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[VOICE]: This [00:00:05] is Dental Leaders. The podcast where you get to go [00:00:10] one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [00:00:15] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [00:00:20]

Payman Langroudi: This podcast comes to you from Enlighten Enlightens, an advanced [00:00:25] teeth whitening system that guarantees results on every single patient. We’ve treated hundreds [00:00:30] of thousands of patients now and have a really clear understanding of what it takes to get every [00:00:35] patient to that delighted state that we want to get to. If you want to understand teeth whitening [00:00:40] in much further detail, join us for online training only takes an hour completely free. [00:00:45] Even if you never use enlighten as a whitening system, you’ll learn loads and loads about whitening, [00:00:50] how to talk about it, how to involve your teams. Join us enlighten online training comm. [00:00:55] It gives me great pleasure to welcome Mike Hesketh onto the podcast. Mike is [00:01:00] a serial practice owner with a history in the military. Um, [00:01:05] a brilliant story. And the reason why I ask you, Mike, [00:01:10] is because some of my favourite interviews have been with people who are your [00:01:15] clients, and, um, clearly there’s something, something you figured out. [00:01:20] Um, I’ve listened to your other podcasts, and I actually [00:01:25] recommend that, um, my favourite one was when you did with Amon. Um.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [00:01:30] Amon up in Leeds.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was lovely. And I don’t think he’s doing that [00:01:35] podcast anymore, but it’s still it’s still there. It’s called Dentistry Unmasked.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah it is. There is another one from [00:01:40] America called Dentistry Unmasked. So I don’t know if it was something to do with that.

Payman Langroudi: Oh really?

Mike Hesketh: We haven’t really talked about it since, but there [00:01:45] was a bit of a clash of, uh.

Payman Langroudi: A brilliant episode. A brilliant, brilliant episode. Listen [00:01:50] to that last. I really enjoyed that very much. Um, I don’t mind repeating some of the ground, but [00:01:55] at the same time, um, just for my own curiosity. I go go to other places too. Please [00:02:00] do, please do. You were born and brought up. Where?

Mike Hesketh: In North [00:02:05] Wales. So. Yeah. So until I was 18, I didn’t know which way England was. I [00:02:10] was so, like, entrenched in North Wales.

Payman Langroudi: A tiny place.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. A little seaside town about [00:02:15] half an hour from Liverpool. So I’m a Liverpool football fan. Um, grew up in a large state [00:02:20] school playing football, um, and enjoying that very much. And then at 16, [00:02:25] I won a scholarship for a really fancy private school down the road, which was all about rugby, [00:02:30] Welsh rugby. And so for my A-levels, I went to a private school on a scholarship for sciences [00:02:35] and sport and um, yeah, really enjoyed it. Opened my eyes to sort of [00:02:40] what the rest of the world was like, but I was actually arrested three times when I was 16.

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [00:02:45] It was. Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Nice.

Mike Hesketh: Well, 14, 15, 16. I don’t I don’t think [00:02:50] my parents thought it was very nice, but, um. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, just for three sort [00:02:55] of minor incidents. Um, it was it was, I think is the biggest state school in Wales that was [00:03:00] in and I was the captain of the football team. And I could have gone both ways, really, um, as [00:03:05] a sporty lad. And a few of my mates have gone the wrong way as they do, and one of them played for Liverpool. Um, [00:03:10] actually scored in the cup and, and has just got out of prison. Um, so yeah [00:03:15] there’s, there’s interesting stories but you know like everyone um, normal state school um, I [00:03:20] was good at sciences and I managed to get quite a few A’s, which is interesting because [00:03:25] my 13 year old daughter is asking me about that now, and I don’t know how it equates to nine sevens [00:03:30] and eights. I don’t know how. How old are your children?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, 18 and 15.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. So [00:03:35] in the new language it’s nine seven and eights and sixes. And I said, well, I don’t know what I got darling, but it was six [00:03:40] A’s and I don’t know how I did it, to be honest. Um.

Payman Langroudi: And unfortunately, your father passed [00:03:45] away in a car crash when you were eight.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. He did, he did? Yeah. So my brother was ten [00:03:50] and I was eight, and my mum, um, got a knock on the door in the middle of the night [00:03:55] from a policeman. I was in the middle of night. It was a couple of hours later. He used to do the three ring [00:04:00] thing, and he was working up in Broughton, where the aerospace makes wings for planes, [00:04:05] and he was a local manager, and he was driving along the coast road of North Wales, back to where [00:04:10] we lived. And unfortunately, someone pulled out on him out of a pub, um, and luckily [00:04:15] there was a taxi driver behind who who witnessed it all. And, uh, it [00:04:20] took 2 or 3 years, but I remember feeling very vulnerable at the time. Um, [00:04:25] I don’t think I was, you know, my grandparents were in the same town and both sets, and [00:04:30] my mum was very strong. She immediately became a father and a mother at the same time. So she became a ninja [00:04:35] mum. Two boys, both sporty. Um.

Payman Langroudi: But when your own [00:04:40] kids got to eight, you must have reflected on that.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Horrendous, really. [00:04:45] And I think there was a moment where all the businesses were quite hard a couple of years ago, and [00:04:50] it was full on. And, you know, as an entrepreneur yourself, how hard and all encompassing the 360 [00:04:55] degree pressure you can have from business. And I looked at my boy in a little Welsh shirt and he was eight, [00:05:00] and I thought, oh, Jesus, you know, reminded me of me, um, back in the day. Um, [00:05:05] and so, yeah, it does, it does. It becomes much more real. You don’t realise [00:05:10] what you missed out. I felt like I had a pretty happy childhood, really. And other than this big sort of. [00:05:15]

Payman Langroudi: Event.

Mike Hesketh: Event in the middle of it. But everyone rallied round. He was a rugby player, um, [00:05:20] the local rugby club. So all his friends got around us and, um, [00:05:25] you know, my mum, um, eventually 4 or 5 years later, married his old best friend. So [00:05:30] that was quite nice. It was a continuity of stories and, um, you know, [00:05:35] um, sort of history. Um, but it’s only now when I get to sort of mid 40s [00:05:40] that I think, oh, that was probably more traumatic than I thought it was. [00:05:45]

Payman Langroudi: Do you think that was formative in terms of, I mean, positives and negatives? Did you [00:05:50] find out? Did you find that now, when you reflect back on it, that you have a sort of a level of [00:05:55] self-reliance or something that.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, I remember playing football a lot in sports. [00:06:00] Bricks in my shoes falling apart. And I went home and my mom was like, well, [00:06:05] we can’t buy any more shoes now. I don’t know whether that was just me being a plonker or whether [00:06:10] we could actually not afford any shoes. I remember the insurance didn’t pay out for 2 or 3 years, so [00:06:15] I don’t want to, you know, you made from your history, everyone on [00:06:20] the podcast and everyone you see, you know, is formed from a certain way. Um, it’s [00:06:25] there is a self-reliance. I remember thinking, I don’t want to be poor. I remember thinking, I’m [00:06:30] getting out of here, I’m getting out. And and maybe that was it. At 15, 16, [00:06:35] I was playing county level football, having a few trials, um, [00:06:40] starting to get good at things for the first time, get good at sciences at [00:06:45] school, enjoying it, um, wanting to do well, So I suspect probably it did [00:06:50] drive me on to actually. Think I don’t want to be vulnerable.

Payman Langroudi: Because in retrospect, you think someone [00:06:55] who went through that whole military experience and the leadership training and all that, [00:07:00] it makes a lot of sense for that person to go out into the commercial world and sort of transferable [00:07:05] skills. But not every soldier does that, right? No. And so, [00:07:10] you know, that question of, you know, wanting to be comfortable kind of what you’re alluding to right now. Yeah, [00:07:15] maybe maybe that I mean, what is the difference between a soldier that comes out of a [00:07:20] sort of a difficult, engaged war situation [00:07:25] and we hear stories of soldiers who are homeless and and PTSD [00:07:30] and all that. Yeah. And then you get other soldiers who, you know, use that and propel themselves [00:07:35] through the business world. Oh.

Mike Hesketh: That’s a it’s a sort of a deep question [00:07:40] that in a way, um, I didn’t feel any trauma from Afghanistan. [00:07:45]

Payman Langroudi: Did you know.

Mike Hesketh: At the time. And I think that’s again mid 40s. You start to think [00:07:50] back and go, geez, I dream about it now. I dream about the explosions, the gunshots more than I ever [00:07:55] did 15 years ago.

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. I think about it, compartmentalised it a little bit. And [00:08:00] I when I finished my tour, sort of 6 or 7 month tour of Afghanistan, [00:08:05] I was in Helmand and it was the most dangerous place on the planet at the time around Sangin [00:08:10] and Helmand Valley, and I was embedded as a dentist with 40 Commando, Royal [00:08:15] Marines. And so I’ve got lots of war stories. Basically, the first [00:08:20] three months was the worst three months of my life, but I was in the hospital. I was in the main hospital [00:08:25] as a dentist during the day, and as people were blown up and injured, they’d come back on the helicopter to [00:08:30] this hospital and they’d stand at the bottom of the beds because all the doctors, the [00:08:35] padre, the medics were all further forward, keeping the lads alive to get them on the helicopter. [00:08:40] And then, because I’d been embedded with the Royal Marine unit for 3 or 4 years prior to deploying, [00:08:45] I knew everyone, so my patient base was 7800 Royal Marine commandos, Mega [00:08:50] fit individuals, alpha males all the way. Mission is to close with and to kill the [00:08:55] enemy. That’s it. As brutal as it sounds, that’s exactly what the mission is. To close [00:09:00] within. To kill the enemy. The chosen enemy at the time. And so [00:09:05] my job was to be a dentist within that. But I’d done the commando course so I could keep up with them. [00:09:10] And I’d also done a medics course, and we could talk about that more later. But [00:09:15] to answer your question about the trauma of it, I’d gone through three months of standing at the end of the beds of my friends [00:09:20] with lost limbs, horrific injuries, my friend like literally [00:09:25] my mates.

Mike Hesketh: Um, and then I’d go. I’d walk along to the, uh, joint [00:09:30] operations cell, and at 8:00 at night, every night there’d be a brief. There’d be 50 men, [00:09:35] hard men in the room making decisions about the thousand men further [00:09:40] forward. And I’d do a brief every night and I’d talk. I’d say, right, marine [00:09:45] X is going to end up in hospital within two hours. He’s lost one [00:09:50] limb and another limb. Um, the questions would always be from the lads at the [00:09:55] front. Has he still got his tackle as he’s still got his private parts? That’s all the lads asked about. [00:10:00] Um. And then I’d do, I’d keep the spreadsheet and then that [00:10:05] was my data. And I did that for three months. And then it was almost a relief when the commanding [00:10:10] officer said, look, we’ve hit Christmas time halfway through the tour. We need to do some hearts and minds. [00:10:15] And because you’ve done the medic training and because we trust you, your [00:10:20] lead a team on the ground and you’ll go to the forward operating bases where all these soldiers [00:10:25] have been injured, and you’ll take a team forward and you’ll try and do hearts and minds from a medical [00:10:30] shuras meet the local chiefs, um, take female medics, [00:10:35] Gurkha engineers, and they’ll be your team, and you’ll be officer in command of outreach. And [00:10:40] then, in a weird way, those three months felt better. It felt better to be in [00:10:45] the fight because unfortunately, every time we went out the gate, we got [00:10:50] shot at or blown up. For every patrol, every every patrol was ambushed. [00:10:55] I don’t remember a patrol that wasn’t. And that went on for three months.

Payman Langroudi: Wow.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [00:11:00] And so I was a medic. So the dentist kit, I took an American piece of kit the [00:11:05] size of a suitcase, and I became a dentist for the lads because they were living out in these austere [00:11:10] environments. They had dental injuries, and the aim was to keep the force forward. So they. I’d be a dentist, [00:11:15] outreach and a medic. So three different jobs. And it’s varied. And [00:11:20] I did this three months. Ended up um, putting a lot of guys on [00:11:25] the helicopter as opposed to meeting them off the helicopter and, um, put in intraosseous, [00:11:30] um, fluids into them, um, eyes, abdomen wounds, limbs [00:11:35] lost, stretcher bearing, um, getting the rounds down, [00:11:40] firing at the enemy, and, um. Yeah. So the last [00:11:45] three months were sort of full on, but I remember flying back to the UK and, [00:11:50] uh, within a week after coming off the battlefield, I [00:11:55] was stood in a hospital in Portsmouth as a maxfax sho doing head and neck cancer. [00:12:00] And so, to answer your question about business, from that experience, I [00:12:05] think there was a little bit about me where I’d just gone straight from the military, uh, war zone, [00:12:10] a year of Maxfax I knew I was leaving, Laura was pregnant with Poppy, [00:12:15] our daughter, and I just wanted to get on and control the money. And [00:12:20] we got ripped off in north London, uh, by a Dental corporate owner, a small independent, [00:12:25] and, uh, didn’t pay us at all. I did two, three months worth of work, and he said, oh, that’s all retainer. [00:12:30]

Payman Langroudi: Was that your first time?

Mike Hesketh: My first experience. Yeah. Yeah. And I was 30, so I never [00:12:35] did NHS.

Payman Langroudi: So you were kind of Institutionalised up to that point.

Mike Hesketh: Exactly. Yeah. And I [00:12:40] said to my wife, I came home and I said, we just need to control the money. This civilian world is brutal.

Payman Langroudi: It [00:12:45] is. Right.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It’s it’s. And when I say 360 degree pressure, I [00:12:50] mean, when you wear a uniform in a war zone, you had a 360 degree battle space. But [00:12:55] your job is very defined. Defined job. Whereas as you know, as an entrepreneur, your [00:13:00] jobs change all the time, really rapidly. And in a way, it’s a completely different set of pressure. But [00:13:05] I almost didn’t care. I had a bit of a devil may care attitude. We had £20,000 [00:13:10] saving age 30, didn’t have any equity in the house because it was after the financial crash. The house price [00:13:15] that we’d bought in the military had plummeted. So I had no money. And I said to my wife, look, what [00:13:20] can they do? They can take a house with no equity offers. We’ve only got 20 grand. Let’s have a crack at it. Let’s just [00:13:25] buy something. And I we this house was down in South West, [00:13:30] so we just bought it near Exeter before.

Payman Langroudi: Before you go any further, just. I know as [00:13:35] a soldier, as a as a sort of someone in the middle of a war zone. You [00:13:40] wouldn’t be a very good soldier if you questioned it. That’s that’s not that’s not what you [00:13:45] want from your soldiers. Right. But now 40, 40 years old, when you question [00:13:50] it, when you think about it.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Two questions. Really. Was there [00:13:55] some times where you thought you were being asked to do things that that, you know, [00:14:00] it wasn’t correct. It wasn’t. I’m not I’m not saying from the from the geopolitical perspective, [00:14:05] I’m saying there’s a mission. And you didn’t have the resources for that mission. I’m under-resourced, [00:14:10] that sort of thing.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my honest opinion, I think that [00:14:15] they they took they threw about a fifth of the resources needed at Afghanistan, the Helmand [00:14:20] Valley itself. If you look at what the US Marines took to their areas and [00:14:25] to dominate the ground, it’s called against the Taliban. Okay. And we weren’t fighting Afghans. We’re fighting Taliban. [00:14:30] Okay. And there was a lot of civilian Afghans not interested in fighting whatsoever. [00:14:35] They were the ones who have insurance with and trying to bring some order. Educated. Really well educated. [00:14:40] Um, there was a lot of moments where both locally, on a tactical [00:14:45] level and on a strategic level where you question it and you think, right, okay. [00:14:50] I mean, I could tell you so many horrific stories about, uh, people [00:14:55] under pressure in a, in a war zone and fighting, um, that [00:15:00] men it’s very easy to see with hindsight and from a distance in the newspapers. [00:15:05] Well, why did they do that? Yeah. Well, if every two days you’re [00:15:10] 18, 19, 20 years old, you’re going to get shot at and bombed, and then your best friend gets hurt [00:15:15] or killed. There there were men in front of me in lines [00:15:20] that started to lose it because of the constant gun fighting. [00:15:25] And we’d cover ground, drive the enemy away, find a bomb maker, [00:15:30] come back to the base, and then they’d re-infiltrate that ground and drop and put mines in the place [00:15:35] where we’d walked the day before. Well, yeah. And so there wasn’t.

Payman Langroudi: You were under-resourced [00:15:40] to that extent. Right.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. So my feeling is it became a training exercise in a tick [00:15:45] box for the British government. My feeling strategically. And I’m happy to talk about that. It doesn’t [00:15:50] I mean, I was a dentist in the commando unit. I’m not the most you know, I wasn’t the guy driving policy. But [00:15:55] if they wanted to achieve what they wanted to achieve, they needed to put five times as much resources into it. But it became [00:16:00] the losses were too big. Um, you know, and two [00:16:05] high profile that they almost by not risking any more, [00:16:10] they put us all at risk by under-resourcing us. And if you’d lost someone from the [00:16:15] front line with a dental injury. Now the men move in groups of four. So for [00:16:20] eight, if you lost one of those four, you’d lose. You [00:16:25] know, a quarter of your your gunfire, your firepower. And so that’s why the armed Forces [00:16:30] Dental service exists because in the First World War they lost 15 to 20% of [00:16:35] their of their firepower due to dental injuries in trenches.

Payman Langroudi: So isn’t [00:16:40] caries like.

Mike Hesketh: The decay and.

Payman Langroudi: Disease injuries? Gunshots to the mouth?

Mike Hesketh: I mean, if [00:16:45] you think about it, they were they were living there for two years. We were living there for seven months.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. Um, and [00:16:50] these forward operating bases, if you think about them as satellites around the [00:16:55] sun, the sun was sank in, and then we were protecting this residential area. And [00:17:00] these satellites. Now, to get in and out of those satellites was a helicopter, hopefully [00:17:05] because you wanted to avoid road moves all the time because you’d either run over a legacy Russian mine from the mujahideen [00:17:10] time or you’d have to, um, you know, hit an [00:17:15] ambush with the Taliban. They’d know we’d come in. We were coming. And so these [00:17:20] satellite units were super dangerous. And all my job was for three months was to pop between [00:17:25] each of them, a couple of weeks in, each, trying to bring hearts and minds. But it’s so dangerous that [00:17:30] you didn’t want to, uh, you know, go on the ground as much, as much as possible, [00:17:35] basically.

Payman Langroudi: And I know you said they’re the enemy, right? But did you ever look at it from their perspective? Like, do you ever [00:17:40] think about what if a bunch of Russian soldiers landed in Cornwall? And would you be [00:17:45] the one to resist that?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. You do. Yeah. Yeah you do. And every time. But [00:17:50] you come back to your original question, you don’t. Um, it’s a funny thing, you know, [00:17:55] you have to have some faith in your government.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: To make a decision about where you’re [00:18:00] going to go. And at any one time, the the UK Armed forces is deployed around the [00:18:05] world doing all sorts of things that no one. That just doesn’t make the news. Some of it good, some of it bad. [00:18:10] And you can. It’s easy to be sceptical and cynical about [00:18:15] the efforts. It’s, uh, at the time you’re you’re [00:18:20] trying to survive with your mates. And I think as a marine or a soldier on the ground or a sailor, [00:18:25] you’re just trying to survive with your mates and you sign up to something. I [00:18:30] did see moments where there was a lot of, uh, [00:18:35] British, um, restraint trying [00:18:40] to stop other countries from being too aggressive.

Payman Langroudi: Americans? [00:18:45] Yeah, I said that to you.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, but, I mean, [00:18:50] um, modus operandi is, you know, the Americans is very aggressive, very aggressive, whereas [00:18:55] we wear a lot of berets, we are much calmer. You don’t hear any shouting [00:19:00] at all from UK armed forces in a, in a in a war zone. It’s, uh, [00:19:05] it’s calm.

Payman Langroudi: And then the training to become this sort of elite [00:19:10] soldier.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I suspect right. There’s loads of physical training. [00:19:15] Right.

Mike Hesketh: It’s mental.

Payman Langroudi: But mental. Yeah. That’s where I was going to go.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. You’re right. [00:19:20] I mean, it’s, uh, it’s mental. All shapes and sizes. It’s whether you can keep going. So, they [00:19:25] have this line. It’s called Strength of Mind. And they had an awful marketing campaign [00:19:30] which was 99.99%. Need not apply.

Payman Langroudi: Well. Jesus. [00:19:35]

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. So my brother and his best friend were in, [00:19:40] um. My brother was with Royal Marine Reserves, Merseyside, and his best friend was SBS. And [00:19:45] they used to, you know, come back home and talk about it. And I think this SBS [00:19:50] chap said.

Payman Langroudi: What’s a special boat.

Mike Hesketh: Special boat service. Yeah. So the.

Payman Langroudi: Sas for the.

Mike Hesketh: Navy SBS.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Of [00:19:55] the Navy.

Mike Hesketh: Uh, yeah. Yeah. They’re combined.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah yeah. So based [00:20:00] out of Poole and so they go, UK Special Forces training is one year long and the first three [00:20:05] months is the Hills training, and the second three months is jungle training. And then you do the remaining [00:20:10] six months speciality training with the SAS or SBS. That’s how it used to be. I don’t know what [00:20:15] it is now. I haven’t read up on it, but yeah, they used to talk about it and they and this, this friend of [00:20:20] ours said I think one of each of the three Commando units based in [00:20:25] Somerset, Plymouth and Arbroath in Scotland. I think they’ve all got their own dentist. Um, [00:20:30] and I was 21 years old at Leeds Uni and I said, [00:20:35] okay, what’s that about? And he said, well, I think they get to do the commando course. And [00:20:40] about um, about a month later a recruiter came to [00:20:45] Leeds Uni and I met him and I said, how do I join? And you do an Admiralty [00:20:50] interview board down in Portsmouth, and you learn and you pass as an officer, as a general [00:20:55] officer, and medics and dentists do quite well in that because we’re quite logical, [00:21:00] we’re scientific and we’ve often done sports captains of sports teams.

Mike Hesketh: And [00:21:05] so they give you a point score out of 900. And the medics and dentists do quite well against normal, [00:21:10] uh, Royal Navy officers. But I was always earmarked and pinged to [00:21:15] be a commando dentist even from that point. And you get [00:21:20] put in a commando unit for 3 to 4 years as a dentist, which is a long time for [00:21:25] a normal military posting. And so they pinged me for that as I passed the Admiralty Interview [00:21:30] Board. And then as soon as I’d done my vocational training year in, in Gibraltar [00:21:35] and down in Portsmouth, they said, right, you’re off to 40 Commando. And then [00:21:40] when you’re there, you get loaded on a course called the All Arms Commando Course. And that All Arms Commando [00:21:45] course is where you physically get thrashed and you’re and it’s designed [00:21:50] to break you essentially. A lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen will [00:21:55] do that course before they go and try the year long special forces training. So I was in there [00:22:00] on my course. Do you ever watch 14 Peaks on Netflix?

Payman Langroudi: I heard it’s a mountain [00:22:05] climbing thing. Yeah, I’ve seen it. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Did that. He was a Gurkha. Um, Ant [00:22:10] Middleton from SAS Who Dares Wins? Um, he taught me to soldier [00:22:15] in the Congo, in Sierra Leone. Um, sorry. In Sierra Leone, not in the Congo. We hid off the coast [00:22:20] of the Congo for three months. Once. That’s another story.

Payman Langroudi: So being a Royal Marines dentist [00:22:25] basically means you get involved in stuff that they’re doing, which by its very nature is more dangerous, [00:22:30] more exciting, whatever. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: And I think that’s what I wanted. I qualified it and [00:22:35] I was 18 when I went to Leeds, and I just turned 18 in the summer. So I qualified at 22. [00:22:40] But at 22 and one month I was in, I was down in Portsmouth because they were [00:22:45] paying me. They paid me for the last two years of uni and then they put me straight through all of the courses. [00:22:50] Royal College in Edinburgh, Royal College in London, Maxfax so it’s a great [00:22:55] employer as a dentist, but your patient base is very limited. You spend about half your time being a dentist [00:23:00] on very easy patients, um, who are compliant and [00:23:05] fit and well, and then you spend half your time doing officer things or [00:23:10] atls advanced trauma life support courses, but you do battlefield versions [00:23:15] where the mechanism of injury is blast injury or gunshot wounds as opposed to road traffic. Yeah [00:23:20] yeah yeah yeah. So you you do those courses to, um, get better at medicine, [00:23:25] but it’s the only course we’ve ever come to us because I was against Marines.

Payman Langroudi: So. [00:23:30] Yeah. You had a better.

Mike Hesketh: Medical course I ever came.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So [00:23:35] then, okay, you come out, you decide. How many years would you. Were you contracted to stay?

Mike Hesketh: Seven [00:23:40] years. But I did eight. So age 22 to 30. And then I left in 2012.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:23:45] you literally couldn’t leave before that, right. Is that the.

Mike Hesketh: Way it works? Well, I think you paid back some of the money you paid at uni. [00:23:50] Okay. I mean, there were people that sort of got around that I think, who didn’t want to be. But, um, [00:23:55] you asked before about the All Arms Commando course. Yeah. Half will [00:24:00] pass, half will fail, and it’s an eight week course as opposed to 30 weeks to get [00:24:05] your Green Beret if you come off the street because we were trained officers, you do eight weeks and you do each [00:24:10] of the criteria tests each week. And I used to tell myself stories, books in [00:24:15] my head on the marches, because the marches can get bleak. Yeah, it can be horizontal [00:24:20] snow, rain, wind, um, on Sennybridge or Dartmoor. And [00:24:25] you sleep outside for two weeks, essentially. And you soldier and you. And then you have to do all [00:24:30] the sentry duty. It’s wet, wet, dry routine where you put wet clothes on at night, um, and [00:24:35] get into your. And then you get into your dry clothes. It’s all about discipline and it breaks and [00:24:40] it’s all men, really. There’s there has been 2 or 3 women that have got through it, [00:24:45] um, over the recent history, um, which is amazing. Um, because it’s just [00:24:50] so physically and debilitating. Um, but yeah, [00:24:55] so but the mental thing is keeping going and telling yourself stories and being able to switch off to the pain. [00:25:00] Um, and then at the end of the 30 miler, which is a race across Dartmoor, essentially [00:25:05] carrying loads of weight, you, um, all of the recruiters come along. So [00:25:10] all of the Special forces come along, recruiters, and they start talking to you as you’re come in off the 30 mile, [00:25:15] and they want to know whether you’re a diver, whether you’re an airman, what’s your background? I had a chat with [00:25:20] one chap and he said, well, I was a dentist. I don’t think you need to be joining the Special Forces. [00:25:25] He’s like, what are you doing here? I was.

Payman Langroudi: Like. [00:25:30]

Mike Hesketh: I don’t know, I’m on. I was on a six figure salary line in the stream. I have no idea. But, [00:25:35] you know, when you’re just like, well, I’m going to I’m going to get the coveted Green Beret. So it was I mean, there was. [00:25:40]

Payman Langroudi: A degree of obsession, right? To succeed at that.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. I mean, it’s [00:25:45] trying to keep up with your peers. You know, you’re in the unit and there’s 700 Green Berets, and there’s only four blue [00:25:50] ones. The padre, the doctor, the education officer and the dentist. I used to I used to say we used to double the IQ [00:25:55] of the unit. And then when the under-slung loads came in from the Chinook helicopter, [00:26:00] the food in the forward operating bases, they’d go, Dental, it’s your paycheque. They’d [00:26:05] be taking the mick out of me.

Payman Langroudi: So do you reckon you’ve got a sort of an obsessive [00:26:10] personality? I mean, did it carry through?

Mike Hesketh: I want [00:26:15] to complete things that I start. Yeah. And I want to, um. There’s a saying in the Marines, it [00:26:20] pays to be a winner. And they’d see a tree on the hill and they’d say, run to that tree and back, [00:26:25] and all of you would run there, and the first two could stop and sit out the next bit. [00:26:30] Oh, yeah. And it pays to be a winner, gentlemen. You know, it is unashamedly [00:26:35] alpha, and it’s not in vogue with the modern world in any way whatsoever. But [00:26:40] there is a point where there will be forces needed to do things, and [00:26:45] you need to be able to rely on the person next to you that they’re not just going to quit halfway through [00:26:50] and advance to contact when the rounds are coming in, and they’re going to be disciplined to [00:26:55] follow orders and the fire. And it became apparent in Afghanistan that was [00:27:00] really important.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, you must have seen Simon Sinek. He he draws quite a lot of inspiration from [00:27:05] Seal teams and all that. Yeah. He does for business. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Leaders eat last. Well, that’s [00:27:10] it’s quite funny, actually, listening to him talk about it, because it’s just normal. [00:27:15]

Payman Langroudi: It’s normal.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. You stand at the back of the food line. You just the lads you never take [00:27:20] from the lads, you know, you, um. And that’s the same if you equate it to Dental world hygienists. [00:27:25] So there’s a way that hygienists are on at the moment, which is incorrect, how [00:27:30] associates are paid for the use of of hygienists. People have this system where they where they [00:27:35] charge the associate for the use of the hygienist and their pay membership pay. It’s the wrong way round. They’re taking [00:27:40] from their team. So there’s all these little nuggets that I talk about that, um, destroy [00:27:45] the ethos of the leadership. So I was came out in the military at age 30. [00:27:50] I think I was a little bit, um, devil may care. I have a [00:27:55] very, very strong wife who gently, very clever wife who gently nursed [00:28:00] me through life. I didn’t even realise what I was getting, you know, pointed in the right direction [00:28:05] by her, very supportive, very loving. And that’s [00:28:10] where we took the risk to buy the first business because. But if you think about it as a blank [00:28:15] canvas, I didn’t know anything about the real world as much as it was an experience [00:28:20] in the military. I didn’t know anything about how to build business. I didn’t know what the word invoice meant. I [00:28:25] remember asking my accountant, I.

Payman Langroudi: Said, you forget. I didn’t know what a word invoice meant when we started enlightened. You forget [00:28:30] you did the things you didn’t know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike Hesketh: And you do. And I said to my accountant, I was like, which way does the money [00:28:35] flow with that? Is that like, in or out? I was 30, you know, how cosseted [00:28:40] and how narrow minded and people go, Jesus, you’ve done a lot in the military. I was like, no, you just it’s very narrow. [00:28:45] And when you come out into the brave world and you’re dealing with money [00:28:50] and you’re dealing with sharp operators who have a different ethos, [00:28:55] yeah, to the one you’re used to, um, you can end up getting yourself in trouble, I [00:29:00] think. And maybe that’s where ex-military people suffer. Um, they can’t understand it.

Payman Langroudi: Especially [00:29:05] because they want defined rules. Yeah. And and it’s not like that [00:29:10] out there, right?

Mike Hesketh: No.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And maybe also though your biggest advantage. Right. [00:29:15] Because like that sort of clean slate that you’re talking about. You didn’t go into it with habits, [00:29:20] um, with, with, with the same sort of, you know, boundaries that we [00:29:25] all sort of take for granted. No. You know, sometimes you look at someone like Elon Musk or something, [00:29:30] and he questions the boundaries that we all take for granted. [00:29:35] And that’s his massive, you know, superpower. Yeah. So yeah. So you saw this practice. [00:29:40] Did you sort of strategically buy this practice as in.

Mike Hesketh: No, no, [00:29:45] no. I just, um, wanted to control the money. So we got ripped off and I said [00:29:50] to my wife, we need to control the money. We’ve got 20 grand to put down. And the broker was very good. [00:29:55] Um, David Brewer, Frank Taylor and Associates, very good broker.

Payman Langroudi: Raised the money.

Mike Hesketh: He raised them. Well, he was very [00:30:00] good in the fact that it was for sale through those guys. And, um, and I said to David, how [00:30:05] much can I raise? And he said, well, that’s a 10% deposit, 15% deposit. [00:30:10] Um, and so you need to look for practices around the 202 50 mark. I mean, it [00:30:15] was in 2012. Yeah. It was um, and it was turning over 500,000 at the time. [00:30:20] It was three gentlemen who wanted to retire, didn’t want to be tied in two brothers and their friend, and [00:30:25] they’d been trying to sell it for 3 or 4 years. A lot of people had looked at it in the city of Exeter. [00:30:30] Um, there was ten private practices within a mile of it, but it was basically all we could afford. [00:30:35] And I and I said to my wife, well, if we want to control our own destiny, let’s see what we can do. [00:30:40] This is my little secret weapon was that Lara was a talent manager in [00:30:45] central London, so had been in, um, competitive business. But being heavily pregnant [00:30:50] with Poppy didn’t want to carry on working in the city centre, obviously. So moved back down to the West [00:30:55] Country to have our daughter and is in charge of the creativity [00:31:00] and the branding and as a leader in herself, in her own right of the business. Um, [00:31:05] I’m the front man, and I have the awkward conversations with people, which is fine. Um, [00:31:10] but really, there was an assurance from her in business, so there was some business [00:31:15] knowledge. I it just wasn’t in me, you know? And I said, oh, let’s just fix teeth. Come on. Let’s [00:31:20] just fix some teeth and, you know, it’ll work. It’ll be fine. Um, you know, let’s see how [00:31:25] we go. And I had a coach in 2012, um, and [00:31:30] he was fantastic.

Payman Langroudi: And a business coach.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. So I’d gone to a, [00:31:35] um, like a Premier Inn or something off the coast, off, um, the M5. [00:31:40] Um, and it was hosted by Lloyds Bank who were lending us money. And they said, look, I think you should [00:31:45] come and listen to this, coach. And it was my first experience of business coaching. And I went [00:31:50] there and this coach was talking about growing dental practices, being [00:31:55] innovative, being creative. And I said, oh, Laura was at home. [00:32:00] I think she was like only a week or two from giving birth. So she was at home and I walked up to him at the end and [00:32:05] I said, um, okay, how do I get your help? Because I’ve just nearly [00:32:10] completed on a business and I need I need some support. He said, it’s £800. I was like, oh, oh, [00:32:15] brilliant for the year. And he went, no, a month. I was like, what? [00:32:20] You know, because you, you’re sort of reference points of money is [00:32:25] from where I grew up, you know, and the military was just.

Payman Langroudi: It was a bit shocking.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [00:32:30]

Payman Langroudi: But you went ahead anyway.

Mike Hesketh: Well, I wasn’t going to. I told my [00:32:35] wife all of the good things about what he’d said about how he could. And I said, look, his bottom tier is a group thing, [00:32:40] and it’s £800, um, a month, so I don’t think. And she said, you should [00:32:45] do that. So you see how the influence of Lara, then I wouldn’t have done [00:32:50] it, because I would have thought it was too much money and I would have made so many mistakes. But when you said a blank canvas, [00:32:55] when the when you go through the commando course, they do something called a two [00:33:00] footed landing. When you jump into dark water and you do a two footed landing, [00:33:05] because if you do a one footed landing, you break your ankle. Okay. When you’re climbing the ropes, you lose [00:33:10] your you use your legs, not your arms, because your legs are four times stronger than your arms when [00:33:15] you’re going horizontally across the ropes. If you ever see Bear Grylls doing that, he uses his legs, not his arms, [00:33:20] because his arms, your arms blow out really quickly, especially when you’re carrying ammunition and [00:33:25] weapons. So I always just did what the [00:33:30] physical training instructor and the Royal Marine commander has told me to do how to clean a weapon, how to strip [00:33:35] down a weapon, um, how to, um, soldier in the jungle, everything. [00:33:40] And I just followed the rules. And so I [00:33:45] was paying this coach, and I said, right, I’ll.

Payman Langroudi: Do whatever he says.

Mike Hesketh: I’m going to do whatever you say.

Payman Langroudi: It’s [00:33:50] super interesting. I heard this in your previous pod, and and I reflected on it might have been [00:33:55] the most valuable thing that you said insomuch as I [00:34:00] go round practices and corporates and yeah, he [00:34:05] on here maybe talking about what should you do if you want to increase your whitening through the roof. Yeah. [00:34:10] And I can think of a couple. Yeah. Couple. Two literally two people [00:34:15] who did exactly what I told them to do. And they ended up being fantastically [00:34:20] successful in whitening. Now, I’m not saying I’m some sort of genius. I’m actually thinking of those guys. Yeah, [00:34:25] those guys had that sort of foresight to just follow the instruction. And the [00:34:30] crazy thing, one of those guys thinks I’m I’m the genius. I kept trying to tell him, I’ve [00:34:35] said that same thing to a hundred people. You’re the only one who just took it fully on.

Mike Hesketh: It’s bonkers, [00:34:40] isn’t it?

Payman Langroudi: It’s bonkers that people don’t do that more. You know, I can’t.

Mike Hesketh: I couldn’t believe it.

Payman Langroudi: Because it was your military [00:34:45] training.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, but because I was in the group, I’d driven up to Bristol. Our group was meeting in the southwest, [00:34:50] so it was part of his group in the southwest, and we’d meet in the Marriott in Bristol and, um, [00:34:55] driving back after the first meeting, I wrote to him and I said, because, [00:35:00] you know, I was getting really stressed with the purchase of the practice in 2012. I was like, this [00:35:05] is really hard. I don’t know anything. And I said, look, I can’t be surrounded by [00:35:10] negativity in the room. I’ve put my house on the line, put my money on the line. I kind [00:35:15] of do want it to work. Um, I’m trying to box things off in my head, but that [00:35:20] was the most negative meeting I’ve ever been in.

Payman Langroudi: From the other delegates.

Mike Hesketh: From the other delegates, the other dentist [00:35:25] owners in the room that all had big practices. It was horrendous. And so [00:35:30] I said, I’m just going to do what you tell me to do. I’m going to send you stuff. And if you could just read it, I’ll [00:35:35] still pay you £800. But I’m not coming to the meetings. I don’t want to be surrounded by the negativity.

Payman Langroudi: Interesting. [00:35:40]

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, it’s terrible, isn’t it? And so then, to be fair to him, he was a very good coach. It was Simon Hocking down in the [00:35:45] South West. Lovely man, lovely man. And so he, um, he then said, right, we’ll move [00:35:50] you to a more dynamic group. We were thinking about shaking the groups up. Anyway, we’ll put you in like the entrepreneurial sector. [00:35:55] But even in that entrepreneurial group, I just did what he told me to do, and I messaged [00:36:00] him and I said, we need to change the name of the practice and rebrand it, and we’re going to open seven days a week. [00:36:05] What do you think? He said, yeah, do that. I went, okay, is that easy? [00:36:10]

Payman Langroudi: This was early on. You decided to do that, right?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. In, you know, in the city centre, because there was half a [00:36:15] million people walking 50 yards from the front of the practice. So I didn’t understand why no one was open seven days a week. [00:36:20] And the way to make seven days a week work is you work one weekend in five. Everyone. [00:36:25]

Payman Langroudi: Everyone does that.

Mike Hesketh: Everyone. One weekend in five, you give them the Friday and the Monday off of that [00:36:30] weekend, and you shorten the days on the Saturday and the Sunday. So the days get shorter, but you pay [00:36:35] them the full pay. Yeah. As they would do on a Friday and a Monday.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: And then everyone, including [00:36:40] the owner leaders eat last. So it works the weekend.

Payman Langroudi: And was it [00:36:45] were you were you doing the 8 to 8.

Mike Hesketh: No no no you can’t do both.

Payman Langroudi: You can’t do both.

Mike Hesketh: No. Can’t do [00:36:50] both. Now I know that this practices there are and I know there’s a really big one in Birmingham that does 24 hours of dentistry [00:36:55] and stuff like that, and I get all that, and that’s their brand ethos. But if you want to make it sustainable and not run your practice [00:37:00] hot, you do one or the other. And to me, if you’re going to muck up someone’s weekend on [00:37:05] a Saturday and make them work a Saturday, muck it up properly.

Payman Langroudi: Take the whole thing.

Mike Hesketh: Take the whole thing, give [00:37:10] them the Friday and Monday off. And then a lot of the time these are busy mums in the business. They [00:37:15] get a Friday and a Monday to themselves and then on the weekend they’re [00:37:20] cool, calm, collected in a nice practice. When it’s really quiet. It’s seven shares [00:37:25] in the practice, so one was being operated and they’re doing a root canal at 2:00 on a Sunday [00:37:30] and it’s cool and it’s calm and they’re having a really peaceful weekend. And [00:37:35] so people think seven days a week is is noise. It’s not. But [00:37:40] if I was to open one in London, Birmingham, any of the cities, I would be opening seven days a week [00:37:45] and I’d just do one weekend of five and I would work one weekend of five. And you can’t really swap that weekend because it becomes [00:37:50] a rota nightmare for everybody. But you pay them the full whack. You don’t do time and a half, you just pay them the [00:37:55] full hours. Then the hours are eight till half, eight till six or something, or half eight till half, five [00:38:00] and a normal working day. So you pay them up, but you only ask them to come in ten till four on a Sunday. But you pay in full [00:38:05] hours.

Payman Langroudi: So from the management perspective, if a member of staff says I’m not willing to do that, or [00:38:10] is it that that doesn’t happen because you get the buy in from the [00:38:15] get you.

Mike Hesketh: Try and do it with, you know, panache and style. But there’s a benefit to everybody. I [00:38:20] outlined one of a peaceful weekend. Um, the other one is that you? If you’re a [00:38:25] self-employed associate, you’re always full because you get so many new patients on the weekend that [00:38:30] you end up with extra people doing it. But there is a very clear it’s the [00:38:35] accidental way or Dartmoor way, and that’s really important. Some [00:38:40] people are too delicate with their brand and aren’t don’t [00:38:45] really know their purpose. And so you need to be really clear about one of your brand values might [00:38:50] be accessibility. Well, if you’re accessible, you either need to do late nights or you need to be doing the [00:38:55] weekends if that’s one of your brand values. So it’s knowing your brand and. [00:39:00]

Payman Langroudi: Communicating your brand to your people.

Mike Hesketh: And so you just attract like minded people. I never I’ve [00:39:05] never really gotten rid of anybody really, other than, um, people just self-selecting out [00:39:10] of the business, just leaving because they, they weren’t in line with the brand values.

Payman Langroudi: Not [00:39:15] the financials of this business were just extraordinary. Right. So just go through that [00:39:20] because you sold it, what, 4 or 5 years after you bought it.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. So we bought it for 230 K [00:39:25] in the end.

Payman Langroudi: Turning over 500.

Mike Hesketh: Turning over 500. Yeah. And [00:39:30] then four years later it was turning over 2.5 million. And we sold it [00:39:35] to Bupa for a £3.2 million.

Payman Langroudi: Extraordinary.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [00:39:40] And winning the lottery.

Payman Langroudi: You’d expect in order to get that level of growth you’d [00:39:45] expect to be not only working seven days a week, [00:39:50] but also grinding the team on sales and and bringing [00:39:55] in loads of new services and all that. Is that the case or with with these guys doing so little [00:40:00] that it was easy to. Yeah. It’s never easy to go from half a million to no. [00:40:05] 2.5 million.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. No. Sometimes like one of the growth was like, you know, 600,000 [00:40:10] back in the day. It was when it was quite competitive as well. It was pre-COVID. Um, but [00:40:15] what we do is we create a whirlwind. Okay. So everyone picks a lane. So each of [00:40:20] the associates picks a special interest a specialism. Yeah. And they have to do a master’s in it. So [00:40:25] you have your endo your oral surgery, your ortho, your and you know, all of [00:40:30] it prosthetics.

Payman Langroudi: So that you don’t refer out.

Mike Hesketh: So you refer no work out. Yeah. And then you create a work and [00:40:35] you walk around banging the drum for world class care. Yeah. You present the case to the university tutor at the end [00:40:40] of the course of treatment, as if you were going to present the case. Okay?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: And [00:40:45] we didn’t get there, but we were a long way towards it. And what we do is we create a whirlwind [00:40:50] of internal referrals and a team approach to dentistry. And it worked really well [00:40:55] in a city centre location. The practice was over six floors, cosmetically based all on [00:41:00] fours doing advanced dentistry. Not many children know NHS contract denplan [00:41:05] list. So a very different brand to our current practice Dartmoor. [00:41:10] But we created this system where we just have internal referrals and refer no work [00:41:15] out. But each associate that joined, there’d be one of them [00:41:20] that would do ortho, one of them that would do implants, one of them that do endo not two.

Payman Langroudi: Mhm. [00:41:25]

Mike Hesketh: And I said to them if you want to work here as a generalist then you have to do one [00:41:30] weekend in uh five. And no one is bigger than the team. It’s [00:41:35] a one in all in military ethos. And I will not stop investing [00:41:40] until we have everything that’s in the market that makes you efficient equipment. [00:41:45] Facilities. Laura knew how to do the customer service [00:41:50] and the ethos of the practice. And I knew how to bring high quality [00:41:55] clinical care, because a lot of my patients were seen by other dentists in the military [00:42:00] who were, Eastman qualified. And and so you become well calibrated as a dentist. [00:42:05]

Payman Langroudi: And marketing wise, you must have done a lot of marketing, right?

Mike Hesketh: So we [00:42:10] we did a bit of PPC and a bit of SEO. We did. We got we cottoned on to the Google [00:42:15] local listing really quickly in 2012. And we just knew everyone was using Google. Yeah. And [00:42:20] so but we had three new websites within three within 3 or 4 years. So we, we changed the websites, [00:42:25] did a bit of blogging, but really about £1,000 a month. Um, on marketing we [00:42:30] got up to 200 new private patients a month.

Payman Langroudi: So where did they come from? Word of mouth?

Mike Hesketh: I think so, [00:42:35] yeah. Because once you start investing, um, and driving the standards higher, [00:42:40] people talk and all of a sudden if you refer in no work out, they’re getting everything [00:42:45] in one in a, in a one stop shop. Um, it just snowballed so quickly [00:42:50] that like on a Monday we get like 28 new patients call. And I used to say to them, you could [00:42:55] have called yesterday, we’re open yesterday. But even on the front line of the business, it was open seven days a week. [00:43:00] They were like, oh, you’re open on a Sunday. I’m like, yeah, seven days a week. You know, you could have called [00:43:05] yesterday, really, but you’d end up with 28 new new patients on a Monday calling when it was [00:43:10] difficult to get them. Um, it was like a whirlwind of business growth [00:43:15] that, um, it was making 500,000 a year at the end. [00:43:20] But I was only working. I’d stopped clinical at year three, and I was only working [00:43:25] two days a week before that.

Payman Langroudi: So you were taking 500,000 out of the business, [00:43:30] only working, not working.

Mike Hesketh: And I was I was I was a student.

Payman Langroudi: Were you doing that [00:43:35] on purpose?

Mike Hesketh: Um.

Payman Langroudi: Or was it just that, you know, you decided you didn’t want to be the clinical [00:43:40] guy. You’re more excited by the management side.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, well, I [00:43:45] don’t think I could cope with the clinical work as well as the rapid growth of the business. [00:43:50] It was too many inputs and so something needed to give. And one of my patients was a university [00:43:55] lecturer at Exeter Uni. And she said, oh, if you’re a local entrepreneur that [00:44:00] we’d like to give people a free MBA. Free? Yeah. For free. A 30 grand MBA. And I was [00:44:05] like, okay, what’s this about? She said, well, we have a lot of international students whose first language are not is not English, [00:44:10] and they find it difficult. So we need like a fulcrum of the quota. Yeah. First, first [00:44:15] language English in the room. And so they gave out eight of them. And she said if you get your application [00:44:20] within within 48 hours, I can get you a free MBA at Exeter University, which is a, [00:44:25] you know, it’s top ten university business school. And so I was like, okay, so I’ll do [00:44:30] that. And that gave me a, um, explanation to the patients of why I’m not [00:44:35] clinical anymore. But it was very affirmatory of affirmative. And an MBA was. There was modules [00:44:40] on AI, modules on blockchain. It was in 2016, 2017 modules [00:44:45] on accountancy. I’m not sure I learnt a lot except [00:44:50] I should have bought Bitcoin.

Payman Langroudi: I was going to ask you, do you, do you recommend dentists to do an MBA? [00:44:55] Because I know loads of people who’ve done an MBA. Non dentists and I don’t know, [00:45:00] they come into one of two types when I asked them about it. Uh, one is they [00:45:05] meet a lot of people on the MBA. So it’s that sort of contacts way of things. [00:45:10] Um, some of them want to go and run, you know, multinationals. Um, [00:45:15] but a lot of them say that, you know, it’s like they wanted to plug a weakness. [00:45:20]

Mike Hesketh: Um, I think if you’re a small business owner in dentistry or any other small business. Yeah, [00:45:25] it people go, oh, I should probably do an MBA. Yeah. And when you’re on it, you could probably do teach some of [00:45:30] the modules, especially if it’s a small business owner.

Payman Langroudi: Really? Really. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. Because the modules are divided into as I [00:45:35] described. So I mean, even on, um, the, um, some of the statistics module, [00:45:40] you know, you start with an actuary who’s, you know, who is a brain size of a planet working out [00:45:45] pensions. I mean, they can teach that lesson on statistics. Um, and [00:45:50] sometimes they’d have a guest lecturer in. And I couldn’t bear listening anymore. Like, especially when the [00:45:55] banks came in, you know, and they tell you how the world is and you’re like, hang on a minute. That’s [00:46:00] that’s rubbish. You know, so you’ve got to bite your tongue. But what it did do was [00:46:05] it again, it was a bit of an enlightenment. Enlightenment, um, moment. [00:46:10] This whole small business thing coming from the military was, you know, I was in a very British, [00:46:15] you know, environment, then a small business, and then you go [00:46:20] into an international environment of a university as a as a postgraduate, [00:46:25] so to speak. And you’re with Chevening scholars from the South America [00:46:30] or Africa, who were the brightest of the brightest of the British government, paid for to have soft power influence [00:46:35] around the world. I think there’s 20 or 30 presidents of countries that were British Chevening scholars. [00:46:40] And so you sat with these people who think differently, talk differently. And [00:46:45] I’ve tried to not always be forceful, try to listen [00:46:50] and understand and know my limitations of where I grew up, and try and listen to these people [00:46:55] that have different challenges. And to be honest, I would say [00:47:00] 75% of the course were very left wing and you’re just not surrounded [00:47:05] by that. You know where I grew up. And so, um, and you think, ah, [00:47:10] and they had very valid points, um, around social justice, around [00:47:15] caring for people.

Mike Hesketh: And I enjoyed it and I actually enjoyed [00:47:20] my friends from it. And there were 5 or 10 years younger than me, but they’re really good friends [00:47:25] and they’ve gone on to do wonderful things. Um, but I was doing that whilst the practice, [00:47:30] I’d do the morning huddle and I’d walk up the hill to the Exeter University and [00:47:35] the business would just go on without me. Seven chairs turning and burning. And I’d just [00:47:40] do that. Morning huddle, ten 15 minutes drop Poppy at school, at the Cathedral School in Exeter and then [00:47:45] walk up the hill. Um, it was a very good time. And then it was about three quarters [00:47:50] of the way through the MBA that I bumped into Dental elite at a show. And I [00:47:55] said, oh, um, it was actually Dental elite. We bought the practice through. And, um, [00:48:00] I said, well, we bought it for 230, its EBITDA. Is this what do you think [00:48:05] it’s worth? And they said, oh, you could probably put it on the market at 3.1 million. Whoa. Jesus. [00:48:10] Wow. And I think it was a four year turnaround. And I just wanted [00:48:15] a break. I’d gone to uni at 18, Navy at 22, bought [00:48:20] a business at 30, and I was 34. I just wanted a break. And [00:48:25] so, um, Poppy was five, Hugo was [00:48:30] three, and I said I just wanted to spend more time with him, probably coming [00:48:35] back to my father. Um, and I just wanted to spend more time with him. So I said, let’s sell. We know [00:48:40] we we’ve got a fantastic financial planner in Thomas Dixon of Wealth. And he said, you’re going to have to go [00:48:45] again. The computer program says, you’re going to have to.

Payman Langroudi: It’s not enough money.

Mike Hesketh: For [00:48:50] the rest of your life, because you still had about 700 grand a.

Payman Langroudi: Day because you were too young.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. Too young. And [00:48:55] you’re going to need to, he said. But people like you go again. I was like, no, I’m worn [00:49:00] out. Like I it’s been such a rapid growth. I’ve got my MBA now. Um, and, [00:49:05] um, yeah. And travelling around the world, um, and we just.

Payman Langroudi: How was that?

Mike Hesketh: The [00:49:10] best part of my life? The highlight of my life. Um, I just [00:49:15] wish we could go back and do more of it. Um, we set off, [00:49:20] um, down to Singapore and an old Navy mate that was in Afghanistan with five years before [00:49:25] or three. Four? Yeah, five years before. Um. And he was [00:49:30] working for Lloyd’s of London ship crashes investigation. And if you ever fly into Singapore, it’s [00:49:35] something to behold. The bay there and the amount of ships. So I can see why he’s late. He’s located there. And [00:49:40] so he was doing well for himself. So, um, we stayed in his place in Sentosa Island, [00:49:45] which was fantastic, of Singapore. And he put us up for a week or two, and we just decided [00:49:50] to travel so slowly. And I’d been to enough rough places. I said to my wife, [00:49:55] we’re not going to go anywhere controversial, like even, you know, more [00:50:00] than what you’d class modern countries, I’d say, right. We’re just going to go to easy places, not going [00:50:05] to need any vaccines. We’re not we don’t have to worry about. We’ve got five and a three year old in tow and [00:50:10] a couple of weeks in Singapore.

Payman Langroudi: Did you large it? Were you going like business [00:50:15] class? I mean, £3 million just hit your account.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. So, uh, it was funny actually, [00:50:20] because I rang Thomas once and I was going into Exeter city centre and [00:50:25] I said, I’ll wait there a minute. I just got get on the bus. Give me a second. He was like, why are you getting on a bus? And I [00:50:30] don’t know. It’s just easier. I live in Devon and there’s a bus, so there’s not. There’s not over, you know. And he [00:50:35] was like, yeah, you could just get a taxi into town, couldn’t you? Shopping. And I was like, I don’t know, mate. [00:50:40] I just get on the bus. So we bought £1,000 student ticket to go around the world. [00:50:45] And so four of them. And it’s one of those ones you remember back in the day in uni sta travel? [00:50:50] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And you divide the world into orange segments and you can’t go back on a segment. Yeah, yeah. So we did [00:50:55] that. So we, um, we did this orange segment.

Payman Langroudi: Just to be sensible.

Mike Hesketh: I [00:51:00] don’t know, really. And then. Yeah. And then we did Airbnb. Um, but we got really good at it. Um, [00:51:05] even travelling with small children. Um, because then we went to Australia, New Zealand, the Cook [00:51:10] Islands and the Cook Islands. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What was that like?

Mike Hesketh: Amazing. That’s where Hugo really came alive. [00:51:15] He. I remember him jumping off a boat and swimming down the anchor chain. Like he’s an outdoor boy. [00:51:20] I think he might end up being a commando. We’d spend a lot of time sleeping outside on Dartmoor. [00:51:25] Just he and I with the dog. He loves it. He says, dad, I feel free. I okay [00:51:30] anyway. So yeah, he he loved the Cook Islands and um.

Payman Langroudi: Is it as you would imagine. [00:51:35]

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Paradise.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. And it’s collecting crabs. It’s five hours from New Zealand. It’s [00:51:40] like halfway to South America. It’s if you ever look it up on a, it’s a dot in the middle of [00:51:45] nowhere. And, um, it’s part of New Zealand in some weird way. But [00:51:50] Poppy turned six in New Zealand on one side of the dateline, [00:51:55] woke up in the morning, had a presence and we had a flight that day on a birthday. Flew to the Cook [00:52:00] Islands, which is on the other side of the dateline. Went to bed and [00:52:05] she woke up and she was six again.

Payman Langroudi: Had her birthday again. Yeah. So we did it. We did. We did the whole party.

[BOTH]: Because how many [00:52:10] times are you. Six. So we had this party and uh. Yeah. And I think.

Mike Hesketh: You [00:52:15] know, um, marriage when you’ve got businesses and [00:52:20] pressures and Laura had put up a lot with a lot. Um.

Payman Langroudi: It gives a bit, right?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, [00:52:25] it was hard. And I think as soon as we hit Singapore relaxed and we [00:52:30] had two suitcases, two little children travelling slowly, we educated Poppy [00:52:35] just by going to the local libraries in every city that we went to. And it was a very small world [00:52:40] and we followed the sun. So we only needed shorts, shorts and t shirts with the odd little [00:52:45] jumper. So. And then as it turned to spring and summer in the northern hemisphere, we [00:52:50] just shovelled rice. We saw a volcano go off in Hawaii. That [00:52:55] was a and the children talk about it now in school that they’ve sat on the end. We just got lucky. We [00:53:00] went to a national park there and it erupts every 20 years. And we just checked in and [00:53:05] the lady at the desk said, oh, you’re lucky you bought this six months ago. These, these rooms. I was like, yeah. [00:53:10] And the room was overlooking a lava spouting and the room at night was orange. [00:53:15]

[BOTH]: So we had all these.

Mike Hesketh: Experiences that travel brought us [00:53:20] and, uh, yeah, it’s the best time of our life, really. We were evacuated, actually, in [00:53:25] the end from that. So that was the only slightly dodgy place that we went to. We had to get away. We actually [00:53:30] got a lot of messages from friends saying, we can see from your Instagram you were near that volcano that’s going off wrecking [00:53:35] towns. Like, yeah, we’ve moved now and we’ve got to fly out of here in a couple of days, so we’re fine.

Payman Langroudi: What was [00:53:40] the highlight of that trip?

Mike Hesketh: Oh, um, I love Byron Bay. [00:53:45]

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really? Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, because I was there as a student, you know, backpacking, um, I [00:53:50] was experience. That was amazing. Um, and so, yeah, I like Byron Bay. My [00:53:55] wife likes the Hamptons.

Payman Langroudi: In New York.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Oh, and I was like, I think there’s a [00:54:00] reason we live in Devon. We don’t want to compete with London money. And I said, we’re not buying in the Hamptons. We’re not [00:54:05] competing with New York money. Darling, we’re not giving you with that. Uh, but she. But, [00:54:10] like. Yeah, the Hamptons. Lara has really high standards of everything that [00:54:15] she does. And she worked in the centre of London. She worked for a really good talent management company, [00:54:20] Really good friends.

Payman Langroudi: When you say she was responsible for the creative. Yeah. Oh. Is [00:54:25] it. Do you mean broadly, or do you literally mean the brand? Um, [00:54:30] is it something else broadly?

Mike Hesketh: The customer service, the end to end patient journey, the [00:54:35] brand, the standards and the evolution of the brand? Um, which is important. [00:54:40] A lot of people will take their business at 500 grand, and then they’ll [00:54:45] do really well. They’ll grow it, they’ll double the turnover, and it will take like a couple of years. And then you [00:54:50] say, well, is that the same business as that one? But they keep the same brand, and [00:54:55] there is an evolution of a brand that happens in small business that people, um, [00:55:00] don’t keep up with. It costs money to re website. Um, keep on top of your [00:55:05] colours, keep on top of your theme. But Dartmoor Dental, our current business has done [00:55:10] exactly the same. And so Laura did a brand within 24 hours. Um, [00:55:15] I’m still in trouble for. But did a brand, um, quickly for me when we bought the business, and [00:55:20] then we shared that with the team, took the brand standards to them. And [00:55:25] then three years later, she’s now going through the brand standard again and a completely different [00:55:30] but that business, Dartmoor. We was turning over 700 K when we bought it. It’s now doing [00:55:35] 2.5 million. Three years later, those two businesses are different. It’s got different people in [00:55:40] it even serves different.

Payman Langroudi: Different time as well. Right?

[BOTH]: Macroeconomically yeah, [00:55:45] yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Totally different time.

Mike Hesketh: We bought it just after Covid and now it’s, you know, we [00:55:50] you know, we don’t do any cosmetics. We haven’t done any cosmetics or aligners or anything to get that growth. [00:55:55]

Payman Langroudi: Really.

Mike Hesketh: There’s no there’s no cosmetics or aesthetics. It’s just just drive the standards higher.

Payman Langroudi: Implant. [00:56:00]

Mike Hesketh: Um, yes. We’ve got a very good visiting implantologist who’s done a thousand [00:56:05] straumann implants. He’s brilliant and he’s a good friend. Um, he was recommended from a mutual friend [00:56:10] to come and join us. Um, and so we did a bit of implants, but not full arches, you [00:56:15] know, 1 or 2 placements and put all all the growth is around this whirlwind [00:56:20] of a system of of each dentist picking a lane. And then we’ve got five therapists [00:56:25] and then the five therapists then cover the NHS contract, which is our social contract. [00:56:30] I treat it as a charity, and we’re the only one of six practices in the town that do NHS, and [00:56:35] we look after the poorest in society and it costs us double what the NHS [00:56:40] pays us to look after 3000 children and 1000 adults, and these 1000 adults have [00:56:45] got no money.

Payman Langroudi: What are you doing it almost out of philanthropy.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. So we so we do, um, [00:56:50] we supplement the NHS care with our private work. [00:56:55] And so say the contracts, 350 grand or something to look after 4000 people. [00:57:00] We I think it costs us around about 600, £650,000 [00:57:05] to, to deliver that care. So that’s 300,000 that we out-of-pocket. Yeah. [00:57:10] Yeah. I mean it’s not the brightest business strategy in the world. No. In the round [00:57:15] of the world. It’s going to come good. I’m sure. Um.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, let’s [00:57:20] just walk through that. Is it that you can literally see need and as part of that [00:57:25] community you want to you’re there, you want to service that need.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. And I think it probably takes me [00:57:30] back to the medical Shuras sat in the middle of Afghanistan. Sounds awful because of the Dental desert in Devon [00:57:35] and Cornwall. There’s no clinicians.

Payman Langroudi: Um.

Mike Hesketh: Um, but luckily, one of my good friends from [00:57:40] Afghanistan, Ewan MacColl, is the dean of Peninsula Dental [00:57:45] School, and I think he’s chair of this, that and the other on a national level now. But he’s my mate. [00:57:50] We spent a lot of time running together in Afghanistan, him much faster than me. And [00:57:55] so he very kindly recommends us to the dental school, hygiene [00:58:00] therapy school and the dentist down there. So he does sort of recommend us highly, which is [00:58:05] nice, but I tried to live up to that. So I have a connection, a network of military [00:58:10] or ex-military clinicians in the southwest. But if you put an advert out for an NHS [00:58:15] dentist, you’re not going to get one. So what we try and do is go around the problem and [00:58:20] use therapists. Um, but to full scope, um, and then associate dentists [00:58:25] to do it and everyone, including the highest grossing dentists in our practice, [00:58:30] have to do NHS work, including me.

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. So for the last, we’re all zoned in [00:58:35] the diaries, and it’s the last hour of the day. We turn into an NHS clinic and everyone does [00:58:40] the children as they leave school. And the aim is to, um, look after all the children [00:58:45] of Tavistock and the five villages around us. And I know there’s NHS rules on accepting [00:58:50] everybody, but we look after our own backyard. I don’t even live there. It’s an hour away from me. It’s [00:58:55] not even my, um, community.

Payman Langroudi: You know, you could. I don’t want to be reductive about it. Yeah. [00:59:00] Because it’s a beautiful thing. And so. Yeah. There it is. It’s fine. But you could have take that £350,000 [00:59:05] and given it to fallen soldiers families or to Afghanistan. [00:59:10] You could have done anything with that £300,000, but you choose to do it. Are there other benefits to [00:59:15] the business? Like is there a one for all? All for one? The fact that all the clinicians are having to do this [00:59:20] NHS thing.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. And and you know, you asked before about what happens if they don’t do seven day opening. Well [00:59:25] if someone doesn’t it’s too good to look after the NHS patients. And [00:59:30] they don’t.

Payman Langroudi: They’re not right for you.

Mike Hesketh: They’re not right for us. But I still want them to be high end dentists. And you think, well, how do [00:59:35] they switch? Well, they don’t switch.

Payman Langroudi: They just do high end dentistry on the case.

Mike Hesketh: That’s why it costs you so much. So it’s [00:59:40] not a great business strategy. So in any way, it’s not really. But, um, what what it has [00:59:45] done, its part of the brand values is we list it as socially aware. So we try and [00:59:50] walk the walk. Um, and yeah, of course, there’s, um, a lot of parents that [00:59:55] don’t qualify because it’s an exempt contract. So it’s children. And like I say, a thousand people who can [01:00:00] get benefits can qualify for it. We can’t take any more patients on. But we [01:00:05] took on a thousand last year. Um, we just put some messages out on [01:00:10] Facebook and to the local schools and said, we’ve got some space for children. And so we took on children [01:00:15] and it ended up with 1000 extra children. That made the BBC news. So [01:00:20] from a brand awareness, you could say, yeah. [01:00:25] And the PR, the power of the BBC is ridiculous. Yeah, yeah. Um, and the [01:00:30] local Facebook groups as well. It gives, gives us credibility. Um, [01:00:35] and the business, you know, still makes 15, 20% profit. It’s [01:00:40] fine. Um, we’re investing heavily. It’s a 200 year old manor house. [01:00:45] So I’ve got.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve.

Mike Hesketh: Got builders everywhere. Yeah, yeah. So, um, we’ve we’ve refitted eight [01:00:50] surgeries in those three years, and we’ve just put in a ninth this week, and we’ll put a 10th in next [01:00:55] week. Um, and, but every facility has been upgraded. The [01:01:00] first thing we did was the female changing rooms because they were gross. They were in the basement and we refitted all of those. [01:01:05] But what I most love is that the. There’s a couple of partners that have stayed on out [01:01:10] the four that I bought it off and they’ve really embraced it. And so one of them that [01:01:15] um, it was advised to me to get rid of at the beginning I was like, no, [01:01:20] let’s have a little let’s have a think about this is now grossing 40,000 a [01:01:25] month, is doing high end dentistry, is, um, absolutely beautiful [01:01:30] work. And he’s admitted himself he wasn’t very keen [01:01:35] on me at the beginning and what the changes we were going to bring. But we’ve invested so much, [01:01:40] um, that it’s brilliant bringing people on, even partners [01:01:45] who have stayed there for quite a while.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, that’s that’s quite an achievement. Right. Well, he could [01:01:50] have switched off completely reactivated him, took him the other way.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. And there was no tie in. I just gave him all the money [01:01:55] and said, stay or don’t stay, I don’t I’m not into tie ins. It’s [01:02:00] easy to control when it’s me. You know obviously for corporates it’s different and for independent groups who have [01:02:05] got 20, 30 practices. That’s fine. But for me, I don’t. You [01:02:10] know, if someone doesn’t want to be there, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. But we are going to put £1 million [01:02:15] investment into this place. So why wouldn’t you be here? And by the way, [01:02:20] you get to pick a lane and that’s all about you. And we’ll highlight you and we’ll develop you and we’ll give [01:02:25] you the best chairs, we’ll give you the best equipment. And by the way, your turnover will go [01:02:30] from 10,000 a month to 40,000 a month. It was a seven year practice doing 700 grand. So you [01:02:35] can imagine the style of dentistry doing 100 grand per chair. So I work on ratios of turnover [01:02:40] per chair.

Payman Langroudi: And your 20% that you’re talking about, is it still 20% bearing in mind all the investment. [01:02:45]

Mike Hesketh: No no no no no.

Payman Langroudi: It’s once the investment is done it’ll be 20%. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Hesketh: So [01:02:50] we have a do you know I have a dental accountancy firm.

Payman Langroudi: You own one?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [01:02:55]

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. By, um, by just, um, need [01:03:00] necessity for the profession. Right. Okay. So I’ll tell you about this. So, um, [01:03:05] when we had Exeter, I had this amazing accountant who was a friend, um, in [01:03:10] the southwest. I was talking to her, and I said, I need some help with numbers. And she said, [01:03:15] okay, but she’s a chartered accountant from outside of dentistry, and she’s my sage [01:03:20] advisor. She tells me when I’ve got it wrong, she tells me, you know, almost like a business advisor in a way, and [01:03:25] kept it close to my chest. And the consultancy that I [01:03:30] do, um, comes about from meeting with Ashley Latta. And Ashley said, could I do an entrepreneurs [01:03:35] group talk for him? And I’m currently doing the Chris Burrow 100 club talk [01:03:40] for him, his series and all of that was good. But one [01:03:45] of the four pillars that I work with people on, the last one is financial command and control, and command and control [01:03:50] is very military term. Yeah, but what we had was a couple of clients [01:03:55] that came on board with me and I said, what? What’s X, Y and Z are your numbers? And [01:04:00] we could see errors all through their accounting software zero 30 [01:04:05] page reports being generated. Automated generated, just useless data [01:04:10] built on sand because the bookkeeping wasn’t good enough. So many errors, double [01:04:15] invoices, statements posted. I said, look, I, I’m wary that I’m trying to create [01:04:20] family wealth, time and money for you as a consultant and you don’t know your numbers. And it came to [01:04:25] a head. There was a client in bath and, um, there were so many errors [01:04:30] in their accounting system from a Dental accountant, C um, [01:04:35] based in the southwest as well, who got it so wrong that they [01:04:40] were almost going to get sued.

Mike Hesketh: And so I spoke to Jodi, who I’d kept close to my chest, and [01:04:45] I said, Jodi, we need to help this person out, clean up all the mess in their accounting system based on [01:04:50] zero and these reports. And Jodi went through and cleaned it all up, and then [01:04:55] that person then told someone else, and then that person told someone else. And so then Jodi said to me, look, [01:05:00] there’s a problem in the profession of lack of accuracy of bookkeeping. Like financial [01:05:05] rigour on bookkeeping, these. These firms aren’t doing it. They’re passing it to junior clerk who’s pasting [01:05:10] statements to the accounts. So I said, okay, what [01:05:15] is the problem for everybody? Right. She said, yeah. She said, well, why don’t we start an accountancy [01:05:20] firm as well. So I have this accountancy firm with now, I think we’re coming up to 30 clients [01:05:25] that we work with on a bespoke level. It’s Jody, it’s her [01:05:30] team, and they start from bookkeeping. And because now they they [01:05:35] also Jody has a small share in Dartmoor in our practice. She is [01:05:40] an owner. She understands running a large dental practice and where the errors are made. Associate [01:05:45] pay um interest rates are incorrect from the bank. She got a client [01:05:50] back £13,000 overnight a couple of months ago. Um, she goes through the [01:05:55] associate pay calculations, and we found a client who’s overpaying by £17,000. And [01:06:00] these were Dental accountants. Oh, yeah. By each month to associates just on their pay structure. [01:06:05] So now when I work.

Payman Langroudi: Here, the error could be in that direction as well. It’s [01:06:10] always tends to be in the other direction.

Mike Hesketh: It’s funny isn’t it, how the errors always fall in the bank’s favour. So [01:06:15] yeah, I own an a Dental accountancy. I don’t know how we got on to that, but I now [01:06:20] own a Dental accountancy that’s growing nicely and and, um, it’s it’s a joy, really, [01:06:25] because I operationally, I have minimal input to it, but it’s my name on it. It’s called [01:06:30] Hesketh Healthcare accounting. Um, and, and every week we sign up a new client. And [01:06:35] Jodie really loves undoing the mess that’s behind the scenes. A lot of [01:06:40] people don’t even know there’s a mess.

Payman Langroudi: Now that you’ve been exposed to, I guess three different [01:06:45] business models, right? The Dental practice model. Yeah. The, um. [01:06:50] Consulting. Yeah. And now the accountancy model. Yeah. [01:06:55] How how do you rate dentistry as a business? I mean, I think we all [01:07:00] understand. Hey, it’s a safe business. Um, we don’t, you know, not [01:07:05] many. The 24 years we’ve been operating, not many of our customers have gone bust. No. It’s [01:07:10] happened, it has happened. Some some people overspend right at the beginning. Sometimes. That sort of thing. [01:07:15] Yeah. Um, at the same time, not many do exactly [01:07:20] what you did that grow it so quickly. And I mean, that’s a ten-x exit [01:07:25] you got after four years. Yeah. Um, grow it that quickly and and exit and then do [01:07:30] it again. And it’s obviously in a totally different practice. You’re repeating it. Yeah. How does [01:07:35] it compare? I mean, consulting is nice, right? Isn’t it. It’s words. It’s [01:07:40] it’s not you’re not you’re not having to break your back.

Mike Hesketh: I think it’s a soft profession. And [01:07:45] the barriers to entry are really high, aren’t they. You’ve got to be on the register in some way or the other. Um, and I think [01:07:50] there’s 8000 independent practices in the UK from the Christie’s report and about 4000 [01:07:55] within corporates. So there’s 8000 practices that are owned single [01:08:00] single owners.

Payman Langroudi: Do you mean the competitive environment is limited by that barrier to entry?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, there’s a [01:08:05] high barrier to entry and also the cost of the rooms. You know, the surgeries are 50 grand aren’t they. Yeah. So the cost [01:08:10] to entry is high for medical compliance. So you need a bit of weight behind your money wise. Now [01:08:15] there seems to be a lot of squats opening up, especially around Birmingham and London at the moment.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [01:08:20]

Mike Hesketh: Um, I think they’re the ones that I worry about. Worry about a little bit, because I [01:08:25] think the Instagram bubble is is passing as well because of AI [01:08:30] and the content creation. And so they’re being drowned and it’s not good enough just [01:08:35] to have, you know, fancy plastered walls and, uh, a nice, a nice front desk anymore with [01:08:40] a, with a nice sign. I think there’s a danger I get phone calls from people saying we [01:08:45] haven’t got enough patients. These squat Start-Ups. Now, they’re not all like that. And some are very successful. Um, [01:08:50] I can think of ones that have gone to 2 million turnover within a couple of years, but [01:08:55] I think it’s harder to do that right now because the barrier to entry is quite high. So if you can [01:09:00] get hold of a practice that you can buy and layer on, I’ll probably always just buy practices and [01:09:05] layer on success over the top of them, um, and try and do things better. Mainly [01:09:10] because I follow the advice from coaches that we talked about right at the beginning, and I try and [01:09:15] put everything in place to make it world class.

Payman Langroudi: Um, I think I heard you say something about [01:09:20] principals get too emotionally involved in, in so many aspects of their [01:09:25] business. Yeah. And you were talking about leakage and I thought about we [01:09:30] leak, we enlighten, we leak loads. Yeah. But I don’t see it as personal [01:09:35] leakage. I see it as the company. Yeah. But going back to the squat thing, a lot of [01:09:40] people, they want they want to do this dream. Yeah. Sort of blank canvas [01:09:45] thing. Yeah. And you know your motivation for what you do, it’s [01:09:50] very interesting.

Mike Hesketh: Well, if you can.

Payman Langroudi: If it scratches a particular rich for you.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah it does. [01:09:55] But if you if look, be honest with you. Everyone’s going to do what I ask in my own business. Yeah. Because of [01:10:00] the way that I approach it. Um, so to me, it is a fresh start up. [01:10:05] I bought what was called Limmeridge House Dental, changed the name, rebranded it. We always rebrand. [01:10:10]

Payman Langroudi: This Dartmoor.

Mike Hesketh: To Dartmoor. Yeah. So I bought that in 2022. So it’s three years old now. And, [01:10:15] um, I was always going to layer on, um, a different systems and [01:10:20] processes. So it’s like a squat to me, but it just happens to have 700 grand a turnover [01:10:25] when we started. And a lot of loyal patients.

Payman Langroudi: 0 to 700 is the hardest, isn’t it.

Mike Hesketh: That’s [01:10:30] what I’m saying. Yeah. That’s what takes sort of five years really 3 to 5 years for a lot of people. [01:10:35] I know that there’s I think sometimes the squats that do really well are squats from people that own [01:10:40] others and they know the game. But, um, I know people who have had three practices [01:10:45] and done a fourth squat and they said the squat was the hardest, um, to get going. And it’s just [01:10:50] a niche they want to scratch. And can we just do it? Because you don’t want to pay that purchase price, [01:10:55] but there’s so much value in the purchase price that especially if you can, you know, use [01:11:00] that 700 to £1 million springboard straight away. I think Dartmoor last year grew 900,000 in [01:11:05] 1 year. So we’re saying 0 to 700 is hard to get. The momentum [01:11:10] we grew last year 900.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Once you start to get and everyone starts to get it. [01:11:15]

Payman Langroudi: And how do you feel. So I guess you don’t agree with that advice that says, don’t [01:11:20] come in and change the name and change the processes straight away.

Mike Hesketh: Change everything, change [01:11:25] everything.

Payman Langroudi: Talk me through it. Because because the standard advice is kind of don’t scare everyone off [01:11:30] at the first moment. And you know, I’ve got this place I buy, um, fruit, [01:11:35] fruit and veg, right? Yeah. It’s God, that’s very expensive. It’s [01:11:40] right opposite my, my kids school. It’s very good. It’s very good. Yeah, [01:11:45] it’s expensive, but it’s good. Yeah. You get the fruit and veg in this place that you just don’t get anywhere else. Right, okay. [01:11:50] It got sold and on day one I walked in and [01:11:55] the till wasn’t where it usually is. It was somewhere else. Yeah. Now what was going [01:12:00] through my head was what about the fennel. Yeah. Is the fennel still going to come from [01:12:05] the same supplier or not. And by the way, I got over it. I’m still I’m still shopping there. Yeah, but [01:12:10] but the advice is don’t go change everything. Don’t scare the staff, don’t scare the patients. [01:12:15] And evolution rather than revolution. Yeah. So you differ from that.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. We we differ from that. Bearing [01:12:20] in mind what we buy though, we buy massively underperforming practices that have scope for growth. [01:12:25] One of the.

Payman Langroudi: First time you didn’t even realise you were doing that right. The first time you were just buying. But the second time took [01:12:30] me through that. The second time you were looking for that, were you?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. So we’re looking for something that has been on the market for 2 [01:12:35] or 3 years. It’s probably too big for a new associate to take on. It’s seven chairs [01:12:40] turning over 700 grand, and I originally offered 800 to buy it, but I [01:12:45] got it for 600. Just when you go for the due diligence and work through the process. Um, and [01:12:50] they’re, you know, they’re rough and ready, you know, um, loyal patient base probably been there the practice. Been [01:12:55] there a hundred years. Um, in the southwest. It’s a very stable patient base, a lot of retirees. [01:13:00] So they’ll tell you, you know, they don’t like the change. But the key thing, what you [01:13:05] talked about the fruit and veg is you gave them a chance. You gave them one chance. You turned up once, you knew it had been [01:13:10] bought and sold. And you’re like, oh, the tills in a different place. Maybe that gave you a trigger, but ultimately you gave [01:13:15] it a chance. You probably give it another chance. And and just to weigh up another [01:13:20] drop off or another pickup. Do I like it? Do I not like it? And so you’ll give it a couple of chances. [01:13:25] So the key is, is those chants. And so people are loyal either to the dentist that’s retiring [01:13:30] or they’re loyal to the building. They’ll give the building another chance.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Um, [01:13:35] and don’t get me wrong, there will be ten grams from [01:13:40] patients who will write very eloquently about why I’m the worst person in the world of [01:13:45] a couple of thousand members.

Payman Langroudi: Now, don’t take that personally. [01:13:50]

Mike Hesketh: If I took that personally. I mean, I do have a bit. I do have a bit of fun with it. I, um, [01:13:55] I, uh, ring them.

Payman Langroudi: Oh.

Mike Hesketh: Do you? Yeah, yeah, I ring them and I go, [01:14:00] oh, can I just to try and turn them. We try and kill them with kindness. That old adage and, uh, the [01:14:05] team are built around that, so. But you will get ten naysayers. And a [01:14:10] lot of the time, people that have been coming to the building, having the dentistry, they go, yeah, it [01:14:15] needed investment and it needed change, and they’ll give you a chance. But bear in mind [01:14:20] that there are six practices within the same town in Tavistock, and all the others are private and we’re private, [01:14:25] but with this NHS contract, um, and so they give you a chance and [01:14:30] so then you’ve got to try and do it with empathy, with care, with communication. [01:14:35] And you say, right, the brand values are we’re moving to this, we’re changing the name. [01:14:40] Limmeridge House is a manor house. It’s 200 years old. It’s always been called Longbridge, [01:14:45] but we’re going to call it Dartmoor Dental around a national park which is aesthetically pleasing [01:14:50] and desirable. Um, and we will try and give an experience [01:14:55] to patients. Um, but I don’t really buy into this, um, something [01:15:00] new. Um, we we’re not reinventing the wheel and, you know, sort of the strap [01:15:05] lines doing dentistry differently from corporates and mini corporates. And you’re just [01:15:10] raising the standards, which is great. Everyone’s investing and raising standards, but no one’s really doing much different. [01:15:15] You know, we’re not reinventing the wheel in those 8000 practices. And I don’t think many they [01:15:20] might be buying them different, different ownership structures. But in reality it’s just [01:15:25] a catchphrase really.

Payman Langroudi: But to grow them the way you have, you must be. Now, when you say raise [01:15:30] standards, you’re comprehensively treatment planning. Yeah. And I guess sometimes you’re breaking [01:15:35] bad news to people, right? I mean, you know, if the dentists have been sort of very laissez faire [01:15:40] And then you come in and say, right, full mouth rehab. Yeah. How do you manage that? [01:15:45] Because, by the way, they watch the place being done up. Yeah. That cynicism comes in as well.

Mike Hesketh: And [01:15:50] actually my hygiene.

Payman Langroudi: For it or whatever.

Mike Hesketh: My hygienist and we were at the private dentistry awards on [01:15:55] Friday night. So, uh, we won most improved practice, which is a brilliant, um, [01:16:00] thing for us in the hygienist that I chose to join us. Um, they’re so expensive. Those [01:16:05] awards, I can only bring one staff member. So my manager was up for an award, and then the hygienist, [01:16:10] who’s very loyal, and she told me a story about a patient saying, well, I can see where the money is going [01:16:15] now. And she said, yeah, you can now because the previous partners used to go on a lot of holidays. [01:16:20]

Payman Langroudi: Mhm.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. And so there’s a pushback from the team to say [01:16:25] hang on a minute. We never had airflows, we never had this equipment, we never had chairs [01:16:30] that went up and down smoothly and lights and cameras to show people. And so all of a [01:16:35] sudden people, you’d be surprised that how even patients are accepting of the new world [01:16:40] and how it moves on. And so long as you deliver it with empathy and you don’t [01:16:45] criticise your predecessor, I mean, it’s just a lose lose if you criticise your predecessor. [01:16:50] Yeah. Um, and so I remember a patient in Exeter in particular. [01:16:55] I felt sorry. For who? A gentleman who was sharp. And he said, why wasn’t this [01:17:00] picked up previously? Um, by the gentleman I’d been seeing for 20, 30 years? I think that was [01:17:05] a complaint. But to be fair, there was a retainer left by the gentleman there, a very honourable man, you [01:17:10] know, it was just paid out of the retainer for that. So I can remember the individual cases [01:17:15] of complaints. It’s not like it’s a wholesale. Oh, my God, there’s 11,000 patients at Dartmoor. [01:17:20] Um, and we’re gaining. But in numbers of patients [01:17:25] having a net gain. But all of them, I can’t actually tell you whether any [01:17:30] of them that have gone. Do you know what was the last two retired dentists doing? None [01:17:35] of them really. They kind of people move on and they go, oh yeah, the [01:17:40] the GRC fill ins are falling off and we do need some proper dentistry now. And I understand that.

Mike Hesketh: And to be [01:17:45] fair, they’re in a phase a lot of the time where they have some money from house downsizing and they go, it’s really important that [01:17:50] I can eat what I want. So we talk to the patients about the end point being straight white teeth. [01:17:55] We don’t even can’t even do straightening. We can now. We’ve just recruited someone who can do straightening. Um, [01:18:00] but ultimately, because straight white teeth are healthy teeth. Now, do we get there? No. [01:18:05] And patients can get off the train at any one point and get back on the train. Don’t mind that. It [01:18:10] depends on the resources of time and money, but what we what I say to the team and I have quarterly [01:18:15] meetings with the whole clinical team. I take them out for a dinner in a local hotel and we do a [01:18:20] we base everything on audits, so we audit our clinical results and then we [01:18:25] do case presentations. And um, it’s and it’s chaired not by me, but it’s chaired by [01:18:30] clinical lead in the practice. So I always appoint a clinical lead. And the clinical lead is the most valuable [01:18:35] person in the practice for me as an owner, because their decisions are untainted by money. [01:18:40] Their they are driven by clinical standards. So the material choices. But [01:18:45] when they make a choice of the type of composite, it is uniform across the practice so [01:18:50] that we have good business principles in not lots of composites going out of date because people have done different courses. [01:18:55]

Payman Langroudi: Um, how do you pick the clinical lead?

Mike Hesketh: Usually the youngest. [01:19:00]

Payman Langroudi: The youngest. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. It’s not don’t pick the oldest. Don’t pick the youngest. Implanters. [01:19:05] Yeah. The youngest. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So explain that, um. How young.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [01:19:10] It’s close to qualification as possible.

Payman Langroudi: The clinical Leaders course.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. [01:19:15]

Payman Langroudi: How does that.

Mike Hesketh: Work? And it’s the era of that person within the business.

Payman Langroudi: So tell [01:19:20] me. Tell me the chat you have with that person.

Mike Hesketh: Oh, well, it’s really powerful, actually, because, um. [01:19:25]

Payman Langroudi: I love that. It’s very interesting. I did not expect you to say that.

Mike Hesketh: Well, it comes from, um, [01:19:30] the Maxfacts unit. I was in in Portsmouth, in QA hospital and half [01:19:35] the team were old and bald. Military surgeons, Falklands veterans, [01:19:40] so real, you know, singly qualified some of them and but had dealt with Exocet [01:19:45] missiles through ships. So really interesting gentlemen and professors and [01:19:50] all sorts of on civilian side. And there’d be nine consultants and they’d have a load of shows, [01:19:55] um, half from the military, half from civilian world. And [01:20:00] the, the most recently qualified consultant would then step up as [01:20:05] the clinical lead, and they would then set the standards because they were the closest to the education. [01:20:10] So these were very dominant males, men who would [01:20:15] listen to their junior peer. So again, another learning from the military. [01:20:20] And so the clinician that I chose in Exeter is [01:20:25] now an associate professor at Peninsula Dental School. But he was an NHS dentist when [01:20:30] we recruited him, recruited him Recruiting from Lincolnshire, moved his family down to Devon and fair [01:20:35] dues to him took a gamble on us. Um, and I said, look, would you be the clinical lead because the [01:20:40] team are coming to you to talk about complaints from patients. They’re coming to you to [01:20:45] talk about material choices, about difficult cases. And I will pay for [01:20:50] your endodontic masters or half of it. Um, and [01:20:55] would you do two years? And he said, yeah. And I said, it’s a £500 [01:21:00] stipend per month. So they get £500, but you’ve got to do 2 or 3 hours a week on [01:21:05] driving the team on audits. So we audit filling success rates. We audit, [01:21:10] um, radiographic audits, note keeping audits on a quarterly basis. And [01:21:15] then he then set the standard for winning the wish list, which [01:21:20] is how we buy equipment. So he gets given a budget of a couple of grand for not just stock, but [01:21:25] new new equipment that we want to bring into the business like enlightened.

Payman Langroudi: Mm.

Mike Hesketh: Um, and so [01:21:30] he did that for Exeter. And then, um, he, [01:21:35] he essentially and took it all the way through to the end because we were selling it. Um, but within Dartmoor [01:21:40] there was Chrissy, who’s doing an MSC at Peninsula, [01:21:45] and it’s the era of Chrissy. So she did two years and you can extend it by one [01:21:50] year. Um, but then it’s important, you call it and you say, right, that’s the era of [01:21:55] her. And now it’s another lady called Rebecca. And Chrissy was 27 when she took her, and [01:22:00] she was an associate in the practice with four older men and hadn’t been supported. [01:22:05] I don’t feel as much as she could have done. Um, but that was their own, you know, lots of things [01:22:10] going on at the time. It’s not a criticism, but, um, she came in and then she drives the standards [01:22:15] towards, um, evidence based dentistry. And funny old thing, if [01:22:20] you put a young lady in charge, the standards go through the roof, you know, [01:22:25] and then she takes the team with her clinically. Um, and then a dental therapist [01:22:30] or a dental hygienist can be the clinical lead as well. But it’s a yin and yang to me. At [01:22:35] the end of the day, I can pretend I’m not a businessman and I can say, you know, do all this charity, [01:22:40] you know, effort. But in reality, I am biased because I’ve got to pay the payroll at the end of the month. And, you know, [01:22:45] that’s the thing we all look forward to and try and make sure that we’ve got enough in the cash in the account for, um, [01:22:50] and so my advice or my decisions are always going to be tainted by money. And [01:22:55] the clinical lead isn’t tainted by money. They’re driven by high standards and evidence based [01:23:00] dentistry. If we just did evidence based dentistry, the turnover like it had in Exeter [01:23:05] and Dartmoor just goes through the roof and they go from seven chairs to ten chairs. It’s [01:23:10] just evidence based dentistry. We’re taught at uni, but I wasn’t tainted by the NHS system. That taints [01:23:15] a lot of.

Payman Langroudi: And I guess I guess treatment planning from first principles as we were taught in uni is [01:23:20] big treatment plans, right?

Mike Hesketh: It’s perio. And so the first thing we do is write a perio protocol I [01:23:25] need to get a periodontist in to train the team again. So it’s all about the perio to begin with, [01:23:30] and then we layer it on filling success rates. Biomimetic Samba Composite course, [01:23:35] which is a course that I’ve done recently, um, doing really good bio bases, [01:23:40] Non-sensitive composites.

Payman Langroudi: Um, to your clinical right now.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. So [01:23:45] I was saying earlier that, um, I sort of fell out of love with it. I don’t think I ever [01:23:50] fell into love with it. I was just too distracted. Yeah. Came back from travelling, started consulting [01:23:55] with Ashley’s team, and then, um, people wanted 1 to 1 advice [01:24:00] and started to build my consultancy firm. And then we bought Dartmoor, and [01:24:05] I started being clinical again. And then my clients started [01:24:10] inspiring me. I thought, it sounds really dramatic, melodramatic, but [01:24:15] if you spend half an hour talking to Amber Aplin about doing composites that last a lifetime and doing [01:24:20] them really well and doing onlays and not doing crowns, you can’t help but get inspired. So I’d be [01:24:25] talking to her about business. Every week on our Thursday call. I talk to everybody on a Thursday morning [01:24:30] for 40 minutes. You know, each each of the individual 1 to 1 clients. And by the end of [01:24:35] it, we’re always talking a little bit about clinical. Same with Gareth and Zach down in smiles [01:24:40] stories. Um, Amy and Stuart up in King’s Lynn or AJ and his wife up [01:24:45] in North Norfolk. Um, you know, Doctor Rhys in Liverpool. Um, [01:24:50] I talked to all of these, Martin and Nick. I just talked to them, and all of a sudden you just can’t help but be [01:24:55] inspired. I don’t think I’ve done enough dentistry. And so the course that I want to do [01:25:00] next year is occlusion, because at mid 40s people want me to do their dentistry [01:25:05] and it’s really lucrative doing dentistry for me personally. I’m [01:25:10] in pyjamas all day. I’m in an air conditioned surgery with patients that I like, with [01:25:15] the nurses that we have a laugh and we enjoy ourselves.

Mike Hesketh: And I think actually this is a [01:25:20] good way to work. So I’m at a crossroads where my [01:25:25] clinical work, I’m getting more and more interested in it, which I never thought I’d say. Um, [01:25:30] I kind of ticked the coaching qualifications from Henley Business [01:25:35] School, the consultancy qualifications, the leadership qualifications. So I’ve kind of in my way [01:25:40] finished the business development of myself. And so it’s the clinical bit [01:25:45] that’s interesting to me now, which is different to a lot of mid 40s dentists. [01:25:50] And then my consultancy um, is I equate it the same to dentistry. [01:25:55] So I make as much from my 1 to 1 consultancy as I do from dentistry. And, [01:26:00] but it’s working with my hands so it uses my time. So it’s what I call like a level [01:26:05] one business. So it requires me to do it both very lucrative and [01:26:10] I don’t know which one to do more of if I’m honest. I’m at a crossroads. And [01:26:15] then obviously level two is sort of buying businesses like local businesses buying. I could buy [01:26:20] a practice closer to home, that would probably be sensible. As well as keeping Dartmoor um [01:26:25] and a level three business is enlighten. So a national brand that’s done [01:26:30] really well got into so many different practices based on high standards. Um, and [01:26:35] that I feel would come from Laura. So Laura would say, okay, actually there’s a niche in [01:26:40] scanners or there’s a niche in something outside of dentistry. Um, [01:26:45] and that’s whether we take that moonshot at the minute or whether we just do [01:26:50] what we’re doing now, which is obviously.

Payman Langroudi: I want to ask you specifically [01:26:55] about two things. Right. Um, but before I forget, I’m going to ask you about another thing. Sorry. [01:27:00] Yeah, I.

Mike Hesketh: Do, I go off on tangents a bit.

Payman Langroudi: So your nurses, [01:27:05] your team leaders and the, the way the thing [01:27:10] runs smoothly. Yeah. What’s the what are some key points to [01:27:15] making that happen in a practice? Because one thing.

Mike Hesketh: As a leader.

Payman Langroudi: As a leader.

Mike Hesketh: Dental Leaders podcast. [01:27:20]

Payman Langroudi: As a Dental leader, because one thing a lot of us are guilty of is sort of micromanaging.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. [01:27:25] So.

Mike Hesketh: Um, I have no interest in micromanaging and taking the emotion out of it. Um, [01:27:30] I think that does come from military training. And the closer you can get to that in business, the better. I’m not saying don’t be [01:27:35] passionate, but, um, we carry a lot of, um, weight with our, um, [01:27:40] forceful views as owners, and we have to be cognisant of that. And some of the junior [01:27:45] staff are very wary to how we say things and look at them. Um, and so the [01:27:50] power that we wield around the business as a captain of the ship is important that we we tread very carefully. [01:27:55] Um, and so I talk in the third party. So I talk [01:28:00] about building Dartmoor Dental. I talk about building extra Dental centre. And [01:28:05] I don’t talk about what Mike wants. Um, I don’t talk about what Laura wants. I talk about what [01:28:10] the business needs. It’s a legal entity, and I’m currently the director of Dartmoor Dental. [01:28:15] So I have a legal responsibility to do it as an entity. So I very much segment [01:28:20] it in my head. So on a practical level, walking around the business, I talk in principles and mantras. [01:28:25] I believe that the ship keeps sailing. Doesn’t matter who’s on board the ship. It comes [01:28:30] back two years later with a different crew in the Navy. So the same with Dartmoor, same with Exeter. It keeps [01:28:35] on growing without me. No one’s bigger than the ship. Okay, I talk [01:28:40] about delivering the patient to a tutor at the end of the treatment plan.

Mike Hesketh: I talk about leveraging every [01:28:45] part of innovation and digital technology in a sensible manner. So not being at the forefront [01:28:50] of software companies that might be here might not be here in a year. So, you [01:28:55] know, being careful because there is 11,000 human beings we’re looking after for their patient care. [01:29:00] Um, I talk about being on time. It’s [01:29:05] a non-negotiable. Um, I talk about, um, cleanliness. We’re [01:29:10] a healthcare provider. And so if we have clutter in the practice, in any of the drawers, then [01:29:15] we can’t keep it clean. So we can’t pretend we’re clean on one side and then have clutter in [01:29:20] a drawer, paperwork and all that. Um, so we do monthly deep [01:29:25] cleans of every surgery. Everything comes out of every surgery, and every surgery is deep cleaned. I [01:29:30] talk about evidence based dentistry. I think people get too into the weeds of their [01:29:35] business and don’t do enough standing back and surveying the horizon. Fundamentally, [01:29:40] my role as a leader is to scan the horizon for opportunities. Speak to the [01:29:45] fantastic clients that I work with. Speak to yourself, speak to, listen to this podcast and [01:29:50] understand some inspiration from out there that maybe the team don’t do. I scan the horizon for opportunities [01:29:55] and where I should be taking the business. And then I have a very good manager who operationally, [01:30:00] um, is the enforcer. And it’s important that you have an enforcer.

Payman Langroudi: So you don’t micromanage [01:30:05] the human, but you do micromanage the SOP. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: So [01:30:10] so we have a we have a protocol folder for everything. No.

Payman Langroudi: No, [01:30:15] it’s not like that.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. So protocol would be, um. No. So. Yeah. God, that’s my worst nightmare of having [01:30:20] a written instruction of everything. Oh, SOP is standard operating procedures. Yeah. It’s a very [01:30:25] military term. They have a 600 page document for how to run a dental practice. No, not that it’s in the real world. [01:30:30] We’re a small business. We have limited resources. But what we do do is say the patient journey [01:30:35] should look like this.

Payman Langroudi: Mhm.

Mike Hesketh: You know, they should have x, y and z. Um the [01:30:40] support of the building itself, the building maintenance should look along the lines of this, [01:30:45] um, how we deliver certain clinical aspects like composites [01:30:50] or um occlusal rehabilitations, those [01:30:55] sort of things should look like this. And it’s important that people, um, have [01:31:00] a written protocol, but it’s a guideline. It’s not a it’s [01:31:05] people. People fall into rigid things really quickly. Right. Well, I’ll write a protocol on that. [01:31:10] It’s my worst nightmare. You know you want to set almost like a Bible. I call it a Bible, [01:31:15] you know? And you think about the Bible, you know, it’s not dictating you. [01:31:20] You are trying to follow a set of rules.

Payman Langroudi: Basic principles.

Mike Hesketh: Basic principles.

Payman Langroudi: You [01:31:25] believe in God.

Mike Hesketh: Um, yeah, I think I do now.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, we’ll get to that.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah, [01:31:30] I do, I do now. Yeah, yeah, I do now. Yeah. Well, I believe in a higher purpose I [01:31:35] think. Yeah, yeah. Um, but but you’re talking about principles, whether [01:31:40] it’s Quran or whether it’s the Bible, you’re just, you’re trying to set a tone for the team. Um, [01:31:45] and it’s an ethos. And then that is then shared in a brand and [01:31:50] a brand book, and we tell a story for a book.

Payman Langroudi: It’s interesting. Yeah. Because you are pretty hands on. [01:31:55] That means. Yeah, because, look, I talk to a lot of corporates, right. In our world, corporates are a big [01:32:00] part of our world. And and I asked them that question sometimes if your logo is on top of [01:32:05] this practice, what does that mean from the patient perspective. Yeah. [01:32:10] And and some of them find that a very difficult [01:32:15] question to answer because.

Mike Hesketh: We just do dentistry.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: But then they’re redefining dentistry, [01:32:20] remember.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: That’s a that’s a cynical.

Payman Langroudi: Some of them do very well. Some of them do very well. Yeah. But some [01:32:25] of them do it very badly. Yeah. And and of course. But [01:32:30] listen, by the way. Yeah. You walk into a Louis Vuitton shop. Yeah. In Mumbai or [01:32:35] one in Auckland. You’re going to get this seven star experience in both of [01:32:40] those shops. And that’s a massive call. It’s a much bigger corporate than any of the ones in dentistry. So [01:32:45] it is possible to deliver superb service across a big thing. [01:32:50] More in products than in services. Yeah. But I’d argue walk into a Louis Vuitton [01:32:55] shop is a service.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, it’s an experience.

Payman Langroudi: It’s an experience.

Mike Hesketh: They don’t they don’t really focus enough [01:33:00] on the experience. They focus enough on the product, you know, and when they’re trying to set their fees, um, [01:33:05] practice owners, they, they go well either compare to locally or to see what they [01:33:10] think they can they can push to.

Payman Langroudi: What’s your advice on that?

Mike Hesketh: Setting fees I mean, [01:33:15] looking at someone’s fee guide on a on a practice is like looking into their soul.

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah [01:33:20] yeah, yeah. It shows me. It shows me where they’re confident, where they’re not confident. So [01:33:25] if they.

Payman Langroudi: Solid example of that.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Well if for instance, if they, if they write it like an. [01:33:30] So treatment plan and expect a patient to understand the fee guide I’ll [01:33:35] say that they’re cluttered and they’re trying to um.

Payman Langroudi: They’re not looking at the business from the patient’s perspective.

Mike Hesketh: They’re not they’re not confident, you [01:33:40] know. And then there’s some areas where they’ll go into town on maybe the cosmetics, or they’ll go into town on the different [01:33:45] types of dentures or something. And you’ll see that’s where they’re really confident, and then they’ll just have one little fee for something. I [01:33:50] also think there’s a clarity. There’s not a clarity of thought. So there should be one fee for root canal. For [01:33:55] every root canal should just be one fee because it’s all the same value. Um, [01:34:00] yes, I know some take different times, but it doesn’t matter who delivers it in the practice, whether [01:34:05] they’ve got an MSC or whether it’s an associate. The patient is getting a root canal from Dartmoor Dental. [01:34:10] So it needs to be a certain price and it needs to have a certain audited success rate. [01:34:15] And so the fee is this it’s not an associate fee and an MSC fee and a specialist visiting specialist [01:34:20] fee. It’s just one fee. So if you look at our website, it’s one fee and it’s a front two for a back tooth because [01:34:25] the patient values the front tooth more than the back tooth. Sometimes that’s a generalism, [01:34:30] but they will very much value their front teeth hopefully. Um, and so [01:34:35] the fee should be one fee. So it’s a very clear clarity of thought. And if someone’s done that I know that they’ve really thought about [01:34:40] their proposition, their positioning, and they’ve worked really hard at it. But if you look at most practices, they’ve got fees all over [01:34:45] the shop for root canal, premolar, molar incisor, two stage, one stage. They [01:34:50] don’t know what they’re offering. They’re not they’re not thinking about the output. They’re thinking [01:34:55] about what it means to them, not to the patient.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Um, that’s [01:35:00] a that’s an example.

Payman Langroudi: And what about positioning itself? I mean, would you tell Uh, someone who [01:35:05] wants to open a squad.

Mike Hesketh: To shortcut on positioning.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: 40 year old [01:35:10] female in Western society. That’s a shortcut. So the reason why is [01:35:15] the 40 year old female in Western society is a decision maker for one one across, one down. And [01:35:20] so they will make a decision for their parents, make a decision for their partner and make a decision [01:35:25] for children. And that’s backed up by academic research that I did on my [01:35:30] MBA out of the United States of America. So they so if you want a shortcut in UK dentistry, [01:35:35] target a 40 year old female. What they like and a lot of the 40 year old female owners [01:35:40] basically just need to target themselves and their friends. That’s a shortcut. That’s an [01:35:45] easy one. On positioning. I would say that Exeter did that in the city centre and [01:35:50] also Dartmoor in a little town also does that, I think. Well, how’s [01:35:55] that work? Well. What does a 40 year old female in Little Town want? Versus what does a 40 year old female [01:36:00] in a city centre want. Different stages or different feelings about their life. [01:36:05] But usually it’s a higher standard than most people are willing to go to. It’s [01:36:10] a higher standard of cleanliness and, um, care [01:36:15] for children than people deliver. And empathy for children. It’s [01:36:20] a higher standard of, um, flexibility and, um, [01:36:25] ability to book appointments for their partner. And it’s a higher standard of, um, decor [01:36:30] and feeling and the senses, the smell, the sight, the the feel [01:36:35] than what most people are willing to work to. And so basically, [01:36:40] Lara, you know, my you know, my.

Payman Langroudi: Wife does that then follow a higher price as well.

Mike Hesketh: It ordinarily [01:36:45] as you raise raise standards and the experience using your Louis Vuitton um description. [01:36:50] If you if you do a bigger experience you charge more. And [01:36:55] so what happens is we have no real ceiling to our fees.

Payman Langroudi: And so was Dental [01:37:00] the most expensive practice in Exeter, and.

Mike Hesketh: We tried to push it 25% above the market. Um, [01:37:05] I mean, I’m sure there’s other sort of smaller practices that charge more for the [01:37:10] specialist skills of a single chair practice owner.

Payman Langroudi: But I find it really funny [01:37:15] that people commoditize in the sense I don’t buy commodities. I don’t mean drive prices down. [01:37:20] I mean that people think there’s a direct relationship between price and volume in a, [01:37:25] in a service like dentistry.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. You’re right.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah. And people really believe that. You know, people believe if [01:37:30] I increase the price of my whitening, if I double the price of my whitening, I’ll do half as much. Or if I half the price, I’ll [01:37:35] do double as much. And it’s never like that.

Mike Hesketh: Not at all. Yeah. No, it never is.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s [01:37:40] not a direct relationship like it’s not. It’s not a commodity. It’s it’s something much more complex than that.

Mike Hesketh: It [01:37:45] is. And if you think about the risks that we take, both medical legally and for the patient, you’re essentially, [01:37:50] um, grievous bodily harm on a patient every 30 minutes if you’re doing a filling or and so, you [01:37:55] know, that’s a reasonably stressful job for people. And if you’re only going to charge £120 [01:38:00] for a filling as opposed to, you know, another commodity that you can [01:38:05] buy on the high street, be it whatever you are charging too little. Most of the UK dentistry [01:38:10] doesn’t charge enough for the level of risk that they take and the care that they take, but that’s [01:38:15] because the culture is based around the low fee NHS model. Yeah, [01:38:20] and I saw that the Chancellor had just announced a Competition and Markets [01:38:25] Authority investigation into private fees in UK dentistry. Yeah. Well say you set [01:38:30] that fee at a low level. You’ll go the way as Holland. In Holland they have a set fee [01:38:35] by the government and all the practices are struggling to make a profit. And they have to use [01:38:40] dental nurses to do fillings. And and they run three dentists run three chairs at once and they can’t make a profit. [01:38:45] I mean, the macroeconomic, um, deficit of, [01:38:50] of being involved in setting fees for private dentistry is just a disaster because essentially [01:38:55] you’re just going to have the UK reputation of poor teeth because of the NHS again, but you’re just going to [01:39:00] do it on a private level, and people aren’t going to be able to afford to use the itero scanners.

Mike Hesketh: The [01:39:05] enlightened, the, uh, to do the better quality kit and equipment and [01:39:10] service that people want to do is, you know, 99% of clinicians [01:39:15] want to do really high standard dentistry. They don’t want to, um, you know, put poor [01:39:20] quality fillings in. But the NHS system has always driven over decades, putting [01:39:25] poor quality work in and doing it quickly. I know that there are NHS dentists that don’t work [01:39:30] like that, but essentially it’s really hard to keep up with compliance if you don’t earn enough money. So [01:39:35] if they were to limit the private fee level. So if you think about that in reverse, there isn’t really a limit [01:39:40] to what you can charge privately if you get the experience right through the business. And [01:39:45] so it’s this whirlwind of an experience within the practice that we try and generate.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [01:39:50]

Payman Langroudi: I want to talk about your consulting clients. Some of my favourite [01:39:55] conversation I’ve had so far was with Zack.

Mike Hesketh: Oh, Zack and Gareth in Smile stories.

Payman Langroudi: I don’t want to [01:40:00] get Gareth on just to be more exposed to those guys. Um, but but what [01:40:05] I’m really interested in is. And we had Amber on. She hasn’t. We haven’t put that one out yet. Amber. [01:40:10] Okay. But but the. And I’ve had Nick and Nick and Martin as well. [01:40:15] Um, what I’m really interested in is when someone comes to you as [01:40:20] a consulting client, are their problems [01:40:25] very similar, or are they each very different? Because I know every practice [01:40:30] is very different. Having been to lots of practices, it’s very clear every practice is very different. [01:40:35] Yeah, but but the blind spots that people have that you can point out, like what [01:40:40] are the common things that people miss?

Mike Hesketh: No, I don’t think all practices [01:40:45] are the same, to be honest with you, with the, um, consultancy, I think that’s where you [01:40:50] go into coaching as well as when I did the Henley Business School coaching qualification. It was. [01:40:55] I felt like it was a hole in my armoury. So obviously consulting, I can tell people the right answer because [01:41:00] I live and breathe it. I walk the walk myself with my own practices. We have the growth that we’ve talked about, [01:41:05] but every practice that I work with has a different brand, a different positioning, [01:41:10] a different team, a different situation, different resources. And so a lot of the time I need [01:41:15] people to find their own answer, which is what coaching is. And that’s a top tip as well. To be a leader, become [01:41:20] a coach as a model called the growth model from John Whitmore. And [01:41:25] if you read about that, it’s one of sort of ten coaching tools that you can use, and [01:41:30] you can play with it in conversations with your team to get good at it. But when I’m having conversations with [01:41:35] clients on a Thursday morning, I often will slip into the growth model. What the goal is, what the reality [01:41:40] is, what the options and what will they do to get them to commit to something. And so [01:41:45] now when I’m working with clients on a 1 to 1 basis, like the clients that you talked about who [01:41:50] are fantastic in their own right, I divide it into four pillars. So leadership, [01:41:55] infrastructure, branding and financial command and control.

Mike Hesketh: And I [01:42:00] think that if they get that those four pillars sort of singing in their practice is 80% [01:42:05] of the way there. And obviously leadership I’ve got okay weighed off got lots of [01:42:10] qualifications in it through the military and through Cranfield University, all sorts of different places. [01:42:15] The branding is where I struggled with the most as I came out of the military, because [01:42:20] that’s where I leaned on Lara. But now I understand it a lot better and the infrastructure is [01:42:25] what I live and breathe, the physical and the digital infrastructure. So checkpoints, the flow through the business [01:42:30] and then the financial command and control. It wasn’t out there, so I had to build our own accountancy [01:42:35] to make that work. And so when I’m auditing clients in my head as I’m talking [01:42:40] to them each week, I’m looking at those four pillars thinking, okay, which are the hundred spinning plates that are [01:42:45] divided into those four pillars. Do they need to be working on at that time? And the answer [01:42:50] is usually what will increase turnover. So what thing will increase turnover. And [01:42:55] now turnover is vanity. But we do this one document called cash flow forecasting. So I [01:43:00] know how much money is going to be in Dartmouth’s account in a year’s time. I know that because most [01:43:05] things in dentistry aren’t reinventing the wheel. Like I said earlier. So clients [01:43:10] need a lot of, um, structure, I feel, in the consultancy and coaching. But [01:43:15] I’m happy that in my armoury, I’ve been formally qualified and taught [01:43:20] from recognised universities in this.

Mike Hesketh: And I think that’s important. I think just because [01:43:25] you’ve been in the game for 10 or 20 years doesn’t make you a consultant. Um, because you have to take people [01:43:30] with you on the journey, which I think is what you’re alluding to with with these owners of practices, [01:43:35] they struggle, um, to be told what the answer is. And maybe that’s why when we [01:43:40] both started out and helping people that only you can think of, a [01:43:45] handful of people have just done what we’ve said. So you go, well, is that them or us? It’s [01:43:50] probably us. Yeah, yeah. In our consultancy world. And you go, well, how can I coach them? How can I get them to find [01:43:55] their answer? And in a way, that’s the harder challenge. Yeah. I can tell someone how to grow a dental practice really [01:44:00] quickly. It’s fine. Um, I find it quite, um, you know, enjoyable, but [01:44:05] really, the coaching is is the real joy. And say, Amber Aplin at the moment. [01:44:10] Um, she won um, practice of the year in the North on Friday. [01:44:15] And considering where we were 18 months, two years ago and confidence [01:44:20] levels, um, the clinical excellence was always there. It just needed bringing out. It [01:44:25] just needed showing. And I said, well, most clients are too quiet about how good they [01:44:30] are. I’ve got a client who does a lot of choice, spending tens of thousands [01:44:35] on courses in in Seattle and America doesn’t tell anyone.

[TRANSITION]: Um. [01:44:40]

Mike Hesketh: But if I wanted a full mouth rehabilitation based on good occlusal principles, I’d probably [01:44:45] go see my client in North London. You know, they’re amazing. They’re [01:44:50] fantastic clinicians, but they don’t tell anyone. And so a lot of the time is trying to bring out that inner [01:44:55] confidence, um, and make them realise how good they are at, um, at [01:45:00] dentistry. Um, a lot of them have got a bit of I work with practices, you know, we’ve had some [01:45:05] resources behind them because I work on a 1 to 1 bespoke basis. So it takes [01:45:10] up time. So it’s relatively expensive, but hopefully they get value for it. It’s 12 months contract. [01:45:15]

Payman Langroudi: Do you mind me asking how much it costs?

Mike Hesketh: No, it’s, uh, 3300 a month plus [01:45:20] that 1 to 1. Um, and it’s a set, 12 month contract, and [01:45:25] I’m not a gym membership, so I won’t be there after 12 months. Um, that we can just carry [01:45:30] on rolling that on. They can message me, and then we always. I become friends with the owners.

Payman Langroudi: 2300. [01:45:35] How much is that a year? 40.

Mike Hesketh: So it’s about I think it’s just shy of 50 grand investment. [01:45:40] And they only work with three practices at any one time. So I’m.

Payman Langroudi: Three. [01:45:45] Only three?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, I started at ten. Um, I was at ten. [01:45:50] And whilst trying to build Dartmoor and become a better clinician and actually try and be a father [01:45:55] and do all, everything else, it was too much. So I’ve rapidly, um, as patient [01:46:00] as clients have dropped off, I’ve just created a waiting list and I just [01:46:05] say to clients, look, I’m full for 2026, but, um, you can [01:46:10] always message me and I’ll always talk to you, and things happen. You know, people do drop off [01:46:15] eventually, and then I’m ready then for another client. But what I try and get clients [01:46:20] to do is grow £500,000 per year. Um, so that’s painful. And that requires [01:46:25] a lot of intense effort from me and my team.

Payman Langroudi: Based on the 20% number, [01:46:30] though, that means they have to increase their turnover by 250,000. [01:46:35]

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, we aim for 500.

Payman Langroudi: To pay you.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And [01:46:40] then the other 250,000 is. This. Yeah. Gravy.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. And [01:46:45] also that’s another.

Payman Langroudi: I guess what they’re paying you that’s going to last them a lifetime.

Mike Hesketh: Well that’s another it’s 500 [01:46:50] grand every every year isn’t it. Yeah. Um, yeah. And it’s just to have the same rapid [01:46:55] growth that we have in our practices. And because we do it ourselves, we know what we’re doing. And it’s quite easy [01:47:00] for me to see through a lot of systems within practices. Now, I’ve seen so many. I’ve worked with [01:47:05] 50 practices on a 1 to 1 basis throughout the country. And, you [01:47:10] know, they um, I think that I’m better at selecting clients [01:47:15] now that will go with. Yeah, yeah. That will I think [01:47:20] that’s something over the 5 or 6 years that I’ve been doing it that I’ve got better at and said, actually, [01:47:25] I’m not sure they’re in the the right state to listen. I think they might want to be, you know, [01:47:30] more antagonistic with the advice. And, and I turn more clients [01:47:35] down than I take on.

