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Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
CEO of the Month: Alyssa J. Rapp of Empower Aesthetics 10-15-25
00:25:36
In this episode, Alyssa J. Rapp, CEO of Empower Aesthetics, shares insights on scaling high-growth companies, building world-class teams, and mentoring the next generation of leaders. She also discusses leveraging AI, maintaining resilience,
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity in Business podcast and the Becker Business Podcast. We're thrilled today to be joined by an extraordinary leader. We're joined today by someone who's both the CEO of a private equity funded company, Empower Aesthetics, and also the author of a brilliant book, Leadership in Life. Insights from a mom, wife, entrepreneur and executive and and Alyssa Rapp herself is our CEO of the Month for October and just a brilliant leader. Alyssa, we are so thrilled to get to visit with you today. Can you take a moment and before we get into discussion of leadership building teams, strategy and more, take a moment and talk a bit about your background in your career and what a remarkable leader. Alyssa, thank you for joining us.
- [00:48]
B
Scott, you're the remarkable guy in this healthcare ecosystem. I'm flattered and honored to be included in in your podcast and deeply honored to be one of your CEOs of the month. So thank you so much for inviting me. I always enjoy speaking with you live or in this case on a recorded line.
- [01:03]
A
Thank you. And tell us a little bit about your background. You've led a number of organizations, the transformation and growth. How do you think about leadership and how has your thoughts on leadership evolved over the course of your career?
- [01:16]
B
So it's really interesting. I had a birthday this month so I've been thinking a little bit about time and I think when I was a startup CEO right out of grad school at Stanford Business School, I thought about leadership as having a vision, rallying people and stakeholders behind it, whether it was a board or a team or investors breaking new ground, building something out of nothing. And that was leadership. And then I after exiting bottle notes and spent a few years as you know and how we first met leading surgical solutions on behalf of Sterling Partners here in Chicago. And that was a turnaround and a transformation with a wonderful exit to a terrific strategic named Grupo VDelmax. I really thought about that. Leadership in that context was the more fundamental stuff of mission, vision, values, goal alignment, very, very, very clear focus on prioritization, same store growth, all the more traditional private equity things versus venture, which is eyeballs in the sky and you're selling rainbows and butterflies and dreams and building something out of nothing. Whereas a, you know, middle market private equity multisite healthcare business was about being focused tech enablement, ensuring that our current customers had a value proposition that was modern current and expanding, bringing on new customers to that and then selling it to someone who could continue to steward the business. And then I did something different. As we've talked about and raised a spac, which was a fund on the public stage. I did it at a time before it got. They got SPACs, got red hot and before the SEC did not love them for a period of time either. I loved being on the investment side of the house and looking at. We looked at 113 companies and did 13 LOIs. And thinking about how technology, our thesis was around health tech. So how technology could, you know, really explode the category, whether it was a product, a service, a drug or whatever else. And that for me, leadership there was very different. It was a little bit of a combination of my Silicon Valley days and my Chicago traditional multisite healthcare days where I was thinking about things through the investment lens of both Silicon Valley tech investment and traditional health care with extraordinary board members and advisors on both sides of the house. So that for me, leadership there was really the best. You know, we're here in baseball playoff season. It was like having this world class team, these extraordinary board members whose domain expertise aligned exactly with what we were seeking. And we just moved at an incredible clip over two years. And the only thing that in the end got in our way there was the market revolution, the exogenous market moment and everything besides that was an incredibly satisfying, gratifying and inspiring experience. And then after the spac, I have, having been on two women's health boards for sure Capital Partners, a different private equity firm here in Chicago for several years, one of those companies in power aesthetics. I had been on the board for over a year and the original CEO needed to step away for personal reasons and was asked by Shor to step from the board into the CEO chair. And that in some ways was both, I wouldn't call it the same degree of turnaround as surgical, but it was a reset as well as a growth story. Right. And I think in this case it's similar, but different mission, vision, values, alignment around the North Star, what excellence looks like, what winning looks like. And then the most challenging but most satisfying, I suppose thing in the end, which is both a rocket ship by definition has to have some combustion in it. So both trying to build this mergers and acquisition rocket ship, which is what Shore Capital's winning playbook is so overtly for microcap investing, as well as, you know, managing and growing the enterprise from a really tiny starting point to a meaningful and meaning meaty, you know, multisite point 18 to 20 months later, which is now where we are, which is that's a lot of breakneck growth. And that's hard because you're kind of Flying the plane and changing the engine at once.
