Dental Unscripted

Dental Unscripted,

Mike and Paula break down

the ownership journey one

episode at a time.

How to start up, buy,

and run a successful dental practice.

And now, your hosts,

Michael D'Incio and Paula Quinn.

What?

Welcome, welcome.

Episode one, Dental Unscripted.

My name's Michael D'Incio

and I have my co-host here, Paula Quinn.

Hey, Paula.

Hey, Dave.

Good morning.

What's going on?

Yeah, good morning.

It is a morning.

We're trying to get amped up.

We're trying to get amped up.

Well, guys, welcome to the show.

For those of you that have

watched other podcasts that

we have going on,

the Startup Unscripted

podcast and the Dental

Acquisition Unscripted,

those podcasts are coming into this one.

And so we're super excited

about the rebrand.

We're just going to go

dental unscripted and just

cut out all the noise.

And so this is the new rebrand.

And

For those of you that follow

me on the other podcast,

you'll notice there's

another face on this, and it's Paula,

and I'm lucky to have her on the show.

Paula,

why don't you give me your

background or give the

audience a background,

and then I'll give mine after yours,

and we'll just kind of get

into why people might

actually want to listen to

the Paula Quinn.

Okay.

Oh, you're so much better at, uh,

selling you.

Yes.

The accolades.

Well, you got,

you got an opportunity to brag.

So brag it up, brag it up.

Well,

I started my dental career in

nineteen ninety.

I actually gave a date.

I'm impressed.

Either that or years.

Either way,

they're going to they can count

backward dental assistant for seven.

A couple of those years I

was going through hygiene school,

graduated hygiene school in ninety seven.

It's because I can't do the

math right now.

It's like I always forget

like how many years is what

I think I'm on thirty five years now.

I have owned a couple of

dental practices here in

Arizona as a hygienist.

You can do that.

So I got I was lucky enough

to be able to learn, obviously,

being a dental assistant,

being a front office, being hygienist.

but then I got the

opportunity to be an owner

and run a practice and do

all of that while I was

running the practice like

these dentists have to do

and being a consultant on

the side or full-time

whatever you want to call

it on the side as well as being

a national speaker for

Biolase and an

international speaker for Invisalign.

So I got a lot of the ortho aspect,

learned a lot about malocclusion,

learned a lot about I've

since I've been a hygienist, twenty seven,

twenty eight years.

There was only one year that

I was not a laser hygienist

in Indiana where I graduated from.

And since then,

I was lucky enough when I

moved to Arizona a year later,

I worked in an office that

had diode lasers for

hygiene and I was just kind

of thrown into it.

And so love it.

Been passionate about it ever since.

About ten years ago,

not that I didn't know about orthodontics,

but about ten years ago,

I was lucky enough to join

Invisalign and really got

passionate about malocclusion,

bad bite with patients.

I just feel like I've

probably done about

everything in dentistry,

but be the dentist.

And my joke is that I

definitely played one.

Now you're like on air.

So you're, you're going on record.

There was a few times, you know,

when my dentist wasn't available,

I'm like,

do I just go in there and sit

down and like do the exam

and just pretend?

You're like,

You're like diagnosed this

when you own your practice.

We, we always, uh,

I w I've been with Paula for six years,

maybe even seven, uh,

consulting and friends and

business partners now.

And, uh,

we always joke when you own a

practice is like,

it's really hard to own a

practice as a hygienist or anything else.

Forget hygiene, hygiene,

anything other than the dentist.

And, uh, Paula would like,

like talk to me after her day.

And she'd be like,

yeah, we,

we had all these exams and of course she,

you know,

didn't follow my advice on the diagnosis.

Uh, it was, but, uh,

it was a hell of an experience though,

owning that practice, right?

Like, would you, would you do it again?

maybe I don't know if enough

time has passed but I you

know it's like having you

need a little bit or

getting a puppy you know

you like need a little time

in between but I think I

would I learned so much um

my model would look

different you know I would

I would I would do it a

little bit different but

yeah absolutely I mean you

know that you know that I

bought you know during

covid you know zona too so

Three days after COVID you opened.

