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Cosmetic Patient Retention Guide

 

In this episode I’m going to talk about why patient retention should be your #1 Focus because would you rather have a patient one time or for a lifetime?

The real money and leverage is in the lifetime cosmetic patient since you spent a lot of money attracting them to you, so they are pure profit from then on.

Cosmetic patient retention, outlined in my Cosmetic Patient Retention Guide, comes down to a few specific elements that make all the difference.

Those are: providing a WOW experience, staying top-of-mind, and building a relationship that establishes you as trusting, reliable and likable.

Here’s how to 10X the Value of Loyal Cosmetic Patients:

Beyond the revenue generated by repeat cosmetic patients, there are social benefits to having a loyal following. The first of which is the power of your practice evangelists who return, review, refer, approve their before/after photos to be shown to the public, videotape a testimonial, and share you on social media.

This is the main reason why a focus on cosmetic patient retention can create your unpaid marketing sales team by boosting your revenues significantly so a cosmetic patient who was worth $1K to you is now worth $10K to you when you have a retention/loyalty system in place.

And Let’s talk about Word of Mouth Referrals from these loyal patients.

It only makes sense that cosmetic patients have to remember your brand in order to promote it. On top of that, if they have a WOW experience, they are much more likely to buy from you, and to refer their friends and family.

There are various studies that show that word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most valuable forms of marketing.

Why is that? Because 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over other types of advertising.

Once consumers get a recommendation from someone they trust, they are far more likely to become loyal cosmetic patients.

Once a cosmetic patient is loyal to  your practice, they are more likely to spend more as well. The lifetime value of referred cosmetic patients is 16% higher than non-referred cosmetic patients.

How the referral occurred makes a difference too. A Harris Poll found that 82% of consumers said they seek recommendations from friends and family, and 67% said they are more likely to purchase when a friend or family member shared it through social media or email.

Social media influencers are a good form of word-of-mouth marketing as well. Though influencers may not be family and friends, they offer valuable and somewhat unbiased opinions that their followers trust, and that can influence their buying decisions.

However, the quality of your customer service is measured by the kind of relationship you establish with your cosmetic patients, and that relationship will determine how invested they are in your success.

Revenues from happy cosmetic patients, as well as word- of-mouth recommendations, have the power to become a huge portion of your annual revenues, dramatically reducing your cosmetic patient acquisition costs and increasing your revenues.

Here are the Common Barriers to Patient Retention.

Due to the profit maximizers and social benefits of cosmetic patient retention, it is important to understand exactly why cosmetic patients quit your practice.  

That understanding comes from learning about cosmetic patient preferences, and the factors that cause them to churn.

Churn, or attrition, is one of the most devastating factors affecting profitability because you lose the investment it took to attract each cosmetic patient in the first place, in addition to the loss of potential future revenues and referrals.

Even a 5% monthly churn rate means a 60% loss of cosmetic patients over the course of one year. That statistic alone is scary enough, but on average, an individual will tell nine people about good experiences and 16 people about poor experiences.

Imagine if 60% of your cosmetic patients were telling 16 of their friends about bad service they had received with you.

The numbers add up quickly and it’s clear to see why it’s so important to learn why patients churn and how to minimize it.

So, when it comes to attrition prevention, the effect of patient relationships is truly astounding. Research has shown that improving the cosmetic patient experience helps increase loyalty and drives growth.

Relationship building encompasses different things, but the most  important aspect is the cosmetic patient’s perception of their own importance to your practice.

They want exceptional cosmetic patient service, appreciation, and a personal touch that helps them connect on a deeper level than your average practice interaction.

Have you ever been a “regular” at a restaurant, brewery, or coffee shop? When someone goes into a practice and they know them by name, that can go a long way in making them feel special and will certainly make them want to come back.

Because here’s the thing..

Emotions drive patient decisions, and those emotions are strongly affected by their personal interactions with a practice.

When cosmetic patients are ready for more cosmetic rejuvenation, what will make them return to you instead of your competitors?

Being memorable and a creative loyalty program can go a long way in turning a one-time cosmetic patient into a lifelong cosmetic patient.

Neglecting the relationship, however, or failing to keep in touch, can almost guarantee that patient will shop around and wander off to your competitors.

The plastic surgery industry only sees cosmetic patients a few times a year (or even every few years) so you are especially susceptible to passive churn because cosmetic patients may simply forget about their previous positive experiences.

By connecting with them on a personal level, a consistent relationship serves as a foundation for staying top of mind anytime they need cosmetic rejuvenation.

However, when we talk about loyalty, we need to talk about Customer Service because they work hand in hand.

Bad customer service is the No. 1 problem leading to dissatisfaction and attrition. A consumer is four times more likely to defect to a competitor if the problem is service related rather than price or procedure related.

This tells you that cosmetic patients care more about the social aspect of a practice than they do the personal cost, or even the quality of their procedure.

So consumers are now prioritizing quality of interaction over personal gain and they feel emotionally invested in their buying decisions.

While this provides an opportunity for practices to foster connections, it can also be a double-edged sword. If cosmetic patients feel ignored, mistreated, or generally dissatisfied, they are considerably more likely to take their business elsewhere, regardless of the quality of the service.

So, what else is causing cosmetic patients to leave one practice for another? ……

Here it is….Retention Isn’t a Practice Priority.

Most cosmetic practices have a greater focus on cosmetic patient leads, and only a few focus on retention.

The shiny new object in our industry is the new cosmetic patient. Gaining a new cosmetic patient is exciting. It’s proof that your marketing efforts are working and, of course, it’s new revenues.

But when all of the focus is put on cosmetic patient acquisition, it leaves existing cosmetic patients feeling like they were left out in the cold.

Practices often tend to treat new cosmetic patients better as well by offering a welcome discount, a free gift with their first purchase, etc., with the hope that putting in a lot of effort at the beginning will be enough to maintain them as long-term cosmetic patients.

When you change this mindset from short-sighted acquisition that is focused on the one-time procedure to cosmetic patient retention that measures the cosmetic patients’ lifetime value and potential profit as a whole, you win the long game.

So, How Can You Improve Cosmetic Patient Retention?

I read an article where the author compares marketing to pushing a boulder uphill — you can either do it yourself, or you can recruit an army of enthusiastic cosmetic patients to help you push your practice to the top for you.

The boulder metaphor is a great example because it really embodies the physical and emotional struggle of sales and marketing, which can sometimes feel like an uphill battle.

It also shows how a strong relationship with cosmetic patients can become a revenue lifeline through retention, referrals and social proof.

You turn your existing patient list into your network and keep in touch so they remember you when talking to friends.

There is no simple equation for making cosmetic patients stay, but there are several strategies practices can focus on in order to minimize their attrition rates, increase their retention value, and boost referrals.

For example, you can play on patients’ inherent desire for reciprocity similar to a free mint with your check at a restaurant that was found to increase tips by up to 20%.

Whether it be through thoughtful gestures (like free gifts) or exceptional cosmetic patient service, the point is that people love to be appreciated, and they feel obligated to return the favor.

So, knowing this, rather than having a goal of making money, go into every transaction wondering what you can do to improve that cosmetic patient’s life, change their day, or make something easier for them.

This is one of the key ways to ensure that cosmetic patient service goes beyond the first visit, and it also improves your chances of transitioning prospects into cosmetic patients who return, refer, review and share you on social media.

And be sure you are Communicating With Your ExistingPatients...

Texting or calling a friend is one of the easiest ways to maintain your relationship with them, no matter what’s being said. It’s a way of showing them that you care and want to hear how they are doing.

As a practice, it’s obviously not efficient to have a phone conversation with each of your cosmetic patients but communicating with them somehow will show them that they mean something to you.

Regardless of the mode of communication (in-house signage, social media, email, texting, in person) there are two important things to remember: make it meaningful and do it consistently.

It’s the consistency that builds trust and indicates to your patients you care and are a premier practice.

Regarding marketing -

There are many marketing channels to choose from to communicate with your patients, so which one is the best?

The answer is, the one your patients pay attention to.

The challenge with that is you will run out of time, money, and energy trying to be everywhere your patients are.

So it’s best to use a strategic marketing plan that incorporates all main channels such as email, text, social media, your website and in-house signage.

So where does discounting fit in?

My answer is, it doesn’t.

It's time to Change Your Message Away from Discounting.

When you do communicate with your patients, what do you normally say? Because you want more business now, it’s common to announce special offers to get a response.

But when you continue to lead with special offers, the response dwindles because your patients know they can “get a deal” anytime.

Discounting your services is a race to the bottom. It hurts your brand, attracts price-shoppers, and eats up your profits.

A better approach is to offer patients something of value that doesn’t hurt your profits but makes them feel acknowledged and appreciated.

And that’s where a proven loyalty program comes in.

Since the cost of getting a new patient is 7X more than keeping an existing patient, nurturing existing patients with a loyalty program is a powerful strategy that grows your practice revenues.

To ensure the best results, choose a loyalty program that includes the following features:

Exclusivity – Patients can only get rewards from YOU. This locks out your competitors by putting golden handcuffs on your loyal patients.

It’s got to be Easy so patients understand the rules and staff can easily use it and...

It has to be Fun – Patients love getting to the next tier while growing your practice for you

The marketing has to Done-for-You – This saves you time and ensures consistent communication with your existing patients and lastly, 

The reporting has to show detailed monthly stats of your results and profits

So, in Conclusion..

1. There are three foundational elements to a successful cosmetic patient retention strategy: creating and establishing relationships, a WOW patient experience, and consistent communication.
2. Cosmetic patient retention efforts, as discussed in my Cosmetic Patient Retention Guide, can be maximized by using multichannel campaigns: email, text, social media, signage and in-person.
3. The right loyalty program, executed consistently, can 10X revenues while decreasing advertising costs and eliminating discounting.

46% of patients spend more after they join a loyalty program.

83% of patients say a loyalty program will keep them coming back,

I want to introduce you to the KiSS Loyalty Club  that is the key to building meaningful relationships that go beyond the practice transaction.

It’s done for you software and marketing solution that includes multichannel marketing which is the best way to achieve retention, by providing cosmetic patients with a consistent and friendly way to connect with practices on a regular basis.

The KiSS Loyalty Club practices we work with have found tremendous success in increasing their # of visits, revenues, new patients, retention, referrals, reviews, social proof and social media and, as a result, the overall lifetime value of their patients.

It also provides practices with a tremendous opportunity to build their brand, increase cosmetic patient satisfaction, and distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive market.

If your practice wants to cut through the marketing and advertising noise that is being thrown at consumers every day, let’s talk to see if you are a good fit for the KiSS Loyalty club.

My team handles all of the design, copy, technology, strategy, props, training, support and reporting since we have tested it and know what it takes to be successful.

Your practice can see a 10X increase in cosmetic revenues and patient lifetime value with the KiSS Club developing lasting relationships with your existing patients…on autopilot.

Go to www.KissLoyaltyClub.com to schedule a demo today.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

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Hello,

I’m sure you are [painfully] aware that it’s no longer enough to be an excellent surgeon in order to be successful. That’s a given.

It’s just as important to gain other new skills as the world changes around you.

That’s why we talk about the business and marketing of plastic surgery on the Beauty and the Biz Podcast.

And why I interviewed P. Daniel Ward, MD.

 

 

Dr. Ward is a facial cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon in private practice with three offices throughout Utah.

Listen in as Dr. Ward talks about how he has grown his own successful cosmetic practice by:

• Bringing on key team players to free him up to do what he does best
• Managing both the surgical and non-surgical demands of his patients
• Where social media fits into his marketing plan and a whole lot more

Dr. Ward also mentioned that in 2013, Forbes reported that Salt Lake City was the vainest city in the United States! Who would have thought?!?

Visit Dr. Cole's website at https://www.wardmd.com

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

Transcript:

 

Surgery, Staff and Snow with P. Daniel Ward, MD (Ep.137)

Catherine Maley, MBA: Hello, and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, staff and snow with P. Daniel Ward, MD. Now I'm your host, Catherine Maley, author of Your Aesthetic Practice - What your patients are saying, as well as consultant to plastic surgeons, to get them more patients and more profits. And I'm excited about today's guest.

It's Dr. Preston Ward. Now he's double board certified in facial plastic surgery, as well as head neck surgery. Dr. Ward lectures worldwide on his innovative techniques and serves on multiple committees for the American academy of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. Now, Dr. Ward's in private practice with three offices in Salt Lake City, as well as Riverton, Utah, and specializes in rhinoplasties.

Revision rhinos, facelifts blephs, and cosmetic injectables as well as hair restoration. Now he has his own private surgical facilities onsite as well as medical spas to cater to his non-surgical patients. Now, prior to his career in plastic surgery, Dr. Ward studied chemistry and that prompted him to work with the leading cosmetic labs to develop his own skincare line.

That is commercially available. Through his office as well as other medical spas in the region. Dr. Ward has a lovely wife, four grown children, two adorable dogs. And from the looks of it, he loves snow skiing. So, Dr. Ward, welcome to Beauty and the Biz. It's a pleasure to have you.

Daniel Ward, MD: Well, it's great to be here and great to talk to you. I've loved listening to you over the years on the podium, and it's nice to talk to you about over zoom.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Thanks so much. So lately first of all let's talk about snow skiing just for a second. I used to snow ski a lot because I'm in Sausalito, California, and I'm only three and a half hours from lake Tahoe, which is breathtakingly gorgeous. And I just haven't had the time, like I used to. How far are you from the slope?

Daniel Ward, MD: So, I am my house is seven miles from Snowbird, so it's really close and that we have, we have we, we frequently go up north to another place in garden city, Utah, or lake Utah, which there's another place it's about 15 minutes from there. So yeah, skiing is part of what you do. If you live in salt lake.

Catherine Maley, MBA: For sure. So, Dr. Ward, everybody would love to know how did you get from wherever you did after graduating after medical school and fellowship and all of that? How did you get to private practice? So, what was your…

Daniel Ward, MD: I finished my fellowship at the university of Michigan and was fortunate enough to get a position at the university of Utah, which I loved.

I ended up leaving the university of Utah though. Due to some changes I, I would have at the time when I left, I would have said, oh, it's because I'm concerned about the potential pay cuts there that they're making to our pay structure. But actually, it was a little bit more than that. It's like, I realized that for me, I really like building things.

It's not about finances, it's about building things and creating something that is kind of, I guess, bigger than, than what I am. And so that's what, why I decided to leave the university. I'm still a faculty member they're just not employed there. And I mean, there are some times when I kind of do miss the safety and security of employment, but it's so rewarding and it's so fun to be able to build something of your own, take care of your patients, the way that you want to develop the practice that you would.

To do. It's very rewarding and I could never, I'd have a really hard time going back to full employee just because it's so fun to be able to do what we want to do. And part of that is really kind of is that vision, being able to have a vision and carry that vision out for us, our niche is kind of really higher end services.

And it's about the experience. And that is something that I'm passionate about. And that kind of gets me up in the morning.

Catherine Maley, MBA: And did you start out with, I mean, you have a gorgeous place with an awful lot of staff, you know, you have quite a little empire there right now, but how did you start out? Was it the wife at the phones kind of thing?

Daniel Ward, MD: Kind of, I think we start with nine employees. We, we did to take a business loan just to help with the funding for that. We don't have any other equity partners. Which something that this as a little aside, I think that a lot of physicians, especially don't understand that that certainly, you know, borrowing money from a bank can be conceived very expensive, but borrowing money from equity partners is even more expensive.

That kind of confused me at first. So, there is nothing wrong with getting a loan from the bank, especially with interest rates, being what they are now. So, we started out pretty small. We actually had a little bit of a personal tragedy, right? As we were opening, our daughter was involved in an accident and.

The plan was for the, for my wife to help a little bit more. And we kind of had to shift gears and change that. Cause she was living at the hospital for a few months with, with our daughter. So that kind of shifted things, but we were just kind of full steam ahead, oldest. We'll just try to get this done.

And then we just kind of grew from there and I have to confess, we have made. Every mistake that I can conceive of making. And some of those have been more painful than others. But it's all about the learning and the older I get, the grayer I get, the more I understand and appreciate those learning opportunities.

And that's actually part of the fun is making those, I mean, nobody thinks making a mistake is fun, but learning from it and learning how to do it better is really is part of the fun.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, we can't leave it there. I was going to ask you later, but give us one big mistake that could help everybody else avoid. `If they're listening.

Daniel Ward, MD: I mean, I, I, I've got so many where, you know, which one to choose from this big menu. For me, I think it's, it's kind of a lack of an appreciation of culture of an organization, which if you read almost any business book, they're going to mention like, you know, culture is everything.

And I guess, I guess maybe the biggest mistake is maybe not realizing the culture starts with me. I, you know, I don't mean this to be like a big, big may a Copa spouting out, but, but I think, you know, if you're a business owner, most of the problems, they are all your problems, then oftentimes those problems do start with you.

And for me, it was kind of realizing that, you know, a lot of our cultural problems were problems with me. And it's not necessarily that I was a bad person or am a bad person or Purposely made mistakes, but part of us, you know, the, the surgical training, the path that we go through leads a lot of us to being, you know, kind of injured in a way.

And until you can kind of heal yourself and get yourself into a healthier state, it's hard for you to kind of be that sort of leader that you need to be, where you can kind of set that culture. At least it was for me, I think a lot of people are naturally gifted at that. That's not one of the things that I was, and, and that has been a huge change is.

