Episode 3

Partnership Paths for Specialty Dentists With Sam Jenio

October 22, 2026 · 31:55 · with Sam Jenio

Sam Jenio is the VP of Strategic Partnerships and Procurement at EPIC4 Specialty Partners, a doctor-founded organization that helps specialty dental practices scale, create wealth, reduce administrative burdens, and maintain autonomy. With more than 20 years of experience in operations, procurement, supply chain management, business development, and dental industry growth, Sam oversees strategic partnerships and vendor relationships. He also educates doctors on partnership opportunities and helps guide them through the transition process with a collaborative, doctor-centric approach.

In this episode…

For specialty dentists, a practice partnership is about more than the purchase price. How can owners find the right fit for their financial goals, future growth, and long-term plan?

Sam Jenio, a specialty dental partnerships leader with more than 20 years of experience in operations, procurement, business development, and industry growth, believes the process should start with education and move at the doctor’s pace. Specialty dentists should look beyond upfront cash and understand how equity, earnouts, agreement length, practice valuation, and career goals shape the overall opportunity. Sam stresses the importance of cultural fit, practice autonomy, and choosing a partner that supports existing staff and day-to-day operations rather than replacing what already works. By evaluating both the financial terms and the long-term working relationship, practice owners can make a more informed partnership decision that fits where they want to go next.

In this episode of Straight Talk With EPIC4, Chad Franzen of Rise25 talks with Sam Jenio, VP of Strategic Partnerships and Procurement at EPIC4 Specialty Partners, about partnership options for specialty dentists. Sam covers deal structure, practice valuation, and preserving autonomy. He also discusses staff support, growth opportunities, equity, and succession planning.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[2:15] Sam Jenio explains what doctors can expect when exploring a partnership
[5:10] How Sam approaches the financial structure of specialty dental partnerships
[10:42] What doctors should know about culture and collaboration within a partner organization
[14:49] The operational support available after a practice joins a larger group
[19:34] Why staff continuity and employee support matter during a practice transition
[24:32] Sam discusses long-term value, equity, and financial considerations for partner doctors
[29:31] Education, succession planning, and helping doctors prepare for the next stage of their careers

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments

“We don't seek to change who you are kind of on a day-to-day basis.”
“And if you stay awesome, then you'll be rewarded every year throughout that partnership.”
“And we believe that equity in our company, as we move forward and grow, will be extremely valuable.”
“The cool part is that she's able to kind of share that broadly with everyone.”
“These are opportunities and things that you can leverage that other people have done that work.”

Action Steps

Educate yourself before choosing a partnership: Understanding how different partnership models work helps specialty dentists make informed decisions without rushing into a deal.
Define what you want from the next stage of your career: Clarifying your timeline, retirement goals, and desired level of involvement makes it easier to structure a partnership that fits your future.
Evaluate more than the upfront financial offer: Looking at cash at close, equity, and earnout potential provides a clearer picture of both immediate value and the long-term upside.
Prioritize cultural fit and practice autonomy: Choosing a partner that respects your staff, schedule, identity, and collaborative culture can help preserve what made your practice successful.
Use partnership support to strengthen practice growth: Leveraging marketing, operational resources, shared expertise, and new growth opportunities can reduce administrative burdens while helping the practice expand.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:07

Welcome to Straight Talk With EPIC4, the specialty dental podcast, showcasing bold leaders, innovators and change makers as they share candid insights, lessons, and actionable strategies. Ready for real conversation? Let's dive into today's episode.

Chad Franzen: 00:25

Hi Chad Franzen, here I am your host for today's episode of the EPIC4 Specialty Partners podcast, where we feature inspiring specialty dental leaders and doctor owners who are building successful practices and shaping the future of specialty dentistry.

This episode is brought to you by EPIC4 Specialty Partners. EPIC4 partners with specialty dental practices, including orthodontic practices led by doctor owners who want partnership growth, administrative relief, or succession support without joining a traditional DSO EPIC4 Is a doctor founded, doctor centric specialty partnership organization built to help dental specialists, dental specialists scale their practices, create wealth, protect their autonomy and build an epic life and practice. Visit goepic4.com today to learn more.

My guest today is Sam Jenio, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Procurement at EPIC4 Specialty Partners. Sam is a husband and father with two teenage girls living in Evanston, just north of Chicago, and he has more than 20 years of experience in operations, procurement, supply chain management, business development, and dental industry growth initiatives at EPIC4.

