The Future of Medical Aesthetics & Injectables | Valentina Shtefan

What REALLY happens behind the scenes of the booming medspa industry?

In this eye-opening episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, host Eric Winegard sits down with Valentina Shtefan, owner of Medspa From Scratch, for an unfiltered conversation about beauty, business, entrepreneurship, injectables, personal branding, and the truth about the medical aesthetics world.

Valentina reveals how she went from surgical residency training and working in plastic surgery to building a successful medspa from the ground up, eventually scaling and selling it to a private equity group. But this conversation goes way deeper than Botox and fillers.

They dive into:
• Why MOST medspas struggle to grow
• The dangerous truth about “cheap Botox.”
• Why clients become fiercely loyal to injectors
• The psychology behind beauty & confidence
• The REAL reason personal branding dominates this industry
• The risks nobody talks about in aesthetics
• How social media changed the beauty business forever
• The future of wellness, injectables & anti-aging
• What separates elite injectors from average ones
• How Valentina built her business from ONE small room into a recognized brand

This episode is packed with raw entrepreneurial lessons, behind-the-scenes industry insights, marketing psychology, and powerful advice for anyone building a business or personal brand.

Whether you're interested in aesthetics, wellness, entrepreneurship, branding, beauty, or business growth, this is one of the most fascinating conversations yet on the Gold Coast Podcast.

Guest:
Valentina Shtefan
Owner of Medspa From Scratch

Follow Valentina:
Instagram: @medspa.from.scratch
TikTok: @medspa.from.scratch
YouTube: Medspa From Scratch

Hosted by Eric Winegard
Gold Coast Podcast

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Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

Transcript

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You have a little boy? Yeah. And I wanted to have a girl because I'm in a girly business. You are in a girly business. But I'm so glad, you know, because he's like, he's my little buddy. Yeah, yeah. Girls get gets get smoothy. Girls with dads. You know, you can have a great time with a girl. Are you a single mom? Yes. I grew up with a single mom. Yeah. Got a soft heart for a single mom, I'll tell you later. Yeah, you have really nice and cute peach. You know what the vibe you give me? You give me the harmonies vibe. I give you the hermosy vibe. Yeah. That's quite the compliment. Thank you. Just the whole the beard, the whole like muscular. The muscle the muscles and the beard, yeah. I definitely don't have it. And you in you in the industry too. Yeah. But you were not trying, no? What do you mean? You were not trying to like get that that sort of like local vibe or anything. Oh. Because it's like no, I'm just me. You know? I'm just me. No. No, but that's quite the compliment. I mean, I'm nowhere near as accomplished as him, though. He's so accomplished. He's pretty cool. Have you been in his uh events in Vegas? I I have not, but I'm I would love to go. Have you? No, but I would love to go. I think it's gonna be like super motivating. He I think he has a couple of different levels. I think there's one level that's like a $5,000 level, and that's I believe that's when you're in the room kind of asking questions. Uh-huh. I think he has a hundred thousand dollar level where you just sit with him in the room and you just one-on-one go with him. That's what I gotta do. Yeah. I got I gotta steal from his brain. Yeah. You know, you follow him. Yeah, I love his stuff. But you see, like a lot of things not applicable to my industry because medical aesthetics is so, so strange. Yeah. Everything that we know from marketing, from business, comes to medical aesthetics and it's all may not work out at all. Yeah. So it's it's an interesting field. And that's why a lot of private equities, like a lot of bigger groups, and they all struggling a little bit to figure it out. Because here it's so connected to a particular person more than any business that's ever been created. The injector? Yes. So it's all about personality, it's also all about that person, not just that business. So that becomes a very different angle in marketing. How do you how do you make that into the ad? Yeah. So no, keep going. I'm fascinated by this. I'm because I'm really tied into this industry right now. Yeah? You have uh any med spas you're working with? Oh, yeah. So we're we're a full-service digital marketing company. So we work with you know a hundred different verticals, I would say. Maybe not that many. And somehow, I don't know how it happened, kind of accidentally. We just started working with a lot of med spas. And actually, I know what happened. We started working with this one telehealth business that had um they were doing, I mean, they do like 260 million dollars a year through telehealth. They're massive. And like which like just general medicine or psychological. Well, they no, it's like TRT, peptides, and they and they've been doing it over 20 years. HRT? Yeah, yeah. HRT. Yeah, yeah. So they sorry. And you know, they sell it nationwide. So I th I think they have I don't know. I'm not gonna say who they are because I'm probably telling their business too much, but they have 70,000 clients that pay them about $300 a month. Wow. It's obscene. And it's all so we learned, we started working with them all throughout the country, and every state's a little bit different with like the keywords that work and don't work, and obviously legalities, etc. So we started working with them a couple years back, and we really just had to force ourselves to learn the wellness, overall wellness space very intently, and then we started working with all these other wellness clinics, probably seven or eight of them. Uh, we got another guy in Texas that spends about 12 grand a month on his Google Ads with us, but he gets like 600 consultations every month from it. Um, I had another clinic in Wellington, Florida that just opened up a couple months back. They were kind of freaking out about leads, and I said, well, let us put our plan together. Boom, first month, you know, or excuse me, first week, 80 phone calls, you know. So this is an industry we market really well, and it kind of happened accidentally. You know, yeah. Very interesting. You must be doing something very different because I've worked with a ton of marketing company throughout my journey in this business, and the results were exactly the same as when I did everything myself. It was just zero lease, it was just like extra expense, but no return on investment at all. Oh wow. So that's why to me it's like, oh wow, this industry is really bizarre. So you have to get a lot of personal involvement. So it's basically if you know what is it that's working for you and you can just delegate certain tasks to certain companies to do for you just because you cannot be one person multiple places, that works. But if you just rely on somebody to do the work for you to figure out that secret formula for you for Mespa, tough time. Yeah. No, it's um it's an interesting industry because and I'd be curious to hear your opinion on this. Like, you ever hear how people talk about uh blue ocean strategy? Do you ever hear about that? No. So there's a famous book, I think it's called Blue Ocean Strategy, and basically the concept is that you want to go fishing out, like if you're out in the middle of the ocean, you want to look for blue ocean. Because if you go out fishing there and you're the only fisherman, you're more likely to catch a fish. Well, if you go, if you see red waters, it means there's a ton of blood, and it means that the sharks, all the sharks are there eating all the fish. So I guess the concept is you don't want to go fishing in red waters because the sharks are eating up all the fish. Well, I look at it differently. I look at it like, well, the reason why all the sharks are here is because there's so many fish. Right? Yeah. So if you go out to the blue ocean, there might not necessarily be fish. There might be fish, but but I actually want to go where all the fish are. So I feel that the med spa industry or the wellness space, there's a lot of fish. People are very health conscious these days. Oh, yeah. Uh, especially the younger demographics, they're, you know, they're not drinking as much, they're not smoking as much. And uh, especially down here in South Florida, it's funny you called it a girly industry, but I go get frickin' Botox and all these things too, right? So But that's still less than 