Shared Practices | Your Dental Roadmap through Practice Ownership

Hosted by Dr. George Hariri | Shared Practices Network

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Aug 2026

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About the show

A bootcamp in small business ownership and practice management for dentists, giving the new graduate a roadmap to successful practice ownership. We interview the best dentists, experts, consultants and more on our weekly show. Here's the topics we will be covering in our 8 Seasons: 1. First Years as a Dentist 2. Think Like a Business Owner 3. Money and Numbers 4. Startups, Acquisitions, and Partnerships 5. Internal Systems 6. Marketing & Growth 7. Leadership, Vision and Culture 8. Beyond Dentistry Go to SharedPractices.com to download the 8 Season Roadmap.

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August 17, 2026Episode 10832 min

Generic IT vs Industry-Specific Dental Support with Josh Wallace of IT Harbor

In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, host Caitlin Embree interviews Josh Wallace, president of IT Harbor, to discuss why specialized IT support is a critical component of any successful dental organization. Josh shares how IT Harbor naturally transitioned into the dental sector after assisting with new practice builds, choosing to remain vendor-agnostic to provide the best, most future-driven recommendations for their clients. Because modern dental practices rely heavily on nuanced technology—such as 3D modeling, CBCTs, and specialized scanners—relying on a generic IT company can lead to mismanaged data cabling, outdated systems, and massive operational overwhelm. Josh breaks down how a remote-first IT approach can resolve 98% of backend problems before the clinic even notices, while still offering robust, nationwide on-site support. Here is your guide to protecting your practice and leveraging the future of dental technology: Defend Against Phishing: Humans are the biggest vulnerability in any network. Protect your dental practice by utilizing high-end firewalls and conducting ongoing training to prevent staff—and doctors—from clicking on masked emails or fake login prompts. Leverage AI for Productivity: Stop letting your technology gather dust. Implement AI-assisted charting and voice-dictated perio notes to speed up your workflow and save your clinical team hours of administrative frustration. Build Trust With AI Imaging: Patients can sometimes be skeptical of a doctor's treatment plan, but utilizing AI software to analyze radiographs provides an objective second opinion that builds instant patient trust. Prioritize the Patient Experience: The modern consumer expects high-tech, fast, and frictionless service. Failing to update your dental technology over the next five to eight years will likely cause patients to leave for a more advanced, spa-like competitor. Demand Better Support: Ensure your IT provider offers a dedicated engineer (e.g., IT Harbor assigns one engineer per 30 clients) so you are not forced to call a random 1-800 number every time your dental systems crash. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

August 10, 2026Episode 10735 min

How the World's Most Ambitious CEOs Think — And What It Means for Your Dental Practice

In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, we explore what it truly means to step into the role of CEO of Your Dental Organization. As a dental provider scaling from a solo operation to a multi-practice group, your leadership leverage increases significantly as you multiply your impact across a larger team. However, elite dental leadership requires shifting your mindset away from strictly clinical work and focusing on three distinct horizons: long-term vision, medium-term strategic planning, and short-term execution. To achieve sustainable dental growth, your business vision must be rooted directly in your personal life goals. Because the CEO of Your Dental Organization ultimately serves the practice owner, every strategic decision should align with your desired income, clinical schedule, and vacation time. Here is your framework for mastering dental business strategy and leading your practice: Design Your Life First: Define your ideal schedule, target income, and preferred dental procedure mix (such as focusing heavily on surgical implants). Let those personal goals dictate your dental practice's long-term destination. Focus on the Bottleneck: Adopt an Elon Musk-style approach to daily dental management by identifying and spending your administrative time solving only the single biggest constraint facing your business each week. Play the "Whac-A-Mole" Game: Understand that solving one dental growth constraint—such as hiring a third hygienist to improve patient flow—will immediately trigger the next bottleneck, like needing to fill that new hygienist's schedule. Translate Vision to the Team: Convert your personal dental ownership goals into a team-centric mission. Emphasize how adding an associate doctor improves patient access to dental care and provides the staff with more flexible schedules. Enforce Core Values: Establish a shared set of actions to define your dental practice culture. Use these core values to ensure your team's behavior stays on course, allowing you to quickly identify and correct toxic team members. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

August 3, 2026Episode 10629 min

Are You Missing the Clarity of Vision Needed for Sustainable Dental Practice Growth?

