The Real Truth on the Filler Industry

In this conversation, Jason Freshwater shares his extensive experience in the medical aesthetics industry, discussing his journey from selling capital equipment to launching various aesthetic products. He emphasizes the importance of education, understanding market needs, and the challenges faced during product relaunches. Jason also highlights the evolution of the aesthetic industry, the differences in selling to dermatologists versus med spas, and the metrics he uses to measure sales effectiveness. He concludes with insights on teamwork and the importance of continuous learning in the field.

Jason Freshwater:

naples@platedskinscience.com

IG: platedskinscience_Florida

Sweet Spot MediSpa

Sweetface Injector

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Takeaways

Jason Freshwater has a rich background in medical aesthetics.

Sales strategies involve thorough product knowledge and market research.

Relaunching Bellefil required significant education and training.

Disport's launch was marked by innovative marketing strategies.

The aesthetic industry has become more mainstream over the years.

Younger demographics are increasingly seeking aesthetic treatments.

Dermatologists tend to be more data-driven than med spas.

Reorder rates are a key metric for sales effectiveness.

Innovative marketing can significantly impact product success.

It's never too late to start in the aesthetic industry.

Titles

The Journey of Jason Freshwater in Aesthetics

Sales Strategies for Aesthetic Product Launches

Sound bites

"Disport became a massive success."

"Med spas are open to new technology."

"It's never too late to start."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Jason Freshwater and His Journey

02:49 Sales Strategies in Medical Aesthetics

05:45 Challenges in Relaunching Artifil and Bellafil

08:29 Success with Disport: A Case Study

11:08 Keeping Up with Trends in Aesthetics

13:58 Evolution of the Aesthetic Industry

16:53 Navigating Sales in Dermatology vs. Med Spas

19:25 Turning Around a Struggling Product Line

22:28 Unique Selling Points of Major Product Launches

27:59 Team Dynamics and Personal Growth

30:31 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Amy Ingle (00:00)

Curious how a new product can shake up an entire industry? In this episode, we go behind the scenes with Jason Freshwater to learn how he launched his game-changing fillers, boosters, and neurotoxins, taking it from concept to market buzz. Jason shares the real challenges, breakthrough moments, and what it takes to disrupt the beauty space with a product everyone's talking about. If you want to know what launching a hit really looks like, this is the episode for you.

Let's get to it.

Amy Ingle (00:55)

Welcome to Glow Up and Get Real. I am the Sweet Face Injector and here today I have Jason Freshwater. He started his career in 2001 selling capital equipment to include x-ray and radiology supplies. From 2003 to 2010, he went into specialty pharmaceuticals to include dermatology and OBGYN. Jason then launched Disport, sold Restylane in 2010, and later Sculptra. He also relaunched Artfil, Bellafil.

as well as Versa HA. Later in 2019, he launched Jeuveau at Evolis and then moved to Perlumium to sell Versa full time. Currently, Jason works independently managing Ryan Aesthetics, which provides platelet skin science exosomes, regenerative solutions for skin and hair. So welcome Jason to glow up and get real. Thanks for coming on.

Fresh (01:44)

Thanks for having me, I'm excited to be here.

Amy Ingle (01:46)

Yeah, just going over your bio. Wow, you've done so many launches So you have a really good foundation for how the industry works in aesthetics and I can't wait to hear your answers So let's get started Can you walk us through your sales approach when launching a new medical aesthetics product?

Fresh (01:58)

Sure.

Yeah. So I think it's the same approach that I took even in the pharmaceutical world. That's kind of where I started my career. And it's a lot of studying and a lot of data intake. know, I think knowing the product as best as you can is the first step, but also knowing what else is on the market, competitive information is super important. And you don't always

want to glean information just from your marketing people, you actually want to go and kind of hunt for it on yourself. So there's no slanted view, right? Competitive information comes from your company. It's going to have a slant on it. So I think I've always done that from the beginning, go out and seek answers and figure out, you know, where we want to go with the product and how to do it. So that's kind of the first thing is a lot of hardcore studying and competitive information. But then also

⁓ You want to be able to solve a problem or have a solution maybe for practice that's struggling with something. Or even if they're not struggling, you want to convey, this is what this can do for your practice or for your patients. that's kind of the basis that I've always done when I'm launching something is figure out the product, figure out the talk track, figure out the competitive landscape, and then how can I help?

a practice or a patient. Because sometimes you have products that maybe don't benefit the physician or the practice, but it really is a benefit to the patient. And if obviously the clinician wants something better for their patient, they're going to gravitate towards that. Yeah.

