Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand With Polish Dental Center

Intro: [00:00:03] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by on pay. Built in Atlanta, on pay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at on pay. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Lee Kanter here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the Atlanta Business Radio, we have Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand, or as her patients call her, Dr. Tiff. And she is with the Polish Dental Center. Welcome, Dr. Tiff.

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:00:55] Hey. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Polish Dental Center. How are you serving folks?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:01:03] Oh, well. So first, thank you for having me. I’m an Atlanta native, so I grew up listening to you. I am the CEO and founder of Polish Dental Centers. We have been serving Atlanta for the last ten years. We are a fast growing company of five practices, soon to be six, seven, eight, nine, ten. We just received the award and the INC 5000 for one of the fastest growing companies in the United States for for 2022.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:38] So when you started Polish Dental Center, did you always view it as a multi-location operation or was it something that just organically grew over the years?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:01:50] Well, I think it was it did organically grow. And as I’m I’m a dentist by trade, no MBA, no nothing. Right. So so my message to all dentists out there is that you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. Nothing special. Special. They’re really, really good at dentistry. Love dentistry. It is my passion, but also the business bug bit me because I grew up, my dad owned multiple sites, technology firms and so after a while I started to as being an operator in in dentistry, I was like, well, what’s my contingency plan? What is my retirement plan? I used to see so many dentists as they got as they age and get older. They had carpal tunnel. And and my mentor talks about about about about her body and how it broke down so quickly. I started to think about my future and scaling a business was the only way because I feel like dentistry combines that entrepreneurship, spirit and health care. And it just was a fit for me.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:59] Now, when you’re thinking about scaling historically, dental offices tend to be kind of dentist driven, so the person has a relationship with that. Given dentist, it’s not thought of like, Oh, I’ll just pop into this. Other dental office says the same name like you would, you know, like a a restaurant or a hamburger chain. How do you kind of get over that to create a brand but also create those relationships?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:03:25] Oh, excellent question. So I always tell everyone dentistry has gone very corporate. Right. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It has gone very corporate. I mean, there are people that know nothing about dentistry that by 100, 204 hundred dental practices, and that’s one model. But my model is no investors, no private equity money taken on my part. It is just me and as a dentist, which is, you know, dentists own dentists lead. We have the resources of a DSO, a dental service organization, which is what those larger ones are that some people do pop in and out of and have the have the private practice, feel that we give our give our patients. So we are that hybrid. We’re not that that one off dentists where, you know, sometimes there’s you know, the service and the technology might not be there to service a patient. But we are a group and we hire dentists that that believe the same thing that we do. Right. We want to give our patients a quality experience with the latest technology and, you know, the the lowest amount of fuss and have the how do you say the convenience of like something that has like a major rund? So kind of like chick or Chick fil A model, but still has a relationship with their dentist. And so like that, that’s, that’s our sweet spot and that’s why we’ve been successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:55] So how are you kind of leveraging technology and kind of this service first mentality in experience with the patient? Can you share how that would be different for a patient as opposed to kind of maybe the old school way of what they’re used to dealing with?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:05:11] Oh, sure. Yeah. Very simple question. Number one, you can access our schedule online 24 hours a day. So so we use technology so that you can actually you don’t even need to call us. You can go online right now, see an appointment for whatever service you need to book that appointment. You get a confirmation back and we are all we are mostly techs and we have a system where we know a lot of people don’t answer their phone anymore. Right. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I have a whole bunch I don’t know what’s going on, but I just have a whole bunch of random, random people calling my phone. And with us, you know, we text you back, we talk to you back. I also have a 24 hour call center that feels all of our calls. So you can that you can call us at 3:00 in the morning and someone will answer the phone and they will you can put you right on the read our schedule and put you right there on our schedule. No, no, no questions asked. So that’s something that’s something different is access to us at all times. Access to the dentist. Right. Because because your emergency doesn’t just happen between the hours of 9 to 5. And we realize that. Another thing that we outsource is our insurance billing. There’s a lot of times people miss in dentistry. Human error is really high with insurance. So we have a dedicated team that verifies all our patients insurance to make sure that we don’t miss anything. So you don’t have any unexpected oops bills coming to you. So those are just a few things that we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:49] Now in your journey, as opposed to kind of growing an individual dental practice, you’ve decided to kind of build this dental empire here in Atlanta. Is this something you mentioned opening more and more sites around town? Is this something that’s going to go beyond Atlanta? Is that your vision that this will be a national chain?