In this episode, Cameron discusses the key elements that differentiate successful medical aesthetics practices, particularly million dollar MedSpas. He emphasizes the importance of identifying patterns of success, having a long-term mindset, implementing effective systems and technology, understanding patient lifetime value, and investing in branding and marketing strategies. He also covers the significance of memberships, pricing strategies, and creating memorable experiences for clients, as well as the potential for scaling beyond one location.

Transcript

Cameron Hemphill (00:00.942)
Hey, what’s up, everybody? Cameron Hempfield here, your host for Medical Millionaire. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune into the podcast. Our goal is to give incredible value and insight for practice owners. So if you own a medical aesthetics practice, if you own a med spa, a wellness clinic, maybe all of the above. If you’re doing cosmetic treatments, every single one of these episodes that we produce are 100 % designed for you and to help take your practice to the next level.

So guys, I have a solo episode for you today. Haven’t done one in a while. And I want to give you a tremendous amount of value in a relatively short period of time. Wonderful episode if you’re tuning in, driving to the practice, if you’re at the gym. This is gonna be heavy. Make sure to tune in, pay attention. I don’t wanna lose you. I’m gonna talk about the million dollar med spa.

and what sets them apart. So when you’re thinking med spa, I’m talking wellness practices, cosmetic, medical aesthetics, anything that’s injectable, GOP1s, anything that has to do with CO2 lasers, lasers, micro needling, all of the stuff that you guys are doing, there are med spas everywhere. People are conducting these treatments. Practices are thriving, practices are failing, practices are…

going bankrupt and practices are making profits. So what truly separates the winners from the losers? How do you have so many practices that are still trying to figure it out? And then you have other practices that are doing millions of dollars in revenue, wonderful percentages when it comes to their EBITDA and their profits. They have great teams, great culture.

Some of them even sell to private equity. And it’s remarkable on what the data shows, guys. Like there’s competition, we all know that. But there’s also people that are taking market share. And so what I wanna talk about is the ones that are doing well, you will see a pattern. You can see a direct correlation of success pattern after pattern after pattern. The people that I have on.

Cameron Hemphill (02:24.738)
this podcast, the practice owners that I have on this podcast, they all say the same thing. They all are doing the same thing. They all have a unique value proposition. They all have great branding. They all have a great team. They all are very qualified and they all invest in marketing and they have great systems. They know their numbers, right? And so if you are new to the industry, this beautiful specialty, if you are

in the business for over a year or a couple years or five years, wherever you’re at, I want you to start identifying patterns of success. It’s not that there is some sort of secret formula out there. You can do things your way. You can do things that are make sense for your brand, your local community, your audience, the way that you want to do things.

but you need to make sure you have a value proposition and a brand. Lean in on that. Know your numbers. Invest in marketing. Continue to double down on that. And the most important thing, is just continuing to show up. Success truly is about discipline and consistency, and ultimately about patterns. So if you’re in this world of aesthetics,

I know that you have taken the time to look at what others are doing. And I wouldn’t look at it through the lens of trying to copy or mimic what they’re doing, but look at their patterns of success. Go visit them. Take the time to go reach out to some of these industry leaders in your space and go train with them. Go to conferences. Understand what it’s going to take to get yourself in a position

to make a million dollar MedSpot. So what truly sets them apart? Again, I mentioned patterns and like, I have read so many books and studied so many entrepreneurs. Their biographies, I’ve studied finance, I’ve studied marketing, I’ve studied sales, I’ve studied how to build a business from zero to sell it to private equity. I’ve studied this thing and I’ve studied…

Cameron Hemphill (04:42.552)
people that have done it and people that have done it at scale multiple times over and over again, and it’s not that they have some secrets sort of formula or geniusness, okay? It’s about doing the hard things over time and not expecting to see results immediately. Continue to show up, continue to grind, continue to show up even when you don’t want to do. And when you don’t want to show up, it’s like,

When you don’t wanna go to the gym, you go anyway. And I know after you went, when you didn’t wanna go, you feel amazing afterwards. That’s what separates people. That is what separates true success and the million dollar med spa versus the med spa that is about to close their doors. Continuing to show up and continuing to grind and continuing to have that discipline and accountability. It’s all, I mean, that is the direct path, guys. Like that’s the pattern.

