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Med Spa Success Strategies
Essential Strategies for Med Spa Growth - Interview with Louis Frisina
01:15:03
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- [00:00]
A
Hey there. I'm your host, Ricky Shockley, and welcome to the Med Spa Success Strategies podcast where med spa and aesthetics practice owners come to discover strategies and tactics that help them better market and manage their practices so they can grow, improve profitability and have more financial freedom. Very excited today to be joined again by Louis Farzina. Louis is a renowned biotechnology entrepreneur and aesthetics industry thought leader. He's Harvard educated with over 30 years of experience discovering new markets, founding and leading profitable mergers and acquisitions in biotech and companies such as Fisher Scientific International, collegenesis, qmed, Metasys, Gynopharma, and more. He's an advisor to several private equity and hedge funds for mergers and acquisitions. He also discovered the aesthetic filler Restylane in Brazil and built the market and sold Restylane to Medicis for $160 million in the United States. Today, Louis and I are going to talk about some of the most pressing questions facing med spa owners and the industry at large in terms of marketing, management, strategy, and growth. All right, everybody, back by popular demand. Louis, thanks so much for coming back on the podcast. We appreciate it.
- [01:11]
B
Hey, Rick, nice to see you again and thanks for having me back.
- [01:15]
A
Yeah, we're excited. We got lots of great feedback. I think people, multiple people told me they were sitting there taking notes the entire time, as I told you. So I wanted to kind of just branch off our last conversation, dig a little bit deeper on some specific items. I came up with a list of questions that you and I kind of roughly talked through. So we're just kind of going to do like a rapid fire, a little bit conversational Q and A type episode here, if that works.
- [01:36]
B
Sure.
- [01:37]
A
All right, so. So the first thing I wanted to address, and I'm kind of trying to figure out, you know, of the people that we talk to, what are some of the most pressing concerns people have? Where do people still feel like there's a lack of certainty with what direction to go with certain things and how to think about certain things when it comes to marketing and managing their practices. So the first thing we're going to talk about is competition. So I know I talk to people all the time and they feel overwhelmed by the competition. There are just so many people doing what you're doing, even in your city right within miles of your office. So I wanted to just kind of pick your brain thoughts on competition and how to stand apart in a competitive landscape.
- [02:10]
B
Yeah, that's a. That's a great question. And it tails off, you know, when I go in and, you know, Evaluate a practice and the opportunities. You know, a lot of it is about the practice. But there are two external factors that you have to take into consideration anytime you're doing anything. One is the market that you're entering into. Is the market attractive from a geo target standpoint, from the people who you're basically targeting to? And the second part is in the competition. So let me address the competition and so forth and you know, the issues of differentiating. First of all, I feel in my own experience, people don't spend enough time looking at their competitors. And it's a really, really important thing to do because everything that we do in business is relative to the competition. It's not an absolute discussion or a service offering or a mission. It's always relative to your competitors and to some extent relative to your market. Most people don't do a great job. And there are best practices out there that do a phenomenal job. They have ambassadors that go out there that, that actually visit these other places. They do mystery calls and mystery shopping and so forth. They are evaluating their service offerings on Instagram or on Facebook or any of the social medias and seeing if there's any updates in their websites. They're looking at, quite frankly, how well they're doing, you know, in terms of testimonials and rankings and everything else and so forth. And so, you know, the first thing I wanted to say is spend some time really going into the marketplace and looking at the top, if not three, five top competitors based upon the likely service offerings and likely procedures that you're planning on implementing or have in place. This is a dynamic market, just like yourself. Competitors are also likely to change and it's important to understand that evolution and the dynamics now relative to competition to how to differentiate yourself. First of all, there are many ways of differentiating yourself. But first of, from a brief standpoint on this call, I will take three differentiating factors that other practices have used. One is technology in their practice, and we'll talk about technology in a second. The second thing is the service offering that they're doing. And then third is the level and the quality of the service that they're actually providing. The journey to that customer. So let me start with the last one because I, people I don't think understand how important it is to be able to differentiate themselves just on the experience that these patients have coming into your practice. I can't tell you how many times, you know, I've gone into a practice and nobody pays attention to be coming in, you know, at the front Reception, the music is too loud, the reception area is disheveled and so forth. You know, that's an I'm coming in and put, taking money out of my own pocket, especially in this market right now where there are clearly headwinds ahead of us with, you know, a political election, a very important one this year, as well as, you know, some of the more recent employment numbers which aren't as high as everyone wanted them to be. And so, you know, taking money out of people's pocket and having them not only spend it with you, but spend it in multiple times during the year and sustain that spending with you. That loyalty and that trust has to be around that experience. And I think we've talked about a little of these before. I have a practice in London that she offers prayer rugs to the her Arab clients because they may be there during certain times of the year. Other places have they bring lunch on a tray with glass, not with plastic. And there are others and so forth who decide to have a very clean hospital like aseptic kind of white environment. And that's okay as well, as long as you understand what you're offering and realize what you're not offering relative to the competitors out there. And that's where that mystery shopping uncovers a lot of things that are done, whether or not the TV is on, whether it's on an endless loop, whether there's iPads that are handed out at reception. There's a lot of ways of differentiating that practice as well as following up with that patient's procedure once it's been done, whether it's a new patient or an existing patient. Best practices, two days later, within the first two days, call the patient, said, how was your experience? Was everything okay? And so forth. Is there anything you'd like me to convey to the doctor or to provider, you know, prior to your next minute, to your next visit, et cetera. So there's a lot of ways to differentiate yourself from the competitor. And guess what, that doesn't really cost a lot of money. It's about paying attention, detailed attention to that customer and, and that customer journey and experience. Second thing is we can talk about, let's talk about technology. There's a lot of technology out there and it's not just technology relative to energy based devices, which allows for multiple different types of procedures that are being taken care of to take care of a clinical particular issue that you may have on your face or body and so forth. It's also the technology and the practice. Some practices have actually apps that they've put together so that their patients can better and more efficiently and more effectively communicate with them. And it's a little more stickiness when you have an app like that. There are others that, for instance, try to reduce the amount of time and attention that patients spend filling out all of those lengthy and arduous forms that we all dismay about when we go into any medical practice and hear constantly the repetitive same old questions. And there are many practices out there that have patient portals where you can actually electronically take care of these before you go in, sign off everything, and even get a QR code that would load up all of the information that you wanted to relay prior to that visit. And then there's the energy based devices that can range anywhere from body sculpting all the way through some levels of advanced skin rejuvenation and skin laser surfacing. And those are ways to be able to tell people that you've made an investment in this practice, you've made it for them, you're trying to increase the clinical efficacy of what's being done there, and you've taken money out of your own pocket and maybe taking a loan or financing or lease on a very expensive equipment for their benefit and so forth to offer them what you think is the best service possibilities in that Geo target. The third way of differentiating yourself from the competitors is in your service listing. And there are two ways of playing out that game. One is Clint Eastwood, do you feel lucky? Will do you? And that's hitting them straight ahead, which is a direct confrontal attack on those other competitors. And there are many, many ways of being able to do that, from a service listing to a service listing basis and so forth relative to, you know, what you're offering and how you're offering. The second way, and especially if you're coming into the market late or there's been a pause in your business or there's a rebranding going on, is as importantly being able to flank the competition with service offerings that they are not directly either involved with or are indirectly marketing. So you know, and there are many, many examples out there that people took, people took the wellness approach many times to get into an aesthetic market, establish themselves from a wellness side, either through hormone replacement or weight loss. We'll talk about those a little later in another question that you might have. But they might start with that. They may come out with that knowing that there isn't direct competition with that. Get that patient in, gain their loyalty, increase that experience with that patient, use the technology they have with them and then come out the back door with the, you know, with more of an aesthetics offering. So there's a lot of ways, and this is something that, you know, in my, you know, initiation of any advisory role. And so we spend two or three days talking about the market and we talk about the competition and we talk about, you know, the positives and negatives, and we whiteboard this. And out of that, there's a lot of realizations about whether I have the offering, whether I have the technology, and quite frankly, whether I have the services that I want to either lead with, either directly or indirectly. So it's a very complex area. It's a very good question. My first recommendation is go out, make sure you know your competition. Because if you don't know your competition, any road is going to take you down there and there will be explosives along the way.