10%. Less than 10%, yeah. A male population. Yeah. Well, well, my point is I think what I'm saying is that the industry is clearly growing, but obviously the amount of operators is growing too. So it's like the the best marketer is the one that's gonna win, in my opinion. Do you do you agree or disagree? The best marketers, yes and no. So what what it depends on the type of marketing. Uh yes, obviously, to get the message, to get exposure, marketing is crucial for that. But it's a personal brand that is going to win the market. Uh here it's all about who Injector is, what is it that they are doing technically, so their results. Who are they as a person, what kind of personality, what is it that they do, their social media, it's their personal brand. And those people, they are untouchable. It doesn't matter how much they charge, it doesn't matter if there's a ton of med spots right around the corner for them, there will be absolutely no competition. But it's the newest people to the industry to build up that personal brand or complete ignorance of the personal brand by many med spots and many practices, that's where that's who's going to suffer. So, what's the why is the injector so vital to this business? Just like any beauty industry, it's a trust. So, um, you know, obviously you get your hair done, I get my hair done. Yeah, and if you find somebody who really knows how to do it, you're not switching. And God forbid that person moves outside of state or something. Don't get me going on my hair. It's gonna be a while before you find somebody. Now imagine that's your face. And imagine if that treatment is not just about how you look, but also can potentially cause life-altering changes. Like fillers, fillers, botox, it's all not without complications and issues. So here, safety becomes a concern too. So it's not just results, but also how safe that injector is. So it becomes very much an attachment between the client and a particular person. And the only way to really get that connection is through doing two things. One is personally being referred by somebody who's already seen you, trusting you, being your client for a long time. Second way is to appear as such a person. And the way you do it is through the social media or through other influencers who have seen you and make you seem like somebody they trust, and then their following trust them, hence you get their following people who will come and give you a try. Those are really the only two ways to get it done. Either through appearance of somebody who you already, either appearing to a clientele that they already know you, or they actually know you, or they know you through somebody, family or friends. Yeah, just a general ad, it's like, oh, you know, $9.99 Botox. No, nobody cares. It's not about money. It's actually for a while it was trending that direction that everybody's just like, oh, who gets the cheapest prices? But it's a very small amount of population who utilizing the services and certainly very small amount of business that comes from that sorry population who will be looking at the cheapest deal. Because this is at the end of the day, is a medical field, comes with the medical concerns and complications. Yeah, no, you make you make a lot of good points. I my barber is everything to me. But if I had a bad haircut, so what? It goes back in two weeks, right? But if somebody pokes a needle in my face, watched your face, yeah. Yeah, you could and it could be permanent. It could be, it could be theoretically, right? And I'm I'm I'm actually asking, right? It could be I'm a hundred thousand percent certainty that certain complications can be absolutely life-altering. And I'm not trying to scare you away. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Get in the services, but yeah, it's it is it's a medical field, it's a medical procedure. The only zero risk is do nothing. Everything else comes with a risk, and for the most part, is a mild risk. But all it takes is one person to get something really scary, and it becomes known to people that hey, this can happen, and that's why they become even more selective, even more careful to who they go into see. I was very can I give you my uh Botox history in my life? It's up to you. No, I'm happy to. Yeah, no, I don't, I'm not like bashful about anything. So I fortunately my skin never I never had bad wrinkles. Like even when I was in my late 30s, I wasn't really getting crows' feet. Excuse me. And I noticed that a lot of other men did. I did notice that. But uh my my wife, who's not here, oh you met her. Yeah, yeah. She uh she was always getting stuffed under her face, and and I was like, how dare you! How dare you do that to your lips? How dare you do that to and I just was so now where I'm from, upstate New York is very uh like kind of like a conservative area. They're not very, well, not politically, but they're not very um modern when it comes to certain medicine and practices and stuff. So it was kind of taboo to me. But then she said, you know, she finally got me to say, Why don't you just try Botox one time? You know, and I got Botox done, and you know, a couple weeks later, I I said to her, I go, and I didn't even realize it was Botox. I go, damn, I look good. I go, what's going on with me? And I just noticed how much more youthful I looked. So I would say for the past three years, I've gone every 90 days, but I'm telling you the story because I agree with you, because this one injector that I was going to permanently, I went to another injector and she and she was fine, don't get me wrong, but I noticed it wasn't the same. It was a huge difference. Huge yeah, I drove my ass down to Aventura to go see him a few weeks ago. I drove an hour there and an hour back just for just for an injector. So you're right. Yeah. Yeah. To me, it's not surprising. In the beginning, especially when there were less offerly qualified injectors, um, I had people who would fly from New York. I had people who fly from um Colorado because at that point, Colorado market was very, very limited. There was just not a lot of injectors who would do tear trough or really good lip filler. So it was really hard to find for ladies, the person to go to. And for them, it's like, well, Miami sounds nice, you know. For Lauderdale, it's a nice area. I gotta go hang out on the beach and get my Botox done. And they will, they'll fly. It will make it more sense for them to come see me. So now I still have up to this day many patients who I've been seeing for this 11 years since I got in this industry, who would not trade their services with me to anybody else, even if it's convenience, cheaper, whatever other reasons, they would just stay with you. Of course, there's many others who will shop around, who will try, who will, you know, switch around, try somebody else. But again, whoever they're trying is usually the personal recommendation or some influencer recommendation, or somebody they found on TikTok or Instagram who sounds like will be an expert who they trust. Yeah, I think I think when I was, and I'm not trying to disagree with you or challenge you. Um, I think when I was saying the marketing, one could argue the personal brand is part of your marketing, right? That's for sure, right? 100%. Yeah. So, and I was not saying the marketing is is dead for Mespa. It's just the angle of the marketing is different. It's not about targeting your general advertisement. Yeah, it's not about applying really carefully your SEOs or whatever, social optimistic. Well, let's test it. So it's mostly to promote that person, make them into the personal brand if they for some reason not capable or not willing to do it themselves. And that's where successful marketing can be very, very helpful. Not everybody is born with that personal brand identity. Like, for example, injector Bonnie, we all know Erica Burke, she's a superstar. She's a Kim Kardashian of medical aesthetics. I don't know her, but but you all know her. Yeah, yeah. You can ask your wife, she probably does. Erica Burke. Yes. Well, you know, it's it's different. I would say she's Kim Kardashian of medical industry, not medical consumer. Oh, okay. So for injectors, every injector would know who she is. And she has very, very strong personal brand, which she worked for a long time and she created completely herself. But of course, she has a whole team right now helping her because the amount of work right now, the presentations and all that she's going through. So, yes, marketing team is important to just help you, but you can't just make a generic thing so it will apply to every practice, every practitioner. Yeah. Avoiding that personal brand. I think um, like one of the things that I would do as a marketing strategy, just as I'm thinking through this, is no, you don't want to advertise cheap Botox. Right? Because you're definitely uh belittling and diminishing your brand too, for sure. But maybe get people in with, you know, um a facial treatment plan. Hey, we have a hundred dollar a month facial treatment plan that you can come, you know, whatever, and then obviously hopefully upsell them or cross-sell them the other services. Um, but definitely not cheap Botox. That's not the way to go. Yes, yeah. No way. Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of a lot of ways of how the unique offers and how to successfully market mass plan. This is basically what I'm teaching the practices to what they can utilize and just make a difference. Yeah, break. And it's a little bit, it's a little bit different, it's a little bit unique. Yeah, break uh unpack that a little bit. So so tell so what is your what is your career, where does it sit today? What are you doing on a day-to-day basis today? So today I see patients as an injector. So I have continuously uh caring for my patients for the last 11 years. Okay. And that is through right now a partnership with the bigger corporation where my company became a part of. Okay. So I established mess uh um I established Hello Gorgeous Medical Spa 11 years ago, and that I sold three years ago to the private equity group, and now we have 30 locations. I'm partner with them. Wow. And it's really easy for me because I only uh do patient care portion. I'm not involved in business anymore. I mean, I can get my opinion, my advice, but I don't have to manage day-to-day operations. Okay. So it freed me up for doing more of educational and creative stuff. So that's how Mespa from Scra scratch happened, is after I sold my company and I no longer had to be involved in all that routine things, I had time to establish a training platform. And I was providing this business advice, marketing advice, the how to grow your MESPA from absolute zero following, zero patience, zero anything, and how to become basically successful because I've been through this journey personally myself from nothing, from smaller than this room operation to full-scale MESPA to now partner with a bigger corporation. And somehow that grew into more of the clinical training platform because as I grew on social media, I got a lot of requests for a technical training. Can we have and hands-on training on bow tax? Can we have hands-on and filler, you know, biofillers? And I decided that it was important. I cannot just give the business advice if I cannot guarantee that they know how to technically produce those results. So it became actually currently our major portion of Mespa from scratch is the clinical training. So we're doing seminars, group seminars, we're doing one-on-one educational training, Zoom uh education online, and shadowing at my clinic. Very cool. So what's the difference between, and maybe you can't give out these secrets. How can one how can somebody tell if somebody's a good injector or not? Is there any like like if you're a man It's such a good question, yeah? No, it's tough. Yeah, I mean, you know, you can look at before and after photos, obviously, but how can you actually tell? It's tough, right? It's so, so hard. And that's why people stay with their injectors because you can you can misrepresent a lot of things, and you can think that somebody really knows what they're doing, that like seems like everybody goes to that person, and you can have a bad experience with them. So it's not your social in reality, right? I mean, what perceived by client or what actually is happening can be two different things. So if somebody is actually a good injector, it doesn't mean that they can have the most amount of following, it doesn't mean that they're making the most amount of money. They can be super talented, super good, and nobody knows about them, and they may be struggling seeing two patients a day. So, how do you know? I guess word of mouth, recommendations, you just gotta ask around, you gotta do your due diligence. Many times what I uh tell my patients to, okay, if for example, for some reason I'm no longer injecting, how do they figure out who is a good injector? Right. The best thing to do is actually kind of sneaky way, but what you can do, let's say you're looking for somebody else. You go to the med spa who you research, okay, are they registered on all the distributors' websites? Are they selling the true authentical product because it's also a safety concern? Because there's a lot of fake Botox, fake fellers out there, you know, from the cheap companies. So you want them to use official distributing product because it's a high safety. So you can go to those distributor websites, look at the list of the local clinics in your area, then check out the website, check out reviews, and then go see an aesthetician at that clinic and get something simple, like for example, a facial, and then talk to that aesthetician hey, uh, who do you go to? To get your lips done or like Botox done, and they'll tell you, you'll be surprised. They're not going to advertise, they're going to tell you the truth. They're gonna say, Yes, this injector is good, you know. This injector, no, I I would go to that girl. That's and you go to whoever, yeah, like the aesthetician will tell you, yeah. Or whoever they go to. Do you know what black ops is? Black ops, that's a that's that's like a military operation, like a Navy SEAL. That's what that sounds like. You're like infiltrating the business. It's really strange. Yes, and you're getting the insider opinion because otherwise you're going to get to whoever is less busy on the schedule. For sure. You'll call the office and they're like, Oh, yeah, Dr. Greg is going to see you because he doesn't have any patients. Well, that's that's funny you say that because the guy that I've been going to, he's so busy. It takes forever to get in. What a great way to market yourself. Let's say you're you have no patients and they call you. A funny way to make you seem better would be, oh, I'm so busy, I don't know if I can fit you in my schedule, right? So uh kind of funny, right? Sometimes so sometimes I recommend actually to my clinics when they have online scheduling, yeah, and I recommend them to remove like 70% of availability, leave the 30 available so there's still something available, but it doesn't look like you're just wide open. Yeah. Because last thing that clients want to do is to go to somebody and nobody else else, nobody else wants to go to right, yeah. What so what else do you do at your clinic outside of like what are the other um so for um my clinic in uh Well Lubs Plus, I I don't know if I can say the I'm sure uh so there I do like Botox fillers, the lasers and all that. And for Mespa from scratch, this is where I'm doing all of my trainings and seminars. Okay. Uh in addition to that, I'm also a national trainer for Revance, which is a company that makes TaxiFi and RHA collection of fillers, so it's a newer generation injectable product. Yeah. So with them, you know, we do trainings and um speaking opportunities, dinners and things, stuff like that. Kind of walk me through like your professional history. Yeah. So uh I've trained uh medicine, you know, in in the US and Russia, both. In Russia I was in a medical school. Yeah. Uh here in US I finished a PA degree and then subsequently got the doctoral in medical science. Yep. I did uh surgical residency at Hopkins, and at that time, which was a long time ago, I didn't think about medical aesthetics because it wasn't a thing. Like, you know, it wasn't really as popular or well known. Now, what year what year is this? So I graduated in 20 uh 11. Okay, I'm just trying to put the timeline. Oh good. 2011 from PA school. So at that point, I was thinking that I'm going to be working in plastic surgery. I always knew that beauty is something about that will be my field. Yeah, but because aesthetics was not as popular, so I thought that that field is going to be plastic surgery. So that's kind of the reason why I went to uh Hopkins surgical residency because I wanted to have the best residency so I can really resume myself well. Yeah, I can see that I would go then to California, like one of the prestigious clinics, and start working with plastic surgeons side by side, producing this results. What happened during my uh residency? There was a shift in and kind of my vision of plastic surgery because at Hopkins, plastic surgery is very much so a reconstructive surgery, somebody who lost a half of their body from cancer and they need to reposition some other body