that I want you guys to recognize is success truly is taking the ability to show up and have discipline even when you don’t want to do it. Okay? So let’s talk about it for a sec. I want to get into the mindset of a million dollar MedSpot owner. So let’s talk about mindset for a sec. The million dollar MedSpot owner, they think long-term. It’s not just about day-to-day operations. They think long-term. They have a plan. They have a vision.

and they map out that plan. So let’s just say for 2025, for example, you want to take your current practice from six figures to seven, or let’s say you have crossed the seven figure mark and you want to double it, triple it, whatever you want to do. want to somehow, you want to get to $2 million, $3 million, $4 $5 million in top land revenue. You have to have a plan. You have to think long-term and it’s not just about day to day. If that is your goal is to grow and scale, which

It’s interesting every practice owner I talked to that’s like what they want to do. In fact, I don’t think I’ve talked to a practice owner that doesn’t want to grow Maybe that’ll happen one time. I’m not sure but everybody wants to grow and everybody has a goal But I’m telling you right now a goal is just a dream without action Okay, the goal is just a dream without action So as you have your goal, you have to map out your actions and then hit your actions and your daily activities Over time is going to get you in a position to hit your goal

Cameron Hemphill (07:08.556)
Okay, so the million dollar misfault holder, they think long-term. Okay, they focus on scaling and they focus on systems. Okay, scaling and systems. Systems put you in a position to increase proficiency, productivity, eliminate mistakes, have the ability to reduce head count, and put staff on other activities that make more sense. So if you have a staff member,

that is doing mundane tasks over and over again that could be automated with tools and tech, roll out the technology. I have yet to meet a multimillion dollar MedSpot owner that doesn’t have robust technology and great workflows. I’m talking CRM, I’m talking EHRs, reward programs, patient financing, like true systems. I’m talking tech, okay? Like if I was to go open up a MedSpot today,

The first thing I would do is I would go, okay, brand, location, identity, value proposition, tech stack, and then deploy my marketing. that’s, you have to basically engineer your infrastructure before you can just say, yeah, I’m going to open up right there and it looks cute and fun and I can cross my fingers and hope it works. Like do your research. And even if you are established, well-established, do additional research.

Okay, if you plan on opening up another location, don’t just think that that second location is going to do better than the first one, or just as good because you’ve nailed it on location one. Do your research, understand the demographic, understand like, like traffic that drives by, understand what the average household income is in that area. All right, so systems extremely, extremely important. And that goes with staffing as well. Okay, because if you’re going to scale your practice, you’re going to have to hire staff, right?

You can be a solo injector for, you know, shoot as long as you want. But if you continue to just like sell all the hours in the day and in the week and in the month, you’re going to make a great income, but you’re going to get tired. OK, I’ve done it. I’ve built businesses historically where I did everything and ran at like 10000 RPMs for a year or two.

Cameron Hemphill (09:29.774)
and my gosh, do you get tired and burn out? And ultimately, you find yourself not doing what you love, which sucks. Like that is not a good head space to be in. Especially if you have like family, if you’re married and you have kids. I have two beautiful daughters, Jane, she’s 11, Violet, she’s eight. And it’s so important to me that I get to spend time with them. And so, and the reason I get to spend time with them,

is I have systems and I have staff that support my business, right? And I want you guys to do the same. I’m telling you right now, you will never get the time back. So make sure that you invest in staff members and systems anywhere you can buy time, anywhere you can buy time by the time. Okay. Cause you may just be like, Hey, I’m to be a solo injector or provider and I’m going to just take all the cash myself. And I’m telling you, you will learn out.

that there will be a point in time where you’re like, you know what, I actually do have other hobbies outside of my practice. I love treating patients, love meeting with them, love making them feel confident and all this stuff. But truly, like you have other hobbies or like if you’re married, right, I’m married, I have a beautiful wife, Nicolette. She’s like my life partner. Man, that lady is my true rock. So shout out to her. But I couldn’t imagine like living in a world where her and I didn’t hang out. You know, that would be miserable.

And, you know, so think about this type of stuff. Like being an entrepreneur is amazing. It gives you a tremendous amount of freedom. But at the same time, it can make you locked in jail. Right. And I know what, you know, for most of you guys tuning in, you know what I mean by that. Right. Your your passion and your your actual business can become a job that is locked you into your environment. So

What I’m getting at is have systems, have staff, always look to buy your time back. Consistently fire yourself from activities that you should not be doing. You should not be doing administrative tasks if you’re a practice owner, right? You should not be doing all the consultations. And maybe at one phase of the business you should, but if you’re looking to scale and you’re looking to grow, you need to start thinking long-term, okay?