He oversees strategic vendor relationships and supports the direct and indirect purchasing needs of affiliated dental offices. His sweet spot is the intersection of a win-win agreement between his firm and partner, doctors. Sam, welcome to the show.

Sam Jenio: 01:48

Hey, thanks for having me, Chad. Appreciate it.

Chad Franzen: 01:50

Hey, I was thinking today we would kind of dive into, your, partnership responsibilities with EPIC4, so to get started here, many, many specialists are kind of intrigued, maybe by partnership opportunities, but aren't always sure what the process looks like. So when a doctor first begins exploring EPIC4, what does that journey look like? Maybe from the first time you talk to them, or the initial conversation all the way to becoming a partner?

Sam Jenio: 02:15

Yeah, I think what sets us apart, Chad, is that we're really excited about the opportunity to partner with doctors, and we start with education. I talked with a lot of doctors that are really kind of kicking the tires on what it means to join a DSO or an AU. So, and the most fun part for me is to really just to let them know that I'd like to help them learn about the process and what it means to be a partner doctor with a DSO or so, but also what differentiates EPIC4. I think the second thing that makes this a little bit different is that we're growing intentionally. Culture is at the forefront of our partnerships with docs, so we're not in a hurry to grow really fast and sort of take over the world of Osos and DSOs.

We really want to lean into the culture of what makes EPIC4 different. So our processes can be quick or they can take a year or two. We've had a couple of docs that have joined us that we were in discussions for, you know, more than 18 months until they felt they were ready to join EPIC4. And that's okay too. So I love to lead with education and let them know that we're not in a hurry and we'll go at their own pace.

Chad Franzen: 03:20

So yeah, timing can be, can be pretty important. What factors maybe accelerate the process or slow it down from your experience?

Sam Jenio: 03:27

Yeah, certainly. a couple of different things kind of kind of jump to my mind, you know, certainly there are docs that are thinking about retirement. What does that look like? We don't do retirement events like other groups do where, you know, we partner with a practice and the doctor leads after, you know, a month or a year. We really seek to do longer term partnerships.

So typically doctors come to us when they're thinking, you know what, I'd love to join a group because I don't want to just be myself and be on my own. As a solo practitioner, I'd love to be partnered with a bunch of other like minded doctors, but also they really come to us when they're thinking about, okay, what is the next five, seven, ten years look like for me? And does partnership makes sense to give me what I call a glide path into retirement, where maybe they're not ready to give up their chair side responsibilities or their practice responsibilities in their community, but they're just thinking, where do I go from here? And how can I set myself up for the future in terms of timing? As far as the process, like I said, it can be as long as, you know, maybe 18 months or, or call it two years.

We're often seeing a lot of doctors meet with and sign up with a seller advisor or some people call them brokers where typically that process, you know, kind of end to end is maybe 4 to 6 months. Those are unique opportunities where the doctor, in most cases, has decided partnership is right for me. And I'd like the seller advisor to kind of get me through that process and hold my hand all the way through the partnership closing.

Chad Franzen: 04:55

I'm sure one of the first questions every practice owner has is, about how the partnership might be financially structured. Sure. How do you explain EPIC4 deal structure in a way that helps doctors understand both the maybe immediate benefits and the long term opportunities?

Sam Jenio: 05:10

Yeah. So that's, it's kind of a segmenting, way that we work with partner doctors. You know, there are a lot of partner doctors that know that, you know, four and five years ago, there were these pretty large transactions that happened where there was an enormous cash element to that transaction, where kind of the pressure was off, where that doctor could say, listen, I'm going to partner with a group, but I'm going to really feel financially stable right now for my retirement. Well, the industry has changed and EPIC4 is a little bit different, not because of it, but as part of that. So typically a partnership transaction is set up in three elements.

You know, there's certainly a cash at close element of it where it says, you know, listen, we are seeking to, you know, purchase the assets of that business and make you feel whole. And you've built a great business throughout your career. The second element is equity and EPIC4 we believe that our company is stronger than that as a sum of all of its parts. And we believe that equity in our company, as we move forward and grow, will be extremely valuable. And then the third element is what we call an Earnout.

