The Making Of Smile and Co. #2 — Episode TWO - The Come To Jesus Moment, Insurance, and Financing
episodePreviously titled “The Making Of Smile and Co. #2 — Smile Design Studio | The Come To Jesus Moment, Insurance, and Financing” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What was the “Come to Jesus” meeting and why did it matter for the second location?
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the making of a dental startup. I'm your co-host, Ashley Hovez.
And I'm Colin Al Samri.
And we're just gonna jump right in. And we are actually recording in the office today while we are. Seeing patients. So If you hear some background You know it's the reality. It's the reality. And we're gonna make it work.
I think is um we're sitting in the office that we're talking about you building. Yeah. Swall and co too, Roseville. It's true. Um, so the last episode that we did together with talking about building the second startup for you. We kind of just went through like, you know, you made some emotional decisions and how you found the location and decided like the gut feeling. You said that there's regrets in life that you'll hold on to and that was one that you just knew you couldn't live with yourself, basically. Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, so I kind of you had talked about the what did we call it, come to Jesus um moment with a meeting with me, you, Brian, and Judy. Yes. Because this happened before you actually bought this location number two. In twenty twenty one. Twenty twenty one. Yeah. And I remember we were sitting on the patio of this restaurant in Folsom. Brian had asked Judy to get a lot of stats actually for the first location because I think you were feeling overwhelmed in that location, correct?
We definitely had a capacity issue, a space issue, too many employees, too many patients, not enough chairs. And it just felt like a circus. Every time we walked in, it was go, go, go, high cortisol. Adrenal fatigue. I just felt like you couldn't really breathe in that office. So yes, definitely a capacity issue.
And at that time we were taking all the insurances. I mean all the PPO insurances. So really you had to squeeze every minute of every appointment. You had a huge team. How many were there?
There were
13
of us
at our highest. In six ops. In six ops. Um you actually have a room in the Folsom location for a seventh op. And we had just started
forgot about that.
Yeah. Cause it's plumbed underneath. And you were like in the process of about to buying an additional chair. You had the contractor come in. He was starting to open up the floor.
He did open up the floor. Yeah. So we still have that weak spot in in the floor. And That was going to be op number seven in nineteen hundred square feet. I was getting all the juice out of this lemon. And that's when You Maybe not so much you. Mm Brian was like, What the heck are you doing? So at the time that that space was being used as an office space for one doctor and Colin. Mm-hmm. That's where you guys like were or camped basically. You were with
me too.
Oh yeah. We were roommates for a bit. And and then I was gonna kick everybody out of that room just to open up that space because everybody knows that your ops are where you make the money. And we were just gonna not have anybody have the ability to do work outside of patients' mouths. So Brian was like, you need to slow your roll there, Sparky. Like, let's not equip this with another thirty thousand dollars worth of equipment and then be even more chaotic in the day to day.
So the stuff that he wanted Judy to bring to that meeting was a lot of where your patients come from and how many were certain insurances and like what the percentage of this insurance, I won't name them, but you all know which ones. or the worst.
How did dropping a major insurance plan while opening a new office affect the practice?
That's okay to say. Um and so she had all these pie graphs and charts and things and a lot of our patients were coming from specific insurances that really have the lowest reimbursements. So we were running around. chaotically in the office just to make like your bottom line, maybe a little bit of profit. So what was Brian's solution? Cause we know that like behind the scenes, he is the one that is always trying to plant the seeds for you. What was his solution for that?
he wanted us to get out of network with the lowest reimbursement insurance plan, which in the state of California specifically, they are the majority of the workers and we're near the state capitol, Sacramento, and all the government officials, all of the state employees, they all have this insurance plan, all the teachers, firefighters.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What was the “Come to Jesus” meeting and why did it matter for the second location?
0:10–4:15
2
How did dropping a major insurance plan while opening a new office affect the practice?
4:15–8:21
3
What are the real differences between being in‑network and out‑of‑network for a dental practice?
8:21–13:03
4
How did the team structure and capacity issues influence the decision to expand?
13:03–17:18
5
What financing strategy was used to buy the building and what were the loan terms?
17:18–21:25
6
Why was Bank of America chosen after shopping multiple lenders?
21:25–24:25
7
Why is building an advisory team of a CPA and attorney early so critical for dentists?
24:25–27:50
8
What final lessons did the hosts share about balancing growth, insurance, and finances?
27:50–32:07
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Making of a Dental Startup
Brian Is Back | On Purpose, Fulfillment, and Reevaluating Everything with Ashley and Brian Joves
The Making Of Smile & Co. #2 - Episode SIX: The Tech Behind The Practice
The Making Of Smile & Co. #2 — Episode FIVE: Operatories, Chairs, and the Sterilization Area
The Making Of Smile and Co. #2 — Episode FOUR: Design Details, The Cosmetic Wing, and The Details That Make All The Difference
The Making Of Evelina Smiles - SIX
The Making Of Smile and Co. #2 — Episode THREE - Floor Plans, Architects, and Unexpected Surprises