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Hello everyone. I am Mariah Mohammed.

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She her pronouns with
Becker's Hospital Review.

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Thank you so much for tuning in to the
Becker's Healthcare podcast series.

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Today I am pleased to be
joined by Prike and Roll Walla,

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senior Manager of Talent
acquisition at 42 North Dental. Bro,

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thank you so much for joining
us today. How are you?

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I'm doing good. Thank you, uh, for having.

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Me. Yes, of course. Um, well before
we dive into our conversation today,

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uh,

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could you introduce yourself and tell our
listeners a little bit more about your

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journey to 42 North Dental?

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Yeah, absolutely. So, um,
I'm Brianne Kimberly Walla.

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I'm Senior Manager of Talent
Acquisition for 42 North Dental.

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I have been with the organization
for over eight years.

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When I started about eight years
ago at this organization, uh,

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this company had only 20 something
practices, I think 27 to be exact.

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And here we are eight
years later with over

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120 practices.

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So obviously we've seen an exponential
amount of growth in the past eight years

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that I've been with the
organization. And, um,

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I think my tens has it all being
with the company for eight years, um,

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seeing a lot of things happen. Obviously,
you know, during covid post, covid,

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pre covid, uh,

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so many different changes that have
happened in the talent market. Um,

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it's been a pleasure to work
with 42 North Central. It's, uh,

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an amazing company and an amazing company
to grow with, if that makes sense.

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Yeah, of course. Thank you so much
for giving us that introduction. Um,

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well with that, uh, we can dive Ryan
for our discussion. So, um, as you know,

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healthcare has a lot of
economic uncertainty, especially
in the dental industry.

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Um,

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is there anything new or your colleagues
are doing this year to grow the dental

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practice of 42 North Dental?

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Yeah, um, let's talk about that.

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I think everyone here that's listening
is probably concerned about like, uh,

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you know, the economic, uh, financial
situation that we're all hearing about,

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you know, this potential recession that's
coming through, so on and so forth.

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Um, but having said that,

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I feel like there's still a lot of
things that we can do in the healthcare,

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specifically dental world that
can still help grow either a

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single dental practice or multiple
practices if you have multiple, multiple,

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it just depends on, you know, what
your situation is. So, you know,

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one of the things is obviously
at 42 North Dental, um,

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no matter what the situation is,

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we're still looking to affiliate
with current practices.

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So obviously we're looking to, um,

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partner up with dentists that want
to sell their practice and, you know,

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potentially still stay on for
a few years and, you know,

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kind of not deal with the,

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the administrative administrative
headaches that it comes, uh,

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that comes with owning a practice. So
we're still doing those affiliations.

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We're still doing what we
call de novo practices,

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which is obviously opening
up practices from scratch.

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And then another piece is obviously, um,
where I come in, which is to, to hire,

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uh, providers into the, into our
practices. So hiring associate dentists,

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hiring dental directors,

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which are like equity shareholders
into the organization,

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hiring specialists as well. So anything
from oral surgeons to periodontist,

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pediatric dentist, orthodontist,
pe like endodontist,

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anything and everything in specialty we're
looking to hire to kind of expand our

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practices and then obviously, you know,

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bringing more hygiene on
board as well. And you know,

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the dental staff that comes with
this, with this whole like, growth,

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if that makes sense. So I think it's a
little bit of a mix of everything. Um,

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that's what we're specifically
doing at 42 North Dental.

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But I think my specific advice to
anyone that's listening is even with the

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recession coming or whatever
is going on, you know,

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you don't really have to worry
about that staggering growth.

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I still feel like there are many ways
that you can still grow your practice,

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which is, you know,
through obviously also, uh,

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finding more new patients who
come through the door. Um,

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building better existing
sound relationships with the
patients that you already

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have, you know,

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following up with even old patients of
record and current patients of record,

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just like consistent,
consistent, um, what's the word?

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Consistent communication
and consistent follow up.

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All those things will help you like
still have a steady patient base in your

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practice no matter what the situation
is. And then another thing is, you know,

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kind of like where I come into place in
42 North, um, by hiring more providers.

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So if you're a dental practice
owner that's only working, you know,

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specific hours, let's just say you're
working Monday through Thursday, um,

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and you feel like you can, you know,

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I think the best thing is to hire
maybe like a part-time provider to work

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potentially those Fridays or Saturdays
or maybe even open up your practice for

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sa for Sundays. Um, you know,

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open up for some evenings so you have
more chances to like maximize off of

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emergencies that patients might
have. And you know, once you treat a,

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a patient that has a dental emergency,
they usually end up, you know,

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if you give them a good service, they,

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they might end up staying with
you versus going back to their,

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their other practice that
they're at, if that makes sense.

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So just like being strategic,

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opening it up for more hours doesn't
mean that you as a practice owner need to

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stay there,

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but potentially like bringing that
talent on board to like work some of the

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other hours that you're
not necessarily there for.

