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The Marketing 32 Show

The Marketing 32 Show

By: Brett Allen
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This is the Marketing 32 Show, a show that connects with leading dentists, influencers, and experts to explore strategies and innovations that help dental practices grow and thrive.The Marketing 32 Show (c) 2024 Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • "You Do Teeth, Not Brain": Why Your Competitor for Talent Isn't the Practice Down the Street—It's Papa John's Pizza

    "You Do Teeth, Not Brain": Why Your Competitor for Talent Isn't the Practice Down the Street—It's Papa John's Pizza
    Mar 17 2026
    What happens when a vet tech with a certification gets less PTO than their friend bagging groceries at Papa John's? Or when dental assistants realize they can make the same hourly rate clerking at a grocery store without spending money on a certificate or dealing with office drama? Kara Kelley, CEO of Clinical HR and nationally recognized HR strategist, has spent her career helping dental practices navigate the uncomfortable truth that the hiring crisis wasn't created by the pandemic—it was compounded by it. After finishing her bachelor's in business with an HR concentration back in 2012, she landed at a dental CPA firm doing marketing (of all things), spent seven and a half years wearing multiple hats, then launched her own HR firm in February 2020—right before the world shut down. She immediately pivoted to helping practices lay off teams, bring them back, and navigate the "alphabet soup of compliance" that followed. Now with senior-level credentials including SHRM-SCP and SPHR, she partners with dentists and practice leaders to reduce risk, strengthen teams, and build practices worth working for—not just practices that desperately hire the first person who shows up on time and sober. In this conversation, Kara reveals why hygienists are choosing temp work over permanent positions (spoiler: dentistry created this problem by treating them like second-class citizens for decades), why working interviews don't actually work (you're just throwing people into workflow and hoping for the best), and why your biggest competitor for talent in 2026 isn't the dental practice down the street—it's every work-from-home opportunity and gig economy job that offers flexibility without requiring a degree. She shares the one interview question you absolutely cannot ask (mental health), the safe script for reference checks (last held title, dates of employment, eligibility for rehire—flat monotone, repeat if needed), and why the future of dental hiring requires thinking outside the dental box. If you've ever wondered why Gen Z and Gen Alpha will change everything, why unlimited PTO actually decreases time off, or how to partner with your marketing company on recruiting strategy, this episode will completely shift your perspective on what it takes to build a team in the modern dental landscape. Kara Kelley never planned to spend her career in dentistry—she was finishing her bachelor's in business with an HR concentration back in 2012, planning to climb the corporate ladder at a Fortune 500 HR department as a coordinator. But serendipity and adaptability intervened. Because 2012 wasn't like today's hiring market where practices sometimes hire "the first person who shows up on time and sober," she needed something on her resume beyond self-employment. She landed at a dental CPA firm doing marketing of all things, and stayed for seven and a half years, wearing multiple hats: marketing, business development, HR advisor, and internal HR for the firm itself. Like most dental practices who are small businesses, she lived the "wear a lot of hats" mentality from the beginning. After getting tired of being mistaken for an accountant, she decided to step out and lean into the HR side, launching Clinical HR in February 2020—right before the pandemic hit. Instead of building her firm the traditional way, she immediately pivoted to helping practices lay off teams, bring them back, and navigate the alphabet soup of compliance that emerged during that chaotic period. Since then, she's focused on making sure practices are compliant, building cultures where teams treat patients well (because teams who feel treated well treat patients well), and helping practices enjoy the dentistry they do while ensuring compliance won't come back to bite them later. With senior-level credentials including SHRM-SCP (Society for Human Resource Management, Senior Certified Professional) and SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resources Certification from HR Certification Institute), Kara now partners with practices on internal HR assessments, employee handbooks, job descriptions, and strategizing around finding and retaining top talent—the issue of the day for the last decade and still dominating 2026. One of the biggest hiring mistakes she sees is culture fit mismatches that could be avoided with better upfront conversations. She recently worked with a practice that brought on someone from a fee-for-service practice with big bonuses and high paychecks, but the new practice was a mission-driven, heavy Medicaid, community-focused operation. The economics didn't align with the passion project mentality, and the employee wasn't a fit. This happens because practices hire out of desperation—they need somebody there to maintain the patient schedule, prevent burnout from understaffing, so they hire the first person with availability who'll take the hourly wage without deep-diving on fit. Then even when they find the right person, they're not ready ...
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    30 mins
  • From COVID Grad to $8M in 5 Years: How a New Dentist Built a Group Practice with Christmas Cookies and Negotiation Power

