#329 Sandhurst to Scotland — Amber Aplin

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 Episode00:02:00 — Growing up in North Wales; losing his father at eight00:07:40 — Deploying to Helmand Province with 40 Commando Royal Marines00:12:05 — Leaving the military; getting ripped off on day one as a civilian dentist00:13:05 — Buying his first practice with £20,000 and a devil-may-care attitude00:51:35 — Selling Exeter and the year-long family world trip00:54:25 — Laura and the brand; how Dartmoor grew from £700K to £2.5M00:56:00 — The NHS contract as a social obligation01:07:40 — Barriers to entry, squat risks, and buying underperforming practices01:19:00 — Appointing the youngest clinician as clinical lead01:27:00 — Military-derived leadership principles; letting the ship sail without you01:33:15 — Fee guides as windows to the soul01:39:55 — The four pillars: leadership, infrastructure, branding, financial command and control01:53:35 — Darkest days in business01:57:30 — KPIs: one metric, embed the culture, then move on02:11:55 — Fantasy dinner partyAbout Mike HeskethMike 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 Episode00:00:25 – Rhona's return & introducing Neelima00:02:05 – Choosing dentistry over medicine00:03:25 – Finding Kiss Dental & Kailash's mentorship programme00:05:10 – What makes Kiss Dental unique00:06:10 – Cosmetic dentistry aesthetics: Manchester vs London00:10:25 – How Neelima ended up on MAFS00:11:40 – Going against everyone's advice00:13:50 – Why she wanted to find love on TV00:16:30 – The wedding day: what you do (and don't) get to choose00:20:05 – First impressions of Stephen00:21:35 – The honeymoon — and the moment things shifted00:25:35 – Internalising doubt: gaslighting in real time00:27:05 – The trolling, and trusting her own intuition00:31:25 – The earnings conversation that changed everything00:38:25 – His true colours: recognising the venom00:44:30 – The Hinge incident00:50:20 – Traumatic, enlightening — or both?00:53:05 – The modern dating landscape & the male loneliness debate00:58:10 – Balancing dentistry with a media career01:01:00 – Mental health pressures in the profession01:04:10 – What she'd do differentlyAbout Neelima PatelNeelima 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 Episode00:00:50 - Introduction00:01:05 - Finding dentistry00:03:05 - Nuances of dental accounting00:08:35 - Tax investigations00:19:25 - Good accountant vs great accountant00:21:05 - Practice valuations and the post-Covid hangover00:59:00 - Pricing strategy01:07:05 - Making Tax Digital01:09:30 - Expensing and entertainment01:23:00 - Tax avoidance schemes01:28:25 - Inheritance tax planning01:34:05 - Last days and legacy01:36:05 - Being an outlierAbout Bilal AhmedBilal 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 Episode00:01:00 — Practice ownership00:05:20 — Developing associates00:09:00 — Picking a lane00:16:00 — Meeting Chez Bright00:17:45 — Running projects00:24:30 — AI and the future of dentistry00:31:10 — Manchester Sedation Course00:37:45 — HireADentalSurgery.com00:52:20 — Branding and virality00:57:15 — Blackbox thinking01:04:15 — Clinical communication01:13:00 — Lowest point01:15:20 — Faith and loss01:22:25 — Memorable lecture01:25:00 — Fantasy dinner partyAbout Nasser SyedNasser 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 Episode00:01:05 — Introductions and the Dental Leaders origin story00:02:10 — Why Payman started a podcast — and what it's become00:05:20 — Leaning into strengths, owning your quirks00:07:00 — Starting Enlighten at 28 and the philosophy of doing one thing brilliantly00:10:25 — The sacrifices behind world-class quality00:14:10 — Being number two — and the decision to become the best00:16:15 — Favourite quote: Oscar Wilde and the art of being yourself00:20:25 — Identity, self-awareness and shedding the layers00:21:50 — Dentistry as a kingdom — and why practices are anything but the same00:23:10 — Mental health in dentistry: burnout, suicide and the stress bucket00:27:40 — The emotional drain of being "on show" all day00:30:20 — Kids, careers and the realities of dentistry as a profession00:35:40 — Knowing yourself before you can lead others00:36:10 — Intuition as a leadership skill — and how to train itAbout Dr Rana Al-Falaki and Dr Bhavin PatelDr 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.

