Rio: It's very unpredictable out there for dentists to be seen as uh, doctor that can treat sleep apnea. So the reason we created restful is so that they could. Restful and only have one, EMR solution to getting that reimbursement reliably and quickly.
Anne: Okay, well, hello everybody. It's Anne Duffy and welcome to the Just DeW It podcast. I am like so happy you're here. I have a new I can tell. She's gonna be a dear friend of mine, on the podcast today. Fun story. we met. on Zoom a while back and I didn't realize we were doing a podcast, so we just got to know each other, uh, for a big half an hour.
and now we're recording, so you're lucky to have her with us today. But before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about Rio Esqueda.
She is a boy mom, a dog mom, champagne connoisseur, yoga lover, masters in healthcare administration from UNLV. She resides in Kansas City, co-founder and COO of restful, powered by IAOS.
Please help me. Yes, ma'am. Welcome, maam. My, my new good friend Rio. Hi Rio. How are you? Hi.
Rio: Thank you. That was a very nice, uh, introduction.
Anne: Oh, I, I think it is too. But I'd love the fact that you like to go by Rio and that you're the first Rio I've ever met.
Rio: Really?
Anne: Yeah. I've never met anybody by the name of Rio, so I love that.
know, in the Duke community, I mean, we just know Rio. It's like Cher. It's
Rio: just, I should be the only one, I guess.
Anne: I know. It's so cool.It's so cool. And I asked you earlier how did your mom and dad come up with your name? So tell us so we can remember. Tell me how your mom and dad,
Rio: they wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro and ended up getting pregnant with me and being hippies out of Colorado.
They decided I was gonna be Rio boy or girl.
Anne: Oh my gosh. Well, it seems like it fits beautifully. it's very unique and, kind of exotic. I think it lends very well to you, and I love that.So we were starting, we started off, talking a little bit about your business.
So tell me a little bit about restful and how you founded it, why you founded it, and you know, what is the number one reason you help
Rio: people? Yeah. Yeah, so I am the COO of restful. As we talked about, I prefer that role just because I like to execute. I do have a visionary within the company, uh, who is the CEO, but we work really well together.
We've been working together for about three years now. But started with International Academy of Sleep, which is a program, a coaching consulting program that teaches dentists how to, get reimbursed and create businesses from sleep apnea, creating those oral devices and then getting reimbursed for them.
So the reason we created restful is so that they could. Restful and only have one, EMR solution to getting that reimbursement reliably and quickly. It's very unpredictable out there right now, and it, well, it always has been for dentists to be seen as doctor that can treat sleep apnea. Typically, they just do.
Um.
Anne: C Paps, right? And so there are so many other ways that you can treat sleep apnea and dentists can create oral devices that essentially move jaws forward and make it easier for them to breathe at night. And it's way less of a pain in the butt lugging that around than A-C-P-A-P.
Rio: So we do it so that our doctors can then give that solution to their patients.
Anne: I mean, that's amazing. I mean, my husband had A-C-P-A-P for a while and I mean, yeah.
Rio: So, you
Anne: know, oh yeah. It was annoying. He hated it. Mm-hmm. I guess he's fine now. He got Retested and he's okay.
So I don't know whatever happened, it was after his. Surgery that he had and you know, I don't know what happened. Maybe I should have him tested again, but he seems to sleep just great no snoring and any of that kind of stuff that was going on before. So I think there's so much we don't know about sleep in dentistry and it makes perfect sense that we would be treating it 'cause we know more about the, the mouth and breathing than, than
Rio: you would think.
Right?
Anne: Just about anybody out there because they study it for four years.
Rio: Yeah. So I am not a subject matter expert by any means on treatment of sleep apnea, but I do help create this software and the billing solutions so that we can connect all the pieces and make it an easy journey for the dentists to treat their patients, get them the sleep test, get them the appliance, and then get reimbursed for it, which is the hard part because it can take.
27, 3500 steps to get through that. We have a solution for each insurance company what their clinical criteria is, when they need things submitted, how they want them submitted, the documents, all the things, and so it's all in one place and it makes it easy for the doctor then or the dentist.
Anne: Wow, that makes so much sense because that's the bane of their existence is, insurance.
Rio: Right.
Anne: And then, you know, honestly, I'm, I think probably one of the first things people ask is this covered by my insurance.
Rio: Mm-hmm.
Anne: And this is medical insurance though, right?
Rio: This is medical insurance,
Anne: right?
Rio: Yes.