There was some obstacles

around that for sure.

There was a lot of

things stacked against me

but I do think that it

helped me be a better

consultant just we're all

the way around you know

yeah yeah we always we

always said you should have

wrote a book I would tell

guys like I'm I'm I think

you were in charge of the

the kind of memoirs and

then you you were supposed

to like keep track of all

that while I'm in pain I

can't like start writing yeah

That's where I was going

with this was when she'd

come at the end of her day as an owner,

she'd be like, oh my God, I'm so stressed,

whatever.

I mean,

you got through that phase pretty quickly,

but there was always something, right?

There was always some

challenge or some system, which again,

makes you a great consultant.

But I would be like, write that shit down,

write it down.

And that's a chapter.

And you'd be like,

I don't have time for this.

Of course, me being the marketing guy,

I want to make a book out of it, but-

No, I've even, you know,

I remember pre-ownership, Paula, coach.

And now, of course,

I know very much post-coach.

coach Paula and totally

different Paula's and in, in,

for the better,

because you can relate to

the people listening right now,

dentists and practice

owners and aspiring practice owners.

You can relate to what

they're dealing with.

And, um,

cause you lived it because you

lived it and ownership isn't, isn't,

isn't, um, easy.

Yeah.

And that is the vision of the program.

So we'll get into some of the topics,

some of the things we're

going to get into.

For those of you that don't

know me from the other two podcasts,

my name is Michael D'Incio.

And if you guys didn't pick

that up already,

Paula and I own Next Level Consultants.

And I call it a holistic, comprehensive,

whatever you want to call it,

consulting firm from helping

doctors get into ownership,

whether it's a startup or an acquisition,

and now managing a business,

running the business.

And we have currently and

growing ten amazing coaches

that help us deliver fantastic

advice and all kinds of

stuff for you guys once you

own and even before you own.

But my background was in

marketing right out of college,

got my MBA, worked for a marketing firm.

When I went through business school,

I focused and majored in

marketing at the Ohio State, the

ohio state university

indiana university you

can't say it it's not part

of the brand have you seen

us well I'm sure it is but

everybody makes fun of ohio

state because we always say

the it's ridiculous and

pompous but I love it um so

I went to ohio state fisher

college of business school

and learned a lot about

marketing it was super cool

because I learned from the

best at ohio state

At Ohio State,

the marketing gurus of the limited brands,

Lex Wexner, Bath and Body Works,

Victoria's Secret, at the time,

Abercrombie and Fitch,

all these incredible brands

taught me how to market at Ohio State.

So it was just an incredible school.

And I had a great experience

and then went to a

marketing company and worked for them

and uh got the itch after

six years to to change it

up go to a different

industry jumped into

blending which started my

banking world uh in or in

in sorry in my dental world

um started lending to

dentists only for bank of

america and millions of

dollars of loan

originations learned a ton

there acquisition you name it and then

Just for fun, wanted to drop that,

seeing a pattern, folks,

seeing a pattern.

So dropped that and started with Paula,

this consulting firm,

and it's been amazing.

And so that's my background.

Again, folks,

we are gonna continue to have

episodes about how to open, lending,

real estate, negotiation, LOIs,

equipment selection.

We're still gonna publish

all of those episodes, but the vision...

of this new brand and this

new topic and paula being

my partner in crime here

co-host we are bringing

into all of that practice

management stuff and

because we've been doing

this podcast paula for you

know since covet it's like

four or five years and

that's four or five years

of content of just how to

oh how to get into

ownership but now our our

amazing clients past

clients and existing clients need

really good tips um and so

what paula what kind of

things do you have in store

um for the practice owners

now that are facing what

you faced as an owner and I

think we're going to bring

in some of the other

coaches and stuff but like

what do you have in store

what kind of topics and

things just go ahead and

tell us what I mean where

do I start with uh I know I learned um

Well, I think probably the first thing,

I mean,

I'm just going to kind of list them off,

but I just wanted to highlight this.

