Hello, welcome to True to Form the podcast that connections you to the people, technology and hot topics that shape the elective medical community. Provided to you by Crystal Clear and brought to you by this weeks sponsor Candela, the leading US-based medical aesthetic device company. I’m your host, Tim Sawyer, to our returning guests, welcome back and for our first time listeners, we appreciate you joining us and encourage you to become a subscriber. In our last epic episode, we spoke with America’s most famous plastic surgeon, the real Doctor Miami. Where he shared his big why, his vision for the future of less sales and a more efficient, direct doctor to patient experience. If you missed it, you’ve got to check that out. With that said, it’s going to heat up today as we head into summer. We’ve got one of the coolest folks on the planet direct from Las Vegas. We’re going to head west today.
We’ll be speaking with Jenny Lamothe. Who’s the medical assistant and laser technician at Lakes Dermatology, and is a native Las Vegan. After graduating from Pima, she began her medical career working in general medicine and came to work as a dermatology medical assistant for Dr. Rueckl in 2013. Jenny has also expanded her knowledge to become certified in several of the more ablative lasers upstairs at Lakes Dermatology, and often works with Dr. Rueckl on training other physicians and offices, and not to mention they are one of the centers of excellence for our good friends at Candela. So with that said, we want to welcome Jenny, welcome to the program.
Thanks Tim, thanks. Thanks for having me.
We are totally, are you in Las Vegas today?
Yes, I am and it’s probably a hundred degrees already today.
I was just going to say, I bet you’re going to hit some high numbers. Usually this is around the time we have Vegas cosmetic surgery. We have the aesthetic show. None of that is happening this year. So I’m going to miss, typically my eight annual trips, with my summer trips to Las Vegas. So, but from what I understand in talking a little bit, most activities are picking up again in Las Vegas, right? The casinos and things are returning to normal.
Yeah. Restaurants are opening back up. Most of the casinos are open, not all of them. They’re doing pretty good with the social distancing. They have wristbands for people to be in certain areas at certain times so that they can keep track and they’re doing really well.
That’s great. So, let’s start with you.
All right.
Dr. Rueckl’s got a cool practice. Obviously, you’re an important part of that. What was the event in your life that kind of said, “Hey, I want to make people feel great, and look at aesthetics as a career.”
So I’ve always grown up around derm. I think I’ve been hanging out in a derm office since I was probably 15. We had a really great doctor that would let us kind of come in and volunteer to work. He wasn’t turning down anybody, giving up free hands. So it was really kind of natural for me. And then when I went into medicine, I tried to do general care for a while, and that was great. I enjoyed it, but the derm’s my home. That’s where I belong.
Got it. And do you get involved on the traditional dermatology side, or is it all aesthetics for you?
I work on both sides, actually. I help him with most procedures. I cut most sides. We do cancer surgeries, skin checks, liquid nitrogen, all of the traditional stuff, and also the aesthetics. He has me very well rounded.
Yeah, I guess the biggest question we should ask you, the most relevant is, what do you think of Dr. Pimple popper?
Oh my gosh, the drama, the drama. I can’t watch that show. My husband thinks it’s the funniest thing in the world because I get so annoyed. I’m like, “She shouldn’t be squeezing that, it should be taken out whole.” No, she’s great. She’s real, and she knows exactly how to turn it on for the camera. But I don’t know, [crosstalk 00:05:25] I guess.
You don’t need to tell me about it. You sound like a young person. Because I was thinking about this, so last week we spoke with Dr. Miami and mentioning Dr. Pimple popper, how do you feel about this idea that doctors, or actually many doctors, are becoming celebrities. Particularly these of the social media, more particularly, Instagram, and do you guys do much with that in the practice?
We do have an Instagram and it’s really fun and interactive. It’s great, interacting with our favorite patients on it. I can’t say our favorite patients, but our patients. I think it’s great. I think doctors deserve a little bit of attention for what they do. It’s so often that we do something for a patient that’s so easy on our end, and almost even irrelevant, and it changes their life. So yeah, I do think that they should get some recognition for them and some of these quirky doctors are just amazing to watch and listen to their personality. Dr. Suvio, I know is one that has a great personality and he’s really fun to follow on Instagram. So I think it’s great.
