Cameron Hemphill, host of the Medical Millionaire podcast, interviews Nina Traister, owner of iConcierge Med Spa. Nina shares her journey from family medicine to esthetics, emphasizing the importance of combining art and medicine. She discusses the challenges of starting a med spa, including the need for long hours and building client trust. Nina highlights the role of her husband, Nick, in managing operations, which allowed her to focus on client care. She also talks about the importance of continuous learning through conferences and private trainings. I Concierge Med Spa is expanding to a new location in St. Pete, Florida, with plans to hire more employees and potentially offer IV therapy.

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 so much for taking the time to tune into the podcast. Our goal is to give incredible value and insight for practice owners. So my team and I, we have consulted practice owners all over the country for years, and we love helping practice owners run their practice like a business through technology and understanding exactly what’s going to help them with their practice and move the needle in order to thrive, right? And so we see practice owners that are that are struggling and ones that are doing very, very well. And I have an exciting announcement today. I actually have a wonderful client, friend, colleague. We were just hanging out at the esthetic next conference in law in Dallas. Nina Traister, She’s the owner and founder of I concierge, medspa. She’s out of Florida. She’s been with us for a couple years, I want to say, Nina, welcome to the show. Hey. Thanks
for having me, Cameron. I love your podcast. I love everything you do for us. It’s amazing being here.
I mean, I’m so happy to have you. I really enjoyed the conversations and spending time with you at Dallas, like, one of my favorite things, it’s great. It’s, it’s like, you know, there’s, there’s so much of this, like digital, digital stuff through Instagram and DMS and comments and likes and emails and texts. And it’s like, it’s really nice to just sit down and spend some time with you. So after that, I’m like, you know, we have to have you on the show. So thank you so much for your time.
Well, thank you for having me. I mean, this is gonna be great. I’m excited for what’s going to come from this podcast?
No, so when we were in Dallas, you and I had the opportunity to sit down, and we talked for like an hour. You know, Nick was there. Nick is awesome, by the way, for the listeners, Nick is her husband. He runs the operations over there, like without him. And I want to, I want to talk. You know more about that, but when we were talking, you know you really like you inspired me because you talked about esthetics as an art. And I’m like, you need as an artist, yeah. So
I actually have my minors in studio art. So I graduated my with my bachelor’s in biomedical science, and then had my minor in studio art, and I actually wanted to do art, and it was hard to do art in college, and my dad basically told me that I needed to find a different career. So that’s when I went to the medical side. But always had that little inkling in the back of my head of wanting to do something with my hands and do something with art, and I heard about esthetics, and it kind of tied the two together. I kind of was able to see both. But I first knew I had to do family medicine to get that foundation of medical knowledge before diving into that specialty. And when I was able to find esthetics, where I was able to have my foundation of medicine, use medicine, but also use products to build people’s faces, make them more beautiful, and honestly sculpt them. And use my artistic side, where you can do lips, you can do jawlines, you can do cheeks, you can do all these beautiful things. It’s just trying to form all that and build that into a business that was, like, the tough part of I concierge was actually getting all that together and building a business off of it.
Yeah, that makes sense. That is the challenging part, for sure. And what I think is really cool is you have the the artistic background, right, like you, you that’s, that’s a passion that you have, and then helping others is a passion that you have. Combining art with medicine, I would say, equals esthetics, you know, at some level, and then being able to provide value, to really give someone self confidence, has really got to be like, so inspiring. And so I think that there’s people in this industry, they may get in it for the wrong reasons. And when I look at you and talk to you, you know, you got into it for the exact right reasons, it’s, you know, you’re passionate about helping others and the artistic side, which is incredible, right? And so right there, you know, like, I’ve interviewed a lot of people and talked a lot of people in esthetics, and so that’s what’s going to continue to say. Okay, you know what? I’m Nina, maybe the business side is going to be hard, but I love what I do. I’m passionate about what I do. And when you love what you do and you’re passionate about it, it’s going to continue to help you, you know, stay in the business longer, like through all the challenges. That we face in running the med spot or esthetics practice like a business. I agreed. I totally agree, yeah. And so I want to talk like, okay, let’s talk about those challenges, right? Because for the audience specifically, a lot of them are educated on anatomy and medicine, and you know, they’ve gone through a lot of shadows and courses, but taking that to running a business like help us understand those challenges, from when you started to growing to where you are now. Yeah, so
the hardest part is honestly taking that leap and opening up your business, because it’s it’s going to be hard. I was in family medicine, where patients were brought to me. I was not searching for clients, and I worked in family medicine and opened this thinking it would be like a side gig. I didn’t know how I could make it into a whole, full time job, but having no patients that’s probably the hardest is going in and knowing that you’re going to have to start from scratch and have people trust you and come and let your art show right show them even though you don’t even have your portfolio yet, you just have to grind it out. My My biggest thing I tell everyone that talks to me about it is you have to go into your business and work in the hours, even if you have no clients. So I would come after work eight to five. I’d work family medicine, then come here at 530 and work till 10pm Monday through Friday and Saturday and Sunday. I did 12 hours if I didn’t have patience here, I was still working on my business. And that’s the that’s the grind of it is putting yourself out there, working on your business, when you’re in here, telling people about yourself, and then you the clients will start to come. You don’t have to put all this money in marketing. You just need to