Cameron Hemphill (11:51.882)
If you’re doing stuff like in Microsoft Excel, that can be automated. I still hear people that are doing lead follow-up with Excel and logging notes. There is automation and artificial intelligence and AI out there that can easily do that, deploy it, increase your conversion rates. Man, always think to buy your time back. In fact, there’s a wonderful book out there called How to Buy Your Time Back. The gentleman by the name of Dan Martel wrote it. One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read.

So if you guys have a moment, if you haven’t read it, go get it on Audible. It’s fantastic. No shout out to, or no revenue source there to me. Just a great book that’s changed my life. Understand the lifetime value of a patient. Rather than just chasing new leads, stop constantly chasing new leads. New patients are wonderful. I’m a big fan of getting new patients. But understand how important lifetime value

If you haven’t done the exercise, do the exercise. How do you do it? You understand your patient, how much they spend, how many times they come in a year, and how long they stay with you. I’ve given you guys the benchmarks on the previous episodes. I’ve given you the data, right? Understand that. Understand what a patient costs to get. What is your patient acquisition cost? What is your cost per lead?

If you understand your patient lifetime value and you truly, truly understand it, I was talking to a practice owner recently, their patient lifetime value, guys, was 30 grand, $30,000 per patient. When they understood that, they completely re-engineered their process in terms of, my gosh, I am going to focus on my patient base. Every time that patient comes in, I’m going to give them a world-class experience.

I want them to come back. never want them to go anywhere else ever, ever, ever. And they re-engineered their treatment programs, re-engineered their consultation approach, re-engineered their lead process, their EMR process. once you understand these things, it’s really going to be mind blowing. The last thing you want is like a turn and burn shop. You’re constantly chasing new leads. Leads are coming in and you’re not able to convert them at a high rate. And even when you do it, you almost have to discount them.

Cameron Hemphill (14:15.34)
You’re just building a turn and burn shop. Always look to increase your patient lifetime value, dollar amount. Okay, I’m gonna repeat that. Always look to increase that. That is a number I will look at year over year and make sure it’s going up. And in fact, one day you will sell or exit your practice, there will be an expiration date, hate to tell you, but you will sell or you’ll close your doors or whatever, okay?

My sense is you’re gonna wanna sell it for the highest valuation possible. Why wouldn’t you? It’s your baby you built. You’re gonna wanna get the most out of it. That is one of the KPIs private equity will be looking at or a strategic buyer or whatever. They wanna buy the lifetime value of the patient base. I also want you to really start thinking about investing in branding reputation and premium positioning. Branding is critical.

Branding is not going anywhere. Look at Nike, look at Adidas, look at Corona, look at Yamaha, Mercedes, look at Allergan, look at Bonnev. Look at some of the practices that you guys know within the industry. Look at Terry Ross, look at Ruma Aesthetics, look at Shelby Miller, right? Look at Iconcierge Med Spa, right? Look at these brands, guys, and look at their reputation. They have a brand.

They nail their brand, they nail their value proposition, they show up with consistency, and they have a massive, beautiful reputation with credibility. Like, go look at their Google business profile. It’s amazing, right? And they have premium positioning on the internet. They invest in marketing. Like, they invest in all the Near Me campaigns, the SEO, the great website, the great process to click to online book. it’s interesting. Like, again, going back to patterns.

They all have the same correlated pattern, right? So patterns don’t lie, right? So look at that stuff. Marketing that attracts high ticket clients. This is really important, right? So something that converts high ticket clients, especially if you’re an affluent market, you should be focused on these clients, because lifetime value is higher, they’re easier to sell, they’re easier to train.

Cameron Hemphill (16:33.454)
and they want results and they’re willing to invest in results. Okay, especially if you’re selling to a business professional, right? They go to meetings, they go to conferences, they speak, shit, they probably have a podcast. I don’t know. They have a social media game. They want their appearance to look good and they want to feel good. The better that they feel, the more money they’re gonna make. Make that, that’s great. You’re making them make more money. Like I would bet.