Some folks call it maintenance, where it's our perspective is, listen, you're already awesome. We want you to stay awesome. And if you stay awesome, then you'll be rewarded every year throughout that partnership. Does that make sense?

Chad Franzen: 06:29

Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Do owners have different options regarding upfront cash equity and those kind of future benefits, or is it kind of structured?

Sam Jenio: 06:36

Absolutely. And it helps us to kind of, as I use the word segment, it helps us to kind of segment out what type of partner that they might be with EPIC4, right? You know, how invested they are in the future, how invested they are in the partnership. We don't do retirement events at EPIC4, right. We're thinking about this as a long term company that will be around for a very long time.

We've partner doctors that are 37 years old all the way up to 67. Certainly most are in different stages of their career, but we like to tailor our partnership offers or term sheets, as we call them, based on what the partner is telling us that they're looking to do. So we have signed partnerships with doctors for five years, which is a minimum all the way up to eight years, and we've even entertained some ten year partnerships that we're working on right now.

Chad Franzen: 07:22

I'm sure there are a few, few different factors that go into kind of assessing the valuation of a practice, maybe performance, the market growth potential. What factors does EPIC4 consider when valuing a practice and developing an offer?

Sam Jenio: 07:38

Yeah great question. There are a number of factors that go into it. Certainly, the type of practice, has an impact in terms of, you know, is it orthodontic practice? Is it a pediatric dentistry practice? Is it a combination of both?

Right. We certainly factor in is it a single owner, doctor practice, right? Where they're, it's just them and their staff that's treating patients. You know, there we've had some opportunities and have opportunities where there's multiple doctors. That also plays a factor, certainly in the stability of the business, long term, or at least over those five years.

Location has an impact, right? although most folks would default to say that rural locations would, would get a lower evaluation. In fact, EPIC4 has a very large, fairly large rural presence across the United States. We're also in urban and suburban areas. So I think the area and the demographics, certainly is an indicator of, of how we show up with, with our offers and our term sheets, length of agreement.

Right? So I hate to say it, but for those docs that are willing to stay for, you know, seven, eight, nine years, that's certainly plays into it too, as we think about the strength of that partnership growth trajectory as, as an impact on it, you know, if there are practices that are maybe on the decline, maybe year over year that could impact it, maybe in a negative way, but quite the opposite. If they're on a growth trajectory and feel like that, they've got some runway ahead of them to grow. And then I think also financial health, right, certainly has an impact. You know, whether they are very profitable, and have had multiple years of profitability, we, we really sign awesome practices, ones that are in great financial shape, where the doctors are a pillar in their community.

They have a fantastic staff, oftentimes with very long tenure, right? They've been there for, for quite some time and, and don't look to be going anywhere. And I go back to kind of the cultural thing that I said in the beginning, we're also looking for EPIC4 to be different in the way that our doctors show up to collaborate. Right? So there are groups out there that bring on docs and that's okay.

We're, they're just a number right amidst, you know, 500, 700 doctors out there. And they, they really don't care about the company or, or being part of, you know, the committees that we've set up, the other collaboration events that we have set up, you know, or really being part of the group thread text message that all of our doctors are on. That's something that's unique about us. We're kind of looking for those doctors that are willing to say, hey, I want to raise my hand and say, this is a cool thing that I'm doing. Or, hey, I've got a question clinically about something.

I've never seen this before. And has anyone else can and can you opine about a treatment plan for this? So we're kind of looking for doctors that are all in to be part of this great group that we've created.

Chad Franzen: 10:26

Yeah. I was going to ask you, I know when I was thinking how culture would relate, it would be like the culture of an individual firm, but what kind of a culture? You've kind of described it already, but is there anything you can add, the culture they can expect when they join their first Zoom call or join their first in-person meeting?

Sam Jenio: 10:42

Yeah. So the jumping off point of EPIC4 was created by founders that had experience with high level study club, one in particular called the Schulman Group, which is a pretty great a collaborative group of like minded orthodontists across the United States. So they already. Based on their friendship and membership in Schulman Group, they had experience being part of this group where it didn't matter where you came from. They were all orthodontists running great practices.