Payman Langroudi: You not ever minded to talk to a private equity [01:47:40] guy and make your own little mini corporate.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Um, [01:47:45] I wrote a dissertation on it on the MBA. Um, obviously, we we have a certain [01:47:50] system that works in growing rapid practices. Um, it might be the next [01:47:55] stage. I said earlier, I’m at a crossroads between consulting, clinical buying [01:48:00] a practice, I think, by, um, doing a corporate or building a group, [01:48:05] um, is not without its energy drain. And. [01:48:10] Yeah. And so you have to be certain that you want to do that. And we’ve met some really lovely people [01:48:15] that have built corporates and, you know, independent corporates sort of ten, 20, 30 [01:48:20] practices. And and they have that energy to do it. And so it’s just I just need to be careful [01:48:25] with what I do next that I want I really want to do it as a purpose. And maybe [01:48:30] um, that might be an option. I get offered practices all the time to buy, um, good [01:48:35] practices as well. Nice ones. So yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I think the model that might work really well is you’ve got an attendant [01:48:40] is working in this practice as they want to go and open their own [01:48:45] practices. They open corporate satellites. You know, [01:48:50] maybe the Dev Patel model, the 5149 model.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. But yeah, there [01:48:55] is um, there is a corporate like that in the southwest already. Um, and they do very well with it. They’re [01:49:00] up to 7 or 8. They’re my friends. Um, and then they have a structure where the owner owns [01:49:05] part of it. You’re right. Um, and I think these are innovative ownership structures. I’m just not [01:49:10] sure that they deliver dentistry as differently to each other. You know, when you come to the [01:49:15] face of it. And, um, I think that ownership of practices, [01:49:20] um, is something that is an option for us. And [01:49:25] we could do it. I always thought we’d do three practices and try and make ten get to 10 million turnover, [01:49:30] but that’s like such an arbitrary number. What’s the point? You know, you go, well, I [01:49:35] can pretty.

Payman Langroudi: Much your financial planner said, oh, if you do that then you can retire.

Mike Hesketh: And I could retire [01:49:40] now. So, you know, I could sell and retire now. You know, I’m 44, but, um, so [01:49:45] it’s more of what’s the purpose? And my wife is all about purpose, and I don’t think [01:49:50] she’d let me just buy something like Exeter again just for the sake of buying it. Um, [01:49:55] and in a way, we wanted to do Dartmoor an hour away from [01:50:00] us, um, in a harder location. Um, just [01:50:05] to prove that the first time wasn’t a fluke. Um, and it and hope, you know, luckily and [01:50:10] with a, you know, a bit of grace, we’ve, we’ve managed to have a success of that, um, of the second [01:50:15] one. But if you think about, you know, we’ve built a house, um, we [01:50:20] built an architectural house. Um, so we have that.

Payman Langroudi: What, like a grand design? [01:50:25]

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. Lovely. So when we came back from, um, uh, travelling with the bungalow [01:50:30] opposite was for sale on the river on the River exe. So we, uh, we bought the bungalow and knocked [01:50:35] it down and built a big, um, you know, architectural house. So, um, [01:50:40] overlooking the river. So we’ve got that, um, I think as a want really, I think [01:50:45] as a want. And at the moment, I really enjoy the private dentistry awards on Friday night, [01:50:50] bumping into so many people that we both know and enjoying ourselves and, [01:50:55] um, having a lot of joy from my accountancy firm, [01:51:00] my consultancy firm from Dartmoor itself. Um, I [01:51:05] suppose I should.

Payman Langroudi: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah, there is that. And I quite like the [01:51:10] diversity of the week. I don’t work a Wednesday, so I go and watch my children do sport on a Wednesday afternoon. And [01:51:15] so I have a little mini weekend in the middle of the week. And I’m clinical Monday, Friday. And then [01:51:20] I do my consultancy on a Tuesday Thursday. So Tuesday I go and see them, um, if I have to see them. [01:51:25] And then on a Tuesday, on a Thursday doing my zooms, and then I follow up in the afternoon with anything written [01:51:30] that I need to write for them. Um, so yeah. 5050 between Dartmoor and the [01:51:35] consultancy. But it’s got to the point where I don’t need to be clinical at Dartmoor and financially, [01:51:40] you know, especially put the ninth chair in this week. So yeah, [01:51:45] it’s um.

Payman Langroudi: Is your advice to your consulting clients to do less dentistry? [01:51:50]

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. It used to be, um, now I call it ration as [01:51:55] again, military term rations, um, rationing dentistry because obviously [01:52:00] I’ve gone the other way. Now I’ve become enlightened. Um, I’ve ended up doing more dentistry. [01:52:05] So I used to say, oh, you know, if you want an associate led practice, you need to do this, that and the other and you can do. But [01:52:10] I would find it quite odd not being a clinician now, um, because I’ve [01:52:15] booked on Ambers, uh, second course, which is coming up in the, in the spring, I want [01:52:20] to go and do an occlusion course. So I’m open to suggestions on occlusion, like how to really understand it. [01:52:25] I think it’s a real gap in my armoury of clinician clinical work. I want to be able to do [01:52:30] a full mouth rehab. Um, and so, yeah, these are the [01:52:35] things that I want to be doing. And I’ve been looking at Tipton’s courses, um, and I know that there’s people [01:52:40] around the country who do really great occlusion work. Um, yeah. [01:52:45] So we’ve got the options of doing lots of different, different bits. I’m at a crossroads, [01:52:50] really. Um, which is a nice place to be, because 18 months ago, Dartmoor wasn’t easy. [01:52:55] Um, it was full on. It was on a calf strain. But because we, [01:53:00] um, do a cash flow forecast, we know we knew it would be fine, but we [01:53:05] were investing so much and we put £1 million into the place already. But we’re actually a month ago [01:53:10] we’ve refinanced it. So yeah, we’ve managed to refinance it and borrowed another 500 grand on top. [01:53:15] Well, so the idea is, is that we keep that going as a business, a ten chair [01:53:20] that, um, is stable, growing it, driving the standards higher still. [01:53:25] Um, to keep up with some of the consulting clients that I do. Um, [01:53:30] yeah, that I work with.

Payman Langroudi: What’s what’s been the darkest day? I don’t mean military, [01:53:35] but.

Mike Hesketh: Not in the military.

Payman Langroudi: Dental.

Mike Hesketh: I think it’s pretty dark in the military. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. [01:53:40] Um, but relatively relatable for people. Um, I [01:53:45] think before I bought Exeter, I think I came off the back of that [01:53:50] coaching meeting with eight people in the room and hearing the negativity who are more experienced than [01:53:55] me. I remember going out in the middle of the night and doing, uh, push [01:54:00] ups and runs like at midnight and just going, oh, [01:54:05] and, you know, this is really hard work. And I’ve always felt like physical exercise, always, [01:54:10] you know, endorphins. And it makes you feel good. Um, and so, but I’m a [01:54:15] bit allergic to physical exercise, so I have to force myself to do it. Um, so, yeah, I, [01:54:20] uh, I had to go for a run. I would say, you know, that was probably the closest. That was in [01:54:25] 2013. That was the most difficult time. Um, but since [01:54:30] then, I mean, it was fine. Within a few days, it was all right, but it was just like, wow, gosh, [01:54:35] there’s so much pressure. But I suppose your capacity expands as a person to [01:54:40] deal with complexity. Yeah. Um, I mean, Dartmoor, when we bought it, um, I made [01:54:45] some wrong turns at the beginning, and I had, um, um, an [01:54:50] established team, um, from Exeter that, [01:54:55] um, the manager that had brought down was good in a smooth [01:55:00] sea, um, but wasn’t good in a rocky sea.

Mike Hesketh: The manager from Exeter bought. [01:55:05] I bought in right at the end, after everything was done by the team. And then all of a sudden [01:55:10] they started with Dartmoor and they couldn’t do the build phase. They didn’t know what they were doing, they didn’t know how to practice, [01:55:15] manage essentially because I didn’t realise it. But Exeter had a team of 50 people and they did everything [01:55:20] for this manager and they walked, you know, they talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk and [01:55:25] that was kind of known around Exeter. Um, but unfortunately, this this manager [01:55:30] was um, at, uh, um, say, you know, are you are you on [01:55:35] board with this or not? And she self-selected to leave. And then I brought in the actual [01:55:40] team from Exeter who did do it, the sort of, you know, the, the real quality, [01:55:45] um, people who had the ethos of the business and then they came in.

Payman Langroudi: So [01:55:50] lost all those people.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Eventually. Eventually, I mean, years later, you know, [01:55:55] years, years and years later, five years later. But yeah, then I brought in the quality sort of the [01:56:00] front of house lead. And, and the practice manager at Exeter was a lady called Corina. [01:56:05] And then she came down and stayed, steadied the ship and she is good. She was the first employee [01:56:10] we had in Exeter. I just didn’t realise how much she did in Exeter towards the end and she was the actual driving force [01:56:15] of the business and she came down to Dartmoor and she did all of the, um, sort of leading of the team for us. [01:56:20] Um, and then, um.

Payman Langroudi: Do you recommend to incentivise the [01:56:25] team.

Mike Hesketh: Um, we do one incentivization. So we do one key [01:56:30] performance indicator. Everyone overcomplicates this because it’s dentists. So you’re only allowed to do one key performance indicator. [01:56:35] So if you want to embed a culture within your business say Google reviews, um, how many whitening starts [01:56:40] you do you incentivise the whole business around that one key performance indicator. And [01:56:45] so, um, everyone needs to know on a daily basis where they’re at, and it’s a monthly target. [01:56:50] And so what we do then is either do them a lunch, a warm lunch, because we gamify it, um, [01:56:55] and we talk about it in the morning huddles and um, or we used to give £50 [01:57:00] a month to every staff member, but it didn’t matter whether you were the decomp person or you were the front of [01:57:05] house and you were in charge of selling memberships, whatever the target was, whatever you wanted to embed in [01:57:10] your business. So Google reviews for Exeter. We sold it when it had about 150, 160. [01:57:15] It’s now got 500. Now, I’m not sure Google are very good at getting Google reviews. There [01:57:20] was a culture embedded into the business at Dartmouth has gone from zero to over [01:57:25] 400 quickly by embedding a key performance indicator.

Payman Langroudi: So would you change it every [01:57:30] quarter or so?

Mike Hesketh: We change it every 6 to 9 months. We embed the culture, then [01:57:35] we’ll change it. But there is a there’s a good ideas club in UK dentistry consulting. [01:57:40] Where.

Payman Langroudi: What do you mean.

Mike Hesketh: You’re paying me. So I’m going to give you a spreadsheet to do. It’s [01:57:45] too much data. Yeah. Um, owning a small business, I know how much resources [01:57:50] I’ve got in my own head. I know how much resources operationally my team have. And [01:57:55] so I think a lot of consultants justify their existence by giving spreadsheets to people to fill [01:58:00] out. And they just layer on, layer on, layer on spreadsheets and key performance indicators. [01:58:05] So often when I come into practices that have been coached or consulted [01:58:10] with in the past, I have to delete most of it. And I have to say, right. Simplify, simplify simplify. [01:58:15] And we want to embed a culture. And so I spend most of my time deleting stuff to be honest with you, in [01:58:20] practices that are over overcoached. But that old adage you can’t manage what [01:58:25] you don’t measure. It also works in the other way. You can’t measure everything you’re trying to manage. And you, you. I [01:58:30] just say to people, measure what you can have influence over, measure [01:58:35] what you really can have an effect on the business. Stop measuring everything just because [01:58:40] you can, because the dashboard. And if you have to fill out spreadsheets, make it like [01:58:45] an automated dashboard and make it automated. Especially now with AI and [01:58:50] all the back end stuff. You don’t never fill out a spreadsheet. You know, if it can’t be automated, [01:58:55] don’t bother.

Payman Langroudi: But the kind of KPIs that you do focus on from the management perspective. [01:59:00]

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. So financially we go by the Nasdaq. So we do quarter. The [01:59:05] quarterly management accounts are important for the banks. Yeah. And they benchmark you [01:59:10] and you do what’s called exception reporting right. So you look at things that just outline. So you don’t discuss [01:59:15] things that are in in the realms of normality. You either something that’s going really well or something [01:59:20] that’s going really poorly. And you look at that as a financial, so you can look at the percentage of your turnover of [01:59:25] the wage cost, for instance. But even that’s difficult nowadays with the advent of therapists, especially if [01:59:30] they’re employed, and we actually have an employed dentist. So and which I think are the way the market is going [01:59:35] anyway, because we create this playing field where they can excel. I don’t know why we would make keep someone [01:59:40] associate self employed. So that might be a change that’s coming in the future. It [01:59:45] might not be. So yeah we use financial benchmarking and then we have a [01:59:50] great front of house lead at the moment in Dartmoor called Rob. And Rob’s come from a [01:59:55] different backgrounds and one of them was corporate, and he has a load of data and spreadsheets that he is [02:00:00] sort of well-versed on doing. And so it’s unpicking a bit of that, but [02:00:05] also recognising the value of what Rob is the front of house. He focuses on his [02:00:10] own key performance indicator of occupancy. And actually that’s really valuable for the business. [02:00:15] But the whole team don’t know about it. But he and I discuss it, and what I try [02:00:20] and do is I fit the business into a cadence, a rhythm.

Mike Hesketh: And so he and I will. He and I will have a [02:00:25] vent point every two weeks. Sorry. Every month where it’s a board meeting sounds [02:00:30] a bit grand, but myself and the key lieutenants in the practice, um, the heads [02:00:35] of the departments, will then sit down and we will make the decisions, and they’ll each sort of talk [02:00:40] about where their departments at, and then we’ll in front of each other and I’ll spend 1 to 1 time with them. [02:00:45] So it’s a whole day every every month. And I’ll just basically try and support them and help them and give them [02:00:50] more resources towards what their challenges are. Um, and so he we talk about occupancy [02:00:55] and customer service. And then for someone else, it might be compliance for their, um, [02:01:00] uh, practice administrator or building maintenance for them. Practice manager. It might be HR, [02:01:05] um, issues that we have with that job descriptions, training agreements. Um, [02:01:10] but yeah, it’s um, it’s important that you fit the business into a rhythm, [02:01:15] a cadence. So it all moves forward together quickly. Um, but there’s also a vent [02:01:20] point. So they meet on a fortnightly basis to vent any issues. [02:01:25] And what by having a rhythm to the practice, you end up with a business [02:01:30] that has, um, a place where the nurses know that if they tell their team leader, [02:01:35] it will be discussed with the other people if there’s a problem within what’s happening. I also think it’s [02:01:40] important, as the owners, that we’re not in those meetings.

Payman Langroudi: Um.

Mike Hesketh: Because there’s a lot of things that [02:01:45] the team don’t really want us to know.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, it.

Mike Hesketh: Comes back to that as wielding, you know, too much power. [02:01:50] And so they don’t really want us to know everything about themselves. And they want the problem solved on a local [02:01:55] level, which is fine. I don’t need to know everything. I need just need to know the safety stuff. [02:02:00] And I need to know, um, you know, the really high performance stuff, you know, um, [02:02:05] and we try and create a safe environment for the, um, for the team. So that [02:02:10] work is a good place, a good part of their life. And that’s very important to me. So [02:02:15] yeah, the rhythm of meetings, clinicians, meetings on a quarterly basis, [02:02:20] the annual appraisals happen every year. I always find it odd in the military where you get given [02:02:25] the rank and you don’t do your one job, which is to report on the 30 people that are underneath you. And [02:02:30] your job is to do that. So we make sure that we do annual appraisals and training [02:02:35] plans for everybody and everyone on a course at any one time. The [02:02:40] standards with all the four pillars that I talk about, um, I try and push everyone into. [02:02:45]

Payman Langroudi: Very impressive, man. And you know, what’s more impressive is like your humility around it. If you haven’t [02:02:50] got the hubris that you would expect for someone who’s done what you’ve done, let’s face it, quite a young [02:02:55] age. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Thank you.

Payman Langroudi: How old are you?

Mike Hesketh: I’m 44 now. Um, I was 35 [02:03:00] when we sold Exeter. 30 when I left 35. Yeah. So it was [02:03:05] like winning the lottery? Yeah, it was cool. Um, but. Yeah. So, I mean, I’ll talk [02:03:10] to my wife yesterday, actually, we were talking about sort the next phase because our children are 13 and 11 [02:03:15] now. And so there’ll be a stage where they’ll be leaving school. And what do we do after that? Do [02:03:20] we stay in the West Country? Do we, you know, what do we do?

Payman Langroudi: Follow the sun again.

Mike Hesketh: Follow the sun again. Yeah. [02:03:25] And, um, but I think we we like the excitement. We like the buzz of London. Um, [02:03:30] we like, um, sort of business opportunities. Um, I [02:03:35] don’t worry about them anymore. Um, because obviously we’ve had an exit already. We’ll [02:03:40] probably have another exit within ten years with Dartmoor, but everyone knows that. Um, and [02:03:45] so, um, yeah, we’ll keep Dartmoor until the children at least finish school. [02:03:50] Um, and then, like you say, there might be just an opportunity too good to [02:03:55] not buy another practice because. Because Tottenham was bleeding cash. So, you know, it might be the [02:04:00] point in a year where we go. Right. Well, we should actually buy something near as it makes, you know, it’s an opportunity [02:04:05] that someone’s come to me with.

Payman Langroudi: You know what the worst thing about being a dentist? Now I, [02:04:10] think crystallise this for you when you stop. The best thing about [02:04:15] being a dentist and the worst thing for me. The best thing. The human connections, you [02:04:20] know, wonderful thing. And you miss it when you don’t have it. Yeah. The worst thing about being a dentist is [02:04:25] literally turning up, having to turn up. Um, it sounds strange [02:04:30] to say it, but.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, I know what you mean. You’re constrained by eight hours in the same place.

Payman Langroudi: By the building. [02:04:35] Almost.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, yeah. So you’ve got to be there.

Payman Langroudi: If I were you, I would look at sell that [02:04:40] one eventually or sell whatever practices you’ve got. By the time the kids are 18, 21, [02:04:45] whatever it is. Yeah, but the consulting business really pushed that into remote. Yeah. [02:04:50] And then literally follow the sun and continue with the with the consulting. Consulting.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. That, [02:04:55] that.

Payman Langroudi: Because that is something you could do from New Zealand. Well New Zealand is a bit difficult, but someone from something you could [02:05:00] do from South Africa. Yeah. For the sake of the.

Mike Hesketh: Argument, I never thought that we’d build businesses in proper business, [02:05:05] you know, and I don’t say that like dentistry is proper business, but where the barriers to entry are so low [02:05:10] that anyone can be a consultant. And I think, I think there is a market for high standard consultancy. [02:05:15] When I see what people offer out there and try and advise, and the fact that I go into practice [02:05:20] is and undo most of it, um, and try and, you know, especially with the numbers and things.

Payman Langroudi: Um, [02:05:25] when you sold Exeter, you got to pay out and [02:05:30] you didn’t have to stay at all.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. It was a walk away deal. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So did you do you think you got less because [02:05:35] of that?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Or you didn’t care? You wanted to walk away?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. No, it was a purpose. Um, [02:05:40] I mean, it was six times, so that’s an okay EBITDA. Um, yeah. [02:05:45] So we just, um, the walk away was, [02:05:50] um. I think if you heard a bhatner. No, um, [02:05:55] it’s a term for negotiation. Um, we did we did a module on it on the MBA, which is best alternative [02:06:00] to a negotiated agreement. How do you walk away from the table and keep what you’ve got? [02:06:05] So the best alternative was just keeping the practice, making 500 grand a year, not having any [02:06:10] influence on it really, other than the full morning huddles. But the problem is, as you know, there is a noise [02:06:15] in the back of our head as entrepreneurs of business owners that have to think about our [02:06:20] businesses a lot. And even if I said that I wasn’t clinical and [02:06:25] I said that I wasn’t running the business, my house was still on the line. And, [02:06:30] you know, the before, it would have an opportunity to to fall down if I [02:06:35] wasn’t, um, influencing it possibly. I don’t know, after a year or two, you might [02:06:40] start going downhill. Losing the associates loses its feel. And so it [02:06:45] wasn’t really an option just to keep it and then go travelling for a year. Um, [02:06:50] the aim was to to have a break sort of midlife and have the best year of my [02:06:55] life. And I mean, everyone talks about this, but then hardly anyone does it. Yeah, yeah. So [02:07:00] so we just did it. And it’s the same as like building your own house. You just did it and [02:07:05] buying a business just did it. And doing the commando thing and just trying to achieve stuff, you know. And [02:07:10] then the next thing, there’ll always be business opportunities. You know, now that we’re wiser and [02:07:15] connected as well network with I find my network as well is just lovely [02:07:20] people like and genuinely I just, you know, I meet with really caring individuals [02:07:25] all the time that want to build family wealth and time wealth for themselves. And [02:07:30] we’ve mentioned a few names either here or before, and they’re just all lovely people. [02:07:35] Um, and so.

Payman Langroudi: I think we’re very lucky in dentistry, you know, in, in that sense. [02:07:40] Yeah. It’s a very friendly community. Yeah. A small enough that you can [02:07:45] know loads of people. Yeah. And then as a business, I mean, I [02:07:50] don’t want to be reductive about it, but I’ve been to maybe a thousand practices. [02:07:55] Right? And I’ve met all sorts of people. Very alpha people. Yeah. [02:08:00] Totally beta. Whatever. Is that a thing?

[BOTH]: Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah. [02:08:05]

Payman Langroudi: Totally different types of people. Um, running successful businesses [02:08:10] by. You know, I know it’s much more complicated than this, but being good [02:08:15] to your patients, being good to your staff, it’s almost.

Mike Hesketh: Go a long way.

[BOTH]: From. [02:08:20]

Payman Langroudi: That’s that’s a simple thing.

Mike Hesketh: There is that. But but also you can [02:08:25] dope your business. You can financially dope your business by being a clinician. You can put half £1 million turnover [02:08:30] across your business, which solves a lot of business issues that say, you know, you’ve got a product business, [02:08:35] how you describe it, really. But, um, you’ve got a business where you can’t, you know, dope your [02:08:40] business. So it’s built on different principles. And, um, [02:08:45] I think you’re right, being nice and kind and gentle, it gets you so [02:08:50] far. But a lot of the time it comes at the cost of time. And people that contact me [02:08:55] have one and a half, £2 million businesses that unfortunately are [02:09:00] enveloping their time and they go, well, how do you go have a Wednesday off [02:09:05] every week? And and you run 4 or 5 businesses. So I take them through those principles. [02:09:10] And I only work with the old New Zealand no [02:09:15] dickheads thing. I kind of do. Um, the thing about [02:09:20] the Royal Marine Commandos to go back to that is, um, I [02:09:25] mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s all different types of people, but, um, the lads will [02:09:30] quickly find you out if you are inauthentic or [02:09:35] you are selfish. There there [02:09:40] is a very it’s a very good environment for that. Um, and [02:09:45] they are very honest with each other about high performance. And if [02:09:50] you look at the successful sports teams, they’ll go down to Lympstone, which is where they [02:09:55] train the Royal Marine Commandos, which is the longest course in NATO. Um, and like I say, makes [02:10:00] up about 70% of UK special forces. And there’s a reason why the England rugby [02:10:05] team do 2 or 3 days down there, and they get a report on each of the players on their mental attitude [02:10:10] for pressure. Um, it’s a very levelling [02:10:15] playing field, whether you’re super tall, super short or middle [02:10:20] like me, you end up, um, struggling with something.

Mike Hesketh: You [02:10:25] leave a struggle on the load carries or you struggle on the anaerobic physical activity. And then it’s [02:10:30] what you do when it when they want to see your weakness and what you do in your weakness. [02:10:35] It might be you. Not very good with lack of sleep. You might not be very good with the cold, [02:10:40] you might not be very good with the heat. And so they always that everyone [02:10:45] will fail something on the course where they need the person next to them to get them through it, and [02:10:50] how they react to that. And so it’s a very humbling experience [02:10:55] to go through the commando course. Yeah it is. And and so you, you take [02:11:00] that into consultancy. You know, everyone has weaknesses. I have lots of weaknesses. I, I admire [02:11:05] creative leaders. I’m a type of leader. Uh, Lara raises the [02:11:10] energy of the business when she turns up and but her worst nightmare would be having an awkward conversation with a staff member. [02:11:15] And she doesn’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s work. But everyone follows her. She’s so different [02:11:20] to me. The clinical leads are different. They’re cerebral leaders based on evidence. You know, [02:11:25] you don’t have to be a mike esque if you can be your own type of leader. So when I’m working with consultants [02:11:30] and clients and these nice people, I want them to I want to understand how they operate [02:11:35] and what makes them tick, um, really deeply understand it. [02:11:40] And to do that, you can’t do it. I don’t think, on the groups. I think I need to do it on a 1 to 1 basis, [02:11:45] which is I find it more valuable mentally and enjoyable. [02:11:50]

Payman Langroudi: Excellent. Final question. Yeah. It’s a it’s a [02:11:55] fantasy dinner party.

[BOTH]: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: Three guests, dead or alive? [02:12:00] Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Probably wouldn’t mind my dad. Uh, yeah, that’d be [02:12:05] good. Um, don’t really remember conversations with him, so that’d be good. Going back to that. [02:12:10] Um, I had a mate, John Thornton, killed in Afghanistan, uh, [02:12:15] landed in the UK, and I put my bags down on the living [02:12:20] room. We got away, got away? We had one man killed in a whole tour. [02:12:25] We had a very good officer in charge, commanding officer, and we got away with it until [02:12:30] the last 2 or 3 weeks. And we lost John and his colleague. Um, [02:12:35] and he was 22 years old, and he was an [02:12:40] amazing soldier. And I talk about him. I’m doing the quarter talks at the moment for Chris, and I talk about [02:12:45] that. Um, it would be lovely if he was still around. Um, and [02:12:50] then probably inspirational. I don’t know, it’d be quite funny. Sat there with Muhammad Ali, [02:12:55] probably in his prime. Um, I always, I just, I always followed Muhammad Ali when I was little and [02:13:00] enjoyed that.

Payman Langroudi: So when you’re going into a tour, you’re very aware of that, that not all [02:13:05] of you are going to be coming out?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Is that like you really? Everyone understands that?

[BOTH]: Yeah. Yeah. And [02:13:10] everyone knows because.

Mike Hesketh: Because it only. How is it. How is that in it when it was worst. Because [02:13:15] 2005 the Paras was when it kicked off. Sorry Eric. [02:13:20] Five it was called. So every six months is given a number. So Herrick five was [02:13:25] where it really got bad. And then Herrick six and then it was us [02:13:30] in Herrick seven and alternating between the paratroopers and the commandos. [02:13:35] As the spearhead elite forces in UK, soldiering was [02:13:40] what needed to happen to control the Taliban at the time. And we never lost a gunfight. We just, [02:13:45] um, lost the the war in a way. But, um, [02:13:50] never lost the battle. Um, Maybe the political war. I don’t know. But, [02:13:55] um. Yeah, you know, that people are gonna, you know, and so they make you fill out, [02:14:00] um, a will and they, like, on a piece of paper, and then they make you write a letter [02:14:05] to your to. I was engaged at the time, wasn’t married, but my grandma died. [02:14:10] And so bearing in mind my dad had died. So my grandparents, his parents helped raise [02:14:15] me. There were a couple hundred metres away in our small town in Wales. And so they raised me. And my [02:14:20] grandma died while I was in Afghanistan. Mhm. And so I just got a phone call from Lauren. She said, look, [02:14:25] I’m sorry to tell you, I didn’t tell, I think I told [02:14:30] Laura, but I didn’t tell my mum that I’d gone forward. I told everyone I was still in the camp back in the [02:14:35] desert, a bit like mash, you know, like volleyball and all that lot, even though it was [02:14:40] horrendous. Um.

Payman Langroudi: Going forward means getting to front line.

[BOTH]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there’s a, there’s.

Mike Hesketh: Like [02:14:45] a massive base in the middle of the desert that the Taliban can’t get anywhere near. It’s never attacked. And then and it’s got [02:14:50] all the firepower in the world. All the planes and the Apache gunships. And then when you [02:14:55] go into the valley, there’s a town, and then there’s satellites around it in the agricultural areas where the population is. [02:15:00] So then that’s where that’s where all the gunfights. And they’re.

Payman Langroudi: Much more vulnerable.

[BOTH]: There. Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: And so [02:15:05] they I mean, we’d be in a gunfight and the Apache gunship would come overhead and and [02:15:10] open up on the hillside in the distance and rain down fire [02:15:15] to drive the enemy off. Um, and also Harrier jump jets. And that’s [02:15:20] why Prince Harry was with us. Because Prince Harry’s job was to talk to the [02:15:25] Apache gunships and the Harrier jump jets to drop bombs. It’s called a Jtag Joint tactical Air [02:15:30] controller. And he was in the valley next to us in Muscala, and, um, [02:15:35] but he had to call in the air support with our jetpack, and so he on. [02:15:40] Before you go, you do, um, training together. And so I slept in a tent [02:15:45] with Prince Harry for a week. Um, not on our own. That would have been a bit weird if [02:15:50] we’re on our own. Um, but he, uh, you know, he’s made some interesting things, but he was he was attached [02:15:55] to us for a week. Yeah. So he did some training with us, and then it was when he was really young, and he was a very [02:16:00] good soldier. Um, and so, um. Yeah, he he [02:16:05] was in danger. He was he was in danger on his first tour when he wasn’t a pilot [02:16:10] and when he was a soldier on the ground. Yeah, he was on very. And that’s why they had to whip him out. Actually, John [02:16:15] Thornton, the chap I mentioned earlier for the dinner party, he did an evacuation [02:16:20] radio. The next time I heard John Thornton, after being with [02:16:25] him in Kajaki Dam, there was a hydroelectricity plant the Taliban were trying to blow up.

Mike Hesketh: We were trying to [02:16:30] bring electricity to the valley. So John’s company of men were to protect this hydroelectricity [02:16:35] plant. And I spent a couple of weeks with him, watched a movie with him about the mujahideen [02:16:40] killing everyone in that valley a few decades earlier. A bit of like morbid, morbid entertainment [02:16:45] in the evening. And then, um, the next time I heard him was in a different base, [02:16:50] and they say something called contact. Wait out. And all the radios die straight away because [02:16:55] someone’s hit a mine or someone’s in a gunfight, and they need the airline. And, um, it [02:17:00] was John Thornton, and he was so good on the radio, so calm. And [02:17:05] he was evacuating a marine that had lost an arm and a leg called Ben McBean. That [02:17:10] was Ben McBean that was put on the helicopter on the plane back to Selly Oak that [02:17:15] Prince Harry was evacuated with. When the Aussie journalist announced that Prince [02:17:20] Harry was in in Afghanistan and put him at risk with the Taliban. So he’d done about 3 or [02:17:25] 4 months on the ground and got his soldiering in. But then he had to be evacuated because [02:17:30] he became a target for everybody. Um, the men around him as well. And so he [02:17:35] was on this plane looking at Ben McBean. Ben McBean was evacuated by my mate John Thornton. Now, [02:17:40] that’s what inspired the Invictus Games. So the Invictus Games that Prince [02:17:45] Harry was was him staring at Ben McBean.

Mike Hesketh: Remember, Dean was Charlie Company, 40 Commando. [02:17:50] So he was one of us. And so that’s what the Invictus Games came [02:17:55] from, you know. So, yeah, you know, when you go that [02:18:00] you are going to lose friends and get injured. And I had a very [02:18:05] sane conversation with a friend with my Singapore friend who was a reservist, [02:18:10] the ship’s chap. He, uh, we had a conversation in the back of the wagon at [02:18:15] one point where we rationalised, look, if we, what would we accept [02:18:20] to get out of Afghanistan? Um, and we we decided that a below [02:18:25] knee amputation was acceptable. Weird. Like, who has [02:18:30] conversations like that? I was a dentist. Well, and I [02:18:35] vividly remember it. And he wrote it in his journal and he was a good journaler. So he he’s brilliant because [02:18:40] when I post on LinkedIn about being a dentist in this environment, he will [02:18:45] often pop up and go, oh my journal. That day we talked about a below knee amputation [02:18:50] would be acceptable for us. We got out of one vehicle once transferred [02:18:55] to another because we were being moved together, and the vehicle reversed. The [02:19:00] other vehicle we’d just gotten out of, reversed up a hill a bit and hit a tank [02:19:05] mine, and the back end of the vehicle was blown to smithereens. We’d been sat in about [02:19:10] five minutes before, just reversed over a mine in the middle, in the middle of nowhere, and it was [02:19:15] a Russian mine.

Payman Langroudi: Just one left behind from.

[BOTH]: Just left behind.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. And [02:19:20] so then they were like, right, okay, well, it’s called a Viking. It’s worth £10 million. So it’s in two parts. And [02:19:25] the back part was destroyed, which Pete and I were saying. And then, um, so we had [02:19:30] to go up on the Hill line and everyone was like, do you want to fire some rockets at it? Because we’ve got to deny it to [02:19:35] the enemy. So then they called in an airstrike, and we’re watching the best fireworks show ever of an airstrike [02:19:40] landing on our own vehicle that we were just sat in half an hour earlier was [02:19:45] destroyed. Denying it. I mean, there’s funny stories like that. Like [02:19:50] the Padre. There’s another one the Padre got went in a vehicle and, [02:19:55] uh, probably shouldn’t have done, but he, uh, he got in a vehicle. We were, I was [02:20:00] in I was working out with a guy in the middle of the in the middle of one of the forward operating bases, and a [02:20:05] Chinese missile came over and detonated in the middle of the of the base. So we all bomb burst [02:20:10] and legged it to accommodation. And then all of the what happens is everyone runs to the walls and opens fire. [02:20:15]

Mike Hesketh: And the direction of where the target, where the hits come from, and they’re firing in [02:20:20] rocket propelled grenades and the whole earth shakes and you’ve got to get down really low. [02:20:25] And it’s. And it’s not like the rock running through or Jason Statham when [02:20:30] they see these explosions, the whole world, all your senses are debilitated when the missiles come in and the rockets [02:20:35] come in. But the Padre jumped on a vehicle and reversed it up the to [02:20:40] the top of the bun line so that they so the marine on the back could fire a 50 cal, which [02:20:45] is a big weapon down at where these missiles were anyway. So that attack finished. And then the next [02:20:50] day there was a parachute drop of, um, food into the desert. And so [02:20:55] the so the Padres vehicle was one of the ones that went out there and it hit a mine, but with [02:21:00] a three different crew on it, and it was blown to smithereens with three men on it, and [02:21:05] all of them walked away.

Payman Langroudi: Well.

Mike Hesketh: And so everyone then decided [02:21:10] that they were religious and that the Padre had blessed this vehicle the day before because he just sat in [02:21:15] it and driven it. So yeah, it’s just all these weird scenarios. But.

Payman Langroudi: So [02:21:20] when I asked you, you said, I believe in God. Now, did you change your position?

Mike Hesketh: I [02:21:25] think there’s a higher being. Yeah, I think there’s a purpose. I think as you become more enlightened and less I [02:21:30] think there’s a higher being. Yeah. As, as far as I get with it, really. Um, [02:21:35] but yeah, I’d like to think so as well, because there are others on [02:21:40] Schmidt, who was a bomb disposal chap who made a mistake on his fifth [02:21:45] bomb disposal of the day. He’s got an obituary in the Times, and [02:21:50] he was on the commando course with me, and he was the best sergeant I’ve ever been with a heart and soul guy. He became [02:21:55] very high profile because of the pressure the bomb disposal guys were under in Afghanistan. [02:22:00] He was killed, um, a guy called Tom Sawyer who [02:22:05] was the best officer I’d ever seen. A little snip of a ginger chap, but just [02:22:10] a natural leader. And he was killed by friendly fire. Oh, yeah. By, um, [02:22:15] in a different tour. So all through this period, seen [02:22:20] men, friends killed. Um.

Payman Langroudi: How’d you go on? Do [02:22:25] you compartmentalise it? Are you trained to go on? After that happens, [02:22:30] you.

Mike Hesketh: Do.

Payman Langroudi: Two days. Are you too busy saving your own life?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. Yeah. No. You just. Yeah. No, it’s. [02:22:35] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Is it?

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. It’s to remember. It’s to close within to kill the enemy of [02:22:40] the chosen time. And so then when people apply decision [02:22:45] making now of whether they should attack a village or not, attack a village from the distance of [02:22:50] the, of London in the newspapers. Yeah, yeah. It’s hard. It’s not, you [02:22:55] know, it’s kill or be killed.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Which is brutal. Um, [02:23:00] but you do it with care and attention and professionalism. Um, [02:23:05] but we’re only, you know, a few short steps [02:23:10] from that, and I don’t think I don’t buy into this millennial Gen Z rubbish. I [02:23:15] think that people step up. There’s always ability within the within. [02:23:20]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. I don’t like.

Mike Hesketh: That, I hate.

Payman Langroudi: Those, I don’t like.

Mike Hesketh: Generalisations.

Payman Langroudi: It’s rubbish.

Mike Hesketh: I hate [02:23:25] it. I just think that even at the time I think people would say, oh, you know, this generation isn’t as [02:23:30] good. Well, I just watched these guys at 19 years old getting a gunfight every 2 or 3 days [02:23:35] and willingly walk back out the gates and go again for six months.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a child, isn’t [02:23:40] it? A 19 year old child. Can you.

Mike Hesketh: Imagine?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s crazy that that’s [02:23:45] that’s what ends up happening. Like those children go out. [02:23:50] Yeah.

Mike Hesketh: I mean, it’s a very formative stage, [02:23:55] and I think it’s more powerful now as I get older, in my mid 40s, [02:24:00] that I go, oh Jesus, that wasn’t normal. Mhm. Um, and I don’t know whether [02:24:05] I should have um, you know, to answer your question. [02:24:10] No, you don’t get any support unless you’re looking for it. Um, but it’s not like de facto. [02:24:15] Hey, um, they take you to Cyprus on the way back and you’ve [02:24:20] got to stay there for 2 or 3 days. You just get drunk and you just drink [02:24:25] your way through it for 2 or 3 days, and then you land back in the UK, and, and I ended up in an A&E with a commando [02:24:30] beret on, with a uniform and a manager of a hospital berated me at two in the morning telling me that I wasn’t [02:24:35] moving patients through the unit quick enough. I think that was the closest I got to nearly losing my [02:24:40] temper with someone professionally.

Payman Langroudi: Did you get PTSD?

Mike Hesketh: No, [02:24:45] not diagnosed with it or anything like that. But I think, you know, you just talk about it, don’t you? But I’ve always talked about [02:24:50] it. You know, I’ve always.

Payman Langroudi: That helps.

Mike Hesketh: I it does me. [02:24:55]

Payman Langroudi: Other people bottle it up.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah. I talk about it with with my wife. Um, you [02:25:00] know, at the time, um, and then, you [02:25:05] know, actually, it’s been very, very therapeutic talking about it on podcasts [02:25:10] and also doing it with colleagues because it’s it’s an [02:25:15] interesting reaction at the moment where I’m doing these talking series. We’ve talked about 400 practice owners [02:25:20] and people throughout the UK as part of this series. Um, [02:25:25] I’ve had 2 or 3 people at each time come up to me at the end and go, thank [02:25:30] you for your service. And service. And I never think like that. But there were just lovely people and [02:25:35] quite a few mums with children in the military that [02:25:40] I then think, oh, I need to be careful, you know, um, [02:25:45] with the honesty, there’s a reason I didn’t tell my wife and my mum [02:25:50] that I was forward in the operating bases for three months. Um, there’s a [02:25:55] reason I didn’t tell them I was on the ground being a medic, stretcher, carrying injured Marines [02:26:00] with eyes hanging out and abdomens hanging out. Um, there’s [02:26:05] stuff people just don’t really need to know. But, um, does business [02:26:10] faze me? No. Not really. They have a saying at the end which is called cheerfulness [02:26:15] in the face of adversity, cheerfulness in the face of adversity. Well, [02:26:20] you have, like you’d imagine, the other commando qualities of courage, determination and all that stuff. [02:26:25] But I always find that really funny. But the Marines are are [02:26:30] generally cheerful.

Payman Langroudi: It’s interesting.

Mike Hesketh: Yeah, it’s quite funny.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [02:26:35]

Mike Hesketh: You know, um, because if it’s not, if you’re not laughing, then there’s something. [02:26:40] You’re thinking too much, you know?

Payman Langroudi: I think I always tell young dentists, you know, go [02:26:45] do a stint of maxfax just to get just just to just to never be scared of [02:26:50] dentistry again. Yeah, yeah. But this this is a higher level of that, isn’t [02:26:55] it? For life.

Mike Hesketh: I wouldn’t I wouldn’t advocate it.

Payman Langroudi: Not much is going to happen in life that’s going to faze you.

Mike Hesketh: Not [02:27:00] really, but I would say that everyone’s got an Afghanistan in them. You know, I heard stories from [02:27:05] on the MBA by Venezuelan, um, student who told me about his kidnapping. He was kidnapped [02:27:10] and taken into the jungle in Venezuela and, you know, kidnappings, a big business over there. And he had to talk his way out [02:27:15] of it. What do you think? Yeah, and I didn’t know that. And then other friends who’ve had, [02:27:20] you know, personal tragedies. It doesn’t matter what your Afghanistan is. It just [02:27:25] matters that, you know, that life can be worse than when you run your business and no one’s dying.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [02:27:30]

Mike Hesketh: And that puts things into perspective a little bit. And so the cheerfulness in the [02:27:35] face of adversity is one of them.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, I really, really enjoyed [02:27:40] it, man. I really, really enjoyed it. Thank you so much.

[VOICE]: This is [02:27:45] Dental Leaders, the podcast where you get to go one on one with emerging [02:27:50] leaders in dentistry. Your [02:27:55] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki.

Prav Solanki: Thanks [02:28:00] for listening guys. If you got this far, you must have listened to the whole thing. And just a huge [02:28:05] thank you both from me and pay for actually sticking through and listening to what we’ve had to say and [02:28:10] what our guest has had to say, because I’m assuming you got some value out of it.

Payman Langroudi: If you did get some value [02:28:15] out of it, think about subscribing. And if you would share this with a friend [02:28:20] who you think might get some value out of it too. Thank you so so so much for listening. Thanks.

Prav Solanki: And don’t [02:28:25] forget our six star rating.

[VOICE]: This [00:00:05] is mind movers [00:00:10] moving the conversation forward on mental health [00:00:15] and optimisation for dental professionals. Your hosts Rhona [00:00:20] Eskander and Payman Langroudi.

Rhona Eskander: Hi [00:00:25] everyone, welcome to another episode of Mind Movers. I haven’t been on for a very long time because I think a [00:00:30] lot of you will know that I went and had a baby. I was in ICU for two months, but I have [00:00:35] been back for a very special podcast just before Christmas, and I [00:00:40] was so excited when they told me that he had the amazingly wonderful Nellie Patel. For those [00:00:45] of you that don’t know, Nellie Patel is an incredible cosmetic dentist based in the famous Kiss Dental [00:00:50] with Kailash Solanki, and she is also a superstar [00:00:55] from the TV show MAFs. Now, I have to admit, I only started watching MAFs. The very first [00:01:00] season that I watched was during my maternity leave. So when I saw there was a cosmetic dentist, I [00:01:05] got really excited. And obviously, I think that we can all agree that she was incredible [00:01:10] on the show. For those of you that didn’t watch the show, the premise of the show is, is that a bunch of experts get together [00:01:15] when you apply, they match you up with someone that they believe to be your soulmate, and the first time [00:01:20] that you meet them is on your wedding day. You then go on to get married. The marriage then [00:01:25] progresses. You have check ins with the experts. You see what the dynamics are with your family, how it [00:01:30] is living with each other. And I love all that sort of experimental stuff. So it’s going to [00:01:35] be a really interesting conversation to learn from somebody who has got the media spotlight in dentistry, [00:01:40] but also to understand how to navigate relationship dynamics in the modern day world. [00:01:45] So welcome, Nelly.

Neelima Patel: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Really excited. [00:01:50] Um, I’m going to jump straight in there because I know pay is like, this is going to turn into like two women. So [00:01:55] obviously, as I said, you know, you have been an incredibly credible cosmetic dentist [00:02:00] at Kiss Dental. I want to actually start with that. How did [00:02:05] your journey start? So you told me you’re from Loughborough, but what university did you go to?

Neelima Patel: I [00:02:10] went to University of Sheffield.

Rhona Eskander: Okay, amazing. And did you know you wanted to be a dentist from a young age? Did [00:02:15] you just kind of fall into it? How did it happen?

Neelima Patel: Honestly, no. I think my dream job was to be like an astronaut [00:02:20] for a bit. I had no idea. And then I think when I, you know, when it was time to [00:02:25] sort of start choosing your A-levels and stuff, I always knew I was a science girl. And I’m [00:02:30] like, good with people. Yeah. Um, so it was either, you know, I was tossing up between dentistry and medicine for a very long time, [00:02:35] and then, um, I chose dentistry. It was honestly really 50 over 50. Just chose [00:02:40] it because I think I knew I wanted to do surgery or something like. And, yeah, I [00:02:45] knew I wanted to do surgery. I think with medicine, it’s really difficult. Like I wanted to if I [00:02:50] was going to do medicine, I was going to do the surgery side of it. That includes nights I wanted to I wanted to have a life where [00:02:55] I could have a family and stuff, and I think dentistry allowed me to go down that path if I wanted to.

Rhona Eskander: So you qualified in [00:03:00] 2017, which is a lot later than me. I am an old bird now, and I would love [00:03:05] to know how you got into such a successful cosmetic practice, because I think that’s what a lot of young dentists would want to [00:03:10] know as well. You only graduated seven years ago, eight years ago [00:03:15] now in 2026. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. But you know, [00:03:20] you how was your kind of cosmetic dentistry journey. How did you get into that field?

Neelima Patel: To be honest, I [00:03:25] would say I mean it’s something that’s always interested me for a while. And then I met Kailash, [00:03:30] um, through a friend, um, on a night out. And then we I sort of followed [00:03:35] him on Instagram, and I saw that he was doing sort of the mentorship program that he does. And so I literally [00:03:40] just messaged him on Instagram and I said I’d really be interested in it. And then, yeah, it kind of it kind of just [00:03:45] spiralled from there.

Payman Langroudi: How long have you been there now?

Neelima Patel: So I started in 2020. So yeah about [00:03:50] five and a half years.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Amazing I love that. So what does the mentorship program involve? Quite interested. [00:03:55]

Neelima Patel: So it’s two years. And then on the first year you do three clinical days, two days shadowing. [00:04:00] And it’s just shadowing Kailash um, all day. And then the second year you drop to one [00:04:05] shadow day and have four clinical days. And it’s just literally watching him learning how to do [00:04:10] the restorative stuff, um, or the like all the yeah, all the cosmetic stuff that you kind of [00:04:15] you don’t get taught at uni.

Rhona Eskander: I always say to people that I think mentorship is really underrated. Like, I’m sure you’ve [00:04:20] got a lot of young dentists and like, it’s one of the best things that you can do. Like one of my mentors at the moment [00:04:25] is Christian Coachman, and I remember watching him at Bacd in 2000 and I [00:04:30] want to say 12 or something. Was that the year I think I can’t remember, but anyways, and now I’ve invested [00:04:35] in kind of doing like a mentorship program with him. And I always say it’s like it’s such a good thing to do because you just learn [00:04:40] so much from people that have done it, and it’s definitely a great investment. Okay, amazing. [00:04:45] So have you enjoyed dentistry?

Neelima Patel: Yeah. You know what? I think since starting [00:04:50] I think Since starting at Kiss, I’ve actually really enjoyed it. I think it’s the clinic. I really enjoy being there. [00:04:55] I think the people are great, but also I’m really enjoying the sort of treatments I do. Sounds cheesy, but you know, [00:05:00] making someone smile and actually improving their confidence. It’s nice.

Rhona Eskander: Amazing.

Neelima Patel: It’s quite it’s like fulfilling. [00:05:05]

Payman Langroudi: You landed on your feet, right? Because it. Have you ever been to kiss?

Rhona Eskander: No, I’ve never been to [00:05:10] kiss.

Payman Langroudi: It’s like. It’s like a very busy, very private [00:05:15] practice, you know, like, normally. Yeah. But normally, normally practices are either busy or they’re [00:05:20] private. Yeah. You don’t see both at the same time. Or you go to kiss his waiting room. There’s loads of people [00:05:25] waiting. There’s loads of people coming and going. And then you realise, oh, it’s one of the sort of higher end practices [00:05:30] as well.

Rhona Eskander: Would you say that also in northern practices like, well, where northern dentistry [00:05:35] is, there’s less competition than London?

Neelima Patel: No, no.

Rhona Eskander: Really. So a lot of [00:05:40] a lot of dental practices because I don’t really kind of I studied in Leeds, Manchester.

Neelima Patel: There’s so much competition [00:05:45] in Manchester.

Rhona Eskander: Oh really. That’s interesting. That is interesting because I didn’t know. [00:05:50] You know, because obviously London, you think it’s so big and you’ve got all the different areas, etc..

Payman Langroudi: Maybe it’s not as [00:05:55] bad as London, but I mean, probably the second most competitive.

Neelima Patel: Leeds and Liverpool and all those places around as well. So [00:06:00] you’re competing with all those areas because.

Rhona Eskander: And are they as popular, do you think Manchester’s The Hub.

Neelima Patel: Liverpool’s [00:06:05] pretty busy. There’s some really good clinics in Liverpool, Leeds as well. But like yeah [00:06:10] I think those two areas are our main competitors really.

Rhona Eskander: Would you say it’s a certain type of aesthetic that [00:06:15] people want because, see, like in London with Chelsea, people are so [00:06:20] picky as in like they really don’t want people to know they’ve had their teeth done. So this has to be like undetectable cosmetic [00:06:25] dentistry, you know, it has to be like, that’s it’s a lot harder. You know, you’re never going to have anyone go for [00:06:30] bl1 like it’s.

Payman Langroudi: A lot of SB, SB one composite up north. [00:06:35]

Neelima Patel: Yeah, yeah.

Rhona Eskander: So I’m trying to ask, is it do people want to look like they’ve had their teeth done if that makes sense? Yeah. [00:06:40] I mean.

Neelima Patel: Don’t get me wrong. Obviously I’ll have an array of patients. I have a lot of people that will say I just want something subtle. [00:06:45] Often it’s I want people to know I’ve had my teeth done, but I don’t want them to look overdone. And I’m just like, [00:06:50] watch it. I’m like, yeah, right. Okay. I’ll figure it out. I’ll figure it out when I’m there. Um, but a lot of times [00:06:55] it’s like, yeah, no, I want people to know I’ve had my teeth and I just don’t want them to have been done in Turkey. And I’m like, well, at least you’ve gone for the [00:07:00] sensible option and get them done safely here. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it’s just I guess everyone has different. [00:07:05]

Payman Langroudi: You know? Matty. Matty talks about this Matty Parsons. He’s he’s in Liverpool. And [00:07:10] he says as long as the patient says I want, he’s okay. [00:07:15] If the patient says, I want everyone to know I’ve had my teeth out. I want big white teeth, I want this. He [00:07:20] says the problem is when the patient says, you decide.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Then he doesn’t know. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And then? [00:07:25] And then he does something. And then the patient’s, you know, idea of that was totally different. To what? Yeah. You [00:07:30] know that. You must get that a lot. Right.

Rhona Eskander: No. Yeah. Sometimes. And I think also, unfortunately, [00:07:35] because of my social media, people do put me on the, like, holy grail sometimes and they think [00:07:40] that I know better. And I think one of the most challenging things about being your own brand and [00:07:45] dentistry. And one thing that I regret and I’m having to do is basing the brand on you. And I think one thing that [00:07:50] Kailash has done really well is pivoted the brand away from him and reverted it back to kiss, [00:07:55] which now I’m trying to do with Chelsea Dental, because, see, for example, I would say I have some clinicians [00:08:00] in my clinic that are better and more talented than me, but the patient, even if they get diverted [00:08:05] to them and they’re not happy, they’re like, but I wanted to see Rona anyways. This wouldn’t have happened with Rona. And it’s like, [00:08:10] it’s the patient. It’s not the dentist, you know, because I know those dentists are much more capable than me. So [00:08:15] it’s quite an interesting psychology. You know, there was a patient that was disgruntled with one of my dentists, and then [00:08:20] she was like, all of Rona’s patients are happy on Instagram. You’re not going to show your [00:08:25] bad bits, you know? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So we used to talk about it all [00:08:30] the time with Kailash and Prav. The question of can you bottle Kailash [00:08:35] before he started that program? Yeah. And, um, now he’s really shown that you can because [00:08:40] you guys, you know, there’s so many of you who’ve come through that program. And doing well, right? [00:08:45] You know, like working high level. High volume, high price. [00:08:50] Um, so it’s an impressive thing. You should look at that. You should look at that.

Rhona Eskander: I mean, I think it’s [00:08:55] interesting, but also, like, I don’t have the time to dedicate. You know, I recognised as well that mentorship [00:09:00] requires so much time. So whilst now juggling like being a mum and running a. I [00:09:05] already do so much so like my, my kind of pivot as well is like doing a lot of PR for [00:09:10] my other dentists and getting them to treat journalists and celebrities so [00:09:15] that people then say I want to see them, which is like models that some other practices have used as well. So don’t [00:09:20] just push one person. So I went to my PR and I was like, okay doctor, [00:09:25] Rona PR def and Chelsea Dental PR different, you know what I mean? So like before it used to be [00:09:30] like Rona at Chelsea and now it’s like I’m now sent the biographies of all my dentists and going [00:09:35] for that, because we have had younger dentists in the practice and they have been really good. [00:09:40] But I think with the mentorship that you’re talking about, like, I can’t be watching them every minute of the day [00:09:45] because also I’m treating patients sometimes and their confidence is different. And Chelsea [00:09:50] is really tricky. Like, the patients are kind of on another level of pickiness. And even [00:09:55] my very experienced dentists now, Doctor Justin and Doctor Pete, they both [00:10:00] said like Chelsea, patients are very well versed in dentistry. They don’t come in being [00:10:05] like, hey, like, this is what I want. They like they know about line angles, they know about translucency. They’re very [00:10:10] well versed, like their sort of patients that have done their research. They buy very quickly, but [00:10:15] they know what they want, you know. So anyway, we understand the kind of like kiss journey. [00:10:20] So fast forward to last year. Was it filmed last year?

Neelima Patel: Yeah, filmed last year. [00:10:25]

Rhona Eskander: Okay. Amazing. How did you get on to MAFs? How did it start?

Neelima Patel: So started. I got DM [00:10:30] on my Instagram and then it just kind of rolled from there, really. So it was. It wasn’t [00:10:35] even for married at First sight. It was for another show. Love is blind. Yeah, yeah.

Rhona Eskander: And then I [00:10:40] feel like that’s also somewhat better in some ways, but go on.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. Well I remember and then but that was sort of very towards [00:10:45] the end of the casting process. Um, so then they were like, look, it’s not going to happen this time. Can [00:10:50] we keep your stuff on file? And I said, yeah, but I don’t really can imagine myself on [00:10:55] any other shows. I can’t really I can’t really see it. Um, and I didn’t realise at the time that it’s the same production [00:11:00] company for Maths and Love Is Blind. So then I was like the only one I could go on, maybe would be something like maths. [00:11:05] And he was like, oh great, um, I’ll keep your number on. And then a month later I got a phone call and it just sort of went from [00:11:10] there, really.

Rhona Eskander: And what was going through your mind at that point? Like, were you like excited? [00:11:15] Were you thinking, this is something I’ve always wanted to do? Were you worried about what? Your family, your friends, what anyone thinks?

Neelima Patel: Yeah, [00:11:20] I think at the time, well, I didn’t think it was going to happen because you don’t really get confirmed until quite late [00:11:25] on. But all the meetings and stuff, I just had it in my head, as probably, I probably will get pulled [00:11:30] out last minute. It won’t happen. I didn’t really think about it, if I’m honest. It was only towards the very end where [00:11:35] contracts and stuff were coming through. I just thought, oh my God, I’m really going to have to choose now. Um, [00:11:40] spoke to I think everyone around me was hesitant. I had one person that [00:11:45] was like, yes, absolutely have to do this. Everyone else, a lot of my Dental friends were like, don’t do it. [00:11:50] Um, Kayla said not to do it. Why? I think they were very much like there was a stigma [00:11:55] attached with it. Um, and what if you mess up? What if you get cancelled? Um, [00:12:00] just loads of things.

Rhona Eskander: Can I tell you? Um, I think it’s one of the bravest things you’ve ever done. And if you [00:12:05] ask me, one of my biggest regrets is in life. It was not going on a reality TV show when I got asked [00:12:10] when I first qualified in 2010, about 2011 Made and Chelsea had just started, [00:12:15] I knew quite a lot of the cast. I got put forward like by three people. I [00:12:20] said no because I was too worried what people think for all of those reasons, and I think it’s one of the worst decisions [00:12:25] I ever made in my life.

Payman Langroudi: What would have happened to you if you hadn’t gone on that?

Rhona Eskander: But you’ll never know. But at the end of the day, [00:12:30] I think that, you know, it gives you a platform and it gives you like opportunities that you [00:12:35] may never have.

Payman Langroudi: And we had. We’ve had guests.

Payman Langroudi: Here saying that it ruined their lives.

Rhona Eskander: True. [00:12:40] It can happen, and we know that. And I’m sure Nelly will tell you the same about some people that have been at MAFs, that their mental health [00:12:45] was probably on a string. You know, some people. But at the end of the day, I think it’s a brave thing to do. It’s [00:12:50] a brave decision.

Payman Langroudi: So how did you feel going against everyone’s advice? Yeah, that must have been.

Rhona Eskander: Did you worry? [00:12:55] Did people impact you and be like, oh, should I, should I do this?

Neelima Patel: Yeah. I mean, I felt like a bit of a badass. I was like, you know what? [00:13:00] I don’t care what anyone thinks. I’m going to do it anyway because I never I very much care what people think. And I think [00:13:05] for the first time in my life, I thought, no, I’m going to do it. Um.

Payman Langroudi: But Nelly, you know, talking to you [00:13:10] before. Yeah. One thing I noticed about you is you’ve got very cool parents.

Neelima Patel: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Like, not [00:13:15] your typical Asian parents.

Neelima Patel: No, they’re the best, aren’t they?

Payman Langroudi: So, you know, maybe that gives you.

Rhona Eskander: Did you talk [00:13:20] to them about it before you?

Payman Langroudi: What did they say?

Rhona Eskander: What did they say? Or did you talk to them after you got confirmed?

Neelima Patel: No, I told I told [00:13:25] them before my dad was like, this is a ridiculous idea. It is my mum and my mum [00:13:30] was there. Like, I think it sounds great because she watches it. So she was like, that sounds fun. And [00:13:35] my brother and sister were very hesitant. But I think my mom and dad, I kind of said to them, like, look, I’m going to do [00:13:40] what I want anyway. So you either get on board with it or you don’t. So that’s why my dad came around. They’ll never stop me from, [00:13:45] like, doing. I think he knows that he can never stop me.

Rhona Eskander: Have a question for you. Why did [00:13:50] you want to go on a reality TV program based on love? Did you feel at that point in [00:13:55] your life you were ready for love, and you’d almost kind of given up on dating? Did you feel like you wanted [00:14:00] to put your love life in experts hands? Like, what was the catalyst? Because there’s love and blind and maths. And if [00:14:05] the premise is essentially meeting somebody, connecting on that level and moving things very quickly. [00:14:10] Right. So something inside of you must have felt, I’m ready for this. Is that fair [00:14:15] to say?

Neelima Patel: Yeah, 100%. Like I was very ready to. I hate the dating scene. I [00:14:20] didn’t enjoy it. Then I’d stop dating for a little while, and I just kind of thought, well, I’m getting on a bit and [00:14:25] it’s fun. I think I find reality TV fascinating. I watch it, um, and I thought, what if I [00:14:30] get to be one of the lucky ones that actually gets matched up perfectly well and they end up together.

Rhona Eskander: Okay, so that was the.

Neelima Patel: I [00:14:35] really did want to meet someone. Yeah.

Rhona Eskander: Okay. So they called you up and they said you’ve been successful. Yeah. [00:14:40] At that point, did you know anything about the person they were setting you up with?

Neelima Patel: Literally not a single thing.

Rhona Eskander: Fine. [00:14:45] And did you then have to with work what happened? Because I’m assuming the filming schedule [00:14:50] conflicted. You know, how did you have to tell Kailash? Did you have to get time off kiss? How did it work?

Neelima Patel: Yeah. So I took [00:14:55] like ten weeks off work. I rang Kailash when? [00:15:00] Not before. I was before I was confirmed, actually, I rang Kailash just to tell him, like, look, this is in the pipeline. It’s something [00:15:05] that I really do want to do, but I’ve not decided yet. And I was very 5050 at this point. And K was like, [00:15:10] um, look, I don’t I don’t think you should do it. I don’t think it’s a good idea. But if you do, I’ll support you. [00:15:15] And that was the green light for me. Yeah. So. Well, it was nice because I just thought, well, I’ve got time to think [00:15:20] about it then I’ve got at least I know I can have it off if I need to. Let me actually just go into a decision based on. [00:15:25] Yeah. So then, um. Yeah. So then I had [00:15:30] to take off 12. Well, ten weeks. Sorry, I took off ten weeks. Um, with my patients. Why? I [00:15:35] did a lot for a lot of people try to finish their treatments off. So I did like extra evenings, did a few weekends, [00:15:40] finished them off, and then any new patients, I saw any remedial work. I had [00:15:45] Lucy, who works at Kiss and she appeared on the show, but she basically looked after all my patients. [00:15:50]

Rhona Eskander: Okay, fine. Amazing. So first you rock up and I remember that [00:15:55] first scene and you looked absolutely stunning. You didn’t see it. She was in her beautiful traditional [00:16:00] Asian wedding.

Payman Langroudi: Is a wedding. Wedding so mad.

Rhona Eskander: Well, the first scene is The Bachelorette, so, [00:16:05] like, you kind of get to know the bachelorettes and the bachelors, and they, they meet each other and they [00:16:10] chat for a little bit, but you don’t really get a great deal.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. We don’t meet the other husbands, we.

Rhona Eskander: Just meet the other ones. But [00:16:15] then then it goes straight basically into the weddings. So yeah, I remember it was an incredible scene. [00:16:20] She’d come in in this incredible, beautiful outfit and traditional outfit, [00:16:25] um, Indian bride. And you see this guy at the altar, and that’s the first time. [00:16:30]

Payman Langroudi: They take your feedback on what you want your wedding to be like or.

Neelima Patel: Like a little bit. So they said, [00:16:35] choose some colour schemes like tick out of the box what you like. And then that was pretty much it. [00:16:40] And then I said, I can’t get married without Paeonies and that’s pretty much all I got.

Rhona Eskander: And then they, I guess they [00:16:45] set the budget and stuff for the wedding, right? Because the TV show paid for it. Uh, and the experts, how many [00:16:50] conversations do you have with them about what you want?

Neelima Patel: The only. So we actually [00:16:55] have, um, just one.

Rhona Eskander: That’s it. That’s scary. Huh?

Payman Langroudi: So [00:17:00] then they match you based on.

Neelima Patel: Because we do, like, there’s loads of forms and stuff. We do loads of personality tests, [00:17:05] that kind of thing. And then we have, like, a face to face.

Rhona Eskander: I have to say though, I think they get it so wrong. Like [00:17:10] as the person that watches the TV show, like as like objectively or subjectively, I [00:17:15] was like, I think they’ve got this so wrong. And I actually think it was quite a poor reflection on the experts. I’m just going [00:17:20] to come out there and say that, and I absolutely adore someone like Paul, for example. But I was [00:17:25] just like, how have they got like, not just for you, but on so many levels of so many different people?

Neelima Patel: Well, technically, [00:17:30] I don’t actually know whether I’m allowed to say this or not, but they have like a so on that day where you [00:17:35] choose your what you kind of want for your wedding and stuff, they have a psychiatrist [00:17:40] who does your personality. She basically does all these questions and stuff and then she technically matches [00:17:45] you. I don’t know how it works. I still don’t know how they.

Rhona Eskander: The experts aren’t the matchmakers.

Neelima Patel: But then I think but we see we don’t [00:17:50] even still know. I don’t know whether they get to do last approvals of them or they say, look, this person [00:17:55] could match either this I would it makes sense to say this person can match these three people. Who do you think is [00:18:00] going to work best? And then the experts have a say. But I think the experts I remember watching a clip that Paul said [00:18:05] that he doesn’t get to choose us. He just gets to choose. These are the people that are presented to him, and then the experts [00:18:10] have to match within that.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s so interesting. You know, like it’s fascinating.

Neelima Patel: I’ve been on the show. [00:18:15] I still don’t know how exactly they match.

Payman Langroudi: There’s so much about it. It’s an arranged marriage.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah, [00:18:20] but I think but I think that’s the premise. And that’s why I find it so interesting. I interesting. I think, that we’ve become [00:18:25] an age and society where women have become so disillusioned [00:18:30] with the dating scene and the promise of happily ever after, [00:18:35] that they’re happy now to put their lives in someone else’s hands. Like, that’s why these dating shows are so popular. [00:18:40]

Neelima Patel: Out there, man. It’s really rough on the dating scene, I’ve got to tell you.

Payman Langroudi: And we’ll go on, go on. Expand on [00:18:45] that, because.

Rhona Eskander: Payman.

Neelima Patel: Do you want to have a look at my dating apps and then you’ll understand.

Payman Langroudi: No, but really, it’s been [00:18:50] a while, so it’s just horrendous. The story.

Neelima Patel: Nothing. It’s just just I mean, the types of men [00:18:55] I’ve dated, obviously they weren’t great because that’s why I went on MAFs, but it’s just hard. I think even [00:19:00] dating now, like even trying to get a connection. I think this the swiping culture is so people will always think, [00:19:05] and I’ve been guilty of it too, of I can do better. Or if you kind of start talking to someone and it [00:19:10] veers off, or you kind of been dating them for a little bit and then.

Rhona Eskander: Fizzles.

Neelima Patel: Fizzles, I think before, because [00:19:15] it’s so hard to meet someone organically, you kind of want to try and work at it a little bit or find out, but now you just think, [00:19:20] whatever, I’ll just swipe and find somebody else.

Rhona Eskander: I think. Listen, I think ultimately [00:19:25] as well. I saw a clip the other day that I did about attracting narcissists, [00:19:30] and I think, like, there is definitely something to be said for women that are high powered career [00:19:35] women. And we’ve talked about this a lot and pay and I yeah, it is difficult because I think naturally [00:19:40] also the kind of men that we get duped by or attracted to isn’t good. [00:19:45] And that’s why we say like it’s really important to do the work. And when you change your mindset about what you find [00:19:50] is attractive, it really does help. You know, because I’ve gone through like three years [00:19:55] of just like, picking the wrong people. Yeah. And I think, you know, I was like, well, I’m also the [00:20:00] common denominator because I’m allowing them to come into my life. I [00:20:05] remember seeing at the altar I didn’t like him from day one. I’m not gonna lie. Yeah.

Neelima Patel: So many people have said this that they picked [00:20:10] up on.

Rhona Eskander: It, but he was just like, you know, you are this high, empowered, incredibly [00:20:15] educated woman. And I just felt like he was just very much Jack the lad. [00:20:20] Just just.

Payman Langroudi: You.

Rhona Eskander: Know, but I think that he just he was to me. [00:20:25] He wasn’t there for the right reasons. I think you could tell that from the beginning. Like he was there for a bit of fun. And then when the story [00:20:30] unravels, which we’ll talk about, he was he wasn’t taking this seriously.

Neelima Patel: He had a whole [00:20:35] girlfriend before he ghosted her on the wedding day.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. See. Yeah, yeah. And he’s he’s [00:20:40] he’s he’s he’s got children, which obviously there’s nothing wrong with that. But you think that somebody [00:20:45] with that amount of responsibility would be a little bit more mature about these situations, but you weren’t feeling [00:20:50] that that was somebody that was like capable of like huge amounts of responsibility, you know? Yeah, that [00:20:55] was my intuition.

Payman Langroudi: When you first saw.

Rhona Eskander: It. Yeah. What was your thing when you first.

Payman Langroudi: Saw the attracted? What [00:21:00] how did.

Rhona Eskander: You what happened?

Neelima Patel: I my attraction is based on personality. Like, I mean, [00:21:05] when I saw him, I thought, yeah, great. Kind of. What? I’ve dated over six foot tall. [00:21:10] That was that was it. And I thought, oh, his eyes. Yeah. It looks like he’s got [00:21:15] nice eyes. Which on the now I watch it back and I think they [00:21:20] look very evil sometimes, but. Yeah. No. Um, yeah. I think when I first saw him, I was just like, yeah, [00:21:25] okay, I can, I can, I can work with this. We can get to know each other. Yeah, I was happy I was yeah, I was [00:21:30] really happy on the day. I was.

Rhona Eskander: Kidding. You said the honeymoon went really well.

Neelima Patel: The honeymoon was perfect. Yeah, it was really, really good.

Rhona Eskander: Do [00:21:35] you feel like he was pretending to be someone he wasn’t?

Neelima Patel: Yeah. Or maybe. See, [00:21:40] I sometimes I think, is it that he was pretending to be that person? Or because [00:21:45] he pretended extremely well on that honeymoon like it was. It was wild, but. Or was it that when [00:21:50] he came back to the apartments and he saw all the other wives? I don’t know.

Rhona Eskander: Question [00:21:55] for you as well. Maybe you are not allowed to say this. Do you get legally married? I know that sounds weird. Or is it until not until [00:22:00] the renewal of the vows?

Neelima Patel: I think it used to be a legal marriage, but it’s not anymore. But they have, like full on [00:22:05] celebrants that they hire and stuff, so it makes you feel like it is a really.

Rhona Eskander: But it’s not signed, sealed, delivered. Right. [00:22:10] Is the is the renewal of the vows? No. No neither. Okay, fine. So in theory, they’re [00:22:15] not real, as it were. Was, and that they’re not legally binding.

Neelima Patel: Not legally binding. But you do feel like [00:22:20] it’s really real. Like the experts are very like it’s very real that you refer to each other [00:22:25] as your wife and your husband. Like, you wouldn’t just be like my mate over there or my girlfriend or whatever.

Payman Langroudi: On [00:22:30] this question of who should you marry? Yeah, the I mean, you’re [00:22:35] saying the honeymoon went well. Yeah. The for me and you’ve just been through it. Yeah. [00:22:40] The person you should marry is the one you want to push your wheelchair.

Rhona Eskander: Well, I’ve said this to [00:22:45] you before, so Payman and I have had this argument and let me finish, because now, having [00:22:50] been through so Payman always said like he believes. And we had actually an amazing neuroscientist [00:22:55] on the podcast just before Christmas that like real love is when you can’t sleep. [00:23:00] You’re so anxious, you feel like you do anything.

Payman Langroudi: You’re like, I feel like you educated me a bit.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Thank you. And we [00:23:05] educated him and I said, that’s that’s a trauma bond and that’s you. Actually, that’s your nervous [00:23:10] system telling you in some way something’s not right. Because when you start and you experience that with [00:23:15] Stephen, I feel like the moment you start feeling your nervous system firing, that’s not love. That’s [00:23:20] trauma. Do you see what I mean? Because you’re feeling like something is really being ignited. And like, as you [00:23:25] had as you had said here, the person that pushes your wheelchair like, that’s [00:23:30] definitely my husband. Like, he’s a very. And Buddha even says Buddha. So you [00:23:35] listen to Buddha. Buddha says, when you beat the Buddha says that when you meet the right person, you’ll feel [00:23:40] a sense of calm. You’re not going to feel a sense of stress and anxiety. And that’s the thing. Like the person [00:23:45] that makes you feel calm is the person you should be with the person. And I’m not saying boring because [00:23:50] people often like conflate that. And actually, Esther Perel was the one that said that human [00:23:55] beings really struggle with safety and desire because in itself you can’t have desire with [00:24:00] safety because it’s deemed to be quite boring. And that’s why she works a lot with couples, because [00:24:05] that fiery up and down is like a drug. It’s like having a high and then a low and then a high and [00:24:10] then.

Neelima Patel: A full on chemical imbalance.

Rhona Eskander: In your brain. Yeah, exactly. And you take consumes your whole day and it consumes [00:24:15] your whole, like, thinking process. Yeah. So.

Payman Langroudi: But but then on that point, [00:24:20] you’ve been in a few relationships before. When you think about the ones that were right [00:24:25] or wrong, whatever that question of how do people react [00:24:30] in difficult times? Do you agree that that’s I.

Neelima Patel: Think it’s very [00:24:35] telling.

Payman Langroudi: Key point? Yeah, because life’s full of difficult. I mean, we can all enjoy Ferraris [00:24:40] and private jets. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, anyone. Absolutely.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. [00:24:45] No, no, 100%. I do agree with that.

Payman Langroudi: So then. Okay, so on the honeymoon you enjoyed, but the honeymoon, [00:24:50] I expect was somewhere nice and whatever.

Neelima Patel: Yeah, I was in Jamaica. Had the best.

Payman Langroudi: Time.

Neelima Patel: There. Yeah, it was lovely. Yeah. Um, and then we came [00:24:55] back, moved into the apartments, and then you have, like, your first dinner party when you [00:25:00] meet all the other couples and see who everyone’s been matched up with.

Rhona Eskander: Do you feel that’s when it changed?

Neelima Patel: There [00:25:05] was something like just on that first initial. Just [00:25:10] when we move back to the apartments, like intimacy had stopped and it just was a bit strange and [00:25:15] it was a bit different. And I just felt.

Rhona Eskander: Literally just from the moment you came.

Neelima Patel: Back. Yeah, really, really odd. But it [00:25:20] was obviously really different on honeymoon. I remember coming back and, you know, just feel an energy shift. [00:25:25] And then I thought, maybe it’s just because we moved in and I’ve never lived with a guy before, and maybe I’m being the weird, awkward [00:25:30] one because this is this is alien to me. And then I just asked him, like, is everything all right? Like, you’ve been [00:25:35] a bit. And he was like, yeah, no. Fine. So then obviously you start internalising it and thinking, I’m going insane. Is it [00:25:40] just me? And then I had to. And then. Yeah, at the apartments. That’s when I continued to call him out on it. [00:25:45] And that’s when everything started. The moment I really called him out on it and said, no, I need an answer from you. [00:25:50] Um, you haven’t been the same. That’s when his behaviour really changed. [00:25:55]

Payman Langroudi: This is all on camera.

Rhona Eskander: No, this wasn’t.

Neelima Patel: Seen was we were all at the pub on a Sunday. [00:26:00] That’s where all the arguments used to happen.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah.

Neelima Patel: Off camera, because we’d all go for a drink.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. No, [00:26:05] I didn’t see that bit there. And then. Did you find it? Obviously. Then I saw, [00:26:10] you know, you see the relationship develop. You see how much he was gaslighting you. You see how difficult [00:26:15] it was. At what point did you think, oh my God, I just don’t know if this is going to work. Do [00:26:20] you think you knew deep down from the beginning?

Neelima Patel: I think, I [00:26:25] think when I thought this really like hand this work was when [00:26:30] Paul Brunson had told well said, said like, you know, you’re gaslighting her. But then [00:26:35] in that same breath, he’d also said, you know, I don’t think it’s intentional and people can change bad behaviour. It’s not [00:26:40] a bad person. It’s just it, you know, it’s a good person, a bad behaviour. And then Stephen really had fixed up that next [00:26:45] week we did a 180. We were we were really happy again. So then I think that probably [00:26:50] suckered me back in and made me think, okay, look, he’s learning. He’s willing to change. You know, I obviously liked him. [00:26:55] Um, obviously watching it back, I’m like, you silly girl. Yeah, but yeah, [00:27:00] that’s. Yeah. It’s hard.

Rhona Eskander: So the one thing I knew that you got a lot of shit for which I think was really unfair, [00:27:05] is when people were saying that you were projecting insecurity and that it was your fault. And obviously [00:27:10] there was drama. Julia, Ruth, let me just update you on that. There was this girl that caused a lot of drama. She was like the villain of [00:27:15] the show. I don’t know if she actually was, but that’s the way they labelled her. Who knows? That could have been me. Made in Chelsea. But anyway, [00:27:20] um, she ultimately developed a crush on this guy and [00:27:25] was, like, accusing Nelly. Yeah, it’s all a bit messy. Um, she’s basically accusing [00:27:30] Nelly for being too insecure and that he deserves a strong, empowered woman [00:27:35] and that, like. And obviously, you can see Nelly as a strong, empowered woman. So she was she was really being a pick me girl.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:27:40] a pick me girl.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. So pick me, pick me. Yeah. You know girls that like [00:27:45] another man’s side, that kind of vibe. Yeah. Um, so ultimately. Yeah. [00:27:50] And I think that unfortunately, a lot of people in the public were also like, Nelly, stop being so insecure. [00:27:55] And then I think you had realised as well that you needed to give yourself more self-love and self-compassion. But [00:28:00] I feel like we’ve really been there. Like, you know, when you feel like something’s slipping away from you and [00:28:05] you clutch as hard as you can before it slips. I feel like that’s typical human behaviour, so I think it [00:28:10] wasn’t fair that people didn’t give you the grace. But how was that for you? Because that must have been quite difficult to see [00:28:15] and hear from people.

Neelima Patel: Yeah, I think so. I mean, look, we all have our insecurities and I remember when I got that trolling, [00:28:20] I was a bit like, I didn’t expect that. I’m like, there’s obviously there’s very obviously objectively one [00:28:25] person who’s behaving poorly here. Yeah. And it ain’t me. Yeah. So yeah, I was like, how is this turning around [00:28:30] on me? Um, for the first few days, I was actually getting really frustrated and I thought, you’re all going [00:28:35] to feel so stupid when you all realise I was right. And I think that’s what got me through. It was a couple of hard weeks where I was just [00:28:40] getting trolled a lot. But yeah, I think me knowing I was like, all those people trolling me, you’re gonna eat [00:28:45] your words when you watch the reunion, because you will understand that my insecurity [00:28:50] wasn’t insecurity. It’s called intuition.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Question for you as well. Um, [00:28:55] do you feel that it didn’t show [00:29:00] the right actual situation that had happened? Do you see what I mean? So when the edit was done at that point, do you feel like it wasn’t [00:29:05] reality? And that was done for TV? So they had sort of taken away the reality of what was happening [00:29:10] to keep you on tenterhooks.

Neelima Patel: Yeah, I think there was an aspect of it because like, for example, you know, [00:29:15] the whole thing about me saying, you know, with Julia Ruth that she plotted to take him away. She wanted him for [00:29:20] partner swap. She wanted to stay in the experiment for however long people. Loads of comments were [00:29:25] very much, well, how do we even know that’s happened? Nellie’s just made that out of thin air and no one said anything when I called her [00:29:30] out at the commitment ceremony. It’s because Maeve and Kiera told me. And then obviously Julia Ruth at the commitment ceremony said, no, [00:29:35] no, it wasn’t me. That’s not how it happened. They cut the bit out of Kieran Maeve saying, yes, it did, [00:29:40] yes you did. Like that’s why there was no other arguments. Everyone was like, well, obviously you’ve said it. Two people who were [00:29:45] your friends have called you out on it because they don’t agree with that behaviour. So little things like that get cut out. So [00:29:50] then it becomes a well, who’s right, which I get for entertainment. So I remember you get welfare calls [00:29:55] all the time. Like they are really, really like every single day you get a call. If you’ve got a particularly rough episode, you’ll [00:30:00] get a call in a briefing. You can ask for transcripts as well and stuff. Um, so, like, for some really triggering [00:30:05] episodes, I had, like, you get calls and stuff, but apart from that, like, I remember ringing them going, [00:30:10] are you not having me on? I went, this is ridiculous. I was like, I look like a psycho. Yeah, like, [00:30:15] this isn’t me. And they were like, yeah, fair enough. They’re like, but remember, it is. They’re like, we have to [00:30:20] the basic the drop is going to be even better.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah.

Neelima Patel: So yeah. So I think [00:30:25] that’s what it was.

Rhona Eskander: And what kind of things were people trolling you on?

Neelima Patel: Um, a lot about mostly about [00:30:30] my insecurities and that I need therapy and that I shouldn’t be with anybody until. [00:30:35] Well, don’t we all need therapy? And I have therapy, and you don’t have to be. I don’t agree with the whole. [00:30:40] You have to be fully healed before you meet somebody.

Rhona Eskander: Listen, I’m still in therapy. I mean, we’re all there. We go. [00:30:45]

Neelima Patel: Like, we’re all healing. Like we’re all growing. Yes, I’m if you compare me my mindset to this time [00:30:50] last year, I am a different person. Yeah. Um, there’s been loads of growth. Which maps has really helped me [00:30:55] with. But yeah, I think a lot of the trolling was insecurity That you [00:31:00] need to be healed. You shouldn’t find you should find someone once you’re healed. And then a lot on my nose. Whatever. [00:31:05] It’s wonky, I don’t care.

Rhona Eskander: Oh my gosh. But people, people troll me still all the time about [00:31:10] the way I look.

Neelima Patel: I’m just like, okay. I’m like, thanks for your observation.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah, no.

Neelima Patel: I’m too busy to look at your comment because I’m at [00:31:15] work.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. No good. I think you have to have that really thick skin.

Payman Langroudi: And then the there [00:31:20] was a sort of a inflection point when he asked you, how much do you earn?

Neelima Patel: Oh, yes. [00:31:25]

Rhona Eskander: It was that. I didn’t see that.

Neelima Patel: No, that wasn’t it wasn’t filmed. It was on the honeymoon when we were waiting for the [00:31:30] camera crew was setting up the last dinner, so we were having some drinks at the bar, and that’s when I noticed the energy [00:31:35] shift. But then I told myself it wasn’t that. But now I think it probably was.

Payman Langroudi: It came up on Shivani’s pod, which [00:31:40] I listened to and go on. So what happened? He said, how much do you earn?

Neelima Patel: We’ll. Yeah, we’ll just sat [00:31:45] at the bar and then he just kind of said like, oh, like, how much do you earn? And I remember thinking, I don’t really [00:31:50] want to go into that because I can bet it’s going to be more than you like. Do you know [00:31:55] what I mean?

Rhona Eskander: Like, listen, I think, look, I say this to pay and I think, I think this is a conversation [00:32:00] and a topic that should be discussed. A lot of men, [00:32:05] I don’t think will like women outearning them. And to be honest, [00:32:10] this is a bit controversial. I don’t really like myself out earning a man when [00:32:15] I. I didn’t ever pick a partner for money because I didn’t need it. As you know, as [00:32:20] dentists, we don’t need it. But it was important to me that the partner [00:32:25] that I was with displayed ambition and even more so, being a mother, when you have to [00:32:30] take that time out, and even more so when you have an unpredictable life situation.

Payman Langroudi: Ambition. [00:32:35]

Rhona Eskander: No. But listen.

Payman Langroudi: Ambitious.

Rhona Eskander: Like listen life situation, life [00:32:40] situation, cancel him. Life situation. Like when you have a life situation, [00:32:45] for me, it’s really attractive when a man can step into [00:32:50] looking after me and the family. And a lot of people might not appreciate me saying [00:32:55] that a lot of people might be like, oh, don’t, you’re so materialistic. But I think that’s.

Neelima Patel: 100%, because that’s exactly how I feel. [00:33:00] I always say to my friends, they always say, you know, you don’t need to worry about what they earn. And I agree, I don’t because I [00:33:05] can look after myself. I can look after. I can look after, you know what I mean? I can look after families or whatever. But I just [00:33:10] think, yeah, but if I want to have children, I want to have a family. I’m gonna have to take time off work. [00:33:15] I’m self-employed, I don’t have. Yeah, so I couldn’t.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Payman will tell you. I was in that hospital [00:33:20] for two months. I could not even look at anything to do with Chelsea Dental. I could not fathom it. Like [00:33:25] my baby was in an incubator. I was in ICU like I could not, and my husband [00:33:30] stepped in and did everything because he could. And he has the academic ability, [00:33:35] the ambition and the drive to like, look after me. And I think that that is [00:33:40] rare, but that’s also what’s important to me. It might not be important to other people.

Payman Langroudi: How do you feel about that? [00:33:45] So do you feel like your ideal partner would earn the same [00:33:50] as you?

Neelima Patel: More in an ideal world, he would earn more than me. Because then we could have.

Payman Langroudi: More [00:33:55] money.

Neelima Patel: Together. But yeah, I look. I mean, there is no problem. [00:34:00] It just depends, doesn’t it? Like.

Rhona Eskander: But obviously with Stephen it didn’t bother you, right? Because at that point [00:34:05] you.

Neelima Patel: Were like, I’m here for.

Rhona Eskander: The.

Neelima Patel: Love. Yeah, I’m here for the love. And also I’d pretty much sort of in my [00:34:10] head, I’d gathered from.

Rhona Eskander: What he does.

Neelima Patel: People who are earning, [00:34:15] men who are earning more than me aren’t going to be on a reality show.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah.

Neelima Patel: Do you know what I mean? So I knew I kind of knew that going [00:34:20] into it, but I thought, you know what? If he is the perfect guy and he’s still driven, he’s still ambitious. Exactly. So you.

Rhona Eskander: Can still have [00:34:25] ambition.

Neelima Patel: And I can have an intellectual conversation with him that’s not just about like, football or something. [00:34:30] I was like, if he’s a good person, then fine, I don’t like not that I don’t care about the money, but that isn’t going [00:34:35] to be as big of a factor as how I feel about you. Yeah, I think that was when actually I thought, [00:34:40] you know what? I’m going to stop going for also high achievers. I think that’s what my friends would always say. You know, [00:34:45] you are one. How do I say it? I feel you used to filter [00:34:50] men not based on what they would earn, but depending on their job, like if it was going to be miles [00:34:55] apart, then I just know that power dynamic is never going to work. Yeah, like I have to be realistic about it and it [00:35:00] is a controversial subject. But I’m like, if we are worlds apart, how are you ever going to be okay with that? You’re not.

Rhona Eskander: I [00:35:05] don’t think it should be because also men have it that way too. Like you told me, you have some friends that would [00:35:10] find it really difficult being with a woman that would earn more than them. Or you’ve had a friend like [00:35:15] that and they really struggle with that power dynamic, you said. I think it works both ways. Like some [00:35:20] men don’t want to be with women that earn more than them.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. You know those traditional gender [00:35:25] roles, as much as we like to say they don’t exist, they do. They do exist. [00:35:30] Right. Yeah. And and so but the question is what [00:35:35] happened? So you figured out or you told them how much you earned.

Neelima Patel: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:35:40] then what you felt you felt like he felt he was insecure about it.

Neelima Patel: Well, yeah. Because then I was like, well, [00:35:45] in my head I was like, well, I’ve just told you, you tell me. Then I was like, well, what do you earn? And then it was it was [00:35:50] again. It was still a good salary, but it I obviously I think I earned like three, 2 or 3 times more than [00:35:55] him. So then I remember thinking and then he just got really quiet. And I remember just thinking, oh hell, [00:36:00] I shouldn’t have done that. But it was it was the best week we had. Like, we had such a lovely week. We’d [00:36:05] like got to know each other. And I just thought.

Rhona Eskander: If that’s going to be the.

Neelima Patel: Moment.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, no, but it’s a funny [00:36:10] thing, man, because I know guys who are the other way round, you know, they go they go for rich girls. And [00:36:15] so.

Rhona Eskander: If.

Payman Langroudi: If, if he was like, oh great, you earn three times what I earn, I’d be kind of worried [00:36:20] about that too.

[Transition]: Yeah. There’s no right answer, isn’t that. Yeah.

Neelima Patel: Just want someone that’s not [00:36:25] that doesn’t even care. Don’t don’t ask me.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. I mean listen, I always said like again. And it’s [00:36:30] funny because I just came back from Dubai as well with my partner. And my partner has always been so supportive [00:36:35] of everything that I’ve ever done and career wise. But my best friend that lives in her in [00:36:40] Dubai, she pretty much gave up her career in her 20s because her husband really likes [00:36:45] the traditional roles and now an Arab. No, he’s not actually, he’s like a north London [00:36:50] boy from London. But they moved. They did expat life basically. Um, in, in, [00:36:55] in, um, you know, around the world. And I think now that the kids are older because they had kids like, [00:37:00] I don’t know, when she was like 30, she now wants to move into that, like, oh, I want a career. [00:37:05] But you can see that it makes him nervous. He’s like, you don’t need to work. You don’t need to work. Do you know what I mean? He’s like, [00:37:10] you know, you do what you do best, which is look after the kids, you know, and to be honest [00:37:15] with you, you know, like, it works for some people. I guess it all depends on that. And I find it [00:37:20] interesting that the experts or the matchmaker, whoever it is, doesn’t have that conversation, because [00:37:25] I think that’s a really important part of matchmaking someone long term, I really do. I think [00:37:30] that money conversation has to be had.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. Well, I think what was hard as well, I think he’d sort of said he was an investment [00:37:35] banking kind of it. Everyone sort of thought he was.

Rhona Eskander: A finance.

Neelima Patel: Bro. Yeah. And he wasn’t.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah [00:37:40] yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Neelima Patel: So I think like everyone got a bit bamboozled. Yeah I think everyone was like oh right. [00:37:45] Okay.

Rhona Eskander: I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. Because maybe you had also mentioned during your interviews that you [00:37:50] wanted to be with someone that was, you know.

Neelima Patel: That was we spoke about this. Yeah. With when I spoke to the like, [00:37:55] um, the psychiatrists and stuff, she’s like, what do you want in a man? I was like, I want someone ambitious, driven. Yes, fine. They [00:38:00] don’t have to earn as much as me, but just someone who still has a decent job, a [00:38:05] decent job, salary. I was like, you can’t. The gap can’t be that big between us. Otherwise it would just be a bit weird. Yeah, [00:38:10] but then I also said I, you know, I’m aware that men who go on reality TV shows wouldn’t tend [00:38:15] to.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So the whole thing is ten weeks, right? Yeah. [00:38:20] And what, as the show progressed, do you feel like more and more [00:38:25] his true colours started to come out?

Neelima Patel: Yeah. To be honest, I was surprised that he didn’t. He couldn’t last longer [00:38:30] than. Well he kicked off quite early on.

Rhona Eskander: When do you say what about after two weeks. [00:38:35] Three weeks?

Neelima Patel: Yeah, 2 or 3 weeks. I think that’s when it started sort of going wrong. Um, but [00:38:40] yeah, I just think, I mean, I would say all the time and say like he hates me. Or I [00:38:45] know deep down that this guy doesn’t like me. Um, but it got to a point where I was like, [00:38:50] he’s venomous. And I would say to him, I was like, there’s venom behind what you’re saying and what you’re doing. And then [00:38:55] it was hard because then I’d get some of the guys like, nah, he doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t, you know, he doesn’t mean to [00:39:00] say it like that. Then he would say, no, I didn’t mean it like that. And then you kind of think, well, am I? Am I seeing [00:39:05] these things? Obviously some of these things I’ve now watched back and I’m like, no, there was so much venom there. [00:39:10] But you don’t I don’t even like, for example, I think the.

Rhona Eskander: Do you think that’s his character? Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like [00:39:15] it’s not you. I feel like he would have been venomous. I feel like he’s been venomous in the past. I don’t think you’re the first.

Neelima Patel: I think he’s venomous [00:39:20] to a woman he doesn’t like or. Or some. I think he’s venomous to somebody who holds up a mirror. He [00:39:25] doesn’t like the reflection. So unfortunately, I would. I would hold it up constantly. [00:39:30] Yes. It took me a while to, like, have the courage to really stand up for myself, but I would question things along the way. [00:39:35] I think a lot of people were saying, you know, why did the experts allow this to go on [00:39:40] for so long? They’ve kicked out other couples when it’s been too toxic in the past. Um, like on the [00:39:45] on mafs, UK. But I think the reason they probably didn’t was because, yes, Steven’s behaviour [00:39:50] was manipulative and it was toxic, but I think because I was questioning it throughout, I think [00:39:55] they probably saw that she’s got room for growth. Um, so.

Rhona Eskander: Okay, you made some [00:40:00] amazing girlfriends though as well. And the people that were depicted as villains, were [00:40:05] they actually villains?

Neelima Patel: Who would you say was depicted a villain?

Rhona Eskander: I’d say Sarah and Julia. [00:40:10] Ruth and I actually felt really sorry for Sarah, if I’m honest with you. Which, again, I thought was just such a terrible mismatch. [00:40:15] I was like, how did they get it so wrong?

Payman Langroudi: Explain, explain to someone who doesn’t know what the hell’s going on.

Rhona Eskander: So. [00:40:20] So ultimately, um, Sarah was another character, and she’d always gone for, like, the bad [00:40:25] boy with tattoos, like, a very type of aesthetic. And she was like, I’m really ready to meet the nicest [00:40:30] guy in the world. But when I tell you, they went for the most polar opposite of her physical type [00:40:35] and they kind of stitched her up. So people thought because he was the nicest guy in the world, [00:40:40] that she was a bitch because she didn’t like him. But it was like, you can’t go for someone. You can’t match [00:40:45] up with someone that’s so physically opposite of what she would go for, and then expect her to fall [00:40:50] in love. Do you know what I mean? It’d be like you saying like, oh, I want a really nice lady, but then going so opposite. [00:40:55] And I think it was really me because she got really trolled and people were like, you’re [00:41:00] awful, you should die. Like it was awful. The comments I saw it like, he’s the nicest guy. He’s [00:41:05] so nice. But if you’re not attracted to him, you’re attracted to him. It’s end of story. Do you know what I mean?

Neelima Patel: Yeah. See, Sarah’s actually a really, [00:41:10] really nice girl. Like, really, really nice girl. So that was really unfair.

Rhona Eskander: Julia. Ruth.

Neelima Patel: Julie. [00:41:15] Ruth. Julia. Ruth. Do you know what I mean? She came in. I mean, I hope she’s [00:41:20] done some growth from it. Um.

Rhona Eskander: Clearly not. She’s been with, like, three of the men on the show.

Neelima Patel: Yeah, [00:41:25] I mean, what.

Rhona Eskander: They were partnered up for someone else pick me.

[Transition]: Yeah. [00:41:30]

Neelima Patel: So the thing is, if you if you and your husband don’t want to be together, you leave the experiment together, [00:41:35] and that’s it. Your time’s done. It’s not like a wife swap. It’s not like a Love island.

Rhona Eskander: Oh, I can just go in.

Payman Langroudi: Okay, so, yeah, [00:41:40] it’s setting you up for that situation that. Let’s say this guy wasn’t into you and [00:41:45] he wanted to get out. But if he did get out, he wouldn’t be on the show any longer. So then [00:41:50] that’s the show makes it that people will lie. And if I mean, [00:41:55] you know, at the end of the day, someone who’s being on a a show wants to stay on the [00:42:00] show. Yeah. Is that right?

Neelima Patel: To an extent, I think there’s a point where you’re just like, there’s no show that [00:42:05] can keep me here in this hellhole.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah, yeah.

Neelima Patel: Do you know what I mean? But sometimes you’ve just. I mean, [00:42:10] look, people go on there. Definitely.

Rhona Eskander: So there was. I mean, listen, who else? And. Oh, I forgot her name. [00:42:15] Now, the one that was with Ashley Grace. Yeah, she also was villainized as well.

Neelima Patel: I really [00:42:20] like Grace. I have so much time for Grace. I think she’s she’s really, really nice. I think the edit was quite. [00:42:25]

Rhona Eskander: Basically it was.

Neelima Patel: Really interesting.

Rhona Eskander: Because she’s again, poor matchmaking. This is what I think super duper [00:42:30] feminist like hardcore.

Neelima Patel: Like she would do anything for a woman. She would walk through fire to [00:42:35] help out another woman. She really.

Rhona Eskander: Would. But they matched up with quite a traditional guy. Do you see what I mean? [00:42:40] You know, like. So she made him, like, read books on feminism and like, there was so much personality clash [00:42:45] and was like, I don’t think either of.

Payman Langroudi: Them makes for good TV.

Rhona Eskander: But that’s why I’m saying, like, you know, that’s [00:42:50] why I worry about the intentions of these reality TV shows. Like, is the intentions pure [00:42:55] because you have people that I think a lot of them that are going into the experiment truly wanting to find [00:43:00] happiness. And you have a group of experts that really, [00:43:05] you know, are are experts in their name. It says that they have to be super professional [00:43:10] and you’re just doing you can even see Payman not watch the show. And he’s like horrendous. How [00:43:15] could they be matching these people? You know, someone you’re not physically attracted to, someone that [00:43:20] has completely different values to you? Do you know what I mean?

Neelima Patel: Like it’s not. You’ve got to remember like I don’t we still again, [00:43:25] we still don’t know. But we we all have a little bit of a theory that they must have some couples that are [00:43:30] in there obviously for entertainment purposes, like they must know that Sarah and Dean were never going to work. [00:43:35] Do you know what I mean? But then I think they obviously put couples in there that they they do think could work.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:43:40]

Rhona Eskander: Yeah.

Neelima Patel: So people actually were like, I think they put Nelly and Steven in there as a couple that could actually work.

Rhona Eskander: Who worked [00:43:45] in the end?

Neelima Patel: Um, Abby and John.

Rhona Eskander: That’s it. I always knew. I feel I feel.

Neelima Patel: Like. [00:43:50]

Rhona Eskander: I feel like how many couples are there?

Neelima Patel: 11.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah, one out of 11, you [00:43:55] know, stayed married.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. They’re moving in together this weekend.

Payman Langroudi: I still [00:44:00] think it’s amazing. It’s amazing.

Neelima Patel: I mean, don’t get me wrong.

Payman Langroudi: It’s an amazing thing that one couple, you know.

Neelima Patel: Like [00:44:05] they’ve made, like, love is blind.

Rhona Eskander: Sometimes you get, like, up to two. But the American.

Neelima Patel: One, one of them’s had a baby.

Rhona Eskander: Really? [00:44:10]

Neelima Patel: Yeah. And then I met Kieran and Meg recently when I went to Sydney. There in Sydney at the same time. So we all met up. [00:44:15]

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Neelima Patel: They’re really in love.

Rhona Eskander: Really in love? Yeah. They’ve all. But I feel like. Yeah, that you [00:44:20] could tell that that was really real. Mhm. Um, okay. So my question for you as well is, [00:44:25] is that when you, you said you were in a hellhole and it was done. How. Let’s [00:44:30] talk through that whole incident. When your friend told you that he was on a dating app.

Neelima Patel: My [00:44:35] favourite part?

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Go on. I bet you’ve been asked about this a million times.

Neelima Patel: So we’d come for homestays. [00:44:40] Um. And that’s when your partner, you basically go to each other’s homes for like a number of nights, [00:44:45] meet family, etc..

Rhona Eskander: You basically hate him. Be honest.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. My brother is not [00:44:50] a fan. Yeah, you can see his comments on the videos. I get like 3000 likes. Yeah, he’s [00:44:55] so funny. But yeah, my family, look, my family and friends really don’t like my ex-husband. But, um, [00:45:00] yeah, so we go for homestays and then. But Steven decided not to come. I [00:45:05] didn’t really give a reason. And at this point, look, we I think we pretty much knew it wasn’t gonna, wasn’t going to be [00:45:10] working, but also the experiments still going on. And also you talk we spoke about, [00:45:15] you know, how we’ll always remain friends at this point if things don’t happen or whatever, but it’s like just come [00:45:20] to I think the reason I wanted him to come to Manchester was just to prove to be like, could you even do that as a [00:45:25] friend? And the answer is no. So I think I just needed that sort of confirmation. But anyway, he he didn’t [00:45:30] come. He went and met up with his, um, ex-girlfriend that he’d ghosted before the show. [00:45:35] And then he came to Manchester. They filmed, like a conversation [00:45:40] between him and I, just to, I guess, end things. Um. Well, well, [00:45:45] they filmed a conversation between him and I. I think it was more for me to kind [00:45:50] of discuss where I was at, but also, yeah, pretty much to end things. But we were still technically [00:45:55] together at this point. You know, he walked in like, I’ve still got my ring on. I’m a one woman man. And then [00:46:00] my friend at work had been on hinge and had matched him that day.

Neelima Patel: Um, [00:46:05] and so she so we, me and Steven went to film, like at 11:00 in the morning or something. [00:46:10] I think at half ten, I was just getting my hair and makeup done well, doing my hair and makeup. And the producer [00:46:15] rang me, said, we’ve had to push the scene back to four. And in my head I was thinking, oh, is there like an issue with trains or something? I just thought, [00:46:20] whatever. I didn’t think much of it, but it’s because Lucy got. Lucy was one of my emergency contacts, so had the [00:46:25] production numbers. She I didn’t have my phone at this point. I was on home stay, so I don’t have my phone for [00:46:30] the number of weeks that I’m in the experiment. So I still don’t have it. Um, but Lucy rang the producer and [00:46:35] she was like, I have just found Stephen on Hinge. I need to tell Nelly so I know they’re having a conversation, like, [00:46:40] can I ring Nelly? Can I speak to her? And the producer was like, no, you’re going to have to come into the scene. So she had two [00:46:45] veneer patients that day, and she came home straight after that. Like that’s why she had no makeup on. They didn’t even let her [00:46:50] in the apartment to brush her hair like she had a tracksuit, like threadbare socks. We always laugh about it. Yeah. And then [00:46:55] she was like, yeah, I had no makeup on and was finished from work, and I had to then come [00:47:00] for Stephen.

Payman Langroudi: Well, they pulled her into the show there and then.

Neelima Patel: Into the scene. They were like, when you come home, [00:47:05] wow. They literally mic drop outside the apartment. And then I didn’t know she was going to be [00:47:10] in the scene. So I was just chatting to Stephen. I think we’ll probably be talking about how the relationship’s been. And [00:47:15] then she just walks in and I thought at first I thought, oh, she’s here to give him a piece of her mind, because the night [00:47:20] before, we’d filmed a scene where I basically spoke to Lucy about the whole relationship and how he how [00:47:25] he’d been, and I thought, oh, she’s coming here to give him an earful. But I didn’t expect that news. Yeah, [00:47:30] that’s a great entertainment.

Payman Langroudi: On on air. She tells you that this has happened.

Neelima Patel: She was like, I’m [00:47:35] so sorry. She was like, because she said she basically comes from. And she’s like, you know, do you think it’s appropriate [00:47:40] for a married man to be on a dating website? And he’s like, what dating website? And she’s like, and I turned around and I was [00:47:45] like, what? And she was like, I’m really sorry I had to do this. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Denied it.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Lol. I mean, his photos [00:47:50] there. He’s like, no, not me.

Neelima Patel: It’s not me. And then Lucy’s like it’s verified.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah [00:47:55] yeah yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Cheater. I literally it was.

Neelima Patel: Like it wasn’t me.

Rhona Eskander: Did he still [00:48:00] continue to deny it after that?

Neelima Patel: Oh yeah. He denied it right up until, you know, the commitment [00:48:05] ceremony. But the reunion commitment ceremony.

Rhona Eskander: I actually didn’t watch it in the end. I think I got back to work at that point. [00:48:10] But tell me what happened.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. Um, did you watch a reunion?

Rhona Eskander: No, it’s still on my list.

Neelima Patel: It’s. [00:48:15] That’s my favourite episode.

Rhona Eskander: Okay. Tell me.

Neelima Patel: Um, but the reunion dinner parties where I basically, [00:48:20] like, come from. And then the commitment ceremony. I remember sitting there on the [00:48:25] couch and we were having a break, and I just turned around to him and went. Seeing as you’re being honest and you’re trying to be a new person, [00:48:30] are you going to finally admit to the hinge thing? And he was like, no. And I said, Steven, you don’t understand [00:48:35] what you’re doing. I went, it’s verified. It was like, it’s not just it’s, you know, matching [00:48:40] with your face. So you’re now questioning the integrity of a safety feature on $1 billion app [00:48:45] was like, do you understand what you’re doing and the implications this will have? I mean, there probably [00:48:50] would have been none, but I was like, hinge is going to have to come out and say a statement. Yeah. And he was like, and I was like, [00:48:55] so you should admit it my friend. And then it worked. Yeah, I was bluffing. I was like, you really need to say [00:49:00] something. But I put on my big girl pants. I was like, listen. And then I had Beck next to me going in, like, me [00:49:05] and her were going in like Rottweilers, like you need to say it. I was like, look, stop denying it. It’s embarrassing. And [00:49:10] then finally he said it. And then the producers had picked up on it. So they ran over to us. They’re [00:49:15] like, stop. This conversation needs to stop because obviously they want it on the cameras. And then we were next to be called up on the couch. [00:49:20] So then that’s when I had it out again with him.

Rhona Eskander: And did he ever take any accountability and [00:49:25] apologise to you?

Neelima Patel: He’s said many apologies, [00:49:30] but they’ve not. I mean, I said this at the reunion. I was like, this isn’t genuine. You’re only saying this because the [00:49:35] cameras are here and the you know, everyone’s.

Rhona Eskander: Never contacted you off camera.

Neelima Patel: He contacted me off camera [00:49:40] when his ex-girlfriend came out and did a whole TikTok series about how she was dating him, and then he ghosted her on the wedding [00:49:45] day and met up with her and.

Rhona Eskander: Never told her that she was going. He was going on the show?

Neelima Patel: No, he messaged her on [00:49:50] the wedding morning saying, um, I’ll speak to you later. I’m off at work now. And then he had a like, [00:49:55] we all got burner phones, but but he contacted her throughout the show when things [00:50:00] weren’t going well between us. And she’s posted all this proof on TikTok.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Wow. That’s crazy.

Payman Langroudi: He goes [00:50:05] to on the wedding day just before coming on the show.

Neelima Patel: Yeah, like on the wedding morning.

Rhona Eskander: So you [00:50:10] say to me when she says it’s rough out there, she means it’s rough out there.

Neelima Patel: I’m like, who’s got the. I was [00:50:15] like, could you be bothered? I couldn’t keep up with the lying. I’d be. I wouldn’t be able to remember.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. So [00:50:20] my question is as well, did you find the experience overall traumatic [00:50:25] or extremely enlightening?

Neelima Patel: I think both I think both [00:50:30] can, I guess, co-exist. You know what I actually had like the trauma from it is. Yeah, it was [00:50:35] it was pretty bad the way I was treated. And I think it.

Rhona Eskander: Was your self-confidence. Really low, extremely low. [00:50:40]

Neelima Patel: But then I had the girls that I kept picking me up, but I did. My confidence was at an all time low. Um, [00:50:45] but then in the same breath, I’ve had so much [00:50:50] growth. Like, my confidence has now never been as as high as it is. Is that the right word? Has [00:50:55] never been as. Yeah. I’ve never been as confident in my life.

Rhona Eskander: So you feel like it gave you a real opportunity [00:51:00] to reflect on what you want from men who you want to pick as a partner, things like that.

Neelima Patel: Yeah, [00:51:05] like I look at men differently now. Like before, I would think I want these things. And now I look at a man and I think, [00:51:10] well, would he be kind? Yeah. Would he be kind? Would he be honest? Would he make would he give me [00:51:15] space to be emotionally vulnerable? And you know, these are things I didn’t really know.

Rhona Eskander: But we don’t. And [00:51:20] I think, I think.

Neelima Patel: This.

Rhona Eskander: Is the problem. Like what I get really upset about when I and this is before [00:51:25] I did the work as well. When you ask someone who they would like describe as their ideal person, [00:51:30] they never list characteristics that matter. Honest kindness, [00:51:35] ambition, no, they’ll list all the superficial things.

Neelima Patel: Those are my. That’s what [00:51:40] I talk about.

Rhona Eskander: They’ll say someone’s got money. Someone that, like, has got a certain aesthetic [00:51:45] build whatever, whatever, whatever.

Neelima Patel: Likes to work out, keep fit.

Rhona Eskander: Plays tennis. Like whatever [00:51:50] floats your boat. But you’ll never hear them say things like kindness cares about their family, [00:51:55] like integrity, like all of this stuff. And yeah, it happens all the time. And I [00:52:00] talk to my friend who’s a psychotherapist, and I feel like until you’ve done the work on yourself and gone [00:52:05] to therapy, you recognise and this is what I say to you, you know, when the going gets tough, [00:52:10] like I had in my own experience, all the superficial shit goes out the window. [00:52:15] Like you said, you get cancer, you end up in a wheelchair. Your baby is not well. Whatever. Whatever. Those [00:52:20] are the things you want people to really be there for you, you know, not the people. And at the end of [00:52:25] the day, even as a woman in dentistry, at any point our careers could start going down as well. [00:52:30] Do you know what I mean? It’s that person to pick you up and hold you when they can. So I do think [00:52:35] I think it’s it’s tough times out there. And I think it’s really important. Like, [00:52:40] don’t get me wrong, I think men need to fix up and we’re not going to blame women on the men loneliness [00:52:45] pandemic because I think people have been talking about that quite a lot, saying it’s loneliness. Yeah. So ultimately [00:52:50] it’s become a big thing where ultimately a lot of men, particularly the ones that subscribe [00:52:55] to the Andrew Tate ideology and read Red pill, you know, like Red pill, they’re [00:53:00] basically saying that women are to blame for the men loneliness pandemic. And that’s because [00:53:05] women are demanding too much of what they want from men. But women aren’t to be blamed [00:53:10] because in a way, women are also saying, hang on a second, you’ve told us [00:53:15] for decades that we need to do X, Y, and Z like us. As women have elevated, we fixed up. You [00:53:20] should fix up if you want us to be. If you want us to choose. There’s a guy called, um, Scott [00:53:25] Galloway. You know him? I’m sure. Right.

Payman Langroudi: Prof.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Prof. Galloway. And they.

Payman Langroudi: Before you go. What is the men? [00:53:30] Loneliness. Yeah.

Rhona Eskander: So basically, because so many men aren’t in relationships, can’t have a relationship. [00:53:35]

Neelima Patel: Choosing to be single.

Rhona Eskander: Women are choosing to be single. And they’re like, they should be choosing [00:53:40] to be in relationships. And they’re like, sorry if you’re not going to add value to my life. And also there was a newspaper [00:53:45] article or a Vogue magazine article, and the Vogue magazine article said it’s officially [00:53:50] embarrassing to have a boyfriend. Yeah. And the premise? And everyone went mad for it. So it’s really [00:53:55] polarising with men and women. And basically the article was stating that even [00:54:00] if you have a partner, you don’t show your partner online because in some way it’s [00:54:05] frowned upon to be like, hey, I’m in a relationship, or hey, I’ve got a man. It’s a bit cringe, like people know that. [00:54:10] And also some people feel that they’re never even sure if the relationship’s going to last, so they don’t post [00:54:15] them online. There’s all these different things that ultimately women are kind of like, you know what? I’m so proud of my friends in my [00:54:20] life. That’s what I show. I don’t really show men, you know? And whilst I [00:54:25] understand it, I don’t think we’re moving anywhere closer to people finding ultimate happiness. [00:54:30] I do think women, women can be happier single because that’s the premise of it. [00:54:35] But I don’t think we’re moving towards. And I do think when you look at it, which again, a [00:54:40] lot of people don’t question. And again, Prof. Galloway talks about this. Most women, [00:54:45] based on their superficial criteria job height, build, blah, blah, blah, [00:54:50] will actually end up choosing the 2% of men on the [00:54:55] dating app. They’ll get rid of the 98%, and within that 98%, you might have [00:55:00] a guy that’s super good looking, but he’s not over six foot. You might have the guy that is like really [00:55:05] kind, has a good job, but like, I don’t know, doesn’t go to the gym whatever. Yeah. [00:55:10] And he’s saying that the fact is, is that then you’ve got 98% of women fighting [00:55:15] for that 2%, and that 2% of guy might not even be the right kind of guy for you. And [00:55:20] I get that argument. I have to say, I do get that argument.

Payman Langroudi: But listen, you choose to be single, [00:55:25] then it’s not surprising that you can’t find a husband.

Neelima Patel: It’s [00:55:30] the men that are complaining.

Rhona Eskander: It’s the men complaining.

Neelima Patel: Listen, women. I’m very happy. Single. I’ve never been happier. And I [00:55:35] always say now. Like I would never, ever be with somebody that disrupts the peace that I bring myself because I’m having a [00:55:40] really good time.

Rhona Eskander: Have you been single since? Yeah, completely. Have you started dating again or not?

Neelima Patel: Not at all.

Rhona Eskander: You [00:55:45] just felt like you needed to process and focus on.

Neelima Patel: You know what? Not even that. I was [00:55:50] coming out of it. I was like, yeah, I have been in that sort of focus on me mood, but I just. I have no interest. [00:55:55] Yeah, just not currently. I don’t know, I just don’t have an interest. Although during winter I [00:56:00] was like, oh, I guess it would be nice to have a cuddle. But then I got over that within five minutes I was like, whatever, I’m over it.

Rhona Eskander: And do [00:56:05] you feel so now you have a very clear understanding of [00:56:10] where you want to be, right? Yeah. And you have a clear understanding of the kind of guy you want to be with. And I guess you’re [00:56:15] like, I’m not going to compromise on any of that.

Neelima Patel: Yeah. Like, I’ve been in awful relationships. I’ve been where, [00:56:20] you know, I’ve been with people that have made me really sad, and I never want to be in that position again. Um, [00:56:25] so I’m very much like, I love the life I’ve built. I love how I live my life. I’m very happy [00:56:30] at the moment. If someone can fit into that, great. But like and I do. I’m not saying, you know, someone is. [00:56:35] Someone ruins my peace. It’s over. Like, I completely appreciate. It’s normal. Relationships need [00:56:40] work. You know, it’s not going to always be plain sailing. But if there is a pattern of it’s more bad than [00:56:45] good, like, I just. I don’t want it.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. I mean, you have to be careful with the words. Yeah, because compromise [00:56:50] is the whole of marriage is compromise. Yeah. Um. And I’m so happy. I guess you’re saying [00:56:55] you don’t want a toxic. You don’t want compromise on that?

Neelima Patel: Well, I lost myself in that relationship.

Rhona Eskander: I’ve been there. He really reminded [00:57:00] me of my ex-boyfriend, where I really lost myself. And I was so enamoured with him for all [00:57:05] the superficial reasons. Enamoured, and in the end he was a gaslighter, a narcissist. Pulled [00:57:10] the floor. And then because they do that, like as you said, like after the honeymoon. For me it was three months. I was like, [00:57:15] but what have I done? Because I don’t understand what’s changed. Like just overnight, you know, because then you start questioning yourself and [00:57:20] you do everything wasn’t going to the places that I used to love going, didn’t speak to my friends, was not living [00:57:25] the life I wanted to live, and it’s just not worth it in the end, you know, especially if you have a life that’s rich and full. [00:57:30]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. You know, you told me before you got here, we were we were talking and Nelly was saying, she [00:57:35] gets recognised in the street. Yeah. And you know how I feel about that. I [00:57:40] find that very vulnerable. I don’t want to be recognised. I don’t want to be. I don’t [00:57:45] want people to know where I’m going. I just feel that’s weird. Yeah, but you always told [00:57:50] me you like it when that happens. But I’m quite interested in the question of now that everyone [00:57:55] knows exactly what you’re like. Does that make you feel vulnerable?

Neelima Patel: No.

Payman Langroudi: Because is [00:58:00] it empowering?

Neelima Patel: Yeah, it’s empowering because I back myself. I’m really happy with who I am. So I’m like, I’m. Yeah, [00:58:05] it honestly, it doesn’t really bother me. Take it or leave it.

Rhona Eskander: All right. Question though for [00:58:10] you. So obviously you’ve gone back to being a full time dentist. Has this made you feel like you’d rather go into [00:58:15] a different career path being on TV or you’re like, no, I’m happy being a dentist. I was in the experiment. [00:58:20] Cool.

