Why She Left The O.R.

Summary

In this conversation, Lisa Gore, a nurse anesthetist who transitioned to opening her own Medi Spa, shares her journey from the operating room to entrepreneurship. She discusses her background, the fears she faced in leaving a traditional hospital setting, and the steps she took to establish her business. Lisa emphasizes the importance of community support, continuous learning, and effective marketing strategies in building her practice. She also offers valuable advice for other healthcare professionals considering a similar career pivot, highlighting the significance of knowing one's purpose and being open to mentorship.

https://linktr.ee/sweetfaceinjector

IG @defytimeaesthetics

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Takeaways

·       Lisa Gore has over 33 years of nursing experience and a strong educational background.

·       Her journey into aesthetics began with a personal interest in beauty and aesthetics.

·       Transitioning from a hospital setting to a Medi Spa involved overcoming fears and challenges.

·       Building a business requires careful planning, including finding a good location and financing.

·       Community support and professional relationships play a crucial role in the success of a new business.

·       Continuous learning and staying updated on products and techniques are essential in aesthetics.

·       Word of mouth and social media are effective marketing strategies for attracting clients.

·       Understanding the needs and goals of patients is vital for providing quality care.

·       Expansion plans include potentially renting out additional space for growth.

·       Mentorship and networking are important for personal and professional development.

Titles

·       From OR to Medi Spa: Lisa Gore's Journey

·       Overcoming Fears in Aesthetic Medicine

Sound Bites

·       "You can't wait too long. Just do it."

·       "I wish I could have jumped faster."

·       "I need to do much more of all of those things."

Chapters

00:00

From Nurse to Entrepreneur: Lisa's Journey

04:50

Overcoming Fears in a New Venture

07:58

Building Knowledge in Aesthetics

11:23

Community Reception and Support

13:57

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

16:56

Services Offered at the Medi Spa

19:11

Marketing Strategies for Growth

22:23

Future Aspirations and Expansion Plans

23:56

Sweetest Tips for Success

26:14

Transcript

Amy Ingle (00:00)

hospital pays to boutique grace. What does CRNA learn leaving the OR for a med spa and why patients are lining up?

get to it.

Amy Ingle (00:36)

Welcome to Glow Up and Get Real. I have Lisa Gore, she is a nurse anesthesist and she started her own Medi Spa. So stay tight and let's hear how Lisa did it from OR to Medi Spa. Okay, how are you doing? Thanks for coming on. Yeah, good. Well, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Lisa Gore (00:55)

Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm doing great. Yeah.

Well, let's see. started nursing probably, gosh, it's been 33, 34 years ago. I have a bachelor's, have my master's in nurse anesthesia and my doctorate biomedical sciences, nurse anesthesia. And so I've been working in nurse anesthesia since the year 2007, I believe. So anyway, I'm a mom and I just started my Medi Spa and so I'm a new entrepreneur, you could say.

Amy Ingle (01:32)

Yeah.

So can you share a little bit about your background as a CRNA and what initially drew you to anesthesia and then to the Medi Spa realm? How did that all transpire?

Lisa Gore (01:42)

⁓

There's a couple of things. So when I was very, very young, I worked at a hair salon and I always wanted to have a hair salon, which sounds crazy, but it was something in the beauty world. And then when I my daughter, she's 34 years old, I had a nurse anesthetist that did my epidural and I was like, wow, this is crazy. I didn't know that they could do that;

people could do anesthesia like that as a nurse. So also then I became a single mom and I found out how much money CRNAs made back then. so I decided that's what I wanted to do. But in the interim, I still have always been interested in like the aesthetics kind of thing. And so when I was 26 or 27, I started looking angry and I got my first Botox from one of the clinics at the, so was working at the university as a nurse.

and the plastic surgery residents were getting free Botox and giving and learning how to administer it. So that's when I got started. And I guess when I, was just a natural progression because in anesthesia I can use lidocaine, things like that. And I just always have, they tease me at work about having my clothes that match or my hat that matches stuff and

that my lipstick is always whatever. So I don't know, it just seems like it was something to fall into. I have had filler several times. I've learned the wrong way to do it from some of the residents at the hospital. And I've learned the right way to do it from people like Amy, who I've actually gone to see you there. And so, you know, it was just...

natural progression and then I'm getting closer to retirement age and I want to fall back into this. So that's the big thing was thinking about retirement and taking my skills in a different direction. So.