- [05:06]
A
But yeah, no, and let's talk about that for a second because one of the things you do remarkably well and quite frankly, Shore Capital does a remarkable, incredible job of this, of sort of combining vision and execution. How do you sort of look at this? Because trying to move a rocket ship at that type of pace. Well, ensuring that teams stay focused day to day as well on strategy, on execution, on the day to day, what has to be done? Well, you're trying to propel this at a great speed. How do you struggle to balance sort of execution strategy and execution sort of, you know, day in, day out really hard.
- [05:41]
B
Right. I mean not, not easy, not, you know, and you've struck a nerve in the question because it's sort of. We're at an interesting inflection point. My job for the beginning first year in the seat was prove that there's an M and A engine to be had, which we have. We've, you know, we've, we've acquired 20 practices, 20, not 20 brands but 20 sites over the last 20 months. And we'd started at three and gone to 20. So now 17, I should say. And that's been a pretty breakneck speed with a business development team of two. Now Shore Capital, as you said, is just best in class at micro cap investing. So they have a playbook for that. From a back end diligence and investment committee standpoint, it was, it has all been clearly done in extraordinary partnership with them. And that's one set of muscles, that's one course, right? You're leaving Earth and going and setting your sights to the edge of the atmosphere. And that's what we did. And we've done, and we've done a very, very, very good job at that. Now we're at this next point in the evolution, which is pretty standard where we have to continue to grow, which we have been, we're up year over year, of course, and optimize in profitability what we've already bought, much harder job, much more traditional middle market, private equity style job and the whole, I liken it to the rocket ship than sort of, you know, orbiting the atmosphere. And then at some point when you feel like you've got that same store growth playbook just nailed, then you continue out into space until you're charting your next, the moon, the next planet, whatever have you. So the, the answer is, I think real crisp clarity of alignment with your private equity sponsor as well as with the team internally and being direct and forthright and authentic when Priorities are shifting and doing in a way where people understand the why the mission hasn't changed to build one of the most successful med spa platforms in the country. What we're trying to achieve over four or five years doesn't change the type, you know, being a place where we are the first choice for growth minded aesthetic professionals as our vision doesn't change the values that we bring to the table, whether it's winning as one team, et cetera, haven't changed. But what specific tactics we need to take at this point in orbiting earth versus just shooting out to the atmosphere are different. And then when we set a new course again in a, in a matter of weeks or months, it's going to be yet another, you know, buckle up and here we go. And so I think the clarity, the clarity of communication and the clarity of expectations and alignment of what winning looks like at each of those journeys is, is really what's I think key to success for in, in any growing enterprise, whether it's seed stage, venture stage, lower middle marketer, you know, high growth, large cap, private equity. But it's also particularly important to your point Scott, when you're dealing with an organization moving as fast as we are.
- [08:19]
A
And it's literally a remarkable growth engine over the last 12 to 18 months, it's literally remarkable. And so trying to make sure you're optimizing operations, we're growing that quickly, just fantastic. Alyssa, how do you think about building teams? I know you've surrounded yourself by world with world class leaders both at the board level and internally. How do you think about building teams and spotting teams, talent and bringing talent in?
- [08:44]
B
So I one of my favorite things to do in my career over the last 20 years as a CEO has been to plant and grow talent and young green talent looking to achieve his or her best and highest potential as they move up that corporate ladder. And expanding responsibility is probably what I find most satisfying as a mentor coach, CEO and you know, identifying folks with the talent, career pathing, asking them their hopes and aspirations are giving them the career development opportunities to achieve it. The skill development, the managerial coaching, whatever the case may be, span of control. My personal style is wildly hands off. I'm, you know, weekly calls all the time, deeply informed but not, you know, I'm the opposite of a micromanager. It's just not how I'm wired. On the other hand, I think that once you get to a place in an organization which we are now arriving at, empower, where you can really have world class executives, we just recruited in A new wonderful cfo for example. Those world class executives have their own playbooks and their own approaches. It's a real gift to be able to bring people in who also can help you develop talent. Because if it's all on your own shoulders, there's just quite a lot to do and probably unrealistic and impractical. I think it's just people with the same values of leading in values led organizations being very clear about our why developing people as well as developing systems and processes. I feel very strongly about that. It's what has made people in my past lives loyal over time and be able to boomerang back into organizations later, which I love seeing and having happen. And then separately just really, I guess. Scott, the honest answer is walking, walk. Like if you're someone who comes to me and says as a booth student of mine, I want to, you know, join a private equity backed company at shore out of the gates in an industry I like, great. And then you join that company and then a couple of years later you say I really want to start my own company or join something early stage again. And that happens. You have to be happy for the person that you've helped them on their career. Are right. Our job is to be a steward of people's careers, not limit them in a singular place. So I just take that, I don't want to call it Zen, but I take a relatively Zen attitude toward that. And I'm, and I really hope I try to understand, respect and support the whole person. And that can come in many forms and fashions. But whether it's team off sites or values based discussions on a weekly basis on team huddles or whatever, whatever it may be. But I try hard.