I think leadership, I think that team,

when we hear doctors that

are already in ownership,

the biggest thing is team.

And

It's not the team is bad.

It's just that you're

dealing with a bunch of

humans and you've got to

you've got to manage them

and you've got to guide

them and you've got to lead them.

And, you know, it's a job to them.

So there's just so much around that.

So I think leadership job

descriptions for your team, team culture.

Um,

all of that stuff is really important

in ownership.

We're going to get into some

hygiene stuff.

We're going to get into.

That's your favorite.

That's your favorite one.

um we're going to get into

ortho we're going to get

into the intricacies of

each you know job we're

going to get into claims

tracing just a lot of the

front office stuff pitfalls

of the front office um

financial literacy team

accountability I mean just

go on and then we want to

talk a little bit about us

you know like you know

pitfalls of hiring a

consultant what to look for

when you do hire a consultant I think

One of the other things,

because I hear it all the time,

is you don't know what you don't know.

And so one of the things

that we're going to talk about is that.

And that's probably one of

the highlights of even

hiring a consultant and

what you're looking for in

a consultant because you're

looking for them to lead you.

And I think another big

thing is treatment plan,

treatment acceptance, treatment plan.

How do we get more acceptance?

How do we present these like a rock star?

There's so much to come.

I like, I don't sound excited right now,

but I am, you know, it's early.

Yeah.

Paula gave it to me this

morning on having her.

No, it's okay.

It's part of it, Paula.

This is just who we are.

And all of our teams even

laugh about us picking on each other.

But yeah,

I made her do this really early

because it worked in my schedule.

Right.

Rule of thumb is it's not

that I don't get up early.

I get up, everybody knows me.

I am up by, you know, five a.m.

It's just...

To be live on a podcast at eight a.m.

Yeah, we're doing it.

We're doing it.

Yes.

Well, afternoon, please.

Yes.

And I know I know our

marketing directors

listening and he knew this

and our admin is listening

and she knew this.

Everybody knew this.

But here we are.

but here we are, here we are.

So the big, the big, uh, so,

so back to the, the topics, that's a lot.

Um, folks,

you'll notice that like Paul is

way more organized than me.

I, uh, you know, unscripted is my style.

I pull up and just start

having conversations.

Paul has this whole agenda

and a lot of topics, um, to bring in.

Do you plan on bringing,

I think you plan on

bringing in the coaches.

Um, I'm going to bring in the pros,

you know, when, when we're talking,

tracing claims and front

office stuff I mean we got

rock star front office

coaches there's no reason

for me to high level it you

know let's let's dig our

sleeves or roll up our

sleeves and dig in and

really talk about some of

the funny stuff too you

know it's like definitely

the funny stuff I don't

want to make fun of anyone

because but you know that's

what that's what humor is

built on you know it's it's

you know,

those true things that happen

that we can laugh about later.

So, you know,

I think we've got to really

dig in and talk about it

because the funny things

are also built on the pain

that we're having.

Right.

You know, so it's a true pain.

We get through it and then

it's kind of funny at the

end that it happened.

So, yeah, I love our stories.

We got stories.

We got stories.

We have an ortho specialist

we totally want to bring in,

even though I've been with Invisalign.

I mean,

who's going to do it better than

someone that's, you know, been there,

done that?

You know, so no,

I'm excited to bring on our

coaches and plus hear a

different voice than you and I.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

For the next five years, right?

Or ten or whatever this is.

And I'm like, guys, I'm really excited.

For those of you that have

followed me over to this,

I'm super excited because

what you all don't know is

that Paula and some of our

other coaches help some of

our startups and

acquisitions behind the scenes,

even on the front lines

with our coaches or with our clients.

I mean, we probably did a majority of it.

I don't know about that,

but I'm sure you guys feel that way.

At the end of the day,

we have a ton of experience as a team,

and that's always been our

vision at Next Level is not

to have to know everything.

I think Paula could...

possibly know everything, but, um, our,

our,

our coaches have lived certain things

within a practice on a,

such a deep level.

And we want to bring that to you.