- [12:15]
A
Yeah, I love that. So let me know if I'm off base here, but what it sounds like you're saying to me, and this is what I completely agree with, is that it's these little differences stacked up on top of each other that are going to allow you to differentiate and create. Create a successful business. It's probably not that you're going to be doing something that's revolutionary and dramatically different. It's dotting your I's, crossing your T's, and figuring out a way to become incrementally more attractive than the other people in your area that do similar things to what you do. Right? It's like, how do we optimize for patient experience, quality, reputation? How do we optimize for price and attractiveness with price points, convenience, experience, all those types of things, right?
- [12:51]
B
It's like, absolutely, yeah. This game is won by singles going around the bases, not by home runs or triples anymore. I continue to say that, and I will continue to say that because you can also win games just by getting people on base. And, you know, as you said, it's those little things sometimes that, you know, that make a difference. And so. But it's that birthday card that they were least expecting from their, from their local med spa or their dermatologist or their plastic surgeon that makes a difference. It makes a difference when you walk in the room and amongst all of the other people in the reception area and you might be a VIP there, that they actually, without even knowing who you are, greet you by your first or. And. Or your last name. And that creates a certain level of confidence in yourself going into, you know, somewhat of a, you know, an uncertain, unpredictable. What's going to happen, you know, when I come out of this med spa or derm practice or plastic surgery procedure. And it creates a level of comfortableness that we all try to strive to, to be, you know, part of that, you know, that local bar on Cheers, so to speak.
- [14:05]
A
Yeah. You need your med spa to feel like, like you said, the Cheers bar. Otherwise you're too susceptible to price shopping. If people don't think there's anything exceptional about the experience and the relationship and they think they can get the same thing cheaper somewhere else and they're thinking of it as an apples to apples comparison, then you're putting yourself at risk to lose that business. And this is an industry that relies on retention. So all of those things I think are absolutely critical. I think that was awesome advice. Thanks.
- [14:30]
B
And I'll, you know, to tell you how difficult it can be. So. So there was a coffee shop in, I won't name the coffee shop, but in a certain town and they had been established there for many, many years, the coffee was great, pastries were great and everything else. Along comes Starbucks, along comes Peet's Coffee, along comes five or six chains and so forth with much more service operations, even a barista at the Starbucks and so forth. This coffee shop I saw over two or three years rebrand and upscale its image. It realized that if it was going to fall into the vast blue regimen of a Starbucks or a Peet's Coffee, there isn't any. Playing with the 800 pound gorilla. And they differentiated what they did in many, many ways, both in terms of their service offering there. And they made it easier and more efficient to be able to process those orders. They were one of the ones early that had an app that allowed you to order your coffee and pastry and a little shelf on the side well before any of these other places or Chick Fil a or any of those other places did that. And they survived and thrived and even opened up a second location about two or three towns later. So here's Goliath playing against the 800 pound gorilla. And so, you know, David playing around the 800 pound, you know, gorilla and Goliath and so forth and still was able to win just on a differentiation on service offering with a little technology that made it just enough for people to have that and want to have that local Cheers affiliation.
- [16:18]
A
So yeah, awesome, that's great. Okay, switching gears to our next question, I'm actually going to jump off and go in a little bit of a different order because you mentioned debt and financing and Some of your answers to that last question. This is a topic that I'm pretty passionate about because I've just seen businesses. I know there are businesses that leverage debt responsibly. They do it with a strategic vision in mind. They're doing it to allow themselves to have leverage for profitability. But then I see other practices fall into a trap where debt becomes an avalanche and it's just a snowball that they can never quite break free from. That just destroys their business. You know, over years and sometimes a decade plus, how do you go about recommending debt management and ensuring that it's, it's a tool if and when you're using it, or how do you think about that in general and how to avoid the pitfalls that come with leveraging debt and make sure that. Making sure that you have a vision for growth associated with it.