Kay is realizing that that the business is going to run more efficiently. It's going to be more profitable. It's going to be more enjoyable for everybody. If I, you know, in a way kind of step back and take a little time to be selfish and take care of myself so that I'm in a better place and I can make better decisions and be a better leader for our organization.

So, I guess to summarize all that, it would be the biggest mistake is, is kind of not realizing that the problem starts with me and I need to fix me before I can expect to fix the other things that are going on in our business.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I'll tell you, after hanging around with you surgeons for 22 years now what I have learned is there's been such a mind shift that you have to make, because for whatever 14 years, you had to become a surgeon.

Now you have to become a leader and a manager, not even a manager, if you're a good leader, you find somebody to manage for you, but it all arrows point to you. And that's the good news. And yeah. You know. Yeah. If you can, if you can step up to that everyone's looking to you and you're the role model and there's no more hiding in the surgery surgical suite, you know, you've got to show up and tell the staff, what, what do you want?

You know, what is your vision? What is your mission? Where are we going with this? I've just found that the clearer you get about all of that and tell your staff that's how the culture is developed. You know? Okay. Team here's where we're going. Just like in sports.

Daniel Ward, MD: It relates to. So, when I was, I did my residency and fellowship at the university of Michigan, and I had several friends there who were getting graduate degrees and they have a really big organizational behavior program.

And I have to confess, I've told this to them that I used to kind of be a little judgmental about their career choice. That is like the softest easiest field. Like, what are you talking like? That is the, I, this is all going on in my head. You know? Like, why are, why are these guys doing this that, you know, do something real like chemistry or, you know, I mean, that's kind of the judgmental side of me, I guess.

And now what I realize, you know, whatever 15, 20 years later is that those guys are actually the smart people. Cause they realized early on that. How important it is to kind of make an organizational, you know, that it's really difficult to get an organization to behave the way that is going to make it profitable and healthy.

And so, I've had to kind of, you know, go back and eat Crow a little bit about my, my judgmental state about that kiss that is so important. And it's those softer that, you know, quote unquote software things are actually the really difficult things to get. Right. And the older I get, the more I realize how important.

Catherine Maley, MBA: And that's why I have this podcast because it's the business side of surgery. If you don't get that, then you probably shouldn't be in, in retail medicine because this is the fun side of medicine. Nobody needs to see you. They're going to hand you a credit card, not insurance card, unless you get the business side of this down.

Well, I guess you stay in reconstructive or you work in a hospital and let them handle the business side. But I'm talking about that are still doing reconstructive or where's your percentages.

Daniel Ward, MD: Yeah. So, I love to do reconstructive stuff still. And so, we, yes, we, we still take insurance which from a financial standpoint, you know, from a professional fee standpoint is, is not as good as cosmetic from a facility fee side.

It's actually very good. So financially it makes sense for us, but also from a satisfaction standard. Is this such a big part of my training and my background of my initial interest in, in rhinos in plastic surgery was reconstruction. So, I definitely enjoy doing that and don't anticipate ever kind of stopping that.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Okay. And then you have just an athlete, gorgeous office and a few of your own surgical facilities. Give us a few of the pros and cons of that because that's no easy feat, number one, getting approved. If, you know, especially if you're doing a reconstructive, I guess you, you need a, you know, quite a or whatever on a bit about doing that because so many surgeons say to me, when is it time for me to get my own surgical suite?

Like what's, what's. And what's the downside.

Daniel Ward, MD: Sure. So, I did it initially for, cause I wanted it to be convenient for me. Like I wanted a place, this to operate where I was seeing patients. I could see patients there. But it's, it, it, it really is from a business standpoint, it is a clear no-brainer. If you are doing any sort of insurance cases, To try to, to bring those to your surgical center.

So, the pros are, it can be very financially beneficial. The downside is that it's a heck of a lot of work to, to follow all the rules. We actually just had our Medicare accreditation survey this week. So, you know, surprise visit. And thankfully we were, we passed with flying colors. We felt really good about that.

I ended up to, to, to help with that process. Actually, I took the course to become a surveyor. So, I feel like I understand the rules better and can, can make sure that we're living them as well as following them. So, yeah, I would say that the pros are financial benefit. The downsides are, it's a pain in the neck.

And you know, part of it is the accreditation, but I would say the accreditation is the easy part. The hard part is actually just having the extra staff to look after, you know, because you're not, we're not big enough that we can hire like five scrub techs and 12 nurses and you know, all these different people to help.

So, if one person's out. You know, somebody who's got COVID or somebody's sick or whatever. What do we do? You know, how do we cancel two weeks to surgeries or, you know, how do we manage that? So, it's really been an effort to try to, to get people cross trained. I think we're finally at a point that we are just getting to where we feel a little bit more comfortable with that.

Next week. There are probably some, be some other wrench thrown into our plans, but, but it's actually just the staffing thing, the logistics of getting staffing there and making sure that things run it's, it's a lot more complicated than I think most of us as surgeons think.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I, I saw a talk once at one of the meetings and it was so interesting that the guy did a survey on working with a surgical staff that you don't know versus the one that you know, really well.

And you're like the well-oiled machine versus the flunky machine and that it actually hit your bottom line pretty like 5% or so of revenues was due to just being more efficient about it. And another thought somebody had mentioned an app and I haven't checked it out, but there's this app for the exact reason you're talking about with someone's out, we're kind of screwed and you go on and say, I needed a scrub tech boom.

And it's like an Uber for a hospital staff or surgical staff. I think that's amazing because it happens all the time. And what do you do?

Daniel Ward, MD: Yeah, what do you do? But no, you're right. And I think, you know, there's, there's certainly some quantifiable financial things that can happen by, you know, by having your own staff and stuff like that.

You know, like you said, the 5% number. But the other thing is it's your own peace of mind? I mean, I remember actually one of the straws that broke my camel's back at the university was I was used to operating. A certain operating room and due to staffing she's. Now that I understand them a lot better, now that I have my own, but due to staffing issues, the Orr administration moved me from this out nice little outpatient surgical center.

That's pretty small that they're kind of already knew my preferences to the big cancer center, which I, which I operate at. But, but now with like, like they're not used to doing, I think it was like a face lift and a blepharoplasty that they moved me to. It was really stressful for me. Cause I, you know, I, I was working with an assistant who wasn't used to working with me.

They didn't have all the instruments that I was used to having. And although I don't think that it affected that patient's results. It's certainly affected me. And I probably have a few more gray hairs here because of that and those little things that. The again, the older I get, the more I realize you needed.

We need to take steps to make our life easier, happier, less stressful. And as for me, anyway, maybe I'm just a little picky, but moving from a little tiny out-patient or to the big or where they weren't used to using, it was really stressful to me. And I just didn't want to have that anymore.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I hear you and not, and no more commuting. I Do the older I get the easier on getting, I'm going to simplify my life. Period. You know, I'm going to get rid of the hassles as every day. I'm just not going to help because you get older and you just, you want life easier.

Daniel Ward, MD: It can't be this difficult while you can. Right.

Catherine Maley, MBA: So, I regarding the surgical suite though, a lot of doctors say to me, so do I like, how big do I go with this?

Do I just. Or sweet, a small sweet just for myself. Do I grow a two or three or sweet where I have other surgeons come in? You have any tips on how you handle that? Or?

Daniel Ward, MD: Yeah, I mean, I think if you've got a group of people that are, that are there that, that can, that are committed to operating the.

Then, you know, two or three rooms at the max is probably what I would do, but there is nothing wrong with one or two rooms. And if you look at the utilization of most operating rooms, you know, I remember at the university the utilization of the operating rooms, which seemed super busy was still only about 80%.

Like one room. You can be very creative with scheduling know, so you can do block time with like half day blocks. So, you can even do like four- or five-hour blocks where you start at say maybe even as early as 5:00 AM go, you know, go to like five to 10. 10 to three, three to eight. And sometimes that's easier to, to get staffing that was so being a little creative, like you don't have to do things the way that the big hospitals have done them forever.

And that's one of the real advantages about being small. As you can be nimble to make changes the way that are going to fit your schedule. The best. I will say this though. It is. I hate to pick on my own profession, but we, as physicians are really difficult in terms of understanding business principles.

I bet you, you know, better than I do. It is really tough. Like there are physicians will shoot themselves. It's what's the saying? Cut off your nose to spite your face or something. Like, I can't really exactly say, but they will do it. And if they, there, there's almost like this, like profit is kind of like a dirty word in medicine.

And if, if, if other surgeons feel that you, as, as someone who has a financial stake in an operating room stands to benefit from. From there using the operating room that is almost a stronger motivator than them, but they may not be really happy that the big healthcare system in your area is making money off of them going there.

But there are a lot happier to give that money to the healthcare system, that to you as an individual physician. And so, it can be really difficult to, to do that. So, I, I guess I. The word of warning, there is nice to say that is I would set up some sort of system in place where they really are tied to the, or before you invest $300,000 into building out a three room or, and you're, you know, you've got these verbal promises from these other surgeons that they're going to come and operate there.

I would Get something to make sure that they're going to go there, whether you're financially tying them in or, or, or they're actually partners somehow in it, because otherwise you could be out a whole bunch of money and they're still taking their cases together hospital, which is tough to swallow.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I've seen that so often I; they say one thing they do in. The surgeon is 10 million in and trying to figure out how is he going to get this thing to operate. And I'm, you're absolutely right. You've got to get some commitment ahead of time. But also, don't just don't count. Surgeons do not work well together, period.

I've even seen offices where you know, they're all ophthalmologists and there's one cosmetic facial plastic surgeon, and they don't even help him, you know, and they all can profit from it. So, I, I, I would say Golightly, you know, I would. You could always grow down the road. Speaking of growing and scaling, because I think you have a nice little entrepreneurial mindset going there.

You're very good at taking what you have and making the most of it. I'm watching you as you've grown the med spas. You've added another facial plastic surgeon. You've added a PA. How are you? What's your game plan?

Daniel Ward, MD: Well, you know, that changes, you know, there's, you know, in the business world we talk, the term is pivoting, but it's kind of, you know, going down different trails or different forks.

We started off initially and had a ton of success. You know, I left the university started off and. Our growth of the med spa, the aesthetic side of things was just phenomenal. So, I I'd read this, this great book. You've probably read it before. It's called blitz scaling. It's about, it's about like, Hey, you know what you like when you scale, like the normal way to scale is to nail it and then scale it written actually by my good friend, a neighbor, Paul Holmstrom.

It's a wonderful book. Read that book first, nail it, then scale it. But before I read Paul's book, Blitz scaling and blitz scaling simply states like, Hey, listen, forget all about this traditional stuff, grow your business, grow a big, and then, you know, if you build it, they will come. And that's, that's certainly been true, but that carries with it some stress.

In the sense of your you're you've, you've got these commitments that you've now made. You're in leases for buildings, you bought equipment that you're now paying for. And You're like, geez, I don't know if I really want to support that. And we, as we grew into that, we had some success and then we had some COVID issues.

We had another issue with a wish we, we hired a plastic surgeon who just, it was not a good fit and that kind of really hurt us. And that kind of comes back to the culture. And some of that is my fault. Some of that is just, it was just a bad fit, but With this kind of blitz scaling thing. We had this, this thing with the surgeon and then we COVID came.

And so, we've decided to use this opportunity to kind of change things up a little bit and really focus on what we think our core mission is. And for us, our, our core mission we've decided is more along the, the stronger medical aesthetics realm, not. And what I mean by that is more along the. Surgical side of the spectrum and less along the day spa side of the spectrum.

So, for example, our is used to offer massage. We don't offer massage anymore. We've cleaned out most of our makeup. We used to have a huge inventory of makeup items. We still have some, but we've cleaned that out for the most part. We do offer facials, but they're kind of a little bit more aggressive facials and what you'd see otherwise, it's like, if you're going to get a facial hair, it's going to be like a hydrophobic.

It's not going to be, you know, kind of like the touchy feely, sort of one. And we've got partners that we are working with to, to try to cause we think those services are, are obviously still valuable, but that is not our niche. You know, like we can't be everything to everybody. So, if part of this is our, our pivot has been a little bit on focus and what we're currently doing is something I'm really excited about is we are trying to create some mechanisms where we can partner with entrepreneurial aesthetic.

Providers. So, whether those are estheticians, whether they are injectors, where we will offer the space, we will offer the medical directorship, we'll offer the supplies for a fee that's a lot more affordable for these aesthetics providers, where they can partner with us to provide these services that we don't think that we are necessarily wanting to focus on primarily.

And then we're going. Allow them to do that. And that we that's really satisfying to us because it allows us to focus on our real passion within aesthetics, which has that kind of like more surgical, heavier duty aesthetics thing. It also allows us to focus on sharing our passion for entrepreneurship and helping other people grow the businesses that they want to grow.

And so, we're very excited about that. We're going to offer that in at least one of our locations. We've started it in one location and probably in another one, but we'll see how that.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I love that idea. See, I knew you were entrepreneurial. I would just a heads up on the person that you choose. I have watched other practices try to control that person.

And one of the issues is here's the good part. Typically, they've been humbled. They tried to run this on their own and they're like, I give up, I don't want to manage anybody. I want to reject, you know, that's all they want to do. So, it's a perfect solution for them. However, when it comes time to marketing or branding, now, all of a sudden, it's.

And you're not in the picture or like, who are they to you? You know? And it just, it confusing to the patients. But I would also say the goal is all arrows still lead to surgery. So, if somebody is in their office and they're getting injectables, I would have in-house signage around. I would have your work going off, you know, like on digital photo frames because everything goes to surgical after a while.

So anyway, I think it's a fabulous idea though. But now do you manage and give me some staff tips on managing, because I would say. Surgeons tell me, I would say that's their probably number one complaint is to start staff business. You know, how to manage people, how to motivate them how to stop being blindsided by them.

You know, how to stop the embezzlement all of that. Do you have, I'm sure you have some of your own horror stories or some really good tips on what have you done to get a really good team surrounding you.

Daniel Ward, MD: Yes. I, when I talked to surgeons, you know, there's a couple of little chat groups that I'm part of that we, you know, complain to each other and then this or that.

And that is that's, that's the majority of what, of what it is, unfortunately, because what we're really passionate about is going to kind of our craft and learning that. It's going to sad. We've spent so much time talking about, about this. The first thing I would say is what I already said is start with you realize, you know, it takes quite a bit of humility and you know, spending time really thinking about ways that, that you're actually the cause of the problem.

And that's that, like I said, it's, it's very humbling to go through that, but it's really inspiring to, to learn that you can overcome that and become better. And so, I really liked that. The other thing that I think is that so many of the tasks that we do in business as physicians, if, if they're, if they're like me, we think like, oh, I can just do that.

I can, I can put that into QuickBooks. I can, I can just do the HR paperwork. I don't want to say. Whatever $2,000 a month on this or that just spend the money. It is so worth it because those tasks build up and you don't have, you really just don't have time to do it. And it takes you away from the things that you love the most, whether that's surgery, whether that's your family, friends, skiing, you know, whatever it might be.

So didn't spend the money to do that. And so that, that would be, you know, kind of the simple solution as we've, we've hired an HR. That handles all of our you know, like the employment issue. Like they verify that they're eligible to work. They verify that we do like random drug testing. They, they make sure that that's handled, you know, all those sorts of things.

They handle that if there is ever an employee issue, which there always will be because people are people, you know and that's not necessarily anything wrong. And whether there issues, it's not like that person is a bad person. That's just a misunderstanding. So, I'm having them to help with that. And having them act as a mediator really helps where they can kind of help us better understand.

And I remove a lot of the emotions cause so many things with employees comes with emotion, both on, on your side as a business owner and on their side. And so, it's only fair to kind of have somebody to help. The other thing that is really key for me is getting the right support staff in terms of leadership in position, I think is physical.

And I'll speak for myself, but I think I'm probably like a lot of people we think that we can do it at all. And I know that I can't do it all. You know, we have got a couple of, well, we've got four or five really amazing leaders. I'm going to mention a couple of them, Matt Walker, who is like our operations administrator.

And he, he is just incredible in terms of how he can interpret data and then apply that to the clinical setting to make it work better. He he's good. Understanding the vision and how to integrate that into the practice. He works very closely with the CJ Terremoto. Who's a nursing director and operations And he, doesn't the same thing, you know, really good at this, the simple things like how do we get the exam room?

Why can't I, you know, I'd be really frustrated with this. And here's an example of bad behavior on my part at the end of the day or, or three-fourths through the day I look and I see like, oh my gosh, like this, the drawer in the exam room, I need to examine this patient is empty. I know for sure that we've got like a hundred of these instruments, where are they all?

Why don't we stock them last night? I like my way of dealing with that is like to complain to everybody. Right? And then they, then they feel, but I make them feel bad unintentionally, but I make them feel bad. They're not very effective at their job. They're not motivated to do it. Whereas if I just tell CJ about it, he deals with it in a much more constructive way that doesn't make people feel like, like they're, you know, down or not doing a good job.

Whether it's time or personality. I just don't seem to have that skillset as naturally as what others do. Another really great leader that we have is Jared long Hearst, who is a phenomenal leader. He's actually got a marketing background, but the thing that Jared. Thrives on is, is culture and helping people understand what we're part of and what we're working towards.

