In this episode, Flint Geier sits down with Ryan Corby, CEO of Smile Advantage, to explore how dental membership plans can become one of the most powerful tools for growth in private practice when implemented with intention. They break down the most common misconceptions around membership models and highlight what separates the practices that fully leverage them from those that only scratch the surface.

From how you name the plan to how your entire team communicates it, Ryan shares what it takes to turn a membership into a true practice system, not just a line item or add-on. What becomes clear is this: the strongest results come when the membership is fully aligned with the patient experience and supported by consistent messaging at every level.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why dental membership plans can drive stronger case acceptance and patient loyalty when fully implemented

• How language and positioning can instantly change perceived value

• What it looks like when membership becomes integrated into the entire practice system

• How top teams align messaging across every patient touchpoint

• The biggest misconception about recurring revenue in fee-for-service practices

For most of 2025, this North Carolina dentist was telling herself the same stories every practice owner falls back on: it’s the economy, my market is saturated, we’re fee-for-service so growth is hard. She was averaging 11 new patients a month. She had taught her team everything she knew, and the numbers had stalled out.

Five months later (without spending one extra dollar on marketing) her practice booked 42 new patients in a single month.

Dr. Sarah Myers and her office manager Shannon join Flint for one of the most no-fluff growth stories we’ve shared on the show. They walk through how training the team changed the trajectory of the practice in Cary, NC, what almost held them back, and the moment they realized roughly 30 of those 42 new patients came from existing patient referrals — not paid ads.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How the practice grew new patients from 11 a month to 42 a month — with the marketing budget actually trending slightly down
• The mindset shift from “I’m the doctor” to “I’m the bottleneck” — and why owning that unlocked everything else
• How a 6-person team built accountability around new patient calls without losing a single team member
• Why the patient experience went up at the same time the volume went up — and how Google reviews tell the story
• The specific advice Dr. Myers would give a practice owner two years into ownership: “Don’t try to figure it out alone”

Most of us have made a commitment and immediately started looking for the out. The diet that "doesn't count on weekends." The 90-day challenge with a Mexico wedding exemption built in. If you've ever done that—congratulations, you're human. But it's also exactly the pattern that keeps practices plateaued.

In this episode, Flint Geier shares what happened when he committed to 100 days without alcohol—no caveats, no exceptions—and why the hardest moment was the very first urge to make the exception. What started as a personal reset quickly became one of the clearest illustrations he's found of what separates thriving practice owners from the ones wondering why nothing changes.

The answer isn't in what you add. It's in what you subtract.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why the urge to give yourself an "out" early in a commitment is the exact moment it matters most to hold the line
• How cutting one habit quietly unlocked 100+ more productive hours in a single quarter
• The two-doctor comparison that explains why some practice owners always feel behind on time
• Why the most successful leaders subtract responsibilities rather than add more to their plate
• A simple 30-day challenge you can start this week — and what it might reveal about your own practice

What happens when someone has listened to more new patient phone calls than almost anyone on the planet — and then retires? You sit her down and ask her to tell you everything she knows.

Ginger Foretich spent 17 years at The Scheduling Institute, starting as an auditor making mystery calls to dental and orthodontic practices across the country. Over time, she evaluated thousands of practices and hundreds of thousands of front desk interactions. On her final day with the company, she shared the patterns, the misconceptions, and the hard truths that separate practices that grow from ones that stay stuck.

What she's seen is clarifying: most practices lose new patients before anyone ever walks through the door — not because of marketing, not because of clinical skill, but because of what happens in the first 60 seconds of a phone call. The fix isn't complicated. It's just rarely implemented correctly.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The #1 mistake front desk teams make on new patient calls — and why it costs you appointments

• Why individual accountability changes behavior when group training doesn't

• What doctors almost always get wrong when trying to improve their front desk teams

• How the best practices build a culture where certification becomes a way of life — not a stressor

• The one thing Ginger says she’d tell a struggling practice owner on her way out the door

Running 314 new patient appointments a month would make most practice owners break into a sweat. Luke, COO of Access Endodontics in Maine, does it while preaching something his team calls the Chill Factor.

