What does it take to build authority in business when the odds and your age are against you? In this episode of the Diamond Hands Podcast, Leslie Tracey talks with Audrey Neff, Chief Marketing Officer at Aviva Aesthetics, about industry influence, scaling medical practices, and the industry's shift toward private equity and corporate ownership. Audrey broke into medical aesthetics at 22 and became one of the market's most recognized speakers and a top 3% podcast host. She shares how mentorship shaped her early career, the hard truth of moving from a startup to private equity, and the mistake of separating sales, marketing, and retention. Leslie and Audrey also dig into why running a clinic like a pro sports team, and refusing to keep toxic, high-revenue producers, is the real secret to scaling a business from $1 million to $5 million. They cover the wave of private equity hitting aesthetics in mid-2026, current valuation multiples, and a founder-friendly alternative that lets med spa owners tap into corporate purchasing power while keeping 100% ownership of their business. Audrey leaves practice owners with a clear playbook for protecting and growing what they've built.

🎧 Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube     

🔗 Resources & Links 👤 Connect with Our Guest Audrey Neff 🌐 Website: https://www.avivaaesthetics.com 🤝 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audreyneff/ “You don’t get anywhere phenomenal in business or life without surrounding yourselves with people that are specific experts in that specific craft.” — Audrey Neff Enjoyed This Episode? If this episode resonated with you, share it with a fellow practice owner or entrepreneur navigating scale, team culture shifts, or corporate transitions. Audrey’s approach shows what actually protects a practice’s value alignment, systems, and culture. And if you’d like to connect with your host, Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty): 📸 Instagram: @leslietracey_ If you understand brand, story, and distribution, you can build anything in this industry.Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly strategy for aesthetic founders & healthcare CEOs:🔗 https://www.leslietracey.com/Work with my team at Diamond Hands Media:🔗 https://diamondhandsmedia.com(Healthcare video marketing, executive brand strategy, and branded patient journeys for leaders who want to dominate their market.)––– My Book –––Be Intentional or Be Irrelevant🔗 https://a.co/d/fE8DuQoSource paper: https://arxiv.org/html/2510.14223v1

What do you do when the life you've built falls apart? 

In this episode, Leslie Tracey sits down with Emma Wedgwood, Advanced Medical Aesthetic Nurse, Independent Prescriber, and founder of Emma Wedgwood Aesthetics, for a raw and honest conversation about addiction, recovery, resilience, and rebuilding from rock bottom. 

Emma shares how a successful nursing career spiraled into alcohol addiction, leading to disciplinary action that nearly cost her nursing license. She opens up about the shame, denial, and fear that accompanied that period of her life, and the moment she realised she had a choice: continue down a destructive path or fight for a different future. 

Now 13 years sober and the owner of two successful clinics, Emma reflects on the identity shifts that shaped her recovery, the courage required to start over, and the lessons she learned transitioning from intensive care nursing into medical aesthetics. 

Together, Leslie and Emma explore the impact of limiting beliefs, the hidden pressures of healthcare culture, entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, and why helping others has become a central part of Emma's mission. Through her pro bono initiative supporting women in recovery, Emma is creating opportunities for others to rebuild confidence, self-worth, and belief in what's possible. 

This is a conversation about second chances, resilience, and the extraordinary things that can happen when someone decides their story isn't over yet. 

🎧 Listen On Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube    

🔗 Resources & Links 

👤 Connect with Our Guest Emma Wedgwood 

● 🌐 Website: https://www.emmawedgwoodaesthetics.co.uk/ 

● 🤝 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmawedgwoodaesthetics/ 

● 📸 Instagram: @emmawedgwoodaesthetics 

Remember: 

"I thought my life was over. It turned out it was just the beginning." 

Enjoyed This Episode? 

If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone navigating a setback, recovery journey, or major life transition. Emma's story is proof that your lowest moment does not have to define your future. 

And if you'd like to connect with your host, Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty): 

📸 Instagram: @leslietracey_ 

What separates the practices that command premium prices from the ones stuck competing on discounts? 

In this episode, Leslie Tracey sits down with Adam Haroun, Founder and CEO of Aesthetic Altitude, to discuss luxury branding, patient experience, pricing strategy, and why differentiation is becoming one of the most valuable assets in aesthetic medicine. Adam shares how practices can stop competing on price, attract higher-quality patients, and build brands that thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world. 

Together, they unpack the difference between premium and luxury positioning, why patient experience begins long before someone walks through your doors, and how small operational details can dramatically influence perception, trust, and retention. 

Adam also reveals his powerful "3 Cs" framework for building a luxury brand, explains why your front desk team may be your most important marketing asset, and discusses how practices can thrive in an AI-driven world by doubling down on differentiation, human connection, and exceptional experiences. 

This episode is for practice owners who are ready to stop chasing volume, stop competing on price, and start building a brand that patients actively seek out. 

