The Real Differentiator in Aesthetic Practices

Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.

Robin Ntoh (00:11):
You're listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech. I'm Robin Ntoh and we are coming to you live from the Medical Spa Show here in Las Vegas at the beautiful Wynn Hotel. And today we have Dr. Pritzker, Dr. Rachel Pritzker here with us and she is a dermatologist primarily focusing on aesthetics and she's actually speaking here at this show this year. So we're excited to have you. Welcome.

Dr. Pritzker (00:35):
Thank you so much for having me. This is first time at the show and really great time so far.

Robin Ntoh (00:41):
Let's talk a little bit about your practice. I mean, how many years have you been in practice?

Dr. Pritzker (00:46):
So I've been in dermatology for 12, 13 years and I think what we'll get into talking about is that I just kind of took another step and opened up a new private practice and trying to cater that to what I feel that I want to achieve in both aesthetics and clinical medicine.

Robin Ntoh (01:02):
When you started your practice 12, 13 years ago, did you know that aesthetics would become such an important part of your business?

Dr. Pritzker (01:09):
So at the time, no. Cosmetics was, I want to say just starting it was well in full effect, but the idea of the expansion to all these avenues and to all these providers and able the access to aesthetic medicine has, I don't know the numbers. Everyone here knows the numbers in terms of the exponential growth, but now it's almost all I talk about, right. But my clinic is a little bit different too, and we'll get into the nuances of that. Myself being a board certified dermatologist, I still love treating dermatology, so I have a little bit of different perspective than somebody starting a purely aesthetics practice. We still take insurance. I still see moles and rashes and love acne and things like that and helping people of now all generations. And the patient population has changed from where I was previously to now.

Robin Ntoh (02:01):
Definitely.

Dr. Pritzker (02:01):
And again, what we'll likely talk about is that I really love talking to several different generations and their perspective on aesthetics. I think that it is my responsibility to have a healthy conversation with lots of people and what their thoughts are on their aesthetic journey and to no judgment but to guide along because there's a lot out there now.

Robin Ntoh (02:24):
Most definitely

Dr. Pritzker (02:24):
As we can see by this busy, busy exhibition hall.

Robin Ntoh (02:28):
So you decided recently to open up your practice and it's more of a boutique, I would say?

Dr. Pritzker (02:34):
Yes. Me and one partner who does all general dermatology, insurance-based skin cancer based dermatology.

Robin Ntoh (02:39):
Which is a good mix, it's a good mix. It feeds both sides of the practice. It really gives you the opportunity to treat the entire spectrum of this skin from head to toe.

Dr. Pritzker (02:50):
So we did, we called it the Derm Collective, Collective, meaning that I wanted to make sure that we were a group of people each with different specialties and each with different perspectives and experiences coming together to make sure that people feel like they're getting the whole patient, the wholeness of it. So we have a very experienced aesthetician with us. My partner who has many years of experience under his belt, myself, we have an incredible management company each with experience in the field. So I wanted everybody to feel that they were evolving in their own respect professionally, but again, it comes together to kind of create this collective, this beautiful thing.

Robin Ntoh (03:26):
I love the name.

Dr. Pritzker (03:27):
Thank you.

Robin Ntoh (03:28):
It's just really,

Dr. Pritzker (03:28):
We were actually thinking of different, we were like CoLab, we were along a lot of things. In the second it got said it was, I've got to tell you the moment it happened, but

Robin Ntoh (03:37):
No, I love it.

Dr. Pritzker (03:38):
Our business manager said it and it was like, that's it.

Robin Ntoh (03:41):
Now it's fabulous. Do you find that in your new collective that the patients easily move throughout the clinic? Yeah. How do you support that? Because patients don't always assume that they can just go from medical to aesthetics. We find that just because you do Botox and it's listed somewhere, there's a pamphlet, people don't always just assume or think that they can do it. It's almost like, am I allowed to ask or something?

Dr. Pritzker (04:06):
So number one thing, Robin, you literally build it into your mission statement, right? So it was so important to me and to my partner that we named it the collective, that we have a mission statement that says just so, and it is the top of the agenda list. Every meeting we have with the entire staff to just say, remember we are this holistic experience for the patient and it's not just smile when they enter the basics and things like that, but it's reminding people in the room that we provide with experience and expertise, all these aspects of dermatology. We do not, on the other hand, interestingly, have an overwhelming amount of marketing pamphlets in the room. We want people to feel that they came in for what they wanted to express to the doctor and that they weren't pushed to know that there was other aspects. Our marketing in our waiting room is very modestly done. I want people to feel like they're comfortable, but in that comfort it would be pretty obvious to know that you could ask. And we mention it in nice delicate ways when it gets brought up. But there's no pressure to enter the aesthetics world from if you're a dermatology patient. But I think it's a comfortable environment that people inevitably do.