- [17:13]
B
Okay, so first of all, debt management or financing management is about cash flow. And you know that obviously we're not going to talk about the cash flow that comes from your revenue and, and the sales of products and other things that's, you know, that's one way in which cash is brought, being brought in. A lot of practices don't realize how much cash that they have on the shelf in terms of inventory. So you're trying to mitigate about taking any external financing and putting interest expense onto your income statement because it will impact your profitability. You do get a tax deduction. It can be part of an EBITDA calculation when you're ready to go ahead and sell your practice. I get all of that. But you know, I find that a lot of practices don't very well manage their cash. And so therefore, and it goes from inventory management to operational efficiencies where they're, you know, to selection of vendors, to amalgamation of sitting with one or two vendors and trying to maximize on their rebate or refund policies and so forth. People just don't do enough to be efficient with just the cash that they have. Okay, so we're not all efficient and so forth. And at some point in time, either for expansion reasons or growth reasons or whatever and so forth, they go ahead and have to go ahead and borrow money. The one area that I see where this is probably, and it's all about planning and the development of a new spar or a new entity. Most people go in thinking that they're just going to either acquire something or take on a lease space and so forth, put a little money into the walls and the rugs and so forth, and don't purchase the equipment, don't do a lot of other things, you know, spend a ton of money in marketing, spend a ton of money in getting the providers and then they run out of money to do all of the other important things that they just weren't able to do. And then when they look at the competition, realize how far they're behind, they rush out to the bank to try to go ahead and do that. I would say that you need to put the brakes on. And you know, capital, especially recently, has not been cheap. Whether you're using your credit card at 14 or 15 or 16%, it's probably the most dangerous debt vehicle that you could use because that catches up with you and suddenly there are thousands of dollars of extra interest expense that's going on that credit card. I get the points, I get how you, you know, what you're doing it and why you're doing it and so forth. But I think that people should be a lot more conservative about jumping out and making either large purchases or making simultaneous purchases across the plethora of demands that med spas, endurance practices and plastic surgery and overall esthetic practices have out there. At my age, you know, you want to be, at least in my cohort, I guess I should say at my age, in my cohort, you know, the American dream is to rip up that 30 year mortgage and to be debt free and you know, set into the sunset and so forth without any liabilities on your balance sheet. I'm not so sure that's the same mentality of millennials and Gen Z's at this point in time. They may be just as happy of dying with a massive liability and extending it to their children and to their grandchildren. Good luck with, with that relationship moving ahead in the future. And so, but you, you just have to be, you just have to be careful out there. And that also means bring, you know, not planning out and not metering out the development because, you know, these med spas and this aesthetics industry, you know, if left alone, it would, it would take, it would be very easy to be able to spend four, five, six hundred thousand, a million dollars, two million dollars very, very quickly. And you don't need to do that. And despite the fact that you think that money, you know, talks and it will make a difference from a competitive standpoint, that's not always the case. It's about how you use that money and how you've been using the money and the cash that you're generating from the existing business that you have. I try to get practices to make investments, to realize that there may be some losses in the first year, that they may have to have a little kitty to be able to back up certain months within the first year to 18 months. But you should not have a plan beyond 18 months in which you are finally getting to a positive or a positive neutral cash flow position in the practice. Otherwise you're over investing. And as I think we talked about before the show started, you know, you're chasing that tail for the next several years. And even after, even after any change in control of your, of your business.
- [22:22]
A
I could not agree with that more. And I love that advice. Like, I think one of the saddest things is, is talking to a practice owner that's been in business for years and years and years and to find out that on the surface, you know, they're doing $100,000 a month plus in revenue and then come to find out they're so over leveraged in debt that they can't take home a paycheck and they have no profitability. It's like you're not even running a business. You're just donating your time at this point to something that's just destroying your life. So I love that advice. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much. I'm excited to share those tidbits. Okay, so jump into the next thing here in our random Q and A style. So discounting. I've had some of the top consultants in the industry on the podcast, very different opinions on discounting. I've made my own video on discounting on our YouTube channel. I wanted to know your thoughts on discounting, how to responsibly leverage discount strategies, and just your general thoughts on pricing.
- [23:15]
B
Okay, so let's start out with the emotional part of discounting. Doctors don't like to discount and it's not because they're looking at it from a Harvard Business School perspective or from a business acumen standpoint. They think of it as cheapening who they are, all of the effort and all of the consideration in schools and everything else. And they actually take it personally. You know, I'm not going to be, you know, I'm not going to be a discounter. I'm not going to be the, you know, the Walmart or the Dollar General, you know, in the Geo Target that, you know, that I'm in and so forth. And so there's an emotional part of this and you know, to the extent that there are other advisors out there or even practices thinking of, you know, considering you have to take a Hard look at that, because it's a very, very emotional discussion. Not something that falls into the same rational paradigms that, you know, we have other discussions about the practice, about, okay, number two, in my world and so forth. The best practices that have had the most sustainable profitability are those that don't discount. They go the other way. They're looking at the premium quality, premium price considerations, or they're looking for some balance between the quality that they're offering and, and the price that they're providing to provide value to the patient in order for them to come in. Because there are different segments in every market. I have a market right now, actually, where a practice acquired two other med spas who are in a lower socioeconomic strata within that particular marketplace and much different than the, than the acquirer who maintains, you know, over the last 20, 25 years, a premium quality, premium pricing situation. You're always better off trying to do more things to add value to your journey, to the patient's journey, to the experience, to the ambiance for them to be able to feel like it's worth them paying more to go in than playing the discount game. So let's talk about the hardcore about the discount game. In the reality of the Fortune 100, Fortune 500, there are only a couple of players who really can play that discount strategy game. And one of them starts with a W and it ends with a T and so forth. And there are very few others who have sustainably been able to play out on razor thin margins in the marketplace. And Walmart plays on razor thin margins because, you know, they are providing discounts for the most part. Now they do try to integrate, you know, other products and other, you know, services to make up some of that profitability. But for the most part, they're offering, you know, to a certain socioeconomic strata, you know, discounting that goes out there. Personally, I don't like discounting. I think that what happens with discounting, which is the greatest fatal aspect of it, is that the clients that are out there, or new potential clients that are coming out there who see someone constantly discounting, start to look at that discount price as the ongoing, forever established price forever and ever. And once you establish that low price to try to turn the burners up and move that price up with some, some type of, without some type of massive service change and upgrade in what you're offering there or, or a technology change for efficiency or effectiveness and so forth, it's a really, it's a really hard thing to do. Now, the third thing Is we're in a really crappy market right now and there's not as many patients coming in the door. We all know about it. August wasn't great. Who knows what September is going to look like. And in all fairness, you know, in a lot of these practices, to be able to, you know, to keep the lights on and to pay the rent. It was just a statistic two days ago that 43% of small businesses currently cannot afford to pay their lease. So you have to do certain things. I don't like the word discount. There are things like flash sales that you can do. A flash sale is a form of discounting, but the concept of flash is that it comes and it goes as quickly as it can and so that it has a limited time offered to it. It does not become part of your established pricing, it does not become part of your established value proposition in the practice for the goods and services that you're offering. And so that is something, in all honesty, even in my own practices today, that I advise to offering flash sales, you know, over the last two or three weeks. They are not discounters. They are premium quality people. But they need to start to get more of these people coming in. And they're using both flash sales and they're using their retention membership programs to provide again, some level of value. Call it discounting if you want to the goods and services that the average person would be paying for, you know, at a much lower volume or repeat level during the year.