And so, you’re in that, so you guys are providing consistent content on Instagram.
Yes.
Now, do you use it in any way as a lead generation tool, or is it more patient communication?
Patient communication, I think. Just to keep them up to date on sales that we’re having in the office, different promos that we’re doing, and really just to help them feel connected. Our patient relationship is very [inaudible 00:07:08] in our office than anything that I’ve experienced anywhere else.
Got it. So you’re really investing in building those deep relationships. Now let’s talk about what everybody wants to talk about. COVID is toned down a little bit, you guys are open. What is the consumer’s reaction, particularly, I want to talk about the aesthetic side. What has the patient reaction been on the aesthetic side in terms of they’re willing to rebook, any anxieties that you’re feeling in the office that weren’t there before, and how are you guys dealing with that?
Yeah, there’s a lot of anxieties. So how we’re dealing with COVID in general, is we’ve implemented a few new policies in the office. We take everybody’s temperature before they come. Back hand sanitizer before they come back into the office, we try to keep everybody spread out into different rooms, not everybody in the waiting room, waiting for their appointment time. But a lot of patients do ask, “What’s our policy, what are we doing,” when they’re making their appointments? And I think it’s really important for a lot of patients. We are requiring them to wear masks. If they come in with gloves, I ask them to change their gloves before they come into the office, because I don’t know how long they’ve had them on and what they’ve been touching, and they certainly aren’t going to wash their gloves. So, a lot of patients are feeling really appreciative of the measures that we’re taking to help them feel comfortable. But I have to say, actually, it’s packed right now. I don’t know that we’ve been this busy in June, ever. Usually our patients are out vacationing, family trips, things like that. So June is usually a little bit slower for us, but this year, just everything is out of the ordinary.
You know, it’s so funny that you say that Jenny, because at Crystal Clear, so we have over 400 practices that we work with, all elective medicine. I have not spoken to one organized practice, and I want to use that caveat organized practice, that hasn’t told me what you just said, which is, they’ve never been busier, right? And so people would try to guess, will folks be comfortable, they’re all super busy. But do you think that’s, now I know you were open through, because you’ve got traditional dermatology, it’s a medical practice, right? So you were open through all of this. But on the aesthetic side, do you think some of that is people who didn’t book in April and couldn’t get an appointment in May, and now they’re just flooding in, or do you think it’s, so I guess the question is, is it all patients who were just pent up and couldn’t wait to get in? Or are you seeing new patients as well?
We’re seeing both, we are making up the patients who have their clockwork Botox appointments, right. That they missed during the lockdown. We’re seeing a lot of new patients and how I kind of equate this when I’m talking about it is usually, bank holidays are our busiest days. We don’t have those small holidays off because that’s when our typical patient that works a nine to five has a moment to make an appointment. So those days are booked months in advance because these people know that they aren’t working on those days. So they’re going to be available to come in. Well, I feel like right now everybody’s schedule is a little bit more flexible and they have some time to be getting things done and maybe sometimes even be researching more things that they wouldn’t have thought about, or maybe just looking for something to make them feel better. I think that’s actually a really big part of it.
So that’s a good point. Right? Because the other concern that we were kind of talking about, everyone’s been talking about a little bit is, so like you said, your clockwork Botox users, those people are back in and doing their thing. And then this was a couple of things I want to talk about around that. One is, are you doing much on the laser side? Because the concern is the economics of that might not be as appealing right now. So, have you seen any type of return to normalcy, or a surgeon demand on the laser side at all? Or, is it mostly, like you said, the recurring stuff?
Definitely a surge in demand. People are hiding behind their masks and they’re taking full advantage of that. It’s actually a little bit of a problem because it’s June in Las Vegas and that means immense sun exposure. So we’re having to like really coach these patients on sun protection and wearing hats and like normally we would kind of defer to the fall for some of these more ablative procedures to keep people out of this Las Vegas sun. But yeah, there definitely is a surge right now. People are taking advantage of the time of not having to see people and of being able to wear masks.
Wow. Think about that, that’s pretty incredible.
