What if the cracks in your dental practice were always there...and growth just made them impossible to ignore?

In this episode of DEO's Growth Secrets, Kendall sits down with Karen Gray, Chief Customer Officer at Oryx Dental Software. With nearly 20 years of executive experience across vertical SaaS, Karen is a proven customer leader with a front-row seat to what actually happens when dental practices start to scale. She breaks down why the jump from one location to two exposes operational gaps most owners don't even know exist.

You'll hear why being the busiest practice on the block is not always a green light to expand, the three questions every owner needs to answer before opening a second location, and why the dentist who is involved in everything is often the biggest bottleneck to their own growth. Karen also draws a clear line between having software and having real operational infrastructure, and why that difference determines whether scaling feels like momentum or chaos.

📲 To learn more about Oryx Dental Software:

Website: www.oryxdental.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/OryxDentalSoftware

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/oryxdental

Instagram: www.instagram.com/oryxdentalsoftware

🎯 Ready to increase your profit, build a stronger team, and finally break free from the day-to-day? Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉 https://bit.ly/4mt66YI

Today's episode is sponsored by Oryx Dental Software, a partner of the DEO.

What happens when you do everything right...build the practice, hire the team, open a second location...and then it all starts falling apart?

In this episode, Emmett Scott sits down with Dr. Nada Elsadig, a multi-location practice owner who went from a $200K acquisition to $1.2M in her first year, only to face a health crisis that left her practice vulnerable, her team working against her, and her confidence at an all-time low. She shares the raw truth about what it took to rebuild, why she almost walked away from dentistry entirely, and how the right systems and support changed everything.

You'll hear how Dr. Nada approaches case acceptance through what she calls the "emotional treasure," a simple but powerful method for getting patients to say yes without pressure. She also breaks down the leadership shift that transformed her practice culture, why she stopped holding on to team members who weren't the right fit, and how she's now expanding to her third location with a clear vision for training the next generation of dentists.

🎯 Ready to increase your profit, build a stronger team, and finally break free from the day-to-day? Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉 https://bit.ly/4mt66YI

What happens when your practice is growing…and then a lawsuit or claim hits that you thought you were covered for?

In this episode, Herb Ford and Kyle Wallace from Risk Strategies break down what most dental practice owners don't think about while they're focused on growth. You're adding a provider or opening another location, and naturally your attention stays on production and keeping everything moving.

But as the practice grows, the risk behind it grows with it. The coverage that worked for one location doesn't always fit a second. A general policy that felt fine early on may miss the nuances of a dental practice as complexity increases. And without the right partner guiding that strategy, small gaps can build quietly in the background.

Herb and Kyle walk through where those gaps tend to show up, from employee issues to liability and operational risks, and why most owners only discover them when it's already costing them.

👉 Learn more about Risk Strategies: https://www.risk-strategies.com/dental

📄 Download the free white paper here: https://bit.ly/4s7tUSZ

Not a member? Join over 500+ dentist entrepreneurs who have already solved the challenges you are facing today.

✨ Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉https://deodentalgroup.com/interest/

Today's episode is sponsored by Risk Strategies, a partner of the DEO.

Why does your dental practice get harder to run the moment you hit three locations?

In this episode, Chris Hadziev from Planet DDS shares data from over 8,000+ practices on why some offices grow nearly three times faster than others. New patient flow is one of the key drivers. But the deeper story isn't just about getting more patients in the door. It's what happens next.

Chris shares how one growing group had all the right tools in place, yet nothing connected. Their ops leader became the system, manually stitching together reports just to keep things running. It highlights how the 3 location mark is when systems begin to break down. What once worked at the beginning starts to create friction instead of momentum.

This episode walks through what's actually driving the gap between top and bottom performers, why operational consistency beats expansion, and how small breakdowns in case acceptance quietly limit your production without you realizing it.

📍 Connect with Chris Hadziev on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-hadziev/

🦷 Learn more about Planet DDS: https://www.planetdds.com/

📘 Download the Scaling Smarter: Standardization Guide for DSOs and Dental Groups: https://www.planetdds.com/resources/standardization-guide/

📊 Get the 2026 Dental Industry Outlook: https://bit.ly/4uSAyPt

Not a member? Join over 500+ dentist entrepreneurs who have already solved the challenges you are facing today.

✨ Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉https://deodentalgroup.com/interest/

Today's episode is sponsored by Planet DDS, a partner of the DEO.

If your marketing agency is leading with traffic, clicks, and impressions... they're measuring the wrong things. And while you're nodding along to their monthly report, your business stays flat. Most dental practices don't have a marketing problem. They have an accountability problem. In this episode, Daniel Sosa, CEO of OM Performance Marketing, breaks down why traditional dental marketing is bleeding your budget dry and what performance marketing actually looks like. You'll learn why new patients and production are the only metrics that matter, how to tie your marketing directly to hiring decisions and practice growth, how to vet a marketing agency so you never get burned again, and why month six is when real growth finally takes off.