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:07:10] So, of course, you know, never my vision is God vision. But for me right now, as a as a as a wife and mother of twins, you know, it is very manageable for me to keep it in Georgia. I’m I’m from Georgia. I’m raised in Atlanta, born and raised in Atlanta. And, you know, this city and this community is something that I’m passionate about. And so, you know, everyone has teeth, everyone’s a customer. Or if they don’t have teeth, they’re still a customer. So, you know, we’re we there are plenty of mouths of service in and around the Atlanta metropolitan area. And right now we are no more than 20 miles outside of the city. And there’s there’s there’s plenty of people to service. So right now, we’re very, very much concentrating on this city, and then we’ll see where it takes us.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:02] Now, in your experience, I’m kind of fascinated by this going through like initially dentistry. That was the goal, right? Like I’m going to be a dentist, I’m going to have my own practice. That was kind of what you were aiming at. And then somewhere it kind of got modified to say, Okay, why? If I can do this in one place, why can’t I do it in five places? So that’s a that’s kind of a mental mindset shift. When you made that shift, is the dental community, your ecosystem around you of mentors and supporters, is that something that people in the dental world say? Yeah, that that makes perfect sense, go for it? Or is that are they encouraging or is that something that’s like, are you sure you want to do that? Like, that’s a lot of risk. That’s different, you know, like, what does that ecosystem feel about somebody that’s like you, an empire builder now?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:08:50] So it is very polarizing. I mean, you are absolutely right. You know, people that have have you in their mind as one thing, right. It is hard to change their mind to another thing. It’s just is more about finding other people that are doing it. So we have a I’m part of an organization called Dental Entrepreneurs Organization, which has been a organization that has connected me with other just regular dentist who want more, who want who want more, who want to scale their dental practice, who have these ideas. They’re just like, Hey, you know, I want to be able to pass on my quality of care and I don’t want to be. Run by a corporate driven machine that is going to treat my patients like a number. So, you know, there are people in our ecosystem that feel like they but they’re very few and small in between. There is a niche kind of thing. But no, you’re absolutely right. We we do have some dentists that are like, wow, how do you do that? I’m like, Yeah, you can you can do this yourself. You can do this with systems and implementation. And if you kind of remove yourself from chair side and really start thinking and researching, I mean, YouTube and Google, it has it all there. So it’s nothing. It is a niche and not everyone wants you to do that. But but they also support you. Like once you get big enough and you show that you can that it is something sustainable, people usually just get on board and and want to work with you or for you. And and so it’s been pretty good. It’s been pretty supportive for me, at least now.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:34] Recently I was asked to talk about the Atlanta entrepreneur community and the ecosystem here, and I’m a big fan of it. I think that we do a great job as a community supporting small to midsize businesses and a lot of places. There’s a lot of resources for an entrepreneur, maybe more so in the tech community than in other industries, but definitely in the tech community there’s a lot of resources. Have you found that to be the case as you’ve been trying to, to scale and being a black female entrepreneur, are you finding that this is an ecosystem that is supportive and that is trying to help? Or do you find it, you know, cumbersome and getting in your way?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:11:16] Well, it is very tough. I would say that the biggest barrier is to be, you know, there’s a lot of women. I forget what the statistics are. There’s like a very small percentage of women entrepreneurs, and there’s even a smaller percentage of women entrepreneurs that have that have employees. And so, you know, it is it is very tough. It is very hard. But, you know, if you if you put it out there, if you’re doing well, mentorship just kind of comes to you, right? People gravitate towards the light. And so whether it’s male or female entrepreneurs, you know, I do. I would say that I’m positioning myself more as a businesswoman, more than a dentist. So that opens up my ability to attract mentors that that that that can help me because at this point, I’m running a business. Not necessarily dental practices that we happen to sell dentistry. We are a business that happens to sell dentistry. So there are mentorships out there. But it is tough because mentors really, they people mentor people that they can see themselves in. And as a black female, there isn’t a lot of trailblazers, I would say, am I? That is doing what I’m doing. But I’m, I, I find myself more mentoring others to be like me because I do feel like there is the missing space as a black female in that in this ecosystem, this, this middle ground.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:54] In the dentistry ecosystem or the female entrepreneur ecosystem?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:12:58] Oh, no, in the in the dentistry niche. In the dentistry niche, not female entrepreneurs. It opens up when you, when you’re just looked at as a business. But in dentistry, there’s not a lot of female dentists that are scaling.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:11] Is there a lot of female dentists?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:13:15] Oh, no, there’s we have more, but it’s a it’s a male dominated career and especially males that are male dominated as you get older in dentistry. Right. As you as your tenure gets longer because women we decide on other paths because of family obligation and children and pressure to be a wife and a mother. So our career sometimes proved to be shorter in the field of dentistry. So like that also, that also makes it more male dominated.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:57] Now, you mentioned that mentorship is important to you. How about some advice for other, you know, entrepreneurs out there that are looking to scale their business and dream bigger and aim higher? Is there any advice you can give an entrepreneur out there to kind of maybe get out of their comfort zone and just, you know.