Amy Ingle (03:37)

Yeah, yeah,

I could see that's a good strategy. I like that. What was your biggest challenges when you faced relaunching Art-fil, Bell-fil?

Fresh (03:41)

Yeah.

Yeah. So, well, the name itself was a challenge. Artefil, you know, launched in the mid 2000s and the technology was really good, but there were some downfalls to how they launched it. And they went in and actually took a lot of investment, which was a newer stance in the industry, especially in the aesthetic industry. They took a lot of... ⁓

investment from physicians around the country. went and drummed up business and got a lot of physicians involved because a long lasting derma filler was new and unique. Nothing had existed, didn't exist at the time. Sculpture wasn't actually on the market and approved yet in the aesthetic arena when artifil was coming up. Unfortunately,

There was a lot of mismanagement with that launch, a lot of mismanagement with the money. There wasn't great training. So the company actually collapsed, but the assets were bought by another group. they actually kept a couple of reps through this whole time. It was about five years. There was only about three or four reps in the country selling artifil. The new group came in and had a... ⁓

completely different outlook and knew that the long lasting filler, this was, you know, 2011, 2012 timeframe, they knew that temporary fillers were great, but people were seeking at that point, you know, an option for a longer lasting filler. And so it was a ton when we, we basically relaunched the product and under the Belle Eiffel name here in the U S because that's what they had it named in Canada.

So the name wasn't new to North America, it just was new to the US. So we relaunched under Bellefil and it was a heavy lift to educate people. There's a lot of education and a lot of training that went into Bellefil because it answered two things that after coming out of the temporary filler game with Restylane and Perling, it answered two questions. How long does it last?

and how much does it cost? That's really all patients and clinicians want to know, you know? And after doing my due diligence and studying the product and kind of understanding what that could do for a patient or for the practice, we were able to kind of craft, you know, that storyline. And it's not for everybody. It's not for every injector and it's not for every patient. That's the other thing that, you know, you kind of narrow down your pool of people that you can work with with the product. But

It is a spectacular product. mean, if it's for somebody looking for a long lasting derma filler, if they kind of got that filler fatigue, it was a great option, but it had a lot of challenges and it was a lot of heavy lift, a lot of leg work to get people to understand how to use it and why they're using it. And then it wasn't for everybody, you know? And that was kind of the change that we took. And then the second part of that was the profitability.

Amy Ingle (06:31)

Mm-hmm.

Fresh (06:38)

It was and probably still is the most profitable filler I've ever sold, hands down. Because of the pricing that you could get the syringes at, but what it did for a patient, because it was almost like Sculptra. Sculptra was like in that two year run. was FDA approved at five years, but you could build up to where you wanted to go. So mean, there's a lot of challenges, but that's kind how we approached it was to

basically relaunch it and re-educate the entire group of physicians that brought it in.

Amy Ingle (07:10)

Yeah, in my experience, have never seen a Bellefil rep in the last eight years that I've been doing this. So yeah.

Fresh (07:15)

Yeah.

I was there almost six years. So, mean, yeah, but it's a very niche category. It's not for everybody. Yeah.

Amy Ingle (07:25)

Yeah, I think more

plastic surgeons use it, don't you think, than boutique med spas?

Fresh (07:30)

think originally, yeah, and probably still, I wouldn't disagree with you on that. I think that when we kind of relaunched it in about, I guess it was 2013 is really when we got going with that relaunch going into 2014, we did have a lot of med spas actually pick it up and use it. Unfortunately, there were people that wanted to use it much like an HA and it just, you can't use it in that way. It's not designed to do that.

you know, again, it comes with a whole bag of consequences when you do that. And that's the problem. That's what scares people. You know what I mean? And, and again, I think it was, you know, um, it's the educational part and training to get them to understand. if that wasn't done at the rep level, it was a recipe for disaster, unfortunately, you know? Um, but yeah, I mean, it's, um, yeah, I think plastics and meth, there's very, very, I don't think there was probably very few derms that have picked that product up and used it at a high level. It's,

mainly plastics or med spas, yeah.

