How to Make BIG Money in Med Spas | Alex Thiersch x AmSpa | Ep. 40

Introduction to Alex Thiersch and AmSpa 0:00

A lot of the folks in aesthetics aren't trained in business. They don't really have that background. We're calling people up and say, hey, we'd love to get some information on what your margins are. And they don' have any idea what their margins. Yeah. It's not because they didn't want to, they're doctors. Meet Alex Thiersch, CEO of Amspa. He's at the forefront of medical spa industry. Guiding practices through legal complexities and business growth. Get ready for an insightful conversation. There's a lot of underlying legislation and regulation that's coming that we're seeing from other groups that were going to have to deal with as an industry very soon.

Some of these legislators and regulators, they have no clue what we are doing. They're just making decisions on the fly. We have get together on this and fast. What we like to do though is we want to make sure that people are armed with the information that they need. Alex, as an attorney, compliance. Every state is completely different. You're dealing with different regulatory boards. That's got to be very complex. It is. Welcome to another episode of a healthy point of view podcast. Today we have a guest.

He's behind one of the big, big events that that's for the medical spot industry, man. If you don't know this event, you're missing out. This is like literally the super bowl. of any kind of conference in the medical spa show business. Today we have Alex Tiersch. Did I say that right, Alex? You did, you got it right. Man, see, I always try to not butcher names. I'm still taken aback by the Super Bowl of conferences and comments. But you can say whatever you want. It really is, man, you know, and welcome on the podcast.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Absolutely. Which we have tons of doctors that are part of our network that tune in to have their medical spas, plastic surgery centers, wellness centers. You know a lot of the wellness center's IV clinics that, they're trying to get into a of that medical spa services and modalities and they don't even know where to start. And obviously a guy like yourself who's put together this beautiful AmSpot conference, it's a good place for them to actually go and get a lot of this information.

But first I want to talk about you and your background because you're an attorney. I am a recovering attorney, I like to tell my people. So it's it is I'm a lawyer by training. I still have my law license. You know, i'm still a member of the law firm of Berta Dotto, which is down in Texas, and they help us out with all of our compliance stuff. But practicing law is not something that I do anymore. It's 100% AMSPA. And then obviously, keeping abreast on what's going on in the legal world. But being a lawyer was fun, but it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life.

Once I discovered what else was out there, and I'm sure you're familiar with that as well. Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, being fireman and switching into a whole different line of medicine.

How AmSpa Began and Why It Exists 3:00

And I've noticed something that's similar to an attorney that is a dear friend of mine that you know very well, Jeff Cohen. You decided to create an association in the healthcare space for the medical spas. That's right. Well, he did the same thing with the American IV Association. Yeah, He did. Why are attorneys doing this? You know, well, so I'm not exactly sure about his motivations other than I am pretty sure he stole my idea. We're going to talk about that tomorrow morning. But I've known Jeff for a while, gosh, probably 15 plus years.

And he was one of the first other attorneys in this industry that I had talked to and actually got an idea of how it all works. So when I first met him, I have my own law firm. I'm not a born entrepreneur necessarily, but I knew I didn't want to work for anybody. but that was the big thing. I wanted to have control of my own time. And so I had my law firm, I quit my job at a firm. A good job, at pretty big lawfirm. Hung out my shingles, said I'm gonna do my thing as a lawyer. Always thought that it was gonna be my career.

Then ultimately, through the course of things happening, developed AmSpa, and I met Jeff down here when we did a conference. So I can't exactly remember how we met, My motivation for it was I wanted AMSPA, the association, to be selfishly at the time. It was kind of a way to market and provide resources for aspiring medical spas so they could get the information they needed. And if they need legal help, I'd be happy to help them then. What I stumbled upon was this industry that was And wellness and aesthetics are different, but they're very similar and we're starting to see them come together more and more.

So I think there's a lot of parallels there. But for me it was, okay, what can I do to provide resources and help to these folks in this industry, which I was fascinated by Medical Spots. They were making money hand over fist. they were also growing very quickly and they are very passionate about what they did. And there was so much gray area and conflict with the laws that I could see there were some trouble brewing if they didn't get the right guidance. The other thing, other than Jeff and the firm I'm with and maybe one other, for the past 10 years or so, there are no lawyers who did this at all.

So we were very, very rare. And so that's why I started Antspire and it kind of just grew into this thing where eventually I was like, number one, I really liked doing it. I liked the people, and I like going to the events, building the resources. But more than that it was, you know, this is something that I think if I put my full time into I could really grow and make a difference on. So that is how it started. it's not what I had anticipated. I thought I was gonna be standing in court, you know, You can't handle the truth.

And now I'm talking about Botox and fillers and IVs with you good people. It's amazing though, man. Steve Jobs said you could only connect the dots looking backwards, never forward. That's true. So what year was it when you started the Amspa? So I started Amspa officially in 2012 is when we launched it. I had started something called the Illinois Med Spa Association before then, like 2009 or 10. And then that kind of morphed into Amspas because of all the requests I was getting from other people in other states.

