AADOM27 Friday Courses

The Great Delegation Challenge: Letting Go So Others Can Grow

Bonnie Thompson

Great delegation isn't about doing less. It's about developing people who are capable of doing more. Many leaders struggle with delegation, not because they don't trust their teams, but because they're accustomed to being the person everyone relies on. While taking on more responsibilities may feel productive, it can eventually lead to burnout, create bottlenecks, and unintentionally limit the growth of others.

Learning Objectives

• Identify common barriers to delegation, including the desire for control, fear of mistakes, and the belief that doing it yourself is more efficient.
• Evaluate responsibilities and opportunities for delegation by recognizing which tasks can support team development and which require direct leadership involvement.
• Apply effective delegation strategies that establish clear expectations, provide appropriate training and support, and encourage ownership without micromanaging.
• Differentiate between coaching and taking control, recognizing when team members need additional guidance and when they need the opportunity to work independently.
• Develop an actionable delegation plan that strengthens team accountability, builds confidence, and creates opportunities for professional growth.

Speaker

Bonnie Thompson

Bonnie Thompson is a dental operations executive, leadership mentor, and speaker with more than 35 years of experience in dentistry. Her career has spanned nearly every role within a dental practice, from dental assisting and office management to Chief Operating Officer. Recognized as one of the Top Operations Leaders in Group Dentistry in 2025, Bonnie is passionate about developing confident leaders, strengthening workplace culture, and proving that kindness is not weakness when paired with clarity, accountability, and courage.

Lost In The Noise

Brandy Trout, DSL
From Good To Grace Training & Development

Dental practices communicate all day long, yet managers still hear, “Nobody told me,” “I didn't know,” or “When was that decided?” The problem is not always too little communication. Often, teams are communicating constantly but without enough structure to create clarity, connection, or accountability.

Morning huddles become problem-solving sessions. Team meetings become announcement lists.

Managers repeat the same information in multiple conversations. Important decisions disappear into group messages, while issues that require meaningful conversation are reduced to emails or texts.

Somewhere in all that communication, teams get lost in the noise.

This interactive session helps dental practice managers move from constant communication to intentional communication by creating a structured Communication Rhythm™. Attendees will evaluate communication through four practical questions: PURPOSE, PLACE, PEOPLE, and CADENCE.

Participants will apply the framework to real-world dental practice scenarios and determine what belongs in a daily huddle, one-on-one, leadership meeting, team meeting, or written communication. They will also examine how meeting structure can improve clarity, ownership, and follow-through.

Drawing from multi-location dental leadership experience and doctoral research examining strategic leadership and employee engagement, this course connects communication consistency with team alignment, psychological safety, and accountability.

Attendees will leave with a customized communication rhythm they can begin implementing immediately within their practices.

Learning Objectives

• Identify communication habits that contribute to confusion, interruptions, and inconsistent accountability.
• Apply the Communication Rhythm™ using PURPOSE, PLACE, PEOPLE, and CADENCE.
• Differentiate communication appropriate for huddles, one-on-ones, leadership meetings, team meetings, and written communication.
• Design a practical communication rhythm that improves clarity, ownership, and follow-through.

Speaker

Brandy Trout, DSL
From Good To Grace Training & Development

Dr. Brandy Trout is an educator, speaker, author, and dental practice executive with 17+ years of experience leading teams within a multi-location dental organization. She holds a Doctor of Strategic Leadership and is a Kolbe Certified™ Consultant, Maxwell-certified speaker, and MAADOM. Her doctoral research explored how strategic leadership practices influence employee engagement and retention in healthcare organizations. Brandy is founder of From Good To Grace Training & Development and author of The Conference Companion and Grace Over Perfection. Through practical frameworks, research-informed strategies, and real-world experience, she helps leaders build stronger teams, create accountability, and lead with greater intention. FromGoodToGrace.com

Energy & Productivity Vampires in Your Practice and How to Overcome Them

Carrie Webber
President & Owner - The Jameson Group

Join Carrie as she shares five of the most common productivity and energy obstacles that face dental practices nationwide. Carrie will guide you through ways to begin effectively overcoming these ‘vampires’ today!

From case presentation systems to time management procedures, Carrie will cover some of the most frequent gaps in practices that cause pain and frustration. She will also provide clear direction for a brighter future.