In this solo episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Dr. Andrew Clingan tackles one of the most insidious threats to sustainable dental practice growth : a lack of clear vision. Using a real-world example of a highly successful but directionless young practice owner, Andrew explains how relying purely on talent and willpower eventually leads to spinning in circles. When you lack clarity, it becomes impossible to make sound decisions about marketing, PPOs, or multi-practice expansion, ultimately stunting your long-term success. To excel as a dentist today, you must understand that the "floor" has risen; succeeding requires more intentional business strategies than it did a decade ago. Andrew emphasizes that you cannot simultaneously optimize for elite clinical mastery, aggressive scaling, and perfect work-life balance. Achieving sustainable dental practice growth requires picking a path and maintaining a disciplined clarity of vision. Here is your guide to finding focus for your practice: Ignore the Extremes: Do not let social media highlight reels push you into building a 30-practice DSO or becoming an elite cosmetic dentist if those paths do not align with your true desires. The "middle of the road"—such as a profitable group model with two doctors and four hygienists—is often the sweet spot for sustainable dental practice growth . Audit Your Time: Regularly sit down and write out everything you do throughout the week. Identify the tasks you hate (like managing staff drama) and delegate them to leadership, while doubling down on the things that actually fire you up. Build Optionality Early: Be highly conservative with your personal finances early in your career. Living below your means and aggressively investing in your clinical and business skills provides you with the freedom to pivot your career path in your 40s or 50s. Read "Traction": Implement the principles from Gino Wickman's EOS framework to align your team and ensure everyone in the practice is rowing in the exact same direction. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

July 27, 2026Episode 10530 min

Ask George: Is a Fee-for-service dental practice Right For You?

In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri breaks down the pros, cons, and brutal truths of running a fee-for-service dental practice. While dropping insurance is a dream for many in dental practice ownership, George explains why going out-of-network is often like "swimming upstream". It becomes significantly harder to attract new patients and retain existing ones when they face higher out-of-pocket costs. However, if you are committed to this model, it can be incredibly rewarding when executed correctly. To achieve sustainable dental practice growth without relying on PPOs, you must deliver an experience that justifies the premium price tag. Here is your blueprint for operating a successful fee-for-service dental practice: Simulate the In-Network Experience: The best out-of-network offices are extremely insurance-friendly. You must submit claims on behalf of the patient and avoid charging extra for preventative care whenever possible to reduce friction. Leverage Rural Markets: The most predictable path to fee-for-service success is in rural or underserved areas. When there is a severe lack of access to care, patients have no choice but to tolerate out-of-network fees. Create a Unique Value Proposition: If you are operating in a highly competitive, urban market, your patient experience—from the doctor-patient relationship to the physical office environment—must be undeniably superior to the in-network clinic down the street. Transition Slowly: If you are acquiring an in-network clinic, do not abruptly transition into a fee-for-service dental practice. Build your patient base first, establish goodwill, and then gradually drop the lowest-paying plans one at a time. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

