Legal + Dental Practice Consulting + Education.
All In One.

We empower dentists through education and training to help you leap into dental practice leadership to run your practice like a marathon.

Leap Into Practice: Dental Practice Partnership & Growth Bootcamp
When: Friday, October 20, 2023
Where: Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia
Time: 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Social Hour 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
Join us for our second annual dental practice owner bootcamp brought to you by the collaborative efforts of The Gillis Firm (law) and Zar Dental Consulting (practice consulting) through our joint educational platform, Leap Into Practice ™. This year's focus is on in-office management and leadership. This bootcamp is ideal for dental practice associates as well as owners who are in a leadership position at their office.
Due to popular demand, ticketing is now open to dental practice implementers and supporters (ex: office managers and spouses). Team ticket rates are available. Lock in your early bird pricing as prices will increase!
5 CE Credits pending

Principal/Founder at Odyssey Management

National Speaker & Marketing Strategist

2022 AADOM Practice Administrator of the Year

Principal/Founder at Odyssey Management
Introducing This Year's Lectures
"Revenue Impacting Trends"
By: Teresa Duncan, MS
It’s not enough to be just productive in today’s dental business environment – we must be strategic. Understanding the behaviors of our workforce and consumers is only part of the solution. Changing benefit plans add to the confusion. This session will shed light on issues impacting our industry, our practices and your revenue.
Learning Objectives:
• Discuss impactful consumer and insurance trends
• Strategize how to protect your revenue
• Understand the importance of business flexibility
Teresa’s classes focus on insurance & management issues.
"The Social Marketologist: Learn to Master Social Media"
By: Minal Sampat, BA, RDH
74% percent of Americans use social media on a daily basis. Yet, many dental practices fail to reach the full conversion potential of these platforms. Why? Because we don’t know how to leverage the algorithms that dictate which posts get seen, and which don’t. As a result, even great social media content can fail to reach your target audience and ideal patients. It’s time to change that. In this interactive course, you’ll develop a successful, evergreen social media marketing plan and content strategy that gets your practice seen and increases ROI. Create a realistic action plan with implementation tools that can be used immediately. Leverage the latest tactics like video and content redistribution to maximize your reach. Connect with ideal patients using the most accessible marketing outlet today: social media.
Learning Objectives:
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Learn what, when, and how to use social media for conversions
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Gain actionable insights and implementation tools that you can use immediately to improve your social media pages
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Discover the latest tactics and trends, including video and content redistribution.
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Learn how to create targeted social media Ads
"Dental Risk Busters: Brushing Up on Your Risk Management Strategy"
By: Beverly Wilburn, DAADOM
This course will provide an overview of the types of risks that present themselves in a dental office setting. By using real world data, participants can identify potential areas of vulnerability in their own practices and understand what systems they can implement in order to reduce potential risk of litigation.
Learning Objectives:
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Understand the key principals and concepts of dental risk management as it relates to dental malpractice
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Identify common risk factors and potential challenges in a dental practice setting
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Explore best practices and in-office systems that foster safety and security
"Unrelenting Greed: Embezzlement Identifiers & Defensive Strategies"
By: Susan Gunn, CFE
Susan Gunn is an nationally sought-after expert on exposing embezzlement/fraud in dental offices.
During the lifespan of a 30-year practice there will be at least one embezzler, one thief on the payroll. And, it’s ALWAYS someone the doctor trusts. How can you help protect your practice? What do you need to pay attention to?
Learning Objectives:
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The importance of a back-to-back accountability between dual software
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What reports to review daily and monthly
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Why be wary of team members who stir up bad feelings or routinely complain
IMPORTANT NOTE: due to the sensitive nature of information discussed, office managers and non-dentist implementers will attend an office leadership & team-building workshop during this lecture.
Why Should You Take the Leap with Us?
Our courses are not designed to push you into practice ownership or to sell you on professional services or products that you don't need.
Our courses are designed specifically for dentists who have decided that entrepreneurship or a leadership position is a path they’d like to seriously pursue and know that they are missing key components (legal, financial, practice management and more) that will help them embark on this journey. In our professional journeys supporting dentists, nearly every dentist has wondered: "what is it like to own a practice?" Sometimes, practice ownership isn't right for everyone.
Unlike a lot of courses that are targeted purely for practice ownership, we provide education with an eye toward leadership.
That's why we take a leadership approach to allow all dentists-- associates and owners, alike-- better understand how to be a true "boss" of the office. Let's face it, some associates carry a heavy burden of being the face of the office without any management training. This often causes frustration with practice ownership wondering why their star performer's offices are simply disconnected. We help to properly assess real issues facing practices which includes a focus on leadership skills and training.
We we work with subject matter experts who have proven track records in their respective fields of expertise.
Our courses are designed for you to learn, create, and innovate. Our strength comes from degreed, qualified experience from actual industry professionals.
Who Are We
Meet the Course Creators
Natasha Gillis, Esq.