Learning Objectives

• DISCOVER their personal ‘vampires’ and the skills to combat them effectively
• ESTABLISH a system of time management to maximize both time and talent
• DEVELOP the systems and strategies needed in the practice to increase productivity and profitability

Speaker

Carrie Webber
President & Owner - The Jameson Group

Carrie Webber is president and owner of The Jameson Group, a dental management coaching & marketing firm that works with dental practices nationwide to help dentists and teams become more productive, more profitable and ultimately more fulfilled in their practicing lives. Carrie is a contributing author to several publications and blogs on the topics of dental management, leadership, marketing, customer service and business development as well as a popular speaker at dental meetings nationwide. She is a member of the Speaking Consulting Network and has been named a Leader in CE by Dentistry Today for the past seven years. For more information on Webber and her company, The Jameson Group, visit jmsn.com.

Confidence Is Contagious: How Powerful Speaking Elevates Your Brand and Your Bottom Line

Denise Williams-Jones, RDA
Next Level to Success

In dentistry, confidence is more than a feeling; it is an invisible force that shapes trust, influences treatment acceptance, and elevates the patient’s experience long before a single clinical step is taken. The moment you walk into the room, your brand is already speaking. The question is: What is it saying? This course teaches dental professionals how to communicate with clarity, confidence, and purpose in every interaction from patient conversations to team leadership to community presence. Participants will learn how to shape their message, simplify their story, and speak in a way that feels aligned, authentic, powerful, confident, and never arrogant.

Through interactive exercises and real world scenarios, attendees will explore how confident communication strengthens patient trust, reduces anxiety, improves case acceptance, and enhances the overall culture of the practice. They will also learn how to use self awareness and authentic storytelling to communicate not only what they do, but why it matters to the patient, the team, and the practice’s bottom line.

This course empowers dental professionals to elevate their leadership presence, strengthen team dynamics, and step into their next level with clarity, conviction, and confidence.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize how personal presence and confidence influence patient trust, treatment acceptance, and the overall patient experience.
• Apply techniques to communicate with clarity and purpose, reducing confusion and increasing patient understanding.
• Use authentic storytelling to explain clinical recommendations in a relatable, meaningful way.
• Demonstrate leadership behaviors through confident communication, supporting stronger team culture and collaboration.
• Identify and adjust communication habits that may unintentionally create patient hesitation or team disconnect.
• Articulate the practice’s value and mission in a way that elevates the brand and supports practice growth.

Speaker

Denise Williams-Jones, RDA
Next Level to Success

Denise Williams-Jones, RDA, is a Customer Service Culture Consultant with a thriving business built around coaching, speaking, and hosting business wellness retreats, both inside and outside the dental industry. She started in the dental field in 1995, working in some of the top dental offices in Southern California, with roles including chairside assistant, inventory, and supply manager, team trainer, scheduling coordinator, financial coordinator, marketing liaison, community outreach, and front office lead.

Her work centers on creating a healthy culture, empowering team members, building leadership skills, implementing effective systems, and investing in the team so everyone grows together. She also helps professionals and organizations transform themselves from uncertain speakers into confident, compelling communicators who lead with clarity, purpose, and presence. And at the heart of it all is self-care because you can only give your best when you are your best.

She is passionate about customer service, team culture, and creating environments where people feel supported, organized, and empowered. Because when training begins in a structured yet warm space, results follow naturally.

Denise has designed continuing education courses for the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS). She is a member of Speaking Consulting Network, having served as their ambassador for one year and won the 2020 Spotlight on Speaking competition, also held by Speaking Consulting Network. She consulted for the American Dental Association Dental Team Hub Advisory Group for Practice Management. Denise is also an Align Practice Management speaker for North America.

Through consulting, coaching, speaking, and retreats, she helps organizations and individuals improve relationships and communication with their team members, define core values, empower leadership, and foster the right culture with their clients, all while raising their bottom line.

Meet Your Perfect Self: Justifications for EVERYTHING You Do

Dr. Emily Letran
President - Exceptional Leverage Inc.

What if the key to building a more productive, engaged, and successful dental team is not asking people to work harder—but helping them understand how they naturally work best?

This is an interactive leadership, productivity, and team-development program designed for dentists, practice leaders, managers, and dental teams who want to improve performance while reducing unnecessary stress and workplace friction.

Led by Dr. Emily Letran, DDS, MS, CHPC, the course combines practical high-performance strategies with the principles of the Kolbe A™ Index to help participants better understand themselves, recognize the natural strengths of others, improve communication, align people with appropriate responsibilities, and create stronger team chemistry.

The program begins with six High Performance Strategies—Clarity, Energy, Productivity, Influence, Necessity, and Courage—and then moves into a deeper exploration of the instinctive ways people take action, solve problems, make decisions, organize information, respond to uncertainty, and get things done.

