Dr. Gregory Buford, a seasoned surgeon and entrepreneur, shares his journey from a young child aspiring to be a doctor to founding Beauty by Buford and launching Core Esthetics Training Institute. He emphasizes the importance of running a medical practice like a business, understanding customer needs, and continuously learning. Dr. Buford discusses the significance of strategic alliances, entrepreneurship, and the value of education. He highlights his upcoming Core Entrepreneurship Summit in Denver, aimed at helping Med Spas grow and prepare for potential business exits. Dr. Buford advocates for a passion-driven approach to work, balancing productivity with personal well-being.

Transcript

This is medical millionaire the podcast, helping your Med Spa increase in status, visibility and profitability. Join your host as he dispels myths, shares trends and gives you actionable steps today that will take your medical practice to the next level. Here’s your host, expert marketer and founder of growth 99 Cameron Hemphill,
hey everybody. Cameron Hemphill, here your host for medical millionaire. Hey, first off, thank you guys so much taking the time to tune into the podcast. Our goal is to give incredible value and insight into the medical esthetics and cosmetic industry. So throughout this journey together, obviously you guys have been on other, you know, opposite episodes and publications that we’ve done. We have a speaker and we have a guest. We have a good friend, client. I want to welcome Dr Gregory Buford. He’s from Beauty by Buford. This This guy has a tremendous background. I was taking the time to to do as much research as I could. Obviously, we’ve gotten to know each other over the years. Since we we’ve done some stuff together. But I didn’t know that you have published a book. I didn’t know that you were a speaker. I didn’t know that you know you have been at this since, what, 2001 2001 Yeah, and going strong, awesome. Well, welcome to the show. I really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you.
No, I’m honored. I’ve been, I’ve actually been following your podcast for a while. So when you asked me to participate, I was like, why not? I’d love to be on the side. So, yeah,
absolutely. So, so what, what got you into into medicine early, like, like, was it inspirational, or was it something that was in the family? Or talk to talk to us about that? Okay,
so here’s a crazy story, and this is a God’s honest truth. And I actually, so a couple years ago, I had the opportunity of giving the commencement address in my alma mater at UC San Diego. Big shout out to UCSD. And I actually, I actually started out with this whole story. So the age of four, God’s honest truth. Age of four, I told my mother to stop calling me Greg. It was, I was Dr Bill. My lunch talks was my was my medicine kit, and I was going to become a doctor. And so, you know, obnoxiously, anyone that we’d run to in the store. And so they’d say, Well, what’s your name, little boy? I’d say, Dr Bill. I had no one else in the family that was a physician. I have no idea what the aha moment was, but I just decided the ripe old age of four that I was going to become a doctor. Now here’s the crazy thing, I really didn’t like blood, so how in the world did I ever become a surgeon? Well, you know, as time went on, you know, I got into this old medical gig. I did a number of rotations, and then I did a surgical rotation. I’ll tell you, it’s like car lovers. What’s the first thing that a car lover does? They lift the hood, and they look at the engine. They want to, they want to see what’s under the hood. As surgeons, we do that every day. And I just, and I literally just fell in love with it. And so, you know, I have a huge interest in anatomy, and, you know, in physiology, how the body functions, but it literally just started off when I was four. So that’s, that’s the true story. It sounds crazy, but I had no relatives that were that were actually physicians. I just had this crazy, crazy idea that kind of, you know, dropped out of the sky like Newton’s apple. And I decided, and I went from there, plus my modeling career never worked out. And, you know, I’m afraid I so astronaut was was out. So I thought, Let’s fall back in this plastic surgery
thing. So, oh man, I love it so early on, at age four, Dr Bill, I love it so that, I mean, you knew your mission from very early on, and you’ve done a great job of of conquering that. So I Well, that’s, that’s crazy. I think, like, as a, as a boy, you know, we, you know, hey, I’m going to be a fireman. I’m going to, I’m going to be a policeman. Like, like, we always, like, we have those dreams, like, I want to be a superhero, right? And so, and a lot of people, obviously have have no idea what they want to do. I think, like a lot of people, are so confused because there’s, there’s so many different things to do. But congratulations, Matt on having such like, a clear vision at an early age and just knowing it’s what you wanted, and then having the ability of the discipline and the accountability to just get after it. That’s really cool. Thank you. Thank you. So let’s talk it like fast forward. You obviously achieve that mission. You’re passionate about it. I know that you have a very successful practice. Talk to us about the practice, the location, and really like how you’ve been able to not only create a practice, but run your practice like, like a business, right? And kind of the story from, hey, I’m going to become a doctor to, like, you know, blood anatomy, totally get it. But at the end of the day,
clinics are also businesses
that produce revenues, and you have to run it like, like a business owner, as an entrepreneur. So I’d love to hear, I’d love to hear. The story behind
that. So I’ll start off with a quote I always, I always tell people, if you don’t run your business, your business runs you. And the craziest thing is, is whether you’re an MD do, RN and PPO, PA, you know anything within medicine, none of us get taught how to run a business. It’s so asinine. It’s so ridiculous. I mean, it blows me away every time I talk to a medical school and say, you know, why are you not teaching the business of medicine? Well, Dr Buford, medicine is not a business. And I laugh, medicine is a business. I mean, if you look at it, they’re all paying clients. We’re just developed. We’re just delivering different deliverables. Okay, I’m not selling cars. I’m selling expectations. I’m selling a new lease on, you know, how you look, how you appear. I’m giving helping people really achieve their dreams and that, you know, it’s really, really fulfilling. But at the end of the day, I’m running a business, and so if I don’t pay attention to how my business is doing, then, I mean, it’s essentially similar to getting behind the will of your car, putting a blindfold on and just driving. It makes no sense at all. I mean, you might, you might get to where you want to go despite yourself, but I think, you know, the funny thing is, for a number of years, and I’ve really done a deep dive, in fact, in the last couple of years, in my business, because I was successful. But, I mean, I was really successful despite myself, you know? I mean, I was literally kind of cruising through the night and getting to different places, getting to different end points, you know, my three year, my five year, my 10 year goals. But what I’ve looked at really now is I really drill down my deep dive into everything that I do. Why am I offering this service? Why am I working with a specific type of patient? You know, you really, really need to identify that something was very, very interesting. I had a my first publicist. I don’t have a publicist anymore, but I had, I’ve had several. And my first publicist, you know, said she sat me down and says, Well, Dr B, so you know, tell me about what your goals are and so forth, you know. And tell me. Tell me what you want to accomplish, you know. Well, I want to be busy. