🎬 The season finale of Season 2 of Kinda DifferentKind is here!

In this wide-ranging discussion, Carolyn chats with Pat Bauer, CEO of Heartland Dental on how operationalizing values has helped Heartland become the largest DSO in the country.

Watch the full episode below or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. A lightly edited transcript is also below.

You can find Pat and Heartland at the following places:  
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-bauer-61b832b/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/heartlanddental/
Website: https://heartland.com/

Transcript

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Well, hello and welcome to the Kinda Different podcast, where we'll explore the intersection of innovation, connection, and people-centeredness in dentistry. I'm Carolyn Brown, your host for the day. I'm the co-founder and chief strategic officer for DifferentKind. And much like our esteemed guest today, we're the first of our kind. We're a data-driven dental experience measurement platform that helps you connect with your patients and improve outcomes. We help you develop evidence-based skills to build trust and develop loyalty. And our guest today is a person who really can speak to building trust and loyalty, not to mention heading up one of the foremost companies in our field. It's someone that you'll likely recognize, Pat Bauer. Pat is the president and CEO of Heartland Dental, a company that he has had the honor of watching grow from its infancy to its current scale, which I think is somewhere over 1,700 dental practices across the country. Heartland is the largest dental support organization in the country and supports over 2,700 doctors and about 4,900 hygienists. Heartland's success is due in large part to the human-centric care model at the core of its strategy. And it's not only scalable, but it meets the needs of providers and patients, but also keeps pace with really this unprecedented trajectory of growth, science, and research. Pat and I have met through our mutual friends, Samantha Strain, and have really connected at the core belief of innovation and bringing the best people forward in our industry. And we know that Pat and his team worked tirelessly to make dentistry more accessible and more human every day. Welcome, Pat.

Pat Bauer:
Well, thanks for having me, Carolyn. It's just awesome to have met you and now we're friends and it's pretty cool.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Yep, and it's really a pleasure to have you with us today so that we can talk about our two most valuable assets, our providers and our patients. So Pat, let's just jump into it. You've played such a significant role at Heartland in its development from really, you know, an emerging group to what is by far, not only a national powerhouse, but sort of the powerhouse that is most associated with quality, while doing this at a crazy pace. Not easy things to do, even one of those things wouldn't be easy to accomplish. And you know, we really build our company, DifferentKind, off of really looking at the data, showing the power of people and people's opinions and qualitative efforts. Could you share with us a little bit about Heartland's core values and how you advocate for kindness and building quality within your company while at scale?

