Anne: Hi everybody, it's Anne Duffy and welcome to Dental Entrepreneur, the Future of Dentistry's podcast. I'm so happy that you're with me today and I've got a really cool guy that I just met today that is on our podcast, but he's got chops and lemme tell you a little bit about him.
Mike Huffaker.
is the Chief Revenue Officer for Planet DDS with a remarkable track record. He spearheads both the sales and marketing divisions of this rapidly growing dental software solutions company. Now, let's tell you about the fun facts.
Mike is the host of the dental. Economist show where he shares insights on dental industry, trends and leadership, and we'll have that link in our show notes. And he also started his career in retail working at Nordstrom before spending nearly nine years managing key accounts and an Italian luxury shoe brand San Anoni.
Well, hello.
Mike: That's right.
Anne: Mike Huffaker.
Mike: How are you? Well, hello Anne. I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.
Anne: so nice to meet you in person. And we were, I was ragging on you for the 49 ERs hat, but you know, Hey, I love that somebody has. Uh, pride and love for their team. like you probably have for planet DDS.
So you've been there for quite some time. Tell me a bit about planet DDS.
Mike: Yeah, sure. So I joined Planet DDS in 2019. That was actually my first foray into dental as well. So prior to that, I had worked with some other tech startups in the restaurant and hospitality space. And then, as you mentioned, my past life, I was actually in wholesale, I sold footwear for years.
started to do that when I came outta college. And then. Spent a few years with, Han, which was owned by Nike and then moved into this other, so,but plant TDS is first entrance into dental. It's been an amazing experience. I really, really loved the space. I was somewhat reluctant to pursue a technology career in dental when I first heard about it.
I,I didn't have any real recognition or appreciation for how large the industry is. But it's a large industry That's also a small industry, which I've really. Grown to love. And so it's very relational and I like the opportunity to get to know people and to contribute, in whatever small way that we can to the good of the space.
and what we do is we provide practice management software mostly to multi-location organizations and DSOs. we take that responsibility really seriously. And it used to be something that just.allowed you to run your business and as we've moved forward from technological advancements, it's now something that really helps you run your business.
And, and that's something that, that is our mission. In fact, our mission is dental software is broken. And we aim to fix it. and I think that there's been a lot of challenges in software over the years, and we're doing a lot of things to make people's lives better.
Anne: Well, that's pretty cool. I mean, I think when you talk about dental software, there's so many different companies.
And then do you need like 10 companies to do what you wanna do in the office? I mean, is Planet DDS trying to, like that and, and make it an easy button?
Mike: Yeah, we're trying to, and so I think that there are so many really incredible companies doing amazing things. Before we, jumped on here, you had mentioned Warden and you know, overjet is doing some incredible things in the marketplace.
We actually integrate with them. They're a good partner of ours, and where we see the opportunity is to compress. How many different screens have to be open at any given time, how many different systems you have to jump in between. And so while we have a lot of integrations, we integrate them inside the workflow of our solution so that you don't need to leave the practice management software.
So when you're working within our product, for example, all of the integrations for claims, all of the integrations for ai, it's all within the clinical workflow. It's all within the RCM workflow. And so while there will remain, I think. Because there are a lot of really best in class solutions in the marketplace.
Mm-hmm.The need to have multiple solutions. We don't really believe in an all-in-one philosophy. What we do believe in, however, is creating a dental operating system that ties in really, really well with clean integrations that creates smooth workflows for people. So we're not just creating a tech stack headache for everybody.
and it still allows the flexibility. To when you have somebody come on the scene like an overjet that's doing these incredible things, you can take advantage of that without it, creating challenges in your practice from additional friction with additional systems.
Anne: Yeah, I mean, that makes so much sense because everybody's busy and the last thing your front office wants or anybody wants is to have a problem integrating the system that you've been working.
with, your whole life, honestly. Yeah. And it's really nice to have these new additions coming in and it leads me to this question. So executive turnover in DSOs is high. Well, it's high everywhere, right?
Mike: Sure,
Anne: Why do you think that is and how does it shape the priorities for leaders stepping into these roles?
Mike: Well, I think there's a,number of reasons for it but one of them is there's just a lot of pressure on executive leadership and DSOs today. And I think tied to that. Is the, investment by private equity that's occurred over the past five to 10 years in dental. Now, of course, leading up to COVID in 2021, money was virtually free and the private equity business model puts debt on the business, and so you become a levered business model and then all of a sudden interest rates change, inflation happens.
It applies a ton of pressure to the dental industry. Reimbursements aren't going up. patients aren't having as many elective procedures as they are before. You're having all of these RCM issues. And what happens when a business is struggling? Well, the leadership is, the ones that are first to go.