Neelima Patel: I would love for a way to intertwine them both, but I don’t know [00:58:25] how that could work.

Rhona Eskander: You can do that. I’ve been doing it.

Neelima Patel: I know, that’s what I mean. I would love to do that. Like, I actually [00:58:30] really enjoy. Yes, it was traumatic at some times, but I actually really enjoyed the TV side of stuff. [00:58:35] Like I find it really interesting. I, I love, you know, talk. I don’t know, [00:58:40] I would love to be able to find a way to do both.

Rhona Eskander: I think you will. I think you will.

Neelima Patel: If I could, yeah, that would be my ideal. [00:58:45] Like if I could do dentistry and or just even do how I did, like blocks, blocks of dentistry and blocks [00:58:50] of this kind of stuff. I would love that. Or, you know, I would love a way to intertwine [00:58:55] them both, but I would never I would work so hard to be a dentist. Obviously, you know how hard it is. I would never get rid of that. [00:59:00]

Rhona Eskander: I find it interesting because I think there’s been a real wave and social media now where [00:59:05] so many doctors, not necessarily dentists, but so many doctors, are literally leaving [00:59:10] being a doctor to become a full time content creator. And I don’t judge it at all. [00:59:15] But I’m like it is. I find it hard to resonate with because I’m like, you studied 6 [00:59:20] or 7 years to become a doctor and whilst we know the NHS is broken [00:59:25] and whilst we know that it’s completely burns them out, it is interesting [00:59:30] to see this transition of these doctors being like, do you know what? I’m not actually going to practice medicine. I’m going to talk to you about [00:59:35] skincare products instead, you know, and they can make a more lucrative career about it. Yeah, but as Nelly was saying. [00:59:40]

Neelima Patel: It’s hard to make that good money from.

Rhona Eskander: It. But as Nelly was just saying, like, I honestly, you’re gonna [00:59:45] think I’m really weird for saying this. I honestly feel so happy when I’m doing [00:59:50] dentistry. I’m going to tell you that.

Payman Langroudi: Why not? Why not?

Rhona Eskander: I could not imagine doing [00:59:55] anything else but dentistry. And actually, when I’m treating the patient like, forget the complaints, [01:00:00] forget the patient management. Forget like running a practice when I’m actually in there [01:00:05] physically doing the dentistry, I feel like it’s actually my time off in my head because [01:00:10] I’m actually so focussed on what I’m doing. It’s almost like being in an art studio or being a painter, by [01:00:15] the way. That’s when I switch off.

Payman Langroudi: It’s so important for people to have a career for that reason, [01:00:20] right? You know.

Rhona Eskander: What do you mean.

Payman Langroudi: Master your art, right?

Rhona Eskander: And because you didn’t enjoy it, you [01:00:25] told me you enjoyed.

Payman Langroudi: I used to enjoy it, I enjoy it, but.

Rhona Eskander: But why did you leave?

Payman Langroudi: You know, the [01:00:30] opportunities changed. But my point is this. Your friend in Dubai, who doesn’t [01:00:35] have a career and is sitting at home looking after the kids, is [01:00:40] missing a really important cornerstone of life. It’s not only, of course, I [01:00:45] understand what you’re saying about worst case scenario. She can feed her children or whatever. Yeah, by [01:00:50] having a career. Yeah, of course you understand that. But it’s much more than that. [01:00:55] Yeah. Having a career is an important part of being someone. And then when you become [01:01:00] a mother, I’ve noticed my wife used to say going to work was a break. Going [01:01:05] to break from the children, you know, which is which is something that doesn’t get talked about enough either. [01:01:10] You know, that, you know, as a as a guy, you haven’t got the constant kid pressure, [01:01:15] but as a mother, you do. And so you need an identity apart from mother, [01:01:20] you know. And so your identity as principal, business owner, you [01:01:25] know, dentist, social media star, podcaster, these [01:01:30] identities feed you, right?

Rhona Eskander: No, I think listen, I think your job gives you a lot of self [01:01:35] confidence. And I said that to my husband, like, when I got back to work, I was like, dentistry gives [01:01:40] me so much confidence because. And I’m sure you get the same, especially when you do the kind of work we’re doing where you’re [01:01:45] actually changing people’s smiles. And listen, we’ve discussed this at length. This is why we started Mind [01:01:50] Movers. It has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession dentistry. And you know, [01:01:55] the litigation, the governing body is like, come on, we live with that sort of thunderstorm on [01:02:00] our heads every single day. And it’s really sad that they’ve created that [01:02:05] system for us because honestly, I feel like people would enjoy dentistry much more if [01:02:10] we felt like we had people on our side, you know what I mean? Protecting us. Or if we felt like we could be protected as depression. [01:02:15]

Neelima Patel: It’s scary.

Payman Langroudi: You talk to your patients, okay? The ones who do well, none of them have [01:02:20] an easy life. So, you know, this is dentistry’s problems come around with this [01:02:25] litigation issue. Yeah, but, you know, you’ve got patients doing really well. You’ve got [01:02:30] patients doing really well. Who’s got an easy life, man? No one’s got an easy life who’s doing something worthwhile. [01:02:35] Life is hard, you know, like, I know.

Rhona Eskander: I know, like I’ve [01:02:40] spent three hours crying this morning, so, like, you know, life [01:02:45] is tough.

Payman Langroudi: What I’m saying is it depends on how you frame it. Yeah, if you like. I’ve got all the [01:02:50] people. Kids at school. They’re parents of my kids friends. They’re all [01:02:55] banker types here. Listen. Like your husband. You could frame that as he sits in a chair and pushes a [01:03:00] button. Yeah, you could say that’s what it is. Yeah, but when pushing that button could mean, like, make or [01:03:05] break your career, you know, that decision and and playing around with other people’s [01:03:10] millions and, you know, like a couple of bad years and you’re out and you know that that [01:03:15] it’s much more pressurised than, oh, this patient might give me a complaint. Yeah. But [01:03:20] in our world, we.

Rhona Eskander: Think I think it’s different. Nelly will agree with me because I know she agrees, like it’s the thought that a patient [01:03:25] has the control to ruin your entire career that you’ve worked eight years for. And our our skill isn’t [01:03:30] necessarily transferable. It’s not like I could suddenly be like, you know what? I’m gonna be a finance girl now. Do you know what I mean? [01:03:35] Like, you train to be a dentist so specialised. And the fact that one patient can [01:03:40] have their, like, whole, like, threaten your entire career, it’s something that’s always been on the heads of all of us, [01:03:45] you know. And that’s the problem.

Payman Langroudi: The particular issue with dentistry, right? Yeah. If you’re a corporate [01:03:50] lawyer. Yeah.

Rhona Eskander: I’ve got my my lawyer. My [01:03:55] parents lawyer is so not scared of anything. Like he was like, yeah, my old job had taken me to like, [01:04:00] the legal board because I feel like also lawyers know how to argue like they know their argument, so they’re in a different [01:04:05] sort of thing. Nelly. So tell me as well. I’m so happy to hear you’ve been on this, like, journey of [01:04:10] self-love and you’ve been, you know, really at peace with the [01:04:15] situation that happened on MAFs. Would you do anything differently if you had a chance?

Neelima Patel: I [01:04:20] would stand up for myself more, and [01:04:25] I wouldn’t because I think, yeah, [01:04:30] I would stand up for myself more and I’d probably leave a little bit earlier than I did. Yeah, [01:04:35] yeah, I think so. I think I think, you know. Yeah, it’s [01:04:40] hard. I think there’s a lot the thing is, part of me want to say, no, I wouldn’t do anything differently because then would I have had that [01:04:45] growth. Do you know what I mean? Um. Yeah, [01:04:50] I think just stand up for myself [01:04:55] a little bit more and actually believe in myself more. I think what was really hard when watching it back was comparing [01:05:00] myself directly to Julia Ruth, and I think about it now as if you even said that out loud. [01:05:05] As if as if you even thought it, but as if you even. I think that’s when you could tell [01:05:10] my confidence was at an all time low, because it’s so wild that I think, how are you comfortable saying that out [01:05:15] loud to people? Um, but yeah, I think directly comparing myself and thinking that I’ll never be as [01:05:20] good as she is and and I could never compete with her, so why bother? I think I would, I [01:05:25] would never I was sad watching that that I thought that about myself.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. And I’m just gonna tell you that that’s [01:05:30] absolutely not true at all. And, you know, we have to as women, stop [01:05:35] thinking that we’ve got, like, little self-worth. I have you have. You should see the conversations I have in my head. I’m tired, [01:05:40] I haven’t slept, the conversations I’ve had in my head, like putting myself down. Yeah, but you’re amazing. You really, really are. [01:05:45] And as I said, like, what you’ve done is incredible. I always admire people that have put themselves [01:05:50] out there. And, you know, I think that you’re an incredibly inspirational dentist to so many [01:05:55] people and showing that you can go out there, you can fulfil your dreams, you can be in [01:06:00] media and the spotlight and also you can reflect. And you have been able to change the narrative [01:06:05] about what has been said about you. So yeah, and I’m really grateful. And I was really [01:06:10] excited about doing this podcast. I can’t see what’s to come because I think it’s just the only the only just [01:06:15] just the beginning for you.

Neelima Patel: Thank you so much.

Payman Langroudi: Honestly, I think, you know, you were always one [01:06:20] of the coolest chicks in dentistry anyway. For sure.

Rhona Eskander: For sure. Did you know her? Pre-math. [01:06:25]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Of course.

Rhona Eskander: Oh, really?

Neelima Patel: Manny? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Because, you know, Kayla and all that. [01:06:30] But, um, you were always one of the coolest. And then you and the reason you were cool was because you were authentic. [01:06:35]

Neelima Patel: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And then you go on that show and you’re authentic again, so. Well done.

Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Amazing. [01:06:40] Nellie, I can’t wait to see what’s to come. Okay. Thank you so.

Payman Langroudi: Much.

Rhona Eskander: Thanks for coming.

Neelima Patel: Thank you so [01:06:45] much for having me.

[VOICE]: This [00:00:05] is Dental Leaders. The podcast where you get to go [00:00:10] one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [00:00:15] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [00:00:20]

Payman Langroudi: This podcast has been brought to you by Mini Smile Makeover. Mini Smile Makeover [00:00:25] is a two day anterior composite course led by the extraordinary talented [00:00:30] doctor Dipesh Palmer. Two days of full on, hands on composite training, [00:00:35] purely focussed on anterior work composite veneers, polishing, finishing, [00:00:40] shade matching. You also get a free enlightened kit. Plus we have a great time and a party [00:00:45] in the middle. Find out the dates. Mini smile makeover.com. Now let’s get back to the podcast. [00:00:50] It gives me great pleasure to welcome Bilal Ahmed onto the podcast. Bilal is a chartered [00:00:55] accountant, tax advisor, business consultant to dentists. White dentist [00:01:00] buddy underserviced community.

Bilal Ahmed: Uh, massively underserviced so happened [00:01:05] purely by accident. If I’m honest, my wife’s a dentist and then I was employed at the time [00:01:10] we got married, moved up to the northwest, and, um, as any sort of 30 year [00:01:15] old man at the time was looking for a football game. And then my wife was like, well, my friends husbands all play football. So she put [00:01:20] me in touch and it was the same conversation I was hearing time and again is I don’t [00:01:25] know what my numbers are. I can’t doesn’t tell me anything. I was like, well, this is nothing like the accounting that I’m used to because I’m used to working the [00:01:30] accounting corporate sector, which is you look at your numbers regularly, you use those to plan to move forward and do something [00:01:35] with. I’m saying if you’re using your numbers for his tax, why is it so late in the game? Is [00:01:40] it the accounts fault? Is it the dentist fault? Is it a bit of both or is it just [00:01:45] broken? Is the system broken? So as more and more I looked at it, I was like, this is super underserviced. There’s [00:01:50] an opportunity here for me to take what I’ve learned in my corporate career and apply it to a [00:01:55] demographic of people that a, you know, have money to do something with, so the decision making is rewarding, [00:02:00] if that makes sense.

Bilal Ahmed: You know, there’s more you can do with someone who earns more money. And then the linear [00:02:05] progression is then I’m a dentist, I make good money. I [00:02:10] want to jump off that journey and do other things. I might want to invest in other areas, that kind of thing. Or I want to go open up a practice. [00:02:15] Not that I think it’s a logical progression, but it seems to be the case is and then it’s, well, right. How do we [00:02:20] now help you do that? How do we help you make that successful. And it’s been that’s been our journey to to [00:02:25] date. And it’s been it’s been quite fun to be honest. And I don’t see us stepping outside of dentistry for a while. [00:02:30] And in all honesty, one of the reasons why I like working professionals is they’ve got as much [00:02:35] to lose as I have. And you’re not going to ask me to do something we shouldn’t be doing, because if your GDC registration [00:02:40] is on the line.

Payman Langroudi: From a reputational perspective and all that.

Bilal Ahmed: You know, if you seem to be doing something, [00:02:45] you know, downright dishonest, could, could could you be struck off the register? Theoretically. Um, I know [00:02:50] I can if I’m doing anything that so if someone’s got something to lose, um, who’s who’s going [00:02:55] to toe the line a bit better? Look, I’m okay with pushing thresholds and getting as far on the right side of the line, [00:03:00] but I don’t want to cross that line.

Payman Langroudi: And professionals understand that more.

Bilal Ahmed: Understand that more.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, [00:03:05] it’s an interesting point. Yeah. What other nuances are there about dentistry? I mean as [00:03:10] far as yeah, we know the, you know, the kind of nuances you [00:03:15] have to understand about associates and principles and those things. But, you know, I [00:03:20] find dentists are sort of large small businesses. Yeah. You know. [00:03:25]

Bilal Ahmed: There’s some cool nuances. And I use the term cool because I know that all of this stuff. [00:03:30] So there’s certain things like how you can even come to acquire one, um, [00:03:35] practice. Yeah. So if you acquire a practice, um, with [00:03:40] a partnership, kind of an incorporated body, be a partner within a partnership. And what impact, what [00:03:45] impact does that have on the partnership? So if you’ve got, let’s say, husband or wife who’ve been operating [00:03:50] as a limited company for however long, use that money to then go buy a partnership. Partnership, dental practice, [00:03:55] and the contract can’t be incorporated because it has to be the name of [00:04:00] the dentist and has not been incorporated. Contract. How can you still use the money in the limited company tax efficiently to buy the practice? The [00:04:05] short answer is you can, but it gives you a knock on long term implications, which is like you can’t claim capital [00:04:10] allowances. I’m not going to get too into the weeds of it, but there are specific nuances specifically around things like [00:04:15] trading status, Ir35 and more. So things like, you know, if [00:04:20] you’re a female dentist, I’m not to be misogynist. If you’re a male dentist and you get pregnant and [00:04:25] you’re, you’re party to to to the maternity pay scheme, then is it worth incorporating at all? [00:04:30] And, um, if you do still want to incorporate, how do you split your income so that the NHS goes [00:04:35] into the sole trader so you still benefit from paying superannuation? Private goes into the limited company, but then is it still [00:04:40] worth it. Um, and then you’ve got, you’ve got the things like the nuances around training [00:04:45] and development because you know, I think there’s an amount spent by every [00:04:50] dentist every year on further education, on training and enhancing their skills. But [00:04:55] there are certain nuances as to what is tax deductible and what isn’t. Um, so if you’re enhancing existing [00:05:00] skill that is tax deductible, if you’re learning a brand new skill, then no, it’s not.

Payman Langroudi: It’s not tax deductible. [00:05:05]

Bilal Ahmed: It’s not. You can’t claim the tax relief on it.

Payman Langroudi: If I go to a implant course and I have never done implants [00:05:10] before, well.

Bilal Ahmed: See, this is where this is where the line starts getting a bit fuzzy. Now is [00:05:15] could you theoretically place an implant outside of outside of university? [00:05:20] You’ve been to dental school. Could you theoretically place an implant? Would you place an.

Payman Langroudi: Legally I.

Bilal Ahmed: Could [00:05:25] yeah. So that’s where the, that’s that’s where the definition comes into it. Now your own your own skill, [00:05:30] your own, you know, patient care. You want the best possible outcome for your patient means I don’t [00:05:35] think I should do it because I don’t think it’s the right outcome for the patient. So therefore I will go enhance that skill [00:05:40] so that I can ensure recovery time is kept to a minimum. You know, the trauma is kept to an absolute minimum. And [00:05:45] I’m paying the patient’s leaving with the best possible care. And that would be an example of enhancing existing [00:05:50] skill. Now where you’re learning a brand new skill would be, I’ve left dental school. I cannot place an implant. [00:05:55] They did not teach me how to place an implant, and I should not or I can’t, or legally, I’m not allowed to [00:06:00] place an implant. I now have to go train to place an implant that is now learning [00:06:05] a new skill, not enhancing existing skill. So when you ask about nuance, yeah, [00:06:10] there’s nuance. Uh, so there’s nuance and that’s where that’s where this [00:06:15] whole thing becomes quite fuzzy. And then you’ve got things like VAT, for instance. So if Payman [00:06:20] is a dentist and he operates via a limited company and he works at a practice, and that practice [00:06:25] treats him as a franchisee, and I, you gross the income, they take their licence fee [00:06:30] and so on and so forth. And I’ll talk about that a bit more detail. But if you’re going [00:06:35] in and you’re just doing day rate dentistry and you’re doing whatever’s put in front of you, they [00:06:40] tell you how to do it and you go in and do it. Are you now a contractor and is your limited company [00:06:45] now an agency which is now subject to VAT? So [00:06:50] you’ve got to make sure your contracts are set up the right way, because you know, the way the contract should be [00:06:55] set up. Is Bilal’s a dentist for for Payman. Yeah. And, um. [00:07:00]

Payman Langroudi: The associate contract. Right?

Bilal Ahmed: The associate contract? Yeah. So when we’re talking about associate contracts, we’re talking [00:07:05] about, um, the true nature of a contract, right? So it’s the practice is the practice is the practice is [00:07:10] the lead funnel is the source that brings all the patients, puts that patient into dentist chair. From that point [00:07:15] onwards, it’s all dentist. So the dentist decides whether they’re going to see a dentist, decides the treatment [00:07:20] care the course and course of care, the materials they used, how they do it, when they do it, and [00:07:25] it’s all within them. So what happens then is dentist says, I’ll do all this treatment plans five K [00:07:30] and of that five K there might be £1,000 worth of lab bills. We take half the lab bills and we [00:07:35] take half the revenue share. But then your accounts have to reflect that. So most [00:07:40] most accounts that we see don’t gross up the revenue. They will they will record the revenue in the accounts [00:07:45] as a net payment to them. So if they did like 12 grand and two grand was labs and five grand. [00:07:50] And then they’ve hit five grand, hit their bank. But that’s not the true reflection of their contract. True reflection. The contract is I know I [00:07:55] generated 12 grand, I’ve paid £1,000 out in lab bills because I paid £2,000 [00:08:00] at lab bills, got a grand back and I paid five grand out in licence fee. That’s how the contract should. That’s how your accounts [00:08:05] should be reflected. Because if HMRC ever investigate the first thing they’re looking at, show [00:08:10] me the contract, just show me the contract. Because now we’re looking at substance over form. We’re looking at nature. [00:08:15] We’re looking at is is is what’s represented represented [00:08:20] in the contract and does it match. If those things don’t match then you get into the realms [00:08:25] of HMRC compliance checks, which is not a fun process for anyone. So we make sure that everything [00:08:30] is above board and as it should be and as it should be presented.

Payman Langroudi: So we took like a tax investigation, [00:08:35] right? Let’s talk about those while we’re there. While we’re here. Yeah. What triggers [00:08:40] a tax investigation. So is it like a statistics thing.

Bilal Ahmed: So it’s statistical. Yeah. So there’s [00:08:45] a couple of things. So um I think it’s like 1 in 50 will be completely random, so it will be computer [00:08:50] said this year we’re just going to check Payman. Yeah. There’ll be no reason. There’ll be no rhyme or reason. Nothing. [00:08:55] So how that journey looks, how that journey goes, is somewhere something is triggered, a tax investigation. [00:09:00] We’ll go through what triggers it. First one is completely random. Yeah. Second is the [00:09:05] data you’ve presented on your self-assessment is not consistent with other dentists in your area, [00:09:10] in your demographic. So if you’re a dentist in central London and all [00:09:15] dentists have a have an expense base of 12% of their revenue. So if you’re showing £100,000 [00:09:20] revenue, your expenses are about 12 grand. Therefore you pay tax on the other 88. But [00:09:25] if your expenses are coming out like 30 grand and you’re an associate, then why is it so out of [00:09:30] kilter? Yeah. Now, bearing in mind the way the accounts are submitted, it’s all digital and everything’s put into neat little tranches [00:09:35] anyway. So if in that year you’ve done, um, let’s say you’ve done loads of training that year that [00:09:40] gets represented in staff costs. So it’s just staff costs that are out then HMRC. [00:09:45] Well, well we know. I don’t know that the algorithm will say something like I don’t know. We know statistically over [00:09:50] a three year period it bounces back to this number. So if we just look at this year and now look at the year before and the year [00:09:55] after, it all bounces back, nothing will to do.

Bilal Ahmed: You won’t even get you won’t even get anything communicated to you. But [00:10:00] if it’s consistently high, how can one person be spending so much money as an associate dentist when nobody [00:10:05] else is doing it? That then results in something called a knock letter. Knock letter is, um, [00:10:10] Payman. We’ve had a look at your accounts. Are you happy with the numbers you’ve presented? And [00:10:15] it might just be as broad as that. So are you happy with the numbers you’ve presented? Are you happy with [00:10:20] the numbers in your limited company accounts or your partnership accounts, or your self-assessment? The [00:10:25] answer is binary, right? It’s either yes or no. And if it’s no, I’ve noticed an error. Let me fix it and I’ll [00:10:30] put it right. Yeah. If it’s yes, I’ll send it off. Yes. Completely. Fine. That’s when they come back to you and [00:10:35] say hold on. Why why is this number now out? And they want to say, give me all the invoices, give me all the receipts, give me [00:10:40] all the proof of these costs for these areas. And then they’ll come back. And either you can prove it or you can’t. [00:10:45] And if you can’t prove it, that’s where you get into a world of hurt. Because now you’re looking at 100% fine on the outstanding [00:10:50] tax, due interest and penalties charged backdated from the time when it was due. So [00:10:55] does it pay? Was it worth it? Probably not.

Payman Langroudi: Is it only financial or [00:11:00] is it? For instance, I went through a period of, uh, [00:11:05] parking my car wherever I wanted, wherever I wanted. I mean, I wouldn’t park in a disabled bay. [00:11:10] I wouldn’t be a dick about it. I wouldn’t park in some stupid place where it’s going to stop buses [00:11:15] from. But I did the calculation that I’d rather park wherever I want, save [00:11:20] the time on that. But for me, time was the most important variable. Um, [00:11:25] get a ticket once every 4 or 4 weeks because the, you know, the enforcement [00:11:30] wasn’t there. Yeah. And not pay parking at all. And [00:11:35] for me, it worked. Now you. Some people could say you should never [00:11:40] park in a double yellow or double yellows are there for safety reasons, and I’m doing something immoral. [00:11:45] Yeah, yeah. But I’m saying from the accounting perspective, if someone says I’m gonna [00:11:50] cheat, if you like, on my taxes, I’m not going to spend the money, I’m going to invest [00:11:55] the money. And if I get caught, I’m going to pay the fine. Where [00:12:00] do you stand on that?

Bilal Ahmed: So there’s probably three things we need to go through there because there’s like three.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a bit off [00:12:05] the wall.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. So so I’ll go through the first one. So. So I do this sometimes. So let’s say um [00:12:10] I’ve got Team Day in Manchester and the nearest bit of parking I can get is, is the one right [00:12:15] outside the building. But it’s got a two hour limit. So I’ll say I’m here for six hours. It’s two [00:12:20] hours. I don’t want to get out. Move my car. It’s not worth it. I’ve got all my team here. There’s great expense incurred here for me to then [00:12:25] dip out and go find somewhere. I’ll just take the ticket. So I’ve overstayed my welcome in a bay. [00:12:30] I’ll take the £25 ticket because it’s cheaper. Because realistically, I’d rather pay that £25 ticket than someone [00:12:35] dinged my car in a car park and pay a £200 repair shop bill. So that’s so, yes. [00:12:40] Is it tax deductible? No. It’s never taxable. Fines and penalties are not tax deductible. [00:12:45]

Payman Langroudi: So you know. But I mean I’m there there I’m not paying my parking. What if I decide I’m not going to [00:12:50] pay some tax.

Bilal Ahmed: That’s a separate attacks. On what. Whatever it is. Okay.

Payman Langroudi: Whatever it is I’m going to [00:12:55] I’m going to start expensing family holidays for the sake of the argument. And [00:13:00] if I get caught, I will pay the fine. So is is it does it [00:13:05] go beyond the financial. Do I now have some sort of criminal record sort of thing.

Bilal Ahmed: So it depends on what [00:13:10] it is. So um, it could be a slap on the wrist or it could be, you know, fraud. [00:13:15] Yeah. We’re talking about different things. So, um, with things like, [00:13:20] you know, we we do see it. We, you know, why are you putting this through the business? Like, you know.

Payman Langroudi: And what are the limits? [00:13:25] What are the limits? I mean.

Bilal Ahmed: So the definition of an expensive business is something that’s wholly and exclusively incurred for business. [00:13:30]

Payman Langroudi: Wholly and exclusively.

Bilal Ahmed: Now.

Payman Langroudi: So I buy a laptop. If I use it at home, it’s not [00:13:35] wholly.

Bilal Ahmed: No. So there’s certain things that aren’t, um, that say like Incidental [00:13:40] additional use is by the by like a mobile phone is really good example of this. So [00:13:45] I as I as an employee give all my staff mobile phones and they have unlimited, unlimited, [00:13:50] unlimited minutes texts and data if they use that whilst they’re out and about. I don’t really care because there’s no [00:13:55] incremental cost to me. And if they use it for personal gain, there’s not they’re not subject to benefit in kind tax because it’s incidental [00:14:00] that they’re using it for, for for the purposes intended. And if they’ve done something personal it’s incidental.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:14:05]

Bilal Ahmed: Where something that’s wholly and exclusively like where in your podcast studio right now, if you bought [00:14:10] a Ferrari F40 and parked it in the background, use as a prop that’s wholly exclusively [00:14:15] for business. The moment you drive a single person a mile in that car now is now subject to benefit in kind [00:14:20] tax. But if you drove that to business meetings and you drove it to client meetings or supplier meetings, business [00:14:25] expense, completely fine business vehicle. But where where someone like me, for instance, [00:14:30] that works from home. If I went and bought a GT3 Rs and said I only used it for content and [00:14:35] I rigged it up for cameras. That said, every time I get in the car, I press a button. I’ve got camera one, two and three set up, and [00:14:40] it records me as I’m going. And I only use it for business purposes. And I’m well within the realms of what I’m [00:14:45] allowed to do, because it’s parked at my house means it’s available for personal use [00:14:50] by virtue of the fact that now it’s available for personal use, I’m subject to a benefit context [00:14:55] whether I do it or not. So it’s it’s where things where you start toeing the line look. And [00:15:00] I had a conversation, I had a consultation with someone last week. The consultation lasted six minutes. [00:15:05] The reason why the consultation lasted six minutes because he hit every single red flag. And the [00:15:10] call started with, this is how much I earn. Um, I can’t get Ahold of my account. He’s moved [00:15:15] to Dubai. I’m looking for a new account. What do you want from an account? Well, before he left, he said I could set up [00:15:20] a child trust fund in my grandparent’s name. And, um, declared dividends up to the trust [00:15:25] fund, and then that could pay for my kids private education, well known tax avoidance scheme. And so well known [00:15:30] that HMRC are now saying if I know about it and I don’t report it, even if [00:15:35] I didn’t set it up.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: I’m. I’m liable for £1,000 a day fine for [00:15:40] not reporting it. Well, personally. Well, not personally. My business is but £1,000 a day. Fine. I’m [00:15:45] reporting you because I’m not losing £1,000 a day. But I also said to him, I can tell you how that [00:15:50] conversation went because he didn’t put it in writing, did he? No. He told you a phone call, didn’t he? Yeah. He told you how to do it as well, [00:15:55] didn’t he? Yeah. Anything. Tie it back to him. No. So he walks away with his hands clean. You pay [00:16:00] a nice, handsome fee for the tax advice. Tax advice and where this scheme falls down. And this is the conversation [00:16:05] we were having before we hit record is when this tax avoidance. Tax avoidance or when is it effective tax planning. So [00:16:10] that scheme means what happens is you have you set up this um trust fund [00:16:15] in grandparents name and instead of you taking dividends personally, you declare dividends [00:16:20] up to the trust. And the trust uses that to pay for the child the child’s education. So quite tax efficient scheme to do [00:16:25] that. Where that whole thing falls down is there is no reason for you to have just given shares [00:16:30] to somebody in your business. You wouldn’t just give me 20% of your business now would you? There’d have to [00:16:35] be a commercial reason for you having done that. Yeah. So when we were talking about substance over form previously, is [00:16:40] HMRC want to know the commercial reason for why you did what you did? If you can prove commerciality [00:16:45] then it’s fine.

Bilal Ahmed: There’s a commercial reason i.e. my grandparents stumped up the cash originally [00:16:50] to pay to help me run my business instead of taking loans from the bank. I took it, took [00:16:55] from my grandparents, and instead of them paying me back, we did a debt to equity conversion and the debt was equal [00:17:00] to 10% of the business. So I gave them 10% of the business. What they do with their money thereafter is up to them, and [00:17:05] that’s completely fine. But if there’s no commercial reason as to why you’ve just given somebody shares, it makes no sense. [00:17:10] And that’s where HMRC will get you. So as I said, there’s three things to unpack. Is [00:17:15] is there’s a lot more to this. There’s a lot more nuance to go through than just to say yes or no and just sort [00:17:20] of go back to the start of this conversation was there is a third reason that might lead to a tax investigation. Someone’s [00:17:25] dobbed you in. If someone just does not like you and they it [00:17:30] could be a disgruntled employee. It could be someone that knows you’re doing all and sundry through your business, and you [00:17:35] run it through and off it goes. And you know, then they’ve got something. And then now people are incentivised because [00:17:40] the whistleblower scheme now means people can get paid a proportion of the reclaim and the whistleblower [00:17:45] gets paid and protected throughout, throughout the entire process now.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. So those are the three reasons that [00:17:50] you might end up with a tax tax investigation from HMRC. And from our perspective, just [00:17:55] to go back to that conversation that was having with the guy last week. So that was the first red flag [00:18:00] and the second red flag is, well, how do I not pay any tax? I was like, well you can’t because tax [00:18:05] is a proportion of profit. So if you want to pay no tax, make no profit. So if you’ve made 200 grand profit, [00:18:10] go spend 200 grand and you’ll have no tax to pay. Super legal but I’ll pay tax. I [00:18:15] pay VAT every quarter. We work with dentists. Dentists aren’t that registered. So that’s 16.6% of my top line [00:18:20] that I’m just giving to HMRC. Hmrc probably make more for my business than I do. So 16.6 of the top line and [00:18:25] then I give them 25% corporation tax. I still pay employers National insurance, and I still pay income tax on the money that I take out. And [00:18:30] I bought a house this year, so I paid him a whopping bit of stamp duty as well, and if I could have made that zero, I [00:18:35] would have done. But it’s not zero. It’s a stupid number and I hate it, but I pay it.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:18:40] I mean, you make an interesting point right around the [00:18:45] question of, you know, what is the difference between a good accountant [00:18:50] and a great accountant? Yeah. And I just want to I know, [00:18:55] you know, you’ve got your own sort of area sector specific answer to this, but [00:19:00] but what is the difference between a good lawyer and a great lawyer. Yeah. For [00:19:05] me is the great lawyer says the good lawyer says these are your four options. [00:19:10] Yeah. The great lawyer says these are your four options. I would pick option three. Yeah. [00:19:15] If it was me. Yeah. Um, and it’s almost around the communication [00:19:20] sort of area. What would you say if I said good, good [00:19:25] accountant. Great accountant. What’s the difference?

Bilal Ahmed: So my background’s corporate finance and I’ve only ever reported at board [00:19:30] level. So it’s if I’m working with decision makers, really why I enjoy what I do now. [00:19:35] So why I hated the corporate world was you’re steeped in bureaucracy. Yeah. There’s layers of people that want to [00:19:40] take credit. There’s layers, layers of people that has to go through. You’ve got to have.

Payman Langroudi: Conversations.

Bilal Ahmed: In corridors. It’s slow, it’s laborious. [00:19:45] The right person has to get the right credit before something moves on. Everyone’s so risk averse and nobody wants [00:19:50] to do anything. And then we end up getting sort of paralysis through analysis. Hated it. Would really enjoy what I [00:19:55] do, what I do now. So it’s as you’ve said, that’s what we stamp on. So that’s what we work on. So if I’m [00:20:00] working with subject matter experts is I will say these are your options A, B and C. This [00:20:05] is, this is then we quantify a b and C then we rank them that says if [00:20:10] you want to do A these are the approaches to A. If you want to do B, these are the approaches to B. If you want to do see these approaches [00:20:15] to C. C is a vanity project. Put it to one side, throw it in the bin. It’s not worth doing. Now everything [00:20:20] that C is categorised under is long grass. We’re talking about if the business succeeds you want to [00:20:25] do this well let’s focus on that. So that takes a and B a and b. The options are and if we if we [00:20:30] achieve A, then it might be worth an extra 100 grand to your bottom line. If we achieve B then it’s extra 50 [00:20:35] grand. Well the answer is now super obvious. It’s A. That is the one that we should go for with a now [00:20:40] is then. It’s not not just option. It’s option to implementation [00:20:45] is how do we now take a and put it into reality. So we take all of A [00:20:50] and we run that into a Gantt chart for the year that says what are the code dependencies for a. [00:20:55] So there might be six objectives that we want to achieve on A, but we can’t do 4 or 5 and six until we’ve done one, two and three.

Payman Langroudi: To [00:21:00] make it an example. So A might be.

Bilal Ahmed: I’ll give you a real example. So we’ve just done this [00:21:05] with a practice. So we they I call it silly season. I call Covid silly season [00:21:10] because pre-COVID you could go buy a practice as a principal. And the evaluations were pretty, pretty [00:21:15] sensible around that time. And the debt factor was really low. You could go buy practices as principal and still cover [00:21:20] your income, what you’re earning as an associate. Yeah, and you’d be fine. Covid knocked all that out the wall. [00:21:25] Then you had the the economic or the sort of economic within dentistry factor where you had dentists [00:21:30] and Portland fighting for every purchase and then skewed multipliers. So, you know, there’s people [00:21:35] getting ten times multipliers on exits that shouldn’t have been ten times multipliers. That factor was still really [00:21:40] low. Now, what you’ve done is set an unrealistic expectation for what practice is worth. And everything was [00:21:45] just on this adjusted EBITDA figure. So it says if it did this, then it’s worth this. Well, [00:21:50] if my Ford Fiesta had a Ferrari engine, I’d sell it as a Ferrari. But it doesn’t. It’s a Ford Fiesta. So you’re going to buy it as a Ford [00:21:55] Fiesta. So this is where this is where the numbers got a bit got a bit wayward. So [00:22:00] what then happened is private dentistry went crazy through Covid again.

Bilal Ahmed: Economic factors. You had furlough, you had [00:22:05] free money. People sat at home doing nothing, and those that were working were on zoom calls looking at themselves, wanted all the [00:22:10] cosmetic work because it was free money. The bills got to come due at some point, right. So [00:22:15] people are then stocking up for all this work. What you’ve got is where we refer to as [00:22:20] teeming and lading, where new money is paying for, um, past costs. So Invisalign [00:22:25] is a really good example of this because I refer to Invisalign as a Ponzi scheme, and I think it’s [00:22:30] a I think the only person that wins out of Invisalign Invisalign labs. The reason is you go, you [00:22:35] go price something at three three and a half grand for Invisalign Payman Invisalign take a third of that, [00:22:40] the associate takes a third and you’re left with a third. But you’re left holding the baby for 18 months because you’ve got to do all the treatments, [00:22:45] all the chair time, all the nurse costs, all the overhead costs. You really don’t make that much, much out of it unless [00:22:50] you price it correctly or you’re the one doing it. Or you can close that treatment down about 3.5 hours. But that’s a whole [00:22:55] different conversation for another day. So if you’re now doing all these Invisalign open days and you’re [00:23:00] using all that money that’s coming in to pay off yesterday’s debts, it’s fine.

Bilal Ahmed: As long as the revenue [00:23:05] keeps going up the moment that line flattens, now you’ve got an issue. The bigger issue [00:23:10] comes when the revenue starts decreasing, because now you haven’t got new chair. Time to pay for all debts and you start building up [00:23:15] all your liabilities. So to give you an example of how we would do this and what a real world example is, we went in and looked at a business, [00:23:20] and we identified about £1 million worth of business that wasn’t worth them doing because it was losing their [00:23:25] money on, on, on every treatment. So if you’re discounting your top line just to bring the money in [00:23:30] and we can work out your profit margin historically was about 13%. It’s actually lower. It’s about 9.8%. [00:23:35] And you’re discounting everything about 20%. You’re losing money on every single thing on [00:23:40] for this, for this million pound. So what was the solution on the back of that solution? On [00:23:45] the back of that is you close your three surgeries, you stop discounting and then we can lose the associate overhead [00:23:50] cost. So what does that mean then? We’ve lost £1 million of revenue. Business must be crippling. No, because [00:23:55] now we’ve we’re not losing money on those treatments.

Bilal Ahmed: Now we’ve shut down the surgery. [00:24:00] So we haven’t got the corresponding overhead cost. So we’re now five surgeries. Profit now increased on less revenue. [00:24:05] But that’s pure that’s action down to implementation. And even to the point where [00:24:10] we introduced a sliding scale payment that says look we want to rationalise want to bring this number [00:24:15] down, but the sliding scale has to be at these rates. We will now work out at what point the sliding scale [00:24:20] pays up. So you can have 40%, 42.5%, 45%. And we’re paying accelerator. So [00:24:25] if you’re now if you’re over. So if you’re revenue prior exceeds a certain amount for the month, then we’ll pay you 50% [00:24:30] everything. Because we know once you get past the point of revenue, the incremental cost doesn’t move with it. So now you’re [00:24:35] more profitable. But it also prevents sandbagging, which is. So if I’m currently at 45%, [00:24:40] why would I start this treatment this month? Why wouldn’t I do it for next month. So my revenue so I’m bolstering my [00:24:45] next month. So by paying the accelerator you stop sandbagging. So it all goes into the month that it should go [00:24:50] into. So so it drives the right behaviour and it rewards the right behaviour. But this is a conversation [00:24:55] we were having offline.

Bilal Ahmed: Right. Which is what is the point of a KPI. A KPI is only as good as the action you can do on [00:25:00] the back of it. What is the KPI here? Revenue per hour. What is revenue per hour? Tell us, how much money are we going to make? [00:25:05] How profitable we are in the period, how much cash we’re going to generate and how much money I’ve got to do all this stuff. But if you’re [00:25:10] only going to look at revenue per hour and do nothing with it, then it’s pointless. Kpi is nothing without the action you can take [00:25:15] on the back of it. Yeah, and that’s a real example that says implementation to action. And that’s [00:25:20] what we do as a business. So we’re kickstarting a project with one of our clients down in Essex who’ve [00:25:25] decided they want to sell, and we’ve worked out if they sell today, they’ll get about 1.5 million. If [00:25:30] we can achieve everything we want to achieve over the next 12 months, they’ll get about 1.9 million. So there’s a there’s 400 [00:25:35] grand on the table. They will decide where they want to get off that journey. Because even if we get halfway through, [00:25:40] still two grand more than they would’ve got if they didn’t do it. And it’s worth it for them.

Payman Langroudi: And is that [00:25:45] in, in in essence, sort of every pound you save in cost becomes [00:25:50] £7 in. Yeah. It’s in multiplied EBITDA. [00:25:55]

Bilal Ahmed: Correct. There’s a bit more to that. So this practice that we’re doing it with. So they’ve tried to [00:26:00] sell it previously. And the feedback they had from the brokers was you’ll get you’ll cap out at about three, three [00:26:05] and a half times EBITDA because it’s principle led. So what we’re saying is over [00:26:10] the next year, what we’ll do with you is, is make it more associate led. So how we’ll do that is they’ve [00:26:15] got five associates across. The practice is we will monitor the the profitability of each associate. [00:26:20] So we can do panels and profitability per associate, which now drives [00:26:25] the principles objective, which is don’t worry about your pocket over the over the short term, [00:26:30] because yes, your revenue will drop, but the outcome is more money to you at the end. So all you do is you’re deferring it [00:26:35] now for for this project, your time and energy should be now on systems and processes and [00:26:40] building up the capability of your associates, because that’s what gets us the best multiplier after [00:26:45] the fact. Because if we can now prove to a buyer that it that we’ve done all these systems [00:26:50] and processes, then we’re pushing beyond seven times EBITDA, we’re probably in the realms of 7.1, 7.2, 7.3. [00:26:55] And then we’re taking away less deferred element of that of that purchase as well. [00:27:00] So someone, you know, one of the big corporate buyers will say, well, if it does this, this and the other will pay you eight times, but we’ll defer this [00:27:05] bit of it. We can argue, no, we’ve done it.

Bilal Ahmed: So you can see we’ve done it. We can demonstrate we’ve done it. [00:27:10] We want to defer less, which is a conversation we’ve had with buyers that says, no, we can evidence we’ve achieved this [00:27:15] and go, yep, we can see it. We can see it in the numbers. We can see your logic. You can see how you’ve come to that assessment. So when they’ve done [00:27:20] their financial due diligence it ring fences. How we’ve done it. Because I’m used to having all my numbers audited. [00:27:25] So when I worked in corporate Deloitte came and checked my numbers. So financial and non-financial. [00:27:30] So my process is always logical, which is can I prove it? Can I substantiate it? Can [00:27:35] I take you on a journey of how I got there? It wasn’t just a finger in the air job that says, this is how I got it, because then it’s not. [00:27:40] It’s like doing your math, your math test, right? If you can’t show your working, then the answer is useless. You have [00:27:45] to show your working. So the idea in the background is, how do we take all of this? Present it in such a way [00:27:50] that you can buy it or the seller can get seller can have confidence in what they’re buying, and it makes that entire process [00:27:55] really good, because the other side of it is, and we’ve been on the right side or the wrong side of the [00:28:00] table is without having done all the PhD, the buyer will pull in an 11th hour move.

Payman Langroudi: Sorry. [00:28:05] The 11th hour.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. And say X and Y Z’s happen. We’re paying you £1 million less, or [00:28:10] we’re going to defer an extra million pound to, you know, if you achieve x, y, z objective. No. Not doing it. So we can [00:28:15] pre-empt that. So we can we can pre-empt that at the start of the journey. So that doesn’t happen. But then [00:28:20] if I’m on the buy side and I know there side hasn’t done any of this, I’m ripping the whole thing apart. [00:28:25] And I’ve just done this with one of my clients who buying a practice. We’ve just got 150 grand off the asking [00:28:30] price, so it was on the market for 1.25 million. We’ve got it for 1.1 million. Still 50 grand more than [00:28:35] I wanted to pay for it, but it’s not my money. So went to my clients and said, look, this is what this is what it’s doing. Currently, [00:28:40] I can’t see a 1.25 valuation. I can see 1,000,050. Any [00:28:45] overage is is up to you guys, but I think you can get it to a £1.7 [00:28:50] million in about a year and a half, two years by doing X, Y and Z. And they’ve gone, well, we’re [00:28:55] happy to pay 50 grand over because we can see the trajectory now to 1.7. So we’re then giving our buyers confidence. [00:29:00] But conversely is I did one about [00:29:05] six months ago, one of my clients, I told him to walk away from it. That’s not worth buying. [00:29:10] Don’t even pay for the bank valuation because it’s two and a half grand bank bank valuation, and I know what it’s going to come back [00:29:15] to. It’s not worth doing because the business has been in decline for about three years, and [00:29:20] some of the information that we had in the background was the reason why the.

Bilal Ahmed: So this singular practice [00:29:25] was a part of a group of practices, and we were selling it separately because it was pulling down the EBITDA of all the other practices. [00:29:30] So what does that tell you about the shape of the practice? And then when you start running the data in the background, you can [00:29:35] just see decline year on year, decline year on year decline, year on year decline. And it’s not worth it. So you’re almost better [00:29:40] off just setting up a squat at this point. And in that case, the practice isn’t worth any more than its underlying squat value. [00:29:45] So fixtures and fittings and anything there’s no goodwill you really. And so client yet and [00:29:50] walking away from it bumped into the person that went and bought it. They’re not having a great time with it [00:29:55] and they’re not having a great time because they’ve overpaid for it. And they they thought the package was going to be busy than [00:30:00] it was and it wasn’t. And as they’ve come in, the staff have now left in the background as well. So what was the point? [00:30:05] Now you’ve got this big debt over your head with no corresponding revenue and [00:30:10] not the thing that you even wanted, and you haven’t got enough revenue coming in to even change it the way you want it to look. So there’s all there’s [00:30:15] all these, you know, depending on what side of the table we’re on, we behave and act different ways. Obviously we can’t [00:30:20] we can’t be on both sides of the table because we’re negotiating.

Payman Langroudi: The same deal. They can’t know.

Bilal Ahmed: We’ve [00:30:25] got a weird one at the moment where we sort of are, but we’ve had to create walls [00:30:30] in our own business that says, I can’t see Southside. I’m not allowed to see Southside. So my.

Payman Langroudi: Direct. [00:30:35]

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. So my directors, my fellow director Kieran is looking at Southside and we’re doing that through [00:30:40] our other business, Intel Beacon, where he’s acting on sell side. So Heath or green which is the accountancy [00:30:45] firm is acting on buy side. So I can’t get involved in that. I can’t look at how he got his [00:30:50] numbers. So and I would approach it, I would evaluate it in the exact same way I would do any of the business. We’ve had to go back to our indemnity, [00:30:55] even our governing body, the ICW, to say, can we even do this? And I said, look, as long as you’ve, you’ve, [00:31:00] you’ve met your ethical constraints. So that threat to independence, subjectivity, objectivity, [00:31:05] and as long as you can prove you’ve done that which we have, then it’s fine to do it. But that’s where the ethics then comes [00:31:10] back down to it. That says, as a chartered accountant, I’m bound by a set of ethics, and I have to take the right decision. [00:31:15] On the back of that says this isn’t the right thing to do, but it is in this case.

Payman Langroudi: Look, obviously in the [00:31:20] in the buying of a practice, you’d like to know as soon as possible that someone’s thinking about buying a practice, right? [00:31:25] Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: I want to know whether it’s a fleeting thought.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the same on the sell side. Yeah. You want [00:31:30] to know as soon as possible. So you’ve got that runway of time to prepare the thing, not [00:31:35] just for sale.

Bilal Ahmed: So it’s. We can demonstrate time and again is, is [00:31:40] if you’ve got up and you’ve lost a love for it, sell it. Because every month that goes by, every [00:31:45] pound, you now start losing in efficiencies. Now you’re losing £7 on exit. So if you’ve got to the point [00:31:50] now where you’ve lost the love for it, sell it and we can package it up to sell it straight away.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. But what I want to [00:31:55] know is let’s say I’m not looking to buy or sell. I’m running a business. Yeah. How often do [00:32:00] I consult with you, my accountant? And how involved do you get in, in [00:32:05] in the, you know, showing me what to do? Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: So the day to day stuff is, is really where our [00:32:10] bread and butter is. So most of what we do is the in life management. So we’ve been working with a [00:32:15] one of our practices in the Midlands. Fantastic clinician. And she’s she’s absolutely amazing [00:32:20] at what she does. And I’ve got a lot of love for her. And she’s taught me loads. And the way she looks at her business is phenomenal. And then [00:32:25] I’ve got a practice in the North West across three sites that does the same thing. And the way they look at the business is [00:32:30] fantastic. So what we’re doing with them is understanding the what next bit. [00:32:35] Yeah. So in life don’t want to sell. We’ve got we want to exit. We want we want maximum [00:32:40] value so we can do something else. So we’ve we’ve we’ve been on this journey with this practice now to go from two surgeries [00:32:45] to five. And one of the things was, is then at what point do we incorporate into a limited company? Because [00:32:50] all the money we’re making at the moment is getting plugged back in to take it from two surgeries to five. So we can now help you understand [00:32:55] when to recruit, how to recruit, how much to pay. Because if we’re now, we can then say, right, [00:33:00] we’re all all the numbers are green, all the KPIs are where they are. Budget says we were going to do [00:33:05] surgery three in August. You’re actually beating budget. You need to start now. And by start now, you need to go recruit [00:33:10] now. Because what we can’t have is surgery three open and then surgery three is now open.

Bilal Ahmed: Now you’re going to go [00:33:15] find a nurse because. Too late. What we almost want to over recruit slightly beforehand. Get them [00:33:20] to know these systems and processes and get them. We can help you identify that. But then what was cool about this one was [00:33:25] so this was a different one. In the same sort of thing though, is we did a walk through the practice and [00:33:30] we said, for you to do surgery 3 in 6 months later, do surgery four, that’s twice you have to shut [00:33:35] down the front of the practice. I’d rather you did surgeries three and four now and take and [00:33:40] not take the the sunk cost or the opportunity cost. Don’t don’t take the opportunity lost down the road. Go through that pain [00:33:45] once and we can do it. And surgery five is going to be an annexe at the back anyway. So it had no had no impact on the main [00:33:50] building. This is what we would get involved in at the start that says and then one of our practices [00:33:55] in the Midlands is now come to the end of building a mega site. So eight surgeries, [00:34:00] we’ve done a walk through and worked with the builders, existing practice and their second [00:34:05] site. We’ve done a walk through the builders to help identify what they can, claim capital allowances, and [00:34:10] make sure they get the maximum tax deductibility because not everything is tax deductible when you build your practice out. So if you’ve got [00:34:15] things like disability ramps can’t claim not tax deductible. Can claim. Yeah. No [00:34:20] claim on the back end when you sell the practice.

Bilal Ahmed: Can’t do anything about it up front. Now they’ve got like a ten foot [00:34:25] drop on the front where they’ve had to dig it out and then landscape it so it’s safe. But [00:34:30] that on its own you can’t tax deductible because it’s got nothing. It’s not holding exclusive. [00:34:35] Your business has no impact. But when working with the contractors we identified, they would have had to have done that. So [00:34:40] we can so where all the irrigation for all the surgeries runs through, runs through the practice, [00:34:45] down the middle, at the front and out to the side, well, we would have had to have dug it up so [00:34:50] we can put irrigation in. So we’re going to so again we, we we speak to HMRC beforehand that says look this is [00:34:55] what’s happened. We had to do this to put it back. It’s going to cost us this. Yep. Fine. Tax deductible. So if I [00:35:00] know about it beforehand then I can deal with it where you’ve got the relationship with the contractors and it’s happening. I can do something [00:35:05] about it because I can get them to make sure their invoice, their statement of the statement of work or reflects what [00:35:10] I need to reflect. If it’s after that, you’re never going to get hold of the builder afterwards. They’re not going to change anything afterwards. They got no incentive [00:35:15] to do anything afterwards. So whilst the relationship is good and they’re still working for you and they’re still doing things with [00:35:20] you, is we can make sure that it reflects the nature of the work and you get the maximum tax deductibility. [00:35:25]

Payman Langroudi: But can you play the other side of it for me, whereby can [00:35:30] you tell me about an example of where the numbers are saying do x, [00:35:35] y and z? But the immeasurables said [00:35:40] do something else. And I mean, you look [00:35:45] at you look at a business purely, purely through through the numbers. If if you look at the business [00:35:50] purely through the numbers, you could say the cost of, I don’t know, whatever it is isn’t [00:35:55] worth it. Yeah, yeah. Whereas in a business and especially in a service [00:36:00] business, some of the gold, some of the most important sort of cornerstones of success [00:36:05] of that business are immeasurable. Yeah. Agreed. Yeah. So if an [00:36:10] accountant or someone, you know, someone who’s looking at numbers and KPIs is [00:36:15] allowed to make the decisions. I know, you know, you’re you’re an advisor. Yeah. But let’s say that [00:36:20] the principal is making decisions based purely on numbers. Have you you know, there must be examples [00:36:25] of where it’s gone wrong. Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. So. So to [00:36:30] ring fence, what you said before about what makes the difference between a good and a bad lawyer.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Well, good and great.

Bilal Ahmed: Good [00:36:35] and great. Yeah. Sorry. Good and great. By the time you need a lawyer, you’re already [00:36:40] in a pickle. A great accountant should be putting out fires before they become fires. That’s [00:36:45] what a great account should be doing for you. So before it becomes a problem, they should have put out the fire and fixed it and given it to you. [00:36:50] Where? Where the immeasurable, where things haven’t gone right or [00:36:55] wrong is. I think it’s down to an expectation gap is we can’t come in and run your business for [00:37:00] you. We’re not allowed to. There’s a specific, specific bit of legislation called client managed services, where if I’m now seen [00:37:05] to be running your business for you, I’m personally liable, not Heath or green bill ALS personally reliable. [00:37:10] Well. So that’s my personal assets at risk. That’s my that’s my livelihood. That’s everything. So we don’t cross [00:37:15] that line. So accountability is a big thing here that says we can show you the path. We can illuminate [00:37:20] it. And we do this through our company called Intel Beacon, where we use power BI to rip all the data out [00:37:25] your PMS and show you. But we spend a lot of time on the educational side of things.

Bilal Ahmed: So when [00:37:30] any any client joins us on this journey, I spend two hours with them on a strat call. We don’t talk numbers. I [00:37:35] want to know why. I want to know what’s motivating you. Why do you want to do this? [00:37:40] Because I’ll be honest. I talk a lot of people out of doing this stuff because I can’t see it. I can’t [00:37:45] see how they’re going to make this successful because there’s there’s there’s a negative there’s no correlation [00:37:50] between a great clinician and a great practice owner because there just isn’t. I like eating at restaurants. Does not [00:37:55] mean I should open up a restaurant, because if I don’t understand, you know, turnover rates, dinner [00:38:00] service, recruitment, marketing, HR, legal, then those things aren’t going to correlate. So, [00:38:05] um, where we’ve taught clients out of doing stuff is because we just can’t see [00:38:10] how they want to do it, but then they go, sod it, we’re going to do it anyway. Fine. If you’re going to do it anyway, it’s not [00:38:15] like I’m going to wash my hands of you. I’m still going to be around. I’m still going to be on your side, because I still have an obligation to.

Payman Langroudi: Make what I mean, what I mean, [00:38:20] though, what I mean, maybe you’re your KPI tells you this [00:38:25] associate is earning less per hour than this associate. Yeah, but [00:38:30] maybe in if you qualitatively looked at it. Yeah. [00:38:35] This associate is building trust. So so that in six months time he can [00:38:40] present gigantic um treatment plans. And the other one who’s earning more right now [00:38:45] isn’t being great with his patients. He’s overcharging or whatever. Now, from the stats, [00:38:50] it looks like the one earning more is doing well. And we need to go talk to the one earning less. Yeah, yeah. [00:38:55] And when you do that, if the guy is doing what I said, if he’s, if he’s going [00:39:00] slow, building trust, you know, small bits until, you know, later [00:39:05] on he’s gonna he’s gonna present big treatment plans if a, if [00:39:10] a, if the principal comes to and says, hey, my accountants told me you’re not making enough money, that kid [00:39:15] who’s probably a really great dentist, is that that nuance, right? That nuance. And I can [00:39:20] imagine principals beating the heads of associates with the stats. Now, [00:39:25] sometimes it’s correct. But I’m saying examples of times when it’s not correct.

Bilal Ahmed: Advice, [00:39:30] though, that if an accountant does that, they’re not in the right. They should not be advising you. Because if [00:39:35] all they’ve done is look at the numbers, I’ll I’ll give you I’ll give you a real world example. So when I was employed, I worked for [00:39:40] National Express. I worked in group finance for National Express. There was a team of six of us that looked after about £2.2 billion [00:39:45] worth of business. This is where I trained. So I trained as a pure technical accountant at National Express Group finance. [00:39:50] I got to do some weird and wonderful things. I got sent out to the Middle East to go help build a bus network in Bahrain, [00:39:55] build tenders for projects out in Mecca, you know, tendering for a fifth of [00:40:00] the bus network in Dubai to go private. Got to do some weird and wonderful things. One of the things I got to [00:40:05] do was work alongside the health and safety director of the entire group, and one of the key [00:40:10] metrics before any of the board of directors got paid their bonuses was, did we kill more people [00:40:15] this year than we did last year? Now, you can imagine how popular I was around bonus season, because my number then quantified [00:40:20] whether they got paid their bonuses or not. So again, qualitative information an [00:40:25] absolute number is pointless. Did we kill more people than we did this year versus last year? [00:40:30] No. But if you put 20 people more in comas and lifelong care, did [00:40:35] we do better or worse? So the rail uses something. Rail network uses something called an fwi [00:40:40] fatalities weighted index, which weights every last time injury, minor or major injury [00:40:45] as a percent as a proportion to a fatality.

Bilal Ahmed: So fatality is one. A major injury is 0.1 [00:40:50] a last time injury is 200th and a minor injury is 1,000th. So we’re taking all of these things in aggregate. Now [00:40:55] that says why is this happening? So I then had to go back and do three years worth of data and restate [00:41:00] prior two years data with this new metric, with this, new with with this, with this new figure. And it [00:41:05] got checked by Deloitte. Yeah. So again numbers numbers on their own are pointless. [00:41:10] They do not tell you anything. So where you’ve got America that’s telling us every single thing that. Why [00:41:15] is America. Bear in mind we’ve got the biggest bus network out in in Spain. [00:41:20] So ulcer bus network out in Bahrain. Um. Not Bahrain in Morocco. Rail [00:41:25] network in Germany. Rail network CTC in London. Um National [00:41:30] Express coaches. The the bus network out in the West Midlands, the West Midlands travel [00:41:35] and then all the little yellow American school buses in America. And you think all these stats coming [00:41:40] out of America are crazy? Like why is there volume of injuries so significant, lost [00:41:45] time, injuries so significant? When you take a step back and you start looking at root cause you’ve got first principles they [00:41:50] have to report last time injuries so they can go to the doctor and the insurance will pay for it if [00:41:55] you just go to the doctor and don’t report it. That comes out of your pocket.

Payman Langroudi: Insurance doesn’t pay.

Bilal Ahmed: Correct. So you have [00:42:00] to report it. Yeah. So now does that mean we’re hurting more people in America? No. It just means there’s more incentive for them [00:42:05] to report. Yeah. So. So we normalise that data. So that sort of answers your question that says a number in isolation is [00:42:10] pointless. Yeah. So let’s take associates. Let’s take an associate an example here. So we [00:42:15] had an associate finish a qualification. And he said I now I [00:42:20] now want to earn 50% of everything I do. So we had a conversation with associates. Right now you [00:42:25] lose this money by being here. So your average average revenue per hour is £850 [00:42:30] for you to break even. I need you at £1,400 for you to be viable, and I need you to do it in about 18, £1,900 [00:42:35] a day. So let’s work out how we’re going to do that. So mine isn’t to [00:42:40] now tell you how to do dentistry, because I’m not a clinician and I never stop and never cross over that line. But I want to show the associate [00:42:45] what this actually means. From that, we work with the principle that says, you’ve got [00:42:50] to make a decision that says you’ve got to work with your associates because that’s part of your job. But if you’re stuck in surgery, then you’re doing [00:42:55] wrong by your associates.

Bilal Ahmed: You keep beating with a stick when you’re the one not showing them systems and processes. So have they [00:43:00] got the right training? So do you want to sell? Do you want to send them on a bedside manner? Course. You [00:43:05] know, effective effective communication course that helps them get to where they want to get to. But what we know with dentists [00:43:10] and it works really well is look, I’m just going to assume you’re all really smart because you had [00:43:15] to be to get to where you where you got to. And one thing for certain is you’re super competitive because you want to get to where you are without [00:43:20] the competitive gene. They shy away from numbers because it’s something they’re not certain on and [00:43:25] with anything. If you’re not happy with it, you’re not certain with it. You bury your head in the sand. So let me take you on that journey of certainty. Let [00:43:30] me show you how I’ve measured. You tell me it’s fair. Tell me it’s unfair. Tell me the nuance that I [00:43:35] don’t know behind what you do. Because if I can see your hourly rate currently is 850 an [00:43:40] hour. But I can see all these.

Payman Langroudi: Daily.

Bilal Ahmed: Hourly rate. Sorry. Yeah, a daily rate. But if I can [00:43:45] see. Thank you for correcting me because that.

Payman Langroudi: Would have made.

Bilal Ahmed: A difference a big difference. But if I can [00:43:50] see your open treatment plans in six month time are going to turn this around, then that’s a [00:43:55] different conversation altogether, because now it’s a conversation of who’s going to speak to the open treatment plans. Do we need a pico? [00:44:00] Do we need a patient coordinator treatment coordinator to do this? Because one of the key metrics for us for [00:44:05] any practice isn’t the number of big ticket items. It’s your number of distinct patients and number of new [00:44:10] patient assessments. Because new patient assessments tell me what the business is going to do six months from now. Your big ticket items [00:44:15] are going to tell you you’re gonna pay your bills at the end of the month. So so your best barometers, especially this time of year [00:44:20] where everyone’s trying to do offers, I really want everyone to come in for assessments because then you [00:44:25] can treatment plan them. You can get them booked in for the end of Jan into Feb. And that then tells me you’re gonna have the best Q1 you’ve [00:44:30] ever had, because it’s not about beating people with sticks, it’s about showing them how we’ve how we’ve assessed [00:44:35] it. Because if you can’t improve, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. But this is where the skill is. We’re not just we’re [00:44:40] not just here to look at raw numbers, because if the world was left to accountants, we’d all we’d all be on the trains and buses and nobody would [00:44:45] enjoy cars. Right. So, so like, sports cars aren’t built by accountants. Ferraris aren’t built, built, by [00:44:50] the accounting team, built by people who are enthusiasts, who love what they do and engineers. And sometimes [00:44:55] you can tell the accountants get out of the way.

Bilal Ahmed: Mine isn’t to stop anything. Mine is to quantify that says, if [00:45:00] I can show you and then you as the entrepreneur, you as the CEO, you as the person who’s got the feel of your business and your [00:45:05] staff tells me to go stuff it. You’ll see it work. By all means, let’s do it. And then now, if you’re [00:45:10] going to do it anyway. All I’m trying to do is mitigate the risk. That’s all. I’m trying to look as accountants, we’re all risk averse. We [00:45:15] have it drummed into us. If it can go wrong, it probably will go wrong. So when I’m building a business plan for a practice [00:45:20] I’m not looking at, best case scenario, I’m looking at breakeven points. Your job is to look at best case scenario, [00:45:25] because if things are now going better, we now need to recruit. But I need to know you can pay your bills. I need to know you can pay [00:45:30] yourself. I’m not trying to. I’m not trying to say each surgery is going to do 2 to 5 per day for five days, because [00:45:35] we’re all living in la la land there. But I can show you what that journey looks like. So look, it does go wrong, but [00:45:40] it’s how do we mitigate the downside. And by accountants we’re super pessimistic. So [00:45:45] a lot of the downside is mitigated just by us being pessimistic anyway. And sometimes, you know, [00:45:50] have we made wrong decisions in the past? Yes. Can we recover from them? Yes. [00:45:55] Is there anything we’re going to do that’s going to put your business on its ass? No, we don’t get into any of that. It’s not. We wouldn’t [00:46:00] we? We’d be out of business.

Payman Langroudi: Associates retain you as well.

Bilal Ahmed: Associates do retain us. Yeah. So [00:46:05] I’m meeting with one Tuesday evening, do some forward planning. So 12, 18 months. [00:46:10] He’s had a couple of he’s had an expensive two years. And now he wants to know where he can put his money thereafter. [00:46:15] So I won’t get into financial advice. I won’t say.

Payman Langroudi: So. What are common mistakes associates [00:46:20] make from the from the, you know, tax and business?

Bilal Ahmed: Two I mean, [00:46:25] two things. One is they don’t treat themselves as a true business. They treat themselves as contractors. Because [00:46:30] if you don’t know what goal you’re setting yourself, then what are you working towards? [00:46:35] You’re just sort of ambling through and then and then you’ll let’s [00:46:40] say the associate journey is you’ll qualify, you’ll probably do. First year will be, what, [00:46:45] 7% NHS, 30% private, it’ll start petering out towards more private by about 30. You’ll do mostly [00:46:50] private. It’s certainly the journey that we see with our associates. Our demographic is skewed because they’re [00:46:55] the more entrepreneurial dentists who want more hands on. We typically don’t deal with like 100% dentists because [00:47:00] their needs and wants are different to what we can offer them. But then you’ve got what now? So a [00:47:05] lot of them will now start focusing heavily on the hourly rate and reducing the amount of clinical days. So they’ll [00:47:10] want to get to about three and a half days clinical maintain income level. So that then says specialism. How [00:47:15] do I value my time. What courses should I be then going on. Then they’ll hit a point that says I’ve got this excess liquidity. What do I now do with [00:47:20] it? I can’t tell you to invest in. Well, I can tell you to put money into your pension. I can’t [00:47:25] tell you what pension product to use. I can’t tell you to invest in property. But if you wanna invest in property, I can show you the best way to do it. [00:47:30] And then the idea is, as long as we’re talking ahead of time, then this is the journey you should take.

Bilal Ahmed: The [00:47:35] biggest mistake associates make within this is not looking at it like that. It’s not looking at the hourly rate, not valuing [00:47:40] their time discounting and then not planning ahead, not looking beyond month by month. Because [00:47:45] I asked this every time I do a presentation is not show of hands. If it’s around a bank holiday, how [00:47:50] many of you planned your bank holiday weekend? Hands go up. How many? You know how many times you planned your birthday? Hands go [00:47:55] up. And how many of you go on holiday? Hands go up. Have you planned for that? How you get to the. How you [00:48:00] get to the airport. Um. Where are you going to stay. What flight you’re going to take? Where are you going to eat? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. How many [00:48:05] of you planned your businesses? Crickets. Crickets. And you’ll 1 or 2 hands [00:48:10] go up. So why are you not looking at it like a business? How are you? Why are you not valuing your time? Why [00:48:15] are you not looking at things like marketing for your own, for your own social media, or your own marketing endeavours [00:48:20] so people know who you are, what it is you do? Because there’s 43,000 dentists in the UK, there’s 55 [00:48:25] million people over the age of 18 in the UK. And that’s what, 1300 people per [00:48:30] dentist in the UK. How are you speaking to your 1300? Because you only really need five of them to come see you, and [00:48:35] then you’ve got a rolling, you know, you’re seeing them on a on an annualised basis.

Bilal Ahmed: And then then we’re looking [00:48:40] at lifetime journey. We’re looking at patient recalls. How many of your patients are you actively bringing back in? [00:48:45] Because once you start getting into the weeds of that, that’s when you become a principal. Because once you’ve exhausted [00:48:50] all of that as an associate, and now you’re frustrated with the practice because it’s not on the same journey as you, that’s [00:48:55] when you should open your own practice because you’ve done what you’ve done it, or you’ve treated yourself as a business within a business, and then [00:49:00] you should do that. That’s what that’s the biggest issue that associates aren’t making. But again, financial literacy [00:49:05] is low because they’ve never been taught it. They’ve been dropped in at the deep end. They uncomfortable [00:49:10] with it. So they bury their head in the sand. We chase. We want we you know, we want to be speaking to our clients [00:49:15] on a rolling six month basis the same way. Look, you want me to brush my teeth twice a day and come see you every six months? But [00:49:20] you’re not going to be in my bathroom checking my toothbrush is wet, right? I want you to speak to me every six months. Speak to me three months [00:49:25] before the end of the year so we can plan your year end. Close what options you can take before the end of the year to maximise tax efficiency. [00:49:30]

Bilal Ahmed: Talk to me three months after so we can use so we can wrap up the year that was we can set the scene for the year [00:49:35] that’s coming. You get into that tax becomes a known certainty, then put your money aside. Don’t worry about it. [00:49:40] And then we’ve got associates who take us on and engage basis. We want to speak to us every single month. We want to [00:49:45] go through the numbers. We want to go through how much money they should have set aside for tax. But we’ve got we’ve got one associate who [00:49:50] just pays his money. He’s just got HMRC on a direct debit that says I’d rather just pay them [00:49:55] and not have to think about it and not have to think about a lump sum that goes out. So I just pay them an amount. If I’ve overpaid, I get it back. [00:50:00] If I’ve underpaid, I top it up. That’s a good way to do it. Because they pay you interest. They pay you interest on it as well. So. Oh do [00:50:05] they. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s not taxable I don’t know don’t quote me on that. I don’t think it’s taxable income from HMRC [00:50:10] anyway. So it’s quite cool from that perspective. So you know where this goes. Well is [00:50:15] we sat down with one of our orthodontics orthodontist clients and we worked out once [00:50:20] he gets beyond 250 starts well we worked out on his own. He can’t do any more than 250 starts.

Payman Langroudi: He [00:50:25] starts.

Bilal Ahmed: Starts. And then we’re looking and he works across five practices and Fridays [00:50:30] are sacred for him. This is where the human element comes into it is look, I could say, of course you could do more than [00:50:35] 250 if you worked on Friday but doesn’t want to work a Friday. So it’s like, well, I’ve got to work with those within those constraints now. Fine. [00:50:40] He’s got family. He’s got more. Things are more important to him. So he’s like, right when you because you can’t [00:50:45] do any more and you’re in five places. You need a, a, um, orthodontic therapist. But [00:50:50] then at what point do you need an orthodontic therapist? And at what point do you need more of their [00:50:55] time? Yeah. So if you get to 300 starts, you probably need them a day a week. [00:51:00] If you get to 310, you probably need two days a week. But then we can work out where you can be, because now you can theoretically [00:51:05] be in two places at once and it works really well. And what he’s got down to a T is [00:51:10] his his journey. So he doesn’t do any of the restorative, doesn’t do anything like that. So if it goes back, goes back to dentist, it comes back to him and [00:51:15] he does really well from it. But that’s really looking at your business as a business and now saying I understand [00:51:20] what I can do. He understands his pricing, understands what he can charge. What that then allowed him to do was [00:51:25] put some money into marketing for the year. So he then committed about 25 grand to marketing and then agreed [00:51:30] with the principle to split on the the orthodontic therapist. But then it also meant we could then negotiate [00:51:35] his fee, his split, because if he’s incurring 24 grand marketing, the the practice then benefits for. And [00:51:40] he’s paying half of the therapist. Why should he still be on.

Payman Langroudi: Based on stats, right? So it’s a [00:51:45] more sort of cogent argument he’s putting to the principle.

Bilal Ahmed: Win win win has to be [00:51:50] a win win. Everyone wins from that conversation.

Payman Langroudi: Tell me about squats, because they seem to be much more popular these [00:51:55] days. You know, the the goodwill values seem a bit, you know, inflated. [00:52:00] So a lot a lot of lot of squats I see opening up.

Bilal Ahmed: Not inflated at all. [00:52:05] Um, squat journeys work really well, so the best return on investment, pound for pound, is a squat.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. No, [00:52:10] no, I mean, goodwill values for existing practices seem high.

Bilal Ahmed: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: So people are starting squats. [00:52:15] Yeah. But the, the sort of the pitfalls of that from the [00:52:20] way I look at it that don’t expect to make any money in the first 18 [00:52:25] months sort of thing. The cash flow sort of keep, keep staying alive in that period. Yeah. [00:52:30] Really is the key point.

Bilal Ahmed: So we do a lot of these. Yeah, we do a lot of these.

Payman Langroudi: Am I right about [00:52:35] that 18 months or.

Bilal Ahmed: It’s about 12 months. You can break even by by the end of month 12. And that’s with us being pessimistic. [00:52:40] Yeah. Um, we see them go really well, but the, the biggest, the biggest [00:52:45] factor.

Payman Langroudi: The marketing side, the money for that.

Bilal Ahmed: It’s the biggest success factor [00:52:50] for. And I’ll give you some I’ll give you sort of both sides of the coin. The biggest success [00:52:55] factor that we see with anything is someone who’s treated their associate business as a business, i.e. [00:53:00] as an associate. They they are responsible for most of their own patients and [00:53:05] will now convert that into a squat. The single best success criteria by the end [00:53:10] of month, by the end of year one, when.

Payman Langroudi: You say responsible is in their Instagram but brought those patients in. [00:53:15] Correct.

Bilal Ahmed: So their marketing, their Google, their website, their landing page. But I can tell you unequivocally, [00:53:20] by the end of year one, they will be a millionaire on paper. Because if you’ve got an associated practice [00:53:25] that generates 150 grand EBITDA at the end of year one, you’ll be worth just over [00:53:30] £1 million seven times. Multiply will see you do that if you’re a principle led practice. And then we’re looking at three and a half [00:53:35] times multiplier. You’ve got to be doing about 300 grand and you’ll be a millionaire by the end of year one. Now, [00:53:40] those those numbers aren’t aren’t unrealistic and they’re not crazy, but they are [00:53:45] the exception. They are not the rule. And everyone thinks, uh. Whenever [00:53:50] I have a consultation with someone that [00:53:55] opens a squat, my first question is, why do you want to do this? And if you say the words clinical freedom to [00:54:00] me, I will turn off the call. I will get off the call. I’m not going to spend any more time on this call. If you use the word clinical [00:54:05] freedom, if you use any antonym, anything, anything around the phrase [00:54:10] clinical freedom, you are not ready to open up a squat practice because it does not give you clinical freedom. [00:54:15] It doesn’t. You are beholden. Well, it might give you clinical freedom.

Payman Langroudi: But I mean, you can get clinical freedom from an [00:54:20] existing practice. What’s the difference?

Bilal Ahmed: It frustrates me. I think it’s a cop out answer. And I don’t think I think [00:54:25] it’s I think it’s I think.

Payman Langroudi: Maybe they didn’t understand your question.

Bilal Ahmed: No, no. I asked them the number one motivation and they talk [00:54:30] about clinical freedom. The principle doesn’t let me do the things the way I want to do them. I want to go do them myself. All right. Fine. Whose patients are [00:54:35] they? They’re not yours. You’re not on the patients? Yeah. So how many of those patients [00:54:40] came in to see you specifically? Uh, well, you know, I get a couple of referrals. No, no. How many? Quantify it. How many of the [00:54:45] patients that you saw last year. So I’ve got your accounts in front of me. You netted about £150,000 last year, and [00:54:50] now you think you grossed about 450. Therefore, the practice took all their bit. You’re now thinking about what you’ve [00:54:55] left on the table. And that’s why you want to open a practice. Because all the money that you left behind. Fine. How [00:55:00] much? How much do you think you’d make as a principal? Doing the same sort of thing? Well, I’d make more. I’d make 450. No, you’d gross [00:55:05] 450. You’ve still got to pay wages. You’ve still got to pay labs. You’ve still got to pay HR. You’ve still got to pay marketing. You’ve still got to pay legal. [00:55:10] You’ve still got to pay HMRC. You’ve still got to pay the waste, the waste waste disposal, [00:55:15] you’ve got to pay rent rates, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. How much you think you’re actually gonna be left with at the end of it? Because I can [00:55:20] tell you on about 450 you’ll be left with about 20% of it after you’ve paid the associate.

Bilal Ahmed: But if you’re the [00:55:25] associate, you’re left. You’re left with a bit more because you haven’t got that cost. But where are you gonna get that 450 from? So [00:55:30] that’s 2250 per day, four days a week, 48 weeks a year. The reason we use [00:55:35] that metric because it’s about 74% occupancy. Where are you going to get your 450 from? Where are you going to make [00:55:40] about 285 an hour. And then never got an answer. They’ve almost never got an answer. So that’s what [00:55:45] you should be focusing on because as an associate where you are currently, if you looked at it like that, [00:55:50] you’d make more money as an associate straight away. If you treat your business within a business, you’d make more money straight away, [00:55:55] because then you should then look at opening up a school principal benefits you benefit, everyone benefits. [00:56:00] You’re in a risk free environment that says if it goes tits. Pardon my language. If it doesn’t go very well, [00:56:05] then what have you lost? The 24 grand you might put in marketing. If it goes wrong as [00:56:10] a squat, it goes very wrong and your house is on the line. But where we can see for [00:56:15] squat journeys, we do a lot of this, um, with people that want to open squats is we get into the meat and [00:56:20] bones of why they want to do it. What are their motivations? Have they truly considered [00:56:25] what it takes to be a squat to open up a squat?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So what are the what do people not realise [00:56:30] that like the the how quickly they’re going to get patience piece. [00:56:35] I think it’s.

Bilal Ahmed: Honestly I think I’m going to get a lot of stick for this is I think a lot of [00:56:40] its hubris is I make this much money as an associate. I’m going to go do this for myself. [00:56:45] Yeah, but they don’t really consider where it’s going to come from.

Payman Langroudi: But let’s say they they want to do it. By the way, a lot of times [00:56:50] it’s a, it’s a control thing as well. Yeah. Like there’s a particular patient journey that [00:56:55] you imagined or even sometimes as ridiculous as not ridiculous as this [00:57:00] particular decor and building that you like, you know, that you want to make if.

Bilal Ahmed: Your [00:57:05] goal is that patient journey. Yeah, I’d say open up a squat. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Because now I’ve decided to do it. [00:57:10] What’s the common mistake that people make around like, do people overestimate how many [00:57:15] patients are going to walk through?

Bilal Ahmed: No. So they they underestimate the size of the probability [00:57:20] on the back of it. They underestimate the size of the task for marketing. They they underestimate when they should [00:57:25] be marketing. And this is this is where we’d put them in touch with someone at Prav, for instance, beforehand. [00:57:30] So when it’s a conversation, go speak to Prof. Because the reason why I like talking to Prof. Is Prav approach is marketing [00:57:35] the same way I do numbers that there’s a there’s a science behind it. There’s, there’s there’s a flow. There’s, you know talk to people little [00:57:40] and often and good things happen on the back of it. So I’ll give you some really bad examples where you’ve got, [00:57:45] um, four partners who’ve set up a squat and they’ve all they’ve [00:57:50] overspent, you know, they didn’t have a budget to start with. They’ve put about 500 grand into a squat. That should [00:57:55] cost them 350 grand. They’re going to open next week and they’ve not got anything. They’ve got no marketing. So how are people [00:58:00] going to know you exist? So, you know, by virtue of the fact that you’re on the high street, fine. It could [00:58:05] work.

Payman Langroudi: And they will come mentality.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. So that’s [00:58:10] where the frustration for someone like me is that says I can’t quantify this. I can show you what your run rate costs are. I can show you what overhead costs. [00:58:15] I can tell you how many patients you need to break even, but I can’t tell you how to get them. And now, where are you [00:58:20] now? Because they’ve overspent on the practice there now. Reluctant to spend any more money on marketing when they’ll have spent 25 [00:58:25] grand on a sign like, what good is a sign if nobody knows you’re there? Why, [00:58:30] why why have you used the most expensive tiles for your bathrooms when nobody knows you’re there? [00:58:35] So, you know, there’s certain things that you should focus on beforehand. So there’s things like if [00:58:40] you’re going to open a squat, do you do you recognise you’d have your staff in place of party staff probably three months [00:58:45] before you open. So they’re contacting all these inquiries and waiting list people so that you’ve [00:58:50] got someone to see from day one. And it’s not about doing Invisalign open days. It’s not about doing implant [00:58:55] open days. No, it’s about new patient assessments. Get them to come in. If you believe in your journey and you believe [00:59:00] in this beautiful thing that you’ve built, show people.

Bilal Ahmed: Get them in a new patient assessment and create a [00:59:05] compelling offer for the new patient assessment. Walk them through the journey, get them signed up to a plan, and then get them in [00:59:10] hygiene. And then when they come back in, do the treatment plan with them and show them. But don’t scare them with a 15 [00:59:15] grand treatment plan because it’s going to run away. But you’re now if you’ve done this badly, you’re trying to convert everything [00:59:20] that walks through your door. But it’s lifetime value of patient. We know if over a decade this patient’s going to be worth [00:59:25] 1015 grand, then let’s let’s focus on the reds. Let’s focus on, on on the restorative first. [00:59:30] Then we move into the ambers, the nice to haves, you know, a bit of amalgam that we need to take out. You know, there’s a crown that might fail whilst [00:59:35] we’re doing this one. We might as well. Do you want to replace both? We might want to replace some fillings. Do you wanna look at whitening, all that kind of stuff. [00:59:40] Fine. We’ve done all that. Now let’s look at the nice to haves, the cosmetic stuff. You know, the bonding, the veneers, the the Invisalign [00:59:45] or anything like that. But if you throw it all out right at the start, you’ll scare him off.

Bilal Ahmed: It doesn’t work. So again, [00:59:50] where does this go wrong? Is we were working with a practice that was musical differences [00:59:55] towards the end, where they were charging nearly a grand for three fillings. So you can’t charge [01:00:00] a grand for three fillings because that will be probably the first time the patients needed anything from you. They’ve [01:00:05] reluctantly paid it because there’s a reason they need those three things. There might be pain, there might be something that, but then they will go everywhere [01:00:10] else because you’ve immediately given an anchoring price to all your services. So [01:00:15] it’s like there’s no need to charge a grand for three fillings. It’s about 450, realistically. But if you’ve got now [01:00:20] every patient going on finance with fillings and declining or failing, then they go to practice [01:00:25] down the road that says, hold on, we’ll do it for £400. You’ll never see that patient again. So lifetime value is only as good as [01:00:30] the patients you can retain. Show them what you’re doing and show them what you’re doing in the back of it. So there’s the expectation [01:00:35] that we’ll do open days. They’re horrible. It’s a bad way to start. It’s about new patient assessments [01:00:40] slow burn, brighter burn. But marketing and then.

Payman Langroudi: A kind of dispute what you’re saying [01:00:45] there around the things. I mean, if my positioning is that my positioning is expensive dentistry, [01:00:50] then that’s my positioning.

Bilal Ahmed: Who are you telling? So if you’re if you’re if your position is expensive dentistry and you’ve done no [01:00:55] marketing.

Payman Langroudi: No, no, you’ve got to do marketing.

Bilal Ahmed: This is the other side. But if you’re doing any marketing. [01:01:00] So my wife and I, so my wife and I, we’re gonna open a practice. Every time we’ve gone to practice we’ve had another kid. So this is [01:01:05] probably it’s probably God telling us something here. So we were going to buy a two surgery. What in essence, [01:01:10] what was a squat in not off the high street. So it was recessed back. But we [01:01:15] were going to do it as super private private dentistry in Cheshire. Yeah, yeah. Inhale. So it had private [01:01:20] car park. You could drive in. You could drive in. We’d drop the shutters. Nobody know you’re there. Yeah. [01:01:25] Super private private dentistry is what we were going to do. But my wife has nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram. [01:01:30] She has been only she has only been seeing her patients for maybe the last five years [01:01:35] that see her specifically for what she does. So if we then created a marketing message around that, it [01:01:40] would have taken longer to achieve. But I was happy to bankroll it and cover the losses [01:01:45] up until we got it to where we wanted to get to because we knew it would work. I don’t know, the baby didn’t do it. No, [01:01:50] it’s God telling us other things, but this will answer your question. If that’s your offering, then fine, because we’ve [01:01:55] got clients who do this, but their messaging is on is on. That brand is on is on that. Yeah, it’s on message. But [01:02:00] this practice specifically, it wasn’t it was just we just put our prices up every year. There was no logic [01:02:05] behind it. There was no, no, no because their prices, their implants was really competitive. The price of their Invisalign was super competitive. [01:02:10]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: But it was like daft things like, why are your crowns 850 but your fillings are three crowns [01:02:15] up. Drop your fillings.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah. No, I see it sometimes in whitening as well. Sometimes. Yeah. Some [01:02:20] some are charging, I don’t know, £850 for enlightened, but then less than [01:02:25] that for a crown. You know, it makes sense. Yeah, yeah. What about treatment specific? Have you [01:02:30] found there are some treatments that the margins are higher?

Bilal Ahmed: Oh, absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: So we work with [01:02:35] obviously the corporates have these softwares that can tell them that. And whitening is right [01:02:40] up there. Right. In terms of huge.

Bilal Ahmed: So when we spoke previously about [01:02:45] one of the key success factors for practices is distinct patients. So a distinct patient [01:02:50] is let’s say for instance I’ve come in as a new patient assessment on that new patient assessment. I’ve then had hygiene and [01:02:55] then I’ve gone to take a treatment, let’s say filling for instance. And that’s three visits. We would only class that as one. [01:03:00] So a distinct patient would be one. Yeah. So one distinct patient. So over a 12 month period Bill’s [01:03:05] been in three times. We can’t use one. So what we’re always looking at is distinct patients in the period because it takes out the inefficiency [01:03:10] inefficient use of surgeries. Yeah. The other thing we’re then looking at is new patient assessments. Yeah. So those two [01:03:15] things yeah that then kicks down into two criterias is we’re looking at fillings and [01:03:20] whitening. So we’re looking at uptake on fillings of whitening and whitening. Because we know those two things are good, [01:03:25] then it means my treatments in about six months time are going to work, because we know the correlation between people who take whitening to then take on [01:03:30] cosmetic dentistry is quite high. The two things are correlated. But then we also know things like the relationship between [01:03:35] crowns or fillings is really high. So what we’re looking at is proportion of crowns to fillings. So before we get into the weeds [01:03:40] of all these KPIs, with the practice that’s done, none of this, we’re probably only looking at 3 or 4 things at a time. [01:03:45]

Bilal Ahmed: Once they go green, we just monitor and we go on to something else. So where you’ve got [01:03:50] the technical term is sensitivity is how much can I push a price on something before [01:03:55] it becomes a unethical and B reduces uptake. So a crown for instance [01:04:00] is something we refer to as being inelastic is the reason why it’s so. It is elastic. The reason why it’s [01:04:05] the demand doesn’t change based on price to a point. So if you’re charging [01:04:10] 550 for a for for for an Emax crown for instance, you really depending on outside London you could [01:04:15] get to 859 liquid and it doesn’t decrease uptake. But what is the cost of an [01:04:20] Emax crown? About 160. What is your margin on that now? Super high. How [01:04:25] much? How much time is that patient taking? Very little compared to everything else. Crowns [01:04:30] make millionaires more crowns you fit, the more profitable you are. We like good general [01:04:35] dentistry. As a firm of accountants, we like good general dentistry. If your good general dentistry is [01:04:40] operate in about 220 an hour and you’re overlaying it with big ticket items, you’ve got [01:04:45] a fantastically run practice and then you’ve got things like whitening. And we know the uptake on [01:04:50] the correlation between things like whitening and cosmetic treatment is high. So you don’t need to pull the pants down everyone that [01:04:55] walks through your door whitening.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Although, you know, let’s say I’m doing a crown for £600. [01:05:00] Yeah. And then let’s say that it was elastic. [01:05:05] And every time I raised the price, fewer people go for it. Yeah. Which isn’t the case. But [01:05:10] in health, in health and beauty, there’s almost an inverse relationship. But let’s say it was let’s [01:05:15] say I now start charging 1200 from my crown. Yeah. And let’s say [01:05:20] it’s directly proportional and half the people don’t go ahead because [01:05:25] I’ve doubled the price. Yeah, yeah, I’m still better off. Correct. [01:05:30]

Bilal Ahmed: Because you’ve got your increased share time maximisation. Because now you create capacity in your diary, which means you don’t need to open as [01:05:35] longer. You don’t need to run as many.

Payman Langroudi: Lab costs less. I’m still better off.

Bilal Ahmed: You are better.

Payman Langroudi: Off. It’s [01:05:40] important to understand that, right? You know, just the fact that some people won’t go ahead doesn’t necessarily [01:05:45] mean that I’m not better off.

Bilal Ahmed: So look, I’m probably going to piss people off saying this will upset people [01:05:50] by saying we put out prices, we’re going to go through exercise, we’re putting our prices up. So we’ve got clients who’ve been with us from when we opened [01:05:55] an obscenely low price. Yeah, but I know I could put my price up to a point where they’ll leave [01:06:00] and I don’t want them to go. Yeah, because we’re a service led business. Yeah, but I’m not expecting all of [01:06:05] them to take it up. And some of them will leave and we’ll wish them all the best. But in order to offer [01:06:10] the level of service that we want, we have to charge the price that we’re going to have to. Yeah, there’ll still be a discount on it for any existing [01:06:15] clients. But what it then means is, you know, we don’t we don’t need all of them to take it up. So if I put my prices [01:06:20] up, 20% and 10% of them leave still up, because I’ve got costs [01:06:25] as a business and my wages are increasing year on year, my corporation tax has gone up. Employers, national insurance, [01:06:30] pension contributions, all those things just keep increasing like HMRC have put up some of their baseline costs [01:06:35] nearly 100% and our AML and anti-money costs are going to go up 33% [01:06:40] this year just by HMRC taking it back in house, which is frustrating. So we have to review our pricing, [01:06:45] not because I want more money from it, it’s because I have to because our input costs have gone up. And that’s [01:06:50] the other thing is a lot of practices are resistant to put their prices up for that reason is, oh my God, people are not going to take it. But it’s [01:06:55] okay because you don’t need to convert everyone. You just need to know what your conversion metrics need to be so you can [01:07:00] have the confidence to make those decisions.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Is it true? Um, self-assessments changing. [01:07:05] Yeah. To what, four times. Five times a year.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So [01:07:10] it’s good for you guys. No no.

Bilal Ahmed: No. God, I.

Payman Langroudi: Don’t [01:07:15] want to do it. So that’s the high ticket items? No, it’s not even that. No, it’s.

Bilal Ahmed: Chasing [01:07:20] people once. They chase you five times now.

Payman Langroudi: That’s right. People ignore you to chase you.

Bilal Ahmed: Well, [01:07:25] exactly. So there’s.

Payman Langroudi: So how is this happening? For sure? Or is it something they think is happening?

Bilal Ahmed: Well, [01:07:30] 100% happening for sole traders currently. So if it will be based on [01:07:35] your 2425 return. So the returns that are going in now. Um, so if that figure shows more than 50 [01:07:40] grand from 1st of April, you will. Revenue, revenue top line.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, yeah. Yeah. [01:07:45] So that’s everyone, which is everyone.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. Every sole trader. You’ll have to do four returns a year, so it’s not as [01:07:50] ominous as it sounds. So we all of our clients are on bookkeeping software. So we [01:07:55] don’t do anyone on paper. We don’t. That’s part of our assessment criteria, is you’ve got to be comfortable using tech, [01:08:00] and you’ve got to be able to use it and make sense of it all. So we take a zero.

Payman Langroudi: Awesome.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So it’s it [01:08:05] depends.

Bilal Ahmed: On complexity of business. So if you’re a practice we’d put you on zero. If you’re an associate we’d put you on something called freeagent, [01:08:10] which might suggest it’s free, but it’s not. It’s like, I think it’s like £20 a month, [01:08:15] unless you’ve got a qualifying bank account and then it’s free, which, if you don’t have to pay for something, don’t pay for it. Right. Um, [01:08:20] but we can then take a live feed from your bank account so we can then see [01:08:25] what you’re spending and what you’re what your income is. And that’s what we want to see on a quarter. That’s what HMRC [01:08:30] want to see on a quarterly basis. So it’s your income and expenses. Push a button. Send it up [01:08:35] there saying current release not going to change when you pay tax.

Payman Langroudi: Oh so it’s not like a self-assessment.

Bilal Ahmed: No, [01:08:40] it’s just a declaration of income and expenses on a quarterly basis. Then the fifth one is your [01:08:45] big wrap up and your tax is still due Jan and July. So that’s that’s remaining unchanged. [01:08:50] Um, and it’s trading income. And then if you’re a partnership you don’t have to go into it. Um, [01:08:55] but it’s if your income from trading income exceeds that, then you’ll do five returns a year. Yeah. [01:09:00]

Payman Langroudi: So a regular associate needs to.

Bilal Ahmed: A regular associate that operates [01:09:05] as a sole trader will have to do these from next year from from the 1st of April. So on a quarterly on a quarterly [01:09:10] basis. But if you’re you’re the type of associate that pays £200 [01:09:15] for your tax return and gives everything to your accountant in January, that you’re going to have to change. Yeah, that’s [01:09:20] not going to work.

Payman Langroudi: That’s not gonna work anymore.

Bilal Ahmed: Not going to work anymore. And then the threshold for the following year drops to 30 K. [01:09:25] The threshold for the year after drops to 20 K.

Payman Langroudi: One last area that seems [01:09:30] to confuse me and a lot of people is the question of expensing. [01:09:35] Like if I, if I take out 30 of my customers for dinner. Yeah. [01:09:40] Am I cool to expense that. So. Another [01:09:45] example we do a course. Yeah 30 people come to the course. The course the middle [01:09:50] of the course is dinner. Yeah I paid for that as the course organiser.

Bilal Ahmed: Let’s, let’s, let’s take those two examples. [01:09:55] So one one. Yes one.

Payman Langroudi: No okay.

Bilal Ahmed: Okay. So no if, if [01:10:00] you took me out for dinner now uh, actually let’s say.

Payman Langroudi: You took.

Bilal Ahmed: Let’s say, [01:10:05] let’s say you took you I don’t know, you had people come visit the site, and as part of the site, you went and took them out for dinner. [01:10:10] Five people. You paid for the dinner. That class is business entertaining. The company can pay for it, but you [01:10:15] have to deduct that amount from your tax return. Yeah, so the company can still pay for it. You still use company’s funds? Yeah. Company [01:10:20] can’t claim tax relief on it, which is weird, right? So it reduces your tax [01:10:25] bill. So accounting profit isn’t the same as taxable profit.

Payman Langroudi: Oh I see.

Bilal Ahmed: So let’s say you made a hundred grand profit this year. [01:10:30]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: Within that number will be things like depreciation amortisation and non tax deductible. So we add them all back [01:10:35] on and we remove your capital allowances. Gets us to taxable profit. So there is always a difference. So your [01:10:40] accounts might show a hundred grand profit of which you’ve spent five grand entertaining people throughout the year. You can’t claim that. [01:10:45] Yeah. So it just gets added back on. You pay tax on 105 K. Your course example for instance, [01:10:50] is different. Your course example is different. So where your course example differs is that cost [01:10:55] for paying for your delegate’s food is part of your PNL for your course. So they pay whatever [01:11:00] they pay to attend the course, and within that the enlightened will pay for, I don’t know, accommodation [01:11:05] and food and travel and everything else, and we’ll pay tax on the difference because that’s baked [01:11:10] into the offering. So it’s different. So where are you just taking people out for dinner willy nilly. Company can pay for [01:11:15] it. You can’t expense it. So it stops people doing things like, I don’t know, taking everyone out for corporate events [01:11:20] and then claiming the tax relief on it. So it stops people doing things like that. If it’s your staff, then [01:11:25] it’s different because you can do it for your staff. So there’s a couple of things you can do for your staff. First [01:11:30] is you have something called an annual party allowance. It’s referred to as Christmas party, but it’s not limited to Christmas parties. [01:11:35] You have £150 a head limit per year per staff [01:11:40] member, plus a guest.

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So? So if I want to go £250 per [01:11:45] head, that doesn’t.

Bilal Ahmed: Know. So once it goes, if it exceeds £150 even by a penny, [01:11:50] then the whole thing becomes disallowable. And it’s the.

Payman Langroudi: Whole.

Bilal Ahmed: Thing. Yeah. Then it’s subject to benefit in kind tax [01:11:55] because it’s then you’ve seen to giving your employees a benefit.

Payman Langroudi: Is that.

Bilal Ahmed: Right? Yeah. So that £150 again [01:12:00] doesn’t have to be just on the part. So you might do two parties a year. Yeah. And then that might be split 7575. You [01:12:05] might do two parties a year and it’s 5050. And then you’ve got what do you do with the other £50? Because you use it or lose it, [01:12:10] you could give them a hamper. Yeah, yeah. So you might do 5050 and a Fortnum Mason £50 hamper. As long as [01:12:15] it doesn’t exceed £150 then it’s fine. It’s £150 plus [01:12:20] a guest. So in essence you’ve got £300 per pairing.

Payman Langroudi: Oh plus.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. So it does. [01:12:25] It does. I mean you’d be hard pressed. I mean you’ve got like ten staff, you’ve got like ten, 15, 20 staff. That’s quite a big budget. You [01:12:30] start playing with um, that’s what we do. So but then if you like, we’ve got on Friday [01:12:35] we’ve got a staff event and within that we’ll take I’ll pay for the dinner. I’m paying for [01:12:40] all the Ubers and trains and all that, all that’s tax deductible because it’s holding exclusively for business. But [01:12:45] if I was going to have some guests or clients joining us and I pay for their lunch, I’d have to discount that bit. [01:12:50]

Payman Langroudi: What about. I’m I’m I find a Dental course in New York. I [01:12:55] want to go to it. And how [01:13:00] can I what can I expense everything to do with that trip?

Bilal Ahmed: I’ll give you a really interesting [01:13:05] case of this. So this is a HMRC documented case. And so the short answer is yes. So [01:13:10] if you go so go back to our start the conversation holding exclusively for business. It’s well [01:13:15] within the realms of your scope of practice.

Payman Langroudi: And okay what if I stay a few days extra. No. No [01:13:20] what.

Bilal Ahmed: Can’t claim the whole thing becomes disallowable.

Payman Langroudi: The whole.

Bilal Ahmed: Thing. Because now. Because within wholly, exclusively [01:13:25] comes the second rule that you’ve overlay called duality of Purpose. So what’s the main [01:13:30] premise of what you were doing was wholly and exclusively. Yeah. But now that you’ve added all this other stuff, you’ve now [01:13:35] crept into duality of purpose. When you creep into duality of purpose, you can do one of two things. You [01:13:40] can either claim proportionate amount or the whole thing becomes disallowable.

Payman Langroudi: So I can say those two days [01:13:45] were coarse, and those two days.

Bilal Ahmed: For business travel specifically. If it creeps into duality of [01:13:50] purpose, HMRC say no because everyone would, wherever they’re going on holiday, would go book a days course, [01:13:55] right. And so I’ll claim the proportion of that. So HMRC has cottoned on to this and [01:14:00] said no where business travel breaches duality of purpose. The whole thing [01:14:05] becomes disallowable.

Payman Langroudi: All right. I go to IDs in [01:14:10] Cologne with my business partner, and that night we go to Michelin Star restaurant and [01:14:15] have a £300 a head dinner. Yeah. Can. Can the company [01:14:20] pay?

Bilal Ahmed: Yes. Hmrc also then claim it has to be reasonable. But don’t give us a definition of what [01:14:25] is reasonable.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, so it’s just depends on what.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. Basically. Yeah. So [01:14:30] so with that. So business travel is really so it’s a it’s a question that comes up constantly. So it’s let’s [01:14:35] say you’re going to go to New York for a five day course. In fact I’ll use a real example. [01:14:40] Brazil. You know they do the implant course in Brazil. You go out, you probably out there for two weeks, and you’re probably doing 40 cases [01:14:45] because you’ll do all of that. Let’s say you’re out for the for two weeks. You [01:14:50] can claim the 14 days of the course a day before and a day after. That’s it. Yeah. Because we [01:14:55] recognise jetlag.

Payman Langroudi: Travel and jetlag.

Bilal Ahmed: You know, you want to get set up. You don’t want to jump into it. Knackered. [01:15:00] So day before, day after 14 days off. So 16 days you can claim in total. You [01:15:05] can claim all the associated costs. So the cost of travel, getting to the airport. If you’ve [01:15:10] had to buy stuff when you’re out there, you can claim all of that as long as you don’t take the piss. So there is certain [01:15:15] allowances that.

Payman Langroudi: I want to take a week’s holiday after that. Yeah. No, no, I know, [01:15:20] I know, I just don’t claim that week. Right.

Bilal Ahmed: I just bought the flight. The return flight then [01:15:25] is is incidental. Or are you now jimmying the return flight on the back of it?

Payman Langroudi: So [01:15:30] these are the areas here where you need your accountant to say look by the letter of the [01:15:35] law, you can’t do this, but HMRC aren’t going to come after you if you do some [01:15:40] stuff like that. No, no. If you’re if you’re going to.

Bilal Ahmed: If you’re going to go do another week, let’s use a Brazil example. Yeah. And then [01:15:45] you’re going to do two weeks of the course. And then you’re going to go shadow a dentist for the other five days.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [01:15:50] But I want to go like a week to Rio and enjoy myself. Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: As long as you don’t tell [01:15:55] me. The short answer is the the truth is the [01:16:00] letter of the law is if you then do a week after to enjoy yourself, it then becomes the whole thing becomes disallowable. Um, [01:16:05] and in specific circumstances, we could do something called pre-clearance with HMRC. [01:16:10] So let’s say that whole thing, that whole course with the cost of everything is 50 grand and you want to take [01:16:15] that week we would write to HMRC and say we present the facts, this is what’s going to happen. And they would [01:16:20] say yes but or no but or we, we use a third party. So there’s accounts for [01:16:25] accountants. They only talk to accountants and you have to postulate your questions a very specific way. Highlight the specific [01:16:30] references the cases and the the the HMRC guidance and the accounting standard that you [01:16:35] want clarification on. We present it to them. If they come back and say yes, then it’s a then it’s a [01:16:40] yes, it’s indemnified. Yes. If it’s a no then it’s a no and it’s a no. It’s a short answer but there’s a cost associated [01:16:45] to that. So then there’s a time value that says if all of this I’m going to save a grand in doing it, but [01:16:50] it’s going to cost me two and a half grand to get an answer. Then is it worth it? Right.

Payman Langroudi: And someone told me about this. [01:16:55] This must be illegal, right? He told me. Yeah. Um. My nanny who [01:17:00] looks after my kids is an employee of my company. So is [01:17:05] that illegal? That’s a benefit in kind. Right.

Bilal Ahmed: Let me answer. Let me answer the [01:17:10] question. In the realms of legality. Yeah, yeah. So. Who [01:17:15] you employ becomes irrelevant. You are not penalised for being a bad businessman. So [01:17:20] if you’ve got 15 employees on your books, but you only need 12, that is not a penalty. [01:17:25] That’s just you being a bad businessman, right? Yeah. Not not not not what I liked at the start of this, you went into whisper [01:17:30] tone.

Payman Langroudi: So I’ve heard this.

Bilal Ahmed: And I think it’s a little bit. That’s how all the questions start.

Payman Langroudi: Getting.

Bilal Ahmed: Their [01:17:35] head bobbing. I’ve heard this and it’s a bit. It’s a bit illegal. Whisper tone. Start setting in because you’re waiting for [01:17:40] me to tell you you can’t do it. So the short answer to this look, as long as they’re treated [01:17:45] like any other employee and there’s a genuine role for them to do, and there’s a contract that [01:17:50] states, this is your work, can they look after your kids as an employee? No, of course not. It’s a benefit in kind. [01:17:55] You shouldn’t be going anywhere near the accounts, but if you’ve got a genuine job for someone at your workplace [01:18:00] that happens to also then look after your kids whilst they’re there for half an hour after they come back, but they’re in office and [01:18:05] their office.

Payman Langroudi: If they’re nothing to do with the office, obviously not.

Bilal Ahmed: You can’t put it through the business. No, no, we get this [01:18:10] a lot. So, you know, we we get this a lot. My mate, my mate Dave down the pub said I can [01:18:15] do this.

Payman Langroudi: But it must be super frustrating for you, right? Because a lot of people [01:18:20] equate a good accountant with one that you end up paying the least tax. [01:18:25] And you could say a good accountant is the one that keeps you out of trouble the longest number [01:18:30] of years. You know, like whether it’s from the investigation perspective or from the, you know, early [01:18:35] warning perspective. Yeah. But I guess it’s like any business, [01:18:40] isn’t it? Like some some dentists are massively talented and can’t haven’t got chairside [01:18:45] manner. Yeah. And then and then the opposite as well. Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: Taxes. Taxes. [01:18:50] Heavily nuanced. And if you’re basing I’ll give you some real examples. And we’ve [01:18:55] had to tell clients we’re not going to work with them, because if I take on the engagement, you are now breaching [01:19:00] so many laws that I’m obligated to report you, and I don’t want to get there. I don’t want to get there. [01:19:05] So we’ve heard some horrible things, man. So I’ll give you a real example. Client clients [01:19:10] been with us for years, and when they came to us, their existing [01:19:15] account was, I think it was on his deathbed. He was on his way out. He wasn’t responding. I think he was his of ill [01:19:20] health. He didn’t want to leave him, but their business was they needed support with the business. Right. So [01:19:25] I’m looking at the business and I went, why is your NHS contract running through your limited [01:19:30] company? And they went the accountant told us to do it that way. I went, we’ve got proof. No. Your [01:19:35] contracts in your name. There is no reason for that money to be [01:19:40] running through the limited company. You’ve not incorporated them into his contract. There’s no subcontract arrangement. And then you’ve not incorporated [01:19:45] the business anyway, because there should have been a capital gains tax issue event somewhere. I said, [01:19:50] show me your show me the calculation. We didn’t do it. And I went, whose name is sexy in [01:19:55] our names. So your business technically isn’t registered, because if it’s a limited company [01:20:00] that’s offering all the services and isn’t registered, and you are, if you get inspected, [01:20:05] they’ll shut you down and then they’re gone.

Bilal Ahmed: Fine. Fix it. [01:20:10] So fixed it had to redo three years worth of accounts and contact HMRC and explain to them what’s happened. Four years [01:20:15] on, I’m still trying to sort this out with HMRC. Four years on so I’m still trying to get what what I did was [01:20:20] I worked out all the taxes and I said the account made them pay 20 grand worth of corporation tax, which shouldn’t be there. [01:20:25] It should be on the sole trader and they’re like, fine, we’re not going to change it because it’s too much time has elapsed. [01:20:30] Too much time has lapsed because you keep losing my letters that I keep writing to you. And I can prove to you because I’ve got I’ve got [01:20:35] you signed for them within the time frame. Payman three years, I finally got [01:20:40] them to accept. We’re going to change it over because all this accumulating interest, once they accepted the wipe off the interest. [01:20:45] So it is what it is. So they’ve had to back pay about three and a half years worth of taxes, realistically, [01:20:50] because they’ve taken all the money out of the business anyway. They weren’t better off operating as a limited company, so we’ve had [01:20:55] to undo all this headache. So it’s it’s why even get yourself into that [01:21:00] process in the first place? It’s frustrating. And then we see we see we see things like um, [01:21:05] VAT is a massive one.

Bilal Ahmed: So when it comes to facial aesthetics or even aesthetics led businesses [01:21:10] and, um, dentistry, VAT is a nuance when you’re asking about what the what the accountant [01:21:15] and the accountant, especially within this space, is. Do you understand the nuance of VAT? So [01:21:20] where if if my business was just to sell enlightened smiles and you allowed [01:21:25] me to do it as a non dentist, and I sold it without any sort of clinical back, once my revenue hit £90,000, [01:21:30] I would have to register for VAT and I have to start charging VAT on all my [01:21:35] whitening kits. But if I’m a dentist and I include the whitening [01:21:40] kits as part of an overall treatment plan where the underlying is to treat or prevent an underlying condition and [01:21:45] qualified to do so, then it doesn’t become viable. And there’s so nobody [01:21:50] likes paying VAT. And you know, we were with we were going back and [01:21:55] forth with his client about his VAT because we do like we do an assessment. So they say, yeah, we want to go ahead with you. We go through the business and we’re just [01:22:00] making sure we’re ticking all our boxes. He went, well, typically what happens is I get to the end of the period and I want to pay about [01:22:05] this much. So I make the numbers work and I pay this much out. No, you can’t [01:22:10] do that.

Payman Langroudi: That’s not how it works.

Bilal Ahmed: That’s not how it works. It’s like, if I could do that, I’d love to do that. You can’t do it that way. It doesn’t [01:22:15] work. That’s just. That’s just fraud. You get inspected, you’ve got no basis to how you come [01:22:20] up with these numbers. It’s not going to work. And then you’ve got things like and within [01:22:25] the scope of specifically around with associates. And [01:22:30] the accounting side of things is when they’ve switched to limited company and [01:22:35] their contracts still in their name, they’re still paying into superannuation. They’re still they’re still getting pension [01:22:40] contributions. Well, then the two things don’t marry up and it wouldn’t [01:22:45] work. And that’s where that’s where things become really unstuck. And it becomes really, really difficult for us to fix, [01:22:50] where we will just say no to that to start with and say, look, it’s not worth us even get involved in and it’s not worth [01:22:55] the time or headache. Go back to your accountant to fix it.

Payman Langroudi: What’s been the sort of the most [01:23:00] scary thing you’ve seen in a dentist from from these perspectives?

Bilal Ahmed: Hmrc [01:23:05] general attitude towards money.

Payman Langroudi: Well either.

Bilal Ahmed: So we’re [01:23:10] pretty good at spotting clients. So my initial assessments we give everyone a free consultation. Yeah. [01:23:15] And what I’m looking for is can I work with this person. And are we on the same ethical [01:23:20] wavelength. Are we are are we you know, is there goal congruence in what we’re trying to achieve? Because [01:23:25] if your singular objective is to pay as little tax as possible. I’m not the accountant for you. Look, [01:23:30] I don’t want to pay a penny more than I have to. And I can promise you, you won’t pay a penny more than you have to. But I’m not going to promise a crazy tax bill at the back [01:23:35] of it. It’s just not. It’s not how any of this works legally, because tax is a mathematical certainty. Once you’ve got your expenses. [01:23:40] So that’s what I’m looking for. And then if we can talk about growth, scalability, [01:23:45] investment, exit value, that’s I’m all game for that. That stuff, you know, is me as an accountant, [01:23:50] as a nerd’s dream. That’s that’s that’s the kind of business I want to get involved in.

[TRANSITION]: So all all the schemes. Are [01:23:55] they all dodgy?

Payman Langroudi: This is the word. There’s a clue in the word, right? Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: Anyone? [01:24:00] Anyone that comes across a scheme. Get the promoter to put it in writing. If [01:24:05] they put it in writing, then it’s probably legit. If they’re not going to put it in writing, then [01:24:10] that that’s your that’s your that’s your acid test straight away. They’re not gonna put it in writing. Get away from [01:24:15] it. Had a consultation with someone who told me about a scheme that he was putting. Money. Oh, this [01:24:20] is a cool one. This is. Say you want to invest your money and you don’t want to pay capital gains tax on your investment. [01:24:25] There’s a scheme you can invest in trees, nurseries [01:24:30] where it can grow. They sell, they sell the wood off, [01:24:35] and you pay no capital gains tax on your return. But you’re locking your money away [01:24:40] for what could be a decade or decades. And there’s super risky [01:24:45] because what it one bit of it could. It could all go to. It could all.

Payman Langroudi: Go. Well that’s [01:24:50] legitimate.

Bilal Ahmed: Legitimate. No capital gains tax on it. It was at the time. I don’t know what the updated bit is, but we tend [01:24:55] to stay away from schemes. Completely legitimate. However, what there’s [01:25:00] a nuance to this is if you’re selling the wood untreated or unprocessed, and it’s free [01:25:05] of capital gains tax if you’re now part of the processing, um, i.e. you’re going to turn it into something, [01:25:10] then it’s not. It just goes. It’s not it doesn’t benefit from exempt. No. So you’ve got to grow it, [01:25:15] get rid of it. Take the money on the harvest. But they were told by their financial advisor, not even [01:25:20] an accountant, they could deduct the cost of the investment across their taxable profit. [01:25:25] So if they made 50 grand and spent 50 grand on the scheme, they could offset the profit. And off [01:25:30] you go. And you pay no tax. No, no investment works that way. Investments are made after tax, [01:25:35] the post tax and you take the money. Because if you take capital gains tax benefit you now you double dipping the tax benefit doesn’t work [01:25:40] that way. Another scheme and this is a horrible one. And I did a video on it where um, [01:25:45] about £60,000 worth of back taxes and fines, where [01:25:50] the total tax you would have actually saved was about 35. So she’s about 25 grand down. And [01:25:55] what what this scheme is and we see this a lot.

Bilal Ahmed: And we’ve seen a lot of people get caught out with this because I think it was popular [01:26:00] maybe 10 or 15 years ago was remuneration trusts was you would set up a scheme whereby [01:26:05] you put money into remuneration trust. And I’m not going to go too much into it, but you [01:26:10] can then immediately borrow back off the trust. So let’s say on paper you put [01:26:15] let’s say your tax was 50 grand, so your taxable profit is 50 grand. And you want to wipe out 50 grand’s worth of [01:26:20] profit. You put five grand into the scheme, claim it as tax relief. Five grand comes back out and [01:26:25] you loan it back off the trust, and you put another five grand in, but another five grand in wash the same five grand around ten times. On [01:26:30] paper, you’ve made ten lots of five grand investments into the trust and then you claim it. But now you [01:26:35] owe the trust £50,000 and then you’ll never repay it. It’ll just falter. And then you claim the tax relief on it. [01:26:40] Bollocks doesn’t work. And a lot of people have been caught out with this and I’ve been stung with back taxes, [01:26:45] fines and penalties because like I was saying before, it’s 100. It’s up to 100% fine and interest [01:26:50] and penalties from the date first assessed.

[TRANSITION]: So what’s.

Payman Langroudi: Happened there? The guys asked his accountant [01:26:55] and his accountant said, yeah, go for it.

Bilal Ahmed: Probably two, probably two things is [01:27:00] I’ve heard from someone, you can do this. And then they put them in touch with their guy who’s gone and [01:27:05] done it, and they’ve got it done it through somebody.

Payman Langroudi: Just making a quick buck. Yeah. Sorting it out for people.

Bilal Ahmed: All the accountants [01:27:10] coming to them with a scheme and then putting me in touch with someone else to do it and saying, oh, look, I’ve got a [01:27:15] way you can do this. And then Teflon Don, they’ve got their hands clean of it. There’s no there’s no proof they [01:27:20] did it.

Payman Langroudi: There’s no link.

Bilal Ahmed: There’s no link. And your ultimate response because this is the thing that nobody really [01:27:25] gets it. Like if I went to a dentist and if I, God forbid, I took one of your kids and something bad happened, [01:27:30] you’re liable for that. You know, this is your product. It’s your name on your name, on your reputation, your brand, everything. [01:27:35] You go to an accountant to do your accounts. Unless you can prove they told you to. Dodgy. You’re [01:27:40] responsible. Especially with a limited company. As a director, you’re wholly responsible for those accounts. [01:27:45] You signed them off. You didn’t know what you were signing off. Hmrc does not accept ignorance as an excuse because [01:27:50] you have a fiduciary responsibility, a legal responsibility to look after the business [01:27:55] assets and the best interests of the shareholder might be the same person. Doesn’t doesn’t the letter of the law [01:28:00] doesn’t see it that way? So unless you can prove what the adviser or this person said to you, then [01:28:05] it doesn’t matter. But then if the other person’s got no legal recourse and it’s just a dude that does tax avoidance schemes, [01:28:10] what are they going to lose anyway? So if it sounds if it if [01:28:15] it sounds like if it flops like a horse, sounds like a horse, walks like a horse, it’s a horse. Let’s not [01:28:20] try to put it down as a zebra for tax purposes.