Amy Ingle (08:28)

Mm-hmm

and can you do you can't dissolve that right? There's not a way to if you

Fresh (08:33)

So

yeah, mean, the polymethacrylmethacrylate is the, PMMA is the active ingredient in that product. And it's like 50 to 100 microns in size. So it's smaller than a white blood cell. It's very, very, very microscopic. So when people tell me, I have a bulge, I have nodules, I have this, that to me indicates that it's not necessarily the actual active ingredient.

It's that there was too much product placed in one area and then your tissue engulfed it because it thinks that there's something there. Again, so that's unfortunately, you know, user dependent. if you, you don't, but yeah, no, you're not going to dissolve the actual product. They've, they have histology information out 10 years and you know, there's remnants of it in the PMMA.

Amy Ingle (09:09)

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I did have a client that came in and that had Bellafil and had a little lump on his cheek. So I used Kenalog and that seemed to really help soften that and flatten it out. Yeah.

Fresh (09:34)

Correct. Correct.

Which is, again, it's more of like ⁓ a, it's a tissue engulfment. It's not necessarily the actual product. So you really weren't dissolving. You're just dissolving what was around all of those, those, cause it works similar to Sculptra to be quite honest. The polylactic acid and Sculptra, you know, when it opens, it bursts like that you get that stimulation. The PMMA did the same.

Amy Ingle (09:50)

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Fresh (09:58)

But you wanted to deposit it in these linear small threads almost, right? Where they're long and kind of wispy. You don't want to be heavy on the plunger and get it into a spot, right? That's where you got in trouble, but it still would stimulate that collagen. honestly, the active ingredient, the PMMA is actually inert. Your body doesn't react to that. It reacts to the trauma it's causing in the tissue, right? And wants to build that matrix of collagen around it to heal it.

just the same as what you would get with sculpture, but more of an instant fill that lasted a couple months before the PMMA actually kicked in. So you got the best of both worlds. And again, it had its complications for sure. That's for sure.

Amy Ingle (10:36)

Okay.

Yeah.

So what would you say your most successful product launch has been and what made it successful?

Fresh (10:48)

Yeah, that's a great question because I've had a lot, but I think the most successful for me personally was Disport. Disport for sure was my most successful long-term launch. And I know for me personally what it did and how I did when we launched it in the first four years.

Amy Ingle (10:50)

Okay.

Fresh (11:10)

being in the same territory after leaving the company and see other people have come in and picked up the product and where they've taken it, you they had a massive base of business to start with. So that's kind of me. When I look back, I see like, you know, how big this port has become. Obviously, Galderma picked up those assets and we've had some really, really, really talented reps in this area have this port and grow it from what I started. But by far for me, the most successful new product launch that I've been involved with.

Amy Ingle (11:38)

Okay, cool. So how do you keep up then with the latest trends? I know you talked about your education, but what's your secret sauce?

Fresh (11:42)

Yeah, it's...

I ask questions. mean, I'm curious to ask questions and I don't snub my nose at anything. I learned a long time ago, kind of like with job offers, as good as you're doing or as great as you might like what you're doing, always listen, always be open to listen. Back in 2021, I actually was exposed to, I was at a meeting, I was exposed to Banev ExaZone technology.

at a meeting I was at. They were at the booth next to me and I had never, didn't know what a nexozone was, never really heard about it. And I was curious, you I think it's curiosity. You have to be, you want to ask questions, you want to know how things work, what happens. You know, ⁓ this is a big thing now, you know, Dr. Subio and always like ask, just ask questions. You know, it's not wrong. You're not in the wrong to ask and want to know more. And then don't take one word.

So for me, that's what I do. I'm always curious, there's so much innovation and so much technology and new things coming out. Again, if I had not been curious to know what an Exosome was or how it worked back then, it wouldn't have led me to what I know now and coming here to Rion, you know, to sell a platelet-derived Exosome. So yeah, that's for me. mean, kind of always just asking questions, being open to what's on the market and not trying to understand it. Yeah.

Amy Ingle (12:52)

you

Mm-hmm. Yeah,

I always say don't ever close doors. Even if you're not interested, don't close that door because you never know what's going to swing back around. Yeah, yeah. So then what do you see as the biggest changes in the aesthetic industry of the last five to ten years?

Fresh (13:02)

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Agreed, agreed.