So there was a level of comfort that they already had in saying, hey, I've got a question about this, or, hey, I found the coolest way to do that, right? So we're looking for doctors who want to be part of something like that where, you know, they want to be part of that spirit of collaboration and you can tell right away, right when you're going through the process with the doctor, when you ask them, you know, what are you looking for? Certainly they're looking for, you know, all of the offerings that we have as EPIC4 beyond culture in terms of relieving administrative burden, adding value added services, being part of that collaborative group of folks, having that glide path towards retirement. But we want doctors to be kind of all in, from day one to be part of this group that we've created. And you can tell right away.

Chad Franzen: 12:01

I'm sure, you know, if, if a doctor built the practice from the ground up by himself or with, you know, just a small group of people, maybe they worry that partnering means giving up control of a practice that they've, you know, spent their, their blood, sweat and tears building after a practice joins EPIC4 what changes or maybe just as importantly, what doesn't change?

Sam Jenio: 12:22

Yeah. So, I get teased a lot for this, this saying, but I always say we don't paint you blue, right? So we're not in a mandate environment. typically, or I should say in every way we don't change your staff, we don't change your schedule. We certainly don't change the marquee on the door.

Right? We know that you've built something incredible, and that you are, like I said before, you know, a pillar in your community. People know who you are. You're the one that creates smiles for children and adults. And we think that's an amazing thing.

So we don't seek to change who you are kind of on a day to day basis. And I think that makes us a little bit different than a lot of the groups out there. What does change, you know? Support number one, right? You now have someone to go to, right?

So if something breaks in the office, having trouble with this aspect of your business, whether it's clinically or professionally, you know, a number of different things, marketing support, all those things. We are there to help and support what you do. Now, there are some things that change as it relates to partnering with any group. And that is, you know, HR and benefits. We come in and help to support and kind of take over all the financial aspects of your business, which doctors love that, right?

Because no more QuickBooks, no more working with your CPA, you know, on a monthly basis to, you know, close the books. We pay all of your bills, you know, those sorts of things. But then it's just really a support mechanism. In fact, most of our clinical team members, which makes up the bulk of EPIC4, let's be honest, I'm, I'm employee number five of a 20 person group that, you know, helps to run and support our EPIC4 offices. Most of our people are in the practices to date.

There are a lot of clinical folks that work in our practice and help to support the care for our patients that don't even know that the dentist office or orthodontists or pediatric dentist office is part of a group. And we take pride in that. It's really important for us to know that they're not a corporate group or a part of a corporate dentistry. We're just a group of like minded doctors that wanted to join together.

Chad Franzen: 14:25

So I haven't spoken to Dennis, but I've spoken to, you know, like attorneys who decided to hang their own shingle or whatever, open up their own practice. And they spent years and years becoming a good lawyer, and now they've got to run this business and they're like, starting over. I'm sure, maybe a dentist who's spent years training to be, to be a dentist is the best he can be. And he or she can be in their field. Maybe it could be a relief to have some of that stuff taken off their plate, get back to what.

Sam Jenio: 14:49

Typically it is, you know, it's funny, I joke that the closing process, you know, the diligence and the legal and, you know, all of that. And then we get to the close and all the documents are signed. And then it's just a sense of, relief. Right? We do it on a Friday and then they show up on Monday and they know, listen, they've got a support network of people that care about them, right?

But day to day, they go back to see their patients and then slowly, maybe not that slowly over a 90, 120 days, all of those things that they used to do at night and on the weekends in order to run their business. Those are taken over by a support team of professionals. And, you know, 4 or 5, six months later, they think, wow, why didn't I do this three years earlier? Five years earlier. Right?

Chad Franzen: 15:31

Financial terms, can often shape, both the practice owners immediate return and long term upside. How does EPIC4 typically structure a partnership with a specialty practice?

Sam Jenio: 15:43

Yeah. So, you know, as I mentioned before, it's a mixture of cash and close the equity component in EPIC4 and then the earnout. We're also in a favorable position financially as a firm that we're really excited about the future, right? So again, if you think about it, we put together all of these high performing practices at the outset. And then over the last three years, we've been lucky to, you know, intentionally to add some awesome partners over the last three years.

And, and we have more that we're currently adding right now. We believe that the upside financially for the company is tremendous, right? We've been doing some great things internally. we're very low debt. but we've also got the expertise in the company with not only our C-suite, but, you know, B players like myself to help run the company and guide us in a direction that I think will be financially favorable for not only our founder doctors, but our partner doctors as we move forward.

