This month's podcast guest might be described as our most unusual of the year (for reasons that will become obvious - read on). Steve Hudson grew up in a suburb of South Manchester and decided at the age of 13 that dentistry was for him. After qualifying as a dentist in Sheffield he worked his way up through the NHS delivery system, learning his clinical and communication skills along the way. In the late 90's, his skills were enhanced by attending courses with Prof. Paul Tipton and, through that, meeting both myself and Ashley. In 2000 he had the opportunity to buy a 2-chair practice in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and, subsequently, became a PDS practice in the early days of the UDA system (days which he looks back on fondly as a much easier business to run than his present-day contemporaries). Evolving then to embrace the revised UDA system of the early 2000's, at age 46 he sold his practice (for health reasons) and has now retired from active clinical life, although he still regularly acts an expert witness, sometimes for defence unions. A short career, so why did Ashley and I invite him to the podcast?

To ask him about the dental business systems he wrote in the late 90's "to avoid being interrupted by his team" and which subsequently became one of the very first systems manuals for UK NHS dental practices

To ask about the evolution of his web site www.dentallawandethics.co.uk and the books and other resources you can access there

To share some of his 27 rules to avoid getting sued by your patients

To explain The Possible Challenge of the Instagram Dentist and The Threat of the Whistle-Blower

To demonstrate how he used just 9 words with every patient to reduce his marketing budget to ZERO

Oh - and by the way (here comes the unusual). To share with us his development as a best-selling Amazon-listed author of 8 novels under the name Sean Deville - all of which are in the genre or zombie/apocalypse horror fiction. He has also published 5 non fiction books for dentists. Steve has a very calm approach to life, whether he is building a dental business or describing the end of the world as we know it - calm and methodical - and he shares with us here how that approach has provided him with a rewarding career and peace of mind.