- [29:04]
A
Yeah, I think we're largely aligned there. I always tell people we have a very nuanced approach to discounting. I think it can be a really effective way to reduce friction to get a new patient that's never before seen you through the door. It lowers customer acquisition costs. But then we caution beyond that initial touch point with consistently discounting to existing patients. Because of what you just said, you don't want to train people to expect the low price point. And if people catch on that there's any cadence with your discounting strategy, they start to wait for the promo. We want people staying with us because they know like and trust us. So for us, it's reduced friction to create the experience that builds on that, know like and trust based on personal experience and then get those people to pay standard pricing or a premium for our services because they had that great experience. So, yeah, I totally agree. I think I talked to a practice owner that was doing laser hair removal and she's always busy, always has activity. Has a bunch of providers been in business for a long Time and we actually started crunching the numbers, and she couldn't afford to advertise her laser hair removal service because any customer acquisition cost reduced her profitability because she was the cheapest price in town and she lived in that lane. So one of those businesses that's probably doing a lot in terms of revenue but struggling with profit goals because the price points, they're only surviving based on low price points. And I don't think that's a good place to be long term. No.
- [30:22]
B
And there are many other alternatives. I mean, offer a skincare product to that or offer, you know, you know, an additional session or offer, you know, the first shot free. I mean, there's a lot of ways of complementing or increasing the value so that, like the. Because what clients and patients are really looking for, especially in these harder economic times, is a deal. We learned from the recession a long time ago that there were plenty of people in very successful practices during that great recession. And they did it basically by offering them more value, giving them a deal. So that they, those who did have that disposable income and were willing and didn't want to continue with their skincare regimen or their aesthetic, their aesthetic protocols and regimens and so forth, you know, wanted to come in and so forth, but had somewhat hesitation because they felt like they, you know, they. They deserve to get something a little extra at this point in time. Give them something extra, not necessarily a discount.
- [31:27]
A
Yeah, that's awesome too. And I think it ties back into the competitive. The question about competition. It's if we want to stand out long term, we want to be able to justify higher price points. And to justify that, we have to create additional value. So people are willing to pay a couple dollars a unit extra for their Botox if they're like, they really feel at home. They get a great experience, they're thrilled with the outcome, they've got a relationship with the provider. And I think that's the lane we want to live in long term. Right. That's kind of what we're shooting for.
- [31:52]
B
Absolutely. I agree.
- [31:54]
A
This episode is brought to you by Med Spa Magic Marketing, my agency. We help Med spas and aesthetics practices grow with more effective marketing strategies. And I know that's a vague phrase. Right, That's a vague claim. So I have an offer for you. I offer this to any new prospects if you're interested in exploring any of them. Another marketing option, a new agency, or just getting into Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads for the first time. I'd love to show you why we're different, what we're doing for clients. And we can do that via a one and a half hour planning session where I'll outline a specific marketing plan and I'll give you all of the blueprints that we would implement if we were to do business together. Now, you can take that, use that on your own, hire someone else to help you execute it or work with us. We really, really don't hold anything back on that strategy call. And I think you'll have a lot of confidence in how you manage your marketing investment moving forward, understanding some of the nuances that can help you implement more effective marketing strategies for your business. So if you want to do that, you can go to medspamagicmarketing.com awesome. Okay, so going to retention and rebooking strategies. I don't think this is something we talked about a ton last time. Obviously, it's a business that relies on retention, especially when we're talking about things like injectables. So people come in, they come in for a visit, they spend a few hundred bucks. What things do you recommend practices do to increase stickiness and to make sure that those people that we're increasing our chances that these people are gonna come back for months and years to come?
- [33:15]
B
Yeah, I think that's another good question. And again, in these harder economic times, everybody is worried about the lack of new clients that are coming in and forgetting about retaining or maintaining or sustaining the velocity of the existing patients who have already decided to come in and made some type of a commitment or, you know, or are loyal to you. And so, you know, I'm a firm believer and increasingly so, of membership and loyalty programs. And those are two different, two different things. But again, you know, I'm a, you know, an American Airlines. I've got, you know, millions of miles and so forth, probably at this point in time with better airplanes and some of the, you know, newer aircraft and some of the other airlines, I should have probably switched over. I never switch over. You know, those points are, you know, important to me. They stick me. I'm a really smart guy. And yet, you know, I succumb to, you know, what might be considered to be somewhat of a mind game. Now, it's not a mind game because I also get certain privileges and certain benefits, you know, as being part of that membership. So, you know, if you're going to want to retain someone again, you're going to have to offer them something that's different than what the competition is offering. And, you know, and there are ways of developing and I put together and just spent a couple of days just on one loyalty program. Now, loyalty programs are a little different because this is where you're just accumulating points. There's no cost of the membership. The more you spend, the more points you get, which is basically like the American Airlines frequent flyer program. That's different than a membership program where you're asking them to put up $99 or $199 or $299, or in one case $750 a month to participate in, you know, a number of procedures and skin care regiments and other things like that. I think membership programs are a slightly more difficult thing to maneuver. They do exist, they're very successful. They maintain strong retention. People don't want to give up, you know, what, what they've done and you know, and continue. There are practices that have 60, 70, 80% follow up retention in the next year, you know, in their membership programs. But at this point in time, for the more simple at heart out there, just offering a loyalty program where you're actually giving points, and I have one that's using a punch card very much like the golf of balls, the driving range golf balls and so forth, where they give you this little stupid card with 10 punch tickets and you know, you actually psychologically are going to the range more just to get to that 11th bucket that, you know, you just spent like $185 in golf balls just to get to a $15 savings and so forth. But it works. And there are ways to put together those loyalty and membership programs. There are programs out there, there are institutional programs out there that have at least indicate from their statistics good retention and strong loyalty and strong follow up on a year to year basis. Groups like Repeat MD who are out there and they have some, you know, they have some decent offerings and have been evaluated by my practices and have made that kind of make versus buy decision on one versus the other. It makes it easier, it makes it more efficient to be able to manage those programs. Retaining clients means that you have to have more data on those clients to be able to have more touch points, whether it's an E Blast or text reminders or specials or other things that you want to target that specific patient with to sustain their loyalty and commitment to the practice.
- [37:34]
A
Unbelievably, I think this is the first time on this podcast we've talked about loyalty programs. We always talk about memberships. We almost never talk about loyalty programs. But that makes a ton of sense because you're reducing friction, you're deferring the risk, and you're creating the same incentive structure. So.