Anne: Yeah. The
Rio: dentist cannot. Legally diagnose sleep apnea. I believe that's in all states. So you actually have to refer it out or get a referral in, which is another step.
You lose that patient, you know, so it, we, um, have a way of tracking those patients within our system and then getting those referrals also for dentists, because most dentists have like, what, 2,500 patients maybe? you know, you, you would run through those pretty quickly because sleep apnea is, um.
underdiagnosed, I would say.
Anne: Well, I was gonna say, yeah. Who doesn't have, I mean, honestly, I think what I was telling you, my husband, he's cured. It's like who doesn't have sleep apnea? Right. Right. It's like,it's crazy. Yeah. And how, who doesn't need it? And all you hear about right now to Rio is what is the number one health to get live a long, healthy life is.
Getting sleep. the right sleep.
Rio: Exactly. And, and most people don't even know they're not getting the right sleep.
Anne: Yeah.
Rio: so, but that is for the dentist to educate them on. And then getting those patient referrals is something that we assist with, with our CRM that we have just now implemented.
So,
yeah. Russellville is, coming along and I,and I love it. I love building it. I love working for it.
Anne: Oh, I love it. Well, first of all, I love the name. that's great that you got that name because it's super cool. And then how does somebody even find restful then?
Like how do you use the platform and is it, is it reoccurring always changing? Is it something that's is a one and done, oh, I know how to do this now, or. Tell me about that.
Rio: Oh, well, no, because, you know, we're at the mercy of the insurance companies which change all the time. So the software itself is simple, know, user friendly, but there's always features being added, always new, updates when it comes to insurance, Medicare and whatnot.
So constantly changing.
Anne: Yeah. and you would not know if you're, knee deep in your
Rio: operatory shouldn't, and a dentist really shouldn't. You know, they went to school to treat issues within the mouth. Mm-hmm. And then I went to school to help them be reimbursed for it. So there's, yeah.
Let's different people, right.
Anne: Yeah. It takes all and you're an expert. I mean, that's cool. You are an expert. You have to admit that. Okay. I'll
Rio: admit it.
Anne: Yeah. You are, you are an expert in,getting them reimbursed and getting them connected to the right people and make sure they get the referrals, which, there's so many women I've noticed.
That are really leaning into sleep, female dentist. in our organization as well. I I don't know why that is. Do you find that, there's a difference between how many men are reaching out versus women or. I, I'm just, that's just a question.
Rio: I'll have to look into that. that's an interesting, topic. maybe because it's the women that notice the husbands, snoring most of the time. I don't know.
Anne: Well, not only that, but the kids. Yeah. So that is the one thing that you know, we have a lot of myofunctional therapists that I've learned from in our due community.
Rio: Mm-hmm.
Anne: And fact that their kids were never sleeping well, were always. Agitated and all of that stuff. And they never even discovered it until they were like 16 or 17. Crazy. And if you could have just discovered it when they were three. Mm-hmm. I mean, oh my gosh. And so mothers, I think that's an intuition. And when I, intuitive nature to like. If that happened to their child, by golly, they're not gonna let another child suffer or another parent suffer. First of all with trying to get the child to get sleep and then also the guilt, as a mother, you are boy, mom, and you know.
How that goes.
Rio: I will say most of our female dentists, they are very passionate about what they do and they all have their own story for why they do it. Most of the dentists I work with, they're not working out of their general dentistry practice. They are doing solely sleep at this point. Yeah. But there is the option then, you know, to, combine it with your general practice and, and grow your bottom line in ways that you just didn't know you could.
So it's another. Perk.
Anne: and what I love, I was just on a phone with, one of our new members, and she is a general dentist out two years, in Columbus, Ohio. And she works with four women. It's a group practice. So I think that women are figuring out that dentistry can work for you and your lifestyle, and if you have a practice like that, and one is going to, Focus on sleep, which again, that's not a bad idea because that creates an expert, a partner for you that's an expert. Right. But again, we can't know everything, so the other thing that makes me think, women are more, eager to reach out for help.
Rio: yes.
Anne: In general, because, you know, we know we can't do it all long.
Rio: We can't, we're okay with admitting Yeah. That we can't do it all. Yeah. And honestly, we don't want to do it all.
Anne: No, I don't personally, no. So that's, definitely why I have a huge team. I prefer to leverage their skills to do things, that I.
