Episode Transcript
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Hey, this is Lacey with SmartCast, and I'm here today with Melissa Gibbons. Also, you like to be called Missy, right?
[00:00:26] Speaker B: I do.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: So we are at the Amp Owner Summit here in Phoenix, Arizona, and you have a wildly successful practice. I hope you brought your carry on or your checked bag, because you took home every award that they have last night. So congratulations on that. That was incredible. It was like Taylor Swift up there.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Well, I would not say that that was me taking home those awards, but it was actually my team. It is definitely a collaborative effort to make these things happen.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: We were very honored, and I'm very proud of them for helping me be able to do what we do every day.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
Well, you're super busy, and I know that they've got you all over the place. I won't take up too much of your time, but I just wanted to know a little bit about you and your practice and how you got started in medical aesthetics.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: So I've grown up in medical aesthetics. Actually, my first job, I guess, out of college was working for the medical division of L'Oreal, and it was a company called Biomedic that was then purchased called La Roche Posay. And that's now you'll see that distributed in pharmacies throughout the United States, actually, all over the world. And so I initially sold chemical peels with that company to plastic surgeons and dermatology offices. And I was with them for, gosh, about five years and knew that I had kind of landed in the right spot because my background at that time was to be an educator or to be in education. And I figured out really quickly that maybe the classroom setting in a school district was not where I was supposed to be teaching, but I still loved being able to share my knowledge and passion for what I did. And so I started off working for them, and then I was recruited by a company called BIOFerm, and I was able to bring one of the first dermal biosimulatory fillers, or regenerative fillers, called Radies to market. And I was with them for 15 years or no, I'm sorry, about maybe twelve years. Ten to twelve years. And then I went back to nursing school and nurse practitioner school, and I've had my private practice for, gosh, 1112 years now.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Yeah. That's fantastic.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: I'm 100 years old.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: We love radius. It's a great product. It's one of our favorites, probably one of the top injectables that we do at our practice.
So when you started your medical aesthetics practice, what was the first device that you brought on?
[00:02:45] Speaker B: So the first device that I brought on was skin pen. It was an affordability. It was very affordable for us to bring it on. And I also was a little you're a little scared, or you should be, I think as a practitioner bringing on equipment, because there's just so many things that you have to make sure are not gimmicky and that are safe and that are tried and true and that have true research behind them. And so I think that you have to be conscientious when you're trying to choose something that you've done your research and due diligence and spoken to people and made sure that you're bringing on something, that you get consistent results, that it's very reliable and safe for patients.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
Do you have a lot more devices now?
[00:03:24] Speaker B: So we have Skinpin, we have Exceed, we have two Bbls cyton devices, one with Moxie, one with BBL Hero. We have hydrofacial. We have aquiferm we have two Scarlets, two Agnes.
We have a Pelvic floor strengthening device. We have M sculpt. We have not Mcella. We have M sculpt. Let's see what else we have. Cool sculpting elite. We have a light stem bed and light stem bed. We have three light stem pro panels. And then we have gosh. I think that's for the most part, lots of options. Yeah, lots of options. There's lots of Porsches in my garage, for sure.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Yes. And so when choosing those devices, was it something that you were just looking for a solution to? Was it something that your patients were asking for? How did those devices come to be a part of your practice?
[00:04:19] Speaker B: So I think you kind of have to find a need and fill it. So it depends on what your clients are asking for. I think sometimes people get wrapped up in what's trendy, but really what you have to do is think about from a perspective of if you're a face person, figuring out what is missing, right? And then you have to plug in those things that are missing for your patient. And so skin health has always been very important to us at our practice. And I always say we were doing regenerative aesthetics before it was even cool or was even really a thing. Right. So we started using biostimulatory fillers really early on, and we knew from that point, and now there's been studies that support what we already know, that when we do those types of things, not only does it serve as a filler, but the skin integrity starts to look different. So when you start thinking about it from a comprehensive approach, after you've kind of built your foundation on healing things from the inside out, then you start having think about, or at least we did, what can we offer that's going to change the surface and the texture of the skin from the outside in? And so that's kind of how we started adopting different devices. And so yesterday there are some studies and data that show, I think it's from a plastic surgery journal, what people come in for based on ranking most often. And skin texture really is one of those things that's at the top of the list. And so that's kind of how we adopted different devices. And in our practice, we are fortunate enough to do maybe some post market approval studies on devices that are on their final FDA clearance. And so we get to adopt those early and kind of figure things out and help give feedback and finish those trials. And so sometimes we are lucky and then sometimes we are not so lucky. But I think you just have to it depends on your practice. And so we were looking for something to help address texture and pigment and color. And then from that, then we started addressing patients that had laxity. So it really just depends on the needs of your patients.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So of the different skincare conditions, what would you say you're most passionate about?
