← Med Spa Success Strategies
Med Spa Success Strategies
Med Spa Growth Strategies: Hire Smarter, Delight Patients & More - Interview w/ Dr. Silvia Tuthill
00:54:00
Loading summary
Transcript67 lines
- [00:01]
Ricky Shockley
Hey there and welcome to another episode of the Med Spa Success Strategies Podcast. I'm your host Ricky Shockley with Med Spa Magic Marketing. And this is 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. Today's guest is Dr. Sylvie Tuthill. Dr. Tuttle is a board certified nurse practitioner and co owner of 10th Avenue Aesthetics Med Spa and owner of 10th Avenue Aest aesthetics Artistry Institute. Dr. Tuthill has personally trained hundred providers in the aesthetics community across several states as well as outside the US and the Caribbean. She's a national speaker, faculty trainer and germa trainer. This episode is packed with awesome insights. There were a few things in here that I was like, I know that you're going to jot these down and probably implement them in your practice pretty much immediately. So per usual, great advice on being a business owner in this space. What it takes to be successful, right, in terms of client satisfaction, profitability, managing a team. Some interesting insights on partnership and more. So look forward to this episode with Dr. Tuthill. Dr. Tuthill, we're so excited to have you on the podcast. Thanks for joining us today.
- [01:10]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Thanks for having me.
- [01:12]
Ricky Shockley
Dr. Tuthill had a really awesome backstory, really interesting and inspiring story of how she started her Med spa and how she expanded in some of the other things that she's doing. But I want to make sure we get into the meat and bones of the interview because there were so many good tidbits of advice in this interview that I don't want you to miss those. So we're going to put Dr. Todd Hill's bio and her kind of talking about her backstory at the back end of this episode. I love that or that part of the origin story though too, where you said, like, you realize you didn't have to reinvent the wheel to get into business. And I think that's, that's so true. Right? It's like we all think we have to do something. And that was kind of one of my questions today that I was gonna go through is we all think we have to do something super new and super proprietary or and if we're not doing anything new, then we can't justify being in business because we're not adding anything to the market. But really your job, most, most businesses are just operating by doing something well, right? Doing something that's already available in the market, that's not necessarily innovative or new, but jumping in and providing that product or service and doing it at a high level that serves the customer. That's. That's where most businesses operate. So I love that.
- [02:16]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah. And I, for me, I didn't have to have a business plan. For me, it was just the dream.
- [02:25]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And roll and we'll figure. We'll get figuring it out as we.
- [02:29]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Roll and we'll figure it out from there. It's like you take those different nuances and you pivot and you make and involve into something new and exciting as well.
- [02:41]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, agreed. So my next question was going to be about jumping into kind of competition. But you answered that a little bit. The way that you think about competition is there's plenty of business to go around. This is a growing industry. There are more and more people getting services from med spas every day. And you have more of a collaborative approach of, hey, I'm here to serve my clients and I want the industry to be better and the people around me to, to do a good job. And I think there's something to that in terms of how it benefits each and every business too. Right. If you're in it for the betterment of the industry to make sure that there are more people doing quality work and that you're sharing your advice and your insights, then the result and the byproduct of that is that more med spa consumers have a positive view of the industry and the service providers. So, you know, we face that in marketing. Right. Like, like it's, it's hard. Sometimes I talk to people and they've worked with seven marketing people before and they have never been happy. And that's a stain. Right. And, and you're dealing with a stain that's on the industry. So I love that you have that, that mentality. So getting it, getting into. And I, I know we talked about this Dr. Tuthill before, but I just like to touch on a lot of areas with someone like you like, because I think you have a lot to share and everybody has things to share at different stages of business. But just in terms of management, marketing, pricing, all these things, hearing different perspectives, I think is so interesting. So the other thing I was going to jump into here next was your service list and how you decide on your service list for your med spa. So you mentioned you were originally doing IVs, a theme that's come up on the podcast over and over again. For those of you who are listening and are maybe just getting into this space, I love that you started small and grew as demand required. Right. Like, I I think one of the mistakes I see a lot of people make is they open with a huge location and no clientele and no plan to get clients. You built a business to the point where it was busting at the bursting at the seams from your home and you had no choice but to go open a location. And I just think that's the way to do it if you can. And if you're not going that route, you better have a darn good plan.