But we're going on 13 years in existence. Wow, wow. And I mean, when we look at the amp, so it's not just going to this beautiful exhibit hall with all these vendors and stuff. Yes, that's a huge plus. In the vendors there, they dump a lot of money into making sure, you know, people have a great experience, even the parties, man. It's why we're topping ourselves this year, too. Oh, really? I'm excited about that. So every year is fantastic, so if this year's better, it's gonna be at a whole nother level.

But there's a hold nothe component that's very important to talk about, and it is the educational tracks that you guys have. You accredited type of education where people can get their CMEs. So in every years there is a variety of different things, Just a couple years ago, we went out there, Likovita, and we did a wake up and learn where they provided breakfast for everybody. And we filled up, the whole crowd there was there man. We were talking about IV nutrition. I remember your team, this is, you know, getting a lot of questions about the IV vitamin therapy.

These people are integrating it into the med spas. So let's talk about some of these courses and like what was your idea of putting a lot of classes together? Well, so it's interesting because it is difficult, right? So this will be the eighth year, I want to say, for the Medical Spa Show, which is what we call the show, the medical spa show presented by AMSPA. AMSP is the association, we're the Association of Medical Spas. We've got about 4,000 members nationwide. This is a show that we put on kind of for industry, try to get everyone to come.

And we do, a ton of people come and it has been great, but it was born out of what you just said, education. Primarily when AMP Spa started and when we started doing events like this one, the Medical Spa Show, it was all about how a lot of the folks in this industry in aesthetics aren't trained in business, right? They don't really have that background. They're trying to figure it out as they go. So we really focused on the business aspect. The other thing that we wanted to do is really take deeper dives and say, okay, what can we do?

What is the things that people are thinking about and worried about when it comes to running their business? Obviously, we have a whole bunch on compliance because we a law firm supporting us, so we'll have whole day pretty much where we just run lawyers up there talking about different issues from different states, different pain points.

Building the Medical Spa Show and Its Education Focus 9:00

But the main thing is how do folks learn how to run their business, add different treatments? How to do things correctly from a supervision, delegation standpoint? how to actually do the treatment. So we've added, since we started, added a ton of components on clinical treatments actually. We bring in some of the best doctors and providers from around the world and they provide information on whether it's injections or IVs or wellness. It's really become kind of this thing where every year now, it is interesting because we have to try to, number one, Laying off of the of stuff that is that we've done in the past out there.

Again, because a lot of folks are coming into the industry for the first time, like you mentioned. This is the 1st time they're seeing Amspile. The 1rst I'm just seeing a lof of these courses and so we're running a lots of them back. But at the same time, we want to make sure that we're doing enough dynamic, new things where someone like you, who's got a business, can come in and actually learn something. And some of these med spas that have been out for 10 years and have 50 locations, what can they learn?

And so it's all about finding that balance. But it is exciting. What we do is we spend a lot of time just talking to folks. What is it that you're looking for? And we've talked to people who have IV bars and IV clinics. And what is that they're look to add? What are the pain points and what do they want to know? Who do want hear from? That's how we kind of build it and we just go from there. But it's a long process. We're already working pretty much on next year at this point. Yeah, I tell you, going to your conference, you guys have your ears open because you are listening to what people are requesting and asking for.

Everything. And part of that, because I go to a lot of different conferences, especially in the functional medicine space, and one thing that I'll say that's extremely different with your conferences versus others, are the business tracks that you guys have, that business educational tracks. I mean, you're talking about people going up there explaining how to actually read and comprehend a P&L statement, right? You're talkin' about, people goin' up here and explaining, how implement a membership program for your different services that ya have.

Not just one membership programs, but several different ones that fit the need of the different demographics that yo have comin' in through your door for ya business. So, ya know, a lot of these medical professionals, like you said earlier, They're fantastic nurse practitioners, PAs, doctors, medical estheticians. But when it comes to the business side, they're missing that. And I see a lot of these clinics actually bringing their office managers there. It's not just the medical professionals, but they bring in a lotta their front desk staff so they can learn as well.

That's what we try to really strive for. Like, it's difficult to come to these conferences that are expensive. This was in Las Vegas at the Wynn, so it a nice property. We know that there's a commitment there. You've got to pay for travel. If you've gotta come out there, we want to kind of provide something for everybody. So folks will bring their entire teams, their, entire offices, which, and we, you know, give good discounts for people that do that too. It's an incentive. But the thing is that we really want do is we wanna provide information, not from even people like me or consultants.

These are owners of MedSpas who are doing it right now. And you've been to the show and one thing that's really cool about this industry, and I think it's similar with wellness too, is the people are very, very willing to share. Like you said it right, they get up there on stage and they're just sharing their secrets. This is what I did, down to language in contracts. everybody is very open and supportive of one another. And I think it's a consequence of the age of industry. We're still very young.