part to just make it viable. So it was much less to making somebody's nose straight. I mean, there was there was a certain degree of that too. So I'm like, okay, maybe what I'm envisioning is something less of that. Maybe it's more of um, maybe it's it's more of the dermatology. So I started to kind of question things, and then I was flying in Florida a lot because I also uh had um I was doing some modeling and I was here like every weekend for assignment or show or something. Yeah, and a lot of models were utilizing this stuff, and then like, oh, oh, I got my lips done, I got BBL, you know, I got the lasers, and I started to BBL laser or BBL buttons injection of BBL, yeah. You can do that. You're talking about Yes, yes, yes, yes, because I know there's a BBL laser too. There's a BBL uh surgery. So Brazilian butt lift, there's uh two things surgical and injectable. Okay, so surgical is when they transfer your own fat, and it's like it's it's operation because you need to have a lot of lipo. But uh with injections, you can just do it with a sculpture, and uh that's there's no anesthesia, nothing. Okay. So then we're getting BBL sculpture because you know, models to be in the beginning that they don't have any, they don't have any fat. There's no lipo to lipo. So injections, the only option. Okay. So when I started to get interested, I'm like, okay, this is interesting. Maybe this is where it's at. So I started to do my research and I realized, okay, this is a field and I love it. I started to work with a plastic surgeon here in Florida, moved to Florida. Yeah. Because I'm like, well, I'm here every weekend anyway, might as well move. Yeah. And uh loved it. Of course, I I still this day I think it's really nice. I know upstate New York really well, actually. My PA school in Syracuse, by the way. Oh, you're what who was up in Syracuse? Uh my PA school. Oh, okay. I was in uh Lemoyne College. Lemoyne College in Syracuse. Yeah. So have you ever been? Did you ever make it over to Rochester or no? Oh, yeah. Did you? Okay, I just kind of drove, you know, drove through. Yeah, perhaps something to go to or something. Yeah. No, wow. So it's not a whole lot in Syracuse. No, no, but it was mostly mostly for school. I get it, yeah. So, anyhow, I ended up here in Florida and loved the Florida, loved the field. I started to learn everything and anything I can about medical aesthetics. And then I felt like I was ready to open my med spa. Yeah. So in 2016, I opened that. And it was really small, you know, again, uh business, very small, just like one room was just me injecting. But very quickly grew into a full-scale practice, multiple injectors, multiple aestheticians. And interestingly, my modeling collection connections were really helpful, even though they were not directly related, but I had a really big uh modeling account, and even though majority of that has nothing to do with aesthetics, but there were a lot of females who were following me already. And once I figure out that I'm actually doing injections, I already had a little bit of clients coming from that stream. When you when you say, and I don't mean to interrupt you, but when you say injections, do you strictly just mean the face, or are you also talking the BBL, the the booty injections too? BBLs too. Okay, so injections is injections in in general. Face and body, yes. Okay. But I never did any wellness like HRTs or or peptides. Well, peptides is really new. So this is all females you're working for. Do any men do B Yes, yes. So I had male and still have. Uh basically we see a male client every day now, but it's still very small percent compared to the female clientele. And for many, many years, I would say for the last seven years, they've been talking about growing male population medical aesthetics, and I've never actually seen that materializing. I think it's different with wellness because men will utilize a lot of wellness services, like they will do HRT 100,000 percent because for them, you know, it's all about that. All about the muscles, yeah, yeah. Abs in the muscles for sure. Yeah, IVs, like IV hydrations for a little bit. We partnered with the I think it was a fighting training coach, and his athletes who would compete, they'll come to us and get some IV hydrations, some vitamins, uh, vitamin cocktails and things like that. But it was again very small portion to what we do. Okay. Majority is the females coming seeking the treatments to just enhance their beauty or rejuvenation treatments. Okay. Uh, but uh we offer the weight loss peptides to, and now since it's a corporate group, they are adding wellness to all of the clinics. So it is part of the it's just a current trend in the industry. Okay. So it's interesting, and this is this helps me out, right? Um, your injectables is are different than wellness. Very different, yes. Okay, yeah. Because I guess I just I unfortunately I think I mentally lump it all together. Wellness is health, injectables are beauty. Yeah, so think of it as injectables is Botox and fillers. Okay. Basically, every other injection is vitamins, you know, all of that is it's gonna be wellness. Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Botox fillers, and you know, at this point, it's other modalities like sculpture, Red E S, and biofillers, PRP, PRF. But something to enhance your face, just your face looks better, skin looks better. That's the uh beauty industry. But my buddy told me about this thing, and uh have you heard of the polar diamond? Polar diamond. It's a procedure, it's like skin tightening or something, it puts like collagen in your face. I hadn't heard that specific one, no. Really? But but it's interesting to know sometimes it's just a branded name for particular treatment that has the Venus or something? The Venus? You see, Venus is part of the uh RF micro needling. Okay, and RF microneedling is is a treatment modality, has many different devices through which the service can be delivered. For example, in my practice, we have Morpheus 8, which is one of the most established uh devices currently in the market. It's um been, I think, around. Well, I got mine in 2020, but it's been around even longer. And now this this different brands trying to utilize the same technology, and of course they have many different names, and I may not know all of them. Gotcha. There's so many. Right. So he so it's it's a really interesting because I was just on Zoom with him and he looked amazing because he was at like 30% body fat, obese, and he's lost a ton of weight over the past year, maybe like 66 pounds, I think he said. So his face was kind of like some of the skin was drooping a little, I guess. Yeah, and uh so he did this kind of face tightening thing, and now his jaw, he called it the blue diamond or whatever. Now his jaw just kind of looks very tight and masculine, and it looks very natural and not overdone. So that's that's a fantastic result. Yeah, typically things like that, just like skin tightening, produce more modest results than a complete transformation. Something transformative typically requires a surgical intervention, right? So everything that we do in MathsPuzz, it can be confused to as though it's supposed to produce surgical results, but it doesn't. It is still very much a mild adjustment. Okay, but uh as far as device industry goes, it's wild, it's wild out there because there's ultrasound-based technology, radio frequency-based technology, just pure heat, pure cold. So there's so many different energy that you can apply to the human body to produce certain outcomes. And in the last, I would say, 20 years, we see more and more entry in the market, but many of them don't survive because they actually don't produce that they're supposed to. So naturally, within three, you know, to five years, they go away. Whoever stays, whatever stays after three to five years, that's actual devices worth investing and worth trying. But um, it's all relatively new compared to the Botox. Botox was done in the 80s. I mean, Botox is not a new product. Botox has been done, been utilized in medicine for much longer. It came from ophthalmology. I don't know if you know the story, but yes, it's a Canadian um eye doctor basically, who was using it for a lazy eye, and then he decided to try it on the skin because you notice patients have less wrinkles around the eyes, and that's how it happened. That's how it started. He started the whole industry basically. Interesting. Yeah, many, many years ago. And now it utilizes in medicine more than any other drug on the market. It's in neurology, urology, ophthalmology, um, I don't even know, gastroenterology, anything. Because anywhere we deal with human