Episode Transcript
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Hey, this is Lacey, and thank you for joining us on today's episode of SmartCast. We're joined with Dr Kristen aguire.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Aguiri.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Agiri. And we are at the Amp Owners Summit in Arizona, and we are getting to meet lots of amazing practitioners and practice owners here this weekend and hearing a lot about how you guys are utilizing your equipment, how you're able to do combination therapy, and how you're integrating it in everyday skincare treatments. So thank you so much for joining us today. I'm excited to learn more about you and your practice.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited to kind of share what our experience has been like and kind of get the word out about these amazing devices.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Yeah. So tell me a little bit about yourself and your background and what kind of moved you into the world of aesthetic medicine.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: So I grew up in San Clemente, a little beach town in the southernmost part of Orange County. Dad's a nuclear engineer, mom's a systems analyst. And I went through college as a math and physics major. And then halfway through, realized that I really liked being around people all the time. Still wanted to stick with science, loved challenges, loved science, but also just loved being around people.
And so made a switch to neurobiology, physiology and behavior, which I know is a mouthful. At UC Davis. Then did a couple of years of infectious diseases research with UC Irvine under Susan Wong, and then to the Ohio State University. Did my undergrad there. Got involved in dermatology kind of serendipitously. I was helping run a free clinic there, the physician's free clinic. And the clinic offered specialty care, which know, unusual for a free clinic. And the dermatologist that would volunteer with us kept encouraging me know, hey, Kristen, check this out. Hey, Kristen, check that. You know, if you're ever interested in know, you got an interview with you know, I always thought dermatology was macne and psoriasis, and that sounded kind of boring to me. But I did some rotations and it turns out that dermatology is a very broad field. We do skin cancer surgeries, saving people's lives from melanomas. We help improve people's quality of life. Teenagers with Acne or people with psoriasis or Eczema or just weird stuff.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Can only imagine.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And we also get to do some fun stuff. And that's kind of where I got interested in aesthetics was we can do all these great things that help to slow down the signs of aging, help take better care of the skin, and really it comes to quality of life. People like to look in the mirror and see themselves. And I felt like with my procedural experience and my kind of aesthetic eye and my background in anatomy and the science, it was kind of a fun little outlet from the seriousness of everyday medical and surgery. And that interest led me to be the resident director of Clinical Cosmetic dermatology and surgery for UC Irvine, where I did my advanced dermatologic training. And from there, I've kind of never let aesthetics out of my hands, and it just continues to increase and increase as far as the percentage of my practice that's aesthetics. And it's been really exciting, especially seeing all the different technologies and advancements. We're not just stuck with facelifts or really aggressive lasers or people trying to lift with filler and just blowing people up. So it's a really exciting time in aesthetics where we can keep people looking natural without any serious risks.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I agree. Absolutely. It's so nice to be able to see people be able to get those same results from more non invasive treatments than having to do those deep lasers or deep chemical pills where they were having weeks of downtime. And so we've really spent a lot of time of Reeducating patients on the treatment outcomes and the services that are available to them today because they are stuck in this mindset of thinking that no pain, no gain or they have to have all this major downtime to be able to get the results and that's just not the case anymore. So I think that's amazing that we have these new treatment developments for our patients today. So at your clinic, about how much time are you spending on your medical patients and how much is mainly more cosmetic or aesthetics?
[00:04:56] Speaker B: I'm probably about 50 50 at the moment.
I have a very wonderful medical surgical patient base whom I've been taking care of for years and I adore. And it's been a little bit difficult because as my aesthetic practice grows, I either work more hours or I have to diminish my medical surgical time. And that is something that I struggle with a little bit. But I'm finding the balance there, making sure that the patients that I won't have as much time for do have other really well qualified, excellent, caring physicians within my practice to take over. But I don't know that I'll ever go 100% aesthetics. I think there's something nice about fixing things that are really causing a significant amount of distress in people's lives and maintaining a relationship with my patients.
