Why do the thousands of dollars you spend on dental consultants evaporate the moment your team gets busy? Dr. Max Kerr breaks down the real reason your practice falls back into bad habits, office drama, and useless meetings. Learn how the EOS framework forces total team accountability, kills breakroom gossip, and builds a structural foundation that permanently solves your biggest operational headaches.

What We Discuss with Dr. Max Kerr:

• The Issues List: Why an organization with a lot of issues is actually a healthy one—as long as you have a system to capture them instead of letting them fester in the breakroom.
• IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve): The exact psychological framework to prevent endless meeting debates and force actual, tangible solutions with assigned to-dos.
• Stopping Office Drama: How to empower your team to bring problems to the light, and why you should enforce a strict "don't vent to me, do something about it" culture.
• The 80/20 Rule of Process: Why you don't need a 100-page SOP manual that no one reads. Learn how documenting just 20% of your core processes gets 80% of the work done safely.
• The Level 10 Meeting: The strict 90-minute weekly agenda that guarantees accountability, keeps everyone on track, and eliminates the "this could have been an email" feeling.
• The Foundation First: Why getting EOS off the ground takes a solid two years, and why expensive clinical consultants won't save your business if your foundational "underwear and socks" aren't properly in place.
• And much more…

Episode Summary:

You’ve hired the consultants, read the books, and maybe even had a few productive team meetings. But two months later, the demands of the practice get in the way, and everyone reverts to their old habits. Your team is venting to each other in the hallways, administrative balls are being dropped, and your clinical excellence is being overshadowed by 1-star reviews complaining about billing errors.

In this episode, Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott welcome back Dr. Kerr to dive deep into the final key components of the EOS (Traction) framework: Issues, Process, and Traction. Dr. Kerr explains why avoiding problems is a recipe for disaster and how implementing a strict, time-blocked "Level 10" weekly meeting can completely transform your practice's culture. He shares exactly how to track issues, force actionable solutions instead of allowing endless discussion, and hold team members accountable week over week.

Whether you are running a single dental sleep practice or managing multiple locations, this conversation strips away the "rainbow unicorn mumbo jumbo" and gives you the essential blocking and tackling strategies needed to run a highly profitable, stress-free business.

Resources and References Mentioned:

• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
  • Value Add: This is the foundational textbook for the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) discussed in this episode. If you are tired of hitting a ceiling in your practice growth, start here to understand the Six Key Components of a successful business.
• EOS Worldwide (Find an Implementer)
  • Dr. Kerr mentions that while you can self-implement EOS, the most successful and busiest dental sleep practices in the world often hire a professional implementer. Use this directory if you want a professional to hold your leadership team accountable and fast-track your success.
• Productive Dentist Academy (PDA)
  • Mentioned by Dr. Kerr as an incredible resource for patient interaction and team alignment. However, as Dr. Kerr notes, PDA is "downstream" from EOS. Build your EOS communication lanes and business foundation first, so that when you bring in heavy-hitting consultants like PDA, your team can actually execute their strategies.
• Connect with Dr. Max Kerr:
  • Reach out directly via email at: mkerr@sleepbetteraustin.com

The "business of dental sleep medicine" shouldn’t feel like a dirty secret - and PROFIT shouldn’t be a curse word in sleep. In this episode, Jason Tierney, Dr. Erin Elliott, and Dr. Max Kerr stop apologizing for building healthy businesses. Dr. Kerr explains how his own "rheostat regret"—a deep-seated dislike for traditional drilling and filling—led him to master the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and scale a massive sleep practice.

From identifying the "Toxic Tammys" in your office to setting the 90-day "Rocks" that move the needle, this conversation is a roadmap for any dentist who wants to stop being the bottleneck in their own business.