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She’s like, so tell me about your actual patient. And I was like, Okay, well, they’re a plastic surgery patient. She’s like, well, you’re pretty much an idiot. Like, if you don’t know who your patient is. How the hell are you gonna ever find that patient to get them in your office? And you know what? That was an aha moment. Because, and I always speak to that when I when I talk to other medical practitioners, if you don’t know who you’re looking for, how are you that? How in the world you gonna get them? You know, who is she? How old is she, you know, what is she like? What voice does she like to, you know, does she like you to speak with? So, for example, if you’re working with millennials, Gen Zs versus baby boomers, it’s a whole different language. It’s a whole different approach. It’s a whole different I mean, you know, think about what you do in websites, you know. I mean, think about digital marketing. If you’re digitally marketing to a 55 year old, you’re going to speak a very different language than when. When you’re marketing to sometimes 25 is very, very different. It’s a very, very different approach. And so, you know, what’s been really, really exciting for me is when you dissect out and you really, you know, you really examine the business of medicine, which I’ve really done. I you know, I started earlier, wrote a book back in 2010 called be in the business, you know. And why did I write it? Because I couldn’t find any good books on business for medicine. And so I was like, Well, I’m somewhat smart, but, I mean, you know what’s funny is I have no business training. So fast forward, I had a another just amazing moment. I’m sitting in a classroom at Kellogg, which is the Business School of of Northwestern University, and the professor actually starts quoting from my book in the MBA class. And I’m like, I’m sitting in the front row, and I mean? I think I turned a bright shade of red. I’m like, the hell. I’m like, you’re like, You’re a really smart professional. I’m like, Couldn’t you find someone else to quote? I’m like, I’m an idiot. I’m I’m here as a student. I don’t know what I’m doing. She came over and said, you know, she goes, Dr beer. She goes, That was a wonderful book. She goes, You know, you don’t have your MBA or like that, but there were some very insightful things. But you know, what I’ve done is, over the years, I’ve looked at the practice of medicine and I’ve dissected it and really evaluated what it is to run a business, but run a very customer centric business, where the customer is your primary focus. I grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, just outside of Portland, I was surrounded by a couple businesses, you know, you guys might have heard of. They’re very customer centric. Starbucks, you know, this little coffee shop, Nordstroms, you know the you know this, this, this little clothing shop. My mom actually worked for the Nordstrom brothers. They had a shoe store. Oh, wow. So. So, I mean, you know, so she knew him. She knew him very, very well. But what’s crazy about it, you know? And I always say this when I speak about the business of medicine, I ask everyone in the room, raise your hand if you go to Starbucks to buy coffee, you know. And everyone’s like, Oh yeah, yeah, that’s why I go to Starbucks. I buy coffee. I say, No, you don’t. No one buys coffee at Starbucks. Guess what? You’re buying at Starbucks? You’re buying an experience. Okay, buying a branded experience. You know, it’s the same thing when you wear Nike shoes, okay? Skinny little white boy like me wears him, and he all of a sudden he thinks he’s Michael Jordan. Okay, just do it. I mean, tell me another brand slogan that’s better. Just do it. I mean, it’s get off your butt and just do it. It’s one of those brilliant slogans I’ve ever heard. But it’s really, you know, dissecting all those things not only makes your business run better, but it also creates joy. Creates more fun, because if you know where you’re going, it’s more fun. You’re not just bumbling through the night. You’re not just bumping into walls. You know, I say a lot of business owners are like pinballs. They’re just kind of bouncing off the wall. And, you know, doing this, doing this. Now, what I would say, though, is, business owners need to be able to pivot. Okay? They need to be able to successfully pivot. What does that mean? It means think about Amazon. Okay, Jeff Bezos didn’t start out saying, you know, I really want to build this, you know, this, this, this huge Goliath called Amazon. No, he actually wanted to sell his wife’s books online. So he created a online garage sale for books. That’s it. I mean, that’s it. So he went from a to b, and then a B said, you know, I’m gonna go to B prime. I’m gonna pivot now. I’m gonna go from B prime to C, then I’m gonna go to C to C prime. And the most successful businesses have all done that. They’ve all pivoted. Now, it doesn’t mean that, you know, pivoting is a bad thing. In fact, pivoting is being flexible. It’s being flexible, and it’s understanding that business is very much like a dance, okay? And you have to be nimble. You have to be agile. You have to be able to respond to changing market conditions, changing consumers, changing consumer trends, millennials, Gen Z’s now, I mean, how you market to those groups you know, and do it in a respectful manner is completely different than how you market to Baby Boomers. It’s completely different. And so I think you know, for me, it brings me joy to actually be able to understand my business, learn more and more about the business of medicine, I mean, and actually see it evolve. And be able to actually have a really nice three or five years, seven year, 10 year plan, and have that forecast and say, at those time intervals, this is what I want to accomplish. Now. Do I ever change those you better believe it, you know. Change all the time. I mean, I pivot, you know. But what I’m doing is I have big guard rails, you know. So I’m pivoting within those guardrails. I’m not saying, Well, maybe, maybe next week I’m going to become a facial plastic surgeon, you know, or this week I’ll do tummy tucks. I’m very resolute in what I do, but I’m very, very focused, but I do allow myself a little bit of room for creativity, but that, you know? But again, I think those of us in medicine, you know that really, run our businesses. I wouldn’t say that we’re really necessarily business owners or more entrepreneurs, and that’s a word that I really embrace. In fact, I’m a little shameless