Pat Bauer:
It's a loaded question. So many, many years ago, we started working. The reason I met Dr. Workman, who's our founder, was because we had similar philosophies on how we lead practices. So it was a small group practice, and I met him in 1995, and he had a small group practice. Back then, everything was a small group practice. But we had similar beliefs on how do you take care of your doctors, because they're our customers. That was the first step. that we were aligned on. So when I joined them, really our core values are around what an achiever would be like, whether it be achiever human being, achiever organization, achiever country, it's based upon six basic elements of human existence. Why do we exist and how are we made up? And so the whole process of our values is how do we make sure we have a well-rounded company that doesn't have extreme behaviors? extreme behaviors is where you know the easiest one is Donald Trump has extreme behaviors. But you know so you don't want to have two extreme behaviors. You want to make sure we're level. Well, we have certain sayings. You got to do the right thing for the right reason. You got to be nice to work here. So, you that that's just some foundations that we learned way back when you know going to young doctors. You know, if you were nice, if you just said thank you, you go a long way. So, it's just basic... human stuff that you say, you know, let's just we're just going to treat everybody, right? And you think it's shouldn't be taken for granted. It's not. And so they go, really? Yeah. Well, isn't that their job? It's still better if you said thank you. So, it is their job. So, it's... So, we have that as our culture but how do I know if people are really, you know, living that? And that's where I hear anecdotal stories a lot. about, you know, you said if you're not nice, you can't work here. So she wasn't nice or he wasn't nice. So they don't work here anymore. We looked at this huge affiliation. It was a $5 million, beautiful practice, a high rise and I won't say the town, but a very nice town. And I'm like, hey, what happened to that practice out that we were gonna affiliate with? And they said, you know what? He wasn't nice. And so, and my rule is if you don't think they're nice, I'm not gonna think they're nice. Because it's hard enough to do what we do every day. So to work with people who are not nice is really hard. Whether it be a patient, no, sometimes patients aren't nice either. And so everybody has carte blanche. You decide whether or not you're gonna keep the patient. It's very rare that we don't. But if they're not nice to you, you don't have to take that from anybody. Because whether it be a vendor, I mean, I've had vendors just ream out a receptionist. Like, well, I hadn't talked to him. You'll never do business with us. So you can't be mean to anybody. That doesn't mean I'm perfect or we're perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I have a guy right now that I'm dealing with that it's gonna be a racist issue and he's not gonna end up working with us because you just can't act like that. And it's just about doing the right thing. And so it starts with that. I was fortunate to start with Dr. Workman who's got the same values, grew up on a farm, treat people right, do the right thing, work hard. I mean, we work. super hard. Everybody in our company works super hard. You can't take that for granted because sometimes people don't. But our company, everybody that's supported by us works super hard. And so, we have to make sure that they also can work together and treat each other right. And so, it starts with those that foundation where our values is really crucial. And you know, we have them everywhere. But if I, it's when the rubber meets the road that people really believe or not. that people really matter to you. So COVID's a good example. When we had COVID, we didn't lay off one doctor. Everybody stayed. We paid them throughout the whole thing. I didn't know if I had enough money, but I knew that we were gonna try because it's a people business. And that's all KKR and people think private equity's all bad. They only said one sentence to me and that was, Pat, it's people business, take care of them. I mean, that's all they said. They didn't say anything else. They didn't get into my shorts. but it was about really doing the right thing for people. And then when we figured out what the government did, so we paid everybody until we figured out what the government was gonna do, then we did a furlough where they had their benefits so that we could smoothly go through that process and then started the process of bringing it back. But if you just automatically go, okay, everybody's not paid, well, that sends a clear message. I mean, that sends a very clear message. And I remember my son going, dad, the president didn't know what he was doing. I'm like, honey. I don't know what I'm doing. I assure you. But all I can do is live our values. And so that's the only thing I can go by. And so we tried our best, again, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but tried to, okay, if we're really about people, how do we make sure that our people and our number one people as the doctors, that they're supported, they get through this well, because they basically all did emergency care throughout, you know, with them and a PMO. And that's basically practice management. That's all they had. And most of them saw some emergencies. They didn't all see them, but 90 plus percent of them did. So that's just, I'll start with that. How about that?

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
No, I mean, I think that really rings true to me. I mean, first of all, I can say working with you and some of your team on a variety of things, I know they answer email all the time, so I know they're hard workers. And I know that you really, you know, have a particular investment in data across your organization. And the kindness and, you know, belief of like supporting achievers, you know, I've actually heard you speak to the... like nice and kindness piece on stage in the past. And, you know, I think you're really right in the sense that when you're bringing in high achievers and having them work together in some basic construct of how to get along in life and in, you know, corporations while working with, you know, a private equity fueled company, it's really great. I know you've always spoken so very highly of KKR as your partners. in this and really helping you and Dr. Workman to build this, you know, doctor-driven platform. You know, how else has this, you know, helped to become like a driver for differentiation in, you know, particularly when it's a competitive, you know, dental affiliation type of a situation and help to really drive your profitability over time?