Payman chats with Daniel Jones, the Cambridge-educated entrepreneur who's bringing analytical rigour to dental practice management. Daniel shares the dramatic health journey that redirected his path from investment banking into healthcare innovation, revealing how a near-miss diagnosis of a life-threatening heart condition shaped his mission. The conversation explores the technical challenges of building software that actually talks to the chaotic ecosystem of dental systems, from practice management platforms to lab invoices trapped in PDFs. You'll hear about the realities of fundraising, the loneliness of startup life, and why Daniel thinks the best entrepreneurs operate with surprisingly simple rules—even when solving complex problems.`In This Episode00:01:05 - What Medfin does00:03:05 - Associate performance metrics00:04:00 - Connecting disparate systems00:04:50 - Single practice viability00:05:40 - Why dentistry?00:06:10 - The blood pressure discovery00:08:20 - Coarctation diagnosis00:09:05 - Healthcare system chaos00:10:40 - Economics at Cambridge00:12:25 - Investment banking to startups00:15:50 - First startup lessons00:18:55 - Finding the dental opportunity00:22:40 - Building the founding team00:25:15 - Technical architecture challenges00:29:30 - Onboarding process evolution00:33:10 - Product development philosophy00:36:45 - Pricing strategy and models00:40:20 - Fundraising journey00:44:35 - Investor relationships00:48:50 - Multi-practice versus single site00:52:15 - NHS versus private analytics00:56:30 - Clinical efficiency debates01:00:45 - Competition and market positioning01:04:20 - AI integration plans01:08:35 - Team building challenges01:12:50 - Work-life balance realities01:16:15 - Fantasy dinner party01:18:40 - Last days and legacyAbout Daniel JonesDaniel Jones is the founder and CEO of Medfin, an analytics platform that helps dental practices and groups optimise their operational and financial performance. A Cambridge economics graduate who moved from investment banking into the startup world, Daniel has built software that connects the fragmented ecosystem of dental practice systems—from practice management platforms to accounting software—giving practice owners the insights they need to improve profitability.

Payman chats with Amber Aplin, who's carved out something genuinely different in the Scottish Borders. From military dentist to biomimetic practice owner, Amber's journey takes in Germany, Iraq, private equity, and ultimately building a practice that puts prevention and patient education at its core. She talks candidly about the realities of military life, the loneliness of early practice ownership, and why she now trains therapists and other dentists in minimally invasive techniques. There's also a refreshing honesty about perfectionism, work-life balance, and what happens when you stop chasing the next big thing and start appreciating what's already there.In This Episode00:00:40 - Military beginnings 00:02:05 - Sandhurst training 00:03:55 - Germany posting 00:06:50 - Iraq deployment 00:09:25 - Leaving the forces 00:10:45 - Moving to Scotland 00:12:30 - Early practice ownership struggles 00:15:20 - Private equity involvement 00:19:10 - Buying the practice back 00:22:15 - Building a biomimetic practice 00:26:40 - Therapist-led model 00:31:20 - Teaching and courses 00:36:45 - Microscope dentistry 00:42:10 - Direct bonding techniques 00:48:25 - Patient communication 00:53:30 - Practice culture 00:58:15 - Work-life balance challenges 01:04:20 - Pascal Magne influence 01:09:40 - Preventive dentistry philosophy 01:15:50 - Social media approach 01:21:35 - Business versus clinical focus 01:26:45 - Blackbox thinking 01:28:50 - Fantasy dinner party 01:30:15 - Last days and legacyAbout Amber AplinAmber Aplin is a biomimetic dentist and practice owner in the Scottish Borders who served six years as a military dentist, including deployments to Germany and Iraq. She now runs a prevention-focused practice where therapists deliver the majority of patient care, and teaches minimally invasive dentistry techniques to other practitioners.