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I think those are like
some good things to start.

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And then same thing goes for hygienes.
If you have a dentist for those hours,

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obviously you're gonna have to have a
hygienist for those hours and have the

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support staff as well. So, you know,
it's, it's easier said than done,

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but if you kind of work through these
strategies and slowly work on this,

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then you will be able
to, to like expand into,

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expand your practice or then obviously
expand the other PR if you have multiple

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practices, you know, through
multiple practices that you have.

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Amazing, thank you so
much for that insight.

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And you obviously spoke
a lot about growth, um,

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but are there any possible barriers that
may hinder the growth you're expecting?

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I mean, you know, I think I just mentioned
that there, there is a, a crazy like,

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you know, economic, I guess
uncertainty that we all have. Um,

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so I feel like that might, you know,

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hinder a lot of growth or people's
concerns about it. But, um,

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again, I think it just depends
on how you, your outlook on life.

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You can think about it in a
negative way or a positive way.

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The way that I see it here in
my situation is, you know, with,

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with the potential
recession coming through,

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there will probably be a lot more
practices that are up for sale. You know,

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a lot of the doctors that we're planning
on retiring a few years from now are

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like, you know what? I don't
wanna go through any more waves.

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I just went through the covid
wave. I'm kind of done with it.

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So if I can sell my practice early,
I'm gonna sell my practice early.

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So that's kind of one way to look at
it, if that makes sense. You know,

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there will be a lot more practices
up for sale. Um, same thing,

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like we've all heard about this crazy
talent market where it's so hard to find

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talent. It really is, but I'm really
thinking about it in the positive manner,

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which is, you know,

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some of the smaller practices might not
be able to afford paying the hygienist X

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amount of dollars.

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They might not afford to still have
a dentist in place if like they're

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practicing themselves and they feel
like the patients aren't coming through.

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So there might be some layoffs here
and there with their staff. Um,

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and you know, some of those staff members
will essentially be looking for jobs.

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So any practice owner that
still has that growth mindset,

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they'll be able to hire
those providers, um,

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maybe a lot more easier than they
would've a few years before that. So, um,

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you know, you can think
about it as a barrier.

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You can think about it as like
just different ways, you know, to,

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to look into this economy and see
how you can still structure your prac

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practice, if that makes sense.

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Yes, that completely makes
sense. Um, and so we're always,

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we honestly just discussed uncertainty,
um, which can be scary for most.

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Uh, however,

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is there anything you're excited about
that you think might help the dental

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industry within the next
two to three years or so?

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Yeah, you know, I've been
seeing, um, I have, you know,

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it's not a hundred percent confirmed,

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but I've been seeing like a lot
more schools that are opening up,

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like dental assisting programs,

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a lot more schools that are
opening up dental hygiene programs.

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Like I thought it was pretty cool. Like
I know for instance for 42 North Dental,

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we have, you know, a,

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a good chunk of offices in New Hampshire
where we feel like it's very hard to

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find talent. So, um, I've heard
about residency programs that are,

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you know, establishing residencies
with, you know, a lot of the,

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the locations in New Hampshire just to
hopefully have those dentists eventually

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settle there.

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So I see a lot more effort now
being taken in some of the rural

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areas. Um, you know, we've
always talked about how hard,

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how hard it's to find
hygienists and assistance.

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So it's nice to see like different
programs being established to overall

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help that cycle where we're just kind
of fishing around for talent. So that's,

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those are all things that we're not
gonna see immediate results for, but I,

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I'm excited about like,

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some of these changes that are coming
through and people truly acknowledging how

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hard it is to staff.

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Absolutely. Thank you so much for
sharing. And before I let you go,

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would you happen to have any closing
thoughts for our listeners today?

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Um, yeah, for closing
thoughts, it's, um, you know,

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feel free to to reach out to me via
LinkedIn or through my 42 North email

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address as well. Um, again,
it is a great organization.

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We're definitely looking
to grow. We have, uh,

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we have 120 practices all across
eight different states. We are,

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our our motto is, uh, from
Maine to Michigan. Uh,

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we are technically a Boston based
organization, so our our, uh,

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headquarter in Walham, Massachusetts
about 20 minutes outside of Boston. Um,

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but we're really looking
to expand and grow and, um,

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it's definitely a great organization.
So if you ever have any, um,

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I guess any needs for advice on
hiring, feel free to reach out to me.

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If you just have any questions in general,

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do not hesitate to reach out at any time.

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Wonderful. Thank you so much
for those final thoughts. Um,

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and I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on the podcast today.

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It has been an absolute
pleasure speaking with you. Now,

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I'd also like to thank our
podcast sponsor 42 North Dental.

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You can tune into more podcasts
from Becker's Healthcare
by visiting our podcast

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page at becker's
podcast.com. Thank you again.

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Thank you.