Pat Bauer:
It's a great question because we've been doing this a long time from the days when people go, what do you do? To pull a DSO and then they have a certain perspective of what a DSO is. So, what we try to do differentiate ourselves is our doctors are our customers. So that's the first thing is, are they happy? What's their satisfaction? We do that on patients for them. Obviously, we have data on. We use press gain. So it's not... our own, it's used for ambulatory care, and it's a similar, consistent process so every doctor can compare themselves to any doctor, any practice, it's a percentile. So it's a lot of data driven for them, for the doctors, but it's really down to how do you, you know, when you look at what we do, if we didn't support our doctors and they didn't have autonomy, they would leave. That doesn't mean we don't have any turnover because we do. But our track record over the years is pretty clear. All we do is try to help the doctor be successful. In our whole comp model, everything is about alignment. So they own stock in Heartland, they don't own stock in the PC. Again, that's just a philosophy that from our perspective, we're aligned. So our comp model alignment is so crucial. So alignment, we don't make any more money until the doctor makes money. So, it's one of those things where it's not like we're taking advantage of them because we don't make money until they make money. And so, it's a very aligned methodology from owning stock to being our partners. We have almost well over a thousand dentists that are partners in Heartland out of the 2700 doctors. They don't have to be. Nobody's forcing anybody to be. But if you want equity, you can have it and then you get paid a little bit more. But also, now you're advocates. And so as we grow, we have more advocates that care not just about their practice, but Heartland. So they want Heartland to be successful. And so it's about, starts with alignment with our customer, who's a doctor, and our track record over the years is very clear that, hey, if I can do the kind of dentistry I wanna do, then you can be sore. Some people, I mean, I got a husband and wife team who work for us and then another competitor, and they get paid more as a percentage. on the first part, not on the alignment part. But this doctor can't do the kind of dentistry they wanna do, and our doctor, supported doctor, can do the kind of dentistry they wanna do. And so our whole message is, how do we help you be successful in your practice? And that's just a different alignment more than anything else. It's not, hey, here's our model. You know, there's some great models out there. It's just... you know, that's the way they do it. With us is, if you don't wanna do, if you don't wanna be the best dentist you wanna be, probably not a match for you. So if you go, no, I just wanna do this and I don't wanna do anything else, but doctor, I just only wanna do implants. Well, you can build that up into a practice where that's all you do. I've got plenty of doctors who've done that. You can't start that way, cause it's pretty hard. It's pretty hard to build a practice where I say, I'm not doing anything but that. Well, then it's probably not a match for us, and that's okay. So it's the model. It starts with, I think.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
I mean, really, it's a brilliant business strategy. And I imagine at the end of the day, you go to bed every night feeling pretty good about what you and Dr. Workman and the rest of your leadership team have been able to build.

Pat Bauer:
Pretty fortunate.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
And yeah, pretty fortunate. And how does the voice of the patient ring through Heartland, not only in a particular location or in a region? You know, how do you keep pulse on what you think patients need?

Pat Bauer:
Well, Press Gainey is very thorough. It's not just an MPS score. So, you know, there's a lot of people, I got an MPS score. Okay, that's fine. Now, what do you do? So this is a very thorough for each practice. What are you looking for? Now, marketing trends and all that changes. And I have a whole team that's looking at marketing trends and how do you figure out how to help? Because we're not branded. So we're locally branded. So we don't have one brand. We have, oh, I probably have... 15 small brands that are within the 1700 that are all have their own office name So I'm not trying to so we have 53 Metro dental cares in Minneapolis. I Have another 25 that are not named Metro dental care in Minneapolis And so I've got 70 some practices there, but I don't but I only have that 53 So there we might do some different kind of marketing But for the rest of them, it's whatever I market is for that particular practice. And so what's their community like? So we have, we use Buxton for our De Novos as well as to help our affiliations. We have our own proprietary data set that we know what our, what our patients look like for our successful practices. So our customer, the dentist, we know most of them want to work in a upper middle class neighborhood where patients last to life. That's who we're going for, but that's our customer. So our customer, dentist, generally that's what they want, 90 plus percent of the time. So we're not in Medicaid areas, we're not in, we don't do lower socioeconomic, we don't do a lot of things that other people say, that's the kind of customer that we're gonna go for our doctors. So that starts it there. So then we have to say, okay, so what's the Buxton score for that particular area? What's the competition score? So how many people are around there? We don't put dental offices where there's high competition because they need a dentist. If they need a dentist, we're gonna put one there. If they don't need a dentist, we're not gonna put it there. But it's become much more sophisticated over the years. It used to be where we just say, hey, there's a target. Maybe that's where we should put a practice many, many years ago. Now we don't, we've been very sophisticated on data, but we also know the demographics of that whole area. So we know what segment these patients are. so that all the marketing goes for those that looks like the customers that are in that area, no matter what those are like. What the median income, household income is, what the new movers are. We know all of the data that makes a difference for that practice and affiliations. So when we do an affiliation sale, okay, here's what your people look like in your area. I had one guy who was in an area in Cleveland, Ohio, and he kept on wanting to call his practice a family dental practice. And I'm like, have any family people around you. You're in a market that family isn't there. Or vice versa. I've had some say, but I don't want family. Well, that's all you got. You just got families around you. So, you have to know the difference between what you're looking for. And then of course, social media has changed everything. So, I am not an expert on social media. I'm you know, old. So, there's a lot ofvthings that are changing and that, how do you contact people and the rules change and people have to be really on top of it. Because now I can drive different services to different practices that I couldn't do before. It was more catch all, you know, like cleaning. Most people say, I don't even know what I want, but I want to clean, I want my teeth cleaned. And so that's a good thing. And so we start with that for many, many communities, but it's all data driven today about where our patients are, what they're looking for, so that our... practices doctors can get the kind of patient they're looking for in their in their marketplace.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
And I'll say this before we turn to innovation, Pat, and I'll put a question to the end of it. But I've been really impressed with you as a leader, as I've gotten to know you a little bit over the last few months. And I would say one of the things that struck me, we were on a call and you were talking about how you had gone out of your way to go. South a few hours in Florida to visit a dentist who had just had his like five year anniversary of working with Heartland. And, you know, this guy didn't really even know why you were coming to take him out to dinner. And he really just did it as kind of a way to like celebrate because he had been a really, you know, good part of your team and had really molded nicely with, you know, the Heartland way. But when I think about your... you know, particular leadership style, it seems like, you know, not only is this a great business strategy, but you and most of the other people on your team that I've met really exude some of, you know, that, that you always want to connect with the people who you're supporting. And I wonder too, how, you know, in doing that, how do you do that at scale? Like what's some of the secrets to that, you know, success in terms of being able to, is it part of it data so that you're always teed up or, you know, how do you balance, you know, a lot of data with still, you know, being very hands-on involved, you know, leaders of a support organization?

