Episode Transcript
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Hey, this is Lacey with Smartskin, and I'm here today with Myron, my longtime friend. And I'm so excited that I'm getting to work with you again in this new role at Raviq, which is the software development program that I have been gushing about for the last couple of years that we've been working with you with. So thanks for coming in today.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. We love it when Lacy gushes.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Yes. So you and I met when you were our regional manager at Skinmedica. How long ago was that?
[00:00:50] Speaker B: I don't know. Is it close to 20 years? Surely not.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: No.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Yeah. 15 maybe.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Probably.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So we've known each other for a long time and through a couple of other of our companies as well. But finally, you reached out to me one day and pitched this idea of a software development company, and it could not have been more perfect timing because we were getting ready to go out and find someone to build what we needed. So I have all of these fantastic platforms that we use in our day to day at Smartskin, and there's things that we love about them and there's things that we don't love about them, but more importantly, they were all on different platforms, and we were paying a significant amount of money to be able to use these different things. And so what my goal was was to take everything that we love about these platforms and put it all in one place so that we could also set ourselves up to be able to open additional locations and it be a lot more turnkey and easy to train new staff to be able to use those things. And then also for us to be able to have more access to see how each clinic was doing on a day to day, regardless of whether we were inside the practice that day or nothing. So we're super excited that you guys have helped us build this dream.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, you have helped us, too. You know, the partnership has been extraordinary, and I really can't just thank you enough. But Raviq is only as good as smart skin lets us be. So you let us be pretty darn good.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: I love it. You know, I have so many ideas, and you guys have been so good about taking the ideas and doing everything that you can and then saying, keeping me, like, realistic in what you can do, not day one, but day soon. And that's one of your lines that I love that you use one of my lines, even if I don't get it right away. It's so exciting for us to be able to grow our business in a way that we know that you guys can help support that as we grow and as we need to pivot. And, like, sometimes things work right now until they don't, and then whenever it's time for us to grow and move and pivot into a new direction. I know that you guys are really good about helping us to come up with solutions for those issues that we're coming across as we're growing in our client base and into our new locations and things like that. So for me, I love technology and I love that we're able to streamline everything and give our staff the tools to be able to set ourselves up for success.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: That's fantastic. I am a strong believer in the partnering with the leaders in the industry and having that direct dev to owner relationship and dev to provider relationship so that we gain your input, create the platform that's needed. There's nothing more powerful than partnering with the industry leaders in this space. And memberships in your world is a great example of that.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, I feel like you guys are so in line with, like, for instance, our partners at color science, and it only makes sense that you guys are also going to be working with color science and the rewards program and implementing that into the system as well. And I think that both of you are so aligned with working with your accounts directly and hearing from us what we need instead of just assuming and then throwing something out. We have to change our business model to work with what you've built versus you building what we need. And I think that both you and color science are excellent at listening to the needs of the people that are in this role.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Oh, that's. I really appreciate you saying that, and I really want to make that a priority item for us. You know, in this, what we call direct pay medicine, which aesthetics is clearly a part of, if not the leader in it, is that what we call payment friction and processing friction, the ability to pay with loyalty points as well as a credit card as well as cash. It just needs to be from search to check out a seamless experience. I was actually part owner of a med spa a while ago, and one of the most. This is a hard job you have, Lacy. It is a hard job. I knew it was hard, but way harder than I thought. And one of the most stressful areas is, is that checkout area. I mean, that staff, and you have such a wonderful staff and such wonderful team members for that, but that is a stressful experience to make sure it goes smoothly for your members, your patients.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Well, I think it's such an incredible opportunity that you had to be a business owner. And I know you've worked in the medical aesthetics industry for a really long time, but that world, in this world, couldn't be any more different in what you're understanding about the day to day operations and what we truly need whenever we are patient facing, and we're dealing with not only, you know, making sure that we're offering the best of the best technologies, and we're doing the proper amount of training for our staff, and we're trying to give the most top tier customer service that we can, and we're trying to pay the bills, and we're trying to make sure that our finances are in order. And so I just think that it's really good that you have the ability to understand what it's like to be in this space so that you can kind of translate to your company and what we actually do need whenever we're running a day to day. And then I think, too, there's so many business owners that don't have a grasp of what's truly going on inside of their business. And so for me, it's been really important for us to create the opportunity for these business owners to have a really great outlook on everything that's going on within their medical aesthetics business instead of just trying to survive.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: I think that a lot of them just make gut instinct decisions and that they don't really have a full understanding of their finances, and they don't have a full understanding of their scheduling, they don't have a full understanding of those little details that I don't think that they realize that they need to know until they're really deep into it. And for us to be able to give them the opportunity to set it up with success from the very beginning is going to be game changing for people.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: I totally agree. It's shocking to me in this space that is growing and very dynamic, how many business owners don't know their p and l don't know their margins, don't know what makes the most money, what costs them money and that sort of thing. And so in what we call direct pay medicine, the ability to use an EMR, to use a software program, to not only manage that, but track to that. I used to say when I was with Allergan, you cannot manage what you do not measure. Right? And so the ability for reveal, to do all of those things, you know, from search to checkout, is a powerful thing. Kudos to you for, and I know you were very transparent with it. I think you said maybe like two, three, four years ago is when you really took ownership, the financial aspect. Cause I've known you a long time, and I thought you always did, but you had just a tremendous humility and transparency with it, like, nope, not always.
