Building a Successful DSO Brand at Life Dental w/ President Jeff Hand

In this episode of Let’s Talk Teeth, we sit down with Jeff Hand, President of Life Dental Group, a regional DSO based in Oxford, Mississippi. Since its founding in 2018, Life Dental has grown to manage over 15 practices across the Southeast. Jeff shares the story behind that growth, beginning with early partnerships and continuing  to thrive through strategic expansion and culture building. We discuss the challenges that come with scaling, the importance of mentorship for new dentists, and how thoughtful marketing plays a critical role in attracting and retaining patients. Whether you are a dental student, recent graduate, or experienced clinician, this episode offers valuable insight into the business and operational side of dentistry.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:20 Jeff Hand's Background and Life Dental Group

01:06 The Journey of Life Dental Group

02:53 Understanding DSOs and Life Dental's Unique Approach

04:37 Challenges in Scaling and Team Building

06:35 Growth Strategy and Practice Acquisitions

10:34 Employee Retention and Culture

13:09 Advice for New Dentists and Training Programs

18:30 Marketing Strategies for Dental Practices

19:01 The Role of Location and Facilities

19:22 Effective Marketing Techniques

21:09 Introducing Dr. Mike Huggins

23:20 Acquiring and Managing Dental Practices

25:54 Challenges in Practice Transitions

27:51 Future Vision for Life Dental

30:25 Advice for Dental Students

32:38 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Introduction and Guest Welcome

Saad Alamgir 0:09

Everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Let's Talk Teeth. Today we have Jeff Hand. Jeff, if you don't mind just introducing yourself. I don't wanna take too much of your spotlight, so why don't you just take it away.

Jeff Hand 0:20

Thank you guys for having me. I really appreciate it. Excited to spend some time with you guys. I'm the Jeff Hand President of Life Dental Group. We're a small regional, dSO based outta Oxford, Mississippi. We've got a dentist owner Dr. Mike Huggins. Been practicing in Oxford for a long time and and they're excited about our journey. We're at 15 practices soon to purchase our 16th practice next Thursday. We're spreading out to Tennessee currently in. Alabama and Mississippi with our current 15 practices

Victor Razi 0:56

Nice.

Jeff Hand 0:58

proud of what we've created started in 2018. And just it's been a great journey so far.

The Journey of Life Dental Group

Victor Razi 1:05

Nice. So Jeff, uh, go into a little bit, if you don't mind, of how you, how may have Mike reached out to you or how you kind of tumbled along the journey.

Jeff Hand 1:15

Yeah. Yeah. It's a excellent story. I'll try to, I'll try to condense,

Victor Razi 1:21

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 1:22

So back in late 2018 I got introduced to Dr. Huggins and his partner in Life Dental, William Elias. William is not a dentist like me. William's, a serial entrepreneur lives in Oxford, went to Ole Miss and Mike and him are really close friends. So they de decided to go on this journey together, bought a practice, in 18 or 17, outside of Mike's practice in Batesville, Mississippi,

Victor Razi 1:52

Okay.

Jeff Hand 1:52

I met them right after they bought the third practice. so it was Batesville, Tupelo, then Columbus.

Victor Razi 2:00

Right.

Jeff Hand 2:00

I met them right before we bought Byram got introduced to them William CFO the time. William's got a couple other businesses non-dental related, under a holding company called EQU Pro. was excited about the opportunity because. As you guys know the industry's consolidating.

Victor Razi 2:22

Right.

Jeff Hand 2:23

I've always been in the dental space with manufacturers, distributors in sales roles, marketing roles and management

Victor Razi 2:32

Sure.

Jeff Hand 2:32

it was, it. was a great opportunity for me. I tell people, I feel like them at a time where needed them, and I think they found me at a time when they needed me. And,

Victor Razi 2:46

That's awesome.

Jeff Hand 2:46

It's really turned out to be a awesome relationship. It's been a blessing.

Victor Razi 2:50

That's awesome.

Understanding DSOs and Life Dental's Unique Approach

Saad Alamgir 2:51

Yeah. That's sweet. Jeff, I know for some of our listeners when they heard DSOA shiver might have run down their spine. So if

Jeff Hand 2:59

of

Saad Alamgir 2:59

you don't mind just explaining life dentals, how the way they operate and how it differs from, a traditional DSO, quote unquote.