Amy Ingle (03:35)

Well, what were some of your biggest fears when you thought about leaving the traditional hospital setting and going into a medical office or a spa?

Lisa Gore (03:41)

That's, well, it's not that I don't have the, well, I mean, I guess it is. When you start out, learning. You're learning about the anatomy of the face a little bit more. You're learning how to administer the drugs, how to mix them up. And I took a Botox and a basic filler course about like nine years ago now. But when you walk out of it, you realize how much you don't know. So some of the fears were, what am I gonna do?

you if I have a problem or who, you know, you have to figure out who's going to cover you. And there were a lot of things like getting your account set up with these companies and finding the funding. And luckily I've been able to do it. You know, COVID kind of gave me some timeframe to get things together. This is my third year on my lease and I did most of my painting and decorating myself. So what are my fears? My fears were mainly

Finding somebody to cover me and, my gosh, there were so many fears, I guess I should say, but you just, I just keep persisting because I've always felt like I can do what I put my mind to. So I had to like squelch my fears and just do what I have to do, if that makes sense. So.

Amy Ingle (04:51)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I

think going to the OR and being a nurse anesthetist is scary. I don't know how you do it. It's scary to me. I think just anything new is scary and you just have to jump into it like you did. So walk us through the process of that launching of your spa and the first steps you took to open it.

Lisa Gore (05:09)

first steps that I took were, I went to the Women's Small Business Center downtown here, I'm in Columbia, Missouri. And I met with some of the mentors around town. I talked to Amy. You had been, I think, in business about what, four or five years when I first talked to you and the process. When I was looking for a location, I had learned from the Women's Business Center

where my patients might be located. And then I'm a kind of person who meets people through other people. And my landlord for my business space, I was so nervous about approaching him. But once I realized that his location, there's like between 56 and 86,000 cars allegedly that go through the circle that's right here by this building within like, he said it's less than a week.

but I don't know if he's ever really done the studies, but I thought about where to put the location. And he was so brilliant because his wife goes to a plastic surgeon and the location has got drive up parking and it's very private on the backside of a building. So I feel that those were those, those were some of the steps you get your business license and find a good location. And then I had to figure out how to finance things

Amy Ingle (06:28)

started with finding the perfect spot, you'd say.

Lisa Gore (06:30)

Well, yeah, and I guess I didn't think about this, when I was thinking about what my name is of my business is Defy Time Aesthetics and I kind of knew I wanted to do an art deco design. so my brain was constantly thinking, what do I want to do with these things? And so I've taken inspiration from different things like my logo comes from a wallpaper that I saw at a Mueller Ballroom in St. Louis and

Amy Ingle (06:32)

Yeah.

Lisa Gore (06:58)

⁓ It's very art deco and and then I sat around for like six to eight months and wrote out the names and then I made sure that there was nobody else in the United States that had the same name and There's a defy time in like New Zealand, but not defy time aesthetics. So that was the other thing Yeah

Amy Ingle (07:15)

Yeah, that's kind of important because you don't want to get

mixed up with another business. Especially if they're not good. Yeah, no. ⁓

Lisa Gore (07:20)

out for sure.

Right? There's not another sweet spot that I've ever seen either. You're the sweet spot, Medi Spa.

Amy Ingle (07:31)

Yeah, I'm

starting to see some pop up and actually just down the road not too far there's a sweet spot ice cream store now open. Yeah, so but not a sweet spa, Medi Spa, not yet. But I have seen some sweet spot medical spa and sweet spot med spa, not Medi Spa yet. But yeah, we're the only one in Florida though and you can't you can't duplicate that.

Lisa Gore (07:33)

⁓

huh.

They better.

Mm-hmm. Mm.

