The Leverage Podcast with Kevin Johnson

Being busy is not the same as building a better practice.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson breaks down 15 habits that quietly keep practice owners stressed, stuck, and focused on activity instead of outcomes. From micromanaging small expenses while ignoring major revenue opportunities, to reviewing reports without making decisions, constantly hiring without fixing retention, and working harder clinically instead of building a practice that performs without you, these habits all point back to one issue: misplaced focus.

Kevin explains why leadership should center on five outcomes: revenue, profitability, people, systems, and enterprise value. Everything else should support those priorities, not compete with them.

He also explores the hidden cost of being indispensable to your practice. If every problem, exception, and decision still depends on you, the business may feel productive while actually becoming less scalable and less valuable.

If your calendar is full but your practice is not growing the way it should, this episode will help you identify where your time is being spent and what deserves your attention instead.

Let’s talk.

You do not have to wait until your practice is struggling to benefit from coaching.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson explains why some of the best work happens after the fires are under control—when you finally have the clarity to focus on what comes next instead of constantly reacting to what is broken.

He explores three major areas where that stability can create opportunity: strengthening the team through clearer goals and accountability, scaling by producing more with the same or less, and preparing early for the next stage of the practice, whether that means adding an associate, restructuring leadership, expanding services, or planning for an eventual exit.

Kevin also explains why the absence of chaos can feel unfamiliar to practice owners who have spent years operating under stress, and why that calm should not be mistaken for stagnation.

If your practice is running better than it used to but you are wondering what to focus on next, this conversation will help you move the goal post and start building from a position of strength.

Let’s talk.

What are you actually building?

A bigger practice, another location, or higher production may be part of the answer—but Kevin Johnson argues that the real goal should be freedom.

In this episode, Kevin explains what freedom looks like in practical terms for a practice owner: the ability to make difficult team decisions without fear, reduce dependence on insurance, take genuine time away from the business, and eventually retire on your own terms.

He also explores what happens when that freedom is missing. Financial pressure limits choices, underperforming employees stay too long, insurance dictates the business model, and the owner becomes so essential to daily operations that stepping away feels impossible.

The goal is not necessarily to leave the profession early. It is to build enough financial and operational independence that continuing to practice becomes a choice rather than a necessity.

If your practice is growing but your options are shrinking, this conversation will help you reconsider what you are really building toward.

Let’s talk.

Selling a practice is not simply a financial transaction. It is a decision that can shape the next several years of your professional life, your financial future, and the legacy of what you built.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson explains why practice owners need to begin with the outcome they actually want before evaluating buyers or offers. He discusses how the practice-sale landscape has changed, why DSO and private equity deals need to be evaluated without predetermined assumptions, and why timing, post-sale employment expectations, buyer relationships, and deal structure all matter.

Kevin also addresses one of the most important parts of the process: understanding what the practice is truly worth. A spreadsheet alone does not necessarily capture the full value of a business, particularly when reputation, team stability, patient relationships, systems, and other non-quantitative factors are ignored.

He also explores the legacy and emotional considerations that often get pushed aside in a transaction-focused process.

If selling your practice is even a possibility in the next several years, this conversation will help you think about the decision before urgency starts making the decisions for you.

Let’s talk.

Most people assume a dental practice stays on the market because the price is too high. But in many cases, the real problem is that the full value of the practice was never clearly communicated.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson explains why buyers default to negotiating price when they cannot see what they are actually acquiring. He breaks down the factors that shape a successful transition, including timing, tax structure, procedure mix, insurance participation, team stability, referral infrastructure, and operational systems.

Kevin also defines what a truly turnkey practice looks like: a business where the outgoing owner can leave on Friday, the new owner can walk in on Monday, and the practice continues operating with the same team, systems, patients, and revenue engine in place. He explains why sellers must document and communicate the complete value of what they have built, and why buyers need more than a production number and asking price to make an informed decision.