Robin Ntoh (05:22):
You said something interesting, mission statement.

Dr. Pritzker (05:24):
Yes.

Robin Ntoh (05:25):
And it's a term you don't often hear that a medical practice will adopt within their philosophy or the way that they think about their business. And it sounds to me like you're actually very focused on, I'm going to call it a grownup business world. You're thinking strategically, you're putting in place things like a mission statement. It sounds like it was different this time around.

Dr. Pritzker (05:48):
The idea about this is that this is the swan song for me and the other people who have been in the industry before. And it's so funny that you would think that a mission statement is optional. To me, it never even crossed my mind. It is, you know my business manager said, you have to understand what you are envisioning. And the way I could envision it is because I have 12 years under my belt, seeing the industry change and seeing myself change in medicine, medical aspect is changing so drastically. We all know about it. We all hear about insurance issues, insurance complications, patient distrust in the medical field. So it was very apparent that from the start we needed to make sure that we breathe and lived by feeling centered to the work.

Robin Ntoh (06:35):
So what did you do different this time around?

Dr. Pritzker (06:38):
We are having meetings where we're discussing slowing things down, mostly to just make sure, and this is why it's a little different, is that if the foundation isn't pretty solid, growth will compact, will just compound with growth, will compound with growth. And I feel that that will put the crack in our culture. So culture and patient experience to know that we are a collective thought for them. We are thinking of them as a whole person in terms of their dermatologic experience are in the mission statement. And if we grow too quickly, I find that that will crack. And I feel that it's not just burnout. I feel that it is actual distrust in the professionalism that I want everyone to feel. Whether they're a summer intern or a gap year student.

Robin Ntoh (07:28):
Listening to you, something that really resonates is culture. And you said mission statement, you've now mentioned the word culture. I find that more and more businesses are having to really focus on how do they think about staff, how do they think about the business, how do they think about the support? Like you said, the foundation of your business and the staff is critical to that. And as you said, slowing down and looking at how you invest in that, I'm sure there's great things that you've thought of and how you really made that focus strategic in many ways.

Dr. Pritzker (08:07):
Absolutely.

Robin Ntoh (08:07):
Let's talk a little bit about where you've placed that emphasis in the importance of it, because culture is critical.

Dr. Pritzker (08:14):
Culture is critical. And I used to think I'm so tired, I have young kids at home and I wake up and I need to take care of them and please them. And I am a wife. You put it all in the table when you're in the room with a patient. So I'm the personality of you're the most important thing that ever happened to me, Ms. Jane Doe for these next 15 minutes. And I used to get out in the hallway and just be depleted. And then your colleagues, and I don't want to say staff, your people that you live and breathe work with, they get the honest side of you. The honest side of you still has to be positive, but they also have to see you as a person too. And I think that that level, and I am a psychology major in college, my undergrad, psychology major, and if I weren't doing dermatology, I would do something in the world of psychology and cultural influence.

(09:11):
So I'm very tuned in to people's emotions and needs. It used to exhaust me. Now it lights me. So now as I'm depleted in the hallway and I share that with people around me, I'm sharing it in not a exhaustive way. I'm sharing it in a, this is what's going on with me today, what's going on with you today? And it's not that we need to be best friends and know each other interpersonal things, but it's, I care about you on a day-to-day basis. You care about me and we overall care about this business. And I think that just living that and people seeing that and also especially in startup seeing me put the paper towel that's on the floor in the trash, seeing me tidy up X, Y, Z in the reception area. I think it's important, especially at startup to know that I'm in it too and I'm that I'm expecting from my team what I would be doing as well. That's a lot of hours. But I think that just showing up and giving myself and not in this exhaustive way anymore in this true way has really made people follow as me as a leader.

Robin Ntoh (10:25):
But you call them colleagues versus staff and I find that so refreshing. It's a different approach to

Dr. Pritzker (10:31):
Everybody's on a professional journey. I mean we spend how many hours at work versus how many hours at home. I want, and again, I wish I even had patient statement on me to show you, but it is, there's sentences about patient care and then the last sentences, the two last three sentences are about employment care. So meaning everyone has an employment journey and whether you can find whether or not you're so directed that this is my five-year goal. We have gap year students, they want to go to medical school or PA school, but people otherwise don't have to know their goals, that they do have to feel connected to their work and feel that they have some opportunity to expand.

Robin Ntoh (11:11):
The generations today that are coming into the workplace really do appreciate someone that thinks about their career and they want career pathing and you don't always find it in a smaller practice, but if there's at least the conversations and you think of them and respect them and instill in them that education that feed them what they're looking for, it makes such a difference.