🔗 Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dsosa1/

🌐 Learn more about OM Performance Marketing: www.growwithom.com/dso

📋 Grab their free Digital Marketing Agency Cheat Sheet, so you know exactly what to look for when evaluating your next marketing partner: https://bit.ly/4uoOQHo

Not a DEO member? Join over 500+ dentist entrepreneurs who have already solved the challenges you are facing today.

✨ Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉https://deodentalgroup.com/interest/

Today's episode is sponsored by OM Performance Marketing, a partner of the DEO.

What if you could build a thriving dental organization and still be present for the moments that matter most?

In this episode, Dr. Whitney Weiner shares her journey from starting with zero patients to buying seven offices and consolidating them into three. She talks about the early grind, cash being tight, remodeling operatories on weekends, and carrying the weight of growth on her shoulders.

She opens up about her worst financial quarter ever and the realization that being the super producer was actually slowing her company down. The shift came when she learned to let go, hire people wiser than her, and step into architecting the business instead of doing everything herself.

Today, she blocks time on her calendar to help her son with algebra, builds her schedule around family, and chooses what she says yes and no to.

Listen in to hear Whitney's story about growth, failure, freedom, and building a practice that works around her life.

Ready to join DEO members who have already solved the challenges you are facing today?

✨ Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉https://deodentalgroup.com/interest/

Are you spending thousands on marketing, but still don't really know what's working?

In this episode, Kendall sits down with Ali Soufi, CEO of DocSites, to talk through what's really happening behind the scenes of dental marketing. They cover why many practices overspend on Google Ads, how "vanity websites" quietly hurt ROI, and what it looks like to focus on efficiency first. You'll hear real examples of practices cutting the fluff, reallocating spend, and building websites that patients actually respond to. If marketing has ever felt confusing, expensive, or out of your control, this episode will help you see where to look and what questions to start asking.

Learn more about DocSites or connect with their team 👇

www.docsites.com

🎁 DEO Members: DocSites offers an exclusive, member-only offer. To learn more or access member perks, reach out to your DEO Coach or Community Coordinator.

Not a member? Join over 500+ dentist entrepreneurs who have already solved the challenges you are facing today.✨ Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉https://deodentalgroup.com/interest/

What do you do when you buy failing practices and suddenly you're the one holding every location together?

Seth Huish and Clark Brinton from Arvory Dental Group bought four practices in 2017. What started as an ambitious growth plan quickly turned into lost associates, burned savings, and the pressure to produce their way out of problems. Now at eight locations with every practice clearing $1M+, they share how they moved from associate to partner models, slashed costs by 30% with AI, built vertically integrated systems, and why radical candor became their secret weapon for tough conversations.

Ready to join DEO members who have already solved the challenges you are facing today?

✨ Schedule your free Growth Accelerator Call and take the first step toward becoming a DEO member 👉https://deodentalgroup.com/interest/

What if the real reason scaling feels harder is because your systems were never built to scale in the first place?

Kendall sits down with Ted Wegman, co-founder of Access DSO Solutions, to break down what really goes wrong when dental groups grow too fast. Ted explains how practices hit facility bottlenecks, miss critical details, and end up with systems that don't talk to each other. Before they know it, owners are pulled back into decisions they thought growth would eliminate. He shares real stories from large dental groups that scaled right and wrong, why scalability and EBITDA drive real value, and how building systems before expansion creates freedom instead of friction.

📞 Connect with Ted Wegman

📧 Email: [email protected]

📱 Call/Text: (314) 497-0403

💡 Running your practice shouldn't feel like survival mode.

Join DEO's Growth Secrets Newsletter, the daily email with real tips on growth and profitability.

👉 Subscribe Now: https://deodentalgroup.com/newsletter/

What if the money problem in your practice isn't production, but what's happening after the patient leaves the chair?

Many dental practices are busy and producing well, yet cash flow still feels tighter than it should. In this episode, Nina Lewis, VP of Revenue Cycle Management at SupportDDS, shares what she sees every day working with dental practices that believe they are collecting properly, only to discover hidden gaps behind the scenes. We talk about why AR totals can be misleading, why over-90 claims reveal where systems are failing, and a real story where internal EFT changes created major payment delays for a dental practice. It's a conversation that helps owners see where revenue can get stuck, and why noticing it sooner can make a meaningful difference.

SupportDDS provides dental RCM-certified virtual team members who support billing, insurance verification, AR follow-up, and workflow optimization. Their team helps practices uncover gaps, reduce delays, and strengthen collections with consistency and clarity.

If you are a current DEO member and a client of SupportDDS, you are eligible for a FREE Revenue Cycle Management Assessment valued at $1,800.

📅 Speak directly with Nina Lewis and reserve your session:

👉 https://calendly.com/nina-supportdds

💡 Running your practice shouldn't feel like survival mode. Join DEO's Growth Secrets Newsletter, the daily email with real tips on growth and profitability.

👉 Subscribe Now: https://deodentalgroup.com/newsletter/