It is incredible.
Now, is the employment market in Los Vegas, I mean, that’s got to be tough, right. Because a lot of those people are our service workers.
Yeah. We have a lot of casino workers.
Yeah. And they’re not all back to work. So maybe they threw some money under the bed before this whole thing happened. I’m so happy to hear that folks are rushing back. It’s funny, because my wife is 50 and I said to her, she’s a regular cycle of Botox. And I said to her, “Hey, how easy would it be for you to go back?” And she’s like, “It’s the second I can do it. I’m going to go do it.”
Oh yeah. [crosstalk 00:12:49]
Before the chiropractor, or any of that stuff. She stayed back and I was like, “I don’t know if I want to go do that.” You know, I historically travel 40 weekends a year, and I haven’t been on an airplane now in going on four months. Which I would usually be in an airplane every weekend.
That’s wild.
Yeah. That’s why I love doing these interviews because I would assume if you look at how my own thinking that, no one is doing anything. Because we’ve changed the way we think about things, we don’t want to go anywhere, do anything. From what you’re telling me, it’s absolutely totally opposite, which makes me feel great. The other thing I want to talk about today, because it’s really cool, is that Dr. Rueckl’s practice, the one that you’re in, is a center of excellence for Candela. I’m not sure exactly what that means. So I was curious to hear from your point of view, what it means to be center of excellence, and what your role is in doing that, or participating in that.
Well, it’s this amazing thing to be a center of excellence for Candela. And it means a lot of different things for us. For me personally, it means that we were entrusted to represent them and their name and [inaudible 00:14:14] an extraordinary amount of training. We get masterclasses, we get these webinars. We have the top doctor in the country for whatever it is that we’re wanting to do. You know, if I’m wanting to treat a scar patient with CO2 laser, I have direct access to the top doc in the country who does that. There’s one doctor who does a lot of work for the wounded warrior project. I have direct access to her when I’m treating a scar. So it’s amazing. It’s amazing the knowledge that they just pour into us on a regular basis and I’m so thankful for it. But it also means we have the newest technology. We’re always upgrading and updating our equipment. We have the best of everything across the board, [inaudible 00:15:11] category you want to look at for laser, we’ve got the best of the best.
Do you need to qualify for that? Is that something you request, or is it something that they initiate, Candela on their half? How does that work?
I believe it’s definitely initiated by Candela. It’s not something we requested, or said, “Hey, you know, we’re doing a great job. Can we represent you?” It was more like, we started doing treatments and just knocking it out of the water. And then it got to the point where they were kind of like, “Hey, we have this doctor who really wants to learn how to do tech [inaudible 00:15:51] help them learn at your practice. There’s so many weeks, before COVID obviously, in the year where a doctor will fly their entire practice from out of state, somewhere in the Midwest, somewhere in the South, fly their entire practice to come be with us for a day. That says so much. For me, like this is a doctor who’s following me around all day. It’s amazing.
Wow. If you had to say right now, Tim, you had mentioned one of the benefits as you get the latest, greatest technology. What is the one device right now with, obviously Candela, that you love and has the most use and demand?
Oh man, that’s a hard question. Okay. Can I give you my top three?
Sure.
All right. So we’ve had the [inaudible 00:16:44] wave tattoo removal. If you read about tattoo removal at any other practice, they have one wavelength, which means they’re able to target one group of colors. We have three, four different modalities to remove different colors of tattoos, or different kinds of pigment in the skin. We have that same machine also does a fusion treatment, which is like a resurfacing. We have a brand new hand piece for that, the 532 fusion resolve, which is amazing. Just did my first treatment on myself and I am just blown out the water. Then we have the V beam Perfecta, which is kind of my pride and joy. That machine is my baby.
Say that one again.
The [inaudible 00:17:33]. Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s the V beam Perfecta.
V beam, yeah got it.
V beam Perfecta. It is my pride and joy. That thing fixes anything vascular. So vessels, cherry angiomas, those big purple birthmarks that people have all over their body, I can treat. And there’s no downtime per se. They come in and we do these treatments regularly and every time they’re getting improvement and that’s the machine I think that I’ve really seen change people’s lives.