- [11:14]
A
No, no. And I love that. Thank you so much. I want to talk to you further about mentorship. You've made a specific point over the last decade of mentoring younger people and also particularly women in leadership. What advice do you give to young leaders? And I can't tell you how much I agree with your thought on the young person that comes to work with you and then ends up at a role that that person wanted in their next career. And not looking at as a negative on what you or did at the private equity fund or did at the company, but viewing it as really positive. We have one of our best people. We've this last week to become general counsel of a, of a, of, of of another private equity funded company and we have to view it as positive. This, this provided the springboard for that person become general counsel of that and exactly that attitude and perspective. I love that. Talk a bit about your thoughts on mentorship and leadership in, in how you sort of coach and, and give advice to young leaders.
- [12:15]
B
Yeah, it's great question. I and I, I am 100% aligned with you. We are stewards of people's careers. And the degree to which we have been good stewards will be reflected in the potential they achieve, not just within our own organizations, but outside. So I think that's a relatively modern view you and I have. I don't know if everyone has it, but it's certainly mine. And also, every time someone leaves is an opportunity to examine the way things have worked, have been working and recruit in extraordinary talent, new talent, different perspective talent or reshake up org design a little bit. So I view change. It's not. I don't seek it always, but I do. I also always view the glasses half full in that regard, especially if people are fulfilling their full potential. On a personal note, you know, on mentorship, I, as you said, I feel wildly passionate about it. My husband Hal And I have two daughters who are now just 13 and 10. And I want the world to be a place in 20 years where there are as many women leaders as men and that they would look at their career opportunities as not, why would. Why would I do something? But why wouldn't I? And I just want the, the perception of glass ceiling, glass cliff, all that glass stuff. I get tired of talking about, hearing about, you know, to be gone. That said, I think that the way you do that is by walking the walk. So, you know, I wrote a chapter in my book Leadership and Life Hacks that you mentioned on, on mentorship. Be one, get one, the power of It. And it's like, here are some tips on being a great mentee and here are some tips about being a great mentor. And in both cases, like being a mentee, do what you say you're going to do. Make it easy to be mentored. Follow up and give someone updates on what their advice was and how it turned out, good, bad or otherwise, so that the next time you have a question for them, it doesn't feel transactional. They feel brought along for the journey. Make it easy for them to meet with you, whether it's, you know, tea, coffee, wine, whatever it is, whatever is easy for your mentor. Right. I had a booth student of mine, I teach a course at five years now at Booth called Women as Investors, Directors, CEOs and Executives. And one of my students is brand new in the private wealth World at one of the big fancy white shoe firms in Chicago. And she wanted to have coffee. And I said, I'd be delighted to meet you. I'm traveling a ton. I can do coffee in suburbia at, like, this time on these few Thursdays. If you can make one of them work, take the train, take an Uber. I don't care. I'm happy to meet, but I can't, like, schlep around Chicago to meet with you. Or we can always zoom. So she. She did it. She was on time. She was thoughtful enough about asking if I wanted, you know, she knew I remembered I like tea if I wanted matcha or chai or whatever. And it wasn't about the tea. It was about. She made it easy for me to show up. And then when she had advice about introductions or boards to join or anything else, now I'm invested. Now I want to make those. Now I want to pick up the phone and shake the trees and call my friends and my network and say, hey, the student of mine's interested in X, Y, and Z. What advice do you have for her? Here's what I thought. And then I give the advice. And I gave her the advice again. Like, once I've done this, follow up with me in three or four months, let me know how the advice panned out, Let me know if there's anything you did in between. And that it sounds obvious and a little bit paint by numbers, Scott, but I think that's the way to do it.