Cause that's always been, uh,

my vision over at the other

podcast is just give it to

you straight up.

And that's why it's called

unscripted because, um,

I don't like scripted.

I like to just give, uh, with a,

with a leading,

what does that lead with a giving hand?

Um,

and give back to you guys.

We don't really make any money on this,

although we are going to

plan on bringing on some sponsors.

Those sponsors will just

really help us promote the program.

So Paul and I don't make any

money off of the sponsor money.

We just do more Facebook and social media.

We just push it out,

push it out more aggressively.

So this is not a moneymaker for us.

This is just us giving back

to you and all the knowledge that we have

And so I'm really excited

about this new brand, this new vision,

Paula,

that you had for making this a more

comprehensive program,

not just about startups or acquisitions.

Right.

But you made it sound like

it's still unscripted.

It's just we have some

topics we want to hit so we

can bring on guests.

you know,

you can tune in to the ones you

want and not to the ones

you don't want to.

So tune in all, tune in all of them.

Exactly.

I want to, but well, guys follow the,

the program.

This is going to be really fun.

We plan on just driving this for many,

many years and just keep

giving you guys great tips

and tricks on how to run a

dental practice, how to start a practice,

how to buy a practice,

all the things that you guys need.

If you want to be owners of,

And so this is what it's all about.

This is the kickoff.

Paula,

any anything to add to to today

before you shut it down and

invite everybody to to

subscribe and follow us?

what I heard I guess I just

want to clarify so there's

still going to be some some

startup and some

acquisition stuff on here

to help you know with with

those owners because I

think that's where the team

is going to shine and I'm

going to shine as well as

in those when when

once that kind of we get

close to closing or on that

dotted line then yeah a lot

happens then that's when

panic modes start the panic

mode begins the day you get

the keys whether you're

doing startup or

acquisition and so there's

just so much going on um so

much going on and or when

you make the decision to

sell the panic mode goes on

too it's very true you

realize by the last like

twenty thirty years you know it's

And you did both.

You bought and sold.

So you know what it's like

to be on both sides of that.

And yeah, I mean,

I just think I'm actually

glad you said that because

ownership is a journey and

the startup and the

acquisition is the

beginning part of that journey.

But then there's many,

many years in between the growth,

the scaling issues, the

uh vision and like you said

paula culture leadership

there's so much stuff in

the in the middle and then

and then at the end uh it's

the exit strategy and and

the twilight years of your

career and then it's

maximizing the sale so that

you can fade off into the

sunset and have buku

dollars and so and it pay

off for all your you know

blood sweat and tears you

know because we experience

that all the time michael where

these docs have owned for

thirty years and they're

leaving and it's like whoa

wait what what happened to

my ars where's I have this

money sitting out here and

then that's I think and

then they wait till the

last second to try and like

fix it all blot out of the

turnip and it's like okay guys

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're, you're at the finish line.

You can't fix anything.

Masters, but not, not in two weeks.

Like it takes a minute.

So a lot.

Yeah.

So we plan on covering all kinds,

all of those types of

topics so that you're

managing your business

throughout your whole career,

the whole journey.

Okay.

the whole journey from start to finish.

And so that you don't have

to wait to the last two

months before you sell to fix things.

So, yeah.

So guys, again,

thanks so much for

following coming over from

the other podcasts.

I'm super excited about this next episode.

Journey,

we look way more sophisticated and

probably because Paula's on

the camera now, not just me.

So you guys are probably

sick of hearing my voice.

And so by like tenth episode,

my hair will probably be in a bun.

I'm totally expecting that

and that would be pulling

out of bed and you know

yeah that'll be unscripted

that's exactly what it's

supposed to be exactly

right so um well without

further ado folks we're

going to shut this down at

the minute mark thanks for

joining us and um

uh being here with us and

subscribing and and

following along over the

next uh many many years of

great episodes to come and

um yeah palom thank you for

for taking this on with me

and sharing the load of

podcasting and uh we're

gonna make it great so um

with all with all that

being said we'll check you

guys later see ya bye