The central message is simple: You do not build a great team by making everyone work the same way. You build a great team by understanding individual strengths and learning how to make those differences work together.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the values and goals that matter most.
• Evaluate whether daily actions are aligned with those priorities.
• Recognize that natural strengths are different from intelligence, personality, skills, and motivation.
• Understand the four Kolbe Action Modes: Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Quick Start, and Implementor.
• Learn the natural strengths represented across the team.
• Adapt communication when working with someone whose natural method differs from your own.
• Use strengths awareness in onboarding, coaching, performance conversations, role design, and career planning.

Speaker

Dr. Emily Letran
President - Exceptional Leverage Inc.

Dr Emily Letran is a serial entrepreneur, CEO of multiple dental practices, and private coach to many professionals. As an international speaker, she has been on TEDx and shared stages with countless business leaders including Sharon Lechter (Co-Author Rich Dad Poor Dad), Dan Clark (Hall of Fame Speaker), Dr. Howard Farran (Dental Town), and Linda Miles (The Ultimate Mentor of Dentistry). She has been featured on Dental Town , The Profitable Dentist, Global Woman, See Beyond magazines, and mentioned on Yahoo!Finance, Forbes, Medium, USA Today, and FOX. She is a contributing writer for Dental IQ, DrBicuspid.com, and Dentistry Today. Dr Letran is the author of several books, the Founder of the non-profit Smile Champions, and the Founder of Exceptional Leverage Inc., a coaching and consulting firm. She hosts her signature events, ACTION To WIN seminar, in several countries, and shares her expertise in personal growth and business management through her ACTION To WIN Academy programs.

Dr. Letran received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from UC Riverside (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in three years. She is a graduate of UCLA School of Dentistry (Dean’s Apollonian Scholarship) Class of 1993 and received her Master of Science in Oral Biology from UCLA during the same four years.

As a mother of three, Dr. Letran creatively balances work, family life, after-school life and her personal life as a growing entrepreneur. She continuously takes courses to improve her skills to better serve her clients. She is dedicated in helping business professionals maximize their potential in personal and business life, streamline business and increase profits, winning back time from work so they can enjoy that time with their family, children and pursue their passion. She truly believes we should always be the best version of ourselves.

Dr. Emily Letran is a Certified High Performance Coach, Certified Kolbe Consultant, and a member of Forbes Coaches Council.

Your Team Is Already Using AI. The Question Is Whether You're Leading It.

Dr. Natasha Guess, DLP, MSL, BS, CHC, CHPC, AIP-HC
Guess Compliance Consulting LLC

Artificial intelligence is already finding its way into dental practices, often without leadership realizing it.

Employees are using AI to draft emails, create patient education materials, summarize information, improve administrative tasks, and increase efficiency. In many cases, these tools are introduced one employee at a time, long before a practice has established expectations for their appropriate use.

The question is no longer whether AI will be used in your practice. The question is whether your practice is prepared to lead it responsibly.

This session provides dental office managers and practice administrators with a practical approach to AI governance that balances innovation with patient privacy, operational integrity, and regulatory compliance.

Rather than focusing on the technology itself, attendees will learn how to recognize where AI is already being used, identify potential operational and compliance risks, establish clear expectations for staff, and create practical governance processes that support responsible AI adoption.

Participants will also learn how to evaluate AI tools before they are introduced into the practice, engage their teams in responsible AI use, and build a culture where innovation and accountability work together.

Attendees will leave with practical strategies they can immediately implement to confidently lead AI adoption, strengthen operational oversight, and help their practice embrace emerging technology while protecting patients, their teams, and the practice.

Learning Objectives

• Identify common ways artificial intelligence is already being used within dental practices.
• Evaluate operational, privacy, and compliance considerations before AI tools are introduced into daily workflows.
• Develop practical governance strategies that establish clear expectations, accountability, and oversight for AI use.
• Create an action plan to support responsible AI adoption while protecting patients, staff, and the practice.

Speaker

Dr. Natasha Guess, DLP, MSL, BS, CHC, CHPC, AIP-HC
Guess Compliance Consulting LLC

Dr. Natasha Guess, DLP, MSL, BS, CHC, CHPC, AIP-HC is the founder of Guess Compliance Consulting LLC, where she works with small and mid-size healthcare organizations across the United States and Canada to build practical, defensible compliance systems that function inside real operational environments.

With more than a decade of experience in healthcare and regulatory compliance, Dr. Guess specializes in translating complex federal and provincial regulations into clear operational structures that support growth, reduce risk, and protect patient information. She holds dual certifications in Healthcare Compliance and Healthcare Privacy Compliance, and recently earned the AIP-HC designation as an AI Professional in Healthcare Compliance, reflecting her expertise at the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare governance.