plug with one of the businesses that I’m building out, or I built out, along with my two co founders, we’re building an entrepreneurship summit, okay? And it’s for med spas. I work very, very closely with the Med Spa space, and it’s really identifying the entrepreneurship necessary, the steps necessary to take one of these grow. It create vitality in it thrive, and then position for a possible exit down the road, because none of us want to do this forever. You know, I mean, I don’t plan to retire anytime soon. I’ll probably be working until the day I die, because I I really, the crazy thing is, I actually really do enjoy what I do, but being an entrepreneur is a great quote. It’s been attributed to Ray Bradbury. And Ray Bradbury, the the science fiction writer, um, supposedly, once said that being an entrepreneur is like jumping off a cliff and building your wings on the way down. I mean, it’s just it’s mind numbingly scary. You don’t know what the hell you’re doing. You’re flying off a cliff and you’re building your wings as you’re plunging. But I’ll tell you, if you talk to most business owners, and you know how this is that’s what we do every day. I mean, half the stuff that we get done. I mean, people will ask me, like, you launch this, and you launch this. They’re like, how the hell did you do that? I’m like, well, either, I mean, I had a lot of blind faith, you know, I had a lot of guts, a lot of chutzpah, but, you know, some of it was like, Well, you know what, no one else is. Done, and I think I might as well try and have I failed. Good Lord. I mean, Cameron, I mean I failed so many times I have fallen in my face and made the dumbest mistakes, events that turned out bad. I was right, you know, I’ve had a couple book ideas, you know, that I got into, and I was writing them, and then halfway through, I’m like, this is really stupid and boring. I’m like, Okay, I’m shelving this. I’m not going to do this, you know. And people be like, Well, you’re a total failure. No, if you talk to most successful people, most successful people, they’re honest, will tell you they’ve all failed. You know, they’ve all failed, they’ve gone, they’ve pivoted, you know, they’ve pivoted, they’ve learned from their failures. Okay, but I’ll tell you, though, if you’re going to invest in a company, look at the sea level management. You look at those people, and look at what they’ve done before, and the people that have failed before, let them make the mistakes on another company, not on the company that you’re investing, right? You know, now, we don’t, I don’t talk to patients about failing. I mean, that would kind of snake if I said, Yeah, you know, I get a ton of complication, but you know, man, I’m really good. Now you don’t that’s not what you want to hear your surgeon say. But what I do say, though, is, I’m constantly learning, and I’m constantly debriefing when I do anything, whether it’s, you know, it’s a it’s an event, it’s a, you know, it’s a new part of the business, what have you. I’m constantly asking for feedback. I’m constantly asking for feedback from my staff, from my from my patients, my clients. Because it’s really, really important. There’s a There’s an old proverb that goes there’s a reason why you have two ears and one mouth. Because essentially, you should be listening twice as much as you’re talking. So I do listen a lot. I read a lot. I’m a voracious reader. I could probably even read a little bit more, but I think it’s very, very important to immerse yourself in the business, and the more you’re immersed, and the more educated you are about what you do, the more fun it is. And patience, patience will see that. Your clients will see that. I mean, if you really hate what you’re doing, it’s all over your face. I mean, it’s people will look at you and go, God, you’re you look miserable. You don’t even want to be here. Do you? Whereas people come in and they’re like, all right, all right, Doctor, you do this, you do this, do this. They’re like, they’re like, How in the world do you find the time? I’m like, Well, I make the time. I make the time. So that’s, that’s my long, my long story short, about the business and being a physician, entrepreneur. No, I love it well said.
I mean, when I just, I mean, I sit back and just listen, right based on what you were just talking about, and I like your point. You know, we have two ears and in one mouth. I could learn so much from you. I mean, we need to spend more time together, but it’s interesting. When I hear you talk, I hear more about entrepreneurship, business. I read a lot. I’m excited about my failures, because I know what you know. Know how to not do that in the future, and really have the mindset to say, hey, look like, you know, did I have I made mistakes? Have I screwed up? For sure, and I it comes down to saying you have to do that in order to know, like, where you’re going, right? You have to jump over those hurdles, and you have to fall on your face. Because if you don’t, and if you don’t have, really, the desire or the ability, or you just don’t believe in yourself to do that, you’re never going to find out, right? And so as I look at, you know, your business, your practice, everything that you’ve done, it all starts, you know, out with saying, hey, you know what, this is, what I’m going to do. I have the confidence to do it. I may, you know, drive blind, but I’m going to figure it out, and it comes down to taking action. And I think there’s people in this world, especially right now, that they are just they they think too much versus just getting to work, right? Getting to work, take action, make the phone calls, send the emails, go to the networking events like, connect with people and and fall on your face, right and fail, because right past those failures, the people that don’t give up and have the discipline, just like you, continue to find success, right, and success finds people like that continuously push the envelope and push the needle to say, hey, like, I’m going to go do it right? You, wrote a book. You couldn’t find anything that was business for for medicine, and you, like, went and quote, and then you’re in class, and the in the professors that quotes you, that is so good, by the way, I love that. But then, like, another point that I want to, I want to talk about. So, you know, 2001 is when you open your practice, right? And, and when we recorded this again, guys like, we’re, you know, we’re in 2023 right? And so obviously, he’s had the practice for a long time. I think there’s a lot of medical esthetics practices that have opened up very recently. We’ve seen this massive, you know, expansion in the marketplace over the past. Last few years. But let’s talk about a business that’s been in place for for longevity. Has success? Have probably had great years, not great years, fantastic years, maybe, you know, just horrible years, right? But continuing to push. But one thing I want to talk about is you have, you have continued to, obviously, stay motivated and enjoy what you what you do, but attach yourself to the existing. And what I mean by that is you have the practice, and then you found other ways with inside the business, on on ways to inspire people, on ways to generate revenue, and in ways to help others, like grow their practice, or grow where, even where they’re at within from a business standpoint or entrepreneurial standpoint, right? So, like you made a comment about the Amazon you know when, when Bezos started out, he was going to do a bookstore for his wife, how to sell books online. Now, look at it like the majority of their revenue is through Amazon Web Services, right? Like they’re an IT company, but, but you’ve done a great job of that. So, so you, you’ve opened up, let’s say you have core esthetics Training Institute. That’s a consulting gig that you have right for that specific vertical. But what inspired that was the all the going all the way back to age four, I want to be a doctor. Then you became one, and then you have a practice, and then you’re like, you know what? I want to help others do this, right? So talk to me about that, because when you continuously attach yourself to the existing, you find new ways of in areas of opportunity that are in the practice to grow streams of revenue and service others, right? Yeah,
