Most dental practice owners are exceptional clinicians. They've invested years and significant money mastering their craft, but when it comes to the business side of the practice? That can be a very different story. In this episode of the Savvy Dentist Podcast, Jesse Green makes the case that running a successful practice isn't about finding the easy button - it's about doing the hard work to master the systems that actually build dental practice wealth.

Jesse unpacks why so many practice owners stay stuck, and what it really takes to move from financially reactive to financially bulletproof. If you've ever wondered whether your money is working as hard as you are, this one's for you.

In this episode:

• 00:44 Why most practice owners have mastered their clinical skills but are leaving serious money on the table when it comes to business
• 01:07 The tennis vs pickleball analogy
• 02:49 The first of four essential financial systems Jesse says every practice owner must have
• 04:09 Why one popular book changed the way practice owners think about money management - and how to apply it in a dental context
• 05:20 What a practice dashboard actually needs to show you
• 07:00 The fourth financial system that ties everything together
• 08:54 A cautionary tale about smart people who lost $100,000 looking for a shortcut
• 11:05 Rachel's Q&A: Jesse walks through a step-by-step framework for working out exactly how much wealth you need to build — and how to reverse engineer it into your practice financials.

• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• • Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
  • Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
  • Visit Savvy Dentist website
  
  

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025

In this episode, I chat with Verne Harnish. Verne is the founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs' Organisation (EO), with over 11,000 members worldwide. He is also the founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 180 partners on six continents. Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale up.

In today’s episode, we chat about:

• The 4 key elements that determine why some businesses make it and others fail
• Why you should never make a decision alone
• Ways dentists can compete and scale in a competitive market
• Expert customer service tips
• Finding ways to scale when you love your own craft
• Why you need a daily huddle.

Links & Resources

• Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
• Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
• Visit Savvy Dentist website

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025

You could be doing everything right - attracting new patients, retaining your existing ones, investing in your team - and still be quietly bleeding your practice dry. How? By failing to manage capacity. In this episode, Jesse Green unpacks one of the most overlooked principles in dental practice growth: use it or lose it.

It sounds simple, but the implications for dental leadership are significant. If your practice can't adequately serve the patients you've worked so hard to attract, those patients won't make a scene - they'll just drift away. Silently. And by the time you realise what's happened, you won't have the patient base you thought you had to support your next stage of growth.

• 00:01 Jesse shares the neighbour's story who sparked today's lesson
• 00:29 The surprising way patient numbers naturally self-regulate when a practice runs out of capacity
• 01:50 Why adding chairs, clinicians, and equipment has to happen before you think you need it
• 02:30 The quiet churn problem
• 02:52 What a scalable unit actually looks like in a dental practice
• 03:42 How to time your capacity decisions so you're growing into space, not scrambling to fill it
• 04:20 The 80% rule
• 04:44 When there's no room to expand physically, what smart practice owners do instead
• 05:00 What happens when capacity planning comes too late
• 05:38 The core lesson Jesse wants every practice owner to walk away with today.

• Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
• Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
• Visit Savvy Dentist website

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025

What's lurking just beneath the surface of your dental practice right now? You might not be able to see it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there - just waiting for the moment you step on it. Jesse Green calls these your practice landmines, and every practice owner has them, whether they know it or not.

In this episode, Jesse unpacks a practical, three-step dental leadership framework for getting serious about risk - not to make you paranoid, but to make you powerful. Because understanding where your hidden vulnerabilities lie is one of the most valuable things you can do for your practice, both for your day-to-day sanity and for the long-term value of everything you've worked so hard to build.

In This Episode:

1. 00:00 Jesse kicks off with an unforgettable dog walking story, and why it's the perfect metaphor for what's hiding in your practice right now
2. 01:25 Why covering up a problem doesn't make it go away
3. 02:24 The surprising range of landmines that could be lurking in your practice
4. 03:19 Jesse's three-part risk framework, and why this is the one time he'll actually ask you to think like a pessimist
5. 04:32 The risk matrix explained - and how to use it to rank your vulnerabilities before they rank you
6. 05:42 The surprising link between managing risk and increasing the value of your practice - this will change how you think about risk forever
7. 06:36 Q&A: a question from Sarah in Perth who's exhausted and wondering if practice ownership is really worth it - Jesse's honest answer might be exactly what you need to hear.

Links & Resources:

1. Episode 544 - The Recovery Paradox
2. Episode 534 - The Anatomy of a Successful Exit with Michael Filosi

• Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
• Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
• Visit Savvy Dentist website

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025

What if the worst moment in your practice could become your most powerful marketing tool? Most dentists pour energy into attracting new patients, but Jesse Green makes a compelling case that the real loyalty-building gold is already sitting inside your four walls - and it shows up every time something goes wrong.

In this episode, Jesse unpacks the Recovery Paradox: the counterintuitive truth that how you handle a problem can actually generate more patient loyalty than if no problem had ever occurred. Through a candid story from his own practice and a real patient named Colin, Jesse shows what dental leadership looks like when it matters most - and why mastering complaint handling could be the single biggest growth lever in your business.

In This Episode:

1. 00:01 Jesse reframes everything you think you know about patient loyalty
2. 00:18 The surprising science behind the Recovery Paradox and why a well-handled problem can outperform a perfect experience
3. 00:40 Why the best marketing in your practice might have nothing to do with your ad spend or social media strategy
4. 00:55 The hotel story that perfectly illustrates what going above and beyond actually looks like in practice
5. 01:28 The real-life patient complaint that put Jesse's own dental leadership to the test - and what he said in the heat of the moment
6. 02:24 The exact words Jesse used with an angry patient that changed everything, and why he didn't try to defend the indefensible
7. 03:14 What happened when Colin called back - and the Friday afternoon that turned a lost patient into a loyal advocate
8. 05:13 Tom from Sydney asks how to grow his patient base and Jesse breaks down the three R's of marketing that every practice owner needs to hear.