Wow. That’s the V beam. How are you guys? And Jenny, if you could try to state whatever device you’re using, I want to make sure that we get the best audio from you. How are you all marketing those devices? Is that on the website, and how are you marketing it to the traditional derm patients?
A lot of people don’t understand that certain things are even able to be treated. So the biggest part in marketing, and I think I actually struggled to call it marketing. But on my end, because I have direct access with the patient, we’re having those conversations. We’re talking about these things, is just the conversation. It’s asking a patient, if you could fix something, what would it be or what really bothers you about yourself? Or, what would you have to change to really feel good about yourself? Sometimes they’ll come up with things that weren’t even on your radar. You would never look at them and think about this thing. We’re like, “Hey, we can totally treat that with the V beam. It’s easy, no pain, no numbing, no downtime, no pain after.”
Do people love that?
That’s my biggest. We do market, we have our website. We have an amazing website, actually. [inaudible 00:19:44] that go out. But our priority has always been on our existing patients and taking care of them and making sure that they feel loved and taken care of, and appreciated. Rather than finding new patients. And somehow this has always worked out for us very well.
Well, it’s obviously Dr. Rueckl’s doing a great job on the dermatology side, right? Cementing those relationships. The other question I had, so I was speaking, I would love to hear your take on this. So in speaking on the podcast last week with Dr. Miami, his goal, and granted it’s aesthetic surgery, versus general aesthetics. But the concepts are the same. So what he’s trying to create is a process that has less sales in it, and more direct interaction.
Sold, 100%.
This is what we’re building for him, and most of it’s done. He wants someone to go to the website, upload their photos, he looks at their photos. Then they go to his consult calendar and they book themselves. Then they go to his surgical calendar, they book it themselves, they pay their deposit and he’s, believe it or not, booking right now for 2022. That’s how far out in terms of procedures. But what he’s trying to do is take a lot of the sales out of that and that conversation is counterintuitive to when you go to shows, or you listen to experts talk about the need for more sales. One of those is myself included. So if you said, “Tim, our sales process is really based on this. And this is kind of how it works.” How would you describe that?
Oh, there’s no sales, there’s no sales. I’m not selling anything to anybody. I’m getting them an answer for a problem that they have that they carry with them on a daily basis. They say, “When I look in the mirror, I’m really struggling with this right here.” And I think this is what we do with that. I don’t ever feel like I’m selling something to somebody. It’s a solution to a problem that they have. I’m a horrible salesperson. [inaudible 00:22:06].
Remember, I want you to keep talking directly to your audio. We want to get the best audio. But I think the reason that you’re probably so effective with your patients is because your attitude is I’m not selling anything. I’m helping people and educating them. I think we have to be honest, you’re probably not the typical, which is probably why you and I are talking. You’re not the typical person in that role, right? They’re trained to, “Hey, you got to hit your quota and sell, and you do this.” You’re just training and educating people. Is that right?
Dr. Rueckl is one of the most amazing men I’ve ever met in my life, and he’s a doctor on top of it. [inaudible 00:22:48] he’s a master injector, and he’s just the best at what he does. But I believe that he is the best at what he does because of how he treats people. He’s so humble. He’s so willing to listen to somebody and to understand why they’re feeling the way that they are. And even if what they’re asking for, he knows isn’t going to be the solution. He has this way about him of making people understand. I hear you and I hear your concern, and this is how we’re going to address it. I think that I get it from him. I see how he treats people. I see how he treats his [inaudible 00:23:27]. How having somebody feel heard and having somebody feel respected is [inaudible 00:23:36] around it.
So let me say this, because you just said, again, this is the greatest conversation, because these are concepts that get lost on people. You as an important member of the practice just described to me what people spend thousands of hours of research, consulting, and trying to figure out, you just described Dr. Rueckl in terms of, he’s a great leader. Words like, he listens to me. I feel respected. I can tell you, Jenny, that is not the norm. Because a lot of the way the practices function is the doctor tells the practice manager, “I’m not really interested in getting involved in anything except doing treatments and procedures, go take care of the rest.” And then you have a lot of dysfunction that creeps up in the practice and you end up with a scenario, and we do a lot of consulting, right?