muscles or with activity of certain glands, Botox can be applied. And many times successfully treating some medical conditions that um otherwise have no alternative treatments. Yeah, very fascinating. Okay, this is good stuff. I'm I'm learning a lot of stuff. Yes, and every everybody thinks always Botox is like immediately, oh, wrinkles on the face. But it utilized in so many, and from infants, like from really just newborn babies to always somebody through the rest of their lives. So it's one of the most established safety-wise medications that we have in medicine in general these days. Wow. But the devices, though, they they come and go, you really don't know what to expect from them, and there's some nightmares from uh devices. So I would be careful to just jump onto the new device. Okay. If that's something that could be solved with something as an injectable that has been established for a long time. So let's let's talk about devices just because you know there might be someone that listens to this that doesn't know much about it. My only experience with a device is this. Yeah. I was doing some marketing for one of our clients, and they wanted us to film a bunch of social media. And she had me as an actor, so I was just laying in a chair and she was like messing around with me. She's a friend of mine. And she goes, Oh, you know, Eric, you're so great. I want to, you know, do a free laser treatment for you. And I'm like, I'm like, all right, cool. I trust you, right? It was the BBL laser? Yes, broadband light. Broadband light. Okay, there you go. Yeah, yeah. Which is yeah, it is a BBL, it's just a different than the Yeah, yeah, yeah. She wasn't injected much. You were not modeling that. Oh, no, no, no. I don't need a I got plenty of cheeks, if you know what I'm saying. Never been lacking on that. Um, but she uh so she started doing this laser and it kind of shocked the you know what out of me because it was warm, right? I was she was zapping the heck out of me and it was like on fire, but but I did notice, you know, my eyes got a little puffy for a few days, but then afterwards, you know, the little brown spots and red spots started to fade. So I could really see myself wanting that treatment again. Kind of break down that laser, other lasers, other machines, like what are the pros, cons? What have you seen work, not work? Yeah, so when when it comes to technology to what can be applied to human skin, we are talking about things that improve color and improve texture and improve laxity of the skin. Okay. I think those are three things that we're trying to improve. There are some devices that can less fat, for example, cool sculpting can make you lose fat, um, or some other muscular-like tightening devices, more like body corrective devices. But as far as the face goes, so IPL, BBL is something that helps to clear out the dark spots and the uh red like broken capillaries, red spots, rosacea, things like that. BBL and IPL, they similar technology. IPL is the intense pulse light, so it's just a basically a light spectrum, intensify targeting specifically melanin or blood. And BBL is a little bit broader, so it helps also stimulate a little bit of collagen. Uh and then skin tightening is ultrasound-based technology like all therapy, soft wave, and radio frequency devices, morphiz, um, the one that you mentioned, um Vivachi, I think. Oh, yeah, Venus or something. Yeah, Venus, Venus, and uh uh profound. There are many, many others. And there are uh heat devices that will just like literally coagulate just like portion of your skin, basically. Uh create control burn, that body will have to remodel and then produce a new collagen, new skin. So that a gist of it um for devices, but not every device will be good for everybody. Uh, some devices only will be for specific physpatric types, so meaning specific skin type that will be applicable for. For you, any device will be good. But here in South Florida, we have a lot of people from Latin America, we have people with the darker skin, and for them, not every device is going to be a good idea. Okay, so it's the consultation knowledge of particular technology is crucial when it comes to selection of those devices. And of course, there's an old school CO2 device, which is literally putting your skin on fire. It's burning, burning off the skin of your face, all over the and regrowing the new skin, typically full of blative uh CO2 laser, which again, old technology, very old, like I don't know how many years, 30 years, 20 years, long time ago. Does it work good? Amazing. But I just gotta burn my face. It is, yes. So recovery is like you're recovering from second-degree burn. You're blistering, you know, you have to stay home because you're exposed to all the bacteria, you have to do all the smoshes, you antibiotics. It's intense, but the skin is like baby skin afterwards. It's interesting because a lot of the procedures damage you temporarily to create healing. Is that fair to say? Exactly. So, yes, we utilize our body's natural potential to heal so we can create a control trauma to a small degree, so it's not healing in a weird fashion, doesn't create scar tissue, but it creates nice healing and produces the fresher, younger, more resilient, more tight skin. Yeah, okay, very cool. Yeah. So uh I didn't mean to spin you off into a whole different place. So you had a small clinic. You see, now I'm getting educated. You're doing injectables. Yes. 99% females. And then where did your career take you from there? Where did you migrate to and evolve your business? I wanted to create that support that I didn't have through my career for other practitioners. So Mespa from scratch was a natural transition to that. Um I've been also a kind of person who never likes to gatekeep something or just like, oh no, this is a secret, I'm not going to share it. Because in reality, is we all know probably what it takes to make it. The most difference that makes between the successful people and people who are not successful is actually doing it. So I don't mind sharing information. I love to teach, I love to give as much support as I can. It doesn't hurt my business, doesn't hurt, you know, really any business because we're all competing against ourselves. And I love to be able to be that resource, that person, that mentor, that I don't know, voice on the phone on the other end when you're really panicking, you don't know what to do in this situation for business-related issues or patient-related issues. And I didn't have that person through my career, so I wanted to become one for others. So that's the the premises of how Mespa from scratch started. And that's the um that's how originally it was designed. But now again, it's evolved into something more comprehensive to where I'm holding hands of injectors through the very beginning of injecting, like they basically never injected a human face, and I teach them how to do on that level. I teach advanced advanced injectors how to do more complex things, the full facial rebalancing, how to address the whole lower face, jawline, create basically a liquid facelift, how to do the the artistically good-looking lip fillers injections, how to reverse liquid facelift? We call it that way, but it's like basically a bunch of filler syranges to create the recreate the frame that it looks, you know. If I'll show you some before and after results, it really does look like a facelift, it looks uh transformational, and you can do it. I'm listening intently. Interesting. So yeah, and a lot of those things got a little bit of bad rep lately. Some plastic surgeons bashing fillers on social media saying, no, it's an inflammatory product, no, it has all this, this, and that. But many of those things are just not true, and it's been utilized as marketing their own services, yeah. And that's what we've seen the swing back of early uh facelifts, people in the 40s to me is very early. I feel like anybody in the 40s should wait until the at least late 50s or 60s to a facelift, yeah. For sure, for sure. Because uh, as much as filler could have some small percentage of complication, a facelift has many more profound complications. For sure. And many times looks much less natural. So to me, it's just like a marketing trick. And of course, because it's a hyped video, so it's like, oh, it's something unusual. Everybody starts clicking on it, it seems like that's out there everywhere. But in reality, filler has a lot more safety of. Lot more positivity. I've seen it, you know, I've done 11 years. I would have known that some kind of long-term complications happen. I have my face done a bazillion amount of time. So I teach how to do those consistent, good