Jeff Hand 3:07

Yeah. Thank you for the question. DSOs I think it's an umbrella term for dental support organization. It, they take all different shapes and sizes. I think our secret sauce and from what's made us successful as we've been so far. really the partnership between Mike and William. Mike's still a wet finger dentist four to four and a half days a week. William had the business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit to drive our organization forward. And I think what's was awesome is Dr. Huggins which a lot a lot of them work with me now. At Life Dental. Mike always had a high performing practice and we had really awesome team members that we could, cherry pick and have come over to Life

Victor Razi 4:01

Sure.

Jeff Hand 4:02

To help move the organization forward. You guys know I'm an Alabama grad, so

Victor Razi 4:07

Unfortunately.

Jeff Hand 4:08

I gotta, yeah, sorry. I gotta throw in a saving quote that, high achievers hate low performers and low performers hate high achievers. And so

Saad Alamgir 4:17

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 4:17

stress ourselves on surrounding ourselves with high achievers. And that's what we have at Life Dental.

Saad Alamgir 4:23

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Hand 4:23

it's been the perfect mix between, autonomy

Victor Razi 4:29

Sure.

Jeff Hand 4:30

economies of scale with the business practices that have made it successful.

Challenges in Scaling and Team Building

Victor Razi 4:36

Nice. Yeah. So, kind of to slicing things up a little bit, Jeff what, uh, what has been the biggest challenge so far that you faced, like scaling this organization and all that? Like, what is one thing you can kind of tie to something that's been a challenge and maybe you've worked through it already or maybe you're still working on it. What do you think?

Jeff Hand 4:55

Yeah I think anybody that tackles what we're doing there's all kinds of challenges. Unfortunately people are imperfect

Victor Razi 5:04

Yeah, for sure.

Jeff Hand 5:05

200 of them now. I think it's a matter of. building a team. I think what's been a, the biggest challenge for me is when we were smaller. I knew all of our people pretty well the challenge for me is giving up the ability to have a relationship, sadly. We try as hard as we can, but sadly to have a relationship with over 200

Victor Razi 5:30

Sure.

Jeff Hand 5:30

Really. building out our support network has, I said, we've got talented people. So that's been fortunately, really easy.

Victor Razi 5:42

Sure.

Jeff Hand 5:43

but and really the team that I have, we've never done this before

Victor Razi 5:48

Sure.

Jeff Hand 5:48

and most people that have started the DSO or group dental practice, Never done it before either. So there's not a. One roadmap that anybody follows to do

Victor Razi 6:00

Right,

Jeff Hand 6:01

We know what we feel like works for our culture and our team, but that may not totally

Victor Razi 6:08

translate. Right.

Jeff Hand 6:09

another group. Yeah. So I think that's been the biggest challenge,

Victor Razi 6:13

I see.

Jeff Hand 6:14

not knowing what you don't know and

Saad Alamgir 6:16

Yeah, for sure.

Jeff Hand 6:17

Learn by trial and error.

Victor Razi 6:19

for sure.

Jeff Hand 6:19

So.

Saad Alamgir 6:19

Yeah, and that's just the difficulties with scaling any business, just as you grow and it, and it's good, but you're also losing that personal touch, so

Jeff Hand 6:29

That's

Growth Strategy and Practice Acquisitions

Saad Alamgir 6:30

said, yeah. That being said, is there a specific. You said y'all are now, just now open up y'all 16th practice here soon. Is there a goal number in mind that y'all have, a regional goal that y'all have just kind

Jeff Hand 6:46

I

Saad Alamgir 6:46

Yeah. Go.

Jeff Hand 6:47

Yeah, I get that question a lot actually. For us, it's. It's quality over quantity. We wanna really invest in the practices we have.

Victor Razi 6:56

Sure.

Jeff Hand 6:56

we've done a good job of that. We're really critical of how we support the practices and I know we've got room for improvement there. But we've really been fortunate most of the practices that we've owned a while, they've either doubled or tripled in size. So that's a blessing. For life dental, but also for our dentists and our teams. It's given them more opportunities. So for us, it's really not a number. We're currently adding onto Tupelo, we're adding onto Montgomery. and, we're doing an acquisition or two, so it we're, we bank finance the group. We want to be strategic about where we're spending the money.