You know, we're trying to find our footing and where we are going to fit in the whole medical community and aesthetics with plastic surgery and DERM. So the people that come are just so excited to talk to others in their space. We don't, our focus is only on, you know, medical spas, which is non-surgical aesthetics, right? So there's no plastic surgery, again, nothing against that. But we don t talk about plastic surgeries, we dont talk kind of about the derm side of things, there is no insurance.

It's all aesthetics. And that's where I think people get excited about it. The vibe is really cool, which I thing is the best. I would love to take credit for that, but it's the industry. You bring these folks together, and I'm telling you, it is so much fun. Every year I am just blown away by the passion and the excitement and positivity and level of support that people give one another about everything. I love it. And you know, well, when it comes to the the wellness and also the aesthetics industry, there's just so many great looking people all in one place.

There's hand sculpted. Yeah, seriously. So when you're bringing them both in, you I loved the fact that you really integrating more of the one less stuff because people are asking about it and not only that, but then you have a lot of doctors that are pushing more of understanding your patient from the cellular level like Dr. Shino Bay. I had him here on the podcast and one of his big things is functional aesthetic medicine. Where he's taking a deeper dive into someone's actual cellular health, right?

Seeing what kind of micronutrient deficiencies they have that's causing them to have the saggy skin or the issue with other parts of their aesthetics, weight loss, et cetera. So integrating both, now you're able to target the issues from inside and outside. Yeah, it makes sense, right? It's all connected. And it's there's only so much you can do from the aesthetic side without getting involved in wellness from inside out. And that is the trend that we have seen over and over again in our businesses that a lot of people are doing that.

They're starting to say, look, it is not just about coming in for fine lines and wrinkles on your forehead. Yes, we can that, but that's going to help that but is that really going solve the problem? right and really what aesthetics and wellness is all about is is you're empowering the patients once more so they can feel kind of better and confident about themselves. That's why I mean the industry is so fun because not only are we a community but And you know this, too. When you help these patients, you're transforming their lives.

And there's only so much you can do with the looks before you have to get deeper. So it's not just GLP-1s and weight loss. Okay, what are you doing for muscle mass? What are doing mental health-wise, right? So that they have the right nutrition. They have all the nutrients that need. All of that stuff is coming together. For the past probably five years, we've seen the quote unquote wellness and aesthetics have been coming together. And there's no question in my mind that's going to continue. That's where the future is.

It really is, and there is no reason it shouldn't be. I mean, that makes sense to me. Right. All makes it really, really. it's a very, very good partnership amongst two cool industries that are very similar, but also very different. Yeah, I mean, you're looking at the body as a whole, right? The interesting part with the wellness and aesthetics is all out of pocket pay, it's cash, so it kind of fits. So Alex, as an attorney, getting into this medical spa space very early on, compliance. There's always a lot of questions.

Every state is completely different. You're dealing with different regulatory boards. That's got to be very complex. It is. And that's honestly why I'm here, sitting here. I've had folks ask me, you're an attorney. Why are you leading the American Medical Spa Association? Why isn't it a physician or a nurse? And I thought about that a lot over the years. Like, I don't think it would have worked if I wasn't an Attorney, because that the thing that most people are trying to grapple with right now are these different regulations and laws in every different state.

And I think what I'm really trying to do right now is there's all those laws are out there. And you said it perfectly. Every state is different. A medical spa, along with even a wellness center, you've got four, five, six different practice areas you're dealing with from medical board, nursing board. You guys deal with the Board of Pharmacy a ton. We're starting to deal that a lot as well. Not to mention opinions that are coming out and lawyers that involved.

Business Training, Compliance, and Industry Community 18:00

It is so complicated. I've had conversations with folks in our law firm where we'll talk about something and we can't even really necessarily agree on what the lay of the landscape is. So we want to give kind of general advice and say, look, this is what we think is going on. But it's really challenging and it is going to get even worse. I want to make sure that everyone knows that. There's a lot of folks out there, there's underlying legislation and regulation that's coming that we're seeing from other groups that is, that, we are going have to deal with as an industry very soon.

Are you involved with any lobbying efforts? That's where we're going right now. And it's more out of need than what, I mean I've been involved in advocacy before. It's a really tough, tough pond to swim in. But there are active lobbyists on the other side who are introducing laws, trying to introduce laws trying make to influence some of the regulations that will make it a lot harder for not only med spas, but wellness centers to operate, really restrict RNs and things like that. You know what's scary about that is that I've seen it, you know, obviously being the chairman of the American IV Association, some of these, legislators and regulators that are trying to regulate what we have going on, they have no clue what they're doing.