What’s on the Menu:

• The Handpiece Allergy: Why Max traded the handpiece for systems and how that shift allowed him to scale patient care without burning out.
• The Foundational “Underwear” of Business: Max explains why EOS is the "base layer" of a successful practice—if your socks and underwear have holes, your whole outfit (and your day) is ruined.
• The "Screw Tammy" Protocol: How to handle the high-performing "Toxic Tammy" who is a hit with patients but a cancer to your team culture.
• Vision vs. Hallucination: Why a mission statement isn’t enough. You need the Vision Traction Organizer (VTO) to ensure your team is actually following the map.
• Setting DSM "Rocks": A breakdown of the 90-day sprint and how to keep your team focused on big-picture projects instead of just daily fires.
• Voted Off the Island: Erin and Max discuss building a culture so strong that toxic employees self-select out before you even have to fire them.
• Managing by the Scorecard: How to use objective data to predict your month's success before you even look at a revenue report.

The Value Add:

• It Connects Business Health to Patient Care: This episode makes it clear that strong care and strong operations belong together. A healthy practice can serve more people, more consistently.
• It Gives Owners a Clearer Leadership Framework: Instead of living in constant reaction mode, listeners get a practical model for building alignment, accountability, and better decision-making.
• Cross-Functional Buy-In: Dr. Kerr emphasizes involving key team members in vision and accountability so the practice runs with more alignment and less confusion.

The Wisdom of Max:
"None of us are doing this for free. If you don’t care about people, dentistry will eat you alive—but you can quantify that you’re helping someone live years longer. What is that worth to bring to market?"

Clinical Concepts & Terminology:

• EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System): A proven set of simple concepts and practical tools used by entrepreneurs to get what they want from their businesses.
• Rocks: The 3 to 7 most important things (objectives) the company must get done in the next 90 days.
• The People Analyzer: An EOS tool used to clarify if you have the "Right People" in the "Right Seats."
• VTO (Vision Traction Organizer): A powerful tool that helps a leadership team get 100% on the same page with where they are going and how they are going to get there.
• Scorecard: A weekly tracking tool of 5–15 high-level numbers that allow you to feel the pulse of your business.

Featured Experts & Resources:

• Dr. Max Kerr: Clinical Director of Sleep Better Austin and a certified EOS implementer.
• Traction by Gino Wickman: The essential reading for any practice owner looking to implement EOS.
• Sleep Better Austin: The systems-driven sleep practice referenced as a case study in this episode.

You did your job. You addressed the patient’s breathing and airway issues. But they are still spending their days feeling like they haven’t slept. What’s the deal?

This week, sleep expert and psychiatrist Dr. Shane Creado joins Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott to solve the mystery of the "tired-but-treated" patient. We are diving into the "busy brain," the trap of sleep trackers, and why your bedroom might be training you to stay awake.

Whether you are a doctor helping patients or just someone tired of being tired, this episode is a wake-up call. It is time to stop focusing on how long you stay in bed and start focusing on how well you actually sleep.

What We Discuss in This Episode

• Pills vs. Skills: Why retraining your brain with CBT-I is better than using sleeping pills like Ambien or Xanax.
• The Airway Isn’t Everything: Why opening the "pipe" does not always turn off the "alert" button in the brain.
• Bedtime Math: Why spending too much time in bed can actually make insomnia worse.
• The Busy Brain Problem: How to stop your brain from treating 2:00 AM like a stressful business meeting.
• The Tracker Trap: Is your Oura Ring or Apple Watch giving you "Orthosomnia"? This is when you are so stressed about your sleep data that you cannot actually sleep.
• Sleep Like a Pro: How small changes can turn an average person into an elite athlete.
• Social Jet Lag: Why sleeping in late on Saturday feels like a five-hour flight delay for your brain.
• The Golf Secret: How to talk to patients about sleep so they actually listen. (Hint: Talk about their golf score, not their blood pressure.)

The Big Idea

Most people think sleep is just something that happens when you aren't awake. Dr. Creado explains that sleep is actually a skill. If your brain has "learned" how to stay awake and anxious, a CPAP machine or a dental appliance cannot fix that on its own.

This episode is about moving past the hardware (the airway) and fixing the software (the habits and the mind).