Dr. Pritzker (11:31):
It's so fantastic you say that, and it doesn't have to be up to me. I have incredible management and again, one person's very honed in not just on HR and regulations and employment handbook, but those meetings looking somebody in the eye and saying, do you feel A satisfied here? And B, do you feel satisfied whether or not you can recognize with your advancement in your professional life or not? Do you feel like you're clicking some boxes or having ideas as to what you may see yourself doing? Because a lot of people are in their twenties and thirties and maybe a little shortsighted at the moment because they have young kids or whatnot, but just to make sure that people still feel that work is complimentary to their identity.

Robin Ntoh (12:15):
When you opened your new practice, did you have staff that followed you or did you open up new hiring?

Dr. Pritzker (12:21):
We had this management team that was just really queued in on dermatology. They have experience both in aesthetic dermatology and medical dermatology. And their non-negotiable was that we use the Nextech platform.

Robin Ntoh (12:34):
Love that.

Dr. Pritzker (12:34):
Exactly. So that was their non-negotiable because they know that it's easy to generate both cosmetic and general dermatology on the same platform, which is very important for us. But they also really knew how to, we had people with experience in dermatology and other practices and they really knew how to evaluate somebody and realize what they could bring, whether they had experience in dermatology, everybody had a little bit of medical background to them.

Robin Ntoh (13:03):
Well, you're doing the right thing. Building that foundation as you said is key because then as you scale, then the business can support it because the foundation is strong.

Dr. Pritzker (13:11):
That being said, I mean again, looking around in the exposition hall and we have people coming in daily trying to talk to us about a new device, a new skincare product, an entire new technology platform. And again, adding one sunscreen to the shelf doesn't seem like a big deal. The constant change is actually a big deal. People who really care want to know what's going on in the business and how to jump into it. So even if they're discussions change just by one sunscreen, they may feel a little different. So we're very much being intentional at this stage, and we're just, again, about six months in to making sure that change is slow and not too much at once.

Robin Ntoh (13:59):
The word intentional is key here because it really means that you're focused on, again, the colleagues within your practice and you're sensitive to what their needs are and how they actually understand what you're bringing onto your platform and to your tool chest, so to speak. This could be made available to your practice and tools that they may use or things that you bring forward for your patients. So the intentional component really does resonate because it goes back to how am I building that strong foundation so that it scales and not just keeping things onto them that may not really be something that they learn or that they actually can execute on.

Dr. Pritzker (14:38):
I think it's actually wise also for the industry partners that would maybe listening to this is that I know you are set on your product will help me and you can show me of that. You can show me the growth from X, Y, and Z. I think it's important to understand that no matter what it is changing practice. And that is something that not just coming in for lunch to explain what it is, the personalizing it to the practice and having that., it's the same way where we approach a patient. We have to take a step back. We have our medical background, we have our aesthetics background. We have to look at the patient and tailor what we do to them.

Robin Ntoh (15:20):
Let's talk a little bit about competition. Chicago is very competitive and you've opened up a new place, new practice, differentiation is a big word we talk about all the time in this industry, and you're in a big city. I love that you're the collective, but where else did you feel that you wanted to change and be different in a competitive market?

Dr. Pritzker (15:43):
I feel like I'm a broken record. It goes back to the collective, the culture and the experience. So people walk in and they feel either this is too fancy for me and I'm really happy, and me and my friend who's an incredible designer, did a really nice really job. It's not that it's too fancy. Some people think, oh, this is aesthetics, not medical. The idea is that you are in a comfortable setting with experts who are not going to say that what you came in with is right or wrong. Because people are, they're looking for not just expertise. They're looking for calming the noise.

(16:33):
So we have a calm environment, we have the experts. Again, like I told you, you're not going to be bombarded with large marketing banners. There's so much out there and there's so many pitches and there's so many sales and even an older generation that you wouldn't expect to be influenced by social media or commercial advertisements or their friends at the club are influenced and they come to you in a vulnerable moment. And that's what differentiates us is that we are trying to be a calmness in this explosion of possibility and a trustworthy source for them. So just by doing that and making sure you see people who are happy at work, people who want to talk to you as a person, not as a patient ID number and don't feel that they're trying to sell things that are not advertised as this is the goal, differentiate us. And again, it's the collective.

Robin Ntoh (17:36):
It's like reducing the noise.

Dr. Pritzker (17:37):
Reducing the noise. Oh yeah.

Robin Ntoh (17:39):
Basically coming into a business, coming into your practice and they're not overwhelmed with all of the potential decisions they might have to make.

Dr. Pritzker (17:49):
Correct.