They're just making decisions on the fly. Well, how could they? They've never been to a med spa. They'd never have been an IV bar. It's, they're hearing from somebody that is saying, we need XYZ, right? And so they are taking the information that they were getting from whatever their source is, and that source oftentimes is not going to have our best interests in mind. And that's what we're seeing happen right now. There is a movement And that's why I'm glad we're talking about this and we'll be talking a ton at the Medical Spa show is that, and this is why where I've been talking with you folks at AVA and the association, because we have to get together on this.

Right. And fast because it is there are things happening right now where we are going to see some legislation introduced this year. We're going see so some some moves being made that are gonna try to make it a lot more difficult. And in ways that I don't think are logical, helpful, or reasonable. To your point, they're not based on what we do. It's just because there are other groups out there that are threatened by the growth that we've had that want to carve out their own space and make sure that they are kind of elbowing folks out.

And that is something that And that's why I'm getting into lobbying. This is the year where we're gonna be doing lobbying in various states. And mostly though, just trying to catch these things when they are filed and when their brought up so that we can at least have a seat at the table. Right, and this is important part of people coming together, right? All of these medical providers and becoming members of the association. Because when these thing start to happen, This is not something that only one person can kind of put up a fight.

You know, we got to create that one strong voice. And the only way for people to kind stay in the know is making sure that they're on the newsletter, they are following the social media page, coming to these conferences, listening to what's going on. It will get to a point where people have to show up. You know, in large groups. Especially, I mean, we're seeing it right now with the Make America Healthy Again movement with R.F.K. Jr., right? Where, you know they're pushing for a lot of the things in our industry in a positive way.

But I was just talking to Dr. Bob Goldman, co-founder of A4M. He's working closely with Robert Kennedy on some of these things. And really it's us, everybody, from the wellness side, the A4M side the AMSPA side coming together and backing each other up. Absolutely, and what you made an interesting point is that if we don't have our kind of our community together, that does mean more members, it means more people to be able to write letters, to call legislatures. The thing that has really taken me aback is that a lot of these laws that will go into place, and again, I think what you're saying about what's happened on a national level is great, but these are laws are made on the state level, right?

State and local. And if a group, whether it's a dermatology group or it a some other licensee that wants to make something happen, if they're funded, they can make it happen very, very quietly behind the scenes. And before you even realize what's going on, there's momentum and now you're fighting from behind. Wow. I've seen it happened. It's happened in states like Michigan, it's happening states, like Rhode Island. There's been many kind of attempts in States like Texas and even Florida and a ton of places.

If we're not able to catch those things, as they develop and then as a group, as the united front say, look, this is what we stand for, right? We're not just, you know, we're places that are trying to make a buck and to build a huge industry so that we all get lots of money and expand. This is about medicine, making people feel better, healthcare with qualified providers who are doing things for the right reasons that our committed to the patient safety into all those things and that's the truth of it and we've got to push that and push it very, very soon.

Otherwise, someone else is going to make these rules. And we're not going like the rules they come up with. Because it's one thing on the national level, but if something in New Mexico comes up, that is gonna have an impact on all of us. We've gotta get in front of that stuff immediately. It's almost like every state needs its own little chapter of the association. They do, and that's what we've started doing. And that the thing is, all the lobbying is on the ground, so ultimately, we gotta have lobbyists in all 50 states.

We gotta be tracking everything in 50 all states to make sure that we have it. Absolutely. More than that, what do we push on offensive side to say, look, instead of just reacting to all this stuff as it comes in, let's set the table. And let's come together with our own plan, our proposal and say, instead of having to kind of be reactive, let us put forth what should the standards be? What should we be doing as an industry to regulate ourselves to make sure that we're safe and that can prove to everyone else that were safe?

And the big thing, and this is also a public relations campaign, the public needs to know. I don't know if you've seen on the news, there's continually stories about med spas who are doing things out of their apartment. It's just, and it kills me. We're here in Miami, so we get a lot of it. A lot. Of it is here. Not all of them, but a little bit. The Cuban or Venezuelan doctor, you know, doing stuff out in the garage. So we got to get out and tell the public, like, this is what a safe practice looks like.

Right. Here's the questions you should ask. There's things you look for. And then set that playing field ourselves, because that'll do so much. Yeah, as opposed to just trying to fight these things as they come up You know like like with the American IV Association one of the things that we do with our members is we're putting them through like a Certification program so then you know people that want to go get an IV at a clinic They can find some of these clinics online which you guys have clinics that were doing that to where that was starting that push this year that is absolutely necessary because That's the the antidote to a state coming in with their own certification that is proposed by others.

The minute you get involved in state efforts to create I mean, it's a nightmare because you've got everybody and their brother throwing money and the law

Wellness and Aesthetics Are Converging 26:00

that comes out of it tends to be Not the best as we know so we've got to do this on our own. I think that's amazing that you guys are doing that There's there's room for that in our in space as well, and we're certainly going to be pushing for this year as Yeah. And for the medical providers listening, I want to put emphasis like if they've ever been to the AMSPA show in Vegas, it's not only because you went once that you shouldn't go again. It's like you need to keep on going because things are always consistently changing.