Rio: Don't wanna do. Now I would do anything I'd ask anybody else to do, but there are some people that love doing things that I don't like doing, so I'm okay with. Letting them do it. Delegating
Anne: Well, you, I love that you just teed up the whole thing on strength. So, our team re who is all strategic and executing so there's four domains and I was telling you about this as we're diving in a little bit to your strengths, which I love.
The four domains are executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic. So for me, I don't even have any strategic. Get come up until number 11, there's 34 altogether, right? So I've kind of focused on the top five. When I found my 34, I'm like, oh God, no wonder I'm not that person, right?
And so I surround myself with people that are strategic and more executing. 'cause I'm more of the influencing go figure, I mean, influencing, right?
Rio: I wouldn't have guessed.
Anne: I know. Well, and then I didn't take, I didn't really like that about myself. I never actually. I don't think I loved myself for the gifts that I have.
And then when you own them and you're like, okay, well I guess I've got these strengths. I believe that they are from God given and in the womb and he knows what we're gonna do. I think it gets you more on rocket fuel 'cause you lean into those strengths.
Rio: Yes.
Anne: And now you, now I'm gonna try, I'm trying more and more to lean into my strengths.
Well I want you to make sure you put those so arrangers number one, which is executing and I love it. That's an executing strength. No wonder you have a CEO that you have that. he is the person that is more of the visionary. I don't know why I call myself a CEO 'cause I, I do have a vision, but I need more people to bring it out in me.
But I just wanna re, I have a arranger number five, but arranger is such a good one. That balcony is your flexible organizer, juggler, aligns and realigns tasks to find the most productive configuration possible efficient conductor. Does that sound like you?
Rio: Yeah, I guess
Anne: so. It does, it does.That's the balcony.
Rio: And then I used to, um, describe myself as a stage manager being in
Anne: Yeah.
Rio: Performance performing earlier on in my career. you know, balancing the performers versus what it takes to actually make that performance happen. And so I always called myself a stage manager, but I like the conductor.
Anne: Yeah.
Conductor. I think that really suits. and again. So many people have ideas in, in when they start their own businesses, but they can never get anything executed. You know, they just keep throwing the ideas out. so good on you that you have a partner that has that visionary aspect and that you have four in the domain of execution, which is amazing.
Developers relationship building. So that, let me just read. Developer to You at the Balcony Grows Talent and others, and that's why you liked bringing on a team, right? Team members that have other gifts from you your teacher, a coach, enjoys helping others succeed and invest in others. So you're also a great boss.
Rio: Yeah. Oh, well, thanks.
Anne: Which is cool, and that's innate. That's why I want you to like, go back and read all these things because
it's so beautiful to like own it. Oh, well, I'm a, I am a good teacher, I'm a good coach, and I wonder everybody likes working for me.
Rio: Yes, yes, yes. I will own it. You know, it's always so hard to, it's hard enough looking at yourself on a screen while you're having a conversation than to talk about, you know, your, qualities.
It's like, ugh, you just wanna hide underneath. But that's why I'm not. In front typically. Yeah. You know, I'm the organizer. I'm the conductor,
Anne: but we need, you see, that's the thing that's the cool thing about the strengths and that's why I loved bringing that to dentistry.
That was my goal when I started to do is to bring strength finders to dentistry because I don't think I really fell in love with myself until I actually figured out had my ness, I'm woo is number one. So like I walk into a party and I'm gonna meet everybody there. Mm-hmm. And so I looked at that as like, that's a detriment, you know, because people, like my friends are like, oh, don't go to the party with Anne because you're not gonna see her.
She's gonna, she's gonna leave you at the door. But then when you start to. Fall in love and realize that, when I took it, it was actually at our parish and this was. 18 years ago real. So it was not way before due or any other stuff. You know, I realized, okay, I do have some gifts and we all do.
Everybody's got gifts. Yeah. It's just mine are different than yours. I guarantee there's a lot of dues that are listening to this that they wish they had execution as high as you do because four of your five top are execution. Responsibility is such a good one in a lot of. Women, and I have a dear friend that had responsibility, I think it was number two.
She was so bummed about it. 'cause everything landed on her shoulders. you know, she's the oldest of three girls and you know, she was always on her and, oh God, I've got responsibility. But actually that is such a strong strength because you are a strong leader and you have discipline too. So the two of those together, people can count on you.
you're gonna lead the way and you have to know that about you, that you are a great leader if I got, stuck on an island from an airplane crash, I would love you to be there with me.
'cause I know, figure
Rio: it out
Anne: that you, we would figure it out.And you would be the, chief figure out,
Rio: you would have the motivation to keep going.