results for on every level for practitioners to be able to go in their clinics and apply from you know day two after the training. Yeah, so how many people are you currently training? I'm a very, very small hands-on training. So there's a ton of trainings that provide like a whole classrooms, and then when it comes to the hands-on portion, the injectors get to like put one little point somewhere in the face and then expecting them being comfortable injecting the patient. So no, they go into their clinic and they're basically experimenting. I'm doing one-on-one. No, and my group seminars are four people max right now. Okay. Because each of them will inject like basically entire face or at least a whole half of face. And I'm there one-on-one, guiding through the whole thing. Through the live patient? Yes, yes, live patient. And this is all happening under the direct uh supervision of plastic surgeon. We have our medical director, Dr. Rickyo, he's fantastic. And he's there present through the whole thing. He helps to answer the questions from the surgical perspective. And um practitioners are very happy. They feel like they actually gain something. It's crazy when I have when I have somebody who comes to trainings, or even foreshadowing, and they're telling me things that they've learned on other trainings, it's just frightening. Because one is just technically wrong, just even anatomically wrong, because I even misrepresent the anatomy, which is so not subject to um variations to a certain degree, but like not at the core of it. Uh, and and then the technically what they've learned on other trainings uh is just kind of scary. So, my goal from Mespa from scratch to where this company is going, I want to be like the training company. I want to provide this kind of support to practitioners so when they come, they've learned everything that they need to know about the industry, about the good practices of injecting that they feel comfortable, they feel confident, and that will elevate our whole industry as a group, as the whole industry will become better. The better we are, the better we can grow as an industry. If this industry is gonna start getting mistakes, bad reps, it's gonna kill all of us. Yeah, agreed. So we all connect. It is less of a competition, more like, okay, let's just let's just get get our stuff together. I love that you said that because I I talk about the same thing with marketing all the time. Because every industry has good players, bad players, every industry has heard horror stories, every industry has heard success stories, right? But I agree with you that the best way to approach it is for the industry to kind of team up together, have masterminds together, share secrets with each other to make the industry um have a higher standard as a whole. Yeah. Because if you build more trust throughout the customer base or the clientele base, that's really what matters. And then at the end of the day, once again, you're right, it's it's about the individual to make their business work. Um I'm I'm only asking this question because I can imagine somebody listening to this podcast. I I have a lot of knee issues and been arthritic for about eight years. It's really annoying. And like I was getting these injections before I forget what they were called, but basically it kind of lubricates your knee a little bit. Hyalonic acid, I think it simulates that, or it is hyaluronic acid. I don't remember. I'm so glad I'm already excited to answer this question. Okay, well, no, no, no, but I got no, I already know which way is going to be. I got a funny story. So, you know, I got the 60-year-old doctor there, right? And he's he's getting ready to inject my knee. And then he goes, Oh, actually, Eric, I have this young resident who's gonna practice injecting your knee. And I remember I was like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I remember I was just freaking out the whole time, and he he was the one that injected my knee. I remember being fearful, but he did a fine job, and obviously it was under good supervision. Do you ever have how how do you answer to patients like when they're like, hey, I'm gonna have this person kind of practice on you? Do you ever have patients that are like, I don't feel comfortable with it? Like, how do you how do you deal with that situation? That's a fantastic question. Because you deal with it all the time. Yes, yeah. Right? That that's that I'm so glad you asked. But uh also the funny thing. So when you mentioned that, some kind of hyaluronic acid, did you know that the same thing that you got in your knees, that's exactly the same thing that goes in people's lips, cheeks, temples. I did not know that. No, it's the same thing. I have no idea. It's just a little bit cross-linked differently. But the SIN visc injections, and I've actually worked in orthopedics like many, many years ago as a medical assistant. It's the same thing that now it's been injected in the I did not know that. There it's mostly provided lubrication, so it's a little bit less tightly connected, but in the face it provides structure and support, so it's a little bit more gel-ish, but yeah, chemically it's the same. So it's uh in a way that you've already experienced the fillers, even though it's been just in your knees. But as far as the comfort of the patients and models, so first of all, when I have patients who are paid client of a clinic where I see patients, they're not uh being practiced on by my trainees. So those things are very separate. If I have a shadowing practitioner in my clinic, they're not touching the patient. Okay. And even for them to shadow uh at their c at the treatment, I clarify that that's okay with them. So I ask before a shadowing person comes in that they're okay to just having an observer. Because it's all about it's all about patients' comfort, it's their time, it's me time, it's it has to be all about them. So, no, under no circumstances I'll let somebody practice on them. But when I have the one-on-one seminars, those are models that are heavily pre-screened. They somebody who I've met or talked to personally, I review the pictures, I explained specifically to what is going to look like and the risk and the the pictures and how everything is going to be utilized, and they agreed in in person, in writing, to everything that's been that's going to be going on. And then at the training, they receive the treatments that will cost you know five, six thousand dollars for them if they were to receive it at the clinic for free with zero charge. And in a way, it's like, yes, it takes a little bit longer for them to receive the treatment because people are learning particular techniques, but it's not on my direct observation. I'm there every step of the way. The plastic surgeon is right there every step of the way. So, in a way, it's more safety that for them to receive it in some clinic that they don't know, and perhaps like you know, at discounted prices. So for them, it's in a way, yes, it's new person who's injecting, but is being guided and supervised. One, and two, of course, the cost is you know, you can't compare. Yeah, so I have more, I think I have more requests for patients who want to be models for my trainings than actually, you know, for trainees themselves. So people want to come in and be part and become like models for our events. Cool. So you're so you're yeah, and the other thing, just finish, because again, it's smaller groups. I think that's the key for success for everybody. I want models to be happy and comfortable. I want my trainees to be happy and comfortable, and that takes with us individualized attention. If it's a big group and nobody knows what's going on, it's really hard. And you know, for model and there's like 10 people looking at you with the phones, it's an uncomfortable situation, but it's just like one or two or four at the most people, and they will just like you know, knowing each other, you have a casual conversation, it's more relaxed atmosphere. So, what's your like what's kind of like your two-year vision, your five-year vision for for this business? Uh, what is it? What is it you're gonna do to scale it? What desire do you have to scale it? What's what's the plan? Yeah, so the uh five years, well, the long term I already uh talked to you about is that I want it to be the center, the training center. Within two years, I'm hoping to have a brick and mortar location because right now, when I do the trainings, we sub-leasing from different med spas. I currently is we partner with Sanctuary Met Spa in Fort Lauderdale. It's a fantastic facility. I love it. They have beautiful, you know, everything set up