Resources and Links Mentioned

Dr. Creado’s Tools

• The Book: Peak Sleep Performance by Dr. Shane Creado
• The Course: Overcoming Insomnia Program (Search "Amen University")
• Dr. Creado’s Patient Resource Guide: Download Here
  
  

Research and Studies

• The Stanford Sleep Extension Study: Research showing that getting just 30 minutes more sleep can improve athletic accuracy by up to 40%. Link: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3119836/
• The MLB Sleep Study: Data showing that 72% of "sleepy" Major League Baseball players are out of the league within two years. Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130531105506.htm
• The Sauna Study: Research indicating that regular sauna use can improve sleep quality in 83% of users. Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31126560/
  
  

Key Concepts for Further Reading

• CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia): Find a specialist via the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine.
• Paradoxical Intent: The psychological trick of "trying to stay awake" to lower sleep anxiety, famously used by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.
• Orthosomnia: A term for the unhealthy obsession with achieving "perfect" sleep data from wearable devices.

What if your referral sources keep sending patients, but your delivery numbers never match up?

Scott Craig joins hosts Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott to break down a glaring reason many sleep practices stall: they track activity, not conversion. This isn't about "doing more marketing"—it’s about plugging the leaks in your pipeline. Scott shares how he transitioned from a general dental setting to a 5-location sleep powerhouse by swapping "gut feelings" for cold, hard data and a dedicated team that lives and breathes sleep.

What We Discuss:

• The Clean Break: Why moving sleep out of the general practice and into a standalone environment kills friction and creates instant momentum.
• The 3 Conversions That Matter: How tracking Referral-to-Consult, Consult-to-Delivery, and Delivery-to-Efficacy reveals exactly where you’re losing patients (and revenue).
• Stop Managing by "Vibes": How to read the story the numbers are telling—from the referral source tanking your close rate to the insurance type quietly killing your margins.
• The Intake Engine: Why your front desk is either your biggest growth driver or your most expensive bottleneck.
• Metrics as a Team Sport: Using transparency and EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to turn data into a tool for trust rather than a weapon for blame.
• Winning the Skeptics: A masterclass in handling the "it won’t work for severe patients" physician with calm, specific proof.

The Story

The episode kicks off with Scott’s personal "why"—a story that starts with his father identifying Scott’s own OSA after a sleep course. Treating his own apnea took Scott’s world from black and white to full color, sparking a 20-year mission to make oral appliance therapy a first-line reality.

But mission alone doesn't pay the rent. Scott walks us through the "ruthless" business framework required to scale. When a primary referral source passed away, his team didn't panic; they rebuilt. By treating the patient pathway like a high-performance pipeline and implementing a leadership structure that demands accountability, they turned a "side hustle" into a Chicago-area behemoth. This is an episode for clinicians tired of "hope" as a strategy and ready for a measurable, scalable system.

Resources and References

• EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System): The framework for leadership used to scale the practice.
• Transform Dental Sleep: Specifically, Scott’s chapter on metrics and practice management.

What happens to a patient’s heart when they receive life-altering news alone, staring at a cold computer screen?

In this deeply moving episode, Lesia Tierney—a 20-year leader in dental sleep medicine—shares the moment her world shifted. After decades of helping convert patients, she found herself on the other side of the consult desk, navigating a breast cancer diagnosis. This isn't just a talk about practice management; it’s a masterclass in human-to-human connection.

Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott join Lesia to peel back the layers and look at the raw vulnerability of the patient experience. They explore how a simple hand-hold, a well-timed joke, or a quiet waiting room isn't just "good business"—it’s an act of love that restores a patient's dignity.

The Heart of the Matter

• The Loneliness of the Portal: Lesia reflects on the "purgatory" of finding out she had cancer via a portal refresh. We discuss why no patient should ever feel alone in their diagnosis, and how to ensure your office is the guide they desperately need.
• The 10-Second Intervention: A story of a nurse, an operating table, and a hand-hold. Learn how ten seconds of authentic presence can pull a patient back from the brink of terror and give them the peace to proceed.
• Humor as a Shield: Why Dr. Liu’s "basic bitch cancer" comment was the most professional thing she could have said. We dive into how laughter lowers the walls of fear and allows a patient to finally exhale.
• The Waiting Room as a Sanctuary: Your front office is the patient's first "safe space." If it’s loud, messy, or sterile, their nervous system shuts down. Learn how to curate a calm soundscape that whispers, "You are safe here."
• The Gift of "Personhood": Why the "Bring Your Person" rule is about more than just remembering facts—it’s about honoring the patient’s need for emotional support during a moment of high stakes.