We're talking about compliance. Like when it comes to these different laws and rules and the different regulations, they're consistently changing, right? There's always new products and services coming out. So it's important to show up, get your CMEs, all your CUs and then get up to date with things. Yeah, I mean, appreciate that. So everyone has it on their calendar, April 11th through 14th, the win. It's called the Medical Spa Show. You can either go to MedicalSpaShow.com or go the American Med Spa Association website.

We got tons of information on it. But this is the landscape that we're playing at. Number one, it's not defined really to begin with because you've got so many different areas coming together from plastic surgery to facial plastic surgeries, dentists, dermatologists, cosmetic dermatologist, all of the wellness, the A4M folks who are doing all that functional wellness. All of them are, we're all figuring out what the playing field is. So it's not been defined. And then every year things change because there's new treatments, there are new developments as far as whether it's public relations or bad outcomes or good outcomes, there's new devices that come up.

There's things get cheaper. Things get more expensive. And all of that is kind of boiling in this pot. Yeah. We don't have all the answers necessarily. But what we do is we provide the forum and the basics say this is the pond that we're swimming in. You've now got 2000 people from practices around the country from the biggest med spas to your group, to most of them that are one location, one owner, and let's talk about this and find out what they're saying on the ground. What are the board investigators saying when they investigate?

And that's happening. So let's share this information and develop kind of a collective mindset. We're listening. Like you said, all I do is spend half my time talking to people and saying, what else can we do? What else we can do. And then let us make sure that everybody knows what's going on so we could thrive and survive. Yeah. There's even other things. I know with us having these wellness centers and med spas throughout the nation, our locations in New Jersey, a registered nurse can inject Botox and fillers.

Here in Florida, for many years that wasn't the case, but the nursing community got together and they went to Tallahassee. But if they didn't actually get together, which obviously in the Florida there's a lot of med spots in So a lot of the registered nurses were getting together, says, hey, if these other states can do it, why can't we? Why can we work on their medical director at the location and inject the neurotoxins, inject to fillers? And it passed. The bill passed and now these med spas actively can have registered nurse here in Florida.

So that just shows when people come together And you know, you can make a certain movement to make certain changes in a positive way. Well, and what's interesting about that, the story in Florida, which was it's it. It's just there's a kind of a convoluted background to that. But to me, I think the lesson is, yes, we can get things changed. but why was that law in place in the first place? It wasn't even a law. it was competing opinions from the nursing board and the medical board. And it didn't make any sense, right?

And there's other states that have very similar things where the folks who are writing the opinions and doing the investigations and prosecuting physicians and RNs are doing it in a way that just does not make any sense in terms of medicine, in term of oversight, and it can happen. And if that happens, then all of a sudden in Florida for a while, there were RNs, we didn't know what to tell RN's. Because yes, that was a rule, but there wasn't a whole lot of enforcement, right? But there was some enforcement.

And it's that's not fair because now you've got people people trying to play on different playing fields and it' s not it s Not competitive and It's it''s not right. So yeah, I agree. That's a it. It'' s that'''s why we're here. Yeah Alex, let's talk about this man, because I know you see a lot of this some states allow the corporate practice of medicine That''''t a whole nother monster of its own, right? You have the guys with the business hats that are going in there That are owning the clinics and then you have other states where it has to be physician owned so What have you seen with that, with regulatory stuff, compliance and everything else?

No, it's a good question. So the corporate practice of medicine is a legal doctrine that most states have, but not all states, that basically says only physicians or physician-owned companies can practice medicine. And the idea is they don't want greedy corporate Boards who are only concerned about profit making decision making health care decisions, right? right, so for instance, it shouldn't be a a thrust for bottom line growth that causes you to sell more IV Therapy of a certain type it should be what is

State-by-State Compliance and Lobbying Challenges 32:00

good for the patient right of course so that's where it where where comes out, but I it's also very conflicting because healthcare nowadays is big money. It's private industry. There's so much growth, not just in med spas, but in all levels of healthcare. So the core practice of medicine, we're starting to see it be addressed, meaning states are starting say, okay, what are we gonna do with this? Because number one, the underlying premise, We wanna make sure that we preserve. We don't want profit driving Healthcare is we don't want doctors pushing things.

And that was there was a when I first started in in 2010, there were a few, few larger MedSpot chains that are no longer in existence. They would literally have salespeople really hard selling fillers, right? Do more, do more do, more is because they're trying to generate money. Interestingly though, what we're also seeing at the same time is while we do a little bit of drawback on that, we are seeing private equity and investment come in with billions and billions of dollars. And that's very much antithetical to the idea of the core practice of medicine because Private equity companies are not doctors, but they own Everything in health care right now.

