Regional partner in 25 location DSO. Orthodontist, former Army officer, real estate investor. Follow me as we build a doctor owned patient-centric dental group
Austin, TX
Joined July 2023
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Lots of new followers after Nik's podcast, so allow me to re-introduce myself.
I'm your friendly neighborhood orthodontist working to build an amazing group of dental practices.
DSOs (dental service organizations) get a bad rap sometimes because some PE backed groups have sacrificed patient care for profits.
I'm a partner in a small 21 practice DSO that is entirely doctor owned and our mission to build a great company without sacrificing patient care.
I do it all for my four kids and awesome wife, I spent 7 years in the Army, die hard Georgia Bulldogs fan, Austin native and I love Jesus.
I post about the business side of dentistry and try to share insights I'm gaining as I build with my awesome partners.
I'm currently in the lease negotiation process for a retail space in the North Austin suburbs and we're recruiting a partner for this location. So if you know anyone who wants to become a practice owner, I'd love to get their name!
Give me a follow and drop a comment about the content you'd like to see more of!
Anytime I feel like managing dental employees is hard, one of the SMB bros drops this and I’m thankful for how good I have it 😅
SMB ETA is so easy.
Team building especially.
I honestly don’t understand why people struggle with it.
Just write some SOPs.
Set some KPIs.
Empower your people.
Create clear accountability.
Congrats. You now have a self-managing business.
Meanwhile, this week:
• Lead tech tore up the landscaping at the entrance to a $5M+ subdivision with a tracked lift. No boards down. Already on his 2nd written warning.
• Another lead tech showed up to a site unannounced. Caused damage. Already on a written warning.
• Tech no-call/no-showed. Already on a FINAL written warning. Gone.
Anyway, I’m off to write another SOP.
That should fix it.
Don't eat the seed corn!
So important to keep your personal lifestyle in check if you want to make the next step in your dental practice.
If you're jumping from associate to practice ownership, you need some money in the bank and to avoid a lavish lifestyle you need to fund.
If you're looking to grow to a multi-location model, it takes even more money in the bank and excess cash flow.
With all the clinics opening lately, I've been plowing money back into the business. Only possible since I don't need all the money coming out of the practice.
David | TheDSOGuy retweeted
It’s not just freedom, it’s providing autonomy and confidence to navigate the world and it’s essential to raise a child into an adult.
But every day parents are warned about the dangers lurking behind the front door while ignoring the dangers behind the screen they place the kid in front instead.
What in office chat/communication do ya'll use?
We have G suite which is HIPAA compliant but the chats can be hard to organize.
Slack is awesome but not HIPAA compliant and the paid version is expensive.
Flex has an intra office chat, but we've never used it.
Had a chance to talk with the business and investing club at UTHSC Dental school last night.
Great group of young professionals.
I’m always excited to help young dentists chase their dreams!
AI agents are going to be big but REAL HUMANS are always going to be at the forefront of healthcare. Using AI to train them makes so much sense
Our healthcare workforce training company teaches students by practicing live phone calls against AI patients before they ever talk to a real one.
Three different language models run inside one 55-second call.
Our engine picks a model for every job in that call. It picks on the clock. Not on which model is smartest.
• Be the patient - Has to answer before the silence feels wrong, so it goes to the fastest model.
• Read the call while it is happening - 12 seconds or it gets skipped.
• Grade the call at the end - Nobody is waiting, so it gets the slow lane and the better reasoner.
Routing below.
Final sprint to get open.
Contractor finished new paint and some new flooring.
Dental chairs/equipment going in this week. IT install. Furniture and supplies arriving. New signs.
Shooting for Oct 1 for first patients!
All right, I'll go on record. Bear market is done for Bitcoin.
Ben nailed the top back in Fall 2025, but it seems the market has front run the October 2026 low he was calling for.
I've been DCAing hard all summer. Bull run has begun.
If you're a dental associate and want to move on to bigger and better things, this is great advice
Early in my career, if I had to do something I thought was beneath my intelligence, I did it with DISDAIN.
And I’m sure it showed.
Through exposure and dumb luck, I eventually learned that everything matters, and people are always watching.
If I can’t reliably hand you a document to format (smething well below my perceived abilities) without giving you a lot of input, I’m going to hesitate before giving you anything more complicated.