Like people that have started going to aesthetics practices over the long period of time, the ones that have a treatment plan and see that self-confidence and results, I bet their income goes up. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Right. So attract those high-end clients. Websites is a sales tool, aesthetic, high converting mobile friendly websites. Like absolutely critical. Again, back to patterns. SEO and Google My Business. Be.

at the top of your search queries for your local market. Invest in SEO, invest in GMB optimization, continuously get Google reviews. You have to continue to have the discipline. It’s not about getting 50 reviews and having a five star rating. It’s having a processing system in place to continue to get them. Did you guys hear the recent thing that happened to Google where there was a glitch in their system or whatever and all of like a bunch of Google reviews disappeared? Hey, shoot, like you don’t own Google, my business, unfortunately.

You have an account, you have a license for it. Tomorrow, they could actually say, you know, we’re going to start charging for Google My Business. And all of a sudden they have a massive revenue stream. Not that they need one, you know, like I saw just all the stuff all over about the Google reviews. so like continuously, you know, have a process and a system in place and continue to get more because you’re at the mercy of whatever they change or whatever bugs happen in their system.

social media, influencer marketing. think that this is actually very important. Get your patients to talk about you. Like get them to tell their story. Have a process in place to where when they check out, they talk about their journey, their story, their confidence. Like imagine if you tied emotion. They went up on their social media, they had an emotional change in their life and they shared that with the world.

Cameron Hemphill (18:52.64)
and you help what help them with that. Like that emotional connection is absolutely huge. And local influencer marketing, think like, man, I could make just an episode on just this one. I think some people try to dabble in influencer marketing and they do it incorrectly. You need to do it in a way to where that influencer is local and they also have a direct relationship with your ICP, your ideal customer profile. I would not do a influencer

relationship with somebody that is outside your market. It’s not going to work. Right? People need to drive to your practice. Okay? Now in some cases, people fly and I get that. But for the most part, they drive in. And I would make sure that you guys have like similar followers. Okay? I think a wonderful influencer would be a real estate agent that is an influencer in your local market. Wonderful influencer. Okay?

Another one would be someone that has to do with hanging out with like working on high business activities or maybe country clubs or hanging out in affluent areas and promoting these types of environments. Get connected to your local community. I think real estate agents would be the best. Like somebody that matches your look too. Okay, so if you’re a female driven owner and let’s say like your blonde hair,

blue-eyed, female driven owner, I’m just gonna use that example. You may wanna get a influencer that kind of fits your look in a way and can correlate with your ICP. Great way to use that as an influencer. Give them some free treatments, have them post, whatever you wanna do. Make sure it’s effective, measure it, right? And know the numbers behind it to make sure it worked. Content that converts.

Have a system of before and afters, like invest in that system. In fact, I just visited a practice locally where I am, younger aesthetics, and she had this amazing before and after whole like set up. And I was like, how much was that before and after set up? And she was like, it was like 20 grand. And I’m like, damn it. But you know, like she gets it. She is investing in showcasing the result. We’re buying the result. You guys sell time, we buy results as users, okay, as patients.

Cameron Hemphill (21:16.046)
But like one can look at it and say that’s super expensive, but the other one can look at it and say, shoot, if I get three more patients because of this wonderful before and after tool and my patient lifetime value is five grand a patient or 10 grand a patient, like the same pace for itself for three patients. You know what I mean? Like that’s the thinking you need to get at. OK. The power of patient retention and memberships. Man, it’s memberships are critical.

We are so used to paying something on a monthly service agreement in this day and age. It’s odd to only pay once. Almost everything I sign up for every tool, I don’t know how many subscriptions I have. I’m sure it’s in the maybe high teens or 20s. Factor like Netflix, Spotify, Audible, your gym membership, whatever, your country club. It goes on and on.

Memberships are important. We want memberships and make your memberships easy. Okay. The most profitable men’s spots prioritize repeat clients over new leads like memberships, memberships, memberships, design VIP memberships, packages to create recurring revenue, super important. The nice thing is like when you start month one, or let’s say day one of the month and you have recurring revenue baked in, you can forecast your revenues that are coming in outside of your bookings. Okay. That also, by the way,

Little note here, increases your valuation dramatically. Memberships are super important. Loyalty programs, referral incentives that actually work. And use a powerful automated system. Again, going back to systems and tech for your memberships. Pricing and profitability. Charge what you’re worth. Charge what you’re worth. The mistake of undercutting prices versus building perceived value. Like stop.

selling yourself short. You guys went to school, you have credibility, you have a brand, you have a value prop, you have a business, make sure to sell expertise over discounts. You don’t wanna be a discount shop, you want to sell advice, expertise, and a valuable treatment plan that’s gonna put people in success to see the results, okay? Bundling services.