Her work spans HIPAA privacy and security compliance, Canadian frameworks including PHIPA and PIPEDA, business associate and vendor oversight, risk assessments, audit readiness, AI governance advisory, and operational compliance for growing healthcare teams. She works closely with organizations to evaluate how patient information moves through their systems, identify compliance gaps, and strengthen safeguards across workflows, workforce practices, and technology platforms.

Dr. Guess is the host of Guess What? Compliance Can Be Simple! A podcast built for practice managers and healthcare leaders who need practical compliance guidance without legal jargon. She has been featured as a guest on the Medcurity Podcast and has upcoming appearances on several other healthcare podcasts and is a recognized voice in healthcare compliance for independent and group practices.

She is known for a clear, practical, and non-fear-based approach that allows healthcare organizations to meet regulatory expectations while remaining focused on patient care.

The Leadership Ripple Effect: What Your Team Learns From What You Allow, Address and Model

Sophia Dunkley
The Practice Navigator

Every leader creates a ripple.

What you address teaches your team what matters. What you avoid teaches them what they can ignore.

What you tolerate can quietly become the standard. And what you consistently model eventually becomes part of the culture.

The Leadership Ripple Effect examines how everyday leadership behaviors influence communication, accountability, trust, team alignment, and ultimately the patient experience. This interactive course moves beyond leadership theory and into the situations dental managers face every day: difficult conversations that keep getting postponed, inconsistent accountability, unclear expectations, conflicting messages between doctors and managers, and the pressure to lead effectively when stress is high.

Participants will examine the connection between how they lead and how their teams respond, including how communication, decision-making, emotional awareness, adaptability, conflict management, and accountability can strengthen or weaken team performance.

Through real-world dental scenarios, self-assessment, discussion, and practical coaching exercises, attendees will identify leadership patterns that may be creating unintended consequences and practice strategies for addressing performance, setting clearer expectations, navigating difficult conversations, and responding more intentionally under pressure.

Participants will leave with a Leadership Ripple Assessment and an actionable framework they can use with their teams to determine what needs to be addressed, reinforced, redirected, or no longer allowed.

Because your team isn't only listening to what you say. They're learning from what you consistently do.

Learning Objectives

• Trace the leadership ripple from leader behavior to team response, practice culture, patient experience, and practice performance.
• Recognize leadership patterns, including avoidance, inconsistency, unclear expectations, and stress responses, that can create unintended consequences throughout the practice.
• Apply practical coaching and communication strategies to address difficult conversations, performance concerns, conflict, and accountability more effectively.
• Use the Leadership Ripple framework to determine what behaviors need to be addressed, reinforced, redirected, or no longer allowed to create clearer expectations and stronger team alignment

Speaker

Sophia Dunkley
The Practice Navigator

Sophia Dunkley is an engaging speaker, coach, and consultant with 27+ years in dentistry. She brings a rare 360 degree perspective, spanning treatment coordination, operations, and team leadership, to elevate case acceptance, communication, and culture. As a certified Energy Leadership (ELI 360) professional with iPEC, Sophia blends mindset, leadership, and systems into practical frameworks that drive transformation, results and sustained performance. She specializes in high-value case acceptance, implant arch, and new patient journeys. Partnering with private practices and DSOs nationwide, she's a featured speaker at AADOM and the Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. Her guiding philosophy: making a stranger a friend.

The Coaching Advantage: How Great Leaders Develop People Who Think for Themselves, Uphold High Standards, and Produce Amazing Results

Katherine Eitel Belt, CSP
LionSpeak

What if the key to a stronger, more accountable team isn’t managing or supervising people more closely—but coaching them more effectively?

Too often, leaders spend their days answering questions, solving problems, correcting mistakes, and reminding people what needs to be done. While that may get results in the moment, it can unintentionally create teams that rely too heavily on their leaders instead of learning to think critically, take ownership, and solve problems independently.

In this engaging and practical program, Katherine Eitel Belt shares powerful coaching strategies for developing capable, confident team members who take greater responsibility for their performance and results. Attendees will learn how to shift from simply supervising work to strategically coaching people—asking better questions, creating clarity and alignment, strengthening accountability, and helping employees discover their own solutions.

The result? Less rescuing and reminding for leaders—and more ownership, initiative, confidence, and results from the people they lead.

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate between supervising, managing, and coaching, and identify when a coaching approach will more effectively develop employee ownership and performance.
• Demonstrate strategic questioning and listening techniques that help team members think critically, solve problems, and develop their own effective solutions.
• Apply a practical coaching framework to create greater clarity, alignment, accountability, and measurable performance improvement within their teams.

