DFW Rockstars

About DFW Rockstars

The overnight success, 20 years in the making.

Publisher

Master Computing

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 May 2020

Latest episode

26 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Aug 2026

   The Hook Behind Every DSO Buyout Offer - with Dr. Behrooz Khademazad | DFW Rockstars Ep. 9

   A Grand Prairie dentist turned down buyout offers worth more than a private sale would ever pay. Here's why he said no anyway. For over 35 years, Dr. Behrooz Khademazad has run his own dental practice in Grand Prairie while the industry around him consolidated. Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) kept coming with checks bigger than what a private buyer would offer. He kept saying no. In this episode, he explains what he saw behind those offers and why he thinks the shift toward corporate-owned dentistry is changing patient care for the worse, not the better. This episode also gets personal fast. Dr. Khademazad designed an automated flosser back in 1986 and handed the concept to a patent attorney to protect it. Then the attorney went quiet, claimed a family death, and the product turned up on store shelves a few years later without him. He's still inventing today, including a device meant to objectively measure tooth mobility and gum health, something he says doesn't currently exist for individual teeth. Justin and Dr. Khademazad also dig into how patient loyalty has changed, why his practice now runs on two very different types of patients, and a community outreach model that trades volunteer service hours at local churches and a shelter for dental care. It closes with a simple, low-tech method he uses to manage stress, both in his practice and in his own head. Guest: Dr. Behrooz Khademazad has practiced dentistry in Grand Prairie for more than 35 years, treating patients across a wide range of dental specialties rather than a single niche. He has personally turned down multiple DSO acquisition offers and continues to design his own dental devices. What you'll learn: Why DSOs pay more for a dental practice than a private buyer would, and what Dr. Khademazad says is the "hook" hiding behind that offer How patient loyalty and trust in healthcare have eroded, and why his practice now runs on two distinct groups: 20-30 year patients and new patients who "come and go" The story behind his 1986 automated flosser invention and what happened after he handed the design to a patent attorney How he's developing a "dental mobilometer" to objectively measure tooth mobility and gum health, something he says has no equivalent on the market A structured community outreach model that trades volunteer service hours at churches and a shelter for dental care New episodes drop every week featuring real DFW business owners who've built something worth talking about. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Phoenix IT Advisors serves DFW businesses, including healthcare practices navigating growth, compliance, and technology decisions. If you need IT support, cybersecurity, or technology strategy, visit PhoenixITAdvisors.com and schedule a consult. Links: Full Episode: https://dfwrockstars.com/episode/9 (https://dfwrockstars.com/episode/9) Phoenix IT Advisors: https://phoenixitadvisors.com (https://phoenixitadvisors.com/) Dr. Khademazad's Office: 972-988-0900 | GentleDentistGrandPrairie.com* More from the show: @DFWRockstars

2. 

   5 Aug 2026

   Why Your Sales Team's Conversations Are Killing Your Pipeline - with Frank Gustafson | DFW Rockstars Ep. 8

   Description Your sales team is busy. The pipeline is full. But the revenue isn't showing up. The problem usually isn't effort or lead volume. It's the quality of the conversations happening when opportunity actually intersects with a prospect. Frank Gustafson has spent forty years in sales, working with everyone from solopreneurs to a $50 billion company. In this episode, he breaks down what he sees when he walks into an entrepreneurial business where the founder is still leading sales and the numbers aren't working. The issues are almost always the same: speed to lead is too slow, the sales cycle is dragging, and reps are discounting to close because they're pitching instead of asking. Frank walks Justin through a live roleplay of what a quality first conversation actually sounds like. It's not a script. It's a framework for lowering the prospect's guard in the first ten seconds and uncovering whether a real problem exists. They also dig into what has changed in sales since COVID, why the bar for human connection has dropped so low that it's now a competitive advantage, and how to use AI to make sales teams more efficient without losing the human interaction that actually closes deals. Frank Gustafson is a sales coach and consultant who works with entrepreneurial B2B and B2C companies, often where the founder is still leading the sales team. He offers free, ungated sales tools at frankgustafson.com. What you'll learn Why your speed to lead matters and how one company went from 87 minutes to 16 minutes in under a month The exact opening line Frank uses on cold calls to lower a prospect's guard and get permission to continue Why pitching your product in a trade show booth kills deals and what to do instead How to use AI for call scoring and CRM logging without letting it dehumanize your sales process Why the post-COVID drop in civility has created a massive opening for sellers who actually care Subscribe New episodes feature real DFW business owners who have been through the fire and came out the other side. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Consult CTA Phoenix IT Advisors serves Dallas-Fort Worth businesses. If you need IT support, cybersecurity, or technology strategy, visit PhoenixITAdvisors.com and schedule a consult. Links Full episode: https://dfwrockstars.com/episode/8 (https://dfwrockstars.com/episode/8) Phoenix IT Advisors: https://PhoenixITAdvisors.com (https://phoenixitadvisors.com/) Frank Gustafson: https://frankgustafson.com (https://frankgustafson.com/)