I love the thing is, I’m a perpetual reader, but I’m also a perpetual educator. I love being on the podium. You kind of see it here. I mean, you know, you can’t, usually can’t get me to shut up. Get a little bit of the gift of gab, so to speak, as my initials. But I really enjoy when I’m teaching someone and that light bulb goes off, and you can see that that would Oprah caused the aha moment. You see that sparkling ride. They’re like, they’re like, Oh my God, that’s how you do it. So I love doing it. And the other thing as well, too, when you’re an educator, you can’t be a bullshitter, you know, when you’re up on you, when you’re up teaching people, I mean, they’re gonna It’s kind of like when you’re with kids, okay, children always ask, you know, the craziest questions, but they’ll call you on the nonsense. I mean, if you just say, Well, you know, why is this guy blue? Well, it’s because it’s always been that way. No, why is it really blue? I mean, tell me why it’s blue. So you really have to know your stuff. And so becoming an educator, or being an educator, makes me better at what I do, and it also creates credibility as well too, but it pushes me to always stay on the cutting edge of what I do and always keep everything fresh. I think part of it as well too, is, you know, I’m a passionate learner. I’m a passionate I think I don’t need this to sound arrogant or anything like that. But, you know, I’ve got the, I’ve got the creator mindset. People will talk about, you know, creators, executors and so forth. But I not only create, but I also, too, I make sure I execute. Because there’s a lot of dreamers out there that say, you know, this is what I’m going to do someday. You know, I’m a my What’s crazy is, going through college, I was actually an English major. I was a literature major and emphasis in writing. So, essentially, an English major, you know. So I could have said, well, I’m gonna, I’m gonna write the great American novel. Well, I didn’t write, I haven’t written that yet. That’s, I mean, that’ll, you know, someday. So stay tuned. But being able to publish my first book, I mean, I was like, that was such a great thing for me. I mean, because now I still get people I, you know, for all over the world, saying, I read your book, and that was so good, you know, it really changed me. I had a great, great, a little story here. There was a dermatology conference I forgot, which, I think it was like 80 years like that, a couple years ago here in Denver, Colorado. So right before it, I got, I got this email from a Chinese dermatologist that said, you don’t know, have any idea who I am, you know, I’m Dr so and so I, you know, I practice, I think, in in Beijing, but I read your book. He’s like, I read your book, and I would be so honored. Could you sign your book for me? I’m like, Are you kidding me? I’m like, you read my book? I’m like, hell yeah. So I dragged myself down to the conference, you know, got through, met this guy, signed the book. I mean, it was the most exhilarating moment. And it was so cool because his comment was, I actually did a bunch of the things in the book that you recommended, and it’s really transformed how I do my practice. And I’m like, Wow, it’s really, really neat to know that you’ve it’s all about legacy. Let’s just say that it’s all about legacy. If you know that you can create change, you know, if you can affect change in a very positive way, you know, people always talk about, leave the world better than it was. For, you know, all that kind of nonsense, whatever. But, I mean, it really is true. I mean, I don’t want to just be here sucking up oxygen, okay, when I pass, I want people to say, You know what, he actually left a mark. I mean, he left an indelible mark, that, you know, that the world is a little bit different, you know, and we all have that opportunity, and whatever way you do it, I mean it, you know, people do it in all different ways, shapes and forms and so forth. For mine, it’s really education. And I’m so proud when I, when I run the Training Institute, it’s, we call it Katie Coronavirus Training Institute. So we run Katie, we, you know, we have all these newbies are coming through. You know, when it’s we’re teaching, and all of a sudden, you know, you see the light bulb go off, and they’re like, Oh, my God, that’s what it is. I mean, it’s really, really neat, you know. And here hearing other people, I mean, we’ve grown this institute just literally, organically, just word of mouth, I mean, and now we’re a national name, which is really, really, it’s a lot of fun. So I think all those things, you got to keep life fresh. You got to find a passion. Because, you know, ultimately, that’s why I don’t really want to retire. I see a lot of people retire that, you know, they I play golf, not very well. I don’t know if you’d call it playing golf. It’s hitting balls around and in various areas. That’s my golf. But I don’t want to do that every day. You know. I want to do a lot of things in life, and this is one of the, one of the many. But for me, it’s always keeping life fresh, always keeping life fresh, always doing something different, you know, exploring learning new things. You know, I’ve got, I’ve got one of my things on the bucket list, two things, actually, is I’m going to when I, when I do start slowing down, but I want to try I do a lot of photography. So I want to travel with National Geographic all over the world, and, like, really remote place, you know, I want to be, like, sleeping on the ground and, you know, in some some village and in Africa, you know, hanging out with the Masai tribe in Kenya, or doing something just a crazy, wacky, I mean, I mean, that’s the kind of thing that really kind of gets me up in the morning. The second thing too is I’m with my my lovely fiance, not because of, obviously, my charming good looks, which I don’t have, but it’s because I can, I can cook, so that’s how I stole her heart. So I’m going to the other thing I’m going to do, too is I want to do a boot camp at the court on blue in Paris. That’s, that’s top of my my dream list. So I’m going to learn how to make those sauces and get yelled at by the French people, and hopefully make some good stuff when I get home.