I pride myself on developing a long term relationship with my patients, whether they be medical surgical, skin cancer surveillance, or with my patients that I see for aesthetics and establishing that partnership for life. I'm here to help them age as best as they can at every stage of their life.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So when you started doing more aesthetics, was that the beginning of your journey as a dermatologist, or did that become part of what you added on, like, once you were already established in your career?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: So I added it on just after graduating from medical school. I went to the Ohio State, which is an amazing medical school program, but their dermatology department at the time, and I think it's changed since then, really didn't view aesthetics as I don't want to use the word legitimate, but I think there was a sense that in academic medicine, we're going to stick with medical surgical, and the rest is maybe fluff. And it was a little bit unfortunate because I think really as dermatologists, us and plastic surgeons are the most kind of already prepared to come into aesthetics. We understand the anatomy of skin. We understand the way that it heals. We understand the underlying facial anatomy because we learn it all through our surgical training. And I think it would be a mistake for dermatology as a specialty to not really lean into aesthetics, as we're already the people that are some of the most qualified to understand how to do it safely, keep it looking natural, really understand why we age and therefore correct it at its source rather than putting a band Aid on it. So when I got into residency, I really started seeking out mentors that focused on aesthetics, learning about the different available modalities.
Anyone who knows me jokes around that I'm greedy for knowledge. So if there was a specialist, say someone who was doing hair transplantation, I was requesting the ability to be with them in clinic, to learn that if someone did endovenous laser ablation or tumescent liposuction or fillers was, hey, can I take my elective day and go spend some time with them? Because there's so much to learn when you're first starting out and even now. So I loved it, and the more I learned about it, the more I wanted to know and the more we took what we did know and said, oh, well, if we can do that with this, can we do that here as well? And it's been a really fun and interesting journey.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So you told me that you guys have the Agnes and the Scarlet. So what does that look like in a day to day practice where you're at as far as seeing medical patients and aesthetic like, what is the setup of that at your location?
[00:08:46] Speaker B: So, for us, we have multiple physicians because we've got seven different locations.
I'm very lucky. I live in Orange County, and so I practice only at our Oceanside office because even though it sounds like it's far, I live in Orange County. My practice is in San Diego County. It's only about 25 minutes across the Camp Pendleton Marine Base. But the other providers, they rotate around, and so the other aesthetic provider that rotates at Oceanside where our devices are, is there on Tuesday. So I don't use our devices on Tuesday, and that frees him up to be able to use them without conflict. And then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which are my other clinic days, I see most Lee cosmetics with kind of medical interspersed within it, and that way I can keep the momentum going without getting kind of bogged down or my back starting to hurt because I'm in the same position for 8 hours. Gets me up, gets me moving again, gets my brain switching from one side to the other, which I think keeps it smarter, faster, more able to adapt to new problems.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: And so how do you switch gears from a medical patient and how you interact with them to an aesthetic patient? How you interact with them? If you're seeing both of those back to back, do you feel that it's just like a different like you're changing your hat to something different? Or do you feel like it just is seamless across the board?
[00:10:16] Speaker B: For me, it feels very seamless. I have the same mentality with both of my patients, because even though one is aesthetic and one is medical, I still consider the medical side of aesthetics. I'm looking for risk factors, safety. Are they going to bruise because they're on blood thinners? Are they going to swell? Because in knowing them, I know that they tend to be more reactive. And I care for both in the same sometimes getting me behind thorough, caring. I sit, I talk with them. I ask them if they have questions. We go over what their concerns are. I provide whatever service it is they need. So my medical patients, maybe a skin check, some biopsies, an excision, a new acne regimen. And with my aesthetic patients, it's the same. How are you? How was your last treatment? Do you have any questions or concerns? Are you ready to get started? I chitchat with them while we're doing the procedure because as a mentor of mine in residency said, verbal anesthesia is very effective. And if you can get people talking, it helps them feel more comfortable, whether they're naked and getting a skin check or whether they're uncomfortable. Because while we are making huge strides in the comfort of aesthetic procedures, the ones that involve needles, well, they still involve needles. And so we're not quite at a point where we're pain free. But if I can keep them distracted and keep them talking, they tend not to feel or experience the pain in the same way as if I was quiet and they were getting in their own head about when's the next needle stick going to come.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And then are you cross promoting your aesthetic services to your medical patients? Or, like, when you're seeing them for medical services, are you letting them know, hey, we have this treatment available to you? I mean, are they asking you specifically for those things? Or are you just saying, hey, just to let you know, these are some services that we offer.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: So I tend to be a pretty low pressure person.