- [37:51]
B
Right. I mean, it didn't cost me anything. Well, kind of cost me, but it didn't cost me anything. To join the American Airlines frequent flyer program. I just started accumulating points, and it was my option whether I wanted to stay there and continue accumulate points and to get the benefits of those points at different tier levels or not. And, you know, membership program, to be very, very honest and frank, I've only seen probably of a hundred membership programs out there, I only think I've seen eight or nine that truly are, you know, remarkable. Retaining profitable, profitable programs because kind of a retrospective due diligence on some of those membership programs, you know, that if you did not, you know, identify, you know, the right service offerings in the right category for the right pricing that you're asking them to pay could actually cost you a significant amount of money and detract from the overall gross profit margin, you know, of the business and stuff. So it's, you know, I'm. I'm more of a simple guy as I get older, and I believe other people are looking for something simple. You know, we have this loyalty program. The more you basically, the more you eat, the more. The more you kill, the more you eat. It's a simple.
- [39:11]
A
Yeah. And you think. I'm thinking, and they say, I get.
- [39:13]
B
It, I get it.
- [39:14]
A
And it works, like, subconsciously, unconsciously. Right. Like, I've got the Starbucks app, and I don't know how many times I've been like, oh, well, well, I'm like, one drink away from getting the free drink tomorrow, so I'm just going to go get that one today, so then I'll get the free one tomorrow.
- [39:26]
B
Right. So they fast forwarded. They fast forwarded a purchase on you.
- [39:31]
A
Yeah.
- [39:31]
B
For a $15 bucket of balls after you just went through $185 worth of buckets in a matter of two weeks. It's like, we all. We all do that.
- [39:42]
A
Yeah. And it's that thing like. Like I might have gone to Dunkin Donuts because it's a few dollars cheaper, but I got the reward program at Starbucks. I don't have the Dunkin Apple.
- [39:48]
B
Right.
- [39:48]
A
So I still go to Starbucks more than I would otherwise without it. And you think about those models. That's not a membership model, really. That's the loyalty program model.
- [39:55]
B
It's a loyalty program model.
- [39:57]
A
So you're creating the incentive without the commitments. I think that's. That's awesome. You can even the Starbucks Model like I'm thinking of a punch card pay. It's double punch week. Any appointments this week? We're going to do two punches. Like you can get creative with it and create extra incentives to corrective.
- [40:12]
B
Right. Or a flash sale come in, you know, get this, you know, 20% off and get two punches off your card and stuff like that.
- [40:19]
A
So yeah, I love that.
- [40:21]
B
Yeah.
- [40:22]
A
Do you have any other softwares or any other tools you recommend that you've looked at for loyalty programs that you like?
- [40:26]
B
I have, but you know, I'm not honestly, you know. And you have no affiliation, no conflict ventures with Repeat md? It's the only one most recently that I've. And you know, they boast a 98% retention rate in the next year of practices, paying that subscription price in that next year and, and you know, and paying the monthly and stuff. So, you know, it's a, you know, the setup price plus the monthly. But no, I think to some extent the lack of offerings that I have in my head to promote or to recommend to you is indicative of the lack of success that I've seen and others have seen and interest that practices have when you bring up the whole concept of membership. But not thinking about having some more stickiness in this type of environment, which is increasingly getting commoditized, is also the wrong way to look. So why don't you start with loyalty and then we can move to membership at some point in time.
- [41:31]
A
Yeah, I'm thinking of the super simple model like you said, the punch card. Punch card is kind of probably easy to fake. So I wonder if you can get like little stickers or something that you put on the card or something like that.
- [41:40]
B
One of them actually has a punch. That's the, that's the silhouette of the logo.
- [41:47]
A
So custom punch, that's the key. Don't make it a circle. Yeah. Make sure it matches your records.
- [41:52]
B
Cool.
- [41:52]
A
Okay, so I wanted to talk about marketing and which services to lead with. So as a marketing provider, we've tried all sorts of things from a marketing standpoint and I'll kind of go to the extremes. So we are really not at all fans of marketing and using facials as the initial gateway drug to your med spa. What we find is when we market something like facials or a special on a facial, like a flash sale on a facial, we have low initial visit revenue. Cost of customer acquisition is still on par almost with what it is for like a Botox client. And the retention and repeat booking rate and average annual dollar amount spent per patient is terrible. So, like, we have a lot of our clients that we. From a marketing standpoint, the gateway drug to the med spot is a lot of times injectables. And for us, I think that generally there are two reasons that's happening. One is there are services that have large lifetime value associated with them. So people are coming back months, for months and years, spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. So the annual revenue per patient is solid. And then the second thing is there's a perceived differential in outcome. If I'm coming in for a Botox appointment or lip filler appointment and I get good results, I know to price shop that service somewhere else, I'm risking the way my face looks right for semaglutide. That's not the. I just kind of want the shot. If I can get the shot for $50 cheaper down the street, I'm probably just going to leave and go get it for $50 cheaper, all other things equal. So there's a level of stickiness with the injectable sometimes that I think you don't have with some other services in the med spa space. Any thoughts on just marketing strategy and service list?