Pat Bauer:
That's a loaded question. So for patients, let's start there. So for patients, we have a system. Most general dental practices, good ones, they do 80% of the same things. So most of them are just really good with people and they connect with them and if they're a good practice, they're pretty good at connecting. When you build a practice, you have to put a system in because you can't rely on, everybody's brand new. So you have to teach a system. So we've had a system that we've had that we stole from somebody, Walter Haley back in the day. But it's a sales process, but it's really a connection process. How do you connect with the patient on what do they really want? And how do you enroll them in care? So Heartland doesn't have a standard, says here's how the care is going to be. Because it's hard for us, we don't even, we have no right to say things like that. But we do have the right to. ask the doctor what their standards are. And so the doctor sets the standard of care. Now they can fight with other doctors all day long and they do, it's fun to watch them. But they have that, and it's really so that the patient, the team and the doctor on the same page, so when the patient comes in, everybody's already connected on what the doctor believes is the best care for patients. So when they're listening to the patient, they can literally listen. What are they looking for? Can my doctor help you? And so it starts with that, but it also starts with how we're gonna treat each other. So the whole thing is we're gonna treat each other very well. So our coming back to our values. And so for us, it's about teaching people how to be the best people they can be. So we use Bell Leadership, there's others out there that I'm sure are really great. But it starts with teaching people... giving them feedback because most people never get the opportunity of the blessing of feedback. See how am I coming across? How am I did I come across the way that I that you would want me to? In other words, I can be what they call an attacker which means I can be too honest and I can hurt people's feelings. And I don't mean to. It's not my not my intention. My you know we have a saying. We judge ourselves and our intentions and others just judge us on our actions. And so... We didn't mean to. Well, so sometimes I need feedback. And so we spend a lot of time on building ourselves, including myself, building myself to be the better, best person I can be. Because we're just people doing the best we can. Everybody's trying their best. Honestly, that's one thing that I've learned in my old age. That people try their best. Everybody's trying their best. And they don't sometimes know. And so sometimes we have to give them feedback. But generally when they know, they do better. And so how do you help them get that knowledge? And so it's a whole process that we go through on feedback from how we set our goals. So our goals are set starting, they'll start now in August, really July. We start getting feedback as to what are the problems we have with the company? What should we be solving? So we go as far to every practice manager, every doctor. What do you think we should be working on? And then we go to the directors and eventually up to me to say, okay, I'm listening the whole time, but it's a listening process. How do you listen to know what's going on from the external environment? I mean, there's so many changes in the external environment. I mean, it's scary out there, the things that are happening. And so are we on top of it and making sure that we set our goals that way. So from our goals to how we talk to each other, to how we build our leadership. All starts with a system of education. How do you teach people? How do you give them feedback to become better? And that's what we spend most of our time on.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
And I tell you everything you just said completely aligns not only for me, but for what we were building at DifferentKind in the sense that it really is about active listening and asking some of the right questions and being able to turn it into, you know, not just feedback, but feedback you can have every day. And I think you're, you know, really onto something. I think oftentimes as a dentist myself, you know, really good bedside manner and building cohesive teams in a clinical situation. It was not at all something that was a part of my curriculum at dental school. And even if it was, I probably wouldn't have had the time or space in my head to really embrace that as much. So I think that might actually be the secret to your success at a roadmap and your algorithms that you've proven over and over again. But it is really, you know, potentially building the best people and hearing what your patients, you know, really need that active listening piece, I think is really hard. I mean, one of the things that Matt Allen talks about, you met Matt at the beginning, Matt's, you know, the CEO of DifferentKind. He's a trainer in motivational interviewing across the country for dentists. And he always says that dentists really don't do a very good job of listening to patients. In general, we interrupt patients 11 times in three minutes as they're telling us their story or giving us their medical history. So I think the asking open-ended questions and really working on listening as our superpower is really amazing to hear that it's a core part of the way that... that you operate at a heartland. So thank you very much for sharing that piece.