I tend to talk with them about, hey, your skin's a little bit on the drier side. But people will make comments like, oh, I hate these brown spots, or can you do anything about this? As they pull their lower face back. And I listen for the subtle ways in which patients are asking for more information without wanting to feel vain. And I think that's something in aesthetics that we really battle against is this sense that if you're doing something to make yourself look more attractive, then that's vanity, and that's a sin somehow. And I try and reassure my patients, if the paint on my house was chipping, I would repaint it. Somebody dents my car door, I'm going to fix it. Why would my face be different than that? And I think that gives them the ability to ask questions and talk to me about what's making them insecure or feel less confident than they want to without feeling naughty or that they're not making the right priority in their life and make them more comfortable to be able to ask the questions that they have without worrying that I'm going to hard sell them on something they don't want or make them look weird or hurt them, that type of thing.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and to add to your car analogy, they still have to change their oil to maintain their vehicles to keep it running at its best. I like your analogy. That was really good. Yeah.
[00:13:57] Speaker C: So why did you guys choose the Agnes and Scarlet to bring on to your practice?
[00:14:02] Speaker B: So I chose the Agnes because it fit a niche I like to be able to do for my patients whatever it is that they need from me within reason. Right. I'm not going to manage their blood pressure or it's outside my specialty, but I would have patients come into me with sagging jowls, with undereye fat bags, and until the Agnes, it was surgery. It was always surgery. And as much as I do love my plastic surgery colleagues, I think there are a lot of incredibly skilled and talented plastic surgeons out there.
Patients don't always want to go under the knife. Or can't. Or can't, exactly. They may not be a good candidate. They may be afraid. They may not want to spend the kind of money that it would require to do something like that. So I've always been on the lookout for how do I fill those niches? How do I maintain that patient within my practice and provide for them a solution to what's bothering them without them having to do the thing they don't want to do or won't do? And I was sitting at Fall clinical watching a lecture by Dr. Chilla Curry, who's fabulous.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: We know him. He's wonderful.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: So nice. Just unbelievably nice. And he was talking about Agnes. And right in front of us, they did a live demo destroying the fat underneath the eye. And I couldn't believe it. I was watching this in disbelief as this fat just disappeared from where she was without screams of pain, without her being under general anesthesia. And I thought to myself, that is it. That is what I have been missing. And so I sought out Dave Caraway, who I'm sure you also know I've.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Known him almost my whole life. Yes.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: And just such a great guy. And he showed me how it did, and I asked him questions about it. It's safe, it's effective, and it was a done deal at that point. So I brought Agnes on, and it has so far performed exactly the way that it is supposed to, which is somewhat unusual for an aesthetic device. Most of the time you see before and afters, and either you're trying to figure out which one of them is the before and which one of them is the after, or they have their disclaimer results. Not typical. And that's been kind of the theme with energy based devices to a large degree, which has created a cynicism in a lot of the aesthetic practitioners and.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: The patients as well.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Absolutely.
And I still fight that in clinic patients. Are you sure?
[00:16:58] Speaker A: What kind of guarantee can you give me?
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Exactly.
And there are no guarantees in life. But I do stand by my patients. If I also don't see a result from something, I will either do something different to get them their results, or I will refund them their money, because it's a long term partnership. I'm not a okay, sorry, that didn't work.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: See you later.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Too bad. Tough cookies. For me, the relationship is the most important part. And so we brought Agnes on. And it has been a game changer in my practice from lifting brows, tightening eyelid skin, eliminating fat, lifting lower faces, necks, bra fat, abdominal fat, lipomas, sebaceous, hyperplasia, I mean, you name it. If there's a problem, since we understand the science of how Agnes works and we understand the anatomy, the world is our oyster. And then I started watching everybody at the events, at the conferences, using scarlet, in addition, watching them get the same degree of consistency in results. And last year, I had a scarlet done at the owner summit, and I could not believe it. I glowed. I mean, I couldn't even have gotten more compliments per day, unsolicited. And it was very, very comfortable.