This week Payman chats with Payvand Menhadji, a newly qualified specialist periodontist who's navigating the delicate balance between clinical excellence and impending motherhood. At 30 weeks pregnant, Payvand reflects on her journey from general dentist to specialist—driven by a competitive streak and a love for surgical challenge that emerged during her VT year. The conversation weaves through everything from the realities of private practice economics to why she'd rather perfect her surgical skills than chase Instagram fame, touching on mentorship, imposter syndrome, and the art of staying humble when success comes knocking.In This Episode00:01:00 - Finishing specialist training whilst pregnant00:04:20 - Why four days feels necessary00:05:10 - The moment surgery clicked00:07:10 - Competitive from birth00:08:20 - Hospital jobs and surgical confidence00:11:45 - Decision to specialise00:14:50 - Choosing between ortho and perio00:18:30 - Training structure and challenges00:22:15 - Learning from the best00:26:40 - Private practice reality00:30:20 - What patients actually pay00:34:45 - Imposter syndrome00:38:20 - Building a reputation00:42:15 - Surgical complications00:46:30 - Blackbox thinking00:51:45 - Treatment planning philosophy00:56:20 - Working with implantologists01:00:15 - Referral relationships01:04:30 - Social media approach01:08:45 - Learning from Instagram01:13:35 - Fantasy dinner party01:15:20 - Last days and legacyAbout Payvand MenhadjiPayvand Menhadji is a specialist periodontist who completed her training in September 2024. She works across multiple specialist practices focusing on periodontal surgery and implantology, having developed her surgical interest during VT under the mentorship of implantologist Victor Keyhani.

In this solo episode, Prav Solanki shares a no-nonsense reflection on business, health, family and personal discipline as he looks ahead to 2026. After a turbulent end to the year involving a family health scare, he talks through the non-negotiables shaping his daily life, from strength and cardio to carving out space for strategy. But the real centrepiece is business — specifically his Start, Scale, Exit model, which underpins everything he’s building this year. Whether you’re a founder in the trenches or a parent trying to balance your time, there’s something here that hits home.In This Episode00:01:00 – Health before everything00:10:45 – Family illness and perspective00:20:30 – Training with discipline00:30:50 – Vegetarianism and protein00:41:10 – Bloodwork and optimisation00:51:40 – Start, Scale, Exit explained01:01:30 – Scaling with team structure01:12:00 – Coaching, clarity and freedom01:22:15 – Tactical planning for 202601:32:00 – Work-life integration mindsetAbout Prav SolankiPrav Solanki is a health-obsessed entrepreneur, performance coach and co-host of Dental Leaders. With multiple successful businesses under his belt, he’s now focused on helping others implement his Start, Scale, Exit model — a framework built on clarity, simplicity, and ruthless prioritisation.

The tables turn this week as Payman hangs out with Laura and Leanna on The Horton Hangout. What starts as a chat about the challenges of being interviewed rather than interviewing quickly evolves into something deeper—an honest exploration of ambition, sacrifice, and what it means to build something meaningful whilst trying to hold onto the people you love. From managing business partnerships and navigating the tension between legacy and presence, to the surprisingly simple power of just showing up, this conversation touches on the parts of success no one really talks about until they're living through it.In This Episode00:01:25 - Hosting versus guesting00:02:55 - How Laura and Leanna met00:06:40 - Having it all as ambitious women00:10:50 - Balancing work travel with family life00:14:30 - Partnership dynamics and business relationships00:19:45 - The Enlighten story and business evolution00:28:15 - Marketing philosophy and brand building00:35:20 - Working with your best mate00:41:10 - The reality of business partnerships00:47:25 - Managing conflict and difficult conversations00:52:40 - Learning to say no and setting boundaries00:58:15 - Legacy versus being present01:03:30 - Parenting and guilt01:09:45 - The immigrant work ethic01:16:20 - Competition in dentistry01:21:35 - Advice for younger dentists01:25:00 - Meeting strangers from the internet 01:28:20 - Remote teams and South African operationsAbout Laura Horton & Leanna BestLaura Horton is a dental hygienist, educator, and founder of multiple dental businesses including Brush, whilst Leanna Best is a treatment coordinator and educator who worked alongside Neil and Fiona Gerrard before launching her own training ventures. Together they co-host The Horton Hangout—a podcast that strips away the polish and gets into the real conversations about life, work, and everything in between within the dental world.