• Why $40/sq. ft. rent might actually cost you closer to $55/sq. ft.
• What triple net and CAM charges actually pay for
• How to protect yourself from rapidly increasing landlord expenses
• Whether dental rents will keep going up • Why the market may finally be shifting back toward tenants
Plus, Alex and Eric revisit the tiny 1,250-square-foot practice Alex started in and somehow managed to squeeze five operatories into.
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible! 🖥️
Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly. JACD listeners get their first month FREE. 🌐 https://www.darkhorsetech.com 💳
Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions. 🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments! https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

Want to see how Taher actually runs things?
We added some of Taher’s real checklists from Colorado Surgical Institute to Milo, so you can grab them and use them in your own practice.
Get Taher’s checklists on Milo HERE.
This Week's EpisodeDr. Taher Dhoon has spent more than $200,000 on CE to learn about dental implants. But his path to becoming one of the dentists now teaching implants wasn't exactly straightforward.
Taher joins us to talk about how he went from a general dentist trying to get surgical reps wherever he could to placing thousands of implants and eventually building Colorado Surgical Institute.
We get into what those early implant courses were actually like, why getting reps isn't the same thing as getting good training, and how a dentist should progressively build their surgical skill set without getting in over their head.
Taher also tells us how a failed startup nearly wiped him out financially, how he ended up buying a $1.1 million practice in Greeley, CO and eventually grew it to nearly $5 million, and why trying to implement everything at once ended up burning out some of his best team members.
We also talk about why case selection matters so much when you're learning surgery, dealing with complications, knowing when to refer, building relationships with specialists, and why Colorado Surgical Institute was designed to be more than another weekend implant course.
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly. JACD listeners get their first month FREE.🌐 https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions.🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments! https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

One of the easiest ways to find holes in your systems?
Ask different team members how they complete the same task.
If every answer is a little different, your systems are living in people's heads instead of your practice.
That's why Alex created Milo...to standardize checklists, workflows, and recurring tasks across your entire practice.
Learn more HERE.
This Week's Episode
As dentists, we're constantly trying to avoid becoming a commodity. We invest in better patient experiences, technology, customer service, and relationships because we know that if the only thing patients compare is price, nobody wins.
That got us thinking... dental labs are in the exact same position.
With labs popping up everywhere, overseas manufacturing, and crowns getting cheaper every year, how does a lab actually stand out? Is it just a race to the bottom, or is there another way to build a successful business?
That's what we sat down with Aaron Hoffman from Sunflower Dental Studio to find out.
Aaron shares how Sunflower grew by focusing on craftsmanship, relationships, and helping dentists long before asking for their business. We also talk about why cosmetic dentistry is so dependent on the partnership between the dentist and the ceramist, where digital dentistry and AI fit into the future of labs, and why some parts of dentistry still can't be commoditized.
Even though this conversation is centered around dental labs, I think every practice owner will recognize the same challenges in their own business. The question is the same for all of us: How do you build something people choose because they want to—not because you're the cheapest?
We discuss:
Why competing on price is a losing strategy
How Sunflower Dental Studio grew in a commoditized industry
The role communication plays in great cosmetic cases
Why relationships still matter more than technology
Where AI helps—and where it still falls short
The long-term mindset that built their business
Marketing by helping instead of selling
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly. JACD listeners get their first month FREE.🌐 https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions.🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments! https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

One of the easiest ways to find holes in your systems?
Ask different team members how they complete the same task.
If every answer is a little different, your systems are living in people's heads instead of your practice.
That's why Alex created Milo...to standardize checklists, workflows, and recurring tasks across your entire practice.
Learn more HERE.
This Week's Episode
We brought back an old friend of the podcast, Cory Ball.
If you've been listening for a while, you probably remember Cory from one of our earlier episodes where he shared the story of buying his first practice. At the time, it was collecting about $400,000 a year with a ton of inherited problems. Cory was honest about how overwhelming that first year of ownership had been.
Now, about 18 months later, the practice is on pace to do $1.3 million.
We wanted to have him back on to find out what actually changed.
Cory shares the biggest things he credits for the growth, including becoming more efficient clinically, learning which procedures to keep doing (and which ones to refer), building a team that genuinely enjoys working together, and the lessons he's learned as a first-time owner.
We also spend some time talking about the mental side of practice ownership, why the anxiety never completely goes away, hiring in today's market, and some of the mistakes he'd avoid if he were starting over.
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly. JACD listeners get their first month FREE.🌐 https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions.🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments! https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!

One of the easiest ways to find holes in your systems?
Ask different team members how they complete the same task.
If every answer is a little different, your systems are living in people's heads instead of your practice.
That's why Alex created Milo...to standardize checklists, workflows, and recurring tasks across your entire practice.
Learn more HERE.
You don't expect your payment processor to be the thing that causes the biggest headache in your practice... until you try to leave.
That's exactly what happened to one dentist who thought he could switch providers...only to find out it was going to cost him $10,000 just to get out of his agreement.
In this episode, we sit down with Roman and Steven from nadapayments to unpack how this happened, why these contract clauses exist, and what every practice owner should be looking for before signing with a merchant service company. We also get into hidden fees, leased equipment, why processing rates seem to creep up over time, and whether AI is actually good enough to review contracts for you.
If you've never looked closely at your merchant statements or your processing agreement, this episode might save you thousands.
In this episode, we cover:
The $10,000 cancellation fee that caught one dentist completely off guard
Contract language that can lock you into a bad deal
Why merchant processing fees quietly increase over time
The truth about leased payment terminals
What questions to ask before signing with any payment processor
A simple way to audit your payment processing before it becomes a problem
Sponsor Shoutouts
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible!
🖥️ Darkhorse Tech – Dental IT done right. From managed IT and cybersecurity to HIPAA compliance and cloud solutions, Darkhorse helps practices keep their technology running smoothly. JACD listeners get their first month FREE.🌐 https://www.darkhorsetech.com
💳 Nadapayments – Stop overpaying for credit card processing. JACD listeners get $25/month pricing, 1.5% processing, and $0.25 debit transactions.🌐 https://www.nadapayments.com
Check out their savings calculator to see how much money you are leaving on the table by not switching to nadapayments! https://nada-calculator-dentalpractice.netlify.app/
Connect with Us
If you got something out of this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with another dentist. Thanks for listening!