- [04:36]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah, and it's funny because my husband actually, he told me something quite cool because he listens to a lot of podcasts and he was like, you know, as entrepreneurs, you have to remember the person that asked you to the dance, right? Remember who is going to bring in the biggest ROI for your business. And for that it has always been injectables because it's very easy for business owners to get into that whole device route and taking on huge leases in terms of equipment and whatnot in hopes that that is going to bring patients through the door. You really have to focus on what is currently making you money as well as what specifically your patient population actually wants or is going to be a stakeholder in. Although we think certain devices are quite cool and oh my goodness, how could our patients not want them? You really have to, you really have to key into specifically your patient population and that can depend on locate from location to location. So, for example, our patients in East Northport are quite different than the patient demographic that's in Iceland. Certain devices and certain treatment modalities are going to do well in one location, but not the other. So it's important to really key into those nuances prior to bringing on a whole bunch of different services, as well as a lot of debt that comes along with different treatment modalities.
- [06:32]
Ricky Shockley
That has been a recurring theme on the podcast over and over and over again, but I feel like it's still not penetrating because I hear people all the time that are doing the opposite of the advice that you just put forward. And I think sometimes we're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We wish we're, we're buying the dream of this new laser or device that in an ideal scenario gives us an opportunity to add another item to our service list and make us more money. But so often, not all the time. There are plenty of businesses that are successful with device sales, but just way too often there are these device manufacturers are selling a bill of goods, they're giving you idealized projections, and then their, their providers are getting over Leveraged with debt with a product they struggle to sell. Like you said, the injectables, at least right now as we're talking at the end of 2024, it's kind of a staple of the med spa space. It's got broad appeal. Most consumers that are med spot consumers, that's one of the first places they're spending their dollars. And instead of trying to convince them to buy a laser device that there's just not a ton of demand for. Right. Lean into the stuff that's working and expand carefully. I think that's really good advice because I see that all the time.
- [07:37]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
And like you said, maximize on the services that you already provide. Right. If you're doing dermal fillers right, are you maximizing to the best of your ability? For example, different product lines. Biostimulators are huge. You know, maybe consider bringing in a company to provide advanced training on how to use those fillers or dermal fillers or botulinum toxins to the best of their ability. For example, you have Radiesse that can just be used straight. But what's huge now is biostimulators. So hyper diluting radiesse can really provide biostimulatory effects and that's a huge market right now and that's utilizing some of the tools that you already have in your practice. So expand into hyper dilute radius. Talk to your patients about Sculptra. Sculpture is huge. Not only is it going to provide volume, it's going to provide skin glow and it's also going to provide longevity. Especially in a market right now where people are really counting their pennies and they're worried about spending discretionary income. So being able to be creative with the tools that you actually have in your toolkit.
- [09:09]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah. Phenomenal advice. And like I think that's another thing I feel is common theme. It's well, I'm already doing a lot of this, but I want to sell more of this laser product that's collecting dust on the back shelf. And like you just said, well, if this, if this is the place where your customers are telling you they're excited to that's where they want to spend their dollars. This is what they're leaning into. Then lean into it with them. Right. Like the square, round, square peg into a round hole analogy, I feel like just is so fitting when you talk about service list decisions.
- [09:36]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah. But also utilize survey monkeys. You know, like you have their email list. Right. So utilize that data to really gear what devices or what treatment modalities Your patients are actually into.
- [09:53]
Ricky Shockley
Yep, yeah, that's, that's phenomenal advice. I think that that's a very underutilized thing. We've done that from time to time and I think there are very few people that are thinking that way. Right. Survey your patients, ask them, get their feedback and actually figure that out instead of hypothesizing.
- [10:09]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Correct. Because the thing is, is that a lot of these laser companies are going to come in and sell you a huge dream, but the things that they're not going to sell you is that the technology becomes antiquated quite quick. The price of the device, the buy in from the consumer. And for the most part, depending on the state that you live in, they're not going to tell you who can and cannot fire that device. So sometimes it's very, you have to be very leery of the things that you purchase. Honestly.
- [10:53]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, that I just livetime idea. Kind of playing off the SurveyMonkey. For those of you who aren't familiar, SurveyMonkey is like a consumer research tool. So you can actually pull your list and get feedback. Man, I could even think like, call your top 10 or 15 patients and let them know you're thinking. If you're thinking about getting a new device, tell them about the device, tell them what it costs, explain or even.
