Dr. Steve Van De Graaff hosts an episode on the single most common struggle he hears from dentists: leading and managing a team. His answer isn’t a culture overhaul or an offsite — it’s a training you can run in fifteen minutes and start using the same afternoon. The handoff has two rules. First, tell…
Firing a team member is one of the most uncomfortable parts of owning a dental practice — and according to Dr. Matt Vogt, most of the advice out there makes it harder, not easier. In this episode, Matt takes apart the popular “hire slow, fire fast” cliché and shares a real coaching conversation with a…
Dr. Derek Williams paid off $300,000 in dental school student loans within twelve months of graduating — then got accused of faking it. In this episode, he addresses every criticism head-on and walks through exactly how it happened. Fresh out of dental school in 2016, Derek bought a practice doing $570K at 50% overhead after…
In this episode, Dr. Raheel Haider breaks down the exact red flags that turned an $800K practice into a bankruptcy — sky-high rent eating into profit margins, $10,000/month in marketing that wasn’t converting, a saturated market with brutal competition, and a seller he didn’t trust. This is a real case study in dental practice acquisition,…
Five and a half years ago, Dr. Eric Palmer bought a three-operatory dental practice about 20 minutes outside one of the most competitive dental markets in the United States. The practice had no insurance verification process, no real treatment plan presentation, and a hard credit check on every new patient. Today, that same practice has…
2026 is officially halfway over — and if you’re a dentist or dental practice owner, that means it’s time for an honest mid-year check-in. In this episode of The Lifestyle Practice Podcast, Matt Vogt breaks down the real difference between dentists who are winning in 2026 and dentists who are losing, based on patterns he…
Every dental practice owner is facing the same three problems in 2026: insurance reimbursements that haven’t kept up with inflation, a staffing and retention crisis, and overhead that keeps climbing no matter what you cut. In this episode of The Lifestyle Practice Podcast, Dr. Derek Williams breaks down why these dental practice management challenges have…
Dr. Matt Vogt is back for another episode of The Lifestyle Practice — and this one gets personal. After a chance dinner conversation with a pre-dental student staring down a $650K tuition bill, Matt found himself revisiting his own $450,000 student loan journey and asking a simple question: if he had to pay it all…
82% of dentists report major stress. 60% have considered changing careers or retiring early. If you’ve felt that way, you’re not alone — but selling the practice isn’t the only exit. In this episode, Dr. Steve Van De Graaff breaks down a practical framework for beating dental burnout and rediscovering satisfaction in your work, without…
We’re thrilled to welcome our newest partner to The Lifestyle Practice — Dr. Raheel Haider! In this episode, Derek Williams, Matt Vogt, and Steve Van De Graaff sit down with Raheel to talk dental practice ownership, financial freedom for dentists, and the mindset shifts that took him from a burned-out associate with imposter syndrome to…