New Patients Now

Building a Practice on People, Standards, and No Excuses

In this episode, Flint sits down with Dr. Brad Hughes, owner of Vision Dental Partners and a Scheduling Institute alumni, to talk about what it actually takes to grow from a single-chair practice in Leo, Indiana to ten locations and what most doctors get wrong before they ever get started.    Brad is a great example of what happens when a doctor doesn't just go through the program but actually executes on it.  The new patient experience, case acceptance, and team standards.  He took each piece, ran it at a high level, and built Vision Dental Partners into what it is today.     In this episode, you’ll hear:  * What it looks like when a doctor fully commits to the program and executes on the fundamentals at a high level, and what that compounds into over time  * The self-awareness shift that changed his trajectory in 2013 and why he says it took six years to get there  * The hard truth about team members who won’t get on board and why keeping them is actually the bigger risk

The Truth About Dental Membership Plans

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

How a Fee for Service Practice Increased New Patients by 281% and Spent Less on Marketing

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”

What I Learned from 100 Days Alcohol Free

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

17 Years of Unfiltered Truth About What’s Really Holding Your Practice Back

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