But you could tell that you own the entire experience from a patient and from a customer standpoint, but then you own it from a business owner experience as well. And it really makes us step up to make sure that we're providing you the best data that we can provide you in a dynamic, accessible way.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Right. Well, I mean, I think that, you know, as we've grown for a really long time, it was me behind the desk and my brother behind the desk, and family members behind the desk. And now that we've grown, we have new staff that we're training. And so I think that for me personally, I want to grow into new markets and I want to open up new stores. And so I just know that in order to do that and do it well, we have to have a program that's going to help support that and streamline everything and make it kind of. I don't want to say dummy proof, but dummy proof.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: And so, like, the more that you can automate things in a way that makes sense without adding too many bells and whistles that are not necessary, then you're going to eliminate the human nature of laziness.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: And so if you provide less opportunity for things to fall through the cracks, you're going to be set up a little bit better. And so you can duplicate that into more practices a little bit more seamlessly without any room for error. You can kind of just lay it out very transparently for them to just follow these simple steps.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Right, right. You know, when. When I got into the technology side of aesthetics or direct pay medicine, I realized that nobody loved or hated their technology partner. There was an indifference to it, which was the worst of both worlds. I would rather someone. You know, this is a highly emotionally charged space, if you will. People love their Botox, they love their scarlet, they love their amp rep, they love their allergan rep, all those things. Or maybe be the opposite end of that. But I wanted to create this product, not just me, but the team behind me, more importantly than me, of just high energy to see what technology can do if we partner correctly and if we listen intently to leaders in the space, like yourself.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Well, I mean, at the end of the day, I want to be able to focus on our patients. I want to focus on the people that are standing right in front of me, and I want to focus on the patients that are calling in and inquiring about the services. I don't want to spend my entire day doing things that I can have automated to do it for me. So I don't want to pick up the phone and have to call 50 million people. I would like to have a system that's automated to do simple reminders. I like to have systems in place that will send out pre and post procedure instructions and not having to do that manually, and not having to check memberships manually, not having to do a lot of things manually that are taking up a lot of time doing those tasks versus spending that time one on one with the patients that are standing in front of us. So if I can automate some of these things, to me, that's a win win.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I think your staff is starting to see a lot of that as well. It just makes the whole experience elevated. And that's what we want, to make the experience better. We want to make your team better. We want to make your brand stronger, all of those things. And if we're not, we're not doing something right. So I just appreciate the way you sort of look at things and say, now, why are we doing this twice? And I don't know. I don't know. Let's stop doing it twice and let's make sure that Ravik is there to do it once and do it right.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Well, I mean, a lot of it is just like, what is the experience of the user that's using it? And how can we make sure that it's as the least cumbersome to them as possible? So, I mean, if it just makes more sense that the natural tendency is to click right or to have this here or have that there, we want to make sure that we can tell you that first answer that way. You know, if we feel that way, then the rest of your customers probably will, too.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Right?