center for us to host the trainings. But I would love to have a dedicated center, you know, with Met Spa from scratch, recognize branding, and then just invite the different speakers as well as different trainings. Right now, it's just me, we have a nurse practitioner and plastic surgeon, it's just three of us who are training. But I'd like to be able to host the guest uh traveling from different states. So this is my two-year vision. Actually, have the physical location. And in uh uh five years to grow into the full-scale clinic, so it's training part plus the the patient care side as well as so. Do you have to be a nurse practice you have to be a nurse practitioner to do injections? So yeah, in the state of Florida, state of Florida is uh most strict, which is good because I think it should be. Uh here it you have to be advanced practice, so either PA or NP. Uh and of course M D, D O, dentist, which is really interesting, and nursonasticist. So this is who can inject here. Uh I'm a doctorally trained PA, so I have a PA degree, plus I'm a doctoral medical science. Uh, and we have um uh NP with autonomous degree, and of course a plastic surgeon. So that's in my team. Now there are many states where all you need is RN. And I'm not saying all you need is that it's an easy thing to get. No, it's still a license, which actually takes a lot of work to get. But um New York, uh Texas, California, actually, quite a lot of uh states with where this aesthetics is so popular, they allow RN injectors. Here in the state of Florida, there is one RN injector who specifically went to the state of Florida. She's actually a friend of mine, no. Noah, my mom was an RN, by the way. So she went to the Department of Health, Department of Nursing, and she got special permission to be able to inject. But tech typically it's NP that is required. But we have one RN who's injecting currently here. You know what's so interesting about that is everybody thinks Florida is like the wild, wild west. And in a lot of ways, it kind of is. Like if you saw the way people drive on 95, it feels like it feels like it is, right? Yeah, but um it's interesting because Florida normally is less regulatory. What is it about? Do you have any background on that? What is it about this field where there's more uh credentials needed? Yeah, this this field is just really not centralized, which it should be. I think those standards have to be uh on the federal level controlled. So I feel like it has to be consistency state to state to what is required. I feel what is in Florida is just more commonly utilized by most states. Most states have those sort of degrees requirements. It's just, I mean, there's one state in Texas, let's let's call it what it is. Taxes. You're good, you got it. So in Texas, nobody from Texas is listening to us, you're good. They have zero requirement of any medical degree to be able to legally inject, which is a crazy thing. Yeah, it's so like a barber can take a weekend course and stick the filler in somebody's face that can potentially cause a permanent blindness. I mean, are you kidding me right now? But you know, we we joke, like here in Florida, you need to be, you know, NP, and in Texas, you you need to have you need to have ONP, meaning only need pulse. OMP is that level. That's their degree. So I'm sure there are the ton of great injectors who have like advanced degrees there, but yeah, for sure. Those regulations, you know, where it's coming from, I think it's just because we are United States of America, and each state has their own different regulations on so many levels, not just the medical field. But when it comes to medical field, there's so much variations and aesthetics is not being different. But we all feel, we people in aesthetics, we feel that it needs to be more centralized, it needs to be just across the board the same. So patients who are traveling from state to state don't like suddenly end up in the hands of somebody who've never studied anatomy and physiology and pharmacology, and just you know, not getting themselves in trouble. Yeah. Because for the same talking, like this will get all of us in trouble. Anytime you hear the case of somebody got arrested, always in Texas, because they've done something that they're not supposed to be doing, and obviously, because well, how can you not? If you've never gone to medical school, if you've never seen a cadaver, if you've never, I don't know, understood the circulation of the facial a person's face, how can you be safe in Jack there? You can't. Yeah, no, it makes sense. I I uh well, I'm actually it makes you feel better about Florida now, honestly. Yeah, and uh picking and choosing. So total kind of off the subject a little bit, but I actually know someone very close to me is opening up a franchise here. It's a new franchise, it's and they're trying to open up a bunch down in South Florida, and I know they're gonna be looking for injectors. Is that a good contact for you at all? Like, do you help place injectors at all, or is it easy for injectors to find a job? I don't think I would be able to. I mean, you never know, because you know, people come to me and they're looking for relocation, for example. But majority of the trainees who come to train the out of state. I have two. Oh, okay. So these are people coming from okay, I'm sorry, they're coming from out of state. Out of state. Oh, physicians, nurses, um NPs, nobody from Texas, right? A lot of from Texas. Oh my god. But I it should be all Texas after him. But I actually do not take anybody who does not have a medical license. So my verification process is very strict. If I don't get a medical license before the training, they're not allowed to inject. Okay. Because again, it's my models are protecting them, you know, protecting the the training company, and even if they legally allow to inject in Texas, but they don't have a medical degree, my training is not for them. They need to get medical degree first. So if if uh an injector is hearing this in uh Dallas, Texas, right now, and they hear this and they want to know, they want to get world-class training from you. Kind of walk walk them through, you know, what is the timeline, the schedule, like like what does what does your mentorship look like? Yeah, so we have multiple different packages. The mentorship is usually starting offshore with meet and do the training in person. So most of the people they want in-person training, they actually want to inject a life model with a real product under my guidance. So it typically starts with a simplest phone call. And I like to personally know the person who's coming to me, make sure I understand what their goals are, what is it that they have already done, what they're looking for for the training, so I can arrange everything for them to maximize their time. I appreciate the coming to me from other states and they have things to do. Many of them have their own clinics, they're physicians, they have to like cancel patients to be here. And I need to make sure that my uh training is going to be as valuable as possible. So that phone call is very important the first step. After that, we set up either uh they're going to come to the group training. If what is presented a group training is something that they need to uh train on, if they need to have more customized programs, then they come one-on-one, and then I uh make models and product, everything available for them. They usually spend two days, one day with me in clinic, just do shadowing, seeing how the clinic flows, just looking at how I do the treatments, how I talk to the patients, and kind of going a little bit of through the theory uh of injecting like theoretical applications of certain products. Sometimes we even do it on the on the like a rubber model. And then next day uh we do hands-on training where they get to inject the model and they get to apply everything they've learned from the shadowing to the model, and then after that, we stay in touch and seeing if they want to set up um a mentorship where they can have a limited text with me. For example, they can even text, hey, this patient's coming to me. I'm thinking this and this treatment. What do you think? And I can tell them, okay, this is good, this is not good, to go over cases. And then every week we have a phone call to just go over the progress, how's it going, whatever help they need, if it can be marketing, it can be social media, it can be just technical skills, can be difficult patients that they counter during the week. And once a month we have a Zoom training where we can go over some technical parts or business, whatever they may require at that moment. Yeah. So it's