A Note from Lesia Tierney

"Our job is to give them hope, give them solutions, and walk them through it. It’s such a blessing and a gift to be able to do that for other people. When you’re on the other side of it, the fact that someone actually cares... that is what stays with you."

Why This Episode Matters

This conversation is for every team member who has ever felt like they were just "running a process." Lesia reminds us that beneath every sleep study and oral appliance is a human being looking for a steady voice and a hand to hold. By the end of this episode, you won't just want to improve your conversion rate—you’ll want to improve the way you show up for people.

• (00:18) - Introduction
• (02:26) - Lesia’s dental sleep medicine journey and how she got here
• (07:36) - From being a part-owner of the practice to being a patient herself
• (13:09) - Why front office should reflect back office
• (17:27) - Choosing a practitioner who you trust
• (25:10) - What phone policy has Lesia introduced in her office
• (30:03) - What other experiences Lesia had that impacted how she runs her office
• (34:33) - How cancer influenced Lesia’s life

What happens when the life you’ve built no longer fits? Dr. Suzanne Thai, a prominent dental sleep medicine practitioner and TEDx speaker, joins Jason Tierney and Dr. Erin Elliott to discuss her journey from "existential dread" in general dentistry to finding renewed purpose in sleep medicine. This episode dives deep into the power of vulnerability, the necessity of mastering communication, and the specific "soft skills" that separate average practices from elite ones.

What We Discuss with Dr. Suzanne Thai:

• The TEDx Journey: The behind-the-scenes reality of preparing for a TEDx talk and why Dr. Thai chose to share her most vulnerable stories.
• From Dread to Joy: How moving from general dentistry to dental sleep medicine saved Dr. Thai’s career and brought back her "spark."
• The Power of Vulnerability: Why sharing "stories that hurt" fosters deeper connections with patients and peers.
• Communication as a Clinical Skill: Why taking a perfect bite registration isn't enough—and how to truly engage a patient in their own treatment.
• The "Chameleon" Technique: How to read a patient’s energy and adjust your own to build immediate trust.
• Mastering the Physician Referral: Why getting cell phone numbers and sending "sushi photos" is more effective than traditional professional outreach.
• Role-Play and Recording: The "cringe-worthy" but essential practice of recording your consults to eliminate filler words and improve conversion rates.

Episode Summary

For many clinicians, the daily grind of "millimeter-perfect" dentistry can lead to burnout. Dr. Suzanne Thai reached that breaking point after 15 years, but discovered that dental sleep medicine offered a different kind of fulfillment: the ability to save lives and marriages.

In this episode, Dr. Thai explains that while the clinical mechanics of making an oral appliance are relatively straightforward, the true challenge—and the key to a successful practice—lies in communication and emotional intelligence. She shares her framework for "staying on the line" during patient consults, the importance of genuine compliments, and why her team is required to role-play scenarios regularly.

Whether you’re looking for the courage to reinvent your career or simply want to improve your patient "yes" rate, Dr. Thai’s high-energy insights provide a roadmap for professional and personal transformation.

Resources and References Mentioned

Featured Presentation: Dr. Suzanne Thai’s TEDx Talk

• (00:04) - Introduction
• (00:41) - Dr. Thai's First TED Talk
• (08:40) - Discovering Dental Sleep Medicine
• (13:14) - How Has The TED Talk Influenced Dr. Thai's Life
• (18:58) - Can Anyone Practice Dental Sleep Medicine
• (28:36) - Using Soft Skills To Develop Referring MD Relationships
• (36:21) - Actionable Advice To Improve Sleep Practice
• (41:52) - Final Countdown