Payman Langroudi: And can we, can we finish with inheritance tax [01:28:25] or is that a lawyer thing?

Bilal Ahmed: No. Well, within the realms of what we do.

[TRANSITION]: So what’s [01:28:30] what’s a what’s a.

Payman Langroudi: Legitimate way to minimise inheritance tax.

Bilal Ahmed: There’s a couple of good ways. [01:28:35] So um, so inheritance tax, it should be on everyone’s mind. It [01:28:40] should always be on. Look, because every business you build, everything you acquire should always be thought to exit. And when [01:28:45] we’re talking about generational wealth, we’re talking about all the hardships of everything we’ve done has got to go somewhere, right? And we don’t [01:28:50] want the government taking 40% of it because it’s horrible. There’s a couple of ways to minimise inheritance tax. Effective tax [01:28:55] planning is really important to start with. So there’s certain allowances that you want to make use of. So everyone’s [01:29:00] got I think it’s 370,350 grand allowance everyone has. And then for your primary residence [01:29:05] you get another 1.5125. So theoretically husband and wife on the same house for £1 million. [01:29:10] Um, you can gift that to your kids and suffer no inheritance tax. And, you know, it’s not like when [01:29:15] Sonic gets hit, all the coins come out and then the government takes their bit. So there’s [01:29:20] effective ways to minimise this.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Bilal Ahmed: So right now one of the.

Payman Langroudi: One the first million around [01:29:25] is, is is okay.

Bilal Ahmed: First million around that when when you consider primary residence. Yeah. Now we’re [01:29:30] talking about everything else. Okay. So there’s things like gifting. So the seven year rule. So what happens with the seven year [01:29:35] rule is that 40% diminishes across seven years. So by the time you get to the end of the seventh year, [01:29:40] there’s no capital gains tax to pay.

Payman Langroudi: And that’s completely legitimate.

Bilal Ahmed: Completely legal. Yeah, it’s effective tax planning. So [01:29:45] let’s say you’ve got a rental property and you want to gift it to one of your kids, gift it to one of your kids. And as long [01:29:50] as you stay alive for seven years no capital gains tax. Yeah. Perfect.

Payman Langroudi: And it tapers depending on how many years [01:29:55] you say correct.

Bilal Ahmed: It drops about 8% each year or eight points each year from about year two onwards. Yeah. [01:30:00] And then the there’s a specific bit of nuance around that. It [01:30:05] has to be a gift without reservation, i.e. I gift my kid [01:30:10] the property, but whilst I’m still around, I’ll take the rental income. You know, it’s your property. I’ll [01:30:15] take the I’ll cover. No, that doesn’t work. It’s a gift with reservation.

Payman Langroudi: Also the nuance [01:30:20] around if it’s the primary residence, if the place they’re living. Yeah, they have to start paying the kid [01:30:25] rent.

Bilal Ahmed: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Right.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah. Yeah. Because. Because if the reservation is, if I’m not now [01:30:30] if I’m. Because how HMRC rules work around buy to lets or residential properties or non-residential properties residential [01:30:35] property but for rentals. Is if you gift me the and [01:30:40] I’m connected party. If I’m now paying below market rate, I still pay tax on the market rate rent. So [01:30:45] so people think, you know I’ll give it to my sister for £100 a month. No, because if the market rate says it was a grand, you still [01:30:50] pay tax on £900, or if it’s done through a company, then that difference is then subject to benefit and contacts [01:30:55] to you. So there’s some weird, wonderful things around that. Now where you’re in business is specifically [01:31:00] for dental practice owners. There’s a couple things that you want to do for inheritance tax. Historically, one of the most one [01:31:05] of the most exciting schemes was like a small self-administered scheme pension scheme where [01:31:10] you could put in 60 grand a year, and if it was like you and your wife owned or you and your partner owned the practice, [01:31:15] you put 120 grand a year tax deductible pension contributions, build up the money and go buy the [01:31:20] freehold off yourself because then pensions were outside of inheritance tax. It’s a fantastic scheme.

Bilal Ahmed: But [01:31:25] Labour had brought it in. So Labour so pensions is going to be a horrible one because [01:31:30] what people don’t realise is the additional administrative burden that’s going to come with it. Because if you’ve [01:31:35] been like for me, for instance, I had a number of jobs before I became self-employed. Someone’s [01:31:40] got to find all those pensions. Someone’s got to pay for that. And the the, the amount of cost that’s now incurred [01:31:45] with the state or like, um, probate is ridiculous because they get paid first, right? So [01:31:50] pensions now come inside of inheritance tax. What does all this mean [01:31:55] for effective lifetime planning? One of the biggest changes for entrepreneurs [01:32:00] is something called business. Um, business property relief. So [01:32:05] historically, you could transfer 100% of your trading business into a trust and incur no tax [01:32:10] on that transfer. Yeah, that that limit is now being tapered to the first million. [01:32:15] And then it’s 50% relief on anything over a million. So if you now want to look at long term [01:32:20] planning before the 1st of April, you want to look at trusts. Because where trusts now work outside of inheritance [01:32:25] tax is, um, you move everything in effective trust. I’m not going to get [01:32:30] much into the weeds of it because.

Payman Langroudi: There’s different ways to set it up.

Bilal Ahmed: There’s different ways. But you need legal. You need accounting. [01:32:35] You need you need specific people. But like my structure, for instance, I have my holding company that [01:32:40] owns my trading company and my shares and my other investments, my holding companies owned by my trust. And if [01:32:45] I pass, everything moves over to my trust. Um, and there’s no inheritance tax, but every [01:32:50] decade, there’s a 6% charge on the underlying asset value.

Payman Langroudi: Every [01:32:55] decade, 6% charge that you pay the government.

Bilal Ahmed: Yeah, you pay the [01:33:00] government. So this is what people don’t realise that trust is this magic way of not paying any tax. But no, [01:33:05] they still pay tax. It’s just calculated slightly differently. And over time it will balance out because 6% over 100 years [01:33:10] is you know, you now pay effectively 60%, right? Whereas if you just pay the 40% upfront then [01:33:15] you would in the long term you’d have been fine. Math doesn’t work that way because you haven’t lost [01:33:20] 40% of the underlying asset value from day one. The idea is you should be able to cashflow your assets in the trust, and [01:33:25] then as long as you’re putting 0.6% aside every year, then you should have enough by the end of the decade [01:33:30] to pay it up. And that’s effective financial management where the benefit of something like a trust comes into it [01:33:35] is you have control, but they’re not classed as gifted reservation. So [01:33:40] things like bloodline clauses so only beneficiaries of your specific bloodline can benefit from from [01:33:45] the trust.

Payman Langroudi: Not husband and wife. Divorce protected.

Bilal Ahmed: From divorce. Protect from litigation [01:33:50] protected from any underlying thing. Protected from stupidity. So if you gift your kid a [01:33:55] property, you stay alive for seven years. But by year four, they’ve got themselves into a spot of bother and that [01:34:00] property now disappears with them. Something you’ve worked your ass off for? Yeah, a trust protection from that to an extent. [01:34:05] But what it also gives you is I said, I think I’ve said it offline is I’ve got three kids. [01:34:10] The goal for me, everything I do is to make sure they, they enjoy a life that I’ve set [01:34:15] up for them and it preserves and it continues. So the incentive is you do not withdraw from the trust [01:34:20] unless you absolutely need to. And then once they reach a certain age, [01:34:25] they remove the trustees, so they become trustees and beneficiaries. And one of the things in there is [01:34:30] they have to agree in on everything in unison. Everything in unison has to be 100% vote every single [01:34:35] time. They can’t outvote one another, they can’t mistreat one another. And it means that they protect that. Look, realistically, [01:34:40] what’s going to happen is if I’ve got three kids, whatever I build up might divide nicely between three. They then [01:34:45] have three kids. Is the pot going to cover nine ways? Probably not. But if you teach them good financial [01:34:50] education from the start and then they then they’re now incentivised to not [01:34:55] only utilise the pot but grow the pot and not just take from the pot. That’s how you maintain generational wealth [01:35:00] and maintain everything you’ve worked your ass off for. That can continue to stand [01:35:05] the test of time. I think trust is liquidated after like 120 years anyway. Is that right? Yeah. So they all [01:35:10] sort of moves out. Again, don’t quote me on that. But it’s by the time [01:35:15] it’s done anything, the people who benefit will be strangers to me. Right. So you know, as long if I stay alive long enough, [01:35:20] I might, I might meet my grandkids or my great grandkids. Beyond that, everyone’s a stranger to me. [01:35:25]

Payman Langroudi: I like that. Let’s end it there, man. It’s been a massive pleasure [01:35:30] to have you.

Bilal Ahmed: Thank you for having me. It’s been fantastic.

Payman Langroudi: I’m glad you look like the average chartered accountant. I [01:35:35] like that it’s like my dad’s a chartered accountant. Oh, nice. But he looks. [01:35:40] He always has looked like the.

Bilal Ahmed: No, I refuse to do it, man.

Payman Langroudi: This is your USP, huh? [01:35:45] Just like to. To be like, an outlier, I think.

Bilal Ahmed: No, look, I want to talk to people [01:35:50] like people. Right? And people buy from people. People have to trust people. And I just want to dress comfortably, [01:35:55] man. It’s like it’s taking me two hours to get on the train. Why not? And I want to be comfortable when I’m doing it.

Payman Langroudi: But even on [01:36:00] your content and stuff, you’re like, you’re not. You’re not the normal archetype you want, one imagines.

Bilal Ahmed: No, [01:36:05] but I don’t think I went through that normal, archetypal journey. So like my dad, my dad was a butcher. [01:36:10] First generation immigrants. And the only thing I know is business. And I didn’t really suit the corporate [01:36:15] world very well. Um, I did well at what I did. You know, I was I won [01:36:20] awards with places I worked, but I think I just wanted to go and do stuff, and I [01:36:25] liked the impact. And I don’t play the game very well. I can’t do brown nosing. I can’t do any of that. [01:36:30]

Payman Langroudi: I just can’t.

Bilal Ahmed: I can’t. I just want to see. Action result, action result, action result. [01:36:35]

Payman Langroudi: That’s so much better having your own than. Yeah, definitely.

Bilal Ahmed: It’s way more fun as well. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Amazing, [01:36:40] man.

Bilal Ahmed: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Payman Langroudi: Really enjoyed that.

Bilal Ahmed: Appreciate you.

[VOICE]: This [01:36:45] is Dental Leaders, the podcast where you get to go one on one [01:36:50] with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [01:36:55] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki.

Prav Solanki: Thanks [01:37:00] for listening guys. If you got this far, you must have listened to the whole thing. And just [01:37:05] a huge thank you both from me and pay for actually sticking through and listening to what we’ve had to [01:37:10] say and what our guest has had to say, because I’m assuming you got some value out of it.

Payman Langroudi: If you [01:37:15] did get some value out of it, think about subscribing. And if you would share [01:37:20] this with a friend who you think might get some value out of it too. Thank you so so so much for listening. Thanks. [01:37:25]

Prav Solanki: And don’t forget our six star rating.

[VOICE]: This [00:00:05] is Dental Leaders. The podcast where you get to go [00:00:10] one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [00:00:15] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [00:00:20]

Payman Langroudi: This podcast is brought to you by enlighten. Enlighten is an advanced [00:00:25] teeth whitening system. Join us for online training, where I’ll take you through everything [00:00:30] you need to know about how to assess a case quickly, how to use the system, how to [00:00:35] talk to patients. Because when you know you can deliver brilliant results, it’s so much easier to talk about [00:00:40] it. To book your course, which takes only an hour. It’s completely free. Visit Enlighten Online [00:00:45] Training. Now let’s get to the pod. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Nasser [00:00:50] Sayed and she’s bright. On to the podcast. It’s a pleasure to have you guys. [00:00:55] Um, Nasser is a dentist with special interest in oral surgery, sedation. And [00:01:00] I’m finding out now, um, quite an entrepreneurial spirit. Lots of practices [00:01:05] just go through how many you’ve got.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. So thank you very much for the invite. [00:01:10] It’s a pleasure to be.

Payman Langroudi: Here for coming all the.

Nasser Syed: Way. Oh no, it’s not a problem through the storm as well. So I got here. Um, [00:01:15] so we have um, two practices in partnership. Uh, and we’re buying a third currently [00:01:20] in partnership. Um, I have two on my own. Uh, and then my business partner has another four, so [00:01:25] there’s a bit of a group, uh, formulating, um, and. Yeah, [00:01:30] I like to buy another two soon as well. So. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So how clinical are you?

Nasser Syed: That’s. [00:01:35] I was very clinical up to about 2022. Um, so I [00:01:40] was nearly 5 to 6 days clinical where I was doing mainly oral surgery on a referral basis that [00:01:45] was part NHS and part private. Um, but then after that I realised I could probably [00:01:50] only do one thing really well. So I can either run the business and grow [00:01:55] that, or I can be a carry on doing the oral surgery with the implants and so on and so forth. [00:02:00] And I thought, well, no one’s going to look after the business better than I am. Um, so [00:02:05] I thought, well, and I can get a good implantologist in. So I thought, well, where [00:02:10] is my time best spent? So I thought, well, running the business. So I now [00:02:15] reduce my clinical capacity where I do a lot of training. So I train a lot of people in [00:02:20] conscious sedation. So I run a course called Manchester Sedation Course which [00:02:25] is SDC accredited. So we can train beginners as well. Um, so about [00:02:30] 2 to 3 days of my week is done with training dentists in conscious sedation which is [00:02:35] IV sedation midazolam drug only. And then I do one day a week teaching at Manchester Dental Hospital. [00:02:40] Uh, that’s my, uh, charity day, I call it, where I give back. Um, [00:02:45] so I teach undergraduates, postgraduates in the oral surgery department at University of Manchester, [00:02:50] and, uh, I really enjoy that. And then the other two, 2 [00:02:55] or 3 days, I will be between the practices. Just trying to put [00:03:00] out few fires if.

Payman Langroudi: You’re doing a lot.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, it can be quite. [00:03:05] I enjoy it. I think that’s the main thing. Um, I think if I didn’t enjoy it, I think. [00:03:10]

Payman Langroudi: Were you always this hard worker? I think something something [00:03:15] sort of.

Nasser Syed: I think I get it from my father. Um, my father was a considerable hard [00:03:20] worker. You know, came to this country in the 60s, late 60s. You know, grafted, [00:03:25] you know, got a job with Ford and then from there, then [00:03:30] opened his own business. Um, and then in the weekends would do some work [00:03:35] in the marketplace. You know, so he was always doing something. So I think growing up, that’s [00:03:40] what I saw. Uh, my brother, who’s nine years older than me, who’s Professor Rioja, [00:03:45] uh, he’s a very hard working as well. So I think it’s sort of [00:03:50] within the blood. Possibly, but, um, but mainly I enjoy it. Which which is important, [00:03:55] I think if you don’t enjoy it, it can become quite torturous [00:04:00] really. But I think if you’re enjoying it, it can be your hobby. Fun [00:04:05] time.

Payman Langroudi: Do you find, like there was a time earlier on in your career where like, I don’t know, Apicectomy [00:04:10] was was was turning you on and now now business turns you on.

Nasser Syed: Apicectomy [00:04:15] still turns you on, if I’m being honest.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. However [00:04:20] sad that is. Um. So.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, I still like to keep my hands in the oral surgery, so I, you know, [00:04:25] I get referrals from colleagues or or associates and so on and so forth. So I still like [00:04:30] to do that. But, um. It’s about managing [00:04:35] people. I don’t see it as I’m seeing myself as a businessman. I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur. I [00:04:40] see myself as so on, who can manage [00:04:45] people and get try and get the best out of people, and whether that is my associates or whether that [00:04:50] is my, um, employees. Um, I’m really interested [00:04:55] in what they want to achieve, what they want to get, and how are we going to do that together.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:05:00] then give you some top tips on that? Well, because I’m really interested in that too. [00:05:05] Okay. But I’m not executing as much as I’m interested in [00:05:10] it. Okay. Like do you have things that you do. Do you, do you sit down 1 to 1 with every member of staff every six [00:05:15] months or whatever?

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Well, if I focus on the associates. So we take on a lot of Fhd+ ones [00:05:20] at all our sites. And so these are really sort of fresh faced, um, dentists. [00:05:25] And I teach them at undergraduate level. So most of the time and I can understand by [00:05:30] the time they qualify, they probably haven’t done a lot of, of, of stuff, you know, [00:05:35] 15 extractions, maybe 1 or 2 endos. And so really they come [00:05:40] to me really wanting to get a lot of experience in all aspects of dentistry, [00:05:45] but also to be mentored. So we generally just meet up, I go [00:05:50] through what I offer and that can be Yes. Every month we’ll will have a performance [00:05:55] related meeting. So we can look at how you’re performing from a private [00:06:00] sector, from a UDA perspective, from from a performance perspective, from patient [00:06:05] complaints or whatever that may be. But then also what I’m interested in is how [00:06:10] has the month been? Have you had any ups and downs? What have you enjoyed? What have you disliked? And [00:06:15] as time goes on, you tend to find that some associates will, will, will like a certain [00:06:20] aspect of dentistry more than other aspects.

Nasser Syed: So it could be that they really like oral surgery [00:06:25] or composite bonding. Then we go. Right. Well now you start to enjoy something. Let’s see [00:06:30] how we get better at it. Because once you once you find out what you enjoy, you can now [00:06:35] excel because it now doesn’t become a job or task, it becomes merely a hobby for you. [00:06:40] So we then look at courses and our brothers well connected with people around [00:06:45] the country, so we can direct them to the right people to be taught properly. [00:06:50] And then it’s then putting that in practice. So then the team gets involved. So [00:06:55] say for example they want to do an Onlay. Well [00:07:00] they can go and see a man who’s fantastic or go and see my brother and learn how to do an onlay. [00:07:05] But now the treatment coordinator needs to be needs to ensure that that next [00:07:10] week they’ve got an onlay in their diary because the worst is you learn [00:07:15] a skill and then you haven’t done it in six months time. And then and then you’ve lost all that. [00:07:20]

Payman Langroudi: So you’re not the first to say this to me. And, and but at the same time, it’s not completely [00:07:25] obvious for practices to do that, but it makes so much sense.

Nasser Syed: Yes. [00:07:30]

Payman Langroudi: So much sense. It’s I mean, if the practice can give something back to the associate on top [00:07:35] of the usual stuff, this is amazing.

Nasser Syed: Well that’s it. I think that’s [00:07:40] what young associates want. Yeah, yeah. When you sit down with them, you know, they’re not negotiating [00:07:45] on UDA rates. They’re not negotiating on percentages. They really want to know how [00:07:50] are you going to develop their career? How are you going to make them better? They want something. Right [00:07:55] now you’ve got to then present to them what you’re going to be offering them. Because [00:08:00] there’s a shortage of dentists. Dentists and their associates have got a choice. They can [00:08:05] go to five other different practices. So why are they going to pick you up?

Payman Langroudi: So are you working [00:08:10] at the hospital? Part of that is the recruitment angle that that gives you for finding dentists.

Nasser Syed: It [00:08:15] does help. Yeah. I mean, my one day a week and I say it to my business [00:08:20] partner, you know, I give up one day a week. So it helps with recruitment. Um, because they [00:08:25] get to know me at undergraduate level.

Payman Langroudi: Plus you can pick the best guys as well.

Nasser Syed: Oh, well, [00:08:30] if they stay in Manchester, uh, that might help. Yeah. So.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:08:35] how soon can you tell? Because you’re seeing undergrads. Yeah. How soon can you tell who the stars are going to [00:08:40] be? Very early on or later? Or. And this thing that you’re saying about, [00:08:45] they get to find out what they enjoy. Yeah. How does that take? Because for me, [00:08:50] you enjoy whatever you’re good at.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So in a way, pick something, [00:08:55] anything. Pick it out of the air. Yeah. The only the only caveat I would put to that is oral surgery, because oral [00:09:00] surgery just seems like a different skill skill set, different mindset to all the rest of dentistry. [00:09:05] Yeah. But if you pick Endo, perio, ortho, any of those subjects. Yeah. 100 [00:09:10] practices I want to open or whatever. Sedation, whatever it is. Yeah. The [00:09:15] nervous patient. Yeah. Pick one and go deep into it quickly. And soon you’ll [00:09:20] enjoy it, won’t you?

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Well, how was it take. How long did you tell me? How does it take before they figure [00:09:25] it out? What they enjoy before they start going into it?

Nasser Syed: So, um, I [00:09:30] think that some people pick a speciality that they [00:09:35] want to develop their career into for sometimes the wrong reason. So you have people [00:09:40] who will join us and go and they know I do implants and they’ll go, oh, I want to be an implantologist. [00:09:45] So I go, okay, tell me about. What does an Implantologist do? Tell me the skill set [00:09:50] required and they get stumped. They don’t have an answer to that question, so they haven’t. They haven’t looked [00:09:55] into it. But what they see is maybe price tags, you know, whatever and [00:10:00] so on and so forth. So I’m not interested in that side I’m interested [00:10:05] in. Look, I need you to do lots of everything to start off with because only and only [00:10:10] then will you start to think, oh, I really enjoy that. And I say, look, you’ll get a feeling [00:10:15] when you see your day list the next day and you’ll see a certain treatment in there, and it will put a smile on [00:10:20] your face and then you go then that’s a feeling that I want to develop. To [00:10:25] answer your question about the undergraduates, I get undergraduates from fourth year, so I don’t get anyone [00:10:30] younger.

Nasser Syed: But why? Why? I want to see from someone who [00:10:35] I think I can develop is somewhere. You tell them what to do. They listen, [00:10:40] they reflect, and they act on it. Okay, so if I tell them how to use a cupola [00:10:45] and to extract that operates, and I give them the technique. The ones [00:10:50] that really I can see that could go far, or I believe I could, [00:10:55] I could take him to a, you know, a higher places when they, they [00:11:00] take that on and I see them do it and there’s a lot of time you tell them how to use it and [00:11:05] they’ve, they’ve either not digested that information and they don’t effectively [00:11:10] perform it. And you think, well, you’ve not listened to what I’ve just said. So then you could say it twice or a third [00:11:15] time or a fourth time, and then you’d get into a point where they’re still not doing what you can say. So the, the, [00:11:20] the student who picks that up really quickly and can act on it, you think. Right. [00:11:25] Yeah. You’re you’re listening, you’re reflecting and you’re acting. And I think I can do something with that.

Payman Langroudi: Some people are more [00:11:30] coachable than others. Right. But you’re saying that’s a key thing? Coachability is [00:11:35] a key thing. The only one thing I’d say is there’s a lot of people who in university are, you [00:11:40] know, not the most serious people. And then when they start working, they [00:11:45] suddenly switch.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I get that. You see that? And by the way, the other way around as well, people who are [00:11:50] very good in university and then come to work and not very good. Yeah. They like institutions [00:11:55] and rules and things like that. That’s the only caveat.

Nasser Syed: No. Absolutely. And, you know, [00:12:00] it’s not a proven fast rule. You know, it depends.

Payman Langroudi: But you’ve been doing it for a while. So you kind of know. [00:12:05]

Nasser Syed: Yes. Yeah. And you can sort of pick it up. And you, you know.

Payman Langroudi: How long does [00:12:10] it take before they figure out what they like.

Nasser Syed: So that also depends. That can be that can vary. [00:12:15]

Payman Langroudi: A couple of years longer.

Nasser Syed: I’ve had dentists who joined me at PhD plus one and they go, I know what I want to [00:12:20] be. You know, I want to be a super duper prosthodontist. Right. And they are [00:12:25] switched on and they’re booked on the right courses and they’ve gone to see the right people.

Payman Langroudi: That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I’m saying. [00:12:30] Just pick something. Go. Yeah. I’m even saying at dental school pick something.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, absolutely. [00:12:35] But I would say out of all the associates I meet, 90% of [00:12:40] them are going, I don’t know, I don’t I don’t know, right?

Payman Langroudi: But the advice people give here [00:12:45] is do five years of NHS. Get [00:12:50] your mileage on the NHS, get your 10,000 hours and your experience. [00:12:55] And I just see that as a, as a D sort of skilling period. [00:13:00] In a way you learn how to do things quickly and all that. Yeah. But that’s [00:13:05] the advice, right? Do a few years on the NHS and figure out what you like and then start. And [00:13:10] my my point. No, just just go say Endo in the third [00:13:15] year of dental school. Start seeing endo wherever you look. Go on courses on [00:13:20] Endo by the fourth and fifth year of dental school. Go to America for your for your whatever. [00:13:25] Uh, elective on endo with the world’s best endodontist. Come [00:13:30] straight back and go on an endo program and come out as an endodontist, having done no fillings [00:13:35] at all. Yeah. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Nasser Syed: No there’s not.

Payman Langroudi: And that is the American way, by [00:13:40] the way. Like, I know people who’ve gone from here qualified the very next day. Got into [00:13:45] pros program in Harvard. Okay. Yeah. Without even doing a day of dentistry.

Nasser Syed: Risky, [00:13:50] though, right?

Payman Langroudi: No. Don’t worry. At the end of his program in Harvard, they’ll make him a safe prosthodontist. [00:13:55]

Nasser Syed: I get that, but is it is risky.

Payman Langroudi: And it might have been the wrong move. Yes, [00:14:00] but this guy’s been focusing on it for three years already.

Nasser Syed: And there is a small percentage [00:14:05] of people who are that focussed and know what they want. Right. But I would say the majority don’t. [00:14:10] And I think when you say sort of going into most of our practices are have an NHS contract. [00:14:15] So they, so we, we tell them right. Exactly what you say, come in and do some [00:14:20] NHS dentistry. But I don’t have the thing about they have to [00:14:25] be quick and they have to get loads of udas. I keep them on a very low UDA target and to be fair, [00:14:30] they ask for not many udas.

Payman Langroudi: So that’s time.

Nasser Syed: It’s time. Look, [00:14:35] every patient that comes through your door is an opportunity. You spend time [00:14:40] with them, you educate them. And that might be through scans, photos, X-rays. [00:14:45] And so every one of our surgeries have a big, massive TV screen in front of the [00:14:50] front of the chair. And these are predominantly NHS practices. But the thought [00:14:55] process is they come in and you educate them about the problem and you tell them the solution, [00:15:00] and that takes time. That doesn’t take five minutes, that doesn’t take ten minutes. I’m sorry. So [00:15:05] yes, you’re not going to do many udas, but at least you’re going to start to practice dentistry in the way [00:15:10] I think it should be practised. Right. Um, and so in that way, we, we don’t we have [00:15:15] very large practices. So there we have 112 surgeries. So really [00:15:20] we can reduce the amount of udas each surgery has to perform to meet contracts. So that’s how we [00:15:25] sort of look at it like that.

Payman Langroudi: So then with all of that in mind, [00:15:30] how has your career progressed into these practices? [00:15:35]

Chez Bright: In a pretty big way. So, um, so I [00:15:40] joined NASA two years ago, but before I joined NASA, um, I was a TCO [00:15:45] and a business development for a smaller practice. So I’d kind of reached my scope [00:15:50] because it was only a small practice, and it was just. Yeah, there wasn’t anything else to do. Um, [00:15:55] NASA obviously has many, many projects, so his [00:16:00] brain is like a minefield. Um, but it’s really interesting and I’ve [00:16:05] learned so much just in a short space of time, and there’s just so many different [00:16:10] projects to sort of get stuck into.

Payman Langroudi: So you’re working on several of his [00:16:15] projects?

Chez Bright: Yeah, yeah, NASA keeps me busy. Yeah.

Nasser Syed: It’s like my right [00:16:20] hand, uh, lady too. Yeah. So she, uh, she she she joined me two years [00:16:25] ago. I think I was at a point where, um, so my business partner [00:16:30] had, um, two pass at the time, and, uh, and [00:16:35] I didn’t have one, uh, and he just sat me down and he goes, what are you doing? And I said, I [00:16:40] don’t feel like I need one. He goes, you do. And then he said, why? What’s [00:16:45] stopping you? And I thought, well, look, it’s the extra cost. I’ve got to pay this and I’ve got to pay that. He goes, he just said to me, he [00:16:50] goes, do you believe in yourself? And I said, and I just thought and reflect. [00:16:55] And I thought, actually, he’s got a point. If I believe myself, I’d need these people around me. [00:17:00] So I said, yeah, nervously said, yeah. So. And then from that point, [00:17:05] I’ve just, uh, you know, uh, I’ve put an advert out. We met, we sort of [00:17:10] got on. Um, I think that’s a really important feature, just being able to get on, have a conversation. Um, [00:17:15] and then, yeah, it’s two years later, we’ve done several other things, and I don’t think I would have [00:17:20] been able to achieve it without her.

Payman Langroudi: So let’s go through that process then. You know, let’s say there’s a new project. [00:17:25] Yeah. What should we call it? One of the practices you want to introduce [00:17:30] SEO services into it, let’s say.

Nasser Syed: Okay.

Payman Langroudi: And what do you say how [00:17:35] often do you check in? I mean, have you got a process or is it [00:17:40] something that you sit down for a coffee and a dinner and explain it to her, and then let her get on with it? [00:17:45] Yeah. Is that kind of more.

Nasser Syed: It is. It is like that. So we’ll I’ll have an idea and [00:17:50] it might even be loose in my head. I haven’t put it together. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Ideas are like that. [00:17:55]

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Absolutely. And it’s a bit of mish mash. And then really I’ll sit down with, uh, [00:18:00] with Ches and I’ve got my practice manager called Artie, and I’ll just. I’ll [00:18:05] just talk it out. Yeah. Right. And at any point in the.

Payman Langroudi: Kind of like a brainstorming. [00:18:10]

Nasser Syed: Brainstorm, I.

Payman Langroudi: And they input their bits.

Nasser Syed: I like whiteboards. Yeah. Right. So I’ll [00:18:15] have an all practice with whiteboards everywhere. So and I’ll start writing things off and [00:18:20] I’ll start spider diagramming and I’ll go add in whenever, whenever. And I’m really keen to get [00:18:25] their opinion. Um, and because it’s going to be things that I have not thought about. Yeah. And then we’ll [00:18:30] sort of come out, we’ll come out with it. And I think come out of it. We come out with a list of tasks, and [00:18:35] by the end of that meeting, we’ve got at least 1 to 4, 1 to 5, whatever it may be. Um, and, [00:18:40] and then we sort of build it from there, and then. Yeah, I do then leave them quite independent at that point, [00:18:45] uh, they can check in with check in with me and go, look, I’m doing this, I’m doing that. [00:18:50] And and I might ask the question where we’re up to with this, but otherwise I sort of [00:18:55] like to leave them to it. So they’ve got that freedom.

Payman Langroudi: See? Look, that’s what [00:19:00] I do. Yeah. Same thing, but I feel like I’m bad at it. Yeah. My business partner, he’s [00:19:05] very process orientated. Yeah. Okay. So he’ll say this is what success looks like. [00:19:10] Okay. These are the milestones towards success. Yeah. Um, when will [00:19:15] we get to milestone one. Let’s let’s make them two week periods. Yeah. [00:19:20] Then they’ll have a sprint to milestone one. At the end of milestone one they’ll meet and then they’ll say okay, milestone [00:19:25] two is another two week sprint. And along the way he incorporates like changes [00:19:30] in the thing and. Yeah. And and then you know by the fourth week they’ve they’ve done [00:19:35] so much going and the person knows what success looks like. I think with me and you, [00:19:40] our goals are too lofty. Yeah. Yeah. I want to do a massive first time ever [00:19:45] event in London. Yeah. That’s a lofty goal. Yeah. My partner keeps these things quite small. [00:19:50] Quite easy. Yeah. But then he. He does go forward along the way. [00:19:55] But the thing is, you’ve got to turn up to those meetings yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And of course [00:20:00] you do. Yes. Um, and just that for me, is a nightmare. Yeah. [00:20:05] Just turning up to that meeting. I hate meetings. Yeah.

[ALL]: Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. [00:20:10]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Different types of brains. Yeah. Is your is your other partner much more sort of process orientated, organised [00:20:15] guy like.

Nasser Syed: Um, I wouldn’t say it was organised.

[ALL]: Um.

Nasser Syed: You’d [00:20:20] hate me for saying that, but. Yeah, I sort of have to drag them along sometimes. Um, I [00:20:25] think he’s probably a bit more process driven than I am. I can’t be like that. I don’t think [00:20:30] my brain operates in that way. Um, and I, I would, I would actually like a bit [00:20:35] of that. You know what you just said there? I’d love a bit of that, because that I think sometimes [00:20:40] our projects can sometimes slow with no defined dates and so on and so forth. [00:20:45] And you think, where are we up to with that? And then another idea comes into our heads and then we’ll start, we’ll [00:20:50] start going into another.

Payman Langroudi: Thing is the funny thing is though for putting in [00:20:55] three implants. Yeah, you’ve got a complete process that you stick to step by step [00:21:00] by step by step. Yeah. But for this other stuff, yeah.

Chez Bright: Why wouldn’t you have that routine.

Payman Langroudi: In [00:21:05] place for. But I totally get it, man. I totally get it. I was the same kind of dentist. I wouldn’t do [00:21:10] dentistry like that. Yeah, because you can’t do that.

[ALL]: Yeah, yeah. [00:21:15] Things will go wrong pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Which of these hats do you like the [00:21:20] most? Or do you love the fact that you’re doing so much different stuff all the time?

Nasser Syed: I do like that. I do like [00:21:25] the variety of what I do now, I don’t think I think the idea of going back [00:21:30] to be a dentist and go back to one surgery and a list of patients. I think, [00:21:35] um, I would do it if I need to do it. So of all my plans, go to pot.

[ALL]: Yeah. [00:21:40]

Nasser Syed: Um, and, uh, have to put the house on on, on on sale then. [00:21:45] Yeah. I’m ready to lift up my sleeves and get on and do some dentistry, but I think, um, I [00:21:50] really enjoy what I do now. I my, my week varies, my [00:21:55] days vary. Um, I can be in one place and then have to be in another place. [00:22:00] Um, and I enjoy it. I enjoy that element of it.

Payman Langroudi: You still in Liverpool? [00:22:05]

Nasser Syed: Still in Liverpool. Born, born and raised in Liverpool. Scouser. Um. [00:22:10] And yeah, stayed stayed at home during university, which I loved.

Payman Langroudi: Are you older than your brother? [00:22:15]

Nasser Syed: No, my brother’s nine years older than me.

Payman Langroudi: Nine years.

[ALL]: Old. Yeah. So yeah. I’ll [00:22:20] take that as a compliment. I [00:22:25] love that, actually. Yeah. If he’s.

Payman Langroudi: So what [00:22:30] was it about your house that made like, you guys not only become dentists, but also like dentists [00:22:35] with an interest. Your brothers. One of the country’s leaders on occlusion. You’re very [00:22:40] good at. You know, the bits that you’re doing.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Was it. Was it a house of excellence? Was it was [00:22:45] it like there was no choice but to be good at everything?

[ALL]: No.

Nasser Syed: Not necessarily. I wouldn’t [00:22:50] say that. I think I think, you know, it was a traditional Asian household. You know, your [00:22:55] parents wanted you to be a doctor, dentist or a lawyer.

[ALL]: So have.

Payman Langroudi: You got kids, by.

[ALL]: The way? [00:23:00] Yes.

Payman Langroudi: Have you told them to become doctors and dentists?

Nasser Syed: Um, I’ve got two boys, uh, 15 and 13. My. [00:23:05] My eldest is doing GCSEs at the moment. Um, I’d like him to [00:23:10] do dentistry because I. I’ve enjoyed it, but I don’t think that’s fair. [00:23:15] Um, so he’s got freedom. But, um, I think what he [00:23:20] says to me, he wants to be a dentist, but I don’t know whether that’s something he wants me to. He’s saying something [00:23:25] I want to hear. So there’s still years, Yes, I mean 15. I mean, what do you know, 15? [00:23:30]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. My daughter is 16, and we’re kind of very gently pushing her to become [00:23:35] a dentist.

Nasser Syed: Okay, interesting.

Payman Langroudi: Because both of us are dentists and and just be a shame if [00:23:40] one of our kids doesn’t. Yeah. You know, they get massive advantages.

Nasser Syed: Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: Um, at [00:23:45] the same time, this notion. I hear a lot of people in this room sit here and tell me, yeah, the kid can do whatever they like, but [00:23:50] most of the time they haven’t got any idea.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, yeah. They need guidance. They need need [00:23:55] to be directed in a certain way. And you’re right. A second generation in the same field, they [00:24:00] can really they can really build on and take it to another level and you’ll, you’ll, you know, you’ve [00:24:05] seen people who are second generation dentists or third generation, you know, they can take their business [00:24:10] to a different level.

Payman Langroudi: At the same time. My daughter’s 16, right. So by the time she becomes dentists, we’re [00:24:15] talking eight years time.

[ALL]: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Eight years time, man. [00:24:20] Robots are.

[ALL]: Gonna be.

Payman Langroudi: Like, there’s gonna be a totally different world. Yeah, it [00:24:25] really is. Have you seen those robots with their hands? They’re like making other robots.

[ALL]: Yeah. Yeah. [00:24:30]

Payman Langroudi: And imagine, with the ChatGPT of eight years time in its head. Yeah.

Chez Bright: We’re [00:24:35] talking about this before, wasn’t we? About the world of AI and how sort of dominant [00:24:40] it is now?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Chez Bright: Um, and we were just saying that, like, we’re kind of feeding. [00:24:45] How old are you? Um. 38.

Payman Langroudi: So you remember you just about [00:24:50] the 2001.com bubble?

Chez Bright: Um, yeah. [00:24:55]

Payman Langroudi: Just about. You were like you were a child, but I remember you were younger than me. Yeah, I [00:25:00] remember it. It was. It was just the exact same thing. Yeah. Any company that had.com written on [00:25:05] the end of it was, was a massive, like, investment thing. Everyone was buying their [00:25:10] shares and everything and then most of them went bust. But then when it happened, [00:25:15] those six or 8 or 10, that really made it, it was even bigger than [00:25:20] we thought it was going to be. Right. So I think we’re in that phase of AI. That [00:25:25] it’s anything that says AI investors are in. Everyone’s in. Um, but [00:25:30] when it really comes, like, I don’t know, man, it’s scary. I think even they [00:25:35] themselves are scared of it. The people making it are scared of it.

Nasser Syed: And I think you can see why. I mean, [00:25:40] really, um, and we were saying this, you know, is it really going to dumb [00:25:45] down the population?

Payman Langroudi: No, no, no, I don’t think that. I don’t think that what I think is that, you know, humanity’s [00:25:50] in the end, constantly trying to sort of do each other in, get each other’s resources. [00:25:55] Yeah. And now this race to make the best AI is really a race [00:26:00] to dominate other countries. Yeah. Yeah. So that [00:26:05] risk, it’s like, you know, like the attack. Certainly we’ll all be paying £200 [00:26:10] a month for AI protection for our house.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You know, because, you know, it’s something I could [00:26:15] come and destroy you. The one. The one that makes the the the real [00:26:20] super brain. He’s the one going to be charging us £300 a month for security.

[ALL]: Yeah, [00:26:25] yeah, that’s a good business, isn’t it? Yeah.

Chez Bright: You’ve just given him another [00:26:30] idea.

[ALL]: Yeah. No.

Payman Langroudi: No, but, but but you know, I’ve been discussing with my team [00:26:35] see these pictures that you can see here.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: These are humans. Yeah. These are pictures [00:26:40] of people. Models. Yeah. There was a creative director. One of the world’s top photographers [00:26:45] took the pictures. We had to get a studio to rent the studio, the hair and makeup, [00:26:50] clothes, the all the different types of creatives. Yeah, yeah, it was a massive [00:26:55] cost and hassle. Then I said to my team, obviously we’re never going to have to [00:27:00] do this again. And all of them were like, no, no, no, no, we’ve got to AI, you can tell [00:27:05] and all this sort of thing.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And I told my team, listen man, it’s not AI is not going to take your job, [00:27:10] but someone who knows AI is going to that. That is real. Yeah, yeah. And then the jobs [00:27:15] that will be in proper trouble are the ones where there’s no elasticity of demand. [00:27:20] Yeah, yeah. So something that can be done. My brother’s a radiologist. Ai can read [00:27:25] X-rays, but they’re asking for a thousand times more X-rays now because they can do them [00:27:30] more quickly. Yeah. So that’s just a growing thing. Yeah, but if your job is to sit [00:27:35] and answer the phone or be in front of a computer doing a task, that demand [00:27:40] side isn’t going to increase.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You’re an all sorts of trouble.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And what’s going [00:27:45] to happen in the future? It’s very, very difficult to think about as far as jobs.

[ALL]: It is.

Nasser Syed: Um, [00:27:50] I’d like to think that she’s maybe slightly protected to a certain degree. Maybe it takes a little [00:27:55] bit longer before AI take over it.

[ALL]: But I.

Payman Langroudi: Don’t think a lot. Yeah, there’s something for our kids. [00:28:00] Yes. Yeah. In eight, ten years time.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: There will be a treatment coordinator type person. [00:28:05] Yeah, and a machine. And [00:28:10] my brother says it’s amazing in radiology right now because the AI is reading the scan. Yeah, but from the regulatory perspective, [00:28:15] the doctor has to give it the okay, okay. So he’s saying it’s amazing because you’re getting [00:28:20] paid a lot more because you’re doing you’re okaying a lot more scans because the AI is reading the main bit of the scan, [00:28:25] you’re not going to miss things.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Nasser Syed: And the AI is learning each time it reads a scan, right? So it’s [00:28:30] getting better and.

[ALL]: Better and better. Yeah.

Nasser Syed: It’s crazy.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Nasser Syed: I [00:28:35] don’t think I’d ask my kid to be a radiologist though, but I think.

[ALL]: But yeah, but otherwise. [00:28:40]

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Um, yeah. I think, you know, you build something, you want to pass it on, you want to preserve [00:28:45] it. Um, and so, yeah, it would be nice, like your daughter. My son. It would be nice for them. [00:28:50]

Payman Langroudi: Oh, okay. So tell me that. So is that what you’re trying to do? You haven’t. You’re not thinking of [00:28:55] selling this business and.

[ALL]: No, I.

Nasser Syed: Don’t take any card off [00:29:00] the table. Yeah. Um, so, you know, it may get to the point that I still sell the businesses, [00:29:05] and I, you know, if he is a dentist, I can help him. I can help him open one. [00:29:10] I’d be more keen on that. To be fair, he can use all my contacts know how and experience. [00:29:15] But whether someone wants to inherit a business or whether they want to [00:29:20] do it their own way. I’d like to think he’d have his own one, his own freedom of doing it his way. And [00:29:25] I could certainly help him with that. But but otherwise, to give it to him maybe [00:29:30] a little bit too easy for him. Um.

Payman Langroudi: Do you know Anushka? Uh, um. [00:29:35]

[ALL]: Yes. Uh.

Nasser Syed: The, um. Corporate. [00:29:40]

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: The mirror.

[ALL]: Mirror? Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: She wants to. She’s a third 42 [00:29:45] practices.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And she wants to at 50. Stop and give it to her children. [00:29:50]

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So none of them are. None of them are dentists.

Nasser Syed: Is [00:29:55] one of them.

Payman Langroudi: Was in dental school. Yeah.

[ALL]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one’s.

Nasser Syed: Getting.

[ALL]: Better, but. [00:30:00]

Payman Langroudi: No, but what I’m saying she completely ruled out selling the business.

[ALL]: Really?

Payman Langroudi: She, you know, [00:30:05] she has that succession plan.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So you’re not at that level.

[ALL]: No. Well. [00:30:10]

Nasser Syed: Well we’re not at that sort of numbers.

[ALL]: No, no.

Payman Langroudi: But that, that level of thinking like that, you definitely want [00:30:15] to sell or you definitely want to pass it on?

[ALL]: No.

Nasser Syed: No, no. Definite in anything. [00:30:20] Uh, no cards off the table. So it may be that, you know, you don’t know what’s going [00:30:25] to happen, but, um, my son might want one particular practice, or we. He might not. [00:30:30] I’m. I be my personal, um, opinion would be. I’d like to think [00:30:35] he could. He could do something on his own with my support and help. So, um, set [00:30:40] him up something like a squat or something like that, but, um, but, yeah, rather than just passing [00:30:45] him the keys over, I’m sure would shy away.

[ALL]: Too easy. It is, it is. [00:30:50]

Nasser Syed: And also, you know, um, you want to realise all your hard work that you’ve put in as [00:30:55] well. And, um, sometimes you need to sell to do that. Um.

[ALL]: Yeah. [00:31:00]

Nasser Syed: And then from there then with that, you can help your children [00:31:05] in different ways.

Payman Langroudi: Tell me about the sedation course.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Nasser Syed: So the sedation [00:31:10] course I set up in 2015, um, it was just at the time when the new [00:31:15] ISO standards came out. So it was it was probably awful timing to set up [00:31:20] a sedation course, to be fair. Um, but we we set it up. I saw I was doing [00:31:25] a lot of sedation, so I was doing about 20 sedations a week, uh, in secondary and [00:31:30] primary care. So I was, I was getting through some significant numbers and I, you know, I was, [00:31:35] I was, I was good at it. Um, and I was teaching at the dental hospital at the time, um, [00:31:40] and I thought, well, um, why not just think about setting up? Of course, because the [00:31:45] nearest course was, I think was in Yorkshire. There was one um, there was sort of [00:31:50] something in Liverpool at the time, but there was certainly nothing in Manchester.

[ALL]: So.

Nasser Syed: Um, [00:31:55] we set it up. We went through the application of getting it accredited through the stack. [00:32:00] Uh, that was a bit of a rigmarole. They lost my application first time round. I [00:32:05] had to ring them a few months later. They then, um, you know, within six months. So thankfully, [00:32:10] I got accredited. And then every six months, we take on a cohort [00:32:15] of dentists and dental nurses. Uh, and that can be the beginners, [00:32:20] completely new to sedation. And then we train to spend six months training [00:32:25] them to an independent practitioner stage.

Payman Langroudi: Um, how many times a month?

Nasser Syed: So [00:32:30] they the course will consist of, uh, if you’re a complete beginner, it [00:32:35] will consist of five, five days. Uh, one day is in top dental school in Manchester [00:32:40] called Mondak. It’s a lovely lecture facility. Um, and we’ll do all the theory the [00:32:45] second day they come and see me out in practice and we book in live consultations. Because consultation [00:32:50] is key. It’s how you save your patients out. So the patients that you’re willing to treat [00:32:55] and the willing patients you’re not willing to treat. But more importantly, why? Why are you willing why are you not willing? And [00:33:00] that’s what we’re trying to get across. And also it’s the experience. You’ve got the team supporting [00:33:05] you and the practice you’re in. It’s not just about you. It’s got to be you. You know, there’s certain [00:33:10] sedations that I will do in certain settings, but I wouldn’t do it in other settings. But I’m the constant.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:33:15] are we talking inhalation solution as well as IV?

Nasser Syed: This is all intravenous sedation with single drug. Yeah [00:33:20] with single drug inhalation. Sedation I did do that as a senior house officer. Um, [00:33:25] many years ago. I think I inhaled more than nitrous oxide inhalation. I [00:33:30] came up with this really bad headache by the end of the day. Um, and, [00:33:35] you know, it’s it’s quite, um, hypnotic and it’s suggestive, and there’s a whole story [00:33:40] that you have to give with it. Um, where?

Payman Langroudi: Give me the typical avatar of the delegate [00:33:45] and the patient. So the type of delegate that comes, are they looking to [00:33:50] sedate and treat the same patient, or are they looking to go around helping other dentists for sedation? [00:33:55]

Nasser Syed: Um, they mainly come to treat their own patients.

Payman Langroudi: So it’s like an [00:34:00] implantologist or something. He wants to learn that.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, a lot of them are implantologists. So they’ll, [00:34:05] they’ll, they’ll come to me knowing that they’ve, they’ve met patients where local anaesthetic is just [00:34:10] not good enough. Yeah. Uh, and rather than the hassle of trying to find a, you know, installation [00:34:15] just to come to your practice, which is a hassle, there’s very few of them are about. Yeah. Um, they [00:34:20] thought, well, I might as well get trained in it myself. But, you know, there’s certain cases that where you still [00:34:25] have to bring a separate sedationist, you know? So, um, yes, the majority of cases they can be a sedation [00:34:30] operator, but sometimes you just have to be an operator and bring a separate sedationist. [00:34:35] And then we also get that across during the course as well. So um, by the second day they’ve [00:34:40] done the consultation and then they spend three days with me where I get through 20 cases. [00:34:45] So I supply all the cases. The all patients that are from our practices, um, [00:34:50] generally need oral surgery procedures because that’s what I do. And, um, they come in and [00:34:55] it’s all prepped for them. They, they do about seven per day and they’ll leave about 2021 [00:35:00] cases by the end of three days.

Payman Langroudi: And you’re there. So it’s all cool.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Well I’m mentoring through the whole [00:35:05] case. So there’s a lot of we do a lot of reflection after each case.

Payman Langroudi: And so for five days [00:35:10] you’re trained.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: That’s good.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, it’s quite efficient. It costs, [00:35:15] um. It costs for the full five days. It’s just a little over £6,000. [00:35:20] Yeah, yeah, but it’s a [00:35:25] supply. Supplying the cases is the hardest thing about the course because you’re getting 20 patients [00:35:30] per day. Per delegate. Yeah. Um, you know, thankfully I’ve got another team, um, that, [00:35:35] that run the course, which is actually led by my sister. Um, she runs the sedation [00:35:40] course for me. She’s a dental nurse. Um, so she’s, uh, [00:35:45] she’s worked with me in rehab for years. Okay. Um, and so it was a complete no brainer when [00:35:50] she, um, wanted to help support the course. So she she runs it. So she’s [00:35:55] the contact person. All the dentists contact her.

Payman Langroudi: And two days a week, you’re busy on that? [00:36:00]

Nasser Syed: Two days a week? Yeah. Yeah. It’s usually Friday. Saturday.

Nasser Syed: Because a lot of people don’t want to take time out of their working [00:36:05] week. So they’ll come and see me on a Saturday.

Payman Langroudi: So, look, just I’m. You don’t have to answer [00:36:10] this question here, but what’s your motivation for doing this?

Nasser Syed: I [00:36:15] enjoy teaching, I enjoy taking someone from [00:36:20] not having experience with something to someone who’s competent. [00:36:25]

Payman Langroudi: Teaching is fun. Teaching is fun.

Nasser Syed: And the variety of people that you meet. [00:36:30] Yeah. You know, I’ve met people on the course that, you know, they’ve they’re, [00:36:35] you know, cryptocurrency traders. Yeah. Um, and, [00:36:40] and so you’ll end up talking to them and you’ll end up learning a lot, a lot of stuff from them. You know, I’m teaching you [00:36:45] sedation, but you’re giving me so much in return, and it’s so much fun that it’s the.

Payman Langroudi: Plus [00:36:50] their implant guys. So you’re networking on that side, right? You’re, you know, you’re learning from each other.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. [00:36:55] That’s it. We can talk about cases. Um, a lot of them want some surgery experience as well. [00:37:00] So, you know, when they’re actually doing the cases it could be an impacted wisdom tooth that’s in, you know, and they go [00:37:05] well how do you tackle that. And then we’ll go through that as well. So yes, you’re getting the sedation experience. But [00:37:10] we can we can do some flap designs, we can do some bone removal, we can do some sectioning. And [00:37:15] so they get that aspect of it as well, which I think they really enjoy. But if a if a delegate comes to me and goes, [00:37:20] look, I only want to focus on the sedation. You do the surgery, that’s cool as well. But if they go look, I wouldn’t [00:37:25] mind getting my hands a bit dirty as well while I’m here. I’m happy with that. So it can be [00:37:30] sort of a combination training session as well.

Payman Langroudi: So as if you’re not [00:37:35] busy enough, you then come out with this idea of sort of renting out [00:37:40] Dental rooms to sort of super associates.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. [00:37:45] So, um.

Payman Langroudi: What’s it called? Tell me the.

Nasser Syed: Name. It’s called hire a dental [00:37:50] surgery. Com so, so we’ve abbreviated [00:37:55] it to HDS. Um, so when we talk about it, we say HDS, don’t we share? [00:38:00] It’s a dental surgery. Com.

Payman Langroudi: We buy any car. That’s that [00:38:05] method of marketing.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. That’s it. Yeah. Um. Which I realise you couldn’t sort of paint or you couldn’t [00:38:10] trademark, but, uh. Um, but anyway.

Payman Langroudi: So there’s a building.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. [00:38:15] So we’ve purchased a practice. Um, we purchased a practice in Hale Village in Cheshire. Uh, [00:38:20] so a really lovely area of the world. And it’s a force. It’s going to be a [00:38:25] force surgery practice. It’s two surgeries currently, but we’re doing some building work. It’s going to be for surgery [00:38:30] practice. It’s going to have cbct. It’s going to have intraoral scanners. It’s going to have a microscope. It’s going to have, uh, [00:38:35] you know, whatever you, wherever you need. Um, and really, it’s for [00:38:40] the idea for those, as you said, you call them super associates, for those associates who are able to [00:38:45] accrue their own patients. Right. They’ve got a good social media following Facebook, Instagram, [00:38:50] TikTok, whatever it may be. And they need a site, right. So what they’re doing currently possibly [00:38:55] is they’re going back to their principle led practice and they’re giving a significant portion percentage [00:39:00] away. Um, but really they just need a facility and they may not want to own a practice. [00:39:05] They may not want to have the headache of owning a practice and all the HR issues, hiring, [00:39:10] compliance or everything that goes with running a practice. Uh, they just want to focus [00:39:15] on their dentistry. And so what we what we thought was, well, we’ll give them a facility. So it would be for [00:39:20] surgeries that they can warm surgery, they can hire out, they can bring their patients to that surgery. [00:39:25] They can treat their patients, they can take their own payments, and they just pay for a fee for hiring. [00:39:30]

Payman Langroudi: And it’s the idea that the the term can be how short? Like, how can I hire it [00:39:35] for a day?

Nasser Syed: Yeah, you can hire it for a session.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, nice.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. So you can do an am [00:39:40] PM session. You can do a full day. You can do multiple bookings. You can do a weekend booking. [00:39:45] You can do an evening booking. So there’s real flexibility. And also I’m not interested in buying [00:39:50] credits. You know they have to buy upfront ten credits and use it. I’m not interested in that. Whenever [00:39:55] you want it, use it. You know it’s there for you. So you you pay [00:40:00] for when you you’ve got a patient that you know you’re doing composite bonding, or you’re doing full arch implant [00:40:05] work and you’ve got a patient sitting there, you know you’re going to turn over a significant profit, but you need a [00:40:10] facility. Well, go and hire it. So you’ll. You’ll go on the website and you can do it all online. Uh, [00:40:15] there is a bit of onboarding that needs to be done. So obviously there’s going to be some compliance checks that [00:40:20] you’ll need to go through. But we’ve we’re we’re in the process of finalising.

Payman Langroudi: That the [00:40:25] sort of regulatory nightmare of it. What hoops have you had to jump through to sort of figure [00:40:30] that out. Like the CQC bit.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. So we got a QC registration [00:40:35] and our, our statement of purpose states of exactly how we’re going to utilise the surgery. [00:40:40] So they’re well aware that um, that people are going to reside with [00:40:45] on with our, within our CQC registration. But if that is the case then there’s [00:40:50] certain things that we’re going to have to do. So we’re going to have to perform audits and we’re going to have to do checks, and they’re going to have to do [00:40:55] certain things. And as long as they’re willing to do that, then they can reside within our CQC registration. If [00:41:00] they get to a point where they’re that super duper dentist and they’re accumulating. [00:41:05] You know, 4 or 5 days a week, patients of the and they’re doing lots. I would probably [00:41:10] personally recommend them to get their own CQC registration at that point. I think that that makes sense. And [00:41:15] we can also help with that if they need if they need that. Um, but in within [00:41:20] they can reside within our CQC registration and we have got that approved.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:41:25] you’ve done your sums right to make this work and to undercut existing [00:41:30] practices, you’re going to have to have a rate of it being filled up. Right. [00:41:35]

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And and so your, your challenge now is to get people to take [00:41:40] this on.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Right. So so I mean are you clear on that. How [00:41:45] how how full it has to be. But I’m not saying tell me but yeah.

[ALL]: No, we are we’re clear. We’re [00:41:50] clear on that. Yeah.

Nasser Syed: And it’s not as much as you would think, to be fair.

[ALL]: Um, you’re.

Payman Langroudi: Charging a lot [00:41:55] per hour.

Nasser Syed: No. Well, we’re charging £500, uh, for a full day.

Payman Langroudi: For [00:42:00] full day.

Nasser Syed: Session, now £300 for a session. Um, we’re trying to keep [00:42:05] this quite economical. Um, I mean, the associates can bring will bring their own equipment because these composite [00:42:10] bonding guys and these implant guys, they bring their own stuff, right? They know. They know what composite they like, and they [00:42:15] know what implants they want to use. I’m not I’m not here to to to supply any of that stuff.

Payman Langroudi: But are you supplying basic [00:42:20] composites and all that we’re supplying?

Nasser Syed: We’ve got a list of, of an inventory of what [00:42:25] we’re supplying. But it’s basic stuff. You know, Mirror Pro, you know, bibs, glasses, you [00:42:30] know, materials. Uh, materials. No no no no no. Because again, I’m not [00:42:35] second guessing what people want.

[ALL]: Um, and.

Payman Langroudi: Are there any other value adds that you’re providing?

Nasser Syed: Yeah. [00:42:40] So they can if they wanted to store, uh, equipment at the practice, [00:42:45] then they could we provide facility for that. So if they’re using our facility 2 or 3 times a day and [00:42:50] they are 2 or 3 times a week, and they sick and tired of bringing back and forth equipment, you know, they can store [00:42:55] the use of the cbct is obviously chargeable. Then they will have no [00:43:00] motor, will have a surgical motor, will have a microscope, and these are little add ons that they’ll [00:43:05] have to pay for depending on how long they want it, session or full day.

Payman Langroudi: Nothing around. Sort of, uh, [00:43:10] follow up or payments or. No no no no [00:43:15] no reception TCO type support.

[ALL]: No not not yet, not yet.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. [00:43:20] We’re just trying with the idea off the ground. Uh, and then from there, yeah, these things, you [00:43:25] know, if our clients are asking for it, then I’m happy to look into it. Um, but it [00:43:30] may be that they want to deal with a lot of these issues themselves. Yeah, these [00:43:35] are all presumptions they’re making. And I’ve got to prove these presumptions.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. But I think it’s it’s probably [00:43:40] clear I don’t know for sure, but I reckon every town will [00:43:45] end up with depending on size of the town. Yeah. Town. Town like Manchester [00:43:50] like South Manchester will end up with at least two of these one, one [00:43:55] basic one and one sort of higher end one.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Because [00:44:00] there is space for a higher end one as well where they give you other services, you know, like follow up your patients treatment [00:44:05] plans and, and all of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone who wants to be the dentist only.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. [00:44:10]

Payman Langroudi: Um, yeah, I think so now. But whether whether you’re going to be that guy or [00:44:15] not, or whether you’re just happy to do one that works or whatever it is. Yeah. Um, [00:44:20] I think there is going to be demand, right?

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Well, I hope so. And yeah, and I think these [00:44:25] add ons, I mean, we’re looking at other ways of sort of marketing and help supporting dentists [00:44:30] with helping accruing their own patients, because I think that’s going to be a barrier, isn’t it? There’s going to [00:44:35] be a dentist that might not be as hot on, on, on social media platforms, and they [00:44:40] might want some help and support. So that’s another side that’s interesting. That’s a little bit of a side business that we’re [00:44:45] looking at creating. Um, and that’s in its infancy. But yeah, we think that [00:44:50] whatever the problems these people have, these associates have or these dentists have, you [00:44:55] know, we want to help and provide a solution. We’re open to that. Just being another another [00:45:00] meeting with me and Artie to discuss it.

Payman Langroudi: So are you mainly working on this now? [00:45:05]

Chez Bright: It’s been. Yeah, this has been probably one of the busiest projects. Um, [00:45:10] but it’s kind of nice to see it. Um, when we initially started off with the ideas, [00:45:15] it coming to life. So, you know, seeing the site [00:45:20] being built and the website being put together, um, I [00:45:25] mean, we were just talking about sort of the, the points of how the process was going to work [00:45:30] from the dentists and how they were going to operate on the website and how to use it and navigate [00:45:35] around it. And all of that’s kind of come together now, hasn’t it? And everything [00:45:40] that we’ve like, sort of visualised has kind of become a reality.

Nasser Syed: And I think that’s really [00:45:45] nice, isn’t it? You got an idea? We had an idea.

Chez Bright: Yeah.

Nasser Syed: And I think that’s the bit that’s the really exciting [00:45:50] bit of it coming to life. Right. Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: That’s just I get a major [00:45:55] boss.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Name something.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And then a customer calls up and asks for that thing. [00:46:00]

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, we call it enlightened serum. Yeah. That that becomes [00:46:05] a moment where you have to name it. Right? Yeah. You have to get the logo. You have to get the logo. [00:46:10] You have to get everything right. And then three months, six months later, something’s up. I’m looking [00:46:15] for some enlightened serum. Yeah. The thing that actually exists. It came from your head. It’s [00:46:20] a wonderful thing. Yeah.

Nasser Syed: And I think also the other thing that we were chatting on the train here [00:46:25] is actually, um, about mentoring as well, in addition to the hire service. So you’ll [00:46:30] have an associate who might be doing something, um, like a loan [00:46:35] for sort of immediate load sort of thing. And, you know, they might want [00:46:40] someone there by the side of him, um, who’s very experienced. And so we’re also looking at a [00:46:45] side thing where they can we can offer up mentoring services, because in Manchester we’ve got great clinicians [00:46:50] like my brother with pros. We’ve got, um, you know, uh, Professor Julian Yates [00:46:55] for implants. Um, we’ve got Julian, who’s phenomenal. You know, we’ve got [00:47:00] really some top clinicians. I mean, I know I actually listened to his podcast before I came on. I’m [00:47:05] a big fan of I.

Payman Langroudi: Love that guy.

Nasser Syed: He’s a he’s a lovely bloke. Um, and so, [00:47:10] yeah, you know, these people might want to they might want to get a help and support [00:47:15] as well.

Payman Langroudi: So you know what it is like, the value add that you want to put here is [00:47:20] something that’s easy for you to arrange. So what you’re saying there, you’ve got a lot of contacts, specialists [00:47:25] that you can bring in easier than I can for instance here. So so [00:47:30] then you put that value add onto it. Um, but I think the there [00:47:35] might end up being in this business, an element of even attracting people away from other [00:47:40] dentists. And are you expecting nastiness in that respect?

Nasser Syed: Yes. [00:47:45] Um, I think even when I set up my sedation course, it got a bit sort [00:47:50] of, uh, nasty in 2015. Um, you know, people wondering who [00:47:55] I was, why I was setting up, and because they felt, you know, I was encroaching into their market [00:48:00] space. Yeah. You know, and I was a young guy, you know, I was I was at that point, uh, [00:48:05] nine years qualified, you know. So. Yeah. So these guys were, you know, [00:48:10] in their late 40s, you know, so, um, and so, yeah, that doesn’t [00:48:15] deter me. That doesn’t put me off. I think that’s just the nature of the game. Right? When you start to change things and you start [00:48:20] to do things and you start to move forward, there’s always someone, uh.

Payman Langroudi: That might. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s [00:48:25] almost sort of being ready for the fact that that’s going to happen and not being [00:48:30] hurt by it, you know, like.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, I’m fairly I’m fairly thick skinned right [00:48:35] into that sort of stuff. And um, if it, you know, it is going to be the nature. There’s [00:48:40] a lot of things that we’re going to learn. I’m going to have to learn quickly, and there’s going to be a, you know, [00:48:45] certain things that are going to happen that’s not so nice. But I think, you know.

Payman Langroudi: And is your plan if this works to open [00:48:50] lots of them.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Yeah, I’d like to think so. I’d like to grow up, [00:48:55] you know, in other major cities. Um, you know.

Payman Langroudi: If you’ve got, like, a private [00:49:00] equity guy that you’ve got online that you’re going to put.

[ALL]: No, no. So that’s what.

Payman Langroudi: That’s what you should be doing [00:49:05] now.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Nasser Syed: No I haven’t actually I haven’t got a private equity. Um, I’ve [00:49:10] got some wealthy friends, but whether they, uh, whether they’re interested, um, but, [00:49:15] um, yeah, I, until I, until I prove the concept and I [00:49:20] know it’s working and I can get this a this initial practice is in the right location. It’s a beautiful area. [00:49:25] If I can start to fill up the surgery space and it’s starting to work, then. Yeah, I think I’m going to need some serious [00:49:30] money to help to grow it, because then I’m probably every city with a dental school probably would need one. Yeah, [00:49:35] and that’s probably where I would start.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a funny thing, man, to say, because every city needs everything, [00:49:40] right? You could say, oh, go borrow £50 million and open a cool ping pong bar [00:49:45] in every city. Yeah. Whether it’s going to work or not, it depends on a bunch [00:49:50] of stuff. Yeah, yeah. Um, and you’re particularly strong in Manchester. Right. So is [00:49:55] is it transferable? That’s the key question. Yes, that’s a key. Key, key question. [00:50:00] Like in a town where you don’t know everyone. Yes. Have you can you build the brand to the point that [00:50:05] when the thing touches down, the dentists know what it is?

[ALL]: Exactly. Yeah, that’s [00:50:10] the key.

Payman Langroudi: And my advice is you need some form of virality. Yeah. Um, [00:50:15] and by virality, I’m not just referring to TikTok. [00:50:20] I’m talking about word of mouth virality.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So [00:50:25] what I learned, we enlightened sort of, uh, strapline used [00:50:30] to be B1 guaranteed.

[ALL]: Okay.

Payman Langroudi: That strapline it it [00:50:35] went from mouth to mouth to mouth to mouth. It just went everywhere.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Then after ten years [00:50:40] of that, we thought, oh, we’ll change the strapline. We went to this no ordinary whitening.

[ALL]: Yeah. [00:50:45]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. That doesn’t travel. Yeah. That that’s why it’s not like one dentist is not going to [00:50:50] say to another dentist, yeah, I love enlighten because it’s no ordinary whitening.

[ALL]: Okay. [00:50:55] Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Although we were at the time we were thinking oh consumers. Consumers. [00:51:00] Yeah. But so, so then you know, right now people talk about [00:51:05] enlighten and they think cost. Yeah. And we want to now change that to [00:51:10] profit.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. You know at the end of the day yeah it’s a bigger margin. Yeah. Right. [00:51:15] And so now we want but you can’t say profit because you know consumers will [00:51:20] see that on TikTok. Yeah. So now that now we’re having to make like [00:51:25] gated walled off Instagram you know private Instagram [00:51:30] enlightened for professionals that you have to come in with the GDC number so that we can we can [00:51:35] put that in. Yeah. But my point is this virality question, this is this. [00:51:40] When it’s something new, virality is kind of easier to to achieve [00:51:45] than when there’s 20 competitors? Yeah. So I like the name. You know, [00:51:50] we we we buy any car. I like that. There’s something about that.

[ALL]: Yeah. Yeah. [00:51:55]

Payman Langroudi: But something, something something something. Like, what’s the strap? And [00:52:00] like I say, in marketing, you can only get one message through.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: We also, [00:52:05] like, interested in our own business. Yeah. That you think? Oh, I can say I’ve got refrigerated [00:52:10] gel. I’ve got the tightest, but it’s not. Yeah. There’s one message you can get [00:52:15] through and you’ve got the opportunity for that.

Chez Bright: We’ve kind of got one.

Payman Langroudi: What is it? What is it?

Chez Bright: What is it? Be your own [00:52:20] boss.

Payman Langroudi: Be your own.

[ALL]: Boss. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, we we. [00:52:25]

Chez Bright: We’ve got a few to play.

[ALL]: Around.

Chez Bright: With because we we did sort of, um, test the waters a bit on [00:52:30] the strap lines, and we, we, we kind of created the website based on these little punchy [00:52:35] kind of points. Yeah. So and.

[ALL]: I mean.

Nasser Syed: Even to the point we were naming [00:52:40] surgeries and we were calling we were calling surgeries independence.

Chez Bright: It’s all.

Nasser Syed: In freedom, you [00:52:45] know, so it’s based around the fact that, you know, the associates don’t need to be [00:52:50] tied down like.

Chez Bright: There’s no stress associated with it. You know, it’s freedom [00:52:55] and.

[ALL]: It just focuses.

Nasser Syed: Just focus on the dentistry and, and sort [00:53:00] of take care of the rest for you and, and keep, keep the profit, you know, um, [00:53:05] and really that’s that’s. Yeah. So be your own boss. Yeah. I know, thank you for [00:53:10] your advice. I think we probably need to go back to our whiteboard at the practice.

Payman Langroudi: That’s [00:53:15] just the strap line, but I’m talking about everything.

[ALL]: Understand?

Payman Langroudi: Everything. So let’s [00:53:20] say this independence thing is a is a feature. Yeah. Then I come in on, on day one, something [00:53:25] happens that makes me feel like independent. Yeah. Because, you [00:53:30] know, like something that’s in brand. You’ve got the thing, you’ve got Prem. Right. He’ll, he’ll, he’ll do like a, [00:53:35] he’ll bring a donkey to a, to a, to a trade show. Yeah. And that, you know, you’re gonna have to stop and look at that [00:53:40] donkey. But but then there is the other idea that in brand ideas. Something [00:53:45] that’s correct for the. And the lovely thing about it is right now you can build the brand.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Exactly [00:53:50] as you wanted. Yeah, yeah.

Nasser Syed: No. Well that’s it. I think we’re really excited. It’s [00:53:55] really, um. We’re.

Payman Langroudi: So how far are we with it? Is it finished?

Nasser Syed: So, [00:54:00] um, we’re probably about two weeks away from the building work being finished. The website will be live [00:54:05] in probably within a month. Um, and then we’re just we’re going to do, [00:54:10] like an open, open event, um, where race is, is going [00:54:15] to sort of lead on that and, and really offer the mentoring side by side with that, because I think [00:54:20] that’s, that’s a really unique feature because, yeah, you can have other competitors that.

[ALL]: Can that’s a great. [00:54:25]

Nasser Syed: Thing. But you know yourself, you know, you you want sometimes you just want someone by the side [00:54:30] of you when you’re doing something complex and, and that security that you can have that within [00:54:35] the facility that we’re offering. You know, when, you know, I thought it was a brilliant [00:54:40] idea. I thought it was fantastic. It goes hand in hand with what we’re trying to breed, which is independence, freedom, [00:54:45] less stress and all this sort of stuff. And at the end of the day, the patient gets the best result [00:54:50] and that’s a win. It’s a win for win for everyone, and that’s always nice.

Payman Langroudi: I think it’d be really interesting, [00:54:55] like having a per year case treatment planning [00:55:00] fee, you know, like they do with Invisalign. Yeah these guys, that’s what they do. Yeah. [00:55:05] Other people send them their checks. Yeah. They send that what they would for £250. [00:55:10] Yeah. You should have that. You should have pros from Riaz.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:55:15] an ortho one, an implant one that you will do the treatment planning for an extra [00:55:20] £200 per case. It’s interesting.

Nasser Syed: The actual thing would be it’s going to we’re going [00:55:25] to automate it. And that’s what we were trying. What we were talking about is, is, um, they’ll be able [00:55:30] to, to have a one hour meeting with Reince before, before actually the mentoring session. [00:55:35] And, and they’ll need to submit some data. But then Riaz will sit down with them and go, here’s the pitfalls and the [00:55:40] stresses and the problems with what you’re trying to achieve. And that one hour might [00:55:45] be enough for that clinician to go right. That’s exactly what I needed. Now I can go and do it. Or they might [00:55:50] go, you know what? That was really good, actually. I want you by the side of me when I’m doing [00:55:55] this because I’m still not all there. And I go, great. And Riaz will offer [00:56:00] his services. So there’s going to be a mixture of a bit of online and a bit of, um, mentoring [00:56:05] that way and a bit of face to face whatever the clinician needs. Right? It’s what do they want? [00:56:10] What? And giving them the flexibility in that decision making.

Payman Langroudi: Amazing [00:56:15] man.

Nasser Syed: Oh thank you. Yeah it’s.

[ALL]: Been.

Payman Langroudi: I love how busy you are. And then you decide to do something. [00:56:20]

[ALL]: On top.

Payman Langroudi: Of that.

[ALL]: As well.

Nasser Syed: There’ll be another thing soon I think. Um I think.

Chez Bright: I’m [00:56:25] sure there will be.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Chez Bright: But I enjoy it. It’s really exciting, and I think [00:56:30] I like the element of doing. I’m always, like, doing something different. It’s never, [00:56:35] never the same. So. And I do enjoy it. So.

Payman Langroudi: No. And amazing to learn without. [00:56:40] Without the risk. Yeah, he’s taking it with every project. He’s taking a risk.

Chez Bright: I’m learning something.

Payman Langroudi: I’m [00:56:45] learning any.

Chez Bright: Risk at all? Yeah.

[ALL]: Yeah, yeah.

Nasser Syed: We [00:56:50] plan to sort of, um, work together until we both retire to a fair.

[ALL]: Um. [00:56:55] But. Yeah, but, um.

Nasser Syed: No, it’s good. And I say I can’t do it without [00:57:00] a team. If you don’t have the team supporting you, it’s only there’s limitations on [00:57:05] what you can do. So thankfully, you know, these guys are here supporting me and allows [00:57:10] me to be creative.

Payman Langroudi: Let’s get to the darker part of the pod. [00:57:15]

Nasser Syed: Okay?

Payman Langroudi: We like to talk about mistakes.

[ALL]: Okay.

Payman Langroudi: Clinical errors.

[ALL]: Yeah. [00:57:20]

Payman Langroudi: You must have made a few.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, I think, uh, definitely.

[ALL]: What comes to mind? I [00:57:25] think one.

Nasser Syed: That comes to mind is very early on [00:57:30] in my career, uh, probably probably 2 to 3 years. You know, [00:57:35] you were in that position where you just want to make the patient happy. You just want to please the patient. You want to do exactly what [00:57:40] the patient wants. And the patient came in and had a postcranium with no endo. And [00:57:45] there was periapical pathology. Right.

[ALL]: Um.

Nasser Syed: You know, so some.

[ALL]: Old, old, good old.

Nasser Syed: Days. [00:57:50] Right? And she had some pain and symptoms and I thought, oh, well, I could take that post out [00:57:55] and I’ll redo it and I’ll put a new one in and. Yeah. Um, very quickly perforated [00:58:00] and, uh, all went horribly wrong. A bit hypochlorite went into the soft tissues. [00:58:05] Yeah. And then, um, she kindly went to go and see a solicitor afterwards, and and [00:58:10] that was that. So, uh, you know, and I think you then you very quickly start to learn and things like this [00:58:15] have to happen because you understand, actually, why did I do that? You have to [00:58:20] reflect on it and go, well, what made me do that? And where’s my limitations? Where’s my skill set? [00:58:25] Um, and so, yeah, I think, um, that was a very valuable lesson.

Payman Langroudi: So what are the answers? [00:58:30] What? Why did you do that? You were trying to keep the patient happy.

Nasser Syed: I just yeah, I think it was just to please, [00:58:35] um, I think my personality at that, my personality [00:58:40] was you. Look, you know, I can do any you know, you come out with cocky maybe a little bit after [00:58:45] dental school and you think, yeah, I can do these things.

Payman Langroudi: Also, we’re we’re in a yes business. Yeah, we’re we’re in a [00:58:50] service business.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: We’re saying yes is what you’re always trying to do. And [00:58:55] I think experience gets you to that point of when it’s like an alarm.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Don’t [00:59:00] say yes to everything. Yeah, but what happened? So she sued you, and then she got paid out. [00:59:05]

Nasser Syed: She got paid out in indemnity.

Payman Langroudi: Was it quite quick or was it stressful?

[ALL]: Um. Stressful? [00:59:10] Yeah, it was my first one.

Nasser Syed: You know, I think that’s why.

[ALL]: And you were young.

Nasser Syed: That’s that’s why it’s sort of [00:59:15] probably stained into my brain. It was my first one. I went in with the best intentions, [00:59:20] you know? Um, and I felt, you know, hurt because of that. Um, [00:59:25] I think, um, and, you know, I understand things didn’t go well, and I understand [00:59:30] there was complications to that, um, and I yeah, I just I think that’s why [00:59:35] it it’s stuck into my head. But you know, you learn and I say I’m much more comfortable to say no. Now, [00:59:40] you know, if I see a patient and they want something and I don’t think it’s right, or I don’t think I [00:59:45] can do it or whatever it may be, I just go, no, you know, and I, you know, and [00:59:50] I try and get that across to my training, my associates, my, my FDA plus ones because they all come in [00:59:55] similar personality, you know, the, the sort of want to do lots [01:00:00] of everything. And they want to want to challenge themselves. And, and you say, look, you know, you [01:00:05] need to calm down a little bit. You know, you, you know, you’ve got to build up, you’ve got to I would [01:00:10] say lay your bricks. Right. You know, everyone wants to see this fancy wall where the wall is made up of individual [01:00:15] bricks, and you’ve got to lay one on top of each other to create the wall. So that’s going to take time. Um, [01:00:20] so don’t rush. Um, and, and they’ve got that relationship with me [01:00:25] where they’ll call me and go and say, I’ve got this case, what do you think? And I’ll give them my opinion. Um, and [01:00:30] so it hopefully deviates some of these problems That I experienced [01:00:35] early on my career.

Payman Langroudi: I think, you know, what you said about intent is is so huge. [01:00:40] Yeah, because I stopped practising 20, 12, 13 years ago. In [01:00:45] 2009, I got a complaint letter where [01:00:50] I was really trying to do my best, and this patient put something out. [01:00:55] He didn’t care or something. And I really took it personally. I’m talking [01:01:00] about it. 12. What was it? 14 years later I’m still talking about. It was a letter. [01:01:05] Yeah, but you know how they. The advice they give you is not to take [01:01:10] these things personally. Yeah, you have to take, you know, the error personally [01:01:15] so that you don’t make the error again. Yeah. And the error in that situation and in [01:01:20] my situation is a communication error. Yeah. I did not communicate that. My [01:01:25] intentions were brilliant. Yeah. I mean, of course some people the odd patient here and there [01:01:30] will even though they knew your intentions were brilliant, the lawyer will persuade them to write that they weren’t. Yeah, [01:01:35] but but what I’m saying is taking full sort of. What do you call it? The responsibility [01:01:40] for the error and knowing that the error wasn’t necessarily the perforation, [01:01:45] it could have been the communication. Yeah. You were a young dentist. And number two, the [01:01:50] other thing where you say no to a patient. And I always reflect on this [01:01:55] like some of the people I respect the most. And, you know, I deal with [01:02:00] like, I don’t know, commercial lawyer. Yeah. All the way to some expert [01:02:05] on, you know, German regulatory affairs or Indian are trying to [01:02:10] get toothpaste into India. A total nightmare. Yeah. Um, and some of the ones I respect the most [01:02:15] say, I don’t know all the time. All the time? Yeah. And [01:02:20] when you’re young, you feel like saying I don’t know is a weakness.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Because. [01:02:25] Because you don’t know much. But some experts will say I don’t know. [01:02:30] And you think, well, well done. Thanks for saying that. Yeah. Not making it up, right.

[ALL]: No.

Nasser Syed: Well I, [01:02:35] I went to a course. It was a, it was a soft tissue implant course. [01:02:40] It was, uh, about connective tissue graft from the palate. And, um, there was a specialist [01:02:45] periodontist there. Um, and he, he was, um, he was telling us [01:02:50] about how he consults his patients, and he does a lot of, uh, gingival recession work [01:02:55] around teeth and, and, you know, a lot he gets a lot of referrals from, from [01:03:00] surrounding colleagues. And he just says to patients, you know, they go, will this work? [01:03:05] And he’s like, I don’t know. Um, I hope so. But, you know, no guarantees. [01:03:10] And and he says the patients just look at it in blank face like my, my, my dentist [01:03:15] has told me to come and see you because you I’ve been told that you’re the best and you’re going to correct my problem. [01:03:20] And now you’re going through all this, and now you’re saying you don’t know. And he’s like, no, but I don’t, you know. [01:03:25]

[ALL]: That’s a.

Payman Langroudi: Degree of confidence to.

[ALL]: Say, oh yeah, that’s the point.

Nasser Syed: And they don’t they still buy services. [01:03:30] I think sometimes when they actually look back at it, they they appreciate the honesty. [01:03:35]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Plus plus, you know, you’re having to go through consent processes all [01:03:40] the time right. What could go wrong. Yeah. You’d imagine if you start telling them all the [01:03:45] things that go wrong, you’ll put them off. Yeah. But actually that builds trust as well. This guy’s been around the [01:03:50] block. He knows what could go wrong here.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And again, another mistake of young dentists. [01:03:55] Um, other mistakes I’ve seen with young dentists, communication errors here where they, they almost [01:04:00] download everything in their head into the patient.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Which just seems so, like, obvious [01:04:05] when you’re young. Yeah, but I’m going to just tell you everything I know. Yeah, but the patient doesn’t want everything. The [01:04:10] patient wants. Distilled version.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And I find a lot of, you know, like this. You’ve [01:04:15] got this choice, and you’ve got that choice and you’ve got that choice. Yeah, I see that as a bit of a cop [01:04:20] out. Yeah. Like you’re the professional. Okay. You’ve got six choices. Yeah. Which is the one?

[ALL]: Yeah. [01:04:25]

Payman Langroudi: Which is the one? That’s the difference between a good lawyer and a great lawyer [01:04:30] is the one who’ll say, okay, there are these four choices. If it was me, I would do that.

[ALL]: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. [01:04:35]

Payman Langroudi: But as a young dentist, you just think, oh, I’ll just get everything.

[ALL]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do absolutely everything. [01:04:40]

Nasser Syed: But again and I get that, I get the young dentists are sitting with me through consultations [01:04:45] and I tell them, you know, I like how I converse. Actually, funnily enough, there was one [01:04:50] patient that I just finished restoring an implant yesterday, and [01:04:55] the two young associates said, can I be in with you while restoring the patient? And I said, yeah, [01:05:00] come in. And, um, restored the patient. Everything fine. And, um, I [01:05:05] said, so why do you think how did it go? And they just said they were surprised how relaxed [01:05:10] the conversation was between me and the patient, you know, and I said, yeah, but that’s [01:05:15] what the patients want. You know, they’re already a little bit anxious about coming to dentist and generally don’t [01:05:20] like being here. And you’ve got to calm that whole situation down. And in essence, [01:05:25] you become quite friendly. Um, Uh.

Payman Langroudi: And also that’s your default. [01:05:30] Like, you’ve got to not underestimate like some dentists when they become dentists. You’ve [01:05:35] been a nurse before with other dentists. Yeah. When did the dentist this sort [01:05:40] of high and mighty person. Yeah. And but some people, this disposition isn’t that. [01:05:45]

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. I’m definitely from the patient perspective. They want to know you care before anything [01:05:50] else. Right.

Nasser Syed: Well that is I mean, even this the patient that I was talking about, you know, he [01:05:55] came to me and I placed implants on him before, and I said, look, I’m really quietening down now. I’m [01:06:00] not doing much surgery. You want to go and see my other guy? Uh, he’s, you know, he’s [01:06:05] really good. And the patient went, no, I want you to do it. But I said, look, really, [01:06:10] you know, I am really quietening down. I don’t really want to. And he goes, no, [01:06:15] you’re doing it. And I went, okay, fine.

[ALL]: And so I.

Nasser Syed: Begrudgingly [01:06:20] agreed to it and I finally just finished it off. Um, but yeah, you get you know, [01:06:25] I think that takes time and experience to develop that sort of communication [01:06:30] skills with your patients. But that’s what I’m trying. And still within the associates, [01:06:35] you need to be able to gain the patient’s confidence to the point that they they only just want you [01:06:40] and they’ll follow you because they do. Patients are quite loyal.

Payman Langroudi: What [01:06:45] are you really bad at? Maybe I should ask you.

[ALL]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What’s he really bad at?

Nasser Syed: That’s a good one. [01:06:50]

[ALL]: You can be honest.

Chez Bright: Don’t worry.

[ALL]: Go [01:06:55] for.

Chez Bright: It. Um. I don’t know, to [01:07:00] be honest, I don’t think there is anything that you’re bad at. I think.

Payman Langroudi: There’s [01:07:05] lots of things, I’m.

[ALL]: Sure. Yeah.

Chez Bright: I don’t know.

Payman Langroudi: What [01:07:10] do you mean by that? You know.

[ALL]: Um.

Nasser Syed: I’m. [01:07:15] I’m probably a bit sort of jumpy, [01:07:20] so I jump around in different ways. Yeah. So sometimes [01:07:25] I just need to calm down a little bit. Um, um.

Chez Bright: I [01:07:30] think actually go on. Probably just having a bit of [01:07:35] a chill and a day off. A day off?

Payman Langroudi: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Chez Bright: You can’t really, can you? That’s [01:07:40] probably one thing that you are bad. Actually.

Nasser Syed: I struggle with that. Yeah. Switching off even when [01:07:45] I’m abroad. Um, so I actually one of, one of my most favourite holidays [01:07:50] was I went to Thailand. Um, and the reason it was [01:07:55] really good, because by 10 p.m., you know, the kids are going off to bed and everyone’s [01:08:00] in chill mode, but it’s 2 p.m. in UK, so I can really get on top of [01:08:05] some work in the evening. Really check. Some emails are still open and I can [01:08:10] still check in and everyone. So how was work and everything? So I’ve done all the fun stuff [01:08:15] during the day and then I can still do some work in the evening. Yeah, I think I do.

Chez Bright: And then.

Nasser Syed: We’re just [01:08:20] catching.

Chez Bright: Up. When you’re on holiday now, just have a day off. Like, just chill out. [01:08:25] Just switch off, unwind, recharge and then come back with a fresh head. [01:08:30]

Nasser Syed: I always feel a little bit better when I come back. To be fair, but, um, but.

Payman Langroudi: You [01:08:35] know, the the Archimedes theory of fluid displacement. Eureka. That guy, [01:08:40] when he figured out how to figure out whether it’s a real gold crown or not. Yeah. You know, [01:08:45] so he was some scientist. The king said to him. I’ve got this crown. Is it [01:08:50] is it gold or isn’t it? Yeah. He wasn’t sure in the face. The [01:08:55] story goes, he was in the shower. He went to have a bath. His wife told him, stop working. [01:09:00] You need a bath. Okay. Yeah. His wife makes him a bath. He drops the the the [01:09:05] crown in the water, the displacement of the water. He figures out that, [01:09:10] um, you know, that you can tell that the density of the metal from [01:09:15] the amount of displacement. And then he runs in the streets naked, saying, Eureka, Eureka! [01:09:20] That’s where the eureka comes But the point of the story is the wife, the [01:09:25] wife saying, slow down and have a bath. Yeah. Yeah.

Nasser Syed: And sometimes when you’re [01:09:30] away, I get that, you know, you sort of out of the out of the mayhem and [01:09:35] sometimes you’re able to have these sort of eureka moments.

Payman Langroudi: And I’m not [01:09:40] very busy right now. Right now. Okay. As I was in the first ten years [01:09:45] of enlighten. Um, and I remember in the first ten years, I used to go [01:09:50] to my parents place in Spain, and the first two days I’d be walking around the pool with [01:09:55] my phone, you know, like, completely not. And then I’d notice by day 4 or 5, [01:10:00] I’m slowing down. By day 7 or 8, I’ve forgotten where the phone is. Yeah, it was back then. [01:10:05] You couldn’t. You couldn’t scroll, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, but sometimes [01:10:10] we’re not built for it either. Right. You know, some people want to keep going continuously. [01:10:15] Yeah, they’re good at that.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. No.

Payman Langroudi: Are you an early morning person [01:10:20] or late night person.

Nasser Syed: I’m definitely an early morning person. After sort of [01:10:25] ten half, ten, 11, I’m. If I’m working still, I [01:10:30] can see that, you know, things aren’t making sense anymore. My emails are just a gobbledegook. [01:10:35]

Payman Langroudi: So work every night?

Nasser Syed: Pretty much. Yeah, yeah. [01:10:40]

Payman Langroudi: So you come home from whatever you were doing?

Nasser Syed: Yeah, I spent a bit. I spent time with family.

Payman Langroudi: So [01:10:45] when you work again.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Every night.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. But [01:10:50] I’m not as bad as my brother, so my brother’s listening. He’s much worse than me. [01:10:55]

Payman Langroudi: Ask yourself, though, do you go to the gym and all that?

Nasser Syed: I do try, I do try. I should go a bit [01:11:00] more often, but I try and get sort of to 2 to 3 times a week. I do try.

Payman Langroudi: So there must be a [01:11:05] moment of me time. When is that? 5 a.m.. Well, what time [01:11:10] do you wake up?

Nasser Syed: Um, I’m usually up by by about 530. Yeah. Yeah, [01:11:15] five.

Payman Langroudi: Do you spend an hour by yourself doing nothing?

Nasser Syed: Um, What? I usually everyone’s [01:11:20] still asleep, so that’s why I really enjoy that time.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Wait, you don’t work at that point?

Nasser Syed: Well, I’m sort [01:11:25] of getting ready, but then I might just do a few bits and pieces. Yes, depending on what’s going on. [01:11:30] Uh, I think we’re just going to get busy and busy with some of these projects. So, um, but [01:11:35] yeah, I think, um, my mornings are it’s peaceful. It’s really peaceful. [01:11:40] Everyone’s still asleep. I can just.

Payman Langroudi: Kind of your me time. Right.

Nasser Syed: That is kind of my me time. Yeah. And then I try [01:11:45] and get to the gym when I can, and then that’s a bit of me time. Um.

Payman Langroudi: I’m amazed you thought you didn’t [01:11:50] need a PA and all that going on.

Nasser Syed: I didn’t, and you know what? I’ve [01:11:55] got a few friends who are, uh, growing practices now, and that’s [01:12:00] the exact same information I say to them who don’t have PA, I say, you must get a [01:12:05] pa, um, because you’ll notice how your life changes. Um, funnily enough, there’s there’s [01:12:10] a chap in in in Wales. He’s he owns a few dental practices and I met up with him [01:12:15] and I told him about my situation, how things have improved since I’ve got people around me. [01:12:20] He’s done exactly the same thing, and he’s hired. And he sends me messages saying, that was the best [01:12:25] advice you’ve ever given me, because you can’t do it on your own, and there’s only so much you can do, [01:12:30] and you need good people around you.

Payman Langroudi: Especially if you’re a dentist. If you’re a dentist, you’re most of your day is taken [01:12:35] up by patients. Yeah, yeah. Like it’s crazy that, you know, you’ve only got the lunchtime [01:12:40] and the whatever before patients and after patients to do something. Yeah. It’s [01:12:45] mad. Yeah, yeah. So if you want to do things you need help.

Nasser Syed: And that was the that [01:12:50] was the early stages where I owned a few practices and I was still doing a lot of clinical dentistry. So it was [01:12:55] I would sort of in between patients, go and answer some telephone calls and deal with some matters, and then [01:13:00] I’ll say lunchtime and then on the way home from work and so on and so forth. And it was [01:13:05] it was 2022. I thought, this isn’t working. Um, and you [01:13:10] have to make a decision.

Payman Langroudi: What’s been your lowest point?

Nasser Syed: In [01:13:15] dentistry or in just everything.

Payman Langroudi: I’ll have whatever you want to give me.

Nasser Syed: Um. [01:13:20]

Payman Langroudi: Well, let’s talk work first.

Nasser Syed: Um. Lowest point. Um, so [01:13:25] I attended for some oral surgery contracts. Um, and, [01:13:30] you know, I put a lot of work and effort into it and a lot of money into it, and, um, [01:13:35] and, um, and it wasn’t successful, [01:13:40] and it was just on a stupid error that that’s the bit that annoyed me the most. It was [01:13:45] a real stupid error. Um, and it was just the point. It, [01:13:50] you know, there was you could blame this person and that person and so on and so forth. But ultimately I [01:13:55] was responsible. Um, and so I had to take on the chin. Um, but [01:14:00] that that’s that has always hurt because, um, because I’m a oral surgeon. [01:14:05] Right. And to have an oral surgery contract just makes sense. Yeah. And I know I do a great job of [01:14:10] it. And I knew the patients would be treated fantastically. I knew all the people of the workforce would be great. And he [01:14:15] had it all in my mind. I had it all mapped out and then it was just a stupid error. [01:14:20] And, um, I didn’t win. Um, and I think that that that really [01:14:25] hurt.

Payman Langroudi: But okay, I understand the, the notion of it would have been good [01:14:30] and you’d put in some hours. Yeah. But did you have some sort of existential crisis saying like [01:14:35] that? That mistake was made because I’m a loser kind of, I, [01:14:40] I thought because because when I say low point, I was expecting a lower point [01:14:45] than that.

[ALL]: Okay. Yeah. No. Professionally that that was [01:14:50] quite low for me to me.

Payman Langroudi: Because with all the stuff that you’re doing, all those practices, all those associates, [01:14:55] all that implantology for that to be the low point, you.

[ALL]: Know, [01:15:00] it’s all been.

Nasser Syed: A blessing.

[ALL]: To be fair. [01:15:05] Um, I am very blessed. Um, but yeah.

Nasser Syed: That was that was that I took that. [01:15:10]

Payman Langroudi: I believe in God.

Nasser Syed: Yes, yes.

Payman Langroudi: When was it? It? When? At what point was your [01:15:15] faith most tested?

Nasser Syed: Um, [01:15:20] well, for me, um, my my mother passed away in 2022. [01:15:25] Um. Um, and that that that [01:15:30] was a massive test. Um, it’s still a test. It’s it’s [01:15:35] still painful every day. Um, you know, when you have your moment, um, the [01:15:40] person that you can’t do no wrong. Always there for you always got your [01:15:45] back. Never going to leave you, never gonna, um, do anything to harm you or [01:15:50] do anything wrong. You know, for you, you know, to lose that person [01:15:55] is. It rips. It rips a part of you [01:16:00] away. Um.

Payman Langroudi: Did you still have your dad or. No. At that point?

Nasser Syed: No. My dad had passed away before, [01:16:05] but, um, me and my mum was released. It was was. We were very close, you know, [01:16:10] every day from I would finish work, I would go and see my mom. Whoa. And [01:16:15] I’d go in, and it don’t matter how bad your day was, but as soon as you came in, it [01:16:20] just relieved. You’re stressed or relieved because your mum would just sit [01:16:25] you down and feed you, give you tea, give you biscuits and put the TV on. She’s not interested [01:16:30] in what what what you got? You know what you’re going to give her, what you’re going to do for or [01:16:35] what you’re going to. You know, she’s just there. She was just there to make things better. [01:16:40] Um, and, um, and then I it didn’t matter if I was there for 5 minutes [01:16:45] or 2 hours. It was enough of a refresh [01:16:50] for that. I could leave that, leave my mum at that point and go. Mm. I feel a bit better. Um, [01:16:55] and when you lose that part of your life, that’s, um. It’s. [01:17:00] Life’s never the same.

Payman Langroudi: No. And losing both parents, that moment of there [01:17:05] is no parent. Right.

Nasser Syed: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: How does that feel?

Nasser Syed: It’s. [01:17:10] It’s difficult. [01:17:15] I mean, I’m sort of blessed with with with with my siblings, you know, I’ve [01:17:20] got my brother, um, I’ve got an older sister, two older sisters, um, and [01:17:25] my elder sister. We’re very close as well. So she gets my daily telephone calls, you know, [01:17:30] once or twice a day where, you know, we can talk about anything. Um, she’d [01:17:35] tell me about her day. I can tell, and that’s what I need. I, you know, it’s just an outlet where, [01:17:40] you know, it can be. We can be talking nonsense. It doesn’t even need to make sense. But [01:17:45] it just something where you can just outlet, where there’s no barrier, there’s no. I need to [01:17:50] think about what I say before I say it. And that constant thought [01:17:55] on your mind. And you just have a period of time where that doesn’t matter, you [01:18:00] know, it can decompress you. Um, and [01:18:05] so, yeah. So I’m quite blessed in that we all live quite close to each other. You [01:18:10] know, my eldest brother is ten minutes from my house. My other. My sister’s 15 minutes away, you [01:18:15] know. Um, so in that way, we’ve been very supportive of one another. And I think that’s [01:18:20] really helped. I think without that, things could have been very different.

Payman Langroudi: So [01:18:25] then when you say your faith was most tested at that moment, what do [01:18:30] you mean? Did you pray to God that your mum would make it and she didn’t, and that made you think [01:18:35] there is no God?

Nasser Syed: No, no, I don’t think I don’t think my faith was was ultimately tested. [01:18:40] It was a difficult part where we.

Payman Langroudi: Were you saying the opposite? Are you saying that’s when your [01:18:45] faith really helped you?

Nasser Syed: Yes, exactly. Yeah. I think, you know, that’s where my faith came into it. [01:18:50] Uh, in a sense that we we sort of believe we are going to be tested. Life isn’t [01:18:55] going to be easy. It’s all not all going to be roses. And, uh.

Payman Langroudi: And when [01:19:00] someone passes away. Right? I don’t believe in God. Right. So it’s very hard. Very [01:19:05] hard.

Nasser Syed: It’s very.

Payman Langroudi: Difficult. It’s very hard anyway. Yeah, but. But what I’m saying is, if you believe in God, [01:19:10] then you think, okay, they’re looking down on me. They’re with. They’re in a better place. They’re [01:19:15] with their own, uh, parents or whatever, you know, other people who’ve passed away. Yeah. All of [01:19:20] that stuff is kind of soothing a little bit. Of course it’s soothing, but, [01:19:25] you know, a little bit. Yeah. For me, I don’t believe in that. I don’t, I don’t, I really don’t I wish I did in [01:19:30] a way because I see it helps. Yeah. I believe when someone dies, they die. That’s gone. Yeah. [01:19:35] You’re left with almost nothing. Yeah. No one’s looking down. Yeah. They’re not in a better place. [01:19:40] None of that. Yeah, yeah, but I want to understand the other side of it. When was your faith most tested? When [01:19:45] did you think maybe there is no God? Like, what happened to you that made you.

Nasser Syed: I don’t think I’ve ever [01:19:50] been in that situation, if I’m being honest.

Payman Langroudi: A child getting run over two days old, don’t you think? [01:19:55] Where was God in that moment?

Nasser Syed: I don’t think I see it in that way. Um, I don’t, you [01:20:00] know, I don’t see that, um, that if something bad [01:20:05] happens, Then there is, you know, why did God do that? I don’t think, I don’t think. [01:20:10]

Payman Langroudi: I think.

Nasser Syed: Like I don’t question it.

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Nasser Syed: No. I think my faith, um, says [01:20:15] what will be, will be. Uh, and really, our faith will get it. Get, [01:20:20] get you through this.

Payman Langroudi: In the end.

Nasser Syed: In the end, um, and in the end, we, you know, we ultimately, [01:20:25] as as humans don’t understand the whole, uh, logistics. [01:20:30]

Payman Langroudi: God moves in mysterious ways.

Nasser Syed: And all that sort sort of way. And who [01:20:35] are us to who are us to question it? Um, and so when we’re faced with these [01:20:40] calamities or difficulties, um, my, my faith is my [01:20:45] support. Uh, what will be will be.

Payman Langroudi: No. [01:20:50] Calm, calm. That’s more kismet, right? Yeah. Karma. Kind of. If I do, good, good will [01:20:55] come back. Yeah, if you believe in that.

Nasser Syed: I believe in doing good. Um, not [01:21:00] necessarily in getting something in return.

Payman Langroudi: But do you think it will? And by the [01:21:05] way, the opposite. Yeah, like of course, of course. Well, you’re good to me. I’ll be good. Back to you. Yeah, but I’m talking about sort of supernatural [01:21:10] karma.

Chez Bright: The energy that you put out into the universe. It comes back to you in the same [01:21:15] way that you put it out there.

Payman Langroudi: Someone drops something, you pick it up, and you don’t ask who, [01:21:20] who, whose £10 note is this? You go and buy something with that £10 and that thing fucks your life. [01:21:25] Yeah. Do you believe? I believe in that.

Nasser Syed: I believe in that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Nasser Syed: I do believe [01:21:30] in that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I think.

Nasser Syed: I think that we.

Payman Langroudi: You know.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. If you [01:21:35] do, if you, uh, and especially around money. Right. Because money is the root of all evil. [01:21:40] I really, truly believe that. I think money is evil. Um, if you if you if [01:21:45] your primary focus is just being rich and buying stuff.

Payman Langroudi: It tells you to.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, yeah. Because [01:21:50] then, you know, you you you’ll cheat someone to get some more money and so on and so forth, and [01:21:55] then. But that money will never be good for you. That money will never. That money will. [01:22:00]

Chez Bright: Wanted.

Nasser Syed: It’s tainted. Right? It will come. It will come out plus some, right? [01:22:05] In other ways. It will happen. And it’s [01:22:10] only when you truly reflect and go, why did that thing happen?

Chez Bright: It’s because of that. [01:22:15]

Payman Langroudi: It’s $10.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, and I lost. Yeah, whatever. And. [01:22:20] Yeah. But, um. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Do what comes to mind if I say, what was the best lecture or lecturer [01:22:25] or course that you’ve been on?

Nasser Syed: Uh, lecturer I, I, I [01:22:30] was thinking about this, and I was, um, there was one lecture when I was again, a very [01:22:35] young, uh, dentist by a prof. Ibbotson.

Payman Langroudi: I remember him, yeah.

Nasser Syed: And [01:22:40] he’s just a charming.

Payman Langroudi: Charming.

Nasser Syed: And he was a fantastic speaker. You [01:22:45] know, he could really hold your attention. So it didn’t even matter what he [01:22:50] was talking about. I don’t think, you know, he just had that charisma. And, um. [01:22:55] And so he always comes back to mind. And when I try and lecture, I try and get a little percentage [01:23:00] of Yeah, why? He could. I can never achieve it. But he was. I [01:23:05] like to talk when I. When I do like I like to talk about stories. You know my experiences. [01:23:10] So yes, I’ve got 15 slides and I’ve got 20 pictures and yeah there’s [01:23:15] a, there’s, there’s, there’s a formality of what I’m going to teach you, but really I [01:23:20] want to tell you about my stories because you’re going to learn a little bit more and it’s real life and [01:23:25] you can relate to.

Payman Langroudi: It programmed to, to learn through stories.

Nasser Syed: And so I tend to just [01:23:30] tell experiences. Um, um, and so we can spend a whole two hour lecture [01:23:35] on and I could cover a few stories and, and, and then things then work off that, you [01:23:40] know, they’ll ask questions and so on and so forth. And I really enjoyed that part of lecturing rather than slide [01:23:45] one to slide 20. And I always say at the start of lecture, one lecture in particular [01:23:50] I’ve got about, you know, 120 slides, I said, if I get anywhere [01:23:55] close to halfway, something’s not going right because you’ve not [01:24:00] engaged, right? Um, and so the best time is I get to [01:24:05] lecture, I get to slide 2530, and it’s the end of time. I think that’s that’s really useful [01:24:10] because now it’s interesting. I’ve now answered your questions. Not what I think [01:24:15] you should know. Yes, I’ve got that there. And you can always come back to me anyway about it. But you’ve [01:24:20] had questions and I’ve answered those and that’s valuable.

Payman Langroudi: Have you got a favourite book Dental book [01:24:25] or resource?

Nasser Syed: Um, I do like a Dental update. Uh, yeah, I [01:24:30] do like a Dental update from time to time. Bit of a coffee and some tea and some Dental [01:24:35] update is is quite good. Uh, I should plug my book. Actually, to be fair, [01:24:40] he’s got he’s got he’s got a book that. [01:24:45]

Payman Langroudi: You haven’t read yet.

Nasser Syed: Yeah, it’s very big, but, [01:24:50] um. Yeah. So, um. Yeah. Dental updates. Quite fun.

Payman Langroudi: Excellent. I’ve really enjoyed [01:24:55] that. I’m going to end with the same question as you always end on. A fantasy [01:25:00] dinner party. Three guests, dead or alive. And you’re going to share them, right? Yeah, [01:25:05] you’re going to have two and you’re going to have one. Is that right?

Nasser Syed: Let’s do that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Well, [01:25:10] you want to go the other way round. Do you want to have two or you can have three. You can have three.

Chez Bright: No, no.

Payman Langroudi: What are yours. [01:25:15]

Nasser Syed: My, my my two. So I’ll leave one for. For shares. Um, I think what [01:25:20] I grew up around Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. So Will Smith. Will Smith would be a cool [01:25:25] dinner. Um.

Payman Langroudi: And even after he punched that guy. Yeah.

Nasser Syed: Will [01:25:30] Smith during Fresh Prince of Bel-Air time.

Payman Langroudi: Oh. That was. Yeah, he was cool. He was. [01:25:35]

Nasser Syed: Will Smith.

Payman Langroudi: He was funny.

Nasser Syed: That would be really good. And the second one. Don’t judge me. Would be, uh, Pablo [01:25:40] Escobar.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really?

Nasser Syed: I think that would.

Payman Langroudi: Be an interesting.

Nasser Syed: That would be really, [01:25:45] really interesting. Just his life. And put the drugs to one side. But, [01:25:50] um.

Payman Langroudi: Did you watch the serial? Um. Narcos.

Nasser Syed: Narcos? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: The actor was brilliant. The [01:25:55] one. The one who played Escobar.

Nasser Syed: Brilliant.

Payman Langroudi: Fantastic Argentinian guy. He was brilliant. Yeah.

Nasser Syed: And [01:26:00] elements of that was based on on on his life, you know, willing to pay off the national [01:26:05] debts.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. You know, he was interesting guy.

Nasser Syed: That is.

Payman Langroudi: Just.

Nasser Syed: Insanity. Right. But [01:26:10] the balls. Right?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Nasser Syed: The courage and and so I think that would be quite fun.

Payman Langroudi: Good accommodation. [01:26:15] Yeah. Accommodation.

Chez Bright: And you see, I was going to say Channing Tatum. [01:26:20] But now I’m thinking I want to say Chris Rock because he said Will Smith to see if they kind of squash [01:26:25] this beef with Jada Pinkett thing.

Payman Langroudi: Interesting.

Nasser Syed: That would be good [01:26:30] actually. Yeah.

Chez Bright: So yeah, I’m gonna say Chris Rock now.

Payman Langroudi: Excellent.

Nasser Syed: Might end up being a [01:26:35] referee during that one. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Really enjoyed that man. Really enjoyed that. I think what [01:26:40] I’ve learned the most from you is, uh, to work a bit harder. No, [01:26:45] but but but you do it with a brilliant smile on your face. And when I came [01:26:50] to your practice, everyone seemed so happy. And for me, that’s. It’s difficult [01:26:55] to pull that off, man, when you have the number of people that you’ve got to deal with, and everyone in [01:27:00] that room was so happy. Well done.

Nasser Syed: Thank you so much.

Payman Langroudi: It’s not easy to pull that off.

Nasser Syed: And thank you [01:27:05] for coming to lecturing actually. They really, really enjoyed it. So thank you.

Payman Langroudi: Good to good to have both [01:27:10] of you.

Nasser Syed: Yeah. Thank you.

Payman Langroudi: Thank you.

[VOICE]: This is Dental Leaders, [01:27:15] the podcast where you get to go one on one with emerging leaders [01:27:20] in dentistry. Your hosts [01:27:25] Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki.

Prav Solanki: Thanks for listening, guys. [01:27:30] If you got this far, you must have listened to the whole thing. And just a huge thank you both [01:27:35] from me and pay for actually sticking through and listening to what we’ve had to say and what our guest [01:27:40] has had to say, because I’m assuming you got some value out of it.

Payman Langroudi: If you did get some value out of it, [01:27:45] think about subscribing. And if you would share this with a friend who you [01:27:50] think might get some value out of it too. Thank you so so so much for listening. Thanks.

Prav Solanki: And don’t forget our [01:27:55] six star rating.

[INTRO]: I’m Ralph. I’m Bhavin Patel, and welcome to the podcast. [00:00:05] This is your place to lead. Better live fully and laugh more. It’s your blueprint [00:00:10] to optimal performance.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Hello, [00:00:15] hello, hello, and welcome to another [00:00:20] episode of the Nail It podcast. Your place to.

Dr Bav : Live. Fully lead [00:00:25] better, laugh more.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : You’ve got it in the wrong order. But I forgive [00:00:30] you. I’ll forgive you.

Dr Bav : I said I was going to get a tattoo, don’t I?

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : It’s not as if we don’t [00:00:35] record this practically every week. I mean, seriously, it should be your tattoo. Actually, yes. [00:00:40]

Dr Bav : It’s my mantra.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yeah, yeah. Yeah. [00:00:45] That’s what they’re going to put on your gravestone, isn’t it?

Dr Bav : That’s it. Yeah.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yeah. Always, always remember you and [00:00:50] we have an amazing guest, Bev.

Dr Bav : We do, we do. You know, I’ve been looking forward to speaking to [00:00:55] Payman. Uh, he’s a busy man. Um, we managed to nail him down and Came [00:01:00] on to the podcast. Um.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : So to introduce you to Payman [00:01:05] Langroudi, some of you may already know because you’ve heard him be this incredible host to [00:01:10] the Dental Leaders podcast. And of course, he is the Clinical Director at enlighten as [00:01:15] well. So we are truly honoured. And he’s a little bit nervous to actually be on the receiving [00:01:20] end of a podcast.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah it’s true. It’s much harder on [00:01:25] this end. Hi, how are you? Thanks for having me.

Dr Bav : Hey, Payman. Hey, Payman. You know, I’ve heard your voice and heard you [00:01:30] talking to people, asking them the questions. And we’re honoured to have the opportunity to [00:01:35] now put you on the other side and ask you the questions.

Payman Langroudi: Thanks for having me, guys.

Dr Bav : No worries. [00:01:40]

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Brilliant. So I’m really curious because I’ve had a lot of colleagues and friends who have who have been [00:01:45] on your podcast, and I’ve always been, you know, I’m always curious about when people [00:01:50] start a podcast and then particularly when it’s about Dental Leaders. And I think really you were [00:01:55] quite innovative in this before, because it’s only in more recent years. We’re really starting to hear about [00:02:00] the need for leadership in dentistry. So I’m curious, what prompted you to start [00:02:05] that podcast in the first place?

Payman Langroudi: Um, listen, I’d be lying if [00:02:10] I said that it wasn’t a marketing thing to start with. And we decided [00:02:15] to go down a content based approach to marketing when [00:02:20] social really exploded. Um, really based on the fact that I felt [00:02:25] like we didn’t pay attention to the, you know, Google AdWords and all [00:02:30] of that when that came along, we didn’t go all in on it. Um, so when social came along, we [00:02:35] said, we’re going to go all in on it. And the idea with it was to have a content approach and [00:02:40] not only talk about teeth whitening, not only talk about teeth, talk about people [00:02:45] stuck to the teeth. And, you know, it’s difficult as well because, you know, the team wants to sell a product, [00:02:50] right? So I often get the question, where’s the ROI on this podcast? Right. Um, [00:02:55] and, you know, it started out like that with my good friend Prav Solanki. Um, [00:03:00] then after a while, it today it feels more [00:03:05] like a hobby than anything else. I mean, of course there are benefits to having [00:03:10] a podcast with loads of dentists. Listen to um, from the business perspective, but I don’t look [00:03:15] at it from the business perspective anymore. I look at it as important conversations and [00:03:20] and, you know, we’ve done 320 episodes or something. And, you know, [00:03:25] three of our guests are now passed away. And, you know, to have those conversations on record [00:03:30] for their families. And, you know, we’re all going to pass away one day. Um, [00:03:35] and, you know, I find even though it’s probably the thing that brings back [00:03:40] the least for me in terms of ROI, um, it’s it’s [00:03:45] the thing that I’m most proud of that I do because, you know, it’s real stories. It’s not boxes [00:03:50] of, um, toothpaste or whatever.

Dr Bav : It is awesome. I mean, it’s probably [00:03:55] the biggest podcast in UK dentistry, I’d say.

Payman Langroudi: I’d say. I’d say jazz. Jazz. [00:04:00]

Dr Bav : Uh, you know, I’ve not insisted that the protrusive one, right?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Dr Bav : I’ve heard [00:04:05] of that. I’ve heard of that. I’ve never listened to it, but, um. So how how many years have you been doing it? [00:04:10]

Payman Langroudi: Since before Covid. So maybe six years. Something like that. Yeah. [00:04:15]

Dr Bav : Nice. Um, do you know what we forgot? We didn’t ask him the first [00:04:20] question we’re supposed to ask him. Hmm.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : You see, you threw me off track words, [00:04:25] and then we just went everywhere. Oh, but wait, wait, can we come back to it? Because I was like, I was about [00:04:30] to ask you a question because I don’t want you to lose your flow. Payman. And it’s like when you talk about how [00:04:35] this it doesn’t really necessarily get ROI, and yet it is something that for you, you’re [00:04:40] the most proud of what comes to mind. I mean, of course, it’s the Dental Leaders podcast, right? And [00:04:45] of course you’re on the podcast, which is leadership. And for me, that’s the [00:04:50] pinnacle of leadership that that that peak of the triangle, which is true transcendence. [00:04:55] And when everything goes beyond yourself, you’re not just doing it for yourself [00:05:00] and you’re doing it for others, and you’re doing it for other people to grow as well and bring others [00:05:05] with you. Lift other people up with you. Which for me, I truly see that as when [00:05:10] you’ve really made it as a leader, you know that’s what you’re ultimately aiming for. And [00:05:15] and to me, from what you said, that’s what it sounds like.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. I mean, [00:05:20] I don’t know. I don’t know that, you know, we’re having a conversation, right? When you have a conversation, you have to sort of put [00:05:25] into words what’s going through your head, but what’s going through your head often are feelings. [00:05:30] And for me, I’ve got maybe a bit of, I don’t know, ADHD, whatever you want [00:05:35] to call it, I don’t know. These days everyone’s got something right, but if it’s [00:05:40] something I really like, I’ll stay up all night on it. Um, but if it’s something I don’t really [00:05:45] like, I will procrastinate like hell and be the laziest person in the world [00:05:50] on it. And so, you know, it’s lucky that, you know, when [00:05:55] you own a company, you can you can call the shots, right? You can say, [00:06:00] I want my first meeting is at 10:00 because I don’t like 9:00 or 8:00 [00:06:05] meetings. Um, I’ll have meetings like now at eight at night. No problem. [00:06:10] But eight in the morning, I don’t just as one example. Um, and so I’ve [00:06:15] got an excellent set of partners who understand me. And let me, [00:06:20] let me just do the things that I’m really good at and the things I really like doing [00:06:25] because, you know, that’s I’m that kind of cat. Anyway, I end up, you know, [00:06:30] I’m a bit disorganised. You can buy me a hundred diaries. I still be disorganised, you know, [00:06:35] and leaning into your strengths rather than your weaknesses. For me, it’s been a [00:06:40] massive revelation because there’s loads I’m really bad at.