And so what I think we're seeing in the DSO space. Is, a reaching to try to find solutions to very hard problems that the industry is facing. And you now have a number of groups that maybe weren't focused on the clinical elements out of the gate. And were looking at things more from a business perspective.
Mm-hmm.And you're trying to bring in leaders from, other verticals, other industries that aren't as familiar with dental. And at the end of the day. Dental is still about a patient and their doctor chairside getting treated for what they need. And if you lose sight of that and you just view everything through a spreadsheet and you're not actually connected to the clinicians within your organization that allow you to be successful, well that disconnect.
Is gonna create a fractured environment that is ultimately gonna result in poor performance and a lot of turnover. And so I think that's a lot of what we've seen over the last few years, that have created challenges in the executive leadership roles within DSOs.
Anne: Yeah, I mean, that makes perfect sense.
And, you know, somebody's gotta take the wrap for it, but when. Take your eye off the patient and the team. I think it's coming back because they realize yes, there was a misstep there, uh, it's just not about the money. It's really, you start with a patient and,and what's good for them and for the team.
Yeah. I mean, you gotta take care of your team. Absolutely. You know, there's so many consultants back in the day that they're like, you know, don't treat your team like a family. Put 'em at arm's length and you tell them what to do. just because you told them to do it.
Right. Right. And boy, that just doesn't work anymore. Nope. You gotta give them Absolutely not. Why And what's in it for me? And I guess that's fair. I I guess when you think back on it,that's not gonna go away. 'cause once you open that door, you cannot start taking things away.
But I love the idea of putting your eggs in the basket of relationships. Yep. that's almost like a soft skill, but the technology backs that up. It really does. And really it makes it easy for everybody and you know, youwanna do a good job and you wanna be able to.
spin a couple plates. It's really hard if everything's not working together.
Mike: A hundred percent.
Anne: Yeah. what do you think are the most impactful actions? A new DSO executive? should take in their first 90 days to set the tone of success.
Mike: there's a great book by a gentleman named Patrick Lencioni and it's called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and it's written in the form of a fable, and so you effectively become a fly on the wall. We an executive leadership team,which in the example, is an executive leadership team that is for a technology company.
But the principles and the lessons hold true. And basically what it talks about is building a foundation of trust, being open to having conflict, becoming aligned on decisions. And then holding accountability for the results of the decisions that you make. And so any new executive joining an organization, I think has an obligation first to really connect with their first team, which are their fellow executives across all functions within an organization.
Truly understand what their priorities are, what their pursuing, what their challenges are, so that way decisions aren't made in a vacuum. And you can understand the implications of the decision that you. As a new executive in that organization, make on others. And I think that getting that alignment right off the top is really critically important.
Second, depending on the role that you end up, joining the company as, you need to determine, what? Are going to be your priorities what are going to be your values? And I know that culture can sometimes sound soft. Mm-hmm. Culture is not soft. Culture is an actual accelerator of the ability for you to be successful within your organization.
And so you need to define who are we and what do we want to be? And you're likely joining an organization that already has a culture. And maybe already has something that's stuck on the wall that says what they are. And you need to determine whether or not those are the right things and whether they're actually being pursued consistently and whether people actually take them seriously.
Because if you put things up that you don't model, yeah, then you just become a joke and people look at it and go like, ah, that's great. We got that thing on the wall that says. Trustworthy. And guess what we do? We try to push this thing or that thing or the other thing that makes us anything but, and so defining who you want to be, who you want the organization to be, gaining strong alignment within your team across all the different functions within a dental organization, whether it's operations or RCM or clinical.
and then I think the other element. Is you need to get in the field. You need to go mm-hmm. To your practices. You need to talk to people that are seeing the patients. You need to talk to patients and understand what is the experience that you have within our organization. Why do you come back? Do you come back?
Is this your first time? What, how long have you been here? And talk to the people that are doing the work within the organization to understand what's working well and what's working. Not if you are disconnected from that end. Part of the most important element that everybody's salary is paid by some procedure taking place in a dental practice at some time.
If you lose sight of that, then you're toast. And so I think that those are some of the things that right off the bat, that'll give you the ability. To be decisive in your decision making to make the changes that need to be made and to have a clear vision of what you need to do moving forward. But in the absence of that information, you're likely to fail.
Anne: Well, A couple things you said that really struck me is that you also want people to follow you and to get in the field and to listen.
Mike: Yes.
Anne: You know, a lot of times we tell, but if you're listening, you actually are building a, uh, tribe, if you will, around you that will support you and the new decisions that you're making.