- [11:16]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Leverage your Instagram stories. You know, you could put a poll out there, you know.
- [11:20]
Ricky Shockley
Yep.
- [11:21]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
You get the information and you get engagement on your social media channel.
- [11:26]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah. Win. Win. Yeah. If you're, if you're, if your clients that already know like and trust you, I always say this. If your clients that already know like and trust you aren't going to buy that service from you, then the person stumbling off the street that's, that's never heard of you before is probably not going to be buying that either. So it's a great testing ground to make sure your existing clients that know like and trust you, if they're not interested in whatever service your, your device you're thinking about bringing on, it's probably going to be a challenge to sell to anybody.
- [11:49]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
And I also think that as providers, it's like you're, you're, if you bring on too many treatments, they're getting sales fatigue, you know, like, what do you sell? You know, like, because you have so much, you know, like I have the injectable ends, I have medical grade skincare, I have laser and ablative therapies. I also have memberships. I also have T shirts and different types of swag I want to sell. You know, like it becomes way too much.
- [12:20]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah. People feel like you're just trying to sell to them instead of to consult them and give them and get them the result that they desire.
- [12:26]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah. And the average patient is going come into your practice three to four times a year. You know, hopefully you can get them in monthly with different treatment options. But for the most part, you don't want to come off too salesy at the risk of losing your patient. In terms of being disingenuous.
- [12:45]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, you're making the trade off. If you're trying to capture maximize the dollars this month from your patient list, you're doing it at the expense of expense of your future. I think that's always a decision you're making in business. When you're looking at the short term money you're able to extract from someone, it's going to hurt your long term ability to maintain a good reputation and a good relationship with the patient.
- [13:06]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
And that rolls into patient and that rolls into patient retention as well. Because it's more expensive to acquire a new patient than it is to retain a patient and maximize that patient.
- [13:18]
Ricky Shockley
This episode is brought to you by MedSpa 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? It'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 blue prints 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 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 MedSpa Magic Marketing dot com. Yeah, absolutely. That's a good spin off into my next question here, which is kind of optimizing for patient experience. So you have obviously done a very good job of this. You have several several hundred reviews on Google and a 4.9 star rating. I think that's an area where a lot of practices struggle. And this is an industry where the incremental difference is going to be what allows you to create that stickiness. Right. If you, if you're a practice that's just a little subpar in terms of your patient experience, your retention issues are going to cause business problems that hurt your ability to run and maintain a profitable business. So that retention part is critical. So what types of things do you think about just in terms of patient experience and retention to make sure that people are happy and that they're sticking with you and they do have other options and other providers offering similar services.
- [15:02]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
The thing is, is that we all pretty much have the same recipe. But what makes your recipe different is going to be be the different nuances that you individually provide your patients. For me, at baseline, I am going to treat people the way that I would like to be treated. And for me, I have a high regard for myself. So if you want to court me as a patient, it's important that as soon as I come into the practice that I see smiling, happy faces. Because if that front end girl is happy to be there, I know that that practice is a great practice. It runs well. It has not only good patient retention, but also good employee retention as well. Then also the way that the place smells like, for me, all my practices have aroma 36060 where it's pumping an essential oil out. So I'm creating that, that memory in terms of when they smell our practice, it immediately triggers them. So for me that is huge as well. They're also greeted with a lot of visuals, beautiful visuals. So we have this huge like floral installation in one location and a nice little cute boho chic inspired flower install in our south end location to kind of fit that setting. Then when our patients come in, they are asked if they need anything, would you like some coffee, tea, water? And then when we leave, when we put them in their rooms, we make sure that they have everything accessible to them. Do you have a charger for your phone? If you need me, we are available and we frequently check on them them. So then they're in our chairs. In our chairs, we are attentive to them. There was a study that talked about body language and the perception of a patient of how long you spent with them, whether you were standing or whether you were sitting, talking to them at eye level. So it's perceived that you spend more time with the patient if you are seated and eye contact and you're settled with Your patient versus your standing, you know, so they perceive you as spending more time with them, although you may not have spent more time with them. Then it's also active listening. No one wants to hear about your life, right? You are there to serve them and provide them a service. So you are actively listening as well as reiterating what they said. So they know that you understand what their aesthetic goals are, were, and that you were actively, that you were actually listening to them. Because a lot of people don't feel like they're listened to and they're heard. So with that we help. We. And with that it helps to guide the patient consultation. And we're not only just giving relevant information in terms of