July 20, 2026Episode 10436 min

The Dental Menu Factor: Elevating Patient Retention and Practice Profitability

In this episode of Coach's Corner, Caitlin Embree interviews Paul Lowry, co-founder of Dental Menu, to solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in dental practice management: failing in-house membership plans. While dropping insurance is a common goal, data shows that unmanaged cash-pay patients only have a 12% retention rate over five years, compared to 64% for insured patients. To achieve sustainable dental practice growth, practice owners must treat their membership programs like true subscriptions (e.g., Netflix or Amazon Prime) rather than one-off "Groupon" discount bundles that cause renewal gaps. Poorly administered plans not only create massive administrative headaches but also artificially lower your practice valuation by forcing you to zero out production or write off massive adjustments. Here is your blueprint for upgrading your dental practice management through a properly structured membership plan: Stop the "Discount" Mindset: Shift from selling a bundled package of cleanings to an auto-renewing subscription model to prevent patients from lapsing for months at a time. Fix Your Accounting: Stop adjusting membership preventative care to $0, as it destroys your KPIs. Dental Menu uses a separate bank account to process monthly fees and generate internal EOBs so production flawlessly matches collections. Protect Provider Pay: Proper dental practice management requires accurate ledgers so associate dentists and hygienists receive their correct collection-based bonuses when treating membership patients. Incentivize Your Team: Drive dental practice profitability by offering your front office staff bonuses (e.g., $25 per sign-up) to consistently present the membership plan to cash-pay patients. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

July 13, 2026Episode 10334 min

Ask George: Maximizing Profitability Through Solo Dental Practice Management

In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Dr. George Hariri answers listener requests to strip away group practice bias and focus entirely on elite solo dental practice management. Many practitioners mistakenly believe that a multi-provider clinic is the only route to high-level profitability, but optimizing a solo model can create an incredibly low-stress, high-income asset. George outlines the precision growth pathways and details how transitioning from a standard solo dentist to a "productive solo" or "smart solo" can elevate your take-home pay to $400,000 and beyond. To break out of the low-revenue trap, you must learn how to manipulate the core levers of dental practice management. Implement these critical solo growth metrics and systems in your practice: Build the 2-2-2 Operational Balance: Scale your patient base to seamlessly support two full-time hygienists, two front office team members, and two dental assistants to perfectly balance your diagnostic and administrative workflow. Master Hygiene Benchmarks: Understand that there are roughly 200 active patients per day of hygiene. Target a base of 1,600 active patients to completely fill two full columns of hygiene working four days a week. Hit Case Acceptance Targets: Elevate your presentation style to consistently achieve an 80% patient acceptance rate (patients saying yes to at least one treatment item) and a 30% to 40% total dollar value treatment acceptance rate. Lock In Diagnostic Consistency: Develop clear, research-backed clinical diagnostic protocols so your hygiene team can confidently co-diagnose and tee up treatment plans before you even enter the room. Maximize Time Efficiency: Unlike group practices that focus heavily on analytical data points, a solo practitioner must treat their personal clinical time as the most valuable asset in the building by delegating every legally allowed task to auxiliaries. Transforming your solo office requires moving past basic survival and adopting highly intentional dental practice management strategies. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

July 6, 2026Episode 10238 min

Sitting Down with an Office Manager - Uncovering Dental Practice Pearls

In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Caitlin Embree interviews Max Dempsey, the rockstar office manager for Dr. Jaspreet Parmar’s two growing practices. Max provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at dental practice management from the perspective of an elite team member navigating an ownership transition. With 29 years of experience, she shares how she evolved from a lead dental assistant into a multi-practice manager by mastering front-office billing, insurance communication, and team leadership through targeted coaching. For any dentist evaluating dental practice acquisitions, this episode highlights how crucial it is to establish a unified culture from day one. Here is your masterclass in team-driven dental practice management: Establish Core Values Early: Do not let your team wallow in uncertainty during a transition. Dr. Parmar took his team out on day one to collaboratively define the clinic's core values, instantly proving his commitment to structured leadership. Master Fee-for-Service Verbiage: Running an out-of-network practice requires flawless communication. Train your team to respond to insurance questions by offering to verify benefits and calculate estimated copays, ensuring a "wow factor" patient experience. Delegate and Trust: True dental practice management scaling requires the owner to step out of the daily administrative weeds. Dr. Parmar built trust with Max to the point where she now handles major HR issues independently, allowing him to focus strictly on clinical production. Hire for Personality: Never make desperate hires. Prioritize candidates who fit your culture and exhibit a strong desire to learn, as technical skills can always be taught through effective dental practice management systems. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

