Episodes
Most dentists say they can’t afford marketing. The real issue is that they can’t afford to market. In this solo Dental Marketing Goat episode, Gary Bird breaks down how dental practices should think about marketing budgets in 2026, why underinvesting leads to patient attrition, and the exact percentage-of-collections framework to use if you want to maintain, grow, or scale aggressively.
Most dentists don’t realize their front desk is quietly killing their growth. This practice was missing calls, losing new patients, and wasting marketing dollars until an AI receptionist started booking 92% of missed calls and adding 10–15 extra new patients per month. In this episode, Gary Bird breaks down the exact AI systems driving 800% ROI, improving phone conversion, reducing front desk overload, and helping practices scale without adding unnecessary payroll. You’ll learn how AI receptionists, patient communication systems, and automation can improve scheduling, increase conversions, and streamline practice management.
Most dental offices are losing thousands in production because missed calls, overloaded front desks, and bad systems quietly kill new patient growth. In this episode, Gary Bird sits down with Dr. Ben and Dr. Jonathan Geleris from Walnut Creek Dentists to break down how they generated 60–80 new patients a month while hitting an 800% ROI.
Most dental offices are losing new patients before they ever book an appointment. Gary Bird breaks down how AI receptionists are converting 70–80% of new patient calls while the average dental office misses 35% of calls and converts only about 50% of the ones they answer. In this episode, you’ll learn how AI can improve phone conversion, reduce wasted dental marketing spend, fill schedules 48–72 hours in advance, and create more predictable new patient growth. Gary also explains how SMC is using AI-driven tracking, outbound texting, and patient communication systems to help practices identify operational bottlenecks and grow faster.
If you want to grow, start with the outcomes. If you want to grow, don’t focus on marketing. Focus on outcomes. What outcomes do you desire to have in the next 90 days, 6 months, 12 months? Start building a plan to execute at each step. Marketing will be part of it, but there’s much more that needs to happen.
In this 3rd-anniversary episode of Dental Marketing Goat, Gary Bird breaks down the exact growth moments dentists kept replaying, including the systems that created 122 new patients in 90 days, 95% phone conversion, and over 600% ROI in real practices. These are real-world dental marketing strategies used across hundreds of practices and refined through data from more than 1,000 offices.