And he's good at helping people feel good about that and helping them feel fulfilled at their job. That's what we say. We tell people, our staff, we want you to wake up in the morning, excited to go to. Realizing it is called work. It's not called play pick. You're going to go to work and you're going to feel inspired.

You're going to feel like you're productive at work. And then you're going to leave, go home to your family and feel fulfilled at the end of the day. And Jared, really, you know, by working with Matt, he really does a good job with that. And then we've got an amazing sales manager. Who's M J. Chase road.

She does a wonderful job. And then our marketing director is Bree, who just really helps. And they all understand our vision and they all integrate it. They understand the complaints go up, not, not, not down, definitely, but definitely not even sideways. They always go up and that we work on, on fixing them.

And that's been a really big change for us. So that's getting those people in place that can do the job better because here's what used to happen is that I'd be walking from my office to the, or, and they'd say, Hey, Dr. Ward. So, is it okay if we? Do this or do that. And I, you know, I spat off some answer off the top of my head without really thinking it through.

Just wanted to cross it off my to-do list. And it's ends up not being the right decision. So having those questions go to Matt who have those questions go to Jared has really changed things because I just need to focus on what I do. And my job really is to do the surgery and to provide that vision. And that's what, that's what we try to do.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I hope everybody's hearing you. That's exactly how you run a business. You do what you're good at. You set the vision and the tone and the, you know, how we're going to act here, but we're going to roll and then you hire your C-suite. So, you hired the right people.

You have your COO and your CML and all of those people. And. Are the mediator between you and the staff and the public, because everyone's got a love, you, you can't be that tiring anymore in today's world. They, they have to like, everybody's got to like you, you know, and so for you to be the bad guy, that's not the way to go.

You have a whole team that's around you that handles all that for you. And then you focus. I've seen so many times where the. It is I'm attacked in the hallway and he's making these decisions on the fly and sure enough, it either goes very sideways, but then the staff says, well, you told me I couldn't, or you're like, what are you talking about?

I mean, I don't even remember this discussion. And so, you know, you just can't win with all of that. So

Daniel Ward, MD: before that, cause that's exactly what they would say about me.

Catherine Maley, MBA: So, I was going to ask you about the services you are offering, because I was surprised that you were offering massage and a makeup counter.

I, that kind of threw me off because I thought, I don't think you can win this game, being everything to everybody anymore. And there's so much PNL each of your profit centers and I'm sure that's what you did. You looked at that. What's the, what's the hassle in this, the time involved, the staff involved, is it worth it?

Daniel Ward, MD: And I'm assuming that's exactly right. And, and again, that takes somebody like Matt going through the numbers, looking through it and say like, Hey, listen, you know, We've got all this stuff and it's, you know, it's not necessarily losing money. It's certainly making money, but I'll tell you what it's, it's, it's actually start directly making money or losing money, but it's indirectly losing money because we're doing inventory on this every month or we're having to restock it or, you know, this to that, is it, is it really worth it?

And, and you're right. You can't be everything to everybody.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, I think it can be a distraction too, because people forget to look at the opportunity costs of not doing something or doing something. The more you're focused on this piddly stuff, the less you're focused on the bigger ticket items or the bigger profit centers.

And so, you know, I'm so glad somebody looked at those numbers because I have not seen that work out well in pretty much anything. However, I would actually backtrack back to that plastic surgeon. I have seen that work remarkably well. When there's a very big boundary neck up is you neck down is a plastic surgeon, like, you know, very thick lines there.

And when you get the right one. I think it's a no brainer because I'm, I'm that cosmetic patient who needs, who needs everything. So, I will keep coming back. I'm not dying to go shop around if I love a place and I go there for my injectables and my facelift. And then I go back to the light bulb. I'm an elbow up and down this thing for decades.

So, I liked that, you know, I would take a look at that because I think you, maybe you just had the wrong fit. But it's it that works better than anything I've ever seen where you had to have the same two facial plastics, two plastic surgeons. I just think they're, you know, one plastic or one facial, one body seems anyway, that would be my two sentences.

Daniel Ward, MD: That's excellent advice.

Catherine Maley, MBA: So, let's talk about marketing. It's pretty darn competitive everywhere, but I'm assuming Utah's no different than anywhere else. How, how is how competitive is.

Daniel Ward, MD: Well, in 2013, I think it was Forbes named Utah, the vainest state in the union, or maybe a salt lake city, the Bain city in the union, which, I mean, Utah's a pretty conservative place overall.

So, they're a little surprised they, they base that based on Per capita plastic surgeons. There are more surgeons, plastic surgeons per capita than anywhere else in the country. It's a really interesting place. It's almost like a combination between Texas and California. In the sense of, you know, like each of those has maybe like a more familiar sort of stereotype associated with it, but it's kind of like so it is pretty competitive.

Utah is growing pretty rapidly, which I think has been nice for us. I think with the last census numbers percentage twice, it was the biggest percentage growth of any state. So, it, it is rapidly expanding in terms of marketing. I mean, it's. No. I think marketing is just a part of what we all do and trying to figure out how to, how to use that spend wisely is what a lot of us as surgeons try to do. Our marketing, go ahead.

Catherine Maley, MBA: What marketing channels are working best?

Daniel Ward, MD: So social media works the best for us. I have a love, hate relationship with social media. Sometimes I'm really into it. And I think it's fun. Sometimes it just seems like a terrible burden. For me, it's been I have, I tried to make our marketing about education.

And so, we try to do marketing based on education and, and sometimes that's, it that's, that can be a little bit difficult in the sense. You look at your numbers. I spend, you know, 30 minutes putting together some posts where I explain like what I did to the cartilage of the nose and how we would take the rib graft or did this or that.

And I think it's just beautiful and really educational and it gets like no interaction. Whereas I put a picture of my dog. And the interaction is like through the room.

Catherine Maley, MBA: So, I think out the window of the car, adorable, I will never forget that. So that catches my attention.

Daniel Ward, MD: Beetle, I, I give a talk every few years, I'm at meetings and I'm asked to give about marketing. And one of the points that I try to make is we're all familiar with Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar, you know, became famous as the. As the general who kind of conquered Gaul or continental Europe and France.

Interestingly, there weren't any, there wasn't anybody that told his story except for him. And that's the one thing I think is really interesting is that he essentially made his name, who knows what really happened. But the only thing that the Roman people knew about was what Julius Caesar was writing back and telling them that happened.

And of course, you know, as surgeons, we want to be ethical and honest. We're not here to lie or till, till fibs, but on the other hand, there's not going to be anybody. Who's going to tell your story besides. And social media has offered such an incredible opportunity for us to be able to do that where we can tell our story.

And we can tell about the things that we like, you know, so for example, for me, my, my aesthetic, if you will, is for very natural results. I think a lot of surgeons feel that way, but I'd rather have a nose that's maybe a little bit bigger than, than others. Cause I think that looks better or You know, what, whatever it may be.

And so, who's going to tell that story except for me and social media really allows us to do that. And so that's, that's maybe the word of advice that I would give to surgeons is, is I know, I realize, I understand you hate social media. It's a pain in the neck. I was actually just part of this chat group the other day.

And somebody said, I'm so sick of Instagram. I'm done, you know, and, but that's really the only opportunity that we have to, to tell our story and tell about the, explain our vision. To, to our client base, which is kind of what we need to do. So, I think that's a huge part of marketing for me.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, you're doing a good job. You've got like 46,000 followers, so good for you. You know why, you know why you can't dismiss social media because the patients love it. And you've got to be where the patients are. So, if you want to play the game, you've got to be on the field. And Instagram is here to stay. I'll take Instagram any day over Tik TOK.

I'm, I'm writing a blog right now. Do I need to be on Tik TOK as a surgeon? And so far, I'm going to say what it doesn't matter. I'll tell you later on, but. The it's worth the time, but the smart part is how do you figure out how to put the time in, because I know you want to do education and that, and people love that, but they love the personality side.

We women, especially, we want to know who's the man behind the mask, you know, who is, who is this surgeon? Is he, who is he? Does he like maybe not dance, but you know, he likes to snow ski. He's got these dogs and hanging out the window that are adorable. He's got a lovely wife and all the kids. That's what we want.

And that's what the patients are doing there. They're literally going to Instagram, they're seeing you and going, oh, who's that? And then they're watching, watching, watching. Oh, okay. That's interesting. And then eventually get to your website or a girlfriend has mentioned you and typically they literally will almost go to social media before they're going to go to your website because for social there's still.

Looking around for, I think when they get you to their website, your website, they're a lot more serious about getting to that. You know, so I think you have to, you have to work, work it out. Do you have a support team? Do you have somebody following you around with the iPad? Do you have who's editing the videos?

How much time are you spending on this versus your team?

Daniel Ward, MD: Yeah, so I, I think you're right. I think that that personality is actually one of the most important things to just before I really answer your question. W something you said kind of piqued my interest. I just did just this week, I did a little poll on an Instagram story and I said, Hey, what do you want to see more of in 2022?

And I did like educational content before and after. W personal stories or something else, I think. And by far the winner was personal stories. It's so, I mean, it's just so interesting to me, but so I think there does need to be some personality that comes through in terms of you know, who does it.

We, we do, we do have somebody that helps with marketing. Especially for example, if I'm in the bed in the middle of clinic and I, and I see a patient who, who is happy to talk about their experience, I can say. Just have her go in and she just talks to the patient and, you know, finds out what kind of, what we can do.

We do a pretty good job of trying to ask patients if we can use their before and afters, because you know where I do face. It's not like it's a, you know, an abdomen or whatever. That's not recognized. It's you? Your face is you. So, we try to be very thoughtful about that. You can always worry about their identity being out there, not, not using it.

So, we are usually pretty open to just about asking them. Ideally, I mean, we're, we're in the middle of kind of a change right now. We had a really great social media manager who ended up leaving But we're trying to get, get one for each of our accounts, one for the skincare account, one for the, for the Durham spas.

And then one for me itself where we have someone who's, who's taking the video, who's getting the content, but it really does have to be with the search. I'm sorry to say what we're trying to answer for, you know, all your listeners and said. Hey, you guys can just hire somebody and pay them. They'll take care of it.

They just can't cause it, cause they're not you. And so even though I don't necessarily answer all the comments or the, you know, do the likes or whatever that really does need to, we, we try to do it in my voice so that it is captured as my personality.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Do you have a way of collecting the data? Do you have any idea how much money comes out of the social media? Because one of the biggest issues is how do you track this? How do you know that you're spending this time wisely? Is it really, is it really creating new surgeries or new patients? Do you know?

Daniel Ward, MD: Yeah. I mean, without question, it is probably about, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it probably about 50% of our patients are from social media.

And I do think there is something, you know, I used to would have maybe thought this was I don't know, it's kind of nonsense, but there really is like the older I get, the more I realize that there definitely is a different aesthetic between surgeons, especially with the. You know, so for example, the nose that I do has a particular look to it.

And I, and I see some other general surgeons around that. I see their, their noses and they have a particular look to it. And people see that on, on social media and they share it and they talk about it. And so, we, about 40% of our patients are in state the restaurant. And it's because they, they see it on social media.

So that really is that that megaphone of social media allows you to now reach across the state lines. Whereas before, you know, it was just like, you can put up a billboard and there's 5 million people who drive by it every day, but who knows how many people are actually interested in, in getting a rhinoplasty?

Catherine Maley, MBA: Have you also noticed the patient demographics changing? I'm it seems like they're getting younger. What do you think?

Daniel Ward, MD: For noses? No, that, that hasn't been my experience. I I've actually seen an interesting trend. I don't know if it's coincidence or, or what, but, but there seems to be people who, you know, like in their like fifties, sixties who met, you kind of think like, well, if their nose bothered them, they would come in and get it done before then, like, oh yeah.

This bumps always bothered me. I'm retired. Decided to get it done, but the actual reverse has happened with facial rejuvenation, where I am seeing more and more younger patients coming in, you know, people in their thirties or forties who I would have just turned away before. Who are wanting something done for facial rejuvenation?

I think it's just because they now recognize that there is some power to, you know, filler, jawline, reshaping, that sort of thing. And with and they, but they do realize that eventually there's only so much that they can. And, you know, before, if you keep adding filler to your cheeks, you've got this big wide face that nobody likes.

And so, they maybe want like some facial contouring, which for me, my, my, my facial competent technique is buckle fat removal, facial liposuction, really to start to make the cheekbones stand out more the jaw line, stand out more. And with that, the As a result there's patients who are, who are seeking that.

And, but then there's also patients who are just very excited about, they just actually just want like a mini lift or a face lift, even though there, you know, 36 or whatever, they realize that if I just reposition this tissue up here, It's going to look better and there, they don't want to wait until they're 72 years old and they're all wrinkly to do it where there's a big change.

They want to maintain that look so knows. I've actually seen a little bit of an increase in the age, but facial rejuvenation and the opposite, the younger

Catherine Maley, MBA: I'm actually one of those nose patients. I didn't even, my nose never bothered me ever. And I think it's because of the mope was on the side. And I don't look at my side on my early fifties and actually a plastic surgeon, friend of mine.

You don't need a facelift; you need a noise job. And I thought, how dare you? And sure enough, I had a no shop done, like, you know, the next month. And I love it. It softened my whole look, but who knew, you know, I completely agree the nose, the rhinoplasties or, you know, the aging nose. Maybe we should call it the aging nose and.

All right. So, let's talk about how you're collecting reviews. You're doing a very good job with reviews. I'll tell you what you're doing, all the right things. You're whatever you're doing with the reviews and you have a photo room. So, you, you know, before and after photos are essential, we women, we, people, we patients love to see the results of other people on photo room. How are you doing?

Daniel Ward, MD: Yeah. So yeah. So first of all, it's the photo room. I am a big pet peeve of mine is we, you know, we've spent a lot of time talking about social media is social media. I think patients don't realize how manipulating, how manipulative the photos can be. You know, changing the angle, changing the head.

It's just a little bit changing the lighting. I mean, I can, I can, I can give somebody a facelift just with lighting and head position. And that's a pet peeve of mine. That is, I think it's just not ethical and not honest, if you don't do it. Proper. So, we have a photographer who, I mean, he is a real photographer.

He's, you know, he's not here, he's out in like the mountains capturing these amazing photos. He's, he's really incredible. But in terms of the reviews, we do a couple of things. Number one is it's really cheap to invest in. And a lot of our EMR is already have this as part of it. A review collection thing, we can send out a text or an email to request it.

The thing that's been best for us though, is that we just get kind of staff excited, right? S and so it might be we used to, we haven't done this for a while, but we used to do something for about a year or so. We did it where they got extra. The way that we kind of provide some incentives for staff is, you know, the name of our spots form Durham spot.

So, they would get formed by. For certain things. And every month, part of their bonus to get extra form bucks was if they got, if we got a certain number of reviews, so was like a team reward, you know, and it wasn't really high. I was like, oh, if we get two reviews this month or five reviews this month, whatever the number was, then everybody gets these four bucks, which essentially a form buck allows you to buy roughly like 20 or 30 units of Botox.

So, they can just get that on that, on the business. So that, that really helped, but even more than that I just love this concept. You know, a lot of us are familiar with the research and BF Skinner who did like a lot of the psychological testing with intermittent rewards and intermittent stuff with, with rats and humans.

If we go to this, if we do this, this if I go on the beginning of a clinic day and I say, Hey, Hey team, let's in our huddle. Let's see if we can get. Let's ask a hundred percent of our patients for reviews and let's see if of those a hundred percent. And if we can get five, there's no reward. There's no incentive.

It's just like that inner, I don't know what it is, but as humans, we like that, but we need to be reminded of it. So, if we do little things like that, that has actually been the most successful thing through dynamo that reminds we haven't done that. For a few months, so we better get back on the train and start doing it again.

Catherine Maley, MBA: You know what I would suggest that has also worked well, rather than have it at that open thing or the entitlement thing, I would have a dry, you know, like, let's say you have this annual new patient drive and for one month or one week or whatever you focus on word-of-mouth referrals. Another time there's a drive.

Like let's say during the summer, when it's slow, you focus on. I don't know, social proof, you know, getting more before and after photos, testimonials, video testimonials then it becomes this event in your office where people are focused on it.

Daniel Ward, MD: But there also has to be a good carrot involved in that.

I love that idea because I think that it's so hard for us to maintain our focus as human beings.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, I honestly, I'm not even married. I don't have children. I have no excuses. I have a dog that I keep alive and well and happy, but I don't know how everyone's doing it with all the information coming at us in today's world.

I'm trying to keep up because I love learning and growing and I am struggling to it's. It's just a fire hose, 24 7. And., I don't know how everyone's doing it. I just think it's really difficult to get somebody's attention in today's world for more than a nanosecond. And then you need it long enough for them to not only notice you, but you've got to get them to that point where they literally trust you with their face and body.

And now they're, they trust you so much. They're actually willing to call or text or email. Then they're actually willing to come in and give you money and have it done. That's there. That is a monumental task and I, I commend you for doing a good job. Well, thank you. So how did you learn the business and marketing side of plastic surgery? Because you seem to have it down?

Daniel Ward, MD: Well, I don't know if I have, if I eat ever learned this. Right. So, it's a constant process. I read a lot. I mean, I'm, I'm a huge audible fan when I'm out with the dogs when I'm working out or. That's kind of probably what I'm listening to is some book. And I, I listened to it at like three X speed.