- [43:27]
B
Yeah, let's, let's take injectables. And so this is, you know, when I started out, you know, in this business 25 years ago, the number one procedure was, was actually laser hair removal. And, you know, there was a, you know, increasingly, you know, not just among single practices and small group practices, but in actual, you know, in corporate, you know, entities and stuff. So, you know, that, that, that, that was a, you know, increasingly hard area to differentiate yourself. And then along came injectables, you know, including, you know, some of my contribution by bringing Restylane to the United States and creating a level of differentiation within the injectable or specifically within the dermal filler area and so forth. And as you said, there are those injectors that have, you know, the hands of God, you know, and whose, whose hands are directed only by their eyes like a robot, you know, into your skin. And there's about 95% of the world that just don't have that skill set. So in one level, I have complete respect for what you're saying in terms of, from a marketing standpoint, leading with injectables. But the caveat there is if you think you're one of the 5 percenters that really are clearly have those hands and really are providing that level of differentiation out there, and, you know, everybody believes they have the hands of God and they don't. And it really is relegated honestly to about 5 or 6 or 7 or 8% of the world and so forth. So there was a very famous person in our, passed away a long time ago, very famous pioneer. His name was Dr. Frederick Brandt and you know, and also Arne Klein. Those were the two major pioneers in the dermal filler and Botox. One was called the Botox Baron and the other one was the dermal filler Queen. And for both of them, you know, they led and continued to lead almost solely without bringing on any other, you know, energy based devices or any of the other tools that might have, they could have easily complemented, you know, and got their patients to pay for. They stuck with what they were doing, but they had the hands of God and you know, and they could stick with that and they could still charge $26 a unit for Botox. And so. But the majority of the VAS flu regiment out there are technicians, especially in Botox. And they're good technicians. I mean, the most important thing is do no harm. And the safety and I would say 90 plus percent, the providers out there that are doing injectables, about 90% of them do a great job in terms of preserving and protecting the safety of their patients and so forth, but really only about 5%, you know, have that level of differentiation. The problem with dermal fillers and especially with neurotoxins is that, you know, there is a, there's increasing competition every other corner. There's a Dunkin Donuts aesthetics that are doing, you know, neurotoxins and you're starting to see them in the eights and I've even seen them in the sevens and you know, it's $6.56 for one of the more bigger, larger market share neurotoxin companies out there. And at $8 a share and you know, $8 a unit that you're actually getting priced up. There's just no margin left. And so, you know, I highly recommend patients have that as an offering, but they should, especially these days, unless they are noted and they have that outstanding reputation of 4, 8, 4, 9. I have two surgeons that no longer do surgery and only do injectants. And they're phenomenal injectors and you know, one of them is ranked ninth in the country and they promote those things. And so therefore they can continue to lead their marketing with those dermal fillers and neurotoxin therapies. But for the rest of us that weren't as gifted and so forth, we've got to look towards Other alternatives again to flank or to differentiate the practice. And that could range anything from leading with body sculpting, you know, with one of the energy based devices that you have, or leading with hair restoration which is a fast growing area and doing either PRP or some of the other regenerative therapies that are off the shelf and being used, you know, versus you know, autologous drawing of blood and the spinning down of the plasma and everything else. So and there are, you know, increasingly there is this wellness component that I'm having practices lead with more often than the injectables and you know, and especially weight loss, you know, every 15 minutes direct to consumer ads are on the TV, getting bombarded in social media, getting bombarded on the radio. And you know, there are, you know, there are amazing opportunities, you know, still in weight loss. I know that you said, you know, I'll go down the street for $50 a shot and so forth, but patients are very intrepid about doing that and you know, again crossing the line with some type of a needle. If it's a pill, it's a different situation. If it's a needle and it's a needle into your, into your belly and so forth, it's another type of experience. And I'm recommending in a lot of other practices at this point in time to look at the plethora of other bio stimulatory, other regenerative types of services out there to look at weight loss opportunities, to look at hormone replacement. I had a practice in a not so great Geo Target was a lower to middle class. This is where she wanted to live. She lived there for a certain specific reason, moved down there because of her husband, came into the market, was, you know, was an aesthetic injector. Looked around, didn't see a lot of aesthetic people running around in the various stores and realized that she wasn't going to be able to lead her marketing with her aesthetic prowess in injectable therapy delivery. So she started to do hormone replacement and she started to do other types of hormone because she saw that as a dearth and a lack in the medical offering. And that becomes particular Geo Target. She went from 40 patients to over 400 patients in a matter of a year. And those 400 patients, you know, she didn't tell me exact numbers but I could tell from what else I saw there that probably 20, 30 or 40% were cross sold once they came in with another service offering. And I highly recommend, you know, again, unless you're that differentiate or unless you have that reputation mutation, it's a nice thing to have. It's a dangerous thing to lead with and to have as the majority of your business because of the increasing and eroding gross profit margin there. So most practices who are offering injectables and neurotoxins are seeking other sources besides number one and to some extent number two. And there is a number three and a very, very viable number that people are looking at right now and are switching over, providing them a lower cost of goods such that they can compete at least effectively with the rest of the vast blue regiment, who are more technicians and less artists and sitting less at the right hand of God, you know, as it regards their, you know, their eye to hand coordination.
- [51:46]
A
What were those three and four items? I might have missed that. What do you mean by that?
- [51:52]
B
Say that again. What three or four items?
- [51:54]
A
You mentioned the service 1, 2, and then there's the 3 and 4 that we're looking at. What was that in reference to? Maybe I misunderstood that part of the answer. Disregard it.
- [52:03]
B
Sorry about that.
- [52:04]
A
No, that's great. So with those other services, talking about increasing competition with a lot of these things, I think that's for anecdotally, at least for us, what we've seen with like weight loss, Semaglutide, for example, a year and a half ago it came out and like people were banging down your door to get semaglutide. And now it seems like everybody's offering semaglutide. And it's kind of like what you just described about Botox. It's kind of been become more of a race to the bottom in terms of price points a lot of times. And just you have to have a really compelling, attractive offer to get those people in for that initial visit. So I guess two things. One is, are there certain services that you feel like people are leaning into as just a general rule? I know you mentioned mainly you want to look at the competition, figure out maybe what the best thing strategically for you to lean into in your specific area is. But where people do have, there's enough demand for it that people are actually searching for these services. You don't have to create demand. And that margin tends to be a lot better. What services fall into that bucket.
- [52:58]
B
I actually think the whole offering of weight loss is still, at this point in time, a sustainable and a profitable journey out there. And I know that because I'm dealing with it right now. In the last three or four months, I've had practices go from nothing to $70,000 a month one just told me off the cuff. And it's not a big part of their business and so forth that they're doing, you know, 35,000. The biggest problem with weight loss or with any of these programs is the management of it versus what you're used to already doing. And weight loss does require, you know, more touch points. There's a prescription involved, There are sometimes compound pharmacies involved. You're chasing down a rabbit hole of, you know, to some extent, the prices are somewhat stable, maybe a little declining on the offering to the patients, but it's chasing down what, you know of the 500 or 1000 compound pharmacies out there under the current shortage. You know, semaglutide and tirzepatide, you know, what compound pharmacy to be able to go to and be able to be able to, you know, recording their weight. And, you know, and so it's a very complex business, the weight loss. And it turns out something that about 60 or 70% of the practices can't manage. Well, there are 15 or 20, 30%. Thank you very much. We can take care of it ourselves. We've got the structure, we've got the systems in place, we have the software, we have the protocols in place. We know how to drill through something like this, and they do a phenomenal job for the majority of the people out there. It's a burden onto the staff, something that they don't necessarily. You want to make that integration and that addition of that important procedure. Because there are very few things right now, Rick, that I can tell you that, you know, from, you know, either an FDA clearance standpoint or from, you know, an interest standpoint out in the marketplace that are out there outside of weight loss. I wish there were more exciting things that I could talk about, and I am that kind of looking for the new, new thing above and beyond what's already out there, and I can't find it. And I'm constantly looking, and not just looking in the United States, but outside of the United States. And I think embracing the weight loss is an important thing because once somebody starts feeling good about a seminal issue in their life that they have been grappling with for 30, 40, 50 years sometimes, and suddenly you fix it, and you fix it on a very efficient and a very effective way systemically within that practice and so forth, your ability to cross sell and upsell to everything under the sun is up for grab. Starting with the body and then moving up to the face and then going back to the body and maybe turning the body around to the derriere and to other aspects of cross selling and upselling that evince themselves. And there really isn't anything right now out there that's quite frankly in my mind as attractive and has clinical results and is self rewarding and you know, the practices get you know, the credit for it, you know. Thank you. You, you know it wasn't just the, it really is the drug but again it's that journey of that patient with that practice to take them through that journey. Because there are issues of compliance and other things and there are systems and software that best practices use to kind of make sure that they basically stay on the ozempic nipple. And that's an important part of that weight loss journey. And then the ability to sustain that, you know, with, with obviously, you know, diet and exercise, you know and other programs that the, that the practice may or may not get involved with. And there are a couple of good programs out there. I mean personally and for the record, I work with a group called Build my Health doctor well they have been able to put together an incredible platform that seamlessly connects the best and cheapest compound pharmacy out there. And that's a dynamic situation directly with the provider and that patient. The provider has to do very, very little. Everything is shipped out, everything is maintained. There's proper dosing that's occurred, there's proper, proper payments that are made, you know amongst all of the parties. And that program in my mind, you know, and it's not for everybody but there are many, many people out there. As I said, 60, 70, 80% of the population practices in aesthetics which is a natural carve out for them to get involved in weight loss. Should be looking at programs like Dr. Well build my Health and others that are route there.