🎧 Listen On Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube   

🔗 Resources & Links 

👤 Connect with Our Guest Adam Haroun (Founder & CEO of Aesthetic Altitude) 

● 📸 Follow Adam on Instagram: @adamlovesbranding 
● 🤝 Connect with Adam on LinkedIn 
● 💻 Learn More About Aesthetic Altitude 

Remember: 

"If you're trying to appeal to everyone, you'll end up resonating with no one." 

Enjoyed This Episode? 

If this episode made you rethink pricing, positioning, or patient experience, share it with a practice owner who needs to hear it. 

And if you'd like to explore what your brand is really communicating to the market, connect with your host, Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty). 

📸 Instagram: @leslietracey_ 

 What does it look like to build a highly profitable aesthetics empire without losing your ethics, your judgment, or your humanity along the way? Jessica Cvetic, MSPAS, PA-C, didn't arrive in the med spa industry from the world of superficial trends. She arrived through the high-pressure doors of the ER, armed with deep anatomical knowledge, a massive sense of risk responsibility, and a clinical standard that fiercely separates confidence from competence. 

In this episode, we unpack why human connection is fast becoming the ultimate premium offering in an increasingly automated, AI-driven world. Jessica breaks down her breakthrough, trademarked AWQ-10 (Aesthetic Wellness Questionnaire) protocol—a 10-question pretreatment tool designed to catch the 5% of patients who aren't psychologically ready for treatments, ensuring providers fulfil their medical oath to "do no harm" while actively lowering practice litigation risk. 

We also explore the operational reality of "unreasonable hospitality", why patient retention beats transactional volume every single time, navigating medical trust in the age of AI, and how to build a community-driven brand that serves as a true sanctuary for the human spirit. 

This one is for the provider who wants to build something that lasts, anchored in deep clinical ethics. 

🎧 Listen On Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube  

🔗 Resources & Links 

👤 Connect with Our Guest Jessica Cvetic, MSPAS, PA-C (Founder of Citrus Aesthetics & Citrus Franchising) 

• 💻 Visit Citrus Aesthetics  

• 🤝 Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn 

• 📸 Follow Citrus Aesthetics on Instagram 

Remember - "Great marketing gets them through the door once. Only great work brings them back. 

Enjoyed This Episode? If this one made you think differently about your practice, share it with one person who needs to hear it.  

And if you want to talk about what your brand is actually signaling, connect with Your Host — Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty)  

Via: 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leslietracey_/  

Most aesthetic leaders have at least one of these, but very few have all three working together: proof, cultural proof, and distribution. And so they do the work. But somewhere between the exceptional results they achieve and the authority they're working toward, something isn't connecting.

The problem isn't results. It's a distribution problem.

In Part 4 of How Authority Compounds, Leslie gets into the distinction most luxury strategy advice skips entirely; the difference between mass reach and selective desire. The market doesn't reward the person who tries to be everywhere. It rewards the person who builds a highly disciplined media architecture to become completely unmistakable in the right rooms.

This episode walks through the three critical layers of elite authority, why private proof never compounds over time, and what it looks like to apply luxury thinking to your personal brand asset. There's also a practical exercise that will show you, quickly and clearly, exactly how to build a Proof Map to determine where your message must travel to build true narrative equity.

This one is for the leader who is done keeping their achievements private and ready to own their authority.

Don't skip this one.

Part 4 of How Authority Compounds; a four-part series by Leslie Tracey

Part 1: Visibility Is Not The Assethttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubROeKxiB9cPart 2: You Are More Than Your Credentialshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgeDPgIULLgPart 3: Your Post Count Is Not Your Position.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTnbZGEsU8kPart 4: Be Unmistakable in the Right Room

Chapters

00:00 The Importance of Proof in Authority

02:51 Understanding Cultural Proof

05:11 The Role of Distribution in Authority

08:20 Building a Proof Map for Success

🎧 Listen On Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Enjoyed This Episode? If this one made you think differently about your practice, share it with one person who needs to hear it.

And if you want to talk about what your brand is actually signalling, connect with Your Host — Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty)

Via: 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leslietracey_/

Most professionals in this industry have been told the same thing: show up every day, post consistently, stay active. And so they do. But somewhere between all that activity and the authority they're working toward, something isn't connecting. 
The problem isn't effort. It's signal. 

 
In Part 3 of How Authority Compounds, Leslie gets into the distinction most content advice skips entirely; the difference between being seen regularly and actually being known for something. The market doesn't reward the person who posts the most. It rewards the person whose thinking it can recognise, repeat, and trust. 
This episode walks through the two patterns she sees most in medical aesthetics leaders, why perfectionism is just as costly as overposting, and what it looks like to build a body of work that actually adds up to something. There's also a practical exercise that will show you, quickly and clearly, exactly what your last ten pieces of media are telling the market about you. 
This one is for the leader who is done being busy and ready to be known. 