Saad Alamgir 7:39

Mm-hmm.

Victor Razi 7:40

sure.

Jeff Hand 7:40

And and we wanna support the people that we've made commitments to and do a really good job of that. So to us it's quality, not quantity. So if we do, goal we say, is to do four acquisitions a year, but if we do two, that's fine. If we do three, that's fine, but if we have the Before that's awesome.

Saad Alamgir 8:01

Yeah. That's incredible. Those numbers are. I don't wanna just gloss over that. The fact that you just said y'all have had a couple offices double their production. That

Victor Razi 8:10

That's h.

Saad Alamgir 8:11

That's

Jeff Hand 8:11

you. Yeah.

Saad Alamgir 8:12

unreal. And just going off of that, what do y'all, I guess what is pushing them, when they get bought by left channel, they're doing X amount, what kind of helps drive them from there to that, like you said, to X amount then? Encouragement for you to invest in and practice even further.

Jeff Hand 8:35

Yeah, I, that's that's a great point. I think the core of what we try to acquire is really good people. really good practices already. So that helps when you have a great selling dentist that's got a really good reputation. They usually attract really good team members and really good patients. Part of it is a testament testimonial to who that we, who we bought. they've laid a good foundation, however, as a single practice owner some of them in the middle part of their career. Some of them in the latter part of their career, it's hard to be parent, the COO, the CEO, the dentist, fixing dental equipment when you need to. A, a jack of all trades. So I think when we bought those practices, we've done a great job of recruiting. other dentists to join the practices when needed. Those dentists have been outstanding. I would put our group of dentists up against any organization in the country. And then also with our team, we jokingly call ourselves Team Smile. That they're just talented ladies that have, honed their skills over time. Most of them at Dr. Huggins practice. And then some of them have come from practices we've acquired we've given them the opportunity to elevate their skillset. So I think it's a combination of all those things. And we got a great marketing team that starts marketing the practices. A lot of older dentists, they didn't do a lot of marketing. So you guys and I talked about that at the Mississippi meeting. So we pour some gas on the fire with marketing and certainly that helps with new patients. So

Victor Razi 10:23

I see.

Jeff Hand 10:24

if it were, it's not one, it's not one lever you pull, I wish it was, it'd be a lot

Saad Alamgir 10:29

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 10:30

but it's a lot of little light switches you gotta flip to.

Employee Retention and Culture

Victor Razi 10:33

For sure. So Jeff, with uh, with 200 employees, I know at some point you have to encounter a headache. So how do you navigate the retention and performance of all the team members and, you know, what is like your driving factor to. Say, hey, like it's better retain this employee. Or, Hey, it might be better for you to find an opportunity elsewhere.

Jeff Hand 10:57

Yeah. I think we've been working on that hard over the last couple months. It's a tight labor market. I think anybody can tell you whether a single practice owner or a multi-practice owner, it's a tight labor market. And so gotta really self-reflect. When you lose somebody, you've gotta say, what did I do wrong? When I either set the expectation incorrectly when I hired this person, or I didn't provide the right training in order for this person to be successful in their role, so we're, we hired a full-time recruiter that she's recruiting office personnel. Hygienists, dental assistants. And then we have a young lady who you guys met that works with our dental schools. I get involved in that a lot. But, part of it's coaching, part of it's hiring not hiring out of not need-based hiring because you got an opening and all of a sudden you feel like you gotta fill it real

Victor Razi 11:55

right. Just desperation hiring.

Jeff Hand 11:57

Yeah, so

Victor Razi 11:58

I.

Jeff Hand 11:59

part of it. I think the other part of it too is just creating a culture that people want to be around. That's a buzz word, in business, but I, there's so much truth to it that feel like if it's a rewarding place to work financially.

Victor Razi 12:14

Sure.

Jeff Hand 12:15

It's a fun place to work. And you're providing a good work-life balance for people. You're gonna retain people. And a lot of that starts at the practice level. We can affect that at the smile level, and we try to, but a lot of that falls on our office managers and our dentist at the individual practices. So

Victor Razi 12:35

I see.