And I thought to myself, what am I waiting for? We have a competitor's device that I won't name, but my previous device, the needles didn't go in as well as they should have. I was doing nerve blocks and pronox and verbal anesthesia, and I was still having patients that were refusing to finish their treatments because they just couldn't take it. And Scarlett isn't like that. We get better results in a similar amount of time.
They have such minimal downtime. I had Scarlett done fairly aggressively at my request yesterday again, and I'm barely pink today.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I would never have guessed. You look great.
You're glowing, actually.
[00:19:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I was like, what is your foundation?
[00:19:26] Speaker A: What's your blush?
[00:19:27] Speaker C: What's the situation?
[00:19:29] Speaker A: It's the scarlet bronze. Yes, it is.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: It's the scarlet glow. And every patient I have treated so far is, when can I get in for my next scarlet. I can't believe how easy that was.
I can't believe I'm not bruised. I don't have track marks. It's unbelievable. We've had the Scarlet for a short period of time, and my schedule is already packed. I haven't even had a chance to advertise on it yet, and word of mouth alone has my schedule booked out already.
It's been unbelievable.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: That's fantastic. We love Scarlet. It's definitely one of our favorite devices, and our patients love it too. I think we did nine last week, and it's still a little bit summery outside. It's still 90 degrees in Alabama.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: Holy moly.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Yeah. So you have Agnes and Scarlett and you're pairing the two together.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: So I do a combination much of the time. Sometimes I'll just use the Agnes, but I'm finding that the instances in which I just use the Agnes are shrinking.
I would still just use the Agnes for sebaceous hyperplasia, for small lipomas, but even for my around the eyes, which is a relatively limited space, I'm finding that the Scarlet, because it has some coagulation, it helps to shut the vessels down, which helps reduce my patient's bruising, miraculously helps reduce their swelling. Even though I'm delivering more energy on top, the way that Dr. NA has created that energy delivery, I mean, the tissue reacts to this microneedling device in a completely novel way. And I get better upper face improvement, I get better lower face lift and tightening. And because the handpiece has the little motor that drives the needles in smoothly and seamlessly, I'm also getting deeper energy delivery to body. And so I'm getting much faster results, much better, more comprehensive results, when I'm doing things like bra fat, where I eliminate the fat with the Agnes, and then I tighten up that skin using the scarlet. And now I feel like they're Laverne and Shirley. They're going together hand in hand, and.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: They have the old lady names to match.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: That's exactly right, agnes and Scarlett.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: So I see that you have Xoe as well. Are you doing exosomes with every single one of these treatments, or are you letting them add those ala carte?
[00:22:10] Speaker B: I'm not a big believer in nickel and diming my patients. I know how amazing the exoe is. I know how much improvement they get in their downtime, in their results, in their comfort.
And for me, I'm greedy for knowledge. I'm greedy for results too. And so when I'm talking to patients about what I think we should do, I'm including exosomes automatically, because to me, it doesn't make sense to say, okay, we're going to do this service, but also it's going to be an additional amount. And also it's going to be an additional amount. Psychologically, patients feel like you're taking advantage of them, that you're bait and switching them. They want to know, this is what it's going to cost me, this is what I can budget into my finances, and I don't want them feeling afraid that I'm going to slip something in.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Kind of like the restaurant industry these days. Exactly.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Don't make me order a steak and then asparagus, just give it all to.
[00:23:17] Speaker C: Me on the whole package up front.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So are you guys doing face, face and neck? Face, neck and chest. Do you do single visits? Do you do a package of three? Like, what's your recommendation?
[00:23:27] Speaker B: So it depends on the person. So my younger patients, I might say, hey, let's start with one, see how we do. I'm going to see you back in two to three months. If you want additional enhancement, improvement, then let's do another. For some of my older patients, or even some of my younger patients who have been very outdoorsy, maybe smoked in their youth, or hopefully not anymore, if they're a little more, I tell them, look, I think you're going to need two, three, four treatments.