- [58:03]
A
Yeah, you've been so gracious Liz. I want to make sure we put that in the show notes for practice owners too so they can learn more about that real quick on even like thinking about some of glue tied. One of the things that I reference which might be like a little bit of an outdated way to do this but one of the challenges I see some med spas have is they're trying to push services that don't have high satisfaction ratings. One of the things with some of which are weight loss in general, you see even just on real self very high customer satisfaction ratings. People see the results. Botox, filler, dysport, very high satisfaction ratings, people see the result. Testosterone high satisfaction ratings. People see the result. You start to get into some of these other products where I personally felt like there's a challenge marketing them and you go to realself and you see things like some of these lasers and sculpting machines. You see satisfaction ratings in like the 60s for a lot of these products. And it becomes a little bit of a tougher sell when the products don't have that, that real solid, deliverable in terms of like that people see and feel the result, they're confident they got something for what they paid for. So is that kind of a good place to lean into the services like Semaglutide that you do know the patients are going to see the result and there's going to be a really high patient satisfaction strategy there?
- [59:17]
B
Yes, I think that's a, you know, it's a very, very good point. You know, the biggest problem. And again, I've been searching for the new, new thing for, for quite a long time and it probably still is out there, I'm not sure. But if it's out there, I'm hoping I'm the guy who's going to be able to find it. Putting that aside, to be very, very frank, there have been no names, six or seven or eight energy based devices ranging from 100 to $300,000. That in my mind are incredibly disappointing. And they are being pushed by large companies with large marketing budgets and you know, buyer beware out there. And so, you know, as you said, there are resources like realself and there are resources, you know, within the social media world and chat rooms and so forth that people should delve into to make sure before they go out and make some because just like you said, they don't have more recently and they're stretching because you know, there's already a certain amount of satisfaction even with the base lasers that are out there. They do a great job. Thank you very much. And so others want to do other lasers and other wavelengths and they add, you know, gidget or whatever they're trying to do or a handpiece and so forth. And recently, you know, and all you have to do is look at the last six or seven things that have been entered into the marketplace and those are the things that I'm talking about. Have had very low satisfaction rates, are extremely expensive on the acquisition part of a practice and extremely costly from a price per procedure standpoint with these patients and you're just basically setting yourself up for failure with them point, you know, where something like Semaglutide and especially Tirzepatide, you know, have instantaneous results, create some level of self confidence Some level of self satisfaction, they're giving you the credit. In all honesty, Eli Lilly could have shipped it directly to them, you know, if they ever decided to vertically integrate into, you know, that type of a platform, you know, as a pharmaceutical company. But they choose not to do that. They just stick with their knitting. We're a drug manufacturer. We get FDA approvals, we get them out, we get safe products, we get clinically effective products that are out there, you know, and it works. And so. But those have high satisfactions. And, you know, there's a lot of stuff out there that, you know, if you hear of a new device, if you hear of a new procedure, there again, just like you said, and I'll reference it again because realself as a, is a tremendous resource to the average aesthetic patient out there to learn before, you know, before you buy. And, you know, it's above and beyond buyer beware, you know, mentalities. And I'm not saying that there are unethical. I think with the best intentions, these are great scientists and great inventors, you know, from many different parts of the world and some new parts of the world that are trying to move the needle. And I think at some point in time, there might be a breakthrough in the 8th or 9th or 10th EB device that comes out within the next maybe, you know, year or two years. But I haven't seen it in the last two or three years. Very disappointing.
- [62:51]
A
And one of the things that I've grown to love about this industry is almost everybody that gets into this space, they really like helping people and making people feel good. I think it's one of the downsides of the industry. People get in maybe without the business acumen, and that's the stuff that they have to catch up on a lot of people from the medical side. But the last thing you want to do is put yourself in a situation where you're trying to pitch a $3,000 package for a device that does maybe a decent job. Like, you want your patients to be thrilled with the work that you're doing. And if we tie that into, you know, just overall patient satisfaction with your practice reviews, reputation stickiness, if you're selling things that aren't making your patients happy, you're kind of. You're kind of risking the whole business model there. So I think that makes sense to kind of just lean into things that have that high.
- [63:32]
B
And I think the warning lights go on. When you hear from the rep, you've made an acquisition, you've got unsatisfactory patients, you go to the rep when they start, especially in the EBD area, you know, when they start talking about changing from what they originally told you. And it could have been like a month or two months or three months before that. You know, you need to increase the duration or dwell time or you need to increase the number of treatments that, you know, we originally sold you on. You know, we said that this could be. You get a full effect after two or three treatments and now you're at four or six. Once you see that leakage starting to happen, you know you're in big trouble and it's time to talk to, you know, one of the laser traders or doctor toy stores of the world out there and get rid of that door stopper, take the loss and, you know, get out of that funk and move into some of the many other areas that we've talked in this podcast and in the prior podcast, where there is room to operate. Where there is freedom to operate and room to be successful.
- [64:38]
A
Yeah, higher patient satisfaction, lower risk, better margins. No need for super over leveraging debt. So, yeah, that makes a ton of sense. Do I have two more minutes with you, Louis?
- [64:48]
B
You've got a couple more minutes. Sure.
- [64:50]
A
Okay, I'll wrap it up for two minutes. So one of the things that came out from AMSPA over the summer was the rising trend of bio stimulators. So we've never spent a lot of time really advertising these things like a Sculptra radius. Any thoughts on those as becoming more prominent and more common?