3. 

   7 Jun 2023

   7. One Change To Your Website Can Dramatically Increase Conversions and Revenue

   One easy change to the website, and conversion rates increase 20% - 50%. Use that confidence boost to increase marketing, and revenues were up 400%. Say that out loud. What would a 400% increase in revenue do for your business? It's simple, it's inexpensive, and it works. Take a listen!

4. 

   23 Apr 2021

   6. Hank Dickenson - Denton Chamber of Commerce

5. 

   14 Dec 2020

   5. Avoiding Debt Like the COVID Plague

   Justin Shelley My concept when I started this podcast, DFW Rockstars, is around two things: I think all of us, every human on the planet, they have something to offer me. They're smarter than me at something. They have an experience that I can learn from. I believe that about everybody on the planet. So I'm a big believer in community and relationships and leveraging each other's experience. All right. So that's, that's one. Richard Gibson I would love to see that one, right? Yeah. Justin Shelley There's nobody that I know that came up with a business plan executed on it and went right where they projected, they were going to go. Richard Gibson No, everyone falls. They fall a lot. And hopefully if you fall on your face, you're at least going the right direction. It's when you fall on your rump and don't get back up, but you got to learn to get back up. And I think that's part of what you're helping do here is finding people to help you get back up and keep going, because you can't win every time in every business idea. Right. You know, you know, I hate to use baseball as an analogy to use it, but would you rather have someone that gets on base every time they get to bat or someone that hits a home run, you know, 20% of the time, which batting 200 for home runs is an amazing, right? Yeah. That's amazing. So would you rather have someone that gets on first, every time at bat batting a thousand to get on first or batting, you know, 200 to get a home run? Justin Shelley I mean, we want to, we want to get there every time, right? Richard Gibson: I think so. Yeah. You guys, that gives you, you know, cause that's the strategy you want to do and because you can't have every business ideas, a home run. Justin Shelley: And not only that, but the execution's never going to be perfect. The forethought, the strategy that you thought was going to work isn't I mean, hell who saw COVID coming, right? Let's beat this dead horse. Richard Gibson: Well, there are a few people that have been saying we were due another pandemic. They didn't see COVID itself, but they saw a pandemic coming true, you know, but you know it, but it's going to be like every other pandemic is going to circle the globe at least two times. Right. You know? And, and that's what we're going through as the second one we've been able to, as they say, flatten the curve, but at what cost. Justin Shelley: Yeah. Ooh. Now you're going to get me fired up. Richard Gibson: Well, yeah, me too. Justin Shelley: Cause that's not what we're here to talk about today, but that is my Oh, nothing gets me lit more than that. What the CDC refers to as excess deaths, suicide rates, you know, all this stuff that we're not even talking about. As we try to control something that is largely uncontrolled. Richard Gibson: Oh yeah. All's we're doing is mitigating. Justin Shelley: Right. Which is fine and mitigate away, but at the cost of what we've got to do a cost benefit analysis. And, and so few people do that. Richard Gibson: I'm not a real political guy, but poor governor Abbott. Yeah. I mean, try to make rules for a state this size. I mean, what's good for DFW metroplex. Doesn't work for Alpine, Texas. Doesn't work for Tyler, Texas. And so, you know, what he's doing is giving guidelines to the local ones to try to make the decisions. But then you have the problem, like when this was early on, you know, like you have a city, like Plato decides they're closing everything down and then the city right. North of, at Frisco, this is all we're not closing anything down. All right. And so I think that's where governor Abbott did actually an excellent job of saying, okay, here's the criteria. So like now with the hospital beds utilization over a seven day, rolling average being above 15% for COVID patients, we have to roll back. The, okay. That actually made sense to me, but going to zero and closing everything down, I really feel for people that had to, you know, suffer through all that. Justin Shelley: Well, and you and I are fortunate enough to be an industry that didn't get just shut off. Richard Gibson We didn't get shut off, but it Affected us back in april. Richard Gibson You know, I'm seeing it is like the faucet turned off. I don't know. Justin Shelley No. Cause that was right at your primary tax time. That's the primary tax preparation man. Richard Gibson: Government moved that late July to July. Um, okay. That's all right. That'll be good. That's nice. Oh wait, are these people are going to come in? Are they not going to come in? I just don't know what's going to happen. Justin Shelley: I had not contemplated that. Richard Gibson: It's just, you know, little regulatory change changes, everything you plan and budgeted for. And so it was like, you know, we're sitting here with the complete unknown what's going to happen. And then you've got people sitting at home saying, you know what? I think I'll start reading and figuring out how to do my own taxes and which was fine. But I had several people that said they started doing that. And that's why they came back. Justin Shelley: Absolutely. I played that game because it's like, yeah. Oh, have you read these instructions? This is why we pay people to do stuff. Exactly. Richard Gibson: You know, it's like, if you are comfortable doing it, then do it. It, it, it, there's nothing wrong with it. But if it's not something you are, have a propensity to do, don't. Justin Shelley: Agreed a hundred percent. So, on this subject, right. We're, we're dealing with globally, we're dealing with a challenge that very few people saw. There was, there was no plan in place. We're all scrambling. I was interviewing another gentleman a while back and they kind of said, well, this is really just normal. If you think about it, because business, like we said, there's no straight line to success. Everything about running a business is, or really life is about pivot. It's, it's taking your best guess acting on it. If, and when it doesn't go the way you plan, figuring out your next step. So, one of the things that I like to talk about on this show is the greatest pivot point you've dealt with the biggest challenge, the curve ball that was thrown at you, that knocked you off your rocker, um, that you, you had to get back up from. So, what was the point, if you could boil it down to the worst, the, you know, the, the most gut-wrenching challenge you had to deal with in the business world. Richard Gibson: All right. Well, I'd like to commend you on that. Great segue. Now that was, that was very good. Almost professional life. Now for me was the