Chad Franzen: 16:38

I saw that you guys tell you EPIC4 tells prospective partners that you'll help them grow and grow. Yeah. You got that can mean different things to different practice owners. Maybe. what does that actually look like over the first few years of a partnership with EPIC4.

Sam Jenio: 16:51

Yeah. So we've done a lot of really fun things over the last three years since we started in March of 2023. So, you know, we have a marketing director who is in tune with what is going on in the practice in terms of, you know, what's working, what's not working. We've run all sorts of different programs, you know, because we're nationwide and as I mentioned, rural, urban and suburban, we've run a myriad programs in different practices to help, you know, help them grow, right? So that's the organic growth, right?

Which is to bring in more patients that might be interested in straightening their teeth. We have, committees across the company that help to work on different growth areas. For example, our treatment coordinators meet on a bi weekly basis to talk about, you know, what things are working when they're talking to patients on how we can get them comfortable with do with doing an aligner treatment or with a braces treatment. That certainly helped with the organic growth. And then the other element, which is a little bleeds into the to the M&A side of things, or the inorganic side, is that we've done a couple of tuck in acquisitions, right?

So in certain markets where there was an opportunity where it was a retiring dentist. We had one where a pediatric dentist in California just decided, you know what? I've got three offices. This is my furthest one. I don't want to drive here anymore, but I need somebody to take over the patient.

So we were able to go in and take over that practice and kind of tuck it in with what we already had existing, you know, so that that definitely adds to the growth. We're also always looking for different complementary ways that we can help to grow the practices where it makes sense. So, you know, as you think about orthodontics, you also think about teeth whitening. You also think about the sleep apnea side of dentistry, where you can help to support patients that have sleep apnea. So lots of different things there.

And then inside the four walls of orthodontics, there are a number of emerging technologies that are kind of changing the game not only with, case acceptance for, you know. Yes, I'd like to get braces or not get braces, but also how long that it that my braces will be on, on my teeth, right? So there's a number of technologies that are helping to kind of quicken the process to straighter teeth, but also with less visits, right? Everyone likes less visits to the orthodontist when they're going through their treatment plan. So we've been working on a number of different things to help with what we call organic or stain, same store growth.

And it's been pretty exciting not only for orthodontics, but also for pediatric dentistry.

Chad Franzen: 19:17

I'm sure you've found, you know, during your time talking to practice owners that they're probably pretty deeply invested in the people who help them build their success. what impact does joining EPIC4 typically have on existing staff members? And how do you help teams kind of navigate that transition?

Sam Jenio: 19:34

Yeah. So a couple things that jump to mind that are really important to us. Number one, we do not value the practice on what we think it should be going forward, right? So let's just say that you've got five orthodontic assistants. We never tell you you should be getting by with four, right?

We don't do that. So when we work with a practice to partner, we don't change anything about the staff. Not what they do, not who they are when they work there, but also not what they're paid. So that's a huge thing. That's a differentiator with EPIC4 and other groups is that we don't have some standardized.

You pay this to an orthodontic assistant or a technician or a lab assistant or front desk coordinator. We don't do that. Right. We partner with you as you are. Right.

So that's a key differentiator. Number two, most of the practices that we partner with don't offer employee benefits or medical and dental. And, you know, I insurance and those sorts of things. We work with a co employer that helps us to leverage our size to go to market to create. I think we've got five different medical plans, a couple of different dental plans.

And, and I think a really strong vision plan. I use it for myself because I'm blind. That, that really helps, those folks out there that maybe never have had health insurance, typically dental offices, any dental office, doesn't matter if it's orthodontic or any other specialty are not able to offer their employees medical benefits. And just to be blunt, there are a lot of single mothers across dentistry. Dentistry.

And it's a huge leveling up when they partner with us relative to their employee benefits. So the way that we see it, the clinical staff they're offering by continuing to do the job that they did yesterday, now today it just gets even better.

Chad Franzen: 21:19

You've talked about a number of things that are probably kind of relief that maybe the practice doesn't have to handle. Another one would, I would imagine, be marketing practices often have significant opportunities, but maybe limited time and resources. There we'll have other episodes where we dive deeply into EPIC4 marketing. But just in terms of a partnership, at what point does EPIC4 begin supporting a new partner's marketing efforts? And, I guess if there are strategies that you're aware of that tend to produce the greatest results, maybe what are they?

