What does it take to build the world’s most luxe dental clinic? Hustle, a killer personal brand and Manrina Rhode’s unbeatable strategies. In the latest episode of The Dental Economist Show with Mike Huffaker, Manrina, founder and CEO of DRMR Clinic in London's Knightsbridge, opens up her playbook on building a global luxury dental brand while mastering business fundamentals and growing personally, too. 

Tune in for candid, unfiltered insights on building a professional and personal brand like no other. 

Dr. Manrina Rhode started posting on Instagram in 2011, years before opening DRMR Clinic, sharing glimpses of her life, work, and aesthetic passion organically. What initially seemed like personal content eventually became the foundation for attracting global patients and building trust before they ever walked through her clinic doors. For dental practitioners looking to scale, this insight flips the traditional business timeline: your personal brand becomes your most powerful marketing asset when built authentically over time. So, by the time you're ready to launch a practice or expand your services, you'll have an engaged community that already believes in your expertise. Remember, social media shouldn’t be a reactive marketing tool, but a proactive patient acquisition engine. 

Dr. Manrina worked three days a week for a decade - traveling monthly, lecturing globally, and maintaining a life outside the clinic - before opening DRMR at age 40, despite friends repeatedly warning her about the reality of business ownership. When she finally opened her clinic, she worked seven days a week for the first six months, sleeping only when absolutely necessary and even lucid-dreaming about problems that needed solving. The hidden cost of entrepreneurship isn't just financial; it's the complete restructuring of your lifestyle and mental bandwidth that no clinical training prepares you for. So, she urges anyone with a dream - before pursuing business ownership, honestly evaluate whether the trade-offs align with your definition of success, because the initial launch phase demands a level of sacrifice that traditional associate positions never require. 

Dr. Manrina's Instagram following of 44,000+ and patient referrals from ChatGPT recommendations didn't happen overnight; they're the result of posting consistently since 2011, long before she had a business model or clinic to promote. Every ten posts sharing her clinical work generated five new patient inquiries, proving that organic consistency eventually attracts the right audience and positions you as an authority. For dental practices struggling to see ROI from social media, the issue isn't the platform, it's the expectation of immediate returns rather than compound growth. She encourages practitioners to commit to posting three to five times weekly with genuine, behind-the-scenes content that educates your audience about your clinical process, not polished marketing speak.

Dr. Manrina's clinic culture thrives because she explicitly hires for a service-oriented mindset and includes camera-ready expectations in employment contracts, ensuring team members share her commitment to exceptional patient experiences. She prioritizes work-life balance and trust over rigid control, treating team members like partners who understand the brand vision and only ask for time off when it truly matters. The difference between a high-performing clinic and a struggling one often comes down to whether leadership can align team members around shared values rather than managing through policies and procedures. When building your team, invest time in identifying people who innately want to serve clients at the highest level and who genuinely believe in your vision, because those individuals require less management and inspire better patient outcomes. 

Dr. Manrina identifies a critical divide in the dental industry: the vast majority of practitioners either consume social media passively without posting, or they post without paying attention to broader trends and what competitors are doing. This "poster-only" mindset protects her mental health and allows her to stay focused on her message rather than getting distracted by comparison or algorithm anxiety. For dental practitioners, the lesson is that consistency and focus matter more than optimization anxiety. So, pick a posting schedule you can sustain, commit to it and don't let scrolling through other practices' content derail your own content strategy. Start with one platform, master it, and expand only after you've built a sustainable system that doesn't consume your time. The practitioners winning at social media are those who understand their brand message clearly and communicate it repeatedly, rather than those constantly chasing the latest trends or comparing themselves to others. If social media is affecting your mental health, you're probably watching too much and posting too little—flip that ratio.