So the kind of doctor doesn’t love the patients, the patients don’t necessarily love the doctor, which means the team doesn’t necessarily love the doctor, or love the patients. And then there’s a lot of tension, right? And so the two things that I’m hearing from you is, one I’m not a salesperson. Which actually makes you sound like one of the greatest sales people in the world. Number two, that attitude stems from the leadership from Dr. Rueckl and that sounds like a perfect model. That’s probably why you’re getting great patient results and great patient reviews. That’s probably why a big part of the center of excellence, participation. And I give you guys a lot of credit for that. And so as we head, now we’re in June, we head into July. Do you see the schedule for July, is that remaining full? Are you guys totally pumped about that?
Like I said, what it really sounds like is that this practice has great leadership. That flows all the way from the doctor probably right down to, I don’t want to say down to, across the receptionist, from the derm to the aesthetic side, and probably part of the big reason why you are a center of excellence. So what’s coming up with that relationship with you guys? What’s next with Candela as a center of excellence. Is there any training that you have going on and also any, final comments about your relationship with Candela and how that’s going?
You know, I’m really, I’m really proud to work with Candela. I’m really proud to offer the newest technology and tattoo removal for people who’ve changed paths in their lives, and now have tattoos that are maybe holding them back. I’m really excited to see what technology they come out with in the future. We just got two brand new hand pieces from them to allow us to do two new treatments that we weren’t able to do before. So, I’m really excited to see what they come up with and the training that they give us on new ways to use the machines we already have. And I can’t imagine doing any more. I can’t imagine being able to do anymore. I don’t feel that there is anything that we aren’t able to do already. So it’s mind blowing to think that it’s limitless with them.
It really is. And they’ve been good friends with us, and what’s also interesting to me is every time we speak with someone that’s affiliated with Candela, we learn a ton. I think you’ve got a lot of insight into this business that will be valuable for our listeners, right? Because you’re actually on the ground, you’re actually providing the procedures, you get the demand, the real demand. The fact that you’re optimistic for the future, I think should be encouraging for everybody listening. And so last question before we wind down, is what’s next for Jenny Lamothe? Is there any type of certifications you’re currently pursuing, or what’s the next cool thing we can talk to you about six months from now?
Oh, maybe the next master class that I do with Candela to learn some really pro tips and tricks on how to treat things other people won’t touch.
There you go. Let me ask you this, Jenny, if there was someone listening who might be interested in a particular technique, or talking about you’re real kind of off the record comments around Candela, is there an email they could shoot you? Do you have an email address?
Lake’s Dermatology Instagram is the easiest, most direct way to get to us. We have info at Lakes Dermatology is a direct email into our office and all of our patients already know. So this is to all of the potential patients. You always have direct access to us. One thing that’s different about our practice is when we do a laser, almost all of our patients have our direct phone numbers. When it’s the middle of the night and they have a question like, “Oh my gosh, is this normal? She didn’t mention this, is this supposed to happen?” They snap a picture and send us the text message and we can answer them immediately because we care. We always want them to feel cared for.
Wow, and it comes out in everything that you guys do. Jenny, I want to say thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. We want to thank our sponsors Candela, and also want to encourage anyone listening interested in learning more about Crystal Clear, to go ahead and go to the website. Crystalcleardm.com. That’s crystalcleardm.com. Click on sales. The guys are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they’d be more than happy to talk to you about any of your digital marketing and software needs. So, Jenny, thanks again. I hope you have an awesome week, sounds like you’re going to stay busier than you even want to be.
I am.
Best of luck with Candela, and also please let Dr. Rueckl know we appreciate him allowing you to hop on the program during the day, okay?
Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of true to form brought to you by Candela a leading US-based global medical aesthetic device company engineering technology that enables practices to provide advanced solutions for a broad range of medical aesthetic applications. To learn more about this week’s podcast sponsor, visit candelamedical.com, and to learn more about your podcast provider Crystal Clear. Visit crystalcleardm.com. Be sure to subscribe to the show on all your favorite music apps, including iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and tune into stay up to date with the newest episode. Thank you for listening.