[00:11:45] Speaker A: So. And then I love, too, that we have the ability to let our marketing team kind of log in and be able to run the reports that they need to make sure that their marketing is on track with what we're doing. And that way they can make decisions that make sense for our business, and then our accounting team to be able to log in and do their reports. And if they can do all of those things, that cuts out one more report that I have to run for them at the end of the month, which, great, because we already have a laundry list of things that we've got to do. And if I don't have to go in and run five reports at the end of the month for my bookkeeper, then that's better. And then everybody is more transparent in our financials at any given moment. And for us to have that, the page that shows us our numbers in real time, we can make an executive decision right away if we see a problem versus not knowing about it until the next month or even at the end of the year.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Right? Right. I do love that you said that, because it does take a village right to run smart skin, and there's a lot of different aspects to it. Marketing and accounting and the whole idea of sitting down with your team, under your leadership, as a part of your team, and making sure that we're the backbone with accessibility to all these different players, from marketing to accounting to providers to all the things, is powerful. So excited to hear your perspective on that.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: So, speaking of color science and our integration with the rewards program, tell me a little bit about where we are with that and where you're hoping that it's going to go in the future. Because I know that there are a lot of different rewards programs with all of our partners. Of course, there's Allie, there's aspire, there's the MERS has got their own reward system. Color science has got a reward system. Pretty much everybody and their brother has a reward system, which means that if we're checking out a patient and they're purchasing skincare from three different manufacturers, that's three different reward system platforms that we're supposed to log into and issue points and redeem points and put. Put them on their checkout so that when we cash out, they get their entitled rewards, which is great, and we're happy to do that, but that takes a lot of time, which is not a great customer experience. And so we've been trying to work on creating a way that we can issue and redeem those points through reveal all in one step.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we have, and we are creating an API between Reviq and color science, their lasting beauty rewards, basically to use their loyalty points at the patient wallet, at the patient checkout time, so that there's not what I call a swivel chair experience where your checkout person, whoever that might be, your team member, isn't going, you know, out from the Raviq system to an external system, having to make some quick calculations and do this all seamlessly and tirelessly. And so just automating those points from the color science lasting beauty rewards directly into review patient wallet, so they can actually accumulate and then eventually deploy or use those points to buy skin care products is a powerful. It sounds easy, and it is.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah. But there's a lot of. A lot of work that goes into the background of it, which is, you know, why so many programs are a little reluctant to be the first to try it out. So kudos to color science for being the first.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: They are just top notch. Can't say enough good things about them. And I'm so thankful that they are so willing to be able to partner with you guys and get this going. And I think that it's gonna be a win win for everybody because obviously they have the rewards program for a reason. They're not just trying to give away free money, just to give away free money.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: It's obviously, you know, anybody that's been reading up on the allergan program and their new change with their point system and all of these, I mean, they're giving away the points because they want to see your buying habits. They want to keep you within the brand. They want to position you to be able to come back as a buyback offer to purchase something. So, I mean, they're not completely innocent in their reward giving, and they want something back in return for it.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: But I think that you're going to have a lot more compliancy within the marketplace of us issuing the points if you make it easier for us to do so.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. Just the whole concept of making it seamless and making it easy for not just the patient that you have in front of you, but the smart skin team member that's actually utilizing and deploying those points. It is a driver. I remember when I first started with Allergan. I'm probably going to pick on them a little bit and use.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: We'll let you. Yeah, it's fine. We love them, but it's okay. We'll pick on them, too.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Right. Right. So I remember schematica joining the, you know, the brilliant distinctions at the time, that portfolio and just being so archaic and having to run point systems like, okay, you have all these points now we need to call these patients to basically see if they want to use the points that they've accumulated. And I think, and I was thinking to myself, there's got to be a better way.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: And that was before you even worked in this industry and you knew how busy we were and that we don't have time to run a report and call all these people and see if they want to use their rewards.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I was the guilty one. I was the one who would.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: You're like, just pull the report.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: And now I know why people rolled their eyes. Like, people like you. I'm like, oh, because it's painful. It's hard. When you're on that practice side, you get a sense of humility, of how day to day, these jobs aren't easy.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: No, I mean, there's no. You don't really have a plan of your day to day schedule, like, what you're gonna do from nine to ten and ten to eleven. Like, sometimes it's just, you don't even know what happened, but it all happened, right? And so it's like when you go to these conferences, too, like, you get all this great feedback and you hear all these things and you're excited. You're like, I'm gonna go back to the office. I'm gonna implement all these things. And you get back to work and you're just like, oh, now I gotta fix all these devices, and I've got to order all this stuff, and I've got to do all this training, and I've got a demo and I've got all these things. And then you're like, like, I forgot to do the things I learned at the conference. Yeah, but now I've got to go run a report and call all my patients.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Right, right. No, they're definitely that sense of humility and just realizing, like, we may move slower, but there's a lot of heavy lifting going on. And I did not realize, I mean, after I say, I would say a dozen years on the industry side, I had no idea of the heavy lifting that was going on. And so that, to me, my perspective is, like, it may take us longer to get to be where Lacey and her team need us to be, but we are doing the heavy lift lifting on behalf of your very amazing team.
And so just want to continue in that direction.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Meanwhile, I'm over here, like, can you swap the start and stop button and can you change this color?
[00:18:30] Speaker B: And it's so funny.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Can you give me a coffee cup to block this time?