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That’s awesome, man. I love it like you’re an inspiration, dude. And, and, you know, I think that there’s, there’s, I mean, you said it, well, there’s, there’s so many things that that we can do while we’re on this, this planet, and, and why we’re, you know, why we’re here and, and, like, you know, we’re not just here to suck oxygen, right? We I mean, and I think most of the world, you know, unfortunately, does that right, but, but really, every one of us has a gift, and if that gift is is really not pushed out in the universe to to help service others, and whatever that may be, if it’s writing a book, if it’s practicing medicine, you know, if It’s helping grow businesses, if it’s somebody that gets anything out of this, this specific episode today, right, just being through, inspired by somebody that’s done so much like you have to, you have to serve others. And you know when you when you realize like serving others actually brings fulfillment, because you’re changing things, and you’re helping somebody get past wherever they’re at in their their practice or business, whatever it is, like you’re leaving an impact. And I agree with you 100% like, legacy is extremely important, and I think that that spreads outside of the family really just through, like, if it’s the industry you service. Or whichever. So I agree with you. So let’s really quick when it comes to the when it comes to core, right? If I was like, who’s the ideal person that should go through core is this? Is somebody that is thinking about getting into the industry? Or is it somebody like, talk to us about that I’m curious to learn more about. I know the audiences,
yeah. So core, we, I do a lot of like double entendres and all these kind of fun, fun plays on core. So core stands for concise, objective, real world education. So that’s how it started. That’s, that’s core. Core also started off. It was a spin on the core four, you know, essentially dermatology, facial plastics, plastics and ocular plastics. You know, people kind of within the esthetic realm. But really what it’s become is it’s, it’s the core knowledge that you need to succeed, okay, decor, I have to use that one. It’s a core information that you need. I mean, we, we distill out all the essential stuff, the essence, so to speak, of what you need to get started within the field. That’s our level one. But what we’ve done now is we’ve actually created this diagram. This the Zen diagram. You know, the Zen diagram, where you have, you have a circle over here, you have a circle over here. You know, there’s, there’s a there’s overlap. So the other circle that we just recently created was for the more mature business owner, you know. So you’ve got the you have the injector over here, you have level one, where they’re just getting into it. Many of these people are the typical it’s a er, nurse. She’s been doing it for a while. She’s totally burned out. She’s got a couple kids. She wants to spend more time with them and not come home angry every night because she’s so exhausted. She wants a new lifestyle. She wants to be able to control her lifestyle, and we’re able to give that to her. We’re able to teach her how to actually execute, how to enter into the esthetic marketplace, so to speak, you know, and all those things, we also have level twos will our level twos are for the people that have taken the level ones, obviously, and now they want to learn a little bit more. We had a very highly successful lip course. We’ve got another one around the eyes. Is periodical rejuvenation. More advanced. We have a cadaver course that’s coming up actually, a couple weeks. I mean, there’s so much excitement around it, but the new circle we’re building out is for the entrepreneurs. That’s concise, objective, real world entrepreneurship, you know? So that’s another core aspect of core so we’re looking at people that essentially want to take your businesses to the next level. They want to know, what are the blind spots? You know, the problem is what we don’t well, it’s not what you know. Often it’s not knowing what you don’t know you know. So in other words, there’s a lot of blind spots. And that was something I learned from business school, is, you know, what are the main blind spots? Because a lot of times we’re doing things that are actually impediments to success, you know, but we don’t, we don’t understand what those are, because our ego says, Well, you know, you run a really successful business, or you’re making all this money and so forth, so therefore you must be doing everything right? Yeah, the more the most intelligent people are, the ones that are inward looking, okay, the most intelligent people and the most forward thinking ones are the ones that are always challenging themselves and they don’t accept the fact Well, you know, people tell me I’m successful all the time. Well, so what? What does that I mean? What does that mean? Also, keep in mind too, I’ll say something. This is on a little different note. I watched a wonderful special the other night on Arnold Schwarzenegger, okay, everyone always thinks, you know Arnold, I’ll be back. Yes, um, Austrian guy. Arnold couldn’t be farther from that. I mean, you know, if you haven’t watched it, I don’t have it. I don’t get any royalties from this. But it was a brilliant look at his life, you know. And one thing that really resonated with me is he was talking about how he was honored. He received an award. I mean, I can’t remember what the war was for, but, you know, they talked about, well, Arnold, I mean, you’re a self made man. You’re a self made man, amazing. I mean, you’re a self made man. He said, that’s his bullshit, you know? He said, I am not a self made man. He goes, I didn’t make myself. He goes. He goes, I am where I am now because of everyone around me. You know, I got a leg up. And that’s one thing that I always try to teach people, is I’m very much into strategic alliances, and I’m very much into, you know, figuring out how you can create these alliances and how you can create Win Win scenarios. And I’ve worked with the industry very closely over the years, you know, and I’ll, and I’ll tell you, right now I’m not where I am right now alone. I am not where I am right now alone. I am right now where I am because I had quoting the Beatles with a little help from my friends, okay? I mean, it’s, I mean, that was, that’s the smartest saying. I mean. You know, none of us are successful on our own. We started, but, you know, a lot of people gave me the leg up. And I was, I was talking to one of our potential hires here today, she’s doing our fellowship. And I said, you know, I said, one important thing to remember is, on your way up, grab a few people with you and bring them up with you. Okay, always do that. You know, I’m always looking for new and emerging talent, and I’m trying to make them successful. Because, you know what, most of them never forget that you gave them that chance. And I never forget the chance, you know, the chances that everybody else gave me as well too. And I try to pay that forward. But it’s really, really cool, because on the way up, what are you doing? You’re building your alliances. If you build bring people up there. I mean, there’s a lot of people that get up by stepping on people’s backs go. Those are the climbers. Thomas Rolf, bonfire the vanities, great book. He talked about the social climbers. You know, disgusting little rats that basically are just use Social Affairs, you know, to mindlessly get to a place in society. Don’t be the social climber, okay, be someone that actually elevates those around them, because otherwise it’s pretty lonely at the top, if you’re all there along you know. So create those alliances and at the at the base of it as well, too. Have fun with it as well. You can tell I’m very, very passionate about what I do. I mean, you know, I’m constantly challenging myself. The other thing I would say as well, too, when you’re in business, don’t take yourself so seriously. A lot of people will, you know, see these. I mean, I’ve got all these fancy titles, you know, I’m a one of my businesses. I’m a CEO. I’m a president, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yeah. Who cares? Seriously? I mean, who cares the other day, I’m just some crazy, skinny, white dude that you know made some made more positive decisions and negative decisions, got to a place there. You know, he’s pretty happy, but I’ll tell you what I mean, I’ve learned a lot from others. Learned a lot from others.