Yeah, I really, in my opinion, I feel like it used to be early on in 2005, six, seven, Restylane launched in 2004. That was the first hyaluronic acid on the market that lasted six months. Before that, had bovine collagen, was kind of the mainstay for filler. Botox launched, I think in 2003 or 2002 right around that way in cosmetic. So it was very, very much secretive back then.

and remained that way for a long time. People didn't want to talk about it. They didn't want anybody to know they're having stuff done. So I think that we have transitioned out of that. It's more mainstream, way more mainstream. And especially over the last eight years, 10 years, it's become kind of commonplace. And then the other thing I noticed has changed is that the age has dropped.

I mean, there's people in their mid 20s now, you know this, I don't need to tell you, know, it's a younger population of people that are getting toxins and maybe dabbling in some filler, especially in the lip filler area. So that has changed a lot, but also the advancements that have come out are prolific in my opinion. I mean, what we have access to now that we didn't five, 10 years ago to be able to treat different modalities or different things going on with folks.

with really, really good technology that legitimately works. You know this, right? We've had this conversation in the past. There's a lot of devices, energy-based devices out there in the past that they're okay. lot of patient selection. You could get results, but it was a lot to get a patient there. Not all of them wowed you. I think we now have some platforms that they've created that do a lot and really...

change someone within two treatments, three treatments of having things done ⁓ for the better. And I think that that's changed a lot.

Amy Ingle (15:01)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So when you were selling to dermatologists, which I believe you still do, right? Is that one of your... Yeah. Okay. Versus Wachit Med Spas, what key objections do you encounter and how do you address them? Because it's a totally different situation, right?

Fresh (15:10)

I do, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Dermatology? Yeah,

yeah, 100%. 100%. And again, it goes back to what I originally learned when I first got into pharmaceuticals, which was heavy education. I mean, they're very, very scientific driven derms, and they want to see the studies. They want to see data. So that was kind of, again, when you originally asked me how I launched something, that's why I always start there, because that was how I was brought up in the industry. If you didn't know your product or you couldn't tell the derm,

the answer to the question they were looking for, it's unsettling. So you better figure it out or go know it or, yeah. So they're very much driven by data and analytics in that manner. And they're a little bit more reserved to take up new technology. They really are. There's not a lot of derms that are at the forefront on the aesthetic side of bringing things in and do it. They like to wait and see. So it's more...

Amy Ingle (15:51)

Yeah, you don't want to look like a fool.

Fresh (16:11)

more analytical, more data-driven in that aspect for which the information you're giving them in the beginning. And then it lot of times comes down to pricing. And you got to understand, maybe not a lot of people understand, not every dermatologist has aesthetics. Yeah, you know what mean? So if we're talking about a doctor or a dermatologist who has aesthetics in his practice, there's a lot more massaging going on.

Again, you got to start with the science, you got to start with that, but then it's, okay, how does it benefit my practice monetarily? And then does it, how does it benefit patients? So that's the talk track. ⁓ on the other side, like with, you know, med spas and boutique med spas, you, they're much more open to new, new technology. They kind of want the latest and greatest. If their patients are paying cash, right. They really want to know that what you're offering them is something that's, you know,

innovative and new and so they're you know med spas are much more open to listening and kind of taking in like hey that how does this work why does it work and Boom, they do it, you know where it's I think it's a bit of a longer turn with the dermatologist to get something in

Amy Ingle (17:12)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I believe that's true as well. So can you describe a time when you turned around a struggling territory or product line?

Fresh (17:25)

Oh, it would have to be Belleville without a doubt. Yeah, without a doubt. Cause our art of Phil Belleville was on the market already. It was, it was already out before I got there. Um, very, very unsuccessful. Um, I had one provider in my entire territory. So my territory back then went from Naples to St. Pete, but I also had West Palm to Jacksonville. So I had like the two opposing coasts and Florida was a really bizarre, um,

Amy Ingle (17:27)

⁓ okay.

Fresh (17:52)

territory, but that's what they had to give me to get me over to the company. Because I was leaving, Valiant had bought Metisys at the time. I was there about a year. That's how I picked up Sculptra and was not going well. Like Valiant was not a good spot to be. Had I known Galderma was going to buy those assets, I would have stayed ⁓ another six months. I got, so to go over to Suniva, I had to get a really odd territory.

Amy Ingle (18:10)

Right?