Cameron Hemphill (23:36.514)
If you’re not bundling services, I would definitely suggest that. And this all has to do with the consultation. They come in for like injectable, Botox, and filler, whatever, but like, it’s gonna make also sense if you get this micro-natal treatment. However, like you guys are the experts, you know how to bundle. Make sure to bundle. People love to try different things and it puts them in a position to actually try a different device. There’s way more margins in micro-nataling versus injectables, okay? Way more margins. Bundle that stuff.

Okay, so why high performing men’s spas focus on premium treatments and custom plans? They focus there because it increases the patient lifetime value and the patients actually see the results. They see these results and it’s gonna put them in a position to continue to come back, refer their friends and family. And then of course AI, AI is absolutely taken off. It’s not going anywhere. It’s just gonna get better and better. And so stop thinking that AI is just like,

here for a second or stop being afraid of it. In fact, all the software you guys subscribe to right now has AI in it and they’re just gonna invest more and more into it. And so use these AI driven opportunities for upsells and cross-sells, those types of things. Hang with me guys, operations and team culture that drives growth. People wanna work at a place that’s fun, a place that has a purpose.

They don’t want to show up to a medical aesthetics practice and just serve as patients. There has to be a mission. What is the mission? Identify the mission. Make sure your team knows what that mission is. Think of it as like an NFL team or an NBA team. What is their mission for the season? Of course, they’re going to have a team. Everybody has a position. Everybody’s going to help put points on the guard board. Everybody is going to participate in defense.

Right. They’re going to show up and practice. But what is the mission? The mission is to win the championship. Right. So like understand what your mission is and make sure to double down on that with your team and your culture. OK. Create standards for treatment protocols for consistent results. Use technology and automation to reduce manual work and streamline bookings. And like a true Med Spa, a million dollar Med Spa is the one that has

Cameron Hemphill (26:00.494)
incentives for commissions for every single one of their providers. They have strong leadership and then they have the hierarchy structure. Right? So you have owner, you have management, you have lower level management, you have providers. Like however your hierarchy structure is, make sure it’s built in a way that it supports the same exact mission, the same goals. And so everybody, when they come to work, they’re coming to support the mission. Okay? And then all the activities live with inside the mission.

I talked about reviews and reputation a little bit, just had some more bullet points on here, but 91 % of MedSpot patients check online reviews before booking. 91. This is data, like directly from AmSpot. 91%. Like that’s crazy. In fact, some people trust it review over referral. That’s pretty wild, right? So leveraging video testimonials, I don’t see this nearly enough. Video testimonials, even for like high producing,

very well established practices. Why are you guys not getting video testimonials? Using those on your social channels, using those on your paid search channels. Like if you were gonna run a paid social campaign and it was just about a video of a testimonials, like 10 testimonials and before and afters, that ad campaign is going to do so well, prepare to get booked. Okay, you can use that in your email followups when leads come in, your text followups when they come, you can put on your website like,

There’s so much horsepower that you can do with a video guys. Make sure to start focusing on that, Create a memorable spa experience. When people come in, they’re taking time out of their hard earned day. Like their day away from their family, like they’re coming in for experience. Give them experience and they’re gonna tell all their friends and family about it, okay? And the last point guys, scaling beyond one location. One location may be right for you, but if you’re looking to scale,

know how to scale beyond one location, know how to do it, know when the timing is right. You have to make sure that you have like use your first location as an incubator, iron out and flush out everything you need to flush out before you can go to operation number two. And then you basically, you can just replicate what you did at location one. Okay, now that may take somebody six months or six years. Again, completely depends on your lifestyle, your approach, however you wanna scale how

Cameron Hemphill (28:29.134)
You know, I should have one customer that I talked with, they have one location, but it’s like a 10,000 square foot building, right? So it’s almost like multiple locations in one, kind of a cool idea. And they’ve expanded their services and offerings and treatments and stuff like that too. So I’m gonna leave it at that. Again, the takeaway here guys is success is in patterns, success is in discipline.

Success is in accountability. And if you want to be the next million dollar med spa, look for patterns. Until next time, happy injecting.