Grant Goodstein isn't a dentist — and that might be exactly why this episode is so refreshing. An American tech exec turned practice owner, Grant moved to London for love (a Hannah Montana-inspired trip to LA, a dating app, and a last-minute Vegas concert, if you can believe it) and ended up buying a mixed NHS practice in Fulham with his wife, Leah. 

What follows is a masterclass in what happens when someone with zero clinical background but serious business chops walks into a neighbourhood dental practice and starts asking, "What do patients actually want?" 

From GBT machines and AI phone systems to living wage accreditation and obsessing over Wi-Fi signal strength in the toilet, Grant's approach is equal parts Silicon Valley hustle and genuine community spirit.

In This Episode

00:01:00 – Meeting Leah: dating apps, Hannah Montana and a spontaneous trip to Vegas

00:06:15 – London vs Los Angeles

00:08:25 – Growing up sports-obsessed and working for Michigan basketball

00:13:10 – Coaching rituals and building team enthusiasm

00:15:25 – Buying the practice: staff turnover, evolution vs revolution

00:19:35 – Practice valuations then and now

00:22:05 – Listening to patients and expanding hygiene

00:26:10 – Running a mixed practice: the case for keeping NHS

00:32:20 – Growing Invisalign from 20 to 100 cases a year

00:34:10 – Genuine interest, patient conversations and the "daughter test"

00:36:10 – The search for the right practice

00:41:20 – Nervous patients and the patient experience

00:43:35 – Investing in GBT and premium hygiene

00:49:40 – Learning when and how to say no

00:55:25 – Tech stack: CareStack, VoIP, AI transcription and remote hiring

01:02:45 – Reception as a revenue driver

01:06:25 – Training, role plays and AI for SOPs

01:09:20 – High-performing teams: sports analogies in practice

01:11:30 – Blackbox thinking

01:15:20 – Refurb lessons and driving urgency

01:18:50 – Finding purpose after tech burnout

01:21:15 – Favourite business books

01:24:50 – Fantasy dinner party

01:31:15 – Leah's fearless flyer course and treating nervous patients

About Grant Goodstein

Grant Goodstein is the managing director of Pearly Whites dental practice in Fulham, London, which he co-owns with his wife, dentist Leah Goodstein. A University of Michigan economics graduate, Grant previously worked in tech — including a stint at Twitter — before moving to the UK and channelling his business background into practice ownership.

Mehy Lo Presti joins Payman on the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation that's equal parts origin story and quiet manifesto. Raised in the heartland of La Mancha by a Palestinian father and Italian mother, Mehy arrived in London in 2015 with barely any English, no NHS number, and — as it turns out — very little interest in following the conventional path. 

He's since built a reputation not just as a restorative associate but as one of dentistry's most creative event and experience designers, currently channelling that energy into Dent Town, a major immersive dental conference launching this September. 

The conversation ranges freely across the fear culture surrounding the GDC, the science of patient experience design, and the painful economics of putting on events that are actually good — before landing somewhere unexpectedly personal, as Mehy opens up about the impact of October 7th on his family and his mental health in the weeks surrounding his daughter's birth.

In This Episode

00:00:55 - Introductions

00:01:50 - The outsider mentality

00:03:05 - Palestinian-Italian roots and growing up in La Mancha

00:07:15 - On parenting and giving children freedom

00:10:30 - Problems with conventional education

00:30:55 - GDC fear culture vs Spain

00:37:10 - Moving to London from scratch

00:40:20 - First steps in private practice

00:41:25 - Master's in aesthetic restorative dentistry at King's

00:43:20 - College of Extraordinary Experiences

00:48:00 - Patient Experience Design

00:49:30 - Designing the ideal squat

00:52:55 - Reception as the heart of the practice

01:02:10 - Google reviews and the "feel" factor

01:04:05 - Associate vs clinic owner

01:09:15 - The economics of running events

01:17:15 - Events mistakes

01:20:50 - Blackbox thinking

01:25:00 - Setting patient expectations

01:29:20 - Favourite resources

01:32:05 - Fantasy dinner party

01:36:25 - October 7th, Gaza, and personal impact

01:43:00 - Faith, karma, and identity

About Mehy Lo Presti

Mehy Lo Presti is a London-based associate dentist with a master's degree in aesthetic and restorative dentistry from King's College London, currently practising at The Kensington Dentist. A son of Palestinian and Italian parents who met in Egypt and settled in Spain, he grew up in La Mancha before relocating to London in 2015. He is probably best known as the creative force behind Global Dental Collective and the Dental Rama brand, and is now co-founder of Denttown — an immersive two-day dental conference launching in September 2026.