Dr Bav : But [00:06:45] there’s obviously things you’re really good at. Um, I mean, obviously we can come on to enlighten as well. [00:06:50] But again, I wasn’t going to say this now, but, um, you when you first start [00:06:55] enlighten. You did that I’m guessing. Was that in your 20s?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. 28.

Dr Bav : 28, [00:07:00] 28 years ago.

Payman Langroudi: So 20, 28 years old, about 25 years ago. [00:07:05]

Dr Bav : You probably don’t remember this, but you apparently turned up at my father in law’s dental practice, and he [00:07:10] still remembers you to this day. So apparently you cold called in Nottingham when you were first [00:07:15] launching, uh, enlighten. And he fondly remembers you. And he he [00:07:20] he actually still says, um, you know, he he came to my practice and, you know, he you [00:07:25] stuck in his mind. So you left a really good example of my father.

Payman Langroudi: What’s his name? What’s his name? [00:07:30]

Dr Bav : His name was Dhiru.

Payman Langroudi: Patel Ventosa.

Dr Bav : In [00:07:35] Nottingham city centre. But.

Payman Langroudi: Um, one of one of our earliest users.

Dr Bav : It just goes to show [00:07:40] that, you know, you you obviously there was something that you wanted to get out there and you [00:07:45] put in the work that 28 years ago, and at that time, you know, cosmetic dentistry was sort of taking [00:07:50] off in the UK, I guess. But what made you start that? Why why did you want to leave dentistry and [00:07:55] start a company?

Payman Langroudi: Um, you know how these things work out. Yeah. [00:08:00] It wasn’t a decision to leave dentistry. That wasn’t what I wanted to do. Um, [00:08:05] we started out. We were 28 years old. Uh, we were, we were. I started the [00:08:10] company with the guys I used to live with in university, and, uh, my wife, my now [00:08:15] wife, you know, my then girlfriend. So the four of us, the two guys I lived with and [00:08:20] my and my wife and, um, we just wanted to do something a [00:08:25] bit different. And, you know, when you get to that point of you’re going to start a practice, and we [00:08:30] were going to start practices, we’re going to we’re going to do four practices because there’s four of us and [00:08:35] we’re going to be teeth whitening centres that they basically the idea was, you [00:08:40] know, these city boys would come in and have their teeth whitened, have a clean, have their [00:08:45] teeth flossed, and that’s all we do. We don’t do anything else. Um, you know, like super [00:08:50] specialist, I don’t know. Do you know the place? The steak place. There’s [00:08:55] only one thing on the menu. Right. Steak. Right. And the only choice you’ve got is, [00:09:00] you know, medium or rare or. Well done. You can’t even say medium rare. And that’s [00:09:05] that’s the that’s the only choice you’ve got. They do it very well. They’ve got their special sauce. Whatever. And [00:09:10] that was that idea of do one thing very well.

Payman Langroudi: Right. And you [00:09:15] know, you go around so many places and so much stuff is rubbish. You know, it needs [00:09:20] to be improved. And you think, you know, people if they focussed in on just the one [00:09:25] thing, if you if you made, if you had the best pizza in Norwich. Yeah. The best, the best [00:09:30] cheese and tomato pizza in Norwich, you’d have a great business. Yeah. Yeah. [00:09:35] Um, or then. Then you spread it out. You know, you say I want to be the best dentist [00:09:40] in this practice. I want to be the best dentist in this town. The best dentist [00:09:45] in the country. And then, you know, I’ve got Depeche Palmer, who I work with on the, um, composite [00:09:50] course once in a generation talent. I mean, I do come across [00:09:55] them, but once in a generation, literally like that. And sometimes the guy gets depressed [00:10:00] when some kid in Brazil does something better than him, um, because he [00:10:05] wants to be the best in the world. Right? And each of these comes with sacrifice, right? [00:10:10] It all sounds great, but it comes with massive [00:10:15] sacrifice. And, you know, now with enlightened, we’re saying we want to be the best teeth whitening system in the world. [00:10:20] Yeah. And it comes with massive sacrifice. All sorts of sacrifices that you have to [00:10:25] make to do that. Um.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : What sacrifices? Because again, this is another leadership issue, as we [00:10:30] always say. You know, ultimately there are sacrifices so that you can pursue something else. So what [00:10:35] sacrifices?

Payman Langroudi: Well, from the enlightened perspective, like, you know, there’s just product market [00:10:40] fit kind of sacrifices, right? You want to be the best in the world. You can’t be the cheapest in the world, [00:10:45] you know. So so then, you know, you can’t be both of those things. And then you get people [00:10:50] who worry about, you know, price, for instance, just just as a basic example. [00:10:55] But, you know, you have to you have to obsess over details to make things correct. [00:11:00] And you know that that takes extra people and it costs more. And, [00:11:05] you know, we take we take the gel from the factory all the way to the patient in [00:11:10] a maximum of six weeks, a maximum. So, you know, it’s all flown [00:11:15] over in refrigerated planes, refrigerated trucks. It only sits in the patient dentist [00:11:20] practice for one night. Um, because we know the date, you know, we’re going to give the dentist the date that it’s [00:11:25] going to arrive at their practice, and they book the patient in after that. So it hasn’t broken down. It hasn’t [00:11:30] become acidic. All of that takes a lot of work and a lot of hassle, a lot of sacrifice. [00:11:35] We throw away loads of gel because it gets past the. We’ve decided not to keep [00:11:40] it more than one month of absolute maximum.

Payman Langroudi: Um, you know the alternative, the alternative [00:11:45] is that we get results that aren’t as good, you know, [00:11:50] and then sometimes these goals tend to over, you know, go over each other. So we said, oh [00:11:55] we want to be more green. So we reduce the plastic in the kit by [00:12:00] 80%. Um, but then that increased our carbon [00:12:05] footprint, doubled our carbon footprint just by doing that. Um, you know, [00:12:10] you’re in a throw away gel. That’s not very green thing to do. So, so, you know, [00:12:15] these these goals, different goals that you have get in each other’s way. Um, [00:12:20] but at the end of the day, I think supply, the supply business [00:12:25] is difficult. It’s not easy at all. Um, much harder than being a dentist. [00:12:30] Much harder. Um, your patients trust you intrinsically. [00:12:35] Um, you know, by just by sitting in your chair, they trust you. Whereas [00:12:40] us as dentists, we’ve been trained not to trust, you know, that’s that’s that’s our [00:12:45] whole training is. Where’s the evidence? And it’s quite right, isn’t it? You’re not going to believe everything you’re in. [00:12:50] You know, the number of things you’ve seen come and go that promised, you know, the earth. [00:12:55] And in the end, there seems to be about the same thing. It was 25 years ago when I qualified. [00:13:00]

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Well, you know, I pushed the boundaries, right? I was that person who wanted [00:13:05] to be the best. And I became that and became the global pioneer for the use of [00:13:10] of lasers in.

Payman Langroudi: And did you.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : And I had to I had to stand [00:13:15] in front of British society of Perrier. American academy of. European federation of Perrier [00:13:20] talking about lasers when everybody’s sitting there saying, oh, there’s no evidence, there’s no evidence, there’s no evidence. And [00:13:25] there I am doing research and publishing papers and showing, but I’m showing you bone regeneration. [00:13:30] I’m showing you better patient centred outcomes. I’m showing you flapless surgery. So [00:13:35] sometimes it comes from needing to push the boundaries and truly [00:13:40] have a deep, deep belief in what it is you want, what it is you stand for, [00:13:45] and what it is you can care you can provide. Which by the sounds of it was an underlying is [00:13:50] definitely an underlying aspect with enlighten as well, because you have to you have to have [00:13:55] that deeper purpose to keep going, to keep going in your profession. I’m going for nearly 30 years, [00:14:00] and yet I still love doing what I do. And so there is a reason for that. And [00:14:05] it is because I get to be the best I can possibly be.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, the other thing [00:14:10] is, you know, it’s a decision that you make. And we were number two in [00:14:15] terms of product for the first five, six years. And it was terrible. [00:14:20] It was horrible being number two, you know, the other the competitor had a better product, better looking [00:14:25] product, more expensive product. Everything about it was better. I don’t know if you remember there was a product. We started [00:14:30] out with light activated whitening. There was a product called Bright Smile. Um, [00:14:35] and this was all sort of 4 or 5 years before the zoom light came along [00:14:40] and Bright Smile was, you know, it was properly funded. They’d raised like $100 million. [00:14:45] They’d gone and got had one of these like, design firms make a beautiful robotic [00:14:50] thing. And at the time we had this sort of vacuum cleaner looking thing, you know, like [00:14:55] a cheap copy. Um, and then when it turned out that we [00:15:00] found out lights do nothing at the time, we thought they did. His bright smile had publications [00:15:05] and 30 publications on why the light was okay. Um, then when we came to switch [00:15:10] and we had to switch, zoom had come along by that time and we decided to go into tray whitening. [00:15:15] And I sat down with my partner, Sanj, who’s one of these guys. He’s just like, he, [00:15:20] he, he’s a perfectionist. Like he doesn’t mind if something goes wrong, but he never [00:15:25] wants it to happen again. And he’ll literally change everything based on one incident. Um, [00:15:30] and he said, look, I don’t care how much it costs. I don’t care what it takes. We have to have the [00:15:35] best tray system. So we worked on that for about two years and, [00:15:40] you know, broke it down into, you know what? What is it? What is trade whitening? At the end of the day, it’s [00:15:45] the gel on the tray. The impression desensitises those four things and incrementally improving [00:15:50] each of those parts. Um, and, you know, those, those incremental [00:15:55] improvements in, in the end, get you better results.

Dr Bav : Again, a real insight [00:16:00] into your personality and, uh.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Ah.

Dr Bav : How you obsess over these things. And it’s [00:16:05] amazing. You got that’s that’s what drives you. Um, well, why don’t we go back to your favourite quote then [00:16:10] maybe that gives a little bit more insight into what you’re about.

Payman Langroudi: Payman I [00:16:15] really like the Oscar Wilde quote, and, you know, I brought them up and it’s [00:16:20] amazing the number of them that are actually in the vernacular now, just like part of the language. And, [00:16:25] you know, I was looking through quotes and the Oscar Wilde ones, almost the whole page [00:16:30] was delicious. Um, but out of the ones, I’ve.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Gotta [00:16:35] narrow it down to the best one. Payman.

Payman Langroudi: Hey, I think that, you know, [00:16:40] for my child to be yourself, everyone else is already taken. Yeah, yeah, because you do [00:16:45] spend a lot of your early years trying to emulate other people until you find [00:16:50] yourself. I guess some people find themselves quite early. Um, but when you realise [00:16:55] that, you know, being yourself is the key. Yeah, it really does. [00:17:00] It’s really empowering. Um, but, you know, knows [00:17:05] the price of everything. The value of nothing. That’s one of his. But we’re all in the gutter. [00:17:10] Some of us are looking at the stars. Yeah. So many beautiful things. Yeah. Man [00:17:15] wants to be the woman’s first love. The woman likes to be the man’s last romance. It’s actually part of [00:17:20] the part of the vernacular. Now.

Dr Bav : The first one you said was. Be yourself. Everyone else is [00:17:25] taken, right? Yeah, yeah. But as you quite rightly say, it takes quite a few number of years. You know, it’s one [00:17:30] of those things that’s in your teens. You want to fit in. You want to be like everybody else in your 20s. You want to [00:17:35] impress everyone else and be, you know, be the person that everyone looks to. It takes usually [00:17:40] most people don’t do that until quite late on. Um, and then it’s like, you know, as you get [00:17:45] older, you realise actually, you know, you don’t. Nothing really matters as [00:17:50] much as you think it does. You go round and round in your head. Um, and there was a saying, um, [00:17:55] I think Sal Bloom’s, uh, book about, um, you are not as important as [00:18:00] you think you are to other people. You know, people don’t think about you as much as you think about yourself. And [00:18:05] until you realise that it takes a lot, it takes, you know, it takes you to get quite old to [00:18:10] actually understand that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. It’s really empowering too, isn’t it? You [00:18:15] don’t have to try. And at the same time I do. I still think you’re always trying [00:18:20] to be someone else, isn’t it? Because, I don’t know, one might get completely drunk or something [00:18:25] and another person comes out? Yeah, yeah. You know, there are inhibitory [00:18:30] mechanisms at play the whole time. Right. I remember.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Going to take him out [00:18:35] for a drink and.

Dr Bav : Always up for that Payman always.

Payman Langroudi: I don’t know, [00:18:40] I don’t know about you guys, I bet. Yeah, but I wasn’t right at dental [00:18:45] school.

Dr Bav : Can you not tell with all the books? Look at all our books.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, no, I can tell.

Dr Bav : Look at our backgrounds. [00:18:50]

Payman Langroudi: Look girly, girly, swot. But in dental school, I was the crammer [00:18:55] guy. Yeah. And and, um, we found this stuff that was for, you know, bodybuilders. [00:19:00] It was like some sort of protein powder, but it had something in it that kept you awake all night. So we [00:19:05] stayed awake for 48 hours, went through two exams, and then I wrote, I was on this [00:19:10] oral surgery exam, and it was like something like, what’s the differential diagnosis [00:19:15] of a swelling on the palate or something? And, um, I was writing garbage. [00:19:20] Actual garbage. But I couldn’t stop myself. Yeah. And I really [00:19:25] realised that inhibitory mechanism thing that, you know, there’s all sorts of thoughts. Sometimes you’re driving [00:19:30] your car, you think I’ll just drive over the cliff, but then something stops you. Something stops you from doing [00:19:35] that. You know, there’s inhibitory mechanisms kick in. Um, and, you know, on our podcast, [00:19:40] I did one with Rona on mental health and we asked this question of, you know, why is it [00:19:45] that dentists take their own lives? And in that moment, you know, something [00:19:50] inhibitory doesn’t kick in, I guess. And we’ll talk about why [00:19:55] later. But in the moment of doing it, something doesn’t kick in. [00:20:00] And, you know, a lot of people who are depressed or whatever haven’t had any sleep. And having had no sleep [00:20:05] for 48 hours those two days, I realised I was writing like actual crap. I was saying. Yeah, you [00:20:10] could bite into a pizza and it could burn your, you know, like not even using medical terms. [00:20:15] I knew it was incorrect, but I just couldn’t stop. Well, you know who is the real you? [00:20:20] Who knows?

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : So some of this goes into kind of self-destruction. I mean, you bavin. [00:20:25] Bavin came back and said, actually, it takes quite a long time and you seem to think it didn’t, but it does. It [00:20:30] takes a lot of maturity and a lot of growth and a lot of self-awareness to [00:20:35] really. Not just believe, but resonate [00:20:40] with that. Be yourself. Because everybody else is taken. There’s a big thing. And, you know, when I [00:20:45] do a lot of work with people in their 40s and their 50s, we realise that so much of it is actually [00:20:50] about identity because you’ve spent so long with a label the label of a [00:20:55] dentist, a business owner, a mother, a father, a parent, uh, [00:21:00] a daughter, a son, a niece, a nephew. And actually, who are you really [00:21:05] at your core? I mean, for me, that’s that’s what it encompasses. Because you have to go back to being [00:21:10] your true self. You have to be prepared to shed all of the layers of everything that you’ve accumulated. [00:21:15] And that’s the only way you actually set yourself free. So it’s not. And we do [00:21:20] see, like when some people get a lot older, right? They don’t tend to care what other people think. And and they [00:21:25] they voice things a little bit more. But I think particularly in a profession and in dentistry and this idea [00:21:30] of needing to behave a certain way, it really does create incredible limits. [00:21:35] It creates anxiety, it creates depression, it removes [00:21:40] you from being truly authentic and and [00:21:45] from actually it puts a cap on your success however you want to define success.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:21:50] Although on the other hand, dentistry does sort of lend itself to sort of being the king [00:21:55] of your own kingdom as well. You know that a dental practice is [00:22:00] it’s it’s I would define it as a very large, small business. You know, it’s [00:22:05] a small business. Um, and you can totally call the shots in [00:22:10] that small business. And in a way, it can be an expression of yourself. [00:22:15] And I do see it. I go to thousands of practice. I must have been to thousands of practices. And, [00:22:20] um, sometimes you’re in some little town and you’ve got this super happy [00:22:25] guy who loves coming to work, loves his team, loves his patients, [00:22:30] and it’s basically finding it, you know, at the end of the day, you know, keep your patients [00:22:35] happy, keep your staff happy. It’s basically all of dentistry, right? [00:22:40] You Do the teeth. Do the teeth. Well. But but keep [00:22:45] those two constituents happy. And you see people pulling it off and being the kings [00:22:50] of their little kingdom and actually being themselves. And it’s so interesting, [00:22:55] you know, from the outside, you might imagine dentists and dental practices are all the same, [00:23:00] but boy, are they not. I mean, totally different, totally different things [00:23:05] I see in practices.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : And yet we have massive burnout rates. We [00:23:10] have a huge, huge rates of burnout, depression, suicide. You [00:23:15] touched on mental health issues. So there are a lot of people out there who are.

Payman Langroudi: Really [00:23:20] thought, have you thought about this? I’ve looked into it about why dentists take their own lives, [00:23:25] because, you know, me and Rona interviewed loads of people, read a load of stuff, [00:23:30] and turns out dentists have been taking their own lives for 100 years. It’s not the [00:23:35] GDC, you know, it’s, um. One thing I thought [00:23:40] about is I’ve got a cousin, he’s a eye surgeon, and he was telling [00:23:45] me he has a day of operations LA or a day of GA. The [00:23:50] LA days are twice as stressful because you’ve got a patient there, right? Sticking [00:23:55] an injection in his eye. Now similar to our situation. Nervous live patient [00:24:00] all day, every day is a, you know, a level of stress or an amount [00:24:05] your bucket is going to get filled and then layer on that. Um, [00:24:10] let’s say your relationship with your nurse isn’t as it as good as it could [00:24:15] be. Now you’ve got someone in the room with you all day, and now that’s extra [00:24:20] stress in the bucket layer on that. Much of our work fails. [00:24:25] You know, people come back with, you know, so your self-worth goes [00:24:30] down a little bit. Um, but, you know, we don’t have the answer. We don’t have [00:24:35] the actual answer. We didn’t have it. Did you guys have a look at that or think about that.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Well, [00:24:40] I know like my own experience of of contemplating it but [00:24:45] the but the inhibitory bit definitely in but there have there have been moments because it’s almost [00:24:50] just.

Payman Langroudi: Like a dark days.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Dark days. There are days when I feel like I don’t even want [00:24:55] to be on this earth. It feels too painful. And there have been times of, you know, complete [00:25:00] decision fatigue where you just shut down. And you’re right. It’s not just the GDC, [00:25:05] but it’s just it’s suddenly an inability to just cope. And these thoughts [00:25:10] that it would, wouldn’t it just be easier to just not be here? The [00:25:15] inhibition for me was like, yeah, okay, hang on, you’ve got kids. Don’t be so stupid. And then [00:25:20] and then you kick, you kick back in again. And there has to be a way. But there are some people who [00:25:25] don’t have that level of resilience, and usually they do. For the first thing they [00:25:30] do is once they make a plan, you usually see they are much calmer and you’ve got [00:25:35] to watch out for your friends if they’ve been really depressed because the minute they seem to perk up, that’s actually [00:25:40] the danger point, because usually at that point they’ve made a plan, and once they’ve made a plan, they feel [00:25:45] better and then they execute the plan.

Dr Bav : Wow. [00:25:50] We’ve gone down a path.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yeah, it’s and it’s tough. You know, I’m sure [00:25:55] we’ve all lost people, um, through, you know, in the profession. And it’s very it’s [00:26:00] incredibly sad. And it’s not the dentistry like you say. It’s not. It’s [00:26:05] not our care for our patients, but it becomes a massive accumulation. [00:26:10] And that’s where Payman I think we do get back to labels, you know, because we get back to the the huge burden [00:26:15] and responsibility of owning a practice, needing to make the numbers stack up, um, having [00:26:20] piles and piles and piles of more responsibility laid on you, be it through regulation or [00:26:25] taxation, remuneration and all these things where every [00:26:30] time you feel like you’re taking two steps forward, one step forward and two steps [00:26:35] back. And I know so many practice owners who feel that and they love the dentistry, they [00:26:40] just feel out of control.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, but, you know, dentistry [00:26:45] business is is I mean, the word easy is, is sort of misleading, but it’s [00:26:50] an easier business to thrive in than, uh, pizza [00:26:55] shop.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Oh, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, the pizza shop guy’s got taxation, he’s got remuneration. [00:27:00] He’s got all the issues that the dentist has got. Yeah. And yet the pizza shop guy isn’t [00:27:05] killing himself and the dentist is. And then you go the other way and say, oh, it’s really intricate, [00:27:10] high stress work. The brain surgeon isn’t taking his life as much [00:27:15] as the dentist is.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : But the brain surgeon isn’t running the business. The brain surgeon is getting on with brain [00:27:20] surgery. The problem is the dentist.

Payman Langroudi: Every single business.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Owner, like the pizza [00:27:25] guy, is.

Payman Langroudi: Making the pizza.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Or employing the staff.

Payman Langroudi: Or the accountant. The accountant is running. [00:27:30] The accountants running the business, the lawyers running the business. These guys aren’t taking their own lives as much as [00:27:35] dentists.

Dr Bav : I think it’s something to do with the energy as well though, right? Because you take on so much of an emotional [00:27:40] drain when patients come in to step into your room.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Dr Bav : Sometimes you’re not being [00:27:45] you. Right? You’re an actor or an actress, right? And you have got to put on this happy face, [00:27:50] uh, even though inside you may not be happy.

Payman Langroudi: Uh, you’re absolutely right.

Dr Bav : And that [00:27:55] that has got to take its toll day after day, patient after patient.

Payman Langroudi: So that [00:28:00] that thing you’re talking about of sort of being on stage, if you like. And, you know, in [00:28:05] my life I’ve done things like be a dental rep. Mhm. Yeah. When we started the company [00:28:10] we didn’t have any anyone. The internet didn’t really exist. So someone would call up from [00:28:15] wherever. Yeah. Ipswich. I’d have to get in my car work out. There was no Google.

Dr Bav : Like you said. [00:28:20] Yeah. You turned up at my father in law’s, didn’t you?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah. I’d have to get up and get in my car and go there. [00:28:25] And believe you me, that’s a much harder life than being a dentist. Yeah, being a dental rep. But [00:28:30] on this question of how long are you on show? You’re on [00:28:35] show for about an hour or two a day?

Dr Bav : This is.

Payman Langroudi: It. If you’re, you know, if, I guess [00:28:40] maybe I wasn’t a very good Dental some of them maybe three hours a day at the very [00:28:45] most. Now it’s bloody hard. You gotta wake up at 5 a.m., drive, find your way there, [00:28:50] sell to the guy, come back. All those things. But you’re not on show all that time. Yeah. Being [00:28:55] being on show does take it out of you, no doubt.

Dr Bav : Yeah. But. But also, you’re inflicting pain on people. [00:29:00] You know, they’re anxious. They’re not them, you know. And [00:29:05] you know, there’s no nice way of doing what we do sometimes. But, you know, I try to make it into [00:29:10] as humorous as I can be. And, uh, you know, try to make it a nice, a pleasant experience for my patients. [00:29:15] But at the end of the day, you know, we’re working in a very sensitive area and we’re putting them [00:29:20] in very vulnerable positions.

Payman Langroudi: And by the way, by the way, loads of dentists love it. [00:29:25] Yeah, loads.

Dr Bav : I love it. You know, I love I love the profession and you know, and that’s one [00:29:30] of the reasons why we’re doing this is that, you know, we do love the profession. We want it to be great again. And we [00:29:35] want, you know, we want people to find the joy in what they do.

Payman Langroudi: Make them great [00:29:40] again.

Dr Bav : Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Get the hat. We’ve already got the hats ordered, haven’t we? Right now.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Well, make it greater, [00:29:45] right? I mean, I went into dentistry with this idea. I wanted to be a dentist who people [00:29:50] weren’t scared of. That was kind of my my challenge at the time when I went, when I went into dentistry [00:29:55] and we had literally 39 of us at the London in our year group, it was [00:30:00] tiny, and only six of us had actually chosen to do dentistry first, [00:30:05] first and foremost, the rest were still in the days of failed medics.

Payman Langroudi: Really.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : They [00:30:10] all changed their minds after med surg and doing ward rounds. They were like, actually, I’m really glad we’re [00:30:15] doing dentistry.

Payman Langroudi: Um, you’ve both got kids, haven’t you?

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yes.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:30:20] have you, would you tell your kids to become dentists?

Dr Bav : I would, I [00:30:25] would. My wife wouldn’t, I would.

Payman Langroudi: Is she is.

Dr Bav : She is, she is. Yeah [00:30:30] yeah.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yeah. My my my ex husband is a dentist. But we we would not, and [00:30:35] neither of us would be particularly keen on that.

Dr Bav : I definitely would. I think it’s a great profession.

Payman Langroudi: Well, after everything [00:30:40] that’s given you, like being a world leader, written, written books or whatever, like.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, [00:30:45] you still wouldn’t give that opportunity to your kid.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : It’s not about giving the opportunity. They also [00:30:50] see how hard you talked about sacrifices, right? You talked about sacrifices. And [00:30:55] it’s not it’s not a job that that it’s not. I mean, no job is necessarily [00:31:00] easy, but it’s not one of those jobs that it takes really hard work to get [00:31:05] the rewards that you truly want. And so I have made a lot.

Payman Langroudi: Of if [00:31:10] if I don’t know, let’s just throw a number out here. Let’s say in your specialist [00:31:15] practice, you were pulling out £300,000 a year for the sake of the argument. Yeah. Right. In [00:31:20] any job earning you £300,000 a year, the destroy you. If [00:31:25] you if you were a lawyer. If you were a banker, if you were a if by the way, if you said I want to do it in [00:31:30] another field, like marketing or something, you’d have to be head of marketing at Procter and Gamble or something. [00:31:35] Not some dentist in Brighton. Yeah, yeah. Um, so, [00:31:40] you know, you know what I mean? The what you’re saying there, the return for the work. The work, [00:31:45] the amount in.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : No. So I’m not just talking about the money. I’m just saying the the the life, the [00:31:50] life that you want. You you have to work really hard. And for me, I’ve made a huge [00:31:55] amount of sacrifice. And, you know, I sacrificed myself to the point where [00:32:00] I became chronically ill. So that was my for me, that was my turnaround. That was my my inspiration [00:32:05] for then developing nail it to to be able to optimise your energy so that you can [00:32:10] really thrive with what you want to do. But my kids have seen that, they’ve witnessed that and they’re going to put labels [00:32:15] on that of, you know, they’ve seen me jet setting off around the world and not being necessarily being around [00:32:20] for them when they were younger because I was invited here, there and everywhere [00:32:25] to, to to speak. Um, and they want me around. So I [00:32:30] think they’ve just, they’ve, they’re inspired by a very hard working mother. But at the same [00:32:35] time, I just think they they feel they want an easier life.

Dr Bav : Yeah. And I [00:32:40] recognise that early on. So I sold my practice three, four years ago. So I had a practice in Wimpole [00:32:45] Street right. Mhm. About eight years. Seven, eight years. Um yeah. Sold that three years [00:32:50] ago. Purely because my children are six and eight and I want to be present. I want to drop [00:32:55] them to school. I want to pick them up. I don’t want to be stressing about the practice on weekends. So I made that choice. [00:33:00] And exactly as you say, Payman Dental has given me that opportunity to be able to make that choice. [00:33:05] Right. There’s not many jobs that you could say. Do you know what? I don’t want to work on Mondays. I don’t want to work on Fridays. [00:33:10] You know, I want to work, as you quite rightly say, I don’t. I’m not a morning person. I’d love to start [00:33:15] at ten, you know. But we can do that. That’s the beauty of our job and our profession. And that’s the reason [00:33:20] why I’d always sort of stick up for it and go, you know what? It’s a great profession to be in, but it’s finding that work life [00:33:25] harmony. I know, uh, I mean, uh, I’ve spoken about this quite a lot. It’s just [00:33:30] finding that I don’t want to say the word balance, but you know what I mean? It’s the it’s the finding that [00:33:35] sweet spot, let’s say.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, my my son just started aerospace [00:33:40] engineering his first year, and, um, we found out it’s all [00:33:45] defence. Like, my maybe 5% of it is, you know, formula one cars [00:33:50] and things. 95% of it is defence missiles, landing systems, you know, like planes, [00:33:55] like helmets that shoot things and and. Okay, all well [00:34:00] and good. You need aerospace engineers in the world. And then we looked at the salaries, [00:34:05] you know, the starting salaries and how quickly does it go up. And it basically doesn’t. It’s like it’s [00:34:10] awful. Like it takes ten years to get to 60 grand salary [00:34:15] or something. So he said, all right, I’m obviously not going to do that. So what am I going [00:34:20] to do? So now he’s saying, oh man, I might do a Start-Up. I might, uh, go [00:34:25] into finance, you know, and it’s all a bit in the air. And my daughter, um, she’s [00:34:30] a bit easier to manipulate. And so she’s she’s more like, [00:34:35] uh, path of least resistance. And, you know, her mum’s. My wife’s a dentist. Works one [00:34:40] and a half days, uh, a week. And she’s now said, you know, maybe I [00:34:45] want to be a dentist. And, you know, I’m happy for her. Especially as a girl. Especially [00:34:50] as a girl who can stop, start, do two days, 2 to 5 days. I [00:34:55] mean, do you think that that question of wanting it all was [00:35:00] the problem? You know, like. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Not to be the perfect wife. [00:35:05] Mother. International lecturer. Yes.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yeah yeah yeah, yeah. The. [00:35:10] It’s the bit you touched on of perfectionism, which actually is very high. A high rates of that in dentistry. [00:35:15] Right. I had to be I had to be the best. I couldn’t be mediocre. Good enough was [00:35:20] not good enough. Everything had to be, like as good as it could possibly be. So I had to [00:35:25] be the best practice owner. Uh, the best friend, the best mother, the best lecturer, the [00:35:30] best researcher. And eventually, you know, you have to. Something has to give, right? Uh, [00:35:35] so absolutely, it’s a partly a personality thing. And.

Dr Bav : That’s one of the things that we obviously sort [00:35:40] of teach and sort of do the, um, assessments on is you’ve got to discover yourself [00:35:45] and know what your drivers are before you can help other people. Right. So you’ve got to know yourself. [00:35:50] And it goes back to your quote. It’s gone full circle is that, you know, to understand yourself. It takes time. [00:35:55] And, you know, like I say, everyone else is taken. So I’m quite mindful of the time. Um, [00:36:00] so shall we move on to your favourite pillar then of the knowledge system? Payman because [00:36:05] I’m sure arena has already got you tagged.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Write it down. Hold on.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, I like them, [00:36:10] I like them. The one I like the most is intuition. And not [00:36:15] because I’ve got this brilliant like that.

Dr Bav : Did you, did you.

Payman Langroudi: Did you write it down?

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Integrity. [00:36:20]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Well no no I did. I looked at integrity first. Yeah. Because I like [00:36:25] integrity and I like your definition of integrity quite a lot. But in in the end, I picked intuition [00:36:30] because. And not because I’ve got a brilliant instinct. Actually, [00:36:35] quite the opposite, insomuch as I spent the first half of my life almost ignoring [00:36:40] my intuition, thinking, oh no, that’s all you know. Uh, bollocks. [00:36:45] Yeah. Are we allowed to swim? That’s that’s that. That’s all, you know, not [00:36:50] scientific. Yeah. And I almost used to go against my intuition [00:36:55] just to prove to myself that I’m like, this logical scientist. And then the second [00:37:00] half, I suddenly realised all these successful people say things like, oh, it just felt [00:37:05] wrong. And I could feel it in my in my tummy, in my stomach, you know. And I suddenly realised, oh [00:37:10] my goodness, you know, I’ve been making this mistake all these years. And now I do trust [00:37:15] my instincts a lot more. And the other thing is I really like, sort of look up to people [00:37:20] who trust their instincts because, you know, because they had it all along. And, you know, my my business [00:37:25] partner is funny. And he’ll make a decision. He can’t tell you why he doesn’t like that person [00:37:30] or that idea, but he’s so sure about it. And it used to drive me [00:37:35] crazy. But now I’ve kind of changed. And because, you know, it’s again, like a bit like that be yourself [00:37:40] thing. Once you learn something and then you change direction as [00:37:45] an adult, it really does feel really good, you know? So yeah, that’s [00:37:50] the one I like the most.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : I love that. So that’s the North Star Navigator. So it’s four [00:37:55] components. So one is about silence because we really do need to quieten ourselves enough. So [00:38:00] no distractions. We get exposed to hundreds of millions of bits of information [00:38:05] per second. So you really do need to silence it. That’s why actually people’s intuition generally does [00:38:10] tap in the most when they’re in the shower or when they’re driving, because and they’re scientific [00:38:15] fact to that. And they’ve done studies around that to show that if you’re mildly distracted with [00:38:20] an activity but silenced, then that’s when your intuition comes in. And the other bit [00:38:25] is what you touched on, which is really about trust, really needing to to trust that this [00:38:30] is truly an intuition and trust yourself. We’re back, as Batman said, to being able to be yourself. [00:38:35] So trust what’s right for you. The A from the star stands for attachment, so you need [00:38:40] to have that connection. So you need to have that connection to yourself to believe in yourself. [00:38:45] And then of course recognition recognising very much if it’s a fear, [00:38:50] if it’s a logical belief overriding it and you’re in the procrastination bit suggests [00:38:55] sometimes you get in your head, or if it truly is an intuition. So we usually encourage, [00:39:00] like if you’re starting out on intuition, just start off with a little intuition journal and just start off [00:39:05] sort of taking the actions about things you think are intuitions, and write down for yourself [00:39:10] to reflect what’s working and what isn’t until you then learn to recognise. So that’s like a [00:39:15] little tip. But yeah, I love intuition. It’s and it’s such a powerful, powerful element [00:39:20] of leadership that’s being recognised more and more nowadays. And you can train it. Don’t just have to be female [00:39:25] to have good intuition.

Payman Langroudi: I like that that you can train. It feels like that.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : It feels [00:39:30] very much so. Um. Payman. We have loved having you on. [00:39:35] Definitely. Um, yeah. There’s no no holds barred with you, that’s for sure.

Dr Bav : That [00:39:40] was a bit of a roller coaster, wasn’t it? Good.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:39:45]

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : So it’s lovely. Lovely to see you on the other side. So.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : How was [00:39:50] it for you?

Payman Langroudi: It was okay. Once I got going, you go.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Alright. Once you got going. Oh thank you.

Payman Langroudi: Catastrophize [00:39:55] things didn’t you.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Yes, exactly, exactly. Got [00:40:00] to get rid of those limiting beliefs.

Dr Bav : I need to do a part two Payman. We’ll do a part two, mate.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, anytime you [00:40:05] like.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Absolutely. Thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure to have you.

Payman Langroudi: Lovely to [00:40:10] meet you guys.

Dr Bav : Thank you. Thank you. Payman.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : So, Bev.

Dr Bav : Yeah.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : What do you reckon? [00:40:15]

Dr Bav : Payman. Um, do you know what? He’s such a true born leader. And [00:40:20] he he’s he’s. You can tell he’s a perfectionist. And that’s why enlightened have done so well, I think, [00:40:25] and his podcast has done so well. But I don’t know if you realised halfway [00:40:30] through you do realise he’s such a good podcaster that he actually turned into a podcaster and he was [00:40:35] interviewing us. You do realise that for half of that? So I think, I think that was his defence, is [00:40:40] that his defence was his attack. So he just naturally went back to his podcasting [00:40:45] mode, which is great. We don’t mind, we don’t mind. We’ll be on the other side. Um, yeah. Yeah, [00:40:50] yeah. Exactly, exactly. And you know what? I think he’s the sort of person you could talk to for hours.

Dr Rana Al-Falaki : Absolutely, [00:40:55] absolutely. So thank you. Thank you for listening. [00:41:00] And we look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the podcast. Bye [00:41:05] bye for now.

Dr Bav : Thanks for listening, guys. See you later.

[INTRO]: Thanks for listening to the podcast. [00:41:10] We would love it if you would leave us a five star review. And if you’d like to feature as one of our guests or [00:41:15] you’re ready to nail it, then check out our events, programs, and educational [00:41:20] courses by visiting Dental. Com.

[VOICE]: This [00:00:05] is Dental Leaders. The podcast where you get to go [00:00:10] one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [00:00:15] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [00:00:20]

Payman Langroudi: This podcast is brought to you by enlighten. Recently, one of the groups did [00:00:25] a survey to understand what is the most profitable thing that they can do in their dental chair and enlighten [00:00:30] came in as a second most profitable thing, coming in at £900 per hour. So if [00:00:35] your dental chair is busy, it should be busy doing things like enlighten. Come and join us on Enlighten [00:00:40] Online Training to fully understand how to do the process, how to talk to patients about [00:00:45] it. Deliver brilliant results every time. Enlighten online training. Com. It gives me great pleasure [00:00:50] to welcome Daniel Jones onto the podcast. Daniel is a serial entrepreneur. You’re going [00:00:55] to have to call you that now. Yes. Two three Start-Ups. Right. Um, uh, [00:01:00] Cambridge graduate studied economics and now finds himself in the Dental space, providing [00:01:05] AI powered software for the back end of dental practices [00:01:10] to make things right, to make chair [00:01:15] time as useful as possible. Give me a little summary of Medfin before we go any further.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, exactly. [00:01:20] So it’s it’s a software that essentially helps practices understand what [00:01:25] is going on in that practice. It’s like analytics. Yeah. Um, and ultimately give them [00:01:30] the roadmap to make their practice or groups work with a lot of groups, make those groups perform better, [00:01:35] like operationally and financially speaking. So I say we make software to to help dental [00:01:40] practices become more profitable.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So but then practically what happens? [00:01:45] Do I get a bunch of KPIs. Which chairs doing what. Pound per second.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, [00:01:50] exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Associate per treatment.

Daniel Jones: Exactly. So I guess traditionally when people have tried to get [00:01:55] this information in the context of groups or practices. You kind of like broadly had two options. [00:02:00] You do spreadsheets and loads of manual exports from all your systems, because one of the big problems is that [00:02:05] this is one of the problems we’re solving, is that none of the systems that Dental practices seem to use talk [00:02:10] to each other. So you have to do lots of manual reporting, chopping up the data. [00:02:15] That takes time. It’s often inaccurate. And then the other option, which is for groups, is that [00:02:20] they’ve spent a lot of money building like power BI dashboards and these sort of like custom setups, [00:02:25] which is very involved, very expensive, and is fraught with its own sort of set of problems. [00:02:30] So we built Medfin to be the sort of the third option there, where it’s software. You plug it into your systems, [00:02:35] everything draws in, calculates automatically. So you don’t have to do any of that manual calculation, [00:02:40] but you still get really rich information to basically show you, you know what? What [00:02:45] levels should I be? Should I be pulling in my dental business to improve its performance, [00:02:50] make more money?

Payman Langroudi: And from the user perspective, I use those when you say levers. [00:02:55] All right. Yeah. It tells me this chair is not performing as well as that chair. I go and chat to that associate, [00:03:00] I guess.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, exactly. So associate associate performance is a big one, right? So understanding, you [00:03:05] know, your associates, what are they doing in terms of clinical efficiency, revenue per hour, um, [00:03:10] average daily yield and then understanding why that’s a big thing. So you can have these [00:03:15] you can have these headline metrics, but often you don’t have the metrics below that to understand why. So [00:03:20] why is this person looks like they’re not as clinically efficient. Well it may be just because they’re doing a lot of [00:03:25] NHS treatment for example. And there’s nothing wrong with the way that they do dentistry. It’s just to do with their treatment split. Or [00:03:30] is it because they’re not converting new patient consultations or the treatment plan? Acceptance is low, like [00:03:35] there are so many things that you could be looking at, and our system is trying to make that as easy as possible [00:03:40] for practice owners and group owners to diagnose what is happening and how can I change [00:03:45] it? Um.

Payman Langroudi: And so your life is all about sort of connecting [00:03:50] practice management software to accounting software to is [00:03:55] that it is that is that a lot of what you.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, that’s a lot of what we do in medicine. Um, because I guess [00:04:00] the key problem is that people have all these systems, as you say, accounting software, Xero, [00:04:05] QuickBooks, sage that doesn’t talk to your practice management software and Dental or so [00:04:10] you’ve got maybe like plan patient software if you offer things. So you’ve got like a den plan portal, you’ve [00:04:15] got a CRM, you’ve got maybe a phone system, and none of them [00:04:20] necessarily communicate with each other. So you’ve got data, but it’s in like 6 or 7 different sources. [00:04:25] Lab invoices is a big one. Labs and materials. All the data for that is trapped in a PDF, [00:04:30] you know. So if you want to work out things like what’s my margin on a certain treatment to help you with pricing or [00:04:35] to understand, you know, what treatments should I be doing more of to make my practice more profitable? [00:04:40] Actually, getting to that information is bloody difficult. Um, and we help with [00:04:45] that.

Payman Langroudi: So I can I can understand clearly from a multi practice perspective it makes sense [00:04:50] to, you know, pay you some money to fix this problem. But for a single practice owner, [00:04:55] is it still viable? I mean, what’s the sort of onboarding nightmare? [00:05:00] You’re trying not to make it a nightmare, right?

Daniel Jones: Yeah, exactly. So one [00:05:05] of the things that we’ve been really focusing on is, is making onboarding as seamless [00:05:10] as possible. So if you’re a single site practice, it will take less than an hour of your time, and it’ll take [00:05:15] us a week to get set up. And then everything just flows in automatically, really. And we’ve got a lot of single [00:05:20] site practices using the platform. Um, because, you know, the interesting thing about Dental is that [00:05:25] even a single site practice is like, it’s it’s, uh, it’s a fairly big small business, you know, um, [00:05:30] in the grand scheme of things, Dental practices are profitable businesses. So. [00:05:35] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What led you to dentistry?

Daniel Jones: That’s a good question. Uh, [00:05:40] one that I get asked a lot. Um, because it’s not obvious. Right. Um, I, I, [00:05:45] I often start when people ask me that or when I hop on calls with people, or I meet people in person at conferences. [00:05:50] One of the first things I say is, you know, I’m not a dentist. I’m not a clinician. [00:05:55] Um, you know, I used to be an investment banker before going into the world of [00:06:00] Start-Ups, but I got interested in healthcare through my [00:06:05] final year of university. So when I was about 19, I got [00:06:10] I went into a GP surgery for routine. Um, it was like a basically [00:06:15] a routine check-up I’d been feeling under the weather. I had like a cough that wouldn’t go away. And when [00:06:20] you’re there, you know, you go into a GP practice and often they’ll take your blood pressure. So I remember they took my blood [00:06:25] pressure and I never forget this. They took my blood pressure. The GP looks at [00:06:30] the reading and says, oh, something, something gone wrong. Do it again. So [00:06:35] he did it again and he said, I think this is something wrong with this machine. I’ll [00:06:40] go and get another one. Do it again. And the reading is pretty much the [00:06:45] same. And it’s like sky high. And he says, you know, not to not to mince my words, [00:06:50] but you’ve got the blood pressure of a fat 65 year old smoker.

Daniel Jones: Well, um, [00:06:55] and that sparked sort of like a chain of investigations over a couple of years. And interestingly, when [00:07:00] I was younger, like when I was a baby, I had this thing called Kawasaki’s disease, which was like an [00:07:05] autoimmune disease. And one of the complications from that is that you can have [00:07:10] issues with your heart, with your arteries. So when I was growing up, [00:07:15] I used to go to cardiology units, hospitals to get my heart checked. So when they found this thing [00:07:20] with the blood pressure, they thought, oh, it can’t be as hot. So they spent a year and a [00:07:25] half testing everything in my body, kidneys and like trying to understand [00:07:30] what was causing this. Um, they’d already written off my heart because of the [00:07:35] the stuff before. They think it can’t be that I’d have [00:07:40] loads of tests. I’d have to go around all the country. And it was just a really frustrating experience. And every time, [00:07:45] you know, people would say, people say we don’t know what’s causing it. I finally, six months [00:07:50] before my final exams, went for a full body MRI, and [00:07:55] when I had this full body MRI, I remember I went to get the results and I just [00:08:00] assumed that, um, you know, I went in and like [00:08:05] every other time they’d say, we don’t know what’s wrong with you.

Daniel Jones: And I remember my girlfriend at the time said, oh, do you want me to come with [00:08:10] you? You know, thinking it’s a big thing, get the results. And I was like, no, of course not. It’s fine. Um, and [00:08:15] I went going to this room and says, look, we’ve got the results from your test [00:08:20] back. Uh, you’ve got a really serious congenital heart condition. You’ve got coarctation [00:08:25] of aorta. Aorta being the principal vessel in your heart and mind is from [00:08:30] birth. There’s a segment of it that had narrowed down to almost nothing, and [00:08:35] that was what was causing it. And they told me that if they hadn’t found it, I’d [00:08:40] have had a heart attack or a stroke by the time I was 40. Well, um, And [00:08:45] I just had such a negative, you know, it’d been missed. Even [00:08:50] after that. They told me I’d have to have open heart surgery initially. So I actually dropped out of university. [00:08:55] Or like at Cambridge, it was called, um, intermitting. So it was like [00:09:00] where I had to leave and I would come back the next year. The only reason I didn’t, I ended up completing [00:09:05] my studies that year was because my grandfather was a doctor, and he looked at my medical records and [00:09:10] he said, I don’t think you should be having this surgery.

Daniel Jones: You know, they would have sawn through my back. I’d have been sort [00:09:15] of three months, like recovery months, where I wouldn’t be able to use my arms [00:09:20] properly because of how big the surgery would be. He said, I don’t think you should be having this. And so I, [00:09:25] my family, you know, paid to get private consultations, took it back to the NHS and they [00:09:30] said, okay, fine, we’ll do a stent, which instead of like weeks and weeks in hospital, I was I was there [00:09:35] for three days and I just came out of that experience with [00:09:40] one the healthcare system that I navigated through [00:09:45] seemed to be in shambles even when I was in hospital. I remember I’d have someone come up to me [00:09:50] with the same three different nurses come up to me with the same paper form saying, can you fill this in? [00:09:55] All the times where I had to go to different specialists, they wouldn’t have my records from somewhere else. So I [00:10:00] just got this, this like sense of chaos on the organisational side within albeit [00:10:05] traditional healthcare. And when I finally got everything sorted, you know, I’m [00:10:10] okay now. I had the I had the surgery.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I’ve got [00:10:15] a stent. When I finally came out the other side of it, I just thought this [00:10:20] this has to be able to be done better. You know, if I hadn’t have if [00:10:25] I hadn’t have had a grandfather that was a doctor. He was a GP in Wales, [00:10:30] retired. Now he’s 91. But, um, I’d [00:10:35] have I’d have had like life changing surgery and it would have completely, you know, it [00:10:40] already had a big impact, but I would have had to leave university, come back like it would have been such a massive [00:10:45] thing. And I was fortunate enough to have that. But I thought to myself, imagine if I didn’t have that. [00:10:50] Imagine how many other people out there don’t have that, or maybe don’t have the money to pay [00:10:55] for going to see a specialist cardiologist to get another another opinion. So [00:11:00] I got interested in healthcare through that. And I mean, I went into investment banking, went into Fintech [00:11:05] Start-Ups. But in the back of my mind, I was always like, I’d love to do something in healthcare. I’m a bit [00:11:10] of a nerd, so I’d like read around healthcare and like, what are the issues? And one of the big issues that I’d done a [00:11:15] lot of research into was this mess of like disconnected systems. And that [00:11:20] was one the things I found that, you know, no one would have my records when I went to different places. I mean, you’ve [00:11:25] probably found it if you move in London or move somewhere like the GP doesn’t have your records [00:11:30] from the previous place.

Payman Langroudi: It’s crazy, isn’t it, when you think about it. It’s one system. The [00:11:35] whole benefit of it being one system should be that these things should be standardised. But [00:11:40] you’re absolutely right. I mean, I’ve been through healthcare situations where it [00:11:45] was fully private. One of my best friends from school was on the surgical [00:11:50] team, so I could call him at any time I wanted. And there were still so many, [00:11:55] you know, questions that weren’t being answered or things [00:12:00] that got repeated or things that got forgotten all the time. And you. [00:12:05] It’s surprising, isn’t it? It’s surprising when you actually go through it.

Daniel Jones: And when it’s so important, you know, [00:12:10] not only is it a big industry in terms of sort of the money that people spend on healthcare, but [00:12:15] like, it’s life changing. It’s the most important thing in people’s lives. You know, [00:12:20] you can have all the money in the world, but if you’re unwell, you don’t feel like a rich person. Um, [00:12:25] and so should.

Payman Langroudi: You actually feel that, like you’re a purpose driven business [00:12:30] because of that?

Daniel Jones: Well, it’s interesting. So I think I have, [00:12:35] like, I think we’re purpose driven to to a degree. Um, [00:12:40] and I’m certainly I think I’m someone that I think [00:12:45] you can think too hard about what you’re interested in. I think there’s a lot you can overintellectualize what you want [00:12:50] to do and what you’re interested in. And I just felt this pull towards healthcare because of that experience. So to that extent, yeah. [00:12:55] Mission led. Um, but I, I guess that doesn’t really explain [00:13:00] why how I ended up in dentistry specifically. It’s vertical. So I did when I was, when I was [00:13:05] thinking of this company, I was working somewhere else at the time, you know, I had my own business and [00:13:10] I the start of the journey was basically me just [00:13:15] asking. I basically like cold call people, or I’d try and email people and say, can I get 20 [00:13:20] minutes of your time to ask you about your experience? And I spoke to people in hospitals, spoke to people at [00:13:25] GPS. Um, and unfortunately, one of the things in this country [00:13:30] is it’s very hard to do what I want to do with the NHS and NHS [00:13:35] systems. They’re they’re very difficult to integrate with.

Daniel Jones: There’s problems there are problems that even [00:13:40] if we tried incredibly hard, we couldn’t fix. And like the hostile context, almost like a bridge too [00:13:45] far. Mhm. I then looked at the US because like more, more private system, um, [00:13:50] had lots of conversations with the people in the US about maybe doing something in the hospital context [00:13:55] over there. But honestly, I thought it was a bridge too far. You know, I’ve never lived in the States. I don’t know the healthcare [00:14:00] system. I’d be operating from the UK. So then I started speaking. I was like, well, what [00:14:05] else in healthcare? Because there’s a problem in the whole of healthcare. And then I started speaking to dentists and [00:14:10] that’s really how it started. I started speaking to dentists and they said, yeah, we’ve got this exact same problem. [00:14:15] If I if I want to understand what is going on in my business, I’ve got all these, these [00:14:20] systems that don’t talk to each other. And there’s this like data aggregation problem to be to [00:14:25] be nerdy. Um, and that was really the start of the journey. And I’ve, I’ve just followed that ever [00:14:30] since.

Payman Langroudi: Um, it reminds me of fear. Do you know him from, uh, from Pearl Dental [00:14:35] Pearl?

Daniel Jones: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So I asked him the same question. He’d already had $1 billion [00:14:40] exit with his previous AI company.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I don’t have that. Yeah. [00:14:45]

Payman Langroudi: He’s a bit older than you, but but interestingly, he’s. I asked him when when did you first start [00:14:50] looking at AI and he was like 2004 or something, you know, way ahead [00:14:55] of the game. Um, but he looked into Dental like he realised that [00:15:00] reading x rays with AI is going to be a big thing. And he said, well, why dental x [00:15:05] rays? And he said, the big thing he said was that the dental [00:15:10] practices have much more autonomy on switching systems than hospitals [00:15:15] do, which is kind of what you just alluded to. Yeah. And so for that reason, he realised [00:15:20] dentists can be quite early adopters, some of them. And so and they have autonomy to choose [00:15:25] whatever system they want. And so he pointed his software dental x rays [00:15:30] instead of any other type of x ray.

Daniel Jones: Yeah absolutely. And the other thing that, and this is one of the reasons I actually [00:15:35] really enjoy working Dental like sector in the, in the UK especially, I can’t speak to the US. I don’t have [00:15:40] experience there, but it’s so entrepreneurial. You know, like practice [00:15:45] owners often dentists, you know, all these people, entrepreneurs even associate dentists. Right. The way that it’s [00:15:50] structured in this country being self-employed. And so there’s this entrepreneurial entrepreneurial streak [00:15:55] that runs through dentistry, which makes like dental practice owners, group owners, [00:16:00] and, you know, even associates, I think think differently to some other areas in healthcare. [00:16:05] Um, there’s less inertia. You know, it’s like one of the things that really stuck out to me [00:16:10] when I speak to people in NHS trusts and the like, there was no there was no incentive to innovate [00:16:15] to to like go beyond where you are today. And dentists have [00:16:20] that, that sort of drive to innovate and be entrepreneurial and to a far, far greater degree [00:16:25] than what.

Payman Langroudi: Surprised you the most about dentistry?

Daniel Jones: It’s a good question. One [00:16:30] of the things that I’ve thought about with dentistry is it’s quite it’s quite an all consuming [00:16:35] like, um, it’s quite an all consuming career. So that’s [00:16:40] one thing that surprised me. I’ve not come across an industry where, you know, a lot of dentists, their [00:16:45] friends are also dentists. And like, there’s a lot of things that you do on the weekend. And it’s such a tight knit community, [00:16:50] which I think is great. You know, everyone seems to know each other. Um, you know, [00:16:55] I remember in the early days, like when I was doing the research stuff, you know, I speak to one person and I managed to get [00:17:00] someone else in a completely different part of the country on a call. They’d be like, oh, yeah, I heard you spoke to doctor [00:17:05] X. My, you know, my mate the other day. Yeah. How do you know that? Um, [00:17:10] so that’s I think that’s.

Payman Langroudi: A very small community.

Daniel Jones: 100%, given it’s such a big industry, like, um, [00:17:15] that’s that’s the thing that’s really surprised me, but I think it’s got its massive pluses, like, um.

Payman Langroudi: What [00:17:20] about negatives? Like what surprised you? Negatively.

Daniel Jones: Negatively?

Payman Langroudi: I mean, have you come across, [00:17:25] for instance, the egos in dentistry? Has that happened to you yet? Yeah, I think so.

Daniel Jones: I [00:17:30] think so. I think so, although I think that’s something that you often see with medical [00:17:35] professionals generally. It’s not just in dentistry. Um, so yeah, you see that, but I mean, I used [00:17:40] to work in finance, so, um, a lot of, uh, there’s a lot of that. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Also, you know, [00:17:45] working in big companies, people have like the sort of guardrails in terms of what they can say [00:17:50] and do. You know, there’s that sort of politicking of a big company. You know, finance companies [00:17:55] tend to be big companies. But dentists, it’s interesting because the majority of of practice [00:18:00] owners are these guys who by themselves started a practice, and [00:18:05] many of them are like, you know, some of the most successful people in their towns, right? And so [00:18:10] that kind of gives you a bit of ego driven thing. And then you’ve got the cover [00:18:15] of I’m, I’m want to do the best thing for my patient. And [00:18:20] under that cover we can be awful to each other like really nasty [00:18:25] to each other. Um, based on, um, you know, do the best for my patient. Yeah. [00:18:30] I think that combination of things together, you know, the a lot of us haven’t had any training in [00:18:35] that sort of politicking of the corporate world where there are certain things you can’t say and do, where [00:18:40] everyone’s very sort of conservative. We haven’t had any of that. And then we’ve started [00:18:45] businesses that maybe are doing quite well for our little, you know, like you say, a big little [00:18:50] business. And then we’ve got this thing about the patient and [00:18:55] how, you know, a dentist is often the king of his castle as he in his practice. Yeah. And [00:19:00] what surprised me about going around a lot of dental practices is how different they all are. Because you [00:19:05] imagine, basically it’s the same thing. But no, there’s [00:19:10] a lot of difference culturally. I mean, there are some very happy practices and then some very sad [00:19:15] ones. Um, and it’s funny how like even with seven staff, you can [00:19:20] have two teams fighting with each other. Yeah. You’ve not come [00:19:25] across all this yet.

Daniel Jones: Well, so it’s interesting when I so when I first [00:19:30] started speaking to dentists, just to sort of get a sense of where priorities lay, etc., [00:19:35] the first question I would ask is, you know, what’s your biggest problem today? You know, [00:19:40] if you could have someone come wave a magic wand and that problem would be fixed. Like, what’s the thing [00:19:45] that first jumps to mind? And 95% of [00:19:50] people said like staff and HR. Um, run like the day to day running [00:19:55] of the practice, the sort of management of people within the practice. That was I [00:20:00] mean, almost everyone said that. So yeah, I’ve had a [00:20:05] I’ve had a window into, into that world for sure. From speaking to speaking to practice owners [00:20:10] and group owners.

Payman Langroudi: Where are you at right now? So you just raised £1.5 million.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. [00:20:15] So we raised £1.5 million from venture capital investors back in back in December [00:20:20] now.

Payman Langroudi: So what’s your what do you reckon is your runway now with that. How long can you keep going?

Daniel Jones: Almost [00:20:25] like two. Basically two years. Two years.

Payman Langroudi: So does [00:20:30] that mean in two years time you have to find more finance or be profitable? To the.

Daniel Jones: Point? Yes. [00:20:35] I mean, the way that you calculate, the way they calculate that is basically what’s your monthly burn over how much money you’ve [00:20:40] got left? I think we’re growing at such a rate that that will [00:20:45] if like the runway will prolong, if that makes sense.

Payman Langroudi: So some money will come in.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, exactly. [00:20:50] You know, we’ve got we’ve got lots of paying customers already today. Um.

Payman Langroudi: And is it like [00:20:55] a SaaS product?

Daniel Jones: Exactly. So it’s subscription. It’s subscription product. You pay subscription get. [00:21:00]

Payman Langroudi: Depending on the number of users.

Daniel Jones: So the way this is a good question actually. [00:21:05] So when, when we first started, I’ll be honest I wasn’t sure. You know, when you first have a product, sometimes [00:21:10] you don’t know how to price it. And one of the things that you do to understand how to price something [00:21:15] is you look at other things similar to it in the market and price it on that, whereas [00:21:20] there.

Payman Langroudi: Aren’t are not many.

Daniel Jones: Exactly, and not really for what we want to do. [00:21:25] So we had to sort of think about it more from first principles [00:21:30] and the the day I knew that we should we basically price on the number [00:21:35] of like active surgeries at a practice. So how many surgeries you’ve got in use at a practice on a [00:21:40] per site basis day? I knew we should do that. It was. I went in the same day. I went to visit [00:21:45] a, um, practice in, um, London that was doing [00:21:50] like around 700,000 in, in revenues, like Scott practice. [00:21:55] Um, and then there’s a few few hours later, I was on [00:22:00] a call with a guy in Wales, like cosmetic focus practice, like 3.5 million in revenue. [00:22:05] It just occurred to me, I cannot charge these people the same price for the software. It doesn’t make any sense. [00:22:10] So that’s how we landed on the the the per site and person like [00:22:15] surgeries per site. So yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So what is the cost.

Daniel Jones: So the cost it depends [00:22:20] on it starts at like 149 per month for one surgery and goes up in £50 [00:22:25] increments. Mhm. Mhm. And that’s monthly.

Payman Langroudi: So I guess the [00:22:30] pitch is that you’re going to save way more than that every month right.

Daniel Jones: Yeah I mean that’s what. [00:22:35] Absolutely. Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: That’s uh give me, give me an insight like an example of an insight [00:22:40] that someone found. Yeah. When, you know, if before before they had your [00:22:45] software, they had no idea. And then the software kind of alerted them to something and they managed to move [00:22:50] the right lever. Like, give me some examples.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. So one of our early customers who has a seven [00:22:55] surgery practice in the Midlands. So one of the things that the software does is it looks [00:23:00] at like your associate, um, performance and goes quite in depth on that. So you start with the sort [00:23:05] of headline metrics like that’s production per hour, how many udas you’re doing, etc., your average daily yield. [00:23:10] And we have them in sort of like a, a live view [00:23:15] sort of table. So you can see them how they compare to one another and the [00:23:20] associate in his practice that worked the most. So there’s associate in practice [00:23:25] that did the most hours out of anyone, even more than the two principals of this practice. It was the absolute workhorse. [00:23:30] But the sort of telltale sign that sparked an investigation was that his [00:23:35] production per hour was like, I think £35 below the practice average. It’s [00:23:40] like, well, you know, why is that the case? So using our platform, you can go through and you can [00:23:45] have a look at, you know, what is his average treatment plan value. What is he charging [00:23:50] relative to other people in the practice across a range of treatments. And so the practice owner and [00:23:55] this was the early days who actually went through with him.

Daniel Jones: We looked through all this [00:24:00] and we realised this guy is underpricing relative to everyone else in the practice by like quite [00:24:05] a significant degree. It’s basically just hadn’t raised his prices in line with, you [00:24:10] know, everyone else over the course of a few years and this hadn’t been picked up. So [00:24:15] the principal sat down with his associate and basically just walked him [00:24:20] through the data. And data is really useful for taking the sting out of conversations like this. You know, [00:24:25] if you say to someone, oh, you should be doing better and you know, you’re not, you’re not, you’re not doing well enough. You’re not efficient [00:24:30] enough, that can feel quite personal. Whereas if you can just say, well, this is [00:24:35] your headline metric. This is the things that are contributing to it. He had a conversation about basically [00:24:40] raising his prices. And it’s useful because you can see what other people in the practice charge and say, look, all you’re [00:24:45] doing is bringing yourself in line with everyone else. You’re not charging more than anyone else. You’re just bringing yourself in line. And [00:24:50] the nice thing about dentistry is, obviously as an associate, you benefit from that also. It’s not like a salaried job. [00:24:55] You also take home more at the end of, uh.

Payman Langroudi: Well, I think there is some nuance [00:25:00] in it that you need to be aware of. I don’t know whether whether you are or or, [00:25:05] for instance, that principle also needs to be aware of, insomuch as [00:25:10] a dentist doesn’t get paid for talking to a patient immediately, [00:25:15] but it does get paid for talking to patients eventually. [00:25:20] And it gets paid a lot eventually for talking to patients. So you could look [00:25:25] at someone, some dentists, uh, hourly rate thing and it might not be [00:25:30] that great. But for instance, one nuances if you join a practice [00:25:35] in the first check-up. So it’s the first six month [00:25:40] cycle of seeing patients. You may not want to rock the boat. [00:25:45] You may, you may, you may be in that trust phase. Yeah. And I say I’d say it’s super smart as [00:25:50] an associate in the first six months just to be very super conservative and just have lots [00:25:55] of conversations. Let the word get around that community that a good guy has [00:26:00] has now arrived, and it could be three years down the road. Those guys are going for full mouth [00:26:05] rehab at 50 grand because of the work you put in at the beginning. And so [00:26:10] although you’re right that we don’t have enough statistics that are meaningful [00:26:15] in running a dental practice. You’re completely right. And a lot of us are measuring things that we [00:26:20] never even do anything about. Which is another big disease. You know, since since this [00:26:25] KPI, the word KPIs has come into dental practice management. Everyone’s trying [00:26:30] to get KPIs. Um, but that immeasurable element [00:26:35] of it. I mean, for instance, if I was a practice owner and I had one guy [00:26:40] earning £180 an hour and the other guy earning £160, [00:26:45] a level of £110 an hour. But the guy who was earning less was loved by [00:26:50] his patients. That’s a much better associate, because love in a dental [00:26:55] practice creates word of mouth and so on. Have you have you had come across these sort [00:27:00] of issues?

Daniel Jones: Yeah. So I think the way that we think about it is that we [00:27:05] wouldn’t necessarily we wouldn’t advise someone just take [00:27:10] purely.

Payman Langroudi: Look at the stats.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, but it’s about giving them a clear part of part [00:27:15] of the picture, if that makes sense. Yeah. So and that’s why it’s [00:27:20] important to arm sort of the, the principal on the ground or the practice manager. The people that can understand that [00:27:25] nuance because it’s very what you’re describing is absolutely correct. But it’s very it’s [00:27:30] very difficult, if not impossible to pick that up in just like data or numbers. [00:27:35] And so it’s about giving people with that context that have that nuance. The [00:27:40] numbers also to be able and then they can use what’s in their brain and their experience [00:27:45] and what they know about that particular associate or that practice combined with the [00:27:50] numbers to make a good decision, if that makes sense. Yeah. So. Absolutely, [00:27:55] absolutely. So it’s the but at the moment, I think a lot of what a lot of practices and groups [00:28:00] lack is even the sort of clear picture to go alongside what they have in their [00:28:05] heads in that nuance and the knowledge. So in this case, for example, you know, he was a well-established [00:28:10] associate and been there. And patients did really like him. Um, they did love him. And [00:28:15] it wasn’t a big uplift in prices, but we calculated it was like if [00:28:20] he worked the same amount of hours, it was for the practice, not just for him, but for [00:28:25] the practice. It’s like 18 K’s worth of EBITDA at the end of the year. And what’s interesting [00:28:30] with our platform, after we can see after you can see the performance. After you can see what happens after that. [00:28:35] Um, so you can actually track what’s going on. So yeah, I think there’s, [00:28:40] there’s huge value to be had. But you’re absolutely right. It needs to be tempered with the experience, [00:28:45] the knowledge of the people that are there that have that full context.

Payman Langroudi: And on the other side [00:28:50] of it, probably there’s plenty of associates who are losing money [00:28:55] for their practice. Yeah.

Daniel Jones: Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: Without [00:29:00] anyone being aware of of that. And so have you got any sort of range [00:29:05] of daily sort of takings, daily revenue that an associate needs to [00:29:10] be doing in an average practice to be profitable.

Daniel Jones: So it’s a great question. Um, [00:29:15] this is one of the things that we want, want to like, solve in and we’re, [00:29:20] we’re very close to doing this next month. This will be rolled out onto the platform today. [00:29:25] When you look at when people have tried to assess things in dentistry, it’s always been, for example, as you said, [00:29:30] like 80 or revenue per hour. But you know, why do you why why [00:29:35] do you run a business? There’s lots of different reasons why someone would run a business, but ultimately a business has [00:29:40] to survive on what’s left after you pay everything. Right. It’s, um, revenue [00:29:45] is, is is great to have. It’s got to translate into something on the bottom line. [00:29:50] Um, so just looking at revenue can give you quite a misleading picture. So someone that [00:29:55] does £200 per hour, let’s say in one part of the country, a particular [00:30:00] practice might be way in the green, but someone doing £200 per hour at another practice [00:30:05] with higher costs. Maybe it’s a more premium practice. Maybe it’s in central London. Then they won’t be. [00:30:10] So you need to bring that data in. Like what does the cost base look like? What is your [00:30:15] operating cost per surgery per day. And then how much does that actually bring it in. And that [00:30:20] that’s what you need to look at. So I’m slightly loathe [00:30:25] to say like this is what good looks like because it really it just really depends. It really depends on your practice. [00:30:30] And that’s why having the practice specific context and numbers and data is [00:30:35] important.

Payman Langroudi: So why do I even feed in how much I’m spending on marketing and all of that.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. Because the [00:30:40] where that lives, it lives in like your accounting system. So it lives in with zero. We connect in with zero QuickBooks, [00:30:45] etc. so you can pull that data. And this is what’s interesting about what we do is that even [00:30:50] five years ago, probably less, it would have been very difficult to build [00:30:55] what we’ve built because you need ways of connecting in with these different data sources. Now [00:31:00] Xero and QuickBooks, you know, these are huge global tech companies, I think zero is worth [00:31:05] a few billion. It’s massive. Um, so they’ve got a good API, which allows [00:31:10] you to connect in with stuff, but it’s only just the case in the last few years, that cloud like practice [00:31:15] management software has really taken off. And if you don’t have cloud practice management software, it’s very difficult to get data [00:31:20] out of it. There’s no real APIs, etc. so we’re in some ways like a product [00:31:25] of the time. Like this is just becoming really possible because more and more practices are using [00:31:30] tech that allows you to to do that.

Payman Langroudi: So have you found some PMS are easier to connect to than [00:31:35] others, and are you still not connected to all of them?

Daniel Jones: Yeah, we’re still not connected to all of them.

Payman Langroudi: So which are the ones [00:31:40] you’re connected.

Daniel Jones: To and the principal only connect in with today is Dentally. So most of our customers, [00:31:45] like all of our customers today, are on Dental.

Payman Langroudi: Um, so you’re kind of limited by that.

Daniel Jones: Um. [00:31:50]

Payman Langroudi: Dental is growing so quickly. You’ve got plenty of customers to work on.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, exactly. And to an extent, [00:31:55] I mean, the vision is that not.

Payman Langroudi: Stack, by the way?

Daniel Jones: Well, so this [00:32:00] is the thing the vision is that we will be what you might call PMS agnostic so we can connect in with any [00:32:05] PMS. Like the vision really is that we want to connect in with any system that Dental practices. Pms or [00:32:10] not? Yeah. Um, it’s just those integrations take time. And, you know, uh, I think [00:32:15] if my software and the software engineers that work at Medford listening, they probably think [00:32:20] I don’t get enough sleep as it is. Um, so it’s more of a sequencing thing we want to integrate [00:32:25] with Care Stack. We want to integrate with systems of dentists, and then all the other tools people box, [00:32:30] the den grow and all these tools will get there.

Payman Langroudi: Nhs stuff as [00:32:35] well. Right. The compass or whatever it’s called.

Daniel Jones: Well, so that’s, uh.

Payman Langroudi: That was your nightmare.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. [00:32:40] Yeah. Well, the thing is, is that the NHS, the problem the problem is there’s a lot of great things about the NHS. [00:32:45] But there’s the problem really, is that they don’t have that incentive to [00:32:50] innovate. Really. And they’re quite in quite the same way.

Payman Langroudi: So getting your targets mainly a fully private. [00:32:55]

Daniel Jones: No. We work with a lot of mixed practices actually. Yeah. And I would say that mixed practices maybe get even more value out [00:33:00] the valuable platform because we’ve got really we’ve got a lot of stuff that looks at like your UDA you’re tracking, are you [00:33:05] on track? How many should you be delivering, how many UDA is each associate delivering, etc.. Really? [00:33:10] Yeah. So, um, we serve all types of practices, but getting data out [00:33:15] of compass is difficult. There’s no nice API for that as I mean, it’s an NHS system. So yeah. [00:33:20]

Payman Langroudi: So want to talk about starting up and [00:33:25] the process of finding these engineers like inspiring. So it’s not a very [00:33:30] inspirational subject. I know you’re very inspired by it. It’s nice man. It’s nice that you’re inspired by it. But [00:33:35] I can imagine when you’re selling this idea to some chief [00:33:40] technology guy, I guess they’re they’re into numbers and stuff anyway. But but, you know, [00:33:45] inspiring others to come on this journey with you and then selling your story [00:33:50] to investors. And I guess your previous business was, was kind of to connect founders with investors [00:33:55] anyway. So you kind of but just take me from the process of I’m going [00:34:00] to do that. You know, like and we all have lots of ideas, don’t we? And I for [00:34:05] me, it’s the idea that I end up doing is the one that just keeps on coming back. [00:34:10] You know, it doesn’t disappear. It just keeps on coming back again and again. So take me [00:34:15] through that process. You decided I’m going to look at solving problems for dentists with AI. [00:34:20] Yeah. By the way, where’s the AI in all of this? What does what does AI mean when [00:34:25] we’re talking about this?

Daniel Jones: Loads of things. Um, George, do you want to touch on there first? [00:34:30]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Daniel Jones: Okay. Sure. So we use AI in a few different ways. So, um, [00:34:35] the first is in actually cleaning the data. So what’s interesting is data [00:34:40] coming especially from practice management software. And again I appreciate this isn’t the sexiest [00:34:45] of topics. I spend my life looking into it. So I get excited about it. Um, but [00:34:50] when you look at stuff from the practice management software, the way that people use the [00:34:55] software, etc. can make the data that comes out of it misleading or just wrong. Um, [00:35:00] and so there’s lots of different ways that we need to correct for that. Now, if you build a [00:35:05] system where you do all these manual patches, you’re basically [00:35:10] ending up like duct taping, lots of different things. And one of the amazing things with AI is that it can you can basically [00:35:15] build an engine that’s very flexible, so you can let it loose on a data set, and it’s going to be able to detect, [00:35:20] you know, this looks wrong, why is it wrong. And it can tell you why it’s wrong, for example. So one [00:35:25] of the big ways that we like there’s loads of different ways that data goes wrong. I mean, we’ve [00:35:30] documented like 40 plus examples of data going wrong in [00:35:35] PMS to give you like a concrete example, when you’re looking at treatment plan acceptance [00:35:40] for an associate. So how good is this associate presenting treatment plans? [00:35:45] Do they get accepted? When we were first building medicine, we [00:35:50] were looking at these numbers and we’re thinking that seems low, like, you know, 20, 2,025%. [00:35:55] Um, and so we’re digging into why. And we realised that [00:36:00] most clinicians will create several treatment plans for one patient as options.

Payman Langroudi: Mhm.

Daniel Jones: But [00:36:05] when you just look at the raw data on how many treatment plans have been created and how many have [00:36:10] been accepted, you know, I could come in or you could come into practice and they’ll draw up three different [00:36:15] plans for you, but it’s only for one. It’s only for one treatment plan, really. You decide to go ahead with that. [00:36:20] If you look at the data from the PMS, it shows that the dentists got.

Payman Langroudi: 60% drop on your conversion [00:36:25] rate.

Daniel Jones: Exactly. So we have to build we’ve built like an AI engine to clean for that sort of thing. [00:36:30] The other way, like the way that I get really excited about this, that we’re using AI [00:36:35] is bridging the gap between like your numbers and interpreting them and the insights. [00:36:40] So the future of data analysis, in my opinion, I’m quite nerdy on this is like before [00:36:45] we had think about the evolution of it. You had spreadsheets like static [00:36:50] spreadsheets. Yeah. You then come into the age of more like dynamic dashboards, [00:36:55] which is kind of like Medfin v1, if you like. Although we’ve we’ve got one [00:37:00] about to go on to another platform as well. The future, though, is that you’ll be able to basically speak [00:37:05] to your data, and your data will be able to speak to you. And the way that that works is that you have to [00:37:10] have your data in a specific sort of architecture and set up an LMS. Can large [00:37:15] language models can look at that data a bit, like when you ask ChatGPT. So with our platform today, I [00:37:20] could ask you could be a practitioner. You could ask, you know, last month who are my top three performing associates [00:37:25] and why did they perform well? Um, and it would give you an answer based on your data. [00:37:30] Now, I don’t know anyone that prefers to stare at reams of data on dashboards [00:37:35] than than that. It’s just the more intuitive way. Because often when you log into something like that, you’re looking for [00:37:40] an answer on something. Um, we’re able to use it to like, write weekly and monthly reports for practices. [00:37:45] So practices are key in this are the things I care about. These are the targets maybe. [00:37:50] And the AI is going to be able to write a report, send it to you in a PDF that it’s [00:37:55] written saying, this is how you’re doing, this is why things are happening. Um, and that [00:38:00] is the future of data analysis. And that’s where we’re putting a lot of focus today. So yeah, that’s there’s [00:38:05] a couple of ways we use AI.

Payman Langroudi: So how about areas that you don’t know [00:38:10] about yet. I mean for I mean for a start there’s a hallucination question right [00:38:15] as well.

Daniel Jones: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Have you have you come across that.

Daniel Jones: Well, so, um, do you want to get really nerdy [00:38:20] about this?

Payman Langroudi: Let’s do this.

Daniel Jones: So, um, I was actually I’ve been speaking with [00:38:25] a few people about this recently, and there’s a big there’s big, this big issue with hallucinating, [00:38:30] and there’s sort of meme doing the rounds and the sort of data nerd world where someone [00:38:35] chucks in a, like a spreadsheet into chat into ChatGPT and says, can you visualise this data [00:38:40] for me? Chatgpt makes loads of charts, looks very pretty, looks very [00:38:45] nice, and then the person responds, this doesn’t look right. Did you make these numbers up? And [00:38:50] ChatGPT responds, yes, you’re absolutely right. I wasn’t [00:38:55] able to open the CSV file. Um, and this is one of the big problems AI is never going to tell you. [00:39:00] It’s just going to make stuff up, basically. Um, and this is really the limitation [00:39:05] of like chucking things into ChatGPT in order to get them. [00:39:10] In order to have something, not hallucinate and answer correctly, you [00:39:15] need to have something in your data architecture, a data architecture. So there’s a database. And [00:39:20] the thing that sits on top of the database is this thing called a semantic layer. Um, and you can think of it like a [00:39:25] translation layer. So, um, let’s say I, I type [00:39:30] in to like the Medfin platform, you know, how does payments treatment affect [00:39:35] his performance. And lamb is going to take [00:39:40] the word treatment mix. But in a database where you’ve just got columns of things, it’ll be like, [00:39:45] you know, with with no names often or just like a code for the name.

Daniel Jones: If [00:39:50] you don’t have that semantic layer, the LM doesn’t know what treatment mix is in the context of the database, [00:39:55] so it can’t answer it properly. So it’s going to get it wrong. So because there’s nothing in that database called treatment mix. [00:40:00] So you need to build this like very very crucial part of your data architecture which is very hard to do [00:40:05] called semantic layer to to give the LM context. And once you do that the accuracy [00:40:10] goes up like exponentially. So that’s, that’s that’s something that we’ve got in our data architecture. [00:40:15] We spend a lot of time working on. Um, but yeah, there’s, there’s horror stories with, with ChatGPT [00:40:20] just make, just make stuff up. You know, even in the early days with, uh, with [00:40:25] chatbots, I remember when, like, customer service, sort of like customer service departments [00:40:30] were rolling it out. People were tricking chatbots into giving them free tickets. I think British Airways had like a problem [00:40:35] where it’s like, yeah, sure, I’ll sell you this ticket for like one pence and there’s ways to break it. Um, [00:40:40] so a lot of work has to go into basically giving that [00:40:45] AI, the right context and the right architecture to perform well, it’s not as simple as just [00:40:50] letting it loose. If that makes sense.

Payman Langroudi: Back to the previous question. The idea [00:40:55] your first employee. Your first investor. Talk [00:41:00] me through that, because there’s plenty of people who have ideas. And I think in this AI world, [00:41:05] we’re less now. I remember before making my children [00:41:10] tell me like ideas, nothing without action and all of that. In this AI world, action becomes [00:41:15] a lot easier. And there’s people listening to this thinking, I’ve got an idea. Yeah, [00:41:20] well, take me through the process. I mean, what happened [00:41:25] in this company, in your previous company? What were the lessons you learned? I’d [00:41:30] like to go into the question of sort of tenacity on one side, pivoting [00:41:35] from a bad idea on the other side, how you recognise those things. Tell me the story of it. [00:41:40]

Daniel Jones: Yeah, sure. So. I mean, the overarching lesson [00:41:45] I drew from both companies, I touch on, you know, the story of them both was find [00:41:50] a good co-founder. Um, I’m very blessed to have an amazing co-founder [00:41:55] of my and my co-founder, Matt.

Payman Langroudi: And he’s the technical guy.

Daniel Jones: He’s the technical guy. He’s the brains. [00:42:00]

Payman Langroudi: You’re not technical at all. Really? Uh, well, barely.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I you know, I know.

Payman Langroudi: I write code [00:42:05] or anything.

Daniel Jones: Not really. No. Um, I know little bits, but, like, [00:42:10] you wouldn’t want me doing the coding. So, um. Yeah. [00:42:15] Finding good co-founders. I think entrepreneurship, like. And maybe many of the people listening [00:42:20] to this will will be entrepreneurs in the sense of their own practices. Um, [00:42:25] it’s hard, right? Like, it’s a hard journey to go through this. Before this podcast started [00:42:30] and we were talking about ups and downs in that entrepreneurship journey and knowing when, [00:42:35] to your point on tenacity, knowing when to to pack it in or to keep going. And [00:42:40] is that win just around the corner. The hard times going to end with [00:42:45] just one thing about to happen. You don’t want to pack it in just in case. Yeah. Um, and [00:42:50] I think that having like a co-founder that really complements your [00:42:55] skill set is important, but also like, understands you. Um, [00:43:00] most entrepreneurs will see their co-founder like, more than they see their significant other. You know, [00:43:05] um, I see Matt more than I see anyone else like my family. You know, [00:43:10] friends like relationships, all that. And so that [00:43:15] I think I founded embark, the company had before with Matt as well. So it’s like when you found it.

Payman Langroudi: Okay. [00:43:20]

Daniel Jones: Yeah, yeah. When you find a good co-founder, keep hold of him. Um, so that’s that’s [00:43:25] the first thing. But the first, the first company I started to embark was like, to be honest, a bit of an [00:43:30] accidental, um, founding story. So when I left investment banking, to [00:43:35] give you a bit of context here, I always [00:43:40] sort of like from like 15, 16. I was like, I want to go into investment banking. I think [00:43:45] I was like, you know, I read in the papers online that investment bankers get paid the most and it’s really prestigious. [00:43:50] And I where.

Payman Langroudi: Did you grow up?

Daniel Jones: Um, in Cheshire, near Manchester. Oh, [00:43:55] um, I went to a school where people were like, basically, if you [00:44:00] are smart and ambitious, you go into like a professional services sort of job or banking [00:44:05] or, you know, become a corporate lawyer. So these were funnelled towards that. And [00:44:10] I was like, that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna go into banking and do my sort of two years there and go into private equity and make [00:44:15] a load of money and be, you know, be the be the man. And then I got there [00:44:20] and it just wasn’t for me on a number of levels. Um, like, [00:44:25] it’s great. A lot of my friends, like, still working. It was great experience, but it’s not what I wanted to do for [00:44:30] the rest of my life.

Payman Langroudi: And what was the main problem with it? Cut through?

Daniel Jones: Not [00:44:35] so much that it was cutthroat. It was more, Er, I just didn’t enjoy [00:44:40] the work. And, you know, uh, I would say I’m like, fairly like creative person. [00:44:45] Um, and it was like the least creative environment. It was incredibly hierarchical. [00:44:50] Um, like you’re just stuck in front of it. You didn’t speak to people. I [00:44:55] love speaking to people. Um, I was stuck in front of a computer for literally, like 16 hours [00:45:00] every day. Um, so it was there’s a number of I can go into if you want. There’s a number [00:45:05] of things. Um, but when I left that I [00:45:10] found I joined this Start-Up. I was like the third hire. It was a tiny Start-Up. I walked in first [00:45:15] day, like, didn’t even have my sort of, like, laptop set up. It was boxes everywhere. And I was kind of thinking, [00:45:20] what on earth have I done? Um, and so I went from this thing that [00:45:25] all, all of the networking and prep and everyone I knew was in this world I’d just left behind, [00:45:30] and I’d entered this new world, and I didn’t know anyone really. So I was like, well, [00:45:35] how do I get to know people? I can go for loads of coffees with people, reach [00:45:40] out to people on LinkedIn or whatever. But I thought that’s not like the best way of doing it. So I [00:45:45] made a list of people that I knew in the space was like, not necessarily. I knew them well. Seven people long, [00:45:50] and I reached out to each of them and said, can we can we chat and sort of through those chats? [00:45:55] Um, basically, I found other [00:46:00] people with the same problem, you know, they didn’t know that many people in the space. [00:46:05] They thought, well, why don’t we start something, start like a community of people that are really [00:46:10] interested in founding specifically like tech, tech businesses. That’s what I thought I wanted [00:46:15] to explore with you.

Payman Langroudi: Some of your classmates from uni?

Daniel Jones: Yeah, classmates from uni people. I went to school [00:46:20] with, just people from sort of like the London people I met in London, friends of friends. And [00:46:25] um, yeah, the first meetup was was in a pub. [00:46:30] It was like eight people. And then that really just snowballed, like people [00:46:35] wanted. It seemed like people wanted to be a part of a community. People looking for other people [00:46:40] that were also thinking about this sort of thing that they wanted to learn from, maybe find co-founders. And [00:46:45] over the course of a couple of years, we grew to like 1800 members across London and Berlin.

Payman Langroudi: Exciting. [00:46:50]

Daniel Jones: Yeah, we collaborated with all the biggest names in tech. Um, so that was that was really like, find [00:46:55] something solve. I was solving my own problem. Yeah. And then you roll with it. There was no, like, as much [00:47:00] as I’d love to sit here and say, yeah, you know, master plan, I orchestrated this. It just that [00:47:05] was just not just was not the case. Um, sort of.

Payman Langroudi: Some companies came out of that, right? [00:47:10]

Daniel Jones: Yeah, yeah. So it was, um, in fact, just before I came. So I came from Paddington today. We’re based in a [00:47:15] office building there. One of the companies that came out of that, um, one of the founders was working [00:47:20] in that building today, so I said hi to him just for this podcast.

Payman Langroudi: Very nice.

Daniel Jones: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: But [00:47:25] then you left it.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. Then I left it. Um, I mean, it was very like it was going [00:47:30] well, um, one of the interesting things with the community sort of business. I mean, we monetise [00:47:35] around the community. It was free to be a part of was that it’s one of the only businesses in the world [00:47:40] where your growth and the quality of your product move in opposite directions. So if you think of a software, [00:47:45] the better we make our products, you know, you’d hope that growth would also move that way. [00:47:50]

Payman Langroudi: Kind of.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um.

Payman Langroudi: But so as [00:47:55] the community gets too large, it’s just becomes unmanageable. Is that what you mean?

Daniel Jones: Yeah. People [00:48:00] don’t know each other, right?

Payman Langroudi: Like, it’s not a community anymore. Community anymore.

Daniel Jones: It’s just.

Payman Langroudi: Like a.

Daniel Jones: Big, uh. [00:48:05] Yeah. Town. It’s just a big WhatsApp group. No one wants to be in the group because it’s like so many other people [00:48:10] there. So it made sense to keep it smaller.

Payman Langroudi: But [00:48:15] so on that, on that question of tenacity and pivoting, did you consider. I’ve [00:48:20] got something here. Should I pivot it or you just decide to leave? I mean, like, what [00:48:25] was going through your head?

Daniel Jones: Yeah, it’s it’s a good question, actually. Um, I [00:48:30] think it was this. Like I would say, I’m a very ambitious person. Um, [00:48:35] and I think it was the sense that this isn’t like the vehicle for that ambition, you know, like, [00:48:40] I it was amazing. Like, I loved it. Um, it’s probably the most fun thing I’ve [00:48:45] done in my life so far because it was just a community. I just got to meet so many amazing people, like [00:48:50] people that want to go out and change the world and really creative and driven. Um, but [00:48:55] I just got this sense of there was a ceiling with it. And so I [00:49:00] decided to wait and I passed it on to, um, like, [00:49:05] management, new management, um, who took it forward. And then we actually got [00:49:10] that business got acquired recently. So two months ago. This is a business called opus, um, [00:49:15] who are building like a you can think of it really like a Soho House for entrepreneurs. [00:49:20] Um, um, they acquired the community a couple months back. So it was an amazing [00:49:25] journey. But yeah, I think it was just like I wanted to do and do something. I’m a sort of itchy. [00:49:30] Itchy sort of guy in many ways. I want to I chase [00:49:35] sometimes if I think where I’m at isn’t help, isn’t helping [00:49:40] me to get where I want to go. And I think that’s what I felt when I was in banking. You know, I felt quite. Trapped. [00:49:45] Constrained. Um.

Payman Langroudi: Have you always been [00:49:50] ambitious? Like, were you an ambitious seven year old?

Daniel Jones: Good question. [00:49:55] I know that my mum says I’ve always been very, like, determined. She says that one of like, uh, [00:50:00] even when I was, like, learning to walk. She said, like, you just like, get up and fall over and you just [00:50:05] keep doing it over and over and over. Um, I mean, I obviously don’t remember that. [00:50:10]

Payman Langroudi: But do you remember an inflection point in your sort of childhood, that sort of where [00:50:15] you thought, I mean, look, it takes a degree of obsession, doesn’t it, to get into [00:50:20] Cambridge and all that and be that studier kid. Do you remember some inflection point, like [00:50:25] something, something in childhood that made you that person?

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I do actually. Um, so [00:50:30] I remember I was always at school. I was always like, [00:50:35] um, like pre GCSEs. Let’s say I’d always manage to sort of, like, coast my way through, [00:50:40] um, and get pretty, like, pretty good grades. I was quite naughty kid at school. I [00:50:45] got suspended a bunch of times. I had a pretty poor behavioural record pre like GCSEs. [00:50:50] And I remember I did my GCSEs, I got, you know, I got, [00:50:55] I got really good grades but um I’m mum if you’re [00:51:00] listening you’ll, she’ll remember this. Uh, we had like an awards evening at our [00:51:05] school for GCSE grades. And, you know, I’d always was used to getting, like, top grades, but loads [00:51:10] of people beat me in GCSEs. I didn’t get, didn’t get a shout out on, like, oh, you did really well on [00:51:15] this. And there were people that like candidly [00:51:20] that I thought, like, this might this might sound like egotistical, but I thought, like, [00:51:25] I’m smarter than that person on on stage or whatever, but I, I didn’t. [00:51:30] They’ve trounced me in this arena. And I think [00:51:35] the penny dropped that I couldn’t just coast anymore. It was like if I, [00:51:40] if I continue with what I’m doing, I’m just going to get left behind. And no amount of sort of like [00:51:45] natural.

Payman Langroudi: Being smart will only take you so far.

Daniel Jones: 100%.

Payman Langroudi: You’re right. You’re right. [00:51:50]

Daniel Jones: 100%. So that’s when the penny dropped for me. And then I kicked my ass into gear and, uh, [00:51:55] studied a lot. Um, and yeah, got, you know, the rest is [00:52:00] history sort of thing, but but pre that I just, I don’t think I took it.

Payman Langroudi: Like arriving at Cambridge when everyone’s a [00:52:05] super brain and everyone studies hard. Is it humbling.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I think so. Must [00:52:10] be I think one of the, one of the actually one of the interesting things with Cambridge is that a lot of people [00:52:15] have a bit of a crisis when they get there, because you’re often the smartest. Not necessarily. This is not [00:52:20] the case with me, because there are smarter people, certainly smarter people than me in [00:52:25] my school that also went to Oxbridge. Um, but there’s [00:52:30] a lot of people there that, you know, they were the smartest person. They knew they were there. Yeah, [00:52:35] at their school, they were the smartest person. And a lot of their, like, self-worth and identity would have been built, built around [00:52:40] like, you know, oh, that guy is the smartest guy in school. Yeah. And you get there, [00:52:45] and now suddenly you’re sort of like, middle of the pack, this sort of bunch of incredibly academically [00:52:50] gifted people. I think a lot of people struggle with that.

Payman Langroudi: Um, is there quite a lot of pressure? Yeah, [00:52:55] must be right. Yeah. So it’s not those sort of uni days of like, [00:53:00] not doing much and partying loads. And I guess there is party, but but [00:53:05] there must be a lot of pressure. Like it must be very competitive, like amongst those smart kids.

Daniel Jones: Yeah [00:53:10] for.

Payman Langroudi: Sure. You definitely can’t be like sitting around, can you, if your class is full of [00:53:15] these kids.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, definitely. It’s 100% less fun than other universities. I made [00:53:20] sure to visit friends from school that were in other universities because I had a lot more [00:53:25] fun there. Um, it’s just a lot more studious, I think. Um, the interesting thing [00:53:30] as well, the terms are really short. So it’s like eight week terms and you do probably more like they pack a [00:53:35] lot in.

Payman Langroudi: A lot of homework and stuff during those eight weeks.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, exactly. So there’s not a lot of time to sort [00:53:40] of breathe when you get there. I mean, it was a great experience. I don’t regret doing it, but it is it’s [00:53:45] it was hard work. Yeah. For sure.

Payman Langroudi: So let’s go through Medfin then when you had the idea, [00:53:50] you had your, your Start-Up partner, your sort of your co-founder. Tell [00:53:55] me about raising cash. Did you put any of your own money in to start with? Like, what were their friends and [00:54:00] family? Was a seed stage or.

Daniel Jones: No, no. So I mean the, the we just [00:54:05] went straight to raising from.

Payman Langroudi: So what’s the process. What’s the process. How many people did you pitch in front of [00:54:10] before you got your investment?

Daniel Jones: So the way that we ran the process, so I’d [00:54:15] already I’d already quit my job at this point. So Matt and I would quit our jobs. Um, [00:54:20] looking back, it was like slightly irresponsible, to be honest, because we didn’t have we didn’t. We had a [00:54:25] vague sense of what we wanted to do, you know, around sort of like healthcare and, you know, data. [00:54:30] But I mean, it’s still vague. Um, but [00:54:35] we’re like, you know what? Like, we’re just gonna have to quit our jobs to get enough time to work on this because we’re both working full time and quite [00:54:40] demanding roles. It was like, we don’t have enough time to think about this, really. So we quit. Um, [00:54:45] and that’s part about the co-founders, like, you know, find someone that you can do that with, you trust, [00:54:50] go on that journey with. We did a sort of few months of research, you know, like just [00:54:55] calling people basically times I felt a bit like a therapist, like, tell me [00:55:00] about your problems. Because ultimately, as an entrepreneur, you know, you build a business around solving someone’s problem like that. [00:55:05] You charge money to solve someone’s problem. And if you can’t solve their problem, they’re not going to pay you any money. So [00:55:10] we spoke to lots of people in sort of different verticals about their problems. And when [00:55:15] we thought it was time to raise, you know, I was living in London. My. [00:55:20] My parents live in London. I was still having to pay rent and living expenses, [00:55:25] so my savings were going. Going down. Um, so, [00:55:30] like, we should we should raise from from VCs. I think we’re on to something here. There’s [00:55:35] a big opportunity. So basically, we we made, uh, like a spreadsheet [00:55:40] of all the funds that we knew that we would [00:55:45] fall into their remit, sort of like early invest at the very earliest stages. You know, we didn’t [00:55:50] we we didn’t really have a product or any revenue. We had no revenue at that point. [00:55:55] So really funding the founders and the idea, um, and.

Payman Langroudi: You knew from your previous [00:56:00] Start-Up which found which VCs they were. Yeah. Was that easy information [00:56:05] to get?

Daniel Jones: You could get you can certainly get that information. It wasn’t all just like in my head. Like you look [00:56:10] up sort of like pre-seed stage investors investing in London healthcare. [00:56:15] And you can build this list of people And one of the things about this sort of venture capital industry [00:56:20] is that. I mean, in many ways it’s similar to to Dental, as it can be quite a closed world. And [00:56:25] everyone knows each other. And often if you can’t get a warm introduction to a fund. [00:56:30] They they won’t take you seriously. So you need someone to basically introduce you. [00:56:35] So we had this list. These are the people we could get the money from. You then create a [00:56:40] column next to it saying like, who are the people that we know at that fund if we do? And obviously we don’t know people [00:56:45] at every single fund in London. So you make another column saying, who are the people that might know someone at [00:56:50] that? And, you know, tools like LinkedIn, you can see who’s connected to who. You can reach out saying, hey, you know, people there, would [00:56:55] you be willing to do an introduction? But the really important thing is with fundraising is [00:57:00] that you have to time bound it. So if you think about any sort of deal, when you when you move quickly [00:57:05] on something, there has to be this sense that stuff. If you don’t move.

Payman Langroudi: Urgency really.

Daniel Jones: Has to [00:57:10] be urgency. Um, so a lot of the work involved in fundraising is in the prep. [00:57:15] So you do this prep, you map out how you get introductions. You put together a pitch deck [00:57:20] like a data room. So we’ve created a data room on an app called notion, which lays [00:57:25] out all our visions. Maybe some of the research videos and stuff that we did [00:57:30] when we sat down and interviewed and recorded what what people were saying. Um, so [00:57:35] we put all that together, and then one day you’ve got everyone’s contact details, you line everyone up, maybe you’re speaking [00:57:40] to a few preferred funds before that as sort of warm up. And then one day it’s like you send out an email to everyone [00:57:45] saying, we’re fundraising. This is this is how much we’re raising. It’s for this. Here’s [00:57:50] a link to my calendar if you want to chat, let’s chat.

Payman Langroudi: How many people did [00:57:55] you send that to?

Daniel Jones: 100 and 105, 110.

Payman Langroudi: How [00:58:00] many replied?

Daniel Jones: It’s fundraising is a numbers game like you can be the most well [00:58:05] connected, intelligent, amazing founder and 90% [00:58:10] VCs will say no. Like I would say, the interesting thing is, is that as [00:58:15] soon as one says yes, often the others pile in. It’s like everything in life, right? People [00:58:20] want to be involved in what other people find interesting or valuable. [00:58:25] So really, the slog in a fundraise process is you want [00:58:30] to get to the first offer on the table for something called a term sheet as quickly as possible. [00:58:35] And once you’ve got that, the rest sort of typically falls into place. But getting to that first [00:58:40] one is really is quite difficult. So I mean, I would sit on calls from [00:58:45] 830 till six just back to back to back pitching [00:58:50] medicine. Um, you move people through a process, you define a process like [00:58:55] this is what we’re going to do, you know, here’s the resources. And then you run people through, [00:59:00] um, and you try and get people over the line. We, we got to got over the line in [00:59:05] about three and a half weeks from start. But it was intense. It was like the only thing that we were doing. [00:59:10] So it’s like.

Payman Langroudi: Not all I do.

Payman Langroudi: All day, every day. You were just zoom calling with, [00:59:15] like a half an hour. Yeah, that’s what it was.

Daniel Jones: Pretty much. And they’ll come back [00:59:20] with questions. I want to hop on more zoom calls. You need to write answers, questions that you send over email. So it’s it’s [00:59:25] better to be in my in my experience at least. And people will have different, different takes on this. But to do [00:59:30] it in a really intense way, I was lucky because at the Start-Up I joined Post Banking. We [00:59:35] raised a huge seed round like $12.5 million for seed round, [00:59:40] and I had there was a one of the founders there, this guy called Xavier. Um, [00:59:45] was he was like a great mentor to me and he brought me along. [00:59:50] I was involved.

Payman Langroudi: In that process.

Daniel Jones: In the whole I was in every single meeting. And so I’d [00:59:55] sort of seen it done before, which is super helpful.

Payman Langroudi: Makes a big difference.

Daniel Jones: Huge difference. [01:00:00] I’m very grateful to have had that opportunity because it yeah, it would have been just I [01:00:05] guess when something’s novel and new, it’s just a bit more difficult.

Payman Langroudi: So let’s fill it out. They give [01:00:10] you there’s £1.5 million land in your account.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. After after about a couple of months of, [01:00:15] um, so you get the term sheet and stuff, which technically not legally binding, but people don’t, you [01:00:20] know, it would ruin someone’s reputation to go back on it. And then you have the lawyers drafting up all legal [01:00:25] docs, etc. that takes a couple of months and then the money will drop in.

Payman Langroudi: And they’re things to [01:00:30] look out for in that legal bit. I mean, do they sometimes try and screw you over and.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. [01:00:35] Well.

Payman Langroudi: What are the sort of the common pitfalls. [01:00:40]

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I would say, um, the thing is with, with [01:00:45] them putting money into the companies because they’re buying, they’re taking a stake in your company, there’s [01:00:50] very little that they can they there’s very little they can do unless you actually break the law or you go out and buy [01:00:55] Rolexes or something with, with the, with the proceeds.

Payman Langroudi: And for them, just from their perspective, [01:01:00] typically, let’s imagine in two years time you need to raise again. Do [01:01:05] they get out at that point. And just is that how it works?

Daniel Jones: They typically ride it up. So if we raise more, they’ll put more money in. [01:01:10]

Payman Langroudi: They’ll put more.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. Um, so.

Payman Langroudi: Until the point where they do get out, wherever that is, at whatever.

Daniel Jones: Point [01:01:15] acquisition or, you know, if you’re going really big IPO or something. But you know, [01:01:20] a lot of I’m under. No. Um, yeah. A lot of, a lot of these venture capital backed companies, [01:01:25] uh, VC investors know that they’re investing in something that’s like [01:01:30] there’s a high failure rate and they invest in things because, you know, one out of [01:01:35] every 50 companies.

Payman Langroudi: They’ve got to deploy their cash and find that unicorn. Right. [01:01:40] Yeah. Yeah. And how much do they interfere?

Daniel Jones: Um, it [01:01:45] depends on the investor, but I think the best investors that [01:01:50] I know of are pretty hands off, and they’re there when you need them. So, I [01:01:55] mean, we, we, we send like, monthly updates and stuff on how we’re doing.

Payman Langroudi: And do they not [01:02:00] turn up to a sort of a board meeting once a month or something?

Daniel Jones: Um, when you grow a bit bigger, they will, [01:02:05] uh, at our stage, it’s sort of seen as overkill.

Payman Langroudi: Did that did that play a.

Payman Langroudi: Part in you deciding [01:02:10] who to go with from the investment perspective that some of these guys have a good reputation [01:02:15] for not getting involved.

Daniel Jones: 100% like you should.

Payman Langroudi: You even pick them based on. [01:02:20]

Daniel Jones: Before if you know if they’re any sort of aspiring entrepreneurs listening to this, before you [01:02:25] take on any investor, whether it’s a fund or, you know, private investors always try [01:02:30] and do reference calls on your investor. You know, they do their research on you very thorough, as [01:02:35] they should. Um, but ultimately it’s a multi-year relationship. And you want [01:02:40] to have a good relationship with your investors. You want to know.

Payman Langroudi: Your due diligence side on them. Right.

Daniel Jones: Definitely. [01:02:45]

Payman Langroudi: Interesting.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, definitely. Um, it’s so important, I think.

Payman Langroudi: And then give me an example. [01:02:50]

Payman Langroudi: Of where they have been able to help you because of everything [01:02:55] they’ve done in the past. Have they introduced you to people, to ideas, [01:03:00] you know, have they helped?

Daniel Jones: Yeah. Um, they have helped, I [01:03:05] would say. Um, it’s not like they click their fingers and like, loads of stuff [01:03:10] sort of drops in your lap, unfortunately. Yeah. Um, but yeah, they can help with introductions. [01:03:15] Um, two people. So, um, you [01:03:20] know, if there are people, other people in the industry that they know they can introduce you to help with [01:03:25] hiring. So it’s like a big thing for any technology company is hiring the best software engineers. [01:03:30] Um, and, you know, they’ll help amplify any job postings. They may know, people that you should go [01:03:35] and speak to about that sort of thing. So there’s a sort of they have a network that can often help, [01:03:40] um, when it comes to.

Payman Langroudi: Do they introduce you to customers as well? Like is [01:03:45] there like a someone funding my dentist and your VC knows who that [01:03:50] is? And is that, is that a thing?

Daniel Jones: They might be able to introduce us to customers if we weren’t building in the dental [01:03:55] space. Um, so let’s say our customers were [01:04:00] tech companies for sure. They’d be able to introduce us. Um, it’s not Dental specific. [01:04:05] It’s more just sort of like non non-tech because these guys, all the networks in tech. So.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, I get [01:04:10] it, I get it. All right. So then tell me about the process of developing software. Do you do that sort of classical [01:04:15] sprint thing.

Daniel Jones: Yeah we do that sort of thing. Um internally [01:04:20] initially like the, the secret sauce is you just have to speak to the people [01:04:25] that use it as often as possible, um, to try and understand what they, what what [01:04:30] they want, what they want to see some. They’re not going to be able to tell you, I want this feature and it should look like this. But [01:04:35] I think a really important part of building a product that is impactful is being able to listen [01:04:40] to the people you’re serving like, listen, empathise, understand what they want [01:04:45] and then build it. Um, so there’s this the sort of discovery element [01:04:50] is really all about speaking to people and asking the right questions. There’s a great book on this called [01:04:55] The Mom Test. The What the Mom like Mom Test American. Um, the [01:05:00] Mumtaz will say British podcast and all that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Daniel Jones: Um.

Payman Langroudi: And [01:05:05] about how to keep in touch with with the market.

Daniel Jones: Was it to ask questions? [01:05:10] Um, two people in a way that helps surface what [01:05:15] they really think. Because often and, you know, I’m, I am as guilty of this as [01:05:20] anyone, especially British people. Like, we’re all guilty of this and that. You know, we try and we [01:05:25] don’t like something or we think something is bad. You don’t necessarily say, oh, I think that’s terrible. [01:05:30] You put a nice spin on it because you don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. But ultimately [01:05:35] when you’re building a product, you really want to you want to get to the nub of what is great and what is really bad. Yeah. [01:05:40] Um, and so it’s like, how can you ask your questions in a way that get past that?

Payman Langroudi: That’s interesting. [01:05:45]

Daniel Jones: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So what other books do you reckon are essential reading for entrepreneurs? [01:05:50] Lean. Lean Start-Up.

Daniel Jones: That’s a great one. Yeah. You read that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:05:55] Although it got lost in the software piece, man. I didn’t finish it. Um, [01:06:00] I think back then I wasn’t so focussed like years ago. What [01:06:05] else? Any other books come to mind?

Daniel Jones: Uh, 0 to 1 by Peter Thiel’s good book. Like, foundational. [01:06:10] Um, it’s pretty good. I, I I’m a big fan. Like, I read quite a lot. [01:06:15] I’m a big fan generally of, like, biographies and autobiographies. Um.

Payman Langroudi: So you read about other [01:06:20] founders and what they did.

Daniel Jones: Founders and just people in general. Like there have to be sort of tech tech [01:06:25] founders. But if you’re after stuff about tech founders, like the Walter Isaacson biography on Steve Jobs is really [01:06:30] good. It’s amazing. And I think one one of the things that I love about biographies is biographies [01:06:35] like that is you often have people that really like lionised this guy, [01:06:40] but but everyone is human. They have their own flaws and they do it and they, they sort of carve [01:06:45] their own path. And I think by reading stuff like that, you realise there isn’t necessarily a blueprint. Everyone is [01:06:50] imperfect. Um, and you sort of take what you want from, from their story. But [01:06:55] I love reading books like that.

Payman Langroudi: Like, how do you feel about the sacrifice of the [01:07:00] sort of founder life? I mean, you must have people from your [01:07:05] class or whatever now rising up the banking or people you knew [01:07:10] in finance. The sacrifice element that the sort of the [01:07:15] idea that you’re going to delay your happiness until until later. I [01:07:20] mean, you know, people talk about the journey and all that, enjoying the journey. And you got a nice smile [01:07:25] on your face. Looks like you’re enjoying yourself, but it’s hard sometimes. I remember as a dentist when [01:07:30] we started enlightened, I was like three years a dentist. We started enlightened and then lost money for about [01:07:35] five years. And I remember looking around at the people in my class buying their Porsches and [01:07:40] difficult time, a difficult time, not because you never knew what the final outcome of it was going [01:07:45] to be, and working your butt off and losing money is a pain. It’s a horrible, horrible, [01:07:50] horrible thing. Do you do you sometimes reflect on it or are you calm about all that? [01:07:55] Oh.

Daniel Jones: I think in the early days of journey, I [01:08:00] did reflect on that quite a bit. Um, as you say, like a lot of my, a lot of my friends are still they [01:08:05] the route that I was going to do some banking, private equity, most of my like my personal friends still [01:08:10] do that. Um, and they’re earning shitloads of cash.

Payman Langroudi: Did you sometimes think, [01:08:15] what if I do?

Daniel Jones: Sometimes I do. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. [01:08:20] Especially when it gets hard. You know, it’s like on some days, one of the. Maybe [01:08:25] I’d be interested to hear your take on this. I think one of the things with entrepreneurship is just how [01:08:30] much of a rollercoaster it is. You know, some some days something goes amazingly and you’re sort of walking down the [01:08:35] street and you know, those movies where someone’s whistling and they’re saying hi to everyone.

Payman Langroudi: They pass. [01:08:40]

Daniel Jones: Yeah. Sometimes you can feel like that.

Payman Langroudi: The highs are high.

Daniel Jones: The highs are so high, it’s amazing. And then there are other [01:08:45] days where just you feel like you can do nothing, right? And everything’s going wrong. It’s all falling [01:08:50] apart. And, um, those are the days you think. What if?

Payman Langroudi: Um, [01:08:55] I think the more you do it, the more you learn. What the. What do they call it in boxing? The roll [01:09:00] with the punches kind of thing, where the few, the first few big disasters [01:09:05] that happened to you really are shocking. And then the more you do it, you realise. All [01:09:10] right, you know, we’ll get through this as well. But the beginning is very hard. Yeah.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. [01:09:15]

Payman Langroudi: I found that comparison piece very difficult because, you know, as you know, dentists earn a lot early. [01:09:20] It’s not that they earn a lot. I mean, they earn a lot, but but they earn a lot early. Um, [01:09:25] one of the highest earning sort of 23 year olds might be a dentist, you know? [01:09:30] And so you watch your friends, and then you’re losing money. Hello. Hello. You’re [01:09:35] like, am I doing? What the hell am I doing? Yeah. Um, I had to question myself a lot back then. [01:09:40] Um, but it’s very impressive what you’ve done. What keeps you up [01:09:45] at night? I mean, what are you really worried about?

Daniel Jones: Am [01:09:50] I moving fast enough? [01:09:55] I think, you know, um, one of the things that the [01:10:00] like my, the heart surgery sort of imbued within me was this [01:10:05] sense of, you know, if you think back to when you were 20 and I had this, it’s like you basically [01:10:10] feel invincible, like you have no sense of your own mortality. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and [01:10:15] you’re just like, well, this I’m going to be healthy and my [01:10:20] life goes on forever. And you don’t you don’t ever think about that sort of thing. And I think that [01:10:25] experience sort of made me realise that life [01:10:30] is finite, and we only do get a finite amount of time. And [01:10:35] when you compare that, combine that with, with being ambitious. Um, [01:10:40] the thing that keeps me up at night is like, am I am I going quickly enough? Am I making the most of my time to get where I want [01:10:45] to go? Um, that’s the stuff that keeps me up at night staring at the ceiling.

Payman Langroudi: Anxiety. [01:10:50]

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I would say, you know, you could certainly call it that. Um, I wouldn’t say [01:10:55] I’m an anxious person, but like, you know, things that I think about at night when I stare up at my ceiling, I [01:11:00] certainly think about that for sure.

Payman Langroudi: And so what would you say you’re [01:11:05] bad at?

Daniel Jones: Um. What would I say I’m bad at? There’s [01:11:10] loads of things I’m bad at. Coding, for one. Um, I would say, um. [01:11:15] I, I went [01:11:20] on a, I went on a date the other day with this girl and this at the [01:11:25] end of the day, she goes, do you have ADHD? Which [01:11:30] is, um, an interesting thing to hear. And, and I [01:11:35] think that I can be very organised if I put my mind to it. But my, my [01:11:40] mind often goes in like 100 different directions. Um, so that’s something that like [01:11:45] staying like super organised. There’s like Matt, my co-founder is amazing [01:11:50] at this. He’s like one of the most organised people I’ve ever met.

Payman Langroudi: Um, do you need opposites in that sense, don’t [01:11:55] you? I mean, you can’t. I’m sure you can be the creative and organised, but generally [01:12:00] it goes in opposite directions.

Daniel Jones: So I think that my organisational skills [01:12:05] can sometimes leave a bit to be desired.

Payman Langroudi: What about relationships? I mean, it’s difficult having a relationship. I [01:12:10] mean, when I was married, um, and she was paying for everything, [01:12:15] she was paying the mortgage and all that while I was trying to fix this. But like [01:12:20] I say, that that obsessional thing that, you know, a Start-Up is an obsession and [01:12:25] takes up massive amounts of time. And there are moments during [01:12:30] an entrepreneurial journey that absolutely everything has to go get [01:12:35] second place to what’s going on now, like in the three weeks that you are raising cash, you [01:12:40] couldn’t go to a funeral, you can go to a birthday, you can. And [01:12:45] during product launch phases. That happens a lot as well. Have you found relationship wise it’s actually [01:12:50] affected you being in this position?

Daniel Jones: Yeah, I think so. Um, you [01:12:55] know, I think you go into to an extent with your eyes open to that sort of thing. [01:13:00] Um, but even just just from a sort of like, time perspective, like [01:13:05] I have less time to spend with, um, family, with friends. Um, so [01:13:10] it does. It does in, in in that, in that way, I’m very lucky to have people in my life that are pretty, [01:13:15] pretty understanding, um, of that and, you know, very supportive, but no [01:13:20] doubt like it’s, it’s, uh, it does become an obsession. I think the best entrepreneurs, like, are people that [01:13:25] are prone to obsession. Obsession because that’s that’s what drives sort of just. [01:13:30]

Payman Langroudi: Gets you through the difficulties. Yeah, exactly. Let’s [01:13:35] get to the darker part of the pod. I know we’ve been through some dark areas. What [01:13:40] would you say was your biggest mistake in this journey?

Daniel Jones: My biggest [01:13:45] mistake. I think [01:13:50] a big mistake of mine was trying to follow someone else’s [01:13:55] path, or what sort of society deemed an idea of success. [01:14:00] Um, you know, that’s that’s why I started.

Payman Langroudi: The finance job, you.

Daniel Jones: Mean? 100%. [01:14:05] 100%? Um.

Payman Langroudi: I think how many years did you spend in finance?

Daniel Jones: Uh, [01:14:10] just under three. Three years. I’m. It’s quite. It’s. I’m a young guy, so it’s a [01:14:15] decent.

Payman Langroudi: Portion of my life.

Daniel Jones: Um, yeah. Because I think that [01:14:20] when you’re younger, you look around and you think, you know, there are all these different paths. And which path do I go [01:14:25] on? I think it’s the wrong way of looking at it, you know? And that’s something you only get to with, um, [01:14:30] age and wisdom if you like. But I think looking back, I’d [01:14:35] have loved to have been able to sort of start on my own path even earlier, like, [01:14:40] um, I know guys that are like 19. Um, we had a guy working with us for [01:14:45] a bit who was this 19 year old, and he was I was so impressed with the way he thought [01:14:50] about life. You know, he could have gone to a really good university. I don’t want to go to university. I want to go and do this. And [01:14:55] I think it takes real courage and independent thinking to be able to step off that route, [01:15:00] that other, to just step off the beaten track, you know? Um, [01:15:05] so I wish I’d done that earlier.

Payman Langroudi: Some people have things figured out way [01:15:10] earlier than you one and then other people or other other things they [01:15:15] haven’t figured out yet. You know, that comparison is a bit of a difficulty in this situation, you know? [01:15:20] But I get you, I get you, um, going forward, if you [01:15:25] had like a five year best case scenario, like what? What are you what are you telling these [01:15:30] VCs that’s going to happen in five years time? You’re going to be the global leader in this in this area. [01:15:35]

Daniel Jones: Yeah. Um, our goal is to become the the data layer, um, [01:15:40] for dentistry. That’s that’s a goal in the UK. Then in the US and [01:15:45] we’re incredibly ambitious. Want to be international with this. So next couple of [01:15:50] years we’re super focussed on the UK. Um and then we’d like to go to the US in our office. We’ve got a [01:15:55] big split US UK flag and we had it up since day one and I put it up and I told [01:16:00] the rest of the guys on the team, I mean, I’m no like I’m not like a massive fan [01:16:05] of America in the sense of I don’t go around wearing cowboy boots sort of thing. Um, [01:16:10] but I put that on the the wall as a statement of intent when we first [01:16:15] started saying, look like we want to we want to go big [01:16:20] with this. Um, so that’s what we that’s what we tell investors. Um, and just. [01:16:25] Yeah, it’s that’s.