Yeah, and so they're coming in and they are buying things up So really although it's an issue, there's ways around it and there are ways through it But it is something that we are going to have to deal with. The idea of corporate control over health-care organizations. What does that mean? Does that help? you know, patience or does that hurt patience? And you can make arguments for both. Yeah, I can see that. And you kind of led into where I was going next with the private equities. Because at the AMSPA at The Conference, at least last year, you guys had a whole team there that they invest, they acquire, that specialize in mergers and acquisitions.

They're doing roll-ups of a lot of these different companies. A lot these MedSpas that are single MedSpa businesses, even to like five to 10 locations. So let's talk about that. It's bonkers. I mean, it really is. Frothy is the term they like to use for a number of years. What we like do though is we want to make sure that people are armed with the information that they need. Because the fact of the matter is if you're a Med Spa or if your own a wellness center, whether it's IV or other, chances are you've been contacted by a private equity group or an investment banker.

They're out there. And so what can we do to, number one, arm the owners with the information that they need so they can ask the right questions? Because it doesn't always end well when you sell. You might get a check, but it does always well. I know a lot of folks who aren't happy with their transaction. So what can we arm the consumer with so that they know what questions to ask? But then also, let's try at least to control the process so we can bring the right groups who, yes, they want to buy med spas and roll things up, but let's make sure they're being transparent with what they are saying.

Let's be sure that they the right kind of people as best we can, right? So we're trying to facilitate this. And we are seeing this in plastic surgery and dermatology as well. This is happening. So what do we do? How do control this? We can't. There's no way to control it. But we CAN try to educate people. That's the main thing. We'll bring these folks in. You know 20 to 50 companies that are buying med spas right now that'll come to the show We try to make sure they're identified so that they are there They're not being sneaky about it.

And then most importantly we want to educate the business owners so they know these are the folks that you should be talking to here's the questions you've got to ask here is the good the bad the ugly and It's not always what it cracked up to be, but it can be amazing. Only if you're educated, though. And I think this is something that when you talk about medical providers and having their med spas, or even the people that, the entrepreneurs that are doing the corporate practice of medicine, if These are things they have to think about, right?

Because you have start thinking about number one, what legacy you're gonna leave behind. But your exit strategy, because at some point, you gotta exit. You're not gonna work until the day you die. I mean, some people might. Yeah. No, it is. What's interesting about aesthetics too, and I think wellness is the same, is that you the ability to build a brand too. And so you have the ability to exit in a way that most physicians who own their own private practices can't do. If you're a physician, let's say if you were a plastic surgeon or any kind of a surgeon, your hands, you mind, that's the product that you are selling.

And at some point you will get older unless you duplicate yourself with other physicians beneath you. It's going to be tough. to sell that, you can do it, but it's tougher because you're selling yourself and you no longer going to be doing it. So from what we've seen now with aesthetics, though, is you could build an experience, right? Just like Liquivita is doing, just like all the big MedSpot chains are doing. It's like they're building a brand that is not just a single provider, it is a way of doing business.

It's a feeling and experience. And if you do that, you can get acquired. Not only is it, okay, what am I going to do when I can't be doing this my whole life? But at some point, If I wind this down and I'm no longer going to own a med spa and be a provider, if I no long going be doing the things as a physician, who am I going put this in the hands of? Because you've built this thing, right? This reputation and this model that patients come to, Who are you going sell it to? Or are going give it so that it's taken care of, it fulfills the values that you want to fulfill, It continues to do the thing you wanna do.

It's a very, very difficult conversation to have. That's so much information for these MedSpot owners to really know. The heads are spinning. You know, one of the things that you guys also have in place, which I get it every year, is the industry report that. Yeah. And, you know to actually put an industry. Report together. It's not something easy to do, right? There's a lot of data that has to be collected, especially with a lots of these new services, modalities, the wellness side. I've seen the industry report change to start including a lotta the Wellness stuff as well too.

So what got you guys to get into the whole industry reporting? Yeah, you know, I mean, everything that I did with the Association and with The Event has really been to try to be more practical and more like filling a need. I didn't want to just be the same old thing, right? And what I've seen with a lot of these reports that come out They'll say, oh, here's the number of treatments that are being done. Here's some basic information. What we wanted to do is capture the industry. How much are people making?

What are they charging? what's, the revenue streams? Where's is the money coming from?What are the margins? Um, what are compliance issues?what are business issues that we're having? Staffing. Staff. What are you paying people? Right. You know, what's the market like in different regions? Where are people like, What of the services that you're adding that are making money versus not making? What? Are your patients asking for? All of these things are very difficult to come by, especially in my industry where a lot of folks don't know their business KPIs, right?