Jeff Hand 12:35

we Just last Friday, had a little quarterly break. Break meeting, strategy meeting. And in each practice we're actually assigning a social chairman for the practice.

Victor Razi 12:48

Okay.

Jeff Hand 12:49

so we're gonna provide them funds where they can a team of, a fun event after hours.

Victor Razi 12:56

That's all. Yeah, it is.

Saad Alamgir 12:58

Keep the morale high, man. That's how you keep the employees. Yeah.

Jeff Hand 13:01

That's right. That's right.

Victor Razi 13:03

Awesome.

Jeff Hand 13:03

So it's a combination of a lot of things.

Victor Razi 13:06

I see.

Jeff Hand 13:07

But culture's big

Advice for New Dentists and Training Programs

Victor Razi 13:08

Yeah, for sure. So Jeff, let's say you're a very driven dental student or new grad dentist, and do you really wanna work at somewhere great like life Dental? What advice would you give as, uh, someone that's kind of been in this business and field for so long for someone to be, uh, quote unquote successful coming out at Life Dental?

Jeff Hand 13:30

Yeah. Thank, that's a great question. Fortunately we were lucky enough to hire two dentists that just joined us from UMC Dental school. Just in this class? We have one from UAB and one from UT all started a couple weeks ago. In different practices. I've seen that that I feel like we've done well. And I think still we're working on we're in the process right now putting together a training program for our dentist and for office. Hygienist assistance. We may take it as far we're noodling around right now. We may take it as far as creating our own training center.

Victor Razi 14:09

Nice.

Jeff Hand 14:10

so what I feel like we've done well is provided. Our dentist a really good place to work with good team members. we have an office manager in every practice despite the size of the practice, That takes a lot of the pressure off of a young

Victor Razi 14:29

Appreciate.

Jeff Hand 14:30

Concentrate on being a dentist and the office manager can concentrate on, managing the team, our systems our hand, our. New patient flow's been really good. so we're putting a lot of good patients in the practice we want our young dentists to be as busy as they want to be or as busy as they feel they can be,

Victor Razi 14:50

Sure.

Jeff Hand 14:50

on their speed. And so I think we've done a nice job of that. We've invested in a lot of technology. We use ai. We use electric cam pieces. Most of our practices have cone beams. All of them have scanners, so that helps. I think those are some of the things we can provide. Dr. Huggins has been at this a long time. productive dentist. Very talented dentist. Very humble. Very humble. So he wouldn't tell you that. We've got also have several of our other dentists, Dr. Osborn, Dr. Lynch, and Dr. Kreitz, that mentor some of our other younger dentists

Victor Razi 15:31

right.

Jeff Hand 15:32

And Dr. Fincher. So we divide and conquer to help provide a support network for our younger dentists too, which I think is really helpful when you get outta dental school. Obviously not. Not being a dentist. That's hard for me to say, but,

Victor Razi 15:47

Yeah,

Jeff Hand 15:48

but I've

Victor Razi 15:49

I,

Jeff Hand 15:49

been on the first row, the bleachers,

Victor Razi 15:50

you've been around enough, Dennis.

Saad Alamgir 15:52

Yeah. Now you could probably cut a c or two for sure. I'll believe in you.

Jeff Hand 15:56

Yeah. Yeah.

Saad Alamgir 15:57

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 15:58

I'll

Saad Alamgir 15:58

But when you, yeah. When you mentioned mentorship for these younger dentists, I guess in what aspect, are you referring to? Is it like. They work at the practice. Is there like a workshop that young dentists at Life Dental can go to learn the skills that they need? If they a young dentist, they don't really get taught on implants much. Is that something that can come to your office at too, to help show you the ropes essentially? how does that whole process work?

Jeff Hand 16:30

Yeah. I think really even to roll it back from that, really just even what we're talking about in the training program is really starting with with patients. How to communicate with patients, how to communicate with team members how to diagnose obviously the core procedures, crowns, bridges, Partial dentures. You guys get some experience with that, but there's also what I've seen or kind of tricks of the trade once you get outta school that you may can do it a little more efficiently or a little differently. That we bring our, some of the younger dentists into Oxford. Mike spends time with'em. Fortunately we've got some other experienced dentists around in different practices that are willing and able to mentor people. so that's nice. Do a lot with Nobel Biocare. They've been a good partner of ours.