Amy Ingle (07:58)

So, yeah. Well, how did you go about building your knowledge base in injectables? Because you have a great knowledge base in the OR with calculating medications to make people have conscious sedation or even sedation. So that's a whole different ballgame than doing aesthetics. How did you build your knowledge and know like the right product?

Lisa Gore (07:59)

Right, right.

What?

Amy Ingle (08:22)

But how much, you know, and you're by yourself. you know, it means you don't have someone to turn to and say, hey, how do you know, what do I need to do here? You have to know what you know and make sure that you do it right. Because there's nobody to back you up. Like you said, that was a fear of yours. So tell me about your knowledge.

Lisa Gore (08:25)

you

Mm-hmm.

Well, with anesthesia, yeah, and I do a lot of pediatric anesthesia. So I really have to know how the medications work and how to do dosages that are very small. And I actually do a lot of anesthesia for the plastic surgeons around, you know, in the hospital. And we've always compared notes. And actually, I do have a lot of supportive people in the medical profession. But the very first class that I went to really taught me what I needed to know because...

well, it's not needed to know, but what I didn't know, because there is a lot. I mean, you have to know the anatomy of your lips. You have to know where the blood vessels are in your face. And there's so much more to aesthetics than people think there is. And one thing I think that's kind of funny is I didn't realize I'd have to talk to my patients so much because when in anesthesia, everybody's asleep, ⁓ which, you know, that's not a bad thing. It's just people are usually more relaxed and they're asleep. And so I'm learning.

Amy Ingle (09:27)

too.

Lisa Gore (09:34)

I had to learn to be able to talk to people and teach them and get them comfortable with my skills. But as far as the skills for this, I've been to classes and luckily a lot of the companies, you know, have given me classes and things like that. got, of course I went to Florida and I did shadowing with Amy and which really helped a lot because I chose the RHA filler, designer filler.

dynamic filler, should say. And then I chose Daxxify and Juveaux. And those are really great products. They're more of a, I wouldn't, I'm not bashing any other products, but these work really well for me. And they're a little bit newer, the way that the peptides work. And I feel like they're, I don't know, I just feel like they're really great. The customer service is great. And I do get a lot of like,

Two weeks ago, the Vivace microneedling people reached out and they're like, we've got some new guidelines. We'd like to have you watch this webinar. So I did that. I think that just watching for things and being open and every patient that I do, learned something new. And, you know, I wouldn't want them to think that they're the guinea pig, but every single person that you do in the anesthesia world, everybody's different. So I think it's the same thing.

with aesthetics, everybody's different. I hope to have half of the experience you do someday, Like 30 years? That's so hard to believe. it's fine. Great.

Amy Ingle (10:56)

⁓ well, you were my mentor when I was in nursing school. So it's kind of flip flopped, which is cool. Yeah. 30 years ago. Wow. I know. So long ago.

What was the response? Well, how has the response been with the local community and your peers? So like other doctors in the hospital knowing that you're probably going to leave and that you're opening a medical spa. Has it been? ⁓

weird, has it been, you know, really welcoming?

Lisa Gore (11:27)

You know, that was something that I was nervous about because they, about five or six years ago, our hospital decided to start doing conflict of interest. Like, I don't know, they started asking us about conflict of interest. And so I had to talk to the director of my program and, you know, get allegedly permission to do this, which I was already doing things, but.

I just went out once I had to open a brick and mortar space, then they took it more seriously there. So my anesthesia director is supportive of me. I did have to make an agreement not to do IV therapy because there were CRNAs that had left before. you know, my supervisor is very supportive. Actually, there's two of us that have many spas. One of the other, I sat by her when I got my doctorate. She and I graduated together. Her spa, she's been open longer than me also.

And so I can ask her questions and things like that, but she's been supportive. And so far, honestly, I think that my, I wouldn't like, I'm not bragging, but I think my reputation as a CRNA is helping get better, get good reception in the community. And like I said, they make fun of me for the way my makeup was always done at work. they're like, even with my, cause anesthesia, we wear a mask all the time. Like your eyeshadows, you know what I mean? So.