show that you’re you’re actually passionate about your business, and you’re talking to people around you. And slowly they’ll start to come and see you. And then you’ll slowly get your before and afters. You’ll be able to post them. And then people start to kind of see the transitions, and they start to trust you. But definitely takes time. The one thing is, it’s not overnight. Everyone thinks it’s like, you open up a med spot, you have a million people coming in, and it’s all about making money. It’s definitely not about making money. I would tell anyone who wants to get in this for money. It’s not it, because it takes time to actually start seeing a profit come in, and then you get a profit, and you put it back into your business because you want it to build, because you want it to be the best place for your patients to come to. So you know, it’s definitely that you have to grind. You need to be working in your business, not at home, because you have no clients. You need to be in there, doing things, working on social media, talking to people around you, figuring out a way to get people in, do educational videos, do something that someone sees you, and then maybe you can get that person to come in and give, like, take a chance on you.
Yeah, no. Well said. I mean that is, this is what you just hit on. Is pure gold, you know. So like, for the audience, you know, to hear that, right? You were at Family Medicine, you’d then come to your business as a call it side gig in the beginning, after hours, right? Think about it, working eight to five and then working, and there is, there’s an unknown, like, okay, is this gonna work? Is this not, I don’t know, but I’m going to put myself out there, and I’m going to give it my best shot, my best effort. And, you know, for the audience, if you think that, you know, hey, I’m going to go to work from eight to five and then kind of work on my business here and there. That doesn’t work. It’s the discipline. It’s showing up on the weekends. It’s doing the stuff that you don’t want to do. It’s having the late after hours and late nights, the frustration and then continuously, like you said, grind right? And take it organically. Because, as you start to, you know, bring in clientele organically. And you have that creativity, you have that craft, right? The esthetics craft, and they feel that they tell everybody like, I bet your word of mouth referral is just huge at this point,
I honestly think that’s most of my clients are word of mouth. Like, when people ask me, how they hear about like, how do I get more people? It’s you have to make the best impression on every single client that comes in. And every single client should get 100% of you, and that person will tell someone else about you, and then that person will bring someone else in, and that’s the best clientele, because you’re not just getting these random people walking in and wanting specials and all these things, and they’re only going to try you out for a little bit, because they’re going to go to next person with a better special. If you have someone that already has their mom or their sister talking about you, you’re gonna have a good appointment, and that’s going to be a forever client. You’re going to be a household name. And that’s like, my whole thing is, you have to put your whole self out there, and it will get you more word of mouth.
That brings up a good point, because you said something that’s that’s interesting. Um. Are really like being present and giving them the best experience. So can you, can you walk us through that experience? Like, from when this person enters, I concierge, what’s that like, to doing the treatment and then, and then, like, as they’re leading, I’m curious to understand that. Yeah, so
when my client comes, I actually will come to the front and I walk them back. When I walk them back, I I always know something about them, and I talk to them about either if they just had a wedding, or if they are just moving somewhere, or how their job is. Ask them about their day. I walk them back. I do the pictures. I will take their pictures. I’ll have my assistant make sure all her forms are done and all these things are done. And then I’ll have them place their things on the side, on our couch. We’ll so offer them a water or any other beverage that we have. And then I will put them in my gown. I will put a nice little headband on them, and they’ll sit down. I put a blanket on them. I always have Gossip Girl on TV, because most my clients love Gossip Girl, and I make the room seem more like it’s like their living room, right? There’s the Gossip Girl on there’s nice lighting. All my procedural medical things are behind them so they don’t see it. I sit in front of them, I sit down, and I look at them, and I look over their forms, but I also kind of ask them what’s going on, because that kind of tells you more of where the treatment plan is going to go. If they’re like, right now, about to go to college, or they’re about to be moving, or they’re going to do something, you kind of want to cure their treatment plan around it, like, let’s say they have a big event coming up, and they just now mentioned to you that they have their wedding this weekend. Well, you can’t do a treatment right? You can’t do anything that’s gonna cause issues. That’s where I’m gonna push them over to, like Dresden to get like a hydra facial makes their skin glowing, or they are telling you that they just got engaged, and they wanna do a whole treatment plan for making sure that their skin’s perfect for their wedding. So it is really important to talk to them. I do a full 30 minute consultation with them, if they are not sure what they’re going to do. If they’re my regulars, I still give them same amount of time. We talk the whole time, and then during that time, I kind of get things prepped while they’re talking, I do all the prepping, and then I’ll start cleaning off their face, and then we start going. But it’s definitely feels like it’s friends catching up the whole time during the whole appointment. So
they’re getting the they’re getting an experience, right? So when they, when they come in, they are, they’re, they’re, obviously, they’re getting a treatment done, but at the same time, they’re excited to be there, you know? They’re, they’re getting an experience. It’s like a spa, like an environment, you know, hey, almost hanging out with their call it friend, in a way, right? So that it’s welcoming, right, which I think is super important. Like you said something that resonates with me well, in terms of customer experience, when you you have, you must have notes or some sort of a system on, like, hey, we talked about this. Maybe it was like something that happened in their personal life. They’re moving or they’re getting married, or something happened during that, like consultation. And so do you chart that down so you can kind of pick up that conversation next time?