Saad Alamgir 17:25

Nice.

Jeff Hand 17:26

We did an implant seminar, a live patient placement last year. We do a

Saad Alamgir 17:31

Wow. Yeah.

Jeff Hand 17:33

so next Saturday we have a CE in Oxford for our dentist, and then we have a CE event every January. And they, they range on various topics. So we've done implants, we've done endo. This one next Saturday is on cosmetic dentistry. The one in January was on treatment planning and acceptance. I think we've done a good job. We've got, we want to be able to do a great job.

Victor Razi 18:00

Right.

Jeff Hand 18:00

And I think the training program that we're in the planning stages of, and hopefully even hopefully getting to the point where we have a true training facility which is a dream

Victor Razi 18:14

That be sweet.

Saad Alamgir 18:15

That would be incredible.

Jeff Hand 18:17

we're working on. It doesn't come cheap,

Victor Razi 18:19

I can imagine.

Jeff Hand 18:22

But we feel like the investment in it truly pay dividends. We're,

Victor Razi 18:27

For sure.

Jeff Hand 18:27

We're just trying to figure out the details,

The Role of Location and Facilities

Saad Alamgir 18:30

Yeah, branching from that say, a dentist has all the skills that they need, but they don't have the market for it. So just going off of that first kind of what is the marketing to consumers that or whoever's in charge of that office does to attract patients, to have those patients who come in who need this type of work. And then secondly. You're looking at a practice, is that something that y'all are looking for? Just overall marketability and location and.

Effective Marketing Techniques

Jeff Hand 19:07

Yeah, obviously we want a nice location. We want a nice facility. We're not afraid to buy a facility that has some age on it that we have to reinvest some capital in. But, we've been fortunate to find some really nice practices that that have a really good foundation. Most of them do a whole lot of marketing, so we, And Rob that lead our marketing team, do a great job. So we put a whole marketing plan together. We've got one cooked for the Tennessee practice next week, so we will do search engine optimization. Strangely we'll still do some direct mail. We, we do a lot of stuff at the practice level. So we do a Share a Smile program where we give away a prize quarterly, a drawing for somebody that refers a friend or family member. it's kinda like when y'all asked about what kind has grown these practices, marketing is one silo all in

Victor Razi 20:02

Sure.

Jeff Hand 20:02

It's a lot of different levers

Victor Razi 20:04

Yeah, I can imagine.

Jeff Hand 20:05

and and we, all of our practices is set Oxford or individually branded we We're, we do market the dentist. We don't just market the brand. If a dentist has a skill that they want us to market, whether it's implants ortho or Botox or whatever, we'll do some, specific marketing to their skills to draw certain patients in. So our new patient volume is been incredible.

Victor Razi 20:36

Awesome.

Jeff Hand 20:36

but people go where, they feel like they're getting a good value and they they're happy, and they're happy to refer their friends and family member, but you do have to ask.

Victor Razi 20:47

Sure.

Jeff Hand 20:47

So

Saad Alamgir 20:48

Yeah. Gotta throw that prize in there every quarter to keep

Jeff Hand 20:51

You do have to ask people,

Saad Alamgir 20:52

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 20:53

em a call to action to. To do that. We'll most people, if they've had a good experience, they'll refer you somebody. So we still get 70 to 80% of our new patients from in, in office referrals.

Victor Razi 21:07

That's awesome.

Jeff Hand 21:07

But,

Victor Razi 21:08

Yeah. So Jeff, you mentioned that, uh, Dr. Mike Huggins has been a integral part of this organization for our audience members to get a better idea of the type of person he is, kind of, how would you describe him to somebody that you've never met before and they ask you like, oh, what's, what's Dr. Mike Huggins about? You know, what, what's his thing?

Jeff Hand 21:29

Yeah. that's a great that I can't wait to answer that. We're we're actually fairly different. So I'm a city guy.

Victor Razi 21:36

Sure.

Jeff Hand 21:37

Lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Y'all, y'all been around me a little Mike's a country boy. He's, he wears jeans and boots every day. Even when he is practicing.

Saad Alamgir 21:47

I've shouted him

Jeff Hand 21:48

yeah. I think I've seen him, think I've seen him in dress pants maybe once. I think it was a wedding. I think he begrudgingly had to put'em on.