So, I'd get through a lot fast. I think a lot of us do that. But that's probably the biggest, biggest thing for me is just like learning from the people who, like, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. I'm just learning from what other people have already learned for

Catherine Maley, MBA: sure. Do you have a. A few tips that you would like to share.

Daniel Ward, MD: That's up level for marketing specifically, you…

Catherine Maley, MBA: Mean growing a practice, growing a cosmetic practice in the world today? What's it? What's something that works well.

Daniel Ward, MD: I think for, for, for me, it is these sounds so soft that it's, it's hard for me to even say it out loud or put into words, but try to be, just be yourself and enjoy it. Because you know, so many of us get into, into medicine because we like talking to people. We enjoy being around them. We liked talking to them.

But over the years, it gets beat out of us. You know, we're, we're stressed out, we're running from patient to patient. We don't have time to talk to this one or that one, or these five patients are waiting, hurry up. We're just learning to enjoy even the patients that maybe aren't the, that you dread talking to the most, in the sense of, because maybe they're not thrilled with their result or maybe there's some, I don't, you know, whatever it might be that that's, you're kind of dreading going to that room.

But for me, if I can kind of get myself into a point where I'm excited to go in there and just talk to them as a human. And try to be at random for me, that a big part of that has been not trying to be anybody different than myself. I just go in and I'm not going to try to mislead them if they've got a result that, that I'm not thrilled about.

I'll I tell them which I think sometimes backfires because then they're like, well, is there something. My deformed, my ugly, and, you know, so you have to kind of figure out the right way to do it, but then, you know, the conference is true too. If I think they look great, I'll tell them that I think they look great.

And that's just made things so much more enjoyable to me. And it's kind of one of those things that I find that the more I enjoy doing it, the more successful and profitable it is. The other thing I will say just really quickly is One of the, one of my favorite books, which I know he's a little controversial Dave Ramsey, you know, this is like the extreme saving budgeting guy, which I don't think necessarily works for a lot of us, but by the way, but he's got this really interesting book called entree leadership is combining like entrepreneurship with leadership and.

That in that book, there's a whole bunch of great tips on how to run a business that I think is really easily digestible for lots of us as surgeons. But one of the things that he said in that book that has that I cannot get out of my head, it's that running a business is about two things. And they both start with P it's about people and profit.

If you're not profitable, you're not going to be in business for very long. And you're not going to able to take care of your people, which is the next part. The people of course, are your customers, but even more importantly, it's the people that are. Where you, where you work. So, your team members, and that's really the.

That shift for me is like, I had to learn like, okay, I'm a person too. I need to take care of myself. And then I can take care of my team members, those people. And then as a group, me and our team members, we can take care of our people who are our patients and our clients. And that's been a really huge part for me.

So those are the really quick succinct tips that I would say to grow practice. And it was people and profits are the only two things you need to worry about.

Catherine Maley, MBA: My tip is when I'm consulting, if you would please shift. Your interpretation of state. Staff are an asset to you, not a liability, not an overhead expense.

And you don't know that until you lose a really good one. And then you realize, oh crap, I should have, I should have paid more attention. I should never have let her go. If you could shift that part because I think surgeons have a tendency to think, whatever who cares. I mean, it's front desk. Well, who can I'll get another one?

I right now, it's not easy to get another one.

Daniel Ward, MD: Just like you can't just throw money at them. I think a lot of times it's mistakes that we started spending like, oh, I'll just bump up their pay and he keep bumping their pay up every time that that little thing makes them unhappy. And that helps for a while.

But it's really not about that. You know this appose guy, Tony was, was really good about talking about that. You know, there's a great book pink called drive. Like, Hey is not what drives us. It's important. Like you got to pay your people appropriately, but that is not the thing it's fulfillment at work and feeling like they're doing a good job.

And that's what I think a lot of the times we as physicians, we just like, oh, let me just write a check for this, or I'll bump up your money. And then before, you know, you're paying a hundred dollars an hour to, to every nurse that you have, and you're not going to be profitable at that.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, and that's old school thinking, and frankly, I'm from that world, like I'm, I'm paying you, I'm paying you to do your job, just do your job.

That's not going to fly anymore. And that's where the culture thing comes in. And, you know, honestly people want to be appreciated and acknowledged and. And I don't know what it is. I think it makes some of us feel whole honorable. Like if I acknowledge them, they're going to ask me for more money.

Or if I pat them on the head every day, it's like, really do I really have to do that? Because I came from a different work ethic. But that's, you know, you have to go with the times and adapt and it's a staff today really different than before. So. It's just another complexity to add to our list of things to do to just to wrap it up.

Can you give us one thing? That's pretty interesting about you that we don't know?

Daniel Ward, MD: Oh gosh, I'm pretty boring. One interesting thing. Gosh, Gavin, you put me on the spot here. Okay. Here's something I am, I am currently I'm wrapping up a tour of presidential biographies. So, I'm a little bit of an amateur historian with most of my reading. That's not business being spent on presidential history, which has been a really cool way to actually learn about the present.

Like it's crazy how. Last week was, or yesterday was January 6th. And You know, that was kind of a big day. There's been other days just like that, that are equally crazy when you read about it and we just don't know about it. So, it's been a kind of a cool way for me to kind of, I guess, better calm down about the present situation I'm in, in the world. That by better understanding the past.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Very nice. That's interesting. I never would have guessed that. Alright, thank you so much, Dr. Work for being on beauty and the biz. I really, really appreciate it. And how could somebody, if they wanted to get ahold of you? What, look, I know your website is ward md.com. Is there any other way to get ahold of you?

Daniel Ward, MD: Well, on Instagram @WardMD and be if you want to email me [email protected].

Catherine Maley, MBA: Gotcha. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I'll be watching your growth and hopefully I'll see you at another conference someday.

Daniel Ward, MD: Yeah. Right. And someday we got to get back on it. Thank you very much.

This concludes this episode of Beauty and the Biz Surgery: Staff and Snow with P. Daniel Ward, MD (Ep.137)

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and Plastic Surgery Marketing Trends.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits.

LEARN MORE ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ykNLEa

 

 

Plastic Surgery Marketing Trends

If what you’re doing to grow your cosmetic practice is not working anymore or working as well as it used to, this podcast is for you.

The world of consumer demand, technology and marketing continues to change so it behooves you to change with it to keep up.

There’s a new term called “Smarketing” which sums it up beautifully. You educate yourself and then invest in smart marketing efforts that give you better results for less cost. That means more profits for you to do what you like.

The following are (14) marketing trends for 2022, in no particular order, that build your presence and brand, while attracting more quality cosmetic patients to your practice.

SEO is Popular Again

Content Marketing

Privacy Rules Will Increase Advertising Costs by 30-80%

Social Media Platforms are Strangling Your Audience

Acquire Your Own Data!

Google AdWords (also known as PPC) will Get More Expensive for Lesser Results

User Generated Content (UGC)

Influencer Marketing

 Video is Uber Popular

Personality Marketing is Hot

Texting and Messaging

Retention is the New Patient Attraction Strategy

Email Marketing Makes a Come Back

There are no more silver bullets, you must optimize for marginal gains to win

 

This shift in mindset and focus is how you will win in 2022 and beyond.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and Regrets, Guarantees & Social Media.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits.

LEARN MORE ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ykNLEa

 

 

Regrets, Guarantees & Social Media with Harvey Cole, III, MD

I had the pleasure on interviewing Dr. Harvey “Chip” Cole, III, a Board-Certified Oculofacial plastic surgeon specializing in ophthalmology and cosmetic surgery of the eyes and face.

Dr. Cole has been in private practice in Atlanta since 1994 so he’s seen a lot and he openly shares his “Chip’s Tips” with other surgeons when it comes to running and marketing a successful practice.

For example, he was the first to use his adorable shar pei puppy in his facelift advertising efforts that made a huge impact on his brand and popularity.

Listen in to this week’s Beauty and the Biz episode where we talked about:

➡ His biggest mistake early on that he still regrets ➡ Offering a satisfaction guarantee (Yikes!) ➡ His take on social media and a whole lot more

Visit Dr. Cole's website at www.oculusplasticsurgery.com

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

Transcript:

Catherine Maley, MBA: Hello, and welcome to “Beauty and the Biz”, where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery. I'm your host, Catherine Maley, author of Your Aesthetic Practice - What your patients are saying as well as consultants to plastic surgeons, to get them more patients and more profits.

Now, today's special guest is Dr. Harvey “Chip” Cole, III, and he's a board-certified ocular facial plastic surgeon, specializing in ophthalmology as well as cosmetic surgery of the eyes and face. Now, Dr. Cole founded Oculus plastic surgery in 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia, and has performed more than 33,000 medical and aesthetic surgeries from infants to the elderly in his joint commission, accredited private surgical suite.

Now, his mantra is to never turn down or reconstruct a patient based on lack of financial resources, and paying it forward has always been part of his mission.

Now, Dr. Cole has coauthored over a dozen medical books, as well as his own consumer book, which we'll talk about, and he's given over 100 lectures around the world.

He's been an invited guest on Fox CNN, ABC, NBC, and “Good Day Atlanta”, as well as several radio stations. Now, in addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Cole also founded the non-profit Face Change Foundation that helps troubled teens, and we'll also talk more about that.

Dr. Cole, welcome to beauty and the biz. It is a pleasure to have you

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Thank you so much, and, I need to apologize. I have two dogs and I hear one barking in the background. So, if you hear a little bit, I do apologize, but it just makes it a family affair.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Okay. So far so good. I can't hear them. So, the burning question is, is there a Harvey chip Cole? The fourth?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: That is an interesting question. I grew up. Where people would tease me with the name Harvey and there was Harvey, the rabbit and things like that. Now I understand through my kids that there's a Harvey on one of the you know, soap operas or something that everybody likes the name Harvey, but I didn't feel that way.

And so, when I was getting ready to name my son, my wife and I could not think of a good nickname and we didn't want to call him Harvey. So, we named him Christopher Douglas Cole, and later when he got in kindergarten, there were four curses and. So, we felt like we probably should have done the fourth.

And one other thing that was funny, I was doing plastic surgery at Vanderbilt and we were at a playground and this cute little curly hair boys running around and, and, and his name was Ivy. And we said, that's, that's really cute. And I said, is that a family name? They said, well, sort of he's the fourth. So, we call him Ivan.

And I looked at my wife and said, is it too late to change our son's name? She said you could do that with dogs, but you can't do that with kids. For sure.

Catherine Maley, MBA: He'd be in therapy now. Yeah. So, let's talk about your practice because you've been around for a long time, you know, you started in 1994. Did you go straight into private practice or did you go through the hospital? What was your journey to get there?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Sure. I, I joined a guy that was very big in our field back in 1992 guy named Sonny McCord, Clinton McCord. And he was kind of one of the fathers of oculoplastic surgery at the time. And I joined him. He like a lot of older guys. He had been through his five divorces and he just got his real estate license and he was ready to quit.

Well then when I joined. I showed him laser and into scopic surgery. He got excited again and he remarried his wife, which was, I think his six marriage. And I could see the writing on the wall. So, I went off by myself after about two years.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Okay. Did you go into, did you go ahead and build a building or did you go so low in a small way and then built up to it?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Well, what I plan to do and what I did are two different things and that's, that's something good for some of the younger docs that might be listening. I had a plan to buy a property and build an office in surgery center. And about two days before the closing metropolitan life insurance came in and bought two buildings next to the property that I was supposed to buy and I got snubbed out.

So, then I leased the space planning to be there for three years. And here I am almost 30 years later and I've taken over the whole floor and built a surgery center and a med spa. But unfortunately, it's leased space, which is not quite as valuable as owning your own real estate.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, I actually do, I love real estate on the side and I'm in syndications.

So, I invest in multifamily apartment buildings. Atlanta is the hotspot. So, you're not too late, you know, if you're -

Harvey Cole, III, MD: You're absolutely right. In fact, I am looking right now at some space that I might duplicate what I've already done and, and just, you know, have it be kind of my supergroup for 10 years from now when I slow down or retire.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Okay. Yeah. We’ll let me know, because I'm always looking for a good reason. We don't have any of those in California. So, when did you build the surgical suite part of your practice? Were you in there for a while and then built it?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, I was in, I, you know, I kind of saw the writing on the wall very early and I was fortunate in that in 1994, I built the surgery center and I moved into that office in 1992.

So, two years later and I was doing a lot of work at the hospitals and seeing kind of where things were going with insurance. And I became, I was the first joint commission accredited ambulatory surgery center in Georgia in 1994. And I've kept it up ever since then. And it's been probably the smartest business decision that I've made.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Hmm. And are you doing a lot of reconstructive still or are you like, what's your percentage of customers?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, I would say right now, I'm probably about 75% cosmetic, 25% functional, but what's interesting. And this is good for, you know, some of the, the people that are developing their career and thinking about it right now is in the early days, what was so nice is it didn't matter what type of surgery I did because the reimbursed.

Was kind of poor for the surgeon if you're doing a functional case, but you got a good surgery center reimbursement. And then for cosmetic, it's just the opposite. You want to be very, very competitive, but you get paid better as a surgeon, so to speak and then your facility fee is lower. So, it really balances out to where there's no such thing as a bad case or a bad surgery, whereas people that don't have the benefit of a surgery center and they're going over to the hospital, they feel like all they want to do is cosmetic cases, which is great.

But you have to build your, your skillset and your reputation before you're able to just take the cream off the top. For sure.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I, the way I see it, if you can swing it your own surgery center or at least, or suite or whatever you want I don't know if you needed Medicare. That must be a big deal in today's world to be a Medicare approved.

But if you can just do cosmetic in your own office, I know the cosmetic patient loves the privacy and the comfort. I know the doctor loves not running all over town. You're working in somebody else's environment that he can't control. So, I, if you can handle it, I sure. I really like it.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, no, I agree with you.

And I think that if a person has enough volume and their reputation to where they can have an in-office, you know, suite or, or, you know, one of the other big advantages that you have now that you didn't have 30 years ago is anesthesia has improved so much. So, there's nothing that I do that I can't do under sedation.

And, and there's certainly a lot of cases that I might do under general with an LMA. And, but that's not even general where you're putting a tube down somebody's throat. So, people get up and walk out of the operating room. So, you don't have that extended recovery that you used to have. And I also do a lot of surgery into scopic glee and with laser.

And so. I don't make a lot of the large incisions that I used to make. I mean, you know, I trained back in the day where it was, like the American Indians, where we'd make an incision from ear to ear and take the whole scalp down. I mean, I do one of those once or twice a year and that's for major trauma, but cosmetically that doesn't exist anymore.

Nobody does those big flaps and things, unless you're doing body work with breast reconstruction.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Great. I don't think the patients would tolerate that in today's world. Especially being so educated as they are on the internet when it comes to anesthesia, I think you're so right on, I do, I'm watching trends.

I'm always watching what patients like you know, where they're hurting and patients are loving the anesthesia angle. Most of us have had a general anesthesia story or a friend has had a story. I personally wake up sicker than a dog from general anesthesia. So, I personally would rather have that done local or Twilight or whatever that is.

If you can do that. I mean, I think kudos to you if you can get away from general and go that other route, I think that's what the patients want. And it's a good difference.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: No, I totally agree. And I think too, that it's important to look at everything you do from the patient's perspective. And what happens a lot, especially to surgeons is they do what they're most comfortable with.

And most surgeons would prefer not to chit chat, not to have to do all that stuff. They want their patient asleep. They weren't doing their surgery and leave, but it's a differentiator and it's, and, and you got to look at it from the patient's perspective, you know, and that's something that you taught me years ago when we first started talking is it's almost like walking in your office and imagine you're the patient.

What do you want to see? What do you want to receive? And, and that goes not only from your front reception, but it goes all the way to have insert.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Yep. I can, I can vouch for that. Yeah. So, when in your practice I read somewhere that you also, well, I saw a photo of you, I think it's your partner and then a whole bunch of staff.

Well, who do you have on board? Is it a part, a business partner or is it an associate and then how many staff?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Well, you know, it's, it's very interesting. That has changed a little bit through time. So, I would say that in the early days I had about four or five people and I got, I was just too busy people waiting six, eight months to see me.

And, you know, I was scheduled a year in advance and so it's either lose them to the competitor or bring somebody in. So, I brought somebody in and we were together for about, probably about 15 years and, and we brought in a couple of other people and, and then what happens is young docs, you know, come in, but they want to be as busy and do what the senior docs are doing.

And then, you know, they get disillusioned. And so. It ended up being the two of us, which you probably saw in the picture and very tragically. He was about four years younger than me. He had a fall and fell down some steps and broke his neck and he actually died. And so, so right now I'm actually by myself and I'm looking for an associate and they're easy to find, you know, so I'm being patient and getting the right one, but I've gone from, I had as many as 30 team members at one point to now I'm back down to about five.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Isn't your life easier.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: I love it. I absolutely love it. And, and it's funny because I promised myself, I will never have 30 people again, because, you know, besides we had a killer kickball team, it's just real hard to manage 30 people.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I, I hear it all the time. The surgeon, you know, I say, so were you doing a lifestyle practice or empire building practice?

And they said, there wasn't empire building until I realized what goes into that. And now we're back to lifestyle. I don't need the headaches. Actually, I'm going to interview Ed Williams. He's got 75 staff up in upstate New York and everyone cringes when they hear that. And he just loves it. And it's his thing, but I don't know many people who are interested in managing that many people, even if you're not directly managing you.