 
Don't skip this one. 
Part 3 of How Authority Compounds; a four-part series by Leslie Tracey 
Part 1: Visibility Is Not The Asset 
Part 2: You Are More Than Your Credentials  

Enjoyed This Episode? If this one made you think differently about your practice, share it with one person who needs to hear it. And if you want to talk about what your brand is actually signalling, connect with Your Host — Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty) Via: 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leslietracey_/

Most professionals lead with their credentials—where they trained, how many years they’ve practiced, and the awards they’ve won. While these things establish competence, they don't always translate to authority or answer the deeper question: Why does this work exist, and why are you the one doing it? Following our discussion in Episode 81: Visibility is not the Asset, we dive into why leading with a biography is just a sequence of events, whereas an Origin Story provides the reason that actually moves people. 

In the second part of this series, we explore why credentials have become a baseline in medical aesthetics and how to stand out by sharing your conviction. We unpack the "Excavation Before Creation" process used at Diamond Hands Media to uncover the narrative you already possess, the three essential questions your origin story must answer, and why true authenticity is about consistency over time rather than oversharing on the internet. 

This one is for the leader who is ready to move beyond just being competent and start building a brand rooted in conviction and authority. 

Stay with it. 

🎧 Listen On  

Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube  

Enjoyed This Episode? 

If this one made you think differently about your practice, share it with one person who needs to hear it. 

And if you want to talk about what your brand is actually signalling, connect with Your Host - Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty) 

Via: 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leslietracey_/ 

Most leaders are working hard to become more visible, showing up on social media, at conferences, and on the podcast circuit. But visibility is not the asset. The asset, the thing that actually compounds and earns trust, is Narrative Equity: what people believe, repeat, and assign value to after they see you. We get into why medical aesthetics is one of the most crowded expert fields and how to stand out when everyone has credentials. We explore the formula for authority that travels without you having to carry it yourself, the neuroscience behind "narrative transportation," and why your origin story is the foundation of your business architecture. This one is for the leader who is tired of creating media fragments and is ready to build a cohesive brand associated with a thesis. Stay with it. 🎧 Listen On Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Enjoyed This Episode?If this one made you think differently about your practice, share it with one person who needs tohear it. And if you want to talk about what your brand is actually signalling connect with Your Host - Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty) Via:📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leslietracey_/

Episode 80 - The Work Is the Brand with Brad & Danielle Mathers (Owners of The Luxe Room & The Lads Room)

From a single borrowed room on a profit share agreement to an Inc. 5000 company ranked #54 with 5,013% growth. Brad and Danielle Mathers didn't build The Luxe Room by watching what everyone else was doing. They built it by being pathologically focused on the work, the patient experience, the team, the clinical standard, and the operational infrastructure that makes a founder's magic survivable at scale.

In this episode we get into what luxury actually means when you strip the word of all its marketing fluff, how you transfer a clinician's genius into a brand that doesn't fall apart when she's not in the room, what the men's aesthetics market is quietly becoming, and what the people who don't make it almost always get wrong.

This one is for the practice owner who is still in the room. 

Stay with it.

🎧 Listen On

Spotify  |  Apple Podcasts  |  YouTube

🔗 Resources & Links

👤 Connect with Our Guests - Brad & Danielle Mathers, RN (BSN), CANS (Owners of The Luxe Room & The Lads Room)

💻 Visit The Luxe Room: https://www.instagram.com/the.luxe.room/

📸 Follow Brad Mathers on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradmathers_/

📸 Follow Danielle Mathers on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/injector.danielle/

Remember - "Great marketing gets them through the door once. Only great work brings them back."

Enjoyed This Episode?

If this one made you think differently about your practice, share it with one person who needs to hear it. And if you want to talk about what your brand is actually signalling connect with Your Host - Leslie Tracey (Founder, Diamond Hands Media | Author | GAIN Business Faculty) Via:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leslietracey_/

In this solo episode of the Diamond Hands Podcast, Leslie Tracey delivers a reality check to the medical aesthetics industry: your marketing signal might be working against you. Drawing from the "anti-laws" of luxury strategy, Leslie explains why being "approachable" and "affordable" is actually repelling the caliber of patient you want to treat. From the psychology of the "I Am" state to the high-stakes expectations of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, Leslie breaks down the architectural shift required to move from a generic practice to a luxury brand. This episode is a masterclass in declaring your value, creating intentional friction, and ensuring your brand signal is legible to those who value time and excellence over discounts.

🔗 Resources & Links 🌐 Visit Diamond Hands Media: https://www.diamondhandsmedia.com/ 📖 Featured Book: The Luxury Strategy by Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien 📰 Join the Branded Practice Newsletter: https://www.diamondhandsmedia.com/ 📸 Follow Leslie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diamondhandsmedia/ 🤝 Connect with Leslie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-tracey/ If you understand brand, story, and distribution, you can build anything in this industry.Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly strategy for aesthetic founders & healthcare CEOs:🔗 https://www.leslietracey.com/Work with my team at Diamond Hands Media:🔗 https://diamondhandsmedia.com(Healthcare video marketing, executive brand strategy, and branded patient journeys for leaders who want to dominate their market.)––– My Book –––Be Intentional or Be Irrelevant🔗 https://a.co/d/fE8DuQoSource paper: https://arxiv.org/html/2510.14223v1