Pat Bauer:
That training that we give on, what we call it, 13 dots, but how a patient travels through a dental office and who's responsible for what part, of course the doctor is the exam, but by the time the doctor gets there, they've already been preheated on everything. That the doctor believes, because it starts with the doctor, that the hygienist or the dental assistant are saying, well, is going to probably say this. Because they're smart people. So, when the doctor comes in and says it, it's not a surprise. It's a of course. Everybody else sees it too. They're not dummies. They're smart people. I mean, smart people. And so, how do you... But you have to have a system to make sure that everybody's on the same page. And that's the hardest part because you know dentistry is every day you have so much coming at you. It's just one thing after another. And so, those systems just gives you the discipline to consistently perform the way the doctor wants the office to go. And that's the beauty of it because it's not about control. In fact, that control gives you more freedom. That's what people realize. They think, oh, you're just controlling. Well, actually, that control gives you more freedom to do the right thing that you want to do for the patient and for the patient to accept what you believe is the right thing for their patient, for them, for their health. So that's a... It's a hard thing because some people think you want to be controlling, but you really just want Really to have freedom so people can make the right decision

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Right. It gives the person leverage at the end of the day or at the beginning of the day when they're answering the phone because they know the system, they know the policy and the policy can be the bad guy. I often espouse things on LinkedIn about dental assistants and hygienists because I think in general, they front desk and dental assistants, all day they're hearing from people. It's a really hard job. You end up with some degree of PTSD some of the time. So I think that those systems and those policies and that training really is the resilience builder and can make simplicity out of chaos. And I think I'll ask you our next question around groundbreaking advancements from other industries that you think could help dental and that you think... in Heartland might be a sneak peek into some of these innovations. Because I think you just answered some of that for me by, you know, talking about active listening and, you know, some of those things, but are there other innovations that you're looking to bring into Heartland that you can tell us about?