Victor Razi 21:58

Sure.

Jeff Hand 21:58

But but he's a salt of earth guy. You couldn't get a more authentic, honest forthright person. He's got the energy of a golden retriever puppy. He, he's the first one to work usually last one to leave. His work ethic sets the pace and his dentistry. He's learned a lot of skills over his career. He does implants, He does endo, does straight wire, ortho clear liners, he doesn't take out third molars, but

Victor Razi 22:27

All right.

Jeff Hand 22:27

Outside of that, he's got a pretty robust skill set. he, it goes back to that he surrounded himself really good people. The team at Life Dental Oxford, is they're incredible. It's a 1% practice. It's 13 operatories.

Victor Razi 22:45

right.

Jeff Hand 22:45

We'll probably come close to, maybe even$6 million this year. It's credible.

Victor Razi 22:52

Right.

Jeff Hand 22:52

got two other awesome dentists there, Dr. Rayburn, Dr. Lynch, both UMC grads. And it's, it just, he's just a good leader.

Victor Razi 23:01

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 23:02

by example. And and just a, just an awesome guy. Very fortunate to to be around somebody like that on a daily basis.

Victor Razi 23:11

Yeah. That's awesome. It kind of, I could see it too, being like a driving factor to kind of grow the business and,

Jeff Hand 23:18

absolute.

Acquiring and Managing Dental Practices

Victor Razi 23:18

do things of that nature. Jeff, so when you're thinking about acquiring a practice or purchasing a practice or building a practice, how much of the real estate thought is in your mind as much as the business for are you thinking about that or not as much?

Jeff Hand 23:34

yeah not too terribly much, honestly. That's probably not the answer you were expecting.

Victor Razi 23:38

Just curious.

Jeff Hand 23:40

Yeah we want to see at least five operatories, preferably more.'cause we've been blessed to be able to grow the practices. We like a standalone building. We've got several practices in our n standalone building though but at least five Ops. Preferably seven. Just where we don't have to do what we're doing in Montgomery and Tupelo by adding, a bunch of money and time.

Saad Alamgir 24:04

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 24:04

On. We've already done that in Columbus and in Batesville. And that just takes time and money.

Victor Razi 24:09

Sure.

Jeff Hand 24:10

Which is a, which is awesome that they grew like that. But,

Saad Alamgir 24:14

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 24:15

We own I guess maybe a third of the practices, the real estate. We lease a third of them from the landlord, whoever, It may. Owns the property. And then a third of them we probably rent from the selling dentist. We like to have a first right of refusal to buy the practice. If the selling dentist ever wants to sell the real estate,

Victor Razi 24:36

Sure.

Jeff Hand 24:37

to, be able to buy it to control our own destiny. But most important to us is having a physical plan or a facility that has enough room for us to grow within it. We're wanting to buy the goodwill of the practice, mainly, the doctor that's selling his reputation,

Victor Razi 24:57

For sure.

Jeff Hand 24:57

the good he's built through his career and his patients and team.

Victor Razi 25:02

For sure.

Jeff Hand 25:02

I've never understood, I, and I've seen this in the space, we buy people because we feel like they're doing well and we can help'em do better.

Victor Razi 25:09

Sure.

Jeff Hand 25:10

What I've

Victor Razi 25:10

I,

Jeff Hand 25:11

understood is when somebody buys a business and then tries to totally dismantle it,

Victor Razi 25:17

when it's already doing pretty well.

Jeff Hand 25:18

yeah,

Saad Alamgir 25:19

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 25:19

doing pretty good. You know why,

Victor Razi 25:22

Yeah. Change up the whole flow.

Jeff Hand 25:24

Yeah. Yeah. So we like to hopefully. Go in with a little bit of a soft touch. I and then try to change things in

Victor Razi 25:34

Sure,

Jeff Hand 25:35

process where everybody feels good about it.

Victor Razi 25:37

for sure.

Jeff Hand 25:38

we certain, we certainly try.

Victor Razi 25:40

Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff Hand 25:41

I'm not sure we

Victor Razi 25:42

That's all you can do

Jeff Hand 25:43

in that, but we certainly try

Challenges in Practice Transitions

Victor Razi 25:44

for sure. And kind of, uh. I guess on the same subject, when you do acquire, uh, a practice or purchase, has it been ever really challenging? Like getting, I guess having the patients experience that transition to where it's, I guess it is slightly different or you've kind of gotten better at that, uh, streamline and process.