Fresh (18:16)

I have one person, think about that, Naples to St. Pete, West Palm to Jacksonville. I have one person here in Fort Myers that had artifil listed on his website, or on his, yeah, on his website, but he didn't really use it. It was just like he had had it once, did a training and that was it. So very, very unsuccessful the territory was. within about two years,

Amy Ingle (18:39)

Yeah.

Fresh (18:40)

I was doing over a million dollars a year with the territory. you know, again, that was probably the most successful turnaround that I've been involved with. Yeah.

Amy Ingle (18:49)

Yeah,

I know once ⁓ it came out in like marketing, people were asking for it. I've had clients ask me about it, not recently, but in the past I have.

Fresh (18:53)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They, they,

they, the company did do a good job of, of getting their marketing assets up to par and having people speak about it at podium across the country at meetings, you know, all that stuff, you know, supporting, sales, helps for sure, but it takes, it's a long turn. doesn't happen right away, but yeah, you're right. I mean, they, definitely have a bigger footprint than they used to.

Amy Ingle (19:15)

Mm-hmm.

I think too, I have a lot of clients that say, well, five years is a long time, and what if I don't like it? And so they opt for like HA, which lasts anywhere from a year to two years. So it's funny how the mindset is, and I think it goes in waves too. anyway, yeah, yeah. So what metrics do you use to measure your own sales effectiveness?

Fresh (19:25)

Yeah.

I would agree with you, yeah.

I always look at, I've had the benefit of being in an area for 25 years, which is rare, I think, in a lot of cases. A lot of reps will either move territories or when they move companies, they might actually have to leave and go somewhere else, or they call on different specialties. I've been in the dermatology sales world since 2002.

But here in this territory, Naples to Tampa since 2003. So I always measure if someone lets me back in, if I carry new products, I think that's a win for me. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like they, know, right away, like I'm going to bring them something that, is legit. It's, it's, it's going to do something to benefit again, them or their prac, their patients. But I also, ⁓ I also measure what's the reorder rate.

Amy Ingle (20:12)

Mm. Long time.

Right?

Fresh (20:33)

of these people I'm working with? Are they reordering? And again, like there's a lot of metrics people look at and cut up. And right now I just got a report on a Friday of last week. I'm the highest out of 14 reps right now in my region that has the highest reorder rate. Right, right. mean, for me, that's a big deal. That means that what I'm conveying to them and what they're understanding about my product and what it's doing for the practice and patient,

Amy Ingle (20:48)

Wow, congratulations, that's amazing.

Fresh (20:58)

It works. It's there, you know? So that's one of the things. I a of people can look at sales and you're up and down and you're doing great and pushing a lot of product. But for me, it's do they let you in and are they reordering what you're selling them and what you're telling them? That's something that I really measure myself at.

Amy Ingle (20:59)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, you definitely have to have the trust first. And then once that trust comes in, if your product doesn't work, then you've lost. So, yeah.

Fresh (21:22)

That's right.

That's right. And measuring also to me, I look at, I doing what's right for the customer? There are multiple times that I've taken it right on the chin monetarily, right? Because it wasn't right to push someone to order something just for me to hit a goal. Like it wasn't right for their business. And I really, really, really tried to maintain that line where, you know, maybe some people in the industry, they don't care. They want to get, you know.

They want to their commission. They want to hit their bonus. I get it. There's just times where I've not done that and it's been the right call. And that's what allows me. I think that, you my customers, I've worked with for a long time. They understand that that's important to me. Your business is important to me and I don't want to, you know, put it in jeopardy to be selfish. Right. So.

Amy Ingle (22:08)

Yeah, yeah. Well, tell us about your experience launching Dispore, Rust-Alan, and Juvo. What were your unique selling points for each and how did you position them in the market?

Fresh (22:18)

Yeah, I'll start with Restylane because it was out first. I didn't actually launch Restylane. It was already on the market. So when I joined Metasys, that was the only set of product they had. Metasys on the Metasys statics is the company that owned the rights here in the US to distribute and sell Restylane. And then they secure the rights for Discord. So Restylane was already kind of the machine was going when I buy it.

by about four years by the time I got it, but Disport, I was involved in the launch of it. it was tough because Botox was already a juggernaut. mean, it was, you know, it was, it's, know, most people when they go in and get toxin, they don't say toxin or neurotoxin, they say Botox, right? You and I know this. We've always had these conversations. People don't know that. Yeah, exactly. People, it's not a tissue, it's Kleenex, right? That's what they call it. So.