So we're calling people up and say, hey, we'd love to get some information on what you're, if you have a second for what your margins are. And they don't have any idea what their market, right? They don' know. And it's not because they do not want to. They're just, they're kind of just their doctors, their providers. There they want a treat patients. they dont want do all that stuff. So it is a difficult report to put forth, but I love it. It is the data aspect. What we are doing now is we're getting information from a lot of other sources.

what can we get from our partners that can provide us with information that we don't have or that have difficulty getting, and then putting it all together into a bigger report where we can really talk about what the industry is doing, where they're going. Every year I look forward to it.

Corporate Practice, Private Equity, and Exit Strategy 41:00

It's a big pain in the ass though, to be honest. I can only imagine, man. So Alex, let me ask you, I know when I go to some of these other conferences, people come in from all over the world. Are you starting to see a lot of international We are. We get a lot of requests to do things in other countries. And I'm like, I would love to, but we're still trying to get our hands on the United States at this point. The environment here is is crazy, but yes, absolutely. We're seeing South America, Canada are big ones.

Mexico, obviously. Australia, we're starting to see a man Australia. I'm getting hit up from Australia nonstop. The industry in Australia is very it's more mature. So they've been around longer. And so we are starting see. A lot of the bigger players have been doing it for a long time. Starting to come into America. Europe, Obviously, which is kind of all over the place. It's it. In what we haven't seen a lot yet. is Asia and like the Middle East, where those markets for medical aesthetics are massive.

And so I don't know, there's just a conference. They're developing a lot of the technology in Asia, I tell you that for sure. It is, and it's like we're behind, but it coming, right? It's coming. So what do we, trust me, think about that all the time. What do do, how do AMSPA Asia? I dunno. I want to though, that's what we are after. Interesting, interesting. So, you know, for people that are not anywhere close by, some of the other things throughout the year that you guys have are a lot of online tracks that people can watch and buy a membership and go in there and get yourself educated.

Yeah. I know we participate in that with Liquid Vita. We have a of our office managers that go into there, listen to a lotta the different talks and whatnot. Yeah, so we're a full-service membership organization that our main thrust, what's interesting is that we get so wrapped up in putting on our big conference, the medical spa show, it takes, you know, we are not a big company, but it really takes all of us. But really what our offering is, is education. Education and community are the two things we really want to provide.

What do you need to learn? So online training is huge. We do a lot of live training where we'll do our medical spa boot camps, which are business training bootcamps where were going around the country and teach folks what a P&L is and how to do marketing plan. But then all the treatments as well, all of our partners will come in and do advanced training on injectables and complications and dealing with complications, and all those things. So it's just about how do we provide a place where people can go to get information.

And then the compliance side is where we really do a lot of our work, not only, but a ton of tools on whether it is forms, toolkits, things like that that we're constantly developing. But yeah, it's a, we are trying to do more of that. I don't want us to be known as the conference, you know, the medical special conference which is great, but that's not really what we were about. What we about is state chapters, right? We just started state chapter, so we've got several state chapters launched where people are starting to meet, together within their own state and do their things.

We're supporting that financially and making sure they have the resources they need. that's really what we're after is let's build these communities on a state level, communities within practice areas so PAs or nurse practitioners can get together and talk to one another. That's what were we trying to do more of. I love that. So Alex, who's the title sponsor for 2025? You know, we we've gotten it so it's interesting you say that because I was thinking back 2018 when we started 17 I think was our first year like we were just begging sponsors to come and and like the our big sponsor our Big Partners Allergan is a big Sponsor of ours.

They obviously make Botox and fillers. I mean, we have all the big ones, so we don't really have a title sponsor, I would say, though. Allergan has been big for us. Who's put it on the party? Well, that's MERS. So Mers is the primary sponsor. Is that the XS club? Club Xs, yeah. We're shutting down the club again, taking it over. But we've got a lot of other sponsors for the parties as well. Yeah, working up. Anyone and everyone is you come eat drink everything's on us. It's like yeah, you got it's a fun time.

I Just let loose if anyone hasn't experienced that they have to be there, and I think it typically on Friday, right? It sounds for the first day of the event the formal day and then that night is the party and it just Yeah, people say, oh, I got dinner plans. Like, no, we have so much food. You have to go there. I mean, drink. It's just so, it's awesome. And everybody's there, there's a thousand people. When you're connecting and you see the doctor who's always very stuffy with the white jacket, all of a sudden dancing and break dancing.

All the vendors are there and we invite all the exhibitors. So, everybody comes and just drinks on us. Let's do it and have some fun. Yeah. That's good time. And I mean, last year, I remember, you know, myself and Carlos from my team, we were walking around and they were handing out that somebody was doing a raffle and giving out like Louis Vuitton purses. Oh, yeah. It was crazy. We do that too. So we try to get people to come to the exhibit hall. The exhibit was awesome. I This is our biggest exhibit hall, yet we expanded every year.