Sam Jenio: 21:47

Yeah. I mean, we start right away, with an assessment of what they're doing, you know, what's working, what's not, what's not working. That part of it really isn't rocket science. I think the coolest part about our marketing efforts is that we have a really unique portal that we've worked with one of our third party marketing firms that is kind of housed and archived the best of the best, right? So whether that's printed marketing, whether that's digital marketing, whether that's Google ads, whether that's all sorts of different things and approaches, we've saved the best of the best so that we can continue to use it in the future.

And our new partners can leverage that new or that content that would be new to them, but maybe not new to the EPIC4 offices. Again, we're spread out, so we don't have any worry about cannibalizing any programs that we do across the company. We can leverage them in different ways. So that's I think that's a cool differentiator. The other thing is, is that we lean into social, right?

I mean, it's, I hate to say it and you see it all over the internet. Social media is where it's at. So our marketing director has done a tremendous job in not only pushing out ideas and content and approach and structure to our offices in a unified way. They have monthly marketing meetings where they talk about generating all these ideas. The cool part is because she's kind of the quarterback in the middle, she's also pulling them in, right?

And so that she's able to say, okay, this is working in Virginia. This is not working in Florida. Hey, how about we flip flop and see what happens, right? Because it's social media and we talk often about she's constantly coaching the offices, whether it's they do have a marketing coordinator, maybe part time or somebody that's working a few hours a week, or even with the office manager who might be the social media coordinator and talking about, okay, listen, this is what we're going to do on Monday. We're going to have a post that talks about looking forward into the week.

On Wednesday, it's going to be a clinical post. And then on Friday it's going to be a, you know, fun post. You put fun in quotations, but something different, whether it's a TikTok or a reel that's popular or things that she's seen on other sites, other practice sites. Right? I mean, you hate to say that, but you know, what is it?

Imitation is the greatest compliment, right? Sure. Something like that. Right. So she'll use all of those ideas.

And the cool part is that she's able to kind of share that broadly with everyone. And again, none of this is pushed out to say you must do. It's pushed out to say, hey, I know you're working on this. These are opportunities and things that you can leverage that other people have done that work.

Chad Franzen: 24:16

You talked about equity being one of the three main parts of a financial structure of a deal between EPIC4 and a specialty practice. How should, doctors think about the long term value of their equity and what factors ultimately drive that value?

Sam Jenio: 24:32

Yeah. So there's a lot of talk in the industry about this, right? There's a certain subset of doctors that, you know, either have partnered or are thinking about partnership with, with a group and they're thinking, you know what the equity means nothing, right? So if I go through this process and I sign up with EPIC4, I'm just going to think that the equity means nothing. And unfortunately, a lot of cases it does.

And the history of that has a lot to do. And we could talk for hours about this has a lot to do with the buying spree from 19 2019 through 2022 has a lot to do with interest rates, right? Where DSOs have maybe gotten a little bit over their skis because they purchased a practice at one interest rate, and that interest rate is now double or more than double, which certainly hurts the economics and the ability for that group to pay the bank back. Right. So a lot of things, it's, it's, it's multifaceted in a way that when groups got in trouble and maybe are in trouble, yeah, the equity is not worth much because you've got banks involved that certainly have their covenants that may or may not have been tripped.

You've got private equity firms that are, you know, perhaps directing how the DSO or the group would go forward in terms of the value of the equity. Here's what I'll say about EPIC4. We came together three years ago, and our founders took no money from outside partners, right. All of them pushed their chips into the center of the table such that one practice A owned a portion of practice B vice versa. They also both own portions of practice C and D all the way through G.

Right. So it was a group coming together to say, listen, let's do this together and let's base our equity value on how we contribute to EPIC4 in total, we are low debt because we've been really smart and intentional about our acquisitions. Our partners have all been successful,you know, not only financially but professionally and clinically with EPIC4ce since they joined us. So we differentiate ourselves in that.

There are groups out there where the equity doesn't mean anything for us. We feel like there's tremendous upside because we're financially positioned very well, not only now, but also into the future as we grow intentionally.