Pat Bauer:
Well, you know, the technology is changing so fast. So from AI to scanners and what the scanners can do. I mean, if I told you some of the stuff that I learned, I'd probably have to kill you because there's some stuff that I had designed. But there's just so much change and it's all for the advancement of patient care. And so I think back, back in the day, we took it from, we took... headsets so everyone in the dental office wears a headset. Well that's not a dental thing. That came from world class retail shops who said, why are we running back and forth? Why don't we just communicate with each other in a better way because everybody has the light systems or all that other kind of stuff that they have. But if you have good protocols and you can wear a headset, you can turn it down, you can turn it up, it's okay. But it's about how do you take care of the patient better. How do you not waste time of the patient and being honoring that patient? So there's so many different things that we take from different industries. I mean, just think about the health insurance industry and how all of the health and dental care is coming together today and how the medical record will eventually be one, including the dental. Now, I don't know how long that'll take, but it should be. And so who knows when that's happening? I mean, Dr. Steve Thorne at PDS already has. Epic in all of their offices. And so it's changing. I'm not, it's very expensive. I'm not ready to do that. But there's just so many things that are innovative that are coming to help the patient care AI. If you think about it, remember the old, I'm old enough to remember, you probably aren't, but there was a Reader's Digest, many, many years ago article. And that guy went to four or five different practices and got four or five different treatment plans. And not just do you want to smile, you wanna have white teeth, it was what's decay and what's not. Well, AI, yes, it will, AI will absolutely take away for every patient what is and what is not decay, what is and what is not period disease, what is, that will be consistent. And that will be better for every human on this in the United States or really across the world. Because when you get consistency of diagnosis, just on basics, I'm not talking about, hey, now I wanna get whiter teeth or whatever, that's another thing, which is gonna be discretionary. But basic care of what is decay and what's not is a game changer for every human. And so we're trying to figure out which is the right product, which one, but it's not up to me, it's up to the dentist. It's up to the dentist who are using these tools. on how to best integrate it with their patient care. It's about workflow. So the only way we implement well, so we have the largest installation of scanners. We're the largest Invisalign producer in the world. And it's not because we're just, it's because of the processes that we use to implement change. And so how do you go about that? Well, we can't just throw it in. We can't say, well, here's one. Okay, here's another one. I mean, there's... So, it's change going on. So, it slows it down a little bit but we know it's effective. So, how do we make sure that the doctors can use it for the best to help their patients arrive at a decision that's in their best interest? And so, how do I go through that process? And so, I have a great team that goes through and some of them are ready to just go, go and others like, well, they're not ready. Will that company make it? Because if they don't make it, then it doesn't help anybody. And so, who's the big players and everybody's getting into the business? state of flux today at this very moment. But I know it's going to change. It's going to change dentistry. I mean, more than digital extras. I mean, it's going to transform it.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Right. Yeah. And I've had the good fortune of sort of being on, you know, the product side with some of your team as they're, you know, looking at some of, at a new product. And I can say it's really, I mean, not only are the dentists involved, but some of your hygiene leaders are as well. So I love it that you not only look at the product, but you look at how can the product, you know, advance what you're already doing and sit with your core values at Heartland. If I was a new patient and I walked out of a Heartland practice today after a new patient exam, what would you want me to feel at that moment? How do you try to – I know we've talked a little bit about the consistency piece, but what does the next step of the treatment plan look like? How do you help your patients hear and see that there's an entire treatment plan, not just their chief complaint today?

Pat Bauer:
Well, it starts with a system. So, you know how you get 100% case acceptance? You don't put in the whole case. You only do the thing. So, what we want to make sure is we want to enroll patient first of all into care. Now, there are some people that I don't know if you ever met Bruce Baird. Bruce Baird can sell ice tassels. He can sell. He is that. And I can't rely on a Bruce Baird in all of my offices. It's not possible. And so how do I set up a system process so that they can enroll in care? Well, that our whole, you know, we have a lot of doctors. We do a lot of training. So our training for our doctors, especially those that want it, is they can go to any practice and watch how they do it. Because it's, we have, I mean, some of the world-class dentists in America are affiliated with Heartland from... Goldstein, Garber, and Salama to you name it. I got John Cranham. I mean, we've got some world-class dentists and dentists who are just really good, bread and butter, just unbelievable. So you have that basic. So you have anybody you can see. But our system, so when a patient leaves, I want them to say, I've never been listened to like this. I've never done a lot of this before. I want, you know, our product, if you think about it, is a patient who's satisfied beyond their expectations. It's not dentistry. Dentistry gets that patient where they are satisfied beyond their expectations. Now, perfect, no. Do we have problems? Yes. Yeah, if we can get them to understand what our systems are so that they can help the patient arrive at a decision that's in their best interest, then all that is set up for that doctor to be successful. But it's still up to that doctor to follow their own prescription as what they believe is the right thing, and then we'll help them get that patient satisfied. Because... They want their patient to be satisfied. So it's not that hard once the doctor and the doctor really wants that. So it's not even that hard.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Piece of cake.

Pat Bauer:
Yeah, it sounds easy.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
I mean, yeah, piece of cake. You've been working on it since 1995. And I love it that it's still this like continuous quality improvement piece, So tell me a little bit more about you and your journey. Over the years, what is like one of the things, an achievement that fills you the most with pride?

Pat Bauer:
Well, you know, when we started, we didn't say, hey, let's get to 1,700 offices. And we just knew we could help one office, then we could help another office, and then we can help another office. And we just kept on helping offices. And what I learned way back when, it's primarily from Dr. Workman, getting a practice from 80% to 100%, you'll never get there. Getting it from zero to 80 can be done pretty quickly. And so... let's not worry about the 80 to 20 because that's gonna take some time. Because that last 20% of really, really mastering a dental practice takes time, experience, effort. And so we don't wanna need to beat people up because they're not perfect because nobody is. And you never get to 100% anyway because you're always kind of trying to get better anyway. And so I learned that early on. So let's just help more practices get there and then work through the process of getting, becoming world class. But you can get them to do the right things for the right reasons and the right environment to help the practice and help the doctor and help the patients. Once you get that, then you can really start to grow. And so we did an ESOP in probably 2004 and 2006. And I checked on somebody who was with us before 2004. She currently, she's an accounts payable, accounts general, accounting general ledger person. Makes $56,000 a year, lives in Effingham, Illinois. She has 400,000 in her ESOP.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Love it.