the treatment that they are requesting, but also different information about all the other services that we provide. Because a patient's going to come in and they're going to talk about, oh, I just want this area. Right, but it's important that you educate them about not only the medication that they're getting, but also the most common areas of treatment that they could potentially get. Because without the information, something that may potentially bother them, we can really soften with some of the tools that we have in our aesthetic toolkit. But if you don't provide that education or that information, they have no idea. And I think that that is also important. And then also what I hear too is that with our informed consent, we make sure that it's actually an informed consent because when our patients go home, they are on the front line to any adverse event or side effect, et cetera. So we're telling them about what capillary refill is and we tell them about vascular occlusion and vascular compromise and what that could look like. And it creates a more educated and more empowered patient. So I think that that in and of itself sets us aside. We also do post discharge phone calls. So for any patients that are getting dermal filler or they have any sort of procedure like RF macro, needling, et cetera, we provide them with a call where we're checking up on their well being and asking them if they have any other additional questions in regards to their discharge instructions and then also letting them know that they, that we are there for them. Then upon checkout, we, we really solicit how their service went because we really want to hear that feedback. And then for us, we don't accept tips as providers. But I tell my patients, the greatest tip that you could ever provide me is a referral to my practice. To your friends and family.
- [21:07]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, absolutely. There's so many good tidbits there. And like, after somebody's walked in your office, your job is now to make them. You're supposed to reinforce the purchase decision. You want them to, through this experience, feel like, man, that was great. I'm really glad I decided to go there. And being average is not good enough. And you just gave people a ton of advice on how to not be average. And I love those little wrinkles. Hey, I want my office to smell. I can control the smell. We know smell is associated with memory, Right. You can think of so many examples of this in your own life, just personally. Right. And to incorporate that into your business. What a cool idea. And sitting down in the chair, because at least from a perception level, you're going to be able to connect with them a little bit better. And they're going to perceive that you spent more time with them, proactively calling and following up. So you've already collected their money. Right. They know that you're not calling them to try to sell them something. You're just calling to see how they're doing after the appointment is over. All of those little tidbits, those are the types of things that I know med spot owners, they want the flashy thing, right? They want the new device, they want the new marketing strategy that's going to help them get more people through the door. And they're always looking for the quick fix. But until you get those things buttoned up and nailed down, you're going to struggle in your practice. Like, being excellent in all of those little things is, I think, critical to the success of an aesthetics business. So those were so many. There were so many good little tidbits in there that we haven't heard before.
- [22:26]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
On the podcast to understand that nowadays patients want to buy from people. They don't want to buy from brands in particular. So it's important to individualize and make them feel that you know and appreciate them.
- [22:45]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, absolutely. One of the things you mentioned there was you also need. I love the. When somebody comes in, just picture this. If you're listening, right? You come into the med spot, it smells great. You see beautiful visuals, and the person behind the desk is smiling. Change one thing about that picture, and the person at the desk looks flustered and annoyed to be there. Right. That one little thing is probably creating a massive change in the perception of the prospect in terms of the experience at your practice. So you said it's important to make sure that you have good team retention and the people that are working for you enjoy their jobs, how do you go about trying to optimize for that, for team experience and building a team that is happy to be at work?
- [23:29]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
So with us, we're very intentional about our hiring process. We do enneagram testing, so we make sure that their personalities align with our mission. So that's the first thing we do is we review their resume, have them take an enneagram and then from that end that enneagram result, we see from there whether we want to proceed with an interview. Then we have our employees, they come to interview at various practices, so they'll come to both locations and then we'll go and meet them out in the community, whether it's at a Starbucks or a pizza place. Because I really want to see how they deal with other service professionals, which is very key to me. Because the thing is, is that what you find is that resumes become a resume of lives or embellishments. Right. So I really want to make sure that. And you know, like it's really a small subset of who someone is. And I really want, with frequent interactions with a potential hire, I really want to get a good average of who they are at baseline. And with that, that takes multiple interactions, so multiple meetings. So if once they're agreeable to that, depending on their role, they come in and they shadow in the role that they're, that they're applying for for a couple hours. So they'll come in and they'll shadow the secretary, if they're a secretary. And the things that we're looking at is are they asking that person to help them even though they're shadowy? Are you asking to help? Are you adding to a pleasant environment in the practice? For our injectors, we have them basically do an audition. We want them to mark up the patients like they would be marking. We have them do a full face assessment, we quiz them on the different treatment locations as well as how to manage an adverse event, etc. Then after that we come in and we have them inject one of our employees under the supervision of me.