6. 

   25 Aug 2020

   4. Seven Steps to Grow your Company's Revenue Using LinkedIn

   7 Steps to Grow your Company's Revenue Using LinkedIn with Mark McIntosh Mark is the founder of RevGrow.com, a B2B lead generation and revenue growth firm headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with regional offices nationwide. Helping businesses grow revenue with proven strategies. Subscribe Google (https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL2Rmdy1yb2Nrc3RhcnM/episode/MWZjN2M3NTctY2M0NS00YjViLTg4ZDktYmUyMWM2NWY5Nzkz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwisuteNm9DrAhVaU80KHRsdDUoQkfYCegQIARAF&hl=en)| Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ggS4w66q1B6E8g4IZiDsv)| Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=77212904) Resources Visit their website – www.RevGrow.com (http://www.revgrow.com/) Schedule a time to talk with mark on his calendar - www.ScheduleACallWithMark.com (http://www.scheduleacallwithmark.com/) Show Notes There’s no straight line to success [3:00] - Tell me something, one of your most significant challenges in your career. Mark shares a couple of roadblocks that changed the trajectory of his career In 2011 I came to DFW on a business trip, first time ever to Texas. I was doing some calling to DFW and Texas and knew there was something unique.  What I didn’t know when I came to Texas on that 3-day business trip, was the second day it came upon me that I needed to uproot the family and move to Texas. Try explaining that to my wife, we had three kids they were all 10 and under. Two months later we made the move to DFW. The biggest challenge, which I realized rather quickly, is how important those 15 years in the Midwest were. My entire network, everyone I knew, knew me, it was all based there. I came to DFW in 2011 without any contacts or connections in any real significance or volume. I was coming into the market from scratch. And that was a big hurdle to overcome. That time period, although it was one of the most challenging, I’ve had, it was also one that I can point to as being foundational to what we’re doing now. Because I developed some systems, process and strategies for leveraging LinkedIn to not only get in front of more prospects out there but to do it in a more scalable way. An example of a very big challenge in my career that has turned into a blessing because it really forced me to rethink and figure out how in the world do I come to a new geography, from complete scratch, turn that into a workable situation from a sales development and marketing situation. [7:00] - You said you came to DFW, you found the people friendly, then you said you learned you had to move... Was that a lightbulb moment or kind of forced on you by an employer? Mark say, no I wasn’t forced. I made the decision to move on my own. Which made it a more difficult sell on my family. [9:00] - You said two words “scalable” and “repeatable” those are huge. If you were to give me the formula as simple as possible what would I do on LinkedIn to build up a base that I want to sell into? [9:40] - Mark gives the formula “7 steps to grow your revenue using LinkedIn”: Position your personal brand by creating a client-centric profile. Key to step #1 starts with the headline: what you do, who you work with, and most importantly how you help them. That’s your value proposition. Develop a content strategy. Tip on content is giving your best stuff away free. Using LinkedIn search and other resources outside of LinkedIn to find your high value prospects who fit your criteria.  Start narrow and the sooner you can niche down the better off you’ll be. Build your data base. Focus Quality Over Quantity Set up your messaging machine. The key here: Develop messages that are value-add and non-salesy messages. Then, develop a system and process for sending out your messages. Develop a system in a way to manage all these. We recommend doing it outside of LinkedIn Continue to nurture those leads so you get the call when the time is right. [18:15] - Justin is going to try this and put it to the test. I’ll report back in a few weeks on what I’ve done. Hold myself accountable. We’ll be back in touch [19:00] You’ve given us the formula... final thought on why do I need to do that? The bottom line is we’re all focused on running our business and doing things we love to do and do best. The real value is we do it for our clients so they can focus on what they do best. Justin says anyone listening to this can hold him accountable to put this formula to the test!

7. 