- [15:01]
A
Yeah, I quite frankly, could not agree more. One of the advice that I give to our children is you're asking some advice. Make it as easy for that person as possible. Can I get you on the phone for five minutes? Can I make it easy for you so that you're making it, and then you develop a relationship. But the mentor mentee relationship has got to be as much about the mentee putting thoughtful time into it as the mentor in this concept, the people that you give advice to and follow up with you. A month later, I did talk to this person. I did talk to that person. It is so appreciated by the mentor, I can't even tell you. So I could not agree more with the thoughts and advice on the subject. I want to take you to another question that's also dealt with in your book and Leadership and Life Hacks, which is this question of you serve on boards, you teach a class, you run a company that's on a tremendous growth clip, you're working with one of the best private equity funds in the world at Shore Capital. How do you stay sharp mentally, physically, strategically so you could lead at your best each day. And I know how important is you for you to show up for your daughters who are 13 and 10, and for Hale as well. How do you, you work to stay physically, mentally and strategically sharp as you're doing multiple different things.
- [16:12]
B
So I think that the two big conclusions I've drawn on this in my 40s, Scott, are one, seek episodic versus daily balance and I'll expound. And two, it's my responsibility to put my own oxygen mask on first. So whether it's a 30 minute run or an hour, much more comprehensive workout, I do something for myself between 5 and 6:30 every morning to stay sane through my sanity, not just vanity. I have to, I can't imagine not. It's not even questioned in the family. Where did mom go for that period of time? She's in the gym if it's winter or running outside if it's, you know, beautiful weather. And I'm just, I don't feel apologetic about it. I don't. I help the kids with homework before and after breakfast, of course, but like I can't. I have to do something to clear my mind every day. And that's what I do. And it's been my thing since a childhood athlete. And I think that I say to folks all the time in putting your own oxygen mask on first, it is not my right or responsibility to tell you if that is meditation, walking your dog, journaling, staring at the sea, working out whatever the case may be, but doing something for yourself every day to feel restored. I do feel as a responsibility and no one else's but your own. And I think that is simple and obvious but also kind of necessary to be reminded of. And I also am pretty clean, you know, pescatarian, gluten free, whatever, whatever, a pretty clean eater. And when I travel for work and like 6am flights and 15 meetings a day and then, you know, barely any sleep and a flight home, I am, I try to just take really good physical care of myself because the one thing I have no bandwidth for is being down for the count. Like I have no time to be sick. I just have no time. Like I cannot have that happen.
- [17:49]
A
Well in that discipline to eat well on the road, you know, anybody who's done it for a long period of time knows how hard that is. And it takes real discipline and if you could do it, it is so much weight to live and take care of yourself. So I'm a huge fan of the efforts you make to physically and mentally lead and it's one of the reasons why you've been so successful. Talk for a moment, we've got a few minutes left. Alyssa about both a couple different subjects. How do you think about innovation today? And you're looking at you're in a very traditional blocking and tackling business trying to grow the med spot business. I shouldn't say very traditional, but somewhere in the middle of a traditional multi site business and trying to grow it. How do you think about innovation? And also how do you think about resilience? And we've already covered resilience a little bit and how you manage yourself. But how do you think about innovation? And then I'll ask you one other question. What are you most focused on and excited about currently?
- [18:41]
B
Great questions. So on innovation, one of the many reasons I've chosen to be involved with universities on a professorial level, teaching at Stanford Business School, my alma mater for eight years and then nine and then moving over to Booth once. Helen I moved back to Chicago eight years ago is because it's so satisfying and so beneficial to think about things at a hundred thousand foot level which you're forced to do when teaching courses at top universities with really smart students versus just at the 30,000 foot level. I've used a lot of flying metaphors today the 30,000 foot level when a CEO of a company and Maggie Wilderadder is one of the most storied women on boards of our nation's history, public and private and there's a case I teach on her from HBS actually and she has a great quote on this that being on boards gives her the 100,000 foot perspective, you know, paraphrasing to be a better CEO and being a CEO gives her more direct hands on experience. It makes her better on board. So I believe the interplay of those things is actually beneficial to both. But innovation I guess I checked the box there candidly in two ways Scott. One, I love being on faculty at these wonderful universities and being pushed to think deeply and to push others to think deeply. It just keeps me sharp and on my strategic game in academia. And then secondly I'm a proud angel investor in some students enterprises, not all of them and then of course doing actively involved here in Chicago in the venture community as an investor, not passive investor, not an active venture capitalist and I love thinking about and seeing come across my desk and quarterly updates or anything else from the firms in which our families and lp all of the different things people are investing in and it forces Me to understand where the market or understands too strong of a statement, at least get a glimpse of insight into where the market might be moving over the next five to 10 years and I start think deeply and try to make sure I understand what could be happening and then of course back to earth. How does it affect me as you said on the day to day and running a more traditional private equity enterprise right now.