- [26:08]
Ricky Shockley
I highly doubt most of you listening to this podcast are being that intentional about your hiring process. And I love that you are doing everything you can to maximize the chances of the person you're bringing on is a fit culturally that they're going to be good at the job that they're performing and that they're going to be an asset to the business. Aligning with your goals in terms of how you want your clients to be treated. I, I don't think there are that many People probably being that intentional about their hiring process. I thought that was an incredible series of tips for how to interview, how to screen, and then not being in the habit of just, I need help. Let me pull the trigger and just hire the first person that looks adequate. Based on combing some resumes, not only are you doing the interview process at an intentional level, but you're also bringing them in and shadowing and you have certain things you're looking for to make sure that, hey, they're actually. That we're actually. We actually think this person's going to be a good fit for the team, and we're excited to have them on board. I. I'm going to take a few things, even for us, and apply those. I think those. Those were great. Thanks for sharing.
- [27:09]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah. Because if an injector is sitting there laying on the wall because she can't keep her own body weight because she's so exhausted, and I, as the, the owner, am seeing you do this. What do you think that they're. They're doing when you're not.
- [27:26]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah.
- [27:27]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
In their presence.
- [27:28]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, absolutely.
- [27:29]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yikes. And then it's also fire fast. Don't let cancer linger around and metastasize to all the other areas of your. Your. Your brand.
- [27:42]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, I, I've. So you're a proponent, it sounds like, of hire slow, fire fast. And I think the other thing as business owners that sometimes we struggle with is we want to be compassionate. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt. We want to be patient. But you have to have a short leash on a new team member because you're risking compromising the standard that all of your other team members adhere to and respect about the business. Right. I show up every day. I do my job. I'm excited to be here. And I know that Dr. Tuthill, she. She respects me and she takes care of me because I show up. And if this person comes in and they don't do any of those things and they get the same level of, you know, responsibility and respect and pay, like, it's just going to feel icky. Right. To. To your existing team members. So you're doing a disservice to your existing team members by letting someone like that who's. Who's a cancer to the business, stay on board thinking that you're doing something compassionate.
- [28:40]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah. And, you know, a lot of the. A lot of these nuances is because I've been there and done that, you know.
- [28:47]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah.
- [28:48]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
So each time you get burned, hopefully you learn from it and you Reset in a way that's more intentional, intuitive for your future, you know, So I feel. I feel like that is, you know, super important.
- [29:03]
Ricky Shockley
So shifting from people to process. On the management side, I know this is a. Especially as you're growing a business and you're opening multiple locations and. And things as you look to the future, how do you think about process so that you've got things in place that. That a different team member can plug into a role and live up to the standard. Are there any things you're thinking about or doing in terms of documenting processes?
- [29:26]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah, like in terms of our. We have a s. We have a. A manual in which that we sign our patients off to. They really have to read through our mission, our values, et cetera. And then from there, based off of how we are very selective in our hiring process, they really fit into that scalable model where the practice as a whole has strength. We are only as good as our weakest person. So in that we make sure that everybody is strong. If I am not there. You still get the same feel of 10th Avenue aesthetics. If you go to Brittany, if you go to Samantha, if you go to Kristen, if you go to Austin, if you. It doesn't matter because as a whole practice, we are strong. And it doesn't matter what 10th Avenue aesthetics you go to, Whether it be in East Northport or East Norway or wherever in the world, you're still going to get that same feel. The quality in terms of the service as well as all those different things that make us great and unique.
- [30:46]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Last thing I wanted to touch on, if you have a few extra minutes, would be some marketing things. So you built your practice originally with some of these, like the IV services. Even before you were maybe a full med spa. How did. In those early days, how did people find you? How did you attract clients and how do you attract clients now? How do people generally find you?