   20 Aug 2020

   3. Tony Roberts Breaks Down PPP Loan Forgiveness

   Subscribe Google (https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL2Rmdy1yb2Nrc3RhcnM/episode/ZmE0MTIxN2EtZGQ1NC00OWE2LThjZjEtNWZjMjk0MGQxMDIw?sa=X&ved=0CAgQkfYCahcKEwiQ1Y-bodDrAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCA&hl=en) | Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nIIyGkACy2TG8xfpGR9gG?si=d-Ngm0JUQ-6DRElqXgF-Xg) | Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=77099340) Resources If you have questions for Tony, he can be reached at 972-409-4311 For IT questions, contact Master Computing at 940-324-9400 Show Notes [1:50] - Let me Introduce today’s guests. In studio we have Andrea from Master Computing and Tony from Insperity [2:45] - Tony, you reached out to me on LinkedIn and at the time I was just looking for people to connect with and I kind of asked what you did and what’d you tell me? You told me you help small businesses that want to grow. Help them run better. [3:50] - Tony’s bullet points of the main ways he helps businesses. Payroll Onboarding Recruiting Compliance Taxes Whatever it might be for someone who is great at one thing and wants to start a business in that thing and maybe they don’t have too much an idea in the other areas. When you have questions or concerns or maybe there’s something you’re not comfortable with, that’s when someone like Insperity comes in and help you make sense of some of those issues. [5:50] - Tony, tell me a little bit about a significant challenge you’ve delt with in your professional career. Tony started with Insperity March 16th of this year (the week most businesses started sending employees home and shutting their doors) I was in the office 2 full days and a half day before COVID lockdown. Significant challenge - he started a new career among the pandemic. In addition to starting a new career in pandemic he is also planning a wedding in October. [8:14] - What was your Initial reaction when you started your career 2 days prior to the lockdown? Terrified. Deeply concerned for my well being, not from a health standpoint but for a career standpoint. Because, like I mentioned, my intention for this job and being a business performance advisor was to truly be involved in the community. That’s the Insperity mission. I didn’t want to just be a stranger over the phone cold calling businesses. Hard to do that when you can't meet business owners. So, I sat there really concerned, new to any sort of undertaking like this. Before I worked tutoring children in math and running a math learning center. So my focus really was in I need to build relationships however possible. LinkedIn became a huge resource to me. [13:05] - What do you expect will be the long-term value of having to go through that for your career moving forward? Being seen right now, being here on this podcast with you. Be a resource and provide value for small businesses. Long-term, been fortunate enough to build relationships, meet people, and engage with them in a way that’s more organic and not so sales focused. [15:00] - Timeout to give Tony a shoutout:  If you have any of the issues that Tony takes care – weather it’s HR, Payroll or group health Insurance - give Tony a Phone Number is 972-409-4311 Shift gears - Value we can add for our listeners – [16:10] - My question is, as you’re going out and meeting with people, whether it’s LinkedIn conversation, zoom meetings, or whatever. What do you see as the #1 fear, concern or problem that your clients or potential clients are dealing with? We have this PPP Loan, it helped a lot, it’d be great if we don’t have to pay it back. What do I need to do to make sure that it’s not the case? What do I need to have prepared? What are the steps I need to have done? There is 5.2 Million outstanding PPP Loans as of last week. This represents about 15-20% of all small businesses in America. And that’s about $520 Million dollars in loans. [26:20] - As a non-finance professional, if someone were to ask me in a state of panic, what they need to do about this PPP Loan – My advice would be: Take a breath. As Finance professionals, both of you, would you give different advice? No. Take a breath. Relax.  