I just think that this is a smaller community than of course like where you are in Florida and yet I was worried I would get too busy too fast but I don't think that's a problem. So now I'm gonna get my website up and running and see how that goes but I don't know. I think I've had good reception so far.

Amy Ingle (13:01)

Well, and you've been at the university for how long? A long time. How many years?

Lisa Gore (13:06)

Well, five years of nursing and then next year it'll be 20 years total as a CRNA. 25 years. That's crazy. That's so crazy. Right.

Amy Ingle (13:14)

So 25 years. That's crazy for being a nurse. Because nurses don't stay in one place. We like to move. Yeah, we get burned

out easy. So yeah.

Lisa Gore (13:26)

I think that I was lucky because anesthesia, I got to go to different locations. We ended up having an ortho hospital and then I did pediatrics and you so I was lucky enough to stay here and you know, was, it made smart sense for me financially to stay here and you know, so I've been lucky to do that. The only time I've really been gone is when I went to anesthesia school in Springfield and then came back.

Amy Ingle (13:51)

So what advice would you give to other CRNAs or healthcare professionals considering a similar career pivot?

Lisa Gore (13:57)

Well, I think that you have to really want to do this and you have to have figure out what why why are you doing things? What are you going to solve for people? And with anesthesia, I'm helping solve pain for people. with aesthetics, I think you're also helping in the manner of people who just like when I looked in the mirror when I was like 35 and I thought, wow, I don't even look like myself anymore. And that's when I really felt like I needed to do more.

than just toxin or whatever. It just helped me feel better. And when I feel better, I'm a better, I feel like I'm a better person for others. So I think that having to know your why and then plan it out a little bit, but you you can't wait too long. I mean, I just turned 60 and I'm still opening a business, but I'm not dead yet. So.

I mean, you know, amen, yay. That's kind of, yeah, but I just think that planning, know, planning it out and again, luckily COVID took some time, a chunk out of the time. And so I had time to think about it. You know, we had less patients in the hospital and we actually were off for like a couple of weeks forced, like we were actually laid off for a couple of weeks during COVID. And so I took that time.

Amy Ingle (14:50)

Amen. ⁓

Lisa Gore (15:17)

But just do it. You can't be scared. Just do it. make sure the big thing too that I really am working on is the website that I'm getting ready to get up and running and then making sure that I know how to run all my finances too. Oh, yeah.

Amy Ingle (15:21)

Mm-hmm.

That's important for sure. A lot of spas go out of business because they don't watch their finances or they buy They buy things too fast equipment too fast You know you need to have a clientele to be able to sell the equipment the procedures to so you're doing it right for sure Looking back is there anything you do differently in your journey?

Lisa Gore (15:49)

I hope so. I hope so.

I think I would have started sooner, but I was so nervous. I was nervous a little bit about work and I mean in my personal situation, it was just a specific situation where the two CRNAs that had left and opened like an IV therapy clinic had not gotten permission and they were doing ketamine clinic. So to make a long story short, I wish that I had looked into it, but I was a little bit nervous about the way they handled their things and

Amy Ingle (15:57)

Yeah.

Lisa Gore (16:21)

I actually have an anesthesiologist who's covering me and he had to get permission to cover me from the hospital too. So I've been really fortunate that they were so amenable. I'm not big enough of any kind of a business at this point to compete with the plastic surgeons at the hospital. And I'm not doing plastic surgery. I'm not doing anesthesia procedures. I might give some local anesthetic or do topicals, but I'm not doing that.

They've been really supportive, God. Thank God.

Amy Ingle (16:51)

Good. Well, what kind of services are you doing now in your spa? What did you start out with?

Lisa Gore (16:56)

⁓ I started out with

Botox and then I didn't really get filler until a little bit later, but I had a Vivace with micro-needling. And then when RHA became more, I guess, well known across the country, I was one of the first people in Missouri, thanks to you, to be able to get that here. And I just love the products. Like, I really love them.