Luke joined New Patients Now to share how his high-volume endodontic practice grew from around 260 new patients a month to consistently averaging 314 — without burning out the team or sacrificing the patient experience. His practice won the Scheduling Institute’s Beat the Baseline competition not by chasing the number, but by focusing on something simpler: removing every possible barrier between a patient and a scheduled appointment.

The conversation covers the operational systems that keep their schedule solid, the cultural framework that bridges the clinical and admin divide, and what Luke actually means when he tells his team to chill.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How Access Endodontics uses a “bookshelf” scheduling approach to reduce no-treats and keep the day predictable

• Why 68% of patients who leave a practice do so because of indifference — not competition, price, or clinical outcomes

• The three pillars of their team culture: Communication, Trust, and the Chill Factor

• What happened when his team first pushed back on Scheduling Institute training — and why the resistance was actually a good sign

• Why giving patients fewer choices leads to more scheduled appointments

In this solo episode, Flint Geier gets honest about something that rarely gets discussed in the private practice world: the role your energy, attitude, and daily mindset play in how your practice actually performs. Not just in patient care or call conversion — but in the culture of the building, the engagement of your team, and the experience every new patient has when they walk in or call for the first time.

Flint shares a candid story from his own morning — a client coaching call that was going well until one offhand comment about pollen derailed the whole conversation. It’s a small moment, but he unpacks exactly what it reveals about our default tendency to let the world’s noise set our attitude for us, and what happens downstream when we do.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why your “sphere of influence” is larger than you think — and how it directly shapes your team’s patient interactions
• The one question to ask yourself before you walk through the office door each morning
• How Flint caught himself derailing a productive client call with a single offhand comment — and what he did about it
• The Two Economy System and how to apply it when the outside world feels chaotic and uncertain
• A one-person challenge you can try today to immediately shift how you show up for your team

Dr. Daniel Funk grew up watching his father practice dentistry in Delta, Utah — and spent most of his early career trying to do something different. After dental school, he headed to Texas and spent years working for a DSO, mastering his craft without worrying much about the business side of things. Then he came home.

Eighteen months into co-owning a private practice with his partner Dr. Bloomfield, Dr. Funk has a clear-eyed view of what nobody warned him about: being a great clinician doesn’t automatically make you a great leader. And in private practice, leadership is the job.

In this episode, host Flint Geier sits down with Dr. Funk to talk about the real transition from associate to owner — the freedom that comes with it, the weight of decision-making, and the systems gap that most new practice owners don’t see coming. They also dig into what happened when Dr. Funk’s team went through front desk phone training with the New Patient Institute: a 23% increase in new patients within 90 days, new bottlenecks to solve, and a deeper understanding of why the phone call is the most underrated moment in a patient’s journey.

If you’re in a DSO or associateship and wondering what ownership actually looks like — or if you’re already in it and feeling the growing pains — this one is for you.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

1. Why the DSO model feels comfortable — and what that comfort costs you long-term
2. The clinical and leadership challenges of transitioning to private practice.
3. How phone training produced a 23% increase in new patients within 90 days
4. The “dual alternative” technique and why shorter calls can deliver better patient service
5. What to do when growth creates new operational bottlenecks
6. Why Dr. Funk is now investing in coaching for himself — not just his team

What if the biggest growth lever in your practice isn’t marketing… but how your patients feel?

In this episode of the New Patients Now Podcast, Flint sits down with Brad Kirch, managing partner of Sequel Coffee and Roam coworking spaces, to unpack the real meaning of hospitality—and why it’s the missing link in most practices today.

From Chick-fil-A’s $10M-per-location model to Disney’s “peak-end” psychology, this conversation breaks down how small, intentional moments create massive business impact.

You’ll learn:

• The critical difference between customer service and hospitality

• Why automation can hurt your patient experience (and where it shouldn’t)

• How to create “remarkable moments” patients actually remember

• Simple, no-cost ways to immediately improve your practice experience

• Why the best businesses treat every interaction as a relationship—not a transaction

If you want more new patients and better retention without increasing your marketing spend… this episode is a must-listen.

And if you really want to know how your practice measures up to hospitality, Take the 5-Star Challenge!