Let's do it as a package. And that way I can extend some cost savings to it just it varies. And sometimes I will get patients who have been burned in the past, they've gone to other providers or medical spas or we're very close to Mexico, so some will have gone down to Mexico to receive treatments and they've failed to see improvement and so they're gun shy to purchase an entire package. So I price it out. I like to provide a written consultation quote for my patients. I find it makes them feel more secure. It makes our clinic feel more secure as well, because we have something in their chart and they have something to take home that says, this is what I recommended, this is how many treatments I think it's going to take to get you to where you need to go, and this is your cost. That way the patients won't say, well, she said it was this and, oh, well, I didn't see any improvement after one. It's like what I said, we needed three and we as a clinic, my front office doesn't think, oh, well, it's this amount, there's no guessing. It's all in writing and it locks it in for six months because prices change all the time. We try not to change our prices.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Frequently, but sometimes our vendors prices go up.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: Exactly.
So if our supplies go up or things like that, we have to increase prices just to maintain the status quo. And so if they've come to me for a consultation, I'm not going to say, oh, yeah, well, it was that amount, but now it's this amount, because that also erodes the trust between the patient and myself. And I think trust is one of the most important parts of that relationship.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like it's very smart that you guys put it all in writing. So that way there is a very clear communication between the patient and the office as to what is expected from you and what's expected from them. And it's all right there and there's no discrepancy between the two.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: Exactly. I also include the direct extension for my cosmetic scheduler. That way there's no risk of them reaching one of our call center representatives who's more accustomed to getting insurance information and going down that path. I find I have fewer scheduling errors this way. And because cosmetic patients don't have to wait for authorizations or referrals, and usually once you have decided what you want to do, you want it done yesterday, I like to give them a more direct access. That way they can get into, get scheduled, they can ask questions from someone who is knowledgeable about our procedures. And it's a smoother, more comfortable experience for the patients.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So now that we have exosomes, and I see you also have the Cylinous PRP, are you seeing some of your PRP patients moving towards exosomes? Are you doing just as many PRP? What are your thoughts on that?
[00:27:07] Speaker B: So I tend to use PRP slightly differently now than I did before. So when I'm doing microneedling, for example, I would often pair plateletrich plasma with it to boost the effects of it, speed healing, get an additional degree of luminosity in the skin. And those things I can achieve by adding the exosomes. But there are things that I do like marrying it with sculptra that I'm not going to do with exosomes because I'm not injecting exosomes or for younger patients who have some hollowing underneath the eye but don't want to do, fillers in that area.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: And maybe now derma PRP.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Derma PRP. It's very exciting. It's very exciting. The idea that we can use a patient's own albumin to take their PRP and instead of it being a liquid, create a gel which will last for longer.
I believe that patients have been pushing for and asking for and requesting that we move in a more natural way, that we allow our own bodies to assist in the regenerative process. And it's driven science and scientists to find a way to do that. And I think we're going to continue to see things like Salinis derma coming out. I think we're going to see more plant based exosomes rather than the previous exosomes were based in human derived. And there's just a lot of people that don't really like the feel of having something that was derived from another person injected into them. That's not to say that they don't work, but I think the patients emotionally would really rather that it not come from another human.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: I think that patients are demanding cleaner ingredients in their skincare products as well.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: They are not purchasing things with chemicals in it. They're wanting more plant based treatment options. So I'm really excited about what's to come with AMP's new skincare line as well, their Lash and Brow serum that's going to be launching soon, I cannot.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: Wait for and it makes sense for them to follow with Lash and Brow after how successful derive has been. I have to be honest, when Derive first came out, and I think this is true for a lot of us, the results they were seeing in such a short period of time, we were.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: Like, yeah, right, exactly.
We've seen everything that they've tried to say works and that doesn't.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: And everything's been such a letdown and a disappointment. So the excitement around Derive has been incredible.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: 100%. And the surprising thing is, how can it be so fast?
I'm scared to ask.
Just let it keep working. Absolutely. And there are additional skincare lines out there that have thought that same thought of how do we take what we know about the stimulators, the drivers of replication, of renewal, and harness them. We do microneedling to create a controlled wounding response. We take our tiny little needles and we poke them in there a whole bunch of times and we say, hey body, you're wounded, turn on your guys and let's get some new stuff built. And there are some nice skincare lines out there that have isolated those molecules. I mean, I'm a huge fan of defonage, which is a skincare line that isolated the defensein and the defensein wakes up that stem cell and helps to encourage your body to create new youthful skin. And now we have Derive doing the same thing in the hair and eyebrows and eyelashes. It's going to be a very exciting next decade, I think, as we really learn more about how our bodies behave and what signals them. And we're seeing advances in cancer treatment, harnessing the potential of the body's own immune system to fight the cancers, the use of heavy duty chemos and chemical based skincare and aggressive, painful procedures.
