Pillar 1
Strategies for Dentist Burnout, Client Care, and Nervous System Resilience
This mindset-forward session equips you with tools for navigating burnout, strengthening your leadership identity, and anchoring in resilience when challenges arise.
Best Tips of 2023 & What We Learned in 2024 (So You Don’t F It Up in 2025!)
This candid, rapid-fire session reviews the biggest wins, lessons, and takeaways from 2024 to help you avoid common pitfalls and start the next year strong.
Overcoming the Lows of Practice – Pulling Yourself and Your Team Out of the Slump
This course shares how to recognize emotional and operational slumps, lead with vulnerability, and rebuild team energy through purpose and clarity.
Stress Management for Dental Practice Leadership
Learn nervous system tools, leadership boundaries, and team strategies to help reduce reactivity and lead from a grounded, centered place, especially under pressure.
Pillar 2
Maximizing Hygiene – Part Two
Explore missed revenue opportunities, systems for adjunctive services, and patient education strategies to strengthen profitability and patient loyalty in hygiene.
All Things Hygiene – Part One
This session dives into hygiene KPIs, communication tools, and leadership strategies to help hygienists feel empowered and aligned with office-wide success.
Inventory Control
Master your dental inventory with systems that prevent over-ordering, reduce waste, and ensure the right products are always on hand.
All Things Hygiene – Part Two
A continuation of Part One, this course focuses on elevating hygiene through consistent patient assessments, laser treatments, and supporting hygienist autonomy.
New Products and Adjuncts to Offer in Hygiene
Discover how to integrate health-based adjuncts like ozone, myofunctional therapy, and salivary testing into hygiene, and how to present them confidently to patients.
How to Incorporate Specialty Services
Explore how to bring specialty procedures like ortho, implants, and sleep apnea into your practice while creating systems for team collaboration and case acceptance.
Knowing Your Numbers
Get a crash course on the metrics that matter, from doctor and hygiene production to team member profitability, and how to use them to lead your business like a CEO.
Team Bonuses
Learn how to structure fair, motivating bonus systems that reward results, reinforce accountability, and support your office’s overall goals.
How to Change the Climate of Your Office When It Feels Impossible
Reignite culture, re-engage your team, and turn around negative energy even when it feels like the vibe is beyond repair.
Numbers That Matter in Your Practice That You May Be Missing
This session reveals overlooked KPIs, how to interpret them, and how they can directly influence hiring, bonuses, and profitability.
How to Hold Your Front Office Accountable When You Don’t Know What They’re Supposed to Be Doing
This session demystifies front office roles and gives you tools to set expectations, track performance, and lead even when you’re not the expert.
The Top Systems to Upgrade Now to Combat the Current Financial Climate
Learn how to strengthen your practice’s stability by upgrading essential systems like confirmations, cancellations, reactivation, and treatment presentation. This session equips you with practical strategies to maintain profitability and patient flow, even in uncertain times.
Building a Profitable Hygiene Department – Part Two
Take your hygiene team to the next level with scripting, production tracking, and operational alignment that drives performance without sacrificing patient care.
Making Sure Insurance Makes Sense for Your Office
This course explores how to evaluate your insurance participation, understand its impact on profitability, and make aligned financial decisions.
Raises: The When. The How. & The Why.
Discover how to create a clear, equitable system for raises that aligns with practice financials and rewards value, not tenure. This course provides step-by-step guidance on designing growth ladders, communicating with confidence, and building trust through transparency.
Building a Profitable Hygiene Department – Part One
Learn how to transform your hygiene department from reactive to results-driven by leveraging prep systems, efficient operatories, and confident same-day care recommendations.
Training for the Billing and Insurance Department
Build a high-functioning billing team with training strategies, systemized workflows, and tools for reducing write-offs and increasing collections.
Billing and Coding
Get the basics of accurate billing and coding to reduce denials, increase reimbursement, and create more trust between clinical and admin teams.
Economic Slowdown: Supercharge Treatment Acceptance with Smarter Hygiene Exams
Learn how to boost treatment acceptance by implementing calibrated hygiene exam systems and team communication strategies. This course highlights how to connect with patients through education, co-diagnosis, and consistent verbiage that builds trust, even during economic slowdowns.
Pillar 3
Is It Time to Set Your Office’s Optimal Care Standards?
Define what “excellent care” means in your practice and learn how to cascade those standards to your team for consistency, alignment, and patient trust.
Hygiene From the Front Lines – How Do We Positively Influence Our Hygiene Team?
Learn practical strategies to inspire your hygiene team, strengthen communication, and encourage ownership without micromanaging.
Taking Your Team Training to the Next Level
Go beyond passive training by building live sessions, peer coaching, and layered accountability that actually drives growth.
Leading Your Team to Accountability – Can You Be Respected Without Being a B**?**
Find the sweet spot between empathy and authority so you can hold your team accountable without damaging relationships or office morale.
My Team Culture Is Complacent, How Do I Re-Engage?
Explore practical ways to identify and reverse complacency within your team. This course shows you how to re-ignite engagement through authentic conversations, clear systems, and leadership strategies that inspire accountability and renewed energy.
Pillar 4
Dropping PPOs, Creating a VIP Program, and Setting Up a Remote Billing Department
Learn how to transition away from PPOs, build a patient-centered VIP program, and create efficient remote billing systems that maintain profitability.