[00:18:33] Speaker B: All right. And I'm colorblind. And I remember talking to Joe Gordon, our chief product guy, and some others on our team, and they're like, oh, my gosh. And you're colorblind. We have to do this through Lacy, who's great, but you're colorblind. You're not helping at all, which luckily.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Ashley from Lyft sent you guys our color schema. So.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Have they had the opportunity to change that over yet?
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Do you know, I think they have. I think they have.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: Okay, good.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I love the way you're putting me on the spot right now. That's fantastic. But you will know.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: I'll go check later and I'll call you. I don't know if you lied to me.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Perfect. Perfect. No, it really. I just almost want to reiterate that point. It does take a village.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: It does.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: And that's what I've learned probably more than anything else, is like to do this right and to do this effectively where it works day to day and actually makes lives simpler and elevates experiences. There is heavy lifting involved and a.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Lot of work when you have to have buy in from your team too, because, you know, when they have an easier way to do it, it's hard. They're very resistant to change.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: And so if you're not making their lives easier and you're not making it to where it's beneficial to them to make the switch, it's hard to get that buy in. So you've got to get it right and you've got to make it user friendly, and you've got to make it in a way that they enjoy using it and it makes things better for them. It makes things better for our patients because they're getting a better patient experience as well.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: No, absolutely. I know we've said this before, you know, replacing six or seven six systems for that smart skin was using, that's real. But still, the process of replacing those with, you know, on that day to date, that's real too. Right. And so getting to that place is changing habits. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. What I was going to ask you, like, from a reveal standpoint, what has been the most impactful thing, not even just for you, but for your. And I know we're still early on the adoption side, but from the team member side, what has been the most impactful thing that you've seen firsthand and sort of an eye opening experience that they've had?
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Well, I think that, you know, we're on an old mdware system that we've been with for a really long time, which works great, but it's not cloud based. So being able to see our schedule has been huge. We've also changed our business model a little bit to where now we're manually auto assigning the schedule ahead of time so that way our staff members can see who's going to be on their schedule for the day. It helps us to prevent any overlap as far as double booking staff members or double booking equipment. It helps us know where we've got a little bit more time in the schedule. It helps them to better prepare for their day so they can look ahead and see the patients that they have and kind of look through their history and see what skincare products they might need to replenish or what services they might need to recommend for them to do based on their goals and what they're working on. So it's just create a lot more ability for them to forecast out versus just trying to figure it out along the way. It's made it a lot more organized. So that's been huge. I think that because of that, the transition into Raviq on the spa side is going to be a lot more seamless.
I think it's helped my staff to better understand what all goes into software development and the things that can or can't be done and just making their lives a lot easier and not having to do so many things manually that they were having to do for a long time. And those are some of the bottlenecks that we've experienced during our growth, is having to rely on a multiple platform system versus all in one.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: So the two things that I've noticed as advanced and large as the north american aesthetics market is, that is probably as far behind as the payment processing world is in North America. And not just that, but has underserved that small businesses are such as yourself, no matter how successful. You know, this isn't Amazon, right? This isn't IBM or whatever the case might be. These are small businesses with limited resources. So the ability for Amazon or the ability for technology to sort of step up, it just has been an underserved experience. So it's been exciting to watch that on a day to day, week to week level.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Right. And, you know, I love that we have the capability through reveal now that we can have better communication with our patients. So they are very aware of what to expect before a treatment, what to expect after a treatment, communication on the type of what service they're scheduled for, anything like that. I think that it's going to be super helpful as we go along and as we move into the spa side more and we have more, you know, advanced technology and communication through Raviq.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Right, right. I see. I mean, it's all about getting the footprint right. And you guys have really laid, you spent a lot of work laying we have together. But you, especially in all of your team, a lot of work laying the groundwork. And so when you get the foundation right, you can sort of lay, lay that and build a skyscraper, as we call the smart skin skyscraper is coming. Right.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: And it's no secret that I have a trash phobia. And so being able to go paperless for me is life changing. Not having to keep up with paper receipts. I mean, we can print a paper receipt for people that need the paper receipts, but being able to send those digital receipts for me is huge. I don't want to have to keep up with those receipts for three years.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: I mean, I have a closet full of receipts for the first three years and then they pile up. So being able to go paperless for me is huge. Especially like the membership paperwork and the receipts for, you know, in office purchases and things like that. I mean, I love that, too.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah. It's interesting when you look at, like, medical aesthetics, right? The medical industry is a trillion dollar industry. You know, healthcare, the us healthcare industry is just this huge space and it's so archaic as well. I mean, you look at an EMR that serves neurology or ob gyn, it's unbelievably siloed and limited. And so we intend to go full on to the us healthcare market, to things like physical therapy, to things like psychiatry. But just seeing and knowing intimately how strong and how ahead of the curve aesthetic medicine is has been sort of life changing and so impressive.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: It wasn't that long ago that even our eye doctors and our gynecologists and all of those doctors were using paper charts.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Yes. Which is ridiculous.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: This is a very new thing. I mean, it feels like we've been doing electronic records for a while now, but it hasn't been that long.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: So, I mean, I feel like the medical aesthetics industry is ahead of the curve.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: EMR systems and electronic records and HIPAA compliance documents and two way texting. That's HIPaa compliant and all of that, which. But it still. It was missing a lot.