Whether you are planning to sell a practice or considering buying one, this conversation will help you understand why the number is only the starting point.

Let’s talk.

Most practice owners dread the raise conversation because there is no clear framework behind it. A team member asks for more money, the owner feels pressured to respond, and the entire discussion becomes subjective.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson explains why there are really only two legitimate reasons for a raise: a cost-of-living adjustment or a meaningful increase in the employee’s value to the organization. He also breaks down the most common reasons team members ask for more money, why those reasons should not automatically determine compensation, and how practice owners can completely change the conversation by giving employees a clear development plan.

Kevin explains how to put the employee in control of their own next raise by defining exactly what skills, performance standards, and contributions are required to earn it. The result is less ambiguity, less defensiveness, and a compensation system that rewards growth instead of pressure.

If you want raise conversations to become collaborative instead of uncomfortable, this episode will show you how to build the framework first.

The biggest changes inside a practice are not always driven by new technology, marketing campaigns, or major strategic initiatives. Often, they are the result of small decisions being made repeatedly by every person on the team.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson explains why daily micro decisions around cancellations, lateness, scheduling, patient behavior, discounts, and accountability compound into major operational and financial outcomes. He breaks down how the wrong decisions quietly weaken schedule density, overhead, culture, and profitability, while the right decisions multiply standards across the organization.

Kevin also explains why policy manuals and signage rarely change behavior, and why leadership, training, scripting, and clear ownership of specific outcomes are far more effective. The goal is not simply to give employees tasks. It is to help every team member understand how their decisions directly affect the success of the practice.

If your practice feels like it is being held back by dozens of small problems instead of one obvious failure, this conversation will help you see where the real leverage may be.

Let’s talk.

Hiring is one of the highest-stakes decisions inside a practice, but many interviews are still conducted without a clear framework for determining whether someone actually belongs on the team.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson breaks down what a strong interview should accomplish and why close-ended questions often leave practice owners with almost no useful information. He explains how open-ended questions reveal competence, confidence, judgment, and fit, and why the best interviews are diagnostic conversations rather than rigid scripts.

Kevin also walks through the four questions every interview should ultimately answer, what strong interviewers do well, where even good interviews can miss important information, and why multi-round hiring needs a shared tracking process to prevent repetition and blind spots.

If you are hiring for your practice, this conversation will help you build an interview process that does more than fill a seat. It helps you identify the person most likely to move the team and the business forward.

Let’s talk.

Scaling is often treated like a strategy reserved for large corporations, venture-backed companies, or businesses with multiple locations. But the same principles apply to a service-based practice of almost any size.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson explains what scaling actually looks like inside a practice and why it often starts by removing inefficiencies rather than adding more overhead. He breaks down five areas where meaningful growth can happen: improving the conversion of existing marketing leads, increasing case acceptance, standardizing systems, reducing dependence on the owner, and strengthening leadership throughout the organization.

Kevin also explains why these changes can increase profit without automatically requiring more staff, more marketing spend, or major capital investment, and how building that foundation creates new opportunities for higher-value procedures, additional producers, fee increases, and smarter insurance decisions.

If you have been thinking scaling does not apply to a business like yours, this conversation will challenge that assumption.

Let’s talk.

The skill that made you indispensable early in your practice can eventually become the thing holding the entire organization back.

In this episode, Kevin Johnson explains why successful owners and managers eventually have to transition out of firefighter mode. Solving problems quickly may have been essential during the early stages of growth, but when every issue continues flowing through one person, that person becomes the ceiling of the business.

Kevin breaks down what changes when leaders stop solving every problem themselves and start building people, systems, and accountability structures that allow the team to operate independently. He also explains why this transition often feels uncomfortable, why some team members may be perfect for one stage of growth but not the next, and why the goal should be spending less than 20% of leadership time fighting fires and more than 80% building the future.

If your practice still depends on you to solve every problem that surfaces, this conversation will help you understand what the next stage of leadership requires.

Let’s talk.