- [31:08]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
I'm kind of old school in terms of guerrilla marketing. And that guerrilla marketing, that street drive has never really left me. I'm one of these types of owners that's still out there shaking hands and kissing your baby. I am going to sponsor different local lacrosse teams. I'm really focusing on the micro influencers. So I am very active in my community first, because they're going to be the ones that are actually going to be your clients in your practice. Then from there, making sure that we join different moms groups because you know, and then find. Finding key players from those little individual niches and making sure that they're recognized as well. Also collaborating with local businesses is huge for us as well as supporting them as well. I think that that has been paramount. So for example, we do an industry night for people in the hair industry where we give a significant discount for them on Mondays. Because if you think about it, there are going to be your huge referral drivers, you know, potentially in that space. Hair, nail girls, all of it. So we just make sure that we not only market to micro influencers, but also the macro influencers. If you want the bigger fish in terms of big brand influencers, I would just recommend that you really look at their analytics to make sure that the people who engage or follow them actually are going to be valuable for your space. Because, for example, you find this influencer model girl, but you look into her analytics and you see that most of her providers are from Turbekistan. You know, that doesn't really make sense for your local business. So just mainly using, doing research in terms of pulling the analytics from their social media channels. Also making sure that you have social media contracts with these influencers. Also, you just want to be mindful, cross your T's, dot your eyes. But for the most part, like I'm out there, if we ever have downtime, I go around to some of the local businesses on foot and I go introduce myself and introduce my services. When I am in any sort of public event, I make it a point to at least meet 50% of the room.
- [34:14]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, that's such good advice. You own a med spa, you're a local business, you have the opportunity to leave and go engage with the community, whether that's via sponsorships, meetup groups, moms groups, networking events, business partnerships. There are so many opportunities for you to connect and engage. I think everybody wants the easy way out. They want, they want what we do. They just want to be able to like push a button and let an ad go out and business roll in.
- [34:40]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Instant gratification. And I think that what people have to be also mindful of is just because you went out there and you engaged a whole bunch of people that just because they didn't come back to you the next day and book with you doesn't mean anything. It takes six to nine months. I say six to nine months for a referral to actually hit.
- [35:06]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, because you want people to know like and trust you. And that takes reps like you. Hey, there's Dr. Tuttle. I remember I saw her at the farmer's market and then she was at my mom's group and that starts to accumulate. It's a snowball effect. So you have to be patient. But that's so effective because it's a. You're in a service business and relationships are everything. And yes, you're gonna have relationships with your patients, but you can build those relationships before people are patients by engaging in the community. And I think so many people, they want the easy way out that they just don't. They don't think about those things that are more old school. But.
- [35:38]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
But you can also engage in your community from the comfort of your home, following those businesses, looking at who those followers are, and really engaging with those patients remotely or future patients remotely.
- [35:56]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, yeah. People in your town, if they know you, they like you and they know what you do, your business is probably going to be pretty healthy.
- [36:05]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [36:06]
Ricky Shockley
That's. That's awesome. I love that. That was so good. Last thing I wanted to touch on. If you have an extra second here, I know I said that was gonna be my last one, but. So you have a partnership. You mentioned your business is a partnership. I know that can be. That can have its own set of challenges. Any tips for people that are in partnership? I know this in the space. There are a lot of partnership type relationships in terms of business ownership. Any advice that's that people to be successful in terms of a partnership, I.
- [36:31]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Think make sure that your operating agreement is ironclad, I think is important. Making sure that you have provisions for if someone dies, if someone gets divorced. So I used the Leslie Tracy and Leslie Tracy or Donovan and Associates. I forgot the name, but I will give you the information offline. But she made sure that there were provisions in our operating and business agreements that really protected both of us. Just in case there's anything that happens down the line. Because life happens, right? Yeah. People get divorced, people can get injured. There could be loss of use. You know, how. How does that look like if one of your business partner isn't able to contribute in the same ways after injury as you would? How do you even navigate those types of things? So I think that it's important to have those tough conversations early on in the relationship as well. With my business partner, I have. I have adapted. Happy work, wife, happy life. So there's certain nuances that I say to myself or certain arguments that I say to myself. Is it actually worth the fight? Right. And most times than not, the answer is no, it's not worth it. So in terms of that, it's picking your battles, right?
- [38:18]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah.
- [38:19]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
And being okay to disagree, being okay Being okay to agree to disagree and still being civil as well.
- [38:30]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah. You're still on the same page.
