Med Spa CEO Podcast – Detailed Episode Summary

Episode Title: Turn Tox Patients Into Premium Comprehensive Clients With This Business Model Shift
Host: Heather Terveen
Release Date: September 17, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Heather Terveen addresses a major challenge facing many boutique med spa and aesthetic practice owners: relying heavily on “hero” services like Tox (Botox or similar neurotoxin injectables), which can create a high-volume, low-margin business. Heather argues that this model, while often leaving practices fully booked, limits profitability and underutilizes the potential for delivering truly transformative outcomes for patients. The episode is tailored to practice owners who want to shift from selling isolated, low-margin procedures to being recognized as comprehensive, results-focused experts.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Where Clinics Get Stuck: The Tox Trap (00:00–05:30)

• Many med spas develop a business model focused on memberships or promotional efforts around a single, high-traffic service (like Tox).
• This approach leads to a situation where 30–50% of revenue comes from Tox, but patients rarely purchase additional higher-margin or transformative services.
• Being busy doesn’t necessarily equate to being profitable, and this model caps both revenue and client outcomes.
• Quote:
  "Getting busy is great. It feels great to be booked five to six weeks in advance, but it doesn't feel good to not be as profitable as you want to be." — Heather (00:43)

2. Real Client Examples: High Revenue, Low Margin (05:31–11:15)

• Heather shares recent menu design session stories involving two successful clients—one a nurse practitioner, the other a surgeon-turned-aesthetician—both earning $130k–$200k/month.

• Despite being fully booked, they noticed about 50% of their business was from Tox, leaving “a lot of money on the table” due to limited patient upgrades to comprehensive care.

• The problem is not the popularity of Tox, but allowing it to become the end goal ("ceiling") rather than the entry point for deeper, high-value solutions.

• Quote:
  "Tox isn't the problem. The problem is when tox becomes your ceiling instead of your entry point." — Heather (16:07)

3. Decision Point: Who Do You Want to Be? (11:16–17:40)

• Owners must consciously decide whether to be a high-volume, single-service clinic or a transformation-focused, comprehensive provider.
• Operational excellence is required for profitability under the high-volume model, but Heather’s coaching is aimed at the transformative route.
• The first key step: Deciding on your business identity—not just tactics or menu offerings, but how you intend to serve and position your practice.

4. The Systemic Shift: Annual Consultations & Signature Solutions (17:41–28:40)

• Practices must implement proactive systems to shift Tox-only patients into comprehensive care—this won’t happen by accident.
• Annual consultations for every patient become the cornerstone for identifying additional needs and offering tailored solutions.
  • Heather likens this to an annual physical at a primary care office.
  • These consults deepen trust and uncover further opportunities to serve.
• Regularly revisiting the overall care plan ensures patients are aware of the full services you offer.
• Quote:
  "They are so primed for your transformative solutions. They're so primed for more comprehensive results. And many of them just don't know, because you and your team members haven't walked them through that conversation." — Heather (24:46)

5. Case Study & Revenue Impact Exercise (28:41–32:00)

• Heather illustrates with a simple exercise:
  • Calculate your unique patients in the past year and their average spend (often $2,000/year for Tox-heavy clinics).
  • By moving just 30% of these patients from $2,000 to $10,000 annually (with comprehensive care), clinics can add significant revenue—$300,000 extra in her 100-patient example—and much of this is profit.

6. Why This Matters: Loyalty, Referrals, and Profit Efficiency (32:01–37:15)

• Higher per-patient revenue creates stronger relationships, loyalty, and word-of-mouth referrals.
• Ensures you don’t “lose” patients to competitors for services they didn’t realize you offered.
  • Quote:
    "One of my clients shared...her consistent tox patient actually went somewhere else for Sculptra, and it was because she didn’t even know that they also offered Sculptra." — Heather (33:31)
• Systematized annual reviews drive per-patient value and set the foundation for profitable, sustainable scaling.

7. Implementing the Shift: The 3-Stage Marketing Ecosystem (37:16–47:20)

• Heather breaks the patient journey into “before, during, and after”:

  1. Before: Front-end offers (simple service promos, ads), organic & paid social, website.
  2. During: In-person consults, signature packages, and ensuring every patient is offered a comprehensive roadmap by any team member.
  3. After: Follow-ups, annual reviews, and “high impact” events focused on solving big patient problems (e.g., full-face rejuvenation) for highly engaged clients.

• High-impact events can nurture decisions for more comprehensive care even among patients not ready to upgrade during annual consults.

• Quote:
  "It will totally work for you...when you make the decision that you are going to be a place that draws their line in the sand and you're going to look at your customer journey and decide we are going all in on the transformative results that we want to create for the humans that we serve. The sky is the limit." — Heather (46:26)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Profitability vs. Busyness:
  "It feels great to be booked five to six weeks in advance, but it doesn't feel good to not be as profitable as you want to be." — Heather (00:43)
• On Allowing Tox to Be the Ceiling:
  "Tox isn't the problem. The problem is when tox becomes your ceiling instead of your entry point." — Heather (16:07)
• On Unlocking Patient Potential:
  "They are so primed for your transformative solutions. They're so primed for more comprehensive results. And many of them just don't know, because you and your team members haven't walked them through that conversation." — Heather (24:46)
• On Missed Referral Opportunities:
  "One of my clients shared...her consistent tox patient actually went somewhere else for Sculptra, and it was because she didn’t even know that they also offered Sculptra." — Heather (33:31)
• On Shifting Clinic Identity:
  "It really actually starts with the decision. Not the treatment menu, not the sales script. It's a decision about your identity as a business." — Heather (15:20)
• On the Opportunity for Growth:
  "It will totally work for you...when you make the decision that you are going to be a place that draws their line in the sand and you're going to look at your customer journey and decide we are going all in on the transformative results that we want to create for the humans that we serve. The sky is the limit." — Heather (46:26)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–05:30: Introduction to the “Tox trap” and how clinics become high-volume, low-margin.
• 05:31–11:15: Real client stories and the realization of untapped potential.
• 11:16–17:40: The critical decision-shift: high volume vs. high value.
• 17:41–28:40: Systems needed to transition Tox patients into premium clients, especially annual consults.
• 28:41–32:00: Patient base audit & revenue impact exercise.
• 32:01–37:15: Why transforming your model matters: loyalty, missed cross-sell opportunities, profit efficiency.
• 37:16–47:20: How to implement this shift across your marketing and patient journey.
• 46:26: Heather’s call to “draw your line in the sand” and go all in on transformational outcomes.

Actionable Takeaways

• Audit your revenue: Determine how much is coming from “hero” services like Tox and what percentage of patients upgrade to comprehensive care.
• Decide your identity: Are you content being a high-volume provider, or do you want to be known for transformations?
• Implement annual consultations: Standardize annual, comprehensive consults for every patient to uncover needs and deliver value.
• Build and market signature solutions: Ensure your website, social, emails, and consults all reflect your expertise in transformation—not just single services.
• Create high-impact events: Focus on events and campaigns that educate and move existing patients toward comprehensive, premium service packages.

Tone and Final Thoughts

Heather’s style is supportive, practical, and enthusiastic. She reassures listeners that, while the shift from “Tox trap” to transformation-focused practice is simple in theory, it takes commitment and deliberate action. However, she emphasizes that the rewards—profit, patient loyalty, and impact—are transformational and fully within reach.

For more detailed implementation and community support, Heather invites practice owners to consider her MedSpa Advantage program.