Yeah, well said. I mean, dude, I I love talking to you and just in just hearing it, because that’s what I tell, you know, everybody at our company, you know, because I’m the CEO of our company, and, you know, like a lot of people that work here, you know, they look at me as is the big dude in town, and I’m like, whoever gave me that Funny CEO title, like, just, you know, and, hey, I guess, you know, you have to have title, you have to have leadership, you have to have, you know, C level, whatever. I totally, I totally get it, but in the day, like, you know, not taking yourself so seriously and really being down to earth and helping your team and bringing them up, it’s so important. Like, you know, there are so many people in our business that you know started out just not as a content writer, right? They just, you know, and now, like, they have moved up in management, because, you know, we’ve helped inspire these people and say, hey, look what you’re doing. Like, you don’t want to write, you don’t want to be content for forever. Like, what do you really want to do, you know, and you still, you need to have those conversations with people. Because, look, there’s always an expiration date, you know, like the people that you bring along with you, like your staff, like they may not be there next year, the year after, you may have all these staff, who knows, and I hope, like, as people level up, and this is a good point, like, if you bring them with you and level them up, one day, they’re going to have their own practice, right? Like, hopefully that, you know, people are going to have their own company and and I want that, like, we want that right, because it makes you feel like, wow, I didn’t just, they didn’t just work here and we, we exchanged time for money, like we actually inspired them to want to do this themselves and be successful and just and root them on. So I appreciate you saying that, because that means a lot to me and I, you know, other leaders like need to run their businesses
this way. You know, one thing I add to that, whenever we hire someone, if you ask any of our any of our team members, and I also call them team, I don’t call them employees or anything like that. I mean, I think we’re staff, whatever. I think, I think that’s a little meeting. I call them team because it is. I mean, you know, we’re, we’re essentially a big team. What I tell them, though, is, when I hire them, I say, my goal is that you outgrow your role. My goal is that you outgrow your role. You know, there’s no glass ceiling here. I mean, if you want to. And what’s crazy is my practice manager right now. She has been with me, literally since the day she started, or since the I’m sorry day I started, 21 years ago, she was at the front desk, and now she’s running. She’s running my practice. Okay, my digital marketing director now has her own digital marketing company. Okay, so she’s getting other clients. My my PA just went and got her her doctorate. You know, now I was looking at going to entrepreneurship at Stanford. Let’s see here, my MA is getting, she’s going, actually going to nursing school right now. I mean, it goes on and on and on. I mean, all these people, I think I’m creating moms. Yours some way. But you know, it’s, it’s really cool, because I’d like to think that I inspired them, because I don’t want people to think small. I mean, I’m all about stretch goals, you know, what are the things that you think you can accomplish? And tell me why you can’t accomplish it, you know? Because if you think you can’t do it, you’re always right. You’re always right. If you tell yourself you can’t do it, yeah, you can’t, you won’t be able to do it. But if you say, You know what, hey, if you know, let me, I want to do this. And if you know, why not me? Why not me? I mean, why can I do this? I mean, look at the Schwarzenegger store. I mean, he was up, you know, he was, you know, he came from Austria. You know, he left, you know, when he was, when he was young. So he wanted something a little different. And then, you know, amazingly, he, he, we was, what, governor of California. I mean, you know, he barely speak English when he came over here. I mean, still has a strong accent, but very, very smart person, you know. So if you think you can do something, you might be able to do it, you know. I mean, there’s the whole CEO thing. I used to be so intimidated when I talked to CEOs. Now, I realized they’re just like all the rest of us. I mean, they really are. They just have a couple other, you know, they have a little bit few more mouse to feed, so to speak. I mean, a little bit more responsibility than some of their people, but at the end of the day, I mean, this is why I, like, love working with industry, for example, because, I mean, I don’t, I don’t get, really get awestruck by all the titles and so forth. I just treat people like human beings, just human beings. They all have basic needs. They don’t want to be ripped off. They want to they want strategic alliances that are that are mutually beneficial. And when you look at people like that in all their aspects of your life, I mean, it’s, it’s a, it’s a win, win. It’s always a win, win. One thing I learned at Kellogg as well, too, the art of negotiation, yeah, if there’s anything left on the table, give it to the other person, you know? And I never thought about because I was always like, Well, when I negotiate, I want to win, you know? I want to I always want to get a little bit more. And they said, You know what? That is, A, that’s, that’s, that’s a, that’s a very short sighted, very myopic way to look at things. You know, if you already gotten what you need, give the rest to someone else. Because guess what? It’s called a favor bank. You know, you put stuff to make deposits in the favor bank. Down the road, you’d be surprised at how many people come back and say, we know what? Dr, P, I remember when you did this, you know, when you took care of me? Well, guess what? Might take care of you. I’ve got an opportunity right now, and it’s, and that’s, and that’s how everything spins around. We don’t, we’re not in this bubble all alone, no?