- [38:32]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Any sort of resentments or any. Any of those types of negative vibes into anything that you have going on in the future. And then for me, it's like you always have to know where an individual is in terms of their path and their growth. Right. So for me, I like to always continually be doing something. So that's why as an individual, I started my. My 10. That I started 10th Avenue aesthetics, artistry and Institute because teaching is my passion. I taught adjuncts for Malloy College. I would teach nursing students. I would be the first person that would teach new nurses on the unit. So that just always aligned with me, you know, so knowing where to kind of feed your energy and understand where people are in their journey and if they can't go with you through that, sometimes you have to progress in other ways without them and that being okay.
- [39:45]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's amazing. Dr. Tuthill, thank you so much. There are so many great insights and tidbits. My brain is always thinking in. In the shorts that we make for the podcast. And there were so many good little tidbits and segments in there. So I really appreciate you coming on. Can you tell people where they can find out some more about you and what you're up to?
- [40:02]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
All right, so you can follow me on Instagram. I am the aesthetics injectress. You could also find me on YouTube underneath that same handle. But if you just type in my name, Sylvia Tedhill, I'm going to pop up on YouTube as well. You could also follow for more training information or continuing education credit courses. You can follow me at. You can go to my website at 10th Avenue Aesthetics Artistry and institute dot com. You can follow me on my social at 10th Avenue Aesthetics artistry on. On Instagram. And you can follow my other practices that I have. 10th Avenue aesthetics, as well as Conde Aesthetics and Wellness, which is my newest venture in Antigua.
- [40:54]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah. Awesome. And we will make sure, for those of you listening, all of those will be in the show notes regardless of the streaming platform or if you're watching on YouTube. Dr. Tuttle, thank you so much. We hope to do it again.
- [41:02]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Yay. Thanks for having me. I truly appreciate being able to meet with you and share my journey to, you know, people who are starting out or who have already been practiced for several years. I am a resource to everyone. I am highly accessible and I mean it when I say if you have any information, if you have any questions, or need any additional information from me. I am not a gatekeeper. Just ask me. Yeah.
- [41:34]
Ricky Shockley
And thank you for being such an open book. I know we appreciate it and appreciate all the insights.
- [41:38]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
You're welcome.
- [41:42]
Ricky Shockley
I was reading up on you a little bit before the interview and listening to some other podcasts that you had done. And you were working, I know, at IVS and nursing and transitioned into aesthetics. So just a little bit of your backstory, if you don't mind sharing how you got into the space.
- [41:55]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
Okay. So I first started out working med surg oncology. So I did that for several years before going back to get my master's and then doctorate. And then I was doing that for a while. I knew that I didn't want to be at the bedside for too long, so that's why I could just continue to further my education through the whole process, because I just knew that it just wasn't something that I wanted to do long term. My business partner and I, we always, like, romanticized about having a med spa, but we never actually could just fathom it to some degree because my business partner and I, Stephanie, we met on the med surg oncology unit, and we would always discuss, like, just the aging process and getting older and wanting to look and feel good throughout it. And we would always romanticize about aesthetic providers that we would see that would. That just took the leap and did it. So I guess fast forward a few years. I would say seven years ago, I went to a beauty conference. It was called beautycon, and it was in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center. And it was, I guess, all the KOLs in the beauty space. So there was Huda Beauty. There was a entrepreneur that created the Crayon Case, which was a makeup line that she birthed in the kitchen of her home. And it was just basically beauty influencers in the space that ended up being beauty entrepreneurs. So the keynote speaker was Cardi B. And it was funny because she comes out with her whole Bronx accent. And, you know, she has been a struggle. She was a struggling rapper that, you know, got her start on VH1, oddly enough. And she said the reason why that she was so successful is that she didn't put too much thought into creating something brand new. You don't have to recreate the wheel. Things don't have to be proprietary to you for you to just bite the bullet and just start a business. So I was like, oh, my goodness, that concept is so simple. Go home, start that business that you've always wanted to start. So I went home. I knocked on my business partner Stephanie's door, and I was like, we are going to start that med spa that we've always wanted to start. She's like, hold up. You. What's going on? Like, are you on something? I'm like, no. What I am on is my entrepreneurial. What I'm on is my entrepreneurial, I guess, bag, if you will, you know. So I said to her, let's. Let's do it. At that point, she had not even started her nurse practitioner licensing at that point. And