Two Reds are Better than One

James Goolnik opened Bow Lane Dental in 2001 in the centre of London. Today it is a multi specialist practice providing all treatments in-house. James qualified from Kings College in 1992. His bio includes past president of the prestigious BACD, and he was also voted twice by the Dental Trade as the most influential dentist in the UK. He has lectured all over the world and is the author of two books 'Brush' and 'Kick Sugar'. James is a client and a good friend to both Chris and Ashley and there are so many nuggets and take-aways in this podcast including:

• How to stay positive in turbulent times and what James' daily routine will be during the Covid-19 period
• The importance of meditating and the value it can have on reducing stress and worry
• The value of having a morning routine and the positive impact it can have on your day
• How James is dealing with the crisis with his team, and the strategies they are implementing to stay positive during the next few months

James talks a lot in the podcast about the value of nutrition, especially to your health and wellbeing, and he talks passionately about his new book 'Kick Sugar'.

James will also share his beliefs on what will happen when Covid-19 is over and the positive, up-beat forecasts he gives for all dental practices.

Listen with a pen and paper.

Against the advice of his peers and associates, Mohsin Patel purchased a typical NHS Practice in a working class area of Leeds in 2016, aged 28 years of age. However, Mohsin didn't listen to their advice and during the last four years has quadrupled turnover, grown his staff numbers by 300% and is now placing implants and cosmetic treatments on previously NHS patients. 40% of his new clients are referrals from existing patients and he has patients travelling from all over the North of England to visit him for treatment. Wherever you are in your career, you will be left inspired and motivated by this brilliant interview. Mohsin is very quietly spoken - probably the calmest person we have had on this podcast - however what he shares is pure gold. Please make sure you have a pen and a pad to take lots of notes, as you will learn;

• The importance of getting the team on board with your vision
• How Mohsin spent a full day sharing his vision with the team and the impact that one day has had on staff morale and team-work
• The importance of on-going team meetings, and training
• How he grew his Practice into a Referral Practice and the one big secret that is essential to grow a referral base and to provide world class customer service
• What Mohsin does on a Sunday to help achieve his goals
• How to never take anything for granted.
• AND MUCH MORE

Grant McAree is owner of the Whyte House Dental Group - a group of dental practices in Devon which be began opening in 2001. He has a passion for providing a range of treatment options to his patients and providing a World Class Service. He is an outstanding Marketeer and over 100 patients a month register to become new patients at his Practice. Today he spends most of his time treating Orthodontic Cases and he is a Platinum Invisalign Provider. 12 months ago he started a Facebook Group called Advertising and Marketing Tips for Dentists by Dentists and from a standing start has grown to over 4,000 members. In this podcast, you will learn;

• The importance of having different methods of marketing in your Practice
• How to develop your unique selling points and why it is so important
• How to work out your marketing budgets and how to measure what you do to get a return back on your investment
• What questions his Reception ask when they receive a new enquiry and how to stand out against the competition.
• How to train the staff and get their buy in to being the best
• The importance of obtaining deposits when new patients enquire and how to get them
• How never to play the race to the bottom

AND MORE

For our December podcast we were looking forward to interviewing Dr. Hap Gill but, due to illness, he had to withdraw at the last minute (and we send him our best wished for a speedy recovery). Undeterred, Ash called me and suggested we "go solo" with a review of our favourite business tips for the year. So in this final episode of the year we take a look at what is working best "out there" for our clients and also reminisce on some of the outstanding guests we have welcomed to the show. You will learn what the Champions League practice owners are doing to stay ahead of the game.

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.

Hello, this is Chris Barrow introducing you to October 2019's "Two Reds" podcast with my friend Ashley Latter and I want to start with a bit of an apology to our guest. You see, Ashley came back from an Invisalign course recently and told me "I met this amazing dentist called Mark Hughes - we need to get him on the podcast, the listeners will love his story." So my apology is that I've known Mark for at least 15 years and have no excuse for not having mentioned him to Ashley before - sorry Mark, you are such an obvious choice, I'm kicking myself. So here we have the engaging story of a young boy raised in Derry, Northern Ireland during "The Troubles" and learning to survive in a world full of danger from an early age. Mark shares with us his journey from there to Dublin, to qualify as a dentist at the beautiful Trinity College and then (as so many of his contemporaries did) travelling to London to really learn dentistry by spending 3.5 years in the NHS system. From there, one would have expected a transition into the private sector but Mark can (and does) surprise those around him and his next adventure was an extended trip around the world, taking in Latin America, New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia - even, at some stages, getting a bit of practice in for his clinical skills. Eventually back in London, he bought a tired Covent Garden practice in 1997 and, you might say, learned the pleasure and pain of ownership. But then came a life-changing moment when he was offered the opportunity to move to a prestigious Harley Street address in Marylebone and took the plunge. What happened next was the evolution of both the Harley Street Dental Studio and, latterly, multi-location Group - one of the more famous high-end UK dental businesses of the early 21st Century. At the moment, Mark is once more reinventing himself, having moved out of the hustle of Central London into the Buckinghamshire countryside and he has recently committed to another 4,500 sq ft development - this time a joint venture with a plastic surgeon to deliver an holistic range of health and beauty services. Never a dull moment and Mark is very generous in sharing with us many of the "mountains, valleys and missiles" of his journey. I'll warn you - this is one of the longest podcasts Ashley and I have recorded - but we are confident that your time will fly listening, as it did for us.