Amy Ingle (22:56)

Right. ⁓

Fresh (23:05)

That was a very difficult task to get people to really trust and go with this port. So we launched it and originally it didn't go so well. The first probably eight months that we had it on the market, it wasn't going well because the providers were so confused at the messaging that I think. And it's because a lot of the legwork prior to launching this port, people were saying,

We don't care. We want an option. We want options. We don't want to be tied to just one with like Botox or, you back then Botox was increasing their price every year, which they still do. All of them do it. But, but back then they, they were, you physicians were getting so upset. They wanted an option and then in price price was a driver was what we were told, right. And a lot of preliminary things. So we would do these focus groups and they would say, we don't care if it's

$25 less than Botox per vial were going to use Disport. So that's kind of what the marketing team went with. That actually wasn't true because there was a conversion with Disport versus Botox that dealt with math. And I found out real quick that a lot of physicians and clinicians don't like math. yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the first hurdle.

Amy Ingle (24:16)

No, we use it every day.

Fresh (24:22)

⁓ was to get them to understand that the dilution was different and it would work if you would just do the dilution. But then we kind of figured out, okay, well, if we tell them it's a 1.25, it makes it the exact same as Botox. And then we really started the trek once we kind of got it easier for them. And then we did the marketing team transition a little bit and they did a really, really cool marketing campaign where

They let patients come in and if you got this port, you would get, I think it was $75 off. When you came back, oh yeah, this was back in 2000 and we did this in 2011, I think. Yeah, 2010, 11, because we launched in 09. So was like 10, 11. This was one of the most successful campaigns I've ever been in and it was ingenious.

Amy Ingle (24:57)

Was this before Allie or was this before?

Fresh (25:14)

If they came in, they got $75 off the treatment. If you came back for your second treatment, it didn't matter if you got Botox or you got Disport on your second time, you were still gonna get $75. Didn't matter, right? So the first time you had to get Disport, second time you were still gonna get your $75, but you could get whatever you chose. 98 % of the patients that came back in this campaign chose Disport.

Amy Ingle (25:34)

Those are the old days.

wow, okay.

Fresh (25:42)

So it wasn't about the money, right? People were like, yeah, they're gonna get, no, we were gonna, if they got Botox, we were gonna give them $75. It didn't matter. That campaign was so successful and really showed like, it doesn't always have to be about money. That's super important in the aesthetic market, but there are some things that people like better. It kicked in faster, it lasted longer, right? Those are facts. didn't like, that wasn't marketing.

compared to Botox at the time, you know? So ⁓ that was how that went. And I gave a lot of people confidence. Okay, this product works. Whatever we're hearing, it's not true because why would they choose to get the product again if it didn't work? They were gonna get the money regardless. So that was the big launch between the two and how it differed. Jouvaux was a little bit different because then we took the approach like, this is the same exact thing as Botox. It is, right?

Amy Ingle (26:08)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Fresh (26:31)

Whether you want to admit it or not, most people don't remember the launch of Botox because it was back in like 02, 03 when it really got going. A lot of people weren't, some of these injectors were in middle school when it launched. So they don't really know what it was like, but know, Juveau with the same kiln on size, the same technology, the same reconstitution, that approach. And then they were so, so innovative in the marketing.

Amy Ingle (26:38)

Mm-hmm.

Bye.

Mm-hmm.

Fresh (26:58)

I mean,

say what you want about Juve. I don't really care, but the Evolus marketing team really, really kind of hit the nail on the head with their marketing, how they presented online, what things they ran for their patients and their practices to me was super innovative. They're ordering online, you know, I mean, you launched it with me. was, you know, checkout was easy.

It was much like Amazon. They were the first company to do that. They were very, very innovative in that side. So that was fun. And that was how we kind of differed from what else was on the market when we launched it.

Amy Ingle (27:31)

Did you have the rewards when you launched it? Did they start that right away? They did.

Fresh (27:34)

Yeah.

Yeah. So, so that reward system actually funny enough was I, you know, so Mike Jaffar who led our marketing, he will probably yell at me right now who, who he's at Xtrece now, but we already had that program at ProLinium. So when I launched Versa, that rewards program was already in play and wildly successful with Versa. So it was the, your patient comes in, you're going to get $50.