You might be capable of much more! But the work in front of me is what I have to go on.
At Sagan, we’re constantly looking (internally) for people who show initiative, attention to detail, and speed.
Sometimes we see those qualities in something as simple as reorganizing Slack channels.
That task is well below the capability of most people on the team. Someone who does it with excellence, speed, and a little virtuosity gets noticed. We keep feeding that person opportunities because they’ve made it easy to trust them with more.
Someone else does the same task in a way that says, “This is beneath me.”
They don’t have to say it out loud. You can see it in their attitude and the quality of their work.
They may be waiting for a bigger assignment to show what they’re capable of. Meanwhile, we’re deciding who gets that assignment based on how people handle the work they already have.
The worst part is they probably won’t realize any of this happened.
Nobody tells them they were considered for something bigger and found lacking.
They just don’t get the next opportunity.
Keep sharing, Carlos. Good stuff!
My $20/month, 24/7 AI employee took a vacation in the middle of the day yesterday. Claude went down hard for a few hours yesterday and it just happened to be when my Project Coordinator skill was running and preparing for a weekly meeting. It had gotten through about half of what was needed but before the formal project summary I use in our meeting was done.
The day before I had loaded the Claude desktop app on a second laptop and found out that projects stay on the machine they are created in and aren't visible on the new machine.
These two events got me thinking that I don't have a backup plan for when my AI tools go down, who plans for that? I take it for granted that they will just work all of the time. It might be time to have a backup on ChatGPT or Grok...
We're coming to Tucson.
If anyone knows a doctor with good surgical and endo skills, I'd love to talk to them.
The office is FFS with great fee schedules similar to the Dallas office I have posted about.
Thanks to @shawnwcarr for finding us a great space!
I hooked up Grok bot last week. I asked it to get insurance quotes for my home and my two SFRs.
Shoulda thought not to let it use my email address and phone number.
Rookie mistake.
Send help. So many sales follow-ups 😱
Wasn't all bad though. Grok bot has been the best so far at combing through my saved files to produce helpful summaries of "institutional knowledge"
David | TheDSOGuy retweeted
I reread this every year.
I cry like a baby every year.
Todd Beamer died a father, husband, and hero.
Todd: Hello… Operator… listen to me. I can’t speak very loud. This is an emergency. I’m a passenger on a United flight to San Francisco. Our plane has been hijacked.
Lisa: I understand. Can they see you?
Todd: No. There are three that we know of. They have knives — razor knives, like box cutters. Someone announced from the cockpit there was a bomb. It sounded fake.
Lisa: Your name?Todd: Todd Beamer. United Flight 93.Todd: They killed one passenger in first class. They forced most of us back. Fourteen of us here. Five flight attendants. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor.
Lisa: Are you okay?
Todd: We’re going down… wait. No. We’re leveling off. We changed directions. We’re flying east again.
Todd: A guy named Jeremy called his wife. She told him two planes hit the World Trade Center. Lisa, is that true?
Lisa: I have to tell you the truth. It’s very bad. Both towers are gone. A third plane hit the Pentagon. Our country is under attack. I’m afraid your plane may be part of their plan.
Todd: Oh God. Lisa, will you do something for me? Call my wife and my kids. Promise me you’ll call.
Lisa: I promise.
Todd: Our home number is… You have the same name as my wife. Lisa. We’ve been married ten years. She’s pregnant with our third child. Tell her I love her. I’ll always love her. We have two boys — David, he’s 3, and Andrew, he’s 1. Tell them their daddy loves them and he is so proud of them. The baby is due January 12th. I saw an ultrasound. We still don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy.
Lisa: I’ll tell them. I promise, Todd.(Lisa patches in the FBI.)
Agent: Todd, your plane is on a course for Washington. Best guess is the White House or the Capitol.
Todd: I understand. I’ll be back.
Todd: Everyone knows this isn’t a normal hijacking. We have decided we will not be pawns in their plot.
Lisa: What are you going to do?
Todd: Four of us are going to rush the one with the bomb. Then the cockpit. A stewardess is getting boiling water. We’ll take them out.
Todd: Would you pray with me?They pray the Lord’s Prayer. Then: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Todd: God help me. Jesus help me.Are you guys ready? Let’s Roll.