Payman Langroudi: That goes back to that question of am I moving fast enough to achieve that? [01:16:30] Right? Because, I mean, I’m aware of two other Start-Ups who are trying to do what you’re saying. [01:16:35] Who knows what’s happening in America. It’s a big challenge. Big, big, big challenge.

Daniel Jones: That’s [01:16:40] what makes fun.

Payman Langroudi: Of course. Of course. Anything worthwhile is a big challenge. There’s no doubt about that. [01:16:45] Let’s end it on the usual questions. Fantasy dinner party. Three [01:16:50] guests, dead or alive. Who are you having? Oh.

Daniel Jones: I don’t know. Um. Is [01:16:55] it dinner party or is it separate? Separate dinners?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [01:17:00] They don’t have to. They don’t have to talk to each other. Yeah, so.

Daniel Jones: I would [01:17:05] the first person I’d like to have dinner with and sadly passed away now is my grandma. [01:17:10] So my grandmother was like, you know, sometimes maybe [01:17:15] you’ve had this. I hadn’t realised how much of an impact and positive impact she’d had on my life, [01:17:20] and she passed away when I was like 16. I think at that age. You’re too young. [01:17:25]

Payman Langroudi: Self-centred?

Daniel Jones: Yeah, you’re too young to understand. And I think that, you know, she was she was such [01:17:30] an amazing person. And she was.

Payman Langroudi: My mum’s mum.

Daniel Jones: Yeah. My mum’s [01:17:35] mum and she I mean she could be quite strict. And so there were times in my sort [01:17:40] of like early teens where we’d, there’d be a bit of friction.

Payman Langroudi: Mhm.

Daniel Jones: Um, but [01:17:45] you know, with, with the fullness of time you realise how important [01:17:50] that is. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I’d like to see her again and talk to her again and [01:17:55] say thank you and sorry for being, you know, a little shit. Um, [01:18:00] and. Yeah, I’d like to do that. I wouldn’t have her at the dinner party [01:18:05] with the other two guests I’m about to mention. So I’d like to have that separate, if that’s all right. And [01:18:10] then. So, uh, there’s a guy called. Are you familiar with a guy called Naval Ravikant? [01:18:15] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love the I love the way that he’s able to simplify, [01:18:20] like, very complex topics. And he just seems to have such clarity of [01:18:25] thought. I’d love to sit down with him and, like, talk to him. I think he’s he’s like a modern [01:18:30] day, so.

Payman Langroudi: Easy to listen to. But but such a big subject. He tackles.

Daniel Jones: 100%. [01:18:35] So interesting when you look at people and you’re like, you got it figured out. Like you’re sort of you’ve thought through stuff pretty [01:18:40] deeply. You’ve got to figure it out. He’s he’s that person. I really enjoy, um, sort [01:18:45] of his musings and content.

Payman Langroudi: You don’t think your grandma would like him?

Daniel Jones: Well, it’s the [01:18:50] more the third person. So the other, like the historical figure that I’m probably like [01:18:55] most interested in is Napoleon. Um, so I’ve, I’ve, I’ve read, read [01:19:00] a few books, like biographies and even like some of his writings because a lot of his diaries still exist. The [01:19:05] reason I think Napoleon and Naval Ravikant would be an interesting pairing is that naval is like, he’s like super [01:19:10] chill. He’s like action and sort of, um, doesn’t necessarily equate with impact. And [01:19:15] you can be of calm mind and still be really ambitious. And then you take Napoleon, who’s [01:19:20] like basically the opposite. He’s just like action, action, action. And he’s a very complex figure in [01:19:25] many ways. You know, like to some people he would be this sort of bloodthirsty tyrant, and [01:19:30] others, he’s this sort of like, amazing Statesman, and he [01:19:35] introduced, like so many interesting things within France around civil administration [01:19:40] laws post the French Revolution, which I just it’s such a fascinating [01:19:45] figure also that he rose from relatively relative obscurity in a, in an age [01:19:50] where there was no social mobility. So he came from like the back end of he was from Corsica, which [01:19:55] was like a backwater, to be like the emperor of France when he was 28. Um, so [01:20:00] but I think it would be interesting to see them interact, and I’d just. Yeah, I’d like to go [01:20:05] to a dinner party with him because he’s another person who’s just so complex. And I find complex people [01:20:10] really interesting, like people that you can’t sort of say they’re that [01:20:15] sort of person.

Payman Langroudi: Do you know this notion of foxes and hedgehogs?

Daniel Jones: No. What [01:20:20] is that?

Payman Langroudi: One of them is is very basic and has basic rules to [01:20:25] life. And the other one is almost like an overthinker and very complex. And [01:20:30] it turns out the basic ones are much more successful than the complex, simple, simple [01:20:35] rules they apply to life. How come there’s no hint of any sort of Manchester accent? [01:20:40]

Daniel Jones: Yeah, if I had a pound for every time someone was a little pocket.

Payman Langroudi: Of Cheshire [01:20:45] where everyone speaks like you.

Daniel Jones: Well, so none of my family are from from up north. Um, none [01:20:50] of my family are from up north. And I think, well, actually, partially, it’s because my grandma, she didn’t want me speaking [01:20:55] with a northern accent. Okay. Sorry to any northerners listening. Um, wasn’t my choice, but. Yeah, uh, [01:21:00] I think that’s why. I think that’s why. And then I’ve been down south for, I don’t know. [01:21:05]

Payman Langroudi: So you never had northern accent?

Daniel Jones: No. Not really. There’s videos of me from school, and it sounded [01:21:10] pretty pretty much the same.

Payman Langroudi: Is there a Welsh connection?

Daniel Jones: There is. Yeah. My mum’s side. [01:21:15] Jones is actually. Wyn Jones is my middle name. So. Super Welsh. [01:21:20] Um, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Excellent. So who do you support if England play Wales.

Daniel Jones: In the rugby? [01:21:25] Yes, I actually support Wales because.

Payman Langroudi: I’m so happy you said that.

Daniel Jones: My, my granddad my [01:21:30] grandad’s a big Wales fan. Um, football? I mean, yeah, [01:21:35] England. Yeah. For sure.

Payman Langroudi: Amazing. I really enjoyed it, man. I really enjoyed it. And good luck and [01:21:40] maybe we’ll get you back in a couple of years and see where it’s gone.

Daniel Jones: Yeah, that’d be awesome. Thanks for having.

Payman Langroudi: Me. Amazing, [01:21:45] man.

[VOICE]: This is Dental Leaders, the [01:21:50] podcast where you get to go one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. [01:21:55] Your hosts Payman Langroudi [01:22:00] and Prav Solanki.

Prav Solanki: Thanks for listening, guys. If you got this [01:22:05] far, you must have listened to the whole thing. And just a huge thank you both from me and pay for [01:22:10] actually sticking through and listening to what we’ve had to say and what our guest has had to say, because [01:22:15] I’m assuming you got some value out of it.

Payman Langroudi: If you did get some value out of it, think about subscribing. [01:22:20] And if you would share this with a friend who you think might get some value out of [01:22:25] it too. Thank you so so so much for listening. Thanks.

Prav Solanki: And don’t forget our six star rating.

[VOICE: This [00:00:05] is Dental Leaders. The podcast where you get to go [00:00:10] one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [00:00:15] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [00:00:20]

Payman Langroudi: One of the most common questions I get is how do I do more teeth whitening? The basis [00:00:25] of that is to really believe in it, and the basis of that is to fully understand it. Join us for enlightened [00:00:30] online training on enlightened online training to understand how to assess a case [00:00:35] quickly, how to deliver brilliant results every time. Next time. Whitening underwhelms. Try [00:00:40] and lighten. Now let’s get to the pod. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Amber Aplin onto the [00:00:45] podcast. Amber has a practice in the Scottish Borders, a [00:00:50] biomimetic practice very much including therapists and [00:00:55] teachers on all that. And I definitely want to talk about that. Um, a career that started [00:01:00] out in the military, right? Is that right?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Military? Yeah. Straight from [00:01:05] uni to the military. So. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Why did you join the military?

Amber Aplin: My [00:01:10] father was actually in the army as well. My father. So he kind of said, oh, I [00:01:15] saw the benefits of it through him.

Payman Langroudi: So as a.

Amber Aplin: Dentist. Yeah. As a.

Payman Langroudi: Dentist. Dad. [00:01:20] Yeah. As a dentist in the military.

Amber Aplin: I saw firsthand the benefits the travel through throughout the world and [00:01:25] everything. So I thought it would be great, you know, for even for a six years, it’s a great just start to [00:01:30] life and for experience. So I just went straight into it from actually third year of university, [00:01:35] joined cadetship for my last two years and got some [00:01:40] pay and some books, you know, and yeah.

Payman Langroudi: University was Newcastle.

Amber Aplin: Newcastle. [00:01:45]

Payman Langroudi: Huh. Yeah. And so let’s get into the military thing because I’m not really clear on it. [00:01:50] So what happens? What is there a deal where they say, we’ll pay you this much if you stay that [00:01:55] long?

Amber Aplin: The first. Yeah, the first step is about six years minimum, uh, [00:02:00] service. So they train you up, you go to Sandhurst. Um, I [00:02:05] think normal military would be a whole year at Sandhurst for officer training. [00:02:10] Um, and we go straight in as an officer from dental school because we’re qualified [00:02:15] with a postgrad. Yeah, um, but our Sandhurst is about five weeks worth [00:02:20] of the full year. Um, and it’s it’s pretty intensive, and it’s I [00:02:25] loved it, I loved it, it was. You’re marching around, you learn weapon craft [00:02:30] skills for shooting, um, your.

Payman Langroudi: Basic military training.

Amber Aplin: Basic training? [00:02:35] Up at the crack of dawn. You’re picking litter. Um, you’re out running at [00:02:40] six, seven in the morning, so carrying weight, going on, [00:02:45] um, mini kind of beds and stuff 3 or 4 nights away, um, all [00:02:50] really, really great fun. But they push you. They push you to you kind of near limits. [00:02:55] I think physically they try and break you a little bit.

Payman Langroudi: To then rebuild you at the point.

Amber Aplin: Um, I [00:03:00] think it’s a taster of, um, probably the full course and it’s kind of called Vicars and Tarts course, [00:03:05] I think. But actually, it’s pretty tough. You know, I was quite glad and quite proud to get through it. [00:03:10] Um, and then you go into other training at Keogh for dentist specific training, um, [00:03:15] learning about the military way of record keeping and just, you know, [00:03:20] other things like that and more kind of, um, staying away doing it’s [00:03:25] even doing lots of training in as if you’re in doing operational dentistry [00:03:30] and working with medics. So field kind of not surgeries but [00:03:35] you know, first aid and things and CPR and things. So that was a great [00:03:40] experience. You make great friends for life you know.

Payman Langroudi: Okay. So now you’re now you’ve kind of got the basic training [00:03:45] of both military and dental. Yeah. Then what you just in a dental surgery, like most [00:03:50] dentists, five days a week.

Amber Aplin: I was shipped out straight away to Germany. And, you [00:03:55] know, I remember arriving in my first camp, it was it was called Fallingbostel. And [00:04:00] it was near, um, near Paderborn, I think Paderborn. And, um, I arrived there about 11 [00:04:05] p.m. at night and no one was around. I thought no one was there to greet you. This is the first step [00:04:10] of the real life, you know, and as I kind of just newly fresh faced grad, um, [00:04:15] and then just had to find accommodation somewhere and just. But anyway, the job [00:04:20] itself is, is 9 to 5. Um, but you can [00:04:25] be called to go anywhere at any time. So you’ve got to be prepared to just go with [00:04:30] it really and not really question it.

Payman Langroudi: So let’s imagine there’s no, you know, security situation, [00:04:35] your day to day, 9 to 5 appointments as you would in a what NHS [00:04:40] type situation is that what it is or do you get longer.

Amber Aplin: You get as long as you need. We’re in year [00:04:45] I did over in Germany. Um, and then all the, all the kind [00:04:50] of new grads from that intake all met together kind of once every, I think every two [00:04:55] weeks for a day away somewhere social. It was very, very social. Very, very good fun and [00:05:00] training as well into that mix as well, of course. Um, but the day [00:05:05] to day work was kind of compared to now. It was very basic. I think our main aim is to get soldiers [00:05:10] fit for deployment. So lots of amalgams, extractions and not [00:05:15] much else. Not much else.

Payman Langroudi: So if a soldier wanted teeth whitening, he couldn’t come in and [00:05:20] say gimme teeth whitening. That wasn’t available.

Amber Aplin: Anywhere. I mean, this is a long time ago now.

Payman Langroudi: Okay.

Amber Aplin: I [00:05:25] mean, I qualified in 1980 something.

Payman Langroudi: I want, like, ortho. You couldn’t come in and say [00:05:30] I want.

Amber Aplin: There was ortho. Oh, there was actually more for kids in the in the forces and all. So I don’t [00:05:35] think soldiers got ortho. No. No ortho, no cosmetic stuff. Um, did anterior composites. But these [00:05:40] are young soldiers. Normally.

Payman Langroudi: So not.

Amber Aplin: That much. So not much. Not much kind of cosmetic [00:05:45] stuff. Mostly fit, healthy young men. And few, obviously women as [00:05:50] well. Over there. And and kids over in Germany as well.

Payman Langroudi: And then how [00:05:55] does the pay work. You salaried.

Amber Aplin: Salaried. Yeah. Great salary straight away. Um, yeah. [00:06:00] Other benefits. Lots of travel, you know, and, um, they encourage [00:06:05] training over there. So in the forces. So, um.

Payman Langroudi: Cpd training.

Amber Aplin: Loads [00:06:10] of CPD, they encourage you to do postgrads and study and yeah, you have meet [00:06:15] together to do training days and present cases. And I did my exams through [00:06:20] the military, you know, the mjdf and I think that was about it. But [00:06:25] other other kind of training courses within the Army as well.

Payman Langroudi: So then [00:06:30] how many years do you stay in each place? So you were in Germany for say five years?

Amber Aplin: Germany? I was [00:06:35] each postings typically 2 to 3 years. Well, VTI is one year and then we move after the VTI year [00:06:40] somewhere else. Yeah. So I was in Germany for most of my career actually, because I really enjoyed it over there.

Payman Langroudi: Did [00:06:45] you learn German?

Amber Aplin: Yeah, a little bit German. Yep. Learn enough to get by? Certainly. Order food and stuff. [00:06:50] Um, I couldn’t quite hold a conversation, but I did [00:06:55] enjoy it.

Payman Langroudi: So how about during those, say, 15 years you [00:07:00] were doing that? Yeah. Was there a situation where suddenly war broke out and suddenly you [00:07:05] were taken to Iraq or something or whatever?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. I mean, we did it [00:07:10] all the time. I actually missed out on an up to, I think it was to Bosnia at the time because [00:07:15] I had a skiing injury. Um, so I had an ACL rupture, so I wasn’t able to go. And fortunately, [00:07:20] um, I did go over to I was in Northern Ireland for three [00:07:25] years. That’s kind of a bit like a deployment. It’s a little bit, um, high risk at times. [00:07:30] Some interesting situations in Northern Ireland you could find yourself in if you’re not careful. Yeah. [00:07:35] Looking under your car for bombs and things and, um, certain areas that you [00:07:40] couldn’t go to. Um, but I was quite relaxed about it. You got to live your life [00:07:45] as well. And as long as you’re sensible.

Payman Langroudi: I guess the training must address that. Sort [00:07:50] of.

Amber Aplin: It does. And I think it expects you to have a certain bit of common sense as well, you know, which I didn’t always [00:07:55] have, to be honest. So I used to compete horses and stuff. And I had, um, I [00:08:00] remember times of taking my horse in a horse box around looking for [00:08:05] a venue somewhere near the border, and ended up finding [00:08:10] this funeral procession. Um, and it wasn’t nice [00:08:15] situation to be in, and very quickly saw the the holes lining up and and [00:08:20] you trying to get out and they’re starting to wonder, you know, what you’re doing. And they obviously knew that you weren’t supposed [00:08:25] to be there and things. And so just quickly had to try and do a U-turn and get out of there quick, smart [00:08:30] and just little bits like that I’d be really careful with. And I wasn’t the most sensible, to be honest.

Payman Langroudi: Um.

Amber Aplin: But [00:08:35] I still believe you’ve got to live life and make [00:08:40] the most of it and not not be scared to do things.

Payman Langroudi: So when [00:08:45] you look back on on those years, what’s the emotion that goes [00:08:50] through you? Is it is it okay? You had a lot of fun. You met a lot of people career wise. [00:08:55] Do you feel like you sort of stood still? Yeah. Dentally in that period.

Amber Aplin: I [00:09:00] kind of wish I, I mean, I loved it so much and I was ready to go when I went because I had a young family at the time. [00:09:05] So I’d, I think my three children just before I left the forces. Um, [00:09:10] and then just before you leave, you think, Crikey, I’ve been doing amalgams and extractions all my all my career, [00:09:15] and suddenly you’ve got to suddenly upskill hugely before you go [00:09:20] ready. Faced with looking for employment outside? Um, so [00:09:25] that was a time I really started to study and find training, and I [00:09:30] never stopped, really. But you’re right. I think had I left sooner and set up my own practice sooner, I’d [00:09:35] probably been slightly better off. I’m late to the game, basically with ownership, I would [00:09:40] say. Yeah, for sure.

Payman Langroudi: But, you know, I mean, life [00:09:45] takes you where it takes you, right? That’s that’s that’s that’s an interesting whole question itself. [00:09:50] I do want to ask one other question about soldiers, because I wasn’t [00:09:55] really aware of this, that almost every single soldier who sees battle, [00:10:00] sees action, ends up with some form of PTSD. Is that [00:10:05] correct? Because I thought it was a tiny minority. But the soldiers I’ve [00:10:10] spoken to, they say themselves and everyone they know suffers [00:10:15] from some form of PTSD.

Amber Aplin: I would imagine so. I mean, I was very lucky not to witness anything [00:10:20] like that at all yourself. I’ve got I’ve got friends who have lost very close friends. [00:10:25] And, you know, I think that was certainly true. I would say I [00:10:30] was very lucky to come away without any of that kind of exposure, I would say. Um, I [00:10:35] mean, a great time. Loved it. Uh. Hard work. I think I actually learned a lot of resilience from the forces, [00:10:40] because you get told. Drop of a hat to go. I mean, I came back from having my third child, [00:10:45] and I was still actually feeding her at the time and straight back into work, and I was sent within a few days [00:10:50] over to Northern Ireland for just a two week, um, two week kind of visit [00:10:55] to this practice to cover some someone’s annual leave. And, um, you know, [00:11:00] I hadn’t been trained on the new system there for software, for note taking. So you just suddenly taken [00:11:05] away from all suddenly being off leave for six months, you know, and and then, [00:11:10] um, yeah, just without the proper training. It wasn’t always well thought out, actually, sometimes. [00:11:15] And, um, you just got to get on with it. It’s got to go find find the best way to get through it. And, [00:11:20] um. Yeah, I think it builds a lot of resilience. You can’t question it. You’ve just got to do what you’re told [00:11:25] to do, um, and make the best of it.

Payman Langroudi: But what I’m kind of getting at is, is a soldier [00:11:30] patient different? Sometimes? Yes. Because of these call it let’s call it mental [00:11:35] health struggles. Yeah. Do you have to did you come across [00:11:40] that situation from your patients. You know, there were people who’d been through something, and then.

Amber Aplin: I [00:11:45] was based mostly, I suppose, in recruit training places, I suppose, rather [00:11:50] than places where people came back from. Um, yeah. It depends where you’re based, I suppose. [00:11:55] And I wasn’t really based with anywhere, um, who were in the kind of fighting regiments as [00:12:00] far as I know. Um, so however [00:12:05] soldiers that we treat, the main difference is there’s no consent because [00:12:10] they don’t question it.

Payman Langroudi: Um.

Amber Aplin: You just say this is what we need to do to get your tooth [00:12:15] fit or stable. And they say, fine, you know, and and, um, it’s like [00:12:20] you need to know what I’m doing here. Is that okay? And, you know, and they don’t seem to, um, there was [00:12:25] no way they would. And again, they’re soldiers and were majors or captains. And in [00:12:30] the military, you’re not trained to question authority for even a second. So there was no consent [00:12:35] in my mind. And it was very tricky to.

Payman Langroudi: So when you came back into civilian land, [00:12:40] did you find that challenging because you had to overexplain things to people?

Amber Aplin: The biggest [00:12:45] challenge for me straight away was, um, making sure that I knew my worth, [00:12:50] because in the military, there’s no they don’t pay for the treatments over there in the transactions. There’s no transactions [00:12:55] at all for what you do. So everything is free at the point of, um, service. [00:13:00] Yeah. So, yeah. And I was straight into a job which [00:13:05] was NHS mixed private. I was there for like one year. And these patients that came [00:13:10] in that were fully private, I was like, I’m not good enough to treat these guys. You know, I’ve got just I didn’t feel like [00:13:15] I was worthy of looking after these people and I’d have to upskill so much. And [00:13:20] I felt I wanted to give them a fantastic service to make them feel they had value [00:13:25] for money. You know, it’s only I mean, this is going back, I think, you [00:13:30] know, 20 years now, um, 18, 20 years and and [00:13:35] maybe a private new patient would be about £80 at the time. And I was like, crikey! [00:13:40] You know, I’ve got to make this really, really great. Just so they know. They’ve had great value, great service. So that [00:13:45] was my mindset straight off the bat.

Payman Langroudi: I think people who come straight out of university into into private sort of situations [00:13:50] or near university, they have that same struggle and they probably am I worthy? [00:13:55]

Amber Aplin: Yeah, I would guess so. Um, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So how you got over that [00:14:00] in the end, right. Pardon? You got over that.

Amber Aplin: It took a while to upskill and train [00:14:05] and train and train till I felt like I was good enough. Good. And and very [00:14:10] good. And so I knew my skills were competent and great. It took a long time, actually, to be [00:14:15] fair.

Payman Langroudi: So what led you down this biomimetic route? I mean, upskilling could [00:14:20] have meant anything, couldn’t it? Yeah. You could have gone to Khoisan spear and.

Amber Aplin: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Been [00:14:25] prepping.

Amber Aplin: That’s true.

Payman Langroudi: Prep happy, I guess. You know, people call that, um. [00:14:30] Or you could have gone. You could have become an a line bleach blonde person or. Yeah, all sorts [00:14:35] of different directions. You could have gone. Yeah. What was. What was the influence that led you down this biomimetic route? [00:14:40]

Amber Aplin: I did lots of training, actually. So I have done the Tipton Restorative Long course. [00:14:45] Um, I’ve done Linda Greenwald tooth whitening. Um, I stayed away [00:14:50] from ortho, actually, to be honest, I didn’t fancy ortho or cosmetic anyway. Um, [00:14:55] yeah, I’ve done loads of training. Every. I’d always train all the time. Even did [00:15:00] a postgraduate Edinburgh um, diploma in private primary [00:15:05] dental care at the time. And that was a two year diploma. Um, I just fell upon [00:15:10] the course actually. The aliments. Who are these two Americans, father and son, who are the founders of it, really? [00:15:15] They came across to Scotland, to Glasgow for a two day course, and my work colleague [00:15:20] and friend Kira went to the course first. We’re doing two back to back courses. And Amber, you’ve [00:15:25] just got to go on this. It’s mind blowing. I said, okay, yeah, I was going to go anyway, but I wasn’t [00:15:30] really convinced because I thought I knew a lot. I thought I was great. And, [00:15:35] um, we just don’t know what you don’t know, you know? And this is me being very experienced and [00:15:40] working in private practice for about ten, 12 years, and, um, went in this two day course and [00:15:45] I literally straight away I was this is incredible, phenomenal learning [00:15:50] from this course.

Payman Langroudi: Can you think of a couple of things from that course that were the kind of unlocks [00:15:55] that made you think, shit, why have I been doing it this way?

Amber Aplin: I’ve been doing it wrong all my life.

Payman Langroudi: What kind of things [00:16:00] are we talking?

Amber Aplin: So one of the main things, one thing straight away, was they said, okay, just raise your [00:16:05] hands in this room. Who? Um. Which substrate bonds better? Enamel [00:16:10] or dentine? Enamel, of course. You know, it’s dentine and [00:16:15] dentine was the answer. And then they went into why. And then they proved it through the evidence and, and [00:16:20] um, dentine is a much stronger bond, but it takes longer to get [00:16:25] there. Oh yeah. So enamel bonds really quickly, easily. Anyone can bond to [00:16:30] enamel and it’s very predictable. Um, but denting it [00:16:35] takes time for that bond to mature. So it takes five minutes, actually. So once [00:16:40] you do the adhesive layers, you’ve got to wait five minutes before the, [00:16:45] the composites kind of layering and things for restorations. Um, but more than that, [00:16:50] it’s about the C factor and the cavity shape. That’s a big influence. Um, [00:16:55] so the bonds have to be greater than the stresses for the shrinkage [00:17:00] of the composite. Um, so C factor is really influential and [00:17:05] so is the occlusion as well.

Payman Langroudi: Do you believe in putting fibres in to affect that.

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Is [00:17:10] that a real thing.

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Yeah. Um so dentine bonds differently. Different parts of dentine. [00:17:15] So you’ve got superficial dentine which is just near the um enamel that bonds really, [00:17:20] really. Well, um, you have to make sure it’s obviously caries free as well. [00:17:25] So even things like they showed a photo of a tooth that looked crystal [00:17:30] clear of any caries. And then they said, well, who can [00:17:35] spot the caries here? And they picked me because I was one of the oldest on the course. I said, well, you can’t actually tell [00:17:40] really, um, where it is. That’s that’s right. You know, but they put the caries dye on and [00:17:45] it just showed caries everywhere, you know, and they did a series of photos, about ten [00:17:50] lots of photos where they cleaned the caries away and dried it, retested it with caries dye [00:17:55] again and then revealed more caries. And they kept doing this, you know, um, this [00:18:00] kind of system and protocol until it was caries free. Because you can’t spot [00:18:05] it, you can’t feel it. It’s very objective. Sorry. It’s very subjective, you know. Yeah. [00:18:10] Um, each clinician will find caries differently and take more or less away than anybody else. [00:18:15] But if you leave any caries there, it’s just going to fail, you know? And or at least.

Payman Langroudi: The bond [00:18:20] strength is going to be less secondary. Are you talking about secondary caries?

Amber Aplin: Secondary caries. It’s bond [00:18:25] strength. It’s the restoration not bonding therefore leading to gaps forming underneath and [00:18:30] sensitivity afterwards.

Payman Langroudi: So the old thing people used to say about sort of affected dentine and just with your [00:18:35] probe, sort of that’s that’s not good enough.

Amber Aplin: Not good enough. I mean it’s a real thing affected and [00:18:40] infected dentine. Um, but I don’t think you can feel with certainty with [00:18:45] a probe.

Payman Langroudi: It’s so interesting. I mean, there are other areas that look absolutely clear, [00:18:50] but there is, there are there is caries there.

Amber Aplin: I mean, I’ve got so many photographs and I keep meaning [00:18:55] to publish more photos, you know, I need to do more of that. Yeah. And, um, I do a photo of a cavity [00:19:00] I think is crystal clear, and I do a photo. And then I put the caries [00:19:05] dye on, and it’s just like caries everywhere. And it’s like, oh, it’s crazy.

Payman Langroudi: What [00:19:10] is caries detection? Do you know?

Amber Aplin: I mean, I use their products for cura or cura [00:19:15] products and it’s a pink dye. Um, it actually just detects [00:19:20] the, um, bacterial By-Products, not the actual bacteria themselves. [00:19:25] So, um, yeah, it just tested the [00:19:30] products themselves and it just clings on to them. It’s kind of the die itself. Well, you [00:19:35] wash, you wash it away, and then any remaining dye is where the caries is. So the [00:19:40] red dye is the infected and the the pink is the affected. Mhm. So [00:19:45] you have to make sure that the peripheral area is completely 100% clear of [00:19:50] caries and cracks. And then you know the bond is going to be phenomenal in the restoration. [00:19:55]

Payman Langroudi: So if I’ve got a cracked like if I’ve got a patient with [00:20:00] an amalgam and a crack on that tooth. Do you chase that [00:20:05] crack until it’s no longer there every time? Or are there some [00:20:10] cracks that are good cracks that you can leave? How can you tell which is which?

Amber Aplin: There’s both actually. So in [00:20:15] that peripheral 2 to 3mm, you want to try and create the 100% [00:20:20] clear peripheral seal around the whole tooth so that the bond is going to be phenomenal around [00:20:25] that area. You have to leave, um, cracks and caries, which are [00:20:30] over the pulp. Yeah, but you can measure that. Measure it. Measure it from the height of the [00:20:35] the tooth.

Payman Langroudi: Okay.

Amber Aplin: Or the adjacent tooth. It’s five millimetres down is where the pulp horns [00:20:40] are.

Payman Langroudi: Okay.

Amber Aplin: And follow the inclines of the tooth to, to, um, ensure [00:20:45] you’ve got the most caries and cracks away. So in that peripheral area, you [00:20:50] have to chase cracks right down to, to reach the bottom of them so you can get 11 12 [00:20:55] millimetre, um, channels almost where the cracks are. You don’t take [00:21:00] the enamel away from the outside, though, so you’re going down the very safe zone, which between [00:21:05] the kind of between the, the external root of the tooth and down between [00:21:10] where the, um, the pulp is. Yeah. So you get a real safe zone. You can, um, uh, [00:21:15] work to find the, the crack end point, but then you leave it [00:21:20] over the pulp area because you don’t want to expose.

Payman Langroudi: And then I mean, the number. I [00:21:25] mean, I haven’t done that for 12, 13 years now, but the number of teeth that have [00:21:30] cracks adjacent to amalgams are in the distal.

Amber Aplin: Always. [00:21:35]

Payman Langroudi: Or one of the cusps you can see it’s just cracked. So you are saying we have to kind of, [00:21:40] you know, you have to chase that crack down. Yeah.

Amber Aplin: Otherwise it’ll progress. Otherwise. [00:21:45] I mean, if if you’re concerned about perforating, if [00:21:50] you really think, oh, I just can’t go any further, um, you know, without risking perforating, [00:21:55] which is going to be a worst case scenario, you can you would leave it, you know, just to [00:22:00] kind of experience and, and the skills you’ve got. But then [00:22:05] you can mitigate that with various ways to restore the tooth afterwards. You can um.

Payman Langroudi: But [00:22:10] is your, is your, is your sense that a lot of dentists are not addressing cracks? I certainly [00:22:15] wasn’t when I was, when I was an associate, I certainly wasn’t addressing every crack [00:22:20] I was. I was removing caries.

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Yeah. [00:22:25] I mean, um, before this course, I wouldn’t know how. I mean, I did this [00:22:30] course first, the two day course, then I went to do the year long mastership, which is 135 [00:22:35] articles and, and, and, you.

Payman Langroudi: Know, where’s.

Amber Aplin: That lectures. It’s online lectures. And [00:22:40] then I went over to Utah as well, to work with Davey and his clinic for a few days. [00:22:45] Oh.

Payman Langroudi: What was it.

Amber Aplin: Like? Phenomenal. Just seeing the way he worked and and how, [00:22:50] um, his clinic ran and just he just does his day, day in, day out. This is what I love [00:22:55] doing as well. So over the over the time, I have learned how to [00:23:00] manage cracks in the best way. But, um, before that, I would have no idea. And if [00:23:05] a patient came in with pain on biting, I would know it’s a crack or cracked tooth syndrome, but I would never [00:23:10] know how to sort it. And, um, but now it’s so wonderful to treat [00:23:15] things predictably. I mean, you can diagnose it better and earlier [00:23:20] you didn’t want to wait till they become painful. You want to diagnose them before they show symptoms. [00:23:25] They don’t show any signs on x rays. Even so, a lot of my day to day job is, um, [00:23:30] explaining to patients of these high risk teeth, high risk of fracture, high risk of secondary care [00:23:35] like decay. Um, without. But I say, I know how you feel. You [00:23:40] know, I know you’ve got no pain and there’s no sign on the x ray, but there’s a really high risk, and [00:23:45] I can guarantee there’s a crack there. Um, so I’d recommend be treated it now [00:23:50] rather than wait. But it’s up to you and some patients, most of them actually do [00:23:55] at least one. And we pick the highest risk via various measurements of all the teeth [00:24:00] and where the occlusion is the heaviest. And then once they’ve had one done [00:24:05] and they’ve seen the photographs of their cracks and how bad it was and, and the decay there, they’ll [00:24:10] say, well, what’s next? You know, where’s the next tooth to restore? That’s my kind of [00:24:15] treatment comes from is just doing one onlay or layer overlay. Every now and again [00:24:20] on the same page.

Payman Langroudi: I don’t know why. Um. Biomimetic dentists seem the most passionate. [00:24:25] Why is that? Um, but but that passion [00:24:30] itself comes through to a patient. Yeah. And and, [00:24:35] you know, in the end, dentistry is a game of trust in the end. [00:24:40] Yeah. You know that you could be the best in the world if people don’t trust you. And [00:24:45] of course, that could be that could be that could be used in a dark way, too, I guess. But but let’s stick to the normal. [00:24:50] You know, if people don’t trust you, you’re not going to be able to help them. And [00:24:55] that trust, of course, comes from, you know, doing what you say you’re going to do and all that. But [00:25:00] the passion. And why do you think biomimetic dentistry inspires passion [00:25:05] more than other kinds of dentistry? Why are they so happy? Biomimetic [00:25:10] dentists.

Amber Aplin: Are.

Payman Langroudi: What do you think it is?

Amber Aplin: I for me, um, I know it’s because [00:25:15] the it’s so predictable. It’s knowledge based, it’s evidence based. [00:25:20] So everything we say to patients is based on evidence and we know it and we can guarantee [00:25:25] treatments. The treatments themselves are, um, rewarding because [00:25:30] it’s slow, takes time. Relaxing rubber dam, you know, and, um, [00:25:35] and then the patient walks away, say this is going to be no bother at all. It’s not going to cause [00:25:40] any pain afterwards. There’s no need to do a provisional or temporary restoration afterwards. [00:25:45] If onlays, you can walk away pain free and we can sleep at night, [00:25:50] you know, and it works every single time you can imagine. You know, [00:25:55] it’s. That’s why.

Payman Langroudi: I guess. I guess it’s also, you know, it’s the bread and butter that we were [00:26:00] taught, you know, it’s it’s what every dentist does every day, but totally different [00:26:05] to, to to that. I mean, it’s still, you know, the day to day of dentistry.

Amber Aplin: It should [00:26:10] be in university. It should be taught at uni. Yeah. And it’s not.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, it’s a lot more of it than [00:26:15] than there was in our. I suspect we’re a similar vintage Dental [00:26:20] school wise, but there’s a lot more. But it’s not part of the course. What’s what’s happening [00:26:25] now is the students getting together and inviting lecturers themselves. Um, a lot [00:26:30] of that happening. Um, but yeah, I mean, I tear whatever hair I had out, [00:26:35] um, you know, uh, teeth whitening. Still not taught at dental school. Not taught, [00:26:40] you know.

Amber Aplin: Is that because it’s, um, government funded and it’s NHS kind of [00:26:45] directed?

Payman Langroudi: I think I think it’s, uh. I mean, you know, we’re not the [00:26:50] universities aren’t supposed to put out NHS dentists, they’re supposed to put out dentists, [00:26:55] you know, isn’t it doesn’t.

Amber Aplin: Feel like that.

Payman Langroudi: But it must be that, right? I mean, you [00:27:00] can’t you can’t have the university put out an NHS dentist because every year the NHS changes, [00:27:05] the university has to change, you know, as it gets, as it, as it erodes. Universities have to erode their [00:27:10] education. Yeah. Um, then, you know, dentistry density has to be a profession that [00:27:15] the university can put out. And we’re trying to be, you know, world class in the UK, for instance. Right. [00:27:20] But what I’m saying about bleaching, I think it’s historical. We’re bleaching. It was illegal until [00:27:25] 2012. Okay. But it’s interesting to see how slowly cogs move [00:27:30] that 13 years later, now that it’s legal and it’s one of [00:27:35] the most asked for procedures, the most it’s the safest thing. All the 80% [00:27:40] of the population would like a white spot. All those things. Yeah. Still hasn’t gone into any of the Dental courses [00:27:45] now. Hell, you know, I should do something about it. I should get together with all the other whitening companies [00:27:50] and do something about it and all that. But to me, it shows how slowly dental [00:27:55] education moves. You know, from my little world. I can see that part. Yeah. So [00:28:00] how long will it be before they teach immediate dentine sealing or something? They probably [00:28:05] do. Right. No, I would hope so.

Amber Aplin: I’d hope so. You know, I’ve got real [00:28:10] aspirations to try and help educate people and help them. Because I just know that once [00:28:15] you know these techniques and protocols, it’s just a game changer. You know, there’s no more kind of uncertainty [00:28:20] in your and it helps patients. You know, that’s the biggest thing we’re all here for is patient care. And [00:28:25] if we can give them composite restorations that last for decades, which is like unreal [00:28:30] or online overlays, again the bio based that we do over the tooth is permanent. [00:28:35] And that’s just amazing really. Um, is. [00:28:40]

Payman Langroudi: That what the the ideas? You mean.

Amber Aplin: The ideas? And a few [00:28:45] more layers on top of that, which is the dentine replacement? That’s kind of the the kind [00:28:50] of I tell patients, it’s the kind of shield for your tooth and that’s permanent. So that prevent any decay [00:28:55] leaking in or cracks forming or anything like that. So it’ll keep the tooth protected for life. [00:29:00] The top structure is designed to fail the onlay overlay, you know, after [00:29:05] decades, couple of decades is the evidence for that because you don’t want it [00:29:10] to, well, bonded because you don’t want to lead to a catastrophic failure. You want to have a fail safe somewhere [00:29:15] in the event of, you know, trauma or heavy occlusion or something. But the bio [00:29:20] basis is there for for life, you know.

Payman Langroudi: Is that is that controversial or [00:29:25] is that not?

Amber Aplin: I think so, I think so because it’s controversial. No, it’s not controversial. No, it’s not evidence [00:29:30] based. Evidence based.

Payman Langroudi: But people haven’t been doing it long enough to to know the [00:29:35] answer to that question.

Amber Aplin: They have I mean, the elements, um, they have restorations of [00:29:40] 26 years and counting. Yeah. So we I’m basing on their [00:29:45] evidence because this is what we’ve learned from and their protocols. So I [00:29:50] feel like we can transfer those that longevity into our practice. Mhm.

Payman Langroudi: Okay. [00:29:55] So I want to go on to a couple of other things. You know teeth that before [00:30:00] you might have not been able to restore. And now you feel like you can.

Amber Aplin: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Like [00:30:05] what are the limits of that in your I mean Let’s call it hero periodontics. [00:30:10]

Amber Aplin: Yeah, I like a challenge, actually.

Payman Langroudi: Subgingival [00:30:15] sort of crestal bone level. The whole matrixing thing. Yeah. Where did you learn that? Was [00:30:20] that the.

Amber Aplin: Same? You know, I think you’ve got to be a little bit if you want to push the boundaries [00:30:25] a little bit. A bit bold. I’ve been quite, quite bold as long as patients are on board. If [00:30:30] a patient tells me they’re really keen to save a tooth, and I say to them, well, this one here, [00:30:35] I won’t be able to guarantee, you know, just as long as you’re honest with patients and say, this is a bit of, um, this [00:30:40] is really borderline restorable, but we’ll try our best. And, um, the [00:30:45] actual bonding is phenomenal, but it’s just as you say, it’s if it’s really deep subgingival near [00:30:50] where the bone is. But as long as you can get that, um, copper, um, [00:30:55] to get right down next to the PDL and you get [00:31:00] a really great seal, then it’s going to bond. So, um, yeah, [00:31:05] Somebody, I’ll say no. You know, if it’s, for example, gross [00:31:10] carries through half the tooth and the roots almost kind of chopped away through the caries then. [00:31:15] No, you know, but, um, that’s it.

Payman Langroudi: That’s [00:31:20] the extent of it. Everything else I’ll save. Yeah. Has there been a situation where [00:31:25] you’ve got it wrong?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Actually, recently, actually, um, one [00:31:30] thing we we can’t do obviously, is reverse engineer. If there’s a bacterial load in, [00:31:35] in the pulp that’s going to cause an abscess or cause the pulp to go non-vital. So [00:31:40] we can’t always tell. So if a tooth’s already symptomatic. Yeah. Um, and the caries [00:31:45] is already really close to the pulp and already deep, deep cracks there. Um, I’ll tell the [00:31:50] patient, um, there’s a high risk of needing root canal here, you know, but, um, [00:31:55] in this case, I didn’t really say it. That probably clearly maybe didn’t understand what I was saying. [00:32:00] Um, and a year later, and but it was a really crazy difficult one. And deep, deep crack [00:32:05] and everything. And I’ve got photographs as well. I always photograph every single stage. Went back and looked [00:32:10] at the photographs and it was pretty, pretty deep and difficult. Um, and then [00:32:15] he developed a big abscess literally about two weeks ago. We X-rayed it and thought, are huge abscess there. [00:32:20] And he was really cross. I’ve done about 4 or 5 onlays on this patient. So it’s a really [00:32:25] great patient, great rapport, really trusting you, said Amber. You told me this is a permanent [00:32:30] seal. You told me that it would never lead to leakage or, um, any more [00:32:35] decay or anything, or it’ll prevent the need for needing root canals. Um, you [00:32:40] know, but here we are a year later, there’s a big abscess needing root canal for £1,200. [00:32:45] Now, why should I pay for that? So I spent a bit of time and he wouldn’t accept a phone call [00:32:50] either. I was like, oh, I’d rather phone you about it rather than have to write to you. So [00:32:55] I wrote him a letter, a couple letters, and, um, but I but he’s [00:33:00] fine now. He understood. Now, you know, once the bacteria load is [00:33:05] really, um, too great in the tooth and the tooth can’t recover, then it’s going [00:33:10] to form an abscess. And we can’t help that.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve got an amazing idea. Yeah, [00:33:15] like you seem so confident. Yeah, yeah. Just give [00:33:20] a lifetime guarantee. Charge more.

Amber Aplin: I would.

Payman Langroudi: Charge more.

Amber Aplin: I want to do that. I do [00:33:25] not.

Payman Langroudi: Charge more based on the lifetime guarantee.

Amber Aplin: A big practice. [00:33:30] So I believe we’ve got to do the same thing in practice. Yeah. I can’t do something different [00:33:35] to my. Well, you can, my colleagues.

Payman Langroudi: You can, you can, you can offer like. I mean, I’m not saying you have to. You’re right. [00:33:40] It’s absolutely right. If everyone’s doing it because it’s a brand thing then. But but you know what [00:33:45] the problem I see with it is if you come to sell this practice, someone then [00:33:50] has to take on that lifetime guarantee. And that that issue [00:33:55] is is the weirdness of it. But but I think like, you know, if you’re [00:34:00] hand on heart, think you are, you know, doing work that’s going to last 30 [00:34:05] years then and you’re telling patients that anyway [00:34:10] anyway, it’s causing this issue. I know it doesn’t happen often that you [00:34:15] get this issue, but that’s also part of the point of it. You’re not going to have not many people are going [00:34:20] to invoke their lifetime guarantee. And yet you can charge, let’s say, [00:34:25] one and a half times the price because of the lifetime guarantee. [00:34:30] Yeah. So any time it is invoked, it’s already paid for anyway by all those one and a half times that people [00:34:35] have paid. Yeah. I think it’s such an interesting idea. No, honestly.

Amber Aplin: This is what I want to do. And you’ve literally. [00:34:40]

Payman Langroudi: Are you going to do this?

Amber Aplin: No, I want to do this. I have this dream one day in [00:34:45] the future, um, a long time away of opening a squat somewhere and doing [00:34:50] that on my own. Because you can’t do it in a big practice. I don’t believe that our brand is so strong, and, [00:34:55] um, my colleagues are all doing the same thing. They’ve all done the year long mastership. [00:35:00] They’re all doing the same training all the same, because patients have to have the same experience no matter who they see. [00:35:05] So there’s four dentists there and three therapists. We all do the same protocols [00:35:10] for our restorations. So we’ve got to charge the same [00:35:15] therapists all charge the same for the for our treatments. Really? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Would [00:35:20] you tell the patient about the therapist?

Amber Aplin: In what way?

Payman Langroudi: About the fact [00:35:25] that they’re not a dentist.

Amber Aplin: I mean, they’re trained [00:35:30] to do, um, work within their scope. So the work they do, they’re the same training [00:35:35] level as is the work that we is. Is us really? Yeah. So that we tell them. [00:35:40] Yeah. Because they are.

Payman Langroudi: But is that what you say to the patient? Yeah. That this isn’t a dentist, but [00:35:45] the work they’re going to do is going to be at the same level as the dentist.

Amber Aplin: So do you mean if they do some treatment [00:35:50] on a patient? Yeah. Like a restoration or the.

Payman Langroudi: Patient has to know or don’t they? [00:35:55]

Amber Aplin: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So the patient has to know. Yeah. So when you tell them, what did you tell them?

Amber Aplin: Well, our [00:36:00] patients actually therapists first in our practice. So it’s therapist led care. So our therapists [00:36:05] do the private check-ups and the hygiene. And they then diagnose [00:36:10] treatments. They recommend the treatment plan. And then if the [00:36:15] treatment within their scope, they will do it themselves or at least offer the patient [00:36:20] they can do it themselves or they can refer to their dentist to do it. Yeah. Um, and [00:36:25] they refer things out with their scope to us to do so. So that question doesn’t [00:36:30] really come up because they’ve already diagnosed the problem. They’ve done the scan, the x rays, the photos [00:36:35] they’ve discussed with the patient about the secondary caries or the risk of cracks. They’ve [00:36:40] planned to do a composite restoration, for example. Um, and they’ll just [00:36:45] book it in with themselves. And the patients know their therapists, they know they’ve got the training, the skills.

Payman Langroudi: Has [00:36:50] it ever come up as an issue?

Amber Aplin: Um, [00:36:55] not that I’m aware of. When we first did the conversion, there was a handful of patients [00:37:00] that questioned it. You know, we’ve been seeing you for years, Amber. And why am I seeing a therapist now? Um, [00:37:05] and really, the truth of the matter is, I mean, we know as [00:37:10] dentists. Certainly for me, anyway, therapists are far better at the preventative [00:37:15] side of things. The far better at their prevention experts. [00:37:20]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. That’s right.

Amber Aplin: And our patients are all long standing kind of plan members as [00:37:25] well. Um, with generally good, stable dental health. So [00:37:30] our therapists are the experts in prevention.

Payman Langroudi: Yes.

Amber Aplin: Yeah. [00:37:35] So they see a therapist for that reason. Um, and they actually have a better experience [00:37:40] in my mind. Um, in terms of their check-up, their [00:37:45] plan member Check-up would be a longer appointment. They’re in one place for 45 minutes. They [00:37:50] have an Itero scan. They get to see their teeth, Photographs, [00:37:55] x rays, you know, have pearl, you know, communication tools and everything. So can [00:38:00] you imagine before that doing a 15 minute check-up with a dentist, then straight to a half an hour hygiene [00:38:05] treatment to now it’s a 45 minute double appointment like joint appointment [00:38:10] for it’s longer in the chair because you’re not having to walk, change surgeries, wait [00:38:15] five minutes in between, you know. Yeah, yeah. You know, and you’re doubling the conversation. You’re doubling the [00:38:20] the oral cancer screening. You’re doubling the kind of rapport building. So it’s all done in [00:38:25] one long appointment. It’s more relaxed, more tech, more information, more communication. And [00:38:30] for me, um, it’s certainly better conversions compared to us [00:38:35] dentists compared to the previous year.

Payman Langroudi: So you’re saying the therapist charges [00:38:40] exactly the same as the dentist, and you’re saying the standard of the work is as good as the dentist? [00:38:45]

Amber Aplin: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: And so what’s the difference? So you pay the therapist less than you pay the dentist. [00:38:50]

Amber Aplin: Our therapists are all employed. Salaried salaried.

Payman Langroudi: Okay. [00:38:55] So that’s the arbitrage from the practice perspective.

Amber Aplin: I mean, it’s not really about the money although [00:39:00] it’s about it’s about patient care. But but but the [00:39:05] business is more challenging as we go on. You know it’s getting more and more difficult to make it work. Yeah. [00:39:10] So it was a patient care thing and also a, um, [00:39:15] a business thing as well at the same time. But for business it’s phenomenal. For business. Phenomenal. Yeah. [00:39:20] Because we’ve got more time in our diaries for these high value treatments for dentists [00:39:25] and less time for these check-ups and things.

Payman Langroudi: And I’m super interested in it. I’m super interested [00:39:30] in a therapist led, private quality practice. I haven’t [00:39:35] really come across it. I have I’ve I’ve come across therapy. You know, we do a composite bonding, [00:39:40] uh, anterior composite course and we get therapists on that course. And their [00:39:45] work is better than most of the dentists. We used to give a prize out. Yeah, and the therapist would win it [00:39:50] a lot of the time. Yeah, although I thought maybe it’s self-selecting. You know, the kind of the kind of therapist [00:39:55] who’s going to pay me £1,000 to come on a composite course might be the real someone who [00:40:00] really wants to do. Well, maybe. Maybe it’s that. But. But when you’re teaching a new skill, [00:40:05] whether it’s a dentist or a therapist, it doesn’t mean the dentist is going to learn [00:40:10] it any quicker than the in fact, you know, there’s no there’s no reason to assume that, um, [00:40:15] but you would have thought in a private practice setting, patients [00:40:20] would object and you’ve kind of gotten over that.

Amber Aplin: I think it’s about communication [00:40:25] and trust. As you say, communication is key. We spent a long time writing the letter [00:40:30] to our patients, explaining about the change, the transformation [00:40:35] and the change in their care. So, um, I think the letter was the key thing, really. [00:40:40] And also before that, we were drip feeding it through our newsletters to patients about the how [00:40:45] great therapists are doing, you know, doing the, um, restorative photographs on our, um, [00:40:50] on our social media channels, just highlighting how [00:40:55] great therapists are at the practice, what therapists are doing currently, what therapists can do. Um, [00:41:00] just before the letter went out, we did a lot of that in the months preceding the kind of change just [00:41:05] help educate patients about what therapists could do, um, and what our therapists could do, because ours are [00:41:10] really great. You know, you’ve got to have therapists that really want to grow, want to learn.

Payman Langroudi: Of course. [00:41:15]

Amber Aplin: And love their job. You know, that’s a big thing, I think, as well. Like anyone, I suppose [00:41:20] any clinician. Yeah. Um, so yeah, the letter was important. So a lovely [00:41:25] letter. Two two things. One was a intro which is bullet points. So people who [00:41:30] prefer just a quick bit of info, they’ve got the knowledge that information there. Yeah. Accompanied with [00:41:35] a booklet that was beautifully branded glossy about with [00:41:40] more information about therapists and what they could do, examples of their treatments, testimonials and just [00:41:45] more information about how it’s going to be better for the patients moving [00:41:50] forward. Yeah, it worked great. We on the weekend, we, um, [00:41:55] we did the the letters went out about November, um, [00:42:00] 24 last year. Um, and the Monday afterwards, we [00:42:05] had all the phones manned, more staff in to cover any queries, you know, for reception phones [00:42:10] and the phone didn’t ring. I was like, what’s going on? It [00:42:15] was so weird. We were just, oh, right, this is good. [00:42:20] Did my list first rolled it out of my list first because [00:42:25] you have to trial it. Trial it because even though we thought we had everything right, you never know [00:42:30] till you actually trial it. Yeah. Um, and it was really successful. So we had a plan [00:42:35] to do everyone else kind of the year later, really. But it was so great. We just all [00:42:40] everyone done now. So the rest of the team were converted in [00:42:45] May of that same year.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, was this your own idea?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. This [00:42:50] idea actually, a long time ago, like I thought this this is the way to go. They [00:42:55] can do all this in their scope. Yeah, but at the time I thought, oh, it’s just massive, you know, it’s [00:43:00] huge change. And I wasn’t really confident with my team back then. And you could have a team who’s on board [00:43:05] with your vision I think before you can do that. And then I wanted to do it about three years ago, but [00:43:10] then I had two therapists on mat leave at the same time, so it wasn’t the best time either. So when [00:43:15] they both came from back from mat leave, um, it was the right time. Empty diaries, you know, and [00:43:20] perfect time to implement it. I need to push though I wasn’t I [00:43:25] knew, I knew it was right in my heart. But, um, actually I was working with, um, you know, Mike Hesketh at [00:43:30] the time, he said, I said to him when he first met me the very first day, this is I know [00:43:35] this is what we should do, Mike. I know this is the way we should go. He said, just do it. I was like, what? [00:43:40] Do it. So he gave me the nudge.

Payman Langroudi: To have him on. He’s been [00:43:45] behind a few of the few of the interesting practices I’ve come across now. Yeah, he’s [00:43:50] having you introduce me to him. Yeah.

Amber Aplin: He’s phenomenal. I must say, because we’re already doing great. [00:43:55] I must say the practice was already brilliant because the team are phenomenal. Um, so when he came, he was [00:44:00] like a great place here. And I had no social media at the time. Hardly. And he said, you’ve got to [00:44:05] shout about what you do here. And and it’s not really me. I’m quite quiet. I like to keep my [00:44:10] head down and. But you can’t really help people or patients or you can’t really recruit. I [00:44:15] don’t think if people.

Payman Langroudi: Don’t, staff.

Amber Aplin: Don’t know about you. So he encouraged me to join [00:44:20] LinkedIn and, and do more promotion about the practice and what we [00:44:25] do and all that. So he that’s, that’s that’s what his influence was for me and confidence that [00:44:30] we’re doing great as well, because you don’t really feel confident if you’re working in your own practice with your blinkers [00:44:35] on, you don’t really see the bigger picture.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Are you aware of others running something [00:44:40] like this?

Amber Aplin: Therapist led care.

Payman Langroudi: Private care?

Amber Aplin: No. No.

Payman Langroudi: So is that. [00:44:45]

Amber Aplin: I’m happy to.

Payman Langroudi: I’d love to run and all that. Is it. Is it based [00:44:50] on training people on that as well? Was it just the clinical skills?

Amber Aplin: I believe [00:44:55] it goes hand in hand actually. Yeah. So it’s been quite serendipitous how it’s all worked out [00:45:00] and didn’t know it would come together so well at the time. Yeah. So it’s two kind of parallel [00:45:05] journeys, I suppose. Or um, you know, uh, ways of changing [00:45:10] the practice. So, um, yeah, both kind of same in parallel. I [00:45:15] think the biggest thing about biomimetics and what we now teach directly from [00:45:20] what the animals taught me and all the evidence is how to diagnose things [00:45:25] predictably. So there’s four red flags for a tooth if it’s high risk [00:45:30] of fracture and things. So our therapist can measure the width of a [00:45:35] filling and can measure the width of a cusp, they can measure the depth of the filling. Look at the bite on the [00:45:40] itero scan and they tell a patient that’s a high risk tooth. It’s [00:45:45] black and white. It’s stuff you can hang your coat on. That’s what you need for therapists and clinicians [00:45:50] to plan treatment, you know. So I [00:45:55] think without having that, those kind of black and white criteria about what to refer to [00:46:00] the dentist and things, it would be very difficult for anyone to know which would benefit from an [00:46:05] onlay or a large composite. So that’s been a really great thing as the diagnostic, [00:46:10] um, element to that.

Payman Langroudi: And if it’s a large composite, generally the therapist [00:46:15] is doing it themselves.

Amber Aplin: We to be honest, we’re quite up to capacity with therapists now. Already [00:46:20] we’re looking for another a fourth therapist. So their books are pretty full with these longer um, [00:46:25] check-ups stroke hygiene appointments. They, they do do some treatments. They do all of our kids [00:46:30] dentistry as well. So they haven’t got a lot of scope for these treatments.

Payman Langroudi: Oh. So mainly [00:46:35] dentists are doing at the moment.

Amber Aplin: We’re doing a lot of stuff therapists could be doing. They will be doing some [00:46:40] composite restorations for sure. Um, I don’t think any of us do big composites anyway. [00:46:45] We if it’s kind of, um, I would say a third or half would be almost only [00:46:50] territory. So it’s either going to be a if it’s going to be a small amalgam, [00:46:55] it’s going to be a composite, a small class two or something.

Payman Langroudi: Between a direct only.

Amber Aplin: Um, [00:47:00] indirect, indirect indirect. So really, unless it’s obviously [00:47:05] a small amalgam you’re replacing, it’s going to be an onlay almost all the times because [00:47:10] our patients are older demographic, they’re all kind of 60 ish. Average age [00:47:15] all got big amalgams with cracks and things. So there’s it’s almost [00:47:20] always on those overlays anyway I would say.

Payman Langroudi: Okay. I understood you were doing [00:47:25] huge composites.

Amber Aplin: No, no.

Payman Langroudi: Well there [00:47:30] is.

Amber Aplin: My skill set is not there. I mean.

Payman Langroudi: There’s quite a lot of people doing those.

Amber Aplin: Things. Yeah, some people are doing [00:47:35] a lot of that. I think it’s where your skill sets lie and and really, um, I [00:47:40] prefer doing it on layers and overlays. A great lab works really well for us.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:47:45] so have you moved it on from quadrant to full mouth for yourself?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. [00:47:50]

Payman Langroudi: Are you doing full mouth rehabs and things?

Amber Aplin: I am, I am doing them. I don’t love [00:47:55] doing those. Um, but we have got a lot of patients with tooth wear. Yeah. So I have done that training [00:48:00] with Andy Chandra on the, the training that he’s learned [00:48:05] about. So I do use the Coy’s, um, protocols for some cases, [00:48:10] but only if it’s really great patients. If it’s a tricky patient, I’ll not be going near it because I [00:48:15] don’t do that many cases.

Payman Langroudi: And what else do you do? Do you do implants? Surgery? [00:48:20]

Amber Aplin: I have an implant dentist that comes along once a week. So we restore implants for [00:48:25] him. Um hum. Yeah. Surgicals not me.

Payman Langroudi: Not, you.

Amber Aplin: Know, no.

Payman Langroudi: Endo. [00:48:30]

Amber Aplin: Not me. I’ve got, um, I’ve got Wil Donovan, who does our endodontics. Yeah, [00:48:35] he He’s on a specialist pathway in London right now. So he’s finishing the Eastman um, [00:48:40] degree just next year. So he’s working one day, two days [00:48:45] a month right now with us on Saturdays, and he’ll work with us one day a week when he finishes [00:48:50] his degree. So yeah, he’s great. So he didn’t do any I don’t do any endo. I didn’t do [00:48:55] any ortho. No.

Payman Langroudi: I do kind of like a specialist, I do biomimetics. [00:49:00]

Amber Aplin: I do my therapist led care is so great because each clinician can [00:49:05] choose what they want it should look like for them and what where their passions lie. So [00:49:10] my day is full of probably three on laser overlays in one day, maybe [00:49:15] an implant restoration. And that’s about it, really. [00:49:20] I refer my extractions, the difficult ones. Sorry to my colleague who loves doing difficult extractions. [00:49:25] I don’t do any dentures because I’ve got two colleagues who like doing dentures. Just [00:49:30] refer sideways, you know, if you don’t like doing something and then the patients get the best. [00:49:35]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, I took a break when we started the company. I took a five year break. Then, [00:49:40] um, I came back my my wife, when she got pregnant, I [00:49:45] came back and did some dentistry. And once I’d had the break, I thought if I did dentistry, [00:49:50] I’d just stick to the things I’m really good at and refer everything else. Um, [00:49:55] and even though obviously it’s different because financially it makes sense for you to [00:50:00] refer to your colleagues in your own practice. Whereas for me, I was losing money by doing that, but [00:50:05] I didn’t care about the money at all from dentistry because I was so focussed on this. So, [00:50:10] so I was just doing dentistry to do dentistry, you know, you define yourself as something. Yeah. [00:50:15] Um, and it is a kind of it is a happy life. It is a happy life because it’s, it’s two, [00:50:20] two different things. One, you’re doing the thing you love. Um, and so [00:50:25] that’s great. And you’re not doing the bits you don’t love. But two for everything else the patients getting [00:50:30] an absolute expert, It, you know. And so, you know, it’s brilliant [00:50:35] because the patients getting the best outcome and you’re getting the best outcome if you’re doing the things you love [00:50:40] only. Yeah, it’s a great way to live. And especially in your situation where you [00:50:45] pass it on sideways to your own associate. Yeah. So the practice is still thriving, [00:50:50] that that treatment isn’t lost or whatever, you know, as you think of if you’re an associate, you [00:50:55] know, um, it’s an interesting way to live. I like that.

Amber Aplin: I love it, honestly. In the corridor [00:51:00] we pass each other. I’m always smiling, always beaming. It’s a happy place, is it? Everyone’s just joyous [00:51:05] because we’re just. Everyone’s just working to their passions and their best skills, you know? [00:51:10] And I will take on difficult patients for my colleagues. You know, I guess being associates, you don’t have to treat [00:51:15] anybody or everybody. Sorry. So patients that they might find difficult, I’ll [00:51:20] just take them on and happy to do so I don’t mind. I quite enjoy a challenge sometimes. I love the [00:51:25] challenge of someone being quite demanding or difficult. Then I’ll kind of [00:51:30] assess whether or not they’re treatable in the practice or not, whether they’re for the practice, or whether they should be kind [00:51:35] of asked to go somewhere else. Moved on, moved on. But I love getting to know people [00:51:40] and seeing if I can work with them. It’s quite nice to succeed at that. If if, you know, [00:51:45] perhaps they’re nervous or something else, but, um, it’s quite nice to do [00:51:50] that.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve been to a lot of practices, right. I must have been to at least a thousand practices. [00:51:55] And you sometimes walk in and immediately [00:52:00] the, the receptionist sort of comes and opens the [00:52:05] door for you and says, Doctor Langroudi, we’ve been expecting you. Um, and then you hear [00:52:10] laughter coming out of a surgery, and then a nurse is going to the staff [00:52:15] room and says, hi, incidentally, you know, says hi and notices you and, and [00:52:20] and makes a joke and it’s a happy situation. Yeah. And then sometimes obviously the complete opposite. [00:52:25] Yeah. Stress. Um, it’s almost like an air of you [00:52:30] must have worked in a practice like this as well, right? An era of er of, um. When, when [00:52:35] I’m training the team, sometimes almost like I’m, there’s, there’s two camps that you’re dealing [00:52:40] with. Two, two different power bases. So sad.

Amber Aplin: It’s so sad when that happens. [00:52:45]

Payman Langroudi: But but but what I was going to what I’m getting at is do you think. Do you agree with me? I know [00:52:50] that that comes down from the top. You know, if you’re a happy person and relaxed, your team [00:52:55] will be. If you’re not, and if you’re indecisive, your team will be. [00:53:00] You know your team. Get that from the top.

Amber Aplin: I don’t know, probably [00:53:05] more than likely in most cases. Um, when I first bought the practice, though, it was [00:53:10] like that. When I first bought the practice.

Payman Langroudi: Two teams.

Amber Aplin: It was two teams. It was. But I didn’t [00:53:15] even see it. I didn’t see it. It was. It was kind of. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel comfortable.

[BOTH]: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Amber Aplin: I [00:53:20] didn’t see it because I’m quite gullible. I’m quite naive. I’m very naive and very trusting and believing. [00:53:25] Um, I didn’t see it going on. It was bullying under the seams, under the kind [00:53:30] of behind my back, really. And it actually came out through lockdown [00:53:35] when the team were all kind of, you know, on social, on their kind [00:53:40] of groups and talking about me, complaining about everything, bitching about me. [00:53:45] And one loyal person, let me see what was going on. I was [00:53:50] like, oh my goodness, I wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise, you know? And and then [00:53:55] how.

Payman Langroudi: Did you feel?

Amber Aplin: Oh, that’s a low point. Was it? Um, I [00:54:00] kind of felt it a little bit.

Payman Langroudi: Betrayed or something, or.

Amber Aplin: I think it’s because I always [00:54:05] mean well and mean no harm. And when someone gets you wrong and [00:54:10] or it’s.

Payman Langroudi: Doubly painful.

Amber Aplin: Isn’t it? It was very hard, actually, and that was a very [00:54:15] low point. I didn’t mind lockdown at all. It was great because I actually well, it wasn’t great, obviously, [00:54:20] but um, it was the right time for me to look at the practice. I had it three years before that. So [00:54:25] it looked at the branding, the business, you know everything. All [00:54:30] business review over lockdown just while I had time. Um, and, uh, [00:54:35] I was actually answering the phone calls to patients every day. I was, I was the point of contact for all the incoming [00:54:40] calls. That was quite nice to, um, but I had a sense that [00:54:45] people weren’t quite on the same page as me then. You know, I had the occasional zoom call, and it just felt [00:54:50] very awkward. And I was like, because you can’t see them face to face. It was very hard, you know? [00:54:55] So, um, the first experience came back was the [00:55:00] practice manager, and the senior nurse had me called [00:55:05] me for a meeting. So before that, I let them kind of run the show, run [00:55:10] the run it in the way they had done before. I didn’t want to rock the boat at all. So anyway, I had them [00:55:15] call me for a meeting saying, um, the whole team, the whole team don’t feel safe to come back to work. [00:55:20] I was like, wow, that is that’s tough to listen, [00:55:25] tough to take, you know. But in reality, it wasn’t me doing the protocols.

Amber Aplin: It was kind [00:55:30] of them, you know what I mean? So I felt I had no control over or had control, but I felt, [00:55:35] how am I how is this coming across? What am I doing wrong to let that kind of be the message? [00:55:40] Um, of course, I was keen to get going because it was a business and it was [00:55:45] a private practice. We had no funding at all from the government. Yeah. Um, luckily [00:55:50] furlough was there to save us, which the staff loved. Of course, that was a great [00:55:55] time for them to. And, um, I was like, Crikey, this is, this is really, [00:56:00] really tough. And um, so I actually phoned Chris Barrow. I said, what am I going to do here? [00:56:05] And he was a great support. Great support. He said, Amber, they’re [00:56:10] either with you or they’re not. If they’re not with you, they can go the [00:56:15] famous saying on the bus or not on the bus. Well, I had that same conversation with [00:56:20] them the very next time. I said, guys, you know, this is what I need to do to get this practice going. This is [00:56:25] what we have to do and work, you know, eight till two, then two till eight. And and [00:56:30] didn’t agree with that. I said, this is what we’re doing. You’re either with me or not. So then next [00:56:35] week they kind of like five of them said, right.

Payman Langroudi: We’re going five of them, one [00:56:40] whole power base. My goodness.

Amber Aplin: In one go. Um, so that was actually. [00:56:45]

Payman Langroudi: Oh, listen, I’m sorry, I’m interested to see how you handled that. But for someone [00:56:50] to leave their job, it’s it’s huge, isn’t it? Yeah. There’s there’s consequences [00:56:55] to your household. I guess we’re talking some junior people as well, right? Some nurses [00:57:00] or whatever it was.

Amber Aplin: It was all the senior management team, really, I suppose. And [00:57:05] I should be fair. To be fair, two of them retired because of all the PPE and everything. So it was really [00:57:10] three of the power ones left and two others retired at the same time. So the two that retired.

[BOTH]: Were [00:57:15] were you kind of.

Payman Langroudi: Intentionally harsh was, you know, was it was it was, it was it was it a [00:57:20] massive surprise and a massive nightmare. Or were you kind of happy about it at the time?

Amber Aplin: This kind of conversation happening [00:57:25] with you is very calm, very much. This is the way it has to be. Yeah. You’re either with me or you’re not. [00:57:30] We can’t have a split approach here, you know. And so it was very calm, very nice conversation. [00:57:35] And, um.

Payman Langroudi: Did it surprise you when they walked out?

Amber Aplin: I was actually [00:57:40] kind of glad. I relieved. I was like, this is a weight off. At the same time as, like, what [00:57:45] we’re going to do with these patients, plan members who we owe check-ups. Oh, hygiene for the past three months. [00:57:50]

Payman Langroudi: Oh, yeah.

Amber Aplin: Um, diary is full of patients that were there, that hadn’t been moved at that point with, [00:57:55] um, almost no team, you know, had a handful. Well, maybe three that were left.

[BOTH]: What [00:58:00] did you do?

Payman Langroudi: Did you hire.

Amber Aplin: Recruited?

Payman Langroudi: Hard to recruit.

Amber Aplin: Recruit? It was actually [00:58:05] a good time to recruit for us in the ward in the borders, because everyone, I don’t know, people have lost their jobs [00:58:10] because of the because of lockdown and Covid.

Payman Langroudi: Businesses. Businesses.

Amber Aplin: So [00:58:15] we had a huge pool of applicants each time. So I recruited from a lot of interviews. [00:58:20] We’ve got probably two each time and thought, you’re a great person, let’s find the job for you somewhere.

Payman Langroudi: Because [00:58:25] it was a really difficult time down here. I remember, you know, a lot of people had gone [00:58:30] back home. You know, London is full of foreigners, right? A lot of people have gone back home during, uh, [00:58:35] Covid and then hadn’t come back.

Amber Aplin: Right.

Payman Langroudi: Okay. Um, there was inflation, [00:58:40] you know, like, uh, wage inflation. People wanted more money [00:58:45] than than than before.

Amber Aplin: That’s right. They chose to do a part time rather than.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:58:50]

Amber Aplin: A lifestyle choices.

Payman Langroudi: And, you know, like many, many of our team are now in a remote that, [00:58:55] you know, whereas they were full time. Many of our team are remote. And so you have to understand [00:59:00] from your nurse’s perspective, she has a best friend who’s working from [00:59:05] home. Yeah. And so the extra of course, some people love leaving home and meeting [00:59:10] people and all that. And those are the people you want to recruit, right? Yeah. But, you know, if you see working from home as [00:59:15] a benefit, um, then you’ve got to be paid more to work from a from [00:59:20] a place. Yeah. That’s true. You know, it just changed. Covid brought a whole lot of stuff into, [00:59:25] like, accelerated a whole lot of stuff. But for you, it was kind of good.

Amber Aplin: It was great.

Payman Langroudi: Did [00:59:30] you find good people?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. We just kept recruiting, actually, and then we ended up developing a practice [00:59:35] a year later from 4 to 6 chairs. Developed the whole top floor for more office [00:59:40] space, bigger staff room.

Payman Langroudi: Um, it was an amazing time in terms of patience. Patience had money in [00:59:45] their pockets.

Amber Aplin: Had money? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It was, it was. I remember everyone was so high in [00:59:50] dentistry thinking everything’s going to be all right.

Amber Aplin: But I wasn’t [00:59:55] very clever, though. I was pretty, I wasn’t very clever or wise because we did not charge nearly enough. [01:00:00] We were undercharging grossly undercharging for everything we did at the time. So I was working really hard [01:00:05] six days a week trying to recover from Covid and things. Um, I wasn’t [01:00:10] very smart.

Payman Langroudi: Let’s talk about that because, Kelso, to me, maybe I’m wrong. Doesn’t [01:00:15] sound like the richest town in the world, is it? Are there pockets, by the way? [01:00:20] Every single area has people who’ve got a bit of money in their pockets. Right.

Amber Aplin: Um, [01:00:25] there’s a mix, actually. A big mix, like you say, from wealthy farmers who [01:00:30] like to keep money in their pocket. Actually, um, there’s actually lots of big castles around there and [01:00:35] dukes and things. Um, a lot of, I suppose, um, businesses [01:00:40] in the area, business owners. I mean, we have a whole range of patients. A lot of [01:00:45] them actually are probably semi-retired as well. Moving, moving there, um, for long [01:00:50] term retirement, I guess.

Payman Langroudi: What is the positioning of the practice as far as [01:00:55] you know? Is it do you do you position yourself at the top end as far as [01:01:00] how much things cost and the quality of care or Marks and Spencer or what? [01:01:05]

Amber Aplin: We don’t really look at anyone else. I just charge what we feel is right for us. You know [01:01:10] what we offer. So we are we charge quite high, high prices. As [01:01:15] far as I believe. I don’t feel it’s enough, actually. But I think because our patients have, um, [01:01:20] are long standing, loyal patients have seen the kind of since since 2021, 22, [01:01:25] 2020. They’ve seen the the almost the huge increases each [01:01:30] year, year on year. So I’m doing a little bit gradually. If I was on my own, I’d be charging [01:01:35] more. But I’m just doing it gradually as patients can kind of cope with [01:01:40] it. But again, I’m increasing fees by about 20% for the onlays and overlays [01:01:45] from from now from January. Quite a big step again, you know, um, so we’re [01:01:50] all we’re all getting there and getting there now where the prices should be. But um, not [01:01:55] quite, not quite.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, let’s just from a cold business perspective and I know that’s [01:02:00] not what we’re in. We’re not in a cold business. We’re in a warm healthcare business. But from a cold business perspective, [01:02:05] if you add 30% to the price of everything [01:02:10] and you lose 30% of your patients. You’re [01:02:15] way ahead.

Amber Aplin: That would work.

Payman Langroudi: You’re way ahead. You’re not in the same [01:02:20] place. You’re way ahead because you’re doing much less work for the same income. It’s true. And obviously, [01:02:25] you don’t want to lose a single patient. So if you can increase your prices by [01:02:30] 15, 20% and not lose a single patient, the compounding effect [01:02:35] of that three, four years down the line, people forget that, you know, the price [01:02:40] of a crown or whatever. If it goes up 20% a year or 15% a year, pretty [01:02:45] soon it’s doubling. You know that’s.

Amber Aplin: True. That’s true.

Payman Langroudi: You know, um, I used to have [01:02:50] a boss. He was he used to say, oh, your your your patient should always be complaining about how expensive [01:02:55] you are. So really? Yeah. But he really, truly believed that. Yeah. You [01:03:00] know, he was saying if patients aren’t complaining about that, the prices aren’t high enough. Yeah. Um, and he’d [01:03:05] gone private in 1964, in, in Kent, on the seaside, you know, like.

Amber Aplin: I [01:03:10] don’t know. It’s a funny thing because I want to do right by our patients [01:03:15] too, and I want to be affordable for the majority of our patients. We can’t be for everyone, of course, [01:03:20] but a lot of our, um, our team, their family members come to us as well. [01:03:25] And, you know, it’s just a little bit of a balance there. So, um.

Payman Langroudi: Especially in a small town, you’re [01:03:30] kind of like the pillar of the community, isn’t it? You can’t. Like I said, it’s not a cold business decision. [01:03:35]

Amber Aplin: Exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Have you got any plans to do more?

Amber Aplin: In what way?

Payman Langroudi: More practices.

Amber Aplin: Um, [01:03:40] no. No. I mean, maybe one day, a single chair squat [01:03:45] somewhere alongside alongside alongside. Um. But I [01:03:50] love I love it so much, you know? And the team are all like family. It probably shouldn’t be, but [01:03:55] they are, I think a lot of them and, you know, very love working alongside them all and every [01:04:00] day is a privilege really, you know.

Payman Langroudi: So what do you mean? You mean you’re so happy that you don’t want to risk being unhappy [01:04:05] by opening a second one?

Amber Aplin: Um, no. I’m just I would never I would never want to [01:04:10] just move on from my practice. I love it so much and the team, I love working with them. [01:04:15] So it’s a hard thing, isn’t it? It’s a hard thing to know what to do for the best longer term. Really [01:04:20] haven’t really figured it all out yet, but I’m just very happy where I am now because it [01:04:25] just works a joy. And that’s that’s a privilege.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So important. [01:04:30] Let’s get on to the darker part of the pod. And you already discussed one [01:04:35] unhappy patient. But but if we’re talking errors, what errors [01:04:40] come to mind? Clinical errors.

Amber Aplin: Yeah I made I don’t know. One [01:04:45] that stands out was about, I don’t know, 6 or 7 years ago. [01:04:50] Um, and a patient walked in and she’s got a huge midline diastema, [01:04:55] and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. You know, just drawn to it all the time. And I said straight away to [01:05:00] her, you know, we can really help with that. You know, we can just show you how it can look with a bit of composite [01:05:05] bonding to the middle of it. And and she was horrified. And I just thought, oh, what [01:05:10] have I done? This poor lady. And she, she said, I like I like the [01:05:15] way my teeth look. And so terrible, horrible, horrible [01:05:20] person to do that. So I learnt very quickly and again through I think through actually that [01:05:25] training you learn really find out what the patient finds a concern, not what we [01:05:30] think is a concern. So I learned that really quickly from that. And I felt [01:05:35] awful afterwards. And I still see this lady and I still remember every now and again when I see her. My [01:05:40] mistake. Um, so yeah, learning that really quickly find out what the patients are [01:05:45] concerned about and not what we think.

Payman Langroudi: So do you ask [01:05:50] specifically? Ask?

Amber Aplin: Yeah, I do, um, I kind of use the [01:05:55] kind of 20 year kind of, you know, question or phrase, you know, say, [01:06:00] say when you’re kind of in your 70s or 80s, how do you want your teeth to look, feel [01:06:05] and function what’s important for you. You know, and and they always say, well, when I keep my teeth, [01:06:10] I want to have them for life. You know, and so. Well, we can help we can help you with that. You know, this is [01:06:15] what we need to do if you want to do that, basically. So it’s not just where we are now, it’s where we are in the future. [01:06:20] That’s I think, what’s important.

Payman Langroudi: And you’re saying that what the patient who [01:06:25] let’s say that patient. The patient, um, if she doesn’t mention the diastema in that [01:06:30] question, you don’t bring it up.

Amber Aplin: No, not at all.

Payman Langroudi: But if she does say I want them to look nice, then you do that. [01:06:35]

Amber Aplin: If no, I would say what? No, I’d say, what is it about your teeth you don’t like? If that was the thing, you know. And do [01:06:40] a photo, perhaps show on the screen and get her to show me exactly what it is. Because it could be a little [01:06:45] stain further back and miss the obvious thing in the middle of it. Yeah. So you’re always [01:06:50] patient led.

Payman Langroudi: Tell me about the brand, the gentle touch. Because I bang on [01:06:55] in this podcast about gentle dentistry. Yeah. Is it. Did you inherit that or did you, [01:07:00] did you?

Amber Aplin: You know what?

Payman Langroudi: Name it.

Amber Aplin: I don’t love the name. I don’t love the name, but I inherited [01:07:05] it when I bought it and.

Payman Langroudi: I love the name.

Amber Aplin: I [01:07:10] mean, it could be a massage parlour. It could be kind of.

Payman Langroudi: I [01:07:15] hadn’t thought of that gentle touch, but we’ve got one [01:07:20] of our big users. Gentle Dental. Oh, yeah, but but I don’t know, man. I think we [01:07:25] forget when we’re in it. We forget how scary dentistry is. And I just think it’s the lowest [01:07:30] hanging fruit of all is we’re good with nervous patients. It’s [01:07:35] so obvious to me, you know, like half the population is scared.

Amber Aplin: I hate them, though. I hate nervous [01:07:40] patients. Oh, yeah. I find it hard. Oh, really?

Payman Langroudi: Oh, well, then then you would have.

Amber Aplin: My [01:07:45] colleagues great with it, though. My colleague loves nervous patients. I [01:07:50] refer them to my colleague if they’re nervous. Um, no, I inherited [01:07:55] it and but made it work. So we’re gentle in more ways than one. So our branding is gentle. [01:08:00] You know, we’re subtle in our our kind of we do our aesthetics, you know, all [01:08:05] that kind of thing. But we’re subtle with that. We don’t do in-your-face lip fillers and all [01:08:10] that. It’s subtle, um, gentle to teeth. You know, we only have the guided biofilm [01:08:15] therapy. We don’t do all the everything else. So and obviously with [01:08:20] the biomimetics, we’re a preservative of teeth. We’re. Which is gentle. Really? Um, [01:08:25] yeah. Just gentle in the way we treat people and our.

Payman Langroudi: Could [01:08:30] you don’t tell patients these stories, do you? These are more internal stories.

Amber Aplin: This is it comes [01:08:35] through the brand, the branding that we do and how patients are made to how they feel when they come [01:08:40] through the practice, how they’re made to feel. You know, it’s all about what we do. And everything’s gentle. Everything’s [01:08:45] calm, quiet. Take our time, you know, professional. So [01:08:50] that’s kind of the way we want our patients to feel.

Payman Langroudi: And [01:08:55] are you aware of, you know, like from the. It [01:09:00] sounds like you’re very interested in the patient journey.

Amber Aplin: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So does that patient journey. [01:09:05] Are there specifics, touch points in that patient journey that you you [01:09:10] put in, or do you tell your team, just be really great to everyone you know, like, is [01:09:15] it very general or is it specific. Does does everyone get x, y and Z?

Amber Aplin: Yeah, [01:09:20] I mean, we’ve created this, um, kind of culture kind of culture [01:09:25] guide or culture deck.

Payman Langroudi: So in your team.

Amber Aplin: Yeah, for the whole team. [01:09:30]

Payman Langroudi: So what does it say? Stuff like you just talked about.

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Exactly. Right. So everyone’s acknowledging every single patient [01:09:35] is treated like a human being. You know, there’s no scripts. Actually, we don’t do scripts. We don’t do that because [01:09:40] it might come across as inauthentic. So actually, all of our team members are brilliant people [01:09:45] in their own right. So they’re going to treat people with respect naturally. So they’re always made to [01:09:50] feel like they’re human beings. We don’t let patients walk throughout the practice without someone being with them. So [01:09:55] we’d always escort them everywhere except the kind of bathroom [01:10:00] of obviously, you know. Yeah, but you know what I mean. So there’s always handovers there. Always. This is so [01:10:05] and so when they go into a surgery, it’s always, this is my nurse, this is Gemma here or, you know, [01:10:10] this is Tamsin. So everyone’s treated with dignity, respect. Um, [01:10:15] and it’s like everywhere, you know, it’s patient focussed. So we [01:10:20] listen to their concerns and their goals and we go along at their own pace and the [01:10:25] patients are in control. It’s just a kind of a way to be treated, I suppose. And [01:10:30] this is what we we all do.

Payman Langroudi: But then tactics wise, do [01:10:35] you encourage word of mouth? Do you do you ask patients to recommend friends [01:10:40] to you? Do you ask for reviews? Do you?

Amber Aplin: Yeah, we do actually, to be honest, we [01:10:45] I mean, um, I mean, this is the one of our receptions called Jen. She’ll [01:10:50] put on a day sheet who has Google Gmail. Sorry. So they can obviously do the Google [01:10:55] reviews. Um, so we don’t ask anybody else because it’s a real faff. If you haven’t got the Gmail account, it’s a real [01:11:00] faff doing Google reviews. So we know who to who we can ask. Um, so we try and [01:11:05] ask them if they’ll do us a favour and ask for some feedback. Um, [01:11:10] we yeah, we’ve got little handouts we hand to our great [01:11:15] patients and say, look, we love treating you and we’d be happy to refer one of your friends or family if they’re, you [01:11:20] know, looking for a dentist or something, or.

Payman Langroudi: Is that incentivised [01:11:25] in any direction?

Amber Aplin: No, no, we used to give out vouchers, but not anymore. So. [01:11:30] Yeah, it’s actually all word of mouth. [01:11:35] We don’t really do any advertising at all. We used to do a little bit dabble for a while, but we haven’t done advertising [01:11:40] for a long time.

Payman Langroudi: Do you? I mean, is there a coffee [01:11:45] machine?

Amber Aplin: This is a bit of a debate right now.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Amber Aplin: So I bought [01:11:50] I bought one for, um, for the courses I’m running in the practice. So I bought a machine for the delegates. [01:11:55] Lovely. All singing, all dancing. Coffee machine, which is a prime joy. So we now use [01:12:00] it in our staff room for the the staff. Um, so now we have the chance to offer patients [01:12:05] a coffee. You know, so it’s, um. I don’t know. How do you do that? Have you got any advice for us? [01:12:10]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, definitely hundred percent. Do it. Why not?

Amber Aplin: Before their appointment. What if it’s hot and they can’t finish [01:12:15] it before their appointment?

Payman Langroudi: I mean, look, I’m getting excellent coffee at the [01:12:20] BMW showroom when I take my car for garage. I’m not buying a car. [01:12:25] Yeah, just taking my car for a service. Yeah, it’s a car service area. Yeah. Marvellous. [01:12:30] Brilliant coffee. Excellent coffee. Um, beautiful seating area. [01:12:35] Like, by the time the guys even come over to say hi, I just feel like [01:12:40] I’ve spent 2 or £300 on that. You know, like, I feel it feels good. It feels good. Okay. So [01:12:45] in a place like yours. Why? Why not? I mean, if.

Amber Aplin: They’re going to have a treatment next. So if someone’s working in [01:12:50] their mouth, would they want to drink coffee before that?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. No one minds. No one minds about that.

Amber Aplin: We could try that. [01:12:55]

Payman Langroudi: No, it’s an amazing thing. Yeah, because I, I visited a thousand practices. [01:13:00] I’ve worked in many practices. I go to train a practice. They [01:13:05] say coffee sometimes. Not always, I [01:13:10] say sure. Yeah. Sometimes they’ve been Chris Barad and they’ll say something like, [01:13:15] oh, what kind of coffee? Yeah, I’ll go flat white. Yeah. I expect it to [01:13:20] be terrible. Yeah, but sometimes it’s excellent. Sometimes it’s excellent. I drink this excellent coffee [01:13:25] and I draw all sorts of conclusions. Even though I’m fully into I know everything. [01:13:30] I know there’s no link between your biomimetic dentistry and the quality of your coffee beans. [01:13:35] I know that. Yeah, but even I still drink this coffee thing. These [01:13:40] are good guys. They know what they’re doing. Yeah, they must know. You know, their dentistry if they’ve got their coffee. [01:13:45] Right. And I’m doing it knowing it’s incorrect. So from the patient’s perspective, [01:13:50] I mean, maybe I like coffee too much, but from the patient’s perspective, it’s just another way [01:13:55] of telling the patient it’s brilliant. It’s different to other places.

Amber Aplin: I’m thinking of doing it perhaps in December or something. [01:14:00] A takeaway cup branded, of course. And they have it to go away with after their appointment. This is [01:14:05] have it on us. Um, yeah. We’re working into our workflow somehow.

Payman Langroudi: I also think [01:14:10] that practices don’t have enough humans. You know, when compared to other [01:14:15] situations, you know, there’s it’s almost like we’ve got the very minimum [01:14:20] number of. Of course we do. We’re running a business. Right. You don’t want to pay another salary, extra salary. But [01:14:25] in a situation where it’s you feel so it’s so difficult. I’ve just had [01:14:30] some dentistry done and I hated it so much. But in a situation where the the [01:14:35] customer, the patient feels so scared, then [01:14:40] more people would help and practice seemed to run on the bare minimum. [01:14:45] Um, so my point is, if the coffee machine comes with a human Yeah. [01:14:50] Who has to? I mean, yeah, I don’t mean assigned to the coffee machine, but I’m just saying, if you need a few more people [01:14:55] to to serve coffee and clean up and all that, that’s.

Amber Aplin: A good.

Payman Langroudi: Idea. Those people you know, in those [01:15:00] minutes will also be raising the brand. The brand [01:15:05] of the practice. Yeah. Immeasurably. And and I know people like, uh, [01:15:10] Mike Hesketh and Chris Barry love to measure stuff. Yeah. But I’m sure [01:15:15] they’ll tell you. Right. Some of the most important stuff in dentistry is not measurable.

Amber Aplin: I would agree with that. [01:15:20]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Amber Aplin: Yeah, that’s a good idea.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. For sure. You should definitely do that.

Amber Aplin: You should have got [01:15:25] more staff. Actually, we have got more than the minimum staff as well because we like to have extra staff around. Um. [01:15:30] It’s important.

Payman Langroudi: What have you done around the sort of career progression part [01:15:35] for the team?

Amber Aplin: The team? We just find out what they’re, what they want to do and support that, [01:15:40] you know?

Payman Langroudi: But if you’ve got a nurse who is really keen. Yeah. Is she going to end up as [01:15:45] practice manager one day? Is that is that the way you think of it?

Amber Aplin: My husband’s actually doing that right now he’s running the practice. [01:15:50] Um, so he’s doing that job right now.

Payman Langroudi: Your husband’s running.

Amber Aplin: The husband’s doing it is he’s ops manager [01:15:55] or practice manager?

Payman Langroudi: Is he a.

Amber Aplin: Dentist? He’s not. No, no, no he’s not. He’s come from military as well. [01:16:00] He’s. Okay. Ex-military.

Payman Langroudi: And is that where you met?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Yeah. So he [01:16:05] runs a practice for us. He’s brilliant with the staff. Phenomenal. Um, so. Yeah, [01:16:10] which is great to have someone to go to as well, because I can focus on my patients focus. I’m literally [01:16:15] a dentist now. It’s all I do. Dentistry. Nothing else.

Payman Langroudi: So you were doing that [01:16:20] work? I was doing it until your husband came in.

Amber Aplin: When the PM left after.

Payman Langroudi: Lockdown. Okay, okay. [01:16:25]

Amber Aplin: I was doing everything pretty much. I was staying very late and, you know, doing all the wages [01:16:30] and things.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s a great lesson there, isn’t there? Just there. There’s a brilliant lesson. I [01:16:35] mean, with your husband, it’s someone you can fully trust. So it’s kind of even easier. But the idea that, [01:16:40] you know, if you’re having a hard time in practice doing everything, it’s possible [01:16:45] someone else could come and take over some of those responsibilities and do them even better than you.

Amber Aplin: Oh, [01:16:50] far better than me. Yeah, I really wasn’t great. You know, you’ve got to focus on where your skills lie, you know? [01:16:55] So going back to the staff, of course we support them. So we’ve got some nurses that run scanning clinics [01:17:00] and do Invisalign consults. Um, and you know, if [01:17:05] they want to do more, they can. And they’ve got the implant nurses that are really well trained. And we’ve got one nurse [01:17:10] who’s now or two CEOs now as well. So of course there’s progression within the practice [01:17:15] to do a lot more if they want to.

Payman Langroudi: What are you struggling with?

Amber Aplin: Trying [01:17:20] to I’m struggling with promoting why we’re different at the practice, [01:17:25] why our.

Payman Langroudi: Treatments.

Amber Aplin: Are different. Yeah, we can do it 1 to 1 as we go along, of course, but [01:17:30] it’s getting the wider knowledge out there because, as you say, no one knows what’s different about this white [01:17:35] filling, you know? Yeah. No one knows.

Payman Langroudi: It’s my struggle too. I’m in charge of communication [01:17:40] for enlighten. And yeah, it’s a struggle. It’s a struggle, particularly struggle when, [01:17:45] you know, like you’ve tried something, you’ve said something. And you know what I’ve realised? It has to [01:17:50] come down to one statement. You know that your your public not [01:17:55] only will won’t hear more than one statement, they can’t spread more than [01:18:00] one statement between. And what I’ve realised is that, you know, for instance we [01:18:05] we settled on this no ordinary whitening. Yeah, yeah. Although it sounds.

Amber Aplin: Good, I like [01:18:10] that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, it sounds good. It’s not a talk trigger. You know, you’re not going to say one dentist is not going to say to another use [01:18:15] enlightened. It’s no ordinary whitening.

Amber Aplin: No.

Payman Langroudi: That’s true. Whereas whereas, uh, the one we had previously [01:18:20] really was a talk trigger and and.

Amber Aplin: What was that.

Payman Langroudi: One guaranteed whitening it was. [01:18:25]

Amber Aplin: I’ve seen that. That’s great.

Payman Langroudi: We had that in 2008. Back then it was a really important.

Amber Aplin: Thing that [01:18:30] true. Did that work? Is that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, it has been since 2008.

Amber Aplin: Amazing.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but [01:18:35] but but you see what my point is this, that if the, if you want word of mouth. Yeah. [01:18:40] And you want word of mouth about the subject.

Amber Aplin: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: That you want. And in your case, [01:18:45] it’s we’re doing this new thing and and it’s good for you old thing. Yeah, [01:18:50] exactly. Exactly. It’s good for you. And, um, we’re super excited about [01:18:55] it. Yeah. You have to encapsulate that in a, in a one statement that [01:19:00] people will tell each other. Yeah. And, you know.

Amber Aplin: It’s not just a feeling.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, [01:19:05] I.

Amber Aplin: Know it’s not just it’s not a crown. We don’t do crowns anymore. I mean, you [01:19:10] know what I mean? It’s not just it’s like a thousand steps, 50 or 60 steps [01:19:15] rather than, I don’t know, ten.

Payman Langroudi: Do you love the accuracy of of biomimetics? [01:19:20]

Amber Aplin: I like the way an exactly every single step is the same. So I love [01:19:25] the way it’s so repeatable and predictable. You know, every tooth [01:19:30] is different. Every tooth is a bit of a mystery about how we’re going to solve the problem. [01:19:35] You know, the pathology led. Yeah. Um, so it is interesting for that reason. [01:19:40] Keeps it interesting, but all the steps are the same, so I do love that predictability of [01:19:45] it.

Payman Langroudi: What do you do in the five minutes while you’re waiting for that bomb to mature?

Amber Aplin: You actually can do, um, [01:19:50] if you go to, you know, a deep margin elevation, you can do the DME deep [01:19:55] part. You can do the little thin resin coat. So thin flowable [01:20:00] composite over the whole dentine surface. Um, or if it’s a class five restoration, [01:20:05] like a buckle, I would just do notes for five minutes because you can’t do anything else apart from have [01:20:10] to sit and wait. So yeah, I just couldn’t do my notes and tell the patient.

Payman Langroudi: The dam is still [01:20:15] on. The patient can’t. You can’t talk to the patient.

Amber Aplin: I say, look, I’ll just give you some time for [01:20:20] the for the bond to really mature. Um, have a rest, you know, can half close your mouth a little bit. I’ll be [01:20:25] over here doing notes and keep it really relaxed and keep it chill.

Payman Langroudi: Seems [01:20:30] so obvious.

Amber Aplin: So it’s quite good. It’s very relaxed. And I like that as well, you [01:20:35] know.

Payman Langroudi: Are you going to teach more? How much have you taught so far?

Amber Aplin: I’ve one [01:20:40] course so far in September, and I loved it, because you’re never going to know until you try it, right?

Payman Langroudi: Teaching [01:20:45] is fun.

Amber Aplin: It’s so good.

Payman Langroudi: And the first time is the hardest as well. You’ll find you’ll find it easier and easier [01:20:50] as you go.

Amber Aplin: I like about it as you have to know your stuff. You have to go back to the books, go back to [01:20:55] the papers again, and really make sure you can explain everything.

Payman Langroudi: To in case some clever [01:21:00] dick says something like quotes, a paper you don’t know or something.

Amber Aplin: You know it. You know how to do the protocols. [01:21:05]

Payman Langroudi: As a teacher, you’ve got.

Amber Aplin: To explain it, you know? So, um, I you know, I love that the next [01:21:10] one is in January, so.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really? Really.

Amber Aplin: So just for right now, it’s just the, um, I [01:21:15] call it intro or the level one, you know, for therapists and dentists for the direct composite [01:21:20] restorations. Um, however, dentists are asking me to do the level two [01:21:25] now, which is onlays overlays and semi-direct restorations. So I’ve got a [01:21:30] request for that for next year, but it’s quite a lot to do. So I’m not sure if I want to do it next year or not, whether [01:21:35] to defer another year. There’s quite a lot going on.

Payman Langroudi: Are you finding therapists [01:21:40] are disproportionately working on. Yeah.

Amber Aplin: Loads of therapists, which [01:21:45] is great. It’s great for them. Therapists and owners. Owners want to see [01:21:50] how it’s done because we.

Payman Langroudi: Also do go into that then.

Amber Aplin: So the first day is actually, [01:21:55] um, a theory, obviously hands on with real teeth. They see a real cracks, [01:22:00] real teeth in extracted teeth. And the caries dye obviously will work.

Payman Langroudi: Of.

Amber Aplin: Course. So that’s [01:22:05] really great. And then you just first the first half is getting rid of the caries and cracks and [01:22:10] you know the right way of doing that. And then the second half of the day is restoring it, doing [01:22:15] all the IDs resin Co and the composite. And then we [01:22:20] and also photography’s next day is a bit of photography. And then we also [01:22:25] shadow the therapists doing a therapist led care appointment and [01:22:30] also a restoration as well. And dentists will watch me doing it with microscope and a big screen [01:22:35] and thing.

Payman Langroudi: So this is all in Kelso.

Amber Aplin: It’s all in my practice. That’s the same building. So the training centre in one half [01:22:40] and the building is in the other half, the practice is the other half. So I can do both in one building. [01:22:45]

Payman Langroudi: So people I mean, do you get people travelling?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. [01:22:50] Yeah. From Exeter and Essex.

Payman Langroudi: Exeter.

Amber Aplin: All this [01:22:55] people travel. They don’t come from the local practices at the moment. They [01:23:00] travel more I suppose. Um a lot of therapists are coming along. So. Yeah, that’s [01:23:05] all good.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s a two day course.

Amber Aplin: Two day course all day and a half. They finish it by about 3:00 the next [01:23:10] day.

Payman Langroudi: Do you do like a social.

Amber Aplin: Yeah. That night. Yeah. Local restaurant and.

Payman Langroudi: Excellent. [01:23:15]

Amber Aplin: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Excellent. I’ve really enjoyed it. Um, learning from you. Um, [01:23:20] we kind of end with the same sort of quick fire questions. What comes to mind if I [01:23:25] say best education? You’ve had best lecture. You’ve seen.

Amber Aplin: It’s got to be the course in Glasgow. [01:23:30]

Payman Langroudi: Oh yeah.

Amber Aplin: Yeah. Life changing game changing course.

Payman Langroudi: What about your favourite [01:23:35] resource? Dental resource book. Website? Social media. Which one?

Amber Aplin: Social [01:23:40] media.

Payman Langroudi: From what accounts that you.

Amber Aplin: Are going to.

Payman Langroudi: Learn.

Amber Aplin: From [01:23:45] the greats. So the almonds. Well David almonds, the son who’s [01:23:50] doing everything. And Peter Farkas um, yeah. Just all [01:23:55] those kind of biometric dentists I guess, or a whole range, I suppose. But it’s always going to be [01:24:00] Instagram pretty much for that. Yeah, I like to zone in and [01:24:05] check everything out and just make sure you’re doing everything right yourself. Just it’s almost like reinforcing your [01:24:10] if you’re doing things right.

Payman Langroudi: If you had all the time and all the money in the world, what’s the course you’re desperate to go on? [01:24:15]

Amber Aplin: I, um, I think for some point soon I want to do [01:24:20] either or both. Um, Pascal Mani, um, going train with him for a [01:24:25] while. And also Peter Farkas phenomenal dentist [01:24:30] as well. So just again, more, I suppose more. Watching someone’s clinic [01:24:35] is quite useful. Watching how they work their workflows and things is really what I want to go and see now, because it’s [01:24:40] really great seeing Davies practice. Yeah, that’s really great.

Payman Langroudi: Have you looked at small stories as [01:24:45] well?

Amber Aplin: Yeah. That’s phenomenal.

Payman Langroudi: What an amazing sort of thought process. Those guys [01:24:50] are.

Amber Aplin: Phenomenal. I love what they do.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Um, okay. Final questions. [01:24:55] It’s a fantasy dinner party. Question. Three guests, dead or alive, [01:25:00] who would you have?

Amber Aplin: So I think Margaret [01:25:05] Thatcher would be very interesting. I really think a lot of her. She’s great. [01:25:10] She didn’t care what anyone thought. Stuck to her guns.

Payman Langroudi: You arrived in the UK [01:25:15] five years old in 1979.

Amber Aplin: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Me too. Six of six. Gosh. [01:25:20] The winter of discontent. It was really. Yeah. I mean, I remember getting [01:25:25] here thinking, what the hell place is. So you were a little bit. I was six, I was six. [01:25:30] There was. There was a general strike. Everyone was on strike. The rubbish [01:25:35] people said it was rubbish piled up everywhere. That’s right. The guys, the gravediggers were on strike [01:25:40] like everyone was on strike. And, um, it was Labour, you [01:25:45] know. It was. It was. Callaghan was the Prime Minister back then and Thatcher was, was the prospective. [01:25:50] Okay. You know, trying to trying to, trying to win. Um, [01:25:55] but then do you remember her as a child. Yeah. So [01:26:00] she was harsh at the time, if you remember. Did you like that? Yeah.

Amber Aplin: It’s more respect [01:26:05] for her, you know, and going for what she believes in. Yeah. And not listening to doubters and [01:26:10] staying different.

Payman Langroudi: You’re right. Actually, that’s that’s what’s missing right now. Yeah. Isn’t it? [01:26:15] It feels. It feels like people. People, politicians now they almost look at the market. [01:26:20] They look at they look at the and the votes. The electorate as a market. Yeah. Yeah. They think market’s [01:26:25] swinging this way so they’ll switch. Whereas Thatcher seemed to like have her ideology whether [01:26:30] you liked it or not. She was following a particular thought process that turned out [01:26:35] to be right, I guess in the end.

Amber Aplin: Exactly. No, I thought she was brilliant. Um, also, I suppose [01:26:40] my my my grandma and grandpa because I didn’t really know my grandpa at all. Didn’t meet him and my [01:26:45] mom’s side and my grandma. She died when I was about maybe 16 or 17, so I didn’t really know her [01:26:50] very well as an as a grown up. So I’d love to have.

Payman Langroudi: Both your mom’s parents.

Amber Aplin: Yeah, I’d love to kind [01:26:55] of have them again around a dinner table. It’d be quite cool.

Payman Langroudi: Nice. Final [01:27:00] question. It’s a deathbed question. Yeah. Three pieces of advice.

Amber Aplin: Lots [01:27:05] of advice. Because I’ve actually, you know, I’ve had had cancer a couple of years ago [01:27:10] and things. And it really makes you look at what’s important in life. It really makes you look. [01:27:15] So before that, I was really happy in loving life. And but I didn’t really, I suppose, know the true [01:27:20] value of life. So I’ve got loads of advice for this one. Um, I [01:27:25] think it’s the small things in life that really appreciate [01:27:30] small things like going for a walk, birdsong, sunrises, sunsets, [01:27:35] just very small things. Really appreciate them. Invest in yourself. [01:27:40] Keep learning. Keep investing in yourself for the longer term. Um, [01:27:45] just be kind. Be kind. That’s such a simple [01:27:50] thing to do. But not everyone does that. Um, and. [01:27:55] What else? There’s [01:28:00] just.

Payman Langroudi: The experience of.

Amber Aplin: Having the best version of yourself, you know, just be the best [01:28:05] version of yourself.

Payman Langroudi: Experience having cancer. So when you say the small things, is that did that come from [01:28:10] there, where your world suddenly turned upside down and then, yeah, even a simple thing like taking a walk [01:28:15] doesn’t feel right.

Amber Aplin: Yes. Because for a while when you’re first diagnosed, you don’t know if you’re going to survive for, [01:28:20] you know, two months or two years. You just don’t know until the tests come back. So for [01:28:25] that period, you’re really soul searching, like what is important for me right now. And [01:28:30] it’s of course, family. You know, how old.

Payman Langroudi: Were your kids? Just a couple of years ago.

Amber Aplin: Yeah, a couple of years ago. So it was back [01:28:35] in 2023. So it was spring. 23 kids [01:28:40] were. 18 and 16 and 14. [01:28:45] Yeah. But you know, I think as a parent you just [01:28:50] trivialise it. You know, you don’t say you don’t tell them the whole truth. Of course you [01:28:55] say you’re unwell for a while. They know what cancer is. But of course my little boy lost. Oh it’s sad. A friend of mine [01:29:00] died of it. The same thing and same age as his good friend, you know. And [01:29:05] so it’s really sad for him because he thought that was happening to me as well. And of course, it could have happened to me, [01:29:10] and it was a possibility at the time. So I went through all the operations and then had chemo. [01:29:15] When was that again? Forget. But you know, I didn’t really that wasn’t a [01:29:20] a difficult time for me, as I say that with It’s. There’s [01:29:25] truth to that. I kind of worked normally. I didn’t let deter me from my life at all. Didn’t stop me doing my [01:29:30] work. I still did more study. I did the almonds the year long course during [01:29:35] my chemo radiotherapy. I didn’t really kind of stop for [01:29:40] a minute. I didn’t really want to. I loved what I was doing, so I wanted to focus on that. I loved caring [01:29:45] for my patients still. Probably some distraction as well, I would say. But I loved to keep [01:29:50] doing what my day to day job was still important to me at that time, but [01:29:55] still made you kind of soul search as well. At the same time, what’s important? This is where I’m really keen [01:30:00] to do more now. This has given me a new zest for life. I think this is where the training has come from [01:30:05] because I want to just do more. I want to kind of help people, help dentists, help therapists, [01:30:10] help owners with therapist led care. You know, it’s all kind of I think stem [01:30:15] from that. I would say I would never have gone to America for a week. Right? But [01:30:20] I would never. I’m so glad to have done that.

Payman Langroudi: A funny thing, you [01:30:25] know, that. Things you might not have done. And why not? Like, why wouldn’t you have gone to America? [01:30:30] There’s no reason for it. You just kind of script yourself into into the life that you’ve [01:30:35] got in a way, don’t you?

Amber Aplin: You just think, well, I’m busy. You know, you just think your life’s too busy. But you’ve [01:30:40] got to just make time for these things and. And stay curious, stay learning. Do [01:30:45] things you wouldn’t normally do. I wouldn’t normally come on a podcast. You know, this kind of thing is my [01:30:50] the new me, you know? So, um. Nah, it’s all good. [01:30:55]

Payman Langroudi: And your kids, you said 18 at the time. So is he in university? [01:31:00] She.

Amber Aplin: Matilda? Um, she. No, she was at uni. Didn’t get on with uni at [01:31:05] all. Didn’t like it. So she lived in Edinburgh for a while and she’s now just [01:31:10] doing a college course for facial things I think scarring and things. She’s [01:31:15] going to Australia for a few months in December, which would be good. And then she’ll come back, probably [01:31:20] London, I suppose, and and find a job after that at some point.

Payman Langroudi: And do you want your I mean, have you had the conversation [01:31:25] with any of your kids about being a dentist? No.

Amber Aplin: No, no. I mean, I love it, but it’s [01:31:30] I always it’s just whatever they want to do and they’ve never mentioned it at all. They haven’t really until [01:31:35] it hasn’t really old.

Payman Langroudi: Are the other.

Amber Aplin: Two. Um, now they’re now 18 and 16. [01:31:40] Yeah. Matilda and the little one have had were really badly. Had ADHD [01:31:45] but diagnosed very late. So she was 17 when it was diagnosed. So she went through, um, [01:31:50] school not being understood really. And she’s always kind of troublemaker or that [01:31:55] kind of thing, but she just wasn’t understood. So super bright, but just couldn’t really realise that [01:32:00] academic side to her. So that never is on the cards anyway for for her [01:32:05] middle child. He loves the the military actually. So he’s loved doing [01:32:10] CCF at school and wants to go to the Marines. So he’s just doing a police degree now to get enough [01:32:15] points to do that. And my little one, he is um, yeah, quite a character. [01:32:20] He loves socialising. He wants to be an entrepreneur of some kind.

Payman Langroudi: But he’ll [01:32:25] be the billionaire.

Amber Aplin: He’ll be the billionaire. That’s. That’s hope.

Payman Langroudi: So in this journey [01:32:30] of, like doing everything that you’ve done, some, some might say you’ve sort [01:32:35] of got it all. Would you say you’ve been sort of super successful [01:32:40] at that or.

Amber Aplin: I feel very fortunate and very lucky. Privileged.

Payman Langroudi: Let [01:32:45] me put it a different way. You know, I say give a piece of advice, give a piece of advice about being something [01:32:50] that you wish you had done rather than what you did do. Yeah. Like it’s like [01:32:55] some people say, oh, I wish I was less risk averse. That’s you know that. Do you wish [01:33:00] you were what?

Amber Aplin: Um, I think my biggest thing I’m holding back right now is being too [01:33:05] much of a perfectionist. It sounds like a very, very typical answer, and I apologise for that. Um, [01:33:10] but I’m working very late right now, doing letters for patients with photographs on it, you know, arrows [01:33:15] and just. I just feel I’m giving too much of my personal time [01:33:20] right now, and I just try and cut down my admin somehow, but I’m finding it hard to find a way [01:33:25] to do that. Um, so, uh, you know, it [01:33:30] comes from a place of love. I love what I do, and I want to get patients to understand their issues and things or their [01:33:35] teeth problems. But I can’t be staying until half eight at night or 9:00, you know, doing. [01:33:40]

Payman Langroudi: No.

Amber Aplin: Writing to patients and things. It’s a bit over the top, I think. I don’t work full [01:33:45] time. I do three days a week, so it’s not too bad.

Payman Langroudi: But it’s just a case of like a recorder [01:33:50] while you’re on the running machine, or I guess you’re not on the running machine.

Amber Aplin: You should get a running [01:33:55] machine.

Payman Langroudi: Go out. You’ve got wonderful countryside there.

Amber Aplin: I [01:34:00] need to do more of that, actually, um.

Payman Langroudi: A voice recorder, anyway. You know what I mean?

Amber Aplin: I [01:34:05] just use AI. I mean, I use the clinical notes, which are AI, and then stick it into AI and form [01:34:10] a letter. It doesn’t take that much time, but I still want to add a photo in and annotate that. [01:34:15] Yeah, I want to do more, more, more social media stuff. With what?

Payman Langroudi: You’re [01:34:20] too hard on yourself.

Amber Aplin: Ah, I just I can’t let go. I think just to. [01:34:25] I can’t let go. It’s really weird. I can let go because my staff have got complete autonomy and [01:34:30] I trust them completely. So I’m not controlling in the slightest. But I think for myself, I’m quite controlling [01:34:35] about everything I touch. I want to be 100% perfect. So the courses I run, I want to be [01:34:40] a best experience for the delegates. I want to do really great handouts for them. You know, the booklet [01:34:45] for them is really great, you know what I mean? I just, I can’t do anything less than [01:34:50] the very best that I can do, I guess. So it’s probably holding back a little bit because, for example, [01:34:55] the new course I want to run, there’s a lot of work to be the level [01:35:00] I want it to be at.

Payman Langroudi: The thing with courses is that the more you care, the less kind of profitable [01:35:05] it is.

Amber Aplin: It’s not for money either.

Payman Langroudi: I’m not doing it for money, but it is. It ends up costing [01:35:10] to do, to do the things you want to do. Um, that’s.

Amber Aplin: My life, though. Your say, [01:35:15] I’m not very good at business because everything is there for the patients and the staff and, you know. [01:35:20] So.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Amazing. So lovely to meet you. Thanks. Thanks for coming all the way from Scotland [01:35:25] for this.

Amber Aplin: Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it and really enjoyed it as well.

[VOICE: This [01:35:30] is Dental Leaders, the podcast where [01:35:35] you get to go one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [01:35:40] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [01:35:45]

Prav Solanki: Thanks for listening guys. If you got this far, you must have listened [01:35:50] to the whole thing. And just a huge thank you both from me and pay for actually sticking through [01:35:55] and listening to what we’ve had to say and what our guest has had to say, because I’m assuming you got some [01:36:00] value out of it.

Payman Langroudi: If you did get some value out of it, think about subscribing. And [01:36:05] if you would share this with a friend who you think might get some value out of it too. Thank you so [01:36:10] so so much for listening. Thanks.

Prav Solanki: And don’t forget our six star rating.

[VOICE]: This [00:00:05] is Dental Leaders. The podcast where you get to go [00:00:10] one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [00:00:15] hosts Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [00:00:20]

Payman Langroudi: This podcast comes to you from Enlighten Enlightens, an advanced [00:00:25] teeth whitening system that guarantees results on every single patient. We’ve treated hundreds [00:00:30] of thousands of patients now and have a really clear understanding of what it takes to get every [00:00:35] patient to that delighted state that we want to get to. If you want to understand teeth whitening [00:00:40] in much further detail, join us for online training only takes an hour completely free. [00:00:45] Even if you never use enlighten as a whitening system, you’ll learn loads and loads about whitening, [00:00:50] how to talk about it, how to involve your teams. Join us enlighten online training comm. [00:00:55] It gives me great pleasure to welcome Doctor Pavan Minhaj onto the pod. It’s [00:01:00] been a while that I’ve been asking you to come. Um, Payman is now a [00:01:05] specialist periodontist. Um, also involved in implants and kind of [00:01:10] a big way. Um, just finished your training.

Payvand Menhadji: Just finished September, so we’re [00:01:15] in end of October now. I’m a baby specialist.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And you’ve got a baby coming [00:01:20] as well?

Payvand Menhadji: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: How many weeks?

Payvand Menhadji: So 30 weeks. I’m 30 weeks. Ten weeks.

Payman Langroudi: Time. [00:01:25]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: A lot going on for you, huh?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Lot going on. I think back [00:01:30] to years in my life where it was like that. We, I think we started the company, [00:01:35] moved house and got married in the same year.

Payvand Menhadji: Amazing. [00:01:40]

Payman Langroudi: And then other times when kids came along and it’s funny, you don’t really realise what you’re [00:01:45] achieving until many years later when you look back on it and you think, bloody [00:01:50] hell, I did all of that at the same time.

Payvand Menhadji: That was a tough year. Exactly. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, [00:01:55] because you’re so busy you can’t even, you know, see the wood for the trees?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. You have no time to [00:02:00] reflect. Really? I’ve definitely felt that this year.

Payman Langroudi: How are you feeling about becoming a mother?

Payvand Menhadji: Excited, [00:02:05] to be honest. So I’m 34. Um, I [00:02:10] always wanted to have children, but I was. I’ve always been studying, you know, putting [00:02:15] kind of dentistry first. And I said to my husband, you know, when’s [00:02:20] the right time? And we said, okay, I’m coming to [00:02:25] the end of my training, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon. So so it happened [00:02:30] really fast. And then throughout my whole finals from April. [00:02:35] Sorry. From. Yeah. From April, May till now I’ve just been pregnant [00:02:40] sitting exams. So it’s been really tough.

Payman Langroudi: But but the I [00:02:45] don’t know the feeling of trepidation that it must be to be a mother in [00:02:50] waiting. I remember being a father about this time. I remember thinking, shit, man, like, what [00:02:55] is going to happen next? Yeah. You’re right. No one teaches you, right?

Payvand Menhadji: I am.

Payman Langroudi: Scared. For mother, it’s even [00:03:00] more.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, do you reflect on the fact that you’ve, like. Now, going forward, [00:03:05] you’ve lost all autonomy. You’ve [00:03:10] got ten weeks left, man. Like that’s it. After that.

Payvand Menhadji: You know, when you say it like [00:03:15] that, I’m fucked. Excuse me, I shouldn’t swear. Um, yeah. I [00:03:20] haven’t really sat down to think about it. I think I’ve been so busy. Yeah, but I’m slowing [00:03:25] down work next month, and I think that’s when it will really hit me that, okay, I’m going to become [00:03:30] a mother. I think feeling I’m having a baby girl. Okay. Yeah. [00:03:35] Amazing. So feeling her kick me and stuff. Um, especially during work, makes [00:03:40] it feel very real. Yeah. Um, but no, I’m really excited. I think it [00:03:45] will be a hard juggling act. I don’t know how I’ll cope.

