The single biggest constraint in most orthodontic practices is the doctor’s calendar.
If you’re approving every supply order, sitting on every consult, hiring every new team member, and reviewing every Google review reply, the practice can only grow as fast as you can grow as a person. That ceiling is real and it’s painful.
Leadership coaching is the work that lifts the ceiling. It’s how a clinician becomes the CEO their practice needs.
I’m Luke Infinger. I’ve coached orthodontists from $1.5M solo practices to multi-location groups producing over $26 million annually. The pattern is the same at every scale. The growth that owners want is on the other side of the leadership identity they haven’t yet stepped into.
Why This Matters
Dental school taught you how to straighten teeth. It did not teach you how to lead a team of 15, set a vision your team can rally behind, or make the kind of long-range financial decisions an 8-figure practice requires. None of that is your fault. It is the gap that defines the difference between practices that plateau and practices that compound.
I’ll say this directly: the biggest bottleneck in most practices is the owner’s ego. The owners who break through learn to set it aside. They learn to delegate. They learn to lead through other people. They learn that being the smartest clinician in the room is not the same as being the most effective leader in the building.
What Leadership Coaching Covers
1. The Mindset Shift
Before the calendar changes, the identity has to change. We coach you through the move from “I am the practice” to “I lead the practice.” That shift sounds subtle and it is the most consequential change you’ll make. Practices that grow are practices where the owner has fully made it. Practices that stall are practices where the owner is still the chief operator.
2. Vision Casting and Strategic Direction
A team without a vision is a group of people clocking in. A team with a vision is a force. Most owners say they have a vision and what they actually have is a revenue goal. Those are different. We coach you through the work of articulating where the practice is going, why it matters, and what your team gets out of being part of it.
3. Building a Leadership Team
You cannot scale alone. Most practices that break $5 million have at least one strong number-two: an office manager, COO, or clinical director who owns operational leadership. I coach you through hiring that person if you don’t have one, or developing them if you do.
4. Delegation and Owner Operating Model
We rebuild your week. What stays on your calendar. What comes off. Where you spend the highest-impact three hours of every Monday. Most owners discover that 60 percent of what they’re doing personally could be done by someone else, often better.
5. Burnout Prevention and Personal Goals
Growth without a life is just a different kind of trap. We coach you through how to grow the practice and reclaim your time at the same time. That includes financial goals, lifestyle goals, family goals, and the boundaries that protect them. None of that is fluff. The practices that scale sustainably have owners who are not running on empty.
What Made Dr. Fishbein’s Story Possible
When I met Dr. Ben Fishbein, his practice was producing about $2.4 million from a single office. Today he runs eight locations and over $26 million in annual revenue. Tripled marketing budget. 10X ROI. 500 percent boost in online conversions. Those are the marketing numbers.
What made it possible underneath was a leadership transformation. Ben moved from a clinician who owned a practice to a CEO who built a multi-location group. Different identity. Different calendar. Different way of looking at every problem. The marketing only worked because the leader had grown into the role the business required.
That’s the work I do with practice owners ready to make the same shift, regardless of scale.
Who Leadership Coaching Is For
- Owners producing $1.5M to $20M who feel personally maxed out
- Doctors planning to add a location and want to lead it well, not just open it
- Practices preparing for a sale or DSO conversation in the next 18 to 36 months
- Owners experiencing early signs of burnout despite financial success
- Multi-location groups where the founder needs to step further out of operations
The Engagement
Leadership coaching inside the Breakthrough program runs as a 12-month engagement. Monthly 1:1 sessions with me, plus quarterly deeper work on vision, team structure, and strategic direction. Between sessions, you have access for the kind of “I have a decision to make tomorrow” calls that don’t fit a schedule.
The work is honest. I’ll push you. I’ll tell you when I think you’re holding the practice back. That feedback is the whole point. If you wanted gentle, there are softer programs. The Breakthrough partners are people who want to be coached the way the highest-performing leaders in any industry get coached.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is leadership coaching the same as practice management consulting?
No. Practice management is about systems. Leadership coaching is about you. Most owners need both, but they’re separate workstreams inside the program.
What if I have a partner or co-owner?
We coach co-owners separately and together. The dynamic between two doctors who own the same practice is its own kind of work, and we have a specific framework for it.
How is this different from joining an MSO or peer group?
Peer groups are great for benchmarking and shared experience. Leadership coaching is direct, accountable, and one-on-one. Most owners benefit from both, but they serve different purposes.
I’m already burned out. Can coaching help?
Yes, but with honesty: the first work is usually subtraction, not addition. We figure out what comes off your plate before we add anything new. Most burned-out owners feel real relief inside the first 60 days.
Start Your Leadership Coaching
Start Your Leadership Coaching