Jeff Hand 26:06

Yeah. It depends, I think the, there's a couple core things. That if the patients feel that are happening that or the team feels like that's happening,

Victor Razi 26:16

Sure.

Jeff Hand 26:16

Really cause some roadblocks. One is practice management software. So if they're used to one particular practice management

Victor Razi 26:25

Sure.

Jeff Hand 26:25

and you change that initially

Victor Razi 26:28

I can imagine. I can imagine.

Jeff Hand 26:30

challenge operationally. The second thing is if the selling dentist is we've had it where the selling dentist was there on a Friday then on Monday, all of a sudden there's a different dentist there. The dentist, automatic retired almost instant. Well,

Saad Alamgir 26:46

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 26:47

that's a real challenge.

Victor Razi 26:48

can imagine.

Saad Alamgir 26:49

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 26:50

Most of our dentists that we buy. Are looking to gradually transition,

Victor Razi 26:55

Sure.

Jeff Hand 26:56

and that makes it a little easier that the team is at least used to having that dentist round

Victor Razi 27:02

Right,

Jeff Hand 27:02

to two days. And then, third is, you certainly can't change people's pay.

Victor Razi 27:08

for sure.

Jeff Hand 27:09

Or benefits. You want to either, you gotta keep'em the same. Fortunately our benefit package is pretty good, so we can usually add to it a little bit.

Victor Razi 27:18

Sure.

Jeff Hand 27:18

But those are the three obstacles that, that really you gotta think through. We do. This Tennessee practice we do diligence calls once a week with my team and our accounting team, which does an awesome job. We've been doing this for six to eight weeks now, so hopefully come next Thursday. We hope to know all the, at least challenges we might incur Most.

Victor Razi 27:43

Yeah. Sweet.

Saad Alamgir 27:45

Yeah, that's sweet. Jeff, I got a pretty broad question, and I think I might've asked you this already

Jeff Hand 27:51

Yeah.

Saad Alamgir 27:51

last saw you, but what is your, what's your 10 to 15, 20 year vision of what Life Dental will be? Kind of what is the overall legacy that you want Life Dental to have just in general?

Jeff Hand 28:05

a, yeah, that's a. That's a special question. We're having a great time doing what we're doing. We've been really fortunate to con be able to continue to attract nice people, to the organization. If you ask me in 2019, I could never dream that in 2025 we'd be doing close to 40 million in revenue with. dental practices.

Saad Alamgir 28:32

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 28:32

It count sounds cache,

Victor Razi 28:34

That's the truth. Yeah.

Jeff Hand 28:35

Yeah, it is honest. It's the honest to God truth. I and so we go, I, don't know. I do know that we'll do it with really good people. We're we're fortunately in a position now, we're doing really well and we want to continue to invest in who we got on our

Victor Razi 28:50

For sure.

Jeff Hand 28:51

also. We also want to trap more and more good people. And we're fortunate now that we're getting a lot of opportunities to have conversations with people that, five, six years ago, didn't even know we existed. That's cool. I would love for us to be talking 10 years from

Victor Razi 29:09

Sure.

Jeff Hand 29:10

whether we've got 16 practices still, or. 75 practices. I just hope that that we're doing it with people that we really enjoy being around and that they're all for the greater good. That sounds corny,

Victor Razi 29:23

Yeah,

Jeff Hand 29:24

We just got a great group of people.

Victor Razi 29:26

sure.

Jeff Hand 29:27

That. I tell people all the time, I think I told you all this, people try to get me to meet with people a lot of the time, and I do have some semblance of a personal life, not much of one, but but people ask me if I'll meet with somebody and I always ask them if would you like to have dinner with'em? And if they say to themselves I'm not really sure if I want to go to dinner with'em, I'll say, then why would I want to go to dinner with'em? So much less going to a partnership

Saad Alamgir 29:54

Yeah. Hundred percent.

Jeff Hand 29:55

We just want to, we just want to attract people that believe in what we're doing And'cause of that, sometimes we move a little slow. We want people to get to know us.