Speaker

Katherine Eitel Belt, CSP
LionSpeak

Katherine Eitel Belt, CSP, Dentistry’s Unscripted Leadership Communication Coach, is a globally recognized expert in leadership communication. For over 35 years, she has helped hundreds of organizations—including Procter & Gamble, Care Credit, and Henry Schein—build aligned, accountable, high‑performing teams. As one of 17% of speakers worldwide to earn the CSP designation, Katherine is a trusted voice featured on major podcasts, in the documentary Women Shaping Dentistry Tomorrow, and on the cover of Dental Entrepreneur Women Magazine. Her upcoming book, Lead Yourself, Lead Your Team, equips leaders to transform team performance through her Leadership Conversation Trifecta and A.R.C.H. Framework.

Don't Let the Bot Have All The Personality: The Patient Communication Program

Penny Reed
Penny Reed – Dental Growth Officer

Most patients welcome AI in their dental experience, as long as it feels personal. Virtual receptionists, automated confirmations, and AI-driven recall are now everyday tools. What sets a practice apart is the moment technology hands off to a human being. This program gives office managers and their frontoffice teams the communication skills and brand-voice consistency that turn automated touchpoints into lasting patient relationships. In a high-tech practice, your team's warmth matters more than ever.

In this session, office managers learn to map every patient touchpoint and decide where AI serves beautifully and where a human voice matters most. They build warm-transfer language that keeps each conversation feeling seamless, and they audit their brand voice across phone, text, and email so every channel sounds like the practice patients already trust. Real examples and ready-to-use scripts make it simple to put these ideas to work the very next morning, while a clear framework keeps the whole team consistent as new tools arrive.

Your AI can book the appointment. Your team earns the loyalty. Both matter, and only one is irreplaceable.

Learning Objectives

• Map every patient touchpoint and assign AI versus human responsibility
• Write warm-transfer language that keeps every conversation seamless
• Audit your brand voice across all channels for consistency and warmth
• Apply a communication framework that sets you apart from practices using identical tools

Speaker

Penny Reed
Penny Reed – Dental Growth Officer

Penny Reed is the Founder and President of Penny Reed – Dental Growth Officer, providing fractional growth strategy, advisory services, and training to practice owners and leaders in the dental profession. With more than 30 years of experience, she brings a behavior-based approach shaped by her background as a certified behavioral consultant with the Institute for Motivational Living and a former Dale Carnegie trainer. A former dental office manager, Penny serves on faculty for the Nash Institute for Dental Learning, is a Dentistry Today Leader in Dental Consulting, and the author of Growing Your Dental Business. She is known for delivering practical, engaging programs on leadership, culture, and communication.

CLOSING KEYNOTE

A Culture Program with an Angry Puppet Featuring The Bitter Baby®

Penny Reed
Penny Reed – Dental Growth Officer

Culture starts in the mind long before it shows up in the schedule. Meet The Bitter Baby®, a lovably grumpy puppet who gives voice to the stuck, "why-bother" mindset that quietly visits every one of us.

When your team can name that voice and laugh at it together, real change begins.

They learn to catch a negative mindset early, choose a growth mindset on purpose, and carry that fresh energy into every patient, every huddle, and every change. Behind the fun sits a practical, measurable framework for building the one thing systems alone cannot create: a team that shows up ready to grow.

In this session, your office managers discover why mindset is the quiet engine behind culture, and they gain simple tools to shift it on purpose. They practice naming The Bitter Baby® moment out loud, replacing a limiting belief with a growth-minded response, and coaching one another through change with warmth and humor. They leave with daily habits of appreciation and coachability that keep the whole team encouraged, resilient, and ready for whatever the day brings. Best of all, it is memorable, so your team puts it to work the very next morning.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize The Bitter Baby® mindset the moment it appears, in yourself and in one another
• Discover how a growth mindset turns everyday challenges into momentum
• Master the inner shift that moves a team from resistant to receptive
• Build daily habits of appreciation and coachability that keep a positive mindset alive

Speaker

Penny Reed
Penny Reed – Dental Growth Officer

Penny Reed is the Founder and President of Penny Reed – Dental Growth Officer, providing fractional growth strategy, advisory services, and training to practice owners and leaders in the dental profession. With more than 30 years of experience, she brings a behavior-based approach shaped by her background as a certified behavioral consultant with the Institute for Motivational Living and a former Dale Carnegie trainer. A former dental office manager, Penny serves on faculty for the Nash Institute for Dental Learning, is a Dentistry Today Leader in Dental Consulting, and the author of Growing Your Dental Business. She is known for delivering practical, engaging programs on leadership, culture, and communication.