And that’s right. I mean, that’s, that’s the givers game mentality, right? And so like, as you continuously give and as you continuously help others, like it does come full circle, right? And as you expand that through helping as many people as you possibly can. You know, there’s those alliances really, really do take effect. And that’s, that’s, again, that’s what’s going to give that, that legacy, and really put yourself in a position to really, you know, continuously grow and scale as a person, and continuously, you know, getting comfortable, being uncomfortable, right, if you will. So quick question for you, what is a what is a morning? A Monday morning look like for you, like or like, what time do you wake up? Talk to us about, like, your daily regimen and meetings and stuff like that.
So Monday morning, I was up at about 515 to the gym, at about 545 I’ve got my butt handed to me about my wonderful trainer, say, a former UFC fighter, so who you can’t really say no to, so that, you know that’s I always tell people, that’s my that’s my antidepressant, right there. I mean, I get all my I get all my anxiety, my my aggression and so forth, out, you know, early come back and shower, and then I’m back in the office. You’re starting around about, probably about eight in the morning or so. I try to, essentially, that’s my free time that I don’t let my staff bother me, unless it’s I just, you know, had kind of, kind of have a running motto that, you know, unless things are burning down, that I need to really isolate, just because I need that time for flow. So I go through, you know, I try to clean things up, prepare myself for the week. And, you know, then I organize meetings like this. I had, I’ve already had three zoom calls for the meeting, getting speakers lined up. And then I do this until about noon. I’ve got a I’ve got a facial rejuvenation procedure. I’ve got several patients after that. I’ve got another zoom call, then at about five, another meeting, I think from like six to 630 and then I’ll probably head home around seven or so. I mean, I have long days, but, I mean, I’m very, very, very productive. But one thing that I’ve done, though, is I used to bring a lot of this work home. I try not to anymore. I try to, when I go home, I try to really kind of unwind. Because if you’re Go, go, go, go, go, those the people that have the heart attacks early on. And I I’ve got way too much my agenda to do that. Okay, I mean, and I have way too many. Boxes I want to check. And it’s not even, I shouldn’t say boxes, but I have way too many things. I’m very curious. And so there’s a lot of things that I need to to do in life. But having, you know, being busy is not the is not the goal. It’s being productive. So you ask me, what my days I mean, I’ll have days that are not as not as filled. But I’ll just, I’ll take those items that I know, you know, the ones that you say, well, I’ll put that offer a little while. I’ll dive in head first of those. I mean, I just, I’m one of those guys. I try to get it cleared off the plate, because it’s like a problem. If you, if you have a problem, you know you need to take care of and you just let it fester. It’s only going to get bigger and bigger, you know, I lean into that and try to take care of it, and then once you get it off, and it’s like, oh, now that feels a lot better. Now, I now have a little more breathing room. But, you know, it sounds like long hours, a lot of work and so forth, but you know, the reality is, if you like what you’re doing, if you’re creating fun, if you’re creating something that you’re really proud of, you know, I would encourage anybody and it, you know, anybody in all walks of life, whether it’s medicine, law, business, what have, you, try to carve out some blue ocean, you know, create something totally wacky. Be the person that creates the next circus away, or some, some weirdness like that. Be like, you know, Elon Musk, who has a vision for going to Mars. I mean, you know, they, I love it. You know, they told Elon, oh, you’re going to build an electric car. Really, everyone else has tried. You can’t do that. Oh, really, actually, dry, I guess I’m a tree hugger now, because I drive an electric car, it’s, it’s a blast, and I’m a huge car aficionado, but, you know, make the naysayers wrong, and whatever you do prove people wrong. And it’s a lot of fun when people say, You know what, you’re not going to have enough time to go back and get your MBA. Do it. Do it. Or, you know, if you’ve always thought medicine was amazing, go get your nursing degree, get your PA, get your get your MD, get whatever, whatever route you think is great, just do it. I mean life is short. I mean life is short. I mean I’m, I’m 56 and, good God, I mean I, I used to think people in their 50s are old, you know, I I’m not sitting at any rocking chair any times,
you know, too much to do. Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, so that enjoy life and just, I mean, just have had fun. It goes by really quick.