- [20:33]
A
But it's really a remarkable thing this mix of being able to be thoughtful as an advisor, thoughtful as a teacher, and then take that sort of thinking and work it into being a CEO and then vice versa. The perspective of a CEO and then serving on a board and understanding here's how things can work or should work and that interplay between the two. I could not agree with you more. It's really remarkable. And I also the investing issue, you know, there's this reality of investing is that you could talk and think all you want about something, but once you have real money at risk, you think about it and see it differently. Like I've invested in a whole number of things. I've invested with short capital. I've had venture investments that have gone to zero. And that going to zero is one of the great learning experiences that you could get, good or bad. It costs money, but it's a great learning experience. You learn, here's what didn't go right here. Here's what went right. Here's what leadership looks like. I think your thoughts on the mix of these things is so right on. It's literally remarkable.
- [21:34]
B
Well, and I'll say to you one thing on that note before the last question you asked of what what are you most intrigued by right now? I. I have learned more from my losses than my wins. They are hard and they are painful. Like our SPAC should have been one of the big winners of that era. Wall Street Journal cover piece. We had the right team, the right strategy and in theory, the right timing initially. But the market really moved under us on the category and we worked our tails off. But there was a lot of regulatory. There were a lot of regulatory hurdles at the time and without casting dispersions, I had the most wonderful board, we had a wonderful thesis. We looked at wonderful companies and got real close to bringing one public that I thought would have been a hit. But at the end of the day, what I learned from that whole experience was truly invaluable about public equities, about regulatory dynamics, about market timing, about deal making. And so it was painful and expensive and not that I didn't Love, but the learning was awesome. And if you know learning was awesome.
- [22:32]
A
I say with total no, no, I love that. And you're an incredibly effective person, like an incredibly effective person, effective people that I know and so do take us to where are you most focused and excited currently?
- [22:48]
B
So I think that's a tough question that I candidly didn't fully prepare for. I think personally I'm excited to learn how I can continue to leverage AI to be more personally productive and effective. I love perplexity. I talk to it, I ask it questions, I ask it questions and I start to synthesize, ask it to help me synthesize data, which I think will ultimately make me much more effective. And then I like to think deeply about how it can help obviate the need to hire more people in which systems and processes can be, you know, leverage AI in two to three years in the company, in the company that I'm currently running and then in the businesses with which I'm involved as a board member, etc. I think that in between of how do I use it on an individual level daily and how do you use AI systematically over two to three years, where the wheels are starting to turn. The in between is probably the most nebulous to me and what I'm trying to figure out the most, which is how do we leverage this to really drive productivity without losing creativity and humanity and on a much lighter and much more narrow scale. It applies to my teaching world as well. Right. My AI policy as Professor Booth is to copy something from AI and claim as your own is the tantamount to plagiarism and a violation of the honor code to leverage AI is also expected and cited accordingly. And that like how do you use artificial intelligence to do all the enhancing things it's capable of in business, frankly, and in life without, you know, as effectively as possible, is something I'm. I know others too, but really, really starting to think about deeply and wrestle with. So if you have any other podcast, you know, folks that can come talk about that, I'd love to hear from them.
- [24:23]
A
No 100%. And I think so many of us are in that exact spot of really trying to lean into using AI personally, really trying to understand it, really trying to grow into it at the same time then figuring how are you going to use it at scale and in systems and in companies as well, and trying to cross that that chasm, particularly at mid sized companies that aren't by their nature didn't start to be technology companies where technology companies that seems to be somewhat second nature that this is where they're going and what they're doing. You see it at the Microsoft's of the world, the meta platforms of the world, the Google world whereas at the mid sized companies it's a much more complicated thing that you're going to figure out how to implement correctly because you weren't built for it to begin with but we're trying to get there. I think it's a fascinating perspective.
- [25:03]
B
Agreed. It's hard but we'll figure it out. Just we got to keep we're all works in progress there.
- [25:08]
A
Alyssa I want to thank you for joining us on the Becker Business and Private Equity podcast. Just an absolutely remarkable leader. Again Alyssa Rapp, CEO of the month CEO of Empower Aesthetics. Just a brilliant leader. Thank you for joining us today Scott.
- [25:24]
B
So appreciate you including me. Really really really admire you all. You've built your podcast and more and it was an honor and a privilege and thank you for thank you for including me.