- [65:07]
B
You know, I come from the, you know, originally from Boston. I came from the biotech biopharmaceutical industry. And you know, to be very frank, you know, you know, and, you know, I spent a lot of time, you know, as you well know, you know, bringing restaurant to the United States, getting the FDA approvals and so forth. And it clearly was a better product than, you know, than bovine collagen as a, you know, as a dermal filler. But the mechanism of action, the mechanism of action of those hyaluronic acid products are hydrophilic. They are basically water loving, you know, from the, from the, I think it's the Latin or the Greek, I think it's the Greek and so forth. They're hydrophilic and they're water loving and that's their mechanism of action. And so they attract water. And once, you know, a certain period of time goes by, there's something called isovolemic degradation and that goes down. You know, that balloon starts to, you know, its ear and that balloon starts to seep. I don't know how it happens. You've tied it like nine ways and that balloon still seeps its ear out. And it goes back to, you know, maybe not baseline, but close to where that baseline is and so forth. And it was always though, when I look at the next new, new thing, I'm looking for something that's regenerative. And especially at my age and in the aging process, we're all trying to regenerate and restore and that starts to. That word regenerate starts to move into areas like bio kind of products. Now we talk about them as bio stimulatory. So the radiuses of the world and the sculptures of the world, clearly because of the fundamental nature, the calcium hydroxyapatite and the pmma, sorry, the polylactic acid are inherently biostimulatories because they impact the immune system as foreign objects and they create an immune reaction. And that allows for things like fibroblast activity and neocollagenesis and the increase in our cellular matrix and scaffolding and more collagen and more elastin and more hyaluronic acid. And I believe in a regenerative product. And you know, these two, you know, have been underplayed for many years to a large extent because they don't have the immediate. I got you wow. Results that happen for the most part with neurotoxins and to a large, large part with dermal fillers. You fill up that, you fill up that wrinkle with a hyaluronic acid product. You know, first of all, it's going to look fantastic. And you're already starting the process of that water loving and that water attracting, trying to get closer to that wrinkle. But that's it, that's all you, you know, that's all you got there. So there are those two. There are also, there are also human tissue based types of products that are coming out that are in the pipeline right now. There are things like exosome and mesochrimal stem cell based types of products that are out there that are regenerative in nature because of the, what's called MRNA and the cell to cell signaling and trying to basically take this old body and old set of cells that I'm carrying around with me right now and trying to re energize them as if they were 19, 19 or 20 year olds again. And we will be seeing more of that in our market. In the dermatology field we have seen more biopharmaceuticals coming in as opposed to synthetics. And that bio aspect, that living bio aspect and so forth. That does have an implication of being able to, you know, inject something that might have in an ideal world, an immediate result, an immediate aesthetic result or an immediate medical result with a medium to longer term sustainable play on that particular either disease or medical condition or aesthetic appearance and so forth. And I think, and there's many developments out there. I'm involved with one right now. I'm excited for the future of this industry. We've got a long ways to go. I've just been a little disappointed over the last four or five years. Part of it was because the pandemic put a big hit on research and development in our aesthetic industry. A lot of those people let go. A lot of those people went into other industries, you know, other parts of the pharmaceutical or biotech or medical industry and so forth. We're now starting to see that R and D development coming back, starting to get, you know, replenished. But we probably lost, you know, three or four or five years in the progressive development of technology and procedures and things like bio stimulatory or regenerative procedures or therapies. But they're coming, they're perfect for our industry and they will be that. They will be embraced by the aesthetic community.
- [70:24]
A
Yeah. Awesome, Louis, thank you so much for joining us. Hopefully we can do this again early next year, make this a regular thing, because I, I really appreciate the time. I know our audience appreciates it. The real. Can you just recap again, one last mention of the, the weight loss program that you're associated with, the protocol that you're associated with. So we can put.
- [70:43]
B
And actually the program was started by a plastic surgeon of all things out in San Francisco, a very famous doctor named Jonathan Kaplan, who, you know, sar in his own plastic surgery, you know, for his. He tried to basically get the weight down. And in all honesty, you know, the little dirty secret in our industry was the deployment of phentermine, you know, as a way of getting some of these patients to lose weight rapidly so that they would qualify and be medically cleared for certain surgeries, whether it was for liposuct, surgical liposuction or mummy makeovers or, you know, or breast enlargements. There's a lot of things, you know, that we were using that. And so he was looking for an alternative. And three or four years ago came across what was being developed out there, jumped on this very, very quickly. His own practice boasts something like $350,000 worth of incremental revenue from now a separate group of patients that are coming in just for weight loss, $350,000, almost $5 million a year he's brought in to his practice just by jumping on this wave earlier. He then realized how difficult it was for his staff. He then realized how difficult it was for the patients and he realized how difficult it was from a scheduling and a coordination standpoint. So he actually went out, made the investment of time and energy and money to create, you know, what I think is a phenomenal platform that integrates all of these components together that triage between the compound pharmacy. And again, he's been able to source the best compound pharmacies with the provider in the middle wanting to service those patients to the actual provider who may come in for a certain period of time. Touch points, new touch points, points into the, into the practice to be able across an upsell and then letting them go on their own because of the convenience, you know, and ease of use, you know, once they're, you know, properly trained and everything. And so was a. It was originally called Build My Health. It's now called. Dr. Well, build my Health. I ask people to take a look at it. It's not for everybody. It's a reasonable program. It's a subscription based program and with a high level of satisfaction and an enormous growing database of providers and patients coming into that. But whether it's Build My Health Doctor world or whether you feel that, you know, you can try or you're capable of doing it on your own, I clearly feel like everybody should be jumping onto this in the aesthetic industry. This weight loss thing. It's good for many aspects. It does have an aesthetic play to it. And so there are, you know, there are synergies in terms of what we're doing. And it's in the absence of me honestly telling you that there's no other new, new thing that from a service offering, you know, outside of the vast blue regiment and there, as we talked about right from the beginning, you can still win in that game. It's just about your value proposition and your differentiation. And it's a complex analysis and it's a complex undertaking. You know, when I take on a consultancy with these practices to be able to go through this, but it can happen. You can still be successful. And as we talked about at the end of the show and so forth, there are new and exciting regenerative and biostimulatory types of therapies and procedures coming out that I, that I think will continue to sustain the growth and increase the attractiveness and interest of a larger part of the US and world population.
- [74:35]
A
Amazing. Louis, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate having you on the podcast. Look forward.
- [74:39]
B
Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Bye bye.
- [74:43]
A
Thanks everyone for tuning in. This podcast is a production of Med Spa Magic Marketing. If your Med Spa or esthetic practice is in need of digital marketing services, help with advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Google lead generation and booking more appointments, please visit Medspamagicmarketing.com.