Read time: 4 minutes.

At a glance:

• Quote:

• Picture

• What I’ve Learned

• Business Idea

What I Learned:

Mike Parlante has been in the orthodontic industry for 20+ years as an orthodontic supply chain executive and entrepreneur. He is also an avid real estate investor, the founder and owner of Capsule Products, and currently serves as the director of business development with Dynaflex.

Backstory: Mike and I connected in early 2022, initially on real estate investing. He’s someone to emulate and follow in the industry, as his business acumen, wisdom, and experience quickly became evident.

Here’s 10 Questions with Mike Parlante:

1. What advice are you giving to your 25-year-old self entering this industry? Don’t care what people think. You have inner and outer scorecards. Outer is what other people think. There are some good things about driving yourself to have an excellent reputation with others - but the inner scorecard is essential. Make your decisions on what’s important to you and how you want to live.

2. What books have you given the most as a recommendation or gift? Biographies. There are great theories in non-fiction, but I love biographies - especially underdog stories. Malcolm Gladwell. Warren Buffett. Charlie Munger - I love reading about Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. They kept putting themselves in a position to deal with people they wanted to deal with. Everything was always about the long term. I recommend The Making of an American Capitalist or Poor Charlie’s Almanac.

3. What’s the best way to spend $100 to better an orthodontic practice? A gym membership. Health is one of the most important things anyone can invest in—invest $100 towards your health.

4. What failure in hindsight are you glad happened? The biggest failure, in the moment, was a property I purchased in 2007. This property was nothing but a pain in the a**. It immediately sunk in value. I was doing all the work myself. I made no money. But so much time and energy went into it - and I learned so much about operating a business from that one poor decision - solving problems, controlling costs, licensing, and permit issues- that it taught me that building a business is a marathon. It taught me to evaluate other opportunities down the line. It also taught me that inaction will only hurt you long-term. You have to have a bias towards action. Don’t be afraid to fail.

5. What are you putting on a billboard? 

   “Reputation is Everything.”

   Help others without expecting anything in return. That’s how you build a reputation in this industry.

6. What’s an unusual habit you have that you attribute to your success? Early rising. I am getting up at 4:45 am. That’s made a world of difference. I cherish the morning. No one is awake. I don’t look at emails. It gets me time to get settled - if there’s something I work on that’s creative, I do it. But there’s no rush. You’re in a much more balanced place the rest of the day.

7. What new belief have you seen a practice adopt that’s now a must? Professional development for staff. You can go into an office and see the level of buy-in and if staff continuity exists. Staff has been the most challenging aspect of practices over the last 3-4 years. I’ve seen the most successful practices put so much time into professional development. I think that it’s one of the best beliefs: have a vision, know how you want your practice to run, and overcommunicate what this is to the team. You can tell if the orthodontist has invested in the team.

8. What’s a lousy recommendation often touted as a “best practice”? That the patient doesn’t want to see you.

   It’s a blanket statement that doesn’t hold for most practices. Using technology to reduce visits is smart and necessary. It’s not great to drag someone out of school 25 times. However, orthodontics is unique because patients are seen more times throughout a treatment plan, regardless of modality. We don’t have to see patients every six weeks. However, most patients, especially parents of patients, want to see the same orthodontist at each visit, as they value consistency. They want to feel that orthodontist knows what’s going on with the case. It’s more personal than other dental specialties.

9. What is the “one” thing a practice has to change if you come to visit? Their investment in professional development. I’ll also add development to the esthetic clinical advancements. How the face ages, genetic background, lips, and soft and hard tissue—if I can drive the esthetics home, that’s my clinical message. There’s so much brilliant CE out there on the topic.

10. What’s your advice to younger orthodontists? I strongly advise younger orthodontists and industry professionals to make wise investments. My theory on wealth is not to buy fancy cars - it’s to obtain complete flexibility. I’m happy to dive deeper with someone on how to build towards this goal. Doing what you want, when you want, with your time is the ultimate wealth flex.

Please feel free to learn & connect with Mike here.