"The strongest quality I've seen in almost every successful business owner, especially dental practices, is movement. They are constantly innovating, creating, improving and growing. There is never a dull moment."
Natasha Gillis is a healthcare attorney focusing heavily on dental practice start-ups and acquisitions. Natasha is most notable for her buyer-focused merger and acquisitions (M&A) work, serving as a strong educational resource and zealous advocate for her dental practice clients, including partnership buy-ins and buy-outs. For start-ups, Natasha frequently helps dentists navigate their commercial real estate needs including lease reviews and purchase agreements. For associates, she helps new dentists as well as those who are looking to make a lateral move understand their contracts and to help them strategize for the future.
Bar Admissions & Memberships:
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Licensed Attorney with the Virginia & Maryland Bars
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Member of the Virginia State Bar Health Law Section
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Member of the American Health Lawyers Association
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Affiliate Member of the Academy of General Dentistry
Natasha is the principal attorney and owner of The Gillis Firm, PLLC. For more information about Natasha, please click here:
Malika Azargoon

"As an avid marathon runner and dental practice consultant for over 20 years, I can say that practice ownership is like running a marathon. You have to commit to the race (practice), stay determined and cross that finish line."
Malika Azargoon is a dental practice consultant focusing on training new dental entrepreneurs on how pilot logistical operations to position their practices for growth. Malika's passion is to help each of her start-up and existing acquisition clients take the reigns of practice ownership. Malika and her team constantly challenge mature practices and multi-practice owners to work more efficiently by auditing key performance indicators to achieve maximum profitability.
Professional Affiliations & Memberships:
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Member of the Speaking Consulting Network
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Member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants
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Affiliate Member of the Academy of General Dentistry
Malika is the principal consultant and owner of Zar Dental Consulting, LLC. For more information about Malika, please click here:
How Are We Different?
Courses
Subject Matter Experts: We are degreed and credentialed in our own fields of expertise with proven track records. Unlike many other dental practice courses in the market, we are combining targeted-focus areas presented by actual, practicing professionals who help create and support dental practices on a daily basis. We are extremely selective in vetting our lecturers.
Years of Experience: As active dental support services professionals, we continue to bring years of experience into our course content. We continue our education so that we can better educate you.
Focus on the Practice of Dentistry through a Leadership Lens: Our courses merge multiple focus areas together to present a comprehensive understanding of practice management, ownership and leadership.
Quality Information: Our courses will give you quality information in an easy-to-use and easy-to-learn model complete with videos and downloadable course content to help you achieve your goals of practice ownership. Some of our courses will also offer mastermind groups and on-going support.
No Sales-Zone: Unlike many other courses, we will not charge you for a course that will try to sell you on more products and services.

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2nd Annual LEAP INTO PRACTICE
LEADERSHIP & MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Stay Tuned for January 2024 registration.
The Leap Into Practice Leadership & Mentorship Program is a hands-on, 4-week virtual (distance learning) program that seeks to connect experienced dentists who work as practice leaders (mentors) with new (1-4 years) and upcoming associates (mentees) to ultimately help build & tweak necessary leadership and practice management skills necessary for all practice leaders. This program will provided through a series of videos and downloadable course materials as well as weekly mastermind meetings. Attendees will have discretion on when to work on materials but all content will have deadlines for access to promote continuity and growth for the entire 30 day course period. This program will be offered through the Virginia Academy of General Dentistry.

FIRST ANNUAL ACQUISITION & EXPANSION BOOTCAMP (closed Oct. 7, 2022). SECOND ANNUAL BOOTCAMP ANNOUNCED ABOVE for Oct. 20, 2023
Are you an existing practice owner thinking about adding an associate or expanding into multiple locations? Join us for this advanced practice ownership bootcamp. Space will be limited to this exclusive event that will feature keynote speakers, workshop leaders and breakout sessions led by notable experts covering a range of topics including:
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Understanding real estate return on investment when determining whether to buy the underlying real estate for your practice;
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Examining KPIs necessary for growth & expansion;
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Leadership Training;
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Key legal issues that every growing practice needs to know;
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Employee retention strategies;
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Strategic branding for your multiple practices; and more