Mentor for bold, paradigm shifting women, Dr. Jessica Emery of @dentalgirlgang answers questions on branding.
Jamie: I asked to speak with you because I love your creative angle on dentistry. It is cool to see a different side of what you can do with a dental degree.
Dr. Emery: For all of you young ones coming up into practices, you guys get instagram and get brand but you will be purchasing a practice that is archaic. I want to motivate you to start: get mobile friendly websites, put content in of yourself and not stock images, etc.
Jamie: And what is the future of dentistry going to be? Instead of buying old practices, maybe build new practices through your own vision because dentistry is changing so quickly.
Dr. Emery: I think it either going to be scratch practice, build it up from scratch and take up that debt, which is what I did or to reduce debt, work with the DSO’s (Dental Support Organizations). For the dentists who feel they have no time [for instagram], I will say this is a free platform and there is no one better to tell your story than your team member.
Jamie: If you had one piece of advice for people who aren’t developing their social media presence, what would you say?
Dr. Emery: Get on the train. Regardless of what you do, you have to think about your personal brand. Start building your personal brand now, in school, so later you will be seen as an expert and people will know you transparently.
For any human being, we are all a brand. We also just learned with the pandemic, we want to have that brand in the event we want to decide to do something else. Just in case our practices closed like they did [during the pandemic], that we have something to fall back on.
Jamie: What made you decide to make a social circle for female dentists?
Dr. Emery: I have a member’s club for dental soiree and I also have a coaching company. In the dental Facebook groups, I found there is so much negativity. I wanted to create a Facebook for personal development for women in dentistry. This is not about negativity, this is about growth.