Links & Resources

1. Episode 543 - The Necessary Conversation

• Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
• Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
• Visit Savvy Dentist website

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025

There's someone on your team right now you know you need to talk to. You've been putting it off, maybe you're worried they'll get emotional, maybe you think they'll quit, or maybe you just don't know how to say it without the whole thing blowing up. Here's the truth about dental leadership: the necessary conversation you keep avoiding is the one that's quietly running your practice.

In this episode, Jesse Green gets into the mechanics of what he calls the Necessary Conversation - a powerful framework that gives you structure, language, and emotional preparation to tackle the tricky team talks that most practice owners sidestep. Whether you've got a performance issue festering, a culture problem compounding, or you're just not sure how to address what you're seeing, this episode hands you the tools to walk in calm and come out with a genuine path forward.

1. 00:35 Why most practice owners avoid the hard conversation, and the hidden cost that keeps compounding the longer you wait
2. 01:11 The three parameters that determine whether a team conversation succeeds or falls apart before it even gets going
3. 01:56 The emotional preparation step most leaders skip entirely, and why skipping it can derail everything in the first two minutes
4. 02:32 How to set the frame for a conversation so you stay in control from the opening line
5. 03:00 The listening move that changes the whole dynamic
6. 03:34 When to share your perspective and how to bring both parties to an agreed pathway forward without it turning into an ultimatum
7. 04:53 The post-it note tactic Jesse used in one of the toughest necessary conversations of his career
8. 06:31 What to do when the conversation makes you wonder if you hired the right person in the first place
9. 08:35 Q&A - Priya asks why her team just won't do the job - Jesse's answer reframes the whole problem with three specific gaps.

Links & Resources

1. Episode 542 - Stop Guessing, Start Communicating

• Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
• Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
• Visit Savvy Dentist website

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025

What if the biggest problem in your practice isn't your marketing, your systems, or even your team - but the way you're communicating with them? In this episode, Jesse Green cuts straight to the chase: communication breakdown is not a people problem. It's a system problem. And that means it's fixable.

If you've ever felt frustrated that things aren't being done the way you envisioned, or that you're constantly stepping in to correct or redo work, this episode is your wake-up call. Jesse unpacks why your team can't read your mind, what real dental leadership communication looks like, and how creating shared language and crystal-clear expectations can transform the way your whole practice operates - from the front desk to the dental chair.

In This Episode:

1. 00:01 Jesse introduces the biggest lever in your practice, and it's not what most dentists expect to hear
2. 00:50 Meet Jason the cat: the surprisingly relatable story that reveals exactly what's going wrong in your team communication right now
3. 01:45 What actually happens when your team is listening but still not understanding, and the costly ripple effects throughout your practice
4. 02:38 The mindset shift that changes everything
5. 02:50 Lessons from the Navy: what a warship's communication standard can teach you about running a high-tempo dental practice
6. 04:05 The one question every team member in your practice should be able to answer
7. 04:18 Jesse reveals two powerful language concepts from the Practice Max world that sharpen team performance and culture
8. 06:57 Listener Q&A: Michael from Melbourne asks how to get off the tools.

Links & Resources:

• Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
• Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
• Visit Savvy Dentist website

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025

Are you the kind of dental leader who hands over the reins - or do you find yourself hovering, checking, and quietly correcting your team's every move? In this episode, Jesse unpacks why micromanagement quietly destroys trust, and what to do instead.

Drawing on one of history's most famous negotiating phrases, Ronald Reagan's "trust but verify", Jesse explains how the right systems create the accountability you need without you having to be in the room. The result? A practice that runs confidently without you at the coalface, and a dental leadership style that brings out the best in your team.

In this Episode

1. 00:43 The Cold War phrase Ronald Reagan made famous, and what it means for how you lead your dental team
2. 01:23 What's the difference between micromanaging and verifying?
3. 02:03 Why so many practice owners have expectations stuck in their heads, and why that's quietly costing them
4. 02:21 The three-part scorecard structure that gives every team member crystal-clear direction
5. 03:23 Build it from the top down, execute from the bottom up
6. 03:57 Why small improvements compound over time, and why you don't need a revolution, just the right hinge
7. 04:20 The tiny daily habits that could be worth dozens of extra patients a month
8. 05:07 Q&A with Mark: Should you hire a hygienist, OHT, or another dentist?

Links & Resources

1. Episode 540 - The Money In, Money Out Trap
2. • Join the free Savvy Dentist Facebook Group
   • Follow Dr Jesse Green on LinkedIn
   • Visit Savvy Dentist website
   
   

Mentioned in this episode:

Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle

If your practice can’t run without you, it’s time for systems - not more theory. That’s why we created the Savvy Dentist Team Training Bundle - five powerful, system-driven programs including Front Desk All Stars, the Million Dollar Dentist, Practice Manager Masterclass, Advanced Treatment Coordinator Training, and High-Performance Hygiene. Each course delivers practical, step-by-step systems your team can use every day to build accountability and create a self-managing practice. Save $2,000 for a limited time — visit savvydentist.com/team-training.

Team Training Bundle 2025