I use them for myself and you know, so I think that was one of the biggest things was figuring out which products to bring in. And you know, the Vivace, I was the only person in Missouri who had that for a long time as well. So thanks to you. And those are the things, you know, I think I've been lucky to find you as a great mentor and, you know, to pay attention.

Amy Ingle (17:34)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Gore (17:47)

two things. I mean, I really wish I could have jumped faster, gone out, but I didn't want to get a loan. My dad always said to me that if you subsidize your income, you have to make sure that you when the subsidy goes away that you can afford to do things. So you still have to take those risks with this business too, because I just got a laser that does five things, Rohrer spectrum laser. And so yeah, you're going to be taking risks, but I'm, you know.

That's what I'm offering soon. And I have an esthetician who has joined me here. She is a booth rental, but she does a lot of procedures here as far as like facials, you know, special facials or, and she does waxing, things like that. So I'm a one room though. Yeah. I don't know if you can see, I have one room here and she shares with me. So eventually I'm going to have to expand and I'm so lucky.

that my location has a spot next door in the landlord's like, you want to expand, huh? So I'm hoping, I mean, yeah, I said, you're going to have to work on your parking, sir, but otherwise maybe we'll see that. But yeah, I'm really lucky. I feel like, I mean, of course, I think you have to go out and make your luck. I didn't just like walk off the, out of the, you know, out of the forest and find these people.

Amy Ingle (18:53)

you

Lisa Gore (19:04)

There people that I've known for 30 years and I'm very lucky too. So anyway.

Amy Ingle (19:08)

So what are you doing to get new clients in? What kind of marketing?

Lisa Gore (19:12)

Well, to begin with, I do little bit of Instagram and Facebook, but a lot of it is word of mouth. And I truly think that word of mouth is really important because people know you. I do have some reviews. I use Vagaro, the app Vogaro for scheduling. And so I recently did get a Google so people can give me Google reviews. I've got the, you know, this QR, what is it? The QR code and

Amy Ingle (19:35)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Gore (19:36)

But as far as referrals, I'm working on getting this website up and running so I can have ⁓ much more of a presence and get some presence on the internet under Google, some SEO, which is what SEO stand for.

Amy Ingle (19:49)

⁓ Optimization... I forgot.

Lisa Gore (19:52)

Right.

It's how they get you higher in Google so that you come to the top of the screen when people look in, look for spots. So that kind of thing. yeah, boy. I'm ready to start having more clients now though. And that's something that I sat down with my business plan and I'm looking at what I need to do to be able to replace my income and still maybe work part-time in a seizure every so often. That's what my friends, my friend.

Amy Ingle (19:59)

Right, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, kind of wean off slowly. That's how I did it. I was working at the hospital and I just kind of weaned off very slowly to where I could just leave and do this full time. You'll get there too. Retire. Retire. ⁓

Lisa Gore (20:27)

And. I'd really like to just be able to leave. Yeah, I'd really like to be able to just leave, but. And yeah, well, and

I, right. And I can. I always wanted my goal now is to get the 25 years in. April, but I think it's going to be a little bit longer before I can fully leave. But then I have a lot of friends who are entrepreneurs and they say you really just don't put your full heart in until you do leave. So I'm so tempted some days just to jump.

Amy Ingle (20:55)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Gore (20:59)

But they don't have a really great anesthesia case. I'm like, well, that was really cool. But you know.

Amy Ingle (20:59)

Yeah.

Yeah, I know, I know. There's days I'm like, I kind of missed the hospital. And I'm like, what did I just think there for a second? my goodness, how could I think that? But yes, you just, this becomes part of you over the years.

Lisa Gore (21:11)

Right? Exactly.

And then today I'm like, man, really can't wait till I'm out of the hospital. You just have days. But I really am lucky that I some really good clients and really good people around. I mean, it's not all hunky dory of everything because I still need more clients. I do think I'm in a business syndicate called Arate, the guy that owns First Form in

Amy Ingle (21:22)

Right? Exactly. Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Gore (21:42)

supplement super stores out of St. Louis. And I've been in that for about almost seven years. And so that's given me a lot of customer service things like sending out like handwritten thank you notes and things like that, that I try to do to for all my new clients. I will be attending, they call it pajama jam. And I did this last year. I was the only aesthetics business at pajama jam in January. It's at like one of the host one of the hotels.