Payman Langroudi: I’ll just think you’re going to be back [00:03:50] full time or part time or what?

Payvand Menhadji: The plan is to work four days a week. Um. [00:03:55] She says, you know, let’s see how it goes. Right. But the plan is to work four days a week for [00:04:00] six months. Um, get my mum to help out my husband. Um, see how how [00:04:05] we get on. Really?

Payman Langroudi: I mean, in many ways, I’m trying to persuade my daughter, my 15 year old, to [00:04:10] look at dentistry now. And in many ways, I think it really suits a mother. [00:04:15] Right. I think so. And, I don’t know, four days seems like a lot.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:04:20] I just I still want to be really good at my craft. I feel like I’ve got to a stage where [00:04:25] now’s the time for me to actually put in the work. You know, I’ve just finished [00:04:30] my training. I’m building a name for myself, and so I don’t want to lose that skill. [00:04:35] That’s my only. That’s.

Payman Langroudi: You reckon if you did three days a week, you’d lose that skill? I mean.

Payvand Menhadji: No, you’re right. [00:04:40] I’ve just got some good jobs at the moment. I don’t want to give them up. That’s the truth. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Did you get [00:04:45] those jobs after you qualified or during or.

Payvand Menhadji: Um, two of them. [00:04:50] I’ve. I’ve kept on since, like, first year of perio training [00:04:55] and then two of them I’ve got like later on in perio training through recommendation [00:05:00] and people just realising that I’m okay at what I do. So [00:05:05] yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Can you tell me the story of wanting to become a specialist and [00:05:10] when you track it back? Yeah. How how how long ago did you realise [00:05:15] you want to become a specialist? Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: So I think dental school. I didn’t ever [00:05:20] think I’d be a specialist. I just wanted to be a dentist. Yeah. You know, it seemed like a [00:05:25] good work life balance. Um, and then it was my PhD year, actually, where I had two [00:05:30] trainers. One of them was placing loads of implants. Victor Keyhani.

Payman Langroudi: Oh.

Payvand Menhadji: He [00:05:35] does the ace courses. I know, nice. Um. And Sabina, um, [00:05:40] she’s the partner at the practice, so I had two really good trainers. [00:05:45] And Victor actually lived down my road in Stanmore. So we became very close family, friends. [00:05:50] And he said to me, hey, pay like. To be honest with you, if I redid my whole career, [00:05:55] I’d be a periodontist. And I really respected him. So I thought, okay, [00:06:00] let me let me look into this. Um, so I [00:06:05] shadowed actually at the time when I was like an PhD, um, I [00:06:10] went on a few courses, just, you know, cheap ones, the long deck ones and stuff. Learned [00:06:15] to raise a flap, that kind of thing. Um, and I realised I really [00:06:20] like surgery. So what did I do next? I thought, okay, I need a [00:06:25] hospital year, um, to get really good at extractions and things like that. Still wasn’t sure I’d be [00:06:30] a periodontist, but I knew I wanted to have, like, surgical skill.

Payman Langroudi: Did you? I mean, before you [00:06:35] realised you really like surgery, were you, like the rest of us, a bit worried about surgery?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, exactly. [00:06:40]

Payman Langroudi: So what was the. What was the inflection? Was it just like watching loads of surgeries?

Payvand Menhadji: Cool. Yeah, just watching [00:06:45] Victor place implants. I thought it was really nice, like life changing stuff. Um, he [00:06:50] was. He was really happy performing the implants and the patients were really happy [00:06:55] receiving it. And it just seemed like level expert, you know, which I quite liked. [00:07:00] It’s quite nice to be referred to things that are complicated. I think I like the challenge. Yeah. [00:07:05]

Payman Langroudi: I mean, have you always been a high achiever?

Payvand Menhadji: I’m a big nerd. Yeah, I guess [00:07:10] so.

Payman Langroudi: Because I noticed on your on your. I think it was Instagram. It’s just with honours with honours with honours [00:07:15] all over it. Like.

Payvand Menhadji: You make me sound like such a geek. I [00:07:20] do have a very active social life. But no, I am a nerd. [00:07:25] Yeah, I’m competitive, I guess. Are you. Are you? Yeah. Against. [00:07:30] Against myself. Like, if I set a goal, like I want to do the best. Really? [00:07:35] So I think specialist suits me.

Payman Langroudi: How long ago does that track German [00:07:40] were you compared to seven year old?

Payvand Menhadji: My Iranian mother.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. [00:07:45]

Payvand Menhadji: Um, yeah. I mean, in sports and things. I [00:07:50] wasn’t too gifted, unfortunately. Um, but yeah, I was always pretty. Pretty high [00:07:55] achieving. And at school. Um. Yeah, I guess it’s always [00:08:00] been around. Yeah. Touchwood. I haven’t failed anything. I nearly failed my driving licence, [00:08:05] but I just passed, so. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So there might be a first time where you feel [00:08:10] like a failure when something goes not your way.

Payvand Menhadji: I’m sure it will happen. I’m [00:08:15] waiting for my downfall.

Payman Langroudi: There’s basically. There’s no way out of life, is there? There’s no way, no [00:08:20] easy way out of life. Even if you’ve had a, let’s call it a blessed life. Yeah, like you have, let’s say, [00:08:25] for the sake of the argument, eventually something will come and get you. It’s a it’s a weird [00:08:30] thing.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, my brother was always top of his class, top of everything. And then it was like, [00:08:35] I don’t know, it was like some sort of Mississippi part two. He’s a doctor that [00:08:40] finally just got him, got to him. He’d never felt anything in his life, suddenly started failing [00:08:45] and he couldn’t believe it himself.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. You know, when you’re. I mean, during [00:08:50] finals, pregnant. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t study to that usual level that I could. [00:08:55] You know, I was in my first trimester, I was sick, I was exhausted, [00:09:00] I was nauseous, my husband would come home and be like, have you been in bed all day? You know, he could tell. I’d [00:09:05] been like, yeah, just like watching TV. Yeah. And, um, I wasn’t [00:09:10] behaving like myself, so I was scared. I didn’t think I’d fail, but I thought I’d just [00:09:15] scrape a pass. So, um, that’s the most scared I’ve been this.

Payman Langroudi: Year. [00:09:20]

Payvand Menhadji: Anyway. Yeah. It’s great. I, I scraped it. It was a [00:09:25] shock, to be honest. So.

Payman Langroudi: So then the training itself is a, what, three [00:09:30] year program?

Payvand Menhadji: Four years. Part time.

Payman Langroudi: Part time or three years full time? Exactly.

Payvand Menhadji: So the beauty [00:09:35] of kings is you can do it part time and still earn money on the side, essentially to pay for the [00:09:40] course and your mortgage.

Payman Langroudi: Do you know Eleanor? She’s doing.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes, yes. So I work with her.

Payman Langroudi: S1 [00:09:45] Okay.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah yeah.

[BOTH]: Yeah okay. Okay.

Payman Langroudi: So so for years part time. So [00:09:50] how many what was the actual commitment like how often did you have to be in how much homework.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah it’s [00:09:55] it’s a three day. You’ve got a three days. You’ve got to be in two days. You can work in practice. But [00:10:00] honestly it feels like a império. It feels like a full time course.

Payman Langroudi: Like [00:10:05] they give you lots of homework.

Payvand Menhadji: Lots of homework. You’re expected to, you know, show up all [00:10:10] the time, just like the full time is, even on random days.

Payman Langroudi: When you’re not.

Payvand Menhadji: Scheduled to. Yeah, exactly. [00:10:15] They might have something on if you don’t go. You’ve missed out that kind of thing.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Um, [00:10:20] it’s it’s heavy.

Payman Langroudi: In those three days. How much of it is actual clinics [00:10:25] and how much is not.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Um, I would say, I mean, sometimes you can [00:10:30] have three days full clinics. Um, other times it’s two days full clinics. And maybe, like, [00:10:35] there’s always so much to do. Like, I’m thinking back now, we’re always at the hospital doing stuff. [00:10:40] A lot of it’s admin. Yeah. Nhs admin is like, [00:10:45] terrible. Oh my gosh. Um, yeah. A lot of administrative [00:10:50] tasks. Research. You know, part of the dent is you do a [00:10:55] thesis, but because everyone’s so high achieving and I mean that, you [00:11:00] know, some of my friends in my course in my year were pulling out five systematic reviews [00:11:05] a year, which is crazy. I did 1 in 4 years. One [00:11:10] of my friends, Michiko. Yeah, she did, I think 4 or 5 in one year. It’s crazy. So they [00:11:15] work very hard.

Payman Langroudi: And what’s the cost?

Payvand Menhadji: The cost. So it goes up every year. [00:11:20] So when I started in 2019, um, [00:11:25] annually it was 18 K and then it goes up. And so by [00:11:30] the end it was about 21 k. So every year it would go up £1,000 or so. [00:11:35]

Payman Langroudi: And literally you were paying for it by being a dentist the other two days was that is how it works.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Paying [00:11:40] for it by being a dentist. But also it’s people don’t realise it’s a loss of earnings, right. [00:11:45] You know, I think my training costs me like.

Payman Langroudi: If you’re taking loss of earnings into [00:11:50] account, hundreds of thousands.

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely. And a lot of the time I was thinking, [00:11:55] God, I should have just stayed working as a private GDP. I’d be much happier.

Payman Langroudi: And is [00:12:00] that what you were, a full time private GDP?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. So I did general dentistry up until my third year. [00:12:05] I was still doing veneers and crowns. Admittedly not as well as some other people, [00:12:10] obviously. Skilling. I could see myself getting worse. Um, but then I just went [00:12:15] and focussed my practice to periodontics, basically.

Payman Langroudi: Then [00:12:20] you said you studied dentistry in Liverpool? Yeah. What do you think of Liverpool?

Payvand Menhadji: It [00:12:25] was really fun. It was. You know what? It’s it’s great [00:12:30] for a weekend. Five years was a long time for me. Why? Too small? Yeah. [00:12:35] Too small. It was like the same streets, you know. Without being sounding [00:12:40] like someone from the South. You know, we just have so much [00:12:45] more to do in London. So I got a bit bored up there. Um, but made really [00:12:50] good friends. Found my husband, basically brought him back down.

Payman Langroudi: Not a dentist. [00:12:55]

Payvand Menhadji: He’s a dentist.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, he’s a dentist.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah, he likes endo nutter. I know.

Payman Langroudi: But [00:13:00] Liverpool, I love it. I love that town. I love that town.

Payvand Menhadji: It’s really fun.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s quite close to [00:13:05] Manchester. Right. You’ve got that.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. So we used to do like weekend trips to Manchester and every time we [00:13:10] went it was raining so bad.

Payman Langroudi: I love the people there though.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, [00:13:15] people were good. Patients were lovely.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Actually, you’re the second Liverpool graduate I’ve had today. [00:13:20] Oh, the guy before you was Liverpool graduate. Really nice. Before that you did biomedical. [00:13:25] Did you say.

Payvand Menhadji: Biochemistry?

Payman Langroudi: Biochemistry.

Payvand Menhadji: A similar thing, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What’s [00:13:30] that like? Um, did you do three years of that?

Payvand Menhadji: Three years of that. So at 18, I kind [00:13:35] of wasn’t sure what I’d want to do. I was good at science. Put biology and chemistry [00:13:40] together. Biochemistry? Yeah. Um, it was the best three years of my life. [00:13:45] Really? That was the best parties, honestly. I made [00:13:50] really good friends. Yeah. Lived out in London.

Payman Langroudi: For the whole three years.

Payvand Menhadji: Whole three years. Central [00:13:55] London. You know, you’re living your best life, basically. They were the golden years. And then [00:14:00] I really wanted to stay on at King’s because I had such a good time. Yeah, but King’s rejected me, so [00:14:05] I went to Liverpool.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, so you’ve had some sort of rejection in your life?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I have, yeah. [00:14:10] Thank you.

Payman Langroudi: So at the end, like, that’s quite a massive commitment, right? I mean [00:14:15] and we know like that’s what I was telling you about my daughter, she’s 15 and people are asking questions like, [00:14:20] who do you want to be. What do you want to be.

Payvand Menhadji: How do you know that age?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, but I’m saying from 15 till [00:14:25] today.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You’ve been working at it.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Biochem [00:14:30] such a nerd.

Payman Langroudi: But I’m saying on the day that they awarded you [00:14:35] that speciality. Sort of.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. The graduation is next [00:14:40] summer, actually.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, has it not happened yet? Has it happened yet? There must have been like a feeling. What was the feeling? Relief. How [00:14:45] would you characterise it? Pride. Were you proud of yourself?

Payvand Menhadji: I was.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah. It’s [00:14:50] so funny. The motivations in life are so funny. You know, like like, [00:14:55] why does one do what one does?

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: You know, like, right now, Trump’s looking for a Nobel Peace [00:15:00] Prize. Like, why? Yeah. You know.

Payvand Menhadji: It’s so funny you say that. And I reflect [00:15:05] on this. You try so hard and then you achieve that thing. No one really cares. [00:15:10] It’s for you, you know?

Payman Langroudi: And I even think, like, there’s some scripting in, like, you know, [00:15:15] um, I never really fancied going to Japan for years and [00:15:20] years. I just scripted myself. I don’t want to go to Japan. And now I’m desperate to go to Japan.

Payvand Menhadji: Why do you [00:15:25] think that is?

Payman Langroudi: I don’t know, I’m just saying it’s just scripting. You script yourself in different directions. You convince yourself [00:15:30] you are this cat, and then there’s like a feedback loop because you’ve got something.

Payvand Menhadji: You believe [00:15:35] in it and.

Payman Langroudi: Some form of identity, you.

Payvand Menhadji: Know? Yes.

Payman Langroudi: And and then at the end of it all, [00:15:40] if you really examine it properly, you realise those sliding door moments in your life, like, [00:15:45] I don’t know, my dad said, let’s move to San Francisco when we were seven. Imagine that. It [00:15:50] was this whole other American cat. Exactly.

Payvand Menhadji: You could have taken a different path. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:15:55] And so many things in life are like that. Yeah. How do you feel about that? Do you feel like. [00:16:00] Are you a fatalist or are you, you know, are you do you think like everything’s random or how do you [00:16:05] feel about.

Payvand Menhadji: I think I think I’ve managed I think about [00:16:10] what the next step actually. So I’ve, I’m at a point in my life now where I’ve [00:16:15] kind of achieved, achieved everything I want to so far and [00:16:20] I’m done, you know, which is nice. I don’t think it’s fate. I’ve kind of had [00:16:25] a goal and then I’ve achieved that goal, you know, go to dental school, do perio, have a baby? [00:16:30] But now I’m done. So I don’t know what the next step is, but it’s good to, like, [00:16:35] I’m going to actually relax and my friends and family don’t believe me. They’re like, hey, there’ll be something [00:16:40] else, but I’m going to take a break. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So look, the the the [00:16:45] upside of being this person is very obvious, isn’t it? Yeah. [00:16:50] The downside of it constantly putting pressure on yourself.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes [00:16:55] you’re right. And it’s quite regimented, isn’t it? Um. I’m always doing something, [00:17:00] but I can’t sit still.

Payman Langroudi: But you, like, guilt ridden if you’re not achieving something. [00:17:05]

Payvand Menhadji: I don’t think so. I think I like the challenge. Yeah, I think [00:17:10] that’s what motivates me. I just think, like, especially if somebody says, oh, you can’t do that. And [00:17:15] this at the same time, I’m like, hold my drink, you know.

Payman Langroudi: No, I had I [00:17:20] had no idea on this pod. And I made my daughter listen to that pod. [00:17:25]

Payvand Menhadji: I mean, she’s amazing.

Payman Langroudi: Because the way I said to my daughter, just count how many times she was [00:17:30] too young at that point to really take it seriously. Yeah, but I but I made a little game for her. So just [00:17:35] count how many times she said, that’s really fun. Yeah. And she’d say stuff like, oh, you know, it was like [00:17:40] seven days a week. But it was really fun. I was really enjoying whatever it was.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:17:45]

Payman Langroudi: What an outlook she’s got.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. I mean, she’s juggling so many hats. Um, her [00:17:50] practice, her kids, her. No, I think she’s an absolute powerhouse. [00:17:55] I’m not like Reena. She’s in another league. Um, yeah. [00:18:00] She’s amazing.

Payman Langroudi: Do you think you’ll end up in your own practice the way she’s done it?

Payvand Menhadji: No. [00:18:05] I think so. My husband wants to buy a practice where hopefully [00:18:10] things will work out soon.

Payman Langroudi: It’s an endodontist.

Payvand Menhadji: No special interest. Um, [00:18:15] if we couldn’t have two crazy specialists. Too much work. Yeah. And also, like, financial [00:18:20] commitment. Um. Bless him, he supported me a lot as well. Um, so [00:18:25] hopefully he’ll have his practice. Um, he has a partner as well, so [00:18:30] that they can do their own thing. I just want to be good at my craft. I’m not in it for like the. [00:18:35]

Payman Langroudi: Do they have a practice?

Payvand Menhadji: They’re getting one. Hopefully things will work out. Yeah. Next year. Um, [00:18:40] but yeah, I just want to be good at what I do and hopefully yeah, maybe work there, but [00:18:45] maybe continue at the other practices I work at. I just want to be the person who [00:18:50] people refer really hard stuff to because they’re like, actually, I don’t know what to do. That’s [00:18:55] gangster.

Payman Langroudi: Has it started already? I mean, do you have a referring base of Dental? [00:19:00]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: How does that happen? How does like how does the evolution of, you know, not being someone [00:19:05] people refer to. Yeah. And then turn into being someone people think of to refer to.

Payvand Menhadji: Which is really nice [00:19:10] actually. Yeah. I think people talk as well. Um, people talk. So you’ve got [00:19:15] to be careful what you do to your patients. It’s such a small world. Nurses talk [00:19:20] as well. Yeah. You know, I work with so many different nurses and hygienists and you [00:19:25] got to you got to keep keep a good impression to everybody because everyone knows everyone. [00:19:30] You know, that. Um, but I think referrals started just by friends [00:19:35] first. You know, I’ve got loads of mates who are dentists, and then Instagram has kind of blown [00:19:40] up for me as well. People see your work and then they reach out.

Payman Langroudi: You’re getting a lot of patients from Instagram. [00:19:45] Yeah that’s nice.

Payvand Menhadji: From dentists though.

Payman Langroudi: From dentists.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Because [00:19:50] my aim is to appeal to dentists, not to patients. Right. Yeah. No. You know, patients are like, I’ve [00:19:55] got gum disease. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: As a specialist, your customer is the dentist. Exactly [00:20:00] right.

Payvand Menhadji: It’s a hard line not to be like. You want to be professional, but [00:20:05] not cringe. I think it’s difficult.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: On social media, you know.

Payman Langroudi: So what [00:20:10] would you say is the difference? I mean, I just had the previous guy as an orthodontist asking me, what’s the difference between [00:20:15] a good periodontist and a periodontist?

Payvand Menhadji: Um, I [00:20:20] think the problem in the UK is a lot of dentists think perio [00:20:25] is really boring and it’s just scaling, right? Gum gardening. But it’s a surgical speciality. [00:20:30] And in other countries in Europe and America and stuff, they [00:20:35] see us as like the best surgeons. But in the UK, because of our training, well, [00:20:40] I think my training was very good actually, because we had some great consultants, [00:20:45] etc. but like it’s just changing that stigma and then showing dentists [00:20:50] like actually this is what we can do. Um, it’s not just cleaning teeth. [00:20:55] I really want to step away from that, actually. Like, I just of course it’s important, but when you [00:21:00] work with such good hygienists as well, you know, you can delegate work and then they send [00:21:05] you work back and you work as a really nice team.

Payman Langroudi: So what’s the answer to my question?

Payvand Menhadji: I’ve [00:21:10] got a baby brain, haven’t I?

Payman Langroudi: Difference between a good and a great periodontist. [00:21:15] So those surgical skills.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I think great periodontists are surgical skills. [00:21:20] Not being afraid of anything. And good treatment planning.

Payman Langroudi: And you said you’re [00:21:25] kind of area of interest is sort of that mucogingival grafting.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, so [00:21:30] tell me about that. I mean, there’s a lot of it. There’s a lot more need for [00:21:35] that than I realised, actually.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. I mean, most of the time it is an elective procedure. [00:21:40] Yeah. Um, you know, patients aren’t going to die if they don’t have it, and the teeth aren’t, [00:21:45] you know, most of the time going to fall out. But, um, maybe it’s because I’m in this [00:21:50] world so much, but I’m seeing so much more of it now. Yeah. Um. So. Yeah. [00:21:55] Gum. Recession surgery. There’s so many different types of ways, um, you know, [00:22:00] tunnelling, coronally, advanced flaps, etc., etc.. So I just think it’s so meticulous [00:22:05] and can be very stressful, actually. I just [00:22:10] love being in that moment. For me, it’s like meditation, honestly.

Payman Langroudi: Go on. What’s like a the [00:22:15] key to it?

Payvand Menhadji: The key to it is, you [00:22:20] know, diagnosis is really important. So, you know, if you understand like the [00:22:25] area the defect really well then you know which surgical technique to [00:22:30] use. I think that’s what’s critical, because sometimes you might do something that, you [00:22:35] know, you didn’t diagnose right and it might, you know, be a shit show.

Payman Langroudi: What do you do? Do you get like a cbct or [00:22:40] something to literally see every bit of it?

Payvand Menhadji: No, it’s more like understanding, [00:22:45] like your limitations. So you can’t grow all the um, so for example, we’ve [00:22:50] got RT one and two and three defects. Do you remember the Miller’s classification? So there’s [00:22:55] a new one.

Payman Langroudi: Oh yes.

Payvand Menhadji: Well it’s not that new 2011. We call it chiro. [00:23:00] So it’s knowing like okay the bone has been lost. We can only grow the gum back [00:23:05] to the level of the bone. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Oh I see.

Payvand Menhadji: I see stuff like that. Um, and then managing patients expectations [00:23:10] from the outset, um, these things are really critical to getting a good result. [00:23:15]

Payman Langroudi: And traditional perio patients, you know, with [00:23:20] them I always think of like, you know, the the patient [00:23:25] changing their behaviour is like 90% of the battle, right?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, [00:23:30] I think the as specialists, we’re lucky because when they’ve come and [00:23:35] kind of paid for a console their game, you know, because somebody already [00:23:40] the dentist has done the soft sell and then I’ve done the hard sell, you know. So [00:23:45] I think most of the time conversion rate is like, I don’t know, nine out of ten. You know, most [00:23:50] people are willing to put in the work and the effort to fix their problem. You know, they’ve [00:23:55] come to that consultation. So I don’t find I’m spending too much time, um, [00:24:00] trying to change behaviour. They’re they’re almost ready. Like the hygienists and dentists have done [00:24:05] an excellent job. And it’s just.

Payman Langroudi: I guess by the time it’s gotten to you, they’ve already taken care of that.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, [00:24:10] exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: Which is a blessing, really, because.

Payman Langroudi: I had a periodontist [00:24:15] that I used to refer to when I was dentist. And, you know, the great thing about him was like, for instance, my, [00:24:20] my kind of referral would be I want to stick a bridge. Yeah, but [00:24:25] this recession.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And I’m not sure whether these teeth can take it or not.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes, [00:24:30] exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Something like that. That would be the classic. The classic. Right. But the great thing about him [00:24:35] is he would send the patient back with a full treatment plan. Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: Restorative.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Even [00:24:40] the other side. Yeah. Like. And the patient would go, like I’m thinking, will he or won’t [00:24:45] he go ahead with this bridge. Will I, will I be able to and come back with two other crowns and all that?

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely. [00:24:50]

Payman Langroudi: And that’s because he was good at restorative. And I don’t know if you ever came.

Payvand Menhadji: I have heard of him. Yes. [00:24:55] He was at guy’s. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, I think one of my implant consultants [00:25:00] works with him. Care of Andy?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s right, that’s right, that’s [00:25:05] right.

Payvand Menhadji: Um, yeah, exactly. So, you know, our exams are restorative as [00:25:10] well. So if you give back the dentist, more work to do. Yeah. [00:25:15] They’re going to keep referring to you.

Payman Langroudi: And the patients. Like going to respect your opinion [00:25:20] more than the dentist because you’re the together. You’re the clever specialist, right? So, like, [00:25:25] you know what I mean? That’s. That’s the position you’re in.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, so, no, I [00:25:30] think it’s that is a really good point. And we do definitely do that. We get more work for the dentist, [00:25:35] um, whether they like it or not. Really? Yeah. [00:25:40]

Payman Langroudi: Have you come across patients where, um. I mean, I mean, there must these [00:25:45] must be the ones you come across where for no reason, you can’t see why it’s not working. [00:25:50] Perio treatment isn’t working. It goes down. I kind of we kind of blame genetics. Right. Yeah. [00:25:55]

Payvand Menhadji: It’s, I think, to be honest, with good perio treatment. [00:26:00] Because now what we do is. Yeah, we do. Step one is kind of risk factors [00:26:05] supragingival cleaning. Step two is the nonsurgical phase. So we know we’ll [00:26:10] have residual pockets. So the studies say we have about 74% residual pockets on [00:26:15] average. So we’ve resolved 74%. So there’s some remaining. And then we [00:26:20] enter the surgical phase. So if you know, you could either do non-surgical [00:26:25] again, but if you do the surgical phase, then you’re eliminating those pockets and then you’ve [00:26:30] made the patient stable. So it’s never the case of.

Payman Langroudi: Something that [00:26:35] runs away.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly. Which I think at Liverpool when I was a student, [00:26:40] I thought, oh, we’re just going round in circles. I used to make up my pocket charts [00:26:45] and like, really hate perio, but now I’ve realised, you know, you can stabilise [00:26:50] a perio patient and that is the whole point. So if you do it properly, you know. Yeah, [00:26:55] we’re not curing them but they’re stabilised. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Let’s talk implants [00:27:00] from the peri periodontists perspective. So you must as a periodontist you must bring something [00:27:05] to that. Right, to that, to that discussion. I mean yeah. Are we, are we, are we talking sort of in [00:27:10] the anterior zone. You’re managing the soft, the pink so that it all looks natural, [00:27:15] better than the next guy who’s not a periodontist who doesn’t, you know.

Payvand Menhadji: I mean, I have.

Payman Langroudi: To get better. I mean. [00:27:20]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I have to be honest. I’m still a baby specialist, I think. Anterior zone [00:27:25] is. I think the more you know, the more you know your limitations. [00:27:30] And I think a lot of gdp’s no disrespect to GDPs. You know, they’re happy [00:27:35] to place loads of implants in the anterior zone. They don’t think of any hard or soft tissue grafting [00:27:40] and it looks shit. Um, but, you know, we we pick our cases [00:27:45] so carefully, and if it’s out of my scope, you know, I’ll team up with somebody like a [00:27:50] mentor or I’ll refer on because I don’t think I’m kind of good enough to do that yet. [00:27:55] Um, anterior zone is very complicated. Yeah. Um, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And at the higher [00:28:00] level. Right. I mean, where you’ve got patients paying loads of money, it’s got to be right.

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely. [00:28:05] High smile line. You know, thin gingiva. Yeah. You got to do something about [00:28:10] it.

Payman Langroudi: In that situation. Would you handle that right now yourself or you wouldn’t you refer refer. [00:28:15]

Payvand Menhadji: I’m definitely not there yet in terms of implants, anterior zone simple implants, [00:28:20] back teeth, etc. for sure. My plan is after maternity [00:28:25] leave to really take that on. Our training at guy’s was was good, but [00:28:30] it wasn’t. I think we need more experience, you know? [00:28:35]

Payman Langroudi: Implant experience.

Payvand Menhadji: Implant experience. Yeah, we we placed a lot. [00:28:40] But it’s it’s just there’s so much to it. It’s a whole nother discipline in my opinion. [00:28:45] So to say I’m amazing at it would be a lie. You know, I’ve got a lot to learn.

Payman Langroudi: Do [00:28:50] you plan to do you plan to move in that direction specifically?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. I want my work to be [00:28:55] 50%, 50% implants. I think that’s what would make me happy. I want [00:29:00] to kind of stop the non-surgical side.

Payman Langroudi: Well, I find implantology really is an all or [00:29:05] nothing kind of thing.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So and it goes on and [00:29:10] on and on. It’s like. It’s not like. It’s just like it keeps evolving. Exactly.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And [00:29:15] like I say, the more you learn, the more you realise. Bloody hell, there’s so much to know. But [00:29:20] when people do, you know these weekend courses, you just think what on earth [00:29:25] like?

Payman Langroudi: I guess it’s the beginning of the journey sometimes.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah. But I think maybe [00:29:30] because I’ve been down this academic specialist route, [00:29:35] I’m less kind of confident to just get [00:29:40] stuck in. But I think I pick everything carefully. I’m more risk averse, I [00:29:45] guess. I only perform like a surgery if I know I’m going to execute it really well. [00:29:50] You know what I mean?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: But yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You know, the first time you do anything [00:29:55] new, you’re not going to perform it really well, are you? Yeah, but.

Payvand Menhadji: You have, like, plan B and C maybe your [00:30:00] mentor there. Right. Yeah. Whereas some people, I think they just go in blind. Implant in [00:30:05] the sinus.

Payman Langroudi: Sometimes the best dentist though. Yeah. Because they figure it out like they [00:30:10] figured out differently to you, you know. Yeah. You’re right.

Payvand Menhadji: You’re right, you’re right. And some people, [00:30:15] you know, in my class, people say I’m quite ballsy. Like, I’m the, like, crazy one. And I’m [00:30:20] thinking GDPs are way crazier than I am, you know?

Payman Langroudi: Do you end up in sort of [00:30:25] the medico legal world as well?

Payvand Menhadji: Do I?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Not. Not personally. [00:30:30] What do you mean, as an expert?

Payvand Menhadji: No, I’m not.

Payman Langroudi: Doing any of.

Payvand Menhadji: That. No, I’m not into that. No, [00:30:35] I hate reading.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Um, lots [00:30:40] of. Yeah, lots of implant dentists can tend to do that, actually. I wonder whether it’s because [00:30:45] they’ve had, like, a case and then they end up doing.

Payman Langroudi: I think some people think [00:30:50] it’s easy money compared to, like, you know, spending your time sticking stuff in patients.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Maybe I’d [00:30:55] rather have the day off, to be honest.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. But and I think there’s a lot of litigation.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:31:00] Of course. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: There’s lots of work.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly, exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Um, [00:31:05] it’s one of those. It’s one of those things that, like, I don’t know, I don’t know. I [00:31:10] haven’t looked into it enough, but I guess there’s a lot of period Neglect?

Payvand Menhadji: Yes, [00:31:15] but luckily I’m on the other side of that. Right? Yeah, because I’m helping and [00:31:20] treating those patients. But I think yeah GDP is bless them.

Payman Langroudi: Sometimes, sometimes forget [00:31:25] to do pocket charts.

Payvand Menhadji: Or. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah exactly. [00:31:30]

Payman Langroudi: I think I think it’s not, it’s not the most like litigious bit of dentistry.

Payvand Menhadji: It’s, it’s [00:31:35] pretty high up there. Pretty high. I haven’t checked the stats recently but I think went to a BDA lecture [00:31:40] a couple years back and it was one of the highest.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, it’s like third or fourth or something.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:31:45] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You can imagine RCTs are going to be problematic. Yeah. You can imagine. [00:31:50] You can imagine implants, ortho you know like expectation management [00:31:55] side of things. Um, now my kids have been through ortho I kind of realised you [00:32:00] become super picky, man. As the patient, you become super [00:32:05] picky.

Payvand Menhadji: This is a little bit wonky.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, because it’s almost like this. These kids been through it for two years and [00:32:10] they’re going to pull it off and then that’s it. That’s you haven’t got a chance. And the weird thing is, the moment they take it off, you [00:32:15] don’t even bother with that ever again. You don’t think about it. It’s like some little corner that was really pissing you off. Yeah. [00:32:20] You just completely forget all about it. It’s so true.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I actually had braces [00:32:25] when I was younger and then braces again at dental school because, you know, you’re around. [00:32:30] Yeah. Relapse. And you as a dentist, you want to have nice teeth, right? And you realise [00:32:35] it’s like a hairdresser. You have to have good hair. And I had, um, fixed braces [00:32:40] for two years at Liverpool. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So you work now in five different practices? [00:32:45] Yeah. And I’m sure you’ve worked in a bunch of other practices as well.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I have.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a question [00:32:50] I kind of ask specialists because they’ve got a good insight into this. What [00:32:55] lessons have you learned about business management practice management [00:33:00] from being exposed to so many different practices? Because even the best ones [00:33:05] do things differently to each other.

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely. I think one of the best practices [00:33:10] I work at, out. Um. It’s just so well organised. You know, they have [00:33:15] probably more staff than they need, but it’s it’s costing. But then that’s [00:33:20] reflected, I suppose, in the prices. But it makes the clinicians and the patient journey [00:33:25] just so slick.

Payman Langroudi: I just think there’s not enough humans in dental practices generally.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes. [00:33:30] But you know they can hire more. But it’s a cost isn’t it? It’s a [00:33:35] yeah. Like in.

Payman Langroudi: Private dentistry.

Payvand Menhadji: Right.

Payman Langroudi: You can make up that.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:33:40]

Payman Langroudi: Quite easily. You can make up the cost of a nurse for a day.

Payvand Menhadji: I agree.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but what I’m my reflection [00:33:45] on it is you walk into a room.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Or a IV? These [00:33:50] aren’t high, expensive restaurants. Right. There’s a lot of humans. There’s a lot of humans. [00:33:55] There’s someone greeting you at the door. There’s someone else taking you to your table. There’s a third person coming in. Wine person. Whatever. [00:34:00] Yeah, there’s a lot of people there’s in dentistry. We seem to really have the bare minimum. [00:34:05]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So this place has more people, more humans.

Payvand Menhadji: More humans is important, number one. Yeah. Um, [00:34:10] I think I mean, one of these practices, we’ve got somebody who’s on, [00:34:15] you know, we’ve got two people on reception, and there’s one person working from home who [00:34:20] answering calls, answering calls. But just any time you message them, they will just sort out [00:34:25] whatever you need. You know, I’ll just be like, can you do X, Y, and Z for these appointments next week? And [00:34:30] it’s done in a minute, you know.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s just so you’re saying you’re saying not to forget that someone can sit at [00:34:35] home and do a bunch of stuff.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, exactly. Work remotely as well. And I guess, you know, if you’re a mother [00:34:40] as well, you want to work part time. That’s such a great job.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a good insight.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Yeah, [00:34:45] yeah. Remote working. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Anymore?

Payvand Menhadji: Anymore? Let me think. Um. [00:34:50] Yeah. More nurses for sure. Pay your nurses properly if you find a good nurse. Especially [00:34:55] these surgical nurses are. They’re just amazing. They’re gold. And it’s really [00:35:00] funny because I end up seeing them at the same practices. Like there’s a handful in [00:35:05] London that kind of work in all the right places, and you end up seeing them again and again. And yeah, [00:35:10] if we can keep those around. Brilliant. Just appreciate [00:35:15] them. Um, but I think more people, good nurses who?

Payman Langroudi: Any of them. If you [00:35:20] come across a practice where, um, marketing’s been amazing.

Payvand Menhadji: So [00:35:25] some of my practices, they spend so much money on that kind of stuff.

Payman Langroudi: It’s the opposite.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. And [00:35:30] I’m looking at it, and I’m thinking, what’s actually bringing in the patients? I don’t think it’s the marketing. [00:35:35] Um, I think it’s.

Payman Langroudi: Word of mouth.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Word of mouth is [00:35:40] number one. Always. Um, absolutely. But it’s tricky, isn’t it? I [00:35:45] mean, I’m not a practice owner. I think it’s really challenging, but they spend so much on marketing. [00:35:50]

Payman Langroudi: So there’s something you’re kind of. You’re saying I wouldn’t if you’re lesson [00:35:55] learnt is too much money’s being spent on marketing. Yeah. And what perhaps you’re [00:36:00] saying, like, you could push that resource into customer care or whatever.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Or like, sometimes [00:36:05] I think, um, especially as a referral centre. If you’ve got lots of specialists, [00:36:10] it’s good to hold things like CPD evenings, etc. study days, [00:36:15] get the local GP’s around, look after them, give them good food and drinks, um, [00:36:20] make a community and that’s going to bring in more patients.

Payman Langroudi: Have you been around [00:36:25] long enough for people? Someone stopped referring to you.

Payvand Menhadji: Stop referring to me.

Payman Langroudi: Because [00:36:30] I’ve noticed. I’ve noticed that the specialists really they have real pain about that one [00:36:35] when that happens. And the best it happens to the best.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s I mean, it’s early days [00:36:40] for me. It hasn’t happened yet. I haven’t I don’t think I’ve pissed anyone off yet.

Payman Langroudi: There’s a churn rate. Yeah. [00:36:45] There’s a churn rate of customers in every business. Yeah. In your business. Right. The customers are [00:36:50] dentists. There will be a churn rate. And that’s why it’s one of the hardest things about being a specialist is you.

Payvand Menhadji: Break [00:36:55] my heart.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, well, not not only the, the the sort of that emotional side of it, you [00:37:00] constantly have to get more dentists to refer to you. Yeah. Because there is a constant churn. [00:37:05]

Payvand Menhadji: Yes, exactly.

Payman Langroudi: By the way, people move around, people sell their practices. And one [00:37:10] thing I’ve noticed with specialists is sometimes they’re overreliant on 1 or 2 referrers. [00:37:15]

Payvand Menhadji: That’s, you know, I can see that in my work. Um, I mean, luckily, the practice [00:37:20] kind of the practice is, um, give me so many [00:37:25] patients, naturally, you know, they’re in-house, but the external referrals, you know, it’s [00:37:30] it’s the same few people usually, who are just really keeping you busy. [00:37:35]

Payman Langroudi: So imagine that you’re like, imagine 1 or 2.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:37:40]

Payman Langroudi: I lost. Suddenly it changes the whole, you know, economics number one. It does. But but [00:37:45] also I’ve noticed specialists get hurt. Yeah. And by the way, I get it right. I’m [00:37:50] hurt when someone leaves enlightened. It’s. I feel like it’s my my baby. Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: Of [00:37:55] course. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It does. I do get it. Yeah. But you haven’t. You haven’t [00:38:00] gone far enough in your journey to come across that particular pain point.

Payvand Menhadji: I’ll let you know when someone breaks [00:38:05] my heart. Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah I know. I know you haven’t had one of these for a long time. [00:38:10] Yeah, but what would you do if you had half a day off?

Payvand Menhadji: And actually, I [00:38:15] had one on Thursday. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: No expectations.

Payvand Menhadji: No expectations. Because. [00:38:20] Because I’m getting quite big now. I mean, the principles are taking care of me.

Payman Langroudi: You weren’t [00:38:25] big.

Payvand Menhadji: Ah. What was the question again?

Payman Langroudi: What would you do if you had a time off? If you had time to yourself. [00:38:30]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I’m going to. I’m going to have a facial. I’m going to get my nails done. Yeah. Self-care [00:38:35] stuff. Shopping.

Payman Langroudi: Shopping.

Payvand Menhadji: I’m not going to sit at home, basically, but I’m going to go out and look after [00:38:40] myself.

Payman Langroudi: But so you said you said you live in Battersea. Yeah. [00:38:45] Have you been to that thing? The power station thing?

Payvand Menhadji: Of course. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I’m [00:38:50] there all the time, though. I don’t even like shopping. Yeah, but it’s cool there.

Payvand Menhadji: It’s cool, isn’t [00:38:55] it? You’ve got nice shops. I love Battersea Park. You’ll see me on the weekend, you know. Oh, yeah. [00:39:00] Um, but, yeah, it’s yes, it’s a lovely neck of the woods, I love it, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:39:05] going forward, do you see yourself? Just. Is this it? Is this. Is this the way you’re going to be. [00:39:10]

Payvand Menhadji: I think.

Payman Langroudi: What’s your next goal?

Payvand Menhadji: I’m going to take it. Not not not take a step back. [00:39:15] But I want to see what my husband does next, to be honest. You know, he’s a dentist, etc. he’s [00:39:20] going to start the practice. I’m going to be a mum. And do you know where.

Payman Langroudi: The practice is yet or not?

Payvand Menhadji: It’ll [00:39:25] be south west somewhere. We don’t know yet. Um, but now I’m excited for him [00:39:30] because it’s all been about me, you know, being a specialist, blah, blah blah. So [00:39:35] it’s time to, like, back off a bit. So because we were in the same year at [00:39:40] university as well. So um, and then I think afterwards after [00:39:45] mat leave, my plan is to, yeah, get really stuck in with more difficult implant [00:39:50] work and work on those skills. We’re never stopping learning, right? Yeah. I mean, [00:39:55] I told you one of my biggest mentors is Amit Patel. He’s like [00:40:00] 50 odd And his place. He wouldn’t like me saying that. Probably he’s [00:40:05] placing zygomatic implants. Now he goes to trips to Brazil.

Payman Langroudi: Still learning.

Payvand Menhadji: He’s still learning. [00:40:10] And I’m like, why are you bothering? You know, with zygotes? Why? You know, why are you doing that? And he’s [00:40:15] like, because it’s cool. Like you just want to level up.

Payman Langroudi: So do you [00:40:20] see yourself going to that.

Payvand Menhadji: At this moment? No. Maybe. Never [00:40:25] say never. Yeah. Um. Never say never, [00:40:30] but I don’t I don’t know.

Payman Langroudi: Why do you think it is? There aren’t enough women in [00:40:35] surgery and implants and all that.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, it’s like a boys thing, isn’t it? We always say it’s an old boys [00:40:40] club. The, um. It could be because of maternity and stuff. You know, [00:40:45] people, women have kids, and then they just decide, oh, I’m making enough money part time. [00:40:50] I don’t really have the time to dedicate to more courses. And learning [00:40:55] could be that, um, maybe women are a bit more risk averse, [00:41:00] unfortunately. Um, but no, it shouldn’t be. And actually, through [00:41:05] the API, I’ve realised there are so much more women. Yeah, it is changing. I [00:41:10] mean, we’ve got the next, um, members forum coming up and, you know, we’ve [00:41:15] got lots of female speakers. You know, they do these things intentionally. Yeah. Um, but it makes [00:41:20] a difference. You know, last year I was watching, you know, lots of women. And then this year I’m going to [00:41:25] be speaking, and I feel like I’ve just graduated. Um, but it’s really nice.

Payman Langroudi: Are you speaking [00:41:30] at the full on event or.

Payvand Menhadji: I need to.

Payman Langroudi: Make a.

Payvand Menhadji: Presentation. No, the full on one.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:41:35] Um.

Payman Langroudi: So it’s. What’s it on?

Payvand Menhadji: It’s on gum grafting. [00:41:40]

Payman Langroudi: Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Around implants.

Payvand Menhadji: Round implants and teeth.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:41:45] let’s talk. Peri implantitis. Is it like the time bomb? People say.

Payvand Menhadji: Um, [00:41:50] I think it’s. Listen, everything’s about prevention, [00:41:55] right? So I always use the analogy. An implant is like a Ferrari in the mouth. [00:42:00] You need a good garage and you need more frequent mots. I say that to every patient and [00:42:05] then they’re like, oh, okay, but everyone can have them. Perio patients can have them. [00:42:10] Prevention is key. Once it happens, it’s really easy [00:42:15] now for me to put my perio hat on and see like why it’s happened. Lack of keratinised [00:42:20] tissue and cleansable, you know, poor placement cement. [00:42:25] Um, and I think if you can correct those factors and [00:42:30] then kind of try to stabilise the disease, it can be okay. But if you just kind of clean the implant, not [00:42:35] correct why it’s happened, it’s going to still remain a problem.

Payman Langroudi: So whether [00:42:40] or not you can correct it. Yeah. It depends on the particular situation. [00:42:45]

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly. Diagnosis is key. Right.

Payman Langroudi: I guess it’s the same with teeth as [00:42:50] well, right?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Or is there something about periimplantitis is different to teeth? I mean, in that.

Payvand Menhadji: Sense, it’s more aggressive, [00:42:55] right?

Payman Langroudi: Is it, is it.

Payvand Menhadji: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Like, bone loss around implants is so much quicker [00:43:00] than teeth. Okay, so, yeah, we have to act faster. Um, and [00:43:05] it can go undetected for so long. Right. If a dentist isn’t probing the area or taking, you [00:43:10] know, regular ads, you might just not know because the patient has no symptoms. Um, [00:43:15] so, yeah, it’s important to do.

Payman Langroudi: Do you get mobile implants that you have to then [00:43:20] remove and then I guess, figure out why that happened and not make that mistake the [00:43:25] second time. Is that what.

Payvand Menhadji: No, it’s it’s interesting. Even if an implant has about 5 to [00:43:30] 10% of bone, it can be quite solid. Oh, really? It’s really rare.

Payman Langroudi: Is that why you mean it’s not undetected? [00:43:35]

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly. It’s really rare for an implant to be actually mobile. The implant itself, [00:43:40] the crown can be mobile, and then you just screw it back in. Hopefully. Yeah. Um, but [00:43:45] it’s rare for the implant to be mobile, so at that stage, it’s hopeless. It’s got to come out, [00:43:50] and then you can gbr redo an implant if the case suits. [00:43:55] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And have you got two bone graft with [00:44:00] four implants? Is that what you mean?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Bone grafts. Um, you can use [00:44:05] xenografts. Allografts. People use mixtures of things. So. Yeah. Guided [00:44:10] bone regeneration. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And soft tissue [00:44:15] as well. Sometimes it just, you know, it’s all on alveolar mucosa and that’s why everything’s failed. Because [00:44:20] it’s like a plaque slide going into the implant neck. Whereas you need that thick [00:44:25] collar of keratinised tissue sometimes.

Payman Langroudi: Let’s get to the darker part okay. [00:44:30] The pod should have like a music. Um, [00:44:35] what’s what if what comes to mind as the darkest day in the journey? [00:44:40] Or some of them so far?

Payvand Menhadji: Do you mean, um, in [00:44:45] my training or whatever you want? I’ve had some dark days, [00:44:50] my friend. Have you? Yeah. Period. This year of final year [00:44:55] has been really tough.

Payman Langroudi: Really? So you reckon from your whole biochem, dentistry [00:45:00] and specialist journey, this year was the hardest year.

Payvand Menhadji: This year was [00:45:05] the hardest year of my life. Yeah, it was just we say [00:45:10] exams like. And people just imagine us just studying. You’ve got non stop clinics [00:45:15] on top. The clinics don’t stop at the hospital. So you’re still treating patients like you would normally [00:45:20] because they don’t.

Payman Langroudi: Referral patients to the hospital.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah exactly. Because it’s an NHS [00:45:25] service. Right. And I had to beg my consultants to take two days [00:45:30] of study leave extra because, you know, I didn’t have enough days. Apparently [00:45:35] you only get ten a year or something. Um, to go to the Europa Conference. You know, [00:45:40] I had to, like, beg them. So I think you have so many commitments and you’re juggling [00:45:45] so many things, and you just sometimes think, bloody hell, like, I just need a break. Um, [00:45:50] but.

Payman Langroudi: Did you have a moment? Like, was it? I lost it. I mean, sometimes these moments [00:45:55] are like the straw that breaks the camel’s back. But did you have concurrent things? It [00:46:00] was your whole.

Payvand Menhadji: First trimester, I think. Yeah. I just couldn’t handle it. Every [00:46:05] day I was, like, trying to get through the next day. Feeling sick. Had so [00:46:10] much to do. Work was piling up. Practices, messaging you. What about this patient? When are [00:46:15] you back? What are you doing? Um. Your family as well. You know, you’ve got expectations [00:46:20] of being like a daughter, a best friend, a wife, etc.. You’re pulled from all different [00:46:25] sides, but you got through it, you know? [00:46:30] And that’s the thing. There’s always a really difficult period. And then it will come to an [00:46:35] end. And then you can look back and say, God, I won’t do that again.

Payman Langroudi: That sort of [00:46:40] idea of wanting it all. Yeah. Do you accept it’s impossible to have it all?

Payvand Menhadji: Um. [00:46:45]

Payman Langroudi: I mean, it depends what all is, right? Yeah, exactly. [00:46:50]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I’ve got everything touch with that I’ve wanted. I’m looking at someone like Rena. [00:46:55] She looks like she’s got it all, you know?

Payman Langroudi: So it depends what you call.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, it depends what you call. [00:47:00] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Because someone could say, oh, I want it all, I want kids, I want to be a specialist. [00:47:05] I want 130 practices as well.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: That’s quite you know what I mean. Yeah, [00:47:10] yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. You’ve got to be realistic as well.

Payman Langroudi: There is someone like that.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Really? [00:47:15] Of course. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean. Yeah. You can, you can laugh at it [00:47:20] and someone else will laugh at you. Yeah. And say wow, look at her and [00:47:25] laugh at her. Yeah. Look up to you and say, look at her. Got a kid on the way just did that. [00:47:30]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but my question where it’s going is this notion of if you [00:47:35] accept that, you can’t have it all.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: What gives like what aspect [00:47:40] gives? Like you just mentioned their family.

Payvand Menhadji: Something’s got to give, right? [00:47:45]

Payman Langroudi: Often it’s yourself, isn’t it? Your own health and your own mental health sometimes.

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely. For me, [00:47:50] it was a relationship. Yes. They call it. You know, they call these courses the divorce course.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:47:55]

Payvand Menhadji: Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, my relationship, we’ve had ups [00:48:00] and downs. We’re fine, you know, but there are periods where I probably drive him crazy. [00:48:05] Um, just because you’re stressed, right? And, [00:48:10] I mean, I used to be quite fit. I was always going to the gym, and then that took a real [00:48:15] turn. Um, I’ve got the excuse of being pregnant now. I’m just scared of going back [00:48:20] to the gym. Um, something’s got to give. You’re absolutely right. And usually it is your own health, [00:48:25] isn’t it?

Payman Langroudi: You need that conversation to be had more, you know, because the other side of it, of [00:48:30] I want it all. And why can’t I have it all? Yeah, that seems to have been a conversation. Like people, you hear that [00:48:35] narrative quite a lot. Yeah. But the reality end of the of that equation [00:48:40] that okay. I mean, listen, by the way that I know, um, I [00:48:45] had Anushka from the mirror here. She’s got. She’s got a naughty [00:48:50] practices.

Payvand Menhadji: The purple one.

Payman Langroudi: Three children.

Payvand Menhadji: Wow. [00:48:55]

Payman Langroudi: Um, you know, there’s a lot, lot going on, but but, you know, even she was telling me she’s she’s [00:49:00] never really travelled.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes, exactly.

Payman Langroudi: You know, and she’s she’s sunk. You don’t get to 40 [00:49:05] practices by spending the money. Yeah. You get the 40 practice by sinking every penny back in.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes. [00:49:10]

Payman Langroudi: And on her anniversary, she had to get up at 4 a.m. [00:49:15] to make sure that it didn’t affect her husband and children to go through papers. [00:49:20] She was buying seven practices that day. You know.

Payvand Menhadji: At the.

Payman Langroudi: Same time. At the same time.

Payvand Menhadji: What [00:49:25] a lady.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Um, but my point is, is that okay, you could say. Oh, Anoushka’s got it all. Yeah. [00:49:30] But, yeah. What a nightmare. Exactly. Yeah, [00:49:35] yeah. If you want to look at it that.

Payvand Menhadji: Way to us. Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but the conversation needs to [00:49:40] be had. You know, it sounds so good and easy and.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, you’re totally. People actually [00:49:45] have said to me, I’ve had people come up to me in the hospital junior years. Hey, you’ve [00:49:50] got everything. How do you manage everything? How do you do this? How do you do that? And I’m [00:49:55] thinking, I’m so stressed. And, you know, I’ve ended up in this position. [00:50:00] I’m fortunate, but it’s not happened yet. It’s not easy. People [00:50:05] see the final product.

Payman Langroudi: That’s gone into.

Payvand Menhadji: It. Yeah. Bloody hell. Like so much work, people see the end [00:50:10] result and they think are accomplished. Whatever. But it’s hard work. [00:50:15] Nothing comes easy.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, look, if what we said was I lost hair. Really? We [00:50:20] said we said this, this particular journey. If you want to go backwards, you know, maybe from [00:50:25] when you were 15. Yeah. Yeah. That’s 18, 20 years ago.

Payvand Menhadji: It’s mad, isn’t [00:50:30] it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: 20 years you’ve been working at this and you’re just at the beginning. Yeah. You’re [00:50:35] the most junior specialist in the country right now. Absolutely. Yeah, exactly. [00:50:40] It’s huge man. Yeah. It’s huge. You know, people have to listen to that [00:50:45] conversation and say, yeah, this, this massive sacrifice in achievement. Yeah. [00:50:50] How do you get over this? I’m having real trouble with this notion of contentment [00:50:55] and progress.

Payvand Menhadji: Mhm.

Payman Langroudi: Especially from our [00:51:00] culture. Yeah. Like if you say if you’re someone I don’t know what it is in forest, but if someone comes [00:51:05] up to you and says how are you, how’s your business? And I say, I’m really content. It’s almost like, [00:51:10] what’s wrong with them? Like, why would he be content? Yeah. Like, it’s almost a bad thing to be. Yeah. [00:51:15] And I. And I get it right because it’s almost on a string. Contentment and progress can’t like, [00:51:20] you know, they’re in opposition to each other.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Like, if you’re content, why would you progress?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:51:25] But you, as this ambitious person, and you seem very like. And like. I know your delivery [00:51:30] is. You seem like happy go lucky.

Payvand Menhadji: I’m so happy go lucky.

Payman Langroudi: How [00:51:35] have you squared this circle?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. You’re right. I am very happy. Go lucky. I think I’m, [00:51:40] I forget very easily, which is a good thing. You [00:51:45] know, like, I don’t dwell on the negativity and negative things for too long. [00:51:50]

Payman Langroudi: And the past.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes, exactly. I think that is a good skill I have, and I think that’s what keeps [00:51:55] me going. Like something will piss me off. Right. And yeah, I’ll be annoyed, but [00:52:00] not for long. And then I just think, whatever. I’m just upsetting myself, and I just. I move on easy [00:52:05] and I move on from people and problems very easily.

Payman Langroudi: I [00:52:10] don’t get emotionally attached to to negative stuff.

Payvand Menhadji: No, no, no, exactly.

Payman Langroudi: But [00:52:15] how about the power of now thing? I mean, are you are you in the future all the time? Is your is your head constantly thinking three [00:52:20] years ahead?

Payvand Menhadji: Maybe. You know, I’ve not thought about that. I do always [00:52:25] I’m a to do list person. I like having a list and [00:52:30] you’re going to laugh at me now. I have like a few like, life goals as well. Like [00:52:35] what I want to achieve. By what age? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Go on, go on. Share share share. 1 or 2 of those? [00:52:40]

Payvand Menhadji: No. I mean.

Payman Langroudi: Well. Are you superstitious about them as well?

Payvand Menhadji: No, no, no. It’s just, [00:52:45] you know, you set yourself targets like.

Payman Langroudi: First kid at 34.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, that kind of [00:52:50] thing. Or like, a big mansion by this age. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What age were [00:52:55] you thinking?

Payvand Menhadji: That’s why I didn’t disclose.

Payman Langroudi: Which country did you think you’re going to be in to have this big mansion? [00:53:00]

Payvand Menhadji: No. I know you can only.

Payvand Menhadji: Dream, right? But I think [00:53:05] it’s.

Payvand Menhadji: Good to have some.

Payman Langroudi: Big mansions of dentists, generally outside London. But my [00:53:10] goodness, some dentists where they get themselves these gigantic pieces of land.

Payvand Menhadji: Just [00:53:15] give me, like, decades.

Payman Langroudi: But then sometimes £1 million buys a big thing.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:53:20]

Payvand Menhadji: It depends. Exactly.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Okay. Big mansion. Sounds obvious. Anything [00:53:25] else? Anything like. Not so obvious.

Payvand Menhadji: Um. I mean, I’m fortunate, actually. I made sure [00:53:30] even during perio, I did a lot of travelling. I’ve done. Yeah, yeah. Every month, even if [00:53:35] it’s a little trip, at least it’s the weekend. Um, so I’m not, like, super thirsty [00:53:40] for travel. I’d love to have some longer holidays, but it’s okay. The main [00:53:45] ones are like, yeah, I wanted to start a family and it’s just the next step. [00:53:50] I want a big house basically.

Payman Langroudi: But honestly, my honest, I don’t want to give up any of the jobs [00:53:55] you’ve got. But my honest advice is three days is ample.

Payvand Menhadji: You think so?

Payman Langroudi: Three days is a lot.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, right.

Payman Langroudi: I [00:54:00] don’t know when you’re doing five days. Three days doesn’t.

Payvand Menhadji: Seem like.

Payman Langroudi: Three days is a lot. It’s a career.

Payvand Menhadji: Because [00:54:05] one day it’s just minimum admin, you know, letters, blah, blah, blah. But we got AI [00:54:10] now.

Payman Langroudi: No, but I’m saying three days is a lot of dentistry at a high level as well. You’re talking about, [00:54:15] you know, you want to be the kind of person who gets referred complicated stuff.

Payvand Menhadji: No you’re.

Payvand Menhadji: Right.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, [00:54:20] yeah. Surgeon.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve talked to some implant guys the night before. Big case. [00:54:25] They they go to bed early and.

Payvand Menhadji: Oh, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: This sort of move.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: Yes. Like, so [00:54:30] what I’m saying is three days of.

Payvand Menhadji: That.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: Is a lot. It’s like it’s like four days for [00:54:35] a standard but five days for someone.

Payvand Menhadji: More experienced than me. Yeah. I take your advice. You’re [00:54:40] right. I’m just thinking I can do it all right now, Victoria.

Payman Langroudi: And say you’re.

Payvand Menhadji: Leaving. Yeah. Okay. [00:54:45]

Payman Langroudi: So the practices you’re at Victoria [00:54:50] and Ariane.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Which is the. What’s it called? Health.

Payvand Menhadji: That’s the health society. One place. Beautiful [00:54:55] place there. So lovely as well.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. The vibe. The vibe in that place.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. They’re [00:55:00] just cool. They’re cool, they’re cool.

Payman Langroudi: They can’t help themselves.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Go on.

Payvand Menhadji: Um. Kills. [00:55:05] Hap kills. Love that practice. Very cool. He’s just. He’s [00:55:10] just so relaxed. I look up to him a lot.

Payman Langroudi: He knows a lot as well.

Payvand Menhadji: He [00:55:15] is an exceptional dentist. I always knew he was good, but I didn’t realise until I started working. [00:55:20]

Payman Langroudi: Exceptional for many years now. You know, it’s like.

Payvand Menhadji: Such a he’s like a god. Yeah, I really like [00:55:25] him.

Payman Langroudi: And Jaz Gulati works there too.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, jazz has come back. So he worked there before and now he’s come back. Um, [00:55:30] I work in Q as well. Um, Jaguar. He went to [00:55:35] Liverpool, actually. Okay. Um, really nice practice. Private practice.

Payman Langroudi: Private [00:55:40] practice.

Payvand Menhadji: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Yeah. Really happy at those. And then. [00:55:45]

Payman Langroudi: Serene in serene and Knightsbridge.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Like there there’s [00:55:50] lots of Arabs. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Like people like tourism. Like like health tourism. [00:55:55] They’ve come to London for the for the dentistry.

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely. And sapphires contacts really. [00:56:00] You know, she um I think she has like a bit of an international presence as well now, but [00:56:05] maybe in the Arab world, um, so people will come to her and then she’ll send [00:56:10] me her cases to stabilise or like pre or post ortho, which is really nice. [00:56:15] Um, you get like.

Payman Langroudi: Is that the most expensive one of the funds you go to?

Payvand Menhadji: No, I think [00:56:20] S1 Dental is the Westminster.

Payman Langroudi: Excellent.

Payvand Menhadji: It’s full of [00:56:25] like lords and ladies.

Payman Langroudi: It’s been there a long time.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, it’s 20 years plus and it’s right [00:56:30] by the Houses of Parliament. It’s beautiful. Yeah, I think that one’s the most expensive place. [00:56:35]

Payman Langroudi: So what does it cost to see you?

Payvand Menhadji: Um. A consult? Yeah, 250. [00:56:40] Yeah, for an.

Payman Langroudi: Hour. What does it cost for, like, mucogingival surgery? [00:56:45] Like, I know it depends on it.

Payvand Menhadji: Depends. Right. But, yeah, like.

Payman Langroudi: On average.

Payvand Menhadji: On [00:56:50] average, um, it totally varies. Like a grand to [00:56:55] two grand to three grand. You know, it depends how many teeth, how long it’s going to take.

Payman Langroudi: How [00:57:00] long does it take? I mean, isn’t it quite quick?

Payvand Menhadji: No, it depends what you’re doing. Right. And maybe I’m quite [00:57:05] slow still, but if you’re doing like an area from like 2 to 6, right. [00:57:10] That’s a lot. Yeah. And I would book two and a half, three hours for that.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:57:15] have you got to the point where you can tell how it’s going to like develop [00:57:20] mature as.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Of course you can tell before you start from what you said about the bone [00:57:25] levels.

Payvand Menhadji: Bone levels. It’s your suturing. It’s you’re suturing at the end is so key as well. Remember, [00:57:30] I’m just a baby specialist. I’m sure specialists will listen to me now and think. How many has she done? [00:57:35] Um, but I’m still learning a lot. But, yeah, the suturing will take me [00:57:40] the longest time. The easy part, and the most fun part is the cutting. Cutting. Five [00:57:45] minutes. Get that ready. Five minutes. Get the graph from the palette. The suturing at [00:57:50] the end is what.

Payman Langroudi: Makes the.

Payvand Menhadji: Different time. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Exactly. [00:57:55] What about that? Just being very fine. I mean, it’s interesting you ask. Yeah. [00:58:00] What’s the key to Implantology. And he said.

Payvand Menhadji: Oh did he. Yeah. For me it’s I think [00:58:05] what.

Payman Langroudi: About.

Payvand Menhadji: The suturing? Suturing? Just like positioning everything perfectly. Not taking [00:58:10] too long as well because you don’t want to damage the tissues.

Payman Langroudi: Traumatising not.

Payvand Menhadji: Traumatising. [00:58:15] You’re exactly using your really small 6 or 7 zero sutures. It’s hard, [00:58:20] you know. Um. What else? Keeping the tissues moist. [00:58:25] Just. Just positioning. Just doing a good job. You know, when you get back to an upper [00:58:30] six. Access is tricky, you know?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: Um, not having [00:58:35] tension on the flap. Primary closure, all these, like, you know, standard stuff. [00:58:40]

Payman Langroudi: You know what? I’ve noticed that the the difference between an expert and a not expert [00:58:45] is doing the basics absolutely right.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly.

Payman Langroudi: You know.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Not [00:58:50] missing.

Payvand Menhadji: A step.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Not not skipping any steps.

Payvand Menhadji: Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s so interesting how a lot [00:58:55] of our profession is around hacks and and and missing steps. Like, [00:59:00] like almost. You’re almost like on on some of the forums. It’s about what’s the best way to miss this step.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [00:59:05]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And whereas every time you go to an expert in any area, whichever and [00:59:10] you’re talking to them, you try and find out where’s the magic in this? Yeah. You’re so right. It’s not magic. It’s [00:59:15] do everything right without skipping any steps.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly. Every [00:59:20] time you do it. Yeah. So it becomes the norm, and you just. It’s like muscle memory, [00:59:25] right? Yeah. You’re so right.

Payman Langroudi: And, you know, it’s really good from the manufacturer perspective. Yeah. You’d [00:59:30] be amazed how few people read the instructions.

Payvand Menhadji: I don’t.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, you’d be amazed. [00:59:35] I’d say one 5% might read instructions.

Payvand Menhadji: I’m just thinking of enlighten [00:59:40] right now. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You know, sometimes the instructions are very specific. Very, very [00:59:45] specific. Like dry and wet and then dry again. You know, something like that. Yeah. And, you know, some [00:59:50] chemist has gone through like hell to figure out, you know, this bioactive glass, the way [00:59:55] this works. Yeah, yeah. You’re going to have to, like, you know, first dry it, then apply it, then leave it for [01:00:00] 30s. And then. Very rarely does anyone read that.

Payvand Menhadji: Why are we [01:00:05] like that? We’re lazy. We’re humans.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. By the way, I’m just saying, if I buy some thing, [01:00:10] I never read the instructions. Yeah, some speaker or something. Yeah, I [01:00:15] never read it, but it’s one of the reasons why we do like online training.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [01:00:20]

Payman Langroudi: You know, like an actual session of training.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly. Even with all this baby stuff, [01:00:25] you know, I’m. I can’t be bothered to sit down and read a book, but whereas, you know, these [01:00:30] NCT classes when someone’s telling me do this. That’s how I learned. Yeah, [01:00:35] I think that’s really important, actually. It makes it more interactive.

Payman Langroudi: What comes to mind if I say [01:00:40] errors?

Payvand Menhadji: Administrative errors. Cool. Yeah. [01:00:45] There was a period I was, I think, hands up. At the hospital, [01:00:50] I was quite lazy with my notes because you think you’re protected [01:00:55] as well in the hospital. You’ve got this, like.

Payman Langroudi: Cottonwool around you. Yeah, yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: But, [01:01:00] you know, things do get checked. And, you know, I would get flagged up. So, um, [01:01:05] now I’ve got some good solid templates, etc.. Um, I need to [01:01:10] get I want to use Dental tco. Do you use anything like that? [01:01:15]

Payman Langroudi: I don’t practice.

Payvand Menhadji: Oh, yeah. I didn’t know that, actually.

Payman Langroudi: I stopped 2012.

Payvand Menhadji: Fair [01:01:20] enough. You don’t need to know. Do you miss it?

Payman Langroudi: I miss people.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, but [01:01:25] you’ve got all this, you know, you’ve got the Dental Leaders podcast.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, it’s one of the reasons I [01:01:30] do it.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Brilliant.

Payman Langroudi: But, um. Yeah. No, but I know what you’re talking about. So something [01:01:35] like Dental. There’s a few of them is like karaoke.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, exactly. So I think you need to spend, [01:01:40] like, a good, solid day to learn it, and then you can use it, but, um. [01:01:45] Yeah. Notes. I’m, I’m, I’m not good on. So that’s my biggest kind [01:01:50] of error in terms of clinical error.

Payman Langroudi: What happened? What happened? You didn’t.

Payvand Menhadji: Oh, nothing [01:01:55] really. You just kind of.

Payman Langroudi: What was the event?

Payvand Menhadji: Um, you know, you just get a slap on the wrist and, [01:02:00] like.

Payman Langroudi: Your your boss.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Consultants. Like, for example, I was about to start [01:02:05] a surgery. I’ll never forget this. Actually about to start surgery. And, [01:02:10] um, because we got a new system. It’s called epic on the hospital, and [01:02:15] I just wasn’t getting the hang of it. I’m not very. I can do dentistry. I’m not good at computers. So [01:02:20] I’d done the consent form. Hand on heart. I’d done it. Patient was. Their patient was vouching [01:02:25] for me. Like, I know what I’m doing, I signed something last week. She told me [01:02:30] all the risks the consultants like, tell me the risks. And he’s like pain, bleeding, swelling, [01:02:35] infection. And, um, I just couldn’t find it on this bloody computer. [01:02:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it was just stuff like that I’d always get in trouble for, um, [01:02:45] you fill out, then you have to fill out another form, like a date form, and [01:02:50] then just keep saying sorry.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, I’m not gonna accept it. Sorry. I’m not gonna [01:02:55] accept that as your error. I like it, but not a lot.

Payvand Menhadji: Okay? [01:03:00] I haven’t had any major cock ups.

Payman Langroudi: There must have been other errors.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, I know, and [01:03:05] I’ve been thinking about it. I wish I had something really juicy to tell you. Like I made a patient bleed [01:03:10] to death, but I haven’t. No. Um. I [01:03:15] mean, my biggest fear. It’s not happened [01:03:20] to me. I hope it never happens to me. But you hear of people harvesting the graft from the palate [01:03:25] and then the nurse suctions it up.

Payman Langroudi: And they lose.

Payvand Menhadji: It and they lose it. And, [01:03:30] you know.

Payman Langroudi: Are you supposed to do that point?

Payvand Menhadji: Well, you you’re meant to say sorry and pray that you [01:03:35] can take it from the other side and the patient will let you. But it’s so sore. So then [01:03:40] the whole mouth is. So every time I’m working with anyone, I’m like, look, okay, [01:03:45] but we have to communicate properly.

Payman Langroudi: Complaint. One complaint in your career.

Payvand Menhadji: Hand on heart, I haven’t.

Payman Langroudi: Really. [01:03:50]

Payvand Menhadji: Let’s not jinx it.

Payman Langroudi: Really?

Payvand Menhadji: I want to say people like me. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: That’s amazing [01:03:55] man. Yeah, that’s. How many years have you been a dentist?

Payvand Menhadji: Since 2018. Seven. [01:04:00]

Payman Langroudi: That’s amazing man. Not a single complaint. All right.

Payvand Menhadji: I swear to God.

Payman Langroudi: Your [01:04:05] most difficult patient.

Payvand Menhadji: Difficult patient? It’s the ones I mean. I kind of [01:04:10] like it as well. They quiz me so much. So just the other. Just [01:04:15] the other week, I had somebody, um. You know, I wanted to take a tooth out. It was [01:04:20] what we call hopeless prognosis. No matter what kind of perio treatment we do, This tooth needs [01:04:25] to come out. And she was saying to me, look, I get that, but I don’t want to have a [01:04:30] foreign body placed in me like an implant. And then we talked about bridges [01:04:35] for ages, implants for ages, and then the whole consult I [01:04:40] hour. I didn’t even look in her mouth. We were just speaking about this situation. [01:04:45] And, you know, she was very articulate, very intelligent, and she wanted me to like [01:04:50] quote, papers and.

Payman Langroudi: Oh.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. And my nurse is looking at me like, are you okay? [01:04:55] You know, are you tired? And then you finish and you just think I felt [01:05:00] very challenged. But luckily, you know, patients on board. But they’re the difficult patients [01:05:05] for me, all the questioning, it’s exhausting.

Payman Langroudi: And American.

Payvand Menhadji: She [01:05:10] was English actually.

Payman Langroudi: I know, I know dentist. Yeah. Who? Um, [01:05:15] the patient got rejected by the Eastman mid treatment because [01:05:20] he was so difficult.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And she took him on. Really? [01:05:25] Yeah. And, uh, the, you know, he wanted pulse oximeter on [01:05:30] his hand throughout treatment and all sorts of suctions all over the place [01:05:35] because of the amalgam. Uh, yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I think [01:05:40] she charged him. I don’t want to get it wrong, but it was. It was [01:05:45] in the £1,500 for a mo. Right. And and it took [01:05:50] all day.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: I mean, that’s the thing with a difficult patient as well, [01:05:55] right? You just kind of up your fee. And so if.

Payman Langroudi: She said it wasn’t worth it, by.

Payvand Menhadji: The way.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, [01:06:00] she said it was a terrible day. Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: Oh, my God, that is awful. But [01:06:05] that that is a, um, a trick that somebody had told me. You know, if you don’t want to see the patient [01:06:10] up your fee and then if you are seeing them, at least you’re getting rewarded for it. [01:06:15] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: But in that situation, when someone’s saying, quote me a paper, what are you saying?

Payvand Menhadji: Well, [01:06:20] luckily, you know, I’ve just finished my finals, so. Yeah. Yeah. So everything’s fresh at the moment. But you [01:06:25] know me in a few years time. Well, I’ll be hopefully quoting those old papers, [01:06:30] but it’s hard to keep up.

Payman Langroudi: And I think, you know, a couple of things, a couple of things that young dentists need to [01:06:35] be aware of that they’re not so much, in my experience, is that it’s okay to say, I don’t know.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, [01:06:40] yeah, yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: When you’re young, you feel like if you say that you’re going to be found out. [01:06:45]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, you’re right. But it’s this whole, like, specialist hat now. Like as a baby specialist, people [01:06:50] are still paying the big bucks to see you and for the treatment, so. [01:06:55]

Payman Langroudi: I know, but look, I, I’ve had a bunch of people. I’m paying too much money for their, like, [01:07:00] very specialist legal knowledge for the sake of the argument. Yeah, yeah. And [01:07:05] when I asked a question, the guy says, I don’t know. My respect goes up for him. Not [01:07:10] down.

Payvand Menhadji: At least he’s not lying.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. This is not making it up on the spot.

Payvand Menhadji: You know, it’s funny you say [01:07:15] that because this same patient, she then started talking about amalgam. And that’s not my [01:07:20] expertise. I can blag a little bit. But I did actually say, I don’t know because she [01:07:25] was asking more questions and we moved on, which was good.

Payman Langroudi: I respect for that. For that professional goes up first. [01:07:30] Yeah. Because. Because he knows what he doesn’t know. Yeah, exactly. You’re not.

Payvand Menhadji: Bullshitting [01:07:35] the.

Payman Langroudi: Patient. Bullshitting. Yeah, yeah. Um, but then then and I [01:07:40] spoke to Andrew Darwin about this as well. The telling the patient the things that can [01:07:45] go wrong. Yeah. In a again, young dentists think if I do [01:07:50] that, it’s going to put the patient off me being their their dentist.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Whereas [01:07:55] from the patient perspective again you think at least the guy knows what could [01:08:00] go wrong.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And yeah, as clinicians we’ve been in situations where I’ve been in situations [01:08:05] where family members about to have a ten hour operation.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s important that we [01:08:10] know what could go wrong.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly.

Payman Langroudi: In that situation. You don’t want just reassurance that everything’s going to be all [01:08:15] right.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. And I think, you know, with grafting, Going back to grafting, I always [01:08:20] tell them, like, you know, you over stress, the pain, you don’t know how they’re [01:08:25] going to respond. But I’m like.

Payman Langroudi: Under-promise kind of thing.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, exactly. I’m like, it’s going to hurt so much. [01:08:30] You know? I’m really sorry. You’re going to hate me on day 4 or 5. Then we’ll be friends again in [01:08:35] two weeks. But I and then they come back and they’re like, it really wasn’t that bad. But, you know, I really stress [01:08:40] that you’re going to have so much pain because some people do. Um, but I make sure that’s when my, um, [01:08:45] my letters are really good as well with, you know, all the risks. You have to do it right. [01:08:50]

Payman Langroudi: As a perio trainee, you’ve had all the restorative training as well. So [01:08:55] is part of that course doing like full mouth rehabs and that sort of thing or [01:09:00] doesn’t it get.

Payvand Menhadji: No. Unfortunately not. We kind of work with our colleagues. So [01:09:05] yeah. Together. Together. Yeah. Like we all do the crown lengthening but they’ll do all the like the [01:09:10] crowns, bridges, etc.. Um, we can plan together, but more [01:09:15] of the full mouth rehabs, it’s more prosto.

Payman Langroudi: And so are you doing much drilling of teeth at all?

Payvand Menhadji: No [01:09:20] no, no. I was, but now I’m not. It’s just it’s just. Yeah, exactly. [01:09:25] Just cutting and stitching. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What are [01:09:30] you very bad at?

Payvand Menhadji: Um.

Payman Langroudi: Often notes.

Payvand Menhadji: Saying [01:09:35] no.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really?

Payvand Menhadji: People pleaser. I’m a people pleaser. That’s why I’ve got so many jobs. [01:09:40] I hate letting people down. That’s my. [01:09:45] That’s my downfall. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a terrible people pleasing. It’s a wonderful person [01:09:50] to be around.

Payvand Menhadji: I’m getting better at it. But that, truthfully, that [01:09:55] is. Yeah. I’m a people pleaser.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a wonderful person to be around, isn’t it? Everyone thinks, oh, this person is so amazing. [01:10:00]

Payvand Menhadji: Happy go lucky.

Payman Langroudi: So amazing. You know, like, if you’re saying yes to everything. Yeah. Saying yes [01:10:05] to everything your parents are saying. Yes. Everything. Your husband saying yes. Everything your kids saying.

Payvand Menhadji: Then you burn out.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Yes. To everything. [01:10:10] Your work saying. Yeah. And the only thing you’re not taking care of is yourself.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. That’s me. [01:10:15]

Payman Langroudi: It’s great to be around that person. Yeah, people put that person on a pedestal, right?

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [01:10:20]

Payman Langroudi: Um.

Payvand Menhadji: And it’s something always gives, right? So for ages, I have lots [01:10:25] of non Dental friends that keep me sane, basically. And they were just like, hey, like, we’ve not [01:10:30] seen you in ages. You know, we’re not a priority anymore. All these kind of things. And I’m just thinking, [01:10:35] you bastards, I’m just trying to survive. Um, but [01:10:40] yeah, I think saying no, um, I need to work on it. I’m [01:10:45] aware of it, though. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: A couple of quick round things.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What comes [01:10:50] to your mind if I say, what’s the best lecture you’ve been to?

Payvand Menhadji: So we were talking [01:10:55] about this, um, the Europa conferences. I like the Glastonbury of Perio, and [01:11:00] they really are though. And it’s every three years, [01:11:05] it’s like 10,000 people and 10,000. Oh it’s massive.

Payman Langroudi: How many [01:11:10] screens, how many, how many stages?

Payvand Menhadji: So yeah, maybe like 3 or 4 big stages at [01:11:15] the same time, and then loads of little rooms as well. It’s it’s it’s huge.

Payman Langroudi: I [01:11:20] didn’t I had no idea.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah yeah yeah it’s massive. It’s so fun. And it’s like [01:11:25] all the big names of Perrier.

Payman Langroudi: Oh yeah. If it’s every three years, it’s like.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: The [01:11:30] World Cup final.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly. And everyone’s there and you know, the meals [01:11:35] out, the drinks. So much fun. Um, the best speaker I’ve seen speak. [01:11:40] I think it changes all the time, but it’s the. Kelly. Have you heard of him? Giovanni? Kelly? [01:11:45]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Payvand Menhadji: He’s he’s a character. He’s like the mucogingival God or [01:11:50] self proclaimed. But he is self proclaimed. I hope he’s not listening. Um, but he, [01:11:55] um, he’s just such a personality.

Payman Langroudi: Like a great.

Payvand Menhadji: Man. Yeah. I mean, the Italians in [01:12:00] period, full stop. But he’s he always wears a scarf. We caught him like vaping on stage [01:12:05] once. Vaping in a perio conference. Can you imagine? But, you [01:12:10] know, it’s just it’s iconic. And it’s just the [01:12:15] way he talks. Like, he’ll he’ll he’ll speak really quietly and then he’ll start shouting. And [01:12:20] he wakes you up and he’s come up with so many of the techniques that we use today. Oh, really? So I [01:12:25] think yeah, he’s like every time I see him, he’s quite special for me.

Payman Langroudi: Like [01:12:30] a, like a hero worship thing.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s nice. Nice. When you start meeting your [01:12:35] heroes, it’s a nice thing. Yeah, it can be. It can be nice. Um, what about. What about if I said to you, what’s your most [01:12:40] important sort of resource like call it. It could be a book. It could be a Instagram [01:12:45] page. It could be a website.

Payvand Menhadji: Um, there’s a specialist oral [01:12:50] surgeon, Bijan Shokoohi. No, he is an amazing [01:12:55] implant and oral surgeon. And he’s.

Payman Langroudi: In the US.

Payvand Menhadji: In the UK, and he’s [01:13:00] made an Instagram fairly recently, maybe in the past six months or so. And it’s taken off. [01:13:05] It’s so educational.

Payman Langroudi: What’s it.

Payvand Menhadji: Called? Um, it’s just his name. Yeah. Doctor Bijan [01:13:10] Shokoohi. I think I’m pronouncing his name right. It’s so good. Really? [01:13:15] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I’ll check it out.

Payvand Menhadji: He taught me it, guys, to take out teeth. Um, him and his [01:13:20] wife, actually. But his page, I’ll share it with you. Is. Is phenomenal. And I don’t think many [01:13:25] people know about it, but, I mean, he’s getting traction now, but it’s so [01:13:30] good. Excellent. That’s the best page. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Final questions. Fantasy [01:13:35] dinner party. Three guests, dead [01:13:40] or alive. Who are you having?

Payvand Menhadji: Um. I [01:13:45] so I’d want, like, um. So I’m really into, like, [01:13:50] house music.

Payman Langroudi: Oh.

Payvand Menhadji: Me too. Nice. So, like, I go to Ibiza every year, that kind [01:13:55] of thing. Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Not any more.

Payvand Menhadji: And I just.

Payman Langroudi: I.

Payvand Menhadji: Went pregnant. My baby went [01:14:00] to a club. Excellent. Um. And I think. Yeah. Don’t [01:14:05] don’t ask me which DJ, but it would be cool to have like, a bunch of them, like high flying [01:14:10] deejays together in a room, having a chat with them. Um, also, maybe [01:14:15] like the.

Payman Langroudi: Old DJ yourself.

Payvand Menhadji: I’m not very good. I’m not like Victoria. I have, I have, I have decks, [01:14:20] but really? Yeah. Yeah, it’s actually a maternity leave project.

Payman Langroudi: Excellent, excellent, [01:14:25] excellent.

Payvand Menhadji: Um, but also. So that’s like the fun side. I’d [01:14:30] love to like. I would have loved to have meet the Shah of Iran. Yeah, that would be quite cool. Have [01:14:35] a chat.

Payman Langroudi: See, it’s not the first time he’s come up.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. Really? Yeah. What [01:14:40] the hell happened, man? You know, um. And. Yeah, maybe, [01:14:45] like my granddad, I never met. Something like that. Oh, yeah?

Payman Langroudi: Who’s that? Your dad’s dad. [01:14:50]

Payvand Menhadji: Dad’s dad? Yeah. He died giving blood, actually.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, he died way before you were born. [01:14:55]

Payvand Menhadji: Before I was born. Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Oh I.

Payvand Menhadji: See. Sounds like a cool guy. Yeah? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Why? What stories [01:15:00] have you heard about him?

Payvand Menhadji: Just like, you know, because I see myself in [01:15:05] my dad’s personality, and my dad always says he was like his dad. And I just it would [01:15:10] be cool to see, like where it came from, you know, the craziness.

Payman Langroudi: You don’t come across [01:15:15] as crazy to me, man. That’s good. All right, final question. Is [01:15:20] it like a deathbed question?

Payvand Menhadji: Okay.

Payman Langroudi: It’s weird for someone as young as you, but you [01:15:25] had to give three pieces of advice.

Payvand Menhadji: Three pieces of advice? Um, [01:15:30] don’t hold grudges. We were talking about this. Get over the negative [01:15:35] things really easily. Just don’t. Don’t care about things that don’t actually matter. [01:15:40] Like, if it won’t matter tomorrow, who cares? Um. So, yeah, try not to be too emotional [01:15:45] as well. Um, and just enjoy life. She [01:15:50] says working really hard. But yeah, it’s important.

Payman Langroudi: You’ve got a big smile on your face the whole time.

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. [01:15:55] I have fun doing everything. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I really hope that just keeps on going. Right. [01:16:00] I was talking to my mom about this, and she was saying life in the end breaks. You know, I [01:16:05] was saying to my mom, why, why do you look so sad? Yeah. Yesterday I was like, why do [01:16:10] you say what’s wrong? And she said, life in the end breaks you. And she’s.

Payvand Menhadji: Tired. Hungry.

Payman Langroudi: Like [01:16:15] maybe it does. Maybe it does. Maybe, you know, like you’re young, right? [01:16:20]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah. You’re right.

Payman Langroudi: But I hope it doesn’t. That’s that’s that’s [01:16:25] right. How would you like to be remembered?

Payvand Menhadji: I want to be remembered as [01:16:30] a really professional, talented specialist, [01:16:35] but, like, also very humble and just, you know, very approachable. And I [01:16:40] never want to let anything get to my head, you know what I mean? Like, no ego. That’s [01:16:45] how I want to be remembered.

Payman Langroudi: Difficult though difficult, though, because once you become this very talented, [01:16:50] the plaudits come in, right? Yeah. And, you know.

Payvand Menhadji: I [01:16:55] hope to never change. Like who I.

Payman Langroudi: Am, Giovanni. You know, like.

Payvand Menhadji: Oh, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: People start hero worshipping you. [01:17:00]

Payvand Menhadji: Yeah, that’s true, isn’t it?

Payman Langroudi: It’s going to be if you’re, if you’re that that talented. But but you’re [01:17:05] right. That pulling off, you know, dancing on that needle.

Payvand Menhadji: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: Is beautiful.

Payvand Menhadji: Exactly. [01:17:10] That’s what I would aim for. Yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s been a massive pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much [01:17:15] for coming in.

Payvand Menhadji: Thank you so.

Payman Langroudi: Much. 30 weeks pregnant. Yeah. Well done. Thank you. Thank [01:17:20] you.

[VOICE]: This is Dental Leaders, the [01:17:25] podcast where you get to go one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. [01:17:30] Your hosts, Payman Langroudi [01:17:35] and Prav Solanki.

Prav Solanki: Thanks for listening, guys. If you got [01:17:40] this far, you must have listened to the whole thing. And just a huge thank you both from me and pay for [01:17:45] actually sticking through and listening to what we’ve had to say and what our guest has had to say, because [01:17:50] I’m assuming you got some value out of it.

Payman Langroudi: If you did get some value out of it, think about subscribing. [01:17:55] And if you would share this with a friend who you think might get some value out [01:18:00] of it too. Thank you so so, so much for listening. Thanks.

Prav Solanki: And don’t forget our six star rating.

Prav Solanki: So when people message me and say, hey, what vitamins are you taking? What supplements are you taking? What’s [00:00:05] the diet that you’re following? You look like you’re making progress. This is not a one size fits all right? I [00:00:10] do my blood markers every three months. I get a comprehensive panel of my urea’s [00:00:15] electrolytes using these, you know, hormone panels, full lipid profile, [00:00:20] including lipoproteins and stuff like that. And I adjust the supplementation, [00:00:25] my diet and everything according to that. I make some changes. Three [00:00:30] months later, I retest and see what the impact is and then adjust things. What [00:00:35] works for me will not work for you.

[VOICE]: This [00:00:40] is Dental Leaders. The [00:00:45] podcast where you get to go one on one with emerging leaders in [00:00:50] dentistry. Your hosts [00:00:55] Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki.

Prav Solanki: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome [00:01:00] to my solo 2026 podcast [00:01:05] episode. Usually I record this around Christmas time early [00:01:10] New Year, so right at the beginning of January and just put together [00:01:15] my thoughts on what the last 12 months went like, what the next 12 months looks [00:01:20] like, and, um, just some general thoughts and feelings around conversations [00:01:25] that I’ve been having with clients and customers. I guess Christmas was a busy [00:01:30] time for me. We’d been travelling away on holiday just beforehand, and [00:01:35] then a lot of family time. Had a family member who was, um, hit [00:01:40] with ill health. Um, unfortunately. So during that time, it was it was [00:01:45] quite intense. And what I’ll say there was, there was a lot of back and forth. I don’t need [00:01:50] to really go into the details, but other than, you know, what you can take away from this is, [00:01:55] um, you think everything’s okay in life, right? You think that. [00:02:00] And look, it wasn’t my health or someone so immediate, [00:02:05] but it was a family member close to us. And, um, I think [00:02:10] you end up in a situation where you think life’s swimming along, no financial issues, [00:02:15] no health issues, and then all of a sudden, from A to B, things [00:02:20] can flip overnight for all of you. Um, and [00:02:25] my wife always says this to me. She always says, look, life’s really good at the moment. [00:02:30] And all that makes me think is that there’s something else around the corner [00:02:35] that’s not so good.

Prav Solanki: Because really, really good doesn’t last forever. And she’s [00:02:40] always said this to me and we say, why? Why are you such a pessimist? And her view on [00:02:45] this is not to think of the good times as negative, but but her view is [00:02:50] make the most of the good times because bad times are [00:02:55] around the corner, no matter how, how, how bad that is. Whether it’s, you know, if you count [00:03:00] bad times from, I don’t know, 50 to 100 and it’s 51, it’s still no [00:03:05] better than it is today, but it could be 99. Um, and so her view [00:03:10] has always been, look, whilst we are experiencing the good times, let’s make hay while the sun [00:03:15] shining. Right. Let’s, let’s really capitalise on those good times and be present and [00:03:20] absorb that. And I’ve been the guy who hasn’t really sat back [00:03:25] and appreciated that, but she has made me think about that deeply anyway. The good news is [00:03:30] that particular family member is bouncing back now and all is good. But [00:03:35] but my point is, over Christmas, it wasn’t necessarily the best Christmas that we’ve [00:03:40] had, but we still managed to spend a lot of family time together. Um, but I [00:03:45] didn’t get that. What I would call that Christmas window, that solo [00:03:50] time where I sit back and I reflect on the last 12 months and [00:03:55] what the next 12 months is looking like, and do a little bit of deep reflection and planning.

Prav Solanki: Just [00:04:00] haven’t had time to stop and do that and then slap bang straight into the new year. Um, [00:04:05] I think it’s just been as full steam ahead, [00:04:10] um, as possible. Um, but I have been thinking [00:04:15] about, well, what does 2026 look like for me and the business. [00:04:20] Um, and so I’m just going to talk through what I’ve been thinking [00:04:25] about and what my plan is for the next 12 months, some [00:04:30] of which some of you will resonate, some of which some of you will just not. And [00:04:35] there may be elements, um, that may be relevant for you, but for me, 2026 [00:04:40] is about prioritising health. And what I mean by that [00:04:45] is in terms of time and non-negotiables, very, very easy when you’re running a business, [00:04:50] when you have a family, when you’ve got duties in and around outside of [00:04:55] that, to sort of say to yourself, oh, I’ll just grab some junk food, I’ll eat some crap [00:05:00] or, um, I’ll skip this gym session. I won’t really, [00:05:05] um, train today. I’ll train tomorrow, or I’ll miss my cardio session [00:05:10] because I’ve already done my weight session this week and and it won’t really matter. [00:05:15] I think the mindset that I’ve approached this year in, and this was kicking in towards [00:05:20] the end of last year as well, is that I’m going to prioritise health above and beyond [00:05:25] everything else. And what I mean by that is above and beyond family, above and beyond my commitments [00:05:30] to my children, taking them to their classes, appointments, things like that and [00:05:35] above and beyond work.

Prav Solanki: Um, I think there’s a couple of reasons [00:05:40] for me looking at that. I think as I get older, I’m more cognisant of my [00:05:45] it’s quite sad to say this, quite, quite cognisant of my mortality, but I’m also [00:05:50] quite cognisant of how I feel within [00:05:55] myself as a person right? When I’m in good health, [00:06:00] when I’m cardiovascularly fit, when I’m strong. And it’s all relative, right? But [00:06:05] I’m talking about for myself. I feel bloody great. I feel great at work, I feel great around [00:06:10] my kids, etc., etc., right? And when I’m not in the peak of my [00:06:15] health, everything else is just that little bit less [00:06:20] powerful in my life. And so the decision I made this [00:06:25] time around is I put together a strength program [00:06:30] and a cardio program for myself, and with the help of one of my really close friends, a guy [00:06:35] called Danny Watson, who’s been on this podcast before. Ex-military guy. He’s [00:06:40] a dentist, ex CrossFit level one coach used to be my PT. So [00:06:45] Danny sat me down and we went through what my training program would look like [00:06:50] for this year. So I’ve put myself together a strength program and a [00:06:55] cardio program and then some mobility stuff. All of that is factored [00:07:00] in my diary.

Prav Solanki: Like a meeting or like an appointment with a client. So it’s non-negotiable. [00:07:05] But there have been events that have tried to take me away from that. Even [00:07:10] the so far this year, you know, 26th of January, um, there have been 2 or 3 training [00:07:15] sessions I could have made an excuse for. I could have said, you know what? I get this client [00:07:20] meeting in or I will, um, I’ll take my little one to [00:07:25] gymnastics because my wife can’t or whatever. Right. But this has been a complete non-negotiable [00:07:30] for me, and so far, so good health food wise. Eating really, really well. There’s [00:07:35] no such thing as the perfect diet. And it’s different things for different people, right? I’m going to be pushing out some more [00:07:40] health content, but I think what’s key here is you only need to [00:07:45] jump on Instagram or social media, or do a quick Google search and listen to some of [00:07:50] these experts. And it’ll be the carnivore diet, the keto diet, the the [00:07:55] low carb diet, the whatever, right? There’s so many different [00:08:00] variations of what is the perfect way to eat, what [00:08:05] I know is the perfect way to eat for me. And I’ve designed my [00:08:10] program around, first of all, my beliefs. So, um, and my way of living. Right? [00:08:15] So I’m vegetarian, not because I’m massively into animal rights or anything like that. [00:08:20] That that doesn’t drive me. It was a decision.

Prav Solanki: I grew up as a vegetarian. I started eating meat when [00:08:25] I was at university. Daughter came home from school one day and said, I want to be vegetarian and thought, [00:08:30] Crikey, here we go. I wonder why that is. So then I thought it was [00:08:35] a fad and me and my wife sat down and we were. We were like, you know, you get, you get the nutrition, you [00:08:40] get the protein from the meat, so on and so forth. And so we asked her, why do you want to be vegetarian? [00:08:45] And she said, do you know what, dad? Whenever I look at my plate and I see what’s on it, [00:08:50] I think very deeply about what that used to be in the life it used to have, and it deeply upsets [00:08:55] me. And we couldn’t argue with that. So we supported her. And, you know, a [00:09:00] decade or so later, probably even longer now. And when we supported her, the entire [00:09:05] family became vegetarian. Right. But with that comes its challenges, right. Getting good quality proteins in [00:09:10] getting the volume of protein that you need to maintain a certain level of muscle mass or [00:09:15] grow. And so I need to design my diet in and around that. [00:09:20] So it’s a protein heavy diet, fairly low carb I would say on the whole [00:09:25] I am in ketogenesis most of the time. Um, because that works for [00:09:30] me. But that’s not the right diet for everyone else.

Prav Solanki: So when people message me and say, hey, what vitamins [00:09:35] are you taking? What supplements are you taking? What’s the diet that you’re following? You look like you’re making progress. [00:09:40] This is not a one size fits all right? I do my blood markers. Every three months, [00:09:45] I get a comprehensive panel of my urea electrolytes using these, you know, hormone [00:09:50] panels, full lipid profile, including lipoproteins and stuff [00:09:55] like that. And I they adjust the supplementation, my diet and everything according [00:10:00] to that. I make some changes. Three months later I retest and see what [00:10:05] the impact is and then adjust things. What works for me will not work for you. And [00:10:10] so when people ask me for advice on social media, what are you taking here? What are you doing here? What’s [00:10:15] your training split like? What’s that? Um, doesn’t make sense because [00:10:20] this is right for me. At my age, with my genetics and with the way [00:10:25] my body responds to things. And it doesn’t mean you can pick that formula [00:10:30] up and do the same for you. And I think the same applies in business as [00:10:35] it does with health. And I think interestingly, you know, 18 [00:10:40] months ago I sold my baby, I sold my business the fresh to [00:10:45] a Giglio. And it was a really, really difficult decision for me to make. But it came at [00:10:50] the right time in my life. The financial benefits of that were right [00:10:55] for me at the right time.

Prav Solanki: And it’s not the first time I’ve sold a business. I have exited businesses [00:11:00] a couple of times, and the way I have thought about this and the [00:11:05] impact on our financial life, my workload, um, [00:11:10] all of the above really has been different at each stage of my [00:11:15] life and the way I’ve thought about things, and I’ll touch on that in a second. I always [00:11:20] used to say to people that I am unemployable, never had a real job. [00:11:25] I’ve never been employed, but it was very clear to me that the majority of the space [00:11:30] where I spend my time, which is in my agency, the fresh, is [00:11:35] where I was going to be in the future. But as an employee, after that transaction [00:11:40] went through approximately 18 months ago, Andy Sloan became [00:11:45] my new boss. I was an employee day, one day before the transaction. [00:11:50] I was the boss. I owned the show. I ran the place. Day two. It was no longer [00:11:55] me. I was no longer in charge and had to report to somebody and reach out [00:12:00] for decisions, even if it was just making tiny financial decisions. It just didn’t feel right anymore. It wasn’t [00:12:05] my business, right? Interestingly, it’s been great being an employee. It’s [00:12:10] been great having the pressure come off me. And yes, it’s been [00:12:15] great that I’ve had a substantial financial transaction that has put [00:12:20] me in a position where the way I think about things and think [00:12:25] about money and think about the future of my family has changed massively. [00:12:30]

Prav Solanki: But that concept of now letting go, I’m still in the business. I [00:12:35] have no ambitions and no desire to do anything else. You know, I [00:12:40] advise so many business owners, practices, people in and outside [00:12:45] of dentistry about sort of M&A activity, exiting, etc., etc. [00:12:50] and it’s time to think psychologically about it, right? When you sell your business, do you want to walk away forever and hand [00:12:55] the keys over. Step into the sunset and disappear. [00:13:00] What do you want to carry on running that business? Is that what motivates you? Or [00:13:05] have you got motivation to go again? Yeah. Fire up that engine. Get [00:13:10] your entrepreneurial spirit going and go again. At this moment in time, I’ve [00:13:15] got zero desire of starting anything new. It’s not because I’ve run out of energy. [00:13:20] It’s just at this stage in my life, I think I’m in a consolidation phase [00:13:25] where I actually want to consolidate and cash in whatever [00:13:30] time, whatever the luxury of time that exit process has brought me to [00:13:35] spend on my health and spend with my family under [00:13:40] the protection and stability of the business that I am currently involved [00:13:45] in. So that is where my head is at now. It doesn’t mean I’ll be there in six, [00:13:50] ten, 12 years time, but currently for the for the medium term, at least [00:13:55] for the next 4 or 5 years.

Prav Solanki: That’s where my headspace is at at the moment. Children are still young, [00:14:00] and rather than throwing myself into something new with the luxury of time that [00:14:05] I have now and the people that I’ve got around me to support me, I can say [00:14:10] I feel really privileged to be able to do what I want with my time. And at the moment, I think throwing [00:14:15] myself into work and a new business or a new venture or something like that isn’t something I’m interested [00:14:20] in. I’m interested in growing and building with my [00:14:25] current support team around me and whatever time I have left, which is a lot more than I used to have when [00:14:30] I was the sole business owner. I’m spending it with my kids and my wife, and that [00:14:35] for me is a massive, massive luxury. Um, having [00:14:40] sold the business, um, as well as having a new boss, Andy Sloan, I’ll say one thing about [00:14:45] him. He’s been the best boss I’ve ever had. And we joke about this because he’s. And [00:14:50] he’ll turn round to me and go, Prav. But I’m the only boss you’ve ever had. But you know what he’s done. He’s [00:14:55] left me alone. He supported me whenever I’ve needed it. And [00:15:00] he’s been there to challenge me when I thought I was right. And I probably wasn’t. [00:15:05] Or when I thought I was right and I was. But still there to challenge me.

Prav Solanki: And [00:15:10] the great thing about being involved with a business like a Giglio is I am surrounded [00:15:15] by a lot of people who are a lot smarter than me. And [00:15:20] that in itself is incredibly rewarding. I find it just inspiring [00:15:25] to be able to reach out to our CEO on WhatsApp, Ben Betts, and just [00:15:30] get some advice from him, or ask him to challenge me. Same with [00:15:35] Andy, same with, um, you know, other people within the business, whether it’s our [00:15:40] CTO or CFO and all these people in the C-suite who’ve been there, done it so many times. [00:15:45] I’m just hungry for knowledge, information and growth, personal growth. And [00:15:50] I feel like I’m surrounded by people in an environment that’s just really, really [00:15:55] healthy for my own growth. Part and parcel of my growth over the next. I think [00:16:00] 12 months is going to be a lot more of the stuff that I really, really [00:16:05] enjoy doing. So I love public speaking, I love educating, [00:16:10] and I love teaching and agility have supported me in that in terms of [00:16:15] helping me hire new people that have stepped into, let’s say, partially my [00:16:20] shoes. Right. Taking over some roles and responsibilities. Some of my existing team have stepped up. Just [00:16:25] made a new hire, a guy called Matt Ramsey who’s got massive agency experience, um, [00:16:30] has taken things to a new level. He just started after Christmas and I can see the changes [00:16:35] he’s making already, um, to the business, which has allowed me to sort [00:16:40] of step into a slightly different role within the business.

Prav Solanki: And that’s been great. [00:16:45] But once again, something I asked for and the Giglio fully supported me on this. I [00:16:50] think it’s really exciting at the moment that I’m part of a business that has got this [00:16:55] one ecosystem to support Dental businesses from, you know, [00:17:00] their HR team, management, compliance, marketing and [00:17:05] now also with the recent acquisition of PPD dental plans as well. [00:17:10] Crm systems are melting that whole ecosystem together. Um, just seeing how [00:17:15] the CTO team are embracing AI, melting these systems together [00:17:20] to create one ecosystem to support dental practices, education as well. It’s [00:17:25] great being part of that, great being on the inside. And I’m learning lots. [00:17:30] But going back to the public speaking piece, quite a lot of that this year. Um, [00:17:35] I’m being more picky about which speaking gigs I [00:17:40] accept. Um, and that’s primarily, I think, because I want [00:17:45] to accept those sort of talks or gigs where I’m at, where I’m actually putting out a lot more value, [00:17:50] or where I’m being challenged by what type of content to produce. [00:17:55] What type of delivery that the people who are hiring me want. And what [00:18:00] outcomes they want. Um, so I’ve got I’ve got some really, really, really great opportunities [00:18:05] coming up that are going to challenge me. And for me, I think that’s really important. [00:18:10]

Prav Solanki: This year I’ve also over the last sort of 3 or 4 months, [00:18:15] there’s something I’ve always done is and I’ve touched upon this earlier, is advising [00:18:20] a lot of clients on their end game or the exit process, [00:18:25] I think partially because I’ve been through it a few times. Dental practices a business I had beforehand [00:18:30] and now more recently, the agency. But actually also I [00:18:35] have seen numerous practices go through that process. I’ve helped numerous practices through [00:18:40] the due diligence process and advised them on that. I’ve got about four clients who are [00:18:45] going through a process right now, and I anticipate probably within the next 90 [00:18:50] days, they will have sold their business for various reasons. A lot [00:18:55] of a lot of practices are being approached now. There’s a new corporate on the market. I’ll touch base on that in a second, [00:19:00] but it’s now the right time to sell your dental practice. The [00:19:05] answer to that question is it depends. I get asked this a lot. Is it the right time? [00:19:10] Should I wait a couple of years until the multiples stabilise or go up? Should I [00:19:15] crank my Ebit up a little bit more, my net adjusted profit so that I can get more [00:19:20] out of the the other end? Um, and my answer to this question [00:19:25] is always the same. And it will always be the same. And the answer is it depends [00:19:30] and it depends on your circumstances.

Prav Solanki: So yes, [00:19:35] the market is definitely not as buoyant or as exciting [00:19:40] as it was when I sold my practice in the post-Covid boom, for example, [00:19:45] right, where there were multiple offers coming in, multiples were an all time [00:19:50] high. Um, there were various transactions going on in the marketplace, and it [00:19:55] really, really was a seller’s market. There’s not not as many corporates mopping up practices [00:20:00] at the moment. They’re being a little bit more selective. There’s different partnership models coming out. Multiples [00:20:05] are nowhere near what they used to be. So is now a good time to sell? Well, if [00:20:10] your overall goal and your overall aim is to maximise [00:20:15] your exit valuation over your lifetime and you have time on your side, the answer is [00:20:20] no. It’s not the best time to sell. But if your personal circumstances are such that [00:20:25] you’re getting towards the end of your career, you’ve had enough. You can’t [00:20:30] be. You know you’re stressed about the ongoing day to day management. You want to [00:20:35] step back. You want to realise some cash out of the business and hand over [00:20:40] the reins for some of it. You’ve just had enough. And it’s got to the point where that money equation [00:20:45] is not important enough, right? Different people have different circumstances. [00:20:50] So for the for the handful of practices that I’m advising at the moment, and helping them through that, [00:20:55] through this process now is definitely the perfect time for them to sell, [00:21:00] because what they’re doing is they’re buying themselves time, right.

Prav Solanki: And one [00:21:05] of the things I will tell you is this that time is probably one of the biggest luxuries [00:21:10] that you can have the older you get. Certainly I’ve realised, um, just [00:21:15] runs away from you. And the biggest lesson to me is actually from my children when [00:21:20] I think about this. But if selling your practice right now buys [00:21:25] you the time, buys you the freedom right now so that you’ve got freedom [00:21:30] of headspace. So you’ve got freedom of being able to do what you want, go where you want, wherever [00:21:35] you want, not having to deal with the finances on a Saturday or a Sunday, or [00:21:40] deal with calls because you’ve now got a HR department and step away for those things [00:21:45] and crystallise some of those gains at a lower tax rate [00:21:50] than you would if you were pulling that money out personally. Then go for [00:21:55] it. And there’s various bits of advice. I mean, if you’re thinking of selling your practice and your limited [00:22:00] company structure, I’m sure you know your accountants can advise you. There is a way in which you can look at [00:22:05] what you’re going to do with your money over the next 12 months to crystallise the net [00:22:10] gain in the most tax efficient way. Um, and those are the sort of conversations I’m having [00:22:15] with some practitioners at the moment. Interestingly, um, [00:22:20] a relatively new player on the market.

Prav Solanki: Um, and [00:22:25] by the way, I’ve got no affiliation or I’ve not even spoken to them to any great length, but [00:22:30] they’ve come on the market with a new model. Um, so they’re called de novo partners, [00:22:35] and it’s a really interesting model. So they come along and they say, look, calculate [00:22:40] your Ebit and we’ll give you a guaranteed multiple and we’ll give [00:22:45] you 70% upfront. Now over the next X number of years let’s call it five years. [00:22:50] You need to guarantee that Ebit. So this is a model. Here’s [00:22:55] a guarantee the net adjusted profit over the next five years. And what we mean by that is personally [00:23:00] guarantee it. So if the Ebit goes down pound for pound you’ve got to pay it back. [00:23:05] And that can be either paid back out of your associate agreement, or it can be paid back [00:23:10] out of your money that you’ve received or whatever. Right. But [00:23:15] what the model does is it offers the opportunity to crystallise, let’s say, 70% [00:23:20] at a reasonably high up. Well, it’s [00:23:25] not a great multiple, but but a reasonable multiple in current market conditions. But [00:23:30] then you’re locked in for, let’s say, five years, right. If you don’t hit those targets, you’re paying it back. [00:23:35] There’s no other model like it at the moment, right. So, you know, [00:23:40] is this the right thing for everyone? Absolutely not. There are certain clients I would say [00:23:45] don’t sign it.

Prav Solanki: And the reason for that is those particular clients want to sell and [00:23:50] walk away. That business model is not for those people, but if you’re in [00:23:55] it for the next 4 or 5 years and you’re confident you can either continue to grow or maintain your business, [00:24:00] it is definitely the right deal for you. And so when [00:24:05] thinking about is it the right time to sell? I think you’ve got to think about is it the right business [00:24:10] model for you moving forward. Imagine you end up in a partnership like this and [00:24:15] you have to guarantee an Ebit and all hell breaks loose and, [00:24:20] you know, performance drops. You lose the, you know, the wind in your sails or whatever. [00:24:25] Right? As that performance drops, you’re having to pay back out of your own pocket [00:24:30] over the next five years. And it’s personally guaranteed. Not a great situation to be [00:24:35] in if your heart is not in it. So it’s a really complex situation [00:24:40] when you’re selling your practice and your business, and a lot to think about. [00:24:45] To be honest, I honestly wish I’d have had this advice 15 [00:24:50] years ago. I wish somebody had sat down with me and explained this whole process. [00:24:55] And that brings me to my next point. 12 months ago, myself and [00:25:00] Dev Patel started a course start scale exit. I’d given up [00:25:05] coaching. Um, so as I’d exited from my business, I was doing a lot [00:25:10] of 1 to 1 business coaching.

Prav Solanki: Right? But very, very time intensive and heavy. And [00:25:15] that’s something I’ve stopped doing now. I don’t do any 1 to 1 business coaching, but I really love [00:25:20] putting out value and knowledge into the ecosystem where I can help others practice owners. [00:25:25] So sat over dinner one day with Dev Patel just over 12 [00:25:30] months ago and he said, look, why don’t we launch a leadership course helping [00:25:35] people, either new practice owners or wannabe [00:25:40] practice owners, or those that are the end of the game and they want to exit and want [00:25:45] to go through that process. Um, and we put together a 12 month curriculum. [00:25:50] The turn up to, I don’t know, ten, 11 days of education and we [00:25:55] split it between us. We get some speakers in and we put together a really, really comprehensive program, and we provide [00:26:00] some in the middle of that, some coaching and some advice. And, and it [00:26:05] was a great way for me to carry on delivering coaching to a certain extent, but [00:26:10] without the intense time sink of 1 to 1 [00:26:15] coaching, which is both both time in terms of personal time and emotionally very, very, [00:26:20] um, heavy. And so we put together this, this course which, which, [00:26:25] you know, starts with vision and strategic planning, emotional intelligence, communication, sales, [00:26:30] marketing, patient growth, leadership and impact, financial mastery from [00:26:35] understanding how to read a balance sheet, understanding what your accountants telling you.

Prav Solanki: Calculating [00:26:40] your Ebit, Ebit, calculating your exit valuation, growth, scaling, future planning. [00:26:45] Operational efficiency. Legal compliance. Building a high performance [00:26:50] team. Patient centred care. Days covering all of those different aspects. And [00:26:55] we started our first cohort and the feedback has been phenomenal. [00:27:00] It’s been great. And although I’m incredibly biased, I’m not ashamed [00:27:05] or embarrassed to pitch and talk on here that I feel is the best piece [00:27:10] of education that either a current practice owner could get [00:27:15] who is looking to either grow from where they are or planning an exit, [00:27:20] or wannabe a new practice owner. It’s incredibly valuable because you [00:27:25] you’ll be, first of all, surrounded by the network who are at different stages of that which you learn so [00:27:30] much from, but also get the insight from, you know, someone like dev who [00:27:35] has been there, done it and made it. I mean, his growth has been phenomenal in such [00:27:40] a short space of time. Um, from zero to I don’t know where he’s at now, 60 practices [00:27:45] or something like that, but but there’s so much I learned from him. If I need some advice, [00:27:50] even if it’s for a client or for myself, pick up the phone and speak to them. He’s my, um, he’s my go to guy [00:27:55] when it comes to business. So, um, start scale Exitcode UK if [00:28:00] it’s something you’re interested in or anything that I’ve said resonates with you, just just click [00:28:05] on that site and have a poke through.

Prav Solanki: I think our next cohort starts around the end of March, 10 [00:28:10] to 12 delegates, um, real sort of mastermind level coaching [00:28:15] with dedicated sessions on different aspects of practice growth. It really [00:28:20] is a powerful program that certainly our delegates have got amazing, [00:28:25] um, feedback out of some of them currently. Now, who will I think shortly [00:28:30] be going through an exit process? There’s some new to be practice owners on that course [00:28:35] who are who are stepping into that, um, in the next six months and are doing that armed with the information [00:28:40] I wish I had years ago. So, yeah. Um, that’s um, [00:28:45] start scale exit. And that’s my that’s my little sales pitch to you guys. If it’s right [00:28:50] for you. Um, just jump on the website, um, and inquire if it’s [00:28:55] not. That’s fine. And then I think the final thing I just want [00:29:00] to touch base on is what’s changed for me as a [00:29:05] consequence of exiting. Right. I think there’s a few things that have changed. Um, and I don’t [00:29:10] think it gets talked about enough. And one of them is my relationship with money. And [00:29:15] I’ve sat back and I’ve thought about what that has been over the last, I [00:29:20] don’t know, 18, 19 years of being in business. Right. Initially it [00:29:25] was a survival game. Right. Trying to make ends meet, being my own boss and [00:29:30] learning leadership, making mistakes, being incredibly immature.

Prav Solanki: Got to a point [00:29:35] where I became slightly more successful than when I started. So then it became [00:29:40] about the things. So my relationship with money revolved around where do I live? [00:29:45] What do I drive, what do I wear on my wrist? How do I show the world that I [00:29:50] have been successful? How do I push this out into the ecosystem so that [00:29:55] when people see what clothes he wears, what what he wears, you know, what jewellery he’s got, what car [00:30:00] he drives? That’s a measure and impact of success, right? And part [00:30:05] and parcel of that is, you know, you want to have nice things. And this is no disrespect to anyone [00:30:10] who has, you know, got these nice things and gets different feelings and things out of them. [00:30:15] And for me at the time, you know, these things made me feel good. It was it was a way of rewarding myself or treating [00:30:20] myself and whatnot. Right. That’s changed massively, I would say over the last ten [00:30:25] years. Right. I think I’ve, I’ve sort of things [00:30:30] have changed. The more wealth I have accumulated, I [00:30:35] think the, the richer I have become in [00:30:40] the way I think about wealth, in that the things no [00:30:45] longer matter to me. Right? I don’t wear a watch anymore. It doesn’t matter to me. [00:30:50] And the clothes I wear are the things don’t matter [00:30:55] to me at all. I give zero cahoots about [00:31:00] what people think about me, or how they measure me based [00:31:05] on financial or business success or materialistic things.

Prav Solanki: And [00:31:10] I care more about my time with my children, my time with my wife, my [00:31:15] relationship and time with my friends. That is the [00:31:20] most important thing to me now, and also my health paramount [00:31:25] above and beyond anything else at this moment in time. That’s how I feel. Um, and [00:31:30] so my relationship with money has actually changed around, actually, what it’s done [00:31:35] is it’s given me a cushion to be able to have the freedom of time, freedom of choice, [00:31:40] freedom of the unexpected, knowing that if something happens [00:31:45] tomorrow, whether it’s a financial event or an unexpected event, and I need [00:31:50] to call upon resources to be able to fish myself out of that situation. I feel confident [00:31:55] that I can, and I think that’s where my relationship with [00:32:00] money has changed. And I think it’s important for all of you out there, just sometimes [00:32:05] just sit back and reflect. Where are you on that journey and how do you and by the way, my [00:32:10] views and the way I feel about it is not the right or wrong way, but it is [00:32:15] the right way for me and my belief system. Um, but I’m going to leave you with [00:32:20] a couple of thoughts, and it’s about this concept of time [00:32:25] that I’ve been thinking about. Right? Is that this freedom of time or buying time or working [00:32:30] really hard and having that luxury of time now, which I am in at the moment, [00:32:35] and sometimes I’m in an environment where my children really [00:32:40] piss me off.