Pat Bauer:
And that's from just being an employee with Heartland and became an employee stock ownership plan. And now it's been all delivered out. But when we did that, we needed Dr. Workman to have liquidity for himself, but we also needed to have a way to do that and rather than do private equity, that's what we did to begin with. And so we made a really significant difference to a lot of people in O406. And then of course we have ownership of stock for doctors back in before that. that they could buy stock in Harlem. So that starts transforming lives. And when you can transform lives, I mean, that's where it's all about. And all the little stories that I do, I'd say that's the warmth of my heart when people, you know you're making a difference in their lives. When a doctor who's from Colorado, and he literally does a video, he affiliated with us, and it's been a year, and he starts to cry because he said, I just didn't know it could be so good. I didn't know what I was missing. I hated running my own business. There's nothing wrong with that. You should be able to do dentistry and still be the person in charge of the dental practice and doing what you do, but just not have the hassle of all the other stuff and having the support that you need. That's a basic level of what we do so that they can be the best they can be in the communities they serve and we just support them. And so when you see people and their lives are transformed, I mean, it's why I do it. I don't mean I've been blessed beyond blessed, but it's we make money. because our doctors are satisfied and beyond their expectations. And so, and if they can satisfy their patients, boy, oh boy, because they wouldn't be, if they didn't, they wouldn't be happy. They didn't satisfy their patients. It's not about money. The money comes after all that. As long as you're doing the right thing for the right reason. Because there's people that can steal too. Use the system for bad. But usually, because we're big enough, we find out. So, if you're doing the wrong.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
So this leads really nicely into sort of our last topic, which is sort of around, you know, what impacts are you making in the world with Heartland and Heartland Foundation? I know you told me you went on a mission trip with some of your doctors earlier this month. Can you tell us, just share with us a little bit what you do at Heartland to make impact maybe in local communities and even outside of the U.S.?

Pat Bauer:
Well, giving back is obviously one of our foundations of our values, but how do you do it? And I can't force anybody to do anything because that won't work. And so we do, we set up a, remember when people have like hurricanes or these bad storms and then they're without a house, well, every time we were setting up this like, okay, well, let's raise money for this group and let's raise. So we said, you know what, maybe we should just have a foundation where people can get money to it and know that they can get taken care of with our foundation. And so it has also has a pillar of mission work. But it's really primarily for those team members who lose their homes, who need a place to stay. Cause I don't have an open checkbook. I don't, I have to be careful, but we also want to help them. And so everybody can help a dollar, a check, whatever it is, it's not. we don't need to do a lot, but we can help a lot of people. And so, especially if they're ours and there are people. And so that, and then the mission trip is really, everybody wants to give back. So every community, we try to do a free dental day across the country. So sometimes it's around, yeah, sometimes it's around Valentine's Day, sometimes it's around Veterans Day. Sometimes it depends on where that doctor in that community. feel best to do it. And so we have a whole program basically in a box, say, here's how you do it, to help them. We don't force them to do it, but we try to, okay, here's what you do, here's how you go through the process so that you can take care of as much people in the community as you can. Back, oh gosh, I'm trying to think how many years ago, the military families really took a hit and a plan that was almost Medicaid reimbursement for. the providers. Well, we can't take fees that are so low because then every other fee will and every other insurer will go, well you take that one. Well, it's military and why you take that one? So you clearly okay by lower your fees again and so we have to make a stand sometimes. And so we said we're not gonna take this plan. But when in military towns what we said is look do as much dentistry as you want for free for the veterans. It doesn't it's not about the money it's about the message to... to insurance companies who are not gonna handle providers fairly because our fees are, we have to give raises to people every year. We have to, everything costs more money. You can't just keep on lowering our fees. And so we have to make a stand because our business needs to make money to be able to sustain. But we also can give to the communities that we serve, no problem. And every doctor has, they can make any decision they want on who they wanna do free dentistry. There's not a, it's Pat Bauer has to decide what you give away. It is not. That is up to the doctor. That is their choice. And they want to give back to the community as they serve. And so it's just, that is important. Again, want everybody to do it, but they don't have to. But if they want to, we'll be there. We have a whole package on how to do it. We'll support them with supplies. We'll support them with whatever we have. Henry Schein is just fantastic to help us with it. And we just did a mission trip and said, you know, we did our second one. We're gonna announce the second one this year. And it's really a dual thing because a lot of young doctors don't really get experience taking out teeth. And so, I can do a combination of, hey, let's bring some young doctors who love to give back and some experienced doctors and make it also a plan to grow and learn from each other. And so, we took 12 to Honduras and we're gonna send another 12 down and I was the 13th which was pretty useless, but I did what I could. Oh,