Yes. and be on your team. I mean, that'sseems so much like common sense and we've gotten away from that a bit. Right. And, um, and I can see it's interesting, I mean like, so you came from Nordstrom and from a whole different background. Yeah. And, and that's all kind of relationship and having people come back keeping people, and that's.
Hospitality also at its finest, right?
Mike: Yep.
Anne: that. Yeah, sure. So you were there, how did you find the dental? How did you find this dental company that you were gonna work for? I mean, was it a buddy? Was it, you know, a relationship?
You were just on the job board? What happened?
Mike: it was a recruiter that reached out to me via LinkedIn. And so I was the VP of sales at another technology organization at the time that was a small startup. And somebody reached out and she said, Hey, you know, we have this roll open for a VP of sales position in this smallish at the time, dental Software solutions company that's based outta Southern California.
Are you interested? And I said, no, I don't, I don't think that I am. It's kind of, dentistry is a little weird. It's like, I, I don't really understand it. I've never been in it, and it's a little intimidating and there's gonna be a huge learning curve. And then as I learn more about the space and kind of some of the, lack of technology adoption mm-hmm.
Some of the fragmented solutions, the fact that so many people were still on server-based solutions that were built 20, 30 years ago, along with the consolidation that was taking place as a result of kind of the advent of DSOs, it just all kind of clicked. This is a really interesting opportunity at an inflection point of the industry.
Where I can have a big impact on what we do. And so, ended up taking the role and, and I've been here for six years now, but you mentioned something about Nordstrom and, and, and the background. I think it's so important, those like experiences really like shape, who you become every day at the Nordstrom and Santa Barbara where I, I managed the men's shoe department while I was going to college.
I had walked down the stairs into the back employee entrance and there was a big sign that said, under promise, over deliver. And that was like the mantra that you had. Everybody lived up to that at Nordstrom. Like that was the expectation. People would come in with crazy requests, and you always do whatever you could to help them with that request and make them satisfied.
Where they left with that feeling, you know, of being taken care of. It was less about the actual transaction, whatever took in it. It was more about they left going like, oh, I love going to that place. Yeah, I
Anne: can't wait to go back. Right. I feel
Mike: good. Yeah, I feel good right now.And so that stayed with me through all my career.
And with everything that I do. And I still really believe that, it's the old Maya Angelou quote, you know, it's not what you say, it's how you make people feel, or some version of that. And it's so important. And I think we have that opportunity in dental all the time. And it's the opportunity you get in the practices with each and every interaction that you have with a patient.
Anne: Yeah. Yeah. And that's just feel good. I think people try to leave dentistry once they get in here and it's really hard. Yeah. Go back out, go out for a bit, but then you come back in because it's the heart, right. and, and honestly, the great things that we do, you know, I, I practice 46 years in clinical hygiene and uh, that's awesome.
And I loved it. I love my patients. I miss that part, but also just what you can do for somebody that their smile healthy mouth. I mean, on the oral, systemic, there's so much. There's such a runway In dentistry and especially in the lane that you've chosen, for your, career right now.
helping people succeed and so that's another thing that is so. Rich about any company. The culture. If you've been there six years and you've got a great culture that you came from and instilling that culture in planet DDS.
Anyway, kudos to you guys and, I'm, I'm really glad to get to know a little bit more about you and, uh, your role, even though I hope the Panthers meet the 49 ERs this year. I really do.
Mike: Good luck. Good luck with that. Good luck with that. I know.
Anne: Shoot. I
Mike: do have, it's funny, I have a quote on the, the back wall and it's,by a gentleman named Zig Ziglar and he was like one of the old school sales trainers.
And I love Zig. when I first got into sales, ran a house pinning business. I listened to all his tapes. There were Cass tapes
Anne: at the time. Oh yeah, I have. And the,
Mike: Okay. Awesome, awesome. So you're, very familiar. He, He was incredible. And so. one of his quotes is, you can have anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.
Anne: Get what they want. Yeah.And like
Mike: when you actually like internalize that and think about that, it's so true. If you get yourself out of the way and make it a focus on others, the byproduct of that is more positive things for you. And it is so. Applicable to the industry that we're in. And it is one thing I love about dentistry.
I know that we talk about the business of dentistry and it's very important, you know, it's the intersection of profits and purpose and there's very well compensated people in this industry and rightfully so. You're doing really good work. But I think at the core of most dental professionals, they do really wanna help people.
And it's awesome to be involved with a community of so many people that feel that way.