Anne: Yeah.
Rio: You keep us going and the would be there. So that's, something I don't usually bring.
Anne: so I have positivity too, like my daughter will say, mom, that's toxic positivity.
'cause you know, I would, nobody in the household could be sad. I was like, I'm sorry you lost your basketball game, Joey, but he's like, I know this, but that other team needed to win honey. And he would be so upset and you know, that's, that's toxic positive, but I'll get us off the island. I'll be happy. I was like, well this is, yes, keep going. Keep fighting. But then your last one's achiever, which is another one. And you cannot imagine how many dues have achiever in their top five or 10, we get stuff done. That's basically what that means. And that's such a great strength, especially for what you're doing with.
Being the chief operating officer of a brand new three-year-old company. And sounds like you've got a great team with you. So I want you to lean into your space and I think it's good to take, have your, visionary partner take it, and maybe some of your team members.
have a little meeting.
I'll send you some information on it and you can go through, 'cause every strength balcony has a basement. And can call bullsh*t on some of that, but some of that brings really true.
Rio: It does. That makes a lot of sense.
Anne: Yeah, I love it.
Rio: It's a great idea though. I'll bring it to my team.
Anne: Bring it to your team sometime.
But tell me a little bit more about where you wanna take restful next, because it's three years old and I know you've got some big goals.
Rio: Yes. So right now we're focused solely on sleep. But we do want to bring in TMD and surgery.
you know, and maybe big picture someday. Just dental in general.
But that is huge. It's a huge goal. what do they call it? The BH?
Anne: Yeah, the BH. I love that.
Rio: But primarily just helping dentists out there who have never even. Got to treat a sleep patient because they don't know the process in which to go maybe. we'll be able to help them do that,
Anne: you know, the other thing is I, again, I love that, that you're gonna maybe go into some other verticals of dentistry, because I'll tell you this, my husband, listen, if you know him, don't let him know that I told you the story, but he had something on with his mouth.
He had to go to the oral surgeon and I was like. Why isn't that covered under medical insurance? he didn't take any insurance and But it was like, that is totally medical.
That's like, oh, that is like surgery.
GMT20251203-180641_Recording_gallery_1280x720: Yeah.
Anne: And they don't have it. And so again, that's kind of a disservice to your patients isn't it? I mean, you, you know, you pay for insurance, but I don't know.
Rio: it's just that the, dentist, the office itself just does not know how to get that reimbursed for the patient.
Could the patient try? Probably, but there's so many loopholes and, you know, just different things you have to do and, documentation and, and so it really does restful is like another employee, essentially of a dental office.
Anne: Yeah. Um,
Rio: yeah, so I. Not a disservice, but, uh, just you don't know what you don't know.
Anne: I guess you're right.
They don't know if. What they don't know and they don't wanna deal with it.
Rio: Yeah.
Anne: So they can have you deal with it. Is that correct?
Rio: Correct.
Anne: That's correct. So if you're listening here and you wanna do sleep or you know, someone that wants There is an opportunity for you to, you know, really build, uh mm-hmm.
A beautiful, career path for yourself. And not necessarily leave clinical dentistry all way. But, you know, I think. You can do that along with clinical dentistry if if you wanna do that. Right. It's not like it has to be an end all, you know, all or nothing.
Rio: Definitely. I mean, the amount of time that it takes really, the ROI is definitely worth it.
And it's something that we teach our,doctors, so
Anne: that's
Rio: yes. Come visit us restful.com.
Anne: Re Okay. That's right. How do we get in touch with you? Well, Rio is gonna be your gonna probably, I don't know how many Rios there are on LinkedIn. I, was looking at that earlier. So
Rio: Rio is SCADA online on LinkedIn, but otherwise restful is the name of the company.
Anne: restful.com?
Rio: Yes ma'am.
Anne: restful.com. Good on you guys. So I can't wait to see where you're gonna take this. and also just, the world is your oyster because there's so many docs are dentists that aren't.
treating. And it is, a thing right now. It is something to really take a look at. So thank you for what you're doing for the profession. It's wonderful.
Rio: Oh, well thank you. And thank you for having me.
Anne: I'll have to see you soon and, and like I tell everybody here, okay, so restful, we get restful.com, get a hold of Rio.
And then, most importantly for everybody here, now that you know a little bit about your strengths, Rio, keep doing you. Alright guys, nice to see you all. Thanks for listening today and I'll see you next time. Everybody take care. Thanks, Rio.
Rio: Thank you.