A lot.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's even in the payment processing world, like, you know, when you write a credit card down, a lot of spas don't realize that's not compliant. You actually can't do that. Like, stay away from that. But there's just a lot of behaviors out there that I'm excited that we can sort of clean up and continue to build in the medical.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: We do have an upcoming podcast with our legal team where we're going to talk about compliance.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Love that.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: And so I think it would be super fun to connect you with them.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: So that he can kind of do a review of your program and tell you any areas of concern that he feels like you guys may have and just, you know, we're very big on dotting our eyes and crossing our tees and doing everything on the up and up. I mean, like, we go above and beyond to make sure that we're doing everything the way that we're supposed to.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: And so the legality of everything is super important, too. And I know that there's a lot of people in this industry, especially, that don't even realize that what they're doing is not compliant.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: Right? Yeah, that's true, actually.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: And a little bit scary living in ignorant bliss.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Right, right. Yeah, exactly. And I don't think that's gonna last for much longer. So it's good to sort of pull the blanket away from maybe behaviors that need to just change, quite honestly.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, we meet with our legal team every single month, and then every single year they do an overhaul view of everything that we're doing and make any updates and make sure that, you know, anytime that any laws change or anything that changes, they're updating all of our documentation. And it's a lot. There's a lot that goes into it.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: It is a lot.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: You don't get to just come in here and do a little bit of skincare and call it a day. I mean, there's a lot that goes into this.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: It's interesting. Yeah.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: This is cash pay medicine.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: You have to still follow all the rules.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: You do have to follow the rules. And so it's interesting, and every state is different. You know, there's a lot of interesting things that happen in the state of Alabama and that are changing, you know, from 24 to 25, and you have to keep current on that. So it's kudos to you for always being on top of that.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: And also just partnering, you know, introducing this legal partner with this technology partner, with this marketing partner. That just makes sense.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: Well, there's a huge legal component to what you guys are doing.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: All the documentations are HIPAA compliant, all of the two way text messaging is HIPAA compliant, all of the credit card fees and all of that. I mean, every bit of that is. There's a huge legality to all of it.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm almost amazed. I mean, it's amazing to me that you would have, not you, but like other people would have, like a QBR, a quarterly business review with maybe an industry leader of products that they're using, but not necessarily their technology partner that is being used every day, every hour, every patient. So there's just so many moving parts that I one of the things I love is just making sure that we have this roundtable discussion and reviewing. Okay, where do things stand with smart skin today? How can we evolve with you? How can we elevate our support, our team, you know, perspective, all of those things.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: And then some of the stuff varies from state to state.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: You know, I mean, it's not just, you can't just want and done it, you know, especially if you have expanded into other states. You got to make sure that you know what's going on in that particular state.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, if you knew this was as hard, I know your mom started, who's amazing. Your mom started this business, you know, years ago. If you knew this was, this business was as hard, and it's not necessarily getting easier, would you have gotten harder?
[00:28:53] Speaker A: It's gotten. I believe that the bigger you grow and the more you do, the more difficult it is. And to answer your question, I have a 17 year old daughter that is Bailey finishing her hours. She'll be finished with her hours next month and then she'll be eligible to take her boards. She is going to go to UAB and get her business and marketing degree to have that. But I feel confident in her going into this industry, even knowing how hard it is. Yeah, I think that we've learned so much along the way and we're still learning more and more every single day.
But I love what I do, and I love that I get to work with my family. I love that I get to see my brother every week, and I get to, you know, my husband's even wanting to, like, get in on the advanced clinical training side if we are able to build that program up to be the CEO of that part of the business. And my daughters are coming in. My son told he wants to be a dermatologist. He's eleven.