Did You Set Goals for a Reason?
Revisit your goals with intention, identify where you’ve drifted, and realign your team and systems so your vision doesn’t collect dust on a shelf.
Best Tips of 2023 & What We Learned in 2024 (So You Don’t F It Up in 2025!)
This candid, rapid-fire session reviews the biggest wins, lessons, and takeaways from 2024 to help you avoid common pitfalls and start the next year strong.
How to Incorporate Health Based Dentistry Into Your Office
Learners will create a customized coding profile based on their most commonly performed procedures and future service offerings to reduce missed opportunities and billing errors. Learners will learn how to track accounts receivable and aim for less than 3% in the 90+ day column and under 5% in the 60–90 day range—while identifying red flags like problematic autopay systems.
Hiring in the Current Climate – Smarter Strategies for Attraction, Interviewing, and Retention
Learn how to navigate today’s challenging hiring environment with smarter strategies for attracting, interviewing, and retaining top talent. This course equips you with tools to create emotionally resonant job ads, streamline interviews, showcase culture, and lead the hiring process with confidence
Tackling the Horrors of Hiring Office Managers (and All Positions)
From unclear expectations to the wrong personality fit, this session helps you navigate the biggest mistakes and wins when hiring key positions.
No Experience? No Problem! Onboarding a Rockstar Scheduling Coordinator
This course teaches how to successfully onboard someone brand new into the scheduling role using systems, training, and mindset.
Hidden Gems – Hiring and Onboarding Dental Assistants With No Experience
Train your own incredible assistants from scratch by implementing clear onboarding, shadowing timelines, and in-office training structures.
Achieving Top-Notch Customer Service With Remote Teams
Discover how to maintain consistent, high-level patient service with virtual team members and remote systems that enhance your brand.
Am I the Problem? Leadership Communication With a Positive Impact
This leadership session challenges you to reflect on how your communication shapes your culture and how to shift it for clarity, connection, and growth.
Creating a Front Office Ninja
Learn how to turn your front office into a confident, high-performing team through role clarity, scripting, and proactive leadership.
Why Am I Repeating Myself Over and Over? How to Hold Your Team Accountable and Not Resent Them
Learn how to set boundaries, follow through consistently, and coach your team without feeling like a broken record or a burned-out boss.
Is Starting a DA School Right for My Office?
Explore the logistics, profitability, and licensing considerations of launching a dental assistant school in your practice.
Maternity Leave, Associates, and Systemization
Plan for associate transitions and maternity leaves without chaos. Learn how to create continuity and protect culture even during change.
All Things Associate
From hiring to mentoring to systems alignment, this session covers what every owner needs to know to run a thriving multi-doctor practice.
Utilizing Personal, Administrative, and Executive Assistants for Maximum Productivity
Discover how to set up and manage assistants at every level of your business to offload tasks, increase your impact, and stay focused.
Utilizing a Universal Trainer
This training outlines how to create or assign a Universal Trainer who streamlines onboarding, cross-training, and consistency across all departments.
Pillar 5
Utilizing and Maximizing CEO Time
Learn how to protect your time, prioritize like a true CEO, and delegate low-level tasks to stay in your zone of genius.
What Are the Keys to the Most Successful Practices?
Explore the habits, systems, and leadership principles that set top-performing practices apart and how to start implementing them right away.
When to Bring On an Associate (with Mark Costes)
Explore financial, operational, and leadership readiness for hiring an associate, and how to set the relationship up for long-term success.
See What everyone Is Saying
Reduction
Increase
In Profitability
"She trains you to elevate your thinking"
Working with Summer has been a game-changer. She brings a refreshing perspective as a woman in the field that’s grounded, insightful, and deeply empowering. She helps you think strategically and big-picture, always moving with intention toward your goals. Her experience shines through every session, and the way she trains you to elevate your thinking has blown my mind. I’ve gained tremendous clarity and purpose.
Dr. Taghreed As-Sanie
"Grew my production by $100k a month"
I can’t recommend Ladder 5 enough. When I met Dr. Kassmel, I was a burned-out dentist struggling with a start-up while running my practice. She helped me find the courage to go all in with my start-up. Within a year, I grew my production by $100k a month. She also helped me find balance and systematize my business so I can be a more present mom and wife. This program changed everything.
Dr. Emily Dennison
"She has a no BS approach"
I’m forever grateful I met Summer. Her mentorship transformed my business and lifestyle. Working with her, I increased profits and gained the flexibility and freedom I have today. Summer listens deeply, asks thoughtful questions, and truly understands problems before offering solutions. She has a “no BS” approach that’s clear, direct, and immediately actionable. She truly understands the challenges of being a female dental owner.
Dr. Mila Cohen
"Great at understanding people and leadership"
What makes Summer special is how she recognizes what it takes to solve problems. She asks the right questions and gets to the core of issues with a solution-focused approach. Summer is great at understanding people and has an ability to connect with anyone. She asks questions in a non-judgmental way, cares deeply, and follows through. She’s confident yet humble, and knows both the dental business and the business of leadership.
Dr. Karley Schneider
Not Sure Which Program Is Right for You?
We're here to help...
Every woman dentist’s journey is unique and Ladder5 is here to help you gain clarity on the right mentorship path to support where you are and where you want to go. Take our brief quiz now to discover which program is the best fit for your goals and practice.