I think it's a very exciting time in aesthetics and medicine and I hope to see that go out into other things like cleaning and pet care and veterinary and cleaning up the environment.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: I feel like I'm seeing that trend.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: And I love that. I think that's really great because it's so important to people.
We're asking for it, we're demanding it.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: As we should.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: 100%.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: And you're using Derive yourself at your.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Clinic, so I have not started using drive at my clinic predominantly because, well, a practice as large as ours, it's like turning a cruise ship. So we've got to choose something, get it moving, get it going, make sure that we're giving it the time and the effort that it needs to really.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: You do have to focus, you have to have a very dedicated person to say, this is what we're going to do for the launch of this product. Because patient education is really important with this one specifically. And there's a lot of overcoming bad taste in patients mouths absolutely. From bad results from previous treatments.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. And we don't want to let something that's amazing and incredible get overshadowed because we've hopped from one thing to the next too fast. So. I'm a big believer in if you're going to do something, do it right. And sometimes that takes a little bit of patience, and that's okay, because the last thing that I want is to be too quick, too fast, too sloppy, and have patients not get the best possible care because I hopped to the next thing too soon. We've brought Agnes in, and as I've had the Agnes, I've learned about what are patient complaints?
Do they talk to me about, yeah, my eyes were a little swollen. What can we do about that? And so in addition to adding exosomes, I make sure that my counseling changes, that my follow up is more thorough. If I'm hearing things from my patients, like, oh, I didn't know that I was supposed to do that, then I adjust, and I like to get things as close to perfect as I can and then move on to the next thing. That way, we're a well oiled machine, and the patient experience and safety above all else is preserved.
Plus training staff. I need my staff to know what the services are, know how to set up for a procedure, know how to answer questions when the patients call. And it can be overwhelming for people without a background in this to take in all of that information really internalize it seamlessly. So once I feel everyone's kind of tied in and we're a well oiled machine, then let's talk about the next move.
[00:34:54] Speaker C: We've brought on Drive personally, and we've tested it out for it's probably been three or four months now, and we've been blown away with the results of it. So, I mean, you definitely have to bring in the right people and the right training. But I think last week when we were doing one, we saw a young lady, like, full of baby hair, and it was just totally incredible within two months. So derive works, something you should definitely consider bringing on.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: And we did test it out extensively on our own staff before we even announced it to our client base.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: Exactly. And I'm a big fan of that.
I collect patients in my mind who I think are good candidates for things on the horizon.
And if I have staff members that are good candidates, I have a lot of very lovely medical assistants, but they all have this gorgeous, thick hair. And so I've been collecting, in the back of my mind, patients of mine that I see for hair regrowth that are great patients. They're reasonable, they follow instructions, they show up on time, they honor their part of our relationship.
And when introducing a new service, I tend to provide those services to them at no cost, or sometimes, if it's costly, at the cost that I pay and say, hey, we're thinking about bringing this new technology on.
This is what it's supposed to do. I've been thinking of you as a good candidate. How do you feel about coming in, getting this service and giving me feedback, and the patients love it. They know that I've been caring for them even when they're not in front of me. They love to give me feedback because it's exciting to try something new, and they don't have to worry about, I'm going to try this new thing. She's not even sure if it works. I'm going to lay down all this money.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: It's okay.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: Well, if it doesn't work, they were at a little bit of time. But if it does work, then I get to know that before I start asking patients to pay to receive the service. And my patients get a sneak peek on what the future holds, and I find that that sets me up for a success, and it leaves me in a less vulnerable position to be making excuses for why they didn't see the results I said they would get.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: Well, Kristen, thank you so much for your time with us today. I don't want to keep you too long. I know that there's so much invaluable information going on next door in the conference room. So we really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us. And we'll see you later.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, thank you guys for having us. I can't wait to hear it.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of SmartCast in our weekend in Arizona with our partners at Amp.