Amy Ingle (27:46)

Yes.

Fresh (28:00)

off each syringe, doesn't matter. And then for every four syringes you do that, we're going to give you a free one back in your inventory. that did, that was a super cut through, which had never happened before because all of the other programs, reward programs only really benefited the company and maybe the patient to a degree, but you know, didn't do anything for your practice to run everyone else's programs. Right. But with, with the, with the, Versa launch, we did that.

And it was substantial. The patient got something, your practice got something, right? Back. Gervaud did the same. And yeah, the rewards program, again, it's ingenious. It's ingenious. Reward the people that are promoting your product. Kind of a simple concept, but most companies, you know, they don't do that. I mean, the Alligands, the Galdermas, they don't benefit you on their reward program. So yeah, again, for Evolus to take that...

Amy Ingle (28:30)

Mm-hmm.

Fresh (28:52)

program and launch it and it was brave of them. They were obviously bigger and had more money and took a different approach to launch versus Perlinium when they brought out Versa because they went the 1099 route. But nonetheless, it took a set of balls for David to launch Jouvaux and use that right away and come out with that. It was a big deal.

Amy Ingle (29:14)

Right, and now they have their filler. Unless has their filler, yeah. So, okay, so just looking ahead, what kind of environment and team do you thrive in? You've done so many different things. Where is your place?

Fresh (29:16)

Yeah.

I, yeah, I actually, I really like team culture with rep level. I'm not big on management. I don't like people overseeing, you know, I don't need that. guess at this, especially at this stage of my career, I don't need to be told.

to get up and go to work, because I have a family of five I support on a solo income. So, know, working and doing that, I don't need that. will not thrive under a micromanagement situation. I like having the independence and having an entrepreneurial type atmosphere, but also collaborating with other reps, because I need to learn always different talk tracks or things come up, you know, and that's how we kind of.

pool together and thrive in that environment. So for me, I don't need a lot of oversight, but I definitely like a team environment for sure.

Amy Ingle (30:19)

Do you miss that with what you're doing now or do you feel like you're getting enough of that going into the spas and derm?

Fresh (30:24)

Um, as far as collaboration or yeah, so we've grown so much now. I mean, I was one of the first people three years ago here at Rion with Play did, and, we have, um, almost 35 reps now nationally. There's 14, there's 14 in my region alone in the Southeast. So we've grown tremendously in three years, you know, that I've been here. Um, so yeah, I mean, I think there's a degree of that, um, you know, early on I,

Amy Ingle (30:26)

Yes.

So.

Mm-hmm.

Fresh (30:51)

I fielded a lot of questions as people came on and kind of helped them understand like what was going to happen and what they should be looking for and things of that nature. but yeah, we've grown a lot. we, do have that now in the beginning. Yeah, there was very few of us to talk with, but it's changed a lot.

Amy Ingle (31:04)

Mm-hmm.

So what's your sweetest tip of the day?

Fresh (31:08)

It's never too late. Never too late to start. if we're talking, ⁓ you know, in the aesthetic market, it's never, never too late to start. I mean, there's, there's, again, we talked about it earlier with the, the advancement and some of the technologies that, we get to work with here in this industry. It doesn't matter your age and, and, you know, you can always start. There's always something that we are able to offer somebody to help them look better, feel better, gain more confidence in this industry. But yeah, so it's, it's never too late. ⁓

to start.

Amy Ingle (31:36)

I like that.

So how can the listeners get in touch with you?

Fresh (31:38)

So ⁓ naples at platedskinscience.com. That's my email. And then the Instagram, I had to change my Instagram. So it's platedskinscience underscore Florida. That's my Instagram handle. Feel free to reach out, ask questions even if it's not about the products that I have now, but anything about the industry, I'm happy to talk chat and give my opinion.

Amy Ingle (31:53)

Okay.

All right, very good. Well, thank you so much for coming on. This has been very informative. You have a lot of history and you know a lot about the industry from back in 2000. it seems like the people that I've talked to, especially the reps, they've been in it maybe two, maybe five years, but you've really done a lot and come a long way. So I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Fresh (32:15)

Yeah.

I appreciate that. Yeah. Well,

thank you for having me. It was a blast. It was a lot of fun. Thank you.

Amy Ingle (32:33)

All right, thank you.