Oh my gosh, if you can even choose one, it's a short podcast. I'm sorry.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Going to dinner. This might end up being a dinner or a cocktail conversation.
I really get excited about hair.
I can't tell you how many times that a patient comes in to have their lips done, and if I'm looking through and staring at their scalp, I will just have a conversation with them and say, do you know, I know you're here to get your lips done, but do you know I can fix your hair? And I think patients really appreciate that at our practice because we are a solutions based business. And I don't think it's fair for me if I'm truly being honest with them, if they come in for one thing, and I know I have a solution for something that they probably just don't even have the, I don't know, the nerve or they're embarrassed to talk about it kind of thing.
It's up to us as providers to say, you should save that $800 and we should put it here. And so hair is super exciting to me because I do think that it changes people's perception of themselves so very much. Acne scars is another thing that really can change the way someone feels about themselves because that's the only thing that they see in the mirror. Even if they're flawless in every other way, that's really something that it just does something to their self esteem. And so I'm very passionate about that as well.
And I guess for my older clientele, if they look sad around their mouth or if they have jowls, that literally drags them down, I guess, psychologically. And so if we can just make them look a little bit more refreshed, it does something for them more than skin deep. Right, so now you've not just changed the way they look, but when you can change the way they feel about how they look. I think that's what really resonates with people. And we always say we're not saving lives, but we kind of are changing them.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Absolutely.
So what would be your go to treatment protocol for someone who's just looking to maintain their skincare or like just getting started and taking care of their skin.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: Well, I always believe in preventative maintenance more than anything so I guess the easiest wrinkle to treat is the one that we never get right. So anytime we can force Collagen to start growing at a very early age because we start losing it and degrading it so fast. And I think because more than ever we are exposed to so many free radicals and things that break down the skin. Even sitting in front of computers, we're getting exposure to blue light and all the things. And so I think it's important to a use sunscreen to protect that skin and the ability to not have free radicals just come in and do wreak havoc on the skin. But also promoting collagen just by doing simple things, whether it is microneedling or microneedling with radio frequency or incorporating some of those retinol products or stem cell products at home, those things are going to help protect from future damage. And I think that's where you have to start just taking care of things early on.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: And you're seeing those patients starting in their early to mid 20s.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Well it's frustrating because sometimes no, sometimes patients in their early 20s want what's trending on TikTok and I think gosh TikTok becomes who they decide is their medical professional question mark, right. So it's up to us to really go, yeah, that's great that you want to lip flip, but let's talk about the fact that you need to protect your skin. And if you had to take that $350 or whatever, we could get you on a good skincare regimen that's going to make everything look better, not just your top lip look bigger. And so again, it's just really having those real conversations with people and even patients that are doing procedures in our office. I always tell them I see you 3% of the time or 4% of the time but I can't make you do your homework and you're not going to know the material or you're not going to have the outcomes that you do if you're not invested in that day to day. You can't skip washing your face, you know that? Wash your face girl, right. So we have that conversation a lot with you girl, you got to wash your face and if you're carrying your Louis Vuitton handbag you got to carry not just Aveeno in that bag but we've got to get you some really good skincare products that are going to make a difference. And so I think it's just a combination of doing those preventative things and also really using good home care products as well.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah, and to your point of patients looking to TikTok or other online resources of trying to figure out what services they think they need, we have the patients that come in and say oh, I want to do this service because my friend Diane does this service. Well, you don't have the same concerns that Diane has. So we need to create a custom.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Treatment plan for, you know, we're a solutions based business, but we're also a science based business and always tell them that. And sometimes TikTok is entertainment, and I love that too. And I get down the scroll hole looking at certain things, and I'm like, wait a minute, this is really far left field here. But again, I think just taking the reins back as a medical provider and just telling them we do what is backed by research, right? And so we don't pick skincare based on a celebrity touting it, even sometimes they tout really good products, but we carry things based on science, right, and research. And so the things in our practice aren't what's trending, and maybe it is now what's trending with the Hill Regenerative aesthetics thing, but just knowing what is really good and valuable and studied and tried and true is going to win every single time over something that's trending.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: And so in your practice, what type of marketing are you seeing is going to be working the best for you and bringing in new client base?