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Did you take blood pressure or what did you do, Pat?

Pat Bauer:
No, they don't have blood pressure cups. I thought, stop that, stop that. But what I did was I got the equipment that whatever the doctors needed, I could grab it. They were like, you know what that is? I'm like, well, I've been in dentistry for a long time. I should know what that stuff is. And so I was able to, but it was just great to be able to give back to Honduras, but also just see our... just are so amazing and it's just so amazing gosh I mean it's so blessed to work with these people that are just every one of them is just an amazing human being so pretty lucky.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
I love it. No, it's not just luck, it's hard work and having a plan and building enough structure to be able to keep your huge and growing organization moving forward. And I loved hearing that, I want to make sure. The values of kind in your name, you know, throughout all of the racial stuff that goes on and George Floyd and all that, what I learned, we already had diversity inclusion in our values before that all happened. But I learned so much because it's about treating every human with respect. It doesn't matter what their beliefs are. It doesn't matter what their skin color is. We're gonna treat everyone. And that's when I think of you guys in at DifferentKind. Kind is the key, but we need to be kind to everyone. And that's not easy, but it's important. And so we have to do it no matter what. That's what we're gonna be like. And I get some, it's email sometimes, but it's about doing the right thing, so.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Well, thank you for saying that, Pat. When Matt and I created the company, we actually created it as a public benefit corporation so that we were obviously a C Corp and we've raised about a million dollars so far, you know, in building our dental technology, but we really wanted to be able to make sure we had guardrails up and that we had investors that understood that we were trying to grow a business and do it at scale and it had its mission and the need that it filled, but that we also wanted to mimic Heartland, I guess, in terms of, you know, saying really our dentists, our dental service organizations are our primary customer, but really hearing the voice of the patients and making sure we can give valuable information back is the key to our business. And not every investor understood that or sees that, but the ones who do are so excited to, you know, be able to align with that. And I'm just so thrilled that we have this conversation today and that you spared so much time. Because I think what you're doing at Heartland, obviously, the quality piece at the size that you've been able to achieve, much smaller groups haven't even begun to touch the quality and the reputation that Heartland has built. But I particularly love it. If I was a dentist with a few practices and affiliated with you, knowing that I could not only do the type of dentistry that I would like to do, that I'm good at. that I had a safe place to be able to grow as a practitioner, but that I also could decide who and where and how with Heartland support I could give back to my community, that would be super important to me. So that may also be one piece of differentiation, particularly to the newer dentist, that may really be pretty unique about what you do.

Pat Bauer:
That's pretty cool. All right.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
So I'd like to express my extreme gratitude for joining us today and sharing your insights and some of your secret sauce. Your leadership and Dr. Workman and the rest of your team really inspires everyone in our industry to do better and to do it faster and more efficiently, but kinder and keeping our dentists and our patients like front and center.

Pat Bauer:
Well, I can't believe we got to go long to meet each other because you're awesome.

Dr. Carolyn Brown:
Well, I think it was really, you know, kismet that we had the opportunity to meet when we did in the spring. And, you know, it was really this idea around innovation and data that I think we started talking and, you know, the conversation took us all over the place. So I think we'll be able to put together some of your Heartland video because your team is really so, so amazing. So I'm hoping this podcast ends up giving a lot back to... everyone in our industry as they're not only learning what it would take to grow into being a heartland, but I think there are a lot of dentists and people in the industry who also haven't heard the side of dental support organizations. So I thank you for having the courage to share this with us today.

Pat Bauer:
You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

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