My hopes are very high for him. Super intelligent, and he has the bedside manner that I know he would be a fantastic dermatologist. And he struggles with eczema himself.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that we're doing a lot of good for a lot of people. And so I love what I do, and I love being able to educate people, and I love being able to grow and expand and dream up new ideas and make it a reality.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Well, you definitely do that. The dream up. Do you know, that's one of my favorite things. Things is lacy reaching out to me, hey, can we make Raviq do XYZ? I'm like, yes, we can. To your point, right? Not day tomorrow or day one. But yes, absolutely, day soon, we will make that happen. So that. That kind of visionary approach that you do with smart skin, with your team, with the aesthetic space is so welcomed, and it's leadership like that, that really has a practicality to it that is so appreciated.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's so fun, too, that you get to take all of these fantastic partnerships that we've gotten and put them all together.
Like, we can take our marketing team and put them with our, you know, our software development team, we can take our legal team and put them with you guys, and we can take, you know, all of these different sides of our business, and we can make each other better and we can learn from each other and we can grow from each other. And we can, you know, take our website and we can connect it to a clinical training portal to where we can do advanced clinical trainings online for not only our own staff, but if we're going to do some advanced training for some of our medical device partners and things like that.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: It's just fun. Yeah, I love it.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Yeah. There is an energy to making each other better. You know, I mean, smart skin has definitely made Raviq better. I mean, from. From day one, literally. And so the. That's some sort of energy of making color science better and color science making us better. And that partnership making, you know, your marketing partner lifted logic better. All those things are real. It's not just fluff. It's really done in this partnership.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: It's a great synergy.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: And everybody. And. And, you know, I just am a firm believer that I love to help everybody be as good at what their dreams as they want to be.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: And so, like, when I have people in my life that I love and I care about and I want to see be successful, it fuels me to help them be successful. I want to help people, and it's fun for me.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Yeah. It's part of your brand. It's part of how you live life. So I appreciate that. Thank you.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. So I know that Rabika is heavily focused in the medical aesthetic market right now, and I have to believe that that has a lot to do with you and your background and the relationships and the.
Everything that you bring to the table as far as your relationships within this industry.
But where do you guys think that you're headed next?
[00:32:38] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: Is it far down the road before you move into those markets? Yeah, because I know there's still a lot of work to be done in this industry.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Right. A lot of work. Yeah. To your point, there is a lot of heavy lifting still to be done to get aesthetics where it can be and sort of on par on how other products are purchased. I mean, the way you buy a bar stool off Amazon is the way you should be able to buy a scarlet treatment or units of Botox. From search to experience to checkout. It's all fluid. And it's not that we aspire to be Amazon on, but we aspire to be a technology partner that is that seamless and that powerful for you, for small businesses. So that's number one. Number two back, to answer your question, I mean, we are moving forward to areas like physical therapy that are going to, what I would say, 99% cash pay. There are some OB gyns, there are cosmetic dermatologists that are going to 100% cash payload. Exactly. Exactly. It doesn't mean that there isn't therapeutic medicine involved. There is therapeutic involved. It is just that membership medicine and concierge medicine, medicine and direct pay medicine are very real drivers in the current us healthcare. I mean, how the us healthcare market exists today in 2024 is not going to be how it looks in 2034. And frankly, the technology piece of that is lagging. As clinically advanced as we are in aesthetics and medicine overall, we are so behind in the sense of how technology can support and cost effectively drive change in the us healthcare market. So, to your point, again, physical therapy is a big one. Psychiatry and things like cosmetic dermatology. Obviously, plastic surgery kind of falls under the aesthetic arena already, and then the list goes on from there.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: Well, I just think that you're absolutely right. I mean, technology is not where it's going to be, certainly in ten years from now. And I think that it's going to be so accessible to the everyday consumer to where they're at home and they're educating themselves and they have the ability to click to purchase whatever they just learned about that they want to try. And I think that Allergan's done a really good job of starting that with their brilliant connections platform to where they can sign up for autos, you know, ship, it's two day shipping free to them. They get their alley points, they get a free little goody with it.