We expanded again this year, were already sold out, and have been sold now for a couple weeks. But yeah, they give away freaking everything. Louis Vuitton's, Gucci bags. I mean, we always give at least one or two full all expenses paid trips to the medical spa show next year where we'll fly you out to and you can stay in a suite at the win which is awesome so you know we again we it's not just meant to be get your cmes come to education it''s meant And a way for folks to to connect right? That's the whole thing is this is a community.

What do you do with the community? Yes, we're serious We we were business people were practitioners were providers We like to learn but and we want to have fun and be be a part of a committee, too Yeah, yeah, and you guys are doing it man,and you're getting involved I see the involvement that you've committed to, to work with the association, with American Idea Association, so all of the listeners right now that are part of association. This is a good conference to go to specifically, especially if you wanna add new things to your practice.

You're gonna learn, you're going to learn how to actually manage your financials, learn to how actually make memberships,

Industry Report, Global Growth, and Membership Resources 48:00

all that good stuff, man. Well, I mean, you know, either you're focusing on wellness, nutrition, IV, whatever that is. You want to you want. To do more with aesthetics. This is where you learn. Right. So we and we're providing a lot of information. A4M you mentioned and some of those other like those are are totally catered towards that, towards wellness and functional medicine. We're more focused on aesthetics, but there's no question that they're merging. so we are getting into very much, medical weight loss, IV therapy, GLP ones obviously is a big one.

All of the functional medicine, which is where it's going, we would be remiss if we didn't get involved in that. And so we're starting to put as much of that on as possible. We've had you guys involved. So we wanna get the people who know what they're talking about at a high level, who are compliant and safe to come in and teach. That's our goal. Absolutely. Alex, as we wrap up here, man, is there, you know, obviously the AMSPOT is not a one man show. You know? It's not. you are the CEO and founder.

Are there any few people that you want to give a shout out to? Oh, yeah. I mean, my my whole my, whole team, like I feel bad, especially at the medical special. So I felt bad because I go there and I was like, oh, I didn't do anything. So, you know, Kathy Christensen, who's our CSO, she's basically helped build this with me. Mary Richter who is our who runs and puts on the medical special itself is in charge of all the logistics. And that is a big, big task. But at the same time, it's our entire sales team.

So Natalie and Cassie, they're doing selling all the booths and making sure we have a good experience. Our membership team, everybody is it. It's a full, full company like we all motivate. We move our tire headquarters out there for a week. But yeah, they they I haven't really done much of it. I kind of feel guilty something You're leading the way though, man You are they do it all they make me look good. So thanks. That's awesome, and that's how my team is too. so Alex if people want to find you, what do they find to you?

Yeah, well, so Me personally feel free to email me alex at American med spa org American Med Spa org is our website and we're all over Instagram, which I think is like I don't even know their Instagram because it's got an underscore in it, but we're easy to find medicalspotshow.com is a good place to go for information about the conference. But we'd love to have, you know, we need, I hate to make a plea for members, because man, this stuff is coming and we've got to be ready. So we love that folks take a look.

We're working very closely with you guys at Ava and I think we are going to do more in the future because we have to. We'll include all those links, also the Instagram down below. And last thing here, Alex, if there's one person that's listening to this podcast that kind of resonates with a lot of the stuff that we said, who's never been to the amp spa before, and they're kind on edge, what's the one thing you can leave everybody with? You know what I would say is, Like, you have to, until you've been to the medical spa show, I can understand why it would be intimidating.

But if you are looking to either be a part of the industry or you're part in the history, just I urge you to come because the vibe and the energy and positivity, the sharing, Is there is no reason to be intimidated. Everybody is you can walk up to the owner of a med spa that has 60 locations or has one location is doing 10 million and they will they Will sit down with you and talk with And that's the part that I really want people to make sure that they know. It's like it is such a positive, fulfilling, incredible event just because of the energy.

And you can't, how do you describe energy, right? You just got to feel it. You got a feel. Man, it's, like, they're vibrating at this high frequency. Do you just feel? It is. So positive. There's no competition. They're not stabbing each other in the back. No one's trying to put anyone else down. It's just, it's all supportive. And so anything you want to know about MedSpas, I'm telling you, you can find it there. Yeah, we're here to win together, man. Love it. Appreciate you having me. April 11th through 14th.

Otherwise, just check out our association. We'd love to have you. Awesome. Alex, It was a pleasure, Man. I appreciate all you do. You've been doing a great job too, so thank you! There you go, another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast. That was Alex with the Amspa, all right? You gotta make sure you get your ticket. You got to go to this thing. I will be there. And this is a good opportunity to come connect with me, let's get some content, Let's chop it up. Let' talk about how to scale your business.

So make sure you tune in, get there, Get your flight. If you don't like flying on airplanes, you're gonna ride your bicycle there or something. I don' know. But check out all the links down below. Share this, like it, comment, do all of that good stuff and we'll see you for the next one.