I mean, it’s so I follow a ton of entrepreneurs. I’ve studied the wealthy, I’ve studied the ultra success. I’ve studied, you know, lots of, lots of like Elon Musk, right? Jeff Bezos, a lot of these guys that have built these empires, and Warren Buffett and a lot of others, you know, and so I’ve read a lot of their books, and in gone to some of their courses and stuff like that. So the reason why I asked you that is because I think I already knew the answer was a waking up early, right? And most of, like, most successful people, wake up early, you know, and it’s, Hey, the early bird’s gonna get to where I’m like, I think there’s obviously some truth to that, you know, but waking up early is, is how you create that time, right? And so I think a lot of people, you know, they’ll sleep in to, you know, I mean, I’m, I get up very early, and I’m very disciplined about my morning. Like, extremely disciplined when it comes to wellness, health, fitness, like, goal, you know, setting, like I do a lot of these things. And I realized, like, almost every successful person does that, they get up early, they beat the sun up, and they start moving. There’s a tremendous amount of activity, whether it’s working out or it’s thinking, or it’s breath work, or it’s goal setting or whatever it is, but like, and then they they attack their day with a plan, right? So, like, you made a good point. Like no one talks me during the certain time, because I’m preparing, right? I’m I actually, I’m building a plan, and I’m going to go execute this plan, and no one’s going to stop me. You know, in a lot of people, lot of people do that, that that have achieved success. And so if you’re just driving around with with not knowing where you’re going, you know, chances are you’re not going to be, you know, driving the car very long, like you’re going to hit it, you’re going to hit a wall, right? And so it’s, it’s, I like asking that question, because there’s so much, you know, camaraderie when along the the same ecosystem, when you look at successful entrepreneurs. I
couldn’t agree more. I think it’s, you know, it’s all about focus. It really comes down to that. I mean, you know, figure out what you want to do. You’ll figure out, I see a lot of people that are very successful and people that are that are less successful, you know. And people will say, Well, how do you know? How do you get successful? First of all, that’s. Whole nother podcast. I mean, you know, in terms of what you know, what is success, the whole, that’s a whole death of the salesman, you know, book, play, what have you you know, what is truly success? You know, for me, it’s, it’s, it’s executing, it’s executing, and it’s being able to, you know, look back and see that I’ve accomplished things. And what’s funny too, is money is great, I mean, but do what you want to do. If you’ve got the passion to drive, you know, and the ability to execute that, money will come, you know, make sure you enjoy what you’re doing. Because the problem with a lot of people is they make a ton of money, but they don’t like what they’re doing, and so ultimately they come home, they’re miserable and so forth. I mean, great, you drive a fancy car, you have a big house, maybe a nice watch, what have you. But are you really happy? I actually really do people. People always tell me that they’re like, You really seem like you enjoy what you’re doing. And I do. I mean, I really enjoy what I what I do, and I like, I like knowing that you know when, when I’m on panels with people that are just far more qualified than me. I mean, I’ve been on panels with, you know, with, like, former ASAPs presidents, people that are like, who’ve written 30 books and so forth, and they’re looking they’re like, Buford, why the hell are you on this panel? I’m like, I don’t know. Maybe you had an extra seat or an extra seat. I don’t know, but, I mean, I think that, you know, the thing is, is I try to work 10 times harder than my competition. Okay? I just, I’m persevering, and I don’t take no for an answer, you know? And I don’t, because a lot of people just say, Well, you know, I mean, I’m not, I’m not smart enough, you know, are not good looking enough, and so forth. There’s always someone smarter, better looking and richer than you always, always, unless you’re Jeff Bezos, and there’s not one,
he’s the exception, right?
All right, so you wrap it up here, but I wanted to ask you one more thing, so I know that you’re having this, this event that’s coming up, and I think it would be doing the audience a disservice if we didn’t tell them about it. So I want to, if you could talk to us about the event, the purpose behind it, what the plan is, and in, you know, so people like me can come have fun there.
Absolutely, yeah. So it’s going to be the core Entrepreneurship Summit, and we, you know, we’re actually still working on the final name and tagline, all that kind of, you know, that kind of fancy marketing stuff. But the the key take home for this, it’s, first of all, it’s the first part of February. It’s going to be in Denver, Colorado, in an area called Cherry Creek. It’s a beautiful little boutique community, but it’s going to be a two and a half day event where you’re going to come, and you’re going to take your Med spot to the next level. You’re going to figure out all the blind spots, you know, all the sticking points, all the things that are keeping you from being super, super, super successful, and also to the things that may be frustrating you the things that you know, that are, that are that are creating, you know, tripping points that are not allowing us to span, to grow, or what have you, or just be able to accomplish what you want. And then we’ll also be talking about exits as well, too, because that’s a big thing in the in the med spot space. It’s a billion dollar industry, and it’s nowhere near its maturity. It’s very much in its infancy. Early stages. Private Equity is actively looking for purchases. So, you know, how do you value your business? You know, most importantly, how do you make your business look pretty? So when private equity comes calling that you already have your ducks in a row. You know, you’ve already, you’ve already brushed your teeth and, you know, and you’ve combed your hair, and people go, Oh, you’ve got your stuff together. You know, you’re ready to go. That’s what we’re gonna do. Most importantly, we’re getting some of the best speakers around. Okay, there’s a few other meetings that are similar to this, but they’re not as they’re not as hands on. You’re going to be able to actually be introduced to and interact with leaders in this space, leaders who are literally change what you do and why you do it. So encourage you to join ticket sales. Are actually going to be starting in the next couple of weeks. We have the agenda almost completely formalized. And again, when you look at who’s going to be speaking, it’s the best, the best. So we look forward to seeing everyone there, and thanks for that chance to give that shout out, yeah, of course, of course. And if somebody’s interested, where, where can they find out more?
Yeah, so it’s
you want to actually reach out to us at core esthetics training.com and on the website, we’ll be building a landing page there very, very soon, also to follow us actually on social media. Our Instagram handle is core esthetics training. You can see all of our courses coming up. It’s free. Obviously, Instagram is free, so, yeah, that’s probably the best way to do it. If anybody has a personal question about it, honestly, just email me directly. I’ll give you my email address is Dr Buford. That’s Dr Buford and. At Beauty by buford.com so that’s Dr Buford. At Beauty by buford.com that is my, my personal email. You got it, and just reach out to me and say, hey, I want more information on this. I’m passionate. I want you to get the right, right content, and I want to, what I want to do is, is, this is my, my selfish goal is, I want to hear from people in the next couple of years who come back after having taken the course and say, You know what, Dr B, you were completely wrong. You said I was going to actually double my revenues. I tripled my revenues. You were way off. You’re way off. I would love to be wrong in that, because my goal ultimately is is floating all boats. I will love education, but the more you educate. And that’s what great leaders will tell you, is that great leaders don’t hold on to this information. They share it because the more educated, the better, more successful the people are around them, the better they are. So So come join us, and, most importantly, have some fun. Yeah, no, I
appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining the show and coming on and really just being an inspiration to everybody in this industry, outside the industry, being a practice owner, you know, launching a course, having an event, writing books. You’re an inspiration, man, and I appreciate it. I definitely want to spend more time with you. We will definitely be coming to the event and honored to finally shake your hand and and help give value to to the industry in the marketplace. So thank you so much. Hammer.
It’s been a pleasure, absolute pleasure. You.