Yes, so we use Boulevard, and Boulevard, you can add little notes to each client, so if I see anything happening to them, let’s say on social media, on Instagram or anything, then I’ll quickly just go on the app and write a little note just to make sure that I remember to like, mention it in their next visit, or if they say something like a key thing during their like while they’re checking out, I’ll have my assistant added to the note as well, so that way we remember it and just makes it more personable.
Yeah, absolutely no, that’s that’s huge. And I think a lot of people miss that because, you know, hey, you can be seeing a lot of clients, and as the practice grows, like, you’re like, Okay, how do I do this with every client? And really, what it comes down to is taking notes on a on a technology, like a tech platform, and so it makes it personal. And you may, you know, might remember some things in your head, and some you won’t, because there’s, there’s so much velocity that’s taken place in these practices, right? And so I think that’s that’s well said, Okay, so when they’re exiting the practice, do you like do you ask for a Google review? Do you ask for referral? Do you sell them a product? Do you rebook them memberships? I’m curious to hear about that. I’m
so bad with that, and that’s probably it’s good that I have my assistant with me when I’m leaving. I’m still in conversation, most likely, about something that they’re talking about. I walk them out, I get their next appointment booked, and then my assistant will grab everything up, product wise, I used on them, any skincare products, anything that I mentioned, they’ll have it at checkout, which really helps for the upsell. At the end, I keep it still personable, and I walk them to that checkout, and then they leave, and they have their next appointment book. They have any products they want, and they have also their whole treatment plan for the year ready for them. I.
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got it and so, like the assistant team members really just help with, you know, just, I mean, so it gives you the ability to focus, right? You have the ability to make it personal, enjoy the experience of treatment from a professional standpoint, right, from a personal standpoint, but then you have team members, and you have systems and operations that, really, you know, help you behind the scenes so that you can just focus on like the next patient that comes in, right? 100%
they keep me organized.
That’s the power of having a wonderful team right there. Yes, all right, so I know that you and Nick are, you know, you guys are a duo. You guys are an amazing couple, and, you know, power couple, if you will. So, so talk to us about how, how important it is to have someone like Nick That just helps out with the operations like a great operations person.