Chad Franzen: 26:39

Last question for you. We talked about kind of the culture that a practice owner can expect when joining EPIC4 what about a, maybe a practice that's been around for a while. It already has a specific culture that they want to maintain or build upon from where they are. Or maybe they, maybe they feel like their culture needs to be improved. How do you kind of help?

How do you kind of, you know, approach an individual culture of a practice when you join up with them?

Sam Jenio: 27:03

Yeah, we meet them where they are. Right. So, in as much as I said, we don't have a playbook of how to be a partner at EPIC4 the great part about our partnership process is as we get towards the end, we send folks out, right? We send our CEO out and we send our director of operations out to sit with the doctors, sit with the office manager, sometimes sit with the staff, sometimes they, they, they're ready to do that, sometimes not. And that's okay.

And we really get sort of the essence of the practice. And we sort of feel the vibe of the practice to make sure that we understand it. Again, we don't paint you blue. We're not there to change it. We're there just to understand it and to, and to kind of walk alongside you as we finalize that process.

The second cool thing that we do is right after the partnership closes, you know, where all of the legal scurrying and financial work has to be done. Right? After that's over, we send out our director of HR and our Director of Clinical Operations, director of HR is just to sit with people individually to say, okay, listen, here's how it's going to work. Do you have medical benefits through your spouse? No.

Would you like to have medical benefits with EPIC4? Yes. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to go through the enrollment process as an example. Our director of clinical operations will sit with the assistants, sit with the hygienists in case of pedes, sit with the doctor and say, what's your approach to dentistry?

How can we help to support you in your dentistry and your care for patients if it's changed, nothing. Fantastic. That's great. But now you have my name and my number and you've met me, and you can call me and I can help you in any way that I possibly can. So we'd like to think of our partnership process as white glove in the sense that we have a process.

Certainly we want to go forward in a pace, but we want that pace and that process to match what fits your lifestyle and how you'd like to finish that process. So it's really important that we have that white glove service and it's really important that we are open to lines of communication and changes. Right. I just had a call earlier today about a point in our process where we can do better, and we immediately huddled, and now we know for the next one, we're going to approach it a little bit differently.

Chad Franzen: 29:08

Okay. Good stuff. Hey, so, any final thoughts or maybe a way to wrap it up? Let's say somebody's listening and they're like, well, it all sounds good, but, you know, it is what it is. And I have my firm the way I have my firm.

Yeah. What, what might you say to that person maybe to open their mind up or, you know, give, give EPIC4 one, one last chance.

Sam Jenio: 29:31

Yeah. So I, I go back to kind of what I said before, one of the things that I love about this job is, you know, I certainly love when partners decide to join EPIC4, right? That, that really gets me going. but I love the education part of it. Right?

So I would offer to anyone that's listening to this podcast that if they'd like to learn more about EPIC4, but also learn more about how Oso's and DSOs work and maybe what are some of the differences out there? You know, not giving names. I would never say anything negative about any of the other groups, but talk about maybe what are those differences that are and what some of the things that they might want to do in order to become a little bit more educated in that process beyond an initial conversation with me, but also really put their best foot forward. If they do think about how they would like to partner, whether that's with our group or another group, that makes the most sense for me. I love that education process.

So you can probably tell Chad, I'll talk to anybody about this. I'm pretty passionate about it. but also I think, or I'd like to think that I do it in a way where it's not pushy. It's really all about what is the best outcome for that doctor and kind of meeting them where they are. You know, I will say one more thing real quick, just, just to close.

What's cool about EPIC4 that I haven't mentioned today is that we have a lot of legacy practices. And what I mean by that is our current partner doctors took it over from mom and dad. Even cooler, I think, is that we have a couple of docs where they have kids that have started in their practice, right? So it's a true legacy from, you know, call it grandparents, down to grandchildren. And I think that's something that's going to keep going with EPIC4 as we bring on, bring in those docs, you know, we love it when we meet with a doctor who took it over from their parent and even more so, love it when they've got a kid coming in dental school or ortho school that might might work in the practice in the future.

We think that's really cool and sets us apart.

Chad Franzen: 31:19

Okay, awesome. Hey, great to talk to you, Sam. Thanks so much for joining me today.

Sam Jenio: 31:24

You got it, Chad. Anytime.

Chad Franzen: 31:25

Thank you so long, everybody.

Outro: 31:31

Thanks for listening to Straight Talk With EPIC4. We'll catch you next time. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes.

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