One of the most overlooked training gaps in a dental practice is sitting in plain sight, every single day, at front of house. I’m continually surprised by how many practice owners will invest heavily in clinical education, digital technology, compliance systems and marketing, yet leave the reception team with little more than a script, a smile and a hope that they will somehow “pick it up as they go along”. That’s a mistake. Because the front of house team are not just there

29th May - Dublin Over the last three months, I’ve had the privilege of watching Lisa Grogan deliver her “From Toxic and Turbulent to Thriving” programme to a number of my clients across the UK. Let me be clear. This is not another “team building day”. It is not a motivational talk. And it is definitely not a tick-box exercise. What Lisa does is hold up a mirror. She creates a safe, structured environment in which practice owners, managers and teams can look honestly at what

In this episode of the Two Reds podcast, Chris Barrow and Ashley Latter park the polished version of business life and talk about the real world instead. Ashley joins the conversation after a brutal few days, with serious water damage at his training centre, a lost weekend of clearing up, and another demanding week of travel and delivery ahead. It is an honest reminder that leadership often means carrying on when you are tired, frustrated and running on reserve. Ashley also s

From community to movement: the next five years start now Since January 2021, The Extreme Business 100 community has been built around a simple idea: bring together ambitious independent dental business owners, support them consistently, and help them grow stronger, more valuable, and more enjoyable practices. At any one time, the community has been centred on around 100 members. On the surface, that sounds like a fixed number. In reality, over more than five years, it tells

The Daily Stoic this morning comments: "On the other hand, the "good" that The Stoics advocate is simpler and more straightforward (than "wealth"): Wisdom; Self-control: Justice: Courage. Not a bad way to approach the week.

Every so often, a speaker walks into a room and you know within five minutes that the audience is in safe hands. That was Laura Horton in Belfast. Professional from the first sentence, generous with her knowledge throughout, and very funny in all the right places, Laura delivered a workshop that managed to do something rare in dentistry: make the difficult stuff feel doable. This was not a day of vague theory. It was not a day of management clichés. And it certainly was not a

Co-founder Leticia receiving another donation of scrap A guest post by Mark Topley Every day, dental practices across the UK discard something valuable. Not accidentally. Not carelessly. Just... automatically. A crown comes off. A bridge is replaced. It goes in a pot or a bag and nobody gives it a second thought. Those restorations contain precious metals. Gold, silver, palladium and a host of other metals. Real value. Gone. The great shame (and opportunity) is that most prac

One room, many countries, shared dental challenges Yesterday I had the privilege of attending The Campbell Academy Dental Entrepreneur Bootcamp as a lecturer, and it proved to be one of those occasions that reminds us just how connected the independent dental profession has become. In the room were delegates not only from the United Kingdom, but also from Latvia, Prague and Kyiv. Different countries, different cultures, different economic and political realities and yet, when

A Guest Post from Nick Robson - Bearberry Insights Ltd   Running a mixed dental practice in the UK presents a unique leadership challenge.  You operate within NHS contractual obligations and UDA pressures, whilst simultaneously maintaining private patient expectations, brand reputation and commercial sustainability.   Clinical complexity, regulatory oversight and throughput targets coexist daily within a natural tension.  In this environment, safety can quietly become assumed

Calm, discipline, leadership The wider world is unsettled. The Bank of England is holding Bank Rate at 3.75%, inflation is still running above target at 3%, and the Bank has warned that conflict in the Middle East is pushing up energy prices and business costs again. Here at home, the National Living Wage has just risen to £12.71 an hour. In dentistry, NHS contract changes in England took effect from 1 April 2026, including the new 8.2% unscheduled care requirement for many p