Prav is back in the host's chair for a conversation that's quite literally close to home — Andy Sloan is his boss. Andy is the MD of Agilio, the dental software and compliance platform, and a man who has overseen well over a hundred practice acquisitions throughout his career. 

But before any of that, he was a council house kid from the Wirral, running paper rounds at 14, pulling pints at 18, and somehow landing — by his own admission — in dentistry entirely by accident. This episode traces that unlikely path through hospitality, banking, accountancy and private equity, unpicking the one constant that runs through all of it: relationships. 

Andy opens up about the dark periods too — fertility struggles, the pressure of simultaneous transactions, and the moments where burnout lurked closer than he'd care to admit. Honest, warm and genuinely self-aware, it's a cracking listen—or catch the video on whichever platform you usually get your weekly Dental Leaders dose.

In This Episode

00:00:20 - Introducing Andy Sloan - Prav's boss

00:02:15 - Early life

00:12:10 - Hospitality years

00:26:40 - Meeting Lynette; buying the pub

00:27:00 - Banking and sales

00:38:15 - Into dentistry — DBG

00:43:50 - Henry Schein Business Solutions and Europe

00:46:45 - Portman Dental

00:59:05 - Joining Julio; building the tribe

01:04:00 - Julio's growth — 17 acquisitions in under five years

01:07:35 - Relationships as the common thread

01:13:20 - Blackbox thinking

01:15:45 - Practice valuations — the levers that matter

01:27:25 - Dark moments

01:34:55 - Julio's future and the Dental OS vision

01:37:10 - Dentistry Reimagined

01:41:25 - Last days and legacy

About Andy Sloan

Andy Sloan is the Managing Director of Agilio, the dental software and compliance group that has completed 17 acquisitions in under five years. His career spans hospitality, banking, private equity and dental M&A — including a spell as Business Development Director at Portman Dental Care, where he oversaw the acquisition of more than 120 practices. He is also the founder of Dentistry Reimagined, an independent industry event focused on the conversations dentistry has been too cautious to have.

This week, Payman sits down with Zain Remy, a Newcastle-based practice owner whose path to dentistry was anything but straightforward. After missing out on dental school the first time round, Zain took the pharmacology route, grafted his way through eight years of study, and eventually qualified from King's College London in 2016. 

What followed was a decade of pivotal decisions — a golden handshake from a corporate, a restorative diploma that nearly cost him his job, and a mental health crisis serious enough to land him in hospital for two months.

Rather than shy away from any of it, Zain unpacks each chapter with an honesty that's genuinely refreshing. By October 2023, he'd bought his own private practice in Newcastle — and the lessons he's drawn from every stumble along the way are, frankly, worth the listen alone.

In This Episode

00:00:50 - Introduction

00:01:35 - Growing up in London

00:02:00 - Dad the dental technician

00:04:40 - Dental school reflections

00:14:45 - The pharmacology detour

00:20:30 - Heading northeast

00:22:40 - Foundation year

00:24:20 - The corporate golden handshake

00:30:05 - Restorative diploma and CPD

00:40:05 - Burnout

00:43:05 - Mental health crisis

00:50:35 - Recovery and talking therapy

00:57:25 - Buying the practice

01:00:30 - Practice ownership: the hard reality

01:05:10 - The associate–principal relationship

01:10:25 - Social media as a clinical tool

01:16:05 - Diary of Dental Practice Owners

01:20:15 - The awards debate

01:29:35 - Hiring and firing

01:33:05 - Blackbox thinking

01:40:05 - Fantasy dinner party

01:44:30 - Favourite and least favourite treatments

01:46:10 - Future vision

About Zain Remy

Zain Remy is a dental practice owner based in Newcastle, who qualified from King's College London in 2016 after first completing a pharmacology degree. Having worked across NHS and mixed practices in the northeast, he acquired his own fully private practice in October 2023. He holds a postgraduate diploma in restorative dentistry and runs the Diary of Dental Practice Owners community on Facebook, offering an unfiltered look at life as an independent practice principal.

