The Making of a Dental Startup

The Making of a Dental Startup THE MAKING OF WAS BORN FROM A DESIRE TO SHARE REAL AND INSPIRING DENTAL START-UP EXPERIENCES IN AN HONEST AND THOUGHTFUL WAY.
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09/30/2026

There are 4 types of patients who sit in your chair. Do you know how to read each one?

✅ The warm, talkative patient
✅ The analytical, quiet patient
✅ The fast-moving professional
✅ The nervous, deferential patient

How you communicate can make or break whether a patient trusts your treatment plan or walks out without booking. The same case, presented the same way, can land completely differently depending on who’s actually in the chair.

Ashley just taught her entire team how to spot which one they’re talking to within the first few minutes, and how to shift how they communicate before ever presenting treatment.

New episode of The Making Of Smile & Co. is live, link in bio.

Which patient type do you find hardest to read?

09/29/2026

Selling in dentistry is not a bad word.

Ashley breaks it down like this: selling only feels sleazy when you’re pushing treatment someone doesn’t actually need. That’s where the word gets its bad rap. But real selling in dentistry is an exchange of conviction, genuinely believing what you’re offering is something that patient needs to be healthy.

Think about the last time you told a friend about the best meal of your life. You weren’t selling them anything for money. You were selling them an idea because you believed in it.

That’s the whole art of the yes.

New episode of The Making Of Smile & Co. is live, link in bio.

Do you struggle with the word “selling” in your own practice?

New episode of The Making Of Smile & Co. is live: The Art of the Yes, communication, selling, and reading the room.Ashle...
09/29/2026

New episode of The Making Of Smile & Co. is live: The Art of the Yes, communication, selling, and reading the room.

Ashley recently ran her first full team meeting solo, and the entire thing was built around one idea, selling in dentistry isn’t a dirty word. It’s an exchange of conviction. She breaks down the four types of patients you’ll actually see in the chair, how to read which one is in front of you in the first few minutes, and why the patients who scare a lot of dentists off often become your biggest referral source.

New episode is live, link in bio.

Which patient type do you find hardest to read?

“If we’re all going to eat, someone has to sell.” Ken GriffinEvery dental entrepreneur is in sales, whether the word fee...
09/28/2026

“If we’re all going to eat, someone has to sell.” Ken Griffin

Every dental entrepreneur is in sales, whether the word feels comfortable or not. You sell patients on the treatment they need. You sell your team on the vision. You sell your community on why your practice is different.

Selling feels sleazy when it means pushing treatment someone doesn’t need. When you believe what you’re offering will keep a patient healthy, it’s just sharing that conviction. Same as telling a friend about the best steak of your life.

Ashley brought this to her team at a recent Smile & Co. meeting, and we’re sharing more of it on the podcast.

Has your view on selling changed since you started building your practice? Tell us below.

Subscribe so you never miss an episode.

09/25/2026

Where do you even start with ordering supplies for a brand new office?

At Folsom, Ashley just ordered whatever her rep told her to. It seemed reasonable at the time, but a lot of it never got used.

For Roseville, she and Collin did it completely differently. Every procedure she actually performs got written down first, start to finish, no item too small to list. Then they ordered based on that.

The difference between guessing and building your list around your real day.

New episode of The Making Of is live, link in bio.

How did you figure out what to order when you first opened?

New episode dropping soon: “The Art of the Yes.”Ashley Joves recently spent 4.5 hours teaching our team everything on co...
09/24/2026

New episode dropping soon: “The Art of the Yes.”

Ashley Joves recently spent 4.5 hours teaching our team everything on communication and selling, the mindset, the frameworks, all of it.

You won’t want to miss this one. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss it when it drops.

What’s the hardest part of a sales conversation for you, reading the room, or handling objections?

09/23/2026

Dr. Paula’s broker found her every available option in her area, buying, leasing, all of it, with the demographics attached to each one. That’s how she landed on a pocket of Prosper with zero surgical specialists and 12% growth for her exact target patient in a three mile radius.

He got paid by the landlord, not her. And he still negotiated her tenant improvement up by $10 per square foot and her rent down by $2 to $3 per square foot.

There were rough moments where she wanted to walk away entirely. Having someone objective in her corner is what kept her in the deal.

New episode of The Making Of is live now, link in bio.

Would you use a broker for your next build, or go it alone?

09/22/2026

Marketing a specialty startup isn’t like marketing a GP.

You’re not chasing new patients directly. You’re building relationships with the GPs who send them to you. That’s the whole game.

Dr. Paula, opening North Star Implants and Periodontics, TMO’s first ever specialist startup, has spent the last several months doing exactly that. Study clubs, lunches with local GPs, dropping off a folder at every office she visits: a little about her, the insurances she accepts, and a sample communication letter with her actual cell number on it.

Her promise in that letter: she sends it the day after seeing your patient, before any treatment happens. As a general dentist herself, nothing irritated her more than referring out one tooth and getting the patient back with four implants and zero explanation.

Even her hygienist relationships matter. She’s already got 15 patients scheduled next month, half of them referred by hygienists she’s built relationships with.

New episode of The Making Of, link in bio.

If you’re a specialist, how are you building your referral network?

Nine years of doing this show, and this is our FIRST PERIO STARTUP.Meet Dr. Paula Cohen Schlemmer, opening North Star Im...
09/22/2026

Nine years of doing this show, and this is our FIRST PERIO STARTUP.

Meet Dr. Paula Cohen Schlemmer, opening North Star Implants and Periodontics just outside Dallas.

She spent almost four years trying to find an associate job or a practice to buy near where she and her husband wanted to raise their kids. Nothing worked out. So startup became the only option left, the one thing she swore she’d never do.

Oh... and she’s opening it while pregnant with her third baby, due just weeks after the doors open.

New episode of The Making Of is live now, link in bio.

What part of your own build looked nothing like you expected going in?

Happy World Gratitude Day 💙We are so, so grateful for this community.Even small acts can make a big difference in someon...
09/21/2026

Happy World Gratitude Day 💙

We are so, so grateful for this community.

Even small acts can make a big difference in someone’s life. You don’t know what someone is going through. And time and time again, this community has shown up, not just with dental office wins, but through the hard, unseen seasons of life too.

We’re grateful for every check-in. Every comment. Every person who’s reached out to someone else just because they had a feeling they needed it.

“No check-in is too small. Even if it’s just a heart emoji.” — Dr. Ashley Joves

If someone in this community has been on your mind lately, this is your sign to reach out. It doesn’t have to be a big gesture. It just has to be real.

Thank you for being part of this. We don’t take it for granted.

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Roseville, CA
95678, 95661, 95747

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