I was like, go to school. Get. I need you to be prepared. I need you to be prepped and ready for when we go in this. Ollie. So we opened up our business. We both live on 10th Avenue. That was the only. That was the only business name that we both could agree on was 10th Avenue, because we both lived on 10th Avenue. So we're 10th Avenue Esthetics on 8th Avenue. So I. So we did that. We started out just taking courses in aesthetic medicine. We would experiment on each other. We would train. We would do apprenticeships in different surgical practices until we were comfortable to strike it out on our own. We started to do house calls and Botox parties that became quite busy. And then we decided to open up a location inside of a nail salon. We did that shortly after Covid hit, and we had to kind of, like, shut down. At that point in doing so, it was difficult because we had just started our business and then, you know, the world kind of closed down. What do we do in terms of that? Because we had the IV vitamin hydration component of our practice going, that was deemed as a medical necessity. So we were able to keep our doors open during the pandemic, which was awesome. So with that, we kind of pivoted and did like, a home office, which was cool. So I have a high ranch. I outfitted my home with the injector chair. I made sure that it was compliant with what our insurances wanted in terms of the drug companies to be able to ship medications to a pharmacy that we had partnered with. I made sure that that was together. I also made sure that we had a refrigerator, we had a water source, et cetera. And I kind of outfitted my home into a home office. So we did that for a while until things became quite crazy. My next door neighbor is like, why are all these Maseratis and Mercedes Benz pulling up to your house? What's going on back there? Because I see women coming out of these beautiful cars traipsing into your backyard. What's going on there? So things got so crazy that I had to move it from my home office into an actual IV bar. So we did that for several months until we started to outgrow that place. And then a location actually opened up, I guess a few blocks away from my house on 8th Avenue. And I had been seeing it for years. The lease was absolutely attractive in that it was a 900 square foot office and they were only asking around 1300 dollars in rent in New York, which is crazy. So we did a whole remodel on that space and that was our first brick and mortar. So we did that for, I would say, a few years. And then in September of last year, we opened up our first second location in Iceland. And we now have two brick and mortars. We also have partnered with two med spas that don't currently offer injectable services. So we do some independent contracting inside of them where we provide injectable services as well, which has also been quite awesome underneath our brand. So that is how we started. That's our origin story. And in terms of the ventures that I have with my business partner, I have also pivoted on my own and opened up 10th Avenue Aesthetics Artistry and Institute. And that is a company in which I provide a continuing medical education course entitled Botulinum Toxin Dermal Filler. It's like an intro course where I do that and I provide aesthetic education as well as one to one private trainings to medical providers in the space as well. So that has also been quite cool and lovely for me because I am one of those types of people who like to share knowledge. I'm not one of those people who like to gatekeep. I think it's important to share information because knowledge is key. And especially in the space of aesthetics, you want to create an environment where there's providers learning in a safe space. And I didn't have that when we were first starting this business. Aesthetic medicine is something that is newer and continues to grow. And especially on Long island, people get very intimidated in terms of understanding that there's enough in this space to go around for everyone. You know, I don't really view competitors as competitors. I really just view them as colleagues in a space where there's enough for everyone. So that was kind of the message that. Or that was kind of. I would get, I would say my mission in starting 10th Avenue Aesthetics Artistry was to provide aesthetic medicine education in a space where it was limited. And I'm happy to do that, especially in a place where sorry, where we didn't have that on the island. So a lot of the training that I had, I had to go to different cities. For example, I would go to la, I would go to Vegas, I would go all over the world for different trainings because I felt that trainings and trainers weren't readily available and weren't willing to share their knowledge to potential future competitors. So I'm happy to do that on Long Island. Although people think that I'm silly for doing it, I don't care. I feel empowered to do it. So I do it then. I recently opened up a med spa. I'm actually in there right now in Antigua, so the West Indies, so the Caribbean. So I opened up Conde Aesthetics and Wellness that is in the village of All Saints, Antigua. So I do that quarterly in the Caribbean. So having to navigate aesthetic medicine in a totally new taboo space where aesthetic medicine, plastic surgery is something that isn't readily accessible in the Caribbean and is still kind of considered taboo, is quite crazy. And I am here navigating that in a new space as well. So the journey has been crazy.
- [53:29]
Ricky Shockley
Yeah, that's interesting, exciting.
- [53:31]
Dr. Sylvie Tuthill
I'm happy to do it. And yeah, that's a little bit about me.
- [53:36]
Ricky Shockley
Thanks everyone for tuning in. This podcast is a production of medspa Magic Marketing. If your med spa or aesthetic 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.