This week, Payman chats with JW Oliver — serial entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and the man behind Support DDS, the largest dental insourcing company in the US. 

JW's story begins well below the poverty line in Texas and winds through dental equipment, bankruptcy, and a fateful meeting at a Christian marriage conference that led him to Zimbabwe — and ultimately to building a 1,700-strong operation across Africa and Costa Rica.

It's a conversation about purpose, resilience, and why answering the phone might be the most underrated skill in dentistry. Along the way, JW opens up about faith, failure, fatherhood, and why giving away 51% of your profits doesn't feel nearly as crazy once the cheques start to mean something.

In This Episode

00:00:40 - Welcome and introductions

00:02:00 - Growing up poor; early entrepreneurial instinct

00:04:50 - From dental equipment to Zimbabwe; the chance meeting that started Zim Works

00:09:00 - Purpose over profit; donating 51% and building a philanthropy operation

00:12:20 - Insourcing vs outsourcing; what Support DDS actually does

00:19:30 - A typical UK dental practice use case; why unanswered calls kill marketing spend

00:25:00 - The real challenge; onboarding, training timelines, and setting expectations

00:28:10 - Faith; how it evolved, when it was tested, and the summer of 1994

00:40:25 - Blackbox thinking; not reacting fast enough to a changing market

00:43:20 - Resilience as both superpower and blind spot; when to hold, when to fold

00:51:15 - Writing books; creative process, ghostwriting, and books as authority tools

01:00:10 - Immigration, assimilation, and understanding the other side

01:08:50 - Fantasy dinner party

01:11:00 - Darkest day; bankruptcy, Disney, and a wife who said "I trust you"

01:13:55 - Treating everyone the same; from the excellence team to the C-suite

About JW Oliver

JW Oliver is a serial entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist based between Texas and Zimbabwe. He is the founder of Zim Works and Support DDS — the largest dental insourcing company in the United States — which employs over 1,700 people across Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Costa Rica, and donates 51% of its profits to charitable causes. A former dental equipment entrepreneur turned global business builder, JW is driven as much by faith and purpose as by commercial ambition.

What happens when a Royal Marine Commando dentist who spent six months being ambushed on every patrol in Helmand Province turns his hand to building dental businesses? 

You get Mike Hesketh: serial practice owner, consultant, and one of the more quietly formidable figures in UK dentistry. In this episode, Payman sits down with Mike to trace a story that runs from a North Wales council estate and the loss of his father at eight years old, through the front lines of Afghanistan, to a 10x practice exit and the creation of Dartmoor Dental — a 200-year-old manor house turned thriving, NHS-inclusive, ten-surgery practice. 

Mike talks with real candour about the four pillars he uses to build and consult on dental businesses, why he treats his NHS contract as a social obligation rather than a commercial one, and how the Royal Marines' mantra ‘cheerfulness in the face of adversity’ translates surprisingly well to practice ownership.

In This Episode

00:02:00 — Growing up in North Wales; losing his father at eight

00:07:40 — Deploying to Helmand Province with 40 Commando Royal Marines

00:12:05 — Leaving the military; getting ripped off on day one as a civilian dentist

00:13:05 — Buying his first practice with £20,000 and a devil-may-care attitude

00:51:35 — Selling Exeter and the year-long family world trip

00:54:25 — Laura and the brand; how Dartmoor grew from £700K to £2.5M

00:56:00 — The NHS contract as a social obligation

01:07:40 — Barriers to entry, squat risks, and buying underperforming practices

01:19:00 — Appointing the youngest clinician as clinical lead

01:27:00 — Military-derived leadership principles; letting the ship sail without you

01:33:15 — Fee guides as windows to the soul

01:39:55 — The four pillars: leadership, infrastructure, branding, financial command and control

01:53:35 — Darkest days in business

01:57:30 — KPIs: one metric, embed the culture, then move on

02:11:55 — Fantasy dinner party

About Mike Hesketh

Mike Hesketh is a practice owner, dental business consultant, and founder of Hesketh Healthcare Accounting. He qualified as a dentist whilst serving as an officer with 40 Commando Royal Marines, completing the commando course and deploying to Helmand Province, Afghanistan. After leaving the military, he built and sold Exeter Dental Centre before buying and transforming Dartmoor Dental — a ten-surgery practice in Tavistock — from a £700K turnover to £2.5M in three years. Mike holds an MBA and a coaching qualification from Henley Business School, and works with a small number of practices on a bespoke, year-long consultancy basis.