If you’ve been documenting everything, you should be good. [28:07] - Which brings me to my next question. You hear “document everything” all the time, but to my knowledge, when we do things in QuickBooks, run payroll, etc. We are already documenting everything. Is there anything we need to be doing differently to document this stuff for the Forgiveness process? On the Payroll side, probably not. Where you may need some additional looking into, or more complex reporting is if you had to lay some people off then bring them back how does that affect your full-time equivalency. If you did have any legitimate firings, or workers who refuse to come back to workplace due to COVID. You want to make sure you have that in writing and on record because that’ll apply to the SafeHarbor which affects your full-time equivalency as well. That’s just a lot of words to say they want to make sure that what happened, during the PPP covered period reflects accurately on your reference period. [29:15] - Dig in a little more. Let's say that a company had a full-time salesperson that they hired prior to the COVID pandemic. And that salesperson didn’t do their job right, then COVID hits, and in that scenario a boss decided to let that salesperson go? It wasn’t about pandemic, it was about lack of performance Tony says this is where recording everything all the time, not just during pandemic, does you a lot of favors. [31:15] - Justin asks Tony “If you were handling HR for this hypothetical company, is that something Insperity would have gotten involved in?” Absolutely. Part of the great service team you get as an Insperity client, includes an HR specialist. So, they can answer those hard questions, and make sure you have policies in place to not only document those things but make sure what you're documenting applies to your policies. This way, when it comes time to fire someone, it is a legitimate firing. Not just an act of inconvenience due to COVID as some may try to spin it. [33:45] - One thing I’ve learned a while back is that in the recession, that’s a great time to find good people. [34:05] - Tony’s words of wisdom for fellow business owners, fellow professionals, people trying to muddle through situation we find ourselves in right now Like you said, in a recession you find good people. It's tough right now for a lot of businesses. Just stay optimistic. Take care of your people. It’s maybe not time to grow, but it is the time to look, there are good people available. Maybe time to reflect on the performance of your employees. With the slow down, there's been more opportunity for businesses to take that look and see where there’s room for improvement. Where maybe th...

8. 

   11 Jun 2020

   2. Dallas Run Clinic - Straight Line to Success

   Business is never a straight line to success. Well, almost never. Steve White of Dallas Run Clinic did a whole lot of the right things from day 1.

9. 

   7 May 2020

   1. Vince Lujan - From Live to Lockdown: New Life Born of Death

   Vince Lujan is a local musician that plays at restaurants, worship services, weddings, and various other live events (like my son's funeral). Like everyone else, COVID rocked his world. But only temporarily. I firmly believe that crisis brings out the best in us. It certainly did for Vince.

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