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:14:18] So. Well, so my my my husband makes fun of me. He says, instead of ready, aim, fire. I’m ready, fire, aim. And he’s like, you just he’s like he’s like, you just do it. He’s like, the moment someone gives you an idea, you just do it. And so it’s a cliche, but just do it. Google YouTube, it, it’s going to be on there. Figure it out and just execute, execute, execute, execute. I have found that I’ve been able to execute my way out of every problem is all about consistency. Just keep it up and if you run into an obstacle, just continue to execute it is there. You can do it. There are there are resources out there even if they’re not people. Right. Like a lot of people spend a lot of time on, oh, I need to have a business plan. I need to do this. I don’t have a business plan. I never had a business plan. I had a vision board. That’s a vision for every year, right? Like what else do I want? And I just hit what’s on my vision board and like, that’s my style and that’s what has worked for me. I know it works for other people a different way, but for me it has been all execution and just putting the pieces together with with just with just resources from the Internet, essentially.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:37] But, but at the bottom line of this is taking action like get it out of your head and get it into real world information rather than just having all these ideas that you’re going to do one day. It’s better to just do something today then kind of dream of something tomorrow.

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:15:53] Yeah. And, and you will get comfortable with it. Like eventually it’s called I would say what I would, I feel like it is, is controlled paranoia because once you stop getting that check like every two weeks, right. People are used to getting a W-2 every two weeks. Right. And one thing that you have to get used to as an entrepreneur is that I am is you have to be like you have to realize, hey, I am enough. I don’t need this check. I can I can live. I will live. I will make it. And when you put enough pressure there to to to live and sustain your lifestyle, oh, you’re going to you’re going to you’re going to fly. You know, like it’s going to it’s going to happen for you. But a lot of time, that comfort zone that that safety net needs to be removed in order for you to really take take a bet on yourself and take a chance on yourself.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:48] Right. Because ironically, that’s an illusion, the safety net, because now you’re dependent on other people. Now when it’s your own business, you’re relying on you. And who do you trust more than you? You know, some stranger who. Who treats you like a. A line on the spreadsheet or yourself.