Lawrence Neville left Glasgow for Australia 8 years ago, originally to work for a year. However, he never looked back and is still there. During his career he has delivered over 30,000 hours of dentistry and attend over 120 hours of continuing personal development every year. His area of interest is cosmetic dentistry, in particular orthodontics, using Invisalign invisible clear aligners and digital smile design. He treats over 100 cases per year in this field. He is passionate about creating perfect smiles that are life changing. He is a partner at Spa Dental in the centre of Sydney and also runs a Dental Seminar Company called Dental Events Australia. His company delivers 10 educational workshops every year in Australia. On this podcast you will learn

• How to get google reviews from your patients using his three step approach. Lawrence has received over 180 reviews in the last 18 months
• How he has grown his Invisalign numbers and the strategies he implements on how he had made it to Platinum Status
• How to get the whole practice involved in creating a World Class Patient Journey
• The strategies that he uses to create an incredible first impression with new patients

AND MUCH MORE.

One of my resolutions this year was to constantly carry around with me a digital recorder so that, when the opportunity arose, I could capture interviews with fascinating people. During a recent weekend break in England's verdant South East I was motivated to sit down in the dining room of a gorgeous farmhouse after a sumptuous artisan breakfast and chat to a good friend who has no connection at all to the world of dentistry - but from whom we can all learn. Dave Rogers retired 6 years ago after a 36-year career in the air, originally as a bush pilot in the frozen North but most of those years with Air Canada, becoming one of their longest-serving and most senior long-haul officers. We met nearly 10 years ago, when we took a catamaran out into the Caribbean and spent a memorable 10 days exploring the British Virgin Islands - a trip that we have repeated twice since. Dave and Pam have become good friends. In this impromptu interview, I ask Dave some searching questions about the role of Captain of a huge engineering miracle, the Boeing 777, making it's way across the Pacific with 300+ people, whose safety was his primary responsibility. We explore the subject of leadership as it applies to fellow flight officers as well as the flight attendants, who he may only meet at the beginning and end of the flight, but whose loyalty has to be earned. Dave talks eloquently about how to earn the respect of one's team and also shares a few hair-raising tales about how to deal with emergencies. The metaphors for those of us in business are obvious and it is a refreshing change to hear some sage advice from a wise man with no agenda.

Our podcast guest this month is an old friend Dr. Harry Singh, founder of The Dental Property Club and The Botulinum Toxin Club. We trace Harry's career from working through his school holidays when all his mates were partying, to dental School, where he realised during his education that he wasn't really passionate about the profession. Far from running away, Harry qualified and built a successful and innovative and facial aesthetics business (in the middle of a major recession) but always knew that most of the people in The Sunday Times Rich list were there because of property assets and not business. In 2012 he made the decision to give up clinical dentistry and focus on property and facial aesthetics - the two subjects about which he was passionate. Harry also has a well developed sense of humour. He shares with us his P.I.S.S. (yes - I did say that) theory of becoming financially independent through:

• Passive Income
• Investment Income
• Savings
• Simplicity

and shows how that allowed him to reach age 40 with enough of the first two to be able to stop work and live happily ands wealthily for the rest of his life. To avoid boredom, he created his two training companies and is now helping hundreds of other dental folks. So if you want to know how to get started in either of these activities - you will love this conversation. Harry shares many tips, secrets and recommendations in his uniquely non-p.c. style.

You may think me bold in suggesting that Jenny is one of the best practice managers in British dentistry - but I'm prepared to bet that, after listening to this extended edition of the podcast, you will agree with me that she knows her stuff. After a career in sales and sales management, Jenny was headhunted "after kids" by her then dentist to run his practice - and she is still there 12 years later and intending to work way past her future retirement age because she just loves the job. Her skill is matched by her enthusiasm and willingness to take on board new ideas in every aspect of practice management, from cloud-based accountancy software to social media based internal marketing. Her business has grown from 4 chairs in one location to 6 chairs and two locations as The Gallery Dental Group evolved from Meadow Walk Dental Practice and The Gallery Dental and Implant Centre - side by side in Buckingham. In this interview, Jenny shares with us her 5 top tips for success in practice management - tips that have served her through economic recession, change of ownership and growth through integration from 5 to 19 team members.

• Knowing your numbers - and doing something about it (including managing associate profitability);
• Running your dental payment plans properly to ensure profit;
• Triaging existing and new patients to the right dentist;
• Creating an excellent front desk patient experience;
• Getting the support and continuity that you need for internal word of mouth and digital marketing

Jenny really knows her stuff - and presents here a masterclass on what it takes to be a top manager in today's dental landscape.