ongoing relationship. Many of my trainees they come to multiple trainings. They start with one, they do a different one, then they come foreshadowing. So it's ongoing relationship. I like to build those connections because again, it's a small world, it's a small industry, and hey, I'm making friends in every state of the United States. Yes, yeah, no, it's great. I love I I really, really love that. And the people who I meet, they are so, so incredible. And that's the other thing. You ask me if I will be a good person to make this connection between a facility who's hiring an injector and actual injectors. And I, in reality, is I feel as we grow, I will be like the person because I've seen those patients inject. And right now I already have like a few very talented people who I would recommend, you know, wholeheartlessly with other uh practices hiring. They're just not in Florida right now. Right, yeah, no, no, it's okay. I was just trying to learn, I was just trying to learn more about and the Florida practitioners who I trained. Uh I have quite a few of them, but they all have their own practices. So they're not looking to be hired. Uh typically, people who are looking to be hired, they are more out of state, at least what I've seen so far. Yeah, very cool. Um yeah, I could almost see you down the road, almost like I could see you being helping place jobs too. Like I'm just I'm just thinking, you know, if somebody comes to you that's inexperienced and they learn the profession and they become an expert, you teach them how to be an expert. Well, the next logical step is where do I work? Mm-hmm. Right? And if and if you had I'm just thinking out of the box, if you had relationships with because I know these I know these wellness clinics, these injectable clinics, I don't even know what to call them overarching now, but they're they're desperate for for quality injectors, because like you said, you know, people will follow the injector. There's probably less loyalty to the to the vendor, the business, than there is the injector. A hundred percent. Right. So you're making a bunch of people that are people will be loyal to. So I could see this them being a very desirable uh candidates for so I don't know. I think you gotta I I I just think you got a huge future ahead of you with this. So well, thank you. Yeah, no, you definitely do. Thank you. Definitely do. Yeah. But uh, you're right in terms of finding good qualified injectors, even though now there is many more coming into the field, as this field becomes really attractive, but it's still kind of difficult to find good injectors. And even like through the clinic that I had, I was really fortunate I always had a really good injector working side by side with me when it was Hollow Gorgeous Mespa. But since the whole transition, we have been transitioning through some uh injectors, and every time that transition happens, it's very hard to you know find just the right fit for the practice. And it's yeah, it's it's not easy. So yeah, it I think it will naturally happen that I will have books of talented injectors, and probably that will attract a book of people who are looking for such a job. So now you can charge a 15% fee from their salary. Now you're an now you're a recruiter too. Now you're yeah, you see, you'll you'll you're always thinking, yeah, you're thinking. I just want two percent of all those deals. I actually have a question for you. How do you get into the the podcast? And well, I um you know, for so my main business is the marketing company, and that's been scaling like crazy. It's it's bonkers like like um, you know, we even have a Fortune 500 contract, which is nuts for us because we're not we're not like a huge company by any means, but uh but um but yeah, no, I the reason I started the podcast, it's a lot of reasons. Number one, I have to personally be more visible, personal brand, right? But I also genuinely am interested in everybody's business. Like you heard me listening to you very intently. I'm I'm really fascinated by it. And I I genuinely want to hear people's stories and their entrepreneurial journeys, but then I also want to kind of give back to other businesses. Businesses in my neck of the woods and give them a platform and visibility. So for my my own selfish reasons, I'm big at building my personal brand. Um I'm also for my own selfish reasons having really cool conversations, but then I also get to help give a platform and promote people that I think are deserve to have a platform. So it's like, duh, why not do it? Yeah. So and for me, it's also organic marketing. So, you know, yeah, somebody might see mine and yours video. Yeah. Maybe they own a wellness clinic and they go, hey, who is that guy? Oh, he does my oh, I should reach out to him. So it's yeah, it's uh it's a no-brainer. Yeah, no, it's fantastic. Yeah. Did you notice any patterns for some of the most successful people who you interviewed? Like, what are have you noticed any patterns in them? Have I noticed any patterns? Um their to like what they do or like their thinking or anything. They're like, okay, that's like sort of a success formula. I see it in this person, I've heard it from like those people before. Yeah, no, I mean maybe maybe there is not such a thing. I'm thinking there's I I will say there's a sense of humility. Hmm. Right. Not what I expected. Interesting. Yeah, no, seriously. And I'm thinking I'm thinking of a few people right off the top of my head. I think I think as you said you're a micromanager, that's great. I think that's fine. As long as you, and not just you, anybody. You have to understand what your faults are and and and like you know, maybe understand that, like for me, I know I'm really good at sales, marketing, and business development, but actually making systems, I'm I'm I'm really not good at. So I have to rely on other people to create those systems. So I so I acknowledge my weaknesses. And I I think the people that I've seen that have done the best that have gone from making, you know, 100,000 a year to a million a year to I know a guy, I know a guy who makes 120 million dollars a year, it's absurd. It's they're always evolving, they're not stuck in their ways, right? So you're a micromanager today. If that's a weakness, you know, try to acknowledge it and then allow yourself to to evolve and get better and and maybe teach your people better. That's something I struggle with because I'm just naturally really good at sales. Sometimes it's tough for me to say, hey, do it like this. Well, I just kind of do it my way. So um I think what I have to do better is teach a little bit better, so then I don't have to micromanage, I can trust them more, but you can't just tell people, just do it, just do it doesn't work, right? So I'm not, and I'm this isn't like a one-on-one. I'm not talking about you, I'm just speaking in generalities, but but the people that I've seen that do really well that they they evolve, they're constantly evolving, yeah, you know, for for the better. And men are usually more resistant to change, because right, let's be honest, you know. But I never wanted to be that guy. I never, I just I don't want to be the guy that's stuck in his ways. But yeah, I think the most successful people, Valentina, to answer your question, are there's a humility there that they're not a know-it-all, and they're trying to become a know-it-all, they but they know they'll never get there because everything is evolving and you have to evolve with it. I love that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, we really exist in two stages only: either we're growing or we're dying. There's nothing else in between. So, yeah, that growth, that you know, desire and constantly learning, constantly improving, that's very important. Yeah, and that's real, that's real. Do me a favor, take that model face of yours, that modeling face of yours, look into this camera. And if somebody is interested in learning a little bit more about Valentina, number one, who should reach out to you? And if they do want to reach out to you, where can they find you? If you're looking for a Mespa training, whether business or clinical hands-on training, Mespa from Scratch is the place for you. And you can contact me on Mespa.from.scratch, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and also on the email, mespafromscratch at gmail.com. Guys, thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast Podcast. Make sure to like and subscribe. We'll see you again. And any of you guys watching me on live, you are crazy because I don't even know if you could hear it on the audio, but I'll try to work on that better next time. See you again.