Anne: Yeah, that's exactly why I, started dead entrepreneur woman because. I saw women leaving in droves and I'm like, no. Keep in dentistry. you know, it's such a great profession. You love beauty, you love caring, you're smart.
you can execute, you know, all those beautiful things and you get to hang out with those people all the time. Absolutely. So it's, it's just a great career, so it's super to see your energy on that as well. the last things I wanna ask you is what one piece of advice you'd give to any executive entering a DSO leadership role in 2025 or 2026?
Mike: Rack up small wins quickly by making other people's lives easier. that will get you embedded into the culture of the organization. It will build respect quickly. It will increase your credibility as a leader. When you find areas of opportunity and look, you're being hired because you have a particular skillset, you likely have experience that has led you into that particular role.
You've seen things before. Lean on that. Find areas not to disrupt right off the bat, which I think is what a lot of people do. They think they need to come in and be like, okay, I need to change everything. When you say, I need to change everything, what you're saying to everybody else is, everything you've been doing thus far is wrong, and I have a better way.
Instead of saying that. Say, how can I help? And you look and you find areas, and that's where it goes back to having those conversations at the front line, going into the practices, talking to your colleagues. What should become clear very quickly is that there are things that you can do to remove pieces of the day that are frustrating for your team.
And if you can start to do that, then you can lead. By influence, not by fear or anything else. And ultimately, what do you need to grow your business? I know there's so much talk about same store growth. Well. It all ties down to procedures that take place within a practice and patients being seen. you can only scale up one individual so much.
Yeah. And if you have an expectation that the dentist puts in a few more hours or that the hygienist comes in for an extra day or something along those lines, why should they do that? And not if you just say, Hey, do, as I say, you need to show what the value is that provides for them.
In their life and with their experience and maybe make the rest of their life a little bit easier. So it's more attractive for them to go and do that. to me that's the whole key. You gotta just rack up the quick wins and find the ways that you can remove the obstacles that people are facing.
And make their lives more enjoyable.
Anne: Yeah. I mean that is so true, especially when you think of dentistry. There's only so many hours in the day.
Mike: Yep.
Anne: There is only so many patients you can see in a week. Yes, absolutely. And so how do you make that experience so much better and with all the different things that we're bringing into dentistry and maximize that appointment, maximize that because you believe in it.
it all stems from the culture and, always doing the right thing. And I love that Under promise and over deliver. Under promise. Over deliver. Yeah, absolutely. Under promise and over deliver. Yeah. I, I thinkOkay. You guys are good. I like that. It's so nice to meet you. Planet DDS.
Yes. And Mike Ker. I am just really thrilled to meet you all the good things you're doing for the future of dentistry. where can we find you? I'm gonna have it in the show notes. I know planet DDS is everywhere and I hope that I'll maybe see some of your female employees at the do retreat this year, which would be really cool.
Yeah, absolutely. We'd like to welcome them. And let me get a plug for that. We got a DO retreat coming up. Dental entrepreneur, woman, all women are invited. I don't care what you do in dentistry if you're a woman. and we already gave, my care number 220. 23 He's that number. That's his dude number. A man that supports women in dentistry. So I, Mike, just, I'll ask you when I see you, when we meet in person, I'll say, what's your number? And it's could be tattooed on either arm. I don't care which one,
Mike: first
Anne: tattoo ever.
We're gonna have 250 women that really have the culture of. Helping this profession, growing this profession, and making it just a fabulous place to actually, when you look back, what a great career that was.
That's gonna help the patients. It's gonna help the world, it's gonna help everybody. and again, so we wanna know how to get in touch with Planet DDS Tell me about that. Sure.
Mike: So,Planet D ds, you can find just a planet dds.com.
Anne: Yep.
Mike: You can find myself predominantly on LinkedIn from a social's perspective. And so it's linkedin.com/in/huff. my last name or just search for Mike Huffaker. And the podcast is The Dental Economist Show. Also has a page on LinkedIn, but you can find it. Spotify, YouTube, apple Podcasts, all of that.
And yeah, I'm always happy to talk shop with anybody. I love having these conversations about the future of dentistry and what's happening and, uh, we have, some incredible women that work here at Planet, DDSAnumber that are on our leadership team and, uh. I'll definitely share about the upcoming event and see if anybody's interested in joining 'cause it sounds like a great time.
Anne: That sounds great. We'd love to welcome him and listen, good luck to you. Good luck, in football and, and in business. And um, again, just a pleasure to meet you, Mike. So take care everybody. And remember if you're listening today to remember to keep doing you. Thanks everybody. Have a great day.
Mike: Thanks, Mike.Thank you.