    From COVID Grad to $8M in 5 Years: How a New Dentist Built a Group Practice with Christmas Cookies and Negotiation Power
    Mar 10 2026
    What happens when a brand-new dentist graduates in the middle of COVID, can't find an associateship because everything's closed, and decides to buy two practices within four months—then turns a million-dollar skeleton practice into a $5M operation after buying it for just $60K? Dr. Rehan Shahid calls himself "the business guy who just happens to be a dentist"—and in five short years since graduating in 2020, he's built a four-location group practice generating nearly $8M annually, all 100% privately owned with zero private equity involvement. But here's what makes his story remarkable: he didn't rely on expensive ad campaigns or fancy marketing firms. Instead, he stood outside with tooth-shaped balloons, delivered Christmas cookies to 25 local businesses with personalized letters (creating instant social media domination), and built relationships with ER departments and cardiologists who needed dental clearances. His mission was simple but powerful: "Be so ridiculously famous in my town that everyone can't help but know about me." Now through Practice Success Academy, he's coaching dentists and their managers together—because he learned that dentists are "lazy people" and "horrible operators" who have amazing ideas but need strong managers to actually implement them. If you've ever wondered how to scale without burnout, why coaching the manager is more important than coaching the dentist, or how $100 worth of cookies beats any digital ad campaign, this conversation will completely shift your perspective on growth, systems, and what it really takes to dominate your market. Dr. Rehan Shahid never planned to be an average dentist—he planned to be "the business guy who just happens to be a dentist." But when he graduated in 2020, COVID had other plans. Two months after graduating, everything closed, eliminating any chance of working as an associate. So he did what any entrepreneurial-minded new grad would do: he bought a practice. Then two months later, he bought another one. Within four months of graduating dental school, he owned two practices and had to learn extremely quickly how to survive and thrive in business. The silver lining of COVID was all the free time it created—time Rehan used to devour books, listen to podcasts, and self-educate on business fundamentals that dental school never taught. His mindset was simple but powerful: "I know I'm going to have to make mistakes to learn. Let me just make them as fast as I can so I can pass that route and move forward." From day one, he knew he wanted to be a multi-practice owner, and his ambition was to make mistakes rapidly, extract lessons, and scale quickly. His growth strategy defied conventional wisdom about expensive digital marketing campaigns. Instead of pouring money into Facebook ads and Google PPC, Rehan focused on community domination. He stood outside with tooth-shaped balloons introducing himself as the local dentist. He attended every community event. His mission: "Be so ridiculously famous in my town that everyone can't help but know about me." The Christmas cookie strategy became legendary—delivering personalized letters and cookies to 25 local businesses, taking selfies with entire teams, knowing they'd post it on social media. Total cost: $100 for 25 boxes at $5 each. The result: 25 businesses sharing on their social platforms, dominating the community in one day—better ROI than any digital ad campaign. He repeated the strategy with Thanksgiving pies, built relationships with ER departments (who see patients needing dental treatment), and connected with cardiologists and orthopedic surgeons who need dental clearances before procedures. The second practice was a stroke of luck combined with savvy negotiation: a million-dollar practice in his hometown where the doctor passed away, the wife never sold it, and it sat closed for six months until all patients left. Texas law says you can't own a practice long without a dentist, giving Rehan enormous negotiation power. He bought it for $60K—now it's a $5M practice. Through building this four-location group (aiming for 25 in three years, all 100% privately owned with no private equity), Rehan discovered something crucial: dentists are "lazy people" and "horrible operators" with amazing ideas but poor implementation skills. The real key to success isn't coaching the dentist alone—it's coaching the dentist AND the manager together. If a practice has a great manager, the dentist flourishes. If the manager isn't strong, the dentist becomes only as strong as their weakest link. Through Practice Success Academy, Rehan now helps dentists buy back their time and scale by developing managers into true leaders who can implement systems, establish metrics, and drive accountability. He meets managers one-on-one without the dentist present to identify real bottlenecks, then serves as the third-party voice delivering respectful feedback neither side wants to give directly. The biggest ...
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    31 mins
  • "A No Isn't a No—It's a Not Right Now": Why Following Up on Unscheduled Treatment Is Patient Advocacy, Not Pestering

