The Making Of Smile & Co. — The Art of the Yes: Communication, Selling, and Reading the Room

Ashley and Collin catch up after a busy stretch away from recording, starting with Smile & Co.'s first full team meeting in a long time. What follows is a deep dive into the communication framework Ashley built and taught to the whole team, why "selling" isn't a dirty word in dentistry, and how to read a patient before you ever sit them in the chair.

What You'll Hear in This Episode:

A Four and a Half Hour Team Meeting
Ashley walks through her first solo-run team meeting, a 72-slide presentation built for 17 team members, including many new hires who didn't know Smile & Co.'s backstory. Why she used the time away from the practice during Brian's health scare to reconnect with the "why" behind the business.

Smile & Co.'s New Core Values: CHIC
Ashley breaks down the simplified core values she landed on with help from AI and a review of years of podcast transcripts and Google reviews, Create unreasonable hospitality, Honor, Inspire growth, and Cultivate a thriving team and community.

Why Selling Isn't a Dirty Word
Ashley's exercise asking the team who believes selling is bad, and who wants to earn more money, and the discrepancy it revealed. Her reframe: selling in dentistry is an exchange of conviction, not a hard pitch.

The 80/20 Rule in Practice
Why 20% of patients drive 80% of production, Ashley's "Chanel of dentistry" mindset for knowing your worth, and her permission to the team to dismiss patients who drain more energy than they're worth.

Mirroring and the Four Patient Types
How Ashley reads a patient's energy and adjusts her own, the difference between how people want to be treated versus how they want to be sold to, and a breakdown of the four patient types Smile & Co. trains around: the warm talkative patient, the analytical quiet patient, the fast moving professional, and the nervous deferential patient.

Why the Nervous Patient Matters Most
Ashley shares how winning over anxious, previously underserved patients built Smile & Co.'s Folsom location with zero paid marketing, and why that patient type often becomes a practice's biggest referral source.

What's Coming Next
This conversation is the first in a multi-part series, with more to come on the buying equation and Ashley's Smile Framework. Ashley is also compiling a community-sourced list of startup regrets for a future episode.

Catch Ashley Live
Ashley is speaking at the Wellness Dental Forum, hosted by Dr. Katie To, on October 17th and 18th.

Thank You to Our Partners

• Net32: The dental marketplace that helps practice owners stop overpaying for supplies. Compare and save at net32.com/themakingof.
• Studio 8E8 — Dentistry's story-driven growth agency for startups. s8e8.com/vsl
• Kasper Opportunity Finder: Fill those empty chairs and reclaim lost revenue with one click. Get it free at meetkasper.com/register.

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