Victor Razi 30:03

right. Sure, sure.

Jeff Hand 30:05

not all the time we can meet somebody's time expectations.

Victor Razi 30:08

For sure.

Saad Alamgir 30:09

Yeah.

Victor Razi 30:10

Yeah. Well.

Jeff Hand 30:11

so

Advice for Dental Students

Victor Razi 30:11

Congratulations, Jeff. It sounds like y'all had a, y'all have a really great story and y'all are building a good culture and have good mission for the business and the practices. As we're wrapping here, we always ask, it's typically a dentist who's on our podcast. Do they have any advice for dental students for their future? You're not a dentist, so I think you would have a interesting take on what advice you'd give dental students that kind of. About to merge or just now starting this 40, 50 year career in dentistry.

Jeff Hand 30:41

Yeah. I would say obviously I'm gonna come at it through a different lens than a dentist.

Victor Razi 30:46

Right.

Jeff Hand 30:46

I think I can maybe play a dentist on tv. That'd be about it, but. But from my perspective, from the business side of things, I think I would find some dentists that are, I know a ton of dentists personally and professionally and a lot of them have different skill sets just like all of us. And

Saad Alamgir 31:05

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Hand 31:06

good at the business part. And so I think I Find somebody. That's really good at the business part and them as a mentor.

Victor Razi 31:14

Sure.

Jeff Hand 31:14

I think there's a lot of good, we're blessed in Mississippi and in Alabama. There's a lot of great dental CPAs and dental financial And dental attorneys that work with contracts. I would use them for their expertise too. And they're really good people. I know most of them and they're, they really want the best for their clients. And I think I would find a group that that was willing to invest in me for not just clinical success, but. My, my financial success too, because, You got one without the other,

Victor Razi 31:52

Sure.

Jeff Hand 31:53

a lot of really good, talented clinical dentists that aren't good at business, and unfortunately, they usually don't see that many patients. So Clinical skills are almost somewhat wasted because. They really don't see a whole lot of patients. And to me that's a

Victor Razi 32:11

I,

Saad Alamgir 32:11

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 32:12

there's a lot of that, that would be my words of wisdom.

Victor Razi 32:16

yeah.

Jeff Hand 32:16

just surround yourself with people that are gonna elevate you. That's fortunately what. I've got a team that challenges

Victor Razi 32:23

Sure,

Jeff Hand 32:24

and I've got two owners, William and Mike, that, have poured into me personally and professionally. And it's really help me grow.

Victor Razi 32:32

for sure.

Jeff Hand 32:33

So I would tell you guys to do the same thing,

Victor Razi 32:36

Yeah,

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Saad Alamgir 32:37

Yeah.

Victor Razi 32:38

for sure.

Saad Alamgir 32:38

Jeff, we really appreciate having you on. It's been a pleasure. I think that dental, and. This is just me talking, like I, the dentist that I go to now is Life Dental. I've shadowed the Oxford Office Life Dental. It is incredible. The atmosphere is awesome. This is not a sponsored

Jeff Hand 32:57

Yeah.

Saad Alamgir 32:57

ad. Like this is coming from the heart. I y'all really do have a great culture. And when, for those of you listening, when Jeff does talk about culture, like he means it like all the dentists, all the doctors that we've met from Life Dental, they are just. Like you said, good people who you want to have a meal with, and I think that building that culture is so integral for success. And I think you guys are obviously well on your way and this is just the beginning for

Jeff Hand 33:23

Thank you guys so much. I'm

Victor Razi 33:25

For sure.

Jeff Hand 33:25

This was my first time, so I hope I didn't,

Victor Razi 33:28

Nah, man. It was, it was great.

Jeff Hand 33:29

Yeah.

Saad Alamgir 33:30

Yeah.

Jeff Hand 33:30

yeah. Hotty, toddy, roll tide. Yeah.

Victor Razi 33:33

let's care.

Jeff Hand 33:34

state, whatever. Yeah.

Victor Razi 33:35

Cool.

Saad Alamgir 33:36

Yeah.

Victor Razi 33:37

it Jeff, and we look forward to maybe a part two in the future. I

Jeff Hand 33:40

Yeah. That sounds awesome, guys. Thanks for having

Victor Razi 33:43

for sure.