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:17:05] Exactly. You are the only you are enough. And that’s what I would say to anyone. You are enough. You’re right that you too. They can take it from you tomorrow. Right. And and you’re like, oh, okay. You know? And so you’re going to you are going to survive. You’ll live.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:23] Now for you, what do you need more of? How can we help? Do you just need more patients coming into the clinics? You need more dentists to partner with that kind of believe in what you believe in and want to kind of take their business to new levels. How can we help you?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:17:38] How can you help me? So the. I say this? The driving force of my business are good qualified providers. I can always find a dental practice to put them in. I have a machine, you know, bragging on myself. I have a machine that generates patients. Right. We have the model down. We can print dental practices. Having a good qualified dentist that believe in the perfect, perfect patient experience, that believe in same day start. Don’t waste our patient wasting our patient’s time. They’re driving back. Have you been to the dentist? Like. Like for one tooth, like, five times. It’s like, you know, like that doesn’t need to happen. Right. And so, like, like. Like having good qualified providers. If I had a provider come to me today, I was like, Give me three months and I’ll build a practice around you. Like that’s how confident I am about our model and our service model.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:42] Now, are these are these providers, are they right out of college? Do they have their own practice? Maybe they’re frustrated. They’re working with another firm and they’re frustrated. What is that kind of make up of that ideal provider?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:18:54] All right. So we have all so the reason the way I’ve been able to scale is I have distressed practices, distress practices. I bought distress practices. That means someone’s getting ready to retire. Someone’s died, someone’s divorced. You know, somebody is. So that’s how I’ve acquired them, right? And I judge them up and put our systems, and then they become this nice place that delivers the perfect patient experience. Right. And so those are ideal, right? Those people are ideal. Like, if you’re tired and you just want someone to take your practice over, that’s us. Now what we do is we put in people that have residencies, at least a residency. We don’t we don’t take fresh doctors out of school. They have at least had a residency and or 3 to 5 years of, of, of schooling already. They’ve already kind of been been in there, been in the game for a little while. But mostly we believe in doctors that they have to have a residency, some kind of residency, some kind of naval training, military training. Those are kind of residency programs. And we put them in there and then we kind of we teach them our thought process, the way we think about patient service, because we already know you have the tactile skills. We just we’re talking about a service and how you deliver service and how you think about delivering service to people because it’s all about people. And that’s how we have people that want to come back and repeat repeat customers just like anything else. I think I answered the question. Yeah, you were saying those are the doctors, but those are those are doctors we want.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:38] So you want them that you can kind of train them in your way before they got too many bad habits.

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:20:45] Yes. And and and even we and by the way, we even we even now were at the at the precipice where we need doctors who are mentors with inside the company. Because we have so many we have so many younger doctors. We do need doctors who are just like, hey, I’m a good doc. I just don’t want to run a company. I don’t want to run a dental practice anymore because there’s like 100 bills associated with it. And I really just want to focus on quality of care. We’ll take that, too. And so we’re at the point where we need a clinical director besides just me, right? Because I wear a number of hats as a CEO, I wear too many hats, probably. But but yeah, we, we, we definitely are expanding and we’ll, we’ll need more seasoned doctors who just want to practice and we welcome them with open arms. So all of the above great specialist oral surgeons and honest, you know, we need those.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:49] Well, Dr. Tiff, congratulations on all the success and the momentum. If somebody wants to learn more about the practice or you or their dentist that wants to learn more. Is there a website that they can go to?

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:22:01] Yes, they can go to smile. Polish. Like nail polish. Smile Polish dot com. Or visit us on Instagram. You message us on Instagram or social media person. We’ll get to you Polish dental centers, plural, on our Instagram page.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:18] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Dr. Tiffany Jamison Rand: [00:22:23] Thank you. Appreciate you. Thanks for. Thanks for inviting.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:25] Me. All right. This is Lee Kantor will SEAL next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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