Robin Ntoh (17:49):
You're basically leading them through a journey that is free of stress and friction, but that gives them this opportunity to actually listen probably much better than having to think through, okay, well there's this or there's this or there's this. It's just different. It sounds like a very different way to approach it.

Dr. Pritzker (18:07):
It's actually really interesting that you said in terms of, listen, it's not just listen. It's having a different mindset when it comes at you after you leave. So you understanding when Sally May is talking about something at lunch that may not be something for you, but that you appreciate that she had a great time doing her X, Y, Z, or that you are on social media and you're flipping through and you see all these things and you think with a little bit different perspective that just switched in your head that that's cool, but that's not for me. So it's listening in and then calming the noise when they leave a little bit.

Robin Ntoh (18:45):
Yeah, I love that.

Dr. Pritzker (18:46):
It's a trust. But it takes a lot from behind the scenes to make sure that you're the trust because people will freak out and say, well, what about this? And you need to have great industry partnerships to make sure that they can access you and calm the noise when you want and come back and have that relationship. And that relationship is rewarding personally, financially, and having patients that come time and time again is such a way to be as a physician, as a provider, then constant turnover of new patients are all I see right now because I'm brand new, but it's the returning ones that add so much value to us and to me as a professional.

Robin Ntoh (19:32):
But if you think about some of your luxury brands out there, when you go into a luxury store, it's not overwhelming. It doesn't tend to be massive numbers or pieces of clothing or products. It tends to be,

Dr. Pritzker (19:51):
It's so interesting. You have this trust with the brand. You have this trust with the sales person that they understand your ever-changing body.

Robin Ntoh (20:00):
That's right.

Dr. Pritzker (20:02):
It's so similar.

Robin Ntoh (20:03):
It's very similar. And as I'm thinking about this, you'll go into certain department stores or stores that are just packed full of things and it overwhelms us in a sensory way, but then you'll go into some of these other luxury stores and it's less is more philosophy.

Dr. Pritzker (20:22):
Absolutely. Less is more.

Robin Ntoh (20:24):
Which sounds a lot,

Dr. Pritzker (20:24):
But ultimately is more.

Robin Ntoh (20:26):
Right. But it ultimately is more, it's bespoke luxury in many ways.

Dr. Pritzker (20:31):
Exactly.

Robin Ntoh (20:32):
I know as I'm sitting here and listening to you, and thinking about it from that perspective thinking, but this looks and feels like a lot of what we see, and it sounds like you've done a beautiful job. I love the concept of what you're doing. Is there anything that you would want to share with listeners today that it says, I did this, I've got my new business, or I've stepped out into my new business.

Dr. Pritzker (20:54):
What did we just say before we got on here? Actually, Robin said, do you want to look at the questions? And I said, no. Actually, the new manager that I've become really close with in the office, she said yesterday, because I saw patients and I literally packed my makeup that was all over my desk, put it in the bag. I'm like, I got to go. And she's like, you're just a flyer. You just 1, 2, 3, go, and then you're there. I've never been like this before and it's not because of this experience, it's because I'm getting older. My neurons are all rerouted as to differentiating what is an emergency versus not emergency. Everything was an emergency in my mind previously. I'm better at general risk assessment and going as opposed to researching every possible outcome, which I was previously. These are things that really held me back, but that I didn't realize I had to grow in order to be a flyer to jump. I needed to grow personally. I needed my psychology to change, not because I read the books, but I think range to changes with life experience. And I needed all of this in order to do this, and I'm in my forties and starting it now and I thought it was late, but it's perfect.

Robin Ntoh (22:12):
It'll be exciting to circle back and talk to you in another year and see what's going. I think we're going to do a stay tuned.

Dr. Pritzker (22:17):
And again, this is wild to me that I now have this documented.

Robin Ntoh (22:21):
I know, you're right. We have now memorialized it. So we will have to come back and talk about it. Well, listen, I've really enjoyed talking to you today and I love that you've got your new business. Where can people find you online if they want to follow you?

Dr. Pritzker (22:35):
Oh please. So it's called the Derm Collective North Shore, so @theDermCollectiveNorthShore for our Instagram page. And again, I'm at Dr. Rachel Pritzker or our website.

Robin Ntoh (22:46):
Well, thank you so much and thank you for those of you that have joined us today, live from AMSpa, the Medical Show.

Dr. Pritzker (22:52):
Thank you.

Announcer (22:54):
Thanks for listening to Aesthetically Speaking, the podcast where beauty meets business, presented by Nextech. Follow and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Links to the resources mentioned on this podcast or available in your show notes. For more information about Nextech visit nextech.com or to learn more about TouchMD, go to touchmd.com. Aesthetically Speaking is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.