June 29, 2026Episode 10135 min

Ask George: Unlocking Dental Growth Strategies with 4 Levers That Make a Difference

In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri shatters the industry myth that achieving more than 10% same-store growth is impossible. For the modern dentist, transitioning from an exhausted clinician to a strategic CEO requires executing targeted dental growth strategies. Rather than forcing generalized systems onto your team, true leadership means diagnosing your clinic's unique bottlenecks. To scale efficiently, stop treating every operational issue equally and focus your administrative time on the constraints that generate massive dental practice profitability. This episode serves as your survival guide for mastering dental practice management. George reveals the four operational levers that guarantee sustainable dental practice growth: - Patient Flow: Implement the Retain, Open, Fill method. Lock the back door by mastering hygiene reappointment rates, then open new columns. - Case Acceptance: Empower your staff to co-diagnose. When the team leads patient education, doctor production becomes completely predictable. - Consistency: Close the performance gap between your best and worst clinical team members to instantly elevate the practice floor. - Efficiency: Play "Whac-A-Mole" with your metrics. Identify massive operational leaks, like a high missed call rate, and resolve them immediately. Elite dental business strategies require you to leverage your time. If you only spend a few hours a week working on the business, you must direct that energy toward your weakest links. Customizing your dental growth strategies to target these precise inefficiencies guarantees predictable expansion year after year. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

June 22, 2026Episode 10040 min

Maximizing Efficiency: Implementing Virtual Dental Assistants for Success

In this episode, Caitlin Embree and Cory Pinegar, CEO of Reach, dive into integrating virtual support to elevate your dental practice management. With operating costs rising roughly 87% since 2001 and insurance reimbursements remaining stagnant, the modern dentist is getting squeezed. To maintain dental practice profitability, owners must rethink their traditional staffing models. Cory explains why conventional outsourcing fails and how embedding a dedicated virtual team member transforms your dental practice management. By delegating repetitive front-desk tasks, your in-office staff can focus exclusively on the patients directly in front of them, driving sustainable dental practice growth. Here is your blueprint for implementing elite dental business strategies using virtual support: Capture Missed Revenue: Over 60% of Reach's clients start by delegating inbound phone calls because the industry average for missed calls is 33%. Define Success Metrics: Before hiring, clearly outline whether your goal is saving money, buying back time, or driving revenue to ensure a measurable ROI. Customize Your Training: Provide the final 20% of practice-specific training, such as exact verbiage and software nuances, to fully integrate your virtual assistant. Embrace AI as a Tool: Combine the efficiency of AI technology with the empathy of human virtual assistants rather than treating them as opposing forces. Treating virtual assistants like actual human team members is the missing link in modern dental practice management. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

June 15, 2026Episode 9935 min

Ask George: How to Transition from a Job to Dental Practice Ownership and Profitability

In this Ask George episode, we tackle the ultimate debate in dental practice ownership: have you built a highly profitable business, or just a high-paying job? Dr. George Hariri breaks down the reality of "key man risk," proving that if your office relies on your personal clinical energy to generate revenue, you are acting as an employee. For a future owner, making the shift to CEO requires mastering advanced dental practice management so your team performs efficiently without your oversight. This ultimate survival guide for mastering dental practice ownership shows you exactly how to shift from a stressful owner-driven clinical model to an autonomous, team-driven powerhouse. To achieve sustainable dental practice growth, implement KPI accountability: Missed Call Rate: Track front office metrics to capture inbound leads. Reactive Retention: Consistently monitor your overdue recare efforts. Proactive Retention: Push daily hygiene reappointments past a 90% target. To cement your dental practice ownership, delegate case acceptance entirely. When hygienists are calibrated to co-diagnose, they educate patients before you arrive, massively boosting dental practice profitability. We also highlight why the associate to owner transition fails without an Office Manager handling HR and payroll, ensuring scaling does not create more work. Embrace entrepreneurship for dentists by building systems that leverage your team's time. Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.