Prav Solanki: They do my head in, they’re screaming, the feral, the absolutely crazy, [00:32:45] right? And there’s two things that get me over that. And one of them is, is [00:32:50] actually sitting back, closing your eyes and saying, I get to do this. [00:32:55] Not I have to I get to make lunch or dinner for my children. [00:33:00] I get to take him to school. I have the privilege of being [00:33:05] able to do this because one day that’ll disappear. I get to hold my daughter’s hands, [00:33:10] right? I get to have my daughter climbing all over me and pulling my [00:33:15] eyebrows, because one day she won’t want to and one day I’ll want her to. And [00:33:20] I heard this somewhere and just. I think if you’ve got [00:33:25] kids, just think about this. When your kids are doing your tits in, when [00:33:30] they’re winding you up. And I want you to close your eyes. [00:33:35] This is not. This is not my wisdom. By the way, I heard this somewhere else. But you close your eyes and [00:33:40] imagine you’re 80 years old. And you could have one [00:33:45] day or one moment back in your life. And it was that moment [00:33:50] in time where you are right now, where your kids are absolutely doing your head in. You [00:33:55] would give anything to relive that moment and so [00:34:00] embrace it.

[VOICE]: This is Dental [00:34:05] Leaders, the podcast where you get to go one on one with emerging leaders [00:34:10] in dentistry. Your hosts [00:34:15] Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki.

Prav Solanki: Thanks for listening, [00:34:20] guys. If you got this far, you must have listened to the whole thing. And just a huge thank you [00:34:25] both from me and pay for actually sticking through and listening to what we had to say and what our [00:34:30] guest has had to say, because I’m assuming you got some value out of it.

Payman Langroudi: If you did get some value out [00:34:35] of it, think about subscribing. And if you would share this with a friend who [00:34:40] you think might get some value out of it too. Thank you so so so much for listening. Thanks.

Prav Solanki: And don’t forget [00:34:45] our six star rating.

Laura Horton: Hello! [00:00:10] And for today’s episode of The Horton Hangout, [00:00:15] our guest edition. We are really lucky to have Payman here with us. I’ll [00:00:20] get into the intro in a moment and we’ll kick off the podcast. But what’s really lovely is that [00:00:25] this pod is going out at the same time to both our podcast [00:00:30] channels and also the Dental Leaders podcast channels. So wherever you are [00:00:35] listening to us from, thank you ever so much. Let’s get on with this guest episode. Hello [00:00:40] and welcome to this guest episode. We have the amazing Payman hanging [00:00:45] out with us today. Now, you are probably most familiar with Payman for a few [00:00:50] reasons. So firstly, he’s the Clinical Director of Enlightened in Whitening, a brand that we all know and love. [00:00:55] You are also a director for the Mini Smile Makeover [00:01:00] course with Dipesh that you’ve been running for, God knows, eight years. Eight years? That is a long time.

Payman Langroudi: Ten [00:01:05] years. Maybe ten years. Wow.

Laura Horton: Very long time. Which is a really cool course. And then of course, [00:01:10] we’ve got the Dental Leaders podcast and today the tables are turning. Yay! But [00:01:15] we’re not interviewing because, you know, this is about hanging out, having a bit of fun together, [00:01:20] having a chat. I just want to start by saying, thank you so much for hanging out with us.

Payman Langroudi: My pleasure. I’m a [00:01:25] bit pressured. It’s much easier being the host and the guest, I find. But you’re right, this isn’t an interview. Not [00:01:30] just hanging. Hanging, just hanging.

Laura Horton: So have you been interviewed much [00:01:35] on a podcast?

Payman Langroudi: Here and there.

Laura Horton: Here and.

Payman Langroudi: There. Here and there.

Laura Horton: How have you found it?

Payman Langroudi: Like I say, difficult. [00:01:40] Difficult. So much easier being the host. Because you can say whatever you want. You can [00:01:45] steer it whichever direction. Exactly. Yeah. But you guys tell me what you think. [00:01:50] That there are some people who talk a lot. Dentists. There are a lot of dentists who talk a lot, [00:01:55] and they’re great.

Laura Horton: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: Because you just let them go. And then, you know, whenever you think, move [00:02:00] it on, you just move it on. But then there are some people who are very concise, a bit too concise. And [00:02:05] so you’re sitting back waiting and the guy will finish the response. And then you’re like, oh God, I’ve got to ask another question. [00:02:10] Yeah. And I find that very difficult. Yes, I find those people much harder to talk to.

Leanna Best: I would as well, because also, [00:02:15] where are you going with it?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Leanna Best: Because you can change the direction based on what they’re [00:02:20] saying as well. And then it can become really interesting if they’re an open book. [00:02:25] But if they’re very clear and concise and it’s like okay, right next then. And it’s very [00:02:30] wooden.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah. Because if I say where are you from? And you say Bristol, and then I [00:02:35] say, what part of Bristol. It kind of feels organic. Mhm. Yeah. But if you’re very quick [00:02:40] to answer I’ve got to come up with a different question to where are you from. So it just doesn’t, doesn’t, [00:02:45] doesn’t run as well.

Laura Horton: Yeah. So if Lianna responded well this is my full address, my postcode, I’ve lived there for this many [00:02:50] years and you’re like, whoa.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. These are my hobbies.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: How [00:02:55] long have you known each other?

Leanna Best: God, is it ten years?

Laura Horton: It’s over ten years. Definitely. [00:03:00] Yeah. So I trained Liana as a TCO when she was working for Neil Gerrard.

Payman Langroudi: Oh. [00:03:05] You did? Yeah. What a great practice.

Leanna Best: Yeah. Amazing practice.

Payman Langroudi: What a brilliant dentist.

Leanna Best: Yeah. [00:03:10] Amazing dentist.

Laura Horton: Neil and Fiona.

Payman Langroudi: Love her too.

Laura Horton: Yeah. Amazing.

Leanna Best: She’s so [00:03:15] fun.

Payman Langroudi: And did you meet the little one?

Leanna Best: Oh, I like yeah. She’s wonderful.

Payman Langroudi: Was she there while you were? Was [00:03:20] she alive while you were there?

Leanna Best: Yeah, yeah. So Fiona was pregnant when I joined. Then she had her, um. [00:03:25] And so when I left, she was grown up. Really? Isla.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, really?

Leanna Best: So [00:03:30] cute.

Payman Langroudi: Not that long ago.

Laura Horton: You know, she has just started senior school. Oh.

Payman Langroudi: You are kidding.

Laura Horton: No, [00:03:35] I saw the post. Yeah, yeah. Fiona posted first day of year seven. I was like, oh my [00:03:40] gosh. Doesn’t time fly? It does. Absolutely amazing.

Payman Langroudi: Have you got kids as well? [00:03:45]

Leanna Best: Yeah, I’ve got two.

Payman Langroudi: How old are.

Leanna Best: They? I’ve got a three year old little boy and a seven year old little [00:03:50] girl. Yeah. So the girl was like a lie. You [00:03:55] know, I thought I was a great mom. She was amazing. Did everything perfectly well. Duck to water. [00:04:00] And then I had my son. And he taught me how to parent.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, same with me. Same [00:04:05] story, same story.

Leanna Best: A girl first?

Payman Langroudi: No boy first. But you think you’re so good. [00:04:10] Yeah. You see? You see something? You see someone telling off a kid in a supermarket. You think? Wow, they [00:04:15] don’t know how to handle children.

Laura Horton: That’ll never.

Payman Langroudi: Be me. And then the second one comes along and completely.

Leanna Best: Embarrasses. [00:04:20]

Payman Langroudi: Me.

Leanna Best: All the time.

Payman Langroudi: But how do you. Have you got a nanny?

Leanna Best: No.

Payman Langroudi: So how do you manage with the travelling [00:04:25] around the country?

Leanna Best: Oh, yeah. I’ve got, um, granny, his mum. She comes.

Payman Langroudi: To my.

Leanna Best: House. [00:04:30] Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. So they go to. He goes to pre-school. Drew obviously goes to school. And my [00:04:35] mother in law will come to mind. Collect them, do dinner. So it was all very nice home environment.

Payman Langroudi: And are you away [00:04:40] for days at a time?

Leanna Best: Only normally one night a week if I’m away. I don’t tend to stretch it that [00:04:45] much. Now and then I may do if it works for us. Um. But not often. That [00:04:50] wouldn’t be my preference. Not with the two children.

Laura Horton: Yeah, we tend to have two really long [00:04:55] days. So either either for me, I might be like leaving late in the evening. [00:05:00] So I’ve said good night. That’s done. Problem with that is loads of roads are shut. It’s really [00:05:05] annoying how many roads are shut at night, or you’ll leave really early the next morning and [00:05:10] then you’ll have an overnight and then it’s another really long day.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve stopped driving trains. [00:05:15] Just trains all the way. Wow, it’s so much easier.

Leanna Best: I bet it’s less stressful.

Payman Langroudi: Much less. Yeah, [00:05:20] much. Much less. Yeah. It’s amazing. And by the way, much quicker. Like here to Liverpool. Two hours [00:05:25] and 20. Yeah. By car it’s like four hours sometimes. You know.

Laura Horton: The thing is though, I’ve [00:05:30] got, you know, a good half an hour, 40 minute drive just to get to the nearest train station because I live in the middle of nowhere, so [00:05:35] I might as well carry on.

Leanna Best: Oh, yeah. So you’re in a different situation.

Laura Horton: Different situation? You’re in a city. It’s totally. [00:05:40]

Leanna Best: Different.

Laura Horton: Yeah, like my sister lives in London. She never drives anywhere.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, I was one stop from Kings Cross [00:05:45] before. Now I’ve moved. But once Kings Cross was amazing. Yeah. Door to door to Liverpool [00:05:50] like nothing.

Laura Horton: Yeah. Absolutely amazing. But this child situation, [00:05:55] you know, I.

Leanna Best: Haven’t.

Laura Horton: Cried myself on myself, on how smart [00:06:00] I am to have stuck with the one perfect child because I [00:06:05] thought I weighed it up and I thought, I can’t risk it, I can’t risk this [00:06:10] boy is so perfect. He’s slept through the night from six weeks old. He’s he [00:06:15] eats everything. He’s so well behaved. He’s just my perfect little boy. I mean, [00:06:20] we’ll come back in a few years when he’s a teenager and revisit this, but to this point, he’s just turned nine. He’s [00:06:25] just my everything and he’s perfect. And I’d seen my sister [00:06:30] struggling with a child that didn’t sleep. Turned out she’d got dairy intolerance and my sister didn’t [00:06:35] sleep for so long. And I thought, oh, that can’t be me.

Payman Langroudi: Can I ask you to as women? [00:06:40] Right. And you’re clearly both of you like women, particularly ambitious women. [00:06:45] Yeah. Around that question of having it all.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Do you accept? You can’t, or are you [00:06:50] actually going for it?

Laura Horton: You can’t have.

Leanna Best: It. No you can’t.

Payman Langroudi: Oh that’s good. That’s good to [00:06:55] hear.

Leanna Best: No you.

Payman Langroudi: Can’t. All the ones who don’t have children yet say they’re not [00:07:00] there today.

Leanna Best: Yeah, you’re.

Laura Horton: Not going to have it all. You’re going to be really stressed out. [00:07:05]

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: You’re going to feel overwhelmed. You’re going to feel like you’re juggling it all. The struggle [00:07:10] is real.

Leanna Best: And that’s not a nice place to be. No.

Payman Langroudi: What’s given, what’s given compared to what you thought would give. [00:07:15]

Laura Horton: Like social life for me.

Leanna Best: Oh, that’s not my. No, I’m very busy. [00:07:20] Still socially. What’s given for me?

Payman Langroudi: You said. You said you can’t have it all. So what’s the thing that’s [00:07:25] missing? What’s. What’s the thing that’s suffered?

Leanna Best: Probably how much I can be there [00:07:30] for the children to a degree. So I do make sure they are my priority. Don’t get me wrong. But because [00:07:35] I do travel.

Payman Langroudi: Do you, like, spend longer with them?

Leanna Best: I would, I’d get less time some days with them. It [00:07:40] doesn’t seem to bother my daughter because she can accept it. And she’s daddy’s girl anyway, [00:07:45] so she’s not missing out. But I’ve noticed it since having a boy. Because it’s mummy is [00:07:50] the best thing ever. So he’s like, where are you going? No. Like, you know, he’s a bit more reactive to it. [00:07:55] So yeah, I would say that that bothers me because then I’ll spend time in the car and be a bit like, [00:08:00] oh, he’s a bit upset. I rang you today, didn’t I? And I was like, oh no, Desi’s not very well. [00:08:05] And he didn’t want me to go. And she was like, oh no. But luckily I’ve got the mother in law who is [00:08:10] super close with, so she’s just going to go and intercept him.

Laura Horton: I remember I would not stay overnight anywhere. [00:08:15] For the first year Harry was born, I’d only had sort of like eight weeks off. Um, and I’m.

Leanna Best: Just crazy, [00:08:20] by the way.

Laura Horton: Yeah. And I just, I just couldn’t I just couldn’t leave it. And I remember the first [00:08:25] day I wasn’t back for bedtime because I had a tire blow. I was hysterical [00:08:30] when I got home and my husband was like, well, just get you a new car. Don’t think this low profile [00:08:35] tires on this Mercedes are where we live. The right car for you. Let’s go and get something [00:08:40] a bit more sturdy. And I was like, okay, Is he [00:08:45] okay? He’s like, he’s fine. Go up and sit next to him in his cot. And I was like, okay, he’s actually fine.

Payman Langroudi: You [00:08:50] haven’t got a co-founder?

Laura Horton: No.

Payman Langroudi: So do you get lonely at the top?

Laura Horton: Um. [00:08:55]

Leanna Best: You’re really good at questions.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve got I’ve got co-founders. [00:09:00]

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s horrible splitting the profits four ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you [00:09:05] have to get four times as thick. But when things are hard.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Just someone to [00:09:10] someone to go to.

Laura Horton: Yeah. So I think I’ve been really lucky over the years because Michael Bentley was with me for a really [00:09:15] long time. Who? I just met him at a practice managers conference. I was like, this guy’s amazing [00:09:20] and happened to be in a practice around the corner from him the next week like it was meant to be, [00:09:25] and we worked together right up until the pandemic, and that’s a whole nother story. More from his [00:09:30] side. Um, and then you’d already started doing a bit of lecturing [00:09:35] because Fiona had put you forward for this implant day, and then that just became [00:09:40] a natural thing. Yeah. Um, and I think what’s really nice about Michael [00:09:45] and yourself is that they’re relationships that have started as [00:09:50] business relationships, but have then grown into lovely friendships. And I think that’s really [00:09:55] nice and also much easier. So we can have a really, you know, non-emotional [00:10:00] factual conversation about whatever. But then we’re also really good friends now [00:10:05] as well, which is nice, I think when it’s the other way around, when you’ve got a friendship and [00:10:10] you go into business, I think that must be really quite difficult sometimes.

Payman Langroudi: That’s what I did. [00:10:15] That’s what I did, yeah, my best, my two best friends and my wife. Um, we’ve [00:10:20] never really had a major disagreement, but then we’ve never really made major amounts of money. No, it’s when you make [00:10:25] a lot of money that these arguments start. Yeah, yeah, that’s what I think. That’s what I’ve seen. Yeah. [00:10:30] You know, it’s we’ve never really had a proper disagreement. I mean, of course we disagree on stuff. Yeah, [00:10:35] but not in a way that makes you feel like you regret the partnership.

Leanna Best: Yeah. [00:10:40]

Payman Langroudi: At all. Ever.

Laura Horton: So whose idea was enlightened then?

Payman Langroudi: The three [00:10:45] of us. The three of us.

Laura Horton: Were over dinner.

Payman Langroudi: No, no, on a on a ski lift.

Laura Horton: Wow.

Leanna Best: Really?

Laura Horton: That [00:10:50] is so cool. Yeah, right. Okay, so who prompted the who started the conversation? Was it you? [00:10:55]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. What happened was I was getting into partnership with my boss. Yeah. He was. He was [00:11:00] on Harley Street making, like, very high end dentures that give you facelifts [00:11:05] and things. And I was going to go into partnership with him. I was like, Harley Street all this. I was excited. There [00:11:10] was something in back of my head saying, I don’t want to be making dentures, man. And then [00:11:15] I did my first bleaching case in Viti opti Dental.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [00:11:20]

Payman Langroudi: And it blew me away that I. The fact that the teeth changed colour. Yeah, absolutely blew [00:11:25] me away.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And we were skiing and I said to them, look, we should, we’ve got to do something with [00:11:30] bleaching. Mhm. Um, and we were going to open a teeth whitening centre and call that enlightened. [00:11:35] Yeah. And we were going to open for teeth whitening centres. Called them all enlighten. [00:11:40]

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, and then in the sort of research phase of that, [00:11:45] like, what are we going to do? What’s going to be the story of this thing? We had to find the right products [00:11:50] for it. And it switched into, you know, the company [00:11:55] saying we don’t have European distributors. And and then we said, oh, we’ll be your European distributor. [00:12:00] It completely changed to a supply thing, right.

Laura Horton: So you didn’t have did you have to put a lot of investment [00:12:05] in or not really.

Payman Langroudi: I think we put like 30 grand each or something. [00:12:10] But but then it was big. Beg borrow and steal for three, four years.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:12:15] It was I mean, it was very difficult. Very difficult. First three, four years.

Laura Horton: Yeah, definitely.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but that was it. And [00:12:20] we never had a proper investor, which I kind of regret now.

Laura Horton: Do you?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. I mean, it’s nice not [00:12:25] having to answer to anyone. There is that.

Laura Horton: Is it for growth?

Payman Langroudi: But we live in London. Yeah. London. [00:12:30] The financial capital of the world. Many of my friends are in the city. You know, they raise money. Yeah. I [00:12:35] never thought to even raise money properly. They never did anything about it.

Laura Horton: No. [00:12:40]

Payman Langroudi: And now I think about it. And I see some people, you know, they just started a company and [00:12:45] we just started with our seed fund. £2 million. Yeah. It took me [00:12:50] like eight, ten years to, to bring in £2 million in total. Yeah. Just that year. Yeah. [00:12:55] Something like that. Yeah. And so now I sort of think that was a mistake. So [00:13:00] I’m telling my son now if he’s ever going to do entrepreneurship to do it right.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Get the get [00:13:05] the investment at the start.

Leanna Best: Yeah. And how was your son 18.

Payman Langroudi: So he’s just about to go to bath [00:13:10] actually.

Leanna Best: Oh really. Oh it’s lovely.

Laura Horton: What’s he studying?

Payman Langroudi: Aerospace engineering.

Leanna Best: Oh, [00:13:15] my cousin’s in. That works for Rolls-Royce. Great company. Wow.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. He’s not even sure if he wants to be that [00:13:20] engineer, but, like, he’s like, it’s a good degree to get in. Yeah, yeah.

Laura Horton: Wow. [00:13:25]

Payman Langroudi: But you know, what I found is a lot of it’s defence.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And I wasn’t aware of that. I thought it was like rockets [00:13:30] and Formula one cars. 95% of it is defence.

Leanna Best: Yeah. And I didn’t realise that [00:13:35] until I actually asked my cousin about his role. Yeah. And then he would explain and I was like, oh right. Okay. That seems a [00:13:40] bit different to what I expected.

Laura Horton: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So it’s a bit unexpected. So you went on his first work experience. [00:13:45] So what do you what do you what did you do? It was like, yeah, it’s a missile guidance [00:13:50] system. Okay. Okay.

Laura Horton: Amazing. He’ll end up with one of those [00:13:55] jobs that I can’t talk about. My job.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Can’t tell you what I do. Can’t tell you anything.

Payman Langroudi: Then he went British [00:14:00] Aerospace, and there was a helmet that looks through the plane because they’ve got cameras [00:14:05] on the bottom of the plane, and they know, like, you know. But it’s all defence. I spent all these years saying war is wrong. [00:14:10] Yeah. Anyway.

Laura Horton: That’s reality. And he’s in it. He’s in it. So [00:14:15] you’re saying how long you’ve had enlighten.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. 24 years [00:14:20] now.

Laura Horton: 24 years. So when did I meet you? When did you [00:14:25] come to the practice?

Payman Langroudi: When ashes. Practice. Practice. And I remember [00:14:30] walking in and thinking, first of all, looking around the decor and thinking, did they put [00:14:35] that in this town, which was Hartford? Hartford?

Laura Horton: Yeah, small little town.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:14:40] I’d already been. I’d been to places like Dental. And, you know, I’d seen beautiful practices [00:14:45] in central London, but I did not expect it in Hartford. And then [00:14:50] just the, the way I probably it was you talking to me, [00:14:55] the way I was welcomed and and shown around and all of that. I [00:15:00] remember thinking, wow, unbelievable. It was really it was it was completely [00:15:05] out of the ordinary. Mhm. Um, even for those central London practices, it was it was absolutely [00:15:10] special. I guess that was your influence.

Laura Horton: Yeah it was. Teamwork makes [00:15:15] the dream work you know.

Payman Langroudi: But I do remember that because it was such a long time ago.

Laura Horton: It was a long [00:15:20] time ago.

Payman Langroudi: Now you see a bit more of that.

Leanna Best: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s kind of how I felt when I went [00:15:25] for an interview with Neil. I was like, similar vibe. Very much so. But then [00:15:30] almost put me off. So I was like, oh wow, this is really intense. It’s very like posh high end. [00:15:35] I got quite scared quite quickly. Um, but obviously interviewed well, got the job [00:15:40] and then soon realised why everything was the way it was because it was just constant investment and training [00:15:45] America.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, Neil and Fiona, they reinvest continuously [00:15:50] in that practice continuously, whether it’s building work, whether it’s extra training, [00:15:55] whether it’s the latest machine, you know, and, you know, [00:16:00] in business it’s hard investing, isn’t it. That’s your bottom line. But they [00:16:05] just keep on doing it, you know. Um it’s brilliant. It’s brilliant to see I love, love, love that practice. [00:16:10]

Leanna Best: Have you ever been there.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Yeah a couple of times. Probably. Probably. They’re together. Yeah. [00:16:15]

Leanna Best: I bet we were at some point.

Laura Horton: Your paths have crossed. Yeah. What are you looking [00:16:20] at in enlightened now then what are you investing in now? We’ve talked about investing. Anything coming up?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:16:25] Um, so we moved the lab in-house.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, [00:16:30] about five just before Covid. So up to that point, we were always outsourcing [00:16:35] the lab part. And so we’re continually now the labs right [00:16:40] there, you know, so we can keep on going and trying things. And so we buy a lot of equipment. My, my [00:16:45] my respect for labs has gone through the roof. Yeah. I mean, it’s a tough business. [00:16:50]

Laura Horton: It’s hard.

Payman Langroudi: Tough tough. But we make one product a bleaching tray. Yeah. Which which labs just [00:16:55] laugh at. They think it’s nothing. Yeah. Which it is from from a lab perspective. It’s nothing. But [00:17:00] it’s hard. Running a lab is hard working to deadlines. You’re completely reliant on the [00:17:05] flow. Um, a bit like a restaurant, you know, like everyone has to know everyone’s job. Yeah. [00:17:10] Otherwise, you know, you’re going to lose consistency. But anyway, we’re very busy on on that, [00:17:15] trying to improve the tray all the time. And with digital, it’s made it a little bit more complicated. Right. [00:17:20] And so we’ve got printers and resins and you know all of that side. But [00:17:25] really Laura and you guys will see this as sort of from the practice [00:17:30] perspective, it would be your version of it would be internal marketing versus [00:17:35] external marketing. And I’ve really become aware of [00:17:40] the fact that if I want to double the size of enlighten, it’s much easier. Doubling [00:17:45] the number of treatments than doubling the number of dentists.

Laura Horton: Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And [00:17:50] you know, you’re you’re sort of DNA tends to make [00:17:55] you want to find a new customer all the time. Um, but when we look at the numbers, [00:18:00] they’re easily double able per dentist. And you guys know this, dentists [00:18:05] don’t do enough whitening, they don’t ask enough questions about wants and so forth. So that’s [00:18:10] been sort of my obsession this last sort of year of, you know, [00:18:15] and we’re measuring it now finally. So before we used to go into the practice, [00:18:20] do some training and leave.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Right now now we’re measuring. What [00:18:25] does that do to the to the growth of the practice, not just going in its resources and so [00:18:30] forth. So I’ve been a bit bit focussed on that. And then on the communication side, which [00:18:35] I’m responsible for, it’s a bit difficult, right. Because I feel like I’ve really failed on it [00:18:40] because a lot of people think enlighten is, you know, [00:18:45] gel in a fancy box and it’s not. There’s a lot more to [00:18:50] it than, than the packaging.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, and but I’d say 60% [00:18:55] of dentists actually think that. Um, and the fact that we, I [00:19:00] haven’t been able to get that message through properly makes me feel like a bit of a failure, you know? [00:19:05]

Laura Horton: So what’s the message, then? What’s the message?

Payman Langroudi: Much better. Much, much better product. It’s much better product. It makes teeth whiter. Yeah, [00:19:10] but but what I’m saying is if you go and ask a random dentist.

Laura Horton: Yeah, they’ll just be like.

Payman Langroudi: They’ll think [00:19:15] it’s a fancy packaging. Branding. Like, I don’t know, an Apple computer, some fancy box. It’s a totally [00:19:20] different computer. Yeah, yeah. I’m not saying it’s an Apple computer, but, you know, we really [00:19:25] try hard on making each aspect and then the results are much better, right? But [00:19:30] I haven’t managed to get that story into the market properly.

Laura Horton: Well, you’ve got Apple and you’ve got Acer. And there’s a distinct [00:19:35] difference, isn’t there? I know one’s a mac and one’s a PC, but still at the end of the day, it’s a computer, isn’t [00:19:40] it? And one thing I’ve always said to practices is when a team members [00:19:45] whiten their teeth, I can always tell when it’s enlightened. I can tell just by. I’m like, you’ve used [00:19:50] enlightened and they’re like, yep. And I’m like, you’re happy. Really happy. I can tell instantly because [00:19:55] of the colour, because there’s just something about it. But I totally agree with [00:20:00] you that practices are not doing as much whitening as they should be. [00:20:05] Nowhere near. Nowhere near. And everyone wants their teeth whiter, everyone wants their teeth [00:20:10] whiter. And I think my mum’s a classic example. She’s 72 now. Um, [00:20:15] but a few years ago she went to the dentist and she called me up and she said, I’m having my teeth [00:20:20] whitened. And I was like, yes, ma’am. I’ve been on at you for decades [00:20:25] to whiten your teeth. And, you know, she said, well, I’ve always wanted [00:20:30] to do it. And I said, well, what prompted this then? And she said it was the conversation. The dentist [00:20:35] prompted the conversation, not me. She didn’t want to say.

Leanna Best: Well.

Payman Langroudi: We don’t, [00:20:40] you know. Yeah. You know, I’d say 90% of people. Yeah, are not going to [00:20:45] sort of veer away from the patient journey. No, the patient journey is there [00:20:50] and different. We all know there’s different patient journeys. Yeah. So people patients will [00:20:55] generally just do do as they’re told. They’ll follow the patient journey. If the patient journey happens [00:21:00] to go to the point of the colour of teeth, which is very interesting. Right. [00:21:05] It’s not we’re not taught in university to record the colour of teeth in an [00:21:10] examination. Yeah. Like we’re taught a whole lot of stuff about the TMJ clicks and [00:21:15] obviously all cancer perio, but the colour of teeth, we’re not even taught to record. [00:21:20] Yeah, and it’s a massive, magnificent mistake, right. Insomuch [00:21:25] as the patients are more interested in the colour of the teeth than they are.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Everything else. Yeah, [00:21:30] but we’re not recording that. Yeah.

Laura Horton: So when I’m working with dentists on their examination and diagnosis, [00:21:35] taking a shade is part of it and it’s, you know, verbal from the nurse. Mhm. [00:21:40] Um let’s take the tooth shade and then the dentist explains this is what they’re doing. This [00:21:45] is the range of shades. And please let that shade guide be in the right order because it freaks me out a little bit. [00:21:50] Yeah I can’t bear it. A1 b1 c1 it’s got to be in the right order, but by [00:21:55] value.

Payman Langroudi: Right.

Laura Horton: Yeah. I’m like ah, um, but and [00:22:00] then the patients, they, they get engaged in that. Would you like to see what colour your teeth are. If they say no, they’re not. [00:22:05] Say no. Oh yes please I’d like. Here’s a mirror. Have a look. Are you happy with the colour of your [00:22:10] teeth? I think it’s part of the.

Payman Langroudi: Oral hygiene instruction. Part of the examination? Yeah, [00:22:15] because patients see it as part of oral hygiene.

Laura Horton: And feeling fresh, looking [00:22:20] clean. People want to look clean, and I think things that patients say are that [00:22:25] they don’t want to look too white. That’s that’s a worry.

Leanna Best: It’s a fear.

Laura Horton: That’s a.

Leanna Best: Fear. The biggest fears. Oh, [00:22:30] I don’t mind having whitening, but I don’t want to have it too white. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Do you teach you? Must you guys in the SEO [00:22:35] world, you must teach about. Objection handling. Oh, yeah. And [00:22:40] one thing I always tell people, dentists is if you come up with any idea, especially [00:22:45] a want, a need is different. You’re kind of being the doctor. You’re saying you really [00:22:50] should do this? Yeah. If it’s a want and you’ve just said it to the patient, you must [00:22:55] expect the patient to come up with one mini objection to buy themselves some time to [00:23:00] think about what’s going on. What just happened? Yeah. And so.

Leanna Best: It’s [00:23:05] so. Exactly.

Payman Langroudi: It’s kind of stressful. I was with my dad with with a urologist yesterday, [00:23:10] and I could see him sort of stressing. He’s an older guy. I could see him stressing to [00:23:15] answer the. The guy was saying, how many times a day do you go to the loo? He was like, so if you mean, you know, whatever [00:23:20] it was. Yeah. And so, you know, you come up with something new to the patient. You will get now with whitening [00:23:25] the if the patients over 55, [00:23:30] 60 if patients over 60, the first mini objection will always be not my age. [00:23:35] I’m too old for this.

Leanna Best: I had that yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s very common.

Laura Horton: I don’t want and that’s where they worry about them [00:23:40] being too white as well.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah. But now when the patients saying that they’re not saying no [00:23:45] they’re not. No, they’re just buying a little bit of time. They’re kind of saying I’m [00:23:50] not vain. It’s not like British older person. Yeah. Can’t can’t admit [00:23:55] to vanity. Yeah. Let’s talk about a man. You know, like like you said your mum was about 74 [00:24:00] year old man. Cannot say I want a whiter smile. Yeah. Now the obvious [00:24:05] conclusion to that is you go in with something like age is just a number. But [00:24:10] what I found much easier in that situation to point out one of the health benefits [00:24:15] of whitening and there are health benefits. We just talk about them very much because everyone wants. But it’s really [00:24:20] good for your gums, right? In that situation, you say it’s good for your gums and now now they’ve got something to [00:24:25] hang on. That isn’t vanity, it’s health. Oh, good for my gums. Let’s go for it. Now [00:24:30] with another patient it might be a different mini objection. Yeah. And [00:24:35] you guys must be training about. I can’t afford it.

Leanna Best: Which is.

Payman Langroudi: Which is, you know, I can’t afford [00:24:40] it. Yeah. That’s never the objection. It’s never about money. When it’s about money, they [00:24:45] don’t actually admit to it. They use a different objection because people don’t like to admit [00:24:50] they can’t afford it.

Leanna Best: No, exactly.

Payman Langroudi: I can’t afford it. Means all sorts of stuff. Yeah, I can’t afford it based [00:24:55] on what just happened.

Leanna Best: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, I can’t afford. I don’t like you. Yeah. That’s [00:25:00] it. Could be my mum. My mum’s in hospital. I can’t think about it. Yeah, I can’t afford it. Just means just. [00:25:05]

Leanna Best: Get me away.

Payman Langroudi: Just some time. Give me some.

Leanna Best: Time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And so that. It’s funny that [00:25:10] we have to talk about it, but we do have to talk about it.

Laura Horton: We do?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. These, these. And that’s why you guys [00:25:15] play such an important role. Because dentists can’t do the work they’re trained to do unless they figure out [00:25:20] this sort of stuff.

Leanna Best: Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Horton: And this is where the TCO role does come [00:25:25] in. And a lot of people again, just think the TCO roles just for, you know, the high value patients. But I’m [00:25:30] really passionate about it for general dentistry. And it really excels the experience in the patient. [00:25:35] So new general patient comes in. They see the TCO first 15 minutes 20 minutes. [00:25:40] It depends if they’re going to scan, if they’ve got the room to scan, things like that. But that initial conversation [00:25:45] really relaxes the patient. And you get to find out all this information on behalf [00:25:50] of, you know, the dentist, and then you’re finding out, you know, oh, any [00:25:55] cosmetic concerns. And nine out of ten patients doesn’t matter. Their age will [00:26:00] say, I’d like whiter teeth. Right. We’re now doing whitening today and I’m about to do the scan anyway. Happy [00:26:05] days. Um, that’s now X amount of money. We can we can charge that patient today if they’re happy to [00:26:10] go ahead with it. It. And it’s quick. And the patients are like, oh right, okay, well I can just come back in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Fantastic. We’ve got [00:26:15] the scan. We’ll use that if that’s okay. And it works really well like that as well as then [00:26:20] handing them over properly in the exam, getting a handover back and then taking them back in the [00:26:25] console.

Payman Langroudi: How do you guys handle patients who don’t go ahead with [00:26:30] the plan.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Insomuch as I’m not talking about follow up techniques, all of that, I find a [00:26:35] lot of times dentists won’t even offer something because of the embarrassment [00:26:40] of the patient saying no to that thing.

Leanna Best: I’ve not had that before. No, no, [00:26:45] I haven’t had that.

Payman Langroudi: So the whitening conversation. Yeah, it’s a one. Would you like a whiter smile? Yeah. [00:26:50] There are different reasons why they don’t go ahead. They’ll say something like, I don’t want to embarrass the patient. I don’t want to annoy [00:26:55] the patient. I don’t want to. I don’t want to come across as a pushy salesman. Yeah.

Leanna Best: I guess.

Payman Langroudi: When a patient doesn’t [00:27:00] go ahead, there’s this moment for the dentist.

Leanna Best: Because.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a defensive.

Leanna Best: Yeah, [00:27:05] yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And, you know, I’m. One minute I’m your doctor. I’m supposed to be caring for you. Next minute I’m selling [00:27:10] something. Now you haven’t wanted it. I think that’s one of the primary reasons why [00:27:15] they don’t ask. Because it’s very obvious that if they ask, they’ll get it. Um, so [00:27:20] one thing we’ve been teaching is this notion of we’re asking everyone. Um, because, [00:27:25] yeah, the because is key. Yeah, but asking everyone. I’m not singling you out. I’m not saying [00:27:30] you’re ugly. I’m not saying anything. I’m asking.

Laura Horton: I’m saying your teeth look dirty.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Asking everyone. And then. Because [00:27:35] can be anything. Yeah. It really doesn’t matter what the. Because is. Because it’s summer. Winter. You know, we’ve got we’ve got a new [00:27:40] system. It doesn’t matter what you say after because. Yeah, but but that helps a lot of dentists get [00:27:45] over the idea of I don’t want you to feel like I’m saying you’re.

Leanna Best: Yeah. It’s uncomfortable. [00:27:50]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Leanna Best: It’s uncomfortable communication for a lot of people to have. When I first ever became [00:27:55] a dental nurse, I worked in a practice which was predominantly NHS, and we did a really small amount of [00:28:00] private, and there was one dentist and there were six surgeries. Only one [00:28:05] dentist. Ever used to ask any cosmetic concerns. Are you happy with the colour of your teeth? If there was diastema, [00:28:10] are you happy with that gap in the front of your mouth? And I used to think, wow, that’s really [00:28:15] nice that he asked those questions. I never saw it as a negative, but obviously everybody [00:28:20] else didn’t choose to operate the same as him. He was the principal. I [00:28:25] speak about him a lot. Ian. Mhm. Um, but the other principal, David, would never ask those questions and [00:28:30] it’s exactly that they’re worried to offend.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah yeah. But I think even if you go back to [00:28:35] say general dentistry.

Payman Langroudi: You guys treat the dentist as well. Sorry.

Laura Horton: Yeah I do a lot of work with dentists training [00:28:40] them for.

Payman Langroudi: These.

Leanna Best: Communication mainly. Yeah.

Laura Horton: Presenting treatment plans to patients handling [00:28:45] objections.

Payman Langroudi: So sorry to.

Laura Horton: Interrupt. No, no. It’s fine. I think sometimes what we experience [00:28:50] for sure is that patients get a big treatment plan essentially dumped on them. And the [00:28:55] missing communication is what is urgent, what’s what’s important, what [00:29:00] needs to be addressed now. Because it is shocking that patients walk around with a mouth full of decay, [00:29:05] knowing they’ve got a mouth full of decay. So I would always question, but so what hasn’t allowed [00:29:10] them to move forward? Then why are they still walking around with a mouth full of decay if they know they’ve got that? So we want to [00:29:15] make sure it’s co-diagnosis, which I love, that they understand and [00:29:20] own their own problems, and then they’re advised and recommended. I think this is the one [00:29:25] thing, again, a lot of dentists don’t do is recommend and you’re the professional.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, if there’s [00:29:30] three courses of action, recommend one of them.

Laura Horton: Three teeth that need treating. But [00:29:35] I’m going to recommend we deal with this tooth first. And the reason for that is a B and C. And [00:29:40] that’s why we’re going to recommend we start with that one. So if those patients leave even just booking that [00:29:45] that one treatment or the hygiene, do you know what I mean. It really, really helps [00:29:50] keep the patient in the flow. And they might end up having one tooth done at a time every couple of months.

Payman Langroudi: The last time [00:29:55] you guys were patients.

Laura Horton: Oh.

Leanna Best: The patient.

Laura Horton: Tell you it [00:30:00] is actually because I know this because I was looking the other day.

Leanna Best: For [00:30:05] treatment.

Laura Horton: Well, it was three years since I had an examination. Um. [00:30:10]

Leanna Best: But Trump.

Laura Horton: What a tramp. Ash did my veneers [00:30:15] when Harry was born. Yes. Nearly nine years ago. That he would have done them.

Leanna Best: Hmm. What have [00:30:20] I had done.

Laura Horton: As a patient? That was a big course of treatment.

Leanna Best: Mine. Mine was a hygienist of routine [00:30:25] hygiene.

Laura Horton: Yeah. Hygienist goes to the hygienist.

Leanna Best: For six months now, though.

Payman Langroudi: I don’t really count.

Leanna Best: That doesn’t count. Okay, [00:30:30] so any treatment? Oh, my God, I can’t remember, but it was under sedation. Inhalation [00:30:35] sedation. Because Neil started doing it. And I am petrified of injections. And [00:30:40] he said well you’ll have sedation then. And I was like okay so it’s probably a filling. That was ages ago. [00:30:45] Can’t remember.

Payman Langroudi: So I’ve got I’ve got a loose filling. Yeah, yeah. It’s on holiday. Something [00:30:50] stuck in my teeth and oh my God, it’s filling. It’s loose. Yeah. And my [00:30:55] wife is a dentist. Yeah. And I haven’t booked.

Laura Horton: You haven’t done anything.

Payman Langroudi: Haven’t [00:31:00] booked to go in yet.

Laura Horton: Just playing around with it in your mouth.

Payman Langroudi: Well, I’ve only been back four days.

Leanna Best: Five [00:31:05] days?

Payman Langroudi: But, but but it’s made me realise, and it’s.

Leanna Best: Not a priority. [00:31:10]

Payman Langroudi: When I had, I had a feeling as well about two years ago or something. Um. That [00:31:15] one made me realise. Painless injection. My wife gave me. My wife gave me this injection. [00:31:20] I did not feel it at all. And I’m a dentist. Yeah. I didn’t even know she’d given an injection [00:31:25] until it started going numb.

Leanna Best: I need to see her.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and her patients follow [00:31:30] her around because she’s gentle. Right.

Leanna Best: Yeah. That’s wonderful.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So now I’ve realised that’s more important [00:31:35] than anything. Because I hate needles like you. Yeah. Um, but then what I’m saying is it’s [00:31:40] a pain in the ass, man.

Laura Horton: It’s inconvenient.

Payman Langroudi: It’s tough, it’s inconvenient, it’s cost. [00:31:45] Let’s say I’m not going to pay it, but it’s cost. Now imagine I go. If I was a regular person, [00:31:50] I’d go in for this broken filling. And then the dentist says, do you want whitening? I may say, [00:31:55] no, I might. Yeah. Because I’ve already an extra appointment now. Another [00:32:00] find five, £500 or whatever. Yeah. And so I get it, [00:32:05] I get it. Yeah. You know, so what’s I find very interesting [00:32:10] is the notion that who is the most engaged patient with [00:32:15] the practice. Is it the one who just had 30 grand of implant treatment? They’re [00:32:20] very engaged. Yeah. For me, it’s that cat that [00:32:25] keeps turning up every six months.

Leanna Best: Yeah. It’s a bread and butter patient.

Payman Langroudi: Being told they need nothing. Yeah. [00:32:30] And keeps coming every six months. Yeah. And pay money to be told they need nothing. [00:32:35] I mean, that’s a massively engaged person.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You know, of course, some people have had it [00:32:40] so ingrained in their head if you don’t turn up every six months. Yeah. But, you know, no way. If I was a normal civilian, [00:32:45] I would turn up six times in a row to be told you need nothing and keep on turning [00:32:50] up to be told I need nothing.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So now those patients imagine [00:32:55] every dentist has got, six of those a day, depending [00:33:00] on the day. Six patients who come in needing nothing, who maybe [00:33:05] the last four times they came in needed nothing as well. And they told the patient, you need [00:33:10] nothing when they could have easily said there’s a filling, you know. So trust is through the roof. Yes. [00:33:15] With that particular dentist.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: They need nothing brushing their teeth very well. [00:33:20] They love the sort of pat on the back for that. Perfect for whitening. Perfect for whitening. [00:33:25] But ever since the Dorfman days, we’ve learned that whitening is. Do you want fries [00:33:30] with that. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah obviously it is. Yeah. Because it goes well with fillings. It goes [00:33:35] well with Invisalign.

Leanna Best: It goes with I love that.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. But what I’m saying is it’s such a missed opportunity [00:33:40] because every single dentist has got 4 or 5 of those a day. Yeah. Yeah. Patients who need nothing. And [00:33:45] those patients are perfect for the whitening conversation. Yeah. But. But we don’t think [00:33:50] about it. It’s not. It’s not a common thing.

Laura Horton: I feel it’s exactly the same. I relate [00:33:55] it to time. So patients that have got the time to come and they’ve also got good oral [00:34:00] health, which means they’ve got the time to T.P. every day engaged. They’re engaged. [00:34:05] They’ve got time. So who are they? And actually the biggest group of patients with time. They’re [00:34:10] not us guys sitting here. They’re not our age group. They are actually the retired. You [00:34:15] know.

Payman Langroudi: All the patients are the best.

Laura Horton: Older patients and.

Payman Langroudi: Best.

Laura Horton: Practices are full of them. And they’re [00:34:20] missing all these opportunities all the time just to whiten teeth. And these patients [00:34:25] have the time. That’s what you know.

Leanna Best: Will they schedule it out of their day months in [00:34:30] advance? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Let’s talk about morale.

Laura Horton: Go on then because we’ve got a good question for you. [00:34:35]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So we were saying I’ve been to I haven’t counted but [00:34:40] let’s say a thousand practices. Yeah. You’ve been to let’s say 500 I don’t know how many you’ve been to. Yeah. And [00:34:45] how long do you think it takes before you know what’s, what’s going on in [00:34:50] this practice. Like.

Leanna Best: Oh in terms of like what type of team have we got?

Payman Langroudi: And I [00:34:55] get there, we all have to. We have to get there a bit earlier because we don’t want to be late. Yes. Yeah. I specifically [00:35:00] go in about ten minutes before the time I’m due to go in. Yeah, just to sit and have a look around. [00:35:05]

Laura Horton: Yeah. Have a listen.

Payman Langroudi: Have a listen. Yeah. How am I greeted with that. But then [00:35:10] very like there are different types of morale in different practices.

Leanna Best: Very much so.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And [00:35:15] where does it come from? Does it come. Is it traditionally just from the top? Is it is it as simple as that?

Laura Horton: Yeah, [00:35:20] yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Is it a situation where I’ve seen, for instance, someone told me they [00:35:25] won’t get us a microwave. Microwave?

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: £50. £20 [00:35:30] in Asda? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Wait, is that a real thing? [00:35:35]

Laura Horton: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So? So almost.

Leanna Best: Completely detached.

Laura Horton: Mm. One [00:35:40] of the things that we do is observe in practices. So [00:35:45] patient experience evaluation. And that is about well firstly [00:35:50] understanding the challenges from the practice manager and owner perspective. So we get that. We’ve got their list, we understand [00:35:55] what their challenges are, but then it’s about going in really without preconceived [00:36:00] ideas and thoughts, but still understanding where they’re coming from and [00:36:05] observing the full patient experience. And it’s basically like being a fly on the wall. [00:36:10]

Leanna Best: It’s my favourite.

Laura Horton: It’s it’s fantastic. So three hours doing that because of the hours. [00:36:15] Yeah three hours.

Payman Langroudi: Ten minutes.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Leanna Best: Well it goes so quickly.

Laura Horton: It goes so quickly. And [00:36:20] three hours doing that. We we know everything inside out anyway. So having a look [00:36:25] in the diaries that is golden.

Leanna Best: Yeah. And their reaction when you say it also. Yeah. Did you want [00:36:30] to.

Payman Langroudi: Did you sit in on the exams and all that.

Laura Horton: Yeah. So sitting in on new patient not necessarily treatment because [00:36:35] you don’t want to spend an hour watching a rubber dam place for a filling. But you know it’s [00:36:40] it’s more about the communication appointment. So a lot of it will be the desk obviously TCO or.

Payman Langroudi: The [00:36:45] team’s defensive about it must be a little.

Laura Horton: Bit.

Leanna Best: They think it’s a personality thing. Yeah I always aim [00:36:50] to explain I’m coming in with no judgement on anybody. We’re looking to improve [00:36:55] your systems and communication. And then when I go in, I make sure I’m super [00:37:00] friendly and engaging. I don’t want them to think I’m just in the background. Who’s that big bad wolf? [00:37:05] And that so far I’ve never had any sort of resistance. But you [00:37:10] do get a different sort of feeling about some people. They’re almost showing [00:37:15] off for you. You can tell they’re not being their authentic self, which I get, I get it, you [00:37:20] know, I’m watching you. You’re not going to necessarily be the most relaxed. Um, but I find [00:37:25] if you’re going to get resistance, it’s after when you go back into.

Payman Langroudi: The.

Leanna Best: Recommendation. [00:37:30] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Leanna Best: That’s when they feel a bit more, I think more.

Laura Horton: The other reason the team are quite relaxed [00:37:35] about the days, well, you know, is because we do ask the practice owners [00:37:40] and managers to tell them that we’re from practice. We started as dental nurses. We’re from practice. So [00:37:45] we.

Payman Langroudi: Do. Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah. And I think that does really help them to go. Oh, okay. It’s not just some, you [00:37:50] know, random person in a suit turned up to stand here with a clipboard and assess [00:37:55] me. We do actually know what we’re talking about. And also, during the day, if we can offer a little bit of advice, we [00:38:00] will as well. You know, if it’s going to help someone out, we can see they’re in a tricky situation. Um, we’ll, [00:38:05] you know, say, oh, you know, how did you find that? Oh, and we’d always say, look, these things always happen when we’re here. You [00:38:10] probably won’t happen again in your working life.

Payman Langroudi: You muck in as well. Do you like the trick? I have.

Laura Horton: Yeah, [00:38:15] I have, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Help yourself.

Leanna Best: It’s difficult to not want to do things.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [00:38:20] Yeah. Um, I have in with a client that I’ve worked with for over ten years now. [00:38:25] Yeah. Um, it was a disaster that morning. I think I’ve spoken about it on the podcast, and, yeah, I [00:38:30] ended up just taking over reception. Luckily, I knew the Dental software, but I was like, look, let me just check [00:38:35] people in, check them out, and you just sort everything else out because it had all gone wrong that morning and we all [00:38:40] still laugh about that now. That team, a long standing team. Um, but I think it helps [00:38:45] for the team to also understand that it’s not just the view of the practice manager or owner. [00:38:50] When we get to experience what they’re experiencing and we can say, you haven’t got [00:38:55] enough staff on the desk. Yeah, you know, how do you expect this fantastic experience [00:39:00] and mistakes not to be made when they’re under.

Payman Langroudi: Such pressure on demand? Yeah, [00:39:05] yeah. Do you agree with that?

Laura Horton: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: Compared to other businesses, [00:39:10] you feel that there’s not enough humans around.

Laura Horton: And the phone’s neglected, and then [00:39:15] you’re spending a fortune on marketing, and the phone’s neglected, and, you [00:39:20] know, it’s just crazy really, if you think about.

Payman Langroudi: It, if your practice has taken AI receptionists. [00:39:25]

Laura Horton: No, I’ve got one that’s about that’s about to move to it.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s interesting. [00:39:30]

Laura Horton: Yeah, I’m really interested in it. It was my recommendation to explore it because they have got logistical [00:39:35] issues, staff issues, space issues. And I said, I think this might be something [00:39:40] that’s worth exploring. Um, I’m really interested in it. [00:39:45]

Leanna Best: Yeah. For sure. That’d be really good to hear.

Laura Horton: Yeah, I think it will really solve some problems [00:39:50] for some practices for sure.

Payman Langroudi: You know, we’ve got one of those chatbots on our website.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [00:39:55]

Payman Langroudi: And we asked everyone to put out all the questions they ever get asked. [00:40:00]

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: All of enlighten. 27 questions. Wow. Same 27 questions [00:40:05] every time.

Leanna Best: Really?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And it’s so interesting because, you know, once you train the bot on those 27 [00:40:10] questions, answers them better than our people, right?

Laura Horton: Yeah. That’s amazing.

Payman Langroudi: Isn’t it interesting?

Laura Horton: Isn’t [00:40:15] it? That is really good, isn’t it? Yeah.

Leanna Best: I’m really intrigued to hear about this. This [00:40:20] venture your client’s about to go on.

Laura Horton: Yeah. Yeah, I’m really enjoying.

Payman Langroudi: The demo I saw was amazing. Yeah, [00:40:25] I guess they put on their best demo.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah, it was like you say. It’s how it’s trained, isn’t it? Yeah. [00:40:30] So it really does need to be trained with real calls for sure.

Payman Langroudi: I think the other thing is pretty soon [00:40:35] the it’s going to be bot to bot. Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So you’ll ask the [00:40:40] patient will ask their bot box and bot to bot, then you don’t have to worry about it being [00:40:45] human.

Laura Horton: Yeah, I’ll ask my bot to talk to your bot. Yeah, yeah.

Leanna Best: I don’t like that.

Laura Horton: Yeah, [00:40:50] but do you know one of the.

Leanna Best: I like the human touch?

Laura Horton: Oh, one of the biggest problems still will [00:40:55] always be the face to face customer service experience and how it’s delivered. Like, I [00:41:00] had the most shocking experience on Saturday. I went to.

Payman Langroudi: The.

Laura Horton: No, no, I went to test drive [00:41:05] two cars. Didn’t get to test drive either of them.

Leanna Best: Oh, no.

Laura Horton: Right. So the first one was Tesla [00:41:10] self test drive car wasn’t there and got my little [00:41:15] boy with me and we’re driving. He was really excited. Um, [00:41:20] and we’re driving round and round this car park and I’m like, well, the model I’ve booked to drive isn’t here. I can see that. And [00:41:25] then I got out and I was like, I’m so confused. And you’ve got to use this Tesla app, which obviously is new. I’ve [00:41:30] not used it before. And I’m thinking, what’s going on? And I’ve got reading glasses. Now I didn’t I didn’t [00:41:35] have them with me.

Payman Langroudi: Oh, God.

Laura Horton: So I’m like, what’s going on?

Payman Langroudi: Disaster.

Laura Horton: This guy comes up to me, he’s like, oh, excuse me, are you looking [00:41:40] to test drive a Tesla? And I looked at him and I thought, he’s not in work uniform. And I [00:41:45] said, yes. Are you like save myself? And he said, yeah, but my car’s not here. I said, no, no, it’s mine. [00:41:50] So um, I said, well, you know, so he, he said, oh, if you look on the app press [00:41:55] directions. And I said, well, it’s telling me it’s 28 minutes away in Chelmsford. I don’t [00:42:00] understand it. And he said, well, mine looks like it’s on its journey back. I said, oh right, okay. [00:42:05] I said, well mine’s not. And then I pressed another button. It said mine was on charge. I was like, mine’s in the Tesla showroom in Chelmsford. [00:42:10] It’s not here. I’m not going to get to test drive it. Called a number. No answer. I was like, [00:42:15] what a waste of my time. So then I go to mini. So my most favourite car I’ve ever had is my Mini [00:42:20] countryman. I wish I never got rid of it. I’m like, right, I’ll go and check out the Electric Mini Countryman. I [00:42:25] arrived ten minutes early and I see the guy getting in the car and going for a test drive with [00:42:30] someone else. I know it’s him because they send you the video the day before, don’t they? Here’s the car you’re looking [00:42:35] at like a little video overview. Can’t be bothered to watch that, but whatever. Thanks, Callum. And [00:42:40] I thought that’s Callum. That’s him. But also, [00:42:45] when I’ve been test driving cars recent times, you go on your own, you don’t come with you. Which I think is [00:42:50] great. So anyway, so I’m in there. I was in there and not one [00:42:55] person acknowledged me by icon. Even eye contact in the whole mini showroom. [00:43:00] They’re all dealing with people. And I was like, this is unbelievable.

Payman Langroudi: A [00:43:05] big purchase like that.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah. And he.

Payman Langroudi: You know, if you, if you, if you ask about bad customer [00:43:10] service, that’s just everywhere. Yeah. But this good customers this gets worse. [00:43:15] So that was the end of the story.

Laura Horton: Right. So I’ve booked my test drive online 1130. He [00:43:20] comes in at 1135. Can I help you? I said, yeah, I’ve got a test drive booked at half 11. He said, I’m going to be another [00:43:25] 15 minutes. I said, no, I don’t work for me. And he said, oh, well, um, sorry, but the people, [00:43:30] um, and we’ve now turned up late and she wasn’t confident driving. I was like, and. [00:43:35]

Payman Langroudi: And, uh.

Laura Horton: And I was like, why can’t you just give me the keys or sign the paper and take it [00:43:40] out? He said, no, I have to come with you now. And I was like, oh, whatever. Um, [00:43:45] I said, I’ve got two questions. One about the dash. I don’t like the colour, the other about [00:43:50] the wheels or something. I said, you know, and he answered them and he said, yeah, I’ll be 15 minutes. [00:43:55] I said, okay, because again, my little boy, bless him, was like, I want to be in the car. Um, [00:44:00] I’ll wait 20 minutes and walked out. He didn’t call.

Payman Langroudi: Didn’t even call.

Laura Horton: He didn’t.

Leanna Best: Call? [00:44:05]

Laura Horton: No. Didn’t call to see if I was maybe in BMW across the road, I was. Like, [00:44:10] do you know what I mean?

Payman Langroudi: Like, it’s basically BMW anyways.

Leanna Best: Yeah. [00:44:15]

Payman Langroudi: So they’re together.

Laura Horton: So I was like, well, I was like, let’s go and look at these M4 BMW that, [00:44:20] um, mummy probably can’t afford here and all the company car tax will be too high. So, um, [00:44:25] yeah, it didn’t, cause I just couldn’t believe it. And it’s I’ve put a one star Google review on [00:44:30] and now they won’t stop calling me. No, no, it.

Payman Langroudi: Was so shocking.

Laura Horton: It was so shocking. I was like, I’ve got. [00:44:35] But if you look at my Google review.

Leanna Best: I can’t wait. I’m going to look at it.

Laura Horton: I know I only ever give five star [00:44:40] Google reviews. So if you look as you can see what reviews people leave, can’t you? Yeah. So you can see, oh that person always [00:44:45] leaves one star. Mhm.

Leanna Best: You can see.

Laura Horton: Mine are all five star. I’m a nice person for reviews. Like [00:44:50] I was just so annoyed that no one even acknowledged me. You’re not even by eye contact. [00:44:55] It is so rude. It’s just. And. But this happens in practice. People [00:45:00] walk in, patients walk in, and someone sat behind a screen.

Payman Langroudi: There’s not.

Leanna Best: Enough. You had that. So. But I.

Payman Langroudi: Had. [00:45:05]

Leanna Best: A with a full capacity of staff on front of house. Yeah. And [00:45:10] I walked in nothing. And then I felt awkward.

Payman Langroudi: I was in a private practice.

Leanna Best: Yeah. [00:45:15] And then I sat down and I was thinking, I’ll wait, because they obviously know who I am. [00:45:20] Mhm. And then I went up again and I said I’m here to observe today. 000. [00:45:25] And then obviously the energy, the energy shifted. And I just thought well it’s not gone very well for you [00:45:30] has it.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Leanna Best: Because if, if you’re doing that now and you know I’m coming. Yeah. Then what are [00:45:35] you doing when I’m not here? Yeah. You know.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Leanna Best: And it’s just not good enough. I just don’t think [00:45:40] it’s that hard to deliver good experiences.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, but when was it? When was the last time you had a great [00:45:45] customer service?

Leanna Best: In May.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Uh, not.

Leanna Best: One bad experience.

Payman Langroudi: It’s [00:45:50] very rare. It’s very rare.

Laura Horton: I’m trying to think.

Leanna Best: But do you feel like because of our experiences [00:45:55] and what we also expect from our point of view, are bars high? [00:46:00]

Laura Horton: Yeah, I think my expectation is high.

Payman Langroudi: It is. But but there should I mean, there’s, you [00:46:05] know, come on. There should be, there should be there should be lots more great [00:46:10] customer service.

Laura Horton: There should be. Yeah. And we really don’t do enough in this country. No. Do you know one [00:46:15] of the things.

Payman Langroudi: But then also remember this? Yeah. We don’t like the hotel you stayed at in Dubai. You’re [00:46:20] not routinely going to hotels.

Leanna Best: Like, everywhere I went.

Payman Langroudi: In.

Leanna Best: Britain, the newsagents I went in [00:46:25] in the mall.

Payman Langroudi: The service was hired out. I went [00:46:30] to Manoir aux Quat’saisons. The service was extraordinary. [00:46:35] Extraordinary.

Laura Horton: Can you tell us?

Leanna Best: Give us an example.

Laura Horton: Was it a celebration? I’m assuming. [00:46:40] Or a bucket list?

Payman Langroudi: No, no, no, my my buddies have moved away. [00:46:45] And then they all said, oh, we haven’t. Our kids don’t even know each other. Let’s go to a hotel [00:46:50] with the kids. And it was two days before Easter. And then he called and he said, I’ve got good news [00:46:55] and I’ve got bad news. Good news is I found a hotel. Bad news? It’s this place. [00:47:00] And it was like the biggest number I’d ever heard per night. Yeah.

Laura Horton: Bring your credit card.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [00:47:05]

Laura Horton: Or two.

Payman Langroudi: But the way they handled it, because we had a bunch of naughty kids [00:47:10] and there was a bunch of celebrations going on. People. People go there for big events.

Laura Horton: They do. [00:47:15]

Payman Langroudi: Wedding anniversary. And the guy just. He was showing us around, and he went, and this is the library. And [00:47:20] then some kid bounced the ball. Yeah. And I saw him notice that. He stayed [00:47:25] calm. And this is. And kids were making too much noise, and they basically decided just to cordon [00:47:30] us off from everyone else. But in an amazing way. Yeah, like they put you [00:47:35] in this other room, which was, like, even more amazing than the room that you were going to go to for breakfast. And [00:47:40] there they put a PlayStation and they just managed us so well. [00:47:45]

Leanna Best: Yeah. Without making you feel like an inconvenience at all?

Payman Langroudi: At all you felt like a VIP. [00:47:50]

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: And what’s interesting is you haven’t mentioned the food yet.

Payman Langroudi: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. [00:47:55]

Laura Horton: It’s experience first, isn’t it?

Payman Langroudi: I mean, from the first moment [00:48:00] the doctor Langroudi. We’ve been expecting you. You know, because they ask for [00:48:05] your number plate or whatever. Yeah. And then somehow everything gets done for you. Toys [00:48:10] holding up the names of the kids in the rooms, you know, like, just brilliant. [00:48:15]

Leanna Best: Just brilliant. Wow.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: That was the best in Britain.

Leanna Best: Mhm.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [00:48:20]

Payman Langroudi: But the rest of Europe.

Laura Horton: I’d love to. I’d love to go there. Yeah. I really would. It’d [00:48:25] be amazing.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Good for.

Laura Horton: You. Yeah. I really want to go. Yeah, it’s on my list. One day of things [00:48:30] to do. Ash went there years ago. I think it was his wedding anniversary and just absolutely raved about it. [00:48:35] It was. And yeah, he’s like, it’s the best thing. He’s.

Payman Langroudi: It’s the kind of thing you need to, like, take your staff to see what [00:48:40] what is amazing service, you know.

Laura Horton: So on that then. Yeah. That again is, [00:48:45] I think, something that practices don’t do enough of if they want to elevate their basic [00:48:50] customer service. Take your team I know it’s nice to go bowling things like [00:48:55] that.

Leanna Best: It’s not nice to go bowling.

Laura Horton: You know not no one wants to put their shoes on. Um, [00:49:00] they’re.

Leanna Best: Not there anymore.

Laura Horton: No, they brought them back in. I said I’m not putting them on. It’s not happening. But [00:49:05] isn’t it nice that I think some of the things that ash did with us is, you know, took [00:49:10] us to nice to a nice restaurant for dinner. Mhm. Um, and we really appreciated [00:49:15] it because it might be a restaurant that we wouldn’t go to normally. Yeah. Um, because it’s [00:49:20] not Miller and Carter, you know, and we’re team members and to go to this nice restaurant [00:49:25] and be treated nicely and get to experience all of that. I think that’s invaluable. [00:49:30] To go and show your team.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, and not only from the perspective of learning, [00:49:35] but also from like a respect perspective. Yeah, like the idea that I, me and my partners, [00:49:40] the directors go to this nice place, but then if we’re going with the team, we don’t go to that [00:49:45] place. It shows a disrespect for your team, you know, because at the end of the day, that [00:49:50] respect point is the most important point. If you want to get your team to do anything, [00:49:55] they’ve got to feel like you respect them. Yeah, yeah. And this sort of thing shows it. I [00:50:00] mean, I think the main thing is how you talk to them and all of that. It’s really important that you mustn’t ever [00:50:05] use the fact that you are the boss as the weapon.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. And we see a lot of that in dentistry.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah, [00:50:10] definitely.

Payman Langroudi: A lot of that dentistry.

Laura Horton: So where do you think great cultures are created from [00:50:15] then? Do you think it’s the top? Where do you see?

Payman Langroudi: I think so. I think so.

Laura Horton: It has to be, [00:50:20] doesn’t it? It’s leadership, isn’t it?

Payman Langroudi: I think so, um, although that said, the [00:50:25] bigger the organisation gets, the much harder it becomes.

Laura Horton: Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: You know, and [00:50:30] I know corporates have had such a bad rep in dentistry, but they’ve [00:50:35] fixed their game up. And I sort of take my hat off to them sometimes, you know, like you go [00:50:40] to my dentist sometimes it’s like 600 practices and good morale [00:50:45] going on in those. I’m sure there’s some that aren’t good morale. There were many [00:50:50] that weren’t good morale before.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, and I noticed that myself when we got to [00:50:55] about 40 employees, it started to get much harder when everyone [00:51:00] doesn’t know everyone on a personal basis.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And then we worked on it, and [00:51:05] we made it again. But but, you know, let’s say it’s 140. You know, plenty of people who’ve [00:51:10] got ten practices. It’s 300 employees. Whatever. It is.

Laura Horton: Really hard.

Payman Langroudi: The bigger it gets [00:51:15] the harder it gets. Um, I also want to ask another question.

Laura Horton: Go on. I [00:51:20] can’t help.

Leanna Best: It.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve only worked in 4 or 5 practices as an employee and actually be [00:51:25] there as an associate. And even in those 4 or 5 practices, a good number of them there [00:51:30] was two power bases.

Leanna Best: Mhm.

Payman Langroudi: Mhm. Does that resonate.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: That question of like [00:51:35] there might be a practice manager and this head nurse. Yeah. And all their [00:51:40] teams work for them.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And kind of some woman on woman [00:51:45] violence.

Leanna Best: Yeah yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Leanna Best: Woman.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Leanna Best: So true. [00:51:50] Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah. What’s worse, though, is when it’s the practice manager and the, like, head [00:51:55] nurse together.

Leanna Best: Oh, well, then that’s even more power.

Payman Langroudi: Is much of your work solving [00:52:00] these problems?

Laura Horton: I think we.

Leanna Best: Do a lot.

Payman Langroudi: Of good [00:52:05] at it.

Laura Horton: You’re so good. We do, don’t we? And the practice owners are usually a bit stuck [00:52:10] in the sense of they don’t have the time. They know what they want. They know how they want their team to [00:52:15] feel. They want all of these wonderful things for their teams. It’s not that they’re not wanting to buy them [00:52:20] a microwave. They want all of these things. It’s just how do they make it a reality? And [00:52:25] it’s about understanding how you can break things down into [00:52:30] smaller, achievable points. Because I think the other problem then is [00:52:35] the practice owners, the vision, big thinker, big picture person, and they present [00:52:40] a big picture when actually the team needs smaller bite sized chunks to move forward with. [00:52:45]

Payman Langroudi: I’m guilty.

Leanna Best: Of that.

Laura Horton: Yeah. And then we’re not overwhelming them. And I think when [00:52:50] the team can also really see that there’s investment in them, particularly the reception team, because [00:52:55] they tend to be overlooked quite a lot. And when they can see there’s investment in them, it builds [00:53:00] starts to build that level of respect. I really love the Five Levels [00:53:05] of Leadership by John C Maxwell. Have you ever read that at all? It’s absolutely amazing. I use [00:53:10] it all in management training because it’s a guide to help you become a level five leader, [00:53:15] which is a big thing. Um, I always say aim for level four. Like let’s get [00:53:20] to level four with everyone within your team. And it’s basically about not just [00:53:25] so level one is I’m the boss. Do as you say. Level two is we found some common ground. [00:53:30] So I actually like you because we both like EastEnders. Okay. Um, and [00:53:35] then level three is about what you’ve done for them. So if you’re then progressing [00:53:40] that person supporting their development doesn’t have to be about putting them on courses, but just helping them grow individually. [00:53:45] Then you’re moving up and then level four is what you’ve done for the organisation so they can see [00:53:50] you do good for the team, but you also do good for the business overall, which naturally benefits them [00:53:55] with pay rises, further education, nice restaurants, things like that.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:54:00] level five.

Laura Horton: Level five is to me like Nelson Mandela.

Leanna Best: I knew you were [00:54:05] going to use him. Yeah.

Laura Horton: So level five is, um, someone who. So I tell [00:54:10] you who’s a level five leader to me has always been ash. Um, because it’s about what he stands [00:54:15] for in regards to the greater good as well. Um, as well as [00:54:20] level three and four, um, and what they do for others and, and that type of [00:54:25] aspect as well. But I think if practice managers and owners can get to level four, that’s [00:54:30] really great for them and it really helps them. And so I would always draw [00:54:35] out the steps and get them to right where they are with each person, and then they can start. They’ve got their own plan now, [00:54:40] right? I’m level one with this person. I’ve got to get to level two as quickly as possible. Um, right. I’m already level four with them. [00:54:45] Great. Cool. We’ve got a great relationship.

Payman Langroudi: Um, so it’s individual per person.

Laura Horton: That’s what I would then get them to [00:54:50] do.

Leanna Best: Because your relationship can be quite strained with someone.

Payman Langroudi: With a particular.

Leanna Best: Person.

Laura Horton: And we’re naturally [00:54:55] drawn to those, those level four, level three relationships will naturally be drawn to anyway. We’re going to give each other a good energy every [00:55:00] day, aren’t we?

Leanna Best: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura Horton: The level one person, um, we’re not we’re [00:55:05] not passing good energy across here. We’ve got to move it quite quickly. I found that book [00:55:10] absolutely fascinating when I read it.

Payman Langroudi: It was the author.

Laura Horton: John C Maxwell.

Leanna Best: Were you [00:55:15] a PM when you read it?

Laura Horton: Uh, no, I wasn’t, but straight away. So I was [00:55:20] in consultancy, but straight away I was like, this is now a method for leadership development, which [00:55:25] everyone needs. Yeah, everyone needs this. So I’ve taught this for years on to managers and practice [00:55:30] owners because it is it is a method and it’s steps that you can climb to.

Leanna Best: To.

Laura Horton: Bring [00:55:35] everyone together.

Leanna Best: I think sometimes when you get that divide, especially with a PM versus the team, [00:55:40] say for instance, or PM and owner is almost like, are you accessible enough as a [00:55:45] PM? Are you just shut away in your office and then you’re only available now and then and [00:55:50] you pop out, but you’re busy and you’re doing stuff and you don’t really have that open dialogue with the team. And [00:55:55] then if you don’t always explain things and they just find out that [00:56:00] then creates a really negative like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And will you PM as well.

Leanna Best: Yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And [00:56:05] you were PM as well.

Leanna Best: Yeah I was a short time because then I progressed onto [00:56:10] a sort of lead of a corporate small corporate for their tcos, which was much better suited to [00:56:15] me anyway.

Payman Langroudi: Tough job.

Leanna Best: Tough job. Horrible.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, really? I had Mark Allen, you [00:56:20] know, from Bupa. Yeah, yeah. And he’s been in a whole lot of corporate, you know, he’s a proper corporate guy. An [00:56:25] insurance guy. Yeah. He said PM’s the hardest job.

Laura Horton: Yeah, it’s the hardest job because you’ve got [00:56:30] to be non-emotional. Yeah, you’ve got to be non-emotional. Yeah. Because you’re in management. Yeah. [00:56:35] But you’re also expected to be providing leadership, which is emotional. Leadership [00:56:40] takes time. You’re already fighting fires all day long. As a manager you haven’t got the time. Yeah. [00:56:45] And it’s a constant tug of war. It really, really is. It’s a really hard job. [00:56:50]

Leanna Best: And especially if you’ve become a PA and you were a nurse originally or [00:56:55] front of house. Yeah. Because then all of a sudden you’ve changed roles within the same business with the same people. [00:57:00] And what were your friend colleagues who now.

Payman Langroudi: Know suddenly you’re their boss? [00:57:05]

Leanna Best: Yeah. Yeah. And also I’ve seen that happen. Not with me. It was with colleague and she managed [00:57:10] to switch it really well, but there was a really difficult time period and I felt for her. I [00:57:15] was a I, we had a level four relationship anyway, so it didn’t really impact me. But I used [00:57:20] to see her and think, oh, she’s really suffering with this. It’s quite difficult. Um, so yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily [00:57:25] like to have that journey.

Laura Horton: But PMS, they’re not often given any training either. No, they’re [00:57:30] just chucked in. Some haven’t even got a job description and they’re just chucked in. Oh you’ll, you know great. [00:57:35] You’ve been here the longest. You can be my practice manager. There’s no job description. There’s no [00:57:40] clear. They’re just fighting fires all day long that I feel sorry for that, that reactive management. [00:57:45] Whereas if you can move someone into proactive management it’s really lovely. And then [00:57:50] they really do start to enjoy their jobs every day. You’ve got to have some reactivity. Of course you have things [00:57:55] break, things go wrong. It’s practice.

Leanna Best: Dentistry.

Laura Horton: Dentistry, but [00:58:00] trying to move things into being proactive. But some people don’t help themselves either, do they? They won’t [00:58:05] delegate. They take it all. I’m going to take it all. I’m going to take all of this on. I’m not delegating [00:58:10] a thing. This is all mine. It’s like, well, you’ve got a team of people that can save you three hours a [00:58:15] day and feel valued because you’re you’re asking them to help you. No, no. [00:58:20] And that’s a mindset issue.

Payman Langroudi: But out of the roles, I mean PM’s got so many different roles. Exactly. Out of [00:58:25] the roles, which are the ones that are like the key ones? The ones, the ones that for you define the difference [00:58:30] between like a good PM and a great PM.

Laura Horton: So for me, a good [00:58:35] practice manager is one that gives time to leadership, is proactive who trains [00:58:40] their team, delegates to their team, builds their roles up, and that allows them to [00:58:45] do the leadership to be that leader. Because you can’t you can’t do both. [00:58:50] And that’s the problem with leadership. It takes time. You need to be able to give time to that every day, to [00:58:55] be with your team every day, to be speaking to your team every day. If you’re as I.

Payman Langroudi: But get specific, I mean, as [00:59:00] far as delegate, delegate, which aspects.

Laura Horton: Any little tasks you look at your task list, what can [00:59:05] someone else in my team can someone else in my team do this for me? Okay, they’re probably not going to do the wages for you because it’s confidential [00:59:10] information. But can they, you know, scan in and upload some [00:59:15] receipts to zero? Yes. You know, there’s so many things that practice managers [00:59:20] do that they can actually delegate to their team. And it’s very simple things. [00:59:25] It’s more admin based tasks because a practice manager doesn’t want to be an administrator. [00:59:30] No, they are practice manager. They should be managing the practice. They should be leading the practice.

Payman Langroudi: And do you believe [00:59:35] in the hiring and firing of the of the non non-clinical or even the nurses? Do you think the manager [00:59:40] should be making those decisions.

Laura Horton: In regards to hiring? I [00:59:45] think everyone should be involved in hiring, so the whole team should be involved in [00:59:50] it.

Payman Langroudi: Meet the how involved.

Laura Horton: So what I used to do was someone would arrive for an interview, [00:59:55] they’d come in, they’d um, first of all be met by the team. I’d always do them [01:00:00] at the end of the day interviews as well, so they’d be met by the team. Someone in the team would get to sit and talk to them, [01:00:05] and then they’d come in and be like, yeah, she was a she anyway. But she, you know, [01:00:10] she seems really nice. See I’ve got a good feeling. Okay. Or they’d come in [01:00:15] and I’d be like, okay, well look. Stage one interview, a bit of a chat. Get [01:00:20] the awkward things out of the way. This is your pay. These are your hours. And then they’d get a tour by [01:00:25] someone else, and someone else would be able to chat to them. And if the team were like, absolutely no [01:00:30] way. First impressions, they’re not for us, then I wouldn’t take it any further. If the [01:00:35] team said, yeah, I think, I think she’s good. And I obviously agreed as well. Okay, let’s [01:00:40] get them back for a second interview and then we’ll take it forward.

Payman Langroudi: But you think that I mean, the principle.

Laura Horton: Doesn’t [01:00:45] need.

Payman Langroudi: Doesn’t.

Laura Horton: Need to be involved.

Payman Langroudi: We did that. Really?

Leanna Best: Yeah. We did that with Neil. Yeah. And [01:00:50] but the difference was it would be if it was a nurse, the nurses would interview [01:00:55] them. And then the second interview was with the manager. Yeah. Neil wouldn’t get involved [01:01:00] because he would just stress us all out. He wouldn’t look for the same things that [01:01:05] we’re looking for. And at the end of the day, they’ve got their, um, probationary period [01:01:10] anyway. So if they don’t work, we’ve got that to look after us, so to speak. And then when I became [01:01:15] TCO, it was myself and manager that would interview, and then it would just end with [01:01:20] us.

Payman Langroudi: And the, you know, the situation of you hire someone, [01:01:25] okay. They get through that probationary period. How soon do you fire them if they’re incorrect? [01:01:30]

Laura Horton: Quite quickly I would yeah. So I’d always do. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So I kind of figure it [01:01:35] out quite quickly. You don’t you don’t, you don’t start making excuses for them, you know like changing their situation [01:01:40] or.

Leanna Best: I think Laura doesn’t. But I think that does happen.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So happens a lot.

Laura Horton: Yeah. This is what [01:01:45] I’ve learned, right. Six months probation.

Payman Langroudi: Six months.

Laura Horton: Six months. Because after [01:01:50] four months people can’t keep up the act any longer. So if they’re acting [01:01:55] that they’re.

Payman Langroudi: No. I thought maybe like in the first week you realised, oh.

Laura Horton: In the first week phone in.

Payman Langroudi: Sick.

Laura Horton: Do you really, [01:02:00] really shouldn’t you.

Payman Langroudi: If on day one someone turns up ten minutes late. Is that a [01:02:05] big red flag?

Laura Horton: So straight away we’ve got a contractual issue. So straight away it needs to be an inform. [01:02:10] I love HR here. Are you ready? Straight away. It’s into an informal meeting, so just confirm your start [01:02:15] time is 9 a.m.. You should be here. Changed. Ready to work for 9 a.m. today? [01:02:20] You’ve arrived at 9:10. What’s the situation? What’s happened today? Because you [01:02:25] have a bit of empathy.

Payman Langroudi: My bus, my bus, my bus.

Laura Horton: Yeah. Okay. So how are we going to avoid this happening again? You [01:02:30] can get up a bit earlier, set your alarm clock. Stop snoozing it. Yeah. Get an earlier bus. Fantastic. [01:02:35] And then hopefully it doesn’t happen again.

Payman Langroudi: And then let’s say in four weeks time, it happens again.

Laura Horton: We’ve got another contractual issue so [01:02:40] then we can move it forward. So I’d be calling the HR company I need to move this forward now. This is [01:02:45] normal. Yeah. Yeah because it’s contractual issue.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Yeah I like that.

Laura Horton: You’re an employee.

Leanna Best: It’s because if you don’t [01:02:50] it can spiral and become a culture.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah I get it I get it.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah. So so then you can [01:02:55] start moving into warnings and such. But this is where managers need training again isn’t it. It’s [01:03:00] the communication.

Payman Langroudi: It’s a common situation, right? Because so many people are late.

Laura Horton: And.

Leanna Best: I think [01:03:05] they get away with it.

Laura Horton: Yeah. And then you’ve got flexible working requests now as well so people can submit them more frequently [01:03:10] now.

Payman Langroudi: I think, you know, you guys have to also be aware I mean, you are aware [01:03:15] of it, right? My teams, most of my teams come in 1 or [01:03:20] 2 days a week. Yeah. Yeah. And the rest of the time, they’re at home.

Leanna Best: Yeah. [01:03:25] And I bet they work for longer at home. Not necessarily.

Payman Langroudi: Well, the reason why it’s working [01:03:30] for us is because our office is in Camden, and some of them were driving, like, [01:03:35] or tubing an hour and a half to get there and an hour and a half to get back. That’s [01:03:40] hard. Yeah. A waste of life. Exactly. And, you know, the cumulative waste of life. [01:03:45] Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s expensive, right? So they were living in all sorts of miles and miles [01:03:50] and miles away just to come to Camden and work. And we I sat with my partner and [01:03:55] said, look, the cumulative time that these people are travelling. It [01:04:00] was like 45 hours. It’s stupid. Yeah. A day of travel [01:04:05] was happening, and I was saying, even if one third of that is sort of [01:04:10] helping us somehow, that’s sort of worth it. But what my point is clinical [01:04:15] teams have to turn up.

Laura Horton: Yeah, they’ve got to. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And they see their friends who work at enlighten. [01:04:20]

Laura Horton: Yeah. Yeah yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And and so.

Laura Horton: They’re at the gym at 730.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, [01:04:25] yeah. And by the way, it’s so, so so we know there’s a recruitment [01:04:30] crisis in dentistry. I think it’s everywhere. Yeah. But this fact, the fact that you’ve [01:04:35] got to be there every day when they look around at their friends and we’re different. I mean, two days [01:04:40] a week, it’s one day or two days a week. It’s very little. Most companies are doing four.

Leanna Best: Yeah, [01:04:45] four.

Payman Langroudi: Days a.

Laura Horton: Week.

Payman Langroudi: But there is one day off.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Off?

Laura Horton: Yeah. Working from.

Payman Langroudi: Home. Working from. [01:04:50]

Laura Horton: Home? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Whereas whereas our nurses and receptionists and things can’t do that. Right. And so [01:04:55] there must be some empathy for that or some pay rise for that. And [01:05:00] this is the awful thing. Dentistry. It’s the lowest paid job. Being a [01:05:05] dental nurse of of many jobs and one of the hardest jobs. Nurses are the [01:05:10] ones running the whole show.

Laura Horton: It’s really hard. Really hard job.

Leanna Best: Really? Really hard. Yeah. And [01:05:15] especially if you’ve got a huge practice and you’re Bankston from different dentists who have completely different needs [01:05:20] communicate completely differently. And every day you’re adapting.

Payman Langroudi: You [01:05:25] told me that you were sent in with with all the difficult dentists that you could [01:05:30] handle anyone.

Laura Horton: Yeah. Yeah. To love it.

Leanna Best: It’s not my story.

Payman Langroudi: But tell me. Tell me about [01:05:35] times where, like, a dentist has been rude. Just like.

Leanna Best: I.

Payman Langroudi: Pulled rank or something. [01:05:40]

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s very common, isn’t it?

Leanna Best: Yeah. Not so much now, I don’t think. Um, [01:05:45] well, maybe the last.

Payman Langroudi: Not anymore though.

Leanna Best: No. When I was nursing, in the end, [01:05:50] a lot of it, um, was women. And they were younger than me. So there was a different dynamic, [01:05:55] maybe.

Payman Langroudi: Female on female violence again.

Leanna Best: No, no, it was female on female love. It was it.

Payman Langroudi: Was.

Leanna Best: Love. [01:06:00]

Payman Langroudi: It was love. Okay, good.

Leanna Best: But yeah, most of if I’ve ever had a bad experience, it was with [01:06:05] an older male, and I would just shut down and become like a child and would be. [01:06:10] Yeah. Yeah, I’d be really nervous. Yeah. I wouldn’t be able to react in the way that I [01:06:15] would normally react if I wasn’t in work. Um, and I just wouldn’t say anything at all. But [01:06:20] then that would quite quickly be obvious to them and they’d say, are you okay? And I’d be like, [01:06:25] oh, not really. But never really explain. I was quite frightened, to be honest.

Payman Langroudi: Invoked something [01:06:30] from your childhood.

Leanna Best: Maybe. Yeah. I was just like, no, absolutely not. I’m not. I’m not going to [01:06:35] say anything. I’ll just shut down.

Laura Horton: I think most nurses do, though, when they’re spoken to [01:06:40] in a, you know, unprofessional manner. Most nurses, particularly younger nurses, [01:06:45] will just see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think maybe because I was.

Leanna Best: There from a young age. [01:06:50]

Laura Horton: Yeah. And they’ll then they’ll as soon as they walk out the door. Cry. Yeah. Walking home. You [01:06:55] know they won’t say anything.

Payman Langroudi: I’ve had several dentists now who did nursing because of the, you know, [01:07:00] overseas thing.

Laura Horton: Yes. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: One of them told me when I said, what did you learn about [01:07:05] being a nurse? Because, you know. And she said, do you know that time when [01:07:10] you grabbed the suction off the nurse? That’s really hurtful.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And I never [01:07:15] thought that. I never even for a second, for a second thought there’d be any problem with [01:07:20] me taking the suction. And because you know.

Leanna Best: What you need.

Payman Langroudi: I’m [01:07:25] not saying anything about what you’re doing.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I just have to take care of the situation. And she said it’s so, [01:07:30] so painful when that happens because you feel like you’re not doing your job right. And it’s interesting.

Leanna Best: The names of [01:07:35] things don’t change the name because I don’t know what you mean this time. I had a dentist that I.

Payman Langroudi: Worked when they asked [01:07:40] for a particular thing with a different name.

Leanna Best: A different name. And I’m like, where is that? And they’re like, you know, [01:07:45] the thing? And I’m thinking, no, I don’t know because it’s a different name. Yeah.

Laura Horton: And charting, you know, you’ve [01:07:50] now got the European charting, you know, and you’ve got one dentist doing that and another [01:07:55] doing what I call the normal. Yeah. And you’re like, oh, hang on, which is, which is tooth [01:08:00] number 11 again. Hang on, hang on a minute. You know.

Payman Langroudi: By the way, I go into practice and ask nurses, [01:08:05] do you notice the same dentist all the time or different and much more common that it’s different dentists.

Laura Horton: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Why [01:08:10] doesn’t make any sense.

Leanna Best: I think to maybe you’ve got flexibility. Flexibility? [01:08:15] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And not in my life if I, if when I was a dentist and I haven’t been dentist for 13, 14 [01:08:20] years when I was a dentist, if you took my nurse away, that would really hurt like hell. Because we knew we knew [01:08:25] what we were.

Leanna Best: Because you were nice, though. So she liked.

Payman Langroudi: Or I was like, but but I’m saying I [01:08:30] needed her. Like I really needed her full handed. Like she used to do the [01:08:35] shade.

Laura Horton: Bit.

Payman Langroudi: Like she used to do a bunch of stuff. For me that was important. And when she wasn’t there, it was a nightmare [01:08:40] because.

Laura Horton: So do you know the reason the practices are doing that is because they’re getting everyone [01:08:45] trained to the same level. That’s what they’re trying to do, so that every nurse is like your nurse now. [01:08:50]

Leanna Best: Yeah, we all worked exactly the same.

Laura Horton: That’s what they’re doing. Yeah. Every nurse is working to the same clinical [01:08:55] standard. That’s what that’s that’s.

Payman Langroudi: Possible because there’s so many nuances. Each [01:09:00] dentist has got their own.

Laura Horton: It depends how many dentists are in the practice. It’s quite hard or the or the exact [01:09:05] opposite happens, which is the dentists are running the show and the nurses are not, you know, and they are [01:09:10] there just to have the suction and pass what’s needed. So it can go either [01:09:15] way. But when I’ve done it, it’s the nurse. Everyone’s trained to the same level. Everyone can nurse with each dentist at [01:09:20] the same level. So it’s not there to stress the dentist.

Payman Langroudi: When we trained in Cardiff, the [01:09:25] it’s just so happened we became really pals with the nurses on the full handed [01:09:30] part of the clinic. Yeah. So they used to just save us the chairs. And so I only learnt [01:09:35] forehanded. Yeah. I didn’t learn anything else.

Laura Horton: That must have been really stressful then when you weren’t with a full handed [01:09:40] nurse.

Payman Langroudi: The first day of first day of. Yeah, I get there and I just put [01:09:45] my hands out like a like a the princess. And she.

Leanna Best: Went.

Payman Langroudi: She went. What are you doing? And [01:09:50] I said.

Laura Horton: Instruments.

Leanna Best: Please.

Payman Langroudi: You look like. Hello. [01:09:55] And then. And then she goes, they’re over there like, on my side. And I wasn’t even like it was my [01:10:00] first day of. I had no idea what to move. I said, no, no, no, no, no, I can’t have these here. These have to be on your side. [01:10:05]

Leanna Best: No. Can I be there?

Payman Langroudi: And do you know what she did? Got up and quit. Quit [01:10:10] the job? Yeah. Now it wasn’t me. I think it was. It was a straw. It was the straw that [01:10:15] broke the camel’s back. She said I’ve had enough of this shit. Just.

Leanna Best: Just quit. Quit the [01:10:20] job.

Payman Langroudi: So then the principal’s coming in. First patient, first day. Yeah. My nurses just got up [01:10:25] and walked out and said, what the hell did you say to her? And I was like, I just said, [01:10:30] hold it.

Leanna Best: Please. Can I have my instrument?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

Leanna Best: Were you [01:10:35] precious about the pressure, the way they put it in your hand?

Payman Langroudi: No, man. No no.

Leanna Best: No.

Payman Langroudi: Okay, good. You know, by the time I said, [01:10:40] oh, you do this and this to switch it and I’m out. Oh.

Laura Horton: Were [01:10:45] you upset that day?

Payman Langroudi: God! First job, first moment, first moment. Yeah. Oh. [01:10:50]

Leanna Best: That’s so sad.

Payman Langroudi: That should have been my confession.

Leanna Best: That shouldn’t be.

Laura Horton: So we’re [01:10:55] gonna have to move on anyway. Let’s do your confession. Confession [01:11:05] of a dentist or what?

Payman Langroudi: No, no no, no. It’s a funny one. It’s a funny one.

Leanna Best: Go on.

Payman Langroudi: Then. So, do [01:11:10] you remember from when we started enlightened? An enlightened one from. We started [01:11:15] enlightened till 2012 to 2000 and 1 to 2012. Bleaching [01:11:20] was illegal.

Laura Horton: Yes, I do remember because it was the state trading standards [01:11:25] that stopped it, didn’t they? Because someone got a bit on their trousers.

Payman Langroudi: Well, it was illegal. The law. The [01:11:30] written law was 0.1 percent. Yeah, but then we all ignored [01:11:35] that, right? All practices ignored that and suppliers ignored that. Some suppliers [01:11:40] ignored that. Actually, we managed to grow a lot in that period. You know. Big companies wouldn’t break the law. [01:11:45] And we managed to to grow a lot. And, you know, the way I thought about it was [01:11:50] either you’re going to bleach teeth or you’re going to put veneers on them. Yeah. And I will I will go to [01:11:55] court to say I was bleaching the teeth. It’s better than sticking veneers on them or whatever it is. Anyway, [01:12:00] um, one day I think it was employee number two, so [01:12:05] maybe we were just one year in and, uh, she came in and said, [01:12:10] oh, by the way, this stuff’s, um, by the letter of the law. It’s [01:12:15] it’s illegal. And it was it was a time the office was the size of [01:12:20] this studio here. Like, that was the whole of enlightened was the studio. This room here. And I said, [01:12:25] by the way, yeah, there’s this thing that, you know, don’t worry about it at all. It’s just nothing. [01:12:30] And at the time we were to get around this law, we were separating [01:12:35] the peroxide from the gel.

Laura Horton: Ah, I remember this.

Payman Langroudi: We were doing in-office whitening with the light.

Leanna Best: Yeah, [01:12:40] yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And we were separating. We were, we were telling the dentist, go buy peroxide chemical [01:12:45] from wherever. Yeah, but we had some peroxide around in the office [01:12:50] for demos. Yeah. Anyway, it was just one room and all the [01:12:55] stuff was in the same room. Like, we didn’t have a warehouse. It was just. It was a tiny business at the time. We [01:13:00] had 30 customers or something. So I’m explaining to employee number two. Yeah. And [01:13:05] with my wife was there as well. She used to work in the business at the same time. So, yeah, it’s just it’s a letter of the law. Don’t worry. [01:13:10] It’s nothing. It’s a nothing. But. But you should. But you should know. You should know. And so [01:13:15] she sort of raised an eyebrow. Okay. And then it was a serviced office, and we got a [01:13:20] call from the thing saying trading standards are here, and Trade Standard [01:13:25] never visited us before.

Leanna Best: That moment when you’re just.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. As I was explaining. Yeah. And then my wife [01:13:30] goes the peroxide, the peroxide, and she starts taking [01:13:35] it off the shelves. And just that moment, that face of that employee number two. [01:13:40] When she saw us running around, she stayed for.

Leanna Best: Years.

Payman Langroudi: But [01:13:45] her face that day. I’ll never forget.

Leanna Best: That. Can you imagine me.

Payman Langroudi: At Fawlty [01:13:50] Towers? Oh.

Laura Horton: And what happened?

Payman Langroudi: Nothing.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [01:13:55]

Payman Langroudi: Nothing. Nothing. Nothing bad.

Laura Horton: You said there’s no peroxide here, mate. [01:14:00] Move on.

Payman Langroudi: No, I actually, I actually had to. I said to him, he said it’s [01:14:05] a safety concern. And then I said, do you know not every yellow line is there for a safety [01:14:10] concern. And and then and then I told him in America it’s [01:14:15] 200 times. And he was like looking at his notes. You know, we we [01:14:20] talked about it. We talked about it.

Laura Horton: That’s a good.

Payman Langroudi: Thing. Yeah. It turned out okay. But just that moment was the funniest [01:14:25] moment.

Leanna Best: Oh how funny. I love that. I’ve never told that story before. Just as [01:14:30] you’re talking about it.

Laura Horton: They turn.

Leanna Best: Up. What are the chances?

Payman Langroudi: The way we ran around to get rid of this peroxide. [01:14:35]

Leanna Best: Peroxide? I love that.

Payman Langroudi: On her first.

Leanna Best: Day.

Laura Horton: I [01:14:40] think that’s brilliant. I like the.

Leanna Best: Four handed dentistry one as well.

Laura Horton: Yeah, that’s really good. Really good story. [01:14:45] Okay, [01:14:50] time for quick fire questions. Let’s get [01:14:55] to know you a little bit more. I’ve been having a great time here today. Very good, very good. Okay, [01:15:00] so, um, the first one I think is quite funny. Books or podcasts?

Payman Langroudi: I [01:15:05] sleep with headphones on.

Laura Horton: Um, [01:15:10] early riser or night owl?

Payman Langroudi: Night night. 1,000%.

Leanna Best: Really? [01:15:15]

Laura Horton: Right, right. What time do you tend to stay up till then?

Payman Langroudi: One. Two.

Laura Horton: Really? [01:15:20]

Payman Langroudi: If you leave me to my own devices. During Covid, I stayed up to four. [01:15:25]

Laura Horton: Wow.

Leanna Best: Doing what?

Payman Langroudi: Just listening. Pods. You know, like.

Leanna Best: Having [01:15:30] a lovely time.

Payman Langroudi: Flicking. Flicking? Yeah, I’m basically scrolling and listening to podcasts at the same [01:15:35] time.

Leanna Best: Lovely.

Laura Horton: What time? Like on a working week. Then say you’ll stay up to say one. What time [01:15:40] do you get up?

Payman Langroudi: Um. One thing I decided about seven years [01:15:45] ago was never to use an alarm again.

Laura Horton: Right. Wow.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. So I like to wake up on [01:15:50] a trail.

Leanna Best: Oh. That’s lovely. No, not waking up to shock.

Payman Langroudi: Just for no. So everyone [01:15:55] knows my first meeting is 11.

Laura Horton: Right. Okay.

Payman Langroudi: You know, so I don’t have I don’t have a nine or a ten meeting, so. [01:16:00] But I’m up but I’m up. I’m up at, like.

Laura Horton: Wake up. Naturally. Yeah. Living the dream.

Leanna Best: So [01:16:05] you’ve got low sleep needs then really get older.

Payman Langroudi: You’ll find the same thing.

Leanna Best: My dad used to say that to me. Yeah. [01:16:10]

Laura Horton: I. What are you.

Leanna Best: I used to [01:16:15] be early morning, but now I’m more night because I feel very tired since having children.

Payman Langroudi: I think it’s [01:16:20] a me time thing.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: I think I get my me time at night.

Leanna Best: That’s a really.

Payman Langroudi: Some people get [01:16:25] up at 5 a.m. and get their me time.

Leanna Best: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: Early in the morning?

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: See, my husband’s a night owl, [01:16:30] so he’ll start watching all sorts of rubbish, and I’ll go to bed, but I actually he’ll laugh if [01:16:35] he hears me saying this. Do you prefer to be up earlier? Because even if I can just sit and have a cup of tea. [01:16:40]

Payman Langroudi: I think in all couples one is one way and ones to avoid each other.

Laura Horton: Yeah, probably. [01:16:45]

Leanna Best: Yeah, makes that work.

Laura Horton: But but but mind you, saying that my husband wakes up really early as [01:16:50] well. He doesn’t. Just doesn’t have much sleep.

Leanna Best: Yeah. No, I think I’m more Night-Time now. And [01:16:55] it is the me time.

Payman Langroudi: Me time means me, doesn’t it? Yeah. No one else.

Leanna Best: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura Horton: I don’t have [01:17:00] any time at night now. Because Harry started going to bed so much later to the point I’m [01:17:05] like.

Payman Langroudi: How old.

Laura Horton: Is he? Nine. So 9:00 is his new bedtime and he’s not tired. [01:17:10] The next day he’ll sleep till seven.

Leanna Best: Mhm.

Laura Horton: Um, and he’s not, he’s not tired. [01:17:15] That’s just naturally I think. Oh gosh. He’s like my husband isn’t he. He doesn’t need.

Payman Langroudi: Much sleep seven, ten hours.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [01:17:20] Well that’s also the amount of sleep I need.

Leanna Best: Um that does stress [01:17:25] me.

Laura Horton: Nine till six would do me nice. Ten till six. Lovely.

Leanna Best: I much prefer getting [01:17:30] up at seven than six. Six doesn’t work for me. In my.

Laura Horton: Mind.

Payman Langroudi: Although although look, I [01:17:35] was at a restaurant two nights ago and I had a coffee at the end of my meal. [01:17:40] Yeah, it was like 930. Yeah. Yeah. And everyone was like, oh, coffee? Coffee [01:17:45] at 930. Wow. Like, everyone was like, really worried about me. And [01:17:50] I was like, yeah, not because I’m this. I’m tired. Yeah. I’m tired. And [01:17:55] you don’t realise how tired you are? No, because you just get into the swing of things. Yeah. And I remember when [01:18:00] I was trying to get extra sleep, then when I would get, like, seven hours, then I’d feel tired. [01:18:05] And it’s a weird thing. You’re killing yourself slowly. So. Yeah.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [01:18:10] I declared on holiday that when we got back from holiday, I was going to start getting up at 5 a.m. and my [01:18:15] husband’s reaction was to laugh hysterically.

Leanna Best: Especially this time of year. The worst.

Laura Horton: It’s the worst [01:18:20] time for you. If you’re going to do it, do it in spring when.

Leanna Best: The.

Laura Horton: Clocks change and we live in the middle of nowhere, it’s pitch black. We’ve got no [01:18:25] street lights, no pavements, nothing like it’s like it’s just the wrong time to do it. Just I was like, okay, I won’t do it then. [01:18:30] Right. Next one. Spontaneous or planner.

Payman Langroudi: Spontaneous.

Laura Horton: Oh, lovely.

Leanna Best: I [01:18:35] reckon I knew that.

Laura Horton: Yeah, I love that. That’s fantastic.

Leanna Best: It’s really fun.

Laura Horton: Yeah. [01:18:40]

Payman Langroudi: I can’t just. Bad planner.

Leanna Best: Mm. Do you know what happens when you plan? Sometimes if [01:18:45] it goes wrong, that’s more upsetting than if it was just, like, off the cuff.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. [01:18:50] Spontaneous?

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Laura Horton: Yeah. I’d love to be more spontaneous, I think. Now I’m not. [01:18:55] I’m a planner.

Leanna Best: But you’ve got the spontaneity.

Laura Horton: Oh, I want to be, I want to be, I enjoy it. It’s [01:19:00] fun, isn’t it?

Leanna Best: I want.

Laura Horton: To be. Yeah. I want to be like, sorry. Let’s just go and jump on a train. Go to London. [01:19:05]

Leanna Best: Today. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: How far? How far ahead do you book your holidays?

Laura Horton: Oh, well, I’ve just booked up until I’ve just booked, [01:19:10] um, 14 months ahead. It’s my current one.

Payman Langroudi: You just paid for a holiday.

Laura Horton: 14 months deposit. [01:19:15] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Where are you.

Laura Horton: Going? That one’s Centre Parcs, 14 months. [01:19:20] Because you’ve got to get. You’ve got to get a good price.

Leanna Best: I’m looking on holiday.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. [01:19:25] See if you suffer with that.

Laura Horton: Yeah. So. And also I like to go to nice places, so I’ve got to book in advance [01:19:30] to get the best price. I’m not going to book last minute.

Payman Langroudi: I pay too much.

Laura Horton: You probably [01:19:35] pay double.

Leanna Best: What you do last minute.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah. Like I sometimes I book, like, a [01:19:40] week ahead.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Leanna Best: I couldn’t be that spontaneous. I need to know what clothes I’m wearing. [01:19:45]

Laura Horton: It’s not that.

Payman Langroudi: Get your clothes.

Leanna Best: To the outfit.

Payman Langroudi: The cost [01:19:50] is way.

Leanna Best: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura Horton: Like I really like. And I don’t want people to think I’m snobby here, [01:19:55] but I really love the Ikos resorts and.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I.

Laura Horton: Of course, [01:20:00] all over Greece. There’s one in Mallorca now, another one in, I think Portugal, and there’s one in Marbella, but the [01:20:05] Greek is the Greek ones for me, I love them.

Payman Langroudi: And is it? How much cheaper is it when you book [01:20:10] that far ahead?

Laura Horton: Well a lot.

Payman Langroudi: Is it.

Laura Horton: Yeah, it’s a lot.

Payman Langroudi: Because I’m [01:20:15] just thinking flights. I mean, I played I paid some ridiculous price for flights to nice. Yeah. Because [01:20:20] it was a week ahead.

Laura Horton: Yeah. And but it was the summer as well. Yeah. Yeah yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Extortionate [01:20:25] peak season.

Laura Horton: Yeah. Extortion. Absolutely. Rob. Absolutely. Rob. Blind. But. So I [01:20:30] like to go to these places, and they are really expensive. But so. And Centre [01:20:35] Parcs like that’s not cheap. That’s not cheap.

Leanna Best: At.

Laura Horton: All. No. It’s my son’s favourite holiday. Is it. [01:20:40] Yeah. He loves it more than anything. And so I’ve got to book these things far [01:20:45] ahead to be able to like I can’t.

Payman Langroudi: Afford what you.

Laura Horton: Want. Yeah. I can’t justify paying double [01:20:50] the price for. I wouldn’t do it. Whereas, like my sister said, I just looked at ICOs. This was earlier [01:20:55] in the year. I just looked at ICOs for the summer. It was 20 grand for the four of us. I was like, well, yeah, because you’re looking [01:21:00] at going three months before they’ve only got the biggest rooms left. The [01:21:05] villas, it’s all booked out. You’re not gonna you’ve got to book really far ahead to [01:21:10] get the right price. Also I want good seats on the plane, so I don’t want [01:21:15] to have rubbish seats and things like that. So. But I’ve.

Payman Langroudi: You’re very organised.

Laura Horton: My parents have always been like that [01:21:20] though. My parents, my mum.

Leanna Best: Always book stuff.

Laura Horton: Yeah, I need to know. I’ve got these things to look forward [01:21:25] to as well as a bit of that. Yeah. Um, right. Phone call or text message it. [01:21:30]

Payman Langroudi: I mean, I was thinking about it. 95% of all my communications are [01:21:35] texts. Yeah, but I’ve got my 6 or 7 people who I.

Leanna Best: That’s like [01:21:40] me. Yeah.

Laura Horton: That’s really nice, isn’t it? Voice notes. Do you do voice [01:21:45] notes? No. I knew.

Leanna Best: You wouldn’t.

Payman Langroudi: I can’t bring myself to do.

Laura Horton: Yeah. We love a voice note, but that’s mainly because, [01:21:50] like, this morning, we couldn’t talk because of connection issues on WhatsApp and the phone. Like, so just [01:21:55] voice.

Payman Langroudi: I like getting them. Yeah. Don’t put them out.

Laura Horton: Okay.

Leanna Best: I’m like walking down the [01:22:00] street. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura Horton: Uh, luxury or simplicity? [01:22:05]

Leanna Best: Go on.

Payman Langroudi: It’s another one of those. It’s a difficult one. [01:22:10] It’s a difficult one because a lot of simplicity is luxury as well. Yeah. Like, I don’t know if you’re thinking [01:22:15] about, I say this Airbnb, it was like this. It was minimalism, like.

Leanna Best: To.

Payman Langroudi: The top. [01:22:20] Yeah. It was bloody expensive. Yes, it’s that luxury.

Laura Horton: That’s luxury. That’s luxury.

Payman Langroudi: Simplicity. [01:22:25]

Laura Horton: Would you go camping?

Payman Langroudi: I’ve been. No, no, no. Luxury.

Leanna Best: I’d [01:22:30] say that’s.

Laura Horton: That’s simplicity, isn’t it? Camping.

Leanna Best: Would you.

Laura Horton: Camping? [01:22:35] Not really.

Leanna Best: I love the face change.

Laura Horton: No, it’s difficult because I’m thinking. Harry.

Leanna Best: It is difficult. [01:22:40] It’s not enjoyable.

Laura Horton: I wouldn’t for me, my biggest priority at all time is sleep. Yeah, [01:22:45] so if I’m not going to sleep, I don’t want to go.

Leanna Best: Stresses you out? Yeah, yeah.

Laura Horton: Okay. [01:22:50] What have you got on your ones?

Leanna Best: Oh, okay. Big picture or detail orientated? Big [01:22:55] picture. Yeah. Okay.

Laura Horton: Got that from earlier.

Leanna Best: Structured agenda or free flowing meetings.

Payman Langroudi: Free flowing. [01:23:00] I hate meetings, I hate meetings. Do you hate meetings?

Leanna Best: Why? [01:23:05]

Payman Langroudi: Just a tough man, I don’t know.

Leanna Best: They are tough.

Payman Langroudi: Sometimes I’m sitting in a meeting. [01:23:10] It’s about my subject, in my company, with my people. And [01:23:15] I’m like, I want to be out of here.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And I was talking to my brother. He’s a doctor, and, um, [01:23:20] they’ve got terrible lives, doctors.

Leanna Best: Really.

Payman Langroudi: Tough lives. And I was saying to him, [01:23:25] the one good thing is you don’t have meetings. Meetings are so hard. I don’t like meetings, man.

Laura Horton: I used to say, [01:23:30] we have meetings about meetings, and I find it really frustrating if we’re going to have a meeting. Can we just. [01:23:35] Let’s make some progress. Let’s move forward. I can’t see people just sit and talk and like, yeah, let’s do this. [01:23:40] And then nothing actually happens. That’s my infuriation.

Payman Langroudi: That happens too.

Laura Horton: But do you think it’s more just [01:23:45] it’s your time.

Leanna Best: You just.

Payman Langroudi: Don’t.

Laura Horton: Like. You just want people to make the decisions.

Payman Langroudi: I just don’t like meetings.

Leanna Best: Do [01:23:50] you find them intense?

Payman Langroudi: One on one? Yeah. Yeah. I’d love. Yeah, but arguments [01:23:55] and meetings and people are wed to their ideas quite a lot. I’m in sales and marketing, and that’s [01:24:00] where I am. Yeah. And so in marketing, the. It’s a difficult one. You want [01:24:05] people to come up with ideas? Yeah. But then there’s arguments about ideas. Yeah.

Leanna Best: Yeah, yeah. [01:24:10] It can be really uncomfortable. Yeah. And what I don’t like about meetings. So if you said to me, let’s have a meeting, I’m [01:24:15] not stressed out. Yeah. But if I was in a different situation, maybe with somebody that I don’t know [01:24:20] so well, or somebody who I know is intense and very direct. Absolutely. [01:24:25]

Payman Langroudi: By the way, by the way, zoom meeting.

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: With all kind of strangers. [01:24:30] Yeah. That horrible first two minutes where you’re, like, asking, like trying to get. [01:24:35] And you don’t know whether you should start the meeting. I hate it.

Leanna Best: Yeah. Uncomfortable.

Laura Horton: Do [01:24:40] you know what I still find very interesting? That happens to me. Not so much now, but it [01:24:45] still happens is when I get messages or voicemails [01:24:50] or even emails from people that are, you know, in the trade and, [01:24:55] um, and they’ll be like, oh, I just wanted to arrange to meet up with you to have a talk about. [01:25:00] And I think, what planet are you on? What planet are you on? I don’t know you. You’re [01:25:05] some random man most of the time. Oh, okay. Yes. There’s no problem. Are you free next [01:25:10] Wednesday to meet in some random place in London?

Payman Langroudi: Isn’t that your first [01:25:15] sort of top of funnel?

Laura Horton: No no, no. It’d be like. Like you. Yeah. Hi. [01:25:20] I’m Payman. I’ve got this whitening product. I think it’d be really good if we could work together. Do you want [01:25:25] to come and meet me? Why not? Oh, I don’t know who you are. I’m not going to meet.

Payman Langroudi: Someone from a security perspective. [01:25:30] Okay.

Laura Horton: Meet some random man.

Payman Langroudi: From a security. Yeah, I didn’t I [01:25:35] didn’t understand that.

Laura Horton: Sorry. Yeah, I.

Payman Langroudi: Thought. I thought you were saying your time’s too precious and you can’t.

Leanna Best: No, no, [01:25:40] she’ll say, book a call in. Here’s your. Here’s the link.

Laura Horton: I’m not going to meet some random man in [01:25:45] a hotel. You know I’m not that kind of girl. No, [01:25:50] but I find it really interesting how the.

Payman Langroudi: Other side doesn’t see it.

Laura Horton: No. And I’m [01:25:55] like, no.

Payman Langroudi: But what do you think’s going on there? Do you think they’ve got intentions?

Laura Horton: No, not at all. But I’m [01:26:00] just like.

Leanna Best: Is there a preference to have that conversation face to face?

Laura Horton: Yes. Yeah. But I don’t know [01:26:05] you. So let’s meet at a show or something like that. That’s like.

Leanna Best: A.

Laura Horton: Blind date. Yeah. [01:26:10] I’m not just going to go and meet some random man.

Leanna Best: Mhm.

Laura Horton: Um.

Leanna Best: How uncomfortable For [01:26:15] the first time.

Payman Langroudi: I get it, I get it. No, no, I do get it. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. If [01:26:20] it was a woman, would you turn up?

Laura Horton: Probably. I probably am I. Yeah. If I was interested [01:26:25] I probably would. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um there’s literally a sort.

Laura Horton: Of it’s just literally.

Payman Langroudi: Security.

Laura Horton: Because [01:26:30] you watch these programs, don’t you, on Netflix. You do documentaries. And [01:26:35] even before that, you know, I remember years and years ago, just very quickly on digressing the conversation here, [01:26:40] um, you know, on your website, you have to have like an address or whatever, don’t you? So obviously [01:26:45] I had my home address back in the day. And then one Saturday I kept getting all these phone calls [01:26:50] and I’m not answering my phone on Saturday anyway, I kept ringing and ringing [01:26:55] and I thought, this must be urgent. This person’s called me 20 times now. Have I told you this? [01:27:00] And it was this guy. And he said, oh, hello, are you Laura? And [01:27:05] I said, yes, speaking. And he said, oh, I really want [01:27:10] to come to your house for you to teach me how to brush my teeth.

Leanna Best: Oh, [01:27:15] no.

Payman Langroudi: Go on.

Laura Horton: It wasn’t a prank, right? And I was like, what the hell? And [01:27:20] I was like, no, I just hung up. My husband, now husband was there. [01:27:25] He was like, what the hell was that? I was like, I don’t know. I said, but the first thing that popped into my [01:27:30] mind is my address is on my website. And I ever since then, I’ve used a virtual address [01:27:35] because you just don’t know what weirdos are out there, do you?

Leanna Best: It didn’t turn.

Laura Horton: Out. Yeah. No, it didn’t turn up. But, [01:27:40] um. Yeah. So so things like that of like, they spook you, don’t they? [01:27:45] And then I just but I find this interesting in the trade that these messages still go out. Hey. [01:27:50]

Leanna Best: I think if I was London based honestly and I had that [01:27:55] and it was in the area and it’s busy, I wouldn’t have a problem with meeting in a coffee shop. Yeah. And they [01:28:00] had like a well-known website and I could look them up. That wouldn’t necessarily.

Laura Horton: But they’re not usually [01:28:05] well known.

Leanna Best: No. Then. No.

Laura Horton: So I wouldn’t mind meeting payments. Not an [01:28:10] issue.

Leanna Best: No. But then you know him. That’s cheating. Yeah. Not playing the game.

Laura Horton: But [01:28:15] yeah, I find it odd. Found it.

Leanna Best: Odd. Inbox zero or organised chaos.

Payman Langroudi: Chaos? [01:28:20]

Laura Horton: Yes. My kind of man.

Leanna Best: Me.

Payman Langroudi: Total chaos.

Leanna Best: Remote first or [01:28:25] office first?

Payman Langroudi: Like I say, we’ve really moved. We’ve really changed our position on that. So? [01:28:30] So. And by the way, we’ve got a whole team in South Africa.

Leanna Best: Wow.

Payman Langroudi: Like a whole team. It’s like five [01:28:35] people.

Leanna Best: It’s a whole team.

Laura Horton: Still a team.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but like, if you if you call enlightened, there’s a 5050 [01:28:40] chance that your calls going to South Africa or coming here. And, um, the good thing about South [01:28:45] Africa is there, um, time zones? Very.

Laura Horton: That’s what I was about to say. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: The customer [01:28:50] service orientation is way more than if you if you pick up a random [01:28:55] person from South Africa and a random person from the UK, they’re way more they’re more like Americans or. [01:29:00]

Leanna Best: Australians.

Payman Langroudi: In that sense.

Laura Horton: So do you go over there often? No, no, [01:29:05] no.

Payman Langroudi: We just put an ad on Indeed.com Is that a yes? [01:29:10] There’s a little legal piece that you have to get, right?

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but we’ve had some of [01:29:15] our best people are out there.

Laura Horton: Amazing.

Payman Langroudi: Um, but but the sort of the remote thing brought that on because [01:29:20] we thought of our team sitting in Ilford. Could be sitting in South Africa. Well, this [01:29:25] is it’s half the price.

Laura Horton: This is what I think is also great, though. It’s not about the price. It’s about the quality of the people. If [01:29:30] it’s a remote job, you’re getting to pick the best. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Like, the good thing about South Africa is [01:29:35] that the quality of the applicants was brilliant.

Laura Horton: Yeah, I.

Payman Langroudi: Bet a lot of good applicants. [01:29:40]

Laura Horton: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, and then their economy is very difficult. But, [01:29:45] look, there are clear disadvantages. Yeah. Yeah. Because culture wise, you can’t quite know [01:29:50] for sure. No. Um, people worry about people doing two, three jobs like that. You know, [01:29:55] there’s these sort of things.

Leanna Best: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: But we’ve just got we’ve had a great deal. And we’ve also got rid of someone [01:30:00] who wasn’t great. But. Yeah, but we’ve had a great, good 3 or 4 people there.

Laura Horton: That’s really.

Payman Langroudi: Good sales. [01:30:05]

Laura Horton: Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s great. Very good. Fantastic.

Leanna Best: This is great, by the way. Yeah [01:30:10] I have. Have you enjoyed.

Payman Langroudi: It? Definitely.

Leanna Best: Good.

Laura Horton: It’s been really nice to be together.

Payman Langroudi: Is [01:30:15] it the difference? I hate a meeting, but I love a conversation. It’s weird.

Leanna Best: It’s not weird, but it’s very organic. [01:30:20] The way today’s gone.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, there’s. There’s nothing. There’s nothing expected of you in a conversation. But [01:30:25] in a meeting.

Leanna Best: Yeah, yeah. Expectation. Yeah. You’re our.

Laura Horton: Only expectation. Was a funny [01:30:30] story, a confession. And that was.

Payman Langroudi: It.

Laura Horton: Yeah. There you go. There you go. Yeah. Fantastic. Brilliant. [01:30:35] Right then. So we’ll wrap up now and say thank you so much for hanging out with us.

Leanna Best: Thanks for hanging out. [01:30:40] Yeah.

Laura Horton: Thank you so much, everyone. Um, and as always, please subscribe. [01:30:45] If you’re on YouTube like us, give us a five star review. And, um, I’m [01:30:50] sure you already listened to the Dental Leaders podcast, and so thank you very much. [01:30:55]