[00:11:57] Speaker B: I think social media, it's a blessing and a curse, right? Because we're constantly trying to gain more followers and do all the things.
Word of mouth is very important. I do think social media is important too, if it's real. And I think that's the biggest problem is people don't know what to decipher as noise versus what's real on social media. So getting the word out, I think about just authenticity. If you're doing something on social media that it is real, it's filtering out all the things that aren't. But that's a good question. I think we're continuing to learn about that every day.
Right now in our practice, we're trying to really focus on SEO and our website, because that's all really hard stuff. But I think just if grassroots approach, if we take all the noise away from what we do. The reason that we've been successful thus far is because we stay focused on us, and we're true to ourselves and we're true to our patients. And once you start looking around, you can get really wrapped up in all the noise and feel like you're not successful because you don't have as many followers, or you're not successful because you're not on the morning talk show, or you're not successful because you don't have a podcast. Right. But I think as long as you just do really good work and you're consistent with your results and your patient base, I think that that will grow hand over fist. And maybe some of the other things evolve. Because you do really good work, and you're just focused on growing your practice and staying true to yourself and what you know.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you could only choose one device in your practice to have yourself, which one would it be?
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Agnes, hands down, without a shadow of a doubt.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Okay. And then were you always really good at speaking or was that something that you had to work on?
[00:13:43] Speaker B: I am not even a good speaker now. I am continuing to learn and grow every day. I have taken many different courses on public speaking.
I record everything that I do on stage because I go home and cringed because the worst thing you have to do is listen to yourself. And so I think you just have to learn as you go and try to just be better than you were the last time that you had an engagement. Right. So it's a constantly evolving thing.
Right.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: And so what advice would you have for a patient that's looking to try to find the best fit for them to meet their skincare needs?
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Well, I think that depends on what's bothering them. I mean, I think it's very dependent on if your goal is antiaging versus acne versus oil production versus fine lines and wrinkles versus elasticity or sun damage. So I think that could be that's a very open ended question. But I think depending on the patient's needs, whether if it's antiaging, we would probably focus on stem cells. If it is sunspots or damage like age spots, you would probably focus on hydroquinone light based therapies. So I think it just really depends on what the patient's needs are. Now, I think the universal skincare product that could be used is a retinol. I think no matter if you're 16 or 65 or even 75, retinol is really one of the mainstays there's kind of the grat. We call it grass, right? Because there's certain things growth factors, retinols, alpha hydroxy, acids, stem cell based products. Those are kind of the foundation of skin health in general.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: And so my final question for you is what's next for you? What's on your agenda? Like, what are you wanting to do next?
[00:15:30] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't really know. I'm very big into the regenerative medicine role. And like I said earlier, I spent some time in Columbia this summer at a stem cell clinic doing some research on how know just on stem cells in general. The US. Has really limited what we can do so far with stem cells. And I hopefully one day they will allow us to use them how I think that they should be able to be used to help true disease states versus just offering medications and solutions to the problems that I think we create through inappropriate foods and inadequate foods in the US. But I think that I would really like to learn more about how to prepare the body and get rid of more of this chronic inflammation or inflammaging process that I think is really everyone is suffering from and really dive down into the why we have inflammaging. And I am bringing more of that into my practice. We are offering now epigenetics testing so we can learn from the patient's hair follicle samples that we take what their chronic exposure to what they have, they're lacking, what foods are highly inflammatory to them. So we're really getting down more on that molecular level of the why. And I think the deeper that we dive into, that really is going to open up an opportunity to prevent and stop more of the inflammaging process based on the individual, not just based on a concept. And so I think that's what I think that in the next six months to a year, I'm really going to continue to dive into. And we're already starting to offer some of those things in our practice, like the infrared Led beds and things like that. But I think we're going to even just continue to learn along the lines of regenerative medicine.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: I think that's wonderful, and I could not agree more. Well, thank you so much for your time, Missy. I really appreciate you coming on with us today. I'm so impressed by what you've created with your team, building a business of what you've done and your team definitely is not an easy task. So you and your teammates have done an amazing job.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: Well, we are very humbled to be here, and we are just continuing to learn and grow like everyone else here. So we come to these teaching, but we leave learning, so I think that's so important.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: For sure.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Well, thank you. Thank you.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us on today's episode of SmartCast in our weekend in Arizona with our partners at.