Well, you know, at night trying to feel, feel all these people, especially with the dips and valleys that happen with this industry. Oh my gosh. Yes.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah. I completely agree. I know, I know Ed, and he's a great guy and we're very similar in that. We love people and we, and we like self-help and, and what happens is you take on these projects and, and I would have people that I was trying to help them with their marriage and their life and their career and all this.

And, and then at some point, you know, you kind of say to yourself, you know, your family should be number one on your, on your list. And if those people are taking you away from your family, then you're not doing the right thing. And, and so I have definitely regrouped and I think one of the. Few pearls of this COVID chaos are allowing people to regroup and decide, do they want to change some things in their lives and over their practice?

And this is a good time to make that transition.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Sure, sure. I'm speaking of that, I have noticed, I used to do a lot of HR practices. Call me a lot to find them a phone staff or a coordinator or a nurse or an MA. And I'm like, I'm not doing it right now because I can't get you results as fast as you want them.

And I am not appreciating the quality of applicants. Like I just, I don't, again, this COVID thing has really turned everything upside down. Are you feeling that in Atlanta as well? Finding good staff,

Harvey Cole, III, MD: we are, you know, we keep a file because we get a fair amount of people that, you know, ask us, you know, if we're looking and if they're good, we keep them in a file.

And so, we'll reach out to them and I also, because of the community you know, I'll see people and run into people and they're always asking. And I like to, you know, say, which is very true that I've, I've, I've never had somebody quit or leave me, but I have set a lot of people free, you know?

So, w I treat my, my team very, very good, and they do the same for me. And I've got people that have been with me 30 years, 24 years, 17 years, things like that. So, I'm very blessed from that standpoint that I have a real stable.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, I know you have chips tips. And do you have any first staff? Like how do you hang on?

Here's the, here's the other part to that? Sometimes somebody can be there for 30 years and that's terrific, but they wanted that to change. So sometimes it starts to become a con rather than a. And do you find that yourself

Harvey Cole, III, MD: absolutely, you know, one of my favorite examples that I give to doctors because they can all relate if they've worked in the VA system, is that, you know, it's like somebody at the VA hospital say, say a nurse that has 20 years’ experience.

I like to say. They have one year of growth and they repeated it for 19 more years, you know, and that's what happens sometimes with, you know, your staff. And so, it's important I think, to, to interact and have meetings and, and, you know, one of my low words it's interesting. I actually got this from Tony Robbins and I are the same age and I got kind of introduced to him way back when he had like 50 people.

And, you know, you could sit down and have dinner with them and, and, and ride a camel with them, you know? And one of his little words was can I see a constant and never-ending improvement and, and I've kind of adapted that. And so, I'm always making little changes. And if I see somebody that won't make changes and they're not willing to grow, then those are the ones I set for.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Gotcha. How do you motivate people? Are you kind of like a family where you go out to dinner? I know you used to have a sports team, but like, how are you, how are you keeping people engaged?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: You know, they, it changes, I would say that. There will be times where we have a group of people and they like to do activities.

And then we, we do bowling and we go to family ax throwing night. And I mean, we, we do some creative stuff. And then there's times where people say, you know, I get to see my spouse all the time and I work with these people, but we have more fun. It's a different kind of fun. And so, most of the team members prefer to go out with just us and not include the spouses.

And so that's, that's what we do. I'd say 70% of the time, but, but we always have at least two functions during the year where we include, you know, the spouses and kids, because you know, it's a lot of fun to have a, you know, say a big pool party and all the kids are there and that kind of.

Catherine Maley, MBA: So now that you've run a business for a long time, you know how to run a business, you know, not just a practice, you're very business minded.

How do you in today's world, how would you tell somebody how to scale, how to grow this thing?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, I think the, to me, the, the most important thing is, you know, everybody's used this before, but it's, it's like the riches are in the niches. So, you have to find out what your niche is and, and your niche might not be a surgical procedure.

It might be that for instance, you have an all female. Staff and you're a female surgeon and you cater to empowering women that could be your niche. So, you know, I think finding your niche helps you define yourself and your practice. And then from there, you can use that to kind of formulate your approach.

And, and when I started out, you know, I started in ophthalmology and then I did all the plastic surgery and I even did the body, you know, full general boarded in cosmetic. I, you know, at one point I was doing body liposuction, that kind of thing, but I play a lot of tennis and it was giving me tennis elbow.

And so, I would rather play tennis and to do liposuction. So, I quit doing it. And but it helped me realize that, you know, people are coming from all over to see me, you know, to repair. Say, you know, I would say probably 50% of my practice to this day is bought surgery. So, I see a lot of people that have had surgery elsewhere.

And so, our started thinking, well, it's so much easier for me. If I could see those patients before they have surgery elsewhere, they get a better result. It's, it's less baggage for me. So, then I started kind of making my niche, you know, doing, doing the eyes and face, which was kind of full circle for me because that's how I started.

So, I think the mistake that I made was not staying with my niche and just perfecting my niche. So, I would, I would, my advice to people would be. Find your niche, whether it's a procedure, it's an approach. You know, it, it might be for instance, that you do only a sedation anesthesia, and you never do generally a seizure.

That's something that I have adopted. And I do a lot of laser work, but I was involved in the early nineties, you know, with laser and endoscopic surgery. So, I've always kind of been on the, you know, no pun intended cutting edge. And but I think it's finding, finding what interests you the most. And then, and then, you know, coupling and bridging that with your niche, because if you have a niche, but you don't enjoy it, you're not going to be happy.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Sure, sure. I always recommend to a surgeon, if you're going to do external advertising, get super clear and focused on. The niche thing, either get focused on one group, one procedure. And, and you don't have to stick to that forever. It's for external advertising, make a name for yourself as something, and then you can always build from that internally, but to be everything to everybody, especially in today's crowded world, I just think you'll get lost in the shuffle.

Like you're called like the eye guy, you know, like that. And that had to help you transition to facelifts. W was that helpful because you stayed up in the face area?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, it was, you know, it's interesting. The one of my favorite stories and I'll, I'll go back to answering that is I was operating, you know, doing a full facial procedure on a lady.

And I, I came out to talk to her husband and he said to me, you know, I've got some heaviness up here in my upper lids and my brown aisle. Do you have somebody that you could send me to that could get that done? And, and I thought he was joking. And I said, well, you know, you know, I do that and blah, blah, blah.

And he said, he goes, well, I thought you just did faceless. And, and I didn't realize you did this stuff. And it really opened my eyes about, you always have to, you know, educate people and let them know. And, and, and what you're saying about you know, advertising and being specifically. It reminds me I'm old enough to go back to the yellow page days where you'd open up an ad for a general plastic surgeon.

And, and they had the whole alphabet in there. They, they specialize from a was acne, I think. And Z was a Z plasty for scars. And they had about 30 procedures in between. Well, people just want to get a breast augmentation. They don't want to know that you do 25 procedures. They want to know that you do really good breast augmentation.

And how do you do it? Do you do it under the breast or through the accelerator? Through the belly button, you know? And I think that. People feel like they have to give a laundry list of everything they do. And what I like to do back to your question is people might come to me for their eyes or they get referred to me.

And as I'm talking to them, I talk about harmony and balance. And, and I point out to them how, you know, even though the ayes have it and that's going to be where everybody looks well, you know, let's look at your chin and let's look at your mouth and your neck, and it's kind of a natural progression.

And so. For me, it's, it's almost a gateway because if you look at studies, they all show the top 10 things. People notice about themselves. Eyes are always number one. And if you look at the top 10 that other people notice about other people, eyes are always number one. But if you look at something like the neck for a person, it might be number four, number three on their list, but on someone else's list, looking at them, it's like number eight or number 10.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Okay. So, what about surgical versus nonsurgical? Are you a surgeon period and you brought on injectors or in estheticians, or are you a patient for life kind of practice where you want them coming up to surgery, going down from surgery, which you're taking on?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, I would, I would say that I have transitioned and, and that's what I would suggest for most people.

When I started out, it was all about the relationship and the trust and coming to you for everything. And then if, if I didn't do it, I would recommend somebody. Now, what I've done is I only inject fillers or Botox to people that absolutely demand that I do it. And if not, I have, you know, a, a physician extender to do it because my time is better spent in the operating room.

And you know, it's very similar transition to say, OB, you know, back in the day, you know, I love when I delivered a baby and I told my wife, I wanted to be an obstetrician and she's like, no way. I'll never see you. You'll be in the middle of the night taking care of rice, baby. And, and she knows that I would because of my personality.

But if back then you would've seen eight different doctors in an OB practice. I probably would be an obstetrician today because things have changed and people are more accepting. And it's the same way. Doctors, for the most part, don't have an hour to spend doing fillers or Botox when the margins are so low, but people expect that because they go to their med spa and, and the esthetician, or the nurse does have time to spend 45 minutes with them.

So, they expect to get the time. So, if you can't give it to them, they consider you an inferior provider because you can't do it. And so, you have to look at the economics of it also, and what's going to make a person I E client feel most satisfied and they would rather have their Botox by, by a nurse injector.

This could spend an hour away.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Yeah, no, I, I agree. I what, I don't think a lot of practices realizes you're only getting some of a patient's disposable income for that. Very reason. They look at you now let's say, as a surgeon, they'll come in for a blessed, they'll come back for a face lift later, but they're going to emit spot to do the fun stuff.

Like just a little Botox thing, or they'll go to their favorite injector at another med spa. So, I just know just heads up, you know, there's always more money there. It's just, how much of it do you want to work for? You know, do you just let some of that go let the med spa take it? I don't know. You know, there's no right or wrong answer.

How competitive is it by your, by you? And by the way, is everything in Atlanta on Peachtree?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: It is so crazy. I forgot the number, but I think there's something like 74 streets named Peachtree and yeah. It's well, and of course, you know, it's called the peach state, but it's pretty hard to find it. If somebody visits you and they want a piece of peach pie, you can't find it. You know, you got to go to North Carolina to get some peach pie, but it's funny. But as far as the competition, I would say that, you know, it's interesting.

I write about this in my book. When you look at the statistics and if you look at the aesthetic society through plastic surgery and they rank all the different cities, Atlanta is typically number one for the density of plastic surgery. So, people go to California a lot, but it's all spread out and they go to New York a lot.

And so, LA New York city, maybe San Francisco, but Atlanta is always in the top one or two or three. And from my office, I could throw a baseball in here probably 20, 25 plastic surgery.

Catherine Maley, MBA: So crazy. Yeah. You know what else I noticed in Atlanta, you have these very big practices with multiple plastic surgeons, all vying for the plastic surgery patients.

I just think that's, they D they are very complicated practices to consult with. You. Can't get a decision made with five egos in one room. It just doesn't happen. So, I just, what do you think about that? That business model is still very popular there. Is it there? Is it still popular there?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: A lot of it is because, you know, people grow up in that environment or they'll train with somebody like that. And they just don't think outside the box and, and it's easier to conform and get in the elevator, so to speak and just go up with your career through that box. And you know, a lot of younger people, I think are starting to realize that you don't have to go that way.

And it's so much more efficient, even if you're so low to kind of March to your own tune and use resources of the hospital consultants like yourself, you don't have to be in a big group and you're always going to be happier. I've never met a plastic surgeon that was less happy from leaving a big. You know, they complain a lot about the big group, but they never regret it when they leave you. No one.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I've never heard somebody complaining about leaving a group or a hospital, actually.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah. And you know, what, what a good friend of mine from years ago you might even know him, Steve Cohen. He's a plastic surgeon. And, and LA yeah, actually I believe he's in maybe San Diego, but, you know, we used to do cases and things in the early days in Atlanta.

And he was in a big group and I was in a group and we would compare notes and then, you know, his group ended up imploding and everybody sues each other and he just got tired of it. He moved out to California and, and he's been so low and he's never been happier and more successful than he is now. And that's, that's a typical scenario.

Catherine Maley, MBA: That's so true. Talking about that. What's like one big mistake you made that others could learn from because you learned from it.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah. I would say, you know, as I think about that one, that I've mentioned that if you're early on, I would try to acquire ownership of your property and your practice because it'll serve you so well.

Long-term, you know, that's, that's a big one. I would say, and this is, this is a little vague and I'll explain it, but kind of follow your gut, follow your instincts. Everybody has different approaches to who they are and the practice they want. I remember when I started out. And of course, this is in a very early nineties and, and I wanted to put in my brochure satisfaction guaranteed or something to that effect.

Because if you think about it, most people that are worth their weight, they're going to do everything they can to make a patient happy and, and everybody's human and nobody's perfect. And if you have somebody that say, say you do a, a four- or five-hour surgery and they heal and they have a little low, the size of a marble, well, you're going to do everything you can to get rid of it and help them.

You're not going to say, well, that's your fault and you shouldn't have eaten some French fries or something, you know? So, you're going to do everything you can to satisfy somebody. So why not let them know up front? That's who you are and all the attorneys and all the other doctors say, oh, you can't do that.

And that's, that's an ethical and this, that, and the other. And same thing, I've gone full circle. So now I put that out front and let everybody know, you know, I call it my love free guarantee. So basically, they, you either love it or it's free guaranteed. And you know, I don't like to challenge patients, but I've never had anybody ask me for a refund because they'd all love it because I would do everything I can for them to be happy.

And I wouldn't advise them.

Catherine Maley, MBA: It's a marketing secret. I gave a talk on this on it's called risk reversal and it's built into everything we buy. We, I mean, if everyone would just think how they buy we love a hundred percent guarantee money back guarantee. Otherwise on the times you will literally have to give your money back are nil compared to what you get from it.

And I see it, the surgeons, you know what, when someone's unhappy, what do you end up doing? Anyway, you end up fixing it or giving them their money back. So why not preempt that and make it a marketing selling point? And your conversion rates will go up. I would like spring, like, are you at, I don't know if I would advertise it out loud, but I would certainly do it internally with the coordinator and saying, you know what?

We have a, we want to make you happy guarantee here. And this is how it works. It's a great idea.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah. And I think it also establishes a level of confidence and comfort. With your client, you know, for them to know that you are in it for the long haul, you'll do everything you can to be on their team. You know, everybody has bought a car and been treated like royalty, and then they go in to get something done at the service department and they won't even answer the phone.

And everybody's afraid of that with surgery. That would, if they make a mistake, what if this, what if their doctor doesn't think, blah, blah, blah. And they need to be comfortable that it's a long-term relationship. And so that, that would be one approach that I would certainly suggest to people that I would say has never hurt me, but it would have been better if I would've gone more with my instinct instead of listening to others.

And so that's something I would suggest. And then the other thing I would suggest is don't be the first guy on the block. To, to try and perform the new technology. You know, you want to be on the forefront of things, but you don't want to, you know, it, it kind of reminds me. I had a guy that used to work for me from Wisconsin, and one of the things they did, they had a bunch of lakes up there.

And every winter, you know, somebody's got to drive their truck out there on that lake because what they do is they all, you know, go on the ice and spin their trucks around and have fun. But you don't want to be the first guy to drive your truck on the lake. You know, because he showed me video pictures of people, their whole truck went under water in the lake because it wasn't ready, you know, and I compare that to technology, you know, understand it and, and, and know it's safe before you the first one to try it.

Catherine Maley, MBA: That's a really good point and God, that sounds so cold. I'm from Chicago and it's December right now. And I just still remember how cold that was and people would go ice fishing. And I thought, why would you do any more cold than you have to do? But I'm glad, not glad to be in California. So, I'm talking about marketing and talking about differentiating.

We must, I want to show your book. This is his consumer book called face change. It has the cutest little sharp puppy on here. And who thought of this? This you, the sharp pay and the book were so eye catching. I, I got my own book and when I got it, it actually came with a sharp. 10 bear or a withheld stuffed animal.

It was amazing. Then you have this cute, great branding. Like this was my bookmark and I still have it. I bought this book 15 years ago. And the best part you have your son doing the forward. Look at this, Chris Cole, here's his son doing the forward. And he just he's very sensitive. Like he really understood, like he really understands the patients and he loves that you help people and you transform lives.

And this book is amazing and it was a number one bestseller on Amazon, and of course, I would like to figure out how you pull that off. That's a, that's a marketing thing, but tell me how much this book has been helpful to you and how it differentiates.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Sure. You know, I would say that that, that book has really been a great validator and open doors that might not have been opened before.

And I will say that when I did it, it was a lot harder than it is to do it now. So that's a good thing for people considering writing a book, it's a whole lot easier to do it now. And it started out that, you know, because I started originally with ophthalmology, that was my first board certification.

I was very comfortable with Botox and I worked with, you know Jean Carruthers, Allister Crothers way back when in the eighties and, and doing Botox and all that. And she noticed, you know, that people weren't having as many wrinkles because her, her husband, he was using it too. And cause we used to give her for people to have movement disorders called blepharospasm.

The people used to see in the grocery store at two 30 in the morning because they didn't want to run into anybody, you know, with all these twitches and things. And so, I had a lot of experience, it was very comfortable with it. Well then when it finally got approved by the FDA, all the doctors and everybody was nervous because it's a toxin.

And how do you explain it and how do you educate patients and that kind of thing. So, I tend to have fun and joke around a lot. And I said, well, I'm just going to do an ad with my sharp pay. And I put on the ad, not everyone looks as cute with wrinkles, Botox, and it took off. Yeah, my dog and my and, and the funniest thing is I had no idea that the industry had contests and things, or I shouldn't.