So I think that it's just going to get that much more seamless and a little bit easier and a little less clunky.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: So I think that. I think it's going to be so much better for the consumer, especially, you know, if they're being able to get that education piece behind it as well.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Absolutely. It is about touching the patient. And not only that, but touching the patient in a seamless way that is powerful influences, good decision making, cost effective decision making, and just a better outcome of better overall to see it more.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Authentic and less salesy. And like, whenever you say something or you click on one ad on Instagram, you get bombarded with ads and promotions and click, you know, click here, click there, and here's your thing. And this is in your car. Now you got an email and now you got all this stuff. I like for it to be a little less like that just feels a little icky. I want it to be more authentic and more education based and then kind of go from there.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's real. And I think, you know, I said it before, if technology, if there were products like Botox and treatments, I always bring up Botox because it did create the waiting room we all wait in. Right. And live and breathe. But there's so much energy, love and hate towards, you know, certain products in the aesthetic space. I want that love to sort of continue to build for reveal. Oh, my gosh. Look how this raised the whole experience of what I know about aesthetic medicine and what I learned about aesthetic medicine and this new product and this new skincare, whatever it might be. So I love being at the forefront with smart skin providers and smart skin team members on how we engage on a day to day basis with those consumers out there who are interested in looking and feeling better.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. And there's so much information out there, too. It's really hard to determine what's real and what's nothing, not.
And like, one of the things that Jessica from Allergan, who's our retail specialist, right. She was meeting with our team and she was like, listen, ladies, like, when your clients are leaving your office, they are. I think it was like 80 something percent of clients were purchasing skincare within 24 to 48 hours. And if they're not purchasing here, they're purchasing from Ulta, Sephora, Walgreens, Target, wherever. And they are spending just as much, if not more, on something that's not even clinically proven to give them the result that the products that you are offering here does. We've done the studies we've done. We have the clinical data. We have the ability to prove what we say that this is going to do is actually doing it. So you need to educate them on if this is what they want to achieve, this is what's going to get them there along with the skincare services that you've recommended, but it's just so important that you're educating them on what's going to actually benefit their skin so that they're not making a purchase on something that's nothing and then they're burnt out on. Now, I don't trust anybody, right. Because I just spent $200 on the skincare product from Sephora that said it was going to get rid of my brown spots and haven't done anything, and now I'm gun shy and I don't want to take a chance on anything else.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And I love what you said about that seamlessness, the ability of, you know, smart skin esthetician to sort of educate in that treatment room during a treatment, but then that education process and experience to sort of transcend to the omni channel to you, a text message follow up or an article that references a third party study, that sort of thing. Because science is real.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: Right.
We're not making this stuff up. Topical science is real. And I love how strong you and your team are with that. And even using technology to support that education aspect of the experience.
[00:38:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I mean, the difference between the medical grade skincare and the over the counter stuff is that we actually have to prove ours works and they don't. They can make whatever claim they want to.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: And so just because you have some ingredients that may do this or that, you're not doing a study on the end formulation. You're not showing that these ingredients that you put in there actually are going to get that clinical outcome.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: You are speaking the truth there. I love that these are my roots in skincare. So I love that you're going there. Cause this is the entry point for a lot of your patients, too, that may not have gotten an injectable treatment yet, but they bought a skincare product. I mean, most Americans have bought a skincare product from someone.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. And then, you know, not to bash on Aveeno.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Oh, just bash, it's fine.
[00:39:26] Speaker A: But I mean, when I was in high school, I used that and I thought I was doing good.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: You don't know how bad it is until you get the good stuff.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Right. Right.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: And you're like, ooh, it's so funny.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: That you said that because I was talking to somebody in the industry, but it was about a technology question. But I said topical science is real. Right. I think it was about the debate last night. One of the. We won't go there, but one of the people in there, like, they could use some topics topical science on their skin. Yeah.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: Yes. Well, I mean, and like, we have clients have been coming to us for decades, and then we do a skincare study with a skincare, our skin analysis device, and start them on a skincare regimen. And one month later, we do another follow up scan and they've aged backwards by one year just from topical skincare.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: So, I mean, that's incredible. And when you can show them that just from what a topical skincare product can do, which is your diet, in between your exercise and your exercise, is your services, with us, it makes a world of difference.
[00:40:27] Speaker B: It's interesting because the dermatology world, which is fantastic. We used to say if you recommended peanut butter, that dermatologist would put peanut butter. And now we've seen the influence of estheticians in this space and smart skin, and your team is in a fantastic example of. Because the influence and knowledge of estheticians in this space is extraordinary. And so what I am, and I'm really am passionate about this, what I am, because it's joining the two of the entry points that I've really enjoyed. One is medical grade skincare, and two is what technology can do to support that is like raising the esthetician's ability to influence and educate their patient is something I want ravique to be at.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: The forefront of changed the study.