Mind Movers is back — and what a return. Rhona is fresh from maternity leave (and a rather eventful ICU stay) and she's brought a guest who needs little introduction: cosmetic dentist Neelima Patel, known to fans of Married at First Sight UK as the woman who handled an absolute car crash of a match with extraordinary grace. 

This episode covers a lot of ground. From Neelima's route into dentistry and Kailash Solanki's famous mentorship programme at Kiss Dental, to the full, unfiltered story of her time on MAFS — the honeymoon that promised everything, the energy shift that followed, the Hinge bombshell, and the trolling she endured throughout. 

But this isn't just a reality TV debrief. It's a genuinely honest conversation about self-worth, the bruising reality of modern dating, what it means to be a high-achieving woman looking for a partner who matches your pace — and how to come out the other side stronger.

In This Episode

00:00:25 – Rhona's return & introducing Neelima

00:02:05 – Choosing dentistry over medicine

00:03:25 – Finding Kiss Dental & Kailash's mentorship programme

00:05:10 – What makes Kiss Dental unique

00:06:10 – Cosmetic dentistry aesthetics: Manchester vs London

00:10:25 – How Neelima ended up on MAFS

00:11:40 – Going against everyone's advice

00:13:50 – Why she wanted to find love on TV

00:16:30 – The wedding day: what you do (and don't) get to choose

00:20:05 – First impressions of Stephen

00:21:35 – The honeymoon — and the moment things shifted

00:25:35 – Internalising doubt: gaslighting in real time

00:27:05 – The trolling, and trusting her own intuition

00:31:25 – The earnings conversation that changed everything

00:38:25 – His true colours: recognising the venom

00:44:30 – The Hinge incident

00:50:20 – Traumatic, enlightening — or both?

00:53:05 – The modern dating landscape & the male loneliness debate

00:58:10 – Balancing dentistry with a media career

01:01:00 – Mental health pressures in the profession

01:04:10 – What she'd do differently

About Neelima Patel

Neelima Patel is a cosmetic dentist at Kiss Dental in Manchester, working alongside Kailash Solanki after completing his two-year mentorship programme in 2020. She qualified from the University of Sheffield in 2017 and has since built a reputation for high-end cosmetic work in one of the north's most sought-after practices. In 2024, she appeared on Channel 4's Married at First Sight UK.

Most dentists are brilliant clinicians and hopeless with numbers — and Bilal Ahmed has built a career filling exactly that gap. 

A chartered accountant and tax adviser who stumbled into the dental world through his wife's professional circle, Bilal brings a corporate finance sharpness to a profession that's long been underserved by the accounting industry. 

In this episode, Payman and Bilal cover the full financial landscape for dentists: from the quirks of associate contracts and HMRC tax investigations to the thorny arithmetic of Invisalign, the hidden traps in popular tax schemes, and the long game of inheritance tax planning. 

Honest, direct, and refreshingly unafraid to say when something just doesn't work — this one's a must-listen for any dentist who's ever wondered if they're paying more tax than they should.

In This Episode

00:00:50 - Introduction

00:01:05 - Finding dentistry

00:03:05 - Nuances of dental accounting

00:08:35 - Tax investigations

00:19:25 - Good accountant vs great accountant

00:21:05 - Practice valuations and the post-Covid hangover

00:59:00 - Pricing strategy

01:07:05 - Making Tax Digital

01:09:30 - Expensing and entertainment

01:23:00 - Tax avoidance schemes

01:28:25 - Inheritance tax planning

01:34:05 - Last days and legacy

01:36:05 - Being an outlier

About Bilal Ahmed

Bilal Ahmed is a chartered accountant, tax adviser, and business consultant working exclusively with dental professionals. He came to dentistry by accident — through his wife's network — and recognised quickly that dentists were operating in a financial vacuum, using accounts only at tax time rather than as a tool for planning and growth. Drawing on a background in corporate finance, Bilal now helps dentists make sense of their numbers, structure their businesses correctly, and plan for long-term wealth — all while keeping things firmly on the right side of the line.