Probably trademark or copyright or something because about six months, eight months later, I got this huge award in the mail and an invitation. And I won a silver medal for advertising for that ad. And I was just having fun and Nao. You look at so many ads, you see sharp pays and you see things about wrinkles and stuff.

And that all started with my ad. Just having fun. And they are great dogs and a funny story maybe we'll talk about another time. I've actually done surgery on my own dog because they get interning of their lashes called entropion. And I actually called the vet and, and wanting to get it repaired. And he said it was too complicated and all that.

And I told him what I did. And he said, well, it's a shame. You couldn't do it. And I said, well, why can't I, why don't I teach some of the vets how to do it? So., We arranged it. And I brought my dog and he had about five veterinarians there. I did one side and I kind of looked up and I could see that they were nervous.

So, I started making it even more complicated with the anatomy. And on, after I finished, I said, does anybody want to do the other side or do y'all want me to do it? And I can show you some more anatomy. And they said, no, no. Why don't you do it? So, it was great. I got free surgery on my own dog at the vet, and they got to learn how to do this.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Wow.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: It was really funny, but, but getting back to the book and everything, so what happened was the ad was very popular. And so, I thought I'm just going to make, make it my mascot. And so, I'm from new Orleans and had that Cajun flair. So, I decided to name the mascot Botox, and it's spelled Bea you to put a little Cajun twist.

And so, people that come in for Botox, I would give them a little puppy just for fun. And, and it caught on, and we literally have had dogs on Craigslist where people are selling the dog. And it says, Dr. Cole's famous, sharp PEI puppy for sale. And so, what we do is we buy him back and tell him we're bringing him home. Cause we want to make sure they have good care.

Catherine Maley, MBA: That is so cute because I have never forgotten. I've known you for over 15 years. I have never forgotten the Chip Cole sharpei book, stuffed animal like that.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah. And then as far as the book goes, You know, I went through some interesting times with my son where he was diagnosed bipolar.

And so, the reason I named it “Face Change” is obviously your face changing over time, but it's a double entendre also facing change in life. And so, I have a foundation called the “Face Change Foundation” where I take 10% of cosmetic surgeries, and all the books and sales, and I help troubled teenagers, abused people, domestic violence, that kind of thing.

And it's a way for me to pay it forward.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Oh, what a great idea and good for you. Good for you.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: And, and oh, my son is doing fantastic. He went on to get he's a counselor now got a degree in transpersonal psychology and he's counseling and helping, and we get to collaborate a lot together, which is really rewarding.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Hmm. Now I'm, what about the other son? I understand he's working with you in the practice. Is he working in the practice or just around?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Well, both primarily around it. He used to work in the practice, but he's gotten a lot busier. He is a classic starving artist because, you know, as a, as an artist and actor, you know, you usually wear about four or five hats.

And he went and got his master's degree in fine arts and film production. And he's also a standup comedian. He's been in several commercials, like with taco bell and subway and some big ones and a. He's been in a few TV series. And so, he, I was hoping that I was advanced enough that I could skip the whole social media and internet because, you know, when I was starting out, everything was word of mouth.

Well, word of mouth has been replaced by likes. And so, you have to kind of get involved with all that. So, I have had fun getting involved in some social media with Tyler, my youngest son, and it's a way for us to collaborate, use his skills and still have that father, son bond.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, I checked out your Instagram and I just know patients love to know like the behind the scenes, like, who are you?

And I know your story, like you, you married, you're not even high school, sweetheart. You married like what we would eighth grade or something when you met and you have three children, then you have five grandchildren, but I only see two Instagram with children and it just the grandchildren. Are you going to add more personality?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yes, I am. You know, it's funny. I get a lot of requests for that. And, and I told Tyler, and we're going to start having more of that because on Facebook, I used to have more family stuff and people would love it. And just the other day, I was a push in a couple of my grandsons and my wife took a picture of in the stroller.

And she said, do you realize that you had more likes from your grandkids than you did from doing a surgery video and, and it's true. People want to know who their doctor is and, and they consider you almost part of the family. And I think that's one of the. Big advantages for younger doctors are they have that medium to share that.

And they're even more comfortable with it than my age group because they grew up doing it and sharing. And so, I think that's a great way to accelerate their practice is through social media.

Catherine Maley, MBA: For sure. Is there anything else you're doing right now? That's working like marketing has changed so much throughout the decades.

Is there something that used to work that doesn't any longer or that's working now that never used to be able to work or something new? Any marketing pearls?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, I would say probably the biggest one for me. When I started out, I would do a print ad in our local glossy magazine called “Atlanta Magazine”.

Every city pretty much has one. And then I got a lot of good feedback. And then I started realizing that I was branded enough through that, that I started doing it every other month. Then I did it every three months and I didn't see any drop off by doing it once a quarter versus every month. And so, I think that's a good Pearl for people starting out that you don't have to hit it so hard with marketing, whether it be digital or print or, or even mail outs, you know, you just have to have your presence out there.

So, you're in the conversation and there's a…I'm seeing a whole swing in the pendulum with marketing because now I think everybody's tired of opening emails and things that if I want to send out something like a handwritten note, it always gets looked at or newsletter because you know, now people like to look at a magazine cause they're tired of, you know, working out their thumb and scrolling through their phone.

So, I think there's going to be a resurgence of some of the magazines and things that they're used to not be.

Catherine Maley, MBA: I know I'm for my own business. I do a lot more direct mail now than anything just to kind of get people's attention. There's nothing like direct mail. There's nobody in the mailbox anymore or any fun stuff anyway.

So, I take advantage of that. So, tell me, how did you learn because you're a really good businessman. How did you learn that as a surgeon? Most surgeons, you know, obviously you were in medical school and like other people like me, like I went to graduate school to get an MBA. So, I did the business side. How do you surgeons learn the business side of surgery?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: You know, I like to what I call think outside the box. When, when I give talks even to, you know, other docs, I usually will start off something to the effect of. You know, wisdom is when you learn from your own mistakes and experiences and geniuses, when you learn from the mistakes of others and that through this talk, I'm going to try to make all of y'all geniuses.

And, you know, I get a little chuckle, but, but that's a concept that I like to, to approach things and to teach people is, you know, there's so much you can learn from if you really think outside the box. And, and, and one good example for me was like Zappos. For instance, you know, Zappos was a business that was going bankrupt and somebody took over Zappos and he went in the board meeting and said, you know, we're going to start doing free shipping.

And they said, You know, we can't afford to do free shipping. We're about to go bankrupt. And he said, well, we're not only going to do free shipping. We're going to do free shipping both directions, not only to the client, but when they return them. And, and half the people were so upset, you know, they're trying to get them thrown out.

Well, look what happened to Zappos. They not only changed the industry, but they became a household name because of their service. And so, I try to see things like that in business and then learn from it and say, well, how can I adapt that to my own business and my own clients? And that's when I came up with kind of my whole love free guarantee approach, you know, is, is give people not only more than they expect, which is cliche, but.

You know, more than, than they would even perceive. And it makes it more fun for the team. And it makes it almost like a challenge, you know, when, when somebody ever complains, which is very rare, I like to tell people in the office, like I'd like to call them. And I look at it as a challenge, like how can I diffuse this person and have them understand and become their friend and, and have them go from, you know, what I call a love, hate, love relationship.

So, so everybody loves her doctor when they start, then they have a bad experience or they have even surgery becomes a hate phase. I call it the frustration phase, but they go through this, this point where. You know, I can't believe that my husband let me do this or my wife or, you know, and why did I do it with them?

And I, and, and, oh, I was so stupid and all that. And then it goes full cycle. Well, that's the endorphins and all the psychology going on. So, it's the love, hate, love stage. So, I like to get people out of that hate and hate might be, it might be dislike. It might be frustration, but there's no reason you can't have everybody finish in the love phase with you, your office and everything else.

And so, so I think about those things and I try to make it an experience because, you know, at the end of the day, You know, it's kind of like you said, you know, we made many years ago and you remember, you know, chips tips in a, in a dog or something, but that you remember an experience. You remember a feeling; you don't remember the exact conversation and that's what I try to leave people with.

And so, as I'm formulating my practice in my approach, I always think about that.

Catherine Maley, MBA: That's great. I didn't realize we have to wrap it up. It's been, we talked a lot. So, tell, tell us something that we don't know about you already.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: I love yellow. Everything I have and everything I do. And any time somebody wants to make me smile, they give me some sunshine and yellow.

So, I have a, a yellow car, a yellow bow, a yellow motorcycle, a yellow four wheelers a yellow snowboard.

And my logo is yellow and I have yellow tennis shoes on. So, yellow is my happy color. That's my happy place.

Catherine Maley, MBA: That's amazing. As a redhead, I can't wear yellow. It doesn't work for me. I'm better off in a color like blue or green, but that is amazing. You really like yellow. Okay.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, I do. And, I would say that you know, the, the next thing is, and people that know me know, but, you know, family is a really big deal to me. And so, I now have six grandsons and three kids. Everything I do revolves around my family and I'm very blessed. And a lot of that is my Southern kind of Cajun roots.

You know, certain heritage is different than others, you know, but family and food is a big deal when I grew up. And so, everything's around family and food and fun.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Oh, that's a good logo, family, food and fun.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: There you go. Yeah. We'd have a whole list of them.

Catherine Maley, MBA: All right. Well, thank you so much. Do you have any last words to say for people who are starting out or just been around for a little while? Any words of wisdom that you can give somebody? Like, somebody like you who's been there and done that?

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah. You know, I would say, and this is completely unsolicited. When you start out, you want to shortcut your success. And the best way to shortcut your success is, is a concept that's become popular. What I call masterminds and, and a mastermind is really, kind of, like I said before, the difference between, you know, wisdom and genius.

And, I think that to be able to hook up with somebody like yourself, that has a lot of experience, and has seen a lot of different changes, you really can shortcut your success. What takes some people, maybe 10 years to be successful, you can do it in two years. If you, you know, have somebody, a consultant, that can help you shortcut everything.

And so, I would suggest somebody reach out to someone like yourself, like I did in the past. That helps me catapult my success.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Thank you for saying that. And, as a matter of fact, I walk my talk. I'm always in a mastermind, and they're typically 20 grand plus. So, I, you know, it's everything to share minds.

Otherwise, we're all stuck in our own heads and we only know what we know and nothing can expand your mind more than going at hanging around other big thinkers, going, wow. It's mind blowing. It really is.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: I agree. You might not even remember this, but one of the things that always impressed me about you is we had a relationship, you know, a long time ago, and I got some things going, and like a lot of times when you have a consultant, you get things accomplished and you get to where you're at a certain point, and then you decide, well, you know, maybe I can take it from here, kind of on my own.

And then I ran into you at a Dan Kennedy meeting. And I thought, my goodness, she walks her talk. And, after that, I reached out to you again. And you told me that you actually spent a whole day with Dan Kennedy and invested in yourself and your career. And that really shows me not only how much you walk your talk, but what you're willing to do for your clients to be a true expert.

Catherine Maley, MBA: Thank you for that. This isn't happening by magic.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: And like any successful person, whether it be a consultant or, a doctor, you know, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. You know, I like to say with one of my colleagues, from way back, you know, we sewed a lot of cow eyeballs to get good at what we do.

And one of my favorite sayings now is. There's only a millimeter between success and failure in my eyes because I'm a micro surgeon, and that kind of precision came from operating on a lot of steaks and cow eyeballs.

Catherine Maley, MBA: That's fantastic. Thank you so, so much for your time. I really appreciate it. It's nice to see you again.

Hopefully I'll see you in person someday, so yeah. Where can they learn more about you? I know your website is www.OculusPlasticSurgery.com. Your foundation is www.facechange.info. Do you have an Instagram? Maybe they could catch you on Instagram.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Yeah, my website is Oculus, like OCULUSplasticsurgery.com, not ocular. And, then the social is basically everything @DrChipCole.

Catherine Maley, MBA: All right. That's fantastic. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And we will talk soon.

Harvey Cole, III, MD: Sounds great. Thank you, Catherine.

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and how the wrong hires are killing your practice.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits.

LEARN MORE ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ykNLEa

 

 

The Wrong Hires are Killing Your Practice

When things are NOT going as well as you like, there is a tendency to focus on getting more patients, hoping that will solve your problems.

So you throw more money at advertising to attract new patients expecting that to fix everything.

But does it? 9 out of 10 times, you discover it is not the marketing holding you back. Or your pricing. Or the competition.

It’s the team you have in place.

There is a chance you have the right people, but they don’t have the training to be revenue-producing rock stars.

Or, you have the wrong team member (s) that are never going to step up to the plate and be where you need them to be for you to grow to the level you expect.

Instead of addressing this personnel problem head on and dealing with it, it’s easier to hope the problem resolves itself so you ignore the warning signs because you are already too busy running your practice to open up THIS can of worms.

But now the problem starts to fester when you ignore it…

There is increasing discourse with the other team members who start complaining about someone not pulling their weight;

You can feel the tension among the team members and so can your patients,

Important protocol is not being followed that could jeopardize patient care,

Your patients are complaining about the service they are getting (or not getting) or worse,

Your accountant says the numbers are suspiciously off.

These are indicators that it’s Time for a Staff Change

Awareness is the first step. No matter how much you may like someone personally, if they are not a good fit, a change needs to happen. Once you acknowledge that, you can fix it.

You can no longer ignore this issue. It’s time to “free” that bad egg on your staff so they can work somewhere else where they are a better fit.

You now have the opportunity to hire the revenue-generating rock star you have dreamed about but weren’t sure how to identify …..until now.

Staff salaries can consume 25%-50% of your operating costs so the goal is to get much more than that back in terms of productivity and results.

A-level talent makes the difference between a practice just getting by and an exceptional practice that stands out from the others.

So, Here are 3 ways to Hire A-Players:

1)Hire Character Backed by Skill

This is huge. Instead of hiring people and spending a ton of time and effort training them to be hard-working, loyal, passionate, team player and consistent, you hire people who are ALREADY hard-working, loyal, passionate, team-player and consistent. See the difference?

A-Players come packaged with the right mindset so you don’t spend extra time or money motivating them. They are motivated already to show up and do the job to the best of their ability.

2.Become What You Want

Come up with a list of attributes you want in a hire. Examples include:  integrity, passion, discipline, self-starter, caring, results-oriented, process-driven, resourceful, pleasant demeanor and so on.

This will help you more clearly see those attributes in people who interview with you.

But here’s the tough part – BE those attributes you want. Be the role model A-Players can look up to since you have set such a good example.

A-Players want to work for an A-Player who challenges them and gives them opportunities to grow financially as well as mentally into a better person than they are now.

3)Use The Rule of 3

Some people are very good interviewees but they underwhelm you once they are on the job.  For example, they bragged how good they are with technology and with people, yet you find they struggle to open excel and end up being curt with your patients.

To avoid that, follow the rule of 3:

• Interview at least 3 different people for the job
• By 3 different people on your team
• At 3 different times of the day

The A-Player will become obvious when you compare them to others and the B and C players will show their true character  with so many points of contact.

This takes longer but it saves you so much time and money down the road so it’s well worth the process.

And 4)Pay for A-Players

Just like you tell price-shopping patients they get what they pay for, we can use the same mindset here.

When you pay extra for A-Players,  you know this is money well spent because these top producers end up being free since they are consistent.

These quality team players always out-produce their salary and bring you opportunities to grow with less stress, liability and hassle.

But don’t overpay on the hire. Let them prove themselves first.

I recommend you pay just a bit more than your competitors and then offer benefits, as well as add on other perks to make it even more attractive such as flexible or virtual work time, personal time off, free training, free or discounted non-sx treatments, employee discounts on skincare products, monthly fun staff events, annual bonus paid on productivity and so on.

Conclusion

If you are struggling to find great people to join your team, please reconsider your process for finding them, what you are looking for and how you pay them.

I will close this with a quote from Jack Welch, Voted one of the best CEOs of our time who ran General Electric and this is what he said:

Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing  together wins. It's that simple.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

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Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and Today’s Cosmetic Practice Growth Funnel.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits.

LEARN MORE ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ykNLEa

 

 

Aesthetic Authority Article

Today’s Cosmetic Practice Growth Funnel

Saying that “times have changed” would be a massive understatement when referring to growing a cosmetic practice in today’s marketplace.

To make sense of it, it helps to understand the structure and stages of an industry so you can then adapt to it. This should help….

The Life Cycle of the Plastic Surgery Industry

Every industry goes through stages of introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

Why? For lots of reasons but the biggest one is because society and its consumers accept products & services at different rates. As society begins to adopt and accept an innovation, the demand for new services grows and eventually reaches maturity.

But a lot happens between these stages.

 

Introduction Stage

 

It used to be straight forward to grow a cosmetic practice just one generation ago.

Cosmetic surgery was still a taboo topic and only for celebrities and consumers of high worth value. The demand for cosmetic surgery was limited and so were the number of service providers.  

Most of the service providers were plastic surgeons who did a lot of reconstructive surgery and wanted to spread their wings to the cash side of medicine.

Advertising was minimal and consisted of a few surgeons investing in mass advertising via TV, radio and print ads that centered on the surgeon’s status.

Prospective patients looked up to the surgeons and, most often, went with the surgeons’ recommendations since they were regarded as the expert.