Amy Ingle (22:02)

Okay.

Lisa Gore (22:10) 

and they have women come in, they like do teams of pajamas and then they have all these booths set up for women. It's really cool. So I plan on doing a better booth this year for that and just, you know, getting my name out there.

Amy Ingle (22:23)

Some ideas for you I'll tell you after the show. Yeah, there's some things that work. Yeah. So where do you see your practice in the field of medical aesthetics heading over the next few years?

Lisa Gore (22:26)

Yay. I appreciate that.

Wow, that's really something that you do have to think about. when I wish I could take you and show you the next door, look, literally the next door location, it's huge behind the whole thing. And so in my head, it's weird because I'm like already thinking what is the next thing. And I'd like to be able to remodel and have that whole site over there be rooms and maybe rent some of them out. Like before, like people do where they have the space set up or

Amy Ingle (22:51)

Okay.

Lisa Gore (23:01)

and they rent out to people or, you know, follow like a business model kind of like yours and, you know, bring in more practitioners and things like that. I do have nurses who are interested in it. So, you know, I've had people contact me, I would like more laser experience and I'm like, I need laser experience still. I'm new to that too. But yeah.

Amy Ingle (23:09)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm, right, exactly. Do you see yourself opening up a second spa?

Lisa Gore (23:24)

Not yet, but I do think that I will expand and this is if you wait whenever you come to Columbia and you see this it's huge. So I'm just nervous about that because I spent so much time getting this together and painting. I did it all, you know, and new flooring. It's gonna it's I know now that I'm gonna have to hire somebody to help me with it the next. There's no way I can do it all myself. I was I was capable of two rooms in a bathroom. So but.

Amy Ingle (23:38)

Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, going any further, it's a lot of work. You have to put in cabinets and it's a lot. It's a lot. can do that yourself. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lisa Gore (23:56)

Whatever I can help with, I will help with, you know.

The sweetest aesthetic. I that you have to always be confident about what you're doing when you're speaking to your clients. Be honest with them though and don't try to do things that you really aren't comfortable with and talk to them about what's going on and the steps that are going on. think that setting up a whole plan, one of my clients, we did

her lips in three stages because she didn't want anybody to notice. And so we really went over her wishes and what she wanted and nobody's noticed it yet, but we really completely built lips that she's never had in her life before and like her lower mouth. And so I think, you know, you're, you are catering to your patients, but you also have to be realistic and tell them what is a goal and what, is possible too. And I'm still learning what's possible. So

Amy Ingle (24:39)

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Lisa Gore (24:52)

Right now, you know, that's something, you know, to keep your mind open to and find good mentors like Miss Amy. I appreciate you so much.

Amy Ingle (24:59)

⁓ thank you. Well, how can the listeners get a hold of you if they have questions about being a business owner, an entrepreneur?

Lisa Gore (25:08)

The best place to find me right now is on vagaro.com backslash defy time aesthetics with A-E-S-T-H-E-T-I-C-S. And then defytimeaesthetics.com will be my website that's coming soon. It should be up within a month. And then those are the biggest places to find me right now. So social, yeah, sorry, social media, Instagram, Facebook.

Amy Ingle (25:27)

social media. Okay.

Lisa Gore (25:32)

And I don't, I have a TikTok, but I don't use it very much. need, that's something I need to do. I need to do much more of all of those things. So yeah.

Amy Ingle (25:39)

It's a lot to be an owner, an injector, have job and do your social media. It's a lot. I'm like, it's a lot, but you'll get...

Lisa Gore (25:44)

That's another reason to get done with the hospital, though, too, because then I think I'm going to really love being able to schedule my own days. Thank you.

Amy Ingle (25:56)

Yeah, you will. Yeah, it'll give you that freedom. well, I'll put your links in so that the listeners can get a hold of you if they have questions. And thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for being a good friend. Thank you for being my mentor when I was a nursing student