What an interesting story. Anyways, of Nick. So we’ll start with where he even came from into the business. So my husband is Nick, and he was actually a firefighter for the city, and when I opened up my business, I put a lot of stress on him, because basically I left my full time job at family medicine as a PA and found out I was pregnant, and said, I’m opening up a new business that’s not going to make any money, probably for a good time, and basically he’s going to have to take over the burden of all our bills until something happens. Well, luckily, I grinded a lot really hard the first year, and it got really busy, and we got had a baby, and it was actually really hard to find a nanny to take care of the baby. And Nick, during that time, when I was pregnant, was actually doing a lot into the business. He wasn’t hired as any physician. He was just kind of taking on the stuff that I was not able to do because I was treating patients. So he was working on websites, and he was actually one that contacted growth 99 and he’s the reason why we have a beautiful website. But this was all behind the scenes, and he still wasn’t actually an employee or anything for me. He was just trying to help me grow and make sure I don’t make any mistakes on the way. Then when I had Sophia and he was taking care of her, my baby, we even made the hard decision of if he needed to go back to the fire station. And that’s when we thought would be actually best if he worked in the business as first, like my office manager, keeping everything like organized and making sure I’m doing everything correct on the outside versus, like inside the business. And then I don’t know, he just started going, he does a lot of research. This guy, when he gets a job, he goes all in. So he actually researched everything that is data and tech for med spas. He looked into the marketing aspect. He looked into everything. And honestly, I would say the reason why we’ve grown so much since then is because of him. He just took over all the operations and stuff that I could not while being in the office. That’s
amazing. I mean, I’ve gotten to know Nick over the over the years, he’s a total stud. Congratulations to both of you. We call him McCarran. He loves that. He loves it. He gets you guys in shape. Well, it is
nice because you know, when you’re working so hard, you’re busy and you’re injecting people, it’s so hard to get on the phone and make sure the orders are correct for like drugs, and make sure the shipments are coming in, and also doing the interviews for all the employees and making sure payroll is going and all those things. Like, he took over, and it’s been so much better, so
nice to have. I mean, geez, like there’s, there’s the side to it. Running the practice, you know, from the esthetics, the medicine side, the treatment side, you know, which is fun for you, right? You love it. And then, yeah. And for him, he’s like, I’m not injecting, I’m not doing that stuff. Like, and for you, you’re like, I don’t want to run the practice, like, from all the tech and the inventory and payroll. So it’s a perfect fit. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s very unique to have, you know, a partnership like that, and obviously be your, your other half. So, I mean, that’s just, that’s awesome. Congratulations to you guys and and I know that, when we were talking, you’re opening up another, a new location, right? Yeah,
we’re expanding. So I’m right now in two suites, in a My Salon Suite. So I started off in not even 200 square feet, little tiny suite that was basically all my injectables were done in this little room, and then in, I think it took me six months. I ended up getting one across the hall to get my double bookings in. And now we’re actually, we’re so happy we opened up in August 2021 and now we’re going to be expanding to a five treatment room, standalone brick and mortar, build out. And it’s going to be gorgeous. It’s going to probably, we might be able to fit even another room in, but it’s going to be great, because we’re going to expand, we’re going to get more employees, and that’ll hopefully be open in November. Wow,
that’s amazing. So you said August 2021. Is when you opened. You know what’s what’s what I hear a lot of times, and this is where I hear practice owners that struggle is they think that they have to come on the map and, like, immediately have 100,000 followers and build out the state of the art facility, and buy, like, all this amazing, like, you know, expensive lasers and equipment, and really just kind of like, finance themselves to the brim. And that now they’re just like, have all the stuff, but you know that now they’re just very, like, they have to get patience. And, you know, like, you have done it very correctly. Like, and I have a lot of other very successful practice owners that I’ve talked to over the years, interviewed over the years, have a very similar story, right? You you come in, you like, hey, less than 200 square feet, cool. We’ll figure it out. We’ll see if it works. If it works. Okay, cool. This is working. Okay. Second room got it, okay. This is working now. This is year two, right? It’s, you know, we’re talking today is September, so, like, basically year two, and you’re now doing your build out, and so, you know, you guys have done it very, very strategically. And I’m excited to see this location. It’s going to be in St. Pete, Florida, right? St.
Pete, excited, yes, i It’s me fun because it’s going to be, you know, I have more space for employees. I was basically crammed in two rooms, and my poor assistant at slash aesthetician is crammed in with me. So now we’re going to have space, and we’ll finally have a front lobby, and it’s just to be perfect. I could hire more people. The next hiring process is most likely going to be an injector. So it’s just it’s evolving, and I’m excited to see what happens. So
neat, very cool. And so from going from where you are now, when the space is going to be done in, what, a month or two?
Yes. So probably I would say, two months. Give it two months. And are you guys? Do you plan? Oh sorry, contractors, yeah,
oh yeah, oh yeah. I know I feel you’re paying there
are you guys? I was gonna say, are you guys going to expand your services when you go to this new this new location?
So currently we have injectables, we do all injectables, and we have some high energy devices, and we do all skincare services, Esthetician services. I believe what we may bring on is IV therapy, but I don’t, I’m not sold on it yet. I just think I need a little bit more room for my double booking. So I think keeping it like that, I don’t know if we want to expand that much more.