    "A No Isn't a No—It's a Not Right Now": Why Following Up on Unscheduled Treatment Is Patient Advocacy, Not Pestering
    Mar 3 2026
    What happens when a marketing major lands an externship at a dental practice, falls in love with operations more than marketing, and spends the next decade discovering that most practices are bleeding thousands in unscheduled treatment simply because they never follow up? Olivia Smith has worked with over 100 practices across the country—from the West Coast to Florida to New York—and she's witnessed the same pattern repeatedly: teams rush through treatment presentations, quote numbers over the counter while phones are ringing, then wonder why nobody's scheduling. As founder of OS Dental Consulting, Olivia brings a unique perspective born from being treated like a colleague rather than just a team member, learning to read x-rays and understand the clinical side while mastering the operational systems that turn practices into well-oiled machines. In this eye-opening conversation, she reveals why your website saying "24-hour emergency care" is sabotaging your high-end cosmetic vision, how a practice that looked like it was "still from the seventies" transformed with a facelift, and the critical question every treatment coordinator should ask when patients decline: "May I ask what's keeping you from getting the treatment that you need?" If your team is stuck in transactional mode instead of advocacy mode, this episode will revolutionize how you think about case acceptance, culture, and what it really means to align your brand with your patient experience. Olivia Smith never intended to spend her career in dental operations—she was a marketing and business management major who needed an externship to graduate. Landing at a dental practice that needed marketing help, she quickly discovered operations was where her true passion lived. What made all the difference was working for a dentist who treated her like a colleague rather than just a team member, investing the time to teach her how to read x-rays and understand both the clinical and operational sides of dentistry. After expanding and growing that practice while helping the dentist's friends with their practices, Olivia was recruited by Spear Education for consulting work. While she appreciated working with the bulk of her practices through Spear, she discovered something crucial: she loved private practice more. The hands-on, boots-on-the-ground work of being in offices with practices and teams, helping them overcome obstacles in real-time—that's what fueled her. Several years ago, she launched OS Dental Consulting as a boutique firm focused on helping practices reach their individual goals and lifestyle vision, not cookie-cutter solutions about what practice ownership "should" look like. Across 100+ practices spanning the West Coast to Florida to New York, Olivia has identified two dominant challenges: case acceptance and leadership development. The case acceptance problem isn't usually about the treatment coordinator's skills—it's about the system. Before blaming individuals, Olivia gets curious: What does the process actually look like? Where are the handoffs breaking down between front and back? How are teams communicating with patients without feeling insurance-driven? The breakdown typically happens in three places: insufficient training on patient communication, rushing through presentations (quoting thousands of dollars over the counter while phones ring), and complete failure to follow up. Treatment plans aren't just about going over numbers—they're patients' time to ask questions and feel confident about their decisions. But when offices are busy and overwhelmed, they skip the photo review, skip the education, and wonder why nobody schedules. The leadership challenge is equally pervasive: most doctors never went to school for management or leadership, yet they're expected to hold teams accountable (the biggest hurdle), manage staffing decisions, and communicate effectively. Some are natural leaders, but most struggle—even in corporate DSO settings. Olivia's approach starts with alignment: What's your mission and vision? What message are you actually sending patients? She encounters practices whose websites advertise "24-hour emergency care" while doctors complain about emergency visits and want to be high-end cosmetic offices open 3-4 days weekly. The SEO keywords say "emergency dental" but the brand aspiration is boutique concierge service. She examines the entire patient journey: Does your first phone call feel rushed and unimportant, or like white-glove service? Do you have the right people in the right seats? One practice was doing great dentistry but the office looked "still from the seventies"—after a facelift, the appearance finally matched the quality. If you want people to spend money, the hole-in-the-wall aesthetic works for Chinese food, not dentistry. Culture is equally critical: patients can tell when team members are having bad days or resenting staying late for add-on treatment. If culture isn't solid, all the...
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    26 mins
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