Nasser Syed is a man who doesn't really do stillness. With a background in oral surgery and conscious sedation, he's pivoted from five clinical days a week to running a growing group of practices, training dentists, and launching a brand new facility hire venture aimed at super associates who'd rather focus on their dentistry than deal with the headaches of practice ownership. 

Joining him is Chez Bright, his PA and right-hand collaborator, who offers a candid view of what it's actually like to work alongside someone whose brain, in her words, is "a minefield." 

Payman talks with them both about building teams, backing yourself, and knowing when to say no — plus the early clinical mistake that still sits with Nasser decades later and the personal losses that have shaped his faith and his drive.

In This Episode

00:01:00 — Practice ownership

00:05:20 — Developing associates

00:09:00 — Picking a lane

00:16:00 — Meeting Chez Bright

00:17:45 — Running projects

00:24:30 — AI and the future of dentistry

00:31:10 — Manchester Sedation Course

00:37:45 — HireADentalSurgery.com

00:52:20 — Branding and virality

00:57:15 — Blackbox thinking

01:04:15 — Clinical communication

01:13:00 — Lowest point

01:15:20 — Faith and loss

01:22:25 — Memorable lecture

01:25:00 — Fantasy dinner party

About Nasser Syed

Nasser Syed is a Liverpool-born dentist with a background in oral surgery and conscious IV sedation, currently working across a growing group of practices in the North West. He founded the Manchester Sedation Course in 2015 — SDC-accredited and open to both beginners and more experienced clinicians — and now runs it alongside his clinical and business commitments. His latest project is HireADentalSurgery.com, a dedicated facility hire model in Hale, Cheshire, offering super associates the equipment and flexibility to treat their own patients without the overheads of practice ownership.

What happens when you turn the microphone on the man who's spent years behind it? In this episode of the NAIL-IT podcast, Rana and Bav get Payman Langroudi — host of Dental Leaders and Clinical Director at Enlighten — firmly in the hot seat. 

It's a wide-ranging, refreshingly candid conversation that moves from the origins of Enlighten and the relentless pursuit of world-class quality to the very real mental health pressures that underpin life in dentistry. 

Payman reflects on leaning into his strengths, trusting his instincts, and why, after 320 episodes, the Dental Leaders podcast has become the thing he's most proud of. 

Find Rana on Instagram at @drranaalfalaki, and on Facebook and LinkedIn as Dr Rana Al-Falaki. Follow Bav on Instagram at @drbav83. You can also follow the NAIL-IT podcast at @nailit_podcast.

In This Episode

00:01:05 — Introductions and the Dental Leaders origin story

00:02:10 — Why Payman started a podcast — and what it's become

00:05:20 — Leaning into strengths, owning your quirks

00:07:00 — Starting Enlighten at 28 and the philosophy of doing one thing brilliantly

00:10:25 — The sacrifices behind world-class quality

00:14:10 — Being number two — and the decision to become the best

00:16:15 — Favourite quote: Oscar Wilde and the art of being yourself

00:20:25 — Identity, self-awareness and shedding the layers

00:21:50 — Dentistry as a kingdom — and why practices are anything but the same

00:23:10 — Mental health in dentistry: burnout, suicide and the stress bucket

00:27:40 — The emotional drain of being "on show" all day

00:30:20 — Kids, careers and the realities of dentistry as a profession

00:35:40 — Knowing yourself before you can lead others

00:36:10 — Intuition as a leadership skill — and how to train it

About Dr Rana Al-Falaki and Dr Bhavin Patel

Dr Rana Al-Falaki is a periodontist and internationally recognised pioneer in the use of lasers in periodontal treatment, having presented her research to audiences from the British Society of Periodontology to the American Academy and European Federation. 

After pushing herself to the point of chronic illness in pursuit of excellence, she channelled that experience into developing the NAIL-IT programme — a performance and leadership system built around optimising energy and helping dental professionals truly thrive. 

Dr Bhavin Patel is a dentist and educator who ran a practice on Wimpole Street for nearly eight years before stepping back to prioritise family life. Together, they host the NAIL-IT podcast — a show dedicated to helping dental professionals live fully, lead better, and laugh more.