When prospective patients called the office, it was to book a consultation with the surgeon. They more often than not, showed up for their appointment and conversions were fairly straight-forward.

This worked well. There were few plastic surgeons to choose from and they enjoyed regal status.

 

Growth Stage

 

As society accepted plastic surgery more (thanks to the media who report on it and the Kardashians who partake in it…a lot), consumer demand increased dramatically.

The growth in demand for cosmetic rejuvenation, coupled with exciting technological advancements, opened the industry up to an increase in consumers, but also to an increase of service providers.

You longer needed to be a board-certified plastic surgeon to offer cash-based cosmetic medicine.

Any MD could open a med spa and provide convenience and service for cash-based, non-surgical procedures that fill the need for consumers not ready for surgery.

Then, as government regulations deterred medical providers from practicing insurance-based medicine due to low reimbursement and high cost and hassle of reimbursement, that supply of cash-based service providers increased even more.

Once there is a proven consumer demand for cosmetic rejuvenation, big business and pharma also jumps in and creates more solutions for the service providers to offer to consumers.

And, all of that increases the competition dramatically.

The consumer demand continues to increase even more and includes new types of consumers (men and the younger population), as well as geographic opportunities so the future looks promising.

But all of this leads to commoditization in the aesthetic industry.

As the competition enters the market, they offer aesthetic services at lower prices.

They almost have to since they don’t enjoy status and need to enter the marketplace to attract new cosmetic patients somehow.

This creates a downward sloping demand curve that reflects the willingness of consumers to purchase more of the commodity at lower price levels.

Now, consumers have a plethora of solutions at a range of prices to choose from. This forces plastic surgeons to either lower their prices to compete or add more value to justify the higher prices.

Adding value includes creating an image and brand to position the practice in a crowded marketplace, as a high-end service provider offering better quality of results, excellent customer service, an upscale experience and so on.

Maturity Stage

With so many service providers and many more manufacturers offering countless solutions to address the concerns of the cosmetic patients, the competition for new cosmetic patients becomes fierce.

Although total sales continue to grow during the first part of the maturity stage, the increased competition causes profits to peak at the end of the growth stage and beginning of the maturity stage.

Profits then decline during the remainder of the maturity stage because even though many consumers are buying, they are buying on price more often than value.

Here is the point….In the growth stage, even inefficient practices make money. However, only the best run practices survive in the maturity stage.

Less efficient practices struggle to generate positive cash flow in an uber competitive environment because they are not able to spend enough to attract enough patients to generate positive cash flow, so they get weeded out.

Cosmetic practices have to be able to balance their advertising costs and overhead expenses to keep a steady stream of patients coming to them without going broke.

Here is the solution to survive in a maturing marketplace…

The trick to staying in the game is to leverage your assets so you get more value from the costs you already occurred. And, to become more efficient so you make more revenues using less resources.

The practices who do this best win. The weakest practices don’t because they cannot afford to operate profitably and compete at the same time on price.

How do you do that?

• Rather than compete on price, compete on friendly customer service, efficient processes, technology to save time and relationship-building.
• Invest in the best staff you can afford and train them on customer service and converting. Their quality of work, great attitude and excellent converting skills will make you money.
• Increase the value of every patient by developing a relationship with them so they return for other services, consent to their photos being taken, refer their friends and give you a 5-star review so other prospective patients also see you as the best choice.
• Turn your current patients into your unpaid sales ambassadors who grow your practice organically by sharing you with their friends and followers on social media.

All of your leverage is with your #1 asset and that is your patient list of consumers who chose you once and they will choose you again and bring their friends with them if you focus on them.

You already spent the time, money and effort in attracting them to you. They will grow your practice for you if you let them….for free.

This means you redirect some of your advertising costs to training your staff and nurturing your current patients.

So, now, you are growing internally and externally and that’s how you survive and thrive in today’s marketplace.

===========================

Catherine Maley, MBA is a cosmetic practice consultant, speaker, trainer, blogger and podcaster. Her popular book, Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying is read and studied by plastic surgeons and their staff all over the world.

She and her team specialize in growing plastic surgery practices using creative patient attraction, conversion, follow up and retention strategies as well as staff training to turn team members into converting rock stars.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and the takeaways from the top 5 podcasts of 2021.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits.

LEARN MORE ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ykNLEa

 

 

Takeaways from the Top 5 Podcasts of 2021

Intro

This episode is called Take-a-Ways from the Top 5 Podcasts of 2021

Another year is coming to an end and so is the Beauty and the Biz podcast.

Since I do a weekly podcast, I reviewed the list of this year’s podcasts and recapped strategies from the 5 most popular topics that you may want to consider for 2022.

And here they are…drumroll please…

1. How to grow a selleable practice

The objective is to set up your cosmetic surgical practice as a business so it’s more predictable and profitable.

That way, it’s more enjoyable to go to every day, and it’s  more attractive to other surgeons to buy when you’re ready to exit.

But, you have a challenge that keeps you from winning in the long run.

As a surgeon, you were programmed to think in a certain fixed way. You had to think that way to become a great surgeon.

However, that thinking is the opposite of how a businessperson thinks.

In a cosmetic practice, you, the surgeon, are the technician of the surgery, so you focus on that because you’re good at it and that’s what you know.

However, does that make for a sellable asset when you’re ready to retire?

Probably not, so you either have to work until you’re ready to close the doors and get nothing back for your efforts, or you can set your practice up to make a profitable exit and enjoy your retirement by using these strategies:

The first one is Mindset:

Shift your thinking from a surgeon to a businessperson and “Operate your practice like it’s for sale”.

Then regularly ask yourself, “If I wanted to sell my practice tomorrow, what would I need to improve to get the most value for it?” 

 When I interview surgeons on this Podcast and we talk about them buying another surgeon’s practice, the #1 value component they are looking for is a ready-made income stream.

Because Buyers are looking for a practice’s ability to generate cash with a degree of predictability and certainty.

That’s why it’s difficult to value the surgical side of your practice.

If you have been practicing with a “one and done” mindset, you’re not developing much of a bond with your patients because it’s such a short-term relationship.

And, to keep your surgical side busy, you have to market and advertise to attract new surgical patients and that increases your overhead costs so other surgeons have to look at not just your revenues but also your overhead to make those revenues happen. Other surgeons know there’s no certainty that those surgical patients will come back for more surgery or come back soon enough or often enough.

However, if you can show a prospective buyer:

• Predictable revenues they can count on month after month that don’t include YOU
• an increase in the lifetime value of your current cosmetic patients
• And how you generate more referrals and reviews organically
• while differentiating your practice from all the others,

That’s interesting AND valuable.

Because now you have a predictable, systematic cosmetic revenue stream profit center that works without you and could easily be handed off to another surgeon.

You do that by building up the non-surgical aspect of your practice.

2. Hiring the Right Patient Coordinator

The difference between a 25% and 65% conversion rate is many, many thousands of dollars. It can also be the difference between a 6- or 7- or even 8-figure cosmetic practice.

It’s a game changer when you have a patient coordinator who knows how to convert so this position cannot be taken lightly.

Converting consultations is an art and trained skill. It takes the right strategies, knowledge and then lots of practice to get good at confidently taking a “stranger prospect” to a paying cosmetic patient.

So here are the traits a great patient coordinator must possess to ensure you have the right person representing you:

For starters, the most successful patient coordinator looks, acts, and feels the part.

So, Let’s start with looks.

This does not mean your coordinator needs to be gorgeous.

This means they need to be likeable, presentable and congruent with the high standards you set for the practice because they have to connect with the public who will look to your coordinator as a role model for looking good and feeling confidant.

The most successful patient coordinator has the right mindset. They believe in plastic surgery. They see how much it enhances the lives of your patients.

They genuinely like working with prospective patients. They care about a prospective patient as a person and truly want to help them solve a problem they believe they have.

They are not “selling”. They are serving your patients. They believe they are providing a valuable service to prospective patients who need guidance.

They believe in the surgeon(s) they are representing, and they also believe in cosmetic rejuvenation as a gateway to personal self-fulfillment and happiness.

A great patient coordinator does all they can to help the prospective patient get to a yes and they persevere in the face of resistance, because they don’t see resistance as rejection. They see it as an opportunity to clear up the confusion on the patient’s side, so they get to a yes and reach their ultimate goal which is to be happy and confident with their appearance.

The most successful patient coordinator believes in themselves.

They have an inner drive to do their best. They like a challenge and they like to succeed.

They have a competitive edge so they hold themselves to a higher standard than most.

They have the confidence it takes to win in this position because they believe in you, the surgeon and the results the patient will get when they say YES.

That means they’re not afraid to ask the patient tough questions for fear of being viewed as “pushy” and then they professionally ask for a decision when the time is right because they want to give the patients what they want and they also want to win.

The most successful patient coordinator puts anxious prospective patients at ease so they open up and articulate what they want, why they want it and what it will take for the prospective patient to say YES.

They reassure the patient they are in the right place and will be happy with their result once they decide to move forward with you.

They have the people skills to make a prospective patient comfortable and trusting enough to make a decision to have their cosmetic procedure with you.

They know how to stay focused on the patient’s wants, fears, objections so they can artfully address the issues in the patient’s mind that are stopping them from moving forward.

This is the difference between an okay coordinator and a converting rock star.

This takes confidence, courage and well thought out strategies to convert a prospective patient to a paid surgical procedure.

3. Attract affluent patients

A common complaint I hear from plastic surgeons and their staff is their plastic surgery patients are so price-focused and ask them one thing:

“How much is it …?”

Or, during their consultation, they attempt to negotiate by telling you they can get the same thing cheaper from your competitors.

So how do you respond to that?

You DECIDE you no longer want cheap cosmetic patients so you no longer cater to them.

You decide to attract a better quality patient by stepping up your game so you attract the patients who care more about your skill, expertise and reputation than they do about saving money.

Here’s the secret:

Be, act and market as a higher-end practice does to attract affluent patients.

Details count since the patient is looking for clues to justify spending more with you than your discounting competitors. That includes the quality of:

• Your standards for how your practice is run
• Your well-orchestrated & consistent processes
• Your updated Website
• Your excellent results shown in your photo gallery
• Your social media platforms showing off your skills as a surgeon, leader, speaker, chef, etc.
• Your PR efforts and pro-bono activities
• Your receptionist’s friendly phone voice
• Your office location and furnishings
• Your positive online reviews
• Your videos on YouTube
• Your 5-star service mentality so the patient feels special throughout their experience with you and so on.

This is how to Attract Affluent Cosmetic Patients because the further up the food chain you go – the less “needs driven” these patients are.

It’s all about what they WANT to do – not what they NEED to do.

So they think differently than the cheap patients.

They are are not buying by price and value.

It’s more about the intangibles and what this procedure means to them that is driving their decision.

Affluent patients pay more because doing so makes them feel more like the person they either wish they were or envision themselves to be.

At this level, you are hardly talking about the surgery.

It’s the intangibles of the surgery that attracts the affluent patients to you.

The affluent patients are looking for superior service providers….even if it’s based on perception.

They believe they deserve the best, so they want the best because this group will pay a lot more to buy certainty.

So, knowing this, what makes price disappear from the equation and YOU the only choice for affluent patients?

The answer is YOU. 

You stand out from the crowd by doing what others won’t do or can’t do.

For example, Be The Expert.

The affluent patient wants to go to the BEST so specialize in one procedure.

Write a book about it.

Make YouTube videos about it.

Be interviewed explaining your unique approach to this procedure.

Do 10x more of this procedure than the average surgeon does.

Show off tons of transformational before/after photos of this procedure and encourage your patients to show off their own results on social media.

The point is after enough communication, familiarity, reinforcement and social proof, the affluent patients now have sufficient trust in you to choose you as their go-to plastic surgeon.

4. Prevent problem patients

As a cosmetic surgeon, you get all the risk when dealing with the cosmetic patient. You hope the prospective patient is hearing you when you say:

“I can’t make it perfect, but I can make it a lot better.”

The good news is most of your patients are friendly, reasonable, and realistic.

But the few patients who aren’t, can wreak havoc with your reputation and mental health.

What can trip you up are your own emotions during the consultation process. The two major ones being ego and greed.

It can be difficult to say no to prospective patients who want to give you money. That’s completely understandable.

Same thing with your ego. It’s so much easier during the consultation process to ignore your gut telling you to beware than to say no.

When interviewing surgeons about problem patients, they repeatedly say, “I knew there were red flags, but I thought I could manage them.”

I suggest you and your staff come up with a Red Flags Checklist that becomes protocol so if you can check any of the boxes, you DO NOT move forward. This helps take the emotion out of it.

However, you can still end up with a post-op patient who is not happy. It happens so I suggest the following steps:

First, listen without interrupting. Sometimes it’s just a complaint the patient wants to share with you, get off their chest and move on.

Acknowledge without getting defensive. Offer a sincere apology for how they feel. Not for any wrongdoing on your part, but you are sorry they are not happy.

Ask Questions to figure out how serious the situation is.

You are looking for WHY they feel the way they do and what it is they want from you. They may surprise you and have a simple request that would satisfy them.

And lastly, Do Something!

Make it right! Don’t just promise to make it right, actually take a proactive step in the right direction.

Offer solutions such as cortisone shots, lymphatic massage, a touch up in the office, comp your fees or discount OR fees to go back into surgery.

Then thank them for being reasonable and working with you to rectify the situation.      

And lastly, #5 of the top 5 posts this year is

5. What google said about attracting plastic surgery patients

Organic reach and advertising results have decreased significantly and that’s making it a whole lot more difficult and expensive for you to attract new patients.

And I’m thinking, if plastic surgeons can’t market and advertise to consumers, how the heck are you supposed to grow your practice?

To find the answer for you, I did what I always do… I googled it and here are the 6 ways google says you should grow your practice:

1. Get more google reviews but google wants the reviews to provide useful, constructive feedback that is detailed, specific and honest.

2. Enhance your online image Update your website, be sure it’s mobile friendly and Include social media buttons so patients get to know you better and you can show off your skill with lots of before/after photos and videos of FAQs for each procedure.

Also, add fresh, updated content to as many different platforms as possible to increase your footprint on the Internet.

3. Don’t Miss Out on the Social Media Platforms

You may not understand or care about social media or you don’t want to put in the time, but it’s become a must-have patient attraction channel.

I recommend you assign a staff person or hire someone specifically to follow you around with an iphone or ipad and record you doing “the day in the life of a plastic surgeon”.

Your staff can then turn the footage into interesting content on different platforms.

4. Positive or negative…..respond to reviews

You are bound to get some bad reviews. It’s just the cost of doing business with consumers.

Your best approach is to respond quickly, stay professional and apologize for the situation (not for your work) and offer to talk it over since your overall goal is patient satisfaction.

5. Train your staff

Your staff will make or break your practice so please get the right people on the bus, get them in the right seats, give them the training they need to succeed and then hold them accountable.

For example, Your receptionist must have the skills to

• Present YOU as the BEST choice for the caller who has many options;

• To Answer the question, “How much is it?” so the caller can move forward to booking the appointment; as well as to
• Convert the caller to a booked appointment!

And Your coordinator must have the skills to:

Understand the patient’s true wants and needs and How to handle a patient who wants to negotiate and How to professionally convert a consultation to a paid procedure

These 2 pivotal points in the patient experience make up HALF of your revenues. Please be sure your staff is professionally trained to convert callers and consults.

And the 6th way to get more patients per google is to ….

6. Build strong relations with existing patients and Referrals will follow.

It changes everything when you have a “patients for life” mindset. When you see your patients as friends and family and treat them with respect, they grow your practice for you.

As Maya Angelo says,

“They won’t remember what you told them.

They won’t remember what you showed them.

But they WILL remember how you made them feel!"

 

Please make your patients feel important, wanted and appreciated.

These happy patients will be your patients for decades and return for more as the aging process continues.

They will refer their family members and friends who will then refer their family members and friends and so on and so on so your practice grows organically with preferred patients you want.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and how to fix your follow-up.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits.

LEARN MORE ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ykNLEa

 

 

Fix Your Follow Up

You know How frustrating is it to spend a ton of money, staff time and resources on internet marketing for new cosmetic patient leads only to have those very leads come in as prospective patients and leave as prospective patients….STILL.

You can no longer afford to waste any more time or money on marketing if you are not converting these leads….

It’s too competitive, it’s too crowded and it’s too expensive NOT to do everything within your control to convert these Internet leads into paid procedures.

Here’s a typical consultation scenario…

Hmmm….

You thought you had a great consultation with your prospective patient, Sara.

Sara had a good consultation with you and your staff and she asked lots of questions and you had a good connection…at least you thought you did.

But then you find out from your coordinator Sara ended up saying, “I gotta think about it” and walked out the door.

Now what? Maybe your staff emails or calls them and then they are dropped in the  “dead leads” file.

You move onto the next consultation that you hope converts and the cycle of waste continues…

Why Don’t Patients Book?

Since cosmetic rejuvenation is a very personal as well as emotional decision, there are all sorts of reasons why prospective patients don’t book….

• Maybe they have other consultations lined up
• Maybe they don’t have a comfortable way to pay for it
• Maybe they’re confused about something you said so now they will research it more before deciding to move forward

Or maybe…..

• They received bad news that morning or
• They got flack from their family when they told them about meeting with you; 
• Or a dozen other benign things could have happened that had nothing to do with you.