I was asking, Okay, no, it makes sense. I was asking curious, because, like everybody that you know, is that we work with at growth 99 like, we just constantly see people opening up the wellness side, you know, and, and that’s, like, the, the latest, like, trend. And I’m over here, I’m like, Man, that is a completely other business to run. Like, there’s a lot going on in in the wellness side as well. And you guys. You guys are thinking of getting into that at some point or Well, my foundation
is family medicine, and I love family medicine, so I I was picking at that idea, actually. When I first started, I thought I could do everything. I could do family medicine and esthetics. But I don’t know. I feel like if you brought in it too much. Much. It’s just I like everything to be a niche, and I feel like if I’m in esthetics, doing everything I really like to do, I’m just only going to get better in that if I start taking on more family medicine clients, I don’t know if it’s going to dilute the stuff that I’m bringing out with my esthetic side. I would have to probably hire out and see if there’s like, a family medicine physician that would want to join, if I would do that route?
Yeah, no, that’s, that’s a great point. That’s what I’ve seen people, you know, when they’ve expanded the service, and they’ll hire a specialist, you know, like, Hey, you come in, you know, and you work on that, we’ll expand the services. And then I’ve seen that be, be very successful. No, that’s, that’s a, that’s a great point. I think sometimes people need you know, they feel like they have to do everything you know, versus be specialized and niche and so, no, I totally agree with you. So you know, talking about like, how do you continue to specialize? Like, because this industry and specialty, if you will, is always evolving. I feel like there’s always a new technique. There’s always like, a course or like, I don’t know, I don’t do injectables. I’m a nerd. I have a I have a tech background, like, I know, just from talking to people and being at the events. But how do you keep up with all of the changes and advancements in technology and products and skills and and techniques.
I mean, the conferences are amazing, like esthetic next. I learned so much esthetic next. But I make sure I go to all these larger conferences just not only to hear what else is going on in the market, because when you’re have your head down working all day, you don’t really get to hear about the new advances is happening in medicine. But when you go to conferences, you kind of get exposed to, I wouldn’t say those are the ones that you would learn any good techniques. That’s where you would probably have to venture out. And that’s where I do trainings like, I like to do private trainings with well known injectors around the country, and kind of seeing from them how they do different techniques. I feel like if you aren’t going out and educating yourself about what’s going on in the market, you’re going to be stuck doing the same procedures. And everyone is evolving, and you want to evolve with them, like how we’re learning now that under eye filler that used to be done superficially is now definitely not done anymore, and everyone’s going deep, but you want to be below the snazz. Like there’s so many techniques that keep evolving and changing, that if you stayed doing the same thing three years ago, you’d be doing the wrong procedure and the wrong thing for your client. And the main thing is not just to be be up with, like the techniques that people are talking about in Tiktok, but being the safest for your patient, doing the thing that’s going to be safest for them. So I feel like you have to be on it with going and educating yourself about all the conferences and all the news journals, all the journals that are being published all the time for there’s DERM journals, there’s plastic surgeons that always post things like you should always just constantly be evolving to be the best for your patient.
Well, Said, I mean, you have to continuously just learn and advance yourself in this specialty, right? I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a continuous thing. I mean, there, there’s people that are, you know, have these techniques. And you said it, you know, very well, said in terms of going to the conferences with intention. You know, being present at them, understanding what people are using. What are the new, you know, technology, devices coming out, strategic ways of how people are injecting and going and really, like, learning from other injectors around the country and the world as well. I mean, that’s, that’s phenomenal, and for the audience. I mean, that’s what it takes to stay, let’s call it in the game for long term, right? Is continuously being, like on the cutting edge and understanding the advancements, right? Okay, so we’ve been on here for a while. I know that you’re super busy, Nina. I really appreciate your time. And you know, I, I want, I’d love, to come visit you guys. I mean, I’m here in Florida, so I’m gonna make it I’m gonna make it happen when you guys open the open house. Okay, send me something on the open house. I want to know the date, the time, and my wife and I will come down there and we’ll, we’ll visit you guys at St Pete. I mean, it’s only, like, five hours from here. I want to say something like that, so not too far. It’s not
too bad. And, yeah, we’ll have a place for you to stay. It’ll be super fun. Definitely need to come down.
Okay, you got it all. Right. There you have it. Guys. This is Nina tracer. I concierge Med, spa. So if they want to find you, learn more about you. What’s the best? Like, what’s the best way for them to find
you? I would say Instagram. Instagram’s best. I also have a website. So my Instagram handles icon series Med Spa, and it’s underscore Med Spa, and also icon series Med spa.com or they can email me at icon series Med spa@gmail.com
Awesome. Okay, guys. Email her, follow her, visit her website, go visit her, like reach out to Nina. She’s incredible. She loves what she does. She’s inspired me. She’s inspired my team. And it’s so great to have you. I know you’re super busy. So Nina, thank you so much for your time. Until next time. Happy. Injecting you.