So I don't know if you're aware of this, but the influence on patients from their dermatologist and their esthetician had flip flopped. It used to be that the dermatologist would make a recommendation and they would just buy it.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: And the esthetician would have to tell them five times to purchase that same product before they would purchase. And now it's kind of opposite.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And isn't that interesting how evolving this space is? And so to be at the forefront, I know you, we actually talked about that once before, and that's real and that's powerful. And so just raising the voice of the esthetician is something I'm excited to be a part of with you, with y'all.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Well, it's what we do, it's what we invest all of our time and effort and energy and time in, is educating ourselves on the science behind all of these skincare products. And who's a candidate for it? Who it's not what it works well with, what services it works well with. And so, I mean, of course, we play in our own wheelhouse. We're not going to go outside of what our expertise is. And if it's something that we aren't qualified to speak on. We are certainly going to refer them out to the appropriate offices that they should be at. But when it comes to topical skincare products and, you know, our medical devices that we offer here at smart skin, we are the experts.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: To those things because we earned it.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: Absolutely. You did. And you spent a lot of hours getting to that place. When I, again, was part owner of a med spot and on the front lines, as it were, it became even more clear to me. Everybody wants to look and feel better. Nobody knows who to trust. And so when you've established that trust and can basically leverage that trust to build and educate the whole world, the whole arena, everybody benefits, especially your patients.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: You have to be competent in saying no. Like, if someone doesn't need something or someone's not going to benefit from a certain treatment or someone's not a candidate for something, you have to be okay with saying no.
[00:43:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: You have to manage those expectations, and you have to be honest with your patients, and you have to say, you know what? You have these products. You don't need anything else, like what you're trying to work on and your lifestyle and what's realistic for you, you're good.
And I feel like we are definitely good at that.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: You're excellent at that. And seriously, when the message is that strong, the ability to sort of just use Raviq and use technology to elevate, that is an exciting place to be. So thank you. Of course.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: Well, I mean, at the end of the day, we really just want our patients to have the best experience. We want our staff to have the best experience, and we want to have everybody be happy with, in their own skin.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:43:52] Speaker A: And we want them to enjoy themselves when they're at our location, and we want them to be excited about their appointments with us.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Right. And one of the things, and maybe the last comment I have that's somewhat significant, is smart skin. You have the sense of humility within your brand. Like, hey, come make us better. We know we're good. We can be better. Everybody's learning, everybody's evolving. And so that has been such an honor to sort of come in and sort of elevate the whole experience. Not just things like checkout and check in and consent forms and all the things, but just results and how they.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: Feel and how, trust me, patients have no problem coming to us with things that they think we can do better at. And I welcome that. Yes, I love it. I mean, sometimes I'm like, ooh, that kind of hurt. But at the end of the day, it's going to make me better. And I appreciate that. They respect me enough and care enough about our success to tell me. And it's given me the empowerment to be open with other businesses in a loving way and not being rude or hateful about it, but just to be like, look, this is something that bothers me, and if it bothers me, I know it's probably bothering others, and I want you to be successful. And so I think that this is something that maybe you could work on.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: And our. Our patients have always been really good about coming to us with those things, and we, every single time, will make our best effort to make that change and to. To better ourselves and to give a better patient experience for our clients.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: That's fantastic. One of the things that happens with Raviq and the Raviq team. Cause we've had so many meetings with Laci, we reference well, what would Lacey do? Or what would Lacy say? Even when she's not in the meeting, that comment comes up like, well, I think she would say this, but we'll ask her next time just to confirm.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: And I think that's probably my reputation with all of our reps, is that they know they can count on me to give my real, honest feedback.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: It is.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: And it. Sometimes it shocks them. I think they all know me well enough now that it doesn't, and they get excited about it because it's refreshing to where I think a lot of people just won't say anything at all or they'll tell. Tell you what they think you want to hear. And that's just not me.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: Right. Because I can vouch for that. It's definitely not, you know what?
[00:45:56] Speaker A: To make a change, and I want to make a difference, and I want, not only for other people, but selfishly, for myself, like, I want you to do better for me and I want you to do better for everybody else. And if I don't tell you, no one else will.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: Right. No. There's a straightforwardness that is 100% refreshing, and it does, and sincerely, it does make us all better. This entire space that makes us better. So thank you very much.
[00:46:17] Speaker A: Thank you.
Well, thank you so much for coming in. We talked for a really long time, but I get so passionate about technology and software development and just, I think it's the way of the future, and I love it so much, and I think that it elevates everybody in what we're doing. And so I'm just. I love talking about it, and I love talking to you. And so I had a lot of fun talking to you today.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: Thank you, Lacey. It's an honor to be here. And I just, with all humility and thankfulness, thank you for being such a tremendous partner for us and making us better and the entire space better.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: You're welcome.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: All the best.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of Smartcast, and we'll see you next week.