It could have had everything to do with the patient’s frame of mind at the time that prevented them from moving forward.

The point is people change, their moods change and their circumstances change so you can never assume anything.

What Do You Do When You Can’t Convert Consultations?

Let’s say you did everything right and now you are stuck because you don’t know how or even if you should follow up for fear of looking as if you are chasing the patient. 

Here are 3 strategies to help you follow up professionally and close the procedure:

1 Collapse Time

Time is your enemy in the follow up process. The more time that goes by without the prospective patient hearing from you, the more distant you become.

The hottest they will ever be is when they are face-to-face with you. Once they leave your practice, you are out of sight – out of mind – unless YOU keep the conversation going.

So you want to collapse time by following up quickly, repeatedly and often. That’s how you differentiate yourself from your competitors who follow up weeks later (or never).

I’m always amazed when I learn a practice sends one standard follow up email days after the consult then wait another 30-60 days. The hot lead is very cold by then so no wonder they are never heard from again.

2 Add a Sense of Urgency to Your Follow Up

Since its human nature for prospective patients to put off making a big decision and procrastinate, you want to counter with a sense of urgency to get the patient off the fence.

Give them compelling reasons to stop procrastinating. For example:

1. Your schedule is filling up quickly due to the demand for Dr. Smith, SO BOOK NOW OR YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT.  This works well because most patients hate to wait.
2. Or, If they can have surgery on a Wednesday next month, they get a $500 price reduction on the OR fee

Or, If they want it done before [wedding, summer, etc], they need to take into account the recovery time (IE., even though the downtime is less than 7 days, they are still a bit limited in activity like swimming and dancing), so they’ll want to get it done before this certain [date].

1. Or Your prices are going up so you can grandfather them in at the current price as long as they put their deposit down now.

And #3 is Follow Up Protocol

Just like you follow strict protocol for surgery, develop a protocol to follow each and every time to follow-up on revenue-generating consultations that didn’t book….YET.

Otherwise, it’s too easy to NEVER get around to following up because there are a million other things to do.  

Protocol takes the emotion out of it and it becomes what you do automatically…no matter how busy you are.

Here is an example of the steps to follow:

Immediately text the patient thanking them for their time

Mail a thank you note that day.

Day 2 – Send email thanking them and include a response to one of their objections.

Day 3 - Call them to see if they are now ready to move forward since you addressed their objection.

Day 5 - Email them social proof including patient reviews, photos, testimonials of other patients just like them who had the procedure they want so they see others have moved forward and are happy and they will be too.

Day 7 – Call with urgency update. For example, they want to look good for an event so they must complete SX by a certain date and you only have 2 slots left.

If none of that is working, continue to text or email them to keep in touch with announcements such as a special event or promotion you are having.

Then add them to your email list to stay in touch indefinitely so they remember you when they are ready to move forward.

You need to customize these to your own practice and use them in your standard protocol so you get comfortable telling the prospective patient WHY they need to make a decision now rather than later.  

The most successful cosmetic practices have systems in place to follow up quickly, strategically and consistently.

They spent a lot of time, money and effort attracting prospective patients so they do all they can to see it through to a YES.

These fix your follow up strategies “pave the way” for your staff to do all they can to confidently convert these valuable consultations.

If your staff needs help setting up their own protocol, check out my website `where they can get the “Fix Your Follow Up” module full of strategies, phone scripts and examples of emails and text to get the patient to a yes.

Of course, it would be great if you subscribed to Beauty and the Biz so you don’t miss any episodes and a review would be much appreciated.

Thanks so listening and we’ll talk again soon.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and how to publish your own book.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits. ​

 

Publish Your Own Book

Adding “Author” to your bio can be a game-changer in many ways. It’s certainly an ego-boost to see your name on the cover of a book, and others see you differently as well.

But your own book is so much more….

The public sees you as an authority and that gives you prestige and status. It also gives you notoriety and name recognition to differentiate you from other surgeons in the industry.

A book is also great content. Content is king on the Internet, so a book helps your organic SEO efforts, so you are more easily found on the Internet because you’ll have a bigger digital imprint online.

 But’s there’s more….

 

 My Own Book Experience

 My book, “Your Aesthetic Practice: What Your Patients Are Saying” (https://www.catherinemaley.com/order-my-book-your-aesthetic-practice/) helped catapult my career in the plastic surgery industry. 

It gave me credibility and told my audience of plastic surgeons that I was serious about making my mark on this industry.

I got free PR and was interviewed by The New York Times, Newsweek, ABC News and I have sold thousands of books that are sitting on surgeons’ desks all over the US as well as digital copies all over the world.

It has gotten my speaking engagements as far away as Saudi Arabia, Australia and the UK and invitations to be a podcast guest. 

And my book is actually helpful and adds value to surgeons who want to “better their best” so it’s been a gift that keeps on giving.

I use it as a lead generator, so my audience gets a taste of my work and, hopefully, wants more of it in the way of my consulting and training services.

The same would happen for you but in a much bigger way. I only cater to cosmetic surgeons of which there is a limited number.

You, on the other hand, are catering to the public who want cosmetic rejuvenation, so your audience is huge and unlimited. Your book would help you stand out in a crowded marketplace and help consumers choose you over all your competitors.

How to Write Your Book

Write a consumer book that is of value to the consumer who is interested in cosmetic rejuvenation, but be strategic about it to get the most value from your time, money and effort.

For example,

1. Focus

This will be counterintuitive to you but it works. Write about one body part and one procedure. Be seen as an expert in one thing and they will stay for more.

And come up with a catchy title so the readers know immediately if this is for them or not.

For example,

• 5 Things You Need to Know About a Tummy Tuck.
• The Truth about Tummy Tucks
• The Secret to a Great Tummy Tuck
• Don’t Consider a Tummy Tuck Until You Read This 

1. Add Tons of Social Proof

Cosmetic patients want to see other patients just like them who have “experienced” you and your skills.

The best way for you to “show off” your expertise is to show off your skills through great before/after photos. And be sure to add a variety of demographics so the prospective patient can see themselves in these photos.

Reviews are the next element that should be sprinkled throughout your book.  What others say about you is infinitely more important than what you say about you ;-)

Patient stories sell. Everyone loves a good story so have your patients tell theirs. But lay it out in a structured way and here it is:

• Their story starts with the problem (pain) they were in that was causing them to feel bad.

 

• Then why they chose you over all the others (and that’s why the reader will choose you too).

 

• Then what the process was like (hopefully, they will brag about how well you and your staff took care of them) and

 

• Then have them end with how much more confident they feel and how great their life is now that they finally took action and did something about it.

 

So, your book in educational because you’ll first explain the procedure, who’s a good candidate, the FAQs, objections and pros and cons and the rest of the book is your patient stories and social proof.

How to Publish Your Book

Historically, you would have to hire a book agent to get a traditional publisher to even look at your manuscript, let alone agree to publish it.

But do you really need to be in every bookstore or just in front of anyone online looking for information about your book’s topic? If the later makes more sense, then self-publish.

Now-a-days, you can easily self-publish which means you upload your finished book to a platform like Amazon or Google Books without going through a middleman. This will save you tons of time and money.

How to Market Your Book

While your book is a powerful marketing tool, getting it in the hands of prospective patients who actually are looking for a surgeon to help them is your next challenge.

So, what happens after the book is published? How should you go about marketing it in this digital era?

For starters, don’t count on luck or word-of-mouth to make magic happen in terms of visibility, awareness, and sales right off the bat. And don’t expect this book to be a huge profit center. This is more about branding then it is selling books.

You also can’t just create a listing for it on Amazon and expect it to be a bestseller without any effort.

Also, if you’re not presently a mega-influencer in the social media arena, you can’t count on that channel to do the heavy lifting so here are strategies to help:

Create a Book Website

If you want to connect with potential readers (prospective patients) and sell books online, it’s important to have a dedicated website to spread the word, while also building an email list for email campaigns to nurture these would-be patients with consistent promotional efforts. 

And considering that consumers do most of their research online, a book website is the first thing you should focus on.

Give potential readers a place to quickly and easily find all the information they need. While social media accounts are a great marketing tool, you never know when a social media platform will change an algorithm or remove content, whereas on your website you always have complete control of what potential customers see. 

Be Strategic and Selective with Social Media

Social media will play a major role in terms of visibility and branding.

Depending on the target market you are attempting to attract, choose the platforms that market hangs out in and start there.

For instance, if your book is catering to professional moms, LinkedIn may be your best bet, followed by Facebook.

However, if your book is visual and filled with before/after photos of results, you may want to start with one of the more visual platforms, such as Instagram and Pinterest.

In addition, find groups that are relevant to your topic, join them and engage in authentic conversations, without promoting your book.

Allow natural connections to be made – it’s important to share your knowledge and build your reputation as an expert on your topic. 

Capitalize On All Amazon Offers and Pursue Reviews

If you’re selling on Amazon (which I highly recommend), be sure to take advantage of every feature they offer to increase your chances of being discovered. Be smart with keywords and key phrases in your book description. 

If you want Amazon to recommend your book to others, it’s crucial to get good reviews from your early customers.

A decent number of genuine reviews under any book adds credibility. Don’t be afraid to ask readers who purchased your book to help out by leaving a review.

In most cases, they will happily oblige. Readers love helping authors they appreciate.

Experiment With Email Promotions and Online Advertising

There are many approaches that can be taken for email promotions. You start with your current list of patients and grow that list using your book. You can even partner with book promotion sites that send emails to their own subscriber lists. 

Online advertising campaigns consist of everything from paid social media promotions, to Google ads, and Amazon ads.

If you’re not already familiar with how this works, you may want to consult with a professional who has launched books before. They can save you time and money from mistakes.  

Generously Give, In Order To Receive

Helping people without expecting anything in return has a way of bringing about good karma.

That means offering value to your prospective audience well before your book launch, in an effort to naturally get their support upon launch. 

You could start by answering the public’s questions about cosmetic surgery. You gain trust with your audience, and they spread the word to their family and friends.

You can also give away free e-books or just one chapter on social media to grow your followers lists and reach to more prospective patients online.

Here is a quick list of other ways to market the Heck Out of Your Book:

• Have a book signing event and take lots of photos and videos
• Invite the media – you never know.
• Send an Email invite to your current patients and have them forward to friends
• Post on your social platforms and encourage your followers to share with their friends and followers on their own social media platforms
• Add a book link to you and your staff’s email signatures with a link to buy your book
• Offer to be a guest on popular blogs and podcasts
• Sell your book on Amazon and google books
• Give all of your consultations your book to increase your conversion rate
• Do IG & FB ads offering the book for free + shipping.

Lastly, Get Some Help

You have to either put in your own time and/or pay others to get this book project completed so here’s what you do…

If you simply don’t have the time to manually and organically write, publish and market your book, you can easily find outside help. In fact, that might even be the better route.

Just google “How to Publish a Book” and thousands of resources pop up. An easier route is to work with an agency that specializes in getting books to market.

They handle the A-Z of writing, publishing and marketing books and include services such as ghost writing, editing, graphic design, digital marketing, social media, public relations, advertising and publishing all under one roof.

This way, they will be responsible for staying on schedule and making your dream come true. They will also launch the book and keep the buzz going with new marketing angles and campaigns to expose it to an even wider audience for years to come.

Because when done right, with a long-term strategy in mind, your own book in a fantastic marketing and branding strategy to up level your status and brand and attract a whole lot more patients to you.

And there you have it.  That’s how you create and publish your own book!

If you want to see how I market my own book, click below to get a Free Copy.

Of course, it would be great if you subscribed to Beauty and the Biz so you don’t miss any episodes and a review would be much appreciated.

Thanks so listening and we’ll talk again soon.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons 

 

📅 Schedule your free 30-min strategy call with Catherine

⚙️ Restart your practice in 7 days

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Welcome to "Beauty and the Biz", where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery, and what a good conversion rate is.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your aesthetic practice - What your patients are saying", and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits. ​

What is a good conversion rate?

It's a question I’m asked often enough so I’m assuming other surgeons also experience this, so I’ll address it in this episode.

Here’s the question:                                                        

Dear Catherine,

I had the same patient consultant for many years and she did a great job.

We made a really good team. I performed several procedures on her through the years so she was a great testimonial and she knew how to credential me as the best. She was also very good with my patients and really good at closing consultations.

I never realized how good she was until her husband was promoted and she moved away.

My current coordinator has been on the job for the past year and we are getting mixed results.

She’s nice enough but we don’t get the same results I used to get.

My consult conversion rate used to be in the high 70’s for years and it’s dropped significantly. My coordinator says that’s because the patients are price shopping our competitors and our prices are too high.

I’m not sure that’s true. I don’t know if it’s the patients or the coordinator or something else.

Can you tell me what is a good conversion rate?

Dr. W

 

Since that’s a loaded question, we need to unpack it before I start throwing out percentages.

Lots of plastic surgeons are experiencing sporadic conversion rates. Or “feast or famine” months and they’re not sure why.

This inconsistency can wreak havoc on your day, your attitude and your pocketbook.

You start questioning yourself and doubting your staff and that’s a path to even more frustration.

So, what’s really happening?

Well, the bad news is, there’s no one easy answer. So many variables go into your success (or lack thereof) when converting consultations.

One practice can play the QUALITY vs. quantity game and experience an 80% conversation rate because the coordinator only works with the hyper interested. So, she sends one follow-up email and if they don’t respond, she drops them, but that same practice who is “cherry picking” also can experience big highs and lows in the schedule because they need a lot more leads to cherry pick the best ones..

Or a practice experiences a 25% conversion rate because they play the “QUANTITY vs. quality” game so they see everybody. They don’t charge a consultation fee, they have lots of no-shows and frankly, lots of flaky price-shoppers who are not yet ready to to action so the coordinator has to sift through who is a real candidate and who isn’t.

So given that, here’s a short list of why your conversions “could” be off:

• Your SEO isn’t working like before because google changed the rules again or you changed your SEO/website provider and lost ground on your Internet presence so the new Internet company has to build your rankings back up; or

• A new competitor came to town and is out-marketing you;

• You changed up your marketing strategy and while you’re getting more Internet leads, they are poor quality leads;

• Your new coordinator is nice and friendly but doesn’t have the converting skills needed to get to a YES and so on.

Because the reality is not about how many leads you get. It’s about how many prospective patients say YES and PAY for your services, right?

Which is why your coordinator must be on her game to convert these consults so if she needs training, check out The Converting Club for Coordinators on my website and I’ll train her for you.

Because after consulting with surgeons for 2 decades, here is what I find most often: You don’t have a lead problem. you have a converting and retention problem. Just saying..

But back to the question what’s a good conversion rate. Here are guidelines to help you figure that out:

Leads coming from “Internet stranger patients” convert at 5-20%

Leads coming from word-of-mouth referrals convert at 70-85%

Leads coming from your current patients who want more from you convert at 85% and higher

And to break it down even more:

Breast aug leads convert much less than facelift leads so I would separate those out so the data is not skewed.

BTW, if you question my stats, no problem. Do this exercise to get the real numbers for YOUR own practice.

Have your staff look up the last 50-100 surgeries you performed and fill out an excel sheet by noting

The procedure performed

The revenues collected The referral source: did they come cold from the Internet, were they a word-of-mouth referral or were they your current patient coming back for more.

Also note their age and zip code to determine if they are local or out of town and which demographics of patients seem to gravitate towards you. I’ve had surgeons from all over the country do this exercise and they are always surprised to discover where their conversions and revenues came from so see for yourself and let me know your results.

That wraps up this Beauty and the biz episode so please do me a favor and subscribe if you haven’t done so already and a review would be super helpful as well.

And feel free to pass this along to your colleagues and staff

Of course, it would be great if you subscribed to Beauty and the Biz so you don’t miss any episodes and a review would be much appreciates.

Enjoy!

Catherine Maley, MBA

⬇️ FREE BOOK:

📕 Get my 5-Star Rated Book, "Your Aesthetic Practice — What Your Patients Are Saying," FREE! Just pay S/H

✅ STAY UPDATED:

🌐 Catherine's Website 📝 Catherine's Blog 🎤 "Beauty and the Biz" Podcast 📺 "Beauty and the Biz" Videocast 🔊 "Beauty and the Biz" on Apple Podcasts

🤝 LET'S CONNECT:

➡️ Instagram ➡️ Facebook ➡️ Twitter ➡️ LinkedIn

P.S. If you need help differentiating yourself, schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with me.

Review Beauty and the Biz on Apple Podcasts and get my 5-star rated book. FREE!

Catherine Maley, MBA:

Everybody that’s going to wrap it up for us today on Beauty and the Biz.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, you can go ahead and leave them at my website at www.CatherineMaley.com, or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @CatherineMaleyMBA.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode on Beauty and the Biz, please head over to Apple Podcasts and give me a review and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz so, you don’t miss any episodes. And of course, please share this with your staff and colleagues.

And we will talk to you again soon. Take care.

"The fastest way to success is to model other successful surgeons who have what you want, but you can only see their results, not the path they took to get there.

So, you continue to jump from one thing to another, hoping to find something that will work for you too, but it rarely does. So, try this shortcut instead. It’s guaranteed to move you forward. I compiled my intellectual property to grow cosmetic revenues, everything I’ve gleaned over the years into one playbook of the most successful practices and what they do to win.

Go to www.CosmeticPracticeVault.com and let’s grow your cosmetic revenue."

 

 

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons